Background: Novel functional polysaccharides from fungi are important nutraceuticals. An exopolysaccharide, Morchella esculenta exopolysaccharide (MEP 2), was extracted and purified from the fermentation liquor of M. esculenta.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCompared to subcutaneous injections, oral administration of insulin would be a preferred route of drug administration for diabetic patients. For oral delivery, both liposomes and alginate hydrogels face many challenges, including early burst release of the encapsulated drug and poor intestinal drug absorption. Also, adhesion to the intestinal mucosa remains weak, which all result in a low bioavailability of the payload.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purity of soy lecithin exerts significant impact on nanoliposome (NL) properties for food applications. In this study, three soy lecithin of different purity were used to prepare NL. LC-MS analysis confirmed soy lecithin of relatively low purify (50% and 70%) contains multiple natural phospholipids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOral administration of insulin faces multiple biological challenges, such as varied digestive environments, mucin exclusion, and low epithelial cells' absorption. In the present study, a hyaluronic acid (HA)-coated chitosan (CS) nanoparticle (HCP) delivery system is fabricated for insulin oral delivery. It is hypothesized that the developed nanoparticles will protect insulin from digestive degradation, promote intestinal epithelial cell absorption, and exert strong in vivo hyperglycemic ability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe extracellular polysaccharide of cultivated under submerged fermentation was extracted. A single polysaccharide was purified through DEAE-Cellulose 52 and Sephadex G 100, and named as MEP 2a. The molecular weight of MEP 2a was determined by HPGPC and it is about 1391.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Before evaluating spinal pathology, it is essential to have knowledge of the normal spinal development at different gestational ages. This study aims to characterize normal spinal growth in human fetuses during the second and third trimesters.
Methods: Postmortem 3.
Interactions between oxide supports and noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) is an area of intense research interest across all fields of catalysis. Oxygen spillover, metal support interactions (MSIs) and charge transfer are among many mechanisms observed and proposed as to how NP-support interfaces assist and enhance catalysis. This work studies the migration of oxygen across the Pd NP-CuO nanowire (NW) interface and beyond.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectronic metal-support interactions (EMSIs) comprise an area of intense study, the manipulation of which is of paramount importance in the improvement of heterogeneous metal nanoparticle (NP) supported catalysts. EMSI is the transfer of charge from the support to NP, enabling more effective adsorption and interaction of reactants during catalysis. Ru NPs on CuO supports show different levels of EMSI (via charge transfer) depending on their crystal structure, with multiple twinned NPs showing greater potential for EMSI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurface charge and charge transfer between nanoclusters and oxide supports are of paramount importance to catalysis, surface plasmonics, and optical energy harvesting areas. At present, high-energy X-rays and theoretical investigation are always required to determine the chemical state changes in the nanoclusters and the oxide supports, as well as the underlying transfer charge between them. This work presents the idea of using chrono-conductometric measurements to determine the chemical states of the Ru nanoclusters on CuO supports.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in diagnosing orofacial clefts and proposes specific signs for determining the type of cleft.
Methods: Pregnant women in whom fetal facial malformations are suspected by ultrasonography (US) underwent 1.5 T MRI.
Purpose: To describe the temporal pattern of the appearance of the S1-Co1 centrum ossification centers (COCs) and provide reference data for the S1-S5 COCs and sacral length at various gestational ages (GAs).
Methods: Postmortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on 71 fetuses (GA, 17-42 weeks) using the 3D dual-echo steady-state with water excitation T2 sequence in the sagittal plane. To confirm the reliability of this sequence, the MRI data were compared with the CT and histologic data obtained from two fetuses (GAs, 21 and 30 weeks).
A multilayer deposition method has been developed with the potential to capture and process atomic clusters generated by a high flux cluster beam source. In this deposition mode a series of sandwich structures each consisting of three layers-a carbon support layer, cluster layer and polymer release layer-is sequentially deposited to form a stack of isolated cluster layers, as confirmed by through-focal aberration-corrected HAADF STEM analysis. The stack can then be diced into small pieces by a mechanical saw.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonolayer-protected (MP) Au clusters present attractive quantum systems with a range of potential applications e.g. in catalysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs the major iron storage protein, ferritin stores and releases iron for maintaining the balance of iron in fauna, flora, and bacteria. We present an investigation of the morphology and iron loading of ferritin (from equine spleen) using aberration-corrected high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy. Atom counting method, with size selected Au clusters as mass standards, was employed to determine the number of iron atoms in the nanoparticle core of each ferritin protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have investigated the atomic structure of the Au55(PPh3)12Cl6 Schmid cluster by using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) combined with multislice simulation of STEM images. Atom counting was employed, with size-selected clusters as mass standards, to "fractionate" the correct cluster size in the image analysis. Systematic structure analysis shows that a hybrid structure, predicted by density functional theory, best matches nearly half the clusters observed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn vitro assembly of two or three PCR fragments using primers is a common method of constructing scFv fragments for display on the surface of phage. However, mismatch annealing often occurs during in this step, leading to cloning and display of incomplete Fab or scFv fragments. To overcome this limitation, we developed a ligation-based two-fragment assembly (LTFA) protocol that involved separately cloning VH and Vκ fragments into the high-copy-number plasmid pUC18.
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