Core-Double-Shell TiO@FeO@C Microspheres with Enhanced Cycling Performance as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Due to the volume expansion effect during charge and discharge processes, the application of transition metal oxide anode materials in lithium-ion batteries is limited. Composite materials and carbon coating are often considered feasible improvement methods. In this study, three types of TiO@FeO@C microspheres with a core-double-shell structure, namely TFCS (TiO@FeO@C with 0.

Synthesis and Characterisation of Hemihydrate Gypsum-Polyacrylamide Composite: A Novel Inorganic/Organic Cementitious Material.

This study combined inorganic α-hemihydrate gypsum (-HHG) with organic polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel to create a novel -HHG/PAM composite material. Through this facile composite strategy, this fabricated material exhibited a significantly longer initial setting time and higher mechanical strength compared to -HHG. The effects of the addition amount and the concentration of PAM precursor solution on the flowability of the -HHG/PAM composite material slurry, initial setting time, and mechanical properties of the hardened specimens were investigated.

The Cholesterol-5,6-Epoxide Hydrolase: A Metabolic Checkpoint in Several Diseases.

Cholesterol-5,6-epoxides (5,6-ECs) are oxysterols (OS) that have been linked to several pathologies including cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. 5,6-ECs can be produced from cholesterol by several mechanisms including reactive oxygen species, lipoperoxidation, and cytochrome P450 enzymes. 5,6-ECs exist as two different diastereoisomers: 5,6α-EC and 5,6β-EC with different metabolic fates.

High-throughput, fluorescent-aptamer-based measurements of steady-state transcription rates for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA polymerase.

The first step in gene expression is the transcription of DNA sequences into RNA. Regulation at the level of transcription leads to changes in steady-state concentrations of RNA transcripts, affecting the flux of downstream functions and ultimately cellular phenotypes. Changes in transcript levels are routinely followed in cellular contexts via genome-wide sequencing techniques.

Quantifying Amide-Aromatic Interactions at Molecular and Atomic Levels: Experimentally Determined Enthalpic and Entropic Contributions to Interactions of Amide spO, N, C and spC Unified Atoms with Naphthalene spC Atoms in Water.

In addition to amide hydrogen bonds and the hydrophobic effect, interactions involving π-bonded sp atoms of amides, aromatics, and other groups occur in protein self-assembly processes including folding, oligomerization, and condensate formation. These interactions also occur in aqueous solutions of amide and aromatic compounds, where they can be quantified. Previous analysis of thermodynamic coefficients quantifying net-favorable interactions of amide compounds with other amides and aromatics revealed that interactions of amide spO with amide spN unified atoms (presumably C═O···H-N hydrogen bonds) and amide/aromatic spC (lone pair π, n-π*) are particularly favorable.

Electronic and Transport Properties of Strained and Unstrained GeSbTe: A DFT Investigation.

In recent years, layered chalcogenides have attracted interest for their appealing thermoelectric properties. We investigated the GeSbTe compound in two different stacking sequences, named stacking 1 (S1) and stacking 2 (S2), wherein the Ge and Sb atomic positions can be interchanged in the structure. The compound unit cell, comprising nine atoms, is made of two layers separated by a gap.

Quantifying Amide-Aromatic Interactions at Molecular and Atomic Levels: Experimentally-determined Enthalpic and Entropic Contributions to Interactions of Amide sp O, N, C and sp C Unified Atoms with Naphthalene sp C Atoms in Water.

In addition to amide hydrogen bonds and the hydrophobic effect, interactions involving π-bonded sp atoms of amides, aromatics and other groups occur in protein self-assembly processes including folding, oligomerization and condensate formation. These interactions also occur in aqueous solutions of amide and aromatic compounds, where they can be quantified. Previous analysis of thermodynamic coefficients quantifying net-favorable interactions of amide compounds with other amides and aromatics revealed that interactions of amide sp O with amide sp N unified atoms (presumably C=O···H-N hydrogen bonds) and amide/aromatic sp C (lone pair-π, n-π ) are particularly favorable.

High-throughput, fluorescent-aptamer-based measurements of steady-state transcription rates for RNA polymerase.

Unlabelled: The first step in gene expression is the transcription of DNA sequences into RNA. Regulation at the level of transcription leads to changes in steady-state concentrations of RNA transcripts, affecting the flux of downstream functions and ultimately cellular phenotypes. Changes in transcript levels are routinely followed in cellular contexts via genome-wide sequencing techniques.

Intercalation of p-Aminopyridine and p-Ethylenediamine Molecules into Orthorhombic InGaS Single Crystals.

A single crystalline layered semiconductor InGaS phase was grown, and by intercalating p-aminopyridine (NH-CHN or p-AP) molecules into this crystal, a new intercalation compound, InGaS·0.5(NH-CHN), was synthesized. Further, by substituting p-AP molecules with p-ethylenediamine (NH-CH-CH-NH or p-EDA) in this intercalation compound, another new intercalated compound-InGaS·0.

Lychee-like TiO@FeO Core-Shell Nanostructures with Improved Lithium Storage Properties as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

In this study, lychee-like TiO@FeO microspheres with a core-shell structure have been prepared by coating FeO on the surface of TiO mesoporous microspheres using the homogeneous precipitation method. The structural and micromorphological characterization of TiO@FeO microspheres has been carried out using XRD, FE-SEM, and Raman, and the results show that hematite FeO particles (7.05% of the total mass) are uniformly coated on the surface of anatase TiO microspheres, and the specific surface area of this material is 14.

Structural and Electrochemical Properties of LiO-VO-BO-BiO Glass and Glass-Ceramic Cathodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

In this study, 20LiO-60VO-(20 - )BO-BiO ( = 5, 7.5, 10 mol%) glass materials have been prepared by the melt-quenching method, and the structure and morphology of the glass materials have been characterized by XRD, FTIR, Raman, and FE-SEM. The results show that the disordered network of the glass is mainly composed of structural motifs, such as VO, BO, BiO and BiO.

Investigation of PbSnTeSe High-Entropy Thermoelectric Alloy: A DFT Approach.

Thermoelectric materials have attracted extensive attention because they can directly convert waste heat into electric energy. As a brand-new method of alloying, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have attracted much attention in the fields of materials science and engineering. Recent researches have found that HEAs could be potentially good thermoelectric (TE) materials.

Targeting NR1H/liver X receptor with dendrogenin A differentiates tumor cells to activate a new secretory pathway releasing immunogenic anti-tumor vesicles enriched in LC3-II-associated exosomes.

Normal cells secrete small extracellular vesicles (sEV), containing exosomes and/or ectosomes, which play a beneficial role in monitoring tissue integrity and immune response, whereas cancer cells constitutively secrete sEV, which contribute to inhibit the immune defenses and promote tumor progression and aggressiveness. Therefore, there is a great interest in reprograming tumor sEV functions toward normal ones. We hypothesized that this could be realized by inducing tumor cell re-differentiation with dendrogenin A (DDA), an endogenous oxysterol and a ligand of NR1 H/LXR (nuclear receptor subfamily 1 group H).

Targeting the liver X receptor with dendrogenin A differentiates tumour cells to secrete immunogenic exosome-enriched vesicles.

Tumour cells are characterized by having lost their differentiation state. They constitutively secrete small extracellular vesicles (sEV) called exosomes when they come from late endosomes. Dendrogenin A (DDA) is an endogenous tumour suppressor cholesterol-derived metabolite.

How Glutamate Promotes Liquid-liquid Phase Separation and DNA Binding Cooperativity of E. coli SSB Protein.

E. coli single-stranded-DNA binding protein (EcSSB) displays nearest-neighbor (NN) and non-nearest-neighbor (NNN)) cooperativity in binding ssDNA during genome maintenance. NNN cooperativity requires the intrinsically-disordered linkers (IDL) of the C-terminal tails.

Preparation and Chromaticity Control of CoTiO/NiTiO Co-Coated TiO Composite Pigments.

In this study, home-made amorphous TiO microspheres with good mono-dispersity and large numbers of mesopores on the surface were used as substrates. The intermediate microspheres were obtained by adding Co/Ni sources with different Co/Ni molar ratios in a water bath and making them react by water bath heating. By calcining the intermediate microspheres deposited on the TiO ones, a core-shell structured spherical CoTiO/NiTiO inorganic composite pigment was prepared.

First-Principle Investigations on the Electronic and Transport Properties of PbBiTeX (X = S/Se/Te) Monolayers.

This paper reports first-principles calculations on PbBi2Te2S2, PbBi2Te2Se2 and PbBi2Te4 monolayers. The strain effects on their electronic and thermoelectric properties as well as on their stability have been investigated. Without strain, the PbBi2Te4 monolayer exhibits highest Seebeck coefficient with a maximum value of 671 μV/K.

Structure-Property Relationships in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Bilayers under Biaxial Strains.

This paper reports a Density Functional Theory (DFT) investigation of the electron density and optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) MX (M = Mo, W and X = S, Se, Te) subjected to biaxial strains. Upon strains ranging from -4% (compressive strain) to +4% (tensile strain), MX bilayers keep the same bandgap type but undergo a non-symmetrical evolution of bandgap energies and corresponding effective masses of charge carriers (m*). Despite a consistency regarding the electronic properties of Mo- and WX for a given X, the strain-induced bandgap shrinkage and m* lowering are strong enough to alter the strain-free sequence MTe, MSe, MS, thus tailoring the photovoltaic properties, which are found to be direction dependent.

Strain Effects on the Electronic and Thermoelectric Properties of n(PbTe)-m(BiTe) System Compounds.

Owing to their low lattice thermal conductivity, many compounds of the n(PbTe)-m(Bi2Te3) homologous series have been reported in the literature with thermoelectric (TE) properties that still need improvement. For this purpose, in this work, we have implemented the band engineering approach by applying biaxial tensile and compressive strains using the density functional theory (DFT) on various compounds of this series, namely Bi2Te3, PbBi2Te4, PbBi4Te7 and Pb2Bi2Te5. All the fully relaxed Bi2Te3, PbBi2Te4, PbBi4Te7 and Pb2Bi2Te5 compounds are narrow band-gap semiconductors.

Temperature effects on RNA polymerase initiation kinetics reveal which open complex initiates and that bubble collapse is stepwise.

Transcription initiation is highly regulated by promoter sequence, transcription factors, and ligands. All known transcription inhibitors, an important class of antibiotics, act in initiation. To understand regulation and inhibition, the biophysical mechanisms of formation and stabilization of the "open" promoter complex (OC), of synthesis of a short RNA-DNA hybrid upon nucleotide addition, and of escape of RNA polymerase (RNAP) from the promoter must be understood.

Influence of the stacking sequence on layered-chalcogenide properties: first principles investigation of PbBiTe.

The Pb2Bi2Te5 compound has been reported in the literature with two stacking sequences -Te-Pb-Te-Bi-Te-Bi-Te-Pb-Te- and -Te-Bi-Te-Pb-Te-Pb-Te-Bi-Te- labelled in this work as A and B, respectively. The electronic and the thermoelectric properties of the Pb2Bi2Te5 compound with the 2 different stacking sequences have been determined from a series of first principles calculations using density functional theory (DFT). The related compounds PbTe and Bi2Te3 have also been investigated for comparison.

Neutral Sphingomyelinase 2 Heightens Anti-Melanoma Immune Responses and Anti-PD-1 Therapy Efficacy.

Dysregulation of lipid metabolism affects the behavior of cancer cells, but how this happens is not completely understood. Neutral sphingomyelinase 2 (nSMase2), encoded by , catalyzes the breakdown of sphingomyelin to produce the anti-oncometabolite ceramide. We found that this enzyme was often downregulated in human metastatic melanoma, likely contributing to immune escape.

Electron Density and Its Relation with Electronic and Optical Properties in 2D Mo/W Dichalcogenides.

Two-dimensional MX (M = Mo, W; X = S, Se, Te) homo- and heterostructures have attracted extensive attention in electronics and optoelectronics due to their unique structures and properties. In this work, the layer-dependent electronic and optical properties have been studied by varying layer thickness and stacking order. Based on the quantum theory of atoms in molecules, topological analyses on interatomic interactions of layered MX and WX/MoX, including bond degree (BD), bond length (BL), and bond angle (BA), have been detailed to probe structure-property relationships.

Structure-Property Relationships of 2D Ga/In Chalcogenides.

Two-dimensional MX (M = Ga, In; X = S, Se, Te) homo- and heterostructures are of interest in electronics and optoelectronics. Structural, electronic and optical properties of bulk and layered MX and GaX/InX heterostructures have been investigated comprehensively using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Based on the quantum theory of atoms in molecules, topological analyses of bond degree (BD), bond length (BL) and bond angle (BA) have been detailed for interpreting interatomic interactions, hence the structure-property relationship.