Effects of Mo Addition on Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of CrCoNiFeMo High-Entropy Alloys via Directed Energy Deposition.

Highly entropy alloys (HEAs) are novel materials that have great potential for application in aerospace and marine engineering due to their superior mechanical properties and benefits over conventional materials. NiCrCoFe, also referred to as Ni-based HEA, has exceptional low-temperature strength and microstructural stability. However, HEAs have limited corrosion resistance in some environments, such as a 3.

Enhancement of Long-Persistent Phosphorescence by Solid-State Reaction and Mixing of Spectrally Different Phosphors.

Rare-earth-doped oxide-based phosphors have attracted great interest as light-emitting materials for technical applications and fundamental research because of their high brightness, tunable emission wavelength, and low toxicity, as well as chemical and thermal stability. The recent development of rare-earth-doped nanostructured materials showed improved phosphorescence characteristics, including afterglow and lifetime. However, the development of highly efficient phosphors remains challenging in terms of brightness and long persistence.

Development of a Blue Emitting Calcium-Aluminate Phosphor.

We report methodological advances that enhance the phosphorescence efficiency of a blue-emitting calcium aluminate phosphor (CaAl2O4: Eu2+, Nd3+). The investigation of long-persistence blue-emitting phosphors is highly desirable due to their promising applications, such as white LEDs; however, the development of highly efficient blue-emitting phosphors is still challenging. Here, we have quantitatively characterized the phosphorescence properties of the blue-emitting phosphor CaAl2O4:Eu2+, Nd3+ with various compositions and directly related these properties to the quality of its luminescence.

Effect of Composition and Impurities on the Phosphorescence of Green-Emitting Alkaline Earth Aluminate Phosphor.

Recent improvements to SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ phosphors have enabled the use of luminescent hosts with a stable crystal structure and high physical and chemical stability, thus overcoming the bottleneck in the applicability of ZnS:Cu phosphors. However, enhancement of afterglow lifetime and brightness in SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ phosphors remains a challenging task. Here, we have improved the afterglow characteristics in terms of persistence time and brightness by a systematic investigation of the composition of Eu-doped alkaline earth aluminate SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ crystals.

Increased in vivo immunological potency of HB-110, a novel therapeutic HBV DNA vaccine, by electroporation.

Pulse-induced permeabilization of cellular membranes, generally referred to as electroporation (EP), has been used for years as a tool to increase macromolecule uptake in tissues, including nucleic acids, for gene therapeutic applications, and this technique has been shown to result in improved immunogenicity. In this study, we assessed the utility of EP as a tool to improve the efficacy of HB-110, a novel therapeutic DNA vaccine against chronic hepatitis B, now in phase 1 of clinical study in South Korea. The potency of HB-110 in mice was shown to be improved by EP.

Structural basis for preferential recognition of diaminopimelic acid-type peptidoglycan by a subset of peptidoglycan recognition proteins.

Drosophila peptidoglycan recognition protein (PGRP)-LCx and -LCa are receptors that preferentially recognize meso-diaminopimelic acid (DAP)-type peptidoglycan (PGN) present in Gram-negative bacteria over lysine-type PGN of gram-positive bacteria and initiate the IMD signaling pathway, whereas PGRP-LE plays a synergistic role in this process of innate immune defense. How these receptors can distinguish the two types of PGN remains unclear. Here the structure of the PGRP domain of Drosophila PGRP-LE in complex with tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), the monomeric DAP-type PGN, reveals a buried ionic interaction between the unique carboxyl group of DAP and a previously unrecognized arginine residue.

Two-promoter vector is highly efficient for overproduction of protein complexes.

The use of bicistronic vectors, which contain two target genes under one promoter, has been the most common practice for the heterologous production of binary protein complexes. The major problem of this method is the much lower expression of the second gene compared with that of the first gene next to the promoter. We tested a simple idea of whether inclusion of an additional promoter in front of the second gene may remove the problem.