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Molecular engineering of organic semiconductors for environmental friendliness or processing engineering.

Near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes (NIR OLEDs) with heavy metals are regularly reported due to the advantages of their various applications in healthcare services, veil authentication, and night vision displays. For commercial applications, it is necessary to look at radiance capacity (RC) instead of radiance because of power consumption. However, recent papers still reported only simple high radiance performance and do not look at device from the point of view of RC. To overcome this hurdle, we designed Ir(III)-based heteroleptic NIR materials with two types of auxiliary ligand. The proposed emitters achieve a highly oriented horizontal dipole ratio (Ir(mCPDTiq)2tmd, complex 1: 80%, Ir(mCPDTiq)2acac, complex 2: 81%) with a short radiative lifetime (1: 386 ns, 2: 323 ns). The device also shows an extremely low turn-on voltage (Von) of 2.2 V and a high RC of 720 mW/sr/m2/V. The results on the Von and RC of the device is demonstrated an outstanding performance among the Ir(III)-based NIR OLEDs with a similar emission peak.

Three new anthracene-cored molecules, 3,3'-(5-(10-(naphthalen-1-yl)anthracen-9-yl)-1,3-phenylene)dipyridine (AP3Py-Na), 3,3'-(5-(10-(naphthalen-2-yl)anthracen-9-yl)-1,3-phenylene)dipyridine (AP3Py-2Na), and 9,10-bis(3,5-di(pyridin-3-yl)phenyl)anthracene (ADP3Py), were synthesized to be used as an efficiency-enhancement layer (EEL) in blue fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes. Insertion of a very thin EEL (3 nm) between the deep blue emitting layer (EML) and the electron transport layer enhanced the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the blue device by 44% compared to the device without the EEL, resulting in an EQE of 7.9% and a current efficiency of 9.0 cd A-1 at 1000 cd m-2; the CIE coordinates of the emitting color were (0.13, 0.14). The transient electroluminescence showed that the efficiency enhancement originates from the triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) process in the EEL, followed by energy transfer to the emitting dye in the EML.

Dicer substrate RNA is an alternative gene silencing agent to canonical siRNA. Enhanced in vitro gene silencing can be achieved with RNA substrates by facilitating Ago loading of dsRNA after Dicer processing. However, the in vivo use of Dicer substrate RNA has been hindered by its instability and immunogenicity in the body due to the lack of proper chemical modification in the structure. Here, we report a universal chemical modification approach for Dicer substrate RNA nanostructures by optimizing protein-RNA interactions in the RNAi pathway. Proteins involved in the RNAi pathway were utilized for evaluating their recognition and binding of substrate RNA. It was found that conventional chemical modifications could severely affect the binding and processing of substrate RNA, consequently reducing RNAi activity. Protein-RNA interaction guided chemical modification was introduced to RNA nanostructures, and their gene silencing activity was assessed. The optimized RNA nanostructures showed excellent binding and processability with RNA binding proteins and offered the enhancement of in vivo EC50 up to 1/8 of its native form.

A fused pyrrolopyridine core having substituents on the nitrogen atom instead of the carbon atom of the indoloindole unit is developed as a new donor unit for organic electronics. The new donor-acceptor copolymers, PDHPHBT, PDHPFBT, and PDHP2FBT, are synthesized using the new donor unit, well-known benzothiadiazole derivatives containing fluorine atoms as the acceptor. The thermal, optical, and electrochemical properties of these novel copolymers are reported. A solar cell using PDHPFBT with diphenyl ether has an open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of 0.86 V, 11.32 mA cm-2 , 0.59%, and 5.68%, respectively, under AM 1.5G illumination (100 mW cm-2 ) in the absence of annealing.

Objective: This study was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant activity and effect of a hot water extract of Lycium chinense fruit (LFE) on liver regeneration induced by Partial Hepatectomy (PH) in rats. Methods: Antioxidant activity of LFE was determined. Rats were divided into three groups; laparotomized (sham, n=15), 70% PH (control, n=25), and LFE-treated after PH (experimental, n=35). Starting 7 days before PH, rats received DW or LFE (500 mg/kg in DW) orally once a day until sacrifice. Rats were sacrificed on d 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 7 after surgery. Liver regeneration ratio and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) expression were determined through immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Results: Final extraction yield of LFE was 36.0%. LFE scavenged the DPPH and the ABTS radicals in a concentration-dependent manner. The IC50 of LFE on DPPH and ABTS antioxidant activity was 5.97 mg/ml and 2.53 mg/ml, respectively. The extent of liver regeneration seen in the experimental group (91.29%) at 7 d after PH was greater than that in the control group (89.43%). After PH, the liver reconstruction process involving collapse, re-arrangement and re-modelling of hepatic tissue was observed to happen sooner in the experimental group. The number of PCNA-positive hepatocytes obviously increased in the experimental group. PCNA-positive hepatocyte ratio peaked at 2 and 3 d in the experimental and control groups, respectively. Conclusions: Administration of LFE had beneficial effects on the regenerative capacity of remnant liver tissue after 70% PH in rats, probably owing to its antioxidant and proliferative properties.

Chitinases (EC 3.2.1.14) are enzymes that hydrolyze chitin by cleaving β-1,4 N-glycosidic bonds. These enzymes have been used for multiple applications in biotechnology, especially for controlling insect pests and phytopathogenic fungi. In the present study, we isolated two chitinase-producing bacteria strains from insects (strain SCH-1 from Moechotypa diphysis and strain SCH-2 from Sphedanolestes impressicollis). Serratia sp. SCH-1 was a short, rod-shaped facultative anaerobe, while Bacillus strain SCH-2 was a rod-shaped endospore-forming anaerobe. Strains SCH-1 and SCH-2 were identified as Serratia sp. and Bacillus sp., respectively based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Strain SCH-1 shared maximum homology (99.44%) with Serratia nematodiphila DZ0503SBS1 and Serratia marcescens subsp. sakuensis KRED. Strain SCH-2 had a maximum homology of 99.24% with Bacillus thuringiensis ATCC 10792 and Bacillus toyonensis BCT-7112. Serratia sp. SCH-1 contained greater levels of saturated fatty acids, but the concentration of branched acids, especially iso-C15:0, was highest in Bacillus sp. SCH-2. Serratia sp. SCH-1 possessed chitinase activity of 1.59 unit/mg protein after 5 days of incubation in culture medium. In contrast, Bacillus sp. SCH-2 had a maximum activity of 0.84 unit/mg protein after 4 days of incubation. Chitinase isozymes produced by Serratia sp. SCH-1 appeared as five bands with sizes of 20, 26, 36, 45 and 54 kDa. Bacillus sp. SCH-2 showed a chitinase isozyme profile with three bands having sizes of 36, 45 and 50 kDa on SDS-PAGE gels.

Background: One of the difficulties we have in the management of anesthesia for the optimal liver transplantation is involved in coagulopathy. The purpose of this paper is to observe and investigate the variation of the heparin effects occurred before and after the fulfillment of reperfusion done in terms of native thromboelastogram (nTEG) or heparinase-guided Thromboelastogram (hgTEG). Methods: In 134 patients who had a living related liver transplantation, by grouping them into four according to the presence or the absence of heparin effects, we are to observethe effects on the quantity of transfusion which each group shows and clinical variables like CTP score, UNOS classification, PT, and preoperative platelet count. Results: It is found that 54 out of 134 patients (40.3%) had heparin effects before the reperfusion, while 101 (75.4%) had the effects after the reperfusion to the grafted liver. It is showed that there was no significant difference in a comparison between groups involved with packed red blood cell transfused, fresh frozen plasma, platelet concentrates, fluid by RIS. In the comparison between groups involved in clinical factors, it is disclosed that although there was no significant difference in four factors, that is, CTP score, UNOS classification, PT, and preoperative platelet count. Conclusions: We can confirm that the occurrence of heparin effect after reperfusion is remarkably increasing compared to that of heparin effect before reperfusion. Also, it can be reported that heparin effects can occur frequently during liver transplantation, but they have no direct relation to transfusion.