coli HAK006 find more as reporter strain. Cells were grown in minimal media containing different K+ concentrations (10 mM and 0.2 mM) to the mid-exponential phase, β-galactosidase activity was determined, and is given in Miller Units [39]. The data are average values obtained from at least three independent experiments, and error bars represent standard deviations. The enzymatic activities of the KdpD-Usp chimeras in vitro

To test whether the sensing capabilities of the KdpD-Usp chimeras were related to altered enzymatic activities, we determined the activities of autokinase-, KdpE-phosphotransferase-, and KdpE-phosphatase for each chimera (see Methods for details). All KdpD-Usp chimeras exhibited kinase and KdpE-phosphotransferase activity (Fig. 6A). KdpD has an ATP-dependent phosphatase activity, which is modulated

upon binding of ATP to the N-terminal KdpD-domain [9, 16]. The ATP-dependency of the phosphatase activity was not changed in any of the KdpD-Usp chimeras, because learn more significant dephosphorylation could only be observed in the presence of ATP (Fig. 6B). Despite detection of enzymatic activities for all chimeras, the ratio between kinase-phosphotransferase to phosphatase activities is important for the corresponding output (Table 1). The ratios for Salmocoli-KdpD, Agrocoli-KdpD and KdpD-UspA, KdpD-UspD, KdpD-UspF, KdpD-UspG were comparable to wild-type KdpD (deviation less than 20%). In KdpD-UspC and Streptocoli-KdpD, these ratios were shifted toward the OSI-027 mw kinase-phosphotransferase activity, resulting in higher levels of phosphorylated KdpE. The enhanced kdpFABC expression mediated by KdpD-UspC and Streptocoli-KdpD under K+ limitation can therefore be explained by decreased phosphatase activities (Fig. 6B). Pseudocoli-KdpD was characterized by a ratio that was drastically

shifted to the phosphatase activity, resulting in less phosphorylated KdpE. This result might explain Sitaxentan the low induction potential of this chimera in response to K+ limitation and salt stress. Remarkably, KdpD-UspF and KdpD-UspG were characterized by decreased phosphatase activities. Table 1 Kinase-phosphotransferase to phosphatase ratios of the KdpD chimeras. Chimera Kinase-phosphotransferase to phosphatase ratio KdpD 1.00 KdpD-UspA 0.81 KdpD-UspC 1.44 KdpD-UspD 0.89 KdpD-UspF 1.15 KdpD-UspG 1.00 Agrocoli-KdpD 0.78 Salmocoli-KdpD 0.83 Streptocoli-KdpD 1.44 Pseudocoli-KdpD 0.35 Figure 6 In vitro activities of the KdpD-Usp chimeras. KdpD-autokinase and KdpE-phosphotransferase activities (A) as well as KdpE-phosphatase activities (B) were determined as described in Methods. Data are presented as percentages of maximal accumulation of KdpD~P or KdpE~P (after 3 min, kinase as well as phosphotransferase activity) (A), respectively, or as percentages of the dephosphorylation initial rates relative to wild-type KdpD (+/- ATPγS) (B). For wild-type KdpD (100% values), the autophosphorylation activity of KdpD was determined with 14 pmol min-1 mg-1 protein.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (2013CB922303, 2010CB833103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60976073, 11274201, 51231007), the 111 Project (B13029), the National Found for Fostering Talents of Basic Science (J1103212), and the Foundation for Outstanding Young Scientist in Shandong Province (BS2010CL036). References

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R, Chaido-Stefania K, Polycarpos F: Influence of electrolyte co-additives on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. Nanoscale Res Lett 2011, 6:307.CrossRef check details 5. Zukalova M, Zukal A, Kavan L, Nazeeruddin MK, Liska P, Gratzel M: Organized mesoporous TiO2 films exhibiting greatly enhanced performance in dye-sensitized solar cells. Nano Lett 2005, 5:1789.CrossRef 6. Yella A, Lee HW, Tsao HN, Yi C, Chandiran AK, Nazeeruddin MK, Diau EWG, Yeh CY, Zakeeruddin SM, Grätzel M: Porphyrin-sensitized solar cells with cobalt(II/III)-based redox electrolyte exceed 12 percent efficiency. Science 2011, 334:629.CrossRef

7. Wang CB, Jiang ZF, Wei L, Chen YX, Jiao J, Eastman M, Liu H: Photosensitization of TiO2 nanorods with CdS quantum dots for photovoltaic applications: a wet-chemical approach. Nano Energy 2012, 1:440.CrossRef 8. Diguna LJ, Shen Q, Kobayashi J, Toyoda T: High efficiency of CdSe quantum-dot-sensitized TiO2 inverse opal solar cells. Appl Phys Lett 2007, 91:023116.CrossRef 9. Nanu M, Schoonman J, Goossens A: Nanocomposite three-dimensional Bay 11-7085 solar cells obtained by chemical spray deposition. Nano Lett 2005, 5:1716.CrossRef 10. Yafit I, Olivia N, Miles P, Gary H: Sb2S3-sensitized nanoporous TiO2 solar cells. J Phys Chem C 2009, 113:4254.CrossRef 11. Sun M, Chen GD, Zhang YK, Wei Q, Ma ZM, Du B: Efficient AZ 628 purchase degradation of azo dyes over Sb2S3/TiO2 heterojunction under visible light irradiation. Ind Eng Chem Res 2012, 51:2897.CrossRef 12. Antonio B, Sixto G, Isabella C, Alberto V, Ivan M: Panchromatic sensitized solar cells based on metal sulfide quantum dots grown directly on nanostructured TiO2 electrodes. J Phys Chem Lett 2011, 2:454.CrossRef 13. Wu J, Wang ZM, Dorogan VG, Li SB, Zhou ZH, Li HD, Lee JH, Kim ES, Mazur YI, Salamo GJ: Strain-free ring-shaped nanostructures by droplet epitaxy for photovoltaic application. Appl Phys Lett 2012, 101:043904.CrossRef 14.

It was reported that the cytotoxicity of beta-catenin mutation PEI-grafted MWNTs is higher than 25-kDa PEI alone in human lung cancer cells (H1299), suggesting that MWNTs enhance the cytotoxicity of PEI [28]. Studies on Daphnia magna also demonstrated that PEI coating increased MWNT

toxicity, which was associated with the size of PEI coating, but not the surface charge of PEI [42]. In contrast, our results suggest that cell viability was higher in the presence of PEI-NH-SWNTs and PEI-NH-MWNTs compared to pure 25-kDa PEI (Figure 9). Liu et al. applied a different Pitavastatin in vitro approach to obtain PEI-grafted MWNTs but reached a similar conclusion to this study by demonstrating that, at concentrations higher than 15 μg/ml, 25-kDa PEI alone is more toxic to 293, HepG2, and COS7 cells compared to PEI-grafted MWNTs [23]. In addition, Wang et al. indicated that PEI-functionalized SWNTs exhibited no significant cytotoxicity to PC-3 cells at concentrations lower than 30 μg/ml but may lead to an increase in apoptosis [24]. In addition to concentration, cytotoxicity of carbon nanotubes

is correlated with the type of functionalization [43, 44], the degree of agglomeration [32, 33], as well as selleck compound nanotube length [45]. Pathways leading to carbon nanotube cytotoxicity were mainly related to DNA damage and the induction of reactive oxygen species [46]. Nevertheless, due to the difference in the types and synthetic procedures of PEI-functionalized carbon nanotubes between this and previous studies and the tolerance of various cells or tissues to the nanomaterial, the cause of carbon nanotube cytotoxicity remains to be investigated. Results from EMSA

showed that at PEI-NH-SWNT/siGAPDH and PEI-NH-MWNT/siGAPDH mass ratios of 80:1 and 160:1, respectively, siGAPDH was completely complexed with PEI-NH-CNTs (Figure 8). However, suppression of GAPDH mRNA expression was observed at relatively lower mass ratios of 1:1 to 1:20 (Figure 10). Such discrepancy in the effective ratios of functionalized carbon nanotubes to siRNAs or DNAs in EMSA and in gene delivery is also presented in previous studies [18, 20, 23]. Amino-functionalized Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase MWNTs (MWNT-NH3 +) is unable to completely retard the migration of siRNAs in EMSA at a MWNT-NH3 +/siRNA mass ratio of 80:1, but the cationic MWNTs successfully delayed tumor growth in animal models when complexed with siRNAs at a mass ratio of 8:1 [20]. These findings implicate that complete binding of siRNAs by PEI-NH-CNTs may not be necessary for a successful intracellular siRNA delivery. Increasing the amount of PEI-NH-CNTs relative to siRNAs may provide more stable complexes of PEI-NH-CNT/siRNA but may possibly hinder the dissociation of siRNAs from PEI-NH-CNTs once the complex enters the cytosol. Carbon nanotubes are considered an efficient carrier for nonviral gene delivery.

Functional gene arrays (FGAs), such as GeoChip, which contain key genes encoding functional enzymes involved in biogeochemical cycling, have been successfully used for tracking and studying the biogeochemical processes in different

ecosystems, including groundwater and aquatic ecosystems, soil, extreme environments, bioreactor systems, and oil-contaminated waters or soils [18, 19]. Combined with multivariate statistical analyses [20], several systematic experimental evaluations have indicated that GeoChip can be used as a specific, sensitive tool for detecting the functional diversity, composition, structure, and metabolic potential of microbial communities, and correlating Vorinostat molecular weight microbial selleckchem communities to ecosystem processes and functioning [21–24]. We hypothesized that

soil microbial community composition and structure would be altered directly or indirectly by eCO2, and that the BMN673 functional gene groups involved in C and N cycling would be enhanced due to the increase of soil C input under eCO2[25]. To test those hypotheses, we conducted our experiments at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota (http://​www.​biocon.​umn.​edu/​). A comprehensive functional gene array, GeoChip 3.0 [26], was used to analyze the function composition and structure of soil microbial communities under both ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations. Some key genes involved in C and N cycling were stimulated under

CO2. This study provides new information for our understanding of the feedback response of soil microbial 4-Aminobutyrate aminotransferase communities to eCO2. Results Overall responses of microbial C and N cycling genes under CO2 Based on the number of functional genes, Shannon diversity, evenness and dominance, no significant differences were detected in the overall microbial diversity (Additional file 1). Significant (p < 0.05) differences were observed in the abundance of C and N cycling genes between ambient CO2 (aCO2) and eCO2 microbial communities by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) together with analysis of similarities (ANOSIM), non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance (Adonis) and Multi-Response Permutation Procedure (MRPP). The eCO2 samples were well separated from aCO2 ones by the first axis of DCA, which explained 10.4% and 10.1% for the genes involved in C cycling (Figure 1A) and N cycling (Figure 1B), respectively. These results suggest that most of the functional genes involved in C and N cycling were significantly stimulated, and that the functional composition and structure of soil microbial communities were also altered at eCO2. More details about individual key C and N cycling genes and their associated populations are described below. Figure 1 Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of the samples under ambient and elevated CO 2 bsed on GeoChip 3. 0 data of the genes involved in carbon (A) and nitrogen (B) cycling.

Jeor equation. The obese and overweight state is characterized by Torin 2 nmr chronic, low-grade systemic inflammation as a result of the expanded white adipose tissue compartment, particularly the visceral adipose depot. Adipose tissue from obese individuals is known to be an important endocrine organ capable

of contributing to insulin resistance, persistent inflammation, and metabolic and vascular dysfunction via the perturbed adipokine secretion profile [34]. The collective action of garlic extract standardized for organosulfur compounds, ginger extract standardized for gingerols and shogaols, biotin and chromium in METABO may contribute to antiadipogenic, anti-inflammatory actions in conjunction with metabolic health benefits [20, 21, 36, 37, 49–51]. The bioactive compounds in garlic, ginger, and raspberry in addition to biotin and chromium have been suggested to modulate high-leverage metabolic Etomoxir mw pathways with nutrigenomic signaling, including: NF-kB, PPAR-γ, PPAR-α, orexigens, and aforementioned adipocytokines. It is conceivable that although increased sympathomimetic drive, lipolysis and thermogenesis contributed to the positive

outcomes in body composition, Batimastat mw the interaction of reduced dietary energy intake with exercise and METABO lead to further improvements in the adipokine profile that facilitated improvements in serum triacylglycerol, selective fat loss, skeletal muscle retention and abdominal girth reduction. It would be helpful for future studies to explore the influence of METABO on the systemic adipokine profile to clarify if this is one potential mechanism. Conclusion In recent years, there have been numerous natural products being marketed and sold that claim to contain the right combination Aspartate of vitamins, herbs and foods that can help with weight loss. However, very few of these products undergo finished product-specific research demonstrating their efficacy and safety. In the current study, as an adjunct to an 8-week diet and weight loss program, METABO administration augmented beneficial changes in body composition and anthropometric variables (hip and waist girth) in overweight

men and women, and led to additional benefits on energy levels and food cravings. The placebo group had noticeable beneficial changes in body fat and non-significant improvements in certain metabolic variables as a result of diet and exercise alone, albeit these changes were less robust than in METABO group. METABO was safe and well-tolerated in all subjects, no serious adverse events were recorded, nor were differences in systemic hemodynamics or clinical blood chemistries observed between the two groups. Further studies are required to clarify the mechanisms by which METABO exerts its weight loss effects and its possible role in regulating adipokine concentrations. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the subjects who participated in the study and Dr.

6 g, K2HPO4 1.85 g, 1% (v/v) reducing solution (30 g/l check details L-aminothiopropionic acid and Akt inhibitor 30 g/l sodium hyposulfite, dissolved in PBS), and 1 g NH4Cl. Medium C was the same as medium B except the absence of any nitrogen source. Culture was conducted as follows: 0.3 g of defatted flaxseeds was added into each of tubes containing either medium A, B or C (3 ml), which were then sealed with liquid paraffin and autoclaved at 121°C for 15 min. Into the medium, 0.3 g of fresh human feces was added and incubated at 37°C for 72

h. Supernatant of the cultures was then inspected for the appearance of END. Collection and processing of fecal samples Initially, fresh fecal specimens (ca. 4.0 g each), obtained from 28 healthy young subjects (fourteen females and fourteen males, 22-33 years old), were suspended in 20 ml sterile phosphate buffer saline (PBS, 2.6 g l-1 KH2PO4, 1.85 g l-1 K2HPO4, PH 7.4) and 2 ml such fecal suspension was transferred to 20 ml medium, followed by incubation at 37°C for 36 h. During the fecal collection and culture preparation, no strictly anaerobic techniques or instruments were used. The fecal specimen that we used for END production was from a 33 years old female. High-performance liquid chromatography

(HPLC) The HPLC system consisted of Agilent 1200 series HPLC selleck screening library apparatus (Agilent Technologies, USA), including high-pressure binary-gradient solvent-delivery pump, DAD detector, autosampler, thermostat column compartment and chemstation (9.01 edition). Niclosamide Zorbax SB-C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) was used to analyze all of the samples. Mobile phase consisted of

water (A) and acetonitrile (B) in a linear gradient change from 100% A to 50% A and 50% B in 30 min. Detection wavelength was 280 nm, and the temperature of the column oven was 25°C with a flow rate of 1.0 ml min-1. Calibration of the END and SECO curves The stock solutions of END standard (1.98 mg ml-1) and SECO standard (175.5 μg ml-1) were prepared by accurately weighing and transferring each of them into a volumetric flask (1 ml) and dissolving it in methanol. Solutions for END calibration (0.0198 ~ 1.98 mg ml-1) and SECO calibration (175.5 ~ 2.74 μg ml-1) were prepared by dilution of the stock solutions with methanol, with six dilution series being analyzed (1.98, 0.99, 0.396, 0.198, 0.099, 0.0198 mg ml-1) for END calibration and seven dilution series being analyzed (175.5, 87.75, 43.86, 21.94, 10.97, 5.48, 2.74 μg ml-1) for SECO calibration. For each calibration curve, independent dilutions were analyzed. The calibration equation of END was obtained by plotting HPLC peak areas (Y) versus the concentration of calibrators (X, mg ml-1), which was as follows: Y = 4433.46 X + 63.86 (R2 = 0.9999), with a good linearity over the range from 0.0198 mg ml-1 to 1.

- CAIRO 3 phase III trial showed that bevacizumab and de-escalated

chemotherapy maintenance administrated after chemotherapy and bevacizumab induction significantly improves OS comparing to a treatment holiday strategy [45]. These studies do not allow a clear indication on what is the best option between buy PCI-32765 treatment holiday (defined as pause from all treatment) and chemotherapy-free interval with a period of maintenance therapy, and more prospective trial are warranted. Conclusions The role of rechallenge therapy in third-line or fourth-line setting in mCRC is not defined but it could be a possibility for fit patients who do not have any other valid Angiogenesis inhibitor options. Few clinical studies evaluated the role of targeted therapies rechallenge and up to date there are no convincing BMS-907351 order predictive factors suggesting which drug should be readministered. This choice should be based on several reasonable factors: best response to prior treatment before progression (prolonged stable disease, partial response or complete response), residual toxicity (especially in case of oxaliplatin reintroduction), duration of treatment holiday. In our opinion, intermittent

treatment could be an important strategy in management of mCRC patient when there is not the purpose of gaining an important tumour shrinkage, for avoiding cumulative toxicity and for maintaining chemotherapy sensitiveness even Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) if there is not a clear evidence in prolonging OS compared to the intensive treatment. Moreover, few clinical studies assessed the role of rechallenge in the era of targeted therapy and no studies evaluated the activity of bevacizumab as a rechallenge therapy (both as a monotherapy or in combination with standard chemotherapy) so far. However,

it has been demonstrated that targeted therapy could enhance sensitivity to both chemotherapy and radiotherapy [46]. Brite and TML study showed a benefit in the use of bevacizumab beyond disease progression. However, in this case, we cannot regard to bevacizumab administration as a real rechallenge, as there was no treatment interruption after disease progression or any intervening therapy. Further clinical studies should enquire the role of bevacizumab retreatment and the importance of angiogenesis control in heavily pretreated mCRC patients as a possible mechanism of restoring sensitivity to re-administration of standard chemotherapy.

Henoch–Schönlein disease is another disease in this category, but unfortunately we were not able to obtain specimens from these patients in this study. On the other hand, however, it was relatively difficult to discriminate between lupus nephritis and IgAN by only using the value of the IgA–uromodulin complex; this was probably PI3K Inhibitor Library cell line because of their similarity in terms of the histopathological development of the lesion, such as glomerular IgA deposits and glomerular vasculitis. However, IgAN can be easily discriminated from lupus nephritis based on serological

examination such as anti-nuclear antibody, anti-DNA antibody and compliment levels. Thus, the difficulty of discriminating between IgAN and lupus nephritis by our method does not seem to be a crucial disadvantage for clinicians. As mentioned Daporinad order earlier, the value of the IgA–uromodulin complex tends to be higher not in inactive IgAN having no hematuria but in the earlier phase of the disease in which inflammatory activity is still active. This could be an advantage because the combined treatment with tonsillectomy

and glucocorticoid pulse therapy which can potentially prevent patients from end-stage renal failure is only effective if the intervention can be conducted in the early stage of the disease. In this sense, the value of IgA–uromodulin should be helpful for the selection of appropriate patients for whom this type of combined ALK inhibitor therapy could be beneficial [10–13]. It is needless to say that non-invasive measurement is more desirable than invasive in order to reach an exact diagnosis or selection of the therapeutic measurement. In fact, hesitation in performing renal biopsy often causes a delay in diagnosis and initiation of treatment in managing patients having asymptomatic hematuria and proteinuria. The IgA–uromodulin complex, especially compared to total SPTLC1 urine protein, could effectively detect IgAN by differentiating it from other glomerular

diseases. Its value is also supportive in selecting appropriate patients for whom the combined tonsillectomy and glucocorticoid pulse therapy is likely to be effective to avoid further deterioration of IgAN pathology. Although renal biopsy may be unavoidable to reach a definite diagnosis, it should be still worthwhile to test the IgA–uromodulin complex prior to these techniques because of its benefits and easy-to-conduct nature. IgAN is one of the most frequent causes of end-stage renal diseases. Furthermore, the beginning of IgAN is subjectively asymptomatic but only symptomatic in the urinalysis. Moreover, as early treatment intervention is necessary to obtain clinical remission [24], detection of IgAN in its early stage is very important.

GI Tipifarnib ic50 supervised all the experiments, interpreted the data, and wrote the paper. LR conceived the study and performed the SEM analyses. MS and GN carried out and interpreted the TEM analyses. KB and BGS performed the ALD deposition. AI synthesized the nanostructured Si template. VP supervised the whole project. All

authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Electrochemical energy storage in the ultracapacitor devices is emerging as a frontline technology for high-power applications ranging from modern portable electronics to LXH254 solubility dmso electric automotive. A battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy system is a power source that can meet the peak power demands in camera flashes, pulsed lasers, and computer systems back-up as well as electric propulsion in diverse industrial and vehicular transport applications. Among the materials systems, structured carbons which store charges as an electric double layer (EDL) in liquid electrolyte medium are widely studied with a focus on overcoming the energy-density limitation [1]. The materials systems which show capacitive function based on redox reactions are the insertion-type metal oxides and doped-conducting polymers capable of high energy-density storage [2, 3]. The conducting polymers, such as polypyrrole

(PPy), Alisertib cell line poly(3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), and polyaniline (PANI) which undergo redox processes equivalent of doping and dedoping of electrolyte ions as means of energy storage are being aggressively studied. These polymers exhibit pseudocapacitance properties due to presence of charge transfer reactions. The other most widely studied materials are the metal oxides RuO2, MnO2, V2O5, NiO, and Co3O4 which show highly capacitive behavior due to reversible and fast surface redox reactions with

electrolyte ions [2, 4]. In the recent years, conducting polymers with a nanoporous morphology and as nanocomposites with metal-oxides have emerged as the materials system of great potential for high energy-density storage. Electrodes based on these materials structured at the nanoscale enable many-fold enhancements of the electroactive Orotic acid surface and interface with electrolyte facilitating absorption, ingress, and diffusion of electrolyte ions which being the main energy storage units could lead to increased energy and power density of supercapacitor devices. The high surface area morphology in conducting polymers is attained by creating variations in its nanostructure like nanoporous [5], nanofibers [6, 7], nanowires [8], nanobelts [9], and by size-selective nanopores in the context of carbons [10]. Most metal oxides are electrically resistive in character and the redox reactions here are limited to the surface regions.

The organic solvent containing nanoparticles and monomers (methyl methacrylate with styrene) was subjected to stirring and ultrasonic homogenization. To prevent nanoparticle aggregation during the polymerization process, we used the pre-polymerization method at 75°C because the nanoparticles had different affinities to the monomer and polymer. Finally, the composite was synthesized selleck chemicals llc in situ by radical polymerization. The polymerization of methyl methacrylate with styrene (in the mass ratio of 20:1) proceeded for over 10 h (in a temperature gradient mode that progressed from 55°C to 110°C) in the presence of benzoyl peroxide (10−3 mol/L). The obtained

solid composites had 0.001%, 0.003%, 0.005%, and 0.01% volume concentrations of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in MMAS. Importantly, the synthesized Fe3O4 nanoparticles generally had a thick layer of acids [36, 39] surrounding them to prevent aggregation of the nanoparticle. In our case, the synthesized Fe3O4 nanoparticles had a monolayer of oleic acid that allowed the nanoparticles to exhibit their specific optical properties. UV–vis spectroscopy Room-temperature optical absorbance spectra of pure MMAS (Figure 3, black curve) and of the composites were obtained using a Varian Cary 5000I spectrophotometer

(Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) over the wavelength range of 300 to 1,500 nm. These spectra allowed the derivation of the absorbance Lazertinib spectra for Fe3O4 nanoparticle arrays (Figure 3, color curves). Figure 3 shows the absorbance values (Abs) and the absorption Benzatropine coefficients

(α = (Abs × ln 10)/l, where l = 7.95 mm is the length of the composite) measured at a maximum radiation intensity of 1 μW/cm2. Figure 3 Absorbance spectra for the MMAS and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticle array. The optical absorbance spectra for pure MMAS and Fe3O4 nanoparticle arrays with 0.001%, 0.003%, 0.005%, and 0.01% volume concentrations. z-Scan experiments Because they have absorption bands of 380 to 650 nm, Fe3O4 nanoparticles should exhibit an optical response upon external radiation with wavelengths in this band [40]. To detect the optical response of the nanoparticles contained in the composite (0.005% nanoparticle volume concentration), we used the standard z-scan technique [41]. This technique enabled the analysis of changes in the absorption coefficient Δα(I) and refractive index Δn(I) of the composite and pure MMAS, which were induced by weak optical radiation with different intensities 0 to 0.14 kW/cm2. For radiation sources, we used semiconductor lasers of continuous wave (cw) radiation with wavelengths of 442 nm (blue) and 561 nm (yellow) providing maximal intensities of 0.07 and 0.14 kW/cm2. Lenses with focal lengths of 75 mm provided the beam waists ω 0 = 102 and 110 μm for blue and yellow radiation (Figure 4b). The length (L) of Salubrinal mw experimental samples of the MMAS and the composite was 2.7 mm (inset in Figure 3).