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The treatment outcomes of nanomedicines against colorectal cancer are severely restricted by their insufficient accumulation in the tumor tissues, unsatisfactory antitumor effect, and weak immunometabolic modulation. To address these issues, flying‐saucer‐shaped nanoheterojunctions by coating copper oxide (CuxO) onto the surface of PEGylated zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles are constructed. When exposed to ultrasound, the resultant CuxO@ZnO nanoheterojunctions exhibit increased locomotor activities, facilitating colorectal mucus infiltration, deep tumor penetration, and tumor cell internalization. The decoration of CuxO suppresses the rapid recombination of electrons and holes in CuxO@ZnO exposed to ultrasound, promoting the production of singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical, which are generated by CuxO through a Fenton‐like chemodynamic reaction and CuxO@ZnO through sonodynamic reaction. After rectal administration, the sono‐chemodynamic CuxO@ZnO plus PD‐L1 antibodies effectively inhibit the growth of orthotopic and distant tumors. It elicits immunometabolic responses by inducing immunogenic cell death, activating the interferon genes signaling pathway stimulator, and inhibiting glucose transport and the glycolytic signaling pathways. This combined modality also increases the proportion of beneficial microbes (e.g., Bifidobacterium) and decreases the abundance of harmful microorganisms (e.g., Romboutsia) in the intestine. This treatment modality (CuxO@ZnO plus ultrasound and PD‐L1 antibodies) is a promising strategy for the synergistic treatment of colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavior of many plant enzymes depends on the metals and other ligands to which they are bound. A previous study demonstrated that tobacco Rubisco binds almost equally to magnesium and manganese and rapidly exchanges one metal for the other. The present study characterizes the kinetics of Rubisco and the plastidial malic enzyme when bound to either metal. When Rubisco purified from five C3 species was bound to magnesium rather than manganese, the specificity for CO2 over O2, (Sc/o) increased by 25% and the ratio of the maximum velocities of carboxylation / oxygenation (Vcmax/Vomax) increased by 39%. For the recombinant plastidial malic enzyme, the forward reaction (malate decarboxylation) was 30% slower and the reverse reaction (pyruvate carboxylation) was three times faster when bound to manganese rather than magnesium. Adding 6‐phosphoglycerate and NADP+ inhibited carboxylation and oxygenation when Rubisco was bound to magnesium and stimulated oxygenation when it was bound to manganese. Conditions that favored RuBP oxygenation stimulated Rubisco to convert as much as 15% of the total RuBP consumed into pyruvate. These results are consistent with a stromal biochemical pathway in which (1) Rubisco when associated with manganese converts a substantial amount of RuBP into pyruvate, (2) malic enzyme when associated with manganese carboxylates a substantial portion of this pyruvate into malate, and (3) chloroplasts export additional malate into the cytoplasm where it generates NADH for assimilating nitrate into amino acids. Thus, plants may regulate the activities of magnesium and manganese in leaves to balance organic carbon and organic nitrogen as atmospheric CO2 fluctuates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise anti‐cancer therapy is hampered by aberrant tumor microenvironments (TME), which include the important features of the dense tumor extracellular matrix (ECM) and hypoxia. The capability of hyaluronidase (HAase) to degrade hyaluronic acid (HA), the main component of ECM, can prompt its rapid development in sonotherapeutics aimed at regulating the microenvironment. In this study, the authors design a bioengineering‐based smart enzymatic nanovesicle mHAase combined with purpurin 18 (P18) to form mHAase@nP18 that naturally anchors native HAase to the matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) cleavable peptide. This nanovesicle system demonstrates a high expression of HAase and drug loading capability of the sonosensitizer, purpurin 18, for dual‐mode fluorescence/photoacoustic imaging‐guided sonodynamic therapy (SDT). Notably, mHAase@nP18 shows enhanced enzyme stability and activity in comparison to free HAase owing to avoidance of the protein crown shield; meanwhile, the released HAase causes a further elevation of its activity for SDT in an MMP‐2‐dependent manner. In vitro and in vivo results indicate the mHAase@nP18 can greatly enhance tumor penetration and alleviate hypoxia via HA degradation, further causing a heightened SDT effect. This work provides a promising strategy of stimuli‐responsive bioengineering of cell membrane vesicles for effective TME modulation and enhanced therapeutic results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the genomes of many rice herbivorous pests have recently been well characterized, little is known about the genome of their natural enemies. Here, by using the Illumina and PacBio platforms, we sequenced and assembled the whole genome of the mirid species Cyrtorhinus lividipennis Reuter (Hemiptera: Miridae), which is an economically and ecologically important natural enemy in the rice ecosystem acting as a dominant predator for planthoppers and leafhoppers in the field. Through Hi‐C scaffolding, 1615 scaffolds with a total size of 338.08 Mb were successfully anchored onto 13 chromosomes. The assembled genome size was 345.75 Mb with a final scaffold N50 of 27.58 Mb. Approximately 107.51 Mb of sequences accounting for 31.10% of the genome were identified as repeat elements, and 14,644 protein‐coding genes were annotated. Phylogenetic analysis showed that C. lividipennis clustered with other Hemipteran species and diverged from Apolygus lucorum about 66.7 million years ago. Gene families related to detoxification, environmental adaptation and digestion were analysed comparatively with other Hemipteran species, but no significant expansion or contraction was found in C. lividipennis. We also observed male meiosis in C. lividipennis, which showed a typical post‐reduction of sex chromosomes and a karyotype of 2n = 22 + XY. As the first natural‐enemy genome in the rice ecosystem, the genomic resource of C. lividipennis not only expands our understanding of the multitrophic interactions (host plant–prey–predator), but also provides a genomic basis for better understanding this dominant predator and therefore promotes sustainable rice pest management and food grain production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve reliable and green communication in the internet of things (IoT) networks, the authors extend the traditional half‐duplex quantise‐and‐forward (QF) cooperation into the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) regime. This study investigates the achievable rate of the SWIPT‐based half‐duplex QF cooperation with the channel state information available only at the receivers. The source and destination are provided by the external power supply and the relay simultaneously implements the information transmission and the energy harvesting by SWIPT technology with the power‐splitting protocol. The achievable rate of the proposed system over the additive white Gaussian noise channels is analysed and further maximised by optimising the power‐splitting factor. Furthermore, the expected rate of the proposed system over the slow‐fading channels is analysed. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the achievable rate or expected rate of the SWIPT‐based QF cooperation is obviously superior to that of the SWIPT‐based amplify‐and‐forward or SWIPT‐based decode‐and‐forward cooperation. Meanwhile, the SWIPT‐based QF cooperation can achieve similar performance to the traditional QF cooperation when the external power supply at the relay is not provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved drug loading content, bioavailability, and controlled release in targeted tissue have been major bottlenecks in the design of precision nanomedicine. Herein, a tumor‐specific and multiple‐stimuli responsive nano‐riceball is proposed and validated for enhanced sono‐chemotherapy. The nano‐riceball (NGR@DDP) possesses a well‐designed core‐shell structure, formed by an inner core assembly that contains ultrasound/H2O2 responsive bottlebrush‐like unimolecular dextran‐POEGMA9‐b‐PMTEMA22 (DOS) with co‐loaded doxorubicin and Purpurin 18. This inner core of NGR@DDP is further buried by a "striffen" of NGR (Asn‐Gly‐Arg)‐modified RBC‐membrane derived from CRISPR‐engineered mice. As a result, nano‐riceball NGR@DDP is featured with high drug stuffing content (30.3 wt%), low critical micelle concentration (5.93 µg mL−1), and intelligent exogenous ultrasound/endogenous H2O2 stimuli‐triggered precise drug release at tumor site. Under fluorescence/photoacoustic imaging guidance, combined sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy exhibit excellent synergistic effect, and dramatically inhibit the growth of orthotopic HepG2 hepatocellular carcinoma with negligible side effects. This nano‐riceball strategy provides a facile way to achieve function hybridization for personalized nanomedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve reliable and green communication in the internet of things (IoT) networks, the authors extend the traditional half‐duplex quantise‐and‐forward (QF) cooperation into the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) regime. This study investigates the achievable rate of the SWIPT‐based half‐duplex QF cooperation with the channel state information available only at the receivers. The source and destination are provided by the external power supply and the relay simultaneously implements the information transmission and the energy harvesting by SWIPT technology with the power‐splitting protocol. The achievable rate of the proposed system over the additive white Gaussian noise channels is analysed and further maximised by optimising the power‐splitting factor. Furthermore, the expected rate of the proposed system over the slow‐fading channels is analysed. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the achievable rate or expected rate of the SWIPT‐based QF cooperation is obviously superior to that of the SWIPT‐based amplify‐and‐forward or SWIPT‐based decode‐and‐forward cooperation. Meanwhile, the SWIPT‐based QF cooperation can achieve similar performance to the traditional QF cooperation when the external power supply at the relay is not provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a tumor microenvironment (TME)‐responsive mimovirus vesicle (MVV) is engineered to deliver azide motifs (–N3) via the membrane fusion mechanism for cancer diagnosis. As a pH‐responsive functional protein, the spike vesicular stomatitis virus G‐protein (VSVG) is genetically immobilized on surface of cell membrane vesicles. By virtue of the low‐pH activated fusogenic peculiarity of VSVG, the –N3 groups, which are also presented on MVVs via metabolic engineering, can be directly anchored onto the target cells, thus reducing tumor heterogeneity and serving as the bait to amplify the tumor targeting of dibenzocyclooctyne‐modified diagnostic moieties. The potential diagnostic capability of such design is successfully confirmed in three different murine tumor models. Featuring excellent pH‐sensitive fusogenic traits, the developed MVVs show great responsiveness to the slightly acidic TME of solid tumors, providing a universal platform in overcoming tumor heterogeneity for precise cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Two new pyrene-cored covalent organic polymers (COPs), CK-COP-1 and CK-COP-2, were synthesized via the one-step polymerization of two thiophene-based isomers, 1,3,6,8-tetra(thiophene-2-yl) pyrene ( L1) and 1,3,6,8-tetra(thiophene-3-yl) pyrene ( L2). The resulting pyrene-cored COPs exhibit rather different surface areas of 54 m2 g−1 and 615 m2g−1 for CK-COP-1 and CK-COP-2, respectively. The CO2 uptake capacities of CK-COP-1 and CK-COP-2 also show different values of 2.85 and 9.73 wt % at 273 K, respectively. Furthermore, CK-COP-2 offers not only a larger CO2 adsorption capacity but also a better CO2/CH4 selectivity at 273 K compared with CK-COP-1. CK-COP-1 and CK-COP-2 also exhibit considerable differences in their photophysical property. The different structure and properties of CK-COPs could be attributed to the isomer effect of their corresponding thiophene-based monomers. © 2017 Authors. Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 2383-2389 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of database technologies, multiple data sources may be available for a given learning task (e.g. collaborative filtering). However, the data sources may contain different types of features. For example, users' profiles can be used to build recommendation systems. In addition, a model can also use users' historical behaviors and social networks to infer users' interests on related products. We argue that it is desirable to collectively use any available multiple heterogeneous data sources in order to build effective learning models. We call this framework heterogeneous learning. In our proposed setting, data sources can include (i) nonoverlapping features, (ii) nonoverlapping instances, and (iii) multiple networks (i.e. graphs) that connect instances. In this paper, we propose a general optimization framework for heterogeneous learning, and devise a corresponding learning model from gradient boosting. The idea is to minimize the empirical loss with two constraints: (1) there should be consensus among the predictions of overlapping instances (if any) from different data sources; (2) connected instances in graph datasets may have similar predictions. The objective function is solved by stochastic gradient boosting trees. Furthermore, a weighting strategy is designed to emphasize informative data sources, and deemphasize the noisy ones. We formally prove that the proposed strategy leads to a tighter error bound. This approach consistently outperforms a standard concatenation of data sources on movie rating prediction, number recognition, and terrorist attack detection tasks. Furthermore, the approach is evaluated on AT&T's distributed database with over 500 000 instances, 91 different data sources, and over 45 000 000 joined features. We observe that the proposed model can improve out-of-sample error rate substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]