FeO-Mg(OH) nanocomposite as a scavenger for silver nanoparticles: Rational design, facile synthesis, and enhanced performance.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are considered as emerging contaminants because of their high toxicity and increasing environmental impact. Removal of discharged AgNPs from water is crucial for mitigating the health and environmental risks. However, developing facile, economical, and environment-friendly approaches remains challenging.

Abiotic Formation of Calcium Oxalate under UV Irradiation and Implications for Biomarker Detection on Mars.

A major objective in the exploration of Mars is to test the hypothesis that the planet has ever hosted life. Biogenic compounds, especially biominerals, are believed to serve as biomarkers in Raman-assisted remote sensing missions. However, the prerequisite for the development of these minerals as biomarkers is the uniqueness of their biogenesis.

Removal and recovery of silver nanoparticles by hierarchical mesoporous calcite: Performance, mechanism, and sustainable application.

The widespread use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) inevitably leads to the environmental release of AgNPs. The released AgNPs can pose ecological risks because of their specific toxicity. However, they can also be used as secondary sources of silver metal.

Growth of Compact CHNHPbI Thin Films Governed by the Crystallization in PbI Matrix for Efficient Planar Perovskite Solar Cells.

As a convenient preparation technique, a two-step method, which is normally done by spin-coating CHNHI onto PbI film followed by a thermal annealing, is generally used to prepare solution-processed CHNHPbI films for planar perovskite solar cells. Here, we prepare the compact CHNHPbI thin films by the two-step method at a low temperature (<80 °C) and investigate the effects of PbI crystallization on the structure-property correlation in the CHNHPbI films. It is found that the importance of the crystallization in PbI matrix lies in governing the transition from the (001) plane of trigonal PbI to the (002) plane of tetragonal CHNHPbI in the rapid reaction process for atoms to coordinate into perovskite during spin-coating, which actually determines the morphology and the type of vacancy defects in resulting perovskite; a better crystallized PbI film has a much stronger ability to react with CHNHI solution and produces larger CHNHPbI grains with a higher crystallinity.

One-step synthesis of AgO@Mg(OH) nanocomposite as an efficient scavenger for iodine and uranium.

AgO nanoparticles anchored on the Mg(OH) nanoplates (AgO@Mg(OH)) were successfully prepared by a facile one-step method, which combined the Mg(OH) formation with AgO deposition. The synthesized products were characterized by a wide range of techniques including powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and nitrogen physisorption analysis. It was found that AgO nanoparticles anchored on the Mg(OH) nanoplates show good dispersion and less aggregation relative to the single AgO nanoaggregates.

Peroxiredoxin 5 is essential for in vitro development of bovine SCNT embryos.

Peroxiredoxin 5 (PRDX5) is an important peroxiredoxin with antioxidant and antiapoptotic functions. The objective of this study was to determine whether the antioxidant and antiapoptotic activities of PRDX5 play an essential role in the in vitro development of bovine SCNT embryos. We analyzed the expression patterns of PRDX5, and found the expression of PRDX5 in second meiotic metaphase oocytes, which persisted until the blastocyst stage IVF and SCNT embryos.

[Studies on the transcriptomes of non-model organisms].

The transcriptome represents the whole complement of RNA transcripts in cells or tissues and reflects the expressed genes at various life stages, tissue types, physiological states, and environmental conditions. Transcriptome analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of gene expression and its regulation. Non-model organism has many interesting traits of which model organisms lack, and the study of its transcriptome has great significance in solving the questions of genetic evolution, genetic breeding, ecology and so on.

Developmental expression and possible functional roles of mouse Nlrp4e in preimplantation embryos.

Increasing evidence suggests that some Nlrp genes are crucial for oogenesis, folliculogenesis, and early embryonic development. Nlrp4e is one of seven copies of Nlrp4, which plays a putative role in the reproduction system in mice. Gene duplication is regarded as an important driving force behind the evolution of novel genes with new or altered functions.

Two-dimensional silica sieve plates mimicking the diatom valve.

Sieve and take: A biomimetic strategy was designed to fabricate two-dimensional silica sieve plates (SSP) by use of catanionic surfactants as composite template and L-tartrate with hydroxyl and carboxyl groups as regulator. Tartrate was found to combine two capabilities in the formation of SSP structures: the connection of adjacent silica structures through H bonding and the separation of adjacent structures through electrostatic repulsion.

Formation of asymmetrical structured silica controlled by a phase separation process and implication for biosilicification.

Biogenetic silica displays intricate patterns assembling from nano- to microsize level and interesting non-spherical structures differentiating in specific directions. Several model systems have been proposed to explain the formation of biosilica nanostructures. Of them, phase separation based on the physicochemical properties of organic amines was considered to be responsible for the pattern formation of biosilica.

Effects of the removal of cytoplasm on the development of early cloned bovine embryos.

Oocyte cytoplasm plays a prominent role in cloned embryonic development. To investigate the influence of oocyte cytoplasmic amount on cloned embryo development, we generated bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos containing high (30-40% of the cytoplasm was removed), medium (15-25% of the cytoplasm was removed) and low (<10% of the cytoplasm was removed) nucleocytoplasmic volume ratios (N/C) using enucleated metaphase II oocyte as recipient, and fibroblast as donor nucleus, and analyzed the expression levels of ND1, Cytb and ATPase6, as well as the embryonic quality. The results indicated: (1) the process of embryonic development was not influenced by <40% of cytoplasm removal; (2) the rate of blastocyst formation, the total number of blastomere and the ratio of ICM to TE were inversely proportional to the N/C; (3) SCNT embryos with reduced volume equal to 75-85% or >90% of an intact oocyte volume showed similar karyotype structure of the donor cells; (4) the number of mtDNA copy was larger in low N/C embryos than that in medium or high N/C embryos, and the expression levels of each gene hardly varied from the 2-cell to 8-cell stage, while the expression levels increased dramatically at the blastocyst stage; (5) from 16-cell to the blastocyst stage, the change of the expression level of each gene was not significant between low N/C embryos and IVF embryos, but it was more significant than those of high or medium N/C embryos.

Comparation of enhanced green fluorescent protein gene transfected and wild-type porcine neural stem cells.

The aim of this study was to transfect and express the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) gene into porcine neural stem cells (NSCs) to determine whether EGFP can be used as a marker to monitor NSCs. NSCs were isolated from embryonic day 30 fetal pig brain and transfected with EGFP gene using lipofection. Transfected and wild-type NSCs were induced to differentiate into cells of neuronal and myogenic lineages.

Development of cloned embryos from porcine neural stem cells and amniotic fluid-derived stem cells transfected with enhanced green fluorescence protein gene.

We assessed the developmental ability of embryos cloned from porcine neural stem (NS) cells, amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells, fetal fibroblast cells, adult fibroblast, and mammary gland epithelial cells. The five cell lines were transfected with enhanced green fluorescence protein gene respectively using lipofection. NS and AFS cells were induced to differentiate in vitro.

[Optimization of culture measure for bovine-bovine and goat-bovine cloned embryos in vitro].

Unlabelled: This study is conducted to explore an effective culture method for supporting the embryo development. The cattle fetal ear fibroblasts and the goat fetal ear fibroblasts are transplanted into the enucleated cattle oocytes separately by oocyte intraplasmic nuclear injection method to construct bovine cloned embryos and goat-bovine cloned embryos. The embryos are first cultivated in modified charles rosenkrans 2 amino acid medium (mCR2aa) and modified synthetic oviduct fluid medium (mSOF) separately.