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Porous scaffolds consisting of bioactive inorganic nanoparticles and biodegradable polymers have gained much interest in bone tissue engineering. We report here a facile approach to fabricating poly(l-lactic acid)-grafted hydroxyapatite (g-HAp)/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanocomposite (NC) porous scaffolds by solvent evaporation of Pickering high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) templates, where g-HAp nanoparticles act as particulate stabilizers. The resultant porous scaffolds exhibit an open and rough pore structure. The pore structure and mechanical properties of the scaffolds can be tuned readily by varying the g-HAp nanoparticle concentration and internal phase volume fraction of the emulsion templates. With increasing the g-HAp concentration or decreasing the internal phase volume fraction, the pore size and the porosity decrease, while the Young's modulus and the compressive stress enhance. Moreover, the in vitro mineralization tests show that the bioactivity of the scaffolds increases with increasing the g-HAp concentration. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen (IBU) is loaded into the scaffolds, and the drug release studies indicate that the loaded-IBU exhibits a sustained release profile. Finally, in vitro cell culture assays prove that the scaffolds are biocompatible because of supporting adhesion, spreading, and proliferation of mouse bone mesenchymal stem cells. All the results indicate that the solvent evaporation based on Pickering HIPE templates is a promising alternative method to fabricate NC porous scaffolds for potential bone tissue engineering applications.

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While a number of highly luminescent copper­(I) halide based hybrid materials built on coordinate bonds (Cu–L; L = N, P, S-based ligands) have been obtained, the poor structural stability largely limited their commercialization. In contrast, according to the previous studies, the ionic structures (L-free) are more stable than those built on Cu–L coordinate bonds. However, the extremely weak emission hinders their optical applications. Herein, we report a tetra-alkylammonium-cation-induced strategy for the synthesis of stable and highly luminescent ionic CuBr-based hybrid materials. It is interesting to find that the tetra-alkylammonium cations with different chains could induce diverse CuBr-based anions. Moreover, most of these CuBr-based hybrids are highly luminescent, which makes them promising candidates as an alternative to phosphors and with potential applications in sensing.

In this work, Cu 2 O nanorods modified by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were produced via a two-step synthesis method. CuO rods were firstly prepared in graphene oxide (GO) solution using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a soft template by the microwave-assisted hydrothermal method, accompanied with the reduction of GO. The complexes were subsequently annealed and Cu 2 O nanorods/rGO composites were obtained. The as-prepared composites were evaluated using various characterization methods, and were utilized as sensing materials. The room-temperature NH 3 sensing properties of a sensor based on the Cu 2 O nanorods/rGO composites were systematically investigated.The sensor exhibited an excellent sensitivity and linear response toward NH 3 at room temperature.Furthermore, the sensor could be easily recovered to its initial state in a short time after exposure to fresh air. The sensor also showed excellent repeatability and selectivity to NH 3 . The remarkably enhanced NH 3 -sensing performances could be attributed to the improved conductivity, catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction and increased gas adsorption in the unique hybrid composites. Such composites showed great potential for manufacturing a new generation of low-power and portable ammonia sensors.

The introduction of nanomaterials to hydrogels is an effective way to improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels. Herein, carbon nanodot (C‐dot) as a new‐found excellent nanomaterial is first added to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel to prepare PVA/C‐dot hydrogel by freeze–thaw method. The appropriate size and plenty of surface functional groups make C‐dot an ideal nucleating agent for PVA crystallization, which leads to form a denser and more uniform cross‐linked network in PVA hydrogel, and in turn enhance the mechanical properties of PVA hydrogel. Compared to pure PVA hydrogel, about a 46.4% increase of tensile strength and 18.5% increase of elongation at break are achieved when the content of C‐dot in PVA/C‐dot hydrogel is 2 wt%, suggesting that C‐dot can effectively improve the mechanical properties of PVA hydrogel. Besides, C‐dot can endow PVA hydrogel with some new properties, such as fluorescence and reducibility. Herein, Ag nanoparticles are simply introduced and uniformly dispersed in PVA hydrogels with the help of reducibility of C‐dot, which can greatly enhance the antibacterial activity of PVA/C‐dot hydrogels, and enlarge their application potential in medical field.

The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae is widely used for biological control of a variety of insect pests. The effectiveness of the microbial pest control agent, however, is limited by poor thermotolerance. The molecular mechanism underlying the response to heat stress in the conidia of entomopathogenic fungi remains unclear. Here, we conducted high-throughput RNA-Seq to analyze the differential gene expression between control and heat treated conidia of M. anisopliae at the transcriptome level. RNA-Seq analysis generated 6,284,262 and 5,826,934 clean reads in the control and heat treated groups, respectively. A total of 2,722 up-regulated and 788 down-regulated genes, with a cutoff of twofold change, were identified by expression analysis. Among these differentially expressed genes, many were related to metabolic processes, biological regulation, cellular processes and response to stimuli. The majority of genes involved in endocytic pathways, proteosome pathways and regulation of autophagy were up-regulated, while most genes involved in the ribosome pathway were down-regulated. These results suggest that these differentially expressed genes may be involved in the heat stress response in conidia. As expected, significant changes in expression levels of genes encoding heat shock proteins and proteins involved in trehalose accumulation were observed in conditions of heat stress. These results expand our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the heat stress response of conidia and provide a foundation for future investigations.