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Klotho is a life extension factor that has the ability to regulate the function of GluN2B-containing N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), whose dysfunction in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) underlies critical aspects of the pathophysiology of major depression. Here, we study the functional relevance of klotho in the pathogenesis of depression. A chronic social defeat stress paradigm, in which mice are categorized as either susceptible or unsusceptible based on their performance in a social interaction test, was used in this study. We found that the expression of klotho was largely decreased in the NAc of susceptible mice compared to control or unsusceptible mice. Genetic knockdown of klotho in the NAc induced behavioral alterations relevant to depression in naive mice, while overexpression of klotho produced an antidepressive effect in normal mice and ameliorated the behavioral responses to stress in susceptible mice. Molecularly, knockdown of klotho in the NAc resulted in selective decreases in total and synaptic GluN2B expression that were identical to those in susceptible mice. Elevation of klotho in the NAc reversed the reductions in GluN2B expressions and altered synaptic transmission and spine density in the NAc of susceptible mice. Furthermore, blockade of GluN2B with a specific antagonist abolished the beneficial effects of klotho elevation in susceptible mice. Collectively, we demonstrated that klotho in the NAc modulates behavioral responses to stress by regulating the function of GluN2B-containing NMDARs. These results reveal a novel role for klotho in the pathogenesis of depression, providing new insights into the molecular basis of major depression.

Recently, the technology of assisting the navigation of visually impaired persons with computer vision has been greatly developed. A number of scholars have conducted related research, including indoor and outdoor object detection for blind people. However, there are still problems with some existing methods or datasets. Our work mainly proposes a dataset (OD) for assisting the detection and recognition of outdoor obstacles for blind people on blind sidewalk. We classify some common obstacles, train the dataset with state-of-the-art detectors to obtain detection models, and then analyze and compare these models in detail. The results show that our proposed dataset is very challenging. The OD and the detection model can be obtained at the following URL: https://github.com/TW0521/Obstacle-Dataset.git .

Molecular recognition in water is the basis of numerous biological functions. The key for efficient and selective recognition of an organic drug molecule is to bind both its polar and nonpolar grou...

Klotho is a life extension factor that has an ability to regulate the function of GluN2B-containing N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), whose dysfunction in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) underlies critical aspects of the pathophysiology of major depression. Here we study the functional relevance of klotho in the pathogenesis of depression. A chronic social defeat stress paradigm, where mice are either categorized as susceptible or unsusceptible group based on their performance in a social interaction test, was used in this study. We found that the expression of klotho was largely decreased in the NAc of susceptible mice when compared to control or unsusceptible group. Genetic knockdown of klotho in the NAc induced depressive-like behaviors in naive mice, while overexpression of klotho produced an antidepressive effect in normal mice and ameliorated the depressive-like behaviors in susceptible mice. Molecularly, knockdown of klotho in the NAc resulted in selective decreases of total and synaptic GluN2B expression that were identical to susceptible mice. Elevation of klotho in the NAc reversed the reductions of GluN2B expressions, as well as altered synaptic transmission and spine density in the NAc of susceptible mice. Furthermore, blockade of GluN2B with a specific antagonist abolished the beneficial effects of klotho elevation in susceptible mice. Collectively, we demonstrated that klotho in the NAc modulates depressive-like behaviors by regulating the function of GluN2B-containing NMDARs. These results reveal a novel role for klotho in the pathogenesis of depression, opening new insights into the molecular basis of major depression.

After nearly a decade of development, the scale of blueberry (Vaccinium sp.) cultivation has increased, particularly in south China; however, this region is becoming increasingly challenged by temperature changes during the flowering phenophase. Understanding the effects of temperature on pollen germination and pollen tube growth in blueberry is thus important. Using the rabbiteye blueberry (V. ashei) ‘Brightwell’, different temperature treatments were carried out during open pollination and cross-pollination with the pollen from rabbiteye blueberry ‘Gardenblue’ in field, greenhouse, and controlled temperature experiments over two consecutive years. The differences in pollen germination, pollen tube dynamics, and ovule viability following different treatments were analyzed, and the critical temperatures were calculated using quadratic and modified bilinear equations to quantify the developmental responses to temperature. The results showed that the fruit set of the artificially pollinated plants inside the greenhouse was significantly higher than that outside the greenhouse. Furthermore, pollen germination and pollen tube growth gradually accelerated under the appropriate high-temperature range, resulting in reduced pollen tube travel time to the ovule. However, the percentage of the style traversed by the pollen tube did not increase at temperatures greater than 30 °C, and a high-temperature range could accelerate ovule degeneration. Therefore, impairment of pollen tube growth in the upper half of the style following pollen germination and ovule degeneration constituted important factors leading to reduced fruit setting under short periods of high temperature during the flowering phenophase in rabbiteye blueberry. This work advances our understanding of the effect of temperature on pollen germination, pollen tube growth, ovule longevity, and fruit setting in rabbiteye blueberry, and provides a foundation for continued cultivation and breeding enhancement. The findings propose that the tolerance of rabbiteye blueberry to a certain high-temperature range in the flowering phenophase should inform breeding strategies for temperature resistance and that temperature range is also an important indicator of suitable environments for cultivation to mitigate potential temperature stress.

We report a facile solvothermal method for synthesizing nearly superparamagnetic Zn-doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles with controllable doping concentration. All samples demonstrate a typical spinel structure with small size (less than 20 nm). The Zn ion doping effect on the structure, morphology and magnetism of Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been systematically studied by XRD, TEM, FTIR, XPS and FMR. It is found that the saturation magnetization of Fe3O4 first increases then decreases with increasing Zn doping concentration due to the different site occupation of Zn ions. In contrast, dynamic magnetic measurements demonstrate that the Lande g-factor shows a monotonic increasing trend by the increase of Zn doping concentration.

A facile fluorescent method was developed to quantitatively monitor the hydrolysis kinetics of nonfluorescent esters by using a fluorecent endo-functionalized molecular tube and its recognition ability towards small polar molecules in water. It is possible to determine the apparent rate constants and study the structure-activity relationship.

We report on the enhancement of spin Hall angle from the CoFeB/Pt interface by introducing nitrogen into the Pt thin film. Spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance measurements on the effective spin Hall angle (θSH) reveal a non-monotonic variation as a function of the amount of nitrogen gas introduced, Q in the film deposition, which peaks at θSH = 0.16 when Q is 8%. Our analysis shows that the θSH enhancement is mainly attributed to the increase in spin-dependent scattering at the interface. The effective magnetic damping decreases with increasing Q due to the reduced spin-orbit coupling. The interfacial spin transparency is also observed to show improvement after the introduction of nitrogen. Moreover, the additional damping-like torque from the interface may also lead to the enhancement of the linewidth modulation. Economic Development Board (EDB) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This work was supported by the RIE2020 AME-IAF-ICP Grant (No. I1801E0030). This work was also supported by an EDB-IPP (No. RCA-17/284) program and an Industry-IHL Partnership Program (No. NRF2015-IIP001-001). Z. Xu gratefully acknowledges financial support from the China Scholarship Council.

The thermodynamically unstable, colourless closed-ring isomer of spiropyran can be stabilized in water by the anti-configurational isomer of amide naphthotube. The influence of the binding on the thermodynamics and kinetics of spiropyran have been studied. The complex was further used to prepare a test paper that allows naked-eye detection of toxic paraoxon.

We report the giant spin current generation in CuTb alloys arising from the spin Hall effect. The maximum spin Hall angle from our CuTb-based magnetic heterostructures was found to be -0.35 ± 0.02 for Cu0.39Tb0.61. We find that the contribution of skew scattering is larger than the side jump for lower Tb concentrations (

In this work, using magnetron sputtering technique we prepare and characterize a series of exchange-biased (Fe70Co30/Ir25Mn75)3 multilayers with antiferromagnetic layer (Ir25Mn75) doped by nonmagnetic MgO to study the misaligned effect of anisotropies on the static exchange bias field (Heb) and the dynamic magnetization relaxation behavior. We demonstrate a strong correlation between the misalignment angle and Heb, as well as the dynamic damping along the easy axis of the Heb, and attributed this to the noncollinear spin structure in ferromagnetic layer. While a different relaxation behavior was observed for the hard axis due to the unidirectional relaxation mechanism in the exchange biased system. Our result may shed new insight in the field of exchange bias, promoting its application in low consumption spintronics devices.

We demonstrate that 1D chain-like Fe3O4/ZnS nanocomposites with core shell structure can be well synthesized by a facile seed mediated growth method, which employs double coating process to enhance the surface activity of Fe3O4 chains for the formation of crystalline ZnS layer. Morphology and structure characterizations reveal the well-defined phases and direct coating of crystalline ZnS shell on Fe3O4 core, in spite of their large lattice mismatch. The composites show large saturation magnetization and good fluorescence properties, which might pave the way for their applications in semiconductor spintronics.

Molecular recognition of aromatic hydrocarbons by four endo -functionalized molecular tubes has been studied by 1 H NMR spectroscopy, computational methods, and single crystal X-ray crystallography. The binding selectivity is rationalized by invoking shape complementarity and dipole alignment. The non-covalent interactions are proved to predominantly be C/N-H⋅⋅⋅ π interactions.

Propagating cracks may deflect due to dynamic instability, running into pre-existing weak regions of heterogeneous media, or encountering variation in driving forces. The mechanical analysis of a kinked crack is of engineering significance for safety control and crack-network formation. Existing theories for kinked cracks relied on the perturbation method, as befit small kinks. The stress intensity factors (SIFs) are valid in the close proximity of the primary crack tip. As to the stress field of a kinked crack, it remains unsolved so far. In this work we develop an analytical solution to the stress fields of kinked cracks. By employing the conformal mapping and the Muskhelishvili approach, the close-form solution works for arbitrarily sized kinked cracks. The analytical theory is then validated using finite-element simulations. With this prior knowledge, we analyze the dependence of crack deflection on loading conditions, critical energy release rate, and the geometry of a kinked crack. We further demonstrate that such an analytical approach paves the way to obtain the solution of multiple-kinked cracks.

Acetate esters and higher alcohols significantly determine the flavor profiles of Chinese Baijiu (Chinese liquor). The aminotransferase encoded by BAT2 and alcohol acetyltransferases encoded by ATF1, ATF2, and Lg-ATF1 are involved in the production of branched-chain alcohols and synthesis of acetate esters, respectively. In this study, the effects of ATF1, ATF2, and Lg-ATF1 overexpressions with BAT2 deletion were explored in Chinese Baijiu yeast. The differences among these effects were also investigated. Results showed that the productions of acetate esters by mutant overexpressing ATF1 with BAT2 deletion and that overexpressing ATF2 with BAT2 deletion were 1353.45 and 73.40 mg/L, respectively, which were 43.16- and 2.34-fold higher than that by the original strain. Compared with mutant overexpressing ATF2 with BAT2 deletion, mutant overexpressing ATF1 with BAT2 deletion exhibited 48.17% decreased higher alcohol productivity. The production of higher alcohols in mutant overexpressing ATF2 with BAT2 deletion was similar to that in the BAT2 deletion mutant. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between the BAT2 deletion mutant and the mutant overexpressing Lg-ATF1 with BAT2 deletion in terms of acetate ester and higher alcohol production. The mutants that have varying capacities for acetate ester and higher alcohol production can be potentially developed and applied.

Magnetic compensated materials attracted much interests due to the observed large exchange bias and large coercivity, and also their potential applications in the antiferromagnetic spintronics with merit of no stray field. In this work, by using ab-initio studies, we designed several Ni (Pd, Pt) doped Mn 3 Ge-based D0 22 -type tetragonal Heusler alloys with fully compensated states. Theoretically, we find the total moment change is asymmetric across the compensation point (at ~x=0.3) in Mn 3-x Y x Ge (Y=Ni, Pd, Pt). In addition, an uncommon discontinuous jump is observed across the critical zero-moment point, indicating that some non-trivial properties may emerge at this point. Further electronic analyses of these compensated alloys reveal high spin polarizations at the Fermi level, which is advantageous for spin transfer torque applications.

MnCoSi alloy exhibits a potential magnetocaloric effect during magnetic field-induced metamagnetic transition. However, the accompanying near-zero entropy change under low magnetic field variation, coupled magnetic hysteresis and poor mechanical properties limit its further application in magnetic refrigeration. In this work, we substantially enhance the magnetic cooling capacity and mechanical performance of stoichiometric MnCoSi alloy via the method of high-pressure annealing. Our results demonstrate that high-pressure annealing can serve as an effective method with which to improve the magnetic cooling capacity of MnCoSi alloy.

Stem and progenitor cells that exhibit significant regenerative potential and critical roles in cancer initiation and progression remain difficult to characterize. Cell fates are determined by reciprocal signaling between the cell microenvironment and the nucleus; hence parameters derived from nuclear remodeling are ideal candidates for stem/progenitor cell characterization. Here we applied high-content, single cell analysis of nuclear shape and organization to examine stem and progenitor cells destined to distinct differentiation endpoints, yet undistinguishable by conventional methods. Nuclear descriptors defined through image informatics classified mesenchymal stem cells poised to either adipogenic or osteogenic differentiation, and oligodendrocyte precursors isolated from different regions of the brain and destined to distinct astrocyte subtypes. Nuclear descriptors also revealed early changes in stem cells after chemical oncogenesis, allowing the identification of a class of cancer-mitigating biomaterials. To capture the metrology of nuclear changes, we developed a simple and quantitative "imaging-derived" parsing index, which reflects the dynamic evolution of the high-dimensional space of nuclear organizational features. A comparative analysis of parsing outcomes via either nuclear shape or textural metrics of the nuclear structural protein NuMA indicates the nuclear shape alone is a weak phenotypic predictor. In contrast, variations in the NuMA organization parsed emergent cell phenotypes and discerned emergent stages of stem cell transformation, supporting a prognosticating role for this protein in the outcomes of nuclear functions.

The strong (111)-textured ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films were grown on SiO2-terminated silicon substrates using pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy clearly show the column growth structure along the film thickness direction in [111] crystalline orientation for every grain column. With the introduction of texture induced magnetic anisotropy in the free energy density model, we quantitatively determined the doping effect on the various anisotropies in (111)-textured ZnxFe3−xO4 films. The mechanisms of ferromagnetic resonance linewidth of ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films are investigated by the theoretical fitting, in which considering the contributions from intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, extrinsic compositions from two-magnon scattering and inhomogeneous broadening. It is found that the Gilbert damping coefficient α increases with increasing Zn substitution x from 0 to 0.3, indicating that the spin-orbit coupling of the ZnxFe3−xO4 thin films increases with the introduction of Zn impurities.

Recent demonstration of magnetization manipulation has been focused on the utilization of pure spin current converted by charge current in nonmagnetic materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which stimulates intensive studies on the exploration of materials with larger SOC, such as heavy metals and topological insulators. We suggest an alternative approach for enhancing the effective charge-to-spin conversion efficiency by applying strain in Ta/Fe/Pt films grown on flexible mica substrates. We experimentally demonstrate a large and tunable charge-to-spin conversion efficiency in Ta/Fe/Pt films by applying compressive strain within a flexible substrate, and over 50% enhancement of effective spin Hall angle eff SHE of up to approximately 0.2 is achieved in a 6.26‰ strained film. Our findings may spur further work on the integration of flexible electronics and SOC and may potentially lead to the innovation of alternative flexible spintronics devices.

Molecular tubes with hydrogen bonding donors in their deep hydrophobic cavities are able to selectively bind organophosphorus compounds in water through hydrogen bonding and the hydrophobic effect. They can also be used as a fluorescent sensor for nerve agent simulants and as an inhibitor to reduce the toxicity of paraoxon to acetylcholinesterase.

Ferromagnet/two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide (FM/2D TMD) interfaces provide attractive opportunities to push magnetic information storage to the atomically thin limit. Existing work has focused on FMs contacted with mechanically exfoliated or chemically vapor-deposition-grown TMDs, where clean interfaces cannot be guaranteed. Here, we report a reliable way to achieve contamination-free interfaces between ferromagnetic CoFeB and molecular-beam epitaxial MoSe2. We show a spin reorientation arising from the interface, leading to a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), and reveal the CoFeB/2D MoSe2 interface allowing for the PMA development in a broader CoFeB thickness-range than common systems such as CoFeB/MgO. Using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism analysis, we attribute generation of this PMA to interfacial d-d hybridization and deduce a general rule to enhance its magnitude. We also demonstrate favorable magnetic softness and considerable magnetic moment preserved at the interface and theoretically predict the interfacial band matching for spin filtering. Our work highlights the CoFeB/2D MoSe2 interface as a promising platform for examination of TMD-based spintronic applications and might stimulate further development with other combinations of FM/2D TMD interfaces.

As a key effect in spintronic devices, exchange bias has attracted tremendous attention. Various approaches have been attempted for optimizing this effect, among which the application of strain in flexible exchange-biased systems is promising, but little significant improvement has been reported. Here, we demonstrate encouraging progress in this field. With a pure mechanical compressive strain of -6.26‰ applied to the flexible polyimide (PI) substrate, distinct enhancement of ∼900% in the bias field (from 20 to 200 Oe) is achieved for the exchange-biased (FeCo/IrMn)3/Ta multilayers grown on top of a flexible PI substrate, accompanied by a notable decrease in the Gilbert damping parameter from 0.02 to 0.008, signifying an improved exchange bias effect as well as a potentially reduced switching current density. The underlying mechanism is investigated by a systematic ferromagnetic resonance study, suggesting that the angle between the unidirectional and uniaxial magnetic easy axes plays an important role, which may be controlled by adjusting the layer number. This work offers an efficient strategy for tuning the exchange bias effect via applying appropriate mechanical strain on a multiperiodic exchange bias multilayered system, opening up an avenue for tailoring the magnetic properties of flexible spintronic devices.

The dynamic response of magnetic order to optical excitation at sub-picosecond scale has offered an intriguing alternative for magnetism manipulation. Such ultrafast optical manipulation of magnetism has become a fundamental challenging topic with high implications for future spintronics. Here, this study demonstrates such manipulation in Co2FeSi films grown on flexible polyimide substrate, and demonstrates how the magneto-optical interaction can be modified by using strain engineering which in turn triggers the excitation of both dipolar and exchange spin waves modes. Furthermore, Gilbert damping and spin-orbit coupling in Co2FeSi can both be tuned significantly by altering the magnitude and type of applied strain, suggesting an appealing way to manipulate spin wave propagation. These results develop the optical manipulation magnetism into the field of spin wave dynamics, and open a new direction in the application of spin orbitronics and magnonics devices using strain engineering.

Synthetic macrocyclic receptors are the primary workhorses in supramolecular chemistry. In particular, macrocyclic arenes are versatile receptors due to their special binding performances and wide applications. In this Digest, we discussed the recent advances on naphthol-based macrocyclic receptors, with special emphasis on the construction of naphthol-based molecular receptors with high guest binding ability and selectivity, and broad guest binding scope.

Spin waves play a vital role as potential data carriers in low power wave-like computing and high-frequency spintronic devices, which stimulate intensive studies on the efficient excitation of spin waves in magnetic thin films. Here, we suggest a controllable approach for the efficient excitation of perpendicular standing spin waves (PSSWs) in a series of CoFeB/Si thin films by the oblique angle deposition technique. It is experimentally demonstrated that the intensity of the PSSW mode can be enhanced significantly with increased oblique angle, and a comparable intensity of spin wave to that of uniform FMR mode is achieved at an oblique angle of 39°. Moreover, the dependence of in-plane anisotropy field Hk, exchange constant A, as well as intrinsic Gilbert damping α on oblique deposition angle are also investigated.

Polycrystalline Fe3O4 films with the thickness of 27 nm were grown at different temperature (Ts) on Si (100) substrate by Laser-Molecular Beam Epitaxy to study the influence of density of antiphase boundaries (APBs) and the spin polarization of Fe3O4. Films prepared with Ts in the range of 500 °C - 650 °C were proved to be of good crystallization, preferred orientation, and desirable values of saturation magnetization (a little smaller one for film prepared at Ts = 500 °C). The lowest density of APBs was verified by the measured bulk like electron-phonon (s-p) coupling constant for film prepared at Ts = 550 °C, along with the highest value of spin polarization and the best crystalline quality as the most obvious inflection in the curves of lnρ vs. 1000/T around Verwey transition. This optimum value of Ts can be interpreted by the APBs thermally activated migration process with an activation energy. Films prepared with Ts = 500 °C, 600 °C, and 650 °C still have a reasonable value of the s-p coupling constant compared to recently reported results, while larger magnetoresistance accompanied by the superparamagnetic behavior was observed for films prepared at lower Ts (Ts = 400 °C and 450 °C).

Background This study aimed to investigate a gender-specific association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and depressive symptoms in college students, as there are limited relevant studies conducted among youths. Methods In 2017, a cross-sectional study of 3461 Chinese college students was conducted in Shenyang, China. OHRQoL and depressive symptoms were screened by a 14-item oral health impact profile questionnaire and a Self-rating Depression Scale, respectively. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association of OHRQoL with depressive symptoms. Results The number of youths reported to have depressive symptoms was 20.7%. A univariate analysis showed that categories with a OHRQoL score over 6 were more likely to have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms compared to the category with a score of 0 (male: ORs [95% CI]: 3.10, 2.05–4.68, P

Hexagonal D019-type Mn3Z alloys that possess large anomalous and topological-like Hall effects have attracted much attention due to their great potential in the antiferromagnetic spintronic devices. Here, we report the preparation of Mn3Ga film in both tetragonal and hexagonal phases with a tuned Ta/Ru seed layer on the thermally oxidized Si substrate. A large coercivity together with a large anomalous Hall resistivity is found in the Ta-only sample with mixed tetragonal phase. By increasing the thickness of Ru layer, the tetragonal phase gradually disappears and a relatively pure hexagonal phase is obtained in the Ta(5)/Ru(30) buffered sample. Further magnetic and transport measurements revealed that the anomalous Hall conductivity nearly vanishes in the pure hexagonal sample, while an abnormal asymmetric hump structure emerges in the low field region. The extracted additional Hall term is robust in a large temperature range and presents a sign reversal above 200K. The abnormal Hall properties are proposed to be closely related with the frustrated spin structure of D019 Mn3Ga.

Maltose metabolism of baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in lean dough is negatively influenced by glucose repression, thereby delaying the dough fermentation. To improve maltose metabolism and leavening ability, it is necessary to alleviate glucose repression. The Snf1 protein kinase is well known to be essential for the response to glucose repression and required for transcription of glucose-repressed genes including the maltose-utilization genes (MAL). In this study, the SNF1 overexpression and deletion industrial baker's yeast strains were constructed and characterized in terms of maltose utilization, growth and fermentation characteristics, mRNA levels of MAL genes (MAL62 encoding the maltase and MAL61 encoding the maltose permease) and maltase and maltose permease activities. Our results suggest that overexpression of SNF1 was effective to glucose derepression for enhancing MAL expression levels and enzymes (maltase and maltose permease) activities. These enhancements could result in an 18% increase in maltose metabolism of industrial baker's yeast in LSMLD medium (the low sugar model liquid dough fermentation medium) containing glucose and maltose and a 15% increase in leavening ability in lean dough. These findings provide a valuable insight of breeding industrial baker's yeast for rapid fermentation.

A surprising inverse (positive) MR effect was observed in thin film of magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) grown on Si substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements show a highly (111)-textured growth and single phase nature of Fe 3 O 4 thin film. X-Ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) were employed to exclude the existence of γ-Fe 2 O 3 . The surface morphology of the film was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Based on the aforementioned studies, we proposed a spin dependent conduction mechanism to explain the observed anomalous MR effect.

Bi 3.25 La 0.75 Ti 3 O 12 (BLT) ferroelectric thin films were prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO 2 /Si substrates by metalorganic decomposition method. Mechanical stress effect on leakage current was investigated. The results demonstrate that the leakage current increases with increasing electric field. Under mechanical tensile or compressive stress, the increase trend of the leakage current with electric field shows negligible change in low field region (below 75 kV/cm), while that gets weakened in high field region (above 75 kV/cm) compared with that at free state (zero stress). At a certain electric field (above 75 kV/cm), the leakage current decreases with increasing tensile or compressive stress. The effect of domain reorientation induced by stress combined with the contribution from charge injected into films is found to be reasonable for the explanation of the leakage current in BLT thin films under different stress.

During the process of beer fermentation, higher alcohols and esters are two important substances influencing beer flavor. Deletion of BAT2 gene coding amino acid transaminase can effectively reduce production of higher alcohols. On the other hand, alcohol acetyltransferase (AATase) encoded by the ATF2 gene is one of the most important enzymes for acetate ester synthesis. The objective of this study is to construct engineered brewer’s yeast strains for moderate production of acetate esters and less yield of higher alcohols. The industrial beer yeast strain S5 was selected as the parental strain, by means of overexpressing ATF2 and knocking out BAT2 to appropriately increase the concentration of acetate and reduce the concentration of higher alcohols. The engineered strain S5-L, featuring partial BAT2 allelic genes replaced by the constructed ATF2 overexpression cassette, was obtained. The fermentation results indicated that the engineered strain S5-L had a moderate accrete of ethyl acetate compared with the parental strain. The concentration of ethyl acetate produced by the engineered strains S5-L increased to 7.6 mg L−1, about 1.28-fold higher than that produced by the parental S5 cells. The concentration of higher alcohols produced by the engineered strains S5-L reduced to 51.49 mg L−1, about 84.77% of the parental S5 cells. Isobutanol and propanol reduced to 8.30 and 9.72 mg L−1, which was 73.13% and 79.47% of that of the parental strain S5, respectively. Research on the beer yeast genes ATF2 and BAT2 influencing the generation amount of higher alcohol and volatile esters lays a foundation to improve the flavor and quality of beer.

Chiral epoxides are important intermediates in chemistry and biology. The high-throughput screening of asymmetric epoxidation conditions requires fast determination of the absolute configurations and ee values of chiral epoxides. Herein, we report molecular recognition and chiroptical sensing of epoxides in water using endo-functionalized molecular tubes. The absolute configurations and ee values were simultaneously determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy. In addition, real-time monitoring as well as the application to real asymmetric epoxidation was demonstrated. The method is simple, environmentally friendly, and amenable to high-throughput screening.

China’s rich and remarkable culture, which accumulated over millennia, and which includes many subcultures, popular traditions and folklore, has been much mutilated within little more than a century. In this process, three issues have remained unresolved: (1) how are the Chinese to analyze and expound the values of their traditional culture? (2) by what are the values of Chinese culture embodied? and (3) how are the Chinese to re-identify with and endorse their national culture? Throughout the last hundred years of cultural movements, the Chinese have always been grappling with these issues.