Zachariassenyates2929

Structural characterization of misfolded protein aggregates is essential to understanding the molecular mechanism of protein aggregation associated with various protein misfolding disorders. Here, we report structural analyses of ex vivo transthyretin aggregates extracted from human cardiac tissue. Comparative structural analyses of in vitro and ex vivo transthyretin aggregates using various biophysical techniques revealed that cardiac transthyretin amyloid has structural features similar to those of in vitro transthyretin amyloid. Our solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance studies showed that in vitro amyloid contains extensive nativelike β-sheet structures, while other loop regions including helical structures are disrupted in the amyloid state. These results suggest that transthyretin undergoes a common misfolding and aggregation transition to nativelike aggregation-prone monomers that self-assemble into amyloid precipitates in vitro and in vivo.SnTe has attracted considerable attention as an environmentally friendly thermoelectric material. CBR4701 The thermoelectric figure of merit ZT value is related to low thermal conductivity that can be successfully realized using fabrication of nanostructures. However, the practical realization of SnTe nanostructured composites is often limited by long reaction time, low yield, and aggregation of nanoparticles. Herein, a simple substitution reaction between Cu2Se and SnTe was adopted to realize Cu1.75Te-SnTe nanocomposites with unique all-scale hierarchical structures. On the atomic level, the substitution SeTe is introduced into the lattice via the reaction between Cu2Se and SnTe; on the nanoscopic level, Cu1.75Te nanoinclusions with 10 nm size are evenly distributed at the grain boundaries of SnTe with average grain size less than 1 μm; on the mesoscopic level, these SnTe grains stack up to larger particles (10-20 μm), which are further surrounded by Cu1.75Te grains with a predominant size of 1-2 μm. These hierarchical structures, together with additional SnTe stacking faults, can effectively scatter phonons with different wavelengths to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity. At 873 K, a thermal conductivity value of 0.49 W·m-1·K-1 was obtained in the SnTe nanocomposite sample with 0.057 Cu1.75Te molar content, which is 40% lower than that of the pristine SnTe. By using the same approach for scattering phonons across integrated length scales, a ZT value of 1.02 (∼80% enhancement, compared with that of the pristine SnTe) was achieved at 873 K for the sample of the SnTe nanocomposite with 0.034 Cu1.75Te molar content. This large increase in ZT values highlights the role of multiscale hierarchical architecture in controlling phonon scattering, offering a viable alternative to realize higher performance thermoelectric bulk materials.The systematic substitution of Ba in the Sr site of Sr[Mg2Al2N4]Eu2+ generates a deep-red-emitting phosphor with enhanced thermal luminescence properties. Gas pressure sintering (GPS) of all-nitride starting materials in Molybdenum (Mo) crucibles yields pure-phase red-orange-colored phosphors. Peaks in the synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD) data show a systematic shift toward smaller angles due to the introduction of the larger Ba cation in the same crystal structure. The photoluminescence property reveals that Ba substitution shifts the original emission wavelength of Sr[Mg2Al2N4]Eu2+ (625 nm) toward ∼690 nm for Ba[Mg2Al2N4]Eu2+. Thermal stability measurement of Sr1-xBax[Mg2Al2N4] indicates a systematic increase in stability from x = 0 to x = 1. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) results demonstrate the coexistence of Eu2+ and Eu3+. The red-shift and the enhanced thermal stability reveals that the distance of the emitting 5d level to the conduction band of Ba[Mg2Al2N4]Eu2+ is large. The ionic size mismatch of Eu occupying a Ba site reduces the symmetry, thereby further splitting the degenerate emitting 5d level and lowering the energy of the emitting center. The development of deep-red phosphors emitting at 670-690 nm (x = 0.8-1.0) offers possible candidates for plant lighting applications.Devices driven by above-equilibrium "hot" electrons are appealing for photocatalytic technologies, such as in situ H2O2 synthesis, but currently suffer from low (2 ps in devices photoexcited with fluence of 0.1 mJ cm-2. The use of an Al film also enhances the photocatalytic yield of H2O2 more than 3-fold in a visible-light-driven reactor. Altogether, we show that the critical coupling of Al films to Au nanoparticles is a low-cost, lithography-free method for improving visible-light capture, extending hot-carrier lifetimes, and ultimately increasing the rate of in situ H2O2 generation.Topological Hall effect is an abnormal Hall response arising from the scalar spin chirality of chiral magnetic textures. Up to now, such an effect is only observed in certain special materials, but rarely in traditional ferromagnets. In this work, we have implemented the molecular beam epitaxy technique to successfully embed black-phosphorus-like bismuth nanosheets with strong spin-orbit coupling into the bulk of chromium telluride Cr2Te3, as evidenced by atomically resolved energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping. Distinctive from pristine Cr2Te3, these Bi-embedded Cr2Te3 epitaxial films exhibit not only pronounced topological Hall effects, but also magnetoresistivity anomalies and differential magnetic susceptibility plateaus. All these experimental features point to the possible emergence of magnetic skyrmions in Bi-embedded Cr2Te3, which is further supported by our numerical simulations with all input parameters obtained from the first-principle calculations. Therefore, our work demonstrates a new efficient way to induce skyrmions in ferromagnets, as well as the topological Hall effect by embedding nanosheets with strong spin-orbit couplings.Heavy-metal pollution is becoming a worldwide problem severely threatening our health and ecosystem. In this study, we constructed a genetic-engineering-driven coassembly of synthetic bacterial cells and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) for capturing heavy metals. The Escherichia coli cells were genetically engineered by introducing a de novo synthetic heavy-metal-capturing gene (encoding a protein SynHMB containing a six-histidine tag, two cystine-rich peptides, and a metallothionein sequence) and a synthetic type VI secretory system (T6SS) cluster of Pseudomonas putida, endowing the synthetic cells (SynEc2) with high ability of displaying the heavy-metal-capturing SynHMB on cell surface. MNPs were synthesized by a coprecipitation method and further modified by polyethylenimine (PEI) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). Owing to the surface exposure of six-histidine tag on the synthetic bacteria and carboxyl groups on the modified MNPs (MNP@SiO2-PEI-DTPA), the synthetic bacterial cells and MNPs coassembled to form biotic/abiotic complex exhibiting a self-developing characteristic.