Click-chemistry synergic MXene-functionalized flexible skeleton membranes for accurate recognition and separation.

Membrane-based technology with accurate-recognition and specific-transmission has been regarded as one of the most promising strategies in environmental protection and energy conservation. However, membrane technique still faces challenges of "trade-off effect" between high selectivity and permeation flux within organic-aqueous mixed matrix. Here, well-intergrown click-chemistry synergic MXene-functionalized flexible skeleton membranes has been prepared in this strategy, enabling size-exclusion&structure selectivity by uniform location array imprinting unit and transport performance towards specific medicinal molecules of artemisinin (Ars). The well-assembled ultrathin cascade-type MXene layer guarantees the narrow interlayer nanochannels and the flexible skeleton modified mesoporous SiO2 nanoparticles provide active reaction platform for the construction of selective recognition space. The resulting membranes demonstrated outstanding selective separation performance with permeability factor that artesunate (Aru) /Ars and dihydro-artemisinin (d-Ars) / Ars of 3.17 and 2.89 and permeation flux of 1173.25 L·m-2·h-1·bar-1. Besides, combined with antibacterial durability, recycling performance, high separation performance in mobile phase stability of CMFMs, it is anticipated that this work hopefully opens a new avenue for efficient chiral separation to medicinal molecules, exhibiting broad potential for practical application.

Continuous-imprinted-layer nanofiber membrane with MXene-based precise-designed nanocages for high-accuracy recognition and separation of shikimic acid.

Ti3C2Tx (MXene) has attracted extensive attention from scholars at home and abroad due to its rich surface termination functional groups and two-dimensional multilayer structure. In this work, MXene was introduced to the membrane by vacuum-assisted filtration processes, and the formed interlayer channel facilitated the construction of recognition sites and molecular transmission. In this paper, PDA@MXene@PDA@SiO2-PVDF dual-imprinted mixed matrix membrane (PMS-DIMs) were developed by the cooperative dual-imprinting strategy, which was used for the adsorption of shikimic acid (SA). Firstly, SiO2-PVDF nanofiber basement membrane were prepared by electrospinning method and the first Polydopamine (PDA)-based imprinted layer was constructed on the membrane. PDA not only realized the imprinting process, PDA modification was used to give MXene nanosheets better antioxidant properties and to confer the SiO2-PVDF nanofiber membrane the interface stability. After that, the second-imprinted sites were constructed on the stacked MXene nanosheets surface as well as between the layers. The SA dual-imprinted sites significantly increased the efficiency of the selective adsorption efficiency, when the template molecule passed through the membrane, the cooperative dual-imprinting strategy enabled multiplex recognition and adsorption of template molecules. As a consequence, which greatly improving the rebinding ability(262.17 g m-2), and mselectivity factors (ßCatechol/SA, ßP-HB/SA, ßP-NP/SA were 2.34, 4.50 and 5.68). High stability proved the potentials of the PMS-DIMs for practical application. Precise SA-recognition sites were constructed on the PMS-DIMs, PMS-DIMs not only exhibit excellent selective rebinding properties but also have high permeability.

Denoising adaptive deep clustering with self-attention mechanism on single-cell sequencing data.

A large number of works have presented the single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to study the diversity and biological functions of cells at the single-cell level. Clustering identifies unknown cell types, which is essential for downstream analysis of scRNA-seq samples. However, the high dimensionality, high noise and pervasive dropout rate of scRNA-seq samples have a significant challenge to the cluster analysis of scRNA-seq samples. Herein, we propose a new adaptive fuzzy clustering model based on the denoising autoencoder and self-attention mechanism called the scDASFK. It implements the comparative learning to integrate cell similar information into the clustering method and uses a deep denoising network module to denoise the data. scDASFK consists of a self-attention mechanism for further denoising where an adaptive clustering optimization function for iterative clustering is implemented. In order to make the denoised latent features better reflect the cell structure, we introduce a new adaptive feedback mechanism to supervise the denoising process through the clustering results. Experiments on 16 real scRNA-seq datasets show that scDASFK performs well in terms of clustering accuracy, scalability and stability. Overall, scDASFK is an effective clustering model with great potential for scRNA-seq samples analysis. Our scDASFK model codes are freely available at https://github.com/LRX2022/scDASFK.

Relationships between proactive personality and creativity: Mindsets and golden mean thinking as parallel mediators among Chinese third language students.

Third language (L3) learners have great potential in developing creativity; however, the factors affecting L3 learners' creativity have received little attention. This study investigated the relationships between proactive personality, three different thinking patterns (i.e., growth mindset, fixed mindset, and golden mean thinking), and creativity among L3 learners. The participants were 220 Chinese students who attended an obligatory L3 course in college. The results showed that proactive personality, growth mindset, golden mean thinking, and creativity had significant intercorrelations. Moreover, the role of growth mindset and golden mean thinking as mediators of the proactive personality and creativity relation was supported, and the mediating effect of growth mindset was larger than that of golden mean thinking. However, the fixed mindset did not show a significant indirect effect on the path from proactive personality to creativity. This is the first research to treat growth mindset, fixed mindset, and golden mean thinking as mediating variables on the path from proactive personality to creativity, particularly demonstrating that golden mean thinking, which is specific to Asian students and located midway between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, can cultivate creativity. Some suggestions for fostering creativity in L3 students were also included in this study.

scHFC: a hybrid fuzzy clustering method for single-cell RNA-seq data optimized by natural computation.

Rapid development of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology has allowed researchers to explore biological phenomena at the cellular scale. Clustering is a crucial and helpful step for researchers to study the heterogeneity of cell. Although many clustering methods have been proposed, massive dropout events and the curse of dimensionality in scRNA-seq data make it still difficult to analysis because they reduce the accuracy of clustering methods, leading to misidentification of cell types. In this work, we propose the scHFC, which is a hybrid fuzzy clustering method optimized by natural computation based on Fuzzy C Mean (FCM) and Gath-Geva (GG) algorithms. Specifically, principal component analysis algorithm is utilized to reduce the dimensions of scRNA-seq data after it is preprocessed. Then, FCM algorithm optimized by simulated annealing algorithm and genetic algorithm is applied to cluster the data to output a membership matrix, which represents the initial clustering result and is taken as the input for GG algorithm to get the final clustering results. We also develop a cluster number estimation method called multi-index comprehensive estimation, which can estimate the cluster numbers well by combining four clustering effectiveness indexes. The performance of the scHFC method is evaluated on 17 scRNA-seq datasets, and compared with six state-of-the-art methods. Experimental results validate the better performance of our scHFC method in terms of clustering accuracy and stability of algorithm. In short, scHFC is an effective method to cluster cells for scRNA-seq data, and it presents great potential for downstream analysis of scRNA-seq data. The source code is available at https://github.com/WJ319/scHFC.

Dual-imprinted mixed matrix membranes for selective recognition and separation: A synergetic imprinting strategy based on complex initiation system.

Molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) with sufficient and even-distributed recognition sites that can break the permeability-selectivity trade-off phenomenon are desirable in chemical field of selective separation. Herein graphene oxide (GO)/TiO2-loaded nanocomposite fibrous membranes were prepared by developing two kinds of tetracycline (TC)-imprinted systems in the same MIMs-based material. Thereinto, polydopamine-based and sol-gel-based imprinting processes were applied to the synthesis of GO/TiO2-loaded dual-imprinted mixed matrix membranes (GT-DIMs). The as-prepared GT-DIMs encompassed innovative GO/TiO2-based nanocomposite fibrous channels and two kinds of TC-imprinted systems, and critical comparisons regarding the fluxes, rebinding capacities and permselectivity were provided and studied. Importantly, dual-imprinted system of GT-DIMs could not only allow for largely enhanced rebinding result (70.63 mg/g) and fast adsorption equilibrium rate within 30 min, but also facilitate the high permselectivity of TC in complex separation systems and lab-simulated wastewater samples. The permselectivity factors were all around 5.0, which strongly demonstrated the efficiently selective recognition and separation performance of GT-DIMs. Overall, based on testing results of practical separation and scalability, excellent structural stability and separation continuity had been successfully obtained for selective separation applications of pollutants.

Malaria Surveillance of Entry People During the COVID-19 Epidemic - Guangdong Province, China, October 2020-May 2021.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS TOPIC?: Malaria control was affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study conducted active case finding for key flights and key populations to determine malaria transmission. WHAT IS ADDED BY THIS REPORT?: Surveillance for malaria was conducted for entry personnel coming from areas affected by malaria. It is estimated that at least 100,000 tests were conducted in Guangdong Province; 154 cases were confirmed during the surveillance. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE?: To maintain the malaria elimination status, comprehensively maintaining a sensitive and effective surveillance response system is especially important.

Dual-imprinted organic/inorganic nanocomposite membranes with highly selective polydopamine-intimated nanostructures for pharmaceutically active compound separation.

Here, the graphene oxide (GO)/SiO2-loaded dual-imprinted membranes (GS-DIMs) were constructed based on the self-polymerization imprinting technique of dopamine, in which a twice polydopamine (PDA)-based imprinting strategy had been successfully developed to obtain the three-dimensional nanocomposite membrane-based separation system. Meanwhile, the pollution-intensive antibiotics of tetracycline (TC) was used as template molecule throughout the GS-DIMs synthesis, and the dopamine molecules were simultaneously used as functional monomer and cross-linking agent during the twice polydopamine (PDA)-based imprinting processes. Therefore, dual-TC-imprinted sites had been prepared based on the as-designed dual imprinting processes, the as-prepared GS-DIMs-based separation system with dual-TC-imprinted structures could not only allow for the largely enhanced rebinding result of 65.61 mg/g and faster adsorption equilibrium rate within 20 min, but also facilitate the permselectivity performance from TC-based complex separation system and mimetic water sample. Importantly, we demonstrated the applications and effects of the dual-imprinted membrane-based separation materials to selective rebinding and separation of TC from complex solution systems and mimetic water samples. The as-obtained permselectivity factors (ß) around 4.0 strongly illustrated the efficiently selective separation ability and high-intensitive recognizability of TC than any other non-template molecules based on our GS-DIMs-based separation system. Overall, the as-designed GS-DIMs had great potential for selective separation applications and provided critical comparisons based on the as-achieved excellent rebinding and permselectivity performance, which encompassed innovative GO/SiO2-loaded nanocomposite and PDA-based dual-TC-imprinted system.

Multifunctional-imprinted nanocomposite membranes with thermo-responsive biocompatibility for selective/controllable recognition and separation application.

Inspired by the biomimetic modification strategy of dopamine self-polymerization technique, molecularly imprinted nanocomposite membranes (MINCMs) with thermo-responsive rebinding and separation performance were synthesized and evaluated. Herein, the Au/SiO2-based multilevel structure had been successfully obtained onto the polydopamine (pDA) modified membrane surfaces. Afterward, the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based biomolecule-imprinted sites were adequately constructed by developing a photoinitiated atom transfer radical polymerization (pATRP) imprinting strategy using the high-biocompatible ovalbumin (Ova, pI 4.6) as template molecule. Therefore, thermo-responsive 'specific recognition sites' toward Ova were then achieved on the as-prepared MINCMs after the well-designed imprinting process. When the external temperature was set at 37 °C, excellent ovalbumin rebinding capacity (33.26 mg/g), selectivity factor (3.06) and structural stability were obtained. Importantly, as to the controllable biocompatibility research of this work, the bare glass and Ova-bound-MINCMs (the MINCMs were bound with Ova) showed basically the same cell adhesion behaviors and viability, indicating the excellent biocompatibility of the Ova-bound-MINCMs. Additionally, efficient and rapid regulation of cell adhesion/detachment on ovalbumin-bound MINCMs could be still obtained even after 10 cycles of temperature-switch process, which indicated that the as-prepared MINCMs had strong ability to work under high intensity and long continuous operation.

Three-dimensional macroporous wood-based selective separation membranes decorated with well-designed Nd(III)-imprinted domains: A high-efficiency recovery system for rare earth element.

Three-dimensional (3D) basswood materials, for the first time, were successfully used for the construction of rare-earth Nd(III)-imprinted nanocomposite membranes. Herein, polydopamine (PDA)-modified layers could be initially synthesized on basswood surfaces. After the double-bonded modification procedure, the 3D wood-based ionic imprinted membranes (3DW-IIMs) system was finally accomplished by developing a re-modified two-step-temperature free radical polymerization process. The as-design PDA@basswood surface structure was first proposed and applied as imprinting-initiated factors for the preparation of Nd(III)-imprinted sites. Importantly, excellent rebinding capacity (120.87 mg g-1), adsorption kinetics and permselectivity coefficients (more than 10) were achieved successfully. Furthermore, an important research result had also been found that the PDA-modified layers caused significant promotions to the rebinding capacities of the as-prepared 3DW-IIMs, that is to say, more and more Nd(III)-imprinted sites could be synthesized because of the PDA-modified surfaces. The as-obtained selective rebinding and separation results together with the green natural wood-based materials strongly demonstrated that our synthesis methodology of 3DW-IIMs had great potential for applications in various fields of rare earth separation, chemical industry, and environment protection.

A VPE-like protease NtTPE8 exclusively expresses in the integumentary tapetum and is involved in seed development.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is an essential process for development, and shows conserved cytological features in both plants and animals. Caspases are well-known critical components of the PCD machinery in animals. However, currently few typical counterparts have been identified in plants and only several caspase-like proteases are known to be involved in plant PCD, indicating the existence of great challenge for confirming new caspase-like proteases and elucidating the mechanisms regulating plant PCD. Here, we report a novel cysteine protease, NtTPE8, which was extracted from tobacco seeds and confirmed as a new caspase-like protease. Recombinant NtTPE8 exhibited legumain and caspase-like proteolytic activities, both of which could be inhibited by the pan-caspase inhibitor (Z-VAD-FMK). Notably, NtTPE8 possessed several caspase activities and the capacity to cleave the cathepsin H substrate FVR, indicating a unique character of NtTPE8. NtTPE8 was exclusively expressed in the integumentary tapetum and thus, is the first specific molecular marker reported to date for this cell type. Down-regulation of NtTPE8 caused seed abortion, via disturbing early embryogenesis, indicating its critical role in embryogenesis and seed development. In conclusion, we identified a novel caspase-like cysteine protease, NtTPE8, exclusively expressed in the integumentary tapetum that is involved in seed development.

Molecular characterization of purinergic receptor P2X4 involved in Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) innate immune response and its interaction with ATP release channel Pannexin1.

P2X4 receptor (P2X4R) is a member of trimeric ATP-gated receptor channel family. Despite the importance of P2X4R in innate immunity has been addressed in mammals, the immunological significance of P2X4R has not been characterized in fish. In the present study we identified a full-length P2X4R cDNA sequence from Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus (termed poP2X4R) by RT-PCR and RACE approaches and analyzed its gene expression patterns under normal and immune challenge conditions. Qualitative RT-PCR analyses revealed that poP2X4R has a widespread distribution in all examined tissues but dominantly expressed in hepatopancreas. In Japanese flounder head kidney macrophages and peripheral blood lymphocytes, poP2X4R was rapidly and significantly up-regulated by the immune challenges of LPS, poly(I:C) and zymosan. In addition, poP2X4R was up-regulated in spleen, head kidney and gill tissues by Edwardsiella tarda infections. Furthermore, we showed that poP2X4R is a membrane glycoprotein which could interact with ATP release channel Pannexin1, an important component in extracellular ATP-activated purinergic signaling pathways involved in Japanese flounder innate immune response. From a comparative immunological point of view, our results have provided new evidence for the involvement of extracellular ATP-gated P2XRs in fish innate immunity.