[Effects of vegetation restoration on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles: a review].

Vegetation rehabilitation is one of the main means in managing soil and water loss, being able to effectively promote the development of eroded soil, improve the soil fertility level, enhance the soil microbial activities, and in further, affect the soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. Therefore, vegetation rehabilitation plays definite roles in the accumulation of soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools and the mitigation of greenhouse gases emission from soil. This paper summarized the effects of vegetation rehabilitation on the soil carbon and nitrogen cycles and the synergetic effects between soil quality and vegetation rehabilitation, and put forward the further research directions, which could provide the reference for the evaluation of the roles of vegetation rehabilitation in response to global climate change, and the practical guidance for the improvement of soil fertility and the recovery and sustainable development of degraded ecosystems.

Water induced protonation of amine-terminated micelles for direct syntheses of ZnO quantum dots and their cytotoxicity towards cancer.

This work designs a new strategy for the direct synthesis of different zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures at low temperatures. Micelles of dodecylamine (DDA) assembled in an ethanol-water system have been explored as a template to direct the growth of the ZnO nanostructures. The key species for the formation of the ZnO nanostructures, OH(-), can be provided by the water-induced protonation of DDA.

One-pot synthesis of hexagonal ZnO nanosheets with a novel structure-directing agent and their application in cell imaging.

Recently, ZnO nanostructures with various morphologies have been synthesized with different structure directing agents. Among these works, little reports have been focused on the syntheses of the ZnO nanostructures at nearly neutral pH and relatively low temperature. This work explores a novel structure-directing agent, tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (tris), for one-pot synthesis of hexagonal ZnO nanosheets at nearly neutral pH (i.

Ultrasound mediated drug-loaded nanoparticles crossing cell membranes as a new strategy to reverse cancer multidrug resistance.

The emergence of the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenomenon in tumor has rendered many currently available chemotherapeutic drugs ineffective. Although many strategies have been explored to overcome MDR, the results have been disappointing to the obstacle. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the new strategy of combining drug-loaded nanoparticles (Nps) and ultrasound (US) would show useful effects on the reversal of MDR in tumor.

Rapid diagnosis of multidrug resistance in cancer by electrochemical sensor based on carbon nanotubes-drug supramolecular nanocomposites.

The multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer is a major chemotherapy obstacle, rendering many currently available chemotherapeutic drugs ineffective. The aim of this study was to explore the new strategy to early diagnose the MDR by electrochemical sensor based on carbon nanotubes-drug supramolecular interaction. The carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrodes (CNTs/GCE) were directly immersed into the cells suspension of the sensitive leukemia cells K562 and/or its MDR cells K562/A02 to detect the response of the electrochemical probe of daunorubicin (DNR) residues after incubated with cells for 1h.

A strategy for ZnO nanorod mediated multi-mode cancer treatment.

Combinations of cancer therapy modalities are attracting attention to improve the outcome of treatment, since single modality has not always been sufficiently effective. The aim of this study was to investigate a new strategy of combined application of ZnO nanorods with anticancer drug daunorubicin (DNR) in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Using a simple one-step solid state reaction in air at room temperature, we were able to fabricate ZnO nanorods as the drug carrier of DNR in drug delivery system.

The Photodynamic Effect of Different Size ZnO Nanoparticles on Cancer Cell Proliferation In Vitro.

Nanomaterials have widely been used in the field of biological and biomedicine, such as tissue imaging, diagnosis and cancer therapy. In this study, we explored the cytotoxicity and photodynamic effect of different-sized ZnO nanoparticles to target cells. Our observations demonstrated that ZnO nanoparticles exerted dose-dependent and time-dependent cytotoxicity for cancer cells like hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells in vitro.

Construction of strong alkaline microcavities for facile synthesis of fluorescence-tunable ZnO quantum dots.

Strong alkaline microcavities were constructed through the water-induced protonation of dodecylamine for the synthesis of fluorescence-tunable ZnO QDs in neutral bulk reaction solution.