Compositions and Biological Activities of Pomegranate Peel Polyphenols Extracted by Different Solvents

Pomegranate peel extract (PPE), which is abundant in polyphenols, holds immerse prospects for the treatment of airway infection. In this study, water and ethanol of 30%, 50%, and 80% were used to prepare PPE. A total of 18 phenols belonging to 8 categories of polyphenols were identified in PPE by HPLC-MS/MS. The PPE from the four extraction solvents possessed different antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities. Principal component analysis revealed that though total flavonoids (TFs), total polyphenols (TPs), and total tannins (TTs) were responsible for the reducing power of PPE, only TFs contributed to the effect of PPE in inhibiting lipid membrane peroxidation. TPs, TTs, and punicalagin were positively correlated with the antibacterial strength against S. aureus while TTs alone contributed to the inhibition of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, implying the crucial role of TT in suppressing bacteria. Meanwhile, TTs was associated with the prevention of IL-6 release. The PPE with higher contents of TPs, TTs, and punicalagin had a weaker capacity to decrease nitric oxide secretion. PPE of 30% ethanol gained the highest integrated score due to its stronger antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities. It is a suitable candidate for the therapy of respiratory tract infection.     

An Exploration of the Effect of the Kleier Model and Carrier-Mediated Theory to Design Phloem-Mobile Pesticides Based on Researching the N-Alkylated Derivatives of Phenazine-1-Carboxylic Acid-Glycine

The Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory are effective for molecularly designing pesticides with phloem mobility. However, the single Kleier model or Carrier-mediated theory cannot achieve a reliable explanation of the phloem mobility of all exogenous substances. A detailed investigation of the two models and the scope of their applications can provide a more accurate and highly efficient basis for the guidance of the design and development of phloem-mobile pesticides. In the present paper, a strategy using active ingredient-amino acid conjugates as mode compounds is developed based on Carrier-mediated theory. An N-alkylated amino acid is used to improve the pesticide’s physicochemical properties following the Kleier model, thus allowing the conjugates to fall on the predicted and more accessible transportation region of phloem. Moreover, the influence of this movement on phloem is inspected by the Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory. To verify this strategy, a series of N-alkylated phenazine-1-carboxylic acid-glycine compounds (PCA-Gly) were designed and synthesized. The results related to the castor bean seeds (R. communis L.) indicated that all the target compounds (4a–4f) had phloem mobility. The capacity for phloem mobility shows that N-alkylated glycine containing small substituents can significantly improve PCA phloem mobility, such as 4c(i-C₃H₇-N) > 4a(CH₃-N) ≈ 4b(C₂H₅-N) > 4d (t-C₄H₉-N) > PCA-Gly > 4e(C₆H₅-N) > 4f(CH₂COOH-N), with an oil–water partition coefficient between 1.2~2.5. In particular, compounds 4a(CH₃-N), 4b(C₂H₅-N), and 4c(i-C₃H₇-N) present better phloem mobility, with the average concentrations in phloem sap of 14.62 μΜ, 13.98 μΜ, and 17.63 μΜ in the first 5 h, which are 8 to 10 times higher than PCA-Gly (1.71 μΜ). The results reveal that the Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory play a guiding role in the design of phloem-mobile pesticides. However, the single Kleier model or Carrier-mediated theory are not entirely accurate. Still, there is a synergism between Carrier-mediated theory and the Kleier model for promoting the phloem transport of exogenous compounds. Therefore, we suggest the introduction of endogenous plant compounds as a promoiety to improve the phloem mobility of pesticides through Carrier-mediated theory. It is necessary to consider the improvement of physicochemical properties according to the Kleier model, which can contribute to a scientific theory for developing phloem-mobile pesticides.     

Cardiac-specific overexpression of Ndufs1 ameliorates cardiac dysfunction after myocardial infarction by alleviating mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis

Myocardial infarction (MI) is the leading cause of premature death among adults. Cardiomyocyte death and dysfunction of the remaining viable cardiomyocytes are the main pathological factors of heart failure after MI. Mitochondrial complexes are emerging as critical mediators for the regulation of cardiomyocyte function. However, the precise roles of mitochondrial complex subunits in heart failure after MI remain unclear. Here, we show that NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase core subunit S1 (Ndufs1) expression is decreased in the hearts of heart failure patients and mice with myocardial infarction. Furthermore, we found that cardiac-specific Ndufs1 overexpression alleviates cardiac dysfunction and myocardial fibrosis in the healing phase of MI. Our results demonstrated that Ndufs1 overexpression alleviates MI/hypoxia-induced ROS production and ROS-related apoptosis. Moreover, upregulation of Ndufs1 expression improved the reduced activity of complex I and impaired mitochondrial respiratory function caused by MI/hypoxia. Given that mitochondrial function and cardiomyocyte apoptosis are closely related to heart failure after MI, the results of this study suggest that targeting Ndufs1 may be a potential therapeutic strategy to improve cardiac function in patients with heart failure.Subject terms: Heart failure, Myocardial infarction, Myocardial infarction     

A high-precision and 10 bit two-step Time-to-Digital Converter for TOF application

A two-step high-precision Time-to-Digital Converter(TDC), integrated with a Single-Photon Avalanche Diode(SPAD), used for Time-Of-Flight(TOF) application, has been developed and tested. Time interval measurement is performed by the coarse counter and fine interpolator, which are utilized to measure the total periods and the residue time of the reference clock, respectively. Following a detail analysis of time precision and clock jitter in the two-step structure, the prototype TDC fabricated in GSMC 1P6M 0.18 μm CMOS Image Sensor(CIS) technology exhibits a Single-Shot Precision(SSP) of 11.415 ps and a dynamic range of 216.7 ns. In addition, a pixel of the chip occupies 100 μm×100 μm, and the measured Integral Nonlinearity(INL) and Differential Nonlinearity(DNL) are better than ±0.88 LSB and ±0.67 LSB, respectively. Meanwhile, the overall power consumption of the chip is 35 mW at 1.8 V power supply. Combined with these characteristics, the designed chip is suitable for TOF-based ranging applications.     

Ta/Ta2O5/Cu结构制备及应用性能研究

介绍了以Ta/Ta₂O₅/Cu为结构的平板MIM电容器的制备方法和性能测试,探究金属Cu直接作为钽电解电容器阴极层的可行性。通过阳极氧化法在钽箔表面制备非晶态的Ta₂O₅薄膜,以化学镀铜、磁控溅射镀铜两种镀铜工艺制备Ta/Ta₂O₅/Cu结构,并对所得结构进行结构表征和性能测试。实验结果表明：不同镀铜方式制备的Ta/Ta₂O₅/Cu结构在电学性能测试过程中都没有表现出电容特性,正负极之间的电阻仅有0.7Ω;以金属Cu直接作为钽电容器的阴极层会导致金属铜在测试过程中被氧化成铜离子从而进入Ta₂O₅介质层中,进而导致Ta₂O₅的击穿,因此金属铜不适合直接作为钽电容的阴极层。     

长期低剂量微波辐照对大鼠血小板的L-精氨酸/NO系统的影响

目的:研究长期低剂量微波对大鼠血小板左旋精氨酸/一氧化氮(L-arginine nitric oxide pathway,L-Arg/NO)系统的影响,为长期暴露于低剂微波下血小板功能的影响提供实验依据.方法:采用峰值功率为5W/cm2的微波辐照健康成年雄性SD大鼠,1小时/天,连续40天,而后检测辐照后大鼠尾部出血时间、血清NO(nitric oxide)含量、血小板源性NO(platelet-derived nitric oxide,PDNO)含量及血小板一氧化氮合酶(nitric oxide synthase,NOS)活性的变化.结果 微波辐照组与对照组相比,尾部出血时间显著缩短(P＜0.01),血清NO含量、PDNO含量及血小板NOS活性均有非常显著的降低(P＜0.01).结论:长期低剂量微波辐照后NO的抗血小板聚集作用减弱,血小板活化与血小板L-Arg/NO系统功能紊乱有关.     

光反馈自混合干涉对称折叠算法的精度分析

为了提高对称折叠算法的精度,通过对仿真信号的测量,分析了影响算法精度的几种因素(光反馈水平因子,外腔的非线性运动,抽样速率和转折点的定位),并且给出了改进方法.仿真结果表明,在测量线宽展宽因子之前,需保证光反馈水平因子的准确测量,利用中间干涉条纹进行测量可以减少外腔非线性运动所带来的误差.这一结论对利用对称折叠算法处理实验信号有一定的帮助.     

GOMSS: A Simple Group Oriented (t,m, n) Multi-secret Sharing Scheme

In most (t,n)-Multi-secret sharing ((t,n)-MSS) schemes, an illegal participant, even without any valid share, may recover secrets when there are over t participants in secret reconstructions. To address this problem, the paper presents the notion of Group ori-ented (t,m,n)-multi-secret sharing (or (t,m,n)-GOMSS), in which recovering each secret requires all m (n ≥ m ≥ t) participants to have valid shares and actually participate in secret reconstruction. As an example, the paper then pro-poses a simple (t,m,n)-GOMSS scheme. In the scheme, every shareholder has only one share; to recover a secret, m shareholders construct a Polynomial-based randomized component (PRC) each with the share to form a tightly coupled group, which forces the secret to be recovered only with all m valid PRCs. As a result, the scheme can thwart the above illegal participant attack. The scheme is simple as well as flexible and does not depend on conventional hard problems or one way functions.     

基于分段Logistic映射的二维耦合映像格子模型的密码学相关特性分析

将分段Logistic映射作为局部混沌映射,引入到二维耦合映像格子模型中,构造了一种具有复杂动力学特性的混沌模型.从密码学应用出发,深入分析了该模型中参数设置对Lyapunov指数、分岔、遍历区间和概率密度分布等特性的影响.分析的结果为将该模型应用于保密通信的参数设置提供了理论依据.在此基础上,通过引入状态值偏移量,解决了该模型状态值概率密度分布不均的问题,研究结果表明本文模型具有良好的性能,为将其应用于混沌保密通信方案设计提供了基础与条件.     

The working mechanism of organic photovoltaic cell by using copper phthalocyanine as exciton blocking layer

We demonstrate the working mechanism of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell with copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) as exciton blocking layer (EBL). The new EBL material CuPc, commonly has been used as electron donor in the organic solar cells due to its electron-donating and hole-transporting properties. But here we proves that the α-polymorph CuPc layer can transfer electrons to Al cathode through the half-filled b_1g level, this mechanism is different from that of general EBL material with larger band gap and electron-transporting property, which is based on damage states induced by the heat of evaporating Al.