ABSTRACTThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Drug Safety Communication for the antiseizure drug lamotrigine (Lamictal), warning of the risk of QRS prolongation and cardiac arrhythmias. The FDA also requested that other antiseizure medications with a similar mechanism of action (e.g., block of neuronal sodium channels), including cenobamate, be evaluated for their risk as a cardiac sodium channel blocker. The purpose of this in vitro study was to determine the cardiac sodium channel blocking effects of cenobamate and its sodium channel classification. Follow‐up experiments were also performed with cenobamate at its highest free therapeutic concentration (66 μM). Experiments were performed using the manual patch clamp technique at physiologic temperatures. Despite its classification as a Class Ib and Id antiarrhythmic, cenobamate was found to have little effect on the cardiac sodium channel when tested in vitro at therapeutic levels. These findings provide further clarity and support for the clinical safety of cenobamate in patients without cardiovascular risk factors.

High purity aluminum in its bulk form has intrinsicallyhigh reflectancein the far-ultraviolet (FUV) regime and finds utility in astrophysicalinstrumentation applications. However, bulk Al oxidizes rapidly inthe atmosphere, and its native oxide strongly absorbs and severelydegrades the observed FUV properties relative to bare Al. Varioustechniques have been investigated to produce coatings that inhibitaluminum oxide formation and lead to high FUV mirror reflectance.This work examines the development and use of a uniquely modified,hybrid plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) system to passivatealuminum mirrors with metal fluoride films. This system combines twoplasma sources in a commercial atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor.The first is a conventional inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sourceoperated as a remote plasma, and the second is an electron beam (e-beam)driven plasma near the mirror surface. To establish the operatingconditions for the in situ e-beam plasma source, the effects of samplegrounding, SF6/Ar flow, and sample temperature on resultingAlF3 films were investigated. Optimal operating conditionsproduced mirrors with excellent FUV reflectivity, 92% at 121 nm and42% at 103 nm wavelengths, which is comparable to state-of-the-artAlF3-based passivation coatings and matches that of previouslyreported ex situ e-beam plasma-processed mirrors. This optimized insitu e-beam process, along with XeF2 passivation, is thenexplored to produce a clean seed layer (unoxidized Al surface) forsubsequent PEALD of AlF3. Both approaches are demonstratedas valid pretreatments before PEALD of AlF3, showing apromising pathway for the deposition of other fluoride-based layers,such as MgF2 or LiF, with ALD or PEALD.

Topological insulators (TIs) are promising for efficient spin-orbit torque (SOT) switching of ferromagnets due to spin-momentum locking of their surface states. However, bulk-conducting channels limit their full potential for low-power operations. Here we synthesize bulk-insulating Bi2Se3 on (BiIn)2Se3/In2Se3 buffer layers by molecular beam epitaxy and compare their SOT efficiency to bulk-conducting Bi2Se3 using Kerr rotation and second harmonic Hall measurements. For bulk-insulating Bi2Se3, we find a 4-fold reduction in critical current density to switch an adjacent NiFe layer and a 5-10-fold enhancement in SOT efficiency, unambiguously demonstrating that Fermi level tuning can significantly enhance switching performance. This is attributed to current flowing predominantly through the top TI layer, where the generated spins are in close proximity to the NiFe interface. In addition, our heterostructures are grown in situ, where the clean interface can facilitate strong hybridization and the formation of "descendent states" with spin-momentum locking, leading to enhanced SOT efficiency.

ABSTRACTThe development of two new bio‐based phthalonitrile (PN) resin foams with intrinsic blowing agents is reported. The resins were characterized via attenuated total reflectance‐Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), pycnometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), rheometry, and compression testing. The porosity of 3‐[4‐(3,4‐Dicyanophenoxy)phenyl]‐2‐propenoic acid‐phthalonitrile CAPN and 3‐[3,4‐di(3,4‐Dicyanophenoxy)phenyl]‐2‐propenoic acid‐phthalonitrile CFPN were calculated to be 0.610 and 0.437 respectively. Thermal and thermooxidative stability was determined for both resins under nitrogen and air environments. CAPN and CFPN displayed final char yields of 67% and 69% under nitrogen environments while the T d,5% under air environments were 200°C and 360°C respectively. Finally, compression analysis shows the CAPN to be a stiffer material than the larger CFPN foam resin.