We demonstrate here a unique metallo-organic material where the appearance and the internal crystal structure are in contradiction. The egg-shaped (ovoid) crystals have a brain-like texture. Although these micro-sized crystals are monodispersed; like fingerprints their grainy surfaces are never exactly alike. Remarkably, our X-ray and electron diffraction studies unexpectedly revealed that these structures are single-crystals comprising a continuous coordination network of two differently shaped homochiral channels. By using the same building blocks under different reaction conditions, a rare series of crystals have been obtained that are uniquely rounded in their shape. In stark contrast to the brain-like crystals, these isostructural and monodispersed crystals have a comparatively smooth appearance. The sizes of these crystals vary by several orders of magnitude.Phytohormones may affect plant-nematode interactions directly as chemo-attractants or -repellents, or indirectly through the root-associated microbiome or through host defense mechanisms. However, the exact roles of phytohormones in these complex plant-soil-nematode interactions are not well understood. We used Arabidopsis thaliana mutants impaired in phytohormone synthesis or sensitivity to elucidate their role in root-nematode interactions. As root-associated microorganisms may modulate these interactions, we explored correlations between the relative abundances of root-associated nematodes, and bacteria and fungi using amplicon sequencing. We found distinct shifts in relative abundances of a range of nematode taxa in the A. thaliana phytohormone mutants. The root knot nematode Meloidogyne hapla, a sedentary endoparasitic species that is in intimate contact with the host, was highly enriched in JA-, SA- and SL-impaired lines, and in an ET-insensitive line. Positive or negative correlations between specific microbial and nematode taxa were observed, but, as the inference of causal relationships between microbiome responses and effects on nematode communities is premature, this should be studied in detail in future studies. In conclusion, genetic derailment of hormonal balances generally rendered plants vulnerable to endoparasitic nematode attack. Furthermore, preliminary data suggest that this effect may be partially modulated by the associated microbiome.In horses, the benzodiazepine diazepam (DIA) is used as sedative for pre-medication or as an anxiolytic to facilitate horse examinations. As the sedative effects can also be abused for doping purposes, DIA is prohibited in equine sports. DIA is extensively metabolized to several active metabolites such as nordazepam, temazepam and oxazepam (OXA). For veterinarians, taking into account the detection times of DIA and its active metabolites is needed for minimizing the risk of an anti-doping rule violation. Therefore, a pharmacokinetic study on 6 horses was conducted using a single intravenous (IV) dose of 0.2 mg/kg DIA Plasma and urine samples were collected at specified intervals until 16 and 26 days post-administration, respectively. Samples were analysed by a sensitive liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/tandem mass spectrometry method. DIA showed a triphasic elimination pattern in the horse. The mean plasma clearance of DIA was 5.9 ml/min/kg, and the plasma elimination half-life in the terminal phase was 19.9 h. Applying the Toutain model approach, an effective plasma concentration of DIA was estimated at 24 ng/ml, and irrelevant plasma concentration (IPC) and irrelevant urine concentration (IUC) were computed to 0.047 and 0.1 ng/ml, respectively. The detection time according to the European Horserace Scientific Liaison Committee (EHSLC), that is the time for which observed DIA plasma concentrations of all investigated horses were below the IPC was 10 days. Using Monte Carlo Simulations, it was estimated that concentrations of DIA in plasma would fall below the IPC 18 days after the DIA administration for 90% of horses. However, in the present study, a single administration of DIA could be detected for 24 days in urine via the presence of OXA, its dominant metabolite.Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesizes telomere end sequence. The expression of hTERT gene, encoding the catalytic subunit of human telomerase, is restricted to highly proliferative tissues and is undetectable in most somatic cells. Brivudine cost Abnormal activation of hTERT gene is found in 90% of human tumors. Previously, we identified tandem repeat of 42-bp/unit, VNTR2-1, in intron 2 of the hTERT gene, as a novel regulatory element important for hTERT transcription in cancer cells. In the current study, we found that multiple 42-bp repeats of VNTR2-1 activated luciferase gene in reporter plasmids. Mutation of the predicted cis-regulatory elements within the 42-bp repeats, including a E-box motif, resulted in a partial or complete loss of its enhancer activity. Moreover, MYC family proteins, c-MYC, MAX, and MNT, regulated hTERT gene transcription through both VNTR2-1 and E-boxes at the proximal hTERT promoter. Chromatin segmentation analysis of published ChIP-sequencing data from K562 cells indicated that VNTR2-1 was a bivalent enhancer. In telomerase-expressing human melanoma cell line MelJuSo, deletion of VNTR2-1 caused the hTERT promoter chromatin status to change from an active state to a repressed state, accompanied by increases of H3K27me3 and H3K9me3 marks. Therefore, we provided additional evidence for VNTR2-1 as a functional regulatory element that regulated hTERT expression by MYC family transcription factors. These results have improved our knowledge on the functions of repetitive genomic DNAs and the regulatory mechanisms of human telomerase gene.Optimizing the electronic and synergistic effect of hybrid electrocatalysts based on Pt and Pt-based nanocatalysts is of tremendous importance towards a superior hydrogen evolution performance under both acidic and alkaline conditions. However, developing an ideal Pt-based hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst with moderated electronic structure as well as strong synergistic effect is still a challenge. Herein, we fabricated boron (B)-doped PtNi nanobundles by a two-step method using NaBH4 as the boron source to obtain PtNi/Ni4 B3 heterostructures with well-defined nanointerfaces between PtNi and Ni4 B3 , achieving an enhanced catalytic HER performance. Especially, the PtNi/Ni4 B3 nanobundles (PtNi/Ni4 B3 NBs) can deliver a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at the overpotential of 14.6 and 26.5 mV under alkaline and acidic media, respectively, as well as outstanding electrochemical stability over 40 h at the current density of 10 mA cm-2 . Remarkably, this approach is also universal for the syntheses of PtCo/Co3 B and PtFe/Fe49 B with outstanding electrocatalytic HER performance.