No abstract

Two iridovirus‐susceptible cell lines were established and characterized from grouper Epinephelus awoara kidney and liver tissues. These cell lines have been designated GK and GL, respectively. The cells multiplied well in Leibovitz's L‐15 medium, supplemented with 10% foetal bovine serum, at temperatures between 20 and 32 °C, and have been subcultured more than 120 times, becoming continuous cell lines. The cell lines consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fibroblastic and epithelial cells. The viability of cells, stored frozen in liquid nitrogen (−196 °C), was 95% after 1 year. Chromosome morphologies of GK and GL cells were homogeneous. Both cell lines were susceptible to grouper iridovirus, and yielded high titres of up to 108 TCID50 mL−1. In addition, both cell lines effectively replicated the virus, which could be purified to homogeneity by cesium chloride gradient centrifugation. Electron microscopy studies showed that purified virus particles were 170±10 nm in diameter, and were hexagonal in shape. Virus‐infected cells showed an abundance of virus particles inside the cytoplasm. These results show that the GK and GL cell lines effectively replicate grouper iridovirus, and can be used as a tool for studying fish iridoviruses.

Retaining residual lignin in nanopaper leads to UV-blocking ability and significantly improves mechanical performance, especially the toughness and wet strength.

A high prepregnancy body mass index and excessive gestational weight gain were associated with increased risks for adverse pregnancy outcomes.

No abstract

Fabricating portable devices for the determination of heavy metal ions is an ongoing challenge. Here, a 3D printing approach was adopted to fabricate a microfluidic electrochemical sensor with the desired shape in which the model for velocity profiles in microfluidic cells was built and optimized by the finite element method (FEM). The electrode in the microfluidic cell was a flexible screen-printed electrode (SPE) modified with porous MnO derived from manganese containing metal-organic framework (Mn-MOF). The microfluidic device presented superior electrochemical detection properties toward heavy metal ions. The calibration curves at the modified SPE for Cd(II) and Pb(II) covered two linear ranges varying from 0.5 to 8 and 10 to 100 μg L, respectively. The limits of detection were estimated to be 0.5 μg L for Cd(II) and 0.2 μg L for Pb(II), which were accordingly about 6 and 50 times lower than the guideline values proposed by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, the microfluidic device was connected to iPad via a USB to enable real-time household applications. Additionally, the sensing system exhibited a better stability and reproducibility compared with traditional detecting system which offered a promising prospect for the detection of heavy metal ions especially in household and resource-limited occasions.

No abstract

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are of great interest to researchers due to their outstanding properties and wide application potentials. However, green and sustainable production of CNCs and CNFs is still challenging. In this work, the integrated and sustainable production of functional CNCs and CNFs was achieved by formic acids (FA) hydrolysis. Kinetic study for FA hydrolysis of cellulosic pulp was performed to investigate the hydrolysis mechanism. FA concentration of 80–98 wt %, reaction temperature of 70–100 °C, and reaction duration up to 24 h were employed to capture the feature of the coexistence of a diversity of reaction products, i.e., CNCs, cellulose solid residue (CSR), cellulose formate (CF), xylose, glucose, and furfural. The separated CSR was further fibrillated to CNFs by homogenization. It was found that the yield, morphology, crystallinity, thermal stability, and degree of esterification of CNCs and CNFs were significantly affected by hydrolysis conditions (particularly for acid concentration). Detailed characterization indicated that the as-prepared CNCs exhibited high thermal stability (maximal weight loss temperature of 375 °C) and high crystallinity index of 79%. Both the resultant CNCs and CNFs showed good dispersibility in dimethylacetamide due to the introduction of ester groups on cellulose surface during FA hydrolysis. More interestingly, the regenerated CF was also a kind of functional CNFs with more ester groups. These ester groups would enable the CNCs/CNFs to be potentially used in polymeric materials due to the hydrophobic surface. Therefore, this study provided fundamental knowledge for the sustainable and integrated production of thermally stable and functional CNCs and CNFs with tailored characteristics.