Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major and common mechanism in developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Replacement of dysfunctional mitochondria by functional exogenous mitochondria may attenuate intrahepatic excessive lipid and recover hepatocyte function. However, no data shows that mitochondria can be systemically administrated to animals to date. Here we suggest that mitochondria isolated from hepatoma cells are used as a mitotherapy agent to treat mouse fatty liver induced by high-fat diets. When the mitochondria were intravenously injected into the mice, serum aminotransferase activity and cholesterol level decreased in a dose-dependent manner. Also, the mitotherapy reduced lipid accumulation and oxidation injury of the fatty liver mice, improved energy production, and consequently restored hepatocyte function. The mitotherapy strategy offers a new potential therapeutic approach for treating NAFLD.

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Molecular photothermal conversion materials are recently attracting increasing attention for phototherapy applications. Herein we investigate the excitation and de-excitation processes of a photothermal molecule (C1TI) that is among the recently developed class of small-molecule-based photothermal imines with superb photothermal conversion efficiencies (PTCEs) up to 90% and a molecule (M2) that is constructed by replacing the amino group of C1TI with an H atom, via excited-state dynamics simulations based on the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The simulations reveal fast (<150 fs of average time) nonradiative decays of the lowest excited singlet (S1) state to a conical intersection (CI) with the ground (S0) state in high yields (C1TI: 93.9% and M2: 87.1%). The fast decays, driven by C=N bond rotation to a perpendicular structural configuration, are found to be barrierless. The slight structural difference between C1TI and M2 leads to drastically different S0-S1 energy surfaces, especially M2 features a relatively much lower CI (0.8 eV in energy) and much more decay energy (1.0 eV) to approach the CI. This work provides insights into the de-excitation mechanisms and the performance tuning of C=N enabled photothermal materials.

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The subjective thermal comfort intervention of landscape elements has been few characterized in previous studies. Therefore, we conducted field studies at eight open spaces in the residential areas of Guangzhou, a city with a humid subtropical climate in China. Data based on physical measurements and questionnaire surveys were collected under a variety of weather conditions during summer and winter. The survey showed the percentage of 'Neutral' votes was generally higher in winter (34.4%) than in summer (20.2%), and the percentage of people who felt "hot" was dominant (43.9%) in summer. A new empirical model was developed according to microclimatic and subjective criteria, which considers air temperature, solar radiation, and wind speed. According to the empirical model in summer, a decrease of 84 W/m 2 in global radiation or an increase of 0.35 m/s in wind speed would have the same effects on thermal perception as a drop of 1 °C in air temperature. A similar analysis could be conducted with the winter model, a change of 20 W/m 2 in global radiation or a change of 0.10 m/s in wind speed have the same effects as a change of 1 °C in air temperature. Furthermore, the thermal comfort intervention of tree, shrubs, reflective surface and pervious ground were quantitatively analyzed in winter and summer based on the empirical model. Based on the analysis, we proposed that large broad-leaved trees and pervious ground were more conducive to the improvement of thermal acceptability during different seasons in hot and humid areas of China. The results showed that in summer, the total acceptable area