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Investigates the influence of the oxygen content in the silicon (Si)-germanium (Ge) based on the electrical characteristics of Si-Ge heterojunction bipolar transistors. Use of molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition; Results for the electron mobility in the silicon emitter; Possible source of an increased based current which has near-ideal slope.

The rising environmental problem of plastic packaging waste has led to the development of sustainable alternatives, particularly for food packaging. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable, thermoplastic polyesters. They are employed in the production of various products, including packaging films. The bio-based nature and appropriate features of PHAs, similar to conventional synthetic plastics, have garnered significant attention from researchers and industries. The current study aimed to produce biodegradable food packaging using mango peel (a major agricultural waste) with enzymatic hydrolysis and PHAs synthesis. Mango peel is the hub for macro-and micronutrients, including phytochemicals. The process includes an enzymatic hydrolysis step that converts complex carbohydrates into simple sugars using mango peel as a substrate. The produced sugars are used as raw materials for bacteria to synthesize PHAs, which are a class of biodegradable polymers produced by these microorganisms that can serve as packaging materials in the food industry. To solve environmental problems and increase the utilization of agricultural by-products, this review presents a practical method for producing food packaging that is environmentally friendly., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Heavy metals (HMs) at a concentration above the threshold level act as environmental pollutants and very often threaten the agricultural productivity globally. Finding affordable and environmentally sustainable deliverables to address this issue is therefore a top focus. Phytohormones alleviate the HMs-induced toxicity and positively influence the plant growth. Considering the importance of phytohormones, the present study aimed to assess the effect of 24-epibrassinolide (24-EBL; 10 µM) as seed soaking treatment on growth performance of Zea mays (L.) contaminated separately with increasing concentrations (50-400 mg.kg -1 ) of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd). With increasing metal concentrations, growth and plant biometric criteria were reduced. For instance, Cd at 400 mg.kg -1 soil reduced the germination efficiency (56%), root (77%) and shoot (69%) dry weight, total chlorophyll (64%), and carotenoid content (45%). Contrarily, both HMs caused increase in stress biomarkers and antioxidant enzymes in seedling. However, exogenous administration of 24-EBL significantly enhanced the growth attributes, photosynthetic pigments, proline, MDA, and antioxidant enzyme activity while reducing the harmful effects of HMs stress on Z. mays. For instance, 24-EBL (10 µM) improved the germination percentage, root biomass, chl a, chl b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoid content by 16, 21, 17, 34, 18, and 15%, respectively, in 50 mg.Pb.kg -1 soil-treated Z. mays plants. Furthermore, the amounts of proline, MDA, and antioxidant enzymes in foliage of Z. mays were interestingly and dramatically lowered by 24-EBL application. Uptake of metals in plant organs was significantly reduced when 24-EBL was applied to Pb- and Cd-treated Z. mays. The recent findings help us better understand how 24-EBL regulates growth and development of Z. mays as well as how it boosts HMs' resilience, which could increase the possibility of employing 24-EBL to increase Z. mays productivity. Thus, the present findings confirmed the potentiality of pre-soaking the seed in 24-EBL solution that neutralizes the toxic effects of heavy metals in Z. mays plants. Therefore, it is suggested that applying phytohormones including 24-EBL in removal of heavy metal stress in plants is the best possible solution in sustainable agriculture., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Heavy metals (HMs) pose a serious threat to agricultural productivity. Therefore, there is a need to find sustainable approaches to combat HM stressors in agriculture. In this study, we isolated Trichoderma sp. TF-13 from metal-polluted rhizospheric soil, which has the ability to resist 1600 and 1200 μg mL -1 cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb), respectively. Owing to its remarkable metal tolerance, this fungal strain was applied for bioremediation of HMs in Vigna radiata (L.). Strain TF-13 produced siderophore, salicylic acid (SA; 43.4 μg mL -1 ) and 2,3-DHBA (21.0 μg mL -1 ), indole-3-acetic acid, ammonia, and ACC deaminase under HM stressed conditions. Increasing concentrations of tested HM ions caused severe reduction in overall growth of plants; however, Trichoderma sp. TF-13 inoculation significantly ( p ≤ 0.05) increased the growth and physiological traits of HM-treated V. radiata . Interestingly, Trichoderma sp. TF-13 improved germination rate (10%), root length (26%), root biomass (32%), and vigor index (12%) of V. radiata grown under 25 μg Cd kg -1 soil. Additionally, Trichoderma inoculation showed a significant ( p ≤ 0.05) increase in total chlorophyll, chl a, chl b, carotenoid content, root nitrogen (N), and root phosphorus (P) of 100 μg Cd kg -1 soil-treated plants over uninoculated treatment. Furthermore, enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant activities of Trichoderma inoculated in metal-treated plants were improved. For instance, strain TF-13 increased proline (37%), lipid peroxidation (56%), catalase (35%), peroxidase (42%), superoxide dismutase (27%), and glutathione reductase (39%) activities in 100 μg Pb kg -1 soil-treated plants. The uptake of Pb and Cd in root/shoot tissues was decreased by 34/39 and 47/38% in fungal-inoculated and 25 μg kg -1 soil-treated plants. Thus, this study demonstrates that stabilizing metal mobility in the rhizosphere through Trichoderma inoculation significantly reduced the detrimental effects of Cd and Pb toxicity in V. radiata and also enhanced development under HM stress conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

We report the gas-phase preparation, isolation, and reactivity of a series of organolanthanides featuring the Ln-CH 3 bond. The complexes are formed by decarboxylating anionic lanthanide acetates to form trivalent [Ln III (CH 3 )(CH 3 CO 2 ) 3 ] - (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Tb, Tm, Yb, Lu), divalent [Eu II (CH 3 )(CH 3 CO 2 ) 2 ] - , and the first examples of tetravalent organocerium complexes featuring Ce IV -C alkyl σ-bonds: [Ce IV (O)(CH 3 )(CH 3 CO 2 ) 2 ] - and [Ce IV (O)(CH 3 )(NO 3 ) 2 ] - . Attempts to isolate Pr IV -CH 3 and Tb IV -CH 3 were unsuccessful; however, fragmentation patterns reveal that the oxidation of Ln III to a Ln IV -oxo-acetate complex is more favorable for Ln = Pr than for Ln = Tb. The rate of Ln-CH 3 hydrolysis is a measure of bond stability, and it decreases from La III -CH 3 to Lu III -CH 3 , with increasing steric crowding for smaller Ln stabilizing the harder Ln-CH 3 bond against hydrolysis. [Eu II (CH 3 )(CH 3 CO 2 ) 2 ] - engages in a much faster hydrolysis versus Ln III -CH 3 . The surprising observation of similar hydrolysis rates for Ce IV -CH 3 and Ce III -CH 3 is discussed with respect to sterics, the oxo ligand, and bond covalency in σ-bonded organolanthanides.

Increasing soil salinity depreciates the quantity of the crop produce. Looking at the tremendous potential of plant-associated microorganisms in salinity stress mitigation, it would be very useful in exploring and deciphering salt-tolerant microorganisms from halophytic plants and their utilization in cultivated plants. With this aim, in the present study, four halophytic plants were taken from Rann of Kutch, and bacterial endophytes were isolated from different plant organs. These endophytes were characterized by plant growth and health promotion features. The molecular identification was done based on 16 s rRNA sequence similarity. It was found that the endophytic bacteria isolated from 4 different halophytes found sharing phylogenetic relatedness. Four potential endophytes Alkalihalobacillus gibsonii 2H2, Achromobacter insuavis 2H18, Terribacillus halophilus 2H20, and Bacillus siamensis 4H1 were tested in tomato for salinity stress alleviation. Changes in the levels of antioxidants were analyzed. Total chlorophyll, total phenolics, malondialdehyde, and proline content indicated reduced damage in the plant system due to salinity by the application of endophytes. All the treatments exhibited low levels of electrolyte leakage. The accumulation of enzymatic reactive oxygen species scavengers was assessed from the levels of peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, ascorbate peroxidase, and guiacol peroxidase. The NBT and DAB staining confirmed the findings. The reduction in the accumulation of Na + ions in tomato leaves was visualized using Sodium Green probes under CSLM and found to be lowest in Terribacillus halophilus 2H20 and Bacillus siamensis 4H1 inoculated plants. The endophyte Terribacillus halophilus 2H20 was the most promising isolate. The colonization in tomato roots was confirmed using a cell tracker system. Results showed that the endophytes were found to have salinity stress mitigation traits. The efficiency could be further improved with the combination of other endophytes tested earlier., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sahu, Shafi, Singh, Ojha, Jayalakshmi, Tilgam, Manzar, Sharma and Srivastava.)

Identifying novel drug-target interactions is a critical and rate-limiting step in drug discovery. While deep learning models have been proposed to accelerate the identification process, here we show that state-of-the-art models fail to generalize to novel (i.e., never-before-seen) structures. We unveil the mechanisms responsible for this shortcoming, demonstrating how models rely on shortcuts that leverage the topology of the protein-ligand bipartite network, rather than learning the node features. Here we introduce AI-Bind, a pipeline that combines network-based sampling strategies with unsupervised pre-training to improve binding predictions for novel proteins and ligands. We validate AI-Bind predictions via docking simulations and comparison with recent experimental evidence, and step up the process of interpreting machine learning prediction of protein-ligand binding by identifying potential active binding sites on the amino acid sequence. AI-Bind is a high-throughput approach to identify drug-target combinations with the potential of becoming a powerful tool in drug discovery., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

We report on the reactivity of gas-phase lanthanide-oxide nitrate complexes, [Ln(O)(NO 3 ) 3 ] - (denoted LnO 2+ ), produced via elimination of NO 2 • from trivalent [Ln III (NO 3 ) 4 ] - (Ln = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Tb, Dy). These complexes feature a Ln III -O • oxyl, a Ln IV ═O oxo, or an intermediate Ln III/IV oxyl/oxo bond, depending on the accessibility of the tetravalent Ln IV state. Hydrogen atom abstraction reactivity of the LnO 2+ complexes to form unambiguously trivalent [Ln III (OH)(NO 3 ) 3 ] - reveals the nature of the oxide bond. The result of slower reactivity of PrO 2+ versus TbO 2+ is considered to indicate higher stability of the tetravalent praseodymium-oxo, Pr IV ═O, versus Tb IV ═O. This is the first report of Pr IV as more stable than Tb IV , which is discussed with respect to ionization potentials, standard electrode potentials, atomic promotion energies, and oxo bond covalency via 4f- and/or 5d-orbital participation.