Fractionation of Poly(dimethyl siloxane) by interaction chromatography

Poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) was characterized by interaction chromatography using C4-bonded silica and a mixture of THF/CH3OH as the stationary phase and the mobile phase, respectively. Under the separation condition, a commercial PDMS with broad molecular weight distribution was successfully fractionated according to molecular weight into fractions with a very narrow molecular weight distribution. The IC separation could be applied to more rigorous characterization of PDMS, modified PDMS, and block copolymer-containing PDMS.X1122sciescopuskc

Restacking-Inhibited 3D Reduced Graphene Oxide for High Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes

Graphene has received considerable attention in both scientific and technological areas due to its extraordinary material properties originating from the atomically single- or small number-layered structure. Nevertheless, in most scalable solution-based syntheses, graphene suffers from severe restacking between individual sheets and thus loses its material identity and advantages. In the present study, we have noticed the intercalated water molecules in the dried graphene oxide (GO) as a critical mediator to such restacking and thus eliminated the hydrogen bonding involving the intercalated water by treating GO with melamine resin (MR) monomers. Upon addition of MR monomers, porous restacking-inhibited GO sheets precipitated, leading to the carbonaceous composite with an exceptionally large surface area of 1040 m(2)/g after a thermal treatment. Utilizing such high surface area, the final graphene composite exhibited excellent electrochemical performance as a supercapacitor electrode material: specific capacitance of 210 F/g, almost no capacitance loss for 20 000 cycles, and similar to 7 s rate capability. The current study delivers a message that various condensation reactions engaging GO sheets can be a general synthetic approach for restacking-inhibited graphene in scalable solution processes.

DNA hydrogel-based supercapacitors operating in physiological fluids

DNA nanostructures have been attractive due to their structural properties resulting in many important breakthroughs especially in controlled assemblies and many biological applications. Here, we report a unique energy storage device which is a supercapacitor that uses nanostructured DNA hydrogel (Dgel) as a template and layer-by-layer (LBL)-deposited polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) as conductors. Our device, named as PEM-Dgel supercapacitor, showed excellent performance in direct contact with physiological fluids such as artificial urine and phosphate buffered saline without any need of additional electrolytes, and exhibited almost no cytotoxicity during cycling tests in cell culture medium. Moreover, we demonstrated that the PEM-Dgel supercapacitor has greater charge-discharge cycling stability in physiological fluids than highly concentrated acid electrolyte solution which is normally used for supercapacitor operation. These conceptually new supercapacitors have the potential to be a platform technology for the creation of implantable energy storage devices for packageless applications directly utilizing biofluids.open112429sciescopu

Risk of Hyponatremia after Tramadol/Acetaminophen Single-Pill Combination Therapy: A Real-World Study Based on the OMOP–CDM Database

Abstract Background and Objective Tramadol has been reported to cause hyponatremia but the evidence is conflicting. The risk of hyponatremia resulting from combination oral tramadol/acetaminophen (TA) therapy is thus unknown. This study examined whether, compared with acetaminophen (AA), TA use is associated with an increased risk of hyponatremia. Methods Hospital data compatible with the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership–Common Data Model (OMOP–CDM; version 5.3) for 30,999 patients taking TA or AA from 2011 through 2020 were analyzed. New-onset hyponatremia was defined as a serum sodium level  65 years and 16,654 (53.7%) were male. Hyponatremia within 10 days developed in 1613 (8.4%) of the 19,149 patients in the TA group; the incidence rate was higher than in the AA group (4.2%; 493 out of 11,850 cases). In the propensity-score-matched model, the incidence rate of hyponatremia in the TA group was 6.8 per 1000 person-days (PD), which was 1.57-fold (1.31, 1.89) higher than that in the AA group (4.3 per 1000 PD). In both the crude and propensity-score-matched models, the incidence rate of hyponatremia was significantly higher in the TA–ER than TA–IR subgroup. Conclusion In this real-world study, hyponatremia was more frequently observed in the TA than AA group, and in the TA–ER than TA–IR subgroup. Therefore, it is imperative to prescribe tramadol cautiously and closely monitor electrolyte levels

Distributed processing for value-based choice by prelimbic circuits targeting anterior-posterior dorsal striatal subregions in male mice

The prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex is involved in goal-directed action. Here the authors investigate the function of the prelimbic pathways projecting along the anterior posterior striatal axis in value based decision making in male mice

Restacking-Inhibited 3D Reduced Graphene Oxide for High Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes

Graphene has received considerable attention in both scientific and technological areas due to its extraordinary material properties originating from the atomically single- or small number-layered structure. Nevertheless, in most scalable solution-based syntheses, graphene suffers from severe restacking between individual sheets and thus loses its material identity and advantages. In the present study, we have noticed the intercalated water molecules in the dried graphene oxide (GO) as a critical mediator to such restacking and thus eliminated the hydrogen bonding involving the intercalated water by treating GO with melamine resin (MR) monomers. Upon addition of MR monomers, porous restacking-inhibited GO sheets precipitated, leading to the carbonaceous composite with an exceptionally large surface area of 1040 m²/g after a thermal treatment. Utilizing such high surface area, the final graphene composite exhibited excellent electrochemical performance as a supercapacitor electrode material: specific capacitance of 210 F/g, almost no capacitance loss for 20 000 cycles, and ∼7 s rate capability. The current study delivers a message that various condensation reactions engaging GO sheets can be a general synthetic approach for restacking-inhibited graphene in scalable solution processes

Detecting Structural Polydispersity in Branched Polybutadienes

The structural details of a set of highly entangled H-shaped polybutadienes (PBDs) prepared by anionic polymerization were examined in detail by three reputable laboratories using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and temperature gradient interaction chromatography (TGIC). While SEC data indicated that samples having the desired structures (i.e., nearly monodisperse H-shaped polymer) had been produced, additional SEC data from other laboratories showed that the samples were structurally more complex than originally thought. TGIC data revealed that while the samples did not contain high molecular weight byproducts, they did contain low molecular weight byproducts. To discern these structural details of the branched PBDs, small amounts of sample were fractionated by TGIC. By combining knowledge of the polymerization process with the TGIC data of fractionated samples, it was possible to work out the detailed compositions of the samples and the branching structures of each component.X112123sciescopu

Promotion of Cortical Neurogenesis from the Neural Stem Cells in the Adult Mouse Subcallosal Zone

Neurogenesis occurs spontaneously in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricle in adult rodent brain, but it has long been debated whether there is sufficient adult neurogenesis in human SVZ. Subcallosal zone (SCZ), a posterior continuum of SVZ closely associated with posterior regions of cortical white matter, has also been reported to contain adult neural stem cells (aNSCs) in both rodents and humans. However, little is known whether SCZ-derived aNSC (SCZ-aNSCs) can produce cortical neurons following brain injury. We found that SCZ-aNSCs exhibited limited neuronal differentiation potential in culture and after transplantation in mice. Neuroblasts derived from SCZ initially migrated toward injured cortex regions following brain injury, but later exhibited apoptosis. Overexpression of anti-apoptotic bcl-xL in the SCZ by retroviral infection rescued neuroblasts from cell death in the injured cortex, but neuronal maturation was still limited, resulting in atrophy. In combination with Bcl-xL, infusion of brain-derived neurotropic factor rescued atrophy, and importantly, a subset of such SCZ-aNSCs differentiated and attained morphological and physiological characteristics of mature, excitatory neurons. These results suggest that the combination of anti-apoptotic and neurotrophic factors might enable the use of aNSCs derived from the SCZ in cortical neurogenesis for neural replacement therapy