Advanced Spore Identification: Single-Cell Raman Spectroscopy Combined with Self-Attention Mechanism-Guided Deep Learning.

(Nb) has been considered a dangerous pathogen, which can spread rapidly through free spores. Nowadays, pebrine disease caused by Nb spores is a serious threat to silkworms, causing huge economic losses in both the silk industry and agriculture every year. Thus, how to accurately identify living Nb spores at a single-cell level is greatly demanded.

High-throughput single cell analysis using multi-focus Raman spectroscopy under randomly interleaved scattering projection.

Raman microspectroscopy is a powerful tool for label-free monitoring of single-cell dynamics. However, the traditional single-point acquisition mode is extremely inefficient because it only analyzes one cell at a time. We propose a method that combines multi-focus Raman excitation with random interleaving of scattering projections.

Gaining insights into the responses of individual yeast cells to ethanol fermentation using Raman tweezers and chemometrics.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most common microbe used for the industrial production of bioethanol, and it encounters various stresses that inhibit cell growth and metabolism during fermentation. However, little is currently known about the physiological changes that occur in individual yeast cells during ethanol fermentation. Therefore, in this work, Raman spectroscopy and chemometric techniques were employed to monitor the metabolic changes of individual yeast cells at distinct stages during high gravity ethanol fermentation.

Characterization of individual spores of two biological insecticides, Bacillus thuringiensis and Lysinibacillus sphaericus, in response to glutaraldehyde using single-cell optical approaches.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Ls) are the most widely used microbial insecticides. Both encounter unfavorable environmental factors and pesticides in the field. Here, the responses of Bt and Ls spores to glutaraldehyde were characterized using Raman spectroscopy and differential interference contrast imaging at the single-cell level.

Rapid and accurate identification of marine bacteria spores at a single-cell resolution by laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy and deep learning.

Marine bacteria have been considered as important participants in revealing various carbon/sulfur/nitrogen cycles of marine ecosystem. Thus, how to accurately identify rare marine bacteria without a culture process is significant and valuable. In this work, we constructed a single-cell Raman spectra dataset from five living bacteria spores and utilized convolutional neural network to rapidly, accurately, nondestructively identify bacteria spores.

Compressive Raman imaging by combining scattering-projection interleaving with context-aware excitation.

Exciting an object with a laser-focus array and randomly interleaving its scattering projection has been proved to be an effective strategy for speeding up Raman imaging. The so-called scattering interleaved Raman imaging (SIRI) method allows Raman hyperspectral imaging with a single snapshot and exhibits excellent reconstruction fidelity and signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Here, we show that the performance of SIRI is significantly improved when combined with context-aware excitation.

CCUS development in China and forecast its contribution to emission reduction.

Nowadays environmental issues have been of great concern to the world, among which the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is particularly prominent. All countries in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have committed to control greenhouse gas emissions, and China, as the largest carbon emitter, has assumed a heavier burden. China has been striving to develop low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, nuclear, wind, and solar energy, but the most attention should be paid to CCUS, which many scholars have high expectations that CCUS can help China reduce emissions to some extent.

New insights into the effects of UV light on individual Nosema bombycis spores, as determined using single-cell optical approaches.

Nosema bombycis (Nb) is a pathogen causing pebrine in sericulture. Ultraviolet (UV) light exposure is a common physical disinfection method, but the mechanisms underlying UV-based disinfection have only been studied at the population level. In this study, changes in and germination of UV-irradiated spores were observed using Raman tweezers and phase-contrast imaging to evaluate the effects of UV radiation on Nb spores at the single-cell level.

Taxonomy and anticancer potential of Streptomyces niphimycinicus sp. nov. against nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.

Streptomyces species are ubiquitous, Gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria with the ability to produce various clinically relevant compounds. The strain 4503 was isolated from mangrove sediments, showing morphological and chemical properties which were consistent with those of members of the genus Streptomyces. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the isolate was primarily identified as members of the genus Streptomyces, sharing more than 99% sequence identity to Streptomyces yatensis DSM 41771, S.

Large Improvement of Thermoelectric Performance by Magnetism in Co-Based Full-Heusler Alloys.

Full-Heusler alloys (fHAs) exhibit high mechanical strength with earth-abundant elements, but their metallic properties tend to display small electron diffusion thermopower, limiting potential applications as excellent thermoelectric (TE) materials. Here, it is demonstrated that the Co-based fHAs Co XAl (X = Ti, V, Nb) exhibit relatively high thermoelectric performance due to spin and charge coupling. Thermopower contributions from different magnetic mechanisms, including spin fluctuation and magnon drag are extracted.

sp. nov., sp. nov. and sp. nov. with the organophosphorus pesticides degrading ability isolated from mangrove sediments.

Members of the genus were frequently isolated from polluted environments and possess great bioremediation potential. Here, three species, designated B2637, B2580 and B1949, were isolated from mangrove sediments and might represent novel species in the genus based on a polyphasic taxonomy study. Phylogenomic analysis revealed that strains B2580, B1949 and B2637 clustered with NBRC 102051, '' F72 and 502str22, respectively.

Determining optimal probability distributions for gridded precipitation data based on L-moments.

Understanding the probability distributions of precipitation is crucial for predicting climatic events and constructing hydraulic facilities. To overcome the inadequacy of precipitation data, regional frequency analysis was commonly used by "trading space for time". However, with the increasing availability of gridded precipitation datasets with high spatial and temporal resolutions, the probability distributions of precipitation for these datasets have been less explored.

Copula-Based Assessment and Regionalization of Drought Risk in China.

Droughts are widespread in China and have brought considerable losses to the economy and society. Droughts are intricate, stochastic processes with multi-attributes (e.g.

Application of L-moment method for regional frequency analysis of meteorological drought across the Loess Plateau, China.

Water shortages have always been the primary bottleneck for the healthy and sustainable development of the ecological environment on the Loess Plateau (LP). Proper water resource management requires knowledge of the spatiotemporal characteristics of precipitation frequency. This paper employed the gridded precipitation dataset obtained from the China Meteorological Data Service Centre to present a spatially explicit characterization of precipitation frequencies in tandem with their return periods on the LP based on the L-moment method.

Unconventional Doping Effect Leads to Ultrahigh Average Thermoelectric Power Factor in Cu SbSe -Based Composites.

Thermoelectric materials are typically highly degenerate semiconductors, which require high carrier concentration. However, the efficiency of conventional doping by replacing host atoms with alien ones is restricted by solubility limit, and, more unfavorably, such a doping method is likely to cause strong charge-carrier scattering at ambient temperature, leading to deteriorated electrical performance. Here, an unconventional doping strategy is proposed, where a small trace of alien atoms is used to stabilize cation vacancies in Cu SbSe  by compositing with CuAlSe , in which the cation vacancies rather than the alien atoms provide a high density of holes.

Multiple Effects Promoting the Thermoelectric Performance of SnTe by Alloying with CuSbTe and CuBiTe.

In a SnTe-based thermoelectric material, the naturally high hole concentration caused by cation vacancies and high total thermal conductivity seriously hinder its thermoelectric performance. A recent work shows that alloying SnTe with other compounds from the I-V-VI family (I = Ag, Na; V = Sb, Bi; VI = Te) can be considered an effective strategy to boost the figure of merit efficiently via the synergy of manipulating hole concentration and lowering lattice thermal conductivity. Herein, we present a markedly enhanced thermoelectric performance in p-type SnTe through CuPnTe (Pn = Sb, Bi) alloying.

Structure-Dependent Thermoelectric Properties of GeSeTe (0 ≤ ≤ 0.5).

GeSe was theoretically predicted to have thermoelectric (TE) performance as high as SnSe. However, the relatively high TE performance was not achieved experimentally in doped GeSe samples with an original orthorhombic structure but observed in Ag(Sb,Bi)(Se,Te) alloyed samples that crystalize in either a rhombohedral or cubic structure. Herein, to clarify the crystal structure-dependent properties, the electrical and thermal transport properties of GeSeTe (0 ≤ ≤ 0.

Rapid characterization of heavy metals in single microplastics by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Microplastics (MPs) in aquatic environment usually carry hazardous matters, including toxic heavy metals. Quantification of heavy metals in MPs is crucial for the comprehensive understanding of their ecotoxicology in field environment. However, conventional methods for heavy metal determination either are applicable only to bulk/collective samples or require strict operation environment.

Parallel micro-Raman spectroscopy of multiple cells in a single acquisition using hierarchical sparsity.

Parallel micro-Raman spectroscopy can significantly expand the analytical capacity of single biological cells. By positioning the Raman spectra of multiple trapped cells on a detector array along the grating dispersion direction, the throughput of single-cell analysis can be improved by orders of magnitude. However, accurate retrieval of the individual spectra from the superimposed spectrum in a single acquisition presents great challenges.

High-throughput analysis of single particles by micro laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Multi-elemental analysis of particulate matters is highly desirable for the identification of their emission sources. However, the traditional techniques for single particle analysis usually require time-consuming sample preparation procedures. We report here a system that combines bright-field microscopy with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), allowing rapid and multi-elemental analysis of single particles.

Single-Acquisition 2-D Multifocal Raman Spectroscopy Using Compressive Sensing.

Confocal Raman microscopy is a powerful method for nondestructive and noninvasive detection of chemicals with high spatial resolution, but its long acquisition time hinders its applications in large-scale monitoring of fast dynamics. Here, we report the development of a compressive sensing technique for single-acquisition multifocal Raman spectroscopy, which is capable of improving the speed of conventional confocal Raman spectroscopy by 2-3 orders of magnitude. A sample is excited with a 2-D multifocus pattern, and the Raman scatterings from the multiple foci were projected onto the spectrometer's entrance in a 2-D array.

Synergistic Effect of Bismuth and Indium Codoping for High Thermoelectric Performance of Melt Spinning SnTe Alloys.

In this work, a nonequilibrium melt spinning (MS) technology combined with hot pressing was adopted for rapid synthesizing of SnTe compounds in less than 1 h. The refined microstructure generated by MS significantly decreases the lattice thermal conductivity. Compared to the pristine SnTe sample prepared by traditional melting and long-term annealing, the melt-spun one reveals a 15% lower thermal conductivity of ∼6.

Single-cell analysis reveals the effects of glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde on individual Nosema bombycis spores.

Nosema bombycis (Nb) is the pathogen that causes pebrine in silkworms. Aldehydes are effective disinfectants commonly used in sericulture. However, the precise mechanism of their action on Nb spores remains unclear.