Evaluation of Water Ammonium Ion Test Kit and Its Feasibility for the Analysis of Protein in Food

The traditional method for the determination of protein in food needs the operations of digestion, distillation, absorption, and titration; therefore, it is complicated and time-consuming and requires professional personnel. Is there a more convenient and faster detection method that can directly determine the ammonium ions in protein digestion solution to obtain the protein content of food and avoid the distillation–absorption–titration process? The feasibility of water ammonium ion test kits for food protein rapid detection was discussed here. After digestion, the protein in food transforms into ammonium ions in the digestion solution. Because of the variety of food, there are many different inorganic ions left in the food digestion solution, and at the same time, digestion agents are added in the digestion process and become potential interference factors in ammonium determination. Therefore, the detection accuracy of ammonium test kits needs to be evaluated first, including their anti-interference ability. The standard curve of ammonium was established by the test kit. When the ammonium concentration was 0.00–2.50 mg/L, the absorbance at 620 nm was linearly related to the ammonium concentration, the determination coefficient R² was 0.9995, and the detection limit of this method was 0.01 mg/L. The influences of temperature, pH value, and reaction time on the test kit method were discussed. The precision was 0.90–3.33%; the repeatability was 1.71–4.86%; and the recovery rate of tap water, river water, and sea water was controlled within 90–103%. The anti-interference ability of the evaluated test kit was better than that of the national standard detection method. The test kit, combined with sample pretreatment and protein conversion formula, was used to detect protein in different types of food (milk powder, rice flour, wheat flour, soy, banana, milk, fish food, chicken food, and dog food). The results showed that there were no significant differences (ρ > 0.05) between the national method and the test kit method. The ammonium ion test kit method shortened the determination time and had higher sensitivity, showing its potential for the rapid determination of food protein.     

Mulberry Ethanol Extract and Rutin Protect Alcohol-Damaged GES-1 Cells by Inhibiting the MAPK Pathway

Mulberry extract has been proven to have the effect of resisting alcohol damage, but its mechanism is still unclear. In this study, the composition of mulberry ethanol extract (MBE) was identified by LC-MS/MS and the main components of MBE were ascertained by measuring. Gastric mucosal epithelial (GES-1) cells were used to elucidate the mechanism of MBE and rutin (the central part of MBE) helped protect against alcohol damage. The results revealed that phenolics accounted for the majority of MBE, accounting for 308.6 mg/g gallic acid equivalents and 108 substances were identified, including 37 flavonoids and 50 non-flavonoids. The treatment of 400 μg/mL MBE and 320 μM rutin reduced early cell apoptosis and the content of intracellular reactive oxygen species, malondialdehyde and increased glutathione. The qPCR results indicated that the MBE inhibits the expression of genes in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, including p38, JNK, ERK and caspase-3; rutin inhibits the expression of p38 and caspase-3. Overall, MBE was able to reduce the oxidative stress of GES-1 cells and regulated apoptosis-related genes of the MAPK pathway. This study provides information for developing anti-ethanol injury drugs or functional foods.     

Simultaneous Determination of Six Immunosuppressants in Human Whole Blood by HPLC-MS/MS Using a Modified QuEChERS Method

A high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was established for the simultaneous determination of mycophenolic acid, mycophenolate mofetil, tacrolimus, rapamycin, everolimus and pimecrolimus in human whole blood by optimizing the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) preparation method. Whole blood was extracted into ethyl acetate, salted out with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, and purified with ethylenediamine-N-propyl silane adsorbent. The supernatant was evaporated under nitrogen until dry and finally reconstituted in methanol. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Poroshell 120 EC-C18 column in methanol (mobile phase A)-water (optimized for 0.1% acetic acid and 10 mM ammonium acetate, mobile phase B) at a 0.3 mL·min⁻¹ flow rate. Electrospray ionization and positive ion multiple reaction monitoring were used for detection. The time for of analysis was 13 min. The calibration curves range of tacrolimus, rapamycin, everolimus and pimecrolimus were in the range of 1–100 ng·mL⁻¹, mycophenolate mofetil in the range of 0.1–10 ng·mL⁻¹ and mycophenolic acid at 10–1000 ng·mL⁻¹. All correlation coefficients were >0.993. The coefficients of variation (CV, %) for inter-day and intra-day precision were less than 10%, while the spiked recoveries were in the range of 92.1% to 116%. Our method was rapid, sensitive, specific, and reproducible for the simultaneous determination of six immunosuppressants in human whole blood. Importantly, our approach can be used to monitor drug concentrations in the blood to facilitate disease treatment.     

Spider Silk-Improved Quartz-Enhanced Conductance Spectroscopy for Medical Mask Humidity Sensing

Spider silk is one of the hottest biomaterials researched currently, due to its excellent mechanical properties. This work reports a novel humidity sensing platform based on a spider silk-modified quartz tuning fork (SSM-QTF). Since spider silk is a kind of natural moisture-sensitive material, it does not demand additional sensitization. Quartz-enhanced conductance spectroscopy (QECS) was combined with the SSM-QTF to access humidity sensing sensitively. The results indicate that the resonance frequency of the SSM-QTF decreased monotonously with the ambient humidity. The detection sensitivity of the proposed SSM-QTF sensor was 12.7 ppm at 1 min. The SSM-QTF sensor showed good linearity of ~0.99. Using this sensor, we successfully measured the humidity of disposable medical masks for different periods of wearing time. The results showed that even a 20 min wearing time can lead to a >70% humidity in the mask enclosed space. It is suggested that a disposable medical mask should be changed <2 h.     

铜电路板缝腐蚀过程缝隙中pH、Cl-浓度分布的测量

根据铜电路板缝腐蚀特征,研制了阵列式Ag/AgCl、IrO2电极,设计缝隙腐蚀模拟装置,在0.5mol.L-1的NaCl溶液中分别同时原位检测电子线路板缝隙腐蚀过程,缝隙内的氯离子浓度分布、pH分布及其随时间的变化.研究表明,在电子线路板发生缝隙腐蚀的过程中,缝隙内部不同深度的Cl-及H+浓度逐渐增大,且随着与缝口距离的增大而增大,从而导致缝隙腐蚀不断向纵深方向发展.     

关于Fullerenes的汉语译名的建议

近读名词委员会王宝煊同志寄来的一份关于fullerenes的命名材料[1997 IUPAC,Pure andApplied Chemistry 69,1411一1434]和台湾的同行们把fullerenes译为“芙”的建议稿。     

溶胶-凝胶法制备丙烯酸树脂/TiO2有机-无机杂化材料及其结构表征

通过预水解的二氧化钛(TiO2 )溶胶与丙烯酸树脂共混或原位聚合的方法制备了均匀透明的丙烯酸树脂 TiO2 有机 无机杂化材料.考察了TiO2 溶胶制备方法、聚合物中—COOH官能团含量和杂化材料制备方法对杂化材料结构的影响.索氏抽提实验表明聚合物中的羧酸官能团和无机TiO2 相间发生了交联反应,且随着—COOH官能团含量的增加,交联程度增大.小角X射线散射(SAXS)结果发现,杂化材料中TiO2 为疏松的三维网状结构,且在纳米尺度范围内,但这种三维网状结构随着TiO2 溶胶制备中水或酸的用量增加,其致密度增加,尺寸增大.同原位聚合法相比,共混法可制备出更均匀的杂化体系,且TiO2 为单分散.     

A new inorganic–organic hybrid compound constructed from polyoxoanions and rare earth coordination complexes

A new chainlike polymer, Na[Ce(dipic)(H₂O)₃]₂ [CrMo₆H₆O₂₄] · 13H₂O (H₂dipic = pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid) (1), has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis; IR and XPS spectroscopy, TG analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound (1) is built up of Anderon-type polyoxoanions as structural motifs and cerium–dipic coordination fragments as linkers to yield an unprecedented one-dimensional chain. Such chains are further in close contact forming a three-dimensional supramolecular framework with channels via extensive hydrogen-bonding interactions among polyoxoanions, dipic ligands and water molecules. Furthermore, the magnetic properties of compound (1) have been studied by measuring their magnetic susceptibility in the temperature range 2–300 K.     

First-Principle Calculations of the Adsorption, Dissociation and Diffusion of Hydrogen on the Mg(0001) Surface

First-principle pseudopotential plane wave calculations and the Nudged Elastic Band method based on density functional theory (DFT) have been used in this article to study the dissociation of molecular hydrogen on a Mg(0001) surface and the subsequent diffusion of atomic hydrogen into the magnesium substrate. First, the dissociation pathway of H2 and the relative barrier were investigated. It was shown that physical adsorption rather than chemisorption of molecular hydrogen was observed in the calculation of the dissociation process of molecular hydrogen. Also, the diffusion process of atomic hydrogen on Mg(0001) was presented. The surface effect, which affected the diffusion of hydrogen obviously, was observed. Finally, comparing the values of the activation energies for the steps of dissociation, diffusion, and desorption, our calculation further showed that the dissociation of H2 and the desorption of hydride were the rate-limiting steps.