Optical nanosensor platform operating in near-physiological pH range via polymer-brush-mediated plasmon coupling

The nanosensors' platform made of a stimuli-responsive polymer/noble metal nanoparticle composite thin film exploits the combination of the swelling-shrinking transition in a poly(N,N'-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) brush and the localized surface plasmon resonance in metal nanoparticles to enable the transduction of changes in the solution pH in the near-physiological range into a pronounced optical signal.     

Gas nitriding and subsequent oxidation of Ti-6Al-4V alloys

Ti-6Al-4V alloys consisting of α-Ti grains and intergranular β-Ti islands were nitrided at 850°C for 1 to 12 h under a nitrogen pressure of 1 Pa. With increasing nitriding time, the Ti-N compound layer became thicker, and the α-Ti diffusion zone containing dissolved nitrogen became wider. In the Ti-N compound layer, the initially formed Ti₂N became TiN as the nitriding progressed. The nitride layers were oxidized to rutile-TiO₂ after oxidation at 700°C for 10 h in air.     

Microbial synthesis of core/shell gold/palladium nanoparticles for applications in green chemistry

We report a novel biochemical method based on the sacrificial hydrogen strategy to synthesize bimetallic gold (Au)–palladium (Pd) nanoparticles (NPs) with a core/shell configuration. The ability of Escherichia coli cells supplied with H₂ as electron donor to rapidly precipitate Pd(II) ions from solution is used to promote the reduction of soluble Au(III). Pre-coating cells with Pd(0) (bioPd) dramatically accelerated Au(III) reduction, with the Au(III) reduction rate being dependent upon the initial Pd loading by mass on the cells. Following Au(III) addition, the bioPd–Au(III) mixture rapidly turned purple, indicating the formation of colloidal gold. Mapping of bio-NPs by energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis suggested Au-dense core regions and peripheral Pd but only Au was detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. However, surface analysis of cleaned NPs by cyclic voltammetry revealed large Pd surface sites, suggesting, since XRD shows no crystalline Pd component, that layers of Pd atoms surround Au NPs. Characterization of the bimetallic particles using X-ray absorption spectroscopy confirmed the existence of Au-rich core and Pd-rich shell type bimetallic biogenic NPs. These showed comparable catalytic activity to chemical counterparts with respect to the oxidation of benzyl alcohol, in air, and at a low temperature (90°C).     

Polysilazane‐Type Coatings on Mo–Si–B Alloys: A Thermodynamic Assessment of the Phase Composition

Thermodynamic analysis is conducted to identify the most probable phase composition of a polysilazane‐type coating system on Mo–Mo₃Si(A15)–Mo₅SiB₂(T2) alloy. The Free Gibbs Energy of chemical reactions between these constituents and resulting phases are calculated. Silicon nitrides, silicon oxynitrides, and molybdenum silicides have been found in the phase equilibrium between the gas phase and condensed species of the proposed coating system. Silicon oxynitride and silica as components in the coating system are potential candidates for Mo–Si–B alloy oxidation protection in air at high temperatures.

     

Hepatic Senescence Accompanies the Development of NAFLD in Non-Aged Mice Independently of Obesity

Senescence is considered to be a cardinal player in several chronic inflammatory and metabolic pathologies. The two dominant mechanisms of senescence include replicative senescence, predominantly depending on age-induced telomere shortening, and stress-induced senescence, triggered by external or intracellular harmful stimuli. Recent data indicate that hepatocyte senescence is involved in the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, previous studies have mainly focused on age-related senescence during NAFLD, in the presence or absence of obesity, while information about whether the phenomenon is characterized by replicative or stress-induced senescence, especially in non-aged organisms, is scarce. Herein, we subjected young mice to two different diet-induced NAFLD models which differed in the presence of obesity. In both models, liver fat accumulation and increased hepatic mRNA expression of steatosis-related genes were accompanied by hepatic senescence, indicated by the increased expression of senescence-associated genes and the presence of a robust hybrid histo-/immunochemical senescence-specific staining in the liver. Surprisingly, telomere length and global DNA methylation did not differ between the steatotic and the control livers, while malondialdehyde, a marker of oxidative stress, was upregulated in the mouse NAFLD livers. These findings suggest that senescence accompanies NAFLD emergence, even in non-aged organisms, and highlight the role of stress-induced senescence during steatosis development independently of obesity.     

Scalable Bayesian preference learning for crowds

Machine Learning - We propose a scalable Bayesian preference learning method for jointly predicting the preferences of individuals as well as the consensus of a crowd from pairwise labels....     

Mechanism of nanoparticle actuation by responsive polymer brushes: from reconfigurable composite surfaces to plasmonic effects

The mechanism of nanoparticle actuation by stimuli-responsive polymer brushes triggered by changes in the solution pH was discovered and investigated in detail in this study. The finding explains the high spectral sensitivity of the composite ultrathin film composed of a poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) brush that tunes the spacing between two kinds of nanoparticles-gold nanoislands immobilized on a transparent support and gold colloidal particles adsorbed on the brush. The optical response of the film relies on the phenomenon of localized surface plasmon resonances in the noble metal nanoparticles, giving rise to an extinction band in visible spectra, and a plasmon coupling between the particles and the islands that has a strong effect on the band position and intensity. Since the coupling is controlled by the interparticle spacing, the pH-triggered swelling-shrinking transition in the P2VP brush leads to pronounced changes in the transmission spectra of the hybrid film. It was not established in the previous publications how the actuation of gold nanoparticles within a 10-15 nm interparticle distance could result in the 50-60 nm shift in the absorbance maximum in contrast to the model experiments and theoretical estimations of several nanometer shifts. In this work, the extinction band was deconvoluted into four spectrally separated and overlapping contributions that were attributed to different modes of interactions between the particles and the islands. These modes came into existence due to variations in the thickness of the grafted polymeric layer on the profiled surface of the islands. In situ atomic force microscopy measurements allowed us to explore the behavior of the Au particles as the P2VP brush switched between the swollen and collapsed states. In particular, we identified an interesting, previously unanticipated regime when a particle position in a polymer brush was switched between two distinct states: the particle exposed to the surface of the collapsed layer and the particle engulfed by the swollen brush. On average, the characteristic distance between the particles and the islands increased upon the brush swelling. The observed behavior was a result of the anchoring of the particles to polymeric chains that limited the particles' vertical motion range. The experimental findings will be used to design highly sensitive optical nanosensors based on a polymer-brush-modulated interparticle plasmon coupling.     

Improvement of Antioxidant Activities in Red Cabbage Sprouts by Lactic Acid Bacterial Fermentation

In the present study, the influence of three types of lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014, Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Danisco, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG E522 (ATCC 53103)) on antioxidant activities of fermented red cabbage sprouts was determined and compared with those of their unfermented/control counterparts. The fermentation resulted in a significant increase (p < 0.05) of antioxidant functionalities as measured by four assays: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging, Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like, and β-carotene/linoleic bleaching. The most considerable shift in the antioxidant activities was observed after 24 h of fermentation. These increases were followed by a decrease in total phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, and L-ascorbic acid and by an increase in flavonoids, flavonols, and several phenolic acids (gallic, chlorogenic, caffeic, syringic, p-coumaric, trans-3-hydroxy-4-methoxycinnamic, and trans-o-hydroxycinnamic acid) content. The relationship between the antioxidant activities and the compositional changes in antioxidant compounds due to LAB fermentation was observed. Fermented red cabbage sprouts inoculated with L. plantarum had the highest antioxidant activities (DPPH scavenging: 70.92%; TEAC: 1.94 mM Trolox equivalent; SOD-like activity: 63.40%, and β-carotene/linoleic bleaching: 44.33%), which was almost two-fold higher than those of unfermented treatments. These results indicated that LAB fermentation could be applied as a method to improve the potent antioxidant activities of red cabbage sprouts.