Explore the vast range of titles available.

The simple ABO 3 and A-site-ordered AA′ 3 B 4 O 12 perovskites represent two types of classical perovskite functional materials. There are well-known simple perovskites with ferroelectric properties, while there is still no report of ferroelectricity due to symmetry breaking transition in A-site-ordered quadruple perovskites. Here we report the high pressure synthesis of an A-site-ordered perovskite PbHg 3 Ti 4 O 12 , the only known quadruple perovskite that transforms from high-temperature centrosymmetric paraelectric phase to low-temperature non-centrosymmetric ferroelectric phase. The coordination chemistry of Hg 2+ is changed from square planar as in typical A-site-ordered quadruple perovskite to a rare stereo type with 8 ligands in PbHg 3 Ti 4 O 12 . Thus PbHg 3 Ti 4 O 12 appears to be a combinatory link from simple ABO 3 perovskites to A-site-ordered AA′ 3 Ti 4 O 12 perovskites, sharing both displacive ferroelectricity with former and structure coordination with latter. This is the only example so far showing ferroelectricity due to symmetry breaking phase transition in AA′ 3 B 4 O 12 -type A-site-ordered perovskites, and opens a direction to search for ferroelectric materials. There are few reports of ferroelectricity due to symmetry breaking transition in A-site-ordered quadruple perovskites. Here, the authors find one with phase transition from a high-temperature centrosymmetric paraelectric phase to a low-temperature non-centrosymmetric ferroelectric phase in a high pressure synthesized compound.

Several factors may affect the success of a replanting vineyard. Given the current environmental conditions, an optimized irrigation schedule would still be one of the most desirable tools to improve crop productivity and fruit quality. On the other hand, the symbiosis of grapevines with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is a key component of the vineyard production systems improving the vine growth, nutrient uptake, and berry quality. The aim of this study was to characterize the response of Merlot grapevines to AMF inoculation and two different irrigation amounts in their first productive year. The experiment was conducted on 2-year Merlot grapevines inoculated with AMF (I) or not-inoculated (NI) and subjected to two irrigation amounts, full irrigated (FI), where the amount of water was enough to maintain expansive growth and half irrigated (HI) where plants received the half of the amount of water of FI plants. Water status, gas exchange parameters, growth, mineral content, berry composition, and mycorrhizal colonization were monitored through the season. AMF inoculation improved the grapevine vegetative growth, water status, and photosynthetic activity, especially when vines were subjected to HI irrigation; however, no effect was observed on the leaf mineral content, must pH, total soluble solids, or total acidity. The main effects were observed on the flavonoid composition of berry skins at harvest. Irrigation amounts and mycorrhizal inoculation modified cyanidin and peonidin derivatives whereas flavonol composition was mainly affected by irrigation treatments. A strong relationship between the mycorrhizal colonization rate of roots and total quercetins, cyanidins, and peonidins was found. Findings support the use of a mycorrhizal inoculum and a better water management in a hyper-arid growing season; however, these results may be affected by edaphoclimatic characteristics and living microbiota in vineyard soils, which should be taken into account before making the decision of inoculating the vineyard.

With the wide application of organic semiconductors (OSCs), researchers are now grappling with a new challenge: design and synthesize OSCs materials with specific functions to satisfy the requirements of high-performance semiconductor devices. Strain engineering is an effective method to improve the semiconductor material’s carrier mobility, which is fundamentally originated from the rearrangement of the atomic packing model of materials under mechanic stress. Here, we design and synthesize a new OSC material named AZO-BTBT-8 based on high-mobility benzo[ b ]benzo[4,5]thieno[2,3- d ]thiophene (BTBT) as the semiconductor backbone. Octane is employed to increase molecular flexibility and solubility, and azobenzene at the other end of the BTBT backbone provides photoisomerization properties and structural balance. Notably, the AZO-BTBT-8 photoisomerization leads to lattice strain in thin-film devices, where exceptional device performance enhancement is realized. On this basis, a large-scale flexible organic field-effect transistor (OFET) device array is fabricated and realizes high-resolution UV imaging with reversible light response. Strain engineering is effective to improve the carrier mobility of semiconductor materials. Here, the authors demonstrate lattice strain-induced mobility enhancement of an azobenzene compound under photoisomerization and its application in large-scale flexible organic field-effect transistors.

Background Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a major subtype of breast cancer, with limited therapeutic drugs in clinical. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is reported to be overexpressed in various TNBC cells. Cantharidin is an effective ingredient in many clinical traditional Chinese medicine preparations, such as Delisheng injection, Aidi injection, Disodium cantharidinate and vitamin B6 injection. Previous studies showed that cantharidin had satisfactory pharmacological activity on a variety of tumors. In this study, we aimed to study the therapeutic potential of cantharidin for TNBC treatment by targeting EGFR, and expound its novel regulator miR-607. Methods The effect of cantharidin on breast cancer in vivo was evaluated by 4T1 mice model. Then the effects of cantharidin on TNBC cells was assessed by the MTT, colony formation, and AnnexinV-PE/7AAD staining. Cantharidin acts on EGFR were verified using the cell membrane chromatography, RT-PCR, Western blotting, MTT, and so on. Mechanistic studies were explored by dual-luciferase report assay, RT-PCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence staining assay. Results Cantharidin inhibited TNBC cell growth and induce apoptosis by targeting EGFR. miR-607 was a novel EGFR regulator and exhibited suppressive functions on TNBC cell behaviors. Mechanistic study showed that cantharidin blocked the downstream PI3K/AKT/mTOR and ERK/MAPK signaling pathway. Conclusion Our results revealed that cantharidin may be served as a potential candidate for TNBC treatment by miR-607-mediated downregulation of EGFR. Graphical Abstract

Background Although investigations of the intratumoral microbiota date back thousands of years, breakthrough transformations have only recently been achieved through high-throughput sequencing and multiomic technologies. These advances have revealed diverse and tumor type-specific microbial communities that drive carcinogenesis via immunomodulation, metabolic reprogramming, and genomic instability. Current cornerstones of cancer therapies—including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy—are limited by systemic toxicity, localized tissue damage, drug resistance, and low patient response rates. These constraints underscore the urgent need for more effective and precise therapeutic strategies. Main body This review comprehensively integrates artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into the characterization of the intratumoral microbiota, facilitating the development of novel computational pipelines for mapping microbe–host crosstalk. We systematically summarize recent advances in engineered microbial therapeutics, including bacteria designed for targeted antitumor activity and engineered microorganisms that enable the localized delivery of therapeutic agents. Furthermore, this review critically evaluates the safety profiles of microbiota-based interventions and discusses key challenges in clinical translation. Conclusions By combining cutting-edge computational technologies, biological research, and clinical insights, this review aims to bridge the gap between microbiome science and oncological practice, pioneering innovative strategies for microbiota-guided diagnostics and personalized cancer therapy. Highlights This review comprehensively integrates AI technologies into intratumoral microbiota analysis. This review summarizes the latest therapies that use engineered microbes. This review evaluates the safety of intratumoral microbial therapy for cancer.

The convective self-assembly of dip-coating is a long-established technique widely employed in scientific and industrial applications. Despite its apparent importance, many of the fundamental aspects remain unknown, particularly the exact assembling mechanism and its relationship with evaporation kinetics and fluid dynamics. Here, we perform the in-situ small-angle X-ray scattering study of the real-time convective self-assembly of colloidal particles inside a meniscus. This approach allows us to resolve the transient assembling processes occurring at the gas, liquid and solid interfaces. Together with ex-situ scanning electron microscopy measurements via the freeze-dry method, the colloidal epitaxy process is uncovered, where the multilayer is sequentially assembled using the interfacial monolayer as a template. The microscopic ordering of the final multilayer is highly correlated with that of the initial monolayer. The evaporation kinetics and fluid dynamics are numerically simulated, which rationalizes the monolayer formation and the dynamic epitaxial process. Convective self-assembly of particles is widely employed, but some fundamental aspects remain unknown. Here, the authors perform an in-situ SAXS study during the convective self-assembly of colloidal particles at the meniscus, which provides mechanistic insights.

The majority of the wine grapes are grown in Mediterranean climates, where water is the determining factor for grapevine physiology and berry chemistry. At the vineyard scale, plant water status is variable due to the variability in many environmental factors. In this study, we investigated the ecophysiological variability of an irrigated Cabernet Sauvignon ( L.) vineyard. We used equidistant grid sampling to assess the spatial variations of the plants and soil, including plant water status by stem water potential (Ψ ), leaf gas exchange, and on-site soil analysis. We also measured soil electrical conductivity (EC) by proximal sensing at two depths [0.75 - 1.5 m (sub soil); 0 - 0.75 m (top soil)]. Ψ integrals were calculated to represent the season-long plant water status. On the base of realized Ψ integrals, the vineyard was delineated into two functional homogeneous zones (fHZs) with one severely water stressed zone and one moderately water stressed zone. Sub soil EC was directly related to Ψ ( = 0.56) and ( = 0.39) when the soil was proximally sensed at harvest in 2018. Although the same trend was evident in 2019 we could not deduce a direct relationship. The fruits from the two fHZs were harvested differentially. Comparing the two fHZs, there was no significant difference in juice total soluble solids or pH. The severely water stressed zone showed significantly higher malvidin and total anthocyanins on a dry skin weight basis, but lower peonidin, malvidin on a per berry basis in 2018. In 2019, there were more quercetin and total flavonols per berry in the severely water stressed zone. Overall, this study provided fundamental knowledge of the viability of managing spatial variability by delineating vineyard into distinct zones based on plant water status, and the potentiality of proximally sensed soil EC in the spatial assessment of plant water status and the supporting of vineyard management.

Wogonin is a compound extracted from the medicinal plant Scutellaria baicalensis Geogi and has been found to exert antitumor activities in a variety of malignancies. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in the anti-gastric cancer (GC) effects of wogonin remain poorly understood. In the present study, we found that wogonin treatment inhibited the proliferation of GC cells, induced apoptosis and G0/G1 cell arrest, and suppressed the migration and invasion of SGC-7901 and BGC-823 cells in vitro. In addition, wogonin inhibited in vivo tumor growth in SGC-7901 xenograft mice. Transcriptomic analysis suggested that wogonin affected several signaling pathways closely related to tumor proliferation and metastasis, including the STAT3 signaling pathway. Further research indicated that wogonin may exert antitumor effects in GC cells by downregulating the JAK-STAT3 pathway. Altogether, our results demonstrate that wogonin exerts antitumor effects by perturbing JAK-STAT3 signaling in GC cells and that wogonin may be a potential therapeutic option for GC.

Glioblastoma (GBM) represents a primary malignant brain tumor. Temozolomide resistance is a major hurdle in GBM treatment. Proteins encoded by circular RNAs (circRNAs) can modulate the sensitivity of multiple tumor chemotherapies. However, the impact of circRNA-encoded proteins on GBM sensitivity to temozolomide remains unknown. Herein, we discover a circRNA (circCOPA) through the circRNA microarray profile in GBM samples, which can encode a novel 99 amino acid protein (COPA-99aa) through its internal ribosome entry site. Functionally, circCOPA overexpression in GBM cells inhibits cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and growth in vivo. Rather than itself, circCOPA mainly functions as a suppressive effector by encoding COPA-99aa. Moreover, we reveal that circCOPA is downregulated in GBM tissues and high expression of circCOPA is related to a better prognosis in GBM patients. Mechanistically, a heteromer of SFPQ and NONO is required for double-strand DNA break repair. COPA-99aa disrupts the dimerization of NONO and SFPQ by separately binding with the NONO and SFPQ proteins, thus resulting in the inhibition of proliferation or invasion and the increase of temozolomide-induced DNA damage in GBM cells. Collectively, our data suggest that circCOPA mainly contributes to inhibiting the GBM malignant phenotype through its encoded COPA-99aa and that COPA-99aa increases temozolomide-induced DNA damage by interfering with the dimerization of NONO and SFPQ. Restoring circCOPA or COPA-99aa may increase the sensitivity of patients to temozolomide.

Pb M O 3 ( M  = 3 d transition metals) family shows systematic variations in charge distribution and intriguing physical properties due to its delicate energy balance between Pb 6 s and transition metal 3 d orbitals. However, the detailed structure and physical properties of PbFeO 3 remain unclear. Herein, we reveal that PbFeO 3 crystallizes into an unusual 2 a p  × 6 a p  × 2 a p orthorhombic perovskite super unit cell with space group Cmcm . The distinctive crystal construction and valence distribution of Pb 2+ 0.5 Pb 4+ 0.5 FeO 3 lead to a long range charge ordering of the -A-B-B- type of the layers with two different oxidation states of Pb (Pb 2+ and Pb 4+ ) in them. A weak ferromagnetic transition with canted antiferromagnetic spins along the a -axis is found to occur at 600 K. In addition, decreasing the temperature causes a spin reorientation transition towards a collinear antiferromagnetic structure with spin moments along the b -axis near 418 K. Our theoretical investigations reveal that the peculiar charge ordering of Pb generates two Fe 3+ magnetic sublattices with competing anisotropic energies, giving rise to the spin reorientation at such a high critical temperature. PbFeO 3 is part of a family of lead based perovskites with many intriguing properties; however, difficulties in synthesis have hampered investigation. Here, the authors present a detailed study of the structure of PbFeO 3 observing unique charge ordering and spin orientation among the constituent ions.