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Understanding the key parameters that control the self-assembly process is critical to predict self-assembly modes in multi-component systems, which will lead to the development of nanofibrous materials with tuneable properties. Enantiomeric amino acid-based low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs) were mixed in polar (polar protic) and aromatic apolar (aromatic) solvents and compared to their individual counterparts to probe the effect of solvent polarity on the self-assembly process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals that xerogels of individual components display hollow needles in polar protic solvents, while chiral coils are observed in aromatic solvents. In contrast, the multi-component gel displays hollow needle morphologies in both solvents, indicating similar morphologies in polar protic solvents but an entirely different nanostructure for the individual gel networks in aromatic solvents. PXRD experiments performed on the dried gels showed that the nature of the solvents plays a vital role in the co-assembly process of multi-component gels. The self-assembly modes and the gel state structure of the gels are analysed by wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXS) and small-angle neutron diffraction (SANS), which reveals that the mixed gel undergoes different co-assembly modes depending on the nature of the solvent systems. This study shows that different co-assembly modes can be achieved for structurally similar components by varying the solvent polarity, demonstrating the importance of solvent choice in the self-assembly process of multi-component gels.

Over the past decades, designing of privileged structures has emerged as a useful approach to the discovery and optimisation of novel biologically active molecules, and many have been successfully exploited across and within different target families. Examples include indole, quinolone, isoquinoline, benzofuran and chromone, etc. In the current study, we focus on synthesising a novel hybrid scaffold constituting naturally occurring benzophenone (14) and indanone (22) ring systems, leading to a general structure of 2-(diphenylmethylene)-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-one (23). It was hypothesised this new hybrid system would provide enhanced anti-cancer activity owing to the presence of the common features associated with the tubulin binding small molecule indanocine (10) and the estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist tamoxifen (24). Key hybrid molecules were successfully synthesised and characterised, and the in vitro cytotoxicity assays were performed against cancer cell lines: MCF7 (breast) and SKBR3 (breast), DU145 (prostate) and A549 (lung). The methyl-, chloro- and methoxy-, para-substituted benzophenone hybrids displayed the greatest degree of cytotoxicity and the E-configuration derivatives 45, 47 and 49 being significantly most potent. We further verified that the second benzyl moiety of this novel hybrid scaffold is fundamental to enhance the cytotoxicity, especially in the SKBR3 (HER2 + ) by the E-methyl lead molecule 47, MCF7 (ER + ) by 45 and 49, and A549 (NSCLC) cell lines by 49. These hybrid molecules also showed a significant accumulation of SKBR3 cells at S-phase of the cell cycle after 72 hrs, which demonstrates besides of being cytotoxic in vitro against SKBR3 cells, 47 disturbs the replication and development of this type of cancer causing a dose-dependent cell cycle arrest at S-phase. Our results suggest that DNA damage might be involved in the induction of SKBR3 cell death caused by the hybrid molecules, and therefore, this novel system may be an effective suppressor of HER2+/Neu-driven cancer growth and progression. The present study points to potential structural optimisation of the series and encourages further focussed investigation of analogues of this scaffold series toward their applications in cancer chemoprevention or chemotherapy., 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 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The global quantum internet will require long-lived, telecommunications-band photon-matter interfaces manufactured at scale 1 . Preliminary quantum networks based on photon-matter interfaces that meet a subset of these demands are encouraging efforts to identify new high-performance alternatives 2 . Silicon is an ideal host for commercial-scale solid-state quantum technologies. It is already an advanced platform within the global integrated photonics and microelectronics industries, as well as host to record-setting long-lived spin qubits 3 . Despite the overwhelming potential of the silicon quantum platform, the optical detection of individually addressable photon-spin interfaces in silicon has remained elusive. In this work, we integrate individually addressable 'T centre' photon-spin qubits in silicon photonic structures and characterize their spin-dependent telecommunications-band optical transitions. These results unlock immediate opportunities to construct silicon-integrated, telecommunications-band quantum information networks., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Rising global demand for biodegradable materials and green sources of energy has brought attention to lignin. Herein, we report a method for manufacturing standalone lignin membranes without additives for the first time to date. We demonstrate a scalable method for macroporous (∼100 to 200 nm pores) lignin membrane production using four different organosolv lignin materials under a humid environment (>50% relative humidity) at ambient temperatures (∼20 °C). A range of different thicknesses is reported with densely porous films observed to form if the membrane thickness is below 100 nm. The fabricated membranes were readily used as a template for Ni 2+ incorporation to produce a nickel oxide membrane after UV/ozone treatment. The resultant mask was etched via an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etch process, forming a silicon membrane and as a result yielding black silicon (BSi) with a pore depth of >1 μm after 3 min with reflectance <3% in the visible light region. We anticipate that our lignin membrane methodology can be readily applied to various processes ranging from catalysis to sensing and adapted to large-scale manufacturing.

A spectacular measurement campaign was carried out on a real-world motorway stretch of Hungary with the participation of international industrial and academic partners. The measurement resulted in vehicle based and infrastructure based sensor data that will be extremely useful for future automotive R&D activities due to the available ground truth for static and dynamic content. The aim of the measurement campaign was twofold. On the one hand, road geometry was mapped with high precision in order to build Ultra High Definition (UHD) map of the test road. On the other hand, the vehicles-equipped with differential Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for ground truth localization-carried out special test scenarios while collecting detailed data using different sensors. All of the test runs were recorded by both vehicles and infrastructure. The paper also showcases application examples to demonstrate the viability of the collected data having access to the ground truth labeling. This data set may support a large variety of solutions, for the test and validation of different kinds of approaches and techniques. As a complementary task, the available 5G network was monitored and tested under different radio conditions to investigate the latency results for different measurement scenarios. A part of the measured data has been shared openly, such that interested automotive and academic parties may use it for their own purposes.

Over the past 15 years, two-dimensional (2D) materials have been studied and exploited for many applications. In many cases, 2D materials are formed by the exfoliation of layered crystals such as transition-metal disulfides. However, it has recently become clear that it is possible to exfoliate nonlayered materials so long as they have a nonisotropic bonding arrangement. Here, we report the synthesis of 2D-platelets from the earth-abundant, nonlayered metal sulfide, iron pyrite (FeS 2 ), using liquid-phase exfoliation. The resultant 2D platelets exhibit the same crystal structure as bulk pyrite but are surface passivated with a density of 14 × 10 18 groups/m 2 . They form stable suspensions in common solvents and can be size-selected and liquid processed. Although the platelets have relatively low aspect ratios (∼5), this is in line with the anisotropic cleavage energy of bulk FeS 2 . We observe size-dependent changes to optical properties leading to spectroscopic metrics that can be used to estimate the dimensions of platelets. These platelets can be used to produce lithium ion battery anodes with capacities approaching 1000 mAh/g.

A conceptionally novel nucleophilic substitution approach to synthetically important alkyl bromides is presented. Using molecular bromine (Br 2 ), readily available secondary benzyl and tertiary alkyl phenyl sulphides are converted into the corresponding bromides under exceptionally mild, acid- and base-free reaction conditions. This simple transformation allows the isolation of elimination sensitive benzylic β-bromo carbonyl and nitrile compounds in mostly high yields and purities. Remarkably, protic functionalities such as acids and alcohols are tolerated. Enantioenriched benzylic β-sulphido esters, readily prepared by asymmetric sulpha-Michael addition, produce the corresponding inverted bromides with high stereoselectivities, approaching complete enantiospecificity at -40 °C. Significantly, the reported benzylic β-bromo esters can be stored without racemisation for prolonged periods at -20 °C. Their synthetic potential was demonstrated by the one-pot preparation of γ-azido alcohol ( S )- 5 in 90% ee. NMR studies revealed an initial formation of a sulphide bromine adduct, which in turn is in equilibrium with a postulated dibromosulphurane intermediate that undergoes C-Br bond formation., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019.)

A flexible ditopic ligand 1 containing two N,N,O-tridentate (1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)-picolinamide chelating pockets is reported and the formation of multimetallic architectures is explored in the solid and the solution phase. The self-assembled Zn II complex [Zn 4 (1) 4 ](ClO 4 ) 8 exhibited a folded [2 × 2] square grid supramolecular architecture that selectively assembled in MeCN solution as shown using various spectroscopic techniques. The closely related Fe II complex shows equivalent behaviour in the solid state, while a discrete dinuclear species [Cu 2 (NO 3 ) 4 1]·5MeCN was the sole product observed in the solid state from the reaction between 1 and Cu II under similar conditions.

The fate of hydrogen atoms at C-2 of glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) and C-1 of fructose 6-phosphate (F6P) was studied in the reaction catalysed by phosphoglucose isomerase from Thermococcus kodakarensis (TkPGI) through 1D and 2D NMR methods. When the reaction was performed in (2)H2O the hydrogen atoms in the aforementioned positions were exchanged with deuterons indicating that the isomerization occurred by a cis-enediol intermediate involving C-1 pro-R hydrogen of F6P. These features are similar to those described for phosphoglucose isomerases from rabbit muscle and Pyrococcus furiosus., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Previous studies have reported that cognitive deficits occur in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and that these deficits may represent a predisposition towards developing AN or perpetuate the disorder. Specifically, dysfunctional implicit learning may contribute to the development of highly resistant dieting behaviours that are fundamental to the persistence of the disorder. Thus, the aims of this study were (a) to investigate implicit sequence learning in adolescent patients with AN before and after weight recovery and (b) to elucidate the associated neural mechanisms in acute AN relative to healthy controls., Methods: In a behavioural study, implicit sequence learning was assessed using a serial reaction time task in 27 adolescents with AN before (T1) and after weight recovery (T2) compared with age-matched healthy controls (HC) who were assessed at similar time intervals. The neural correlates of implicit sequence learning were subsequently investigated in 19 AN patients shortly after they were admitted to the hospital and 20 HC using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)., Results: At T1, AN patients showed reduced sequence learning compared with HC. However, no behavioural differences between HC and AN patients were found at T2. At the neural level, acute AN patients showed reduced thalamic activation during sequence learning compared with HC subjects., Conclusions: Our data suggest that the impaired implicit learning observed in adolescent AN patients before weight gain is a state-related dysfunction that normalises with weight gain. Thus, implicit learning deficits do not appear to represent a predisposition towards developing AN; rather, these deficits should be considered when planning psychotherapeutic interventions for acute AN. Reduced thalamic activation during the acute stage of AN may indicate a starvation-induced dysfunction of the neural circuitry that is involved in behavioural flexibility., (© 2015 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Background: The detailed interpretation of mass phenomena such as human escape panic or swarm behaviour in birds, fish and insects requires detailed analysis of the 3D movements of individual participants. Here, we describe the adaptation of a 3D stereoscopic imaging method to measure the positional coordinates of individual agents in densely packed clusters. The method was applied to study behavioural aspects of shimmering in Giant honeybees, a collective defence behaviour that deters predatory wasps by visual cues, whereby individual bees flip their abdomen upwards in a split second, producing Mexican wave-like patterns., Results: Stereoscopic imaging provided non-invasive, automated, simultaneous, in-situ 3D measurements of hundreds of bees on the nest surface regarding their thoracic position and orientation of the body length axis. Segmentation was the basis for the stereo matching, which defined correspondences of individual bees in pairs of stereo images. Stereo-matched "agent bees" were re-identified in subsequent frames by the tracking procedure and triangulated into real-world coordinates. These algorithms were required to calculate the three spatial motion components (dx: horizontal, dy: vertical and dz: towards and from the comb) of individual bees over time., Conclusions: The method enables the assessment of the 3D positions of individual Giant honeybees, which is not possible with single-view cameras. The method can be applied to distinguish at the individual bee level active movements of the thoraces produced by abdominal flipping from passive motions generated by the moving bee curtain. The data provide evidence that the z-deflections of thoraces are potential cues for colony-intrinsic communication. The method helps to understand the phenomenon of collective decision-making through mechanoceptive synchronization and to associate shimmering with the principles of wave propagation. With further, minor modifications, the method could be used to study aspects of other mass phenomena that involve active and passive movements of individual agents in densely packed clusters.