Microwave plasma-induced growth of vertical graphene from fullerene soot

Vertical graphene (VG) films can be fabricated on the surface of nickel foil from fullerene soot (FS) under microwave plasma irradiation (MPI) in a mixture gas of H2 and Ar at 1200 W for 15 min. The resulting FS-derived VG films mostly consist of few-layer graphene sheets with large domain graphene sizes, high graphitization order, and high purity, as characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopies, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Combined the present and previous results, MPI technique is an effective and versatile approach to synthesize vertically oriented graphene sheets from any carbon-containing sources

Surface functionalization of vertical graphene significantly enhances the energy storage capability for symmetric supercapacitors

Vertical graphene (VG) sheets, which consist of few-layer graphene vertically aligned on the substrate with three dimensionally interconnected porous network, make them become one of the most promising energy storage electrodes, especially for SCs. Nevertheless, the intrinsic hydrophobic nature of pristine VG sheets severely limited its application in aqueous SCs. Here, electrochemical oxidation strategy is adopted to increase the hydrophilicity of VG sheets by introducing oxygen functional groups so that the aqueous electrolyte can fully be in contact with the VG sheets to improve charge storage performance. Our work demonstrated that the introduction of oxygen functional groups not only greatly improved the hydrophilicity but also generated a pseudo capacitance to increase the specific capacitance. The resulting capacitance of electrochemically oxidized VG for 7 min (denoted as EOVG-7) exhibited three orders of magnitude higher (1605 mF/cm²) compared to pristine VG sheets. Through assembled two EOVG-7 electrodes, a symmetric supercapacitor demonstrated high specific capacitance of 307.5 mF/cm², high energy density of 138.3 μWh/cm2 as well as excellent cyclic stability (84% capacitance retention after 10000 cycles). This strategy provides a promising way for designing and engineering carbon-based aqueous supercapacitors with high performance

Flueggea acicularis (Phyllanthaceae), a narrow endemic species rediscovered in central China

Flueggea acicularis (Phyllanthaceae) is endemic to the karst region of central China. Male specimens of this species were first collected in 1908. In 1989, female plants of F. acicularis were found for the first time, but misidentified as a new species. Throughout this period the male plants of F. acicularis were mismatched with female plants of other species, and male plants had not been collected since 1908. Then, in March, 2009, the authors rediscovered a wild population of F. acicularis consisting of both male and female plants in Wuxi county, Chongqing municipality, China. Based on field investigation and examination of specimens, we matched the correct female and male plants of this species for the first time since its initial publication a century ago. A complete and accurate morphological description, distribution, habitat and phenology of this species are also provided. Furthermore, the conservation status of F. acicularis is assessed as “Near Threatened” (NT) according to the IUCN Red List criteria

Antimicrobial Activity of Pomegranate Peel and Its Applications on Food Preservation

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruit is being cultivated since the civilization is known, and its production and consumption have been increased since the last century due to the scientific confirmation of its health benefits. Pomegranate fruits, fruit juice, its seeds, and peels are known to have higher contents of bioactive compounds, viz., phenolic acids, flavonoids, and hydrolysable tannins. The peels of pomegranate fruits are the major by-products produced during food processing of pomegranate enriched in antioxidants and broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents and can prevent food deterioration even. This health potential of pomegranate is known to vary significantly upon the varieties, growing conditions, cultivation practices, stages of the development, and the extraction methods. Herein, the biochemical composition of the pomegranate peel extract (PPE), its efficacy in food preservation, and antimicrobial activities are discussed to provide a comprehensive guide for farmers, food processing, and storage sectors and academia

Modulating Cell Behaviors on Chiral Polymer Brush Films with Different Hydrophobic Side Groups

Chirality is one of the significant biochemical signatures of life. Nearly all biological polymers are homochiral as they usually show high preference toward one specific enantiomer. This phenomenon inspires us to design biomaterials with chiral units and study their interactions with cells and other biological entities. In this article, through adopting three pairs of aliphatic amino acids with different hydrophobic side groups as chiral species, and using two adhesive cell lines as examples, we show that the chirality of polymer brushes can trigger differential cell behaviors on the enantiomorphous surfaces, and more interestingly, such chiral effect on cellular behaviors can be modulated in a certain extent by varying the hydrophobic side groups of the chiral moieties composing the polymers. This work not only proves the versatility of the chiral effect at the cell level but also demonstrates a method to bridge the gap between organic signal molecules and biomaterials. It thus points out a promising approach for designing novel biomaterials based on the chiral effect, which will be an important complement for conventional strategies in the study of biomaterials

TRIM59 Promotes the Proliferation and Migration of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells by Upregulating Cell Cycle Related Proteins

<div><p>TRIM protein family is an evolutionarily conserved gene family implicated in a number of critical processes including inflammation, immunity, antiviral and cancer. In an effort to profile the expression patterns of TRIM superfamily in several non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines, we found that the expression of 10 TRIM genes including TRIM3, TRIM7, TRIM14, TRIM16, TRIM21, TRIM22, TRIM29, TRIM59, TRIM66 and TRIM70 was significantly upregulated in NSCLC cell lines compared with the normal human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cell line, whereas the expression of 7 other TRIM genes including TRIM4, TRIM9, TRIM36, TRIM46, TRIM54, TRIM67 and TRIM76 was significantly down-regulated in NSCLC cell lines compared with that in HBE cells. As TRIM59 has been reported to act as a proto-oncogene that affects both Ras and RB signal pathways in prostate cancer models, we here focused on the role of TRIM59 in the regulation of NSCLC cell proliferation and migration. We reported that TRIM59 protein was significantly increased in various NSCLC cell lines. SiRNA-induced knocking down of TRIM59 significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration of NSCLC cell lines by arresting cell cycle in G2 phase. Moreover, TRIM59 knocking down affected the expression of a number of cell cycle proteins including CDC25C and CDK1. Finally, we knocked down TRIM59 and found that p53 protein expression levels did not upregulate, so we proposed that TRIM59 may promote NSCLC cell growth through other pathways but not the p53 signaling pathway.</p></div

4EBP1 senses extracellular glucose deprivation and initiates cell death signaling in lung cancer

Abstract Nutrient-limiting conditions are common during cancer development. The coordination of cellular glucose levels and cell survival is a fundamental question in cell biology and has not been completely understood. 4EBP1 is known as a translational repressor to regulate cell proliferation and survival by controlling translation initiation, however, whether 4EBP1 could participate in tumor survival by other mechanism except for translational repression function, especially under glucose starvation conditions remains unknown. Here, we found that protein levels of 4EBP1 was up-regulated in the central region of the tumor which always suffered nutrient deprivation compared with the peripheral region. We further discovered that 4EBP1 was dephosphorylated by PTPMT1 under glucose starvation conditions, which prevented 4EBP1 from being targeted for ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation by HERC5. After that, 4EBP1 translocated to cytoplasm and interacted with STAT3 by competing with JAK and ERK, leading to the inactivation of STAT3 in the cytoplasm, resulting in apoptosis under glucose withdrawal conditions. Moreover, 4EBP1 knockdown increased the tumor volume and weight in xenograft models by inhibiting apoptosis in the central region of tumor. These findings highlight a novel mechanism for 4EBP1 as a new cellular glucose sensor in regulating cancer cell death under glucose deprivation conditions, which was different from its classical function as a translational repressor