Thus, surface functionalization of NPs using the ST/SC reaction may be used to develop new nanosystems that exhibit improved therapeutic benefits.Depression has drawn increasing attention from the public around the world in recent years. Studies have shown that liver injury caused by chronic stress is relevant to depression and neurotransmitter changes. It is essential to clarify the relationship between neurotransmitter changes and hepatic gene expression in depression. In this study, we used the chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model combined with UHPLC-MS to explore the changes of neurotransmitters in serum and hippocampus and to decipher the differential gene expression in the liver by using the RNA-Seq combined with multivariate statistical analysis. Compared with the control group, the levels of neurotransmitters including 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), acetylcholine, glutamate (Glu), and dopamine (DA) in the hippocampus and 5-HT, norepinephrine, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in serum were significantly changed in the CUMS rats. The results of liver transcriptomic analysis and correlation analysis showed that the Glu, DA, 5-HT, and GABA were impacted by 68 liver genes which were mainly enriched in three pathways including circadian rhythm, serotonergic synapse, and p53 signaling pathway. The expressive levels of clock genes and serotonergic synapse genes were validated by using q-PCR, and the diurnal rhythms of neurotransmitters were validated by in vivo hippocampus microdialysis. The CUMS stressors might cause phase advance of Glu and GABA by adjusting clock genes. The transcriptomic technique combined with correlation analysis and in vivo microdialysis could be used to discover comprehensive pathways of depression. It provides a new strategy for the rational assessment of the mechanism of disease.Membrane proteins are essential targets in drug design, biosensing, and catalysis. In this study, we explored the folding of engineered outer membrane protein F (OmpF), an abundant and functional β-barrel protein expressed in Gram-negative bacteria. We carried out circular permutation, splitting and self-complementation, and point mutation. The folding efficiency and kinetic analyses demonstrated that the N- and C-terminal residues of OmpF played critical roles in folding via electrostatic interactions with lipid headgroups. Our results indicate that native porins without charged terminal residues may be tightly downregulated to retain the integrity of the outer membrane, and this modification may facilitate the insertion and folding of modified membrane proteins under in vitro and in vivo conditions for various applications.13C-isotope tracing is a frequently employed approach to study metabolic pathway activity. When combined with the subsequent quantification of absolute metabolite concentrations, this enables detailed characterization of the metabolome in biological specimens and facilitates computational time-resolved flux quantification. Classically, a 13C-isotopically labeled sample is required to quantify 13C-isotope enrichments and a second unlabeled sample for the quantification of metabolite concentrations. The rationale for a second unlabeled sample is that the current methods for metabolite quantification rely mostly on isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) and thus isotopically labeled internal standards are added to the unlabeled sample. This excludes the absolute quantification of metabolite concentrations in 13C-isotopically labeled samples. To address this issue, we have developed and validated a new strategy using an unlabeled internal standard to simultaneously quantify metabolite concentrations and 13C-isotope enrichments in a single 13C-labeled sample based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The method was optimized for amino acids and citric acid cycle intermediates and was shown to have high analytical precision and accuracy. Metabolite concentrations could be quantified in small tissue samples (≥20 mg). Also, we applied the method on 13C-isotopically labeled mammalian cells treated with and without a metabolic inhibitor. We proved that we can quantify absolute metabolite concentrations and 13C-isotope enrichments in a single 13C-isotopically labeled sample.Understanding the structure-property relationship of biological materials, such as bones, teeth, cells, and biofilms, is critical for diagnosing diseases and developing bioinspired materials and structures. The intrinsic multiphase heterogeneity with interfaces places great challenges for mechanical modeling. Here, we develop an image-based polygonal lattice model for simulating the mechanical deformation of biological materials with complicated shapes and interfaces. The proposed lattice model maintains the uniform meshes inside the homogeneous phases and restricts the irregular polygonal meshes near the boundaries or interfaces. This approach significantly simplifies the mesh generation from images of biological structures with complicated geometries. The conventional finite element simulations validate this polygonal lattice model. We further demonstrate that the image-based polygonal lattices generate meshes from images of composite structures with multiple inclusions and capture the nonlinear mechanical deformation. We conclude the paper by highlighting a few future research directions that will benefit from the functionalities of polygonal lattice modeling.Membrane fouling is a major challenge for long-term oil/water separation. The incomplete degradation of organic pollutants or membrane damage exists in the common methods of membrane regeneration. Herein, a dual-responsive nanofibrous membrane with high water-in-oil emulsion separation efficiency and smart cleaning properties is reported, which shows complete restoration of its original separation performance. The pH-responsive and upper critical solution temperature (UCST)-type thermoresponsive nanofibrous membrane with a micro/nanosphere structure was developed via a one-step-blending electrospinning strategy. The membrane displays high hydrophobicity/oleophilicity at pH 7 and 25 °C and hydrophilicity/oleophobicity at pH 3 and 55 °C. As a result, it exhibits an ultrahigh permeability of 60528.76 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 and a separation efficiency of 99.5% for water-in-D5 emulsions at room temperature (25 °C). Moreover, the contaminated membranes could be easily reclaimed by being rinsed with warm acidic water (pH 3 and 55 °C). The membrane maintained high separation performance after being used for multiple cycles, indicating its scalable application for purifying emulsified oil. This study provides a facial method of constructing membranes with multiscale hierarchical structures and a new idea for the design of recyclable oil/water separation membranes.Aqueous zinc ion batteries (A-ZIBs) have been used as new alternative batteries for grid-scale electrochemical energy storage because of their low cost and environmental protection. Finding a suitable and economical cathode material, which is needed to achieve high energy density and long cycle stability, is one of the most important and arduous challenges at the present stage. Potassium manganese hexacyanoferrate (KMHCF) is a kind of Prussian blue analogue. It has the advantages of a large 3D frame structure that can accommodate the insertion/extraction of zinc ions, and is nontoxic, safe, and easy to prepare. However, regularly synthesized KMHCF has higher water and crystal defects, which reduce the possibility of zinc ions’ insertion/extraction, and subsequently the discharge capacity and cycling stability. In this work, a KMHCF material with less water and low defects was obtained by adding polyvinylpyrrolidone during the synthesis process to control the reaction process. The KMHCF serves as the cathode of A-ZIBs and exhibits an excellent electrochemical performance providing a specific capacity of 140 mA h g-1 for the initial cycle at a current density of 100 mA g-1 (1 C). In particular, it can maintain a reversible capacity of 85 mA h g-1, even after 400 cycles at 1 C. Moreover, unlike the traditional zinc storage mechanism of A-ZIBs, we found that the KMHCF electrode undergoes a phase transition process when the KMHCF electrode was activated by a small current density, which is attributed to part of the Mn on the lattice site being replaced by Zn, thus forming a new stable phase to participate in the subsequent electrochemical reaction.Life-threatening invasive fungal infections represent an urgent threat to human health worldwide. The limited set of antifungal drugs has critical constraints such as resistance development and/or adverse side effects. One approach to overcome these limitations is to mimic naturally occurring antifungal peptides called defensins. Inspired by their advantageous amphiphilic properties, a library of 35 synthetic, linear, ternary polyacrylamides was prepared by controlled/living radical polymerization. The effect of the degree of polymerization (20, 40, and 100) and varying hydrophobic functionalities (branched, linear, cyclic, or aromatic differing in their number of carbons) on their antifungal activity was investigated. Short copolymers with a calculated log P of ∼1.5 revealed optimal activity against the major human fungal pathogen Candida albicans and other pathogenic fungal species with limited toxicity to mammalian host cells (red blood cells and fibroblasts). Remarkably, selected copolymers outperformed the commercial antifungal drug amphotericin B, with respect to the therapeutic index, highlighting their potential as novel antifungal compounds.An effective pathway to build macroscopic scale functional architectures bearing diverse structural dimensions is one of the critical challenges in the two-dimensional (2D) MXene research area. Unfortunately, assembling MXene without adhesive binder is largely limited due to its innate brittle nature and the relatively weak inter-flake van der Waals contact, in contrast to other mechanically compliant 2D materials such as graphene. Herein, an electrochemical self-assembly of pure Ti3C2Tx MXenes is presented for functional multidimensional MXene structures, effectively driven by layer-by-layer spontaneous interfacial reduction at metal template surfaces and subsequent defunctionalization. A three-dimensional open porous aerogel as well as 2D highly stacked thin film structures could be readily obtained in this approach, along with largely enhanced electrical properties induced by spontaneous removal of charge-trapping oxygen functional groups. Accordingly, supercapacitors and electromagnetic interference shielding films based on the multidimensional assembly demonstrate excellent performances.Recently, aluminum-air batteries have attracted great interest owing to their high output energy density, low cost, and feasibility to store and transport Al metal. However, the commercial application is still hindered by the lack of a high-performance air cathode, where the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) happens, requiring fast charge transfer and mass transport at the catalyst-electrolyte-air interface. Herein, we report an aerophilic air cathode featuring both high intrinsic catalytic activity and large three-phase interface to facilitate air transport, which is prepared by growing cobalt-embedded and nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (CoNCNT) arrays on carbon fiber paper and then modifying surface wettability with polytetrafluoroethylene solution. The optimized air electrode during the ORR shows a high onset potential of 0.95 V and fast current increase of 342.96 mA cm-2 V-1, which is comparable to the commercial 20 wt % Pt/C, and has even better stability under the same conditions. Moreover, the aluminum-air battery with the aerophilic air electrode is superior to the battery with a commercial Pt/C electrode or aerophobic electrode in terms of maximum power density and long discharging durability.