An Atomistic Understanding of Allosteric Inhibition of Glutamate Racemase: a Dampening of Native Activation Dynamics

Glutamate racemases (GR) are members of the family of bacterial enzymes known as cofactor-independent racemases and epimerases and catalyze the stereoinversion of glutamate. D-amino acids are universally important for the proper construction of viable bacterial cell walls, and thus have been repeatedly validated as attractive targets for novel antimicrobial drug design. Significant aspects of the mechanism of this challenging stereoinversion remain unknown. The current study employs a combination of MD and QM/MM computational approaches to show that the GR from H. pylori must proceed via a pre-activation step, which is dependent on the enzyme's flexibility. This mechanism is starkly different from previously proposed mechanisms. These findings have immediate pharmaceutical relevance, as the H. pylori GR enzyme is a very attractive allosteric drug target. The results presented in this study offer a distinctly novel understanding of how AstraZeneca's lead series of inhibitors cripple the H. pylori GR's native motions, via prevention of this critical chemical pre-activation step. Our experimental studies, using SPR, fluorescence and NMR WaterLOGSY, show that H. pylori GR is not inhibited by the uncompetitive mechanism originally put forward by Lundqvist et al.. The current study supports a deep connection between native enzyme motions and chemical reactivity, which has strong relevance to the field of allosteric drug discovery.     

Airborne bacterial assemblage in a zero carbon building: A case study

Currently, there is little information pertaining to the airborne bacterial communities of green buildings. In this case study, the air bacterial community of a zero carbon building (ZCB) in Hong Kong was characterized by targeting the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Bacteria associated with the outdoor environment dominated the indoor airborne bacterial assemblage, with a modest contribution from bacteria associated with human skin. Differences in overall community diversity, membership, and composition associated with short (day‐to‐day) and long‐term temporal properties were detected, which may have been driven by specific environmental genera and taxa. Furthermore, time‐decay relationships in community membership (based on unweighted UniFrac distances) and composition (based on weighted UniFrac distances) differed depending on the season and sampling location. A Bayesian source‐tracking approach further supported the importance of adjacent outdoor air bacterial assemblage in sourcing the ZCB indoor bioaerosol. Despite the unique building attributes, the ZCB microbial assemblage detected and its temporal characteristics were not dissimilar to that of conventional built environments investigated previously. Future controlled experiments and microbial assemblage investigations of other ZCBs will undoubtedly uncover additional knowledge related to how airborne bacteria in green buildings may be influenced by their distinctive architectural attributes.     

Activated Carbon Supported CaO from Waste Shells as a Catalyst for Biodiesel Production

In the wake of increasing environmental constraints, this work is aimed at developing a catalyst purely prepared from waste biomass source as the raw material. The catalyst is investigated for its applicability in transesterification of vegetable oil with the objectives: (i) to use waste shells of mollusk as raw material for the preparation of activated carbon and CaO; (ii) to use it as heterogeneous catalyst in the transesterification of waste cooking oil; (iii) to optimize the different parameters affecting the transesterification reaction; and (iv) to study its reusability. Under optimized conditions it was observed that a conversion >90% was possible and the catalyst could be reused five times with a slight loss in activity. This study indicates that the biomass source could also be used as a potential raw material in the synthesis of environmentally benign catalysts.     

Stability analysis and characterization of the nano emulsified Jatropha-curcas-based bio-fuel

This work investigates the suspension duration of the nanosized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) in B20, B50 and B70 blends of Jatropha Methyl ester. The MWCNT and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) are added to the fuel blends in the proportions of 50 and 100 pmm separately by ultra sonication. The prepared fuel samples are characterized, and turbidity analysis was done to find the stability rate of nano-additives. The outcomes reveal the maximum stability rate for MWCNT and Al₂O₃ as 83.3% and 87.03%, respectively, with 50ppm in B20 over a period of eighteen days. A considerable drop in suspension was observed with the 100 ppm MWCNT and Al₂O₃ biodiesel blends.     

一种分散在多孔碳上的碳包覆硅负极的制备及应用

硅负极具有高比容量的显著优势,其理论比容量（4 200 mA∙h/g）达到传统石墨负极的10倍以上,被认为是锂离子电池最有潜力的负极之一。然而,硅负极存在导电性较差、充放电过程中体积膨胀巨大等诸多问题,导致其循环性能较差,限制了大规模实际应用。本文提供了一种高性能硅负极的制备方法及应用,通过将硅负极分散在多级孔碳中,连同黏结剂聚丙烯腈涂覆在集流体上,再对极片进行热处理实现聚丙烯腈碳包覆,有效提高电极的整体导电性并能为巨大的体积变化提供空间,从而提升硅负极的大倍率性能和循环稳定性。     

Forest governance and REDD+ in Central Africa: towards a participatory model to increase stakeholder involvement in carbon markets

Forests play a significant role in the global carbon budget, and can help to mitigate climate change impacts. Tropical forests which experience high rates of deforestation and forest degradation are particularly important, as they are the most active in winter. Based on academic research into global environmental policies in Central Africa, this study finds that REDD+ policies can succeed when there is a carbon market mechanism that increases participation by developing countries, with better integration of forest management and community forestry. Incentives should be based on an appropriate baseline, accurate carbon stocks and fluxes estimation, a suitable silvicultural system and regular monitoring.     

基于CFD-DEM方法的净化器流场模拟与结构优化

针对空气净化器能耗高的问题，使用离散元方法(DEM)在吸附滤网中建立随机堆积柱形活性炭模型，采用计算流体力学(CFD)方法对空气净化器内部流场进行数值模拟，在模拟与实验验证的基础上，考察了压降最小、流场最均匀的吸附滤网结构。结果表明，空气净化器压降主要发生在轴向，活性炭吸附滤网中回流、沟流现象严重，流体阻力是其他两种滤网的3倍。边数对多边形填充孔结构吸附滤网内压降与流场均匀性无影响，当孔结构改为圆形时，压降减小约52 Pa，节能18.4%(49 W)；当孔直径由8 mm增至12 mm，压降减小约48 Pa，节能19.4%(45 W)；滤网间距对空气净化器压降无影响，圆形、小孔径的吸附滤网内流场最均匀。     

改性氧化钛对羟乙基乙二胺水溶液解吸CO2的强化

羟乙基乙二胺（AEE）水溶液的CO₂循环吸收量高（1.2molCO₂/molAEE），吸收速度快，稳定性好，但解吸速度慢、解吸量少（0.8mol CO₂/mol AEE）是限制该技术广泛应用的主要原因。本文通过向AEE水溶液中添加质量分数为0.05%～0.20%的改性氧化钛（TiO₂-MWCNT和TiO₂-OH）强化AEE的解吸能力。CO₂循环吸收（40℃）-解吸（120℃）实验结果表明改性氧化钛的添加比氧化钛强化CO₂解吸效果更好，强化顺序为TiO₂-MWCNT＞TiO₂-OH；其对应的最大解吸速率分别为0.093L/min（质量分数0.15%）和0.083L/min（质量分数0.20%），相对于AEE水溶液，分别提高了32.9%和18.6%；其对应的最大解吸量分别为0.92molCO₂/molAEE（质量分数0.15%）和0.88molCO₂/molAEE（质量分数0.20%），分别提高了12.2%和9.7%；其对应的CO₂循环吸收量分别是0.95molCO₂/molAEE（质量分数0.15%）和0.89molCO₂/molAEE（质量分数0.15%），分别提高了18.75%和11.25%；5次循环吸收解吸实验结果表明改性氧化钛强化CO₂解吸效果稳定，具有较强的化学稳定性。对反应后的改性氧化钛进行XRD、BET、FTIR和SEM表征，结果表明改性氧化钛具有较强的结构稳定性。TiO₂-MWCNT和TiO₂-OH在促进有机胺溶液解吸CO₂方面具有一定的工业应用潜力。