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Importance: Infant growth predicts long-term obesity and cardiovascular disease. Previous interventions designed to prevent obesity in the first 2 years of life have been largely unsuccessful. Obesity prevalence is high among traditional racial and ethnic minority groups., Objective: To compare the effectiveness of adding a digital childhood obesity prevention intervention to health behavior counseling delivered by pediatric primary care clinicians., Design, Setting, and Participants: Individually randomized, parallel-group trial conducted at 6 US medical centers and enrolling patients shortly after birth. To be eligible, parents spoke English or Spanish, and children were born after 34 weeks' gestational age. Study enrollment occurred between October 2019 and January 2022, with follow-up through January 2024., Interventions: In the clinic-based health behavior counseling (clinic-only) group, pediatric clinicians used health literacy-informed booklets at well-child visits to promote healthy behaviors (n = 451). In the clinic + digital intervention group, families also received health literacy-informed, individually tailored, responsive text messages to support health behavior goals and a web-based dashboard (n = 449)., Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was child weight-for-length trajectory over 24 months. Secondary outcomes included weight-for-length z score, body mass index (BMI) z score, and the percentage of children with overweight or obesity., Results: Of 900 randomized children, 86.3% had primary outcome data at the 24-month follow-up time point; 143 (15.9%) were Black, non-Hispanic; 405 (45.0%) were Hispanic; 185 (20.6%) were White, non-Hispanic; and 165 (18.3%) identified as other or multiple races and ethnicities. Children in the clinic + digital intervention group had a lower mean weight-for-length trajectory, with an estimated reduction of 0.33 kg/m (95% CI, 0.09 to 0.57) at 24 months. There was also an adjusted mean difference of -0.19 (95% CI, -0.37 to -0.02) for weight-for-length z score and -0.19 (95% CI, -0.36 to -0.01) for BMI z score. At age 24 months, 23.2% of the clinic + digital intervention group compared with 24.5% of the clinic-only group had overweight or obesity (adjusted risk ratio, 0.91 [95% CI, 0.70 to 1.17]) based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria of BMI 85th percentile or greater. At that age, 7.4% of the clinic + digital intervention group compared with 12.7% of the clinic-only group had obesity (adjusted risk ratio, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.36 to 0.88])., Conclusions and Relevance: A health literacy-informed digital intervention improved child weight-for-length trajectory across the first 24 months of life and reduced childhood obesity at 24 months. The intervention was effective in a racially and ethnically diverse population that included groups at elevated risk for childhood obesity., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04042467.

The artificial microenvironments inside coordination cages have gained significant attention for performing enzyme-like catalytic reactions by facilitating the formation of labile and complex molecules through a "ship-in-a-bottle" approach. Despite many fascinating examples, this approach remains scarcely explored in the context of synthesizing metallic clusters such as polyoxometalates (POMs). The development of innovative approaches to control and influence the speciation of POMs in aqueous solutions would greatly advance their applicability and could ultimately lead to the formation of elusive clusters that cannot be synthesized by using traditional methods. In this study, we employ host-guest stabilization within a coordination cage to enable a novel cavity-directed synthesis of labile POMs in aqueous solutions under mild conditions. The elusive Lindqvist [M 6 O 19 ] 2- (M=Mo or W) POMs were successfully synthesized at room temperature via the condensation of molybdate or tungstate building blocks within the confined cavity of a robust and water-soluble Pt 6 L 4 (NO 3 ) 12 coordination cage. Importantly, the encapsulation of these POMs enhances their stability in water, rendering them efficient catalysts for environmentally friendly and selective sulfoxidation reactions using H 2 O 2 as a green oxidant in a pure aqueous medium. The approach developed in this paper offers a means to synthesize and stabilize the otherwise unstable metal-oxo clusters in water, which can broaden the scope of their applications., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Time-resolved structural investigations of crystallization of water in lipid/protein/salt mesophases at cryogenic temperatures are significant for comprehension of ice nanocrystal nucleation kinetics in lipid membranous systems and can lead to a better understanding of how to experimentally retard the ice formation that obstructs the protein crystal structure determination. Here, we present a time-resolved synchrotron microfocus X-ray diffraction (TR-XRD) study based on ∼40,000 frames that revealed the dynamics of water-to-ice crystallization in a lipid/protein/salt mesophase subjected to cryostream cooling at 100 K. The monoolein/hemoglobin/salt/water system was chosen as a model composition related to protein-loaded lipid cubic phases (LCP) broadly used for the crystallization of proteins. Under confinement in the nanoscale geometry, metastable short-living cubic ice (I c ) rapidly crystallized well before the formation of hexagonal ice (I h ). The detected early nanocrystalline states of water-to-ice transformation in multicomponent systems are relevant to a broad spectrum of technologies and understanding of natural phenomena, including crystallization, physics of water nanoconfinement, and rational design of anti-freezing and cryopreservation systems., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The reactivity of aryl monocarboxylic acids (benzoic, 1- or 2-naphtoic, 4'-methylbiphenyl-4-carboxylic, and anthracene-9-carboxylic acids) as complexing agents for the ethoxide niobium(V) (Nb(OEt) 5 precursor has been investigated. A total of eight coordination complexes were isolated with distinct niobium(V) nuclearities as well as carboxylate complexation states. The use of benzoic acid gives a tetranuclear core Nb 4 (μ 2 -O) 4 (L) 4 (OEt) 8 ] (L=benzoate (1)) with four Nb-(μ 2 -O)-Nb linkages in a square plane configuration. A similar tetramer, 7, was obtained with 2-naphtoic acid by using a 55 % humid atmosphere synthetic route. Two types of dinuclear brick were identified with one central Nb-(μ 2 -O)-Nb linkage; they differ in their complexation state, with one bridging carboxylate ([Nb 2 (μ 2 -O)(μ 2 -OEt)(L)(OEt) 6 ], with L=1-naphtoate (3) or anthracene-9-carboxylate (5)) or two bridging carboxylate groups ([Nb 2 (μ 2 -O)(L) 2 (OEt) 6 ], with L=4'-methylbiphenyl-4-carboxylic (4) or anthracene-9-carboxylate (6)). An octanuclear moiety [Nb 8 (μ 2 -O) 12 (L) 8 (η 1 -L) 4-x (OEt) 4+x ] (with L=2-naphtoate, x=0 or 2; 8) was obtained by using a solvothermal route in acetonitrile; it has a cubic configuration with niobium centers at each node, linked by 12 μ 2 -O groups. The formation of the niobium oxo clusters was characterized by infrared and liquid 1 H NMR spectroscopy in order to analyze the esterification reaction, which induces the release of water molecules that further react through oxolation with niobium atoms, in different {Nb 2 O}, {Nb 4 O 4 } and {Nb 8 O 12 } nuclearities., (© 2022 The Authors. Chemistry - A European Journal published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Complement activation on cell surfaces leads to the massive deposition of C3b, iC3b, and C3dg, the main complement opsonins. Recognition of iC3b by complement receptor type 3 (CR3) fosters pathogen opsonophagocytosis by macrophages and the stimulation of adaptive immunity by complement-opsonized antigens. Here, we present the crystallographic structure of the complex between human iC3b and the von Willebrand A inserted domain of the α chain of CR3 (αI). The crystal contains two composite interfaces for CR3 αI, encompassing distinct sets of contiguous macroglobulin (MG) domains on the C3c moiety, MG1-MG2 and MG6-MG7 domains. These composite binding sites define two iC3b-CR3 αI complexes characterized by specific rearrangements of the two semi-independent modules, C3c moiety and TED domain. Furthermore, we show the structure of iC3b in a physiologically-relevant extended conformation. Based on previously available data and novel insights reported herein, we propose an integrative model that reconciles conflicting facts about iC3b structure and function and explains the molecular basis for iC3b selective recognition by CR3 on opsonized surfaces., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

In aqueous solution, low-charged polyoxometalates (POMs) exhibit remarkable self-assembly properties with nonionic organic matter that have been recently used to develop groundbreaking advances in host-guest chemistry, as well as in soft matter science. Herein, we exploit the affinity between a chaotropic POM and native cyclodextrins (α-, β-, and γ-CD) to enhance the structural and functional diversity of cyclodextrin-based open frameworks. First, we reveal that the Anderson-Evans type polyoxometalate [AlMo 6 O 18 (OH) 6 ] 3- represents an efficient inorganic scaffold to design open hybrid frameworks built from infinite cyclodextrin channels connected through the disk-shaped POM. A single-crystal X-ray analysis demonstrates that the resulting supramolecular architectures contain large cavities (up to 2 nm) where the topologies are dictated by the rotational symmetry of the organic macrocycle, generating honeycomb (bnn net) and checkerboard-like (pcu net) networks for α-CD ( C 6 ) and γ-CD ( C ideal symmetry, led to a distorted-checkerboard-like network. The cyclodextrin-based frameworks built from an Anderson-Evans type POM are easily functionalizable using the molecular recognition properties of the macrocycle building units. As a proof of concept, we successfully isolated a series of compartmentalized functional frameworks by the entrapment of polyiodides or superchaotropic redox-active polyanions within the macrocyclic host matrix. This set of results paves the way for designing multifunctional supramolecular frameworks whose pore dimensions are controlled by the size of inorganic entities.8 ), respectively. On the other hand, the use of β-CD, a macrocycle with C 7 ideal symmetry, led to a distorted-checkerboard-like network. The cyclodextrin-based frameworks built from an Anderson-Evans type POM are easily functionalizable using the molecular recognition properties of the macrocycle building units. As a proof of concept, we successfully isolated a series of compartmentalized functional frameworks by the entrapment of polyiodides or superchaotropic redox-active polyanions within the macrocyclic host matrix. This set of results paves the way for designing multifunctional supramolecular frameworks whose pore dimensions are controlled by the size of inorganic entities.