Exploration of Antimicrobial Ingredients in Psoralea corylifolia L. Seed and Related Mechanism against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

With the abuse of antibiotics, bacterial antibiotic resistance is becoming a major public healthcare issue. Natural plants, especially traditional Chinese herbal medicines, which have antibacterial activity, are important sources for discovering potential bacteriostatic agents. This study aimed to develop a fast and reliable method for screening out antimicrobial compounds targeting the MRSA membrane from Psoralea corylifolia Linn. seed. A UPLC-MS/MS method was applied to identify the prenylated flavonoids in major fractions from the extracts of Psoralea corylifolia Linn. seed. The broth microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of different fractions and compounds. The morphological and ultrastructural changes of MRSA were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The membrane-targeting mechanism of the active ingredients was explored by membrane integrity assays, membrane fluidity assays, membrane potential assays, ATP, and ROS determination. We identified eight prenylated flavonoids in Psoralea corylifolia Linn. seed. The antibacterial activity and mechanism studies showed that this type of compound has a unique destructive effect on MRSA cell membranes and does not result in drug resistance. The results revealed that prenylated flavonoids in Psoralea corylifolia Linn. seeds are promising candidates for the development of novel antibiotic agents to combat MRSA-associated infections.     

Three-Way Decision Models Based on Ideal Relations in Multi-Attribute Decision-Making

In recent years, research on applications of three-way decision (e.g., TWD) has attracted the attention of many scholars. In this paper, we combine TWD with multi-attribute decision-making (MADM). First, we utilize the essential idea of TOPSIS in MADM theory to propose a pair of new ideal relation models based on TWD, namely, the three-way ideal superiority model and the three-way ideal inferiority model. Second, in order to reduce errors caused by the subjectivity of decision-makers, we develop two new methods to calculate the state sets for the two proposed ideal relation models. Third, we employ aggregate relative loss functions to calculate the thresholds of each object, divide all objects into three different territories and sort all objects. Then, we use a concrete example of building appearance selection to verify the rationality and feasibility of our proposed models. Furthermore, we apply comparative analysis, Spearman’s rank correlation analysis and experiment analysis to illustrate the consistency and superiority of our methods.     

Nickel-catalyzed cross-electrophile allylation of vinyl bromides and the modification of anti-tumour natural medicine β-elemene

Herein, we present a facile and efficient allylation method via Ni-catalyzed cross-electrophile coupling of readily available allylic acetates with a variety of substituted alkenyl bromides using zinc as the terminal reductant. This Ni-catalyzed modular approach displays excellent functional group tolerance and a broad substrate scope, which the creation of a series of 1,4-dienes including several structurally complex natural products and pharmaceutical motifs. Moreover, the coupling strategy has the potential to realize enantiomeric control. The practicality of this transformation is demonstrated through the potent modification of the naturally antitumor active molecule β-elemene.

Herein, we present a facile and efficient allylation method via Ni-catalyzed cross-electrophile coupling of readily available allylic acetates with a variety of substituted alkenyl bromides using zinc as the terminal reductant.     

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence with dual-emission and pressure-induced bidirectional shifting: cooperative effects of intramolecular and intermolecular energy transfer

Different from the conventional piezochromic materials with a mono-redshift of single emission, our well-designed molecule demonstrates a sensitive turn-on and color-tunable piezochromic luminescence in response to the hydrostatic pressure. The molecule PXZ-W-SOF possesses dual-emission and pressure-induced bidirectional shifting characteristics. On the basis of in-depth experimental studies, on one hand, it is confirmed that the origin of the dual-emission behavior is the intramolecular charge transfer, namely thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), and the intermolecular excimer; on the other hand, the emission of the excimer exhibits three-step variations with increasing pressure, which is mainly attributed to the molecular structure and its crystal packing state. The remarkable color change of PXZ-W-SOF from sky-blue to green to deep-blue during the whole process of boosting and releasing pressure is a result of intramolecular and intermolecular energy-transfer interactions. The PXZ-W-SOF molecular model is an extremely rare example of highly sensitive fluorescence tuning driven by TADF and excimer conversion under mechanical stimulation, thus providing a novel mechanism for the field of piezochromism. The unique molecular design also offers a new idea for rare deep-blue and ultraviolet TADF materials.

A high-contrast luminescent material exhibits dual-emission and pressure-induced bidirectional shifting, originating from the cooperative effects of TADF and excimers. It provides a novel mechanism for the piezochromic behavior.     

冲功率装置汇流区由电子发射导致的电流损失机制

面向大型脉冲功率装置聚龙一号(PTS装置),以电磁粒子模拟方法(PIC)为依托,围绕真空汇流区双层柱-孔盘旋(DPHC)结构区域,研究电子发射对DPHC结构在电流传输、汇聚过程中的影响。使用全三维大规模并行粒子模拟软件NEPTUNE3D,简化并建立DPHC结构的物理和几何模型,利用全电路数值模拟的方法获得PTS装置真空轴向绝缘堆处开路和短路电压波形曲线作为输入条件,计算得到DPHC结构中磁场强度分布。分别考虑是否存在电子发射过程,获得输出端电流损失随时间变化曲线,经过对比得到峰值时刻由阴极表面电子发射所导致的电流损失率为0.46%~0.48%。     

基于Kr工质的离子推力器栅极PIC仿真

Kr是新型低成本离子推力器的优选工质之一。采用三维PIC粒子模拟方法对Kr等离子体在栅极系统中的输运过程进行仿真,并与Xe工质仿真结果进行对比,分析工质类型对束流分布、离子通过率、发散角损失和推力等参数特性和分布的影响。结果表明：相比于Xe工质,Kr工质条件下,屏栅上游鞘层区域更大,屏栅离子通过率略有上升;Kr+在加速栅孔轴向速度较大,径向位移小,撞击加速栅几率小,加速栅电流相对较小;Kr工质和Xe工质的发散角损失相当,但Kr工质工作电流区域更高;相比于Xe工质,相同功率条件下Kr工质的推力值约降低20%。     

中能电子成像仪探头的设计

利用小孔成像原理对中能电子成像仪探头的机械结构进行了设计,为保证探头单元暴露于外辐射带辐射环境12年的总剂量小于5 krad,确定其壳体厚度为约3 mm的铜,探头的角分辨率为20;根据带电粒子在硅中的能量损失规律对探测器进行了防质子污染设计,确定了探测器厚度为1000 m,其屏蔽层厚度为10 m等效硅。最后对设计探头的质子污染率进行了计算,结果表明该中能电子成像仪探头的设计满足外辐射带空间中能电子探测的需求,为中能电子成像仪的研制奠定了基础。     

大环分子衍生物在人工跨膜离子通道领域中的研究进展

大环分子如环糊精、冠醚等因具备独特的空腔结构,能够通过主-客体相互作用实现对分子、离子的特异性识别,因此常被应用于人工跨膜离子传输系统的研究和开发.与天然的通道蛋白相比,大环分子具有价格低廉、性质稳定、结构易于修饰和功能化等诸多优点,因而备受科研工作者们的关注.本综述详细介绍了大环分子在人工离子通道领域中的研究进展,按...     

Domain Adaptation with Data Uncertainty Measure Based on Evidence Theory

Domain adaptation aims to learn a classifier for a target domain task by using related labeled data from the source domain. Because source domain data and target domain task may be mismatched, there is an uncertainty of source domain data with respect to the target domain task. Ignoring the uncertainty may lead to models with unreliable and suboptimal classification results for the target domain task. However, most previous works focus on reducing the gap in data distribution between the source and target domains. They do not consider the uncertainty of source domain data about the target domain task and cannot apply the uncertainty to learn an adaptive classifier. Aimed at this problem, we revisit the domain adaptation from source domain data uncertainty based on evidence theory and thereby devise an adaptive classifier with the uncertainty measure. Based on evidence theory, we first design an evidence net to estimate the uncertainty of source domain data about the target domain task. Second, we design a general loss function with the uncertainty measure for the adaptive classifier and extend the loss function to support vector machine. Finally, numerical experiments on simulation datasets and real-world applications are given to comprehensively demonstrate the effectiveness of the adaptive classifier with the uncertainty measure.