Glycyrrhizic Acid and Its Derivatives: Promising Candidates for the Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Its Complications

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disease, which is characterized by hyperglycemia, chronic insulin resistance, progressive decline in β-cell function, and defect in insulin secretion. It has become one of the leading causes of death worldwide. At present, there is no cure for T2DM, but it can be treated, and blood glucose levels can be controlled. It has been reported that diabetic patients may suffer from the adverse effects of conventional medicine. Therefore, alternative therapy, such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), can be used to manage and treat diabetes. In this review, glycyrrhizic acid (GL) and its derivatives are suggested to be promising candidates for the treatment of T2DM and its complications. It is the principal bioactive constituent in licorice, one type of TCM. This review comprehensively summarized the therapeutic effects and related mechanisms of GL and its derivatives in managing blood glucose levels and treating T2DM and its complications. In addition, it also discusses existing clinical trials and highlights the research gap in clinical research. In summary, this review can provide a further understanding of GL and its derivatives in T2DM as well as its complications and recent progress in the development of potential drugs targeting T2DM

Particle Swarm Optimization and Real-Road/Driving-Cycle Analysis Based Powertrain System Design for Dual Motor Coupling Electric Vehicle

In this study, a planetary gear based dual motor coupling electric vehicle is proposed, which achieves higher system efficiency by enabling motor working under high operating efficiency area. Firstly, the dynamic characteristics of the proposed configuration are analyzed and the reasonable working modes are established. Secondly, the optimal dual motor parameters are derived according to the statistical analysis on the typical driving conditions and the collected real road driving data. Especially, the optimal parameters of planetary gear and final transmission ratio are obtained using particle swarm optimization algorithm. Finally, based on the developed mode shift algorithm, the dual motor coupling full vehicle model is developed and the vehicle performance is analyzed using MATLAB/Simulink. For the UDDS (Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule) driving cycle, it is seen from the simulation results of motor operating points that the proposed dual motor configuration is mostly operated under the high efficiency range, and the power consumption is significantly reduced by 7.6% compared with the single motor configuration. For the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle), WLTC (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Cycle) and real road driving conditions, the proposed dual motor configuration also achieves system efficiency improvement of 5.0%~16.3%, which confirms the validity of the proposed configuration and its corresponding parameter matching and control algorithm development

Glycyrrhizic Acid and Its Derivatives: Promising Candidates for the Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Its Complications

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disease, which is characterized by hyperglycemia, chronic insulin resistance, progressive decline in β-cell function, and defect in insulin secretion. It has become one of the leading causes of death worldwide. At present, there is no cure for T2DM, but it can be treated, and blood glucose levels can be controlled. It has been reported that diabetic patients may suffer from the adverse effects of conventional medicine. Therefore, alternative therapy, such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), can be used to manage and treat diabetes. In this review, glycyrrhizic acid (GL) and its derivatives are suggested to be promising candidates for the treatment of T2DM and its complications. It is the principal bioactive constituent in licorice, one type of TCM. This review comprehensively summarized the therapeutic effects and related mechanisms of GL and its derivatives in managing blood glucose levels and treating T2DM and its complications. In addition, it also discusses existing clinical trials and highlights the research gap in clinical research. In summary, this review can provide a further understanding of GL and its derivatives in T2DM as well as its complications and recent progress in the development of potential drugs targeting T2DM

Rational strain engineering of single-atom ruthenium on nanoporous MoS2 for highly efficient hydrogen evolution

Maximizing the catalytic activity of single-atom catalysts is vital for the application of single-atom catalysts in industrial water-alkali electrolyzers, yet the modulation of the catalytic properties of single-atom catalysts remains challenging. Here, we construct strain-tunable sulphur vacancies around single-atom Ru sites for accelerating the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction of single-atom Ru sites based on a nanoporous MoS2-based Ru single-atom catalyst. By altering the strain of this system, the synergistic effect between sulphur vacancies and Ru sites is amplified, thus changing the catalytic behavior of active sites, namely, the increased reactant density in strained sulphur vacancies and the accelerated hydrogen evolution reaction process on Ru sites. The resulting catalyst delivers an overpotential of 30 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, a Tafel slope of 31 mV dec−1, and a long catalytic lifetime. This work provides an effective strategy to improve the activities of single-atom modified transition metal dichalcogenides catalysts by precise strain engineering

Identifying Electrocatalytic Sites of the Nanoporous Copper-Ruthenium Alloy for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Electrolyte

Hydrogen production from electrochemical water splitting is a promising route to pursue clean and sustainable energy sources. Here, a three-dimensional nanoporous Cu-Ru alloy is prepared as a high-performance platinum-free catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by a dealloying process. Significantly, the optimized nanoporous alloy Cu53Ru47 exhibits remarkable catalytic activity for HER with nearly zero onset overpotential and ultralow Tafel slopes (∼30 and ∼35 mV dec-1) in both alkaline and neutral electrolytes, achieving a catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2 at low overpotentials of ∼15 and ∼41 mV, respectively. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments, in conjunction with DFT simulations, reveal that the incorporation of Ru atoms into the Cu matrix not only accelerates the reaction step rates of water adsorption and activation but also optimizes the hydrogen bonding energy on Cu and Ru active sites, improving the intrinsic activity for HER

Identifying Electrocatalytic Sites of the Nanoporous Copper-Ruthenium Alloy for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Electrolyte

Hydrogen production from electrochemical water splitting is a promising route to pursue clean and sustainable energy sources. Here, a three-dimensional nanoporous Cu-Ru alloy is prepared as a high-performance platinum-free catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by a dealloying process. Significantly, the optimized nanoporous alloy Cu53Ru47 exhibits remarkable catalytic activity for HER with nearly zero onset overpotential and ultralow Tafel slopes (∼30 and ∼35 mV dec-1) in both alkaline and neutral electrolytes, achieving a catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2 at low overpotentials of ∼15 and ∼41 mV, respectively. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments, in conjunction with DFT simulations, reveal that the incorporation of Ru atoms into the Cu matrix not only accelerates the reaction step rates of water adsorption and activation but also optimizes the hydrogen bonding energy on Cu and Ru active sites, improving the intrinsic activity for HER

Rational strain engineering of single-atom ruthenium on nanoporous MoS2 for highly efficient hydrogen evolution

Maximizing the catalytic activity of single-atom catalysts is vital for the application of single-atom catalysts in industrial water-alkali electrolyzers, yet the modulation of the catalytic properties of single-atom catalysts remains challenging. Here, we construct strain-tunable sulphur vacancies around single-atom Ru sites for accelerating the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction of single-atom Ru sites based on a nanoporous MoS2-based Ru single-atom catalyst. By altering the strain of this system, the synergistic effect between sulphur vacancies and Ru sites is amplified, thus changing the catalytic behavior of active sites, namely, the increased reactant density in strained sulphur vacancies and the accelerated hydrogen evolution reaction process on Ru sites. The resulting catalyst delivers an overpotential of 30 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, a Tafel slope of 31 mV dec−1, and a long catalytic lifetime. This work provides an effective strategy to improve the activities of single-atom modified transition metal dichalcogenides catalysts by precise strain engineering

Lateral Epitaxy of Atomically Sharp WSe₂/WS₂ Heterojunctions on Silicon Dioxide Substrates

Lateral Epitaxy of Atomically Sharp WSe₂/WS₂ Heterojunctions on Silicon Dioxide Substrate