A targeted review of bio-derived plasticizers with flame retardant functionality used in PVC

Journal of Materials Science - For decades, a wide variety of products have benefitted from the use of flexible PVC, ranging from healthcare to cable to packaging & household items. The...     

Direct ink writing of vancomycin-loaded polycaprolactone/ polyethylene oxide/ hydroxyapatite 3D scaffolds

Novel inks were formulated by dissolving polycaprolactone (PCL), a hydrophobic polymer, in organic solvent systems; polyethylene oxide (PEO) was incorporated to extend the range of hydrophilicity of the system. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) with a weight ratio of 55–85% was added to the polymer-based solution to mimic the material composition of natural bone tissue. The direct ink writing (DIW) technique was applied to extrude the formulated inks to fabricate the predesigned tissue scaffold structures; the influence of HAp concentration was investigated. The results indicate that in comparison to other inks containing HAp (55%, 75%, and 85%w/w), the ink containing 65% w/w HAp had faster ink recovery behavior; the fabricated scaffold had a rougher surface as well as better mechanical properties and wettability. It is noted that the 65% w/w HAp concentration is similar to the inorganic composition of natural bone tissue. The elastic modulus values of PCL/PEO/HAp scaffolds were in the range of 4–12 MPa; the values were dependent on the HAp concentration. Furthermore, vancomycin as a model drug was successfully encapsulated in the PCL/PEO/HAp composite scaffold for drug release applications. This paper presents novel drug-loaded PCL/PEO/HAp inks for 3D scaffold fabrication using the DIW printing technique for potential bone scaffold applications.     

Untersuchung und Klassifikation der Fahreraufmerksamkeit bei längerer partiell automatisierter Fahrt

Forschung im Ingenieurwesen - Um die Unfallzahlen weiter zu senken, schreibt die Europäische Union ab 2030 eine höhere Fahrerüberwachung für neue Fahrzeuge vor. Bislang liegt...     

Chemoenzymatic Total Synthesis of Sorbicatechol Structural Analogues and Evaluation of Their Antiviral Potential

Sorbicillinoids are fungal polyketides characterized by highly complex and diverse molecular structures, with considerable stereochemical intricacy combined with a high degree of oxygenation. Many sorbicillinoids possess promising biological activities. An interesting member of this natural product family is sorbicatechol A, which is reported to have antiviral activity, particularly against influenza A virus (H1N1). Through a straightforward, one-pot chemoenzymatic approach with recently developed oxidoreductase SorbC, the characteristic bicyclo[2.2.2]octane core of sorbicatechol is structurally diversified by variation of its natural 2-methoxyphenol substituent. This facilitates the preparation of a focused library of structural analogues bearing substituted aromatic systems, alkanes, heterocycles, and ethers. Fast access to this structural diversity provides an opportunity to explore the antiviral potential of the sorbicatechol family.     

An Exemplar Imidazoline Surfactant for Corrosion Inhibitor Studies: Synthesis,Characterization, and Physicochemical Properties

An optimized one-pot recipe has been developed to synthesize a surfactant molecule, referred to as OMID, consisting of an imidazoline head group and aliphatic tail, which is an exemplar corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in acidic solutions. As evidenced by gas chromatography, ¹H and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance, and Fourier-transform infrared data, a high-purity product was achieved without the use of either a solvent or catalyst. Critical micelle concentration values and corrosion inhibition efficiencies ( η %) were determined in aqueous solutions of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid using surface tensiometry and linear polarization resistance measurements, respectively. Hydrolysis of the imidazoline head group as a function of pH (0–11) was explored with ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy. In addition, N 1s and C 1s X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data were acquired from both surface-adsorbed OMID and a multilayer of the imidazoline head group of OMID. These latter data are highly relevant to those attempting to understand OMID inhibition chemistry.     

From Oxadiazole to Triazole Analogues: Optimization toward a Dual Orexin Receptor Antagonist with Improved in vivo Efficacy in Dogs

The orexin system is responsible for regulating the sleep-wake cycle. Suvorexant, a dual orexin receptor antagonist (DORA) is approved by the FDA for the treatment of insomnia disorders. Herein, we report the optimization efforts toward a DORA, where our starting point was (5-methoxy-4-methyl-2-[1,2,3]triazol-2-yl-phenyl)-{(S)-2-[5-(2-trifluoromethoxy-phenyl)-[1,2,4]oxadiazol-3-yl]-pyrrolidin-1-yl}methanone ( 6 ), a compound which emerged from our in-house research program. Compound 6 was shown to be a potent, brain-penetrating DORA with in vivo efficacy similar to suvorexant in rats. However, shortcomings from low metabolic stability, high plasma protein binding (PPB), low brain free fraction (f_u brain), and low aqueous solubility, were identified and hence, compound 6 was not an ideal candidate for further development. Our optimization efforts addressing the above-mentioned shortcomings resulted in the identification of (4-chloro-2-[1,2,3]triazol-2-yl-phenyl)-{(S)-2-methyl-2-[5-(2-trifluoromethoxy-phenyl)-4H-[1,2,4]triazol-3-yl]-pyrrolidin-1-yl}l-methanone ( 42 ), a DORA with improved in vivo efficacy compared to 6 .     

Differences between oculomotor and perceptual artifacts for temporally limited head mounted displays

We used perceptual and oculomotor measures to understand the negative impacts of low (phantom array) and high (motion blur) duty cycles with a high‐speed, AR‐likehead‐mounted display prototype. We observed large intersubject variability for the detection of phantom array artifacts but a highly consistent and systematic effect on saccadic eye movement targeting during low duty cycle presentations. This adverse effect on saccade endpoints was also related to an increased error rate in a perceptual discrimination task, showing a direct effect of display duty cycle on the perceptual quality. For high duty cycles, the probability of detecting motion blur increased during head movements, and this effect was elevated at lower refresh rates. We did not find an impact of the temporal display characteristics on compensatory eye movements during head motion (e.g., VOR). Together, our results allow us to quantify the tradeoff of different negative spatiotemporal impacts of user movements and make subsequent recommendations for optimized temporal HMD parameters.     

Modification of pool boiling regimes by sand deposition

Sand spots, attached to a copper ball surface by means of polyvinyl acetate adhesive and distributed over the surface with areal density that ranges between one spot per 1.18 cm² (for low‐density spots) and one spot per 0.51 cm² (for high‐density spots), serve as a temporary heat transfer enhancer during the quenching in liquid nitrogen. Highest heat flux densities, achieved during quenching, lie in the range 10.8 to 20.2 W/cm², depending on the sand layer structure. Application of the temporary enhancer increases an amount of heat, evacuated by highly effective nucleate and transition boiling, by factor of 4.5 as compared with the bare sample. The process of sand layer preparation, data acquisition peculiarities, relationship between heat exchange efficiency and the spots areal density, along with sand grit size are discussed in this paper.     

Understanding the metabolic burden of recombinant antibody production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a quantitative metabolomics approach

The cellular changes induced by heterologous protein expression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been analysed on many levels and found to be significant. However, even though high‐level protein production poses a metabolic burden, evaluation of the expression host at the level of the metabolome has often been neglected. We present a comparison of metabolite profiles of a wild‐type strain with those of three strains producing recombinant antibody variants of increasing size and complexity: an scFv fragment, an scFv–Fc fusion protein and a full‐length IgG molecule. Under producing conditions, all three recombinant strains showed a clear decrease in growth rate compared with the wild‐type strain and the severity of the growth phenotype increased with size of the protein. The levels of 76 intracellular metabolites were determined using a targeted (semi) quantitative mass spectrometry based approach. Based on unsupervised and supervised multivariate analysis of metabolite profiles, together with pathway activity profiling, the recombinant strains were found to be significantly different from each other and from the wild‐type strain. We observed the most prominent changes in metabolite levels for metabolites involved in amino acid and redox metabolism. Induction of the unfolded protein response was detected in all producing strains and is considered to be a contributing factor to the overall metabolic burden on the cells.     

Optical Control of Cellular ATP Levels with a Photocaged Adenylate Kinase

We have developed a new tool for the optical control of cellular ATP concentrations with a photocaged adenylate kinase (Adk). The photocaged Adk is generated by substituting a catalytically essential lysine with a hydroxycoumarin-protected lysine through site-specific unnatural amino acid mutagenesis in both E. coli and mammalian cells. Caging of the critical lysine residue offers complete suppression of Adk's phosphotransferase activity and rapid restoration of its function both in vitro and in vivo upon optical stimulation. Light-activated Adk renders faster rescue of cell growth than chemically inducible expression of wild-type Adk in E. coli as well as rapid ATP depletion in mammalian cells. Thus, caging Adk provides a new tool for direct conditional perturbation of cellular ATP concentrations thereby enabling the investigation of ATP-coupled physiological events in temporally dynamic contexts.