Ab initio studies of the protonation of CO,N2 and NO+: Calculation of the minimum energy reaction paths

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations employing a 4-31G basis set have been used to study the minimum energy paths for the formation of HCO⁺, COH⁺, and HCOH²⁺ from CO by protonation. The protonation of N₂ to give NNH⁺ and HNNH²⁺ and of NO⁺ to form HNO²⁺ and NOH²⁺ have also been investigated. All species formed have linear equilibrium geometries and the minimum energy path for approach of the proton is along the line-of-centers of the heavy atoms. Energy barriers to the formation of the various species are given, where appropriate, and changes in geometry, ordering of molecular orbitals and orbital occupancy are discussed.     

地铁沿线建筑内噪声多维度感受影响机制

随着城市铁路系统的快速发展,铁路沿线建筑内人群对地铁运行产生噪声的抱怨逐渐增多,为控制室内地铁噪声对人群所产生的负面影响,有必要对地铁噪声产生的多维度负面情绪进行评估。采集了79名受试者对建筑内地铁噪声的多维度负面感受(压抑感,不舒适度和不满意度),基于偏最小二乘法分析了主客观影响因素对多维度负面感受的作用机制,并比较了多维度负面感受在反映地铁噪声影响上的差异。结果表明,多维度负面感受主要取决于主观响度和声学参数,活动干扰度、地铁噪声的敏感度、厌烦度和适应性的影响明显更弱;3个多维度负面感受中,相比于压抑感,不舒适度和不满意度受主观响度的影响轻微更显著,在相同的主观响度感受下,不满意度等级最高。 该文可以为地铁沿线建筑物内噪声负面感受的评价和改善提供参考。     

Joint Optimization of Control Strategy and Energy Consumption for Energy Harvesting WSAN

With the rapid development of wireless sensor technology, recent progress in wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) with energy harvesting provide the possibility for various real-time applications. Meanwhile, extensive research activities are carried out in the fields of efficient energy allocation and control strategy design. However, the joint design considering physical plant control, energy harvesting, and consumption is rarely concerned in existing works. In this paper, in order to enhance system control stability and promote quality of service for the WSAN energy efficiency, a novel three-step joint optimization algorithm is proposed through control strategy and energy management analysis. First, the optimal sampling interval can be obtained based on energy harvesting, consumption, and remaining conditions. Then, the control gain for each sampling interval is derived by using a backward iteration. Finally, the optimal control strategy is determined as a linear function of the current plant states and previous control strategies. The application of UAV formation flight system demonstrates that better system performance and control stability can be achieved by the proposed joint optimization design for all poor, sufficient, and general energy harvesting scenarios.     

声纹信号-图形差分场增强和多头自注意力机制的变压器工作状态辨识方法*

为提升电力变压器工作状态的智能监测水平,提出声纹信号-图形差分场增强和多头自注意力机制的变压器工作状态辨识方法。基于图形差分场技术将声纹信号映射为二维图像,再借助多头注意力机制的视觉转换器实现图像信息的深层挖掘与状态辨识,采用梯度加权类激活映射实现分类结果的可解释性分析。搭建了包含变压器4种典型工作状态下的实验模拟测试系统平台,实验结果表明：所提方法不仅能够有效表征变压器声纹信号的状态特征,且分类辨识精度相较于“时频图+引入多头注意力机制的变换网络”与“图形差分场+引入残差模块的卷积神经网络”的常规方法有显著提升,提升约6%,同时也具备较好的鲁棒性,可为电气设备的故障检测研究提供一定参考。     

Hepatoprotective Effects of Ixeris chinensis on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Induced by High-Fat Diet in Mice: An Integrated Gut Microbiota and Metabolomic Analysis

Ixeris chinensis (Thunb.) Nakai (IC) is a folk medicinal herb used in Mongolian medical clinics for the treatment of hepatitis and fatty liver diseases even though its pharmacological mechanism has not been well characterized. This study investigated the hepatoprotective mechanism of IC on mice with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by integrating gut microbiota and metabolomic analysis. A high-fat diet (HFD) was used to develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, after which the mice were treated with oral IC (0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 g/kg) for 10 weeks. HFD induced NAFLD and the therapeutic effects were characterized by pathological and histological evaluations, and the serum indicators were analyzed by ELISA. The gut microbial and metabolite profiles were studied by 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomic analysis, respectively. The results showed that the administration of IC resulted in significant decreases in body weight; liver index; serum biomarkers such as ALT, TG, and LDL-C; and the liver inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α. The 16S rRNA sequencing results showed that administration of IC extract altered both the composition and abundance of the gut microbiota. Untargeted metabolomic analysis of liver samples detected a total of 212 metabolites, of which 128 were differentially expressed between the HFD and IC group. IC was found to significantly alter the levels of metabolites such as L-glutamic acid, pyridoxal, ornithine, L-aspartic acid, D-proline, and N4-acetylaminobutanal, which are involved in the regulation of glutamine and glutamate, Vitamin B6 metabolism, and arginine and proline metabolic pathways. Correlation analysis indicated that the effects of the IC extract on metabolites were associated with alterations in the abundance of Akkermansiaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Muribaculaceae. Our study revealed that IC has a potential hepatoprotective effect in NAFLD and that its function might be linked to improvements in the composition of gut microbiota and their metabolites.     

Interpretation of Strengthening Mechanism of Densified Wood from Supramolecular Structures

In this study, densified wood was prepared by hot pressing after partial lignin and hemicellulose were removed through alkaline solution cooking. The tensile strength and elastic modulus of densified wood were improved up to 398.5 MPa and 22.5 GPa as compared with the original wood, and the characterization of its supramolecular structures showed that the crystal plane spacing of the densified wood decreased, the crystallite size increased, and the maximum crystallinity (CI) of cellulose increased by 15.05%; outstandingly, the content of O(6)H⋯O(3′) intermolecular H-bonds increased by approximately one-fold at most. It was found that the intermolecular H-bond content was significantly positively correlated with the tensile strength and elastic modulus, and accordingly, their Pearson correlation coefficients were 0.952 (p < 0.01) and 0.822 (p < 0.05), respectively. This work provides a supramolecular explanation for the enhancement of tensile strength of densified wood.     

Role of Natural Compounds and Target Enzymes in the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurological condition. The rising prevalence of AD necessitates the rapid development of efficient therapy options. Despite substantial study, only a few medications are capable of delaying the disease. Several substances with pharmacological activity, derived from plants, have been shown to have positive benefits for the treatment of AD by targeting various enzymes, such as acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), β-secretase, γ-secretase, and monoamine oxidases (MAOs), which are discussed as potential targets. Medicinal plants have already contributed a number of lead molecules to medicine development, with many of them currently undergoing clinical trials. A variety of medicinal plants have been shown to diminish the degenerative symptoms associated with AD, either in their raw form or as isolated compounds. The aim of this review was to provide a brief summary of AD and its current therapies, followed by a discussion of the natural compounds examined as therapeutic agents and the processes underlying the positive effects, particularly the management of AD.     

Salpianthus macrodontus Extracts,a Novel Source of Phenolic Compounds with Antibacterial Activity against Potentially Pathogenic Bacteria Isolated from White Shrimp

This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity in vitro of Salpianthus macrodontus and Azadirachta indica extracts against potentially pathogenic bacteria for Pacific white shrimp. Furthermore, the extracts with higher inhibitory activity were analyzed to identify compounds responsible for bacterial inhibition and evaluate their effect on motility and biofilm formation. S. macrodontus and A. indica extracts were prepared using methanol, acetone, and hexane by ultrasound. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the extracts was determined against Vibrio parahaemolyticus, V. harveyi, Photobacterium damselae and P. leiognathi. The polyphenol profile of those extracts showing the highest bacterial inhibition were determined. Besides, the bacterial swimming and swarming motility and biofilm formation were determined. The highest inhibitory activity against the four pathogens was found with the acetonic extract of S. macrodontus leaf (MIC of 50 mg/mL for Vibrio spp. and 25 mg/mL for Photobacterium spp.) and the methanol extract of S. macrodontus flower (MIC of 50 mg/mL for all pathogens tested). Both extracts affected the swarming and swimming motility and the biofilm formation of the tested bacteria. The main phenolic compounds related to Vibrio bacteria inhibition were naringin, vanillic acid, and rosmarinic acid, whilst hesperidin, kaempferol pentosyl-rutinoside, and rhamnetin were related to Photobacterium bacteria inhibition.     

H2SO4-H2O中硝酸铜对脱硫石膏晶须生长的影响

以处理后的脱硫石膏为原料,在H₂SO₄-H₂O体系中以Cu(NO₃)₂为晶形控制剂采用水热法制备脱硫石膏晶须,探讨了Cu(NO₃)₂对脱硫石膏晶须生长的影响机理。结果表明:Cu(NO₃)₂对脱硫石膏有明显促溶作用,其中Cu²⁺可减小溶液中各离子的活度系数,使溶液中的Ca²⁺浓度增大。NO^-₃通过静电作用在Ca²⁺周围聚集并对SO^2-₄产生屏蔽作用,导致脱硫石膏继续溶解并使Ca²⁺和SO^2-₄的浓度处于相对稳定状态,有利于半水脱硫石膏晶体的形核与生长。此外,Cu²⁺还可在晶须的生长过程中选择性吸附在晶须表面,生成CuSO₄,促进了脱硫石膏的结晶生长,最终在Cu(NO₃)₂用量为2.0%(质量分数)时制备的脱硫石膏晶须长径比约为73。     

Natural Products in Preventing Tumor Drug Resistance and Related Signaling Pathways

Drug resistance is still an obstacle in cancer therapy, leading to the failure of tumor treatment. The emergence of tumor drug resistance has always been a main concern of oncologists. Therefore, overcoming tumor drug resistance and looking for new strategies for tumor treatment is a major focus in the field of tumor research. Natural products serve as effective substances against drug resistance because of their diverse chemical structures and pharmacological effects. We reviewed the signaling pathways involved in the development of tumor drug resistance, including Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Renin-angiotensin system (Ras), Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt), Wnt, Notch, Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), and their specific signaling pathway inhibitors derived from natural products. This can provide new ideas for the prevention of drug resistance in cancer therapy.