太子参化学成分及生物活性研究进展

太子参为石竹科植物孩儿参的干燥块根,味甘、微苦,性平,归脾肺经,具有益气健脾、生津润肺之功效,常用于气虚津伤的肺虚燥咳,被国家卫生健康委员会批准用于保健食品。现代药理和临床研究表明,太子参中特征性化学成分多糖和环肽具有免疫调节、抗炎、改善记忆等作用。近年来对太子参的化学成分、结构和药理作用的综述仅局限于特征成分,对其他成分还鲜有系统梳理报道。因此本文系统梳理了太子参的化学成分及生物活性研究进展,以期为太子参的开发利用提供参考和依据。     

Use of an electronic tongue and HPLC with electrochemical detection to differentiate molds in culture media

A study was conducted to further evaluate an electronic tongue, using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical (EC) and UV detection as a reference method. The electronic tongue consisted of four working electrodes made of different metals and arranged in a standard three-electrode configuration. Pulses of voltage were applied to the metals, and the current responses were sampled and collected in a data matrix. The objectives of the present investigation were to examine the ability of the electronic tongue to distinguish between two mold species growing in three different media, and to obtain support for the hypothesis that the device actually discriminates between different redox-active metabolites produced by the molds. Peak areas in EC and UV HPLC chromatograms were collected in a data matrix. The electronic tongue data and the EC and UV data were then subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). A number of peaks in the HPLC-EC chromatograms indicated that the growth media contained redox-active metabolites. Moreover, PCA of peak areas in EC chromatograms revealed differences between the distribution of redox-active metabolites produced by the two species and between the three culture media. The same pattern was apparent in a PCA score plot of electronic tongue data. The peaks in the UV and EC chromatograms differed, and these were also shown by the PCA score plots.     

Development of a universal modeling tool for rechargeable lithium batteries

An interesting universal modeling tool for rechargeable lithium batteries is presented in this paper. The generic model is based on an equivalent circuit technique commonly used in electrochemical impedance characterization. Therefore, the parameters used in the model can be easily parameterized from the electrochemical impedance derivations, which provide a convenient integration with experimental cell characterizations. Such integration offers the universality in this modeling approach.     

Inductive modeling of lithium-ion cells

Sandia National Laboratories has conducted a sequence of studies on the performance of lithium ion and other types of electrochemical cells using inductive models. The objectives of some of these investigations are: (1) to develop procedures to rapidly determine performance degradation rates while these cells undergo life tests; (2) to model cell voltage and capacity in order to simulate cell output under variable load and temperature conditions; (3) to model rechargeable battery degradation under conditions of cyclic charge/discharge, and many others. Among the uses for the models are: (1) to enable efficient predictions of battery life; (2) to characterize system behavior.

Inductive models seek to characterize system behavior using experimentally or analytically obtained data in an efficient and robust framework that does not require phenomenological development. There are certain advantages to this. Among these advantages is the ability to avoid making measurements of hard to determine physical parameters or having to understand cell processes sufficiently to write mathematical functions describing their behavior. We have used artificial neural networks (ANNs) for inductive modeling, along with ancillary mathematical tools to improve their accuracy.

This paper summarizes efforts to use inductive tools for cell and battery modeling. Examples of numerical results are presented.     

Improving the hydrogen absorption properties of commercial Mg–Zn–Zr alloy

Commercial alloy ZK60 (Mg-6 wt%Zn-0.8 wt% Zr) was used as a hydrogen-storage material to study the effect of cold rolling, ball milling, and plus graphite additives on hydrogen-storage characteristics, hydrogen absorption–desorption behavior, and the related microstructural change of the alloy. Experimental results showed that cold-rolled alloy could not be activated easily. Even after ball milling for 20 h and hydrogen absorption–desorption cycling for 10 times, no saturated hydrogen absorption was observed for cold-rolled alloy. In contrast, alloys with 5 wt% graphite additives could be easily activated after the first hydrogen absorption–desorption cycle, and a saturated hydrogen absorption of 6.9 wt% was obtained after absorption–desorption cycling for five times. A hydrogen absorption of 5.52 wt%, equivalent to 80% of the saturated absorption amount, was measured in 5 min, showing a hydrogen absorption rate of 1.104 wt%/min. The sample reached saturation in 30 min.