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【Background】 The climate in Inner Mongolia of China is suitable for growing strawberry but the shallow root system of the crop makes it prone to soil salinity. How to alleviate soil salinity and improve the resistance of strawberry against soil salinity is hence essential to safeguarding strawberry production in both fields and greenhouses that endured secondary soil salination. 【Objective】 The objective of this paper is to study the feasibility of using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation to improve physical and biogeochemical conditions of the rhizosphere of strawberry to improve its resistance against salinity stress. 【Method】 We used the cultivar of ‘Charlie sweet’ as the model plant and inoculated its roots with AMF. They were then grown in soils with a salinity gradient created by adding 0 to 100 mmol/L of solution of NaCl and Na2SO4 mixed at 1:1 ratio. In each treatment, we measured the number of microbes and the activity of urease, catalase, sucrase and amylase in the rhizosphere. 【Result】 With the salt concentration increasing, the salinity index of the crop increased, while the rate of mycorrhizal infection, the number of soil microorganisms and the enzymatic activity all decreased. Compared with control without inoculation, 28 days after instigating the salt stress inoculation reduced the salt damage index of the strawberry by 10.91% to 23.93%, depending on salt concentration, 28 days after instigating the salt stress. Inoculation also increased the activity of all enzymes and the number of microorganisms at significant level (P

Mechanoluminescence (ML) is a unique luminescent phenomenon that converts mechanical energy into light energy. Recently, it has attracted the attention of many researchers due to its potential applications in visible stress sensing, wearable luminescent devices, self-powered electronic skin, and luminescent anti-counterfeiting. However, the absence of standardized testing methods and metrics for evaluating the performance of ML materials poses a hinderance to the development of ML. In this review, we focus on the ML testing methods, with an emphasis on the testing specimen, force application equipment and optical signal acquisition systems. Finally, we conclude with discussions on the future necessity and existing problems regarding the standardization of characterization methods for ML properties, aiming to provide a reference idea for the standardization of ML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipids and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are essential contributors to meat flavor. However, no studies to date have comprehensively explored the lipids and VOCs in raw pork from Ningxiang (NX) pigs and their hybrid breed Berkshire × Ningxiang (BN) pigs. This study aimed to identify the lipids and VOCs and reveal the crucial lipids for characteristic flavor formation. Samples were collected from the longissimus dorsi muscle of six NX and BN 8-month-old pigs each. The intramuscular fat (IMF) content of NX pork was 5.43%, almost twice that of BN pork (p <.01). Total 187 significantly different lipids were identified between NX and BN pork (variable importance in projection scores > 1, p <.05). Further analysis suggested 38 lipids were potential markers. Out of 66 identified VOCs, 16 key VOCs were screened both in NX and BN pork. Furtherly, hexanal-D, 2-methylbutanal, 3-methylbutanal, 1-penten-3-one, 1-octen-3-ol, and ethyl acetate-D were found to be key differential VOCs. Comparing with NX pork, BN pork significantly improved pungent odor. Correlation between the lipid markers and key VOCs demonstrated that phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylcholine (PC), and triglyceride (TG) were identified as key differentiating compounds for characteristic flavor. Our findings provided a novel understanding of pork identification and a basis for improving the flavor quality of NX and BN pork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermoelectrics is the simplest technology applicable for direct energy conversion between heat and electricity. After over 60 years of fruitful research efforts, recent boom in flexible electronics has promoted the rapid development of flexible thermoelectrics with rising performances, discovery of new materials and concepts, unconventional device configuration, and emerging applications not possible for traditional thermoelectric (TE) semiconductors. In this Perspective, we first overview representative flexible TE materials, then discuss recent breakthroughs for flexible TE devices assembled from various types of TE materials employing different technical routes. They exhibit promising power generation and sensing performances, and aim for applications in wearable electronics, such as the power supply harvesting heat from body for low-power electronics, temperature sensors for tactile e-skin, and newly emerged application as a thermo-haptic device in an extended reality system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent mechanoluminescence (PML) is highly desirable for its ability to overcome transient‐emitting behavior, but its applications are hindered by the limited emission wavelengths. Herein, a universal chemical interlinkage‐assisted efficient energy transfer (ET) strategy is introduced to achieve color conversion from green to red in traditional PML materials. A straightforward chemical route to create the RhB@SiO2/SAOED system is established via covalent chemical interlinkage by depositing mesoporous silica‐encapsulated Rhodamine B (RhB) nanoparticles (RhB@SiO2) onto SrAl2O4:Eu, Dy (SAOED) particles. The resulting system exhibits a high ET efficiency of 53.5%. The multicolor PML of the RhB@SiO2/SAOED system remains visible to the naked eye for exceeding 28 s after mechanical stimulation. With this unique PML behavior, the RhB@SiO2/SAOED system demonstrates the potential applications ranging from visualized reading activities to multi‐mode anticounterfeiting. This universal PML color‐conversion strategy provides a new approach to high‐performance mechanical light energy‐conversion systems and may further inspire more diverse functional applications of classical PML materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slow transit constipation (STC) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders in children and adults worldwide. Paeoniflorin (PF), a monoterpene glycoside compound extracted from the dried root of Paeonia lactiflora, has been found to alleviate STC, but the mechanisms of its effect remain unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of PF on intestinal fluid metabolism and visceral sensitization in rats with compound diphenoxylate‐induced STC. Based on the evaluation of the laxative effect, the abdominal withdrawal reflex test, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction, western blot, and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the visceral sensitivity, fluid metabolism‐related proteins, and acid‐sensitive ion channel 3/extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ASIC3/ERK) pathway‐related molecules. PF treatment not only attenuated compound diphenoxylate‐induced constipation symptoms and colonic pathological damage in rats but also ameliorated colonic fluid metabolic disorders and visceral sensitization abnormalities, as manifested by increased colonic goblet cell counts and mucin2 protein expression, decreased aquaporin3 protein expression, improved abdominal withdrawal reflex scores, reduced visceral pain threshold, upregulated serum 5‐hydroxytryptamine, and downregulated vasoactive intestinal peptide levels. Furthermore, PF activated the colonic ASIC3/ERK pathway in STC rats, and ASIC3 inhibition partially counteracted PF's modulatory effects on intestinal fluid and visceral sensation. In conclusion, PF alleviated impaired intestinal fluid metabolism and abnormal visceral sensitization in STC rats and thus relieved their symptoms through activation of the ASIC3/ERK pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]