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ABSTRACT:We have successfully synthesized polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers impregnated with Ag nanoparticles by electrospinning method at room temperature. Briefly, the PAN-Ag composite nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning PAN (10% w/v) in dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent containing silver nitrate (AgNO 3 ) in the amounts of 8% by weight of PAN. The silver ions were reduced into silver particles in three different methods i.e., by refluxing the solution before electrospinning, treating with sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ), as reducing agent, and heating the prepared composite nanofibers at 160 C. The prepared PAN nanofibers functionalized with Ag nanoparticles were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), SEM elemental detection X-ray analysis (SEM-EDAX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) analytical techniques. UV-VIS spectra analysis showed distinct absorption band at 410 nm, suggesting the formation of Ag nanoparticles. TEM micrographs confirmed homogeneous dispersion of Ag nanoparticles on the surface of PAN nanofibers, and particle diameter was found to be 5-15 nm. It was found that all the three electrospun PAN-Ag composite nanofibers showed strong antibacterial activity toward both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. However, the antibacterial activity of PAN-Ag composite nanofibers membrane prepared by refluxed method was most prominent against S. aureus bacteria.

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b-spectrins are crucial for the maintenance of cell shape, the establishment of cell polarity, and the formation of distinct membrane domains. Our strategy for identifying genes important for hepatocyte polarity has been to utilize subtractive hybridization of early embryonic mouse cDNA liver libraries. As a result, we have cloned three isoforms of a novel b-spectrin elf (embryonic liver b-fodrin), and here we report the analysis of elf3, the longest isoform (8172 nt). ELF3 comprises 2154 residues with an overall similarity of 89.0% and 95.3% to mouse b-spectrin (bSpIIS1) at the nucleotide and amino acid level, respectively. ELF3 is characterized by an actinbinding domain, a long repeat domain, and a short regulatory domain remarkable for the absence of a PH domain. Linkage analysis reveals that elf3 maps to mouse chromosome 11 between D11Bir6 and D11Xrf477, a di erent chromosomal locus from that of the other four spectrin genes. Northern blot analysis utilizing an elf3 3'-UTR probe demonstrates an abundant 9.0-kb transcript in brain, liver, and heart tissues. Western blot with a polyclonal antibody against ELF identi®es a 200 kD protein in mouse liver, brain, kidney, and heart tissues. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrate ELF labeling of the basolateral or sinusoidal membranes surface as well as a granular cytoplasmic pattern in hepatocytes. Antisense studies utilizing cultured liver explants show a vital role of elf3 in hepatocyte di erentiation and intrahepatic bile duct formation. The di erential expression, tissue localization, and functional studies demonstrate the importance of elf3 in modulating interactions between various components of the cytoskeleton proteins controlling liver and bile duct development.

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A hierarchical CuS/Bi2W2O9 heterojunction photocatalyst exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of diuron achieving 95% mineralization within 3 h of irradiation.

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