Rapid Identification for the Pterocarpus Bracelet by Three-Step Infrared Spectrum Method

In order to explore a rapid identification method for the anti-counterfeit of commercial high value collections, a three-step infrared spectrum method was used for the pterocarpus collection identification to confirm whether a commercial pterocarpus bracelet (PB) was made from the precious species of Pterocarpus santalinus (P. santalinus). In the first step, undertaken by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectrum, the absorption peaks intensity of PB was slightly higher than that of P. santalinus only at 1594 cm⁻¹, 1205 cm⁻¹, 1155 cm⁻¹ and 836 cm⁻¹. In the next step of second derivative IR spectra (SDIR), the FTIR features of the tested samples were further amplified, and the peaks at 1600 cm⁻¹, 1171 cm⁻¹ and 1152 cm⁻¹ become clearly defined in PB. Finally, by means of two-dimensional correlation infrared (2DIR) spectrum, it revealed that the response of holocellulose to thermal perturbation was stronger in P. santalinus than that in PB mainly at 977 cm⁻¹, 1008 cm⁻¹, 1100 cm⁻¹, 1057 cm⁻¹, 1190 cm⁻¹ and 1214 cm⁻¹, while the aromatic functional groups of PB were much more sensitive to the thermal perturbation than those of P. santalinus mainly at 1456 cm⁻¹, 1467 cm⁻¹, 1518 cm⁻¹, 1558 cm⁻¹, 1576 cm⁻¹ and 1605 cm⁻¹. In addition, fluorescence microscopy was used to verify the effectiveness of the above method for wood identification and the results showed good consistency. This study demonstrated that the three-step IR method could provide a rapid and effective way for the anti-counterfeit of pterocarpus collections.     

EGFAFS: A Novel Feature Selection Algorithm Based on Explosion Gravitation Field Algorithm

Feature selection (FS) is a vital step in data mining and machine learning, especially for analyzing the data in high-dimensional feature space. Gene expression data usually consist of a few samples characterized by high-dimensional feature space. As a result, they are not suitable to be processed by simple methods, such as the filter-based method. In this study, we propose a novel feature selection algorithm based on the Explosion Gravitation Field Algorithm, called EGFAFS. To reduce the dimensions of the feature space to acceptable dimensions, we constructed a recommended feature pool by a series of Random Forests based on the Gini index. Furthermore, by paying more attention to the features in the recommended feature pool, we can find the best subset more efficiently. To verify the performance of EGFAFS for FS, we tested EGFAFS on eight gene expression datasets compared with four heuristic-based FS methods (GA, PSO, SA, and DE) and four other FS methods (Boruta, HSICLasso, DNN-FS, and EGSG). The results show that EGFAFS has better performance for FS on gene expression data in terms of evaluation metrics, having more than the other eight FS algorithms. The genes selected by EGFAGS play an essential role in the differential co-expression network and some biological functions further demonstrate the success of EGFAFS for solving FS problems on gene expression data.     

Preparation of Silica Aerogel/Resin Composites and Their Application in Dental Restorative Materials

As the most advanced aerogel material, silica aerogel has had transformative industrial impacts. However, the use of silica aerogel is currently limited to the field of thermal insulation materials, so it is urgent to expand its application into other fields. In this work, silica aerogel/resin composites were successfully prepared by combining silica aerogel with a resin matrix for dental restoration. The applications of this material in the field of dental restoration, as well as its performance, are discussed in depth. It was demonstrated that, when the ratio of the resin matrix Bis-GMA to TEGDMA was 1:1, and the content of silica aerogel with 50 μm particle size was 12.5%, the composite achieved excellent mechanical properties. The flexural strength of the silica aerogel/resin composite reached 62.9546 MPa, which was more than five times that of the pure resin. Due to the presence of the silica aerogel, the composite also demonstrated outstanding antibacterial capabilities, meeting the demand for antimicrobial properties in dental materials. This work successfully investigated the prospect of using commercially available silica aerogels in dental restorative materials; we provide an easy method for using silica aerogels as dental restorative materials, as well as a reference for their application in the field of biomedical materials.     

Effects of Organic Acids on the Release of Fruity Esters in Water: An Insight at the Molecular Level

It is well known that organic acids (OAs) could affect the flavour of fruit juices and beverages. However, the molecular mechanism of aroma release is still unclear. In this study, the effects of citric acid (CA), L-(-)-malic acid (MA) and L-lactic acid (LA) on the release of six selected esters and their sensory perception were investigated by means of HS-GC-MS analyses and odour detection threshold determination, respectively. Meanwhile, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation was employed to explore the interaction modes between esters and OAs. HS-GC-MS analyses showed that the concentration and the type of OAs regulated the release of esters. The results were basically consistent with the detection threshold change of those esters. The DFT calculation suggested that the main intermolecular interaction was hydrogen bonds, and several esters could form a ternary ring structure with OAs through hydrogen bonds. The interactions can induce the different release behaviours of esters in OAs water solution. The number of carboxyl functional groups in OAs and the spatial conformation of esters appeared to influence the magnitude of the interaction. The above results demonstrated the mechanism of OAs affecting the release of esters and indicated a possible flavour control way by using different OAs and OA concentrations.     

Palladium‐catalyzed selective decarboxylative coupling reaction versus direct C―H arylation for arylation of heteroaromatics

Conditions for selective palladium‐catalyzed decarboxylative 2‐arylation of 3‐substituted thiophene and furan derivatives bearing an ester at C2 position have been established. By using 2 mol% phosphine‐free Pd(OAc)₂ as the catalyst and a mixture of KOH and K₂CO₃ as the bases, in dimethylacetamide, moderate to good yields of the desired 2‐arylated products were obtained. A range of functional groups such as nitrile, nitro, formyl or acetyl on the aryl bromides was tolerated. This method allows us to employ in some cases more convenient reactants in terms of cost or physical properties (boiling point) for arylations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Highly efficient toughening effect of ultrafine full-vulcanized powdered rubber on poly(lactic acid)(PLA)

A unique ultrafine full-vulcanized powdered ethyl acrylate rubber (EA-UFPR) was used as the toughening modifier for poly (lactic acid) (PLA). Largely improved tensile toughness was successfully achieved with the incorporation of only 1 wt% EA-UFPR, while the tensile strength and modulus of the blends were almost the same as pure PLA. The highly efficient toughening of PLA by UFPR is mainly ascribed to the strong interfacial interaction between PLA and UFPR and good dispersion of UFPR particles in PLA matrix. Our work provides an effective toughening method to largely improve the mechanical properties of PLA without sacrificing its stiffness, which is very important for the wide application of PLA materials.     

Manipulation of atom-to-molecule conversion in a magnetic lattice

Atom-to-molecule conversion by the technique of optical Feshbach resonance in a magnetic lattice is studied in the mean-field approximation. For the case of a shallow lattice, we give the dependence of the atomto-molecule conversion efficiency on tunnelling strength and atomic interaction by taking a double-well as an example. We find that one can obtain a high atom-to-molecule conversion by tuning the tunnelling and interaction strengths of the system. For the case of a deep lattice, we show that the existence of the lattice can improve the atom-to-molecule conversion for certain initial states.     

Synthesis of mikto‐topology star polymer containing one cyclic arm

Well‐defined mikto‐topology star polystyrene composed of one cyclic arm and four linear arms was synthesized by a combination of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and Cu‐catalyzed azide‐alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction. First, the bromine‐alkyne α,ω‐linear polystyrenes containing four hydroxyl groups protected with acetone‐based ketal groups were synthesized by ATRP of styrene using a designed initiator. Then, the bromine end‐group was converted to the azide and the linear polystyrene was cyclized intra‐molecularly by the CuAAC reaction. The four hydroxyl groups were released by deprotection and then esterified with 2‐bromoisobutyryl bromide to produce a cyclic polymer bearing four ATRP initiating units. By subsequent ATRP of styrene to grow linear polymers with the cyclic polystyrene as a macroinitiator, the mikto‐topology star polymers were prepared. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Recent advances in theoretical models of respiratory mechanics

As an important branch of biomedical engineering, respiratory mechanics helps to understand the physiology of the respiratory system and provides fundamental data for developing such clinical technologies as ventilators. To solve different clinical problems, researchers have developed numerous models at various scales that describe biological and mechanical properties of the respiratory system. During the past decade, benefiting from the continuous accumulation of clinical data and the dramatic progress of biomedical technologies (e.g. biomedical imaging), the theoretical modeling of respiratory mechanics has made remarkable progress regarding the macroscopic properties of the respiratory process, complexities of the respiratory system, gas exchange within the lungs, and the coupling interaction between lung and heart. The present paper reviews the advances in the above fields and proposes potential future projects.     

On the statistical mechanics of the traveling salesman problem

We consider the statistical mechanics of the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and develop some representations to study it. In one representation the mean field theory has a simple form and brings out some of the essential features of the problem. It shows that the system has spontaneous symmetry breaking at any nonzero temperature. In general the phase progressively changes as one decreases the temperature. At low temperatures the mean field theory solution is very sensitive to any small perturbations, due to the divergence of some local susceptibilities. This critical region extends down to zero temperature. We perform the quenched average for a nonmetric TSP in the second representation and the resulting problem is more complicated than the infinite-range spin-glass problem, suggesting that the free energy landscape may be more complex. The role played by frustration in this problem appears explicitly through the localization property of a random matrix, which resembles the tight binding matrix of an electron in a random lattice.