Exogenous γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) enhances rye () seedling resistance to combined freeze-thaw and cadmium stress.

Freeze-thaw is a common stress at high altitudes in northern China. There is a risk of cadmium (Cd) contamination in the region. γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a natural product that regulates plant growth.

Revealing the bioavailability and phytotoxicity of different particle size microplastics on diethyl phthalate (DEP) in rye (Secale cereale L.).

Understanding how widely distributed microplastics (MPs) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) interact with crops remains limited, despite their significant implications for human exposure. We used physiology, transcriptomics, adsorption kinetics, and computational chemistry to assess rye's molecular response to two sizes of MPs (200 nm and 5 µm) and DEP, both individually and in combination. Findings systematically highlight potential ecological risks from MPs and DEP, with ecotoxicity ranking as follows: CK (Control Check) < LMPs < SMPs < DEP < LMPs+DEP < SMPs+DEP.

The freeze-thaw cycle exacerbates the ecotoxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics to Secale cereale L. seedlings.

In the context of global climate change, recurrent freeze-thaw cycles (FTC) and concurrent exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) directly impact crop growth and indirectly affect resilience to abiotic stress. In January 2023, experiments at the Environmental Biology Laboratory, Jilin University, Changchun, China, exposed rye seedlings to 100 nm PSNPs at concentrations of 0, 10, 50, and 100 mg/L for seven days, followed by three FTC. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that PSNPs migrated from the roots to the leaves, with FTC significantly exacerbating their accumulation within plant tissues.

Enhanced chimp hierarchy optimization algorithm with adaptive lens imaging for feature selection in data classification.

Feature selection is a critical component of machine learning and data mining to remove redundant and irrelevant features from a dataset. The Chimp Optimization Algorithm (CHoA) is widely applicable to various optimization problems due to its low number of parameters and fast convergence rate. However, CHoA has a weak exploration capability and tends to fall into local optimal solutions in solving the feature selection process, leading to ineffective removal of irrelevant and redundant features.

Impact of repeated freeze-thaw cycles environment on the allelopathic effect to Secale cereale L. seedlings.

Allelopathy, as environmental stress, plays a prominent role in stress ecotoxicity, and global warming directly increases freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) frequency in the winter. Yet, the effect between FTCs environment and allelopathy stress is rarely known, and the interaction of allelopathy stresses lacks consideration. Here, we addressed interactions between artemisinin stress (AS) and A.

Response characteristics of highland barley () seedlings to the stress of salinity and artemisinin under freeze–thaw environment.

In Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, crops are commonly subjected to freeze-thaw and salt stress factors simultaneously, and allelopathy is common, which affects the growth of highland barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), the largest food crop in Tibet. In order to explore the effects of artemisinin, salt and freeze-thaw (FAS) stress on physiological characteristics of highland barley seedlings, hydroponic experiment was carried out with the addition of 20mg/L artemisinin and 150mMNaCl as well as the simulation of freeze-thaw environment.

Physiological response of barley seedlings to salinity and artemisinin combined stresses under freeze-thaw environment.

In the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, both the large daily temperature difference and soil salinization make plants susceptible to abiotic stresses such as freeze-thaw and salinity. Meanwhile, crops in this area can be affected by artemisinin, an antimalarial secondary metabolite produced in Artemisia. Under freeze-thaw and salinity stresses, artemisinin was induced as an allelopathy stress factor to explore the physiological response of highland barley, including the relative electrical conductivity (RC), soluble protein (SP) content, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, antioxidant enzyme activity, and water use efficiency (WUE).

Physiological effects of different stubble height and freeze-thaw stress on Secale cereale L. seedlings.

Background: As a biennial plant, Secale cereale L is usually harvested in the autumn in the northern part of China where the temperature difference between day and night is of great disparity Through the pot experiment, the seedlings were cut to 2, 6 and 10 cm stubble height, and the simulated freeze-thaw (FT) stress (10/- 5 °C) was carried out after 6 days regrowth. The physiological effects of FT with different stubble height were revealed by analyzing the relative water content (RWC), osmotic adjustment substance concentration (soluble sugar and protein), membrane peroxidation (MDA) and catalase (CAT) activity.

Results: The results demonstrated that under freeze stress (- 5 °C), the content of soluble protein and MDA decreased and the seedlings of 2 cm treatment kept higher level of soluble protein and MDA, while the seedlings of 6 and 10 cm treatments kept higher level of the RWC, soluble sugar content, and CAT activity.

Cooperation behavior of fore- And hindlimbs during jumping in and .

Frogs are characterized by their outstanding jumping ability, depending on the rapid extension of hindlimbs to propel their bodies into air. A typical jumping cycle could be broken into four phases: preparation, takeoff, flight, and landing. Considerable research has been performed to discuss the function of hindlimbs of frogs during takeoff phase, whereas the literature of limbs' motion in jumping between different species was limited.

Bio-Inspired Soft Grippers Based on Impactive Gripping.

Grasping and manipulation are fundamental ways for many creatures to interact with their environments. Different morphologies and grasping methods of "grippers" are highly evolved to adapt to harsh survival conditions. For example, human hands and bird feet are composed of rigid frames and soft joints.

Cellulomonas taurus sp. nov., a novel bacteria with multiple hydrolase activity isolated from livestock, and potential application in wastewater treatment.

A Gram-positive, smooth, sub-transparent, faint yellow,0.5-0.7 µm diameter, rod shaped aerobic or facultative aerobic strain P40-2was isolated from livestock farms in Northeast China.

Pilot study on urban sewage treatment with micro pressure swirl reactor.

This study aimed to propose a new type of micro-pressure swirl reactor (MPSR) to treat urban sewage. The MPSR could form a stable swirl in the reactor, and realized the coexistence of anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic zones in a single aeration tank. The pilot study showed that MPSR achieved high removal efficient of SS, COD, NH-N, TN, TP under the conditions of drastic fluctuation in influent quality and temperature, and the average removal rate were 88.

4D Printing Strain Self-Sensing and Temperature Self-Sensing Integrated Sensor-Actuator with Bioinspired Gradient Gaps.

Integrated sensor-actuators with exciting functionalities, such as action self-sensing, position self-sensing, posture self-sensing, or active sensing, are promising for applications in biomedical device, human-machine interaction, intelligent self-protection devices, and humanoid robots. Despite recent progress, it remains challenging to achieve a macroscopical integrated sensor-actuator in a material system with microstructures. To address this critical challenge, a 4D printing bioinspired microstructure strategy is reported to design a high-performance integrated sensor-actuator capable of simultaneous actuation and sensation.

Raising glass transition temperature of polymer nanofilms as a function of negative interface energy.

Based on a thermodynamic approach, glass transition temperature (Tg) of substrate-supported polymer nanofilms (s-PNFs) is investigated for carbon-chain polymers, taking the role of the interface energy into consideration. Relative to the Tg depression, originating from the positive interface energy due to the weak interfacial van der Waals interactions, the Tg raise is reversely induced by the negative interface energy, induced by the hydrogen bonds formed between the side-chains of polymers and the surface hydroxyl groups of substrates. Moreover, the Tg raise can be reinforced for s-PNFs with simple side-chains.

The sources and biogeochemical cycling of carbon in the Wudalianchi UNESCO Geopark volcanic system in Northeast China.

The biogeochemical cycling and response mechanisms of carbon within the Wudalianchi UNESCO Global Geopark were characterized by the isotopic compositions of dissolved inorganic carbon (δC) and dissolved organic carbon in ground and surface (lake) waters and their relating carbon isotopic composition of soil (δC) and sediment organic carbon (δC). In addition to mantle-derived CO, the oxidation of organic matter was prevalent in shallow groundwater during the summer. Their associated degassing of CO produced higher pCO values than in autumn or winter and elevated δC values.

A SFTD Algorithm for Optimizing the Performance of the Readout Strategy of Residence Time Difference Fluxgate.

Residence time difference (RTD) fluxgate sensor is a potential device to measure the DC or low-frequency magnetic field in the time domain. Nevertheless, jitter noise and magnetic noise severely affect the detection result. A novel post-processing algorithm for jitter noise reduction of RTD fluxgate output strategy based on the single-frequency time difference (SFTD) method is proposed in this study to boost the performance of the RTD system.

Effects of sulfamethoxazole on the denitrifying process in anoxic activated sludge and the responses of denitrifying microorganisms.

The presence of antibiotics in municipal wastewater is bound to affect the anoxic denitrifying process in anoxic activated sludge (AAS). This study investigated the effects of sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) on the denitrifying process in AAS and the responses of denitrifying microorganisms. The results showed that SMZ could decrease the speed of nitrate removal significantly when the concentration of SMZ was lower than 10 mg/L, and the removal of nitrate would be completely inhibited when SMZ concentration was higher than 100 mg/L.

Interface effect on the cohesive energy of nanostructured materials and substrate-supported nanofilms.

The cohesive energy is a key quantity to determine the mechanical, physical, chemical, and electronic properties of materials. In this work, the interface effect on the cohesive energy of nanostructured materials and substrate-supported nanofilms is modeled free of adjustable parameters. The cohesive energy drops on lowering the grain size or thickness.

miR-204-5p suppresses hepatocellular cancer proliferation by regulating homeoprotein SIX1 expression.

Fewer than 30% of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are eligible to receive curative therapies, and so a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of HCC is needed to identify potential therapeutic targets. The role of microRNA (miRNA) in modulating tumour progression has been demonstrated, and therapies targeting miRNA appear promising. miR-204-5p has been shown to function in numerous types of cancer, but its role in HCC remains unclear.

Colloid-Facilitated Plutonium Transport in Fractured Tuffaceous Rock.

Colloids have the potential to enhance the mobility of strongly sorbing radionuclide contaminants in groundwater at underground nuclear test sites. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of colloid-facilitated plutonium transport in fractured porous media to identify plutonium reactive transport processes. The transport parameters for dispersion, diffusion, sorption, and filtration are estimated with inverse modeling by minimizing the least-squares objective function of multicomponent concentration data from multiple transport experiments with the shuffled complex evolution metropolis algorithm.

E-Z isomerization of the -C[double bond, length as m-dash]N- bond in anthracene-based acylhydrazone derivatives under visible light.

The photoresponsive behaviour of AHP-mB8 upon irradiation by visible light was demonstrated to be due to the E-Z isomerizations of the -C[double bond, length as m-dash]N- group, rather than the photodimerization of anthracene groups. In addition, the Z-isomer of AHP-mB8 was stable at room temperature. AHP-mB8 organogels showed visible light induced gel-sol transition and its mechanism was proposed.

Toward Repurposing Metformin as a Precision Anti-Cancer Therapy Using Structural Systems Pharmacology.

Metformin, a drug prescribed to treat type-2 diabetes, exhibits anti-cancer effects in a portion of patients, but the direct molecular and genetic interactions leading to this pleiotropic effect have not yet been fully explored. To repurpose metformin as a precision anti-cancer therapy, we have developed a novel structural systems pharmacology approach to elucidate metformin's molecular basis and genetic biomarkers of action. We integrated structural proteome-scale drug target identification with network biology analysis by combining structural genomic, functional genomic, and interactomic data.

Comparison of the photoconversion of para-chlorophenol under simulated sunlight and UV irradiation in ice.

The photochemistry of para-chlorophenol (4-CP) was studied under simulated sunlight (lambda > 300 nm) and UV irradiation by using a 125 W high-pressure mercury lamp with or without a hard glass as light source in an ice matrix. The experiments were carried out in a photochemical cold chamber reactor at -14 to -12 degrees C. The photoconversion rate, photoproducts and photoconversion mechanism of 4-CP were all inspected and compared.