Optimization of Experimental Parameters in preparing Multinanoporous TiO2 Thin Films by the Anodic Oxidation Method

The anodic oxidation method has been applied to the preparation of multinanoporous TiO2 thin films. The experimental parameters, including the electrolyte nature, oxidation voltage, and oxidation time have been carefully controlled. Their influence on the structure, morphology and photocatalytic activity of the prepared TiO2 films has been evaluated by measuring the current density. The result showed that there was a relatively wide range of preparation conditions, and the internal relationship between the structure and the photocatalytic properties of the TiO2 films was analyzed.KEYWORDS Titanium films, anodic oxidation, multinanoporous films, photocatalytic activity

Metabolomics to unveil and understand phenotypic diversity between pathogen populations

Visceral leishmaniasis is caused by a parasite called Leishmania donovani, which every year infects about half a million people and claims several thousand lives. Existing treatments are now becoming less effective due to the emergence of drug resistance. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms used by the parasite to adapt to drugs and achieve resistance is crucial for developing future treatment strategies. Unfortunately, the biological mechanism whereby Leishmania acquires drug resistance is poorly understood. Recent years have brought new technologies with the potential to increase greatly our understanding of drug resistance mechanisms. The latest mass spectrometry techniques allow the metabolome of parasites to be studied rapidly and in great detail. We have applied this approach to determine the metabolome of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant parasites isolated from patients with leishmaniasis. The data show that there are wholesale differences between the isolates and that the membrane composition has been drastically modified in drug-resistant parasites compared with drug-sensitive parasites. Our findings demonstrate that untargeted metabolomics has great potential to identify major metabolic differences between closely related parasite strains and thus should find many applications in distinguishing parasite phenotypes of clinical relevance