Mn-doped carbon dots-based fluorescent-colorimetric dual-mode probes for selective and sensitive detection of Cr(VI) ions and l-ascorbic acid via smartphone-integrated analytical platform.

Background: Hexavalent chromium ions (Cr(VI)), a notorious toxic heavy metal pollutant with proven carcinogenicity, endangers human health and the environment. Meanwhile, l-ascorbic acid (L-AA), a vital biological antioxidant, has abnormal levels closely tied to various diseases. Developing efficient synchronous detection methods for these two key analytes is of great value in clinical and environmental monitoring.

Structural Water Synergistic Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Frameworks: A Fluorescent Sensing Platform Oriented for Intelligent Accessibility.

Using 1,3,5-Tris(4-aminophenyl)benzene (TAPB) as the precursor, we synthesized two single-crystal hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs-T and HOFs-TW). We systematically investigated the impact of reaction conditions on their structural properties and assessed their potential as optical sensing materials. In our experiments, HOFs-TW unexpectedly showed a hexagonal tubular morphology with a stable snowflake-shaped structural water.

Diverse Optical Regulations in a Single Electrochromic Layer of VO via an Intrinsic Multiple Phase Transition.

Electrochromic oxides possessing the characteristics of color variation and spectra modulation are desirable for smart windows, displays, and camouflage. Here, it is reported that, upon ion intercalation, a single layer of a model phase-transition material, VO, can possess diverse modulation of visible and near-infrared spectra while changing color, via intrinsic multiple phase transitions. Specifically, as the phase transitions from α to δ occur, the band transitions around 2.

A-485 alleviates fibrosis and apoptosis in kidney by disrupting tandem activation of acetylation and phosphorylation on STAT3.

Lysine acetylation, tightly regulated by the dynamic balance between lysine acetyltransferases (KATs) and deacetylases (KDACs), plays a critical role in cellular processes, yet its involvement in kidney diseases remains elusive due to inconsistent findings. While KDACs have been extensively studied, the role of KATs, particularly p300 and CREB-binding protein (CBP), in kidney diseases is underexplored. p300 and CBP are major KATs and key transcriptional coactivators that regulate gene expression through acetylation of histones and non-histone proteins.

An innovative red-emitting nickel-doped carbon dot for simultaneous detection of Fe(III) and pyrophosphate ions, coupled with synergistic photothermal/photodynamic cancer therapy.

Background: Multifunctional carbon dots (CDs) have gained prominence in biosensing, cell imaging, and nanomedicine due to their tunable fluorescence, excellent biocompatibility, and surface functionalizability. However, blue/green-emitting CDs suffer from limited tissue penetration and autofluorescence interference. Iron ions (Fe) and pyrophosphate ions (PPi) are crucial biomarkers in various biological processes, with deviations in their concentrations linked to various diseases including cancer.

DNAJC9 Binds to and Enhances the Transcription of Hepatitis B Virus cccDNA by Recruiting Histone H3.3.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), the transcriptional template in HBV replication, is transcriptionally regulated by multiple host proteins such as epigenetic factors and transcription factors. This study aims to identify novel host proteins interacting with cccDNA and regulating its activity in HBV replication. Mass spectrometry analysis identified 129 host proteins associated with biotinylated cccDNA surrogate HBVcircle.

Quantum CZ gates on a single gradient metasurface.

For the requirement of quantum photonic integration in on-chip quantum information, we propose a scheme to realize quantum controlled-Z (CZ) gates through single gradient metasurface. Using its parallel beam-splitting feature, i.e.

Nonlinear Optical Information Encoding with Grayscale Lithography Enabled Metasurfaces.

Optical information encoding is promising for many applications in sensing, data storage, and computing. Recently, various strategies have been suggested to encode optical information in planar devices. Among these, optical metasurfaces represent a flexible platform for manipulating multiple degrees of freedom of light with subwavelength scale meta-atoms.

Therapeutic Nanomaterials in NAFLD: Current Advances and Potential Applications in Patients with Concurrent HBV Infection.

Due to the high prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, a significant proportion of patients suffer from both conditions simultaneously. The management of NAFLD in patients with concurrent HBV infection presents unique challenges, primarily due to the complex interplay between these two diseases. Nanomaterials have gained widespread attention due to their ability to overcome the limitations of conventional therapies.

Parallel beam splitting based on gradient metasurface: from classical to quantum.

Gradient metasurfaces are extensively utilized for polarized beam splitting (BS) in classical and quantum optics. Specifically, their phase gradient allows the path and polarization of multiple output lights to be locked by corresponding inputs. However, the full potential of this unique path-polarization-locked property in multi-beam splitting has not been investigated.

Quasicrystal metasurface for optical holography and diffraction.

Quasicrystal metasurfaces, a kind of two-dimensional artificial optical materials with subwavelength meta-atoms arranged in quasi-periodic tiling schemes, have attracted extensive attentions due to their novel optical properties. In a recent work, a dual-functional quasicrystal metasurface, which can be used to simultaneously generate the diffraction pattern and holographic image, is experimentally demonstrated. The proposed method expands the manipulation dimensions for multi-functional quasicrystal metasurfaces and may have important applications in microscopy, optical information processing, optical encryption, etc.

Effects of health-related dispositions on citizens' appraisals toward the COVID-19 pandemic and protective behavior.

In this study, health risk attitude and health locus of control were included as dispositional factors in the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to explain people's protective behavior in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical data involved two waves of data with a sample of 526 adults with full-time jobs from Beijing, China, and structural equation model results confirmed a partial successful extension of the PMT. Specifically, health risk attitude had a direct effect on citizens' protective behavior, but without an indirect effect mediated by threat appraisal toward the COVID-19 pandemic; health locus of control did not directly associate with citizens' protective behavior, but had an indirect effect on it fully via coping appraisal toward the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rapamycin Attenuates HO-Induced Oxidative Stress-Related Senescence in Human Skin Fibroblasts.

Background: Oxidative stress plays an important role in the skin aging process. Rapamycin has been shown to have anti-aging effects, but its role in oxidative senescence of skin cells remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of rapamycin on oxidative stress-induced skin cell senescence and to illustrate the mechanism.

Advances in large viewing angle and achromatic 3D holography.

Optical holography is a promising technique to achieve a naked-eye 3D display. However, the narrow viewing angle and chromatic aberration are the two key issues that usually limit the holographic display performance. A recent work proposes a novel way to circumvent these constraints by introducing a color liquid crystal grating into a time-sequenced holography system.

Electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer detection of HBsAg based on Co doped 3D porous luminol-based conjugates and quencher UiO-66-NH@Au.

An electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor based on ECL resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET) was designed to sensitively detect hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg). In this ECL-RET system, luminol was employed as ECL donor, and gold nanoparticles functionalized zirconium organoskeleton (UiO-66-NH@Au) was prepared and served as ECL acceptor. The UiO-66-NH@Au possessed an ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption between 400 nm and 500 nm, and the absorption spectra overlapped with the ECL spectrum of luminol.

Twist-Angle-Controlled Nonlinear Circular Dichroism on Gold-Crystal Hybrid Metasurfaces.

Optical chirality, which plays important roles in liquid crystal display and biological and chemical detection, has been attracting scientists' attention due to its potential applications in optical information processing. Usually, the chiral optical response of natural molecules is very weak. However, the emergence of metasurfaces offers a promising solution to solve this issue.

Spin Unlocked Vortex Beam Generation on Nonlinear Chiroptical Metasurfaces.

Optical vortices with spin and orbital angular momentum (SAM and OAM) states offer multiple degrees of freedom for manipulating optical fields and thus enable great potentials in optical information processing. Recently, the optical metasurface has become an important platform for vortex beam generation and steering. However, the strong spin-orbit interaction on such metasurfaces usually leads to spin locked OAM generation, which limits the complete control of the angular momentum state of light.

Precore mutation enhances viral replication to facilitate persistent infection especially in HBeAg-negative patients.

Naturally occurred precore (PC, G1896A) and/or basal core promoter (BCP, A1762T/G1764A) mutations are prevalent in chronic HBV-infected patients, especially those under HBeAg-negative status. However, the replicative capacity of HBV with PC/BCP mutations remains ambiguous. Herein, meta-analysis showed that, only under HBeAg-negative status, the serum HBV DNA load in patients with PC mutation was 7.

Time-Dependent Ultrafast Quadratic Nonlinearity in an Epsilon-Near-Zero Platform.

Ultrafast nonlinearity, which results in modulation of the linear optical response, is a basis for the development of time-varying media, in particular those operating in the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regime. Here, we demonstrate that the intraband excitation of hot electrons in the ENZ film results in a second-harmonic resonance shift of ∼10 THz (40 nm) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) intensity changes of >100% with only minor (<1%) changes in linear transmission. The modulation is 10-fold enhanced by a plasmonic metasurface coupled to a film, allowing for ultrafast modulation of circularly polarized SHG.

All-optical ultrafast polarization switching with nonlinear plasmonic metasurfaces.

Optical switching has important applications in optical information processing, optical computing, and optical communications. The long-term pursuit of optical switch is to achieve short switching time and large modulation depth. Among various mechanisms, all-optical switching based on Kerr effect represents a promising solution.

Cephalopod-inspired polymer composites with mechanically tunable infrared properties.

Cephalopods have evolved an all-soft skin that can rapidly display colors for protection, predation, or communication. Development of synthetic analogs to mimic such color-changing abilities in the infrared (IR) region is pivotal to a variety of technologies ranging from soft robotics, flexible displays, dynamic thermoregulatory systems, to adaptive IR disguise platforms. However, the integration of tissue-like mechanical properties and rapid IR modulation ability into smart materials remains challenging.