Influence of Backbone Regioregularity on the Optoelectronic and Mechanical Response of Conjugated Polyelectrolyte-Based Hydrogels.

The ability to form robust, optoelectronically responsive, and mechanically tunable hydrogels using facile processing is desirable for sensing, biomedical, and light-harvesting applications. We demonstrate that such a hydrogel can be formed using aqueous complexation between one conjugated and one nonconjugated polyelectrolyte. We show that the rheological properties of the hydrogel can be tuned using the regioregularity of the conjugated polyelectrolyte (CPE) backbone, leading to significantly different mesoscale gel morphologies.

A practice-based evidence investigation of God representations in spiritually integrated psychotherapies.

Objective: This practice-based evidence study examined trajectories of God representations and psychological distress among Christians participating in spiritually integrated psychotherapies (SIPs).

Methods: In total, 17 clinicians practicing SIPs in a mid-sized city on the US Gulf Coast implemented session-to-session assessments of these outcomes with 158 clients over a 4-month period and also reported their use of specific spiritual interventions after each session (e.g.

Antimicrobial activity of graphene oxide quantum dots: impacts of chemical reduction.

Design and engineering of graphene-based functional nanomaterials for effective antimicrobial applications has been attracting extensive interest. In the present study, graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs) were prepared by chemical exfoliation of carbon fibers and exhibited apparent antimicrobial activity. Transmission electron microscopic measurements showed that the lateral length ranged from a few tens to a few hundred nanometers.

Tuning from Quantum Dots to Magic Sized Clusters of CsPbBr Using Novel Planar Ligands Based on the Trivalent Nitrate Coordination Complex.

We report the first demonstration of using trivalent metal hydrated nitrate coordination complexes (TMHNCCs) as novel passivation ligands to control the synthesis of magic sized clusters (MSCs) and quantum dots (QDs) of CsPbBr perovskite at room temperature. We can easily tune from QDs to MSCs or produce a mixture of the two by changing the amount of TMHNCC ligands used, with more ligands favoring MSCs. The original TMHNCC introduced, aluminum nitrate nonahydrate [ANN, Al(NO)·9HO], led to the production of aluminum dihydroxide nitrate tetrahydrate {ADNT, [Al(OH)(NO)]·4HO}, with the assistance of oleic acid (OA) and oleylamine (OAm).

Heparin Binding to an Engineered Virus-like Nanoparticle Antagonist.

The anticoagulant activity of heparin administered during medical interventions must be reversed to restore normal clotting, typically by titrating with protamine. Given the acute toxicity associated with protamine, we endeavored to generate safer heparin antagonists by engineering bacteriophage Qβ virus-like particles (VLPs) to display motifs that bind heparin. A particle bearing a single amino acid change from wild-type (T18R) was identified as a promising candidate for heparin antagonism.