This study effectively demonstrates the sonochemical synthesis of visible-light-responsive Cu-ZnO/TiO2 ternary Z-scheme heterojunction nanocomposite photocatalyst. The as-prepared photocatalyst was comprehensively characterized by techniques including high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), field emission scanning (FE-SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and elemen...

Staphylococci involve infections in association with a number of bacterial virulence factors. Extracellular enzymes play an important role in staphylococcal pathogenesis. In addition, biofilm is known to be associated with their virulence. In this study, 149 staphylococcal isolates from acne lesions were investigated for their virulence factors including lipase, protease, and biofilm formation....

Proteins that normally function in amyloid form are found bacteria, yeast, plants and vertebrates, including humans. In particular, fibrils amyloid-like structures described the germ cells of various organisms. Recently we showed chicken oocytes there some nuclear stained by amyloid-specific dye thioflavin S. Here demonstrate S binds giant terminal RNP aggregates lampbrush chromosomes. However,...

X-ray diffraction and other biophysical tools reveal features of the atomic structure of an amyloid-like crystal. Sup35, a prion-like protein in yeast, forms fibrillar amyloid assemblies intrinsic to its prion function. We have identified a polar peptide from the N-terminal prion-determining domain of Sup35 that exhibits the amyloid properties of full-length Sup35, including cooperative kinetic...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the contribution of multidrug efflux pump systems of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium to the formation of a competent biofilm. METHODS Biofilm formation by a wild-type strain and 10 efflux mutant strains was quantified using crystal violet biofilm assays and visualized using scanning electron microscopy. Curli expression was investigated qualitatively and quan...

Films from congo red (CR) alternated with poly(allylamine hydrochloride), PAH, were prepared by layer-by-layer and alternative spray techniques. In order to investigate the change of roughness induced by laser light irradiation (532 nm), both kinds of films were characterized by using UV-visible spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). At different irradiation times, layer-by-layer, LbL,...

X-ray diffraction and other biophysical tools reveal features of the atomic structure of an amyloid-like crystal. Sup35, a prion-like protein in yeast, forms fibrillar amyloid assemblies intrinsic to its prion function. We have identified a polar peptide from the N-terminal prion-determining domain of Sup35 that exhibits the amyloid properties of full-length Sup35, including cooperative kinetic...

The cell wall-bound Als adhesins of Candida albicans mediate both yeast-to-host tissue adherence and yeast aggregation. This aggregation is amyloid-like, with self-propagating secondary-structure changes, amyloid-characteristic dye binding, and induced birefringence (J. M. Rauceo, N. K. Gaur, K. G. Lee, J. E. Edwards, S. A. Klotz, and P. N. Lipke, Infect. Immun. 72:4948-4955, 2004). Therefore, ...

The spectral absorption, optical rotatory dispresion, and circular dichroism associated with interaction of Congo red dye with partly purified suspensions of amyloid fibril fragments were examined. A set of phenomena consistent with a Cotton effect was found. A nearly identical set of phenomena was obtained with poly-L-lysine in its alpha-helical form. The dichroism seen when Congo red binds to...

A simple method for organically modifying a natural acid clay (Japanese clay) rapidly with alkylamine has been developed. Japanese mainly consists of acidic montmorillonite and was successfully modified decylamine in water at room temperature short time period (10 min) using an ultrasonic bath without any pretreatments. The structure the changed from exterior surface modification to intercalati...