Electrochemical SNPs detection using an abasic site-containing DNA on a gold electrode

An abasic site-containing DNA combined with lumiflavin allows amperometric determination of single nucleotide polymorphism through hydrogen bond-mediated nucleobase recognition in water by using abasic sites as a molecular recognition field.     

Disulfide‐Unit Conjugation Enables Ultrafast Cytosolic Internalization of Antisense DNA and siRNA

Development of intracellular delivery methods for antisense DNA and siRNA is important. Previously reported methods using liposomes or receptor‐ligands take several hours or more to deliver oligonucleotides to the cytoplasm due to their retention in endosomes. Oligonucleotides modified with low molecular weight disulfide units at a terminus reach the cytoplasm 10 minutes after administration to cultured cells. This rapid cytoplasmic internalization of disulfide‐modified oligonucleotides suggests the existence of an uptake pathway other than endocytosis. Mechanistic analysis revealed that the modified oligonucleotides are efficiently internalized into the cytoplasm through disulfide exchange reactions with the thiol groups on the cellular surface. This approach solves several critical problems with the currently available methods for enhancing cellular uptake of oligonucleotides and may be an effective approach in the medicinal application of antisense DNA and siRNA.     

Preparation of phenyl‐modified natural rubber in latex stage

Phenyl‐modified natural rubber was prepared in latex stage by bromination of deproteinized natural rubber followed by Suzuki‐Miyaura cross‐coupling reaction. First, the bromination of natural rubber was carried out using N‐bromosuccinimide in latex stage. The bromine atom content increased as amount of N‐bromosuccinimide increased. Second, the allylic bromine atom was replaced with a phenyl group using phenyl boronic acid in the presence of a palladium catalyst, according to the Suzuki‐Miyaura cross‐coupling reaction in latex stage. The resulting products were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Signal at 7.13 ppm was assigned to the phenyl group of the product, while signals at 3.98, 4.14, and 4.44 ppm were assigned to the remaining allylic brominated cis‐1,4‐isoprene units. The estimated phenyl group content and the conversion of the Suzuki‐Miyaura cross‐coupling reaction were 1.32 and 23.7 mol%, respectively. Glass transition temperature (T_g) of deproteinized natural rubber increased from ?62°C to ?46.7°C, when the phenyl group was introduced into the rubber.     

Preparation and ionic conductivity of transparent glass−ceramics containing a large quantity of lithium−mica

In order to crystallize a large quantity of the lithium?mica in glass?ceramics, 5.1 mass% MgF₂ was added to the starting materials of the parent glasses having chemical compositions of Li_(1+x)Mg₃AlSi_3(1+x)O_10+6.5xF₂ (x = 0.5 and 1.0). Transparent glass?ceramics, in which a large quantity of lithium?mica with particle size of <50 nm was separated, could be prepared from the MgF₂-added parent glass with x = 0.5. While the parent glass, which had a binodal phase separation structure, did not exhibit electrical conductivity, the transparent glass–ceramic was given conductivity by the formation of an interlocking structure of mica. As the separated mica formed a tighter interlocking structure, the conductivity increased and reached a value of 2.0 × 10^?3 S/cm at 600 °C. The MgF₂-added parent glass with x = 1.0 was not transparent because of coarse spinodal phase separation. The conductivity was 4.3 × 10^?4 S/cm at 600 °C but was significantly decreased by the separation of mica.     

Imposing accurate wall boundary conditions in corrective‐matrix‐based moving particle semi‐implicit method for free surface flow

Corrective matrix that is derived to restore consistency of discretization schemes can significantly enhance accuracy for the inside particles in the Moving Particle Semi‐implicit method. In this situation, the error due to free surface and wall boundaries becomes dominant. Based on the recent study on Neumann boundary condition (Matsunaga et al, CMAME, 2020), the corrective matrix schemes in MPS are generalized to straightforwardly and accurately impose Neumann boundary condition. However, the new schemes can still easily trigger instability at free surface because of the biased error caused by the incomplete/biased neighbor support. Therefore, the existing stable schemes based on virtual particles and conservative gradient models are applied to free surface and nearby particles to produce a stable transitional layer at free surface. The new corrective matrix schemes are only applied to the particles under the stable transitional layer for improving the wall boundary conditions. Three numerical examples of free surface flows demonstrate that the proposed method can help to reduce the pressure/velocity fluctuations and hence enhance accuracy further.     

An estimated quantitative lateral flow immunoassay for determination of artesunate using monoclonal antibody

There have been reports of fake artesunate (ART), which has led to deaths from untreated malaria in South East Asia. To rapidly screen for fake and adulterated ART products in the drug market, a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) based on a colloidal gold–monoclonal antibody probe for detection of ART within samples was developed. With this method, the calibration curve for ART was determined by the intensity ratio of the test and control bands at various ART concentrations. The linearity range was 12.5–200 μg/ml of ART. Samples were tested by the developed LFIA and can be calculated for ART contents. The levels of ART in the samples were also confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results of the two methods were in good conformance. The proposed LFIA was demonstrated to be a simple and rapid analytical method for detecting ART in the pharmaceutical formulation.     

Enhanced Operational Durability of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence-Based Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with a Triazine Electron Transporter

In organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on materials that show thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), the internal quantum efficiency of 100 % can be obtained without using phosphorescence-based organometallics that contain rare metals. Therefore, with TADF-based emitters, it is possible to fabricate high-performing OLEDs at a lower cost. However, compared with fluorescence- and phosphorescence-based OLEDs, an understanding of degradation mechanisms in TADF-based OLEDs is still insufficient for future commercialization. In particular, it is widely recognized that the development of electron transport materials is crucial for improving OLED characteristics, especially driving voltages and operational durability. In this study, it was demonstrated that the operational durability of TADF-based OLEDs was greatly improved by introducing a triazine-based material of 2,4,6-tris(1,1′-biphenyl-4-yl)-[1,3,5]triazine (pT2T) as a hole-blocking layer (HBL) compared with a conventional HBL material of 2,4,6-tris(biphenyl-3-yl)-[1,3,5]triazine (T2T). Several experiments were carried out to make the reasons of the improved durability clearer, and attributed the improved durability to the shift of a carrier recombination zone from the emitting layer/HBL interface and the suppressed formation of excited-state quenchers in the pT2T HBL, because of the higher electron mobility of pT2T and the better stability of its radical anion state.