Molecular-scale mechanism of extracellular protein over-flocculation for sewage sludge dewatering by polyacrylamide.

Flocculation is one of the most common treatment processes for sludge dewatering, representing the last line of solid-liquid separation for sludge dewatering. However, the macroscopic and descriptive theories of polyacrylamide (PAM) -based over-flocculation have limited the optimization of its performance in the dewatering of sewage sludge, whose water is typically trapped within a three-dimensional gel matrix governed by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). This study focuses on loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) to uncover molecular-level mechanism of excessive PAM dosing.

Discarded sericultural mulberry branch based triple layer composite phase change material with lignin enhanced thermal management capability.

With the exhaustion of fossil fuels, prior phase change materials are characterized by such drawbacks as poor thermal conductivity, weak shape stability, and high costs. Therefore, the preparation of phase change materials with brilliant thermal-insulating properties, high thermal conductivity, and leakage-free properties has emerged as a crucial research focus. Herein, a sericultural mulberry branch-derived (SMB) composite phase change material was prepared by deep eutectic solvent pretreated SMB and vacuum-assisted impregnated paraffin wax with cupric oxide (CuO).

MXene-Based Peroxidase-Like Nanozymes: Interfacial Effects for Biomedical Applications.

MXene-based peroxidase (POD)-like nanozymes demonstrate significant potential in biomedical applications due to their 2D structure, tunable catalytic activity, and interfacial effects. This review summarizes recent advances in MXene-POD nanozyme design, focusing on interfacial effects modulation via external stimuli (e.g.

Decahedron-derived five-fold twin noble metal nanocrystals: Solution-phase synthesis, growth mechanism, and applications.

Five-fold twinned (FFT) noble metal nanocrystals have attracted considerable interest in nanoscience due to their unique structures. This review gives a comprehensive analysis on four common types of FFT noble metal NCs (Au, Ag, Pd, and Pt) synthesized in solution, covering both monometallic structures (e.g.

A comparative theoretical study on the photoisomerization and antioxidant capacity of resveratrol and its Azo/Dihydro analogs.

This study employs a suite of quantum chemical methods to systematically investigate the photoisomerization mechanism and antioxidant activity of resveratrol (Res) and two key derivatives, Azo-Resveratrol (AzoRes) and Dihydro-Resveratrol (dhRes), thereby elucidating the impact of molecular scaffold modification on their structure-activity relationships. Employing density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT), spin-flip TD-DFT and multistate complete active space second-order perturbation theory (MS-CASPT2), we investigated the geometric configurations, absorption spectra, photoisomerization pathways, and key antioxidant parameters for all three molecules. The results reveal that the substitution of the CC bond with an NN linkage (AzoRes) induces a bathochromic shift in the absorption spectrum, introduces a low-energy n → π* transition, and facilitates a barrierless photoisomerization pathway.

Research on enhancing road apparent crack detection based on the improved YOLOv8n model.

The improved YOLOv8n algorithm is proposed for the existing target detection algorithms to solve the issues of insufficient detection accuracy and leakage due to the target scale variability and complex background interference during road surface crack detection. This algorithm introduces the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) attention mechanism and integrates it with the cross-stage partial-feature fusion (C2f) module in the backbone network. The spatial pyramid pooling faster cross-stage partial channel (SPPFCSPC) module is introduced by integrating the spatial pyramid pooling (SPP) module with the Fully Cross-Stage Partial Convolution (FCSPC) module, which efficiently extracts multi-scale features.

Toxic Effects of Vanillic Acid and Sinapic Acid on .

The tolerance of the fall armyworm () to plant-derived secondary compounds gradually increases with instars. Therefore, even if plant-based additives are applied at early stages, such as the second or third instar, they may have a differential impact on the ecofriendly control of . In this study, larvae were exposed to vanillic acid or sinapic acid at the second and third instar, and physiological and growth parameters were measured.

Toxicity of luteolin on Hyphantria cunea larvae: construction of plant-derived microcapsule pesticide.

Background: Hyphantria cunea, a major global quarantine pest, poses significant threats to agroforestry ecosystems and sustainable economic development. This study investigated the formulation of luteolin microcapsules via a single coacervation method, based on biotoxicity analysis of luteolin against H. cunea larvae.

"One Rocket, Multiple Satellites": Natural Small Molecule Nanocarriers With In-Situ Nanosphere-to-Nanofiber Transition for Combined Chemo/PDT/Anti-Angiogenic Antitumor Therapy.

Drug delivery based on dynamic morphological transformation represents the cutting-edge strategy at the forefront of chemotherapy, integrating individual advantages that depend on the delivery stage and spatially resolved morphology. However, developing a tumor-specific, in vivo morphologically transformable small-molecule drug delivery system to achieve enhanced drug accumulation and photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficacy remains challenging. In this study, a multifunctional PDT formulation using natural small molecules as nanocarriers is developed, combining a tumor-targeting photosensitizer and anti-angiogenic therapy.

Comparative benchmarking of single-cell clustering algorithms for transcriptomic and proteomic data.

Background: Differences in data distribution, feature dimensions, and quality between different single-cell modalities pose challenges for clustering. Although clustering algorithms have been developed for single-cell transcriptomic or proteomic data, their performance across different omics data types and integration scenarios remains poorly investigated, which limits the selection of methods and future method development.

Results: In this study, we conduct a systematic and comparative benchmark analysis of 28 computational algorithms on 10 paired transcriptomic and proteomic datasets, evaluating their performance across various metrics in terms of clustering, peak memory, and running time.

DDM1-Mediated DNA Methylation Regulates Leaf Serration in Arabidopsis thaliana.

DNA methylation is a crucial epigenetic modification that is stably inherited across both mitotic and meiotic cell divisions in plants. It is regulated by multiple epigenetic pathways, and alterations in methylation can lead to phenotypic variation independent of changes in the DNA sequence. In this study, changes in DNA methylation triggered by the chromatin remodeler DDM1 (DECREASE IN DNA METHYLATION 1) were found to influence leaf phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Dietary Omega-3 alleviates copper-induced nephrotoxicity via suppression of NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis and lipid metabolism disorder in chickens.

Excessive use of copper (Cu) in poultry farming induces nephrotoxicity closely related to inflammatory response and lipid metabolism disorder, but the mechanism remains unclear. Omega-3 (Ω-3), a natural polyunsaturated fatty acid with anti-inflammatory and antioxidative stress properties, has been demonstrated to exert protective effects on the kidneys. However, whether Ω-3 can alleviate Cu-induced renal injury and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Sulfonation-modified Artemisia sphaerocephala gum films: Fabrication strategies and characterization.

To enhance the bioactivity and expand the application scope of Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch polysaccharide gum (ASKG), it was sulfonated to yield sulfonated ASKG (S-ASKG). Using ASKG as a control, comparative analyses of the physicochemical properties and functional characteristics were performed. Films fabricated from S-ASKG and ASKG were comparatively analyzed for their structural, mechanical, and barrier properties.

PSMD14 promotes breast cancer progression by reducing K63-linked ubiquitination on FOXM1 and activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

The 26S proteasome non-ATPase regulatory subunit 14 (PSMD14), a deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB), mediates progression in multiple malignancies. However, the functional significance of PSMD14 in breast cancer remains incompletely characterized. This study aimed to investigate the oncogenic role and molecular mechanisms of PSMD14 in breast cancer.

Ultrasound-assisted enzymatic extraction optimization of Cistanche deserticola polysaccharides, and combined analysis of the relationship between polysaccharide structure and activity by liquid chromatography and GC-MS.

Cistanche deserticola polysaccharide (CDPS) serves as a key active component in both medicinal and edible functional foods. By optimizing the enzyme ratio and ultrasonic extraction parameters, the extraction yield was raised to 23.83 %, and four fractions (CDPS-1 to CDPS-4) were obtained through graded purification.

Effect of the donor unit heterocyclic substitution strategy on the performance of Zn porphyrin-based hole transport materials.

Hole transport materials (HTMs) are instrumental in determining the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Consequently, it is essential to develop suitable HTMs that can effectively facilitate hole extraction and transport within PSCs. In this study, we conducted theoretical investigations utilizing quantum chemistry methods on the promising HTM molecule YZT1, which features a diacetylene-based Zn porphyrin as its core moiety and dibutyl aniline as the donor moiety on either side.

A copper-based single-atom material effectively controls plant diseases with nearly zero soil residue and low phytotoxicity.

A growing population necessitates the development of sustainable agriculture, which requires achieving atom economy in pesticide delivery, fertilization, and so on. To this end, we focus on single-atom materials (SAMs) to enhance atom utilization within agricultural systems. In this study, we report a novel pesticide for plants, a single-atom copper (Cu) formulation, by employing a precipitation-equilibrium-driven (K-driven) method to anchor Cu onto a calcium carbonate (CaCO) carrier.

Urolithin C Ameliorates Hyperuricemia by Mitigating Renal Dysfunction through ROS-p38/ERK MAPK Axis Suppression.

Hyperuricemia (HUA) is a prevalent metabolic disorder, with limited therapeutic options. This study investigated the effects and mechanisms of urolithin C (UroC), a gut-microbiota-derived bioactive metabolite from ellagitannin-rich foods, in the management of HUA. In HUA mice, UroC significantly reduced serum uric acid (SUA) levels, outperforming its analogs, UroA and UroB.

Effect of target tree management on soil extracellular enzyme activities and fungal community structure in stands.

Target tree management can adjust stand structure, alleviate tree competition, and improve soil quality. Taking natural forest as the control, we explored the characteristics of soil fungal communities by high-throughput sequencing technology and investigated the relationships among fungal communities, physicochemical properties, and soil extracellular enzyme activities of . plantations managed by the target tree and that not managed by the target tree.

Effects of thinning on carbon stocks and fractions of plantation in eastern area of Liaoning Province, China.

Thinning is a crucial silvicultural practice in forest management, the rational intensity of which plays an important role in increasing carbon sequestration capacity of forest ecosystems. However, it is not clear how different thinning intensities affect forest ecosystem carbon stocks and their fractions. We investigated plantations in the mountainous regions of eastern Liaoning Province, analyzed changes in carbon stocks and fractions with different thinning intensities (0, 10%-30%, 30%-50% and 50%-70%), and explored key factors influencing stand productivity and soil organic carbon dynamics.

Predicting ecosystem primary productivity on plant community traits: Theoretical basis and research progress.

Plants contribute significantly to ecosystem primary productivity, serving as the basis of material cycling and energy flow. How to improve the accuracy of ecosystem productivity predictions is a classic topic in ecology. For decades, researchers have employed radiation-based remote sensing models or big-leaf-based process models to predict the spatiotemporal variations in ecosystem productivity.

Non-structural carbohydrate storage strategy in trunk tissues of different wood porosity species in warm temperate zone.

Wood porosity types (non-porous, diffuse-porous, and ring-porous) reflect evolutionary gradients cha-racteristics of xylem anatomy of temperate tree species. The mechanisms linking porosity type to non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) storage strategy in stem tissues remain unclear. We conducted an experiment with 77 warm-tempe-rate tree species in the Baotianman National Nature Reserve, Henan Province.

Response of photosynthetic capacity of needles to climate warming.

seedlings were transplanted from Tahe, Songling, Heihe and Dailing to a common garden in Mao'ershan, near the southern edge of its natural distribution range in China. Two decades after the transplantation, we measured the photosynthetic capacity of needles in four transplanting locations (control) and common garden (climate warming treatment) simultaneously, and analyzed the response mechanism of needle photosynthetic capacity to climate warming. The results showed that climate warming significantly increased the maximum net photosynthetic rate (), total nitrogen content (), chlorophyll content (Chl), the activities of ribulose-1,5-diphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), as well as the content and proportion of nitrogen in photosynthetic system.

Maximum crown width model of plantation and its application.

Based on the survey data of 55 permanent plots of plantation in Maoershan Experimental Forest Farm of Northeast Forestry University, we divided the stand density index (SDI) of the plots into three grades by mean±standard deviation method, namely SDI Ⅰ∈(0, 695], SDI Ⅱ∈(695, 1027], and SDI Ⅲ∈(1027, ∞] trees·hm. Based on the Logistic equation, we constructed the maximum crown width prediction model of individual tree at three quantiles (0.90, 0.