Cellulose hydrolysis using zinc chloride as a solvent and catalyst

Cellulose gel with < 10% of crystallinity was prepared by treatment of microcrystalline cellulose, Avicel, with zinc chloride solution at a ratio of zinc chloride to cellulose from 1.5 to 18 (w/w). The presence of zinc ions in the cellulose gels enhanced the rate of hydrolysis and glucose yield. The evidence obtained from X-ray diffraction, iodine absorption experiments; and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectra analysis suggested the presence of zinc-cellulose complex after Avicel was treated with zinc chloride. Zinc-cellulose complex was more susceptible to hydrolysis than amorphous cellulose. Under the experimental condition, cellulose gels with zinc ions were hyrolyzed to glucose with 95% theoretical yield and a concentration of 14% (w/v) by cellulases within 20 h. The same gel was hydrolyzed by acid to glucose with 91.5% yield and a concentration of 13.4% (w/v).     

A zwitterion of 1,5‐bis­(2‐hydroxy­benzamido)‐3‐aza­pentane: a two‐dimensional hydrogen‐bonding network involving dimers

The title compound, 2‐{N‐[2‐(2‐hydroxy­benzamido)ethyl­ammonio­ethyl]amino­carbon­yl}phenolate, C₁₈H₂₁N₃O₄, crystallizes in a zwitterionic form as a result of inter­molecular proton transfer and possesses a negatively charged phenolate group and a protonated amino group. The 2‐hydroxy­benzamide and 2‐(amino­carbonyl)­phenolate moieties attached to the two ends of the C—C—N—C—C backbone adopt a cis conformation in relation to this backbone. All N‐ and O‐bound H atoms are involved in hydrogen‐bond formation; the zwitterions are first linked into head‐to‐tail dimers, which are further organized into a two‐dimensional network parallel to the crystallographic bc plane.     

The molecular mechanism of stabilization of proteins by TMAO and its ability to counteract the effects of urea

Trimethylamine n-oxide (TMAO) is a naturally occurring osmolyte that stabilizes proteins and offsets the destabilizing effects of urea. To investigate the molecular mechanism of these effects, we have studied the thermodynamics of interaction between TMAO and protein functional groups. The solubilities of a homologous series of cyclic dipeptides were measured by differential refractive index and the dissolution heats were determined calorimetrically as a function of TMAO concentration at 25 degrees C. The transfer free energy of the amide unit (-CONH-) from water to 1 M TMAO is large and positive, indicating an unfavorable interaction between the TMAO solution and the amide unit. This unfavorable interaction is enthalpic in origin. The interaction between TMAO and apolar groups is slightly favorable. The transfer free energy of apolar groups from water to TMAO consists of favorable enthalpic and unfavorable entropic contributions. This is in contrast to the contributions for the interaction between urea and apolar groups. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to provide a structural framework for the interpretation of these results. The simulations show enhancement of water structure by TMAO in the form of a slight increase in the number of hydrogen bonds per water molecule, stronger water hydrogen bonds, and long-range spatial ordering of the solvent. These findings suggest that TMAO stabilizes proteins via enhancement of water structure, such that interactions with the amide unit are discouraged.     

IR, MS studies on (+/-)-1-[3-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]-4-[(2,6-dimethylphenyl)aminocarbonylmethyl]piperazine dihydrochloride salt

The vibration spectrum and FAB mass spectrum of (+/-)-1-[3-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]-4-[(2,6-dimethylphenyl)aminocarbonylmethyl]piperazine dihydrochloride salt was studied. By comparing with the spectra of free base, different bands of IR were found in the NH+ stretching, the NH+ deformation motion, the CH2 of NCH2 group symmetric stretching, the CH2 of N-CH2 group twisting and the CN stretching. FAB shows the basic peak is M + H. Other m/e peaks are consistent with the structure.     

Theoretical study of the surface energy and electronic structure of pyrite FeS2 (100) using a total-energy pseudopotential method, CASTEP

The geometric and electronic structures of FeS(2) (100) surface have been studied by a quantum-mechanical calculation using a total-energy pseudopotential code, CASTEP. The (100) surface is very stable and does not give any significant geometric relaxation. The electronic structure of FeS(2) (100) surface is characterized by the appearance of new native surface states in the bulk band gap, which correspond to antibonding mixed Fea-Ssp(3) states. These surface states play an important role as mediators of electron transfer on both anodic and cathodic sites in the incipient oxidation of pyrite. Moreover, the (100) surface has small band gaps and shows some metallic character. It is predicted that the rate of cathodic reductive reaction of O(2) in the incipient oxidation of pyrite is much faster than previously considered. The transport of electrons from the anodic sites to the cathodic sites on the (100) surface is faster and hole injection of anodic sites is not the rate-determining step. So we can deduce that the rate-determining step of incipient oxidation for pyrite consists of both electron transfer of pyrite/aqueous O(2) interface and the splitting of H(2)O.     

Regioselective synthesis of 1,2,3-triazole derivatives via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions in water

Reaction of an arylacetylene with an azide in hot water gave 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles in high yields, while similar reaction between a terminal aliphatic alkyne and an azide (except m-nitroazidobenzene) afforded a mixture of regioisomers with the ratio of 1,4- to 1,5-isomers ranging from 3:1 to 28.6:1. Reactions of m-nitroazidobenzene with either arylalkynes or aliphatic alkynes formed only 1,4-disubstituted derivatives in excellent yields.     

Speckle characteristics of simulated deep Fresnel region under shadowing effect

After the three-dimensional self-affine fractal random surface simulation, we use the optical scattering theory to calculate the deep Fresnel region speckle(DFRS) under consideration of the more strict shadowing effect. The evolution of DFRS with the scattering distance and the intensity probability distribution are studied. It is found that the morphology of the scatterer has an antisymmetric relationship with the intensity distribution of DFRS, and the effect of micro-lenses on the scattering surface causes the intensity probability distribution of DFRS to deviate from the Gaussian speckle in the high light intensity area.     

Picture Fuzzy Threshold Graphs with Application in Medicine Replenishment

In this study, a novel concept of picture fuzzy threshold graph (PFTG) is introduced. It has been shown that PFTGs are free from alternating 4-cycle and it can be constructed by repeatedly adding a dominating or an isolated node. Several properties about PFTGs are discussed and obtained the results that every picture fuzzy graph (PFG) is equivalent to a PFTG under certain conditions. Also, the underlying crisp graph (UCG) of PFTG is a split graph (SG), and conversely, a given SG can be applied to constitute a PFTG. A PFTG can be decomposed in a unique way and it generates three distinct fuzzy threshold graphs (FTGs). Furthermore, two important parameters i.e., picture fuzzy (PF) threshold dimension (TD) and PF partition number (PN) of PFGs are defined. Several properties on TD and PN have also been discussed. Lastly, an application of these developed results are presented in controlling medicine resources.     

Surface Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles as a Selective Sorbent for Affinity Fishing of PPAR-γ Ligands from Choerospondias axillaris

Coronary heart disease (CHD), which has developed into one of the major diseases, was reported to be treated by the target of peroxisome proliferators-activate receptor γ (PPAR-γ). As a natural medicine long used in the treatment of CHD, there are few studies on how to screen the target active compounds with high specific activity from Choerospondias axillaris. To advance the pace of research on target-specific active compounds in natural medicines, we have combined magnetic ligand fishing and functionalized nano-microspheres to investigate the active ingredients of PPAR-γ targets in Choerospondias axillaris. The PPAR-γ functionalized magnetic nano-microspheres have been successfully synthesized and characterized by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The specificity, reusability, and reproducibility of the nano-microspheres were investigated with the help of the specific binding of rosiglitazone to PPAR-γ. In addition, the incubation temperature and the pH of the buffer solution in the magnetic ligand fishing were optimized to improve the specific adsorption efficiency of the analytes. Finally, with the aid of ultraperformance liquid chromatography plus Q-Exactive Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap-MS/MS), the 16 active ligands including 9 organic acids, 5 flavonoids, and 2 phenols were found in the ethanolic extracts of Choerospondias axillaris. Therefore, the study can provide a successful precedent for realizing the designated extraction and rapid isolation of target-specific active ingredient groups in the complex mixtures.     

Quantum-Inspired Complex-Valued Language Models for Aspect-Based Sentiment Classification

Aiming at classifying the polarities over aspects, aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) is a fine-grained task of sentiment analysis. The vector representations of current models are generally constrained to real values. Based on mathematical formulations of quantum theory, quantum language models have drawn increasing attention. Words in such models can be projected as physical particles in quantum systems, and naturally represented by representation-rich complex-valued vectors in a Hilbert Space, rather than real-valued ones. In this paper, the Hilbert Space representation for ABSA models is investigated and the complexification of three strong real-valued baselines are constructed. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of complexification and the outperformance of our complex-valued models, illustrating that the complex-valued embedding can carry additional information beyond the real embedding. Especially, a complex-valued RoBERTa model outperforms or approaches the previous state-of-the-art on three standard benchmarking datasets.