Solidifying framework nucleic acids

正Living organisms have developed their unique strategies during the natural evolution for building hard tissues with minerals, including silica, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and ferric oxide [1]. Such biomineralized materials generally have complex hierarchical structures with excellent mechanical properties. Although bioinspired approaches have led to the creation of well-defined synthetic structural materials ranging from micro to macro scales, the rational design of discrete biomimetic structures at the nanoscale remains a grand challenge.     

Mesoscopic Modeling of Capillarity-Induced Two-Phase Transport in a Microfluidic Porous Structure

Mesoscopic modeling at the pore scale offers great promise in exploring the underlying structure transport performance of flow through porous media. The present work studies the fluid flow subjected to capillarity-induced resonance in porous media characterized by different porous structure and wettability. The effects of porosity and wettability on the displacement behavior of the fluid flow through porous media are discussed. The results are presented in the form of temporal evolution of percentage saturation and displacement of the fluid front through porous media. The present study reveals that the vibration in the form of acoustic excitation could be significant in the mobilization of fluid through the porous media. The dependence of displacement of the fluid on physicochemical parameters like wettability of the surface, frequency along with the porosity is analyzed. It was observed that the mean displacement of the fluid is more in the case of invading fluid with wetting phase where the driving force strength is not so dominant.     

UPLC–ESI–Q-TOF–MS/MS analysis of anticancer fractions from Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis and Ophiocordyceps sinensis

Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis (O. xuefengensis), a new species of caterpillar fungus, has been identified as the sister taxon of Ophiocordyceps sinensis (O. sinensis). The aims of the present study are to evaluate the anticancer activity and to qualitatively analyze the potential bioactive chemical constituents of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis, comparatively. An MTT assay was used to evaluate the in vitro anticancer activities of different fractions from O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. The results show that ethyl acetate fractions of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis have significant in vitro anticancer activity. These two bioactive fractions were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization with quadrupole–time of flight tandem mass spectrometry technology. A total of 82 compounds and 101 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized in the bioactive fractions of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis, respectively. Among these compounds, 68 existed in both O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. A total of 67 compounds were reported in O. xuefengensis and 8 compounds were reported in caterpillar fungus for the first time. This is the first detailed comparative analysis of the in vitro anticancer activity and chemical ingredients between O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. The application of this work will provide reliable fundamental pharmacological substances for the use of O. xuefengensis by Yao people.     

Energy band modulation of GaAs/Al0.26Ga0.74As quantum well in 3D self-assembled nanomembranes

In this study, we investigate the modulation of energy band in 3D self-assembled nanomembranes containing GaAs/Al_0.26Ga_0.74As quantum wells (QWs). Photoluminescence (PL) characterizations demonstrate that the self-assembled structures have different optical transition properties and the modulation of the energy band is thus realized. Detailed spectral analyses disclose that the small strain change in structures with different curvatures cannot cause remarkable change in energy bands in Al_0.26Ga_0.74As layer. On the other hand, the optical transitions of GaAs QW layer is influenced by the strain evolution in term of light emission intensity. We also find the first order Stark effect in rolled-up nanomembrane with diameter of 150 μm, which is closely connected with the coupling effect between the deformation potential and the piezoelectric potential. Our work may pave a way for the fabrication of high performance rolled-QW infrared photo-detectors.     

Linearly χ-bounding (P6, C4)-free graphs*

Given two graphs and , a graph is -free if it contains no induced subgraph isomorphic to or . Let and be the path on vertices and the cycle on vertices, respectively. In this paper we show that for any -free graph it holds that , where and are the chromatic number and clique number of , respectively. Our bound is attained by several graphs, for instance, the 5-cycle, the Petersen graph, the Petersen graph with an additional universal vertex, and all -critical -free graphs other than (see Hell and Huang [Discrete Appl. Math. 216 (2017), pp. 211–232]). The new result unifies previously known results on the existence of linear -binding functions for several graph classes. Our proof is based on a novel structure theorem on -free graphs that do not contain clique cutsets. Using this structure theorem we also design a polynomial time -approximation algorithm for coloring -free graphs. Our algorithm computes a coloring with colors for any -free graph in time.     

Et2Zn-mediated stoichiometric C(sp)-H silylation of 1-alkynes and chlorosilanes

A first example of an Et₂Zn mediated silylation of 1-aklynes is reported. A series of functional groups are tolerated in this reaction. Mechanistic studies support Zn alkynilides as intermediates in the reaction. This reaction protocol provides a practical method for the preparation of alkynylsilanes and expands the application of organometallic zinc in organic synthesis.     

A Renal‐Clearable Duplex Optical Reporter for Real‐Time Imaging of Contrast‐Induced Acute Kidney Injury

Despite its high morbidity and mortality, contrast‐induced acute kidney injury (CIAKI) remains a diagnostic dilemma because it relies on in vitro detection of insensitive late‐stage blood and urinary biomarkers. We report the synthesis of an activatable duplex reporter (ADR) for real‐time in vivo imaging of CIAKI. ADR is equipped with chemiluminescence and near‐infrared fluorescence (NIRF) signaling channels that can be activated by oxidative stress (superoxide anion, O₂^.?) and lysosomal damage (N‐acetyl‐β‐d ‐glucosaminidase, NAG), respectively. By virtue of its high renal clearance efficiency (80 % injected doses after 24 h injection), ADR detects sequential upregulation of O₂^.? and NAG in the kidneys of living mice prior to a significant decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and tissue damage in the course of CIAKI. ADR outperforms the typical clinical assays and detects CIAKI at least 8 h (NIRF) and up to 16 h (chemiluminescence) earlier.