Multiple-unit interlocking enhances the single-stranded tiles assembly of DNA nanostructures.

Single-stranded tiles (DNA brick) assembly has provided a simple and modular tool for constructing nanostructures with the potential for numerous applications. However, in this strategy, the short-strand building blocks are susceptible to environmental fluctuations and bring about rapid dissociation during assembly, resulting in instability and prolonged annealing. Thus, developing new strategies which can enhance the stability and accelerate the assembly process of DNA bricks is important.

Roles of Nicotinamide N-Methyltransferase in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is thought to be a complication of metabolic syndrome caused by disorders of energy utilization and storage and characterized by insulin resistance or deficiency of insulin secretion. Though the mechanism linking obesity to the development of T2D is complex and unintelligible, it is known that abnormal lipid metabolism and adipose tissue accumulation possibly play important roles in this process. Recently, nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) has been emerging as a new mechanism-of-action target in treating obesity and associated T2D.

Two Kinds of Metastable Structures in an Epitaxial Lanthanum Cobalt Oxide Thin Film.

Thin films have attracted much interest because they often have novel properties different from those of their bulk counterparts. In this work, we tune two metastable states in three kinds of lanthanum cobalt oxide thin films by electron beam irradiation and record their dynamic transition process in situ in a transmission electron microscope. The lanthanum cobalt oxide thin films exhibit a homogeneous microstructure in the initial state and then transfer to a stripelike superstructure with 3 periodicity ( is the perovskite lattice parameter), further developing into a superstructure with 2 periodicity in dark stripes (brownmillerite structure).

Symmetry mismatch-driven perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for perovskite/brownmillerite heterostructures.

Grouping different transition metal oxides together by interface engineering is an important route toward emergent phenomenon. While most of the previous works focused on the interface effects in perovskite/perovskite heterostructures, here we reported on a symmetry mismatch-driven spin reorientation toward perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in perovskite/brownmillerite heterostructures, which is scarcely seen in tensile perovskite/perovskite heterostructures. We show that alternately stacking perovskite LaSrMnO and brownmillerite LaCoO causes a strong interface reconstruction due to symmetry discontinuity at interface: neighboring MnO octahedra and CoO tetrahedra at the perovskite/brownmillerite interface cooperatively relax in a manner that is unavailable for perovskite/perovskite interface, leading to distinct orbital reconstructions and thus the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

The Evolution of Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of the Bismuth Layer Compounds with Cobalt Ions Substitution.

One of the core issues for the A/B site doping in the bismuth layer magnetoelectric materials is to find out the evolution of the magnetic structure, crystal structure and elemental distribution, and the coupling effects between spin and lattice with the increase of ion substitution. Here, we have conducted systematic structural and physical property studies on the series samples of BiTiFeCoO. This work presents that BiTiFeCoO forms a single four layer perovskite-like structure for 0 ≤ x < 0.

Antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling and thus induced distinct spin texture for the [LaMnO/LaCoO] superlattices.

Artificial engineering of an interfacial spin structure of complex oxides with strongly coupled spin, orbital, charge and lattice degrees of freedom is crucially important for the exploration of novel effects associated with magnetic tunneling, exchange biasing, and spin injecting/manipulating, which are the central issues of spintronics. Here we demonstrate the presence of a distinct interlayer coupling between LaMnO (LMO) and LaCoO (LCO) and the resulting dramatic effect on the spin structure. We found that the LCO layer in (LMO/LCO) superlattices exhibits not only an antiferromagnetic coupling with a neighboring LMO layer but also a long-range magnetic order with substantially reduced magnetization.

Direct Observations of Nanofilament Evolution in Switching Processes in HfO -Based Resistive Random Access Memory by In Situ TEM Studies.

Resistive switching processes in HfO are studied by electron holography and in situ energy-filtered imaging. The results show that oxygen vacancies are gradually generated in the oxide layer under ramped electrical bias, and finally form several conductive channels connecting the two electrodes. It also shows that the switching process occurs at the top interface of the hafnia layer.