Label-Free Fluorescent Kinase and Phosphatase Enzyme Assays with Supramolecular Host-Dye Pairs

The combination of the macrocyclic hosts p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene and cucurbit[7]uril with the fluorescent dyes lucigenin and berberine affords two label-free enzyme assays for the detection of kinase and phosphatase activity by fluorescence monitoring. In contrast to established assays, no substrate labeling is required. Since phosphorylation is one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in biological signal transduction, the assays should be useful for identification of inhibitors and activators in high-throughput screening (HTS) format for drug discovery.     

An Analytical Model for Fluid Imbibition in Organic Nanopores

Transport in Porous Media - Estimating the fluid imbibition flow in natural system composed of nanopores is challenging due to the strong fluid/rock molecular scale interaction and the invalidation...     

Ti0.33WO3电子结构和太阳辐射屏蔽性能第一性原理研究

节能减排已成为当今社会发展的主题,对节约能源、提高太阳能的高效综合利用的新型窗用透明隔热材料的理论设计和研究尤其重要.本文采用基于密度泛函理论的计算方法,研究了六方相三氧化钨Ti掺杂前、后的晶格参数、电子能带结构、形成能和光学性质.研究结果表明,Ti掺杂后晶格体积增大,系统能量降为负值,体系具有更好的稳定性;掺杂后电子能带结构发生很大的变化,但材料仍保持n型电导率;随之,其光学性质也发生改变,掺杂前h-WO3无近红外吸收性能,掺杂后的Ti0.33WO3具有很强的近红外吸收性能.在此基础上研究了Ti掺杂h-WO3前、后的太阳辐射屏蔽性能,掺杂前无太阳辐射屏蔽性能;掺杂后的Ti0.33WO3薄膜具有可见光高透明、近红外屏蔽的性能.计算结果为Ti掺杂h-WO3在窗用透明隔热材料方面的研究提供了理论依据.     

Polypyrrole modified hierarchical porous CoS2@RGO aerogel electrode for ultrafast sodium storage

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - CoS2 nanooctahedrons homogeneously encapsulated by hierarchical porous-reduced graphene oxide and polypyrrole thin film are constructed via a simple...     

UPLC–ESI–Q-TOF–MS/MS analysis of anticancer fractions from Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis and Ophiocordyceps sinensis

Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis (O. xuefengensis), a new species of caterpillar fungus, has been identified as the sister taxon of Ophiocordyceps sinensis (O. sinensis). The aims of the present study are to evaluate the anticancer activity and to qualitatively analyze the potential bioactive chemical constituents of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis, comparatively. An MTT assay was used to evaluate the in vitro anticancer activities of different fractions from O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. The results show that ethyl acetate fractions of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis have significant in vitro anticancer activity. These two bioactive fractions were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization with quadrupole–time of flight tandem mass spectrometry technology. A total of 82 compounds and 101 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized in the bioactive fractions of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis, respectively. Among these compounds, 68 existed in both O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. A total of 67 compounds were reported in O. xuefengensis and 8 compounds were reported in caterpillar fungus for the first time. This is the first detailed comparative analysis of the in vitro anticancer activity and chemical ingredients between O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. The application of this work will provide reliable fundamental pharmacological substances for the use of O. xuefengensis by Yao people.     

Two cubane-like [M4O4] {M = nickel(II), cobalt(II)} complexes: syntheses,crystal structures and magnetic properties

Transition Metal Chemistry - Two cubane-like complexes, namely [Ni4L4(HOEt)4] (1), [Co4L4(HOEt)4] (2) (H2L?=?(E)-2-((3-hydroxypropylimino)methyl)-6-methoxyphenol), were prepared under...     

FeOOH@Metal–Organic Framework Core–Satellite Nanocomposites for the Serum Metabolic Fingerprinting of Gynecological Cancers

High-throughput metabolic analysis is of significance in diagnostics, while tedious sample pretreatment has largely hindered its clinic application. Herein, we designed FeOOH@ZIF-8 composites with enhanced ionization efficiency and size-exclusion effect for laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS)-based metabolic diagnosis of gynecological cancers. The FeOOH@ZIF-8-assisted LDI-MS achieved rapid, sensitive, and selective metabolic fingerprints of the native serum without any enrichment or purification. Further analysis of extracted serum metabolic fingerprints successfully discriminated patients with gynecological cancers (GCs) from healthy controls and also differentiated three major subtypes of GCs. Given the low cost, high-throughput, and easy operation, our approach brings a new dimension to disease analysis and classification.     

Gravitational wave imprint of new symmetry breaking

It is believed that there are more fundamental gauge symmetries beyond those described by the Standard Model of particle physics. The scales of these new gauge symmetries are usually too high to be reachable by particle colliders. Considering that the phase transition (PT) relating to the spontaneous breaking of new gauge symmetries to the electroweak symmetry might be strongly first order, we propose considering the stochastic gravitational waves (GW) arising from this phase transition as an indirect way of detecting these new fundamental gauge symmetries. As an illustration, we explore the possibility of detecting the stochastic GW generated from the PT of \begin{document}$ {\bf{B}}-{\bf{L}}$\end{document} in the space-based interferometer detectors. Our study demonstrates that the GW energy spectrum is reachable by the LISA, Tianqin, Taiji, BBO, and DECIGO experiments only for the case where the spontaneous breaking of \begin{document}$ {\bf{B}}-{\bf{L}}$\end{document} is triggered by at least two electroweak singlet scalars.     

Dual‐signal amplification strategy for ultrasensitive chemiluminescence detection of PDGF–BB in capillary electrophoresis

Many efforts have been made toward the achievement of high sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis coupled with chemiluminescence detection (CE‐CL). This work describes a novel dual‐signal amplification strategy for highly specific and ultrasensitive CL detection of human platelet‐derived growth factor–BB (PDGF–BB) using both aptamer and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) modified gold nanoparticles (HRP–AuNPs–aptamer) as nanoprobes in CE. Both AuNPs and HRP in the nanoprobes could amplify the CL signals in the luminol–H₂O₂ CL system, owing to the excellent catalytic behavior of AuNPs and HRP in the CL system. Meanwhile, the high affinity of aptamer modified on the AuNPs allows detection with high specificity. As proof‐of‐concept, the proposed method was employed to quantify the concentration of PDGF–BB from 0.50 to 250 fm with a detection limit of 0.21 fm. The applicability of the assay was further demonstrated in the analysis of PDGF–BB in human serum samples with acceptable accuracy and reliability. The result of this study exhibits distinct advantages, such as high sensitivity, good specificity, simplicity, and very small sample consumption. The good performances of the proposed strategy provide a powerful avenue for ultrasensitive detection of rare proteins in biological sample, showing great promise in biochemical analysis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.