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Engineered living materials (ELMs) integrate living cells—such as bacteria, yeast, or mammalian cells—with synthetic matrices to create responsive, adaptive systems for sensing and actuation. Among ELMs, those endowed with sensing capabilities are gaining increasing attention for applications in environmental monitoring, biomedicine, and smart infrastructure. Central to these sensing functions are synthetic gene circuits, which enable cells to detect and respond to specific signals. This mini-review focuses on recent advances in sensing ELMs empowered by synthetic gene circuits. Here, we highlight how rationally designed genetic circuits enable living materials to sense and respond to diverse inputs—including environmental chemicals, light, heat, and mechanical loadings—via programmable signal transduction and tailored output behaviors. Input signals are classified by their source and physicochemical properties, including synthetic inducers, environmental chemicals, light, thermal, mechanical, and electrical signals. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of genetically engineered microbial cells with hydrogels and other functional scaffolds to construct robust and tunable sensing platforms. Finally, we discuss the current challenges and future opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, providing insights to guide the rational design of next-generation sensing ELMs.

Land use/cover change has an important impact on global climate change and carbon cycle, and it has become another major source of carbon emission after energy consumption. Therefore, this study focuses on the main line of “land use carbon emissions-spatial and temporal patterns-influencing factors,” and selects 13 cities in Jiangsu Province as the research object. Based on the data of land use and energy consumption, combined with the method of land use carbon emissions and ArcGIS technology, this study conducted a quantitative analysis of the spatio-temporal distribution of carbon emissions in Jiangsu Province. The factors affecting the spatial distribution of carbon emissions from land use in Jiangsu Province were discussed by using Geographic detector. The results show that: 1) Carbon emissions in Jiangsu Province showed an overall growth trend, from 16215.44 × 10 4 t C in 2010–23597.68 × 10 4 t C in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 4.55%, of which the construction land and watersheds had a greater impact on carbon sources and sinks, respectively. 2) During the period, there were significant differences in carbon emission levels among different cities in Jiangsu Province, and the land use carbon emission in Jiangsu Province showed a stable spatial pattern of “northwest—southeast.” The southern part of Jiangsu is always the hot area of carbon emission, while the cold spot area is mainly distributed in the northern and central parts of Jiangsu. 3) The interaction of factors such as economic development, industrial structure, energy intensity, land use and human activities is an important reason for the spatio-temporal differences of land use carbon emissions in Jiangsu Province. Among them, the level of urbanization, population size and economic aggregate have significant effects on carbon emissions.

The current study explores the fully distributed containment control problem of fractional-order time-delay multi-agent systems by introducing a novel pull-based dynamic event-triggered approach. Firstly, to reduce communication overhead and mitigate time delays in controller updates, a pull-based dynamic event-triggered strategy is proposed. Secondly, in virtue of a Lyapunov candidate function, the proposed pull-based dynamic event-triggered control protocol exhibits inherent distributed properties enabling agents to operate independently and cooperatively without global information. Thirdly, we design adaptive parameters to ensure containment control convergence and provide a rigorous proof to preclude Zeno behavior. Eventually, numerical simulations are performed to verify the validity of the theoretical analysis.

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Land-use change is an important factor influencing global climate change and the carbon cycle, and changes in land-use patterns can have a direct impact on global carbon emissions. Therefore, exploring the potential of land use structure optimization and land use management on carbon emission reduction is of great significance in addressing global climate change and achieving carbon emission reduction targets. This paper calculates and analyses the net carbon emissions and evolution characteristics of Nanjing based on the four periods of land use change data in 2010, 2015, 2018 and 2020 using the IPCC carbon emission coefficient method. Then integrates the carbon emissions from land use, land economic and ecological benefits, and establishes a land use structure optimization model under the low-carbon orientation. Finally, the spatial distribution of land use in Nanjing under different scenarios in 2030 is simulated based on the FLUS model.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a type of hepatobiliary cancer characterized by uncontrolled cell proliferation, with a poor prognosis and high mortality. Nobiletin (NBT) is a promising anti-tumor compound derived from the peels of oranges and other citrus plants, citrus plant. But the effect of NBT on CCA remains unknown. Our data showed that NBT suppressed CCA cell proliferation and . Colony formation and Edu assay indicated that NBT inhibited cell proliferation. Cell cycle analysis showed that NBT arrested the cell cycle in G0/G1 phase. Target prediction showed that GSK3β was a direct target. Western blot and immunofluorescence confirmed that NBT reduced the phosphorylation of GSK3β. The antiproliferative effect of NBT was intercepted in GSK3β knockdown CCA cells. The cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) showed NBT directly bound to GSK3β. Finally, NBT showed an anti-proliferative effect in tumor-bearing mice with no hepatotoxicity. NBT could inhibit CCA proliferation, and the pharmacological activity of NBT in CCA was attributed to its direct binding to GSK3β. We suggested that NBT might be a potential natural medicine in CCA treatment.

A facile two-step synthesis route combining electrospinning and hydrothermal techniques has been performed to obtain Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 /TiO 2 heterostructured submicron fibers. Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 nanosheets were grown on the surface of TiO 2 submicron fibers. The density of the nanosheets increased with higher precursor concentration of the Bi/Ti reaction raw materials. UV-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy indicated that the absorption spectrum of the Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 /TiO 2 composite extended into the visible-light region. Photocatalytic tests showed that the Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 /TiO 2 heterostructures possess a much higher degradation rate of rhodamine B than the unmodified TiO 2 submicron fibers under visible light. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the synergistic effect between improved visible-light absorption and the internal electric field created by the heterojunctions. The effective separation of photogenerated carriers driven by the photoinduced potential was demonstrated by the photoelectrochemical analysis.

Silver-decorated titanium dioxide (Ag/TiO2) nanotube (NT) arrays were successfully prepared using a two-step synthesis route comprised of an anodic oxidation procedure followed by photochemical reduction using ultraviolet irradiation. The resulting Ag/TiO2 NT arrays were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and UV-vis diffusion reflectance spectrometry. The characterization results indicated that the silver decoration significantly enhanced the light absorption capability of the TiO2 NT arrays in the visible spectral range. The visible light photocatalytic activity of the subject NT arrays was investigated. The experimental results showed the photocatalytic activity of silver-decorated titanium dioxide Ag/TiO2 NT arrays to be dependent on the size of the silver particles. The improved visible light absorption can be attributed to plasmonic effects induced by particle size phenomenon. The Ag/TiO2 NT arrays exhibit promising application for photocatalytic degradation of dye solutions and pollutants in water using visible irradiation.

A facile two-step synthesis route combining electrospinning and hydrothermal techniques has been performed to obtain Bi sub(2)Ti sub(2)O sub(7)/ TiO sub(2) heterostructured submicron fibers. Bi sub(2)Ti sub(2)O sub(7) nanosheets were grown on the surface of TiO sub(2) submicron fibers. The density of the nanosheets increased with higher precursor concentration of the Bi/Ti reaction raw materials. UV-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy indicated that the absorption spectrum of the Bi sub(2)Ti sub(2)O sub(7)/TiO sub(2) composite extended into the visible-light region. Photocatalytic tests showed that the Bi sub(2)Ti sub(2)O sub(7)/TiO sub(2) heterostructures possess a much higher degradation rate of rhodamine B than the unmodified TiO sub(2) submicron fibers under visible light. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the synergistic effect between improved visible-light absorption and the internal electric field created by the heterojunctions. The effective separation of photogenerated carriers driven by the photoinduced potential was demonstrated by the photoelectrochemical analysis.

Supercapacitors exhibit considerable potential as energy storage devices due to their high power density, fast charging and discharging abilities, long cycle life, and eco‐friendliness. With the increasing environmental concerns associated with synthetic compounds, the use of environment friendly biopolymers to replace conventional petroleum‐based materials has been widely studied. Biomass‐based materials are biodegradable, renewable, environment friendly and non‐toxic. The unique hierarchical nanostructure, excellent mechanical properties and hydrophilicity allow them to be used to create functional conductive materials with precisely controlled structures and different properties. In this review, the latest development of biomass‐based supercapacitor materials is reviewed and discussed. This paper describes the physical and chemical properties of various biopolymers and their impact on supercapacitors, as well as the classification and basic principles of supercapacitors. Then, a comprehensive discussion is presented on the utilization of biomass‐based materials in supercapacitors and their recent applications across a range of supercapacitor devices. Finally, an overview of the future prospects and challenges pertaining to the utilization of biomass‐based materials in supercapacitors is provided. Starting from the physical and chemical properties of biopolymers, the classification and basic principles of supercapacitors, the impact of biomass‐based materials on supercapacitors is introduced. Then, the latest specific applications of biomass‐based materials are comprehensively discussed in terms of both electrode and electrolyte materials. Finally, the current challenges and future development directions are discussed and summarized.