The thermoelectric effect enables direct and reversible conversion between thermal and electrical energy, and provides a viable route for power generation from waste heat. The efficiency of thermoelectric materials is dictated by the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT (where Z is the figure of merit and T is absolute temperature), which governs the Carnot efficiency for heat conversion. Enhancements above the generally high threshold value of 2.5 have important implications for commercial deployment, especially for compounds free of Pb and Te. Here we report an unprecedented ZT of 2.6 ± 0.3 at 923 K, realized in SnSe single crystals measured along the b axis of the room-temperature orthorhombic unit cell. This material also shows a high ZT of 2.3 ± 0.3 along the c axis but a significantly reduced ZT of 0.8 ± 0.2 along the a axis. We attribute the remarkably high ZT along the b axis to the intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity in SnSe. The layered structure of SnSe derives from a distorted rock-salt structure, and features anomalously high Grüneisen parameters, which reflect the anharmonic and anisotropic bonding. We attribute the exceptionally low lattice thermal conductivity (0.23 ± 0.03 W m(-1) K(-1) at 973 K) in SnSe to the anharmonicity. These findings highlight alternative strategies to nanostructuring for achieving high thermoelectric performance.

In December 2019, a new type viral pneumonia cases occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province; and then named "2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)" by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 12 January 2020. For it is a never been experienced respiratory disease before and with infection ability widely and quickly, it attracted the world's attention but without treatment and control manual. For the request from frontline clinicians and public health professionals of 2019-nCoV infected pneumonia management, an evidence-based guideline urgently needs to be developed. Therefore, we drafted this guideline according to the rapid advice guidelines methodology and general rules of WHO guideline development; we also added the first-hand management data of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. This guideline includes the guideline methodology, epidemiological characteristics, disease screening and population prevention, diagnosis, treatment and control (including traditional Chinese Medicine), nosocomial infection prevention and control, and disease nursing of the 2019-nCoV. Moreover, we also provide a whole process of a successful treatment case of the severe 2019-nCoV infected pneumonia and experience and lessons of hospital rescue for 2019-nCoV infections. This rapid advice guideline is suitable for the first frontline doctors and nurses, managers of hospitals and healthcare sections, community residents, public health persons, relevant researchers, and all person who are interested in the 2019-nCoV.

this diversity is located in discrete gene clusters that are spread throughout the different genomes. In contrast to this diversity, these enteric microorganisms exhibit marked synteny in their largescale genomic organization, bearing in mind that E. coli and S. enterica diverged about 100 Myr ago 28. The conserved genes may be a re¯ection of the basic lifestyle of the bacteria, requiring intestine colonization, environmental survival and transmission. The unique gene clusters probably contribute to adaptation to environmental niches and to pathogenicity. The pseudogene complement of S. typhi has implications for our understanding of the tight host restriction of this organism, and raises the question of whether it may be possible to eradicate S. typhi and typhoid fever altogether. M Methods Salmonella typhi CT18 was isolated in December 1993, at the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, from a 9-year-old girl who was suffering from typhoid. The strain was isolated from blood using routine culture methods 23 , and after serological and metabolic con-®rmation of the strain as S. typhi it was immediately frozen in glycerol at-70 8C. The genome sequence was obtained from 97,000 end sequences (giving 7.9´coverage) derived from several pUC18 genomic shotgun libraries (with insert sizes ranging from 1.4 to 4.0 kb) using dye terminator chemistry on ABI377 automated sequencers. This was supplemented with 0.7´sequence coverage from M13mp18 libraries with similar insert sizes. End sequences from a larger insert plasmid (pSP64; 1.9´clone coverage, 10±14-kb insert size) and lambda (lambda-FIX-II; 0.4´clone coverage, 20±22-kb insert size) libraries were used as a scaffold, and the ®nal assembly was veri®ed by comparison with restriction-enzyme digest patterns using pulsed-®eld gel electrophoresis (data not shown). Total sequence coverage was 9.1´. The sequence was assembled, ®nished and annotated as described 29 , using Artemis 30 to collate data and facilitate annotation. In addition we used a gene®nder that was trained speci®cally for S. typhi, which uses a hidden Markov model with modules for the coding region, start and stop codons, and the ribosome-binding site (T.S.L. and A.K., unpublished data). The genome and proteome sequences of S. typhi and S. typhimurium or E. coli were compared in parallel to identify deletions and insertions using the Artemis Comparison Tool (ACT) (K. Rutherford, unpublished data; see also http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Software/ ACT/). Pseudogenes had one or more mutations that would ablate expression, and were identi®ed by direct comparison with S. typhimurium; each of the inactivating mutations was subsequently checked against the original sequencing data.

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l e t t e r sTo elucidate the genetic bases of mycorrhizal lifestyle evolution, we sequenced new fungal genomes, including 13 ectomycorrhizal (ECM), orchid (ORM) and ericoid (ERM) species, and five saprotrophs, which we analyzed along with other fungal genomes. Ectomycorrhizal fungi have a reduced complement of genes encoding plant cell walldegrading enzymes (PCWDEs), as compared to their ancestral wood decayers. Nevertheless, they have retained a unique array of PCWDEs, thus suggesting that they possess diverse abilities to decompose lignocellulose. Similar functional categories of nonorthologous genes are induced in symbiosis. Of induced genes, 7-38% are orphan genes, including genes that encode secreted effector-like proteins. Convergent evolution of the mycorrhizal habit in fungi occurred via the repeated evolution of a 'symbiosis toolkit', with reduced numbers of PCWDEs and lineage-specific suites of mycorrhiza-induced genes.Fungi are often described as either saprotrophs, which degrade complex organic substrates, or biotrophs, which obtain carbon compounds from living hosts. Among the latter, ECM fungi provide crucial ecological services in interacting with forest trees. They are portrayed as mutualists trading host photoassimilates for nutrients and having limited capacity to decompose soil lignocellulose 1-3 , as a result of their reduced repertoire of PCWDEs 4-6 . However, recent studies are challenging this view [7][8][9][10] . An improved understanding of the ability of ECM fungi to decompose lignocellulose is needed to resolve mechanisms of nutrient cycling in forests. The ECM lifestyle in Laccaria bicolor is associated with the expression of new mycorrhizainduced small secreted proteins (MiSSPs) that are required for establishment of symbiosis 11,12 . Mycorrhizal symbioses have arisen repeatedly during fungal evolution and include not only ECM associations but also those with ERM and ORM mycorrhizae 13 . It is not known whether these symbioses share the genomic features found in L. bicolor 4 and Tuber melanosporum 5 . Here we assess whether there Convergent losses of decay mechanisms and rapid turnover of symbiosis genes in mycorrhizal mutualists

Vitamin A has diverse biological functions. It is transported in the blood as a complex with retinol binding protein (RBP), but the molecular mechanism by which vitamin A is absorbed by cells from the vitamin A-RBP complex is not clearly understood. We identified in bovine retinal pigment epithelium cells STRA6, a multitransmembrane domain protein, as a specific membrane receptor for RBP. STRA6 binds to RBP with high affinity and has robust vitamin A uptake activity from the vitamin A-RBP complex. It is widely expressed in embryonic development and in adult organ systems. The RBP receptor represents a major physiological mediator of cellular vitamin A uptake.

SnTe is a potentially attractive thermoelectric because it is the lead-free rock-salt analogue of PbTe. However, SnTe is a poor thermoelectric material because of its high hole concentration arising from inherent Sn vacancies in the lattice and its very high electrical and thermal conductivity. In this study, we demonstrate that SnTe-based materials can be controlled to become excellent thermoelectrics for power generation via the successful application of several key concepts that obviate the well-known disadvantages of SnTe. First, we show that Sn self-compensation can effectively reduce the Sn vacancies and decrease the hole carrier density. For example, a 3 mol % self-compensation of Sn results in a 50% improvement in the figure of merit ZT. In addition, we reveal that Cd, nominally isoelectronic with Sn, favorably impacts the electronic band structure by (a) diminishing the energy separation between the light-hole and heavy-hole valence bands in the material, leading to an enhanced Seebeck coefficient, and (b) enlarging the energy band gap. Thus, alloying with Cd atoms enables a form of valence band engineering that improves the high-temperature thermoelectric performance, where p-type samples of SnCd(0.03)Te exhibit ZT values of ~0.96 at 823 K, a 60% improvement over the Cd-free sample. Finally, we introduce endotaxial CdS or ZnS nanoscale precipitates that reduce the lattice thermal conductivity of SnCd(0.03)Te with no effect on the power factor. We report that SnCd(0.03)Te that are endotaxially nanostructured with CdS and ZnS have a maximum ZTs of ~1.3 and ~1.1 at 873 K, respectively. Therefore, SnTe-based materials could be ideal alternatives for p-type lead chalcogenides for high temperature thermoelectric power generation.

The otd/Otx gene family encodes paired-like homeodomain proteins that are involved in the regulation of anterior head structure and sensory organ development. Using the yeast one-hybrid screen with a bait containing the Ret 4 site from the bovine rhodopsin promoter, we have cloned a new member of the family, Crx (Cone rod homeobox). Crx encodes a 299 amino acid residue protein with a paired-like homeodomain near its N terminus. In the adult, it is expressed predominantly in photoreceptors and pinealocytes. In the developing mouse retina, it is expressed by embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5). Recombinant Crx binds in vitro not only to the Ret 4 site but also to the Ret 1 and BAT-1 sites. In transient transfection studies, Crx transactivates rhodopsin promoter-reporter constructs. Its activity is synergistic with that of Nrl. Crx also binds to and transactivates the genes for several other photoreceptor cell-specific proteins (interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein, beta-phosphodiesterase, and arrestin). Human Crx maps to chromosome 19q13.3, the site of a cone rod dystrophy (CORDII). These studies implicate Crx as a potentially important regulator of photoreceptor cell development and gene expression and also identify it as a candidate gene for CORDII and other retinal diseases.