Easy Transfer Research Articles

Polyacrylate-Cholesterol Amphiphilic Derivative: Formulation Development and Scale-up for Health Care Applications.

The novel amphiphilic polyacrylate grafted with cholesterol moieties, PAAbCH, previously synthesized, was deeply characterized and investigated in the lab and on a pre-industrial scale. Solid-state NMR analysis confirmed the polymer structure, and several water-based pharmaceutical and cosmetic products were developed. In particular, stable oil/water emulsions with vegetable oils, squalene, and ceramides were prepared, as well as hydrophilic medicated films loaded with diclofenac, providing a prolonged drug release. PAAbCH also formed polyelectrolyte hydrogel complexes with chitosan, both at the macro- and nano-scale. The results demonstrate that this polymer has promising potential as an innovative excipient, acting as a solubility enhancer, viscosity enhancer, and emulsifying agent with an easy scale-up transfer process.

Mathematical modeling and simulation of oxygen mass transfer in rotating biological contactor (RBC) for bacterial cellulose production

The Rotary Biological Contact (RBC) reactor has a unique aeration system that provides a moving bed for easy and efficient oxygen transfer within the system to overcome the limitations of stationary culture in bacterial cellulose (BC) production. In most cases, oxygen mass transfer is the limiting factor of an aerobic process, hence the changes in the oxygen mass transfer coefficient within the system have been given special attention. In this study, the RBC bioreactor producing BC was modeled based on one-dimensional oxygen mass transfer in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the discs. The Monod kinetic model has been used to express cell growth. Simulation of the mathematical model was done based on the numerical solution with finite difference method in MATLAB software. Sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the effect of changing different system parameters in RBC modeling. The simulation results showed that with the increase in angular velocity, the oxygen transfer coefficient and subsequently the mass transfer rate increase. Also, at a certain angular velocity, the oxygen mass transfer coefficient increases with the increase of immersion depth. The best disk rotation speed considering other parameters as well as the laboratory results was 13 rpm with a 45% indentation percentage and the optimal distance between the disks was 1.5 cm.

A cryogenically cooled 200kV DC photoemission electron gun for ultralow emittance photocathodes.

Novel photocathode materials like ordered surfaces of single crystal metals, epitaxially grown high quantum efficiency thin films, and topologically non-trivial materials with dirac cones show great promise for generating brighter electron beams for various accelerator and ultrafast electron scattering applications. Despite several materials being identified as brighter photocathodes, none of them have been tested in electron guns to extract electron beams due to technical and logistical challenges. In this paper, we present the design and commissioning of a cryocooled 200kV DC electron gun that is capable of testing a wide variety of novel photocathode materials over a broad range of temperatures from 298 to 35K for bright electron beam generation. This gun is designed to enable easy transfer of the photocathode to various standard ultra-high-vacuum surface diagnostics and preparation techniques, allowing a full characterization of the dependence of beam brightness on the photocathode material and surface properties. We demonstrate the development of such a high-voltage, high-gradient gun using materials and equipment that are easily available in any standard university lab, making the development of such 200kV electron guns more accessible.

Scalable synthesis of MOF-derived Nd2O3@C and V2O5@C nanohybrid: Efficient electrocatalyst for OER in alkaline medium

Craving to search for renewable energy reservoirs for the development of green and robust electrocatalysts, now become essential for catalytic performance by using energy conversion devices. Herein, we fabricated a metal–organic framework (MOF) derived transition metal and rare earth metal oxides-based materials for water electrocatalysis. MOF is regarded as the potential hotspot to increase catalytic activity through fascinating chemical and structural traits. This study summarizes the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of MOF-derived Nd2O3@C and V2O5@C by depositing them on stainless steel substrate (SS) in an alkaline medium. The grown electrocatalysts Nd2O3, V2O5, Nd-MOF, V-MOF, and MOF-derived Nd2O3@C and V2O5@C probed by various useful techniques to confirm oxidation states, phase-changing, structural, morphological, and compositional properties. The MOF-derived Nd2O3@C and V2O5@C formed irregular spherical shaped and nanorod-like morphology, respectively, which proved helpful for the easy transfer of electrons to enhance OER. The electrochemical study indicates that among all electrocatalysts, the V2O5@C electrode exhibits remarkable electrochemical results having low overpotential (282 mV), and smaller Tafel slope of 60 mVdec-1 at a current density of 10 mAcm−2, exhibiting that the transition metal based MOF has good efficiency as compared to the rare earth metal MOF. The grown catalysts enable additional reaction sites and open up new channels, besides it approaches quick electron transfer in V2O5@C through a carbon bridge. Thus, the porous skeleton of the resulting hybrid catalyst showed superior electrical conductivity, boosting electrochemical properties and making it an efficient and durable electrocatalyst for industrial-scale water electrolysis.

Hierarchical dessert plant-like CoNiO2 nanowires decoration on MoS2 nano-petals for enhanced bi-functional overall water splitting reactions

To produce hydrogen, overall water splitting is the extremely effective method and their one of the key factors is the fabrication of bifunctional electrode materials with high catalytic activity, rotational design with a high active site, easy mass transfer, stability, and earth abundance. In this work, CoNiO2 nanowires (NWs)-embedded MoS2 hybrids were prepared using the hydrothermal synthesis method. The developed CoNiO2@MoS2 hybrid electrode achieved superior bifunctional catalytic activity with an overpotential of 43 mV and 220 mV for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions, respectively, and more than 24 h span stability. Furthermore, the assembled CoNiO2@MoS2║CoNiO2@MoS2 electrocatalyst exhibited an overpotential of 1.47 V for overall splitting process at 10 mA cm−2, with improved electronic conductivity and stability. Density functional theory approximations revealed that the CoNiO2 NWs and MoS2 in the CoNiO2@MoS2 hybrid exhibited a strong interfacial contact, which enabled the preferable ΔGH⁎ and ΔGn values, thus significantly improving the electrocatalytic performance. The development of cobalt-based oxides with transition metal dichalcogenides-carrier bifunctional electrocatalysts will provide a novel approach to enhance overall water splitting.

Integration of the pollen database PONET into PalDat with new features for light microscopy

Free access to scientific data, knowledge and technology transfer has become more and more important in science, at universities, governmental institutes, and in our society in general. In an interdisciplinary project initialised by palynologists at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety Ltd (AGES), the world’s most comprehensive database PalDat has been expanded by more than 2000 datasets from the PONET database, comprising high resolution light microscopy (LM) micrographs of hydrated pollen. The main aim of this fusion of knowledge was to share digital data in a secure way and to ensure users of various disciplines free access to reliable pollen data. The project was finally completed in 2021. In the course of the expansion, additional data entry fields regarding LM description have been added, and new features, such as a search function for orders and families, have been implemented in the new version 3.4 of PalDat. A global online submission and publication tool for palynological data to PalDat, including review and editorial process, assures easy knowledge transfer and facilitates a continually increasing number of datasets and taxa contributed from scientists all over the world. The free accessible online pollen database PalDat is maintained by members of the Division of Structural and Functional Botany (University of Vienna).

Implementation of Hospital Information System in Psychiatry

Considering the growing awareness and acceptance towards mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic opened new windows to incorporate technology into psychiatry. With reduced hospital visits and social distancing being the new normal implementation of the Hospital Information System (HIS) for secure and easy data storage or transfer, the record of multiple hospital areas has become necessary. Mental health is still taboo in developing countries like Pakistan; therefore, developing a HIS system for psychiatry must be taken forward with high data security. This article proposes a HIS system built for psychiatric clinics or therapy centres on a cloud-based platform to make it cost-effective for low-medium income countries like Pakistan. A survey was conducted to determine the feasibility of this proposal in which 70 people participated through an online platform. Results were analysed using SPSS 26.0, which concluded that 81.4% of the respondents agreed on implementing HIS into psychiatric clinics, while 12.9% of respondents were unsure.

Protecting Cloud Data: A Machine Learning Approach for Data Classification in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing (CC) is a modern framework that enables users to store data on remote servers accessible via the internet. This model facilitates easy access and transfer of personal and critical data, leading to increased demand. Users can store various types of data, including financial transactions, documents, and multimedia content. Additionally, CC reduces reliance on local storage and lowers operational and maintenance costs. However, existing systems typically encrypt all data with the same key size, irrespective of its confidentiality level, resulting in higher processing costs and time. Moreover, these methods often classify data with low accuracy and fail to provide adequate confidentiality. This research introduces a cloud computing approach that employs automated data classification to assess data sensitivity. The proposed model categorizes data into three sensitivity levels: basic, confidential, and highly confidential. It utilizes Random Forest (RF), Naïve Bayes (NB), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers, incorporating automated feature extraction. The model achieved an accuracy of 92%, as demonstrated in simulation results. The findings indicate that RF, NB, and KNN outperform SVM. The research also offers valuable guidelines for cloud service providers (e.g., Dropbox and Google Drive) and researchers.

P-755 Timeless importance of the embryo transfer technique: a real-life retrospective study comparing direct versus afterload catheters

Abstract Study question Can the embryo transfer (ET) technique influence clinical pregnancy rate (CPR)? Summary answer Our study demonstrated that CPR is significantly affected by the ET technique. In particular, with the afterload technique both CPR and easy transfer rates increased. What is known already Despite it having widely demonstrated that the occurrence of difficult ETs reduces the success of assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles and that afterload technique has showed a decrease in the number of difficult transfers compared to the direct one, few data are available assessing pregnancy outcomes in the two different techniques. The present study represents the progression of a published prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) performed in the same setting on a smaller population comparing direct and afterload techniques on the difficult transfer rate, but not designed to demonstrate differences in terms of CPR. Study design, size, duration Single center retrospective cohort analysis of 8,189 fresh and frozen single blastocyst transfers performed between January 2016 and December 2021 in a tertiary University affiliated fertility center. Of the total, 2,000 ETs were performed with the direct technique and 6,189 with the afterload one. All fresh single day-5 and single day-5 and day-6 frozen blastocyst transfers performed during the study timeframe were included. Participants/materials, setting, methods Direct technique was the only one used from January 2016 to September 2017. In the clinical trial recruitment period, the choice was given by randomization. From April 2019, only the afterload technique was used: the operator never had chance to choose the technique. Preimplantation genetic testing cycles, gamete donation and day-7 blastocyst transfers were excluded. CPR was the primary outcome, while difficult transfer rate the secondary one. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression have been performed. Main results and the role of chance During the period, 8,189 single blastocyst transfers were performed. Afterload ET showed a percentage of difficult transfers which was almost one third compared to that of the direct ET, being respectively 9.06% and 26.85% (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.24-0.31p <0.001). Overall, the CPR between the two groups was significantly different: 44.69% in afterload ET and 41.65% in direct ET (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02-1.25, p = 0.017). As for the interaction between the two techniques and difficult transfer on CPR, only the direct difficult ET resulted in a significantly lower CPR with an OR of 0.62 (95%CI 0.49-0.77, p < 0.001). Lastly, among the 15 operators that performed the ETs, a range of difficult transfers from 3.8% to 45.4 % in the direct group and 0.8% to 20.5% in the afterload group was found (p < 0.001). Limitations, reasons for caution The main limitations of the study are the difference in sample sizes between the two groups, the wide range of time considered, and the 15 operators included. A further possible reason is the high prevalence of difficult transfer, probably due to the broad definition we used. Wider implications of the findings The study points out how in embryo transfers the use of the afterload technique instead of the direct one significantly improves clinical pregnancy rate and easy transfer rate. Since there is a limited knowledge on the embryo transfer technique impact, our findings aim to increase the effectiveness of embryo transfers. Trial registration number NCT05364528.

Development of two devices for high-throughput screening of ethanol-producing microorganisms by real-time CO2 production monitoring.

Bioethanol's importance as a renewable energy carrier led to the development of new devices for the high-throughput screening (HTS) of ethanol-producing microorganisms, monitoring ethanol production, and process optimization. This study developed two devices based on measuring CO2 evolution (an equimolar byproduct of microbial ethanol fermentation) to allow for a fast and robust HTS of ethanol-producing microorganisms for industrial purposes. First, a pH-based system for identifying ethanol producers (Ethanol-HTS) was established in a 96-well plate format where CO2 emission is captured by a 3D-printed silicone lid and transferred from the fermentation well to a reagent containing bromothymol blue as a pH indicator. Second, a self-made CO2 flow meter (CFM) was developed as a lab-scale tool for real-time quantification of ethanol production. This CFM contains four chambers to simultaneously apply different fermentation treatments while LCD and serial ports allow fast and easy data transfer. Applying ethanol-HTS with various yeast concentrations and yeast strains displayed different colors, from dark blue to dark and light green, based on the amount of carbonic acid formed. The results of the CFM device revealed a fermentation profile. The curve of CO2 production flow among six replications showed the same pattern in all batches. The comparison of final ethanol concentrations calculated based on CO2 flow by the CFM device with the GC analysis showed 3% difference which is not significant. Data validation of both devices demonstrated their applicability for screening novel bioethanol-producer strains, determining carbohydrate fermentation profiles, and monitoring ethanol production in real time.

Engineering and innovation: A Cleaner Production proposal.

This paper presents an engineering design that promotes cleaner production in silicone cutlery design. The idea seeks to motivate the consumer to maintain a healthy life by eating food made at home. For this, they propose cutlery of easy transfer and comfortable use for different tastes. The idea is driven by the search for new food proposals contributing to environmental conservation in eating implements. The main results show that the proposal is feasible and that waste consumption is considerably reduced with an appropriate cleaner production plan.

Efficient Use of Electronic Banking and Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Rwanda: A Case of Equity Bank Plc

This general objective was to examine effect of efficient use of electronic banking on financial performance of commercial banks with reference to Equity Bank Plc. The specific objectives of the study were to assess effect of internet banking on financial performance of commercial banks in Rwanda; to ascertain effect of Debit and credit cards on financial performance of commercial banks in Rwanda Equity Bank Plc in Rwanda and to establish effect of mobile banking on financial performance of commercial performance in Rwanda. This study is significant as the findings will providing information on influence of electronic banking and financial performance for banking institutions in Rwanda also the finding will help researchers interested in carrying out further studies in this field. This study used descriptive and coefficient regression size effect between variables and for each objective whereby the target population was 370, while a sample size was 193 calculated using Yamane formula obtained using simple random technique. Questionnaire and interview used as a data collection instruments. Data analysis methods were descriptive and multiple regression for quantitative results while content analysis was used for information from interview. After collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, the study findings showed that Adjusted R Square shows that internet banking, using debits and credits cards and mobile banking contributes up to 87.2% to financial performance of commercial banks in Rwanda and there is a positive and strong correlation between dependent and independent variables whereby internet banking has 0.7742 correlation with financial performance. Credits and Debits cards has 0.812 correlation with financial performance. Mobile banking has 0.967 correction with financial performance. The study recommended that to maximize the influence of easy fund transfer using digital banking on financial performance, banks should prioritize user-friendly and intuitive digital banking interfaces. They should invest in robust security measures to protect customer information and transaction integrity. Regular monitoring, maintenance, and updates of the digital banking platform are crucial to ensure smooth functionality and address any potential issues promptly. The study concluded that, internet banking, credits and debits cards and mobile banking as analyzed independent variables significantly contributes to financial performance. Keywords: Electronic banking, financial performance, Commercial banks, Equity Bank Plc, Rwanda

Novel CoMn2O4-ZnIn2S4 hollow heterostructure cage for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Semiconductor photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE) is used to convert solar energy to hydrogen energy. Therefore, a low-cost, effective, and dependable photocatalyst could be a viable solution to environmental and energy crises. However, performing energy-conversion reactions by preparing photocatalysts with suitable photoabsorption and effective charge separation is challenging. Herein, a novel CoMn2O4-ZnIn2S4 (CMO-ZIS) hollow microcube composite catalyst with a p-n heterojunction is constructed, in which ZnIn2S4 nanosheets are grown in situ on the surfaces of CoMn2O4 hollow microcubes. Surprisingly, 10% CoMn2O4-ZnIn2S4 (CMO-ZIS-10) exhibits a PHE rate of up to 11.04 mmol h−1 g−1, which is approximately 3.6 times higher than that of pure ZnIn2S4. In addition, to maintain the excellent visible light absorption efficiency of ZnIn2S4 nanosheets, the close-contact heterogeneous interface of CMO-ZIS enables easy separation and transfer of the carriers. Furthermore, the hollow structure increases the absorption efficiency of sunlight and provides more active sites, thus increasing the reactivity of photocatalyst. In this paper, we report a workable approach for building heterojunction photocatalysts powered by water splitting.

Orthomosaicking Thermal Drone Images of Forests via Simultaneously Acquired RGB Images

Operational forest monitoring often requires fine-detail information in the form of an orthomosaic, created by stitching overlapping nadir images captured by aerial platforms such as drones. RGB drone sensors are commonly used for low-cost, high-resolution imaging that is conducive to effective orthomosaicking, but only capture visible light. Thermal sensors, on the other hand, capture long-wave infrared radiation, which is useful for early pest detection among other applications. However, these lower-resolution images suffer from reduced contrast and lack of descriptive features for successful orthomosaicking, leading to gaps or swirling artifacts in the orthomosaic. To tackle this, we propose a thermal orthomosaicking workflow that leverages simultaneously acquired RGB images. The latter are used for producing a surface mesh via structure from motion, while thermal images are only used to texture this mesh and yield a thermal orthomosaic. Prior to texturing, RGB-thermal image pairs are co-registered using an affine transformation derived from a machine learning technique. On average, the individual RGB and thermal images achieve a mutual information of 0.2787 after co-registration using our technique, compared to 0.0591 before co-registration, and 0.1934 using manual co-registration. We show that the thermal orthomosaic generated from our workflow (1) is of better quality than other existing methods, (2) is geometrically aligned with the RGB orthomosaic, (3) preserves radiometric information (i.e., surface temperatures) from the original thermal imagery, and (4) enables easy transfer of downstream tasks—such as tree crown detection from the RGB to the thermal orthomosaic. We also provide an open-source tool that implements our workflow to facilitate usage and further development.

High-Performance Light-Harvesting Cotton Fiber Photocatalyst Inspired by “Ring Dyeing” for the Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling Reaction

Highly efficient light-harvesting systems (LHSs) with the sequential energy transfer process are important for utilizing solar energy in photosynthesis. However, most light-harvesting systems are nanoparticles and vesicles, which are difficult to prepare and recycle. In this paper, we developed a light-harvesting system based on amino-methyl coumarin acid (AMCA), C.I. Basic Yellow 40 (BY 40), and phloxine B (PhB) organic dyes for photocatalytic cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reactions. The conversion of the CDC reaction using the AMCA–BY 40–PhB system could reach 98.77% in ethanol, which was much higher than that with the main active catalyst PhB alone. In order to recycle and reuse the above catalysts, a facile, simple, and highly efficient light-harvesting cotton photocatalyst AMCA/BY 40/β-SCD-PhB-MCFs was prepared via three steps of cationization of cotton fibers (MCFs), sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (β-SCD) inclusion of donor fluorophores, and final immobilization of fluorophores. These light-harvesting cotton fibers showed excellent catalytic performance, and the catalysis rate of the CDC reaction was 1.57 times higher than that of the PhB-MCFs alone. Its special “ring dyeing” and hierarchical pore structure provided a favorable microenvironment for photocatalysis. The wide range in light absorption, highly efficient energy transfer (53.1%), and antenna efficiency (15.6) of the light-harvesting cotton fiber synergistically enhanced the energy transfer process. Furthermore, the light-harvesting cotton fibers showed high reusability, which could be easily recovered and reused five times without significant catalyst leaching. More interestingly, the fiber could be easily loaded in microchannels of the continuous flow reactor to catalyze the CDC reaction, which successfully achieved gram-scale photosynthesis due to the large specific surface area and easy mass transfer of fiber catalysts.

Thia[5]helicene-Based D−π–A-type Molecular Semiconductors for Stable and Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells: A Theoretical Study

Development of ideal small-molecule hole-transporting materials (HTMs) is one of the most effective means to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells. Meanwhile, the theoretical chemistry method is an efficient pathway to optimize the molecular structure and to probe the structure–property relationship. To further find new HTMs, thia[5]helicene and its counterpart perylothiophene are introduced into the D−π–A-type molecular scaffold of MPA-BT-CA, and the results show that helicene-type HTMs (SM46 and SM48) exhibit obvious advantages in comparison with that of the planar SM45 and SM47. The matched energy levels with the mixed perovskite provide a precondition for the easy hole transfer at the interface, and the blue-shifted adsorption spectra can effectually decrease the optical competition between the perovskite and HTMs. More importantly, the helicene-type HTMs show the higher mobilities than that of the planar counterparts, which is mainly contributed by the enlarged hole transfer integrals via compact molecular stacking. Fluorine addition can also stabilize the highest occupied molecular orbitals and enhance the hole transport ability of HTMs. Moreover, a simplified adsorption model for the MPA-BT-CA is constructed to investigate the interfacial properties of adsorbed systems, and the results demonstrate that bidentate adsorption displays more stable adsorption configuration and a better passivation effect for the iodine-vacant FAPbI3 surface. In summary, this work provides useful clues for the design of new D−π–A-type HTMs, and two promising helicene-based HTMs are proposed.

Fabrication of high energy density symmetric polyaniline/functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes supercapacitor device with swift charge transport in different electrolytic mediums

This work is conducted with aim of enhancing the energy density and cycling performance of PANI/fMWCNTs within a very low molar concentration of the mixed acidic/neutral electrolyte where not only the medium, but the structure too facilitates easy charge transfer because of increased ionic mobility. A promising optimized flower-like morphology of symmetric supercapacitor electrode of functionalized Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (f-MWCNTs) with Polyaniline (PANI) composites are prepared by in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization method with different doping concentrations of f-MWCNTs (5 wt% and 10 wt%). The synthesized PANI/f-MWCNTs (5 wt%) composite provides a large surface area (133.55 m2/g), high porosity (11.24 nm), low internal resistance (6.16 Ω) and charge transfer property (2.74 Ω) between the electrode within a mixed (0.1 M H2SO4 + 0.1 M Na2SO4) electrolyte interface. To overcome the cracking/swelling of PANI during electrochemical performance, the electrodes of PANI are incorporated with different doping concentration of f-MWCNT (5 wt% or 10 wt%). With a specific capacitance of 867 F g−1 at 10 mV/s, energy density ~77.0 Whkg−1 and power density ~801 Wkg−1, PFC1 nanocomposite indicates ~20 % more stability than pure PANI. Also, the nanocomposite electrode cell shows a columbic efficiency of 97 % and 98.5 % of its initial value of specific capacitance after 10,000 GCD cycles in a mixed acidic/neutral (0.1 M H2SO4 + 0.1 M Na2SO4) aqueous electrolytic solution.

Analytics in Extrusion-Based Bioprinting: Standardized Methods Improving Quantification and Comparability of the Performance of Bioinks.

Three-dimensional bioprinting and especially extrusion-based printing as a most frequently employed method in this field is constantly evolving as a discipline in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. However, the lack of relevant standardized analytics does not yet allow an easy comparison and transfer of knowledge between laboratories regarding newly developed bioinks and printing processes. This work revolves around the establishment of a standardized method, which enables the comparability of printed structures by controlling for the extrusion rate based on the specific flow behavior of each bioink. Furthermore, printing performance was evaluated by image-processing tools to verify the printing accuracy for lines, circles, and angles. In addition, and complementary to the accuracy metrics, a dead/live staining of embedded cells was performed to investigate the effect of the process on cell viability. Two bioinks, based on alginate and gelatin methacryloyl, which differed in 1% (w/v) alginate content, were tested for printing performance. The automated image processing tool reduced the analytical time while increasing reproducibility and objectivity during the identification of printed objects. During evaluation of the processing effect of the mixing of cell viability, NIH 3T3 fibroblasts were stained and analyzed after the mixing procedure and after the extrusion process using a flow cytometer, which evaluated a high number of cells. It could be observed that the small increase in alginate content made little difference in the printing accuracy but had a considerable strong effect on cell viability after both processing steps.

In silico and in vitro investigation of bile salts as coformers for edaravone coamorphous dispersion- Part I

In the present study, we aimed to design the spray-dried coamorphous dispersion (COAM) of a neuroprotective agent-edaravone (EDR) with bile salts to improve oral bioavailability. After the initial screening of different bile salts, EDR-sodium taurocholate (NaTC) COAM showed 4-fold solubility than a pure drug in 1–7 pH range. In silico studies to select coformer for COAM revealed a narrow energy gap, easy charge transfer and high chemical reactivity between EDR and NaTC. The optimized EDR-NaTC COAM in a 1:1 molar ratio was characterized for solid state characterizations and in vitro release study. Hydrogen bond formation between the pyrazolone ring of EDR and the -OH group of the phenanthrene ring of NaTC was observed in the ATR-FTIR spectra of COAM. The DSC and XRPD data indicated the formation of an amorphous halo, whereas SEM photographs demonstrated porous, spherical particles of COAM. The pH-independent in vitro drug release of COAM was observed in 0.1 N HCl, pH 4.5 and 6.8 buffers which was 3-fold higher than EDR. The COAM was stable for 6 months at accelerated condition without showing a change in drug content or devitrification (Initial: 98.002 ± 0.942 %; Accelerated condition: 97.016 ± 1.110 %). Although coamorphous form and hydrogen bonding between EDR-NaTC dispersion were primarily responsible for improved dissolution, NaTC, an exceptional surfactant, has also contributed to it. Moreover, its exclusive structural characteristics could prevent the recrystallization of the drug in supersaturated conditions of the GIT and also minimize the effect of food on oral absorption of EDR which will be studied in animals in the second part of this work.

Quercetin-Mediated Silver Nanoparticle Formation for the Colorimetric Detection of Infectious Pathogens Coupled with Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification.

Here, quercetin-mediated silver nanoparticle (AgNP) formation combined with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) was introduced to colorimetrically detect two major infectious pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 and Enterococcus faecium, using a foldable PMMA microdevice. The nitrogenous bases of LAMP amplicons can readily form a complex with Ag+ ions, and the catechol moiety in quercetin, which acted as a reducing agent, could be chelated with Ag+ ions, resulting in the easy electron transfer from the oxidant to the reductant and producing brown-colored AgNPs within 5 min. The introduced method exhibited higher sensitivity than agarose gel electrophoresis due to more active redox centers in quercetin. The detection limit was attained at 101 copies μL-1 and 101 CFU mL-1 for SARS-CoV-2 RNA and E. faecium, respectively. A foldable microdevice made of two pieces of PMMA that fully integrates DNA extraction, amplification, and detection processes was fabricated to establish practical applicability. On one PMMA, DNA extraction was performed in a reaction chamber inserted with an FTA card, and then LAMP reagents were added for amplification. Silver nitrate was added to the reaction chamber after LAMP. On the other PMMA, quercetin-soaked paper discs loaded in the detection chamber were folded toward the reaction chamber for colorimetric detection. An intense brown color was produced within 5 min when heated at 65 °C. The introduced colorimetric assay, which is highly favorable for laboratory and on-site applications, could be a valuable alternative to conventional methods for detecting infectious diseases, given its unique principle, simplicity, and naked-eye detection.