5-[(3,4-Dimethoxy­benzyl)­aminomethyl­ene]-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione

The title compound, C15H17NO6, is approximately planar, with dihedral angles of 3.11 (4) and 2.12 (4)° between the connecting amino­methyl­ene unit and the planar part of the dioxane ring, and between the dimethoxy­benzyl ring and the amino­methyl­ene group, respectively. The dioxane ring exhibits a half-boat conformation, in which the C atom between the dioxane O atoms is 0.5471 (8) Å out of the plane. The mol­ecule has an intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond which may stabilize the planar conformation. In the crystal, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding contacts, result in the formation of sheets parallel to the ab plane

2-(4-Methyl­phen­yl)-1-(phenyl­sulfon­yl)propan-2-ol

The title compound, C16H18O3S, features a U-shape mol­ecular structure with a dihedral angle between the terminal benzene rings of 20.8 (1)°. An intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond helps to stabilize the mol­ecular structure. Inter­molecular classical O—H⋯O and weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonding is present in the crystal structure

Tracking dynamics of plant biomass composting by changes in substrate structure, microbial community, and enzyme activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding the dynamics of the microbial communities that, along with their secreted enzymes, are involved in the natural process of biomass composting may hold the key to breaking the major bottleneck in biomass-to-biofuels conversion technology, which is the still-costly deconstruction of polymeric biomass carbohydrates to fermentable sugars.</p> <p>However, the complexity of both the structure of plant biomass and its counterpart microbial degradation communities makes it difficult to investigate the composting process.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, a composter was set up with a mix of yellow poplar (<it>Liriodendron tulipifera</it>) wood-chips and mown lawn grass clippings (85:15 in dry-weight) and used as a model system. The microbial rDNA abundance data obtained from analyzing weekly-withdrawn composted samples suggested population-shifts from bacteria-dominated to fungus-dominated communities. Further analyses by an array of optical microscopic, transcriptional and enzyme-activity techniques yielded correlated results, suggesting that such population shifts occurred along with early removal of hemicellulose followed by attack on the consequently uncovered cellulose as the composting progressed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The observed shifts in dominance by representative microbial groups, along with the observed different patterns in the gene expression and enzymatic activities between cellulases, hemicellulases, and ligninases during the composting process, provide new perspectives for biomass-derived biotechnology such as consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) and solid-state fermentation for the production of cellulolytic enzymes and biofuels.</p

Thermo-hydraulic coupled analysis of meshed district heating networks based on improved breadth first search method

Efficient numerical simulation of thermo-hydraulic coupled conditions is critical for analysis and control of DH network. However, for most of meshed DH network, the flow directions of its pipelines may change, which will lead to difficulties in effective numerical calculation of the thermo-hydraulic conditions. This paper established an efficient thermo-hydraulic coupled calculation method, which utilizes the topology sorting algorithm to obtain the calculation sequence of all pipelines during numerical thermal transient calculation, according to the flow directions and flow rates of all pipelines. The flow directions and flow rates are solved by hydraulic condition calculation at each time step. The proposed method is applied to a real meshed DH network for thermal dynamic simulation. Independence analysis of hydraulic computation frequency is conducted, and convergences of the simulated temperature variations are observed when hydraulic computation frequency gets larger. Thermal dynamics of the meshed DH network are analyzed with 10-min hydraulic computation interval. Results show that the temperature decay and time delay can be up to 2.7 °C and 210 min for the simulated network. Thermal dynamic characteristics of supply temperature waves are various considering the distance from heat source, fluctuations of outdoor temperature and the variations of substation flow rate

Observation of momentum-confined in-gap impurity state in Ba0.6_{0.6}K0.4_{0.4}Fe2_2As2_2: evidence for anti-phase s±s_{\pm} pairing

We report the observation by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of an impurity state located inside the superconducting gap of Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ and vanishing above the superconducting critical temperature, for which the spectral weight is confined in momentum space near the Fermi wave vector positions. We demonstrate, supported by theoretical simulations, that this in-gap state originates from weak non-magnetic scattering between bands with opposite sign of the superconducting gap phase. This weak scattering, likely due to off-plane Ba/K disorders, occurs mostly among neighboring Fermi surfaces, suggesting that the superconducting gap phase changes sign within holelike (and electronlike) bands. Our results impose severe restrictions on the models promoted to explain high-temperature superconductivity in these materials.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

GSK-3β regulates tumor growth and angiogenesis in human glioma cells.

BACKGROUND: Glioma accounts for the majority of primary malignant brain tumors in adults. METHODS: Glioma specimens and normal brain tissues were analyzed for the expression levels of GSK-3β and p-GSK-3β (Ser9) by tissue microarray analysis (TMA) and Western blotting. Glioma cells over-expressing GSK-3β were used to analyze biological functions both in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: The levels of p-GSK-3β (Ser9), but not total GSK-3β, are significantly up-regulated in glioma tissues compared to normal tissues, and are significantly correlated with the glioma grades. Ectopic expression of GSK-3β decreased the phosphorylation levels of mTOR and p70S6K1; and inhibited β-catenin, HIF-1α and VEGF expression. Forced expression of GSK-3β in glioma cells significantly inhibited both tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: These results reveal that GSK-3β regulates mTOR/p70S6K1 signaling pathway and inhibits glioma progression in vivo; its inactivation via p-GSK-3β (Ser9) is associated with glioma development, which is new mechanism that may be helpful in developing GSK-3β-based treatment of glioma in the future

Physics perspectives of heavy-ion collisions at very high energy

Heavy-ion collisions at very high colliding energies are expected to produce a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at the highest temperature obtainable in a laboratory setting. Experimental studies of these reactions can provide an unprecedented range of information on properties of the QGP at high temperatures. We report theoretical investigations of the physics perspectives of heavy-ion collisions at a future high-energy collider. These include initial parton production, collective expansion of the dense medium, jet quenching, heavy-quark transport, dissociation and regeneration of quarkonia, photon and dilepton production. We illustrate the potential of future experimental studies of the initial particle production and formation of QGP at the highest temperature to provide constraints on properties of strongly interaction matter.Comment: 35 pages in Latex, 29 figure