Latest ArticlesCirculating tumor DNA (ctDNA), carrying tumor-specific sequence mutations, is a promising biomarker for classification, diagnosis and prognosis of cancers. However, there is still a great challenge in discriminating single-base difference between ctDNA and its coexisting analogue (normal circulating DNA, ncDNA) at a serum sample. A locked nucleic acid (LNA) probe combined with α-HL nanopore sensor was designed, which achieved a high signal-to-background ratio (SBR) of ~8.34×103, as well as a significant discrimination capability (~12.3 times) of single-base difference. The accurate discrimination strategy is label-free, convenient, selective and sensitive, which has great potential in the early diagnosis of diseases and biomedical research fields.
With the rapid growth in electronic device performance, there has been an increasing demand for thermally conductive polymer composites to handle the thermal management issue, thus contributing to the great importance to develop the graphene framework, which is evaluated as the most promising reinforcements for enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer. Vacuum filtration is a common method to fabricate graphene framework, whereas, it is available to prepare a framework with centimeter-scale thickness by filtrating the graphene-water dispersion, due to the fact of sample cracking caused by the mismatch of surface tension between graphene and water. In this work, a surfactantassisted strategy was proposed by adjusting the surface tension of the water close to that of graphene first, then performing a conventional filtration process, to fabricate graphene framework. As a result, a thick graphene framework (thickness: 3 cm) was successfully prepared, and after embedding into epoxy, the framework endows the composite (13.6 wt%) with a high in-plane thermal conductivities of 12.4 W/mK, which is equivalent to ≈64 times higher than that of neat epoxy. Our method is simple and compatible with the conventional filtration process, suggesting great potential for the mass-production of graphene framework to meet the practical application requirements.
Two A-B-C type conjugated amphiphilic triblock fullerene derivatives C60-2HMTPB and C60-2EHTPB were obtained in multi steps synthesis with three different blocks, and the amphiphilic diblock molecular C60-4TPB was also preferred as a reference. When as modifying layer on zinc oxide (ZnO), the three fullerene derivatives can all reduce the work function of ZnO via modulation of the interfacial dipoles and lead a better electrical coupling. As introducing treatment of toluene, the obvious self-assembly of fullerene derivatives were observed, which were supported by X-ray diffraction and contact angle of water measurement. Base on PTB7-Th:PC71BM system, the inverted organic solar cells devices with structure of ITO/ZnO/fullerene derivatives/PTB7-Th:PC71BM/MoO3/Al got power conversion efficiencies of 8.62%, 8.83% and 9.00% for C60-4TPB, C60-2HMTPB and C60-2EHTPB, respectively, compared 8.13% of devices with bare ZnO. The result of conjugated amphiphilic triblock fullerene derivatives provides a straightforward approaching by simultaneously modulating the morphology and interfacial work function of ZnO, which can also lead high performance in optoelectronic devices.
The rapid transmission of vaccinia virus (VACV) in vivo is thought to be closely related to the cell migration induced by it. Cell migration involved in dynamic changes of cell-substrate adhesion and actin cytoskeleton organization, which can influence by the micro/nano-scale topographic structures that cells are naturally exposed to via contact guidance. However, migration behaviors of VACV-infected cells exposed to topographic cues are still unknown. Herein, we designed an open chip with microgrooved poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) substrate to explore the topography roles in VACV-induced cell migration. Differed from the random cell migration observed in traditional scratch assay on planar substrate, VACV-infected cells had a tendency to persistently migrate along the axis parallel to microgroove with increased velocity. Moreover, infected cells exhibited a dominant elongated protrusion aligned to the micro-grating axis compare to the shorter lamella extended in any direction on smooth substrate. Interestingly, the Golgi complex preferred to relocate behind the nucleus confined within the micro-grating axis in majority of infected migratory cells. The directional polarization of cells embodied in protrusion formation and Golgi reorientation was responsible for the directionally persistent migration behaviors induced by VACV on microgrooved substrate. Infected cells response to substrate topography, causing the actin-filled stretched protrusion containing numerous virions and accelerated movement is likely to facilitate direct and rapid spread of VACV. This work opens a window for us to understand the migration behaviors of infected cells in vivo, and also provides a cue for revealing the relationship between virus-induced cell migration and virus rapid spread.
Interfacial electron transfer between electroactive biofilm and the electrode was crucial step for microbial fuel cells (MFCs). A three-dimensional multilayer porous sponge coating with nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube/polyaniline/manganese dioxide (S/N-CNT/PANI/MnO2) electrode has been developed for MFC anode. Here, the S/N-CNT/PANI/MnO2 anode can function as a biocapacitor, able to store electrons generated from the degradation of organic substrate under the open circuit state and release the accumulated electrons upon requirement. Thus, the mismatching of the production and demand of the electricity can be overcome. Comparing with the sponge/nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (S/N-CNT) bioanode, S/N-CNT/PANI/MnO2 capacitive bioanode displays a strong interaction with the microbial biofilm, advancing the electron transfer from exoelectrogens to the bioanode. The maximum power density of MFC with S/N-CNT/PANI/MnO2 capacitive bioanode is 1019.5 mW/m2, which is 2.2 and 5.8 times as much as that of S/N-CNT/MnO2 bioanode and S/N-CNT bioanode (470.7 mW/m2 and 176.6 mW/m2), respectively. During the chronoamperometric experiment with 60 min of charging and 20 min of discharging, the S/N-CNT/PANI/MnO2 capacitive bioanode was able to store 10743.9 C/m2, whereas the S/N-CNT anode was only able to store 3323.4 C/m2. With a capacitive bioanode, it is possible to use the MFC simultaneously for production and storage of electricity
An Ir-catalyzed selective mono-sulfamidation of 2-arylquinazolinones has been achieved with a low catalyst loading under mild conditions. A series of regioselective mono-sulfamided 2-arylquinazolinones were obtained in up to 90% yields. Compared with our previous work of constructing di-sulfamidated 2-arylquinazolinones, the mono-sulfamided products could be obtained selectively by changing the ratio of substrates, the loading of catalyst, acid additive, and reaction time.
Novel highly sensitive chiral organic field-effect transistors (COFET) were developed by directly assembling imidazolium3, 5-dimethylphenylcabamoylated-β-cyclodextrin(Im+-Ph-β-CD)and 3, 5-dimethylphenylcarbamoylated-β-CD (Ph-β-CD) respectively onto the semiconductor layer as sensing units. The Im+-Ph-β-CD/COFET afforded better enantioselectivity and a lowest detection concentration of 10 18 L/mol as well as the potentiality in quantitative analysis of commercial medicines.
CO2-controlled assembly of conjugated polymer and boron nitride (BN) was fabricated via electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between the BN fiber and conjugated polymer of PFBT containing fluorene units and 2, 1, 3-benzothiadiazole units. CO2, an effective and green stimulus for regulating the assembly of PFBT and BN fibers, leads to an obvious fluorescence variation. Moreover, PFBT enables the assembly with the signal amplification and light-harvesting properties. This work provides a new triggering method to construct intelligent conjugated polymer-based platform, and offers fluorescence monitoring strategy for carbon dioxide capture.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the significant greenhouse gases, and partial nitritation-anammox (PNA) process emits higher N2O than traditional nitrogen removal processes. N2O production in PNA mainly occurs in three different pathways, i.e., the ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) denitrification, the hydroxylamine (NH2OH) oxidation and heterotrophic denitrifiers denitrification. N2O emission data vary significantly because of the different operational conditions, bioreactor configurations, monitoring systems and quantitative methods. Under the common operational parameter scopes of PNA, N2O emission via NH2OH oxidation dominates at relatively low dissolved oxygen (DO), low inorganic carbon (IC), high pH or low NO2- concentration, while N2O emission via AOB denitrification dominates at relative higher DO, higher IC, lower pH or higher NO2- concentration. AOB are highly enriched while nitriteoxidizing bacteria (NOB) are rarely found in partial nitritation process, and the order Nitrosomonadales of AOB is the dominant group and N2O producer. Anammox bacteria, AOB and certain amount of heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria are observed in the anammox process, the genus Denitratisoma and the heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria in the deep layer of anammox granules are the dominant N2O generation bacteria. In one-stage PNA reactors, anammox bacteria account for a large fraction of the biomass, AOB account for small portion, and NOB account for even less. The microbial community, diversity and N2O producers in one-stage PNA reactors are similar with those in two-stage PNA reactors. The dominant anammox bacteria, AOB and NOB in PNA are the species Candidatus Brocadia, the genera of Nitrotoga, Nitrospira and Nitrobacter, and the genus Nitrosomonas, respectively. The relations between N2O emission pathways and microbial communities need further study in the future.
The enantioselective total synthesis of the putative structure of versiquinazoline H and three diastereomers has been achieved, which allowed the revision of the stereochemistry of this natural product. This six-step total synthesis relied on the evolution of the strategy that we previously developed, which features a DMDO-triggered tandem reaction. The modification of the lactamization step resulted in a significant improvement of yield that ensured the efficient total synthesis.