Publications by authors named "Xiangjun Kong"

Climatic change and extreme weather events have become a major threat to global agricultural productivity. Plants coexist with microorganisms, which play a significant role in influencing their growth and functional traits. The rhizosphere serves as an ecological niche encompassing plant roots and is a chemically complex environment that supports the growth and development of diverse plant-interactive microbes.

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Melatonin helps to regulate various physiological processes in plants, including growth, seed germination, and stress responses. However, the mechanism of how melatonin treatments affect soil microbe diversity and ecology, and plant growth needs to be better understood. Here, we report that melatonin coordinates interactions between soil microorganisms and root exudates to create a friendly soil environment for peanut growth under a controlled environment.

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Three dinuclear Pd(II) complexes (1, 2, and 3) with intense red phosphorescence at room temperature are here synthesized using strong ligand field strength compounds. All three complexes are characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and elemental analyses. Complexes 2 and 3 are characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

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Every late autumn, fluttering poplar leaves scatter throughout the campus and city streets. In this work, poplar leaves were used as the raw material, while HPO and KOH were used as activators and urea was used as the nitrogen source to prepare biomass based-activated carbons (ACs) to capture CO. The pore structures, functional groups and morphology, and desorption performance of the prepared ACs were characterized; the CO adsorption, regeneration, and kinetics were also evaluated.

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  • * An observational study of 15,792 individuals found that low serum potassium and magnesium levels were associated with a higher risk of AF, while increased phosphate levels were also linked to greater incidence, but calcium levels showed no correlation.
  • * Despite these associations, the study concluded that serum electrolytes are not causal factors for AF development, suggesting they could be used as prognostic indicators rather than direct causes.
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  • Researchers are exploring organic amine-modified mesoporous carriers as potential sorbents for carbon monoxide (CO) adsorption, but face challenges related to the agglomeration and volatility of liquid amines.
  • In this study, four different ether additives were used with polyethylene polyamine (PEPA) to create composite materials that enhance CO adsorption in MCM-41, a type of mesoporous silica.
  • Results showed that adding 2-propoxyethanol (1E) significantly improved CO adsorption capacity, efficiency, and the sorbent's ability to be regenerated, with the best performance observed at specific temperatures and gas flow rates.
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Early repolarization syndrome (ERS) is defined as occurring in patients with early repolarization pattern who have survived idiopathic ventricular fibrillation with clinical evaluation unrevealing for other explanations. The pathophysiologic basis of the ERS is currently uncertain. The objective of the present study was to examine the electrophysiological mechanism of ERS utilizing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing.

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Background: Depressive disorders (DD) including dysthymia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are common among adolescents and young adults. However, global trends in DD burden remain unclear.

Methods: We analysed data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study on incidence, prevalence, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and mortality due to DD from 1990 to 2019 at global, regional and national levels.

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  • A new, efficient method has been created for a Staudinger [2 + 2] annulation reaction using α-diazo ketones and dibenzo oxazepine/thiazepine-imines without any catalysts.
  • This process allows for the easy synthesis of complex tetracyclic β-lactams that include a quaternary carbon center.
  • It has shown high effectiveness in experiments, achieving yields greater than 99% with 37 different compounds tested.
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Anoectochilus roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl. (AR) has been traditionally used to treat inflammatory diseases, but the specific mechanism underlying its hepatoprotective effect remains unclear.

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  • - Hypoandrogenism is linked to erectile dysfunction (ED) and affects the function of TRPV1-4 channels that help regulate vascular smooth muscle, but the exact relationship is not well understood.
  • - In a study involving castrated rats, it was found that low androgen levels led to decreased TRPV4 expression and reduced levels of important compounds (like nitric oxide) necessary for erectile function.
  • - Interventions like gene transfection to boost TRPV4 expression showed promise in improving erectile function, indicating a potential therapeutic target for treating ED related to hypoandrogenism.
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Ordinal regression (OR) aims to solve multiclass classification problems with ordinal classes. Support vector OR (SVOR) is a typical OR algorithm and has been extensively used in OR problems. In this article, based on the characteristics of OR problems, we propose a novel pinball loss function and present an SVOR method with pinball loss (pin-SVOR).

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Difenoconazole (DFZ) is a broad-spectrum fungicide widely applied in wheat production. However, excessive accumulation is linked to phytotoxicity. The effects of DFZ on plants and the response mechanisms to DFZ toxicity are poorly understood.

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Background: The increased risk of cardiovascular events in patients prescribed macrolides has been subject to debate for decades.

Methods: Medline, EMBASE databases and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from inception until August 31, 2022 for studies investigating the link between macrolides and cardiovascular risk.

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We report three Pt(II) diimine complexes containing ancillary ligands of phenylpyridine furnished with anionic -monocarborane clusters [CBH]. Three neutral complexes exhibit intensive phosphorescence in the solid state and complex 1 was used to detect acetonitrile vapor in a quartz plate.

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Root architecture plays a fundamental role in crop yield, which is sensitive to nitrogen fertilizer. Although it is well studied that nitrogen fertilizer significantly promotes peanut ( L.) growth and yield, less information was available on how its root development responds to nitrogen deficiency.

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  • * By utilizing activators KOH and KCO in a simple one-step process, the resulting porous carbon achieved an impressive CO adsorption capacity of 2.41 mmol/g and maintained high performance through multiple regeneration cycles.
  • * The porous structure of the carbons formed, containing beneficial functional groups, not only enhances CO capture efficiency but also helps lower the overall costs for both the sorbent and the carbon capture process by utilizing agricultural waste.
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  • - Melatonin, a hormone found in plants and animals, helps cotton seedlings resist harmful effects of cadmium (Cd) stress by reducing oxidative damage and improving growth, particularly through an 8-day study comparing treated vs. untreated plants.
  • - Treated seedlings showed better photosynthetic capacity and higher fresh (17.4%) and dry (19.3%) weights than untreated ones, linked to melatonin's ability to downregulate Cd transporter genes in roots, limiting cadmium's movement to leaves.
  • - Melatonin also enhanced protective enzyme activities and triggered signaling pathways that adjust stomatal function, ultimately safeguarding cellular components like ribosomes from cadmium-related oxidative injury.
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aiton (SFA) and its main bioactive metabolite matrine are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) preparations and have achieved good curative effects for the treatment of various tumors. However, the mechanisms underlying SFA and matrine individually and in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs for treatment of gastric cancer (GC) remain unclear. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying the ability of SFA and matrine individually and in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs to inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis of human GC cells.

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The accumulation and incineration of crop waste pollutes the environment and releases a large amount of CO. In this study, corncob crop waste was directly activated using solid KOH in an inert atmosphere to prepare porous activated carbon (AC) to capture CO, and to introduce N-containing functional groups that favour CO adsorption, urea was mixed with corncob and KOH to prepare N-doped AC. The physical and chemical properties of the AC were characterized, and the effects of the mass ratio of KOH and urea to corncob, the activation temperature and time as well as regeneration were investigated to explore the optimal preparation process.

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  • Transcription factors, especially PAX1, are crucial in embryonic development and play significant roles in various tissues, including the skeletal system and thymus.
  • Recent research highlights PAX1's involvement in cancer, expanding its known functions beyond development.
  • This summary discusses how PAX1 mutations or dysregulation are linked to human diseases, offering insights into the molecular mechanisms behind congenital disorders and cancers.
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  • The study focuses on novel platinum triplet emitters with cyclometalated -pyridyl-carbazole ligands that incorporate -monocarborane clusters to improve blue phosphorescent materials for displays and lighting.
  • These platinum phosphors exhibit strong blue emission at 439 nm and a photoluminescent quantum yield of 60%, with their luminous efficiency studied through various advanced techniques such as NMR and X-ray diffraction.
  • The research successfully developed a deep-blue OLED that utilized these emitters, achieving notable blue luminescence and an external quantum efficiency of 6.2%, paving the way for future innovations in phosphorescent materials.
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Heme proteins have recently emerged as promising artificial metalloenzymes for catalyzing diverse reactions. In this report, L29E Mb, a single mutant of myoglobin (Mb), was reconstituted by replacing the heme with a sodium copper cholorophyllin (CuCP) to form a new green artificial enzyme (named CuCP-L29E Mb). The reconstituted protein CuCP-L29E Mb was found to exhibit hydrolytic DNA cleavage activity, which was not depending on O.

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