A Fundamental Study and Applied Exploration of Some Novel Photo-functional Materials

This project focuses on fundamental problems in the interdisciplinary research of chemistry and materials, covering main achievements on fundamental study and applied exploration of novel photo-functional materials.Significant progress was made in the design and con- struction of special photo-functional molecules and complexes by implementation of this project. (1) Organic nanomaterials were investigated sys- tematically in this project, extending the particularity of nanomaterials from metal…     

Determination of Acid β-Galactosidase Activity: Methodology and Perspectives

Early, accurate diagnosis of lysosomal storage disorders is a major challenge, even for trained specialists. Finding innovative, accurate diagnostic methods, and high throughput, cost-effective tools are crucial to medical progress and will contribute to improved quality of life. The goal of this work was to improve currently used protocols to determine activity of acid β-galactosidase, and discuss the possibility analysing lysosomal enzymes with microfluidic systems. A principle of the determination of β-galactosidase activity was fluorometric measurement of a deprotonated form of 4-methylumbelliferone released in the enzymatic reaction. Measurements were performed using Jurkat T cells as a source of the enzyme. We observed the temperature-dependent substrate inhibition effect and determined the substrate (4-MU-β-d-galactopyranoside) concentration which should be used to determine acid β-galactosidase activity at 37 °C (0.8 mM) and at room temperature (0.6 mM). We proved that the sample incubation time may be significantly reduced to only a few minutes. We also showed that the amount of alkaline buffer used to stop the enzymatic reaction may be minimized and even, in some cases, eliminated. The presented results show how the sensitivity of the available methods to diagnose patients suffer from gangliosidosis GM1 or Morquio B disease can be improved. The proposed method may be easily implemented with microfluidic systems, which currently are promising tools for point-of-care applications.     

Some Considerations on Developmental Strategies in the Fields of Resources and the Environment

The science and technology (S&T) of resources and the environment are the indispensable groundwork for realizinga country’ssustainable socio-economicdevelopment and one of vital components in contemporaryscience and technology. Their research features includeimmensity in their research scope and involvement, com-plexity in the problems and issues they have to deal with,interdisciplinary cross-breeding and openness of researchsystems. China faces a lot of challenges and problematic…     

An Analysis of Some Gestures Widely Used In China,Russia and the USA

In social communication, people use not only verbal language, but also some gestures, body movements and facial expressions to express or emphasize their ideas, thoughts, etc. All of these movements belong to nonverbal communication. In fact, nonverbal Co…     

Xylanase and β-xylosidase from Penicillium janczewskii: Purification,characterization and hydrolysis of substrates

BackgroundXylanases and β-d-xylosidases are the most important enzymes responsible for the degradation of xylan, the second main constituent of plant cell walls.ResultsIn this study, the main extracellular xylanase (XYL I) and β-xylosidase (BXYL I) from the fungus Penicillium janczewskii were purified, characterized and applied for the hydrolysis of different substrates. Their molecular weights under denaturing and non-denaturing conditions were, respectively, 30.4 and 23.6 kDa for XYL I, and 100 and 200 kDa for BXYL I, indicating that the latter is homodimeric. XYL I is highly glycosylated (78%) with optimal activity in pH 6.0 at 65°C, while BXYL I presented lower sugar content (10.5%) and optimal activity in pH 5.0 at 75°C. The half-lives of XYL I at 55, 60 and 65°C were 125, 16 and 6 min, respectively. At 60°C, BXYL I retained almost 100% of the activity after 6 h. NH₄⁺, Na⁺, DTT and β-mercaptoethanol stimulated XYL I, while activation of BXYL I was not observed. Interestingly, XYL I was only partially inhibited by Hg^2 +, while BXYL I was completely inhibited. Xylobiose, xylotriose and larger xylooligosaccharides were the main products from xylan hydrolysis by XYL I. BXYL I hydrolyzed xylobiose and larger xylooligosaccharides with no activity against xylans.ConclusionThe enzymes act synergistically in the degradation of xylans, and present industrial characteristics especially in relation to optimal activity at high temperatures, prolonged stability of BXYL I at 60°C, and stability of XYL I in wide pH range.     

Modulation of Angiogenesis,Proliferative Response and Apoptosis by β-Sitosterol in Rat Model of Renal Carcinogenesis

As expanded understanding of molecular tumor characteristics, which drive renal cancer growth and progression gives a promising future for renal carcinoma therapy. The objective of the present study was designed to examine the effect of β-sitosterol on a rat model of experimental renal carcinogenesis. Renal carcinogenesis was induced in rats treated with N-diethylnitrosamine (DEN; 200 mg/kg bw single i.p., injection) and ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA; 9 mg Fe/kg bw i.p., twice a week for 16 weeks). β-sitosterol pretreatment (20 mg/kg bw in 0.1 % carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) p.o., thrice a week for 24 weeks) was started 2 weeks before the exposure to carcinogens. Expression of angiogenesis marker (VEGF), proliferative markers (cyclin D1, PCNA) and apoptotic markers (Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-9) were analyzed to assess the anti-cancer potential of β-sitosterol in renal carcinogenesis model. mRNA and protein expression changes were determined by qRT-PCR, Western blotting, ELISA technique and immunohistochemistry. Our results showed that oral administration of β-sitosterol pretreatment significantly (P < 0.05) reversed the expression of all the above mentioned markers and histological features which have been modified by renal carcinogen. It is concluded that, the protective effects of β-sitosterol against renal cancer is associated with the induction of apoptosis and the inhibition of cellular proliferation.     

An integrated microfluidic chip for immunocapture,preconcentration and separation of β-amyloid peptides

We present an integrated microfluidic chip for detection of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides. Aβ peptides are major biomarkers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer''s disease (AD) in its early stages. This microfluidic device consists of three main parts: (1) An immunocapture microcolumn based on self-assembled magnetic beads coated with antibodies specific to Aβ peptides, (2) a nano-porous membrane made of photopolymerized hydrogel for preconcentration, and (3) a microchip electrophoresis (MCE) channel with fluorescent detection. Sub-milliliter sample volume is either mixed off-chip with antibody coated magnetic beads and injected into the device or is injected into an already self-assembled column of magnetic beads in the microchannel. The captured peptides on the beads are then electrokinetically eluted and re-concentrated onto the nano-membrane in a few nano-liters. By integrating the nano-membrane, total assay time was reduced and also off-chip re-concentration or buffer exchange steps were not needed. Finally, the concentrated peptides in the chip are separated by electrophoresis in a polymer-based matrix. The device was applied to the capture and MCE analysis of differently truncated peptides Aβ (1–37, 1–39, 1–40, and 1–42) and was able to detect as low as 25 ng of synthetic Aβ peptides spiked in undiluted cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The device was also tested with CSF samples from healthy donors. CSF samples were fluorescently labelled and pre-mixed with the magnetic beads and injected into the device. The results indicated that Aβ1-40, an important biomarker for distinguishing patients with frontotemporal lobe dementia from controls and AD patients, was detectable. Although the sensitivity of this device is not yet enough to detect all Aβ subtypes in CSF, this is the first report on an integrated or semi-integrated device for capturing and analyzing of differently truncated Aβ peptides. The method is less demanding and faster than the conventional Western blotting method currently used for research.     

Asymptotic properties of Spearman’s footrule and Gini’s gamma in bivariate normal model

This paper aims at rejuvenating the two rank correlation coefficients, Spearman’s footrule (SF) and Gini’s gamma (GG), which were forgotten in the literature for a long time due to lack of knowledge concerning their statistical properties. Under the common bivariate normal model, we establish the asymptotic analytical expressions of the mean and variance of SF and GG, and investigate the performances of SF and GG from the aspects of biased effect, approximate variance and asymptotic relative efficiency (ARE). Moreover, we further study the robustness of SF and GG under contaminated normal models. In order to get a deeper understanding of their performances, we also compare SF and GG with Kendall’s tau (KT) and Spearman’s rho (SR), the most widely used rank correlation coefficients, in terms of bias and mean square error (MSE) under both the normal and contaminated normal models. Finally we show an application of SF and GG in the field of signal processing through the example of time-delay estimation. Simulation results indicate that SF and GG outperform SR and KT in some cases. The new findings discovered in this paper enable SF and GG to play complementary roles to KT and SR in practice.     

Curing cut or ritual mutilation? Some remarks on the practice of female and male circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt

Ancient texts and archaeological artifacts provide the starting point for a review of the surgical aspects of female genital mutilation (FGM) in ancient Egypt. Analysis of the ancient surgical procedure incorporates modern experience on the subject as well as ancient literary and cultural perspectives. Comparison of FGM with ancient Egyptian male circumcision and consideration of motivations for the practice contribute to our understanding of FGM. In particular, the documented association between male circumcision and generative ability suggests a novel comparison with a natural process in the female--the breaking of the hymen on first intromission--and ultimately a new hypothesis for the origin of ancient FGM.     

Some results on the Induced Matching Partition Number of Product Graphs

The induced matching partition number of graph G is the minimum integer k such that there exists a k-partition(V1,V2,…,Vk) of V(G)such that,for each i(1≤i≤k),G[Vi] is 1-regular.In this paper,we study the induced matching partition number of product graphs.We provide a lower bound and an upper bound for the induced matching partition number of product graphs,and exact results are given for some special product graphs.     

Some results on the Induced Matching Partition Number of Product Graphs

The induced matching partition number of graph G is the minimum integer k such that there exists a k-partition （V1, V2,…,Vk） of V（G） such that, for each i（1≤i≤k）, G[V1] is 1-regular. In this paper, we study the induced matching partition number of product graphs. We provide a lower bound and an upper bound for the induced matching partition number of product graphs, and exact results are given for some special product graphs.