A Feruloyl Esterase (FAE) Characterized by Relatively High Thermostability from the Edible Mushroom Russula virescens

A monomeric feruloyl esterase (FAE) with a molecular mass of 62 kDa was acquired from fresh fruiting bodies of the edible mushroom Russula virescens. The isolation procedure involved ion exchange chromatography on CM-cellulose, Q-Sepharose, and SP-Sepharose and finally fast protein liquid chromatography–gel filtration on Superdex 75. Two amino acid sequences were obtained after tryptic digestion, and they both showed some homology with the esterase of some fungi. Maximal activity was observed at pH 5.0 and at 50 °C. The enzyme displayed relatively high thermostability as evidenced by over 70 % residual activity at 70 °C and about 34 % residual activity at 80 °C. The K _m and V _max for this enzyme on methyl ferulate were 0.19 mM and 1.65 U/mg proteins, respectively. The purified FAE prefers methyl ferulate over methyl caffeate and is least active on methyl p-coumarate. The FAE activity was not significantly affected by the presence of cations such as Mn²⁺, Ca²⁺, Cd²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cu²⁺, and K⁺ ions but inhibited by Al³⁺, Hg²⁺, Fe²⁺, and Pb²⁺ ions at a tested concentration of 2. 5 mM.     

Ferric Ion Driven Assembly of Catalase-like Supramolecular Photosensitizing Nanozymes for Combating Hypoxic Tumors

A facile approach to assemble catalase-like photosensitizing nanozymes with a self-oxygen-supplying ability was developed. The process involved Fe³⁺-driven self-assembly of fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-protected amino acids. By adding a zinc(II) phthalocyanine-based photosensitizer (ZnPc) and the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) inhibitor acriflavine (ACF) during the Fe³⁺-promoted self-assembly of Fmoc-protected cysteine (Fmoc-Cys), the nanovesicles Fmoc-Cys/Fe@Pc and Fmoc-Cys/Fe@Pc/ACF were prepared, which could be disassembled intracellularly. The released Fe³⁺ could catalyze the transformation of H₂O₂ enriched in cancer cells to oxygen efficiently, thereby ameliorating the hypoxic condition and promoting the photosensitizing activity of the released ZnPc. With an additional therapeutic component, Fmoc-Cys/Fe@Pc/ACF exhibited higher in vitro and in vivo photodynamic activities than Fmoc-Cys/Fe@Pc, demonstrating the synergistic effect of ZnPc and ACF.     

Generalization of Strang's Preconditioner with Applications to Toeplitz Least Squares Problems

In this paper, we propose a method to generalize Strang's circulant preconditioner for arbitrary n-by-n matrices A_n. The th column of our circulant preconditioner Sn is equal to the th column of the given matrix A_n. Thus if A_n is a square Toeplitz matrix, then Sn is just the Strang circulant preconditioner. When Sn is not Hermitian, our circulant preconditioner can be defined as . This construction is similar to the forward-backward projection method used in constructing preconditioners for tomographic inversion problems in medical imaging. We show that if the matrix A_n has decaying coefficients away from the main diagonal, then is a good preconditioner for An. Comparisons of our preconditioner with other circulant-based preconditioners are carried out for some 1-D Toeplitz least squares problems: min ∥ b - Ax∥₂. Preliminary numerical results show that our preconditioner performs quite well, in comparison to other circulant preconditioners. Promising test results are also reported for a 2-D deconvolution problem arising in ground-based atmospheric imaging.     

Polyphenolics with Strong Antioxidant Activity from Acacia nilotica Ameliorate Some Biochemical Signs of Arsenic-Induced Neurotoxicity and Oxidative Stress in Mice

Neurotoxicity is a serious health problem of patients chronically exposed to arsenic. There is no specific treatment of this problem. Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathological process of neurotoxicity. Polyphenolics have proven antioxidant activity, thereby offering protection against oxidative stress. In this study, we have isolated the polyphenolics from Acacia nilotica and investigated its effect against arsenic-induced neurotoxicity and oxidative stress in mice. Acacia nilotica polyphenolics prepared from column chromatography of the crude methanol extract using diaion resin contained a phenolic content of 452.185 ± 7.879 mg gallic acid equivalent/gm of sample and flavonoid content of 200.075 ± 0.755 mg catechin equivalent/gm of sample. The polyphenolics exhibited potent antioxidant activity with respect to free radical scavenging ability, total antioxidant activity and inhibition of lipid peroxidation. Administration of arsenic in mice showed a reduction of acetylcholinesterase activity in the brain which was counteracted by Acacia nilotica polyphenolics. Similarly, elevation of lipid peroxidation and depletion of glutathione in the brain of mice was effectively restored to normal level by Acacia nilotica polyphenolics. Gallic acid methyl ester, catechin and catechin-7-gallate were identified in the polyphenolics as the major active compounds. These results suggest that Acacia nilotica polyphenolics due to its strong antioxidant potential might be effective in the management of arsenic induced neurotoxicity.     

Template‐Free Hydrothermal Synthesis of Mesoporous MgO Nanostructures and Their Applications in Water Treatment

The controlled synthesis of Mg(OH)₂ nanowires and microflowers composed of nanoplates was successfully achieved by a template‐free hydrothermal synthetic method. It was found that the reaction medium played a crucial role in the morphological control of the precursor nanostructures. The high polarity of water molecules favored the polar growth of the precursor, resulting in the formation of nanowires with a diameter of 80 nm, whereas a mixed water/ethanol medium with a lower degree of polarity led to the formation of microflowers. Moreover, mesoporous MgO nanostructures could be obtained by further annealing these as‐prepared precursors in air at 500 °C for 2 h. During thermal treatment, the wire‐ and flower‐like morphologies were retained. Porosity formation was due to thermal decomposition of Mg(OH)₂ and release of H₂O. Both the mesoporous MgO nanowires and microflowers showed superior ability of adsorbing the organic dye methyl orange, and thus they are promising candidates for polluted water treatment.     

0.6~T人体核磁共振成象及其图象的彩色化处理

在0.6~τ超导磁体人体核磁共振成象设备上获得了横断、矢状、冠状各种断层的成象。采用了直接两维傅里叶变换成象方法,应用了自旋回波脉冲序列。由于人体心脏跳动和呼吸运动会造成图象模糊而使用心电延迟触发及呼吸门控方法。作者用一种相位调制光密度分割的方法将原始黑白灰度表示的核磁共振成象进行彩色化处理。提高了原图象低密度梯度区的清晰度,为进行医学图象诊断及判读解译提供了方便度。山了光学系统图,解释了光学信息处理方法。由所处理的人体核磁共振成象图片可以看出,在低密度梯给区更易辨认。参考文献10种。     

Laser cladding of copper with molybdenum for wear resistance enhancement in electrical contacts

Laser cladding of Mo on Cu has been attempted with the aim of enhancing the wear resistance and hence increasing the service life of electrical contacts made of Cu. In order to overcome the difficulties arising from the large difference in thermal properties and the low mutual solubility between Cu and Mo, Ni was introduced as an intermediate layer between Mo and Cu. The Ni and Mo layers were laser clad one after the other to form a sandwich layer of Mo/Ni/Cu. Excellent bonding between the clad layer and the Cu substrate was ensured by strong metallurgical bonding. The hardness of the surface of the clad layer is seven times higher than that of the Cu substrate. Pin-on-disc wear tests consistently showed that the abrasive wear resistance of the clad layer was also improved by a factor of seven as compared with untreated Cu substrate. The specific electrical contact resistance of the clad surface was about 5.6 × 10⁻⁷ Ω cm².     

Application of spectroscopic imaging in epilepsy

Functional and anatomical neuroimaging has had a dramatic effect on the evaluation of patients for seizure surgery. The demonstration by PET that the epileptogenic focus has interictal metabolic abnormalities has allowed a greater number of patients to come to seizure surgery, with fewer of these patients requiring intracranial electrode evaluations. Metabolic changes have also been demonstrated utilizing single voxel and whole brain ¹H and ³¹P MRS imaging techniques with the interictal focus characterized by increased Pi, pH, and decreased PME and NAA. These findings can be used to accurately lateralize temporal lobe as well as frontal lobe epilepsy. Furthermore, there is evidence that these findings can be used to localize the seizure focus with the changes specific for the epileptogenic region; although, more diffuse changes both ipsilaterally and contralaterally have been seen. In patients with anterior hippocampal seizure foci the pH is significantly alkaline only in the ipsilateral hippocampus, whereas the increased Pi and decreased PME can be seen throughout the ipsilateral temporal lobe. When compared to controls the contralateral hemisphere is acidotic. Decreased NAA concentrations as well as NAA/Cr ratios have been demonstrated in the epileptogenic region in temporal and frontal lobe epilepsy. The decreased NAA has been correlated with the severity of cell loss, and may be a more sensitive measure than qualitative or quantitative measures of the hippocampal atrophy; however, the NAA decrease is more widespread than just the epileptogenic focus but may be maximal at the site of seizure initiation. In preliminary work, NAA maps of deviation from normality have suggested the maximal change to coincide with the epileptogenic region. These results suggest that in focal epilepsy there is abnormal metabolic activity throughout the brain detectable by MRS, with patterns of metabolic asymmetry that are useful for seizure localization.     

小分子在真空紫外波段从量子态到量子态的光解离动力学

本文主要描述小分子在真空紫外波段(VUV,6-20 eV)光解离动力学的最新实验和理论研究进展.得益于基于商业化激光器的真空紫外光源技术,以及离子速度成像、高分辨氢原子-里德堡态标记-飞行时间测量和VUV-VUV泵浦-探测等方法的发展,研究人员现在可以对很多小分子在真空紫外波段的光解离动力学进行量子态到量子态层面的测量和研究,本文重点综述H_2(D_2,HD),CO,N_2,NO,O_2,H_2O(D_2O,HOD),CO_2,N_2O以及一些多原子分子在真空紫外波段光解离动力学的最新研究进展.这些小分子在真空紫外波段的光解离在天体化学以及大气化学中有着非常重要的应用.分子吸收一个VUV光子以后,通常会被直接激发到比较高的电子激发态,解离过程会涉及到多个电子态势能面之间的复杂非绝热相互作用.在实验上对解离截面等参数进行从量子态到量子态层面的精细测量对于深入了解这些复杂的势能面之间的相互作用有非常重要的意义.最近建成的大连相干光源是目前世界上唯一一台在真空紫外波段工作的自由电子激光,具有脉冲能量高、扫描范围宽(50～150 nm)等优越的性能,它的建成必将会大大促进小分子真空紫外光解离研究的发展.     

Contact between two plastically deformable crystals: a discrete dislocation dynamics study

It is customary to simplify the analysis of contact between two elastically deformable bodies by treating an equivalent problem where only one body is deformable and the other is rigid. This is possible provided that the gap geometry and the effective elastic modulus of the bodies in the simplified problem are the same as in the original problem. However, the question arises on whether – and to which extent – the simplification is still valid even when (size-dependent) plasticity occurs. Studies using discrete dislocation plasticity have also, so far, addressed simple contact problems where only one body can deform plastically. Here, we extend the analysis to two bodies in contact that can both deform by dislocation plasticity and investigate under which conditions the response agrees with that of an equivalent simplified problem. The bodies in contact are metal single crystals with sinusoidal and flat surface. It is found that the response of two plastically deformable bodies in contact can be simplified to an equivalent problem where one body is rigid and the other can deform plastically. Also, a plasticity size effect is observed, but the effect fades when the platen becomes more plastically deformable.