Xanthohumol for Human Malignancies: Chemistry,Pharmacokinetics and Molecular Targets

Xanthohumol (XH) is an important prenylated flavonoid that is found within the inflorescence of Humulus lupulus L. (Hop plant). XH is an important ingredient in beer and is considered a significant bioactive agent due to its diverse medicinal applications, which include anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antiviral, antifungal, antigenotoxic, antiangiogenic, and antimalarial effects as well as strong anticancer activity towards various types of cancer cells. XH acts as a wide ranging chemopreventive and anticancer agent, and its isomer, 8-prenylnaringenin, is a phytoestrogen with strong estrogenic activity. The present review focuses on the bioactivity of XH on various types of cancers and its pharmacokinetics. In this paper, we first highlight, in brief, the history and use of hops and then the chemistry and structure–activity relationship of XH. Lastly, we focus on its prominent effects and mechanisms of action on various cancers and its possible use in cancer prevention and treatment. Considering the limited number of available reviews on this subject, our goal is to provide a complete and detailed understanding of the anticancer effects of XH against different cancers.     

Platinum nanoparticles decorated on graphitic carbon nitride-ZIF-67 composite support: An electrocatalyst for the oxidation of butanol in fuel cell applications

In the present study, we report an eco-friendly and simple route to design and synthesize novel nanocomposite catalyst based on platinum nanoparticles anchored on binary support of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) and cobalt-metal-organic framework (ZIF-67). For this purpose, ZIF-67 was prepared by precipitation method and g-C₃N₄ was prepared through thermal polymerization method. Later, ZIF-67 and g-C₃N₄ were hybridized through sonication to get homogeneous g–C₃N₄–ZIF-67 nanocomposite support material. Platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) were uniformly deposited on g–C₃N₄–ZIF-67 by an electrochemical method. The as-developed nanocatalyst was characterized by morphological, structural and electrochemical techniques. The electrocatalytic activity of PtNPs@g–C₃N₄–ZIF-67 nanocatalyst towards butanol oxidation was evaluated via CV, CA, LSV and EIS in an alkaline medium. Results revealed that the proposed catalyst showed greatly enhanced electrooxidation of butanol in terms of high magnificent current density, lower oxidation potential, excellent long-term stability, large surface area, low charge transfer resistance and less toxic ability. Enhanced catalytic performance of the proposed catalyst could be ascribed to the synergistic effect of g–C₃N₄–ZIF-67 nanocomposite and PtNPs. The PtNPs@g–C₃N₄–ZIF-67 catalyst holds promising potential applications to be used as an anodic electrocatalyst for the development of high-performance alkaline fuel cells.     

Models for circular data from time series spectra

Circular data are those for which the natural support is the unit circle and its toroidal extensions. Numerous constructions have been proposed which can be used to generate models for such data. We propose a new, very general, one based on the normalization of the spectra of complex-valued stationary processes. As illustrations of the new construction's application, we study models for univariate circular data obtained from the spectra of autoregressive moving average models and relate them to existing models in the literature. We also propose and investigate multivariate circular models obtained from the high-order spectra of stationary stochastic processes generated using linear filtering with an autoregressive moving average response function. A new family of distributions for a Markov process on the circle is also introduced. Results for asymptotically optimal inference for dependent observations on the circle are presented which provide a new paradigm for inference with circular models. The application of one of the new families of spectra-generated models is illustrated in an analysis of wind direction data.     

极薄、超宽规格装甲板压力淬火工艺数值模拟优化

利用数值模拟的方法对极薄、超宽规格装甲板淬火过程的畸变进行了模拟研究,并对脉冲式压力淬火的控制参数进行了优化。通过对比不同冷却条件装甲板的变形量,确定了脉冲式压力淬火的脉冲压力和周期。结果表明,脉冲约束的模拟条件下,装甲板在厚度Z方向上的最终变形量为1.7 mm,不仅小于2 mm的标准要求,而且可以实现装甲板的小淬火畸变前提下满足其表面无压痕、划痕等其他损伤的实际生产需求。     

Anatase Sol Prepared from Peroxotitanium Complex Aqueous Solution Containing Niobium or Vanadium

Niobium- or vanadium-doped anatase sols were prepared by hydrothermal treatment of 0.1 mol/dm³ peroxotitanium complex aqueous solutions dissolving 0–10 mol% niobium or vanadium at 100°C for 8 h. Niobium-doping caused the increase of lattice constants of anatase and the shape change of anatase crystal from spindle-like to cubic-like structure, but no change of the optical absorbance. Vanadium-doping caused the decrease of lattice constant of c -axis, the miniaturization of anatase crystal and the increase of optical absorbance at the wavelength from 350–700 nm.     

水资源承载力及其研究

文章简要介绍了我国水资源情况,分析了我国水资源承载力与可持续发展的关系,并阐述了水资源承载力 研究的特点和方法。     

The predominant contribution of oligopeptide transporter PepT1 to intestinal absorption of beta-lactam antibiotics in the rat small intestine

Although recent evidence suggests that certain beta-lactam antibiotics are absorbed via a specific transport mechanism, its nature is unclear. To confirm whether peptide transport in the rat can be largely ascribed to the intestinal oligopeptide transporter PepT1, the transporter has been functionally characterized and its significance in the intestinal absorption of beta-lactam antibiotics was evaluated. For evaluation of transport activity complementary RNA (cRNA) of rat PepT1 was synthesized in-vitro and expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. cRNA induced uptake of several beta-lactam antibiotics and the dipeptide [14C]glycylsarcosine; this was specifically inhibited by various dipeptides and tripeptides but not by their constituent amino acids or by tetra- or pentapeptides. The transport activity of PepT1 for beta-lactam antibiotics correlated well with their in-vivo intestinal transport and absorption. Furthermore, mutual inhibitory effects on uptake were observed between glyclsarcosine and beta-lactam antibiotics. Hybrid depletion of the functional expression of rat PepT1 in oocytes injected with rat intestinal epithelial total mRNA was studied using an antisense oligonucleotide corresponding to the 5'-coding region of PepT1. In oocytes injected with rat mRNA pre-hybridized with the antisense oligonucleotide against rat PepT1, the uptake of [14C]glycylsarcosine was almost completely abolished, whereas its uptake was not influenced by a sense oligonucleotide for the same region of PepT1. Similarly, the uptake of beta-lactam antibiotics was also reduced by the antisense oligonucleotide against rat PepT1. These results demonstrate that the intestinal proton-coupled oligopeptide transporter PepT1 plays a predominant role in the carrier-mediated intestinal absorption of beta-lactam antibiotics and native oligopeptides in the rat.     

A feasibility study of a direct-mapping parallel processing method to solve linear equations in load-flow calculation

With the growing size and complexity of power systems, system analysis—such as transients calculation—takes much time. Hence, fast calculation methods are required. Although parallel processing is a hopeful method, there have been difficulties in the parallel solution of linear equations which appear in power-flow calculations by the Newton-Raphson method. This paper aims at the fast calculation of the power-flow problem by means of parallel processing. In order to improve the suitability to the parallel solution of the differential equation in transients calculation, we assume the use of a direct-mapping parallel processing machine to map directly the network of a power system onto a network of processors. Under this assumption, we propose a new parallel-processing-oriented method in which the linear equation is solved by linear iterations between nodes with Aitken acceleration. We simulate the method on three model power systems and compare this Parallel Iterative Method (PIN) with a Parallel Direct Method (PDM) which uses the banded matrix according to the number of operations required. As a result, we can expect that PIM may solve linear equations faster than PDM with m processors, although the PIM might be inferior to the PDM with m × m processors, where m denotes the half-band width of the banded matrix.