The reversible and cooperative activation process, which includes electron transfer from surrounding redox mediators, the reversible valence change of cofactors and macroscopic functional/structural ...change, is one of the most important characteristics of biological enzymes, and has frequently been used in the design of homogeneous catalysts. However, there are virtually no reports on industrially important heterogeneous catalysts with these enzyme-like characteristics. Here, we report on the design and synthesis of highly active TiO2 photocatalysts incorporating site-specific single copper atoms (Cu/TiO2) that exhibit a reversible and cooperative photoactivation process. Our atomic-level design and synthetic strategy provide a platform that facilitates valence control of co-catalyst copper atoms, reversible modulation of the macroscopic optoelectronic properties of TiO2 and enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen generation activity, extending the boundaries of conventional heterogeneous catalysts.Reversible and cooperative activation processes are important characteristics of biological enzymes and can be used in designing catalysts. Highly active TiO2 photocatalysts incorporated with site-specific single copper atoms are now shown to exhibit such a photoactivation process.
The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has brought significant changes to college students, but there is a lack of empirical studies regarding how the pandemic has affected student mental health among ...college students in the U.S. To fill the gap in the literature, this study describes stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms for students in a public research university in Kentucky during an early phase of COVID-19 and their usage of mental health services. Results show that about 88% of students experienced moderate to severe stress, with 44% of students showing moderate to severe anxiety and 36% of students having moderate to severe depression. In particular, female, rural, low-income, and academically underperforming students were more vulnerable to these mental health issues. However, a majority of students with moderate or severe mental health symptoms never used mental health services. Our results call for proactively reaching out to students, identifying students at risk of mental health issues, and providing accessible care.
Microbial carbonates were major components of early Paleozoic reefs until coral-stromatoporoid-bryozoan reefs appeared in the mid-Ordovician. Microbial reefs were augmented by archaeocyath sponges ...for ~15 Myr in the early Cambrian, by lithistid sponges for the remaining ~25 Myr of the Cambrian, and then by lithistid, calathiid and pulchrilaminid sponges for the first ~25 Myr of the Ordovician. The factors responsible for mid–late Cambrian microbial-lithistid sponge reef dominance remain unclear. Although oxygen increase appears to have significantly contributed to the early Cambrian ‘Explosion’ of marine animal life, it was followed by a prolonged period dominated by ‘greenhouse’ conditions, as sea-level rose and CO2 increased. The mid–late Cambrian was unusually warm, and these elevated temperatures can be expected to have lowered oxygen solubility, and to have promoted widespread thermal stratification resulting in marine dysoxia and hypoxia. Greenhouse conditions would also have stimulated carbonate platform development, locally further limiting shallow-water circulation. Low marine oxygenation has been linked to episodic extinctions of phytoplankton, trilobites and other metazoans during the mid–late Cambrian. We propose that this tendency to dysoxia-hypoxia in shallow marine environments also limited many metazoan reef-builders. In contrast, during the mid–late Cambrian, the ability of lithistid sponges to withstand low oxygen levels allowed them to create a benthic association with microbial carbonates that dominated global reefs. These conditions ameliorated during the Ordovician, as temperature decline promoted ocean ventilation. The prolonged time gap occupied by low diversity reefs between the ‘Cambrian Explosion’ and the ‘Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event’ reflects elevated temperatures and reduced marine oxygenation that limited metazoan diversification in shallow marine environments.
ABSTRACT
Microbial carbonates formed stromatolitic, thrombolitic, dendrolitic and maceriate (mazelike) fabrics in shallow marine Cambrian–Early Ordovician carbonates encircling Laurentia. However, ...poor preservation often hinders recognition of their specific components. Well‐preserved examples of normal shallow marine limestones in the ca 490 Ma upper Cambrian Point Peak Member, Wilberns Formation, central Texas, include stromatolitic cones, steep‐sided laminated rimmed columns with grainy interiors, and laminated and maceriate domes. Together these form decimetre to metre‐thick biostromes. In these examples, a single component, microstromatolite, on its own or with minor calcimicrobes, creates macroscopic stromatolitic, dendrolitic, thrombolitic and maceriate fabrics. Microstromatolites constructed upward widening stromatolitic cones that developed into columns with laminated rims surrounding slightly depressed interiors. These columns accumulated allochthonous sediment by a ‘bucket effect’. Their interiors contain either clusters of dendrolitic microstromatolite or ragged columns of laminated stromatolite–sponge biolithite, and are often characterized by a ‘mottled’ fabric that superficially resembles thrombolite. This mottling was formed by localized dolomitization around millimetric burrows that otherwise do not appear to have significantly influenced the biolithite fabric. Calcimicrobes, including cyanobacteria (Razumovskia) and microproblematica (Renalcis and Tarthinia), impart a mesoscopic clotted appearance to maceriate fabric, and locally to column rims, both of which are dominated by microstromatolite. Similar component‐fabric relationships should be recognizable in rimmed columns and domes that were locally abundant elsewhere in Cambrian–Early Ordovician shallow carbonate seas.
Animal evolution transformed microbial mat development. Canonically inferred negative effects include grazing, disturbance and competition for space. In contrast, ancient examples of cooperation ...between microbial mats and invertebrates have rarely been reported. Late Cambrian (~485 million years) Cryptozoön is widely regarded as the first stromatolite to have received a taxonomic name and has been compared with present‐day examples at Shark Bay, Australia. Here, we show that Cryptozoön is an interlayered consortium of keratose (‘horny’) sponge and microbial carbonate in roughly equal proportions. Cryptozoön's well‐defined layering reflects repeated alternation of sponge and microbial mat. Its distinctive lateral growth is due to the ability of keratosans to colonize steep and overhanging surfaces. Contrary to the perception of Phanerozoic stromatolites as anachronistic survivors in a eukaryotic world, Cryptozoön suggests mutualistic behaviour in which sponges and microbial mats cooperated to gain support, stability and relief, while sharing substrates, bacteria and metabolites. Keratosan‐microbial consortia may have been mistaken for stromatolites throughout the record of the past 500 million years, and possibly longer.
Although the relation of the gut microbiota to a development of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases has been investigated in various animal models, there are limited studies that evaluate the effect ...of probiotics in the autoimmune eye disease. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of IRT-5 probiotics consisting of
,
,
,
, and
on the autoimmunity of uveitis and dry eye and alloimmunity of corneal transplantation.
Experimental autoimmune uveitis was induced by subcutaneous immunization with interphotoreceptor-binding protein and intraperitoneal injection of pertussis toxin in C57BL/6 (B6) mice. For an autoimmune dry eye model, 12-weeks-old NOD.B10.
mice were used. Donor cornea of B6 mice was transplanted into BALB/C mice. IRT-5 probiotics or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were administered for three weeks immediately after induction of uveitis or transplantation. The inflammation score of the retinal tissues, dry eye manifestations (corneal staining and tear secretion), and graft survival were measured in each model. The changes of T cells were evaluated in drainage lymph nodes using fluorescence-activated cell sorting.
Retinal histology score in IRT-5 group of uveitis was lower than that in PBS group (
= 0.045). Ocular staining score was lower (
< 0.0001) and tear secretion was higher (
< 0.0001) in the IRT-5 group of NOD.B10.
mice than that in the PBS group. However, the graft survival in the IRT-5 group was not different from those of PBS group. The percentage of regulatory T cells was increased in the IRT-5-treated dry eye models (
= 0.032). The percentage of CD8⁺IL-17
(
= 0.027) and CD8⁺ interferon gamma (IFNγ)
cells (
= 0.022) were significantly decreased in the IRT-5-treated uveitis models and the percentage of CD8⁺IFNγ
cells was markedly reduced (
= 0.036) in IRT-5-treated dry eye model.
Our results suggest that administration of IRT-5 probiotics may modulate clinical manifestations of autoimmunity in the eye, but not on alloimmunity of corneal transplantation.
The envelope glycoprotein trimer (Env) on the surface of HIV-1 recognizes CD4⁺ T cells and mediates viral entry. During this process, Env undergoes substantial conformational rearrangements, making ...it difficult to study in its native state. Soluble stabilized trimers have provided valuable insights into the Env structure, but they lack the hydrophobic membrane proximal external region (MPER, an important target of broadly neutralizing antibodies), the transmembrane domain, and the cytoplasmic tail. Here we present (i) a cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of a clade B virus Env, which lacks only the cytoplasmic tail and is stabilized by the broadly neutralizing antibody PGT151, at a resolution of 4.2 angstroms and (ii) a reconstruction of this form of Env in complex with PGT151 and MPER-targeting antibody 10E8 at a resolution of 8.8 angstroms. These structures provide new insights into the wild-type Env structure.
Early synrift half‐grabens, herein named the Chilpo and Sinheung subbasins, have been newly recognised in the north‐central area of the Miocene Pohang Basin, Korea. The subbasins are closely aligned ...along an array of NNW‐trending strike‐slip faults and are bounded by ENE‐striking normal faults. The sediment infill of the subbasins consists of a deepening‐ and fining‐upward sequence of alluvial cobble to boulder conglomerate (FA1), alluvial to nearshore granule to pebble conglomerate and sandstone (FA2) and hemipelagic mudstone (FA3). The younger strata sequentially onlap the older strata in the hangingwall basement or transfer zones, whereas the footwall basement is directly onlapped by the younger hemipelagic mudstone. These patterns may have resulted from a series of domino‐style block rotations, in which subsidence along normal faults caused the differential creation of accommodation space, whilst simultaneous uplift in the upslope of rotated hangingwall blocks controlled denudation, the shedding of sediments to downslope areas and asymmetric stacking of sediments in both subbasins. In contrast to the western margin of the Pohang Basin, where large footwall‐derived fan‐delta systems developed along the bounding faults, in the Chilpo and Sinheung subbasins, small hangingwall‐derived alluvial‐fan deltas formed during rifting. The development of these domino‐style half‐grabens would have resulted from the detachment and simultaneous transrotation of the crustal block away from the northwest during accelerated extension in the Pohang Basin. Recent geophysical studies have detected very thin basin‐fill sediments in the north‐central Pohang Basin and faults that are similar in orientation to those identified in this study, thereby supporting our observations. These findings confirm the early opening of the Pohang Basin, supporting the hypothesis that all of the Miocene basins in southeastern Korea formed in a setting of NW–SE extension, and further suggest the development of the wedge‐shaped transtensional basin, in response to the opening of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) after 17 Ma.
Opening mode and morphology of the synrift half‐graben (Chilpo and Sinheung) subbasins and the possible movement of bounding faults during formation of the Miocene Pohang Basin. The opening of the subbasins was initiated along the NNW‐trending strike‐slip faults and extended by subvertical rotation of hangingwall blocks under the NW–SE extensional regime, suggesting a wedge‐shaped transtensional model for the Pohang Basin.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been widely employed to identify and estimate a user's intention to trigger a robotic device by decoding motor imagery (MI) from an electroencephalogram (EEG). ...However, developing a BCI system driven by MI related to natural hand-grasp tasks is challenging due to its high complexity. Although numerous BCI studies have successfully decoded large body parts, such as the movement intention of both hands, arms, or legs, research on MI decoding of high-level behaviors such as hand grasping is essential to further expand the versatility of MI-based BCIs. In this study, we propose NeuroGrasp, a dual-stage deep learning framework that decodes multiple hand grasping from EEG signals under the MI paradigm. The proposed method effectively uses an EEG and electromyography (EMG)-based learning, such that EEG-based inference at test phase becomes possible. The EMG guidance during model training allows BCIs to predict hand grasp types from EEG signals accurately. Consequently, NeuroGrasp improved classification performance offline, and demonstrated a stable classification performance online. Across 12 subjects, we obtained an average offline classification accuracy of 0.68 (±0.09) in four-grasp-type classifications and 0.86 (±0.04) in two-grasp category classifications. In addition, we obtained an average online classification accuracy of 0.65 (±0.09) and 0.79 (±0.09) across six high-performance subjects. Because the proposed method has demonstrated a stable classification performance when evaluated either online or offline, in the future, we expect that the proposed method could contribute to different BCI applications, including robotic hands or neuroprosthetics for handling everyday objects.
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