A potential practical approach to reduce Ara h 6 allergenicity by gamma irradiation

Peanut allergen Ara h 6 was isolated and irradiated at 1, 3, 5, or 10 kGy, and a whole peanut protein extract (WPPE) was also treated by irradiation. Alteration in structure of Ara h 6 was characterised by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and SDS–PAGE, and antigenicity was evaluated by immunoblotting and indirect ELISA with anti-Ara h 6 polyclonal antibody. Irradiation induced significant changes in the secondary and tertiary structures of Ara h 6, and the antigenicity of both purified Ara h 6 and WPPE were reduced upon increasing the irradiation doses. Moreover, a good correlation between the loss in α-helix and IgG binding to Ara h 6 was observed. This indicated that irradiation might be an efficient approach to reduce or eliminate peanut allergenicity.     

Green synthesized carbon quantum dots as TiO2 sensitizers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have attracted growing interest due to their superior luminescent properties, which make them excellent photosensitizers for TiO₂. This study presents the green-synthesis of CQDs from edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus through microwave irradiation. In the study as-synthesized CQDs were used as a sensitizer for TiO₂ in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution in aqueous triethanolamine (sacrificial reagent) under visible-light irradiation. Photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of CQD-sensitized TiO₂ was found to be 472 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ (without loading any noble metal co-catalyst) and 1458 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ (with loading Pt co-catalyst). The study revealed that the CQDs from mushroom A. bisporus can be used as an efficient sensitizer for TiO₂ in photocatalytic hydrogen production.     

Fabrication and photocatalytic performance of one-dimensional Ag3PO4 sensitized SrTiO3 nanowire

The 1D Ag₃PO₄ sensitized SrTiO₃ nanowires are prepared by simple route of electrospinning-in situ deposition technique. The results of the thermogravimetry (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive Spectrometer (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV–Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–Vis) indicate that the Ag₃PO₄ nanoparticles has been deposited on the surface of the SrTiO₃ nanowires successfully. Experimental results showed that compared with pure SrTiO₃, the as-prepared 1D Ag₃PO₄ sensitized SrTiO₃ nanowires exhibit obvious enhancement of photocatalytic performance and stability. Especially, the Ag₃PO₄/SrTiO₃ (3AS sample) had a satisfactory photocatalytic activity for degrading methylene blue (MB) more than 98% under visible light irradiation. As to pure SrTiO₃ and Ag₃PO₄, only 9.8% and 49% of MB was decomposed after 35?min irradiation respectively. Furthermore, the mechanism of the enhancing photocatalytic activity could be ascribed to the nano-heterojunction of the Ag₃PO₄/SrTiO₃, the visible light response of the Ag₃PO₄, and the 1D structure of the nanowires.     

The roles of focal adhesion and cytoskeleton systems in fluid shear stress-induced endothelial cell response

Focal adhesions are polyproteins linked to extracellular matrix and cytoskeleton, which play an important role in the process of transforming force signals into intracellular chemical signals and subsequently triggering related physiological or pathological reactions. The cytoskeleton is a network of protein fibers in the cytoplasm, which is composed of microfilaments, microtubules, intermediate filaments, and cross-linked proteins. It is a very important structure for cells to maintain their basic morphology. This review summarizes the process of fluid shear stress transduction mediated by focal adhesion and the key role of the cytoskeleton in this process, which focuses on the focal adhesion and cytoskeleton systems. The important proteins involved in signal transduction in focal adhesion are introduced emphatically. The relationship between focal adhesion and mechanical transduction pathways are discussed. In this review, we discuss the relationship between fluid shear stress and associated diseases such as atherosclerosis, as well as its role in clinical research and drug development.     

Study of oxidation states of Fe- and Co-doped TiO2 photocatalytic energy materials and their visible-light-driven photocatalytic behavior

In this work we propose a study to determine the structure of Fe and Co doped TiO₂ by using the Fe K-edge, Co K-edge and Ti K- edge X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy. The detailed analysis of Fe and Co-doped TiO₂ before and after Methylene blue (MB) treatment was examined under the irradiation of 35 W xenon arc lamp for 3 h. The materials treated with MB were studied by X-ray absorption spectroscopy, EPR and FT-IR which revealed that the oxidation state of Co²⁺ was photo-oxidized to Co³⁺ and Fe³⁺ was photo-reduced to Fe²⁺ or less. Thermodynamic, kinetic properties were studied at different reaction temperature and the activation energy (E_a), enthalpy (ΔH), entropy (ΔS) and free energy (ΔG) of activation were calculated for the reaction. The activation energy has been found for TiO₂, FeTiO₂ and CoTiO₂ as 24.771, 11.413 and 15.801 kJ mol⁻¹ respectively. The structure, morphology and optical properties were studied by XRD, UV-diffuse reflectance spectra, FESEM, TEM and PL. Moreover, electrochemical studies were carried out to demonstrate the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity on TiO₂, FeTiO₂ and CoTiO₂ in 1 M of H₂SO₄ electrolyte, with a scan rate of 50 mV s⁻¹ and the as-prepared photocatalysts could act as the promising electrode materials for water splitting.     

The two dimension carbon quantum dots modified porous g-C3N4/TiO2 nano-heterojunctions for visible light hydrogen production enhancement

The dual function carbon quantum dots (C QDs) modified porous g-C₃N₄/TiO₂ two dimension (2D) nano-heterojunctions are prepared by a simple route, through which the porous g-C₃N₄ nanosheets are prepared by thermal polycondensation, the TiO₂ nanoparticles are introduced by hydrothermal method and the C QDs are introduced on the surface of the porous g-C₃N₄ and TiO₂ by coupling successively. The results indicate that TiO₂ and C QDs are well combined with the porous g-C₃N₄. The hydrogen production properties of those 2D nano-heterojunctions are investigated, which exhibit an obvious hydrogen production enhancement (nearly two orders of magnitude) compared with those of the unmodified samples. Through analysis, this enhancement of the photocatalystic hydrogen production is attributed to the dual function C QDs with high catalytic activity of H₂O₂ decomposition and unique up-conversion photoluminescence.     

Fast magnetic reconnection with anomalous ion heating and its application

Magnetic reconnection of two toroidal plasmas with the third field component B_X parallel to the X-lines revealed a clear dependence of sheet-current resistivity and ion heating energy on the sheet-width normalized by the ion gyroradius. Initially, the effective resistivity of sheet-current stayed constant, but it increased significantly when the sheet was compressed shorter than the ion-gyroradius. The anomalous current-sheet dissipation was followed by large increase in ion outflow velocity and ion temperature. This anomalous effect caused both the reconnection speed and the ion heating energy to increase with external compression force and inversely with the B_X component. These properties of reconnection lead us to a new controlled plasma heating for various fusion plasmas and other industrial plasmas.     

Biophenolic profile in olives by nuclear magnetic resonance

The molecular composition of biophenols in olive fruit was investigated in order to experiment with novel procedures for the determination of these microcomponents in fresh and processed table olives. The presence of biophenols in table olives, with recognized antioxidant activity, can be strictly linked to the texture and the organoleptic characteristics of the food product, giving a functional value to this Mediterranean food. Olives from Spain (“Hojiblanca” cv.), Portugal (“Douro” cv.), Greece (“Conservolia” and “Thasos”cv.) and Italy (“Taggiasca” and “Cassanese” cv.) were examined, because the experimental data, checked by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), show molecular composition differences in the tested samples related to the geographic area of analyzed olive fruit cultivars [Bianco, A., & Uccella, N. (2000). Biophenolic components of olives. Food Research International, 33, 475–485]. Three different protocols were utilized: the first one allows the determination of the biophenolic content present as free and esterified compounds; the second affords the total biophenolic content; the third indicates the biophenols present as glycosides. The biophenolic content, which was previously determined by classic HPLC methods (Bianco & Uccella, 2000), was checked by a simple ¹H-NMR experiment. The comparison between the data obtained from ¹H-NMR with those measured by HPLC, indicates a good agreement and suggests the possibility of employing ¹H-NMR for the rapid determination of biophenolic content in olives and also in other foods.     

As2O3纳米粒的制备和体外治疗肺癌及其抗转移机制实验

采用改良的溶胶-凝胶法制备系列的As2O3纳米粒,用透射电镜、扫描电镜、能谱仪、图像分析系统等进行表征及特性检测．应用MTT法研究As2O3纳米粒体外对细胞的增殖抑制作用;用流式细胞仪测定As2O3纳米粒及亚砷酸诱导细胞的凋亡率;用免疫组织化学半定量法检测As2O3纳米粒及亚砷酸处理细胞后Bcl-2、Bax、CD44v6和P53基因的表达改变．研究结果表明,制备的As2O3纳米粒在电镜下呈圆形或椭圆形,分散性较好,平均直径约为80nm、110nm、130nm、150nm和450nm;体外细胞实验证实As2O3纳米粒抗肺癌A-549细胞的效应强于亚砷酸溶液;免疫组织化学半定量法显示As2O3纳米粒有较强的诱导肺癌细胞凋亡的作用,可能与其改变Bcl-2和Bax基因表达（Bcl-2／Bax比值降低）及促进P53基因的表达、抑制CD44v6基因表达有关．