Hepatoprotective Effects of Ixeris chinensis on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Induced by High-Fat Diet in Mice: An Integrated Gut Microbiota and Metabolomic Analysis

Ixeris chinensis (Thunb.) Nakai (IC) is a folk medicinal herb used in Mongolian medical clinics for the treatment of hepatitis and fatty liver diseases even though its pharmacological mechanism has not been well characterized. This study investigated the hepatoprotective mechanism of IC on mice with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by integrating gut microbiota and metabolomic analysis. A high-fat diet (HFD) was used to develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, after which the mice were treated with oral IC (0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 g/kg) for 10 weeks. HFD induced NAFLD and the therapeutic effects were characterized by pathological and histological evaluations, and the serum indicators were analyzed by ELISA. The gut microbial and metabolite profiles were studied by 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomic analysis, respectively. The results showed that the administration of IC resulted in significant decreases in body weight; liver index; serum biomarkers such as ALT, TG, and LDL-C; and the liver inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α. The 16S rRNA sequencing results showed that administration of IC extract altered both the composition and abundance of the gut microbiota. Untargeted metabolomic analysis of liver samples detected a total of 212 metabolites, of which 128 were differentially expressed between the HFD and IC group. IC was found to significantly alter the levels of metabolites such as L-glutamic acid, pyridoxal, ornithine, L-aspartic acid, D-proline, and N4-acetylaminobutanal, which are involved in the regulation of glutamine and glutamate, Vitamin B6 metabolism, and arginine and proline metabolic pathways. Correlation analysis indicated that the effects of the IC extract on metabolites were associated with alterations in the abundance of Akkermansiaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Muribaculaceae. Our study revealed that IC has a potential hepatoprotective effect in NAFLD and that its function might be linked to improvements in the composition of gut microbiota and their metabolites.     

Highly Effective Proton-Conduction Matrix-Mixed Membrane Derived from an -SO3H Functionalized Polyamide

Developing a low-cost and effective proton-conductive electrolyte to meet the requirements of the large-scale manufacturing of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is of great significance in progressing towards the upcoming “hydrogen economy” society. Herein, utilizing the one-pot acylation polymeric combination of acyl chloride and amine precursors, a polyamide with in-built -SO₃H moieties (PA-PhSO₃H) was facilely synthesized. Characterization shows that it possesses a porous feature and a high stability at the practical operating conditions of PEM fuel cells. Investigations of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements revealed that the fabricated PA-PhSO₃H displays a proton conductivity of up to 8.85 × 10⁻² S·cm⁻¹ at 353 K under 98% relative humidity (RH), which is more than two orders of magnitude higher than that of its -SO₃H-free analogue, PA-Ph (6.30 × 10⁻⁴ S·cm⁻¹), under the same conditions. Therefore, matrix-mixed membranes were fabricated by mixing with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in different ratios, and the EIS analyses revealed that its proton conductivity can reach up to 4.90 × 10⁻² S·cm⁻¹ at 353 K and a 98% relative humidity (RH) when the weight ratio of PA-PhSO₃H:PAN is 3:1 (labeled as PA-PhSO₃H-PAN (3:1)), the value of which is even comparable with those of commercial-available electrolytes being used in PEM fuel cells. Additionally, continuous tests showed that PA-PhSO₃H-PAN (3:1) possesses a long-life reusability. This work demonstrates, using the simple acylation reaction with the sulfonated module as precursor, that low-cost and highly effective proton-conductive electrolytes for PEM fuel cells can be facilely achieved.     

High-performance potassium poly(heptazine imide) films for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is an appealing approach by which to convert solar energy into hydrogen fuel. Polymeric semiconductors have recently attracted intense interest of many scientists for PEC water splitting. The crystallinity of polymer films is regarded as the main factor that determines the conversion efficiency. Herein, potassium poly(heptazine) imide (K-PHI) films with improved crystallinity were in situ prepared on a conductive substrate as a photoanode for solar-driven water splitting. A remarkable photocurrent density of ca. 0.80 mA cm⁻² was achieved under air mass 1.5 global illumination without the use of any sacrificial agent, a performance that is ca. 20 times higher than that of the photoanode in an amorphous state, and higher than those of other related polymeric photoanodes. The boosted performance can be attributed to improved charge transfer, which has been investigated using steady state and operando approaches. This work elucidates the pivotal importance of the crystallinity of conjugated polymer semiconductors for PEC water splitting and other advanced photocatalytic applications.

Potassium poly(heptazine imide) photoanode is synthesized, and owing to the improved crystallinity, it has presented a remarkable performance for solar-driven water splitting.     

Rapid Identification for the Pterocarpus Bracelet by Three-Step Infrared Spectrum Method

In order to explore a rapid identification method for the anti-counterfeit of commercial high value collections, a three-step infrared spectrum method was used for the pterocarpus collection identification to confirm whether a commercial pterocarpus bracelet (PB) was made from the precious species of Pterocarpus santalinus (P. santalinus). In the first step, undertaken by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectrum, the absorption peaks intensity of PB was slightly higher than that of P. santalinus only at 1594 cm⁻¹, 1205 cm⁻¹, 1155 cm⁻¹ and 836 cm⁻¹. In the next step of second derivative IR spectra (SDIR), the FTIR features of the tested samples were further amplified, and the peaks at 1600 cm⁻¹, 1171 cm⁻¹ and 1152 cm⁻¹ become clearly defined in PB. Finally, by means of two-dimensional correlation infrared (2DIR) spectrum, it revealed that the response of holocellulose to thermal perturbation was stronger in P. santalinus than that in PB mainly at 977 cm⁻¹, 1008 cm⁻¹, 1100 cm⁻¹, 1057 cm⁻¹, 1190 cm⁻¹ and 1214 cm⁻¹, while the aromatic functional groups of PB were much more sensitive to the thermal perturbation than those of P. santalinus mainly at 1456 cm⁻¹, 1467 cm⁻¹, 1518 cm⁻¹, 1558 cm⁻¹, 1576 cm⁻¹ and 1605 cm⁻¹. In addition, fluorescence microscopy was used to verify the effectiveness of the above method for wood identification and the results showed good consistency. This study demonstrated that the three-step IR method could provide a rapid and effective way for the anti-counterfeit of pterocarpus collections.     

EGFAFS: A Novel Feature Selection Algorithm Based on Explosion Gravitation Field Algorithm

Feature selection (FS) is a vital step in data mining and machine learning, especially for analyzing the data in high-dimensional feature space. Gene expression data usually consist of a few samples characterized by high-dimensional feature space. As a result, they are not suitable to be processed by simple methods, such as the filter-based method. In this study, we propose a novel feature selection algorithm based on the Explosion Gravitation Field Algorithm, called EGFAFS. To reduce the dimensions of the feature space to acceptable dimensions, we constructed a recommended feature pool by a series of Random Forests based on the Gini index. Furthermore, by paying more attention to the features in the recommended feature pool, we can find the best subset more efficiently. To verify the performance of EGFAFS for FS, we tested EGFAFS on eight gene expression datasets compared with four heuristic-based FS methods (GA, PSO, SA, and DE) and four other FS methods (Boruta, HSICLasso, DNN-FS, and EGSG). The results show that EGFAFS has better performance for FS on gene expression data in terms of evaluation metrics, having more than the other eight FS algorithms. The genes selected by EGFAGS play an essential role in the differential co-expression network and some biological functions further demonstrate the success of EGFAFS for solving FS problems on gene expression data.     

Preparation of Silica Aerogel/Resin Composites and Their Application in Dental Restorative Materials

As the most advanced aerogel material, silica aerogel has had transformative industrial impacts. However, the use of silica aerogel is currently limited to the field of thermal insulation materials, so it is urgent to expand its application into other fields. In this work, silica aerogel/resin composites were successfully prepared by combining silica aerogel with a resin matrix for dental restoration. The applications of this material in the field of dental restoration, as well as its performance, are discussed in depth. It was demonstrated that, when the ratio of the resin matrix Bis-GMA to TEGDMA was 1:1, and the content of silica aerogel with 50 μm particle size was 12.5%, the composite achieved excellent mechanical properties. The flexural strength of the silica aerogel/resin composite reached 62.9546 MPa, which was more than five times that of the pure resin. Due to the presence of the silica aerogel, the composite also demonstrated outstanding antibacterial capabilities, meeting the demand for antimicrobial properties in dental materials. This work successfully investigated the prospect of using commercially available silica aerogels in dental restorative materials; we provide an easy method for using silica aerogels as dental restorative materials, as well as a reference for their application in the field of biomedical materials.     

Preparation of nano-hydroxyapatite/poly(<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-lactide) biocomposite microspheres

Nano-hydroxyapatite (HA)/poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) composite microspheres with relatively uniform size distribution were prepared by a solid-in-oil-in-water (s/o/w) emusion solvent evaporation method. The encapsulation of the HA nanopaticles in microshperes was significantly improved by grafting PLLA on the surface of the HA nanoparticles (p-HA) during emulsion process. This procedure gave a possibility to obtain p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres with uniform morphology and the encapsulated p-HA nanoparticle loading reached up to 40 wt% (33 wt% of pure HA) in the p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres. The microstructure of composite microspheres from core-shell to single phase changed with the variation of p-HA to PLLA ratios. p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres with the diameter range of 2–3 μm were obtained. The entrapment efficiency of p-HA in microspheres could high up to 90 wt% and that of HA was only 13 wt%. Surface and bulk characterizations of the composite microspheres were performed by measurements such as wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).     

Effects of Organic Acids on the Release of Fruity Esters in Water: An Insight at the Molecular Level

It is well known that organic acids (OAs) could affect the flavour of fruit juices and beverages. However, the molecular mechanism of aroma release is still unclear. In this study, the effects of citric acid (CA), L-(-)-malic acid (MA) and L-lactic acid (LA) on the release of six selected esters and their sensory perception were investigated by means of HS-GC-MS analyses and odour detection threshold determination, respectively. Meanwhile, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation was employed to explore the interaction modes between esters and OAs. HS-GC-MS analyses showed that the concentration and the type of OAs regulated the release of esters. The results were basically consistent with the detection threshold change of those esters. The DFT calculation suggested that the main intermolecular interaction was hydrogen bonds, and several esters could form a ternary ring structure with OAs through hydrogen bonds. The interactions can induce the different release behaviours of esters in OAs water solution. The number of carboxyl functional groups in OAs and the spatial conformation of esters appeared to influence the magnitude of the interaction. The above results demonstrated the mechanism of OAs affecting the release of esters and indicated a possible flavour control way by using different OAs and OA concentrations.     

Palladium‐catalyzed selective decarboxylative coupling reaction versus direct C―H arylation for arylation of heteroaromatics

Conditions for selective palladium‐catalyzed decarboxylative 2‐arylation of 3‐substituted thiophene and furan derivatives bearing an ester at C2 position have been established. By using 2 mol% phosphine‐free Pd(OAc)₂ as the catalyst and a mixture of KOH and K₂CO₃ as the bases, in dimethylacetamide, moderate to good yields of the desired 2‐arylated products were obtained. A range of functional groups such as nitrile, nitro, formyl or acetyl on the aryl bromides was tolerated. This method allows us to employ in some cases more convenient reactants in terms of cost or physical properties (boiling point) for arylations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.