Adsorption, desorption and activities of acid phosphatase on various colloidal particles from an Ultisol

Adsorption, desorption and activity of acid phosphatase on various soil colloidal particles and pure clay minerals were studied. Higher adsorption amounts and low percentage of desorption of acid phosphatase were found on fine soil clays (<0.2 μm). Electrostatic force and ligand exchange are the major driving forces that are involved in the adsorption of enzymes on soil clays. More enzyme molecules were adsorbed on soil clays in the presence of organic components. However, enzymes on organic clays were more easily released. One-third of the enzyme on goethite was adsorbed via ligand exchange process. Some other interactions, such as van der Waals force, hydrophobic force and hydrogen bonding may be more important in the adsorption of enzyme on kaolinite and the enzyme in this system cannot be easily removed. Coarse clays (0.2–2 μm) and inorganic soil clays had higher affinities for enzyme molecules than fine clays and organic clays, respectively. The activity of enzyme bound on soil clays was inhibited and the thermal stability was increased in the presence of organic matter. Data obtained in this study are helpful for a better understanding of the interactions of enzymes with inorganic and organic constituents in soil and associated environments.     

Fluid-Fluid Phase Separation by Molecular Dynamics

Abstract

Miscibility of several binary fluid systems, placed in an external gravitational field, has been studied by Molecular Dynamics calculation. The results show inmiscibility and phase separation to appear as a consequence of differences in the Lennard-Jones energy parameter of molecular interaction. Two situations are primarily considered: The case of a big difference in the energy parameters of pure components and the case of a weak interaction between unlike molecules.     

脉冲电场对木瓜蛋白酶影响的荧光光谱分析

木瓜蛋白酶溶液在电场强度为50 kV·cm-1,频率1 500 Hz,脉冲宽度40 μs的脉冲电场下接受19 800个脉冲处理后,其活性降低了56.5％。文章采用荧光偏光光谱对处理前后的样品进行了分析。 处理后酶样的荧光强度明显大于处理前,在峰值位置其荧光强度增加超过50％,峰位从342 nm移到了346 nm左右,其荧光偏振幅度明显减小。由此推断出木瓜蛋白酶经脉冲电场处理后酶蛋白的α-螺旋结构松散拉伸,分子内部的氨基酸残基暴露于分子表面,并有部分发生离解游离于溶液中,导致活性部位的结构发生变化,最终导致酶失活。     

芦荟大黄素锌配合物的抗氧化活性

对比研究了芦荟大黄素和芦荟大黄素锌配合物体外抗氧化活性。以Fenton反应产生羟自由基,邻苯三酚自氧化反应产生超氧阴离子自由基,二苯代苦味肼(DPPH.)自由基为实验模型,采用紫外可见分光光度法,首次测定芦荟大黄素锌配合物对超氧阴离子、羟自由基、DPPH.自由基的清除作用。结果表明,金属锌离子与芦荟大黄素具有协同抗氧化作用。     

Community responses to road traffic noise in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam is a developing country in southeast Asia, and its environment has been seriously affected by industrialization and urbanization. In large cities like Hanoi (northern Vietnam) and Ho Chi Minh City (southern Vietnam), noise emission from road traffic has been found to be a serious concern among general public. In 2005 and 2007, two large-scale socio-acoustic surveys of community response to road traffic noise were conducted to investigate human reactions to road traffic noise in these cities; the sample sizes were 1503 people in Hanoi and 1471 in Ho Chi Minh City. The noise exposure levels (L_den) were 70–83 dB in Hanoi and 75–83 dB in Ho Chi Minh City. Noise annoyance was estimated using standardized annoyance scales. For both cities, dose–response relationships were established between L_den and the percentage of highly annoyed respondents. Compared to annoyance responses of European people, Vietnamese were less annoyed by road traffic noise by about 5 dB. Hanoi respondents seemed to be more annoyed by noise than Ho Chi Minh City respondents. Conversation and sleep disturbances were not as serious as expected in either city. Furthermore, window orientation in the home was found to affect activity disturbances.     

麦芽酸性磷酸酶与乙醇相互作用的谱学研究

应用荧光光谱、紫外差光谱等技术研究了麦芽酸性磷酸酶经乙醇变性后活力与分子构象的变化情况,同时应用Lineweaver-Burk双倒数作图法考察了乙醇对酶动力学性质的影响。结果表明,乙醇对酶活力及分子构象有较显著的影响。酶活力随乙醇浓度增大而直线下降,50％的乙醇对酶的抑制率达43．4％;变性后酶的紫外差光谱在213和234nm处出现正吸收峰,表明酶肽链发生变化,酶分子由有序结构变成无规则卷曲;酶内源荧光强度随乙醇浓度的提高而增强,酪氨酸、色氨酸残基微环境在乙醇作用下发生明显变化,表明酶活力的表现与酶分子构象的稳定性和完整性密切相关。乙醇对酶的抑制类型为反竞争抑制。     

Modelling of electrolyte mixtures with application to chemical equilibria in mixtures—prototypes of blood''s plasma and calcification of soft tissues

Modelling of the biologic solutions has a great importance for basic physicochemical backgrounds of the living processes, mechanism of the diseases and drugs action, etc. The modelling of the chemical equilibria in solution that served as a prototype of the blood plasma with application to calcification of the tissues is performed. The concentrations of molecular–ionic forms containing calcium and hydrogen cations and phosphate anions in the range of ionized-calcium and total phosphorus concentrations from 0.5 to 3.0 mM and at the solution pH of 7.1–7.8 were calculated. The activities of the ionized species were described in approach to Debye–Hückel's theory. The full set of the equilibria taking into consideration dissociation of the water, phosphoric acid, formation of both inert and ionic calcium phosphates was considered. The states of calcium hydrophosphate dihydrate CaHPO₄·2H₂O (CHPD), calcium phosphate Ca₃(PO₄)₂ (CP), calcium hydrophosphate-phosphate dihydrate Ca₄H(PO₄)₃·2H₂O (CHPPD) and hydroxyapatite Ca₃OH(PO₄)₃ (HA) with respect to the boundary of the region in which they crystallise were determined. A criterion has been introduced to characterize the degree of salt supersaturation with respect to crystallisation, which is based on the concentration distance between the states of a salt in solution and at the boundary of its crystallisation. This criterion is used to provide a quantitative characteristic of the supersaturation of the phosphates and their tendency to crystallise in blood's plasma. It was established that the most soluble of the phosphates, CaHPO₄·2H₂O, is undersaturated and the other phosphates are supersaturated with respect to crystallisation. Thus, this phosphate does not take part in the calcification, and this is the source for ionized calcium in a blood plasma from the soft tissues. The role of the other phosphates in calcification of the soft tissues is decreased in the series HA>CP>CHPPD. The dependencies of the supersaturation of the solution on the pH and on the concentrations of calcium and phosphorus in a mixture are discussed.     

Activation and Afterheat Calculation Analysis for TBM

Safety considerations of TBM are part of the design process to ensure that the TBM do not adversely affect the safety of ITER. So accurate calculations of all radioactivity and potential harmfulness are very important for designing of device, selecting of blanket and shield material, analyzing of the safety and environment, disposing of nuclear waste and operation of the reactor.     

活性炭负载硅钼钒杂多酸催化苯羟基化反应

以活性炭为载体,采用回流吸附法制备了负载型硅钼钒杂多酸催化剂,以冰醋酸作溶剂,过氧化氢作氧化剂,研究了由苯直接羟基化制苯酚的催化活性。结果表明,苯为2mL,冰醋酸为15mL,过氧化氢为5mL,当负载型杂多酸的用量为0.2g、反应温度70℃、反应时间60m in时,硅钼钒催化合成苯酚的收率可达7.4%,选择性达97.1%。     

Influence of sodium alginate pretreated by ultrasound on papain properties: Activity,structure, conformation and molecular weight and distribution

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of sodium alginate (ALG) pretreated by ultrasound on the enzyme activity, structure, conformation and molecular weight and distribution of papain. ALG solutions were pretreated with ultrasound at varying power (0.05, 0.15, 0.25, 0.35, 0.45 W/cm²), 135 kHz, 50 °C for 20 min. The maximum relative activity of papain increased by 10.53% when mixed with ALG pretreated by ultrasound at 0.25 W/cm², compared with the untreated ALG. The influence of ultrasound pretreated ALG on the conformation and secondary structure of papain were assessed by fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The fluorescence spectra revealed that ultrasound pretreated ALG increased the number of tryptophan on papain surface, especially at 0.25 W/cm². It indicated that ultrasound pretreatment induced molecular unfolding, causing the exposure of more hydrophobic groups and regions from inside to the outside of the papain molecules. Furthermore, ultrasound pretreated ALG resulted in minor changes in the secondary structure of the papain. The content of α-helix was slightly increased after ultrasound pretreatment and no significant change was observed at different ultrasound powers. ALG pretreated by ultrasound enhanced the stability of the secondary structure of papain, especially at 0.25 W/cm². The free sulfhydryl (SH) content of papain was slightly increased and then decreased with the increase of ultrasonic power. The maximum content of free SH was observed at 0.25 W/cm², under which the content of the free SH increased by 6.36% compared with the untreated ALG. Dynamic light scattering showed that the effect of ultrasound treatment was mainly the homogenization of the ALG particles in the mixed dispersion. The gel permeation chromatography coupled with the multi-angle laser light scattering photometer analysis showed that the molecular weight (M_w) of papain/ALG was decreased and then increased with the ultrasonic pretreatment. Results demonstrated that the activity of immobilized papain improved by ultrasonic pretreatment was mainly caused by the variation of the conformation of papain and the effect of interactions between papain and ALG. This study is important to explain the intermolecular interactions of biopolymers and the mechanism of enzyme immobilization treated by ultrasound in improving the enzymatic activity. As expected, ALG pretreated by appropriate ultrasound is promising as a bioactive compound carrier in the field of immobilized enzyme.