Diosgenin also mitigated AA-I-induced renal mitochondrial dynamics disorder by increasing the expression of mitochondrial dynamics-related proteins including DRP1 and MFN2. Diosgenin inhibited AA-I-evoked autophagy via ULK1-mediated inhibition of the mTOR pathway. Overall, these results suggest that diosgenin has a protective effect against AA-I-induced renal damage and it may be a potential agent for preventing AA-I-induced AAN.Direct C3-H acylation of quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones with α-oxocarboxylic acids under thermo conditions promoted by PIDA has been achieved in a moderate to good yield in a very fast manner. Mechanistic study revealed that the reaction proceeds via a radical process. In addition, this method could be applied to a gram-scale reaction and antitumor agent synthesis. This work represents a simple, convenient and efficient synthesis of 3-acylated quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones.Hydrogels consisting of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and calcium ions are a promising class of materials with shapeable, stretchable and self-healing behaviour originating from the reversible and dynamic nature of the electrostatic and hydrogen bonds in the structure. In the dry state, such materials - referred to as "mineral plastics"- can be transparent, hard and flame-resistant, while addition of water will result in rehydration and complete recoverage of the initial gel-like state. These desirable characteristics strongly depend on the molar mass of the used type of PAA and the experimental conditions at which the hydrogels are prepared. In this work, we show how the macroscopic properties of the materials can be adjusted by controlling the initial concentration of dissolved PAA and/or its molecular weight, and how rheological measurements can be used to monitor the resulting physical properties. Furthermore, we have employed isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to investigate thermodynamic aspects of the hydrogel formation to gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanism(s). Our results reveal that, and explain why, PAA molar masses between 50 and 100 kDa are particulary suitable for the formation of hydrogels with optimized properties, thus establishing a rational basis for targeted design of such materials with tailor-made characteristics.Analytical sensors that can detect chemical (including biological) analytes are becoming increasingly widespread within the field of analytical chemistry. More than this, in a world tending towards the 'internet-of-things', the miniaturization of such devices is becoming increasingly urgent. Accordingly, electrochemical methods that are simultaneously multiplexable and effective at a miniature scale are receiving much attention. In the present work, we compare the label-free electrochemical response of enzymatic biosensors with the response of their optical counterpart. As a proof-of-concept we compare the electrochemical impedimetric response and the first time described capacitive response of enzymatic biosensors to their optical reflectance response (measured in the visible region using a portable handset spectrophotometer).  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/BIBF1120.html  The target was the detection of glucose and urea. The chemical platform of the sensors was composed of enzymatically functionalized polyaniline thin films. Sensitivity, linearity, and the limit of detection were analyzed for both electrochemical and optical instrumental settings. We found that the impedimetric/capacitive electrochemical setup produced a response that was of a similar quality to the optical response (sensitivities of 10.7 ± 0.7, 7.4 ± 0.7 and 4.3 ± 0.2% per decade for impedimetric, capacitive and optical glucose biosensors, respectively) with a broader linear range (10-4 to 10-1 mol L-1 for both glucose and urea biosensors) and similar limit-of-detection in the range of 1 μmol L-1 within a relevant and practical diagnosis range for biomedical applications.Two new d10-transition metal iodate fluorides, centrosymmetric ZnIO3F and noncentrosymmetric CdIO3F, were successfully synthesized by intriguing structure evolution. Both compounds have higher thermal stability and CdIO3F has a large SHG response and wide band gap. Our study may afford a viable route to design materials with excellent NLO functions.Efficient synthesis of o-borylphenols is achieved through the Ru-catalyzed regio- and site-selective sp2 C-H borylation of aryl diphenylphosphinites followed by removal of the phosphorus directing group. A successful application to aryl phosphites enables practical one-pot borylation of phenols, demonstrating high synthetic utility of this protocol.Chemical treatments play an essential role in the formation of high quality interfaces between materials, including in semiconductor devices, and in the functionalisation of surfaces. We have investigated the effects of hydrogen and fluorine termination of (100)-orientation silicon surfaces over a range of length scales. At the centimetre scale, lifetime measurements show clean silicon surfaces can be temporarily passivated by a short treatment in both HF(2%)  HCl(2%) and HF(50%) solutions. The lifetime, and hence surface passivation, becomes better with immersion time in the former, and worse with immersion time in the latter. At the nanometre scale, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy show treatment with strong HF solutions results in a roughened fluorine-terminated surface. Subsequent superacid-derived surface passivation on different chemically treated surfaces shows considerably better passivation on surfaces treated with HF(2%)  HCl(2%) compared to HF. Lifetime data are modelled to understand the termination in terms of chemical and field effect passivation at the centimetre scale. Surfaces passivated with Al2O3 grown by atomic layer deposition behave similarly when either HF(2%)  HCl(2%) or HF(50%) are used as a pre-treatment, possibly because of the thin silicon dioxide interlayer which subsequently forms. Our study highlights that chemical pre-treatments can be extremely important in the creation of high quality functionalised surfaces.A mild copper-catalyzed alkylarylation of vinylarenes with cycloalkylsilyl peroxides and boronic acids is described. This three-component protocol provides a straightforward approach to the remote keto-functionalized 1,1-diarylmethane derivatives. A radical pathway initiated by C-C bond cleavage is proposed for this tandem reaction.