Interior Modification Research Articles

Preferential heteroatom substitution into ZnIn2S4 nanosheets boosts photocatalytic hydrogen production

Interior modification through preferential substitution of heteroatoms in 2D materials can rescue surface reactive sites for enhanced charge kinetics and photo-activity. Here, Ru and Ni heteroatoms were successfully incorporated in ZnIn2S4 (ZIS) nanosheets via a simple hydrothermal technique. Ru-ZIS photocatalysts exhibited improved photo–water splitting activity (26,400 µmol. h−1g−1) and good stability than that of Ni-ZIS and pristine ZIS under simulated sunlight, which may be related to the increase in reactive sites with Ru substitution, optimized adsorption-free energy of the reaction intermediates and charge kinetics. Ru substitution influenced Zn site availability and thus coordinated bonding with surrounding S ions. Ru-ZIS showed excellent hydrogen evolution performance and minimal change in Gibbs free energy (ΔGH, ∼0 eV). By analyzing the density of states, both Ru and S sites had greater H* intermediate absorption abilities. This study elaborates on the effect of preferential heteroatom substitution on photocatalytic performance and has widespread applications.

METTL3-mediated methylation of CYP2C19 mRNA may aggravate clopidogrel resistance in ischemic stroke patients.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most frequently occurring interior modification in eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA), and abnormal mRNA modifications can affect many biological processes. However, m6A's effect on the metabolism of antiplatelet drugs for the prevention of ischemic stroke (IS) remains largely unclear. We analyzed the m6A enzymes and m6A methylation in peripheral blood samples of IS patients with/without clopidogrel resistance (CR), and the peripheral blood and liver of rat models with/without CR. We also compared the effect of m6A methylation on the expression of the drug-metabolizing enzymes (CYP2C19 and CYP2C6v1) in CR and non-CR samples. Methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3), an m6A enzyme, was highly expressed in the peripheral blood of patients with CR, and in both the peripheral blood and liver of rats with CR. This enzyme targets CYP2C19 or CYP2C6v1 mRNA through m6A methylation, resulting in low expression of CYP2C19 or CYP2C6v1 mRNA. Consequently, this leads to decreased clopidogrel metabolism and CR. The METTL3-mediated methylation of CYP2C19 mRNA may aggravate CR in IS patients.

Interior Modification of Residential Housing in Flood Prone Areas

For over two decades (1998, 2008, 2019), floods have occurred in Samarinda in various intensities and different areas. In Bengkuring, flooding has submerged houses for days since 2008. It happens for days with an average depth of 0.5-1 meter. Flooding can cause minor, moderate, and severe damage or destruction of homes, property, and community disorders. People whose homes are submerged by floods make some adaptations to mitigate. Some modifications are to create a small barrier in front of the house, raise the floor, and repair waterways. Safe space is crucial during floods, especially in a one-story house. This study aims to improve the form of adaptation in residential homes in flood-prone areas. Similarly, the objective is to modify the interior to create a safe space for goods and occupants. The method of data analysis is based on Space Syntax Analysis J-Graphs. Occasionally, J-Graphs can efficiently explain interior modifications, including the ratio and layer of safe spaces, the number of indoor and outdoor connecting rooms, and the ring configuration. Through the design approach and prototype demonstration, it is possible to install interior modifications by making mezzanine floors and utilizing the attic. Although most previous research on building adaptation focused on home construction, home interior modification promises advantages that will result in a more straightforward and workable project for the community's needs.

Zájem pravoslavné církve o pražský kostel sv. Kříže na Příkopech

The Interest of the Orthodox Church in the Prague St. Cross Church in Příkopy The presented study provides a detailed probe into efforts of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Community to rent the St. Church in Prague in Příkopy in the 1920s which seemed to be little used. Although there were more opportunities to obtain their own place of worship, the Orthodox did not have enough money to reconstruct these buildings, often in a bad or even state of disrepair. In this sense, the St. Church in Příkopy, which was in good technical condition, however, required an interior modification for the needs of services in the Byzantine ceremony. The study represents the original work which is based on the study of sources, especially the Archive of the Office of the President of the Republic, the National Archive and the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

Promoting desalination performance of carbon nanotubes through cationic and anionic surface modifications

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) hold great promise for the design of novel desalination devices. However, the performance of pristine CNTs is very limited because of the trade-off between ion selectivity and water permeability, and thus the surface modification could be an effective strategy to promote the performance. Although great effort has been made on the CNT modifications in both experiments and simulations, most of the previous studies focus on the CNT entrance or exterior modification, while the interior modification remains poorly understood. In this work, a series of molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the modification of CNT interior with charged residues of either COO– or NH3+ can significantly promote the desalination performance. Specifically, even under a high pressure, the ion rejections can attain a high level of around 90 % that can reach drinkable standards at certain charge densities. The two systems exhibit dynamical bifurcations because of the discrepancy in the ion-residue interaction, where the water flux and ion rejection for NH3+ system are always greater. Consequently, the inner surface modification of CNTs could open a new avenue to break the trade-off between ion selectivity and water permeability, which should have great implications for the design of novel desalination devices.

Endohedral σ-Diradical Nitrogen-Vacancy Diamond Nanoclusters with a Confined Magnetic Space and Strong Electronic Spin Couplings.

The electronic properties and their modulations for the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in various nanoscale diamonds are of profound current interest because of their potential applications. However, although the NV centers as chromophores in diamond are the most widely studied, surprisingly, little is known about their magnetic spin coupling properties up to now. Here, we for the first time show, using the spin-polarized DFT calculations, that the NV centers can act as unique endohedral σ-diradical magnets in diamond nanoclusters and exhibit quite strong ferromagnetic (FM) or antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin coupling characteristics due to their unique endotetrahedral structures with favorable radical-radical contacts. Although the neutral NV center (NV0) in its doublet ground state exhibits quite strong AFM spin coupling among three radical C-sites (i.e., an AFM triradical center), interestingly, excess electron injection can convert it to a FM diradical magnet (i.e., the triplet ground state NV-) with almost unchanged J-coupling magnitude, and the J-coupling of the nanocluster can be noticeably enhanced by F-termination of the surface due to triradical spin delocalization mediated by excess electron. However, interior modification (one C in the endotetrahedron core is substituted by N or B or is hydrogenated) can assign the nanocluster perfect AFM diradical character. The spin coupling strength presents a quasilinear correlation with the distance between the two C radicals in the NV core for the same size of the clusters and a high linear correlation with the energy difference between two singly occupied molecular orbitals. Clearly, the FM and AFM couplings as well as their switching behavior in such NV defect diamond nanoclusters featuring the endohedral σ-diradicals are a novel type of promising magnetic material motifs. These findings open up promising spintronic application prospects of the NV diamonds and provide helpful information for the design of inorganic magnetic materials and logic devices.

Achieving High Performance Metal-Organic Framework Materials through Pore Engineering.

Achieving high performance functional materials has been a long-term goal for scientists and engineers that can significantly promote science and technology development and thus benefit our society and human beings. As well-known porous materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline open frameworks made up of molecular building blocks linked by strong coordination bonds, affording pore space for storing and trapping guest molecules. In terms of porosity, MOFs outperform traditional porous materials including zeolites and activated carbon, showing exceptional porosity with internal surface area up to thousands of square meters per gram of sample and with periodic pore sizes ranging from sub-nanometer to nanometers. Numerous MOFs have been synthesized with potential applications ranging from storing gaseous fuels to separating intractable industrial gas mixtures, sensing physical and chemical stimulus, and transmitting protons for conduction. Compared to traditional porous materials, MOFs are distinguished for their exceptional capability for pore adjustment and interior modification through pore engineering, which have made them a preeminent platform for exploring functional materials with high performance.Rational combinations of rigid building units of different geometry and multibranched organic linkers have provided MOFs with diverse pore structures, ranging from spherical to cylindrical, slit, and tubular ones isolating or interconnecting in different directions, which can be optimized for high-capacity gas storage. Based on the isoreticular principle and building blocks approach in MOF chemistry, the pore adjustment of porous materials can be performed with exquisite precision, making them suitable to address industrially important gas separation. The large pore cavities in MOFs are readily available for encapsulation of different functional guest species, resulting in novel MOF composite materials with various functions.In this Account, we summarize our recent research progress on pore engineering to achieve high-performance MOF materials. We have been able to tune and optimize pore structures, immobilize specific functional sites, and incorporate guest species into target MOF materials for hydrogen storage, methane storage, light-hydrocarbon purification, and proton conduction, especially for various industrially important gas separations including acetylene removal and ethylene and propylene purification. By engineering the porosity and pore chemistry that endows MOFs with multiple functionalities, our research endeavors have brought about the customization of high-performance MOF materials for corresponding application scenarios.

Boosting alkaline hydrogen evolution: the dominating role of interior modification in surface electrocatalysis

The alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (A-HER) holds great promise for clean hydrogen fuel generation but its practical utilization is severely hindered by the sluggish kinetics for water dissociation in alkaline solutions.

Experiment-Based Quantitative Analysis of Picosecond Pulse-Induced Morphological Changes in Fused Silica

Due to its excellent quality, fused silica has been widely used in various industrial applications. The nonlinear absorptive nature of ultrafast laser pulses enables the induction of morphological changes within the bulk transparent materials. In this study, the interior modification of fused silica is induced by a picosecond pulsed laser, and the relationship between processing parameters and the modification geometry is demonstrated. Three different patterns are identified according to the geometric characteristics of the modification. Furthermore, a simple experiment-based model considering the incubation effect is put forward to predict picosecond pulse-induced morphological changes in fused silica.

Finite element study on vertical characteristic of modified circular perforated-reinforced elastomeric isolators (MC-PREIs)

This research presents the vertical characteristics of Modified Circular Perforated-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators (MC-PREIs) under compression. Research on base isolation was undertaken to derive the lowest horizontal stiffness to obtain the fundamental period of an isolated structure, typically for light structures, such as residential housing. To achieve this purpose, geometric modifications were introduced by reducing the loaded area of the isolators. Prior to observing the horizontal characteristic, the vertical stiffness of MC-PREIs was considered to ensure that the interior modification influences the vertical characteristic of the isolator. Therefore, understanding of vertical characteristics due to interior modification was required. In this study, experimental vertical test results of Perforated-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators (PREIs) were used to verify three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model analyses of ANSYS. Furthermore, the 3D finite element models were used to undertake a parametric study on three MC-PREI configurations with different geometries. The FE method investigation considered the influence of the geometric modifications on the vertical stiffness and the compression modulus, in addition to strain and stress distribution in the perforated reinforcement and elastomer. The finite element analysis indicated that the greater reduction area in the isolator generated decreases significantly in compression modulus and vertical stiffness in addition to increasing the stress distribution on both rubber and perforated plate under compression.

Overlapping structure of platinum-iridium oxide layers and its electrocatalytic behavior on bifunctional oxygen electrode

Pt-Ir/IrO2-PtO2 composite with an overlapping structure as oxygen-electrode catalyst has been prepared by doping Ir into Pt, doping Pt into IrO2, and then making the two layers combined with each other. This structure helps achieve positive interior modification on Pt and IrO2 and active coupling effect between PtIr~PtIrO2 layers. Electrochemical analyses show that Pt-Ir/IrO2-PtO2 possesses 81.4% higher ORR activity and 45.5% higher OER activity than Pt/IrO2 catalyst. Pt-Ir/IrO2-PtO2 especially exhibits remarkable ORR and OER durabilities in life tests, which are attributed to the stable overlapping structure.

Aerodynamic Noise Reduction Analysis in High-Speed Train Cab

In order to reduce aerodynamic noise in high-speed train cab,the SEA model of cab is established. The fluctuation pressures from train head surface are calculated by large eddy simulation method. Using fluctuation pressure as excitation force, power flow caused by airflow among sub-systems of SEA model of cab is obtained. Two schemes are put forward to reduce the aerodynamic noise in cab, namely interior decoration modification and windowpane thickness increase. The results show that when a layer of splint with 0.01 m thickness, 0.5 loss factor is added to the original decoration in cab, the overall sound pressure level (SPL) at driver head location will reduce 1.23 dB(A). When the cab windowpane thickness is increased to 5 mm from 4 mm, the overall SPL at the driver head location will reduce 0.87 dB(A).

Interior engineering of a viral nanoparticle and its tumor homing properties.

The development of multifunctional nanoparticles for medical applications is of growing technological interest. A single formulation containing imaging and/or drug moieties that is also capable of preferential uptake in specific cells would greatly enhance diagnostics and treatments. There is growing interest in plant-derived viral nanoparticles (VNPs) and establishing new platform technologies based on these nanoparticles inspired by nature. Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) serves as the standard model for VNPs. Although exterior surface modification is well-known and has been comprehensively studied, little is known of interior modification. Additional functionality conferred by the capability for interior engineering would be of great benefit toward the ultimate goal of targeted drug delivery. Here, we examined the capacity of empty CPMV (eCPMV) particles devoid of RNA to encapsulate a wide variety of molecules. We systematically investigated the conjugation of fluorophores, biotin affinity tags, large molecular weight polymers such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and various peptides through targeting reactive cysteines displayed selectively on the interior surface. Several methods are described that mutually confirm specific functionalization of the interior. Finally, CPMV and eCPMV were labeled with near-infrared fluorophores and studied side-by-side in vitro and in vivo. Passive tumor targeting via the enhanced permeability and retention effect and optical imaging were confirmed using a preclinical mouse model of colon cancer. The results of our studies lay the foundation for the development of the eCPMV platform in a range of biomedical applications.

Structure of Phosphate Amphoteric Cassava Starch and its Reinforcing Effect on Secondary Fiber

In the present work, a series of the phosphate amphoteric cassava starch was synthesized by a two-step semi-dry process with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTA) as the cationic reagent and phosphate mixture as the anionic reagent. The structure of the amphoteric starch was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The reinforcing effects of the amphoteric starch on the secondary fiber were also studied. The results indicated that the reaction occurred not only on the surface but also in the interior of starch granule, not only in the amorphous region, but also in the crystalline region. All the amphoteric starch showed reinforcing effect on the secondary fiber. The No. 5 sample showed better reinforcing effects on paper strength due to its higher total degree of substitution (0.095), proper DSA/DSC ratio (DSC=0.067, DSA=0.028) and interior modification of the starch granule. Compared with the control sample, the secondary fiber paper with 1.0 wt% (relative to dried pulp) of No.5 phosphate amphoteric starch showed 25.6%, 21.4% and 29.4% increases in tensile index, tearing index, and burst index, respectively.

The effect of wool surface and interior modification on subsequent photostability

AbstractWool surface and interior modification can impart favorable properties, such as felting/shrink resistance, settability, or improved affinity for dyes. However, in principle such modification may have an either beneficial or adverse effect on the subsequent photostability of the modified wool. In this study, a range of representative physical and chemical modification approaches including the use of helium gas plasma, papain, acylation with acid anhydride, and permanganate oxidation were applied to wool fabrics, and the subsequent effects characterized using scanning electron microscopy, FTIR‐ATR, contact angle goniometry, fluorescence spectrophotometry, and tensile strength test. The relative photostability of control and treated wool were evaluated in terms of coloration changes under UVA, UVB, and blue light irradiation. We have shown that the subsequent photostability of modified wool fabrics is highly dependent on the modification type, and this factor should be carefully considered in the design and application of wool treatments. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

Study on Structure of Amphoteric Starch and Its Reinforcing Effect on Secondary Fiber

In the presented work, a series of the phosphate amphoteric cassava starch were synthesized by a two-step semi-dry process with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTA) as the cationic reagent and phosphate mixture as the anionic reagent. The structure of the amphoteric starch was characterized by FTIR and XRD. The reinforcing effects of the amphoteric starch on the secondary fiber were also studied. The results indicated that the reaction occurred not only in the amorphous region, but also in its crystalline region. When the cationic starch reacted with different amount of phosphates, the degree of cation substitution (DSc) of products was decreased with the dosage of the phosphates. When cationic starch with different DSc reacted with the same amount of phosphates, the degree of anion substitution (DSa) of products was decreased with the DSc. All the amphoteric starch showed reinforcing effect on the secondary fiber. The No. 7 sample showed better reinforcing effects on paper strength due to its higher total degree of substitution (0.095), proper DSa/DSc ratio (DSc = 0.067, DSa = 0.028) and interior modification of the starch granule. Compared with the control sample, the secondary fiber paper with 1.0 wt % (relative to dried pulp) of 7# modified starch showed 23.5%, 20.3% and 29.4% increases in tensile index, tearing index, and burst index, respectively.

On Integration by Parts for Stieltjes-Type Integrals of Banach Space-Valued Functions

In this paper we discuss integration by parts for several generalizations of the Riemann-Stieltjes integral. In addition, we obtain new results on integration by parts for the Henstock-Stieltjes integral and its interior modification for Banach space-valued functions.