Optical Absorption Enhancement in Freestanding GaAs Thin Film Nanopyramid Arrays

Although III–V compound semiconductor multi‐junction cells show the highest efficiency among all types of solar cells, their cost is quite high due to expensive substrates, long epitaxial growth and complex balance of system components. To reduce the cost, ultra‐thin films with advanced light management are desired. Here effective light trapping in freestanding thin film nanopyramid arrays is demonstrated and multiple‐times light path enhancement is realized, where only 160 nm thick GaAs with nanopyramid structures is equivalent to a 1 μm thick planar film. The GaAs nanopyramids are fabricated using a combination of nanosphere lithography, nanopyramid metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth, and gas‐phase substrate removal processes. Excellent optical absorption is demonstrated over a broad range of wavelengths, at various incident angles and at large‐curvature bending. Compared to an equally thick planar control film, the overall number of photons absorbed is increased by about 100% at various incident angles due to significant antireflection and light trapping effects. By implementing these nanopyramid structures, III–V material usage and deposition time can be significantly reduced to produce high‐efficiency, low‐cost thin film III–V solar cells.     

Carbonized Chicken Eggshell Membranes with 3D Architectures as High‐Performance Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors

Supercapacitor electrode materials are synthesized by carbonizing a common livestock biowaste in the form of chicken eggshell membranes. The carbonized eggshell membrane (CESM) is a three‐dimensional macroporous carbon film composed of interwoven connected carbon fibers containing around 10 wt% oxygen and 8 wt% nitrogen. Despite a relatively low surface area of 221 m² g^?1, exceptional specific capacitances of 297 F g^?1 and 284 F g^?1 are achieved in basic and acidic electrolytes, respectively, in a 3‐electrode system. Furthermore, the electrodes demonstrate excellent cycling stability: only 3% capacitance fading is observed after 10 000 cycles at a current density of 4 A g^?1. These very attractive electrochemical properties are discussed in the context of the unique structure and chemistry of the material.     

Covalent immobilization of Kluyveromyces fragilis β-galactosidase on magnetic nanosized epoxy support for synthesis of galacto-oligosaccharide

The novel magnetic nanobeads with epoxy groups on the surface were prepared from glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) via emulsifier-free emulsion polymerisation, and they were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer. The magnetic poly(GMA-EDGMA-HEMA) nanobeads were used as support for covalent immobilization of Kluyveromyces fragilis β-galactosidase, the maximum amount enzyme attached onto the support was 145.6?mg/g with activity recovery of 72.6%. The loading capacity of this novel support for K. fragilis β-galactosidase was improved 2.6-folds compared with Eupergit(?) C (commercial epoxy support). The immobilized K. fragilis β-galactosidase exhibited high catalytic activity for the reaction of galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS) synthesis, and a total of 2,240?g GOS were produced per gram of immobilized enzyme during consecutive batch reaction of 10 times. The immobilized biocatalyst retained 81.5% of its original activity after 10 reaction cycles.     

Molecular characterization and functional analysis by heterologous expression in E. coli under diverse abiotic stresses for OsLEA5, the atypical hydrophobic LEA protein from Oryza sativa L

In this study, we report the molecular characterization and functional analysis of OsLEA5 gene, which belongs to the atypical late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) group 5C from Oryza sativa L. The cDNA of OsLEA5 contains a 456 bp ORF encoding a polypeptide of 151 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 16.5 kDa and a theoretical pI of 5.07. The OsLEA5 polypeptide is rich in Leu (10%), Ser (8.6%), and Asp (8.6%), while Cys, Trp, and Gln residue contents are very low, which are 2, 1.3, and 1.3%, respectively. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that group 5C LEA protein subfamily contains a Pfam:LEA_2 domain architecture and is highly hydrophobic, intrinsically ordered with largely β-sheet and specific amino acid composition and distribution. Real-time PCR analysis showed that OsLEA5 was expressed in different tissue organs during different development stages of rice. The expression levels of OsLEA5 in the roots and panicles of full ripe stage were dramatically increased. The results of stress tolerance and cell viability assay demonstrated that recombinant E. coli cells producing OsLEA5 fusion protein exhibited improved resistance against diverse abiotic stresses: high salinity, osmotic, freezing, heat, and UV radiation. The OsLEA5 protein confers stabilization of the LDH under different abiotic stresses, such as heating, freeze–thawing, and drying in vitro. The combined results indicated that OsLEA5 protein was a hydrophobic atypical LEA and closely associated with resistance to multiple abiotic stresses. This research offered the valuable information for the development of crops with enhanced resistance to diverse stresses.     

Effect of salinity on growth,biochemical composition,and lipid productivity of Nannochloropsis oculata CS 179

Effect of salinity (15, 25, 35, 45, and 55‰) on growth, biochemical composition, and lipid productivity of Nannochloropsis oculata CS 179 was investigated under controlled cultivation in a 19‐day study. The results demonstrate that the dry biomass of N. oculata was the highest at a salinity of 25‰ among the treatments in the first 10‐day cultivation (P<0.05). During days 14–19 (stage III), the dry biomass productivity was the highest at a salinity of 35‰ (P<0.05). The algae had the highest chlorophyll a content (26.47 mg g^?1) at 25‰ in stage I, and it decreased continuously at stage III. Protein content (as% of dry biomass) of algae reached the highest value of 42.25 ± 2.10% at 15‰, and the lipid content was the highest of 32.11 ± 1.30% of dry biomass at 25‰. However, the lipid productivity of these algae was the highest at 35‰ (64.71 mg L^?1 d^?1; P<0.001). C16 series content was the highest among the total fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), and eicosapentaenoic acid C20:5n‐3 (EPA) content was high at the low salinity. Fatty acid profiles of N. oculata varied significantly under different salinities.     

DNA resection at chromosome breaks promotes genome stability by constraining non-allelic homologous recombination

DNA double-strand breaks impact genome stability by triggering many of the large-scale genome rearrangements associated with evolution and cancer. One of the first steps in repairing this damage is 5'→3' resection beginning at the break site. Recently, tools have become available to study the consequences of not extensively resecting double-strand breaks. Here we examine the role of Sgs1- and Exo1-dependent resection on genome stability using a non-selective assay that we previously developed using diploid yeast. We find that Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacking Sgs1 and Exo1 retains a very efficient repair process that is highly mutagenic to genome structure. Specifically, 51% of cells lacking Sgs1 and Exo1 repair a double-strand break using repetitive sequences 12-48 kb distal from the initial break site, thereby generating a genome rearrangement. These Sgs1- and Exo1-independent rearrangements depend partially upon a Rad51-mediated homologous recombination pathway. Furthermore, without resection a robust cell cycle arrest is not activated, allowing a cell with a single double-strand break to divide before repair, potentially yielding multiple progeny each with a different rearrangement. This profusion of rearranged genomes suggests that cells tolerate any dangers associated with extensive resection to inhibit mutagenic pathways such as break-distal recombination. The activation of break-distal recipient repeats and amplification of broken chromosomes when resection is limited raise the possibility that genome regions that are difficult to resect may be hotspots for rearrangements. These results may also explain why mutations in resection machinery are associated with cancer.     

Construction of low melting point agarose emulsion PCR amplification complex gene sequence

Emulsion polymerase chain reaction, an effective amplification, can make millions of templates could be individually amplified within a single tube. Here we constructed and improved a low melting point agarose-emulsion method to promote the specific sequences amplification effectively. Artificial Lactobacillus Plasmid as template was amplified and clear fluorescence images of the agarose beads were obtained. The Real-time PCR data showed that agarose-emulsion PCR clearly indicated that DNA can be amplified in agarose droplets. Overall, our study effectively overcame the difficulty of formation of uniform emulsion droplets, negative effect on recombination of homologous regions of DNA and generation of void emulsion droplets. This method increases the accuracy with amplification, reduces the influence of uncertainties and provides the reliable data for further experiment.     

Analysis of bypass signaling in EGFR pathway and profiling of bypass genes for predicting response to anticancer EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Some drugs, such as anticancer EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, elicit markedly different clinical response rates due to differences in drug bypass signaling as well as genetic variations of drug target and downstream drug-resistant genes. The profiles of these bypass signaling are expected to be useful for improved drug response prediction, which have not been systematically explored previously. In this work, we searched and analyzed 16 literature-reported EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor bypass signaling routes in the EGFR pathway, which include 5 compensatory routes of EGFR transactivation by another receptor, and 11 alternative routes activated by another receptor. These 16 routes are reportedly regulated by 11 bypass genes. Their expression profiles together with the mutational, amplification and expression profiles of EGFR and 4 downstream drug-resistant genes, were used as new sets of biomarkers for identifying 53 NSCLC cell-lines sensitive or resistant to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib, erlotinib and lapatinib. The collective profiles of all 16 genes distinguish sensitive and resistant cell-lines are better than those of individual genes and the combined EGFR and downstream drug resistant genes, and their derived cell-line response rates are consistent with the reported clinical response rates of the three drugs. The usefulness of cell-line data for drug response studies was further analyzed by comparing the expression profiles of EGFR and bypass genes in NSCLC cell-lines and patient samples, and by using a machine learning feature selection method for selecting drug response biomarkers. Our study suggested that the profiles of drug bypass signaling are highly useful for improved drug response prediction.     

Systems analysis of eleven rodent disease models reveals an inflammatome signature and key drivers

Common inflammatome gene signatures as well as disease‐specific signatures were identified by analyzing 12 expression profiling data sets derived from 9 different tissues isolated from 11 rodent inflammatory disease models. The inflammatome signature significantly overlaps with known drug targets and co‐expressed gene modules linked to metabolic disorders and cancer. A large proportion of genes in this signature are tightly connected in tissue‐specific Bayesian networks (BNs) built from multiple independent mouse and human cohorts. Both the inflammatome signature and the corresponding consensus BNs are highly enriched for immune response‐related genes supported as causal for adiposity, adipokine, diabetes, aortic lesion, bone, muscle, and cholesterol traits, suggesting the causal nature of the inflammatome for a variety of diseases. Integration of this inflammatome signature with the BNs uncovered 151 key drivers that appeared to be more biologically important than the non‐drivers in terms of their impact on disease phenotypes. The identification of this inflammatome signature, its network architecture, and key drivers not only highlights the shared etiology but also pinpoints potential targets for intervention of various common diseases.