Lead-rivet strategy of growing perovskite nanocrystals for excellent toxicity inhibition and spinning application.

Lead halide perovskite has demonstrated remarkable potential in the wearable field due to its exceptional photoelectric conversion capability. However, its lead toxicity issue has consistently been subject to criticism, significantly impeding its practical application. To address this challenge, an innovative approach called lead-rivet was proposed for the in-situ growth of perovskite crystalline structures. Through the formation of S-Pb bonds, each Pb2+ ion was firmly immobilized on the surface of the silica matrix, enabling in situ growth of perovskite nanocrystals via ion coordination between Cs+ and halide species. The robust S-Pb bonding effectively restricted the mobility of lead ions and stabilized the perovskite structure without relying on surface ligands, thereby not only preventing toxicity leakage but also providing a favorable interface for depositing protective shells. The obtained perovskites exhibit intense and narrow-band fluorescence with full-width at half-maximum less than 23 nm and show excellent stability to high temperature (above 202 °C) and high humidity (water immersion over 27 days), thus making it possible to be used in varies textile technologies including melt spinning and wet spinning. The lead leakage rate of particles is only 4.15 % demonstrating excellent toxicity inhibition performance. The prepared fibers maintained good extensibility and flexibility which could be used for 3D-printing and textiles weaving. Most importantly, the detected Pb2+ leaching was negligible as low as to 0.732 ppb which meet the standard of World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water (<10 ppb), and the cell survival rate remained 99.196 % for PLA fluorescent filament after 24 h cultivation which showing excellent safety to human body and environment. This study establishes a controllable and highly adaptable synthesis method, thereby providing a promising avenue for the safe utilization of perovskite materials.

Ethyl 3-aminobenzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate Derived Ratiometric Schiff Base Fluorescent Sensor for the Recognition of In3+ and Pb2.

An ethyl 3-aminobenzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate derived ratiometric Schiff base fluorescent sensor R was devised and synthesized. R exhibited a highly sensitive and selective ratiometric response to In3+ in DMF/H2O tris buffer solution. R exhibited a colorimetric/fluorescent dual-channel response to In3+. More importantly, R can distinguish In3+ from Ga3+ and Al3+ in less than 5 min. R exhibited a good linear correlation with the concentration of In3+ in the 5-25 µM range and the limit of detection for In3+ was found to be 8.36 × 10-9 M. According to the job`s plot and MS spectra, R formed a complex with In3+ at 1:2 with a complexation constant of 8.24 × 109 M2. Based on Gaussian theory calculations, the response mechanism of R to In3+ can be explained by photo-induced electron transfer (PET) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanisms. In addition, R can be used for the detection of indium in tap water with satisfactory recoveries. Meanwhile, R displayed a linear relationship to micromolar concentrations (0-50 µM) of Pb2+ and recognized Pb2+ in a ratiometric response with a detection limit of 8.3 × 10-9 M.

Highly parallelizable electronic transport calculations in periodic rhodium and copper nanostructures.

We extend the highly-parallelizable open-source electronic transport code TRANSEC (Feldmanet al2014Phys. Rev.B90035445;https://gitlab.com/computational-physics2/transec/) to perform real-space atomic-scale electronic transport calculations with periodic boundary conditions in the lateral dimensions. We demonstrate the use of TRANSEC in periodic Cu and Rh bulk structures and in large periodic Rh point contacts, in preparation to perform calculations of reflection probability across Rh grain boundaries.

Race against Time between the Virus and Host: Actin-Assisted Rapid Biogenesis of Replication Organelles is Used by TBSV to Limit the Recruitment of Cellular Restriction Factors.

Positive-strand RNA viruses build large viral replication organelles (VROs) with the help of coopted host factors. Previous works on tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) showed that the p33 replication protein subverts the actin cytoskeleton by sequestering the actin depolymerization factor, cofilin, to reduce actin filament disassembly and stabilize the actin filaments. Then, TBSV utilizes the stable actin filaments as "trafficking highways" to deliver proviral host factors into the protective VROs. In this work, we show that the cellular intrinsic restriction factors (CIRFs) also use the actin network to reach VROs and inhibit viral replication. Disruption of the actin filaments by expression of the Legionella RavK protease inhibited the recruitment of plant CIRFs, including the CypA-like Roc1 and Roc2 cyclophilins, and the antiviral DDX17-like RH30 DEAD box helicase into VROs. Conversely, temperature-sensitive actin and cofilin mutant yeasts with stabilized actin filaments reduced the levels of copurified CIRFs, including cyclophilins Cpr1, CypA, Cyp40-like Cpr7, cochaperones Sgt2, the Hop-like Sti1, and the RH30 helicase in viral replicase preparations. Dependence of the recruitment of both proviral and antiviral host factors into VROs on the actin network suggests that there is a race going on between TBSV and its host to exploit the actin network and ultimately to gain the upper hand during infection. We propose that, in the highly susceptible plants, tombusviruses efficiently subvert the actin network for rapid delivery of proviral host factors into VROs and ultimately overcome host restriction factors via winning the recruitment race and overwhelming cellular defenses. IMPORTANCE Replication of positive-strand RNA viruses is affected by the recruitment of host components, which provide either proviral or antiviral functions during virus invasion of infected cells. The delivery of these host factors into the viral replication organelles (VROs), which represent the sites of viral RNA replication, depends on the cellular actin network. Using TBSV, we uncover a race between the virus and its host with the actin network as the central player. We find that in susceptible plants, tombusviruses exploit the actin network for rapid delivery of proviral host factors into VROs and ultimately overcome host restriction factors. In summary, this work demonstrates that the actin network plays a major role in determining the outcome of viral infections in plants.

Epigenetic changes in inflammatory genes and the protective effect of cooked rhubarb on pancreatic tissue of rats with chronic alcohol exposure.

Chronic alcohol consumption, which is observed worldwide, can damage pancreatic tissue and promote pancreatitis. Rhubarb is a widely used traditional Chinese herbal medicine for treating pancreatitis in China. However, few pharmacological studies have investigated its epigenetic regulation. In this study, we investigated whether chronic exposure to alcohol can alter inflammatory gene expression and the epigenetic regulation effect of cooked rhubarb in the pancreatic tissue of rats. First, changes in inflammatory cytokine DNA methylation (IL-10, IL-1α, TNF-α, NF-κB and TGF-ß) were detected in pancreatic tissue of Sprague-Dawley rats with varying alcohol exposure times (4, 6, 8, or 12 weeks), and then with varying doses of cooked rhubarb treatment (3, 6, or 12 g/day). DNA methylation levels, related RNA concentrations and protein expression of specific inflammatory cytokines, and histopathological score were analysed in pancreatic tissue of Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that chronic alcohol exposure (8 weeks) reduced the level of IL-1α DNA methylation and increased its protein expression in acinar cells (P < 0.05). In the acinar cells, the level of IL-10 DNA methylation increased, resulting in a reduction of protein expression (P < 0.05). Simultaneously, chronic alcohol exposure increased the pathological damage to the pancreas (P < 0.05). Finally, cooked rhubarb treatment (3 g/kg/day) effectively alleviated these changes in pancreatic tissue from chronic alcohol exposure (P < 0.05). These results indicate that chronic exposure to alcohol leads to changes in DNA methylation and protein expression of inflammatory genes, and cooked rhubarb may have a protective effect on the pancreatic tissue of rats.

Biomimetic Hierarchically Silver Nanowire Interwoven MXene Mesh for Flexible Transparent Electrodes and Invisible Camouflage Electronics.

Flexible transparent electrodes demand high transparency, low sheet resistance, as well as excellent mechanical flexibility simultaneously, however they still remain to be a great challenge due to"trade-off" effect. Herein, inspired by a hollow interconnected leaf vein, we developed robust transparent conductive mesh with biomimetic interwoven structure via hierarchically self-assembles silver nanowires interwoven metal carbide/nitride (MXene) sheets along directional microfibers. Strong interfacial interactions between plant fibers and conductive units facilitate hierarchically interwoven conductive mesh constructed orderly on flexible and lightweight veins while maintaining high transparency, effectively avoiding the trade-off effect between optoelectronic properties. The flexible transparent electrodes exhibit sheet resistance of 0.5 Ω sq-1 and transparency of 81.6%, with a remarkably high figure of merit of 3523. In addition, invisible camouflage sensors are further successfully developed as a proof of concept that could monitor human body motion signals in an imperceptible state. The flexible transparent conductive mesh holds great potential in high-performance wearable optoelectronics and camouflage electronics.

Smart Textile Based on 3D Stretchable Silver Nanowires/MXene Conductive Networks for Personal Healthcare and Thermal Management.

Wearable electronics have enriched daily lives by providing smart functions as well as monitoring body health conditions. However, the realization of wearable electronics with personal healthcare and thermal comfort management of the human body is still a great challenge. Furthermore, manufacturing such on-skin wearable electronics on traditional thin-film substrates results in limited gas permeability and inflammation. Herein, we proposed a personal healthcare and thermal management smart textile with a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected conductive network, formed by silver nanowires (AgNWs) bridging lamellar structured transition-metal carbide/carbonitride (MXene) nanosheets deposited on nonwoven fabrics. Benefiting from the interconnected conductive network synergistic effect of one-dimensional (1D) AgNWs bridging two-dimensional (2D) MXene, the strain sensor exhibits excellent durability (>1500 stretching cycles) and high sensitivity (gauge factor (GF) = 1085) with a wide strain range limit (∼100%), and the details of human body activities can be accurately recognized and monitored. Moreover, thanks to the excellent Joule heating and photothermal effect endowed by AgNWs and MXene, the multifunctional smart textile with direct temperature visualization and solar-powered temperature regulation functions was successfully developed, after further combination of thermochromic and phase-change functional layers, respectively. The smart textiles with a stretchable AgNW-MXene 3D conductive network hold great promise for next-generation personal healthcare and thermal management wearable systems.

Customizable Textile Sensors Based on Helical Core-Spun Yarns for Seamless Smart Garments.

Most of the current sensors cannot meet the needs for seamless integration into the textile substrates of smart clothing and require improvements in terms of comfort and durability. Herein, smart textile-based sensors that have different sensing properties with integrated electronic elements were fabricated by knitting graphene-based helical conductive core-spun yarns. Such graphene-modified core-spun yarns are employed as building blocks of textile strain sensors, which showed high elasticity (ε > 300%), fast response time (120 ms), excellent reproducibility (over 10 000 cycles), wide sensing range (up to 100% strain), and low detection limit (0.3% strain). Thus, resistance-type strain sensors and capacitance-type pressure sensors composed of graphene-based smart fabric could be used to monitor large-scale limb movement and subtle human physiological signals. Such seamless smart textile-based fabric composed of superelastic helical conductive core-spun yarns shows great potential for fabricating an intelligent device to achieve real-time precise medicine and healthcare.

Self-Powered and Self-Sensing Energy Textile System for Flexible Wearable Applications.

Intelligent textiles require flexible power sources that can be seemingly integrated with a variety of electronic devices to realize new smart wearable applications. However, current research mainly focuses on the design of the textile structures, often ignoring the importance of seamless configuration. This approach results in an uncomfortable experience when the device is worn and makes it difficult to smoothly connect each monofunctional device. The view of the yarn structure, a multifunctional yarn-based wearable system is fabricated through combining seamless strain sensors and energy storage devices. Yarn deposited with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) via in situ polymerization is then prepared as a highly conductive yarn sensor and a flexible yarn-shaped supercapacitor (SC). All-yarn-based SCs are incorporated with strain sensors within self-powered flexible devices designed to detect human motion. Multiple textile structures can be woven into garments including power supply to sensors, with promising application potential across wearable electronics and smart clothing.

Nonvolatile Electrically Reconfigurable Integrated Photonic Switch Enabled by a Silicon PIN Diode Heater.

Reconfigurability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) has become increasingly important due to the growing demands for electronic-photonic systems on a chip driven by emerging applications, including neuromorphic computing, quantum information, and microwave photonics. Success in these fields usually requires highly scalable photonic switching units as essential building blocks. Current photonic switches, however, mainly rely on materials with weak, volatile thermo-optic or electro-optic modulation effects, resulting in large footprints and high energy consumption. As a promising alternative, chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) exhibit strong optical modulation in a static, self-holding fashion, but the scalability of present PCM-integrated photonic applications is still limited by the poor optical or electrical actuation approaches. Here, with phase transitions actuated by in situ silicon PIN diode heaters, scalable nonvolatile electrically reconfigurable photonic switches using PCM-clad silicon waveguides and microring resonators are demonstrated. As a result, intrinsically compact and energy-efficient switching units operated with low driving voltages, near-zero additional loss, and reversible switching with high endurance are obtained in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible process. This work can potentially enable very large-scale CMOS-integrated programmable electronic-photonic systems such as optical neural networks and general-purpose integrated photonic processors.

Modeling Electrical Switching of Nonvolatile Phase-Change Integrated Nanophotonic Structures with Graphene Heaters.

Progress in integrated nanophotonics has enabled large-scale programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for general-purpose electronic-photonic systems on a chip. Relying on the weak, volatile thermo-optic, or electro-optic effects, such systems usually exhibit limited reconfigurability along with high-energy consumption and large footprints. These challenges can be addressed by resorting to chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) such as Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) that provide a substantial optical contrast in a self-holding fashion upon phase transitions. However, current PCM-based integrated photonic applications are limited to single devices or simple PICs because of the poor scalability of the optical or electrical self-heating actuation approaches. Thermal-conduction heating via external electrical heaters, instead, allows large-scale integration and large-area switching, but fast and energy-efficient electrical control is yet to be achieved. Here, we model electrical switching of GST-clad-integrated nanophotonic structures with graphene heaters based on the programmable GST-on-silicon platform. Thanks to the ultra-low heat capacity and high in-plane thermal conductivity of graphene, the proposed structures exhibit a high switching speed of ∼80 MHz and a high energy efficiency of 19.2 aJ/nm3 (6.6 aJ/nm3) for crystallization (amorphization) while achieving complete phase transitions to ensure strong attenuation (∼6.46 dB/µm) and optical phase (∼0.28 π/µm at 1550 nm) modulation. Compared with indium tin oxide and silicon p-i-n heaters, the structures with graphene heaters display two orders of magnitude higher figure of merits for heating and overall performance. Our work facilitates the analysis and understanding of the thermal-conduction heating-enabled phase transitions on PICs and supports the development of future large-scale PCM-based electronic-photonic systems.

Zirconium-Metalloporphyrin Frameworks-Luminol Competitive Electrochemiluminescence for Ratiometric Detection of Polynucleotide Kinase Activity.

We propose a novel competitive mechanism involving the dissolved oxygen (O2) between zirconium-based porphyrinic metal-organic framework nanoparticles (NMOFs) and luminol into a ratiometric electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensing interface. Zinc tetrakis(carboxyphenyl)-porphyrin (ZnTCPP) in NMOFs as electron media reduce O2 into reactive oxygen species (ROS) and produce singlet oxygen (1O2), resulting in cathodic ECL. Meanwhile, ROS also react with the luminol anion radical and amplify the anodic ECL emission. Based on the competitive-mechanism-driven ECL process, taking the detection of polynucleotide kinase (PNK) as example, with assembling DNA-functionalized NMOFs on the sensing interface, a lower detection limit of 6.5 × 10-5 U mL-1 and broader linear relationship range from 0.0002 to 10 U mL-1 were obtained compared with that of single-signal-driven ECL sensors. This proposed MOFs-luminol competitive ECL mechanism involving dissolved O2 may provide a new pathway for further research of a green and highly sensitive ECL biosensing system.

Flexible MXene-Decorated Fabric with Interwoven Conductive Networks for Integrated Joule Heating, Electromagnetic Interference Shielding, and Strain Sensing Performances.

Although flexible and multifunctional textile-based electronics are promising for wearable devices, it is still a challenge to seamlessly integrate excellent conductivity into textiles without sacrificing their intrinsic flexibility and breathability. Herein, the vertically interconnected conductive networks are constructed based on a meshy template of weave cotton fabrics with interwoven warp and weft yarns. The two-dimensional early transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes), with unique metallic conductivity and hydrophilic surfaces, are uniformly and intimately attached to the preformed fabric via a spray-drying coating approach. Through adjusting the spray-drying cycles, the degree of conductive interconnectivity for the fabrics is precisely tuned, thereby affording highly conductive and breathable fabrics with integrated Joule heating, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and strain sensing performances. Interestingly, triggered by the interwoven conductive architecture, the MXene-decorated fabrics with a low loading of 6 wt % (0.78 mg cm-2) offer an outstanding electrical conductivity of 5 Ω sq-1. The promising electrical conductivity further endows the fabrics with superior Joule heating performance with a heating temperature up to 150 °C at a supply voltage of 6 V, excellent EMI shielding performance, and highly sensitive strain responses to human motion. Consequently, this work offers a novel strategy for the versatile design of multifunctional textile-based wearable devices.

Multidimensional Hierarchical Fabric-Based Supercapacitor with Bionic Fiber Microarrays for Smart Wearable Electronic Textiles.

Flexible textile-based supercapacitors (SCs) have attracted a lot of attention, with the artificial intelligence technology and smart wearable electronic textiles developing rapidly. However, energy-storage performance of common textile-based SCs is always restricted with the low-dimensional substrates (i.e., one-dimensional fibers or two-dimensional fabrics), and hence flexible textile-based SCs with multifarious hierarchical substrates are highly desired. Herein, a multidimensional hierarchical fabric electrode model with a bionic fiber microarray structure has been designed, inspired by the "grasp effect" of the sophisticated arrangement structures of hedgehog spines, and the bionic assembled SCs exhibit an enhanced specific areal capacitance (245.5 mF/cm2 at 1 mV/cm2), compared with the planar fabric-based SCs (41.6 mF/cm2), and a high energy density (21.82 µWh/cm2 at 0.4 mW/cm2). Besides, the SCs also show a stable capacitance ratio of 83.9% after 10 000 cycles and a mere capacitance loss under different bending states. As a proof of concept, an all-fabric smart electronic switch is fabricated with self-power and wearable properties, along with some other trial applications. Such a hierarchical fabric with a bionic fiber microarray structure is believed to enhance the performance of the assembled SCs. We foresee that the multidimensional hierarchical fabric would bring more promising prospects for flexible textile-based energy-storage systems and be used in smart wearable textile applications.

Stretchable Conductive Fibers of Ultrahigh Tensile Strain and Stable Conductance Enabled by a Worm-Shaped Graphene Microlayer.

Stretchable electrical conductors have demonstrated promising potentials in a wide range of wearable electronic devices, but the conductivity of most reported stretchable conductive fibers will be changed if be stretched or strained. Stable conductance is essential for wearable and stretchable devices, to ensure the performance is stable. Inspired by the peristaltic behavior of arthropods, we designed a graphene coating similar to the caterpillar structure on the polyurethane (PU) fiber surface, enabled by coating the worm-shaped graphene microlayer onto polyurethane filaments. Such worm-shaped filaments can be stretched up to 1010% with a wide reversible electroresponse range (0 < ε < 815%), long-term durability (>4000 stretching/releasing cycles), good initial conductivity (σ0 = 124 S m-1), and high quality factor (Q = 11.26). Remarkably, the worm-shaped filaments show distinctive strain-insensitive behavior (ΔR/R0 < 0.1) up to 220% strain. Furthermore, the filaments as electrical circuits of light emitting diodes (LEDs) to track signals from robust human joint movements are also demonstrated for practical application. Such worm-shaped filaments with distinctive strain-insensitive behavior provide a direct pathway for stretchy electronics.

The analogous and opposing roles of double-stranded RNA-binding proteins in bacterial resistance.

The Arabidopsis plasma membrane-localized resistance protein RPM1 is degraded upon the induction of the hypersensitive response (HR) triggered in response to its own activation or that of other unrelated resistance (R) proteins. We investigated the role of RPM1 turnover in RPM1-mediated resistance and showed that degradation of RPM1 is not associated with HR or resistance mediated by this R protein. Likewise, the runaway cell death phenotype in the lsd1 mutant was not associated with RPM1 degradation and did not alter RPM1-derived resistance. RPM1 stability and RPM1-mediated resistance were dependent on the double-stranded RNA binding (DRB) proteins 1 and 4. Interestingly, the function of DRB1 in RPM1-mediated resistance was not associated with its role in pre-miRNA processing. The DRB3 and DRB5 proteins negatively regulated RPM1-mediated resistance and a mutation in these completely or partially restored resistance in the drb1, drb2, and drb4 mutant backgrounds. Conversely, plants overexpressing DRB5 showed attenuated RPM1-mediated resistance. A similar role for DRBs in basal and R-mediated resistance suggests that these proteins play a general role in bacterial resistance.

Acupressure for insomnia: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Insomnia is a public sleep disorder defined as a deficiency of sleep quantity or quality. Acupressure is a low-cost treatment that has potential as an insomnia therapy. METHODS: Four databases will be searched from inception to date. The researchers will screen clinical randomized trials of acupressure and auricular acupuncture for insomnia. The screening of the study, data extraction will be carried out independently by 2 researchers. The specific process will refer to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Review. RESULTS: The results of the study will be published in a scientific journal after peer-review. We integrate the latest study about acupressure for insomnia. CONCLUSION: This systematic review will provide evidence for assessing the improvement of acupressure for insomnia. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The review will also be disseminated electronically and in print.PROSPERO registration: CRD42018104155.

COP1, a negative regulator of photomorphogenesis, positively regulates plant disease resistance via double-stranded RNA binding proteins.

The E3 ubiquitin ligase COP1 (Constitutive Photomorphogenesis 1) is a well known component of the light-mediated plant development that acts as a repressor of photomorphogenesis. Here we show that COP1 positively regulates defense against turnip crinkle virus (TCV) and avrRPM1 bacteria by contributing to stability of resistance (R) protein HRT and RPM1, respectively. HRT and RPM1 levels and thereby pathogen resistance is significantly reduced in the cop1 mutant background. Notably, the levels of at least two double-stranded RNA binding (DRB) proteins DRB1 and DRB4 are reduced in the cop1 mutant background suggesting that COP1 affects HRT stability via its effect on the DRB proteins. Indeed, a mutation in either drb1 or drb4 resulted in degradation of HRT. In contrast to COP1, a multi-subunit E3 ligase encoded by anaphase-promoting complex (APC) 10 negatively regulates DRB4 and TCV resistance but had no effect on DRB1 levels. We propose that COP1-mediated positive regulation of HRT is dependent on a balance between COP1 and negative regulators that target DRB1 and DRB4.

Graphene Oxide/Chitosan/Polyvinyl-Alcohol Composite Sponge as Effective Adsorbent for Dyes.

Water pollution is one of the most pervasive problems afflicting people. Therefore, seeking highly efficient, low-cost methods to decontaminate water is very much in demand. In this paper, chitosan/polyvinyl-alcohol composite sponges are synthesized via foamed cross-linking method while incorporating different amount of graphene oxide, the resultant graphene oxide/chitosan/polyvinyl-alcohol composite sponges (GCS) are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), indicating the reasonable dispersion of graphene oxide in the matrix. Furthermore, some physical properties (water absorption, water retention, apparent density, porosity) are also determined; water absorption is high up to 873%, apparent density is lower than 0.25 g/cm3, and porosity could reach 78%. The GCSs also manifest high adsorption ability, as effective adsorbent for Acid Red 37 (AR 37) solution. The relationship between adsorption capacity and independent variables (adsorbent mass, initial dye concentration, and contacting time) is obtained. The optimal adsorption capacity value of AR 37 on GCS could reach 421.5 mg/g.