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These results are of relevance for the further development of TADF "dyes" and also, in the broader context, for understanding the dynamics of TADF molecules in the vicinity of energy donors/acceptors (i.e., in fluorescent OLEDs wherein TADF molecules are used as an assistant dopant). Copyright © 2020 Franco, Jakoby, Schneider, Hundemer, Hahn, Richards, Bräse, Meier, Lemmer and Howard.In an effort to study natural fiber formation, such as, e.g., spider silk, we present a model, which is capable of forming biomimetic fibrillar nanostructure from a hydrogel micellar network. The latter consists of interacting atomic groups which form cores of micelles, and of flexible chains forming the shells of the micelles. Micelles are connected in a compact network by linearly stretched chains. alpha-Naphthoflavone purchase The structural elements of the network can be transformed during deformation from micellar into fibrillary type and their evolution is found to depend significantly on strain rate. Our model suggests a set of conditions suitable for the formation of nanostructured fibrillar network. It demonstrates that a fibrillar structure is only formed upon sufficiently fast stretching while, in contrast, the micellar gel structure is preserved, if the material is pulled slowly. We illustrate this key aspect by a minimalistic model of only four chains as part of the whole network, which provides a detailed view on the mechanism of fibril formation. We conclude that such a simplified structure has similar functionality and is probably responsible for the formation of nano-structured molecular fibrils in natural materials. Copyright © 2020 Zidek, Milchev and Jancar.DNA-based molecular rulers enable scientists to determine important parameters across biology, from the measurement of protein binding interactions, to the study of membrane dynamics in cells. However, existing rulers can suffer from poor nanometre resolution due to the flexible nature of linkers used to tether to the DNA framework. We aimed to overcome this problem using zinc and free-base porphyrin chromophores attached via short and rigid acetylene linkers. This connectivity enables the distance and angle between the porphyrins to be fine-tuned along the DNA scaffold. The porphyrins undergo favorable energy transfer and chiral exciton coupling interactions to act as highly sensitive molecular ruler probes. To validate the system, we monitored the detection of small changes in DNA structure upon intercalation of ethidium bromide. CD spectroscopy showed the porphyrins undergo highly sensitive changes in excitation coupling to facilitate base pair resolution of the novel system. Copyright © 2020 Burns, Wood and Stulz.Although proteins have represented the molecular target of choice in the development of new drug candidates, the pharmaceutical importance of ribonucleic acids has gradually been growing. The increasing availability of structural information has brought to light the existence of peculiar three-dimensional RNA arrangements, which can, contrary to initial expectations, be recognized and selectively modulated through small chemical entities or peptides. The application of classical computational methodologies, such as molecular docking, for the rational development of RNA-binding candidates is, however, complicated by the peculiarities characterizing these macromolecules, such as the marked conformational flexibility, the singular charges distribution, and the relevant role of solvent molecules. In this work, we have thus validated and extended the applicability domain of SuMD, an all-atoms molecular dynamics protocol that allows to accelerate the sampling of molecular recognition events on a nanosecond timescale, to ribonucleotide targets of pharmaceutical interest. In particular, we have proven the methodological ability by reproducing the binding mode of viral or prokaryotic ribonucleic complexes, as well as that of artificially engineered aptamers, with an impressive degree of accuracy. Copyright © 2020 Bissaro, Sturlese and Moro.Conductive biomaterials have recently gained much attention, specifically owing to their application for electrical stimulation of electrically excitable cells. Herein, flexible, electrically conducting, robust fibers composed of both an alginate biopolymer and graphene components have been produced using a wet-spinning process. These nanocomposite fibers showed better mechanical, electrical, and electrochemical properties than did single fibers that were made solely from alginate. Furthermore, with the aim of evaluating the response of biological entities to these novel nanocomposite biofibers, in vitro studies were carried out using C2C12 myoblast cell lines. The obtained results from in vitro studies indicated that the developed electrically conducting biofibers are biocompatible to living cells. The developed hybrid conductive biofibers are likely to find applications as 3D scaffolding materials for tissue engineering applications. Copyright © 2020 Talebian, Mehrali, Raad, Safaei, Xi, Liu and Foroughi.The detection of the Cerenkov radiation (CR) is an emerging preclinical imaging technique which allows monitoring the in vivo distribution of radionuclides. Among its possible advantages, the most interesting is the simplicity and cost of the required instrumentation compared, e.g., to that required for PET scans. On the other hand, one of its main drawbacks is related to the fact that CR, presenting the most intense component in the UV-vis region, has a very low penetration in biological tissues. To address this issue, we present here multifluorophoric silica nanoparticles properly designed to efficiently absorb the CR radiation and to have a quite high fluorescence quantum yield (0.12) at 826 nm. Thanks to a highly efficient series of energy transfer processes, each nanoparticle can convert part of the CR into NIR light, increasing its detection even under 1.0-cm thickness of muscle. Copyright © 2020 Genovese, Petrizza, Prodi, Rampazzo, De Sanctis, Spinelli, Boschi and Zaccheroni.A facile hydrothermal approach was adopted to the direct synthesis of bimetallic sulfide (CuCo2S4) on carbon cloth (CC) without binders for the supercapacitor's electrodes. A possible formation mechanism was proposed. The prepared bimetallic electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance (Csp) of 1,312 F·g-1 at 1 A·g-1, and an excellent capacitance retention of 94% at 5 A·g-1 over 5,000 cycles. In addition, the asymmetric supercapacitor (CuCo2S4/CC//AC/CC) exhibited energy density (42.9 wh·kg-1 at 0.8 kW·kg-1) and outstanding cycle performance (80% initial capacity retention after 5,000 cycles at 10 A·g-1). It should be noted that the electrochemical performance of a supercapacitor device is quite stable at different bending angles. Two charged devices in series can light 28 red-colored LEDs (2.0 V) for 5 min. All of this serves to indicate the potentially high application value of CuCo2S4. Copyright © 2020 Xie, Xu, Wang, Ma, Su, Dong and Gong.