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Heterogeneous catalytic ozonation (HCO) is a promising advanced oxidation process (AOP) that can effectively degrade recalcitrant organic pollutants. While research efforts have been mainly devoted to the development of different catalysts to enhance the process efficiency, more studies are needed to investigate and address the other challenge faced by AOPs, i.e. generation of harmful byproducts. Bromate is the major inorganic byproduct of concern when ozone is involved. While most studies have reported less bromate formation in HCO than ozonation alone, the effects of catalysts depend on their interaction with O 3 and the dominant bromate formation pathway (direct O 3 oxidation vs. indirect ˙OH oxidation) in the system. Production of H 2 O 2 and cyclic redox reactions on the catalyst surface can also reduce different Br species leading to a lower bromate yield. Generation of organic byproducts (OBPs; e.g. aldehydes, keto-acids, carboxylic acids) in HCO depends on the reactivity of precursors ( e.g. dissolved organic matter/DOM) and OBPs with O 3 /˙OH, interactions between DOM/OBPs and catalysts, characteristics of DOM, and O 3 dose. HCO generally increased the removal of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the biodegradability of the bulk organics. HCO treatment may also decrease the formation potential of some disinfection byproducts (DBPs) such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) but may increase the brominated species of the DBPs and also the formation potential of haloacetonitrile (HAN) under certain conditions. This review discusses the current status of studies on both organic and inorganic byproduct formation in HCO as well as transformation of bulk organics and the effects on DBP formation in the downstream disinfection process, and further provides recommendations for future research and development. A standardized experimental protocol and rigorous experimental design is important to deepen our understanding and gain insights on the byproduct formation in HCO from different studies collectively. 

Nucleoli are multicomponent condensates defined by coexisting sub-phases. We identified distinct intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), including acidic (D/E) tracts and K-blocks interspersed by E-rich regions, as defining features of nucleolar proteins. We show that the localization preferences of nucleolar proteins are determined by their IDRs and the types of RNA or DNA binding domains they encompass. In vitro reconstitutions and studies in cells showed how condensation, which combines binding and complex coacervation of nucleolar components, contributes to nucleolar organization. D/E tracts of nucleolar proteins contribute to lowering the pH of co-condensates formed with nucleolar RNAs in vitro. In cells, this sets up a pH gradient between nucleoli and the nucleoplasm. By contrast, juxta-nucleolar bodies, which have different macromolecular compositions, featuring protein IDRs with very different charge profiles, have pH values that are equivalent to or higher than the nucleoplasm. Our findings show that distinct compositional specificities generate distinct physicochemical properties for condensates. 

Imaging of both the positions and orientations of single fluorophores, termed single-molecule orientation-localization microscopy, is a powerful tool for the study of biochemical processes. However, the limited photon budget associated with single-molecule fluorescence makes high-dimensional imaging with isotropic, nanoscale spatial resolution a formidable challenge. Here we realize a radially and azimuthally polarized multi-view reflector (raMVR) microscope for the imaging of the three-dimensional (3D) positions and 3D orientations of single molecules, with precisions of 10.9 nm and 2.0° over a 1.5-μm depth range. The raMVR microscope achieves 6D super-resolution imaging of Nile red molecules transiently bound to lipid-coated spheres, accurately resolving their spherical morphology, despite refractive-index mismatch. By observing the rotational dynamics of Nile red, raMVR images also resolve the infiltration of lipid membranes by amyloid-beta oligomers without covalent labelling. Finally, we demonstrate 6D imaging of cell membranes, where the orientations of specific fluorophores reveal heterogeneity in membrane fluidity. With its nearly isotropic 3D spatial resolution and orientation measurement precision, we expect the raMVR microscope to enable 6D imaging of molecular dynamics within biological and chemical systems with exceptional detail. 

Dipole-spread function (DSF) engineering reshapes the images of a microscope to maximize the sensitivity of measuring the 3D orientations of dipole-like emitters. However, severe Poisson shot noise, overlapping images, and simultaneously fitting high-dimensional information–both orientation and position–greatly complicates image analysis in single-molecule orientation-localization microscopy (SMOLM). Here, we report a deep-learning based estimator, termed Deep-SMOLM, that achieves superior 3D orientation and 2D position measurement precision within 3% of the theoretical limit (3.8° orientation, 0.32 sr wobble angle, and 8.5 nm lateral position using 1000 detected photons). Deep-SMOLM also demonstrates state-of-art estimation performance on overlapping images of emitters, e.g., a 0.95 Jaccard index for emitters separated by 139 nm, corresponding to a 43% image overlap. Deep-SMOLM accurately and precisely reconstructs 5D information of both simulated biological fibers and experimental amyloid fibrils from images containing highly overlapped DSFs at a speed ~10 times faster than iterative estimators. 

Interactions between biomolecules are characterized by where they occur and how they are organized, e.g., the alignment of lipid molecules to form a membrane. However, spatial and angular information are mixed within the image of a fluorescent molecule–the microscope’s dipole-spread function (DSF). We demonstrate the pixOL algorithm to simultaneously optimize all pixels within a phase mask to produce an engineered Green’s tensor–the dipole extension of point-spread function engineering. The pixOL DSF achieves optimal precision to simultaneously measure the 3D orientation and 3D location of a single molecule, i.e., 4.1° orientation, 0.44 sr wobble angle, 23.2 nm lateral localization, and 19.5 nm axial localization precisions in simulations over a 700 nm depth range using 2500 detected photons. The pixOL microscope accurately and precisely resolves the 3D positions and 3D orientations of Nile red within a spherical supported lipid bilayer, resolving both membrane defects and differences in cholesterol concentration in six dimensions.