Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Poly‐Pseudorotaxanes into Artificial Microtubules

Hierarchical self‐assembly of building blocks over multiple length scales is ubiquitous in living organisms. Microtubules are one of the principal cellular components formed by hierarchical self‐assembly of nanometer‐sized tubulin heterodimers into protofilaments, which then associate to form micron‐length‐scale, multi‐stranded tubes. This peculiar biological process is now mimicked with a fully synthetic molecule, which forms a 1:1 host‐guest complex with cucurbit[7]uril as a globular building block, and then polymerizes into linear poly‐pseudorotaxanes that associate laterally with each other in a self‐shape‐complementary manner to form a tubular structure with a length over tens of micrometers. Molecular dynamic simulations suggest that the tubular assembly consists of eight poly‐pseudorotaxanes that wind together to form a 4.5 nm wide multi‐stranded tubule.     

Agglomeration,sedimentation, and cellular toxicity of alumina nanoparticles in cell culture medium

The cytotoxicity of alumina nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated for a wide range of concentration (25–200 μg/mL) and incubation time (0–72 h) using floating cells (THP-1) and adherent cells (J774A.1, A549, and 293). Alumina NPs were gradually agglomerated over time although a significant portion of sedimentation occurred at the early stage within 6 h. A decrease of the viability was found in floating (THP-1) and adherent (J774A.1 and A549) cells in a dose-dependent manner. However, the time-dependent decrease in cell viability was observed only in adherent cells (J774A.1 and A549), which is predominantly related with the sedimentation of alumina NPs in cell culture medium. The uptake of alumina NPs in macrophages and an increased cell-to-cell adhesion in adherent cells were observed. There was no significant change in the viability of 293 cells. This in vitro test suggests that the agglomeration and sedimentation of alumina NPs affected cellular viability depending on cell types such as monocytes (THP-1), macrophages (J774A.1), lung carcinoma cells (A549), and embryonic kidney cells (293).     

Designing micro-patterned Ti films that survive up to 10% applied tensile strain

Reducing the strain in brittle device layers is critical in the fabrication of robust flexible electronic devices. In this study, the cracking behavior of micro-patterned 500-nm-thick Ti films was investigated via uniaxial tensile testing by in situ SEM and 4-point probe measurements. Both visual observations by SEM and 4-pt resistance measurements showed that strategically patterned oval holes, off-set and rotated by 45°, had a significant effect on limiting the extent of cracking, specifically, in preventing cracks from converging. Failure with regard to electrical conduction was delayed from less than 2% to more than 10% strain.     

Template‐Engaged Solid‐State Synthesis of Barium Magnesium Silicate Yolk@Shell Particles and Their High Photoluminescence Efficiency

This study presents a new synthetic method for fabricating yolk@shell‐structured barium magnesium silicate (BMS) particles through a template‐engaged solid‐state reaction. First, as the core template, (BaMg)CO₃ spherical particles were prepared based on the coprecipitation of Ba²⁺ and Mg²⁺. These core particles were then uniformly shelled with silica (SiO₂) by using CTAB as the structure‐directing template to form (BaMg)CO₃@SiO₂ particles with a core@shell structure. The (BaMg)CO₃@SiO₂ particles were then converted to yolk@shell barium magnesium silicate (BMS) particles by an interfacial solid‐state reaction between the (BaMg)CO₃ (core) and the SiO₂ (shell) at 750 °C. During this interfacial solid‐state reaction, Kirkendall diffusion contributed to the formation of yolk@shell BMS particles. Thus, the synthetic temperature for the (BaMg)SiO₄:Eu³⁺ phosphor is significantly reduced from 1200 °C with the conventional method to 750 °C with the proposed method. In addition, the photoluminescence intensity of the yolk@shell (BaMg)SiO₄:Eu³⁺phosphor was found to be 9.8 times higher than that of the conventional (BaMg)SiO₄:Eu³⁺ phosphor. The higher absorption of excitation light by the structure of the yolk@shell phosphor is induced by multiple light‐reflection and ‐scattering events in the interstitial void between the yolk and the shell. When preparing the yolk@shell (BaMg)SiO₄:Eu³⁺ phosphor, a hydrogen environment for the solid‐state reaction results in higher photoluminescence efficiency than nitrogen and air environments. The proposed synthetic method can be easily extended to the synthesis of other yolk@shell multicomponent metal silicates.     

A MAP-modulated fluid flow model with multiple vacations

We consider a MAP-modulated fluid flow queueing model with multiple vacations. As soon as the fluid level reaches zero, the server leaves for repeated vacations of random length V until the server finds any fluid in the system. During the vacation period, fluid arrives from outside according to the MAP (Markovian Arrival Process) and the fluid level increases vertically at the arrival instance. We first derive the vector Laplace–Stieltjes transform (LST) of the fluid level at an arbitrary point of time in steady-state and show that the vector LST is decomposed into two parts, one of which the vector LST of the fluid level at an arbitrary point of time during the idle period. Then we present a recursive moments formula and numerical examples.