Apigenin-7-Glycoside Prevents LPS-Induced Acute Lung Injury via Downregulation of Oxidative Enzyme Expression and Protein Activation through Inhibition of MAPK Phosphorylation

Apigenin-7-glycoside (AP7Glu) with multiple biological activities is a flavonoid that is currently prescribed to treat inflammatory diseases such as upper respiratory infections. Recently, several studies have shown that its anti-inflammatory activities have been strongly linked to the inhibition of secretion of pro-inflammatory proteins, such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOs) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) induced through phosphorylation nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathways. Additionally, inflammation, which can decrease the activities of antioxidative enzymes (AOEs) is also observed in these studies. At the same time, flavonoids are reported to promote the activities of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) decreased by LPS. The purpose of this study was to assess these theories in a series of experiments on the suppressive effects of AP7Glu based on LPS-induced nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 macrophages in vitro and acute lung injury in mice in vivo. After six hours of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, pulmonary pathological, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, total polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) cells, cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and AOEs, are all affected and changed. Meanwhile, our data revealed that AP7Glu not only did significantly inhibit the LPS-enhanced inflammatory activity in lung, but also exhibited anti-inflammatory effect through the MAPK and inhibitor NF-κB (IκB) pathways.     

(?)-Epicatechin-3-O-β-d-allopyranoside from Davallia formosana,Prevents Diabetes and Hyperlipidemia by Regulation of Glucose Transporter 4 and AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphorylation in High-Fat-Fed Mice

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the antidiabetic and lipid-lowering effects of (−)-epicatechin-3-O-β-d-allopyranoside (BB) from the roots and stems of Davallia formosana in mice. Animal treatment was induced by high-fat diet (HFD) or low-fat diet (control diet, CD). After eight weeks of HFD or CD exposure, the HFD mice were treating with BB or rosiglitazone (Rosi) or fenofibrate (Feno) or water through gavage for another four weeks. However, at 12 weeks, the HFD-fed group had enhanced blood levels of glucose, triglyceride (TG), and insulin. BB treatment significantly decreased blood glucose, TG, and insulin levels. Moreover, visceral fat weights were enhanced in HFD-fed mice, accompanied by increased blood leptin concentrations and decreased adiponectin levels, which were reversed by treatment with BB. Muscular membrane protein levels of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) were reduced in HFD-fed mice and significantly enhanced upon administration of BB, Rosi, and Feno. Moreover, BB treatment markedly increased hepatic and skeletal muscular expression levels of phosphorylation of AMP-activated (adenosine monophosphate) protein kinase (phospho-AMPK). BB also decreased hepatic mRNA levels of phosphenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), which are associated with a decrease in hepatic glucose production. BB-exerted hypotriglyceridemic activity may be partly associated with increased mRNA levels of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor α (PPARα), and with reduced hepatic glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) mRNA levels in the liver, which decreased triacylglycerol synthesis. Nevertheless, we demonstrated BB was a useful approach for the management of type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia in this animal model.     

Hydrogen‐Bonding‐Driven Enantioselective Resolution against the Kazlauskas Rule To Afford γ‐Amino Alcohols by Candida rugosa Lipase

Most lipases resolve secondary alcohols in accordance with the “Kazlauskas rule” to give the R enantiomers. In a similar manner to other lipases, Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) exhibits R enantioselectivity towards heptan‐2‐ol, although the enantiomeric ratio (E) is low (E=1.6). However, unexpected enantioselectivity (i.e., S enantioselectivity, E=58) of CRL towards 4‐(tert‐butoxycarbonylamino)butan‐2‐ol, which has a similar chain length to heptan‐2‐ol, has been observed. To develop a deeper understanding of the molecular basis for this unusual enantioselectivity, we have conducted a series of molecular modeling and substrate engineering experiments. The results of these computational and experimental analyses indicated that a hydrogen bond between the Ser450 residue and the nitrogen atom of the carbamate group is critical to stabilize the transition state of the S enantiomer.     

Effects of openings on the punching shear strength of RC flat‐plate slabs without shear reinforcement

Openings in RC flat‐plate slabs are one of the critical factors that influence the punching shear strength of the slab and determine its thickness in the vicinity of the slab‐column joint. This study experimentally investigates the effects of openings on the punching shear strength of flat‐plate slabs without shear reinforcement. Tests were performed on eight flat‐plate slab specimens considering the layout and number of openings as test variables. The failure characteristics of each specimen are examined, and the effects of the test variables on the punching shear strengths of the test specimens are investigated. The measured punching shear strengths of the test specimens are compared with the predictions of several concrete design codes, including the American Concrete Institute (ACI), Comité Euro‐International du Béton and Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte (CEB‐FIP) model and fédération internationale du béton (fib) model codes. This indicates that the reductions in punching shear strength due to the existence of openings are generally proportional to the loss of effective critical sections, and an L‐shaped opening layout around the corner of the column may further reduce the punching shear strength and may contribute to the loss of effective critical sections due to the existence of openings. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于制度功能理论的中国矿产资源产权制度改革研究（增刊）

本文通过分析总结关于矿产产权制度的相关文献,对我国矿产产权制度改革的研究进展进行了详细的梳理。国内学者的主流观点是在坚持矿产资源国家所有的基础上,对矿产产权关系、内容进行明晰等,也存在一些学者认为明晰的、正式的产权制度并非意味着资源利用的高效、低的社会纠纷和经济效益的增加。本文在评析了相关产权制度改革文献的基础上,认为产权制度改革应首先从产权制度的功能入手,并对今后此方面研究进行了展望。     

Sequential Functionalization of the O?H and C(sp2)?O Bonds of Tropolones by Alkynes and N‐Sulfonyl Azides

Sequential copper‐catalyzed [3+2] cycloaddition, rhodium‐catalyzed O H insertion, intramolecular 1,8‐addition, and rearrangement starting from 1‐alkynes, N‐sulfonyl azides, and tropolones is demonstrated for the synthesis of the 2‐functionalized aminotropones in one pot. These results indicate that sequential functionalization of O H and C(sp²) O bonds smoothly occurs in the C(sp²) O H bonds of tropolone

     

Experimental Investigation of an Office Fire with a Partially Impaired Sprinkler System

In this work, an actual office fire with a partially impaired automatic sprinkler system was investigated. As per regulations, there were four sprinklers in this model office. In the research conducted here, the first three sprinklers were actuated without water supply, while the last sprinkler was supplied with water at the required operating pressure for a period of 30 min. The fire source, a burning plastic trash can filled with 0.5 kg of paper, burned the adjacent chair, desk, desktop computer, and then reached the interior wooden furniture. The results show that the single remaining sprinkler effectively controlled the fire spread for 30 min. The partially impaired sprinkler system does not completely extinguish the fire, but extends the available time for evacuation. Continuing the discharge from sprinklers is preferable since the heat release from the fire increased after water flow was terminated.     

RADAR: A reputation-driven anomaly detection system for wireless mesh networks

As one of the backup measures of intrusion prevention techniques, intrusion detection plays a paramount role in the second defense line of computer networks. Intrusion detection in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is especially challenging and requires particular design concerns due to their special infrastructure and communication mode. In this paper, we propose a novel anomaly detection system, termed RADAR, to detect and handle anomalous mesh nodes in wireless mesh networks. Specifically, reputation is introduced to characterize and quantify a node’s behavior in terms of fine-grained performance metrics of interest. The dual-core detection engine of RADAR then explores spatio-temporal property of such behavior to manifest the deviation between that of normal and anomalous nodes. Although the current RADAR prototype is only implemented with routing protocols, the design architecture allows it to be easily extended to cross-layer anomaly detection where anomalous events occur at different layers and can be resulted by either intentional intrusion or accidental network failure. The simulation results demonstrate that RADAR can achieve high detection accuracy, low computational complexity, and low false positive rate.     

Fast color correction for multi-view video by modeling spatio-temporal variation

In multi-view video, a number of cameras capture the same scene from different viewpoints. Color variations between the camera views may deteriorate the performance of multi-view video coding or virtual view rendering. In this paper, a fast color correction method for multi-view video is proposed by modeling spatio-temporal variation. In the proposed method, multi-view keyframes are defined to establish the spatio-temporal relationships for accurate and fast implementation. For keyframes, accurate color correction is performed based on spatial color discrepancy model that disparity estimation is used to find correspondence points between views, and linear regression is performed on these sets of points to find the optimal correction coefficients. For non-keyframes, fast color correction is performed based on temporal variations model that time-invariant regions are detected to reflect the change trends of correction coefficients. Experimental results show that compared with other methods, the proposed method can promote the correction speed greatly without noticeable quality degradation, and obtain higher coding performance.     

Noun Sense Identification of Korean Nominal Compounds Based on Sentential Form Recovery

In a machine translation system, word sense disambiguation has an essential role in the proper translation of words when the target word can be translated differently depending on the context. Previous research on sense identification has mostly focused on adjacent words as context information. Therefore, in the case of nominal compounds, sense tagging of unit nouns mainly depended on other nouns surrounding the target word. In this paper, we present a practical method for the sense tagging of Korean unit nouns in a nominal compound. To overcome the weakness of traditional methods regarding the data sparseness problem, the proposed method adopts complement‐predicate relation knowledge that was constructed for machine translation systems. Our method is based on a sentential form recovery technique, which recognizes grammatical relationships between unit nouns. This technique makes use of the characteristics of Korean predicative nouns. To show that our method is effective on text in general domains, the experiments were performed on a test set randomly extracted from article titles in various newspaper sections.