Kahweol inhibits adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 adipocytes through downregulation of PPARγ

Kahweol, a compound from Coffea arabica, possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antitumour properties. However, an anti-adipogenic effect has not yet been reported. In this study, we have shown that kahweol has an anti-adipogenic effect on 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Kahweol significantly inhibited the differentiation of intracellular lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, without being cytotoxic. It also downregulated the expression of adipogenesis-related gene, including an adipocytokine, adiponectin. This anti-adipogenic effect stems from an ability to inhibit key adipogenic regulators, including PPARγ and C/EBPα. These results demonstrate that kahweol significantly inhibits the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells, and suggest that it has potential as a novel anti-obesity treatment.     

Generic applications of 13C‐detected NMR diffusion to formulated systems with suppression of thermal convection induced by proton decoupling

Fast and effective structural/compositional analysis on formulated systems represents one of the major challenges encountered in analytical science. ¹³C‐detected diffusion represents a promising tool to tackle the aforementioned challenges, particularly in industry. Toward exploring the generic applications of ¹³C‐detected diffusion, thermal convection induced by ¹H decoupling has been identified as a key factor that resulted in significantly reduced resolution in the diffusion dimension. Optimization of experimental parameters and utilization of double‐stimulated echo‐based pulse sequence both can effectively suppress the thermal convection caused by the ¹H decoupling, the success of which allows robust and generic applications of ¹³C‐detected diffusion to systems from mixtures of small molecules, polymer blends, and copolymers to actual complex formulated systems. The method is particularly powerful in differentiating small molecules from polymers, polymer blends from copolymers, and end‐group analysis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Unprecedented Two‐Fold Nested Super‐Polyrotaxane: Sulfate‐Directed Hierarchical Polythreading Assembly of Uranyl Polyrotaxane Moieties

The hierarchical assembly of well‐organized submoieties could lead to more complicated superstructures with intriguing properties. We describe herein an unprecedented polyrotaxane polythreading framework containing a two‐fold nested super‐polyrotaxane substructure, which was synthesized through a uranyl‐directed hierarchical polythreading assembly of one‐dimensional polyrotaxane chains and two‐dimensional polyrotaxane networks. This special assembly mode actually affords a new way of supramolecular chemistry instead of covalently linked bulky stoppers to construct stable interlocked rotaxane moieties. An investigation of the synthesis condition shows that sulfate can assume a vital role in mediating the formation of different uranyl species, especially the unique trinuclear uranyl moiety [(UO₂)₃O(OH)₂]²⁺, involving a notable bent [O=U=O] bond with a bond angle of 172.0(9)°. Detailed analysis of the coordination features, the thermal stability as well as a fluorescence, and electrochemical characterization demonstrate that the uniqueness of this super‐polyrotaxane structure is mainly closely related to the trinuclear uranyl moiety, which is confirmed by quantum chemical calculations.     

Dithienoindophenines: p‐Type Semiconductors Designed by Quinoid Stabilization for Solar‐Cell Applications

Compared with the dominant aromatic conjugated materials, photovoltaic applications of their quinoidal counterparts featuring rigid and planar molecular structures have long been unexplored despite their narrow optical bandgaps, large absorption coefficients, and excellent charge‐transport properties. The design and synthesis of dithienoindophenine derivatives (DTIPs) by stabilizing the quinoidal resonance of the parent indophenine framework is reported here. Compared with the ambipolar indophenine derivatives, DTIPs with the fixed molecular configuration are found to be p‐type semiconductors exhibiting excellent unipolar hole mobilities up to 0.22 cm² V^?1 s^?1, which is one order of magnitude higher than that of the parent IP‐O and is even comparable to that of QQT(CN)4‐based single‐crystal field‐effect transistors (FET). DTIPs exhibit better photovoltaic performance than their aromatic bithieno[3,4‐b]thiophene (BTT) counterparts with an optimal power‐conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.07 %.     

CdS/Si nanofilm heterojunctions based on amorphous silicon films:Fabrication,structures,and electrical properties

Shortening the distance between the depletion region and the electrodes to reduce the trapped probability of carriers is a useful approach for improving the performance of heterojunction.The CdS/Si nanofilm heterojunctions are fabricated by using the radio frequency magnetron sputtering method to deposit the amorphous silicon nanofilms and Cd S nanofilms on the ITO glass in turn.The relation of current density to applied voltage(I-V)shows the obvious rectification effect.From the analysis of the double logarithm I-V curve it follows that below~2.73 V the electron behaviors obey the Ohmic mechanism and above~2.73 V the electron behaviors conform to the space charge limited current(SCLC)mechanism.In the SCLC region part of the traps between the Fermi level and conduction band are occupied,and with the increase of voltage most of the traps are occupied.It is believed that Cd S/Si nanofilm heterojunction is a potential candidate in the field of nano electronic and optoelectronic devices by optimizing its fabricating procedure.     

Laws of Large Numbers for Cesàro alpha-integrable Random Variables under Dependence Condition AANA or AQSI

Both residual Cesàro alpha-integrability (RCI( α)) and strongly residual Cesàro alpha-integrability (SRCI(α)) are two special kinds of extensions to uniform integrability, and both asymp-totically almost negative association (AANA) and asymptotically quadrant sub-independence (AQSI) are two special kinds of dependence structures. By relating the RCI(α) property as well as the SRCI(α) property with dependence condition AANA or AQSI, we formulate some tail-integrability conditions under which for appropriate α the RCI(α) property yields L1-convergence results and the SRCI(α) property yields strong laws of large numbers, which is the continuation of the corresponding literature.     

Parameterized inverse singular value problem for anti-bisymmetric matrices

In this paper, the singular value decompositions of anti-symmetric matrices and anti-bisymmetric matrices are presented, and a class of parameterized inverse singular value problem for anti-bisymmetric matrices is solved. Numerical examples which confirm our theory are presented.     

Annealing-free Poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester-based organic solar cells

We report on the fabrication of efficient annealing-free organic solar cells using co-solvent solution considered as a promising method for low-cost and time-saving manufacturing. Higher device efficiency could be obtained compared to the pure solvent casted device, resulting from the improved crystallinity, optical absorption and transport properties. The power conversion efficiency of 2.8% was obtained, demonstrating the feasibility of achieving low-cost and high-efficiency organic solar cells without any additional treatment and processing additives.