Review of science and technology innovation policies in major innovative-oriented countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Since the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic,major innovative-oriented countries have adopted various science and technology innovation(STI)policies to address global public health challenges.Using data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development STI Database,this study analyzed international STI policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.The findings revealed that the pandemic has dramatically stimulated the application of STI policies,and there are commonalities and differences in the STI policies of different countries.Meanwhile,COVID-19 has disrupted planning for allocating resources for STIs,leading to duplication and inefficiency.Based on the findings,this study recommends increasing research investment to address the long-term challenges of major infectious diseases,strengthening support for enterprises,promoting data sharing and openness,enhancing the internationalization of scientific research,strengthening scientific consultation and communication,and devoting more policy attention to vulnerable groups.

Thylakoid Transit Peptide Is Related to the Expression and Localization of NdhB Subunits in Soybean

The chloroplast NAD(P)H dehydrogenase(NDH)complex,as one of the most important photosynthesis protein complexes in thylakoid membrane,is involved in photosystem I(PSI)cyclic electron transport(CEF).Under abiotic environmental stress,the photosynthetic apparatus is susceptible to the damage caused by the strong light illumination.However,the enhancement of NDHdependent CEF could facilitate the alleviation of the damage to the photosynthetic apparatus.The NdhB subunit encoded by chloroplast genome is one of most important subunits of NDH complex and consists of 510 amino acids.Here,according to cloning ndhB from Melrose(cultivated soybean),ACC547(wild salt-tolerant soybean),S113-6 and S111-9(hybrid descendant),based on the comparison and analysis of the sequences of NdhB subunits,we found that there is a novel thylakoid transit peptide of NdhB subunit in S111-9.In addition,crosslink immunoprecipitation,immunogold labeling and co-expression of GFP fusion protein indicated that the novel thylakoid transit peptide is favorable to the expression and localization of NdhB subunit in chloroplast.Therefore,we suggest that this novel thylakoid transit peptide plays the same role as chaperonin and contributes to facilitating the expression and localization of NdhB subunit.

Research on the development of thesaurus in China

Based on the statistics of 130 thesauri having been published in China so far,this article analyzes the development of thesauri in China from the origin,publication year,academic disciplines and quantity of entries collected,and re-defines the development stages.In addition,by collecting the 1,000 relevant research papers,the article also analyzes the theoretical studies from the aspects of the quantity of papers and research subjects in order to give a clear picture of the development and features of the researches on thesaurus in China.

UV-light-assisted synthesis of CeB_(6)@Ag nano-trees for SERS application

The conventional methods of using surfactants to synthesize noble metal nanoparticles usually introduce residues on the surface,which inevitably decreases nanoparticles’ surface enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) performance.Herein,we propose a surfactant-free and feasible approach of preparing cerium hexaboride-Ag nano-trees hybrids(CeB_(6)@Ag nano-trees) as the SERS substrate.First,the CeB_(6)was synthesized by a one-pot ionothermal method.Secondly,the CeB_(6)powder and silver nitrate were dispersed in an aqueous solution.Thereafter,the Ag+was reduced by the UV-light assisted photoreaction and deposited on the surface of the CeB_(6).The SERS performance of the CeB_(6)@Ag nano-trees was evaluated by using the Rhodamine 6 G as the Raman reporter.It shows that CeB_(6)@Ag nano-trees exhibit good SERS sensitivity with the enhancement factor of 2.45 × 10^(7) and detection limit of 10^(-10) mol/L.Moreover,uniformity evaluation of the SERS signal intensity on the substrate also shows that relatively good relative standard deviation values of 12.6%(Raman peak@612 cm^(-1)) and 14.1%(Raman peak@1652 cm^(-1))can be achieved.Finally,finite element simulation evidences that excellent SERS performance of the CeB_(6)@Ag nano-trees is produced by the strong coupled localized surface plasmon resonance generated under the Raman laser irradiation.

Early Research on COVID-19: A Bibliometric Analysis

In December 2019,an outbreak of pneumonia,which was named COVID-2019,emerged as a global health crisis.Scientists worldwide are engaged in attempts to elucidate the transmission and pathogenic mechanisms of the causative coronavirus.COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020,making it critical to track and review the state of research on COVID-19 to provide guidance for further investigations.Here,bibliometric and knowledge mapping analyses of studies on COVID-19 were performed,including more than 1,500 papers on COVID-19 available in the PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases from January 1,2020 to March 8,2020.In this review,we found that because of the rapid response of researchers worldwide,the number of COVID-19-related publications showed a high growth trend in the first 10 days of February;among these,the largest number of studies originated in China,the country most affected by pandemic in its early stages.Our findings revealed that the epidemic situation and data accessibility of different research teams have caused obvious difference in emphases of the publications.Besides,there was an unprecedented level of close cooperation and information sharing within the global scientific community relative to previous coronavirus research.We combed and drew the knowledge map of the SARS-CoV-2 literature,explored early status of research on etiology,pathology,epidemiology,treatment,prevention,and control,and discussed knowledge gaps that remain to be urgently addressed.Future perspectives on treatment,prevention,and control are also presented to provide fundamental references for current and future coronavirus research.