Stable and efficient guided waves are essential for information transmission and processing. Recently, topological valley-contrasting materials in condensed matter systems have been revealed as ...promising infrastructures for guiding classical waves, for they can provide broadband, non-dispersive and reflection-free electromagnetic/mechanical wave transport with a high degree of freedom. In this work, by designing and manufacturing miniaturized phononic crystals on a semi-infinite substrate, we experimentally realized a valley-locked edge transport for surface acoustic waves (SAWs). Critically, original one-dimensional edge transports could be extended to quasi-two-dimensional ones by doping SAW Dirac "semimetal" layers at the boundaries. We demonstrate that SAWs in the extended topological valley-locked edges are robust against bending and wavelength-scaled defects. Also, this mechanism is configurable and robust depending on the doping, offering various on-chip acoustic manipulation, e.g., SAW routing, focusing, splitting, and converging, all flexible and high-flow. This work may promote future hybrid phononic circuits for acoustic information processing, sensing, and manipulation.
Engineering novel electrode materials with unique architectures has a significant impact on tuning the structural/electrochemical properties for boosting the performance of secondary battery systems. ...Herein, starting from well‐organized WS2 nanorods, an ingenious design of a one‐step method is proposed to prepare a bimetallic sulfide composite with a coaxial carbon coating layer, simply enabled by ZIF‐8 introduction. Rich sulfur vacancies and WS2/ZnS heterojunctions can be simultaneously developed, that significantly improve ionic and electronic diffusion kinetics. In addition, a homogeneous carbon protective layer around the surface of the composite guarantees an outstanding structural stability, a reversible capacity of 170.8 mAh g−1 after 5000 cycles at a high rate of 5 A g−1. A great potential in practical application is also exhibited, where a full cell based on the WS2−x/ZnS@C anode and the P2‐Na2/3Ni1/3Mn1/3O2 cathode can maintain a reversible capacity of 89.4 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 1 A g−1. Moreover, the underlying electrochemical Na storage mechanisms are illustrated in detail by theoretical calculations, electrochemical kinetic analysis, and operando X‐ray diffraction characterization.
A new‐type W2−x/ZnS@C composite with special sulfide vacancies and heterostructures is successfully synthesized using a facile one‐step metal−organic frameworks (MOFs)‐engaged method, which shows excellent electrochemical performances when applied in sodium‐ion batteries. The rich sulfur vacancies and WS2/ZnS heterojunctions can significantly improve the ion‐ and electron‐diffusion kinetics. In addition, a homogeneous carbon protective layer around the surface of the composite guarantees an outstanding structural stability.
The diverse biological effects of nanomaterials form the basis for their applications in biomedicine but also cause safety issues. Induction of autophagy is a cellular response after nanoparticles ...exposure. It may be beneficial in some circumstances, yet autophagy‐mediated toxicity raises an alarming concern. Previously, it has been reported that upconversion nanoparticles (UCNs) elicit liver damage, with autophagy contributing most of this toxicity. However, the detailed mechanism is unclear. This study reveals persistent presence of enlarged autolysosomes in hepatocytes after exposure to UCNs and SiO2 nanoparticles both in vitro and in vivo. This phenomenon is due to anomaly in the autophagy termination process named autophagic lysosome reformation (ALR). Phosphatidylinositol 4‐phosphate (PI(4)P) relocates onto autolysosome membrane, which is a key event of ALR. PI(4)P is then converted into phosphatidylinositol 4,5‐bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) by phosphatidylinositol‐4‐phosphate 5‐kinase. Clathrin is subsequently recruited by PI(4,5)P2 and leads to tubule budding of ALR. Yet it is observed that PI(4)P cannot be converted in nanoparticle‐treated hepatocytes cells. Exogenous supplement of PI(4,5)P2 suppresses the enlarged autolysosomes in vitro. Abolishment of these enlarged autolysosomes by autophagy inhibitor relieves the hepatotoxicity of UCNs in vivo. The results provide evidence for disrupted ALR in nanoparticle‐treated hepatocytes, suggesting that the termination of nanoparticle‐induced autophagy is of equal importance as the initiation.
In hepatocytes treated with upconversion nanoparticles (UCN) or nano‐SiO2, loss of phosphatidylinositol‐4‐phosphate 5‐kinase causes the disrupted phospholipid transition from phosphatidylinositol 4‐phosphate to phosphatidylinositol 4,5‐bisphosphate on enlarged autolysosomal membrane and clathrin fails to be recruited to autolysosomes; autophagic lysosome reformation is blocked, leading to enlarged autolysosomes. In the UCN‐treated mice liver, manipulation of autophagy by 3‐methyladenine or trehalose affects liver damage.
A lipidomics study using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and multivariate statistics was conducted in this work to discriminate raw pork meat. A total of 1180 lipid species were ...identified in the studied pork samples. Four, three and eight lipids were determined as potential discriminatory markers for the five cuts (shoulder, rump, loin, shank and belly) of Tibetan, Jilin and Sanmenxia black pigs, respectively. Distinct lipidomic fingerprints of Tibetan, Jilin and Sanmenxia pork were obtained and they were clearly separated into three clusters by partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The developed PLS-DA model (R2X = 0.603, R2Y = 0.861 and Q2 = 0.752) enables a 91.1% correct classification of pork samples. One-hundred variables, including 61 glycerolipids, 17 glycerophospholipids, 4 sterol lipids, 2 sphingolipids, 3 polyketides, 7 fatty acyls and 6 prenol lipids, were found to have high potential (variable importance in projection value > 1, p-value<0.05) to differentiate Tibetan, Jilin and Sanmenxia pork meat. The current data set will facilitate a better understanding of the nutritional values of the investigated pork and can be expanded to a larger sample size for lipid marker validation. Our findings demonstrate that lipidomic analysis together with multivariate statistics is a promising approach for the differentiation of China's domestic pork.
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•More comprehensive lipidomic profiles were established for TP, JL and SMX pork.•Five pork cuts were differentiated based on comparative lipidomic profiling.•PLS-DA model classifies the TP, JL and SMX pork with a correct rate of 91.1%.•100 potential lipid markers were identified for discriminating TP, JL and SMX pork.•LC-MS-based lipidomics proves to be a powerful tool for raw pork authentication.
Sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) are considered to be a promising alternative for large‐scale electricity storage. However, it is urgent to develop new anode materials with superior ultralong cycle life ...performance at high current rates. Herein, a low‐cost and large‐scalable sulfur‐doped carbon anode material that exhibits the best high‐rate cycle performance and the longest cycle life ever reported for carbon anodes is developed. The material delivers a reversible capacity of 142 mA h g−1 at a current rate up to 10 A g−1. After 10 000 cycles the capacity is remained at 126.5 mA h g−1; 89.1% of the initial value. Density functional theory computations demonstrate that the sulfur‐doped carbon has a strong binding affinity for sodium which promotes sodium storage. Meanwhile, the kinetics analysis identifies the capacitive charge storage as a large contributor to sodium storage, which favors ultrafast storage of sodium ions. These results demonstrate a new way to design carbon‐based SIBs anodes for next‐generation large‐scale electricity storage.
Low‐cost and large‐scalable sulfur‐doped carbon anode material is developed for sodium‐ion batteries, presenting the best high‐rate cycle performance with the longest cycle life ever reported. Density functional theory computations and kinetics analysis demonstrate the sulfur‐doped carbon's strong binding affinity for sodium and identify the capacitive charge storage as a large contributor to sodium ion storage which favors ultrafast storage of sodium.
Li metal batteries have attracted extensive research attention because of their extremely high theoretical capacity. However, the commercialization of the Li metal batteries is hindered, as ...uncontrolled Li dendrites growth leads to safety concerns and a low coulombic efficiency. To suppress Li dendrites growth and achieve dense Li deposition, a lithiophilic 3D Cu host is designed for Li metal anode, in which the nano‐sized Cu is in situ formed with the aid of infused Li metal. The fabricated Li metal anode exhibit a superior electrochemical stability than raw Li metal anode, and compact Li is maintained during cycling. The experimental results and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the nano‐sized Cu formed on the surface of the skeleton host shows highly exposed Cu (100) and Cu (110) surfaces, which exhibits a strong affinity toward Li, and effectively eliminates the formation of Li dendrites, leading to a dense Li deposition. With the strategy of adjusting exposed surfaces of Cu host, the optimized Li metal anode enhances the electrochemical performance of full cells, and concomitantly demonstrates their potential for future designs of next‐generation Li metal anodes or Li‐free anodes for Li metal batteries.
Nano‐sized Cu forms on the surface of the Cu foam host during Li loading, which exhibits a strong affinity toward Li, and effectively eliminates the formation of Li dendrites; ultimately, dense Li deposition is achieved. The optimized Li metal anode enhances the electrochemical performance of full cells.
Autophagy may represent a common cellular response to nanomaterials. In the present study, it was demonstrated that zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZON)-elicited autophagy contributes to tumor cell killing ...by accelerating the intracellular dissolution of ZONs and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. In particular, ZONs could promote Atg5-regulated autophagy flux without the impairment of autophagosome-lysosome fusion, which is responsible for ZON-elicited cell death in cancer cells. On the other hand, a further study revealed that a significant free zinc ion release in lysosomal acid compartments and sequential ROS generation in cells treated with ZONs were also associated with tumor cytotoxicity. Intriguingly, the colocalization between FITC-labeled ZONs and autophagic vacuoles indicates that the intracellular fate of ZONs is associated with autophagy. Moreover, the chemical or genetic inhibition of autophagy significantly reduced the level of intracellular zinc ion release and ROS generation separately, demonstrating that ZON-induced autophagy contributed toward cancer cell death by accelerating zinc ion release and sequentially increasing intracellular ROS generation. The modulation of autophagy holds great promise for improving the efficacy of tumor chemotherapy. Herein, ZONs were verified to enhance chemotherapy in both normal and drug-resistant cancer cells via synergistic autophagy elicitation. Further, this elicitation resulted in tremendous zinc ion release and ROS generation, which accounted for enhancing the tumor chemotherapy and overcoming drug resistance. No obvious changes in the expression level of P-gp proteins or the amount of doxorubicin uptake induced by ZONs in MCF-7/ADR cells also indicated that the increased zinc ion release and ROS generation via synergistic autophagy induction were responsible for overcoming the drug resistance. Finally, in vivo experiments involving animal models of 4T1 tumor cells revealed that the antitumor therapeutic effect of a combinatory administration obviously outperformed those of ZONs or free doxorubicin treatment alone at the same dose, which could be attenuated by the autophagy inhibitor wortmannin or ion-chelating agent EDTA. Taken together, our results reveal the mechanism wherein the autophagy induction by ZONs potentiates cancer cell death and a novel biological application for ZONs in adjunct chemotherapy in which autophagy reinforces zinc ion release and ROS generation.
Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, which contains tanshinones and phenolic acids as major classes of bioactive components, is one of the most widely used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. Production of ...tanshinones and phenolic acids is enhanced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Transcription factor MYC2 is the switch of jasmontes signaling in plants. Here, we focused on two novel JA-inducible genes in S. miltiorrhiza, designated as SmMYC2a and SmMYC2b, which were localized in the nucleus. SmMYC2a and SmMYC2b were also discovered to interact with SmJAZ1 and SmJAZ2, implying that the two MYC2s might function as direct targets of JAZ proteins. Ectopic RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knockdown experiments suggested that SmMYC2a/b affected multiple genes in tanshinone and phenolic acid biosynthetic pathway. Besides, the accumulation of tanshinones and phenolic acids was impaired by the loss of function in SmMYC2a/b. Meanwhile, SmMYC2a could bind with an E-box motif within SmHCT6 and SmCYP98A14 promoters, while SmMYC2b bound with an E-box motif within SmCYP98A14 promoter, through which the regulation of phenolic acid biosynthetic pathway might achieve. Together, these results suggest that SmMYC2a and SmMYC2b are JAZ-interacting transcription factors that positively regulate the biosynthesis of tanshinones and Sal B with similar but irreplaceable effects.
Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease, is the most common cause of dementia in humans worldwide. Although more in-depth research has been carried out on AD, the therapeutic effect of ...AD is not as expected, and natural active substances are increasingly sought after by scientists. In the present study, we evaluated two benzaldehydes from a coral-derived
strain C23-3, their anti-neuroinflammatory activity in microglia (BV-2), and their neuroprotective activity and mechanisms in hippocampal neuronal cells (HT-22). These include the protein expression of iNOS, COX-2, MAPKs pathways, Tau protein-related pathways, caspases family-related signaling pathways. They also include the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-18 and ROS, as well as the level of mitochondrial oxidative stress and neuronal cell apoptosis. The results showed that both benzaldehydes were effective in reducing the secretion of various inflammatory mediators, as well as pro-inflammatory factors. Among these, benzaldehyde
inhibited mitochondrial oxidative stress and blocked neuronal cell apoptosis through Tau protein-related pathways and caspases family-related signaling pathways, thereby inhibiting β-amyloid (Aβ)-induced neurological damage. This study reveals that benzaldehyde
has potential as a therapeutic agent for Alzheimer's disease, and offers a new approach to the high-value use of marine natural products.
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