A preliminary study on fabrication of nanoscale fibrous chitosan membranes in situ by biospecific degradation

A new approach for in situ fabrication of nanoscale fibrous chitosan membrane by biospecific degradation under physiological situation was studied. The chitosan binary blend membranes were fabricated by solvent casting of chitosan solution containing highly deacetylated chitosan (HDC) and moderately deacetylated chitosan (MDC) with different ratio. The biodegradation process was performed in PBS (pH 7.4) containing lysozyme at the temperature of 37 °C. Experimental results from weight loss, reducing sugar in surrounding media, FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and SEM throughout the study showed that the biospecific degradation by lysozyme had removed MDC component selectively. When the ratio of MDC in the binary blend membranes amounted to 0.5, nanoscale domains of HDC and MDC were obtained, and thus a nanoscale fibrous structure was fabricated after biospecific degradation of MDC. This nanofibrous structure and the biospecific degradation of chitosan membranes can have potential advantages and interesting implications in tissue engineering and drug delivery.     

catena‐Poly[[tetra­aqua­manganese(II)]‐μ‐4‐(carboxyl­ato­methyl­sulfanyl)­phenoxy­acetato]

The title compound, [Mn(C₁₀H₈O₅S)(H₂O)₄]_n, a one‐dimensional manganese(II) complex comprising helical chains bridged by 4‐(carboxylatomethylsulfanyl)phenoxyacetate ligands has been characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. Hydrogen‐bonding inter­actions between adjacent chains extend the complex into a three‐dimensional supra­molecular architecture.     

Energy Landscape of Aptamer/Protein Complexes Studied by Single‐Molecule Force Spectroscopy

Aptamers are single‐stranded nucleic acid molecules selected in vitro to bind to a variety of target molecules. Aptamers bound to proteins are emerging as a new class of molecules that rival commonly used antibodies in both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. With the increasing application of aptamers as molecular probes for protein recognition, it is important to understand the molecular mechanism of aptamer–protein interaction. Recently, we developed a method of using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the single‐molecule rupture force of aptamer/protein complexes. In this work, we investigate further the unbinding dynamics of aptamer/protein complexes and their dissociation‐energy landscape by AFM. The dependence of single‐molecule force on the AFM loading rate was plotted for three aptamer/protein complexes and their dissociation rate constants, and other parameters characterizing their dissociation pathways were obtained. Furthermore, the single‐molecule force spectra of three aptamer/protein complexes were compared to those of the corresponding antibody/protein complexes in the same loading‐rate range. The results revealed two activation barriers and one intermediate state in the unbinding process of aptamer/protein complexes, which is different from the energy landscape of antibody/protein complexes. The results provide new information for the study of aptamer–protein interaction at the molecular level.     

Preparation of multihollow P(St-MAA) particles by sequence soap-free/soap emulsion polymerization and followed by stepwise alkali/acid posttreatment

The effects of ionic emulsifier, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfate (SDBS), on the formation of the multihollow structures in sub-micron sized polymer particles produced by alkali/acid posttreatment were investigated. The original latex particles with narrow size distribution were synthesized by a new sequence emulsifier-free/emulsifier emulsion copolymerization of styrene (St) and methacrylic acid (MAA). Results indicated that the pore size decreased and the pore number increased with the increase of SDBS amount, and the morphology of the posttreated latex particles was also significantly influenced by the introducing time of SDBS in the preparation of the original latex particles, and a suitable introducing time was 3 h of polymerization.     

Dispersion state of CuO on CeO2

XRD and XPS are used to study the dispersion state of CuO on ceria surface. The dispersion capacity values of CuO measured by the two methods are consistent, which are of 1.20 mmol CuO/100 m² CeO₂. In addition, the results reveal that highly dispersed Cu²⁺ ions are formed at low CuO loadings and that increasing the CuO content to a value higher than its dispersion capacity produces crystalline CuO after the surface vacant sites on CeO₂ are filled. The atomic composition of the outermost layer of the CuO/CeO₂ samples has been probed by using static secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SSIMS), and the ratim of Cu/Ce are found to be 0.93 and 0.46 for the 1.22 and 0.61 mmol CuO/CeO₂ samples respectively. Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) profile with two reduction peaks at 156 and 165°C suggests that the reduction of highly dispersed Cu²⁺ ions consists of two steps and is easier than that of CuO crystallites, in which the TPR profile has only one reduction peak at about 249°C. The above experimental results are in good agreement with the prediction of the incorporation model. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Modeling η5‐C5Me4SiMe3 with η3‐C3H5 for DFT study of a tetranuclear yttrium polyhydrido complex [(η5‐C5Me4SiMe3)YH2]4

π‐Allyl (η³‐C₃H₅), a four‐electron donor, was used as a ligand model to replace η⁵‐C₅Me₄SiMe₃ in DFT calculations on the tetranuclear yttrium polyhydrido complex (η⁵‐C₅Me₄SiMe₃)₄Y₄H₈ containing a Y₄H₈ tetrahedral core structure, which may separate the four π‐allyl groups and hence suppress the allyl ligand coupling during the computation. In terms of the calculated core geometry, isomerization energy barrier, charge population, and frontier orbital features of the complex, the η³‐C₃H₅ ligand model is comparable to η⁵‐C₅H₅. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2007     

Transient electrophoresis of a charged porous particle

The starting electrophoretic motion of a porous, uniformly charged, spherical particle, which models a solvent-permeable and ion-penetrable polyelectrolyte coil or floc of nanoparticles, in an arbitrary electrolyte solution due to the sudden application of an electric field is studied for the first time. The unsteady Stokes/Brinkman equations with the electric force term governing the fluid velocity fields are solved by means of the Laplace transform. An analytical formula for the electrophoretic mobility of the porous sphere is obtained as a function of the dimensionless parameters , , , and , where a is the radius of the particle, κ is the Debye screening parameter, λ is the reciprocal of the square root of the fluid permeability in the particle, ρ_p and ρ are the mass densities of the particle and fluid, respectively, ν is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid, and t is the time. The electrophoretic mobility normalized by its steady-state value increases monotonically with increases in and , but decreases monotonically with an increase in , keeping the other parameters unchanged. In general, a porous particle with a high fluid permeability trails behind an identical porous particle with a lower permeability and a corresponding hard particle in the growth of the normalized electrophoretic mobility The normalized electrophoretic acceleration of the porous sphere decreases monotonically with an increase in the time and increases with an increase in from zero at .     

Effect of some factors on the energy band structure of proteins

The effects of four factors (different side chains, side-chain disorder, conformational change, and ions and water) on the energy band structures of proteins have been investigated with the aid of the CNDO/2 crystal orbital method. The results indicate that these factors are very important. The consequences of these effects on the semiconductive properties of proteins are discussed.     

Synthesis and Properties of Novel Hemicyanine Dye-β-Cyclodextrin

A series of novel hemicyanine dye-β-cyclodextrin compounds： mono-6-deoxy-β-cyclodextrin-6-[p-（p-substituted styryl）pyridium] p-totylfulfonates were synthesized by the condensation of mono-6-deoxy-β- cyclodextrin-6-（p-methyl pyridinium） p-toluenesulfonate with （un）substituted benzaldehydes. Their structures were established by 1^H NMR, IR, UV-Vis and elemental analysis. The absorption and fluorescence properties of the novel compounds were measured in solution and the photostability of a selected hemicyanine dye-β-cyclodextrin compound was also investigated.     

Further Daphniphyllum Alkaloids from the Leaves of Daphniphyllum macropodum Miq.

Five new polycyclic Daphniphyllum alkaloids, macropodumines F ( 1 ) and G ( 2 ), 17‐oxoyuzurimine ( 3 ), and macropodumines H ( 4 ) and I ( 5 ), were isolated from the leaves of D. macropodum Miq ., collected in Sichuan Province, China. The structures and relative configurations of the new compounds – as well as of four known, related alkaloids – were elucidated on the basis of in‐depth spectroscopic and mass‐spectrometric analyses, by chemical derivatization, and by comparison of spectroscopic data with those of known compounds.