Theoretical Mechanism of Rh-Containing Species Catalyzing the Hydrogenolysis of Lignin Model Compounds Using -CO-H and -C-H Groups as Superior H-Sources.

The hydrogenolysis of lignin model compounds (MCs) into high-value chemicals has received increasing attention, but their catalytic reaction mechanisms are not yet very clear. Here, we report the reaction mechanisms of the hydrogenolysis of MC into 4-acetylanisole (AAL) and guaiacol (GAL) catalyzed by LRuCl (L = 4'-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2,2':6',2″-terpyridine) with MC, H, and 1-phenylethan-1-ol (PEO) as the H-sources in aqueous solution with the Bro̷nsted base (NaOH), at the M06/def2-TZVP, 6-311++G (d,p) theoretical level, namely, RS-Self, RS-H, and RS-PEO, respectively. After dissociation in NaOH aqueous solution, the LRuCl compound can form a stable complex LRh (OH) as the initial catalytically active species.

Theoretical Insight into the Mechanism for the Cellobiose-to-Sorbitol Hydrogenation Over Diatomic Ru/NC Catalyst.

Ru/NC shows a good catalytic performance in cellobiose-to-sorbitol hydrogenation. However, the molecular origins of the selective orientation of the reaction pathway remain unclear. Here, we rationally designed the Ru/NC catalyst, for which Ru2@N8 V4 is preferred as the model.

Mechanism of CO in promoting the hydrogenation of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone catalyzed by RuCl in aqueous solution.

A Ru-containing complex shows good catalytic performance toward the hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) with the assistance of organic base ligands (OBLs) and CO. Herein, we report the competitive mechanisms for the hydrogenation of LA to GVL, 4-oxopentanal (OT), and 2-methyltetrahydro-2,5-furandiol (MFD) with HCOOH or H as the H source catalyzed by RuCl in aqueous solution at the M06/def2-TZVP, 6-311++G(d,p) theoretical level. Kinetically, the hydrodehydration of LA to GVL is predominant, with OT and MFD as side products.

Increased GABA signaling in liver macrophage promotes HBV replication in HBV-carrier mice.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) signals in various non-neuronal cells including hepatocytes and some immune cells. Studies, including ours, show that type A GABA receptors (GABARs)-mediated signaling occurs in macrophages regulating tissue-specific functions. Our recent study reveals that activation of GABARs in liver macrophages promotes their M2-like polarization and increases HBV replication in mice.

Spectral-Spatial Feature Fusion for Hyperspectral Anomaly Detection.

Hyperspectral anomaly detection is used to recognize unusual patterns or anomalies in hyperspectral data. Currently, many spectral-spatial detection methods have been proposed with a cascaded manner; however, they often neglect the complementary characteristics between the spectral and spatial dimensions, which easily leads to yield high false alarm rate. To alleviate this issue, a spectral-spatial information fusion (SSIF) method is designed for hyperspectral anomaly detection.

Immunologic, Anti-Inflammatory, and Anti-Muscle Damage Profile of Supplemented Vitamin D in Healthy Adults on Strenuous Endurance Exercise.

Reportedly, strenuous endurance exercise can depress the immune system and induce inflammation and muscle damage. Therefore, this double-blinded, matched-pair study aimed to investigate the impact of vitamin D supplementation on immune response (leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, CD4, CD8, CD19, and CD56 counts), inflammatory profile (TNF-α and IL-6), muscle damage (CK and LDH levels), as well as aerobic capacity after strenuous endurance exercise in 18 healthy men taking 5000 IU of vitamin D ( = 9) or placebo ( = 9) daily for 4 weeks. Total and differential blood leukocyte counts, levels of cytokines, and muscle damage biomarkers were determined before, immediately after, and 2, 4, and 24 h after exercise.

Induction of Innate Memory in Human Monocytes Exposed to Mixtures of Bacterial Agents and Nanoparticles.

We assessed whether concomitant exposure of human monocytes to bacterial agents and different engineered nanoparticles can affect the induction of protective innate memory, an immune mechanism that affords better resistance to diverse threatening challenges. Monocytes were exposed in vitro to nanoparticles of different chemical nature, shape and size either alone or admixed with LPS, and cell activation was assessed in terms of production of inflammatory (TNFα, IL-6) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, IL-1Ra). After return to baseline conditions, cells were re-challenged with LPS and their secondary "memory" response measured.

Impacts of microplastics on immunity.

Most disposable plastic products are degraded slowly in the natural environment and continually turned to microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), posing additional environmental hazards. The toxicological assessment of MPs for marine organisms and mammals has been reported. Thus, there is an urgent need to be aware of the harm of MPs to the human immune system and more studies about immunological assessments.

Numerical investigation on the ranging performance of forward pulsed laser radar affected by shock waves.

When an aircraft loaded with pulsed laser radar flies at supersonic speed, the laser beam will be distorted by the uneven outflow field, resulting in a significant reduction in ranging accuracy. In this study, the influence mechanism of the shock wave on the performance of forward pulsed laser radar is investigated. First, a novel semi-analytical method is proposed to model the pulsed laser echo wave affected by shock waves, which combines the laser radar equation with optical distortion parameters.

Design of a Cylindrical Compliant Linear Guide with Decoupling Parallelogram Mechanisms.

A conventional linear guiding mechanism refers to the slide rail guides composed of multiple assemble parts. These guiding mechanisms suffer from many adverse effects, including lubrication, wear and assembly issues. A novel compliant guiding mechanism is proposed in this paper to address these common problems, and this mechanism transfers or transforms motion, force and energy via the deformation of flexible members.

Design of Deployable Structures by Using Bistable Compliant Mechanisms.

A deployable structure can significantly change its geometric shape by switching lattice configurations. Using compliant mechanisms as the lattice units can prevent wear and friction among multi-part mechanisms. This work presents two distinctive deployable structures based on a programmable compliant bistable lattice.

Mechanism of Preferential Hydrogenation of Hydroxymethyl Group to Aldehyde Group in 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural over W C-Based Catalyst.

A W C cluster was used to model a W C catalyst with the armchair model of activated carbon support, noted as W C /AC. Over W C /AC, the mechanism for the hydrogenation of both -H OH and -CHO groups in 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was theoretically studied in tetrahydrofuran at GGA-PBE/DNP level. 5-Methylfurfural was the major product from only hydrodehydration of the -CH OH group, whereas 2,5-dihydroxymethylfuran was the minor product from the hydrogenation of both -CH OH and -CHO groups.

Zinc Supplementation Prevented Type 2 Diabetes-Induced Liver Injury Mediated by the Nrf2-MT Antioxidative Pathway.

Zinc is an essential trace element that is often reduced under the type 1 diabetic condition. Previous studies demonstrated that zinc deficiency enhanced type 1 diabetes-induced liver injury and that zinc supplementation significantly helped to prevent this. Due to the differences in pathogenesis between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, it is unknown whether zinc supplementation can induce a beneficial effect on type 2 diabetes-induced liver injury.

Astaxanthin attenuates alcoholic cardiomyopathy via inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated cardiac apoptosis.

Chronic excessive ethanol consumption is associated with a high incidence of mortality due to ethanol-induced dilated cardiomyopathy, known as alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACM). Mechanistic studies have demonstrated that apoptosis is key to the pathogenesis of ACM, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-associated apoptosis contributes to various ethanol-related diseases. Astaxanthin (AST) is a natural carotenoid that exerts an anti-ER stress effect.

Therapeutic Effects of Fibroblast Growth Factor-21 on Diabetic Nephropathy and the Possible Mechanism in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Mice.

Background: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has been only reported to prevent type 1 diabetic nephropathy (DN) in the streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) mouse model. However, the FVB (Cg)-Tg (Cryaa-Tag, Ins2-CALM1) 26OVE/PneJ (OVE26) transgenic mouse is a widely recommended mouse model to recapture the most important features of T1DM nephropathy that often occurs in diabetic patients. In addition, most previous studies focused on exploring the preventive effect of FGF21 on the development of DN.

50 mm-aperture Nd:LuAG ceramic nanosecond laser amplifier producing 10 J at 10 Hz.

The growth and laser amplifier performance of a large-aperture Nd:LuAG ceramic are reported. Using the vacuum sintering and high-temperature insostatic pressing (HIP) methods, three pieces of a 50 mm-aperture Nd:LuAG ceramic are fabricated and used as the gain medium in a diode-pumped nanosecond distributed active mirror amplifier chain (DAMAC). The energy storage capacity of large-aperture Nd:LuAG is investigated and compared with that of Nd:YAG.

12 J, 10 Hz diode-pumped Nd:YAG distributed active mirror amplifier chain with ASE suppression.

Experimental amplification of 10-ns pulses to an energy of 12.2 J at the repetition rate of 1-10 Hz is reported from a diode-pumped room-temperature distributed active mirror amplifier chain (DAMAC) based on Nd:YAG slabs. Efficient power scaling at the optical-optical efficiency of 20.

Efficient sub-joule energy extraction from a diode-pumped Nd:LuAG amplifier seeded by a Nd:YAG laser.

We report on a joule-level diode-pumped Nd:YAG-Nd:LuAG hybrid active mirror amplifier chain, producing an output energy of 1.52 J at 10 Hz in a 10 ns Q-switched pulse, while a pulse energy of 623 mJ is extracted from the Nd:LuAG stage, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 21.7%.