We establish a surprising connection between Menger’s classical covering property and Blass’s modern combinatorial notion of groupwise density. This connection implies a short proof of the groupwise density bound on the additivity number for Menger’s property.

The selection of a suitable scaffold matrix is critical for cell-based bone tissue engineering. This study aimed to identify and characterize natural marine sponges as potential bioscaffolds for osteogenesis. Callyspongiidae marine sponge samples were collected from the Fremantle coast of Western Australia. The sponge structure was assessed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Hematoxyl...

Sponge diseases have been widely reported, yet the causal factors and major pathogenic microbes remain elusive. In this study, two individuals of the sponge Crella cyathophora in total that showed similar disease-like characteristics were collected from two different locations along the Red Sea coast separated by more than 30 kilometers. The disease-like parts of the two individuals were both c...

This study investigated the removal of micropollutants using polyurethane sponge as attached-growth carrier. Batch experiments demonstrated that micropollutants could adsorb to non-acclimatized sponge cubes to varying extents. Acclimatized sponge showed significantly enhanced removal of some less hydrophobic compounds (log D<2.5), such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, naproxen, and estriol, as comp...

Mangrove roots in the well-protected channels and ponds among dense mangrove stands provide very similar habitats for sponges in the Twin Cays and Pelican Cays and harbor extraordinarily dense and diverse sponge communities in both locations. The species of sponges are very different, however, possibly because of an important difference in context: the Twin Cays mangrove roots are embedded in p...

The objective of this study is to develop an osteoinductive scaffold which enables the controlled release of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2. A biodegradable gelatin sponge incorporating 50 wt% of btricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) was fabricated to investigate the osteoinduction activity. The sponge prepared had an interconnected pore structure with an average pore size of 200 mm. The in vivo re...

Mat of mycelia of Phanerochaete chrysosporium were immobilized on loofa-sponge discs, as an inert support, to obtain a suitable biosorbent .Mean amount of immobilized P.chrysosporium on loofa-sponge was 376 mgg of dry loofa-sponge. In this study immobilized P.chrysosporium and naked loofa-sponge discs were used as biosorbent to remove Pb (II) and Cd (II) from aqueous solution .At kinetic study ...

The low specific surface area and insufficient exposure of active sites are usually the key reasons for poor oxygen reduction reaction catalysts. Here, we update a new method, using NaCl as template, egg white carbon source nitrogen source, adding FeCl3 an iron adopting two-step pyrolysis method to synthesize sponge-like porous Fe-N-C catalyst. This kind three-dimensional catalyst exhibits more...

BACKGROUND At present, the volumes of use electric arc furnace (EAF) dust are extremely insignificant. The their formation amount to thousands tons per month. During storage, they have a negative impact on environment. same time material that has valuable composition (oxides iron, non-ferrous metals, etc.) and is promising for recycling. However, secondary zinc-containing EAF in ferrous metallu...

Geoditin A, an isomalabaricane triterpene isolated from the marine sponge Geodia japonica, has been demonstrated to dissipate mitochondrial membrane potential, activate caspase 3, decrease cytoplasmic proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and induce apoptosis of leukemia cells, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear [1]. In this study, we found fragmentation of Golgi structure, suppr...