There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Applications of nanomaterials in agricultural production and crop protection: A review

We report a study of self-assembled beta-pleated sheets in B. mori silk fibroin films using thermal analysis and infrared spectroscopy. B. mori silk fibroin may stand as an exemplar of fibrous proteins containing crystalline beta-sheets. Materials were prepared from concentrated solutions (2−5 wt % fibroin in water) and then dried to achieve a less ordered state without beta-sheets. Crystallization of beta-pleated sheets was effected either by heating the films above the glass transition temperature (Tg) and holding isothermally or by exposure to methanol. The fractions of secondary structural components including random coils, alpha-helices, beta-pleated sheets, turns, and side chains were evaluated using Fourier self-deconvolution (FSD) of the infrared absorbance spectra. The silk fibroin films were studied thermally using temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) to obtain the reversing heat capacity. The increment of the reversing heat capacity ΔCp0(Tg) at the glass transition fo...

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Determining Beta Sheet Crystallinity in Fibrous Proteins by Thermal Analysis and Infrared Spectroscopy

Tissue engineering has become a promising strategy for repairing damaged cartilage and bone tissue Among the scaffolds for tissue-engineering applications, injectable hydrogels have demonstrated great potential for use as three-dimensional cell culture scaffolds in cartilage and bone tissue engineering, owing to their high water content, similarity to the natural extracellular matrix (ECM), porous framework for cell transplantation and proliferation, minimal invasive properties, and ability to match irregular defects In this review, we describe the selection of appropriate biomaterials and fabrication methods to prepare novel injectable hydrogels for cartilage and bone tissue engineering In addition, the biology of cartilage and the bony ECM is also summarized Finally, future perspectives for injectable hydrogels in cartilage and bone tissue engineering are discussed

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Injectable hydrogels for cartilage and bone tissue engineering.

Semiconductor photocatalysts have received much attention in recent years due to their great potentials for the development of renewable energy technologies, as well as for environmental protection and remediation. The effective harvesting of solar energy and suppression of charge carrier recombination are two key aspects in photocatalysis. The formation of heterostructured photocatalysts is a promising strategy to improve photocatalytic activity, which is superior to that of their single component photocatalysts. This Feature Article concisely summarizes and highlights the state-of-the-art progress of semiconductor/semiconductor heterostructured photocatalysts with diverse models, including type-I and type-II heterojunctions, Z-scheme system, p–n heterojunctions, and homojunction band alignments, which were explored for effective improvement of photocatalytic activity through increase of the visible-light absorption, promotion of separation, and transportation of the photoinduced charge carries, and enhancement of the photocatalytic stability.

State‐of‐the‐Art Progress in Diverse Heterostructured Photocatalysts toward Promoting Photocatalytic Performance

Highly-sensitive organophosphorous pesticide biosensors based on nanostructured films of acetylcholinesterase and CdTe quantum dots

Silk/polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels are studied as self-standing bioinks for 3D printing for tissue engineering. The two components of the bioink, silk fibroin protein (silk) and PEG, are both Food and Drug Administration approved materials in drug and medical device products. Mixing PEG with silk induces silk β-sheet structure formation and thus gelation and water insolubility due to physical crosslinking. A variety of constructs with high resolution, high shape fidelity, and homogeneous gel matrices are printed. When human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells are premixed with the silk solution prior to printing and the constructs are cultured in this medium, the cell-loaded constructs maintain their shape over at least 12 weeks. Interestingly, the cells grow faster in the higher silk concentration (10%, w/v) gel than in lower ones (7.5 and 5%, w/v), likely due to the difference in material stiffness and the amount of residual PEG remaining in the gel related to material hydrophobicity. Subcutaneous implantation of 7.5% (w/v) bioink gels with and without printed fibroblast cells in mice reveals that the cells survive and proliferate in the gel matrix for at least 6 week postimplantation. The results suggest that these silk/PEG bioink gels may provide suitable scaffold environments for cell printing and function.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/adhm.201701026%4010.1002/%28ISSN%292192-2659.Biofabrication-for-Tissue-Engineering

3D Bioprinting of Self‐Standing Silk‐Based Bioink

A blood glucose sensor has been developed based on the multilayer films of CdTe semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and glucose oxidase (GOD) by using the layer-by-layer assembly technique. When the composite films were contacted with glucose solution, the photoluminescence of QDs in the films was quickly quenched because the enzyme-catalyzed reaction product (H2O2) of GOD and glucose gave rise to the formation of surface defects on QDs. The quenching rate was a function of the concentration of glucose. The linear range and sensitivity for glucose determination could be adjusted by controlling the layers of QDs and GOD. The biosensor was used to successfully determine the concentration of blood glucose in real serum samples without sample pretreatment and exhibited satisfactory reproducibility and accuracy.

Zhaozhu Zheng

Papers

Highly-sensitive organophosphorous pesticide biosensors based on nanostructured films of acetylcholinesterase and CdTe quantum dots

3D Bioprinting of Self‐Standing Silk‐Based Bioink

Glucose biosensor based on nanocomposite films of CdTe quantum dots and glucose oxidase.

Recent Advances in Nanosensors for Organophosphate Pesticide Detection

Injectable silk-polyethylene glycol hydrogels