Enhanced risk of record-breaking regional temperatures during the 2023-24 El Niño.

In 2023, the development of El Niño is poised to drive a global upsurge in surface air temperatures (SAT), potentially resulting in unprecedented warming worldwide. Nevertheless, the regional patterns of SAT anomalies remain diverse, obscuring where historical warming records may be surpassed in the forthcoming year. Our study underscores the significant influence of El Niño and the persistence of climate signals on the inter-annual variability of regional SAT, both in amplitude and spatial distribution.

Methane Emissions from Wetlands in China and Their Climate Feedbacks in the 21st Century.

Wetlands are large sinks of carbon dioxide (CO) and sources of methane (CH). Both fluxes can be altered by wetland management (e.g.

A Note on Causation versus Correlation in an Extreme Situation.

Recently, it has been shown that the information flow and causality between two time series can be inferred in a rigorous and quantitative sense, and, besides, the resulting causality can be normalized. A corollary that follows is, in the linear limit, causation implies correlation, while correlation does not imply causation. Now suppose there is an event taking a harmonic form (sine/cosine), and it generates through some process another event so that always lags by a phase of π/2.

Polluted dust promotes new particle formation and growth.

Understanding new particle formation and their subsequent growth in the troposphere has a critical impact on our ability to predict atmospheric composition and global climate change. High pre-existing particle loadings have been thought to suppress the formation of new atmospheric aerosol particles due to high condensation and coagulation sinks. Here, based on field measurements at a mountain site in South China, we report, for the first time, in situ observational evidence on new particle formation and growth in remote ambient atmosphere during heavy dust episodes mixed with anthropogenic pollution.

Tumor-suppressive microRNA-449a induces growth arrest and senescence by targeting E2F3 in human lung cancer cells.

MicroRNA-449a (miR-449a) was significantly downregulated in 156 lung cancer tissues (p<0.001). We found that the low expression of miR-449a was highly correlated with cancer recurrence and survival of lung cancer patients.

Alkane-modified low-molecular-weight polyethylenimine with enhanced gene silencing for siRNA delivery.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) has tremendous potential as a therapeutic agent for diverse diseases; however, due to its susceptibility to degradation and poor cellular uptake, the low efficiency of administration has been the most important limiting factor for clinical applications of siRNA. Herein, we synthesized alkyl chain modified low-molecular-weight polyethylenimines (LMW PEIs) and found that hydrophobically modified PEIs displayed enhanced efficiency in siRNA-mediated knockdown of target genes. To elucidate the mechanism for increased delivery, we characterized the polymers' physicochemical properties and bioactivity via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gel retardation assay, dynamic laser scattering (DLS) analysis, confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry.

Multifunctional triblock co-polymer mP3/4HB-b-PEG-b-lPEI for efficient intracellular siRNA delivery and gene silencing.

A non-viral siRNA carrier composed of mono-methoxy-poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate)-block-polyethylene glycol-block-linear polyethyleneimine (mP3/4HB-b-PEG-b-lPEI) was synthesized using 1800 Da linear polyethyleneimine and evaluated for siRNA delivery. Our study demonstrated that siRNA could be efficiently combined with mP3/4HB-b-PEG-b-lPEI (mAG) co-polymer and was protected from nuclease degradation. The combined siRNA were released from the complexes easily under heparin competition.

Mono-methoxy-poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate)-graft-hyper-branched polyethylenimine copolymers for siRNA delivery.

A class of non-viral siRNA vectors consisting of biodegradable poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHA) grafted onto branched poly(ethyleneimine) (bPEI, 25 kDa) was synthesized and evaluated for siRNA delivery. The mPHA-g-bPEI copolymers were synthesized through Michael addition between acrylated mono-methoxy-poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (mPHA-acrylated) and bPEI with various block length poly(hydroxyalkanoates) from 1300 to 2900 Da. Our research showed that mPHA-g-bPEI copolymers could effectively bind siRNA, protect it from degradation by nucleases and efficiently release the complexed siRNA in the presence of low concentrations of polyanionic heparin.

Silencing of Rieske iron-sulfur protein using chemically synthesised siRNA as a potential biopesticide against Plutella xylostella.

Background: Extensive applications and frequent long-term use of pesticides can affect behavioural mechanisms and physiological and biochemical aspects of insects, leading to resistance. However, insect control strategies involving a different mode of action would be valuable for managing the emergence of insect resistance. In this context, the development of RNA interference technology has brought a turning point in the creation of new biopesticides.

Identification of two novel membrane proteins from the Tiger frog virus (TFV).

The Tiger frog virus (TFV) belongs to the genus Ranavirus in the family Iridoviridae, and its genome was completely sequenced in 2002. In order to better understand the viral structure and functional genes involved in infection and virus-host interactions, two candidate genes, ORF001L and ORF020R, were selected for our study. ORF001L and ORF020R were analyzed by genomic comparison and by using the TMHMM software.