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Halogen bonds (XB) induce successive amorphous to single-crystalline transformations in iodobismuthate perovskites, and improve the water-resistance. DFT computations show the Bi–I bond nature determines the semiconductivity of the materials.

T-cells, being the major player in adaptive immune system mediating cellular immunity, have become a central focus for engaging the immune system in fighting against cancer. Their activation is initiated by recognition of antigen/major histocompatibility complexes by the T-cell receptor (TCR) and enhanced by engagement of co-stimulatory receptor. In recent years, various immunotherapies deploying T-cell immunity have made immense progress, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapy, checkpoint blockage, and CD3-based bispecific antibodies. Here we report the development of a novel trispecific antibody to CD19, CD3, and CD28, with an emphasis on the co-engagement of both CD3/TCR complex and CD28 co-stimulatory receptor for sustained T cell activation. Compared with the BiTE-CD19xCD3 lacking the co-stimulatory domain, the trispecific antibody augmented T cell proliferation and differentiation into memory T cells. It induced faster tumor cell lysis than the bispecific antibody, preferably through direct tumor lysis by CD8 T cells. RNAseq analysis revealed that the trispecific antibody modulates TCR complex-derived signal at multiple aspects, including amplification of transcriptional factors, promoting production of cytokines, positive regulation of cell cycle, and upregulation of anti-apoptotic factors to influence survival of T-cells. Markedly increased tumor inhibition effects and prolonged survival were observed in vivo in humanized mouse model. By extra engagement of a co-stimulatory receptor to prolong the survival of activated T cells, our study has proposed another possibility to extend the pharmacology effect of tandem single-chain variable fragments (scFv)-based antibody, which is worthy of further exploration in clinical trial settings.

Acta crystallographica / Section E 77(6), 629-633 (2021). doi:10.1107/S2056989021004989, Published by International Union of Crystallography, Chester

Based on the DFT‐level calculated molecular volume (V mol ) of pyrrole and its liquid density, pyrrole manifests the highest liquid density coefficient LD c (defined as [V mol • density • 0.6023]/FW) value of 0.7. Normal liquids have LD c < 0.63. This very high LD c is due to the strong N‐H … π interactions in solution and hence pyrrole can be considered to be a pseudo‐crystalline liquid. When trapped inside the confined space of the crystalline sponge a reorientation of the N‐H … π interaction is observed leading to specific cyclic N‐H … π tetramers and N‐H … π dimers, verified by single crystal X‐ray crystallographic and computational methods. These tetramers are of the same size as four pyrrole molecules in the solid‐state of pyrrole, yet the cyclic N‐H … π intermolecular interactions are circularly oriented instead of the linear zig‐zag structure found in the X‐ray structure of a solid pyrrole. The confinement thus acts as an external driving force for the tetramer formation. peerReviewed

Hydroxychloroquine sulfate is effective in the treatment of malaria and autoimmune diseases and as an antiviral drug. However, unreported impurities are often detected in this drug, which pose a health risk. In this study, the structures of hydroxychloroquine and six unknown impurities were analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q/TOF/MS/MS), and the structures were characterized using liquid chromatography-solid-phase extraction-nuclear magnetic resonance (LC-SPE-NMR) spectroscopy.An Agilent InfinityLad Poroshell HPH-C18 column (100 × 4.6 mm, 2.7 μm) was used. For the analysis of hydroxychloroquine and six unknown impurities, the mobile phase was 20 mM ammonium formate aqueous solution and methanol/acetonitrile (80:20, v/v) using gradient elution. Full-scan MS and MSThe MSBased on the identification and characterization of these impurities, this study also describes the cause of the production of the impurities and provides insights for companies to improve their production processes and a scientific basis for the improvement of the related pharmacopoeias.

Raman scattering provides stable narrow-banded signals that potentially allow for multicolor microscopic imaging. The major obstacle for the applications of Raman spectroscopy and microscopy is the small cross section of Raman scattering that results in low sensitivity. Here, we report a new concept of azo-enhanced Raman scattering (AERS) by designing the intrinsic molecular structures using resonance Raman and concomitant fluorescence quenching strategies. Based on the selection of vibrational modes and the enhancing unit of azobenzenes, we obtained a library of AERS molecules with specific Raman signals in the fingerprint and silent frequency regions. The spectral characterization and molecular simulation revealed that the azobenzene unit conjugated to the vibrational modes significantly enhanced Raman signals due to the mechanism of extending the conjugation system, coupling the electronic–vibrational transitions, and improving the symmetry of vibrational modes. The nonradiative decay of azobenzene from the excited state quenched the commitment fluorescence, thus providing a clean background for identifying Raman scattering. The most sensitive AERS molecules produced Raman signals of more than 4 orders of magnitude compared to 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU). In addition, a frequency tunability of 10 distinct Raman bands was achieved by selecting different types of vibrational modes. This methodology of AERS allows for designing small-molecule Raman probes to visualize various entities in complex systems by multicolor spontaneous Raman imaging. It will open new prospects to explore innovative applications of AERS in interdisciplinary research fields., For azo-enhanced Raman scattering of various vibrational modes, the azobenzene conjugation significantly increases signals and the nonradiative decay quenched the concomitant fluorescent background.

Facial nerve schwannoma (FNS) is a benign, slow-growing schwannoma that originates from Schwann cells. Facial nerve schwannoma is the most common tumor of the facial nerve but rare and only accounts for 0.15% to 0.8% of intracranial neurinomas. It may be manifested as asymmetric hearing loss, facial palsy, and hemifacial spasm. A 56-year-old woman was transferred to our department, because of pain behind the right ear and spasm of the right lateral muscle for more than 2 years and pulsatile tinnitus for half a year. Based on the preoperative medical history, physical signs, and auxiliary examination, it was diagnosed with jugular foramen (JF) space-occupying lesion. We removed the tumor through the infratemporal fossa type A approach and found that the tumor originated from the facial nerve. After the tumor resection, sural nerve transplantation was performed. The patient demonstrated postoperative facial palsy (House-Brackman grade VI) and was smoothly discharged after good recovery. Facial nerve schwannoma rarely invades the JF, and the most common tumor in the JF is the glomus jugular tumor, followed by the posterior cranial schwannoma. They have common symptoms, making it difficult to obtain a correct diagnosis. Clinical data, medical history, and auxiliary examinations should be carefully analyzed to avoid misdiagnosis or mistreatment. Infratemporal fossa type A approach is an effective method for treating FNS of JF.

The spin–spin interactions between unpaired electrons in organic (poly)radicals, especially nitroxides, are largely investigated and are of crucial importance for their applications in areas such as organic magnetism, molecular charge transfer, or multiple spin labeling in structural biology. Recently, 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxyl and polymers functionalized with nitroxides have been described as successful redox mediators in several electrochemical applications; however, the study of spin–spin interaction effect in such an area is absent. This communication reports the preparation of a novel family of discrete polynitroxide molecules, with the same number of radical units but different arrangements to study the effect of intramolecular spin–spin interactions on their electrochemical potential and their use as oxidation redox mediators in a Li–oxygen battery. We find that the intensity of interactions, as measured by the d1/d electron paramagnetic resonance parameter, progressively lowers the reduction potential. This allows us to tune the charging potential of the battery, optimizing its energy efficiency., This work was supported by: DGICT-MINECO (MAT2016-80826-R, MAT2017-91404-EXP, RTI2018-09273-B-I00), AGAUR (2017 SGR 918, 2014 SGR 1505, 2017 SGR 1687) and University of Padova. ICMAB acknowledges Spanish MINECO through the Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence Programme Grant SEV- 2015-0496 and S.Z. his CSC grant.

Cethyl-2-methylresorcinarene (A), pyridine (B), and a set of 10 carboxylic acids (Cn) associate to form A·B·Cn ternary assemblies with 1:1:1 stoichiometry, representing a useful class of ternary systems where the guest mediates complex formation between the host and a third component. Although individually weak in solution, the combined strength of the multiple noncovalent interactions organizes the complexes even in a highly hydrogen-bond competing methanol solution, as explored by both experimental and computational methods. The interactions between A·B and Cn are dependent on the pKa values of carboxylic acids. The weak interactions between A and C further reinforce the interactions between A and B, demonstrating positive cooperativity. Our results reveal that the two-component system such as that formed by A and B can form the basis for the development of specific sensors for the molecular recognition of carboxylic acids.

Purpose. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a classical type of head and neck cancers, with heterogeneous clinical outcome. This project is set out to create a robust risk signature based on TRP family genes (TFGs) for prognosis evaluation in HNSCC. Methods. Based on the HNSCC sample data from the TCGA website, we integrated expression profile of TFGs for 490 HNSCC cases. We explore the interactions among TFGs using STRING tool. The TFGs-based signature (TFBS) was created by Cox relative analyses. In addition, we conducted GSEA to identify the underlying signaling pathways of the specific TFGs in HNSCC. The immune landscape of HNSCC patients was analyzed by CIBERSORT and ssGSEA algorithms. Results. A total of 6 TFGs (TRPC1, TRPC3, TRPC6, TRPV2, TRPV4, and TRPM8) closely associated with prognosis of HNSCC cases were screened to create TFBS. TFBS predicted that the TFBS-high group presented dismal patient outcome. Cox regression revealed the favorable independent value of TFBS. ROC analysis showed the robust power of TFBS for prognosis forecasting. GSEA determined several crucial pathways related with HNSCC, which are the p53 pathway, TNF-alpha signaling via NFKB, and hypoxia. Moreover, immune-related analysis showed that patients in the TFBS-high group were more likely in immunosuppressive status. Conclusion. Our proposed TFBS could serve as a favorable indicator to forecast the survival outcome of HNSCC cases and offer prominent therapy guidance.

The origins of the chiroptical activities of inorganic nanostructures have perplexed scientists, and deracemization of high-nuclearity metal nanoclusters (NCs) remains challenging. Here, we report a single-crystal structure of Rac-Ag

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T12:16:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-05-06 Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO/FEDER) of Spain Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) The synthesis of di- and tritopic gold(I) metallaligands of the type [(Au4-py)(2)(mu(2)-diphosphane)] (diphosphane = bis(diphenylphosphanyl)isopropane or dppip (1), 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)ethane or dppe (2), 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)propane or dppp (3) and 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)butane or dppb (4)) and [(Au4-py)(3)(mu(3)-triphosphane)] (triphosphane = 1,1,1-tris(diphenylphosphanylmethyl)ethane or triphos (5) and 1,3,5-tris(diphenylphosphanyl)benzene or triphosph (6)) from [(AuCl)(2)(mu(2)-diphosphane)] or [(AuCl)(3)(mu(3)-triphosphane)] and 4-pyridylboronic acid in the presence of Cs2CO3 has been conducted. Interestingly, when [(AuCl)(2)(mu(2)-dppm)] (dppm = bis(diphenylphosphanyl)methane) was used as a starting material, the cyclic tetranuclear gold(i) compound [(Au4-py)(2)(CH)(2){mu(2)-Au(PPh2)(2)}(2)] (I) was obtained instead. All the products have been characterized by IR and multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis and in the case of 1, 3, 5 and I by X-ray crystallography, which showed the presence of aurophilic interactions in all of them. The obtained metallaligands have been used as building blocks in self-assembly reactions with cis-blocked palladium or platinum acceptor moieties producing [2 + 2] metallamacrocycles or trigonal bipyramidal (TBP) [2 + 3] metallacages in good yields. The photophysical properties of both the metallaligands and the corresponding assemblies have been investigated. Univ Barcelona, Dept Quim Inorgan & Organ, Seccid Quim Morgan, C Marti & Franques 1-11, Barcelona 08028, Spain Univ Barcelona, Inst Nanociencia & Nanotecnol IN2UB, Barcelona 08028, Spain UNESP Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Chem, BR-14800060 Araraquara, SP, Brazil Fundacao Univ Fed Grande Dourados, Fac Ciencias Exatas & Tecnol, Dept Quim, POB 364, BR-79804970 Dourados, MS, Brazil Univ Jyvaskyla, Dept Chem, POB 35, Jyvaskyla 40014, Finland UNESP Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Chem, BR-14800060 Araraquara, SP, Brazil Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO/FEDER) of Spain: CTQ2015-65707-C2-1-P Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO/FEDER) of Spain: PID2019-107006GB-C21 Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO/FEDER) of Spain: PID2019-104121GB-I00 CNPq: 475322/2009-6 CAPES: 12679/12-7

The second polymorph of the compound 2,4,6-tris(4-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPT) is reported, TPT-II, which crystallizes in space group I2/a. Its higher density and more efficient space filling indicate the lower entropy of TPT-II, while its slightly lower melting point indicates its weaker intermolecular interactions. The conditions of the crystallization experiments for TPT-I and TPT-II are the dominant factors that determine the final crystalline products. The crystals of TPT-II are long needles. They exhibit bending behaviour along the crystallographic b direction when a mechanical force is imposed perpendicular to it, and regain their original shape after the external stress is removed. The elasticity of the single crystals is interpreted in terms of intermolecular interactions and an energy framework analysis.

Chiral catalysts tolerating photochemical reactions are in great demand for the vast development of visible-light-induced asymmetric synthesis. Now, chiral octahedral complexes based on earth-abundant metal and chiral N4 ligands are reported. One well-defined chiral CoII -complex is shown to be an efficient catalyst in the visible-light-induced conjugated addition of enones by alkyl and acyl radicals, providing synthetically valued chiral ketones and 1,4-dicarbonyls in 47->99 % yields with up to 97:3 e.r.

Four cationic iridium complexes with 5-phenyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole (phtz) type cyclometalating ligands (C^N) and different ancillary ligands (N^N), namely, [Ir(dphtz)2(bpy)]PF6 (1), [Ir(dphtz)2(pzpy)]PF6 (2), [Ir(Mephtz)2(pzpy)]PF6 (3), and [Ir(Mephtz)2(dma-pzpy)]PF6 (4), have been designed, synthesized, and fully characterized (dphtz = 1-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)-3-methyl-5-phenyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole, Mephtz = 1,3-dimethyl-5-phenyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole; bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, pzpy = 2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine, dma-pzpy = 4-dimethylamino-2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl) pyridine). In solution, complex 1 emits efficient yellow light (λmax = 547 nm), which is blue-shifted by nearly 40 nm (or by 1187 cm-1) compared with that from the archetypal complex [Ir(ppy)2(bpy)]PF6 (Hppy = 2-phenylpyridine), owing to the stabilization of the highest occupied molecular orbital by the phtz-type C^N ligand. In the lightly doped rigid films, complex 1 emits green light with a high luminescent efficiency of 0.89. Although complexes 2-4 with electron-rich N^N ligands are weakly emissive or nearly nonemissive in the solution, they emit relatively strong deep-blue light peaked around 435 and 461 nm in the lightly doped films, which is among the bluest reported for cationic iridium complexes. Theoretical calculations reveal that for complex 1, the emission always comes from the charge-transfer (CT) (Ir/C^N → N^N) state; for complexes 2 and 3, the 3CT and C^N-centered 3π-π* states lie close in energy and the emission could originate from either or both of them; for complex 4, the emission comes predominantly from the C^N-centered 3π-π* state. For blue-emitting complexes 2-4, metal-centered states play an active role in the nonradiative deactivation of the emitting triplet states. Solid-state light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) based on complexes 1-3 show yellow-green, blue, and blue-green electroluminescence, respectively, with the yellow-green LEC affording a peak current efficiency of 21.5 cd A-1.

2-Phenyl-4-dimethylaminopyridine (dmappy) with high 3π-π∗ triplet energy is, for the first time, employed as the cyclometalating ligand for constructing cationic iridium complexes with tunable emission properties. Three complexes, namely, [Ir(dmappy)2(bpy)]PF6 (1), [Ir(dmappy)2(pzpy)]PF6 (2) and [Ir(dmappy)2(dma-pzpy)]PF6 (3), have been designed and synthesized (bpy = 2, 2′-bipyridine, pzpy = 2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine and dma-pzpy = 4-dimethylamino-2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine), and their photophysical and electrochemical properties have been comprehensively investigated. By using ancillary ligands with increasing electron-richness (bpy → pzpy → dmapzpy), complexes 1–3 emit red, green and blue light, respectively. Theoretical calculations reveal that for complexes 1 and 2, the light emission stems predominantly from the charge-transfer states (Ir/dmappy → bpy or pzpy), whereas for complex 3, the light emission originates mainly from the dmappy-centered 3π-π∗ state. In the doped film, fluorine-free complex 3 affords comparable emission color, luminescent efficiency and excited-state lifetime to the typical blue-emitting, neutral iridium complex FIrpic that uses fluorinated ligands. Single-layer, solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes based on complex 3 affords blue electroluminescence (EL) peaked at 472 nm, with the EL color competing with that from FIrpic and the peak current efficiency (12.6 cd A−1) being among the highest reported for single-layer, solution-processed blue OLEDs based on ionic iridium complexes.

Host-guest interactions are the key to the supramolecular chemistry and the further application of the receptors to study the structural details of the small guest molecules. Crystalline sponges as a kind of supramolecular receptor need to be investigated in terms of the binding ability with the guests. We found in this work that one guest with σ-hole donors and another with electron-donating species were separately entrapped in two distinct channels of the host framework via the crystalline sponge method. Halogen bonding and weak hydrogen bonding were detected between the host and the two guests, respectively. The ability of the crystalline sponge to absorb and sort guests of different types was unambiguously confirmed by X-ray crystallography.

Single crystal X-ray structures of halogen-bonded assemblies formed between host N-hexylammonium resorcinarene bromide (1) or N-cyclohexylammonium resorcinarene chloride (2), and 1,4-diiodooctafluorobutane and accompanying small solvent guests (methanol, acetonitrile and water) are presented. The guests’ inclusion affects the geometry of the cavity of the receptors 1 and 2, while the divalent halogen bond donor 1,4-diiodooctafluorobutane determines the overall nature of the halogen bond assembly. The crystal lattice of 1 contains two structurally different dimeric assemblies A and B, formally resulting in the mixture of a capsular dimer and a dimeric pseudo-capsule. 1H and 19F NMR analyses supports the existence of these halogen-bonded complexes and enhanced guest inclusion in solution.

Quantum B-algebras as implicational subreducts of quantales were introduced by Rump and Yang. They cover the majority of implicational algebras and provide a unified semantics for a wide class of algebraic logics. Some concepts for quantales survive in the framework of quantum B-algebras. In this paper, we first introduce the concept of dual quantum B-algebras (Girard quantum B-algebras). Next, we prove that every dual quantum B-algebra is a residuated poset and that complete dual quantum B-algebras and dual quantales are equivalent to each other. Further, we consider the construction of Girard quantum B-algebras from dual quantum B-algebras.

N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds link two di­hydro­quinazolinium cations and a tetra­chlorido zincate dianion into discrete aggregates. Neighbouring (C12H15N2)2[ZnCl4] units inter­act via non-classical C—H⋯π hydrogen bonds and π–π stacking., The title compound, (C12H15N2)2[ZnCl4], is a salt with two symmetrically independent, essentially planar heterocyclic cations and a slightly distorted tetra­hedral chloro­zincate dianion. N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds link these ionic constituents into a discrete aggregate, which comprises one formula unit. The effect of hydrogen bonding is reflected in the minor distortions of the [ZnCl4]2− moiety: distances between the cation and chlorido ligands engaged in classical hydrogen bonds are significantly longer than the others. Secondary inter­actions comprise C—H⋯π hydrogen bonding and weak π–π stacking. A Hirshfeld surface analysis indicates that the most abundant contacts in packing stem from H⋯H (47.8%) and Cl⋯H/H⋯Cl (29.3%) inter­actions.

A 3D Co-based metal-organic framework (Co-MOF) with two kinds of large pores filled by free Co2+ ions and ligands was synthesized and characterized. To expand the MOF structure and conductivity, the free Co2+ ions and ligands were exchanged by conductive ionic liquid EtpyBr and photosensitive AgNO3 through single crystal-to-single crystal transformation, which produced structure-changed 3D MOFs Co-MOF-Br and Co-Ag-MOF, which were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Incorporating small quantities of doped polyaniline (PANI) with redox activity into the pores could further tune the stability and conductivity of the three MOFs. The PANI/MOFs all show outstanding electrical conductivity (≈10-2 S cm-1 ), and PANI/Co-MOF-Br has the largest p-type Seebeck coefficient of 66.6 μV K-1 . PANI/Co-MOF-Br and PANI/Co-Ag-MOF have 4 and 15 times higher photocurrent density compared with PANI/Co-MOF, respectively. This work sheds light on the design of advanced electrically conductive 3D MOFs.

It is an important prerequisite for a fruit-picking robot to accurately segment and locate the object in fruit images. However, image segmentation by manually selected features or deep learning-based approaches is a troublesome task. It requires a long time and a large number of annotated images for the model to be trained. In this study, transfer learning is used so that the learned parameters of a pre-trained convolutional neural network can be used as the initial settings in the new task. Three networks, Mobilenet_v2, Resnet_v1_50_beta and Xception_65, are used as backbone networks, which were used in the well-known semantic image segmentation model—DeepLab. The proposed transfer learning-based fruits image segmentation not only alleviates the stringent need of a large image dataset, but also saves much time for training. Experimental results show that the Xception_65 based network has the best performance in terms of the segmentation metric of mean intersection over union. A high-precision instance fruits segmentation guarantees subsequent accurate locations of fruit images for fruit-picking robots, which is of great significance for intelligent agriculture.

European journal of organic chemistry : EurJOC 2020(38), 6073-6077 (2020). doi:10.1002/ejoc.202001008, Published by Wiley-VCH Verl., Weinheim

The diphenylvinyl motif with rotary phenyl rings has been widely used as a building block for the construction of luminescent materials with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties. Here, we report the use of 2,2-diphenylvinyl in an iridium complex and its influence on the luminescence properties of the complex. Surprisingly, the 2,2-diphenylvinyl motif attached to the cyclometalating ligand brings about no AIE; instead, it completely quenches the phosphorescence from the iridium complex in solution or films at room temperature or at 77 K. Hydrogenation of the vinyl group in 2,2-diphenylvinyl recovers the phosphorescence. Theoretical calculations reveal that in the lowest triplet state of the complex, the 2,2-diphenylvinyl motif undergoes a significant structural change; as a result, the spin-density in the lowest triplet state distributes almost exclusively on the triphenylethene moiety of the cyclometalating ligand, with little distribution on the iridium ion, leading to complete quenching of phosphorescence. This work reveals that introduction of conjugated molecular motifs with rotational groups (such as 2,2-diphenylvinyl) into iridium complexes should be carefully treated, because it could quench the phosphorescence rather than inducing AIE, which provides a guideline for the design of AIE phosphors based on transition metal complexes.

Large amplitude conformational change is one of the features of biomolecular recognition and is also the basis for allosteric effects and signal transduction in functional biological systems. However, synthetic receptors with controllable conformational changes are rare. In this article, we present a thorough study on the host–guest chemistry of a conformationally adaptive macrocycle, namely per-O-ethoxyzorb[4]arene (ZB4). Similar to per-O-ethoxyoxatub[4]arene, ZB4 is capable of accommodating a wide range of organic cations. However, ZB4 does not show large amplitude conformational responses to the electronic substituents on the guests. Instead of a linear free-energy relationship, ZB4 follows a parabolic free-energy relationship. This is explained by invoking the influence of secondary C–H···O hydrogen bonds on the primary cation···π interactions based on the information obtained from four representative crystal structures. In addition, heat capacity changes (ΔCp) and enthalpy–entropy compensation phenomena both indicate that solvent reorganization is also involved during the binding. This research further deepens our understanding on the binding behavior of ZB4 and lays the basis for the construction of stimuli-responsive materials with ZB4 as a major component.

Prenylated and O-methylflavonoids including one new pterocarpan (1), three new isoflavones (2–4), and nineteen known natural products (5–23) were isolated and identified from the root, stem bark, and leaf extracts of Erythrina schliebenii. The crude extracts and their constituents were evaluated for antitubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Rv strain), showing MICs of 32–64 μg mL–1 and 36.9–101.8 μM, respectively. Evaluation of their toxicity against the aggressive human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 indicated EC50 values of 13.0–290.6 μM (pure compounds) and 38.3 to >100 μg mL–1 (crude extracts).

A conformationally adaptive macrocycle is presented, namely zorb[4]arene, which exists in multiple conformations in the uncomplexed state. The binding cavity of zorb[4]arene is concealed, either due to a collapsed conformation or by self-inclusion. The zorb[4]arene with long alkyl chains manifests itself with surprisingly low melting point and thus exist as an oil at room temperature. Binding of a guest molecule induces the folding and conformational rigidity of zorb[4]arene and leads to well-defined three-dimensional structures, which can further self-assemble into nanosheets or nanotubes upon solvent evaporation, depending on guest molecules and the conformations they can induce.

Four cationic iridium complexes with 5-phenyl-1