Inoculation of Zaopei with biofortification: Inducing variation in community structure and improving flavor compounds in Nongxiangxing baijiu.

The deterioration of the quality of raw liquor caused by the low content of ethyl hexanoate in Nongxiangxing baijiu has become a pervasive problem in the baijiu industry. Therefore, this study attempted to increase the synthesis of ethyl hexanoate by microorganisms with high esterase activity to increase Zaopei fermentation. The results showed that biofortification was a feasible and important way to improve the quality of the raw liquor and increase the ethyl hexanoate content. Adding Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Millerozyma farinosa for biofortified fermentation disturbed the microbial community structure of Zaopei and increased the abundance of Wickerhamomyces, Saccharomyces, and Thermoascus. The contents of ethyl hexanoate, ethyl valerate, ethyl caprylate, and ethyl heptanoate also increased noticeably in baijiu. The results of E-nose and sensory analysis tested and verified that the baijiu in the fortified group had better flavor characteristics.

Long-Term Retarded Release for the Proteasome Inhibitor Bortezomib through Temperature-Sensitive Dendritic Glycopolymers as Drug Delivery System from Calcium Phosphate Bone Cement.

For the local treatment of bone defects, highly adaptable macromolecular architectures are still required as drug delivery system (DDS) in solid bone substitute materials. Novel DDS fabricated by host-guest interactions between ß-cyclodextrin-modified dendritic glycopolymers and adamantane-modified temperature-sensitive polymers for the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (BZM) is presented. These DDS induce a short- and long-term (up to two weeks) retarded release of BZM from calcium phosphate bone cement (CPC) in comparison to a burst release of the drug alone. Different release parameters of BZM/DDS/CPC are evaluated in phosphate buffer at 37 °C to further improve the long-term retarded release of BZM. This is achieved by increasing the amount of drug (50-100 µg) and/or DDS (100-400 µg) versus CPC (1 g), by adapting the complexes better to the porous bone cement environment, and by applying molar ratios of excess BZM toward DDS with 1:10, 1:25, and 1:100. The temperature-sensitive polymer shells of BZM/DDS complexes in CPC, which allow drug loading at room temperature but are collapsed at body temperature, support the retarding long-term release of BZM from DDS/CPC. Thus, the concept of temperature-sensitive DDS for BZM/DDS complexes in CPC works and matches key points for a local therapy of osteolytic bone lesions.

Phenothiazine-based oligomers as novel fluorescence probes for detecting vapor-phase nitro compounds.

To meet the need for rapid and low-cost chemical sensing of explosive, new fluorescence chemosensors based on oligophenothiazines for probing vapor-phase nitro compounds have been developed. The phenothiazine-based trimer P3 and pentamer P5 have been synthesized via Heck and Wittig reactions by convergent approach. It was found that they can detect the vapors of nitro compounds, including p-nitrotoluene (p-NT), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) with good sensitivity and reversibility. And the sensor of P3 film gave a linear fluorescence quenching response to 7-800 ppb TNT with the detection limit of 4 ppb. For DNT vapor, a linear working range of the sensor was 2-24 ppm with the detection limit of 40 ppb. Meanwhile, the interferents, including common organic solvents, p-nitrophenol and 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine cannot lead to obvious fluorescence quenching, meaning that the film based on oligophenothiazines exhibited good specificity of fluorescence response to explosive. Based on the fluorescence lifetime and UV-vis absorption measurements, we suggested that the fluorescence quenching of oligophenothiazine-based films exposed to the vapors of nitro compounds was due to the formation of non-fluorescent charge-transfer complex between oligophenothiazine and nitro compounds.

Porphyrins with four monodisperse oligocarbazole arms: facile synthesis and photophysical properties.

A series of novel monodisperse, well-defined, star-shaped molecules T(OCAn)Ps (n = 2-6) with a central porphyrin core and four oligocarbazole arms are synthesized from the corresponding formyl-substituted oligocarbazoles via Adler reaction. The obtained star-shaped porphyrins are intrinsically two-dimensional nanosized molecules, and the diameter of compound T(OCA6)P is 7.4 nm, representing one of the largest known star-shaped conjugated systems. Their photophysical properties have been investigated by absorption and steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy, together with the corresponding monodisperse oligocarbazole aldehyde precursors. It is found that the light-harvesting capability of T(OCAn)Ps increases with the increasing length of the arms and reaches the maximum when n = 6. A selective excitation of the oligocarbazole arms leads to the typical emission from the porphyrin cores, indicating occurrence of photoinduced intramolecular energy transfer, and the energy transfer efficiency decreases from T(OCA2)P to T(OCA6)P owing to the Förster energy-transfer process. Accordingly, the longest effective distance for Förster energy transfer is estimated to be ca. 3 nm in our system. Such star-shaped porphyrins may find applications in photonic devices, with respect to their intense emission of red light. Notably, the monodisperse oligocarbazole aldehyde precursors give twisted intramolecular charge-transfer (TICT) excited states and luminescence in polar solvents with large Stokes shifts.

Phosphorus(V) porphyrins with axial carbazole-based dendritic substituents.

[structure: see text] Three phosphorus(V) porphyrins with axial carbazole-based dendritic substituents (D-A-D) have been designed and synthesized, which are nonfluorescent due to their effective electron transfer from the carbazole dendron to the excited porphyrin within the dendritic matrix. The incident photon to current conversion efficiencies (IPCE) spectra demonstrate that the molecular structure of the dendrimers can significantly affect the photovoltaic response to the visible light.