REVISITING THE PHILIPPINE BS PHARMACY CURRICULUM AFTER 13 YEARS: A SURVEY ON PHARMACIST PRACTITIONERS FOR THE UPCOMING CURRICULUM REVISION

The objective of this study is to supposedly investigate the current 4-year BS Pharmacy curriculum in the Philippines in relation to the eventual shift to a 5-year BS Pharmacy curriculum by 2018 which did not materialize including modifications in the curricular topics and internship strategies. To do this, a cross-sectional study was done using purposive sampling answered by 119 practicing Filipino Pharmacists from the different areas of practice and regions in the Philippines. About this study, 72.88% prevalence rate of those who agree and strongly agree of the BS Pharmacy curriculum shift to a 5-year program was evident. There is also a strong percentage (highest subject is 98.6% and lowest subject is 59.3%) calling for improvement on all curricular topics. On the other hand, 63.3% of the respondents agree that increasing specialty rotations during internship would be more appropriate internship strategy but the new curriculum increases the internship hours instead that only gathers 4.6% support, the lowest among the options. It can be concluded, that it is only appropriate to shift to the 5-year BS Pharmacy program based on the perception of the respondents and improvement of all curricular topics must come with it.  Article visualizations

Nanostructured luminescently labeled nucleic acids

Important and emerging trends at the interface of luminescence, nucleic acids and nanotechnology are: (i) the conventional luminescence labeling of nucleic acid nanostructures (e.g. DNA tetrahedron); (ii) the labeling of bulk nucleic acids (e.g. single‐stranded DNA, double‐stranded DNA) with nanostructured luminescent labels (e.g. copper nanoclusters); and (iii) the labeling of nucleic acid nanostructures (e.g. origami DNA) with nanostructured luminescent labels (e.g. silver nanoclusters). This review surveys recent advances in these three different approaches to the generation of nanostructured luminescently labeled nucleic acids, and includes both direct and indirect labeling methods

Ligand-exchange of TOPO-capped CdSe quantum dots with quinuclidines

[[abstract]]A series of tertiary amine quinuclidine-capped cadmium selenide (Q-CdSe) quantum dots (QDs) of ~4 nm in diameter was successfully synthesized via ligand exchange process in which the original hydrophobic trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) ligand bound to QDs was replaced with stronger quinuclidine derivatives, quinuclidine (Q1), 3-quinuclidinone (Q2) and 3-quinuclidinol (Q3). The ligand exchange of TOPO by Q probed using the combined fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy was achieved in just only a few minutes. Moreover, disappearance of prominent C-H aliphatic stretching (~2900 cm-1) and phosphate signal (35 ppm) of TOPO-capped CdSe after replacement with Q as revealed in FT-IR and solid state 31P-NMR spectra was observed indicating efficient fast ligand exchange

Synthesis and optical properties of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium lauryl sulfate ionic liquids

[[abstract]]We report the synthesis of a new series of imidazolium-based halogen-free ionic liquids 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium lauryl sulfates. By reacting 1-methylimidazole (MIM) with butyl, hexyl, octyl, and decyl bromides and exchanging bromide ion with lauryl sulfate anion, a series of ionic liquids [RMIM][C12H25OSO3] were produced. The high purity of these ionic liquids was verified with 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FT-IR and mass spectrometry (MS), demonstrating the effectiveness of this synthetic approach. Solubility test of these ionic liquids showed that they are soluble in most organic solvents except nonpolar solvents such as hexane and cyclohexane. The optical properties of [BMIM]Br and [BMIM][C12H25OSO3], where B refers to butyl, were examined. Both ionic liquids absorbed light in the UV region, yet essentially no absorption was recorded beyond 450 nm. Furthermore, both ionic liquids showed excitation wavelength-dependent fluorescence behavior. As an example, with an excitation wavelength of 360 nm, [BMIM][C12H 25OSO3] showed an emission band maximum at 447 nm. Increasing the excitation wavelength to 440 nm, the emission band maximum was shifted to 500 nm.[[fileno]]2010314010016[[department]]化學

Optimizing the size and surface properties of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-gold nanoparticles by intense x-ray irradiation

The polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified gold nanoparticle complex was synthesized by a one-solution synchrotron x-ray irradiation method. The impact on the structure and morphology of the gold nanoparticles of process parameters such as the PEG molecular weight, the PEG/gold molar ratio and the x-ray dosage were investigated. The size of PEG modified gold particles was found to decrease with increasing PEG addition and x-ray dosage. With the capability to monitor the absorption spectra in situ during the fast synthesis process, this opens the way to accurate control of the size and distribution. PEG chains with an intermediate length (MW6000) were found optimal for size control and colloidal stability in biologically relevant media. Our x-ray synthesized PEG-gold nanoparticles could find interesting applications in nanoparticle-enhanced x-ray tumour imaging and therapy.X1139sciescopu

NanoCluster Beacons Enable Detection of a Single <i>N</i>⁶‑Methyladenine

While <i>N</i>⁶-methyladenine (m⁶A) is a common modification in prokaryotic and lower eukaryotic genomes and has many biological functions, there is no simple and cost-effective way to identify a single <i>N</i>⁶-methyladenine in a nucleic acid target. Here we introduce a robust, simple, enzyme-free and hybridization-based method using a new silver cluster probe, termed methyladenine-specific NanoCluster Beacon (maNCB), which can detect single m⁶A in DNA targets based on the fluorescence emission spectra of silver clusters. Not only can maNCB identify m⁶A at the single-base level but it also can quantify the extent of adenine methylation in heterogeneous samples. Our method is superior to high-resolution melting analysis as we can pinpoint the location of m⁶A in the target

A Complementary Palette of NanoCluster Beacons

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Split Spinach Aptamer for Highly Selective Recognition of DNA and RNA at Ambient Temperatures

Split spinach aptamer (SSA) probes for fluorescent analysis of nucleic acids were designed and tested. In SSA design, two RNA or RNA/DNA strands hybridized to a specific nucleic acid analyte and formed a binding site for DFHBI dye, which was accompanied by up to 270-fold increase in fluorescence. The major advantage of the SSA probe over state-of-the art fluorescent probes is high selectivity: it produces only the background fluorescence in the presence of single base mismatched analyte even at room temperature. SSA is a promising tool for label-free analysis of nucleic acids at ambient temperatures