Preparation of nano-hydroxyapatite/poly(<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-lactide) biocomposite microspheres

Nano-hydroxyapatite (HA)/poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) composite microspheres with relatively uniform size distribution were prepared by a solid-in-oil-in-water (s/o/w) emusion solvent evaporation method. The encapsulation of the HA nanopaticles in microshperes was significantly improved by grafting PLLA on the surface of the HA nanoparticles (p-HA) during emulsion process. This procedure gave a possibility to obtain p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres with uniform morphology and the encapsulated p-HA nanoparticle loading reached up to 40 wt% (33 wt% of pure HA) in the p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres. The microstructure of composite microspheres from core-shell to single phase changed with the variation of p-HA to PLLA ratios. p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres with the diameter range of 2–3 μm were obtained. The entrapment efficiency of p-HA in microspheres could high up to 90 wt% and that of HA was only 13 wt%. Surface and bulk characterizations of the composite microspheres were performed by measurements such as wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).     

An extensive review of studies on mycobacterium cell wall polysaccharide-related oligosaccharides – part II: Synthetic studies on complex arabinofuranosyl oligosaccharides carrying other functional motifs and related derivatives and analogs

Abstract

Lipoarabinomannan (LAM), mannosyl LAM (ManLAM), and mycolyl-arabinogalactan (mAG) are unique and ubiquitous cell wall constituents of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), the bacterium causing tuberculosis (TB). It has been well documented that LAM, ManLAM, and mAG play an important role in mycobacterial infections and in the elicitation of specific immune responses against M. tb in the host. Therefore, LAM, ManLAM, mAG, and related molecules are attractive targets for the development of novel TB diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Accordingly, numerous research groups have spent great effort on the chemical synthesis and biological studies of mycobacterium-related arabinofuranosyl oligosaccharides and their mimetics and conjugates. This article provides an extensive review about the progresses in this area. Due to the page limit of this journal, the review is published in three parts separately. This part (Part II) is focused on the synthesis of various ManLAM and mAG analogs containing mannose, galactose or galactosamine units and other natural structural motifs, as well as arabinofuranosyl oligosaccharide C-analogs and other derivatives.     

A simple and efficient method for the allylation of heteroarenes catalyzed by PdCl2

The PdCl₂-catalyzed allylation of heteroarenes is presented. Various heteroarenes including O-, N-, and S-based ones were allylated efficiently with a rich range of allylic acetates in the presence of only 2 mol % of PdCl₂, without the need of bases/acids, additives, and external supporting ligands. In addition, the reactions were carried out under mild and simple conditions just by stirring the two reactants and catalyst in CH₂Cl₂ at 60 °C. Moreover, the by-product produced was non-toxic acetic acid. Thus, the method presented in this work provides a general, clean, and operationally simple approach for the functionalization of heteroarenes. Finally, a preliminary mechanistic study suggested that the Pd(II) may be reduced in situ by the heteroarenes to Pd(0), which serves as the active metal center to catalyze the following allylations of heteroarenes via a Tsuji–Trost pathway.     

The 1:1 resonance in Hamiltonian systems

Two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian systems with an elliptic equilibrium at the origin are characterised by the frequencies of the linearisation. Considering the frequencies as parameters, the system undergoes a bifurcation when the frequencies pass through a resonance. These bifurcations are well understood for most resonances $k:l$, but not the semisimple cases $1:1$ and $1:?1$. A two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian system can be approximated to any order by an integrable normal form. The reason is that the normal form of a Hamiltonian system has an additional integral due to the normal form symmetry. The latter is intimately related to the ratio of the frequencies. For a rational frequency ratio this leads to $S^1$-symmetric systems. The question we wish to address is about the co-dimension of such a system in $1:1$ resonance with respect to left-right-equivalence, where the right action is $S^1$-equivariant. The result is a co-dimension five unfolding of the central singularity. Two of the unfolding parameters are moduli and the remaining non-modal parameters are the ones found in the linear unfolding of this system.     

Side-lobeless far-field spectrum of a short pulse from a circular aperture with Gaussian form of transmittance

The spectrum change of a Gaussian pulse in the far field is studied with the Fresnel diffraction integral when it is incident on an aperture with Gaussian form transmittance. It is found that the side-lobes of the diffracted spectral intensity, which exist in a normal circular aperture with unit transmittance, can be eliminated completely under such a condition. Also, the red shift and blue shift of the spectral intensity maximum of the incident pulse are presented.