Research on the maceral characteristics of Shenhua coal and efficient and directional direct coal liquefaction technology

Abstract In this research, molecular structure models were developed respectively for Shenhua coal vitrinite concentrates (SDV) and inertinite concentrates (SDI), on the basis of information on constitutional unit of Shenhau coal and elemental analysis results obtained from 13C-NMR analysis characterization, FTIR analysis characterization, X-ray diffraction XRD and XPS analysis characterization. It can be observed from characterization data and molecular structure models that the structure of SDV and SDI is dominated by aromatic hydrocarbon, with aromaticity of SDI higher than that of SDV; SDV mainly consists of small molecule basic structure unit, while SDI is largely made from macromolecular structure unit. Based on bond-level parameters of the molecular model, the research found through the autoclave experiment that vitrinite liquefaction process goes under thermodynamics control and inertinite liquefaction process under dynamics control. The research developed an efficient directional direct coal liquefaction technology based on the maceral characteristics of Shenhua coal, which can effectively improve oil yield and lower gas yield

Scientific Statistics, Teaching, Learning and the Computer

It is argued that the domination of Statistics by Mathematics rather than by Science has greatly reduced the value and the status of the subject. The mathematical "theorem - proof paradigm" has supplanted the "iterative learning paradigm" of scientific method. This misunderstanding has affected university teaching, research, the granting of tenure to faculty and the distributions of grants by funding agencies. Possible ways in which some of these problems might be overcome and the role that computers can play in this reformation are discussed

Flat bands as a route to high-temperature superconductivity in graphite

Superconductivity is traditionally viewed as a low-temperature phenomenon. Within the BCS theory this is understood to result from the fact that the pairing of electrons takes place only close to the usually two-dimensional Fermi surface residing at a finite chemical potential. Because of this, the critical temperature is exponentially suppressed compared to the microscopic energy scales. On the other hand, pairing electrons around a dispersionless (flat) energy band leads to very strong superconductivity, with a mean-field critical temperature linearly proportional to the microscopic coupling constant. The prize to be paid is that flat bands can generally be generated only on surfaces and interfaces, where high-temperature superconductivity would show up. The flat-band character and the low dimensionality also mean that despite the high critical temperature such a superconducting state would be subject to strong fluctuations. Here we discuss the topological and non-topological flat bands discussed in different systems, and show that graphite is a good candidate for showing high-temperature flat-band interface superconductivity.Comment: Submitted as a chapter to the book on "Basic Physics of functionalized Graphite", 21 pages, 12 figure

Cyclodextrin-PEI-Tat Polymer as a Vector for Plasmid DNA Delivery to Placenta Mesenchymal Stem Cells

This study aims to modify a cyclodextrin-PEI-based polymer, PEI-β-CyD, with the TAT peptide for plasmid DNA delivery to placenta mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs). By using the disulfide exchange between the SPDP-activated PEI-β-CyD and TAT peptide, the TAT-PEI-β-CyD polymer was fabricated and the success of this was confirmed by the presence of characteristic peaks for PEI (at δ 2.8-3.2 ppm), CyD (at δ 5.2, 3.8-4.0 and 3.4-3. 6 ppm) and TAT (at δ 1.6-1.9 and 6.8-7.2 ppm) in the 1H NMR spectrum of TAT-PEI-β-CyD. The polymer-plasmid-DNA polyplex could condense DNA at an N/P ratio of 7.0-8.0, and form nanoparticles with the size of 150.6±5.6 nm at its optimal N/P ratio (20/1). By examining the transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity of TAT-PEI-β-CyD, conjugation of the TAT peptide onto PEI-β-CyD was demonstrated to improve the transfection efficiency of PEI-β-CyD in PMSCs after 48 and 96 hours of post-transfection incubation. The viability of PEI-β-CyD-treated PMSCs was shown to be over 80% after 5 h of treatment and 24 h of post-treatment incubation. In summary, this study showed that the TAT-PEI-β-CyD polymer as a vector for plasmid DNA delivery to PMSCs and other cells warrants further investigations. © 2011 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Mean ergodicity and spectrum of the Cesàro operator on weighted c0 spaces

[EN] A detailed investigation is made of the continuity, the compactness and the spectrum of the Cesàro operator C acting on the weighted Banach sequence space c0(w) for a bounded, strictly positive weight w. New features arise in the weighted setting (e.g. existence of eigenvalues, compactness, mean ergodicity) which are not present in the classical setting of c0.The research of the first two authors was partially supported by the Projects MTM2013-43540-P, GVA Prometeo II/2013/013 and ACOMP/2015/186 (Spain).Albanese, AA.; Bonet Solves, JA.; Ricker, WJ. (2016). Mean ergodicity and spectrum of the Cesàro operator on weighted c0 spaces. Positivity. 20:761-803. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11117-015-0385-xS76180320Akhmedov, A.M., Başar, F.: On the fine spectrum of the Cesàro operator in $$c_0$$ c 0 . Math. J. Ibaraki Univ. 36, 25–32 (2004)Akhmedov, A.M., Başar, F.: The fine spectrum of the Cesàro operator $$C_1$$ C 1 over the sequence space $$bv_p, (1 \le p < \infty )$$ b v p , ( 1 ≤ p < ∞ ) . Math. J. Okayama Univ. 50, 135–147 (2008)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Convergence of arithmetic means of operators in Fréchet spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 401, 160–173 (2013)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Spectrum and compactness of the Cesàro operator on weighted $$\ell _p$$ ℓ p spaces. J. Aust. Math. Soc. 99, 287–314 (2015)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: The Cesàro operator in the Fréchet spaces $$\ell ^{p+}$$ ℓ p + and $$L ^{p-}$$ L p - . Glasg. Math. J (to appear)Ansari, S.I., Bourdon, P.S.: Some properties of cyclic operators. Acta Sci. Math. Szeged 63, 195–207 (1997)Brown, A., Halmos, P.R., Shields, A.L.: Cesàro operators. Acta Sci. Math. Szeged 26, 125–137 (1965)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: Spectrum of the Cesàro operator in $$\ell ^p$$ ℓ p . Arch. Math. 100, 267–271 (2013)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: Solid extensions of the Cesàro operator on $$\ell ^p$$ ℓ p and $$c_0$$ c 0 . Integr. Equ. Oper. Theory 80, 61–77 (2014)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: The Cesàro operator and unconditional Taylor series in Hardy spaces. Integr. Equ. Oper. Theory 83, 179–195 (2015)Diestel, J.: Sequences and Series in Banach Spaces. Springer, New York (1984)Dowson, H.R.: Spectral Theory of Linear Operators. Academic Press, London (1978)Dunford, N., Schwartz, J.T.: Linear Operators I: General Theory, 2nd Printing. Wiley Interscience Publ, New York (1964)Emilion, R.: Mean-bounded operators and mean ergodic theorems. J. Funct. Anal. 61, 1–14 (1985)Goldberg, S.: Unbounded Linear Operators: Theory and Applications. Dover Publ, New York (1985)Hille, E.: Remarks on ergodic theorems. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 57, 246–269 (1945)Jarchow, H.: Locally Convex Spaces. Teubner, Stuttgart (1981)Krengel, U.: Ergodic Theorems. de Gruyter, Berlin (1985)Leibowitz, G.: Spectra of discrete Cesàro operators. Tamkang J. Math. 3, 123–132 (1972)Lin, M.: On the uniform ergodic theorem. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 43, 337–340 (1974)Megginson, R.E.: An Introduction to Banach Space Theory. Springer, New York (1998)Mureşan, M.: A Concrete Approach to Classical Analysis. Springer, Berlin (2008)Okutoyi, J.I.: On the spectrum of $$C_1$$ C 1 as an operator on $$bv_0$$ b v 0 . J. Aust. Math. Soc. Ser. A 48, 79–86 (1990)Radjavi, H., Tam, P.-W., Tan, K.-K.: Mean ergodicity for compact operators. Studia Math. 158, 207–217 (2003)Reade, J.B.: On the spectrum of the Cesàro operator. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 17, 263–267 (1985)Rhoades, B.E., Yildirim, M.: The spectra and fine spectra of factorable matrices on $$c_0$$ c 0 . Math. Commun. 16, 265–270 (2011)Taylor, A.E.: Introduction to Functional Analysis. Wiley, New York (1958

Testing the theory of immune selection in cancers that break the rules of transplantation

Modification of cancer cells likely to reduce their immunogenicity, including loss or down-regulation of MHC molecules, is now well documented and has become the main support for the concept of immune surveillance. The evidence that these modifications, in fact, result from selection by the immune system is less clear, since the possibility that they may result from reorganized metabolism associated with proliferation or from cell de-differentiation remains. Here, we (a) survey old and new transplantation experiments that test the possibility of selection and (b) survey how transmissible tumours of dogs and Tasmanian devils provide naturally evolved tests of immune surveillance

Alterations in vascular function in primary aldosteronism - a cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging study

Introduction: Excess aldosterone is associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Aldosterone has a permissive effect on vascular fibrosis. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) allows study of vascular function by measuring aortic distensibility. We compared aortic distensibility in primary aldosteronism (PA), essential hypertension (EH) and normal controls and explored the relationship between aortic distensibility and pulse wave velocity (PWV).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: We studied PA (n=14) and EH (n=33) subjects and age-matched healthy controls (n=17) with CMR, including measurement of aortic distensibility, and measured PWV using applanation tonometry. At recruitment, PA and EH patients had similar blood pressure and left ventricular mass.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: Subjects with PA had significantly lower aortic distensibilty and higher PWV compared to EH and healthy controls. These changes were independent of other factors associated with reduced aortic distensibility, including aging. There was a significant relationship between increasing aortic stiffness and age in keeping with physical and vascular aging. As expected, aortic distensibility and PWV were closely correlated.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusion: These results demonstrate that PA patients display increased arterial stiffness compared to EH, independent of vascular aging. The implication is that aldosterone invokes functional impairment of arterial function. The long-term implications of arterial stiffening in aldosterone excess require further study.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

A study on the functions of ubiquitin metabolic system related gene FBG2 in gastric cancer cell line

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>FBG2 (F-BOX6) gene is an important member in ubiquitin metabolic system F-BOX family, and forms E3 complex with the other members in the family. But its role in gastric cancer is still not clear. In the present study, we intended to investigate the influence of FBG2 on the growth, proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and cell cycle of the gastric cancer line MKN45 and gastric cell line HFE145.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>As a critical component of ubiquitin-protein ligase complex, FBG2 cDNA was subcloned into a constitutive vector PCDNA3.1 followed by transfection in MKN45 and HFE145 by using liposome. Then stable transfectants were selected and appraised. The apoptosis and cell cycles of these clones were analyzed by using flow cytometry. The growth and proliferation were analyzed by cell growth curves and colony-forming assay respectively. The invasion of these clones was tested by using cancer cell migration assay. The FBG2 stable expression clones(MKN-FBG2 and HFE-FBG2) and their control groups were detected and compared respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MKN-FBG2 grew faster than MKN45 and MKN-PC(MKN45 transfected with PCDNA3.1 vector). HFE-FBG2 grew faster than HFE145 and HFE-PC(HFE145 transfected with PCDNA3.1 vector). The cell counts of MKN-FBG2 in the forth, fifth, sixth and seventh days were significantly more than those of others (P < 0.05). Cell cycle analysis showed that MKN-FBG2 and HFE-FBG2 proliferated faster, proportions of cells in G2-M and S were different significantly with control groups (P < 0.05). Results of colony-forming assay showed that the colony formation rates of MKN-FBG2 and HFE-FBG2 were higher than those of control groups (P < 0.05). The results of cell migration assay were all negative.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>FBG2 can promote the growth and proliferation of gastric cancer cells and normal gastric cells. It can help tumor cell maintain malignant phenotype too. But it can have a negative influence on the apoptosis or the ability of invasion of gastric cancer cells.</p

A metabolite-derived protein modification integrates glycolysis with KEAP1-NRF2 signalling.

Mechanisms that integrate the metabolic state of a cell with regulatory pathways are necessary to maintain cellular homeostasis. Endogenous, intrinsically reactive metabolites can form functional, covalent modifications on proteins without the aid of enzymes1,2, and regulate cellular functions such as metabolism3-5 and transcription6. An important 'sensor' protein that captures specific metabolic information and transforms it into an appropriate response is KEAP1, which contains reactive cysteine residues that collectively act as an electrophile sensor tuned to respond to reactive species resulting from endogenous and xenobiotic molecules. Covalent modification of KEAP1 results in reduced ubiquitination and the accumulation of NRF27,8, which then initiates the transcription of cytoprotective genes at antioxidant-response element loci. Here we identify a small-molecule inhibitor of the glycolytic enzyme PGK1, and reveal a direct link between glycolysis and NRF2 signalling. Inhibition of PGK1 results in accumulation of the reactive metabolite methylglyoxal, which selectively modifies KEAP1 to form a methylimidazole crosslink between proximal cysteine and arginine residues (MICA). This posttranslational modification results in the dimerization of KEAP1, the accumulation of NRF2 and activation of the NRF2 transcriptional program. These results demonstrate the existence of direct inter-pathway communication between glycolysis and the KEAP1-NRF2 transcriptional axis, provide insight into the metabolic regulation of the cellular stress response, and suggest a therapeutic strategy for controlling the cytoprotective antioxidant response in several human diseases