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The use of contact lenses for the early treatment of bacterial or fungal keratitis has become a new research focus. Two main requirements of the therapeutic contact lenses are antimicrobial ability and visible light transmittance. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), as a nonspecific antimicrobial component, have been loaded onto contact lenses for the treatment of bacterial and fungal keratitis. Recently, it was reported that, via a simple immersion method, AgNPs can be synthesized and fixed onto the surface of polydopamine (PDA)-coated materials. However, in this study, we found that the above traditional method has the disadvantages of poor AgNP loading and low visible light transmittance, which could be induced by a limited amount of phenolic hydroxyl groups on and second oxidation of the PDA coating, respectively. To overcome these disadvantages, in this paper, we provided a facile and novel method to robustly bind multilayer-AgNPs on contact lens surfaces by using dopamine as a reducing agent and bioglue. In comparing with the monolayer-AgNP-loaded contact lenses fabricated by the traditional method, the multilayer-AgNP-loaded contact lenses had excellent antimicrobial ability and better visible light transmittance. Moreover, the multilayer-AgNP-loaded contact lens had low cytotoxicity to human corneal epithelial cells and anti-inflammation properties. Furthermore, the shortcoming of decreasing visible light transmittance induced by excess adherence of AgNPs on the multilayer-AgNP-loaded contact lens was alleviated by decreasing the size of AgNPs through altering the concentration of dopamine and AgNO3. Contact lenses loaded with small AgNPs (Ag@PDA-2.5, diameter ≈ 25–50 nm) had approximately the same Ag+release and antimicrobial abilities, but significantly better visible light transmittance and anti-inflammatory properties than the contact lenses loaded with large AgNPs (Ag@PDA-5, diameter ≈ 50–75 nm). After that, in vivotesting indicated the promising therapeutic strategy of multilayer-AgNP-loaded contact lenses (Ag@PDA-2.5) for early bacterial keratitis and fungal keratitis. In addition, PDA coating could provide reactive sites to immobilize other biomolecules or drugs on this multilayer-AgNP-loaded contact lens for further combination therapies in treating bacterial or fungal keratitis. Finally, the stability of the visible light transmittance of the multilayer-AgNP-loaded contact lens was detected. The visible light transmittance of Ag@PDA-2.5 was weakened after being cultured with an extremely high concentration of bacteria, while it was stable in the moderate work environment. Though PDA coating had been wildly used to modify implantation devices, however, few studies about PDA coating modified contact lenses have been reported so far. Therefore, this research also provides an important basis for using PDA coating to modify a therapeutic contact lens.

Three new unusual 23-spirocholestane derivatives, ypsilanogenin (1), ypsilanogenin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (2), and 4'-acetylypsilanogenin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (3), were isolated from the whole plants of Ypsilandra thibetica. The structures of compounds 1-3 were deduced by spectroscopic and chemical methods, and the structure of 1 was further confirmed by a singlecrystal diffraction analysis. All isolates were evaluated for their inhibitory activities against HIV-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray powder diffraction was used to analyze and evaluate 11 samples of traditional Chinese medicine, Costustoot, found at various locations in China. A reference fingerprint pattern with 48 characteristic peaks for Costustoot was obtained from X-ray diffraction patterns of six Costustoots from the rhizomes of Aucklandia lappaDecne. The reference fingerprint pattern with 48 characteristic peaks for Costustoot was then used to evaluate the remaining five Costustoot materials. X-ray diffraction results show that the X-ray diffraction Fourier fingerprint pattern method can be used for rapid classification, identification, and quality control of Costustoots.

In the present study, the crystallization of two isomorphic steroid pharmaceutical intermediates 11-hydroxy-16,17-epoxyprogesterone (abbreviated as HEP) and 17-epoxyprogesterone (abbreviated as EP) were studied. Formation of solid solution type mixed crystal system of two steroids in the crystallization process of corresponding mixture from solution was postulated and further confirmed. The experimental results indicate that forming mixed HEP/EP crystal takes place in a wide interval of HEP/EP ratios with the use of the powder X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and high-performance liquid chromatography techniques. Meanwhile, some thermal data (the melting point and enthalpy of melt) of HEP, EP, and their mixed crystals were determined. This discovery will helps us understand the distribution of EP in HEP crystals in the purification process of HEP by crystallization in more depth and will be very beneficial to develop and design the separation process of two steroids.

Examines the rational interpolation for stochastic discrete-event systems. Performance functions of discrete-event systems; Derivation of the error bound for rational interpolation on integer points; Number of renewals in a random interval.

A logical qubit based on electron-spin singlet-triplet states in a semiconductor double dot has emerged as one of the promising candidates for quantum information processing. Here we propose a systematic method to implement rapid quantum gates in the nanosecond time scale for both a single qubit and multiqubits, by applying adiabatic driving pulses with tunable velocity. This yields considerable high-fidelity gate operations reaching 99.9% which are crucial to scalable quantum computation in a semiconductor-based architecture, even considering the demanding experimental constraints and realistic spin and charge noises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the construction of the Lao Zi Cultural Guildhall in 1994 by the Institution of Fine Health and Longevity of Chinese Taoism and the Wendeng City government of Shandong Province. Lao Zi as a famous philosopher who used the concept of Tao or the Way, Reason, Word, God, Logos to illustrate universal evolution; Site and size of the guildhall; Center for domestic and foreign scholars to study Lao Zi's philosophy.

High-fidelity gate operations are a crucial function for quantum information processing. This problem is particularly challenging for hybrid systems where coherence and control time scales greatly differ by orders of magnitude among different elements. Here we propose decoherence-protected gate operations in an important class of hybrid system in the context of a spin qubit in semiconductor quantum dots coupled to a superconductor resonator. Our scheme is able to generate complex photon states for various applications even in the presence of practical imperfections: limited available control of the spin-photon hybrid system and demanding spin decoherence in current state-of-the-art devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]