Influence of the Degree of Deacetylation of Chitosan and BMP-2 Concentration on Biocompatibility and Osteogenic Properties of BMP-2/PLA Granule-Loaded Chitosan/β-Glycerophosphate Hydrogels

Compositions based on chitosan/β-glycerophosphate hydrogels with highly porous polylactide granules can be used to obtain moldable bone graft materials that have osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties. To eliminate the influence of such characteristics as chain length, degree of purification, and molecular weight on a designed material, the one-stock chitosan sample was reacetylated to degrees of deacetylation (DD%) of 19.5, 39, 49, 55, and 56. A study of the chitosan/β-glycerophosphate hydrogel with chitosan of a reduced DD% showed that a low degree of deacetylation increased the MSCs (multipotent stromal cells) viability rate in vitro and reduced the leukocyte infiltration in subcutaneous implantation to Wistar rats in vivo. The addition of 12 wt% polylactide granules resulted in optimal composite mechanical and moldable properties, and increased the modulus of elasticity of the hydrogel-based material by approximately 100 times. Excessive filling of the material with PLA (polylactide) granules (more than 20%) led to material destruction at a ~10% strain. Osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties of the chitosan hydrogel-based material with reacetylated chitosan (39 DD%) and highly porous polylactide granules impregnated with BMP-2 (bone morphogenetic protein-2) have been demonstrated in models of orthotopic and ectopic bone formation. When implanted into a critical-size calvarial defect in rats, the optimal concentration of BMP-2 was 10 μg/mL: bone tissue areas filled the entire material’s thickness. Implantation of the material with 50 μg/mL BMP-2 was accompanied with excessive growth of bone tissue and material displacement beyond the defect. Significant osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties of the material with 10 μg/mL of BMP-2 were also shown in subcutaneous implantation.     

Spectral estimates for saddle point matrices arising in weak constraint four‐dimensional variational data assimilation

We consider the large sparse symmetric linear systems of equations that arise in the solution of weak constraint four‐dimensional variational data assimilation, a method of high interest for numerical weather prediction. These systems can be written as saddle point systems with a 3 × 3 block structure but block eliminations can be performed to reduce them to saddle point systems with a 2 × 2 block structure, or further to symmetric positive definite systems. In this article, we analyse how sensitive the spectra of these matrices are to the number of observations of the underlying dynamical system. We also obtain bounds on the eigenvalues of the matrices. Numerical experiments are used to confirm the theoretical analysis and bounds.     

基于深度学习的ELM实时识别研究

基于深度学习的方法，在HL-2A装置上开发出了一套边缘局域模(ELM)实时识别算法。算法使用5200次放电数据(约24.19万数据切片)进行学习，得到一个深度为22层的卷积神经网络。为衡量算法的识别能力，识别了HL-2A装置自2009年实现稳定ELMy H模放电以来所有历史数据(约26000次放电数据)，共识别出1665次H模放电，其中误识别35次，误报率为2.10%。在实际的1634次H模放电中，漏识别4次，漏识别率为0.24%。该误报率和漏报率可以满足ELM实时识别的精度要求。识别算法在实时控制环境下，对单个时间点的平均计算时间为0.46ms，可以满足实时控制的计算速度要求。     

Naphthalimide‐phthalimide derivative based photoinitiating systems for polymerization reactions under blue lights

Naphthalimide‐phthalimide derivatives (NDPDs) have been synthesized and combined with an iodonium salt, N‐vinylcarbazole, amine or 2,4,6‐tris(trichloromethyl)‐1,3,5‐triazine to produce reactive species (i.e., radicals and cations). These generated reactive species are capable of initiating the cationic polymerization of epoxides and/or the radical polymerization of acrylates upon exposure to very soft polychromatic visible lights or blue lights. Compared with the well‐known camphorquinone based systems used as references, the novel NDPD based combinations employed here demonstrate clearly higher efficiencies for the cationic polymerization of epoxides under air as well as the radical polymerization of acrylates. Remarkably, one of the NDPDs (i.e., NDPD2) based systems is characterized by an outstanding reactivity. The structure/reactivity/efficiency relationships of the investigated NDPDs were studied by fluorescence, cyclic voltammetry, laser flash photolysis, electron spin resonance spin trapping, and steady state photolysis techniques. The key parameters for their reactivity are provided. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 665–674     

Highly Luminescent Red Phosphorescent OLED with Interfacial Layers for Hole Transport and Electron Injection

Four kinds of red phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices were fabricated and compared to investigate the effect of interfacial layers for hole transport and electron injection. 1 nm-thick LiF in the device A and C and 1 nm-thick Cs₂CO₃ in the device B and D were deposited as an electron injection layer between the anode and the electron transport layer, and 5 nm-thick layer of dipyrazion[2,3-f:2′,2′-h]quinoxaline-2,3,6,7,10,11-hexacarbonitrile[HATCN] was inserted as a hole transport interfacial layer between the hole injection layer and the hole transport layer only in the device C and D. Under a luminance of 1000 cd/m², the power efficiencies were 7.6 lm/W and 8.5 lm/W in the device A and B, and 8.6 lm/W and 13.4 lm/W in the device C and D. The quantum efficiency of the device D was 15.8% under 1000 cd/m² which was somewhat lower than those of the device A and C, but a little higher than that of the device B. The luminance of the device D was much higher than those of the other devices at a given votage. The luminance of the device D at 7 V was 23,710 cd/m², which was 13.0, 3.4, and 4.0 times higher than those of the device A, B, and C at the same voltage, respectively.     

Monte Carlo simulation of electric conductivity for pure and doping fullerene (C60)

In this paper, we have used Monte Carlo (MC) method to simulate and study the temperature and doping effects on the electric conductivity of fullerene (C60). The results show that the band gap has reduced by the doping and the charge carrier transport is facilitated from valence band to conduction band by the temperature where is touched a 300 K. In this case, the conductivity reached a value of $4\times {10}^{-7}\text{S}{\text{cm}}^{-1}$. The electric conductivity of C60 can increase by the triphenylmethane dye crystal violet (CV) alkali metal to reach $4\times {10}^{-3}\text{S}{\text{cm}}^{-1}$ at 303 K. Our results of MC simulation have a good agreement with those extracted from literature [10], [33].     

Convergence of solutions for the fractional Cahn–Hilliard system

This paper deals with the Cauchy–Dirichlet problem for the fractional Cahn–Hilliard equation. The main results consist of global (in time) existence of weak solutions, characterization of parabolic smoothing effects (implying under proper condition eventual boundedness of trajectories), and convergence of each solution to a (single) equilibrium. In particular, to prove the convergence result, a variant of the so-called ?ojasiewicz–Simon inequality is provided for the fractional Dirichlet Laplacian and (possibly) non-analytic (but $C^1$) nonlinearities.     

Amphiphilic thermoset elastomers from metal‐free,click crosslinking of PEG‐grafted silicone surfactants

The hydrophobicity of silicone elastomers can compromise their utility in some biomaterials applications. Few effective processes exist to introduce hydrophilic groups onto a polysiloxane backbone and subsequently crosslink the material into elastomers. This problem can be overcome through the utilization of metal‐free click reactions between azidoalkylsilicones and alkynyl‐modified silicones and/or PEGs to both functionalize and crosslink silicone elastomers. Alkynyl‐functional PEG was clicked onto a fraction of the available azido groups of a functional polysiloxane, yielding azido reactive PDMS‐g‐PEG rake surfactants. The reactive polymers were then used to crosslink alkynyl‐terminated PDMS of different molecular weights. Using simple starting materials, this generic yet versatile method permits the preparation and characterization of a library of amphiphilic thermoset elastomers that vary in their composition, crosslink density, elasticity, hydrogel formation, and wettability. An appropriate balance of PEG length and crosslink density leads to a permanently highly wettable silicone elastomer that demonstrated very low levels of protein adsorption. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 1082–1093     

Theory of chemical bonds in metalloenzymes XXII: a concerted bond-switching mechanism for the oxygen–oxygen bond formation coupled with one electron transfer for water oxidation in the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II

ABSTRACT

QM(UB3LYP)/MM(AMBER) calculations were performed for the locations of the transition structure (TS) of the oxygen–oxygen (O–O) bond formation in the S₄ state of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII). The natural orbital (NO) analysis of the broken-symmetry (BS) solutions was also performed to elucidate the nature of the chemical bonds at TS on the basis of several chemical indices defined by the occupation numbers of NO. The computational results revealed a concerted bond switching (CBS) mechanism for the oxygen–oxygen bond formation coupled with the one-electron transfer (OET) for water oxidation in OEC of PSII. The orbital interaction between the σ-HOMO of the Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎ bond and the π*-LUMO of the Mn(V)₁=O₍₆₎ bond plays an important role for the concerted O–O bond formation for water oxidation in the CaMn₄O₆ cluster of OEC of PSII. One electron transfer (OET) from the π-HOMO of the Mn(V)₁=O₍₆₎ bond to the σ*-LUMO of the Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎ bond occurs for the formation of electron transfer diradical, where the generated anion radical [Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎]^-? part is relaxed to the ?Mn(III)₄?…?O₍₅₎^- structure and the cation radical [O₍₆₎=Mn(V)₁]⁺ ? part is relaxed to the ⁺O₍₆₎–Mn(IV)₁? structure because of the charge-spin separation for the electron-and hole-doped Mn–oxo bonds. Therefore, the local spins are responsible for the one-electron reductions of Mn(IV)₄->Mn(III)₄ and Mn(V)₁->Mn(IV)₁. On the other hand, the O₍₅₎^- and O₍₆₎⁺ sites generated undergo the O–O bond formation in the CaMn₄O₆ cluster. The Ca(II) ion in the cubane- skeleton of the CaMn₄O₆ cluster assists the above orbital interactions by the lowering of the orbital energy levels of π*-LUMO of Mn(V)₁=O₍₆₎ and σ*-LUMO of Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎, indicating an important role of its Lewis acidity. Present CBS mechanism for the O–O bond formation coupled with one electron reductions of the high-valent Mn ions is different from the conventional radical coupling (RC) and acid-base (AB) mechanisms for water oxidation in artificial and native photosynthesis systems. The proton-coupled electron transfer (PC-OET) mechanism for the O–O bond formation is also touched in relation to the CBS-OET mechanism.     

Gas-phase 21Ne NMR studies and the nuclear magnetic dipole moment of neon-21

Gas-phase ²¹Ne nuclear magnetic resonance spectra were measured at the natural abundance of ²¹Ne isotope for samples consisting of pressurized neon up to 60 bar at room temperature and applying the magnetic field of the strength B₀ = 11.7574 T. It showed that the nuclear magnetic resonance frequency is linearly dependent on the density of gaseous neon. The resonance frequency was extrapolated to the zero-density point, and it permitted the determination of the ²¹Ne nuclear magnetic moment, μ(²¹Ne) = 0.6617774(10) μ_N. The present value of μ(²¹Ne) is not influenced by the bulk magnetic susceptibility of neon and interactions between neon atoms; therefore, it is more precise and reliable than the previous result obtained for μ(²¹Ne).