Smart microgels: High internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) with a volume fraction up to 0.9 are prepared using soft microgel particles as stabilizer. Adsorption of microgels at the interface can ...effectively hinder droplet coalescence, and the excess particles form a gel in the continuous phase to inhibit creaming and phase inversion. Drying such HIPEs in air leads to porous materials.
Plasmon‐based photothermal therapy is one of the most intriguing applications of noble metal nanostructures. The photothermal conversion efficiency is an essential parameter in practically realizing ...this application. The effects of the plasmon resonance wavelength, particle volume, shell coating, and assembly on the photothermal conversion efficiencies of Au nanocrystals are systematically studied by directly measuring the temperature of Au nanocrystal solutions with a thermocouple and analyzed on the basis of energy balance. The temperature of Au nanocrystal solutions reaches the maximum at ∼75°C when the plasmon resonance wavelength of Au nanocrystals is equal to the illumination laser wavelength. For Au nanocrystals with similar shapes, the larger the nanocrystal, the smaller the photothermal conversion efficiency becomes. The photothermal conversion can also be controlled by shell coating and assembly through the change in the plasmon resonance energy of Au nanocrystals. Moreover, coating Au nanocrystals with semiconductor materials that have band gap energies smaller than the illumination laser energy can improve the photothermal conversion efficiency owing to the presence of an additional light absorption channel.
The effects of the plasmon wavelength, particle volume, shell coating, and assembly states of Au nanocrystals are systematically investigated by directly measuring the temperature of Au nanocrystal solutions with a thermocouple and analyzed on the basis of energy balance.
The formation of hierarchical porous protein scaffolds from oil‐in‐water (o/w) high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) stabilized by bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein nanoparticles (Pickering HIPE) is ...reported. The route consists of three principal steps. First, a stable o/w HIPE stabilized by BSA protein nanoparticles is formulated. Next, crosslinking the dispersed protein nanoparticles gives rise to a gel in the continuous water phase to freeze the emulsion's microstructure. Finally, removal of the oil components and water directly leads to a three dimensional, bimodal meso‐macroporous protein scaffold, which is suitable for a wide range of biomedical applications.
Pure protein scaffolds: The fabrication of hierarchical porous protein scaffolds from oil‐in‐water (o/w) high internal phase emulsions stabilized by bovine serum albumin protein nanoparticles (Pickering HIPEs) at room temperature is reported. These three dimensional, bimodal meso‐macroporous protein scaffolds are suitable for a wide range of bio‐related applications.
Increasing information supported that achieving high-rate mainstream deammonification through two-stage partial nitritation (PN)-anammox process should be a better option than through single-stage ...process. However, direct experimental evidence was limited so far. Herein, a two-stage PN-anammox process was successfully operated for nitrogen removal from low-strength wastewater in winter. Influent shift from synthetic wastewater to actual anaerobically pretreated sewage had little impact on the process performance. Promising nitrogen removal rates (NRRs) of 0.28–0.07 kg N m
−3
d
−1
with an average effluent concentration of 5.2 mg TN L
−1
were achieved for the anaerobically pretreated sewage treatment at 15–7 °C. Moreover, nearly all the degradable COD in the pretreated sewage was steadily removed in the first-stage PN reactor, despite the varied influent COD concentrations of 22–78 mg L
−1
and the operating temperature decrease, suggesting the positive role of the first-stage PN in protecting anammox bacteria. The low temperature seemingly was the only deterministic factor inhibiting the anammox activity, and hence made the anammox reaction to be the rate-limiting step for nitrogen removal in the two-stage PN-anammox process. Unexpectedly, nearly all the anammox bacteria remained active at low temperatures with the process actual anammox activity reached about 76–85% of their maximum potential, implying that higher NRRs would be easily realized through bioaugmentation or enrichment of anammox bacteria. Overall, the present investigation provides direct and valuable information for implementing the two-stage PN-anammox process to treat mainstream municipal wastewater. A control strategy was also proposed to optimize the operation of the two-stage mainstream deammonification process.
Gold nanocubes demonstrate unique optical properties of the high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield and a remarkably enhanced extinction band at 544 nm. The 4 x 10(-2) PL yield, which is about 200 ...times higher than that of gold nanorods, allows gold nanocubes to be successfully used in cell imaging of human liver cancer cells (QGY) and human embryo kidney cells (293T) with a common method of single-photon excitation. The high extinction coefficients of gold nanocubes also facilitate them carrying out the photothermal therapy of QGY and 293T cells, showing similar photokilling efficiency as compared to gold nanorods.
•LINC00870 up-regulation was detected in MTB infected PBMCs, TB and LTBI patients.•LINC00870 transfection didn’t affect the cell proliferation of MTB infected PBMCs.•LINC00870 decreased Th1 and ...increased Th2 in MTB infected PBMCs.•LINC00870 activated the JAK/STAT pathway in MTB infected PBMCs.
Long, noncoding RNAs reportedly play vital roles in tuberculosis (TB). For example, upregulation of LINC00870 has been observed in tuberculosis, though its role and underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression and effect of LINC00870 in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection by comparing MTB-infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with controls. The results showed LINC00870 was significantly increased in MTB infected PBMCs. Additionally, LINC00870 overexpression inhibited Th1-secreted cytokines while promoted Th2-secreted cytokine in MTB-infected PBMCs. Furthermore, LINC00870 promoted p-STAT5 and p-JAK2 protein expression, thus activating JAK/STAT signaling in MTB-infected PBMCs. Sputum and plasma samples were obtained from TB, latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) patients and healthy controls. The qRT-PCR results showed higher levels of LINC00870 in the sputum and plasma from TB and LTBI patients compared to healthy controls. In addition, LINC00870 were decreased in both TB and LTBI patients after three month of therapy, respectively. The results showed a correlation between LINC00870 inhibition and Th1/Th2, as well as JAK/STAT signaling pathway in PBMCs from active TB patients. In conclusion, higher levels of LINC00870 in tuberculosis might be associated with Th1/Th2-related immune responses by activating JAK/STAT signaling. LINC00870 thus may be a novel biomarker for diagnosing and treating tuberculosis.
Polyaniline (PANI), a conductive polymer, is a promising active material for optical switching. In most studies, active switching has so far been realized only between two states, whereas PANI has a ...total of six states. The optical properties of nanoscale PANI in all six states have remained unclear. Herein we report on all-state switching of the Mie resonance on PANI nanospheres (NSs) and active plasmon switching on PANI-coated Au nanodisks (NDs). All-state switching of differently sized PANI NSs is achieved by proton doping/dedoping and electrochemical methods. Theoretical studies show that the scattering peaks of the individual PANI NSs originate from Mie resonances. All-state switching is further demonstrated on PANI-coated circular Au NDs, where an unprecedentedly large plasmon peak shift of ∼200 nm is realized. Our study not only provides a fundamental understanding of the optical properties of PANI but also opens the probability for developing high-performance dynamic media for active plasmonics.
•CANON was successfully developed in a continuous reactor with nitritation granules as inoculum.•Superior TN removal rate of 2.83kgNm−3d−1 was achieved at hydraulic retention time of ...0.9h.•Improvement of specific TN removal rate was positive related to the EPS accumulation.•High-throughput pyrosequencing showed a co-culture of Nitrosomonas and Candidatus Kuenenia.
The start-up of completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) process was investigated by seeding nitritation granular sludge in a continuous stirred tank reactor with typical geometry. Nitrogen loading rate (NLR) was increased from 1.5 to 3.3kgNm−3d−1, by shortening hydraulic retention time from 2.0 to 0.9h under oxygen-limiting conditions. An extremely high nitrogen removal rate (NRR) of 2.83kgNm−3d−1 was achieved, due to the high specific NRR of huge biomass in the reactor. With the improvement of granular structure compactness, it was believed that the EPS accumulation could be beneficial to enhance nitrogen removal performance of granules. In addition, high-throughput pyrosequencing analysis revealed that a co-culture of aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria, affiliated to genera Nitrosomonas and Candidatus Kuenenia respectively, had been established in mature CANON granules, while the growth of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (Nitrospira spp.) was effectively suppressed through substrate competitions between three groups of bacteria. Therefore, a single continuous reactor with granules is applicable to achieve high performance CANON process for treating ammonium-rich wastewater.
Enriching the library of chiral plasmonic nanoparticles that can be chemically mass-produced will greatly facilitate the applications of chiral plasmonics in areas ranging from constructing optical ...metamaterials to sensing chiral molecules and activating immune cells. Here we report on a halide-assisted differential growth strategy that can direct the anisotropic growth of chiral Au nanoparticles with tunable sizes and diverse morphologies. Anisotropic Au nanodisks are employed as seeds to yield triskelion-shaped chiral nanoparticles with threefold rotational symmetry and high dissymmetry factors. The averaged scattering g-factors of the L- and D-nanotriskelions are as large as 0.57 and - 0.49 at 650 nm, respectively. The Au nanotriskelions have been applied in chiral optical switching devices and chiral nanoemitters. We also demonstrate that the manipulation of the directional growth rate enables the generation of a variety of chiral morphologies in the presence of homochiral ligands.
Hydrogen detection is crucial for the safety of all hydrogen‐related applications. Compared to electrical hydrogen sensors, which usually suffer from possible electric sparks, optical hydrogen ...sensors offer advantages of remote and contact‐free readout and therefore the avoidance of spark generation. Herein, bimetallic Au/Pd nanostructure monolayers that exhibit ultrasensitive plasmonic response to hydrogen are reported. Bimetallic Au/Pd nanostructures with continuous and discontinuous Pd shells are prepared. The plasmonic response to hydrogen is monitored by measuring the extinction spectra of the ensemble Au/Pd nanostructures deposited on glass slides. Introduction of hydrogen induces red plasmon shifts, which become larger for the nanostructures with thicker Pd shells. For the nanostructures with continuous Pd shell, the plasmon shift can reach 56 nm at the hydrogen volume concentration below the explosion limit. The plasmon resonance wavelength displays an excellent linear dependence on the hydrogen volume concentration below 1%. The detection limit in the experiments reaches 0.2%. The nanostructures with discontinuous Pd shell show smaller plasmon shifts than those with continuous Pd shell. The extinction measurements on the ensemble nanostructures supported on transparent substrates and the unprecedentedly large plasmon shifts and sensitivity make the results very promising for the development of practical optical hydrogen sensors.
The plasmonic response of bimetallic Au/Pd nanostructures to hydrogen is systematically investigated. Red plasmon shifts larger than 50 nm are observed when Au/Pd nanostructure monolayers are exposed to hydrogen at the volume concentration below the explosion limit. The facile measurements and ultrasensitive plasmonic response make the bimetallic nanostructures very promising for the development of practical optical hydrogen sensors.
