Recent Update on the Pharmacological Effects and Mechanisms of Dihydromyricetin

As the most abundant natural flavonoid in rattan tea, dihydromyricetin (DMY) has shown a wide range of pharmacological effects. In addition to the general characteristics of flavonoids, DMY has the effects of cardioprotection, anti-diabetes, hepatoprotection, neuroprotection, anti-tumor, and dermatoprotection. DMY was also applied for the treatment of bacterial infection, osteoporosis, asthma, kidney injury, nephrotoxicity and so on. These effects to some extent enrich the understanding about the role of DMY in disease prevention and therapy. However, to date, we still have no outlined knowledge about the detailed mechanism of DMY, which might be related to anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation. And the detailed mechanisms may be associated with several different molecules involved in cellular apoptosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation, such as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), protein kinase B (Akt), nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) and so on. Here, we summarized the current pharmacological developments of DMY as well as possible mechanisms, aiming to push the understanding about the protective role of DMY as well as its preclinical assessment of novel application

Resistive switching characteristics of Pt/TaOx/HfNx structure and its performance improvement

The refractory transition metal nitride (TMN) film Hafnium nitride (HfNx) was successfully prepared on silicon-based substrates as bottom electrodes for resistive random access memory (RRAM) cells in Pt (top)/metal oxide/ HfNx (bottom) sandwich structure. The reproducible resistive switching (RS) characteristics of the memory cells were studied systematically for RRAM applications. The advantages of adopting HfNx instead of Pt as bottom electrode material were demonstrated, including the improvement of the low resistive state value, the RS endurance and the uniformity of RS parameters. The composition and chemical bonding states of the prepared HfNx was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique. The nitrogen content in the HfNx and the Gibbs free energy of the corresponding metal oxide formation has great influences on the RS properties. The oxygen reservoir ability and diffusion barrier effect of the HfNx play a key role in the RS performance improvement of the RRAM devices

Effect of the Organic Loading Rates Increase on Process Stability and Microbial Community Composition during the Anaerobic Digestion of Fresh Vinegar Residue

Anaerobic digestion (AD) was employed to utilize fresh vinegar residue (FVR) in this study. The performance and microbial community structure at increasing organic loading rates (OLRs) were evaluated. The results showed that the mono-fermentation of FVR was unstable at high OLRs due to the high acidity and the high cellulose content of the raw material. The optimum OLR was 2.0 g VS/(L center dot d), with the maximum average methane yield at 216 mL /g VS. High OLRs (2.5 g VS/(L center dot d)) led to the irreversible inhibition of AD process, although digester ceased feeding during the recovering stage. The diversity of microbial community decreased at high OLRs. The relative abundance of major bacterial community at different OLRs also varied. The syntrophic volatile fatty acids (VFAs) oxidizing bacteria declined while the acid-producing bacteria became dominant. The close correlation between the AD process stability and the microbial community structure suggested that maintaining a rich and diverse microbial community was essential for the practical application of AD on vinegar residue (VR) utilization. [GRAPHICS]

Optimization of Training Program for Land Resource Management Major under the Background of Urban and Rural Integration

With constant deepening of development outlook of urban and rural integration, education circle starts to attach great importance to reform of personnel training program. Since scarcity of land resource and key role of land management in urban and rural integration, it is urgent to optimize the personnel training program for land resource management major. From aspects of optimum objectives, principles, program and implementation effect, this paper discusses training program for land resource management major under the background of urban and rural integration. It is expected to provide reference for cultivating land resource management personnel suitable for development of urban and rural integration

Development Strategies of New Materials for Emerging Industries and Future Industries

New materials are the foundation of emerging industries and future industries, which is an important field to seize the strategic commanding heights in science and economic development and an important driving force for China to promote its new industrialization. This study analyzes the application trend of new materials in the fields of information, energy, biotechnology, and deep-space and deep-sea exploration, and finds that the combination of new materials or deep integration with other disciplines or fields is becoming an important feature of new materials development. Moreover, it analyzes the development status of the new material industry in China from the aspects of industrial scale, technological innovation capability, enterprises, and industry clusters, and summarizes the problems regarding the development of the industry. For instance, key raw materials of the industry still rely on imports, the core equipment cannot be independently produced, the self-sufficiency rate of high-end products is insufficient, some key products lack application iteration, and the standards and evaluation systems require improvement. Nine and seven key areas are proposed for the development of the emerging industries and future industries, respectively. Furthermore, we propose the following suggestions to promote the high-quaility development of the new material industry of China: strengthening the foundation for new material industry development, improving the industry chain of new materials, creating a sound environment for industrial development, and improving the supporting policies for industrial development

Current Situation of Land Use in Three-Gorges Reservoir Region in 2010

Land is rare natural resource. Production and construction of all sectors in a region must be based on land. Thus, overall research and analysis on current situation of land use can reveal scope, depth and reasonableness of land use, is helpful for analyzing internal mechanism land use change, and can reflect production scale, level and characteristics, and also can provide basis for optimization and adjustment of land use structure. Based on RS and GIS technologies, with the aid of TM image data of the Three-Gorges Reservoir Region in 2010, the data of current situation of land use in Three-Gorges Reservoir Region was obtained, and current land use situation was analyzed using geographimetrics and landscape ecology methods. Results show that since natural, social and economic conditions are different, land type diversity, combination type and location index of counties in the Three-Gorges Reservoir Region are varied. In the land use diversity index, Xingshan County has the most single land use type (mainly forest land); in land use degree, Yuzhong District has the highest land use degree; in the integrated index of land use, Changshou District has the lowest integrated index of land use. This study is expected to provide reference and basis for formulating policies of protecting ecological environment of the Three-Gorges Reservoir Region

The investigation of the reversed enantio-selectivity by an alpha-cyclodextrin doped thin film composite membrane

A facilitated-transport enantio-separation mechanism was proposed in this study and verified with an enantio-selective thin film composite membrane. The polysulfone membrane substrate was first fabricated at the optimized conditions, and the chiral selector alpha-CD was then incorporated into the selective layer by mixing with the MPD monomer for interfacial polymerization. Racemic tryptophan was employed as the model selectant, and inversed enantio-selectivities, 1.55 and 0.6 were observed from two different operation mode driven by concentration gradient and pressure gradient, respectively. The facilitated-transport separation mechanism was demonstrated by the concentration driven mode. The effects of other influencing factors including racemic feed concentration, alpha-CD concentration and pressure were also investigated. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers

Touch Locating and Stretch Sensing Studies of Conductive Hydrogels with Applications to Soft Robots

Soft robots possess great potential in environmental adaptations, while their environmental sensing abilities are critical. Conductive hydrogels have been suggested to possess sensing abilities. However, their application in soft robots is lacking. In this work, we fabricated a soft and stretchable gel material, introduced its sensing mechanisms, and developed a measurement setup. Both experimental and simulation studies indicate strong nonlinearity of touch locating on a square touch panel with Cartesian coordinates. To simplify the touch locating, we proposed a touch locating system based on round touch panels with polar coordinates. Mathematical calculations and finite element method (FEM) simulations showed that in this system the locating of a touch point was only determined by its polar radius. This was verified by experimental studies. As a resistor, a gel strip’s resistance increases with stretching. To demonstrate their applications on soft robots, a 3D printed three-fingered soft gripper was employed with gel strips attached. During finger bending for rod grasping, the resistances of the gel strips increased, indicating stretching of the soft material. Furthermore, the strain and stress of a gel strip increased with a decrease of the rod diameter. These studies advance the application of conductive hydrogels on soft robots