Michigan International Copper Analogue (MICA) project – current status

One of the key requirements for the deep geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste is the assessment of its long-term performance and safety (up to 1 Ma). Regarding engineered barrier system materials, such as copper, much of the data available comes from short-term investigations, such as laboratory experiments at different scales. Copper is an important part of many waste packaging and disposal concepts, e.g. KBS-3 developed in Sweden and Finland and Mark II developed in Canada. Natural analogues provide another important way of obtaining understanding on potential repository system behavior. Observations made from the geological systems can be utilized in the safety case, providing information on the assessment time scale. Copper analogue studies (both natural analogues and archaeological analogues) have been reported in the literature and they have been extensively reviewed by various authors (e.g. Miller et al., 2000) and by safety case projects (e.g. Reijonen et al., 2015) within waste management organizations. So far, only a few studies have focussed on the general stability of native copper within its natural media (e.g. Milodowski et al., 2000; Marcos, 2002). Keweenaw native copper occurrences (Lake Superior, USA) have been mentioned as a qualitative source of information (e.g. in Miller et al., 2000); however, data to be used in process-based safety assessments for geological disposal are lacking. These deposits have been mined for a long time and there is a great deal of knowledge related to them as well as samples collected, but no formal review has been made from the geological disposal point of view. The native copper at the Keweenaw area reflects various geological environments from bedrock to sediment and even anthropogenic mine site remnants and geochemical environments (e.g., anoxic vs. oxic, sulphur-free vs. sulphur-bearing). It thus provides a unique complementary data source that will be useful for estimating processes governing behavior of metallic copper. The MICA project phase I systematically collects and reviews the existing literature and data on the Michigan copper analogue sites and available sampling potential. Here, we present the current status of the project.

Biophilic Design Patterns for Primary Schools

Existing frameworks for biophilic design have similar strategies and attributes as useful checklists for designers; however, the focus has been on adults rather than children, and there remains the need for more guidance related to school design by extension. The application of biophilia would be a design resolution in schools because of its impact on children’s health and well-being, which has been more important since the pandemic started; however, it remains quite unexplored in school design in many countries, including the UK. Biophilic design patterns can be used in school buildings and grounds for greater connectivity between spaces and nature in order to promote children’s well-being. This paper focuses on ten biophilic design patterns under two categories of ‘nature in the space’ and ‘natural analogues.’ This study presents the findings of case studies in various countries. The analysis focuses on the manifestations of biophilia to inform the application of biophilic design patterns for primary schools. Finally, this paper suggests how primary school children could be involved in a co-design process in order to evaluate biophilic design patterns.

Evaluating cepharanthine analogues as natural drugs against SARS-CoV-2

Cepharanthine is a natural of plant origin, and recently demonstrated to have anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. In order to evaluate the other natural analogues as a potential COVID-19 drug, a total of 24 compounds resembling cepharanthine were extracted from the KNApSAcK database, and their binding affinities to supposed target proteins, namely, spike protein and main protease of SARS-CoV-2, NPC1, and TPC2, were predicted via molecular docking simulations. Selected analogues were further evaluated by a cell-based SARS-CoV-2 infection assay, and the efficacies of cepharanthine (IC50 1.90 uM) and tetrandrine (IC50 10.37 uM) were demonstrated. From a comparison of the docking conformations of these compounds, the diphenyl ester moiety of the molecules was suggested for a putative pharmacophore of the cepharanthine-analogues.

Features of growth and development of Abies alba Mill. seedlings in the conditions of Voronezh (Russia)

Phenological observations are one of the methods for studying the reaction of introduced species to new conditions and subsequent introduction into regional phytocenoses. This research wants to assess growth and development of Abies alba Mill., currentlyexotic in the Central Black Earth region of Russia. Seeds, obtained from individuals growing in the natural range (the Carpathians) in 1987 were sown in the university nursery. Then five-year-old seedlings were planted in the University arboretum. At the age of 22 the arboretum habitat was inferior to natural analogues. Phenological observations of bud opening and formation of annual growth coincide with the beginning of the growing season in natural plantings. High rates of seed germination (80%), high annual growth rates of seedlings (and transplanted plant) determined final success of silver fir in forest-steppe conditions. Precipitation has a dominant influence on growth and development, as shown by the correlation analysis between climate and growth, despite the fact that the species is drought-resistant in natural habitats. The study emphasizes the factors that control growth and development of silver fir. The use of this method of sowing is ecologically sound, which can further improve the success of species adaptation to the individual conditions of regional phytocenoses.

The Aryne Phosphate Reaction

Condensed phosphates are a critically important class of molecules in biochemistry, with a myriad of derived structures being known. Moreover, non-natural analogues are important for various applications, such as single molecule real time DNA sequencing. Often, such analogues contain more than three phosphate units in their oligophosphate chain. Consequently, investigations into phosphate reactivity enabling new ways of phosphate functionalization and oligophosphorylation are an essential endeavour in the field. Here, we scrutinize the potential of phosphates to act as arynophiles, paving the way for follow-up oligophosphorylation reactions. The aryne phosphate reaction is a powerful tool to – depending on the perspective – (oligo)phosphorylate arenes or arylate (oligo-cyclo)phosphates. Based on Kobayashi-type o-silylaryltriflates, the aryne phosphate reaction enables rapid entry into a broad spectrum of arylated products, like monophosphates, diphosphates, phosphodiesters and polyphosphates. The synthetic potential of these new transformations is demonstrated by efficient syntheses of nucleotide analogues and an unprecedented one-flask octaphosphorylation.

The Combined Effect of Branching and Elongation on the Bioactivity Profile of Phytocannabinoids. Part I: Thermo-TRPs

The affinity of cannabinoids for their CB1 and CB2 metabotropic receptors is dramatically affected by a combination of α-branching and elongation of their alkyl substituent, a maneuver exemplified by the n-pentyl -> α,α-dimethylheptyl (DMH) swap. The effect of this change on other cannabinoid end-points is still unknown, an observation surprising since thermo-TRPs are targeted by phytocannabinoids with often sub-micromolar affinity. To fill this gap, the α,α-dimethylheptyl analogues of the five major phytocannabinoids [CBD (1a), Δ8-THC (6a), CBG (7a), CBC (8a) and CBN (9a)] were prepared by total synthesis, and their activity on thermo-TRPs (TRPV1-4, TRPM8, and TRPA1) was compared with that of one of their natural analogues. Surprisingly, the DMH chain promoted a shift in the selectivity toward TRPA1, a target involved in pain and inflammatory diseases, in all investigated compounds. A comparative study of the putative binding modes at TRPA1 between DMH-CBC (8b), the most active compound within the series, and CBC (8a) was carried out by molecular docking, allowing the rationalization of their activity in terms of structure–activity relationships. Taken together, these observations qualify DMH-CBC (8b) as a non-covalent TRPA1-selective cannabinoid lead that is worthy of additional investigation as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent.

Quantification of solubility trapping in natural and engineered CO2 reservoirs

Secure retention of CO2 in geological reservoirs is essential for effective storage. Solubility trapping, the dissolution of CO2 into formation water, is a major sink on geological timescales in natural CO2 reservoirs. Observations during CO2 injection, combined with models of CO2 reservoirs, indicate the immediate onset of solubility trapping. There is uncertainty regarding the evolution of dissolution rates between the observable engineered timescale of years and decades, to the >10 kyr state represented by natural CO2 reservoirs. A small number of studies have constrained dissolution rates within natural analogues. The studies show that solubility trapping is the principal storage mechanism after structural trapping, removing 10–50% of CO2 across whole reservoirs. Natural analogues, engineered reservoirs and model studies produce a wide range of estimates on the fraction of CO2 dissolved and the dissolution rate. Analogue and engineered reservoirs do not show the high fractions of dissolved CO2 seen in several models. Evidence from natural analogues supports a model of most dissolution occurring during emplacement and migration, before the establishment of a stable gas-water contact. A rapid decline in CO2 dissolution rate over time suggests that analogue reservoirs are in dissolution equilibrium for most of the CO2 residence time.Supplementary material:https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5476199Thematic collection: This article is part of the Geoscience for CO2 storage collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/geoscience-for-co2-storage

Non-archimedean hyperbolicity and applications

Inspired by the work of Cherry, we introduce and study a new notion of Brody hyperbolicity for rigid analytic varieties over a non-archimedean field K of characteristic zero. We use this notion of hyperbolicity to show the following algebraic statement: if a projective variety admits a non-constant morphism from an abelian variety, then so does any specialization of it. As an application of this result, we show that the moduli space of abelian varieties is K-analytically Brody hyperbolic in equal characteristic 0. These two results are predicted by the Green–Griffiths–Lang conjecture on hyperbolic varieties and its natural analogues for non-archimedean hyperbolicity. Finally, we use Scholze’s uniformization theorem to prove that the aforementioned moduli space satisfies a non-archimedean analogue of the “Theorem of the Fixed Part” in mixed characteristic.