Preparation of TiO 2

Photocatalysts comprising nanosized TiO2 particles on activated carbon (AC) were prepared by a sol-gel method. The TiO2/AC composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, nitrogen adsorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). Their photocatalytic activities were studied through the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) in photocatalytic reactor at room temperature under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation and the effect of loading cycles of TiO2 on the structural properties and photocatalytic activity of TiO2/AC composites was also investigated. The results indicate that the anatase TiO2 particles with a crystal size of 10–20 nm can be deposited homogeneously on the AC surface under calcination at 500°C. The loading cycle plays an important role in controlling the loading amount of TiO2 and morphological structure and photocatalytic activity of TiO2/AC composites. The porosity parameters of these composite photocatalysts such as specific surface area and total pore volume decrease whereas the loading amount of TiO2 increases. The TiO2/AC composite synthesized at 2 loading cycles exhibits a high photocatalytic activity in terms of the loading amount of TiO2 and as high as 93.2% removal rate for RhB from the 400 mL solution at initial concentration of 2 × 10−5 mol/L under UV light irradiation

Metal–organic layers stabilize earth-abundant metal–terpyridine diradical complexes for catalytic C–H activation

Metal–organic layers stabilize Fe II or Co II -terpyridine diradical complexes to catalyze alkylazide C sp3 –H amination and benzylic C–H borylation, respectively

Gamma-Irradiated Non-Capsule Group B Streptococcus Promotes T-Cell Dependent Immunity and Provides a Cross-Protective Reaction

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a Gram-positive bacterium commonly found in the genitourinary tract and is also a leading cause of neonatal sepsis and pneumonia. Despite the current antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP), the disease burdens of late-onset disease in newborns and non-pregnant adult infections are increasing. Recently, inactivation of the pathogens via gamma radiation has been proven to eliminate their replication ability but cause less damage to the antigenicity of the key epitopes. In this study, the non-capsule GBS strain was inactivated via radiation (Rad-GBS) or formalin (Che-GBS), and we further determined its immunogenicity and protective efficacy as vaccines. Notably, Rad-GBS was more immunogenic and gave rise to higher expression of costimulatory molecules in BMDCs in comparison with Che-GBS. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that Rad-GBS induced a stronger CD4+ IFN-γ+ and CD4+IL-17A+ population in mice. The protective efficacy was measured through challenge with the highly virulent strain CNCTC 10/84, and the adoptive transfer results further showed that the protective role is reversed by functionally neutralizing antibodies and T cells. Finally, cross-protection against challenges with prevalent serotypes of GBS was induced by Rad-GBS. The higher opsonophagocytic killing activity of sera against multiple serotypes was determined in sera from mice immunized with Rad-GBS. Overall, our results showed that the inactivated whole-cell encapsulated GBS could be an alternative strategy for universal vaccine development against invasive GBS infections

Three-dimensional measurement of small-object surfaces on the basis of fiber optic interferometric fringe projection

We used a system that exploits the Mach-Zehnder interferometer structure and Young\u27s double-pinhole interference principle to measure the three-dimensional topographies of small objects at high precision. Next, we performed phase profilometry to measure small objects and achieve a height measurement within a 10 x 10cm area. The accuracy of the measurement system improved by 44.1%, and the measurement time was reduced by 63.2%