Tobacco as bioenergy and medical plant for biofuels and bioproduction.

Tobacco, a widely cultivated crop, has been extensively utilized by humans for an extended period. However, the tobacco industry generates a significant amount of organic waste, and the effective utilization of this tobacco waste has been limited. Currently, most tobacco waste is either recycled as reconstituted tobacco sheets or disposed of in landfills.

Characterization techniques for tobacco and its derivatives: a systematic review.

Biomass and its derivatives have broad applications in the fields of bio-catalysis, energy storage, environmental remediation. The structure and components of biomass, which are vital parameters affecting corresponding performances of derived products, need to be fully understood for further regulating the biomass and its derivatives. Herein, tobacco is taken as an example of biomass to introduce the typical characterization techniques in unraveling the structural information, chemical components, and properties of biomass and its derivatives.

The Regulatory Mechanism of Smilax China L. Saponins against Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Is Revealed by Metabolomics and Transcriptomics.

This study was to investigate the effects of Smilax China L. saponins (SCS) on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Rats were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks to induce NAFLD, followed by SCS treatment for 8 weeks.

Curdione ameliorates sepsis-induced lung injury by inhibiting platelet-mediated neutrophil extracellular trap formation.

Sepsis-associated acute lung injury remains to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and there is a lack of effective therapeutic drugs. Curdione, an activeingredient of Curcuma zedoary, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), possesses a variety of pharmacological actions, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and inhibition of platelet aggregation. However, whether curdione protects against sepsis-induced lung injury is still undetermined.

Synthesis of nitrogen mustard-based fluorophores for cell imaging and cytotoxicity studies.

Nitrogen mustards are important alkylating anticancer drugs used for neoplasms treatment. However, little research about the integration of luminophore into nitrogen mustard-based compounds for both imaging and therapeutic application was reported. In this study, we report a series of novel nitrogen mustard-containing 1-furyl-2-en-1-one and 1-thienyl-2-en-1-one derivatives as intramolecular charge transfer-based luminophore for research in both imaging subcellular localization and antiproliferation toward lung cancer cells.

Integrative Analysis of Transcriptome and Metabolome to Illuminate the Protective Effects of Didymin against Acute Hepatic Injury.

Based on the multiomics analysis, this study is aimed at investigating the underlying mechanism of didymin against acute liver injury (ALI). The mice were administrated with didymin for 2 weeks, followed by injection with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plus D-galactosamine (D-Gal) to induce ALI. The pathological examination revealed that didymin significantly ameliorated LPS/D-Gal-induced hepatic damage.

Effects of rumen-protected methionine supplementation on production performance, apparent digestibility, blood parameters, and ruminal fermentation of lactating Holstein dairy cows.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of reducing dietary CP and supplementing rumen protected-methionine (RPM) on production performance, blood parameters, digestibility of nutrients or ruminal fermentation in lactating Holstein dairy cows. A total of 96 lactating cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments: a diet containing 17.3% CP without RPM (control group; CON; = 49) or a diet containing 16.

Temporal Coherence-Based Distributed Ray Tracing of Massive Scenes.

Distributed ray tracing algorithms are widely used when rendering massive scenes, where data utilization and load balancing are the keys to improving performance. One essential observation is that rays are temporally coherent, which indicates that temporal information can be used to improve computational efficiency. In this paper, we use temporal coherence to optimize the performance of distributed ray tracing.

Didymin Ameliorates Liver Fibrosis by Alleviating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Glycerophospholipid Metabolism: Based on Transcriptomics and Metabolomics.

Introduction: L. is a traditional Chinese herb, having a strong hepatoprotective effect. In our previous experiments, we have isolated an ingredient from this herb and identified it as didymin.

Engineering controllable oxygen vacancy defects in iron hydroxide oxide immobilized on reduced graphene oxide for boosting visible light-driven photo-Fenton-like oxidation.

Visible light-driven photo-Fenton-like technology is a promising advanced oxidation process for water remediation, while the construction of effective synergetic system remains a great challenge. Herein, iron hydroxide oxide (α-FeOOH) with controllable oxygen vacancy defects were engineered on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets (named as OVs-FeOOH/rGO) through an in-situ redox method for boosting visible light-driven photo-Fenton-like oxidation. By adjusting the pH environment to modulate the redox reaction kinetics between graphene oxide (GO) and ferrous salt precursors, the oxygen vacancy concentration in α-FeOOH could be precisely controlled.

AA-Score: a New Scoring Function Based on Amino Acid-Specific Interaction for Molecular Docking.

The protein-ligand scoring function plays an important role in computer-aided drug discovery and is heavily used in virtual screening and lead optimization. In this study, we developed a new empirical protein-ligand scoring function with amino acid-specific interaction components for hydrogen bond, van der Waals, and electrostatic interactions. In addition, hydrophobic, π-stacking, π-cation, and metal-ligand interactions are also included in the new scoring function.

Tormentic Acid Ameliorates Hepatic Fibrosis by Inhibiting Glycerophospholipids Metabolism and PI3K/Akt/mTOR and NF-κB Pathways: Based on Transcriptomics and Metabolomics.

This study aimed to investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of tormentic acid (TA) on carbon tetrachloride (CCl)-induced liver fibrosis in rats. The rats were intragastrically administered with 50% CCl for 9 weeks to induce hepatic fibrosis, followed by various agents for 6 weeks. Transcriptomic analysis was carried out to predict the potential targets, and then multiple examinations were performed to verify the prediction.

Interconversion between guanine quartets and triads on the Au(111) surface.

Based on STM imaging and DFT calculations, we show the real-space experimental evidence of the interconversion between G-quartets and G-triads on the Au(111) surface, and further reveal the relative stabilities of these two elementary motifs, which helps to increase the fundamental understanding of the relationship between G-triplex and G-quadruplex DNA structures.

Comprehensive analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics to illustrate the underlying mechanism of helenalin against hepatic fibrosis.

This study aimed to investigate the protective mechanisms of helenalin on hepatic fibrosis. In brief, rats were intragastrically administrated with 50% CCl for 9 weeks to induce liver fibrosis, followed by treatment with various agents for 6 weeks. The effects of helenalin on hepatic injury were assessed by pathological examinations.

Large Gap Two-Dimensional Topological Insulators with the Significant Rashba Effect in Ethynyl and Methyl Functionalized PbSn Monolayers.

Two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators (TIs) have recently attracted a great deal of attention due to their nondissipation electron transmission, stable performance, and easy device integration. However, a primary obstacle to influencing 2D TIs is the small bandgap, which limits their room-temperature applications. Here, we adopted first-principles to predict inversion-asymmetric group IV monolayers, PbSn(CH) and PbSn(CH), to be quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulators with large topological gaps of 0.

Understanding charge storage in NbCT MXene as an anode material for lithium ion batteries.

MXenes represent an emerging family of two-dimensional materials of transition metal carbides/carbonitrides terminated with functional groups like -O, -OH, and -F on the chemically active surface of MX slabs. As a member of the family, NbCT exhibits superior lithium storage capacity over most of the other MXenes as anode materials in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, an in-depth understanding of the charge storage mechanism is still lacking so far.

MolGpka: A Web Server for Small Molecule p Prediction Using a Graph-Convolutional Neural Network.

p is an important property in the lead optimization process since the charge state of a molecule in physiologic pH plays a critical role in its biological activity, solubility, membrane permeability, metabolism, and toxicity. Accurate and fast estimation of small molecule p is vital during the drug discovery process. We present MolGpKa, a web server for p prediction using a graph-convolutional neural network model.

An Approach to Computing Solvent Reorganization Energy.

A method for accurate calculation of reorganization free energy of an explicit solvent solvating a solute molecule is presented. The method relies on the knowledge of solvation free energy known either from experimental measurement or from accurate calculation. An important part of this approach lies in the calculation of entropy in solute-solvent interaction free energy using the interaction entropy method, combined with the calculation of enthalpy of solvent reorganization based on a finite number of solvent molecules near the solute molecule.

Nanoporous NiP Evolutionarily Structured onto a Ni Foam for Highly Selective Hydrogenation of Dimethyl Oxalate to Methyl Glycolate.

Methyl glycolate (MG) is a versatile platform molecule to produce numerous important chemicals and materials, especially new-generation biocompatible and biodegradable poly(glycolic acid). In principle, it can be massively produced from syngas (CO + H) via gas-phase hydrogenation of CO-derived dimethyl oxalate (DMO), but the groundbreaking catalyst represents a grand challenge. Here, we report the discovery of a Ni-foam-structured nanoporous NiP catalyst, evolutionarily transformed from a NiP/Ni-foam engineered from nano- to macro-scale, being capable of nearly fully converting DMO into MG at >95% selectivity and stable for at least 1000 h without any sign of deactivation.

Amount Rather than Animal vs Plant Protein Intake Is Associated with Skeletal Muscle Mass in Community-Dwelling Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Adults: Results from the Guangzhou Nutrition and Health Study.

Background: Current literature does not indicate if the amount and animal vs plant protein are equally important in the prevention of muscle loss in middle-aged and older Chinese adults.

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the associations between amount or animal vs plant protein and skeletal muscle mass in Chinese adults aged 40 to 80 years.

Design: A cross-sectional analysis of a prospective, community-based cohort was performed.

Studies on the Chemical Diversities of Secondary Metabolites Produced by via the OSMAC Method.

The One Strain Many Compounds (OSMAC) method was applied to explore the chemical diversities of secondary metabolites produced by NRRL 181. Four pyripyropenes ⁻, eight steroids ⁻, and four prenylated indole alkaloids ⁻, were obtained from the fungus cultured in petri dishes containing potato dextrose agar (PDA). 1,7,11-trideacetylpyripyropene A () and 1,11-dideacetyl pyripyropene A () were obtained and spectroscopically characterized (1D, 2D NMR, and HR-ESI-MS) from a natural source for the first time.

Pharmacokinetics and metabolism of olerciamide A from Portulaca oleracea L. in rats by UHPLC-UV and UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF/MS.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the pharmacokinetics of olerciamide A in rats after oral and intravenous administration of Portulaca oleracea L. extract by a simple and rapid ultra high-performance liquid chromatography method with bergapten as internal standard. The pharmacokinetic results indicated that olerciamide A was rapidly distributed with a time to peak concentration of 30 min after oral administration and presented a low oral absolute bioavailability of 4.

Two new similar alkaloids from Portulaca oleracea L.

Two novel alkaloids named oleraciamide A (1) and oleraciamide B (2) were isolated from Portulaca oleracea L., and spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution electrospray ionisation quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometer spectrometry techniques are employed to determine their structures. Oleraciamide A (1) was evaluated no cytotoxicity at concentrations up to 80 μM over 72 h against human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) by CCK-8 method.

Correction to Three Novel Alkaloids from Portulaca oleracea L. and Their Anti-inflammatory Effects.

Oleracimine and oleracimine A were isolated from Portulaca oleracea L. and described in the J. Agric.