Microbial contamination arising from pathogens poses serious threats to human health and in recent decades has presented an unprecedented challenge to antibacterial research. Of the various antibacterial agents that effectively kill pathogens, halogen-based antibacterial compounds have been successful in eliminating harmful pathogen-associated diseases and are becoming the most popular disinfectants. As a significant subcategory of halogen antibacterial agents, N-halamines have drawn increasing research interest into their chemistry and practical applications. N-Halamines have many advantages over other antibacterial agents, including effectiveness against a broad spectrum of microorganisms, long-term physicochemical stability, high structural durability, and the regenerability of their functional groups, with corresponding renewal of their antibacterial properties. This review examines recent progress and research trends in both theoretical and experimental studies of N-halamines, with the aim of providing a systematic and comprehensive survey and assessment of the significant advances in our understanding of antibacterial N-halamines. This review serves as a practical guide to developing N-halamines through both broad and in-depth basic research and offers suggestions for their potential future applications.

As microbial contamination is becoming more and more serious, antibacterial agents play an important role in preventing and removing bacterial pathogens from microbial pollution in our daily life. To solve the issues with water solubility and antibacterial stability of PVP-I (povidone-iodine) as a strong antibacterial agent, we successfully obtain hydrophobic povidone-iodine nanoparticles (povidone-iodine NPs) by a two-step method related to the advantage of nanotechnology. First, the synthesis of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-co-methyl methacrylate) nanoparticles, i.e., P(NVP-MMA) NPs, was controlled by tuning a feed ratio of NVP to MMA. Then, the products P(NVP-MMA) NPs were allowed to undergo a complexation reaction with iodine, resulting in the formation of a water-insoluble antibacterial material, povidone-iodine NPs. It is found that the feed ratio of NVP to MMA has an active effect on morphology, chemical composition, molecular weight, and hydrophilic-hydrophobic properties of the P(NVP-MMA) copolymer after some technologies, such as SEM, DLS, elemental analysis, H NMR, GPC, and the contact angle test, were used in the characterizations. The antibacterial property of povidone-iodine NPs was investigated by using Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) as model bacteria with the colony count method. Interestingly, three products, such as glue, ink, and dye, after the incorporation of povidone-iodine NPs, show significant antibacterial properties. It is believed that, with the advantage of nanoscale morphology, the final povidone-iodine NPs should have great potential for utilization in various fields where antifouling and antibacterial properties are highly required.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), invasive or non-invasive, have projected unparalleled vision and promise for assisting patients in need to better their interaction with the surroundings. Inspired by the BCI-based rehabilitation technologies for nerve-system impairments and amputation, we propose an electromagnetic brain-computer-metasurface (EBCM) paradigm, regulated by human’s cognition by brain signals directly and non-invasively. We experimentally show that our EBCM platform can translate human’s mind from evoked potentials of P300-based electroencephalography to digital coding information in the electromagnetic domain non-invasively, which can be further processed and transported by an information metasurface in automated and wireless fashions. Directly wireless communications of the human minds are performed between two EBCM operators with accurate text transmissions. Moreover, several other proof-of-concept mind-control schemes are presented using the same EBCM platform, exhibiting flexibly-customized capabilities of information processing and synthesis like visual-beam scanning, wave modulations, and pattern encoding.

Zinc oxides have gained exciting achievements in antimicrobial fields because of their advantageous properties, whereas their biological effects on bacteria are currently underexplored. In this study, biological effects of flower-shaped nano zinc oxides on bacteria were systematically investigated. Zinc oxide nanoflowers with controllable morphologies (viz., rod flowers, fusiform flowers, and petal flowers) were synthesized by modulating merely base type and concentration using the hydrothermal process. Their antibacterial power is in an order of petal flowers > fusiform flowers > rod flowers because of their differences in microscopic parameters such as specific surface area, pore size, and Zn-polar plane, etc. More importantly, the role of morphology in influencing biological effect on bacteria was examined, focusing on the morphology-induced effect on integrality of cell wall, permeability of cell membrane, DNA cleavage, etc. As for cytotoxicity, all petal flowers, fusiform flowers, and rod flowers show trivial cytotoxicity to the Hela cells. This work provides a guide for enhancing biological effect of the biocides on pathogenic bacteria by the morphological modulation.

Aims:  To characterize and identify a new taxol‐producing fungal strain HD86‐9 isolated from Taxus cuspidata in China. Methods and Results:  Taxol extracted from strain HD86‐9 was identified by HPLC and MS analyses. Strain HD86‐9 was cultured and its morphology and phenotypes were described. HD86‐9 displayed morphology most similar to that of Aspergillus niger but presented differences in the shape and size of the conidia. The growth evaluation showed that the maximal tolerable temperature of the new strain was 43°C, higher than that of the model Aspergillus niger. The 18S rDNA and the internal transcribed spacer region including the 5·8S rDNA of HD86‐9 were amplified by PCR; molecular analysis of these sequences revealed their high similarity of 98% to those of Aspergillus niger. Conclusions:  The morphology and molecular analysis identified HD86‐9 as a new variant of taxol‐producing endophytic fungi, and it was named Aspergillus niger var. taxi D.P. Zhou, K. Zhao and W.X. Ping, var. nov. Significance and Impact of the Study:  As the first report of a taxol‐producing variant of Aspergillus niger species, this study offers important information and a new resource for the production of an important anticancer drug by endofungus fermentation.