PPDM++: Parallel Point Detection and Matching for Fast and Accurate HOI Detection.

Human-Object Interaction (HOI) detection aims to understand human activities by detecting interaction triplets. Previous HOI detection methods adopt a two-stage instance-driven paradigm. Unfortunately, many non-interactive human-object pairs generated by the first stage are the main obstacle impeding HOI detectors from high efficiency and promising performance. To remedy this, we propose a novel top-down interaction-driven paradigm, detecting interactions first and bridging interactive human-object pairs through interactions. We formulate HOI as a point triplet [Formula: see text]human point, interaction point, object point[Formula: see text] and design a Parallel Point Detection and Matching (PPDM) framework. We further take advantage of two-stage methods and propose a novel framework, PPDM++, that detects the interactive human-object pairs by PPDM, then extracts region features for each pair to predict actions. The core of PPDM/PPDM++ is to convert the instance-driven bottom-up paradigm to an interaction-driven top-down paradigm, thus avoiding additional computation costs from traversing a tremendous number of non-interactive pairs. Benefiting from the advanced paradigm, PPDM/PPDM++ has achieved significant performance gains with high efficiency. PPDM-DLA-34 has achieved 19.94 mAP with 42 FPS as the first real-time HOI detector, and PPDM++-SwinB achieves 30.1 mAP with 17 FPS on HICO-DET dataset. We also built an application-oriented database named HOI-A, a supplement to the existing datasets.

A circuitous route for in vitro multi-enzyme cascade production of cytidine triphosphate to overcome the thermodynamic bottleneck.

Cytidine triphosphate (CTP), as a substance involved in the metabolism of phospholipids, proteins and nucleic acids, has precise drug effects and is a direct precursor for the synthesis of drugs such as citicoline. In this study, we established an in vitro six-enzyme cascade system to generate CTP. To avoid thermodynamic bottlenecks, we employed a circuitous and two-stage reaction strategy. Using cytidine as the key substrate, the final product CTP is obtained via the deamination and uridine phosphorylation pathways, relying on the irreversible reaction of cytidine triphosphate synthase to catalyze the amination of uridine triphosphate. Several extremophilic microbial-derived deaminases were screened and characterized, and a suitable cytidine deaminase was selected to match the first-stage reaction conditions. In addition, directed evolution modification of the rate-limiting enzyme CTP synthetase in the pathway yielded a variant that successfully relieved the product feedback inhibition, along with a 1.7-fold increase in activity over the wild type. After optimizing the reaction conditions, we finally carried out the catalytic reaction at an initial cytidine concentration of 20 mM, and the yield of CTP exceeded 82% within 10.0 h.

Engineering of the Lrp/AsnC-type transcriptional regulator DecR as a genetically encoded biosensor for multilevel optimization of L-cysteine biosynthesis pathway in Escherichia coli.

L-cysteine is an important sulfur-containing amino acid being difficult to produce by microbial fermentation. Due to the lack of high-throughput screening methods, existing genetically engineered bacteria have been developed by simply optimizing the expression of L-cysteine-related genes one by one. To overcome this limitation, in this study, a biosensor-based approach for multilevel biosynthetic pathway optimization of L-cysteine from the DecR regulator variant of Escherichia coli was applied. Through protein engineering, we obtained the DecRN29Y/C81E/M90Q/M99E variant-based biosensor with improved specificity and an 8.71-fold increase in dynamic range. Using the developed biosensor, we performed high-throughput screening of the constructed promoter and RBS combination library, and successfully obtained the optimized strain, which resulted in a 6.29-fold increase in L-cysteine production. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and electrophoretic mobility shift analysis (EMSA) showed that the N29Y/C81E/M90Q/M99E variant had enhanced induction activity. This enhancement may be due to the increased binding of the variant to DNA in the presence of L-cysteine, which enhances transcriptional activation. Overall, our biosensor-based strategy provides a promising approach for optimizing biosynthetic pathways at multiple levels. The successful implementation of this strategy demonstrates its potential for screening improved recombinant strains.

Characterizing identity by descent segments in Chinese interpopulation unrelated individual pairs.

Identity by descent (IBD) segments, uninterrupted DNA segments derived from the same ancestral chromosomes, are widely used as indicators of relationships in genetics. A great deal of research focuses on IBD segments between related pairs, while the statistical analyses of segments in irrelevant individuals are rare. In this study, we investigated the basic informative features of IBD segments in unrelated pairs in Chinese populations from the 1000 Genome Project. A total of 5922 IBD segments in Chinese interpopulation unrelated individual pairs were detected via IBIS and the average length of IBD was 3.71 Mb in length. It was found that 17.86% of unrelated pairs shared at least one IBD segment in the Chinese cohort. Furthermore, a total of 49 chromosomal regions where IBD segments clustered in high abundance were identified, which might be sharing hotspots in the human genome. Such regions could also be observed in other ancestry populations, which implies that similar IBD backgrounds also exist. Altogether, these results demonstrated the distribution of common background IBD segments, which helps improve the accuracy in pedigree studies based on IBD analysis.

Exploiting the Achilles' heel of cancer: disrupting glutamine metabolism for effective cancer treatment.

Cancer cells have adapted to rapid tumor growth and evade immune attack by reprogramming their metabolic pathways. Glutamine is an important nitrogen resource for synthesizing amino acids and nucleotides and an important carbon source in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and lipid biosynthesis pathway. In this review, we summarize the significant role of glutamine metabolism in tumor development and highlight the vulnerabilities of targeting glutamine metabolism for effective therapy. In particular, we review the reported drugs targeting glutaminase and glutamine uptake for efficient cancer treatment. Moreover, we discuss the current clinical test about targeting glutamine metabolism and the prospective direction of drug development.

Global dynamics of a time-delayed nonlocal reaction-diffusion model of within-host viral infections.

In this paper, we study a time-delayed nonlocal reaction-diffusion model of within-host viral infections. We introduce the basic reproduction number R 0 and show that the infection-free steady state is globally asymptotically stable when R 0 ≤ 1 , while the disease is uniformly persistent when R 0 > 1 . In the case where all coefficients and reaction terms are spatially homogeneous, we obtain an explicit formula of R 0 and the global attractivity of the positive constant steady state. Numerically, we illustrate the analytical results, conduct sensitivity analysis, and investigate the impact of drugs on curtailing the spread of the viruses.

Harnessing PD-1 cell membrane-coated paclitaxel dimer nanoparticles for potentiated chemoimmunotherapy.

Chemoimmunotherapy has emerged as a promising strategy for improving the efficacy of cancer treatment. Herein, we present PD-1 receptor-presenting membrane-coated paclitaxel dimers nanoparticles (PD-1@PTX2 NPs) for enhanced treatment efficacy. PD-1 cell membrane-cloaked PTX dimer exhibited effective cellular uptake and increased cytotoxicity against cancer cells. PD-1@PTX2 NPs could selectively bind with PD-L1 ligands expressed on breast cancer cells. Our nanoparticles exhibit a remarkable tumor growth inhibition rate of 71.3% in mice bearing 4T1 xenografts and significantly prolong survival in mouse models of breast cancer. Additionally, our nanoparticles promoted a significant 3.2-fold increase in CD8+ T cell infiltration and 73.7% regulatory T cell (Treg) depletion within tumors, boosting a robust antitumor immune response. These findings underscore the potential of utilizing immune checkpoint receptor-presented PTX nanoparticles to enhance the efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy, providing an alternative approach for improving cancer treatment.

Electrochemically Induced Ru/CoOOH Synergistic Catalyst as Bifunctional Electrode Materials for Alkaline Overall Water Splitting.

Efficient and affordable price bifunctional electrocatalysts based on transition metal oxides for oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions have a balanced efficiency, but it remains a significant challenge to control their activity and durability. Herein, a trace Ru (0.74 wt.%) decorated ultrathin CoOOH nanosheets (≈4 nm) supported on the surface of nickel foam (Ru/CoOOH@NF) is rationally designed via an electrochemically induced strategy to effectively drive the electrolysis of alkaline overall water splitting. The as-synthesized Ru/CoOOH@NF electrocatalysts integrate the advantages of a large number of different HER (Ru nanoclusters) and OER (CoOOH nanosheets) active sites as well as strong in-suit structure stability, thereby exhibiting exceptional catalytic activity. In particular, the ultra-low overpotential of the HER (36 mV) and the OER (264 mV) are implemented to achieve 10 mA cm-2 . Experimental and theoretical calculations also reveal that Ru/CoOOH@NF possesses high intrinsic conductivity, which facilitates electron release from H2 O and H-OH bond breakage and accelerates electron/mass transfer by regulating the charge distribution. This work provides a new avenue for the rational design of low-cost and high-activity bifunctional electrocatalysts for large-scale water-splitting technology and expects to help contribute to the creation of various hybrid electrocatalysts.

MicroRNA transcriptome analysis reveals the immune regulatory mechanism of Crassostrea hongkongesis against Vibrio harveyi infection.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that modulate target-genes expression and play crucial roles in post-transcriptional regulation and immune system regulation. The Hong Kong oyster (Crassostrea hongkongesis), as the main marine aquaculture shellfish in the South China Sea, not only has high economic and ecological value, but also is an ideal model for conducting research on pathogen host interaction. Vibrio harveyi, a Gram negative luminescent marine bacterium, is widely distributed in coastal water environments and can cause large-scale death of C. hongkongesis. However, little in formation is available on the immune regulatory mechanisms of C. hongkongesis infected with V. harveyi. Therefore, we performed microRNA transcriptome analysis for elucidating the immunoregulation mechanism of C. hongkongesis infected with V. harveyi. The results show that a total of 308468208 clean reads and 288371159 clean tags were obtained. 222 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified. A total of 388 target genes that were differentially expressed and negatively correlated with miRNA expression were predicted by 222 DEmiRs. GO enrichment analysis of 388 DETGs showed that they were mainly enriched in the immune-related term of membrane-bounded vesicle, endocytic vesicle lumen, antigen processing and presentation of exogenous peptide antigen via MHC class I, antigen processing and presentation of peptide antigen via MHC class I, and other immune-related term. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that DETGs were mainly enriched in the Complement and coagulation cascades, Herpes simplex virus 1 infection, Bacterial invasion of epithelial cells, Antigen processing and presentation and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway. The 16 key DEmiRs and their target genes form a regulatory network for seven immune-related pathways. These results suggest that V. harveyi infection induces a complex miRNA response with wide-ranging effects on immune gene expression in the C. hongkongesis. This study explored the immune response of C. hongkongesis to V. harveyi infection at the level of miRNAs, which provides new ideas for the healthy culture and selective breeding of C. hongkongesis.

Towards a hybrid model-driven platform based on flux balance analysis and a machine learning pipeline for biosystem design.

Metabolic modeling and machine learning (ML) are crucial components of the evolving next-generation tools in systems and synthetic biology, aiming to unravel the intricate relationship between genotype, phenotype, and the environment. Nonetheless, the comprehensive exploration of integrating these two frameworks, and fully harnessing the potential of fluxomic data, remains an unexplored territory. In this study, we present, rigorously evaluate, and compare ML-based techniques for data integration. The hybrid model revealed that the overexpression of six target genes and the knockout of seven target genes contribute to enhanced ethanol production. Specifically, we investigated the influence of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) on ethanol biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through shake flask experiments. The findings indicate a noticeable increase in ethanol yield, ranging from 6 % to 10 %, in SDH subunit gene knockout strains compared to the wild-type strain. Moreover, in pursuit of a high-yielding strain for ethanol production, dual-gene deletion experiments were conducted targeting glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) and SDH. The results unequivocally demonstrate significant enhancements in ethanol production for the engineered strains Δsdh4Δgpd1, Δsdh5Δgpd1, Δsdh6Δgpd1, Δsdh4Δgpd2, Δsdh5Δgpd2, and Δsdh6Δgpd2, with improvements of 21.6 %, 27.9 %, and 22.7 %, respectively. Overall, the results highlighted that integrating mechanistic flux features substantially improves the prediction of gene knockout strains not accounted for in metabolic reconstructions. In addition, the finding in this study delivers valuable tools for comprehending and manipulating intricate phenotypes, thereby enhancing prediction accuracy and facilitating deeper insights into mechanistic aspects within the field of synthetic biology.

Assessing genome-wide adaptations associated with range expansion in the pink rice borer, Sesamia inferens.

Understanding the genetic basis of adaptive evolution following habitat expansion can have important implications for pest management. The pink rice borer (PRB), Sesamia inferens (Walker), is a destructive pest of rice that was historically restricted to regions south of 34° N latitude in China. However, with changes in global climate and farming practices, the distribution of this moth has progressively expanded, encompassing most regions in North China. Here, 3 highly differentiated subpopulations were discovered using high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphism and structural variant datasets across China, corresponding to northern, southern China regions, and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with significant patterns of isolation by geographic and environmental distances. Our estimates of evolutionary history indicate asymmetric migration with varying population sizes across the 3 subpopulations. Selective sweep analyses estimated strong selection at insect cuticle glycine-rich cuticular protein genes which are associated with enhanced desiccation adaptability in the northern group, and at the histone-lysine-N-methyltransferase gene associated with range expansion and local adaptation in the Shandong population. Our findings have significant implications for the development of effective strategies to control this pest.

Exploring a Fused Triazole-Tetrazine Binary CN Material for a Promising Initiating Substance.

The pursuit of binary carbon-nitrogen (CN) materials with high density and good thermal stability presents a significant challenge due to the inherent trade-off between high-energy storage and low bond dissociation energy. In this study, we designed and synthesized (S)-1,2-bis(3-azido-1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)diazene (BAzTD) and 2,9-diazidobis([1,2,4]-triazolo)[1,5-d:5',1'-f][1,2,3,4]tetrazine (DAzTT) through a straightforward reaction. Remarkably, DAzTT demonstrated a high density of 1.816 g·cm-3 (at 298 K) and a considerable thermal decomposition temperature of 216.86 °C. These properties outperform those of previously reported binary heterocyclic CN compounds and polyazido heterocyclic compounds. The quantum-chemical methods further substantiated the integral role of aromaticity as the driving force behind this difference. Additionally, the initiation capability of DAzTT was evaluated by a notably low minimum primary charge (MPC = 40 mg), surpassing conventional organic primary explosives, such as commercial 2-diazo-4,6-dinitrophenol (DDNP, MPC = 70 mg). The exceptional priming ability highlights the potential as an environmentally friendly replacement for toxic lead azide. DAzTT sets a new standard for binary CN compounds and provides a valuable precursor for high-nitrogen carbon nitride materials.

Engineering the thermal stability of a polyphosphate kinase by ancestral sequence reconstruction to expand the temperature boundary for an industrially applicable ATP regeneration system.

ATP-dependent energy-consuming enzymatic reactions are widely used in cell-free biocatalysis. However, the direct addition of large amounts of expensive ATP can greatly increase cost, and enzymatic production is often difficult to achieve as a result. Although a polyphosphate kinase (PPK)-polyphosphate-based ATP regeneration system has the potential to solve this challenge, the generally poor thermal stability of PPKs limits the widespread use of this method. In this paper, we evaluated the thermal stability of a PPK from Sulfurovum lithotrophicum (SlPPK2). After directed evolution and computation-supported design, we found that SlPPK2 is very recalcitrant and cannot acquire beneficial mutations. Inspired by the usually outstanding stability of ancestral enzymes, we reconstructed the ancestral sequence of the PPK family and used it as a guide to construct three heat-stable variants of SlPPK2, of which the L35F/T144S variant has a half-life of more than 14 h at 60°C. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed on all enzymes to analyze the reasons for the increased thermal stability. The results showed that mutations at these two positions act synergistically from the interior and surface of the protein, leading to a more compact structure. Finally, the robustness of the L35F/T144S variant was verified in the synthesis of nucleotides at high temperature. In practice, the use of this high-temperature ATP regeneration system can effectively avoid byproduct accumulation. Our work extends the temperature boundary of ATP regeneration and has great potential for industrial applications.IMPORTANCEATP regeneration is an important basic applied study in the field of cell-free biocatalysis. Polyphosphate kinase (PPK) is an enzyme tool widely used for energy regeneration during enzymatic reactions. However, the thermal stability of the PPKs reported to date that can efficiently regenerate ATP is usually poor, which greatly limits their application. In this study, the thermal stability of a difficult-to-engineer PPK from Sulfurovum lithotrophicum was improved, guided by an ancestral sequence reconstruction strategy. The optimal variant has a 4.5-fold longer half-life at 60°C than the wild-type enzyme, thus enabling the extension of the temperature boundary for ATP regeneration. The ability of this variant to regenerate ATP was well demonstrated during high-temperature enzymatic production of nucleotides.

Adaptive strategies to freeze-thaw cycles in branch hydraulics of tree species coexisting in a temperate forest.

Freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) limit the distribution and survival of temperate tree species. Tree species with different wood types coexist in temperate forests and are subjected to the same FTCs. It is essential to understand how these trees differentially cope with xylem hydraulic failure induced by FTCs in the field. The branch hydraulic traits and nonstructural carbohydrate concentration of six coexisting tree species in a temperate forest were measured from mid-winter to early spring when the FTCs occurred from January to April. The percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity (PLC) was lower, and the water potential inducing a 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity (P50) was more negative in tracheid trees than in ring- and diffuse-porous trees, suggesting tracheid trees with narrow tracheid diameters showed less vulnerable to embolism and provided a lower degree of hydraulic failure during FTCs (stronger resistance). Ring-porous trees always showed lower hydraulic conductivity and higher PLC and P50, and these traits did not change during FTCs, suggesting that they might lose the hydraulic functions in winter and abandon the last year xylem. The P50 in diffuse-porous increased after several FTCs (frost fatigue), but that in tracheid species continued to increase (or even decrease) until the end of FTCs (69 cycles), suggesting that tracheid trees were less sensitive to frost fatigue than diffuse-porous trees. Soluble sugar concentration in deciduous trees negatively correlated with PLC at the end of FTCs, indicating that the effect of soluble sugar on refilling embolism occurred in early spring. While the soluble sugar concentration of deciduous trees decreased, that of two evergreen tracheid trees gradually increased, possibly due to the winter photosynthesis of evergreen leaves. Our results suggest temperate trees adopt different strategies to cope with the same FTCs. These findings enrich the understanding of plant hydraulics and carbon physiology in winter and provide insights into the response of different species coexisting in temperate forests under climate change.

Comprehensive and Visualized Analysis of Interventional Clinical Trials of Spinal Cord Injury in the Past Two Decades: A Bibliometric Study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to provide a bibliometric analysis of reported clinical trials of interventional spinal cord injury (SCI) and present the current status, global trends, and scholars' knowledge in this field. METHODS: Data were obtained from PubMed and Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection. A literature screening process was conducted to select reports of interventional SCI clinical trials. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed based on information from the WOS database. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords, collaboration analysis, and co-citation analysis were performed using VOSviewer. RESULTS: A total of 849 articles were selected for analysis. Therapeutic strategies in the articles were classified into 10 subgroups. Locomotor training, local complication-related treatments, and neuromodulation are the top 3 subgroups. Spinal Cord was the most productive and most frequently cited journal in SCI clinical trials. The most productive country, institution, and author are the United States, the University of Miami, and Harvey LA, respectively. The collaboration network analysis shows that researchers and institutions from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia were the pivotal driving forces in this field. Spinal cord injury, rehabilitation, individuals, electrical stimulation, and exercise are the top 5 most frequent keywords. The co-citation analysis shows that the most frequently cited references are all international standards and guidelines of SCI clinical trials. CONCLUSIONS: There is a broad research collaboration network, although it is distributed unevenly worldwide. International standards and guidelines are needed to conduct high-quality clinical trials in the future.

Core-shell ZnO@CoO nitrogen doped nano-composites as highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for organophosphate pesticides detection.

Core-shell ZIF-8@ZIF-67 was synthesized by growing a cobalt-based ZIF-67 on a ZIF-8 seed particle. Herein, through selective etching of the ZIF-8@ZIF-67 core and subsequent direct carbonization, core-shell hollow ZnO@CoO nitrogen-doped nanoporous carbon (HZnO@CoO-NPC) nanocomposites were prepared. HZnO@CoO-NPCs possessed a high nitrogen content, large surface area, high degree of graphitization and excellent electrical conductivity, all of which were attributed to successfully integrating the unique advantages of ZIF-8 and ZIF-67. HZnO@CoO-NPCs were used to assemble acetylcholinesterase (AChE) biosensors for organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) detection. The low detection limit of 2.74 × 10-13 M for chlorpyrifos and 7.6 × 10-15 M for parathion-methyl demonstrated the superior sensing performance. The results showed that the electrochemical biosensor constructed by HZnO@CoO-NPC provided a sensitive and efficient electrochemical strategy for OPs detection.

Prenatal diagnosis of developmental and epileptic encephalopathy 9 with a 10.05-Mb microdeletion at Xq21.31q22.1 inherited from mother: A case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy 9 (DEE9) is characterized by early infantile seizures and mild-to-severe neuropsychiatric symptoms. Despite being an X-linked dominant disorder, DEE9 mainly affects heterozygous females or mosaic males, while hemizygous males are less affected. PCDH19 gene has been documented as the causative gene. METHODS: Karyotyping analysis and copy number variation sequencing (CNV-seq) were performed on a pregnant woman with epilepsy, together with her husband, son, and fetus. RESULTS: A disease-causing microdeletion, seq[GRCh37] del(X)(q21.31q22.1) (90310001-100360000), was identified in the pregnant woman and her female fetus. The microdeletion includes the entire PCDH19 gene and is classified as "pathogenic" according to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines. CONCLUSION: In this case study, we have not only identified the epilepsy type of the woman as DEE9 but have also made an unfavorable prognosis for her fetus. Our findings from this prenatal case provide valuable clinical resources for prenatal diagnosis and genetic counseling, while also implying the potential of CNV-seq as a viable method for uncovering PCDH19-related epilepsy.

Development of a 39 MM-InDel multiplex assay for the forensic application.

Insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels) are a category of highly prevalent markers in the human genome, characterized by their distinctive attributes, including short amplicon sizes and low mutation rates, which have shown great potential in forensic applications. Multi-allelic InDel and multi-InDel markers, collectively abbreviated as MM-InDels, were developed to enhance polymorphism by the introduction of novel alleles. Nevertheless, the relatively low mutation rates of InDels, coupled with the founder effect, result in distinct allele frequency distributions among populations. The divergent characteristics of InDels in different populations also pose challenges to the establishment of universally efficient InDel multiplex assays. To enhance the system efficiency of the InDel assay and its applicability across diverse populations, 39 MM-InDels with high polymorphism in five different ancestry superpopulations were selected from the 1000 Genomes Project dataset and combined with an amelogenin gender marker to construct a multiplex assay (named MMIDplex). The combined power of discrimination and the cumulative probability of exclusion of 39 MM-InDels were 1 - 1.3 × 10-23 and 1 - 9.83 × 10-6 in the Chinese Han population, and larger than 1-10-19 and 1-10-4 in the reference populations, relatively. These results demonstrate that the MMIDplex assay has the potential to obtain sufficient power for individual identification and paternity test in global populations.

Asymmetric Supercapacitors based on 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione Molecular Electrodes Paired with MXene.

An efficient approach to increase the energy density of supercapacitors is to prepare electrode materials with larger specific capacitance and increase the potential difference between the positive and negative electrodes in the device. Herein, an organic molecular electrode (OME) is prepared by anchoring 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (PD), which possesses two pyridine rings and an electron-deficient conjugated system, onto reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Because of the electron-deficient conjugated structure of PD molecule, PD/rGOs exhibit a more positive redox peak potential along with the advantages of high capacitance-controlled behaviour and fast reaction kinetics. Additionally, the small energy gap between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) leads to increased conductivity in PD/rGO. To assemble the asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC), a two-dimensional metal carbide, as known as MXene, with a chemical composition of Ti3 C2 Tx is selected as the negative electrode due to its exceptional performance, and PD/rGO-0.5 is employed as the positive electrode. Consequently, the working voltage is expanded up to 1.8 V. Through further electrochemical measurements, the assembled ASC (PD/rGO-0.5//Ti3 C2 Tx ) achieves a remarkable energy density of 36.8 Wh kg-1 . Remarkably, connecting two ASCs in series can power 73 LEDs, showcasing its promising potential for energy storage applications.

Influences of the Carbohydrate-Binding Module on a Fungal Starch-Active Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenase.

Noncatalytic carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) play important roles in the function of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) but have not been well demonstrated for starch-active AA13 LPMO. In this study, four new CBMs were investigated systematically for their influence on MtLPMO toward starch in terms of substrate binding, H2O2 production activity, oxidative product yields, and the degradation effect with α-amylase and glucoamylase toward different starch substrates. Among the four MtLPMO-CBM chimeras, MtLPMO-CnCBM harboring the CBM fromColletotrichum nymphaeae showed the highest substrate binding toward different types of starch compared to MtLPMO without CBM. MtLPMO-PvCBM harboring the CBM from Pseudogymnoascus verrucosus and MtLPMO-CnCBM showed dramatically enhanced H2O2 production activity of 4.6-fold and 3.6-fold, respectively, than MtLPMO without CBM. More importantly, MtLPMO-CBM generated more oxidative products from starch polysaccharides degradation than MtLPMO alone, with 6.0-fold and 4.6-fold enhancement obtained from the oxidation of amylopectin and corn starch with MtLPMO-CnCBM, and a 5.2-fold improvement obtained with MtLPMO-AcCBM for amylose. MtLPMO-AcCBM significantly boosted the yields of reducing sugar with α-amylase upon degrading amylopectin and corn starch. These findings demonstrate that CBMs greatly influence the performance of starch-active AA13 LPMOs due to their enhanced binding and H2O2 production activity.