Hubei University of Technology

The genus Lactobacillus comprises 261 species (at March 2020) that are extremely diverse at phenotypic, ecological and genotypic levels. This study evaluated the taxonomy of Lactobacillaceae and Leuconostocaceae on the basis of whole genome sequences. Parameters that were evaluated included core genome phylogeny, (conserved) pairwise average amino acid identity, clade-specific signature genes, physiological criteria and the ecology of the organisms. Based on this polyphasic approach, we propose reclassification of the genus Lactobacillus into 25 genera including the emended genus Lactobacillus , which includes host-adapted organisms that have been referred to as the Lactobacillus delbrueckii group, Paralactobacillus and 23 novel genera for which the names Holzapfelia , Amylolactobacillus , Bombilactobacillus , Companilactobacillus , Lapidilactobacillus , Agrilactobacillus , Schleiferilactobacillus , Loigolactobacilus , Lacticaseibacillus , Latilactobacillus , Dellaglioa , Liquorilactobacillus , Ligilactobacillus , Lactiplantibacillus , Furfurilactobacillus , Paucilactobacillus , Limosilactobacillus , Fructilactobacillus , Acetilactobacillus , Apilactobacillus , Levilactobacillus , Secundilactobacillus and Lentilactobacillus are proposed. We also propose to emend the description of the family Lactobacillaceae to include all genera that were previously included in families Lactobacillaceae and Leuconostocaceae . The generic term ‘lactobacilli’ will remain useful to designate all organisms that were classified as Lactobacillaceae until 2020. This reclassification reflects the phylogenetic position of the micro-organisms, and groups lactobacilli into robust clades with shared ecological and metabolic properties, as exemplified for the emended genus Lactobacillus encompassing species adapted to vertebrates (such as Lactobacillus delbrueckii , Lactobacillus iners , Lactobacillus crispatus , Lactobacillus jensensii , Lactobacillus johnsonii and <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://doi.org/10.1601/nm.5326" xlink:type

autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.

For lithium-sulfur batteries, commercial application is hindered by the insulating nature of sulfur and the dissolution of the reaction intermediates of polysulfides. Here, we present an ordered meso-microporous core-shell carbon (MMCS) as a sulfur container, which combines the advantages of both mesoporous and microporous carbon. With large pore volume and highly ordered porous structure, the "core" promises a sufficient sulfur loading and a high utilization of the active material, while the "shell" containing microporous carbon and smaller sulfur acts as a physical barrier and stabilizes the cycle capability of the entire S/C composite. Such a S/MMCS composite exhibits a capacity as high as 837 mAh g(-1) at 0.5 C after 200 cycles with a capacity retention of 80% vs the second cycle (a decay of only 0.1% per cycle), demonstrating that the diffusion of the polysulfides into the bulk electrolyte can be greatly reduced. We believe that the tailored highly ordered meso-microporous core-shell structured carbon can also be applicable for designing some other electrode materials for energy storage.

Cancer cell membrane-coated upconversion nanoprobes (CC-UCNPs) with immune escape and homologous targeting capabilities are used for highly specific tumor imaging. The combination of UCNPs with biomimetic cancer cell membranes embodies a novel materials design strategy and presents a compelling class of advanced materials. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

In the last decade, interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG), powered by natural sunlight garnered significant attention due to its great potential for low-cost and environmentally friendly clean water production in alignment with the global decarbonization efforts. This review aims to share the knowledge and engage with a broader readership about the current progress of ISSG technology and the facing challenges to promote further advancements toward practical applications. The first part of this review assesses the current strategies for enhancing the energy efficiency of ISSG systems, including optimizing light absorption, reducing energy losses, harvesting additional energy, and lowering evaporation enthalpy. Subsequently, the current challenges faced by ISSG technologies, notably salt accumulation and bio-fouling issues in practical applications, are elucidated and contemporary methods are discussed to overcome these challenges. In the end, potential applications of ISSG, ranging from initial seawater desalination and industrial wastewater purification to power generation, sterilization, soil remediation, and innovative concept of solar sea farm, are introduced, highlighting the promising potential of ISSG technology in contributing to sustainable and environmentally conscious practices. Based on the review and in-depth understanding of these aspects, the future research focuses are proposed to address potential issues in both fundamental research and practical applications.

Abstract It is highly desirable but challenging to optimize the structure of photocatalysts at the atomic scale to facilitate the separation of electron–hole pairs for enhanced performance. Now, a highly efficient photocatalyst is formed by assembling single Pt atoms on a defective TiO 2 support (Pt 1 /def‐TiO 2 ). Apart from being proton reduction sites, single Pt atoms promote the neighboring TiO 2 units to generate surface oxygen vacancies and form a Pt‐O‐Ti 3+ atomic interface. Experimental results and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the Pt‐O‐Ti 3+ atomic interface effectively facilitates photogenerated electrons to transfer from Ti 3+ defective sites to single Pt atoms, thereby enhancing the separation of electron–hole pairs. This unique structure makes Pt 1 /def‐TiO 2 exhibit a record‐level photocatalytic hydrogen production performance with an unexpectedly high turnover frequency of 51423 h −1 , exceeding the Pt nanoparticle supported TiO 2 catalyst by a factor of 591.

Heterogeneous cellular networks can offload the mobile traffic and reduce the deployment costs, which have been considered to be a promising technique in the next-generation wireless network. Due to the non-convex and combinatorial characteristics, it is challenging to obtain an optimal strategy for the joint user association and resource allocation issue. In this paper, a reinforcement learning (RL) approach is proposed to achieve the maximum long-term overall network utility while guaranteeing the quality of service requirements of user equipments (UEs) in the downlink of heterogeneous cellular networks. A distributed optimization method based on multi-agent RL is developed. Moreover, to solve the computationally expensive problem with the large action space, multi-agent deep RL method is proposed. Specifically, the state, action and reward function are defined for UEs, and dueling double deep Q-network (D3QN) strategy is introduced to obtain the nearly optimal policy. Through message passing, the distributed UEs can obtain the global state space with a small communication overhead. With the double-Q strategy and dueling architecture, D3QN can rapidly converge to a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. Simulation results demonstrate that D3QN achieves the better performance than other RL approaches in solving large-scale learning problems.

Batteries are the most widely used energy storage devices, and the lithium‐ion battery is the most heavily commercialized and most widely used battery type in the industry. However, the current rapid development of society requires a major advancement in battery materials to achieve high capacity, long life cycle, low cost, and reliable safety. Therefore, many new efficient energy storage materials and battery systems are being developed and explored, and their working mechanisms must be clearly understood before industrial application. In recent years, density functional theory (DFT) has been employed in the energy storage field and has made significant contributions to the understanding of electrochemical reaction mechanisms and to virtual screening of promising energy storage materials. In this review, the applications of DFT to battery materials are summarized and exemplified by some representative and up‐to‐date studies in the literature. The main focuses in this review include the following: 1) structural stability estimation by cohesive energy, formation energy, Gibbs free energy, and phonon dispersion spectra calculations; 2) the Gibbs free energy calculations for electrochemical reactions, corresponding open‐circuit voltage, and theoretical capacity predictions of batteries; 3) the analyses of molecule orbitals, band structures, density of states (DOS), and charge distribution of battery materials; 4) ion transport kinetics in battery materials; 5) simulations of adsorption processes. We conclude the review with the discussion of the assessments and validation of the popular functionals against several benchmarks, and a few suggestions have been given for the selection of density functionals for battery material systems.

are elucidated in detail. The toughening strategies and approaches of PLA based super tough blends are summarized and analyzed. The relationship of the properties of PLA-based blends and their morphological parameters, including particle size, interparticle distance, and phase morphologies, are presented.

The ability to engineer genomes in a specific, systematic, and cost-effective way is critical for functional genomic studies. Recent advances using the CRISPR-associated single-guide RNA system (Cas9/sgRNA) illustrate the potential of this simple system for genome engineering in a number of organisms. Here we report an effective and inexpensive method for genome DNA editing in Drosophila melanogaster whereby plasmid DNAs encoding short sgRNAs under the control of the U6b promoter are injected into transgenic flies in which Cas9 is specifically expressed in the germ line via the nanos promoter. We evaluate the off-targets associated with the method and establish a Web-based resource, along with a searchable, genome-wide database of predicted sgRNAs appropriate for genome engineering in flies. Finally, we discuss the advantages of our method in comparison with other recently published approaches.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies and has an extremely poor diagnosis and prognosis. The development of resistance to gemcitabine is still a major challenge. The long noncoding RNA PVT1 was reported to be involved in carcinogenesis and chemoresistance; however, the mechanism by which PVT1 regulates the sensitivity of pancreatic cancer to gemcitabine remains poorly understood. METHODS: The viability of pancreatic cancer cells was assessed by MTT assay in vitro and xenograft tumor formation assay in vivo. The expression levels of PVT1 and miR-619-5p were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Western blotting analysis and qRT-PCR were performed to assess the protein and mRNA levels of Pygo2 and ATG14, respectively. Autophagy was explored via autophagic flux detection under confocal microscopy and autophagic vacuole investigation under transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The functional role and mechanism of PVT1 were further investigated by gain- and loss-of-function assays in vitro. RESULTS: In the present study, we demonstrated that PVT1 was up-regulated in gemcitabine-resistant pancreatic cancer cell lines. Gain- and loss-of-function assays revealed that PVT1 impaired sensitivity to gemcitabine in vitro and in vivo. We further found that PVT1 up-regulated the expression of both Pygo2 and ATG14 and thus regulated Wnt/β-catenin signaling and autophagic activity to overcome gemcitabine resistance through sponging miR-619-5p. Moreover, we discovered three TCF/LEF binding elements (TBEs) in the promoter region of PVT1, and activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling mediated by the up-regulation of Pygo2 increased PVT1 expression by direct binding to the TBE region. Furthermore, PVT1 was discovered to interact with ATG14, thus promoting assembly of the autophagy specific complex I (PtdIns3K-C1) and ATG14-dependent class III PtdIns3K activity. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that PVT1 plays a critical role in the sensitivity of pancreatic cancer to gemcitabine and highlight its potential as a valuable target for pancreatic cancer therapy.

Abstract The emerging solar desalination technology is considered as one of the most promising strategies to ensure water security. However, with the proceeding of solar desalination, salt crystallization on the surface of solar evaporators caused by increasing salinity of seawater will result in a decrease in the evaporation rate. Thus, it is still challenging to fabricate solar evaporators with superior salt resistance. In this work, elastic ceramic‐based nanofibrous aerogels with a cellular architecture are fabricated by the combination of electrospinning and fiber freeze‐shaping technologies, which are composed of vertically aligned vessels and porous vessel walls. Under the action of convection and diffusion promoted by this unique cellular architecture, the aerogels exhibit a superior salt‐resistance without any salt crystals on the surface of aerogels even in 20% brine and under 6‐sun irradiation. Moreover, by virtue of the synergistic effect of the promising structure and light absorbance of carbon nanotubes, aerogels possess a high light absorbance of up to 98% and excellent evaporation performance achieving 1.50 kg m −2 h −1 under 1‐sun irradiation. This work may provide a fascinating avenue for the desalination of seawater in a salt‐resistance and efficient manner.

Mobile edge computing can effectively reduce service latency and improve service quality by offloading computation-intensive tasks to the edges of wireless networks. Due to the characteristic of flexible deployment, wide coverage and reliable wireless communication, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been employed as assisted edge clouds (ECs) for large-scale sparely-distributed user equipment. Considering the limited computation and energy capacities of UAVs, a collaborative mobile edge computing system with multiple UAVs and multiple ECs is investigated in this paper. The task offloading issue is addressed to minimize the sum of execution delays and energy consumptions by jointly designing the trajectories, computation task allocation, and communication resource management of UAVs. Moreover, to solve the above non-convex optimization problem, a Markov decision process is formulated for the multi-UAV assisted mobile edge computing system. To obtain the joint strategy of trajectory design, task allocation, and power management, a cooperative multi-agent deep reinforcement learning framework is investigated. Considering the high-dimensional continuous action space, the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm is exploited. The evaluation results demonstrate that our multi-UAV multi-EC task offloading method can achieve better performance compared with the other optimization approaches.

Abstract Heteroatom doped atomically dispersed Fe 1 ‐NC catalysts have been found to show excellent activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the origin of the enhanced activity is still controversial because the structure‐function relationship governing the enhancement remains elusive. Herein, sulfur( S )‐doped Fe 1 ‐NC catalyst was obtained as a model, which displays a superior activity for ORR towards the traditional Fe‐NC materials. 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed that incorporation of S in the second coordination sphere of Fe 1 ‐NC can induce the transition of spin polarization configuration. Operando 57 Fe Mössbauer spectra definitively identified the low spin single‐Fe 3+ ‐atom of C‐FeN 4 ‐S moiety as the active site for ORR. Moreover, DFT calculations unveiled that lower spin state of the Fe center after the S doping promotes OH* desorption process. This work elucidates the underlying mechanisms towards S doping for enhancing ORR activity, and paves a way to investigate the function of broader heteroatom doped Fe 1 ‐NC catalysts to offer a general guideline for spin‐state‐determined ORR.

Abstract Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted remarkable attention due to their high theoretical capacity of 1675 mAh g −1 , rich resources, inexpensiveness, and environmental friendliness. However, the practical application of the Li–S battery is hindered by the shuttling of soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and slow redox reactions. Herein, a 3D nitrogen‐doped graphene/titanium nitride nanowires (3DNG/TiN) composite is reported as a freestanding electrode for Li–S batteries. The highly porous conductive graphene network provides efficient pathways for both electrons and ions. TiN nanowires attached on the graphene sheets have a strong chemical anchor effect on the polysulfides, which is proved by the superior performance and by density functional theory calculations. As a result, the 3DNG/TiN cathode exhibits an initial capacity of 1510 mAh g −1 and the capacity remains at 1267 mAh g −1 after 100 cycles at 0.5 C. Even at 5 C, a capacity of 676 mAh g −1 is reached. With a high sulfur loading of 9.6 mg cm −2 , the 3DNG cathode achieves an ultrahigh areal capacity of 12.0 mAh cm −2 at a high current density of 8.03 mA cm −2 . This proposed unique structure gives a bright prospect in that high energy density and high power density can be achieved simultaneously for Li–S batteries.

A nanostructured platform that combines electrospun TiO2 nanofibers (TiNFs)-deposited substrate and cell-capture agent realizes significant capture of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). The enhanced local topographic interactions between the horizontally packed TiNFs deposited substrates and extracellular matrix scaffolds, in addition to anti-EpCAM/EpCAM biological recognition, contributes to the significantly enhanced capture efficiency compared to flat surfaces. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has recently emerged as a powerful tool for functional genomic studies in Drosophila melanogaster. However, single-guide RNA (sgRNA) parameters affecting the specificity and efficiency of the system in flies are still not clear. Here, we found that off-target effects did not occur in regions of genomic DNA with three or more nucleotide mismatches to sgRNAs. Importantly, we document for a strong positive correlation between mutagenesis efficiency and sgRNA GC content of the six protospacer-adjacent motif-proximal nucleotides (PAMPNs). Furthermore, by injecting well-designed sgRNA plasmids at the optimal concentration we determined, we could efficiently generate mutations in four genes in one step. Finally, we generated null alleles of HP1a using optimized parameters through homology-directed repair and achieved an overall mutagenesis rate significantly higher than previously reported. Our work demonstrates a comprehensive optimization of sgRNA and promises to vastly simplify CRISPR/Cas9 experiments in Drosophila.

BACKGROUND: An ageing population coupled with an increase in morbidity places a considerable burden on health and social care systems. The aim of our study was to estimate the trends in functional dependency and project future care needs for older people in China. METHODS: We analysed data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative survey of a cohort of Chinese people (aged ≥45 years) from 150 counties or districts and 450 villages or urban communities across 28 provinces, who were selected by use of multistage stratified probability-proportionate-to-size sampling. The baseline survey was conducted in 2011 and follow-up surveys were conducted in 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2020. We excluded people younger than 60 years or people who had missing variables on dependency in the five follow-up interviews. Three dependency levels were determined on the basis of activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs): any ADL items (level 1 dependency); any ADL items or difficulty cooking, shopping, or taking medications (level 2 dependency); and difficulty in any ADL or IADL items (level 3 dependency). The dependency rates were extrapolated to derive the number of people older than 60 years with dependency in China from 2011 to 2020. We used a regression model to project future changes and forecast the size of the older population with dependency between 2021 and 2030. FINDINGS: A total of 89 031 individuals across five waves completed the surveys, of whom 46 619 were eligible for inclusion. The prevalence of level 1 dependency among older Chinese adults declined from 11·7% (95% CI 10·6-12·8) in 2011 to 8·1% (7·5-8·7) in 2020. Level 2 and level 3 dependency also declined. The total number of older people requiring care in 2020 was 20·61 million (95% CI 19·01-22·20) with level 1 dependency, 36·33 million (34·27-38·40) with level 2 dependency, and 45·30 million (43·02-47·59) with level 3 dependency. Improved education, housing, and access to health care was associated with 41·84% of the decline in level 3 dependency prevalence between 2011 and 2020. By 2030, the projected dependency rates could decline to 8·04% for level 1 dependency, 13·28% for level 2 dependency, and 16·05% for level 3 dependency. Nonetheless, the cohort size will grow, resulting in more older Chinese people who need care (29·71 million [27·07-32·36] in level 1, 49·07 million [45·98-52·16] in level 2, and 59·32 million [55·94-62·70] in level 3) in 2030. By 2030, we estimate that 14·02 million more older Chinese people will need care than in 2020. INTERPRETATION: Rapid ageing of the population could offset the decline in dependency and result in a substantial increase in the population with complex care needs. Promoting healthy ageing and investing in an age-friendly environment are important in reducing care burdens in China. FUNDING: National Institute on Aging, Natural Science Foundation of China, China Medical Board. TRANSLATION: For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Photocatalysts with different morphologies and specific exposed facets usually exhibit distinguished activities. Previous researches have focused on revealing the essence of the facet effect in photocatalysis; however, quantitative analyses on the differences of carrier dynamic between different facets are scarce. Herein, we successfully synthesized WO3 nanosheets and nanowires with dominant exposed facets of {001} and {110}, respectively. The lower hole effective mass on {110} (0.94m0) than on {001} (1.28m0) calculated by density functional theory leads to the higher hole mobility on {110} (4.92 cm2 V–1 s–1) than on {001} (3.14 cm2 V–1 s–1). Combined with the Einstein equation and the lifetime of the hole, the calculated hole diffusion length on {110} (74.8 nm) is larger than on {001} (53.4 nm). Overall, the lower hole effective mass, higher hole mobility, and greater hole diffusion length on {110} collectively result in a photocatalytic activity on benzyl alcohol oxidation 2.46 times as high as that on {001}.

High-quality pinhole-free perovskite film with optimal crystalline morphology is critical for achieving high-efficiency and high-stability perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this study, a p-type π-conjugated polymer poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl) thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b'] dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1',3'-di-2-thienyl-5',7'-bis(2-ethylhexyl) benzo[1',2'-c:4',5'-c'] dithiophene-4,8-dione))] (PBDB-T) is introduced into chlorobenzene to form a facile and effective template-agent during the anti-solvent process of perovskite film formation. The π-conjugated polymer PBDB-T is found to trigger a heterogeneous nucleation over the perovskite precursor film and passivate the trap states of the mixed perovskite film through the formation of Lewis adducts between lead and oxygen atom in PBDB-T. The p-type semiconducting and hydrophobic PBDB-T polymer fills in the perovskite grain boundaries to improve charge transfer for better conductivity and prevent moisture invasion into the perovskite active layers. Consequently, the PSCs with PBDB-T modified anti-solvent processing leads to a high-efficiency close to 20%, and the devices show excellent stability, retaining about 90% of the initial power conversion efficiency after 150 d storage in dry air.