In vitro investigation of cartilage regeneration properties of polymeric ceramic hybrid composite

There would be a major effect on the cartilage regeneration characteristics of ceramic material in a substrate implant requiring biologically active biomaterials and the reinforcement phase. At this moment, we produced collagen-hyaluronic acid @ hydroxyapatite-halloysite nanotube-single walled carbon nanotube composites, which is a successful technique for making a scaffold with a superior counter for cartilage property. FTIR, XRD, and SEM-EDAX were used to perform morphological and structural studies. The prepared composite's surface feature was investigated and discovered by HRTEM-SAED analysis, and it observed porous nature. The simulated body fluids (SBF) assessment of the materials was noticed their bioactivity and chondrocytes to determine their biocompatibility. Hybrid composite displayed promise for cartilage tissue engineering despite mesenchymal stem cells compatibility effect and magnificently demonstrated an antibacterial effect without antibiotics. The live/dead cells analysis shows that the composite can significantly improve mesenchymal stem cells, and the composite has the potential ability for cartilage regeneration. The above characteristics make the material quite interesting and important in the area for regenerative medicinal uses.     

Developing Flexible Quinacridone-Derivatives-Based Photothermal Evaporaters for Solar Steam and Thermoelectric Power Generation

Solar-driven interfacial vaporization by localizing solar-thermal energy conversion to the air−water interface has attracted tremendous attention. In the process of converting solar energy into heat energy, photothermal materials play an essential role. Herein, a flexible solar-thermal material di-cyan substituted 5,12-dibutylquinacridone (DCN−4CQA)@Paper was developed by coating photothermal quinacridone derivatives on the cellulose paper. The DCN−4CQA@Paper combines desired chemical and physical properties, broadband light-absorbing, and shape-conforming abilities that render efficient photothermic vaporization. Notably, synergetic coupling of solar-steam and solar-electricity technologies by integrating DCN−4CQA@Paper and the thermoelectric devices is realized without trade-offs, highlighting the practical consideration toward more impactful solar heat exploitation. Such solar distillation and low-grade heat-to-electricity generation functions can provide potential opportunities for fresh water and electricity supply in off-grid or remote areas.     

Functional Binding Surface of a β‐Hairpin VEGF Receptor Targeting Peptide Determined by NMR Spectroscopy in Living Cells

In this study, the functional interaction of HPLW peptide with VEGFR2 (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2) was determined by using fast ¹⁵N‐edited NMR spectroscopic experiments. To this aim, ¹⁵N uniformly labelled HPLW has been added to Porcine Aortic Endothelial Cells. The acquisition of isotope‐edited NMR spectroscopic experiments, including ¹⁵N relaxation measurements, allowed a precise characterization of the in‐cell HPLW epitope recognized by VEGFR2.     

Microwave‐assisted polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with dibromoarylene

The Pd‐catalyzed polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with various dibromoarylenes was carried out under microwave heating. Microwave heating led to a decrease in the reaction time and an increase in the molecular weight of the polymers as compared to conventional heating. Microwave heating also allowed the catalyst loading to be reduced to 1 mol %, yielding polymerization results that were comparable to those under conventional heating and 5 mol % catalyst. Investigations regarding field‐effect transistors and organic photovoltaic cells using the obtained poly(arylamine) with azobenzene units revealed that increasing the molecular weight of the polymer led to improved device performance, including hole mobility and power conversion efficiency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 536–542     

Simultaneous quantification of leukotrienes and hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids in cell culture medium using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Leukotrienes (LTs) and hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs) are important bioactive lipid mediators that participate in various pathophysiological processes. To advance understanding of the mechanisms that regulate these mediators in physiological and pathological processes, an analytical method using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry for the simultaneous quantification of LTB₄, LTC₄, LTD₄, LTE₄, 5‐HETE_, 8‐HETE, 12‐HETE and 15‐HETE in cell culture media was developed. A Supel?‐Select HLB solid‐phase extraction cartridge was used for sample preparation. The compounds were separated on a C₁₈ column using gradient elution with acetonitrile–water–formic acid (20:80:0.1, v/v/v) and acetonitrile–formic acid (100:0.1, v/v). The calibration curves of LTB₄, LTD₄, LTE₄ and HETEs were linear in the range of 0.025–10 ng/mL, and the calibration curve of LTC₄ was linear in the range of 0.25–10 ng/mL. Validation assessment showed that the method was highly reliable with good accuracy and precision. The stability of LTs and HETEs was also investigated. Using the developed method, we measured LTs and HETEs in the culture supernatant of the human mast cell line HMC‐1. The present method could facilitate investigations of the mechanisms that regulate the production, release and signaling of LTs and HETEs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel LC–MS/MS method for the determination of ziritaxestat in rat plasma and its pharmacokinetic study

Ziritaxestat is a first-in-class autotoxin inhibitor. The purpose of this study was to develop a liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) method for the determination of ziritaxestat in rat plasma. The plasma sample was deproteinated using acetonitrile and then separated on an Acquity BEH C₁₈ column with water containing 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as mobile phase, which was delivered at 0.4 ml/min. Ziritaxestat and the internal standard (crizotinib) were quantitatively monitored with precursor-to-product transitions of m/z 589.3 > 262.2 and m/z 450.1 > 260.2, respectively. The total running time was 2.5 min. The method showed excellent linearity over the concentration range 0.5–2000 ng/ml, with correlation coefficient >0.9987. The extraction recovery was >82.09% and the matrix effect was not significant. Inter- and intra-day precisions (RSD) were <11.20% and accuracies were in the range of −8.50–7.45%. Ziritaxestat was demonstrated to be stable in rat plasma under the tested conditions. The validated LC–MS/MS method was successfully applied to study the pharmacokinetic profiles of ziritaxestat in rat plasma after intravenous and oral administration. Pharmacokinetic results demonstrated that ziritaxestat displayed a short half-life (~3 h) and low bioavailability (20.52%).     

Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Gold Halide Perovskites: Structural Diversity through Cation Size

Crystal structures of a series of organic–inorganic hybrid gold iodide perovskites, formulated as A₂[Au^II₂][Au^IIII₄] [A=methylammonium (MA) ( 1 ) and formamidinium (FA) ( 2 )], A′₂[I₃]_1−x[Au^II₂]_x[Au^IIII₄] [A′=imidazolium (IMD) ( 3 ), guanidinium (GUA) ( 4 ), dimethylammonium (DMA) ( 5 ), pyridinium (PY) ( 6 ), and piperizinium (PIP) ( 7 )], systematically changed depending on the cation size. In addition, triiodide (I₃⁻) ions were partly incorporated into the AuI₂⁻ sites of 3 – 7 , whereas they were not incorporated into those of 1 and 2 . Such a difference comes from the size of the organic cation. Optical absorption spectra showed characteristic intervalence charge-transfer bands from Au^I to Au^III species, and the optical band gap increased as the size of the cation became larger.     

Designing spirobifullerene core based three-dimensional cross shape acceptor materials with promising photovoltaic properties for high-efficiency organic solar cells

The development of organic electron acceptor materials is one of the key factors for realizing high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs). Nonfullerene electron acceptors, compared to traditional fullerene acceptor materials, have gained much impetus owing to their better optoelectronic tunabilities and lower cost, as well as higher stability. Therefore, 5 three-dimensional (3D) cross-shaped acceptor materials having a spirobifullerene core flanked with 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole are designed from a recently synthesized highly efficient acceptor molecule SF(BR) ₄ and are investigated in detail with regard to their use as acceptor molecules in OSCs. The density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations have been performed for the estimation of frontier molecular orbital (FMO) analysis, density of states analysis, reorganization energies of electron and hole, dipole moment, open-circuit voltage, photo-physical characteristics, and transition density matrix analysis. In addition, the structure-property relationship is studied, and the influence of end-capped acceptor modifications on photovoltaic, photo-physical, and electronic properties of newly selected molecules ( H1-H5 ) is calculated and compared with reference ( R ) acceptor molecule SF(BR) ₄ . The structural tailoring at terminals was found to effectively tune the FMO band gap, energy levels, absorption spectra, open-circuit voltage, reorganization energy, and binding energy value in selected molecules H1 to H5 . The 3D cross-shaped molecules H1 to H5 suppress the intermolecular aggregation in PTB7-Th blend, which leads to high efficiency of acceptor material H1 to H5 in OSCs. Consequently, better optoelectronic properties are achieved from designed molecules H1 to H5 . It is proposed that the conceptualized molecules are superior than highly efficient spirobifullerene core-based SF(BR) ₄ acceptor molecules and, thus, are recommended to experiments for future developments of highly efficient solar cells.     

Colloidal ZnO nanostructures and functional coatings: A survey

The past research work devoted to ZnO nanocolloidal sol-gel route is reviewed. It highlights the cluster chemistry of alcoholic ZnAc₂ solutions and the results of ZnO colloid growth investigations performed worldwide. Moreover, the role of doping and co-doping in the processing of functional ZnO coatings is discussed. The possibilities of tuning the optical properties are also reported with a particular attention to luminescence. The last part of this paper deals with electrical and photoelectrochemical properties of ZnO nanocrystals and their aggregates. This contribution is dedicated to the 80th birthday of Prof. Arnim Henglein from the Hahn-Meitner-Institut in Berlin and to the memory of Prof. Jacques Mugnier from the Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1 in France.     

Two-component model of solar plages

By use of the 2-m Mcmath-Pierce telescope at Kitt Peak, the high-quality spectra of a plage with moderate brightness near the center of solar disk were obtained. The data include seven spectral lines, which are Hα, Hβ, CaII H and K lines and the infrared triplet. With the consideration of fine structures of solar plages, a two-component atmospheric model is constructed by keeping the cool component to be the quiet atmosphere. Three cases of the hot component are given for different filling factors where the temperature and density distribution are adjusted in order to reproduce the seven observed spectral profiles. We also briefly discuss the influence of the column density at the base of the corona, m0, and the macro-turbulent velocity on the required filling factor and computed profiles. The two-component model is compared with precious one-component semi-empirical models. The limitation of the model is pointed out and further improvement is indicated.