Na3V2(PO4)3 as the Sole Solid Energy Storage Material for Redox Flow Sodium‐Ion Battery

Redox flow batteries have considerable advantages of system scalability and operation flexibility over other battery technologies, which makes them promising for large‐scale energy storage application. However, they suffer from low energy density and consequently relatively high cost for a nominal energy output. Redox targeting–based flow batteries are employed by incorporating solid energy storage materials in the tank and present energy density far beyond the solubility limit of the electrolytes. The success of this concept relies on paring suitable redox mediators with solid materials for facilitated reaction kinetics and lean electrolyte composition. Here, a redox targeting‐based flow battery system using the NASICON‐type Na₃V₂(PO₄)₃ as a capacity booster for both the catholyte and anolyte is reported. With 10‐methylphenothiazine as the cathodic redox mediator and 9‐fluorenone as anodic redox mediator, an all‐organic single molecule redox targeting–based flow battery is developed. The anodic and cathodic capacity are 3 and 17 times higher than the solubility limit of respective electrolyte, with which a full cell can achieve an energy density up to 88 Wh L^?1. The reaction mechanism is scrutinized by operando and in‐situ X‐ray and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. The reaction kinetics are analysed in terms of Butler–Volmer formalism.     

Does N‐Terminal Protein Acetylation Lead to Protein Degradation?

The N‐end rule denotes the relationship between the identity of the amino‐terminal residue of a protein and its in vivo half‐life. Since its discovery in 1986, the N‐end rule has generally been described by a defined set of rules for determining whether an amino‐terminal residue is stabilizing or not. However, recent studies are revealing that this N‐end rule (or N‐degron concept) is less straightforward than previously appreciated. For instance, it is unveiled that N‐terminal acetylation of N‐terminal residues may create a degradation signal (Ac‐degron) that promotes the degradation of target proteins. A recent high‐throughput dissection of degrons in yeast proteins amino termini intriguingly suggested that the hydrophobicity of amino‐terminal residues—but not the N‐terminal acetylation status—may be the indispensable feature of amino‐terminal degrons. Herein, these recent advances in N‐terminal acetylation and the complexity of N‐terminal degradation signals in the context of the N‐degron pathway are analyzed.     

Comparative Nuclear Proteomics Analysis Provides Insight into the Mechanism of Signaling and Immune Response to Blast Disease Caused by Magnaporthe oryzae in Rice

Modulation of plant immune system by extrinsic/intrinsic factors and host‐specific determinants fine‐tunes cellular components involving multiple organelles, particularly nucleus to mount resistance against pathogen attack. Rice blast, caused by hemibiotrophic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most devastating diseases that adversely affect rice productivity. However, the role of nuclear proteins and their regulation in response to M. oryzae remains unknown. Here, the nucleus‐associated immune pathways in blast‐resistant rice genotype are elucidated. Temporal analysis of nuclear proteome is carried out using 2‐DE coupled MS/MS analysis. A total of 140 immune responsive proteins are identified associated with nuclear reorganization, cell division, energy production/deprivation, signaling, and gene regulation. The proteome data are interrogated using correlation network analysis that identified significant functional modules pointing toward immune‐related coinciding processes through a common mechanism of remodeling and homeostasis. Novel clues regarding blast resistance include nucleus‐associated redox homeostasis and glycolytic enzyme–mediated chromatin organization which manipulates cell division and immunity. Taken together, the study herein provides evidence that the coordination of nuclear function and reprogramming of host translational machinery regulate resistance mechanism against blast disease.     

Fragments and dust after Holmium laser lithotripsy with or without “Moses technology”: How are they different?

Urinary stones can be readily disintegrated by Holmium:YAG laser (Holmium laser lithotripsy), resulting in a mixture of small stone dust particles, which will spontaneously evacuate with urine and larger residual fragments (RF) requiring mechanical retrieval. Differences between fragments and dust have not been well characterized. Also, it remains unknown how the recently introduced “Moses technology” may alter stone disintegration products. Three complementary analytical techniques have been used in this study to offer an in‐depth characterization of disintegration products after in vitro Holmium laser lithotripsy: stereoscopic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy. Dust was separated from fragments based on its floating ability in saline irrigation. Depending on initial crystalline constituents, stone dust either conserved attributes found in larger RFs or showed changes in crystalline organization. These included conversion of calcium oxalate dihydrate towards calcium oxalate monohydrate, changes in carbapatite spectra towards an amorphous phase, changes of magnesium ammonium phosphate towards a differing amorphous and crystalline phase and the appearance of hydroxyapatite on brushite fragments. Comparatively, “Moses technology” produced more pronounced changes. These findings provide new insights suggesting a photothermal effect occurring in Holmium laser lithotripsy. Figure: Appearance of hydroxyapatite hexagons on stone dust collected after Holmium laser lithotripsy of a brushite stone using “Moses technology.”      

Physiological model using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for nonmelanoma skin cancer diagnosis

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a noninvasive, fast, and low‐cost technology with potential to assist cancer diagnosis. The goal of this study was to test the capability of our physiological model, a computational Monte Carlo lookup table inverse model, for nonmelanoma skin cancer diagnosis. We applied this model on a clinical DRS dataset to extract scattering parameters, blood volume fraction, oxygen saturation and vessel radius. We found that the model was able to capture physiological information relevant to skin cancer. We used the extracted parameters to classify (basal cell carcinoma [BCC], squamous cell carcinoma [SCC]) vs actinic keratosis (AK) and (BCC, SCC, AK) vs normal. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve achieved by the classifiers trained on the parameters extracted using the physiological model is comparable to that of classifiers trained on features extracted via Principal Component Analysis. Our findings suggest that DRS can reveal physiologic characteristics of skin and this physiologic model offers greater flexibility for diagnosing skin cancer than a pure statistical analysis. Physiological parameters extracted from diffuse reflectance spectra data for nonmelanoma skin cancer diagnosis.     

Towards an interactive,process‐based approach to understanding range shifts: developmental and environmental dependencies matter

Many species are undergoing distributional shifts in response to climate change. However, wide variability in range shifting rates has been observed across taxa, and even among closely‐related species. Attempts to link climate‐mediated range shifts to traits has often produced weak or conflicting results. Here we investigate interactive effects of developmental processes and environmental stress on the expression of traits relevant to range shifts. We use an individual‐based modelling approach to assess how different developmental strategies affect range shift rates under a range of environmental conditions. We find that under stressful conditions, such as at the margins of the species’ fundamental niche, investment in prolonged development leads to the greatest rates of range shifting, especially when longer time in development leads to improved fecundity and dispersal‐related traits. However, under benign conditions, and when traits are less developmentally plastic, shorter development times are preferred for rapid range shifts, because higher generational frequency increases the number of individual dispersal events occurring over time. Our results suggest that the ability of a species to range shift depends not only on their dispersal and colonisation characteristics but also how these characteristics interact with developmental strategies. Benefits of any trait always depended on the environmental and developmental sensitivity of life history trait combinations, and the environmental conditions under which the range shift takes place. Without considering environmental and developmental sources of variation in the expression of traits relevant to range shifts, there is little hope of developing a general understanding of intrinsic drivers of range shift potential.     

Absence of estrogen receptor beta leads to abnormal adipogenesis during early tendon healing by an up‐regulation of PPARγ signalling

Achilles tendon injury is one of the challenges of sports medicine, the aetiology of which remains unknown. For a long time, estrogen receptor β (ERβ) has been known as a regulating factor of the metabolism in many connective tissues, such as bone, muscle and cartilage, but little is known about its role in tendon. Recent studies have implicated ERβ as involved in the process of tendon healing. Tendon‐derived stem cells (TDSCs) are getting more and more attention in tendon physiological and pathological process. In this study, we investigated how ERβ played a role in Achilles tendon healing. Achilles tendon injury model was established to analyse how ERβ affected on healing process in vivo. Cell proliferation assay, Western blots, qRT‐PCR and immunocytochemistry were performed to investigate the effect of ERβ on TDSCs. Here, we showed that ERβ deletion in mice resulted in inferior gross appearance, histological scores and, most importantly, increased accumulation of adipocytes during the early tendon healing which involved activation of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPARγ) signalling. Furthermore, in vitro results of ours confirmed that the abnormity might be the result of abnormal TDSC adipogenic differentiation which could be partially reversed by the treatment of ERβ agonist LY3201. These data revealed a role of ERβ in Achilles tendon healing for the first time, thereby providing a new target for clinical treatment of Achilles tendon injury.     

Infrastructure and the environment in the Anthropocene

For centuries, man‐made infrastructure has been viewed as separate from natural systems. Yet in the past few centuries, as the scale and scope of human activities have dramatically increased, there is accumulating evidence that natural systems are becoming increasingly, and in some cases entirely, managed by humans. The dichotomy between infrastructure and the environment is narrowing, and natural systems are increasingly becoming human design spaces. This is already apparent with the management of hydrologic systems for urban water supply, wildlife, agriculture, forests, and even the atmosphere, and we can expect management of the environment to become more so as human activities grow. Yet our infrastructure largely remains obdurate. They are designed to last for long times even as changes in the environment and technology accelerate. As such, our current infrastructure paradigms fail at the level of the complex, integrated systems and behaviors that characterize the Anthropogenic Earth. Infrastructure in the future will need to be designed for adaptive capacity and the complexities associated with techno‐environmental systems.     

Plant cell packs: a scalable platform for recombinant protein production and metabolic engineering

Industrial plant biotechnology applications include the production of sustainable fuels, complex metabolites and recombinant proteins, but process development can be impaired by a lack of reliable and scalable screening methods. Here, we describe a rapid and versatile expression system which involves the infusion of Agrobacterium tumefaciens into three‐dimensional, porous plant cell aggregates deprived of cultivation medium, which we have termed plant cell packs (PCPs). This approach is compatible with different plant species such as Nicotiana tabacum BY2, Nicotiana benthamiana or Daucus carota and 10‐times more effective than transient expression in liquid plant cell culture. We found that the expression of several proteins was similar in PCPs and intact plants, for example, 47 and 55 mg/kg for antibody 2G12 expressed in BY2 PCPs and N. tabacum plants respectively. Additionally, the expression of specific enzymes can either increase the content of natural plant metabolites or be used to synthesize novel small molecules in the PCPs. The PCP method is currently scalable from a microtiter plate format suitable for high‐throughput screening to 150‐mL columns suitable for initial product preparation. It therefore combined the speed of transient expression in plants with the throughput of microbial screening systems. Plant cell packs therefore provide a convenient new platform for synthetic biology approaches, metabolic engineering and conventional recombinant protein expression techniques that require the multiplex analysis of several dozen up to hundreds of constructs for efficient product and process development.