Thermal Interface Materials with High Thermal Conductivity and Low Young's Modulus Using a Solid-Liquid Metal Codoping Strategy.

Thermal interface materials (TIMs), as typical thermal functional materials, are highly required to possess both high thermal conductivity and low Young's modulus. However, the naturally synchronized change in the thermal and mechanical properties seriously hinders the development of high-performance TIMs. To tackle such a dilemma, a strategy of codoping solid fillers and liquid metal fillers into polymer substrates is proposed in this study.

Progress, Mechanisms and Applications of Liquid-Metal Catalyst Systems.

Among the significant growths of liquid metal (LM) research achieved over the past few years, the field of LM as catalysts offers promising opportunities for material scientists to exploit, and thus, burgeoning progress has been made. This article presents an overview of recent progress in developing LM catalysis, which spans from liquid-phase catalysts, photocatalysts, heterogeneous catalysts, and bimetallic catalysts, to catalysts based on liquid-metal/metal-oxide (LM/MO) frameworks. The different types, preparation methods, and typical applications of LM catalysts are classified and reviewed.

A comparison of two cellular delivery mechanisms for small interfering RNA.

Cellular delivery of small interfering RNAs to target cells of a tissue has the potential to travel by two intercellular pathways. For intimately apposed cells gap junctions allow transport exclusive of the extracellular space. For cells not in intimate contact, exocytotic release of vesicular contents and subsequent retrieval via endocytosis of exosomes and other vesicular contents represent an alternative intercellular delivery system that utilizes the extracellular space.

Human articular chondrocytes express multiple gap junction proteins: differential expression of connexins in normal and osteoarthritic cartilage.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease and involves progressive degeneration of articular cartilage. The aim of this study was to investigate if chondrocytes from human articular cartilage express gap junction proteins called connexins (Cxs). We show that human chondrocytes in tissue express Cx43, Cx45, Cx32, and Cx46.

Stimulating cardiac muscle by light: cardiac optogenetics by cell delivery.

Background: After the recent cloning of light-sensitive ion channels and their expression in mammalian cells, a new field, optogenetics, emerged in neuroscience, allowing for precise perturbations of neural circuits by light. However, functionality of optogenetic tools has not been fully explored outside neuroscience, and a nonviral, nonembryogenesis-based strategy for optogenetics has not been shown before.

Methods And Results: We demonstrate the utility of optogenetics to cardiac muscle by a tandem cell unit (TCU) strategy, in which nonexcitable cells carry exogenous light-sensitive ion channels, and, when electrically coupled to cardiomyocytes, produce optically excitable heart tissue.