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Recently, the developments of MOFs and their applications on heavy metal removal have attracted much attention. In this paper, we focused on the influence of co-existing ions on the adsorbability of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) modified ZIF-8 in a multi-metal system (Cd(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), and Cr(VI)). It was found that the adsorption of Cd(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), and Cr(VI) on the ZIF-8-EGCG fitted well with the pseudo second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm. The adsorption selectivity of ZIF-8-EGCG in the mixed metal solution followed the order of Cu(II) ≫ Cr(VI) > Cd(II) > Ni(II). Besides, Cu(II) was the most attractive substance with a maximum capacity of 232.97 mg·g−1. Copper also disturbed the adsorption of Cd(II) and Ni(II) and contributed the most to the Cr(VI) removal. The natural anions (e.g., Cl−, NO3–, AsO2−, SO42−) significantly impeded Cr(VI) adsorption, while low concentrations of natural cations (e.g., K+, Na+, Ca2+, and Mg2+) facilitated the adsorption of Cd(II), Cu(II) and Ni(II).

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have been considered as cheap alternatives of precious metal platinum for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In the past decades, many reports have indicated that the engineering of heterointerfaces between different components could efficiently enhance the activity of HER catalysts. Here, we report a facile method to construct Ni12P5–Ni2P heterostructure by using a low temperature phosphorization strategy. The obtained Ni12P5–Ni2P heterostructure shows high activity toward HER with an overpotential value of 166 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 60 mV dec−1 in 0.5 M H2SO4. Compared with pure Ni2P and Ni12P5, the Ni12P5–Ni2P heterostructure has more active sites and faster HER kinetics due to the presence of the interfaces between Ni12P5 and Ni2P. Furthermore, we used the obtained Ni12P5–Ni2P as cathodic catalyst and IrO2/Ti as anodic material to set up a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer which shows good stability after 120 h continuous constant current electrolysis at 200 mA cm−2. This work demonstrates the positive effect of heterostructure for HER catalysts and provides a feasible strategy for constructing earth-abundant electrocatalysts.

For the biomass catalytic valorization in the presence of a H2 atmosphere, large amounts of H2O and H2 are necessary to improve the processing efficiency, which resulted in the waste of such genero...

A combined remediation through washing using humic substances (HS) followed by fixation using zeolite was employed to remediate Cd-contaminated sediment. Cadmium speciation and a series of microbial endpoints were discussed to evaluate the effectiveness of remediation. The combined treatment slightly reduced soil pH and increased soil electrical conductivity and organic matter. The Cd removal efficiency ranged from 11.4 %–26.0 % by HS washing. Zeolite immobilization further increased the residual Cd by 9.0 %–16.4 %, compared with the corresponding HS washing alone. The acid-soluble Cd decreased from the original 1.266 to the lowest 0.466 mg kg−1, while the residual Cd increased from 1.397 to a maximum of 1.595 mg kg−1 in the combined treatments. The change of dehydrogenase was the most sensitive (the maximum increase was 220 times). The increased microbial biomass implied that sediment microenvironment was optimized. In vitro digestion results showed that Cd accessibility decreased by 3.9%–67.9%. Principal component analysis suggested that treatments related to the high-concentration HS washing, especially 2000 mg L−1 HS washing +100 g kg−1 zeolite stabilization, had the best biological performance and it is a feasible technique to restore microenvironment of Cd-contaminated sediments.

High volatility would lead to a highly flammable hazard, explosion danger, low regeneration efficiency and air pollution. Eutectic solvents (ESs) are assumed to be nonvolatile; however, the assumption is not correct. Here, we, for the first time, find that superbase-derived ESs are highly volatile. Even at room temperature (i.e., 25 °C) and atmospheric pressure, the mass loss of ESs could reach as high as 43.5% after 20 h of exposure. Superbase-derived ESs are promising solvents for CO2 capture, and they are also highly volatile after CO2 capture. We found that typical ethylene glycol : 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (EG : DBU (4 : 1)) has a three-stage volatilizing mechanism. EG and DBU volatilize first by breaking weak hydrogen-bonding interactions (1st stage), followed by the destruction of strong hydrogen-bonding interactions (2nd stage), and finally by destroying much stronger hydrogen-bonding interactions (3rd stage). This work presents a new horizon that ESs and their mixture with CO2 are highly volatile, which is helpful for mitigating laboratory explosion, combustion hazards, air pollution and designing new types of ESs with negligible volatility.

Biopolymer-based hydrogels with sustained drug release capability and antibacterial activity have exhibited great potential in clinical application in drug delivery and wound healing. In this study, a new type of composite wound dressing hydrogel aiming at avoiding wound infection was developed through embedding drug loaded gellan gum microspheres (GMs) into a doubly crosslinked hydrogel, which was constructed by Schiff-base crosslinking of oxidized gellan gum (OG) (pre-crosslinked by calcium ion) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS). The gelation time, swelling index, degradation rate and mechanical properties of the blank hydrogel was optimized by varying the ratios of CMCS/OG (w/w) with fixed OG/calcium (w/w) ratio. The best overall performance of the hydrogel was obtained when CMCS/OG is 16/7 (w/w), with a 139 s gelation time, swelling index remained above 30 after swelling equilibrium, 100.5% degradation rate on the seventh day, and 8.8 KPa compressive modulus. After being embedded with cargo-loaded GMs, the aforementioned performance of the blank hydrogel was improved, and the sustained release of cargoes (antibacterial drugs, tetracycline hydrochloride and silver sulfadiazine) was observed. Moreover, the excellent antibacterial activity of the composite hydrogel was also demonstrated in vitro. These results support the bioactive composite hydrogel can be employed as a promising injectable scaffold for promoting wound regeneration and drug delivery.

The bi-functional Ni–W@C catalysts were prepared by one-pot reduction–carbonization method and used in hydrogenolysis of cellulose as well as raw lignocellulosic biomass to chemicals. The catalytic performance for cellulose conversion showed that it was more favorable for ethylene glycol (EG) production, obtaining the highest EG yield 60.1% over the Ni–W@C700 catalyst. The Ni–W@C bimetallic catalysts are systematically characterized with BET, XRD, Raman, XPS, TEM techniques and experiments to probe the active catalytic sites of the catalysts. The effects of calcination temperature of Ni–W catalysts, reaction time, temperature and H2 pressure on cellulose hydrogenolysis were investigated in detail. The Ni particles could lead to produce more W5+ active sites, which promotes the glucose retro-aldol condensation to break the target C–C bonds. Metallic Ni catalyzed C=O hydrogenation and C–C hydrogenolysis, which could also avoid the coke formation. The EG selectivity was dependent on the synergy of WOx and Ni metal sites. In addition, this synergistic effect between the metal and WOx could promote lignin component degradation in direct conversion of untreated raw lignocellulosic biomass, obtaining the propyl monophenolics including guaiacylpropane, syringylpropane and p-n-propylphenol with a total yield of 17.3 wt% besides EG.

Bi2WO6 photocatalyst possesses great photocatalytic properties, modification with Ag, Ag2O, and Ag3PO4 further improve its photocatalytic activity. Photocatalyst utilized as suspended powders in wastewater treatment imposes restrictions for practical application. Therefore, the design and fabrication of photocatalyst film with high efficiency and stability are crucial for practical application. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified AP-BWO (A: Ag, Ag2O; P: Ag3PO4; BWO: Bi2WO6) photocatalyst film coated on glass substrate was firstly synthesized with excellent photocatalytic activity and stability. Bi2WO6based films were modified with different PEG molecular weight, dosage and coating layers, followed by characteristic analysis (SEM, TEM, XPS, UVvis, PL, and photocurrent density) and photodegradation test. Photodegradation showed that 2-layered of 12 g L−1 PEG2000 modified AP-BWO film exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity. XPS and TEM indicated that PEG2000-AP-BWO film was fabricated successfully. SEM and UV–vis denoted the photocatalyst film showed small particle size and strong visible-light absorption. Furthermore, PL and photocurrent density confirmed its low recombination and fast charge separation of electronhole pairs. The photocatalytic films showed high activity and stability in both 10-cycle repeatability experiments and tandem-type photocatalytic recycle system. Therefore, PEG2000-AP-BWO film with enhanced photocatalytic performance and stability was a promising alternative for wastewater treatment.

Traditional contact lenses bring convenience for ophthalmic drug delivery. However, either as contact lenses or as drug carriers, traditional materials have still some drawbacks in the field. Therefore, a transparent film was designed and investigated for the application of therapeutic contact lenses. Chitosan (CS)/graphene oxide (GO) composite film and CS film were fabricated with acceptable transparent and tensile properties by simple casting flow method. Although swelling ratio of CS/GO composite film was higher than that of CS film with significant difference, both formed films had suitable swelling ratio for contact lens application. Both CS/GO composite film and CS film exhibited typical CS infrared characteristic peaks. CS/GO composite film had significant greater breaking strength than CS film, but its elongation at break was a little lower than CS film. Either CS/GO composite film or CS film exhibited good hydrophilic property with a contact angle of around 20 degree. Ofloxacin as a model drug was loaded into films by adsorption diffusion method. Loaded drug amount in CS/GO composite film was a little larger than that in CS film, but without significant difference. The drug release behaviors from CS/GO composite film or CS film were investigated and revealed that the loaded drug could be controlled to release in the first hour. Two kinds of cells were used to evaluate the biocompatibility of films by in vitro method. It was found that both CS/GO composite film and CS film could support human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) growth. But for human epidermal fibroblasts (HSF) cells, CS/GO composite film could promote HSF cells growth and proliferation much better than CS film.

The large volume and weak environmental adaptability of fiber optical frequency combs (OFCs) have become the main obstacles for their applications in various fields. To address these issues, in this study, we present a compact, low-cost f-to-2f interferometer and fiber actuator with a large tuning range and a high control bandwidth for a 200-MHz OFC that is based on a 1.5-μm all-polarization-maintaining fiber mode-locked laser. By employing customized fiber-coupled gradient index lenses, our f-to-2f interferometer is encapsulated in a miniature tube with a diameter of only 4 mm and a length of 40 mm, which substantially reduces the optical section size of the frequency comb as compared to conventional devices. The carrier envelope offset beat with a signal-to-noise ratio of 40 dB is detected in a resolution bandwidth of 360 kHz. In addition, a laboratory-made piezoelectric transducer-driven mechanical actuator for repetition rate regulation exhibited a large tuning range of 106 kHz (corresponding to an effective temperature drift of 53 °C) and a high control bandwidth of approximately 1 kHz. This resulted in a robust repetition rate locking with an Allan deviation of 330 μHz at a gate time of 1 s and a residual integrated timing jitter of 418 fs [3 Hz to 1 MHz] when referenced to a hydrogen maser. Along with reducing the size and improving the environmental adaptability of the OFC, our design can also decrease the power consumption of the system significantly. Our findings provide a new direction to the development of OFCs for various applications.

Several N-2(5H)-furanone compounds were synthesized successfully and were characterized systematically. Compounds bearing piperazine and trifluoromethyl moieties 1q were the best COX-2 inhibitors w...

Climate change would pose a direct and severe challenge to China's rice production and self-sufficiency. Here we use Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model to evaluate the impacts of climate change on the self-sufficiency of rice in China due to 2 °C rise in temperature, and further analyze the impact and transmission mechanisms of climate change through market and trade. Our simulation method switches different regional mechanisms in the GTAP model by employing alternative closures and scenarios. Our results suggest that the fluctuation in rice price is much larger than that of rice production. The active regional feedback mechanism has much larger effects than the passive one in assessing climate change impacts. With the passive regional feedback mechanism (Single Regional General Equilibrium, SRGE and Multi-Regional General Equilibrium with China's shock, MRGE_C), China's rice export would decrease by more than 8%, and import would increase by over 5%, which leads to a decrease in rice self-sufficiency by more than 0.06 percentage points. With the active regional feedback mechanism (Multi-Regional General Equilibrium with global shock, MRGE_W), climate change will increase China's rice export by 2.7% as rising rice exports to South Korea overweight the export decrease to other countries, concurrently, China's rice import would decrease by 0.04%, which leads to a slight increase in rice self-sufficiency. As a whole, climate change will not severely threaten China's rice self-sufficiency. By the decomposition analysis, climate change impacts on China's rice self-sufficiency mainly depend on the changes in China's domestic rice production. Interestingly, the source of China's rice import will switch from Vietnam to Pakistan under MRGE_W, which derives from the input structure of paddy rice and rice sectors in different countries.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a powerful oxidant with a wide range of applications, for example, organic synthesis and wastewater treatment. The present work describes the phosphorus-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes (P-CNTs) catalyst for electrogeneration of H2O2 in acidic and neutral medium using gas diffusion electrode. These P-CNTs are synthesized by a simple and efficient hydrothermal method. The structure and morphology are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. The kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is evaluated by the rotating disk electrode technique. The accumulation of H2O2 reaches to 1291.3 mg/L after 60 min for P-CNTs gas diffusion electrode, while the CNTs gas diffusion electrode produces 415.9 mg/L of H2O2. The current efficiency for the formation of H2O2 is 88.5% when using P-CNTs gas diffusion electrode, which is higher than 64.7% of CNT gas diffusion electrode in 60 min. The operational parameters for P-CNTs gas diffusion electrode such as cathodic potential, pH and O2 flow rate are optimized systematically. Finally the P-CNTs gas diffusion electrode is experimentally confirmed to be efficient in the degradation of 200 mg/L metronidazole (MNZ) by electro-Fenton (EF) process at both acidic and neutral pH, indicating its potential for the treatment of refractory organic pollutants wastewaters.

Menglong Liu,1 Tengfei Liu,1 Xiaorong Zhang,1 Zhiwen Jian,2 Hesheng Xia,2 Jiacai Yang,1 Xiaohong Hu,1 Malcolm Xing,1,3 Gaoxing Luo,1 Jun Wu1,41Institute of Burn Research, State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing 400038, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada; 4Department of Burns, the First Affiliated Hospital, SunYat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: Designing a wound dressing that effectively prevents multi-drug-resistant bacterial infection and promotes angiogenesis and re-epithelialization is of great significance for wound management.Methods and results: In this study, a biocompatible composite membrane comprising biomimetic polydopamine-modified eggshell membrane nano/microfibres coated with KR-12 antimicrobial peptide and hyaluronic acid (HA) was developed in an eco-friendly manner. The physicochemical properties of the composite membrane were thoroughly characterized, and the results showed that the surface hydrophilicity and water absorption ability of the composite membrane were improved after the successive conjugation of the HA and the KR-12 peptide. Furthermore, the in vitrobiological results revealed that the composite membrane had excellent antibacterial activity against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Gram-negative Escherichia coli, and it could prevent MRSA biofilm formation on its surface. Additionally, it promoted the proliferation of keratinocytes and human umbilical vein endothelial cells and increased the secretion of VEGF. Finally, an in vivo animal study indicated that the composite membrane could promote wound healing via accelerating angiogenesis and re-epithelialization, which were demonstrated by the enhanced expression of angiogenetic markers (CD31 and VEGF) and keratinocyte proliferation marker (PCNA), respectively.Conclusion: These results indicated that the composite membrane is a potential candidate of wound dressingsKeywords: antimicrobial peptides, hyaluronic acid, fibrous eggshell membrane, antibacterial activity, angiogenesis, re-epithelialization

This paper proposes a modified electrochemical Fenton method with a pair of iron electrodes, which Fe anode is electrodisolved supplying stoichiometric Fe2+. Then the electrodisolved Fe2+ reacts with H2O2 to generate hydroxyl radical (· OH). The experiment shows that 62.6% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) is removed and the ratio of the five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) to COD increases from 0.17 to 0.45 under the optimal experimental conditions (current density of 30 mA/cm2, electrolysis time of 15 min, H2O2 dosage of 75 mmol/L, pH 3.00 and stirring time of 2.5 hours). Meanwhile, the high concentration of metronidazole (1000 mg/L) is dramatically decreased (> 95%). In order to explore the mineralization pathway for metronidazole, the intermediate by-products of the modified electrochemical Fenton process are investigated by GC/MS, FTIR and HPLC. Good results are achieved in treatment of the real metronidazole wastewater by the proposed method, BOD5/COD increases from 0.17 to 0.35. This method has been successfully applied to a large scale industrial treatment of real metronidazole wastewater as a pretreatment process for the biochemical treatment.

We demonstrate the generation of dark solitons (DSs) in erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser based on black phosphorus nanoparticles (BPNPs) for the first time. The side-polished fiber deposited with BPNPs is embedded into the laser to enhance the birefringence and nonlinearity of the laser cavity. In the paper, the saturable absorption property of BPNPs with an optical modulation depth of 5.7% and a saturable intensity of 21.7 MW/cm2 are experimentally illustrated. After inserting the BPNPs saturable absorber (SA) into EDF laser, the DSs with repetition rate of 14.68 MHz are obtained at a pump power of 90 mW. Our results prove that the BPNPs are the promising candidate materials for generating DSs in EDF laser.

We report a passively Q-switched all-fiber Yb-doped laser using the structure of step-index multimode fiber and graded-index fiber (SIMF-GIMF) as a new saturable absorber (SA) based on the nonlinear multimode interference (NL-MMI). Through bending the SA to a certain state, we obtain a stable Q-switched laser operation with the shortest pulse duration of 4.37 μs and a corresponding repetition rate of 147.6 kHz with center at 1,039 nm. The maximum average output power and single pulse energy are recorded to be 2.409 mW and 16.3 nJ, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this paper confirms experimentally for the first time Q-switched laser operation based on SIMF-GIMF SA in all-fiber lasers. In addition, we also observed unstable Q-switched mode-locking operation. All-fiber lasers based on SIMF-GIMF SA are attractive for practical applications and undergo no damage and performance degradation with time.

Aqueduct, one kind of bridge structure overpassing a long space, is a significant structure for water delivery for the purpose of agricultural or domestic usage. Aqueduct has quite different loads from other forms of bridges, of which temperature effects due to the environment temperature change, such as seasonal weather or radiation from sunshine, are of great importance. With water flowing inside, the temperature boundary of aqueducts, especially for steel aqueducts, is much more complicated, and relevant researches are limited. In this paper, a 3D Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation process is presented to analyze temperature distribution on the cross-section of a new-type steel truss aqueduct, which belongs to the Water Transfer Project from Yangtze River to Huai River in China. ASHRAE clear-sky model is used to calculate the solar-radiation variation, including direct radiation, diffuse sky radiation, and ground reflected radiation on steel surfaces. The time-dependent sunshine radiation angle of incidence and shielding effect of steel trusses are considered. The water inside the aqueduct is also included in this model, which significantly influences the temperatures of the inner surfaces of the aqueduct. Several temperature distributions under critical conditions of winter and summer are shown in this study, and results of the empty aqueduct under the same circumstances are also provided as a comparison. The effects of wind speed, geographic latitude, and direction of the aqueduct are examined. The conclusions and approach provided by this study could serve as significant references for thermal design and control of similar steel truss aqueducts.

Biochar plays an essential role in soil remediation, but its effect on the arsenic remediation has been controversial. In this study, hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HDTMA-Br) modified or unmodified biochar on As mobility and bioavailability in soil were studied. The sequential extraction experiment showed that As in the original soil mainly existed in the occluded form (78.24%), followed by Fe‒As (20.72%) and Al‒As (0.88%) forms. With the addition of the modified and unmodified biochars, the contents of Ca‒As and Fe‒As increased by 0.36 – 0.95% and 2.06 – 3.36%, respectively, suggesting the increased potential toxicity of As. The NaH2PO4 extraction result showed that the unmodified biochar increased the As availability by 3.23 – 22.76%, whereas the HDTMA-modified biochar reduced the As availability by 4.80 – 13.41%. Pot experiment showed that the unmodified and modified biochar increased the biomass of Brassica pekinensis, and the modified biochar (HB5) decreased the uptake of As by plants by 80.77% compared to the unmodified biochar. In particular, the plant achieved better growth in the modified biochar treatment (average height 8.31 cm) than in the unmodified biochar treatment (average height 6.97 cm). Therefore, both biochars facilitated phase transformation of As from the stable to the mobile states in the soil. Nevertheless, the HDTMA-modified biochar had an effect on alleviating As bioavailability and toxicity.

Synthesized polypeptide is attracting an increased interests due to its excellent biological characteristic and adjustable chemical properties in bio-related fields. But polypeptide itself has no switching properties, which is harmful to the development of its application as a control component. Herein, light-responsive poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate)s (PBLGs) is synthesized by a one-step NCA method using p-aminoazobenzene (m-AZO) and p-diaminoazobenzene (m-DAZO) as initiators. PBLGs exhibit amorphous characteristics with obvious Tg transition, which are 14°C for PBLG1 and 21°C for PBLG2. In order to forecast the structure-property information of PBLGs, theoretical UV-vis spectra as well as the energy gap between HOMO and LUMO is calculated by DFT calculation. Experimental results of UV-vis spectra exhibit similar characteristics to those of theorical UV-vis spectra except for the 40–50 nm red-shifting of absorbance peak. Furthermore, the absorbance intensities of PBLGs have a good linear relationship with their concentration, but their linearity range depending on concentration is completely different. Then, trans–cis transition under a different excitation source and cis–trans recovery in a dark environment are tracked in real-time by UV-vis spectra to evaluate the light response performances. It is found that UV light is the only effective excitation source for PBLG1, and blue light is another effective excitation source for PBLG2 besides UV light. Furthermore, the addition of alcohol and water as cosolvents has little effect on trans→cis transition in UV-light-excited systems, but it shortens recovery time of the cis→trans process in a dark environment. By contrast, the detectable isomerization process becomes unclear with the addition of alcohol in blue-light-excited system. Furthermore, either alcohol or water in solvents accelerate both the trans→cis and cis→trans process in a blue-light-excited system.

The photoisomerization of azobenzene (AZO) makes it a potential type of photoswitch for the field of chemical engineering. However, the lack of stability and photobleaching characteristics of reversible photoisomerization have restricted further application of AZO as a photoswitch. Therefore, we have designed two polymers containing the AZO domain as macromolecular photoswitches and investigated their switching performance. The hydrophilic monomers hydroxyethyl methylacrylate (HEMA) and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) were chosen to copolymerize with the AZO monomer to form HEMA-AZO copolymer and HEMA-NVP-AZO terpolymer. The domain content was calculated by integration of the peaks in the 1H NMR spectrum. Real-time UV spectra of polymer solutions upon UV light irradiation confirmed quick and successful trans-to-cis transition for the AZO domain. In reverse, the operable and controllable recovery processes upon white light were also verified by real-time UV spectra. Furthermore, repeated irradiation by UV light and white light for 20 times was used to check their fatigue resistance and recyclability. Importantly, recovery behaviors for the two polymers could be adjusted by solvent property, environment temperature, and light intensity. Higher environment temperature or higher light intensity resulted in shortened recovery time. The influence of solvent was only slightly different for the two polymers. Nanoassemblies, which were formed by HEMA-NVP-AZO terpolymer and poly(β-cyclodextrin)/poly(α-cyclodextrin), exhibited similar controllable switching performance to the pure polymer. In brief, the effectiveness and efficiency of the polymers as photoswitches have been confirmed by results in this work.

As the most abundant polysaccharide in lignocellulosic biomass, a clean and renewable carbon resource, cellulose shows huge capacity and roused much attention on the methodologies of its conversion to downstream products, mainly including platform chemicals and fuel additives. Without appropriate treatments in the processes of cellulose decompose, there are some by-products that may not be chemically valuable or even truly harmful. Therefore, higher selectivity and more economical and greener processes would be favored and serve as criteria in a correlational study. Aqueous phase, an economically accessible and immensely potential reaction system, has been widely studied in the preparation of downstream products of cellulose. Accordingly, this mini-review aims at making a related summary about several conversion pathways of cellulose to target products in aqueous phase. Mainly, there are four categories about the conversion of cellulose to downstream products in the following: (i) cellulose hydrolysis hydrogenation to saccharides and sugar alcohols, like glucose, sorbitol, mannose, etc.; (ii) selective hydrogenolysis leads to the cleavage of the corresponding glucose C-C and C-O bond, like ethylene glycol (EG), 1,2-propylene glycol (PG), etc.; (iii) dehydration of fructose and further oxidation, like 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), etc.; and (iv) production of liquid alkanes via hydrogenolysis and hydrodeoxygenation, like pentane, hexane, etc. The representative products were enumerated, and the mechanism and pathway of mentioned reaction are also summarized in a brief description. Ultimately, the remaining challenges and possible further research objects are proposed in perspective to provide researchers with a lucid research direction.

The pollution from nuclear leaks and nuclear disasters (e.g. radioactive iodine) would cause serious harm to human beings and ecosystems for many years. Cocoon silk and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are both green substances. DESs are easily synthesized, cheap, highly biocompatible and highly biodegradable. Here, we combine the removal of organic dyes and the capture of radioactive iodine by using green DES-pretreated cocoon silk. It is the first time organic dyes have been removed from wastewater by DES-disrupted silk for the purpose of favourably removing iodine. Organic dyes-captured DES-pretreated cocoon silk could be used to capture iodine efficiently. It opens a new route to dispose of one waste from nuclear energy with organic dyes from wastewater captured by green solvents-pretreated natural silk.

Biohydrogen from microalgal biomass has shown particular advantage due to its high growth rate and high bioenergy production. As a representative of microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris was chosen as substrate along with digested sludge (DS) as inoculum in this research. In order to improve the hydrolysis of algal biomass and enhance biohydrogen production, pretreatment methods like acid and thermal pretreatment were employed. Thermal pretreatment showed better results than acid pretreatment of microalgal biomass. 100 °C for 60 min was identified as the optimum condition for the thermal pretreatment of C. vulgaris by response surface methodology (RSM) analysis. Experiments were also carried out to identify the optimum substrate to inoculum ratio (SIR) for the process. SIR of 8 generated the highest hydrogen yield of 190.90 mL H2/g-VS. Moreover, the overall energy balance of the process was evaluated and the results showed a positive energy balance of 1790.13 kJ/kg. The results indicated that optimization of pretreatment methods and substrate to inoculum ratio was effective in enhancing biohydrogen production from microalgal biomass and digested sludge.

The setup of nonlinear pulse compression with hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) is demonstrated. In our experiment, the HC-PCF is just put in the air with no extra gas fill. The spectrum is effectively broadened to more than 60 nm by delivering the ultrashort laser in the HC-PCF and compressing the pulse with Gires–Tournois interferometer-type dispersion mirrors. The initial pulse duration of 279 fs has been shortened to 36 fs with $20\mu \text{J}$ of pulse energy, which corresponds to a peak power of about 556 MW. To our best knowledge, it is the highest peak power obtained from the solid-state laser at the wavelength around $1~\mu \text{m}$ by using Kagome-type HC-PCF without extra gas fill. With precise dispersion compensation and higher input pulse energy, even shorter pulse width and higher peak power can be obtained.

Acid rain in China is mainly caused by man-made SO2 emission. In order to reduce SO2 emission, "Environmental Protection Tax Law of People's Republic of China" has been implemented on January 1, 2018. This study, based on environmental CGE model, analyses the impact of different ratio of environmental tax revenue refunded to consumption tax on China's economy and further decomposes sectors' SO2 emissions reduction into output scale effect, process emission effect, intermediate input substitution effect, energy substitution effect and imported-domestic energy substitution effect. Results show that environmental tax can effectively reduce SO2 emission, and not always hurt the economy. With the tax refund ratio rising, GDP appears an upward trend in varying degrees (−0.25%–0.21%), and SO2 emission reduction shows a downward trend (−3.81%∼-3.28%). A critical point of tax refund ratio is found to locate at 59.5%, which represents the maximum amount of SO2 emission reduction without sacrificing economy. For the SO2 emission reduction, sectors' combustion emission reduction of oilgas and coal play a leading role. After specific decomposition, the energy substitution effect dominates the SO2 emission reduction. Further, emission reductions of SO2 mainly focus on high pollution sectors such as power, building materials manufacturing and paper. Factors driving emission changes in sectors may differ substantially. Therefore, the environmental tax does not necessarily hurt the economy, and can effectively curb high pollution sectors' SO2 emission, stimulating the demand for clean energy like gas and upgrading energy structure.

A hybrid high energy femtosecond laser system based on Yb:YAG single crystal fiber amplifier is experimentally studied. Due to the low nonlinearity and high gain of the Yb:YAG single crystal fiber, laser pulses with high energy of 146 μJ at the repetition of 100KHz are obtained. The beam quality of 1.233 in the horizontal direction and 1.239 in the vertical direction is detected. After compression, pulses with the duration of 859 fs and energy as high as 63.5 μJ are achieved at 100 kHz repetition rate in a compact size, this compact and simple laser system will find various applications in ultrafast laser micro-machining.

The requirements for anti-permeation, anti-infection and antifouling when treating a malicious wound bed raise new challenges for wound dressing. The present study used N,N-dimethylformamide to treat poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) in order to obtain a dressing impregnated with in situ generated nano-silver particles (NS) via an immersion phase inversion method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the film was characterized by a two-layer asymmetric structure with different pore sizes (top layer: ∼0.4 μm; bottom layer: ∼1.8 μm). The moisture permeability test indicated that the film had an optimal water vapor transmission rate (WVTR: ∼2500 g m−2 per day). TEM images revealed the successful formation of spherical NS, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) demonstrated the integration of PVDF and NS (i.e., PVDF/NS). Correspondingly, the water contact angle measurements confirmed increased membrane surface hydrophobicity after NS integration. The inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry showed that the PVDF/NS displayed a continuous and safe release of silver ions. Moreover, in vitro experiments indicated that PVDF/NS films possessed satisfactory anti-permeation, antibacterial and antifouling activities against A. baumannii and E. coli bacteria, while they exhibited no obvious cytotoxicity toward mammalian HaCaT cells. Finally, the in vivo results showed that the nanoporous top layer of film could serve as a physical barrier to prevent bacterial penetration, whereas the microporous bottom layer could efficiently prevent bacterial infection caused by biofouling, leading to fast re-epithelialization via the enhancement of keratinocyte proliferation. Collectively, the results show that the PVDF/NS25 film has a promising application in wound treatment, especially for wounds infected by multi-drug-resistant bacteria such as A. baumannii.

Micro- and nano-structured substrates have been widely used in the biomedical engineering field. Their precise control of cell morphology makes them promising for investigating various cell behaviors. However, regulation of cell functions using micro-nano hybrid patterns is rarely achieved. Since the cell microenvironment in vivo has complex micro- and nano-structures, it is desirable to use micro-nano hybrid patterns to mimic the microenvironment to control cell morphology and disclose its influence on stem cell differentiation. In this study, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) micro-stripes with different spacings (50 μm, 100 μm and 200 μm) were constructed on polystyrene (PS) nano-grooves to prepare micro-nano hybrid patterns where the direction of the PVA micro-stripes and PS nano-grooves was parallel or orthogonal. Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) cultured on the micro-nano hybrid patterns showed a different cell alignment and elongation dependent on the PVA micro-stripe spacing and orientation of the PS nano-grooves. Comparison of the influence of cell alignment and aspect ratio on differentiation of hMSCs indicated that myogenic differentiation was predominantly regulated by cell alignment and osteogenic differentiation by cell elongation, while adipogenic differentiation was regulated neither by cell alignment nor by cell elongation.

This study aimed to develop a thermo/pH-sensitive hydrogel for co-delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) and epirubicin (EPI) in tumor combination chemotherapy. First, pluronic F127/reduced graphene oxide (P...

We demonstrate a hundred micro-Joules level femtosecond laser system based on a compact and simple two-stage Yb:YAG single crystal fiber chirped pulse amplification system which delivers compressed power of 15.57 W, pulse width of 715 fs. The different amplification performance with different input seed power is experimentally studied. A maximum direct amplified power output of 44 W at 100 kHz is obtained for an input seed power of 12 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average power of femtosecond laser based on single crystal fiber at hundred micro-Joules energy level.

Transparent and flexible chitosan-based membranes containing antibacterial drugs were prepared through a casting/solvent evaporation method from suspension of chitosan floccule. To enhance mechanical properties, glycerin was incorporated into the floccule suspension to conjugate chitosan as a plasticizer. The mechanism of membrane formation is attributed to inter- and intro-hydrogen bonding between chitosan and glycerol molecules. The results showed that incorporation of glycerol has a significant influence on the properties of the chitosan membranes. With the increase of glycerol content, the tensile strength, swelling rate, water vapor permeability and wettability of membranes were significantly improved. In vitro enzymatic degradation revealed that the chitosan membrane had long-term stability regardless of the glycerol content. To enhance antibacterial properties, tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) and silver sulfadiazine (AgSD), representing the water-soluble and water-insoluble drug models, were integrated into the membranes, respectively. The results of controlled-release efficacy and inhibition zone indicate that the glycerol toughened chitosan membranes containing drugs have a promising future in treatment of bacterial infection as wound dressing.

To evaluate the effects of biomass pre-pyrolysis and pyrolysis temperature on magnetic biochar (MB) properties, MB composites were fabricated from rattan sawdust (RS) and rattan charcoal (RC) through simple iron salt impregnation and subsequent pyrolysis under different temperatures (600–900 °C). Characterization analysis revealed that pyrolysis procedure greatly affects the physicochemical properties of final products. Magnetite dominates the crystal phases of the MB pyrolyzed at 600–800 °C and the Fe (III) species in MBS (MB from RS) are easier to be reduced into wustite. Raising the pyrolysis temperature to 900 °C or increasing the molar ratio of Fe2+–Fe3+ are effective ways to promote the formation of α-iron for both MBS and MBC (MB from RC). Although the MBS yield is lower than that of MBC, the magnetic media in MBS dispersed more uniform on the surface of the biochar matrix. The saturation magnetization decreased from 600 to 800 °C and increased afterward from 800 to 900 °C for MBS, which raised continuously for MBC.

In order to reduce the energy consumption and membrane fouling of the conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR), a kind of low energy consumption vortex wave flow MBR was exploited based on the combination of biofilm process and membrane filtration process, as well as the vortex wave flow technique. The experimental results showed that the vortex wave flow state in the membrane module could be formed when the Reynolds number (Re) of liquid was adjusted between 450 and 1,050, and the membrane flux declined more slowly in the vortex wave flow state than those in the laminar flow state and turbulent flow state. The MBR system was used to treat domestic wastewater under the condition of vortex wave flow state for 30 days. The results showed that the removal efficiency for CODcr and NH3-N was 82% and 98% respectively, and the permeate quality met the requirement of ‘Water quality standard for urban miscellaneous water consumption (GB/T 18920-2002)’. Analysis of the energy consumption of the MBR showed that the average energy consumption was 1.90 ± 0.55 kWh/m3 (permeate), which was only two thirds of conventional MBR energy consumption.

Thermal power plants are considered as the main source of atmospheric pollutants in China due to their massive emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and nitric oxide (NO X ). In order to enhance the environmental protection, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China has recently introduced a new emission standard of atmospheric pollutants for thermal power plants. However, it is still unclear to what extent the new emission standard may impact on China's environment and economy. In this study we apply an environmentally extended Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to assess environmental and economic impacts of the new emission standard in the short term. Our results show that imposing the new emission standard may lead to a reduction in SO 2 and NO X emissions by 22.8% and 11.4%, respectively per year, with the absolute amounts being reduced by 5597and 1482 thousand tons. This is the result of improvement of the emission removal technologies and the sharp decline of the coal consumption. On the other hand, the new emission standard may cause about 0.2% loss of GDP in the target year. In terms of changes in prices of goods and services and final demand structure, the new emission standard can make contribution to curbing inflation, with the consumption demand reduced. In addition, the new emission standard can greatly stimulate the industrial output of other special equipment manufacturing sector. Besides, due to the decreasing price of labor and capital, the new emission standard leads to increase in economic output for industrial sectors, and the depreciation of domestic currency would drive an expansion of the export-oriented industries.

Layered-layered type xLi2MnO3·(1−x)LiMnO2 (x = 0.91, 0.78, 0.67, 0.54, 0.42, and 0.32) nanorods with a diameter of 100–200 nm and length of 400–1000 nm are prepared through a pyrolysis reduction process of monoclinic Li2MnO3 (m-Li2MnO3) nanorods. All the synthesized xLi2MnO3·(1−x)LiMnO2 nanorods exhibit the main characteristic diffraction peaks of m-Li2MnO3 in addition to some weak peaks attributable to m-LiMnO2 especially for those composites with x

TiO 2 photocatalyst film recently has been utilized as the potential candidate for the wastewater treatment, due to its high stability and low toxicity. In order to further increase the photocatalytic ability and stability, different molecular weight of polyethylene glycol (PEG) were used to modify TiO 2 structure to synthesize porous thin film used in the developed Photocatalytic-Ultrasonic system in this work. The results showed that PEG2000 modified TiO 2 calcinated under 450 °C for 2 h exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity, attributed to the smallest crystallite size and optimal particle size. Over 95.0% of rhodamine B (Rh B) was photocatalytically degraded by optimized PEG 2000 -TiO 2 film after 60 min of UV irradiation, while only about 50.8% of Rh B was decolored over pure TiO 2 film. Furthermore, optimized PEG 2000 -TiO 2 film was used in a circular Photocatalytic-Ultrasonic system, and the obtained synergy (0.6519) of sonophotocatalysis indicated its extremely high efficiency for Rh B degradation. In this Photocatalytic-Ultrasonic system, larger amount of PEG 2000 -TiO 2 coated glass beads, stronger ultrasonic power and longer experimental time could result to higher degradation efficiency of Rh B. In addition, repetitive experiments showed that about 97.2% of Rh B were still degraded in the fifth experiment by sonophotocatalysis using PEG 2000 -TiO 2 film. Therefore, PEG 2000 -TiO 2 film used in Photocatalytic-Ultrasonic system has promising potential for wastewater treatment, due to its excellent photocatalytic activity and high stability.

Fe3O4/carbon nanotubes (Fe3O4/CNTs) nanocomposites were prepared by polylol high-temperature decomposition of the precursor ferric chloride and CNTs in liquid triethylene glycol. After surface modification with hexanediamine, folate was covalently linked to the amine group of magnetic Fe3O4/CNTs nanocomposites. The products were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometry. Then Fe3O4/CNTs were used as a dual-drug carrier to co-delivery of the hydrophilic drug epirubicin hydrochloride and hydrophobic drug paclitaxel. The results indicated that the Fe3O4/CNTs had a favorable release property for epirubicin and paclitaxel, and thus had potential application in tumor-targeted combination chemotherapy.

As a kind of smart material, polydiacetylene (PDA) has a unique conjugated structure, providing a powerful tool for building the diversity of the chemical structure, applying for different sensors. This review focuses on various side chain groups based on PDAs published over the last 3 years, covering urea, melamine, ferriferous oxide and coumarin. Perspectives on the remaining challenges and future developments are also proposed.

An antibacterial and biodegradable composite hydrogel dressing integrated with microspheres is developed for drug delivery and wound healing. The mechanism of gelation is attributed to the Schiff-base reaction between aldehyde and amino groups of oxidized alginate (OAlg) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS). To enhance antibacterial and mechanical properties, tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) loaded gelatin microspheres (GMs) were fabricated by an emulsion cross-linking method, followed by integrating into the OAlg-CMCS hydrogel to produce a composite gel dressing. In vitro gelation time, swelling, degradation, compressive modulus and rheological properties of the gel dressing were investigated as the function of microsphere ratios. With increasing ratios of microspheres from 10 to 40mg/mL, the composite dressing manifested shorter gelation time and lower swelling ratios, as well as higher mechanical strength. Comparing to other formulations, the gel dressing with 30mg/mL microspheres showed more suitable stabilities and mechanical properties for wound healing. Also, in vitro drug release results showed that the loaded TH could be sustained release from the composite gel dressing by contrast with pure hydrogels and microspheres. Furthermore, powerful bacteria growth inhibition effects against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus suggested that the composite gel dressing, especially the one with 30mg/mL GMs containing TH, has a promising future in treatment of bacterial infection.

TiO2-based thin films have been intensively studied in recent years to develop efficient photocatalyst films to degrade refractory organics and inactivate bacteria for wastewater treatment. In the present work, P/Ag/Ag2O/Ag3PO4/TiO2 composite films on the inner-surface of glass tube were successfully prepared via sol-gel approach. P/Ag/Ag2O/Ag3PO4/TiO2 composite films with 3 coating layers, synthesized at 400°C for 2h, showed the optimal photocatalytic performance for rhodamine B (Rh B) degradation. The results indicated that degradation ratio of Rh B by P/Ag/Ag2O/Ag3PO4/TiO2 composite film reached 99.9% after 60min under simulated solar light, while just 67.9% of Rh B was degraded by pure TiO2 film. Moreover, repeatability experiments indicated that even after five recycling runs, the photodegradation ratio of Rh B over composite film maintained at 99.9%, demonstrating its high stability. Photocatalytic inactivation of E. coli with initial concentration of 107CFU/mL also showed around 100% of sterilization ratio under simulated solar light irradiation in 5min by the composite film. The radical trapping experiments implied that the major active species of P/Ag/Ag2O/Ag3PO4/TiO2 composite films were photo-generated holes and O2- radicals. The proposed photocatalytic mechanism shows that the transfer of photo-induced electrons and holes may reduce the recombination efficiency of electron-hole pairs and potential photodecomposition of composite film, resulting in enhanced photocatalytic ability of P/Ag/Ag2O/Ag3PO4/TiO2 composite films.

Light-responsive materials have attracted increasing interest in recent years on account of their adjustable on-off properties upon specific light. In consideration of reversible isomerization transition for azobenzene (AZO), it was designed as a light-responsive domain for nanoparticles in this research. At the same time, the interaction between AZO domain and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) domain was designed as a driving force to assemble nanoparticles, which was fabricated by two polymers containing AZO domain and β-CD domain, respectively. The formed nanoparticles were confirmed by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) results and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images. An obvious two-phase structure was formed in which the outer layer of nanoparticles was composed of PCD polymer, as verified by 1HNMR spectroscopy. The efficient and effective light response of the nanoparticles, including quick responsive time, controllable and gradual recovered process and good fatigue resistance, was confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The size of the nanoparticle could be adjusted by polymer ratio and light irradiation, which was ascribed to its light-response property. Nanoparticles had irreversibly pH dependent characteristics. In order to explore its application as a nanocarrier, drug loading and in vitro release profile in different environment were investigated through control of stimuli including light or pH value. Folic acid (FA), as a kind of target fluorescent molecule with specific protein-binding property, was functionalized onto nanoparticles for precise delivery for anticancer drugs. Preliminary in vitro cell culture results confirmed efficient and effective curative effect for the nanocarrier on MCF-7 cells.

Hydrogels with multifunctional properties attracted intensively attention in the field of tissue engineering because of their excellent performance. Also, object-oriented design had been supposed to an effective and efficient method for material design as cell scaffold in the field of tissue engineering. Therefore, a scaffold-oriented injectable composite hydrogel was constructed by two components. One was pH-sensitive bifunctional nanoparticles for growth factor delivery to improve biofunctionability of hydrogel scaffold. The other was Diels-alder click crosslinked hyaluronic acid hydrogel as matrix. pH dependent release behavior of nanoparticle component was confirmed by results. And, its bioactivity was verified by in vitro cell culture evaluation. In consideration of high-efficiency and effectiveness, low toxicity, controllability and reversibility, dynamic covalent and reversible Diels-alder click chemistry was used to design a HA hydrogel with two kinds of crosslinking points. The properties of hydrogel like gelation time and swelling ratio were influenced by pH value and polymer concentration. Composite hydrogel was formed by in situ polymerization, which exhibited acceptable mechanical property as a scaffold for biomedical field. Lastly, in vitro evaluation from results of viability, DNA content and cell morphology confirmed that hydrogels could maintain cell activity and support cell growth. Compared with pure hydrogel, composite hydrogel possessed better properties.

Azobenzene (AZO) has attracted increasing interest due to its reversible structural change upon a light stimulus. However, poor fatigue durability and the photobleaching phenomenon restricts its further application. Herein, the AZO domain as a pendent group, was incorporated into copolymers, which was synthesized by radical copolymerization in the research. Structure-properties of synthesized copolymer can be adjusted by monomer ratios. Emphatically, responsive properties of copolymer in different solutions were investigated. In the DMSO solution, copolymer exhibited effective structural change, stable rapid responsive time (1 min) upon UV light at room temperature, stable relative acceptable recovery time (100 min) upon white light at room temperature, and good fatigue resistance property. In an aqueous solution, even more controllable responsive properties and fatigue resistance properties for copolymer were verified by results. More pervasively, the recovery process could be controlled by light density and temperature. In order to clarify reasons for the difference between the AZO molecule and the AZO domain of copolymer, energy barrier or interactions between single atoms or even structural units was calculated using the density functional theory (DFT). Furthermore, the status of copolymer was characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Finally, copolymer was further functionalized with bioactive protein (concanavalin, ConA) to reduce the cytotoxicity of the AZO molecule.

Gene transfection has broad applications in bioengineering and biomedical fields. Although many gene carrier materials and transfection methods have been developed, it remains unclear how cell morphology including cell spreading and elongation affects gene transfection. In this study, human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were cultured on micropatterns and transfected with cationic pAcGFP1-N1 plasmid complexes. The relationship between the cell morphology of hMSCs and gene transfection was investigated using micropatterning techniques. Spreading and elongation of hMSCs were precisely controlled by micropatterned surfaces. The results showed that well-spread and elongated hMSCs had high transfection efficiency. Analysis of the uptake of exogenous genes and DNA synthesis activity indicated that the well-spread and elongated cell morphology promoted gene transfection through enhanced uptake of the cationic complexes and accelerated DNA synthesis. The results should provide useful information for understanding of cell morphology on gene transfection and development of efficient gene transfection methods.

Soil contaminated by hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) requires special attention not only because of the carcinogenicity and high toxicity of Cr(VI) but also the distinct nature (e.g., changed valency, anionic forms across various pH). Combining the natural clay mineral attapulgite and natural antioxidant tea polyphenols could offer a cost-effective, environmental-friendly, and efficient solution in remediating the Cr(VI) contaminated soils. In this study, attapulgite and green tea extract were used to prepare a green-tea impregnated attapulgite (GATP). The as-formed material was used to remediate a Cr(VI) contaminated soil, and the remediation effects and mechanism were studied. The results of the incubation test showed that the Cr(VI) content in the soil of the 10% GATP group decreased from 450.6 mg/kg to 165.5 mg/kg, and 62.98% of Cr(VI) was converted to Cr(III). Meanwhile, the total extractable Cr contents in the simple bioaccessibility extraction test (SBET), physiologically based extraction test (PBET), simple gastrointestinal extraction test (SGET) and synthetic precipitation leaching procedure (SPLP) experiments decreased by 48.1%, 39.1%, 71.8%, and 53.8% in the 10% GATP treatment, respectively. The results of the sequential extraction program (SEP) experiment and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that GATP promoted the conversion of weak acid extractable Cr to the residual state, and produced stable Cr(III) and chromium-silicon oxide. Besides, soil enzyme activities of the GATP amended soils were significantly improved. Therefore, GATP had advantages of having a simple preparation process and lower prices and improved soil physicochemical and environmental conditions.

Cell mechanical properties that depend on cytoskeleton architecture are critical to the mechanotransduction process, and have great potential for cancer diagnosis and therapy. In this study, the morphological and mechanical properties of typical osteosarcoma microenvironment cells, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), normal human osteoblast cells (NHOst) and osteosarcoma cells (MG-63), were compared using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The MG-63 cells were smaller and thicker than the MSC and NHOst cells. The membrane roughness of MG-63 cells was higher than that of MSC and NHOst cells. The MG-63 cells had lower stiffness than their normal counterparts due to their reduced organization of the cytoskeleton structure. The cell stiffness influenced the mechanotransduction. The MG-63 cells had a lower percentage of nuclear YAP/TAZ compared with the MSC and NHOst cells. The F-actin assembly was disrupted by the cytochalasin D (cyto D) treatment used to investigate its influence on mechanotransduction. Disruption of the cytoskeleton leaded to a decrease of the cell stiffness, and reduced the nuclear YAP/TAZ percentage, indicating its inhibition in the cell mechanotransduction process. This study would shed light on the development of a novel cancer diagnosis strategy and would contribute to reveal the relationship between the cytoskeleton structure and the cell mechanical properties.

The nanomechanics of cells have been proven to play important roles in regulating cell behaviors. However, conventional measurement of cell nanomechanics that is processed on uniform surfaces lacks the control of cell morphology, which is reported to significantly influence the cell nanomechanics. This study prepares the micropatterned surfaces using photolithographic micropatterning of photoreactive poly(vinyl alcohol) on cell-culture polystyrene plates to provide controllable and reproducible cell morphology. The nanomechanics of osteoblasts (NHOst), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and osteosarcoma cell line (MG-63) are compared on micropatterns. Cell stiffness increases with increase of spreading area due to the ordering of cytoskeleton. Disrupting F-actin assembly reduces cell stiffness. Meanwhile, cell spreading area influences the expression of phosphoezrin that affects cell surface roughness. Rough membrane is accompanied with high non-specific adhesion force and migration rate. The influence of spreading area on cancer cell nanomechanics is not as evident as that of normal cells indicating cancer cells behave less dependently on their microenvironment compared to normal cells. The findings of this study suggest that the nanomechanical differences between normal and cancer cells can be used as a biomarker to enhance the diagnosis of cancers. The use of micropatterns should be very useful to compare the nanomechanics of cells.