溶剂化的热力学集团展开理论

把二元溶液的过剩内能（excess energy）分成溶剂-溶剂、溶剂-溶质及溶质-溶质相互作用部分。利用集团展开方法给出了二元溶液在正则系综的配分函数的表达式,利用该表达式得到了溶质的偏摩尔内能(partial molar energy)和偏摩尔熵(partial molar entropy)的表达式。在无限稀溶液情形,过剩偏摩尔内能的溶剂-溶剂部分又称重组织内能（reorganization energy）,它反映了溶质存在时对其周围溶剂分子之间的相互作用能的影响。研究表明,在溶质的粒子数密度相对较大时,溶质分子之间的相互作用将影响过剩偏摩尔内能的溶剂-溶剂部分,对于稀溶液,过剩偏摩尔内能的溶剂-溶剂部分与溶质的摩尔分数成线性关系。对低密度二元溶液,溶质的过剩偏摩尔内能和过剩偏摩尔熵也与溶质的摩尔分数成线性关系。     

Polymeric Lids for Microcontainers for Oral Protein Delivery

Oral delivery of proteins and peptides is one of the main challenges in pharmaceutical drug development. Microdevices have the possibility to protect the therapeutics until release is desired, avoiding losses by degradation. One type of microdevice is polymeric microcontainers. In this study, lysozyme is chosen as model protein and loaded into microcontainers with the permeation enhancer sodium decanoate (C10). The loaded microcontainers are sealed and functionalized by applying polymeric lids onto the cavity of the devices. The first lid is poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic) acid (PLGA) and on top of this either polyethylene glycol (PEG) or chitosan is applied (PLGA+PEG or PLGA+chitosan, respectively). The functionalization is evaluated in vitro for morphology, drug release, and mucoadhesive properties. These are coupled with in vitro and ex vivo studies using Caco‐2 cells, Caco‐2/HT29‐MTX‐E12 co‐cultures, and porcine intestinal tissue. PLGA+chitosan shows slower release compared to PLGA+PEG or only PLGA in buffer and the transport of lysozyme across cell cultures is not enhanced compared to the bulk powder. Microcontainers coated with chitosan or PEG demonstrate a three times stronger adhesion during ex vivo mucoadhesion studies compared to samples without coatings. Altogether, functionalized microcontainers with mucoadhesive properties and tunable release for oral protein delivery are developed and characterized.     

Bump-hunting for the proficiency tester--searching for multimodality

Kernel density estimation is a method for producing a smooth density approximation to a dataset and avoiding some of the problems associated with histograms. If it is used with a degree of smoothing determined by a fitness for purpose criterion, it can be applied to proficiency test data in order to test for multimodality in the z-scores. The bootstrap is an essential additional technique to determine how rugged the initially estimated kernel density is: the random resampling of the data in the bootstrap simulates a complete blind repeat of the proficiency test. In addition, useful estimates of the standard error of a mode can be thus obtained. It is suggested that a mode and its standard error can be used as an assigned value and its standard uncertainty.     

Wetting for self-healing and electrowetting for additive manufacturing

Advanced additive manufacturing actively widens its tool box of wettability-related phenomena to be used in production of new items. Novel self-healing engineering materials incorporate vascular networks with two types of nanochannels: the one containing a resin monomer, whereas another one — a curing agent. If such nanocomposites are damaged locally, both types of channels are locally broken, and they release resin monomer and curing agent droplets. These droplets spread by wettability over the nanotextured matrix, touch each other, and coalesce, which triggers polymerization reaction and crack stitching. Wettability-facilitated droplet spreading is accompanied by liquid imbibition in the pores in the nanofiber network. Such process peculiarities are in focus in the present review. An additional process relevant in direct writing and 3D printing is electrowetting (EW). It stems from the change in the contact angle in response to the electric polarization of dielectric substrates. EW allows movement of droplets on horizontal, vertical, and inverse surfaces, which can significantly facilitate the existing direct writing and 3D printing technologies. Accordingly, EW is also in focus in the present review.     

Call for nominations for the Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck Award

News and Announcements

Call for nominations for the Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck Award     

Advances for proficiency testing for genetic laboratory science

Nucleic acid based clinical genetic testing has undergone explosive growth in recent years due in large part to the human genome project. Characterization of the human genome has led to a molecular understanding of the pathogenesis of many human diseases, and ultimately to clinical molecular tests becoming routinely used to diagnose a wide diversity of diseases. This rapid growth in clinical molecular genetic testing coupled with the complexity of the analytical procedures underscores the necessity for proficiency testing (i.e. external quality assessment) to allow laboratories offering such services the ability to evaluate their analytical procedures via inter-laboratory comparisons. The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) in partnership with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) have been offering proficiency testing for clinical molecular genetics laboratories since 1995, and presently have more than 230 laboratories from 11 countries enrolled in this program. This paper describes the evolution of this program and several challenges encountered in the delivery of a proficiency testing program for laboratories offering clinical molecular genetic services. Received: 13 April 2002 Accepted: 18 July 2002     

A methodology for choosing parameters for ESR readout of alanine dosimeters for radiotherapy

Spectrometer settings for ESR readout of alanine dosimeters for radiotherapy have been investigated. Several ESR parameters were studied and determined. The main reason for this work is to choose the suitable parameters to increase signal-to-noise ratio and to reduce the uncertainty on ESR readout, which is one of the main components of uncertainty of alanine/ESR dosimetry system for radiotherapy. The new spectrometer settings have been applied for ESR readout of alanine dosimeters irradiated from 1 to 10 Gy. A higher signal-to-noise ratio has been achieved compared to our old spectrometer settings. The extended uncertainty (k=2) has been evaluated in the dose range 2–10 Gy (maximum uncertainty of 4.9% for 2 Gy, while minimum uncertainty of 1.4% for 10 Gy), which implies that the alanine/ESR dosimetry system can be applied to radiotherapy dose level that needs a global accuracy of 5%.     

Methods for improving models for condensed phase equilibrium calculations

Local composition models like UNIQUAC, NRTL and the UNIFAC group contribution method are used the world over in the synthesis and design of separation processes, as well as for a large number of other applications of industrial interest. They can qualitatively describe the equilibrium behaviour of systems of different complexities but, sometimes, not with the precision required for the design of separation equipment. Regrettably, this precision is not even achieved for the LLE of many conventional type 1 and some type 2 ternary systems. High deviations in correlation results are not rare, thus showing that more capable and flexible models are needed. The analysis of the topology of the Gibbs energy of mixing function, and therefore the knowledge of the geometrical conditions that this function has to fulfil, is a valuable tool that has allowed avoiding inconsistencies in the use of the existing methods, to ascertain their capabilities and limitations to reproduce complex systems and additionally to suggest new models that improve the flexibility and accuracy needed. In this work, a simple equation based on the NRTL model, that takes into account such topological conditions, is proposed and its capabilities are tested with selected systems.     

Protecting Groups for Thiols Suitable for Suzuki Conditions

The thiol group is one of the few groups NOT tolerated by the Suzuki reaction. Therefore, a new protective group, the 2-methoxyisobutyryl group, was developed by tuning the electronic/steric properties of the acyl residue. Other thioesters, such as thioacetate, result in a more or less dominant side reaction, which to date has not been described: sulfur-assisted acylation of boronic acids. The reaction pathway for this new reaction is discussed.     

Strategies for Enhancing Polyester-Based Materials for Bone Fixation Applications

Polyester-based materials are established options, regarding the manufacturing of bone fixation devices and devices in routine clinical use. This paper reviews the approaches researchers have taken to develop these materials to improve their mechanical and biological performances. Polymer blending, copolymerisation, and the use of particulates and fibre bioceramic materials to make composite materials and surface modifications have all been studied. Polymer blending, copolymerisation, and particulate composite approaches have been adopted commercially, with the primary focus on influencing the in vivo degradation rate. There are emerging opportunities in novel polymer blends and nanoscale particulate systems, to tune bulk properties, and, in terms of surface functionalisation, to optimise the initial interaction of devices with the implanted environment, offering the potential to improve the clinical performances of fracture fixation devices.     

有机化合物脂水分配系数logP 的计算

logP作为有机化合物流水性的量反，在定量的效关系研究中扮演了重要的角色，广泛应用于生物化学、药学以及环境科学等各领域．运用计算的方法获得10gP值由于能够弥补实验方法的不足，在药物分子设计等应用中具有重要意义．随着计算机辅助药物分子设计的发展，高精度、简便易行的IOgPi十算方法日益受到重视．logP的计算方法见诸报导的已有多种［‘－7］．这些方法各具特色，但也都分别存在一些明显的缺点．目前流行的片段加合法［‘一句的出发点是将分手划分为基本片段，每个基本片段对10gP具有特定的贡献，但实际上相同片段对10gP的影响…     

Protective coatings for stainless steel for SOFC applications

In this paper, a coating procedure based on spin coating of metal oxide polymer precursors on stainless steel, which decreases the oxide scale growth rate, is evaluated. The yttrium and cobalt solutions were used as polymer precursors, while a ferritic stainless steel Crofer 22 APU was used for the deposition of protective coatings. The thickness of deposited protective film was about ~500 nm. The effectiveness of protective layer was evaluated by cyclic thermogravimetry, oxide scale electrical conductivity, and X-ray diffractometry. The results show that steel coated with yttrium polymer precursor has better properties than uncoated or cobalt-coated sample.     

New method for prefractionation of plasma for proteomic analysis

The depth of proteome analysis is severely limited in complex samples with a wide dynamic range of protein abundance such as plasma. Removal of high‐abundance proteins should reveal the signal of lower abundance plasma proteins. However, smaller proteins may be part of larger protein complexes and hence the removal of proteins involved in complexes with high‐abundance proteins such as albumin may inhibit the search for disease biomarkers. Prefractionation of a sample divides it into fractions of reduced complexity, allowing improved detection of lower abundance proteins. Using a prefractionation device, which employs Gradiflow? technology, we were able to separate small volume plasma samples into multiple fractions based on the molecular weight and/or charge. The resulting samples of reduced complexity were directly compatible with 2‐DE. The use of this prefractionation machine may therefore be useful in the hunt for disease biomarkers.