The Judicial Expansion of American Exceptionalism

The percolation theory is established as a useful tool in the field of pharmaceutical materials science.It is shown that percolation theory, developed for analyzing insulator–conductor transitions, can beapplied to describe imperfect dc conduction in pharmaceutical microcrystalline cellulose duringdensification. The system, in fact, exactly reproduces the values of the percolation threshold andexponent estimated for a three-dimensional random continuum. Our data clearly show a crossoverfrom a power-law percolation theory region to a linear effective medium theory region at a celluloseporosity of ;0.7

Law School Libraries 2007

The primary mission of the law school library is to meet the information needs of the faculty and students of the institution it supports. In addition to their role in educating future lawyers, law schools are the major producers of scholarly literature in law and rely on academic law libraries to provide the resources and support needed for research and publication. Beyond support for the core functions of legal education and research, the specific missions of law school libraries vary depending on the size and missions of law schools of different types. Differences among law schools result in differences among their libraries in collection size and composition, staffing and services offered, and additional clienteles served

Sustainable Porous Carbon Materials Derived from Wood-Based Biopolymers for CO2 Capture

Porous carbon materials with tunable porosities and functionalities represent an important class of CO2 sorbents. The development of porous carbons from various types of biomass is a sustainable, economic and environmentally friendly strategy. Wood is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable, naturally abundant and carbon-rich raw material. Given these advantages, the use of wood-based resources for the synthesis of functional porous carbons has attracted great interests. In this mini-review, we present the recent developments regarding sustainable porous carbons derived from wood-based biopolymers (cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin) and their application in CO2 capture

Amine-Modified Mesoporous Magnesium Carbonate as an Effective Adsorbent for Azo Dyes

Mesoporous magnesium carbonate (MMC) was evaluated as a potential candidate material for removal of dyes from textile industry wastewater. The adsorption property of MMC was analyzed for three different azo dyes: reactive black 5 (RB5), amaranth (AM), and acid red 183 (AR183). Further, the effect of porosity, amine modification, ionic strength, and pH was evaluated. MMC modified with 3-(aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (aMMC) showed consistently high uptake levels for all of the azo dyes tested; the uptake of RB5, AM, and AR183 was ∼360, ∼143 and ∼170 mg/g, respectively. The results demonstrated the importance of porosity and surface chemistry in the effective adsorption of the azo dye in aqueous systems. The uptake of RB5 and AM on aMMC was not significantly affected by pH (when varied between 4 and 10), although reduced uptake of RB5 and AM was observed at pH values <2 and >12. The addition of NaCl salt at concentrations up to 1000 mM had minimal effect on the high uptake of RB5 on aMMC. The uptake of AM by aMMC was reduced by approximately 20% in the presence of NaCl even at low concentrations. The uptake of AR183 by aMMC varied noticeably by changes in pH and no specific trend was observed. The presence of NaCl also adversely affected the uptake of AR183 on aMMC. The adsorption of the azo dye on aMMC was most likely driven by electrostatic interactions. We show here that aMMC is a potential candidate adsorbent for the effective removal of azo dyes from textile wastewaters

Stabilisation of amorphous ibuprofen in Upsalite, a mesoporous magnesium carbonate, as an approach to increasing the aqueous solubility of poorly soluble drugs

One attractive approach to increase the aqueous solubility and thus the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs is to formulate them in their amorphous state since amorphous compounds generally exhibit higher apparent solubilities than their crystalline counterparts. In the current work, mesoporous magnesium carbonate was used to stabilise the amorphous state of the model substance ibuprofen. Crystallisation of the drug was completely supressed in the formulation, resulting in both a higher apparent solubility and a three times faster dissolution rate of the drug where the drug release was shown to be diffusion controlled. It was also shown that the formulation is stable for at least three months when stored at 75% relative humidity. The simple synthesis together with a high loading capacity and narrow pore size distribution of the mesoporous magnesium carbonate is foreseen to offer great advantages in formulations of poorly soluble drugs

Photocatalytic Antibacterial Effects Are Maintained on Resin-Based TiO2 Nanocomposites after Cessation of UV Irradiation

Photocatalysis induced by TiO2 and UV light constitutes a decontamination and antibacterial strategy utilized in many applications including self-cleaning environmental surfaces, water and air treatment. The present work reveals that antibacterial effects induced by photocatalysis can be maintained even after the cessation of UV irradiation. We show that resin-based composites containing 20% TiO2 nanoparticles continue to provide a pronounced antibacterial effect against the pathogens Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus mutans and Enterococcus faecalis for up to two hours post UV. For biomaterials or implant coatings, where direct UV illumination is not feasible, a prolonged antibacterial effect after the cessation of the illumination would offer new unexplored treatment possibilities

A green and simple method for preparation of an efficient palladium adsorbent based on cysteine functionalized2,3-dialdehyde cellulose

A green and efficient adsorbent for adsorption of palladium ions was prepared from 2,3-dialdehyde cellulose (DAC) originating from nanocellulose from the green algae Cladophora. The DAC was functionalized with cysteine via reductive amination in a convenient one-pot procedure to provide the adsorbent. The adsorption properties for adsorbing palladium(II) ions, including capacity, adsorption isotherm and kinetics, were studied. The successful reductive amination of cysteine with 2,3-dialdehyde cellulose was confirmed by FT-IR, elemental analysis and XPS. The adsorbent was characterized by SEM, XRD, gas adsorption and TGA. The adsorbent had a high adsorption capacity (130 mg palladium per gram adsorbent) and enabled fast adsorption of palladium(II) ions from solution (80 % of maximum capacity reached in 2 h). Adsorbent materials suitable for both filters (fibrous) and column matrixes (spherical particles) could be obtained in an efficient manner by controlling the degree of oxidation while producing the DAC material

Towards Tunable Protein-Carrier Wound Dressings Based on Nanocellulose Hydrogels Crosslinked with Calcium Ions

A Ca2+-crosslinked wood-based nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) hydrogel was investigated to build knowledge toward the use of nanocellulose for topical drug delivery applications in a chronic wound healing context. Proteins of varying size and isoelectric point were loaded into the hydrogel in a simple soaking procedure. The release of the proteins from the hydrogel was monitored and kinetics determining parameters of the release processes were assessed. The integrity of the hydrogel and proteins were also studied. The results showed that electrostatic interactions between the proteins and the negatively-charged NFC hydrogel structure played a central role in the loading process. The release of the proteins were governed by Fickian diffusion. An increased protein size, as well as a positive protein charge facilitated a slower and more sustained release process from the hydrogel matrix. At the same time, the positively-charged protein was shown to increase the post-loading hydrogel strength. Released proteins maintained structural stability and activity, thus indicating that the Ca2+-crosslinked NFC hydrogel could function as a carrier of therapeutic proteins without compromising protein function. It is foreseen that, by utilizing tunable charge properties of the NFC hydrogel, release profiles can be tailored to meet very specific treatment needs

Photocatalytic Antibacterial Effects Are Maintained on Resin-Based TiO2 Nanocomposites after Cessation of UV Irradiation

Photocatalysis induced by TiO2 and UV light constitutes a decontamination and antibacterial strategy utilized in many applications including self-cleaning environmental surfaces, water and air treatment. The present work reveals that antibacterial effects induced by photocatalysis can be maintained even after the cessation of UV irradiation. We show that resin-based composites containing 20% TiO2 nanoparticles continue to provide a pronounced antibacterial effect against the pathogens Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus mutans and Enterococcus faecalis for up to two hours post UV. For biomaterials or implant coatings, where direct UV illumination is not feasible, a prolonged antibacterial effect after the cessation of the illumination would offer new unexplored treatment possibilities

Disinfection Kinetics and Contribution ofReactive Oxygen Species When EliminatingBacteria with TiO2 Induced Photocatalysis

Titania (TiO2) induced photocatalysis has been widely investigated and applied as a disinfectionstrategy in many industrial and clinical applications. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), including hydroxylradicals (•OH), superoxide radicals ( •−2 O ) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), generated in thephotocatalytic reaction process are considered to be the active components prompting the bactericidaleffect. In the present work, the kinetics of photocatalytic inactivation of Staphylococcus epidermidisand specific contributions of •OH, •−2 O and H2O2 to the bactericidal process were studiedusing two disinfection settings sutilizing photocatalytic resin-TiO2 nanocomposite surfacesand suspended TiO2 nanoparticles, respectively. In antibacterial tests against S. epidermidis with alayer of bacterial suspension on the resin-TiO2 surfaces, H2O2 was found to be the most efficientROS component contributing to the antibacterial effect. Disinfection kinetics showed a two-stepbehavior with an initial region having a lower disinfection rate followed by a higher rate regionafter 10 min of UV irradiation. By contrast, in antibacterial tests with suspended bacteria andphotocatalytic TiO2 nanoparticles, •OH and H2O2 showed equal significance in the bacterial inactivationhaving a typical Chick-Watson disinfection kinetics behavior with a steady disinfection rate.The results contribute to the understanding of the bactericidal mechanism and kinetics of photocatalyticdisinfection that are essential for designing specific antibacterial applications of photocatalyticmaterials