p38α deficiency ameliorates psoriasis development by downregulating STAT3-mediated keratinocyte proliferation and cytokine production.

Psoriasis is characterized by keratinocyte (KC) hyperproliferation and inflammatory cell infiltration, but the mechanisms remain unclear. In an imiquimod-induced mouse psoriasiform model, p38 activity is significantly elevated in KCs and p38α specific deletion in KCs ameliorates skin inflammation. p38α signaling promotes KC proliferation and psoriasis-related proinflammatory gene expression during psoriasis development.

A bulged-type enzyme-free recognition strategy designed for single nucleotide polymorphisms integrating with label-free electrochemical biosensor.

Compared to conventional nucleic acid detection methods, label-free single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection presents challenging due to the necessity of discerning single base mismatches, especially in the field of enzyme-free detection. In this study, we introduce a novel bulged-type DNA duplex probe designed to significantly amplify single-base differences. This probe is integrated with programmable DNA-based nanostructures to develop a sensitive, label-free biosensor for nonenzymatic SNP detection.

Multi-Level Pyramidal Microstructure-Based Pressure Sensors with High Sensitivity and Wide Linear Range for Healthcare Monitoring.

Flexible pressure sensors have garnered significant attention in the field of wearable healthcare due to their scalability and shape variability. However, a crucial challenge in their practical application for various healthcare scenarios is striking a balance between the sensitivity and sensing range. This limitation arises from the reduced compressibility of the microstructures on the surface of pressure-sensitive materials under high pressure, resulting in progressive saturation of the sensor's response and leading to a restricted and nonlinear pressure sensing range.

3D SERS Substrate of Z-Shaped Ag Nanorod Array for Thiabendazole Detection.

Ag nanoparticles sputtered on silicon wafer are used as masks for the fabrication of silicon columns by ion etching, which induces the growth of the inclined Ag nanorod by inclined Ag sputtering. V-shaped and Z-shaped Ag nanorods can be obtained by varying incline angles and deposition times. SERS detection and FDTD simulation are used to compare and investigate the enhanced electromagnetic coupling of incline nanorod arrays with different shapes in three-dimensional space, which indicates that Z-shaped nanorods show good SERS properties.

Honeycomb-like Ag Nanocavity Array for SERS Observations Using Plasmon-Mediated Chemical Reactions.

Organized two-dimensional polystyrene bead arrays perform ion etching, and protruding nanostructures are created on polystyrene beads due to the shadow effects from the ring beads, leading to nucleus selection and growth in Au nanostructure deposition. Ag nanostructures are prepared via plasmon-mediated chemical reactions (PMCRs), leading to the Ag nanocavity geometry of the honeycomb pattern when the etching time and Ag growth time are tuned. Due to the strong electromagnetic coupling, the Ag honeycomb-shaped nanocavity array works as the SERS substrate with high sensitivity and good repeatability, which is used to detect thiram pesticide residues with a concentration down to 10 M.

Plasmonic Biosensors with Nanostructure for Healthcare Monitoring and Diseases Diagnosis.

Nanophotonics has been widely utilized in enhanced molecularspectroscopy or mediated chemical reaction, which has major applications in the field of enhancing sensing and enables opportunities in developing healthcare monitoring. This review presents an updated overview of the recent exciting advances of plasmonic biosensors in the healthcare area. Manufacturing, enhancements and applications of plasmonic biosensors are discussed, with particular focus on nanolisted main preparation methods of various nanostructures, such as chemical synthesis, lithography, nanosphere lithography, nanoimprint lithography, etc.

Flexible SERS Substrate with a Ag-SiO Cosputtered Film for the Rapid and Convenient Detection of Thiram.

It is very important to build uniform large-area dense hotspots to improve the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection limit. In our research, we designed and prepared a new flexibile SERS substrate with ultradense hot spots that has the advantages of high sensitivity, good repeatability, easy fabrication, and low cost. Due to the special dense hot spot structure, the substrate reaches a SERS enhancement factor of 2.

Designed Growth of AgNP Arrays for Anti-counterfeiting Based on Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Signals.

Based on etched PS sphere arrays, the different growths of Ag nanoparticles with tunable LSPR are designed when SiO-25 nm/Ag-30 nm/SiO-100 nm sandwich nanocavity structures are annealed at 500 °C, including the hexagonal silver nanoparticle rings, circular silver nanoparticle rings, and aggregated silver nanoparticles. The uniformity of particle size and regularity of position generate enhanced electromagnetic field and good surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy signals as confirmed by UV-vis observation and finite difference time domain method simulation. The developed nanostructures are effectively used as stable, nonreproducible, and markable anti-counterfeiting signs.

Design of Ag/TiO/Ag Composite Nano-Array Structure with Adjustable SERS-Activity.

How to fabricate large area controllable surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active nanostructure substrates has always been one of the important issues in the development of nanostructure devices. In this paper, nano-etching technology and magnetron sputtering technology are combined to prepare nanostructure substrate with evolvable structure, and Ag/TiO/Ag composites are introduced into the evolvable composite structure. The activity of SERS is further enhanced by the combination of TiO and Ag and the electron transfer characteristics of TiO itself.

Spatial Allocation Method of Evacuation Guiders in Urban Open Public Spaces: A Case Study of Binjiang Green Space in Xuhui District, Shanghai, China.

Evacuation guiders play an important role when emergency events occur in urban open public spaces. Considering the shortcomings of the existing studies, an optimization method based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and gradual covering model for spatial allocation of evacuation guiders in urban open public spaces is proposed. This method considers the impact of obstacles on intervisibility between guiders and evacuees, and the non-linear changing characteristics of the evacuation guiding quality based on the distances between guiders and evacuees to optimize the space allocation of evacuation guiders in urban open public spaces.

Confined growth of Ag nanoflakes induced by LSPR-driven carrier transfer in periodic nanopatterned arrays.

The growth of metal nanostructures induced by surface plasmons has attracted widespread attention and provides a wide range of applications in the development of plasmonic nanochemistry, biosensors, photoelectrochemical coupling reactions, Herein, a simple method is reported for the fabrication of Ag nanoflakes induced by the surface plasma on two-dimensional periodic nanopatterned arrays with the aid of 4-MBA molecules. The light radiation, molecules, and environmental gases are selected to track the formation mechanism of Ag nanoflakes. The Raman observations and theoretical analyses confirm that small aromatic molecules with carboxyl groups play important roles in Ag nanoflake formation derived by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-driven carriers, which provide profound insights into the study of LSPR-driven carriers, participating in chemical reactions and the reconstruction of dense hot spots in nanogaps.

Morphological wave attenuation of the nature-based flood defense: A case study from Chongming Dongtan Shoal, China.

The risk of coastal storm flooding is deteriorating under global warming, especially for the heavily urbanized deltaic cities, like Shanghai. The Nature-Based Flood Defense (NBFD), as an eco-friendly design alternative for hard infrastructure against coastal flooding, is gaining attention. Nevertheless, the vulnerability of saltmarsh due to the biological instability, resulting in the uncertainties on coastal protection, is considered the bottleneck challenge that hinders the broad application of the NBFD concept.

Cations and surfactin serving as signal molecules trigger quorum sensing in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.

Microorganisms including Bacillus can produce signal molecules such as surfactin, resulting in the variation of membrane potential to trigger quorum sensing such as biofilm formation and sporulation in response to the environment stresses. However, biosynthesis of surfactin requires multiple resources such as huge enzyme complex, amino acids, fatty acids, and energy. Insufficient resources in the natural soil environment restrain biosynthesis of surfactin.

Comparative study of the role of surfactin-triggered signalling in biofilm formation among different Bacillus species.

The signal molecule surfactin in biofilm formation has been extensively studied in B. subtilis, but there is rare reports in other Bacillus species. In this study, we compared the surfactin-Spo0A-SinI-SinR/SlrR signalling in regulating biofilm formation amongst four Bacillus species including B.

Surfactin, a quorum sensing signal molecule, globally affects the carbon metabolism in .

Surfactin, a quorum sensing signal molecule, is correlated with carbon metabolism in . In the present work, we found that mutation of (Δ) led to an obviously changed carbon metabolism in . Firstly, the PTS-glucose system was significantly increased as a feedback to glucose exhaustion.

Manipulation and Applications of Hotspots in Nanostructured Surfaces and Thin Films.

The synthesis of nanostructured surfaces and thin films has potential applications in the field of plasmonics, including plasmon sensors, plasmon-enhanced molecular spectroscopy (PEMS), plasmon-mediated chemical reactions (PMCRs), and so on. In this article, we review various nanostructured surfaces and thin films obtained by the combination of nanosphere lithography (NSL) and physical vapor deposition. Plasmonic nanostructured surfaces and thin films can be fabricated by controlling the deposition process, etching time, transfer, fabrication routes, and their combination steps, which manipulate the formation, distribution, and evolution of hotspots.

Surfactin: A Quorum-Sensing Signal Molecule to Relieve CCR in .

utilize preferred sugars such as glucose over other carbon sources due to carbon catabolite repression (CCR). Surfactin is a small signal molecule to regulate the quorum-sensing (QS) response such as biofilm formation and sporulation in . Here, the operon for synthesis of surfactin was mutated for disrupting the production of surfactin in .

Fine-scale mapping of an evidence-based heat health risk index for high-density cities: Hong Kong as a case study.

The most recent extreme heat recorded in Europe re-alerts the world to the threat of heat stress. Future extreme heat events are reported to be more frequent, long-lasting, and intense. The intense exposure to hot temperatures can cause an excess of heat-related deaths, leading to an increasing risk of heat-related health.

The growth mode of built-up land in floodplains and its impacts on flood vulnerability.

Built-up land in floodplains (BLF) is a vital indicator of the socio-hydrological system, and its dynamics are key to understanding and managing flood risk. However, previous studies have neglected the impacts of BLF growth modes (e.g.

Synthesized trade-off analysis of flood control solutions under future deep uncertainty: An application to the central business district of Shanghai.

Coastal mega-cities will face increasing flood risk under the current protection standard because of future climate change. Previous studies seldom evaluate the comparative effectiveness of alternative options in reducing flood risk under the uncertainty of future extreme rainfall. Long-term planning to manage flood risk is further challenged by uncertainty in socioeconomic factors and contested stakeholder priorities.

Rapid Population Growth in Chinese Floodplains from 1990 to 2015.

Although China suffers from frequent and disastrous floods, the spatiotemporal pattern of its population living in the floodplain (PopF) is still unknown. This strongly limits our understanding of flood risk and the effectiveness of mitigation efforts. Here we present the first quantification of Chinese PopF and its dynamics, based on newly-available population datasets for years 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015 and on a flood map.

Nonvolatile Control of Magnetocaloric Operating Temperature by Low Voltage.

The limited operating temperature is the main obstacle for the practical applications of magnetic refrigeration. In this work, the voltage control of magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is investigated in a LaSrMnO (LSMO)/CeO/Pt device. Different from the conventional method of volatile manipulating MCE by large-voltage-induced strain, nonvolatile manipulation of magnetocaloric operating temperature with good stability is realized in the LSMO film by applying low voltages of less than 2.

Electric Field Manipulated Multilevel Magnetic States Storage in FePt/(011) PMN-PT Heterostructure.

In the current information society, the realization of a magnetic storage technique with energy-efficient design and high storage density is greatly desirable. Here, we demonstrate that, without bias magnetic field, different values of remanent magnetization (M) can be obtained in a FePt/0.7Pb(MgNb)O-0.

Design of Hybrid Nanostructural Arrays to Manipulate SERS-Active Substrates by Nanosphere Lithography.

An easy-handling and low-cost method is utilized to controllably fabricate nanopattern arrays as the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrates with high density of SERS-active areas (hot spots). A hybrid silver array of nanocaps and nanotriangles are prepared by combining magnetron sputtering and plasma etching. By adjusting the etching time of polystyrene (PS) colloid spheres array in silver nanobowls, the morphology of the arrays can be easily manipulated to control the formation and distribution of hot spots.