Comparative discriminant analysis of Mesua ferrea L. and its adulterants.

The Uygur medicinal material Mesua ferrea L. has different plant sources in the market. The flower bud of Mammea siamensis T. Anders, which originated from Myanmar and Thailand, is actually used in the dosage room of Uygur hospitals and pharmaceutical enterprises in Xinjiang Region. On the contrary, flowers of Mesua ferrea L. are less frequently used. In this study, the taxonomic characteristics, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to compare the similarities and differences between the two species. The results showed that the flowers of the two plants were significantly different in morphology, but the similarity of chemical components was high. At the same time, the study also found that Mesua ferrea L. and Mammea siamensis T. Anders contain a large amount of vitexin and isovitexin, which can be used for qualitative and quantitative research. This study provides a reference for the identification, development and utilization of Mesua ferrea L medicinal materials and the revision of quality standards.

MCC950 Ameliorates Diabetic Muscle Atrophy in Mice by Inhibition of Pyroptosis and Its Synergistic Effect with Aerobic Exercise.

Diabetic muscle atrophy is an inflammation-related complication of type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Even though regular exercise prevents further deterioration of atrophic status, there is no effective mediator available for treatment and the underlying cellular mechanisms are less explored. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of MCC950, a specific, small-molecule inhibitor of NLRP3, to treat pyroptosis and diabetic muscle atrophy in mice. Furthermore, we used MCC950 to intervene in the protective effects of aerobic exercise against muscle atrophy in diabetic mice. Blood and gastrocnemius muscle (GAS) samples were collected after 12 weeks of intervention and the atrophic state was assessed. We initially corroborated a diabetic muscle atrophy phenotype in db/db mice (D) by comparison with control m/m mice (W) by examining parameters such as fasting blood glucose (D vs. W: 24.47 ± 0.45 mmol L-1 vs. 4.26 ± 0.6 mmol L-1, p < 0.05), grip strength (D vs. W: 166.87 ± 15.19 g vs. 191.76 ± 14.13 g, p < 0.05), exercise time (D vs. W: 1082.38 ± 104.67 s vs. 1716 ± 168.55 s, p < 0.05) and exercise speed to exhaustion (D vs. W: 24.25 ± 2.12 m min-1 vs. 34.75 ± 2.66 m min-1, p < 0.05), GAS wet weight (D vs. W: 0.07 ± 0.01 g vs. 0.13 ± 0.01 g, p < 0.05), the ratio of GAS wet weight to body weight (D vs. W: 0.18 ± 0.01% vs. 0.54 ± 0.02%, p < 0.05), and muscle fiber cross-sectional area (FCSA) (D vs. W: 1875 ± 368.19 µm2 vs. 2747.83 ± 406.44 µm2, p < 0.05). We found that both MCC950 (10 mg kg-1) treatment and exercise improved the atrophic parameters that had deteriorated in the db/db mice, inhibited serum inflammatory markers and significantly attenuated pyroptosis in atrophic GAS. In addition, a combined MCC950 treatment with exercise (DEI) exhibited a further improvement in glucose uptake capacity and muscle performance. This combined treatment also improved the FCSA of GAS muscle indicated by Laminin immunofluorescence compared to the group with the inhibitor treatment alone (DI) (DEI vs. DI: 2597 ± 310.97 vs. 1974.67 ± 326.15 µm2, p < 0.05) or exercise only (DE) (DEI vs. DE: 2597 ± 310.97 vs. 2006.33 ± 263.468 µm2, p < 0.05). Intriguingly, the combination of MCC950 treatment and exercise significantly reduced NLRP3-mediated inflammatory factors such as cleaved-Caspase-1, GSDMD-N and prevented apoptosis and pyroptosis in atrophic GAS. These findings for the first time demonstrate that targeting NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis with MCC950 improves diabetic muscle homeostasis and muscle function. We also report that inhibiting pyroptosis by MCC950 can enhance the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise on diabetic muscle atrophy. Since T2DM and muscle atrophy are age-related diseases, the young mice used in the current study do not seem to fully reflect the characteristics of diabetic muscle atrophy. Considering the fragile nature of db/db mice and for the complete implementation of the exercise intervention, we used relatively young db/db mice and the atrophic state in the mice was thoroughly confirmed. Taken together, the current study comprehensively investigated the therapeutic effect of NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis inhibited by MCC950 on diabetic muscle mass, strength and exercise performance, as well as the synergistic effects of MCC950 and exercise intervention, therefore providing a novel strategy for the treatment of the disease.

Weight bearing training alleviates muscle atrophy and pyroptosis of middle-aged rats.

Background: Age-related muscle atrophy and adipose accumulation begin to occur in young and middle-aged individuals, and exercise at an early age improves body composition. Pyroptosis may play an essential role in age-related low-grade inflammation. This study aimed to explore the alleviation of muscle atrophy by weight-bearing training with increasing age via inhibition of pyroptosis. Methods: Ninety 8-month-old male SD rats were randomly divided into three groups: (1) normal baseline group (N group, n = 10), sacrificed after adaptive feeding; control group (C group, n = 40); and weight-bearing running group (R group, n = 40). Blood samples, adipose tissue (AT), and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) were collected after 8, 16, 24, and 32-weeks intervention. Results: The body weight, muscle mass, fat mass, plasma lipid, AT wet weight, adipocyte cross-sectional area (CSA), and apoptosis rates of AT and EDL were increased, while the muscle mass, wet weight, and fiber CSA of EDL were decreased by aging, which were reversed by exercise. Weight-bearing training promoted protein synthesis in EDL, inhibited protein degradation in EDL, and expression of pyroptotic key proteins in EDL and AT in rats. Conclusion: Weight-bearing training improves body composition and alleviates age-related muscle atrophy in rats, and its mechanism may be related to the inhibition of pyroptosis in the EDL and AT and the improvement of muscle protein metabolism.

Nonlinear Topological Mechanics in Elliptically Geared Isostatic Metamaterials.

Despite the extensive studies of topological systems, the experimental characterizations of strongly nonlinear topological phases have been lagging. To address this shortcoming, we design and build elliptically geared isostatic metamaterials. Their nonlinear topological transitions can be realized by collective soliton motions, which stem from the transition of nonlinear Berry phase. Endowed by the intrinsic nonlinear topological mechanics, surface polar elasticity and dislocation-bound zero modes can be created or annihilated as the topological polarization reverses orientation. Our approach integrates topological physics with strongly nonlinear mechanics and promises multiphase structures at the micro- and macroscales.

Transient interaction effects of temperature and light intensity on isoprene and monoterpene emissions from Schima superba and Phoebe bournei.

Biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) (such as isoprene (ISO) and monoterpenes (MTs)) emissions from plants play a great role in the atmospheric chemistry. Now frequency of dramatic changes of weather such as transient temperature changing increases, most current studies focus on the effects of simulating climate change (long-term) on BVOC emissions. While studies of transient effects on that are less reported. This study aimed to identify the ISO and MT emissions and the related physiological processes in the short-term scale at different temperature (T) and light intensity (PAR), in seeding stage of Schima superba and Phoebe bournei belonging to typical subtropical tree species. The results showed that the ISO and MT emissions were significantly affected by T and PAR, either independently or interactively. With the increase of T and PAR, the ISO and MT emissions increased, with the maximum rates of ISO and MTs of 39.39 and 1042.35 pmol m-2 s-1 for S. superba under 40 °C × 500 µmol m-2 s-1 condition, while the maximum rates reached 18.73 and 6737.41 pmol m-2 s-1 at 30 °C × 1500 µmol m-2 s-1 for P. bournei. The increase of ISO and MT emissions with T and PAR increasing that was related to the promotion of Pn and gs in plants. Regarding MT components, the proportion of α-pinene decreased with T and PAR increasing, with the lowest ratios of 4.91 % and 21.16 % for S. superba and P. bournei under 40 °C × 1500 µmol m-2 s-1 condition. However, the proportion of ß-pinene significantly increased, with the highest ratios of 67.42 % and 57.93 % for S. superba and P. bournei under 30 °C × 1500 µmol m-2 s-1 condition, which is attributed to differences in light tolerance between the two plants. Our study provides basis for evaluating the transient changes of environmental factors on BVOC emissions and optimizing regional BVOC emission models.

High-Performance Artificial Synapse Based on CVD-Grown WSe2 Flakes with Intrinsic Defects.

High-performance artificial synaptic devices with rich functions are highly desired for the development of an advanced brain-like neuromorphic system. Here, we prepare synaptic devices based on a CVD-grown WSe2 flake, which has an unusual morphology of nested triangles. The WSe2 transistor exhibits robust synaptic behaviors such as excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, short-time plasticity, and long-time plasticity. Furthermore, due to its high sensitivity to light illumination, the WSe2 transistor exhibits excellent light-dosage-dependent and light wavelength-dependent plasticity, which endow the synaptic device with more intelligent learning and memory functions. In addition, WSe2 optoelectronic synapses can mimic "learning experience" behavior and associative learning behavior like the brain. An artificial neural network is simulated for pattern recognition of hand-written digital images in the MNIST data set and the best recognition accuracy could reach 92.9% based on weight updating training of our WSe2 device. Detailed surface potential analysis and PL characterization reveal that the intrinsic defects generated in growth are dominantly responsible for the controllable synaptic plasticity. Our work suggests that the CVD-grown WSe2 flake with intrinsic defects capable of robust trapping/de-trapping charges holds great application prospects in future high-performance neuromorphic computation.

Surface Hydrophobicity Engineering of Pt-Based Noble Metal Aerogels by Ionic Liquids toward Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction.

Modulating the surface properties of electrocatalysts with ligands could effectively regulate their catalytic properties, while limited in-depth understanding of the surface ligands restricted their rational combination. Herein, ionic liquids (ILs) with different lengths of hydrophobic side chains were employed to regulate the surface hydrophobicity of noble metal aerogels, for comprehending the relationship between surface hydrophobicity and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and enhancing electrocatalytic ORR. The volcano-like trends between the hydrophobicity and the ORR activity for various Pt-based aerogels indicated that a suitable hydrophobic surface constructed by ILs was most favorable for contacting with oxygen molecules and the desorption of oxygen intermediates. Typically, the PtPd aerogel modified by ILs (PtPd aer-[MTBD][PFSI]) exhibited an inspiring ORR activity, with a 70 mV increase in half-wave potential and a 7.1-fold mass activity compared to the commercial Pt/C. Therefore, the regularity between the surface hydrophobicity and ORR activity of noble metal aerogels was uncovered and will facilitate the modulation of electrocatalysts for practical applications.

Template-Assisted Synthesis of a Large-Area Ordered Perovskite Nanowire Array for a High-Performance Photodetector.

One-dimensional (1D) organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite nanowires (NWs) with well-defined structures possess superior optical and electrical properties for optoelectronic applications. However, most of the perovskite NWs are synthesized in air, which makes the NWs susceptible to water vapor, resulting in large amounts of grain boundaries or surface defects. Here, a template-assisted antisolvent crystallization (TAAC) method is designed to fabricate CH3NH3PbBr3 NWs and arrays. It is found that the as-synthesized NW array has designable shapes, low crystal defects, and ordered alignment, which is attributed to the sequestration of water and oxygen in air by the introduction of acetonitrile vapor. The photodetector based on the NWs exhibits an excellent response to light illumination. Under the illumination of a 532 nm laser with 0.1 µW and a bias of -1 V, the responsivity and detectivity of the device reach 1.55 A/W and 1.21 × 1012 Jones, respectively. The transient absorption spectrum (TAS) shows a distinct ground state bleaching signal only at 527 nm, which corresponds to the absorption peak induced by the interband transition of CH3NH3PbBr3. Narrow absorption peaks (a few nanometers) indicate that the energy-level structures of CH3NH3PbBr3 NWs only have a few impurity-level-induced transitions leading to additional optical loss. This work provides an effective and simple strategy to achieve high-quality CH3NH3PbBr3 NWs, which exhibit potential application in photodetection.

Fabrication of Transferable and Micro/Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Surfaces Using Demolding and iCVD Processes.

Superhydrophobic surfaces possess enormous potential in various applications on account of their versatile functionalities. However, artificial superhydrophobic surfaces with ultralow solid/liquid adhesion often require complicated structure fabrication and surface fluorination processes. Here, we designed a superhydrophobic surface possessed of micro/nanoscale structures by employing facile and low-cost demolding and initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) processes. The achieved micro/nanostructured superhydrophobic surface has a maximum static contact angle of ∼170°, a roll-off angle and contact angle hysteresis below 1°, ultralow solid/liquid adhesion for water droplets, and maintains excellent superhydrophobicity after exposure to strongly corrosive species, like strong acid/base and salt solutions, for 60 h. This reasonability-designed method of creating the superhydrophobic surface could provide valuable guidelines for the manufacture of transferable superhydrophobic surfaces and facilitate potential applications extending from optoelectronic devices to self-cleaning materials, such as solar cells, windows, and electronic displays.

A Study of Mechanisms of Nanobubble-Enhanced Flotation of Graphite.

This study was conducted to investigate the mechanisms of enhanced microfine flake graphite (MFG) flotation by nanobubbles generated based on the principle of hydrodynamic cavitation. The effects of nanobubbles on graphite surface properties were characterized in terms of the flotation kinetics, collector adsorption behavior, Zeta potential, IR spectra, contact angle, etc. The results show that the surface nanobubbles increased the hydrophobic attraction and reduced the electrostatic repulsion between the graphite particles and collector molecules, significantly improving the flotation selectivity and the kinetic flotation rate and promoting the agglomeration of MFG.

Small Molecular Drug Screening Based on Clinical Therapeutic Effect.

Virtual screening can significantly save experimental time and costs for early drug discovery. Drug multi-classification can speed up virtual screening and quickly predict the most likely class for a drug. In this study, 1019 drug molecules with actual therapeutic effects are collected from multiple databases and documents, and molecular sets are grouped according to therapeutic effect and mechanism of action. Molecular descriptors and molecular fingerprints are obtained through SMILES to quantify molecular structures. After using the Kennard-Stone method to divide the data set, a better combination can be obtained by comparing the combined results of five classification algorithms and a fusion method. Furthermore, for a specific data set, the model with the best performance is used to predict the validation data set. The test set shows that prediction accuracy can reach 0.862 and kappa coefficient can reach 0.808. The highest classification accuracy of the validation set is 0.873. The more reliable molecular set has been found, which could be used to predict potential attributes of unknown drug compounds and even to discover new use for old drugs. We hope this research can provide a reference for virtual screening of multiple classes of drugs at the same time in the future.

Ultrasmall Gold Nanoclusters-Enabled Fabrication of Ultrafine Gold Aerogels as Novel Self-Supported Nanozymes.

Metal aerogels represent an emerging type of functional porous materials with promising applications in diverse fields, but the fabrication of metal aerogels with specific structure and property still remains a challenge. Here, the authors report a new approach to fabricate metal aerogels by using ultrasmall metal nanoclusters (NCs) as functional building blocks. By taking D-penicillamine-stabilized gold NCs (AuNCs) with a diameter of 1.4 nm as an example, Au aerogels with ultrafine ligament size (3.5 nm) and good enzyme-mimic properties are synthesized. Detailed characterization shows that the obtained Au aerogels possess typical 3D self-supported porous network structure with high gold purity and surface area. Time-lapse spectroscopic and microscopic monitoring of the gelation process reveal that these ultrasmall AuNCs first grow into large nanoparticles before fusion into nanowire networks, during which both pH and the precursor concentration are identified to be the determining factor. Owing to their highly porous structure and abundant metal nodes, these self-supported Au aerogels display excellent peroxidase-like properties. This work provides a strategy for fabricating advanced metal aerogels by taking ultrasmall-sized metal NCs as building blocks, which also opens new avenues for engineering the structure and properties of metal aerogels for further advancing their applications.

[Effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature on volatile halogenated organic compound content in soils of Schima superba and Cunninghamia lanceolata seedlings.] / 大气CO2浓度和温度升高对木荷和杉木幼苗土壤卤代烃含量的影响.

Global changes caused by the increases of atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature have important effects on soil biogeochemical processes. The synthesis and release of volatile halogenated organic compounds (VOXs) is an important pathway for soil to participate in the global material cycle and energy flow. In this study, Schima superba and Cunninghamia lanceolata seedlings in the southern subtropics were selected as the research objects. Four treatments, including control (CK), elevated CO2 concentration (EC), elevated temperature (ET) and elevated both factors (EC+ET) were set up. The effects of EC and ET on soil VOXs formation were studied by an open-top chamber system coupled with a purging and trapping gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The results showed that VOXs content in the soil of S. superba seedlings was 0.065-0.252 ng·g-1, which was higher than that of C. lanceolata (0.038-0.136 ng·g-1). At the EC, ET and EC+ET treatments, VOXs contents were reduced in soils of both species. The effect of ET was the most significant, with the decrease rates of 74.2% and 72.1% in both soils, respectively. The change of VOXs content with increasing temperature mainly attributed to the changes of soil moisture and nitrogen content. The content of VOXs in the soils of S. superba seedlings decreased more than that of C. lanceolata under different treatments. In CK, EC, ET and EC+ET treatment, bromodichloromethane (BDCM) (27.5%, 36.7%, 32.9%, 32.6%) and tetrachloromethane (TCM) (9.0%, 16.8%, 22.7%, 15.8%) were the main VOXs in the soil of S. superba seedlings, respectively, while BDCM and dibromomethane (DBM) were the main VOXs in the soil of C. lanceolata seedlings. BDCM accounted for 31.9%, 38.2%, 40.9% and 37.2% of the VOXs content in each treatment, and DBM accounted for 17.9%, 16.5%, 19.2% and 16.0% of the VOXs content, respectively. Simulating elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature was conducive to more comprehensive reflection of the ecological effect of global climate change, and it could provide data support for improving the VOCs flux model.

Integrating Highly Porous and Flexible Au Hydrogels with Soft-MEMS Technologies for High-Performance Wearable Biosensing.

Wearable biosensors for real-time and non-invasive detection of biomarkers are of importance in early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Herein, a high-performance wearable biosensing platform was proposed by combining a three-dimensional hierarchical porous Au hydrogel-enzyme electrode with high biocompatibility, activity, and flexibility and soft-MEMS technologies with high precision and capability of mass production. Using glucose oxidase as the model enzyme, the glucose sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 10.51 µA mM-1 cm-2, a long durability over 15 days, and a good selectivity. Under the mechanical deformation (0 to 90°), it is able to maintain an almost constant performance with a low deviation of <1.84%. With the assistance of a wireless or a Bluetooth module, this wearable sensing platform achieves real-time and non-invasive glucose monitoring on human skins. Similarly, continuous lactic acid monitoring was also realized with lactate oxidase immobilized on the same sensing platform, further verifying the universality of this sensing platform. Therefore, our work holds promise to provide a universal, high-performance wearable biosensing platform for various biomarkers in sweat and reliable diagnostic information for health management.

Recovery of Metals from Heat-Treated Printed Circuit Boards via an Enhanced Gravity Concentrator and High-Gradient Magnetic Separator.

The recovery and reuse of waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) has attracted more and more attention from global researchers, as recycling of waste PCB metals is of great significance to the rational utilization of metal material resources. This study puts forward a clean and economical method in which enhanced gravity separation and wet high-gradient magnetic separation were combined to recover waste PCBs with heat treatment at a temperature of 240 °C. The heat treatment could improve the metal liberation effect of the PCBs, and the thermal behavior was measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The pyrolysis of the non-metal fraction (NMF) began around 300 °C, and the glass transition temperature of epoxy resin was 135.17 °C. The enhanced gravity separation technique was used for the separation of metals and NMF under the compound force field. The metals grade of the gravity concentrates fraction (GRF) was 82.97% under the optimal conditions, and the metals recovery reached 90.55%. A wet high-gradient magnetic separator was applied to classify the GRF into magnetic (MA) and non-magnetic (NMA) fractions, which could achieve iron and copper enrichment. After the three stages combined process, the copper and iron grades of the NMA and MA fractions were 70.17% and 73.42%, and the recovery reached 74.02% and 78.11%, respectively.

High-Performance Phototransistors Based on MnPSe3 and Its Hybrid Structures with Au Nanoparticles.

Layered metal thiophosphates with a general formula MPX3 (M is a group VIIB or VIII element and X is a chalcogen) have emerged as a novel member in a two-dimensional (2D) family with fascinating physical and chemical properties. Herein, the photoelectric performance of the few-layer MnPSe3 was studied for the first time. The multilayer MnPSe3 shows p-type conductivity and its field-effect transistor delivers an ultralow dark current of about 0.1 pA. The photoswitching ratio reaches ∼103 at a wavelength of 375 nm, superior to that of other thiophosphates. A responsivity and detectivity of 392.78 mA/W and 2.19 × 109 Jones, respectively, have been demonstrated under irradiation of 375 nm laser with a power intensity of 0.1 mW/cm2. In particular, the photocurrent can be remarkably increased up to 30 times by integrating a layer of Au nanoparticle array at the bottom of the MnPSe3 layer. The metal-semiconductor interfacial electric field and the strain-induced flexoelectric polarization field caused by the underlying nanorugged Au nanoparticles are proposed to contribute together to the significant current improvement.

Neural interactions in occipitotemporal cortex during basic human movement perception by dynamic causal modeling.

Action recognition is an essential component of our daily life. The occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) is an important area in human movement perception. The previous studies have revealed that three vital regions including the extrastriate body area (EBA), human middle temporal complex (hMT+), and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in OTC play an important role in motion perception. The aim of the current study is to explore the neural interactions between these three regions during basic human movement perception. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired when participants viewed dynamic videos depicting basic human movements. By the dynamic causal modeling analysis, a model space consisting of 576 models was constructed and evaluated to select the optimal model given the data. The information of the visual movement was found to enter the system through hMT+. We speculated that hMT+ would be the region to show sensitivity to the presence of motion and it subsequently influence and be influenced by the other two regions. Our results also revealed the manner in which the three regions interact during action recognition. Furthermore, We found significantly enhanced modulated connectivity from hMT+ to both EBA and pSTS, as well as from EBA to both hMT+ and pSTS. We inferred that there may be multiple routes for human action perception. One responsible route for processing motion signals is through hMT+ to pSTS, and the other projects information to pSTS may be via the form-processing route. In addition, pSTS may integrate and mediate visual signals and possibly convey them to distributed areas to maintain high-order cognitive tasks.

Investigating the neural basis of basic human movement perception using multi-voxel pattern analysis.

Humans can skillfully recognize actions from others' body motion and make a judgment or response at once. Previous neuroimaging studies have mostly utilized diminished and brief human motion stimuli and indicated that human occipito-temporal cortex plays a critical role at biological motion recognition. It remains unclear to what extent that the areas related to human motion perception are involved in decoding basic movements. Because human movement naturally stems from the sequences of body posture, so we utilized the stimulus of real movements. Participants were presented four categories of human movements (jump, run, skip and walk) in a blocked fMRI experiment. Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) was adopted to assess whether different movements could be discriminated in four regions. We found that movement-specific information was represented in both human body-sensitive areas, extrastriate body area (EBA) and motion-sensitive areas, posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and human middle temporal complex (hMT+). Additionally, a further functional connectivity analysis using EBA as a seed was conducted and it suggested that EBA showed a task-modulated functional connectivity with multiple areas that were involved in the behavior perception and motor control. Human motion processing appeared to be completed in a distributed network. The occipito-temporal cortex may perform the initial processing of human motion information extracting, and then transform them to interconnected areas for a further utilization.