Plants harbor diverse bacterial communities, which play crucial roles in plant health and growth, in their rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere. Tomato is an important model for studying ...plant-microbe interactions, but comparison of its associated bacterial community is still lacking. In this study, using Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons, we characterized and compared the bacterial size and community from rootzone soil as well as the rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere of roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds of tomato plants that were grown in greenhouse conditions. Habitat (soil, phyllospheric, and endophytic) structured the community. The bacterial communities from the soil-type samples (rootzone soil and rhizosphere) showed the highest richness and diversity. The lowest bacterial diversity occurred in the phyllospheric samples, while the lowest richness occurred in the endosphere. Among the endophytic samples, both bacterial diversity and richness varied in different tissues, with the highest values in roots. The most abundant phyla in the tomato-associated community was Proteobacteria, with the exception of the seeds and jelly, where both Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were dominant. At the genus level, the sequences of Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter were prevalent in the rhizosphere, and in the phyllosphere, more than 97% of the sequences were assigned to Acinetobacter. For the endophytes, Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, and Pseudomonas were the abundant genera in the roots, stems and leaves. In the fruits, the bacterial endophytes varied in different compartments, with Enterobacter being enriched in the pericarp and seeds, Acinetobacter in the placenta, and Weissella in the jelly. The present data provide a comprehensive description of the tomato-associated bacterial community and will be useful for better understanding plant-microbe interactions and selecting suitable bacterial taxa for tomato production.
Lasers are now extensively used in a multitude of optical devices and photonic systems spanning from sensing, communication, entertainment, medical surgery to military applications. Direct accidental ...or intentional exposures to high power lasers may lead to severe temporary or even permanent harm of human eye, skin, or optical sensors. The effective laser protection and shielding are currently not only a subject of scientific research but also a potential public safety issue, therefore there is an urgent need to develop the intelligent laser protection devices for keeping human eyes, optical sensors, and other sensitive components from these unintended or intended damages by laser radiations without warning. Self-activating liquid crystal devices undoubtedly represent such an elegant example because they could be autonomously activated to block or attenuate the lasers when the laser intensity is higher than a maximum permissible exposure value. This review is devoted to summarising the up-to-date significant advances of self-activating liquid crystal devices for potential smart laser protection, including twist-aligned nematic liquid crystal devices, liquid crystal cored waveguide fibre arrays, and photovoltaic/pyroelectric-hybridised liquid crystal devices. Finally, the review concludes with the perspectives and challenges for the future development of self-activating liquid crystal devices. It is anticipated that this glimpse and further endeavours in the emerging field will help the researchers from different backgrounds towards the fabrication of highly efficient laser protection devices, their real-world widespread applications and beyond.
This paper reports on a numerical study of the six-band metamaterial absorber composed of two alternating stack of metallic-dielectric layers on top of a continuous metallic plane. Six obvious ...resonance peaks with high absorption performance (average larger than 99.37%) are realized. The first, third, fifth, and the second, fourth, sixth resonance absorption bands are attributed to the multiple-order responses (i.e., the 1-, 3- and 5-order responses) of the bottom- and top-layer of the structure, respectively, and thus the absorption mechanism of six-band absorber is due to the combination of two sets of the multiple-order resonances of these two layers. Besides, the size changes of the metallic layers have the ability to tune the frequencies of the six-band absorber. Employing the results, we also present a six-band polarization tunable absorber through varying the sizes of the structure in two orthogonal polarization directions. Moreover, nine-band terahertz absorber can be achieved by using a three-layer stacked structure. Simulation results indicate that the absorber possesses nine distinct resonance bands, and average absorptivities of them are larger than 94.03%. The six-band or nine-band absorbers obtained here have potential applications in many optoelectronic and engineering technology areas.
In this letter, the metal-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguides shoulder-coupled two concentric nanorings are investigated both numerically and theoretically. Based on the three-level system, the ...extreme destructive interference between bright and dark resonators gives rise to the distinct plasmonically induced absorption response with the abnormal dispersion and novel fast-light feature. By the same principle, the dramatic plasmonically induced transparency effect with slow-light characteristic is obtained in the waveguide-resonator system with side-coupling configuration. All simulated results are confirmed by the coupled mode theory. Proposed structures will open a new avenue for controlling the speed of a light signal in ultra-compact integrated devices.
3D photonic nanostructures with desirable functionalities in the visible light region and beyond have been recently given vast and increasing attentions because of the ability to control or confine ...electromagnetic waves in all three dimensions. Although substantial progress has been made in fabricating 3D nanostructures by means of lithography and nanotechnology, various bottlenecks still need to be overcome, and developing soft 3D stimuli‐directed nanostructures with tailored properties remains a challenging but exciting work. In this context, soft nanotechnology—i.e., exploiting self‐organized soft materials in nanotechnology—is emerging as a vibrant and burgeoning field of research in the bottom‐up nanofabrication of intelligent stimuli‐driven 3D photonic materials and devices. Liquid‐crystalline materials undoubtedly represent such a marvelous dynamic system that combines the liquid‐like fluidity and crystal‐like ordering from molecular to macroscopic material levels. Importantly, being “soft” makes the materials responsive to various stimuli such as temperature, light, mechanical force, and electric and magnetic fields as well as chemical and electrochemical reactions, resulting in a fascinating tunability of dynamic photonic bandgaps in the 3D nanostructure that provides numerous opportunities in all‐optical integrated circuits and next‐generation communication systems. Here, the development of 3D photonic nanostructures is reviewed, culminating with perspectives for the future scope and challenges of these emerging soft 3D photonic nanostructures towards device applications.
Soft nanotechnology—i.e., exploiting self‐organized soft materials in nanotechnology—is emerging as an attractive paradigm in the bottom‐up nanofabrication of intelligent stimuli‐driven 3D photonic materials and devices. Liquid‐crystalline materials undoubtedly represent such an elegant dynamic system that combines the liquid‐like fluidity and crystal‐like ordering from molecular to macroscopic levels. This review provides a glimpse of the advancements in design, fabrication and applications of stimuli‐directing self‐organized 3D liquid‐crystalline photonic nanostructures.
Blood–brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is closely linked to the release of proinflammatory cytokines in brain capillary endothelial cells. We have ...previously reported that lychee seed polyphenols (LSP) exerted anti‐neuroinflammatory effect. In this study, we aimed to explore the protective effect of LSP on BBB integrity. The monolayer permeability of bEnd.3 cells, and the mRNA level and protein expression of tight junction proteins (TJs), including Claudin 5, Occludin, and ZO‐1, were examined. In addition, the inhibition of Aβ(25–35)‐induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and the autophagy induced by LSP were investigated by detecting the expression of NLRP3, caspase‐1, ASC, LC3, AMPK, mTOR, and ULK1. Furthermore, the cognitive function and the expression of TJs, NLRP3, caspase‐1, IL‐1β, and p62 were determined in APP/PS1 mice. The results showed that LSP significantly decreased the monolayer permeability and inhibited the NLRP3 inflammasome in Aβ(25–35)‐induced bEnd3 cells. In addition, LSP induced autophagy via the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 pathway in bEnd.3 cells, and improved the spatial learning and memory function, increased the TJs expression, and inhibited the expression of NLRP3, caspase‐1, IL‐1β, and p62 in APP/PS1 mice. Therefore, LSP protects BBB integrity in AD through inhibiting Aβ(25–35)‐induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation via the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1‐mediated autophagy.
We report a 2-family cluster of persons infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in the city of Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China, during January 2020. The infections resulted ...from contact with an infected but potentially presymptomatic traveler from the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province.
Nanocellulose is currently in the limelight of extensive research from fundamental science to technological applications owing to its renewable and carbon‐neutral nature, superior biocompatibility, ...tailorable surface chemistry, and unprecedented optical and mechanical properties. Herein, an up‐to‐date account of the recent advancements in nanocellulose‐derived functional materials and their emerging applications in areas of chiral photonics, soft actuators, energy storage, and biomedical science is provided. The fundamental design and synthesis strategies for nanocellulose‐based functional materials are discussed. Their unique properties, underlying mechanisms, and potential applications are highlighted. Finally, this review provides a brief conclusion and elucidates both the challenges and opportunities of the intriguing nanocellulose‐based technologies rooted in materials and chemistry science. This review is expected to provide new insights for nanocellulose‐based chiral photonics, soft robotics, advanced energy, and novel biomedical technologies, and promote the rapid development of these highly interdisciplinary fields, including nanotechnology, nanoscience, biology, physics, synthetic chemistry, materials science, and device engineering.
Nanocellulose is one of the most promising sustainable and carbon‐neutral biopolymers. This review summarizes the recent advances of nanocellulose‐based functional materials and their emerging applications in areas of chiral photonics, soft actuators, energy storage, and biomedical systems. The existing challenges and future perspectives are also provided.
The receptor‐binding domain (RBD) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spike (S) protein plays a central role in mediating the first step of virus infection to cause disease: virus ...binding to angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors on human host cells. Therefore, S/RBD is an ideal target for blocking and neutralization therapies to prevent and treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). Using a target‐based selection approach, we developed oligonucleotide aptamers containing a conserved sequence motif that specifically targets S/RBD. Synthetic aptamers had high binding affinity for S/RBD‐coated virus mimics (KD≈7 nM) and also blocked interaction of S/RBD with ACE2 receptors (IC50≈5 nM). Importantly, aptamers were able to neutralize S protein‐expressing viral particles and prevent host cell infection, suggesting a promising COVID‐19 therapy strategy.
Synthetic ssDNA aptamers containing a conserved sequence motif that specifically targets the receptor‐binding domain (RBD) of the SARS‐CoV‐2 spike have the capacity to neutralize the virus and prevent host cell infection in vitro, suggesting a new therapeutic approach to treat COVID‐19.
At present, most research on supply chain network design only considers the horizontal game of commodity greenness of the supply chain, and does not consider the vertical cooperative mode, and does ...not consider the impact of their own economic development on the environment. Therefore, the green supply chain network of transshipment manufacturing enterprises is designed. Firstly, the index of green supply chain is optimized and a more comprehensive index system is developed. Then, the K-nearest neighbor and decision tree algorithms are used to pre-process the partner data, and the partner is double-screened according to the index. To solve the large error in judging a single weight factor, the compound weight method is used to integrate the weight factors in two dimensions. Finally, the branch-and-bound algorithm mixed integer linear programming is used to solve the quantity of goods transported by the partners and the specific distribution route. Through the experimental analysis, compared with the traditional supply chain model, the supply chain network designed by the research reduces the cost expenditure by 34.26%, the pollution by 30.25%, the transportation loss by 37.12%, the transportation distance by 42.45%, and the transportation time by 28.47. It can effectively realize the sustainable development of enterprises and reduce the pollution generated by enterprises.
PDF
