Notes

Long-ranged correlations within large diversions associated with local clustering.
With the acquirement of antibiotic resistance, Shigella has resulted in multiple epidemics of shigellosis, an infectious diarrheal disease, causing thousands of deaths per year. Unfortunately, there are no licensed vaccines, primarily due to low or serotype-specific immunogenicity. Thus, conserved subunit vaccines utilizing recombinant invasion plasmid antigens (Ipa) have been explored as cross-protective vaccine candidates. However, achieving cross-protection against Shigella dysenteriae 1, which caused multiple pandemics/epidemics in the recent past, has been difficult. Therefore, a rational approach to improve cross-protection in the preparation for a possible pandemic should involve conserved proteins from S. dysenteriae 1 (Sd1). selleck IpaC is one such conserved immunogenic protein that is less explored as an independent vaccine due to its instability/aggregation. Therefore, to improve cross-protection and potential immunogenicity and to be prepared for a future epidemic/pandemic, herein, we stabilized recombinxplored as a minimalist, self-adjuvanting, cross-protective, intranasal, single-antigen Shigella vaccine.Beer is one of the most popular beverages in the world. The increased popularity of craft beers has led to the development of unique beers that are alcohol-free, gluten-free, low calorie, or with functional properties through fermentation with probiotic microorganisms. In this study, functional unhopped beers were evaluated by utilizing probiotics (Lacticaseibacillus paracasei Lpc-37 and ibSium Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-3856) as starter cultures. The metabolites produced by probiotics were investigated using a nontargeted metabolomics approach and identified against metabolomics databases (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Human Metabolome Database (HMDB), Yeast Metabolome Database (YMDB), METLIN tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)). Derivatives of branched-chain (leucine) and aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine) were enriched (one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) p less then 0.05) in probiotic-fermented unhopped beers, especially tryptophan metabolites. In addition, the synergistic effects of yeast-lactic acid bacteria (LAB) interactions led to further enrichment of higher acids such as (S)-(-)-2-hydroxyisocaproic acid, phenyllactic acid, hydroxyphenyllactic acid, and indolelactic acid. The potential pathways for the formation of novel bioactive tryptophan metabolites (indole and indoleacrylic acid) by LAB were elucidated. Altogether, probiotic LAB-fermented unhopped beer showed the highest antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content. This work provides the basis for the discovery of bioactive metabolites in probiotic-fermented foods.Due to the steady rise of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria worldwide, it is critical to develop novel antibacterial drugs. This article presents chimeric antisense oligonucleotides that inhibit the bacterial growth of Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most frequent causes of hospital-acquired infections. The chimeric antisense oligonucleotides have a combination of first- and second-generation chemical modification. To deliver the antisense oligonucleotides into a cell, we apply a cell-penetrating oligopeptide attached to them. We have performed complete bioinformatics analyses of the glmS ribozyme present in S. aureus and its essential role in the biochemical pathway of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis. Besides, we have analyzed the bacteria for alternative metabolic pathways, such as the nagA gene. The first antisense oligonucleotide explicitly targets the glmS riboswitch, while the second explicitly targets the nagA mRNA. We have evaluated that combined, the antisense oligonucleotides block the synthesis of glucosamine-6-phosphate entirely and inhibit the bacterial growth of S. aureus. However, the glmS riboswitch targeting the antisense oligonucleotide is sufficient to inhibit the growth of S. aureus with a MIC80 of 5 μg/mL. The glmS ribozyme is a very suitable target for antibacterial drug development with antisense oligonucleotides.Metalloproteins have many different functions such as storage and transport of proteins, enzymes, signal transduction proteins, etc. Herein, for a selection of gold nanoparticles differing in shape, size, charge, and surface modification, the binding behavior in human serum was assessed with respect to metal-containing proteins. Our results based on sector-field ICP-MS measurements and a simple calculation algorithm indicate the possible involvement of proteins, incorporating Cu and Fe, in the formation of the biomolecular layer around the particle surface. Given that such binding encompasses a substantial amount of copper and iron within the serum proteome (>50%) at a calculated nanoparticle dose, it may result in depleting their biological functions and should be taken into account when selecting lead candidates with an improved biocompatibility.Organic-inorganic hybrid ferroelectrics (OIHFs) have fueled enormous interest benefiting from their less environmental pollution, performance-tailored functionality, low product costs as well as tunability of structures. However, the lack of material synthesis approaches and diverse targeted molecular design is a stumbling block for designing novel OIHFs rationally. Here, we report a unique organic-inorganic hybrid ferroelectric (3,3-difluoropyrrolidine)2CdCl4 1 and another novel nonferroelectric crystal (3,3-difluoropyrrolidine)2Cd2Cl6 2 by changing various crystallization solvents. Significantly, 1 presents a ferroelectric phase transition behavior at ∼367 K, and the distinct symmetry breaking, i.e., mmmFm, sets up a biaxial ferroelectric with four equivalent directions of polarization, which has a Pr ∼ 0.77 μC/cm2. Systematic studies prove that ferroelectricity can be ascribed to the synergistic effects of the distortion of the inorganic anion skeleton and the ordering of organic cations. This work reveals the potential of constructing novel ferroelectrics based on the solvent selective effect and pyrrolidinium as organic cations.It is essential to tune the electrical properties of inorganic semiconductors via a doping process in the fabrication of cutting-edge electronic devices; however, the doping in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) is limited by the uncontrollable dopant diffusion and low doping efficiencies. This study proposes the use of a fluorinated functional group in a polymer dielectric layer as an effective p-type doping strategy for ambipolar diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based donor-acceptor (D-A)-type semiconducting copolymer films used in OFETs, without generating structural perturbations. To experimentally verify the surface polarization doping effect of the fluorinated group, two terpolymers─poly(pentafluorostyrene-co-3-azidopropyl-methacrylate-co-propargyl-methacrylate) (5F-SAPMA), wherein fluorinated units are included, and poly(phenyl-methacrylate-co-3-azidopropyl-methacrylate-co-propargyl-methacrylate) (PhAPMA), without fluorinated units─are designed and synthesized for use in OFETs. The synthesized 5F-SAPMA and PhAPMA films were cross-linked through the click reaction between the alkyne and azide units in the terpolymers at 150 °C to provide chemical, thermal, and mechanical stabilities and solvent resistance. The electrical characterization of the OFETs with the newly synthesized terpolymer dielectrics reveals that the surface polarization induced by the fluorinated groups of the 5F-SAPMA dielectrics leads to the generation of additional hole charges and helps minimize the broadening of the extended tail states in the vicinity of the valence band (highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level). This not only enables a transition from the ambipolar to p-type dominant characteristics but also helps increase the hole mobility from 0.023 to 0.305 cm2/(V·s).On account of their high strength and stiffness and their renewable nature, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are widely used as a reinforcing component in polymer nanocomposites. However, CNCs are prone to aggregation and this limits the attainable reinforcement. Here, we show that nanocomposites with a very high CNC content can be prepared by combining the cationic polymer poly[(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl) trimethylammonium chloride] (PMETAC) and negatively charged, carboxylated CNCs that are provided as a sodium salt (CNC-COONa). Free-standing films of the composites can be prepared by simple solvent casting from water. The appearance and polarized optical microscopy and electron microscopy images of these films suggest that CNC aggregation is absent, and this is supported by the very pronounced reinforcement observed. The incorporation of 33 wt % CNC-COONa into PMETAC allowed increasing the storage modulus of this already rather stiff, glassy amorphous matrix polymer from 1.5 ± 0.3 to 6.6 ± 0.1 GPa, while the maximum strength increased from 11 to 32 MPa. At this high CNC content, the reinforcement achieved in the PMETAC/CNC-COONa nanocomposite is much more pronounced than that observed for a reference nanocomposite made with unmodified CNCs (CNC-OH).This study aims to investigate the effect of the stepwise marine fuel oil regulations on the concentrations of vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni) in ambient air based on a 4-y (2017-2020) online measurement in Shanghai, a coastal city in China. The annual concentration of V was reduced by 58% due to the switch from Domestic Emission Control Area (DECA) 1.0 to DECA 2.0 and further by 74% after the implementation of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulation, while the reduction rate for Ni was only 27% and then 18% respectively. Consistently, a reduction of 84% in V content and a negligible change in Ni content were measured in 180cst ship oil samples from 2010 to 2020. The similar increasing trend of Ni/V ratios (from 2.0) in both ambient measurement and heavy fuel oil samples suggests that the DECA and IMO 2020 regulations effectively reduced the ambient V. However, nickel content is still enriched in the in-use desulfurized residual oils and ship-emitted particles in coastal China. Meanwhile, the previous ratio between V and Ni cannot be used as a tracer for identifying ship-emitted particles due to its large variation in oils. Further updating of the source profile of ship traffic emissions in coastal cities is necessary in the future.Charge doping to Mott insulators is critical to realize high-temperature superconductivity, quantum spin liquid state, and Majorana fermion, which would contribute to quantum computation. Mott insulators also have a great potential for optoelectronic applications; however, they showed insufficient photoresponse in previous reports. To enhance the photoresponse of Mott insulators, charge doping is a promising strategy since it leads to effective modification of electronic structure near the Fermi level. Intercalation, which is the ion insertion into the van der Waals gap of layered materials, is an effective charge-doping method without defect generation. Herein, we showed significant enhancement of optoelectronic properties of a layered Mott insulator, α-RuCl3, through electron doping by organic cation intercalation. The electron-doping results in substantial electronic structure change, leading to the bandgap shrinkage from 1.2 eV to 0.7 eV. Due to localized excessive electrons in RuCl3, distinct density of states is generated in the valence band, leading to the optical absorption change rather than metallic transition even in substantial doping concentration.
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