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Precise and efficient therapy of malignant tumors is always a challenge. Herein, gold nanoclusters co-modified by aggregation-induced-emission (AIE) molecules, copper ion chelator (acylthiourea) and tumor-targeting agent (folic acid) were fabricated to perform AIE-guided and tumor-specific synergistic therapy with great spatio-temporal controllability for the targeted elimination and metastasis inhibition of malignant tumors. During therapy, the functional gold nanoclusters (AuNTF) would rapidly accumulate in the tumor tissue due to the enhanced permeability and retention effect as well as folic acid-mediated tumor targeting, which was followed by endocytosis by tumor cells. After that, the overexpressed copper ions in the tumor cells would trigger the aggregation of these intracellular AuNTF via a chelation process that not only generated the photothermal agent in situ to perform the tumor-specific photothermal therapy damaging the primary tumor, but also led to the copper deficiency of tumor cells to inhibit its metastasis. Moreover, the copper ions were reduced to cuprous ions along with the chelation, which further catalysed the excess H2O2 in the tumor cells to produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species, resulting in additional chemodynamic therapy for enhanced antitumor efficiency. The aggregation of AuNTF also activated the AIE molecules to present fluorescence, which not only imaged the therapeutic area for real-time monitoring of this tumor-specific synergistic therapy, but also allowed us to perform near-infrared radiation at the correct time point and location to achieve optimal photothermal therapy. Both in vitro and in vivo results revealed the strong tumor elimination, effective metastasis inhibition and high survival rate of tumor-bearing mice after treatment using the AuNTF nanoclusters, indicating that this AIE-guided and tumor-specific synergistic strategy could offer a promising approach for tumor therapy.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Lactobacillus plantarum CCFM8661 on reducing lead in the human body and its effect on human health. Methods: In total, 60 volunteers suffering from foodborne heavy metal exposure were recruited and divided into two groups, with one orally receiving L. plantarum CCFM8661 powder and the other orally receiving a placebo. The protective effect of L. plantarum CCFM8661 on lead-exposed populations was evaluated comprehensively by analyzing the volunteers’ blood lead levels, blood cells, blood biochemical indexes, serum calcium and iron levels before and after interventions. Results: L. plantarum CCFM8661 intervention effectively reduced the blood lead level in the lead-exposed population, and down-regulated total bilirubin, urea and total serum protein while having no significant effect on blood cells, blood calcium or iron levels. Conclusion: L. plantarum CCFM8661 could protect lead-exposed subjects by effectively reducing lead levels and, thereby, has the potential to be further developed into a biological agent for the bioreduction of heavy metals.

The effect of annealing time on the bending properties and microstructure of cold-rolled C19400 alloy was studied by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy. With the increase in annealing time, the bending properties of the alloy first increased and then decreased, and the elongation increased from 8.33% in cold-rolled state to 11.58% after annealing for 60 min, which increased by 39.02%, and then decreased to 10.0% after annealing for 90 min. Within the experimental range, the bending performance is the best when the annealing time is 60 min. When the relative bending radius is 0.4, the outer surface of the bending part of the alloy changes from a large number of microfine cracks before annealing to the disappearance of cracks after annealing. The analysis shows that the decrease in the dislocation density, the ordering of the dislocation structure, and the refinement of the precipitated phase are the keys to improving the bending performance of the strip after annealing.

Biochar has been used as a sustainable amendment to moderate the risks of climate change to plant and soil management. A 3-year field monitoring was conducted at Shenzhen Xiaping landfill to evaluate the performance of a three-layer landfill cover using plant and biochar. Coarse-grained completely decomposed granites (CDG) amended with peanut shell biochar at 0%, 5% and 10% ([m.sup.3]/[m.sup.3]) were used for the top layers of three grass plots (10 m * 5 m each), respectively. Coarse recycled concrete and fine-grained CDG were used for the middle and bottom layers of all plots. Numerical simulation was conducted to back analyse the monitored results. The results show that the grassed cover with biochar can retain over four times higher negative pore-water pressure than that without biochar. During the monitoring, over 62% of total rainfall was evapotranspirated from biochar amended covers, which was 10% larger than the cover without biochar. With biochar amendments, the infiltration amount was reduced by 13%, but water storage was improved by up to 15%. The measured and computed percolation of the grassed covers with 0%, 5% and 10% biochar meet the recommended criterion by USEPA. It is recommended that 5% biochar content is sufficient to minimise water percolation. Key words: plant-biochar interaction, long-term, field monitoring, landfill cover, recycled concrete, 1. Introduction With the increasing population and urbanisation, the continuous production and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) have become a worldwide concern. Landfilling is the simplest, most practical and [...]

Marked evolution of properties with minute changes in the doping level is a hallmark of the complex chemistry that governs copper oxide superconductivity as manifested in the celebrated superconducting domes and quantum criticality taking place at precise compositions1-4. The strange-metal state, in which the resistivity varies linearly with temperature, has emerged as a central feature in the normal state of copper oxide superconductors5-9. The ubiquity of this behaviour signals an intimate link between the scattering mechanism and superconductivity10-12. However, a clear quantitative picture of the correlation has been lacking. Here we report the observation of precise quantitative scaling laws among the superconducting transition temperature (Tc), the linear-in-T scattering coefficient (A1) and the doping level (x) in electron-doped copper oxide La2-xCexCuO4 (LCCO). High-resolution characterization of epitaxial composition-spread films, which encompass the entire overdoped range of LCCO, has enabled us to systematically map its structural and transport properties with unprecedented accuracy and with increments of Δx = 0.0015. We have uncovered the relations Tc ~ (xc - x)0.5 ~ (A1□)0.5, where xc is the critical doping in which superconductivity disappears and A1□ is the coefficient of the linear resistivity per CuO2 plane. The striking similarity of the Tc versus A1□ relation among copper oxides, iron-based and organic superconductors may be an indication of a common mechanism of the strange-metal behaviour and unconventional superconductivity in these systems.