All that glitters is not gold: X-ray fluorescence analysis of a fixed dental prosthesis from Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI, Portugal (CEI/XXI).

Access to better health care anticipates that more medical devices can be found alongside skeletal remains. Those employed in oral rehabilitation, with available brands or batch/series, can prove useful in the identification process. A previous study in the Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI described macroscopically the dental prostheses. An unusual case of a dental device with chromatic alterations demonstrated to require a more detailed analysis. The individual, a 53-year-old male, exhibited, at both arches, a fixed tooth-supported rehabilitation, with gold colouring classified initially as a gold-palladium alloy. Simultaneously, a green pigmentation deposit was observable in bone and prosthesis. This investigation aimed to verify the elemental composition of the dental prosthesis alloy. Elemental analysis was performed by X-ray fluorescence in two regions (labial surface of the prosthetic crown and the root surface of the lower right lateral incisor). Both the spectra and the qualitative results found higher levels of copper and aluminium, followed by nickel, iron, zinc, and manganese. No gold or palladium was detected. The most probable assumption is that a copper-aluminium alloy was used, as its elemental concentration corresponds to those measured in similar devices. Dental prostheses of copper-aluminium alloys have been made popular since the 1980s, particularly in the USA, Japan, and Eastern Europe. Apart from the biographical information, it was also known that the individual's place of birth was an Eastern European country, which highlighted the usefulness of this type of information when dealing with missing people cases.

Highly Crystalline Copper Aluminum-Layered Double Hydroxides with Intrinsic Fenton-Like Catalytic Activity for Robust Oral Health Management.

As the main challenge of dental healthcare, oral infectious diseases are highly associated with the colonization of pathogenic microbes. However, current antibacterial treatments in the field of stomatology still lack a facile, safe, and universal approach. Herein, we report the controllable synthesis of copper aluminum-layered double hydroxides (CuAl-LDHs) with high Fenton-like catalytic activity, which can be utilized in the treatment of oral infectious diseases with negligible side effects. Our strategy can efficiently avoid the unwanted doping of other divalent metal ions in the synthesis of Cu-contained LDHs and result in the formation of binary CuAl-LDHs with high crystallinity and purity. Evidenced by experimental and theoretical results, CuAl-LDHs exhibit excellent catalytic ability toward the ·OH generation in the presence of H2O2 and hold strong affinity toward bacteria, endowing them with great catalytic sterilization against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. As expected, these CuAl-LDHs provide outstanding treatments for mucosal infection and periodontitis by promoting wound healing and remodeling of the periodontal microenvironment. Moreover, toxicity investigation demonstrates the overall safety. Accordingly, the current study not only provides a convenient and economic strategy for treating oral infectious diseases but also extends the development of novel LDH-based Fenton or Fenton-like antibacterial reagents for further biomedical applications.

Evaluating the performance of electrocoagulation system in the removal of polystyrene microplastics from water.

Emerging pollutants, particularly microplastics, present a significant threat to both the environment and human health. Traditional treatment methods lack targeted strategies for their removal. This study thoroughly investigated the efficacy of electrocoagulation as a method for efficiently extracting microplastics from water. Various critical operational parameters, including electrode combinations, pH levels, electrolyte concentrations, electrode geometries, configurations, current intensities, and reaction times, were systematically examined. The study systematically examined the impact of different combinations of aluminium (Al) and stainless steel (SS) electrodes, including Al-Al, SS-SS, Al-SS, and SS-Al. Among these combinations, it was found that the Al-Al pairing exhibited outstanding efficiency in microplastic removal, while simultaneously minimizing energy consumption. Initial pH emerged as a critical parameter, with a neutral pH of 7 demonstrating the highest removal efficiency. In the pursuit of optimizing parameters like electrolyte concentrations, electrode geometry, and configuration, it's noteworthy that consistently achieving removal efficiencies exceeding 90% has been a significant achievement. However, to ascertain economic efficiency, additional factors such as energy consumption, electrode usage, and post-treatment conductivity must be taken into account. To tackle the complexity posed by various parameters and criteria, using multi-criteria decision-making tools like TOPSIS is essential, as it has a track record of effectiveness in practical applications. The electrolyte concentration of 0.5 g L-1 is identified as optimal by TOPSIS analysis Additionally, the TOPSIS highlighted the superiority of cylindrical hollow wire mesh electrodes and established the monopolar parallel configuration as the most effective electrode connection method. The investigation carefully evaluated the effect of reaction time, determining that a 50-min window provides optimal microplastic removal efficiency. This refined system exhibited remarkable proficiency in eliminating microplastics of varying size ranges (0-75 µm, 75-150 µm, and 150-300 µm), achieving removal efficiencies of 90.67%, 93.6%, and 94.6%, respectively, at input concentration of 0.2 g L-1. The present study offers a comprehensive framework for optimizing electrocoagulation parameters, presenting a practical and highly effective strategy to address the critical issue of microplastic contamination in aquatic environments.

Aberrant occlusal sensitivity in adults with increased somatosensory amplification: a case-control study.

OBJECTIVES: Occlusal sensitivity (OS)-the ability to detect fine objects between opposing teeth-mainly relies on the activity of mechanoreceptors located in the periodontal ligament. We tested whether somatosensory amplification (SSA)-the tendency to perceive normal somatic sensations as being intense, noxious, and disturbing, which plays a critical role in hypervigilance-affects OS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We measured OS in 66 adults divided into three groups based on their SSA scores (LowSSA, Intermediate - IntSSA, HighSSA) by asking them to bite on aluminum foils (8 to 72 µm thick) and a sham foil, and report whether they felt each foil. We performed 20 trials for each thickness and sham condition (each participant was tested 120 times), and compared the frequency of correct answers (%correct) among groups after adjusting for participants' trait anxiety, depression, self-reported oral behaviors, and masseter cross-sectional area. RESULTS: %correct was affected by the interaction Foil Thickness-by-SSA (p = 0.007). When tested with the 8 µm foil, the HighSSA group had a lower %correct than the IntSSA (contrast estimate [95% CI]: -14.2 [-25.8 - -2.6]; p = 0.012) and the LowSSA groups (-19.1 [-31.5 - -6.6]; p = 0.001). Similarly, with the 24 µm foil, the HighSSA group had a lower %correct compared to the IntSSA (-12.4 [-24.8-0.1]; p = 0.048) and the LowSSA groups (-10.8 [-22.5-0.8]; p = 0.073). CONCLUSION: Individuals with high SSA present with an aberrant occlusal sensitivity. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Our findings provide novel insights into the relationship between occlusal perception and psychological factors, which may influence an individual's ability to adapt to dental work.

Pervaporation Dehydration Mechanism and Performance of High-Aluminum ZSM-5 Zeolite Membranes for Organic Solvents.

Membrane-based pervaporation (PV) for organic solvent dehydration is of great significance in the chemical and petrochemical industries. In this work, high-aluminum ZSM-5 zeolite membranes were synthesized by a fluoride-assisted secondary growth on α-alumina tubular supports using mordenite framework inverted (MFI) nanoseeds (~110 nm) and a template-free synthesis solution with a low Si/Al ratio of 10. Characterization by XRD, EDX, and SEM revealed that the prepared membrane was a pure-phase ZSM-5 zeolite membrane with a Si/Al ratio of 3.8 and a thickness of 2.8 µm. Subsequently, two categories of PV performance parameters (i.e., flux versus separation factor and permeance versus selectivity) were used to systematically examine the effects of operating conditions on the PV dehydration performance of different organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, and isopropanol), and their PV mechanisms were explored. Employing permeance and selectivity effectively disentangles the influence of operating conditions on PV performance, thereby elucidating the inherent contribution of membranes to separation performance. The results show that the mass transfer during PV dehydration of organic solvents was mainly dominated by the adsorption-diffusion mechanism. Furthermore, the diffusion of highly polar water and methanol molecules within membrane pores had a strong mutual slowing-down effect, resulting in significantly lower permeance than other binary systems. However, the mass transfer process for water/low-polar organic solvent (ethanol, n-propanol, and isopropanol) mixtures was mainly controlled by competitive adsorption caused by affinity differences. In addition, the high-aluminum ZSM-5 zeolite membrane exhibited superior PV dehydration performance for water/isopropanol mixtures.

Mechanochemical recycling of cellulose multilayer carton packages to produce micro and nanocellulose from the perspective of techno-economic and environmental analysis.

Despite being composed of recyclable materials, the main technological challenge of multilayer carton packs involves the efficient decompatibilization of the cellulosic, polymeric, and metallic phases. Here, a simple two-step mechanochemical process is described that uses only aqueous media and mechanical force to promote phase separation in order to fully recycle multi-layer carton packaging. The first step produces value-added micro- and nanocellulose, while in the second step, aluminum is extracted, forming precipitated aluminum and aluminum oxyhydroxides. Solid polyethylene (PE) remains with a degree of purity defined by the process efficiency. The results show that cellulose is efficiently extracted and converted into micro- and nanocellulose after 15 min of milling. In the second stage, approximately 90% of the aluminum is extracted from the PE after 15 min of milling. Due to the separation and drying medium conditions, the finely divided particles of extracted aluminum also have oxyhydroxides in their composition. It is believed that a passivation layer forms on the metallic aluminum particle. The techno-economic analysis revealed a positive net present value (NPV) of $17.5 million, with a minimum selling price of 1.62 USD/kg of cellulose. The environmental analysis concluded that most of the environmental impact of the process is associated with the entry of carton packages into the system, incorporating a small environmental load related to the industrial process. The results indicate a promising option toward a circular economy and carbon neutrality.

Excellent coagulation performance of polysilicate aluminum ferric for treating oily wastewater from Daqing gasfield: Responses to polymer properties and coagulation mechanism.

The polysilicate aluminum ferric (PSAF) was synthesized via copolymerization of polysilicic acid (PSi), AlCl3 and FeCl3 for treating oily wastewater from Daqing gas field. This study investigated the effects of key preparation factors such as the degree of PSi's preactivation and the ratio of (Fe + Al)/Si and Al/Fe on both polymerization and coagulation performance exhibited by PSAF. To determine the optimal timing for introducing Al3+ and Fe3+, zeta potential, viscosity and particle size were investigated. Additionally, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, polarizing microscopy and scanning electron microscope analysis were employed to investigate the structure and morphology of PSAF. The results indicate that under conditions characterized by a SiO2 mass fraction of 2.5% and pH = 4.5, an optimal timing for introducing Al3+ and Fe3+ is at 100 min when PSi exhibits moderate polymerization along with sufficient stability. When considering molar ratios such as (Al + Fe)/Si being 6:4 and Al/Fe being 5:5, respectively, PSAF falls within a "stable zone" enabling storage period up to 32 days. Moreover, Jar test results demonstrate that at a dosage of 200 mg/L PSAF for oily wastewater treatment in gas fields could reach the maximum turbidity removal efficiency up to 99.5% while oil removal efficiency reach 88.6% without pH adjustment. The copolymerization facilitates the formation of larger PSAF aggregates with positive potential, thereby augmenting the coagulants' adsorption bridging and charge neutralization capabilities. As a result, PSAF has great potential as a practical coagulant for treating oil-containing wastewater in industrial settings.

Comparison of the shear bond strengths of two different polyetheretherketone (PEEK) framework materials and CAD-CAM veneer materials.

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the shear bond strength (SBS) of two different polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and CAD-CAM materials after aging. METHODS: A total of 42 frameworks were designed and milled from 2 different PEEK discs (Copra Peek, P and BioHPP, B). P and B frameworks were divided into 3 subgroups (n = 7). 14 slices were prepared each from feldspathic ceramic (Vitablocs Mark II, VM), hybrid nanoceramic (Cerasmart, CS), and polymer-infiltrated ceramic (Vita Enamic, VE) blocks. After surface preparations, the slices were cemented to P and B surfaces. The samples were subjected to thermal aging (5000 cycles). SBS of all the samples was measured. Fractured surfaces were examined by SEM/EDX analysis. The Shapiro-Wilk, Two-way Robust ANOVA and Bonferroni correction tests were used to analyze the data (a = .05). RESULTS: Frameworks, ceramics, and frameworks x ceramics had significant differences (p < 0.05). The highest SBS value was seen in B-VM (p < 0.05). VM offered the highest SBS with both P and B. The differences between P-VM, P-CS, P-VE and B-CS and B-VE were insignificant (p > 0.05). According to EDX analysis, ytterbium and fluorine was seen in B content, unlike P. While VM and CS contained fluorine, barium, and aluminum; sodium and aluminum were observed in the VE structure. CONCLUSION: Bonding of P and B with VM offers higher SBS. VM, CS and VE did not make any difference in SBS for P, however VM showed a significant difference for B.

Microhardness and elemental analysis of ion-releasing restoration/ dentin interface following enzymatic chemomechanical caries excavation.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to compare chemical, elemental and surface properties of sound and carious dentin after application of two restorative materials resin-modified glassionomer claimed to be bioactive and glass hybrid restorative material after enzymatic chemomechanical caries removal (CMCR) agent. METHODS: Forty carious and twenty non-carious human permanent molars were used. Molars were randomly distributed into three main groups: Group 1 (negative control) - sound molars, Group 2 (positive control) - molars were left without caries removal and Group 3 (Test Group) caries excavated with enzymatic based CMCR agent. After caries excavation and restoration application, all specimens were prepared Vickers microhardness test (VHN), for elemental analysis using Energy Dispersive Xray (EDX) mapping and finally chemical analysis using Micro-Raman microscopy. RESULTS: Vickers microhardness values of dentin with the claimed bioactive GIC specimens was statistically higher than with glass hybrid GIC specimens. EDX analysis at the junction estimated: Calcium and Phosphorus of the glass hybrid GIC showed insignificantly higher mean valued than that of the bioactive GIC. Silica and Aluminum mean values at the junction were significantly higher with bioactive GIC specimens than glass hybrid GIC specimen. Micro-raman spectroscopy revealed that bioactive GIC specimens showed higher frequencies of v 1 PO 4, which indicated high level of remineralization. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that ion-releasing bioactive resin-based restorative material had increased the microhardness and remineralization rate of carries affected and sound dentin. In addition, enzymatic caries excavation with papain-based CMCR agent has no adverse effect on dentin substrate.

Evaluation of setting kinetics, mechanical strength, ion release, and cytotoxicity of high-strength glass ionomer cement contained elastomeric micelles.

BACKGROUND: Low mechanical properties are the main limitation of glass ionomer cements (GICs). The incorporation of elastomeric micelles is expected to enhance the strength of GICs without detrimentally affecting their physical properties and biocompatibility. This study compared the chemical and mechanical properties, as well as the cytotoxicity, of elastomeric micelles-containing glass ionomer cement (DeltaFil, DT) with commonly used materials, including EQUIA Forte Fil (EF), Fuji IX GP Extra (F9), and Ketac Molar (KT). METHOD: Powder particles of GICs were examined with SEM-EDX. Setting kinetics were assessed using ATR-FTIR. Biaxial flexural strength/modulus and Vickers surface microhardness were measured after immersion in water for 24 h and 4 weeks. The release of F, Al, Sr, and P in water over 8 weeks was analyzed using a fluoride-specific electrode and ICP-OES. The toxicity of the material extract on mouse fibroblasts was also evaluated. RESULTS: High fluoride levels in the powder were detected with EF and F9. DT demonstrated an initial delay followed by a faster acid reaction compared to other cements, suggesting an improved snap set. DT also exhibited superior flexural strength than other materials at both 24 h and 4 weeks but lower surface microhardness (p < 0.05). EF and F9 showed higher release of F, Al, and P than DT and KT. There was no statistically significant difference in fibroblast viability among the tested materials (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Elastomeric micelles-containing glass ionomer cement (DT) exhibited satisfactory mechanical properties and cytocompatibility compared with other materials. DT could, therefore, potentially be considered an alternative high-strength GIC for load-bearing restorations.

Fluoride removal from coal mining water using novel polymeric aluminum modified activated carbon prepared through mechanochemical process.

Defluoridation of coal mining water is of great significance for sustainable development of coal industry in western China. A novel one-step mechanochemical method was developed to prepare polymeric aluminum modified powder activated carbon (PAC) for effective fluoride removal from coal mining water. Aluminum was stably loaded on the PAC through facile solid-phase reaction between polymeric aluminum (polyaluminum chloride (PACl) or polyaluminum ferric chloride (PAFC)) and PAC (1:15 W/W). Fluoride adsorption on PACl and PAFC modified PAC (C-PACl and C-PAFC) all reached equilibrium within 5 min, at rate of 2.56 g mg-1 sec-1 and 1.31 g mg-1 sec-1 respectively. Larger increase of binding energy of Al on C-PACl (AlF bond: 76.64 eV and AlFOH bond: 77.70 eV) relative to that of Al on C-PAFC (AlF bond: 76.52 eV) explained higher fluoride uptake capacity of C-PACl. Less chloride was released from C-PACl than that from C-PAFC due to its higher proportion of covalent chlorine and lower proportion of ionic chlorine. The elements mapping and atomic composition proved the stability of Al loaded on the PAC as well as the enrichment of fluoride on both C-PACl and C-PAFC. The Bader charge, formation energy and bond length obtained from DFT computational results explained the fluoride adsorption mechanism further. The carbon emission was 7.73 kg CO2-eq/kg adsorbent prepared through mechanochemical process, which was as low as 1:82.3 to 1:8.07 × 104 compared with the ones prepared by conventional hydrothermal methods.

Biodegradable Monometallic Aluminum as a Biotuner for Tumor Pyroptosis.

Pyroptosis is an effective anti-tumor strategy. However, monometallic pyroptosis biotuners have not been explored until now. Here, we discover for the first time that biodegradable monometallic Al can act as a pyroptosis biotuner for tumor therapy. pH-sensitive Al nanoparticles (Al@P) are obtained by equipping polyethylene glycol-b-(poly(methyl methacrylate)-co-poly(4-vinylpyridine), which can exert their effect at the tumor site without affecting normal cells. The H2 and Al3+ release by Al@P in the acidic environment of tumors disrupts the redox balance and ionic homeostasis in tumor cells, thus generating large amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to caspase-1 activation, gasdermin D cleavage, and IL-1ß/LDH release, which induces canonical pyroptotic death. Meanwhile, the prodrug Doxorubicin (Pro-DOX) is successfully loaded onto Al@P (Al@P-P) and can be activated by ROS to release DOX in the tumor cells, thus further improving the tumor-killing efficiency. Ultimately, Al@P-P is degradable and exhibits efficient tumor inhibition.

Development of Low-Magnetic Susceptibility Microcoils via 5-Axis Machining for Analysis of Biological and Environmental Samples.

In environmental research, it is critical to understand how toxins impact invertebrate eggs and egg banks, which, due to their tiny size, are very challenging to study by conventional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Microcoil technology has been extensively utilized to enhance the mass-sensitivity of NMR. In a previous study, 5-axis computer numerical control (CNC) micromilling (shown to be a viable alternative to traditional microcoil production methods) was used to create a prototype copper slotted-tube resonator (STR). Despite the excellent limit of detection (LOD) of the resonator, the quality of the line shape was very poor due to the magnetic susceptibility of the copper resonator itself. This is best solved using magnetic susceptibility-matched materials. In this study, approaches are investigated that improve the susceptibility while retaining the versatility of coil milling. One method involves machining STRs from various copper/aluminum alloys, while the other involves machining ones from an aluminum 2011 alloy and electroplating them with copper. In all cases, combining copper and aluminum to produce resonators resulted in improved line shape and SNR compared to pure copper resonators due to their reduced magnetic susceptibility. However, the copper-plated aluminum resonators showed optimal performance from the devices tested. The enhanced LOD of these STRs allowed for the first 1H-13C heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC) of a single intact 13C-labeled Daphnia magna egg (∼4 µg total biomass). This is a key step toward future screening programs that aim to elucidate the toxic processes in aquatic eggs.

Potential of Functionalized Polyolefins in a Sustainable Polymer Economy: Synthetic Strategies and Applications.

Polymers play a crucial role in our modern life as no other material exists that is so versatile, moldable, and lightweight. Consequently, the demand for polymers will continue to grow with the human population, modernization, and technological developments. However, depleted fossil resources, increasing plastic waste production, ocean pollution, and related growing emission of greenhouse gases has led to a change in the way we think about the use of polymers. Although polymers were never designed to be recycled, it is clear that a linear polymers economy is no longer sustainable. The design for recycling and reuse and life-cycle analyses will become increasingly important factors when deciding on which polymer to choose for a certain application. Of all polymers, polyolefins have the lowest life-cycle environmental impact and even outperform renewable polymers. However, polyolefins are chemically inert and reveal a low surface energy. Combining their excellent mechanical properties with the ability to adhere to other materials or create self-assembled or nanostructured materials would widen the application window of polyolefins even more.This Account covers part of our personal account in the field of functionalized polyolefin synthesis and their application development. We start with addressing the challenge of finding suitable catalysts that tolerate nucleophilic functionalities, which tends to poison most electrophilic catalysts even when passivated with, for example, an aluminum alkyl. We argued that lowering of the oxidation state of a titanium-based catalyst might lower the electrophilicity of the metal center. Indeed, this simple approach resulted in an unprecedentedly high tolerance toward aluminum alkyl-passivated alkenols during their copolymerization with ethylene. Interestingly, catalyst deactivation was much less pronounced during the copolymerization of propylene and aluminum-passivated alkenols, clearly demonstrating the protective effect of the methyl branch in the growing polymer. Because the use of randomly functionalized polypropylenes is rather underdeveloped, as compared to the corresponding randomly functionalized polyethylenes, we focused on potential applications of the former material. Atactic or low-crystalline hydroxyl- and carboxylic acid-functionalized propylene-based co- and terpolymers form elastomers with interesting properties that can be influenced by enhancing the hydrogen bonding within the system or by creating ionomers. The polar functionalities cluster together in domains that can host small polar molecules such as, for example, a pH indicator, thus affording useful sensors. The functionalized polyolefins can also be used as precursors for amphiphilic graft copolymers, undergoing self-assembly and therefore being suitable for nanoporous membrane preparation. The graft copolymers also proved to be effective compatibilizers in various polymer blends.

Cationic Nanoparticle-Stabilized Vaccine Delivery System for the H9N2 Vaccine to Promote Immune Response in Chickens.

Chinese yam polysaccharides (CYPs) have received wide attention for their immunomodulatory activity. Our previous studies had discovered that the Chinese yam polysaccharide PLGA-stabilized Pickering emulsion (CYP-PPAS) can serve as an efficient adjuvant to trigger powerful humoral and cellular immunity. Recently, positively charged nano-adjuvants are easily taken up by antigen-presenting cells, potentially resulting in lysosomal escape, the promotion of antigen cross-presentation, and the induction of CD8 T-cell response. However, reports on the practical application of cationic Pickering emulsions as adjuvants are very limited. Considering the economic damage and public-health risks caused by the H9N2 influenza virus, it is urgent to develop an effective adjuvant for boosting humoral and cellular immunity against influenza virus infection. Here, we applied polyethyleneimine-modified Chinese yam polysaccharide PLGA nanoparticles as particle stabilizers and squalene as the oil core to fabricate a positively charged nanoparticle-stabilized Pickering emulsion adjuvant system (PEI-CYP-PPAS). The cationic Pickering emulsion of PEI-CYP-PPAS was utilized as an adjuvant for the H9N2 Avian influenza vaccine, and the adjuvant activity was compared with the Pickering emulsion of CYP-PPAS and the commercial adjuvant (aluminum adjuvant). The PEI-CYP-PPAS, with a size of about 1164.66 nm and a ζ potential of 33.23 mV, could increase the H9N2 antigen loading efficiency by 83.99%. After vaccination with Pickering emulsions based on H9N2 vaccines, PEI-CYP-PPAS generated higher HI titers and stronger IgG antibodies than CYP-PPAS and Alum and increased the immune organ index of the spleen and bursa of Fabricius without immune organ injury. Moreover, treatment with PEI-CYP-PPAS/H9N2 induced CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell activation, a high lymphocyte proliferation index, and increased cytokine expression of IL-4, IL-6, and IFN-γ. Thus, compared with the CYP-PPAS and aluminum adjuvant, the cationic nanoparticle-stabilized vaccine delivery system of PEI-CYP-PPAS was an effective adjuvant for H9N2 vaccination to elicit powerful humoral and cellular immune responses.

Mitigation of Tribocharging in Pharmaceutical Powders using Surface Modified V-Blenders.

INTRODUCTION: The pharmaceutical industry involves handling of powders on a large scale for manufacturing of solid dosage forms such as tablets and capsules constituting about 85% of the dosage forms. During this manufacturing process, powders get electrostatically charged due to numerous particle-particle and particle-equipment wall collisions. Most of the pharmaceutical powders are insulators in nature and they accumulate charge for longer durations making it difficult to dissipate the generated charge. In this study, a surface modified blender has been used to analyze tribocharging in pharmaceutical powders. METHODS: The surface modified blender has been fabricated using two types of materials, an insulator, and a conductor. The conductor or the metal arm induces charge of opposite polarity to that of the charge induced by the insulator arm and the overall charge on the powder decreases during the tumbling motion of the blender. Ibuprofen was used as the model drug and processed in aluminum, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), stainless steel, surface modified aluminum-PVC (Al-PVC) and surface modified stainless steel- PVC (SS-PVC) blender at 20% RH for different blending times such as 2, 10, 20, 30 and 40 min. To better understand the tribocharging phenomenon in surface modified V blenders, an experimentally validated computational model was developed using Discrete Element Method (DEM) modeling. RESULTS: Significant reduction (> 50%) in electrostatic charge was observed for Ibuprofen using surface modified blenders in comparison to metal only and insulator only V blenders. Additionally, an identical charging trend was observed between the simulation and experimental data.  CONCLUSION: It was established that careful selection of equipment materials could significantly reduce the electrostatic charging of pharmaceutical powders and DEM model could be a really useful tool in assessing the applicability of the modified V blenders.

Exploring different high-capacity tools and extraction modes to characterize the aroma of brewed coffee.

In the present work, the potential benefit of using multi-cumulative trapping headspace extraction was explored by comparing the results using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coated with divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane and a probe-like tool coated with polydimethylsiloxane. The efficiency of a single 30-min extraction, already explored in previous work, was compared with that of multiple shorter extractions. We evaluated three different conditions, i.e., three repeated extractions for 10 min each from different sample vials (for both the probe-like tool and SPME) or from the same vial (for SPME) containing brewed coffee. The entire study was performed using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The two-dimensional plots were aligned and integrated using a tile-sum approach before any statistical analysis. A detailed comparison of all the tested conditions was performed on a set of 25 targeted compounds. Although a single 30-min extraction using the probe-like tool provided a significantly higher compound intensity than SPME single extraction, the use of multiple shorter extractions with SPME showed similar results. However, multiple extractions with the probe-like tool showed a greater increase in the number of extracted compounds. Furthermore, an untargeted cross-sample comparison was performed to evaluate the ability of the two tested tools and the different extraction procedures in differentiating between espresso-brewed coffee samples obtained from capsules made of different packaging materials (i.e., compostable capsules, aluminum capsules, aluminum multilayer pack). The highest explained variance was obtained using the probe-like tool and multiple extractions (91.6% compared to 83.9% of the single extraction); nevertheless, SPME multiple extractions showed similar results with 88.3% of variance explained.

Ultrastrong steel via minimal lattice misfit and high-density nanoprecipitation.

Next-generation high-performance structural materials are required for lightweight design strategies and advanced energy applications. Maraging steels, combining a martensite matrix with nanoprecipitates, are a class of high-strength materials with the potential for matching these demands. Their outstanding strength originates from semi-coherent precipitates, which unavoidably exhibit a heterogeneous distribution that creates large coherency strains, which in turn may promote crack initiation under load. Here we report a counterintuitive strategy for the design of ultrastrong steel alloys by high-density nanoprecipitation with minimal lattice misfit. We found that these highly dispersed, fully coherent precipitates (that is, the crystal lattice of the precipitates is almost the same as that of the surrounding matrix), showing very low lattice misfit with the matrix and high anti-phase boundary energy, strengthen alloys without sacrificing ductility. Such low lattice misfit (0.03 ± 0.04 per cent) decreases the nucleation barrier for precipitation, thus enabling and stabilizing nanoprecipitates with an extremely high number density (more than 1024 per cubic metre) and small size (about 2.7 ± 0.2 nanometres). The minimized elastic misfit strain around the particles does not contribute much to the dislocation interaction, which is typically needed for strength increase. Instead, our strengthening mechanism exploits the chemical ordering effect that creates backstresses (the forces opposing deformation) when precipitates are cut by dislocations. We create a class of steels, strengthened by Ni(Al,Fe) precipitates, with a strength of up to 2.2 gigapascals and good ductility (about 8.2 per cent). The chemical composition of the precipitates enables a substantial reduction in cost compared to conventional maraging steels owing to the replacement of the essential but high-cost alloying elements cobalt and titanium with inexpensive and lightweight aluminium. Strengthening of this class of steel alloy is based on minimal lattice misfit to achieve maximal precipitate dispersion and high cutting stress (the stress required for dislocations to cut through coherent precipitates and thus produce plastic deformation), and we envisage that this lattice misfit design concept may be applied to many other metallic alloys.

Potentiating humoral and cellular immunity using a novel hybrid polymer-lipid nanoparticle adjuvant for HBsAg-VLP vaccine.

Aluminium adjuvants are commonly used in vaccines to stimulate the immune system, but they have limited ability to promote cellular immunity which is necessary for clearing viral infections like hepatitis B. Current adjuvants that do promote cellular immunity often have undesired side effects due to the immunostimulants they contain. In this study, a hybrid polymer lipid nanoparticle (HPLNP) was developed as an efficient adjuvant for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine to potentiate both humoral and cellular immunity. The HPLNP is composed of FDA approved polyethylene glycol-b-poly (L-lactic acid) (PEG-PLLA) polymer and cationic lipid 1, 2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane (DOTAP), and can be easily prepared by a one-step method. The cationic optimised vaccine formulation HBsAg/HPLNP (w/w = 1/600) can maximise the cell uptake of the antigen due to the electrostatic adsorption between the vaccine nanoparticle and the cell membrane of antigen-presenting cells. The HPLNP prolonged the retention of the antigen at the injection site and enhanced the lymph node drainage of antigen, resulting in a higher concentration of serum anti-HBsAg IgG compared to the HBsAg group or the HBsAg/Al group after the boost immunisation in mice. The HPLNP also promoted a strong Th1-driven immune response, as demonstrated by the significantly improved IgG2a/IgG1 ratio, increased production of IFN-γ, and activation of CD4 + and CD8 + T cells in the spleen and lymph nodes. Importantly, the HPLNP demonstrated no systemic toxicity during immunisation. The advantages of the HPLNP, including good biocompatibility, easy preparation, low cost, and its ability to enhance both humoral and cellular immune responses, suggest its suitability as an efficient adjuvant for protein-based vaccines such as HBsAg-VLP. These findings highlight the promising potential of the HPLNP as an HBV vaccine adjuvant, offering an alternative to aluminium adjuvants currently used in vaccines.

2D and 3D electrochemical degradation (ECD) of raw cotton industry wastewater (CIWW) using stainless steel and aluminium electrodes.

Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) batch electrochemical degradation (ECD) of raw cotton industry wastewater (CIWW) was adopted using stainless steel (SS) and aluminium (Al) electrodes. ECD as a treatment option was aimed at removing priority quality parameters, viz. chemical oxygen demand (COD), colour, chloride, nitrate, etc. COD removal of 85 and 80% were achieved by using 3D SS and 2D SS electrodes operated at 6 V (0.9 A) for a maximum electrolysis time (ET) of 30 min. Similarly, 76 and 70% COD removal were achieved for 3D Al and 2D Al electrodes, respectively. Simultaneous colour removal in the 2D ECD system using SS and Al electrodes was low by 12 and 11% compared to the 3D ECD system. Water quality parameters, viz. total dissolved solids, chloride, nitrate, phosphates, and sulphate were also removed by 3D (SS and Al) and 2D (SS and Al) electrodes. Higher pollutant removal efficiencies were observed at 30 min ET for 3D SS electrodes compared to 2D SS, 3D Al, and 2D Al. Post-ECD slurry showed good settling characteristics for SS electrodes generating dense and sturdy flocs giving a low sludge volume index values for 2D SS electrodes compared to other electrode options.