Atomic scale insights into NaCl nucleation in nanoconfined environments.

In this work we examine the nucleation from NaCl aqueous solutions within nano-confined environments, employing enhanced sampling molecular dynamics simulations integrated with machine learning-derived reaction coordinates. Through our simulations, we successfully induce phase transitions between solid, liquid, and a hydrated phase, typically observed at lower temperatures in bulk environments. Interestingly, while generally speaking nano-confinement serves to stabilize the solid phase and elevate melting points, there are subtle variations in the thermodynamics of competing phases with the precise extent of confinement.

Strength, number, and kinetics of hydrogen bonds for water confined inside boron nitride nanotubes.

Water has shown a myriad of highly interesting properties and behaviors, such as very low friction, phase transition under unexpected conditions, massive property alterations, inside strong nanoconfinements of few-nanometer to sub-nanometer diameters. Water-water hydrogen bonding is one of the most important factors dictating such water behavior and properties inside such strong nanoconfinements. In this paper, we employ Reactive Force Field (ReaxFF) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for studying multiple facets of such water-water hydrogen bonds (HBs) inside boron-nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) having diameters ranging from a few nanometers to sub-nanometers.

Synthetic mucus barrier arrays as a nanoparticle formulation screening platform.

A mucus gel layer lines the luminal surface of tissues throughout the body to protect them from infectious agents and particulates. As a result, nanoparticle drug delivery systems delivered to these sites may become trapped in mucus and subsequently cleared before they can reach target cells. As such, optimizing the properties of nanoparticle delivery vehicles, such as their surface chemistry and size, is essential to improving their penetration through the mucus barrier.

Twisting two-dimensional iron sulfide layers into coincident site superlattices intercalation chemistry.

Layered van der Waals (vdW) materials are susceptible not only to various stacking polymorphs through translations but also twisted structures due to rotations between layers. Here, we study the influence of such layer-to-layer twisting through the intercalation of ethylenediamine (EDA) molecules into tetragonal iron sulfide (Mackinawite FeS). Selected area electron diffraction patterns of intercalated FeS display reflections corresponding to multiple square lattices with a fixed angle between them, contrary to a single square lattice seen in the unintercalated phase.

Macrophage-induced reduction of bacteriophage density limits the efficacy of pulmonary phage therapy.

The rise of antimicrobial resistance has led to renewed interest in evaluating phage therapy. In murine models highly effective treatment of acute pneumonia caused by relies on the synergistic antibacterial activity of bacteriophages with neutrophils. Here, we show that depletion of alveolar macrophages (AM) shortens the survival of mice without boosting the .

Graphene oxide nanosheets augment silk fibroin aerogels for enhanced water stability and oil adsorption.

Nanocomposite aerogels exhibit high porosity and large interfacial surface areas, enabling enhanced chemical transport and reactivity. Such mesoporous architectures can be prepared by freeze-casting naturally-derived biopolymers such as silk fibroin, but often form mechanically weak structures that degrade in water, which limits their performance under ambient conditions. Adding 2D material fillers such as graphene oxide (GO) or transition metal carbides ( MXene) could potentially reinforce these aerogels stronger intermolecular interactions with the polymeric binder.

Leveraging opportunity of low carbon transition by super-emitter cities in China.

Chinese cities are core in the national carbon mitigation and largely affect global decarbonisation initiatives, yet disparities between cities challenge country-wide progress. Low-carbon transition should preferably lead to a convergence of both equity and mitigation targets among cities. Inter-city supply chains that link the production and consumption of cities are a factor in shaping inequality and mitigation but less considered aggregately.

COVID-19 and income profile: How communities in the United States responded to mobility restrictions in the pandemic's early stages.

Mobility interventions in communities play a critical role in containing a pandemic at an early stage. The real-world practice of social distancing can enlighten policymakers and help them implement more efficient and effective control measures. A lack of such research using real-world observations initiates this article.

Optimization in the Context of COVID-19 Prediction and Control: A Literature Review.

This paper presents an overview of some key results from a body of optimization studies that are specifically related to COVID-19, as reported in the literature during 2020-2021. As shown in this paper, optimization studies in the context of COVID-19 have been used for many aspects of the pandemic. From these studies, it is observed that since COVID-19 is a multifaceted problem, it cannot be studied from a single perspective or framework, and neither can the related optimization models.

Investigation of the excitations of plasmons and surface exciton polaritons in monoclinic gadolinium sesquioxide by electron energy-loss spectroscopy and plasmon spectroscopic imaging.

The monoclinic gadolinium sesquioxide (denoted as m-GdO) with its lower crystal symmetry exhibits larger dielectric permittivity () than the cubic GdO (denoted as c-GdO). Recently, a few nanometers thick m-GdO thin film has been successfully epitaxially grown on a GaN substrate as a promising candidate gate oxide in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). Thus, it is important to understand the electronic excitations in m-GdO and investigate them by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) performed with aloof electron beams and electron diffraction to gain the spatial and momentum resolutions.

Correction: modulation of ubiquitin chains by -methylated non-proteinogenic cyclic peptides.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D0CB00179A.].

Variable Selection in Threshold Regression Model with Applications to HIV Drug Adherence Data.

The threshold regression model is an effective alternative to the Cox proportional hazards regression model when the proportional hazards assumption is not met. This paper considers variable selection for threshold regression. This model has separate regression functions for the initial health status and the speed of degradation in health.

Intergenerational Patterns in Offending: Lessons from the Rochester Intergenerational Study-ASC Division of Developmental and Life Course Criminology David P. Farrington Lecture, 2019.

Purpose: In recent years, criminology has seen an increase in the number of 3-generation, prospective studies of offending. The most fundamental question posed by these studies is whether, and to what extent, parental involvement in adolescent delinquency increases the risk of offending by their offspring. There are several important substantive and methodological challenges that need to be confronted in assessing the intergenerational effect including the examination of moderating influences that can change the level of intergenerational continuity and methodological issues as definitional elasticity-the impact on the level of intergenerational continuity that is likely to be observed based on a) how offending is defined and b) how the inherent heterogeneity in offending is taken into accounted.

A bio-hybrid odor-guided autonomous palm-sized air vehicle.

Biohybrid systems integrate living materials with synthetic devices, exploiting their respective advantages to solve challenging engineering problems. One challenge of critical importance to society is detecting and localizing airborne volatile chemicals. Many flying animals depend their ability to detect and locate the source of aerial chemical plumes for finding mates and food sources.

Structural and functional conservation of the programmed -1 ribosomal frameshift signal of SARS-CoV-2.

17 years after the SARS-CoV epidemic, the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. Given the most optimistic projections estimating that it will take over a year to develop a vaccine, the best short-term strategy may lie in identifying virus-specific targets for small molecule interventions.

Bioinspired One Cell Culture Isolates Highly Tumorigenic and Metastatic Cancer Stem Cells Capable of Multilineage Differentiation.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are rare cancer cells that are postulated to be responsible for cancer relapse and metastasis. However, CSCs are difficult to isolate and poorly understood. Here, a bioinspired approach for label-free isolation and culture of CSCs, by microencapsulating one cancer cell in the nanoliter-scale hydrogel core of each prehatching embryo-like core-shell microcapsule, is reported.

Large Variability of Iodine Content in Retail Cow's Milk in the U.S.

Iodine intake is of contemporary public health interest. The recommended daily iodine intake is 150 µg for most adults, and milk is an important source of iodine in the U.S.

How range residency and long-range perception change encounter rates.

Encounter rates link movement strategies to intra- and inter-specific interactions, and therefore translate individual movement behavior into higher-level ecological processes. Indeed, a large body of interacting population theory rests on the law of mass action, which can be derived from assumptions of Brownian motion in an enclosed container with exclusively local perception. These assumptions imply completely uniform space use, individual home ranges equivalent to the population range, and encounter dependent on movement paths actually crossing.

4D Self-Morphing Culture Substrate for Modulating Cell Differentiation.

As the most versatile and promising cell source, stem cells have been studied in regenerative medicine for two decades. Currently available culturing techniques utilize a 2D or 3D microenvironment for supporting the growth and proliferation of stem cells. However, these culture systems fail to fully reflect the supportive biological environment in which stem cells reside in vivo, which contain dynamic biophysical growth cues.

Auditory brainstem response wave III is correlated with extracellular field potentials from nucleus laminaris of the barn owl.

The auditory brainstem response (ABR) is generated in the auditory brainstem by local current sources, which also give rise to extracellular field potentials (EFPs). The origins of both the ABR and the EFP are not well understood. We have recently found that EFPs, especially their dipole behavior, may be dominated by the branching patterns and the activity of axonal terminal zones [1].

Silver ferrite: a superior oxidizer for thermite-driven biocidal nanoenergetic materials.

Silver-containing oxidizers are of interest as biocidal components in energetic application such as thermites due to their biocidal agent delivery. In this study, AgFeO, was evaluated as an oxidizer in aluminum-based thermite system. This novel oxidizer AgFeO particles were prepared a wet-chemistry method and its structure, morphologies and thermal behavior were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, and time-resolved temperature-jump time-of-flight mass spectrometry.