Essential (Mg,Fe, Zn and Cu) and Non-Essential (Cd and Pb) Elements in Predatory Insects (Vespa crabro and Vespa velutina): A Molecular Perspective

The recent introduction of the Asian yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina, into Europe has raised concern regarding the threat to honeybees and the competition with the European hornet, Vespa crabro. The aim of this study was to investigated essential (Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu) and non-essential (Cd and Pb) elements in these two species. Element concentrations were determined in the whole body and separately in the head, thorax and abdomen using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The changes in essential element concentration and speciation during metamorphosis were also studied using size exclusion chromatography followed by AAS and proteomic analysis. In both species, the essential elements were more concentrated in the abdomen due to the presence of fat bodies. Magnesium, Fe and Zn concentrations were significantly higher in V. crabro than in V. velutina and could have been related to the higher aerobic energy demand of the former species required to sustain foraging flight. Low concentrations of Cd and Pb were indicative of low environmental exposure. The concentration and speciation of essential elements, particularly Fe, varied among the developmental stages, indicating a modification of ligand preferences during metamorphosis. Overall, the results in the present study provide a better understanding of the hornet metal metabolism and a foundation for additional studies.     

Designing amorphous formulations of polyphenols with naringin by spray-drying for enhanced solubility and permeability

Naringin (NAR), a major flavanone (FVA) glycoside, is a component of food mainly obtained from grapefruit. We used NAR as a food additive to improve the solubility and permeability of hydrophobic polyphenols used as supplements in the food industry. The spray-dried particles (SDPs) of NAR alone show an amorphous state with a glass transition temperature (T_g) at 93.2 °C. SDPs of hydrophobic polyphenols, such as flavone (FVO), quercetin (QCT), naringenin (NRG), and resveratrol (RVT) were prepared by adding varying amounts of NAR. All SDPs of hydrophobic polyphenols with added NAR were in an amorphous state with a single T_g, but SDPs of hydrophobic polyphenols without added NAR showed diffraction peaks derived from each crystal. The SDPs with NAR could keep an amorphous state after storage at a high humidity condition for one month, except for SDPs of RVT/NAR. SDPs with NAR enhanced the solubility of hydrophobic polyphenols, especially NRG solubility, which was enhanced more than 9 times compared to NRG crystal. The enhanced solubility resulted in the increased membrane permeability of NRG. The antioxidant effect of the hydrophobic NRG was also enhanced by the synergetic effect of NAR. The findings demonstrated that NAR could be used as a food additive to enhance the solubility and membrane permeability of hydrophobic polyphenols.     

Eight-node conforming straight-side quadrilateral element with high-order completeness (QH8-C1)

A new eight-node conforming quadrilateral element with high-order completeness, denoted as QH8-C1, is proposed in this article. First, expressions for the interpolation displacement function satisfying the requirements for high-order completeness in the global coordinate system are constructed. Second, the displacement function expression in global coordinates is transformed into isoparametric coordinates, and the relationships between the two series of coefficients for the two kinds of displacement function expressions are found. Third, the displacement function expression is modified to satisfy the requirements of nodal freedom and interelement boundary continuity. The key to the new element construction is the derivation of the linear relationship expressions among 12 coefficients of element displacement interpolation polynomials in the global and isoparametric coordinate systems. As a result, the relationship between quadratic completeness and interelement continuity is explicitly given, and a proof of the completeness and the continuity was conducted to theoretically guarantee the validity of the derivation results. Furthermore, in order to verify the correctness of the theoretical work, nine numerical examples were performed. The computation results from these examples demonstrate that QH8-C1 exhibited excellent performance, including high simulation accuracy, fast convergence, insensitivity to mesh distortion, and monotonic convergence.     

Towards Diastereomeric Pure Salts with Antisolvent Methods

Chiral molecules, especially enantiomers and diastereomers of purity > 99 %, present a significant market share within the chemical, pharmaceutical, and flavor industries. Antisolvent precipitations, both batch and semicontinuous operations to serve the current trends in flow chemistry were demonstrated to be environmentally benign and efficient tools in achieving high optical purities. Although salts are known to be insoluble in supercritical CO₂, instabilities of the nascent salts were detected and applied for increasing efficiency. Diastereomeric excess values of the crystalline products exceeded 99 % in maximum of three consecutive steps both by repeated resolution with half molar equivalent of the amine to the acid and by direct recrystallization of the salts.     

Visual Detection of Adenosine Triphosphate by Taylor Rising: A Simple Point-of-Care Testing Method Based on Rolling Circle Amplification

Rapid and sensitive point-of-care testing (POCT) is an extremely critical mission in practical applications, especially for rigorous military medicine, home health care, and in the third world. Here, we report a visual POCT method for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) detection based on Taylor rising in the corner of quadratic geometries between two rod surfaces. We discuss the principle of Taylor rising, demonstrating that it is significantly influenced by contact angle, surface tension, and density of the sample, which are controlled by ATP-dependent rolling circle amplification (RCA). In the presence of ATP, RCA reaction effectively suppresses Taylor-rising behavior, due to the increased contact angle, density, and decreased surface tension. Without addition of ATP, untriggered RCA reaction is favorable for Taylor rising, resulting in a significant height. With this proposed method, visual sensitive detection of ATP without the aid of other instruments is realized with only a 5 μL droplet, which has good selectivity and a low detection limit (17 nM). Importantly, this visual method provides a promising POCT tool for user-friendly molecular diagnostics.     

不同管距时玉米渗灌效果的试验研究

在运城市夹马口灌区和红旗灌区进行了1996,1997两个年度的玉米渗灌试验,研究了不同毛管间距条件下渗灌对其产量及水分生产率等的影响。结果表明,玉米渗灌毛管间距采用0.8~1.0 m较为适宜。毛管间距愈大,产量愈低;渗灌较地面灌平均减产7.23%,较旱地平均增产30.8%;玉米生长期内总耗水量地面灌最大,渗灌次之,旱地最小。渗灌可明显提高玉米水分生产率,渗灌处理水分生产率平均为1.65 kg/m3,是地面灌的1.2倍,是旱地的1.33倍;两年度渗灌较地面灌平均节水44.4%。     

RI/VI联用测定聚乙烯相对分子质量及其分布

150℃测试温度下，以1，2，4-三氯苯为溶剂，采用示差折光指数器，毛细管黏度计双检测器联用凝胶渗透色谱技术测定了聚乙烯的相对分子质量及其分布。与常规凝胶渗透色谱法对比，该方法不仅能直接得到聚乙烯较精确的相对分子质量和分布形态，同时可以得到聚乙烯的特性黏数分布。     

利用T2分布进行岩石孔隙结构研究

测井地层评价的基本任务除了要研究储层参数外，还要研究岩石孔隙结构。核磁共振测井技术和出现和应用，为测井解释研究孔隙结构提供了一种有效方法。通过研究泥质砂岩岩心核磁共振T2分布与压汞毛管压力曲线之间的关系，建立起二者之间的相互计算方法，从而为利用T2分布进行岩石孔隙结构研究提供了理论和方法的支持。     

Modeling of Diffusion in Capillary Porous Materials During the Drying Process

This paper presents a model of heterogenous diffusion in capillary porous materials during the process of drying. The governing heat and mass transfer equations have been established using the liquid as well as vapor flow. Two models have been presented. Model 1 does not consider the heat conduction while the model 2 has been established by considering the conduction. The developed models and the numerical solutions of the resulting differential equations can take into account the moisture and temperature dependent thermophysical properties of the product. All equations have been established in spherical coordinates but the programme written for the purpose of calculations can be used for other geometries also. Numerical calculations have been performed for gas concrete and tiles using model 1, while model 2 has been used for gas concrete only because of the lack of data for thermophysical properties of the tile. For gas concrete it was seen that conduction has only marginal effect on the drying process and the numerical predictions of the drying process were reasonably accurate.     

核磁共振谱的岩石孔喉结构分析

刘堂宴 ,王绍民 ,傅容珊 ,周明顺 ,李艳华 ,罗曼 .核磁共振谱的岩石孔喉结构分析 .石油地球物理勘探 ,2 0 0 3,38(3) :32 8～ 333岩心核磁共振 T2 谱和压汞分析数据均在一定程度上反映了岩石的孔喉结构 ,理论分析表明 ,这两组数据具有相关性。应用岩心核磁共振 T2 谱研究岩石孔喉结构 ,关键是确定 T2 与 Pc的转换系数。但以前的方法在 T2与 Pc 的转换过程中 ,需要涉及某些岩石特性参数 ,实用中有一定困难。本文直接利用岩心核磁共振 T2 谱和压汞分析数据之间的相关性 ,客观地确定 T2 与 Pc之间的转换系数 ,避免了确定岩石特性参数的困难。应用本文方法 ,对 6块岩心的多种核磁共振分析数据进行了对比分析 ,做出了 NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance,简称NMR) T2 毛管力曲线和孔喉半径分布 ,并将这些结果与压汞分析的结果进行了对比。结果表明 ,岩心 NMR T2谱在实用性和评价精度上均略显优势 ;至少是在饱含油的条件下 ,岩心的 NMR T2 谱可以用于研究孔喉结构分布 ,油气的弛豫特性作为影响背景值存在 ,对于评价结果没有明显的影响 ;在全部 6块岩心中 ,T2 与 Pc 的转换系数位于 2 5 0 0～ 4 0 0 0μs· MPa之间。