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Paper mulberry, a fast-growing and vigorous plant, is a potential substrate for producing lignocellulosic bioethanol and an important renewable alternative to fossil fuels. In order to improve the economic feasibility of ethanol production from paper mulberry, H3PO4/H2O2 pretreatment was selected as the most suitable pretreatment method that could produce the highest glucose concentration (131 g/L) compared with other pretreatments (73.2–89.3 g/L) at high solid loading. Whereafter, the final solid loading of H3PO4/H2O2 pretreatment was significantly increased to 40% (w/v) without any decrease in the final glucose concentration. Finally, a novel Fed-nonisothermal-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation was constructed using H3PO4/H2O2 pretreated paper mulberry, which bypassed the inhibition caused by paper mulberry solid and high temperature on the traditional simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, improving ethanol concentration (63.9 g/L), ethanol productivity (1.33 g/L/h) and ethanol yield (0.160 g/g-biomass) by 30.4%, 30.4% and 30.1%, respectively, compared to those obtained from SSF (simultaneous saccharification and fermentation) process. Thus, we have opened up a novel way to produce ethanol or other biofuels using the paper mulberry as an outstanding alternative substrate.

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of disability and mortality worldwide and a significant global burden. Many lines of evidence suggest complex remodeling responses to cardiovascular disease, such as myocardial ischemia, hypertension and valve disease, which lead to poor clinical outcomes, including heart failure, arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death (SCD). The mechanisms underlying cardiac remodeling are closely related to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation. Myeloid differentiation protein 1 (MD1) is a secreted glycoprotein known as lymphocyte antigen 86. The complex of MD1 and radioprotective 105 (RP105) is an important regulator of inflammation and is involved in the modulation of vascular remodeling and atherosclerotic plaque development. A recent study suggested that the expression of MD1 in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients is decreased compared with that in donor hearts. Therefore, MD1 may play an important role in the pathological processes of cardiovascular disease and have potential clinical value. Here, this review aims to discuss the current knowledge regarding the role of MD1 in the regulation of cardiac pathophysiology.

Straw return is widely applied in China to achieve sustainable grain production. However, inappropriate farm practices can increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduce soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, thereby increasing the carbon footprint (CFP) and affecting soil fertility and climate change. A 10-year experiment was conducted to evaluate and quantify the effects of straw management on SOC, crop yield, and CFP under a winter wheat–summer maize rotation in the Guanzhong Plain. The experiment involved seven straw-return modes, namely high wheat stubble retention and chopped maize straw return (WH-MC), high wheat stubble retention and chopped maize straw return with sub-soiling every two years (WH-MM), high wheat stubble retention and no maize straw return (WH-MN), both chopped wheat and maize straw return (WC-MC), chopped wheat and maize straw return with sub-soiling every two years (WC-MM), chopped wheat straw return and no maize straw return (WC-MN), and a control with no return of either wheat or maize straw (WN-MN). The results indicate that SOC change, crop yield, and CFP were significantly influenced by the straw-return mode in the annual wheat–maize season. SOC sequestration rate was positively correlated with cumulative plant-derived C input, which ranged from 29.4 Mg C ha −1 in WN-MN to 100.7 Mg C ha −1 in WH-MC. Of all the studied treatments, WH-MC produced the highest grain yield and lowest CFP, which were 26% higher and 20.5% lower than those of the control, respectively. However, crop yield and CFP in the individual wheat or maize seasons were only slightly affected by straw-return mode; only WC-MN in the wheat season and WH-MC, WH-MM, and WC-MN in the maize season produced a significantly higher grain yield and lower CFP compared to the no straw return treatment. Annual GHG emissions were highest in the WC-MM treatment and lowest in WH-MN. Therefore, WH-MC found to be the most suitable straw-return for lowering CFP and enhancing crop yield and SOC sequestration. However, to achieve the coordinated development of agriculture and the livestock industry it is necessary to remove some straw for animal feed and fuel, so WH-MN produced optimum yield and maintained SOC stock with low GHG emissions.

Organic amendment may be an effective management practice for alleviating soil degradation in continuous cropping systems. However, few studies focus on the effects of long-term organic amendments on soil microbial community and microbial nutrient status in continuous tobacco fields. Here, an 11-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of organic amendments on plant and soil physiochemical properties, microbial communities, ecoenzymatic stoichiometry, and glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) accumulation in a continuous tobacco field. Five treatments were applied: CK (no fertilizer); CF (chemical fertilizer only); CFS (chemical fertilizer plus corn straw); CFO (chemical fertilizer plus oilseed residues); CFM (chemical fertilizer plus composted pig manure). Organic amendments increased soil microbial abundances. Application of organic fertilizers significantly reduced gram-positive to gram-negative bacterial ratios, but significantly increased fungi/bacteria ratios, probably because gram-negative bacteria and fungi are the dominant decomposers of increased available nutrients and recalcitrant materials, respectively. Organic amendments significantly enhanced soil enzyme activities, except for the difference in β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase, Leucine aminopeptidase, and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities between the CF and CFO. The lowest soil organic carbon (SOC) content in CFS among organic amendments treatments was probably because the positive priming effects of straw and the highest peroxidase and PPO activities increased stable SOC mineralization rates due to the high C:N:P ratio of nutrients input. Microbial activities were limited by carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in CFS, while carbon and phosphorus were the limiting factors in CK, CF, CFO, and CFM. Relative to CF, CFO significantly enhanced microbial carbon and phosphorus limitation, whereas CFM significantly decreased microbial carbon limitation. CFM had the highest GRSP content among treatments. Our results demonstrated that combined application of composted pig manure and chemical fertilizers is a consistently effective measure for alleviating soil degradation in continuous tobacco fields.

A ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe, MQAP, based on 6-substituted quinoline skeleton, has been developed for the detection of formaldehyde (FA) in aqueous solution, living cells, and living zebrafish. After treatment with FA, the fluorescence emission wavelength of MQAP red-shifts significantly from 405 nm to 490 nm, and the emission intensity ratio (I490nm/I405nm) dramatically increases from 0.34 to 7.52 (about 22 times). The response mechanism was proposed to be FA-induced 2-aza-Cope rearrangement on MQAP, as confirmed by LC–MS, theoretical calculation, UV-vis and fluorescence spectra. MQAP is almost insensitive to the change of pH value within the biologically relevant pH range, with a large two-photon absorption cross-section at 720 nm (185 GM). Additionally, MQAP has increased tissue penetration depth up to 150 μm, and low cytotoxicity to living cells. To demonstrate its biological applicability, MQAP was successfully used to detect endogenous FA in living cells and living 5-day-old zebrafish.

For the rational design of a solvent-independent diaminomaleonitrile (DAMN)-based fluorescent probe for monitoring ClO − selectively without the interference from Cu 2+ , a feasible strategy is to introduce the DAMN group into a sterically crowded π-conjugated framework. The addition of ClO − will recover the planarity of the molecule, change the D-π-A structure, and influence intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) efficiency in the sensing system. Inspired by this strategy, a DAMN-based Schiff base derivative ( HCCN ) was designed and synthesized to detect ClO − with a rapid response, a large Stokes shift and moderate two-photon excitation action cross-section. HCCN was highly selective for ClO − detection with no analyte interference (especially from Cu 2+ ) in CH 3 CN/PBS and other mixed solvent systems. Density functional theory (DFT)/TDDFT calculations supported that the enhanced fluorescence signal of HCCN to ClO − was arisen mainly from the recovery of the planar structure and the accompanying enhancement of ICT efficiency in 4 . A co-staining experiment of HCCN showed its high affinity towards intracellular mitochondria; subsequently, HCCN was successfully applied for two-photon bio-imaging of exogenous ClO − in fresh tissues and endogenous ClO − in vivo .

A ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe (RN3) for Pd2+ was developed based on 7-substituted coumarin and rahodamine B through FRET mechanism. The probe exhibited highly sensitive and selective ratiometric fluorescent detection signal (575 nm/515 nm) for Pd2+ in aqueous solution. The two-photon absorption cross-section of the probe under adding Pd2+ was measured as 165 GM at 760 nm. RN3 could detect Pd2+ in living cells with low cytotoxicity under two-photon excitation (λex = 760 nm). The bio-imaging results indicated that RN3 could work in deep tissue (∼130 μm) and in five-days-old zebrafish with ratiometric fluorescent signal.

Backward motion directly limits the output performance of piezoelectric stick-slip actuators, and it has been suppressed or eliminated by various means. To suppress the backward motion, a dual-mode excitation method (DMEM) is proposed in this paper, which utilizes a piezoelectric stack and two piezoelectric plates as the main and auxiliary excitation sources of the actuator respectively. When the piezoelectric stack contracts rapidly under the traditional sawtooth wave, two piezoelectric plates excited by high-frequency sine wave make the driving foot generate ultrasonic vibration. Accordingly, the backward motion can be suppressed based on ultrasonic friction reduction to improve the output performance of actuator. To reflect the advantage of the proposed method, a flexure hinge type piezoelectric stick-slip actuator is manufactured, and the characteristic experiments are executed. According to the experimental results, the backward rates of actuator driven only by sawtooth wave are 42 % and 28 % in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions, the corresponding velocities are 252.74 mrad/s and 316.45 mrad/s, the corresponding loads are 8 g and 9 g, respectively. By comparison, the backward rates of actuator under the DMEM decrease by 10 % and 5 % along these two directions, the velocities improve by 17 % and 9 %, and the loads increase by 13 % and 11 %, respectively.

The gasotransmitter hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has attracted attention in recent years for its contributions to human health and diseases. In this work, the design strategy relied on ‘one-pot’ by employing BODIPY 1 dye and P-hydroxybenzaldehyde afforded two key intermediates, then further reacted with NBD thus obtaining products ‘single’ and ‘double’ arms types molecules (BDP-N1 and BDP-N2). Firstly we concentrated on the comparative investigation their response abilities for hydrogen sulfide. The response mechanisms are all based on the selective thiolysis of 7-nitrobenzo[c-1,2,5] oxadiazole(NBD) moiety attached to the styryl-BODIPY scaffold by H2S. However, it is worth mentioned that double‘arms’showed longer wavelength excitation and emission resulting from extended conjugation. Furthermore, these successes of intracellular imaging experiments in A549 cells indicated that the two probes are suitable for imaging of exogenous or endogenous hydrogen sulfide in living cells or living zebrafish.

Mitochondria and lysosomes are essential cellular organelles in most eukaryotic cells by playing the physiological roles to support the normal functions of cells, as well as the life of the whole body. To date, small-molecule fluorescent probes have been considered as one of the vital tools for monitoring and visualizing multiple biological analytes. This review summarized the recent advances in small-molecule two-photon fluorescent probes for metal ions, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive sulfur species (RSS), and changes inside micro-environment ( e.g. , pH, viscosity and polarity) in mitochondria and lysosomes, or served as mitotracker and lysotracker with the assistance of two-photon microscopy.

Secure data dissemination is indispensable in various network systems such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and Information-Centric Networks. Several approaches have been proposed for secure data dissemination while adopting forward error correction techniques (e.g., erasure codes) for efficiency. In particular, an approach named LR-Seluge was proposed to achieve efficient, secure data dissemination by integrating erasure codes into Seluge, a previous solution for secure data dissemination in WSNs. However, despite its efficiency in reducing the number of packet transmissions, LR-Seluge still introduces long dissemination delays.In this paper, we develop a new approach called FEC-Seluge, which is aimed at reducing both the dissemination delay and the number of packet transmissions by taking full advantage of erasure codes. Our key contribution is a technique to securely estimate the optimal amount of redundancy of erasure coding to balance loss-tolerance capabilities and bandwidth consumption. In addition, we develop a novel proactive transmission mechanism, which considerably improves the efficiency by effectively tolerating packet losses. We evaluated FEC-Seluge through experiments in a testbed environment. The experimental results show that FEC-Seluge outperforms LR-Seluge by about 30% and 23% in terms of the dissemination delay and the number of packet transmissions, respectively.

Post-silking nitrogen (N) fluxes from vegetative tissues to developing kernels affect both N use efficiency (NUE) and grain yield in maize, while the impacts of various N applications at and especially after silking on temporal dynamics of post-silking N uptake and remobilization are poorly understood. Field experiments were conducted with N regimes ranging from low to high N levels. Nitrogen applications above optimal rates at and after silking neither increased late-season N uptake and leaf photosynthesis, nor reduced leaf N export during grain filling compared to the optimal N input, and thus significantly reduced the NUE. In most experiments, reductions in leaf N concentrations were observed around 15 days after silking (DAS). A 15 N labeling study revealed that remobilization of N taken up prior to silking from vegetative tissues during the entire grain-filling phase was 58%–60%, which contributed 53%–61% of the total grain N at maturity, and more than 60% of it was remobilized during the 0–30 DAS. N remobilization initially occurred preferentially from stems relative to leaves, while significant amounts of N were remobilized from leaves during late grain filling and deposited in the stem, particularly in high N treatments. No matter whether 15 N was applied before or at silking, a greater proportion of 15 N taken up was allocated to leaves under N deficient than under N sufficient conditions. At maturity, 70%–76% of the N taken up after silking was allocated to grain. Under N deficiency, direct N allocation to grains originating from post-silking uptake was 45%, 56%, 70% and 96% at 0–15, 15–30, 30–46 and 46–60 DAS, respectively, while these values were relatively lower and constant in N-sufficient plants (43%–50%). Overall, results indicated a strong developmental control over post-silking N fluxes with limited differences observed between N deficient and N sufficient maize, but no impact of high N applications to N-sufficient plants at or after silking.

The level of apoptosis is directly related to the occurrence of cancer and other diseases. Real-time continuous monitoring of apoptotic process of living cells has great potential for early diagnosis of related diseases, as well as evaluation of therapeutic effect and screening of apoptotic drugs. This work proposed a ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe Lyso-PCE equipped with a dual-function pyridine, as a pH-sensitive and specific lysosome-targeted group. A clear linearity relationship between two-channel fluorescence intensity ratios of Lyso-PCE and pH values was established in both solutions and living cells. Thanks to its ability of quantitative detection of pH, probe Lyso-PCE can detect the dynamic pH changes of lysosomes treated by chloroquine, and also can be used to in situ monitor dexamethasone-induced apoptosis. More importantly, reagent potassium bisperoxo (1,10-phenanthroline) oxovanadate (bpV(phen)) was evaluated and testified as a new apoptotic drug by Lyso-PCE, and the real-time visualization of bpV(phen)-induced apoptosis was realized under two-photon excitation. Our results provide a new and promising strategy for evaluating and screening apoptosis-related drugs.

Heavy metals are widespread toxic environmental pollutants that can generate enormous health and public concern. Iron (oxyhydr)oxides are ubiquitous in both natural and engineered environments and have great retention capacity of heavy metals due to their high surface areas and reactivity. The sequestration of heavy metal by iron (oxyhydr)oxides is one of the most vital geochemical/chemical processes controlling their environmental fate, transport, and bioavailability. In this review, some of the common iron (oxyhydr)oxides are introduced in detail in terms of their formation, occurrence, structure characteristics and interaction with heavy metals. Moreover, the retention mechanisms of metal cations (e.g., Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni, Zn), metal oxyanions (e.g., As, Sb, Cr), and coexisting multiple metals on various iron (oxyhydr)oxides are fully reviewed. Principal mechanisms of surface complexation, surface precipitation and structural incorporation are responsible for heavy metal retention on iron (oxyhydr)oxides, and greatly dependent on mineral species, metal ion species, reacting conditions (i.e., pH, heavy metal concentration, ionic strength, etc.) and chemical process (i.e., adsorption, coprecipitaton and mineral phase transformation process). The retention mechanisms summarized in this review would be helpful for remediating heavy metal contamination and predicting the long-term behavior of heavy metal in natural and engineered environments.