Brain-Targeted Polysorbate 80-Emulsified Donepezil Drug-Loaded Nanoparticles for Neuroprotection

Most Alzheimer’s disease drugs do not work efficiently because of the blood–brain barrier. Therefore, we designed a new nanopreparation (PS-DZP-CHP): cholesterol-modified pullulan (CHP) nanoparticle with polysorbate 80(PS) surface coverage, as donepezil (DZP) carrier to realize brain tissue delivery. By size analysis and isothermal titration calorimetry, we chose the optimal dosing ratio of the drug with nanomaterials (1:5) and designed a series of experiments to verify the efficacy of the nanoparticles. The results of in vitro release experiments showed that the nanoparticles can achieve continuous drug release within 72 h. The results of fluorescence observation in mice showed a good brain targeting of PS-DZP-CHP nanoparticles. Furthermore, the nanoparticle can enhance the drug in the brain tissue concentration in mice. DZP-CHP nanoparticles were used to pretreat nerve cells with Aβ protein damage. The concentration of lactate dehydrogenase was determined by MTT, rhodamine 123 and AO-EB staining, which proved that DZP-CHP nanoparticles had a protective effect on the neurotoxicity induced by Aβ25–35 and were superior to free donepezil. Microthermal perpetual motion meter test showed that PS-DZP-CHP nanoparticles have an affinity with apolipoprotein E, which may be vital for this nanoparticle targeting to brain tissue.

Design and Analysis of A Perpetual Motion Machine Using Neodymium Magnets as A Prime Mover

With the rapid growth of population and huge energy demand, fossil fuels, which are the most widely used fuel, are running low. One of the things that can be a solution to deal with this problem is utilizing alternative energy sources. The article describes an idea of a perpetual motion machine as one of the options to find alternative energy sources. Using Neodymium magnets as the main component of the machine, the authors built and analyzed the performance of a perpetual motion machine. The method allows improving the machine's performance to generate electricity and its possibilities of future enhancements. The results show that the utilization of neodymium magnets on the machine is considered a better option and effective in generating electricity. However, proper arrangement of the component must be made carefully and accurately to improve the project's performance.

Soothing Movements

This chapter argues that after 1914 French modernist composers and performers embraced a neoclassical, repetitive, perpetual-motion-oriented musical style—often termed style dépouillé—to help themselves and others cope with trauma somatically. Examination of psychological, scientific, and medical discourse on the mental, emotional, and physical benefits of rhythmic bodily movement in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French texts provides a broader context for understanding the interwar popularity of music pedagogue Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s eurhythmics, a popular interwar musical practice based on the understanding of musical movement as emotionally transformative. Analysis of compositions in the style dépouillé, situated within the context of trauma studies, Dalcroze’s influence, and musicians’ commentaries on how these pieces made them feel, reveals that the challenging musique dépouillée repertoire engaged musicians’ bodies in rhythmically regular corporeal movements and provided them opportunities to process and perform the emotional difficulty of trauma.

Unfit for Subjection: Mental Illness, Mental Health, and the University Undercommons

This colloquy, by graduate-student-led collective Project Spectrum, attempts to map out existing discussions around inclusion and equity in music academia, with a specific focus on identifying and analyzing the structures in academia that work against minoritized and historically excluded scholars. Sarah Hankins shares thoughts on mental illness, arguing that it is a gap in our discourse. Hankins asks us to bear witness to experiences of those who boldly declare that they are “unfit” for the pipeline—“unfit” to survive the pipeline, to have access to the pipeline, and for the so-called promises at the end of the pipeline. Following the work of Black studies, queer of color critique, Black radicalism, Afropessimism, and especially the writings of Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Hankins’s intervention in this colloquy demands pause in academia’s system of perpetual motion.