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An efficient method for the synthesis of indolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines using calcium carbide as an alkyne source, 2-(2-bromophenyl)-1H-indoles as starting materials, and copper as a catalyst is described. The target products are synthesized via Sonogashira cross-coupling/nucleophilic addition tandem reactions. The advantages of this protocol include the use of inexpensive and easy-to-handle solid alkyne source instead of flammable and explosive gaseous acetylene, cheap and readily available raw materials, wide range of substrates, and simple reaction procedure. The method can also be extended to gram scale. In addition, the desired product can also be obtained by one-pot three-component reaction of phenylhydrazine hydrochlorides, o-bromoacetophenones and calcium carbide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a member of the PGAMs family, PGAM2 has been proved to catalyze the reversible reaction of 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA) to 2-phosphoglycerate (2-PGA) in the glycolytic pathway. However, it is unclear whether PGAM2 has a role in regulating differentiation in goat intramuscular preadipocytes. Here, this study was carried to clone the open reading frame (ORF) of goat PGAM2, elucidate its molecular and expressional characteristics, and evaluate the involvement in adipogenesis of intramuscular preadipocytes. According to our findings, the cloned goat PGAM2 gene was 784 bp in full length, including 762 bp of ORF and encoding a protein of 253 amino acids. The expressional level of PGAM2 peaked at 48 hours after induced adipogenic differentiation and was highest in the skeletal muscle of triceps. Moreover, overexpression of PGAM2 transfected by its overexpression plasmid promotes lipid accumulation of goat intramuscular adipocyte as shown by Oil Red O and bodipy staining, accompanied by up-regulating the mRNA levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) (p < 0.001), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1) (p < 0.001), CCAAT/Enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) (p < 0.01) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) (p < 0.01). Taken together, these findings indicate that PGAM2 is a positive regulator for goat intramuscular adipocytes and provide new insights into improvement intramuscular fat deposition in goat meat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel vacuum cooling system, which mainly consists of a 49-stage thermal transpiration based vacuum pump and a 100 L vacuum vessel, is proposed. The novel system can directly be driven by heat, while its structure and operation are similar to those of traditional mechanical vacuum systems. Then, a mathematic model is established to predict the performance of the novel system. The cooling capacity and coefficient of performance of the novel system increase with the rises of both parameters related to vacuum pump (the temperature difference between cold and hot chamber and pressure difference coefficient) and parameters related to vacuum vessel (mass transfer coefficient, chilled water temperature and supplement water temperature). It is a feasible way to raise system performance by cooling cold chambers, while heating hot chambers except for enhancement of mass transfer. The novel vacuum cooling system can produce relatively large cooling capacity exceeding 10,000 W at chilled water temperature over 289 K, the coefficient of performance (ranges from 0.71 to 1.48) of which is still comparable to that of the existing absorption refrigeration. It is clear that the novel thermal transpiration vacuum cooling is competitive among lots of emerging refrigeration technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to explore the neural-related mechanism of the creative evaluation process in individual with different levels of creativity. The time course of evaluation process for creative objects was monitored by event-related potentials (EPRs). Forty-five participants were divided into the high-creativity performance (HCP) group and the low-creativity performance (LCP) group and then completed a creative object evaluation task. The behavioral results revealed that the HCP group showed higher accuracy rates on the creative object evaluation task than the LCP group did. The ERPs analysis demonstrated that in the early stage of creative object processing, ordinary objects elicited a more negative anterior N2 at 190–340 ms than the creative objects did in the LCP group. In the late stage of creative object processing, creative objects elicited a more positive ERPs deflection in the HCP group than in the LCP group at 350–500 ms and at 500–1000 ms. Taken together, these results indicate that different creativity performance individuals may express different attention patterns or top-down processing strategy in the early stage of creative object evaluation processing; and high-creativity performance individuals can better utilize both cognitive and non-cognitive evaluation processing in the late stage, to process the creative object effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the underlying neural mechanism of acute stress affecting creative thinking. Twenty-six male participants underwent the Alternative Uses Test before and after acute stress test (Montreal Imaging Stress Task). Compared to before stress, stressed participants responded with higher salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase. The electroencephalogram results indicated a general decrease in upper-frequency alpha power after stress, compared with that of before stress. The decrease in upper-frequency alpha power observed in the first stage after exposure to stress was related to memory and attention. Additionally, stress also reduced the differences between individuals with different creative abilities. In summary, these findings indicated that acute stress impaired creative thinking and primarily affected the earlier phase of the process of creative cognition. This study provides some practical implications for educational practice and corporate innovation in that a more relaxed environment promotes creative output. Lay Summary Acute stress impaired creative thinking performance and mainly affects the earlier phase of the process of creative cognition. Additionally, stress seems to reduce the differences between individuals with different creative abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a sensitive-enhanced single-mode fiber—tapered hollow core fiber—single-mode fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer is demonstrated for refractive index sensing. The sensitivity was improved by forming an up-taper at the two splicing joints and concave cone in hollow core fiber. The up-tapered regions served as a more effective mode splitter/combiner, and the tapered hollow core fiber was used to generate a stronger evanescent field to enhance the interaction of light with the analyte. According to the principles of interference between the cladding and fundamental modes, we performed refractive index measurements. The experiments indicated that the proposed sensor has a high refractive index sensitivity of 214.97 nm/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.333–1.379, with a minimum refractive index measurement resolution of 9.3 × 10−5. In addition, the sensor had a low temperature response of 2.96 pm/°C in the range from 50 to 85°C and a low cross sensitivity of 1.377 × 10−5RIU/°C. The proposed sensor is attractive for its high refractive index sensitivity, easy fabrication, low cross sensitivity, and good mechanical strength, making it of potential value for refractive index measurements for chemical and biological sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A compact and high sensitivity refractive index sensor based on a photonic crystal fibre Mach–Zehnder mode–mode interferometer is proposed. The sensing part is formed by in fibre SMF-PCF-SMF structure (SMF: single-mode fibre; PCF: photonic crystal fibre) using fusion splicing method. The fully collapse air holes of photonic crystal fibre make coupling of fibre core and cladding mode in the splicing collapse region which establish a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The Mach–Zehnder interferometers with different photonic crystal fibre length are fabricated to investigate refractive index sensing characteristics. The refractive index measuring sensitivity can reach 224.2 nm/RIU (RIU: Refractive Index Unit) with a length of PCFL = 4 cm, experimentally. The proposed refractive index sensor is attractive due to its simple production process, compact size and high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Creative objects differ from ordinary objects in that they are created by human beings to contain novel, creative information. Previous research has demonstrated that ordinary object processing involves both a perceptual process for analyzing different features of the visual input and a higher-order process for evaluating the relevance of this visual information. However, it is unclear how and when these processes are influenced by the creative information of the object. This study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the time course of creative object processing. Behavioral results revealed that participants spent more time processing creative objects than they did ordinary objects. Analysis of scalp ERPs further revealed that creative objects elicited a more negative ERP deflection between 190 and 340 ms (N190–340) with an anterior scalp distribution. Additionally, creative objects elicited more positive ERP deflection than did ordinary objects between 400 and 700 ms (P400–700) with a right centro–parietal scalp distribution and between 700 and 1000 ms (late positive component) with a right anterior–central scalp distribution. Such results suggest that the processing of creative objects is composed of two distinct stages. The early perceptual stage involves the detection of visual differences exhibited by the creative objects, while the late stage involves the right-lateralized processes of understanding and encoding the creative information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]