Molecular and Toxicity Analyses of White Granulated Sugar and Other Processing Products Derived From Transgenic Sugarcane.

This study aimed to prepare the sugar industry for the possible introduction of genetically modified (GM) sugarcane and derived retail sugar products and to address several potential public concerns regarding the characteristics and safety of these products. GM sugarcane lines with integrated Cry1Ab and EPSPS foreign genes were used for GM sugar production. Traditional PCR, real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were performed in analyzing leaves, stems, and other derived materials during sugar production, such as fibers, clarified juices, filter mud, syrups, molasses, and final GM sugar product. The toxicity of GM sugar was examined with a feeding bioassay using Helicoverpa armigera larvae. PCR and RT-qPCR results showed that the leaves, stems, fibers, juices, syrups, filter mud, molasses, and white granulated sugar from GM sugarcane can be distinguished from those derived from non-GM sugarcane. The RT-qPCR detection method using short amplified product primers was more accurate than the traditional PCR method. Molecular analysis results indicated that trace amounts of DNA residues remain in GM sugar, and thus it can be accurately characterized using molecular analysis methods. ELISA results showed that only the leaves, stems, fibers, and juices sampled from the GM sugarcane differed from those derived from the non-GM sugarcane, indicating that filter mud, syrup, molasses, and white sugar did not contain detectable Cry1Ab and EPSPS proteins. Toxicity analysis showed that the GM sugar was not toxic to the H. armigera larvae. The final results showed that the GM sugar had no active proteins despite containing trace amounts of DNA residues. This finding will help to pave the way for the commercialization of GM sugarcane and production of GM sugar.

Enhanced photoreduction CO2 efficiency by criss-crossed TiO2 nanoflakes combined with CdS under visible light.

In this paper, a novel photocatalyst CNCC with excellent visible light photocatalytic performance was successfully prepared to optimize the CO2 photoreduction performance. The results showed that the methanol formation rate of CNCC was 24.7 µmol g-1 h-1, which was 1.42 times higher than that of NCC. The enhanced photoactivity is attributed to the rapid propagation of charge carriers induced by light from the constructed composite structure.

Novel pyridinium inner salt dye and its complexes: synthesis, crystal structures and photophysical properties.

Two novel metal complexes, namely [Tb2(L)6(H2O)4]·(NO3)6·L2·(H2O)18 (1) and [Hg(L)Cl2]n (2), were obtained by the reaction of D-π-A (D = donor, π = conjugated spacer, A = acceptor) type pyridinium inner salt dye, trans-4-[(p-N,N-dimethylamino)styryl]-N-(2-propanoic-acid) pyridinium (L) with corresponding metal salts. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that compound 1 possesses dinuclear motif in which two Tb(III) ions are linked by four carboxylate groups while complex 2 exhibits 1D chain structure based on Hg(II) ions bridged by carboxylate groups. The linear and non-linear optical properties of complexes 1 and 2 have been studied. Both 1 and 2 exhibit intense single-photon excited fluorescence (SPEF) and two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) in the red range. Results show that the replacement of central ions from Hg(2+) to Tb(3+) influence the two-photon absorption cross-section significantly through increasing the density of the chromophore. However, the peak positions of two-photon excited fluorescence are only slightly affected. Compared with L molecule, complex 1 shows enhanced two-photon absorption cross-section and decreased fluorescent lifetime.

(E)-1-[(2-Chloro-4-nitro-phenyl-imino)-meth-yl]naphthalen-2-ol.

In the title compound, C(17)H(11)ClN(2)O(3), an intra-molecular O-H⋯N hydrogen bond influences the mol-ecular conformation; the naphthol system and the substituted benzene ring form a dihedral angle of 3.5 (1)°. In the crystal, weak inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link mol-ecules into chains in the [010] direction The crystal packing exhibits π-π inter-actions between the aromatic rings from the neighbouring mol-ecules, with a centroid-centroid distance of 3.566 (7) Å.

N,N-Bis(4-meth-oxy-benzyl-idene)-3,3'-dimethyl-benzidine.

The mol-ecule of the title compund, C(30)H(28)N(2)O(2), a Schiff base synthesised via a condensation reaction between 4-meth-oxy-benzaldehyde and 3,3'-dimethyl-benzidine, a crystallographic twofold rotation axis passes through the mid-point of the C-C bond of the biphenyl unit. Thus, the asymmetric unit comprises one half-mol-ecule. In the biphenyl unit, the aromatic rings are twisted by 13.49 (7)° with respect to one another. The dihedral angles between the biphenyl and meth-oxy-benzene rings are 49.95 (12) and 50.06 (12)°. In the crystal, weak inter-molecular C-H⋯ O hydrogen bonds contribute to the stabilization of the packing.

Tetra-aqua-bis-(2,6-dihy-droxy-benzoato-κO)(2,6-dihy-droxy-benzoato-κO,O)gadolinium(III) dihydrate.

In the title compound, [Gd(C(7)H(5)O(4))(3)(H(2)O)(4)]·2H(2)O, the Gd(III) ion shows a distorted square anti-prismatic coordination formed by four aqua ligands and four O atoms from the three 2,6-dihy-droxy-benzoate (L) ligands. Two L ligands coordinate the Gd(III) ion in a monodentate mode, while the third coordinates it in a bidentate-chelating coordination mode. An extensive three-dimensional O-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding network consolidates the crystal packing.