Search

Three-dimensional (3D) printed calcium phosphate cement (CPC) scaffolds are increasingly being used for bone tissue repair. Traditional materials used for CPC scaffolds, such as bovine and porcine bone, generally contain low amounts of calcium phosphate compounds, resulting in reduced production rates of CPC scaffolds. On the other hand, cockle shells contain more than 99% CaCO3 in the form of amorphous aragonite with excellent biocompatibility, which is expected to increase the CPC production rate. In this study, 3D-printed cockle shell powder-based CPC (CSP-CPC) scaffolds were developed by the material extrusion method. Lactic acid and hyaluronic acid were used to promote the printability. The characterization of CSP-CPC scaffolds was performed using Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction patterns, and scanning electron microscopy. The biocompatibility of CSP-CPC scaffolds was evaluated using cell viability, Live/Dead, and alkaline phosphatase assays. In addition, CSP-CPC scaffolds were implanted into the mouse calvarial defect model to confirm bone regeneration. This study provides an opportunity to create high value added in fishing villages by recycling natural products from marine waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A deprotonated 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid (DHT) was synthesized to obtain a water-soluble, fluorescent molecule (DHT-K). The deprotonated DHT-K was converted to DHT upon exposure to acidic gas, changing fluorescence color from yellow to blue. DHT-K was incorporated to poly(vinyl alcohol) to form a film, and the film showed the same fluorescence change when exposed to HCl gas. The blue fluorescence of HCl-exposed DHT-K film was returned to yellow emission by simple treatment with NH3 gas, showing effective regeneration. Using detectable fluorescence changes by the naked eye, DHT-K can be a potential candidate for a fluorescent indicator toward HCl gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

308 Background: In the US, 77.3% of women aged 21-65 years have had a Pap smear within the past three years and around 75.9% of women aged 50-74 years reported having a mammogram within the past two years as recommended according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). In UTRGV Resident-led Clinic located in Hidalgo County, the quality metrics data demonstrated screening satisfactory rate for cervical and breast cancer to be 18% in August 2023. This Quality Improvement project is aimed at enhancing the screening satisfactory rate of breast and cervical cancer by 20% at UTRGV Knapp IM Clinic by December 2023. Methods: First, we focused on the education of the residents through noon conference and 1:1 education. This included comprehensive instruction on latest USPSTF guidelines and proper documentation on the electronic health record system, Athena. Second, we introduced a patient screening questionnaire, available in both English and Spanish. These efforts were evaluated through a pre-and-post-intervention survey designed to assess changes in residents' confidence, aligning with quality metrics data. We obtained and filtered the quality metrics raw data to include all the current residents in PGY1-3 and summed the number of patients who had records of breast and cervical cancer screening and divided the sum of all patients that required the record. The satisfaction rate was rounded to the 2nd decimal place. Results: The raw data from 8/2023 showed screening satisfactory rate for cervical and breast cancer to be 18%. With the initiation of intervention, the data from 9/2023 showed rate of 35%, finally reaching 39% on 12/2023, fulfilling our aim of 20% increase in the screening satisfactory rate. Survey data shows that there was an improvement of confidence observed in both breast and cervical cancer screening. Respectively, 27.5% and 30.9% increase in the residents who responded confident in breast cancer and cervical cancer screening were observed. 84.4% of residents responded that they are less forgetfulness in screening patients after the intervention. There was 22.9% increase in residents who know how to record the cancer screening result in Athena. 87.5% of the residents responded that they experienced improvement in implementing and documenting the breast and cervical cancer screening. Conclusions: Despite several limitations in acquiring and analyzing the data, this QI project positively impacted both subjective and objective data for the improvement of the breast and cervical cancer screening, fulfilling our aim of 20% increase in screening satisfactory rate by December 2023. Breast and cervical screening satisfactory Rate. Month/year Number of patients requiring breast and cervical cancer screening Number of patients with satisfaction in breast and cervical cancer screening Satisfactory rate (%) 08/2023 42 229 18 9/2023 999 2844 35 10/2023 454 1458 31 11/2023 649 1771 37 12/2023 113 287 39 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid (DHT) is composed of a single benzene molecule, it is blue-emissive in common organic solvents and in the solid state. Like most organic fluorophores, DHT is not soluble in water, which limits its versatile use in metal ion detection in an aqueous medium. To improve the water solubility of DHT and its use as a molecular sensor in aqueous solutions, its deprotonated form, DHT-K, was synthesized through the simple one-pot reaction of DHT with KOH. Compared with DHT, DHT-K was highly soluble in water and emitted yellow fluorescence in the solution and the solid. In addition, DHT-K showed high selectivity for Al ions, exhibiting fluorescence wavelength changes from 540 to 495 nm depending on the Al ion concentration. A linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity of DHT-K and Al ion concentration was established ranging from 18.96 to 247 μM with a detection limit of 1.84 µM. The binding stoichiometry between DHT-K and Al ions was determined by Job's plot and found to be 1:2. Upon exposure to Al ions, DHT-K showed significant changes in fluorescence color and emission wavelength, whereas no fluorescence changes were observed by the addition of various metal ions such as Zn2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cu2+, Fe3+, and Co2+. Thus, DHT-K can be applied as a fluorescent sensor that can selectively detect Al ions in aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single‐benzene‐based, blue‐emissive diethyl 2,5‐dihydroxyterephthalate (DDT) was prepared by Fischer esterification of 2,5‐dihydroxyterephthalic acid (DHT) and ethanol. The strong fluorescence in both the solution and the solid state from such a simple framework stemmed from the push‐pull structure of the electron‐donating hydroxy groups and the accepting carbonyl groups, as well as structural planarity from intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds enabled DDT to crystallize easily. The color CCD imaging technique showed efficient 1D optical waveguiding with a large optical loss coefficient of 0.15 dB/μm. DDT has potential application in optical sensors, photonic devices, and optoelectronic communication, because of its highly ordered structure and light‐emitting ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a conventional cation-exchange polymer resin, Cs ion exchange resins were fabricated for the removal of radioactive Cs via two preparation methods. Prussian blue (PB), which have been commonly used to remove radioactive 137Cs, was synthesized on the surface of resins. To provide a strong interaction between the polymer resin and PB, polydopamine (PDA) was used as a linker, present on the surface of the polymer resins. Based on the same principle, two types of Cs ion exchange resins were prepared via different orders of fabrication sequence. From the removal test of Cs ions, it was found that the two types of the resins did not show noticeable difference in adsorption of Cs ions, in which adsorption of Cs ions took place heterogeneously and chemically with multilayer adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prepared shape-controllable, sodium alginate-based hydrogels containing various particles inside the hydrogels. Centrifugal injection method was employed to obtain smaller sized gels, compared to that fabricated by conventional method. A conventionally-fabricated gel beads were spherically-shaped, in which the shape was determined by the droplets of sodium alginate solution from syringe needle. The shape of the gels was easily manipulated to obtain hollow-cylindrical gels by simple use of embedding particles and by changing the concentration of sodium alginate, calcium chloride, and the embedding components. As a result, the hollow-centered gels with the unique shape were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]