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The COVID-19 outbreak has influenced virtually all aspects of our life, in particular, hundreds of millions of people around the world have been forced to study online. To observe the practical realization of emergency remote teaching of chemistry during the first wave of COVID-19 in Russia we gave the survey to 217 teachers and 355 students from more than 50% regions of Russia about their experience during distance learning of chemistry. 17% of students were lacking chemistry lessons at all. We compared this with the situation in Letovo international boarding school in Moscow and found relative success in terms of lessons adaptation and overall satisfaction compared to the Russia-wide survey. This might be because of the fine educational organization effort and implemented learning management system (LMS). There is a high probability of a second COVID-19 wave or any other occasion that may lead to sudden change to distance learning. Teacher community should learn from world-wide and country-wide experiences of the first COVID-19 wave to become prepared for future challenges. Those preparation measures may include implementing LMS and strategy development.

This study is one of the first attempts to assess CeO2 nanoparticles as a nanoplatform for radiopharmaceuticals with radionuclides. The process of functionalization using a bifunctional azacrown ligand is described, and the resulting conjugates are characterized by IR and Raman spectroscopy. Their complexes with 207Bi show a high stability in medically relevant media, thus encouraging the further study of these conjugates in vivo as potential combined radiopharmaceuticals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production of medical radionuclide 67Cu by the irradiation of Zn of natural isotopic composition by bremsstrahlung photons of maximum energy of 55 MeV was studied. Production yields of 67Cu and other activation products were determined. The yield of 67Cu is (2.34 ± 0.07) × 105 Bq/(μA h g/cm2) at EOB. The experimental data were compared with the results of other experiments and theoretical calculations based on the statistical model in the TALYS software and on the combined model of photonuclear reactions. Technique of chemical separation of 67Cu from irradiated zinc target based on extraction chromatography using CU Resin was applied. Radiochemical yield was > 95%, separation time was 1 h. The possibility of production of medical quantities was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of nanoparticles is promising for the purposes of nuclear medicine due to the possibilities of using them as vectors and transporters of radionuclides. In this study, we have successfully synthesised conjugates of CeO 2 nanoparticles and azacrown ligands. Then, the radiolabelling conditions with radionuclides 65 Zn, 44 Sc and 207 Bi were selected and the kinetic stability of the complexes in biologically significant media was evaluated. Optimum conditions for CeO 2 -APTES-L and CeO 2 -APTES-DOTA labelling were found: 0.1 g l -1 conjugate and 10 -9 M metal cations at 90 °C for complexes with [ 65 Zn]Zn 2+ , [ 44 Sc]Sc 3+ and [ 207 Bi]Bi 3+ . CeO 2 -APTES-L- 44 Sc (radiochemical purity more than 90%) was stable in fetal bovine serum. The obtained results enabled us to choose the most promising complex for biomedical applications for carrying out in vitro and in vivo biodistribution research. Nanoceria and its derivative showed no obvious toxicity to human endothelial cells EA.hy926. Then, the in vivo stability of the studied scandium complex was demonstrated. Taken together, our studies show that functionalised cerium oxide nanoparticles lead to stable radiolabelled nanosystems that may be used for targeted drug delivery, diagnosis and treatment of oncological diseases., Competing Interests: The authors of this work declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)