Multifunctional cyclic biomimetic peptides: Self-assembling nanotubes for effective treatment of sepsis.

Antibiotic abuse has led to an increasingly serious risk of antimicrobial resistance, developing alternative antimicrobials to combat this alarming issue is urgently needed. Rhesus theta defensin-1 (RTD-1) is a theta-defensin contributing to broad-spectrum bactericidal activity via the mechanisms of membrane perturbation. Intriguingly, human defensin-6 (HD6), an enteric defensin secreted by Paneth cells without direct bactericidal effect, could self-assembled into fibrous networks to trap enteric pathogens for assistance of innate immunity.

Aluminium surface work hardening enables multi-scale 3D lithography.

Multi-scale structures are ubiquitous in biological systems. However, manufacturing man-made structures with controllable features spanning multiple length scales, particularly down to nanoscale features, is very challenging, which seriously impacts their collective properties. Here we introduce an aluminium-based three-dimensional lithography that combines sequential nano-micro-macro-imprinting and anodization of multi-scale anodic aluminium oxide templates to manufacture well-defined multi-scale structures, using various materials.

Scalable Multistep Imprinting of Multiplexed Optical Anti-counterfeiting Patterns with Hierarchical Structures.

Multiplexed optical techniques with multichannel patterns provide powerful strategies for high-capacity anti-counterfeiting. However, it is still a big challenge to meet the demands of achieving high encryption levels, excellent readability, and simple preparation simultaneously. Herein, we use a multistep imprinting technique, leveraging surface work-hardening to massively produce multiplexed encrypted patterns with hierarchical structures.

Typical Marine Ecological Disasters in China Attributed to Marine Organisms and Their Significant Insights.

Owing to global climate change or the ever-more frequent human activities in the offshore areas, it is highly probable that an imbalance in the offshore ecosystem has been induced. However, the importance of maintaining and protecting marine ecosystems' balance cannot be overstated. In recent years, various marine disasters have occurred frequently, such as harmful algal blooms (green tides and red tides), storm surge disasters, wave disasters, sea ice disasters, and tsunami disasters.

Solar-Driven Evaporator With "Starburst Turbine" Design Featuring Directional Salt Crystallization, Antibacterial, and Catalytic Multifunctionality for Efficient Water Purification.

Facing the global challenge of water scarcity, solar-driven desalination is considered a sustainable technology for obtaining freshwater from seawater. However, issues such as uncontrolled salt crystallization and bacterial contamination limit its efficiency and practicality. This study proposes an innovative solar-driven evaporator designed to address these challenges using optimized shape design and advanced photothermal materials.

Sirtuin 5-Mediated Desuccinylation of ALDH2 Alleviates Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Following Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Injury.

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is a major cause of drug-induced liver injury. Sirtuins 5 (SIRT5) has been implicated in the development of various liver diseases. However, its involvement in APAP-induced acute liver injury (AILI) remains unclear.

Plasmonic Bound States in the Continuum Metasurface-Semiconductor-Metal Architecture Enables Efficient Hot-Electron-Based Photodetector.

Plasmonic hot-electron-based photodetectors (HEB-PDs) have received widespread attention for their ability to realize effective carrier collection under sub-bandgap illumination. However, due to the low hot electron emission probability, most of the existing HEB-PDs exhibit poor responsivity, which significantly restricts their practical applications. Here, by employing the binary-pore anodic alumina oxide template technique, we proposed a compact plasmonic bound state in continuum metasurface-semiconductor-metal-based (BIC M-S-M) HEB-PD.

6-Gingerol attenuates hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury through regulating MKP5-mediated P38/JNK pathway.

6-Gingerol, the main bioactive compound of ginger, has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and neuroprotective effects. However, it is unclear whether 6-Gingerol has protective effects against hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. In this study, the mouse liver I/R injury model and the mouse AML12 cell hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) model were established by pretreatment with 6-Gingerol at different concentrations to explore the potential effects of 6-Gingerol.

Enhanced CO Electroreduction to Multi-Carbon Products on Copper via Plasma Fluorination.

The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO) to multi-carbon (C) compounds offers a viable approach for the up-conversion of greenhouse gases into valuable fuels and feedstocks. Nevertheless, current industrial applications face limitations due to unsatisfactory conversion efficiency and high overpotential. Herein, a facile and scalable plasma fluorination method is reported.

Alternative Oxidase: From Molecule and Function to Future Inhibitors.

In the respiratory chain of the majority of aerobic organisms, the enzyme alternative oxidase (AOX) functions as the terminal oxidase and has important roles in maintaining metabolic and signaling homeostasis in mitochondria. AOX endows the respiratory system with flexibility in the coupling among the carbon metabolism pathway, electron transport chain (ETC) activity, and ATP turnover. AOX allows electrons to bypass the main cytochrome pathway to restrict the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS).

[Predictive value of PASS score combined with NLR and CRP for infected pancreatic necrosis in patients with severe acute pancreatitis].

Objective: To investigate the predictive value of pancreatitis activity scoring system (PASS) combined with Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) for infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP).

Methods: Clinical data of SAP patients admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2020 to January 2023 were retrospectively collected, including basic information, vital signs at admission, first laboratory indexes within 48 hours of admission. The PASS scores at admission and 24, 48 and 72 hours after admission were calculated.

Sirtuin4 alleviates severe acute pancreatitis by regulating HIF-1α/HO-1 mediated ferroptosis.

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common emergency of the digestive system and serious cases can develop into severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), which ortality rates up to 30%. Sirtuin4 (SIRT4) is a member of the sirtuin family, and plays a key role in inflammation and oxidative stress. However, the potential role of SIRT4 in SAP has yet to be elucidated.

Oridonin ameliorates doxorubicin induced-cardiotoxicity via the E2F1/Sirt6/PGC1α pathway in mice.

Doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity (DIC) arises from mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Oridonin (Ori), a natural tetracycline diterpenoid, has shown cardiac protective effect; however, its role in DIC remains unclear. This study investigates the protective effect of Ori against DIC and elucidates its underlying molecular mechanisms.

Endoscopy-assisted purely total outer wall excision for pediatric Sylvian arachnoid cysts.

Background: To present a novel endoscopy-assisted surgical strategy of Sylvian arachnoid cysts (ACs).

Case Presentation: Endoscopy-assisted surgery was performed on 9 children (May 2019-December 2021). All patients were evaluated with CT and/or MRI and had regular follow-up examinations.

Mitogen activated protein kinase phosphatase 5 alleviates liver ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting TAK1/JNK/p38 pathway.

Mitogen activated protein kinase phosphatase 5 (MKP5) is a member of the MKP family and has been implicated in diverse biological and pathological conditions. However, it is unknown what role MKP5 plays in liver ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. In the present study, we used MKP5 global knockout (KO) and MKP5 overexpressing mice to establish a liver I/R injury model in vivo, and MKP5 knockdown or MKP5 overexpressing HepG2 cells to establish a hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R) model in vitro.

KLF6 alleviates hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting autophagy.

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, a common clinical complication of liver transplantation, gravely affects patient prognosis. Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) constitute a family of C2/H2 zinc finger DNA-binding proteins. KLF6, a member of the KLF protein family, plays crucial roles in proliferation, metabolism, inflammation, and injury responses; however, its role in HIR is largely remains unknown.

Bidirectional Synaptic Phototransistor Based on Two-Dimensional Ferroelectric Semiconductor for Mixed Color Pattern Recognition.

Optoelectronic synaptic devices capable of processing multiwavelength inputs are critical for neuromorphic vision hardware, which remains an important challenge. Here, we develop a bidirectional synaptic phototransistor based on a two-dimensional ferroelectric semiconductor of α-InSe, which exhibits bidirectional potentiated and depressed synaptic weight update under optical pulse stimulation. Importantly, the bidirectional optoelectronic synaptic behavior can be extended to multiwavelengths (blue, green, and red light), which could be used for color recognition.

Natural Flavonoids and Ferroptosis: Potential Therapeutic Opportunities for Human Diseases.

Flavonoids are a class of bioactive phytochemicals containing a core 2-phenylchromone skeleton and are widely found in fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Such natural compounds have gained significant attention due to their various health benefits. Ferroptosis is a recently discovered unique iron-dependent mode of cell death.

Ultra-thin gate insulator of atomic-layer-deposited AlOand HfOfor amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors.

To strengthen the downscaling potential of top-gate amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs), the ultra-thin gate insulator (GI) was comparatively implemented using the atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) AlOand HfO. Both kinds of high-GIs exhibit good insulating properties even with the physical thickness thinning to 4 nm. Compared to the amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs with 4 nm AlOGI, the 4 nm HfOenables a larger GI capacitance, while the HfO-gated TFT suffers higher gate leakage current and poorer subthreshold slope, respectively originating from the inherently small band offset and the highly defective interface between a-IGZO and HfO.

Near-Ideal Top-Gate Controllability of InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors by Suppressing Interface Defects with an Ultrathin Atomic Layer Deposited Gate Insulator.

An ultrathin atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) AlO gate insulator (GI) was implemented for self-aligned top-gate (SATG) amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). Although the 4.0-nm thick AlO exhibited ideal insulating properties, the interaction between ALD AlO and predeposited a-IGZO caused a relatively defective interface, thus giving rise to hysteresis and bias stress instabilities.

Customizing 2.5D Out-of-Plane Architectures for Robust Plasmonic Bound-States-in-the-Continuum Metasurfaces.

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) have a superior ability to confine electromagnetic waves and enhance light-matter interactions. However, the quality-factor of quasi-BIC is extremely sensitive to structural perturbations, thus the BIC metasurfaces usually require a very-high precision nanofabrication technique that greatly restricts their practical applications. Here, distinctive 2.

Integrated genetic analysis of leaf blast resistance in upland rice: QTL mapping, bulked segregant analysis and transcriptome sequencing.

Elite upland rice cultivars have the advantages of less water requirement along with high yield but are usually susceptible to various diseases. Rice blast caused by is the most devastating disease in rice. Identification of new sources of resistance and the introgression of major resistance genes into elite cultivars are required for sustainable rice production.

Oridonin ameliorates acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury through ATF4/PGC-1α pathway.

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose-induced acute liver injury (ALI) causes hepatocyte cell death, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Oridonin (Ori), a covalent NLRP3-inflammasome inhibitor, ameliorates APAP-induced ALI through an unclear molecular mechanism. This study found that Ori decreased hepatic cytochrome P450 2E1 level and increased glutathione content to prevent APAP metabolism, and then reduced the necrotic area, improved liver function, and inhibited APAP-induced proinflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress.

Differential proteomics of placentas reveals metabolic disturbance and oxidative damage participate yak spontaneous miscarriage during late pregnancy.

Background: High spontaneous miscarriage rate in yak, especially during late pregnancy, have caused a great economic loss to herdsmen living in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. However, the mechanism underlying spontaneous miscarriage is still poorly understood. In the present study, placenta protein markers were identified to elucidate the pathological reasons for yak spontaneous miscarriage through isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) proteomic technology and bioinformatic approaches.