Search

Human serum albumin (HSA) was used as a model protein to explore the effects of brominated flame retardant (BFR) binding and the corona formation on polystyrene nanoplastics (PNs). Under physiological conditions, HSA helped to disperse PNs but promoted the formation of aggregates in the presence of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA, ΔDh = 135 nm) and S (TBBPS, ΔDh = 256 nm) at pH 7. At pH 4, these aggregates became larger with fewer electrostatic repulsion effects (ΔDh = 920 and 691 nm for TBBPA and TBBPS, respectively). However, such promotion effects as well as BFR binding are different due to structural differences of tetrabromobisphenol A and S. Environmental kosmotropes efficiently stabilized the structure of HSA and inhibited BFR binding, while the chaotropes favored bioconjugated aggregate formation. Such effects were also verified in natural seawater. The newly gained knowledge may help us anticipate the behavior and fate of plastic particles and small molecular pollutants in both physiological and natural aqueous systems.

As an emerging pollutant that is easily bonded with some functional proteins and the effects of their physiological expressions, nano plastics (NPs) have been widely detected in various environmental mediums, even in human blood. Compared to microplastics, less information on the interactions between NPs and proteins has been reported. Here, the interaction mechanism between common polystyrene nano plastics (PSNPs) and catalase (CAT) under two typical physiological conditions, pH 7.4 and 4.0, was investigated by UV-visible spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Compared with the enhanced catalytic effects when increasing PSNPs at pH 7.4, a trend of initial inhibition and enhanced activity was observed at pH 4.0. Spectroscopic analysis and calculation results indicated that their binding was static, with only one binding site and stronger interactions under acidic conditions. UV-visible and CD spectra analysis demonstrated that the difference in enzymatic activity could be mainly attributed to the conformational alternation of CAT in the presence of PSNPs, which is obviously affected by solution chemistry. The change was also revealed by the hydrodynamic diameter and zeta potentials of the complexes supplied by DLS analysis. This study will help understand the health risks of nano plastic pollution and provide a theoretical basis for studying their toxicological effects.

Due to the complex structures of multi-limbed parallel robots, conventional parallel robots generally have limited workspace, complex kinematics, and complex dynamics, which increases the application difficulty of parallel robot in industrial engineering. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a single-loop Schönflies motion parallel robot with full cycle rotation, the robot can generate Schönflies motion by the most simplified structure. The novel Schönflies motion parallel robot is a two-limb parallel mechanism with least links and joints, and each limb is driven by a 2-degree of freedom (DOF) cylindrical driver (C-driver). The full cycle rotation of the output link is achieved by “…R-H…” structure, where the revolute (R) and helical (H) joints are coaxial. Mobility, kinematics, workspace and singularity analysis of novel Schönflies motion parallel robot are analyzed. Then, dynamic model is formulated based on the principle of virtual work. Moreover, a pick-and-place task is implemented by proposed Schönflies motion parallel robot and a serial SCARA robot, respectively. The simulation results verify the correctness of the theoretical model. Furthermore, dynamics performances of Schönflies motion parallel robot and serial SCARA robot are compared, which reveal the performance merits of proposed Schönflies motion parallel robot.

The complex structures, small workspaces and complex control systems of traditional parallel mechanisms are the largest hurdles to using them as leg mechanisms in walking robots. This paper synthesizes a family of novel 3-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) parallel leg mechanisms (PLMs) that have the potential to avoid these drawbacks. The novel parallel leg mechanism consists of a 3-DOF drive system (DS) and a walking mechanism, which can be designed modularly. Using the motion characteristics of the 3-DOF drive system, a simplified method for constructing 3-DOF parallel leg mechanisms is presented. Then, satisfactory 2-DOF walking mechanisms are synthesized based on Lie group theory. A family of novel 3-DOF parallel leg mechanisms in which the workspace of the foot-endpoint is a three-dimensional volume is constructed using the 3-DOF drive systems and 2-DOF walking mechanisms. Finally, the performance of the novel parallel leg mechanism is analysed, revealing the potential merits of this novel parallel leg mechanism in walking robots.