Diet shapes the gut microbiome of pigs during nursing and weaning.

Background: The newborn mammal is rapidly colonized by a complex microbial community, whose importance for host health is becoming increasingly clear. Understanding the forces that shape the early community, especially during the nursing period, is critical to gain insight into how this consortium of microbes is assembled. Pigs present an attractive model for nursing humans, given physiological and compositional similarity of pig and human milk and the utility of pigs in experimental studies.

Synthesis of organically templated nanoporous Tin(II/IV) phosphate for radionuclide and metal sequestration.

Nanoporous tin(II/IV) phosphate materials, with spherical morphology, have been synthesized using cetyltrimethylammonium chloride [CH3(CH2)15N(CH3)3Cl] as the surfactant. The structure of the material is stable at 500 degrees C; however, partial oxidation of the material occurs with redox conversion of Sn2+ to Sn4+, resulting in a mixed Sn(II)/Sn(IV) material. Preliminary batch contact studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of nanoporous tin phosphate, NP-SnPO, in sequestering redox-sensitive metals and radionuclides, technetium(VII), neptunium(V), thorium(IV), and a toxic metal, chromium(VI), from aqueous matrixes.

Functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles for use for in situ anion immobilization.

Anatase particles (40-60 nm) were coated with an organosilane monolayer terminated with an ethylenediamine (EDA) ligand. These functionalized nanoparticles (FNPs) were then treated with an aqueous solution of Cu(II) to create a cationic Cu-EDA complex bound to the nanoparticle surface. Cu(II) and EDA ligand incorporation were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis.