Dai-Huang-Fu-Zi-Tang Alleviates Intestinal Injury Associated with Severe Acute Pancreatitis by Regulating Mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore of Intestinal Mucosa Epithelial Cells

Objective. The aim of the present study was to examine whether Dai-Huang-Fu-Zi-Tang (DHFZT) could regulate mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) of intestinal mucosa epithelial cells for alleviating intestinal injury associated with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Methods. A total of 72 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (sham group, SAP group, and DHFZT group, n=24 per group). The rats in each group were divided into 4 subgroups (n=6 per subgroup) accordingly at 1, 3, 6, and 12 h after the operation. The contents of serum amylase, D-lactic acid, diamine oxidase activity, and degree of MPTP were measured by dry chemical method and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The change of mitochondria of intestinal epithelial cells was observed by transmission electron microscopy. Results. The present study showed that DHFZT inhibited the openness of MPTP at 3, 6, and 12 h after the operation. Meanwhile, it reduced the contents of serum D-lactic acid and activity of diamine oxidase activity and also drastically relieved histopathological manifestations and epithelial cells injury of intestine. Conclusion. DHFZT alleviates intestinal injury associated SAP via reducing the openness of MPTP. In addition, DHFZT could also decrease the content of serum diamine oxidase activity and D-lactic acid after SAP

Robust 3.7 V-Na2/3_{2/3}[Cu1/3_{1/3}Mn2/3_{2/3}]O2_2 Cathode for Na-ion Batteries

Na-ion batteries (NIBs), which are recognized as a next-generation alternative technology for energy storage, still suffer from commercialization constraints due to the lack of low-cost, high-performance cathode materials. Since our first discovery of Cu$^{3+}$/Cu$^{2+}$ electrochemistry in 2014, numerous Cu-substituted/doped materials have been designed for NIBs. However for almost ten years, the potential of Cu$^{3+}$/Cu$^{2+}$ electrochemistry has been grossly underappreciated and normally regarded as a semielectrochemically active redox. Here, we re-synthesized P2-Na$_{2/3}$[Cu$_{1/3}$Mn$_{2/3}$]O$_2$ and reinterpreted it as a high-voltage, cost-efficient, air-stable, long-life, and high-rate cathode material for NIBs, which demonstrates a high operating voltage of 3.7 V and a completely active Cu$^{3+}$/Cu$^{2+}$ redox reaction. The 2.3 Ah cylindrical cells exhibit excellent cycling (93.1% capacity after 2000 cycles), high rate (97.2% capacity at 10C rate), good low-temperature performance (86.6% capacity at -30$^\circ$C), and high safety, based on which, a 56 V-11.5 Ah battery pack for E-bikes is successfully constructed, exhibiting stable cycling (96.5% capacity at the 800th cycle) and a long driving distance (36 km, tester weight 65 kg). This work offers a commercially feasible cathode material for low-cost, high-voltage NIBs, paving the way for advanced NIBs in power and stationary energy storage applications.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Effect of Kisspeptin-Type Neuropeptide on Locomotor Behavior and Muscle Physiology in the Sea Cucumber <i>Apostichopus japonicus</i>

Kisspeptins are neuropeptides encoded by the kiss1 gene, and little is known about them outside the vertebrate lineage. Two kisspeptin-type neuropeptides (KPs) have been discovered in Apostichopus japonicus (AjK1 and AjK2), an edible sea cucumber, and have been linked to reproductive and metabolic regulation. In this study, we evaluated how KPs affected locomotor behavior in one control group and two treatment groups (AjK1 and AjK2). We discovered that AjK1 had a significant dose effect, primarily by shortening the stride length and duration of movement to reduce the sea cucumber movement distance, whereas AjK2 had little inhibitory effect at the same dose. The levels of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC), uridine, glycine, and L-serine in the longitudinal muscle of A. japonicus treated with AjK1 differed significantly from those of the control, which may explain the observed changes in locomotor behavior. Treatment with AjK2 induced changes in aspartate levels. Our results imply that AjK1 is more likely than AjK2 to have a role in the regulation of A. japonicus locomotion

DISCUSSION FOR THE DESIGN OF PRESSURE SWING ABSORBER STRUCTURES

The sub-plate and insulation support ring were adopted in the design of pressure swing absorber,which resulted in severe stress concentration in the local structures. And the fatigue performance became worse. Finite element analysis was used to analyze this problem. The results show that the fatigue life is less than 16. 8 and 3. 07 percentage of the design life,which is far from the design requirements of pressure swing absorber. The previous structure design is not reasonable. Then,it is redesigned that the upper part of the ladder is fixed in the operating platform,the lower part of the ladder is fixed on the skirt or foundation,and the support ring is designed into suspender structure. The new structure can avoid the weldments between the accessories and the cylinder of pressure swing absorber. It can also prevent the fatigue crack initiation and meet the design requirements of pressure swing absorber

Correlation between Nanoscale Domain Structures and Superconducting Phase Transitions in Highly Crystalline 2D Superconductors

Abstract The domains and domain boundaries in 2D materials are known to play essential roles in investigating intriguing physical properties and have potential applications in nanoscale devices. Understanding the influence of individual domains on the superconducting properties of ultrathin 2D superconductors is of crucial importance for fundamental studies on mesoscopic superconductivity as well as applications in superconducting nanoelectronics. Here, low‐temperature electronic transport measurements of high quality ultrathin Mo2C crystals are presented that show clear evidence for the presence of multiple superconducting phase induced by the nanoscale domain structures. In particular, the observation of an anomalous resistance peak in the vicinity of the onset of the superconducting transition is reported. This resistive anomaly is interpreted as a consequence of nonequilibrium charge imbalance near the domain boundaries, which could induce effective normal‐superconducting interfaces in 2D Mo2C crystals. Moreover, the magnetic field‐tuned superconductor‐metal transition for ultrathin Mo2C crystals is examined. The observed scaling behavior is consistent with the appearance of quantum Griffiths singularity in 2D superconducting systems. This study sheds light on the understanding of the domain boundaries and their role on the transport properties of highly crystalline 2D superconductors, which may open potential application of domain structure in functional superconducting nanodevices

Effects of heavy ion mutation induction breeding on growth and physiological characteristics of broccoli

Brassica oleracea is one of the important vegetable crops in China. Its seeds are primarily imported. Hence, developing innovative varieties belonging to China is an urgent requirement. Since broccoli is a cross-pollinated crop systematic selection and cross-breeding are challenging, and the application of radiation mutagenesis breeding in broccoli has not been reported. In this study, the seeds of Brassica oleracea were irradiated using carbon ion beams to investigate the biological effects of these beams on broccoli. The growth indices, antioxidant enzyme activity, photosynthetic indices, and chlorophyll fluorescence were detected at the seedling stage. The results revealed that irradiation with 100–500 Gy exhibited no significant effect on the germination of Brassica oleracea, while the germination of seeds was significantly inhibited at 600 Gy. After irradiation with 100–600 Gy, the root length, shoot length, seedling height, and leaf area decreased with the increase in irradiation dose. The Median lethal dose (LD50) of Brassica oleracea irradiated using a carbon ion beam was 415.89 Gy, and the dose that halved the root length was 495.12 Gy. After irradiation, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) were higher than that of the control plants, while the activity of catalase (CAT) was lower than that of the control plants. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased significantly at a dose of 400 Gy. The photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoids) showed an increasing trend initially, and then a decreasing trend with an increasing irradiation dose, and the highest value was detected at a dose of 300 Gy. Net photosynthesis, transpiration rate, and stomatal conductance exhibited a negative correlation with irradiation dose, while the non-photosynthetic quenching coefficient exhibited a significant increase after irradiation. The findings indicated that heavy ion beam radiation inhibited the growth of broccoli plants and affected the activity of antioxidant enzymes and photosynthesis. The study provided basic data for the radiation mutation breeding of Brassica oleracea

Unique Domain Structure of Two-Dimensional α‑Mo₂C Superconducting Crystals

The properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are strongly influenced by domain boundaries. Ultrathin transition metal carbides are a class of newly emerging 2D materials that are superconducting and have many potential applications such as in electrochemical energy storage, catalysis, and thermoelectric energy conversion. However, little is known about their domain structure and the influence of domain boundaries on their properties. Here we use atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with large-scale diffraction-filtered imaging to study the microstructure of chemical vapor deposited high-quality 2D α-Mo₂C superconducting crystals of different regular shapes including triangles, rectangles, hexagons, octagons, nonagons, and dodecagons. The Mo atom sublattice in all these crystals has a uniform hexagonal closely packed arrangement without any boundaries. However, except for rectangular and octagonal crystals, the C atom sublattices are composed of three or six domains with rotational-symmetry and well-defined line-shaped domain boundaries because of the presence of three equivalent off-center directions of interstitial carbon atoms in Mo octahedra. We found that there is very small lattice shear strain across the domain boundary. In contrast to the single sharp transition observed in single-domain crystals, transport studies across domain boundaries show a broad resistive superconducting transition with two distinct transition processes due to the formation of localized phase slip events within the boundaries, indicating a significant influence of the boundary on 2D superconductivity. These findings provide new understandings on not only the microstructure of 2D transition metal carbides but also the intrinsic influence of domain boundaries on 2D superconductivity