Self-assembly of hydrofluorinated Janus graphene monolayer:a versatile route for designing novel Janus nanoscrolls

With remarkably interesting surface activities, two-dimensional Janus materials arouse intensive interests recently in many fields. We demonstrate by molecular dynamic simulations that hydrofluorinated Janus graphene (J-GN) can self-assemble into Janus nanoscroll (J-NS) at room temperature. The van der Waals (vdW) interaction and the coupling of C-H/π/C-F interaction and π/π interaction are proven to offer the continuous driving force of self-assembly of J-GN. The results show that J-GN can self-assemble into various J-NSs structures, including arcs, multi-wall J-NS and arm-chair-like J-NS by manipulating its original geometry (size and aspect ratio). Moreover, we also investigated self-assembly of hydrofluorinated J-GN and Fe nanowires (NWs), suggesting that Fe NW is a good alternative to activate J-GN to form J-NS. Differently, the strong vdW interaction between J-GN and Fe NW provides the main driving force of the self-assembly. Finally, we studied the hydrogen sorption over the formed J-NS with a considerable interlayer spacing, which reaches the US DOE target, indicating that J-NS is a promising candidate for hydrogen storage by controlling the temperature of system. Our theoretical results firstly provide a versatile route for designing novel J-NS from 2D Janus nanomaterials, which has a great potential application in the realm of hydrogen storage/separation

Recombinant Newcastle disease virus (NDV/Anh-IL-2) expressing human IL-2 as a potential candidate for suppresses growth of hepatoma therapy

AbstractNewcastle disease virus (NDV) have shown oncolytic therapeutic efficacy in preclinical study and are currently approved for clinical trials. NDV Anhinga strain which is a mesogenic strain should be classified as lytic strain and has a therapeutic efficacy in hepatocellular cancer. In this study, we evaluated the capacity of NDV Anhinga strain to elicit immune reaction in vivo and the possibility for using as a vaccine vector for expressing tumor therapeutic factors. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) could boost the immune response against the tumor cells. Therefore, we use NDV Anhinga strain as backbone to construct a recombinant virus (NDV/Anh-IL-2) expressing IL-2. The virus growth curve showed that the production of recombinant NDV/Anh-IL-2 was slightly delayed compared to the wild type. The NDV/Anh-IL-2 strain could express soluble IL-2 and effectively inhibit the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo. 60 days post-treatment, mice which were completely cured by previous treatment were well protected when rechallenged with the same tumor cell. From the H&E-stained sections, intense infiltration of lymphocyte was observed in the NDV Anhinga strain treated group, especially in NDV/Anh-IL-2 group. The NDV Anhinga strain could not only kill the tumor directly, but could also elicit immune reaction and a potent immunological memory when killing tumor in vivo. In conclusion, the Anhinga strain could be an effective vector for tumor therapy; the recombinant NDV/Anh-IL-2 strain expressing soluble IL-2 is a promising candidate for hepatoma therapy

The ecological impact of pest-induced tree dieback on insect biodiversity in Yunnan pine plantations, China

China has recently announced a reform of forestry policy, with a major goal being to transform from plantation to heterogeneous forests, which have higher resistance to pests and disease and house more biodiversity. One driver of reform is increased intensity and frequency of pest-induced tree-dieback events. To inform management, we ask what effects these events have on insect biodiversity in Pinus yunnanensis monocultures in Yunnan province, the province with one of the highest proportions of forest cover in China. We sampled aerial arthropods (mostly insect) biodiversity along gradients of Pinus yunnanensis dieback severity using Malaise traps and used metabarcoding to characterise the insect community. We used MS-GDM (‘multi-site generalized dissimilarity modelling of zeta diversity’), zeta-decline analysis, and iNEXT (‘Interpolation and extrapolation for species diversity’) to assess community change as functions of forest-structure covariates. Metabarcoding of Malaise-trapped insects reveals that bark-beetle induced forest dieback does not result in detectable differences in species diversity but does result in compositional change, with the biggest turnover occurring between 0% and infested-0%-open-canopy forests and 20%-infested-20%-open-canopy forests. Zeta-decline analysis found that the insect community in low-infestation forests is characterized by a stochastic assembly, while in high-infestation forests, the community structure is consistent with niche assembly. Our results thus suggest that bark-beetle dieback mimics natural forest-gap dynamics, consistent with the interpretation of bark beetles as a keystone species in European conifer forests, where it has been proposed that forest heterogeneity can be created efficiently by allowing natural disturbances, including bark-beetle outbreaks, to proceed naturally, without being mitigated by deadwood removal and dense replanting. In Yunnan’s situation, and given predicted increases in bark-beetle dieback severity and frequency, this strategy should probably be supplemented with anthropogenic treatments, such as deadwood enhancement and planting of multiple tree species, to accelerate the succession of plantations into heterogeneous forests

Cotton WATs Modulate SA Biosynthesis and Local Lignin Deposition Participating in Plant Resistance Against Verticillium dahliae

Verticillium wilt, caused by Verticillium dahliae, seriously limits cotton production. It is difficult to control this pathogen damage mainly due to the complexity of the molecular mechanism of plant resistance to V. dahliae. Here, we identified three homologous cotton Walls Are Thin (WAT) genes, which were designated as GhWAT1, GhWAT2, and GhWAT3. The GhWATs were predominantly expressed in the roots, internodes, and hypocotyls and induced by infection with V. dahliae and treatment with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and salicylic acid (SA). GhWAT1-, GhWAT2-, or GhWAT3-silenced plants showed a comparable phenotype and level of resistance with control plants, but simultaneously silenced three GhWATs (GhWAT123-silenced), inhibited plant growth and increased plant resistance to V. dahliae, indicating that these genes were functionally redundant. In the GhWAT123-silenced plants, the expression of SA related genes was significantly upregulated compared with the control, resulting in an increase of SA level. Moreover, the histochemical analysis showed that xylem development was inhibited in GhWAT123-silenced plants compared with the control. However, lignin deposition increased in the xylem of the GhWAT123-silenced plants compared to the control, and there were higher expression levels of lignin synthesis- and lignifications-related genes in the GhWAT123-silenced plants. Collectively, the results showed that GhWATs in triple-silenced plants acts as negative regulators of plant resistance against V. dahliae. The potential mechanism of the WATs functioning in the plant defence can modulate the SA biosynthesis and lignin deposition in the xylem

Sub-second periodic radio oscillations in a microquasar

Powerful relativistic jets are one of the ubiquitous features of accreting black holes in all scales. GRS 1915+105 is a well-known fast-spinning black-hole X-ray binary with a relativistic jet, termed as a ``microquasar'', as indicated by its superluminal motion of radio emission. It exhibits persistent x-ray activity over the last 30 years, with quasi-periodic oscillations of $\sim 1-10$ Hz and 34 and 67 Hz in the x-ray band. These oscillations likely originate in the inner accretion disk, but other origins have been considered. Radio observations found variable light curves with quasi-periodic flares or oscillations with periods of $\sim 20-50$ minutes. Here we report two instances of $\sim$5 Hz transient periodic oscillation features from the source detected in the 1.05-1.45 GHz radio band that occurred in January 2021 and June 2022, respectively. Circular polarization was also observed during the oscillation phase.Comment: The author version of the article which will appear in Nature on 26 July 2023, 32 pages including the extended data. The online publication version can be found at the following URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06336-

A Genome-wide Microsatellite Polymorphism Database for the Indica and Japonica Rice

Microsatellite (MS) polymorphism is an important source of genetic diversity, providing support for map-based cloning and molecular breeding. We have developed a new database that contains 52 845 polymorphic MS loci between indica and japonica, composed of ample Class II MS markers, and integrated 18 828 MS loci from IRGSP and genetic markers from RGP. Based on genetic marker positions on the rice genome (http://rise.genomics.org.cn/rice2/index.jsp ), we determined the approximate genetic distances of these MS loci and validated 100 randomly selected markers experimentally with 90% success rate. In addition, we recorded polymorphic MS positions in indica cv. 9311 that is the most important paternal parent of the two-line hybrid rice in China. Our database will undoubtedly facilitate the application of MS markers in genetic researches and marker-assisted breeding. The data set is freely available from www.wigs.zju.edu.cn/achievment/polySSR

Variasi Temperatur Pencampuran Terhadap Parameter Marshall Pada Campuran Lapis Aspal Beton

This study was conducted to determine the effect of temperature variations on the mixing processof the asphalt concrete AC-WC (Asphalt Concrete-Wearing Course) subtle gradations in themiddle limit and lower limit of the Marshall parameters with reference to specifications of BinaMarga, 2010.From the results of experiments conducted that the optimum asphalt content is used to middle limitusing a asphalt content of 5,7% and 6,8% for the lower limit after that mixing was done usingtemperature variation of 120 o C, 130 o C, 140 o C, 150 o C, and 160 o C.To a mixture of Laston AC-WC subtle gradations middle limit grading 5,7% asphalt contentmixing temperature using a temperature of 120 o C, 130 o C, 140 o C, 150 o C, 160 o C and still meet allstandards of marshall parameters. Ideal mixing temperature variations in the middle limit ofmixing temperature 150 o C-160 o C. While the lower limit to the level of 6,8% asphalt contentmixing temperatures between 120 o C-160 o C did not meet the specifications, because the MQ valuebelow the minimum value of 250 kg / mm

Manipulations of phenylnorbornyl palladium species for multicomponent construction of a bridged polycyclic privileged scaffold

Hexahydromethanocarbazole is a privileged scaffold in the discovery of new drugs and photoactive organic materials due to its good balance between structural complexity and minimized entropy penalty upon receptor binding. To address the difficulty of synthesizing this highly desirable bridged polycyclic scaffold, we designed a convenient multicomponent reaction cascade as intercepted Heck addition/C-H activation/C-palladacycle formation/electrophilic attack of ANP/N-palladacycle formation/Buchwald amination. A distinguishing feature of this sophisticated strategy is the successive generation of two key phenylnorbornyl palladium species to control the reaction flow towards desired products. DFT calculations further reveal the crucial roles of Cs2CO3 and 5,6-diester substitutions on the norbornene reactant in preventing multiple side-reactions. This innovative method exhibits a broad scope with good yields, and therefore will enable the construction of natural-product-like compound libraries based on hexahydromethanocarbazole

Measuring protected-area effectiveness using vertebrate distributions from leech iDNA

Protected areas are key to meeting biodiversity conservation goals, but direct measures of effectiveness have proven difficult to obtain. We address this challenge by using environmental DNA from leech-ingested bloodmeals to estimate spatially-resolved vertebrate occupancies across the 677 km 2 Ailaoshan reserve in Yunnan, China. From 30,468 leeches collected by 163 park rangers across 172 patrol areas, we identify 86 vertebrate species, including amphibians, mammals, birds and squamates. Multi-species occupancy modelling shows that species richness increases with elevation and distance to reserve edge. Most large mammals (e.g. sambar, black bear, serow, tufted deer) follow this pattern; the exceptions are the three domestic mammal species (cows, sheep, goats) and muntjak deer, which are more common at lower elevations. Vertebrate occupancies are a direct measure of conservation outcomes that can help guide protected-area management and improve the contributions that protected areas make towards global biodiversity goals. Here, we show the feasibility of using invertebrate-derived DNA to estimate spatially-resolved vertebrate occupancies across entire protected areas