Synthesis of Small‐Molecule Fluorescent Probes for the In Vitro Imaging of Calcium‐Activated Potassium Channel KCa3.1

Small‐molecule probes for the in vitro imaging of K_Ca3.1 channel‐expressing cells were developed. Senicapoc, showing high affinity and selectivity for the K_Ca3.1 channels, was chosen as the targeting component. BODIPY dyes 15 – 20 were synthesized and connected by a Cu^I‐catalyzed azide–alkyne [3+2]cycloaddition with propargyl ether senicapoc derivative 8 , yielding fluorescently labeled ligands 21 – 26 . The dimethylpyrrole‐based imaging probes 25 and 26 allow staining of K_Ca3.1 channels in NSCLC cells. The specificity was shown by removing the punctate staining pattern by pre‐incubation with senicapoc. The density of K_Ca3.1 channels detected with 25 and by immunostaining was identical. The punctate structure of the labeled channels could also be observed in living cells. Molecular modeling showed binding of the senicapoc‐targeting component towards the binding site within the ion channel and orientation of the linker with the dye along the inner surface of the ion channel.     

Anisotropic Electron Conductance Driven by Reaction Byproducts on a Porous Network of Dibromobenzothiadiazole on Cu(110)

Efficiency in charge‐transport is a fundamental but demanding prerequisite to allow better exploitation of molecular functionalities in organic electronics and energy‐conversion systems. Here, we report on a mechanism that enables a one‐dimensional conductance structure by connecting discrete molecular states at 2.1 eV through the pores of a metal–organic network on Cu(110). Two adjacent, periodic and isoenergetic contributions, namely a molecular resonance and the confined surface‐state, add‐up leading to anisotropic structures, as channels, observable in real‐space conductance images. The adsorption configurations of Br atoms, inorganic byproduct of the redox‐reacted 4,7‐dibromobenzo[c]‐1,2,5‐thiadiazole (2Br‐BTD) molecules on the copper surface, drive the confinement of the Cu surface state within the pores and critically control the channel continuity. Small displacements of the Br atoms change the local surface potential misaligning the energy levels. This work visualizes the effect of order‐disorder transitions caused by the movement of single atoms in the electronic properties of two‐dimensional organic networks.     

Pebax‐Based Membrane Filled with Two‐Dimensional Mxene Nanosheets for Efficient CO2 Capture

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) made from inorganic fillers and polymers is a kind of promising candidate for gas separation. In this work, two‐dimensional MXene nanosheets were synthesized and incorporated into a polyether‐polyamide block copolymer (Pebax) matrix to fabricate MMM for CO₂ capture. The physicochemical properties of MXene nanosheets and MXene/Pebax membranes were studied systematically. The introduction of MXene nanosheets provided additional molecular transport channels and meanwhile enhanced the CO₂ adsorption capacity, thereby enhancing both the CO₂ peremance and CO₂/N₂ selectivity of Pebax membrane. The optimized MXene/Pebax membrane with a MXene loading of 0.15 wt % displayed a high separation performance with a CO₂ permeance of 21.6 GPU and a CO₂/N₂ selectivity of 72.5, showing potential application in CO₂ capture.     

Therapeutic Potential of Highly Selective A3 Adenosine Receptor Ligands in the Central and Peripheral Nervous System

Ligands of the G_i protein-coupled adenosine A₃ receptor (A₃R) are receiving increasing interest as attractive therapeutic tools for the treatment of a number of pathological conditions of the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS, respectively). Their safe pharmacological profiles emerging from clinical trials on different pathologies (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and fatty liver diseases) confer a realistic translational potential to these compounds, thus encouraging the investigation of highly selective agonists and antagonists of A₃R. The present review summarizes information on the effect of latest-generation A₃R ligands, not yet available in commerce, obtained by using different in vitro and in vivo models of various PNS- or CNS-related disorders. This review places particular focus on brain ischemia insults and colitis, where the prototypical A₃R agonist, Cl-IB-MECA, and antagonist, MRS1523, have been used in research studies as reference compounds to explore the effects of latest-generation ligands on this receptor. The advantages and weaknesses of these compounds in terms of therapeutic potential are discussed.     

一种复杂车辆图像中的多车牌定位方法

针对复杂背景中多个车牌的定位问题,提出一种新的定位方法.该方法综合利用边缘检测、连通域分析、倾斜矫正等多种方法,解决了复杂背景中定位难的问题.能够准确定位杂乱背景中的车牌,对天气、光照变化、车牌在图像中的移动和旋转等,具有良好的适应能力.该方法为后续的字符分割和字符识别提供旋转角度、字符区域定位信息.     

基于小波变换的图像融合新算法

针对现有图像融合技术中的尺度系数卷积法存在的边缘细节损失和对比度下降问题,提出了将Canny边缘检测算子等价于提取图像的小波变换模极大值点这一思想引入图像的低频分量融合规则以及用于高频子带融合的局部对比度结合方向方差方法.最后通过仿真试验以及熵值数据证明该算法有效改善了边缘细节的准确度,提高了分辨率,并使局部对比度信息得以保留,从而更加符合人类的视觉特性.     

Channel-Supermodular Entropies: Order Theory and an Application to Query Anonymization

This work introduces channel-supermodular entropies, a subset of quasi-concave entropies. Channel-supermodularity is a property shared by some of the most commonly used entropies in the literature, including Arimoto–Rényi conditional entropies (which include Shannon and min-entropy as special cases), k-tries entropies, and guessing entropy. Based on channel-supermodularity, new preorders for channels that strictly include degradedness and inclusion (or Shannon ordering) are defined, and these preorders are shown to provide a sufficient condition for the more-capable and capacity ordering, not only for Shannon entropy but also regarding analogous concepts for other entropy measures. The theory developed is then applied in the context of query anonymization. We introduce a greedy algorithm based on channel-supermodularity for query anonymization and prove its optimality, in terms of information leakage, for all symmetric channel-supermodular entropies.     

Geometry of skew information-based quantum coherence

We study the skew information-based coherence of quantum states and derive explicit formulas for Werner states and isotropic states in a set of autotensors of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). We also give surfaces of skew information-based coherence for Bell-diagonal states and a special class of X states in both computational basis and in MUBs. Moreover, we depict the surfaces of the skew information-based coherence for Bell-diagonal states under various types of local nondissipative quantum channels. The results show similar as well as different features compared with relative entropy of coherence and l₁ norm of coherence.     

Nonlinear edge modes in a honeycomb electrical lattice near the Dirac points

We examine - both experimentally and numerically - a two-dimensional nonlinear driven electrical lattice with honeycomb structure. Drives are considered over a range of frequencies both outside (below and above) and inside the band of linear modes. We identify a number of discrete breathers both existing in the bulk and also (predominantly) ones arising at the domain boundaries, localized either along the arm-chair or along the zig-zag edges. The types of edge-localized breathers observed and computed emerge in distinct frequency bands near the Dirac-point frequency of the dispersion surface while driving the lattice subharmonically (in a spatially homogeneous manner). These observations/computations can represent a starting point towards the exploration of the interplay of nonlinearity and topology in an experimentally tractable system such as the honeycomb electrical lattice.     

Tunable magnetism through edge functionalization in zigzag green phosphorene nanoribbons

Ab initio density-functional theory calculations with spin polarization are performed to explore magnetic properties in zigzag green phosphorene nanoribbons (ZGPNRs) with no passivation or edge-saturated by H, OH and O chemical species. It is found that antiferromagnetic order at intra-edges is the most energetically favorable for the pristine and oxygen passivated ribbons, while H- or OH-saturated ZGPNRs show nonmagnetic order. It indicates that edge states arising from the unsaturated bonds are vital for the formation of the magnetic moment in the ZGPNRs. The magnitude of the edge magnetism in the pristine and O-saturated ZGPNRs is comparable to that in zigzag black phosphorene nanoribbons. Electronic band structures, spin densities and spd-orbital projected density of states for the studied pristine and O-passivated ZGPNRs are further analyzed to study their electronic properties. The magnetic and electronic properties discovered in the ZGPNRs may suggest potential applications in future spintronics and electronics.