Electroneutrality Breakdown and Specific Ion Effects in Nanoconfined Aqueous Electrolytes Observed by NMR

Ion distribution in aqueous electrolytes near the interface plays critical roles in electrochemical, biological and colloidal systems and is expected to be particularly significant inside nanoconfined regions. Electroneutrality of the total charge inside nanoconfined regions is commonly assumed a priori in solving ion distribution of aqueous electrolytes nanoconfined by uncharged hydrophobic surfaces with no direct experimental validation. Here, we use a quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance approach to investigate the properties of aqueous electrolytes nanoconfined in graphitic-like nanoporous carbon. Substantial electroneutrality breakdown in nanoconfined regions and very asymmetric responses of cations and anions to the charging of nanoconfining surfaces are observed. The electroneutrality breakdown is shown to depend strongly on the propensity of anions toward the water-carbon interface and such ion-specific response follows generally the anion ranking of the Hofmeister series. The experimental observations are further supported by numerical evaluation using the generalized Poisson-Boltzmann equationComment: 26 pages, 3 figure

2-[2-Hydr­oxy-4-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)benzo­yl]benzoic acid

The title compound, C18H17NO4, crystallizes with two indepen­dent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. The pyrrolidine ring in one mol­ecule is disordered over two positions, with refined site-occupancy factors of 0.853 (5) and 0.147 (5). The dihedral angles between the planes of the benzene rings in the two independent mol­ecules are 56.8 (2) and 68.2 (5)°. The mol­ecular conformations are stabilized by intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are linked by inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming dimers and generating rings of graph-set motif R 2 2(8)

Video Surveillance Over Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks Using Active Cameras

Although there has been much work focused on the camera control issue on keeping tracking a target of interest, few has been done on jointly considering the video coding, video transmission, and camera control for effective and efficient video surveillance over wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSAN). In this work, we propose a framework for real-time video surveillance with pan-tilt cameras where the video coding and transmission as well as the automated camera control are jointly optimized by taking into account the surveillance video quality requirement and the resource constraint of WSANs. The main contributions of this work are: i) an automated camera control method is developed for moving target tracking based on the received surveillance video clip in consideration of the impact of video transmission delay on camera control decision making; ii) a content-aware video coding and transmission scheme is investigated to save network node resource and maximize the received video quality under the delay constraint of moving target monitoring. Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed optimization framework over existing systems

Nitrogen-Rich Perylene Nanosheet Enhanced Bismaleimide Resin

The low toughness of bismaleimide resin (BMI) hinders its application in the aerospace field. In order to improve the strength and toughness of BMI resin simultaneously, this study proposes to introduce perylene-dicyandiamide (P-DCD) nanosheets with an ultra-s rigid conjugated planar structure into the polymer matrix of bismaleimide resin through hydrogen bonding and cross-linking to construct modified composites. The research results showed that the modified cured composites exhibited excellent mechanical properties, with a significant increase in impact strength of 135.8%, flexural strength and flexural modulus of 87.1% and 44.6%, respectively. The thermal properties of the resin were maintained before and after modification, with the glass transition temperature (Tg) of 284.0 ˚C and decomposition temperature > 520 ˚C. Meanwhile, the strengthening and toughening mechanism of the bismaleimide-based system modified by additive P-DCD were also explored. The results showed that the functional group of dicyandiamide in nanosheets and the hydrogen bonding effect in P-DCD synergically increased the cross-linking network and compatibility between P-DCD and the matrix resin

An Unsupervised Three-way Decisions Framework of Overload Preference Based on Adjusted Weight Multi-attribute Decision-making Model

AbstractIn the process of traffic control, law-enforcement officials are required to accurately evaluate the potential probability of freight-driver's overloading behavior. This study establishes a model of overloading preference assessment on the basis of freight-driver's individual variation. With indexes selecting, the equal-weight and AHP-based adjusted weight decision-making model are used respectively to evaluate freight-driver's overload preference. Synthesizing the results from two models, we present a three-way decisions model to make judgment

Sequence analysis of Epstein-Barr virus EBNA-2 gene coding amino acid 148-487 in nasopharyngeal and gastric carcinomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA-2) plays a key role in the B-cell growth transformation by initiating and maintaining the proliferation of infected B-cell upon EBV infection in vitro. Most studies about EBNA-2 have focused on its functions yet little is known for its intertypic polymorphisms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Coding region for amino acid (aa) 148-487 of the EBNA-2 gene was sequenced in 25 EBV-associated gastric carcinomas (EBVaGCs), 56 nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs) and 32 throat washings (TWs) from healthy donors in Northern China. Three variations (g48991t, c48998a, t49613a) were detected in all of the samples (113/113, 100%). EBNA-2 could be classified into four distinct subtypes: E2-A, E2-B, E2-C and E2-D based on the deletion status of three aa (294Q, 357K and 358G). Subtypes E2-A and E2-C were detected in 56/113 (49.6%), 38/113 (33.6%) samples, respectively. E2-A was observed more in EBVaGCs samples and subtype E2-D was only detected in the NPC samples. Variation analysis in EBNA-2 functional domains: the TAD residue (I438L) and the NLS residues (E476G, P484H and I486T) were only detected in NPC samples which located in the carboxyl terminus of EBNA-2 gene.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The subtypes E2-A and E2-C were the dominant genotypes of the EBNA-2 gene in Northern China. The subtype E2-D may be associated with the tumorigenesis of NPC. The NPC isolates were prone harbor to more mutations than the other two groups in the functional domains.</p

Salvianolic Acid B Prevents Arsenic Trioxide-Induced Cardiotoxicity In Vivo and Enhances Its Anticancer Activity In Vitro

Clinical attempts to reduce the cardiotoxicity of arsenic trioxide (ATO) without compromising its anticancer activities remain to be an unresolved issue. In this study, we determined whether Sal B can protect against ATO-induced cardiac toxicity in vivo and increase the toxicity of ATO toward cancer cells. Combination treatment of Sal B and ATO was investigated using BALB/c mice and human hepatoma (HepG2) cells and human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells. The results showed that the combination treatment significantly improved the ATO-induced loss of cardiac function, attenuated damage of cardiomyocytic structure, and suppressed the ATO-induced release of cardiac enzymes into serum in BALB/c mouse models. The expression levels of Bcl-2 and p-Akt in the mice treated with ATO alone were reduced, whereas those in the mice given the combination treatment were similar to those in the control mice. Moreover, the combination treatment significantly enhanced the ATO-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis of HepG2 cells and HeLa cells. Increases in apoptotic marker cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase and decreases in procaspase-3 expressions were observed through western blot. Taken together, these observations indicate that the combination treatment of Sal B and ATO is potentially applicable for treating cancer with reduced cardiotoxic side effects