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Water-soluble ribbon-like g-C3N4 and various special assemblies were obtained from dicyandiamide using NaCl crystals as a hard template.

Much attention has been paid to metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) due to their large surface areas, tunable functionality, and diverse structure. Nevertheless, most reported MOFs show poor hydrothermal stability, which seriously hinders their applications. Here a strategy is adopted to tailor the properties of MOFs by means of incorporating carboxyl-functionalized natural clay attapulgite (ATP) into HKUST-1, a well-known MOF. A new type of hybrid material was thus fabricated from the hybridization of HKUST-1 and ATP. Our results indicated that the hydrothermal stability of the MOFs as well as the catalytic performance was apparently improved. The frameworks of HKUST-1 were severely destroyed after hydrothermal treatment (hot water vapor, 60 °C), while that of the hybrid materials was maintained. For the hybrid materials containing 8.4 wt % of ATP, the surface area reached 1302 m(2)·g(-1) and was even higher than that of pristine HKUST-1 (1245 m(2)·g(-1)). In the ring-opening of styrene oxide, the conversion reached 98.9% at only 20 min under catalysis from the hybrid material, which was obviously higher than that over pristine HKUST-1 (80.9%). Moreover, the hybrid materials showed excellent reusability and the catalytic activity was recoverable without loss after six cycles. Our materials provide promising candidates for heterogeneous catalysis owing to the good catalytic activity and reusability.

Osteoporotic fractures are prevalent in society, and their incidence appears to be increasing as the worldwide population ages. However, conventional bone repair materials hardly satisfy the requirements for the repair of pathological fractures. Here, we developed a biomimetic polyetherketoneketone scaffold with a functionalized strontium-doped nanohydroxyapatite coating for osteoporotic bone defect applications. The scaffold has a hierarchically porous architecture and mechanical strength similar to that of osteoporotic trabecular bone. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that the scaffold could promote osteoporotic bone regeneration and delay adjacent bone loss via regulating both osteoblasts and osteoclasts. In addition, the correlations between multiple preimplantation and postimplantation parameters were evaluated to determine the potential predictors of in vivo performance of the material. The current work not only develops a promising candidate for osteoporotic bone repair but also provides a viable approach for designing other functional biomaterials and predicting their translational value.

The micro-/nano-structured calcium phosphate bioceramic exhibited a higher new bone substitution rate in an osteoporotic bone defect rat model.

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Digital light processing (DLP) is one of the additive manufacturing (AM) technologies suitable for preparation of high-performance ceramics. The present study provided an optimized formula to fabricate osteoinductive calcium phosphate (CaP) ceramics with high precision and controllable three-dimensional (3D) structure. Among the four surfactants, monoalcohol ethoxylate phosphate was the best one to modify the CaP powders for preparing the photocurable slurry with high solid loading and good spreading ability. By testing the photopolymerization property of the 60 wt % solid loading slurry, the appropriate processing parameters including the slice thickness (50 μm), exposure intensity (10.14 mW/cm2), and exposure time (8 s) were set to perform the 3D printing of the ceramic green body in the DLP system. After the debinding and sintering, the final CaP ceramics were acquired. The stereomicroscope and SEM observation confirmed the high precision of the ceramics. The average compressive strength of the ceramics with 64.5% porosity reached 9.03 MPa. On only soaking in simulated body fluid for 1 day, an even layer of apatite formed on the ceramic surface. The cell culture confirmed that the ceramics could allow the good attachment, growth, and proliferation of murine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. After implantation into the dorsal muscles of beagle dogs for 3 months, abundant blood vessels and obvious ectopic bone formation were observed clearly by the histological evaluation. Therefore, with good bioactivity and osteoinductivity as well as high precision and adjustable mechanical strength, the 3D printed CaP ceramics in the DLP system could have good potential in customized bone-repairing applications.

ObjectivesAs a vulnerable group, the elders’ oral health gained less attention, particularly the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and dental caries. This study aimed to assess the associations and to explore the effects of confounders on the associations in elderly people.DesignCross-sectional study.Settings3 neighbourhood committees and 3 village committees in Sichuan Province, China.Participants744 people (362 men and 382 women) aged 65–74 years were included.Outcome measuresOral health outcomes included the decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index and its components. SES was assigned by educational level, household income and type of household. The bivariate association between the participants’ characteristics and DMFT was analysed using non-parametric tests. Four logistic regression models were used to analyse the associations between SES and dental caries by regulating confounders.ResultsPoor oral health was observed in these participants. Bivariate analysis showed a significant association between SES and DMFT (p﹤0.05). Only adjusting gender, high educational level (adjusted (AOR)=0.34, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.66), high household income (AOR=0.47, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.77) were protective factors against dental caries, and living in agricultural families (AOR=1.86, 95% CI 1.32 to 2.63) was risk factor (p﹤0.05). After adjusting other confounders, SES was partly related to the dental caries. Moreover, an interaction existed among SES indicators.ConclusionsSES is associated with dental caries, and older people with low SES have poor oral health. The associations were explained partly by diet, behaviour and awareness. Our results provide effective evidence in targeted policy-making and intervention measures and implicate that pertinence measures, economic assistance and medical insurance funds should be provided to older people of low SES. Furthermore, a follow-up design should attempt to confirm the causal relationship between SES and dental caries and evaluate the effect of intervention.