A Novel Catalyst for Liquid Phase Hydrogenation of m-Dinitrobenzene to m-Phenylenediamine

A novel lanthana-promoted nickel catalyst supported on silica for the liquid phase hydrogenation of m-dinitrobenzene to m-phenylenediamine was prepared by an incipient wetness sequential impregnation method. It was found that Ni-La/SiO2 catalyst exhibited high activity and stability for m-dinitrobenzene hydrogenation. Over this catalyst, the conversion of m-dinitrobenzene and the yield of m-phenylenediamine were up to 97.1% and 93.5%, respectively,at 373 K and 2.6 MPa hydrogen pressure after reaction for 1 h.     

Furostanol saponins with inhibitory action against COX-2 production from Tupistra chinensis rhizomes

Two furostanol saponins were obtained from the n-butanol fraction of methanol extract from Tupistra chinensis rhizomes,a folk medicine of Shennongjia Forest District of Hubei Province.Their structures were determined as (25S)-26-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)- furost-1β,3β,22α,26-tetrol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-glucopyranoside (1) and (25R)- 26-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-furost-1β,3β22α,26-tetrol 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-glu- copyranoside (2),on basis of chemical and spectroscopic evidences.1 and 2 displayed marked inhibitory action towards COX-2 production in macrophages of the rat abdomen induced by LPS at 20μg/mL.     

地铁沿线建筑内噪声多维度感受影响机制

随着城市铁路系统的快速发展,铁路沿线建筑内人群对地铁运行产生噪声的抱怨逐渐增多,为控制室内地铁噪声对人群所产生的负面影响,有必要对地铁噪声产生的多维度负面情绪进行评估。采集了79名受试者对建筑内地铁噪声的多维度负面感受(压抑感,不舒适度和不满意度),基于偏最小二乘法分析了主客观影响因素对多维度负面感受的作用机制,并比较了多维度负面感受在反映地铁噪声影响上的差异。结果表明,多维度负面感受主要取决于主观响度和声学参数,活动干扰度、地铁噪声的敏感度、厌烦度和适应性的影响明显更弱;3个多维度负面感受中,相比于压抑感,不舒适度和不满意度受主观响度的影响轻微更显著,在相同的主观响度感受下,不满意度等级最高。 该文可以为地铁沿线建筑物内噪声负面感受的评价和改善提供参考。     

气相色谱矩形离子阱质谱联用仪的设计与性能

气相色谱离子阱质谱联用仪(GC-ITMS)广泛地应用于药物分析、环境分析、农药检测和食品分析、有机化学品分析、毒品分析以及医学和生物分析等领域。离子阱质谱作为色谱的检测器,决定了色质联用仪的分析性能,包括检出限、分辨率。离子阱质量分析器从传统的双曲型3D离子阱发展到2D线性离子阱,质量歧视效应得到了极大的改善,灵敏度得到了提高。矩形离子阱作为线性离子阱,结构简单,加工和装配容易,因此应用到GCMS系统中将具有非常大的优势。介绍了矩形离子阱质谱仪的设计方案、仪器整机的性能测试、质量分辨和质量歧视效应分析,与Agilent6890组成GCMS联用仪,对实际样品进行了分析。     

An Exploration of the Effect of the Kleier Model and Carrier-Mediated Theory to Design Phloem-Mobile Pesticides Based on Researching the N-Alkylated Derivatives of Phenazine-1-Carboxylic Acid-Glycine

The Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory are effective for molecularly designing pesticides with phloem mobility. However, the single Kleier model or Carrier-mediated theory cannot achieve a reliable explanation of the phloem mobility of all exogenous substances. A detailed investigation of the two models and the scope of their applications can provide a more accurate and highly efficient basis for the guidance of the design and development of phloem-mobile pesticides. In the present paper, a strategy using active ingredient-amino acid conjugates as mode compounds is developed based on Carrier-mediated theory. An N-alkylated amino acid is used to improve the pesticide’s physicochemical properties following the Kleier model, thus allowing the conjugates to fall on the predicted and more accessible transportation region of phloem. Moreover, the influence of this movement on phloem is inspected by the Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory. To verify this strategy, a series of N-alkylated phenazine-1-carboxylic acid-glycine compounds (PCA-Gly) were designed and synthesized. The results related to the castor bean seeds (R. communis L.) indicated that all the target compounds (4a–4f) had phloem mobility. The capacity for phloem mobility shows that N-alkylated glycine containing small substituents can significantly improve PCA phloem mobility, such as 4c(i-C₃H₇-N) > 4a(CH₃-N) ≈ 4b(C₂H₅-N) > 4d (t-C₄H₉-N) > PCA-Gly > 4e(C₆H₅-N) > 4f(CH₂COOH-N), with an oil–water partition coefficient between 1.2~2.5. In particular, compounds 4a(CH₃-N), 4b(C₂H₅-N), and 4c(i-C₃H₇-N) present better phloem mobility, with the average concentrations in phloem sap of 14.62 μΜ, 13.98 μΜ, and 17.63 μΜ in the first 5 h, which are 8 to 10 times higher than PCA-Gly (1.71 μΜ). The results reveal that the Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory play a guiding role in the design of phloem-mobile pesticides. However, the single Kleier model or Carrier-mediated theory are not entirely accurate. Still, there is a synergism between Carrier-mediated theory and the Kleier model for promoting the phloem transport of exogenous compounds. Therefore, we suggest the introduction of endogenous plant compounds as a promoiety to improve the phloem mobility of pesticides through Carrier-mediated theory. It is necessary to consider the improvement of physicochemical properties according to the Kleier model, which can contribute to a scientific theory for developing phloem-mobile pesticides.     

Superconvergence of local discontinuous Galerkin methods with generalized alternating fluxes for 1D linear convection-diffusion equations

This paper investigates superconvergence properties of the local discontinuous Galerkin methods with generalized alternating fluxes for one-dimensional linear convection-diffusion equations. By the technique of constructing some special correction functions, we prove the(2k + 1)-th-order superconvergence for the cell averages, and the numerical traces in the discrete L~2 norm. In addition, superconvergence of orders k + 2 and k + 1 is obtained for the error and its derivative at generalized Radau points. All the theoretical findings are confirmed by numerical experiments.     

Dielectric Properties Investigation of Metal–Insulator–Metal (MIM) Capacitors

This study presents the construction and dielectric properties investigation of atomic-layer-deposition Al₂O₃/TiO₂/HfO₂ dielectric-film-based metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors. The influence of the dielectric layer material and thickness on the performance of MIM capacitors are also systematically investigated. The morphology and surface roughness of dielectric films for different materials and thicknesses are analyzed via atomic force microscopy (AFM). Among them, the 25 nm Al₂O₃-based dielectric capacitor exhibits superior comprehensive electrical performance, including a high capacitance density of 7.89 fF·µm⁻², desirable breakdown voltage and leakage current of about 12 V and 1.4 × 10⁻¹⁰ A·cm⁻², and quadratic voltage coefficient of 303.6 ppm·V⁻². Simultaneously, the fabricated capacitor indicates desirable stability in terms of frequency and bias voltage (at 1 MHz), with the corresponding slight capacitance density variation of about 0.52 fF·µm⁻² and 0.25 fF·µm⁻². Furthermore, the mechanism of the variation in capacitance density and leakage current might be attributed to the Poole–Frenkel emission and charge-trapping effect of the high-k materials. All these results indicate potential applications in integrated passive devices.     

Repurposing of intestinal defensins as multi-target,dual-function amyloid inhibitors via cross-seeding

Amyloid formation and microbial infection are the two common pathological causes of neurogenerative diseases, including Alzheimer''s disease (AD), type II diabetes (T2D), and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). While significant efforts have been made to develop different prevention strategies and preclinical hits for these diseases, conventional design strategies of amyloid inhibitors are mostly limited to either a single prevention mechanism (amyloid cascade vs. microbial infection) or a single amyloid protein (Aβ, hIAPP, or hCT), which has prevented the launch of any successful drug on the market. Here, we propose and demonstrate a new “anti-amyloid and anti-bacteria” strategy to repurpose two intestinal defensins, human α-defensin 6 (HD-6) and human β-defensin 1 (HBD-1), as multiple-target, dual-function, amyloid inhibitors. Both HD-6 and HBD-1 can cross-seed with three amyloid peptides, Aβ (associated with AD), hIAPP (associated with T2D), and hCT (associated with MTC), to prevent their aggregation towards amyloid fibrils from monomers and oligomers, rescue SH-SY5Y and RIN-m5F cells from amyloid-induced cytotoxicity, and retain their original antimicrobial activity against four common bacterial strains at sub-stoichiometric concentrations. Such sequence-independent anti-amyloid and anti-bacterial functions of intestinal defensins mainly stem from their cross-interactions with amyloid proteins through amyloid-like mimicry of β-sheet associations. In a broader view, this work provides a new out-of-the-box thinking to search and repurpose a huge source of antimicrobial peptides as amyloid inhibitors, allowing the blocking of the two interlinked pathological pathways and bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and intestines via the gut–brain axis associated with neurodegenerative diseases.

Amyloid formation and microbial infection are the two common pathological causes of neurogenerative diseases. Here, we proposed a new “anti-amyloid and anti-bacteria” strategy to repurpose two intestinal defensins as multiple-target, dual-function amyloid inhibitors.     

Improved Stretchable and Sensitive Fe Nanowire-Based Strain Sensor by Optimizing Areal Density of Nanowire Network

Flexible strain sensors, when considering high sensitivity and a large strain range, have become a key requirement for current robotic applications. However, it is still a thorny issue to take both factors into consideration at the same time. Here, we report a sandwich-structured strain sensor based on Fe nanowires (Fe NWs) that has a high GF (37–53) while taking into account a large strain range (15–57.5%), low hysteresis (2.45%), stability, and low cost with an areal density of Fe NWs of 4.4 mg/cm². Additionally, the relationship between the contact point of the conductive network, the output resistance, and the areal density of the sensing unit is analyzed. Microscopically, the contact points of the conductive network directly affect the sensor output resistance distribution, thereby affecting the gauge factor (GF) of the sensor. Macroscopically, the areal density and the output resistivity of the strain sensor have the opposite percolation theory, which affects its linearity performance. At the same time, there is a positive correlation between the areal density and the contact point: when the stretching amount is constant, it theoretically shows that the areal density affects the GF. When the areal density reaches this percolation threshold range, the sensing performance is the best. This will lay the foundation for rapid applications in wearable robots.     

Designing a deep-UV nonlinear optical monofluorophosphate

As structural variants of famous hexagonal tungsten bronzes, hexagonal tungsten oxides(HTO) represent an important family with fascinating functional properties, such as piezoelectric, ferroelectric, pyroelectric, and nonlinear optical(NLO) properties.However, none of them are transparent in the deep-UV spectral region, which limits their applications. Herein, we report the first HTO-type monofluorophosphate K₃Sc₃(PO₄)(PO₃F)₂F₅(I)...