A Demographic Profile of Independently Incorporated Native American Foundations and Selected Funds in the United States

This report gives basic demographic information on 60 grantmaking entities grouped into three categories: 1) Native foundations that are independently incorporated; 2) 501c3 Native organizations; and 3) tribal funds. These categories capture the variety of Native controlled approaches currently at work in the field

Domination and resistance in liberal settler colonialism : Palestinians in Israel between the homeland and the transnational

This thesis explores native resistance to settler colonialism through its focus on the ’48 Palestinians (also known as the Palestinian citizens of Israel). It innovatively brings together postcolonial theory and settler colonial studies to explore the racialised, ethnicised, gendered and sexualised dimensions of settler colonial violence, how these shape native modalities of resistance and subordination, and the ways in which the transnational is imbricated within these processes. The thesis undertakes two case studies – on the Palestinian Bedouin struggle for land rights and on the Palestinian queer movement – drawing upon archival research, other primary texts and ethnographic exploration. The case studies are interrogated in relation to the liberal-nationalist framework that dominates ’48 Palestinian discourse and resistance. The thesis radically critiques the frameworks of ethnocracy, ethnonationalism and minority studies that have been most prevalent in earlier research on ’48 Palestinians. Instead, this study builds on an understanding of resistance as diagnostic of power (Abu-Lughod 1990). It argues that the resistance of Palestinians in Israel is diagnostic of the structure of Israel as a liberal settler state, and unfolds in relation to the liminal positionality of ’48 Palestinians between (semi)liberal citizenship and colonial subjecthood. It further argues that the subjectivities and modalities of resistance of ’48 Palestinians are shaped through the racialising logics of settler colonialism, and the intersectionalities of these logics with ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Through the focus in the two case studies on indigeneity (and the fetishisation of the indigenous subject as premodern) and LGBT rights (and the folding of queer subjects into modernity), the thesis further suggests that the resistance of ’48 Palestinians is also shaped in complex and ambivalent ways by their ongoing encounters with the liberal frameworks of multiculturalism and human rights. The case studies illuminate that while these frameworks can serve as vehicles for empowerment, they can also reproduce the racialising logics of settler colonialism and further its entrenchment. This means that ’48 Palestinians constantly (re)negotiate their identities, their struggles and their political agendas within multiple circuits of power. The ambivalence of the encounter with the liberal settler state, as inclusionary and exclusionary, and human rights, as empowering and oppressive, produces native resistance to settler colonialism to be shaped and reshaped by competing political projects and hybrid modalities of resistance that include practices of self-essentialising, Bhabian notions of resistance as subversion, and a Fanonian politics of rejection as both pedagogy and a political imperative. The thesis concludes that the mobilisation of a more radical vision of decolonisation requires transcendence of both liberal settler colonialism and the liberal politics of human rights

Codoping-Induced, Rhombus-Shaped Co₃O₄ Nanosheets as an Active Electrode Material for Oxygen Evolution

Nanostructured Co₃O₄ doped with Zn²⁺, Ni²⁺, and both were directly grown on an ITO substrate by an easily available hydrothermal method. The doped Co₃O₄ showed a unique structural morphology evolution upon controlling the doping elements and the doping ratio of the cations. For the codoped samples, the novel rhombus-shaped Co₃O₄ nanosheets doped with Zn²⁺ and Ni²⁺ (concentration ratio of 1:2) exhibited the optimal electrocatalytic performance. The sample showed a current density of 165 mA cm^–2 at 1.75 V, approximately 1.6 and 4 times higher than that of samples doped with Zn²⁺ and Ni²⁺ at a concentration ratio of 1:1 and 1:3. The unique architecture and its corresponding modified physical properties, such as high active-site density created by codoping, large structural porosity, and high roughness, are together responsible to its superior performance. For codoped Co₃O₄ nanostructures, Zn²⁺ facilitates the creation of Co cations in their high oxidation state as active centers, while Ni²⁺ contributed to the new active sites with lower activation energy. The synergistic effect of Zn²⁺ and Ni²⁺ doping can explain the improved physicochemical properties of codoped Co₃O₄ nanostructures

A Protein-Based Hydrogel for <i>In Vitro</i> Expansion of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

<div><p>Hydrogels are widely used as scaffolds in tissue engineering because they can provide excellent environments for bioactive components including growth factors and cells. We reported in this study on a physical hydrogel formed by a specific protein-peptide interaction, which could be used for the three dimensional (3D) cell culture of murine mesenchymal stem cells (mMSC). The mMSC kept dividing during the 7-day culture period and the metabolic-active cell number at day 7 was 359% more than that at day 1. This kind of physical hydrogel could be converted to a homogeneous solution by firstly adding an equal volume of culture medium and then pipeting for several times. Therefore, mMSC post culture could be easily separated from cell-gel constructs. We believed that the protein-based hydrogel system in this study could be developed into a promising scaffold for <i>in vitro</i> expansion of stem cells and cell therapy. This work would be in the general interests of researchers in the fields of biomaterials and supramolecular chemistry.</p></div

Extraction, identification and antioxidant activity of proanthocyanidins from <i>Larix gmelinii</i> Bark

<div><p>This study was intended to extract and identify the proanthocyanidins from <i>Larix gmelinii</i> bark. Different extraction methods and degreasing methods were investigated. The content of proanthocyanidins, antioxidant activities and FT-IR analysis were used to evaluate and identify these extracts. The ultrasonic-assisted extracts displayed a higher content of proanthocyanidins and antioxidant activity than supercritical carbon dioxide extracts. The defatted extracts displayed a higher content of proanthocyanidins and antioxidant activity than un-defatted extracts. DPPH radical-scavenging capacity of extracts (29.88 μg mL^− 1) was higher than <i>V</i>_C (36.04 μg mL^− 1), and the inhibition effect of lipid peroxidation of extracts (15%) was higher than <i>V</i>_C (13%) and <i>V</i>_E (11%). The FT-IR analysis revealed that the main phenolic compounds were almost the same as proanthocyanidin standards.</p></div

Cell proliferation rate of mMSC in gels determined by a CCK-8 assay.

<p>One asterisk (*) indicates p value smaller than 0.05 (p<0.05). Three asterisks (***) indicate p value smaller than 0.001 (p<0.001).</p

A cartoon representation to illustrate the formation of the hydrogels.

<p>3D networks of the hydrogels are formed by the specific protein-peptide interaction. The blue, green, red and cyan represent ULD tetramer; the yellow represent TIP-1 protein; the grey thick line represent PEG-peptide; the grey balls represent hexapeptide of WRESAI which can bind with TIP-1.</p

Rheological measurement and SEM image of the gel.

<p><b>A</b>, Rheological measurement with the mode of dynamic time sweep for the sample containing 2.0 wt% of the protein and 1.0 wt% of the polymer (strain value = 1% and frequency value = 10 rad/s). The inserted is an optical image of the resulting hydrogel. <b>B</b>, An SEM image of the gel. The bar represents 10 µm.</p

Ultrasensitive Immunoassay Based on Anodic Near-Infrared Electrochemiluminescence from Dual-Stabilizer-Capped CdTe Nanocrystals

A sandwich-typed near-infrared (NIR) electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunoassay was developed with dual-stabilizer-capped CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) as ECL labels and α fetoprotein antigen (AFP) as model protein. The dual-stabilizer-capped NIR CdTe NCs were promising ECL labels because of their NIR ECL emission of 800 nm, low anodic ECL potential of +0.85 V, and high biocompatibity, which can facilitate interference-free and highly sensitive ECL bioassays. Upon the immunorecognition of the immobilized AFP to its antibody labeled with dual-stabilizer-capped CdTe NCs, the proposed immunoassay displayed increasing ECL intensity, leading to a wide calibration range of 10.0 pg/mL to 80.0 ng/mL with a detection limit of 5.0 pg/mL [signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) = 3] without coupling any signal amplification procedures. The NIR ECL immunoassay for real samples displayed very similar results with those of Ru­(bpy)₃²⁺ reagent kit based commercial ECL immunoassay, which not only proved for the efficiency of NIR ECL from dual-stabilizer-capped CdTe NCs but also paved the road for development of novel ECL emitters and corresponding reagent kits

An Enzyme Net Coating the Surface of Nanoparticles: A Simple and Efficient Method for the Immobilization of Phospholipase D

Phospholipase D (PLD) was immobilized in a simple and effective way by adsorption and precipitation of the enzyme, followed by chemical cross-linking to form an “enzyme net” covering the surface of nonporous silicon dioxide nanoparticles. For catalyzing transphosphatidylation to produce phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), at pH 6.0 and 35 °C (the optimum operational conditions), the specific activity of immobilized PLD reached 15872 U/g_protein, which was approximately 1.15 times higher than the maximum value of specific activity of free PLD (13813 U/g_protein). A kinetic study demonstrates immobilized PLD had increases in catalytic activity and enzyme–substrate affinity. In addition, the thermostability and pH tolerance were significantly enhanced compared with free PLD. The half-life of immobilized PLD was significantly increased from 30 to 70 days at 4 °C (approximately 2.3 times). This novel method has been proven to be suitable for the production of robust biocatalysts