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To explore the feasibility of differentiating three predominant metastatic tumor types using lung computed tomography (CT) radiomics features based on supervised machine learning.This retrospective analysis included 252 lung metastases (LM) (from 78 patients), which were divided into the training (n = 176) and test (n = 76) cohort randomly. The metastases originated from colorectal cancer (n = 97), breast cancer (n = 87), and renal carcinoma (n = 68). An additional 77 LM (from 35 patients) were used for external validation. All radiomics features were extracted from lung CT using an open-source software called 3D slicer. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method selected the optimal radiomics features to build the model. Random forest and support vector machine (SVM) were selected to build three-class and two-class models. The performance of the classification model was evaluated with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) by two strategies: one-versus-rest and one-versus-one.Eight hundred and fifty-one quantitative radiomics features were extracted from lung CT. By LASSO, 23 optimal features were extracted in three-class, and 25, 29, and 35 features in two-class for differentiating every two of three LM (colorectal cancer vs. renal carcinoma, colorectal cancer vs. breast cancer, and breast cancer vs. renal carcinoma, respectively). The AUCs of the three-class model were 0.83 for colorectal cancer, 0.79 for breast cancer, and 0.91 for renal carcinoma in the test cohort. In the external validation cohort, the AUCs were 0.77, 0.83, and 0.81, respectively. Swarmplot shows the distribution of radiomics features among three different LM types. In the two-class model, high accuracy and AUC were obtained by SVM. The AUC of discriminating colorectal cancer LM from renal carcinoma LM was 0.84, and breast cancer LM from colorectal cancer LM and renal carcinoma LM were 0.80 and 0.94, respectively. The AUCs were 0.77, 0.78, and 0.84 in the external validation cohort.Quantitative radiomics features based on Lung CT exhibited good discriminative performance in LM of primary colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and renal carcinoma.

Ferns and lycophytes have remarkably large genomes. However, little is known about how their genome size evolved in fern lineages. To explore the origins and evolution of chromosome numbers and genome size in ferns, we used flow cytometry to measure the genomes of 240 species (255 samples) of extant ferns and lycophytes comprising 27 families and 72 genera, of which 228 species (242 samples) represent new reports. We analyzed correlations among genome size, spore size, chromosomal features, phylogeny, and habitat type preference within a phylogenetic framework. We also applied ANOVA and multinomial logistic regression analysis to preference of habitat type and genome size. Using the phylogeny, we conducted ancestral character reconstruction for habitat types and tested whether genome size changes simultaneously with shifts in habitat preference. We found that 2C values had weak phylogenetic signal, whereas the base number of chromosomes (

African swine fever (ASF), a fatal disease outbroken in China in August 2018, has widely attracted social concern especially in the information era. The occurrence of ASF led to an imbalance between supply and demand in pork and other meat markets. As a result, meat prices fluctuated greatly during the past year in 2019. To measure ASF quantitatively, the internet public concern index about ASF was created using web crawler methods. The relationships between ASF and meat prices were analyzed based on time-varying parameter vector auto-regressive (TVP-VAR) model. The results showed that there were some differences in the impact size, direction and duration of ASF on the prices of pork, chicken, beef and mutton, and the characteristics of time variability and heterogeneity were obvious. At the same time, the impact of ASF on meat prices is not consistent with the trend and degree of ASF. The impulse intensity is strongly correlated with the strength and duration of ASF, and it is generally weak in the early stage and much stronger in the middle and late periods. The results indicate that macro regulations, monitoring and early-warning system, standardizing production and circulation, and the public opinion monitoring and guidance about ASF should be given more attention in future to stabilize the market expectations and to promote a smooth functioning of the livestock markets.

In this paper, the asynchronous positive H∞ filtering is addressed for positive Markov jump systems. The asynchrony between the filter’s and the system’s modes is described through a conditional probability matrix. Three distinct asynchronous positive filters named an upper-bounding filter, a lower-bounding filter and a weighted filter are built. Sufficient conditions are established such that the filtering error systems are positive and finite-time bounded with an H∞ disturbance attenuation level. It is proved that the weighted filter has more flexibilities than the bounding filters since it can adjust the parameter θ when estimating the given systems. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical results is validated through the fish’s population evolution example.

Seafood traceability is an important means of ensuring the quality of local seafood. Jellyfish are an important edible resource with a large yield on a global scale. Different species of pickled jellyfish, a traditional Chinese food, cannot be differentiated solely from the appearance of the product due to its special processing methods. In this paper, two species of jellyfish, R. esculentum and S. meleagris, were identified by PCR-RFLP technique. The genetic identification of the jellyfish R. esculentum and S. meleagris was based on PCR amplification of a common 651 bp fragment of the 16S rRNA gene, followed by digestion of four restriction enzymes, Hind III, Hpa I, Xho I and Dra I, respectively. The results showed that the two species of fresh jellyfish could be identified clearly, as could the pickled R. esculentum. To verify this result, PCR-RFLP was applied to authenticate four kinds of commercial pickled jellyfish. The electrophoretogram clearly showed that R. esculentum and S. meleagris were easily and accurately authenticated. This PCR-RFLP system has the potential to become an effective method for identifying the jellyfish products from Liaoning Province of China.

Removal of Co(II) from aqueous solutions by complexation−ultrafiltration was investigated using polyacrylic acid sodium (PAAS) as complexing agent with the help of rotating disk membrane, and the shear ability of PAA−Co complex was studied. The effects of the mass ratio of PAAS to Co(II) (P/M) and pH on the rejection of Co(II) were studied, and the optimum conditions were P/M=8 and pH=7. The rejection of Co(II) was over 97% when the rotating speed of the disk (n) was less than 710 r/min at the optimum P/M and pH. The distribution of the forms of cobalt on the membrane surface was established by the membrane partition model, and the critical shear rate, the smallest shear rate at which the PAA−Co complex begins to dissociate, was calculated to be 1.4×104 s−1, and the corresponding rotating speed was 710 r/min. The PAA−Co complex dissociated when the shear rate was greater than the critical one. The regeneration of PAAS and recovery of Co(II) were achieved by shear-induced dissociation and ultrafiltration.

This article reported the gelation and microstructural properties of scallop male gonads hydrolysates (SMGHs) in the presence of κ-Carrageenan (κ-C) and treated or untreated with potassium chloride (KCl). The presence of κ-C significantly increased the elastic moduli (10.3–449.5 Pa) and melting temperature (32.7–46.7 °C) of SMGHs. The decrease in the relaxation time (T21, T23) signified the strong binding between SMGHs and κ-C. The blue shift in the amide I and II peals coupled with a new band of 1159 cm−1 in SMGHs/κ-C further demonstrated the electrostatic interactions between SMGHs and κ-C. κ-C rose the percentage of β-sheets from 28.10% to 35.93% but at the expense of α-helix and β-turn fractions and highly ebbed the intrinsic fluorescence of SMGHs. Such scenarios resulted in a more compact network formation and flocculation of κ-C chains. The salt-treatment to κ-C promoted helical formation, however, presence of SMGHs created larger interstitial spaces in the κ-C network due to aggregates of SMGHs and decreased the overall gel strength. The outcome promises novel opportunities in the design and development of functional hydrogels based on protein and polysaccharide complexes for food, pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

A periodic density functional theory study of the sulfur vacancy formation mechanism on different edges of MoS2 nanocrystallites was investigated from thermodynamics and kinetics points of views. Thermodynamics study shows that the generations of vacancies on the Mo edge and basal plane were found severely inhibited by the thermodynamic limitations. Whilst the formation on the S edge can be proceeded spontaneously. Homolysis dissociation of H2 molecule was found more favorable than heterolytic dissociation on sulfur edge. The process of dissociated H atoms to form absorbed H2S was proved to be the rate controlling step. By comparing the distribution of charges and FuKui function before and after the vacancy formation, the contribution of sulfur vacancy to electrophilicity of Mo was clear, sulfur vacancies formed at the edges of Mo and S is favorable to the following hydrodesulfurization (HDS) reactions, whereas, the generation of sulfur vacancies on the basal plane inhibits the chemical reaction. The findings are critical to the development of highly active HDS catalysts.

Injection of insulin is an effective therapy to treat most patients with the type I diabetes and some with type II diabetes. Additionally, the release of insulin under specific conditions has attracted widespread interest. In this study, a smart drug carrier that can release insulin depending on the changes in blood glucose levels was designed. Combining two popular molecules through facile synthetic processes, a drug carrier of reversible phenylboronate group modified cyclodextrin (β-CD-EPDME) was fabricated. The drug carrier is composed of cyclodextrin, which can encapsulate insulin, and phenylboronate, which is sensitive to the cis-diols in some saccharides. Moreover, β-CD-EPDME can successfully encapsulate insulin and almost completely release insulin in the presence of glucose. The detached phenylboronic acid moiety triggered by glucose can attack the β-CD cavity and form a host-guest complex, which can force out the encapsulated insulin within the cavity. In addition, the insulin released from the β-CD-EPDME@Insulin complex retains its secondary structure, and the drug carrier has been proven to have low cytotoxicity. Thus, this safe and glucose-responsive drug carrier shows the potential for use in the therapy of diabetes.

The objective of the present study was to improve the utilization of scallop (Chlamys farreri) byproducts by using Maillard reaction. Scallop mantle hydrolysates (SMHs) were prepared using neutrase then reacted with ribose. Thirty-four peptides were identified from SMHs by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS, and the abundance of Asp and Lys suggested the strong Maillard reactivity. The formation of Schiff’s base as well as modification of amide I, II and III bands in Maillard reaction products (MRPs) was confirmed by ultraviolet–visible, fluorescence, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Thirty volatile compounds were produced by the reaction of SMHs with ribose. Moreover, MRPs with enhanced radical scavenging and anti-linoleic acid peroxidation activities over SMHs promoted the survival and reduced the DNA damage of HepG2 cells treated with hydrogen peroxide. These results suggest that SMHs-ribose MRPs can be potentially used as food antioxidant for suppressing of lipid oxidation or protecting of cell from oxidative damage.

Protein/peptide fibrillation is an important challenge for biotechnological drug development. Salmon calcitonin (sCT) is currently used in the clinical treatment of bone-related diseases such as osteoporosis and hypercalcemia, but it still has the risk of immune responses. Although human calcitonin (hCT) would be a better choice in terms of immunogenicity, it has a strong tendency to irreversibly aggregate in aqueous solutions and form long amyloid fibrils, which significantly reduces its bioavailability and therapeutic potency. Here, we demonstrate that cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) can inhibit hCT fibrillation by supramolecular interaction with its aromatic groups (affinity: Phe16 > Tyr12 > Phe19 > Phe22). The hCT-CB[7] complex exhibits low cytotoxicity, even promotes osteoblast proliferation and osteogenic capacity of MC3T3 cells. Meanwhile the hCT-CB[7] complexes shows higher bioactivity compared to hCT in reducing blood calcium levels in rats, and also decreases the immunogenicity of hCT. These results suggest that CB[7] has the potential to improve the therapeutic potency of amyloidogenic protein/peptide drugs such as hCT.

The baculovirus-based bacmid expression vector system has been widely used for protein production in basic research and biotechnological laboratories. Since the first construction of the Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus bacmid (AcBacmid), three more bacmids have been created from Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmBacmid), Spodoptera exigua nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeBacmid) and Helicoverpa armigera nucleopolyhedrovirus (HaBacmid). Each of these bacmid-derived viruses replicates efficiently in a range of specific and permissive cell types. Here, we investigated the relative stability of each virus derived from the bacmid during passage in permissive cell lines through assessment of their expression level and genome structure changes. Using two different reporters, the expression levels of the viruses from the AcBacmid-Sf9, AcBacmid-Tn5, BmBacmid-BmN and SeBacmid-SeE1 bacmid-cell systems were significantly reduced after five passages of the viruses, whereas the reductions were not detected in the AcBacmid-Sf21 and HaBacmid-HzAM1 systems. Pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of viral DNA isolated from passaged viruses from the AcBacmid-Sf21 and HaBacmid-HzAM1 systems showed no major genomic changes. In contrast, the genomes from passaged viruses in the AcBacmid-Tn5 and AcBacmid-Sf9 systems displayed reduced genome size and various mutations at individual loci, including genotypes missing one at least or more viral RNA polymerase subunits and fp25k. These genotypic changes were correlated with reduced protein expression. RFLP analysis of viral DNA from passaged viruses in the BmBacmid-BmN and SeBacmid-SeE1 systems exhibited changes in genome size, including excision of particular EcoRI fragments containing the mini-F replicon. Collectively, our data suggest that the viruses from the AcBacmid-Sf21 and HaBacmid-HzAM1 bacmid-cell systems are better for large-scale protein expression in continuous culture. Further study is needed to investigate the mechanism(s) behind the protein expression reduction in these bacmid-derived virus/cell systems.

The increase in global energy demand and decrease in easily extractable light crude oil has generated a growing interest in heavy oil exploitation. However, the high viscosity of heavy oil leads to exploitation, transportation and refining challenges. In this context, microwave irradiation of crude oil samples from Sudan, China (Liaohe) and Venezuela were carried out to investigate the mechanisms of viscosity reduction. Saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) analysis of the crude oils was conducted according to the American Society Test and Materials standard, ASTM D4124-09. The SARA fractionation results demonstrated that microwave irradiation may affect the structure of resin/asphaltene micelles, thus leading to a change in the viscosity of the crude oil. The crude oils were further examined using the combined analytical techniques of electrospray ionization and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI FT-ICR MS). The results from ESI FT-ICR MS analysis demonstrated that microwave irradiation of crude oil with a high proportion of O2 compounds leads to polymerization, and ultimately an increase in the viscosity of the crude oil after microwave treatment. In other cases, cracking might occur due to the microwave heating.

The Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV)-based Bac-to-Bac® expression system consists of a bacmid and five pFastBac™ donor transfer vectors. It has been widely used for eukaryotic gene expression in insect cells to elucidate gene function in biotechnology laboratories. The pFastBac™ vectors contain a 50bp AcMNPV polyhedrin (polh) promoter and a 127bp SV40 polyadenylation (pA) signal for cloning a gene of interest into the bacmid, resulting in unsolved lower gene expression levels than the wild type (wt) AcMNPV in insect cells. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand why the Bac-to-Bac system produces lower gene expression levels. Here, we determined that bacmids transposed with pFastBac™ vectors produced 3-4 fold lower levels of certain proteins than the wt AcMNPV. We found that an 80bp cis element 147bp upstream of the 50bp polh promoter and a 134bp polh pA signal are required in pFastBac™ to achieve bacmid protein expression levels equivalent to wt AcMNPV in High Five insect cells. Therefore, researchers currently using pFastBac™ vectors for protein expression can transfer their genes of interest into the improved vectors in this report to elevate protein expression yields in insect cells to reduce protein production costs.

Conventional formulations of human calcitonin (hCT), a peptide drug, normally suffer from limited therapeutic efficacy with low stability and short half-life. We have found that the fibrillation of highly amyloidogenic hCT can be inhibited by cucurbit[7] (CB[7]), an amphiphilic small molecule. Meanwhile, a thermogelling copolymer was found to be a suitable candidate for sustained delivery of peptide/protein drugs. Herein, we report a long-term delivery formulation composed of hCT-CB[7] complex and biodegradable thermogel of poly(D,L-lactic acid-co-glycolic acid)-b-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(D,L-lactic acid -co-glycolic acid) (PLGA-PEG-PLGA). A 20wt% PLGA-PEG-PLGA solution exhibited a temperature-sensitive sol-gel transition at 35°C in phosphate buffer solution and slowly degraded over one month at neutral pH. Both the mass fraction of PLGA-PEG-PLGA copolymer and the complexation of hCT-CB[7] moderated the release process. hCT was sustainedly released over three weeks in the 20wt% hydrogel with hCT-CB[7] complex at the ratio of 1:10 or 1:25. Further considering its low cytotoxicity, the delivery system is potential for the clinical application of hCT.

Salmon calcitonin (sCT) is a therapeutic polypeptide drug widely used to treat bone diseases such as osteoporosis (more than 200 million patients all over the world). The half-life of sCT is very short (~1h), thus various delivery systems have been developed for sCT in order to avoid frequent injections. However, most delivery systems use polymeric materials, which may limit their applications in clinic formulations due to the biocompatibility issue. We observed that a very simple dipeptide (Asp-Phe, DF) was co-assembled with sCT into supramolecular nanoparticles. These nanoparticles can significantly prolong the acting time of sCT to beyond one month after just a single subcutaneous injection. The assembling and releasing mechanisms were thoroughly investigated by both in vitro and in vivo methods, as well as by molecular dynamics simulations. This work provides an alternative strategy of designing protein/peptide drug delivery systems with long-lasting therapeutic effects.

Deep hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is the key method for clean oil production to meet the strict environmental regulations. Density functional theory (DFT) was performed to provide theoretical insight into the influence of microwave electric field on the adsorption of H2 molecular and sulfur vacancy formation on different edges of MoS2 nanocrystallite. The influence of the electric field on the structure and electrical properties of MoS2 nanocrystallites with sulfur vacancies was also theoretically analyzed. It was found that electric field in a specific direction enhances the adsorption of H2 on the edge of MoS2 cluster. Its application also benefits the spontaneous formation of specific S vacancy on the S edge and increases the active site number of the cluster. The presented results would provide new insights into understanding the promotion mechanism of microwave on the HDS process.

Background This study aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of cervical cancer (CC) by integrated bioinformatic analyses of gene expression and methylation profiles. Methods The gene expression and methylation microarrays in CC samples and normal controls were respectively downloaded from the GEO database. After screening the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with Limma package and the CC-related methylation sites with CpGassoc package in R language, DEGs with CC-related methylation sites were identified from the intersection of the above two groups of results with 50 kb upstream and downstream of a gene as the gene region. Then GO enrichment was performed by GenCLIP2.0 software. Sequentially, analysis of metabolic sub-pathways with pathogenic risk was predicted by iSubpathwayMiner package in R language. Results A total of 1357 DEGs including 721 up-regulated and 636 down-regulated, as well as 666 CC-related methylation sites were screened out. After being analyzed, 26 DEGs with 35 CC-related methylation sites were identified. EDN3 and EDNRB were significantly involved in a function cluster in GO terms of vein smooth muscle contraction, vascular smooth muscle contraction and phasic smooth muscle contraction. LHX2 and PAX6 were significantly involved in a function cluster in GO terms of telencephalon regionalization and forebrain regionalization. ACOX3, CYP39A1 and DPYS were significantly enriched in 25 sub-pathways of 6 major pathways. Conclusions EDN3 and EDNRB might play important roles in the molecular mechanism of CC, and LHX2, ACOX3, CYP39A1 and DPYS might be susceptibility genes and potential risk markers in CC.

The adsorption behavior of sulfide over catalyst is the key to determine the desulfurization efficiency and its proceeding route. Molecular dynamics and density functional theory calculations were performed to provide theoretical insight into the effect of microwave electric field on the adsorption of thiophene over different MoS2 nanocrystallites, and investigate the electronic distribution. The adsorption position and configuration were significantly affected by microwave field, and the polarities of thiophene molecule and MoS2 were strengthened, which is beneficial to the cleavage of the thiophene C–S bond. Mo atoms lose charge in a large area and have a strong electrophilic effect after the generation of S vacancy, inducing S component adsorption on active sites. The hydrodesulfurization (HDS) selectivity is modified by affecting the priority of potential adsorption. Thiophene favors to η5 adsorption over multilayer dispersed MoS2 clusters under microwave field, inducing the HDS reactions to proceed along the hydrogenation route.

Petroporphyrins with nickel (Ni) and vanadium (V) metals in crude oil are harmful to the catalysts of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and residue hydrocracking (RHC) as well as their processes. However, the presence of Ni/V as porphyrins makes them extremely difficult to remove. Recently, microwave method has attracted particular interests for high demetallization efficiency of Ni and V compounds from crude oils. In order to achieve better performance, it is indispensable to understand the theory and mechanism of microwave demetallization. The structure and electronic properties of Ni/V porphyrins were hereby studied via the density functional theory with BLYP functional. External electric fields of different directions and intensities were applied in the simulation. The calculation results demonstrated that the activity of pyrrole ring and –CH3 group can be greatly improved by applying parallel electric field (Ex or E−x), whilst the vertical electric field (Ez or E−z) mainly enhanced the activity of metal atoms. It was also found that the deformation mode of the porphyrin ring changed from dome to saddle style when the vertical electric field was larger than 0.025 a.u, meanwhile, the length of Metal-N bond decreased accordingly. This deformation regularity of the spatial structure innovatively explained the existence of an optimum microwave power in experiments.

Dennstaedtiaceae has 270 species, a worldwide distribution, and an edge-colonizing habit that is unusual among ferns. Aneuploidy, polyploidy, and hybrids are common in the family. Combining morphology, anatomy, chromosome number, and geographical distributions with our newly generated molecular phylogeny, we provide new insights into the evolution of the family. We paid special attention to Hypolepis. Our molecular dataset of five cpDNA markers is the most comprehensive to date, comprising 72 species (and a total of 98 taxa), of which 33 are Hypolepis (45 taxa). We also generated divergence-time estimates through BEAST with four fossil calibrations. We recovered three sub-families in Dennstaedtiaceae: Monachosoroideae (monogeneric), Dennstaedtioideae, and Hypolepidoideae. Monachosoroideae has a chromosome base number of x = 28; Hypolepidoideae of x = 26; while in Dennstaedtioideae this is still obscure, with different numbers ranging from 30 to 47. Dennstaedtioideae genera require re-circumscriptions because Dennstaedtia is polyphyletic. In Hypolepidoideae, the six genera are monophyletic. Within Hypolepis, seven geographically distinct clades were recovered; but we found no strong morphological characters to define them. Within the family, the long-creeping rhizome evolved with a change in habit: from shade-tolerant to edge-colonizers, to thicket-formers. Short or extremely large leaves are derived conditions. Sorus shape and position, glandular hairs, and prickles are homoplastic. Hybridization/allotetraploidy in Hypolepis can be suggested by the combined data. In our phylogenetic hypothesis, Dennstaedtiaceae originated around 135 Ma, with the split of Monachosoroideae around 94 Ma, and the split between Dennstaedtioideae/Hypolepidoideae around 78 Ma. All extant genera are inferred to be relatively young. Hypolepis started to diversify around 10 Ma, and it probably originated in east Asia and/or Oceania. Hypolepis reached the Neotropics twice: through elements of the Hypolepis rugosula clade (which originated at 7 Ma), and through the ancestor of the Neotropical clade, which originated at 3.1 Ma and was prickly.

The objective of this study was to simultaneously obtain protein isolates and lipids from the dried powder of large yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena crocea) roes (pcRs) to achieve high-value utilization. Protein isolates and lipids were extracted simultaneously from pcRs by saline and acidic solutions. The purity of the protein isolates from the pcRs (pcRPIs) was greater than 70%, with vitellogenin, vitellogenin B and vitellogenin C as the main proteins. The lipids from pcRs (pcRLs) were mainly composed of triglycerides with high levels of EPA and DHA. The pcRPIs exhibited a higher surface hydrophobicity, water/oil holding capacity and emulsifying ability than those of the pcRs. Moreover, pcRPIs had a better oil holding capacity and emulsifying ability than soy protein isolate. These results suggest that protein isolates and lipids can be simultaneously extracted by saline and acidic solutions, and pcRPIs and pcRLs can be used as functional materials in the food industry.

The colloidal delivery systems fabricated by emulsion containing natural proteins and lipids have been utilized to protect carotenoids as well as to release the carotenoids in the simulated in vitro gastrointestinal tract (GIT). In this study, β-carotene (BC) was embedded into emulsions that were stabilized by scallop gonad protein isolates (SGPIs), and the emulsion droplets containing BC were then entrapped into calcium-alginate beads . The results showed that the oil-in-water emulsions coated by SGPIs only showed good stability at pH 7-8, while the emulsion-alginate beads remained relatively intact at pH 3-8. BC encapsulated in emulsions was extremely unstable and prone to degradation when stored at the comparatively higher temperature (37 °C), whereas the stability of BC was greatly enhanced through incorporation into emulsion-alginate beads. The digestion rate and extent of lipid droplets constructed within SGPIs-stabilized emulsion-alginate beads were slower than that in emulsions during GIT. The confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the lipid droplets in emulsions were aggregated after exposure to the mouth and gastric phases , while the emulsion-alginate beads maintained their spherical shape after exposure to the oral and gastric phases. Moreover, the free lipid droplets in the emulsions showed a higher bioaccessibility of BC (66%) than that in the emulsion-alginate beads (38%), whereas the BC transformation was on the contrary. The findings in this study indicated that SGPIs-stabilized emulsion in alginate beads can potentially be utilized for the encapsulation and controlled release of lipophilic bioactive compounds.

Most crude oils contain traces of metal complexes, among which vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni) compounds are the most harmful poisons to the catalysts of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and hydrogenation units. These metals are proven to be extremely hard to remove, since they exist in crude oil as stable oil-soluble complexes. The microwave technology provides a new way for Ni/V removal, their removal efficiency using chemical reagents and the mechanism of microwave-assisted demetallization were studied in this paper. It was concluded that the demetallization efficiency can be highly enhanced under microwave irradiation. There is no specific structural selectivity for vanadium porphyrins during microwave treatment process. The demetallization agent — methanesulfonic acid, containing a sulfonyl acid group was found to react with VO 2 + and Ni 2 + . Ni and V were removed from porphyrin ring without destroying the ring structure, corresponding water soluble inorganic salts were formed, thus can be successfully separated from crude oil by washing or desalting process.

The Y(OTf) 3 -catalyzed aerobic oxidative cyclization reaction for the selective synthesis of dihydroquinazolinones and quinazolinones has been developed. This method provides a practical, effective and green synthetic approach to dihydroquinazolinones and quinazolinones which both are important units in many biologically active compounds.

Condensation heat transfer in tubes is extensively used in many industrial sectors. There were a number of investigations evaluating the correlations of condensation heat transfer in tubes. However, either the data used or correlations involved were limited, resulting in inconsistent conclusions. This paper presents a comprehensive review of correlations for flow condensation heat transfer in horizontal channels. A database containing 2563 experimental data points of condensation heat transfer in horizontal channels, including 1462 data points from conventional channels and 1101 from minichannels, is compiled from 26 published papers, with which 28 correlations are evaluated and analyzed. Twelve correlations have the mean absolute deviation (MAD) less than 30% against the database, and eight have 30% ≤ MAD

The pyrolysis of biomass was conducted using a microwave heating system operated at 2.45 GHz. Additives, such as silica carbon, activated carbon, coke produced through microwave-assisted pyrolysis, potassium carbonate, and sodium hydrate, were investigated for their effects on the sawdust pyrolysis. It was found that additives had significant effects on the yields and properties of the final products. By employing silica carbon, the gas and liquid yields were relatively low, due to the non-uniform mixing caused by big density difference between the sawdust and silica carbon particles. However, with potassium carbonate and sodium hydrate, the pyrolysis products are mainly gases, since both additives can absorb microwave strongly, making extremely high temperature inside the sawdust. The liquid products were analyzed by electrospray FT–ICR MS. Potassium carbonate can simplify the bio-oil composition and reduce compound types, which is beneficial to its further applications. The pyrolysis is highly influenced by heating rate and a first order was found for the reaction. Additives under microwave irradiation would enhance the heating rate, while they mainly act as catalysts instead of enhanced heating.

The current collector offers passages for mass transport and is one of the key components of the passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The effect of perforated current collector design on mass transport is studied based on a three-dimensional (3D), unsteady-state, two-phase mass transport model of a passive DMFC cathode. The model is implemented via the mixture multiphase model, which solves the continuity and momentum equations for the mixture and the volume fraction equation for the secondary phases. Numerical results indicate that the distributions of oxygen in both cathode catalyst layer (CCL) and cathode diffusion layer (CDL) are non-uniform because of the effect of the perforated current collector plate (CCP) structure. Liquid water produced by an electrochemical reaction in the CCL accumulates significantly at the bottom. Clearly, the distribution of liquid water in the cathode catalyst and diffusion layers is affected by gravity. The size of the circular holes and the distance between them are taken into account to investigate the effect of the CCP structure. Small uniformly arrayed circular holes in the entire active area of CCP are advantageous to the transfer of gas and liquid water in the cathode side of a passive DMFC.

The YCl 3 -catalyzed aerobic oxidative cyclization reaction for the synthesis of benzothiazoles has been developed. This method provides a practical, effective and green synthetic approach to benzothiazoles which are important units in many biologically active compounds.

Hierarchically structured porous materials are of great interest to catalysis, where an accurately controlled pore texture at different length scales is favorable to reduce or otherwise control transport limitations. With one-step assembly of silica and carbon by using varying amounts of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as silica source and resorcinol and formaldehyde (R–F) as carbon source, a series carbon and silica nanocomposite materials with hierarchical porous structure (abundant micropores and ordered mesopores) were synthesized. Due to the matching condensation and polymerization rate of TEOS and R–F, carbon/silica nanocomposites (CSNs) with spherical morphology and uniform distribution of carbon and silica can be obtained. However, once the equilibrium point of this condensation and polymerization is deviated, the pore structure and morphology of the materials will be changed. According to the results, in CSNs materials, silica acts as the main structure skeleton, while carbon mainly contributes to the construction of micropores. Furthermore, the resultant CSNs were used as a carrier for the catalyst to support the ionic liquid, thereby catalyzing the cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxide, in which the materials showed high catalytic activity and stability due to the special structure and compositions.

Novel C2-substituted imidazolium-based cross-linked anion exchange membranes (AEMs) are prepared via irradiation with ultraviolet light cross-linking of styrene, acrylonitrile and 1,3-diallyl-2-methyl imidazolium bromine ([DAMIm][Br]), and followed by anion exchange with hydroxide ions. [DAMIm][Br] is synthesized and used both as crosslinker and hydrophilic phase. The ionic conductivity of the AEMs increases with increasing [DAMIm][Br] content due to the hydrophilic regions and the continuous hydrophilic polymeric networks formed in the membranes. The imidazolium-based cross-linked AEMs show excellent thermal stabilities, and the membrane which containing 30% mass fraction of [DAMIm][Br] shows ionic conductivity up to 2.0 × 10−2 S cm−1 and good long-term chemical stability in 1 M KOH solution. The results of this study suggest that the C2-substituted imidazolium-based cross-linked AEMs have good perspectives for alkaline fuel cell applications.

Ionic liquid-tethered graphene oxide (IL-GO) are prepared by tethering 1-(3-aminopropyl)-3-methylimi-dazolium bromide to graphene oxide (GO), and followed by anion-exchange with bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ions (TFSI−). Environmental friendly ionic liquid-based composite electrolyte for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) without volatile organic solvents is prepared from IL-GO and 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide (PMII). Incorporation of proper amount of IL-GO significantly increased the conductivity of the electrolyte, the open circuit voltage, the short circuit current density and the conversion efficiency of DSSCs. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) containing 4 wt% of IL-GO composite electrolytes show an overall power conversion efficiency of 7.04% under simulated AM 1.5 solar spectrum irradiation at 100 mW cm−2. These results indicate that the DSSCs based on IL-GO/IL composite electrolytes could overcome the drawbacks of volatile liquid electrolytes, and offer a feasible method to fabricate DSSCs in future practical applications.

Phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PBI)/imidazolium-modified silsesquioxane (Im-SiO 3/2 ) hybrid membranes with high proton conductivity at high temperature under anhydrous conditions are synthesized and characterized. The presence of Im-SiO 3/2 is confirmed by FT-IR and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping of silicon element. The phosphoric acid uptake and proton conductivity of the hybrid membranes increase with the Im-SiO 3/2 content, and the conductivity of PBI/Im-SiO 3/2 -20 reaching 6.3 × 10 −2 S cm −1 at 180 °C. Compared with pure PBI membranes, the introduction of Im-SiO 3/2 is effective in preventing the release of the phosphoric acid component from the hybrid membranes. The properties of the prepared hybrid membranes indicate their promising prospects in anhydrous proton exchange membrane applications.