Ectomycorrhizal fungi inoculation alleviates simulated acid rain effects on soil ammonia oxidizers and denitrifiers in Masson pine forest.

Acid rain can cause severe effects on soil biota and nutrient biogeochemical cycles in the forest ecosystem, but how plant-symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi will modulate the effects remains unknown. Here, we conducted a full factorial field experiment in a Masson pine forest by simultaneously controlling the acidity of the simulated rain (pH 5.6 vs.

Carboxymethyl cellulose/polyacrylamide composite hydrogel for cascaded treatment/reuse of heavy metal ions in wastewater.

A new bio-based bilateral hydrogel containing carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) was prepared for the wastewater remediation. The obtained CMC/PAM composite hydrogel reveals a strong single-ion affinity for copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) ions, as well as multi-ion absorbability with its equilibrium data following the Langmuir adsorption model and its adsorption process abiding by a pseudo-second-order kinetics. To demonstrate its recycled use for the metal ions, the adsorbed Cu ions in the hydrogel were reduced in situ to form homogeneously dispersed Cu nanoparticles (NPs), leading to the Cu NPs-loaded CMC/PAM hydrogel.

Chemically Immobilized Antimicrobial Peptide on Polymer and Self-Assembled Monolayer Substrates.

Surfaces with chemically immobilized antimicrobial peptides have been shown to have great potential in various applications such as biosensors and antimicrobial coatings. This research investigated the chemical immobilization of a cecropin-melittin hybrid antimicrobial peptide on two different surfaces, a polymer surface prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) polymerization and a self-assembled monolayer surface. We probed the structure of immobilized peptides using spectroscopic methods and correlated such structural information to the measured antimicrobial activity.

Increased Sputum IL-17A Level in Non-asthmatic Eosinophilic Bronchitis.

Background: Non-asthmatic eosinophilic bronchitis (NAEB) is one common cause of chronic cough which is characterized as airway eosinophilic inflammation like asthma but lack of airway hyper-responsiveness. Previous studies showed that Th2-pathway plays a role in NAEB, but the role of non-Th2 pathway in mechanism of NAEB remains unknown. Recently, IL-17A, a Th17-pathway cytokine, has been demonstrated to be involved in asthma development.

Bilayer Tubular Micromotors for Simultaneous Environmental Monitoring and Remediation.

There are two main aspects of environmental governance including monitoring and remediation, both of which are essential for environmental protection. Self-propelled micro/nanomotors (MNM) have shown promising potential for achieving on-demand tasks in environmental field, including environmental sensing and pollutant removal or degradation. However, most of the current MNM used in environmental protection can hardly accomplish the two major tasks of both monitoring and pollutant degradation.

Molecular Coupling between Organic Molecules and Metal.

Molecular couplings at interfaces play important roles in determining the performance of nanophotonics and molecular electronics. In this Letter, using femtosecond sum frequency generation to trace free-induction decay of vibrationally excited aromatic thiol molecules immobilized on metal with and without the bridged methylene group(s), metal surface free electron-coupled and uncoupled phenyl C-H stretching vibrational modes were identified, with dephasing times of ∼0.28 and ∼0.

Photocatalytically Powered Matchlike Nanomotor for Light-Guided Active SERS Sensing.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful optical sensing technique that can detect analytes of extremely low concentrations. However, the presence of enough SERS probes in the detection area and a close contact between analytes and SERS probes are critical for efficient acquisition of a SERS signal. Presented here is a light-powered micro/nanomotor (MNM) that can serve as an active SERS probe.

Relationship of , , and polymorphisms with susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma in an eastern Chinese Han population.

Background: , , and polymorphisms may be implicated in the development of cancer.

Participants And Methods: In this study, we selected rs1801282 C>G and rs3856806 C>T, rs2970847 C>T, and rs7732671 G>C and rs17572019 G>A single-nucleotide polymorphisms to explore the relationship between these polymorphisms and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. A total of 584 HCC patients and 923 controls were enrolled.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community in the topsoil of a subtropical landfill restored after 18 years.

Restoration of disturbed habitats (e.g., landfills and mine tailings) is important to recover ecosystem services.

A data-driven method to detect adverse drug events from prescription data.

Drug safety issues such as Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) can cause serious consequences for the public. The clinical trials that are undertaken to assess medicine efficacy and safety prior to marketing, generally, may provide sufficient samples for discovering common ADEs. However, more samples are needed to detect infrequent and rare events.

Simultaneous Observation of the Orientation and Activity of Surface-Immobilized Enzymes.

Surface immobilized enzymes have been widely used in many applications such as biosensors, biochips, biofuel production, and biofuel cell construction. Many factors dictate how enzymes' structure, activity, and stability may change when immobilized, including surface functionalization, immobilization chemistry, nature of the solid support, and enzyme surface density. To better understand how immobilization affects enzyme structure and activity, we have developed a method to measure both surface-sensitive protein vibrational spectra and enzymatic activity simultaneously.

[Research progress on food sources and food web structure of wetlands based on stable isotopes].

The trophic dynamics of wetland organisms is the basis of assessing wetland structure and function. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen have been widely applied to identify trophic relationships in food source, food composition and food web transport in wetland ecosystem studies. This paper provided an overall review about the current methodology of isotope mixing model and trophic level in wetland ecosystems, and discussed the standards of trophic fractionation and baseline.

Effect of Surface Hydration on Antifouling Properties of Mixed Charged Polymers.

Interfacial water structure on a polymer surface in water (or surface hydration) is related to the antifouling activity of the polymer. Zwitterionic polymer materials exhibit excellent antifouling activity due to their strong surface hydration. It was proposed to replace zwitterionic polymers using mixed charged polymers because it is much easier to prepare mixed charged polymer samples with much lower costs.

Structures and Adhesion Properties at Polyethylene/Silica and Polyethylene/Nylon Interfaces.

The molecular structures of buried interfaces of maleic anhydride grafted and ungrafted polyethylene films with silica and nylon surfaces were studied in situ using sum-frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. Grafting maleic anhydride to polyethylene altered the molecular structures at buried interfaces, including changing the orientation of polymer methylene groups and resulting in the presence of C═O groups at silica interfaces. These molecular level changes are correlated with enhanced adhesion properties, with ordered C═O groups and in-plane orientation of the methylene groups associated with higher levels of adhesion.

Investigation of and polymorphisms with the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma: a case-control study in Eastern Chinese Han population.

Background: Leptin () and LEP receptor () polymorphisms may be associated with the development of cancer.

Methods: In this study, we selected five functional and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and conducted a case-control study to determine the relationship of and polymorphisms with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk in Eastern Chinese Han population. There were 584 HCC cases and 923 cancer-free controls included in our study.

Molecular interactions between single layered MoS and biological molecules.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene, molybdenum disulfide (MoS), tungsten diselenide (WSe), and black phosphorous are being developed for sensing applications with excellent selectivity and high sensitivity. In such applications, 2D materials extensively interact with various analytes including biological molecules. Understanding the interfacial molecular interactions of 2D materials with various targets becomes increasingly important for the progression of better-performing 2D-material based sensors.

Self-Assembled Rose Bengal-Exopolysaccharide Nanoparticles for Improved Photodynamic Inactivation of Bacteria by Enhancing Singlet Oxygen Generation Directly in the Solution.

It is of great value to develop new antibacterial photodynamic therapy (PDT) strategies to improve antibacterial PDT efficacy of noncationic photosensitizers without introducing cytotoxicity, which is a great challenge for current leading efforts on antimicrobial PDT based on cell surface engineering. In this research, the hydrophobic and anionic photosensitizer rose bengal (RB) was chemically conjugated with bacterial exopolysaccharide (EPS) to generate an amphiphilic and negatively charged compound EPS-RB that could self-assemble into nanoparticles (NPs) in solution. These EPS-RB NPs possessed an increased singlet oxygen generation property in solution.

Glutathione-Depleting Gold Nanoclusters for Enhanced Cancer Radiotherapy through Synergistic External and Internal Regulations.

The therapeutic performance of cancer radiotherapy is often limited by the overexpression of glutathione (GSH) in tumors and low radiation sensitivity of cancerous cells. To address these issues, the facilely prepared histidine-capped gold nanoclusters (Au NCs@His) were adopted as a radiosensitizer with a high sensitization enhancement ratio of ∼1.54.

Bacteria-Derived Carbon Dots Inhibit Biofilm Formation of without Affecting Cell Growth.

Biofilms are deleterious in many biomedical and industrial applications and prevention of their formation has been a pressing challenge. Here, carbon dots, CDs-LP that were easily synthesized from the biomass of one-step hydrothermal carbonization, were demonstrated to prevent biofilm formation of . CDs-LP did not thwart the growth of , indicating the anti-biofilm effect was not due to the bactericidal effect.

Observing different dynamic behaviors of weakly and strongly adsorbed polystyrene chains at interfaces.

Understanding the dynamic behavior of polymer chains adsorbed onto a solid surface is of great importance for elucidating polymer-surface interactions. Here by using sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy, we probed the conformational changes of weakly adsorbed and strongly adsorbed polystyrene (PS) chains on sapphire surfaces perturbed by a nonsolvent (deuterated water, D2O) and a good solvent (carbon tetrachloride, CCl4). The SFG results indicated that the PS chains in the weakly adsorbed state were flexible and the chain conformation could easily be altered.

Development of a Light-Controlled Nanoplatform for Direct Nuclear Delivery of Molecular and Nanoscale Materials.

Research on nanomedicines has rapidly progressed in the past few years. However, due to the limited size of nuclear pores (9-12 nm), the nuclear membrane remains a difficult barrier to many nucleus-targeting agents. Here, we report the development of a general platform to effectively deliver chemical compounds such as drug molecules or nanomaterials into cell nuclei.

One-Step Synthesis of Ultrasmall and Ultrabright Organosilica Nanodots with 100% Photoluminescence Quantum Yield: Long-Term Lysosome Imaging in Living, Fixed, and Permeabilized Cells.

Water-dispersible nanomaterials with superbright photoluminescence (PL) emissions and narrow PL bandwidths are urgently desired for various imaging applications. Herein, for the first time, we prepared ultrasmall organosilica nanodots (OSiNDs) with an average size of ∼2.0 nm and ∼100% green-emitting PL quantum efficiency via a one-step hydrothermal treatment of two commercial reagents (a silane molecule and rose bengal).

Mycobacterium marinum Infection in Zebrafish and Microglia Imitates the Early Stage of Tuberculous Meningitis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) invading and activating microglia causes the most serious subtypes of tuberculosis called tubercular meningitis. However, the developmental process of tubercular meningitis, especially the early phase, is poorly understood due to lacking well-established and well-accepted visible models in vitro and in vivo.

Monitoring Antimicrobial Mechanisms of Surface-Immobilized Peptides in Situ.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in free solution can kill bacteria by disrupting bacterial cell membranes. Their modes of action have been extensively studied, and various models ranging from pore formation to carpet-like mechanisms were proposed. Surface-immobilized AMPs have been used as coatings to kill bacteria and as sensors to capture bacteria, but the interaction mechanisms of surface-immobilized AMPs and bacteria are not fully understood.

Germination, Outgrowth, and Vegetative-Growth Kinetics of Dry-Heat-Treated Individual Spores of Bacillus Species.

DNA damage kills dry-heated spores of , but dry-heat-treatment effects on spore germination and outgrowth have not been studied. This is important, since if dry-heat-killed spores germinate and undergo outgrowth, toxic proteins could be synthesized. Here, Raman spectroscopy and differential interference contrast microscopy were used to study germination and outgrowth of individual dry-heat-treated and spores.