A comparison of the surface nanostructure from two different types of gram-negative cells: Escherichia coli and Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Bacteria have been studied using different microscopy methods for many years. Recently, the developments of high-speed atomic force microscopy have opened the doors to study bacteria in new ways due to the fact that it uses much less force on the sample while imaging. This makes the high-speed atomic force microscope an indispensable technique for imaging the surface of living bacterial cells because it allows for the high-resolution visualization of surface proteins in their natural condition without disrupting the cell or the activity of the proteins. Previous work examining living cells of Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 demonstrated that the surface of these bacteria was covered with a net-like structure that is mainly composed of porin molecules. However, it was unclear whether or not this feature was unique to other living bacteria. In this study we used the high-speed atomic force microscope to examine the surface of living cells of Escherichia coli and Rhodobacter sphaeroides to compare their structure with that of M. magneticum. Our research clearly demonstrated that both of these types of cells have an outer surface that is covered in a network of nanometer-sized holes similar to M. magneticum. The diameter of the holes was 8.0 ± 1.5 nm for E. coli and 6.6 ± 1.1 nm for R. sphaeroides. The results in this paper confirm that this type of outer surface structure exists in other types of bacteria and it is not unique to Magnetospirillum.     

电场作用下紫膜中细菌视紫红质的圆二色性研究

垂直于测量光束的外电场对紫膜水悬浮液中的细菌视紫红质的圆二色性有很大影响。５０Ｈｚ正弦交流电场作用下产生５６８ｎｍ的正的差圆二色性峰，反向电脉冲串作用下产生５５６ｎｍ左右的负的差圆二色性峰，两峰峰位均未显示有随电压的变化而移动；但是，强度随外加电压的半加而增强；撤去电场后该两峰均即该消失。分析认为，电场下细菌视紫红质中存在柔性结构变化，这种结构变化也可用于存储信息。     

Synthesis and characterization of polyurethane/SiO2 nanocomposites

In order to achieve good dispersion of nano-SiO₂ and increase the interactions between nano-SiO₂ and PU matrix, nano-SiO₂ was firstly modified with poly(propylene glycol) phosphate ester (PPG-P) which was a new polymeric surfactant synthesized through the esterification of poly(propylene glycol) (PPG) and polyphosphoric acid (PPA). Then a series of polyurethane (PU)/SiO₂ nanocomposites were prepared via in situ polymerization. The surface modification of nano-SiO₂, the microstructure and the properties of nanocomposites were investigated by FTIR, SEM, XRD and TGA. It was found that good dispersion of nano-SiO₂ achieved in PU/SiO₂ nanocomposite after the modification with PPG-P. The segmented structures of PU were not interfered by the presence of nano-SiO₂ in these nanocomposites.     

Electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction on Nafion/platinum/gas diffusion layer electrode for PEM fuel cell

In this work a new membrane electrode based on Pt-coated Nafion membrane was fabricated. Chemical deposition process was used to coat platinum on Nafion 117 membrane and then Pt-coated Nafion membrane was hot pressed on gas diffusion layer (GDL) to make new membrane electrode. The electrochemical and chemical studies of the Pt-coated Nafions were investigated by electrochemical techniques, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The electrochemical results indicated that as the concentration of H₂PtCl₆ increased, the oxygen reduction reaction rate increased until the concentration was reached where the reduction reaction was limited by the problem of mass transport. The electrochemical results for oxygen reduction reaction showed that the new electrode which prepared by plating Nafion membrane with 0.06 M H₂PtCl₆ in electroless plating solution, has a higher performance than other electrodes. The XRD results showed that the average platinum particle size of the best sample was about 3 nm. The loading of platinum for this electrode was 0.153 mg cm⁻².     

A New Cooperation Mechanism of Kinesin Motors when Extracting Membrane Tube

Membrane tubes are important functional elements for living cells. Experiments have found that membrane tubes can be extracted from giant lipid vesicles by groups of kinesin. How these motors cooperate in extracting the membrane tube is a very important issue but still unclear so far. In this paper, we propose a cooperation mechanism called two-track-dumbbell model, in which kinesin is regarded as a dumbbell with an end (tail domain) tethered on the fluid-like membrane and the other end (head domain) stepping on the microtubule. Taking account of the elasticity of kinesin molecule and the excluded volume effect of both the head domain and the tail domain of kinesin, which are not considered in previous models, we simulate the growth process of the membrane tube pulled by kinesin motors. Our results indicate that in the case of strong or moderate exclusion of motor tails, the average number of motors pulling the tube can be as high as 9 and thus motors moving along a single microtubule protofilament can generate enough force to extract membrane tubes from vesicles. This result is different from previous studies and may be tested by future experiments.     

微加工薄膜变形镜特性分析

 借助测量微加工薄膜变形镜驱动器的面形影响函数,分析了驱动器的电压-位移函数和驱动器之间的线性叠加性;通过对连续面形变形镜拟合像差的理论分析和实验研究,建立了微加工薄膜变形镜电压解耦模型。分析了对前36阶Zernike模式的拟合残差和拟合能力,指出微加工薄膜变形镜仅可用来拟合低级像差并且有较大的拟合能力和较小的拟合残差,而不能拟合高级像差。     

甲基紫掺杂聚乙烯醇薄膜材料红光多重全息存储

甲基紫掺杂聚乙烯醇薄膜材料在两束相干光照射下生成相位光栅.当改变一束相干光光程,通过监测相位光栅的一级衍射信号强度的变化,可以检测相位光栅的生长和擦除过程.在此实验基础上,讨论了甲基紫掺杂聚乙烯醇薄膜材料多重全息存储的原理与结果.     

First quantum correction to entropy of Vaidya－Bonner black holes due to arbitrary spin fields

Using the improved brick-wall model, we have calculated the first quantum correction to the entropy of non-static black holes, Vaidya－Bonner black holes, due to the gravitational, electro-magnetic and neutrino fields. The result shows that both bosonic entropy and fermionic entropy are exactly proportional to the area of the event horizon. Thus, the entropy-area law still holds in such a non-static case.     

Preparation and Characterization of Electroactive Anion‐Exchange Acrylic Polymer–Gold Composites

The characteristics and performance of an ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC), prepared with an anion‐exchange acrylic copolymer, was examined. The acrylic copolymer was synthesized by the radical copolymerization of fluoroalkyl methacrylate and 2‐(dimethyl amino)ethyl methacrylate(AMA). Effects of the AMA repeating unit's content in the copolymer and effects of the anion type present on the actuation of the IPMC were observed. The optimal content of 19.4 wt% AMA in the IPMC copolymer yielded the best actuation. The actuation also improved according to the type of anion present in the composite, in the following order: Br^???4 ^?.     

Early Membrane Responses to Magnetic Particles are Predictors of Particle Uptake in Neural Stem Cells

Magnetic particles (MPs) offer several advantages for neural cell therapy, but limited particle uptake by neural cells is a barrier to translation. It is recently proved that tailoring particle physicochemical properties (by enhancing their iron content) dramatically improves uptake in neural stem cells (NSCs)—a major transplant population. High‐throughput screening of particles with varying physicochemical properties can therefore aid in identifying particles with optimal uptake features, but research is hampered by the lack of simple methodologies for studying neural cell membrane responses to nanoparticle platforms. A high‐resolution–high throughput method has been used to study early membrane responses of primary rodent NSCs to particles of variant magnetite loading, to attempt to correlate these responses with known particle internalization profiles. Membrane imaging is enhanced through sequential staining with osmium (O) and thiocarbohydrazide (T), a method termed OTOTO, combined with field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). A five‐point classification system was used to systematically evaluate early MP‐induced membrane responses to particles possessing distinct physicochemical properties. Significantly different profiles of membrane activation were noted that correlate with particle uptake profiles. It is suggested that our method can serve as a valuable predictor of particle internalization in neural cells for diverse particle platforms.