Preface: Mechanics of soft materials and flexible structures

Acta Mechanica Sinica -     

UPLC–ESI–Q-TOF–MS/MS analysis of anticancer fractions from Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis and Ophiocordyceps sinensis

Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis (O. xuefengensis), a new species of caterpillar fungus, has been identified as the sister taxon of Ophiocordyceps sinensis (O. sinensis). The aims of the present study are to evaluate the anticancer activity and to qualitatively analyze the potential bioactive chemical constituents of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis, comparatively. An MTT assay was used to evaluate the in vitro anticancer activities of different fractions from O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. The results show that ethyl acetate fractions of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis have significant in vitro anticancer activity. These two bioactive fractions were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization with quadrupole–time of flight tandem mass spectrometry technology. A total of 82 compounds and 101 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized in the bioactive fractions of O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis, respectively. Among these compounds, 68 existed in both O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. A total of 67 compounds were reported in O. xuefengensis and 8 compounds were reported in caterpillar fungus for the first time. This is the first detailed comparative analysis of the in vitro anticancer activity and chemical ingredients between O. xuefengensis and O. sinensis. The application of this work will provide reliable fundamental pharmacological substances for the use of O. xuefengensis by Yao people.     

Hydrogen-Bond Cyclization Programming of Ultrasensitive Esters and Its Application in Gene Delivery

The ester bond as a universal linker has recently been applied in gene delivery systems owing to its efficient gene release by electrostatic repulsion after its cleavage. However, the ester bond is nonlabile and is difficult to cleave in cells. This work reports a method in which a secondary amine was introduced to the β-position of the ester bond to generate a hydrogen-bond cyclization (HBC) structure that can make the ester bond hydrolysis ultrafast. A series of molecules comprising ultrasensitive esters that can be activated by H₂O₂ were synthesized, and it was found that those able to form an HBC structure showed complete ester hydrolysis within 5 h in both water and phosphate-buffered saline solution, which was several times faster than other methods reported. Then, a series of amphiphilic poly(amidoamine) dendrimers were constructed, comprising the ultrasensitive ester groups for gene delivery; it was found that they could effectively release genes under quite a low concentration of H₂O₂ (<200 μm ) and transport them into the nucleus within 2 h in Hela cells with high safety. Their gene transfection efficiencies were higher than that of PEI_25k. The results demonstrated that the hydrogen-bond-induced ultrasensitive esters could be powerfully applied to construct gene delivery systems.     

Non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis of pyrolysis kinetics of four oil shales using Sestak–Berggren method

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the non-isothermal pyrolysis method was used to investigate the pyrolysis characteristics of oil shale from four areas: namely Nongan,...     

Ultrastretchable and conductive core/sheath hydrogel fibers with multifunctionality

Conductive hydrogels with ionic compounds possess great potential for the development of soft smart devices. A dielectric scarfskin is typically required for these devices to prevent short circuiting, leading to devices with lower stretchability than the hydrogel. Henceforth, commonly used dielectric materials, such as PDMS and Ecoflex, cannot be largely stretched. Hydrogel devices with ultrastretchability are required to accommodate hostile application environments. Herein, we propose a hydrogel fiber coated with a dielectric layer that can be stretched to over 2000% of its initial length. The fiber remains conductive when stretched to ~1300%. In addition, the core/sheath hydrogel fiber can be endowed with a variety of functional properties, such as electroluminescence (EL), photoluminescence (PL), and magnetic‐responsiveness, demonstrating scalability of the resultant fiber. The present work can pave the way for numerous next‐generation soft devices, such as smart textiles and wearable electronics. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 272–280     

Comparative analysis of the main active components and hypoglycemic effects after the compatibility of Scutellariae Radix and Coptidis Rhizoma

In this study, a rapid and highly sensitive ultra high performance liquid chromatography with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method with the mobile phase of acetonitrile and 0.1% aqueous formic acid was established and successfully applied to comparatively analyze main active components after their compatibility. Besides, the effects of Scutellariae Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma and combined extracts on type 2 diabetic rats induced by high‐fat diet along with low dose of streptozocin were investigated. Under the optimized chromatographic conditions, good separation of seven target components was achieved within 12 min. All calibration curves exhibited good linearity (R² ≥ 0.999). The relative standard deviation of precision, repeatability and stability varied from 0.69 to 2.23, 0.98 to 2.56, and 0.92 to 2.57%, respectively. The recovery ranged from 91.11 to 105.35%. The contents of seven active components were notably reduced after compatibility; however, the hypoglycemic effect of combined extracts was stronger than single drug by decreasing the activities of fructose‐1,6‐bisphosphatase, glucose 6‐phosphatase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and increasing the activities of glucokinase, phosphofructokinase, pyruvate kinase. Accordingly, the established analytical method was accurate and sensitive enough for quantitative evaluation of seven investigated compounds. Moreover, the combined extract had definite effects on type 2 diabetes through multiple components against multiple targets.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrophilic Trityl Radical TFO for Biomedical and Biophysical Applications

Tetrathiatriarylmethyl (TAM, trityl) radicals have found wide applications as spin probes/labels for EPR spectroscopy and imaging, and as polarizing agents for dynamic nuclear polarization. The high hydrophilicity of TAM radicals is essential for their biomedical applications. However, the synthesis of hydrophilic TAM radicals (e.g., OX063) is extremely challenging and has only been reported in the patent literature, to date. Herein, an efficient synthesis of a highly water-soluble TAM radical bis(8-carboxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylbenzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bis([1,3]dithiol-4-yl)-mono-(8-carboxyl-2,2,6,6-tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl)benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bis([1,3]dithiol-4-yl)methyl (TFO), which contains four additional hydroxylethyl groups, relative to the Finland trityl radical CT-03, is reported. Similar to OX063, TFO exhibits excellent properties, including high water solubility in phosphate buffer, low log P, low pK_a, long relaxation times, and negligible binding with bovine serum albumin. On the other hand, TFO has a sharper EPR line and higher O₂ sensitivity than those of OX063. Therefore, in combination with its facile synthesis, TFO should find wide applications in magnetic resonance related fields and this synthetic approach would shed new light on the synthesis of other hydrophilic TAM radicals.     

La1-x CaxAl0.8Cr0.2O3/CaZrO3(0≤x≤0.2)复相陶瓷材料发射率的研究

以La2O3、Al2O3、ZrO2、Cr2O3、CaCO3为原料,通过高温固相反应法制备La1-xCaxAl0.8 Cr0.2O3/CaZrO3(0≤x≤0.2)复相陶瓷材料,分别通过XRD、SEM和EDS等仪器对试样的物相组成和显微结构进行分析,利用紫外可见近红外分光光度计测量其红外吸收曲线.结果 表明:当CaZrO3理论生成量和La1-xCaxAl0.8Cr0.2O3的摩尔比小于0.20时复相陶瓷材料在0.76～2.5 μm的发射率较La0.8 Ca0.2Al0.8Cr0.2O3得到进一步提高,当CaZrO3理论生成量和La1-xCaxAl0.8Cr0.2O3的摩尔比为0.04时发射率最佳.     

Gravitational wave imprint of new symmetry breaking

It is believed that there are more fundamental gauge symmetries beyond those described by the Standard Model of particle physics. The scales of these new gauge symmetries are usually too high to be reachable by particle colliders. Considering that the phase transition (PT) relating to the spontaneous breaking of new gauge symmetries to the electroweak symmetry might be strongly first order, we propose considering the stochastic gravitational waves (GW) arising from this phase transition as an indirect way of detecting these new fundamental gauge symmetries. As an illustration, we explore the possibility of detecting the stochastic GW generated from the PT of \begin{document}$ {\bf{B}}-{\bf{L}}$\end{document} in the space-based interferometer detectors. Our study demonstrates that the GW energy spectrum is reachable by the LISA, Tianqin, Taiji, BBO, and DECIGO experiments only for the case where the spontaneous breaking of \begin{document}$ {\bf{B}}-{\bf{L}}$\end{document} is triggered by at least two electroweak singlet scalars.