Real-time monitoring of induced adaptation of redox active Escherichia coli biofilm by EQCM-controlled extracellular redox environment

In this paper we report the anaerobic Escherichia coli biofilm formation on solid substrate under redox-controlled extracellular environment by an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) method. Both biomass and electrochemical activity were monitored in situ. Larger biomass was yielded under redox-controlled condition comparing with natural biofilm growth, which was also confirmed by optical observation. Surface-colonizing cells responded more sensitively to their redox environment than planktonic cells. Cyclic voltammogram (CV) obtained during the time course of biofilm development indicates the emergence of redox active phenotype under redox-controlled condition but not in natural condition. Our results suggest an effective means to control biofilm development with desired metabolic adaptation and also to in situ monitor the biomass yield and the emergent catalytic property simultaneously.     

Thermal properties and liquid crystallinity of side-chain azobenzene copolymer containing pendant polyhedral oligomeric silsequioxanes

Vinylated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS-M) was prepared by the reaction of POSS containing amine groups with acrylic acid. Azobenzene liquid crystalline copolymer (LCP-POSS) was then synthesized with 6.0 mol% POSS-M and 94.0 mol% acrylate monomer containing azobenzene liquid crystalline moiety (Azo-M) by free-radical copolymerization. Homopolymer of Azo-M (LCP) was also synthesized under the same conditions. Their thermal properties and liquid crystallinity were characterized by Thermal gravimetric analysis (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Wide-angle X-ray diffraction experiments (XRD) and polarized optical micrographs (POM). The results showed that LCP-POSS has higher thermal stability and glass transition temperature than pure LCP due to the incorporation of the rigid cage-like POSS. Especially, LCP-POSS exhibits enantiotropic smectic and nematic liquid crystalline behaviors, its smectic-nematic transition temperature (T _SN) and nematic-isotropic transition temperature (T _NI) are higher than those of pure LCP, which may promote and extend its applications on stimuli-responsive materials and devices.     

Pressure‐Induced Structural Transition in WO3 Nanowires

Raman spectroscopic analysis is performed on WO₃ nanowires at room temperature at pressures from ambient conditions to 45 GPa. Linear dependence of the first‐order Raman signal on various high‐pressure (HP) sections is observed. Upon increasing the applied pressure, the WO₃ nanowires undergo four phase transitions at pressures around 1.7, 4.6, 21.5, and 26.2 GPa, which are all less than that reported for bulk WO₃. When the pressure is up to 42.5 GPa, a new high‐pressure phase (HP5) appears. This phase has never been reported and is not reversible while unloading the pressure.     

In silico identification of conserved microRNAs and their target transcripts from expressed sequence tags of three earthworm species

MicroRNAs are a recently identified class of small regulatory RNAs that target more than 30% protein-coding genes. Elevating evidence shows that miRNAs play a critical role in many biological processes, including developmental timing, tissue differentiation, and response to chemical exposure. In this study, we applied a computational approach to analyze expressed sequence tags, and identified 32 miRNAs belonging to 22 miRNA families, in three earthworm species Eisenia fetida, Eisenia andrei, and Lumbricus rubellus. These newly identified earthworm miRNAs possess a difference of 2-4 nucleotides from their homologous counterparts in Caenorhabditis elegans. They also share similar features with other known animal miRNAs, for instance, the nucleotide U being dominant in both mature and pre-miRNA sequences, particularly in the first position of mature miRNA sequences at the 5' end. The newly identified earthworm miRNAs putatively regulate mRNA genes that are involved in many important biological processes and pathways related to development, growth, locomotion, and reproduction as well as response to stresses, particularly oxidative stress. Future efforts will focus on experimental validation of their presence and target mRNA genes to further elucidate their biological functions in earthworms.     

Copper-catalyzed cross dehydrogenative coupling reactions of tertiary amines with ketones or indoles

A novel cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reaction of N,N-dimethylanilines with methyl ketones by cooperative copper and aminocatalysis has been developed, which leads to the formation of β-arylamino ketones in 42-73% yields. Moreover, the copper-catalyzed alkylation of free (NH) indoles with N,N-dimethylanilines via CDC reaction is also presented, affording alkylated indoles in 52-78% yields.     

Uses of ionic liquid 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate as a good separation electrolyte for direct electrophoretic separation of quaternary ammonium herbicides

This paper describes a new method for the direct separation of paraquat and diquat by CZE with ionic liquid 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate employed as reliable electrolyte. Several factors that affect the separation efficiency were investigated in detail. The experimental results indicated that the optimal running buffer consisted of 50 mM 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and 10% ethanol (pH 5.0), applied voltage was 15 kV, and temperature was kept at 30°C and baseline‐separation was achieved within 18 min for the analytes. The proposed method would be very useful and have wide use to monitor the residual level of such pollutants when combined with high‐sensitive detector and an excellent sample preconcentration technique with high enrichment factor in the future.     

Preparative isolation and purification of anti‐tumor agent ansamitocin P‐3 from fermentation broth of Actinosynnema pretiosum using high‐performance counter‐current chromatography

Ansamitocin P‐3 is a potent anti‐tumor maytansinoid found in Actinosynnema pretiosum. However, due to the complexity of the fermentation broth of Actinomycete, how to effectively separate ansamitocin P‐3 is still a challenge. In this study, both analytical and preparative high‐performance counter‐current chromatography were successfully used to separate and purify ansamitocin P‐3 from fermentation broth. A total of 28.8 mg ansamitocin P‐3 with purity of 98.4% was separated from 160 mg crude sample of fermentation broth in less than 80 min with the two‐phase solvent system of hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (0.6:1:0.6:1, v/v/v/v). The purity and structural identification were determined by HPLC, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and mass spectroscopy.     

Determination of trace organophosphorus pesticides in water samples with TiO2 nanotubes cartridge prior to GC‐flame photometric detection

This article described a new method for the sensitive determination of organophosphorus pesticides in water samples using SPE in combination with GC‐flame photometric detection. In the procedure of method development, TiO₂ nanotubes were used as SPE adsorbents for the enrichment of organophosphorus pesticides from water samples. Several factors, such as eluent and its volume, sample pH, sample volume, sample flow rate, and concentration of humic acid, were optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed method had good linear ranges as 0.1–40 μg/L for each of them, LOD of 0.11, 0.014, and 0.0025 μg/L, and LOQs of 0.37, 0.047, and 0.0083 μg/L for chlorpyrifos, phorate, and methyl parathion, respectively. The proposed method was validated with real environmental water samples and the spiked recoveries were over the range of 86.5–115.1%. All these results indicated that TiO₂ nanotubes, as a new SPE adsorbent, would be used widespread for the preconcentraiton and determination of environmental pollutants in the future.