Cas9-Rep fusion tethers donor DNA in vivo and boosts the efficiency of HDR-mediated genome editing.

Genome editing based on the homology-directed repair (HDR) pathway enables scar-free and precise genetic manipulations. However, the low frequency of HDR hinders its application in plant genome editing. In this study, we engineered the fusion of Cas9 and a viral replication protein (Rep) as a molecular bridge to tether donor DNA in vivo, which enhances the efficiency of targeted gene insertion via the HDR pathway.

A Coherent-Lattice Atomic-Level Heterojunction Enabling Efficient and Selective Upcycling of Glycerol for Lactic Acid and H Production.

Photocatalytic upcycling of glycerol, a significant byproduct of biodiesel, to value-added lactic acid coupled with H production shows great promise for resource utilization and renewable fuel production. However, this reaction is currently limited to low efficiency and moderate selectivity due to insufficient light absorption, rapid charge carrier recombination, and unfavorable reaction kinetics. Herein, we report an atomic-level heterojunction photocatalyst consisting of CdZnS embedded uniformly with Cu-S moieties at the atomic-level scale.

Precise morphology control of all-organic core-shell droplets for synthesis of microencapsulated phase change materials through AC electric fields.

Hypothesis: Complex emulsions usually consist of aqueous phases, like oil-in-water-in-oil (o/w/o) and water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w), serving foundational roles in colloid science. Oil-in-oil-oil (o/o/o) emulsions offer new avenues for non-aqueous reagents but face challenges in balancing the forces between multiple organic phases.

Experiments: In this work, we generate o/o/o emulsions by integrating an AC electric field with a double cross-junction microchannel.

Characterizing Droughts During the Rice Growth Period in Northeast China Based on Daily SPEI Under Climate Change.

In agricultural production, droughts occurring during the crucial growth periods of crops hinder crop development, while the daily-scale standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index () can be applied to accurately identify the drought characteristics. In this study, we used the statistical downscaling method to obtain the daily precipitation (), maximum air temperature () and minimum air temperature () during the rice growing season in Heilongjiang Province from 2015 to 2100 under the SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.

Targeting resident astrocytes attenuates neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury.

Astrocytes derive from different lineages and play a critical role in neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury (SCI). Whether selectively eliminating these main origins of astrocytes in lumbar enlargement could attenuate SCI-induced neuropathic pain remains unclear. Through transgenic mice injected with an adeno-associated virus vector and diphtheria toxin, astrocytes in lumbar enlargement were lineage traced, targeted, and selectively eliminated.

Modeling sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca in rat cardiomyocytes.

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) primarily serves as the intracellular Ca store in cardiac myocytes, mediating cellular function under cardiac physiology and diseases. However, the properties of cardiac SR Ca have not yet been fully determined, particularly in rats and mice, which are the most commonly used experimental species in studies on cardiac physiology and diseases. Here, we developed a spatially detailed numerical model to deduce Ca movements inside the junctional SR (jSR) cisternae of rat cardiomyocytes.

Optimizing Irrigation and Nitrogen Application to Enhance Millet Yield, Improve Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Reduce Inorganic Nitrogen Accumulation in Northeast China.

Enhancing irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer application has become a vital strategy for ensuring food security in the face of population growth and resource scarcity. A 2-year experiment was conducted to determine to investigate the effects of different irrigation lower limits and nitrogen fertilizer application amounts on millet growth, yield, water use efficiency (WUE), N utilization, and inorganic nitrogen accumulation in the soil in 2021 and 2022. The experiment was designed with four irrigation lower limits, corresponding to 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% of the field capacity (FC), referred to as I, I, I, and I.

Symmetry Restoration and Quantum Mpemba Effect in Symmetric Random Circuits.

Entanglement asymmetry, which serves as a diagnostic tool for symmetry breaking and a proxy for thermalization, has recently been proposed and studied in the context of symmetry restoration for quantum many-body systems undergoing a quench. In this Letter, we investigate symmetry restoration in various symmetric random quantum circuits, particularly focusing on the U(1) symmetry case. In contrast to nonsymmetric random circuits where the U(1) symmetry of a small subsystem can always be restored at late times, we reveal that symmetry restoration can fail in U(1)-symmetric circuits for certain weak symmetry-broken initial states in finite-size systems.

Engineering of MnTe/MnO Heterostructures with Interfacial Electric Field Modulation for Efficient and Durable Li-O Batteries.

Design and synthesis of highly active and robust bifunctional cathode catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are of vital significance for practical applications of lithium-oxygen (Li-O) batteries. Herein, a built-in electric field (BIEF) strategy is reported to fabricate MnTe/MnO heterostructures with a large work function difference (ΔΦ) as a bifunctional cathode catalyst in Li-O batteries. The MnTe/MnO heterostructures with nanosheets and microporous structures result in an abundance of exposed active sites and facilitate mass transfer.

Artificial intelligence for geoscience: Progress, challenges, and perspectives.

This paper explores the evolution of geoscientific inquiry, tracing the progression from traditional physics-based models to modern data-driven approaches facilitated by significant advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and data collection techniques. Traditional models, which are grounded in physical and numerical frameworks, provide robust explanations by explicitly reconstructing underlying physical processes. However, their limitations in comprehensively capturing Earth's complexities and uncertainties pose challenges in optimization and real-world applicability.

Variation of surface solar radiation components from 2016 to 2020 in China: Perspective from geostationary satellite observation with a high spatiotemporal resolution.

At present, traditional satellite datasets still grapple with inadequacies in terms of capturing solar radiation with fine spatiotemporal granularity. This study utilizes the high spatiotemporal resolution of CARE data, which is developed based on geostationary satellite observations, and employs multivariate analysis techniques to conduct an in-depth investigation into the multidimensional spatiotemporal variations of different types of solar radiation across various regions in China from 2016 to 2020. In addition, the potential of solar energy resources was also assessed using cluster analysis method.

Machine learning enables electrical resistivity modeling of printed lines in aerosol jet 3D printing.

Among various non-contact direct ink writing techniques, aerosol jet printing (AJP) stands out due to its distinct advantages, including a more adaptable working distance (2-5 mm) and higher resolution (~ 10 μm). These characteristics make AJP a promising technology for the precise customization of intricate electrical functional devices. However, complex interactions among the machine, process, and materials result in low controllability over the electrical performance of printed lines.

Long-Term Straw Incorporation under Controlled Irrigation Improves Soil Quality of Paddy Field and Rice Yield in Northeast China.

Soil quality is an indicator of the ability to ensure ecological security and sustainable soil usage. The effects of long-term straw incorporation and different irrigation regimes on the yield and soil quality of paddy fields in cold regions remain unclear. This study established four treatments: controlled irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 3 years (C3), controlled irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 7 years (C7), flooded irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 3 years (F3), and flooded irrigation + continuous straw incorporation for 7 years (F7).

Self-Catalyzed Growth of CoN and N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes toward Bifunctional Cathode for Highly Safe and Flexible Li-Air Batteries.

The practical application of high-energy density lithium-oxygen (Li-O) batteries is severely impeded by the notorious cycling stability and safety, which mainly comes from slow kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at cathodes, causing inferior redox overpotentials and reactive lithium metal in flammable liquid electrolyte. Herein, a bifunctional electrode, a safe gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), and a robust lithium anode are proposed to alleviate above problems. The bifunctional electrode is composed of N-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) and CoN by chemical vapor deposition self-catalyzed growth on carbon cloth (N-CNTs@CoN@CC).

Advantages of transformer and its application for medical image segmentation: a survey.

Purpose: Convolution operator-based neural networks have shown great success in medical image segmentation over the past decade. The U-shaped network with a codec structure is one of the most widely used models. Transformer, a technology used in natural language processing, can capture long-distance dependencies and has been applied in Vision Transformer to achieve state-of-the-art performance on image classification tasks.

Pan-genome Analysis of Gene Family and Function Exploration of in Cucumber.

Cucumber is an economically important vegetable crop, and the warts (composed of spines and Tubercules) of cucumber fruit are an important quality trait that influences its commercial value. WOX transcription factors are known to have pivotal roles in regulating various aspects of plant growth and development, but their studies in cucumber are limited. Here, genome-wide identification of cucumber genes was performed using the pan-genome analysis of 12 cucumber varieties.

Multi-domain feature joint optimization based on multi-view learning for improving the EEG decoding.

Background: Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems based on motor imagery (MI) have been widely used in neurorehabilitation. Feature extraction applied by the common spatial pattern (CSP) is very popular in MI classification. The effectiveness of CSP is highly affected by the frequency band and time window of electroencephalogram (EEG) segments and channels selected.

Expanding the chemical space of enol silyl ethers: catalytic dicarbofunctionalization enabled by iron catalysis.

Enol silyl ethers are versatile, robust, and readily accessible substrates widely used in chemical synthesis. However, the conventional reactivity of these motifs has been limited to classical two electron (2-e) enolate-type chemistry with electrophilic partners or as radical acceptors in one electron (1-e) reactivity leading, in both cases, to exclusive α-monofunctionalization of carbonyls. Herein we describe a mild, fast, and operationally simple one-step protocol that combines readily available fluoroalkyl halides, silyl enol ethers, and, for the first time, hetero(aryl) Grignard reagents to promote selective dicarbofunctionalization of enol silyl ethers.

Mutating the maternal haploid inducer gene CsDMP in cucumber produces haploids in planta.

Mutation of in cucumber induces in vivo maternal haploids and suggests prospects for cucurbit breeding.

Effect of acupuncture for patients with knee osteoarthritis: study protocol for a double-dummy randomized controlled trial.

Background: Acupuncture has been used to relieve chronic pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), but the evidence is contradictory. Therefore, we carefully designed a double-dummy randomized controlled trial (RCT) to explore the therapeutic effect of acupuncture for KOA.

Methods/design: A total of 138 eligible participants with KOA who consent to participate will be randomly divided into Groups A, B, and C in a ratio of 1:1:1.

Compound Droplet Impact on a Thin Hydrophobic Cylinder.

The impact of compound droplets on solid surfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon that pervades both the natural and technological fields. A comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of the droplet impact on solid surfaces is therefore of paramount importance for a broad range of applications. In this study, we investigate the impact of a water-in-oil compound droplet on a thin hydrophobic cylindrical surface, with regard to the Weber number and cylinder dimensions.

EVs-mediated delivery of CB2 receptor agonist for Alzheimer's disease therapy.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a typical neurodegenerative disease that leads to irreversible neuronal degeneration, and effective treatment remains elusive due to the unclear mechanism. We utilized biocompatible mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles as carriers loaded with the CB2 target medicine AM1241 (EVs-AM1241) to protect against neurodegenerative progression and neuronal function in AD model mice. According to the results, EVs-AM1241 were successfully constructed and exhibited better bioavailability and therapeutic effects than bare AM1241.

Unresolved Excess Accumulation of Myelin-Derived Cholesterol Contributes to Scar Formation after Spinal Cord Injury.

Spinal cord injury triggers complex pathological cascades, resulting in destructive tissue damage and incomplete tissue repair. Scar formation is generally considered a barrier for regeneration in the central nervous system. However, the intrinsic mechanism of scar formation after spinal cord injury has not been fully elucidated.