Xanthene-Based Nitric Oxide-Responsive Nanosensor for Photoacoustic Imaging in the SWIR Window

Shortwave infrared (SWIR) dyes are characterized by their ability to absorb light from 900 to 1400 nm, which is ideal for deep tissue imaging owing to minimized light scattering and interference from endogenous pigments. An approach to access such molecules is to tune the photophysical properties of known near-infrared dyes. Herein, we report the development of a series of easily accessible (three steps) SWIR xanthene dyes based on a dibenzazepine donor conjugated to thiophene ( SCR-1 ), thienothiophene ( SCR-2 ), or bithiophene ( SCR-3 ). We leverage the fact that SCR-1 undergoes a bathochromic shift when aggregated for in vivo studies by developing a ratiometric nanoparticle for NO ( rNP-NO ), which we employed to successfully visualize pathological levels of nitric oxide in a drug-induced liver injury model via deep tissue SWIR photoacoustic (PA) imaging. Our work demonstrates how easily this dye series can be utilized as a component in nanosensor designs for imaging studies.     

Characterization and adsorption capacity of Brazilian kaolin

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - This study has evaluated chemical, radiological composition and determined the cation exchange capacity (CEC) for three commercially available...     

Mass‐Spectrometric Observation of Counter Anion Production in SU‐8 Exposed to UV Light and its Use for Dill C Parameter Determination

Photopolymerization is a phenomenon that is the basis of much of today's microfabrication technology and intense research is conducted to improve its control and the characteristics of end products for a variety of applications. The design of microscopic structures often relies on the accurate knowledge and modeling of photopolymer's behavior upon exposure, i.e. the Dill parameters, for each radiation species of interest and therefore the development of flexible characterization techniques is of great importance. SU‐8 is a popular compound that is representative of a whole class that relies on cationic polymerization, where an acid is obtained via photolysis of an onium salt during exposure. Here we report on the observation of SbF₆^? via laser desorption mass spectrometry on SU‐8 exposed to UV light at the wavelength of 365 nm and demonstrate that the yield of this counter‐anion as a function of exposure is consistent with the Dill C parameter value available in the literature. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 967–972     

Compressive advection and multi‐component methods for interface‐capturing

This paper develops methods for interface‐capturing in multiphase flows. The main novelties of these methods are as follows: (a) multi‐component modelling that embeds interface structures into the continuity equation; (b) a new family of triangle/tetrahedron finite elements, in particular, the P₁DG‐P₂(linear discontinuous between elements velocity and quadratic continuous pressure); (c) an interface‐capturing scheme based on compressive control volume advection methods and high‐order finite element interpolation methods; (d) a time stepping method that allows use of relatively large time step sizes; and (e) application of anisotropic mesh adaptivity to focus the numerical resolution around the interfaces and other areas of important dynamics. This modelling approach is applied to a series of pure advection problems with interfaces as well as to the simulation of the standard computational fluid dynamics benchmark test cases of a collapsing water column under gravitational forces (in two and three dimensions) and sloshing water in a tank. Two more test cases are undertaken in order to demonstrate the many‐material and compressibility modelling capabilities of the approach. Numerical simulations are performed on coarse unstructured meshes to demonstrate the potential of the methods described here to capture complex dynamics in multiphase flows. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Subgradient Method for Convex Feasibility on Riemannian Manifolds

In this paper, a subgradient type algorithm for solving convex feasibility problem on Riemannian manifold is proposed and analysed. The sequence generated by the algorithm converges to a solution of the problem, provided the sectional curvature of the manifold is non-negative. Moreover, assuming a Slater type qualification condition, we analyse a variant of the first algorithm, which generates a sequence with finite convergence property, i.e., a feasible point is obtained after a finite number of iterations. Some examples motivating the application of the algorithm for feasibility problems, nonconvex in the usual sense, are considered.     

Interlayer shear strength of single crystalline graphite

Reported values(0.2 MPa-7.0 GPa) of the interlayer shear strength(ISS) of graphite are very dispersed.The main challenge to obtain a reliable value of the ISS using conventional measuring methods was the unavailability of sufficiently large single crystalline graphite.Here we present a novel experimental method to measure the ISS,and obtain the value as ～0.14 GPa.Our result can serve as an important basis for understanding mechanical behavior of graphite or graphene-based materials.     

Synthesis of Isodehydroilludin M

Isodehydroilludin M was synthesized from carbonyl ylid 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition product that was further elaborated with an unusual PCC-mediated double oxidation reaction.