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It is a central issue to eliminate radioactive uranium (U(VI)) efficiently from water. In this manuscript, β-cyclodextrin was cross-linked with 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-1,4-benzenedicarbonitrile, and then a carboxylation reaction was used to prepare porous cross-linked polymers rich in carboxyl groups (CA-PCDPs). Subsequently, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were loaded onto the CA-PCDPs via coprecipitation, and magnetic porous β-cyclodextrin polymer nanoparticles (CA-PCDP@MNPs) were successfully obtained, which were used for efficient elimination of U(VI) from nuclear wastewater solution. Moreover, SEM, FTIR, VSM, BET, and XRD were employed to investigate the CA-PCDP@MNP and found that it had a well-developed porous structure, high specific surface area, and abundant oxygen-containing functional groups (carboxyl, hydroxyl, C-O-C, Fe-O, etc.), providing sufficient active sites for chelating uranyl ions. Experiments illustrated that the CA-PCDP@MNP had efficient removal ability for U(VI), and the maximum theoretical adsorption amount for U(VI) reached 245.66 mg/g at pH 6.0 and 303 K. Moreover, the adsorption process was more suitable for the quasi second-order kinetic model and Langmuir adsorption isotherm model, indicating that the adsorption process was chemical adsorption. Meanwhile, the CA-PCDP@MNPs also exhibited fast response magnetic recovery ability and excellent regeneration and recycling ability. In addition, the data of the adsorption mechanism demonstrated that oxygen-containing functional groups, which were rich on the surface of CA-PCDP@MNPs, were the main binding active sites of U(VI). From the above results, it can be deduced that the CA-PCDP@MNP has a good application prospect in the practical application of nuclear wastewater treatment.

ABSTRACT HIV-1 replication is tightly regulated in host cells, and various restriction factors have important roles in inhibiting viral replication. SAMHD1, a well-known restriction factor, suppresses HIV-1 replication by hydrolyzing intracellular dNTPs, thereby limiting the synthesis of viral cDNA in quiescent cells. In this study, we revealed an additional and distinct mechanism of SAMHD1 inhibition during the postviral cDNA synthesis stage. Using immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry analysis, we demonstrated the interaction between SAMHD1 and MX2/MxB, an interferon-induced antiviral factor that inhibits HIV-1 cDNA nuclear import. The disruption of endogenous MX2 expression significantly weakened the ability of SAMHD1 to inhibit HIV-1. The crucial region within SAMHD1 that binds to MX2 has been identified. Notably, we found that SAMHD1 can act as a sensor that recognizes and binds to the incoming HIV-1 core, subsequently delivering it to the molecular trap formed by MX2, thereby blocking the nuclear entry of the HIV-1 core structure. SAMHD1 mutants unable to recognize the HIV-1 core showed a substantial decrease in antiviral activity. Certain mutations in HIV-1 capsids confer resistance to MX2 inhibition while maintaining susceptibility to suppression by the SAMHD1-MX2 axis. Overall, our study identifies an intriguing antiviral pattern wherein two distinct restriction factors, SAMHD1 and MX2, collaborate to establish an alternative mechanism deviating from their actions. These findings provide valuable insight into the complex immune defense networks against exogenous viral infections and have implications for the development of targeted anti-HIV therapeutics.IMPORTANCEIn contrast to most restriction factors that directly bind to viral components to exert their antiviral effects, SAMHD1, the only known deoxynucleotide triphosphate (dNTP) hydrolase in eukaryotes, indirectly inhibits viral replication in quiescent cells by reducing the pool of dNTP substrates available for viral cDNA synthesis. Our study provides a novel perspective on the antiviral functions of SAMHD1. In addition to its role in dNTP hydrolysis, SAMHD1 cooperates with MX2 to inhibit HIV-1 nuclear import. In this process, SAMHD1 acts as a sensor for incoming HIV-1 cores, detecting and binding to them, before subsequently delivering the complex to the molecular trap formed by MX2, thereby immobilizing the virus. This study not only reveals a new antiviral pathway for SAMHD1 but also identifies a unique collaboration and interaction between two distinct restriction factors, establishing a novel line of defense against HIV-1 infection, which challenges the traditional view of restriction factors acting independently. Overall, our findings further indicate the intricate complexity of the host immune defense network and provide potential targets for promoting host antiviral immune defense.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of air curtains on indoor environment and dehumidification energy consumption for different air supply angle and velocity. The numerical investigation is conducted in a low-humidity plant located in the atmospheric boundary layer. The standard k-epsilon turbulence model is used in the simulation study. The optimum air supply angle and velocity are evaluated based on temperature and humidity distribution. The simulation cases range in air supply angle from 0° to 20° and velocity from 6 m/s to 14 m/s, which is studied by means of orthogonal experiments. Simulation results show that air curtain can reduce the average indoor temperature of the plant by up to 3.9°C and reduce the average moisture content by up to 86.6%. The energy saving assessment of the dehumidification rotor system shows a parabolic variation in energy consumption with increasing air velocity at a certain air supply angle. The optimum energy consumption occurs in the range of 9–11 m/s for air supply velocity. When air supply velocity is over 11 m/s, the airflow exchange is enhanced by air curtain at the plant opening, resulting in higher energy consumption from air leakage for dehumidification.

High-resolution land cover mapping is crucial in various disciplines but is often hindered by the lack of accurately matched labels. Our study introduces an innovative deep learning methodology for effective land cover mapping, independent of matched labels. The approach comprises three main components: (1) An advanced fully convolutional neural network, augmented with super-resolution features, to refine labels; (2) The application of an instance-batch normalization network (IBN), leveraging these enhanced labels from the source domain, to generate 2-m resolution land cover maps for test sites in the target domain; (3) Noise assessment tests to evaluate the impact of varying noise levels on the model’s mapping accuracy using external labels. The model achieved an overall accuracy of 83.40% in the target domain using endogenous super-resolution labels. In contrast, employing exogenous, high-precision labels from the National Land Cover Database in the source domain led to a notable accuracy increase of 2.55%, reaching 85.48%. This improvement highlights the model’s enhanced generalizability and performance during domain shifts, attributed significantly to the IBN layer. Our findings reveal that, despite the absence of native high-precision labels, the utilization of high-quality external labels can substantially benefit the development of precise land cover mapping, underscoring their potential in scenarios with unmatched labels.

Photocatalysis is considered to be a promising technique for the degradation of organic pollutants. Herein, a 0D/1D composite photocatalyst consisting of Au nanoparticles (NPs) and CuBi2O4 microrods (Au/CBO) was designed and prepared by a simple thermal reduction–precipitation approach. It shows excellent photocatalytic performance in the degradation of tetracycline (TC). The maximum photocatalytic degradation rate constant for Au/CBO composites with 2.5 wt % Au NPs was 4.76 times as high as that of bare CBO microrods. Additionally, the 0D/1D Au/CBO composite also exhibited ideal stability. The significant improvement of the photocatalytic performance could be attributed to the improved light harvesting and increased specific surface area, enhancing photoresponse and providing more active sites. Our work shows a possible design of efficient photocatalysts for environmental remediation.

Surface Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (SMIP) for selective adsorption of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate(DEHP) was prepared on the surface of silica gel which was modified by aminopropyltriethoxysilane and acryloyl chloride in a two-step method. The prepared SMIP was used to prepare Molecularly Imprinted Solid-Phase Extraction (MISPE) column for selective extraction of DEHP from aqueous solution. The results suggested that MISPE column had high affinity and excellent selectivity for DEHP. And adsorption property of MISPE column was significantly superior to the commercial C18 column. The MISPE column was reusable. An analytical method MISPE-HPLC was developed for extraction and determination of the DEHP residues in environmental water samples. The results showed that the linear relationship between the peak area and the concentration of DEHP were as follow: y=2354.6x+1663.5 with a good correlation coefficient (R2=0.9997) and the detection and quantification limits reached 0.012 mg/L and 0.039 mg/L, respectively. The spiked recoveries of DEHP in river water and lake water sample were in the range from 93.3% to 102.3 % at the spiked level of 50~1000 μg/L. The Relative Standard Deviations (RSD) were less than 5.2%.

Purpose. The aim was to explore the effect of the chromium picolinate (CrPic) administration on the pancreas and macroangiopathy of type II diabetes mellitus rats. Methods. The type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rat model was induced by low-dose streptozotocin (STZ). The rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (ten rats in each group). After supplementing CrPic for 15 weeks, the histopathological examination was performed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Serum insulin and NO level were determined by radioimmunoassay and colorimetry, respectively. Serum glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C), adiponectin (APN), advanced glycation end products (AGES), and apelin were measured by ELISA. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was applied for detecting the mRNA expression of APN and apelin. Results. After CrPic treatment, compared with the T2DM control group (group 2), pancreas sections stained with HE showed the completed pancreatic cells structure and no inflammatory infiltration in groups 4 and 5. In addition, the levels of serum NO and insulin were significantly increased and the serum levels of HbA1C, AGES, APN, and apelin were significantly decreased in groups 4 and 5 compared with group 2. The mRNA expression of APN and apelin in groups 4 and 5 was also recovered to the normal level. Conclusion. CrPic can recover the function of Β-cells and alleviate macroangiopathy in STZ-induced T2DM rats.