Diverse Transient Chiral Dynamics in Evolutionary Distinct Photosynthetic Reaction Centers.

The evolution of photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs) from anoxygenic bacteria to higher-order oxygenic cynobacteria and plants highlights a remarkable journey of structural and functional diversification as an adaptation to environmental conditions. The role of chirality in these centers is important, influencing the arrangement and function of key molecules involved in photosynthesis. Investigating the role of chirality may provide a deeper understanding of photosynthesis and the evolutionary history of life on Earth.

Modeling the recent drought and thinning impacts on energy, water and carbon fluxes in a boreal forest.

Globally, boreal forests act as important carbon sinks, however, drought and forest management could substantially alter the sink strength, though the controlling mechanisms of drought and management remain unclear. In this study, we combined the detailed process-based CoupModel with multiple measurements to study the impacts of recent drought and forest thinning on a boreal forest during 2018-2021. CoupModel after calibration showed high ability to represent the dynamics of long-term net ecosystem exchange and its responses to environmental changes.

Regulating the Interface Polarity Distribution of Zr-Based MOFs by Amino Acid-Like Ligand Functionalization Enables Efficient Recovery of Gold.

The recovery of gold from industrial effluents is crucial for environmental conservation, sustainable resource management, and promoting the green development of gold resources. We designed a Zr-based MOF (UKM-78) by incorporating functional organic ligands that resemble amino groups, using MOFs' inherent sieving effect for ion separation. This novel material exhibited enhanced gold recovery under acidic conditions, with an adsorption capacity three times and an adsorption rate four times higher than those of nonfunctionalized UKM-77.

An N-Rich Polymer for the Selective Recovery of Gold from Wastewater.

The recovery of valuable gold from wastewater is of great interest because of the widespread use of the precious metal in various fields and the pollution generated by gold-containing wastes in water. In this paper, a water-insoluble cross-linked adsorbent material (TE) based on cyanuric chloride (TCT) and ethylenediamine (EDA) was designed and used for the adsorption of Au(III) from wastewater. It was found that TE showed extremely high selectivity (D = 49,213.

Magnetic Ion-Imprinted Materials for Selective Adsorption of Cr(VI): Adsorption Behavior and Mechanism Study.

With the increase of hexavalent Cr(VI) wastewater discharged from industrial production, it seriously pollutes water bodies and poses a risk to human health. Adsorption is used as an effective means to treat Cr(VI), but its effectiveness is affected by pH, and the adsorption performance decreases when acidity is strong. Furthermore, research on the mechanism of Cr(VI) adsorption using DFT calculations needs to be developed.

Targeted mitochondrial fluorescence probe with large stokes shift for detecting viscosity changes in vivo and in ferroptosis process.

We created four fluorescent sensors in our work to determine the viscosity of mitochondria. Following screening, the probe Mito-3 was chosen because in contrast to the other three probes, it had a greater fluorescence enhancement, large Stokes shift (113 nm) and had a particular response to viscosity that was unaffected by polarity or biological species. As the viscosity increased from PBS to 90 % glycerol, the fluorescence intensity of probe at 586 nm increased 17-fold.

MIL-161 Metal-Organic Framework for Efficient Au(III) Recovery from Secondary Resources: Performance, Mechanism, and DFT Calculations.

The recovery of precious metals from secondary resources is significant economically and environmentally. However, their separation is still challenging because they often occur in complex metal ion mixtures. The poor selectivity of adsorbents for gold in complicated solutions prevents further application of adsorption technology.

Selective Adsorption Behavior and Mechanism for Cd(II) in Aqueous Solution with a Recoverable Magnetie-Surface Ion-Imprinted Polymer.

A novel recoverable magnetic Cd(II) ion-imprinted polymer was synthesized on the surface of silica-coated FeO particles via the surface imprinting technique and chemical grafting method. The resulting polymer was used as a highly efficient adsorbent for the removal of Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The adsorption experiments revealed that FeO@SiO@IIP had a maximum adsorption capacity of up to 29.

Nitrogen addition changed the relationships of fine root respiration and biomass with key physiological traits in ozone-stressed poplars.

Increasing ozone (O) and nitrogen (N) addition may have contradictory effects on plant photosynthesis and growth. However, it remains unclear whether these effects on aboveground parts further change the root resource management strategy and the relationships of fine root respiration and biomass with other physiological traits. In this study, an open-top chamber experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of O alone and in combination with nitrogen (N) addition on root production and fine root respiration of poplar clone 107 (Populus × euramericana cv.

Selective removal and recovery of Ni(ii) using a sulfonic acid-based magnetic rattle-type ion-imprinted polymer: adsorption performance and mechanisms.

It is significant to selectively remove Ni(ii) ions from wastewater. A novel sulfonic acid-based magnetic rattle-type ion-imprinted polymer (FeO@void@IIP-Ni(ii)) was designed by taking advantage of the strong interaction between Ni(ii) and sulfonic acid groups. Green polymerization was used to synthesize FeO@void@IIP-Ni(ii), which was then investigated using SEM, TEM, FT-IR, VSM, TGA, EDS, and XPS.

Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi mediate the response of ombrotrophic peatlands to fertilization: a modeling study.

Ericaceous shrubs adapt to the nutrient-poor conditions in ombrotrophic peatlands by forming symbiotic associations with ericoid mycorrhizal (ERM) fungi. Increased nutrient availability may diminish the role of ERM pathways in shrub nutrient uptake, consequently altering the biogeochemical cycling within bogs. To explore the significance of ERM fungi in ombrotrophic peatlands, we developed the model MWMmic (a peat cohort-based biogeochemical model) into MWMmic-NP by explicitly incorporating plant-soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling and ERM fungi processes.

Water use efficiency control for a maize field under mulched drip irrigation.

Agricultural ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) is an important indicator reflecting carbon-water coupling, but its control mechanisms in managed fields remain unclear. In order to reveal the influencing factors of WUE in the agricultural field under mulched drip irrigation (DM), we carried out the 8-year continuous observations in a maize field from Northwestern China. The structural equation model, relative importance analysis and principal component analysis were used to quantify the regulation effects of environmental and biological factors on WUE at different time scales, in different growth stages and under different hydrothermal conditions.

Integrating McGill Wetland Model (MWM) with peat cohort tracking and microbial controls.

Peatlands store a large amount of organic carbon and are vulnerable to climate change and human disturbances. However, ecosystem-scale peatland models often do not explicitly simulate the decrease in peat substrate quality, i.e.

Potential Clinical Risk of Inflammation and Toxicity from Rare-Earth Nanoparticles in Mice.

Background: Nanotechnology is emerging as a promising tool to perform noninvasive therapy and optical imaging. However, nanomedicine may pose a potential risk of toxicity during in vivo applications. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential toxicity of rare-earth nanoparticles (RENPs) using mice as models.

Improving the convergence rate of a hybrid input-output phasing algorithm by varying the reflection data weight.

In an iterative projection algorithm proposed for ab initio phasing, the error metrics typically exhibit little improvement until a sharp decrease takes place as the iteration converges to the correct high-resolution structure. Related to that is the small convergence probability for certain structures. As a remedy, a variable weighting scheme on the diffraction data is proposed.

Rare-earth Nanoparticle-induced Cytotoxicity on Spatial Cognition Memory of Mouse Brain.

Background: Luminescent rare-earth-based nanoparticles have been increasingly used in nanomedicine due to their excellent physicochemical properties, such as biomedical imaging agents, drug carriers, and biomarkers. However, biological safety of the rare-earth-based nanomedicine is of great significance for future development in practical applications. In particular, biological effects of rare-earth nanoparticles on human's central nervous system are still unclear.

Land use of drained peatlands: Greenhouse gas fluxes, plant production, and economics.

Drained peatlands are hotspots for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which could be mitigated by rewetting and land use change. We performed an ecological/economic analysis of rewetting drained fertile peatlands in a hemiboreal climate using different land use strategies over 80 years. Vegetation, soil processes, and total GHG emissions were modeled using the CoupModel for four scenarios: (1) business as usual-Norway spruce with average soil water table of -40 cm; (2) willow with groundwater at -20 cm; (3) reed canary grass with groundwater at -10 cm; and (4) a fully rewetted peatland.

Improving the efficiency of molecular replacement by utilizing a new iterative transform phasing algorithm.

An iterative transform method proposed previously for direct phasing of high-solvent-content protein crystals is employed for enhancing the molecular-replacement (MR) algorithm in protein crystallography. Target structures that are resistant to conventional MR due to insufficient similarity between the template and target structures might be tractable with this modified phasing method. Trial calculations involving three different structures are described to test and illustrate the methodology.

Influence of New Modified Biliopancreatic Diversion on Blood Glucose and Lipids in GK rats.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the influence of new biliopancreatic diversion (NBPD) and duodenal-jejunal bypass (DJB) surgery on blood glucose, lipids, gastrointestinal hormones, and insulin in Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats, an animal model for type 2 diabetes, in order to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of these types of surgery on this clinical condition.

Methods: Thirty 30 male GK rats (SPF) aged 12 weeks were randomly assigned into three groups (n = 10 per group): sham group, NBPD group, and DJB group. Body weight, random plasma glucose, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), oral glucose tolerance (OGT), blood lipids, plasma insulin, glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) were measured before and after surgery.

Direct phasing of protein crystals with high solvent content.

An iterative transform method is proposed for solving the phase problem in protein crystallography. In each iteration, a weighted average electron-density map is constructed to define an estimated protein mask. Solvent flattening is then imposed through the hybrid input-output algorithm [Fienup (1982).

[Homing characteristics of graft cells in leukemia mice after allogenic bone marrow transplantation with different conditioning regimens].

The aim of this study was to investigate the homing characteristics of bone marrow cells in leukemia mice after allogenic bone marrow transplantation with different conditioning regimens on the basis of a leukemia mouse model. Allogenic bone marrow transplantation was performed after three different kinds of conditioning regimen, including nonmyeloablative conditioning regimen (5 Gy (60)Co γ ray total body irradiation, A group), radiotherapeutic myeloablative conditioning regimen (9 Gy (60)Co γ ray total body irradiation, B group) and chemotherapeutic myeloablative conditioning regimen (large dose chemotherapy, C group). In the recipient mice, the nucleated cell number in peripheral blood, bone marrow and spleen was counted, the percentage of positive cells capable of connecting with FITC labeled anti-mouse H-2K(b) antibody was detected by flow cytometry and the homing ratio in bone marrow and spleen was calculated at 24, 48, 72, 96 h after bone marrow transplantation.

Mining unexpected temporal associations: applications in detecting adverse drug reactions.

In various real-world applications, it is very useful mining unanticipated episodes where certain event patterns unexpectedly lead to outcomes, e.g., taking two medicines together sometimes causing an adverse reaction.