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Search results for: MEMBRANE PROCESS
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Merging Proline:Xylitol Eutectic Solvent in Crosslinked Chitosan Pervaporation Membranes for Enhanced Water Permeation in Dehydrating Ethanol
PublicationThe scope of this research aims at merging a new deep eutectic mixture (DES) into a biopolymer-based membrane for a pervaporation application in dehydrating ethanol. Herein, an L-proline:xylitol (at 5:1) eutectic mixture was successfully synthesized and blended with chitosan (CS). A complete characterization of the hybrid membranes, in terms of morphology, solvent uptake, and hydrophilicity, has been conducted. As part of their...
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Bisphenols and their derivatives in baby diaper samples.
PublicationMany common products contain and leach hazardous chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenols that are harmful to human health. For toddlers, this dangerousness is higher because of their not fully developed detoxification system. Due to this, bisphenols content in products such as baby diapers, should be monitored. Baby diapers not only remain in close contact with the skin, but are also used from the...
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Determinants of Directionality and Efficiency of the ATP Synthase Fo Motor at Atomic Resolution
PublicationFo subcomplex of ATP synthase is a membrane-embedded rotary motor that converts proton motive force into mechanical energy. Despite a rapid increase in the number of high-resolution structures, the mechanism of tight coupling between proton transport and motion of the rotary c-ring remains elusive. Here, using extensive all-atom free energy simulations, we show how the motor’s directionality naturally arises from the interplay...
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Characterization of PVDF/Graphene Nanocomposite Membranes for Water Desalination with Enhanced Antifungal Activity
PublicationSeawater desalination is a worldwide concern for the sustainable production of drinking water. In this regard, membrane distillation (MD) has shown the potential for effective brine treatment. However, the lack of appropriate MD membranes limits its industrial expansion since they experience fouling and wetting issues. Therefore, hydrophobic membranes are promising candidates to successfully deal with such phenomena that are typical...
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Mechanical behaviour of the implant used in human hernia repair under physiological loads
PublicationIn laparoscopic operations of abdominal hernias some recurrences still take place, even when applying a surgical mesh. This is usually caused by a failure of the connection between the tissue and the implant. The study deals with the influence of an implant’s orientation on forces in joints, which connect the mesh to human tissues. In the paper, the implant is modelled as a membrane structure within framework of the Finite Element...
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Missing Puzzle Pieces in Dementia Research: HCN Channels and Theta Oscillations
PublicationIncreasing evidence indicates a role of hyperpolarization activated cation (HCN) channels in controlling the resting membrane potential, pacemaker activity, memory formation, sleep, and arousal. Their disfunction may be associated with the development of epilepsy and age-related memory decline. Neuronal hyperexcitability involved in epileptogenesis and EEG desynchronization occur in the course of dementia in human Alzheimer’s Disease...
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All solid state electrodes taste sensor with modified polymer membranes for discrimination of mineral water with different CO2 content
PublicationA potentiometric taste sensor with All Solid State Electrodes containing five all solid state electrodes with appropriate lipophilic compounds (benzyldimethyltetradecylammonium chloride, dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, palmitic acid, stearic acid, and phytol) embedded in a polymer membrane was applied for discrimination of mineral water samples differed in CO2 content. Samples of still, slightly sparkling, and sparkling Naleczowianka...
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The selected roof covering technologies in the aspect of their life cycle costs
PublicationIn the article is presented an analysis of the life cycle costs calculation for selected roof coverings. The scope of research includes costs of construction, maintenance and demolition of the roof covering structure for two alternative technologies – the traditional and new generation. On the presented example of an industrial building with a roof area of 1000 m², the above costs are taken to consideration for the roof covering...
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Microstructural Design of Ba0.5La0.5Co0.5Fe0.5O3 Perovskite Ceramics
PublicationBa0.5La0.5Co0.5Fe0.5O3 was synthesized in the solid-state reaction route. The influence of ball milling parameters (such as milling media size, angular velocity, and time), pelletizing pressure, and annealing parameters on the microstructure was studied. The grain size distribution and density or specific surface area changes were investigated in each approach while the individual parameters were changed. The evaluation of BLCF...
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Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) modified cellulose acetate NF membranes for potential water treatment application
PublicationIn this study, cellulose acetate (CA)-based nanofiltration membranes, modified with zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) particles, were prepared with various ZIF-8 contents (0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 wt%), to obtain membranes with improved flux and filtration performance by combining advantages of CA polymer and ZIF-8 metal-organic frameworks. Removal efficiency studies were carried out with bovine serum albumin and two different...
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Koncepcja i modelowanie wysokoobrotowego napędu elektrycznego turbosprężarki. Zastosowanie w ogniwach paliwowych pojazdów samochodowych
PublicationAbstract: Electrical vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells become a potential alternative to conventional vehicles. The polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) are typical fuel cells used in fuel cell vehicle (FCV). The global efficiency of a PEM fuel cell stack is greatly impacted by the use of a motorized compressor for the air supply system. The motor-compressor set-up may consume up to 19 % of the energy supplied by the PEM fuel...
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Applicability of arrays of microjets heat transfer correlations to design compact heat exchangers
PublicationThe article presents experimental studies on a compact heat exchanger with heat transfer intensification by means of impinging microjets. The pursuit to provide high performance of heat exchangers is a response to the demand both in economics and in the universal tendency to miniaturization of industrial equipment. This paper presents the design and tests of a prototype, microjet heat exchanger. The modular design of the heat exchanger...
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New potent steroid sulphatase inhibitors based on 6-(1-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)naphthalen-2-yl sulphamate derivatives
PublicationIn the present work, we report a new class of potent steroid sulphatase (STS) inhibitors based on 6-(1-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)naphthalen-2-yl sulphamate derivatives. Within the set of new STS inhibitors, 6-(1-(1,2,3-trifluorophenyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)naphthalen-2-yl sulphamate 3L demonstrated the highest activity in the enzymatic assay inhibiting the STS activity to 7.98% at 0.5 µM concentration. Furthermore, to verify...
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Fault Diagnostics in PEMFC Stacks by Evaluation of Local Performance and Cell Impedance Analysis
PublicationStarvation, flooding, and dry‐out phenomena occur in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), due to heterogeneous local conditions, material inhomogeneity, and uneven flow distribution across the single cell active area and in between the individual cells. The impact of the load level and air feed conditions on the performance was identified for individual single cells within a 10‐cell stack. Analysis of the current density...
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Determination of cyanide ion in urine samples using ion chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection.
PublicationCyanides are widely applied in industrial activity, including gold and silver mining and the production of organic chemicals. HCN is also formed directly from fossil fuel combustion sources from gasoline and diesel vehicles. In natural environment, in plants seeds for example an apple seed, it exists as a cyanogenic glycosides. The amount of cyanide ions originating from food products is however rather small. Larger concentrations...
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An isogeometric finite element formulation for boundary and shell viscoelasticity based on a multiplicative surface deformation split
PublicationThis work presents a numerical formulation to model isotropic viscoelastic material behavior for membranes and thin shells. The surface and the shell theory are formulated within a curvilinear coordinate system,which allows the representation of general surfaces and deformations. The kinematics follow from Kirchhoff–Love theory and the discretization makes use of isogeometric shape functions. A multiplicative split of the surface...
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Development of Safirinium dyes for new applications: fluorescent staining of bacteria, human kidney cells, and the horny layer of the epidermis
PublicationLow-molecular synthetic fluorophores are convenient tools in bioimaging applications. Several derivatives of Safirinium dyes as well as their reactive N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) esters bearing diverse substituents were synthesized and evaluated experimentally in terms of their lipophilicity by means of reverse-phase and immobilized artificial membrane high-performance liquid chromatography. Subsequently, the selected compounds...
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A compartment model of alveolar–capillary oxygen diffusion with ventilation–perfusion gradient and dynamics of air transport through the respiratory tract
PublicationThis paper presents a model of alveolar–capillary oxygen diffusion with dynamics of air transport through the respiratory tract. For this purpose electrical model representing the respiratory tract mechanics and differentia equations representing oxygen membrane diffusion are combined. Relevant thermodynamic relations describing the mass of oxygen transported into the human body are proposed as the connection between these models,...
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Galerkin formulations of isogeometric shell analysis: Alleviating locking with Greville quadratures and higher-order elements
PublicationWe propose new quadrature schemes that asymptotically require only four in-plane points for Reissner–Mindlin shell elements and nine in-plane points for Kirchhoff–Love shell elements in B-spline and NURBS-based isogeometric shell analysis, independent of the polynomial degree p of the elements. The quadrature points are Greville abscissae associated with pth-order B-spline basis functions whose continuities depend on the specific...
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Escherichia coli Strains with Virulent Factors Typical for Uropathogens were Isolated from Sinuses from Patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis—Case Report
PublicationEscherichia coli were isolated from three patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) by intraoperative sinus tissue biopsy. Taking into account the unusual replicative niche and previous treatment failures, it was decided to focus on the virulence and drug resistance of these bacteria. The strains turned out to be multi-sensitive, but the rich virulence factors profile of bacteria typical for phylogenetic group B2 deserved attention....
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Analysis of the possibility of creep damage detection in T24 heat resistant steel with the help of magnetic nondestestructive testing methods
PublicationThe paper presents the result of an analysis of applicability of various electromagnetic methods of nondestructive evaluation for creep damage detection in a novel heat resistant steel - T24 grade. Two sample sets, cut out from membrane wall tubes, were investigated – the as-delivered one and another exploited for 36,000 h in a power plant. There are described results of magnetic hysteresis loops B(H), Barkhausen noise (BN) and...
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Composite 2D Material-Based Pervaporation Membranes for Liquid Separation: A Review
PublicationToday, chemistry and nanotechnology cover molecular separations in liquid and gas states by aiding in the design of new nano-sized materials. In this regard, the synthesis and application of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials are current fields of research in which structurally defined 2D materials are being used in membrane separation either in self-standing membranes or composites with polymer phases. For instance, pervaporation...
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MXenes Antibacterial Properties and Applications: A Review and Perspective
PublicationThe mutations of bacteria due to the excessive use of antibiotics, and generation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have made the development of new antibacterial compounds a necessity. MXenes have emerged as biocompatible transition metal carbide structures with extensive biomedical applications. This is related to the MXenes’ unique combination of properties, including multifarious elemental compositions, 2D-layered structure,...
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Suppressors of lapC mutation identify new regulators of LpxC, which mediates the first committed step in lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis
PublicationGram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, are characterized by an asymmetric outer membrane (OM) with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) located in the outer leaflet and phospholipids facing the inner leaflet. E. coli recruits LPS assembly proteins LapB, LapC and LapD in concert with FtsH protease to ensure a balanced biosynthesis of LPS and phospholipids. We recently reported that bacteria either lacking the periplasmic domain of...
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Exposure scenario and risk assessment of infants and newborns to bisphenols and their derivatives from diapers
PublicationNewborns and infants are more sensitive to harmful compounds such as bisphenols and their derivatives because of their not fully developed detoxification mechanism. Exposure to these substances can lead to developmental problems and health consequences in adulthood. Since disposable baby diapers are used from the first days of life and remain in contact with the baby skin, it seems important to monitor the levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals...
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A new anisotropic bending model for nonlinear shells: Comparison with existing models and isogeometric finite element implementation
PublicationA new nonlinear hyperelastic bending model for shells formulated directly in surface form is presented, and compared to four existing prominent bending models. Through an essential set of elementary nonlinear bending test cases, the membrane and bending stresses of each model are examined analytically. Only the proposed bending model passes all the test cases, while the other bending models either fail or only pass the test cases for...
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Role of size scale of ZnO nanoparticles and microparticles on toxicity toward bacteria and osteoblast cancer cells
PublicationThe specific role of size scale, surface capping, and aspect ratio of zinc oxide (ZnO) particles on toxicity toward prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells was investigated. ZnO nano and microparticles of controlled size and mor- phology were synthesized by wet chemical methods. Cytotoxicity toward mammalian cells was studied using a human osteoblast cancer cell line and antibacterial activity using Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia...
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Robust four-node elements based on Hu–Washizu principle for nonlinear analysis of Cosserat shells
PublicationMixed 4-node shell elements with the drilling rotation and Cosserat-type strain measures based onthe three-field Hu–Washizu principle are proposed. In the formulation, apart from displacement and rotationfields, both strain and stress resultant fields are treated as independent. The elements are derived in the frame-work of a general nonlinear 6-parameter shell theory dedicated to the analysis of multifold irregular shells.The...
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Small regulatory bacterial RNAs regulating the envelope stress response
PublicationMost bacteria encode a large repertoire of RNA-based regulatory mechanisms. Recent discoveries have revealed that the expression of many genes is controlled by a plethora of base-pairing noncoding small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs), regulatory RNA-binding proteins and RNA-degrading enzymes. Some of these RNA-based regulated processes respond to stress conditions and are involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. They achieve...
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Untargeted Lipidomics Analysis of the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803: Lipid Composition Variation in Response to Alternative Cultivation Setups and to Gene Deletion
PublicationCyanobacteria play an important role in several ecological environments, and they are widely accepted to be the ancestors of chloroplasts in modern plants and green algae. Cyanobacteria have become attractive models for metabolic engineering, with the goal of exploring them as microbial cell factories. However, the study of cyanobacterial lipids’ composition and variation, and the assessment of the lipids’ functional and structural...
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Assessment of Fuel Cells’ State of Health by Low-Frequency Noise Measurements
PublicationWe proposed applying low-frequency (flicker) noise in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells under selected loads to assess their state of health. The measurement set-up comprised a precise data acquisition board and was able to record the DC voltage and its random component at the output. The set-up estimated the voltage noise power spectral density at frequencies up to a few hundred mHz. We observed the evolution of the electrical...
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Pressure effects on the superconductivity of the HfPd2Al Heusler compound: Experimental and theoretical study
PublicationPolycrystalline HfPd2Al has been synthesized using the arc-melting method and studied under ambient-pressure conditions by x-ray diffraction from room temperature up to 450 °C. High-pressure x-ray diffraction up to 23 GPa was also performed using Diacell-type membrane diamond anvil cells. The estimated linear thermal expansion coefficient was found to be α=1.40(3)×10−5K−1, and the bulk modulus derived from the fit to the third-order...
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Regulated Control of the Assembly and Diversity of LPS by Noncoding sRNAs
PublicationThe outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria is asymmetric due to the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) facing the outer leaflet of the OM and phospholipids facing the periplasmic side. LPS is essential for bacterial viability, since it provides a permeability barrier and is a major virulence determinant in pathogenic bacteria. In Escherichia coli, several steps of LPS biosynthesis and assembly are regulated by the RpoE...
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Characterization of immobilized Escherichia coli cells transformed by β-galactosidase gene from Pyrococcus woesei
PublicationThermostable β-galactosidase from Escherichia coli transformant containing theenzyme gene from Pyrococcus woesei was immobilized on alginate gel.The benefits of using whole bacterial cells not only exclude expensive, laborious proteinisolation and purification but also stabilize enzymes by cytosol components. Increase inproductivity of enzyme can be achieved by cells permeabilization. To increase permeability ofcytoplasmic membrane...
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Novel N-(aryl/heteroaryl)-2-chlorobenzenesulfonamide derivatives: synthesis and anticancer activity evaluation
PublicationA new series of N-(aryl/heteroaryl)-2-chlorobenzenesulfonamide derivatives 4-21 have been synthesized, and evaluated at the National Cancer Institute (USA) for their in vitro activities against a panel of 60 different human cancer cell lines. Among them, compounds 16, 20 and 21 exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activity against numerous human cancer cell lines. We found that sulfonamide derivative 21 appeared to be more selective...
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Toxoplasma gondii Tetravalent Chimeric Proteins as Novel Antigens for Detection of Specific Immunoglobulin G in Sera of Small Ruminants
PublicationThe detection of Toxoplasma gondii infection in small ruminants has important significance for public health and veterinary medicine. This study, for the first time, describes the reactivity of four tetravalent chimeric proteins (AMA1N-SAG2-GRA1-ROP1, AMA1C-SAG2-GRA1-ROP1, AMA1-SAG2-GRA1-ROP1, and SAG2-GRA1-ROP1-GRA2) containing immunodominant regions from the AMA1 (apical membrane antigen 1), SAG2 (surface antigen 2), GRA1 (dense...
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MoS2-containing composite membranes for separation of environmental energy-relevant liquid and gas mixtures: A comprehensive review
PublicationMolybdenum sulfide (MoS2) materials adapted into membranes have demonstrated potential for different areas dealing with molecular separations. For instance, MoS2-based membranes have been proposed for distinct environmental applications, such as water treatment, seawater desalination, gas separation, and solvent separation. Emergently, such membranes have been ultimately investigated for energy-relevant gas separation mixtures,...
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Xanthone synthetic derivatives with high anticandidal activity and positive mycostatic selectivity index values
PublicationWith the current massive increases in drug-resistant microbial infection as well as the significant role of fungal infections in the death toll of COVID-19, discovering new antifungals is extremely important. Natural and synthetic xanthones are promising derivatives, although only few reports have demonstrated their antifungal mechanism of action in detail. Newly synthetized by us xanthone derivative 44 exhibited strong antifungal...
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Ribes nigrum L. Extract-Mediated Green Synthesis and Antibacterial Action Mechanisms of Silver Nanoparticles
PublicationSilver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) represent one of the most widely employed metal-based engineered nanomaterials with a broad range of applications in different areas of science. Plant extracts (PEs) serve as green reducing and coating agents and can be exploited for the generation of Ag NPs. In this study, the phytochemical composition of ethanolic extract of black currant (Ribes nigrum) leaves was determined. The main components...
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Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Acridine/Acridone Analogs as Potential Anticancer Agents
PublicationAcridine and acridone analogues were prepared by Ullmann condensation and then cyclization reaction. As a result of nucleophilic substitution reaction 1-nitro-9-phenoxyacridine or 1-chloro-4-nitro-9(10H)-acridone with the corresponding peptides, the planned acridine derivatives (10a-c, 12, 17-a-d, 19) have been obtained. The cytotoxic activity of the newly obtained analogs were evaluated against melanotic (Ma) and amelanotic (Ab)...
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Untargeted Lipidomics Reveals Differences in the Lipid Pattern among Clinical Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus Resistant and Sensitive to Antibiotics
PublicationStaphylococcus aureus resistance to antibiotics is a significant clinical problem worldwide. In this study, an untargeted lipidomics approach was used to compare the lipid fingerprints of S. aureus clinical isolates that are resistant and sensitive to antibiotics. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry was employed to rapidly and comprehensively analyze bacterial lipids. Chemometric...
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Structural and dynamic insights on the EmrE protein with TPP+ and related substrates through molecular dynamics simulations
PublicationEmrE is a bacterial transporter protein that forms an anti-parallel homodimer with four transmembrane helices in each monomer. EmrE transports positively charged aromatic compounds, such as TPP+ and its derivatives. We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of EmrE in complex with TPP+, MeTPP+, and MBTPP+ embedded in a membrane. The detailed molecular properties and interactions were analysed for all EmrE-ligand complexes....
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Towards azeotropic MeOH-MTBE separation using pervaporation chitosan-based deep eutectic solvent membranes
PublicationDeep eutectic solvents (DESs) are a new class of solvents that can offset some of the major drawbacks of common solvents and ionic liquids. When dealing with the preparation of dense membranes, the use of DESs is still challenging due to their low compatibility with the polymer phase. In this research, a novel L-proline:sulfolane (molar ratio 1:2) DES was synthesized and used for the preparation of more sustainable bio-based membranes...
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The Effect of Conjugation with Octaarginine, a Cell-Penetrating Peptide on Antifungal Activity of Imidazoacridinone Derivative
PublicationAcridine cell-penetrating peptide conjugates are an extremely important family of compounds in antitumor chemotherapy. These conjugates are not so widely analysed in antimicrobial therapy, although bioactive peptides could be used as nanocarriers to smuggle antimicrobial compounds. An octaarginine conjugate of an imidazoacridinone derivative (Compound 1-R8) synthetized by us exhibited high antifungal activity against reference...
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Long-Period Gratings and Microcavity In-Line Mach Zehnder Interferometers as Highly Sensitive Optical Fiber Platforms for Bacteria Sensing
PublicationSelected optical fiber sensors offer extraordinary sensitivity to changes in external refractive (RI), which make them promising for label-free biosensing. In this work the most sensitive ones, namely long-period gratings working at (DTP-LPG) and micro-cavity in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometers (µIMZI) are discussed for application in bacteria sensing. We describe their working principles and RI sensitivity when operating in water...
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Toxoplasma gondii Recombinant antigen AMA1: Diagnostic Utility of Protein Fragments for the Detection of IgG and IgM Antibodies
PublicationToxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic protozoan that infects a wide variety of vertebrates as intermediate hosts. For this reason, the diagnosis of this disease is very important and requires continuous improvement. One possibility is to use recombinant antigens in serological tests. Apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1), a protein located in specific secretory organelles (micronemes) of T. gondii, is very interesting in regard...
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Efficiency of landfill leachate treatment in a MBR/UF system combined with NF, with a special focus on phthalates and bisphenol A removal
PublicationIn this study, a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was operated at a municipal solid waste plant (MSWP) to treat a mixture of landfill leachates (LLs) obtained from modern (MP-LLs) and previous (PP-LLs) waste cells. The MBR unit combined anoxic and aerobic zones with external ultra- and nanofiltration (MBR/UF and MBR/UF/NF, respectively). In addition to the removal of macropollutants, special attention was given to phthalates...
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Simple synthesis route for fabrication of protective photo‐crosslinked poly(zwitterionic) membranes for application in non‐enzymatic glucose sensing
PublicationThis work focuses on the fabrication of non-enzymatic glucose sensing materials based on laser-formed Au nanoparticles embedded in Ti-textured substrates. Those materials possess good catalytic activity toward glucose oxidation in 0.1 × phosphate buffered saline as well as resistance to some interferants, such as ascorbic acid, urea, and glycine. The electrodes are further coated with three different polymers, that is, Nafion,...
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Molecular and structural basis of inner core lipopolysaccharide alterations in Escherichia coli: incorporation of glucuronic acid and phosphoethanolamine in the heptose region.
PublicationIt is well established that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) often carries nonstoichiometric substitutions in lipid A and in the inner core. In this work, the molecular basis of inner core alterations and their physiological significance are addressed. A new inner core modification of LPS is described, which arises due to the addition of glucuronic acid on the third heptose with a concomitant loss of phosphate on the second heptose. This...
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The geodetic monitoring of the engineering structure – a practical solution of the problem in 3D space
PublicationThe study raises the issues concerning the automatic system designed for the monitoring of movement of controlled points, located on the roof covering of the Forest Opera in Sopot. It presents the calculation algorithm proposed by authors. It takes into account the specific design and location of the test object. High forest stand makes it difficult to use distant reference points. Hence the reference points used to study the stability...