Authenticity green coffee bean species and geographical origin using near-infrared spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

To prevent the adulteration of agricultural resources and provide a solution to enhance the green coffee bean supply chain, authentication using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique was investigated. Partial least square with discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) models combined with various preprocessing methods were built from NIR spectra of 153 Vietnamese green coffee samples. The model combined with the standard normal variate and the first order of derivative yielded excellent performance in predicting coffee species with the error cross-validation of 0.0261. PLS-DA model of mean centre and first-order derivative spectra also yielded good performance in verifying geographical indication of green coffee with the error of 0.0656. By contrast, the predicting abilities of post-harvest methods were poor. The overall results showed a high potential of the NIRS in online authentication practices.     

胶体电泳速度测定实验改进探索

胶体电泳速度测定实验是大学物理化学实验中一个重要的综合性教学实验.本文针对该实验中存在半透膜制作不稳定、渗析时间过长、电泳现象不明显、胶体/辅助液界面不清晰等问题.从胶体浓度、电极电压、半透膜、稳定剂四个方面进行了改进.结果表明,胶体界面移动距离,胶体/辅助液界面的清晰程度都有很大的改善,大大提高了实验的体验感.     

Effect of malondialdehyde oxidation on structure and physicochemical properties of amandin

Oil, accounting for 45% of almonds, is easily oxidised and can further induce the protein oxidation to reduce their quality. Structure and physicochemical properties of amandin, the main water-soluble protein in almonds, inducing oxidation by malondialdehyde (MDA) were investigated. The results showed that the content of carbonyl group increased from 5.23 to 33.25 nmol mg⁻¹ of protein with the increase in MDA concentration (P < 0.05). However, the sulphydryl content, surface hydrophobicity, particle size and the absolute value of ζ-potential first increased and then decreased. Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed that the structure of amandin changed from order to disorder. Fluorescence spectroscopic analysis revealed that mild oxidation (0–0.1 mmol L⁻¹ MDA) exposed hydrophobic groups of the protein. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) suggested that protein oxidation promoted crosslinking between protein molecules. Furthermore, protein oxidation markedly declined the total amino acid content of amandin (P < 0.05). In conclusion, MDA oxidation changed the structure and amino acid content of amandin, and caused the protein aggregate and crosslink through hydrophobic interaction and electrostatic interaction.     

Single transition metal atom catalysts on Ti2CN2 for efficient CO2 reduction reaction

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) is an efficient way in the utilization of CO₂. In this work, single transition-metal (TM) atom (TM = Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) anchored on two-dimensional (2D) Ti₂CN₂ are designed for CO₂RR using density-functional-theory (DFT) calculation. We show that Ti₂CN₂ serves as an excellent substrate to support single atom catalysts (SACs), compared to Ti₂CO₂ and Ti₂CF₂. We find that the Sc, Ti and V supported on Ti₂CN₂ show high catalytic activities to produce CO with a low overpotential of 0.37, 0.27, and 0.23 eV, respectively. Differently, the Mn and Fe on Ti₂CN₂ are catalytically active for the production of HCOOH with a low overpotential of 0.32 and 0.43 eV, respectively. We further show that the negatively charged TM-Ti₂CN₂ can capture and activate CO₂ more effectively, and the catalytic activity and selectivity can be significantly tuned by injecting extra electrons.     

Grain growth kinetics and growth mechanism of columnar Al2O3 crystals in xNb2O5–7.5La2O3-Al2O3 ceramic composites

xNb₂O₅–7.5La₂O₃-Al₂O₃ ceramic composites with in-situ-grown columnar Al₂O₃ crystals were successfully prepared by microwave sintering at 1450–1525?°C using α-Al₂O₃, Nb₂O₅, and La₂O₃ powders as raw materials. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the main phases were Al₂O₃, LaNbO₄, and Nb₂O₅ in the prepared samples. A field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) showed that the Al₂O₃ crystals appeared as columnar in the structure. Moreover, the grain size of the columnar Al₂O₃ crystals increased with the Nb₂O₅ content. The ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of the crystals was largest when the Nb₂O₅ content was 15?vol%. Furthermore, the grain-growth kinetics index (n), growth activation energy (Q), and growth mechanism of the columnar Al₂O₃ crystals were studied. The results indicated that the Nb₂O₅ addition could promote formation and growth of columnar Al₂O₃ crystals, and the grain-growth activation energy indicated that the dissolution process controls the crystal growth. The growth mechanism of the columnar Al₂O₃ crystals was also studied. The present work demonstrated that Nb₂O₅ is a good additive for the preparation of Nb₂O₅–7.5La₂O₃-Al₂O₃ composite ceramics with columnar Al₂O₃ crystals.     

锂辉石-氧化钙烧结法提锂的物相重构与动力学

对锂辉石-氧化钙烧结过程进行热力学分析，绘制了各反应Gibbs自由能与温度的关系图。结果表明，Al₂O₃会优先和Na₂O、Li₂O、K₂O反应，然后与CaO反应生成CaO·Al₂O₃，而且烧结温度需高于1060℃以保证LiAlSi₂O₆能够完成晶形转变。并探讨了锂辉石-氧化钙烧结法提锂的反应机理。考察了不同烧结条件对锂浸出率的影响并对熟料进行X射线衍射（XRD）分析表征。实验结果表明，在配料比为1∶1.25、烧结温度1150℃、烧结时间60min时，锂的浸出率达到92.14%，熟料中的主要物相为Ca₂SiO₄与LiAlO₂。利用XRD和扫描电镜-能谱联用仪（SEM-EDS）对熟料与浸出渣的物相、显微形貌及元素分布情况进行了分析表征。为了确定烧结反应的控制性步骤，在最优烧结条件的基础上对烧结过程进行动力学分析，结果表明，锂辉石-氧化钙烧结体系属于球形颗粒三维界面化学反应控制，烧结过程的动力学拟合方程为\mathrm{1}-{(\mathrm{1}-x)}^{\mathrm{1}/\mathrm{3}}=\mathrm{0.00677}t。     

Aptamer/Peptide-Functionalized Genome-Editing System for Effective Immune Restoration through Reversal of PD-L1-Mediated Cancer Immunosuppression

Effective reversal of tumor immunosuppression is of critical importance in cancer therapy. A multifunctional delivery vector that can effectively deliver CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid for β-catenin knockout to reverse tumor immunosuppression is constructed. The multi-functionalized delivery vector is decorated with aptamer-conjugated hyaluronic acid and peptide-conjugated hyaluronic acid to combine the tumor cell/nuclear targeting function of AS1411 with the cell penetrating/nuclear translocation function of TAT-NLS. Due to the significantly enhanced plasmid enrichment in malignant cell nuclei, the genome editing system can induce effective β-catenin knockout and suppress Wnt/β-catenin pathway, resulting in notably downregulated proteins involved in tumor progression and immunosuppression. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) downregulation in edited tumor cells not only releases the PD-1/PD-L1 brake to improve the cancer killing capability of CD8⁺ T cells, but also enhances antitumor immune responses of immune cells. This provides a facile strategy to reverse tumor immunosuppression and to restore immunosurveillance and activate anti-tumor immunity.     

Beneficial and harmful explanatory machine learning

Machine Learning - Given the recent successes of Deep Learning in AI there has been increased interest in the role and need for explanations in machine learned theories. A distinct notion in this...