Vapor Phase Growth and Imaging Stacking Order of Bilayer Molybdenum Disulfide

Various stacking patterns have been predicted in few-layer MoS₂, strongly influencing its electronic properties. Bilayer MoS₂ nanosheets have been synthesized by vapor phase growth. It is found that both A-B and A-A′ stacking configurations are present in bilayer MoS₂ nanosheets through optical images, and the different stacking patterns exhibit distinctive line shapes in the Raman spectra. By theory calculation, it is also concluded that the A-B and A-A′ stacking are the most stable and lowest-energy stacking in the five predicted stacking patterns of bilayer MoS₂ nanosheets, which proves the experimental observations

Hierarchical regression analysis results.

<p>*<i>p</i> <0.05</p><p>**<i>p</i> <0.01</p><p>***<i>p</i> <0.001; 95%CI: 95% confidence interval of difference</p><p>Hierarchical regression analysis results.</p

Intrinsic Bond Energies from a Bonds-in-Molecules Neural Network

Neural networks are being used to make new types of empirical chemical models as inexpensive as force fields, but with accuracy similar to the ab initio methods used to build them. In this work, we present a neural network that predicts the energies of molecules as a sum of intrinsic bond energies. The network learns the total energies of the popular GDB9 database to a competitive MAE of 0.94 kcal/mol on molecules outside of its training set, is naturally linearly scaling, and applicable to molecules consisting of thousands of bonds. More importantly, it gives chemical insight into the relative strengths of bonds as a function of their molecular environment, despite only being trained on total energy information. We show that the network makes predictions of relative bond strengths in good agreement with measured trends and human predictions. A Bonds-in-Molecules Neural Network (BIM-NN) learns heuristic relative bond strengths like expert synthetic chemists, and compares well with ab initio bond order measures such as NBO analysis

Descriptive information on demographic and clinical characteristics.

<p>M: Mean; SD: Standard deviation.</p><p>Descriptive information on demographic and clinical characteristics.</p

Correlations among Major Variables.

<p>*<i>p</i> <0.05</p><p>**<i>p</i> <0.01</p><p>Correlations among Major Variables.</p

Growth of Single- and Bilayer ZnO on Au(111) and Interaction with Copper

The stoichiometric single- and bilayer ZnO(0001) have been prepared by reactive deposition of Zn on Au(111) and studied in detail with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and density functional theory calculations. Both single- and bilayer ZnO(0001) adopt a planar, graphite-like structure similar to freestanding ZnO(0001) due to the weak van der Waals interactions dominating their adhesion with the Au(111) substrate. At higher temperature, the single-layer ZnO(0001) converts gradually to bilayer ZnO(0001) due to the twice stronger interaction between two ZnO layers than the interfacial adhesion of ZnO with Au substrate. It is found that Cu atoms on the surface of bilayer ZnO(0001) are mobile with a diffusion barrier of 0.31 eV and likely to agglomerate and form nanosized particles at low coverages; while Cu atoms tend to penetrate a single layer of ZnO(0001) with a barrier of 0.10 eV, resulting in a Cu free surface

Image_3_Populus trichocarpa PtNF-YA9, A Multifunctional Transcription Factor, Regulates Seed Germination, Abiotic Stress, Plant Growth and Development in Arabidopsis.JPEG

<p>NF-YAs play important roles in abiotic stress. However, their characteristics and functions in abiotic stress of poplar, a model woody plant, have not been fully investigated. Here, the biological functions of PtNF-YA9 (Potri.011G101000), an NF-YA gene from Populus trichocarpa, were first fully investigated. PtNF-YA9 is located in the nucleus. The expression of PtNF-YA9 was reduced by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA). The GUS staining of ProNF-YA9::GUS transgenic lines was also reduced by mannitol treatments. In the PtNF-YA9-overexpressed Arabidopsis (OxPtNA9), OxPtNA9 lines exhibited sensitivity to simulated drought, ABA, and salinity stress during germination stage, and growth arrest emerged at post-germination stage. These phenomena might involve the ABA signaling pathway via the regulation of ABI3, ABI4, and ABI5. At vegetative stages, OxPtNA9 lines decreased in water loss via promoting stomatal closure and displayed high instantaneous water-use efficiency (WUE) of the leaf to exhibit enhanced drought tolerance. Furthermore, OxPtNA9 lines exhibited long primary root in the half-strength Murashige–Skoog agar medium supplemented with NaCl and conferred strong tolerance in the soil under salt stress. Additionally, PtNF-YA9 exhibited dwarf phenotype, short hypocotyl, small leaf area and biomass, delayed flowering, and increased chlorophyll content. Above all, our research proposes a model in which PtNF-YA9 not only plays a key role in reducing plant growth but also can play a primary role in the mechanism of an acclimatization strategy in response to adverse environmental conditions.</p

Bioinspired Layer-by-Layer Microcapsules Based on Cellulose Nanofibers with Switchable Permeability

Green, all-polysaccharide based microcapsules with mechanically robust capsule walls and fast, stimuli-triggered, and switchable permeability behavior show great promise in applications based on selective and timed permeability. Taking a cue from nature, the build-up and composition of plant primary cell walls inspired the capsule wall assembly, because the primary cell walls in plants exhibit high mechanical properties despite being in a highly hydrated state, primarily owing to cellulose microfibrils. The microcapsules (16 ± 4 μm in diameter) were fabricated using the layer-by-layer technique on sacrificial CaCO₃ templates, using plant polysaccharides (pectin, cellulose nanofibers, and xyloglucan) only. In water, the capsule wall was permeable to labeled dextrans with a hydrodynamic diameter of ∼6.6 nm. Upon exposure to NaCl, the porosity of the capsule wall quickly changed allowing larger molecules (∼12 nm) to permeate. However, the porosity could be restored to its original state by removal of NaCl, by which permeants became trapped inside the capsule’s core. The high integrity of cell wall was due to the CNF and the ON/OFF alteration of the permeability properties, and subsequent loading/unloading of molecules, could be repeated several times with the same capsule demonstrating a robust microcontainer with controllable permeability properties

Image_1_Populus trichocarpa PtNF-YA9, A Multifunctional Transcription Factor, Regulates Seed Germination, Abiotic Stress, Plant Growth and Development in Arabidopsis.TIF

<p>NF-YAs play important roles in abiotic stress. However, their characteristics and functions in abiotic stress of poplar, a model woody plant, have not been fully investigated. Here, the biological functions of PtNF-YA9 (Potri.011G101000), an NF-YA gene from Populus trichocarpa, were first fully investigated. PtNF-YA9 is located in the nucleus. The expression of PtNF-YA9 was reduced by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA). The GUS staining of ProNF-YA9::GUS transgenic lines was also reduced by mannitol treatments. In the PtNF-YA9-overexpressed Arabidopsis (OxPtNA9), OxPtNA9 lines exhibited sensitivity to simulated drought, ABA, and salinity stress during germination stage, and growth arrest emerged at post-germination stage. These phenomena might involve the ABA signaling pathway via the regulation of ABI3, ABI4, and ABI5. At vegetative stages, OxPtNA9 lines decreased in water loss via promoting stomatal closure and displayed high instantaneous water-use efficiency (WUE) of the leaf to exhibit enhanced drought tolerance. Furthermore, OxPtNA9 lines exhibited long primary root in the half-strength Murashige–Skoog agar medium supplemented with NaCl and conferred strong tolerance in the soil under salt stress. Additionally, PtNF-YA9 exhibited dwarf phenotype, short hypocotyl, small leaf area and biomass, delayed flowering, and increased chlorophyll content. Above all, our research proposes a model in which PtNF-YA9 not only plays a key role in reducing plant growth but also can play a primary role in the mechanism of an acclimatization strategy in response to adverse environmental conditions.</p

Image_4_Populus trichocarpa PtNF-YA9, A Multifunctional Transcription Factor, Regulates Seed Germination, Abiotic Stress, Plant Growth and Development in Arabidopsis.JPEG

<p>NF-YAs play important roles in abiotic stress. However, their characteristics and functions in abiotic stress of poplar, a model woody plant, have not been fully investigated. Here, the biological functions of PtNF-YA9 (Potri.011G101000), an NF-YA gene from Populus trichocarpa, were first fully investigated. PtNF-YA9 is located in the nucleus. The expression of PtNF-YA9 was reduced by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA). The GUS staining of ProNF-YA9::GUS transgenic lines was also reduced by mannitol treatments. In the PtNF-YA9-overexpressed Arabidopsis (OxPtNA9), OxPtNA9 lines exhibited sensitivity to simulated drought, ABA, and salinity stress during germination stage, and growth arrest emerged at post-germination stage. These phenomena might involve the ABA signaling pathway via the regulation of ABI3, ABI4, and ABI5. At vegetative stages, OxPtNA9 lines decreased in water loss via promoting stomatal closure and displayed high instantaneous water-use efficiency (WUE) of the leaf to exhibit enhanced drought tolerance. Furthermore, OxPtNA9 lines exhibited long primary root in the half-strength Murashige–Skoog agar medium supplemented with NaCl and conferred strong tolerance in the soil under salt stress. Additionally, PtNF-YA9 exhibited dwarf phenotype, short hypocotyl, small leaf area and biomass, delayed flowering, and increased chlorophyll content. Above all, our research proposes a model in which PtNF-YA9 not only plays a key role in reducing plant growth but also can play a primary role in the mechanism of an acclimatization strategy in response to adverse environmental conditions.</p