The PERK/PKR-eIF2α Pathway Negatively Regulates Porcine Hemagglutinating Encephalomyelitis Virus Replication by Attenuating Global Protein Translation and Facilitating Stress Granule Formation.

The replication of coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and the recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is closely associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of infected cells. The unfolded protein response (UPR), which is mediated by ER stress (ERS), is a typical outcome in coronavirus-infected cells and is closely associated with the characteristics of coronaviruses. However, the interaction between virus-induced ERS and coronavirus replication is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that infection with the betacoronavirus porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV) induced ERS and triggered all three branches of the UPR signaling pathway both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, ERS suppressed PHEV replication in mouse neuro-2a (N2a) cells primarily by activating the protein kinase R-like ER kinase (PERK)-eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) axis of the UPR. Moreover, another eIF2α phosphorylation kinase, interferon (IFN)-induced double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR), was also activated and acted cooperatively with PERK to decrease PHEV replication. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the PERK/PKR-eIF2α pathways negatively regulated PHEV replication by attenuating global protein translation. Phosphorylated eIF2α also promoted the formation of stress granules (SGs), which in turn repressed PHEV replication. In summary, our study presents a vital aspect of the host innate response to invading pathogens and reveals attractive host targets (e.g., PERK, PKR, and eIF2α) for antiviral drugs. IMPORTANCE Coronavirus diseases are caused by different coronaviruses of importance in humans and animals, and specific treatments are extremely limited. ERS, which can activate the UPR to modulate viral replication and the host innate response, is a frequent occurrence in coronavirus-infected cells. PHEV, a neurotropic betacoronavirus, causes nerve cell damage, which accounts for the high mortality rates in suckling piglets. However, it remains incompletely understood whether the highly developed ER in nerve cells plays an antiviral role in ERS and how ERS regulates viral proliferation. In this study, we found that PHEV infection induced ERS and activated the UPR both in vitro and in vivo and that the activated PERK/PKR-eIF2α axis inhibited PHEV replication through attenuating global protein translation and promoting SG formation. A better understanding of coronavirus-induced ERS and UPR activation may reveal the pathogenic mechanism of coronavirus and facilitate the development of new treatment strategies for these diseases.

Causal relationships between birth weight, childhood obesity and age at menarche: A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Observational studies suggest birth weight and childhood obesity are closely associated with age at menarche. However, the relationships between them are currently inconsistent and it remains elusive whether such associations are causal. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate whether there existed causal relationships between birth weight, childhood obesity and age at menarche. DESIGN, PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS: A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study. The standard inverse variance weighted MR analyses were adopted to evaluate the causal effects of birth weight (n = 143,677), childhood body mass index (BMI) (n = 39,620) on age at menarche (n = 182,416) with summary statistics from large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Meanwhile, we validated our MR results with some sensitivity analyses including maximum likelihood, weighted-median and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier methods. RESULTS: The present study showed that each one standard deviation (1-SD) lower birth weight was predicted to result in a 0.1479 years earlier of age at menarche (ß = .1479, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.0422-0.2535; p = 0.0061). We also found that genetically predicted 1-SD increase in childhood BMI was causally associated with early age at menarche (ß = -.3966, 95% CI = -0.5294 to -0.2639; p = 4.73E-09). CONCLUSIONS: Our MR study suggests the causal effect of lower birth weight and higher childhood BMI on the increased risk of earlier menarche. It may be the opportune time to carry out weight control intervention in prenatal and early childhood development periods to prevent early menarche onset, thus decreasing the future adverse consequences.

The effects of capsaicin intake on weight loss among overweight and obese subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Animal studies have shown that capsaicin plays a positive role in weight management. However, the results in human research are controversial. Therefore, the present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effect of capsaicin on weight loss in adults. We searched PubMed, Embase, China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Cochrane library and clinical registration centre, identifying all randomised controlled trials (RCT) published in English and Chinese to 3 May 2022. A random-effect model was used to calculate the weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95 % CI. Heterogeneity between studies was assessed by the Cochran Q statistic and I-squared tests (I 2 ). Statistical analyses were performed using STATA version 15.1. P-values < 0·05 were considered as statistically significant. From 2377 retrieved studies, fifteen studies were finally included in the meta-analyses. Fifteen RCT with 762 individuals were included in our meta-analysis. Compared with the control group, the supplementation of capsaicin resulted in significant reduction on BMI (WMD: -0·25 kg/m2, 95 % CI = -0·35, -0·15 kg/m2, P < 0·05), body weight (BW) (WMD: -0·51 kg, 95 % CI = -0·86, -0·15 kg, P < 0·05) and waist circumference (WC) (WMD: -1·12 cm, 95 % CI = -2·00, -0·24 cm, P < 0·05). We found no detrimental effect of capsaicin on waist-to-hip ratio (WMD: -0·05, 95 % CI = -0·17, 0·06, P > 0·05). The current meta-analysis suggests that capsaicin supplementation may have rather modest effects in reducing BMI, BW and WC for overweight or obese individuals.

The interaction effect of transfusion history and previous stroke history on the risk of venous thromboembolism in stroke patients: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Blood transfusion and previous stroke history are two independent risk factors of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in stroke patients. Whether the potential interaction of transfusion history and previous stroke history is associated with a greater risk of VTE remains unclear. This study aims to explore whether the combination of transfusion history and previous stroke history increases the risk of VTE among Chinese stroke patients. METHODS: A total of 1525 participants from the prospective Stroke Cohort of Henan Province were enrolled in our study. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to explore the associations among transfusion history, previous stroke history and VTE. The interaction was evaluated on both multiplicative and additive scales. The odds ratio (95% CI), relative excess risk of interaction (RERI), attributable proportion (AP), and synergy index (S) of interaction terms were used to examine multiplicative and additive interactions. Finally, we divided our population into two subgroups by National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score and re-evaluated the interaction effect in both scales. RESULTS: A total of 281 (18.4%) participants of 1525 complicated with VTE. Transfusion and previous stroke history were associated with an increased risk of VTE in our cohort. In the multiplicative scale, the combination of transfusion and previous stroke history was statistically significant on VTE in both unadjusted and adjusted models (P<0.05). For the additive scale, the RERI shrank to 7.016 (95% CI: 1.489 ~ 18.165), with the AP of 0.650 (95% CI: 0.204 ~ 0.797) and the S of 3.529 (95% CI: 1.415 ~ 8.579) after adjusting for covariates, indicating a supra-additive effect. In subgroups, the interaction effect between transfusion history and previous stroke history was pronouncedly associated with the increased risk of VTE in patients with NIHSS score > 5 points (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that there may be a potential synergistic interaction between transfusion history and previous stroke history on the risk of VTE. Besides, the percentage of VTE incidence explained by interaction increased with the severity of stroke. Our findings will provide valuable evidence for thromboprophylaxis in Chinese stroke patients.

Combined lifestyle factors on mortality among the elder population: evidence from a Chinese cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have suggested that lifestyle-related factors are associated with mortality, however limited evidence is available for the Chinese elder population. METHODS: The data of this study was obtained from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Survey (CLHLS) during 2008 - 2018, lifestyle-related factors including body mass index (BMI), smoking, drinking, consumption of vegetables and fruits, physical activity and sleep duration were included as dependent variables in the analysis. A lifestyle risk score was created using six unhealthy behaviors: smoking, drinking, unhealthy weight, physical inactivity, not eat vegetables or fruits and short or prolonged sleep. The Kaplan-Meier curves were used to illustrate the cumulative effect of lifestyle factors on mortality and cox regression models were conducted to estimate the combined effects of lifestyle-related factors on total mortality. RESULTS: The results illustrated that low BMI, smoking, no fruit eating, and no physical inactivity were risk factors for total mortality. KM curves showed significant cumulative effect of unhealthy lifestyle factors on mortality. Compared with participants without any unhealthy factors, the hazard ratio (HR) for participants with six unhealthy factors was 1.335 (1.015,1.757) for all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated poor adherence to a healthy lifestyle may increase all-cause mortality and specific combinations of lifestyle related factors have different effects on mortality among Chinese elderly population.

Development of Fixed-Wing UAV 3D Coverage Paths for Urban Air Quality Profiling.

Due to the ever-increasing industrial activity, humans and the environment suffer from deteriorating air quality, making the long-term monitoring of air particle indicators essential. The advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer the potential to utilize UAVs for various forms of monitoring, of which air quality data acquisition is one. Nevertheless, most current UAV-based air monitoring suffers from a low payload, short endurance, and limited range, as they are primarily dependent on rotary aerial vehicles. In contrast, a fixed-wing UAV may be a better alternative. Additionally, one of the most critical modules for 3D profiling of a UAV system is path planning, as it directly impacts the final results of the spatial coverage and temporal efficiency. Therefore, this work focused on developing 3D coverage path planning based upon current commercial ground control software, where the method mainly depends on the Boustrophedon and Dubins paths. Furthermore, a user interface was also designed for easy accessibility, which provides a generalized tool module that links up the proposed algorithm, the ground control software, and the flight controller. Simulations were conducted to assess the proposed methods. The result showed that the proposed methods outperformed the existing coverage paths generated by ground control software, as it showed a better coverage rate with a sampling density of 50 m.

Modelling high performance potassium-ion battery anode materials with two-dimensional vanadium carbide MXene: the role of surface O- and S-terminations.

Due to the low cost, high element abundance and intrinsic safety, potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) have attracted a surge of interest in recent years. Currently, the key challenge and obstacle to the development of KIBs is to find suitable anode materials with large capacity, high rate capability and small lattice changes during the charge/discharge process. MXenes with excellent energy storage properties are promising anode materials for KIBs and their energy performance largely depends on the surface termination. Here, two-dimensional O- and S-terminated V2C MXene anode materials are designed to model high performance potassium-ion batteries. Using first-principles calculations, the structural properties and potential battery performance in KIBs of V2CO2 and V2CS2 are systematically investigated. The inherent metallic nature, a small diffusion barrier, a low average open circuit voltage, and a high theoretical specific capacity (489.93 mA h g-1 of V2CO2 and 200.24 mA h g-1 of V2CS2) demonstrate that both of them are ideal anode materials for KIBs. Meanwhile, we also investigated the mechanism of the difference in energy performance between V2CO2 and V2CS2 at atomic and electronic levels, in other words, the energy performance difference introduced by surface O- and S-terminations.

Preparation of Ag3PO4/TiO2(B) Heterojunction Nanobelt with Extended Light Response and Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance.

Photocatalytic degradation, as an emerging method to control environmental pollution, is considered one of the most promising environmental purification technologies. As Tibet is a region with some of the strongest solar radiation in China and even in the world, it is extremely rich in solar energy resources, which is ideal for applying photocatalytic technology to its ecological environment protection and governance. In this study, Na2Ti3O7 nanobelts were prepared via a hydrothermal method and converted to TiO2∙xH2O ion exchange, which was followed by high-temperature calcination to prepare TiO2(B) nanobelts ("B" in TiO2(B) means "Bronze phase"). A simple in situ method was used to generate Ag3PO4 particles on the surface of the TiO2 nanobelts to construct a Ag3PO4/TiO2(B) heterojunction composite photocatalyst. By generating Ag3PO4 nanoparticles on the surface of the TiO2(B) nanobelts to construct heterojunctions, the light absorption range of the photocatalyst was successfully extended from UV (ultraviolet) to the visible region. Furthermore, the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs in the catalyst was inhibited by the construction of the heterojunctions, thus greatly enhancing its light quantum efficiency. Therefore, the prepared Ag3PO4/TiO2(B) heterojunction composite photocatalyst greatly outperformed the TiO2(B) nanobelt in terms of photocatalytic degradation.

Fabrication of Highly Textured 2D SnSe Layers with Tunable Electronic Properties for Hydrogen Evolution.

Hydrogen is regarded to be one of the most promising renewable and clean energy sources. Finding a highly efficient and cost-effective catalyst to generate hydrogen via water splitting has become a research hotspot. Two-dimensional materials with exotic structural and electronic properties have been considered as economical alternatives. In this work, 2D SnSe films with high quality of crystallinity were grown on a mica substrate via molecular beam epitaxy. The electronic property of the prepared SnSe thin films can be easily and accurately tuned in situ by three orders of magnitude through the controllable compensation of Sn atoms. The prepared film normally exhibited p-type conduction due to the deficiency of Sn in the film during its growth. First-principle calculations explained that Sn vacancies can introduce additional reactive sites for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and enhance the HER performance by accelerating electron migration and promoting continuous hydrogen generation, which was mirrored by the reduced Gibbs free energy by a factor of 2.3 as compared with the pure SnSe film. The results pave the way for synthesized 2D SnSe thin films in the applications of hydrogen production.

Ultrasensitive Multiplex Detection of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Based on Short-Chain Hybridization Combined with Online Preconcentration of Capillary Electrophoresis.

Reliable multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) detection at low abundance is of great significance for disease diagnosis and biomedical research. Herein, we have developed a novel and simple method for multiple SNPs detection combining solid-phase capture by specific hybridization with online preconcentration of capillary gel electrophoresis-laser-induced fluorescence (CGE-LIF). The method presents an excellent performance due to its favorable traits: the solid-phase short-chain hybridization ensures the high specificity of SNP detection; the effective separation ability of CGE can easily achieve multiplex detection; the simple online preconcentration significantly improves the detection sensitivity of fluorescent probe by nearly 100-fold. For a single SNP target, the assay achieves a limit of detection as low as 0.01-0.02% for three different NRAS mutations in the same codon. For multiple SNP targets, as low as 0.05% abundance can be easily realized. Our method is simple, efficient, ultrasensitive, and universal for multiple SNPs detection without complex enzymatic or chemical ligation reaction, which shows great potential in early clinical diagnosis.

Additional common loci associated with stroke and obesity identified using pleiotropic analytical approach.

Stroke is a complex disease with multiple etiologies. Numerous studies suggest an established association between obesity and stroke, which may partly arise from the shared genetic components between the two phenotypes. Despite genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified some loci associated with stroke and obesity individually, the estimated genetic variability explained by these loci is limited (especially for stroke) and the pleiotropic loci between them are largely unknown. In this study, we jointly applied the pleiotropy-informed conditional false discovery rate (cFDR) method and the genetic analysis incorporating pleiotropy and annotation (GPA) method on summary statistics of two large GWASs to detect the genetic overlap between stroke (n = 446,696) and obesity (n = 681,275). Stratified Q-Q and fold-enrichment plots showed strong pleiotropic enrichment between the two phenotypes. With cFDR < 0.05 and fdr.GPA < 0.2, we identified 24 (16 novel) stroke-associated SNPs and 12 (10 novel) of them to be potentially pleiotropic SNPs for both phenotypes. The corresponding genes were enriched in trait-associated gene ontology (GO) terms "brain development" and "negative regulation of transport". In conclusion, our study demonstrated the feasibility and effectivity of the two pleiotropic methods which successfully improved the genetic discovery by incorporating related GWAS datasets and validated the genetic intercommunity between stroke and obesity. The identification of pleiotropic loci may provide us any new insights into potential genetic and etiology mechanism between them for the further studies.

Inequity in inpatient services utilization: a longitudinal comparative analysis of middle-aged and elderly patients with the chronic non-communicable diseases in China.

BACKGROUND: Aging and the chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) challenge the Chinese government in the process of providing hospitalization services fairly and reasonably. The Chinese government has developed the basic medical insurance system to solve the problem of "expensive medical cost and difficult medical services" for vulnerable groups and alleviate the unfair phenomenon. However, few studies have confirmed its effect through longitudinal comparison. This study aimed to explore the trend in the inequity of inpatient use among middle-aged and elderly individuals with NCDs in China. METHODS: This longitudinal comparative study was based on CHARLS data in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Concentration index (CI) was used to measure the variation trend of inequity of inpatient services utilization, while the decomposition method of the CI was applied to measure the factors contributing to inequity in inpatient services utilization. The effect of each factor on the change of inequity in inpatient services utilization was divided into the change of the elasticity and the change of inequality using the Oaxaca-type decomposition method. RESULTS: The affluent middle-aged and elderly patients with NCDs used more inpatient services than poor groups. The per capita household consumption expenditure (PCE) and Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) contributed to the decline in pro-rich inequality of inpatient use, while the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) contributed to the decline in pro-poor inequality of inpatient use. CONCLUSIONS: There was a certain degree of pro-rich unfairness in the probability and frequency of inpatient services utilization for middle-aged and elderly individuals with NCDs in China. The decrease of pro-wealth contribution of PCE and UEBMI offset the decrease of pro-poor contribution of NRCMS, and improved the equity of inpatient services utilization, favoring poor people.

The Exploration of a New Stable G-Triplex DNA and Its Novel Function in Electrochemical Biosensing.

A G-triplex, a new kind of DNA structure, has been identified as an intermediate in the folding of G-quadruplexes. However, the studies on G-triplexes are still very limited, and the functions and applications of G-triplexes need to be further developed. In this paper, a new G-triplex sequence (5'-CTGGGAGGGAGGGA-3', G3), obtained by truncating four bases (GGGA) from the 3' end of an 18-base G-quadruplex sequence (G4), was found to significantly decrease the diffusion current of methylene blue (MB). In particular, we proved that (a) MB stabilized the structure of G3 and increased the Tm of G3 considerably based on circular dichroism; and (b) MB formed a 1:1 noncovalent complex with G3 based on electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Moreover, molecular dynamics simulations established reliable speculation in the folding topology of G3 and interaction sites between G3 and MB. Based on the strong affinity of G3 with MB, we further developed a novel function of G3 as an electrochemical signal read-out and applied it in the fabrication of a sensitive homogeneous electrochemical aptasensor for cocaine. The features we observed in the G3/MB complex will serve as a new inspiring guideline for developing functional short G-rich ligands.

Total alkaloids of Sophora alopecuroides and matrine inhibit auto-inducer 2 in the biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Quorum sensing (QS) mediates the coordination of population-based behavior in bacteria, which is highly involved in the formation of bacterial biofilms and virulence of bacteria in vivo. Therefore, an inhibition of QS and biofilm growth is of therapeutic interest. This study exhibited the an auto-inducer molecule (AI-2) activity as the most important component of the QS system was positively correlated with the growth and biofilm formation of S. epidermidis strains. In addition, TASA and matrine have a capacity to inhibit AI-2 in three S. epidermidis strains compared to the control (p < 0.01). This result indicated TASA and matrine can also decrease AI-2 activity in the biofilm of S. epidermidis (p < 0.05). By comparison, TASA was more effective than ceftazidime and matrine to inhibit the AI-2 activity in biofilm S.epidermidis reference strain ATCC35984 (p < 0.05). This result indicated potentials of TCM compounds TASA and matrine in prevention of biofilm formation in Staphylococcus epidermidis infections.

High-throughput ultra-sensitive discrimination of single nucleotide polymorphism via click chemical ligation.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been proven to be important biomarkers for disease diagnosis, prognosis and disease pathogenesis. Here, taking the advantages of a self-assembled oligonucleotide sandwich structure and robust chemical reactions, we have developed a simple, high-throughput and effective colorimetric analytical technique termed CuAAC-based ligation-assisted assays (CuAAC-LA) for SNP detection using a DNA-BIND 96-well plate. With the 5'-azide and 3'-alkyne groups labelled on two oligonucleotide probes, the target DNA can direct a Cu(i)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction. Since the small difference in duplex stability caused by a single-nucleotide mismatch was amplified by the steric effects of these reactive groups for the ligation reaction of an unstable duplex, CuAAC-LA exhibited an ultra-sensitive discrimination ability for a mutant type target in the presence of large amounts of wild type targets. As low as 0.05% SNP could be clearly detected, which was better than most previously reported methods by various DNA ligases, indicating that a simple and rapid synthetic method i.e., the DNA template-directed click reaction held the potential to replace the ligase for SNP detection.

CloudMix: Dual Mixup Consistency for Unpaired Point Cloud Completion.

Due to the unsatisfactory performance of supervised methods on unpaired real-world scans, point cloud completion via cross-domain adaptation has recently drawn growing attention. Nevertheless, previous approaches only focus on alleviating the distribution shift through domain alignment, resulting in massive information loss of real-world domain data. To tackle this issue, we propose a dual mixup-induced consistency regularization to integrate both source and target domain to improve robustness and generalization capability. Specifically, we mix up virtual and real-world shapes in the input and latent feature space respectively, and then regularize the completion network by forcing two kinds of mixed completion predictions to be consistent. To further adapt to each instance within the real-world domain, we design a novel density-aware refiner to utilize local context information to preserve the fine-grained details and remove noise or outliers for coarse completion. Extensive experiments on real-world scans and our synthetic unpaired datasets demonstrate the superiority of our method over existing state-of-the-art approaches.

Ti3C2 mediates the NiFe-LDH layered electrocatalyst to enhance the OER performance for water splitting.

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a very complex process with slow reaction kinetics and high overpotential, which is the main limitation for the commercial application of water splitting. Thus, it is of necessary to design high-performance OER catalysts. NiFe based layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDHs) have recently gained a lot of attention due to their high reaction activity and simple manufacturing process. In this study, a novel electrocatalyst based on NiFe-LDH was constructed by introducing Ti3C2, which was utilized to modulate the structural and electronic properties of the electrocatalysts. Structural examinations reveal that the Ti3C2 of 2D structure successfully dope the NiFe-LDHs nanosheets, forming NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2 heterojunctions. Firstly, the heterojunction substantially reduces the charge transfer resistance, promoting the electron migration between the LDH nanosheets. Secondly, theoretical calculations demonstrate that the energy barrier between the rate-determining step from *OH to *O is lowered, favoring the formation of the reaction intermediates and thus the occurrence of OER. As a result, the composite electrocatalyst exhibits a low overpotential of 334 mV at a current density of 10 mA/cm2 and a small Tafel slope of 55 mV/dec, which are superior to those of the NiFe-LDH by 11.2 % and 38.5 %, respectively. This study provides inspiration for promoting the performances of NiFe based electrocatalysts by utilizing 2D materials.

Two-Dimensional SnS Mediates NiFe-LDH-Layered Electrocatalyst toward Boosting OER Activity for Water Splitting.

NiFe-layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDHs), as promising electrocatalysts, have received significant research attention for hydrogen and oxygen generation through water splitting. However, the slow oxidation kinetics of NiFe-LDH, due to the limited number of active sites and the low conductivity, hinders the improvement of the water-splitting efficiency. Therefore, to overcome the obstacles, two-dimensional (2D) SnS was first explored to tailor the prepared NiFe-LDH via the hydrothermal method. A NiFe-LDH/SnS heterojunction is built, which is observed from the microstructural investigations. SnS incorporation could greatly improve the conductivity of the NiFe-LDH sheets, which was reflected by the reduced charge transfer resistance. Moreover, SnS layers modulated the electronic environment around the active sites, favoring the adsorption of intermediates during the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process, which was verified by density functional theory calculations. A synergistic effect induced by the NiFe-LDH/SnS heterostructure promoted the OER activities in electrical, electronic, and energetic aspects. Consequently, the as-prepared NiFe-LDH/SnS electrocatalyst greatly improved the electrocatalytic performance, exhibiting 20% and 27% reductions in the overpotential and Tafel slope compared with those of pristine NiFe-LDH, respectively. The results provide a strategy for regulating NiFe-based electrocatalysts by using emerging 2D materials to enhance water-splitting efficiency.

Foliar-selenium enhances plant growth and arsenic accumulation in As-hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata: Critical roles of GSH-GSSG cycle and arsenite antiporters PvACR3.

It is known that selenium (Se) enhances plant growth and arsenic (As) accumulation in As-hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata, but the associated mechanisms are unclear. In this study, P. vittata was exposed to 50 µM arsenate (AsV) under hydroponics plus 25 or 50 µM foliar selenate. After 3-weeks of growth, the plant biomass, As and Se contents, As speciation, malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH and GSSG) levels, and important genes related to As-metabolism in P. vittata were determined. Foliar-Se increased plant biomass by 17 - 30 %, possibly due to 9.1 - 19 % reduction in MDA content compared to the As control. Further, foliar-Se enhanced the As contents by 1.9-3.5 folds and increased arsenite (AsIII) contents by 64 - 136 % in the fronds. The increased AsV reduction to AsIII was attributed to 60 - 131 % increase in glutathione peroxidase activity, which mediates GSH oxidation to GSSG (8.8 -29 % increase) in the fronds. Further, foliar-Se increased the expression of AsIII antiporters PvACR3;1-3;3 by 1.6 - 2.1 folds but had no impact on phosphate transporters PvPht1 or arsenate reductases PvHAC1/2. Our results indicate that foliar-Se effectively enhances plant growth and arsenic accumulation by promoting the GSH-GSSG cycle and upregulating gene expression of AsIII antiporters, which are responsible for AsIII translocation from the roots to fronds and AsIII sequestration into the fronds. The data indicate that foliar-Se can effectively improve phytoremediation efficiency of P. vittata in As-contaminated soils.

Self-Adversarial Disentangling for Specific Domain Adaptation.

Domain adaptation aims to bridge the domain shifts between the source and the target domain. These shifts may span different dimensions such as fog, rainfall, etc. However, recent methods typically do not consider explicit prior knowledge about the domain shifts on a specific dimension, thus leading to less desired adaptation performance. In this article, we study a practical setting called Specific Domain Adaptation (SDA) that aligns the source and target domains in a demanded-specific dimension. Within this setting, we observe the intra-domain gap induced by different domainness (i.e., numerical magnitudes of domain shifts in this dimension) is crucial when adapting to a specific domain. To address the problem, we propose a novel Self-Adversarial Disentangling (SAD) framework. In particular, given a specific dimension, we first enrich the source domain by introducing a domainness creator with providing additional supervisory signals. Guided by the created domainness, we design a self-adversarial regularizer and two loss functions to jointly disentangle the latent representations into domainness-specific and domainness-invariant features, thus mitigating the intra-domain gap. Our method can be easily taken as a plug-and-play framework and does not introduce any extra costs in the inference time. We achieve consistent improvements over state-of-the-art methods in both object detection and semantic segmentation.