Methylprednisolone release from agar-Carbomer-based hydrogel: a promising tool for local drug delivery

A number of studies and works in drug delivery literature are focused on the understanding and modelling of transport phenomena, the pivotal point of a good scaffold design for tissue engineering. Accurate knowledge of the diffusion coefficient of an active drug plays a key role in the analysis, prediction of their kinetics and formulation of efficient drug delivery systems. In this work, the kinetics of the release of methylprednisolone from agar-Carbomer hydrogel were studied taking into consideration the different drug concentrations and clearances typically achieved in in vitro or in vivo tests. Starting from the experiments it is possible to model the transport phenomenon and to calculate the diffusion coefficient through the hydrogel matrix.     

Unrevealing the hidden link between sustainable alkylation and hydrogen transfer processes with alcohols

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Use of polystyrene brushes to investigate the role of interface between substrates and thin homogeneous films

The viscoelastic properties of thin polystyrene (PS) films depend on confinement, as it can modify the molecular dynamics affecting the glass transition. In the recent past, the authors have investigated the region next to the free interface by means of an atomic force microscope suitably modified to monitor the indentation of a tip into a film during a given lapse of time while applying a constant load. Herein, to explore the interface with the substrate, the authors report on experiments in which PS brushes grafted to native silicon oxide were used. It was found that the film wettability on brushes and H‐terminated silicon can be highly improved when compared with native silicon oxide. In addition, the glass transition temperature of thin films increases up to the bulk value in the case of film/brush combinations with high molecular weight or films with high molecular weight on H‐terminated silicon. Data are discussed according to hypotheses such as residual solvent presence, interface free volume, and molecular mechanical coupling. These observations can be of great interest for nanotechnological applications, especially in those instances where one needs to tailor the temperature dependence of viscoelastic properties of thin films. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2013, 51, 1149–1156     

Asymptotic Dynamics in Populations Structured by Sensitivity to Global Warming and Habitat Shrinking

How to recast effects of habitat shrinking and global warming on evolutionary dynamics into continuous mutation/selection models? Bearing this question in mind, we consider differential equations for structured populations, which include mutations, proliferation and competition for resources. Since mutations are assumed to be small, a parameter ε is introduced to model the average size of phenotypic changes. A well-posedness result is proposed and the asymptotic behavior of the density of individuals is studied in the limit ε→0. In particular, we prove the weak convergence of the density to a sum of Dirac masses and characterize the related concentration points. Moreover, we provide numerical simulations illustrating the theorems and showing an interesting sample of solutions depending on parameters and initial data.     

Synthetic Applications of Stereodefined 2-Substituted 1-Silyl-1-stannylethenes: A New Synthesis of 5-Ethenyl-5′-(1-propynyl)-2,2′-bithiophene,a Naturally-Occurring Phototoxin)

(E)-2-(5-Trimenthylstannyl-2-thienyl)ethenyldimethylphenylsilane. (E)-8, which can be stereospecifically prepared from (Z)-1-dimethylphenylsilyl-2-(2-thienyl)-1-trimethylstannyl-ethene, (Z)-6, or from (E)-2-(2-thienyl)ethenyldimethylphenylsilane, (E)-9, serves as an equivalent to the 2-ethenylthiophene d ¹', d ⁵-synthon, 20, in an efficient two-step synthesis of 5-ethenyl-5′-(1-propynyl)-2,2′-bithiophene, 10, a naturally-occurring phototoxin. In the first step of this synthesis compound (E)-8 undergoes a palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction with 2-iodo-5-(1-propynyl)thiophene, 16, and in th second step the so obtained cross-coupling product, (E)-17, undergoes a protodesilylation reaction.