An in situ STM study on the long-range surface restructuring of Au(1 1 1) in a non-chloroaluminumated ionic liquid

We report an in situ STM study of a potential-dependent long-range surface restructuring of Au(1 1 1) electrode in neat 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborates (BMIBF₄) ionic liquid. Au(1 1 1) undergoes a significant long-range surface restructuring upon cathodic excursion to −1.0 V vs. Pt quasi-reference. The restructuring involves the formation of tiny pits, which then develops into a stable worm-like network with an average width of the network grids 2 nm. Electrochemical annealing occurs at the cathodic limit with the presence of a reduction product of cation BMI⁺. A smooth surface is recovered with the appearance of the typical (√3 × 22) reconstruction of Au(1 1 1). The surface restructuring is reestablished upon anodic excursion to −1.3 V after the adsorbed reduction product is oxidized. The long-range surface restructuring phenomenon is tentatively explained as a result of partial charge transfer to the weakly adsorbed BMI⁺, which reduces the metal–metal cohesive energy. In addition, the synergetic effect of the counter anion BF₄⁻ may also be involved. The results provide a knowledge of Au(1 1 1) electrode behavior in the neat ionic liquid and are beneficial to understanding in situ STM results involving surface morphological changes in such a media.     

Ferromagnetic anomaly associated with the antiferromagnetic transitions in (donor)[Ni(mnt)2]-type charge-transfer salts

Three newly prepared [Ni(mnt)2] complexes, (HMTTF)[Ni(mnt)2], (ChSTF)[Ni(mnt)2], and (DBTTF)2[Ni(mnt)2], are reported (DBTTF = dibenzotetrathiafulvalene, ChSTF = 2,3-cyclohexylenedithio-1,4-dithia-5,8-diselanafulvalene, HMTTF = bis(trimethylene)-tetrathiafulvalene, and mnt = maleonitrile dithiolate). The former two compounds have usual DA-type (D = donor, A = acceptor) mixed stacks, whereas the DBTTF complex has DDDDAA-type 6-fold columns. These compounds are electrical insulators, but the HMTTF and ChSTF complexes exhibit chiT minima at 16 and 55 K, respectively, followed by chiT peaks at 8 and 16 K. Below these temperatures the ESR signal disappears, indicating antiferromagnetic transitions. The origin of the ferromagnetic interaction is explained either from the difference of the g values between the donor and the anion or from the intrinsic ferromagnetic interaction of the [Ni(mnt)2] anions.     

Template-free, polymerase-free DNA polymerization

A combination of a DNA ligase and a restriction endonuclease provides a DNA polymerase activity, which might suggest a novel strategy for polymer synthesis.     

Two Novel Antifungal Saponins from Tibetan Herbal Medicine Clematis tangutica

Antifungal assay-guided isolation of the ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Clematis tangutica yielded two novel triterpene saponins. Their structures were determined to be 3-O-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin 28-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl ester (1) and 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin 28-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl ester (2) on the basis of spectral data and chemical reactions.     

New types of metal squarato-phosphonates: condensation of aminodiphosphonate with squaric acid under hydrothermal conditions

The syntheses and crystal structures of the first copper(I) phosphonate, Cu2(H3L)(bipy)(2).2H2O 1 (H5L = C4HO3N(CH2PO3H2)2), which is also the first example of metal phosphonates formed by a type of organic reaction, and a novel luminescent Mn(II) squarate diphosphonate, {Mn[NH(CH2PO3H)2](H2O)2}2{Mn(C4O4)(H2O)4}.(C4H2O4) 2, have been reported. The structure of 1 features a layer architecture in which the Cu(I) centers are three coordinated, and the newly formed ligand acts as a bidentate metal linker. Compound 2 is composed of 1D chains of Mn[NH(CH2PO3H)2](H2O)2, 1D chains of {Mn(C4O4)(H2O)4}, as well as the neutral squaric acid molecules. These three types of building units are interconnected via hydrogen bonding.     

Microfluidic adhesion analysis of single glioma cells for evaluating the effect of drugs

Cancer metastasis is one of the most serious problems for tumor therapy, which is closely related to cell adhesion and deadhesion process. Better comprehension of cell adhesion ability will benefit drug research. Here, a biomimetic microfluidic enzyme digestion method was proposed to gently measure the influence of drugs on cell-matrix adhesion ability at the single cell level.The method can selectively digest the extracellular matrix(ECM) that linked to a single cell, and the trypsin concentration around the cell is relatively uniform and constant, thus the measured cell adhesion strength should be precise. Commercially available anti-cancer agents including 5-fluorouracil(5-FU), actinomycin D(Act D), temozolomide(TMZ) and allicin were evaluated, and the data showed only TMZ and allicin can inhibit cell adhesion significantly under our experiment conditions. The influence of TMZ became more and more obvious as the increase of duration and the effect became prominent only after 6 h adhesion process, which could provide a quick evaluation of whether the drugs are effective to cancer cell(compared with Calcein-AM/PI cell viability test). The adhesion strength of U87 cells decreased when the concentration of TMZ increased, and the effect of TMZ can be effectively inhibited by adding lactic acid to culture medium, which indicated acidic tumor microenvironment could promote drug resistance of tumor cells. Different from conventional evaluation methods which focus on the drugs' influence on cellular viability or metabolism, this work provides a new perspective to study the effect of drugs, which is helpful to enrich the drug evaluation system.     

Criteria for Geometric and Algebraic Transience for Discrete-Time Markov Chains

Journal of Theoretical Probability - We present new criteria for geometric and algebraic transience for discrete-time transient Markov chains on general state spaces, based on the moment of the...