Recent Advances in Ruddlesden-Popper Phase-Layered Perovskite SrTiO Photocatalysts.

SrTiO, a prominent member of the Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite family, has garnered significant interest in photocatalysis, primarily owing to its distinctive two-dimensional (2D) layered structure. In this review, we provide an insightful and concise summary of the intrinsic properties of SrTiO, focusing on the electronic, optical, and structural characteristics that render it a promising candidate for photocatalytic applications. Moreover, we delve into the innovative strategies that have been developed to optimize the structural attributes of SrTiO.

Visual Location of Oxygen Vacancies on Bismuth Titanate Nanosheets with Periodic Quantum Well and Promoting HO Photosynthesis.

Oxygen vacancy (OV) defect engineering plays a crucial role in enhancing photocatalytic efficiency. However, the direct visual characterization of oxygen vacancies still remains technically limited. Herein, a bismuth titanate (BiTiO, BTO-OV) model photocatalyst containing oxygen vacancies is constructed through density functional theory (DFT) calculations to reveal the influence mechanism of distinctive periodic quantum well and oxygen vacancies on the charge transfer behavior in BTO.

Microfluidic platforms for monitoring cardiomyocyte electromechanical activity.

Cardiovascular diseases account for ~40% of global deaths annually. This situation has revealed the urgent need for the investigation and development of corresponding drugs for pathogenesis due to the complexity of research methods and detection techniques. An in vitro cardiomyocyte model is commonly used for cardiac drug screening and disease modeling since it can respond to microphysiological environmental variations through mechanoelectric feedback.

Fabrication of oil-in-water high internal phase emulsions with enhanced antioxidative properties by modified starch/polyphenol mixtures: Effect of EGCG concentration, NaCl concentration, and temperature.

In this study, oil-in-water (O/W) high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) with enhanced antioxidative properties stabilized by octenyl succinic anhydride modified starch (OSAS)/(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) mixtures were prepared. The influence of EGCG concentration (0-0.2 %, w/v), NaCl concentration (0-400 mmol/L), and temperature (25-90 °C) on the stability of the HIPEs was evaluated.

Extraction of high-purity lignin from the kraft pulping black liquor by enzyme purification process with alkaline-resistant xylanase and cellulase.

In this study, the response surface methodology was first utilized to optimize the enzyme treatment conditions as reaction pH, temperature, time and enzyme dosage of 9.5, 45 °C, 94.5 min and 100 U/L.

Network-Based Methods for Deciphering the Oxidizability of Complex Leachate DOM with OH/O via Molecular Signatures.

In landfill leachates containing complex dissolved organic matter (DOM), the link between individual DOM constituents and their inherent oxidizability is unclear. Here, we resolved the molecular signatures of DOM oxidized by OH/O using FT-ICR MS, thereby elucidating their oxidizability and resistance in concentrated leachates. The comprehensive gradual fragmentation of complex leachate DOM was then revealed through a modified machine-learning framework based on 43 key pathways during ozonation.

Preparation of Carbon Dots with High Fluorescence Quantum Yields and its Detection of Hg in Simulated Wastewater.

Fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CDs) have received widespread attention for their potential applications in optical sensing. Meanwhile, as the importance of mercury ion (Hg) detection in the environment, the exploration of Hg fluorescent nanosensor based on CDs with high quantum yield is particularly intriguing. Herein, nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CDs) were prepared by microwave method using citric acid as carbon source and urea as nitrogen source, and glycerol as microwave solvent.

Functionalized covalent organic frameworks for catalytic conversion of biomass-derived xylan to furfural.

A direct synthesis strategy was employed to prepare functionalized COFs enriched with acidic sites, using various precursor monomers. The functionalized COFs were applied in the catalytic conversion of biomass-derived xylan to furfural in the liquid phase. The study further assessed the recyclability and reusability of these COFs, explored the relationship between their structural features and catalytic performance, and investigated the reaction mechanism underlying the COF-catalyzed conversion of xylan to furfural.

Evaluating the impact of weight and center of mass on comfort in head-mounted displays.

This study investigates the impact of the weight and centre of mass (COM) position of Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) on the subjective evaluation of users during prolonged wearing tasks. This study involved 88 participants completing 1860 sets of experiments under three conditions: sitting still, turning the head, and moving, providing subjective evaluations of wearing HMDs. A static torque testing device was used to simulate neck torque under flexion states.

How Structure and Hydrostatic Pressure Impact Excited-State Properties of Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Molecules: A Theoretical Perspective.

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) emitters with long lifetimes, high exciton utilizations, and tunable emission properties show promising applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and biomedical fields. Their excited-state properties are highly related to single molecular structure, aggregation morphology, and external stimulus (such as hydrostatic pressure effect). To gain a deeper understanding and effectively regulate the key factors of luminescent efficiency and lifetime for RTP emitters, we employ the thermal vibration correlation function (TVCF) theory coupled with quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations to investigate the photophysical properties of three reported RTP crystals (Bp-OEt, Xan-OEt, and Xan-OMe) with elastic/plastic deformation.

Switchable Solvent for Separation and Extraction of Lignin from Lignocellulose Biomass: An Investigation of Chemical Structure and Molecular Weight.

Lignin, the most abundant natural aromatic polymer, holds considerable promise for applications in various industries. The primary obstacle to the valorization of lignin into useful materials is its low molecular weight and diminished chemical reactivity, attributable to its intricate structure. This study aimed to treat lignocellulosic biomass using a switchable solvent (DBU-HexOH/HO) derived from the non-nucleophilic superbase 1,8-diazabicyclo [5.

Proline Improves Pullulan Biosynthesis Under High Sugar Stress Condition.

Pullulan is an extracellular polysaccharide produced via the fermentation of . However, high sugar concentrations and hyperosmotic stress limit pullulan biosynthesis during the fermentation process. Therefore, we investigated the effects of proline supplementation on .

Genomic Analysis of SJ9: An Efficient Tetracycline-, Enrofloxacin-, and Tylosin-Degrading Fungus.

Background/objectives: Many fungi related to can degrade a wide range of pollutants and are widely distributed globally. SJ9 was enriched from fresh strawberry inter-root soil to yield fungi capable of degrading tetracycline, enrofloxacin, and tylosin.

Methods: SJ9 genome was sequenced, assembled, and annotated in this study utilizing bioinformatics software, PacBio, and the Illumina NovaSeq PE150 technology.

A Multi-Source Circular Geodesic Voting Model for Image Segmentation.

Image segmentation is a crucial task in artificial intelligence fields such as computer vision and medical imaging. While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved notable success by learning representative features from large datasets, they often lack geometric priors and global object information, limiting their accuracy in complex scenarios. Variational methods like active contours provide geometric priors and theoretical interpretability but require manual initialization and are sensitive to hyper-parameters.

Effect of Ar on Temperature and Flow Distribution in Monocrystalline Graphene Growth: Inert Gas Is Active.

Monocrystalline graphene growth has always been an intriguing research focus. Argon (Ar) is merely viewed as a carrier gas due to its inert chemical properties throughout the whole growth procedure by the chemical vapor deposition method. In this work, the influence of Ar on temperature and flow fields was investigated in consideration of its physical parameter difference among all involved gases.

Effective prediction of organosilicon molecular structures and risks in aquatic environment with machine learning.

Until now, mass spectrometry databases lack molecular information of most organosilicon oligomers, and risk models needing accurate molecular descriptors are unavailable for these emerging contaminants with thousands of monomers. To address this issue, based on molecular/fragment ions and relative abundance from GC-Orbitrap-MS, this study developed appropriate classification (accuracies = 0.750-0.

Development of a novel ICT-ESIPT-based NIR ratiometric fluorescent probe for specific detection of Hg in the environment and living organisms.

As a heavy metal contaminant, mercury ion (Hg) has caused great harm to environment and life. Mercury ions will migrate and transform in the environment and eventually accumulate in the human body, thus causing human poisoning. Therefore, it is of great significance to detect Hg in the environment and living bodies.

Lignocellulosic biomass as promising substrate for polyhydroxyalkanoate production: Advances and perspectives.

The depletion of fossil resources, coupled with global warming and adverse environmental impact of traditional petroleum-based plastics, have necessitated the discovery of renewable resources and innovative biodegradable materials. Lignocellulosic biomass (LB) emerges as a highly promising, sustainable and eco-friendly approach for accumulating polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), as it completely bypasses the problem of "competition for food". This sustainable and economically efficient feedstock has the potential to lower PHA production costs and facilitate its competitive commercialization, and support the principles of circular bioeconomy.

Fabrication of Piezoelectric Structures with High Porosity by Digital Light Processing.

Digital light processing is a recently developed solution to fabricate complex structured piezoelectric devices. To obtain a high-performance device, the slurry configuration, model slicing, and heat treatment methods during the printing should be carefully determined. In this article, 200 nm particle size barium titanate powders with an optimized solid content of 80% (mass fraction) were used to configure the slurry with higher printing efficiency.

Inhalation of patchouli essential oil alleviates airway inflammation in cigarette smoke-induced COPD mice.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death worldwide, characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitations resulting from small airway injury, bronchial wall thickening, and hypersecretion of mucus. Current pharmacological interventions are ineffective in reversing these airflow limitations; In our study, we investigated the potential role of patchouli essential oil (PEO) in the treatment of COPD and its underlying molecular mechanisms, both in vitro and in vivo. To establish a cigarette smoke-induced COPD mice model, we exposed the mice to cigarette smoke (CS) and administered nasal drip of lipopolysaccharides (LPS).

Clustering Cu-S based compounds using periodic table representation and compositional Wasserstein distance.

Crystal structure similarity is useful for the chemical analysis of nowadays big materials databases and data mining new materials. Here we propose to use two-dimensional Wasserstein distance (earth mover's distance) to measure the compositional similarity between different compounds, based on the periodic table representation of compositions. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, 1586 Cu-S based compounds are taken from the inorganic crystal structure database (ICSD) to form a validation dataset.

A bifunctional endolytic alginate lyase with two different lyase catalytic domains from sp. H204.

Alginate lyases can fully degrade alginate into various size-defined unsaturated oligosaccharide products by -elimination. Here, we identified the bifunctional endolytic alginate lyase Aly35 from the marine bacterium sp. Strain H204.

Growth-promoting effects of self-selected microbial community on wheat seedlings in saline-alkali soil environments.

Saline-alkali land is a type of soil environment that causes poor crop growth and low yields. Its management and utilization are, therefore of great significance for increasing arable land resources, ensuring food security, and enhancing agricultural production capacity. The application of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is an effective way to promote the establishment of symbiotic relationships between plants and the rhizosphere microenvironment, plant growth and development, and plant resistance to saline-alkali stress.

Focused ion beam (FIB) prepared microtextured microneedle array capable of delivering drugs through punctured skin.

Microtextured microneedles are tiny needle-like structures with micron-scale microtextures, and the drugs stored in the microtextures can be released after entering the skin to achieve the effect of precise drug delivery. In this study, the skin substitution model of Ogden's hyperelastic model and the microneedle array and microtexture models with different geometrical parameters were selected to simulate and analyse the flow of the microtexture microneedle arrays penetrating the skin by the finite-element method, and the length of the microneedles was determined to be 200 μm, the width 160 μm, and the value of the gaps was determined to be 420 μm. A four-pronged cone was chosen as the shape of microneedles, and a rectangle was chosen as the shape of the drug-carrying microneedle.