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Although Ni-rich cathodes have been considered as prospective candidates for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high capacities and low consumption, the poor cycling and rate performances hinder their commercialization. Herein, we report a strategy for the in situ preparation of a La4NiLiO8 coating on the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode material through partially sacrificing Ni ions from the cathode substrate by a primitive solid-state method. The La4NiLiO8 coating has a continuous interface and ultra-strong bonding with the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode material, which gives the modified LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode an extremely high structural stability. Besides, the La4NiLiO8 coating endows LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 with a high surface electronic transfer rate. The Ni vacancies generated in the host phase due to the Ni participation in the fabrication of the coating is beneficial to reducing the Li+/Ni2+ disorder and boosting the Li+ diffusion kinetic characteristics of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2. Therefore, the La4NiLiO8-modified LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 displayed enhanced long-term cycling performances, in which the capacity retention of the modified LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 increased from 18.90% to 83.80% after 300 cycles at 5C, and the rate performance was improved.

Inhibition of α-glucosidase activity is an effective way for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Epimedii Folium is an important source of α-glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs), however bioactive compounds and pharmacological mechanisms remained unclear. In this study, a novel strategy was established, which harnessed α-glucosidase functionalized magnetic beads to fish out potential AGIs, followed by UPLC-MS/MS analysis for their identification. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed to predict binding patterns between the AGIs and the enzyme, and IC50 values was estimated as well. After response surface methodology optimization, the highest activity of Fe3O4@α-glucosidase has been achieved when 1.17 mg/mL of α-glucosidase was immobilized in phosphate buffer (pH 6.81) for 4.22 h. Moreover, eight flavonoids were fished out from the extract of Epimedii Folium, and then identified to be epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C, icariin, sagittatoside A, sagittatoside B, 2"-O-rhamnosyl icariside II and baohuoside I. All of them were further confirmed to be AGIs through in vitro inhibitory assay and molecular docking. Among those, baohuoside I and sagittatoside B possessed stronger inhibitory activity than acarbose. The approach has a significant prospect in conveniently screening bioactive compounds that target various receptors, which provided an efficient platform for new drug development from natural products.

Bacterial biofilm infection is perplexing people’s life. Systemic administration of antibiotics usually causes adverse effects and bacterial resistance. How to make antibacterial agents quickly penetrate and eradicate the biofilm without adverse effects is an urgent problem. Here, polyamine-functionalized carbon quantum dots (CQDs), abbreviated as CQD600, CQD1w and CQD2.5w, are synthesized by a simple hydrothermal treatment of citric acid and branched polyethyleneimine (bPEI) with different molecular weight (MW). It is found that the antibacterial activity is promoted with high MW of bPEI, which is due to the protonated amines on the surface of the CQDs. Moreover, in terms of eradicating mature Staphylococcus aureus biofilm, CQD2.5w possesses significantly higher activity than CQD600 and CQD1w because of stronger electrostatic interactions and longer surface coronas. Additionally, the cytotoxicity test exhibits the L929 cells can keep at high survival rates even treated with 500 µg mL−1 CQDs for 3 days. In this study, the surface chemistry related to antibacterial activity and low cytotoxicity give the chance in designing and developing better CQDs for biofilm infection.

In this study, abundant starch was separated from the industrial crop Dioscorea zingiberensis C.H. Wright (DZW), and a novel bioactive packaging film loaded with oregano essential oil (OEO) was prepared and characterized. NaClO solution worked as a bleacher to prepare uniform starch powder from DZW tubers. OEO was selected from among three essential oils of Labiatae family plants for its strongest antibacterial activity. After the addition of OEO into the starch-based film, the UV-vis shielding property and antioxidant activity were enhanced. Meanwhile, the films still have a considerable performance in transparency, mechanical strength and water vapor permeability after incorporated with OEO. Furthermore, the 3% OEO-loaded starch film exhibited the strongest antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. It effectively lowered the total viable count of fresh chicken under 4 °C preservation conditions. These results revealed that the OEO-loaded DZW starch film can exert a positive effect on maintaining the quality and extending the shelf life of fresh meat. Therefore, readily accessible DZW tubers and oregano are very promising resources for application in degradable bioactive packaging film.

Prosapogenin A is a secondary saponin in Dioscorea zingiberensis, and it showed remarkable pharmacological effects. Due to very low content and lack of well-developed biotransformation, its preparation was not efficient and clean. This study aims to establish an eco-friendly strategy for preparation of Prosapogenin A from plant material. Physical separation was employed to recycle starch and cellulose, and then D101 resin and polyamide packed-bed column was incorporated for purification of total steroidal saponins (TSS). After these pretreatments, purity of TSS was largely increased to 83.2% with recovery at 87.6%, which was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis. Optimized reaction system was constructed in 0.20 M HAc-NaAc buffer (pH4.2) containing cellulase/TSS (3:1, w/w), and the hydrolysis was performed at 53 °C for 6 h. Consequently, TSS was almost completely hydrolyzed to Prosapogenin A, while the highest yield reached 5.62%. The newly proposed approach is promising for efficient preparation of Prosapogenin A in industrial applications.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus uses bacterial secretion systems and integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) to induce various diseases and to adapt to harsh environments, respectively. Information pertaining to the identity of secreted proteins and functional characterization of ICEs has been previously reported, but the relationship between these elements remains unclear. Herein we investigated secreted proteins of V. parahaemolyticus strains JHY20 and JHY20△ICE using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and LC-MS/MS, which led to the identification of an ICE-associated secreted protein – dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (DLDH). Considering the data related to its physical and biochemical characterization, we predicted that DLDH is a novel immunogenic protein and associated with virulence in JHY20. Our findings indicate a potential relationship between ICE-associated transport and secreted proteins and shed light on the function of such transport mechanisms. We believe that our data should enhance our understanding of mobile genetic elements.

Inhibition of α-glucosidase activity is an effective way for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Epimedii Folium is an important source of α-glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs), however bioactive compounds and pharmacological mechanisms remained unclear. In this study, a novel strategy was established, which harnessed α-glucosidase functionalized magnetic beads to fish out potential AGIs, followed by UPLC-MS/MS analysis for their identification. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed to predict binding patterns between the AGIs and the enzyme, and IC

Prosaikogenin D, a rare secondary saponin in Radix Bupleuri, has much higher in vivo bioactivities than its original glycoside saikosaponin B

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which can either help to prevent accidents or reduce their negative consequences by intervening in a wide variety of ways, are the solution of choice for considerably greater safety in traffic and comfortable driving. Further, they can be used to perform various improvements such as optimizing fuel consumption or emissions. In conjunction with the driver, they form human machine systems (HMS) with varying degrees of complexity and automation. In order to pass the numerous checks and meet certain standards, ADAS must recognize the surrounding traffic as quickly and accurately as possible in order to act upon it. As a result, rapid and accurate identification methods are required to ensure this. Available approaches still have a lot of potential for optimization in terms of speed and accuracy and in the present work we are aiming to improve the elastic template matching algorithm developed by the authors in a previous study. We extend the approach with a training-free continuous and simultaneous detection of several maneuvers by means of the so-called Nearest Neighbour Algorithm, which in our case transforms into Nearest Centroid Classifier. Moreover, the approach can be easily used for multi-vehicle scenarios; though by treating each vehicle as a separate object without taking into account their interactions.

Early identification and interpretation of traffic maneuvers will become key elements of modern driver assistance systems. Currently, only simple traffic situations can be detected by using a decision tree (DT) procedure in most cases. Even though this approach is straightforward, it still requires an expert to build a different DT for every maneuver. Moreover, for complex driving behaviours such simple logic identification does not work. In the present work we develop a template (or pattern) matching (TM) algorithm for maneuver recognition in highway traffic with a particular focus on a cut-in maneuver. By using maneuver patterns we are able to consider scenarios of arbitrary complexity and make the identification procedure more systematic and with minimal man expert involvement. The key element of the proposed TM algorithm is the settlement of a distance measure. We use dynamic time warping (DTW) method for an optimal non-linear alignment between two sequences under certain restrictions. It enables a correct assignment of the same maneuver but having different dynamics (speed, aggressiveness, etc.), and is robust to data with missing values. We illustrate the proposed method by cut-in detection from real traffic data and compare it to the standard DT identification.

This paper focuses on systematical evaluation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and Automated Driving Functions. To overcome the curse of dimensionality we propose to use a test case catalogue, which is proven to have a good coverage of critical traffic situation. Secondly, a method for assessment of safety performance is introduced. It is based on evaluating the performance limit of automated vehicle in a given test case and relating it to its overall exposure rate in real world traffic situations. Through a case study, the parametrization and generation of test scenarios and evaluation for an ADAS(ACC) system is presented.

Baohuoside I, a rare secondary glycoside from Epimedii Folium, has anti-osteoporosis and other pharmacological effects. In addition, it exhibits improved bioactivities compared with its original glycoside icariin. Conventional methods for the production of baohuoside I, such as acid hydrolysis, exhibit very low efficiency with serious pollution and substantial byproducts. The aim of this study was to develop an eco-efficient biphasic enzymatic hydrolysis system for the green production of rare baohuoside I. β-glucanase was selected to hydrolyze icariin and showed better performance than β-glucosidase. The biphasic system was constructed using HAc-NaAc buffer (pH 4.5) containing β-glucanase/icariin (Cicariin = 100 mg/mL; 1:1, w/w) and propyl acetate (1:2, v/v), and the hydrolysis was performed at 60℃ for 6 h. The hydrolysis capacity of icariin in the system was largely increased from 0.5 mg/mL to 100 mg/mL. The conversion ratio of icariin was greater than 99% in a 100-fold scale-up pilot test, demonstrating its strong potential for industrial applications. Furthermore, a process flow and production plant were designed to produce 1 ton of baohuoside I annually, and the profit would be approximately 4.5-fold its total cost. Biphasic enzymatic hydrolysis is an eco-efficient technology to produce baohuoside I and represents a promising method in the pharmaceutical industry.

Local bacterial infection remains an increasingly severe threat to human health worldwide, and infection control is still a challenging task in clinics. Systemic administration of antibiotics usually causes adverse effects and bacterial resistance. Multi-functions hydrogel without drug-resistance is highly desired. Herein, we first synthesize antibacterial carbon quantum dots (CQDAG) with low-drug resistance using gentamicin sulfate and diammonium citrate as precursors. Then carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS)-mixed CQDAG is reacted with oxidized dextran (ODex) through the Schiff base linkage to yield hydrogel network. Hydrogel decorated with 2 mg/mL CQDAG (CQDAG2-hydrogel) shows multi-functions including inherent self-healing, injectable, stretchable, compressive property, pH-dependent release of CQDAG and especially inhibiting biofilm formation, which are beneficial for treating bacterial infections. Besides, it is important that CQDAG2-hydrogel exhibits good cytocompatibility while sterilizing. In vivo antibacterial and wound healing evaluations demonstrate CQDAG2-hydrogel have the effect of anti-inflammation and promoting wound repair, which is manifested in wound healing rate, granulation tissue thickness and collagen disposition. The result indicates that the CQDAG2-hydrogel is excellent candidate for full-thickness skin wound healing.

Prosaikogenin D, a rare secondary saponin in Radix Bupleuri, has much higher in vivo bioactivities than its original glycoside saikosaponin B2. Its preparation methods, such as conventional acid hydrolysis and column chromatograph, are unfriendly to environment with serious pollution and undesired products. The aim of this study was to establish an efficient and clean approach for convenient preparation of this rare steroid saponin based on the enzymatic hydrolysis. Cellulase was selected from four commercial enzymes due to its higher hydrolysis performance. Then the hydrolysis conditions were optimized by response surface methodology after preliminary investigation on affecting factors by single-factor experiments. The reaction system was constructed by 100 μg/mL of saikosaponin B2 and 8.00 mg/mL of cellulase, which was incubated in HAc-NaAc buffer (pH 4.7) at 60 °C for 33 h. Consequently, a high conversion ratio of the substrate has been achieved at 95.04 %. The newly developed strategy is an efficient and clean approach for the preparation of prosaikogenin D and it is a promising technology in industrial application.

LiNi0·8Co0·1Mn0·1O2 has become a promising candidate as a cathode material of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) because of their high specific capacity, while the poor cycling and rate performances limit its commercial application. Herein, a thin layer of Li5AlO4 was in situ formed on the surface of LiNi0·8Co0·1Mn0·1O2 through a slow deposition process assisted by NaHCO3 and solid phase co-lithiation sintering. By employing the optimal amount (3 wt %) of Li5AlO4 coating on LiNi0·8Co0·1Mn0·1O2 cathode material (denoted as 3-NCM), the capacity retention rate of 3-NCM after 100 cycles increased from 75.06% to 89.15% at 2.8–4.3 V, and it also shows the most significantly enhanced rate performance. The outstanding electrochemical performance can be attributed to that the Li5AlO4 coating can impede the contact between the active materials and electrolyte, stabilize the material structure and inhibit the dissolution of transition metals during repeated charge–discharge cycles. And the superior conductivity of Li5AlO4 can improve the lithium ion diffusion rate. All these results connote that Li5AlO4-coated LiNi0·8Co0·1Mn0·1O2 cathode material might be employed in advanced lithium-ion batteries.

Effectively targeting and killing microbial pathogens is a major challenge in the treatment of infectious diseases. Inspired by the high efficacy of natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), in this study we prepared two types of carbon quantum dots (CQDs) by pyrolysis of lysine and arginine, the two major functional moieties of natural AMPs. Both lysine-derived CQDs (Lys-CQDs) and arginine-derived CQDs (Arg-CQDs) exhibited distinctive antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria without inducing drug resistance. They also effectively inhibited the formation of bacterial biofilms. Such excellent antibacterial properties might be the result of positive charges derived from the amino acid residues on CQD surface and the generation of rich intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Surprisingly, instead of being cytotoxic, CQDs dramatically promoted the growth of typical mammalian cells. Moreover, no hemolysis of red blood cells (RBCs) happened when CQD concentration was less than 4,000 μg/mL. In vivo, administration of CQDs to infected wounds effectively inhibited bacterium growth and accelerated wound healing. Together, findings from this study indicate that Lys-CQDs and Arg-CQDs can simultaneously kill bacteria and facilitate cell growth, and may therefore be promising candidates for treating bacterial infections and promoting tissue repair.

Simulační studie jsou v dnešní době neocenitelným nástrojem pro návrh, jakož i pro hodnocení bezpečnosti a ověřování pokročilých systémů asistence řidiče (ADAS) nebo automatizovaných funkcí řízení (ADF). V případě, že jsou ADAS / ADF vyvíjeny pomocí simulačních studií, jsou (obvykle) navrženy tak, aby se předešlo nehodám pomocí vhodných aktivních prvků. Bezpečnost těchto ADAS / ADF však závisí na explicitních a implicitních předpokladech učiněných během procesu návrhu. Jsou-li dobře navrženy, budou tyto předpoklady pokrývat velkou většinu případů, ke kterým by mohlo dojít během jízdy ve skutečném světě. Sotva je možné zohlednit všechny typy zamyšlených scénářů a hodnocení vysoce nepravděpodobných případů již v průběhu procesu navrhování může vést k obrovským dodatečným nákladům, pokud jde o výkon. Proto je zde navrženo použití třívrstvé bezpečnostní filozofie pro ADAS / ADF: Funkce jsou navrženy na základě realistických předpokladů týkajících se dopravních situací a scénářů. Následně bude na základě katalogu testovacích scénářů identifikována hranice havárie pro nově vyvinutou funkčnost, tj. bude hledána parametrizace testovacího případu, ve které je stále možné zabránit havárii. V posledním kroku budou analyzovány případy, u nichž nelze havárii zabránit, s ohledem na očekávané důsledky pro zúčastněné osoby. Tento třetí krok je v dokumentu označován jako „posouzení bezpečnosti nad rámec návrhu“ (BDBSA). Zde se navrhuje nová, snadno použitelná metodika pro vyhodnocení důsledků takových nevyhnutelných scénářů havárií v BDBSA. Simulation studies are nowadays an invaluable tool for the design, as well as for the safety evaluation and veri_cation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or Automated Driving Functions (ADF). In case ADAS/ADF are developed using simulation studies, they are (usually) designed to avoid accidents by means of suitable control actuations. However, the safety of those ADAS/ADF depends on the explicit and implicit assumptions made during the design process. If well designed, those assumptions will cover the vast majority of cases that might occur during real world driving. It is hardly possible though to account for all types of thinkable scenarios and accounting for highly improbable cases already during the design process might lead to tremendous additional costs in terms of performance. It is therefore proposed here to use a three layer safety philosophy for ADAS/ADF: The functionalities are designed based on realistic assumptions regarding traf_c situations and scenarios. Subsequently, based on a catalog of test scenarios the crash boundary for the newly developed functionality will be identi_ed, i.e. the test case parametrization will be searched for in which it is still possible to avoid a crash. In a last step, those cases for which a crash cannot be avoided will be analyzed with respect to the expected consequences for the people involved. This third step will be referred to as .beyond-design-basis safety assessment. (BDBSA) throughout this paper. A new, easy to apply methodology is proposed here for evaluating the consequences of such unavoidable crash scenarios in BDBSA.

In the oil exploitation process, the conversion from water-in-oil emulsion to oil-in-water emulsion is usually needed for a better cementing quality after using the water-in-oil emulsion drilling fluid. Due to the advantages of both oil-external properties for drilling and water-external characteristics for completion, the reversible emulsion drilling fluids are being used in drilling industry. The researches about phase inversion of emulsion induced by nanoparticles and amphiphilic compounds are also being conducted. Using white oil–water system, emulsion stabilized by CaCO3 nanoparticles and sodium stearate was investigated. The raw CaCO3 nanoparticles were activated in situ by interaction with sodium stearate in aqueous solution. The mechanism of the in situ surface activation was accessed by means of emulsion characterization, adsorption measurement and contact angle. The results show that raw CaCO3 nanoparticles can be activated in situ as emulsifiers by interaction with sodium stearate. With the monolayer and bilayer formed at the CaCO3 nanoparticles–water surface by absorption of different concentrations of sodium stearate, the wettability of the particles will transform from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity and then back to hydrophilicity. The change of wettability may induce a phase inversion of emulsions from oil-in-water O/W (1) to water-in-oil W/O and re-invert to oil-in-water O/W (2). CaCO3 nanoparticles can thus be used as good stabilizers of both O/W and W/O emulsions once activated in situ by mixing with suitable amounts of sodium stearate.