The mouse and human genomes contain 14 highly conserved SLC39 genes. Viewed from an evolutionary perspective, SLC39A14 and SLC39A8 are the most closely related, each having three noncoding exons 1. However, SLC39A14 has two exons 4, giving rise to Zrt-and Irt-related protein (ZIP)ZIP14A and ZIP14B alternatively spliced products. C57BL/6J mouse ZIP14A expression is highest in liver, duodenum, kidney, and testis; ZIP14B expression is highest in liver, duodenum, brain, and testis; and ZIP8 is highest in lung, testis, and kidney. We studied ZIP14 stably retroviral-infected mouse fetal fibroblast cultures and transiently transfected Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) polarized epithelial cells. Our findings include: 1) ZIP14-mediated cadmium uptake is proportional to cell toxicity, but

Synthetic water channels were developed with an aim to replace aquaporins for possible uses in water purification, while concurrently retaining aquaporins’ ability to conduct highly selective superfast water transport. Among the currently available synthetic water channel systems, none possesses water transport properties that parallel those of aquaporins. In this report, we present the first synthetic water channel system with intriguing aquaproin-like features. Employing a “sticky end”-mediated molecular strategy for constructing abiotic water channels, we demonstrate that a 20% enlargement in angstrom-scale pore volume could effect a remarkable enhancement in macroscopic water transport profile by 15 folds. This gives rise to a powerful synthetic water channel able to transport water at a speed of ∼3 × 109 H2O s–1 channel–1 with a high rejection of NaCl and KCl. This high water permeability, which is about 50% of aquaporin Z’s capacity, makes channel 1 the fastest among the existing synthetic water channels with high selectivity.

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Summary The grapefruit juice was sonicated in an ultrasonic bath at 28 kHz frequency (amplitude 70%), for 0, 30, 60 and 90 min at 20 °C. This research was focused on the effects of ultrasound treatment on phenolic compounds, minerals, viscosity, lycopene, total anthocyanins, total carotenoids, micro‐organism analysis and sugars. A statistically significant increase was observed in total carotenoids, lycopene, sugar contents (sucrose, glucose and fructose) and phenolic compounds, whereas a decrease in viscosity and micro‐organisms were found in all the grapefruit juice samples sonicated for 30, 60 and 90 min as compared to control. However, maximum improvement was observed in the sonication treatment for 90 min. The results of this study suggest that ultrasound treatment may improve the quality of grapefruit juice.

We report efficient single-layer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on 2, 3,6,7-tetrahydro-1,1,7,7,tetramethyl-1H,5H,11H-10-(2-benzothiazolyl) quinolizino-[9,9a,1gh] coumarin (C545T) and tris(8-hydroxyquinolinolato)aluminum (Alq 3 ) system. The doping concentration, as well as nickel oxide (Ni 2 O 3 ) and molybdenum oxide (MoO 3 )-modified indium tin oxide (ITO) anodes were investigated. With increasing doping concentration from 1 to 23%, the emission color varied from green to yellow; the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinate changed from (0.29, 0.66) to (0.45, 0.53). The green-to yellow-emitting devices showed current efficiency from 6.4 to 4.2 cd/A for ITO/Ni 2 O 3 anode and 12.8 to 5.5 cd/A for ITO/ MoO 3 anode at 100 cd/m 2 , respectively, which are better than 3.8 cd/A obtained in the traditional undoped three-layered device ITO/copper-phthalocyanine (CuPc)/ N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis-(1-naphthyl)-1-1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (R-NPD)/Alq 3 /LiF/Al and comparable to 14.4 cd/A in the doped device ITO/CuPc/R-NPD/ C545T-Alq 3 (∼1%)/Alq 3 /LiF/Al.