Artificial Nesting Hills Promote Wild Bees in Agricultural Landscapes.

The availability of nesting resources influences the persistence and survival of bee communities. Although a positive effect of artificial nesting structures has frequently been shown for aboveground cavity-nesting wild bees, studies on below ground-nesting bees are rare. Artificial nesting hills designed to provide nesting habitats for ground-nesting bees were therefore established within the BienABest project in 20 regions across Germany. Wild bee communities were monitored for two consecutive years, accompanied by recordings of landscape and abiotic nest site variables. Bee activity and species richness increased from the first to the second year after establishment; this was particularly pronounced in landscapes with a low cover of semi-natural habitat. The nesting hills were successively colonized, indicating that they should exist for many years, thereby promoting a species-rich bee community. We recommend the construction of nesting hills on sun-exposed sites with a high thermal gain of the substrate because the bees prefer south-facing sites with high soil temperatures. Although the soil composition of the nesting hills plays a minor role, we suggest using local soil to match the needs of the local bee community. We conclude that artificial nesting structures for ground-nesting bees act as a valuable nesting resource for various bee species, particularly in highly degraded landscapes. We offer a construction and maintenance guide for the successful establishment of nesting hills for bee conservation.

Glycopolymer Based LbL Multilayer Thin Films with Embedded Liposomes.

Layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly emerged as an efficient technique for fabricating coating systems for, e.g., drug delivery systems with great versatility and control. In this work, protecting group free and aqueous-based syntheses of bioinspired glycopolymer electrolytes aredescribed. Thin films of the glycopolymers are fabricated by LbL self-assembly and function as scaffolds for liposomes, which potentially can encapsulate active substances. The adsorbed mass, pH stability, and integrity of glycopolymer coatings as well as the embedded liposomes are investigated via whispering gallery mode (WGM) technology and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) monitoring , which enable label-free characterization. Glycopolymer thin films, with and without liposomes, are stable in the physiological pH range. QCM-D measurements verify the integrity of lipid vesicles. Thus, the fabrication of glycopolymer-based surface coatings with embedded and intact liposomes is presented.

Optimization of the Microwave Assisted Glycosylamines Synthesis Based on a Statistical Design of Experiments Approach.

Glycans carry a vast range of functions in nature. Utilizing their properties and functions in form of polymers, coatings or glycan derivatives for various applications makes the synthesis of modified glycans crucial. Since amines are easy to modify for subsequent reactions, we investigated regioselective amination conditions of different saccharides. Amination reactions were performed according to Kochetkov and Likhoshertov and accelerated by microwave irradiation. We optimized the synthesis of glycosylamines for N-acetyl-d-galactosamine, d-lactose, d-glucuronic acid and l-(-)-fucose using the design of experiments (DoE) approach. DoE enables efficient optimization with limited number of experimental data. A DoE software generated a set of experiments where reaction temperature, concentration of carbohydrate, nature of aminating agent and solvent were investigated. We found that the synthesis of glycosylamines significantly depends on the nature of the carbohydrate and on the reaction temperature. There is strong indication that high temperatures are favored for the amination reaction.

Functional Glyco-Nanogels for Multivalent Interaction with Lectins.

Interactions between glycans and proteins have tremendous impact in biomolecular interactions. They are important for cell-cell interactions, proliferation and much more. Here, we emphasize the glycan-mediated interactions between pathogens and host cells. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, responsible for a huge number of nosocomial infections, is especially the focus when it comes to glycan-derivatives as pathoblockers. We present a microwave assisted protecting group free synthesis of glycomonomers based on lactose, melibiose and fucose. The monomers were polymerized in a precipitation polymerization in the presence of NiPAm to form crosslinked glyco-nanogels. The influence of reaction parameters like crosslinker type or stabilizer amount was investigated. The gels were characterized in lectin binding studies using model lectins and showed size and composition-dependent inhibition of lectin binding. Due to multivalent presentation of glycans in the gel, the inhibition was clearly stronger than with unmodified saccharides, which was compared after determination of the glycan loading. First studies with Pseudomonas aeruginosa revealed a surprising influence on the secretion of virulence factors. Functional glycogels may be in the future potent alternatives or adjuvants for antibiotic treatment of infections based on glycan interactions between host and pathogen.

Surface Patterning with SiO2@PNiPAm Core-Shell Particles.

Colloidal lithography is a cost-efficient method to produce large-scale nanostructured arrays on surfaces. Typically, colloidal particles are assembled into hexagonal close-packed monolayers at liquid interfaces and deposited onto a solid substrate. Many applications, however, require non close-packed monolayers, which are more difficult to fabricate. Preassembly at the oil/water interface provides non close-packed colloidal assemblies but these are difficult to transfer to a solid substrate without compromising the ordering due to capillary forces acting upon drying. Alternatively, plasma etching can reduce a close-packed monolayer into a non close-packed arrangement, however, with limited interparticle distance and compromised particle shape. Here, we present a simple alternative approach toward non close-packed colloidal monolayers with tailored interparticle distance, high order, and retained spherical particle shape. We preassemble poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-silica (SiO2@PNiPAm) core-shell particles at the air/water interface, transfer the interfacial spacer to a solid substrate, and use the polymer shell as a sacrificial layer that can be thermally removed to leave a non close-packed silica monolayer. The shell thickness, cross-linking density, and the phase behavior upon compression of these complex particles at the air/water interface provide parameters to precisely control the lattice spacing in these surface nanostructures. We achieve hexagonal non close-packed arrays of silica spheres with interparticle distances between 400 and 1280 nm, up to 8 times their diameter. The retained spherical shape is advantageous for surface nanostructuring, which we demonstrate by the fabrication of gold nanocrescent arrays via colloidal lithography and silicon nanopillar arrays via metal-assisted chemical etching.

Interfacial arrangement and phase transitions of PNiPAm microgels with different crosslinking densities.

Microgels are colloidal hydrogel particles that exhibit a pronounced softness, which arises from the swollen nature of the constituent polymer network. This softness leads to a substantial deformability of such particles at liquid interfaces, which, in turn translates into a complex phase behaviour that can exhibit a phase transition between a non-close packed and a close packed arrangement. Here, we explore how the degree of swellability and deformability - and therefore the softness of the particles - affects the phase behaviour of microgels at the air/water interface upon compression. We use precipitation polymerization to synthesize poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgels with similar hydrodynamic radii in the collapsed state and systematically vary the degree of swellability by changing the crosslinking density. We spread these microgels onto the air/water interface of a Langmuir trough and characterize their interfacial properties by surface pressure - area isotherms. Furthermore, we continuously transfer the interfacial microgel monolayer during compression onto a solid substrate, thus encoding the complete phase diagram of the microgels with increasing particle density as a function of the position on the solid substrate. We investigate the microgel arrangement by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy and use image analysis to extract quantitative information on the interparticle distance and degree of order. We find that the phase transition is very sensitive to the crosslinking density and occurs at much lower surface pressures for less deformable particles. The softest microgels do not undergo any phase transition. Instead, the system exhibits pronounced local conformation changes around point defects with local five- and sevenfold symmetries, indicating that the geometry of the assembled structure effectively controls the local pressure experienced by the microgels.