Efficient removal for multiple pollutants via Ag2O/BiOBr heterojunction: A promoted photocatalytic process by valid electron transfer pathway

Multiple pollutants including pathogenic microorganism contaminations and emerging organic contaminations (EOCs) have shown a growing threat to the environment, especially the natural waters. However, the control and removal of pathogenic microorganism contaminations and EOCs have been greatly limited since limited knowledge of their environmental behaviors. Thus, a novel and efficient photocatalyst Ag₂O/BiOBr heterojunction was synthesized and used for removal of multiple pollutants including Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), tetracycline and acetaminophen under visible light. The results showed that there were valid electron transfer pathways between BiOBr and Ag₂O, the main electron transfer direction was the BiOBr to Ag₂O. Photo-generated electrons were stored in Ag₂O and thus separation efficiency between holes and photo-generated electrons was obviously enhanced. Active oxygen species were highly produced and eventually end up with the high efficiency of removal of multiple pollutants. For Ag₂O/BiOBr with Ag₂O content at 3% (the best performance) under visible light, log decrease of E. coli was 7.16 (removal efficiency was 100%) in 120 min, log decrease of S. aureus was 7.23 (removal efficiency was 100%) in 160 min, C/C₀ of tetracycline was 0.06 in 180 min, C/C₀ of acetaminophen was 0.17 in 180 min. This work could provide a promising candidate in the actual contaminated natural waters for cleaning multiple pollutants.     

Synthesis of Small‐Molecule Fluorescent Probes for the In Vitro Imaging of Calcium‐Activated Potassium Channel KCa3.1

Small‐molecule probes for the in vitro imaging of K_Ca3.1 channel‐expressing cells were developed. Senicapoc, showing high affinity and selectivity for the K_Ca3.1 channels, was chosen as the targeting component. BODIPY dyes 15 – 20 were synthesized and connected by a Cu^I‐catalyzed azide–alkyne [3+2]cycloaddition with propargyl ether senicapoc derivative 8 , yielding fluorescently labeled ligands 21 – 26 . The dimethylpyrrole‐based imaging probes 25 and 26 allow staining of K_Ca3.1 channels in NSCLC cells. The specificity was shown by removing the punctate staining pattern by pre‐incubation with senicapoc. The density of K_Ca3.1 channels detected with 25 and by immunostaining was identical. The punctate structure of the labeled channels could also be observed in living cells. Molecular modeling showed binding of the senicapoc‐targeting component towards the binding site within the ion channel and orientation of the linker with the dye along the inner surface of the ion channel.     

Anisotropic Electron Conductance Driven by Reaction Byproducts on a Porous Network of Dibromobenzothiadiazole on Cu(110)

Efficiency in charge‐transport is a fundamental but demanding prerequisite to allow better exploitation of molecular functionalities in organic electronics and energy‐conversion systems. Here, we report on a mechanism that enables a one‐dimensional conductance structure by connecting discrete molecular states at 2.1 eV through the pores of a metal–organic network on Cu(110). Two adjacent, periodic and isoenergetic contributions, namely a molecular resonance and the confined surface‐state, add‐up leading to anisotropic structures, as channels, observable in real‐space conductance images. The adsorption configurations of Br atoms, inorganic byproduct of the redox‐reacted 4,7‐dibromobenzo[c]‐1,2,5‐thiadiazole (2Br‐BTD) molecules on the copper surface, drive the confinement of the Cu surface state within the pores and critically control the channel continuity. Small displacements of the Br atoms change the local surface potential misaligning the energy levels. This work visualizes the effect of order‐disorder transitions caused by the movement of single atoms in the electronic properties of two‐dimensional organic networks.     

Pebax‐Based Membrane Filled with Two‐Dimensional Mxene Nanosheets for Efficient CO2 Capture

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) made from inorganic fillers and polymers is a kind of promising candidate for gas separation. In this work, two‐dimensional MXene nanosheets were synthesized and incorporated into a polyether‐polyamide block copolymer (Pebax) matrix to fabricate MMM for CO₂ capture. The physicochemical properties of MXene nanosheets and MXene/Pebax membranes were studied systematically. The introduction of MXene nanosheets provided additional molecular transport channels and meanwhile enhanced the CO₂ adsorption capacity, thereby enhancing both the CO₂ peremance and CO₂/N₂ selectivity of Pebax membrane. The optimized MXene/Pebax membrane with a MXene loading of 0.15 wt % displayed a high separation performance with a CO₂ permeance of 21.6 GPU and a CO₂/N₂ selectivity of 72.5, showing potential application in CO₂ capture.     

Therapeutic Potential of Highly Selective A3 Adenosine Receptor Ligands in the Central and Peripheral Nervous System

Ligands of the G_i protein-coupled adenosine A₃ receptor (A₃R) are receiving increasing interest as attractive therapeutic tools for the treatment of a number of pathological conditions of the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS, respectively). Their safe pharmacological profiles emerging from clinical trials on different pathologies (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and fatty liver diseases) confer a realistic translational potential to these compounds, thus encouraging the investigation of highly selective agonists and antagonists of A₃R. The present review summarizes information on the effect of latest-generation A₃R ligands, not yet available in commerce, obtained by using different in vitro and in vivo models of various PNS- or CNS-related disorders. This review places particular focus on brain ischemia insults and colitis, where the prototypical A₃R agonist, Cl-IB-MECA, and antagonist, MRS1523, have been used in research studies as reference compounds to explore the effects of latest-generation ligands on this receptor. The advantages and weaknesses of these compounds in terms of therapeutic potential are discussed.     

Channel-Supermodular Entropies: Order Theory and an Application to Query Anonymization

This work introduces channel-supermodular entropies, a subset of quasi-concave entropies. Channel-supermodularity is a property shared by some of the most commonly used entropies in the literature, including Arimoto–Rényi conditional entropies (which include Shannon and min-entropy as special cases), k-tries entropies, and guessing entropy. Based on channel-supermodularity, new preorders for channels that strictly include degradedness and inclusion (or Shannon ordering) are defined, and these preorders are shown to provide a sufficient condition for the more-capable and capacity ordering, not only for Shannon entropy but also regarding analogous concepts for other entropy measures. The theory developed is then applied in the context of query anonymization. We introduce a greedy algorithm based on channel-supermodularity for query anonymization and prove its optimality, in terms of information leakage, for all symmetric channel-supermodular entropies.     

Geometry of skew information-based quantum coherence

We study the skew information-based coherence of quantum states and derive explicit formulas for Werner states and isotropic states in a set of autotensors of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). We also give surfaces of skew information-based coherence for Bell-diagonal states and a special class of X states in both computational basis and in MUBs. Moreover, we depict the surfaces of the skew information-based coherence for Bell-diagonal states under various types of local nondissipative quantum channels. The results show similar as well as different features compared with relative entropy of coherence and l₁ norm of coherence.     

敬钊毒素-V剪切体Y1-JZTX-V的化学合成与氧化复性及其钠通道活性鉴定

应用芴甲氧羰基(Fmoc)固相方法化学合成了敬钊毒素-V（JZTX-V）分子N-端酪氨酸残基剪切体(Y1-JZTX-V),并且通过反相高效液相色谱和质谱对不同条件下的氧化复性结果进行监测,从而得到该剪切体的最佳氧化复性条件:0.1 mol/L Tris-HCl缓冲液、pH 7.50、1 mmol/L还原型谷胱甘肽(GSH)、0.1 mmol/L氧化型谷胱甘肽(GSSG)、样品浓度为0.05 mg/L、复性温度为4 ℃。膜片钳电生理实验结果显示敬钊毒素-V剪切体Y1-JZTX-V对大鼠背根神经节(DRG)细胞上表达的河豚毒素不敏感型(TTX-R)与河豚毒素敏感型(TTX-S)钠电流均有抑制作用,其半数抑制浓度(IC50)分别为(160±2.5) nmol/L和(39.6±3.2) nmol/L。与天然的敬钊毒素-V相比,该剪切体对大鼠DRG细胞上的TTX-S钠电流的抑制作用基本一致,但对TTX-R钠电流的抑制作用却大大降低,表明敬钊毒素-V分子N-端的酪氨酸残基是一个与TTX-R钠通道结合活性相关的氨基酸残基。     

2-丙基-1H-4，5-咪唑二酸构筑的镉(Ⅱ)配位聚合物的合成、晶体结构、形貌及荧光性质

通过水热方法 ,采用H3pimda(2-propyl-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid)与CdSO4.8/3H2O和Nd2O3反应,合成了1个具有一维孔道的配位聚合物[Cd(H2pimda)2]n(1),并对其结构和荧光性质进行了研究。结构分析结果表明该聚合物的晶体属于单斜晶系,P21/n空间群。4个H2pimda-配体桥联4个镉(Ⅱ)离子形成了1个方环,这些环通过镉(Ⅱ)离子与H2pimda-配体的配位作用形成了1个具有一维孔道的三维框架结构。值得关注的是配合物1的晶体呈现一种微米管的外型。研究表明,该聚合物中在室温下能发出很强的兰色荧光。