Effect of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate and Sodium Chloride on the Stability of Aqueous Dispersions of TiO2 Particles Against Aggregation and Sedimentation

Dispersions of TiO2 particles are widely used as the main pigment in white inks for inkjet printers due to its brightness and high opacity. The TiO2 particles, however, have a high density, and so the possible fast settling of these particles can cause maintenance problems for the printers and lower the printing quality. We studied the effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a commonly used dispersant, on the stability of 1 wt% TiO2 aqueous dispersions, both with and without NaCl, against aggregation and sedimentation. The sedimentation half time (t50), defined as the time need for the particles to sediment from an initial sample height of 1 cm to 0.5 cm, was determined for various SDS concentrations. t50 was found to first increase with an increase in SDS concentration, reach a plateau upon further increases in concentration, and then rapidly decrease for SDS concentrations above a critical value. A similar trend was observed in 100 mM NaCl, though the transitions in t50 occurred at different SDS concentrations. Particle sizes were measured using dynamic light scattering, both before and after redispersion of the sediment to the same or different SDS concentrations. These measurements confirm that coagulation, no aggregation and then flocculation occurs as the SDS concentration is increased, indicating the effect of micelles in the dispersion stability at high enough SDS concentrations

Stability of Aqueous Dispersions of Titanium Dioxide Against Sedimentation and Aggregation

Particles of titanium dioxide (TiO2) are widely used as white pigments in paints and inks, due to their brightness and high refractive index. Yet, with TiO2 having a high density (4.2 g/cm3), particles with typical sizes of 300 nm sediment rapidly even before significant agglomeration can occur. Thus, increasing the stability of TiO2 dispersions against sedimentation as well as aggregation is important. We studied the effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a commonly used dispersant, on the stability of aqueous dispersions of TiO2 with weight fractions from 0.01 to 40. The sedimentation time of each dispersion, defined to be the time for which the particles were found to settle from an initial sample of height of 1 cm to 0.5 cm, was obtained by visual observation. The sedimentation time for 40 wt% TiO2 exceeded 100 hours, but was less than 24 hours for 0.01 wt%. The viscosities of aqueous solutions with varying SDS concentrations were also measured, increasing by about 50% as the SDS concentrations increased from 0 mM to 200 mM. This increase in viscosity cannot therefore fully explain the observed increase in sedimentation time with increasing SDS concentration. The viscosity data were also used to determine the effective sizes of the SDS micelles. The effective diameter of micelles was raised from 3 nm to 6 nm and then remains constant as the SDS concentrations increased from 0 mM to 200 mM. Overall, the results show that the viscosity effects have little influence on the sedimentation behavior and the sedimentation time is increased with increasing TiO2 particle concentration

Behaviors of susceptible-infected epidemics on scale-free networks with identical infectivity

In this article, we proposed a susceptible-infected model with identical infectivity, in which, at every time step, each node can only contact a constant number of neighbors. We implemented this model on scale-free networks, and found that the infected population grows in an exponential form with the time scale proportional to the spreading rate. Further more, by numerical simulation, we demonstrated that the targeted immunization of the present model is much less efficient than that of the standard susceptible-infected model. Finally, we investigated a fast spreading strategy when only local information is available. Different from the extensively studied path finding strategy, the strategy preferring small-degree nodes is more efficient than that preferring large-degree nodes. Our results indicate the existence of an essential relationship between network traffic and network epidemic on scale-free networks.Comment: 5 figures and 7 page

Effects of Escherichia coli outer membrane vesicles on proliferation of breast cancer cells and tumor growth of tumor-bearing mice

Objective·To analyze the effect of Escherichia coli outer membrane vesicle (E.coli-OMV) on the proliferation of 4T1 breast cancer cells in vitro and the inhibition of tumor growth in BALB/c-4T1 tumor-bearing mice in vivo.Methods·OMVs were collected from the culture supernatant of E.coli and characterized. The uptake of E.coli-OMV by 4T1 cells was detected by fluorescent label tracking method. The effect of E.coli-OMV on 4T1 cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 method. The effect of E.coli-OMV on 4T1 cell cycle was detected by flow cytometry. The BALB/c-4T1 tumor-bearing mouse models were established by subcutaneous inoculation, and the mice were divided into E.coli-OMV group and Control group, with 10 mice in each group. The mice in the E.coli-OMV group were injected with 0.25 mg/kg E.coli-OMV every 2 d, while the mice in the Control group were injected with equal doses of PBS. The changes in body weight, 40 d survival rate, tumor volume and tumor weight of the two groups of tumor-bearing mice were observed. The pathological morphology of the tumor tissues was evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin staining (H-E staining). The expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and CyclinD1 in tumor tissues was observed by immunohistochemical staining.Results·E.coli-OMV was spherical membrane vesicle structure with a particle size of (216.00±18.30) nm, which expressed E.coli outer membrane protein A (OmpA) and OmpC. Fluorescence microscopy results showed that 4T1 cells could intake E.coli-OMV. CCK-8 results showed that the inhibitory effect of E.coli-OMV on 4T1 cells was positively correlated with time-dose. Flow cytometry results showed that E.coli-OMV arrested the growth cycle of 4T1 cells in G0/G1 phase. In vivo experiments showed that compared with the Control group, body weight of mice in the E.coli-OMV group decreased slightly after the initial injection (P=0.031), and then recovered, while 40 d survival rate increased (P=0.037). The growth of tumor volume and weight of mice in E.coli-OMV group were lower than those in the Control group (P=0.041, P=0.004). Its tumor volume inhibition rate reached 29.69%, and tumor weight inhibition rate reached 49.81%. The results of H-E staining showed that nuclear splitting images of tumor tissues of mice in the E.coli-OMV group decreased compared to the Control group (P=0.038). The results of immunohistochemical staining showed that the positive expression of PCNA and CyclinD1 in the tumor tissues of mice in the E.coli-OMV group decreased compared to the Control group (P=0.031, P=0.002).Conclusion·Both in vitro and in vivo studies show that E.coli-OMV can significantly inhibit the proliferation of 4T1 cells

Strong Magnetic p-n Heterojunction Fe₃O₄-FeWO₄ for Photo-Fenton Degradation of Tetracycline Hydrochloride

With the abuse of antibiotics, its pollution poses an increasing threat to the environment and human health. Effective degradation of organic pollutants in water bodies is urgent. Compared to traditional treatment methods, advanced oxidation processes that have developed rapidly in recent years are more environmentally friendly, efficient and applicable to a wider range of organic compounds. FeWO4 was used in this study as the iron-based semiconductor material to modify and optimize the material design. Fe3O4/FeWO4 composites were prepared by a two-step hydrothermal method. The crystal structure, surface morphology, electrochemical properties and separability of the composite semiconductor were analyzed by XRD, XPS, UV-vis, SEM, EDS and Mott-Schottky. The results showed that, when the initial contaminant concentration was 30 mg/L, the initial solution pH was 4, the dosage of the catalyst was 25 mg and the dosage of hydrogen peroxide was 30 μL, the degradation efficiency of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) could reach 91% within 60 min, which was significantly improved compared to the performance of the single semiconductors Fe3O4 and FeWO4. In addition, the catalyst prepared in this experiment can be easily recovered by magnetic separation technology in practical application, which will not affect the turbidity of water while reducing the cost of catalyst separation and recovery

A seven-gene prognostic signature for rapid determination of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma survival

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer and displays divergent clinical outcomes. Prognostic biomarkers might improve risk stratification and survival prediction. We aimed to investigate the prognostic genes associated with overall survival. A two-step gene selection method was used to develop a seven-gene-based prognostic model based on the training set collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). In addition, the prognostic model was validated in an independent testing set from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The score based on the model successfully distinguished HNSCC survival into high-risk and low-risk groups in the training set (HR, 2.79; 95% CI, 1.98–3.92; P=4.05×10−9) and the testing set (HR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.35–3.11; P=7.98×10−4). In addition, the score could significantly predict 5-year survival by ROC curves (AUCs for training set, 0.73; testing set, 0.66). Combining risk scores with clinical characteristics improved the AUCs beyond using clinical characteristics alone (training set, from 0.57 to 0.75; testing set, from 0.63 to 0.72). A subgroup sensitivity analysis with HPV status and tumor sites revealed that the risk score was significant in all subgroups except oral cavity tumors of the testing set. Furthermore, HPV-positive status improves survival in oropharyngeal HNSCC but not non-oropharyngeal HNSCC. In conclusion, the seven-gene prognostic signature is a reliable and practical prognostic tool for HNSCC. This approach can add prognostic value to clinical characteristics and provides a new possibility for individualized treatment