Nonenzymatic Electrochemical Sensor for Wearable Interstitial Fluid Glucose Monitoring

We report on a nonenzymatic electrochemical sensor for wearable glucose monitoring in interstitial fluid. The sensor exhibited acceptable selectivity and reliability for continuous glucose detection for up to 30 days. The sensor tip is coated with polyurethane, and the biocompatibility of the tip is investigated by tissue staining. A fully integrated wearable glucose monitoring system is developed with a wireless connection with a smartphone. The test results are in agreement with reference methods. So, we believe the sensor is promising for the development of a continuous glucose monitoring system and diabetes management.     

长庆油田石油磺酸盐中活性组分识别

石油磺酸盐中活性组分的识别对于磺化原料油的选择和磺酸盐产品界面活性的稳定具有重要的指导意义.开展石油磺酸盐关键活性物质结构的确定与活性检测研究,可以提升高品质石油磺酸盐生产的可控性.采用液相色谱制备技术,结合质谱分析和界面张力测试评价,从长庆石油磺酸盐样品中成功分离制备出了具有优异界面活性的关键活性组分.试验结果表明,其活性组分占总石油磺酸盐含量的7.3%,可以将油水界面张力快速降至超低(<1.0×10^(-3) mN/m),且具有广泛的油相普适性,对于正己烷~正十六烷油相以及多种油田来源原油,均可将油水界面张力降至超低.此外,活性组分以单磺酸盐为主,平均相对分子质量为414(不含Na^(+)),相对分子质量分布范围在380~450之间,主要组成是以多种同分异构体结构形式存在的十七烷基苯磺酸盐和十八烷基苯磺酸盐混合物.     

Kinetics and Mechanism of Catalytic Reduction of U(VI) with Hydrazine on Platinum Catalysts in Nitric Acid Media

The kinetics of U(IV) produced by hydrazine reduction of U(VI) with platinum as a catalyst in nitric acid media was studied to reveal the reaction mechanism and optimize the reaction process. Electron spin resonance (ESR) was used to determine the influence of nitric acid oxidation. The effects of nitric acid, hydrazine, U(VI) concentration, catalyst dosage and temperature on the reaction rate were also studied. In addition, the simulation of the reaction process was performed using density functional theory. The results show that the influence of oxidation on the main reaction is limited when the concentration of nitric acid is below 0.5 mol/L. The reaction kinetics equation below the concentration of 0.5 mol/L is found as: -dc(UO₂²⁺)/dt)=kc^0.5323(UO₂²⁺)c^0.2074(N₂H₅⁺)c^-0.2009(H⁺). When the temperature is 50 ℃, and the solid/liquid ratio r is 0.0667 g/mL, the reaction kinetics constant is k=0.00199 (mol/L)^0.4712/min. Between 20 ℃ and 80 ℃, the reaction rate gradually increases with the increase of temperature, and changes from chemically controlled to diffusion-controlled. The simulations of density functional theory give further insight into the influence of various factors on the reaction process, with which the reaction mechanisms are determined according to the reaction kinetics and the simulation results.     

Reduction of Dimerization Tendency Due to the Decrease in Hybridization Index by Inclusion of 4s and 4p Semicore States as Valence States in Mon (n=2-18) Clusters: A First-Principles Study

Owing to the unique structural, electronic, and physico-chemical properties, molybdenum clusters are expected to play an important role in future nanotechnologies. However, their ground states are still under debate. In this study, the crystal structure analysis by particle swarm optimization (CALYPSO) approach is used for the global minimum search, which is followed by first-principles calculations, to detect an obvious dimerization tendency in Mo\begin{document}$ _n $\end{document} (\begin{document}$ n $\end{document} = 2\begin{document}$ - $\end{document}18) clusters when the 4s and 4p semicore states are not regarded as the valence states. Further, the clusters with even number of atoms are usually magic clusters with high stability. However, after including the 4s and 4p electrons as valence electrons, the dimerization tendency exhibits a drastic reduction because the average hybridization indices \begin{document}$ H_{ \rm{sp}} $\end{document}, \begin{document}$ H_{ \rm{sd}} $\end{document}, and \begin{document}$ H_{ \rm{pd}} $\end{document} are reduced significantly. Overall, this work reports new ground states of Mo\begin{document}$ _n $\end{document} (\begin{document}$ n $\end{document} = 11, 14, 15) clusters and proves that semicore states are essential for Mo\begin{document}$ _n $\end{document}     

Chemical Analyses and Antimicrobial Activity of Nine Kinds of Unifloral Chinese Honeys Compared to Manuka Honey (12+ and 20+)

Honey has good antimicrobial properties and can be used for medical treatment. The antimicrobial properties of unifloral honey varieties are different. In this study, we evaluated the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of nine kinds of Chinese monofloral honeys. In addition, headspace gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) technology was used to detect their volatile components. The relevant results are as follows: 1. The agar diffusion test showed that the diameter of inhibition zone against Staphylococcus aureus of Fennel honey (21.50 ± 0.41 mm), Agastache honey (20.74 ± 0.37 mm), and Pomegranate honey (18.16 ± 0.11 mm) was larger than that of Manuka 12+ honey (14.27 ± 0.10 mm) and Manuka 20+ honey (16.52 ± 0.12 mm). The antimicrobial activity of Chinese honey depends on hydrogen peroxide. 2. The total antioxidant capacity of Fennel honey, Agastache honey, and Pomegranate honey was higher than that of other Chinese honeys. There was a significant positive correlation between the total antioxidant capacity and the total phenol content of Chinese honey (r = 0.958). The correlation coefficient between the chroma value of Chinese honey and the total antioxidant and the diameter of inhibition zone was 0.940 and 0.746, respectively. The analyzed dark honeys had better antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. 3. There were significant differences in volatile components among Fennel honey, Agastache honey, Pomegranate honey, and Manuka honey. Hexanal-D and Heptanol were the characteristic components of Fennel honey and Pomegranate honey, respectively. Ethyl 2-methylbutyrate and 3-methylpentanoic acids were the unique compounds of Agastache honey. The flavor fingerprints of the honey samples from different plants can be successfully built using HS-GC-IMS and principal component analysis (PCA) based on their volatile compounds. Fennel honey, Agastache honey, and Pomegranate honey are Chinese honey varieties with excellent antimicrobial properties, and have the potential to be developed into medical grade honey.     

Two New Aristolochic Acid Analogues from the Roots of Aristolochia contorta with Significant Cytotoxic Activity

Twelve compounds, including two new aristolochic acid analogues with a formyloxy moiety (9–10) and 10 known aristolochic acid derivates (1–8 and 11–12), were obtained from the roots of Aristolochia contorta. Their structures were elucidated using extensive spectroscopic methods. Their cytotoxic activity in human proximal tubular cells HK-2 was evaluated by the MTT method, which has been widely used to assess cell viability. Among these molecules, compounds 3 and 9 were found to be more cytotoxic. Furthermore, molecular modeling was used to evaluate, for the first time, the interactions of compounds 3 and 9 with the target protein organic anionic transporter 1 (OAT1) that plays a key role in mediating aristolochic acid nephropathy. Structure–activity relationships are briefly discussed.     

Interfacial phase competition induced Kondo-like effect in manganite-insulator composites

A Kondo-like effect, namely, the upturn of resistivity at low temperatures, is observed in perovskite manganite when nonmagnetic insulators are doped as secondary phase. In this paper, the low-temperature resistivity upturn effect has been argued to originate from interfacial magnetic phase reconstruction. Heisenberg spin lattices have been simulated using the Monte Carlo method to reveal phase competition around secondary phase boundary, namely, manganite-insulator boundary that behaves with a weak antiferromagnetic tendency. Moreover, the resistor network model based on double-exchange conductive mechanism reproduces the low-temperature resistivity upturn effect. Our work provides a reasonable physical mechanism to understand the novel transport behaviors in microstructures of correlated electron systems.     

Experimental realization of one-way quantum computing with two-photon four-qubit cluster states

We report an experimental realization of one-way quantum computing on a two-photon four-qubit cluster state. This is accomplished by developing a two-photon cluster state source entangled both in polarization and spatial modes. With this special source, we implemented a highly efficient Grover's search algorithm and high-fidelity two-qubit quantum gates. Our experiment demonstrates that such cluster states could serve as an ideal source and a building block for rapid and precise optical quantum computation.     

Inelastic x-ray scattering study of exciton properties in an organic molecular crystal

Excitons in a complex organic molecular crystal were studied by inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) for the first time. The dynamic dielectric response function is measured over a large momentum transfer region, from which an exciton dispersion of 130 meV is observed. Semiempirical quantum chemical calculations reproduce well the momentum dependence of the measured dynamic dielectric responses, and thus unambiguously indicate that the lowest Frenkel exciton is confined within a fraction of the complex molecule. Our results demonstrate that IXS is a powerful tool for studying excitons in complex organic molecular systems. Besides the energy position, the IXS spectra provide a stringent test on the validity of the theoretically calculated exciton wave functions.     

Metabolome Analysis of Selective Inactivation of Human Melanoma and Normal Cells by Cold Atmospheric Plasma

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a novel technology which is widely used in the biomedical field and has developed quickly over the past few years,...