Wet-dry cycles are hypothesized to facilitate fundamental steps towards the emergence of life on prebiotic Earth. Multiple wet–dry have been demonstrated promote biopolymer formation. However, effect recurring wet-dry self-assembly and physicochemical properties model protocellular membranes remains somewhat obscure. Towards this end, we evaluated structural chemical stability composite protoce...

As a promising cathode inheritor for lithium-ion batteries, the sulfur cathode exhibits very high theoretical volumetric capacity and energy density. In its practical applications, one has to solve the insulating properties of sulfur and the shuttle effect that deteriorates cycling stability. The state-of-the-art approaches are to confine sulfur in a conductive matrix. In this work, we utilize ...

In addition to its central role in mediating electron-transfer reactions within all living cells, iron undergoes extracellular redox transformations linked to microbial energy generation through utilization of Fe(II) as a source of chemical energy or Fe(III) as an electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration. These processes permit microbial populations and communities to engage in cyclic couple...

The chemical budget in the upper troposphere over the tropical South Pacific is analyzed using aircraft measurements made at 6-12 km altitude in September 1996 during the Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM) Tropics A campaign. Chemical loss and production rates of along the aircraft flight tracks are calculated with a photochemical model constrained by observa...

Context The rates and pathways of nutrient cycling through ecosystems depend on interactions between both bottom-up forces, including the chemical characteristics of biomass that influence its decomposition and consumption by higher trophic levels, and top-down forces, such as the nutritional requirements andmetabolic efficiencies of consumers and decomposers that influence their feeding and ex...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cyclic loading on the bond strength of quartz fiber posts to root canal dentin after different surface treatments of different regions of root canal dentin. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-eight single-rooted human teeth were selected. Post spaces were prepared and then the teeth were divided into four groups: G1: no treatment (control...

Microorganisms catalyze carbon cycling and biogeochemical reactions in the deep subsurface and thus may be expected to influence the fate of injected supercritical (sc) CO2 following geological carbon sequestration (GCS). We hypothesized that natural subsurface scCO2 reservoirs, which serve as analogs for the long-term fate of sequestered scCO2 , harbor a 'deep carbonated biosphere' with carbon...

INTRODUCTION Bisulfite treatment of DNA introduces methylation-dependent sequence changes through selective chemical conversion of nonmethylated cytosine to uracil and serves as pretreatment step for the majority of DNA methylation analysis methods. METHODS We have evaluated the conversion performance of five of the most commonly used bisulfite treatment kits [MethylDetector (Active Motif), E...

Permafrost stores approximately 50% of global soil carbon (C) in a frozen form; it is thawing rapidly under climate change, and little is known about viral communities in these soils or their roles in C cycling. In permafrost soils, microorganisms contribute significantly to C cycling, and characterizing them has recently been shown to improve prediction of ecosystem function. In other ecosyste...

Amorphous Ge nanoparticles with the particle size of approximately 10 nm were prepared by capping butyl groups and were characterized using XAS, TEM, FT-IR reflectance, and electrochemical cycling. The XAS results for the first-cycle Ge nanoparticles exhibited either a little particle aggregation after reformation of the Ge-Ge metallic bond or reformation of Ge-Ge metallic bond followed by a li...