Dimerizing DNA-AgNCs a C-Ag-C structure for fluorescence sensing with dual-output signals.

The unique insertion capability of Ag into cytosine-cytosine (C-Ag-C) mismatch-base pairs enables precise fabrication of DNA-trapped silver nanoclusters (DNA-AgNCs) through varying the DNA sequences, thereby offering precise assembly of DNA-AgNCs and demonstrating great fluorescence applications. However, most of the DNA-AgNC-based fluorescence sensors have a single output signal. Herein, we developed a dimerized DNA-AgNC system through C-Ag-C connection at the 3'-end of a designed DNA.

Applying microbial biostimulants and drought-tolerant genotypes to enhance barley growth and yield under drought stress.

With climate change, the frequency of regions experiencing water scarcity is increasing annually, posing a significant challenge to crop yield. Barley, a staple crop consumed and cultivated globally, is particularly susceptible to the detrimental effects of drought stress, leading to reduced yield production. Water scarcity adversely affects multiple aspects of barley growth, including seed germination, biomass production, shoot and root characteristics, water and osmotic status, photosynthesis, and induces oxidative stress, resulting in considerable losses in grain yield and its components.

Drought-Induced Weakening of Temperature Control on Ecosystem Carbon Uptake Across Northern Lands.

Rapid warming in northern lands has led to increased ecosystem carbon uptake. It remains unclear, however, whether and how the beneficial effects of warming on carbon uptake will continue with climate change. Moreover, the role played by water stress in temperature control on ecosystem carbon uptake remains highly uncertain.

Treatment effects of nitrogen and phosphorus addition on foliar traits in six northern hardwood tree species.

Foliar traits can reflect fitness responses to environmental changes, such as changes in nutrient availability. Species may respond differently to these changes due to differences in traits and their plasticity. Traits and community composition together can influence forest nutrient cycling.

Experimental investigation on the seismic resistance of RC columns after acid rain corrosion.

Acid rain can significantly undermine the structural integrity and seismic resilience of concrete structures, posing substantial risks of catastrophic failures and jeopardizing safety. However, studies on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns affected by acid rain corrosion remain nascent. Therefore, this study explored the impact of acid-rain corrosion extent and axial compression ratio on the seismic behavior of RC columns that experienced flexural failure using an artificial rapid corrosion method and pseudo-static test in sequence.

Recent advances in isolation, structures, and bioactivities of Ficus carica L. polysaccharides: A review.

Ficus carica (F. carica) is a well-known medicinal and edible plant with high nutritive values. Polysaccharides are the primary and important bioactive components in F.

Integrated Quantitative Tracing for Karst Groundwater Contamination: A Case Study of Landfill in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, China.

Sudden groundwater pollution in karst areas poses a serious threat to drinking water safety. Tracing contamination sources is crucial for managing and remediating groundwater pollution. Traditional tracing methods often lack accuracy, so this study combined multiple techniques to trace and quantify pollution sources near the municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, China.

Green synthesis of water-compatible layer-by-layer assembled sandwich bread-like molecularly imprinted polymers for selective recognition of baicalin from Scutellariae Radix.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are typically synthesized in organic solvents, leading to poor compatibility with water, weak affinity and selectivity for target molecules in aqueous media. To address these challenges, a green and sustainable synthesis of sandwich bread-like ATP@MIP was conducted using polyethylenimide (PEI) and deep eutectic solvent (DES) as hydrophilic bi-functional monomers via layer-by-layer self-assembly on the attapulgite (ATP) carrier. The new ATP@MIP can provide a higher density of imprinting sites with more orderly and uniform distribution due to inhibiting the competitive polymerization between PEI and DES, thereby significantly enhancing recognition ability.

Facile fabrication of biocompatible carbon dots from egg white by one-step neutralization heat reaction: a capillary array-based fluorimetric strategy for high-throughput detection of total iron ions in fish blood.

Water-soluble and biocompatible protein carbon dots (P-CDs) were simply prepared from egg white by a rapid one-step neutralization heat reaction. Unexpectedly, the thus-fabricated P-CDs could present excitation-dependent tunable fluorescence that could be quenched specifically by Fe and Fe ions with obvious color changes. A high-throughput fluorimetric platform was thereby developed by coating the P-CDs onto a capillary array for detection of total iron ions in fish blood samples, with a linear concentration range of 0.

Effect of Canna edulis starch addition on the properties of flour, rheology of dough and quality of semi-dry noodles.

Background: Canna edulis is a high-quality resistant starch raw material, especially for making flour products. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Canna edulis starch (CES) on the properties of flour, rheology of dough and quality of semi-dry noodles. The CES replaced part of the wheat flour in the semi-dry noodle formula.

Optimizing soil health through activated acacia biochar under varying irrigation regimes and cultivars for sustainable wheat cultivation.

Wheat, a staple food crop globally, faces the challenges of limited water resources and sustainable soil management practices. The pivotal elements of the current study include the integration of activated acacia biochar (AAB) in wheat cultivation under varying irrigation regimes (IR). A field trial was conducted in the Botanical Garden, University of the Punjab, Lahore during 2023-2024, designed as a split-split-plot arrangement with RCBD comprising three AAB levels (0T, 5T, and 10T, T = tons per hectare) three wheat cultivars (Dilkash-2020, Akbar-2019, and FSD-08) receiving five IR levels (100%, 80%, 70%, 60%, and 50% field capacity).

Sustainable management of riverine NO emission baselines.

The riverine NO fluxes are assumed to linearly increase with nitrate loading. However, this linear relationship with a uniform EF is poorly constrained, which impedes the NO estimation and mitigation. Our meta-analysis discovered a universal NO emission baseline (EF = k/[NO ], k = 0.

Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency and Growth Rates in Soil: Global Patterns and Drivers.

Carbon use efficiency (CUE) of microbial communities in soil quantifies the proportion of organic carbon (C) taken up by microorganisms that is allocated to growing microbial biomass as well as used for reparation of cell components. This C amount in microbial biomass is subsequently involved in microbial turnover, partly leading to microbial necromass formation, which can be further stabilized in soil. To unravel the underlying regulatory factors and spatial patterns of CUE on a large scale and across biomes (forests, grasslands, croplands), we evaluated 670 individual CUE data obtained by three commonly used approaches: (i) tracing of a substrate C by C (or C) incorporation into microbial biomass and respired CO (hereafter C-substrate), (ii) incorporation of O from water into DNA (O-water), and (iii) stoichiometric modelling based on the activities of enzymes responsible for C and nitrogen (N) cycles.

Structure and metabolic function of spatiotemporal pit mud microbiome.

Background: Pit mud (PM) hosts diverse microbial communities, which serve as a medium to impart flavor and quality to Baijiu and exhibit long-term tolerance to ethanol and acids, resulting in a unique ecosystem. However, the ecology and metabolic functions of PM remain poorly understood, as many taxa in PM represent largely novel lineages. In this study, we used a combination of metagenomic analysis and chemical derivatization LC-MS analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of microbial community structure, metabolic function, phylogeny, horizontal gene transfer, and the relationship with carboxyl compounds in spatiotemporal PM samples.

Study on the preparation of calcium modified coal gangue and its adsorption performance of phosphate.

The adsorption of phosphate in the collected water is crucial to alleviate the crisis of phosphorus resources, which is in line with the concept of green and sustainable development of resources. In this study, based on the calcium modification technology of pyrolysis combined with chemical modification, a new type of calcium modified coal gangue (CaMCG) was prepared by using coal gangue as raw material and calcium chloride as modifier for the removal of phosphate.The optimum preparation conditions of CaMCG were obtained by response surface test: m:m=1, calcination temperature 735℃, calcination time 135 min.

Failure and development height of overlying rock of a water flowing fracture in goaf under a karst aquifer.

The factors leading to mine water inrush accidents are mainly sources of water, water channels, and intensity of water inrush. Mine water rush depends mostly on whether damage leads to the overlying strata of the working face penetrating the overlying aquifer. There is therefore a need to characterize how the overlying strata of the coal seam roof fails and the development height of the water-conducting fracture zone during a roof water inrush incident.

Study on the performance and mechanism of graphene oxide / polyurethane composite modified asphalt.

In order to enhance the aging resistance, high temperature stability and low temperature crack resistance of asphalt pavement materials, 0.06% oxidized graphene (GO) and 12% polyurethane (PU) were used as composite modifiers to modify the base asphalt. The RTFOT test was conducted to evaluate the anti-aging performance of the modified asphalt.

Comparative assessment of empirical and hybrid machine learning models for estimating daily reference evapotranspiration in sub-humid and semi-arid climates.

Improving the accuracy of reference evapotranspiration (RET) estimation is essential for effective water resource management, irrigation planning, and climate change assessments in agricultural systems. The FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (PM-FAO56) model, a widely endorsed approach for RET estimation, often encounters limitations due to the lack of complete meteorological data. This study evaluates the performance of eight empirical models and four machine learning (ML) models, along with their hybrid counterparts, in estimating daily RET within the Gharb and Loukkos irrigated perimeters in Morocco.

Environmental Issues in Global Pediatric Health: Policy Statement.

Pediatricians and pediatric trainees in North America are increasingly involved in caring for children and adolescents in or from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In many LMICs, hazardous environmental exposures-notably outdoor and household air pollution, water pollution, lead, pesticides, and other manufactured chemicals-are highly prevalent and account for twice the proportion of disease and deaths among young children as in North America. Climate change will likely worsen these exposures.

Physicochemical properties, structural analysis, and activity of Shancigu polysaccharides.

Objective: To investigate the physicochemical properties, structural characteristics and in vitro activities of Shancigu polysaccharides to identify the authenticity of Shancigu, safeguard its medicinal value, and ensure the safety of its market distribution.

Methods: Eleven polysaccharides from different sources of Shancigu were obtained using water extraction and alcohol precipitation. Physicochemical properties were determined using colorimetry.

Valorizing Xanthoceras Sorbifolia Bunge seed coats: A novel lignin-based activated carbon for effective malachite green adsorption and wastewater treatment.

In order to increase the added value of Xanthoceras Sorbifolia Bunge (XSB) and to obtain green biomass activated carbon with abundant pores for efficient MG removal, this study was the first to prepare XSB-based high-performance activated carbon using KOH activation. Activated at temperatures between 600 and 800 °C, XSBAC-800 exhibited the highest specific surface area (1580 m/g) and pore volume (0.732 cm/g), leading to superior MG adsorption.

Salicylic acid mitigates the physiological and biochemistry toxicity of fungicide difenoconazole and reduces its accumulation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Continuous misuse of difenoconazole (DFZ) results in farmland contamination, posing risks to crops and human health. Salicylic acid (SA) has been shown to enhance plant resistance and reduce pesticide phytotoxicity and accumulation. However, whether SA effectively reduces DFZ phytotoxicity and accumulation and its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Synchronicity Between the Rates of Reaeration and Pollutants Degradation During Self-Purification in a Large River.

The pollutants after were discharged into the water can gradually degrade through the self-purification. The oxygen consumption and pollutant degradation rates characterize the self-purification of small and medium-sized streams, while the dynamics of the two characteristics for large rivers has not been reported yet. The in-situ investigation for 297 sites in the 1700 km stream of the Yangtze River was conducted.

An Over 30-Year Analysis of Heavy Metal Deposition in Daya Bay Sediments.

Sediment cores were collected from the nearshore to bay mouth region in Daya Bay, aiming to describe the historical patterns of heavy metals deposition in the sediment. During the last 40 years, the heavy metals exhibited significant different deposition behaviors in the sediment, in which As, Zn, Cr were more enriched and contributed to metals pollution in this area. Moreover, heavy metals deposition exhibited completely opposite behaviors from the nearshore to bay mouth region.

Resource Segmentation: A New Dimension of the Segmentation Hypothesis in Drought Adaptive Strategies and Its Links to Tree Growth Performance.

The segmentation hypothesis, a framework for understanding plant drought adaptive strategy, has long been based on hydraulic resistance and vulnerability. Storage of water and carbohydrate resources is another critical function and shapes plant drought adaption and fitness together with hydraulic efficiency and vulnerability. However, patterns and implications of the interdependency of stored water and carbohydrate resources in the context of the segmentation hypothesis are poorly understood.