Spectroscopic Observation of the Hydroxy Position in Butanol Hydrates and Its Effect on Hydrate Stability

In this study, we investigate the crystal structures and phase equilibria of butanols+CH₄+H₂O systems to reveal the hydroxy group positioning and its effects on hydrate stability. Four clathrate hydrates formed by structural butanol isomers are identified with powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD). In addition, Raman spectroscopy is used to analyze the guest distributions and inclusion behaviors of large alcohol molecules in these hydrate systems. The existence of a free OH indicates that guest molecules can be captured in the large cages of structure II hydrates without any hydrogen‐bonding interactions between the hydroxy group of the guests and the water‐host framework. However, Raman spectra of the binary (1‐butanol+CH₄) hydrate do not show the free OH signal, indicating that there could be possible hydrogen‐bonding interactions between the guests and hosts. We also measure the four‐phase equilibrium conditions of the butanols+CH₄+H₂O systems.     

Fabrication of Nb2O5/C nanocomposites as a high performance anode for lithium ion battery

Nb₂O₅/C nanosheets are successfully prepared through a mixing process and followed by heating treatment.Such Nb₂O₅/C based electrode exhibits high rate performance and remarkable cycling ability, showing a high and stable specific capacity of ~380 mAh g^-1 at the current density of 50 mA g^-1(much higher than the theoretical capacity of Nb₂O₅).Further more,at a current density of 500 mA g^-1,the nanocomposites electrode still exhibits a specific capacity of above 150 mAh g^-1 after 100 cycles.These results suggest the Nb₂O₅/C nanocomposite is a high performance anode material for lithium-ion batteries.     

An inverse backward problem for degenerate parabolic equations

This work studies the inverse problem of reconstructing an initial value function in the degenerate parabolic equation using the final measurement data. Problems of this type have important applications in the field of financial engineering. Being different from other inverse backward parabolic problems, the mathematical model in our article may be allowed to degenerate at some part of boundaries, which may lead to the corresponding boundary conditions missing. The conditional stability of the solution is obtained using the logarithmic convexity method. A finite difference scheme is constructed to solve the direct problem and the corresponding stability and convergence are proved. The Landweber iteration algorithm is applied to the inverse problem and some typical numerical experiments are also performed in the paper. The numerical results show that the proposed method is stable and the unknown initial value is recovered very well.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 1900–1923, 2017     

自紧身管临界裂纹尺寸的概率断裂力学研究

基于概率断裂力学理论和Mome Caflo模拟方法，本文进行了自紧身管临界裂纹尺寸的可靠性研究。自紧身管内表面的疲劳裂纹考虑为半椭圆形式。裂纹尖端处的应力强度因子由内压和自紧残余应力共同产生。自紧残余应力采用了符合身管材料具有强化和包辛格效应性能推导的公式计算，它产生的应力强度因子通过权函数方法得到。根据断裂准则，可计算出自紧身管的临界裂纹尺寸。实例分析表明，对数正态分布为临界裂纹尺寸的最佳分布，同时给出了在各种置信度和可靠度下自紧身管的临界裂纹尺寸。     

Antioxidant encapsulated porous poly(lactide-co-glycolide) microparticles for developing long acting inhalation system

The purpose of this study was to fabricate porous poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microparticles for efficient pulmonary deposition and increased therapeutic duration of the antioxidant anthocyanin (ATH). These microparticles were prepared by a water-in-oil-in-water (W(1)/O/W(2)) multi-emulsion method with vaporizing ammonium bicarbonate (AB) as a porogen and starch as a viscous additive. High porosity achieved by the decomposition reaction of AB to the base of ammonia, carbon dioxide, and water vapor at 50°C enabled efficient deposition of ATH throughout the entire lung in BALB/c mice. In addition, the porous microparticles incorporating starch showed sustained ATH release characteristics (up to 5 days) and protracted antioxidant activity (up to 5 days) for 2,2-diphenyl-1-pikryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, which was comparable to that of the porous microparticles without starch which completely released ATH in 2h. Furthermore, these porous microparticles incorporating starch led to longer ATH residence (up to 20 days) in in vivo lung epithelium. We believe that this system has great pharmaceutical potential as a long-acting antioxidant for continuously relieving oxidative stress in pulmonary diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).     

Vortex-assisted tryptic digestion

The effect of vortex‐induced vibration during tryptic digestion was investigated by applying different vibrational speeds (0, 600, 1200, or 2500 rpm) to digestion solutions for varying durations (10, 20, 30, 40, or 60 min) at two different incubation temperatures (25°C or 37°C). The most rapid digestion was observed with the highest vibrational speed and temperature. With the application of 2500 rpm at 37°C, the tryptic digestion of each of three standard proteins (cytochrome c, myoglobin, or bovine serum albumin) provided complete disappearance of the protein within 60 min, as determined by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. Compared to conventional overnight digestion, 60‐min vortex‐assisted tryptic digestion generated longer peptides, due primarily to the limited digestion time and provided better sequence coverages (89% vs. 78% for cytochrome c, 100% vs. 87% for myoglobin, and 38% vs. 26% for BSA). The longer peptides should be advantageous to analytical methods such as the middle‐down approach that benefit from increased sequence coverage of proteins. Vortex‐assisted tryptic digestion is expected to be a useful method for rapid tryptic digestion of proteins. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.