Niobate nanosheet membranes with enhanced stability for nanofiltration.

Niobate nanosheets are assembled into thin membranes by a vacuum filtration. The nanosheet membranes have a dense and stable structure in water via chemical cross-linking and show higher permeance and salt rejection compared with graphene oxide membranes. A water pathway model based on the void structure is presented to explain the membrane performances.

Polymeric ion-gels containing an amino acid ionic liquid for facilitated CO2 transport media.

Novel ion-gel films containing an amino acid ionic liquid were fabricated by free radical polymerization of vinyl monomers. These high strength materials demonstrated superior CO2 permeability and separation performance.

Membrane formation mechanism of cross-linked polyurea microcapsules by phase separation method.

This research was conducted to clarify the membrane formation mechanism of cross-linked polyurea microcapsules by phase separation method, especially the role of polymeric surfactant, such as poly(ethylene-alt-maleic anhydride) (poly(E-MA)) at the interface of O/W emulsion. It was found that poly(E-MA) was necessary for the formation of cross-linked polyurea membrane. The addition of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) prohibited the membrane formation reaction at the interface, even in the case of poly(E-MA) concentration enough for polymeric microcapsule formation. From the results in this study, poly(E-MA) was found to be adsorbed on the O/W emulsion and provide the reaction site for the membrane formation of polymeric microcapsules.

Increased natural killer resistance to cyclosporine A by continuous doses of dexamethasone in rats.

There is a controversy on the effects of physiological levels of glucocorticoids on natural killer (NK) cytotoxity. Therefore, the effects of exogenously administered dexamethasone on NK cytotoxity in 8-week-old male, Fischer 344 rats were studied. We suppose that the reason for the controversy is insufficient sensitivity of the ordinal radioactive chromium-release assay for normal healthy subjects or animals. Therefore, we developed a new index, a resistance to artificial immunosuppressor, cyclosporine A (CsA) using rat NK activity as an indicator, and named this index, increased resistance to immunosuppressor (IRIS). After some basic, characterizing studies, authors confirmed the fact that continuous doses of dexamethasone (DEX) attenuated NK suppression of CsA. In protocol 4, 18 rats were randomly divided into three groups: the first (DEX + CsA) was injected for 5 days with 0.1 mg DEX/kg/day and a single dose of CsA on the final day, intraperitoneally; the second (SAL + CsA) was treated with an equal volume of saline and CsA; the third (DEX + SAL) was treated with DEX but not CsA. The IRIS in NK activity was increased significantly (P < 0.01) with 5 days injection of DEX. These results demonstrated that physiological, and continuous dosage of glucocorticoids stimulated IRIS in NK activity in rats, and this suggests that appropriate stimuli through the hypothalamic-adrenal axis might be acting, at least, as a defence against immune collapses or dysfunctions.