Characterisation of a new online nanoLC-CZE-MS platform and application for the glycosylation profiling of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein

The ever-increasing complexity of biological samples to be analysed by mass spectrometry has led to the necessity of sophisticated separation techniques, including multidimensional separation. Despite a high degree of orthogonality, the coupling of liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) has not gained notable attention in research. Here, we present a heart-cut nanoLC-CZE-ESI-MS platform to analyse intact proteins. NanoLC and CZE-MS are coupled using a four-port valve with an internal nanoliter loop. NanoLC and CZE-MS conditions were optimised independently to find ideal conditions for the combined setup. The valve setup enables an ideal transfer efficiency between the dimensions while maintaining good separation conditions in both dimensions. Due to the higher loadability, the nanoLC-CZE-MS setup exhibits a 280-fold increased concentration sensitivity compared to CZE-MS. The platform was used to characterise intact human alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), an extremely heterogeneous N-glycosylated protein. With the nanoLC-CZE-MS approach, 368 glycoforms can be assigned at a concentration of 50 μg/mL as opposed to the assignment of only 186 glycoforms from 1 mg/mL by CZE-MS. Additionally, we demonstrate that glycosylation profiling is accessible for dried blood spot analysis (25 μg/mL AGP spiked), indicating the general applicability of our setup to biological matrices. The combination of high sensitivity and orthogonal selectivity in both dimensions makes the here-presented nanoLC-CZE-MS approach capable of detailed characterisation of intact proteins and their proteoforms from complex biological samples and in physiologically relevant concentrations. Graphical abstract

Three-Dimensional Superhydrophobic Hollow Hemispherical MXene for Efficient Water-in-Oil Emulsions Separation

A superhydrophobic macroporous material composed of hollow hemispherical MXene (HSMX) was synthesized by the thermal annealing of MXene-wrapped cationic polystyrene spheres (CPS@MXene). Notably, the spherical MXene shells exhibited highly efficient catalysis of the carbonization of CPS into carbon nanoparticles. Their insertion into the interlayer of MXene increased the d-spacing and created hollow hemispheres. The as-prepared HSMX with nanoscale walls had a lower packing density than MXene, but higher porosity, total pore volume, and total pore area. Moreover, the stacking of hollow hemispheres promoted the formation of a highly undulating macroporous surface and significantly improved the surface roughness of the HSMX-based 3D membrane, resulting in superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 156.4° and a rolling angle of 6°. As a result, the membrane exhibited good separation efficiency and flux for emulsifier-stabilized water-in-paraffin liquid emulsions, which was dependent on its superhydrophobic performance and strong demulsification ability derived from the razor effect originating from the ultrathin walls of HSMX. This work provides a facile approach for the transformation of highly hydrophilic 2D MXene into superhydrophobic 3D HSMX, and opens a new pathway for the development of advanced MXene-based materials for environmental remediation applications.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF LOGOS AS A MARKETING PROMOTION TOOL FOR BLOOD SERVICE ENTERPRISES

The article conducted a comparative analysis of the blood services’ logos, identified the features of their constituent elements for the new logo’s development or existing logo’s rebranding, and suggested ways to increase their efficiency. It was found 100 logos of various blood service establishments on the Internet, in particular on the official websites of the establishments and official pages on social networks, 43 of them – Europe (12 of them – Ukraine), 13 – Asia, 19 – South and North America, 15 – Africa, 10 – Australia and Oceania. There were explored the following aspects: symbolic and font elements in the logo, the colors used and their quantity, the main messages of identity, and regional differences. There were used general scientific analytical methods and analogies and prototypes to obtain practical results during the study. This study indicates that most blood establishments in the region are characterized by combined compositions in logos – a combination of the font with a visual component but with a fairly direct connotation. The most popular colors in the blood service are red, blue, black, and white font. Logos most often use 2 colors (except white), less often 1 or 3. The following blood service symbols are most often used: a drop of blood, heart, cross, person, and hands. There is also a circle, a crescent moon, a pelican, a star, and a butterfly. They stimulate a certain type of behavior and affect feelings. The results of this research allow to create a good separation from competitors and several times increase the marketing performance of the newly formed organization or existing. Blood service institutions can use this study’s results to rebrand the organization and organizations’ owners to develop the future brand’s identity.

Separation of thorium(IV) from aquatic media using magnetic ferrite nanoparticles

The separation and recovery of thorium from monazite is critical to the sustainable development of the nuclear industry as well as to environmental safety. Also, the removal of radionuclides from polluted sources is a critical issue in environmental control. Magnetic ferrite nanoparticles (MCMF-NP, Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4) were synthesized (4–22 nm in size) and characterized. MCMF-NP was investigated for Th(IV) separation from their aqueous medium under various test conditions of acidity, time, and Th(IV) concentration, in line with the uptake capacity. The amount of thorium adsorbed is improved when pH, time, and initial concentration are increased. The maximum uptake of Th(IV) by MCMF-NP was observed at pH 3.5–4 and a contact time of 180 min. A favorable adsorption mechanism was shown in the pseudo-second-order rate. Isotherm analysis shows an adequate process described by the Langmuir isotherm. MCMF-NP is an adsorbent capable of successful disposal of Th(IV) from waste solutions with a high uptake of 81.3 mg of Th(IV)/g of MCMF-NP. The possibility of re-using the MCMF-NP, adding value to this content as a way of compensating for the disposal costs, was studied and disused. MCMF-NP shows a good separation of thorium(IV) from monazite leach liquor as well as from wastewater samples.

Validated high-performance thin-layer chromatographic analysis of curcumin in the methanolic fraction of Curcuma longa L. rhizomes

Background In the present study, an HPTLC (high-performance thin-layer chromatography) method was developed for the quantitative determination and validation of the curcumin in the methanolic fraction of Curcuma longa L. For achieving good separation of curcumin, the mobile phase of chloroform:methanol (97:3) was used. The densitometric analysis of curcumin was performed at 420 nm in reflection/absorption mode. Results Linearity of the method was obtained in the range of 100‒600 ng per spot. During analysis, the methanolic fraction of the C. longa showed the presence of a quantifiable amount of curcumin. The content of curcumin was found to be 1.5% (per dry weight). Conclusions The method is specific, simple, precise, and accurate. The obtained data can have used for the routine analysis of the reported biomarkers in crude drugs and extracts. The quantification and the method validation of curcumin have not yet been reported in C. longa which can be utilized for the proper standardization of the plant.

On Microservice Analysis and Architecture Evolution: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservice architecture has become the leading design for cloud-native systems. The highly decentralized approach to software development consists of relatively independent services, which provides benefits such as faster deployment cycles, better scalability, and good separation of concerns among services. With this new architecture, one can naturally expect a broad range of advancements and simplifications over legacy systems. However, microservice system design remains challenging, as it is still difficult for engineers to understand the system module boundaries. Thus, understanding and explaining the microservice systems might not be as easy as initially thought. This study aims to classify recently published approaches and techniques to analyze microservice systems. It also looks at the evolutionary perspective of such systems and their analysis. Furthermore, the identified approaches target various challenges and goals, which this study analyzed. Thus, it provides the reader with a roadmap to the discipline, tools, techniques, and open challenges for future work. It provides a guide towards choices when aiming for analyzing cloud-native systems. The results indicate five analytical approaches commonly used in the literature, possibly in combination, towards problems classified into seven categories.

Determining the helicity structure of the nucleon at the Electron Ion Collider in China

Understanding how sea quarks behave inside a nucleon is one of the most important physics goals of the proposed Electron-Ion Collider in China (EicC), which is designed to have a 3.5 GeV polarized electron beam (80% polarization) colliding with a 20 GeV polarized proton beam (70% polarization) at instantaneous luminosity of 2 × 1033cm−2s−1. A specific topic at EicC is to understand the polarization of individual quarks inside a longitudinally polarized nucleon. The potential of various future EicC data, including the inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering data from both doubly polarized electron-proton and electron-3He collisions, to reduce the uncertainties of parton helicity distributions is explored at the next-to-leading order in QCD, using the Error PDF Updating Method Package (ePump) which is based on the Hessian profiling method. We show that the semi-inclusive data are well able to provide good separation between flavour distributions, and to constrain their uncertainties in the x > 0.005 region, especially when electron-3He collisions, acting as effective electron-neutron collisions, are taken into account. To enable this study, we have generated a Hessian representation of the DSSV14 set of PDF replicas, named DSSV14H PDFs.

Biocompatibility Parameters with Standard and Increased Dose of Citrate in Hemodialysis—A Randomized Trial

Background: The dose of citrate needed in regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) to achieve optimal biocompatibility is unknown. We performed a randomized trial comparing two doses (ACTRN12613001340729). Methods: In 30 patients a single hemodialysis with either standard (2.7 mmol/L) or increased dose of citrate (4 mmol/L) was performed. C5a-desArg, myeloperoxidase (MPO), thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), and platelet factor 4 (PF4) were measured and the inner surface of the dialyzer fibers was evaluated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results: A good separation of anticoagulation effect was achieved (post-filter ionized calcium 0.20 vs. 0.31 mmol/L, p < 0.05). There was no effect of citrate dose on any of the biocompatibility parameters; transient and parallel increase in PF4 after 30 min and parallel increase in TAT after 4 h were observed. There were no visually detected clotting problems within the circuit and no significant hypocalcemia in either group. SEM clotting score was excellent and comparable in both groups (p = 0.59). Conclusions: Given the excellent results in both groups, absence of between group differences and inability of the increased dose of citrate to completely blunt the small residual increase in PF4 and TAT, we conclude that the standard dose of citrate seems sufficient in RCA for chronic hemodialysis.

Efficient separation of propylene and propane on SAPO-17 molecular sieve

In this study, the separation performance of propylene and propane on SAPO-17 molecular sieve was investigated by static and dynamic adsorption. The adsorbent possessed good regeneration behavior because the strong adsorption of propylene at room temperature was eliminated by ion exchange treatment. Dynamic adsorption experiments revealed that the kinetic separation selectivity of propylene and propane was as high as 1980, which could be attributed to the energy barrier difference when diffusing through the eight-membered ring of SAPO-17 molecular sieve. The breakthrough experiments verified the good separation performance of the SAPO-17 adsorbent, which suggests that it has considerable application potential in propylene/propane separation.

Recovery/Reuse of Heterogeneous Supported Spent Catalysts

The rapid separation and efficient recycling of catalysts after a catalytic reaction are considered important requirements along with the high catalytic performances. In this view, although heterogeneous catalysis is generally less efficient if compared to the homogeneous type, it is generally preferred since it benefits from the easy recovery of the catalyst. Recycling of heterogeneous catalysts using traditional methods of separation such as extraction, filtration, vacuum distillation, or centrifugation is tedious and time-consuming. They are uneconomic processes and, hence, they cannot be carried out in the industrial scale. For these limitations, today, the research is devoted to the development of new methods that allow a good separation and recycling of catalysts. The separation process should follow a procedure economically and technically feasible with a minimal loss of the solid catalyst. The aim of this work is to provide an overview about the current trends in the methods of separation/recycling used in the heterogeneous catalysis.