Molecular dynamics simulations of the aggregation behaviour of overlapped graphene sheets in linear aliphatic hydrocarbons

Molecular dynamics simulations were used to investigate the aggregation of two partially overlapped graphene sheets in hexane, dodecane and eicosane. When partially overlapped graphene sheets are adjacent to one another, they will expel the adsorbed layers of the solvent molecules on the graphene surface, and the amount of overlap will increase. When the overlapped regions of the graphene sheets are separated by solvent molecules, they cannot expel the adsorption layers between them, and so the sheets remain separated. The driving force for aggregation is the van der Waals interaction between the two graphene sheets, while the van der Waals interaction between the graphene sheets and the solvent molecules inhibits graphene aggregation. The diffusion rate of the hydrocarbon molecules with shorter chain lengths is higher. Thus, they diffuse faster during graphene aggregation, which leads to a higher rate of graphene overlapping in the shorter hydrocarbons. This work provides useful insights into graphene aggregation in linear hydrocarbon solvents of varying lengths at the nanoscale.     

Vaccarin administration ameliorates hypertension and cardiovascular remodeling in renovascular hypertensive rats

Sympathetic overdrive, activation of renin angiotensin systems (RAS), and oxidative stress are vitally involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension and cardiovascular remodeling. We recently identified that vaccarin protected endothelial cell function from oxidative stress or high glucose. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether vaccarin attenuated hypertension and cardiovascular remodeling. Two‐kidney one‐clip (2K1C) model rats were used, and low dose of vaccarin (10 mg/kg), high dose of vaccarin (30 mg/kg), captopril (30 mg/kg) were intraperitoneally administrated. Herein, we showed that 2K1C rats exhibited higher systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), left ventricular mass/body weight ratio, myocardial hypertrophy or fibrosis, media thickness, and media thickness to lumen diameter, which were obviously alleviated by vaccarin and captopril. In addition, both vaccarin and captopril abrogated the increased plasma renin, angiotensin II (Ang II), norepinephrine (NE), and the basal sympathetic activity. The AT1R protein expressions, NADPH oxidase subunit NOX‐2 protein levels and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were significantly increased, whereas superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities were decreased in myocardium, aorta, and mesenteric artery of 2K1C rats, both vaccarin and captopril treatment counteracted these changes in renovascular hypertensive rats. Collectively, we concluded that vaccarin may be a novel complementary therapeutic medicine for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. The mechanisms for antihypertensive effects of vaccarin may be associated with inhibition of sympathetic activity, RAS, and oxidative stress.     

Development of social sustainability assessment method and a comparative case study on assessing recycled construction materials

Purpose

Sustainability analysis should include the assessment of the environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout the life cycle of a product. However, the social sustainability performance assessment is seldom carried out during materials selection due to its complex nature and the lack of a social life cycle assessment tool. This study presents a single score-based social life cycle assessment methodology, namely social sustainability grading model, for assessing and comparing the social sustainability performance of construction materials using a case study on recycled and natural construction materials.

Methods

The proposed method is developed based on the methodological framework provided by the United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry guidelines published in 2009 and the methodological sheets published in 2013, the indicators and sustainability reporting guidelines provided by the Global Reporting Initiatives and ISO 26000 for social responsibility of products, and the indicators provided by the Hong Kong Business Environment Council Limited for construction sustainability. A twofold research approach is proposed in this model: the first one is the qualitative research based on expert interviews to identify, select, and prioritize the relevant subcategories and indicators, and the second one is the operational research based on the case-specific survey to collect the required data. A social sustainability index was proposed for the interpretation of the results effectively. A case study on construction materials was conducted to illustrate the implementation of the method using case-specific first-hand data.

Results and discussion

The major outcome of this study is the systematic development of a social sustainability assessment tool based on the established standards and guidelines. The case study showed that four subcategories are crucial social concerns for construction materials (i.e., health and safety issues of the materials, health and safety of workers, company’s commitment to sustainability, and company’s policies on energy and water consumption). Based on the sustainability index proposed, using recycled aggregates from locally generated waste materials scored higher (about 31–34%) social sustainability than using imported natural aggregates. In addition, recycled aggregates and natural aggregates achieved “sustainable” and “neutral” rating sustainability levels, respectively. However, several subcategories (e.g., health and safety, working hour, forced work, training and social benefits of workers, and quality of the materials and information disclosing to public) are still needed to improve the social sustainability performance of recycled aggregates.

Conclusions

An integrated social life cycle assessment method is presented in this study for assessing the social sustainability of construction materials. In addition, the reported case study in this paper is one of the first attempts for social sustainability assessment of recycled construction materials, and the method can be applied to other recycled materials/products for comparative analysis. However, several critical factors, such as integration in other life cycle methods and software, sensitivity analysis, and more case studies, are still needed for further improvement of the developed method.

     

Extension of the range of recognition sequences for triple helix formation by oligonucleotides containing guanines and thymines.

Oligodeoxynucleotides containing G and T can bind to homopurine.homopyrimidine sequences on double-stranded DNA by forming C.G x G and T.A x T base triplets. The orientation of the third strand in such triple helices depends on the number of GpT and TpG steps. Therefore a single oligonucleotide can be designed to bind to two consecutive homopurine.homopyrimidine sequences where the two homopurine stretches alternate on the two strands of DNA. The oligonucleotide switches from one homopurine strand to the other at the junction between the two sequences. This result shows that it is possible to extend the range of DNA sequences that can be recognized by a single oligonucleotide.     

Abscisic acid negatively modulates plant defence against rice black‐streaked dwarf virus infection by suppressing the jasmonate pathway and regulating reactive oxygen species levels in rice

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a multifaceted role in plant immunity and can either increase resistance or increase susceptibility to some bacterial and fungal pathogens depending on the pathosystem. ABA is also known to mediate plant defence to some viruses. In this study, the relationship between the ABA pathway and rice black‐streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV) was investigated in rice. The expression of ABA pathway genes was significantly reduced upon RBSDV infection. Application of exogenous hormones and various ABA pathway mutants revealed that the ABA pathway plays a negative role in rice defence against RBSDV. Exogenous hormone treatment and virus inoculation showed that ABA inhibits the jasmonate‐mediated resistance to RBSDV. ABA treatment also suppressed accumulation of reactive oxygen species by inducing the expression of superoxidase dismutases and catalases. Thus, ABA modulates the rice–RBSDV interaction by suppressing the jasmonate pathway and regulating reactive oxygen species levels. This is the first example of ABA increasing susceptibility to a plant virus.     

Betacellulin regulates the proliferation and differentiation of retinal progenitor cells in vitro

Retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) hold great potential for the treatment of retinal degenerative diseases. However, their proliferation capacity and differentiation potential towards specific retinal neurons are limited, which limit their future clinical applications. Thus, it is important to improve the RPCs’ ability to proliferate and differentiate. Currently, epidermal growth factor (EGF) is commonly used to stimulate RPC growth in vitro. In this study, we find that betacellulin (BTC), a member of the EGF family, plays important roles in the proliferation and differentiation of RPCs. Our results showed that BTC can significantly promote the proliferation of RPCs more efficiently than EGF. EGF stimulated RPC proliferation through the EGFR/ErbB2‐Erk pathway, while BTC stimulated RPC proliferation more powerfully through the EGFR/ErbB2/ErbB4‐Akt/Erk pathway. Meanwhile, under differentiated conditions, the BTC‐pre‐treated RPCs were preferentially differentiated into retinal neurons, including photoreceptors, one of the most important types of cells for retinal cell replacement therapy, compared to the EGF‐pre‐treated RPCs. In addition, knockdown of endogenous BTC expression can also obviously promote RPC differentiation into retinal neuronal cells. This data demonstrate that BTC plays important roles in promoting RPC proliferation and differentiation into retinal neurons. This study may provide new insights into the study of RPC proliferation and differentiation and make a step towards the application of RPCs in the treatment of retinal degenerative diseases.     

植物干细胞培养研究进展

植物干细胞位于分生组织,是处于未分化状态的细胞,液泡化程度低,具有较高的线粒体活性,遗传稳定,具有很强的自我更新和再生能力。植物干细胞培养在下游制药和功能性食品以及化妆品行业具有广泛的应用潜质。文中综述了植物干细胞的基本培养技术、鉴别技术,为该领域的深入研究提供参考。     

近年来出现的几类新概念动物疫苗

动物疫病流行广泛、传播迅速,严重危害养殖业的发展。疫苗接种是预防和控制动物传染病最有效的策略之一。目前,随着生物技术的发展和疫病防控的需要,安全、高效、广谱、用量少、具有标记特征的新型疫苗成为研发重点。文中就近年来出现的黏膜疫苗、长效与速效疫苗、嵌合疫苗、纳米颗粒疫苗等新概念动物疫苗的发展、应用及优缺点进行了评述,并提出了其发展方向,以期为动物疫苗的研发提供借鉴。     

Ammonium,nitrate, and urea play different roles for lipid accumulation in the nervonic acid—producing microalgae <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mychonastes afer</Emphasis> HSO-3-1

Producing valuable coproducts from oleaginous microalgae is an option to reduce the total cost of biofuel production. Here, the influence of nitrogen sources on biomass yield and lipid accumulation of a newly identified oleaginous green microalgal strain, Mychonastes afer HSO-3-1, was evaluated. Carbon assimilation and the following lipid biosynthesis of M. afer were inhibited to some extent under weak acidic conditions (6 < pH < 7) and any of the tested nitrogen source. The highest lipid productivity of 50.7 mg L^?1 day^?1 was achieved with a 17.6 mM nitrogen supplement in the form of urea. The cell polar lipid content was significantly higher than triacylglycerol (TAG), and saturated palmitic acid (C16:0) occupied a dominant position in the fatty acid profiles while culturing M. afer in acidic medium with NH₄ ⁺ as the nitrogen source. Under neutral conditions, the lipid productivities of M. afer cultivated in media containing 17.6 mM of NaNO₃, NH₄Cl, and NH₄NO₃ were 76.2, 77.5, and 79.0 mg L^?1 day^?1, respectively. The greatest TAG content (58.56%) of total lipids was obtained when NaNO₃ was used as the nitrogen source. There was no significant difference in the fatty acid composition of M. afer cells when they were cultivated in neutral media supplemented with NaNO₃, urea, NH₄Cl, and NH₄NO₃. Therefore, NH₄ ⁺ was not a suitable nitrogen source for M. afer cultivation due to the additional labor, working procedures, and alkali required to adjust the medium pH. Considering that using urea as nitrogen source could reduce the cost of nutrient salts substantially and urea can be taken up and utilized by most microalgae, it is a preferred nitrogen source. The major properties of biodiesel derived from M. afer HSO-3-1 met biodiesel quality, and nervonic acid concentrations remained at approximately 3.0% of total fatty acids.     

Peptide Scaffold-Based Discovery of Nonpeptide Natural Medicines to Target PI3K p85 SH2 Domain

Targeting phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) has been recognized as an attractive strategy for anticancer therapy. The PI3K is a heterodimer composed of a catalytic subunit p110 and a regulatory subunit p85. Here, instead of targeting the catalytic p110 that has been considered previously, we purposed targeting the peptide-recognition domain SH2 of regulatory p85 with natural medicines obtained by using a peptide scaffold-based screening scheme. In the procedure, a core binding motif was extracted from the cocrystallized complex of a cognate phosphopeptide with the domain, which was considered as basic scaffold to perform high-through virtual screening against a structurally diverse, nonredundant library of natural products. A number of hit compounds with high binding potency to the domain and significant conformational similarity with the peptide scaffold were identified; in vitro affinity assay confirmed that five hits have moderate or high affinity for the domain with measured dissociation constants K_d range between 25 and 360 μM, which are comparable to or even better than that of the cognate phosphopeptide SDpYMNMTP and its core motif peptide pYMNM (K_d?=?15 and 32 μM, respectively). Structural analysis and nonbonded comparison of SH2 interactions with phosphopeptides and potent hit compounds revealed that only negatively charged phosphate and, sometime, sulfate can confer domain-binding capability to small-molecule compounds, but carboxylate cannot. A similar binding mode of compounds with phosphopeptide is important for the compounds to have high affinity and specificity.