TCNQ salts of planar metal complex cations: novel molecular conductors and semiconductors

The facile variation of positive charge of oxamide oxime metal complexes, caused by acid-base equilibrium, allows the growth of single crystals of their TCNQ salts. 1:1 salts consist of reqular segregated stacks of the components, with metallic room temperature behaviour of the Ni compound, the Pt compound being a semiconductor. Room temperature conductivities are of the order of 10 Siemens per cm. A 2:3 Pt complex TCNQ salt contains segregated acceptor stacks with half a negative charge per molecule. These stacks run perpendicular to mixed stacks -D-D-A-D-D-A-, with integral charges on donors D and acceptors A

A novel molecular metal: (oxamide oximato)(oxamide oxime)nickel(II) tetracyanoquinodimethanide, [Ni(oaoH)(oaoH2)]tcnq, and physical properties of its semiconducting Pt analogue

(C4H11N8NiO4)+(C12H4N4)-, Mr = 498.09 is triclinic, p1, a -=3.7718(6), b = 7.436(2), c =17.511(4) A, a=88.67(2), β=86.93(2), γ=85.05(2), γ= 488.51 A 3, Z = 1, d c=1.69 gcm -3, final R w= 0.035 for 1454 observed independent reflections. The crystals consist of segregated regular parallel stacks of planar metal complex cations and tcnq - counterions with intermolecular H bonds stabilizing the structure. The compound is metallic at room temperature. A metal to semiconductor transition around 230 K shows up in thermopower data, in the microwave conductivity and epr around 170 K. It is not visible in the static magnetic susceptibility

Effects of turn-structure on folding and entanglement in artificial molecular overhand knots.

From Europe PMC via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: ppub 2020-12-01, epub 2020-12-08Publication status: PublishedFunder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Grant(s): EP/P027067/1, EP/P001386/1Funder: European Research Council; Grant(s): 786630The length and constitution of spacers linking three 2,6-pyridinedicarboxamide units in a molecular strand influence the tightness of the resulting overhand (open-trefoil) knot that the strand folds into in the presence of lanthanide(iii) ions. The use of β-hairpin forming motifs as linkers enables a metal-coordinated pseudopeptide with a knotted tertiary structure to be generated. The resulting pseudopeptide knot has one of the highest backbone-to-crossing ratios (BCR)-a measure of knot tightness (a high value corresponding to looseness)-for a synthetic molecular knot to date. Preorganization in the crossing-free turn section of the knot affects aromatic stacking interactions close to the crossing region. The metal-coordinated pseudopeptide knot is compared to overhand knots with other linkers of varying tightness and turn preorganization, and the entangled architectures characterized by NMR spectroscopy, ESI-MS, CD spectroscopy and, in one case, X-ray crystallography. The results show how it is possible to program specific conformational properties into different key regions of synthetic molecular knots, opening the way to systems where knotting can be systematically incorporated into peptide-like chains through design

Global Industry Reorganization and Market Concentration : Automobiles, Steel, and Airlines

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a deadly primary brain malignancy. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSC), which have the ability to self-renew and differentiate into tumor lineages, are believed to cause tumor recurrence due to their resistance to current therapies. A subset of GSCs is marked by cell surface expression of CD133, a glycosylated pentaspan transmembrane protein. The study of CD133-expressing GSCs has been limited by the relative paucity of genetic tools that specifically target them. Here, we present CD133-LV, a lentiviral vector presenting a single chain antibody against CD133 on its envelope, as a vehicle for the selective transduction of CD133-expressing GSCs. We show that CD133-LV selectively transduces CD133+ human GSCs in dose-dependent manner and that transduced cells maintain their stem-like properties. The transduction efficiency of CD133-LV is reduced by an antibody that recognizes the same epitope on CD133 as the viral envelope and by shRNA-mediated knockdown of CD133. Conversely, the rate of transduction by CD133-LV is augmented by overexpression of CD133 in primary human GBM cultures. CD133-LV selectively transduces CD133-expressing cells in intracranial human GBM xenografts in NOD.SCID mice, but spares normal mouse brain tissue, neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells and primary human astrocytes. Our findings indicate that CD133-LV represents a novel tool for the selective genetic manipulation of CD133-expressing GSCs, and can be used to answer important questions about how these cells contribute to tumor biology and therapy resistance

VDES J2325−5229 a z = 2.7 gravitationally lensed quasar discovered using morphology-independent supervised machine learning

We present the discovery and preliminary characterization of a gravitationally lensed quasar with a source redshift zs = 2.74 and image separation of 2.9 arcsec lensed by a foreground zl = 0.40 elliptical galaxy. Since optical observations of gravitationally lensed quasars showthe lens system as a superposition of multiple point sources and a foreground lensing galaxy, we have developed a morphology-independent multi-wavelength approach to the photometric selection of lensed quasar candidates based on Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) supervised machine learning. Using this technique and gi multicolour photometric observations from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), near-IR JK photometry from the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and WISE mid-IR photometry, we have identified a candidate system with two catalogue components with iAB = 18.61 and iAB = 20.44 comprising an elliptical galaxy and two blue point sources. Spectroscopic follow-up with NTT and the use of an archival AAT spectrum show that the point sources can be identified as a lensed quasar with an emission line redshift of z = 2.739 ± 0.003 and a foreground early-type galaxy with z = 0.400 ± 0.002.We model the system as a single isothermal ellipsoid and find the Einstein radius θE ∼ 1.47 arcsec, enclosed mass Menc ∼ 4 × 1011 M and a time delay of ∼52 d. The relatively wide separation, month scale time delay duration and high redshift make this an ideal system for constraining the expansion rate beyond a redshift of 1