Lactose as a “Trojan Horse” for Quantum Dot Cell Transport

A series of glycan‐coated quantum dots were prepared to probe the effect of glycan presentation in intracellular localization in HeLa and SV40 epithelial cells. We show that glycan density mostly impacts on cell toxicity, whereas glycan type affects the cell uptake and intracellular localization. Moreover, we show that lactose can act as a “Trojan horse” on bi‐functionalized QDs to help intracellular delivery of other non‐internalizable glycan moieties and largely avoid the endosomal/lysosomal degradative pathway.     

螺桨烷型分子BX[(CH_2)_n]_3和BX(CH_2)[CH(CH_2)_nCH](X=N,P)的结构和性质

采用密度泛函理论(DFT)研究了螺桨烷型分子BX[(CH2)n]3和BX(CH2)[CH(CH2)n CH](X=N,P;n=1-6)的结构、稳定性、化学键和电子光谱性质.计算结果表明这些分子都是稳定的.BX[(CH2)n]3(X=N,P;n=1-6)的最高占据分子轨道(HOMO)和最低空分子轨道(LUMO)之间的能隙均大于5.20 eV,其中BN[CH2]3和BP[CH2]3的能隙超过7.0 eV,与C5H6的能隙(7.27 eV)很接近,BX(CH2)[CH(CH2)n CH](X=N,P;n=1-6)的能隙在6.80 eV左右.所研究分子能量的二阶差分表明BN[(CH2)3]3、BP[(CH2)4]3及BX(CH2)[CH(CH2)2CH](X=N,P)是最稳定的.BX[(CH2)n]3的Wiberg键级表明除了BN[(CH2)n]3(n=2和6)中不存在B―N键,其它化合物中B和N均形成了化学键,BP[(CH2)n]3中除了BP[(CH2)2]3不存在B―P键,其它的均存在.电子密度的拓扑分析表明N―B键属于离子键,而P―B键具有共价键特征.BX[(CH2)n]3(X=N,P)的第一垂直激发能分别在191.1-284.8 nm和191.8-270.1 nm之间,BX(CH2)[CH(CH2)n CH](X=N,P)的第一垂直激发能分别在190.5-199.7 nm和209.0-221.3 nm之间.     

铝合金表面电偶腐蚀与电子功函数的关系

铝合金中经常会引入一些第二相来改善其性能,第二相由于和铝基体的电位差不同,将会对铝合金的局部腐蚀产生重大的影响.为了揭示铝合金腐蚀的物理本质,本文利用基于密度泛函理论第一性原理的计算方法,详细计算了铝合金中一些主要第二相(Al_2Cu、Al_3Ti和Al_7Cu_2Fe)的多种晶面的电子功函数,分析了电子从各个晶面逸出的难易,求得了第二相与Al基体的本征电势差,我们发现不同的晶面暴露在合金最外层,会显著地影响本征电势差;即便是同一晶面,暴露在最外层的原子种类和构型不同,对腐蚀的影响也不一样.从电子的层面解释了电偶腐蚀发生的原因.     

急性等容性血液稀释在脊柱手术中对血小板功能的影响

目的探讨急性等容性血液稀释（ANH）在脊柱手术中对患者血小板功能的影响。方法择期全麻下行脊柱手术患者20例,术前行颈内静脉穿刺采自体血,同时于外周静脉输入等量的胶体液（万汶）,术中连续监测HR,SPO2,Bp及尿量变化,分别于采血前（T0）,采血后15 min（T1）,输血前（T2）,输血后15 min（T3）,抽取桡动脉血查HB,HCT,LAC,并采用Sonoclot分析仪测定激活凝血酶原时间（ACT）,凝血速率（CR）,血小板功能（PF）。记录术中晶胶体液输入量,出血量和尿量。结果与T0相比,T1的HB,HCT显著下降（P〈0.01）,CR、PF显著下降（P〈0.01）,与T2相比,T3的HB,HCT显著回升,CR、PF显著升高（P〈0.01）,LAC,ACT变化无统计学意义。结论急性等容性血液稀释对脊柱手术患者血小板功能有一定的保护作用,对凝血功能无明显不良影响。     

Work function and negative electron affinity of ultrathin barium fluoride films

Thin films of barium fluorides with different thicknesses were deposited on GaAs substrate by electron beam evaporation. The aim of the work was to identify the best growth conditions for the production of coatings with a low work function suitable for the anode of hybrid thermionic-photovoltaic (TIPV) devices. The chemical composition and work function φ of the films with different thicknesses were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). The lowest value of φ = 2.1 eV was obtained for the film with a thickness of ~2 nm. In the valence band spectra of the films at low kinetic energy, near the cutoff, a characteristic peak of negative electron affinity was present. This effect contributed to a further reduction of the film's work function.     

Taba: A Tool to Analyze the Binding Affinity

Evaluation of ligand-binding affinity using the atomic coordinates of a protein-ligand complex is a challenge from the computational point of view. The availability of crystallographic structures of complexes with binding affinity data opens the possibility to create machine-learning models targeted to a specific protein system. Here, we describe a new methodology that combines a mass-spring system approach with supervised machine-learning techniques to predict the binding affinity of protein-ligand complexes. The combination of these techniques allows exploring the scoring function space, generating a model targeted to a protein system of interest. The new model shows superior predictive performance when compared with classical scoring functions implemented in the programs Molegro Virtual Docker, AutoDock4, and AutoDock Vina. We implemented this methodology in a new program named Taba. Taba is implemented in Python and available to download under the GNU license at https://github.com/azevedolab/taba . © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Distributed and multicore QuBiLS-MIDAS software v2.0: Computing chiral,fuzzy, weighted and truncated geometrical molecular descriptors based on tensor algebra

Advances to the distributed, multi-core and fully cross-platform QuBiLS-MIDAS software v2.0 ( http://tomocomd.com/qubils-midas ) are reported in this article since the v1.0 release. The QuBiLS-MIDAS software is the only one that computes atom-pair and alignment-free geometrical MDs (3D-MDs) from several distance metrics other than the Euclidean distance, as well as alignment-free 3D-MDs that codify structural information regarding the relations among three and four atoms of a molecule. The most recent features added to the QuBiLS-MIDAS software v2.0 are related (a) to the calculation of atomic weightings from indices based on the vertex-degree invariant (e.g., Alikhanidi index); (b) to consider central chirality during the molecular encoding; (c) to use measures based on clustering methods and statistical functions to codify structural information among more than two atoms; (d) to the use of a novel method based on fuzzy membership functions to spherically truncate inter-atomic relations; and (e) to the use of weighted and fuzzy aggregation operators to compute global 3D-MDs according to the importance and/or interrelation of the atoms of a molecule during the molecular encoding. Moreover, a novel module to compute QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs from their headings was also developed. This module can be used either by the graphical user interface or by means of the software library. By using the library, both the predictive models built with the QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs and the QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs calculation can be embedded in other tools. A set of predefined QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs with high information content and low redundancy on a set comprised of 20,469 compounds is also provided to be employed in further cheminformatics tasks. This set of predefined 3D-MDs evidenced better performance than all the universe of Dragon (v5.5) and PaDEL 0D-to-3D MDs in variability studies, whereas a linear independence study proved that these QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs codify chemical information orthogonal to the Dragon 0D-to-3D MDs. This set of predefined 3D-MDs would be periodically updated as long as new results be achieved. In general, this report highlights our continued efforts to provide a better tool for a most suitable characterization of compounds, and in this way, to contribute to obtaining better outcomes in future applications.