Heterotopic ossification of tendon and ligament

Much of the similarities of the tissue characteristics, pathologies and mechanisms of heterotopic ossification (HO) formation are shared between HO of tendon and ligament (HOTL). Unmet need and no effective treatment has been developed for HOTL, primarily attributable to poor understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms. HOTL forms via endochondral ossification, a common process of most kinds of HO. HOTL is a dynamic pathologic process that includes trauma/injury, inflammation, mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) recruitment, chondrogenic differentiation and, finally, ossification. A variety of signal pathways involve HOTL with multiple roles in different stages of HO formation, and here in this review, we summarize the progress and provide an up-to-date understanding of HOTL.     

Affinity Laminated Chromatography Membrane Built‐in Electrodes for Suppressing Polysulfide Shuttling in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are promising candidates for energy storage, but suffer from capacity and cycling challenges caused by the serious shuttling effect of polysulfide (PS) ions. To address these issues, a sodium alginate (SA)‐derived affinity laminated chromatography membrane built‐in electrode is designed. This is the first attempt to utilize this type of membrane, which is widely used for the selective adsorption of proteins, in the battery field. An ordered multilayer structure throughout the electrode can easily be obtained, and the number of membrane layers can be also conveniently controlled by varying the cross‐linking time of SA. The PS shuttling effect is efficiently suppressed and the permeability of PSs is reduced by enveloping the carbon/sulfur powder in ultrathin laminated chromatography membranes. As a result, these designed electrodes deliver a superhigh initial capacity of 1492 mA h g^?1, with a capacity retention almost 20% higher than the contrast. This low‐cost and easily mass‐producible strategy inspired by affinity chromatography is expected to effectively solve the PS shuttling problem toward high‐loading and long‐lifetime Li–S batteries in practice.     

Spontaneous Atomic Ruthenium Doping in Mo2CTX MXene Defects Enhances Electrocatalytic Activity for the Nitrogen Reduction Reaction

The electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) process usually suffers extremely low Faradaic efficiency and ammonia yields due to sluggish N?N dissociation. Herein, single‐atomic ruthenium modified Mo₂CT_X MXene nanosheets as an efficient electrocatalyst for nitrogen fixation at ambient conditions are reported. The catalyst achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 25.77% and ammonia yield rate of 40.57 µg h^?1 mg^?1 at ‐0.3 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.5 m K₂SO₄ solution. Operando X‐ray absorption spectroscopy studies and density functional theory calculations reveal that single‐atomic Ru anchored on MXene nanosheets act as important electron back‐donation centers for N₂ activation, which can not only promote nitrogen adsorption and activation behavior of the catalyst, but also lower the thermodynamic energy barrier of the first hydrogenation step. This work opens up a promising avenue to manipulate catalytic performance of electrocatalysts utilizing an atomic‐level engineering strategy.     

Direct Visualization of the Interfacial Degradation of Cathode Coatings in Solid State Batteries: A Combined Experimental and Computational Study

The interfacial instability between a thiophosphate solid electrolyte and oxide cathodes results in rapid capacity fade and has driven the need for cathode coatings. In this work, the stability, evolution, and performance of uncoated, Li₂ZrO₃‐coated, and Li₃B₁₁O₁₈‐coated LiNi_0.5Co_0.2Mn_0.3O₂ cathodes are compared using first‐principles computations and electron microscopy characterization. Li₃B₁₁O₁₈ is identified as a superior coating that exhibits excellent oxidation/chemical stability, leading to substantially improved performance over cells with Li₂ZrO₃‐coated or uncoated cathodes. The chemical and structural origin of the different performance is interpreted using different microscopy techniques which enable the direct observation of the phase decomposition of the Li₂ZrO₃ coating. It is observed that Li is already extracted from the Li₂ZrO₃ in the first charge, leading to the formation of ZrO₂ nanocrystallites with loss of protection of the cathode. After 50 cycles separated (Co, Ni)‐sulfides and Mn‐sulfides can be observed within the Li₂ZrO₃‐coated material. This work illustrates the severity of the interfacial reactions between a thiophosphate electrolyte and oxide cathode and shows the importance of using coating materials that are absolutely stable at high voltage.     

Phylogenetic relationships of Cyrtandromoea and Wightia revisited: A new tribe in Phrymaceae and a new family in Lamiales

The familial placements of Cyrtandromoea Zoll. and Wightia Wall., two small and enigmatic South‐East Asian genera, have long been controversial in Lamiales. Here we adopt a two‐step approach to resolve their phylogenetic relationships. We initially reconstructed a large‐scale phylogeny of Lamiales using six chloroplast markers (atpB, matK, ndhF, psbBTNH, rbcL, and rps4). The results showed that both Cyrtandromoea and Wightia emerged in the LMPO clade, including Lamiaceae, Mazaceae, Phrymaceae, Paulowniaceae, and Orobanchaceae. Based on the second set of six chloroplast markers (atpB, matK, ndhF, rbcL, rps16, and trnL‐F) and two nuclear ribosomal regions (external transcribed spacer and internal transcribed spacer) for the analyses focusing on the LMPO clade, our results revealed that Cyrtandromoea was consistently nested within Phrymaceae, whereas Wightia was supported as sister to Phrymaceae by the chloroplast DNA dataset or sister to Paulowniaceae by the nuclear ribosomal DNA dataset. Morphological and anatomical evidence fully supports the inclusion of Cyrtandromoea in Phrymaceae, and an updated tribal classification is done for Phrymaceae with five tribes, that is, Cyrtandromoeeae Bo Li, Bing Liu, Su Liu & Y. H. Tan, trib. nov., Diplaceae Bo Li, Bing Liu, Su Liu & Y. H. Tan, trib. nov., Leucocarpeae, Mimuleae, and Phrymeae. The conflicting phylogenetic position of Wightia indicated by different genome markers results in difficulty placing the genus in either Phrymaceae or Paulowniaceae. Considering the distinct morphological differences between Wightia and other families in the LMPO clade, we here propose a new family, Wightiaceae Bo Li, Bing Liu, Su Liu & Y. H. Tan, fam. nov., to accommodate it, which is the 26th family recognized in Lamiales.     

Allotransplantation of adult spinal cord tissues after complete transected spinal cord injury: Long-term survival and functional recovery in canines

Science China Life Sciences - Spinal cord injury (SCI), especially complete transected SCI, leads to loss of cells and extracellular matrix and functional impairments. In a previous study, we...     

Root-tip cutting and uniconazole treatment improve the colonization rate of Tuber indicum on Pinus armandii seedlings in the greenhouse

The Chinese black truffle Tuber indicum is commercially valuable. The main factors influencing the success or failure of a truffle crop include the mycorrhizal colonization rate and host plant quality. The effects of a plant growth regulator (uniconazole) and plant growth management technique (root-tip cutting) on T. indicum colonization rate and Pinus armandii seedling growth were assessed under greenhouse conditions. The results indicated that 10 mg l⁻¹ uniconazole or the combination of 5 mg l⁻¹ uniconazole and root-tip cutting constitutes an effective method for ectomycorrhizal synthesis based on an overall evaluation of colonization rate, plant biomass, plant height, root weight, stem circumference and antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD and POD) of P. armandii. The abundance of Proteobacteria in the rhizosphere of colonized seedlings might serve as an indicator of stable mycorrhizal colonization. This research inspires the potential application of uniconazole and root-tip cutting treatments for mycorrhizal synthesis and truffle cultivation.     

Leaf size of woody dicots predicts ecosystem primary productivity

A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size?primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice‐versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate‐driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo‐primary productivity of woody ecosystems.