Aligned polymer fibers produced via an additive electric field

Electrospinning is known to be a highly versatile method to produce nanofibers, and several techniques have been developed to align nanofibers. In this paper, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), poly(propylene carbonate) (PC), poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), PVA/Chitosan and PVA/Fe₃O₄ uniaxially aligned ultrafine fibers were obtained with electrospinning method by adding another electric field in the collection area. Alignment of the nanofibers was characterized by the use of digital cameras and field emission scanning electron microscopy, polarized Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and wideangle X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanism of fiber alignment was investigated as well.     

单体性质对樟脑醌/胡椒环光引发活性的影响

采用实时红外光谱仪(RT-FTIR)研究了单体结构、单体配比以及活性稀释剂结构对樟脑醌(CQ)/胡椒环(BDO)引发的光聚合动力学的影响,结果发现,UDMA虽然黏度较低,但是易发生链转移反应且在聚合体系中含量较高(70 wt%),可作为氢给体猝灭激发态CQ,从而影响CQ和BDO之间的相互作用.Bis-GMA虽然黏度大,但是反应活性高,当其与少量具有给氢能力的活性稀释剂TEGDMA配合使用时,不仅对聚合体系的反应活性影响较小,而且可显著降低体系的黏度,大大提高自由基的活动能力,有利于改善CQ/BDO的引发活性.     

C_4H_4Y(Y=O,S,Se)与BX_3(X=H,F,Cl)作用的计算化学研究

采用量子化学的密度泛函B3LYP和二阶微扰MP2(full)方法对C4H4Y(Y=O,S,Se)与BX3(X=H,F,Cl)形成的电子授受型复合物进行了研究,所得18个复合物的构型包括BX3位于C=C双键上方的π-p作用型和B与O,S,Se直接作用的n-p作用型.体系C4H4Y-BH3以n-p作用型较为稳定,体系C4H4Y-BF3,C4H4Y-BCl3的π-p和n-p作用型复合物稳定性相当.对各复合物的几何构型、振动频率和自然键轨道分析表明,复合物的形成过程中均存在几何构型的改变、电荷的转移和振动频率的变化,它们的变化规律与复合物稳定性的变化规律基本一致,即按H,F,Cl的顺序依次降低.     

Novel poly(butylene succinate-co-lactic acid) copolyesters: Synthesis, crystallization, and enzymatic degradation

A series of aliphatic biodegradable poly(butylene succinate-co-dl-lactide) (PBSLA) copolyesters were synthesized with the aim of improving the degradation rate of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) by incorporation of dl-oligo(lactic acid) (OLA) into the PBS molecular chains. The composition and sequential structure of the aliphatic copolyesters were investigated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy. The crystallization behaviors, the crystal structure and morphology of the copolyesters were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and polarizing optical microscopy (POM), respectively. The results indicate that the crystallization of the copolyesters was restricted by the incorporation of lactide (LA) units, which further tuned the mechanical properties of the copolyesters. The copolyesters could form complete spherulites and exhibit the same crystal structure as that of PBS. Enzymatic study indicated that the copolyesters with higher content of LA units degraded faster, and the degradation began in the amorphous regions and then in the crystalline regions. The morphology and the resulting degradation products of the copolyesters were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ¹H NMR analysis during the degradation process.     

Ionic liquid-based microwave-assisted extraction of rutin from Chinese medicinal plants

An ionic liquid-based microwave-assisted extraction (ILMAE) method has been developed for the effective extraction of rutin from Chinese medicinal plants including Saururus chinensis (Lour.) Bail. (S. chinensis) and Flos Sophorae. A series of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium ionic liquids with different anions were investigated. The results indicated that the characteristics of anions have remarkable effects on the extraction efficiency of rutin and among the investigated ionic liquids, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([bmim]Br) aqueous solution was the best. In addition, the ILMAE procedures for the two kinds of medicinal herbs were also optimized by means of a series of single factor experiments and an L₉ (3⁴) orthogonal design. Compared with the optimal ionic liquid-based heating extraction (ILHE), marinated extraction (ILME), ultrasonic-assisted extraction (ILUAE), the optimized approach of ILMAE gained higher extraction efficiency which is 4.879 mg/g in S. chinensis with RSD 1.33% and 171.82 mg/g in Flos Sophorae with RSD 1.47% within the shortest extraction time. Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) with ultraviolet detection was employed for the analysis of rutin in Chinese medicinal plants. Under the optimum conditions, the average recoveries of rutin from S. chinensis and Flos Sophorae were 101.23% and 99.62% with RSD lower than 3%, respectively. The developed approach is linear at concentrations from 42 to 252 mg L⁻¹ of rutin solution, with the regression coefficient (r) at 0.99917. Moreover, the extraction mechanism of ILMAE and the microstructures and chemical structures of the two researched samples before and after extraction were also investigated. With the help of LC-MS, it was future demonstrated that the two researched herbs do contain active ingredient of rutin and ionic liquids would not influence the structure of rutin.     

Interpretation of high-resolution images of the best-bound wetting layers on Pt(111)

Two interpretations have been proposed of dark triangles observed in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of the best bound, √37×√37-R25.3°, and √39×√39-R16.1° periodic water monolayers on Pt(111). In one, a "Y"-shaped tetramer of water molecules is removed, leaving a vacancy island behind; the other assumes the Y is replaced by a hexagon of H(2)O molecules, amounting to a di-interstitial. Consistent only with the di-interstitial model are thermal desorption and CO coadsorption data, STM line scans, and total energies obtained from density functional theory calculations.     

Genistein activates endothelial nitric oxide synthase in broiler pulmonary arterial endothelial cells by an Akt-dependent mechanism

Deregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) plays an important role in the development of multiple cardiovascular diseases. Our recent study demonstrated that genistein supplementation attenuates pulmonary arterial hypertension in broilers by restoration of endothelial function. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism by using broiler pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs). Our results showed that genistein stimulated a rapid phosphorylation of eNOS at Ser(1179) which was associated with activation of eNOS/NO axis. Further study indicated that the activation of eNOS was not mediated through estrogen receptors or tyrosine kinase inhibition, but via a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt-dependent signaling pathway, as the eNOS activity and related NO release were largely abolished by pharmacological inhibitors of PI3K or Akt. Thus, our findings revealed a critical function of Akt in mediating genistein-stimulated eNOS activity in PAECs, partially accounting for the beneficial effects of genistein on the development of cardiovascular diseases observed in animal models.     

Integration of paper-based microfluidic devices with commercial electrochemical readers

The combination of simple Electrochemical Micro-Paper-based Analytical Devices (EμPADs) with commercially available glucometers allows rapid, quantitative electrochemical analysis of a number of compounds relevant to human health (e.g., glucose, cholesterol, lactate, and alcohol) in blood or urine.     

Synthesis of Y-shaped poly(solketal acrylate)-containing block copolymers and study on the thermoresponsive behavior for micellar aggregates

One novel type of Y-shaped amphiphilic copolymers with two hydrophobic poly(solketal acrylate) (PSA) branches and one hydrophilic monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG) block was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). These Y-shaped polymers can disperse in aqueous media to self-assemble into micellar aggregates with a spherical core-shell structure. The aqueous copolymer solutions exhibited transmittancy transition in the temperature range of 30-60 °C via optical transmittance measurements. An interesting thermo-dependent size of the micellar aggregates was observed by dynamic light scattering techniques and transmission electron microscopy, which showed that the micelle diameters were decreased with temperature increasing. The nile red release from the micelles at 25 °C and 37 °C under various pHs showed that temperature has great influence on release behavior. With good biocompatibility, the micellar aggregates formed from MPEG-block-(PSA)(2) may serve as one promising thermosensitive nanovehicle for targeted drug delivery.     

Variable-weighted least-squares support vector machine for multivariate spectral analysis

Multivariate spectral analysis has been widely applied in chemistry and other fields. Spectral data consisting of measurements at hundreds and even thousands of analytical channels can now be obtained in a few seconds. It is widely accepted that before a multivariate regression model is built, a well-performed variable selection can be helpful to improve the predictive ability of the model. In this paper, the concept of traditional wavelength variable selection has been extended and the idea of variable weighting is incorporated into least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). A recently proposed global optimization method, particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to search for the weights of variables and the hyper-parameters involved in LS-SVM optimizing the training of a calibration set and the prediction of an independent validation set. All the computation process of this method is automatic. Two real data sets are investigated and the results are compared those of PLS, uninformative variable elimination-PLS (UVE-PLS) and LS-SVM models to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method.