Bactericidal Performance of Visible-Light Responsive Titania Photocatalyst with Silver Nanostructures

BACKGROUND: Titania dioxide (TiO(2)) photocatalyst is primarily induced by ultraviolet light irradiation. Visible-light responsive anion-doped TiO(2) photocatalysts contain higher quantum efficiency under sunlight and can be used safely in indoor settings without exposing to biohazardous ultraviolet light. The antibacterial efficiency, however, remains to be further improved. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using thermal reduction method, here we synthesized silver-nanostructures coated TiO(2) thin films that contain a high visible-light responsive antibacterial property. Among our tested titania substrates including TiO(2), carbon-doped TiO(2) [TiO(2) (C)] and nitrogen-doped TiO(2) [TiO(2) (N)], TiO(2) (N) showed the best performance after silver coating. The synergistic antibacterial effect results approximately 5 log reductions of surviving bacteria of Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii. Scanning electron microscope analysis indicated that crystalline silver formed unique wire-like nanostructures on TiO(2) (N) substrates, while formed relatively straight and thicker rod-shaped precipitates on the other two titania materials. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggested that proper forms of silver on various titania materials could further influence the bactericidal property

Cocaine Hydrolase-Fc Fusion Proteins for Cocaine and Methods for Utilizing the Same

The presently-disclosed subject matter includes isolated polypeptides that comprise a butyrylcholinestrase (BChE) polypeptide and a second polypeptide. The BChE polypeptide as well as the second polypeptide can be variants and/or fragments thereof. The presently-disclosed subject matter also includes a pharmaceutical composition that comprises the present isolated polypeptide and a suitable pharmaceutical carrier. Further still, methods are provided for treating cocaine-induced conditions, and comprise administering the isolated polypeptide and/or pharmaceutical compositions thereof to an individual

Modeling Ligand-Receptor Interaction for Some MHC Class II HLA-DR4 Peptide Mimetic Inhibitors Using Several Molecular Docking and 3D QSAR Techniques

The ligand-receptor interaction between some peptidomimetic inhibitors and a class II MHC peptide presenting molecule, the HLA-DR4 receptor, was modeled using some three-dimensional (3D) quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) methods such as the Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA), Comparative Molecular Similarity Indices Analysis (CoMSIA), and a pharmacophore building method, the Catalyst program. The structures of these peptidomimetic inhibitors were generated theoretically, and the conformations used in the 3D QSAR studies were defined by docking them into the known structure of HLA-DR4 receptor through the GOLD, GLIDE Rigidly, GLIDE Flexible, and Xscore programs. Some of the parameters used in these docking programs were selected by docking an X-ray ligand into the receptor and comparing the root-means-square difference (RMSD) computed between the coordinates of the X-ray and docked structure. However, the goodness of a docking result for docking a series of peptidomimetic inhibitors into the HLA-DR4 receptor was judged by comparing the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient computed between each docking result and the activity data taken from the literature. The best CoMFA and CoMSIA models were constructed using the aligned structures of the best docking result. The CoMSIA was conducted in a stepwise manner to identify some important molecular features that were further employed in a pharmacophore building process by the Catalyst program. It was found that most inhibitors of the training set were accurately predicted by the best pharmacophore model, the Hypo1 hypothesis constructed. The deviation or conflict found between the actual and predicted activities of some inhibitors of both the training and the test sets were also investigated by mapping the Hypo1 hypothesis onto the corresponding structures of the inhibitors

SCintillation and IONosphere eXtended (SCION-X): A 12U CubeSat for Ionospheric and Atmospheric Science

SCION-X (SCintillation and IONosphere eXtended) is a 12U CubeSat that is being designed and developed by Upper Air Dynamics Laboratory, National Central University (NCU). SCION-X is the second funded CubeSat project being developed by NCU and is the largest self-developed spacecraft to date. This mission will help to further understand the variation of ionospheric irregularities, remote sensing methods for PM2.5 pollution distribution, and thermospheric photochemistry while serving as a relay station for amateur radio. Furthermore, it will help increase the communication and cooperation between universities in developing spaceflight capacity

Establishing a risk scoring system for predicting erosive esophagitis

SummaryObjectiveThis study aims to establish a noninvasive scoring system to predict the risk of erosive esophagitis (EE).MethodsFrom 2002 to 2009, a total of 34,346 consecutive adults who underwent health check-ups and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were retrospectively enrolled. Of the participants, 22,892 in the earlier two-thirds period of examination were defined as the training set and the remaining 11,454 as the validation set. EE was diagnosed by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Independent risk factors associated with EE were analyzed by multivariate analysis using a logistic regression model with the forward stepwise selection procedure in the training set. Subsequently, an EE risk scoring system was established and weighted by β coefficient. This risk scoring system was further validated in the validation set.ResultsIn the training set, older age, male gender, higher body mass index, higher waist circumference, higher serum triglyceride, and lower high-density lipid cholesterol levels were independent risk factors for predicting EE. According to the β coefficient value of each independent risk factor, the total score ranging from 0 to 10 was established, and then low- (0–3), moderate- (4–6), and high-risk (7–10) groups were identified. In the validation set, the prevalence rates of EE in the low-, moderate-, and high-risk groups were 5.15%, 15.76% and 26.11%, respectively (p < 0.001).ConclusionThis simple noninvasive risk scoring system, including factors of age, gender, body mass index, waist circumference, triglyceride, and high-density lipid cholesterol, effectively predicted EE and stratified its incidence