28 research outputs found
Synergistic Effect of Activated Carbon, NiO and Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> on Improving the Thermal Stability and Flame Retardancy of Polypropylene Composites
It is difficult to enhance the char yields of polypropylene (PP) due to the preferential complete combustion. Successful formation of abundant char layer structure of PP upon flammability was obtained due to the synergistic effect of NiO, Al2O3 and activated carbon (AC). From characterization of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), it was revealed that the microstructure of residual char contained large amount of carbon nanotubes. Compared to the modification of AC, NiO and Al2O3 alone, the combination of AC, NiO and Al2O3 dramatically promotes the charring ability of PP. In the case of AC and NiO, NiO plays a role of dehydrogenation, resulting in the degradation product, while AC mainly acts as carbonization promoter. The addition of Al2O3 results in higher dispersion and smaller particle size of NiO, leading to greater exposure of active sites of NiO and higher dehydrogenation and carbonization activity. Compared to the neat PP, the decomposition temperature of the PP modified by combined AC, NiO and Al2O3 was increased by 90 â. The yield of residual char of AC-5Ni-Al-PP reached as high as 44.6%. From the cone calorimeter test, the heat release rate per unit area (HRR) and total heat release per unit area (THR) of PP composite follows the order AC-5Ni-Al-PP < AC-10Ni-Al-PP < AC-Ni-PP < AC-15Ni-Al-PP < AC-1Ni-Al-PP. Compared to the neat PP, the peak of HRR declined by 73.8%, 72.7%, 71.3%, 67.6% and 62.5%, respectively
Controllable Synthesis of Polar Modified Hyper-Cross-Linked Resins and Their Adsorption of 2âNaphthol and 4âHydroxybenzoic Acid from Aqueous Solution
We synthesized a series of polar
hyper-cross-linked resins, and
the porosity and polarity of these resins were effectively tuned by
feeding different amounts of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). As the feeding
amount of GMA increased, the BrunauerâEmmettâTeller
surface area, pore volume, micropore area, and micropore volume sharply
decreased; the pore size distribution of the resins showed a large
population of pores in the microporous region extending to a higher
part of the mesoporous region, and the O content increased while the
static contact angle lowered. The adsorption experiments indicated
that these resins were efficient for adsorption of 2-naphthol and
4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HBA). The adsorption process was very fast,
and the kinetic data for the adsorption of 2-naphthol could be well-fitted
by a pseudo-second-order rate equation, while those for the adsorption
of 4-HBA could be characterized by a pseudo-first-order rate equation
High prevalence, genetic diversity and intracellular growth ability of Legionella in hot spring environments.
BACKGROUND: Legionella is the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, and hot springs are a major source of outbreaks of this disease. It is important from a public health perspective to survey hot spring environments for the presence of Legionella. METHODS: Prospective surveillance of the extent of Legionella pollution was conducted at three hot spring recreational areas in Beijing, China in 2011. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and sequence-based typing (SBT) were used to describe the genetic polymorphism of isolates. The intracellular growth ability of the isolates was determined by interacting with J774 cells and plating the dilutions onto BCYE agar plates. RESULTS: Overall, 51.9% of spring water samples showed Legionella-positive, and their concentrations ranged from 1 CFU/liter to 2,218 CFU/liter. The positive rates of Legionella were significantly associated with a free chlorine concentration of â„0.2 mg/L, urea concentration of â„0.05 mg/L, total microbial counts of â„400 CFU/ml and total coliform of â„3 MPN/L (p<0.01). The Legionella concentrations were significantly associated with sample temperature, pH, total microbial counts and total coliform (p<0.01). Legionella pneumophila was the most frequently isolated species (98.9%), and the isolated serogroups included serogroups 3 (25.3%), 6 (23.4%), 5 (19.2%), 1 (18.5%), 2 (10.2%), 8 (0.4%), 10 (0.8%), 9 (1.9%) and 12 (0.4%). Two hundred and twenty-eight isolates were analyzed by PFGE and 62 different patterns were obtained. Fifty-seven L. pneumophila isolates were selected for SBT analysis and divided into 35 different sequence types with 5 main clonal groups. All the 57 isolates had high intracellular growth ability. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated high prevalence and genetic polymorphism of Legionella in springs in Beijing, China, and the SBT and intracellular growth assay results suggested that the Legionella isolates of hot spring environments were pathogenic. Improved control and prevention strategies are urgently needed
Leveraging the Hermes Transposon to Accelerate the Development of Nonconventional Yeast-based Microbial Cell Factories
Janus Silver/Silica Nanoplatforms for Light-Activated Liver Cancer Chemo/Photothermal Therapy
Stimuli-triggered nanoplatforms
have become attractive candidates for combined strategies for advanced
liver cancer treatment. In this study, we designed a light-responsive
nanoplatform with folic acid-targeting properties to surmount the poor aqueous stability and photostability
of indocyanine green (ICG). In this Janus nanostructure, ICG was released
on-demand from mesoporous silica compartments in response to near-infrared
(NIR) irradiation, exhibiting predominant properties to convert light
to heat in the cytoplasm to kill liver cancer cells. Importantly,
the silver ions released from the silver compartment that were triggered
by light could induce efficient chemotherapy to supplement photothermal
therapy. Under NIR irradiation, ICG-loaded Janus nanoplatforms exhibited
synergistic therapeutic capabilities both in vitro and in vivo compared
with free ICG and ICG-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles themselves.
Hence, our Janus nanoplatform could integrate ICG-based photothermal
therapy and silver ion-based chemotherapy in a cascade manner, which
might provide an efficient and safe strategy for combined liver cancer
therapy
Circulating CellâFree DNAs as a Biomarker and Therapeutic Target for AcetaminophenâInduced Liver Injury
Abstract Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is a leading cause of drugâinduced liver injury and acute liver failure, while the detection, prognosis prediction, and therapy for APAPâinduced liver injury (AILI) remain improved. Here, it is determined that the temporal pattern of circulating cellâfree DNA (cfDNA) is strongly associated with damage and inflammation parameters in AILI. CfDNA is comparable to alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in predicting mortality and outperformed ALT when combined with ALT in AILI. The depletion of cfDNA or neutrophils alleviates liver damage, while the addition of cfDNA or adoptive transfer of neutrophils exacerbates the damage. The combination of DNase I and Nâacetylcysteine attenuates AILI significantly. This study establishes that cfDNA is a mechanistic biomarker to predict mortality in AILI mice. The combination of scavenging cfDNA and reducing oxidative damage provides a promising treatment for AILI
Characterization of subtypes and transmitted drug resistance strains of HIV among Beijing residents between 2001-2016.
BackgroundBeijing is a national and international hub potentially containing a broad diversity of HIV variants. Previous studies on molecular epidemiology of HIV in Beijing pooled together samples from residents and non-residents. Pooling residents and non-residents has potentially introduced bias and undermined a good assessment and the intervention among the autochthonous population. Here, we aimed to define HIV subtype diversity and investigate the TDR in Beijing residents exclusively.MethodsWe analyzed the demographic, clinical, and virological data collected between 2001 and 2016 from residents in Beijing. A population-based sequencing of the HIV pol gene was carried out using plasma specimens. Phylogenetic analysis was performed in order to classify sequences into their corresponding subtypes using an automated subtyping tool, the Context-Based Modeling for Expeditious Typing (COMET). Furthermore, the drug resistance mutations were determined using the World Health Organization list for surveillance of TDR mutations.ResultsData on TDR were available for 92% of 2,315 individuals with HIV infection, of whom 7.1% were women. The bioinformatic analysis of HIV strains from this study revealed that a combined 17 subtypes were circulating in Beijing, China between 2001 and 2016. The most common ones were CRF01_AE, CRF07_BC, and subtype B in Beijing during this period. The overall prevalence of TDR was 4.5% (95% confidence intervals[CI]: 3.6%-5.4%), with a declining trend over the period of spanning 2001 through 2016. In-depth class-specific analysis revealed that the prevalence of TDR for the nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) was 1.0% (95% CI: 0.6-1.5), 0.9% (95% CI:0.6-1.4) for non-NRTIs and 2.8% (95% CI:2.1-3.5) for protease inhibitors. The prevalence of TDR was lower in individuals infected with the CRF07_BC HIV strain than those infected with CRF01_AE.ConclusionsOur data showed that the HIV epidemic in Beijing displayed a high genetic heterogeneity and a low and declining prevalence of TDR. In sharp contrast to Europe and North America, the declining trend of TDR between 2001 through 2016 was noticed while there was a widespread distribution of antiretroviral treatment in Beijing, China