The interaction between the gut microbiota and dietary carbohydrates in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Imbalance between fat production and consumption causes various metabolic disorders. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), one such pathology, is characterized by abnormally increased fat synthesis and subsequent fat accumulation in hepatocytes^1,2. While often comorbid with obesity and insulin resistance, this disease can also be found in lean individuals, suggesting specific metabolic dysfunction². NAFLD has become one of the most prevalent liver diseases in adults worldwide, but its incidence in both children and adolescents has also markedly increased in developed nations^3,4. Progression of this disease into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma in combination with its widespread incidence thus makes NAFLD and its related pathologies a significant public health concern. Here, we review our understanding of the roles of dietary carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, and fibers) and the gut microbiota, which provides essential carbon sources for hepatic fat synthesis during the development of NAFLD.Subject terms: Metabolic syndrome, Metabolic syndrome     

The impact of cellulose structure on binding interactions with hemicellulose and pectin

Four cellulose substrates including highly crystalline cellulose nanowhiskers (CNWs) from Gluconacetobacter xylinus (cellulose Iα) or cotton (cellulose Iβ) and amorphous cellulose derived from CNWs (phosphoric acid swollen cellulose nanowhiskers, PASCNWs) were used to explore the interaction between cellulose and well-defined xyloglucan, xylan, arabinogalactan and pectin. The binding behavior was characterized by adsorption isotherm and Langmuir models. The maximum adsorption and the binding constant of xyloglucan, xylan and pectin to any CNWs were always higher than to PASCNWs derived from the same source. The binding affinity of xyloglucan, xylan and pectin to G. xylinus cellulose was generally higher than to cotton cellulose, showing that binding interactions depended on the biological origin of cellulose and associated differences in its structure. The surface area, porosity, crystal plane and degree of order of cellulose substrate may all impact the interactions.     

The effect of different storage temperatures on the physical properties of pectin solutions and gels

The stability (in terms of viscosity and gel strength) of pectin solutions and gels potentially plays an important role in their behaviour and functional properties in a wide range of applications and therefore any changes over time must be understood. The gel strength of pectin gels and intrinsic viscosity of pectin solutions at different temperatures (4 °C, 25 °C and 40 °C) have been investigated using a “rolling ball” viscometer and a texture analyser respectively. Both the intrinsic viscosity ([η]) and gel strength decrease with increased storage time, although this more pronounced at elevated temperatures. The changes in intrinsic viscosity with storage time and temperature were used to determine the depolymerisation constant (k). Pectin storage conditions and particularly temperature have an influence on depolymerisation, particularly elevated storage temperatures, but whether or not this will be detrimental to its intended application will depend on the functional significance of the changes that occur. In this case based on the previous diffusion studies on a model drug (paracetamol) we conclude that the decreases in viscosity and gel strength within the range observed have no detrimental effect on the drug release properties.     

碳纤维基PtSn催化剂直接乙醇燃料电池制备及性能研究

采用自制的碳纤维基PtSn催化剂薄膜作为阳极催化剂,商用Pt/C作为阴极催化剂,Nafion 115膜作为质子交换膜,通过热压制成膜电极,组装平板型直接乙醇燃料单电池,搭建测试系统并进行性能的测试,研究了温度、乙醇浓度、溶液流量、进气流量等参数对DEFC的影响。结果表明,当乙醇溶液浓度为1.0 mol/L、溶液进样流量为1.0 mL/min、溶液温度为80 ℃、氧气进样流量为100 mL/min时结果较优,单电池的最高功率密度达18.2 mW/cm²。     

The 2'-deoxyadenosine-5'-phosphate anion, the analogous radical, and the different hydrogen-abstracted radical anions: molecular structures and effects on DNA damage

The 2'-deoxyadenosine-5'-phosphate (5'-dAMP) anion and its related radicals have been studied by reliably calibrated theoretical approaches. This study reveals important physical characteristics of 5'-dAMP radical related processes. One-electron oxidation of the 5'-dAMP anion is found on both the phosphoryl group and the adenine base with electron detachment energies close to that of phosphate. Partial removal of electron density from the adenine fragment leads to an extended pi system which includes the amine group of the adenine. Although the radical-centered carbon increases the extent of bonding with its adjacent atoms, it usually weakens the chemical bonds between the atoms at the alpha- and beta-positions. This tendency should be important in predicting the reactivity of the sugar-based radicals. The overall stability sequence of the H-abstracted 5'-dAMP anionic radicals is consistent with the analogous results for the H-abstracted neutral radicals of the adenosine nucleoside: aliphatic radicals > aromatic radicals. The negatively charged phosphoryl group attached to atom C(5)' of the ribose does not change this energetic sequence. All the H-abstraction produced 5'-dAMP radical anions are distonic radical anions. Studies have shown that the charge-radical-separating feature of the distonic radical anions is biologically relevant. This result should be important in understanding the reactive properties of these H-abstraction-produced anion radicals.     

The impact of a dielectric barrier discharge on the catalytic oxidation of methane over Ni-containing catalyst

Methane oxidation with air was studied over a Ni-containing catalyst in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at temperatures above 625 K. The DBD increases the methane conversion and shifts the process towards partial oxidation. This effect is related to a catalyst heating by the discharge. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Solvent effects on the thioamide rotational barrier: an experimental and theoretical study.

The solvent effect on the C-N rotational barriers of N,N-dimethylthioformamide (DMTF) and N,N-dimethylthioacetamide (DMTA) has been investigated using ab initio theory and NMR spectroscopy. Selective inversion recovery NMR experiments were used to measure rotational barriers in a series of solvents. These data are compared to ab initio results at the G2(MP2) theoretical level. The latter are corrected for large amplitude vibrational motions to give differences in free energy. The calculated gas phase barriers are in very good agreement with the experimental values. Solvation effects were calculated using reaction field theory. This approach has been found to give barriers that are in good agreement with experiment for many aprotic, nonaromatic solvents that do not engage in specific interactions with the solute molecules. The calculated solution-phase barriers for the thioamides using the above solvents are also in good agreement with the observed barriers. The solvent effect on the thioamide rotational barrier is larger than that for the amides because the thioamides have a larger ground-state dipole moment, and there is a larger change in dipole moment with increasing solvent polarity. The transition-state dipole moments for the amides and thioamides are relatively similar. The origin of the C-N rotational barrier and its relation to the concept of amide "resonance" is examined.     

Ionic effects on electro-optics and residual direct current voltages of twisted nematic liquid crystal cells

By using electro-optical and dielectric absorption [1–4] measurements, we report our investigations of ionic effects on electro-optics and residual direct current voltages (VrDCs) of two polyimide (PI)-aligned twisted nematic (TN) cells with same liquid crystal mixture but different PI-alignment materials. We have also carried out new experimental methods to find out that the observed VrDCs were caused by LC-PI-interfacial trapped ions generated and transported from the LC medium for one TN cell, and from the PI layers for the other TN cell. Our measured VrDCs indicated that the former had two different exponential-decay rates similar to the published results by M. Mizusaki et al. [2] but the latter had only a single exponential-decay rate.     

The effects of structures and compositions of polymer-metal complexes on the hydroformylation of olefins

A number of linear and crosslinked polymer ligands containing P or N or S as coordinative atoms were prepared. The hydroformylation of olefins was carried out at mild conditions in the presence of complexes as catalysts which were made by complexation reactions of these ligands with various homogeneous complexes or metal salts. The obtained results were explained in terms of the influences of the polymer matrix, or the structures and compositions of the polymer chain, and the properties of polymer-metal complexes on activity and selectivity. The most important factor for enhancing the selectivity towards linear aldehyde lies in the properties of the polymer-metal complex. High selectivity up to 95% was obtained by using polymer phosphine ligand-Pt-Sn complexes as catalyst in the hydroformylation of olefins. The hydroformylation mechanisms were discussed.     

The different catalytic effects of Na species on char gasification and the reasons for this different

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - To study the effect of anion in sodium salts on catalytic gasification and provide some useful information for the recovery and reutilization of...     

Influence of temperature and fiber structure on the dielectric properties of polypropylene fibrous structures

In this work, dielectric spectroscopy was conducted on five commercial woven polypropylene‐based fabrics. Measurements of dielectric loss tangent, the effective relative dielectric permeability and ac electrical conductivity were performed over a wide range of temperature and frequency. The results in temperature range from 250 K to 355 K showed that the samples with lower value of volume fraction whose yarn is made from a short fiber have a lower value of the above mentioned dielectric parameters than the samples with bigger value of volume fraction and filament yarn along the weft and the warp lines. Based on the results gained from the measurements in the vacuum and ambient conditions, it can be concluded that the samples with a lower value of volume fraction, whose yarn is made from a short fiber, showed stability of dielectric properties in the measurement interval. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of different potentials on the structures and energies of clusters

Cluster studies have attracted much interest in the past decades because of their extraordinary properties. To describe the interaction between atoms or molecules and predict the energies and structures, potential functions are developed. However, different potentials generally produce different structures and energies for a cluster. To study the effect of potentials on the structure of a cluster, He clusters in the size range of 13-140 are investigated by Lennard-Jones (LJ), Pirani, and Hartree-Fock-dispersion individual damping (HFD-ID) potential with dynamic lattice searching (DLS) method. Potential function curves, cluster structures, bonds, and energies of the global minima are compared. The results show that cluster energies decrease with the values of the potential functions, the differences between structures depend upon the disagreements of the potentials, and the preferable motif of a cluster changes from icosahedron to decahedron with the increase of the derivative of the short-range part of the potentials.     

The effect of metal ions with different valences on the retardation of soil-bentonite barrier materials and its mechanism

In this paper, with K＋, Ca2＋ and Fe3＋ as the objects of study, retardation of soil-bentonite （SB） barrier materials for metal ions with different valences is investigated, and the adsorption mechanism, migration patterns and permeation behavior are explored so as to provide a theoretical basis for their application. The results show that the adsorption process for metal ions with different valences by SB barrier materials is fast, and the higher the valence, the greater the adsorption capacity. The fitting of the adsorption process conforms to pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics and Langmuir-Freundlich adsorption equation, which explains that chemical adsorption is the dominating state and that the SB surface has certain heterogeneity. The permeability coefficient of K＋, Ca2＋ and Fe3＋ in SB each has a maximum and the higher the valence, the sooner the maximum appears. Also the higher the valence, the more obvious the effect on SB retardation performance; and the sooner the ion breaks through the barrier wall completely, that is, the wall＇s retardation performance for higher valent ions may decline.     

Chemical and electrochemical treatment effects on the morphology,structure, and electrochemical performance of carbon fiber with different graphitization indexes

The association of capacitive charging of the double-layer and a faradic redox reaction is desirable on carbon fiber (CF) when oxygen functional groups or other heteroatoms are present on its surface enhancing its capacitive properties. In this work, a systematic study of carbon fiber produced at three different heat treatment temperatures (HTT) of 1000, 1500, and 2000 °C was performed upon two approaches: middle (chemical) and severe (electrochemical) oxidative treatments. Morphological, structural, and surface chemical changes were investigated by field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Electrochemical responses were analyzed by galvanostatic charge/discharge, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. Raman results showed that the electrochemical oxidation promoted structural variation on CF samples independently of their HTT. Concerning the specific capacitance, the results indicated that chemical treatment was more effective for CF1000 than those for CF1500 and CF2000. This behavior may be attributed to higher amount of oxygen on its surface as well as its lower structural ordering. Otherwise, for CF1000, the electrochemical treatment increased its resistivity. However, for CF1500 and CF2000, which present higher graphitization levels and less heteroatom contents, greater capacitance values were observed after their electrochemical oxidative treatment.     

Effect of fiber orientation,stress state and notch radius on the impact properties of short glass fiber reinforced polypropylene

Short glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (sgf-PP) is increasingly used in the automotive industry with the impact properties as key parameter. Experimentally, the impact behavior strongly depends on the specimen design, test set-up as well as temperature, and thus the characterization method should always be attuned to the occurring impact conditions of the final part. However, in order to deduce some general design criteria for sgf-PP, in this study a wide range of experimental parameters were investigated, specially focusing also on the effect of the governing, local fiber orientation distribution (FOD). Therefore, the effects of stress state (tensile, puncture and bending test), amount of stress concentration (notch radius) and temperature are characterized and discussed. The results proved that, as expected, distinctly different levels of impact strength and different dependencies on notches and notch radii are obtained for the various test set-ups. However, similarities in the temperature dependence are observed for specimens with similar governing fiber orientation.     

The impact of diperfluorophenyl and thienyl substituents on the electronic structures and charge transport properties of the fused thiophene semiconductors

The charge transport properties of 3 fused thiophene semiconductors, end-capped with diperfluorophenylthien-2-yl (DFPT) groups (DFPT-thieno[2′, 3′:4, 5]thieno[3, 2-b]thieno[2, 3-d]thiophene (TTA), DFPT-dithieno[2, 3-b:3′, 2′-d]thiophenes (DTT), and DFPT-thieno[3, 2-b]thiophene (TT)), are explored via density functional theory (DFT). To gain a better understanding of the impact of diperfluorophenyl and thienyl substituents on the electronic structures and charge transport properties of these molecules, the geometric structures, reorganization energy, frontier molecular orbitals, molecular ionization potentials and electron affinities, absorption spectra of the corresponding molecules including diperfluorophenyl (DFP)-TTA, DFP-DTT, DFP-TT, dithienyl (DT)-TTA, DT-DTT, DT-TT as well as their parent molecules (TTA, DTT and TT) are investigated for comparison. The calculated results show that introducing perfluorophenyl groups to the fused thiophenes could be a good strategy to promote electron transport, while the insertion of additional thiophene rings to DFP-end-capped derivatives could further extend the π-conjugation and enhance the charge transport properties of DFPT-end-capped analogs.     

The impact of enzyme characteristics on corn stover fiber degradation and acid production during ensiled storage

Ensilage can be used to store lignocellulosic biomass before industrial bioprocessing. This study investigated the impacts of seven commercial enzyme mixtures derived from Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma reesei, and T. longibrachiatum. Treatments included three size grades of corn stover, two enzyme levels (1.67 and 5 IU/g dry matter based on hemicellulase), and various ratios of cellulase to hemicellulase (C:H). The highest C:H ratio tested, 2.38, derived from T. reesei, resulted in the most effective fermentation, with lactic acid as the dominant product. Enzymatic activity during storage may complement industrial pretreatment; creating synergies that could reduce total bioconversion costs.     

The effects of spinneret dimension and hollow fiber dimension on gas separation performance of ultra-thin defect-free Torlon hollow fiber membranes

A defect-free as-spun hollow fiber membrane with an ultra-thin dense-selective layer is the most desirable configuration in gas separation because it may potentially eliminate post-treatments such as silicone rubber costing, simplify membrane manufacture, and reduce production costs. However, the formation of defect-free as-spun hollow fiber membranes with an ultra-thin dense-selective layer is an extremely challenging task because of the complexity of phase inversion process during the hollow fiber fabrication and the trade-off between the formation of an ultra-thin dense-selective layer and the generation of defects. We have for the first time successfully produced defect-free as-spun Torlon^® hollow fiber membranes with an ultra-thin dense layer of around 540 Å from only a one polymer/one solvent binary system at reasonable take-up speeds of 10–50 m/min. The best O₂/N₂ permselectivity achieved is much higher than the intrinsic value of Torlon^® dense films. This is also a pioneering work systematically studying the effects of spinneret dimension and hollow fiber dimension on gas separation performance. Several interesting and important phenomena have been discovered and never been reported: (1) as the spinneret dimension increases, a higher elongation draw ratio is required to produce defect-free hollow fiber membranes; (2) the bigger the spinneret dimension, the higher the selectivity; (3) the bigger the spinneret dimension, the thinner the dense-selective layer. Mechanisms to explain the above observation have been elaborated. The keys to produce hollow fiber with enhanced permselectivity are to (1) remove die swell effects, (2) achieve finer monodisperse interstitial chain space at the dense-selective layer by an optimal draw ratio, and (3) control membrane formation by varying spinneret dimension.