Mesoscale Mass Transport Enhancement on Well-Defined Porous Carbon Platform for Electrochemical H₂O₂ Synthesis

Two-electron oxygen reduction toward hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) offers a promising alternative for H2O2 production, but its commercial utilization is still hindered by the difficulty of transferring lab-observed catalyst performance to the practical reactor. Here we report the investigation of the porosity engineering effect on catalytic performance inconsistency through a material platform consisting of a series of hollow mesoporous carbon sphere (HMCS) samples. The performance comparison of HMCS samples in rotating ring-disk electrode and Zn-air battery together with the simulation of diffusion behavior reveals that, in low current density conditions, large surface area is preferred, but the mass transport governs the performance in high current density regions. On account of the favorable porous structure, HMCS-8 nm delivers the most excellent practical performance (166 mW cm–2) and performs well in the bifunctional Zn-air battery for the wastewater purification (70% RhB degraded after 2 min and 99% after 32 min)

Possibilities of increasing interest in foster care in the Czech Republic

For most people, family represents a place where they feel safe and loved. But not everyone is lucky enough to have a place like this, to have a functional family. If the biological family does not work as it should and a baby is threatened in some way, the state has several options to help the child. If there are solvable problems in the family, the state can try to help it by various interventions to improve the situation. But if these actions do not help and the child is forced to leave this family, it is necessary to ensure alternative environment for baby. The child can either be placed in institutional care, or to substitutional family care. Considering the shortcomings of institutional care, various forms of substitutional care are mainly supported. Probably the best known form of substitutional care is adoption. In the case of adoption, baby becomes the member of new family and relationships between child and his biological family vanishes. This form is only possible for a small percentage of abandoned children, because most of them still has some kind of relationship with biological family. For these children, there is an alternative, namely foster care. In the case of foster care, child grows up in a foster family, foster parents care for him every day, but the child still has a..

Analysis of the Proteins Secreted from the <i>Oryza meyeriana</i> Suspension-Cultured Cells Induced by <i>Xanthomonas oryzae</i> pv. <i>oryzae</i>

<div><p><i>Oryza meyeriana</i>, a wild species of rice from China, shows high resistance to <i>Xanthomonas oryzae</i> pv. <i>oryzae</i> (Xoo), the cause of rice bacterial blight, one of the most serious rice pathogens. To better understand the resistance mechanism, a proteomic study was conducted to identify changes in the proteins secreted in embryo cell suspension cultures in response to Xoo. After two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE), 72 differentially expressed protein spots corresponding to 34 proteins were identified by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/ Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry. Of the 34 proteins, 10 were up regulated and 24 down regulated. The secreted proteins identified were predicted to be involved in various biological processes, including signal transduction, defense, ROS and cell wall modification. 77% of the 34 proteins were predicted to have a signal peptide by Signal P. Quantitative Real-Time PCR showed that transcript levels of 14 secreted proteins were not well correlated with secreted protein levels. Peroxidase activity was up regulated in both <i>O</i>. <i>meyriana</i> and susceptible rice but was about three times higher in <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i>. This suggests that peroxidases may play an important role in the early response to Xoo in <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i>. These results not only provide a better understanding of the resistance mechanism of <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i>, but have implications for studies of the interactions between other plants and their pathogens.</p></div

New Titanium Carbonyls: Ti₂(CO)₁₀, Ti₂(CO)₁₁, and Ti₂(CO)₁₂

Structural and energetic features of the binuclear titanium carbonyls Ti₂(CO)_<i>n</i> (<i>n</i> = 12, 11, 10) have been examined using density functional theory. The lowest-energy Ti₂(CO)₁₂ structure is a singlet structure consisting of two Ti­(CO)₆ units linked by TiTi double bonds of lengths 3.0–3.2 Å. A similar slightly higher energy triplet Ti₂(CO)₁₂ structure is found with longer Ti–Ti bonds (3.37–3.62 Å), considered to be formal single bonds. The energy required for the dissociation of Ti₂(CO)₁₂ into two Ti­(CO)₆ fragments is 18.5 ± 2 kcal/mol higher than the energy required for the dissociation of V₂(CO)₁₂ into two V­(CO)₆ fragments. For the unsaturated Ti₂(CO)₁₁ system, the lowest-energy structures contain a four-electron-donor bridging η²-μ-CO group and 10 terminal CO groups with formal TiTi double bonds in the singlet structures and formal Ti–Ti single bonds in the triplet structures. Similarly, the most favored geometries for the more highly unsaturated Ti₂(CO)₁₀ contain two four-electron-donor bridging η²-μ-CO groups with formal TiTi double bonds for the singlet structures and formal Ti–Ti single bonds for the triplet structures. Higher-energy triplet Ti₂(CO)₁₀ structures are found with two or three two-electron-donor semibridging CO groups and formal TiTi triple bonds of length 2.7–2.8 Å

Western blot of the secretome and total proteins from <i>Oryza meyeriana</i>.

<p>A: Secretome and total protein were separated by 1D SDS-PAGE; B: Secretome and total protein were analyzed by immunoblotting with a mouse anti-actin antibody. Samples of 15 μg protein were loaded onto 12% SDS-PAGE gels, and stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB) R-250 solution. For western blot, actin was used a representative intracellular protein. Mr: marker; S: secretome; T: total protein.</p

Xoo-responsive rice proteins identified by 2-D DIGE.

<p>Changes in protein abundance of the 14 rice proteins in the secreted protein fraction of suspension-cultured cells 24 h after inoculation (top panel); mRNA expression of the 14 rice genes in the leaves of rice seedlings 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after inoculation (bottom panel).</p

The effect of Xoo (PXO124) on <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i> and susceptible cultivated rice Nipponbare.

<p>Upper panels show the plant phenotypes; lower panels show leaves 14 days after inoculation with Xoo using the clipping method. Controls were inoculated with water.</p

2D-DIGE analysis of the Xoo-induced secretome in <i>O</i>.<i>meyeriana</i> suspension cultured medium.

<p>Secreted-proteins were extracted from the medium and separated by 2D-DIGE using pH 4-7/24cm linear IPG strips and 12.5% SDS-PAGE gels. 110 protein spots showed significant changes (> 1.5 fold; p< 0.05), corresponding to 34 proteins identified by MS.</p

qQRT-PCR and enzyme activity assay of peroxidases in <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i> and Nipponbare.

<p>(A and B) qQRT-PCR of peroxidase 4 (P4) and peroxidase 5 (P5) in <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i> (A) or Nipponbare (B) 6h and 24h after inoculation with Xoo. (C) Peroxidase activity 0h, 6h, 12h and 24h after inoculation with Xoo; OsActin was used as a mock gene. (D) Western blot of peroxidase in <i>O</i>. <i>meyeriana</i> and Nipponbare 0h and 24h after inoculation with Xoo (top panel); total protein stained with CBB (bottom panel). CK: Control Mock; T: Treated with Xoo.</p

MOESM2 of An enhanced vector-free allele exchange (VFAE) mutagenesis protocol for genome editing in a wide range of bacterial species

Additional file 2. Schematic representation and comparison of the original and modified VFAE procedures