Beklindegaard0745

It is demonstrated that a r-Zn anode cycles stably for over 200 hours at 1 mA cm-2 and 0.5 mAh cm-2 with a low overpotential of 20 mV, which far outperforms 39 hours' cycling with an overpotential of 72 mV for the pristine metallic Zn counterpart.Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging flavivirus that may be associated with congenital anomalies in infected fetuses and severe neurological and genital tract complications in infected adults. Currently, antiviral treatments to revert these ZIKV-induced complications are lacking. ZIKV infection has recently been suggested to upregulate the host unfolded protein response, which may contribute to the congenital neurological anomalies. Extending from these findings, we thoroughly investigated ZIKV-induced unfolded protein response using a combination of neuronal cell line, induced pluripotent stem cells-derived human neuronal stem and progenitor cells, and an interferon receptor-deficient A129 mouse model. Our results revealed a critical contribution of the inositol-requiring enzyme-1 (IRE1) arm of the unfolded protein response to ZIKV-induced neurological and testicular complications. Importantly, inhibiting IRE1 signaling pathway activation with KIRA6 (Kinase-Inhibiting RNAse Attenuator 6), a selective small molecule IRE1 inhibitor that promotes cell survival, potently reverted the ZIKV-induced perturbations of the key gene expressions associated with neurogenesis and spermatogenesis in vitro and in vivo, highlighting the potential of IRE1 inhibition as a novel host-targeting antiviral strategy in combating against ZIKV-induced neurological and testicular pathologies.Although ultrahigh theoretical capacity has long been predicted for boron based lithium-ion-battery anodes, experimentally boron has only exhibited limited performance and its lithiation process remains elusive. The two dimensional (2D) form of boron is believed to be an ideal model system to investigate the lithiation behavior of boron, however unfortunately, most reported 2D boron structures are prone to oxidation under ambient conditions. In this contribution, through a simultaneous etching and in-situ functionalization process, we synthesized for the first time methyl-functionalized boron nanosheets, which remain stable up to 250 oC. Combining experiments and theoretical calculations, we found that lithiation of boron is realized through the formation of alloys such as LiB3 and Li3B14, while alloys with higher Li contents such as Li5B are thermodynamically less favored. In addition, detailed electrochemical analysis reveals that side reactions on boron surface may also contribute to the unsatisfactory performance of boron based electrodes. Our findings suggest that reducing the enthalpy of formation of high Li content alloys and the choice of less nucleophilic electrolyte are the key to developing high performance anodes based on novel boron materials. Our demonstration of stable 2D boron structures also paves the way for their fundamental study and practical applications.Immobilizing a signaling protein to guide cell behavior has been employed in a wide variety of studies. This approach draws inspiration from biology, where specific, affinity-based interactions between membrane receptors and immobilized proteins in the extracellular matrix guide many developmental and homeostatic processes. Synthetic immobilization approaches, however, do not necessarily recapitulate the in vivo signaling system and potentially lead to artificial receptor-ligand interactions. To investigate the effects of one example of engineered receptor-ligand interactions, we focus on the immobilization of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), which has been used to drive differentiation of neuronal stem cells (NSCs). To isolate the effect of ligand immobilization, we transfected Cos-7 cells with only interferon-γ receptor 1 (IFNγR1), not IFNγR2, so that the cells could bind IFN-γ, but were incapable of canonical signal transduction. We then exposed the cells to surfaces containing covalently immobilized IFN-γ and studied membrane morphology, receptor-ligand dynamics, and receptor activation. We found that exposing cells to immobilized, but not soluble IFN-γ, drove the formation of filopodia in both NSCs and Cos-7, showing that covalently immobilizing IFN-γ is enough to affect cell behavior, independently of canonical downstream signaling. Overall, this work suggests that synthetic growth factor immobilization can influence cell morphology beyond enhancing canonical cell responses through the prolonged signaling duration or spatial patterning enabled by protein immobilization. This suggests that differentiation of NSCs could be driven by canonical and non-canonical pathways when IFN-γ is covalently immobilized. This finding has broad implications for bioengineering approaches to guide cell behavior, as one ligand has the potential to impact multiple pathways even when cells lack the canonical signal transduction machinery.Streptococcus sanguinis is an oral commensal bacterium, but can colonize pre-existing heart valve vegetations if introduced into the blood stream, leading to infective endocarditis. Loss of Mn- or Fe-cofactored virulence determinants are thought to result in enfeeblement of this bacterium. Indeed, intracellular Mn accumulation mediated by the lipoprotein SsaB, a component of the SsaACB transporter complex, has been shown to promote virulence for endocarditis and O2 tolerance. To delineate intracellular metal-ion abundance and redox speciation within S. sanguinis, we developed a protocol exploiting two spectroscopic techniques, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, to respectively quantify total intracellular metal concentrations, and directly measure redox speciation of Fe and Mn within intact whole-cell samples. Addition of the cell-permeable siderophore deferoxamine shifts the oxidation states of accessible Fe and Mn from reduced-to-oxidized, as verified by magnetic moment calculations, aiding in the characterization of intracellular metal pools and metal sequestration levels for Mn2+ and Fe. We have applied this methodology to S. sanguinis and an SsaACB knockout strain (ΔssaACB), indicating that SsaACB mediates both Mn and Fe uptake, directly influencing the metal-ion pools available for biological inorganic pathways. Mn-supplementation to ΔssaACB returns total intracellular Mn to wild-type levels, but does not restore wild-type redox speciation or distribution of metal cofactor availability for either Mn or Fe. Our results highlight the biochemical basis for S. sanguinis oxidative resistance, revealing a dynamic role for SsaACB in controlling redox homeostasis by managing the intracellular Fe/Mn composition and distribution.Fuel-free light-driven micromotors have attracted increasing attention since the advantages of reversible, noninvasive and remote manoeuvre on demand with excellent spatial and temporal resolution. However they are suffering from challenging bottleneck of the rather modest motion speed, which hinders their applications needing to overcome the water flow movement in environmental water. Herein, we demonstrate a near-infrared light (NIR)-steered, precise navigation-controlled micromotor based on reduced graphene oxide aerogel microsphere (RGOAM), which possess isotropic structure and is easily prepared by one-step electrospray approach other than conventional light-propelled micromotors with Janus structure. Benefiting from ultralight weight of aerogel and lesser fluid resistance on the water surface, the RGOAM motors show the higher motion speed (up to 17.60 mm/s) than that in the published literatures, letting it overcomes counter flow. Taking advantage of photothermal conversion capacity of RGOAM under asymmetric light field, it is capable of moving both on the water driven by the Marangoni effect and under the water via light-manipulated density change. Zn-C3 datasheet The motion direction and speed on water, as well as "start/stop" state can be precisely steered by NIR light even in a complicated maze. Due to its strong adsorption and loading capacity, the RGOAM can be applied for active loading-transport-release of dyes on-demand, as well as micro-parts assembling and shaping. Our work provides a strategy to achieve high speed, precise navigation control as well as functional extensibility simultaneously for micromotors, which may offers considerable promise for the broad biomedical and environmental applications.Hydrogel bioelectronics as one of the next-generation wearable and implantable electronics ensure super biocompatibility and softness to bridge human body and electronics. However, volatile, opaque and fragile features of hydrogels due to the sparsely and microscale three-dimensional network, seriously limit their practical applications. Here, we report a type of smart and robust nanofibrillar polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) organohydrogels fabricated via one-step physical cross-linking. The nanofibrillar network cross-linked by numerous PVA nanocrystallites enables the formation of organohydrogels with high transparency (90%), drying resistance, high toughness (3.2 MJ/m3) and tensile strength (1.4 MPa). For strain sensor application, the PVA ionic organohydrogel after soaking NaCl solution shows excellent linear sensitivity (GF=1.56, R2 > 0.998) owing to the homogeneous nanofibrillar PVA network. We demonstrate the potential applications of the nanofibrillar PVA-based organohydrogel in smart contact lens and emotion recognition. Such a strategy paves an effective way to fabricate strong, tough, biocompatible and ionically conductive organohydrogels, shedding light on multifunctional sensing applications in next-generation flexible bioelectronics.Streptococcal species are gram positive bacteria responsible for a variety of infections including pneumonia, meningitis, endocarditis, erysipelas, necrotizing fasciitis, periodontitis, skin and soft tissue infections, chorioamnionitis, funisitis, and neonatal sepsis. In response to streptococcal infections, the host innate immune system deploys a repertoire of antimicrobial and immune modulating molecules. One important molecule that is produced in response to streptococcal infections is lactoferrin. Lactoferrin has antimicrobial properties including the ability to bind iron with high affinity and sequester this important nutrient from an invading pathogen. Additionally, lactoferrin has the capacity to alter the host inflammatory response and contribute to disease outcome. This review presents the most recent published work that studies the interaction between the host innate immune protein lactoferrin and the invading pathogen, Streptococcus.An amyloid aggregate evolves through a series of intermediates that have different secondary structures and intra- and intermolecular contacts. The structural parameters of these intermediates are important determinants of their toxicity. For example, the early oligomeric species of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide have been implicated as the most cytotoxic species in Alzheimer's disease but are difficult to identify because of their dynamic and transitory nature. Conventional aggregation monitors such as the fluorescent dye thioflavin T report on only the overall transition of the soluble species to the final amyloid fibrillar aggregated state. Here, we show that the fluorescent dye bis(triphenylphosphonium) tetraphenylethene (TPE-TPP) identifies at least three distinct aggregation intermediates of Aβ. Some atomic-level features of these intermediates are known from solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Hence, the TPE-TPP fluorescence data may be interpreted in terms of these Aβ structural transitions.