Biological Activities and Crystal Structure of the Natural Anti-cancer Drug: Cucurbitacin Ⅱa

We isolated cucurbitacin Ⅱa from the rhizomes of Hemsleya pengxianensis, and tested the cytotoxicity of cucurbitacin Ⅱa against various cancer cell lines by the sulforhodamine B assay(SRB). At the same time, we preliminarily found that cucurbitacin Ⅱa has a certain inhibitory activity on kinase CDK1/cyclin B, and shows potent inhibitory activities against many cancer cell lines. The cucurbitacin Ⅱa was structurally characterized by specific optical rotation measurement, high-resolution mass spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopic analysis. In addition, the molecular structure of cucurbitacin Ⅱa was further determined by X-ray single-crystal crystallography.     

High-frequency lengthwise diffraction by the curve separating soft and hard part of the surface

The paper examines the model problem of high-frequency diffraction by a convex surface consisting of two parts. One is soft, the other is hard. The incident wave falls at a small angle to the line which separates soft and hard parts of the surface. The change in the boundary condition provokes the field in the Fock zone to have a rapid transverse variation. This causes a special boundary-layer to be formed. The boundary value problem for the three dimensional parabolic equation is reduced to the Riemann problem solved by the factorization in the form of infinite products containing the zeros of the Airy function and zeros of its derivative. the results of this factorization appear under the sign of double Fourier integral in the representation of the field. Both numerical and asymptotic analysis of this representation is carried out and illustrates the effects of high-frequency diffraction caused by the line of the boundary condition discontinuity.     

Nanosized Carbon Macrocycles Based on a Planar Chiral Pseudo Meta-[2.2]Paracyclophane

Structural designs combining cycloparaphenylenes (CPPs) backbone with planar chiral [2.2]paracyclophane ([2.2]PCP) lead to optical-active chiral macrocycles with intriguing properties. X-ray crystal analysis revealed aesthetic necklace-shaped structures and size-dependent packages with long-range channels. The macrocycles exhibit unique photophysical properties with high fluorescence quantum yield of up to 82 %, and the fluorescent color varies with ring size. In addition, size-dependent chiroptical properties with moderately large CPL dissymmetry factor of 10⁻³ and CPL brightness in the range of 30–40 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹ were observed.     

A Free Boundary Problem for Some Modified Predator-Prey Model in a Higher Dimensional Environment

Applications of Mathematics - We focus on the free boundary problems for a Leslie-Gower predator-prey model with radial symmetry in a higher dimensional environment that is initially well populated...     

Effect of BaO on the calcination and hydration characteristic of CA

Phosphoaluminate cement (PAC) clinker had good mechanical properties at early and long-term period. In comparison, the compressive strength of PAC clinker modified by BaO was more prominent. As primary mineral phase for PAC clinker, CA’s mineralogical structure and hydration characteristics were intimately related to the compressive strength of hardened cement paste. In this study, the effects of BaO content on the calcination, mineralogical structure and hydration characteristics of CA were investigated. Experimental results showed that the appropriate calcination temperature of CA was 1400 °C. No more than 11% (the substitution ratio of BaO for CaO) addition of BaO can promote the conversion of C₁₂A₇ to CA and increase the formation ratio of CA. Appropriate content of 7 mol% BaO could endow the hardened paste with excellent compressive strength. In CA mineral phase the high limit addition of BaO was 15 mol%. The addition of BaO decreased and even restrained the formation of C₂AH₈ and C₃AH₆ of CA hydration products and also improved the content of CAH₁₀. The addition of BaO dramatically decreased the hydration velocity and cumulative heat of CA mineral.

     

A quantitatively controllable mesoscopic reliability model of an interdependent public transit network considering congestion,time-delay interaction and self-organization effects

Nonlinear Dynamics - This paper establishes a multi-parameter controlling cascading failures (CFs) model for measuring interdependent public transit network (PTN) reliability under mesoscopic...     

THE DETERMINATION OF THE COMPUTATIONAL DEGREES OF FREEDOM OF BAR SYSTEMS1)

为了简化和统一结构力学教材中杆件体系计算自由度$W$的算法,本文提出了“直接法”。该方法以相邻节点间的杆件和结点为分析对象,对于含$m$根杆件、$g$ 个单刚结点和$h$个单铰结点的平面杆件体系,直接法给出计算自由度公式$W=3m-(3g+2h$)。相比于已有方法,直接法研究对象清晰,数学运算统一,适合于编程计算,便于初学者准确而快速计算复杂体系的$W$;也为结构超静定次数的确定提供了一种简单有效的数值算法。     

Research Progress and Application of Ion Funnel Technique

Ion funnel is a new-style ion guider which can reduce spatial divergence and energy dispersity of the transmission ions by using radio frequency (RF) electric field to confine the ions radially and the direct current (DC) axial electric field to move the ions toward the exit, and thus it can greatly increase the ion transmission efficiency and improve the sensitivity of the mass spectrometry. Since ion funnel was invented in 1997, it has attracted a close attention of mass spectrometry scientists all over the world. Ion funnel has been used in various kinds of mass spectrometry, and built a bridge with high efficiency ion transmission between low vacuum ionization source and high vacuum mass analyzer. In this paper, the principle, technology development, and application progress of ion funnel are reviewed, and the future prospects are prospected.     

A flexoelectric spherical microshell model incorporating the strain gradient effect

In this paper, a size-dependent flexoelectric spherical microshell model is proposed considering flexoelectric effect and strain gradient effect. By means of the variation principle, explicit expressions of the governing equations and the boundary conditions are deduced. Solving corresponding governing equations, analytical solutions of both direct and converse flexoelectric responses in static axisymmetric bending problem are obtained. Then, the flexoelectric responses in barium strontium titanate spherical microshells with and without a circular top opening are numerically investigated. Both the direct and converse flexoelectric responses are found to vary non-monotonically as the central angle increases. The converse flexoelectric bending is examined to exist even in clamped spherical microshells, which is different from the case of flat structures. In addition, for all cases, the strain gradient effect will highly reduce the flexoelectric responses, particularly when the thickness approaches the material internal scale constants.