An Air‐Supported Liquid Crystal System for Real‐Time and Label‐Free Characterization of Phospholipases and Their Inhibitors

A new air‐supported liquid crystal (LC) system for analyzing interfacial phenomena that occur based on the molecular interaction between LCs and adsorbed molecules of interest at the aqueous/LC interface is reported. Compared with existing LC‐based detection systems, the miniature system reported here requires less sample and involves simpler preparation. Using this system, the enzymatic hydrolysis of various phospholipases such as phospholipase A₂ (PLA₂), phospholipase C (PLC) and phospholipase D (PLD) are characterized. The hydrolysis of phospholipid monolayers self‐assembled at aqueous/LC interface induces an orientational response from the LCs. As a result, an optical signal that reflects the spatial and temporal distribution of phospholipids during the enzymatic reaction can be generated in a real‐time manner. When well‐known phospholipase inhibitors are introduced together with respective phospholipases, no orientational response of LCs is observed. In the case of inhibitors MJ33 and compound 48/80, cross‐inhibitions among phospholipases are also observed. This work demonstrates that the air‐supported LC system provides a facile label‐free assay for characterizing phospholipase activities and for screening enzyme inhibitors. It could potentially be useful for different high throughput and cost‐effective enzyme screening assays.     

Examination of the Mode II fracture behaviour of wood with a short crack in an asymmetric four-point bending test

Asymmetric four-point bending tests of agathis specimens with a short crack along the neutral axis in a tangential–longitudinal system were conducted onto analyse the failure behaviour of wood with a short crack. The nominal shear strength and Mode II critical stress intensity factors of the specimens with various crack lengths were measured, and the influence of crack length on these properties was examined. The nominal shear strength of the cracked specimens was significantly lower than the strength of a crack-free specimen, even when the crack was extremely short. This finding suggests that the fracture mechanics theory is effective for analysing the failure behaviour of wood with a very short crack in this loading condition. However, the Mode II critical stress intensity factor still depends on the crack length. When the crack length was corrected with considering the formation of fracture process zone ahead of the crack tip, the critical intensity factor could be predicted effectively as well as the nominal shear strength.     

Reading and Phonological Awareness in Williams Syndrome.

This article describes the relationship between reading, phonological awareness abilities (PA), and intelligence in a group of 16 individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and in a group of 16 typically developing children, matched for mental age. The individuals with WS were impaired in passage comprehension, in some areas of PA investigated (syllable deletion and rhyme detection), and in nonword reading accuracy, a measure of grapheme-phoneme conversion. This latter finding is relevant, considering that in Italy regular print-to-sound correspondence is the most practiced teaching routine in the early phases of learning to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Non-oxidative thermal degradation of amines: GCMS/FTIR spectra analysis and molecular modeling

Aqueous amino solvents, such as monoethanolamine (ETA/MEA), methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) or amine blends, are the most widely used solvents in commercial CO₂ or acid gas separation applications. These commercial solvents have various disadvantages, such as the possibilities of the solvent to be degraded. This research examines the impact of non-oxidative thermal degradations on the performance of the CO₂ absorption and the degradation mechanism of amine solvents. The impact of degradation was conducted by measuring the CO₂ solubility of solvent that had been heated to 120°C for 2 h. Although the performance of CO₂ absorption was not significantly reduced, the degradation of amines was found. Supported by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer result, the suspected products of non-oxidative thermal degradation of MDEA were MEA and acetone.     

Argon-plasma-induced InAs/InGaAs/InP quantum dot intermixing

We report the first study of argon (Ar)-plasma-enhanced intermixing of InAs/InGaAs/InP self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) in an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etch system. The Ar-plasma exposure creates point defects, which propagate into the QD structure and enhance the intermixing between the QDs and their barrier layers, hence tuning the energy bandgap of the QDs. By optimizing the plasma exposure time and the annealing temperature, we observe (i) a blueshift of 160?nm and an increase in the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the QD samples immediately after Ar-plasma exposure for 90?s, and (ii) a further increase in the blueshift of 330?nm, accompanied by 2.5-times increase in the PL intensity and 37?nm narrowing in the PL linewidth after subsequent rapid thermal annealing at 720?°C. The ability to generate a large blueshift without degrading the material quality shows that Ar-plasma exposure is an efficient post-growth technique for tuning the energy bandgap of QD structures.     

Comparison of the morphology and structure of WO3 nanomaterials synthesized by a sol-gel method followed by calcination or hydrothermal treatment

Tungsten (VI) oxide (WO₃) nanomaterials were synthesized by a sol-gel method using WCl₆ and C₂H₅OH as precursors followed by calcination or hydrothermal treatment. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used to characterize the structure and morphology of the materials. There were significant differences between the WO₃ materials that were calcinated and those that were subjected to a hydrothermal process. The XRD results revealed that calcination temperatures of 300°C and 400°C gave hexagonal structures and temperatures of 500°C and 600°C gave monoclinic structures. The SEM images showed that an increase in calcination temperature led to a decrease in the WO₃ powder particle size. The TEM analysis showed that several nanoparticles agglomerated to form bigger clusters. The hydrothermal process produced hexagonal structures for holding times of 12, 16, and 20 h and monoclinic structures for a holding time of 24 h. The SEM results showed transparent rectangular particles which according to the TEM results originated from the aggregation of several nanotubes.     

多层砖混住宅沉降与局部倾斜的通用计算方法

本文提出一种考虑多层住宅砖混结构－基础－土体共同工作的计算方法。它把基础作为弹性体，把地基土作为弹塑性体，导出该体系共同工作的平衡方程，通过有限元法对体系进行弹塑性分析，从而计算地基沉降、基底反力和基础内力。     

Antioxidant and cytotoxic flavonoids from the flowers of Melastoma malabathricum L.

Phytochemical and bioactivity studies of the flowers of Melastoma malabathricum L. (Melastomataceae) have been carried out. The ethyl acetate extract yielded three compounds, identified as naringenin, kaempferol and kaempferol-3-O-d-glucoside, and methanol extract gave kaempferol-3-O-(2″,6″-di-O-p-trans-coumaroyl)glucoside and kaempferol-3-O-d-glucoside. The crude extracts and isolated compounds were screened for their antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. The antioxidant assay was carried out by the DPPH radical-scavenging electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopic method. The cytotoxicity was measured by the MTT assay against a MCF7 cell line. Naringenin, kaempferol, kaempferol-3-O-d-glucoside, kaempferol-3-O-(2″,6″-di-O-p-trans-coumaroyl) glucoside, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were found to be active as radical-scavengers with IC₅₀ values of 0.52 mM, 81.5 μM, 1.07 mM, 35.8 μM, 7.21 μg/ml and 6.59 μg/ml, respectively. Naringenin and kaempferol-3-O-(2″,6″-di-O-p-trans-coumaroyl)glucoside were also found to be active in inhibiting cell proliferation of MCF7 with IC₅₀ values of 0.28 μM and 1.3 μM, respectively.     

WO3 nanomaterials synthesized via a sol-gel method and calcination for use as a CO gas sensor

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous and hazardous gas and sensitive sensor devices are needed to prevent humans from being poisoned by this gas. A CO gas sensor has been prepared from WO₃ synthesized by a sol-gel method. The sensor chip was prepared by a spin-coating technique which deposited a thin film of WO₃ on an alumina substrate. The chip samples were then calcined at 300, 400, 500 or 600 °C for 1 h. The sensitivities of the different sensor chips for CO gas were determined by comparing the changes in electrical resistance in the absence and presence of 50 ppm of CO gas at 200 °C. The WO₃ calcined at 500 °C had the highest sensitivity. The sensitivity of this sensor was also measured at CO concentrations of 100 ppm and 200 ppm and at operating temperatures of 30 and 100 °C. Thermogravimetric analysis of the WO₃ calcined at 500 °C indicated that this sample had the highest gas adsorption capacity. This preliminary research has shown that WO₃ can serve as a CO gas sensor and that is should be further explored and developed.