Improved aqueous solubility,bioaccessibility and cellular uptake of quercetin following pH-driven encapsulation in whey protein isolate

The purpose of this study was to increase the water solubility and potential bioavailability of quercetin by encapsulation in whey protein isolate (WPI) based on a green, efficient pH-driven method. According to the results, the water solubility of quercetin increased by 346.9: times after loading into WPI nanoparticles. When the initial quercetin concentration was 0.25 mg mL⁻¹ and WPI was 2% w/v, the encapsulation efficiency reached 94.1%, the Z-average diameter was 36.63 nm, and the zeta potential was −36.4 mV at pH 7.0. The fluorescence spectroscopy assay suggested the molecular complexation of quercetin and WPI at pH 12.0. X-ray diffraction assay indicated the enclosure of amorphous quercetin in WPI. Correspondingly, the bioaccessibility increased from 2.76% to 31.23% and the Caco-2 cell monolayer uptake increased from 0% to 2.12% after nanoencapsulation. This work confirmed that the pH-driven method is an effective approach to prepare WPI–quercetin nanocapsules to improve physical and potentially biological properties of quercetin.     

IRS辅助的SWIPT系统中基于能效优先的波束成形设计与优化

以智能反射面(intelligent reflecting surface,IRS)辅助的无线携能通信(simultaneous wireless information and power transfer,SWIPT)系统为背景,研究了该系统中基于能效优先的多天线发送端有源波束成形与IRS无源波束成形联合设计与优化方法。以最大化接收端的最小能效为优化目标,构造在发送端功率、接收端能量阈值、IRS相移等多约束下的非线性优化问题,用交替方向乘子法(alternating direction method of multipliers,ADMM)求解。采用Dinkelbach算法转化目标函数,通过奇异值分解(singular value decomposition,SVD)和半定松弛(semi-definite relaxation,SDR)得到发送端有源波束成形向量。采用SDR得到IRS相移矩阵与反射波束成形向量。结果表明,该系统显著降低了系统能量收集(energy harvesting,EH)接收端的能量阈值。当系统总电路功耗为?15 dBm时,所提方案的用户能效为300 KB/J。当IRS反射阵源数与发送天线数均为最大值时,系统可达最大能效。     

基于全U网络的混凝土路面裂缝检测算法

针对现有的混凝土裂缝检测算法在各种复杂环境中检测精度不够、鲁棒性不强的问题,根据深度学习理论和U-net模型,提出一种全U型网络的裂缝检测算法。首先,依照原U-net模型路线构建网络;然后,在每个池化层后都进行一次上采样,恢复其在池化层之前的特征图规格,并将其与池化之前的卷积层进行融合,将融合之后的特征图作为新的融合层与原U-net网络上采样之后的网络层进行融合;最后,为了验证算法的有效性,在测试集中进行实验。结果表明,所提算法的平均精确率可达到83.48%,召回率为85.08%,F1为84.11%,相较于原U-net分别提升了1.48%,4.68%和3.29%,在复杂环境中也能提取完整裂缝,保证了裂缝检测的鲁棒性。     

Trimetallic NiFeCr-LDH/MoS2composites as novel electrocatalyst for OER

The development of efficient and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts is an ongoing challenge. In order to solve the problem of low oxygen evolution efficiency of the current OER catalysts, a novel material was synthesized by the incorporation of NiFeCr-LDH and MoS₂, and its structural and electrochemical properties were also investigated. The introduction of MoS₂ improves the electrochemical performance of NiFeCr-LDH. The polarization curve shows that the potential of composite material is only 1.50 V at a current density of 10 mA cm^?2, which is far superior to commercial precious metal catalysts. In addition, the stability experiment shows that the composite material has excellent stability, and the current density has little change after 500 cycles. Furthermore, we found that some metal ions, such as Ni, Cr and Mo, exist in the form of high valence on the surface of NiFeCr-LDH@MoS₂, which is also conducive to the occurrence of oxygen evolution reaction.     

Carbon corrosion mechanism on nitrogen-doped carbon support — A density functional theory study

In this work, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to investigate the mechanism of carbon corrosion on nitrogen-doped carbon support. Free energy diagrams were generated based on three proposed reaction pathways to evaluate corrosion mechanisms. The most energetically preferred mechanism on nitrogen-doped carbon was determined. The results show that the step of water dissociation to form ^#OH was the rate-determining step for gra-G-1N (graphene doped with graphitic N) and pyrr-G-1N (graphene doped with pyrrolic N). As for graphene doped with pyridinic N, the step of C^#OC^#O formation was critical. It was found that the control of nitrogen concentration was necessary for precisely designing optimized carbon materials. Abundance of nitrogen moieties aggravated the carbon corrosion. When the high potential was applied, specific types of graphitic N and pyridinic N were found to be favorable carbon modifications to improve carbon corrosion resistance. Moreover, the solvent effect was also investigated. The results provide theoretical insights and design guidelines to improve corrosion resistance in carbon support through material modification by inhibiting the adsorption of surface oxides (OH, O, and OOH).     

生物矿化法制备氧化镓颗粒及其性能表征

以蚕丝蛋白为模板,在相对温和的条件下通过生物矿化的手段形成具有特殊形貌的α-GaOOH颗粒,并通过在不同温度下煅烧α-GaOOH得到α-Ga2O3和β-Ga2O3.采用扫描电镜(SEM)、透射电镜(TEM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)和荧光分光光度计(PL)等手段研究了丝素蛋白多肽和矿化时间对颗粒的影响,对其生物矿化机理进行了初步探讨.结果表明,所制备的β-Ga2O3具有优良的发光特性,丝素蛋白多肽模板以无定形的结构与产物结合在一起,并且经过高温烧结后仍以碳膜的形式包覆在材料的表面.这种碳膜结构对于提高材料的生物学性能起着重要的作用.     

Statistical Piezotronic Effect in Nanocrystal Bulk by Anisotropic Geometry Control

Utilizing inner-crystal piezoelectric polarization charges to control carrier transport across a metal-semiconductor or semiconductor–semiconductor interface, piezotronic effect has great potential applications in smart micro/nano-electromechanical system (MEMS/NEMS), human-machine interfacing, and nanorobotics. However, current research on piezotronics has mainly focused on systems with only one or rather limited interfaces. Here, the statistical piezotronic effect is reported in ZnO bulk composited of nanoplatelets, of which the strain/stress-induced piezo-potential at the crystals’ interfaces can effectively gate the electrical transport of ZnO bulk. It is a statistical phenomenon of piezotronic modification of large numbers of interfaces, and the crystal orientation of inner ZnO nanoplatelets strongly influence the transport property of ZnO bulk. With optimum preferred orientation of ZnO nanoplatelets, the bulk exhibits an increased conductivity with decreasing stress at a high pressure range of 200–400 MPa, which has not been observed previously in bulk. A maximum sensitivity of 1.149 µS m⁻¹ MPa⁻¹ and a corresponding gauge factor of 467–589 have been achieved. As a statistical phenomenon of many piezotronic interfaces modulation, the proposed statistical piezotronic effect extends the connotation of piezotronics and promotes its practical applications in intelligent sensing.     

基于发展科学探究能力的高中化学教学实践 ——以"元素周期律"章节为例

基于学生在学习元素周期律时存在的普遍问题改进了教学实践,分析了元素周期律发展学生科学探究能力的价值,设计了四个教学环节——趣味导入,成果展示;分析规律,做出猜想;设计方案,收集证据;梳理模型,迁移应用,并提出了三点针对学生探究能力发展的教学建议.     

Enhanced thermal shrinkage behavior of phenolic-derived carbon aerogel-reinforced by HNTs with superior compressive strength performance

A novel carbon/m-HNTs composite aerogel was synthesized by introducing the modified halloysite nanotubes (m-HNTs) into phenolic (PR) aerogels through chemical grafting, followed with carbonization treatment. In order to explore the best proportion of HNTs to phenolic, the micromorphology of PR/m-HNTs were investigated by SEM before carbonization, confirming 10 wt% of m-HNTs is most beneficial to the porous network of aerogels. The interaction between PR and HNTs was studied by FTIR spectra, and microstructure evolution of the target product-carbon/m-HNTs composite aerogel were illustrated by SEM and TEM techniques. SEM patterns indicated that the carbon/m-HNTs aerogels maintain a stable porous structure at 1000 °C (carbonization temperature), while a ~20 nm carbon layer was formed around m-HNTs generating an integral unit through TEM analysis. Specific surface area and pore size distribution of composite aerogels were analyzed based on mercury intrusion porosimetry and N₂ adsorption–desorption method, the obtained results stayed around 500 m²g^?1 and 1.00 cm³g^?1 (pore volume) without significant discrepancy, compared with pure aerogel, showing the uniformity of pore size. The weight loss rate (26.76%) decreased greatly compared with pure aerogel, at the same time, the best volumetric shrinkage rate was only 30.83%, contributed by the existence of HNTs supporting the neighbor structure to avoid over-shrinking. The highest compressive strength reached to 4.43 MPa, while the data of pure aerogel was only 1.52 MPa, demonstrating the excellent mechanical property of carbon/m-HNTs aerogels.