Cyclic molecules provide better stability for their aggregates. Typically in nature, the unique cyclic cell membrane lipids allow thermophilic archaea to inhabit extreme conditions. By mimicking the biological design, the robustness of self-assembled synthetic nanostructures is expected to be improved. Here we report topology effects by cyclized polymeric amphiphiles against their linear counterparts, demonstrating a drastic enhancement in the thermal, as well as salt stability of self-assembled micelles. Furthermore, through coassembly of the linear and cyclic amphiphiles, the stability was successfully tuned for a wide range of temperatures and salt concentrations. The enhanced thermal/salt stability was exploited in a halogen exchange reaction to stimulate the catalytic activity. The mechanism for the enhancement was also investigated. These topology effects by the cyclic amphiphiles offer unprecedented opportunities in polymer materials design unattainable by traditional means.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3615470 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2585 | DOI Listing |
BioData Min
December 2024
School of Computing, Queen's University, 557 Goodwin Hall, 21-25 Union St, Kingston, K7L 2N8, Ontario, Canada.
Background: Epistasis, the phenomenon where the effect of one gene (or variant) is masked or modified by one or more other genes, significantly contributes to the phenotypic variance of complex traits. Traditionally, epistasis has been modeled using the Cartesian epistatic model, a multiplicative approach based on standard statistical regression. However, a recent study investigating epistasis in obesity-related traits has identified potential limitations of the Cartesian epistatic model, revealing that it likely only detects a fraction of the genetic interactions occurring in natural systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Bull (Beijing)
December 2024
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Magnetoelectric Physics and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Center for Neutron Science and Technology, School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China. Electronic address:
Sci Rep
December 2024
Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi", Università di Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy.
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) stand as the third generation of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), mirroring the functionality of the mammalian brain more closely than their predecessors. Their computational units, spiking neurons, characterized by Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs), allow for dynamic system representation, with spikes serving as the medium for asynchronous communication among neurons. Due to their inherent ability to capture input dynamics, SNNs hold great promise for deep networks in Reinforcement Learning (RL) tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
Research Department, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
In resource-limited areas, where accurate weight-for-height Z-scores are hard to obtain, Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) is a simple tool to identify wasted children. MUAC alone, however, may miss identification of many wasted children, leading to untimely intervention and potentially death. Our study aimed to identify the best-performing case definition to detect wasting by Weight-for-Height z-scores (WHZ) in Filipino children aged 6-59 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Mater
December 2024
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 462066, India.
Weyl semimetals are a novel class of topological materials with unique electronic structures and distinct properties. HfRhGe stands out as a noncentrosymmetric Weyl semimetal with unconventional superconducting characteristics. Using muon-spin rotation and relaxation (µSR) spectroscopy and thermodynamic measurements, a fully gapped superconducting state is identified in HfRhGe that breaks time-reversal symmetry at the superconducting transition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!