Engineering a pharmacologically superior form of leptin for the treatment of obesity

Leptin plays a central role in the homeostasis of body weight through its regulatory effects on appetite and energy expenditure, yet in trials as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of obesity in humans it has been disappointing. The poor clinical efficacy of leptin results from its short circulating half-life, low potency and poor solubility, necessitating large and frequent doses to obtain even modest clinical benefit. Engineered Fc-leptin immunofusins, consisting of the Fc fragment of an immunoglobulin gamma chain followed by leptin, exhibit improved pharmacological properties with very consistent and potent biological activities. Furthermore, in extending the circulating half-life of the protein in vivo from a few minutes for leptin to many hours for Fc-leptin, these proteins have the potential to reduce drastically the dosage and frequency of administration required to obtain clinical benefit. The results of this study show that the engineered leptin immunofusins described here have significantly enhanced pharmacological properties in comparison with the recombinant leptin that was used in clinical trials. As such, they could represent an important step towards a therapeutically superior form of leptin if the disappointing performance of leptin in early clinical trials was due to its poor pharmacological properties rather than any conceptual weakness in the strategy of using leptin for the treatment of obesity and its related disorders.     

Effects of the Addition of Different Types of Fillers on the Properties of BaO–ZnO–B2O3–SiO2 Glass Composites for Application to Barrier Ribs of Plasma Display Panels

Various types of crystalline ceramic fillers (TiO₂, ZrO₂, Al₂O₃, MgO, and cordierite) were added to BaO–ZnO–B₂O₃–SiO₂ (BZBS) glass (5–20 wt%), and the resultant dielectric constant, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and optical reflectance were investigated for the application of the composites to the barrier ribs in plasma display panels. All the investigated fillers were partially dissolved into the glass at the fabrication temperature (575°C), and the residual fillers were aligned along the boundaries of sintered glass frits. By considering all aspects of the properties, the addition of TiO₂ fillers of about 10 wt% to BZBS glass was the most desirable of the types of fillers investigated. The addition of TiO₂ filler (10 wt%) yielded 61% in optical reflectance, 8.3 × 10⁻⁶ K^–1 in coefficient of thermal expansion, and 15.5 in dielectric constant, which were properties comparable with the currently used Pb-based barrier ribs.     

Production of human normal adult and fetal hemoglobins in Escherichia coli

A hemoglobin expression system in Escherichia coli is described. In order to produce authentic human hemoglobin, we need to co-express both methionine aminopeptidase and globin genes under the control of a strong promoter. We have constructed three plasmids, pHE2, pHE4 and pHE7, for the expression of human normal adult hemoglobin and a plasmid, pHE9, for the expression of human fetal hemoglobin, in high yields. The globin genes can be derived from either synthetic genes or human globin cDNAs. The extra amino-terminal methionine residues of the expressed globins can be removed by the co-expressed methionine aminopeptidase. The heme is inserted correctly into the expressed alpha- globin from our expression plasmids. A fraction (approximately 25%) of the heme is not inserted correctly into the expressed beta- or gamma- globin. However, the incorrectly inserted hemes can be converted into the correct conformation by carrying out a simple oxidation-reduction process on the purified hemoglobin molecule. We have investigated the functional properties of the expressed hemoglobins by measuring their oxygen-binding properties and their structural features by obtaining their 1H-NMR spectra. Our results show that authentic human normal adult and fetal hemoglobins can be produced from our expression plasmids in E. coli and in high yields. Our expression system allows us to design and to produce any recombinant hemoglobins needed for our research on the structure-function relationship in hemoglobin.      

Adsorption properties of polyacrylonitrile‐based activated carbon hollow fiber

In this work, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fibers are pretreated with ammonium dibasic phosphate and then further oxidized in air, carbonized in nitrogen, and activated with carbon dioxide. The adsorption properties of the resultant activated carbon hollow fibers (ACHF) prepared in different conditions were studied. The results show that the adsorption properties of ACHF change regularly with preparing conditions of ACHF. The different adsorption ratios to three adsorbates reflect the number of micropores and mesopores in PAN‐based ACHF. Pretreatment with phosphate can increase the number of mesopores. Proper oxidation temperature and time can increase the number of micropores and mesopores. When carbonization temperature is more than 900°C and carbonization time ranges from 50 to 90 min, the number of micropores and mesopores, especially mesopores, greatly increases. Compared with other treatments, activation treatment greatly increases the number of micropores and mesopores, and the dominant pore sizes of mesopores in PAN‐based ACHF are from 2 to 10 nm. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 602–607, 2004     

Mechanical properties of high-strength concrete after fire

With compressive strength grade of C40, C60, and C70, respectively, normal-strength concrete (NSC) and high-strength concrete (HSC) were used to investigate compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and bending strength after high temperature. The oil furnace is used in this study. Its temperature-time curve is close to standard curve, which conforms to Chinese standard GB/T 9978-1999. After being heated to temperatures of 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 °C, respectively, the mechanical properties of HSC were tested. The influence of temperature, water content, specimen size, strength grade, and temperature profiles on mechanical properties of HSC are discussed.     

电气绝缘材料的性能与发展

本文介绍了常用的固体绝缘材料的性能与作用，阐述固体绝缘材料的发展趋势。     

能效优先的用户关联与功率控制协同优化机制

在异构蜂窝网络中,针对系统的能效,提出了一种基于效用函数最大化模型的用户关联与功率控制协同优化方案,该方案表示为非线性混合整数问题。为了求得该问题的最优解,设计了一种迭代算法,首先将原问题转换为带参数的多项式形式的问题,在外层循环利用Dinkelbach方法求得最佳的能效因子,然后在内层循环分别求得最佳的用户关联矩阵和传输功率。最终实验结果表明,用户关联与功率控制协同的优化方案在能效和负载平衡方面比固定功率条件下的用户关联策略的性能更优。     

湿式氧化处理乙烯裂解废碱液

文章研究了WAO处理乙烯裂解废碱液的方法。在2L高压釜中进行了乙烯废碱液的湿式氧化实验研究，重点考察了反应温度、停留时间对乙烯废碱液中COD、S^2-,酚的含量的影响。结果表明，湿式氧化处理乙烯裂解废碱液是可行的，处理后污水中COD、S^2-,酚的去除率分别达到40％、98％和30％，达到了排放标准。     

新一代喷涂聚脲路面标线涂料

简述了国内路标漆的发展概况,介绍了聚天冬氨酸酯聚脲路标漆的原理、配方及应用性能。针对目前国内各种路标漆的优缺点,将聚天冬氨酸酯聚脲路标漆与它们进行比较,发现聚天冬氨酸酯聚脲路标漆具有快干、耐磨、反光效果好、施工速度快、重涂性好等优点,特别适用于路面标线涂料的应用。     

Free energy calculations of the mutation of Ile96 -> Ala in barnase: contributions to the difference in stability

Free energy calculations were carried out to determine the relativeunfolding free energy of the Ile96 wild type and Ala96 mutantbarnases. The total calculated free energies suggest that substitutionof Ile96 with Ala destabilizes barnase by 3.9 kcal/mol, whichis in good agreement with the independently determined experimentalvalues of 4.0 and 3.3 kcal/mol and a previous simulation. However,a decomposition of the free energy finds the dominant contributionsto this free energy arising from the noncovalent Interactionsbetween the perturbed group and distant residues of barnasein the sequence and water molecules and only a very small contributionfrom covalent interactions. This is in contrast to the previoussimulation, using the dual topology methodology, which produceda decomposition with an {small tilde}60% free energy contributionfrom changes in covalent interactions. The use of the singletopology employed in the present calculations and the dual topologyemployed in the previous study are analyzed in order to understandthe contrast between the present results and the results ofthe previous study.