With the breakthrough of modernism, various efforts are undertaken to rationalize architecture and building processes using industrial principles. Few architects explore these as intensively as Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus. Even before World War One, and increasingly in the interwar years, Gropius and a number of colleagues undertake various experiments which manifest in a series of projects, essays, model houses and Siedlungen. These aim at conceptually different goals, i.e. they follow two different categories of industrial logic: first, a flexible construction kit and, second, an assembly line serial production. This article traces the genesis of these two concepts and analyses their characteristics using these early manifestations. Compared to existing literature, this article takes into account hitherto neglected primary sources as well as technological and construction history aspects—allowing for a distinction based not only on theoretical, but also technological and structural characteristics. This article shows that Gropius succeeds in formulating and exploring the two principles in theory and practice as well as drawing conclusions by the end of the 1920s. With them, he contributed significantly to the rationalization of architecture, and his principles have been picked up and developed further by numerous architects since then.

The consistently positive Australian economic environment and stable population increase have led to a higher demand for new houses in recent years. Prefabrication is a promising method to help alleviate the issues related to housing shortage and affordability due to reduced material wastage, construction delays due to weather conditions, unexpected costs, shortage in labour and onsite risks. With the advancements in automation and manufacturing methods such as Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA), the quality and precision of prefabricated materials is tightly controlled, and the fabrication and assembly period are reduced. However, the full potential of prefabricated construction is yet to be realised in part due to most of developments being focused on its superstructure. A review of the current available options suitable for houses is necessary to understand the present state of the residential footing industry, which will help evaluate the necessary innovations for the growth of the Australian construction industry considering the local reactive soil conditions. This paper presents a summary of existing footing systems and potential prefabricated footing solutions for low-rise residential structures with one storey to two storeys. This paper also reviews the benefits and challenges of designing, manufacturing, transporting, handling and installing of prefabricated footings on site, which have great influence on the acceptance of these innovative footing systems.

Despite advances in algorithms and computational platforms, de-novo genome assembly remains a challenging process. Due to the constant innovation in sequencing technologies (Sanger, SOLiD, Illumina, 454, PacBio and Oxford Nanopore), genome assembly has evolved to respond to the changes in input data type. This paper includes a broad and comparative review of the most recent short-read, long-read and hybrid assembly techniques. In this review, we provide (1) an algorithmic description of the important processes in the workflow that introduces fundamental concepts and improvements; (2) a review of existing software that explains possible options for genome assembly; and (3) a comparison of the accuracy and the performance of existing methods executed on the same computer using the same processing capabilities and using the same set of real and synthetic datasets. Such evaluation allows a fair and precise comparison of accuracy in all aspects. As a result, this paper identifies both the strengths and weaknesses of each method. This comparative review is unique in providing a detailed comparison of a broad spectrum of cutting-edge algorithms and methods.

The origin of SARS-CoV-2 is debated, even after 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and a special investigation conducted by the World Health Organization. The RaTG13 sequence has been a highlight of discussions surrounding the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Here we express our opinion about the need for better reporting standards for information about sequencing data, especially for pathogens, citing our findings with the reported RaTG13 genome.

Biological control is widely successful for controlling pests, but effective biocontrol agents are now more difficult to obtain due to more restrictive international trade laws. Coupled with increasing demand, the efficacy of existing and new biocontrol agents needs to be improved with genetic and genomic approaches. Although they have been underutilised in the past, applying genetic and genomic techniques is becoming more feasible from both technological and economic perspectives. We review current methods and provide a framework for using them, incorporating evolutionary and ecological principles. First, it is necessary to identify which biocontrol trait to select and in what direction. Next, the genes or markers linked to these traits need be determined to better target their selection, followed by how to implement this information into a breeding program. Choosing a trait can be assisted by modelling to account for the proper agro-ecological context, and by knowing which traits have sufficiently high heritability values. We provide guidelines for designing genomic strategies in biocontrol programs, which depends on the organism, budget, and desired objective. Genomic approaches start with genome sequencing and assembly. We provide a guide for deciding the most successful sequencing strategy for biocontrol agents. Gene discovery involves quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses, transcriptomic and proteomic studies, and gene editing. Improving biocontrol practices include marker-assisted selection, genomic selection and microbiome manipulation of biocontrol agents, and monitoring for genetic variation during rearing and post-release. We conclude by identifying the most promising applications of genetic and genomic methods to improve biological control efficacy.

Nucleolin is an RNA binding protein that is involved in many post-transcriptional regulation steps of messenger RNAs in addition to its nucleolar role in ribosomal RNA transcription and assembly in pre-ribosomes. Acetylated nucleolin was found to be associated with nuclear speckles and to co-localize with the splicing factor SC35. Previous nuclear pull down of nucleolin identified several splicing components and factors involved in RNA polymerase II transcription associated with nucleolin. In this report, we show that these splicing components are specifics of the pre-catalytic A and B spliceosomes, while proteins recruited in the Bact, C and P complexes are absent from the nucleolin interacting proteins. Furthermore, we show that acetylated nucleolin co-localized with P-SF3B1, a marker of co-transcriptional active spliceosomes. P-SF3B1 complexes can be pulled down with nucleolin specific antibodies. Interestingly, the alternative splicing of Fibronectin at the IIICS and EDB sites was affected by nucleolin depletion. These data are consistent with a model where nucleolin could be a factor bridging RNA polymerase II transcription and assembly of pre-catalytic spliceosome similarly to its function in the co-transcriptional maturation of pre-rRNA.

Thunderstorm electrification has been studied for hundreds of years. Several mechanisms have been proposed to elucidate the electrification, including convective charging, inductive precipitation charging, and ice crystal-graupel collision charging. Field observations and model studies have demonstrated the vital roles that graupel and ice crystals play in the electrification, but the mechanism of the collision charging is still unclear. The fundamental essence of relative growth rate theory used for explaining the tripole charge structure in thunderclouds also needs a further exploration. We analyze the processes of ice crystal-graupel collision charging from charge migration inside hydrometeors to charge separation between two hydrometeors. The driving effects of temperature gradient and chemical potential gradient in charge migration are clarified, as well as the applicability of the relative growth rate theory, thermoelectric effect and surface tension gradient in different humidities. Based on the understanding from these electrification mechanisms, we propose that the essence of charge separation is driven by non-thermal equilibrium, and future studies on thunderstorm electrification should focus on the dynamical non-thermal equilibrium of cloud particles.

A numerical mechanism connecting ice algal ecodynamics with the buildup of organic macromolecules is tested within modeled pan-Arctic brine channels. The simulations take place offline in a reduced representation of sea ice geochemistry. Physical driver quantities derive from the global sea ice code CICE, including snow cover, thickness and internal temperature. The framework is averaged over ten boreal biogeographic zones. Computed nutrient-light-salt limited algal growth supports grazing, mortality and carbon flow. Vertical transport is diffusive but responds to pore structure. Simulated bottom layer chlorophyll maxima are reasonable, though delayed by about a month relative to observations due to uncertainties in snow variability. Upper level biota arise intermittently during flooding events. Macromolecular concentrations are tracked as proxy proteins, polysaccharides, lipids and refractory humics. The fresh biopolymers undergo succession and removal by bacteria. Baseline organics enter solely through cell disruption, so that the internal carbon content is initially biased low. By including exudation, agreement with dissolved organic or individual biopolymer data is achieved given strong release coupled to light intensity. Detrital carbon then reaches hundreds of micromolar, sufficient to support structural changes to the ice matrix.

Radar altimetry provides valuable measurements to characterize the state and the evolution of the Antartica and Greenland ice sheet cover. Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) has the potential capacity of complementing the dedicated radar altimeters incrementing the temporal and spatial resolution of the surface height measurements. In this work we perform an study of the Greenland ice sheet using data obtained by the GNSS-R instrument aboard the British TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1) satellite mission, designed primarily to provide sea state information, like sea surface roughness or wind, but not altimetric products. The data has been analyzed with altimetric methodologies, already proved in aircraft based experiments, to extract signal delay observables to be used to infer the topography of the Greenland cover. The penetration depth of the GNSS signals into ice has also considered. The topographic signal obtained is consistent with those obtained with other passive or active microwave sensors. The main conclusion derived from this work is that GNSS-R also provides valuable measurements of the ice sheet cover and, as taken at a variety of geometries and at least two frequency bands, they prospect different depths into the ice. They have thus potential to complement our understanding of the ice firn and its evolution.

Long-read single-molecule sequencing has revolutionized de novo genome assembly and enabled the automated reconstruction of reference-quality genomes. It also has been widely used to study structural variants, phase haplotypes and more. Here, we introduce the assembler— SMARTdenovo, which is an SMS assembler that follows the overlap-layout-consensus (OLC) paradigm. SMARTdenovo (RRID: SCR_017622) was designed to be a fast assembler that did not require highly accurate raw reads for error correction, unlike other, contemporaneous SMS assemblers. It has performed well for evaluating congeneric assemblers and has been successful for a variety of assembly projects. It is compatible with Canu for assembling high-quality genomes, and several of the assembly strategies in this program have been incorporated into subsequent popular assemblers. The assembler has been in use since 2015, and here we provide information on the development of SMARTdenovo and how to implement its algorithms into current projects.

Structural DNA nanotechnology provides an excellent foundation for diverse nanoscale shapes that can be used in various bioapplications and materials research. From all existing DNA assembly techniques, DNA origami has proven to be the most robust one for creating custom nanoshapes. Since its invention in 2006, building from the bottom up using DNA has drastically advanced, and therefore, more and more complex DNA-based systems have become accessible. So far, vast majority of the demonstrated DNA origami frameworks are static by nature, but interestingly, there also exist dynamic DNA origami devices that are increasingly coming into view. In this review, we discuss DNA origami nanostructures that perform controlled translational or rotational movement triggered by predefined DNA strands, various molecular interactions and/or other external stimuli such as light, pH, temperature and electromagnetic fields. The rapid evolution of such dynamic DNA origami tools will undoubtedly have a significant impact on molecular scale precision measurements, targeted drug delivery and diagnostics, but they can also play a role in development of optical/plasmonic sensors, nanophotonic devices and nanorobotics for numerous different tasks.

Arctic feedbacks will accelerate climate change and could jeopardise mitigation efforts. The permafrost carbon feedback releases carbon to the atmosphere from thawing permafrost and the sea ice albedo feedback increases solar absorption in the Arctic Ocean. A constant positive albedo feedback and zero permafrost feedback have been used in nearly all climate policy studies to date, while observations and models show that the permafrost feedback is significant and that both feedbacks are nonlinear. Using novel dynamic emulators in the integrated assessment model PAGE-ICE, we investigate nonlinear interactions of the two feedbacks with the climate and economy under a range of climate scenarios consistent with the Paris Agreement. The permafrost feedback interacts with the land and ocean carbon uptake processes, and the albedo feedback evolves through a sequence of nonlinear transitions associated with the loss of Arctic sea ice in different months of the year. The US’s withdrawal from the current national pledges could increase the total discounted economic impact of the two Arctic feedbacks until 2300 by $25 trillion, reaching nearly $120 trillion, while meeting the 1.5 °C and 2 °C targets will reduce the impact by an order of magnitude.

Viruses have established symbiotic relationships with almost every other living organism on Earth and at all levels of biological organisation, from other viruses up to entire ecosystems. In most cases, peacefully coexisting with their hosts, but in most relevant cases, parasitising them and inducing diseases. Viruses are playing an essential role in shaping the eco-evolutionary dynamics of their hosts, and have been also involved in some of the major evolutionary innovations either by working as vectors of genetic information or by being themselves coopted by the host into their genomes. Viruses can be studied at different levels of biological organisation, from the molecular mechanisms of genome replication, gene expression and encapsidation, to global pandemics. All these levels are different and yet connected through the presence of threshold conditions allowing for the formation of a capsid, the loss of genetic information or epidemic spreading. These thresholds, as it occurs with temperatures separating phases in a liquid, define sharp qualitative types of behaviour. These {\em phase transitions} are very well known in Physics. They have been studied by means of simple, but powerful models able to capture their essential properties, allowing to understand them. Can the physics of phase transitions be an inspiration for our understanding of viral dynamics at different scales? Here we review well-known examples of transition phenomena in virology and their simplest mathematical modelling approaches. We suggest that the advantages of abstract, simplified pictures used in Physics are also the key to properly understand the origins and evolution of complexity in viruses. By means of several examples, we explore this multilevel landscape and how minimal models provide deep insights into a diverse array of problems. The relevance of these transitions in connecting dynamical patterns across levels and their evolutionary and clinical implications are outlined.

In contrast to lytic phages, filamentous phages are assembled in the inner membrane and secreted across the bacterial envelope without killing the host. For assembly and extrusion of the phage across the host cell wall, filamentous phages code for membrane-embedded morphogenesis proteins. In the outer membrane of E. coli, the protein gp4 forms a pore-like complex, while gp1 and gp11 form a complex in the inner membrane of the host. By comparing sequences with other filamentous phages, we identified putative Walker A and B motifs in gp1 with a conserved lysine in the Walker A motif (K14), and a glutamic and aspartic acid in the Walker B motif (D88, E89). In this work we demonstrate that both, Walker A and Walker B, are essential for phage production. The crucial role of these key residues suggest that gp1 is likely to be a molecular motor driving phage assembly. We further identified essential residues for the function of the assembly complex. Mutations in three out of six cysteine residues abolish phage production. Similarly, two out of six conserved glycine residues are crucial for gp1 function. We hypothesise that the residues represent molecular hinges allowing domain movement for nucleotide binding and phage assembly.

Next-generation sequencing is now a mature technology, allowing partial animal genomes to be produced for many clades. Though many software exist for genome assembly and annotation, a simple pipeline that allows researchers to input raw sequencing reads in fastq format and allow the retrieval of a completely assembled and annotated mitochondrial genome is still missing. mitoMaker 1.0 is a pipeline developed in python that implements (i) recursive de novo assembly of mitochondrial genomes using a set of increasing k-mers; (ii) search for the best matching result to a target mitogenome and; (iii) performs iterative reference-based strategies to optimize the assembly. After (iv) checking for circularization and (v) positioning tRNA-Phe at the beginning, (vi) geneChecker.py module performs a complete annotation of the mitochondrial genome and provides a GenBank formatted file as output.

In this paper the development process of a deployable modular sandwich panelized system for rapid assembly building construction is presented, and its structural performance under some different action effects is investigated. This system, which includes an innovative sandwich panel and its integrated connections, can be used as structural walls and floors in quickly assembled post-disaster housing, as well as load bearing panels for pre-fabricated modular construction and semi-permanent buildings. Panels and connections are composed of a pneumatic fabric formwork, and two 3-D high-density polyethylene (HDPE) sheets as the skins, filled with high-density rigid Polyurethane (PU) foam as the core. HDPE sheets manufactured with a studded surface considerably enhance the stress distribution, buckling performance and delamination strength of the sandwich panel under various loading conditions. The load-carrying behaviour of the system in accordance with some ASTM standards is presented here. The results show the system satisfies the codes criteria regarding semi-permanent housing.

Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) have several functions that permit their hosts to thrive in the presence of ice. The ability of IBPs to control ice growth makes them potential additives in various industries ranging from food storage and cryopreservation to anti-icing systems. For IBPs to be used in commercial applications, however, methods are needed to produce sufficient quantities of high-quality proteins. Here, we describe a new method for IBP purification, termed falling water ice purification (FWIP). The method is based on the affinity of IBPs for ice. A crude IBP solution is allowed to flow continuously over the large chilled vertical surface of a commercial ice machine. The temperature of the surface is lowered gradually until ice crystals are produced, to which the IBPs bind but other solutes do not. As in other ice affinity methods, FWIP does not require molecular tags and is suitable for purifying recombinant IBPs as well as IBPs from natural sources. The advantage of FWIP over other ice affinity methods is that it exploits an ice machine designed to produce large volumes of clear ice daily. This system can be easily scaled up and suits the purification of industrial quantities of IBPs. The FWIP method significantly advances the use of IBPs in research and industry.

Closely related to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the genus Boechera is known to contain both sexual and apomictic species or accessions. Boechera retrofracta is a diploid sexually reproducing species and is thought to be an ancestral parent species of the apomictic species Boechera divaricarpa. Here we report the de novo assembly of the B. retrofracta genome using short Illumina and Roche reads from 1 paired-end and 3 mate pair libraries. The distribution of 23-mers from the paired end library has indicated a low level of heterozygosity and the presence of detectable duplications and triplications. The genome size was estimated to be equal 227 Mb. N50 of the assembled scaffolds was 2.3 Mb. 27048 protein-coding genes were predicted using a hybrid approach that combines homology-based and de novo methods. Also repeats, tRNA and rRNA genes were annotated. Finally, genes of B. retrofracta and 6 other Brassicaceae species were used for phylogenetic tree reconstruction. Also, a detailed analysis of evolution of the APOLLO apomixis-associated locus was performed. An assembled genome of B. retrofracta will help in the challenging assembly of the highly heterozygous genomes of hybrid apomictic species such as B. divaricarpa.

This study is designed to assess and improve apparel sewing section efficiency and productivity throughout line balancing. Apparel industry is one of the oldest and among the most global industry, being primarily concerned with the design and production of cloth and their supply. The central process in apparel manufacturing is the joining together of components which is known as the sewing process , which is the most labour intensive type of manufacturing process .Proper utilization of resources in garment sewing section is more critical to enhance the performance of the apparel industry by reducing production cost and minimizing wastage. For effective utilization of resources in the sewing section, good line balancing is important to increase productivity and production efficiency. This research was a design to analyse and improve the assembling line in the case of Telaje garment manufacturing and sales plc. The study was first conduct observations in the production floor and start work with the selection of sewing line in the garment production process. Among the nine lines of the factory select one on the production floor and one garment ordered product known as five pocket men’s jeans trousers are selected. For this study, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were employed. Both primary and secondary data sources are used to detail the collected relevant data to understand the current efficiency scenario of the factory. The main challenges to minimizing line efficiency and productivity with the expected performance measurement are improper utilization of resources and improper implementation of line balancing in sewing section, therefore this thesis work shows that the bottleneck process and consequence solution will be searched, and finally significantly improving the productivity by 418 unit products/ day and, hence the efficiency will increase from 28.83% to 50.04% of the line

Lignin has interesting functionalities to be exploited in adhesives for medicine, foods and textiles. Nanoparticles (NPs) <100 nm coated with poly(L-lysine), PL and poly(L-glutamic acid) PGA were prepared from the laccase treated lignin to coat nanocellulose fibrils (CNF) with heat. NPs ca. 300 nm were prepared, β-casein coated and cross-linked with transglutaminase (Tgase) to agglutinate chamois specimens. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterize polymerized lignin, zetapotential and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to ensure coating of colloidal lignin particles (CLPs). Protein adsorption on lignin was studied by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was exploited to examine interactions between different polymers and to image NPs with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Tensile testing showed, when using CLPs for the adhesion, the stress improved ca. 10 and strain ca. 6 times compared to polymeric lignin. For the β-casein NPs the values were 20 and 8, respectively, and for the β-casein coated CLPs between these two cases. When NPs were dispersed in adhesive formulation, the Young's moduli confirmed significant improvement in the elasticity of the joints over the adhesive alone. Exploitation lignin in nanoparticulate morphology is a potential method to prepare bionanomaterials for advanced applications.

Stimuli-responsive polymeric materials have attracted significant attentions in a variety of high-value-added and industrial applications during the past decade. Among various stimuli, light is of particular interest as a stimulus due to its unique advantages such as precisely spatiotemporal control, mild conditions, ease of use, and tunability. In recent years, a lot of effort toward synthesis of biocompatible and biodegradable polypeptide has resulted in many examples of photo-responsive nanoparticles. Depending on the specific photochemistry, those polypeptide derived nano-assemblies are capable of crosslinking, disassembling, or morphing into other shapes upon light irradiation. In this mini-review, we aim to assess the current state of photo-responsive polypeptide based nanomaterials. First, those “smart” nanomaterials will be categorized by their photo-triggered events (i.e., crosslinking, degradation, and isomerization) which are inherently governed by photo-sensitive functionalities including o-nitrobenzyl, coumarin, azobenzene, cinnamyl, and spiropyran. In addition, the properties and applications of those polypeptide nanomaterials will be highlighted as well. Finally, the current challenges and future directions of this subject will be evaluated.

The recommendations of the panel of experts on the further development of the ‘High-Tech Strategy’ of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany designate the biologization of economic processes along with digitization as the central driver of societal change. Various fields such as the 'biologization of materials research' were then defined in the 'Bio-Agenda' in order to walk the path from biology to innovation. In view of this perspective, we describe how the use of biological materials and mechanisms can lead to resource conservation, the production of intelligent materials and new technological and medical applications. Our strategy, based on research on ‘Biointerfaces in Technology and Medicine’, aims at the development of modular biohybrid systems that could be used as 'biofactories of the future' for sustainable production processes. To achieve this goal, in a first phase already known technologies have to be further refined and integrated in order to obtain and apply compartmentalized reaction systems on different length and time scales. In a second phase, the resulting functional units will be employed to develop dissipative systems useful for biomedical applications and advanced production processes. From a technical point of view, future success in creating 'something entirely new' will depend crucially on robust and complementary research capabilities. Since the close connection of engineering and life sciences at KIT provides an excellent basis for this endeavor, we consider the above perspectives to be feasible.

Citizen Science has come up to perform analytics over the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Public GALAXY servers provide an automated platform for genomics analysis. Study includes design of GALAXY workflows for RNASEQ assembly and annotation as well as genomic variant discovery and perform analysis across four samples of SARS-CoV-2 infected humans obtained from the local population of Wuhan, China. It provides information about transcriptomics and genomic variants across the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Study can be extended to perform evolutionary and comparative study across each species of coronaviruses. Augmented and integrated study with cheminformatics and immunoinformatics will be a way forward for drug discovery and vaccine development.

In this paper, we focus on developing a novel method to extract sea ice cover (i.e., discrimination/classification of sea ice and open water) using Sentinel-1 (S1) cross-polarization (vertical-horizontal, VH or horizontal-vertical, HV) data in extra wide (EW) swath mode based on the machine learning algorithm support vector machine (SVM). The classification basis includes the S1 radar backscatter coefficients and texture features that are calculated from S1 data using the gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). Different from previous methods where appropriate samples are manually selected to train the SVM to classify sea ice and open water, we proposed a method of unsupervised generation of the training samples based on two GLCM texture features, i.e. entropy and homogeneity, that have contrasting characteristics on sea ice and open water. We eliminate the most uncertainty of selecting training samples in machine learning and achieve automatic classification of sea ice and open water by using S1 EW data. The comparison shows good agreement between the SAR-derived sea ice cover using the proposed method and a visual inspection, of which the accuracy reaches approximately 90% - 95% based on a few cases. Besides this, compared with the analyzed sea ice cover data Ice Mapping System (IMS) based on 728 S1 EW images, the accuracy of extracted sea ice cover by using S1 data is more than 80%.

The Voronoi entropy is a mathematical tool for quantitative characterization of the orderliness of points distributed on a surface. The tool is useful to study various surface self-assembly processes. We provide the historical background, from Kepler and Descartes to our days, and discuss topological properties of the Voronoi tessellation, upon which the entropy concept is based, and its scaling properties, known as the Lewis and Aboav-Weaire laws. The Voronoi entropy has been successfully applied to recently discovered self-assembled structures, such as patterned micro-porous polymer surfaces obtained by the breath figure method and levitating ordered water micro-droplet clusters.

Electrically conductive polymer composites are in high demand for modern technologies, however, the intrinsic brittleness of conducting conjugated polymers and the moderate electrical conductivity of engineering polymer/carbon composites have highly constrained their applications. In this work, super high electrical conductive polymer composites were produced by a novel hot embossing design. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites containing short carbon fiber (SCF) exhibited an electrical percolation threshold at 0.45 wt%, and reached a saturated electrical conductivity of 49 S/m at 8 wt% of SCF. When reduced the sample thickness from 1.0 mm to 0.1 mm by the hot embossing process, a compression-induced percolation threshold occurred at 0.3 wt%, while the electrical conductivity was further enhanced to 378 S/m at 8 wt% SCF. Furthermore, the additional of a second nanofiller of 1 wt%, such as carbon nanotube or conducting carbon black further increased the electrical conductivity of the PDMS/SCF (8 wt%) composites to 909 S/m and 657 S/m, respectively. The synergy of the densified conducting filler network by the mechanical compression and the hierarchical micro-/nanoscale filler approach has realize super high electrical conductive yet mechanical flexible polymer composites for modern flexible electronics applications.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is now the largest land ice contributor to global sea level rise, largely driven by increased surface meltwater runoff from the ablation zone, i.e. areas of the ice sheet where annual mass losses exceed gains. This small but critically important area of the ice sheet has expanded in size by ~50% since the early 1960s, and satellite remote sensing is a powerful tool for monitoring the physical processes that influence its surface mass balance. This review synthesizes key remote sensing methods and scientific findings from satellite remote sensing of the Greenland Ice Sheet ablation zone, covering progress in 1) radar altimetry, 2) laser (lidar) altimetry, 3) gravimetry, 4) multispectral optical imagery and, 5) microwave and thermal imagery. Physical characteristics and quantities examined include surface elevation change, gravimetric mass balance, reflectance, albedo, and mapping of surface melt extent and glaciological facies and zones. The review concludes that future progress will benefit most from methods that combine multi-sensor, multi-wavelength, and cross-platform datasets designed to discriminate the widely varying surface processes in the ablation zone. Specific examples include fusing laser altimetry, radar altimetry, and optical stereophotogrammetry to enhance spatial measurement density, cross-validate surface elevation change, and diagnose radar elevation bias; fusing optical imagery, radar imagery, and microwave scatterometry to discriminate between snow, liquid water, refrozen meltwater, and bare ice near the equilibrium line altitude; combining optical reflectance with laser altimetry to map supraglacial lake, stream, and crevasse bathymetry; and monitoring the inland migration of snowlines, surface melt extent, and supraglacial hydrologic features.

This review describes major advances in the use of functionalized molecular metal oxides (polyoxometalates, POMs) as water oxidation catalysts under electrochemical conditions. The fundamentals of POM-based water oxidation are described together with a brief overview of general approaches to designing POM water oxidation catalysts. Next, the use of POMs for homogeneous, solution-phase water oxidation is described together with a summary of theoretical studies shedding light on the POM-WOC mechanism. This is followed by a discussion of heterogenization of POMs on electrically conductive substrates for technologically more relevant application studies. Stability of POM water oxidation catalysts are discussed on selected examples where detailed data is already available. The review finishes with an outlook on future perspective and emerging themes in electrocatalytic polyoxometalate-based water oxidation research.

One of the most important objectives of the studies worldwide is to improve the performance of automotive engines to reduce fuel consumption and environmental pollution. Accordingly, the principal motivation of this research study is improving the tribological behavior of the piston ring/cylinder liner interfaces as a promising and straightforward approach in automotive fuel economy and increasing engine durability using Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ nanomaterials as smart nano-lubricant additives that adapted to different operating conditions by replenishing mechanisms anti-friction and anti-wear in automotive engines.

It is always a difficult task to assign the peaks recorded from vibrational spectrum. Herein we explored a new pathway of density functional theory (DFT) simulation to present three kinds of spectra of ice XIV and can be referenced as inelastic neutron scattering (INS), IR, and Raman experimental spectrum. The INS spectrum is proportional to phonon density of states (PDOS) while the photon scattering signals reflect the normal vibration frequencies near the Brillouin zone (BZ) center. Based on good agreements with experimental data, we identified the relative frequency and made scientific assignments by normal vibration modes analysis. The debating two hydrogen bond (H-bond) peaks among ice phases from INS have been discussed and the dynamic process of H-bond vibrations were found to be classified into two basic modes. we deduce that two H-bond modes are a general rule among ice family and more works are ongoing to investigate this subject.

Accurate detection of players and teams in ice hockey games is crucial to the tracking of individual players on court and team tactical decisions, which is therefore becoming an important task for coaches and other analysts. However, hockey is a fluid sport due to complex dynamics and frequent substitutions by both teams, resulting in various body positions of players. Few traditional player detection models from other team sports take these characteristics into account, especially for the detection of teams without prior annotations. Here, we design a two-phase cascaded Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model coupling between individual players position information and team uniform colors to hierarchically detect players in ice hockey games. Our model filters most of disturbing information, such as audience and sideline advertising bars, in Phase I, and refines the detection of targeted players in Phase II, which is efficient and accurate with a precision rate of 91.30% and a recall rate of 95.60% for individual players detection, and an average accuracy of 93.05% in team classification from a self-built dataset of collected images in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, we also present results based on the images and real-time detection from broadcasting videos of 2019-20 NHL regular games covering all 31 teams to show the robustness of our model.

A recently developed thermodynamic theory for the determination of the driving force of crystallization and the crystal–melt surface tension is applied to the ice–water system employing the new Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater TEOS-10. The deviations of approximative formulations of the driving force and the surface tension from the exact reference properties are quantified, showing that the proposed simplifications are applicable for low to moderate undercooling and pressure differences to the respective equilibrium state of water. The TEOS-10 based predictions of the ice crystallization rate revealed pressure-induced deceleration of ice nucleation with an increasing pressure, and acceleration of ice nucleation by pressure decrease. This result is in, at least, qualitative agreement with laboratory experiments and computer simulations. Both the temperature and pressure dependencies of the ice–water surface tension were found to be in line with the le Chatelier–Braun principle, in that the surface tension decreases upon increasing degree of metastability of water (by decreasing temperature and pressure), which favors nucleation to move the system back to a stable state. The reason for this behavior is discussed. Finally, the Kauzmann temperature of the ice–water system was found to amount TK=116K, which is far below the temperature of homogeneous freezing. The Kauzmann pressure was found to amount pK=-212MPa, suggesting favor of homogeneous freezing upon exerting a negative pressure on the liquid. In terms of thermodynamic properties entering the theory, the reason for the negative Kauzmann pressure is the higher mass density of water in comparison to ice at the melting point.

Along with density and mass variations of the oceans driven by global warming, Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) in response to the last deglaciation still contributes significantly to present-day sea-level change. Indeed, in order to reveal the impacts of climate change, long term observations at tide gauges and recent absolute altimetry data need to be decontaminated from the effects of GIA. This is now realized by means of global models constrained by the observed evolution of the paleo-shorelines since the Last Glacial Maximum, which account for the complex interactions between the solid Earth, the cryosphere and the oceans. In the recent literature, past and present-day effects of GIA are often expressed in terms of fingerprints describing the spatial variations of several geodetic quantities like crustal deformation, the harmonic components of the Earth's gravity field, relative and absolute sea level. However, since it is driven by the sluggish readjustment occurring within the viscous mantle, GIA shall taint the pattern of sea-level variability also during the forthcoming centuries. The shapes of the GIA fingerprints reflect inextricable deformational, gravitational, and rotational interactions occurring within the Earth system. Using up-to-date numerical modeling tools, our purpose is to revisit and to explore some of the physical and geometrical features of the fingerprints, their symmetries and intercorrelations, also illustrating how they stem from the fundamental equation that governs GIA, i.e., the Sea Level Equation.

Debris-covered glaciers are a notable feature in the greater Himalaya, and their ongoing mass loss under changing climate will affect the water resources of over a billion people. The current knowledge of the mass balance of Himalayan glaciers is restricted by the paucity of in-situ measurements of glaciers in both space and time, as well as the resolution of satellite remote sensing imageries. Recently, the use of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) imagery has shown the potential to bridge this gap by enabling very detailed monitoring of inaccessible glacial areas. UAS imagery-based monitoring of Himalayan glaciers has so far been limited to a single glacier in the entire Himalaya, providing a limited understanding of spatial variability in glacier mass balance and driving factors. In the first UAS based glacial mass change estimation in the trans-Himalaya, we conducted two Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) surveys (May and November 2019) over the debris-covered Annapurna III glacier in the Himalaya. We performed Structure-from-Motion (SfM) analysis and utilized differential GPS field observations to derive geometrically accurate point clouds, ortho-mosaics and digital surface models (DSMs). The glacial volumetric loss was estimated from DSM differencing, and the magnitude and spatial variability of glacier surface change was derived from 3-D differencing of point clouds. Results revealed a heterogeneous glacial melt pattern, with an average elevation loss of 0.89 m during the monitored time period. The majority of the glacial tongue exhibited surface lowering except the area above and around the glacial snout that surprisingly exhibited significant elevation gain. Both the highest magnitude of mass loss and the highest spatial variability in mass change was observed in areas with exposed ice-cliffs and supraglacial ponds. Glacial surface velocity derived from manual feature tracking showed velocity ranging from 0-4.1 m. A detailed evaluation of specific areas allowed an improved understanding of the complex interplay of factors leading to observed surface change. Our findings expand the extent of UAS based monitoring of debris-covered glaciers in the Himalaya and conclude that UAS derived 3D topographic products will become increasingly important for monitoring of thinning debris-covered glaciers.

With the rise of long-read sequencers and long-range technologies, delivering high-quality plant genome assemblies is no longer reserved to large consortia. Indeed, sequencing techniques but also computer algorithms have reached a point where the reconstruction of assemblies at the chromosome-scale is now feasible at the laboratory scale. Current technologies, and especially long-range technologies, are numerous and selecting the most promising one for the genome of interest is crucial to obtain optimal results. In this study, we resequenced the genome of the yellow sarson, Brassica rapa cv. Z1, using the Oxford Nanopore PromethION sequencer and assembled the sequenced data using current assemblers. To reconstruct complete chromosomes, we used and compared three long-range techniques, optical mapping, Omni-C and Pore-C sequencing libraries commercialized by Bionano Genomics, Dovetail Genomics and Oxford Nanopore Technologies respectively, or a combination of the three, in order to evaluate the capability of each technology.

Hydrogels incorporated with hydrophobic motifs have received considerable attention to recapitulate the cellular microenvironments, specifically for the bio-mineralization of a 3D matrix. Introduction of hydrophobic motifs into a hydrogel often results in irregular arrangement of the motifs, and further phase separation of hydrophobic domains, but limited efforts have been made to resolve this challenge in the hydrophobically-modified hydrogel. Therefore, this study presents an advanced integrative strategy to incorporate hydrophobic domains regularly in a hydrogel by self-assembling of polymer cross-linkers, building blocks of a hydrogel. Self-assemblies between polymer cross-linkers were examined as micro-domains to incorporate hydrophobic motifs in a hydrogel. The self-assembled structures in a pre-gelled solution were confirmed with the fluorescence analysis and the hydrophobicity of a hydrogel could be tuned by incorporating the motifs in a controlled manner. Overall, the results of this study would greatly serve to tuning performance of a wide array of hydrophobically-modified hydrogels in drug delivery, cell therapies and tissue engineering.

Hierarchical honeycomb patterns were manufactured with the breath-figures self-assembly by drop-casting on the silicone-oil lubricated glass substrates. Silicone oil promoted spreading of the polymer solutions. The process was carried out with the industrial grade polystyrene and polystyrene with the molecular weight Mw=35.000. Both of polymers gave rise to the patterns, built from micro- and nano-scaled pores. Ordering of the pores was quantified with the Voronoi tessellations and calculating the Voronoi entropy. Measurement of the apparent contact angles evidenced the Cassie - Baxter wetting regime of the porous films.

By manipulating the various physico-chemical properties of amino acids, design of peptides with specific self-assembling properties has been emerging since more than a decade. In this context, short peptides possessing detergent properties (so-called “peptergents”) have been developed to self-assemble into well-ordered nanostructures that can stabilize membrane proteins for crystallization. In this study, the peptide with “peptergency” properties, called ADA8 extensively described by Zhang et al., is studied by molecular dynamics for its self-assembling properties in different conditions. In water, it spontaneously forms beta sheets with a β barrel-like structure. We next simulated the interaction of this peptide with a membrane protein, the bacteriorhodopsin, in the presence or absence of a micelle of dodecylphosphocholine. According to the literature, the peptergent ADA8 is thought to generate a belt of β structures around the hydrophobic helical domain that could help stabilize purified membrane proteins. Molecular dynamics is here used to challenge this view and to provide further molecular details for the replacement of detergent molecules around the protein. To our best knowledge, this is the first molecular mechanism proposed for ''peptergency''. In addition, our calculation approach should serve as a predicting tool for the design of beta peptergent with diverse amphipathic properties.

With the advancement of long-read sequencing technologies and their more widespread use for bacterial genomics, several methods for generating genome assemblies from error-prone long reads have been developed. These are complemented by various tools for assembly polishing using either long reads, short reads, or reference genomes. End users are therefore left with a plethora of possible combinations of programs for obtaining a final trusted assembly. Hence, there is also the need for measuring completeness and accuracy of such assemblies, for which, again, several evaluation methods implemented in various programs are available. In order to automatically run all these programs, I developed two workflows for the workflow management system Snakemake for bacterial genome assembly and evaluation of assemblies, which provide end users with an easy-to-run method for both tasks. The workflows are available as open source software under the MIT license at https://github.com/pmenzel/ont-assembly-snake and https://github.com/pmenzel/score-assemblies.

The threat of antimicrobial resistance to society is compounded by a relative lack of new clinically effective licensed therapies reaching patients over the past three decades. This has been particularly problematic within antifungal drug development leading to a rise in fungal infection rates and associated mortality. This paper highlights the potential of an ultrashort peptide, (naphthalene-2-ly)-acetyl-diphenylalanine-dilysine-OH (NapFFKK-OH), encompassing hydrogel-forming and antifungal properties within a single peptide motif, thus overcoming formulation (e.g. solubility, drug loading) issues associated with many current employed highly hydrophobic antifungals. A range of fungal susceptibility (colony counts) and cell cytotoxicity (MTS cell viability, LIVE/DEAD staining® with fluorescent microscopy, haemolysis) assays were employed. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the nanofibrous architecture of our self-assembling peptide, existing as a hydrogel at concentrations of 1% w/v and above. Broad-spectrum activity was demonstrated against a range of fungi clinically relevant to infection (Aspergillus niger, Candida glabrata, Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis and Candida dubliniensis) with greater than 4 log10 CFU/mL reduction at concentrations of 0.5% w/v and above. We hypothesise antifungal activity is due to targeting of anionic components present within fungal cell membranes resulting in membrane disruption and cell lysis. NapFFKK-OH demonstrated reduced toxicity against mammalian cells (NCTC 929, ARPE-19) suggesting increased selectivity for fungal cells. However, further studies relating to safety for systemic administration is required, given the challenges toxicity has presented in the wider context of antimicrobial peptide drug development. Overall this study highlights the promise of NapFFKK-OH hydrogels, particularly as a topical formulation for the treatment of fungal infections relating to the skin and eyes, or as a hydrogel coating for the prevention of biomaterial related infection.

Nanoparticle (NP)–surfactants formed by the self-assembly of NPs and end-functionalized polymers at the hydrophilic/hydrophobic interface have a wide range of applications in many fields. In this study, the influence of density of amino groups, NPs dimension and pH on the interaction between end-functionalized polymers and NPs were extensively investigated. Single amino-terminated polystyrene (PS-NH2, Mw ≈ 0.6k, 2.5k, 3.5k, 3.9k) and diamino-terminated polystyrene (H2N-PS-NH2, Mw ≈ 1.1k, 2.8k) were prepared using reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization. NPs with different dimensions (zero-dimensional carbon dots with sulfonate groups, one-dimensional cellulose nanocrystals with sulfate groups and two-dimensional graphene with sulfonate groups) in the aqueous phase were added into the toluene phase containing the aminated PS. The influence of pH and the molecular weight of amino-terminated PS on the interfacial tension between two phases were investigated. The results indicate that aminated PS exhibited the strongest interfacial activity after compounding with sulfonated NPs at a pH of 3. Terminating PS with amino groups on both ends leads to better performance in in reducing the water/toluene interfacial tension than modifying the molecular structure of PS on a single end. The dimension of sulfonated NPs also contributed significantly to the reduction of the water/toluene interfacial tension. The minimal interfacial tension was 4.49 mN/m after compounding PS-NH2 with sulfonated zero-dimensional carbon dots. Molecular dynamics simulation on the evolution of the water/toluene interface in the presence of sulfonated carbon dots and H2N-PS-NH2 revealed that these opposite charged substances moved towards the interface in an extreme short time and orderly assembled in a thermodynamic equilibrium.

Conjugation is a bacterial mechanism for DNA transfer from a donor cell to a wide range of recipients, including both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. In contrast to conventional DNA delivery techniques, such as electroporation and chemical transformation, conjugation eliminates the need for DNA extraction, thereby preventing DNA damage during isolation. While most established conjugation protocols allow for DNA transfer in liquid media or on a solid surface, we developed a procedure for conjugation within solid media. Such a protocol may expand conjugation as a tool for DNA transfer to species that require semi-solid or solid media for growth. Conjugation within solid media could also provide a more stable microenvironment in which the conjugative pilus can establish and maintain contact with recipient cells for the successful delivery of plasmid DNA. Furthermore, transfer in solid media may enhance the ability to transfer plasmids and chromosomes greater than 100 kbp. Using our optimized method, plasmids of varying sizes were tested for transfer from E. coli to S. cerevisiae. We demonstrated that there was no substantial decrease in conjugation frequency as plasmid size increased—up to 138.5 kbp in length. Finally, we established an efficient PCR-based synthesis protocol to generate custom conjugative plasmids

Background Legionella pneumophila is one of the causes of legionellosis. Water environments serve as the natural habitat and the main sources of Legionella pneumophila. Objectives The aims of this study was to understand the differences of Legionella pneumophila serogroups distribution in well water, tap water, ice cubes, hospital and hotel water in East Java-Indonesia. Methods a total of 60 water samples in east java-Indonesia; from well water (n=25), tap water (n=5), ice cubes (n=5), water from the hospital (n=16), and hotel water (n=9) were detected using polymerase chain reaction with mip gene spesific primers and then it was analyzed by phylogenetic tree. Results For the 60 water samples collected in East Java, 12% of the samples (7/60) were positively contaminated by L. pneumophila. In details, there was 8% of the well water samples (2/25), 2% of the tap water samples (1/5), 2% of the ice cubes samples (1/5), 0% of the hospital water samples (0/16) and 33.33% of the hotel water samples (3/9). The phylogenetic tree showed that Legionella pneumophila contaminating well water isolate 1 from Surabaya and tap water isolate from Sidoarjo was closer to L.pneumophila serogroup 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, isolates from Brazil, China, Spain and Australia. L.pneumophila contaminating the ice cubes from Sidoarjo was closer to serogroup 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, while the bacteria contaminating well water isolate 2 from Sidoarjo as well as water in hotel of Surabaya (hotel water isolate 1, 2 and 3) classified into their own group. Conclusion There is a difference in the distribution of L. pneumophila serogroups between well water, tap water, ice cubes, and hotels.

The lack of a uniform approach in Earth and planetary science is apparent in the current levels of inconsistency found within the research itself, the data analysis and the interpretation of results. Thus, data interpretation differ depending on whether the study refer to Earth conditions or from space. These differences are particularly pronounced for cryosphere studies, where geocentric approaches remain within ice research and its application in analogical studies. Here, the principle of spatial uniformitarianism is presented, to allow for a definitive departure from geocentrism and a proper understanding of the role of ice within both the Earth and celestial bodies. At the practical level, it may affect several geo-scientific disciplines currently inconsistent and bridging the gap among them. This rule is universal and complements the Hutton-Lyell 1795/1830 principle.

The most massive and fast-eroding thaw slump of the Northern Hemisphere located in the Yana uplands of northern Yakutia was investigated to assess in detail the cryogenic inventory and carbon pools of two distinctive Ice Complex stratigraphic units and the uppermost cover deposits. Differentiating into modern and Holocene near-surface layers (active layer and shielding layer), highest total carbon contents were found in the active layer (18.7 kg m-2), while the shielding layer yielded much lower carbon content of 1.8 kg m-2. The late Pleistocene upper Ice Complex contained 10.4 kg m-2 total carbon, and the mid-Pleistocene lower Ice Complex 17.7 kg m-2. The proportion of organic carbon from total carbon content is well above 70% in all studied units with 94 % in the active layer, 73% in the shielding layer, 83% in the upper Ice Complex and 79% in the lower Ice Complex. Inorganic carbon is low in the overall structure of the deposits.

Satisfactory weatherproofing of buildings is vital to maximise their design life and performance which requires the careful design of external sealing technologies. Systems commonly available have served well in conventional construction however with many prefabricated systems emerging in the building industry new and novel means of weatherproofing between panels and modules need to be developed purpose specific to this application. This paper presents a holistic and fundamental methodological approach to Design and Development of waterproof seals and has been applied specific for prefabricated panelised and modular systems. Two purpose specific weatherproof seals are finally presented. Flow charts of the overview of the suggested methodological approach and the processes within which include DfMA that have been incorporated into understanding and developing seals for this practical application. These strategies have enabled a resourceful and holistic set of processes that can be adapted and used for similar forms of product research in new and developing areas of construction such as prefabrication. The design and development process is thoroughly explored and has resulted in an exploration of the technical challenges and potential solutions which take into consideration factors from installation limitations to building tolerances.

Self-assembly membranes, composed of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) and 1,2-dihexanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DHPC), were characterized at the total lipid concentration below 20 mM. The sizes of the assemblies varied depending on the molar ratio of DMPC and DHPC (q = [DMPC]/[DHPC]). The small assemblies with diameter of ca. 10 nm were formed at q ≤ 2.0 at 20 ºC (below phase transition temperature of DMPC). The physicochemical membrane properties were then studied using fluorescence probes, 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene and 6-dodecanoyl-N,N-dimethyl-2-naphthylamine, upon the dilution. DHPC micelle showed a higher membrane fluidity, while the DMPC/DHPC membranes at q ≥ 0.5 showed lower membrane fluidities as well as DMPC vesicle in gel (ordered) phase. Upon dilution, the ordered membrane properties were maintained while the solution turbidities increased, implying the morphological change of the self-assembly, bicelle to the vesicle in gel phase. Based on the obtained results, a phase diagram of DMPC/DHPC binary system (at 20 ºC) is described: (i) the bicelle suspension is transparent and the membrane is in ordered state, (ii) the micelle suspension is transparent and the membrane is in disordered state, (iii) the vesicle suspension is turbid and the membrane is in ordered state.

Non-vertebrate species represent about ~95% of known metazoan (animal) diversity. They remain to this day relatively unexplored genetically, but understanding their genome structure and function is pivotal for expanding our current knowledge of evolution, ecology and biodiversity. Following the continuous improvements and decreasing costs of sequencing technologies, many genome assembly tools have been released, leading to a significant amount of genome projects being completed in recent years. In this review, we examine the current state of genome projects of non-vertebrate animal species. We present an overview of available sequencing technologies, assembly approaches, as well as pre and post-processing steps, genome assembly evaluation methods, and their application to non-vertebrate animal genomes.

Ship speeds extracted from AIS data vary with ice conditions. We extrapolated this variation with SAR data to a chart of expected icegoing speed. The study is for the Gulf of Bothnia in March 2013 and for ships with ice class 1A Super that are able to navigate without icbreaker assistance. The speed was normalized to 0-10 for each ship. As the matching between AIS and SAR was complicated by ice drift during the time gap, from hours to two days, we calculated a set of local SAR statistics over several scales. We used random tree regression to estimate the speed. The accuracy was quantified by mean squared error (MSE), and the fraction of estimates close to the actual speeds. These depended strongly on the route and the day. MSE varied from 0.4 to 2.7 units² for daily routes. 65 % of the estimates deviated less than one unit and 82 % less than 1.5 units from the AIS speeds. The estimated daily mean speeds were close to the observations. Largest speed decreases were provided by the estimator in a dampened form or not at all. This improved when ice chart thickness was included as one predictor.

The importance of genome organization at the supranucleosomal scale in the control of gene expression is increasingly recognized today. In mammals, Topologically Associating Domains (TADs) and the active / inactive chromosomal compartments are two of the main nuclear structures that contribute to this organization level. However, recent works reviewed here indicate that, at specific loci, chromatin interactions with nuclear bodies could also be crucial to regulate genome functions, in particular transcription. They moreover suggest that these nuclear bodies are membrane-less organelles dynamically self-assembled and disassembled through mechanisms of phase separation. We have recently developed a novel genome-wide experimental method, High-salt Recovered Sequences sequencing (HRS-seq), which allows the identification of chromatin regions associated with large ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes and nuclear bodies. We argue that the physical nature of such RNP complexes and nuclear bodies appears to be central in their ability to promote efficient interactions between distant genomic regions. The development of novel experimental approaches, including our HRS-seq method, is opening new avenues to understand how self-assembly of phase separated nuclear bodies possibly contributes to mammalian genome organization and gene expression.

Ribosome assembly is one of the most fundamental processes in gene expression and has served as a playground to investigate the molecular mechanisms of how protein-RNA complexes (RNPs) assemble. The bacterial ribosome is composed of around 50 ribosomal proteins several of which are co-transcriptionally assembled on a ~4,500 nucleotides long pre-rRNA transcript that is further processed and modified during transcription, the entire process taking around 2 minutes in vivo and assisted by dozens of assembly factors. How this complex molecular process works so efficiently to produce an active ribosome has been investigated over decades and has resulted in the development of a plethora of novel approaches that can also be used to study the assembly of other RNPs. Here we review biochemical, structural and biophysical methods that have been developed and integrated to provide a detailed and quantitative understanding of this complex and intricate molecular process of assembly. We also discuss emerging cutting-edge approaches that could be used in the future to study how transcription, rRNA processing, cellular factors and the native cellular environment shape ribosome assembly and RNP assembly at large.

The genus Pseudomonas hosts an extensive genetic diversity and is one of the largest genera among Gram-negative bacteria. Type strains of Pseudomonas are well-known to represent only a small fraction of this diversity and the number of available Pseudomonas genome sequences is increasing rapidly. Consequently, new Pseudomonas species are regularly reported and the number of species within the genus is in constant evolution. In this study, whole genome se-quencing enabled us to define 43 new Pseudomonas species and to provide an update of the Pseu-domonas evolutionary and taxonomic relationships. Phylogenies based on the rpoD gene and whole genome sequences, including 316 and 313 type strains of Pseudomonas, respectively, re-vealed sixteen groups of Pseudomonas and justified the partitioning of the P. putida group into fifteen subgroups. Pairwise average nucleotide identities were calculated between type strains and a selection of 60 genomes of non-type strains of Pseudomonas. Forty-one strains were incor-rectly assigned at the species level and among those, 19 strains were shown to represent an addi-tional 13 new Pseudomonas species that remain to be formally classified. This work pinpoints the importance of correct taxonomic assignment and phylogenetic classification in order to perform integrative studies linking genetic diversity, lifestyle and metabolic potential of Pseudomonas spp.

Ice covering on overhead transmission lines would cause damage to transmission system and long-term power outage. Among various de-icing devices, modular multilevel converter (MMC) based DC de-icer (MMC-DDI) is recognized as a promising solution due to its excellent technical performance. Its principle feasibility has been well studied, but few literature discuss its economy or hardware optimization, thus the designed MMC-DDI for high voltage transmission lines is usually too large and too expensive for engineering applications. To fill this gap, this paper presents a quantitative analysis on the converter characteristics of MMC-DDI, and calculates the minimal converter rating and its influencing factors. It reals that, for a given de-icing requirement, the converter rating varies greatly with its AC-side voltage. Then an optimization configuration is proposed to reduce the converter rating and improve its economy. The proposed configuration is verified in a MMC-DDI for a 500kV transmission line as a case study. The result shows, in the case of outputting same de-icing characteristics, the optimized converter rating is reduced from 151 MVA to 68 MVA, and total cost of MMC-DDI is reduced by 48%. This analysis and conclusion are conductive to the optimized design of multilevel DC de-icer, then to its engineering application.

Combined awareness about the power and limitations of bioinformatics and molecular biology enables advanced research based on high-throughput data. Despite an increasing demand for scientists with a combined background in both fields, the education in dry lab and wet lab is often separated. This work describes an example of integrated education with focus on genomics and transcriptomics. Participants learn computational and molecular biology methods in the same practical course. Peer-review is applied as a teaching method to foster cooperative learning of students with heterogeneous backgrounds. Evaluation results indicate acceptance and appreciation of this approach.

The Greenland ice sheet is a major contributor to sea level rise, adding an estimated 0.47 +/− 0.23 mm/yr to global mean sea level between 1991 and 2015 (van den Broeke et al., 2016). Making sea level rise projections for the future and understanding the processes controlling current observed rates of sea level rise are crucially dependent on understanding the present-day state of the ice sheet. Here, we provide an overview of the current state of the mass budget of Greenland based on satellite gravimetry and remote sensing observations of surface elevation change, ice sheet velocity and calving front positions. We also combine these essential climate variables with a regional climate model (RCM) output from an ice sheet model (ISM) to gain insight into poorly understood ice sheet dynamical and surface mass processes. On average from 1992 to 2017 the ice sheet in some locations has lost up −2.65 m/yr in elevation based on ESA Radar altimetry analysis. Calving fronts have retreated all around Greenland since the 1990s and in only two out of 28 study locations have they remained stable. The locations of grounding lines at 5 key glaciers with floating ice tongues have remained stable over the observation period. However a detailed case study at Petermann glacier with an ice fracture model shows the sensitivity of these floating ice shelves to future climate change. GRACE gravimetric mass balance (GMB) data allows us to tie together disparate lines of evidence showing that Greenland has lost about 265 +/− 25 Gt/yr of ice over the period 2002 to 2015. RCM and ISM simulations show that surface mass processes dominate the overall Greenland ice sheet mass budget except for areas of fast ice sheet flow but marked differences between models and between models and observations indicate that not all processes are captured accurately, indicating areas of greater uncertainty and directions of future research for future sea level rise projections.

We examine the mass balance of the glaciers in the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, located in the Russian High Arctic using time series of time-variable gravity from the NASA/DLR Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, laser altimetry data from the NASA Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission, and radar altimetry data from the ESA CryoSat-2 mission. We present a new algorithm for detecting changes in glacier elevation from these satellite altimetry data and evaluate its performance in the case Novaya Zemlya by comparing the results with GRACE. We find that the mass loss of Novaya Zemlya increased from 10±5 Gt/yr over 2003-2009 to 14±4 Gt/yr over 2010-2016, with a brief period of near mass balance between 2009 and 2011. The results are consistent across the gravimetric and altimetric methods. Furthermore, the analysis of elevation change from CryoSat-2 indicates that 60\% of the mass loss occurs at low elevation, where thinning rates are highest. We also find that marine-terminating glaciers in Novaya Zemlya are thinning significantly faster than land-terminating glaciers, which indicates an important role of ice dynamics of marine-terminating glaciers. We posit that the glacier changes have been caused by changes in atmospheric and ocean temperatures. We find that the increase in mass loss after 2010 is associated with a warming in air temperatures, which increased the surface melt rates. There is no enough information on the ocean temperature at the front of the glaciers to conclude on the role of the ocean, but we posit that the temperature of subsurface ocean waters must have increased during the observation period.

This literature review found that it is doubtful that there is water ice in the polar craters on the Moon. In the course of this review, the following findings were found: (1) The absorption strength of hydroxyl radicals and hydroxyl groups are all 2.9μm, so it is easy to confuse hydroxyl radicals and hydroxyl groups when interpreting M³ spectra data. I do not doubt the ability of LCROSS to detect OH from water, but only suspect that LCROSS is unable to distinguish between hydroxyl radicals from water ice and hydroxyl groups from Moon's methanol due to ignore their spectral identity; (2) The water brought by comets and asteroids and the one caused by solar wind has been exhausted by reacts with the widespread methanol on the Moon in the presence of Pt/α-MoC or Pt/C catalysts. These reacts form large amount of hydrogen, thus clarifying a question NASA raised that "Scientists have long speculated about the source of vast quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles"; (3) The vast quantities of hydrogen in lunar polar craters at extremely low temperatures might be in liquid or solid state now, easy to confuse with water ice. It seems that all our previous misconceptions about water ice in the lunar polar craters might be due to the neglect of the widespread chemical role of lunar methanol. It is necessary to conduct in-depth research in this field in the future.

We presented here the first draft genome sequence of the trypanosomatid Herpetomonas muscarum ingenoplastis. This parasite was isolated repeatedly in the black blowfly, Phormia regina. This is the first draft genome of a flagellate from the phylogenetically distinct clade of Trypanosomatidae.

Research on healthy ageing shows that lifespan reductions are often caused by mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, it is very interesting that the deletion of mitochondrial matrix peptidase LonP1 was observed to abolish embryogenesis, while deletion of the mitochondrial matrix peptidase ClpP prolonged survival. To unveil the targets of each enzyme, we documented the global proteome of LonP1^+/- mouse embryonal fibroblasts (MEF), for comparison with ClpP^-/- depletion. Proteomic profiles of LonP1^+/- MEF generated by label-free mass spectrometry were further processed with the STRING webserver Heidelberg for protein interactions. ClpP was previously reported to degrade Eral1 as a chaperone involved in mitoribosome assembly, so ClpP deficiency triggers accumulation of mitoribosomal subunits and inefficient translation. LonP1^+/- MEF also showed Eral1 accumulation, but no systematic effect on mitoribosomal subunits. In contrast to ClpP^-/- profiles, several components of the respiratory complex I membrane arm were accumulated, whereas the upregulation of numerous innate immune defense components was similar. Overall, LonP1 as opposed to ClpP appears to have no effect on translational machinery, instead it shows enhanced respiratory dysfunction; this agrees with reports on the human CODAS syndrome caused by LonP1 mutations.

HIV-1 assembly is a complex mechanism taking place at the plasma membrane of the host cell. It requires nice spatial and temporal coordination to end up with a full immature virus. Researchers have extensively studied HIV-1 assembly molecular mechanism during the past decades, in order to dissect the respective roles of viral proteins, viral genome and host cell factors. Nevertheless, the time course of the process has been observed in living cells only a decade ago. The very recent revolution of optical microscopy, combining high speed and high spatial resolution now permit to study assemblies and their consequences at the single molecule level within (living) cells. In this review, after a short description of these new approaches, we will show how HIV-1 assembly in cells has been revisited using these advanced super resolution microscopy techniques and how much it could make a bridge in studying assembly from the single molecule to the host cell.

We reveal the significance of plasmonic nanoparticle’s (NP) shape and its surface morphology en route to an efficient self-assembled plasmonic nanoparticle cluster. A simplified model is simulated in the form of free-space dimer and trimer nanostructures (NPs in shape of sphere, cube, and disk). A ~ 200 % to ~ 125% raise in near field strength (gap mode enhancement) is observed for spherical NPs in comparison with cubical NPs (from 2 nm to 8 nm gap sizes). Full-width three-quarter maximum reveals better broad-spectral optical performance in a range of ~ 100 nm (dimer) and ~ 170 nm (trimer) from spherical NPs as compared to a cube (~ 60 nm for dimer and trimer). These excellent properties for sphere-based nanostructures are merited from its dipole mode characteristics.

Considerable attention has been given to the research field of bioorganometallic chemistry, which is a hybrid chemistry field between biology and organometallic chemistry. The introduction of biomolecules, which have hydrogen bonding sites and chiral centers, into organometallic compounds is considered to be a promising strategy to construct chirality-organized bioorganometallic conjugates. This feature paper sketches an outline of induction of helical chirality into bioorganometallic conjugates. Topics covered include control of the helical chirality of 1,n’-disubstituted ferrocene moieties in ferrocene-dipeptide conjugates and the chirality induction of the Au(I)–Au(I) axis in the dinuclear organogold(I)-uracil conjugates.

Automatic ice charting can not be achieved using only SAR modalities. It is fundamental to combine information from other remote sensors with different characteristics for more reliable sea ice characterization. In this paper, we employ principal feature analysis (PFA) to select significant information from multimodal remote sensing data. PFA is a simple yet very effective approach that can be applied to several types of data without loss of physical interpretability. Considering that different homogeneous regions require different types of information, we perform the selection patch-wise. Accordingly, by exploiting the spatial information, we increase the robustness and accuracy of PFA.

Understanding surfactant self-assembly in deep eutectic solvents (DES) is important to their potential use in industrial formulations. We have recently reported the formation of a fracto-eutectogel comprising SDS fractal aggregates at a concentration as low as 1.6 wt% in glyceline (a DES comprising glycerol and choline chloride) at room temperature. The building units of the fractals consisted of multilayers of self-assembled SDS lamellae arranged in a dendritic pattern. Here we report that this fractal phase transitions into a fluid phase above a critical gelation temperature, TCG ~ 45 oC, evident from polarized light microscopy (PLM) observations. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) reveals that this phase transition is underpinned by the nanoscopic morphological transformation of the SDS lamellae into cylindrical micelles at T &gt; TGC. Fitting SANS profiles confirms that the morphology of the micelles is SDS-concentration (cSDS) dependent at T &gt; TGC: cylindrical at cSDS &gt; 0.6 wt% and spherical at cSDS = 0.6 wt%. At cSDS &lt; 0.6 wt%, only isotropic scattering was observed in the SANS profiles. Such SDS self-assembly behaviors contrast with those we have previously observed in glycerol, which we attribute to the presence of ions (i.e. choline chloride) in glyceline. Our findings have general implications to surfactant self-assembly in DES, solvents that are rich in hydrogen bonding and ions.

Background: Nowadays investigations in the field of dental implants engineering are focused on bioactivity and osseointegration properties.Objective: In this study, the oxide-covered titanium was functionalized by vitamin D3 molecules via a simple self-assembly method with the aim to design more corrosion resistant and at the same time more bioactive surface.Methods: Surface properties of the D3-coated titanium were examined by scanning electron microscopy, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and contact angle measurements, while a long-term corrosion stability during immersion in an artificial saliva solution was investigated in situ by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.Results: Results of all techniques confirmed a successful formation of the D3 vitamin layer on the oxide-covered titanium. Besides very good corrosion resistivity (~5 MΩcm² ) the D3-modified titanium surface induced spontaneous formation of biocompatible bone-like calcium phosphates (CaP).Conclusion: Observed in vitro CaP-forming ability as a result of D3-modified titanium/artificial saliva interactions could serve as a promising predictor of in vivo bioactivity of implant materials.

In 2018, the author identified a previously unknown/unreported association between dexrazoxane and poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR). Interestingly, PAR is a close structural analogue of the polyadenine nucleotide polymer, polyadenosine monophosphate (poly(A)). In this report, subsequent in silico modelling of the interaction between dexrazoxane and poly(A) reveals some notable differences from the previously reported interaction between dexrazoxane and PAR. Significantly, the supramolecular self-assembly of dexrazoxane and poly(A) is distinguished by vertically-orientated nonelectrostatic forces comparable to the stabilizing interactions between stacked bases within DNA. Notably, the vertical separation of 3.4 Å between each stack is consistent with solvent entropy as a dominant driving force in stabilising the interaction. Additionally, concomitant conformational analysis by the author reveals the existence of low energy planar conformers of dexrazoxane. This analysis enables an explanation for the considerable discrepancies and conflicts that exist within the reported pharmacokinetic data for dexrazoxane. Exploring the significance of the interaction between dexrazoxane and poly(A), the author illustrates that survival, translation and replication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is absolutely dependent upon the mature and unhindered poly(A) tail of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The proposition herein, that dexrazoxane, as a chameleonic agent sequesters the poly(A) tail of the SARS-CoV-2 genome by the catalysis of a supramolecular hybrid assembly establishes SARS-CoV-2 infected cells as deep compartments for the accumulation of dexrazoxane. Taken together, dexrazoxane or its demethylated analogue, represent a novel treatment to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus by irreversible destabilization of the SARS-CoV-2 poly(A) tail.

Amyloids were conventionally referred to as extracellular and intracellular accumulation of Aβ42 peptide which causes the formation of plaques and neurofibrillary tangles inside the brain leading to the pathogenesis in Alzheimer’s disease. Subsequently, amyloid-like deposition was found in the etiology of Prion diseases, Parkinson disease, Type II Diabetes and Cancer which was attributed to the aggregation of Prion protein, α-Synuclein, Islet Amyloid Polypeptide Protein and p53 protein respectively. Hence, traditionally amyloids were considered as aggregates formed by the proteins or peptides exclusively. However, since the last decade it has been discovered that other metabolites like single amino acids, nucleobases, lipids, glucose derivatives etc. have propensity to form amyloid-like toxic assemblies. Several studies suggest direct implications of these metabolite assemblies in the patho-physiology of various Inborn errors of metabolisms like Phenylketonuria, Tyrosinemia, Cystinuria and Gaucher’s disease to name a few. In this review, we present a comprehensive literature overview which suggests amyloid-like structure formation as a common phenomenon for the disease progression and pathogenesis in multiple syndromes. The review on this topic is urgently required to create awareness about the understanding of fundamental molecular mechanism behind the origin of diseases from an amyloid perspective and possibly look for a common therapeutic strategy for the treatment of these maladies by designing generic amyloid inhibitors.

Rapid progress in gene editing based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) has revolutionized the study of gene and genome function and genetic disease correction. While numerous genetically modified cellular and animal models have been created to understand biological processes, the clinical application of CRISPR/Cas tools has been impeded by off-targeting and delivery problems. It is generally accepted that the delivery of CRISPR in the form of a ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP) substantially reduces the time of DNA exposure to the effector nuclease, minimizing off-target effects and facilitating clinical usage. This review focuses on CRISPR/Cas RNP delivery with retro/lentiviral particles and exosomes, whose parallel production by cells transfected with viral vectors is underestimated. We critically evaluate specific mechanisms of extracellular particle formation and loading with CRISPR/Cas for each system. Additionally, the details of Cas-nanoparticle entry and uncoating, previously unappreciated in the context of gene editing efficiency, are discussed. Based on existing knowledge about the consequences of intervention in retroviral assembly, entry, or exosome formation, we outline the potential problems with CRISPR/Cas delivery using extracellular nanoparticles and ways to address them.

Sea ice surface roughness affects ice-atmosphere interactions, serves as an indicator of ice age, shows patterns of ice convergence and divergence, affects the spatial extent of summer melt ponds, and ice albedo. We have developed a method for mapping sea ice surface roughness using angular reflectance data from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and lidar-derived roughness measurements from the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM). Using an empirical data modeling approach, we derived estimates of Arctic sea ice roughness ranging from centimeters to decimeters meters within the MISR 275-m pixel size. Using independent ATM data for validation, we find that histograms of lidar and multi-angular roughness values are nearly identical for areas with roughness <20 cm but that for rougher regions, the MISR-derived roughness has a narrower range of values than the ATM data. The algorithm is able to accurately identify areas that transition between smooth and rough ice. Because of its coarser spatial scale, MISR-derived roughness data have a variance of about half that ATM roughness data.

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the addition of inulin and the replacement of part of inulin with apple fiber on the physicochemical and organoleptic properties. Moreover, the survival of Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. Lactis Bb-12 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus was studied in sheep milk ice cream. There was no effect of apple fiber and the type of bacteria on the number of bacteria of the probiotics after fermentation. As a result of freezing, mixture containing Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. Lactis Bb-12, there was a significant reduction in the bacterial from 0.39 log cfu g −1 to 0.46 log cfu g −1. In all ice cream on the 21st day of storage, it exceeded 10 log cfu g –1, which means that the ice cream retained the status of probiotic products. The Lactobacillus rhamnosus ice cream showed a lower yellow colour compared to the Bifidobacterium Bb-12 ice cream. The overrun of sheep's milk ice cream was within a range from 78.50% to 80.41%. The appearance of sheep's milk ice cream is influenced considerably by the addition of fiber and the type of bacteria and the interaction between the type of bacteria and the addition of fiber and storage time and fiber.

On January 8, 2005, a surface melt event began on the interior portion of Ross Ice Shelf. While many surface melt events on Ross Ice Shelf are caused by the advection of warm air onto the shelf from the Ross Sea, surface winds during this event were directed offshore and the spatial pattern of surface melt was inconsistent with the Southern Ocean serving as a heat source. Rather, due to the interior location of the surface melt coupled with prevailing wind direction and surface temperature data it is thought that adiabatic warming of Föhn winds is the driving cause of this melt event. Passive Microwave (SSM/I) imagery was used to determine surface melt occurrence and the event’s extent. Spatial patterns of surface melt were then compared to NCEP/NCAR reanalysis output for several synoptic weather variables including surface temperatures, sea level pressure and surface vector winds. Synoptic-scale weather conditions were consistent with those that would produce downsloping wind (föhn) conditions in the interior of the Ross Ice Shelf where the anomalous surface melt was located.

It is shown that structuring at the microlevel is the intrinsic property of water and aqueous solutions. At room conditions water (including "ultrapure" one) and aqueous solutions are dispersed systems in which microcrystals of NaCl, surrounded by a layer of hydrated water (average diameter - 10-15 microns), are "elementary microparticles", which form the basis of the dispersed phase. Possible ways of formation of these microparticles and their evolution in the process of evaporation of unstructured part of water - dispersion medium - are considered. It is shown, in particular, that they are present in the air as aerosol contaminants. When the ionic strength of the solution increases, the water-salt particles coagulate, forming a new phase - coacervates, remaining on the substrate after evaporation of the liquid part of the water. The aggregates of coacervate structures, formed in a liquid medium, are disordered during heating, which can cause a change in a number of physicochemical properties of water at the temperatures of 50°-60°C range that have not been correctly explained in the framework of atomic-molecular concepts.

A typical vibrational spectrum in the ice phase has four separate bands: translation, libration, bending and stretching. Ice X, the final ice phase under high pressure, shows an exotic vibrational spectrum. Theoretically, an ideal crystal of ice X only has one peak at 998 cm-1 for Raman scattering and two peaks at 450 cm-1 and 1507 cm-1 for infrared absorption in this work. These three characteristic peaks are indicators of the phase transition between ice VII/VIII and ice X. Despite much experimental and theoretical work on ice X, only this study has clearly indicated these characteristic peaks in the region of the IR band. The phonon density of states shows quite different features than ice VIII, which could be verified by inelastic neutron scattering in the future. The dynamic processes of 15 vibrational normal modes are discussed and the typical hydrogen bonds are missing.

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) in architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is attracting the attention of designers, practitioners, and construction project stakeholders. Digital fabrication (Dfab) and design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) practices are found in current needs for further research and development. The DfMA's conceptual function is to maximize the process efficiency of Dfab and AM building projects. This work reviewed 171 relevant research articles over the past few decades. The concept of DfMA and the fundamentals of DfMA in building and construction were explored. In addition, DfMA procedures associated with Dfab and DfAM, as well as its AM assembly process, were discussed. Lastly, the current machine learning research on DfMA in construction was also highlighted. Large research gaps in the DfMA for Dfab and DfAM can be filled to increase operational efficiency and sustainable practices.

Advances in DNA sequencing technology are facilitating genomic analyses of unprecedented scope and scale, widening the gap between our abilities to generate and fully exploit biological sequence data. Comparable analytical challenges are encountered in other data-intensive fields involving sequential data, such as signal processing, in which dimensionality reduction (i.e., compression) methods are routinely used to lessen the computational burden of analyses. In this work we explore the application of dimensionality reduction methods to numerically represent high-throughput sequence data for three important biological applications of virus sequence data: reference-based mapping, short sequence classification and de novo assembly. Despite using highly compressed sequence transformations to accelerate the processes, our sequence processing approach yielded comparable accuracy to existing approaches, and are ideally suited for sequences originating from highly diverse virus populations. We demonstrate the application of our methodology to both synthetic and real viral pathogen sequence data. Our results show that the use of highly compressed sequence approximations can provide accurate results and that useful analytical performance can be retained and even enhanced through appropriate dimensionality reduction of sequence data.

The domestication and subsequent genetic improvement of wheat led to the development of large-seeded cultivated wheat species relative to their smaller-seeded wild progenitors. While increased grain weight (GW) continues to be an important goal of many wheat breeding programs, few genes underlying this trait have been identified despite an abundance of studies reporting quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for GW. Here we perform a QTL analysis for GW using a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from the cross between wild emmer wheat accession ‘Zavitan’ and durum wheat variety ‘Svevo’. Identified QTLs in this population were anchored to the recent Zavitan reference genome, along with previously published QTLs for GW in tetraploid wheat. This genome-based, meta-QTL analysis enabled the identification of a locus on chromosome 6A whose introgression from wild wheat positively affects GW. The locus was validated using an introgression line carrying the 6A GW QTL region from Zavitan in a Svevo background, resulting in >8% increase in GW compared to Svevo. Using the reference sequence for the 6A QTL region, we identified a wheat ortholog to OsGRF4, a rice gene previously associated with GW. The coding sequence of this gene (TtGRF4-A) contains four SNPs between Zavitan and Svevo, one of which reveals the Zavitan allele to be rare in a core collection of wild emmer and completely absent from the domesticated emmer genepool. Similarly, another wild emmer accession (G18-16) was found to carry a rare allele of TtGRF4-A that also positively affects GW and is characterized by a unique SNP absent from the entire core collection. These results exemplify the rich genetic diversity of wild wheat, posit TtGRF4-A as a candidate gene underlying the 6A GW QTL, and suggest that the natural Zavitan and G18-16 alleles of TtGRF4-A have potential to increase wheat yields in breeding programs.

We develop an optimized force-field for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and demonstrate its utility for predicting thermodynamic self-assembly. In particular, we consider short oligomer chains, model electrostatics and solvent implicitly, and coarsely model solvent evaporation. We quantify the performance of our model to determine what the optimal system sizes are for exploring self-assembly at combinations of state variables. We perform molecular dynamics simulations to predict the self-assembly of P3HT at ~350 combinations of temperature and solvent quality. Our structural calculations predict that the highest degrees of order are obtained with good solvents just below the melting temperature. We find our model produces the most accurate structural predictions to date, as measured by agreement with grazing incident X-ray scattering experiments.

Fabrics comprised of porous fibers could provide effective passive protection against chemical and biological (CB) threats whilst maintaining high air permeability (breathability). Here, we fabricate hierarchically porous fibers consisting of regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) and activated-carbon (AC) prepared through two fiber spinning techniques in combination with ice-templating – namely cryogenic solution blow spinning (Cryo-SBS) and cryogenic wet-spinning (Cryo-WS). The Cryo-WS RSF fibers had exceptionally small macropores (as low as 0.1 µm) and high specific surface areas (SSAs) of up to 79 m2 g-1. The incorporation of AC could further increase the SSA to 210 m2 g-1 (25 wt. % loading) whilst also increasing adsorption capacity for volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Proteins and DNA exhibit key physical chemical properties that make them advantageous for building nanostructures with outstanding features. Both DNA and protein nanotechnology have growth notably and proved to be fertile disciplines. The combination of both types of nanotechnologies is helpful to overcome the individual weaknesses and limitations of each one, paving the way for the continuing diversification of the structural nanotechnologies. Recent studies have implemented a synergistic combination of both biomolecules to assemble unique and sophisticate protein-DNA nanostructures. These hybrid nanostructures are highly programmable and display remarkable features that create new opportunities to build in the nanoscale. This review focuses on the strategies deployed to create hybrid protein-DNA nanostructures. Here, we will discuss strategies such as polymerization, spatial directing and organizing, coating, rigidizing or folding DNA into particular shapes or moving parts. The enrichment of structural DNA nanotechnology by incorporating protein nanotechnology has been clearly demonstrated and still shows a large potential to create useful and advanced materials with cell-like properties or dynamic systems. It can be expected that structural protein-DNA nanotechnology will open new avenues in the fabrication of nano-assemblies with unique functional applications and enrich the toolbox of bionanotechnology.

Salinity acts as a critical environmental filter on microbial communities in natural systems, negatively affecting microbial diversity. However, how salinity affects the community assembly remains unclear. This study used Wendeng multi-pond saltern as a model to evaluate the prokaryotic community composition and diversity and quantify the relative importance of ecological processes across salinity gradients. Results showed that low saline salterns (45-80 g/L) exhibited higher bacterial diversity than those in high saline salterns (175-265 g/L). The relative abundance of taxa assigned to Halanaerobiaceae, Haloferacaceae, Desulfohalobiaceae, Phormidiaceae, Rohodobacteraceae, and Nitrococcaceae was higher with increasing salinity. Salinity and pH were the primary environmental factors that directly or indirectly determined the composition and diversity of prokaryotic communities. Microbial co-occurrence network dynamics were more complex in the sediment than in water of salterns. An infer Community Assembly Mechanisms by Phylogenetic-bin-based null model analysis (iCAMP) showed that microbial community assembly in sediment and water differed. Our findings provide more information about microbial community structure and the importance of various ecological processes in controlling microbial community diversity and succession along salinity gradients in water and sediment environments.

Various products of the Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) and passive mi-crowave (PMW) sensors are assessed with respect to near-surface wet-bulb temperature (Tw), precipitation intensity, and surface type (i.e., with and without snow and ice on the surface) over the CONUS and using Stage-IV product as reference precipitation. IMERG products include precipitation estimates from infrared (IR), combined PMW, and their combination. PMW products generally have higher skills than IR over snow- and ice-free surfaces. Over snow- and ice-covered surfaces (1) PMW products (except AMSR-2) show a higher correlation coefficient than IR, (2) IR and PMW precipitation products tend to overestimate precipitation, but at colder temperatures (e.g., Tw<-10oC) PMW products tend to underestimate and IR product continues to show large overestimations, and (3) PMW sensors show higher overall skill in detecting precipitation oc-currence, but not necessarily at very cold Tw. The results suggest that the current approach of IMERG (i.e., replacing PMW with IR precipitation estimates over snow- and ice-surfaces) may need to be revised.

The energy efficiency of ice hockey arenas is a central concern for the administrations, as these buildings are well known to consume a large amount of energy. Since they are composite, complex systems, solutions to such a problem can be approached from many different areas, from managerial to technological to more strictly physical. In this paper we consider heat transfer processes in an ice hockey hall, during operating conditions, with a bottom-up approach based upon on-site measurements. Detailed heat flux, relative humidity and temperature data for the ice pad and the indoor air are used for a heat balance calculation in the steady-state regime, which quantifies the impact of each single heat source. We then solve the heat conduction equation for the ice pad in transient regime, and obtain a generic analytical formula for the temperature profile that can be used in practical applications. We then apply this formula to the resurfacing process for validation, and find good agreement with an analogous numerical solution. Since it is given with implicit initial condition and boundary conditions, it can be used not only in ice hockey halls, but in a large variety of engineering applications.

In the history of civil aircraft transportation, ice formation has been identifies as a key factor in the safety of flight. Anti-icing and deicing system have emerged through the years with the aim to prevent or to eliminate ice formation on wing airfoil, control surface and probes. Modern flying machine demand more efficiency in order to reduce the carbon footprint and increase the sustainability of flight transport. In order to achieve this goal the need to have efficient aircraft with efficient and low power consuming system is fundamental. This paper proposes a new model for ice accretion using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This model permits to simulate the shape of the ice formed over a profile varying boundary conditions (i.e.- speed, liquid water content and so on). The proposed model takes into account also the amount of heat transferred between water and the surrounding environment and includes the effects of air turbulence on the ice formation process. The CFD simulations have been validated with NASA experimental outcome and show good agreement. The proposed model can be also used to investigate the effects of various parameters such as air speed, Liquid Water Content and air temperature on the ice formation process. The results evidences that the proposed model can accurately predict ice formation process and is suitable to optimize the design of anti-icing or deicing system for aircraft and helicopters. This approach is not limited to aerospace but can also be exported to other applications such as transportation, wind turbine, energy management and infrastructure.

This article presents results of the polarization laser studies of the optical and microphysical characteristics of the high-level clouds (HLC). The high-altitude matrix polarization lidar (HAMPL; Tomsk, Russia) is described. HAMPL measures vertical profiles of all elements of the backscattering phase matrix (BSPM) of the HLC. Based on the joint analysis of lidar and radiosonde observations it is shown that the spatial structure of the HLC containing oriented ice crystals is inhomogeneous in the horizontal wind direction. It includes local areas with oriented particles; the sizes of such areas are estimated together with the most probable meteorological conditions of their formation. The shortcomings of the radiosonde observations performed closest to the location of the HAMPL are described. The applicability of the ERA5 reanalysis data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts for use as an alternative source of information on the vertical profiles of meteorological quantities for the interpretation of HLC lidar sensing data in Western Siberia was checked.

Mandevilla (Apocynaceae) is a greatly appreciated genus in the world ornamental market. In this study, we attempted to address the poor genetic knowledge and the huge taxonomic gaps existing in this genus by analyzing the germplasm of 55 accessions. After cytometrically determining the triploid genome size (1,512.64 Mb) of a reference sample (variety “Mandevilla 2001”), the plastidial genome (cpDNA, 0,18 Mb) and a draft of the nuclear genome (nuDNA, 207 Mb) were assembled. While cpDNA was effective in reconstructing the phylogenesis of the Apocynaceae family based on a DNA superbarcoding approach, the nuDNA assembly length was found to be only 41% of the haploid genome size (506 Mb, predicted based on the K-mer frequency distribution). Its annotation enabled the prediction of thousands of genes, of which 5,275 resulted in full CDS. Among them, we identified nine genes whose orthologs (in Catharanthus roseus) encode enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs), including catharanthine, tabersonine and vincadifformine. The nuclear genome draft was also useful to develop a highly informative (mean PIC=0.62) set of 23 SSR markers that was validated on the Mandevilla collection. These results were integrated with cytometric measurements, nuclear ITS1 haplotyping and chloroplast DNA barcoding analyses to assess the origin, divergence and relationships existing among the 55 accessions object of the study. As expected, based on the scarce information available in the literature, the scenario was extremely intricate. A reasonable hypothesis is that most of the accessions represent interspecific hybrids sharing the same species as maternal parent (i.e., Mandevilla sanderi).

Supplier selection/replacement strategies and optimized purchasing policies play a key role in efficient supply chain management in today’s dynamic market. Here we study supplier replacement in a one-level assembly system (OLAS) producing one type of finished product. To assemble the product, we need to provide multi-type components, but assembly will be interrupted if any single component is missing, and incoming units will get hoarded until the missing component arrives. The assembly process can be interrupted by various sources of uncertainty, including delays in component deliveries. There is consequently a non-negligible risk that the assembly process may get stopped any moment. This brings inventory-related costs, which should be minimized. Here we consider discrete lead-time distributions to mimic industry-world reality. We present a model that takes into account not only optimal assignment of component order release dates but also replacement of a critical supplier. For a given unit, we model several alternative suppliers with alternative pricing and lead-time uncertainties, and we evaluate the impact on the total assembly system. For a more general case where several suppliers may be replaced, we propose a genetic algorithm.

The amplified Arctic warming is one of several factors influencing atmospheric dynamics. In this work, we consider a series of numerical experiments to identify the direct role of the Arctic sea ice reduction process in forming climatic trends in the northern hemisphere. Aimed at this, we used two more or less independent mechanisms of ice reduction. The first is traditionally associated with increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the historic level of 360 ppm to 450 ppm and 600 ppm. This growth increases air temperature and decreases the ice volume. The second mechanism is associated with a reduction in the reflectivity of ice and snow. We assume that comparing the results of these two experiments allows us to judge the direct role of ice reduction. The most prominent consequences of ice reduction, as a result, were the weakening of temperature gradient at the tropopause level in mid-latitudes, the slower zonal wind at 50-60∘N, intensification of wave activity in Europe, Western America, and Chukotka, and its weakening in the south of Siberia and Kazakhstan. We also consider how climate change may alter regimes such as blocking and stationary Rossby waves. The study used the INM-CM48 climate system model .

In situ imaging of molecular markers on a physical chromosome is an indispensable tool for refin-ing of genetic maps and validation genome assembly at the chromosomal level. Despite tremen-dous progress in genome sequencing the plant genome assembly at chromosome level still remain a challenge. Recently developed optical and Hi-C mapping aim to assist in genome assembly. For high-confidence in the genome assembly at chromosome level more independent approaches will be required. The present study aimed to refined an ultrasensitive Tyr-FISH technique and to de-velop a reliable and easy method for in situ mapping of a short unique DNA sequences on plant chromosomes. We have carefully analyzed the critical steps of the Tyr-FISH technique to find out the reasons for the failures of using the method. It has been shown that successful visualization of marker/gene depends significantly on method of chromosome slide preparation, probe design and labelling, high stringency washing. Appropriate adjustment of these steps allowed us to detect a short DNA sequence of 1.7Kb with a frequency of 51.6%. Based on our results, we developed a reliable and simple protocol for dual-color Tyr-FISH visualization of short unique DNA sequences on plant chromosomes. New protocol allows more accurate determination of the physical distance between markers and can be applied for faster integration of genetic and cytogenetic maps.

Helmholtz energy of ice VII-X is determined in a pressure regime extending to 450 GPa at 300 K using local basis functions in the form of b splines. The new representation for the equation of state is embedded in a physics-based inverse theory framework of parameter estimation. Selected pressures as a function of volume from 14 prior experimental studies and two theoretical studies constrain the behavior of Helmholtz energy. Separately measured bulk moduli, not used to construct the representation, are accurately replicated below about 20 GPa and above 60 GPa. In the intermediate range of pressure, the experimentally determined moduli are larger and have greater scatter than values predicted using the Helmholtz representation. Although systematic experimental error in the experimental elastic moduli is possible and likely, the alternative hypothesis is a slow relaxation time associated with changes in proton mobility or the ice VII to X transition. A correlation is observed between anomalies in the pressure derivative of the predicted bulk modulus and previously suggested higher-order phase transitions. Improved determinations of elastic properties at high pressure would allow refinement of the current equation of state. More generally, the current method of data assimilation is broadly applicable to other materials in high-pressure studies.

The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3) is activated in response to the phosphorylation of Y705 (pStat3) and has the dual function of signal transduction and activation of transcription. Our previous study suggested that pStat3 is functional during oocyte maturation when transcription is silenced. Therefore, we speculated that pStat3 may have another function. Immunocytochemical analysis revealed that pStat3 emerges at the microtubule asters and spindle and then localizes at the spindle poles concomitant with a Pericentrin during mouse oocyte maturation. When we examined conditionally knocked out Stat3−/− oocytes, we detected Stat3 and pStat3 proteins. The localization of the pStat3 was the same as that of Stat3+/+ oocytes, and the oocyte maturation proceeded normally, suggesting that pStat3 was still functioning. The oocytes were treated either with the Stat3 specific inhibitors, Stattic and BP-1-102, or anti-pStat3 antibody injection. This caused significant abnormal spindle assembly and chromosome mis-location in a dose-dependent manner, in which the pStat3 was either negative or localized improperly. Moreover, development of pre-implantation stage embryos derived from inhibitor-treated oocytes was also hampered significantly after in vitro fertilization. These findings indicate a novel function of pStat3 involved in spindle assembly.

The New Zealand brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), introduced from Australia in the 1850s, is an invasive species that is widespread throughout New Zealand and forms the largest self-sustained reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) in the wild. Conservation and agricultural authorities regularly apply a series of population control measures to suppress brushtail possum populations. The evolutionary consequence of more than half a century of intensive population control operations on the species genomic diversity and population structure is hindered by a paucity of available genomic resources for the species. This study is the first to characterise the functional content and diversity of brushtail possum liver and brain cerebral cortex transcriptomes. Raw sequences from hepatic cells and cerebral cortex were assembled into 58,001 and 64,735 transcripts in hepatic cells and cerebral cortex, respectively. Functional annotation and polymorphism assignment of the assembled transcripts demonstrated a considerable level of variation in the core metabolic pathways that represent potential targets for selection pressure exerted by chemical toxicants. This study suggests that the brushtail possum population in New Zealand harbours considerable levels of variation in metabolic pathways that could potentially promote the development of tolerance against chemical toxicants.

The 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (OGDHc) is a key enzyme in the TCA cycle and represents one of the major regulators of mitochondrial metabolism through NADH and reactive oxygen species levels. The OGDHc impacts cell metabolic and cell signaling pathways through the coupling of 2-oxoglutarate metabolism to gene transcription related to tumor cell proliferation and aging. DHTKD1 is a gene encoding 2-oxoadipate dehydrogenase (E1a), which functions in the L-lysine degradation pathway. The potentially damaging variants in DHTKD1 have been associated to the (neuro) pathogenesis of several diseases. Evidence was obtained for the formation of a hybrid complex between the OGDHc and E1a, suggesting a potential cross talk between the two metabolic pathways and raising fundamental questions about their assembly. Here we reviewed the recent findings and advances in understanding of protein-protein interactions in OGDHc and 2-oxoadipate dehydrogenase complex (OADHc), an understanding that will create a scaffold to help design approaches to mitigate the effects of diseases associated with dysfunction of the TCA cycle or lysine degradation. A combination of biochemical, biophysical and structural approaches such as chemical cross-linking MS and cryo-EM appears particularly promising to provide vital information for the assembly of 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complexes, their function and regulation.

The recent glaciation of the southern part of the Altai is estimated (1256 glaciers with the total area of 559.15±31.13 km2), the area of the glaciers of the whole Altai mountains is evaluated by 1096.55 km2. In the southern part of Altai 2276 glaciers with the total area of 1348.43±56.16 km2 were reconstructed, the first estimate of the LIA glacial area for the whole Altai mountain system is given (2288.04 km2). Since the LIA the glaciers decrease by 59% in the southern part of Altai and by 47.9% for the whole Altai. The ELA in the southern part of Altai increased averagely by 106 m. The higher changes of ELA in relatively humid areas is probably caused by decrease of precipitation. Glaciers of Tavan Bogd glacial center degraded with higher rates after 1968 relative to the interval between 1850-1968. One of the intervals of the fastest shrinkage of the glaciers in 2000-2010 was caused by unfavorable for the glaciers dry and warm interval 1989-2004. However, the fast decrease of the glaciers in 2000-2010 was mainly caused by the shrinkage or disappearance of the smaller glaciers, large valley glaciers started fast retreat after 2010.

Modified ammonium polyphosphate (MAPP) as a novel mono-component intumescent flame retardant (IFR) was prepared via the ionic exchange between ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and piperazine sulfonate, which is synthesized by self-assembly using 1-(2-Amioethyl) piperazine (AEP) and p-amino benzene sulfonic acid (ASC) as raw materials. This all-in-one IFR integrating three functional elements (carbon, acid, and gas source) showed more efficient flame retardancy and excellent smoke suppression as well as better mechanical properties than the conventional APP. The incorporation of 22.5 wt.% MAPP into polypropylene (PP) eliminated the melt dripping phenomenon and passed the UL-94 V-0 rating. The results of the cone calorimetry test (CCT) revealed that the release of heat, smoke, and CO is significantly decreased, demonstrating that this novel IFR endows PP with excellent fire safety more effectively. For PP/MAPP composites, a possible IFR mechanism was proposed based on the analysis of the pyrolysis gas and char residues.

Recently, ice with the stacking disorder structure, consisting of random sequences of cubic ice (Ic) and hexagonal ice (Ih) layers, is reported to be more stable than pure Ih/Ic. While, due to a much lower free energy barrier of heterogeneous nucleation, in practice, the freezing process of water is usually controlled by heterogeneous nucleation which is triggered by an external medium. Herein, molecular dynamic simulations were carried out to explore the polymorph dependence of ice on the lattice structure of substrates. It turns out that, during the nucleation stage, the polymorph of ice nuclei can be severely altered by the graphene substrate, on which the Ih was found to occupy an absolute majority in new-formed ice. This can be attributed to the structure similarity between graphene and basal face of Ih. Besides the nucleation stage, our results suggest that the substrate can not affect the polymorph of ice which is far from the graphene surface. The polymorph selectivity of graphene to Ih will diminish with the growth of ice layer.

Marburg virus (MARV) is a lipid-enveloped negative sense single stranded RNA virus, which can cause a deadly hemorrhagic fever. MARV encodes seven proteins, including VP40 (mVP40), a matrix protein that interacts with the cytoplasmic leaflet of the host cell plasma membrane. VP40 traffics to the plasma membrane inner leaflet, where it assembles to facilitate the budding of viral particles. VP40 is a multifunctional protein that interacts with several host proteins and lipids to complete the viral replication cycle, but many of these host-interactions remain unknown or are poorly characterized. In this study, we investigated the role of a hydrophobic loop region in the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of mVP40 that shares sequence similarity with the CTD of Ebola virus VP40 (eVP40). These conserved hydrophobic residues in eVP40 have been previously shown to be critical to plasma membrane localization and membrane insertion. An array of cellular experiments and confirmatory in vitro work strongly suggests proper orientation and hydrophobic residues (Phe281, Leu283, and Phe286) in the mVP40 CTD are critical to plasma membrane localization. In line with the different functions proposed for eVP40 and mVP40 CTD hydrophobic residues, molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate large flexibility of residues in the EBOV CTD whereas conserved mVP40 hydrophobic residues are more restricted in their flexibility. This study sheds further light on important amino acids and structural features in mVP40 required for its plasma membrane localization as well as differences in the functional role of CTD amino acids in eVP40 and mVP40.

Nanometer-curved surfaces are abundant in biological systems as well as in nano-sized technologies. Properly functionalized polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNs) adhere to surfaces with different geometries and curvatures. This work explores some of the energetic and mechanical characteristics of the adhesion of PGNs to surfaces with positive, negative and zero curvatures using Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics (CGMD) simulations. Our calculated free energies of binding of the PGN to the curved and flat surfaces as a function of separation distance show that curvature of the surfaces critically impacts the adhesion strength. We find that the flat surface is the most adhesive, and the concave surface is the least adhesive surface. This somewhat counterintuitive finding suggests that while a bare nanoparticle is more likely to adhere to a positively curved surface than a flat surface, grafting polymer chains to the nanoparticle surface inverts this behavior. Moreover, we studied the rheological behavior of PGN upon separation from the flat and curved surfaces under external pulling force. The results presented herein can be exploited in drug delivery and self-assembly applications.

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) infection is a major cause of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) which may be occasionally associated with severe neurological complications. There are currently a lack of treatment options for EV-A71 infection. The Raf-MEK-ERK signaling pathway, in addition to its critical importance in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation and survival, has been shown to be essential for virus replication. In this study, we investigated the anti-EV-A71 activity of vemurafenib, a clinically approved B-Raf inhibitor used in the treatment of late stage melanoma. Vemurafenib exhibits potent anti-EV-A71 effect in cytopathic effect inhibition and viral load reduction assays, with half maximal effective concentration (EC50) at nanomolar concentration. Mechanistically, vemurafenib interrupts both EV-A71 genome replication and assembly. These findings expand the list of potential antiviral candidates of anti-EV-A71 therapeutics.

Although the dry ice method used to synthesize exfoliated graphite/graphene is little known and used, it has significant advantages over others: it is low cost, simple, and a large quantity of material can be obtained using some inorganic and highly available acids (which can be reused). Despite the above advantages, the main reason for its incipient development is the resulting presence of magnesium oxide in the final product. In the present work, three different treat-ments were tested to remove this remnant using some acid chemical leaching processes, making use of hydrochloric acid, aqua regia, and piranha solution. Based on the experimental evidence, it was found that using aqua regia and combining the leaching process with mechanical milling was the most efficient way of removing such a remnant, the residue being only 0.9 wt.%. This value is low when compared to that obtained with the other acid leaching solutions and purifi-cation process (2.8 - 29.6 wt.%). A mandatory high-energy mechanical milling stage was neces-sary during this treatment, in order to expose and dissolve the highly insoluble oxide without secondary chemical reactions on the graphenes. High-energy mechanical milling is an effective route to exfoliate graphite/graphene, which allows the magnesium oxide to be more susceptible to acid treatment. The obtained surface area was 504 m2g-1; this high value resulting from the in-tense exfoliation can potentiate the use of this material for a wide variety of applications.

This work is the first part of a series of papers on a comprehensive analysis of the processes of prebiotic self-organization and protophotosynthesis on the surface of semiconductor minerals and in systems of natural dispersed semiconductors. Comprehensive analysis within the framework of the "semiconductor world" concept allows integrating a variety of models on a single physical basis - from ZnS world and FeS world (based on inorganic semiconductors) to the PAH world and aromatic world (including organic semiconductors). Thus, we do not put forward a new alternative hypothesis of chemical evolution - a new "chemical world", but only integrate the evolutionary and geochemical criteria of different "chemical worlds" into a single "physical world", which gives one the opportunity to reconstruct and predict the directions of chemical evolution according to the uniform principles of physical chemistry. In the first part of this series we consider photoinduced self-organization and "photo-controlled" evolution of the early protobiological systems performing solar energy conversion on the surface of dispersed semiconductor minerals capable of (photo)catalyzing and photosensitizing prebiological processes. The latter include a transition from the elementary cycles of photocatalytic reactions on the surface of semiconductors to protophotometabolic cycles and protophotosynthesis, from photophysical processes on the surface of mineral semiconductors to photoinduced membrane potentials, from photocontrolled sorption on the surface of such minerals to the formation of photosensitive protomembranes and selection of photosynthetic structures. The evolutionary approach to the analysis of protobiological mechanisms and protobioenergetics within the framework of the "semiconductor world" concept provides a new approach to the study of the last common point of divergence of protobiological systems, where the emergence principles of different energy supply schemes (like the energy source-specific photoautotrophy and substrate-specific chemoautotrophy) merge at the physicochemical level. The proposed integrating scheme is consistent with most biological, geological, and physicochemical concepts, which ensures its complete cross-checking and internal consistency.