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Flowers posted an update 7 months, 1 week ago
Lung cancer is the malignant tumour type with the highest morbidity and mortality, and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common pathological type. GINS2 is a member of the GINS family and is closely related to DNA replication and damage, participates in cell cycle regulation and plays a key role in cell proliferation and apoptosis. In this study, we aimed to explore the role and underlying molecular mechanism of GINS2 in the development of NSCLC. The results showed that GINS2 is significantly increased in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of GINS2 significantly decreases cell proliferation, causing G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. Knockdown of GINS2 reverses the effect of nocodazole on the levels of CDK1 and cyclin-B1. Meanwhile, knockdown of GINS2 significantly elevates the apoptosis rate and apoptosis-related protein Bax and decreases Bcl-2. In addition, GINS2 knockdown induces an increase in the levels of p53 and GADD45A. Co-transfection with GINS2-siRNA and p53-siRNA or con-transfection with GINS2-siRNA and GADD45A-siRNA partially reverses the effects of GINS2 knockdown on cell proliferation and apoptosis. Taken together, these results indicate that GINS2 knockdown down-regulates cell proliferation, induces G2/M phase cell cycle arrest and increases apoptosis, possibly through the p53/GADD45A pathway. Copyright 2020 The Author(s).Bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (bijels), in which the oil and water phases are co-continuous throughout the structure, have potential for applications in separation, catalysis, tissue engineering and energy devices. Among the possible fabrication paths, the solvent transfer-induced phase separation (STRIPS) method has proven to be a powerful approach to produce bijels in a continuous fashion with a broad selection of liquids and nanoparticles. The successful formation of bicontinuous domains requires the use of neutrally wetting particles which was achieved by in situ modification of silica nanoparticles with an oppositely charged surfactant. This approach, however, is not ideal for applications that are adversely affected by the presence of surfactant. In this work, we use a pair of nanoparticles, one hydrophilic, and the other hydrophobic, to stabilize STRIPS bijels without any surfactants and show that the ratio of the hydrophilic to hydrophobic nanoparticles required to form stable bijels changes with the polarity of the oil phase. Highly non-polar oils require a smaller ratio than moderately polar oils. Furthermore, if a sufficiently polar oil is selected, STRIPS bijels can be stabilized using only the hydrophilic nanoparticle. check details Our results demonstrate the potential to imbue the interface of biphasic liquid mixtures such as bijels with multifunctionality by using two functional nanoparticles of opposite polarity.Single cesium lead bromide (CsPbBr3) nanocrystals show strong photoluminescence intermittency, with on- and off- dwelling times following power-law distributions. We investigate the correlations for successive on-times and successive off-times, and find a memory effect in the photoluminescence intermittency of such inorganic perovskite nanocrystals. This memory effect is not sensitive to the nature of the surface capping ligand and the embedding polymer. These observations suggest that photoluminescence intermittency and its memory are mainly controlled by intrinsic traps in the nanocrystals. Our findings will help optimizing light-emitting devices based on these perovskite nanocrystals.Different gold microstructures have been synthesized by using supramolecular gold(i) organometallic compounds as templates and Ag nanoparticles as reducing agents. The use of fibers resulting from supramolecular assemblies of neutral gold(i) compounds gives rise to the formation of microrods. The use of supramolecular assemblies from ionic molecules results in spherical or square-based prism gold microstructures, depending on the shape of the supramolecular gold(i) precursor assembly. In addition to temperature and reaction time, solvents exert a strong influence on the formation and morphology of gold structures, as borne out by the example that well-defined star-like morphologies have been obtained in chloroform.Catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to value-added chemicals under mild conditions is highly desired, albeit with significant challenges. Here, in terms of exposure of abundant active sites and excellent photo-to-thermal conversion properties, flower-like Co2C has been firstly used for effectively catalysing the cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxides to produce cyclic carbonates with yields of up to 95% under solar light. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that Lewis acid sites of the surface Co atoms can activate both CO2 and epoxide, thus opening up the possibility of a CO2-epoxide cycloaddition reaction.Interface engineering by integrating various two-dimensional materials to form heterostructures can not only preserve the desired properties of individual components, but also induce new functions. Herein, by means of density functional theory (DFT) computations, we have investigated the effects of interface engineering of the graphene substrate on the electronic structures of monolayer triphosphides MP3 (M = Sn and Ge) and their catalytic performance for the electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2ER). Our results revealed that the MP3/graphene interfaces exhibit good structural stability, enhanced electrical conductivity, superior CO2ER performance, and obvious suppressing effects on hydrogen evolution due to the charge transfer at the interface. Thus, our results suggested that SnP3/graphene and GeP3/graphene heterostructures can be utilized as promising CO2ER catalysts with high-efficiency and high-selectivity, offering cost-effective opportunities to convert CO2 for renewable energy supply via interface engineering.Three Re(i) carbonyl complexes [ReCl(CO)3(Ln)] bearing 2,2′-bipyridine, 2,2’6′,2”-terpyridine, and 1,10-phenanthroline functionalized with diphenylamine/or triphenylamine units (L1-L3) were synthesized to explore the impact of highly electron donating units appended to the imine ligand on the thermal and optoelectronic properties of Re(i) systems. Additionally, for comparison, the ligands L1-3 and parent complexes [ReCl(CO)3(bipy)], [ReCl(CO)3(phen)] and [ReCl(CO)3(terpy-κ2N)] were investigated. The thermal stability was evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry. The ground- and excited-state electronic properties of the Re(i) complexes were studied by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry, absorption and emission spectroscopy, as well as using density-functional theory (DFT). The majority of the compounds form amorphous molecular materials with high glass transition temperatures above 100 °C. Compared to the unsubstituted complexes [ReCl(CO)3(bipy)], [ReCl(CO)3(phen)] and [ReCl(CO)3(terpy-κ2N)], the HOMO-LUMO gap of the corresponding Re(i) systems bearing modified imine ligands is reduced, and the decrease in the value of the ΔEH-L is mainly caused by the increase in HOMO energy level.