The effects of washing a collagen sample prior to TEM examination

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an important analysis technique to visualize (bio)macromolecules and their assemblies, including collagen fibers. Many protocols for TEM sample preparation of collagen involve one or more washing steps to remove excess salts from the dispersion that could hamper analysis when dried on a TEM grid. Such protocols are not standardized and washing times as well as washing solvents vary from procedure to procedure, with each research group typically having their own protocol. Here, we investigate the influence of washing with water, ethanol, but also methanol and 2-propanol, for both mineralized and unmineralized collagen samples via a protocol based on centrifugation. Washing with water maintains the hydrated collagen structure and the characteristic banding pattern can be clearly observed. Conversely, washing with ethanol results in dehydration of the fibrils, often leading to aggregation of the fibers and a less obvious banding pattern, already within 1 min of ethanol exposure. As we show, this process is fully reversible. Similar observations were made for methanol and propanol. Based on these results, a standardized washing protocol for collagenous samples is proposed.     

直通链路技术的发展与展望

直通链路技术己广泛应用于车联网场景。对于直通链路技术的潜在技术方向给出可行的建议，包括传统直通链路技术的增强方向，如载波聚合、使用非授权频谱等；侧行链路对于中继场景的应用扩展，包括终端到终端之间的中继，以及中继的多链接场景；在高精度定位场景使用直通链路技术。并且，给出直通链路技术与各种新技术的融合应用，如智能反射面与区块链技术，从而解决直通链路技术自身的缺陷。     

Effect of Drosophila suzukii on Blueberry VOCs: Chemical Cues for a Pupal Parasitoid,Trichopria anastrephae

Journal of Chemical Ecology - Biocontrol agents such as parasitic wasps use long-range volatiles and host-associated cues from lower trophic levels to find their hosts. However, this chemical...     

外军地面无人装备发展现状与趋势研究

随着通信、计算机、人工智能和传感器等技术的飞速发展与广泛应用，地面无人装备日趋活跃在作战、搜救和消防等多种军民用任务场景中。对于军事领域而言，地面无人装备是陆军和其他地面作战部队迈向无人化、智能化战场的核心装备，将在未来陆战场各类作战任务中发挥不可替代的作用。通过对外军各类典型地面无人装备发展现状进行深入分析，总结出该装备领域的发展特点与趋势，对地面无人装备发展有一定的借鉴意义。     

Microwave hybrid fast sintering of red clay ceramics

This work aimed to examine the performance of the hybrid sintering of clay ceramic in a microwave furnace, compared to the sintering process in a conventional furnace. The raw materials were subjected to X-ray fluorescence, loss on ignition (LOI), X-ray diffraction, particle size distribution, real specific mass, and thermogravimetric analyses. The red clay ceramic mass was prepared, extruded, pre-sintered in a conventional furnace at 600°C/60 min, and sintered at temperatures between 700 °C and 1100 °C. The sintering conventional (resistive oven) was carried out for 60 min with a heating rate of 10°C/min. In the microwave furnace, the sintering times were 5, 10, and 15 min, with a heating rate of 50°C/min, with a sintering chamber coated with silicon carbide (susceptor). The sintered specimens were characterized according to linear shrinkage, water absorption, apparent porosity, apparent specific mass, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy analysis, spectroscopy analysis in the ultraviolet and visible regions, microhardness, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that microwave sintering promoted an increase in the microhardness and apparent specific mass, and reduction in water absorption and apparent porosity values, due to greater densification in the microstructure. The best results occurred for specimens sintered at 1100°C.     

Extraction and characterization of hydroxyapatite-based materials from grey triggerfish skin and black scabbardfish bones

The conversion of food industry by-products to compounds with high added value is nowadays a significant topic, for social, environmental, and economic reasons. In this paper, calcium phosphate-based materials were obtained from black scabbardfish (Aphanopus carbo) bones and grey triggerfish (Balistes capriscus) skin, which are two of the most abundant fish by-products of Madeira Island. Different calcination temperatures between 400 and 1000°C were employed. Materials obtained from calcination of bones of black scabbard fish were composed by homogeneous mixtures of hydroxyapatite (Ca₁₀(PO4)₆(OH)₂, HAp) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂, β-TCP). Because of the high biocompatibility of HAp and the good resorbability of β-TCP, these natural biphasic materials could be very relevant in the field of biomaterials, as bone grafts. The ratio between HAp and β-TCP in the biphasic compound was dependent on the calcination temperature. Differently, the material obtained from skin of grey triggerfish contained HAp as the main phase, together with small amounts of other mineral phases, such as halite and rhenanite, which are known to enhance osteogenesis when used as bone substitutes. In both cases, the increase of calcination temperature led to an increase in the particles size with a consequent decrease in their specific surface area. These results demonstrate that from the fish by-products of the most consumed fishes in Madeira Island it is possible to obtain bioceramic materials with tunable composition and particle morphology, which could be promising materials for the biomedical field.     

生物矿化法制备氧化镓颗粒及其性能表征

以蚕丝蛋白为模板,在相对温和的条件下通过生物矿化的手段形成具有特殊形貌的α-GaOOH颗粒,并通过在不同温度下煅烧α-GaOOH得到α-Ga2O3和β-Ga2O3.采用扫描电镜(SEM)、透射电镜(TEM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)和荧光分光光度计(PL)等手段研究了丝素蛋白多肽和矿化时间对颗粒的影响,对其生物矿化机理进行了初步探讨.结果表明,所制备的β-Ga2O3具有优良的发光特性,丝素蛋白多肽模板以无定形的结构与产物结合在一起,并且经过高温烧结后仍以碳膜的形式包覆在材料的表面.这种碳膜结构对于提高材料的生物学性能起着重要的作用.     

Evaluation of direct light processing for the fabrication of bioactive ceramic scaffolds: Effect of pore/strut size on manufacturability and mechanical performance

Bioactive ceramic scaffolds for bone regeneration consisting of a three-dimensional mesh of interpenetrating struts with square section were fabricated via Digital Light Processing (DLP). The ability of the technique to manufacture 3D porous structures from β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) powders with different dimensions of struts and pores was evaluated, identifying the possibilities and limitations of the manufacturing process. Small pore sizes were found to seriously complicate the elimination of excess slurry from the scaffold’s innermost pores. The effect of the strut/pore size on the mechanical performance of the scaffolds under compressive stresses was also evaluated, but no significant influence was found. Under compressive stresses, the structures resulted weaker when tested perpendicularly to the printing plane due to interlayer shear failure. Interlayer superficial grooves are proposed as potential failure-controlling defects, which could also explain the lack of a Weibull size effect on the mechanical strength of the fabricated DLP scaffolds.     

基于图像分割技术的图像数字水印算法研究

针对数字图像水印技术,通过对闭运算得到的图像再进行开运算,使实验得到的图像区域较为完整,采用4×4的正方形结构元素,使得图像区域有更多的白色像素被置为黑色,对图像进行取反操作,能够对图像区域的非连通区域进行填充.希望能够利用精确的图像分割算法,实现对复杂版面的文档图像的有效切割,在一定程度上对图像数字水印的推广起到促进作用.