Influence of Bovine Bone Content on In Vitro Degradation of Poly-L-lactic Acid and Bovine Bone Composite Materials

In vitro degradation experiments of poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) and bovine bone (BB) composites were carried out in a phosphate-buffered solution (PBS) at 37°C with a pH of 7.4. The influence of BB content on pH value of PBS, water uptake, molecular weights, molecular weight distributions, weight losses, mechanical strengths, and morphologies of PLLA/BB was investigated with degradation times. The results indicated that the presence of the BB modified the degradation of the PLLA matrix. The degradation rate of PLLA in the PLLA/BB composite was slower than the degradation rate of the sole PLLA material. Furthermore, the degradation rate of the composites became slower with the increasing content of BB in PLLA/BB composites.     

Low-threshold lasing in a plasmonic laser using nanoplate InGaN/GaN

Plasmonic nanolaser as a new type of ultra-small laser,has gain wide interests due to its breaking diffraction limit of light and fast carrier dynamics characters.Normally,the main problem that need to be solved for plasmonic nanolaser is high loss induced by optical and ohmic losses,which leads to the low quality factor.In this work,InGaN/GaN nanoplate plasmonic nanolaser with large interface area were designed and fabricated,where the overlap between SPs and excitons can be en-hanced.The lasing threshold is calculated to be ～6.36 kW/cm2,where the full width at half maximum (FWHM) drops from 27 to 4 nm.And the fast decay time at 502 nm (sharp peak of stimulated lasing) is estimated to be 0.42 ns.Enhanced lasing charac-ters are mainly attributed to the strong confinement of electromagnetic wave in the low refractive index material,which im-prove the near field coupling between SPs and excitons.Such plasmonic laser should be useful in data storage applications,bio-logical application,light communication,especially for optoelectronic devices integrated into a system on a chip.     

Mono-Heteroatom Substitution for Harnessing Excited-State Structural Planarization of Dihydrodibenzo[a,c]phenazines

With the aim of generalizing the structure–properties relationship of bending heterocyclic molecules that undergo prominent photoinduced structural planarization (PISP), a series of new dihydrodibenzo[ac]phenazine derivatives in which one nitrogen atom is replaced by oxygen ( PNO ), sulfur ( PNS ), selenium ( PNSe ), or dimethylmethanediyl ( PNC ) was strategically designed and synthesized. Compounds PNO , PNS , and PNSe have significantly nonplanar geometries in the ground state, which undergo PISP to give a planarlike conformer and hence a large emission Stokes shift. A combination of femtosecond early relaxation dynamics and computational approaches established an R*→I* (intermediate)→P* sequential kinetic pattern for PNS and PNSe , whereas PNO undergoes R*→P* one-step kinetics. The polarization ability of the substituted heteroatoms, which is in the order O<S<Se, correlates with their increase in π conjugation, and hence the Stokes shift of the emission is in the order PNO < PNS < PNSe . Compound PNSe with the largest PISP barrier was shown to be a highly sensitive viscosity probe. Further evidence for heteroatom-harnessing PISP is given by PNC , in which the dimethylmethanediyl substituent lacks lone pair electrons for π extension, showing the normal emission of the bent structure. The results led to the conclusion that PISP is ubiquitous in dihydrodibenzo[ac]phenazines, for which the driving force is elongation of the π delocalization to gain stabilization in the excited state.     

Simultaneous quantification of levofloxacin,pefloxacin, ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin in microvolumes of human plasma using high‐performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection

Levofloxacin, pefloxacin, ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin are four fluoroquinolones used in the treatment of serious bacterial infections. The antibacterial activity of fluoroquinolones is concentration dependent. Therefore, therapeutic drug monitoring in daily clinical practice is warranted to ensure the therapy's efficacy and prevent bacterial resistance. The purpose of the present study was to develop a method using high‐pressure liquid chromatography with an ultraviolet detector for simultaneous quantification of these four fluoroquinolones in human plasma. A 50 μL aliquot of plasma was precipitated by 200 μL of methanol using gatifloxacin as internal standard. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Kinetex XB‐C₁₈ column using a mobile phase composed of a mixture of orthophosphoric acid 0.4% (v/v), acetonitrile and methanol at a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min. Dual UV wavelength mode was used, with levofloxacin and moxifloxacin monitored at 293 nm, and pefloxacin and ciprofloxacin monitored at 280 nm. The calibration was linear over the ranges of 0.125–25 mg/L for levofloxacin, 0.1–20mg/L for moxifloxacin and 0.05‐10 mg/L for both pefloxacin and ciprofloxacin. Inter‐ and intra‐day trueness and precision were <13% for all the compounds under study. The proposed method was simple, reliable, cost‐effective and suitable for therapeutic drug monitoring or pharmacokinetics studies.     

Liquid crystalline behaviours of some 3-perfluoroalkylbenzoate esters

A series of 3-perfluoroalkylbenzoate esters are synthesised. They tend to exhibit enantiotropic SmA and SmC phases. The clearing points are decreased with increasing the alkoxy chain length and show odd-even effect. With increasing the fluorocarbon chain length, the melting and clearing points increase; however, the SmC phase is suppressed.     

Synthesis and Structure Determination of SCM-15: A 3D Large Pore Zeolite with Interconnected Straight 12×12×10-Ring Channels

A new germanosilicate zeolite named SCM-15 (Sinopec Composite Material No. 15), the first zeolite containing a 3-dimensional (3D) channel system with interconnected 12-, 12-, and 10-ring channels (pore sizes: 6.1×7.2, 6.1×7.4, and 5.2×5.9 Å), has been synthesized using neutral 4-pyrrolidinopyridine as organic structure-directing agents (OSDAs). Its structure has been determined by combining single-crystal electron diffraction (SCED) and synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction (SPXD) data. The unique open framework structure of SCM-15 is related to that of FOS-5 ( BEC ), ITQ-7 ( ISV ), PKU-16 ( POS ), ITQ-26 ( IWS ), ITQ-21, Beta polymorph B, and SU-78B, since all these framework structures can be constructed from similar chains which are connected through shared 4-ring or double 4-ring (d4r) units. Based on this relation, six topologically reasonable 3D large or extra-large pore hypothetical zeolites are predicted.     

Validated liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for quantification of ticagrelor and its active metabolite in human plasma

A rapid, simple and sensitive LC–MS/MS method was established and validated for simultaneous quantification of ticagrelor and its active metabolite AR‐C124910XX in human plasma. After plasma samples were deproteinized with acetonitrile, the post‐treatment samples were chromatographed on a Dikma C₁₈ column interfaced with a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer. Electrospray negative ionization mode and multiple reaction monitoring were adopted to assay ticagrelor and AR‐C124910XX. Acetonitrile and 5 mΜ ammonium acetate was used as the mobile phase with a gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The method was linear in the range of 0.781–800 ng/mL for both ticagrelor and AR‐C124910XX with a correlation coefficient ≥0.994. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions were within 12.61% in terms of relative standard deviation and the accuracy was within ±7.88% in terms of relative error. The LC–MS/MS method was fully validated for its sensitivity, selectivity, stability, matrix effect and recovery. This convenient and specific LC–MS/MS method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of ticagrelor and AR‐C124910XX in healthy volunteers after an oral dose of 90 mg ticagrelor.