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Surfactant‐assisted soil cleaning has been considered as a promising technology for remediating of dye‐contaminated soil, but is significantly impeded by limitations such as the adsorption or precipitation of surfactants in soil. To take the advantage of effective remediation of anionic surfactant and lower adsorption of nonionic surfactant, a remediation system has been developed in this study for soil contaminated with model dyes methyl orange and alizarin red, employing a designed anionic‐nonionic surfactant known as sodium nonylcyclohexanol ethoxylates sulfate (NCEO5S) and a commercial surfactant—sodium alkyl alcohol ethoxylate sulfate (AES). Using simple wash, the elution efficiency on highly‐contaminated soil (methyl orange and alizarin red) reached up to 94.34% and 97.66%, respectively, at 25°C in 24 h with 1 wt% of surfactant solution. Electrostatic repulsion noticeably mitigates surfactant adsorption on the soil surface. The low adsorption of surfactants on the eluted soil surface was characterized with SEM‐EDS and thermogravimetric analysis. The kinetics of surfactant‐enhanced dyes desorption from contaminated soil follow the Elovich equation. The findings will be benefit for developing eco‐friendly surfactant systems to clean‐up dyes‐contaminated soils while minimizing surfactant adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering plasmid DNA (pDNA) to solid tumors remains a significant challenge due to the requirement for multiple transport steps and the need to promote delivery efficiency. Herein, we present a virus-mimicking hybrid lipoplex, composed of an arginine-rich cationic lipid, hyaluronic acid derivatives coated gold nanoparticles, and pDNA. This system induces cytoskeletal rearrangements through "outside-in" mechanical and "inside-out" biochemical signaling, overcoming intra- and intercellular barriers to enhance pDNA delivery. By modulating autophagy, RhoA signaling, and cytoskeletal dynamics, we achieve a 20-fold increase in gene expression with high tissue specificity in solid tumors. Furthermore, the system is applied to co-deliver a p53 plasmid and an MDM2 inhibitor, demonstrating significant synergistic antitumor effects in hepatocellular and lung carcinomas. Delivering plasmid DNA to solid tumors is challenging since it demands more transport steps than other genetic materials. Here this group designs a hybrid lipoplex for co-delivering p53 plasmid along with MDM2 inhibitor sp141 to hepatocellular carcinoma and lung carcinoma for synergistic anti-tumor treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium stearyl polyoxypropylene acetates (SC18PpC, p = 3, 6, 9) were synthesized through a two‐step process involving propoxylation of stearyl alcohol and subsequent carboxymethylation. Stearyl polyoxypropylene acetic acids (C18PpC, p = 3, 6, 9), the acidified products of SC18PpC, were characterized by FT‐IR, 1H‐NMR, and ESI‐MS. The properties of SC18PpC were extensively investigated and compared with sodium dodecanoate (SD) and sodium stearate (SS). The solubility of SC18PpC in cold water was enhanced. Kraft temperature (Tk) of SC18P3C is 40°C which is significantly lower than SS, and Tk of SC18PpC (p = 6, 9) are even less than 0°C. SC18PpC exhibits overall greater hard water resistance compared to SD and SS with the hardness of 0 to 450 mg/L. The hard water resistance of SC18PpC escalates proportionally with the length of the spacer, and the aqueous solution of SC18P9C retains its clarity even when exposed to the hard water of 450 mg/L, the maximum hardness level of Chinese tap water. SC18PpC demonstrates efficiency and effectiveness in reducing surface tension, as well as better foaming, emulsification and wetting power compared to SD and SS. These improved properties make SC18PpC (p = 3, 6) more effective in detergency on three typical soiled fabrics compared to that of sodium soap. Specifically, the detergency to sebum‐stained fabric of SC18P3C exhibits 1.5 times and 1.3 times improvement compared to SD and SS, respectively. Therefore, it is recommended to incorporate SC18PpC (p = 3, 6) in the detergent formulations for washing intimate apparel in tap water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium (Ti) implants have been extensively used after surgical operations. Its surface bioactivity is of importance to facilitate integration with surrounding bone tissue, and ultimately ensure stability and long-term functionality of the implant. The plasmid DNA-activated matrix (DAM) coating on the surface could benefit osseointegration but is still trapped by poor transfection for further application, especially on the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in vivo practical conditions. Herein, we constructed a DAM on the surface of fibrous-grained titanium (FG Ti) composed of phase-transition lysozyme (P) as adhesive, cationic arginine-rich lipid (RLS) as the transfection agent and plasmid DNA (pDNA) for bone morphology protein 2 (BMP2) expression. The cationic lipid RLS improved up to 30-fold higher transfection than that of commercial reagents (Lipofectamine 2000 and polyethyleneimine) on MSC. And importantly, Ti surface topology not only promotes the DAM to achieve high transfection efficiency (∼75.7% positive cells) on MSC due to the favorable combination but also reserves its contact induction effect for osteoblasts. Upon further exploration, the fibrous topology on FG Ti could boost pDNA uptake for gene transfection, and cell migration in MSC through cytoskeleton remodeling and induce contact guidance for enhanced osteointegration. At the same time, the cationic RLS together with adhesive P were both antibacterial, showing up to 90% inhibition rate against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with reduced adherent microorganisms and disrupted bacteria. Finally, the FG Ti-P/pBMP2 implant achieved accelerated bone healing capacities through highly efficient gene delivery, aligned surface topological structure and increased antimicrobial properties in a rat femoral condylar defect model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broadband dual-polarized crossed dipole antenna is proposed in this paper. To achieve a wide impedance bandwidth and low-profile configuration, a novel bow-tie balun is applied to this antenna. Firstly, the working mechanisms of both bow-tie baluns and the antenna are introduced. Then, the parametric study and design guidelines are presented. Finally, the optimized antenna is fabricated, measured, and analyzed. The simulated and measured results show that the antenna has a wide impedance bandwidth from 2.42 GHz to 6.48 GHz. The fractional bandwidth is 91.2%. Moreover, within the whole band, the E-plane and H-plane radiation patterns are stable. The port isolation is greater than 20 dB, and the cross-polarization discrimination ratio is better than 25 dB. The proposed antenna achieves a realized gain of 7.5   d B i   ±   0.5   d B i . It can be a good candidate for sub-6 GHz wireless communications or short-range radar applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOn), typically NPEO10, are the second popular nonionic surfactants that have been banned or restricted from use and production by Europe since 1990 due to their poor degradability and high genetic toxicity. The hypothesis of this work is that the nonylcyclohexanol ethoxylates (NCEOn) may possess similar interfacial properties but lower biotoxicity and better biodegradability compared with NPEOn according to their structures. To verify this and to find the optimal alternative of NPEO10, the interfacial properties of NCEOn were compared with the typical commercial ethoxylates nonionic surfactants, such as nonylphenol ethoxylated‐10 (NPEO10), alcohol ethoxylated‐9 (AEO9), secondary alcohol ethoxylated‐9 (SAE9), and isomeric alcohol ethoxylated‐9 (TO9). It is the NCEO7 that shows excellent emulsifying ability similar to that of NPEO10. NCEO11 performed stronger detergency than other assayed commercial nonionic surfactants. Additionally, NCEOn possessed lower biological toxicity to aquatic organisms. Hence, NCEOn could be considered as a green substitute for NPEOn in the assayed application fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]