Taguchi orthogonal design assisted immobilization of Candida rugosa lipase onto nanocellulose-silica reinforced polyethersulfone membrane: physicochemical characterization and operational stability

Cellulose - A greener processing route to replace the current environmentally-unfriendly esterification technique to produce biofuels such as pentyl valerate (PeVa) was explored. This study...     

Integrated Hollow Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Target Drug/siRNA Co‐Delivery

A hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticle (HMSNP) based drug/siRNA co‐delivery system was designed and fabricated, aiming at overcoming multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer cells for targeted cancer therapy. The as‐prepared HMSNPs have perpendicular nanochannels connecting to the internal hollow cores, thereby facilitating drug loading and release. The extra volume of the hollow core enhances the drug loading capacity by two folds as compared with conventional mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs). Folic acid conjugated polyethyleneimine (PEI‐FA) was coated on the HMSNP surfaces under neutral conditions through electrostatic interactions between the partially charged amino groups of PEI‐FA and the phosphate groups on the HMSNP surfaces, blocking the mesopores and preventing the loaded drugs from leakage. Folic acid acts as the targeting ligand that enables the co‐delivery system to selectively bind with and enter into the target cancer cells. PEI‐FA‐coated HMSNPs show enhanced siRNA binding capability on account of electrostatic interactions between the amino groups of PEI‐FA and siRNA, as compared with that of MSNPs. The electrostatic interactions provide the feasibility of pH‐controlled release. In vitro pH‐responsive drug/siRNA co‐delivery experiments were conducted on HeLa cell lines with high folic acid receptor expression and MCF‐7 cell lines with low folic acid receptor expression for comparison, showing effective target delivery to the HeLa cells through folic acid receptor meditated cellular endocytosis. The pH‐responsive intracellular drug/siRNA release greatly minimizes the prerelease and possible side effects of the delivery system. By simultaneously delivering both doxorubicin (Dox) and siRNA against the Bcl‐2 protein into the HeLa cells, the expression of the anti‐apoptotic protein Bcl‐2 was successfully suppressed, leading to an enhanced therapeutic efficacy. Thus, the present multifunctional nanoparticles show promising potentials for controlled and targeted drug and gene co‐delivery in cancer treatment.     

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction using capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection: Analysis of duck hepatitis B

We report an accurate and reproducible DNA quantitation method using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amount of PCR product is monitored after each PCR cycle by capillary electrophoresis. To ensure accurate quantitation, a non-amplified internal standard is added to each PCR-amplified electrophoresis sample to correct for variations in injection volume. Quantitation of the sample is based on the number of cycles necessary to generate a predetermined amount of PCR product. Duck hepatitis B virus genome was used as a model in this study. The genome was quantified with a linear relationship between cycle number and logarithm of sample DNA for amounts of sample DNA between 30 and 3.1 x 10(8) copies ( r(2)>0.999). The relative standard deviation for the corrected capillary electrophoresis signal was 2.7%, while the relative standard deviation for the overall assay was 3.0%. Results from a single-blind study generated a relative error of 1.3%.     

Quantitative analysis of MWCNT agglomeration in polymeric‐based membranes using atomic force microscope

In this work, we performed an analysis on the surface properties of polyethersulfone (PES)‐based ultrafiltration membranes that were prepared by incorporating acid functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube (f‐MWCNT) and polyvinylpyrrolidone into membrane matrix via simple blending method. The bonding‐chemistry of the nanocomposites implanted within the PES membrane was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer while atomic force microscope was employed to observe the distribution of f‐MWCNT in the membrane matrix and further measured its agglomeration quantitatively. The resultant 3D atomic force microscope images provided the most satisfactory way to examine the distribution of nanomaterials in the membranes, and with the help of ‘point profile data’ the maximum height and width of the agglomerated cluster could be quantitatively calculated. Moreover, the surface profile studies of the membrane surface provided the information about the length, volume, area, perimeter, radius and diameter of grains. It was observed that PES/nanocomposite blended membranes were held together via strong hydrogen bonding, but poor dispersion of MWCNT in the membrane matrix reduced the membrane performance in terms of protein (pepsin and bovine albumin serum) rejection and increased the surface roughness. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regularization inertial proximal point algorithm for common solutions of a finite family of inverse-strongly monotone equations

The aim of the paper is to propose an iterative regularization method of proximal point type for finding a common solution for a finite family of inverse-strongly monotone equations in Hilbert spaces.     

Convergence rates and finite-dimensional approximation for a class of ill-posed variational inequalities

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an operator version of Tikhonov regularization for a class of ill-posed variational inequalities under arbitrary perturbation operators. Aspects of convergence rate and finite-dimensional approximations are considered. An example in the theory of generalized eigenvectors is given for illustration. Institute of Information Technology, Vietnam. Published in Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhunal, Vol. 49, No. 5, pp. 629–637, May, 1997.     

Tikhonov regularization for a general nonlinear constrained optimization problem

The goal of this study is to analyze the Tikhonov regularization method as applied to a general nonlinear optimization problem that has been previously reduced to an unconstrained optimization problem. The stability properties of the method are examined, and its convergence is proved. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Dynamic information for cardiotoxin protein desorption from a methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer using steered molecular dynamics simulation

Dynamic information, such as force, structural change, interaction energy, and potential of mean force (PMF), about the desorption of a single cardiotoxin (CTX) protein from a methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surface was investigated by means of steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations. The simulation results indicated that Loop I is the first loop to depart from the SAM surface, which is in good agreement with the results of the nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy experiment. The free energy landscape and the thermodynamic force of the CTX desorption process was represented by the PMF and by the derivative of PMF with respect to distance, respectively. By applying Jarzynski's equality, the PMF can be reconstructed from the SMD simulation. The PMFs, calculated by different estimators based upon Jarzynski's equality, were compared with the conventional umbrella sampling method. The best estimation was obtained by using the fluctuation-dissipation estimator with a pulling velocity of v = 0.25 nm/ns for the present study.     

Convergence acceleration by self‐adjusted time stepsize using Bi‐CGSTAB method for turbulent separated flow computation

Poor convergence behavior is usually encountered when numerical computations on turbulent separated flow are performed. A design of self‐adjusted stepsize concept both in time span and spatial coordinate systems to achieve faster convergence is demonstrated in this study. The determination of the time stepsize based on the concept of minimization of residuals using the Bi‐CGSTAB algorithm is proposed. The numerical results show that the time stepsize adjusted by the proposed method indeed improves the convergence rate for turbulent separated flow computations using advanced turbulence models in low‐Reynolds number forms. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparisons of TVD schemes for turbulent transonic projectile aerodynamics computations with a two-equation model of turbulence

The development of a computer program to solve the axisymmetric full Navier--Stokes equations with k-ε two-equation model of turbulence using various total variation diminishing (TVD) schemes is the primary interest of this study. The computations are performed for the turbulent, transonic, viscous flow over a projectile with/without supporting sting at zero angle of attack. The predicted results, as well as the convergence characteristics, by various TVD schemes are compared with each other. The results show that the TVD schemes of higher-order accuracy do have influence on the regions of high gradients such as shock, base corner and base flow. However, the schemes of third-order accuracy do not necessarily improve the agreement with measured data (which is not available on the base) than that of second-order accuracy, but surely generate apparent different result of base flow. The supporting sting on the projectile base will complicate the base flow and the existence of the sting will slightly shift the shock location and slightly change the flow field after the shock. More iteration steps are needed to get the converged results in the computation for the projectile with sting.