Multifunctional Amine Mesoporous Silica Spheres Modified with Multiple Amine as Carriers for Drug Release

Mesoporous silica spheres were synthesized by using Stöber theory (MSN-40). Calcination of the mesostructured phase resulted in the starting solid. Organic modification with aminopropyl groups resulted in two MSN-40 materials: named MSN-NH2 and MSN-DQ-40, respectively. These two kinds of samples with different pore sizes (obtained from 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]propyl-trimethox-ysilane (NQ-62) and modified NQ-62) showed control of the delivery rate of ibuprofen (IBU) from the siliceous matrix. The obtained sample from modified NQ-62 has an increased loading rate and shows better control of the delivery rate of IBU than the obtained sample from NQ-62. These three solids were characterized using standard solid state procedures. During tests of in vitro drug release, an interesting phenomenon was observed: at high pH (pH 7.45), IBU in all carriers was released slowly; at low pH (pH 4.5), only a part of the IBU was slowly released from this carrier within 25 hours; most IBU was effectively confined in mesoporous material, but the remaining IBU was released rapidly and completely after 25 hours

Molecular cloning, expression pattern of Trypsin gene and association analysis with growth traits in Penaeus monodon

A novel TRY homolog was cloned in Penaeus monodon by RACE technology, named PmTry (GenBank: KP998480). The PmTry cDNA was 916 bp, which encodes 266 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 28.38 KDa and an isoelectric point of 4.58. Homologous analysis indicated that PmTry shared 42%~91% similarity with other species. The phylogenetic tree showed that PmTry was closely related to Fenneropenaeus chinensis. Tissue expression profiles showed that PmTry was highest expressed in the hepatopancreas and the lowest expressed in the eyestalk nerve. It was expressed in the whole growth stage of P. monodon, but the relative expression level of each stage was significantly different. In addition, PmTry-524 and PmTry-798 were particularly related to growth traits of P. monodon by genotype. The SNP markers may provide a basis for genetic selection and breed improvement studies in P. monodon

Highly potent multivalent VHH antibodies against Chikungunya isolated from an alpaca naïve phage display library

Background Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerged mosquito-borne alphavirus that can cause musculoskeletal diseases, imposing a substantial threat to public health globally. High-affinity antibodies are need for diagnosis and treatment of CHIKV infections. As a potential diagnostic and therapeutic agent, the multivalent VHH antibodies is a promising tookit in nanomedicine. Here, we developed potent multivalent VHH antibodies from an alpaca naïve phage display library targeting the E2 glycoprotein of the CHIKV virus. Results In the present study, we generated 20 VHH antibodies using a naïve phage display library for binders to the CHIKV E2 glycoprotein. Of these, multivalent VHH antibodies Nb-2E8 and Nb-3C5 had specific high-affinity binding to E2 protein within the nanomolar range. The equilibrium dissociation constant (KD) was between 2.59–20.7 nM, which was 100-fold stronger than the monovalent antibodies’ affinity. Moreover, epitope mapping showed that Nb-2E8 and Nb-3C5 recognized different linear epitopes located on the E2 glycoprotein domain C and A, respectively. A facile protocol of sandwich ELISA was established using BiNb-2E8 as a capture antibody and HRP-conjugated BiNb-3C5 as a detection antibody. A good linear correlation was achieved between the OD450 value and the E2 protein concentration in the 5–1000 ng/mL range (r = 0.9864, P < 0.0001), indicating its potential for quantitative detection of the E2 protein. Conclusions Compared to monovalent antibodies, multivalent VHH antibodies Nb-2E8 and Nb-3C5 showed high affinity and are potential candidates for diagnostic applications to better detect CHIKV virions in sera. Graphical Abstrac

Effects of Pr and Yb Dual Doping on the Thermoelectric Properties of CaMnO3

There has been research on CaMnO3 with natural abundance, low toxicity, and low cost as promising candidates for n-type thermoelectric (TE) materials. In this paper, Ca1&minus;2xPrxYbxMnO3 with different Pr and Yb contents (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05) were synthesized by means of coprecipitation. With X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), researchers characterized the phase structure and morphology of all the samples. The oxidation states of manganese were determined by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The role of Ca-site dual doping in the TE properties was also investigated. Increasing the Pr and Yb contents leads to decreases in the electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient, leading to a power factor of 3.48 &times; 10&minus;4 W&middot;m&minus;1&middot;K&minus;2 for x = 0.04 at 773 K, which is its maximum. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity (&kappa;) decreases with increasing x, and &kappa; = 1.26 W&middot;m&minus;1&middot;K&minus;1 is obtained for x = 0.04 at 973 K. Ca0.92Pr0.04Yb0.04MnO3 exhibit a ZT (thermoelectric figure of merit) value of 0.24 at 973 K, approximately 3 times more than that of the pristine CaMnO3. Thus, the reported method is a new strategy to enhance the TE performance of CaMnO3

Effects of surging and heaving movements of platform on mechanical behaviors of SCT installation pipe

The effects of surging and heaving movements of installation platform on mechanical behaviors of SCT installation pipe was studied. Movements of SCT installation platform, ocean wave and current, water depth, SCT weight, installation pipe specification and those dominate the mechanical behaviors of installation pipe and SCT installation precision were considered. The results indicate that surging movement of the platform is the main factor that dominate the deformation of the installation pipe. The surging and heaving movements have significant effect on the tension force loaded on the installation pipe and thus need to be considered when designing SCT installation

Adsorption Behavior and Wettability of Rhodochrosite Surface: Effect of C18 Fatty Acid Unsaturation

Mineral surface wettability and its regulation by the adsorption of collectors have an important influence on the flotation performance. The adsorption behavior of C18 fatty acid with different unsaturation and its effect on rhodochrosite wettability was investigated with surface tension, contact angle, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. The results indicated that rhodochrosite hydrophobicity increased with the increasing concentration of fatty acid, along with the maximum contact angle (&theta;max) between hemimicelle concentration (HMC) and critical micelle concentration (CMC). Oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA), and &alpha;-linolenic acid (ALA) had a higher &theta;max than stearic acid (SA), but the value decreased with the increase of C=C bond number. Besides, preferential adsorption of unsaturated fatty acids on the liquid-air interface can be attributed to the molecule&rsquo;s steric hindrance resulting from C=C double bond, and the &theta; kept almost invariant with a higher value of &Gamma;LG than &Gamma;SL until HMC. The oriented monolayer and bilayer structure of fatty acids formed gradually on rhodochrosite surface with increasing concentration. However, the &theta;max may not necessarily correspond to the beginning of bilayer formation. Cylindrical monolayer and bilayer micelles of SA molecules were observed on rhodochrosite surface at HMC and CMC, respectively. While bilayer structures of unsaturated fatty acids formed before complete coverage of monolayer on rhodochrosite surface because of surface heterogeneity. This work provided a good understanding on the adsorption mechanism of fatty acid on rhodochrosite for flotation

Radioactivity of Five Typical General Industrial Solid Wastes and its Influence in Solid Waste Recycling

The level of radionuclides is an important index for the preparation of building materials from industrial solid waste. In order to investigate the radiological hazard of five kinds of typical general industrial solid wastes in Guizhou, China, including fly ash (FA), red mud (RM), phosphorus slag (PS), phosphogypsum (PG), and electrolytic manganese residue (EMR), the radiation intensity and associated radiological impact were studied. The results show that concentrations of 238U, 235U, 232Th, 226Ra, 210Pb, and 40K for different samples vary widely. The concentration of 238U was both positively correlated with 235U and 226Ra, and the uranium contents in the measured samples were all of natural origin. The radiation levels of PG, EMR, EMR-Na (EMR activated by NaOH), and EMR-Ca (EMR activated by Ca(OH)2) were all lower than the Chinese and the world&rsquo;s recommended highest levels for materials allowed to be directly used as building materials. The values of the internal and external illumination index (IRa and I&gamma;, respectively) for FA and RM were higher (IRa &gt; 1.0 and I&gamma; &gt; 1.3 for FA, IRa &gt; 2.0 and I&gamma; &gt; 2.0 for RM). The radium equivalent activity (Raeq), indoor and outdoor absorbed dose (Din and Dout, respectively), and corresponding annual effective dose rate (Ein and Eout) of RM, PS, and FA were higher than the recommended limit values (i.e., 370 Bq/kg, 84 nGy/h, 59 nGy/h, 0.4 mSv/y, and 0.07 mSv/y, respectively), resulting from the higher relative contribution of 226Ra and 232Th. The portion of RM, FA, and PS in building materials should be less than 75.44%, 29.72%, and 66.01%, respectively. This study provides quantitative analysis for the safe utilization of FA, RM, PS, PG, and EMR in Guizhou building materials

Composites of NiCo Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets and Co₃S₄ Nanoparticles for Asymmetric Supercapacitors

Transition metal layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with high theoretical specific capacity and abundant redox active centers are considered as ideal cathode materials for asymmetric supercapacitors, but limited specific surface area (SSA) and low conductivity hinder its electrochemical performance. Herein, layered NiCo-LDH nanosheets were synthesized by simple one-step ion exchange and co-precipitation method at room temperature using Co-ZIF-L as the metal precursor. Subsequently, Co3S4 nanoparticles were grown on NiCo-LDH nanosheets by controlling the amount of sulfur addition, thus constructing NiCo-LDH/Co3S4 composites with heterogeneous structures. The large SSA provided more active centers for the pseudocapacitance reaction, resulting in NiCo-LDH/Co3S4 obtaining high specific capacity and good rate capability (728.1 C g–1 at 1 A g–1 and 452.9 C g–1 at 20 A g–1). In addition, the assembled asymmetric supercapacitor (NiCo-LDH/S-100//AC) achieved a superior energy density (35.21 Wh g–1 at 749.98 W kg–1), showing considerable potential for practical applications

Impacts of Elevated CO₂ Levels on the Soil Bacterial Community in a Natural CO₂-Enhanced Oil Recovery Area

Knowledge of the interactions among different microorganisms is important to understand how ecological function transformation is affected by elevated CO2 levels in CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) sites. Molecular ecological networks were established to reveal the interactions among different microbes of the soil bacterial community with the high-throughput sequencing data of 16S rRNA genes. The results showed that these networks are a powerful tool to identify and explain the interactions and keystone species in the communities under elevated CO2 pressure. The structures of networks under different CO2 leakage concentrations were different as a result of the networks&#8217; topology properties, such as node numbers, topological roles of individual nodes, and network hubs. These indicators imply that the interactions among different groups were obviously changed. Moreover, changes in the network structure were significantly correlated with soil pH value, which might suggest that the large CO2 leakage affected the soil ecosystem functions by changing the network interactions. Additionally, the key microbial populations such as Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were distinguished based on network topology to reveal community structure and ecosystem functioning. The work developed in this study could help microbiologists to address some research questions that could not be approached previously, and, hence, might represent a new area of research for microbial ecology

Analysis of operability envelopes for subsea production tree installation

The article presents a mathematical model to investigate the operability envelopes for subsea production tress (SPT) installation using drill pipe. The finite differential method was used to solve the established governing equations in which the ocean conditions were considered. Based on the evaluations of the ocean wave, ocean current, water depth, specification of drill pipe and SPT weight that might dominate the mechanical behaviors of the pipe, the operability envelopes with permissible ocean conditions for SPT installation were obtained. The results indicate that changes of depths in deep water and SPT weight have few effects on the operation conditions and it would be better to choose smaller pipe to obtain larger permissible ocean conditions during SPT installation