Phosphorus‐containing polyamide Mg(OH)2 nanocomposite coating on surface of poly(vinyl chloride) thin film: Study on thermal stability,flammability, and mechanical properties

Surface of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) thin films was coated using DOPO‐based polyamide (DBPA) coating and DBPA/Mg(OH)₂ nanocomposites (DBPN) coating by dip‐coating process. For this purpose, a new DOPO‐based dicarboxylic acid (DBDA) was synthesized and used for preparation of DBPA and organically surface modification of Mg(OH)₂ nanoparticles. The effects of DBPA and DBPN coatings on the morphology, thermal stability, combustion, and mechanical properties of PVC were investigated. The uniform dispersion of Mg(OH)₂ nanoparticles (nano‐MDH) and organically coating manner on the surface of the PVC films were confirmed by ATR‐IR spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM), energy dispersive X‐ray, and elemental mapping. From thermal gravimetry analysis (TGA) results, the 10 mass% loss temperature (T₁₀) increased from 268°C to 272°C in PVC coated with DBPA‐containing 10 mass% of modified Mg(OH)₂ (MMH). Also the char residue, first and second mass loss temperatures of all PVC coated were increased compared with the neat PVC film. According to microscale combustion calorimetry (MCC) results, the peak of heat release rate (pHHR) and total heat release (THR) were decreased from 128 ± 2 to 69 W/g and 12 ± 1 to 4 ± 2 KJ/g for PVC film coated with DBPA‐containing 10 mass% of MMH, compared with the neat PVC. From tensile test results, tensile strength was increased from 31.78 ± 0.8 to 39.64 ± 0.9 MPa for PVC coated with polyamide‐containing 5 mass% of MMH compared with the neat PVC.     

Surveying FDA-approved drugs as new potential inhibitors of N-cadherin protein: a virtual screening approach

Since N-cadherin protein plays a remarkable role in cancer metastasis and tumor growth and progression, finding new effective inhibitors of this protein can be of high importance in cancer treatment. Nevertheless, few molecules have been introduced to inhibit N-cadherin protein to date. In this work, in order to find and present potent inhibitors, 3358 FDA-approved small molecules were docked against N-cadherin protein. All complexes with binding energy ??9 to ??8 kcal/mol were selected for protein-ligand interaction analysis. In the following, Tanimoto coefficient (T_c) was calculated for those molecules that established appropriate interactions with N-cadherin in order to compute the similarity score between them. Afterwards, molecular dynamics simulation and free energy calculations were done to estimate the stability and ability of the chosen ligands in complex with the target protein. Finally, seven small molecules among 3358 FDA-approved were suggested as potential inhibitors of N-cadherin protein.

     

Selenium Nanomaterials to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

The rise of antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics (AMR) as a healthcare crisis has led to a tremendous social and economic impact, whose damage poses a significant threat to future generations. Current treatments either are less effective or result in further acquired resistance. At the same time, several new antimicrobial discovery approaches are expensive, slow, and relatively poorly equipped for translation into the clinical world. Therefore, the use of nanomaterials is presented as a suitable solution. In particular, this review discusses selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) as one of the most promising therapeutic agents based in the nanoscale to treat infections effectively. This work summarizes the latest advances in the synthesis of SeNPs and their progress as antimicrobial agents using traditional and biogenic approaches. While physiochemical methods produce consistent nanostructures, along with shortened processing procedures and potential for functionalization of designs, green or biogenic synthesis represents a quick, inexpensive, efficient, and eco-friendly approach with more promise for tunability and versatility. In the end, the clinical translation of SeNPs faces various obstacles, including uncertain in vivo safety profiles and mechanisms of action and unclear regulatory frameworks. Nonetheless, the promise possessed by these metalloid nanostructures, along with other nanoparticles in treating bacterial infections and slowing down the AMR crisis, are worth exploring.     

MicroRNA‐2861 and nanofibrous scaffold synergistically promote human induced pluripotent stem cells osteogenic differentiation

Tissue engineering using new strategies has become a growing and promising method for treating large tissue lesions in the body. On the other hand, microRNAs (miRNAs), which are small non‐coding regulatory RNAs, are a new class of genetic materials that can have effective pharmacological roles. The combination of these two themes has created promising prospects for the treatment of diseases. Herein, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were transduced with miRNA‐2861 and then the osteogenic differentiation potential of transduced iPSCs and non‐transduced iPSCs was investigated while cultured on the electrospun poly lactic‐co‐glycolic acid (PLGA) nanofibrous scaffold and culture plate. MiR‐2861‐transduced iPSCs showed a significantly higher viability, mineralization, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, calcium content, and bone‐related gene expression in comparison with those iPSCs that non‐transduced. The results also indicated that this increase is improved when miR‐2861 transduced iPSCs are cultured on the PLGA nanofibrous scaffold synergistically. This synergy was also confirmed by the results obtained from of Western blot analysis. It can be concluded that, miR‐2861, by negative regulation of those proteins that decrease/inhibit osteogenic differentiation and PLGA nanofibrous scaffold by preparation of a suitable artificial extracellular matrix, have a great positive impact in improving iPSCs osteogenic differentiation potential and this blend can be proposed to use in bone tissue engineering application.     

The formation of low resistance electrical contacts to shallow junction InP devices without compromising emitter integrity

An investigation is made into the possibility of providing low resistance contacts to shallow junction InP devices which do not require sintering and which do not cause device degradation even when subjected to extended annealing at elevated temperatures. We show that the addition of In to Au contacts in amounts that exceed the solid solubility limit lowers the as-fabricated (unsintered) contact resistivityR _c to the 10^-5 ohm-cm² range. If the In content is made to correspond exactly to that required to form the intermediate compound Au₉ln₄, then the contacts so formed are stable, both electrically and metallurgically, even after extended annealing (12 hr) at 400° C. We next consider the contact system Au/Au₂P₃ which has been shown to exhibit as-fabricatedR _c values in the 10^-6 ohm-cm² range, but which fails quickly when heated. We show that the substitution of a refractory metal (W, Ta) for Au preserves the lowR _c values while preventing the destructive reactions that would normally take place in this system at high temperatures. We show, finally, thatR _c values in the 10 ohm-cm² range can be achievedwithout sintering by combining the effects of In or Ga additions to Au contacts with the effects of introducing a thin Au₂P₃ layer at the metal-InP interface.     

‘Click Synthesis’ of 1H‐1,2,3‐Triazolyl‐Based Oxiconazole (=(1Z)‐1‐(2,4‐Dichlorophenyl)‐2‐(1H‐imidazol‐1‐yl)ethanone O‐[(2,4‐Dichlorophenyl)methyl]oxime) Analogs

The ‘click synthesis’ of some oxiconazole analogs 5a – 5v having 1H‐1,2,3‐triazolyl residues by Huisgen cycloaddition was achieved in four steps (Scheme 1). Oximation of phenacyl chloride ( 1 ) followed by azidation of 2‐chloro‐1‐phenylethanone oxime ( 2 ) provided azido ketoxime 3 . The CuI‐catalyzed Huisgen cycloaddition of 3 with terminal alkynes gave the 4‐substituted (at the triazole) 2‐(1H‐1,2,3‐triazol‐1‐yl)‐1‐phenylethanone oximes 4a – 4i . The O‐alkylation of 4a – 4i with various alkyl halides resulted in the formation of the target molecules 5a – 5v in good yields.     

CSI-Based Resource Allocation for OFDM Downlink Broadband Multimedia Services in Cellular Systems

Using channel state information (CSI) in resource allocation in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless cellular systems has been recently considered to improve the overall throughput. This paper presents an analytical framework to compare the performance of two resource allocation schemes, using CSI-based and random sub-carrier selection, in terms of their user outage probability and throughput in relation to the system load in frequency-selective fading and interference-limited environments. Analytical and simulation results are in good agreement and indicate that a proper use of CSI can achieve substantially better performance in interference limited cellular systems as compared to the blind approach and thus show the benefits of multi-user diversity.     

Copper-doped silica cuprous sulfate (CDSCS) as a highly efficient and new heterogeneous nano catalyst for [3+2] Huisgen cycloaddition

The synthesis and characterization of copper-doped silica cuprous sulfate (CDSCS) as a new and efficient heterogeneous nano catalyst are described. CDSCS has been fully characterized by different microscopic, spectroscopic and physical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic forced microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and FT-IR. CDSCS is proved to be a useful heterogeneous nano catalyst in Cu(I)-catalyzed ‘Click’ cycloaddition of organic azides with terminal alkynes. CDSCS catalyzes the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of β-azido alcohols and alkynes at room temperature, in THF/H₂O (1:1, v/v) solution. Using CDSCS, 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazole adducts are mainly obtained, in good to excellent yields and in short reaction times. These compounds have featural resemblance to β-adrenoceptor blocking agents. CDSCS was approved as a chemically and thermally stable nano catalyst that can be reused for many consecutive trials without a significant decline in its reactivity.     

Adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control scheme for uncertain systems

Most physical systems inherently contain nonlinearities which are commonly unknown to the system designer. Therefore, in modeling and analysis of such dynamic systems, one needs to handle unknown nonlinearities and/or uncertain parameters. This paper proposes a new adaptive tracking fuzzy sliding mode controller for a class of nonlinear systems in the presence of uncertainties and external disturbances. The main contribution of the proposed method is that the structure of the controlled system is partially unknown and does not require the bounds of uncertainty and disturbance of the system to be known; meanwhile, the chattering phenomenon that frequently appears in the conventional variable structure systems is also eliminated without deteriorating the system robustness. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated for two well-known benchmark problems. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed controller.