Electrode Kinetics and Activation Energy of Uranyl-Ferron Chelate by Polarography

The uranyl chelate of ferron was investigated polarographically over the pH range 1.98–10.00 and ligand concentration 0.005–0.060.M. A reversible and diffusion controlled reduction wave was obtained, however, when ferron concentration below 0.02M and pH below 5.0, it became irreversible. The chelate species identified were UO₂(HA) ₂ at pH range 2.5–7.1 and UO₂(OH) (A) ₂^?3 over pH 7.1. The electron-transfer coefficient, rate constant, diffusion coefficient and activation energy of the reduction process were determined.     

K18- and CAG-hACE2 Transgenic Mouse Models and SARS-CoV-2: Implications for Neurodegeneration Research

COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a global pandemic that might lead to very serious consequences. Notably, mental status change, brain confusion, and smell and taste disorders along with neurological complaints have been reported in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, human brain tissue autopsies from COVID-19 patients show the presence of SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion, which correlates with the manifestation of meningitis, encephalitis, leukocyte infiltration, and neuronal damage. The olfactory mucosa has been suggested as a way of entry into the brain. SARS-CoV-2 infection is also known to provoke a hyper-inflammatory reaction with an exponential increase in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines leading to systemic responses, even in the absence of direct infection of brain cells. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the entry receptor of SARS-CoV-2, has been extensively demonstrated to be present in the periphery, neurons, and glial cells in different brain regions. To dissect the details of neurological complications and develop therapies helping COVID-19 survivors regain pre-infection quality of life, the development of robust clinical models is highly warranted. Several human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) transgenic mouse models have been developed and used for antiviral drug screening and vaccine development, as well as for better understanding of the molecular pathogenetic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, we summarize recent results from the studies involving two such mouse models, namely K18- and CAG-hACE2 transgenics, to evaluate the direct and indirect impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the central nervous system.     

Phenolic Constituents,Antioxidant and Cytoprotective Activities,Enzyme Inhibition Abilities of Five Fractions from Vaccinium dunalianum Wight

The bud of Vaccinium dunalianum Wight has been traditionally consumed as health herbal tea by “Yi” people in Yunnan Province, China, which was locally named “Que Zui tea”. This paper studied the chemical constituents of five fractions from Vaccinium dunalianum, and their enzyme inhibitory effects of α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase, antioxidant activity, and cytoprotective effects on H₂O₂-induced oxidative damage in HepG2 cells. The methanol extract of V. dunalianum was successively partitioned with petroleum ether (PF), chloroform (CF), ethyl acetate (EF), n-butanol (BF), and aqueous (WF) to obtain five fractions. The chemical profiling of the five fractions was analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), and 18 compounds were tentatively identified. Compared to PF, CF, BF and WF, the EF revealed the highest total phenols (TPC) and total flavonoids (TFC), and displayed the strongest enzyme inhibition ability (α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase) and antioxidant capacity (DPPH, ABTS and FRAP). Furthermore, these five fractions, especially EF, could effectively inhibit reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and cell apoptosis on H₂O₂-induced oxidative damage protection in HepG2 cells. This inhibitory effect might be caused by the up-regulation of intracellular antioxidant enzyme activity (CAT, SOD, and GSH). The flavonoids and phenolic acids of V. dunalianum might be the bioactive substances responsible for enzyme inhibitory, antioxidant, and cytoprotective activities.     

Antiinflammation Derived Suzuki-Coupled Fenbufens as COX-2 Inhibitors: Minilibrary Construction and Bioassay

A small fenbufen library comprising 18 compounds was prepared via Suzuki Miyara coupling. The five-step preparations deliver 9–17% biphenyl compounds in total yield. These fenbufen analogs exert insignificant activity against the IL-1 release as well as inhibiting cyclooxygenase 2 considerably. Both the para-amino and para-hydroxy mono substituents display the most substantial COX-2 inhibition, particularly the latter one showing a comparable activity as celecoxib. The most COX-2 selective and bioactive disubstituted compound encompasses one electron-withdrawing methyl and one electron-donating fluoro groups in one arene. COX-2 is selective but not COX-2 to bioactive compounds that contain both two electron-withdrawing groups; disubstituted analogs with both resonance-formable electron-donating dihydroxy groups display high COX-2 activity but inferior COX-2 selectivity. In silico simulation and modeling for three COX-2 active—p-fluoro, p-hydroxy and p-amino—fenbufens show a preferable docking to COX-2 than COX-1. The most stabilization by the p-hydroxy fenbufen with COX-2 predicted by theoretical simulation is consistent with its prominent COX-2 inhibition resulting from experiments.     

Mesomorphic bipyridine building blocks bearing an sp3 carbon and a hydroxy function

The synthesis of novel symmetrical liquid crystalline compounds based on 5-methyl-5-[2-(4-alkyloxyphenyl)-2-hydroxyethyl]-2,2-bipyridines is reported, together with some physical properties. Although the chelating head-groups are connected via a chiral sp³ carbon atom, all the materials are mesomorphic. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding between pyridino and hydroxy fragments in the mesophases is made apparent by FTIR spectroscopy.     

Synthesis and characterization of an MRI Gd‐based probe designed to target the translocator protein

DPA‐713 is the lead compound of a recently reported pyrazolo[1,5‐a]pyrimidineacetamide series, targeting the translocator protein (TSPO 18 kDa), and as such, this structure, as well as closely related derivatives, have been already successfully used as positron emission tomography radioligands. On the basis of the pharmacological core of this ligands series, a new magnetic resonance imaging probe, coded DPA‐C₆‐(Gd)DOTAMA was designed and successfully synthesized in six steps and 13% overall yield from DPA‐713. The Gd‐DOTA monoamide cage (DOTA = 1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7,10‐tetraacetic acid) represents the magnetic resonance imaging reporter, which is spaced from the phenylpyrazolo[1,5‐a]pyrimidineacetamide moiety (DPA‐713 motif) by a six carbon‐atom chain. DPA‐C₆‐(Gd)DOTAMA relaxometric characterization showed the typical behavior of a small‐sized molecule (relaxivity value: 6.02 mM^?1 s^?1 at 20 MHz). The good hydrophilicity of the metal chelate makes DPA‐C₆‐(Gd)DOTAMA soluble in water, affecting thus its biodistribution with respect to the parent lipophilic DPA‐713 molecule. For this reason, it was deemed of interest to load the probe to a large carrier in order to increase its residence lifetime in blood. Whereas DPA‐C₆‐(Gd)DOTAMA binds to serum albumin with a low affinity constant, it can be entrapped into liposomes (both in the membrane and in the inner aqueous cavity). The stability of the supramolecular adduct formed by the Gd‐complex and liposomes was assessed by a competition test with albumin. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation on bit-rate-adaptive software synchronous optical sampling

A tunable optical rail is embedded into the cavity of a nonlinear-polarization-rotation(NPR) mode-locked fiber laser to generate a sampling pulse with different repetition frequencies and realize bit-rate-adaptive software synchronous optical sampling.Two ultrashort pulses(20.26677 and 20.22900 MHz) are derived,and a 100-MHz data signal is sampled twice with these pulses based on sum-frequency generation(SFG) in periodically poled lithium niobate(PPLN).The eye diagram is successfully recovered,and an estimated bit rate of 102.22 MHz is derived.This method is feasible for bit rates ranging from 200 MHz to 1 GHz,with <3% relative error.     

Triphenylamine derivatized phenylacetylene macrocycle with large two-photon absorption cross-section

A phenylacetylene macrocycle (PAM) derivative containing triphenylamine as the framework was synthesized in one-step Sonogashira coupling. The photophysical and electrochemical properties were investigated in details. This hexamer shows significant enhancement in two-photon absorption cross-section relative to reported PAM derivatives.     

Stability of polymer thin-film transistors based on poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene)

Polymer thin-film transistors (PTFTs) based on poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV) semiconductor are fabricated by spin-coating process and characterized. In the experiments, solution preparation, deposition and device measurements are all performed in air for large-area applications. Hysteresis effect and gate-bias stress effect are observed for the devices at room temperature. The saturation current decreases and the threshold voltage shifts toward the negative direction upon gate-bias stress, but carrier mobility hardly changes. By using quasi-static C-V analysis for MOS capacitor structure, it can be deduced that the origin of threshold-voltage shift upon negative gate-bias stress is predominantly associated with hole trapping within the SiO₂ gate dielectric near the SiO₂/MEH-PPV interface due to hot-carrier emission.     

Anomalous optical transitions in AlInGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Using temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements, we report a comprehensive study on optical transitions in Al_yIn_xGa_1−x−yN epilayer with target composition, x=0.01 and y=0.07 and varying epilayer thickness of 40, 65 and 100 nm. In these quaternary alloys, we have observed an anomalous PL temperature dependence such as an S-shape band-edge PL peak shift and a W-shape spectral broadening with an increase in temperature. With an increase in excitation power density, the emission peak from the AlInGaN epilayers shows a blue shift at 100 K and a substantial red shift at room temperature. This is attributed to the localization of excitons at the band-tail states at low temperature. Compared to 40 and 65 nm thick epilayers, the initial blue shift observed with low excitation power from 100 nm thick AlInGaN epilayer at room temperature is caused by the existence of deeper localized states due to confinement effects arising from higher In and Al incorporation. The subsequent red shift of the PL peak can be attributed by free motion of delocalized carriers that leads to bandgap renormalization by screening. Due to competing effects of exciton and free carrier recombination processes, such behavior of optical transitions leads to two different values of exponent ‘k’ in the fitting of PL emission intensity as a function of excitation power.