A super-hydrophilic graphite directly from lignin enabled by a room-temperature cascade catalytic carbonization.

A cost-effective, and low-energy room-temperature cascade catalytic carbonization strategy is demonstrated for converting lignin into graphite with a high yield of 87 %, a high surface potential of -37 eV and super-hydrophilicity. This super-hydrophilic feature endows the lignin-derived graphite to be dispersed in a variety of polar solvents, which is important for its future applications. Encapsulating of liquid metals with the graphite for electrical circuit patterning on flexible substrates is also advocated. These written patterns show superb conductivity of 4.9 × 106 S/m, offering good performance stability and reliability while being repeatedly stretched, folded, twisted, and bent. This will offer new designs for flexible electronic devices, sensors, and biomedical devices.

Structural characterization and in vitro anti-colon cancer activity of a homogeneous polysaccharide from Agaricus bisporus.

Colon cancer is the third most prevalent cancer and the second most deadly cancer in the world. Anti-colon cancer activity of Agaricus bisporus polysaccharides has not been studied. In this paper, Agaricus bisporus polysaccharides were sequentially extracted by room temperature water, hot water, high pressure hot water, dilute alkaline solution and concentrated alkaline solution. A homogeneous polysaccharide (WAAP-1) was obtained using DEAE Cellulose-52 column. Physicochemical properties, structural characterization and anti-colon cancer activity of WAAP-1 were investigated. The results showed that WAAP-1 was a neutral polysaccharide with molecular weight of 10.1 kDa. The monosaccharide composition was glucose, mannose and galactose with a molar ratio of 84.95:8.97:4.50. The main chain was mainly composed of (1,4)-α-D-Glcp and (1,6)-ß-D-Manp. In vitro anti-colon cancer results showed that WAAP-1 could significantly inhibit proliferation of colon cancer cell HT-29. It promoted apoptosis and inhibited epithelial mesenchymal transition of HT-29 by up-regulating the expression of Caspase-3, Bax and E-cadherin proteins and down-regulating the expression of Bcl-2 and Vimentin proteins. The results provided new potential possibilities for the development of novel functional foods or antitumor drugs.

Structural characterization and anti-inflammatory activity of a pectin polysaccharide HBHP-3 from Houttuynia cordata.

In this study, a hot buffer soluble Houttuynia cordata polysaccharide (HBHP-3) with a molecular weight of 397.4 kDa was isolated from H. cordata. HBHP-3 was composed of rhamnose, arabinose, glucose, galactose and galacturonic acid with molar ratio of 16.0:12.6:4.6:18.1:15.6. Structural analysis showed that the main chain of HBHP-3 was composed of →2)-α-L-Rhap-(1→, →4)-α-D-GalpA-(1→ and →4)-ß-D-Galp-(1→. There were branched chains of α-L-Araf-(1→, →5)-α-L-Araf-(1→, →4)-α-D-Glcp-(1→, →6)-ß-D-Galp-(1→, ß-D-Galp-(1→ connected to the O-4 positions of →2)-α-L-Rhap-(1→. HBHP-3 effectively inhibited the secretion of NO and the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in a dose-dependent manner in macrophages. HBHP-3 inhibited the phosphorylation of p65 and IκBα proteins as well, illustrating that HBHP-3 exerted its anti-inflammatory activity by inhibiting the activation of NF-κB pathway.

Shifts in the pelagic ammonia-oxidizing microbial communities along the eutrophic estuary of Yong River in Ningbo City, China.

Aerobic ammonia oxidation plays a key role in the nitrogen cycle, and the diversity of the responsible microorganisms is regulated by environmental factors. Abundance and composition of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) were investigated in the surface waters along an environmental gradient of the Yong River in Ningbo, East China. Water samples were collected from three pelagic zones: (1) freshwaters in the urban canals of Ningbo, (2) brackish waters in the downstream Yong River, and (3) coastal marine water of Hangzhou Bay. Shifts in activity and diversity of the ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms occurred simultaneously with changes in environmental factors, among which salinity and the availabilities of ammonium and oxygen. The AOA abundance was always higher than that of AOB and was related to the ammonia oxidation activity. The ratios of AOA/AOB in the brackish and marine waters were significantly higher than those found in freshwaters. Both AOA and AOB showed similar community compositions in brackish and marine waters, but only 31 and 35% similarity, respectively, between these waters and the urban inland freshwaters. Most of AOA-amoA sequences from freshwater were affiliated with sequences obtained from terrestrial environments and those collected from brackish and coastal areas were ubiquitous in marine, coastal, and terrestrial ecosystems. All AOB from freshwaters belonged to Nitrosomonas, and the AOB from brackish and marine waters mainly belonged to Nitrosospira.

Electron beam irradiation modification of collagen membrane.

A critical observation of reconstituted collagen membrane radiated by electron beam (EB) indicated that these collagenous fibers become cross-linked network when the irradiation is carried out in greater than melt temperature and nitrogen atmosphere. Studies on the membrane properties showed that glass transformation temperature (Tg) and melt point (Tm) of reconstituted collagen have no changes, but thermal gravity curves and infrared (IR) spectra become obviously different before and after irradiation. Cross-linking density calculated by the equation based on the theory of Flory-Rehner proved further that the densities increase with radiation doses increasing. Resistance to enzymatic digestions in vitro and implantation in vivo were determined to evaluate the physicochemical properties of cross-linked matrices. Based on the above results, it was concluded that EB radiation inducing cross-linking in greater than melt temperature and nitrogen atmosphere condition is an attractive, effective method, which introduce into intermolecular covalent cross-linkings.