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Nanochannel membranes have demonstrated remarkable potential for osmotic energy harvesting; however, their efficiency in practical high-salinity systems is hindered by reduced ion selectivity. Here, we propose a dual-separation transport strategy by constructing a two-dimensional (2D) vermiculite (VMT)-based heterogeneous nanofluidic system via an eco-friendly and scalable method. The cations are initially separated and enriched in micropores of substrates during the transmembrane diffusion, followed by secondary precise sieving in ultra-thin VMT laminates with high ion flux. Resultantly, our nanofluidic system demonstrates efficient osmotic energy harvesting performance, especially in hypersaline environment. Notably, we achieve a maximum power density of 33.76 W m −2 , a 6.2-fold improvement with a ten-fold increase in salinity gradient, surpassing state-of-the-art nanochannel membranes under challenging conditions. Additionally, we confirm practical hypersaline osmotic power generation using various natural salt-lake brines, achieving a power density of 25.9 W m −2 . This work triggers the hopes for practical blue energy conversion using advanced nanoarchitecture. Harvesting osmotic energy in real world high-salinity solutions poses great challenges, authors propose nanofluidic membranes with a dual separation mechanism based on vermiculite nanosheets with an isomorphic substitution structure, showing excellent energy conversion in hypersaline environments.

Nanofluidic membranes offer exceptional promise for osmotic energy conversion, but the challenge of balancing ionic selectivity and permeability persists. Here, we present a bionic nanofluidic system based on two-dimensional (2D) copper tetra-(4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin framework (Cu-TCPP). The inherent nanoporous structure and horizontal interlayer channels endow the Cu-TCPP membrane with ultrahigh ion permeability and allow for a power density of 16.64 W m −2 , surpassing state of-the-art nanochannel membranes. Moreover, leveraging the photo-thermal property of Cu-TCPP, light-controlled ion active transport is realized even under natural sunlight. By combining solar energy with salinity gradient, the driving force for ion transport is reinforced, leading to further improvements in energy conversion performance. Notably, light could even eliminate the need for salinity gradient, achieving a power density of 0.82 W m −2 in a symmetric solution system. Our work introduces a new perspective on developing advanced membranes for solar/ionic energy conversion and extends the concept of salinity energy to a notion of ionic energy. With porous structure and photothermal conversion performance, Cu-porphyrin framework membranes exhibit high efficiency in the extraction of electrical energy from salt solutions, opening avenues for renewable energy.

Controlling water and ion transport across nanoconfined channels is essential for natural biological processes and crucial for breakthroughs in diverse scientific and technological fields. Here, we present an efficient voltage-controlled strategy that simultaneously regulates water and ion diffusion by fine-tuning the external voltage applied to a high-conductivity Zr 4 -Ti 3 C 2 T x nanochannel membrane, which demonstrates high structural stability in aqueous environments. Under positive voltage, ion permeation increased by a factor of 10.18, whereas negative voltage reduced it to 0.17 of its original value. Interestingly, water diffusion exhibited the opposite response, with negative voltage enhancing water transport due to the facilitated rotation motion of nanoconfined water with the increased interfacial hydrogen bonding. This distinct voltage-gated transport behavior provides a potential solution to the longstanding trade-off between permeation and selectivity in membrane separation. In desalination trials, applying negative voltage improved ion rejection from 72.09 % to 98.57 % and doubled water permeation. Additionally, in lithium concentration applications, our approach enabled simultaneous improvements in water permeation and Li + rejection. Our findings open promising pathways for advancements in energy, resource, and environmental applications. Efficient voltage-controlled regulation of water and ion transport was achieved in stable Zr 4 -Ti 3 C 2 T x membranes. Under negative voltage, water diffusion was enhanced while ion transport was suppressed. This provides a promising strategy to overcome the intrinsic permeability– selectivity trade-off.

Nitenpyram (NIT) is the most water-soluble neonicotinoid (NEO). It has been shown to pose a serious threat to human health and the environment but was always ignored due to its limited market share. There were few experts who studied NIT’s transport behavior on biochar. In this study, two types of biochar were co-activated separately using zinc chloride combined with phosphoric acid and potassium hydroxide combined with acetic acid, marked as ZBC and KBC. Characterizations suggested that hydrophilic ZBC and KBC had more surface functional groups than unmodified biochar (BC), and specific surface areas of ZBC (456.406 m 2 ·g −1 ) and KBC (750.588 m 2 ·g −1 ) were significantly higher than of BC (67.181 m 2 ·g −1 ). The pore structures of KBC and ZBC were hierarchical porous structures with different pore sizes and typical microporous structure, respectively. The adsorption performance of either NIT or IMI on KBC was better than that on ZBC. Only 0.4 g·L −1 of KBC can absorb 89.62% of NIT in just 5 min. The equilibrium adsorption amounts of NIT on ZBC and KBC were 17.995 mg·g −1 and 82.910 mg·g −1 . Elovich and Langmuir models were used to evaluate the whole adsorption process, which was attributed to the chemisorption mechanism. In addition, removal rates of NIT were negatively correlated to NIT’s initial concentration and positively correlated to the dose of biochar. pH had almost no effect on adsorption, but the presence of salt ions can inhibit the removal of NIT. Long-term stabilities of biochars were also acceptable. These findings will promote the development in the preparation of biochar fields and provide a positive reference value for NEO removal.

Controlling water and ion transport across nanoconfined channels is essential for natural biological processes and crucial for breakthroughs in diverse scientific and technological fields. Here, we present an efficient voltage-controlled strategy that simultaneously regulates water and ion diffusion by fine-tuning the external voltage applied to a high-conductivity Zr -Ti C T nanochannel membrane, which demonstrates high structural stability in aqueous environments. Under positive voltage, ion permeation increased by a factor of 10.18, whereas negative voltage reduced it to 0.17 of its original value. Interestingly, water diffusion exhibited the opposite response, with negative voltage enhancing water transport due to the facilitated rotation motion of nanoconfined water with the increased interfacial hydrogen bonding. This distinct voltage-gated transport behavior provides a potential solution to the longstanding trade-off between permeation and selectivity in membrane separation. In desalination trials, applying negative voltage improved ion rejection from 72.09 % to 98.57 % and doubled water permeation. Additionally, in lithium concentration applications, our approach enabled simultaneous improvements in water permeation and Li rejection. Our findings open promising pathways for advancements in energy, resource, and environmental applications.

Cross-view geo-localization allows an agent to determine its own position by retrieving the same scene from images taken from dramatically different perspectives. However, image matching and retrieval face significant challenges due to substantial viewpoint differences, unknown orientations, and considerable geometric distribution disparities between cross-view images. To this end, we propose a cross-view geo-localization framework based on novel view synthesis that generates pseudo aerial-view images from given street-view scenes to reduce the view discrepancies, thereby improving the performance of cross-view geo-localization. Specifically, we first employ 3D Gaussian splatting to generate new aerial images from the street-view image sequence, where COLMAP is used to obtain initial camera poses and sparse point clouds. To identify optimal matching viewpoints from reconstructed 3D scenes, we design an effective camera pose estimation strategy. By increasing the tilt angle between the photographic axis and the horizontal plane, the geometric consistency between the newly generated aerial images and the real ones can be improved. After that, the DINOv2 is employed to design a simple yet efficient mixed feature enhancement module, followed by the InfoNCE loss for cross-view geo-localization. Experimental results on the KITTI dataset demonstrate that our approach can significantly improve cross-view matching accuracy under large viewpoint disparities and achieve state-of-the-art localization performance.

Buzhong Yiqi Decoction (BZYQD) is a traditional Chinese medicine renowned for its anti-colorectal cancer (CRC) properties. However, the bioactive components and mechanisms of BZYQD against CRC remain unknown. In this study, LC-MS was used to analyze the chemical composition of BZYQD. Next, the network pharmacology and molecular docking was used to investigate the core components and targets of BZYQD against CRC. Finally, we experimentally validated the potential mechanism of BZYQD against CRC through in vitro studies. Our results identified 26 chemical components in the BZYQD; 75 “hithubs” targets were screened by network pharmacology, and mainly involving pathways such as including pathways in cancer, P13K-Akt signaling pathway, proteoglycans in cancer, kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, and lipid and atherosclerosis signaling pathways. Based on the number of “hithubs” targets in the key pathways, the two most critical targets including AKT1 and PIK3CA were selected. The component-target network results indicated that astragaloside IV, gancaonin A, quercetin, poricoic acid A, and licoisoflavanone are key anti-CRC components in BZYQD. Molecular docking showed a strong binding affinity between these components and targets. The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signaling pathway emerged as the primary target of BZYQD. Further in vitro studies confirmed that BZYQD’s anti-CRC activity is mediated through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis and influences macrophage polarization. BZYQD exerts its therapeutic effects on CRC through multiple components, targets, and pathways. Our study elucidates the effective components and molecular mechanisms of BZYQD in CRC treatment and provides preliminary validation through molecular docking and experimental studies.

Background To solve the problem of an insufficient supply of dairy products in Tibet, work has been carried out to improve native dairy cattle and introduce purebred dairy cattle from low-altitude areas. The harsh environment of the plateau not only severely limits the production performance of high-yielding dairy cattle, such as Holstein and Jersey cattle, but also challenges their survival. The population structure and plateau adaptation mechanism of plateau dairy cattle are rarely reported. In this study, key genes and pathways affecting plateau purebred and crossbred dairy cattle were explored using genetic chip information. Results The results showed that the genetic diversity of the Tibet dairy cattle population was higher than that of the native cattle and plains dairy cattle. Purebred Holstein and Jersey cattle in Tibet were genetically closer to dairy cattle in the plains, and crossbred dairy cattle were admixed with more Tibet cattle and Apaijiza cattle. Based on the fixation index (F ST ), integrated haplotype score (iHS), and cross-population extend haplotype homozygosity (XP-EHH) approaches, 60 and 40 genes were identified in plateau Holstein and Jersey cattle, respectively. A total of 78 and 70 genes were identified in crossbred cattle compared to Holstein and Tibet cattle respectively. These genes are related to cardiac health and development, neuronal development and function, angiogenesis and hematopoietic, pigmentation, growth and development, and immune response. Conclusions Our results provide a glimpse into diverse selection signatures in plateau dairy cattle, which can be used to enhance our understanding of the genomic basis of plateau adaptation in dairy cattle. These results support further research on breeding strategies such as marker-assisted selection and gene editing in plateau dairy cattle populations.

Gene correction in a blood disorder Direct editing of disease-causing mutations has obvious attractions for the treatment of genetic disorders if the many practical obstacles to the technique can be overcome. One promising line of research centres on the development of zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) produced by fusing an engineered zinc finger DNA-binding domain to an endonuclease. These artificial enzymes induce efficient gene correction in cultured cells. Li et al . now report that zinc finger nucleases induce double-strand breaks in specifically selected locations on the genome and stimulate genome editing at a clinically meaningful level in vivo . In a proof-of-principle experiment, ZFNs delivered to the liver in a mouse model of haemophilia B achieved a level of gene replacement that was sufficient to correct the clotting defect, and the effect persisted following liver regeneration. Editing of the human genome to correct disease-causing mutations is a promising approach for the treatment of genetic disorders. Genome editing improves on simple gene-replacement strategies by effecting in situ correction of a mutant gene, thus restoring normal gene function under the control of endogenous regulatory elements and reducing risks associated with random insertion into the genome. Gene-specific targeting has historically been limited to mouse embryonic stem cells. The development of zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) has permitted efficient genome editing in transformed and primary cells that were previously thought to be intractable to such genetic manipulation 1 . In vitro , ZFNs have been shown to promote efficient genome editing via homology-directed repair by inducing a site-specific double-strand break (DSB) at a target locus 2 , 3 , 4 , but it is unclear whether ZFNs can induce DSBs and stimulate genome editing at a clinically meaningful level in vivo . Here we show that ZFNs are able to induce DSBs efficiently when delivered directly to mouse liver and that, when co-delivered with an appropriately designed gene-targeting vector, they can stimulate gene replacement through both homology-directed and homology-independent targeted gene insertion at the ZFN-specified locus. The level of gene targeting achieved was sufficient to correct the prolonged clotting times in a mouse model of haemophilia B, and remained persistent after induced liver regeneration. Thus, ZFN-driven gene correction can be achieved in vivo , raising the possibility of genome editing as a viable strategy for the treatment of genetic disease.

Elliptical ultrasonic vibration-assisted milling (EUVAM) introduces ultrasonic frequency vibration into conventional milling (CM) to achieve high-frequency intermittent milling. It has broad application prospects in processing difficult-to-cut materials such as titanium alloys, superalloys, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), and hard and brittle materials. This study focuses on the development of a dynamic model for EUVAM that considers regenerative effects and analyzes the interaction between the cutting edge and the workpiece in both radial and tangential directions, and the dynamic chip thickness is derived based on this model. To solve the model, a Runge-Kutta-based fully discrete method (RKFDM) is employed. This numerical method accurately predicts the stability of the EUVAM process under specified cutting conditions. In addition, a bisection algorithm is utilized to construct the stability lobe diagram of EUVAM, enhancing the computational efficiency of the process. Stability tests are conducted to validate the proposed stability model and solution method for EUVAM. The results of these tests confirm the accuracy and reliability of the approach presented in this paper. This study provides valuable insights and a practical framework for implementing EUVAM in the processing of difficult-to-cut materials, offering improved machining performance in various industrial applications.