Characterization of polyethylene glycol-modified proteins by semi-aqueous capillary electrophoresis

A new program to characterize polyethylene glycol-modified (PEGylated) proteins is outlined using capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). PEGylated ribonuclease A and lysozyme were selected as examples. Five separation procedures were compared to select out the mixed buffer of acetonitrile-water (1:1, v/v) at pH 2.5 as the best to characterize the PEGylated proteins without sample pretreatment. Polyethylene oxide (PEO) with a high molecular mass of 8 x 10(6) was applied to rinse the capillary to form a dynamic coating which would decrease the undesirable proteins adsorbed to the inner wall of the silica. The electroosmotic flow (EOF) mobility of the five procedures was determined, respectively. It is found that acetonitrile is mainly responsible for the good resolution of PEGylated proteins with the help of PEO coating in the semi-aqueous system. The low EOF mobility and current in the semi-aqueous system might also have some responsibility for the high resolution. The semi-aqueous procedure described in this paper also demonstrates higher resolution of natural proteins than aqueous ones.     

14‐Membered Cyclopeptides from Paliurus ramosissimus and P. hemsleyanus

Six 14‐membered cyclopeptide alkaloids, i.e., ramosines A–C, mucronine J, and lotusines A and D, were isolated from the roots of Paliurus ramosissimus, and an additional four, hemsines A–D, from the roots of P. hemsleyanus. Among these, ramosines A–C ( 1, 5 , and 6 , resp.) and hemsines A and B ( 7 and 8 , resp.) are new bases of the amphibine‐B type, and hemsines C and D ( 9 and 10 , resp.) are new integerrine‐type alkaloids. Additionally, ramosine C ( 6 ) represents the first 14‐membered cyclopeptide alkaloid possessing a substitution (? OH) at C(13′). Their structural elucidations were based on spectral analysis and molecular‐modeling studies. Pronounced solvent effects in the ¹H‐ and ¹³C‐NMR spectra of these two types of alkaloids were observed.     

Decreasing the detection limits to ppq levels for high purity silicon analysis by instrumental neutron activation analysis with kilogram sampling weight

The amount of silicon sample used in instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) is generally less than twenty grams and the detection limits are in the range of ppb to ppt. The detection limits can be decreased further in several ways. Increasing neutron flux density, extending irradiation period and/or using more effective detector can improve the detection limits to some extent. Increasing sample weight, however, is a more feasible way to decrease the detection limits by a factor of hundreds with no new investment in existing irradiation/counting systems. In this work, two 8-inch high-purity silicon samples were analyzed by INAA to evaluate the validity and limitations of this concept in respect to neutron flux inhomogeneity, neutron shielding and -ray counting efficiency.     

激光诱导击穿光谱(LIBS)技术在低碳钢铁冶金行业的应用

激光诱导击穿光谱技术(Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy,简称LIBS)是一种基于激光等离子体的发射光谱技术,具有样品制备简单,分析迅速,多元素同时分析,现场在线和远程分析等独特优势,已在钢铁冶金领域取得了越来越广泛的应用与发展。综述了近年来LIBS技术在钢铁冶金领域的应用研究进展,从冶金生产的全流程进行介绍,包括矿石、熔融钢水/铁水、钢铁产品及炉渣和废气分析。同时,还总结了LIBS技术在钢铁冶金领域应用的优点和缺点,并对该技术的应用前景及未来发展方向进行展望。     

粉末压片-X荧光光谱法测定过磷酸钙中硫含量

硫是过磷酸钙中重要营养指标之一,为准确快速测定过磷酸钙中硫的含量,试验采用粉末压片-X荧光光谱法,将过磷酸钙试样充分干燥后研磨至粒度小于74 μm,采用硼酸镶边,在压力18 Mpa条件下保压30 s,制成样片。通过在过磷酸钙样品中添加不同质量的纯物质硫酸钙（质量分数范围1.52 %～17.21 %）,经过专用混匀设备混合均匀后,与试样压片相同条件下压制标准样片,作为过磷酸钙中硫的标准样品,建立硫标准曲线,曲线线性相关系数R2为0.9995,采用经验系数法校正干扰,建立了粉末压片-波长色散X射线荧光光谱法测定过磷酸钙中硫含量的方法, 方法检出限为0.002 %。对3个不同硫含量的过磷酸钙样品采用本实验方法重复测量7次,RSD在1.4 %~3.1 %,方法精密度性好,同时用高温燃烧红外光谱法和电感耦合等离子发射光谱法对比,三者测量结果相对极差小于2.0 %,测量结果无显著性差异。此方法不需要对样品进行熔融或溶解,样品制备简单,数据准确度和稳定性好,分析效率高,适合大批量样品中硫的测定。     

Hamiltonian Systems and Darboux Transformation Associated with a 3 × 3 Matrix Spectral Problem

Starting from a 3 × 3 matrix spectral problem, we derive a hierarchy of nonlinear equations. It is shown that the hierarchy possesses bi-Hamiltonian structure. Under the symmetry constraints between the potentials and the eigenfunctions, Lax pair and adjoint Lax pairs including partial part and temporal part are nonlinearied into two finitedimensional Hamiltonian systems (FDHS) in Liouville sense. Moreover, an explicit N-fold Darboux transformation for CDNS equation is constructed with the help of a gauge transformation of the spectral problem.     

KEADA: Identifying Key Classes in Software Systems Using Dynamic Analysis and Entropy-Based Metrics

Software maintenance is indispensable in the software development process. Developers need to spend a lot of time and energy to understand the software when maintaining the software, which increases the difficulty of software maintenance. It is a feasible method to understand the software through the key classes of the software. Identifying the key classes of the software can help developers understand the software more quickly. Existing techniques on key class identification mainly use static analysis techniques to extract software structure information. Such structure information may contain redundant relationships that may not exist when the software runs and ignores the actual interaction times between classes. In this paper, we propose an approach based on dynamic analysis and entropy-based metrics to identify key classes in the Java GUI software system, called KEADA (identifying KEy clAsses based on Dynamic Analysis and entropy-based metrics). First, KEADA extracts software structure information by recording the calling relationship between classes during the software running process; such structure information takes into account the actual interaction of classes. Second, KEADA represents the structure information as a weighted directed network and further calculates the importance of each node using an entropy-based metric OSE (One-order Structural Entropy). Third, KEADA ranks classes in descending order according to their OSE values and selects a small number of classes as the key class candidates. In order to verify the effectiveness of our approach, we conducted experiments on three Java GUI software systems and compared them with seven state-of-the-art approaches. We used the Friedman test to evaluate all approaches, and the results demonstrate that our approach performs best in all software systems.     

PTC: Full and Drift Particle Orbit Tracing Code for α Particles in Tokamak Plasmas

Fusion born α particle confinement is one of the most important issues in burning plasmas,such as ITER and CFETR.However,it is extremely complex due to the nonequilibrium characteristics,and multiple temporal and spatial scales coupling with background plasma.A numerical code using particle orbit tracing method(PTC)has been developed to study energetic particle confinement in tokamak plasmas.Both full orbit and drift orbit solvers are implemented to analyze the Larmor radius effects on α particle confinement.The elastic collisions between alpha particles and thermal plasma are calculated by a Monte Carlo method.A triangle mesh in poloidal section is generated for electromagnetic fields expression.Benchmark between PTC and ORBIT has been accomplished for verification.For CFETR burning plasmas,PTC code is used for α particle source and slowing down process calculation in 2D equilibrium.In future work,3D field like toroidal field ripples,Alfven and magnetohydrodynamics instabilities perturbation inducing α particle transport will be analyzed.     

Hepatoprotective Activity of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. Seedpod Extract Attenuated Acetaminophen-Induced Hepatotoxicity

The aim is to investigate the effect of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) seedpod extract (LSE) on acetaminophen (APAP)-induced hepatotoxicity. LSE is rich in polyphenols and has potent antioxidant capacity. APAP is a commonly used analgesic, while APAP overdose is the main reason for drug toxicity in the liver. Until now, there has been no in vitro test of LSE in drug-induced hepatotoxicity responses. LSEs were used to evaluate the effect on APAP-induced cytotoxicity, ROS level, apoptotic rate, and molecule mechanisms. The co-treatment of APAP and LSEs elevated the survival rate and decreased intracellular ROS levels on HepG2 cells. LSEs treatment could significantly reduce APAP-induced HepG2 apoptosis assessed by DAPI and Annexin V/PI. The further molecule mechanisms indicated that LSEs decreased Fas/FasL binding and reduced Bax and tBid to restore mitochondrial structure and subsequently suppress downstream apoptosis cascade activation. These declines in COX-2, NF-κB, and iNOS levels were observed in co-treatment APAP and LSEs, which indicated that LSEs could ameliorate APAP-induced inflammation. LSE protected APAP-induced apoptosis by preventing extrinsic, intrinsic, and JNK-mediated pathways. In addition, the restoration of mitochondria and inflammatory suppression in LSEs treatments indicated that LSEs could decrease oxidative stress induced by toxic APAP. Therefore, LSE could be a novel therapeutic option for an antidote against overdose of APAP.     

Spider Silk-Improved Quartz-Enhanced Conductance Spectroscopy for Medical Mask Humidity Sensing

Spider silk is one of the hottest biomaterials researched currently, due to its excellent mechanical properties. This work reports a novel humidity sensing platform based on a spider silk-modified quartz tuning fork (SSM-QTF). Since spider silk is a kind of natural moisture-sensitive material, it does not demand additional sensitization. Quartz-enhanced conductance spectroscopy (QECS) was combined with the SSM-QTF to access humidity sensing sensitively. The results indicate that the resonance frequency of the SSM-QTF decreased monotonously with the ambient humidity. The detection sensitivity of the proposed SSM-QTF sensor was 12.7 ppm at 1 min. The SSM-QTF sensor showed good linearity of ~0.99. Using this sensor, we successfully measured the humidity of disposable medical masks for different periods of wearing time. The results showed that even a 20 min wearing time can lead to a >70% humidity in the mask enclosed space. It is suggested that a disposable medical mask should be changed <2 h.