On positive loops of loose Legendrian embeddings

In this paper, via h-principle we prove that there exist contractible positive loops of Legendrian embeddings based at any loose Legendrian submanifold. As an application, we define a new partial order on $\widetilde{Cont}_0(M,\xi)$ and prove that overtwisted contact manifolds are weakly non-orderable.Comment: Simplified proof the main theorem, 14 pages, 6 figures, typos correcte

Antibacterial Performance of a Cu-bearing Stainless Steel against Microorganisms in Tap Water

This document is the Accepted Manuscript of the following article: Mingjun Li, Li Nan, Dake xu, Guogang Ren, Ke Yang, ‘Antibacterial Performance of a Cu-bearing Stainless Steel against Microorganisms in Tap Water’, Journal of Materials Science & Technology, Vol. 31 (3): 243-251, March 2015, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2014.11.016, made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License CC BY NC-ND 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Tap water is one of the most commonly used water resources in our daily life. However, the increasing water contamination and the health risk caused by pathogenic bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli have attracted more attention. The mutualism of different pathogenic bacteria may diminish antibacterial effect of antibacterial agents. It was found that materials used for making pipe and tap played one of the most important roles in promoting bacterial growth. This paper is to report the performance of an innovative type 304 Cu-bearing stainless steel (304CuSS) against microbes in tap water. The investigation methodologies involved were means of heterotrophic plate count, contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy for observing the cell and subtract surface morphology, atomic absorption spectrometry for copper ions release study, and confocal laser scanning microscopy used for examining live/dead bacteria on normal 304 stainless steel and 304CuSS. It was found that the surface free energy varied after being immersed in tap water with polar component and Cu ions release. The results showed 304CuSS could effectively kill most of the planktonic bacteria (max 95.9% antibacterial rate), and consequently inhibit bacterial biofilms formation on the surface, contributing to the reduction of pathogenic risk to the surrounding environments.Peer reviewe

The tribological properties of zinc borate ultrafine powder as a lubricant additive in sunflower oil

This paper presents an investigation on the tribological properties of zinc borate ultrafine powder employed as a lubricant additive in sunflower oil. The stable dispersions of 0.5 wt%, 1 wt% and 2 wt% zinc borate ultrafine powder in sunflower oil were achieved by using an ultrasonic homogeniser. Both a 4-ball tester and a pin-on-disc tester were employed to evaluate the anti-wear and friction reduction capabilities of zinc borate ultrafine powder. Tribo-films with dark colour were generated on the worn surfaces and showed a good contrast with the substrate. The worn surface with different morphologies reflected as the colour alterations on the worn surface were observed when different lubricants were applied. The morphology and elemental analysis of the worn surfaces were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Mechanical properties of the tribo-films and substrates were studied with a nano-indentation tester. Test results suggest that tribo-films generated on the worn surface have a relatively low hardness compared with the steel substrate. The substrates on the worn surfaces lubricated in sunflower oil with the powder demonstrated higher hardness than that of the substrate lubricated with pure sunflower oil due to the possible tribo-chemical reaction between the zinc borate additive and substrate. The combination of sunflower oil with 0.5% zinc borate ultrafine powder has delivered the most balanced performance in friction and wear reduction. This study has demonstrated the possibility of application of this industrially applicable solid lubricant additive (zinc borate) with a decomposable vegetable based lubricant oil.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Biological evaluations of novel 2,3,3-Trisphosphonate in osteoclastic and osteoblastic activities

Bisphosphonates (BPs) are the first line treatment for many bone diseases including hypercalcimia associated with bone malignancies. In this paper, we introduce a new analogue of bisphosphonate called the 2,3,3-Trisphosphonate (2,3,3-TriPP) that was synthesised in a two steps reaction. In vitro investigations using a medically known bisphosphonate (Etidronate) and the 2,3,3-TrisPP were performed with an aim to evaluate biological effect of this novel compound in major bone cells. 2,3,3-TrisPP showed to have potential to supress the bone resorption process, as our data found that this novel compound exhibited cytotoxic effect in osteoclastic cells at a low concentration of 0.172 mg/mL (LC50). A molecular docking computational simulation calculated a high level of binding affinity between the human farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (hFPPS) and 2,3,3-TrisPP. This calculation suggested 2,3,3TrisPP may have undergone the mevalonate pathway to prevent the prenylation step during biosynthesis and subsequently resulted in the deactivation of osteoclastic cells. Finally, high levels of osteoblast mineralisation potentials were recorded upon treatments with 2,3,3-TrisPP (0.01-0.1 mg/ml), which implied 2,3,3-TrsiPP may also facilitate bone regeneration.Peer reviewe

Physio-chemical and antibacterial characteristics of pressure spun nylon nanofibres embedded with functional silver nanoparticles

© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Date of Acceptance: 05/06/2015A novel and facile approach to prepare hybrid nanoparticle embedded polymer nanofibers using pressurised gyration is presented. Silver nanoparticles and nylon polymer were used in this work. The polymer solution's physical properties, rotating speed and the working pressure had a significant influence on the fibre diameter and the morphology. Fibres in the range of 60–500 nm were spun using 10 wt.%, 15 wt.% and 20 wt.% nylon solutions and these bead-free fibres were processed under 0.2 MPa and 0.3 MPa working pressure and a rotational speed of 36,000 rpm. 1–4 wt.% of Ag was added to these nylon solutions and in the case of wt.% fibres in the range 50–150 nm were prepared using the same conditions of pressurised gyration. Successful incorporation of the Ag nanoparticles in nylon nanofibres was confirmed by using a combination of advanced microscopical techniques and Raman spectrometry was used to study the bonding characteristics of nylon and the Ag nanoparticles. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy showed a substantial concentration of Ag ions in the nylon fibre matrix which is essential for producing effective antibacterial properties. Antibacterial activity of the Ag-loaded nanofibres shows higher efficacy than nylon nanofibres for Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa microorganisms, and both Ag nanoparticles and the Ag ions were found to be the reason for enhanced cell death in the bacterial solutionPeer reviewe

Anti-fungal bandages containing cinnamon extract

© 2019 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Cinnamon-containing polycaprolactone (PCL) bandages were produced by pressurised gyration and their anti-fungal activities against Candida albicans were investigated. It was found that by preparing and spinning polymer solutions of cinnamon with PCL, fibres capable of inhibiting fungal growth could be produced, as observed in disk diffusion tests for anti-fungal susceptibility. Fascinatingly, compared with raw cinnamon powder, the novel cinnamon-loaded fibres had outstanding long-term activity. The results presented here are very promising and may indeed accelerate a new era of using completely natural materials in biomedical applications, especially in wound healing.Peer reviewe

Cognitive deficits induced by multi-walled carbon nanotubes via the autophagic pathway

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version, made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License CC BY NC-ND 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have shown potential applications in many fields, especially in the field of biomedicine. Several studies have reported that MWCNTs induce apoptosis and oxidative damage in nerve cells during in vitro experiments. However, there are few studies focused on the neurotoxicity of MWCNTs used in vivo. Many studies have reported that autophagy, a cellular stress response to degrade damaged cell components, can be activated by diverse nanoparticles. In this study, we investigated the neurotoxic effects of MWCNTs on hippocampal synaptic plasticity and spatial cognition in rats. Then, we used an inhibitor of autophagy called chloroquine (CQ) to examine whether autophagy plays an important role in hippocampal synaptic plasticity, since this was damaged by MWCNTs. In this study, adult male Wister rats were randomly divided into three groups: a control group, a group treated with MWCNTs (2.5mg/kg/day) and a group treated with MWCNTs+CQ (20mg/kg/day). After two-weeks of intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections, rats were subjected to the Morris water maze (MWM) test, and the long-term potentiation (LTP) and other biochemical parameters were determined. Results showed that MWCNTs could induce cognitive deficits, histopathological alteration and changes of autophagy level (increased the ratio of LC3 II /LC3 I and the expression of Beclin-1). Furthermore, we found that CQ could suppress MWCNTs-induced autophagic flux and partly rescue the synapse deficits, which occurred with the down-regulation of NR2B (a subunit of NMDA receptor) and synaptophysin (SYP) in the hippocampus. Our results suggest that MWCNTs could induce cognitive deficits in vivo via the increased autophagic levels, and provide a potential strategy to avoid the adverse effects of MWCNTs.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Synergistic Antifungal Study of PEGylated Graphene Oxides and Copper Nanoparticles against Candida albicans

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).The coupling reactions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) with two different nano-carbonaceous materials, graphene oxide (GO) and expanded graphene oxide (EGO), were achieved by amide bond formations. These reactions yielded PEGylated graphene oxides, GO-PEG and EGO-PEG. Whilst presence of the newly formed amide links (NH-CO) were confirmed by FTIR stretches observed at 1732 cm−1 and 1712 cm−1, the associated Raman D- and G-bands resonated at 1311/1318 cm−1 and 1584/1595 cm−1 had shown the carbonaceous structures in both PEGylated products remain unchanged. Whilst SEM images revealed the nano-sheet structures in all the GO derivatives (GO/EGO and GO-PEG/EGO-PEG), TEM images clearly showed the nano-structures of both GO-PEG and EGO-PEG had undergone significant morphological changes from their starting materials after the PEGylated processes. The successful PEGylations were also indicated by the change of pH values measured in the starting GO/EGO (pH 2.6–3.3) and the PEGylated GO-PEG/EGO-PEG (pH 6.6–6.9) products. Initial antifungal activities of selective metallic nanomaterials (ZnO and Cu) and the four GO derivatives were screened against Candida albicans using the in vitro cut-well method. Whilst the haemocytometer count indicated GO-PEG and copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) exhibited the best antifungal effects, the corresponding SEM images showed C. albicans had, respectively, undergone extensive shrinkage and porosity deformations. Synergistic antifungal effects all GO derivatives in various ratio of CuNPs combinations were determined by assessing C. albicans viabilities using broth dilution assays. The best synergistic effects were observed when a 30:70 ratio of GO/GO-PEG combined with CuNPs, where MIC50 185–225 μm/mL were recorded. Moreover, the decreased antifungal activities observed in EGO and EGO-PEG may be explained by their poor colloidal stability with increasing nanoparticle concentrations.Peer reviewe