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Resolving the sluggish transport kinetics of divalent Zn 2+ in the cathode lattice and improving mass-loading performance are crucial for advancing the zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) application. Herein, PEO-LiV 3 O 8 superlattice nanosheets (PEO-LVO) with expanded interlayer spacing (1.16 nm) are fabricated to provide a high-rate, stable lifetime, and large mass-loading cathode. The steady in-plane expansion without shrinkage after the first cycle, but reversible H + /Zn 2+ co-insertion in PEO-LVO are demonstrated by operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction and ex situ characterizations. Moreover, the large capacity of PEO-LVO is traced back to the optimized Zn 2+ insertion chemistry with increased Zn 2+ storage ratio, which is facilitated by the interlayer PEO in lowering the Zn 2+ diffusion barrier and increased number of active sites from additional interfaces, as anticipated by density functional theory. Due to the optimized ion insertion resulting in stalled interfacial byproducts and rapid kinetics, PEO-LVO achieves excellent high mass-loading performance (areal capacity up to 6.18 mAh cm -2 for freestanding electrode with 24 mg cm -2 mass-loading and 2.8 mAh cm -2 at 130 mA cm -2 for conventional electrode with 27 mg cm -2 mass-loading). As a proof-of-concept, the flexible all-solid-state fiber-shaped AZIBs with high mass-loading woven into a fabric can power an electronic watch, highlighting the application potential of PEO-LVO cathode., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

SAR imagery plays a crucial role in geological and environmental monitoring, particularly in highland mountainous regions. However, inherent geometric distortions in SAR images often undermine the precision of remote sensing analyses. Accurately identifying and classifying these distortions is key to analyzing their origins and enhancing the quality and accuracy of monitoring efforts. While the layover and shadow map (LSM) approach is commonly utilized to identify distortions, it falls short in classifying subtle ones. This study introduces a novel LSM ground-range slope (LG) method, tailored for the refined identification of minor distortions to augment the LSM approach. We implemented the LG method on Sentinel-1 SAR imagery from the tri-junction area where the Xiaojiang, Pudu, and Jinsha rivers converge at the Yunnan-Sichuan border. By comparing effective monitoring-point densities, we evaluated and validated traditional methods-LSM, R-Index, and P-NG-against the LG method. The LG method demonstrates superior performance in discriminating subtle distortions within complex terrains through its secondary classification process, which allows for precise and comprehensive recognition of geometric distortions. Furthermore, our research examines the impact of varying slope parameters during the classification process on the accuracy of distortion identification. This study addresses significant gaps in recognizing geometric distortions and lays a foundation for more precise SAR imagery analysis in complex geographic settings.

Rearrangement sorting problems impact profoundly in measuring genome similarities and tracing historic scenarios of species. However, recent studies on genome rearrangement mechanisms disclosed a statistically significant evidence, repeats are situated at the ends of rearrangement relevant segments and stay unchanged before and after rearrangements.To reflect the principle behind this evidence, we propose flanked block-interchange, an operation on strings that exchanges two substrings flanked by identical left and right symbols in a string. The flanked block-interchange distance problem is formulated as finding a shortest sequence of flanked block-interchanges to transform a string into the other. We propose a sufficient and necessary condition for deciding whether two strings can be transformed into each other by flanked block-interchanges. This condition is linear time verifiable. Under this condition for two strings, we present a [Formula: see text]-approximation algorithm for the flanked block-interchange distance problem where each symbol occurs at most k times in a string and a polynomial algorithm for this problem where each symbol occurs at most twice in a string. We show that the problem of flanked block-interchange distance is NP-hard at last.

Conversion-type electrodes offer a promising multielectron transfer alternative to intercalation hosts with potentially high-capacity release in batteries. However, the poor cycle stability severely hinders their application, especially in aqueous multivalence-ion systems, which can fundamentally impute to anisotropic ion diffusion channel collapse in pristine crystals and irreversible bond fracture during repeated conversion. Here, an amorphous bismuth sulfide (a-BS) formed in situ with unprecedentedly self-controlled moderate conversion Cu 2+ storage is proposed to comprehensively regulate the isotropic ion diffusion channels and highly reversible bond evolution. Operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction and substantive verification tests reveal that the total destruction of the Bi─S bond and unsustainable deep alloying are fully restrained. The amorphous structure with robust ion diffusion channels, unique self-controlled moderate conversion, and high electrical conductivity discharge products synergistically boosts the capacity (326.7 mAh g -1 at 1 A g -1 ), rate performance (194.5 mAh g -1 at 10 A g -1 ), and long-lifespan stability (over 8000 cycles with a decay rate of only 0.02 ‰ per cycle). Moreover, the a-BS Cu 2+ ‖Zn 2+ hybrid ion battery can well supply a stable energy density of 238.6 Wh kg -1 at 9760 W kg -1 . The intrinsically high-stability conversion mechanism explored on amorphous electrodes provides a new opportunity for advanced aqueous storage., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The challenge with aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) lies in finding suitable cathode materials that can provide high capacity and fast kinetics. Herein, two-dimensional topological Bi 2 Se 3 with acceptable Bi-vacancies for ZIBs cathode (Cu-Bi 2-x Se 3 ) is constructed through one-step hydrothermal process accompanied by Cu heteroatom introduction. The cation-deficient Cu-Bi 2-x Se 3 nanosheets (≈4 nm) bring improved conductivity from large surface topological metal states contribution and enhanced bulk conductivity. Besides, the increased adsorption energy and reduced Zn 2+ migration barrier demonstrated by density-functional theory (DFT) calculations illustrate the decreased Coulombic ion-lattice repulsion of Cu-Bi 2-x Se 3 . Therefore, Cu-Bi 2-x Se 3 exhibits both enhanced ion and electron transport capability, leading to more carrier reversible insertion proved by in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD). These features endow Cu-Bi 2-x Se 3 with sufficient specific capacity (320 mA h g -1 at 0.1 A g -1 ), high-rate performance (97 mA h g -1 at 10 A g -1 ), and reliable cycling stability (70 mA h g -1 at 10 A g -1 after 4000 cycles). Furthermore, quasi-solid-state fiber-shaped ZIBs employing the Cu-Bi 2-x Se 3 cathode demonstrate respectable performance and superior flexibility even under high mass loading. This work implements a conceptually innovative strategy represented by cation defect design in topological insulator cathode for achieving high-performance battery electrochemistry., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Titanium selenide (TiSe 2 ), a model transition metal chalcogenide material, typically relies on topotactic ion intercalation/deintercalation to achieve stable ion storage with minimal disruption of the transport pathways but has restricted capacity (<130 mAh g -1 ). Developing novel energy storage mechanisms beyond conventional intercalation to break capacity limits in TiSe 2 cathodes is essential yet challenging. Herein, the ion storage properties of TiSe 2 are revisited and an unusual thermodynamically stable twin topotactic/nontopotactic Cu 2+ accommodation mechanism for aqueous batteries is unraveled. In situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and ex situ microscopy jointly demonstrated that topotactic intercalation sustained the ion transport framework, nontopotactic conversion involved localized multielectron reactions, and these two parallel reactions are miraculously intertwined in nanoscale space. Comprehensive experimental and theoretical results suggested that the twin-reaction mechanism significantly improved the electron transfer ability, and the reserved intercalated TiSe 2 structure anchored the reduced titanium monomers with high affinity and promoted efficient charge transfer to synergistically enhance the capacity and reversibility. Consequently, TiSe 2 nanoflake cathodes delivered a never-before-achieved capacity of 275.9 mAh g -1 at 0.1 A g -1 , 93.5% capacity retention over 1000 cycles, and endow hybrid batteries (TiSe 2 -Cu||Zn) with a stable energy supply of 181.34 Wh kg -1 at 2339.81 W kg -1 , offering a promising model for aqueous ion storage., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

High-energy metal anodes for large-scale reversible batteries with inexpensive and nonflammable aqueous electrolytes promise the capability of supporting higher current density, satisfactory lifetime, nontoxicity, and low-cost commercial manufacturing, yet remain out of reach due to the lack of reliable electrode-electrolyte interphase engineering. Herein, in situ formed robust interphase on copper metal electrodes (CMEs) induced by a trace amount of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (0.05 m in 1 m CuSO 4 -H 2 O electrolyte) to fulfill all aforementioned requirements is demonstrated. Impressively, an unprecedented ultrahigh-speed copper plating/stripping capability is achieved at 100 mA cm -2  for over 12 000 cycles, corresponding to an accumulative areal capacity up to tens of times higher than previously reported CMEs. The use of solid-electrolyte interface-protection strategy brings at least an order of magnitude improvement in cycling stability for symmetric cells (Cu||Cu, 2800 h) and full batteries with CMEs using either sulfur cathodes (S||Cu, 1000 cycles without capacity decay) or zinc anodes (Cu||Zn with all-metal electrodes, discharge voltage ≈1.02 V). The comprehensive analysis reveals that the hydrophilic phosphate-rich interphase nanostructures homogenize copper-ion deposition and suppress nucleation overpotential, enabling dendrite-free CMEs with sustainability and ability to tolerate unusual-high power densities. The findings represent an elegant forerunner toward the promising goal of metal electrode applications., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Background: Malaria transmission-blocking vaccines target mosquito-stage parasites and will support elimination programmes. Gamete vaccine Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel induced superior activity to zygote vaccine Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel in malaria-naive US adults. Here, we compared these vaccines in malaria-experienced Malians., Methods: We did a pilot safety study then double-blind, block-randomised, comparator-controlled main-phase trial in malaria-intense Bancoumana, Mali. 18-50-year-old healthy non-pregnant, non-breastfeeding consenting adult residents were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to receive four doses at months 0, 1, 4·5, and 16·5 of either 47 μg Pfs25, 40 μg Pfs230D1 or comparator (Twinrix or Menactra)-all co-administered with normal saline for blinding-or 47 μg Pfs25 plus 40 μg Pfs230D1 co-administered. We documented safety and tolerability (primary endpoint in the as-treated populations) and immunogenicity (secondary endpoint in the as-treated populations: ELISA, standard-membrane-feeding assay, and mosquito direct skin feed assay). This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02334462., Findings: Between March 19, and June 2, 2015, we screened 471 individuals. Of 225 enrolled for the pilot and main cohorts, we randomly assigned 25 participants to pilot safety cohort groups of five (20%) to receive a two-dose series of Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel (16 μg), Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel (15 μg) or comparator, followed by Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel (16 μg) plus Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel (15 μg) or comparator plus saline. For the main cohort, we enrolled 200 participants between May 11 and June 2, 2015, to receive a four-dose series of 47 μg Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel plus saline (n=50 [25%]; Pfs25), 40 μg Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel plus saline (n=49 [25%]; Pfs230D1), 47 μg Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel plus 40 μg Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel (n=50 [25%]; Pfs25 plus Pfs230D1), or comparator (Twinrix or Menactra) plus saline (n=51 [25%]). Vaccinations were well tolerated in the pilot safety and main phases. Most vaccinees became seropositive after two Pfs230D1 or three Pfs25 doses; peak titres increased with each dose thereafter (Pfs230D1 geometric mean: 77·8 [95% CI 56·9-106·3], 146·4 [108·3-198·0], and 410·2 [301·6-558·0]; Pfs25 geometric mean 177·7 [130·3-242·4] and 315·7 [209·9-474·6]). Functional activity (mean peak transmission-reducing activity) appeared for Pfs230D1 (74·5% [66·6-82·5]) and Pfs25 plus Pfs230D1 (68·6% [57·3-79·8]), after the third dose and after the fourth dose (88·9% [81·7-96·2] for Pfs230D1 and 85·0% [78·4-91·5] Pfs25 plus Pfs230D1) but not for Pfs25 (58·2% [49·1-67·3] after the third dose and 58·2% [48·5-67·9] after the fourth dose). Pfs230D1 transmission-reducing activity (73·7% [64·1-83·3]) persisted 10 weeks after the fourth dose. Transmission-reducing activity of 80% was estimated at 1659 ELISA units for Pfs25, 218 for Pfs230D1, and 223 for Pfs230D1 plus Pfs25. After 3850 direct skin feed assays, 35 participants (12 Pfs25, eight Pfs230D1, five Pfs25 plus Pfs230D1, and ten comparator) had transmitted parasites at least once. The proportion of positive assays in vaccine groups (Pfs25 33 [3%] of 982 [-0·013 to 0·014], Pfs230D1 22 [2%] of 954 [-0·005 to 0·027], and combination 11 [1%] of 940 [-0·024 to 0·002]) did not differ from that of the comparator (22 [2%] of 974), nor did Pfs230D1 and combination groups differ (-0·024 to 0·001)., Interpretation: Pfs230D1 but not Pfs25 vaccine induces durable serum functional activity in Malian adults. Direct skin feed assays detect parasite transmission to mosquitoes but increased event rates are needed to assess vaccine effectiveness., Funding: Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and US National Institutes of Health., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests We declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

General-purpose protein structure embedding can be used for many important protein biology tasks, such as protein design, drug design and binding affinity prediction. Recent researches have shown that attention-based encoder layers are more suitable to learn high-level features. Based on this key observation, we propose a two-level general-purpose protein structure embedding neural network, called ContactLib-ATT. On local embedding level, a biologically more meaningful contact context is introduced. On global embedding level, attention-based encoder layers are employed for better global representation learning. Our general-purpose protein structure embedding framework is trained and tested on the SCOP40 2.07 dataset. As a result, ContactLib-ATT achieves a SCOP superfamily classification accuracy of 82.4% (i.e., 6.7% higher than state-of-the-art method). On the same dataset, ContactLib-ATT is used to simulate a structure-based search engine for remote homologous proteins, and our top-10 candidate list contains at least one remote homolog with a probability of 91.9%.

Electronic structure defines the conductivity and ion absorption characteristics of a functional electrode, significantly affecting the charge transfer capability in batteries, while it is rarely thought to be involved in mesoscopic volume and diffusion kinetics of the host lattice for promoting ion storage. Here, we first correlate the evolution in electronic structure of the Mo 6 S 8 cathode with the ability to bound volume expansion and accelerate diffusion kinetics for high-performance aqueous Cu 2+ storage. Operando synchrotron energy-dispersive X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that accumulative delocalized Mo 4d electrons enhance the Mo-Mo interaction with distinctly contracting and uniformizing Mo 6 clusters during the reduction of Mo 6 S 8 , which potently restrain lattice expansion and release space to promote Cu 2+ diffusion kinetics. Operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction and comprehensive characterizations further validate the structural and electrochemical properties induced by the Cu 2+ intercalation electronic structure, endowing the Mo 6 S 8 cathode a high specific capacity with small volume expansion, fast ions diffusion, and long-term cycling stability.

Aqueous zinc batteries (ZIBs) have attracted considerable attention in recent years because of their high safety and eco-friendly features. Numerous studies have shown that adding Mn 2+ salts to ZnSO 4 electrolytes enhanced overall energy densities and extended the cycling life of Zn/MnO 2 batteries. It is commonly believed that Mn 2+ additives in the electrolyte inhibit the dissolution of MnO 2 cathode. To better understand the role of Mn 2+ electrolyte additives, the ZIB using a Co 3 O 4 cathode instead of MnO 2 in 0.3 m MnSO 4 + 3 m ZnSO 4 electrolyte is built to avoid interference from MnO 2 cathode. As expected, the Zn/Co 3 O 4 battery exhibits electrochemical characteristics nearly identical to those of Zn/MnO 2 batteries. Operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), ex situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and electrochemical analyses are carried out to determine the reaction mechanism and pathway. This work demonstrates that the electrochemical reaction occurring at cathode involves a reversible Mn 2+ /MnO 2 deposition/dissolution process, while a chemical reaction of Zn 2+ /Zn 4 SO 4 (OH) 6 ∙5H 2 O deposition/dissolution is involved during part of the charge/discharge cycle due to the change in the electrolyte environment. The reversible Zn 2+ /Zn 4 SO 4 (OH) 6 ∙5H 2 O reaction contributes no capacity and lowers the diffusion kinetics of the Mn 2+ /MnO 2 reaction, which prevents the operation of ZIBs at high current densities., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

One of the major obstacles hindering the application of zinc metal batteries is the contradictory demands from the Zn metal anode and cathodes. At the anode side, water induces serious corrosion and dendrite growth, remarkably suppressing the reversibility of Zn plating/stripping. At the cathode side, water is essential because many cathode materials require both H + and Zn 2+ insertion/extraction to achieve a high capacity and long lifespan. Herein, an asymmetric design of inorganic solid-state electrolyte combined with hydrogel electrolyte is presented to simultaneously meet the as-mentioned contrary requirements. The inorganic solid-state electrolyte is toward the Zn anode to realize a dendrite-free and corrosion-free highly reversible Zn plating/stripping, and the hydrogel electrolyte enables consequent H + and Zn 2+ insertion/extraction at the cathode side for high performance. Therefore, there is no hydrogen and dendrite growth detected in cells with a super high-areal-capacity up to 10 mAh·cm -2 (Zn//Zn), ~5.5 mAh·cm -2 (Zn//MnO 2 ) and ~7.2 mAh·cm -2 (Zn//V 2 O 5 ). These Zn//MnO 2 and Zn//V 2 O 5 batteries show remarkable cycling stability over 1000 cycles with 92.4% and over 400 cycles with 90.5% initial capacity retained, respectively., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Exploring stable and durable cathodes for cost-effective reversible aqueous batteries is highly desirable for grid-scale energy storage applications, but significant challenges remain. Herein, we disclosed an ultrastable Cu 2+ intercalation chemistry in mass-produced exfoliated NbS 2 nanosheets to build ultralong lifespan aqueous batteries with cost advantages. Anisotropic interplanar expansion of NbS 2 lattices balanced dynamic Cu 2+ incorporation and the highly reversible redox reaction of Nb 4+ /Nb (4-δ)+ couple were illuminated by operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray absorption spectroscopy, affording an extraordinary capacity of approximately 317 mAh g -1 at 1 A g -1 and a good stability of 92.2% capacity retention after 40000 cycles at 10 A g -1 . Impressively, a budget NbS 2 ||Fe hybrid ion cell involving an aqueous electrolyte/Fe-metal anode is established and provides a reliable energy supply of 225.4 Wh kg -1 at 750 W kg -1 , providing insights for building advanced aqueous battery systems for large-scale applications.

Pursuing conversion-type cathodes with high volumetric capacity that can be used in aqueous environments remains rewarding and challenging. Tellurium (Te) is a promising alternative electrode due to its intrinsic attractive electronic conductivity and high theoretical volumetric capacity yet still to be explored. Herein, the kinetically/thermodynamically co-dominat copper-tellurium (Cu-Te) alloying phase-conversion process and corresponding oxidation failure mechanism of tellurium are investigated using in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and comprehensive ex situ characterization techniques. By virtue of the fundamental insights into the tellurium electrode, facile and precise electrolyte engineering (solvated structure modulation or reductive antioxidant addition) is implemented to essentially tackle the dramatic capacity loss in tellurium, affording reversible aqueous Cu-Te conversion reaction with an unprecedented ultrahigh volumetric capacity of up to 3927 mAh cm -3 , a flat long discharge plateau (capacity proportion of ≈81%), and an extraordinary level of capacity retention of 80.4% over 2000 cycles at 20 A g -1 of which lifespan thousand-fold longer than Cu-Te conversion using CuSO 4 -H 2 O electrolyte. This work paves a significant avenue for expanding high-performance conversion-type cathodes toward energetic aqueous multivalent-ion batteries., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Rough manual interpretation distance cannot keep up with the intelligent detection and interpretation of sewer pipe defects. We present an automatic location method for the accurate longitudinal distance of the structural defects in sewer pipes via a pinhole-based defect monocular ranging model via image processing of pipe diameters. Then the model verification experiment is undertaken through a comparison with the actual data of the pipe size and the camera parameters. The results of the experiment demonstrate an improved accuracy of this method of defect spatial location and the robustness and stability of the model of the accurate acquisition of the longitudinal distance based on the monocular ranging between the inspection robot and the pipe defect.

Engineering multifunctional superstructure cathodes to conquer the critical issue of sluggish kinetics and large volume changes associated with divalent Zn-ion intercalation reactions is highly desirable for boosting practical Zn-ion battery applications. Herein, it is demonstrated that a MoS 2 /C 19 H 42 N + (CTAB) superstructure can be rationally designed as a stable and high-rate cathode. Incorporation of soft organic CTAB into a rigid MoS 2 host forming the superlattice structure not only effectively initiates and smooths Zn 2+ transport paths by significantly expanding the MoS 2 interlayer spacing (1.0 nm) but also endows structural stability to accommodate Zn 2+ storage with expansion along the MoS 2 in-plane, while synchronous shrinkage along the superlattice interlayer achieves volume self-regulation of the whole cathode, as evidenced by in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and substantial ex situ characterizations. Consequently, the optimized superlattice cathode delivers high-rate performance, long-term cycling stability (∼92.8% capacity retention at 10 A g -1 after 2100 cycles), and favorable flexibility in a pouch cell. Moreover, a decent areal capacity (0.87 mAh cm -2 ) is achieved even after a 10-fold increase of loading mass (∼11.5 mg cm -2 ), which is of great significance for practical applications. This work highlights the design of multifunctional superlattice electrodes for high-performance aqueous batteries.

Scaffold filling is a critical step in DNA assembly. Its basic task is to fill the missing genes (fragments) into an incomplete genome (scaffold) to make it similar to the reference genome. There have been a lot of work under distinct measurements in the literature of genome comparison. For genomes with gene duplications, common string partition reveals the similarity more precisely, since it constructs a one-to-one correspondence between the same segments in the two genomes. In this paper, we adopt duo-preservation as the measurement, which is the complement of common string partition, i.e., the number of duo-preservations added to the number of common strings is exactly the length of a genome. Towards a proper scaffold filling, we just focus on the increased duo-preservations. This problem is called scaffold filling to maximize increased duo-preservations (abbr. SF-MIDP). We show that SF-MIDP is solvable in linear time for a simple version where all the genes of the scaffold are matched in a block-matching, but MAX SNP-complete for the general version, and cannot be approximated within [Formula: see text]. Moreover, we present a basic approximation algorithm of factor 2, by which the optimal solution can be described in a new way, and then, improve the approximation factor to [Formula: see text] via a greedy method.

Motivation: Drawing peaks in a data window of an MS dataset happens at all time in MS data visualization applications. This asks to retrieve from an MS dataset some selected peaks in a data window whose image in a display window reflects the visual feature of all peaks in the data window. If an algorithm for this purpose is asked to output high-quality solutions in real time, then the most fundamental dependence of it is on the storage format of the MS dataset., Results: We present mzMD, a new storage format of MS datasets and an algorithm to query this format of a storage system for a summary (a set of selected representative peaks) of a given data window. We propose a criterion Q-score to examine the quality of data window summaries. Experimental statistics on real MS datasets verified the high speed of mzMD in retrieving high-quality data window summaries. mzMD reported summaries of data windows whose Q-score outperforms those mzTree reported. The query speed of mzMD is the same as that of mzTree whereas its query speed stability is better than that of mzTree., Availability and Implementation: The source code is freely available at https://github.com/yrm9837/mzMD-java., Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Rhoptry neck protein 2 (RON2) binds to the hydrophobic groove of apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1), an interaction essential for invasion of red blood cells (RBCs) by Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) parasites. Vaccination with AMA1 alone has been shown to be immunogenic, but unprotective even against homologous challenge in human trials. However, the AMA1-RON2L (L is referred to as the loop region of RON2 peptide) complex is a promising candidate, as preclinical studies with Freund's adjuvant have indicated complete protection against lethal challenge in mice and superior protection against virulent infection in Aotus monkeys. To prepare for clinical trials of the AMA1-RON2L complex, identity and integrity of the candidate vaccine must be assessed, and characterization methods must be carefully designed to not dissociate the delicate complex during evaluation. In this study, we developed a native Tris-glycine gel method to separate and identify the AMA1-RON2L complex, which was further identified and confirmed by Western blotting using anti-AMA1 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs 4G2 and 2C2) and anti-RON2L polyclonal Ab coupled with mass spectrometry. The formation of complex was also confirmed by Capillary Isoelectric Focusing (cIEF). A short-term (48 h and 72 h at 4°C) stability study of AMA1-RON2L complex was also performed. The results indicate that the complex was stable for 72 h at 4°C. Our research demonstrates that the native Tris-glycine gel separation/Western blotting coupled with mass spectrometry and cIEF can fully characterize the identity and integrity of the AMA1-RON2L complex and provide useful quality control data for the subsequent clinical trials., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Electrocatalytic N 2 oxidation (NOR) into nitrate is a potential alternative to the emerging electrochemical N 2 reduction (NRR) into ammonia to achieve a higher efficiency and selectivity of artificial N 2 fixation, as O 2 from the competing oxygen evolution reaction (OER) potentially favors the oxygenation of NOR, which is different from the parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for NRR. Here, we develop an atomically dispersed Fe-based catalyst on N-doped carbon nanosheets (AD-Fe NS) which exhibits an exceptional catalytic NOR capability with a record-high nitrate yield of 6.12 μ mol mg -1 h -1 (2.45 μ mol cm -2 h -1 ) and Faraday efficiency of 35.63%, outperforming all reported NOR catalysts and most well-developed NRR catalysts. The isotopic labeling NOR test validates the N source of the resultant nitrate from the N 2 electro-oxidation catalyzed by AD-Fe NS. Experimental and theoretical investigations identify Fe atoms in AD-Fe NS as active centers for NOR, which can effectively capture N 2 molecules and elongate the N≡N bond by the hybridization between Fe 3d orbitals and N 2p orbitals. This hybridization activates N 2 molecules and triggers the subsequent NOR. In addition, a NOR-related pathway has been proposed that reveals the positive effect of O 2 derived from the parasitic OER on the NO 3 - formation.

Recent advances in RNA-seq technology have made identification of expressed genes affordable, and thus boosting repaid development of transcriptomic studies. Transcriptome assembly, reconstructing all expressed transcripts from RNA-seq reads, is an essential step to understand genes, proteins, and cell functions. Transcriptome assembly remains a challenging problem due to complications in splicing variants, expression levels, uneven coverage and sequencing errors. Here, we formulate the transcriptome assembly problem as path extraction on splicing graphs (or assembly graphs), and propose a novel algorithm MultiTrans for path extraction using mixed integer linear programming. MultiTrans is able to take into consideration coverage constraints on vertices and edges, the number of paths and the paired-end information simultaneously. We benchmarked MultiTrans against two state-of-the-art transcriptome assemblers, TransLiG and rnaSPAdes. Experimental results show that MultiTrans generates more accurate transcripts compared to TransLiG (using the same splicing graphs) and rnaSPAdes (using the same assembly graphs). MultiTrans is freely available at https://github.com/jzbio/MultiTrans.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) are attracting extensive attention owing to environmental friendliness and high safety. However, its practical applications are limited to the poor Coulombic efficiency and stability of a Zn anode. Herein, we demonstrate a periodically stacked CuS-CTAB superlattice, as a competitive conversion-type anode for AZIBs with greatly improved specific capacity, rate performance, and stability. The CuS layers react with Zn 2+ to endow high capacity, while CTAB layers serve to stabilize the structure and facilitate Zn 2+ diffusion kinetics. Accordingly, CuS-CTAB shows superior rate performance (225.3 mA h g -1 at 0.1 A g -1 with 144.4 mA h g -1 at 10 A g -1 ) and a respectable cyclability of 87.6% capacity retention over 3400 cycles at 10 A g -1 . In view of the outstanding electrochemical properties, full batteries constructed with a CuS-CTAB anode and cathode (Zn x FeCo(CN) 6 and Zn x MnO 2 ) are evaluated in coin cells, which demonstrate impressive full-battery performance.

Aqueous zinc batteries (AZBs) are considered promising candidates for large-scale energy storage systems because of their low cost and high safety. However, currently developed AZB cathodes always suffer from the intense charge repulsion of multivalent-ion and complex multiphase electrochemistry, resulting in an insufficient cycling life and impracticable high-sloping discharge profile. Herein, we found that the synthesized ultrathin Bi 2 O 2 Se nanosheets can effectively activate stable protons storage in AZBs rather than large zinc ions. This proton-dominated cathode provides an ultraflat discharge plateau (72% capacity proportion) and exhibits long-term cyclability as 90.64% capacity retention after 2300 cycles at 1 A g -1 . Further in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction, ex situ X-ray photoelectronic spectroscopy, and density functional theory confirm the energy storage mechanism regarding the highly reversible proton insertion/extraction process. Benefiting from the proton-dominated fast dynamics, reliable energy supply (>81.5% discharge plateau capacity proportion) is demonstrated at a high rate of up to 10 A g -1 and in the frozen electrolyte below -15 °C. This work provides a potential design of high-performance electrode materials for AZBs.

Genome structural variants (SVs) have great impacts on human phenotype and diversity, and have been linked to numerous diseases. Long-read sequencing technologies arise to make it possible to find SVs of as long as 10,000 nucleotides. Thus, long read-based SV detection has been drawing attention of many recent research projects, and many tools have been developed for long reads to detect SVs recently. In this article, we present a new method, called SVLR, to detect SVs based on long-read sequencing data. Comparing with existing methods, SVLR can detect three new kinds of SVs: block replacements, block interchanges, and translocations. Although these new SVs are structurally more complicated, SVLR achieves accuracies that are comparable with those of the classic SVs. Moreover, for the classic SVs that can be detected by state-of-the-art methods (e.g., SVIM and Sniffles), our experiments demonstrate recall improvements of up to 38% without harming the precisions (i.e., >78%). We also point out three directions to further improve SV detection in the future. Source codes: https://github.com/GWYSDU/SVLR.

BACKGROUNDVaccines that block human-to-mosquito Plasmodium transmission are needed for malaria eradication, and clinical trials have targeted zygote antigen Pfs25 for decades. We reported that a Pfs25 protein-protein conjugate vaccine formulated in alum adjuvant induced serum functional activity in both US and Malian adults. However, antibody levels declined rapidly, and transmission-reducing activity required 4 vaccine doses. Functional immunogenicity and durability must be improved before advancing transmission-blocking vaccines further in clinical development. We hypothesized that the prefertilization protein Pfs230 alone or in combination with Pfs25 would improve functional activity.METHODSTransmission-blocking vaccine candidates based on gamete antigen Pfs230 or Pfs25 were conjugated with Exoprotein A, formulated in Alhydrogel, and administered to mice, rhesus macaques, and humans. Antibody levels were measured by ELISA and transmission-reducing activity was assessed by the standard membrane feeding assay.RESULTSPfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel and Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel induced similar serum functional activity in mice, but Pfs230D1-EPA induced significantly greater activity in rhesus monkeys that was enhanced by complement. In US adults, 2 vaccine doses induced complement-dependent activity in 4 of 5 Pfs230D1-EPA/Alhydrogel recipients but no significant activity in 5 Pfs25-EPA recipients, and combination with Pfs25-EPA did not increase activity over Pfs230D1-EPA alone.CONCLUSIONThe complement-dependent functional immunogenicity of Pfs230D1-EPA represents a significant improvement over Pfs25-EPA in this comparative study. The rhesus model is more predictive of the functional human immune response to Pfs230D1 than is the mouse model.TRIAL REGISTRATIONClinicalTrials.gov NCT02334462.FUNDINGIntramural Research Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.

Nickel-rich layered oxides, as the most promising commercial cathode material for high-energy density lithium-ion batteries, experience significant surface structural instabilities that lead to severe capacity deterioration and poor thermal stability. To address these issues, radially aligned grains and surface Li x Ni y W z O-like heterostructures are designed and obtained with a simple tungsten modification strategy in the LiNi 0.91 Co 0.045 Mn 0.045 O 2 cathode. The formation of radially aligned grains, manipulated by the WO 3 modifier during synthesis, provides a fast Li + diffusion channel during the charge/discharge process. Moreover, the tungsten tends to enter into the lattice of the primary particle surface, and the armor-type tungsten-rich heterostructure protects the bulk material from microcracks, structural transformations, and surface side reactions. First-principles calculations indicate that oxygen is more stable in the surface tungsten-rich heterostructure than elsewhere, thus triggering an improved surface structural stability. Consequently, the 2 wt % WO 3 -modified LiNi 0.91 Co 0.045 Mn 0.045 O 2 (NCM@2W) material shows outstanding prolonged cycling performance (capacity retention of 80.85% after 500 cycles) and excellent rate performance (5 C, 188.4 mA h g -1 ). In addition, its layered-to-rock salt phase transition temperature is increased by 80 °C compared with that of the pristine cathode. This work provides a novel surface modification approach and an in-depth understanding of the overall performance enhancement of nickel-rich layered cathodes.

Although plenty of structural variant detecting approaches for human genomes can be looked up in the literatures, little has been acknowledged on the effectiveness of those structural variant softwares for plant genomes. Moreover, it has been demonstrated frequent occurrences for those structural variant detecting softwares to find too many false structural variants. In this paper, we devote to detect deletions, insertions, and inversions, in total of three kinds of structural variants occurring in Hedou12 genome in contrast to Williams82 genome. To find more potential structural variants, we try to develop new principles to detect discordant and split read map sets supporting structural variants. Aiming to enhance the precision of structural variant detections, we propose two new sequencing characteristic based probability models, which use the sequencing parameters of Hedou12 genome as well as the parameters for Hedou12 paired-end reads to be aligned onto Williams82, to evaluate the probability for a potential structural variant to occur in. To remove the false members from those potential structural variants, we propose a set cover problem model to describe formally on which potential structural variants it should accept to achieve as high as possible a probability summation. This will achieve a solution with more credible structural variants, which can be verified by comparing with DELLY version 0.5.8 and LUMPY version 0.2.2.3. Our algorithm has been verified to be able to find deletions, insertions, and inversions in Hedou12 in contrast to Williams82 DELLY as well as LUMPY fails to find.

We have constructed a chirped amplitude modulation heterodyne ghost imaging (CAM-HGI) experimental system that demonstrates a robust ability against background light in experiments. In the experiments, the background light is simulated by irradiating a spatiotemporal random modulated light field onto the target. The effects of background light, modulation depth and modulation duration of the signal light source on CAM-HGI are investigated experimentally. The results show that the quality of CAM-HGI can be improved by increasing the modulation depth and the modulation duration of the signal light source, and more importantly, an image with a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be achieved even when the irradiation SNR is lower than -30 dB. This technique of CAM-HGI has an important application prospect for laser imaging in strong background light environments.

Ultrathin oxides have been reported to possess excellent properties in electronic, magnetic, optical, and catalytic fields. However, the current and primary approaches toward the preparation of ultrathin oxides are only applicable to amorphous or polycrystalline oxide nanosheets or films. Here, we successfully synthesize high-quality ultrathin antimony oxide single crystals via a substrate-buffer-controlled chemical vapor deposition strategy. The as-obtained ultrathin antimony oxide single crystals exhibit high dielectric constant (~100) and large breakdown voltage (~5.7 GV m -1 ). Such a strategy can also be utilized to fabricate other ultrathin oxides, opening up an avenue in broadening the applicaitons of ultrathin oxides in many emerging fields.

Developing a precise and reproducible bandgap tuning method that enables tailored design of materials is of crucial importance for optoelectronic devices. Towards this end, we report a sphere diameter engineering (SDE) technique to manipulate the bandgap of two-dimensional (2D) materials. A one-to-one correspondence with an ideal linear working curve is established between the bandgap of MoS 2 and the sphere diameter in a continuous range as large as 360 meV. Fully uniform bandgap tuning of all the as-grown MoS 2 crystals is realized due to the isotropic characteristic of the sphere. More intriguingly, both a decrease and an increase of the bandgap can be achieved by constructing a positive or negative curvature. By fusing individual spheres in the melted state, post-synthesis bandgap adjustment of the supported 2D materials can be realized. This SDE technique, showing good precision, uniformity and reproducibility with high efficiency, may further accelerate the potential applications of 2D materials.

High-throughput sequencing of mRNA has made the deep and efficient probing of transcriptome more affordable. However, the vast amounts of short RNA-seq reads make de novo transcriptome assembly an algorithmic challenge. In this work, we present IsoTree, a novel framework for transcripts reconstruction in the absence of reference genomes. Unlike most of de novo assembly methods that build de Bruijn graph or splicing graph by connecting k- mers which are sets of overlapping substrings generated from reads, IsoTree constructs splicing graph by connecting reads directly. For each splicing graph, IsoTree applies an iterative scheme of mixed integer linear program to build a prefix tree, called isoform tree. Each path from the root node of the isoform tree to a leaf node represents a plausible transcript candidate which will be pruned based on the information of paired-end reads. Experiments showed that in most cases IsoTree performs better than other leading transcriptome assembly programs. IsoTree is available at https://github.com/Jane110111107/IsoTree.

Maximum stacking base pairs is a fundamental combinatorial problem from ribonucleic acid (RNA) secondary structure prediction under the energy model. The basic maximum stacking base pairs problem can be described as: given an RNA sequence, find a maximum number of base pairs such that each chosen base pair has at least one parallel and adjacent partner (i.e., they form a stacking). This problem is NP-hard, no matter whether the candidate base pairs follow the biology principle or are given explicitly as input. This article investigates a restricted version of this problem where the base pairs are given as input and each base is associated with at most k (a constant) base pairs. We show that this restricted version is still APX-hard, even if the base pairs are weighted. Moreover, by a nonlinear LP-rounding method, we present an approximation algorithm with a factor [Formula: see text] . Applying our algorithms on the simulated data, the actual approximation factor is in fact much better than this theoretical bound.

Metallic bismuth (Bi) has been widely explored as remarkable anode material in alkali-ion batteries due to its high gravimetric/volumetric capacity. However, the huge volume expansion up to ≈406% from Bi to full potassiation phase K 3 Bi, inducing the slow kinetics and poor cycling stability, hinders its implementation in potassium-ion batteries (PIBs). Here, facile strategy is developed to synthesize hierarchical bismuth nanodots/graphene (BiND/G) composites with ultrahigh-rate and durable potassium ion storage derived from an in situ spontaneous reduction of sodium bismuthate/graphene composites. The in situ formed ultrafine BiND (≈3 nm) confined in graphene layers can not only effectively accommodate the volume change during the alloying/dealloying process but can also provide high-speed channels for ionic transport to the highly active BiND. The BiND/G electrode provides a superior rate capability of 200 mA h g -1 at 10 A g -1 and an impressive reversible capacity of 213 mA h g -1 at 5 A g -1 after 500 cycles with almost no capacity decay. An operando synchrotron radiation-based X-ray diffraction reveals distinctively sharp multiphase transitions, suggesting its underlying operation mechanisms and superiority in potassium ion storage application., (© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Background: Alternative splicing allows the pre-mRNAs of a gene to be spliced into various mRNAs, which greatly increases the diversity of proteins. High-throughput sequencing of mRNAs has revolutionized our ability for transcripts reconstruction. However, the massive size of short reads makes de novo transcripts assembly an algorithmic challenge., Results: We develop a novel radical framework, called DTA-SiST, for de novo transcriptome assembly based on suffix trees. DTA-SiST first extends contigs by reads that have the longest overlaps with the contigs' terminuses. These reads can be found in linear time of the lengths of the reads through a well-designed suffix tree structure. Then, DTA-SiST constructs splicing graphs based on contigs for each gene locus. Finally, DTA-SiST proposes two strategies to extract transcript-representing paths: a depth-first enumeration strategy and a hybrid strategy based on length and coverage. We implemented the above two strategies and compared them with the state-of-the-art de novo assemblers on both simulated and real datasets. Experimental results showed that the depth-first enumeration strategy performs always better with recall and also better with precision for smaller datasets while the hybrid strategy leads with precision for big datasets., Conclusions: DTA-SiST performs more competitive than the other compared de novo assemblers especially with precision measure, due to the read-based contig extension strategy and the elegant transcripts extraction rules.

One of the important discharge mechanisms for lithium batteries is the conversion reaction mechanism, where a metal oxide (fluoride) can decompose into metallic nanoparticles embedded in a Li 2 O (LiF) matrix. Here, 30% Li-doped Bi 25 FeO 40 is successfully synthesized and displays an electrochemical discharge capacity of ∼300 mAh/g above 1.5 V (vs Li/Li + ). During the electrochemical cycling process, 30% Li-doped Bi 25 FeO 40 is decomposed into metallic Bi. During the subsequent charging process, the metallic bismuth can be first converted into an amorphous bismuth oxide phase, which contributed to the electrochemical discharge activities observed between 2 and 2.5 V. At a higher charging voltage between 3.5 and 5 V, metallic Bi can be oxidized to BiO x 2- O 3-2 x - , which contributes to the discharge activities observed above 2.5 V. Using graphite as current collectors can prevent the corrosion from O - species and the discharge capacity is greatly enhanced at the voltage region between 1.5 and 2.5 V. This work provides a deeper understanding over the role of oxygen ions during the conversion reaction process and is beneficial for the future design of battery systems based on the conversion reaction., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest.

The genomic scaffold filling problem has attracted a lot of attention recently. The problem is on filling an incomplete sequence (scaffold) I into I ' , with respect to a complete reference genome G , such that the number of common/shared adjacencies between G and I ' is maximized. The problem is NP-complete, and admits a constant-factor approximation. However, the sequence input I is not quite practical and does not fit most of the real datasets (where a scaffold is more often given as a list of contigs). In this paper, we revisit the genomic scaffold filling problem by considering this important case when a scaffold S is given, the missing genes can only be inserted in between the contigs, and the objective is to maximize the number of common adjacencies between G and the filled genome S ' . For this problem, we present a simple NP-completeness proof, we then present a factor-2 approximation algorithm.

Background: Database search has been the main approach for proteoform identification by top-down tandem mass spectrometry. However, when the target proteoform that produced the spectrum contains post-translational modifications (PTMs) and/or mutations, it is quite time consuming to align a query spectrum against all protein sequences without any PTMs and mutations in a large database. Consequently, it is essential to develop efficient and sensitive filtering algorithms for speeding up database search., Results: In this paper, we propose a spectrum graph matching (SGM) based protein sequence filtering method for top-down mass spectral identification. It uses the subspectra of a query spectrum to generate spectrum graphs and searches them against a protein database to report the best candidates. As the sequence tag and gaped tag approaches need the preprocessing step to extract and select tags, the SGM filtering method circumvents this preprocessing step, thus simplifying data processing. We evaluated the filtration efficiency of the SGM filtering method with various parameter settings on an Escherichia coli top-down mass spectrometry data set and compared the performances of the SGM filtering method and two tag-based filtering methods on a data set of MCF-7 cells., Conclusions: Experimental results on the data sets show that the SGM filtering method achieves high sensitivity in protein sequence filtration. When coupled with a spectral alignment algorithm, the SGM filtering method significantly increases the number of identified proteoform spectrum-matches compared with the tag-based methods in top-down mass spectrometry data analysis.

Background: Pfs25H-EPA is a protein-protein conjugate transmission-blocking vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum that is safe and induces functional antibodies in malaria-naive individuals. In this field trial, we assessed Pfs25H-EPA/Alhydrogel for safety and functional immunogenicity in Malian adults., Methods: This double-blind, randomised, comparator-controlled, dose-escalation trial in Bancoumana, Mali, was done in two staggered phases, an initial pilot safety assessment and a subsequent main phase. Healthy village residents aged 18-45 years were eligible if they had normal laboratory results (including HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C tests) and had not received a previous malaria vaccine or recent immunosuppressive drugs, vaccines, or blood products. Participants in the pilot safety cohort and the main cohort were assigned (1:1) by block randomisation to a study vaccine group. Participants in the pilot safety cohort received two doses of Pfs25H-EPA/Alhydrogel 16 μg or Euvax B (comparator vaccine), and participants in the main cohort received Pfs25H-EPA/Alhydrogel 47 μg or comparator vaccine (Euvax B for the first, second, and third vaccinations and Menactra for the fourth vaccination). Participants and investigators were masked to group assignment, and randomisation codes in sealed envelopes held by a site pharmacist. Vials with study drug for injection were covered by opaque tape and labelled with a study identification number. Group assignments were unmasked at final study visit. The primary outcomes were safety and tolerability for all vaccinees. The secondary outcome measure was immunogenicity 14 days after vaccination in the per-protocol population, as confirmed by the presence of antibodies against Pfs25H measured by ELISA IgG and antibody functionality assessed by standard membrane feeding assays and by direct skin feeding assays. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01867463., Findings: Between May 15, and Jun 16, 2013, 230 individuals were screened for eligibility. 20 individuals were enrolled in the pilot safety cohort; ten participants were assigned to receive Pfs25H-EPA/Alhydrogel 16 μg, and ten participants were assigned to receive comparator vaccine. 100 individuals were enrolled in the main cohort; 50 participants were assigned to receive Pfs25H-EPA/Alhydrogel 47 μg, and 50 participants were assigned to receive comparator vaccine. Compared with comparator vaccinees, Pfs25H vaccinees had more solicited adverse events (137 events vs 86 events; p=0·022) and treatment-related adverse events (191 events vs 126 events, p=0·034), but the number of other adverse events did not differ between study vaccine groups (792 vs 683). Pfs25H antibody titres increased with each dose, with a peak geometric mean of 422·3 ELISA units (95% CI 290-615) after the fourth dose, but decreased relatively rapidly thereafter, with a half-life of 42 days for anti-Pfs25H and 59 days for anti-EPA (median ratio of titres at day 600 to peak, 0·19 for anti-Pfs25H vs 0·29 for anti-EPA; p=0·009). Serum transmission-reducing activity was greater for Pfs25H than for comparator vaccine after the fourth vaccine dose (p<0·001) but not after the third dose (p=0·09). Repeated direct skin feeds were well tolerated, but the number of participants who infected at least one mosquito did not differ between Pfs25H and comparator vaccinees after the fourth dose (p=1, conditional exact)., Interpretation: Pfs25H-EPA/Alhydrogel was well tolerated and induced significant serum activity by standard membrane feeding assays but transmission blocking activity was not confirmed by weekly direct skin feed. This activity required four doses, and titres decreased rapidly after the fourth dose. Alternative antigens or combinations should be assessed to improve activity., Funding: Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Two-dimensional (2D) antimonene is a promising anode material in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) because of its high theoretical capacity of 660 mAh g -1 and enlarged surface active sites. However, its Na storage properties and sodiation/desodiation mechanism have not been fully explored. Herein, we propose the sodiation/desodiation reaction mechanism of 2D few-layer antimonene (FLA) based on results acquired by in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction, ex situ selected-area electron diffraction, and theoretical simulations. Our study shows that the FLA undergoes anisotropic volume expansion along the a/b plane and exhibits reversible crystalline phase evolution (Sb ⇋ NaSb ⇋ Na 3 Sb) during cycling. Density-functional theory calculations demonstrate that the FLA has a small Na-ion diffusion barrier of 0.14 eV. The FLA delivers a larger capacity of 642 mAh g -1 at 0.1 C (1 C = 660 mA g -1 ) and a high rate capability of 429 mAh g -1 at 5 C and maintains a stable capacity of 620 mA g -1 at 0.5 C with 99.7% capacity retention from the 10th to the 150th cycle. Considering the 660 mAh g -1 theoretical capacity of Sb, the electrochemical utilization of Sb atoms of FLA is as high as 93.9% at a rate of 0.5 C for over 150 cycles, which is the highest capacity and Sb utilization ratio reported so far. Our study discloses the Na storage mechanism of 2D FLA, boosting promising applications of 2D materials for advanced SIBs.

The metal-free synthesis of graphene on single-crystal silicon substrates, the most common commercial semiconductor, is of paramount significance for many technological applications. In this work, we report the growth of graphene directly on an upside-down placed, single-crystal silicon substrate using metal-free, ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition. By controlling the growth temperature, in-plane propagation, edge-propagation, and core-propagation, the process of graphene growth on silicon can be identified. This process produces atomically flat monolayer or bilayer graphene domains, concave bilayer graphene domains, and bulging few-layer graphene domains. This work would be a significant step toward the synthesis of large-area and layer-controlled, high-quality graphene on single-crystal silicon substrates.

Database search is the main approach for identifying proteoforms using top-down tandem mass spectra. However, it is extremely slow to align a query spectrum against all protein sequences in a large database when the target proteoform that produced the spectrum contains post-translational modifications and/or mutations. As a result, efficient and sensitive protein sequence filtering algorithms are essential for speeding up database search. In this paper, we propose a novel filtering algorithm, which generates spectrum graphs from subspectra of the query spectrum and searches them against the protein database to find good candidates. Compared with the sequence tag and gaped tag approaches, the proposed method circumvents the step of tag extraction, thus simplifying data processing. Experimental results on real data showed that the proposed method achieved both high speed and high sensitivity in protein sequence filtration.

Presently, porous materials have become essential to many technological applications. In this account, 3-dimensional skeleton composite materials consisting of a core-shell amorphous porous carbon/multilayer graphene are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition on Ni foam using a facile one-step growth method. The data suggest that these composites have not only outstanding electrical and mechanical properties of the multilayer graphene but also the mesoporous characteristics of the amorphous carbon. Moreover, the composited carbon materials perfectly inherit the macroporous structure of Ni foam, and the amorphous carbon core in the skeleton serves as a cushion to buffer the volume variation after the removal of Ni. The carbon composites reveal ultralow density (4.45 mg cm -3 ) and high conductivity (45 S cm -1 ), essentially issued from the perfectly preserved structural integrity of graphene. The novel carbon composites can be used as anodes for lithium ion batteries. After these carbon composites are incorporated with NaBiO 3 , superior electrochemical activities above 2 V can be achieved with a discharge capacity of ∼300 mAh g -1 .

Protons can penetrate through single-layer graphene, but thicker graphene layers (more than 2 layers), which possess more compact electron density, are thought to be unfavorable for penetration by protons at room temperature and elevated temperatures. In this work, we developed an in situ subsecond time-resolved grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction technique, which fully realizes the real-time observation of the thermal proton interaction with the graphene layers at high temperature. By following the evolution of interlayer structure during the protonation process, we demonstrated that thermal protons can transport through multilayer graphene (more than 8 layers) on nickel foil at 900 °C. In comparison, under the same conditions, the multilayer graphenes are impermeable to argon, nitrogen, helium, and their derived ions. Complementary in situ transport measurements simultaneously verify the penetration phenomenon at high temperature. Moreover, the direct transport of protons through graphene is regarded as the dominant contribution to the penetration phenomenon. The thermal activation, weak interlayer interaction between layers, and the affinity of the nickel catalyst may all contribute to the proton transport. We believe that this method could become one of the established approaches for the characterization of the ions intercalated with 2D materials in situ and in real-time.

Pfs25, a Plasmodium falciparum surface protein expressed during zygote and ookinete stages in infected mosquitoes, is a lead transmission-blocking vaccine candidate against falciparum malaria. To enhance immunogenicity, recombinant Pfs25 was chemically conjugated to recombinant nontoxic Pseudomonas aeruginosa ExoProtein A (rEPA) in conformance with current good manufacturing practices (cGMP), and formulated with the alum adjuvant Alhydrogel. In order to meet the regulatory requirements for a phase 1 human clinical trial, the vaccine product was extensively evaluated for stability at an initial time point and through the clinical trial period annually. Because basic quality control methods to characterize alum-based vaccines remain unavailable, a thermal forced degradation study was performed prior to the initial evaluation to identify the methods suitable to detect the quality of vaccine formulations. Our results show that the vaccine product Pfs25-EPA formulated on Alhydrogel is in conformance with regulatory guidelines and suitable for human trials., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The quantification of antigens adsorbed to aluminum-based adjuvants (alum) typically involves a method that first extracts antigen from the alum followed by the quantification of the antigen available in the extract. Extraction procedures often result in less than 100 % desorption of the antigen from the alum adjuvant and may alter the conformation of the antigen, reducing the accuracy of the subsequent method used for quantification. There is no generic method available for directly assessing the protein content when formulated on alum. Here we offer a method that can directly quantify protein adsorbed to Alhydrogel ® using a simple fluorescence assay that is highly accurate and reproducible for Alhydrogel ® formulations containing 25-400 μg/mL of antigen.

The Plasmodium falciparum protein, apical membrane antigen 1 forms a complex with another parasite protein, rhoptry neck protein 2, to initiate junction formation with the erythrocyte and is essential for merozoite invasion during the blood stage of infection. Consequently, apical membrane antigen 1 has been a target of vaccine development but vaccination with apical membrane antigen 1 alone in controlled human malaria infections failed to protect and showed limited efficacy in field trials. Here we show that vaccination with AMA1-RON2L complex in Freund's adjuvant protects Aotus monkeys against a virulent Plasmodium falciparum infection. Vaccination with AMA1 alone gave only partial protection, delaying infection in one of eight animals. However, the AMA1-RON2L complex vaccine completely protected four of eight monkeys and substantially delayed infection (>25 days) in three of the other four animals. Interestingly, antibodies from monkeys vaccinated with the AMA1-RON2L complex had significantly higher neutralizing activity than antibodies from monkeys vaccinated with AMA1 alone. Importantly, we show that antibodies from animals vaccinated with the complex have significantly higher neutralization activity against non-vaccine type parasites. We suggest that vaccination with the AMA1-RON2L complex induces functional antibodies that better recognize AMA1 as it appears complexed with RON2 during merozoite invasion. These data justify progression of this next generation AMA1 vaccine towards human trials., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs) that target sexual stage parasite development could be an integral part of measures for malaria elimination. Pfs25 is a leading TBV candidate, and previous studies conducted in animals demonstrated an improvement of its functional immunogenicity after conjugation to EPA, a recombinant, detoxified ExoProtein A from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In this report, we describe results of an open-label, dose-escalating Phase 1 trial to assess the safety and immunogenicity of Pfs25-EPA conjugates formulated with Alhydrogel®. Thirty malaria-naïve healthy adults received up to four doses of the conjugate vaccine, with 8, 16, or 47 μg of conjugated Pfs25 mass, at 0, 2, 4, and 10 months. Vaccinations were generally well tolerated. The majority of solicited adverse events were mild in severity with pain at the injection site the most common complaint. Anemia was the most common laboratory abnormality, but was considered possibly related to the study in only a minority of cases. No vaccine-related serious adverse events occurred. The peak geometric mean anti-Pfs25 antibody level in the highest dose group was 88 (95% CI 53, 147) μg/mL two weeks after the 4th vaccination, and declined to near baseline one year later. Antibody avidity increased over successive vaccinations. Transmission blocking activity demonstrated in a standard membrane feeding assay (SMFA) also increased from the second to the third dose, and correlated with antibody titer and, after the final dose, with antibody avidity. These results support the further evaluation of Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel® in a malaria-endemic population., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Knowledge gained through x-ray crystallography fostered structural determination of materials and greatly facilitated the development of modern science and technology in the past century. However, it is only applied to crystalline structures and cannot resolve noncrystalline materials. Here we demonstrate a novel lensless Fourier-transform ghost imaging method with pseudothermal hard x rays that extends x-ray crystallography to noncrystalline samples. By measuring the second-order intensity correlation function of the light, Fourier-transform diffraction pattern of a complex amplitude sample is achieved at the Fresnel region in our experiment and the amplitude and phase distributions of the sample in the spatial domain are retrieved successfully. For the first time, ghost imaging is experimentally realized with x rays. Since a highly coherent x-ray source is not required, the method can be implemented with laboratory x-ray sources and it also provides a potential solution for lensless diffraction imaging with fermions, such as neutrons and electrons where intensive coherent sources usually are not available.