Preparation and Optimization of PEGylated Nano Graphene Oxide-Based Delivery System for Drugs with Different Molecular Structures Using Design of Experiment (DoE)

Graphene oxide (GO), due to its 2D planar structure and favorable physical and chemical properties, has been used in different fields including drug delivery. This study aimed to investigate the impact of different process parameters on the average size of drug-loaded PEGylated nano graphene oxide (NGO-PEG) particles using design of experiment (DoE) and the loading of drugs with different molecular structures on an NGO-PEG-based delivery system. GO was prepared from graphite, processed using a sonication method, and functionalized using PEG 6000. Acetaminophen (AMP), diclofenac (DIC), and methotrexate (MTX) were loaded onto NGO-PEG particles. Drug-loaded NGO-PEG was then characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), XRD. The DLS data showed that the drug-loaded NGO-PEG suspensions were in the size range of 200 nm–1.3 µm. The sonication time and the stirring rate were found to be the major process parameters which affected the average size of the drug-loaded NGO-PEG. FTIR, DSC, XRD, and SEM demonstrated that the functionalization or coating of the NGO occurred through physical interaction using PEG 6000. Methotrexate (MTX), with the highest number of aromatic rings, showed the highest loading efficiency of 95.6% compared to drugs with fewer aromatic rings (diclofenac (DIC) 70.5% and acetaminophen (AMP) 65.5%). This study suggests that GO-based nano delivery systems can be used to deliver drugs with multiple aromatic rings with a low water solubility and targeted delivery (e.g., cancer).     

Thiazoline-Iridium (III) Complexes and Immobilized Nanomaterials as Selective Catalysts in N-Alkylation of Amines with Alcohols

In this research, a new series of thiazoline-iridium (III) complexes ( 4 – 7 ) derived from cysteine were prepared and fully characterized by conventional methods. The molecular structure of complex 5 was also determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. These complexes were evaluated as catalysts for hydrogen-borrowing reactions of amines with alcohols. In particular, complex 5 showed the best activity as catalyst. Various amines have been alkylated with alcohols affording moderate to good yield (33–99%). Moreover, the immobilized nanomaterials ( M _1,2 ) were fabricated by sonication process from the best catalyst 5 with the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphene oxide (GO), respectively, and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The M _1,2 nanomaterials were also tested as catalysts in model catalytic reaction for N-alkylation. The M ₁ nanomaterial showed significantly higher activity than the M ₂ nanomaterial. The M ₁ catalyst was recovered by filtration and reused for four catalytic cycles with high conversion (99%, 97%, 96%, and 86%).     

Principles for the organization of gene-sets

A gene-set, an important concept in microarray expression analysis and systems biology, is a collection of genes and/or their products (i.e. proteins) that have some features in common. There are many different ways to construct gene-sets, but a systematic organization of these ways is lacking. Gene-sets are mainly organized ad hoc in current public-domain databases, with group header names often determined by practical reasons (such as the types of technology in obtaining the gene-sets or a balanced number of gene-sets under a header). Here we aim at providing a gene-set organization principle according to the level at which genes are connected: homology, physical map proximity, chemical interaction, biological, and phenotypic-medical levels. We also distinguish two types of connections between genes: actual connection versus sharing of a label. Actual connections denote direct biological interactions, whereas shared label connection denotes shared membership in a group. Some extensions of the framework are also addressed such as overlapping of gene-sets, modules, and the incorporation of other non-protein-coding entities such as microRNAs.     

NoisyGOA: Noisy GO annotations prediction using taxonomic and semantic similarity

Gene Ontology (GO) provides GO annotations (GOA) that associate gene products with GO terms that summarize their cellular, molecular and functional aspects in the context of biological pathways. GO Consortium (GOC) resorts to various quality assurances to ensure the correctness of annotations. Due to resources limitations, only a small portion of annotations are manually added/checked by GO curators, and a large portion of available annotations are computationally inferred. While computationally inferred annotations provide greater coverage of known genes, they may also introduce annotation errors (noise) that could mislead the interpretation of the gene functions and their roles in cellular and biological processes. In this paper, we investigate how to identify noisy annotations, a rarely addressed problem, and propose a novel approach called NoisyGOA. NoisyGOA first measures taxonomic similarity between ontological terms using the GO hierarchy and semantic similarity between genes. Next, it leverages the taxonomic similarity and semantic similarity to predict noisy annotations. We compare NoisyGOA with other alternative methods on identifying noisy annotations under different simulated cases of noisy annotations, and on archived GO annotations. NoisyGOA achieved higher accuracy than other alternative methods in comparison. These results demonstrated both taxonomic similarity and semantic similarity contribute to the identification of noisy annotations. Our study shows that annotation errors are predictable and removing noisy annotations improves the performance of gene function prediction. This study can prompt the community to study methods for removing inaccurate annotations, a critical step for annotating gene and pathway functions.     

Ag−Co3O4 @ Nr GO Material Synthesized by One‐pot Hydrothermal Method for Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Detection of Enzyme‐mimetic Electrochemical Immunosensor

A high‐sensitivity carcinoembryonic antigen immunosensor was successfully prepared via a one‐step hydrothermal method, wherein nitrogen‐doped graphene oxide (Nr GO) loaded Ag and Co₃O₄ nanomaterials were synthesized using ammonia as the nitrogen source. Doping nitrogen atoms into the graphene structure forms a new type of N‐type semiconductor with an increased number of graphene layers and more active sites for bonding with chemicals, thereby providing excellent in biocompatibility and good electrical conductivity. The electrical signal of the sensor is further amplified due to the good catalytic effect of Co₃O₄ and Ag NPs on H₂O₂. The signal probe requires neither pretreatment nor acid treatment, and can be easy to loaded with metal‐immobilized antibodies, which greatly simplifies the detection step not shorten the detection time. The sensor has good sensitivity to detecting carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and can easily operate, and requires mild reaction conditions. Under optimal experimental conditions, the linear range of the sensor is 0.001–200 ng ? mL^?1, the detection limit is 0.18 pg ? mL^?1, and the linear correlation coefficient is 0.991, which can be used for CEA determination of the actual sample.     

A Sensitive Electrochemical Sensor Based on Graphene Oxide Nanosheets Decorated by Fe3O4@Au Nanostructure Stabilized on Polypyrrole for Efficient Triclosan Sensing

Triclosan is broadly utilized as preservative or antiseptic in various cosmetic and personal care products. It becomes hazardous for environmental safety and human health more than a certain concentration. In this research, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were prepared by composing Fe₃O₄@Au nanostructure decorated GO together with polypyrrole (PPy) (Fe₃O₄@Au‐PPy/GO nanocomposite) in a facile way. The composite excellent increased the electrochemical response, presenting a high sensitive electrochemical method for triclosan detection. The synthesized Fe₃O₄@Au‐PPy/GO nanocomposite was characterized for its morphological, magnetically and structural properties by FESEM‐mapping, TEM, and XRD. The Fe₃O₄@Au‐PPy/GO nanocomposites modified glassy carbon electrodes (GCE), Fe₃O₄@Au‐PPy/GO GCE, showed a higher sensitivity good stability, reproducibility, lower LOD (2.5×10^?9 M) and potential practical application in electrochemical detection of triclosan under optimized experimental conditions.     

Super-hydrophobic carrageenan cross-linked graphene sponge for recovery of oil and organic solvent from their water mixtures

A novel ultra-light, superhydrophobic graphene based carrageenan sponge (GCS) absorbent was synthesized by one pot hydrothermal method, for the use of selective adsorption of oils and organic solvents from their water mixtures. The GO nanosheets were reacted in the presence of formaldehyde by the insertion of carrageenan, forming hydrophobic cross-linked structure in between them. The structure and properties of this GCS are well characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Thermal gravimetric analysis, Scanning electron microscopy, and Water contact angle. The as-prepared GCS has good thermal stability (400 °C), low density (20 mg/cm⁻³), excellent hydrophobicity (water contact angle of 136.24°), and selective absorption capacity (25.2–35.95 g/g) of oils and organic solvents from their water mixtures. GCS has excellent oil sorption capacity in the range of 25.2–50 g of oil per gram of adsorbent. GCS could be easily reused by simple solvent treatment. Therefore, the adsorption capacity still retained even after 10 cycles. The present work suggests that GCS using biobased resources has high potentials for many widespread applications in industry to control environmental pollution.     

MIL-101(Cr)/GO复合吸附剂的O2/N2分离性能研究

变压吸附（PSA）制取O₂的核心是吸附剂.近年来,金属有机骨架（MOFs）被认为是一种具有广阔应用前景的新型吸附剂.通过水热法制备了MIL-101（Cr）/氧化石墨烯（GO）.结果表明,MIL-101（Cr）/GO-15具有更高的比表面积（3486 m²·g^-1）和更大的孔体积（2.39 cm³·g^-1）,因此也表现出更高的O₂吸附量（0.54 mmol·g^-1）.进一步根据理想吸附溶液理论（IAST）预测了其在O₂/N₂体积比为1：4混合气体中的O₂/N₂选择性为1.2,相比MIL-101（Cr）提高了17.65%.同时,MIL-101（Cr）/GO-15的循环利用性能更佳,经过三次O₂吸脱附循环后,依然拥有高达80%的O₂吸附量,具有较好的循环再生性能.     

基于GO法的激光点火系统可靠性建模与分析

为了提高和评价激光火工系统可靠性,本文采用GO法建立了激光点火系统可靠性模型,并进行可靠性定性分析和定量计算.首先,通过元器件应力法预计激光点火系统各个组成模块的可靠性参数,然后通过GO法定性分析得到该激光点火系统的最小割集,并采用GO法定量分析计算系统非工作状态贮存5 y、工作状态工作时间1 h任务剖面下系统作用可靠度.通过与故障树定性分析结果、蒙特卡洛仿真分析结果对比,验证了采用GO法对激光点火系统进行可靠性分析的正确性与合理性.     

Zn掺杂对TiO_2晶相及光催化性能的影响

采用改进的溶胶-凝胶法制备ZnO-TiO2复合催化剂,通过X射线衍射(XRD)、紫外-可见漫反射(UV-Vis DRS)对其微晶结构和光吸收性能进行表征.以甲基橙作为模拟降解物,结果表明,改变水和乙醇的含量以控制溶胶向凝胶陈化的时间影响ZnO-TiO2的催化活性.当n(Zn)∶n(Ti)为3∶15、煅烧温度为500℃时产物催化效率最好,紫外光照5 h,降解率为96.4%.XRD结果显示,ZnO-TiO2主要以锐钛矿相TiO2和立方Zn2TiO4晶相存在,且Zn2TiO4晶相在n(Zn)∶n(Ti)≥3∶15时才会出现.紫外-可见漫反射吸收光谱显示,相比单纯TiO2,Zn O-TiO2吸收边蓝移.