The antibacterial activity of photocatalytic titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) substrates is induced primarily by UV light irradiation. Recently, nitrogen-and carbon-doped TiO 2 substrates were shown to exhibit photocatalytic activities under visible-light illumination. Their antibacterial activity, however, remains to be quantified. In this study, we demonstrated that nitrogen-doped TiO 2 substrates have superior visible-light-induced bactericidal activity against Escherichia coli compared to pure TiO 2 and carbon-doped TiO 2 substrates. We also found that protein-and light-absorbing contaminants partially reduce the bactericidal activity of nitrogen-doped TiO 2 substrates due to their light-shielding effects. In the pathogen-killing experiment, a significantly higher proportion of all tested pathogens, including Shigella flexneri, Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Acinetobacter baumannii, were killed by visible-light-illuminated nitrogen-doped TiO 2 substrates than by pure TiO 2 substrates. These findings suggest that nitrogen-doped TiO 2 has potential application in the development of alternative disinfectants for environmental and medical usages.

The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at ST36 and PC6 points on solid gastric emptying and dyspeptic symptoms in patients with functional dyspepsia. Nineteen patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) were involved in the study, consisting of two parts: (1) acute effects of EA on solid gastric emptying in FD patients with delayed gastric emptying and (2) short-term (2-week) effects of EA on symptoms in FD patients with normal gastric emptying. Results were as follows. (1) Ten of the19 patients showed delayed gastric emptying of solids, and acute EA significantly improved delayed gastric emptying; the halftime for gastric emptying was reduced from 150.3+/-48.4 to 118.9+/-29.6 min (P=0.007). (2) In the nine patients with normal gastric emptying, 2-week EA significantly decreased the symptom score, from 8.2+/-3.3 at baseline to 1.6+/-1.1 (P < 0.001) at the end of treatment. We conclude that EA at the ST36 and PC6 points accelerates solid gastric emptying in FD patients with delayed gastric emptying and relieves dyspeptic symptoms in FD patients with normal gastric emptying.

SUMMARYAcupuncture has been practiced empirically in China for several millennia, and is being increasingly accepted by practitioners and patients worldwide. Functional gastrointestinal disorders are common in clinical gastroenterology. The prevalence of one or more functional gastrointestinal disorders is estimated to be as high as 70% in general population using Rome diagnostic criteria. Since functional gastrointestinal disorders are diagnosed based on symptoms and the exact aetiologies for most of functional gastrointestinal disorders are not completely known, it is not unusual that the treatment for these disorders is unsatisfactory and alternative therapies are attractive to both patients and practitioners. During the latest decades, a considerable number of studies have been performed on acupuncture for the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders and underlying mechanisms. In this article, we reviewed available data in the literature on the applications and mechanisms of acupuncture for the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders, including functional oesophageal disorders, nausea and vomiting, functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, etc. A summary is provided based on the quality and quantity of published studies regarding the efficacy of acupuncture in treating these various disorders. In addition, the methodology of acupuncture is also introduced.

Bactericidal activity of traditional titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) photocatalyst is effective only upon irradiation by ultraviolet light, which restricts the potential applications of TiO 2 for use in our living environments. Recently carbon-containing TiO 2 was found to be photoactive at visible-light illumination that affords the potential to overcome this problem; although, the bactericidal activity of these photocatalysts is relatively lower than conventional disinfectants. Evidenced from scanning electron microscopy and confocal Raman spectral mapping analysis, we found the interaction with bacteria was significantly enhanced in these anatase/rutile mixed-phase carbon-containing TiO 2 . Bacteria-killing experiments indicate that a significantly higher proportion of all tested pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella flexneri and Acinetobacter baumannii, were eliminated by the new nanoparticle with higher bacterial interaction property. These findings suggest the created materials with high bacterial interaction ability might be a useful strategy to improve the antimicrobial activity of visible-light-activated TiO 2 .

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EMBL accession no. X55936 We have shown previously that the PRP2(RNA2) gene product of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required to convert the pre-mRNA to linear exon 1 and lariat intron-exon 2 in the spliceosome (1). Here we report the nucleotide sequence of a 3177 bp EcoRI/BamHI DNA fragment within which the PRP2 gene is located (2-4; Figure 1). An open reading frame encoding a protein of 876 amino acids is found (Figure 1). The predicted molecular weight of 100 kDa is consistent with that of the PRP2 protein detected immunologically (5, 6). Surprisingly, the PRP2 protein sequence shares extensive homology with two other yeast pre-mRNA splicing factors, PRP16 (7) and PRP22 (8; J. Abelson, personal communication). These proteins share about 25% overall amino acid sequence identity, and about 42% within a stretch of approximately 400 residues which contains a putative RNA-dependent ATPase domain (7, 9; Figure 1). This is very intriguing since each of the three PRP proteins is involved in a distinct ATP-dependent step in pre-mRNA splicing. Furthermore, the DEAD sequence found in ATP-dependent RNA helicases (9) is replaced by DEAH in these PRP proteins. A putative zinc finger motif, which might be involved in RNA binding, is also found in the PRP2 protein sequence (10; Fig. 1). We are currently characterizing the PRP2 protein in vitro for these properties.