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The unique cancer-associated immunosuppression in brain, combined with a paucity of infiltrating T cells, contributes to the low response rate and poor treatment outcomes of T cell-based immunotherapy for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Here, we report on a self-assembling paclitaxel (PTX) filament (PF) hydrogel that stimulates macrophage-mediated immune response for local treatment of recurrent glioblastoma. Our results suggest that aqueous PF solutions containing aCD47 can be directly deposited into the tumor resection cavity, enabling seamless hydrogel filling of the cavity and long-term release of both therapeutics. The PTX PFs elicit an immune-stimulating tumor microenvironment (TME) and thus sensitizes tumor to the aCD47-mediated blockade of the antiphagocytic “don’t eat me” signal, which subsequently promotes tumor cell phagocytosis by macrophages and also triggers an antitumor T cell response. As adjuvant therapy after surgery, this aCD47/PF supramolecular hydrogel effectively suppresses primary brain tumor recurrence and prolongs overall survivals with minimal off-target side effects.

Walnut (Juglans regia) is a deciduous tree of the Juglandaceae family, widely cultivated in China, and provides value in a variety of ways, including the usage of the wood and nuts, and offers substantial economic, social, and environmental advantages (Wang et al, 2017). Nevertheless, a fungal disease of causing walnut trunk rot was observed in approximately 30% of 50 counted ten-year-old J. regia in Chongzhou City (30°33′34″N, 103°38′35″E, 513 m), Sichuan Province, China, and this disease has greatly delete healthy growth of walnut. The infected bark exhibited purple necrotic lesions, and the sick parts were surrounded by water-soaked plaques. From 10 trunks of the 10 diseased trees, 20 isolated fungal colonies were the same. The ascospores placed in 60 mm plates were almost entirely covered with mycelium within 8 days, colonies on the PDA changed from initial pale to white, ad then turned yellowish to light orange or rosy to yellow-brown (25℃, 90% relative humidity, 12-h photoperiod). On the host, Ectostromata were immersed to erumpent, globose to subglobose, purple and brown, and measured 0.6 - 4.5 × 0.3 - 2.8 mm (x̄ = 2.6 × 1.6 mm, n = 40); Ascomata were flask-shaped to subglobose, dark brown, and measured 0.1 - 0.6 × 0.1 - 0.4 mm (x̄ = 0.35 × 0.25 mm, n = 40); Asci were numerous, cylindrical to subclavate, contained 8 uniseriate ascospores, and measured 80 - 150 × 10 - 20 μm (x̄ = 115 × 15 μm, n = 40), and Ascospores were ellipsoid, 2-celled, dark brown to black, plump or attenuated towards, apices with 1 large drop per cell, and measured 14 - 20 × 6.5 - 9 μm (x̄ = 17 × 7.8 μm, n = 40). These morphological characteristics are consistent with the species Myrmaecium fulvopruinatum (Berk.) Jaklitsch & Voglmayr (Jaklitsch et al. 2015). The genomic DNA of a representative isolate SICAUCC 22-0148 was extracted. The ITS, LSU region, tef1-α, rpb2 genes region were amplified using the primer pairs ITS1/ITS4 primers (White et al. 1990), LR0R/LR5 (Moncalvo et al. 1995), EF1-688F/986R (Alves et al. 2008), fRPB2-5f/fRPB2-7cr (Liu et al. 1999), respectively. The sequences were deposited in NCBI with accession numbers ON287043 (ITS), ON287044 (LSU), ON315870 (tef1-α), and ON315871 (rpb2), rspectively, which showed 99.8, 99.8, 98.1, and 98.5% identities with M. fulvopruinatum CBS 139057 holotype (accession numbers KP687858, KP687858, KP688027, and KP687933 respectively). Based on the analyses of phylogenies and morphologies, the isolates were identified as M. fulvopruinatum. The pathogenicity of SICAUCC 22-0148 was tested by inoculating surface-sterilized trunk wounds of four-year-old trees of J. regia with a mycelial plug (Desai et al. 2019). Sterile PDA plugs were used as controls. Wounds were covered with a film, to ensure humidity and prevent contamination. Each inoculation was repeated twice and included two plants, control and inoculated. A month later, the symptoms observed on inoculated trunks were similar to those in the wild, and M. fulvopruinatum was re-isolated from the inoculated trunk, confirming Koch’s postulates. Previous research has reported M. fulvopruinatum as an important fungal species that cause canker delete symptoms on Chinese sweet chestnut in China (Jiang et al. 2018). We carried the taxonomy work of the fungi that caused trunk rot on walnut, and this is the first time that M. fulvopruinatum has been linked to walnut trunk rot on J. regia. Trunk rot of walnut will not only cause weakening of trees, but also affect the yield and quality of walnuts, bringing huge economic losses. This study was supported by the Sichuan Science and Technology Program under Grant 2022NSFSC1011. References: Alves, A., et al. 2008. Fungal Diversity 28:1-13. Desai, D.D., et al. 2019. International Journal of Economic Plants 6:147-149. Jaklitsch., W.M., et al. 2015. Fungal Diversity 73(1):159-202. Jiang, N., et al. 2018. Mycosphere 9(6):1268-1289. Liu, Y.L., et al. 1999. Mol Biol Evol 16:1799-1808. Moncalvo, J.M., et al. 1995. Mycologia 87:223-238. Wang, Q.H., et al. 2017. Australasian Plant Pathology 46:585-595. White, T.J., et al. 1990. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Juglans regia L. is commercially important for its edible nuts, which is a major species of walnut trees in Sichuan Province (Luo et al. 2020). In September 2021, brown leaf spot symptoms were observed on roughly 75% of 60 J. regia trees surveyed in an orchard of Chongzhou city (30°40′6′′N, 103°40′18′′E). Initially, the lesions measuring 2-10 mm were reddish to brown with a yellowish halo, then increased in size and coalesced to cover the whole leaf, eventually resulting in severe defoliation. Six symptomatic leaves from different trees were collected, and a single fungal isolate was obtained from each of the sampled leaves using single-spore isolation (Chomnunti et al. 2014). The isolates were incubated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) with a 12h photoperiod at 25 ℃, and deposited at the Culture Collection of Sichuan Agricultural University. Colonies were identical with black center and reddish-brown periphery, and the diameter reached 2 cm after 7 days. On the host, conidiophores were mostly reduced to conidiogenous cells, with prominent and thickened conidiogenous loci. Conidia were light green to light brown, and curved with a thickened and darked hilum at the base, 0-17 septate, tapering toward the distal end, and measuring 20-120 × 3-5 μm ((x ) ̅= 56 × 4, n = 30). Morphological characteristics fit the description of Ragnhildiana diffusa (Heald & F.A. Wolf) Videira & Crous (Synonym: Sirosporium diffusum (Heald & F. A. Wolf) Deighton) (Poletto et al. 2017). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, the large subunit of the nrDNA (LSU), and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2) were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced with primers ITS5/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), LR0R/LR5 (Vilgalys & Hester 1990), fRPB2-5F/Rpb2-R3 (Liu et al. 1999, Videira et al. 2017), respectively. The nucleotide blast of the two isolates (SICAUCC 22-0077, SICAUCC 22-0078) showed 99.7% and 99.5% (ITS, 472/473 bp, 471/473 bp), 100% (LSU, 725/725 bp, 725/725 bp), 99.8% (rpb2, 866/867 bp, 866/867 bp) identities with the ex-type strain of Ragnhildiana diffusa (CBS 106.14). The phylogenetic tree combined with ITS, LSU, and rpb2 genes and morphological characteristics confirmed the identification as R. diffusa. These sequences of the three gene regions of two isolates were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers ON409525 and ON409526 (ITS), ON409559 and ON409560 (LSU), ON417473 and ON417474 (rpb2), respectively. The isolate SICAUCC 22-0077 was used for pathogenicity test to fulfill Koch’s postulates. Three leaves of each walnut seedlings (2-year-old seedlings) were inoculated by placing a mycelium plug onto fresh wounds on the upper leaf surface punctured via a fine needle (0.7 mm in diameter), and three replicate seedlings were inoculated. For the control, a sterile PDA plug was placed on the same number of replicate leaves on the plants. The inoculated and control plants were placed in a growth chamber at 25°C with relative humidity >80% and a 12-h photoperiod. Irregular light to dark brown spots developed on inoculated leaves after twenty days, and no symptoms were observed on controls. The re-isolation and examination of the fungus showed it to be morphologically and phylogenetically identical to the originally isolated pathogen. R. diffusa has been described on J. regia in Mexico (Farr & Rossman 2022). To our knowledge, this is the first report of R. diffusa causing brown leaf spot on J. regia in China. The identification of the pathogen will provide a basis for disease management in walnut planting areas.

Pilot spoofing attack brings new challenges to physical layer secure transmission. However, this method will not work without any knowledge about the pilot sequence and active eavesdropping can be detected by constructing random pilot sequence. Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), with the real-time programmable features for wireless channels, provides new possibilities for effective pilot spoofing. In this paper, the IRS is deployed near the legitimate users and the legitimate signal can always be passively reflected. Then the control strategy is embedded into the communication process under time-division duplex mode to assist eavesdroppers to conduct pilot spoofing. By setting different phase shifts at the IRS during the uplink phase and downlink phase, the channel reciprocity disappears, and thus secure beamforming vector is biased towards the eavesdropper. Furthermore, in order to overhear more information, the average secrecy rate minimization problem based on statistical channel state information is established by carefully designing the phase shifts, which is non-trivial to solve. With alternating optimization and Charnes-Cooper transformation technique, the original problem is transformed into convex form and a near optimal solution is achieved. Finally, simulation results show that our proposed scheme can pose serious secure threat without any energy footprint. What's more, if the IRS is not utilized by the internal users properly, it will bring more threat.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata McClure 'Spectabilis' C.D. Chu. et C.S. Chao is predominantly native to subtropical to warm temperate areas and is widely cultivated for landscaping in China (Neményi et al. 2015). In November 2020 (10 – 16 ℃), culm blight symptoms were observed on P. aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' in Wangjiang Tower Park (all kinds of plant areas are about 9.8 ha), Chengdu City (104°09′30.42″ E, 30°63′18.89″ N). Fifty plants were surveyed, and disease incidence was recorded as approximately 30%. Initially, chlorotic necrotic patches appeared on the culms, and gradually the patches became white, expanded to both ends, and encircled the whole culm with black edge and conidiomata, which eventually led to wilt and death. Five samples from different bamboos were collected and one of them were used for morphological observation. Five single conidia isolates were carried out on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25±1℃ (Chomnunti et al. 2014). Colonies were initially white and then yellowish in the center with abundant aerial mycelia. On the culm, conidiomata were dry, black, and filamentous. Conidiophores were reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells were smooth, hyaline, ampulliform to doliiform. Conidia were ellipsoid to globose, dark brown, smooth and aseptate, measuring 5.2 to 9.4 × 4.4 to 7.3 μm, (=8.2 × 6.5μm, n=50). On the PDA medium, conidia were globose to subglobose, olive green to pale brown, and smooth, larger than those from the host in size, measuring 9.0 to 18 × 7.5 to 9.5 μm ( =36.6 × 18.8 μm, n=50). These asexual structures were extremely similar to Apiospora locuta-pollinis (F. Liu & L. Cai) X.G. Tian & Tibpromma (Zhao et al. 2018). DNA was extracted from the representative strain (SICAUCC 22-0036), and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α), beta-tubulin (tub2), 28S large subunit rDNA (LSU) were amplified and sequenced with primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1-728F (Carbone & Kohn 1999)/EF2 (O’Donnell et al. 1998), T1 (O’Donnell & Cigelnik 1997)/Bt2b (Glass & Donaldson 1995) and LR0R/LR5 (Rehner & Samuels 1994). The newly generated sequences were deposited in GenBank with accession nos. ON228609 (ITS), ON324018 (tef1-α), ON237657 (tub2), and ON228665 (LSU). Nucleotide blast showed 98.97%, 100% and 99.46% identities with A. locuta-pollinis (LC11683, ex-holotype) (accession nos. MF939595, MF939622, MF939616), and LSU data missing. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood showed a 92% bootstrap support value in a clade with A. locuta-pollinis (Fig 2). Eight healthy plants (2-year-old) were used for the pathogenicity test. Culms of four healthy bamboos were wounded via sterile double-edged blade and sprayed with conidial suspension (105 conidia/ml) prepared from 4-week-old cultures that were incubated on PDA at 25℃. The other four bamboos were sprayed with sterile distilled water as controls. Inoculated plants were placed in a growth chamber (25℃, 90% relative humidity, 12-h photoperiod). About 60 days later, necrotic patches similar to those observed in the field were found on the inoculated culms, and no symptoms were observed on the controls. The pathogen was reisolated from the diseased culms with identical morphology as previously described. To our knowledge, this is the first report of culm blight on P. aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' caused by A. locuta-pollinis. The risk of this pathogen needs further evaluation, and effective control measures should be taken.

Iron walnut (Juglans sigillata Dode) is a temperate deciduous tree indigenous to China. It is mainly distributed in southwestern China, and valued for its wood and nuts (Feng et al. 2018). In September 2020, symptoms of canker on J. sigillata were observed in an orchard measuring 2 hectares located in Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province (31°5' 25″N, 105°27'36″E, 365 m altitude). Twenty percent of plants showed canker symptoms during the 50 surveyed plants. The infected trunk showed necrotic lesions with black pycnidia, that led to necrosis of branches and death of the whole plant in severe cases (Fig. 1). Six specimens from different diseased plants were collected for pathogen isolation and morphological observation. Pure cultures were obtained from single conidium on potato-dextrose agar (PDA) media according to the method described by Chomnunti (Chomnunti et al. 2014). Colonies grew fast and reached 3 cm after 5 days. The aerial mycelium was abundant, which was initially white and then grayish. Conidiomata on the host were measured 160-280 µm × 140-190 µm (average: 220 × 165 µm, n = 20), stromatic, uniloculate, dark brown to black, immersed, and erumpent when mature. Pycnidial walls 32-58 µm wide, were composed of 5-7 layers of brown to dark brown cells. Conidia were hyaline, and ellipsoidal with rounded apex and base, widest at the middle, thick-walled, and unicellular, with a size 21.5-31 µm × 11.5-15.7 µm (average: 27 × 13.5 µm, n = 50). Morphological characteristics fit the description of Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae A.J.L. Phillips, A. AlvesCrous (Aives et al. 2008). The internal transcribed spacers (ITS), 18S small subunit rRNA (SSU), 28S large subunit rDNA (LSU), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α), and beta-tubulin (tub2) were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced with primers ITS1/ITS4, NS1/NS4, LR0R/LR5, EF1-728F/EF1-986R and Bt2a/Bt2b, respectively (Li et al. 2018). The sequences of the representative isolate (SICAUCC 22-0079) were deposited in NCBI with accession numbers ON090365 (ITS), ON090406 (SSU), ON090418 (LSU), ON112377 (tef1-α), and ON112378 (tub2), respectively. Nucleotide blast showed 100% similarity of all the analyzed and NCBI submitted isolates with L. pseudotheobromae (CBS116459; holotype) (accession numbers EF622077, EU673199, EU673256, EF622057, EU673111). Phylogenetic analyses based on a combined dataset showed 100% bootstrap support values in a clade with L. pseudotheobromae complexes (Fig. 2). Based on morphological and molecular analyses, the fungal pathogen was identified as L. pseudotheobromae. To conduct Koch's postulates, four 2-year-old healthy plants of J. sigillata were inoculated with 10 μL spore suspension (105 conidia/mL) onto the wounded sites via sterile pin. As control, four healthy plants were treated with sterile distilled water. The inoculated and untreated plants were placed in a growth chamber at 25°C with relative humidity90% and 12-h photoperiod. Trunk canker symptoms appeared on inoculated plants after 15-20 days, and the pathogen was re-isolated and the controls were symptomless, confirming Koch's postulates. L. pseudotheobromae is widely distributed in various plants all over the world, usually as a pathogen associated with damping-off, wilt, die-back, root rot, collar rot, witches' brooms, or fruit rots (Zhao et al. 2010). To our knowledge, this is the first report of trunk canker on J. sigillata caused by L. pseudotheobromae in China. Trunk canker caused by L. pseudotheobromae is becoming a potential threat to walnut production, and some necessary measures for integrated management should be made.

Therapeutic constructs with imaging modalities hold great promise for improving the treatment efficacy for cancer and many other diseases. We report here the design and synthesis of a self-assembling prodrug (SAPD) by the direct linkage of camptothecin (CPT), an anticancer drug, to a metal-chelating agent, DOTA. We found that under physiological conditions the DOTA-conjugated CPT prodrug can self-assemble into tubular supramolecular polymers (SPs) with a length of several micrometers. Our studies also suggest that the resultant assemblies were stable in biological environments and exhibited a fast drug release rate in the presence of intracellular glutathione. Furthermore, the SAPD exhibited remarkable in vitro efficacy against various cancer cell lines and effectively inhibited the growth of tumor spheroids. We believe that the design and optimization of self-assembling theranostic conjugates could provide a robust yet simple platform for the development of new imaging-guided drug delivery systems.

Juglans sigillata Dode, an endemic walnut species native in southwest China, is mainly used as nuts in Sichuan Province (Jin et al., 2019). In May 2021, symptoms of branches blight were observed in an orchard measuring 10 hectares located in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province (31°5' 25″N, 105°27'36″E, 365 m above sea level). About 40% of plants were diseased in the quadrat consisting of twenty walnut trees, and 20% of branches were dead on each affected tree. Initially, light brown spots appeared; then, the spots expanded to surround the whole branches; finally, the branches changed from brown to reddish-brown and died. Four symptomatic branches were sampled randomly from different trees. Next, four fungal isolates were obtained from the acervuli of each branch using the single-conidium isolation (Chomnunti et al. 2014) and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA). The Petri dishes were placed in an incubator and cultured at 25 °C under a 12-h photoperiod. Colonies were initially white with thin aerial mycelia and gradually turned dark grey with irregular margins. Conidiomata were acervular, black and scattered, with a diameter of 0.3 - 0.7 mm. Conidiophores were narrowly cylindrical, simple or branched at the base, 30 - 43 × 3 - 8 µm (x = 36.5 × 5.5 µm, n = 40). Conidiogenous cells were annellidic with distinct annellations. Conidia were unicellular, brown when mature, narrowly ellipsoid with gelatinous sheaths and truncate scars at the base, 17 - 32 × 7 - 12 µm (x = 27 × 9 µm, n = 40). The genomic DNA of a representative isolate SICAUCC 22-0064 was extracted, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit beta gene (ms204), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α), and partial sequences of β-tubulin (tub2) were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced with primers V9G/LR5 (de Hoogvan den Ende 1998), MS-E1F1/MS-E5R1 (Walker et al. 2012), EF1-728F (CarboneKohn 1999)/TEF1LLErev (Jaklitsch et al. 2005), and T1/BtHV2r (Voglmayr et al. 2017), respectively. The sequences of ITS, ms204, tef1-α, and tub2 were deposited in NCBI with accession numbers ON000068, ON112376, ON112374, and ON112375, respectively. With the consideration of the sequence lack of ms204 and tub2 in the ex-type strain (D96) of Juglanconis appendiculata VoglmayrJaklitsch, the isolate D140 was used for nucleotide blast. The results showed 99.68%, 100%, 100%, and 100% identities of ITS, ms204, tef1-α, and tub2 with D140 (accession numbers KY427138, KY427157, KY427207, KY427226). Phylogenetic analysis based on a combined dataset showed 100% bootstrap with J. appendiculata, and the morphology was consistent with the asexual stage of J. appendiculata (Voglmayr et al., 2017). To verify Koch's postulates, five branches wounded by pin-prick were sprayed with conidial suspension (1 × 105 conidia/mL) in each plant, and three repetitions were performed on healthy 2-year-old potted plants. The same number of branches were sprayed with sterile distilled water as controls. The plants were placed in a greenhouse at 25 ℃ under 90% relative humidity and a 12-h fluorescent light/dark regime. After five weeks, all the inoculated branches showed brown necrosis similar to that observed in the field, and no symptoms occurred on the controls. The pathogens were re-isolated from the necrotic lesions and identified by morphology and phylogeny. J. appendiculata has been reported on Juglans nigra and J. regia in Austria, France, Spain and Greece (FarrRossman 2022). This paper is the first report of branch blight on Juglans sigillata caused by J. appendiculata in China. This result may develop the understanding of walnut diseases and lay a foundation for further management.

Self-assembly of peptide-based building units into supramolecular nanostructures creates an important class of biomaterials with robust mechanical properties and improved resistance to premature degradation. Yet, upon aggregation, substrate-enzyme interactions are often compromised because of the limited access of macromolecular proteins to the peptide substrate, leading to either a reduction or loss of responsiveness to biomolecular cues. Reported here is the supramolecular design of unsymmetric reverse bolaamphiphiles (RBA) capable of exposing a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) substrate on the surface of their filamentous assemblies. Upon addition of MMP-2, these filaments rapidly break into fragments prior to reassembling into spherical micelles. Using 3D cell culture, it is shown that drug release is commensurate with cell density, revealing more effective cell killing when more cancer cells are present. This design platform could serve as a cell-responsive therapeutic depot for local chemotherapy.

Juglans regia L. is one of the major cultivated walnut species in China for nuts and wood (Pollegioni et al. 2012). In June 2020, branches with blight symptoms were observed in an orchard at Chongzhou City (30°33'34″N, 103°38'35″E). In an orchard of 30 hectares, disease incidence was around 50%. A total of 15 plants were sampled and 40% of their branches were affected by this disease. Firstly, brown and irregular spots appeared, then the spots gradually expanded and encircled the branch, which eventually killed the branch. Five samples of diseased branches from different trees were collected and a single fungal isolate was obtained from each of the five samples using the single ascospore isolation (Chomnunti et al. 2014). Colonies of the five isolates on potato dextrose agar (PDA) were identical that initially appeared white on the top, becoming light to dark brown with age. On the host, ascostroma were black, globose to subglobose, short-papillate, ostiolate, 260 - 410 × 210 - 320 µm (x = 335 × 265 µm, n = 20). Asci were 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindrical, short pedicellate, 55 - 78 × 8 - 12 µm (x = 67.5 × 10 µm, n = 40). Ascospores were 1-septate, fusiform to ellipsoidal, slightly curved, guttulate, 12 - 17 × 3 - 5 µm (x = 14.5 × 4 µm, n = 40). These sexual morphological characteristics are consistent with the Palmiascoma qujingense Phook.K.D. Hyde (Monkai et al. 2021). Asexual morphs were formed on PDA in incubator after 17 days (25℃, 90% relative humidity, 12-h photoperiod). Conidiomata were black, globose to subglobose, 220 - 300 × 240 - 380 µm (x = 270 × 310 µm, n = 20). Conidia were oblong to ellipsoidal, aseptate and smooth-walled, 3 - 7 × 2 - 4 μm (x = 4.9 × 3 μm, n = 50). The genomic DNA of a representative isolate SICAUCC 21-0013 was extracted, and the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) region, large subunit rDNA (LSU) region, small subunit rDNA (SSU) region, and the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (rpb2) gene were amplified and sequenced with primers ITS5/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), LR0R/LR5 (Rehner et al. 1994), NS1/NS4 (White et al. 1990), and fRPB2-5F/fRPB2-7cR (Liu et al. 1999), respectively. The sequences were deposited in NCBI with accession numbers MZ983549, MZ959419, MZ951112, and MZ818772, respectively, which showed 100%, 100%, 99.14%, and 99.59% identities with P. qujingense KUMCC 19-0201 (holotype) (accession numbers MT477185, MT477186, MT477183, MT495782respectively). Phylogenetic analysis (maximum likelihood) based on a concatenated dataset showed 93% bootstrap support values with P. qujingense. To verify Koch's postulates, 9 healthy branches from three 1-year-old seedlings were inoculated with conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml) from 4-week-old cultures via pin-prick inoculation (Desai et al. 2019), and the same number of seedlings and branches were inoculated with sterile water as controls. Plants were placed in a greenhouse at 25℃ and 90% RH on a 12-h fluorescent light/dark regime. After 28 days, brown spots were formed on P. qujingense-inoculated branches and similar to those observed in the field, while the controls remained asymptomatic. The pathogen was re-isolated from the lesions and identified by morphology and phylogeny. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. qujingense causing branch blight on J. regia in the world. This disease potentially impacts the growth and yield of J. regia, and control measures should be made.

Cancer immunotherapy, which reprograms a patient's own immune system to eradicate cancer cells, has been demonstrated as a promising therapeutic strategy clinically. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies, cytokine therapies, cancer vaccines, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies utilize immunotherapy techniques to relieve tumor immune suppression and/or activate cellular immune responses to suppress tumor growth, metastasis and recurrence. However, systemic administration is often hampered by limited drug efficacy and adverse side effects due to nonspecific tissue distribution of immunotherapeutic agents. Advancements in local scaffold-based delivery systems facilitate a controlled release of therapeutic agents into specific tissue sites through creating a local drug reservoir, providing a potent strategy to overcome previous immunotherapy limitations by improving site-specific efficacy and minimizing systemic toxicity. In this review, we summarized recent advances in local scaffold-assisted delivery of immunotherapeutic agents to reeducate the immune system, aiming to amplify anticancer efficacy and minimize immune-related adverse events. Additionally, the challenges and future perspectives of local scaffold-assisted cancer immunotherapy for clinical translation and applications are discussed.

The responses of Ceratophyllum demersum to gradient concentrations (0, 0.8, 3.2, and 10 µg/L) of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) were comprehensively investigated by laboratory simulation experiments. The high reduction and accumulation efficiency of MC-LR by C. demersum were verified in this study. Results showed that the reduction ratio of MC-LR in the cultivation medium was up to 99% after 14 days of exposure, and the accumulation of MC-LR in C. demersum was highest at an exposure concentration of 10 μg/L, the value of which was 0.9 ng/g fresh weight (FW). Meanwhile, a series of negative effects on C. demersum was detectable, accompanied by a significant biomass reduction of the plant and changes in microbial community composition. In particular, this study indicated that the amount of Flavobacteria was elevated under the stress of MC-LR, provoking great threats to aquatic ecosystems. Moreover, oxidative damage was evidenced by the changes in total antioxidant capacity, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione. The results also demonstrated significant increases in sugar (0.025 mg/g FW), protein (0.3 mg/g FW), and carotenoids (0.6 mg/g FW) in C. demersum stressed by 10 μg/L of MC-LR, compared with the control without microcystins, which were among the defense strategies for dealing with adverse conditions. These results verified the good potential of submerged macrophytes as an eco-friendly strategy for controlling cyanobacterial blooms. However, the negative effects of MC-LR on the macrophytes themselves were also demonstrated, which would be considered in future practice and management.

Interspecific interaction between submerged macrophytes and phytoplankton is of great significance in sustaining ecological balance and restoring eutrophic water regions. In consideration of the diversified algal density and macrophytes biomass, the present study selected two biomass levels of Egeria densa and gradient densities of Chlorella vulgaris for simulated cultivation experimentation. E. densa could significantly suppress the growth and affect the morphology of C. vulgaris. The allelopathically inhibitory growth of C. vulgaris was suggested to increase with increasing biomass of E. densa and decreased with the elevating density of C. vulgaris. Higher amount of colonies and bigger colony size of C. vulgaris were detected after the treatment with 5 g/L of E. densa together with C. vulgaris (OD680 = 0.2) and treatment with 10 g/L E. densa together with C. vulgaris (OD680 = 0.05). Elevated extracellular and intracellular polysaccharides were detected, which possibly contributed to the morphological changes of C. vulgaris induced by E. densa.

A fundamental goal in the noncovalent synthesis of ordered supramolecular polymers (SPs) is to achieve precise control over their size and size distribution; however, the reversible nature of noncovalent interactions often results in formation of living SPs with high dispersity in length. We report here on the self-limiting supramolecular polymerization (SPZ) of a series of multiarmed amphiphiles with propagation-attenuated reactivities that can automatically terminate the polymerization process, enabling effective control in both lengths and polydispersity. Through incorporating multiarmed oligoethylene-glycol (OEG) onto a quadratic aromatic segment, the lengths of the resultant SPs can be tuned from ∼1 μm to 130 and 50 nm with a polydispersity index of ∼1.2 for the last two SPs. We believe that the level of chain frustration of the multiarmed OEG segments, determined by both the number of arms and the degree of polymerization, poses physical and entropic constrains for supramolecular propagation to exceed a threshold length.

Long-wave infrared (LWIR, λ ≈ 8 − 12 µ m ) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are drawing increasing interest, as they provide the possibility of long-distance transmission of light through the atmosphere owing to the reduced water absorption. However, their development has been lagging behind the shorter wavelength QCLs due to much bigger technological challenges. In this Letter, through band structure engineering based on a highly localized diagonal laser transition strategy and out-coupler design using an electrically isolated taper structure, we demonstrate high beam-quality single-mode LWIR QCLs with high-brightness ( 2.0 M W c m − 2 s r − 1 for λ ≈ 10 µ m , 2.2 M W c m − 2 s r − 1 for λ ≈ 9 µ m , 5.0 M W c m − 2 s r − 1 for λ ≈ 8 µ m ) light extraction from a single facet in continuous-wave operation at 15°C. These results mark an important milestone in exploring the lighting capability of inter-sub-band semiconductor lasers in the LWIR spectral range.

One key design feature in the development of any local drug delivery system is the controlled release of therapeutic agents over a certain period of time. In this context, we report the characteristic feature of a supramolecular filament hydrogel system that enables a linear and sustainable drug release over the period of several months. Through covalent linkage with a short peptide sequence, we are able to convert an anticancer drug, paclitaxel (PTX), to a class of prodrug hydrogelators with varying critical gelation concentrations. These self-assembling PTX prodrugs associate into filamentous nanostructures in aqueous conditions and consequently percolate into a supramolecular filament network in the presence of appropriate counterions. The intriguing linear drug release profile is rooted in the supramolecular nature of the self-assembling filaments which maintain a constant monomer concentration at the gelation conditions. We found that molecular engineering of the prodrug design, such as varying the number of oppositely charged amino acids or through the incorporation of hydrophobic segments, allows for the fine-tuning of the PTX linear release rate. In cell studies, these PTX prodrugs can exert effective cytotoxicity against glioblastoma cell lines and also primary brain cancer cells derived from patients and show enhanced tumor penetration in a cancer spheroid model. We believe this drug-bearing hydrogel platform offers an exciting opportunity for the local treatment of human diseases.

Fast and energy efficient transmission is an important and challenging issue for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Energy efficiency is also an important concern of green communication in WSNs. Optimizing the duty cycle (DC) of nodes and the size of forwarding node-set (SFNS) can effectively reduce the delay and improve energy efficiency. In this paper, we conclude that an optimal DC value can minimize the delay when the number of SFNS is constant. The reason why the delay is larger when the DC is smaller than the optimal value is that when the sender sends data, it needs to wait for the forwarding node to wake up which causes a large delay. When DC is larger than the optimal value, the delay is also larger because SFNS has more than one node in the awake state, which causes conflicts and increases the delay. For energy consumption, the sender with smaller DC has fewer collisions, so the energy consumption is less. Similarly, when DC is constant, SFNS also has an optimal value, which minimizes the delay. Based on the theoretical analysis, an Optimization Duty-Cycle and Size of Forwarding Node Set (ODC-SFNS) scheme is proposed to reduce delay and improve energy efficiency. The main optimization methods adopted are as follows: (a) For dense and high-DC networks, one hop delay and the number of hops needed for the packet to reach sink can be reduced by appropriately limiting the SFNS, thus the end-to-end delay can be effectively reduced. (b) For sparse and low-DC networks, increasing the DC in the far sink region can reduce delay while not reducing the network life, and improve energy efficiency. Compared with the traditional scheme, the ODC-SFNS scheme can reduce the end-to-end delay by 20.52%-79.96%, and it has dramatically increased energy efficiency. Moreover, its scope of application is broader than previous strategies.

The clinical benefit of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy is substantially restricted by insufficient infiltration of T lymphocytes into tumors and compromised therapeutic effects due to immune-related adverse events following systemic administration. Some chemotherapeutic agents have been reported to trigger tumor-associated T cell responses, providing a promising strategy to achieve potent immune activation in a synergistic manner with PD-1 blockade immunotherapy. In light of this, a localized chemoimmunotherapy system was developed using an anti-cancer drug-based supramolecular polymer (SP) hydrogel to “re-edit” the host's immune system to combat cancer. This in situ forming injectable aPD1/TT6 SP hydrogel serves as a drug-delivery depot for sustained release of bioactive camptothecin (CPT) and aPD1 into the tumor microenvironment, priming the tumor for robust infiltration of tumor-associated T cells and subsequently prompting a response to the immune checkpoint blockade. Our in vivo results demonstrate that this chemoimmunotherapy hydrogel provokes a long-term and systemic anticancer T cell immune response, which elicits tumor regression while also inhibiting tumor recurrence and potential metastasis.

Local chemotherapy is a clinically proven strategy in treating malignant brain tumors. Its benefits, however, are largely limited by the rapid release and clearance of therapeutic agents and the inability to penetrate through tumor tissues. We report here on a supramolecular tubustecan (TT) hydrogel as both a therapeutic and drug carrier that enables long-term, sustained drug release and improved tumor tissue penetration. Covalent linkage of a tissue penetrating cyclic peptide to two camptothecin drug units creates a TT prodrug amphiphile that can associate into tubular supramolecular polymers and subsequently form a well-defined sphere-shaped hydrogel after injection into tumor tissues. The hollow nature of the resultant tubular assemblies allows for encapsulation of doxorubicin or curcumin for combination therapy. Our in vitro and in vivo studies reveal that these dual drug-bearing supramolecular hydrogels enhance tumor retention and penetration, serving as a local therapeutic depot for potent tumor regression, inhibition of tumor metastasis and recurrence, and mitigation of the off-target side effects.

We report the demonstration of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with improved efficiency emitting at a wavelength of 4.9 µm in pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) operation. Based on an established design and guided by simulation, the number of QCL-emitting stages is increased in order to realize a 29.3% wall plug efficiency (WPE) in pulsed operation at room temperature. With proper fabrication and packaging, a 5-mm-long, 8-µm-wide QCL with a buried ridge waveguide is capable of 22% CW WPE and 5.6 W CW output power at room temperature. This corresponds to an extremely high optical density at the output facet of ∼35 MW/cm2, without any damage.

A prodrug hydrogelator serves as an effective immune booster for checkpoint blocker–based cancer immunotherapy., Immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs) have shown great promise at harnessing immune system to combat cancer. However, only a fraction of patients can directly benefit from the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (aPD1) therapy, and the treatment often leads to immune-related adverse effects. In this context, we developed a prodrug hydrogelator for local delivery of ICBs to boost the host’s immune system against tumor. We found that this carrier-free therapeutic system can serve as a reservoir for extended tumoral release of camptothecin and aPD1 antibody, resulting in an immune-stimulating tumor microenvironment for boosted PD-1 blockade immune response. Our in vivo results revealed that this combination chemoimmunotherapy elicits robust and durable systemic anticancer immunity, inducing tumor regression and inhibiting tumor recurrence and metastasis. This work sheds important light into the use of small-molecule prodrugs as both chemotherapeutic and carrier to awaken and enhance antitumor immune system for improved ICBs therapy.