Thermodynamics and dynamics of metallic glass formers: their correlation for the investigation on potential energy landscape

Great progress has been made in basic features of the potential energy landscape (PEL) theoretically. The present work, however, attempts to cast new light on it from experimental aspects. By a survey of experimental data related to thermodynamics or dynamics of metallic glass-forming liquids, it is found that the increased rate of excitation of vibrational entropy at glass transition tends to increase the rate of generation of configurational part. Although for the type of metallic materials a generally positive relationship exists between the density of the energy minima at glass transition and the liquid fragility strength, just as expected, our main attention is paid to the phenomenon of the scattering of the slopes. Analysis shows that the phenomenon results from the different average height of energy barriers between minima near glass transition. Investigation on the PdNiP metallic system indicates that the mismatch entropy is a dominant factor in the barrier height: a large value of it results in low energy barriers. Our previous work on the AlNiCe system gives the support to this finding.     

The glass transition time scale and configurational entropy in polymers: an experimental molecular view

We report direct experimental observation of local conformational dynamics in a polymer chain at the calorimetric glass transition temperature Tg. Variable-temperature two-dimensional (2D) solid-state exchange NMR, at natural abundance, reveals segmental dynamics in pure polyisobutylene (PIB) occurring on a time scale of several seconds over the Tg range observed by DSC (203-208 K). To our knowledge, this is the first direct observation of molecular-level conformer interchange (trans-trans/trans-gauche/gauche-gauche) at the caloric glass transition temperature. Our results provide a chronologically accurate and pedagogically advantageous demonstration of molecular processes during a polymer phase transition, relative to traditional bulk mechanical and calorimetric techniques. More importantly, we use a miscible blend to demonstrate a general strategy for quantitative evaluation of configurational entropy changes via combination of temperature-dependent 2D exchange NMR and Adams-Gibbs theory. Our results on the Tg time scale are directly relevant to fundamental understanding of the Tg length scale, i.e., the dimension of cooperatively rearranging regions.     

基于多尺度一致性与注意力机制的视网膜血管分割网络

针对现有的视网膜血管分割方法存在对微血管和毛细血管的分割能力不足,导致血管断连和末端血管漏分,造成视网膜血管分割性能不佳的问题,本文提出一种基于多尺度一致性与注意力机制的视网膜血管分割网络(multi-scale consistency and attention mechanism U-Net, MCAU-Net)。首先,该网络在瓶颈特征层嵌入注意力细化模块(attention refinement module, ARM),能有效细化瓶颈层冗余的特征,抑制背景等无关像素的权值。其次,将上下文特征融合模块(context fusion module, CFM)与传统的跳跃连接相结合,以此补充在特征提取过程中逐渐丢失的信息,加强网络对微血管和毛细血管的构建能力。最后,基于网络的多尺度输出设计了一种多尺度一致性的训练方式,以增强网络对不同尺度特征的敏感性。在DRIVE和CHASE＿DB1公开数据集上进行的对比实验表明本文网络具有良好的分割性能。     

Recent Advances of Catalytic Enantioselective Heck Reactions and Reductive-Heck Reactions

Heck reaction is one of the most important carbon-carbon bond forming reactions with wide applications in organic synthesis.Considerable advances of enantiosele...     

A Role Based Privacy-Aware Secure Routing Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have drawn much attention for emerging as a promising technology to meet the challenges in next generation networks. Security and privacy protection have been the primary concerns in pushing towards the success of WMNs. There have been a multitude of solutions proposed to ensure the security of the routing protocol and the privacy information in WMNs. However, most of them are based on the assumptions that all nodes cooperate with routing and forwarding packets and the attacks are from outside. In order to defend against the internal attacks and to achieve better security and privacy protection, this paper proposes a role based privacy-aware secure routing protocol (RPASRP), which combines a new dynamic reputation mechanism with the role based multi-level security technology and a hierarchical key management protocol. Simulation results show that RPASRP implements the security and privacy protection against the inside attacks more effectively and efficiently and performs better than the classical hybrid wireless mesh protocol in terms of packet delivery ratio and average route length.     

花朵图像自动提取方法研究

采用改进的主动轮廓模型算法,实现从蝴蝶兰花簇图像中提取单个花朵图像,为自动识别蝴蝶兰的生长状态奠定基础。首先利用改进的骨架算法和轮廓重生算法,生成蝴蝶兰花簇的初始轮廓;然后利用含有形状能量的主动轮廓模型进行轮廓的演化,使其更接近真实的蝴蝶兰花簇边缘,最后根据蝴蝶兰花蕊位置获得相应的蝴蝶兰花朵。实例验证和比对实验结果表明,该模型能够较好的分割和提取蝴蝶兰花簇中单个花朵,并具有较强的抗噪能力。利用该方法,可以较好的提取蝴蝶兰花簇中的单个花朵,与人工提取效果进行比对,正确率达到了91.5%。     

“Click handle”-modified 2′-deoxy-2′-fluoroarabino nucleic acid as a synthetic genetic polymer capable of post-polymerization functionalization

The functions of natural nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA have transcended genetic information carriers and now encompass affinity reagents, molecular catalysts, nanostructures, data storage, and many others. However, the vulnerability of natural nucleic acids to nuclease degradation and the lack of chemical functionality have imposed a significant constraint on their ever-expanding applications. Herein, we report the synthesis and polymerase recognition of a 5-(octa-1,7-diynyl)uracil 2′-deoxy-2′-fluoroarabinonucleic acid (FANA) triphosphate. The DNA-templated, polymerase-mediated primer extension using this “click handle”-modified FANA (cmFANA) triphosphate and other FANA nucleotide triphosphates consisting of canonical nucleobases efficiently generated full-length products. The resulting cmFANA polymers exhibited excellent nuclease resistance and the ability to undergo efficient click conjugation with azide-functionalized molecules, thereby becoming a promising platform for serving as a programmable and evolvable synthetic genetic polymer capable of post-polymerization functionalization.

Polymerase-mediated incorporation of a “click handle”-modified fluoroarabinonucleic acid (cmFANA) triphosphate produces a new class of nuclease-resistant, evolvable genetic polymers that can be functionalized with azide-containing molecules.     

Synthesis and Anti-Neuroinflammatory Activity of 1,7-diphenyl-1,4-heptadien-3-ones in LPS-Stimulated BV2 Microglia Via Inhibiting NF-κB/MAPK Signaling Pathways

A series of 1,7-diphenyl-1,4-heptadien-3-ones with various substituents (HO-, CH₃O-, CH₃-, Cl-) on the phenyl rings were synthesized and evaluated for anti-neuroinflammatory effects in LPS-stimulated BV2 microglia. The pharmacological results showed that the target compounds bearing methoxy groups greatly inhibited LPS-induced NO release, and that the active compounds CU-19 and CU-21 reduced the level of NO, TNF-α, IL-6 and PGE-2, downregulated the expression of COX-2 and iNOS in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. A study of the mechanism of action revealed that CU-19 and CU-21 inhibited the nuclear translocation of NF-κB and phosphorylation of MAPKs (ERK, JNK, and p38). A preliminary pharmacokinetic study in rats revealed that the pharmacokinetic properties of CU-19 and CU-21 were dramatically ameliorated in comparison with the pharmacokinetic properties of curcumin.     

Dynamic Variation of Amino Acid Contents and Identification of Sterols in Xinyang Mao Jian Green Tea

As important biomolecules in Camellia sinensis L., amino acids (AAs) are considered to contribute to the overall green tea sensory quality and undergo dynamic changes during growth. However, limited by analytical capacity, detailed AAs composition in different growth stages remains unclear. To address this question, we analyzed the dynamic changes of 23 AAs during leaf growth in Xinyang Mao Jian (XYMJ) green tea. Using amino acid analyzer, we demonstrated that most AAs are abundant on Pure Brightness Day and Grain Rain Day. After Grain Rain, 23 AAs decreased significantly. Further analysis shows that theanine has a high level on the day before Spring Equinox and Grain Rain, accounting for 44–61% of the total free AAs content in tea leaves. Glu, Pro, and Asp are the second most abundant AAs. Additionally, spinasterol and 22,23-dihydrospinasterol are first purified and identified in ethanol extract of XYMJ by silica gel column chromatography method. This study reveals the relationship between plucking days and the dynamic changes of AAs during the growth stage and proves the rationality of the traditional plucking days of XYMJ green tea.