Het(aryl)isatin to het(aryl)aminoindoline scaffold hopping: A route to selective inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a large family of zinc-dependent endoproteases known to exert multiple regulatory roles in tumor progression. A variety of chemical classes have been explored for targeting individual MMP isoforms. In the present study, we further developed our isatin based scaffold BB0223107 capable of binding to and inactivating MMP-2 in a zinc-independent manner (Agamennone et al., 2016). Forty four new compounds were synthesized based on the modified BB0223107. All compounds were tested in enzyme inhibition assays against MMP-2, ?8 and ?13. SAR studies demonstrated that 5-het(aryl)-3-aminoindolin-2-ones (37–39) were active toward MMP-2 and MMP-13. The most potent compounds 33 and 37 displayed an IC₅₀ of 3 µM against MMP-13 and showed a negligible activity toward MMP-8; almost all new compounds were inactive toward MMP-8. Replacement of the isatin ring with a biaryl system (compound 33) did not decrease the potency against MMP-13 but reduced the selectivity. Structure-based computational studies were carried out to rationalize the inhibitory activity data. The analysis of binding geometries confirmed that all fragments occupied the S1′ site in the three enzymes while no ligand was able to bind the catalytic zinc ion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of 3-aminoindolin-2-one-based MMP inhibitors that, based on the computer modeling study, do not coordinate the zinc ion. Thus, the het(aryl)-3-aminoindolin-2-one derivatives emerge as a drug-like and promising chemotype that, along with the hetaryl variations, represents an alternative and thrifty tool for chemical space exploration aimed at MMP inhibitor design.     

What is the optimal cutoff surface for ore bodies with more than one mineral?

In mine planning problems, cutoff grade optimization defines a threshold at every time period such that material above this value is processed, and the rest is considered waste. In orebodies with multiple minerals, which occur in practice, the natural extension is to consider a cutoff surface. We show that in two dimensions the optimal solution is a line, and in n dimensions it is a hyperplane.     

基于深度学习的中医古文献临床经验抽取

中医古文献蕴藏着丰富的临床经验，是古代中医在行医过程中对临床诊疗的经验性总结，体现了中医学形成和发展的理论框架和思想基础.然而这些宝贵的临床经验不仅量大，而且分散在不同的文献中，使得中医从业者手工很难快速全面地获取它们，文献检索工具也只能提供文档级别的信息筛选，无法为这种细粒度的信息获取提供支持.此外，古汉语相对于现代汉语的不同特点也限制了主流文本分析工具的使用效果.为此本文提出面向临床经验获取的中医古文献信息抽取任务，用于识别古文献中描述临床经验的文本片段，手工标注了样本数据用于这种抽取模型的训练和测试，并设计了基于深度学习的序列标注器用于完成该任务.考虑到标注数据量小可能带来的过度拟合问题，本文引入对抗训练和虚拟对抗训练来增强模型的泛化能力.一系列充分的实验验证了模型的有效性，表明利用信息抽取技术从古文献获取中医临床经验具有可行性，为这一新的信息抽取任务提供了有希望的研究基线和可复用的标注数据集.     

The Picone identity: A device to get optimal uniqueness results and global dynamics in Population Dynamics

This paper infers from a generalized Picone identity the uniqueness of the stable positive solution for a class of semilinear equations of superlinear indefinite type, as well as the uniqueness and global attractivity of the coexistence state in two generalized diffusive prototypes of the symbiotic and competing species models of Lotka–Volterra. The optimality of these uniqueness theorems reveals the tremendous strength of the Picone identity.     

Well-posedness of two pseudo-parabolic problems for electrical conduction in heterogeneous media

We prove a well-posedness result for two pseudo-parabolic problems, which can be seen as two models for the same electrical conduction phenomenon in heterogeneous media, neglecting the magnetic field. One of the problems is the concentration limit of the other one, when the thickness of the dielectric inclusions goes to zero. The concentrated problem involves a transmission condition through interfaces, which is mediated by a suitable Laplace-Beltrami type equation.     

Regularity of optimal sets for some functional involving eigenvalues of an operator in divergence form

In this paper we consider minimizers of the functional$\min \{{\lambda }_1(\mathrm{\Omega })+\cdots +{\lambda }_k(\mathrm{\Omega })+\mathrm{\Lambda }|\mathrm{\Omega }|,:\mathrm{\Omega }\subset D\text{ open}\}$ where $D\subset {\mathbb{R}}^d$ is a bounded open set and where $0<{\lambda }_1(\mathrm{\Omega })\le \cdots \le {\lambda }_k(\mathrm{\Omega })$ are the first k eigenvalues on Ω of an operator in divergence form with Dirichlet boundary condition and with Hölder continuous coefficients. We prove that the optimal sets ${\mathrm{\Omega }}^{⁎}$ have finite perimeter and that their free boundary $\partial {\mathrm{\Omega }}^{⁎}\cap D$ is composed of a regular part, which is locally the graph of a $C^{1,\alpha }$-regular function, and a singular part, which is empty if $d<d^{⁎}$, discrete if $d=d^{⁎}$ and of Hausdorff dimension at most $d-d^{⁎}$ if $d>d^{⁎}$, for some $d^{⁎}\in \{5,6,7\}$.     

中非经贸合作下非洲基础设施建设的现状与挑战——以亚吉铁路建设为例

在分析非洲基础设施建设现状和特点的基础上,通过亚吉铁路建设的案例研究,探讨了中非经贸合作下非洲基础设施建设的成功效应和存在的主要问题,得出中国标准缺乏国际认可、中非双方存在文化冲突、对非“全产业链”与投融资需要强化和产业结构相似的结论。同时,对未来中非经贸合作下非洲基础设施建设的发展从消除文化差异、提高合作层次、加强投融资、改进中国标准、明确合作区发展定位、后疫情时代加快构建更紧密的中非命运共同体和加强产能合作并发挥产能优势等角度提出可行性建议。