Vegetation reconstruction on opencast coal-mine dumps is an effective way to reduce runoff and soil erosion and is a key to restoring ecosystems in ecologically sensitive regions. To investigate the ...effects of vegetation on runoff and erosion, a field experiment involving eight erosion plots was conducted on a dump at the Antaibao opencast coal mine in, Shanxi Province. The plots were divided into two location groups, platforms and slopes. Each plot was planted with a typical vegetation pattern. The volumes of runoff and soil erosion during each rainfall event were recorded during the rainy season. The results showed that plots on the platforms experienced a larger volume of runoff than plots on the slopes, while the slope plots generated a larger value of soil erosion than the platform plots. Vegetation restoration has different impacts on runoff and soil erosion. A plot covered with 1-year-old Robinia pseudoacacia and Hippophae rhamnoides was most effective in terms of soil conservation; the plots covered with 5-year-old mixed legume plants and 5-year-old mixed grass-shrub-arbor forest were most effective overall in preventing both runoff and soil erosion. Over the long term, vegetation can increase soil organic matter, improve soil physical properties and soil anti-erodibility, and reduce runoff and erosion to a safe level. This study provides a theoretical basis and technical support for land reclamation and soil and water conservation in vulnerable ecological mining regions of a loess plateau.
•Runoff and soil erosion from platforms and slope plots in waste dump are compared.•Re-vegetation can reduce runoff and soil erosion in platforms and slopes of dump.•Vegetation has the same function on water and soil conservation in waste dump and original landform.
Deficiency of G protein‐coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) was found to protect mice from dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)‐induced colitis. Paeoniflorin‐6′‐O‐benzene sulfonate (CP‐25) has been shown to ...exert anti‐inflammatory immune regulatory effects in animal models of inflammatory autoimmune disease. This study aimed to investigate the of GRK2 in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC) and its effects on macrophage polarization, macrophage subtype regulation of intestinal barrier function, and therapeutic effects of CP‐25 in mice with DSS‐induced colitis. We found imbalanced macrophage polarization, intestinal barrier dysfunction, and abnormal activation of GRK2 and TLR4‐NF‐κB‐NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway in the colonic mucosa of patients with UC. CP‐25, restored the damaged intestinal barrier function by inhibiting the transmembrane region of GRK2 in macrophages stimulated by lipopolysaccharides. CP‐25 exerted therapeutic effects by ameliorating clinical manifestation, regulating macrophage polarization, and restoring abnormally activated TLR4‐NF‐κB‐NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway by inhibiting GRK2. These data suggest the pathogenesis of UC may be related to the imbalance of macrophage polarization, which leads to abnormal activation of TLR4‐NF‐κB‐NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway mediated by GRK2 and destruction of the intestinal mucosal barrier. CP‐25 confers therapeutic effects on colitis by inhibiting GRK2 translocation to induce the downregulation of TLR4‐NF‐κB‐NLRP3 inflammasome signaling in macrophages.
Nanomaterials and nanotechnology have been rapidly developed and widely applied in antimicrobial, biosensors, nanomedicine, nano-electronic technology, reinforcement, water treatment, and so on. ...However, there are also many problems and challenges during using and developing nanomaterials and nanotechnology. Are they secure enough for the health of human beings? Do they cause the environmental pollution? And how can we sustainably develop nanomaterial and nanotechnology? In this review, we introduced the applications, potential threats and hazards, and development and prospect of nanomaterial and nanotechnology.
Two‐photon imaging is an emerging tool for biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. Electron donor–acceptor (D–A) type molecules are the most widely employed two‐photon scaffolds. However, ...current D–A type fluorophores suffer from solvatochromic quenching in aqueous biological samples. To address this issue, we devised a novel class of D–A type green fluorescent protein (GFP) chromophore analogues that form a hydrogen‐bond network in water to improve the two‐photon efficiency. Our design results in two‐photon chalcone (TPC) dyes with 0.80 quantum yield and large two‐photon action cross section (210 GM) in water. This strategy to form hydrogen bonds can be generalized to design two‐photon materials with anti‐solvatochromic fluorescence. To demonstrate the improved in vivo imaging, we designed a sulfide probe based on TPC dyes and monitored endogenous H2S generation and scavenging in the cirrhotic rat liver for the first time.
Turn bane into a boon: A unique class of two‐photon dyes with anti‐solvatochromic fluorescence, optically tunable groups, high fluorescence quantum yields, and large two‐photon action cross sections in water are developed. Their use for in vivo imaging, was demonstrated in the monitoring of endogenous H2S generation and scavenging in the cirrhotic rat liver.
This paper first explains the research on the digital economy to optimize the resource allocation of the Xi’an high-tech manufacturing industry. Secondly, the evaluation index system for the digital ...economy and Xi’an manufacturing industry is constructed, and the weight of secondary indexes is determined using the entropy weight method. Then, a mediating effect model is constructed to determine explanatory variables, core explanatory variables, mediating variables and control variables according to the purpose of the study, and the mediating effect and impulse response are analyzed. The results show that, in terms of mediating effect, the level of digital economy development significantly positively impacts transaction size, infrastructure, and digital applications. In terms of the impulse response, when the digital economy variables generate a standard deviation shock, the response value of Xi’an’s high-quality manufacturing development is zero in the current period, reaches the maximum response value in the third period, and this positive effect gradually decreases in the fourth period and beyond but always maintains a positive development trend.
SARS-CoV-2 virus caused an infectious disease, named COVID-19. Biomedical equipments, vaccine and drug have played a crucial role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, up to now, ...there still has been no literature summarizing the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of this infectious disease from the perspective of biomedical equipments. Thus, this review wants to give an overview on the biomedical equipments, vaccine and drug in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this disease, and avoids the overlap with previous research, more emphasis on biomedical equipments, and less emphasis on biomaterials. The existing problems in the current research and application were summarized, and the future research direction was proposed, so as to provide reference to deal with similar viral infections in the future.
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In this paper, we present a novel shadow removal system for single natural images as well as color aerial images using an illumination recovering optimization method. We first adaptively decompose ...the input image into overlapped patches according to the shadow distribution. Then, by building the correspondence between the shadow patch and the lit patch based on texture similarity, we construct an optimized illumination recovering operator, which effectively removes the shadows and recovers the texture detail under the shadow patches. Based on coherent optimization processing among the neighboring patches, we finally produce high-quality shadow-free results with consistent illumination. Our shadow removal system is simple and effective, and can process shadow images with rich texture types and nonuniform shadows. The illumination of shadow-free results is consistent with that of surrounding environment. We further present several shadow editing applications to illustrate the versatility of the proposed method.
Rapid detection of highly contagious pathogens is the key to increasing the probability of survival and reducing infection rates. We developed a sensitive and quantitative lateral flow assay for ...detection of Ebola virus (EBOV) glycoprotein with a novel multifunctional nanosphere (RNs@Au) as a reporter. Each RNs@Au contains hundreds of quantum dots and dozens of Au nanoparticles and can achieve enhanced dual-signal readout (fluorescence signal for quantitative detection and colorimetric signal for visual detection). Antibody (Ab) and streptavidin (SA) were simultaneously modified onto the RNs@Au to label the target and act as signal enhancer. After the target was labeled by the Ab–RNs@Au–SA and captured on the test line, biotin-modified RNs@Au was used to amplify the dual signal by the reaction of SA with biotin. The assay enables naked-eye detection of 2 ng/mL glycoprotein within 20 min, and the quantitative detection limit is 0.18 ng/mL. Additionally, the assay has been successfully tested in field work for detecting EBOV in spiked urine, plasma, and tap water samples and is thus a promising candidate for early diagnosis of suspect infections in EBOV-stricken areas.
The oral microbiota plays an important role in the human microbiome and human health, and imbalances between microbes and their hosts can lead to oral and systemic diseases and chronic inflammation, ...which is usually caused by bacteria and contributes to cancer. There may be a relationship between oral bacteria and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); however, this relationship has not been thoroughly characterized. Therefore, in this study, we compared the microbiota compositions between tumor sites and opposite normal tissues in buccal mucosal of 50 patients with OSCC using the 16S rDNA sequencing. Richness and diversity of bacteria were significantly higher in tumor sites than in the control tissues. Cancer tissues were enriched in six families (
, and
) and 13 genera, including
and
. At the species level, the abundances of
, and another five species were significantly increased, suggesting a potential association between these bacteria and OSCC. Furthermore, the functional prediction revealed that genes involved in bacterial chemotaxis, flagellar assembly and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis which are associated with various pathological processes, were significantly increased in the OSCC group. Overall, oral bacterial profiles showed significant difference between cancer sites and normal tissue of OSCC patients, which might be onsidered diagnostic markers and treatment targets. Our study has been registered in the Chinese clinical trial registry (ChiCTR1900025253, http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx).
Fe-based amorphous coatings with outstanding corrosion resistance are promise for marine applications. However, these coatings encounter a great challenge of biofouling in marine environments. ...Inspired by the unique micro-nano hierarchical structure of shark skin with excellent antifouling properties, in this paper, we construct a bioinspired Fe-based amorphous coating with killing-resisting dual-effect via proper surface modifications, i.e., the modification with micro-patterned nanostructured Cu
O fibers (killing effect), followed by the modification with superhydrophobic surface (resisting effect). As a result, the modified amorphous coating exhibits impressive antifouling properties, achieving 98.6% resistance to Nitzschia closterium f. minutissima, 87% resistance to Bovine serum albumin protein and 99.8% resistance to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively. The remarkable antifouling performance is attributed to a synergistic antifouling mechanism from both resisting effect and killing effect, wherein the superhydrophobic surface provides a barrier to resist protein adsorption, while the patterned nanostructured Cu
O fibers supply Cu
ions to kill bacterial cells. In addition, the modified amorphous coating also exhibits excellent mechanical robustness, which ensures the durability of the Fe-based amorphous coating in practical services. This work may promote the development of new durable metal-based coatings integrated with anti-fouling and anti-corrosion properties.
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