Sodium yttrium fluoride (NaYF 4) is an important upconverting material with many potential uses in chemistry, materials science, and biology, which can be synthesized hydrothermally in both cubic (α) and hexagonal (β) crystallographic polymorphs. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the phase conversion between the cubic and hexagonal polymorphs is of great interest to help inform future efforts to synthesize atomically-precise quantum materials with well-defined sizes and morphologies. In this work, we use a combination of analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), in situ liquid cell TEM, atom probe tomography (APT), and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements to show that the hexagonal NaYF 4 nanowires form through a non-classical crystal growth mechanism involving the formation and subsequent oriented attachment of mesocrystals consisting of cubic (α) phase units. EXAFS spectroscopy also suggests that substitutional Yb 3+ point defects within NaYF 4 are distributed evenly throughout the crystal lattice without clustering, and also that they may exhbit selective substitution into one of the two possible trivalent yttrium sites in the unit cell for hydrothermally synthesized β-NaYF 4 .
It was shown in [Li & Xiao, 2007] that in a predator–prey model of Leslie type with simplified Holling type IV functional response some complex bifurcations can occur simultaneously for some values of parameters, such as codimension 1 subcritical Hopf bifurcation and codimension 2 Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation. In this paper, we show that for the same model there exists a unique degenerate positive equilibrium which is a degenerate Bogdanov–Takens singularity (focus case) of codimension 3 for other values of parameters. We prove that the model exhibits degenerate focus type Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation of codimension 3 around the unique degenerate positive equilibrium. Numerical simulations, including the coexistence of three hyperbolic positive equilibria, two limit cycles, bistability states (one stable equilibrium and one stable limit cycle, or two stable equilibria), tristability states (two stable equilibria and one stable limit cycle), a stable limit cycle enclosing a homoclinic loop, a homoclinic loop enclosing an unstable limit cycle, or a stable limit cycle enclosing three unstable hyperbolic positive equilibria for various parameter values, confirm the theoretical results.
Natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a family of small polypeptides that are produced by constitutive or inducible expression in organisms, are integral components of the host innate immune system. In addition to their broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, natural AMPs also have many biological activities against fungi, viruses and parasites. Natural AMPs exert multiple immunomodulatory roles that may predominate under physiological conditions where they lose their microbicidal properties in serum and tissue environments. Increased drug resistance among microorganisms is occurring far more quickly than the discovery of new antibiotics. Natural AMPs have shown promise as 'next generation antibiotics' due to their broad-spectrum curative effects, low toxicity, the fact that they are not residual in animals, and the low rates of resistance exhibited by many pathogens. Many types of synthetic AMPs are currently being tested in clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of various diseases such as chemotherapy-associated infections, diabetic foot ulcers, catheter-related infections, and other conditions. Here, we provide an overview of the types and functions of natural AMPs and their role in combating microorganisms and different infectious and inflammatory diseases.
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