Status of macromolecular crystallography beamlines at SSRF.

Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) is a third-generation 3.5 GeV synchrotron facility located on the Chinese mainland, operational for user applications since 2009. With the completion of its Phase II project this year, SSRF now supports over 40 experimental stations across various research fields.

Deciphering the atomistic mechanism underlying highly tunable piezoelectric properties in perovskite ferroelectrics via transition metal doping.

Piezoelectricity, a fundamental property of perovskite ferroelectrics, endows the materials at the heart of electromechanical systems spanning from macro to micro/nano scales. Defect engineering strategies, particularly involving heterovalent trace impurities and derived vacancies, hold great potential for adjusting piezoelectric performance. Despite the prevalent use of defect engineering for modification, a comprehensive understanding of the specific features that positively impact material properties is still lacking, this knowledge gap impedes the advancement of a universally applicable defect selection and design strategy.

Structural Basis of Main Proteases of Coronavirus Bound to Bofutrelvir.

Globally, the continuous spread and evolution of SARS-CoV-2, along with its variants, profoundly impact human well-being, health, security, and the growth of socio-economic. In the field of development of drugs against COVID-19, the main protease (M) is a critical target as it plays a core role in the lifecycle of SARS-CoV-2. Bofutrelvir acts as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 M, demonstrating high efficacy and broad-spectrum antiviral activity.

Structural basis of rosmarinic acid inhibitory mechanism on SARS-CoV-2 main protease.

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is characterized by high mutation rates and significant infectivity, posing ongoing challenges for therapeutic intervention. To address potential challenges in the future, the continued development of effective drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 remains an important task for the scientific as well as the pharmaceutical community. The main protease (M) of SARS-CoV-2 is an ideal therapeutic target for COVID-19 drug development, leading to the introduction of various inhibitors, both covalent and non-covalent, each characterized by unique mechanisms of action and possessing inherent strengths and limitations.

Dimension-Confined Growth of a Crack-Free PbS Microplate Array for Infrared Image Sensing.

Epitaxy of semiconductors is a necessary step toward the development of electronic devices such as lasers, detectors, transistors, and solar cells. However, the lattice ordering of semiconductor functional films is inevitably disrupted by excessive concentrated stress due to the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficient. Herein, combined with the first-principles calculation, we find that a rigid film/substrate bilayer heterostructure with a large thermal expansion mismatch upon cooling to room temperature from growth is free of surface cracks when the rigid film exhibits a dimension smaller than the critical condition for the breaking energy.

Encoding ordered structural complexity to covalent organic frameworks.

Installing different chemical entities onto crystalline frameworks with well-defined spatial distributions represents a viable approach to achieve ordered and complex synthetic materials. Herein, a covalent organic framework (COF-305) is constructed from tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane and 2,3-dimethoxyterephthalaldehyde, which has the largest unit cell and asymmetric unit among known COFs. The ordered complexity of COF-305 is embodied by nine different stereoisomers of its constituents showing specific sequences on topologically equivalent sites, which can be attributed to its building blocks deviating from their intrinsically preferred simple packing geometries in their molecular crystals to adapt to the framework formation.

Correction: Mechanisms of the ethanol extract of for slow aging in high-fat male by metabolomic analysis.

Correction for 'Mechanisms of the ethanol extract of for slow aging in high-fat male by metabolomic analysis' by Yushi Chen , , 2022, , 10110-10120, https://doi.org/10.1039/D2FO02116A.

Si/CuO Heterojunction-Based Photomemristor for Reconfigurable, Non-Volatile, and Self-Powered In-Sensor Computing.

In-sensor computing has attracted considerable interest as a solution for overcoming the energy efficiency and response time limitations of the traditional von Neumann architecture. Recently, emerging memristors based on transition-metal oxides (TMOs) have attracted attention as promising candidates for in-memory computing owing to their tunable conductance, high speed, and low operational energy. However, the poor photoresponse of TMOs presents challenges for integrating sensing and processing units into a single device.

Structural Basis for Coronaviral Main Proteases Inhibition by the 3CLpro Inhibitor GC376.

The main protease (M) of coronaviruses participates in viral replication, serving as a hot target for drug design. GC376 is able to effectively inhibit the activity of M, which is due to nucleophilic addition of GC376 by binding covalently with Cys145 in M active site. Here, we used fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay to analyze the IC values of GC376 against Ms from six different coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2, HCoV-229E, HCoV-HUK1, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, HCoV-NL63) and five M mutants (G15S, M49I, K90R, P132H, S46F) from SARS-CoV-2 variants.

PbS/CsPbBr Heterojunction for Broadband Neuromorphic Vision Sensing.

Neuromorphic light sensors with analogue-domain image processing capability hold promise for overcoming the energy efficiency limitations and latency of von Neumann architecture-based vision chips. Recently, metal halide perovskites, with strong light-matter interaction, long carrier diffusion length, and exceptional photoelectric conversion efficiencies, exhibit reconfigurable photoresponsivity due to their intrinsic ion migration effect, which is expected to advance the development of visual sensors. However, suffering from a large bandgap, it is challenging to achieve highly tunable responsivity simultaneously with a wide-spectrum response in perovskites, which will significantly enhance the image recognition accuracy through the machine learning algorithm.

Finback: a web-based data collection system at SSRF biological macromolecular crystallography beamlines.

An integrated computer software system for macromolecular crystallography (MX) data collection at the BL02U1 and BL10U2 beamlines of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility is described. The system, Finback, implements a set of features designed for the automated MX beamlines, and is marked with a user-friendly web-based graphical user interface (GUI) for interactive data collection. The Finback client GUI can run on modern browsers and has been developed using several modern web technologies including WebSocket, WebGL, WebWorker and WebAssembly.

Nature-Inspired Thylakoid-Based Photosynthetic Nanoarchitectures for Biomedical Applications.

"Drawing inspiration from nature" offers a wealth of creative possibilities for designing cutting-edge materials with improved properties and performance. Nature-inspired thylakoid-based nanoarchitectures, seamlessly integrate the inherent structures and functions of natural components with the diverse and controllable characteristics of nanotechnology. These innovative biomaterials have garnered significant attention for their potential in various biomedical applications.

Homogenizing out-of-plane cation composition in perovskite solar cells.

Perovskite solar cells with the formula FACsPbI, where FA is formamidinium, provide an attractive option for integrating high efficiency, durable stability and compatibility with scaled-up fabrication. Despite the incorporation of Cs cations, which could potentially enable a perfect perovskite lattice, the compositional inhomogeneity caused by A-site cation segregation is likely to be detrimental to the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells. Here we visualized the out-of-plane compositional inhomogeneity along the vertical direction across perovskite films and identified the underlying reasons for the inhomogeneity and its potential impact for devices.

Crystal structures of main proteases of SARS-CoV-2 variants bound to a benzothiazole-based inhibitor.

Main protease (M ) serves as an indispensable factor in the life cycle of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as well as its constantly emerging variants and is therefore considered an attractive target for antiviral drug development. Benzothiazole-based inhibitors targeting M have recently been investigated by several groups and proven to be promising leads for coronaviral drug development. In the present study, we determine the crystal structures of a benzothiazole-based inhibitor, YH-53, bound to M mutants from SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) or variants of interest (VOIs), including K90R (Beta, B.

Exploring the Potential of Three-Dimensional DNA Crystals in Nanotechnology: Design, Optimization, and Applications.

DNA has been used as a robust material for the building of a variety of nanoscale structures and devices owing to its unique properties. Structural DNA nanotechnology has reported a wide range of applications including computing, photonics, synthetic biology, biosensing, bioimaging, and therapeutic delivery, among others. Nevertheless, the foundational goal of structural DNA nanotechnology is exploiting DNA molecules to build three-dimensional crystals as periodic molecular scaffolds to precisely align, obtain, or collect desired guest molecules.

Structural basis of main proteases of HCoV-229E bound to inhibitor PF-07304814 and PF-07321332.

PF-07321332 and PF-07304814, inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 developed by Pfizer, exhibit broad-spectrum inhibitory activity against the main protease (M) from various coronaviruses. Structures of PF-07321332 or PF-07304814 in complex with Ms of various coronaviruses reveal their inhibitory mechanisms against different Ms. However, the structural information on the lower pathogenic coronavirus M with PF-07321332 or PF-07304814 is currently scarce, which hinders our comprehensive understanding of the inhibitory mechanisms of these two inhibitors.

Efficacy of azithromycin in treating Ureaplasma urealyticum: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Ureaplasma urealyticum is the most prevalent genital mycoplasma isolated from the urogenital tract of females, but there is no unified treatment plan. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of azithromycin in treating Ureaplasma urealyticum.

Methods: From the earliest to June 2022, published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on azithromycin treatment of Ureaplasma urealyticum were retrieved by searching PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science.

Immunosuppression by opioids: Mechanisms of action on innate and adaptive immunity.

Opioids are excellent analgesics for the clinical treatment of various types of acute and chronic pain, particularly cancer-related pain. Nevertheless, it is well known that opioids have some nasty side effects, including immunosuppression, which is commonly overlooked. As a result, the incidence of opportunistic bacterial and viral infections increases in patients with long-term opioid use.

Compound 511 ameliorates MRSA-induced lung injury by attenuating morphine-induced immunosuppression in mice via PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Background: Opioids are widely used in clinical practice. However, their long-term administration causes respiratory depression, addiction, tolerance, and severe immunosuppression. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can alleviate opioid-induced adverse effects.

Normalization of the H3K9me2/H3K14ac-ΔFosB pathway in the nucleus accumbens underlying the reversal of morphine-induced behavioural and synaptic plasticity by Compound 511.

Background: Although opioid agonist-based treatments are considered the first-line treatment for opioid use disorders, nonopioid alternatives are urgently needed to combat the inevitable high relapse rates. Compound 511 is a formula derived from ancient traditional Chinese medical literature on opiate rehabilitation. Previously, we observed that Compound 511 could effectively prevent the acquisition of conditioned place preference (CPP) during early morphine exposure.

An Image Fusion Method of SAR and Multispectral Images Based on Non-Subsampled Shearlet Transform and Activity Measure.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an important remote sensing sensor whose application is becoming more and more extensive. Compared with traditional optical sensors, it is not easy to be disturbed by the external environment and has a strong penetration. Limited by its working principles, SAR images are not easily interpreted, and fusing SAR images with optical multispectral images is a good solution to improve the interpretability of SAR images.