Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of a Novel Methylglyoxal Synthase from Thermus sp. Strain GH5

A gene encoding methylglyoxal synthase from Thermus sp. GH5 (TMGS) was cloned, sequenced, overexpressed, and purified by Q-Sepharose. The TMGS gene was composed of 399 bp which encoded a polypeptide of 132 amino acids with a molecular mass of 14.3 kDa. The K _m and k _cat values of TMGS were 0.56 mM and 325 (s^?1), respectively. The enzyme exhibited its optimum activity at pH?6 and 75?°C. Comparing the amino acid sequences and Hill coefficients of Escherichia coli MGS and TMGS revealed that the loss of Arg 150 in TMGS has caused a decrease in the cooperativity between the enzyme subunits in the presence of phosphate as an allosteric inhibitor. Gel filtration experiments showed that TMGS is a hexameric enzyme, and its quaternary structure did not change in the presence of phosphate.     

Design of multilayer high-dispersion mirrors using multi-swarm optimization method

Design of high-dispersion mirrors (HDMs) using a proposed multi-swarm optimization method is reported. We design HDMs for Yb:YAG disk oscillator at 1030 nm and ultrashort pulse Cr:YAG laser at 1550 nm. The results show that the optimum group delay dispersion and reflectance can be obtained with optimal number of layers. The proposed optimization method has a fast convergence rate and powerful global search ability and can be utilized effectively for the design of a variety of optical thin film filters.     

Probing the interaction of human serum albumin with norfloxacin in the presence of high-frequency electromagnetic fields: fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism investigations

The present study describes an investigation by fluorescence quenching, circular dichroism and UV-visible spectroscopy of the interaction between norfloxacin (NRF) and human serum albumin (HSA) in the presence of electromagnetic fields (EMFs). The results obtained from this study indicated that NRF had a strong ability to quench HSA at λ(ex) = 280 nm. In addition, a slight blue shift occurred, which suggested that the microenvironment of the protein became more hydrophobic after addition of NRF. The interaction between the NRF and HSA, whether in the absence or presence of an EMF, was considered to be a static quenching mechanism. Moreover, synchronous fluorescence demonstrated that the microenvironment around Trp became modified. Data of HSA-NRF in the presence of EMFs between 1 Hz-1 MHz confirmed the results of quenching and blue shifts. Corresponding Stern-Volmer plots were also drawn and the resultant Ksv and kq values were compared. Moreover, the binding parameters, including the number of binding sites, the binding constant and the distance, r, between donor and acceptor, were calculated based on F?rster's non-radiative energy transfer theory. According to far and near UV-CD, the formation of the complex caused changes of the secondary and tertiary structures of HSA. The obtained results are significant for patients who are subjected to high-frequency radiation as this was found to reduce the affinity of NRF to HSA.     

AC electrokinetic isolation and detection of extracellular vesicles from dental pulp stem cells: Theoretical simulation incorporating fluid mechanics

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived nanoscale vesicles involved in intracellular communication and the transportation of biomarkers. EVs released by mesenchymal stem cells have been recently reported to play a role in cell-free therapy of many diseases. However, the demand for better research tools to replace the tedious conventional methods used to study EVs is getting stronger. EVs' manipulation using alternating current (AC) electrokinetic forces in a microfluidic device has appeared to be a reliable and sensitive diagnosis and trapping technique. Given that different AC electrokinetic forces may contribute to the overall motion of particles and fluids in a microfluidic device, EVs' electrokinetic trapping must be examined considering all dominant forces involved depending on the experimental conditions. In this paper, AC electrokinetic trapping of EVs using an interdigitated electrode arrays is investigated. A 2D numerical simulation incorporating the two significant AC electrokinetic phenomena (Dielectrophoresis and AC electroosmosis) has been performed. Theoretical predictions are then compared with experimental results and allow for a plausible explanation of observations inconsistent with DEP theory. It is demonstrated that the inconsistencies can be attributed to a significant extent to the contribution of the AC electroosmotic effect.     

Ultrasound‐assisted supramolecular‐solvent‐based microextraction combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography for the analysis of chlorophenols in environmental water samples

An efficient, inexpensive and environmentally benign ultrasound‐assisted supramolecular‐solvent‐based microextraction technique combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography was used for the determination of chlorophenols in environmental water samples. Different factors such as amount of decanoic acid, volume of tetrahydrofuran, pH of the sample, ultrasound time and ionic strength were investigated and optimized. The optimized extraction conditions were 60 mg decanoic acid, 1.5 mL tetrahydrofuran, 3 min ultrasound time, without salt addition. Under this condition, the extraction recoveries were 83.0–89.3 with preconcentration factors of 94–102. The calibration curves were linear from 5.0–400.0 ng/mL with square of the correlation coefficient higher than 0.9998 and the limits of detection were between 1.5–2.0 ng/mL. The values of intra‐ and inter‐day relative standard deviations were 3.2–6.0 and 7.3–8.0%, respectively. Analysis of different samples showed that the concentration of 2,5‐dichlorophenol in Babolrood river water was 80.6 ng/mL.     

Enhanced Supercapacitor Performance Using a Co3O4@Co3S4 Nanocomposite on Reduced Graphene Oxide/Ni Foam Electrodes

To avoid an enormous energy crisis in the not-too-distant future, it be emergent to establish high-performance energy storage devices such as supercapacitors. For this purpose, a three-dimensional (3D) heterostructure of Co₃O₄ and Co₃S₄ on nickel foam (NF) that is covered by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been prepared by following a facile multistep method. At first, rGO nanosheets are deposited on NF under mild hydrothermal conditions to increase the surface area. Subsequently, nanowalls of cobalt oxide are electro-deposited on rGO/Ni foam by applying cyclic-voltammetry (CV) under optimized conditions. Finally, for the synthesis of Co₃O₄@Co₃S₄ nanocomposite, the nanostructure of Co₃S₄ was fabricated from Co₃O₄ nanowalls on rGO/NF by following an ordinary hydrothermal process through the sulfurization for the electrochemical application. The samples are characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The obtained sample delivers a high capacitance of 13.34 F cm⁻² (5651.24 F g⁻¹) at a current density of 6 mA cm⁻² compared to the Co₃O₄/rGO/NF electrode with a capacitance of 3.06 F cm⁻² (1230.77 F g⁻¹) at the same current density. The proposed electrode illustrates the superior electrochemical performance such as excellent specific energy density of 85.68 W h Kg⁻¹, specific power density of 6048.03 W kg⁻¹ and a superior cycling performance (86% after 1000 charge/discharge cycles at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹). Finally, by using Co₃O₄ @Co₃S₄/rGO/NF and the activated carbon-based electrode as positive and negative electrodes, respectively, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device was assembled. The fabricated ASC provides an appropriate specific capacitance of 79.15 mF cm⁻² at the applied current density of 1 mA cm⁻², and delivered an energy density of 0.143 Wh kg⁻¹ at the power density of 5.42 W kg⁻¹.     

A cubic time algorithm for finding the principal solution to Sylvester matrix equations over (max, +)

We propose an algorithm for finding the so-called principal solution of the Sylvester matrix equation over max-plus algebra. The derivation of our algorithm is based on the concept of tropical tensor product introduced by Butkovi? and Fiedler. Our algorithm reduces the computational cost of finding the principal solution from quartic to cubic. It also reduces the space complexity from quartic to quadratic. Since matrix–matrix multiplication is the most important ingredient of our proposed technique, we show how to use column-oriented matrix multiplications in order to speed-up MATLAB implementation of our algorithm. Finally, we illustrate our results and discuss the connection with the residuation theory.