Light*

Whether rapid oxygen isotopic exchange between bicarbonate and water occurs in photosynthesis is the key to determine the source of oxygen by classic 18 O-labeled photosynthetic oxygen evolution experiments. Here we show that both Microcystis aeruginosa and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii utilize a significant proportion (>16%) of added bicarbonate as a carbon source for photosynthesis. However, oxygen isotopic signal in added bicarbonate cannot be traced in the oxygen in organic matter synthesized by these photosynthetic organisms...

New functionalities were added to biocompatible polycaprolactone nanofiber materials through the co-encapsulation of chlorin e6 trimethyl ester (Ce6) photogenerating singlet oxygen and absorbing light both in the blue and red regions, and using 4-(N-(aminopropyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-4-nitrobenzenamine)-7-nitrobenzofurazan, NO-photodonor (NOP), absorbing light in the blue region of visible light. Time-resolved and steady-state luminescence, as well as absorption spectroscopy, were used to monitor both photoactive compounds...

Li3 Y1- x In x Cl6 undergoes a phase transition from trigonal to monoclinic via an intermediate orthorhombic phase. Although the trigonal yttrium containing the end member phase, Li3 YCl6 , synthesized by a mechanochemical route, is known to exhibit stacking fault disorder, not much is known about the monoclinic phases of the serial composition Li3 Y1- x In x Cl6 . This work aims to shed light on the influence of the indium substitution on the phase evolution, along with the evolution of stacking fault disorder using X-ray and neutron powder diffraction together with solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, studying the lithium-ion diffusion...

This study aims at understanding the effect of the photoreduction process during the synthesis of gold (Au)-doped TiO2 colloids on the conferred functionalities on cotton fabrics. TiO2 /Au and TiO2 /Au/SiO2 colloids were synthesized through the sol-gel method with and without undergoing the photoreduction step based on different molar ratios of Au:Ti (0.001 and 0.01) and TiO2 /SiO2 (1:1 and 1:2.3). The colloids were applied to cotton fabrics, and the obtained photocatalytic self-cleaning, wet photocatalytic activity, UV protection, and antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli ( E...

In this study, we investigated the optical properties of a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) substrate via Mie-scattering-induced surface analysis (MISA). Employing near-field optical microscopy and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we systemically prove and directly visualize the Mie scattering of superspherical gold nanoparticles (s-AuNPs) at the nanoscale. Molybdenum disulfide substrates exhibited optical isotropy, while rhenium disulfide (ReS2 ) substrates showed anisotropic behavior attributed to the interaction with incident light's electric field...

Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials like graphene, transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), boron nitrides, etc., exhibit unique and fascinating properties, such as high surface-to-volume ratio, inherent mechanical flexibility and robustness, tunable bandgap, and high carrier mobility, which makes them an apt candidate for flexible electronics with low consumption of power. Because of these properties, they are in tremendous demand for advancement in energy, environmental, and biomedical sectors developed through various technologies...

Highly active and low-cost co-catalysts have a positive effect on the enhancement of solar H2 production. Here, we employ two-dimensional (2D) MBene as a noble-metal-free co-catalyst to boost semiconductor for photocatalytic H2 production. MoB MBene is a 2D nanoboride, which is directly made from MoAlB by a facile hydrothermal etching and manual scraping off process. The as-synthesized MoB MBene with purity >95 wt % is treated by ultrasonic cell pulverization to obtain ultrathin 2D MoB MBene nanosheets (∼0...

Light-driven modulation of neuronal activity at high spatial-temporal resolution is becoming of high interest in neuroscience. In addition to optogenetics, nongenetic membrane-targeted nanomachines that alter the electrical state of the neuronal membranes are in demand. Here, we engineered and characterized a photoswitchable conjugated compound (BV-1) that spontaneously partitions into the neuronal membrane and undergoes a charge transfer upon light stimulation. The activity of primary neurons is not affected in the dark, whereas millisecond light pulses of cyan light induce a progressive decrease in membrane resistance and an increase in inward current matched to a progressive depolarization and action potential firing...

N-heterocyclic imines such as pyridylidene amines impart high catalytic activity when coordinated to a transition metal, largely imposed by their electronic flexibility. Here, this donor flexibility has been applied for the first time to CAAC-based systems through the synthesis of CAAC-triazenes. These new ligands offer a larger π-conjugating that extends from the N-heterocyclic carbene through three nitrogens rather than just one, as observed in N-heterocyclic imines. We demonstrate the straightforward synthesis of three new CAAC-triazenes containing different substituents on the terminal triazene nitrogen...

OBJECTIVE: Iatrogenic skin injury is a common neonatal skin problem that can have a severe impact on the health and life of newborns. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing iatrogenic skin injury in neonates, identify and correct nursing behaviors that may lead to skin damage, thereby reduce the occurrence of skin damage and protect the health of newborns. METHODS: The clinical data of 87 neonates with iatrogenic skin injury admitted to the Department of Neonatology of Shangrao People's Hospital, China, between January and June 2022, were retrospectively collected as a research group...

Growing evidence has increasingly suggested a potential linkage between the oral microbiome and various diseases, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, the utilization of gene-level information derived from the oral microbiome for diagnosing PDAC remains unexplored. In this study, we sought to investigate the novel potential of leveraging genomic signatures associated with antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) within the oral microbiome for the diagnosis of PDAC. By conducting an analysis of oral microbiome samples obtained from PDAC patients, we successfully identified specific ARGs that displayed distinct sequence abundance profiles correlated with the presence of PDAC...

Fluorescence labeling of chemically fixed specimens, especially immunolabeling, plays a vital role in super-resolution imaging as it offers a convenient way to visualize cellular structures like mitochondria or the distribution of biomolecules with high detail. Despite the development of various distinct probes that enable super-resolved stimulated emission depletion (STED) imaging of mitochondria in live cells, most of these membrane-potential-dependent fluorophores cannot be retained well in mitochondria after chemical fixation...

Genetic elements are foundational in synthetic biology serving as vital building blocks. They enable programming host cells for efficient production of valuable chemicals and recombinant proteins. The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a stress pathway in which the transcription factor Hac1 interacts with the upstream unfolded protein response element (UPRE) of the promoter to restore endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis. Here, we created a UPRE2 mutant (UPRE2m) library. Several rounds of screening identified many elements with enhanced responsiveness and a wider dynamic range...

Genome-scale biological studies conducted in the post-genomic era have revealed that two-thirds of human genes do not encode proteins. Most functional non-coding RNA transcripts in humans are products of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes, an abundant but still poorly understood class of human genes. As a result of their fundamental and multitasking regulatory roles, lncRNAs are associated with a wide range of human diseases, including neurological disorders. Approximately 40% of lncRNAs are specifically expressed in the brain, and many of them exhibit distinct spatiotemporal patterns of expression...

INTRODUCTION: Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu Capsule (ZL) is a Chinese medicine used for the treatment of cardio-cerebral diseases. However, the pharmacological mechanisms underlying its regulation of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (MI/RI) remain unclear. PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the effects and mechanisms of ZL on MI/RI in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to four groups: Sham group, I/R group, ZL group, and ZLY group...

Workpiece surface defect detection is an indispensable part of intelligent production. The surface information obtained by traditional 2D image detection has some limitations due to the influence of environmental light factors and part complexity. However, the digital twin model has the characteristics of high fidelity and scalability, and the digital twin surface can be obtained by a device with a scanning accuracy of 0.02mm to achieve the representation of the real surface of the workpiece. The surface defect detection system for digital twin models is proposed based on the improved YOLOv5 model in this paper...

The formation of silicate grains in the interstellar medium (ISM), especially those containing chiral surfaces such as clinopyroxenes, is poorly understood. Moreover, silicate interactions with various forms of hydrogen-proton (H+ ), neutral H (HI), and molecular hydrogen (H2 ) are of high importance as hydrogen comprises >90% of the ISM gas budget, and these species play important roles in the formation of new molecules in space. Furthermore, silicate surfaces catalyze the formation of H2 in the interstellar medium formed on dust grain surfaces by H-H association...

The proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies in modern smart society enables massive data exchange for offering intelligent services. It becomes essential to ensure secure communications while exchanging highly sensitive IoT data efficiently, which leads to high demands for lightweight models or algorithms with limited computation capability provided by individual IoT devices. In this study, a graph representation learning model, which seamlessly incorporates graph neural network (GNN) and knowledge distillation (KD) techniques, named reconstructed graph with global-local distillation (RG-GLD), is designed to realize the lightweight anomaly detection across IoT communication networks...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play vital roles in biological activities, but their in vivo imaging is still challenging due to the low abundance and the lack of efficient fluorescent tools. RNA aptamers with high affinity and low background emerge for bioimaging yet suffering from low brightness. We introduce a rational design based on target-mediated entropy-driven toehold exchange (EDTE) to induce the release of RNA aptamer and subsequently light up corresponding fluorophore, which achieves selective imaging of miRNAs with good stability in both living cells and tumor-bearing mouse...

Photosynthetic inorganic biohybrid systems (PBSs) combining an inorganic photosensitizer with intact living cells provide an innovative view for solar hydrogen production. However, typical whole-cell biohybrid systems often suffer from sluggish electron transfer kinetics during transmembrane diffusion, which severely limits the efficiency of solar hydrogen production. Here, a unique biohybrid system with a quantum yield of 8.42% was constructed by feeding bismuth-doped carbon dots (Bi@CDS ) to Escherichia coli ( E...