Mechanism of Rapid Curing Pile Formation on Shoal Foundation and Its Bearing Characteristic.

This study explores the application effect of the new non-isocyanate polyurethane curing agent on the rapid curing mechanism and bearing characteristics of piles in beach foundations. Through laboratory tests and field tests, the effects of the curing agent on the physical and mechanical properties of sand were systematically analyzed, including compressive strength, shear strength, and elastic modulus, and the effects of water content and cement-sand mass ratio on the properties of sand after curing were investigated. The results show that introducing a curing agent significantly improves the mechanical properties of sand, and the cohesion and internal friction angle increase exponentially with the sand mass ratio. In addition, the increase in water content leads to a decrease in the strength of solidified sand, and the microstructure analysis reveals the change in the bonding effect between the solidified gel and the sand particles. The field static load tests of single piles and pile groups verify the effectiveness of the rapid solidification pile in beach foundations and reveal the significant influence of pile length and pile diameter on the bearing capacity. This study provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the rapid solidification and reinforcement of tidal flat foundations and provides important guidance for related engineering applications.

Rare 7,9'-dinorlignans with neuroprotective activity from the roots of Lindera aggregata (Sims) Kosterm.

Linderagatins C-F (1-4), the first examples of naturally occurring diaryltetrahydrofuran-type 7,9'-dinorlignans, were characterized from the roots of Lindera aggregata (Sims) Kosterm. The structures of these dinorlignans were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations were determined based on calculated and experimental ECD data. A biosynthetic pathway for these dinorlignans was hypothetically proposed. Compounds 2 and 3 showed significant neuroprotective effects on erastin-induced ferroptosis in HT-22 cells with EC50 values of 23.4 and 21.8 µM, respectively.

Introducing of Cu(I) in MOFs by In Situ Reduction with Ni as the Catalyst for Efficient Olefin/Paraffin Separation.

Olefins can be cracked to provide more low-carbon olefins than paraffins; therefore, separation of olefin/paraffin mixtures is essential for arranging hydrocarbon molecules for directed conversion. In this article, a simple approach for reducing copper atoms in Cu-BTC has been developed to improve olefin/paraffin adsorption capacity and selectivity. Considering that Cu-BTC shows adsorption benefits, its olefin/paraffin adsorption and separation performance were improved further by in situ reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) in Cu-BTC using ethanol as the reducing agent and nickel ions as the catalyst. The results revealed that during the reduction process, Cu ion conversion from tetra-ligand to diligand considerably increased their specific surface area, resulting in more active adsorption sites inside the modified sample. The ratio of Cu(I)/Cu(II) in the modified samples varied from 0.57 to 0.96. When Cu(II) of Cu-BTC was reduced to Cu(I), the adsorption capacities of 1-hexene increased from 145.97 to 243.65 mg/g, whereas n-hexane adsorption increased only slightly from 8.18 to 11.43 mg/g, resulting in an acceptable increase in selectivity from 17.84 to 21.32. Cu-BTC, due to its own Cu atoms, minimizes the substantial requirements for the synthesis process as well as the oxygen avoidance conditions for storage when monovalent copper is introduced, compared to other porous materials. Experimental results found that when Cu(I) was introduced, the Lewis acidic sites of the modified Cu-BTC material were increased, and Cu(I) has an electrical structure that makes it susceptible to both accepting and donating too many d electrons, resulting in a stronger adsorption of olefins containing π-electrons to them. Materials Studio simulation revealed that the isosteric heats of modified Cu-BTC increased by 2.7 kJ/mol, indicating that it has a stronger adsorption capacity for olefins.

GeoDILI: A Robust and Interpretable Model for Drug-Induced Liver Injury Prediction Using Graph Neural Network-Based Molecular Geometric Representation.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a significant cause of drug failure and withdrawal due to liver damage. Accurate prediction of hepatotoxic compounds is crucial for safe drug development. Several DILI prediction models have been published, but they are built on different data sets, making it difficult to compare model performance. Moreover, most existing models are based on molecular fingerprints or descriptors, neglecting molecular geometric properties and lacking interpretability. To address these limitations, we developed GeoDILI, an interpretable graph neural network that uses a molecular geometric representation. First, we utilized a geometry-based pretrained molecular representation and optimized it on the DILI data set to improve predictive performance. Second, we leveraged gradient information to obtain high-precision atomic-level weights and deduce the dominant substructure. We benchmarked GeoDILI against recently published DILI prediction models, as well as popular GNN models and fingerprint-based machine learning models using the same data set, showing superior predictive performance of our proposed model. We applied the interpretable method in the DILI data set and derived seven precise and mechanistically elucidated structural alerts. Overall, GeoDILI provides a promising approach for accurate and interpretable DILI prediction with potential applications in drug discovery and safety assessment. The data and source code are available at GitHub repository (https://github.com/CSU-QJY/GeoDILI).

DNA 5mC and RNA m6A modification successively facilitates the initiation and perpetuation stages of HSC activation in liver fibrosis progression.

Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are key effector cells in liver fibrosis. Upon stimulation, the quiescent HSC undergoes complex morphological and functional changes to transdifferentiate into activated collagen-producing myofibroblasts. DNA/RNA methylations (5mC/m6A) are both implicated to participate in hepatic fibrosis, yet their respective roles and specific targets in HSC activation remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that 5mC is indispensable for the initiation stage of HSC activation (myofibroblast transdifferentiation), whereas m6A is essential for the perpetuation stage of HSC activation (excessive ECM production). Mechanistically, DNA 5mC hypermethylation on the promoter of SOCS3 and PPARγ genes leads to STAT3-mediated metabolic reprogramming and lipid loss in the initiation stage. RNA m6A hypermethylation on the transcripts of major collagen genes enhances the mRNA stability in a YTHDF1-dependent manner, which contributes to massive ECM production. Vitamin A-coupled YTHDF1 siRNA alleviates CCl4-induced liver fibrosis in mice through HSC-specific inhibition of collagen production. HIF-1α, which is transactivated by STAT3, serves as a bridge linking the initiation and the perpetuation stages through transactivating YTHDF1. These findings indicate successive roles of DNA 5mC and RNA m6A modification in the progression of HSC activation, which provides new drug targets for epigenetic therapy of liver fibrosis.

Superparamagnetic polymer emulsion particles from a soap-free seeded emulsion polymerization and their application for lipase immobilization.

Using emulsion copolymer of styrene (St), glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as seed latexes, the superparamagnetic polymer emulsion particles were prepared by seeded emulsion copolymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA), vinyl acetate (VAc) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in the presence of the seed latexes and superparamagnetic Fe3O4/SiOx nanoparticles (or Fe3O4-APTS nanoparticles) through a two-step process, without addition of any emulsifier. The magnetic emulsion particles named P(St-GMA-HEMA)/P(BMA-VAc) were characterized by transmission electron microscope and vibrating sample magnetometry. The results showed that the magnetic emulsion particles held a structure with a thinner shell (around 100 nm) and a bigger cavity (around 200 nm), and possessed a certain level of magnetic response. The resulting magnetic emulsion particles were employed in the immobilization of lipase by two strategies to immobilized lipase onto the resulting magnetic composites directly (S-1) or using glutaraldehyde as a coupling agent (S-2), thus, experimental data showed that the thermal stability and reusability of immobilized lipase based on S-2 were higher than that of S-1.