The Coordination Chemistry of f-Block Elements in Molten Salts

The coordination chemistry of f-block elements (lanthanide and actinide) in molten salts has become a resounding topic in view of its great importance to the research and development (R&D) of molten salt reactors and pyroprocessing. In this Review article, a general overview of the coordination chemistry of f-block elements in molten salts is provided including past achievements and recent advances. Particular emphases are placed on the oxidation state, speciation, and solution structure of f-block metal ions in molten salts, as well as their relationships with the salt composition. Furthermore, this review briefly discusses the spectroscopic and theoretical methods that complement each other in revealing the coordination properties.     

Development and validation of LC–MS/MS method for amlexanox in rat plasma and its application in preclinical pharmacokinetics

Amlexanox, an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic agent, has been widely used clinically for the treatment of canker sores, asthma, and allergic rhinitis. Recently, amlexanox has received considerable attention in curing nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases and hepatitis virus infection. Herein, we first established a sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrum (LC–MS/MS) method for the determination of amlexanox in rat plasma. Propranolol was used as the internal standard (IS). Using a simple protein precipitation method, the amlexanox and IS were separated with Capcell Pak C18 column (2.0 × 50 mm, 5 μm) and eluted with water and acetonitrile each containing 0.1% formic acid using gradient elution condition at a flow rate of 0.4 mL·min⁻¹. Amlexanox and IS were detected by a triple quadrupole mass in multiple reactive monitoring (MRM) under the transitions of m/z 299.2 → 281.2 and m/z 259.9 → 116.1 with positive electrospray ionization, respectively. The calibration curves of amlexanox were established with the range of 50 to 2000 ng·mL⁻¹ (r² > 0.99). The validation method consisted of selectivity, accuracy, precision, carryover effect, matrix effect, recovery, dilution effect, and stability. The fully validated method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of amlexanox in Wistar rats.     

Global existence and time decay of the non-cutoff Boltzmann equation with hard potential

This paper is concerned with the Cauchy problem on the Boltzmann equation without angular cutoff assumption for hard potential in the whole space. When the initial data is a small perturbation of a global Maxwellian, the global existence of solution to this problem is proved in unweighted Sobolev spaces $H^N\left({\mathbb{R}}_{x,v}^6\right)$ with $N\ge 2$. But if we want to obtain the optimal temporal decay estimates, we need to add the velocity weight function, in this case the global existence and the optimal temporal decay estimate of the Boltzmann equation are all established. Meanwhile, we further gain a more accurate energy estimate, which can guarantee the validity of the assumption in Chen et al. (0000).     

The Picone identity: A device to get optimal uniqueness results and global dynamics in Population Dynamics

This paper infers from a generalized Picone identity the uniqueness of the stable positive solution for a class of semilinear equations of superlinear indefinite type, as well as the uniqueness and global attractivity of the coexistence state in two generalized diffusive prototypes of the symbiotic and competing species models of Lotka–Volterra. The optimality of these uniqueness theorems reveals the tremendous strength of the Picone identity.     

On pointwise decay rates of time‐periodic solutions to the Navier–Stokes equation

We study the existence of a time‐periodic solution with pointwise decay properties to the Navier–Stokes equation in the whole space. We show that if the time‐periodic external force is sufficiently small in an appropriate sense, then there exists a time‐periodic solution $\{u,p\}$ of the Navier–Stokes equation such that $|{?}^j{u(t,x)|=O(|x|}^{1?n?j})$ and $|{?}^j{p(t,x)|=O(|x|}^{?n?j})(j=0,1,\dots )$ uniformly in $t\in \mathbb{R}$ as $|x|\to \infty$. Our solution decays faster than the time‐periodic Stokes fundamental solution and the faster decay of its spatial derivatives of higher order is also described.     

Orientation dependence in high harmonics of ZnO with polarization corrections to counteract the birefringent effect

We investigate the influence of the birefringence on the high-order harmonics in an a-cut Zn O crystal with midinfrared laser pulses. The high harmonics exhibit strong dependence on the alignment of the crystal with respect to the laser polarization. We introduce the Jones calculus to counteract the birefringent effect and obtain the harmonics with polarization corrections in Zn O. We show that the birefringent effect plays an important role in the orientation dependence of HHG.     

Versatile Near-Infrared Super-Resolution Imaging of Amyloid Fibrils with the Fluorogenic Probe CRANAD-2

CRANAD-2 is a fluorogenic curcumin derivative used for near-infrared detection and imaging in vivo of amyloid aggregates, which are involved in neurodegenerative diseases. We explore the performance of CRANAD-2 in two super-resolution imaging techniques, namely stimulated emission depletion (STED) and single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), with markedly different fluorophore requirements. By conveniently adapting the concentration of CRANAD-2, which transiently binds to amyloid fibrils, we show that it performs well in both techniques, achieving a resolution in the range of 45–55 nm. Correlation of SMLM with atomic force microscopy (AFM) validates the resolution of fine features in the reconstructed super-resolved image. The good performance and versatility of CRANAD-2 provides a powerful tool for near-infrared nanoscopic imaging of amyloids in vitro and in vivo.     

Synthesis and investigation of structural,optical, magnetic,and biocompatibility properties of nanoferrites AFeO2

Sol-gel method has been used for the synthesis of biocompatible superparamagnetic nanoferrites of AFeO₂ (A = Li, Na, K, Ca). Structural study of the nanoferrites reveals that LiFeO₂ exhibits cubic phase on the other hand NaFeO₂, KFeO₂, CaFeO₂ nanoparticles possess orthorhombic phase. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) suggests that synthesized nanoferrites are nano-sized with spherical morphology. Optical properties confirm that nanoferrites emit and absorb light in a visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. International Commission on Illumination (CIE) study discloses that the nanoparticles can be used to produce light of various colors. Magnetic study reveals that the nanoferrites exhibit superparamagnetic nature with high values of saturation magnetization 40.26 emu/g, 41.69 emu/g, 57.16 emu/g, and 43.66 emu/g, respectively for LiFeO_2, NaFeO₂, KFeO₂, and CaFeO₂. Biocompatibility study of the nanoferrites has been performed using Sulforhodamine B (SRB) and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The reason behind the observed properties and behavior has been discussed.