Redetermination of germacrone type II based on single-crystal X-ray data.

The extraction and purification procedures, crystallization and crystal structure refinement (single-crystal X-ray data) of germacrone type II, CHO, are presented. The structural results are compared with a previous powder X-ray synchrotron study [Kaduk (2022 ▸). , 98-104], revealing significant improvements in terms of accuracy and precision.

Prolonged delivery of HIV-1 vaccine nanoparticles from hydrogels.

Immunization is a straightforward concept but remains for some pathogens like HIV-1 a challenge. Thus, new approaches towards increasing the efficacy of vaccines are required to turn the tide. There is increasing evidence that antigen exposure over several days to weeks induces a much stronger and more sustained immune response compared to traditional bolus injection, which usually leads to antigen elimination from the body within a couple of days.

Ants evade harmful food by active abandonment.

Invasive ants, such as the Argentine ant, pose a severe economic and ecological threat. Despite advancements in baiting techniques, effectively managing established ant populations remains a daunting challenge, often ending in failure. Ant colonies employ behavioural immunity against pathogens, raising the question of whether ants can collectively respond to toxic baits.

Control of Luminescence and Interfacial Properties as Perspective for Upconversion Nanoparticles.

Near-infrared (NIR) light is highly suitable for studying biological systems due to its minimal scattering and lack of background fluorescence excitation, resulting in high signal-to-noise ratios. By combining NIR light with lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), upconversion is used to generate UV or visible light within tissue. This remarkable property has gained significant research interest over the past two decades.

Encapsulation of Pioglitazone into Polymer-Nanoparticles for Potential Treatment of Atherosclerotic Diseases.

Atherosclerosis is one of the most urgent global health subjects, causes millions of deaths worldwide, and is associated with enormous healthcare costs. Macrophages are the root cause for inflammatory onset and progression of the disease but are not addressed by conventional therapy. Therefore, we used pioglitazone, which is a drug initially used for diabetes therapies, but at the same time has great potential regarding the mitigation of inflammation.

Could green infrastructure supplement ecosystem service provision from semi-natural grasslands?

Ancient semi-natural grasslands in Europe are important for ecosystem service (ES) provision. Often, the surrounding matrix contains 'Grassland Green Infrastructure' (GGI) that contain grassland species which have the potential to supplement grassland ES provision across the landscape. Here we investigate the potential for GGI to deliver a set of complementary ES, driven by plant composition.

ReSurveyGermany: Vegetation-plot time-series over the past hundred years in Germany.

Vegetation-plot resurvey data are a main source of information on terrestrial biodiversity change, with records reaching back more than one century. Although more and more data from re-sampled plots have been published, there is not yet a comprehensive open-access dataset available for analysis. Here, we compiled and harmonised vegetation-plot resurvey data from Germany covering almost 100 years.

Relation of Mindfulness, Heartfulness and Well-Being in Students during the Coronavirus-Pandemic.

The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected the lives of almost everyone. The study's primary goal is to analyze how mindfulness and heartfulness (gratitude and self-compassion) predict well-being and flourishing during the pandemic. Participants were 216 students completing questionnaires about well-being, flourishing, mindfulness, self-compassion, gratitude, physical activity, Coronavirus stress and strain, and demographic information.

Methanofollis propanolicus sp. nov., a novel archaeal isolate from a Costa Rican oil well that uses propanol for methane production.

A novel methanogenic strain, CaP3V-MF-L2A, was isolated from an exploratory oil well from Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica. The cells were irregular cocci, 0.8-1.

Does mindfulness help to overcome stereotype threat in mental rotation in younger and older adolescents?

We investigated gender differences in mental rotation performance in younger and older adolescents and effects of stereotype threat activation and a short mindfulness induction. Two hundred fifty younger adolescents from grades 5, 6, and 7 (119 boys) and 152 older adolescents from grades 10, 11, and 12 (80 boys) were divided into four groups with or without a mindfulness induction and with or without stereotype threat activation. All participants solved a mental rotation test and filled out a questionnaire about their gender stereotype beliefs and perceived abilities of masculine and feminine activities.

Dissociation of behavioral and neural responses to provocation during reactive aggression in healthy adults with high versus low externalization.

The externalizing spectrum describes a range of heterogeneous personality traits and behavioral patterns, primarily characterized by antisocial behavior, disinhibition, and substance (mis)use. In psychopathology, abnormalities in neural threat, reward responses and the impulse-control system may be responsible for these externalizing symptoms. Within the non-clinical range, mechanisms remain still unclear.

Angiopoietin-1 Mimetic Nanoparticles for Restoring the Function of Endothelial Cells as Potential Therapeutic for Glaucoma.

A root cause for the development and progression of primary open-angle glaucoma might be the loss of the Schlemm's canal (SC) cell function due to an impaired Angiopoietin-1 (Angpt-1)/Tie2 signaling. Current therapeutic options fail to restore the SC cell function. We propose Angpt-1 mimetic nanoparticles (NPs) that are intended to bind in a multivalent manner to the Tie2 receptor for successful receptor activation.

Combining a robust thermophilic methanogen and packing material with high liquid hold-up to optimize biological methanation in trickle-bed reactors.

The hydrogen gas-to-liquid mass transfer is the limiting factor in biological methanation. In trickle-bed reactors, mass transfer can be increased by high flow velocities in the liquid phase, by adding a packing material with high liquid hold-up or by using methanogenic archaea with a high methane productivity. This study developed a polyphasic approach to address all methods at once.

Reactivity of the pentelidene complexes [Cp*E{W(CO)}] (E = P, As) towards dichalcogenides and chalcogenols - synthesis of novel chalcogenopentelidene complexes.

Pentelidene complexes of the type [Cp*E{W(CO)}] (Cp* = CMe; 1a: E = P, 1b: E = As) were reacted with the dichalcogenides RCh (R = Ph, Mes, Tipp; Ch = S, Se, Te; Mes = 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl; Tipp = 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl) and the chalcogenols PhChH (Ch = S, Se). It has been shown that the formation of new E-Ch bonds proceeds under elimination of the Cp* substituent. The resulting chalcogenopentelidene complexes, which have been isolated and fully characterised, represent a novel class of phosphinidene complexes which can be synthesised through this general synthetic route.

A clinical decision support system in back pain helps to find the diagnosis: a prospective correlation study.

The aim of this study is to show the concordance of an app-based decision support system and the diagnosis given by spinal surgeons in cases of back pain. 86 patients took part within 2 months. They were seen by spine surgeons in the daily routine and then completed an app-based questionnaire that also led to a diagnosis independently.

Distribution of Gold Nanoparticles in the Anterior Chamber of the Eye after Intracameral Injection for Glaucoma Therapy.

In glaucoma therapy, nanoparticles (NPs) are a favorable tool for delivering drugs to the outflow tissues of the anterior chamber of the eye where disease development and progression take place. In this context, a prerequisite is an efficient enrichment of NPs in the trabecular meshwork with minimal accumulation in off-target tissues such as the cornea, lens, iris and ciliary body. We evaluated the optimal size for targeting the trabecular meshwork by using gold NPs of 5, 60, 80 and 120 nm with a bare surface (AuNPs) or coated with hyaluronic acid (HA-AuNPs).

General sites of nanoparticle biodistribution as a novel opportunity for nanomedicine.

The development of nanomedical devices has led to a considerable number of clinically applied nanotherapeutics. Yet, the overall poor translation of nanoparticular concepts into marketable systems has not met the initial expectations and led to increasing criticism in recent years. Most novel nano approaches thereby use highly refined formulations including a plethora of active targeting sequences, but ultimately fail to reach their target due to a generally high off-target deposition in organs such as the liver or kidney.

Catalytic Generation of Carbanions through Carbonyl Umpolung.

Carbonyl Umpolung is a powerful strategy in organic chemistry to construct complex molecules. Over the last few years, versatile catalytic approaches for the generation of acyl anion equivalents from carbonyl compounds have been developed, but methods to obtain alkyl carbanions from carbonyl compounds in a catalytic fashion are still at an early stage. This Minireview summarizes recent progress in the generation of alkyl carbanions through catalytic carbonyl Umpolung.

Optimized biological CO-methanation with a pure culture of thermophilic methanogenic archaea in a trickle-bed reactor.

In this study, a fully automated process converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide to methane in a high temperature trickle-bed reactor was developed from lab scale to field test level. The reactor design and system performance was optimized to yield high methane content in the product gas for direct feed-in to the gas grid. The reaction was catalyzed by a pure culture of Methanothermobacter thermoautotrophicus IM5, which formed a biofilm on ceramic packing elements.

Photosubstitution in Dicyanobenzene-based Photocatalysts.

We report the photosubstitution of one cyano group in dicyanobenzene-based photocatalysts and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. The reaction is a general degradation pathway for some widely used organic photocatalysts such as 4CzIPN and suggests that the active photocatalyst in many reactions is likely different from 4CzIPN. On the contrary, photosubstitution is a facile route to diverse highly reducing photocatalysts and blue TADF emitters.

Reactivity of P butterfly complexes towards NHCs - generation of a metal-bridged P dumbbell complex.

The reactivity of the P butterfly complexes [{Cp'''Fe(CO)}(μ,η-P)] (A, Cp''' = CHBu) and [{Cp*Cr(CO)}(μ,η-P)] (B, Cp* = C(CH)) towards the N-heterocyclic carbene IMe (1,3,4,5-tetramethyl-imidazol-2-ylidene) is reported. The reaction of A affords [P(IMe)][Fe(CO)Cp'''] (1) or [P(IMe)][{Cp'''Fe}(μ,η-P)] (2), the latter possessing a P-allylic moiety. In contrast, the reaction of B yields [P(IMe)][Cr(CO)Cp*] (3) and [{Cp*Cr(CO)}(η-PIMe)][Cr(CO)Cp*] (4), featuring a novel metal-bridged P dumbbell.

Emotional reactivity, suppression of emotions and response inhibition in emotional eaters: A multi-method pilot study.

Objective: Emotional eating has been associated with high emotional reactivity, suppression of negative emotions and inhibitory control difficulties. The current study aimed to address the association of these factors and their combined effect on emotional eating.

Method: Twenty-eight participants conducted an emotional Go/Nogo task including pictures of neutral, negative and positive scenes and an additional emotion suppression condition.

Oxidative stress modulates rearrangement of endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria contacts and calcium dysregulation in a Friedreich's ataxia model.

Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by neuromuscular and neurological manifestations. It is caused by mutations in the FXN gene, which results in loss of the mitochondrial protein frataxin. Endoplasmic Reticulum-mitochondria associated membranes (MAMs) are inter-organelle structures involved in the regulation of essential cellular processes, including lipid metabolism and calcium signaling.