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Organic dyes play vital roles in the textile industry, while the discharge of organic dye wastewater in the production and utilization of dyes has caused significant damage to the aquatic ecosystem. This review aims to summarize the mechanisms of photocatalysis, sonocatalysis, and sonophotocatalysis in the treatment of organic dye wastewater and the recent advances in catalyst development, with a focus on the synergistic effect of ultrasound and light in the catalytic degradation of organic dyes. The performance of TiO2-based catalysts for organic dye degradation in photocatalytic, sonocatalytic, and sonophotocatalytic systems is compared. With significant synergistic effect of ultrasound and light, sonophotocatalysis generally performs much better than sonocatalysis or photocatalysis alone in pollutant degradation, yet it has a much higher energy requirement. Future research directions are proposed to expand the fundamental knowledge on the sonophotocatalysis process and to enhance its practical application in degrading organic dyes in wastewater.

Oil spill disasters always occur accidentally, accompanied by the release of plenty of crude oil that could spread quickly over a wide area, creating enormous damage to the fragile marine ecological system. Therefore, the facile large-scale synthesis of hydrophobic three-dimensional (3-D) porous sorbents from low cost raw materials is in urgent demand. In this study, we report the facile template-free synthesis of polypropylene (PP) sponge by using a thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) technique. The obtained sponge showed macroporous structure, excellent mechanical property, high hydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. Oil could be separated from an oil/water mixture by simple immersing the sponge into the mixture and subsequent squeezing the sponge. All of these features make this sponge the most promising oil sorbent that will replace commercial non-woven PP fabrics.

Chaotic resonance (CR) is the response of a nonlinear system to weak signals enhanced by internal or external chaotic activity (such as the signal derived from Lorenz system). The triple-neuron feed-forward loop (FFL) Izhikevich neural network motifs with eight types are constructed as the nonlinear systems in this paper, and the effects of EMI on CR phenomenon in FFL neuronal network motifs are studied. It is found that both the single Izhikevich neural model under electromagnetic induction (EMI) and its network motifs exhibit CR phenomenon depending on the chaotic current intensity. There exists an optimal chaotic current intensity ensuring the best detection of weak signal in single Izhikevich neuron or its network motifs via CR. The EMI can enhance the ability of neuron to detect weak signals. For T1-FFL and T2-FFL motifs, the adjustment of EMI parameters makes T2-FFL show a more obvious CR phenomenon than that for T1-FFL motifs, which is different from the impact of system parameters (e.g., the weak signal frequency, the coupling strength, and the time delay) on CR. Another interesting phenomenon is that the variation of CR with time delay exhibits quasi-periodic characteristics. Our results showed that CR effect is a robust phenomenon which is observed in both single Izhikevich neuron and network motifs, which might help one understand how to improve the ability of weak signal detection and propagation in neuronal system.

This study investigated the mechanism through which exercise adherence enhances emotional regulation ability in college students, focusing on the chain mediating pathway involving sleep quality and self-efficacy. It provides a theoretical foundation for exercise-based interventions to promote psychological health in this population. A cross-sectional design was employed, with 8,899 chinese college students from Henan Province selected via stratified cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Exercise Adherence Scale (EAS), Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). Statistical analyses were conducted using EXCEL, Mplus 8.3, and SPSS 27.0.1. Exercise adherence exerted a significant direct positive effect on emotional regulation (β = 0.289,56.67% of the total effect). Significant independent mediating effects were observed for sleep quality (β = 0.010,6.33%) and self-efficacy(β = 0.200,89.59%). Crucially, a chain mediation pathway was identified: exercise adherence improved sleep quality, which subsequently enhanced self-efficacy, ultimately strengthening emotional regulation ability(β = 0.010,4.52%). Exercise adherence directly enhances emotional regulation and indirectly influences it through the \"sleep quality → self-efficacy\" chain pathway. These findings reveal a synergistic multi-path mechanism and provide empirical support for designing targeted exercise-based mental health interventions.

Anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibodies are currently used in the clinic to interupt the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint, which reverses T cell dysfunction/exhaustion and shows success in treating cancer. Here, we report a histone demethylase inhibitor, 5-carboxy-8-hydroxyquinoline (IOX1), which inhibits tumour histone demethylase Jumonji domain-containing 1A (JMJD1A) and thus downregulates its downstream β-catenin and subsequent PD-L1, providing an antibody-independent paradigm interrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint. Synergistically, IOX1 inhibits cancer cells’ P-glycoproteins (P-gp) through the JMJD1A/β-catenin/P-gp pathway and greatly enhances doxorubicin (DOX)-induced immune-stimulatory immunogenic cell death. As a result, the IOX1 and DOX combination greatly promotes T cell infiltration and activity and significantly reduces tumour immunosuppressive factors. Their liposomal combination reduces the growth of various murine tumours, including subcutaneous, orthotopic, and lung metastasis tumours, and offers a long-term immunological memory function against tumour rechallenging. This work provides a small molecule-based potent cancer chemo-immunotherapy. Some chemotherapeutic drugs, such as doxorubicin, induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) and promote anti-tumor immune responses. Here the authors report that the histone demethylase inhibitor 5-carboxy-8-hydroxyquinoline (IOX1) reduces the expression of PD-L1 in cancer cells and enhances doxorubicin-induced ICD, promoting T cell infiltration and reducing tumor growth in preclinical models.

Background Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc. is a well-known medicinal plant whose pharmacological effects derive mainly from its stilbenes, anthraquinones, and flavonoids. These compounds accumulate differentially in the root, stem, and leaf; however, the molecular basis of such tissue-specific accumulation remains poorly understood. Because tissue-specific accumulation of compounds is usually associated with tissue-specific expression of the related biosynthetic enzyme genes and regulators, we aimed to clarify and compare the transcripts expressed in different tissues of P. cuspidatum in this study. Results High-throughput RNA sequencing was performed using three different tissues (the leaf, stem, and root) of P. cuspidatum . In total, 80,981 unigenes were obtained, of which 40,729 were annotated, and 21,235 differentially expressed genes were identified. Fifty-four candidate synthetase genes and 12 transcription factors associated with stilbene, flavonoid, and anthraquinone biosynthetic pathways were identified, and their expression levels in the three different tissues were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis of polyketide synthase gene families revealed two novel CHS genes in P. cuspidatum . Most phenylpropanoid pathway genes were predominantly expressed in the root and stem, while methylerythritol 4-phosphate and isochorismate pathways for anthraquinone biosynthesis were dominant in the leaf. The expression patterns of synthase genes were almost in accordance with metabolite profiling in different tissues of P. cuspidatum as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography or ultraviolet spectrophotometry. All predicted transcription factors associated with regulation of the phenylpropanoid pathway were expressed at lower levels in the stem than in the leaf and root, but no consistent trend in their expression was observed between the leaf and the root. Conclusions The molecular knowledge of key genes involved in the biosynthesis of P. cuspidatum stilbenes, flavonoids, and anthraquinones is poor. This study offers some novel insights into the biosynthetic regulation of bioactive compounds in different P. cuspidatum tissues and provides valuable resources for the potential metabolic engineering of this important medicinal plant.

HighlightsTwo types of vertical 3D nanostructures were successfully fabricated using simple hydrothermal and heat treatment processes for hydrogen evolution reaction and glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR).Hydrogen production at a lower potential was achieved by replacing oxygen evolution reaction with GOR, reducing the device potential by approximately 300 mV. Additionally, organic membranes were used as separators, avoiding the use of expensive anion exchange membranes.Hydrogen production from electrolytic water is an important sustainable technology to realize renewable energy conversion and carbon neutrality. However, it is limited by the high overpotential of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode. To reduce the operating voltage of electrolyzer, herein thermodynamically favorable glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) is proposed to replace the OER. Moreover, vertical NiO flakes and NiMoNH nanopillars are developed to boost the reaction kinetics of anodic GOR and cathodic hydrogen evolution, respectively. Meanwhile, excluding the explosion risk of mixed H2/O2, a cheap organic membrane is used to replace the expensive anion exchange membrane in the electrolyzer. Impressively, the electrolyzer delivers a remarkable reduction of operation voltage by 280 mV, and exhibits good long-term stability. This work provides a new paradigm of hydrogen production with low cost and good feasibility.

Animal fibers with α-keratin had obvious advantages of mechanical strength and durability on reinforced microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP)-cemented loose sands. Herein, wool fiber, α-keratin-rich animal fiber with high strength, was applied to reinforcement of MICP-cemented loose sands. The mechanical properties and underlying mechanism were experimentally explored. Results showed that adding 0.1 wt% wool fiber enhanced up to 3.34-fold the compressive strength and significantly improved the flexure resistance performance. The microstructural results revealed that wool fibers providing many nucleation sites for calcite precipitation not only significantly decreased the porosity of the specimen, but also effectively generated calcite and distributed fiber-bridging microstructure uniformly, resulting in a marked reinforcement of MICP performance. Further studies indicated that sand grains were cemented with calcite through the intermolecular hydrogen bonds HN–H…O–C(Si). This study first reports the potential and the underlying mechanism of animal fiber on improvement of MICP performance and provides new insight into enhancing mechanical behavior of MICP-cemented loose sands with fibrous proteins.Graphic abstract

Utilizing solar energy for photocatalytic CO2 reduction is an attractive research field because of its convenience, safety, and practicality. The selection of an appropriate photocatalyst is the key to achieve efficient CO2 reduction. Herein, we report the synthesis of TiO2/CuPc heterojunctions by compositing CuPc with TiO2 microspheres via a hydroxyl-induced self-assembly process. The experimental investigations demonstrated that the optimal TiO2/0.5CuPc photocatalyst exhibited a significantly enhanced CO2 photoreduction rate up to 32.4 μmol·g−1·h−1 under 300 W xenon lamp irradiation, which was 3.7 times that of the TiO2 microspheres alone. The results of photoelectrochemical experiments indicated that the construction of the heterojunctions by introducing CuPc effectively promoted the separation and transport of photogenerated carriers, thus enhancing the catalytic effect of the photocatalyst.

The optimization of nanoparticle size for passing through glomerular filtration membrane, inefficient renal cellular uptake and rapid urinary excretion of nanoparticles are the major obstacles for renal disease treatment via a nanoparticle delivery system. Herein, we propose a concept of a two-step nanoparticular cascade of size control and enhancement of renal cellular uptake to overcome the renal delivery obstacles. : We prepared kidney-targeted rhein (RH)-loaded liponanoparticles (KLPPR) with a yolk-shell structure composed by polycaprolactone-polyethyleneimine (PCL-PEI)-based cores and kidney targeting peptide (KTP)-modified lipid layers. The KLPPR size within the range of 30 ~ 80 nm allowed KLPPR distribute into kidney by passing through the glomerular filtration membrane and the KTP (sequence: CSAVPLC) decoration promoted the renal cellular uptake and endocytosis via a non-lysosomal pathway. : The KLPPR had an average size of 59.5±6.2 nm and exhibited high RH loading, sustained release, good stability and biocompatibility, rapid cellular uptake in HK-2 cells. In addition, intravenous administration of KLPPR resulted in excellent kidney-targeted distribution and low urinary excretion in mice with streptozocin-induced diabetic nephropathy (DN), lowered the parameters of urea nitrogen, serum creatinine and kidney index, as well as facilitated the recovery of renal physiological function in improving the levels of urinary creatinine and the creatinine clearance rate by suppressing secretion and accumulation of fibronectin and TGF-β1. : Definitely, KLPPR were able to target the diseased kidney and improve the therapeutic effect of RH on DN by exploiting the two-step nanoparticular cascade of size control and enhancement of cellular uptake. This study offers a promising strategy for renal diseases treatment using liponanoparticle delivery system.