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There is an increasing demand worldwide on advanced two-dimensional (2D) nanofibrous networks with applications ranging from environmental protection and electrical devices to bioengineering. Design of such nanoarchitectured materials has been considered a long-standing challenge. Herein, we report a direct electronetting technology for the fabrication of self-assembled 2D nanoarchitectured networks (nano-nets) from various materials. Tailoring of the precursor solution and of the microelectric field allows charged droplets, which are ejected from a Taylor cone, to levitate, deform and phase separate before they self-assemble a 2D nanofibre network architecture. The fabricated nano-nets show mechanical robustness and benefit from nanostructural properties such as enhanced surface wettability, high transparency, separation and improved air filtration properties. Calcination of the nano-nets results in the formation of carbon nano-nets with electric conductivity and titanium dioxide nano-nets with bioprotective properties. Nanofibrous networks are applied in environmental protection and electrical or bioengineering and experience a great demand, but the design of these functional materials is challenging. Here the authors demonstrate an electronetting technology for fabricating self-assembled nanonets from various materials.

The comorbidity of chronic pain and associated negative emotion significantly worsens pain experience and pain chronicity, presenting a severe clinical problem. Despite extensive pre-clinical and clinical studies, the molecular mechanisms underlying the pain–negative-emotion comorbidity are still poorly understood. In this study, we explored an epigenetic mechanism for chronic-pain-induced negative emotion, focusing on the DNA methyltransferase 3a (Dnmt3a) in mice with chronic neuropathic pain. In the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), a brainstem gateway to transmitting pain signals from the peripheral to the brain, we found that chronic pain lasting one month induced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and downregulated Dnmt3a protein. Overexpression of PBN Dnmt3a rescued the chronic pain mice from developing these behaviors of negative emotion, while knockdown of PBN Dnmt3a was sufficient to induce anxiety-like behavior in naive mice. In contrast, chronic pain increased expression of GluA1-pSer831 subunits of glutamate AMPA receptors in PBN. Dnmt3a knockdown increased both the expression of PBN GluA1-pSer831 and synaptic function of AMPA receptors in PBN neurons. Overexpression of PBN GluA1 induced anxiety-like behavior in naïve mice, whereas knockdown of PBN GluA1 produced an anxiolytic effect and prevented chronic-pain-induced anxiety-like behavior. These results suggest Dnmt3a as a key epigenetic modulator linking chronic pain to negative emotion behaviors through PBN, and PBN GluA1 as an important regulation target of Dnmt3a in the process.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Ceramic fibers have the advantages of high temperature resistance, light weight, favorable chemical stability and superior mechanical vibration resistance, which make them widely used in aerospace, energy, metallurgy, construction, personal protection and other thermal protection fields. Further refinement of the diameter of conventional ceramic fibers to microns or nanometers could further improve their thermal insulation performance and realize the transition from brittleness to flexibility. Processing traditional two-dimensional (2D) ceramic fiber membranes into three-dimensional (3D) ceramic fiber aerogels could further increase porosity, reduce bulk density, and reduce solid heat conduction, thereby improving thermal insulation performance and expanding application areas. Here, a comprehensive review of the newly emerging 2D ceramic micro-nanofiber membranes and 3D ceramic micro-nanofiber aerogels is demonstrated, starting from the presentation of the thermal insulation mechanism of ceramic fibers, followed by the summary of 2D ceramic micro-nanofiber membranes according to different types, and then the generalization of the construction strategies for 3D ceramic micro-nanofiber aerogels. Finally, the current challenges, possible solutions, and future prospects of ceramic micro-nanofiber materials are comprehensively discussed. We anticipate that this review could provide some valuable insights for the future development of ceramic micro-nanofiber materials for high temperature thermal insulation.

Serious water pollution and the exhausting of fossil resources have become worldwide urgent issues yet to be solved. Solar energy driving photocatalysis processes based on semiconductor catalysts is considered to be the most promising technique for the remediation of wastewater. However, the relatively low photocatalytic efficiency remains a critical limitation for the practical use of the photocatalysts. To solve this problem, numerous strategies have been developed for the preparation of advanced photocatalysts. Particularly, incorporating a semiconductor with various functional components from atoms to individual semiconductors or metals to form a composite catalyst have become a facile approach for the design of high-efficiency catalysts. Herein, the recent progress in the development of novel photocatalysts for wastewater treatment via various methods in the sight of composite techniques are systematically discussed. Moreover, a brief summary of the current challenges and an outlook for the development of composite photocatalysts in the area of wastewater treatment are provided.

Sea cucumbers, as typical representatives of deep-sea benthic animals, possess significant scientific and economic importance. This investigation examined the genomic structural characteristics and genetic evolutionary relationships of Holothuria atra through the analysis of its complete mitochondrial genome. The findings indicated that the total length of the mitochondrial genome of the H. atra specimen was 15,788 bp, encompassing seven NADH genes, three cox genes, two ATP genes, and one cob gene. Additionally, two rRNAs and 22 tRNAs were identified. The entire sequence contained a total of 18 non-coding regions and seven overlapping gene regions, with the combined A + T content reaching 59.2%. The lengths of the 22 tRNAs ranged from 62 to 72 base pairs, and their cloverleaf secondary structures were predicted. Regarding codon usage, the PCGs within the mitochondrial genome of H. atra utilized 61 codons, encoding information for 20 amino acids. The most abundantly encoded amino acid in the mitochondrial genome of H. atra is leucine (Leu), representing 16.58%, while cysteine (Cys) is the least represented, accounting for 1.03%. Codons with higher usage frequencies include AGA (Ser 1), CUA (Leu 1), and CCA (Pro), whereas those with comparatively lower frequencies are GCG (Ala), CCG (Pro), and AGG (Ser 1). Evolutionary analysis revealed that H. atra is most closely related to Holothuria polii . By comparing the mitochondrial genomic sequences of 19 species within the class Holothuroidea, it was observed that eight mitochondrial sequences are shared among these species. This study provides valuable data supporting genetic evolutionary research and the development and utilization of H. atra resources within the Kiribati region.

Brain circuits between medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and amygdala have been implicated in cortical control of emotion, especially anxiety. Studies in recent years focus on differential roles of subregions of mPFC and amygdala, and reciprocal pathways between mPFC and amygdala in regulation of emotional behaviors. It has been shown that, while the projection from ventral mPFC to basomedial amygdala has an anxiolytic effect, the reciprocal projections between dorsal mPFC (dmPFC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) are generally involved in an anxiogenic effect in various conditions with increased anxiety. However, the function of the projection from dmPFC to BLA in regulation of general emotional behaviors under normal conditions remains unclear. In this study, we used optogenetic analysis to identify how this dmPFC–BLA pathway regulates various emotional behaviors in normal rats. We found that optogenetic stimulation of the dmPFC–BLA pathway promoted a behavioral state of negative emotion, increasing anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors and producing aversive behavior of place avoidance. Conversely, optogenetic inhibition of this pathway produced opposite effects, reducing anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors, and inducing behaviors of place preference of reward. These findings suggest that activity of the dmPFC–BLA pathway is sufficient to drive a negative emotion state and the mPFC–amygdala circuit is tonically active in cortical regulation of emotional behaviors.

In order to study the optimal use of Lactobacillus plantarum in sea cucumber ( Apostichopus japonicus ), 49 days feeding trial was conducted to determine the influence of immersion bathing in different concentrations of Lactobacillus plantarum CLY-05 on body weight gain rate and non-specific immune activities. The potential effect of CLY-05 on gut microbiota was also analyzed during the immersion bathing at the optimum concentration. The results showed that the body weight growth rate of all bathing groups was higher than that of control. The highest specific growth rate (4.58%) and weight gain rate (25.35%) was achieved at the bacterial concentration of 1×10 3 CFU/mL. The activities of non-specific immune enzymes (ACP, AKP, SOD and LZM) of all bathing groups increased after immersion bathing, and the enzyme activities of groups bathed with the bacterium at 1×10 3 and 1×10 4 CFU/mL reached the highest. Therefore, 1×10 3 CFU/mL was considered as the optimum concentration of L . plantarum CLY-05 for A . japonicus pond culture. The results of gut microbiota analysis showed that the gut microbiota changed with the addition of L . plantarum CLY-05, and the richness and diversity of the gut microbiota peaked on day 14 and day 21, respectively. The correlation analysis revealed that the non-specific immune enzyme activities were significantly correlated to some gut bacteria (in the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes) after immersion bathing in L . plantarum CLY-05. These findings provide the theoretical foundation for probiotic application in sea cucumber farming.

The amygdala is a critical brain site for regulation of emotion-associated behaviors such as pain and anxiety. Recent studies suggest that differential cell types and synaptic circuits within the amygdala complex mediate interacting and opposing effects on emotion and pain. However, the underlying cellular and circuit mechanisms are poorly understood at present. Here we used optogenetics combined with electrophysiological analysis of synaptic inputs to investigate pain-induced synaptic plasticity within the amygdala circuits in rats. We found that 50% of the cell population in the lateral division of the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeAl) received glutamate inputs from both basolateral amygdala (BLA) and from the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), and 39% of the remaining CeAl cells received glutamate inputs only from PBN. Inflammatory pain lasting 3 days, which induced anxiety, produced sensitization in synaptic activities of the BLA–CeAl–medial division of CeA (CeAm) pathway primarily through a postsynaptic mechanism. Moreover, in CeAl cells receiving only PBN inputs, pain significantly augmented the synaptic strength of the PBN inputs. In contrast, in CeAl cells receiving both BLA and PBN inputs, pain selectively increased the synaptic strength of BLA inputs, but not the PBN inputs. Electrophysiological analysis of synaptic currents showed that the increased synaptic strength in both cases involved a postsynaptic mechanism. These findings reveal two main populations of CeAl cells that have differential profiles of synaptic inputs and show distinct plasticity in their inputs in response to anxiety-associated pain, suggesting that the specific input plasticity in the two populations of CeAl cells may encode a different role in amygdala regulation of pain and emotion.

The accumulation of nitrogen compounds may worsen the aquatic environment and cause serious economic losses in the aquaculture industry. In this study, the denitrification performance and ecological safety of 120 Bacillus sp. isolates with spatial and temporal differences were evaluated based on the aspects of hemolysis, drug resistance, denitrification performance, and purification effect for mariculture wastewater. Firstly, 55/120 safe strains with no hemolytic activity were detected through hemolysis testing. Then, based on selective denitrification medium and colorimetric reagent method, 34/55 Bacillus sp. with denitrification effect were screened. For these 34 Bacillus sp. isolates, the drug resistance phenotype and genotype, denitrification genes, and enzyme activities related to the nitrogen metabolizing (AMO, HAO, NAR, NIR) were examined. And the MARI was 0.00-0.25, with a multi-drug resistance rate of 17.6%. The drug resistance genes tetB , blaTEM , and cfr and the denitrification genes nap , nor , and narG were detected. Ultimately, 27/34 strains with denitrification function and ecological safety were obtained. In addition, eight Bacillus sp. showed certain denitrification effects on nitrogen-containing wastewater treatment. Among them, B. subtilis B24 has outstanding denitrification ability, with removal rates of 92%, 62%, 68%, and 30% for NH 4  +  -N, NO 2 - -N, NO 3 - -N, and TN in simulated wastewater, respectively. It also has a good denitrification effect in practical applications. This study provides candidate bacterial strains for the treatment of mariculture wastewater.