Red-Blood-Cell-Membrane-Coated Metal-Drug Nanoparticles for Enhanced Chemotherapy

To overcome high toxicity, low bioavailability and poor water solubility of chemotherapeutics, a variety of drug carriers have been designed. However, most carriers are severely limited by low drug loading capacity and adverse side effects. Here, a new type of metal-drug nanoparticles (MDNs) was designed and synthesized. The MDNs self-assembled with Fe(III) ions and drug molecules through coordination, resulting in nanoparticles with high drug loading. To assist systemic delivery and prolong circulation time, the obtained MDNs were camouflaged with red blood cell (RBCs) membranes (RBCs@Fe-DOX MDNs) to improve their stability and dispersity. The RBCs@Fe-DOX MDNs presented pH-responsive release functionalities, resulting in drug release accelerated in acidic tumor microenvironments. The outstanding in vitro and in vivo antitumor therapeutic outcome was realized by RBCs@Fe-DOX MDNs. This study provides an innovative design guideline for chemotherapy and demonstrates the great capacity of nanomaterials in anticancer treatments.     

Crude Wax Extracted from Rice Bran Oil Improves Oleogel Properties and Oxidative Stability

Crude wax extracted from rice bran oil (RBO) is used to improve the oleogel properties and oxidative stability of RBO. The effect of crude rice bran wax (CrBW) on the formation characteristics and oxidative stability of oleogels is discussed. The results show that oleogels can be formed with 7.0 wt% CrBW at 20 °C. As the concentration of CrBW increases from 7.0 to 11.0 wt%, the hardness and solid fat content (SFC) of the oleogels increase significantly, and the oleogels are primarily β' crystals. Moreover, oleogel crystals formed with 5 and 7 wt% CrBW are flocculent; when the amount included is 9%, the oleogel crystals are transformed into long dendrites, and the density rises. After 90 days of storage at 20 °C, the peroxide value of oleogels formed with 9.0 wt% CrBW slowly rises from 3.21 to 6.52 mmol kg⁻¹. Practical Applications: Oleogels prepared here by CrBW and RBO are an innovative structural lipid without trans fats. Useful information on the rich fats and nutrients in CrBW is provided, which reduces the production cost and improves the industrial production capacity.     

Gurum Seeds: A Potential Source of Edible Oil

Cucurbitaceae family seeds are mostly discarded as agro-industrial wastes. Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. colocynthoide) is an underutilized wild cucurbit plant, closely related to desert watermelon, which is grown abundantly in some African countries. Gurum seeds can play a significant role in health and nutrition due to their high oil content. This review describes the nutritional composition of gurum seeds and their oil profile. Gurum seeds are a good source of oil (27–35.5%), fiber (26–31%), crude protein (15–18%), and carbohydrates (14–17%). Gurum seeds oil is extracted by supercritical CO₂ (SFE), screw press, and solvent extraction techniques. The gurum seeds oil is composed of unsaturated fatty acids with a high proportion of linoleic acid (C18:2) and oleic acid (C18:1). Gurum seeds oil contains various bioactive compounds, such as tocopherols, phytosterols, and polyphenols. It is reported that solvent extraction gives a higher yield than the screw press and SFE, but the SFE is preferred due to safety issues. More studies are required for producing better quality gurum seeds oil by using novel extraction techniques that can increase oil yield.     

Luminescent Amphiphilic Aminoglycoside Probes to Study Transfection

We report the characterization of amphiphilic aminoglycoside conjugates containing luminophores with aggregation-induced emission properties as transfection reagents. These inherently luminescent transfection vectors are capable of binding plasmid DNA through electrostatic interactions; this binding results in an emission “on” signal due to restriction of intramolecular motion of the luminophore core. The luminescent cationic amphiphiles effectively transferred plasmid DNA into mammalian cells (HeLa, HEK 293T), as proven by expression of a red fluorescent protein marker. The morphologies of the aggregates were investigated by microscopy as well as ζ-potential and dynamic light-scattering measurements. The transfection efficiencies using luminescent cationic amphiphiles were similar to that of the gold-standard transfection reagent Lipofectamine® 2000.     

UPFC在线运行优化辅助决策应用功能设计

由于缺乏UPFC实时运行优化指导工具,UPFC强大的潮流控制能力无法灵活发挥。基于智能电网调度控制系统设计了UPFC运行优化辅助决策应用功能,根据实际UPFC工程限额工作模式下潮流计算特点,求解UPFC控制措施灵敏度,利用在线丰富的计算资源,进行UPFC多控制目标集群并行计算,获取UPFC静态安全控制措施和潮流优化控制措施。该应用功能可利用UPFC控制能力提高电网运行的灵活性,为调度运行人员提供辅助决策。苏州南部电网500 kV UPFC工程算例分析说明了UPFC在线运行优化辅助决策计算流程,结果显示所提方法可有效解决UPFC近区静态安全问题,并优化近区网络损耗。     

蒽醌法合成过氧化氢催化剂的研究进展

过氧化氢（H₂O₂, 俗称双氧水）, 由于其强氧化性常用作漂白剂、消毒剂, 同时也作化工原料。目前工业上生产过氧化氢的主要方法为蒽醌法, 全球近99%的产品均通过蒽醌法制得。研究具有高活性、高选择性及经济性的催化剂是合成过氧化氢所面对的最具挑战性的课题, 同时也是工业催化领域的研究热点之一。主要针对蒽醌法制过氧化氢催化剂, 综述了各种活性组分、载体及助剂在蒽醌加氢催化剂中的研究进展, 并简单探讨了各种活性组分的优缺点, 概括了各种载体、助剂的作用, 以期对过氧化氢催化剂的合成制备提供一些有益的启示。     

纳米MOFs及其衍生物在超级电容器中的研究进展

金属有机框架（MOFs）材料因其大的比表面积、可调控的孔道结构和丰富的活性位点引起了国内外学者们的广泛关注。近年来MOFs基材料广泛应用于能量储存与转化领域,但大多数MOFs基材料的低稳定性和低导电性等缺陷限制了其实际应用。通过对MOFs基材料进行改性,如采用共轭度高的有机配体以增加MOFs材料的稳定性,或MOFs衍生物以提高其氧化还原活性位点和导电性,从而达到提高MOFs基电极材料的电化学性能。主要介绍了原始MOFs及其衍生材料如碳材料、金属氧化物、金属硫化物、金属氢氧化物和金属磷化物等在超级电容器电极材料中的最新研究进展。研究表明,多金属MOFs材料或多金属MOFs衍生物有利于提高电极材料的电化学性能,而导电MOFs材料或MOFs衍生物中的碳材料有利于提高电极材料的导电性。最后对MOFs基电极材料在电化学储能领域中的研究做出了展望,指出MOFs基材料的形貌、组分和导电性是未来研究的发展方向。     

不同制备工艺对ZnS光学性能的影响

分别用真空热压、H2S模式的化学气相沉积以及S模式的化学气相沉积3种工艺方法制备了红外透过性能良好的ZnS材料.比较了不同的工艺过程对ZnS显微结构的影响,并且分析了不同制备方法形成的缺陷对光学性能的影响.探讨了热等静压工艺改善光学性能的原因和机理.透过谱图的测试表明,S模式的化学气相沉积法制备的ZnS具有最高的可见光至远红外的透过率.对3种方法制备的ZnS分别进行了热等静压后处理,发现对材料的光学透过性能都有不同程度的提高.