Flavonoids from Lycium barbarum Leaves Exhibit Anti-Aging Effects through the Redox-Modulation

Lycium barbarum leaves are a kind of vegetable, and modern nutrition studies have found that they have an anti-aging function. Our study aims to investigate the anti-aging effects of Lycium barbarum leaf flavonoid (LBLF) extracts and its underlying molecular mechanism. LBLFs were purified using D101 and polyamide resin, characterized by ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, and administered to hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and Caenorhabditis elegans. Appropriate enrichment conditions were optimized through dynamic adsorption and desorption experiments, the content of flavonoids reached 909.84 mg/g, rutin and kaempferol being the main ones. LBLFs attenuated H₂O₂-induced HUVEC apoptosis, decreased reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde production levels, increased superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase activities. Furthermore, pre-treatment with LBLF increased mRNA expression of erythropoietin (EPO) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) via the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway in HUVECs. Compared with 100 µM rutin monomer, LBLF prolonged the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans, enhanced their mobility in middle life stages and upregulated expression of sod-2, gcs-1 and skn-1 genes, which indicated that the anti-aging effects of LBLF were due to its redox-modulation.     

一种高性能太阳敏感器复合光学系统设计

以夫朗禾费衍射理论为基础,结合微透镜,设计了一种高性能的数字式太阳敏感器复合光学系统。分析了光学系统的组成,建立了光学系统的数学模型,设计了光学系统的焦距、孔径和微透镜参量,并进行了成像的数值仿真。仿真结果表明,与基于掩模的光学系统相比,这种新型的复合光学系统成像光斑能量分布集中,保证计算光斑中心位置的高精度,使敏感器具有大视场和高精度的特点。     

Chemical Constituents from the Flowers of Carthamus tinctorius L. and Their Lung Protective Activity

A new flavonoid, saffloflavanside (1), a new sesquiterpene, safflomegastigside (2), and a new amide, saffloamide (3), together with twenty-two known compounds (4–25), were isolated from the flowers of Carthamus tinctorius L. Their structures were determined based on interpretation of their spectroscopic data and comparison with those reported in the literature. The protective effects against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated damage on human normal lung epithelial (BEAS-2B) cells of the compounds were evaluated using MTT assay and cellular immunofluorescence assay. The results showed that compounds 2–3, 8–11, and 15–19 exhibited protective effects against LPS-induced damage to BEAS-2B cells. Moreover, compounds 2–3, 8–11, and 15–19 can significantly downregulate the level of nuclear translocation of NF-κB p-p65. In summary, this study revealed chemical constituents with lung protective activity from C. tinctorius, which may be developed as a drug for the treatment of lung injury.     

Facile Synthesis of Porous Ag Crystals as SERS Sensor for Detection of Five Methamphetamine Analogs

Porous noble metal nanomaterials have attracted extensive attention due to their high specific surface area and surface plasmon resonance effect. However, it is difficult to form porous structures due to the high mobility and low reduction potential of noble metal precursors. In this article, we developed a facile method for preparing porous Ag with a controllable structure at room temperature. Two kinds of Ag crystals with different porous structures were successfully prepared by using AgCl cubes as sacrificial templates. Through the galvanic replacement reaction of Zn and AgCl, Ag crystals with a sponge-like porous structure were successfully prepared. Additionally, using NaBH₄ as the reducing agent, we prepared granular porous Ag cubes by optimizing the amount of reducing agent. Both the sponge-like and granular porous Ag cubes have clean and accessible surfaces. In addition, we used the prepared two porous Ag cubes as substrate materials for SERS detection of five kinds of methamphetamine analogs. The experimental results show that the enhancement effect of granular porous Ag is better than that of sponge-like porous Ag. Furthermore, we probed the hot spot distribution of granular porous Ag by Raman mapping. By using granular porous Ag as the substrate material, we have achieved trace detection of 5 kinds of methamphetamine analogs including Ephedrine, Amphetamine, N-Methyl-1-(benzofuran-5-yl)propan-2-amine (5-MAPB), N-Methyl-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)propan-2-amine (PMMA) and N-Methyl-1-(4-fluorophenyl)propan-2-amine (4-FMA). Furthermore, to achieve qualitative differentiation of analogs with similar structures we performed density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations on the Raman spectra of the above analogs. The DFT calculations provided the vibrational frequencies, Raman activities, and normal mode assignment for each analog, enabling the qualitative differentiation of the above analogs.     

Effect of Thermal Processing on the Metabolic Components of Black Beans on Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with High-Field Quadrupole-Orbitrap High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry

An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-field quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QE-MS) histological platform was used to analyze the effects of two thermal processing methods (cooking and steaming) on the nutritional metabolic components of black beans. Black beans had the most amino acids, followed by lipids and polyphenols, and more sugars. Multivariate statistical analysis indicated that heat processing significantly affected the metabolic component content in black beans, with effects varying among different components. Polyphenols, especially flavonoids and isoflavones, were highly susceptible. A total of 197 and 210 differential metabolites were identified in both raw black beans and cooked and steamed black beans, respectively. Cooking reduced the cumulative content of amino acids, lipids, polyphenols, sugars, and nucleosides, whereas steaming reduced amino acid and lipid content, slightly increased polyphenol content, and significantly increased sugar and nucleoside content. Our results indicated that metabolic components were better retained during steaming than cooking. Heat treatment had the greatest impact on amino acids, followed by polyphenols, fatty acids, sugars, and vitamins, indicating that cooking promotes the transformation of most substances and the synthesis of a few. The results of this study provide a basis for further research and development of nutritional products using black beans.     

A MXene-derived redox homeostasis regulator perturbs the Nrf2 antioxidant program for reinforced sonodynamic therapy

Ultrasound (US)-mediated sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has emerged as a spatiotemporally controllable therapeutic modality in combating cancer because of its high tissue-penetration depth and minimal invasiveness. However, the elevated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) antioxidant program in cancer cells can serve as a chief reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification system to alleviate oxidative injury and promote tumorigenesis, and thus greatly antagonize the therapeutic efficacy of ROS-mediated anticancer therapies. Herein, we report that vanadium carbide MXene-derived carbon dots (PMQDs) can act as high-efficacy sonosensitizers to efficiently generate ROS upon US irradiation and simultaneously hinder the Nrf2 antioxidant program for enhanced sonodynamic therapy of cancer. These PMQDs show superior US-triggered ROS generating ability because of their efficient migration/separation of electron–hole pairs and narrow bandgap. Importantly, these PMQDs can serve as efficient redox homeostasis regulators to perturb the Nrf2 antioxidant mechanism and thus reduce its effects on ROS neutralization for enhanced SDT efficacy. Overall, the present study will not only provide a new paradigm to augment SDT by perturbing the Nrf2 antioxidant program, but also give valuable insights into developing high-efficacy MXene-derived nanoagents for cancer therapy.

A redox homeostasis regulator has been developed as a high-efficacy sonosensitizer to efficiently generate reactive oxygen species upon ultrasound irradiation and simultaneously hinder the Nrf2 antioxidant program for enhanced sonodynamic therapy.     

气相生长氮化铝单晶的新方法

通过在钨坩埚盖开小孔的方法改变氮化铝结晶衬底上的温度场分布,在开孔处形成局部低温区;由于孔的几何尺寸的限制和氮化铝晶体生长的各向异性,开孔处的氮化铝晶体单晶化;随后,开孔处的单晶起籽晶的作用,逐渐长成较大尺寸、较高质量的氮化铝单晶.目前用该方法已经制备出直径大于2mm的氮化铝单晶体.     

A Novel Method for Pattern Recognition of GIS Partial Discharge via Multi-Information Ensemble Learning

Partial discharge (PD) is the main feature that effectively reflects the internal insulation defects of gas-insulated switchgear (GIS). It is of great significance to diagnose the types of insulation faults by recognizing PD to ensure the normal operation of GIS. However, the traditional diagnosis method based on single feature information analysis has a low recognition accuracy of PD, and there are great differences in the diagnosis effect of various insulation defects. To make the most of the rich insulation state information contained in PD, we propose a novel multi-information ensemble learning for PD pattern recognition. First, the ultra-high frequency and ultrasonic data of PD under four typical defects of GIS are obtained through experiment. Then the deep residual convolution neural network is used to automatically extract discriminative features. Finally, multi-information ensemble learning is used to classify PD types at the decision level, which can complement the shortcomings of the independent recognition of the two types of feature information and has higher accuracy and reliability. Experiments show that the accuracy of the proposed method can reach 97.500%, which greatly improves the diagnosis accuracy of various insulation defects.     

HIGH-FREQUENCY VIBRATIONS OF CORRUGATED CYLINDRICAL PIEZOELECTRIC SHELLS

Coupled extensional and flexural cylindrical vibrations of a corrugated cylindrical piezoelectric shell consisting of multiple pieces of circular cylindrical surfaces smoothly connected along their generatrix are studied. To validate the results for the case of relatively thick shells or equivalently high-frequency modes with short wavelengths, existing analysis is extended by considering shear deformation and rotatory inertia. An analytical solution is obtained. Based on the solution, resonant frequencies and mode shapes are calculated.     

Numerical Study on Entropy Generation of the Multi-Stage Centrifugal Pump

The energy loss of the multi-stage centrifugal pump was investigated by numerical analysis using the entropy generation method with the RNG k-ε turbulence model. Entropy generation due to time-averaged motion and velocity fluctuation was mainly considered. It was found that the entropy generation of guide vanes and impellers account for 71.2% and 23.3% of the total entropy generation under the designed flow condition. The guide vanes are the main hydraulic loss domains and their entropy generation is about 9 W/K, followed by impellers. There are vortices at the tongue of the guide vane inlet as well as flow separations in the impellers, which lead to entropy generation. The fluid impacts the outer surface of the guide vanes, resulting in the increase in entropy generation. There are refluxes near the guide vane tongues which also increase the entropy generation of this part. The entropy generation distribution of the guide vanes and impellers was investigated, which found that the positive guide vane has more entropy generation compared with the reverse guide. The entropy generation of the blade suction surface is higher compared with the pressure surface. This study indicated that the entropy generation method has distinct advantages in the assessment of hydraulic loss.