High-performance heat treatable aluminum alloy sheet is widely used in aircraft and automobile industries because of its excellent mechanical properties, including low density, good corrosion ...resistance, and high specific strength. Many heat treatment and forming methods have been developed for aluminum alloys, such as warm stamping, hot stamping in die quenching, in order to maximize the formability, and the formed strengths. Among which, electrically assisted process (EAP) becomes attractive due to its improvement of convenience, energy saving, and efficiency. Many investigations have been published in recent decades to show that the heat treatment can be accelerated and the formability can be improved due to the thermal and non-thermal effects of electric current and tried to characterize the possible mechanisms. Hence, this paper gives a comprehensive review of the effects of electric current on the heat treatment and forming of aluminum alloy from macro- and micro-aspects. Based on this, some perspectives in developing trends of EAPs are proposed, including the mechanisms of EAP, the mechanical properties under complex stress states, and the industrial applications of EAP.
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•Inexpensive C5H9NO·MCln (M=Fe, Zn) ionic liquids are prepared.•The ILs show highly efficient extractive performance for dibenzothiophene.•The low viscosity and bifunctional groups of ...ILs are responsible for the extraction.•C5H9NO·FeCl3 have the ability of catalyzing the decomposition of H2O2 to form OH.•The IL exhibit excellent recycling performance due to the high solubility for DBTO2.
Inexpensive N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP)-based ionic liquids (ILs) are synthesized by coordinating N-methyl-pyrrolidone with anhydrous FeCl3 or ZnCl2. The introduction of metal chlorides lowers the solubility of NMP for actual diesel. The obtained C5H9NO·0.3FeCl3 IL shows remarkable extraction ability for dibenzothiophene (DBT) with Nernst partition coefficients (kN) above 7.5, which can be attributed to its low viscosity and bifunctional extractive groups of five-membered ring of NMP and unoccupied orbitals of Fe ion. The oxidative desulfurization of DBT using H2O2 as oxidant and ILs as extractants are investigated. The scavenger experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurement verify the active species is hydroxyl radical (OH) responsible for the oxidation of DBT. FeCl3-based ILs show much better effects in catalyzing H2O2 to generate OH than ZnCl2-based ILs. The process and mechanism for extraction and catalytic oxidation of DBT in an oil–ionic liquid–H2O2 system are proposed. The C5H9NO·0.3FeCl3 IL shows excellent recycling performance. After six-run experiment, there is only little loss in activity, which can be ascribed to the high solubility (18,190ppm) of dibenzothiophene-sulfone (DBTO2), the main oxidation product of DBT, in the IL.
Phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) has attracted numerous attention due to its superior per-formance in detecting the weak perturbations along the fiber. Relying on the ...ultra-sensitivity of light phase to the tiny de-formation of optical fiber, Φ-OTDR has been treated as a powerful technique with a wide range of applications. It is fun-damental to extract the phase of scattering light wave accurately and the methods include coherent detection, I/Q de-modulation, 3 by 3 coupler, dual probe pulses, and so on. Meanwhile, researchers have also made great efforts to im-prove the performance of Φ-OTDR. The frequency response range, the measurement accuracy, the sensing distance, the spatial resolution, and the accuracy of event discrimination, all have been enhanced by various techniques. Further-more, lots of researches on the applications in various kinds of fields have been carried out, where certain modifications and techniques have been developed. Therefore, Φ-OTDR remains as a booming technique in both researches and ap-plications.
•DHPM changes the morphology and crystallinity of RS.•DHPM pretreatment facilitates OSA modification of RS.•DHPM-OSA modification notably alters pasting and emulsion properties of RS.
Octenyl ...succinic anhydride (OSA) modified starch is widely used in food industries. In this study, rice starch (RS) was pretreated by dynamic high-pressure microfluidization (DHPM) and subsequently modified by OSA. The influence of DHPM on OSA modification of rice starch was investigated. Results showed that DHPM pretreatment enhanced the degree of substitution by changing the morphology and crystallinity of rice starch. Compared with the rice starch modified by OSA without DHPM pretreatment (OSA-RS), the DHPM-pretreated OSA starch (DHPM-OSA-RS) presented higher peak viscosity and lower pasting temperature. DHPM-OSA-RS also exhibited better emulsifying activity and emulsion stability. This study suggested that DHPM will provide an opportunity to change the physicochemical properties of starch, with the resulting starch being more suitable for chemical modification.
Precise synthesis of porous materials is essential for their applications. Self‐assembly is a widely used strategy for synthesizing porous materials, but quantitative control of the assembly process ...still remains a great challenge. Here, a quantitative coassembly approach is developed for synthesizing resin/silica composite and its derived porous spheres. The assembly behaviors of the carbon and silica precursors are regulated without surfactants and the growth kinetics of the composite spheres are quantitatively controlled. This assembly approach enables the precise control of the size and pore structures of the derived carbon spheres. These carbon spheres provide a good platform to explore the structure–performance relationships of porous materials, and demonstrate their pore structure‐dependent performance in catalytic water decontamination. This work provides a simple and robust approach for precise synthesis of porous spheres and brings insights into function‐oriented design of porous materials.
A quantitative coassembly approach is developed for synthesizing carbon/silica composite and its derived porous carbon spheres. This approach enables precise control of the pore structure of the carbon spheres and revelation of their structure–performance relationships in catalysis. The small and long pores significantly enhance the performance of carbon spheres in catalytic water decontamination.
Although hepcidin expression was shown to be induced by the BMP/Smad signaling pathway, it is not yet known how iron regulates this pathway and what its exact molecular targets are. We therefore ...assessed genome-wide liver transcription profiles of mice of 2 genetic backgrounds fed iron-deficient, -balanced, or -enriched diets. Among 1419 transcripts significantly modulated by the dietary iron content, 4 were regulated similarly to the hepcidin genes Hamp1 and Hamp2. They are coding for Bmp6, Smad7, Id1, and Atoh8 all related to the Bmp/Smad pathway. As shown by Western blot analysis, variations in Bmp6 expression induced by the diet iron content have for functional consequence similar changes in Smad1/5/8 phosphorylation that leads to formation of heteromeric complexes with Smad4 and their translocation to the nucleus. Gene expression variations induced by secondary iron deficiency or iron overload were compared with those consecutive to Smad4 and Hamp1 deficiency. Iron overload developed by Smad4- and Hamp1-deficient mice also increased Bmp6 transcription. However, as shown by analysis of mice with liver-specific disruption of Smad4, activation of Smad7, Id1, and Atoh8 transcription by iron requires Smad4. This study points out molecules that appear to play a critical role in the control of systemic iron balance.
Memory T cells are composed of effector, central, and memory stem cells. Previous studies have implicated that both T-bet and Eomes are involved in the generation of effector and central memory CD8 T ...cells. The exact role of these transcription factors in shaping the memory T cell pool is not well understood, particularly with memory stem T cells. Here, we demonstrate that both T-bet or Eomes are required for elimination of established tumors by adoptively transferred CD8 T cells. We also examined the role of T-bet and Eomes in the generation of tumor-specific memory T cell subsets upon adoptive transfer. We showed that combined T-bet and Eomes deficiency resulted in a severe reduction in the number of effector/central memory T cells but an increase in the percentage of CD62L(high)CD44(low) Sca-1(+) T cells which were similar to the phenotype of memory stem T cells. Despite preserving large numbers of phenotypic memory stem T cells, the lack of both of T-bet and Eomes resulted in a profound defect in antitumor memory responses, suggesting T-bet and Eomes are crucial for the antitumor function of these memory T cells. Our study establishes that T-bet and Eomes cooperate to promote the phenotype of effector/central memory CD8 T cell versus that of memory stem like T cells.
The essential features of a DC-DC converter for fuel cell vehicle are to ensure the higher voltage gain to meet out the higher DC link voltage demand, continuous input current to improve the life ...span of the fuel cell, presence of common grounding to avoid electromagnetic interference issue and lower voltage stress with reduced components. This paper presents a high voltage gain DC-DC converter by combining the switched capacitor and quasi switched boost network modules. The proposed high voltage gain converter provides the continuous input current, lower voltage stress, utilizes a fewer number of elements and common grounding feature. The operating characteristics, steady-state analysis both in continuous current mode (CCM) and discontinuous current mode (DCM), comparative analysis with contemporary converters are discussed. The theoretical claimed analysis is validated by the simulation and experimental study. The proposed converter is operated for 200 W output power rating and tested for providing the voltage gain in the range of 5-8 times the input voltage gain by varying the input voltage from 25 V-40 V. The efficiency of the proposed converter is also reported for different output power rating which is in the range 91.3%-93.7%.
Mitochondria need to be juxtaposed to phagosomes for the synergistic production of ample reactive oxygen species (ROS) in phagocytes to kill pathogens. However, how phagosomes transmit signals to ...recruit mitochondria has remained unclear. Here we found that the kinases Mst1 and Mst2 functioned to control ROS production by regulating mitochondrial trafficking and mitochondrion-phagosome juxtaposition. Mst1 and Mst2 activated the GTPase Rac to promote Toll-like receptor (TLR)-triggered assembly of the TRAF6-ECSIT complex that is required for the recruitment of mitochondria to phagosomes. Inactive forms of Rac, including the human Rac2(D57N) mutant, disrupted the TRAF6-ECSIT complex by sequestering TRAF6 and substantially diminished ROS production and enhanced susceptibility to bacterial infection. Our findings demonstrate that the TLR-Mst1-Mst2-Rac signaling axis is critical for effective phagosome-mitochondrion function and bactericidal activity.
In this study, a series of selective butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibitors was designed and synthesized from the structural optimization of hit
, a 4-((3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-2(1
...)-yl)methyl)benzoic acid derivative identified by virtual screening our compound library. The in vitro enzyme assay results showed that compounds
((4-((3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-2(1
)-yl)methyl)phenyl)(pyrrolidin-1-yl)methanone) and
(
-(2-bromophenyl)-4-((3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-2(1
)-yl)methyl)benzamide) displayed improved BChE inhibitory activity and good selectivity towards BChE versus AChE. Their binding modes were probed by molecular docking and further validated by molecular dynamics simulation. Kinetic analysis together with molecular modeling studies suggested that these derivatives could target both the catalytic active site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of BChE. In addition, the selected compounds
and
displayed anti-Aβ
aggregation activity in a dose-dependent manner, and they did not show obvious cytotoxicity towards SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Also, both compounds showed significantly protective activity against Aβ
-induced toxicity in a SH-SY5Y cell model. The present results provided a new valuable chemical template for the development of selective BChE inhibitors.
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