A fractional sub-equation method is proposed to solve fractional differential equations. To illustrate the effectiveness of the method, the nonlinear time fractional biological population model and ...(4+1)-dimensional space–time fractional Fokas equation are considered. As a result, three types of exact analytical solutions are obtained.
Producing affordable freshwater has been considered as a great societal challenge, and most conventional desalination technologies are usually accompanied with large energy consumption and thus ...struggle with the trade‐off between water and energy, i.e., the water–energy nexus. In recent decades, the fast development of state‐of‐the‐art photothermal materials has injected new vitality into the field of freshwater production, which can effectively harness abundant and clean solar energy via the photothermal effect to fulfill the blue dream of low‐energy water purification/harvesting, so as to reconcile the water–energy nexus. Driven by the opportunities offered by photothermal materials, tremendous effort has been made to exploit diverse photothermal‐assisted water purification/harvesting technologies. At this stage, it is imperative and important to review the recent progress and shed light on the future trend in this multidisciplinary field. Here, a brief introduction of the fundamental mechanism and design principle of photothermal materials is presented, and the emerging photothermal applications such as photothermal‐assisted water evaporation, photothermal‐assisted membrane distillation, photothermal‐assisted crude oil cleanup, photothermal‐enhanced photocatalysis, and photothermal‐assisted water harvesting from air are summarized. Finally, the unsolved challenges and future perspectives in this field are emphasized. It is envisioned that this work will help arouse future research efforts to boost the development of solar‐driven low‐energy water purification/harvesting.
As a promising candidate to reconcile the water–energy nexus, solar‐driven low‐energy water purification/harvesting technologies have attracted increased attention. The latest progress, challenges, and prospective of engineering solar‐driven photothermal materials/devices and their potential applications are discussed, stimulating new thinking on the exploration of advanced technologies to fulfill the blue dream of low‐energy water purification/harvesting.
Dendrite growth of alkali metal anodes limited their lifetime for charge/discharge cycling. Here, we report near-perfect anodes of lithium, sodium, and potassium metals achieved by electrochemical ...polishing, which removes microscopic defects and creates ultra-smooth ultra-thin solid-electrolyte interphase layers at metal surfaces for providing a homogeneous environment. Precise characterizations by AFM force probing with corroborative in-depth XPS profile analysis reveal that the ultra-smooth ultra-thin solid-electrolyte interphase can be designed to have alternating inorganic-rich and organic-rich/mixed multi-layered structure, which offers mechanical property of coupled rigidity and elasticity. The polished metal anodes exhibit significantly enhanced cycling stability, specifically the lithium anodes can cycle for over 200 times at a real current density of 2 mA cm
with 100% depth of discharge. Our work illustrates that an ultra-smooth ultra-thin solid-electrolyte interphase may be robust enough to suppress dendrite growth and thus serve as an initial layer for further improved protection of alkali metal anodes.
COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has posed a significant threat to global public health since its outbreak in late 2019. Although there are a few drugs approved for clinical treatment to combat ...SARS-CoV-2 infection currently, the severity of the ongoing global pandemic still urges the efforts to discover new antiviral compounds. As the viral spike (S) protein plays a key role in mediating virus entry, it becomes a potential target for the design of antiviral drugs against COVID-19. Here, we tested the antiviral activity of berbamine hydrochloride, a bis-benzylisoquinoline alkaloid, against SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found that berbamine hydrochloride could efficiently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in different cell lines. Further experiments showed berbamine hydrochloride inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection by targeting the viral entry into host cells. Moreover, berbamine hydrochloride and other bis-benzylisoquinoline alkaloids could potently inhibit S-mediated cell-cell fusion. Furthermore, molecular docking results implied that the berbamine hydrochloride could bind to the post fusion core of SARS-CoV-2 S2 subunit. Therefore, berbamine hydrochloride may represent a potential efficient antiviral agent against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The Higgs boson production can be affected by several anomalous couplings, e.g. ct and cg anomalous couplings. Precise measurement of gg→h production yields two degenerate parameter spaces of ct and ...cg; one parameter space exhibits the SM limit while the other does not. Such a degeneracy could be resolved by Higgs boson pair production. In this work we adapt the strategy suggested by the ATLAS collaboration to explore the potential of distinguishing the degeneracy at the 14 TeV LHC. If the ct anomalous coupling is induced only by the operator H†HQ¯LH˜tR, then the non-SM-like band could be excluded with an integrated luminosity of ∼210 fb−1. Making use of the fact that the Higgs boson pair is mainly produced through an s-wave scattering, we propose an analytical function to describe the fraction of signal events surviving a series of experimental cuts for a given invariant mass of Higgs boson pair. The function is model independent and can be applied to estimate the discovery potential of various NP models.
Nitrate is a reasonable alternative instead of nitrogen for ammonia production due to the low bond energy, large water‐solubility, and high chemical polarity for good absorption. Nitrate ...electroreduction reaction (NO3RR) is an effective and green strategy for both nitrate treatment and ammonia production. As an electrochemical reaction, the NO3RR requires an efficient electrocatalyst for achieving high activity and selectivity. Inspired by the enhancement effect of heterostructure on electrocatalysis, Au nanowires decorated ultrathin Co3O4 nanosheets (Co3O4‐NS/Au‐NWs) nanohybrids are proposed for improving the efficiency of nitrate‐to‐ammonia electroreduction. Theoretical calculation reveals that Au heteroatoms can effectively adjust the electron structure of Co active centers and reduce the energy barrier of the determining step (*NO → *NOH) during NO3RR. As the result, the Co3O4‐NS/Au‐NWs nanohybrids achieve an outstanding catalytic performance with high yield rate (2.661 mg h−1 mgcat−1) toward nitrate‐to‐ammonia. Importantly, the Co3O4‐NS/Au‐NWs nanohybrids show an obviously plasmon‐promoted activity for NO3RR due to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) property of Au‐NWs, which can achieve an enhanced NH3 yield rate of 4.045 mg h−1 mgcat−1. This study reveals the structure–activity relationship of heterostructure and LSPR‐promotion effect toward NO3RR, which provide an efficient nitrate‐to‐ammonia reduction with high efficiency.
Inspired by the enhancement effect of heterostructure, Au nanowires decorated ultrathin Co3O4 nanosheets (Co3O4‐NS/Au‐NWs) nanohybrids are proposed as electrocatalyst for nitrate electroreduction reaction. The Au nanowires not only promote the efficiency of nitrate reduction, but bring LSPR‐promotion effect for the Co3O4‐NS/Au‐NWs nanohybrids.
In response to stressors, individuals adopt different behavioral styles, which are essential for survival and form the basis of differential susceptibility to stress-related disorders. ...Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) have predominantly been studied in behavioral response to stress, while the role of mPFC CRF neurons is poorly understood. Using morphology, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging approaches, we characterized mPFC CRF neurons as a unique subtype of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons that were directly engaged in the tail suspension challenge. Genetic ablation or chemogenetic inhibition of dorsal mPFC (dmPFC) CRF neurons increased immobility under the tail-suspension and forced-swimming challenges and induced social avoidance behavior, whereas activation had the opposite effect on the same measures. Furthermore, increasing CRF neuronal activity promoted durable resilience to repeated social defeat stress. These results uncover a critical role of mPFC CRF interneurons in bidirectionally controlling motivated behavioral style selection under stress.
Display omitted
•Prefrontal CRF GABAergic interneurons are recruited during behavioral challenges•Manipulation of CRF neurons motivates selection of behavioral styles under challenges•Activation of CRF neurons promotes persistent stress-resistant behaviors
Chen et al. identify a population of mPFC CRF neurons that form monosynaptic GABAergic inhibitory connections with pyramidal cells and play a key role in controlling behavioral style selection in the face of various stressful challenges.
Increasing grain yields is a major focus of crop breeders around the world. Here we report that overexpression of the rice microRNA (miRNA) OsmiR397, which is naturally highly expressed in young ...panicles and grains, enlarges grain size and promotes panicle branching, leading to an increase in overall grain yield of up to 25% in a field trial. To our knowledge, no previous report has shown a positive regulatory role of miRNA in the control of plant seed size and grain yield. We determined that OsmiR397 increases grain yield by downregulating its target, OsLAC, whose product is a laccase-like protein that we found to be involved in the sensitivity of plants to brassinosteroids. As miR397 is highly conserved across different species, our results suggest that manipulating miR397 may be useful for increasing grain yield not only in rice but also in other cereal crops.