BINA

Hierarchical organic structures have gained vast attention in the past decade owing to their great potential in chemical and medical applications in industries such as the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this paper, the crystallization of L-glu hierarchical spheres using inorganic ions, namely calcium, barium and strontium cations, is described. The anti-solvent precipitation method is used for the spherical crystallization. The L-glu microspheres are characterized using various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photo-electron microscopy (XPS) and polarized microscopy (POM). It is shown that without additives, L-glu crystallizes as flower-like structures, very different from the hierarchical spheres crystallized with the charged additives. Based on our results, we suggest a mechanism for the hierarchical sphere formation based on the crystallization and self-assembly of L-glu in emulsion droplets using charged additives.

The work reported herein discusses the improved electrochemical and thermal behavior of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) spinel cathodes via surface engineering using a series of zeolites. The limiting issues of these high voltage electrodes are phase transition during Li-ions intercalation/de-intercalation processes, weakening the active material's structure. Besides, it initiates harmful interfacial side reactions, including solution species oxidation and Ni & Mn dissolution, affecting their long-term cycling stability severely and detrimentally. Therefore, we propose a zeolite-based surface modification of LNMO involving a simple surface coating strategy that includes liquid-phase (ethanol) mixing followed by heat treatment at 200°C under nitrogen gas flow. The cathodes comprising LNMO coated with 2 wt% zeolites exhibited significantly improved cycling stability than the reference cathodes with the uncoated material …

As described in part 1, a unique thermodynamic behavior was observed for solutions of magnesium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonimide) in 1,2-dimethoxyethane. These solutions display phase characteristics that are strongly dependent on temperature: between 287 and 373 K, the solutions separate into two immiscible phases (i.e., upper and lower), with different electrolyte concentrations, volumes, and densities. The driving forces for phase separation are explained by statistical thermodynamics on the basis of the conformers’ populations. By means of Raman spectroscopy analyses, we calculated the conformers’ distributions and individual conformers’ entropies, revealing a considerable increase in the entropy of the dilute upper phase with temperature. This increase is due to the combination of a decrease in salt concentration and an increase in the population of entropically favored TTT, TTG, TGG, and TGG …

The discovery of the Ti3C2Tx compounds (MXenes) a decade ago opened new research directions and valuable opportunities for high‐rate energy storage applications. The unique ability of the MXenes to host various mono‐ and multivalent cations and their high stability in different electrolyte environments including aqueous, organic, and ionic liquid solutions, promoted the rapid development of advanced MXene‐based electrodes for a large variety of applications. Unlike the vast majority of typical intercalation compounds, the electrochemical performance of MXene electrodes is strongly influenced by the presence of co‐inserted solvent molecules, which cannot be detected by conventional current/potential electrochemical measurements. Furthermore, the electrochemical insertion of ions into MXene interspaces results in strong coupling with the intercalation‐induced structural, dimensional, and viscoelastic …

Endogenous gene knock-in using CRIPSR is becoming the standard for fluorescent tagging of endogenous proteins. Some protocols, particularly those that utilize insert cassettes that carry a fluorescent protein tag, can yield many types of cells with off-target insertions that have diffuse fluorescent signal throughout the whole cell in addition to scarce cells with on-target gene insertions that show the correct sub-cellular localization of the tagged protein. As such, when searching for cells with on-target integration using flow cytometry, the off-target fluorescent cells yield a high percentage of false positives. Here, we show that by changing the gating used to select for fluorescence during flow cytometry sorting, namely utilizing the width of the signal as opposed to the area, we can highly enrich for positively integrated cells. Reproducible gates were created to select for even minuscule percentages of correct subcellular signal, and these parameters were validated by fluorescence microscopy. This method is a powerful tool to rapidly enhance the generation of cell-lines with correctly integrated gene knock-ins encoding endogenous fluorescent proteins.

Topological entanglements restrict the fluctuations of network strands and control the mechanical properties of high molecular weight polymer networks. Polymer entanglements have traditionally been modeled in two different ways, either using a collective mean-field confining potential that restricts fluctuations of network strands to confining tubes or by discrete pairwise interactions between chains. We discovered a connection between these two qualitatively different descriptions and proposed a method of obtaining affine length scale of deformed entanglement strand from the decay rate of the correlation function of bond vectors. Using this new method, we observed a cross-over from collective entanglements at weak network deformations to pairwise entanglements at strong deformations.

A sustainable future based on hydrogen fuel rests its faith on the rapid advancement of non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We demonstrate the efficient utilisation in the analysis of a large compositional space of binary NiFe and ternary NiFeV alloys for OER using a combinatorial method. We fabricated a gradient library of these multi metal alloys using physical vapor deposition and characterised them using high-throughput techniques. The electrocatalytic OER activity was studied using an automated electrochemical scanning droplet cell (SDC) set up designed in our lab. From the overpotential (@10mA/cm2) heatmaps of the libraries, the compositional regime of interest is funnelled down to 10-15% of Fe and 85-90 % of Ni for the NiFe alloy and 1-3% V, 10-15% Fe, and 80-90% Ni for the NiFeV alloy with their overpotential values falling between 320 – 330 mV. Due to its oxidation …

Morphogenesis involves the transformation of initially simple shapes, such as multicellular spheroids, into more complex shapes. These shape changes are governed by mechanical forces including molecular motor-generated forces as well as hydrostatic fluid pressure, both of which are actively regulated in living matter through mechano-chemical feedback. Inspired by autonomous, biophysical shape change, such as occurring in the model organism hydra, we introduce a minimal, active, elastic model featuring a network of springs in a globe-like spherical shell geometry. In this model there is coupling between activity and the shape of the shell: if the local curvature of a filament represented by a spring falls below a critical value, its elastic constant is actively changed. This results in deformation of the springs that changes the shape of the shell. By combining excitation of springs and pressure regulation, we …

New naphthocorrole ligands, display both the cavity size of corroles and the dianionic character of porphyrins. Nonaromatic and yet flaunting deceptively porphyrin-like optical spectra, they are readily accessible via a simple protocol.

Adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 1 (ADAR1) suppresses the activation of multiple antiviral immune response pathways. Here, we investigate the role of ADAR1 during infection with the Plasmodium parasite, which causes malaria and is responsible for over almost a half million childhood deaths every year. Reduced activity of ADAR1 during Plasmodium infection is associated with populations protected from clinical malaria. In animal models, Adar+/- mice are protected from P. yoelii parasitemia, via a previously unreported pathway. These mice display elevated Type-I IFN responses and CD8+ T cell activation, but no detrimental immune responses. Our results suggest that a decrease in the levels of ADAR1 occurs during infection and can drive both innate and adaptive immune responses, and this presents a previously unrecognized opportunity for targeting ADAR1 in diverse infectious diseases.

Chiral polymeric particles (CPPs) were studied extensively in recent years due to their importance in pharmaceutical applications. Here, nanosized CPPs were synthesized and applied as catalysts for direct asymmetric aldol reaction. The CPPs were prepared by miniemulsion or inverse miniemulsion based on various chiral amino acid derivatives and characterized by dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. The nanoparticles with spherical structure between 250 and 400 nm and high chiral surface area were used as catalysts in the aldol reaction at room temperature without additional solvent. L-tryptophan gave the highest enantiomeric excess, >86% with similar catalytic performance four times.

Micro- and Nano-particles are elemental for many current and developing technologies. Specifically, these particles are being extensively used in biological studies and applications, including imaging, drug delivery and therapeutics. Recent advances have led to the development of multifunctional particles, which have the potential to further enhance their effectiveness, enabling novel applications. Therefore, many efforts are devoted to produce well-defined particles for specific needs. However, conventional fabrication methodologies utilized to develop particles are time consuming, making it extremely challenging to fine-tune properties of the particles for multifunctional applications. Herein, we present a simple and facile method to fabricate dome-shaped micron and nano particles by a robust physical route. The presented method enables to design particles with a vast range of materials, sizes and compositions …

T-cell diversity is crucial for producing effective receptors that can recognize the pathogens encountered throughout life. A stochastic biological process known as VDJ recombination accounts for the high diversity of these receptors, making their analysis challenging. We present a new approach to sequence encoding and analysis, based on the Lempel-Ziv 76 algorithm (LZ-76). By creating a graph-like model, we identify specific sequence features and produce a new encoding approach to an individual's repertoire. We demonstrate that this repertoire representation allows for various applications, such as generation probability inference, informative feature vector derivation, sequence generation, and a new measure for diversity estimation.

Imaging and microscopy have played a very important role in biological research. In this commentary, we have provided a summary of the development of different imaging modalities and quantitative techniques as an introduction. We have briefly described the technique Statistical Parametrization of Cell Cytoskeleton (SPOCC) and evaluated it against similar techniques available. We have also discussed the advantages, short comings and future prospective of SPOCC both technically and biologically.

High energy density Li-rich 0.33Li2MnO3•0.67LiNi0.4Co0.2Mn0.4O2 (HE-NCM) layered structure cathodes for Li-ion batteries provide higher capacity gain via incorporation of an excess of lithium into the host. As a serious drawback, these cathodes suffer from continuous voltage fade upon cycling. Recently, high capacity retention, rate capability and low voltage hysteresis were achieved for HE-NCM by new thermal double gases SO2 and NH3 treatment. However, so far a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms responsible for this improved stability is missing. Herein, a comprehensive study of the chemical composition and electronic structure modifications of a series of HE-NCM (untreated, treated, carbon- and binder- free) is performed using advanced electron spectroscopy techniques supported by theoretical calculations. We demonstrate that the double gases treatment process leads to a partial …

Emerging energy storage systems based on abundant and cost-effective materials are key to overcome the global energy and climate crisis of the 21st century. Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries (RMB), based on Earth-abundant magnesium, can provide a cheap and environmentally responsible alternative to the benchmark Li-ion technology, especially for large energy storage applications. Currently, RMB technology is the subject of intense research efforts at laboratory scale. However, these emerging approaches must be placed in a real-world perspective to ensure that they satisfy key technological requirements. In an attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory advancements and industrial development demands, herein, we report the first non-aqueous multilayer RMB pouch cell prototypes and propose a roadmap for a new advanced RMB chemistry. Through this work, we aim to show the great unrealized …

Millions of adenosines are deaminated throughout the transcriptome by ADAR1 and ADAR2, modulating double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) immunogenicity and recoding mRNA. The high variability in the susceptibility of different adenosines to editing begs the question of what are the determinants of substrate specificity. Here, we systematically monitor how secondary structure modulates ADAR2 vs ADAR1 substrate selectivity, on the basis of systematic probing of thousands of synthetic sequences transfected into ADAR1-deleted cell lines exogenously expressing either ADAR2 or ADAR1. In both cases, structural disruptions gave rise to symmetric, strand-specific induced editing at a fixed offset, but of varying length: -26 nt for ADAR2, and -35 nt for ADAR1. We dissect the basis for the differences in offset between ADAR1 and ADAR2 via diverse mutants, domain-swaps, and ADAR evolutionary homologs, and reveal that it is encoded by the differential RNA binding domain architecture. We demonstrate that this offset-enhanced editing can allow an improved design of ADAR2-recruiting therapeutics, with proof-of-concept experiments suggestive of increased on-target and potentially decreased off-target editing. Our findings provide novel insight into the determinants guiding ADAR2 substrate selectivity and into the roles of the RNA binding domains of ADAR1 and ADAR2 in mediating differential targeting, and should facilitate the design of improved ADAR-recruiting therapeutics.

Correction for ‘Impact of thermal gas treatment on the surface modification of Li-rich Mn-based cathode materials for Li-ion batteries’ by Maximilian Mellin et al., Mater. Adv., 2023, 4, 3746–3758, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3MA00236E.

Imaging and microscopy have played a very important role in biological research. In this commentary, we have provided a summary of the development of different imaging modalities and quantitative techniques as an introduction. We have briefly described the technique Statistical Parametrization of Cell Cytoskeleton (SPOCC) and evaluated it against similar techniques available. We have also discussed the advantages, short comings and future prospective of SPOCC both technically and biologically.