Density and distribution patterns of seafloor macrolitter in the eastern Red Sea.

The constant production of plastic and incessant growth of waste pollution continues to alter the marine environment from the coasts and surface waters to the deep sea. The quantification and investigation of macrolitter on the vast seabed of the ocean are challenging tasks that must be undertaken to elucidate the impact of anthropogenic activity on the marine environment and facilitate subsequent implementation of legally binding waste management regulations. In this study, we analyzed >60,000 images collected during 84 dives surveying 62.

Research needs on the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship in drylands.

Research carried out in drylands over the last decade has provided major insights on the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship (BEFr) and about how biodiversity interacts with other important factors, such as climate and soil properties, to determine ecosystem functioning and services. Despite this, there are important gaps in our understanding of the BEFr in drylands that should be addressed by future research. In this perspective we highlight some of these gaps, which include: 1) the need to study the BEFr in bare soils devoid of perennial vascular vegetation and biocrusts, a major feature of dryland ecosystems, 2) evaluating how intra-specific trait variability, a key but understudied facet of functional diversity, modulate the BEFr, 3) addressing the influence of biotic interactions on the BEFr, including plant-animal interactions and those between microorganisms associated to biocrusts, 4) studying how differences in species-area relationships and beta diversity are associated with ecosystem functioning, and 5) considering the role of temporal variability and human activities, both present and past, particularly those linked to land use (e.

Advances in the Catalytic Conversion of Ethanol into Nonoxygenated Added-Value Chemicals.

Given that ethanol can be obtained from abundant biomass resources (e.g., crops, sugarcane, cellulose, and algae), waste, and CO, its conversion into value-added chemicals holds promise for the sustainable production of high-demand chemical commodities.

Lubricated Surface in a Vertical Double-Sided Architecture for Radiative Cooling and Atmospheric Water Harvesting.

Radiative cooling significantly lowers condenser temperatures below ambient levels, enabling atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) without additional energy. However, traditional sky-facing condensers have low cooling power density, and water droplets remain pinned on surface, requiring active condensate collection. To overcome these challenges, a lubricated surface (LS) coating-consisting of highly scalable polydimethylsiloxane elastomer lubricated with silicone oil-is introduced on the condenser side in a vertical double-sided architecture.

Carbon and boron nitride quantum dots as optical sensor probes for selective detection of toxic metals in drinking water: a quantum chemical prediction through structure- and morphology-dependent electronic and optical properties.

Toxic metals present in drinking water pose a serious threat to the environment and human beings when present in abundance. In this work, we investigated the sensing ability of quantum dots (pristine CQDs, boron/nitrogen/sulphur (B/N/S)-doped CQDs, and BNQDs) of various sizes and morphologies (rectangular, circular, and triangular) towards toxic metals such as arsenic (As), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) using quantum chemical density functional theory calculations in both gas and water phases. We probed the structural, electronic, and optical properties of the QDs.

Hydrogen storage with gravel and pipes in lakes and reservoirs.

Climate change is projected to have substantial economic, social, and environmental impacts worldwide. Currently, the leading solutions for hydrogen storage are in salt caverns, and depleted natural gas reservoirs. However, the required geological formations are limited to certain regions.

Perpendicular crossing chains enable high mobility in a noncrystalline conjugated polymer.

The nature of interchain π-system contacts, and their relationship to hole transport, are elucidated for the high-mobility, noncrystalline conjugated polymer C16-IDTBT by the application of scanning tunneling microscopy, molecular dynamics, and quantum chemical calculations. The microstructure is shown to favor an unusual packing motif in which paired chains cross-over one another at near-perpendicular angles. By linking to mesoscale microstructural features, revealed by coarse-grained molecular dynamics and previous studies, and performing simulations of charge transport, it is demonstrated that the high mobility of C16-IDTBT can be explained by the promotion of a highly interconnected transport network, stemming from the adoption of perpendicular contacts at the nanoscale, in combination with fast intrachain transport.

Aggregation Induced Emission-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks for High-Performance Optical Wireless Communication.

Here, we report the first utilization of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) in optical wireless communication (OWC) applications. In the solid form, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogen often shows promising emissive characteristics that augment radiative decays and improve fluorescence. We have synthesized an through the Knoevenagel condensation reaction by taking advantage of the ability to carefully design and alter the COF structure by integrating an AIE luminogen with linear building blocks.

The Arthropoda-specific Tramtrack group BTB protein domains use previously unknown interface to form hexamers.

BTB (bric-a-brack, Tramtrack, and broad complex) is a diverse group of protein-protein interaction domains found within metazoan proteins. Transcription factors contain a dimerizing BTB subtype with a characteristic N-terminal extension. The Tramtrack group (TTK) is a distinct type of BTB domain, which can multimerize.

Silicon Clathrate-Supported Catalysts with Low Work Functions for Ammonia Synthesis.

Diamond-type silicon has a work function of ≈4.8 eV, and conventional n- or p-type doping modifies the value only between 4.6 and 5.

Losses and destabilization of soil organic carbon stocks in coastal wetlands converted into aquaculture ponds.

Coastal-wetlands play a crucial role as carbon (C) reservoirs on Earth due to their C pool composition and functional sink, making them significant for mitigating global climate change. However, due to the development and utilization of wetland resources, many wetlands have been transformed into other land-use types. The current study focuses on the alterations in soil organic-C (SOC) in coastal-wetlands following reclamation into aquaculture ponds.

The Effect of Organic Semiconductor Electron Affinity on Preventing Parasitic Oxidation Reactions Limiting Performance of n-Type Organic Electrochemical Transistors.

A key challenge in the development of organic mixed ionic-electronic conducting materials (OMIEC) for high performance electrochemical transistors is their stable performance in ambient. When operating in aqueous electrolyte, potential reactions of the electrochemically injected electrons with air and water could hinder their persistence, leading to a reduction in charge transport. Here, the impact of deepening the LUMO energy level of a series of electron-transporting semiconducting polymers is evaluated, and subsequently rendering the most common oxidation processes of electron polarons thermodynamically unfavorable, on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) performance.

Pitfalls in measurements of R relaxation rates of protein backbone N nuclei.

The dynamics of the backbone and side-chains of protein are routinely studied by interpreting experimentally determined N spin relaxation rates. R(N), the longitudinal relaxation rate, reports on fast motions and encodes, together with the transverse relaxation R, structural information about the shape of the molecule and the orientation of the amide bond vectors in the internal diffusion frame. Determining error-free N longitudinal relaxation rates remains a challenge for small, disordered, and medium-sized proteins.

Spatiotemporal variability of hydro-meteorological droughts over the Arabian Peninsula and associated mechanisms.

This study examines the spatiotemporal variability of drought and associated physical processes over the Arabian Peninsula (AP). For this purpose, we computed the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) for the period 1951-2020 using the Climate Research Unit and fifth generation ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis datasets. By applying rotated empirical orthogonal function analysis on the SPEI data, we identified four homogeneous and coherent drought regions.

Potential Trimethylamine (TMA)-Producing Bacteria in patients with chronic kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis.

Introduction: Trimethylamine (TMA), produced by gut microbiota, is the precursor of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), a uremic toxin that accumulates in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Elevated TMAO plasma levels are associated with cardiovascular complications and CKD progression.

Objective: To evaluate the association between gut microbiota composition and TMAO plasma levels in CKD patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD).

Fractionation by Spatially Heterogeneous Diffusion: Experiments and the Two-Component Random Walk Model.

The fundamental question regarding the fractionation phenomenon is whether diffusion alone is responsible for it or whether an additional advection dynamic is involved. We studied the fractionation by diffusion of particles in spatially heterogeneous environments. By experimentally observing the time-sequential fractionation patterns of dye particles diffusing across a solid-solid interface of varying polyacrylamide gel densities, we found that the two-component diffusion model accurately captures the observed fractionation dynamics.

Fusion of FokI and catalytically inactive prokaryotic Argonautes enables site-specific programmable DNA cleavage.

Site-specific nucleases are crucial for genome engineering applications in medicine and agriculture. The ideal site-specific nucleases are easily reprogrammable, highly specific in target site recognition, and robust in nuclease activities. Prokaryotic Argonaute (pAgo) proteins have received much attention as biotechnological tools due to their ability to recognize specific target sequences without a protospacer adjacent motif, but their lack of intrinsic dsDNA unwinding activity limits their utility in key applications such as gene editing.

Reducing education inequalities through cloud-enabled live-cell biotechnology.

Biotechnology holds the potential to drive innovations across various fields from agriculture to medicine. However, despite numerous interventions, biotechnology education remains highly unequal worldwide. Historically, the high costs and potential exposure to hazardous materials have hindered biotechnology education.

High-throughput transposon mutagenesis in the family Enterobacteriaceae reveals core essential genes and rapid turnover of essentiality.

The Enterobacteriaceae are a scientifically and medically important clade of bacteria, containing the model organism , as well as major human pathogens including and . Essential gene sets have been determined for several members of the Enterobacteriaceae, with the Keio single-gene deletion library often regarded as a gold standard. However, it remains unclear how gene essentiality varies between related strains and species.

Mapping Surface-Defect and Ions Migration in Mixed-Cation Perovskite Crystals.

Single crystal perovskites have garnered significant attention as potential replacements for existing absorber layer materials. Despite the extensive investigations on their photoinduced charge-carriers dynamics, most of the time-resolved techniques focus on bulk properties, neglecting surface characteristic which plays a crucial role for their optoelectronic performance. Herein, 4D ultrafast scanning electron microscopy (4D-USEM) is utilized to probing the photogenerated carrier transport at the first few nanometers, alongside density functional theory (DFT) to track both defect centers and ions migration.

Assessment of Fractal Synchronization during an Epileptic Seizure.

In this paper, we define fractal synchronization () based on the idea of stochastic synchronization and propose a mathematical apparatus for estimating . One major advantage of our proposed approach is that fractal synchronization makes it possible to estimate the aggregate strength of the connection on multiple time scales between two projections of the attractor, which are time series with a fractal structure. We believe that one of the promising uses of is the assessment of the interdependence of encephalograms.