” We took the average lion pride as containing approximately five adults (Bauer et al. 2008). Of course, the numbers of prides to avoid inbreeding is itself an arbitrary number, not a genuine threshold.

(Simply, the fewer males who contribute genes to the next generation, the more inbred the population will be.) Moreover, the mean pride size is smaller in West and Central Africa, so the W-Arly-Pendjari population might also sensibly qualify as a stronghold. (We consider it a potential one.) From the data derived in the lion population assessment, as well as the World Database on Protected Areas (IUCN and WDPA 2010), we considered only those lions found within existing protected areas including those CB-839 order with IUCN categorization that allow hunting, to count towards the minimum viable population. The Tarangire lion area of Tanzania, has an estimated 700+ lions, but only

~200 in protected areas with IUCN categories I–VI. The rest are found in non-designated hunting areas that do not qualify towards stronghold status. Finally, only lion areas that are contained within LCUs having stable or increasing lion population trends as per the IUCN (2006a, b) are lion strongholds. The single exception to this rule is the Tsavo/Mkomazi lion area (Maasai Steppe LCU), which IUCN cites as having decreasing numbers. However, while lion numbers are declining this website outside of protected areas, we believe that lions within the parks are usually well protected and selleck products in sufficient numbers to meet the criteria. This criterion also has its uncertainties, for in some parks—Kafue National Park in Zambia, for example—poaching of lion prey may be a cause of

concern for the lion’s long-term persistence. IUCN’s statement that the populations here are “stable” may be optimistic. Similarly, intense hunting outside protected areas can also affect those populations within the reserves (Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998). These caveats accepted, the broad conclusions of our Table S1 remains: approximately 24,000 lions are in strongholds, about 4,000 in potential ones, but over 6,000 lions are in populations that have a very high risk of local extinction. Conservation implications This is not the place to review management options for lions, the forces that threaten them, or savannahs in general. We restrict our comments to issues that arise from the mapping and assessments we have presented. (1) Lion numbers have declined precipitously in the last century. Given that many now live in small, isolated populations, this trend will continue. The situation in West Africa is particularly dire, with no large population remaining and lions now absent from many of the PLX4032 manufacturer region’s national parks. Central Africa is different in that it has a very large contiguous lion area centred in the Central Africa Republic. In view of reported declines, it still does not qualify as a stronghold. Populations in these regions are genetically distinct (Antunes et al. 2008; Bertola et al. 2011).

Differential induction of certain AvBDs by the wild type SE and

the pipB mutant was also observed at these times. Among the constitutively and highly Selleckchem PLX4032 expressed AvBD genes, infection of COEC with ZM100 (wt) or ZM103 (sipA) resulted in a temporary repression of AvBD4, and AvBD9-11 (≤ 1.5-fold), but not AvBD5 and AvBD12 (Figure 3). Infection of COEC with ZM106 (pipB) had reduced or no suppressive effect on the transcription of AvBD9-11, compared to infections with strains ZM100 and ZM103 (Figure 3). With the selleck chemicals moderately expressed genes, infection of COEC with ZM100 (wt) or ZM103 (sipA) had minimal effect (< 1.5-fold) on the expression of AvBD1 and AvBD13-14, whereas ZM106 (pipB) temporarily induced the expressions of these genes at 1 hpi (Figure 4). The expression of another moderately expressed gene, namely AvBD3, was initially suppressed by ZM100, but not ZM106, and then induced by all three SE strains at 4 hpi and 24 hpi (Figure 4). With the minimally expressed genes, AvBD2 and AvBD6 were induced by all SE strains examined. However, the expression levels of AvBD2 and AvBD6 in COEC infected with ZM106 were significantly higher than

that in COEC infected with ZM100 or ZM103 (Figure 5). The expression of AvBD7 and AvBD8 in COEC was minimally EPZ015938 affected by exposures to ZM100 and ZM103. Compared to the wild type strain and the sipA mutant, ZM106 also induced elevated expression of AvBD7 (Figure 5). Figure 3 Transcriptional changes of constitutively and highly expressed

AvBDs in COEC following infections with SE. Data shown (fold change) are geometric means of three independent experiments ± standard deviation. Open bar, ZM100 (wt); solid bar, ZM103 (sipA); hatched bar, ZM106 (pipB). * indicates that the difference between the transcriptional changes induced by the wild type SE and the mutant is significant (p < 0.05). Figure 4 Transcriptional changes of medroxyprogesterone moderately expressed AvBDs in COEC following infections with SE. Data shown (fold change) are geometric means of three independent experiments ± standard deviation. Open bar, ZM100 (wt); solid bar, ZM103 (sipA); hatched bar, ZM106 (pipB). * indicates that the difference between the transcriptional changes induced by the wild type SE and the mutant is significant (p < 0.05). Figure 5 Transcriptional changes of minimally expressed AvBDs in COEC following infections with SE. Data shown (fold change) are geometric means of three independent experiments ± standard deviation. Open bar, ZM100 (wt); solid bar, ZM103 (sipA); hatched bar, ZM106 (pipB). * indicates that the difference between the amounts of AvBD transcripts in ZM100-infected COEC and ZM106-infected COEC is significant (p < 0.05).

0 Å resolution at 100 K using a Rigaku FR-E generator and an HTC detector at 45 kV and INCB28060 research buy 45 mA with Cu Kα radiation at Rigaku MSC (The Woodlands, TX). The crystals belonged

to the space group P3121 with the unit cell parameters a = b = 119.97 Å, c = 118.10 Å, α = β = 90° and γ = 120°. The data were processed and merged using the HKL package version 1.96.6 [63]. Data collection and processing statistics are listed in Table 1. Structure determination and refinement The structure of AlrSP was solved by molecular replacement using CNS version 1.1 [42]. AlrGS (PDB ID 1SFT) [29] without the PLP cofactor was used as a search model, and two monomers per asymmetric unit were assumed, as suggested by a Matthews https://www.selleckchem.com/products/dinaciclib-sch727965.html coefficient [64] of 3.0 with a solvent content of 59.0%. Cross-rotation and translation searches were completed and the best solution was used as an initial model for model building. After rigid body refinement in CNS, ARP/wARP version 6.1 [65] was used to trace the initial protein model and build side chains. Further refinement was carried out using simulated annealing and conjugation gradient minimization. When 97% of residues were built, the co-factor PLP and the carbamylated lysine were placed, and positional

and B-factor refinements were continued resulting in an R and Rfree of 31.9 and 33.9%, respectively. Water molecules were added using the water-picking script in CNS, and further cycles of positional and Biso refinements brought the R and Rfree to 20.7 and 25.7%, respectively. Since previous alanine racemase structures have shown indications of subdomain selleck chemicals llc movement, we tried TLS refinement [43]. We used the TLS motion determination server [66, 67] to produce modified PDB files Sorafenib research buy and TLS input files for the structure partitioned into either one, five or twenty TLS groups, then further refined these models in Refmac5 version 5.5.0109 [44]. All models resulted in similar improvements in R and Rfree so we used the simplest

option, which treated all protein atoms found in the asymmetric unit as a single rigid body (one TLS group). PLP and Lys40 were replaced with an LLP residue (PLP covalently bound to lysine), and TLS refinement was completed using Refmac5. The final model has an R and Rfree of 16.8 and 20.0%, respectively. Refinement statistics are listed in Table 1. Structure factors and final atomic coordinates for AlrSP have been deposited in the Protein Databank (PDB ID: 3S46). B-factor values and correlation coefficients were calculated using the programs Baverage and Overlapmap from the CCP4 suite [44]. Structural and sequence comparisons The multiple structure-based sequence alignment and structural superpositions of AlrSP with closely related structures were performed using the protein structure comparison service (SSM) at the European Bioinformatics Institute (http://​www.​ebi.​ac.​uk/​msd-srv/​ssm) [68].

Significant differences in the mean number of Spots per Cluster between Bp K96243 (wt) and Bp ∆hcp1 or Bp ∆bsaZ were observed (Figure  4C) and were probably due at least in part to an increase in the mean Cluster Area in Bp K96243 infected samples (see above). The inability to see an AZD6094 cost increase in the total number of bacterial spots during the intracellular replication step (10 h post-infection) compared to early uptake or phagocytosis step (2 h post-infection) may partly be due to the killing of the internalized bacteria by the professional phagocytes. Although bacteria can be detected and quantitated by HCI, this technique it does not measure bacterial viability. Altogether,

these results show that the HCI MNGC assay can be implemented to quantitatively characterize mutant Bp strains phenotype based on cellular morphological changes induced in infected host cells. Furthermore, our HCI results regarding reduced MNGCs and bacterial spots following infection with

Bp ∆hcp1 or Bp ∆bsaZ mutants compared to wild CFTRinh-172 type Bp at 10 h post-infection are consistent with previously published data [44, 58]. Figure 4 Validation of the MNGC assay (10 h post-infection). (A) Same as Figure  3A, except that macrophages were fixed at 10 h post-infection for different strains of Bp. Scale bar: 90 μm. (B) HCI quantification of several cellular features of MNGC formation and (C) bacterial features from images acquired as described in Figure  3A. In B and C means +/- SD are shown of 6 replicates per plate, 3 plates run on selleck inhibitor independent days (n = 18). For each replicate

well >1000 nuclei were analyzed. **** p <0.0001; *** p < 0.001. Screening of a small molecule library in the MNGC assay To discover possible cellular pathways that are hijacked by Bp and that might regulate cell-to-cell fusion, we used the HCI MNGC assay to screen Hydroxychloroquine mouse a small, functionally focused collection of 43 compounds in duplicate. The compounds in this collection are annotated as targeting pathways involved in the epigenetic regulation of chromatin (See Experimental procedures for details). Bacterial infection induced epigenetic changes such as histone modifications, DNA methylation, chromatin remodeling, which in turn affect host cell signaling has been shown to either promote host defense or increase susceptibility to infection [71]. To investigate Bp induced epigenetic changes which in turn may modulate MNGC formation, RAW264.7 macrophages were first pre-treated with the compound library and then infected with Bp K96243. Cells treated with DMSO (Vehicle) and infected with Bp K96243 were considered as negative controls. At 8 h post-infection cells were fixed and processed in IF for the HCI MNGC assay as described above. Representative images of macrophages that were not infected (mock) or infected with Bp K96243 in presence of DMSO or identified hit compounds are shown in Figure  5A.

In addition, targeting the genetically

more stable stromal cells of the tumor microenvironment offers the potential for reduced likelihood of drug resistance. Poster No. 222 Impact of check details Extracellular Matrix Composition on Drug Diffusion and Efficacy Tiziana Triulzi 1 , Gaia Ghedini1, Patrizia Casalini1, Cristina Ghirelli1, Elda Tagliabue1 1 Department of Experimental Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano, Italy By microarray supervised analysis on a dataset obtained from breast carcinoma patients treated with docetaxel as neoadjuvant therapy, the foremost variable identified has been SerpinB5, a serine-protease-inhibitor, using disease-progression as supervised variable. SerpinB5 resulted 13 times more expressed

in non-responsive in comparison to responsive tumors (p < 0.0001). Real Time PCR on 30 core biopsies from patients treated in our Institute with neoadjuvant PF-02341066 solubility dmso therapy, revealed 3 times higher SerpinB5 expression in non-responder patients in comparison to responders (p = 0.002). To understand the role of SerpinB5 in response to therapy we infected breast carcinoma cells MCF7 with SerpinB5 (MCF7-Ser). Tumors from nude mice xenografted with MCF7-Ser presented reorganized accumulation of collagen fibers. Immunofluorescence analysis by confocal microscopy showed a dramatically decreased localization of doxorubicin (DXR) Enzalutamide within tumors from MCF7-Ser in comparison to mock cells, suggesting that resistance to chemotherapy in patients with SerpinB5 overexpressing breast carcinomas could derive from less drug diffusion. To investigate the importance of extracellular matrix amount in drug diffusion and efficacy, we injected HER-2-overexpressing cancer cells in nude mice, mixed or not with Matrigel. Matrigel-mixed tumors resulted significantly (p < 0.01) more resistant to DXR and showed lower apoptosis levels compared to those without Matrigel. Analysis by imaging mass spectrometry

and immunofluorescence revealed lower uptake of DXR, confirming that dense matrix could be responsible for tumor chemoresistance BAY 57-1293 through drug diffusion inhibition. Using hydrophilic liposome based DXR formulation, DXR has been detected also in Matrigel-mixed tumors, suggesting that the less free drug diffusion could be due to its physical-chemical properties. Accordingly treatment with hydrophilic-drug Trastuzumab resulted more effective in tumors from Matrigel-mixed cells and the presence of the bio-drug, analyzed by immunofluorescence and radioimmune localization assay, was higher in tumor cells surrounded by dense extracellular matrix. In conclusion extracellular matrix accumulation impacts drug diffusion according to drug physical properties. Partially supported by a grant from AIRC) Poster No.

(b,c) The same image with different schematic labels, which is the cube in (a) grows to symmetric flower-like octagonal crystals after 11 h of reaction. Above all, the whole morphology evolution https://www.selleckchem.com/products/AZD1152-HQPA.html process of AgCl crystals is elucidated in detail. The schematic illustration of the evolution process of AgCl dendritic structure to flower-like octagonal microstructures is shown totally in Figure 4. Crystal

growth dynamics, dissolving and nucleating processes, etc. alternate among the synthesis process, and together they provide a novel evolution mechanism. To an extent, this morphology evolution process enriches the research field of AgCl and other related crystals. Figure 4 Schematic illustration of the evolution process of AgCl dendritic structure to flower-like octagonal microstructures. Apart from the detailed analyzing of the growth mechanism of the flower-like PS-341 mw AgCl microstructures, the photocatalytic performance of the AgCl microstructures also has been evaluated with the decomposition of MO,

under the illumination of the click here visible light. In fact, the decomposition of organic contaminant happened because the light-induced oxidative holes are generated around the MO molecules when the AgCl microstructures are exposed to sunlight. We measure several crystals’ photocatalytic properties under the same conditions. Figure 5(a) shows UV-visible spectrum of MO dye after the degradation time of 1h in solution over simple AgCl particles, dendritic AgCl, flower-like AgCl and without AgCl. It can be seen that the peak intensity decreases rapidly at the wavelength of 464nm, which correspond to the functional groups of azo [12]. We found that 80 % of MO molecules can be degraded by the flower-like AgCl. From the comparison curves, it can clearly see that both dendritic AgCl and flower-like AgCl Amino acid exhibit much stronger photocatalytic activity in the visible light than that of AgCl particles. Also the photocatalytic efficiency of flower-like AgCl is the highest in these four types of samples. Figure 5 UV-visible spectra of MO and comparison of its concentration.

(a) The UV-visible spectrum of MO dye after the degradation time of 1 h in solution over simple AgCl particles, dendritic AgCl, flower-like AgCl, and without AgCl. (b) The variation of MO concentration by photoelectrocatalytic reaction with dendritic and flower-like AgCl octagonal microstructures, i.e., the comparison of the degradation rates. Figure 5b shows the linear relationship of lnC0/C vs. time. We can see that the photocatalytic degradation of MO follows pseudo-first-order kinetics, lnC0/C = kt, where C0/C is the normalized MO concentration, t is the reaction time, and k is the pseudo-first-rate constant. The apparent photochemical degradation rate constant for the flower-like AgCl microstructure is 3.

Therefore, the overall detected gold content reduces. Figure 4 EDX test showing the Au-Si percentage within different laser cycling. (A) 2 cycles. (B) 3 cycles. (C) 4 cycles. (D) 5 cycles. Figure 5 Gold nanoparticle variation with number of cycles and dwell time. 1 ms (red), 0.75 ms (green), and 0.50 ms (purple). Light reflectance The nanofibrous structure can significantly influence optical properties, which can differ considerably with those of the bulk materials. This type of structure enhances

optical Tideglusib price absorption due to surface plasmon excitation in the metal nanoparticle [10]. The micro-nanoscale surface roughness of the treated substrate could also increase light absorption FHPI concentration due to the multiple reflections Selonsertib chemical structure in micro-cavities and the variation of light incident angles. Metal surfaces with roughness on the scale of the optical wavelength are found to have a strong coupling of the incident light and become discolored as a result of selective surface plasmon absorption.In order to investigate the samples’ enhanced absorption behavior in the visible region, a spectroradiometer

was employed with a broad wavelength range of 250 to 1,200 nm. The measured integrating reflectance spectra are illustrated in Figure 6, where the red curve represents the reflectance of the unirradiated gold-silicon sample showing a high reflective intensity around 4,000 a.u. Figure 6 Measured integrating reflectance spectra. (A) 0.25 ms, (B) 0.50 ms, and (C) 1.00 ms. The dark red curve represents the untreated sample, while

the olive green, purple, light blue, and orange curves represent the reflection spectrum of the fibrous nanostructure layer with 2, 3, 4, and 5 cycles over visible wavelength, respectively, at different dwell times. The fibrous nanostructure increases the surface area by more than an order of magnitude which causes the radiation to pass through a longer distance before being reflected back. Therefore, a photon incident on a structured surface is likely to undergo more than one reflection before leaving the surface. Comparing the reflection spectrum to that of pure silicon nanofibers obtained from a previous experiment repeated on silicon wafer [20], we can conclude that the fibrous structure is the main attribute for light enhancement. Tryptophan synthase The embedded gold particles will further enhance such multi-reflection, by increasing the intensity of reflection. This is evident from Figure 6A. At 2 scanning cycles and 0.25 ms of dwell time, the quantity of nanofiber is the lowest, but the percentage content of gold reaches the highest. Therefore, the enhancement effect is the most noticeable. It was observed that the reflectance decreased as the scanning cycle increased. As the scanning cycle increased, more fibrous nanostructures were generated and the thickness of the deposition increased, hence more effective in reflecting illumination.

Figure 2 Genomic variation at the citrate fermentation gene locus. Divergence of the 13-kb genomic region in 19 K. Selleckchem PLX4032 pneumoniae strains was detected by CGH analysis using the NimbleGen chips. Hybridization signals of each probes placed in the order of the

MGH 78578 genome were compared with those of the reference strain, NTUH-K2044. see more The probes covering the cit genes and the oad genes of the 13-kb region were shown together with that of the adjacent orfs. The normalized CGH signals for each probe are plotted as black dots. The dot position above or under the baseline represents higher or lower copy of specific genomic sequence in comparison to the reference. The scores in vertical axis are log2 values of test/reference signal intensity obtained from image scanning of hybridization results. The detection of elevated scores in the cit genes (citA-B, citS~citG2) in the last 10 strains (from NK3 to MGH 78278) is marked by solid triangles. Variations in the oad region are marked by open triangles. The oad genes within the 13-kb region are missing in NTUH-K2044, but the buy EPZ015938 strain possesses an additional copy of oad genes at the tartrate-fermentation gene cluster

outside this region. In contrast, according to the genomic sequence, MGH 78578 (GenBank: CP000647) carries three copies of the oad genes, including one in the 13-kb region. This is also confirmed by the CGH result, which indicated that four strains, MGH 78578, NK8, CMKa05, and CMKa07, carry more than one copy of the oad genes and showed higher signal in the oad-probed region. On the other hand, CMKa10, NK5 and CG43, do not have oad genes and were represented by CGH plots below the baseline. We conclude that the 13-kb citrate fermentation gene sequence is not a uniform feature of K. pneumoniae and that the oadGAB gene copy number is variable among

the analyzed strains. In a recent report, it is shown that all K. pneumoniae strains could grow on citrate as sole carbon source when tested aerobically [17]. A stark contrast is the ability of K. pneumoniae to grown on citrate anaerobically. While all K. pneumoniae isolates G protein-coupled receptor kinase can grow on citrate aerobically, our results suggested that only about half of them carry the 13-kb gene cluster for anaerobic citrate utilization. The 13-kb genomic island permits anaerobic growth in artificial urine As citrate is a major carbon source in human urine, we then asked whether the 13-kb genomic island could contribute to K. pneumoniae growth in the urinary tract. Although human urine is a suitable culture medium, the urine constituents can vary considerably between individuals under different conditions. It has been reported that the dissolved oxygen (DO) in urine is about 4.2 ppm, which is also variable and mainly reflects the renal metabolic state [18]. In patients with urinary infections, the urine DO is significantly reduced as a result of oxygen consumption by the microbes [18].

Discussion Trehalose in rhizobia is a key compound for signaling plant growth, yield and adaptation to abiotic stress, and its manipulation has a major agronomical impact on leguminous plant. In this work we reconstructed trehalose metabolism in R. etli, and investigated the role of trehalose in the response to high temperature and desiccation stress, as well as symbiotic performance. By using13C-NMR, we showed that besides trehalose as the major compatible solute, R. etli CE3 also amasses glutamate. In addition, it can accumulate

mannitol if present in the external medium. The same compatible solute profile was recently reported for the strain R. etli 12a3, isolated from P. vulgaris nodules Evofosfamide clinical trial in Tunisian fields [6]. Two successive genome-based metabolic reconstructions of R. etli have been reported, covering in total 405 reactions and 450 (but not trehalose-related) genes [57, 58]. In this study, we reconstructed the metabolism of trehalose in R. etli, including trehalose uptake, degradation, and OSI-906 cell line synthesis (see Figure 2). Our data suggest that uptake and catabolism of trehalose in R. etli uses the same pathways as in S. meliloti, since

orthologs to the S. meliloti AglEFGK/ThuEFGK ABC trehalose/maltose/sucrose transporters [22, 23], as well as the ThuAB catabolic route [21], were found in R. etli. In addition, R. etli genome accounts for up to 3 putative copies of the trehalose-6-phosphate hydrolase (TreC). Only TreC3 was in the same group as the characterized TreC protein from E. coli, suggesting that the other copies might have a slightly different function. Interestingly, treC2 (annotated as aglA) was located AMN-107 upstream of the aglEFGK genes encoding the alpha-glucoside ABC transporter. In S. meliloti, aglA, encoding an alpha-glucosidase with homology to family 13 of glycosyl hydrolases, forms part of the aglEFGAK operon, suggesting a possible function in sucrose, maltose and/or trehalose catabolism. Further work is necessary to elucidate the role of the different systems involved in trehalose transport and degradation in R. etli. Regarding trehalose synthesis, Suarez

et al. [10] already suggested the presence in R. etli of the three trehalose biosynthetic pathways so far known in rhizobia (OtsAB, TreS, and TreYZ). In this work, we precisely located the Decitabine in vitro corresponding genes, and proposed the most plausible route of glucose synthesis from mannitol, and subsequent OtsAB-mediated trehalose synthesis (see Figure 2). We found that genes for trehalose metabolism were scattered in the genome, and sometimes present in more than one copy (i.e., otsA, treZ, treS, treC). This high enzyme redundancy seems to be a general characteristic of R. etli CFN 42, and was proposed to correlate with the different degrees of metabolic responses and alternative regulation necessary to cope with a challenging environment without compromising the integrity of the pathways [30].

However, the application researches of MnO2 as anode for lithium-ion battery were relatively few. MnO2 nanomaterials are recognized as anode materials since three-dimensional (3d) transition metal oxides (MO, where M is Fe, Co, Ni, learn more and Cu) were proposed to serve as high theoretic check details capacity anodes for lithium-ion battery by Poizot et al. [18]. Before that, MnO2 nanomaterials were usually used to prepare LiMn2O4 crystals as cathode for lithium-ion battery [19, 20]. Chen’s research group has made great contributions on the research of anode for lithium-ion

battery [21, 22]. Nevertheless, compared to the intensive investigation on Fe2O3, Fe3O4, SnO2, CoO, and so on [23–28], the application investigation of MnO2 nanomaterials on anodes for lithium-ion battery is still immature, although the investigations on their preparation are plentiful. The research on MnO2 anode is relatively complex because MnO2 exists in

several crystallographic forms such as α-, β-, γ-, and δ-type. For example, Zhao et al. [22] reported γ-MnO2 crystals with hollow interior had high discharge capacity as 602.1 mAh g−1 after 20 cycles. Li et al. [15] found α-MnO2 with nanotube buy LEE011 morphology exhibited high reversible capacity of 512 mAh g−1 at a high current density of 800 mA g−1 after 300 cycles. Thus, from the above two examples, we could summarize that the electrochemical performance of MnO2 crystals has relationship both with the crystallographic forms

and with the morphologies. Therefore, the researches on the relationship of electrochemical performance with the morphologies and the relationship of electrochemical performance with the crystallographic forms are very essential. In the present work, to enrich the relationship between electrochemical performances and morphologies, two α-MnO2 crystals with caddice-clew-like and urchin-like morphologies were prepared by hydrothermal method. For lithium-ion battery application, urchin-like α-MnO2 crystal with compact structure was found to have better electrochemical performance. Methods Synthesis and characterization of MnO2 micromaterials prepared by hydrothermal L-gulonolactone oxidase method All reagents purchased from the Shanghai Chemical Company (Shanghai, China) were of analytical grade and used without further purification. The MnO2 micromaterials were prepared using the similar method described by Yu et al. [6] with some modifications. To prepare caddice-clew-like MnO2 micromaterial, 1.70 g MnSO4 · H2O was dissolved in 15-mL distilled water with vigorous stirring. When the solution was clear, 20-mL aqueous solution containing 2.72 g K2S2O8 was added to the above solution under continuous stirring. Then, the resulting transparent solution was transferred into a Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave (50 mL) of 80% capacity of the total volume. The autoclave was sealed and maintained at 110°C for 6 h.