Patterning-Induced Ferromagnetism of Fe3GeTe2 van der Waals Materials beyond Room Temperature.

Magnetic van der Waals (vdW) materials have emerged as promising candidates for spintronics applications, especially after the recent discovery of intrinsic ferromagnetism in monolayer vdW materials. There has been a critical need for tunable ferromagnetic vdW materials beyond room temperature. Here, we report a real-space imaging study of itinerant ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 and the enhancement of its Curie temperature well above ambient temperature. We find that the magnetic long-range order in Fe3GeTe2 is characterized by an unconventional out-of-plane stripe-domain phase. In Fe3GeTe2 microstructures patterned by a focused ion beam, the out-of-plane stripe domain phase undergoes a surprising transition at 230 K to an in-plane vortex phase that persists beyond room temperature. The discovery of tunable ferromagnetism in Fe3GeTe2 materials opens up vast opportunities for utilizing vdW magnets in room-temperature spintronics devices

A Drive to Driven Model of Mapping Intraspecific Interaction Networks.

Community ecology theory suggests that an individual\u27s phenotype is determined by the phenotypes of its coexisting members to the extent at which this process can shape community evolution. Here, we develop a mapping theory to identify interaction quantitative trait loci (QTL) governing inter-individual dependence. We mathematically formulate the decision-making strategy of interacting individuals. We integrate these mathematical descriptors into a statistical procedure, enabling the joint characterization of how QTL drive the strengths of ecological interactions and how the genetic architecture of QTL is driven by ecological networks. In three fish full-sib mapping experiments, we identify a set of genome-wide QTL that control a range of societal behaviors, including mutualism, altruism, aggression, and antagonism, and find that these intraspecific interactions increase the genetic variation of body mass by about 50%. We showcase how the interaction QTL can be used as editors to reconstruct and engineer new social networks for ecological communities

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

A Regulatory Network for miR156-SPL Module in Arabidopsis thaliana

Vegetative phase changes in plants describes the transition between juvenile and adult phases of vegetative growth before flowering. It is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for plants to sense developmental signals, presenting a complex process involving many still-unknown determinants. Several studies in annual and perennial plants have identified the conservative roles of miR156 and its targets, SBP/SPL genes, in guiding the switch of plant growth from juvenile to adult phases. Here, we review recent progress in understanding the regulation of miR156 expression and how miR156-SPLs mediated plant age affect other processes in Arabidopsis. Powerful high-throughput sequencing techniques have provided rich data to systematically study the regulatory mechanisms of miR156 regulation network. From this data, we draw an expanded miR156-regulated network that links plant developmental transition and other fundamental biological processes, gaining novel and broad insight into the molecular mechanisms of plant-age-related processes in Arabidopsis

Application of herbicides is likely to reduce greenhouse gas (N2O and CH4) emissions from rice-wheat cropping systems

Herbicides have been widely used to control weeds in croplands; however, their effects on greenhouse gas emissions remain unclear. The effects of three wheat herbicides (acetochlor, AC; tribenuron-methyl, TBM; fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, FE) and two rice herbicides (butachlor, BC; bensulfuron-methyl, BSM) on N2O and CH4 emissions were investigated in this study. In the wheat growing season, applications of AC and FE + TBM significantly reduced N2O emissions by 31% compared with no herbicide use (p = 0.001). In the rice growing season, the application of BC significantly reduced CH4 emissions by 58% (p = 0.022), and BSM significantly reduced N2O emissions by 27% (p = 0.040); however, no significant difference among treatments with regard to the aggregate emissions of N2O and CH4 in the CO2 equivalent for the 100-year horizon was observed (p > 0.05). Relative to control plots, which were not treated with herbicides, the combined application of the herbicides FE and TBM in the wheat season led to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) by similar to 41% (p = 0.002), and the application of BC together with BSM reduced GHGI by 22% in the rice season, although this reduction was not statistically significant (p = 0.158). Further investigation suggested that the inhibitory effect of herbicides on N2O emissions in the wheat field could be ascribed to low soil ammonium nitrogen and less abundance of denitrifying bacteria. The inhibitory effects of separate applications of BC on CH4 emissions in rice fields, in contrast, were linked to high soil nitrate nitrogen and urease activity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Highly selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-diformylfuran over an α-MnO2 catalyst

Selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2, 5-diformylfuran (DFF) with molecular oxygen is realized with an α-MnO2 catalyst under mild conditions. In this work, α-MnO2 exhibited the best performance among the samples examined. Meanwhile, solvent shows a significant effect on the product selectivity and isopropanol is found good for improving the selectivity of DFF. 93.2% conversion of HMF was achieved at 140 °C for 4 h with 84.3% selectivity of DFF. Moreover, α-MnO2 catalyst keeps good reusability in recycling for five times. The reaction pathway indicated that the lattice oxygen species on α-MnO2 is involved in the selective oxidation of hydroxyl group in HMF molecule.Peer reviewe