A general electron donor–acceptor complex for photoactivation of arenes via thianthrenation

General photoactivation of electron donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes between arylsulfonium salts and 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane with visible light or natural sunlight was discovered. This practical and efficient mode enables the production of aryl radicals under mild conditions, providing an unrealized opportunity for two-step para-selective C–H functionalization of complex arenes. The novel mode for generating aryl radicals via an EDA complex was well supported by UV-vis absorbance measurements, nuclear magnetic resonance titration experiments, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The method was applied to the regio- and stereo-selective arylation of various N-heterocycles under mild conditions, yielding an assembly of challengingly linked heteroaryl–(hetero)aryl products. Remarkably, the meaningful couplings of bioactive molecules with structurally complex drugs or agricultural pharmaceuticals were achieved to display favorable in vitro antitumor activities, which will be of great value in academia or industry.

General photoactivation of EDA complexes between arylsulfonium salts and 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane was discovered. This practical mode enables the generation of aryl radicals for C–H functionalization of arenes.     

Investigation of InxGa1−xAs films grown from thin solution layer

In_xGa_1−xAs films with x⩽0.12 were grown from a thin solution layer between substrates. The calculation of final film thickness as a function of liquid phase composition, based on supposition of film deposition only on the substrate, is in a good agreement with experimental results. The dependences between compositions of liquid and solid phases at 800°, 750° and 700°C were determined. The morphology of the film surface was investigated as a function of liquid phase composition and (100), (111) A, (111) B substrate orientations. Dislocation density increases from 10⁴ cm⁻² to 10⁷ cm⁻² with change of x from 0 to 0.12.     

Why heterogeneous single-atom catalysts preferentially produce CO in the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction

Formate and CO are competing products in the two-electron CO₂ reduction reaction (2e CO₂RR), and they are produced via *OCHO and *COOH intermediates, respectively. However, the factors governing CO/formate selectivity remain elusive, especially for metal–carbon–nitrogen (M–N–C) single-atom catalysts (SACs), most of which produce CO as their main product. Herein, we show computationally that the selectivity of M–N–C SACs is intrinsically associated with the CO₂ adsorption mode by using bismuth (Bi) nanosheets and the Bi–N–C SAC as model catalysts. According to our results, the Bi–N–C SAC exhibits a strong thermodynamic preference toward *OCHO, but under working potentials, CO₂ is preferentially chemisorbed first due to a charge accumulation effect, and subsequent protonation of chemisorbed CO₂ to *COOH is kinetically much more favorable than formation of *OCHO. Consequently, the Bi–N–C SAC preferentially produces CO rather than formate. In contrast, the physisorption preference of CO₂ on Bi nanosheets contributes to high formate selectivity. Remarkably, this CO₂ adsorption-based mechanism also applies to other typical M–N–C SACs. This work not only resolves a long-standing puzzle in M–N–C SACs, but also presents simple, solid criteria (i.e., CO₂ adsorption modes) for indicating CO/formate selectivity, which help strategic development of high-performance CO₂RR catalysts.

This report discloses a nontrivial role of the CO₂ adsorption mode in governing the CO/formate selectivity of single-atom catalysts towards two-electron CO₂ reduction.     

Semi-Supervised Cross-Subject Emotion Recognition Based on Stacked Denoising Autoencoder Architecture Using a Fusion of Multi-Modal Physiological Signals

In recent decades, emotion recognition has received considerable attention. As more enthusiasm has shifted to the physiological pattern, a wide range of elaborate physiological emotion data features come up and are combined with various classifying models to detect one’s emotional states. To circumvent the labor of artificially designing features, we propose to acquire affective and robust representations automatically through the Stacked Denoising Autoencoder (SDA) architecture with unsupervised pre-training, followed by supervised fine-tuning. In this paper, we compare the performances of different features and models through three binary classification tasks based on the Valence-Arousal-Dominance (VAD) affection model. Decision fusion and feature fusion of electroencephalogram (EEG) and peripheral signals are performed on hand-engineered features; data-level fusion is performed on deep-learning methods. It turns out that the fusion data perform better than the two modalities. To take advantage of deep-learning algorithms, we augment the original data and feed it directly into our training model. We use two deep architectures and another generative stacked semi-supervised architecture as references for comparison to test the method’s practical effects. The results reveal that our scheme slightly outperforms the other three deep feature extractors and surpasses the state-of-the-art of hand-engineered features.     

Andrographolide Inhibits Biofilm and Virulence in Listeria monocytogenes as a Quorum-Sensing Inhibitor

Listeria monocytogenes is a major foodborne pathogen that can cause listeriosis in humans and animals. Andrographolide is known as a natural antibiotic and exhibits good antibacterial activity. We aimed to investigate the effect of andrographolide on two quorum-sensing (QS) systems, LuxS/AI-2 and Agr/AIP of L. monocytogenes, as well as QS-controlled phenotypes in this study. Our results showed that neither luxS expression nor AI-2 production was affected by andrographolide. Nevertheless, andrographolide significantly reduced the expression levels of the agr genes and the activity of the agr promoter P₂. Results from the crystal violet staining method, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) demonstrated that andrographolide remarkably inhibited the biofilm-forming ability of L. monocytogenes 10403S. The preformed biofilms were eradicated when exposed to andrographolide, and reduced surviving cells were also observed in treated biofilms. L. monocytogenes treated with andrographolide exhibited decreased ability to secrete LLO and adhere to and invade Caco-2 cells. Therefore, andrographolide is a potential QS inhibitor by targeting the Agr QS system to reduce biofilm formation and virulence of L. monocytogenes.     

Optimization of Ultrasonic-Assisted Extraction of Active Components and Antioxidant Activity from Polygala tenuifolia: A Comparative Study of the Response Surface Methodology and Least Squares Support Vector Machine

Dried roots of Polygala tenuifolia (YuanZhi in Chinese) are widely used in Chinese herbal medicine. These components in YuanZhi have significant anti-oxidation properties owing to high levels of 3,6’-disinapoylsucrose (DISS) and Polygalaxanthone III (PolyIII). In order to efficiently extract natural medicines, response surface methodology (RSM) and least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) were used for the modeling and optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction of DISS and PolyIII together to determine the antioxidant activity of the extracts obtained from YuanZhi. For the optimal combination of the comprehensive yield of DISS and PolyIII (Y), the Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to improve extraction time (X₁), extraction temperature (X₂), liquid–solid ratio (X₃), and ethanol concentration (X₄). The optimal process parameters were determined to be as follows: extraction time, 93 min; liquid–solid ratio, 40 mL/g; extraction temperature, 48 °C; and ethanol concentration, 67%. With these conditions, the predictive optimal combination comprehensive evaluation value is 13.0217. It was clear that the LS-SVM model had higher accuracy in predictive and optimization capabilities, with higher antioxidant activity and lower relative deviations values, than did RSM. Hence, the LS-SVM model proved to be more effective for the analysis and improvement of the extraction process.     

Synthesis of PNIPAAm-g-P4VP Microgel as Draw Agent in Forward Osmosis by RAFT Polymerization and Reverse Suspension Polymerization to Improve Water Flux

Microgels have unique and versatile properties allowing their use in forward osmosis areas as a draw agent. In this contribution, poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) was synthesized via RAFT polymerization and then grafted to a poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) crosslinking network by reverse suspension polymerization. P4VP was successfully obtained by the quasiliving polymerization with the result of nuclear magnetic resonance and gel permeation chromatography characterization. The particle size and particle size distribution of the PNIPAAm-g-P4VP microgels containing 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt% P4VP were measured by means of a laser particle size analyzer. It was found that all the microgels were of micrometer scale and the particle size was increased with the P4VP load. Inter/intra-molecular-specific interactions, i.e., hydrogen bond interactions were then investigated by Fourier infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the water flux measurements showed that all the PNIPAAm-g-P4VP microgels can draw water more effectively than a blank PNIPAAm microgel. For the copolymer microgel incorporating 20 wt% P4VP, the water flux was measured to be 7.48 L∙m⁻²∙h⁻¹.     

A Comprehensive Review of Rosmarinic Acid: From Phytochemistry to Pharmacology and Its New Insight

Polyphenolic acids are the widely occurring natural products in almost each herbal plant, among which rosmarinic acid (RA, C₁₈H₁₆O₈) is well-known, and is present in over 160 species belonging to many families, especially the Lamiaceae. Aside from this herbal ingredient, dozens of its natural derivatives have also been isolated and characterized from many natural plants. In recent years, with the increasing focus on the natural products as alternative treatments, a large number of pharmacological studies have been carried out to demonstrate the various biological activities of RA such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-diabetes, anti-virus, anti-tumor, neuroprotection, hepatoprotection, etc. In addition, investigations concerning its biosynthesis, extraction, analysis, clinical applications, and pharmacokinetics have also been performed. Although many achievements have been made in various research aspects, there still exist some problems or issues to be answered, especially its toxicity and bioavailability. Thus, we hope that in the case of natural products, the present review can not only provide a comprehensive understanding on RA covering its miscellaneous research fields, but also highlight some of the present issues and future perspectives worth investigating later, in order to help us utilize this polyphenolic acid more efficiently, widely, and safely.     

Designable assembly of atomically precise Al4O4 cubane supported mesoporous heterometallic architectures

Heterometallic cluster-based framework materials are of interest in terms of both their porous structures and multi-metallic reactivity. However, such materials have not yet been extensively investigated because of difficulties in their synthesis and structural characterization. Herein, we reported the designable synthesis of atomically precise heterometallic cluster-based framework compounds and their application as catalysts in aldol reactions. By using the synergistic coordination protocol, we successfully isolated a broad range of compounds with the general formula, [Al₄M₄O₄(L)₁₂(DABCO)₂] (L = carboxylates; DABCO = 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]-octane; M²⁺ = Co²⁺, Mn²⁺, Zn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Cd²⁺). The basic heterometallic building blocks contain unprecedented main-group γ-alumina moieties and surrounding unsaturated transition metal centers. Interestingly, the porosity and interpenetration of these frameworks can be rationally regulated through the unprecedented strategy of increment of the metal radius in addition to general introduction of sterically bulky groups on the ligand. Furthermore, these porous materials are effective catalysts for aldol reactions. This work provides a catalytic molecular model platform with accurate molecular bonding between the supporters and catalytically active metal ions.

Mesoporous heterometallic architectures are designed by the incorporation of the Al₄O₄ cubane and interpenetration regulation.