A Comprehensive Review of Natural Flavonoids with Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activity.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has majorly impacted public health and economies worldwide. Although several effective vaccines and drugs are now used to prevent and treat COVID-19, natural products, especially flavonoids, showed great therapeutic potential early in the pandemic and thus attracted particular attention. Quercetin, baicalein, baicalin, EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), and luteolin are among the most studied flavonoids in this field. Flavonoids can directly or indirectly exert antiviral activities, such as the inhibition of virus invasion and the replication and inhibition of viral proteases. In addition, flavonoids can modulate the levels of interferon and proinflammatory factors. We have reviewed the previously reported relevant literature researching the pharmacological anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of flavonoids where structures, classifications, synthetic pathways, and pharmacological effects are summarized. There is no doubt that flavonoids have great potential in the treatment of COVID-19. However, most of the current research is still in the theoretical stage. More studies are recommended to evaluate the efficacy and safety of flavonoids against SARS-CoV-2.

Comparative investigation of a lattice Boltzmann boundary treatment of multiphase mass transport with heterogeneous chemical reactions.

Multiphase reactive transport in porous media is an important component of many natural and engineering processes. In the present study, boundary schemes for the continuum species transport-lattice Boltzmann (CST-LB) mass transport model and the multicomponent pseudopotential model are proposed to simulate heterogeneous chemical reactions in a multiphase system. For the CST-LB model, a lattice-interface-tracking scheme for the heterogeneous chemical reaction boundary is provided. Meanwhile, a local-average virtual density boundary scheme for the multicomponent pseudopotential model is formulated based on the work of Li et al. [Li, Yu, and Luo, Phys. Rev. E 100, 053313 (2019)10.1103/PhysRevE.100.053313]. With these boundary treatments, a numerical implementation is put forward that couples the multiphase fluid flow, interfacial species transport, heterogeneous chemical reactions, and porous matrix structural evolution. A series of comparison benchmark cases are investigated to evaluate the numerical performance for different pseudopotential wetting boundary treatments, and an application case of multiphase dissolution in porous media is conducted to validate the present models' ability to solve complex problems. By applying the present LB models with reasonable boundary treatments, multiphase reactive transport in various natural or engineering scenarios can be simulated accurately.

Comparison of the Bulk and Rhizosphere Soil Prokaryotic Communities Between Wild and Reintroduced Manglietiastrum sinicum Plants, a Threatened Species with Extremely Small Populations.

Huagaimu (Manglietiastrum sinicum) trees are critically endangered species and classified as a plant species with extremely small populations in China. Rhizospheres and bulk soils prokaryotic communities play an important role to protect and promote plants health and growth. However, the compositions and structures of prokaryotic communities in wild and reintroduced M. sinicum rhizospheres and bulk soils are still poorly understood. In the present study, prokaryotic communities in wild and reintroduced M. sinicum rhizospheres and bulk soils were compared using high-throughput sequencing. Thirty-two phyla, 76 classes, 193 orders, 296 families, and 470 genera of prokaryotes were obtained. Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the two most abundant phyla in all soil samples. The compositions and structures of prokaryotic communities were overall similar, and the abundance of some taxa varied significantly among soil samples. Soil prokaryotic communities were significantly affected by soil pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium. Eleven of predicted functions were significantly different among the four soil groups. This study provides for the first insights into the compositions, structures, and potential functions of prokaryotic communities associated with wild and reintroduced M. sinicum rhizospheres and bulk soils, and providing a foundation for future research to help protect this endangered species.

Lattice Boltzmann modeling of interfacial mass transfer in a multiphase system.

In the present study, a numerical model based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is proposed to simulate multiphase mass transfer, referred to as the CST-LB model. This model introduced continuum species transfer (CST) formulation by an additional collision term to model the mass transfer across the multiphase interface. The boundary condition treatment of this model is also discussed. In order to verify the applicability, the CST-LB model is combined with the pseudopotential multiphase model to simulate a series of benchmark cases, including concentration jump near the interface, gas dissolution in a closed system, species transport during drainage in a capillary tube, and multiphase species transport in the porous media. This CST-LB model can also be coupled with other multiphase LBMs since the model depends on the phase fraction field, which is not explicitly limited to specified multiphase models.

Rhizospheric soil fungal community patterns of Duchesnea indica in response to altitude gradient in Yunnan, southwest China.

The magnitude of the impact of altitude gradient on microbial community and diversity has been studied in recent decades. Whereas bacteria have been the focus of most studies, fungi have been given relatively less attention. As a vital part of the macro- and microscopic ecosystem, rhizosphere fungi play a key role in organic matter decomposition and relative abundance of plant species and have an impact on plant growth and development. Using Duchesnea indica as the host plant, we examined the rhizosphere soil fungal community patterns across the altitude gradient in 15 sites of Yunnan province by sequencing the fungal ITS2 region with the Illumina MiSeq platform. We determined the fungal community composition and structure. We found that, surprisingly, rhizosphere soil fungal diversity of D. indica increased with altitudinal gradient. There was a slight difference in diversity between samples from high- and medium-altitude sites, with medium-altitude sites having the greater diversity. Furthermore, the rhizosphere soil fungal community composition and structure kept changing along the altitudinal gradient. Taxonomic results showed that the extent of phylum diversity was greatest at high-altitude sites, with Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, and Glomeromycota as the most dominant fungal phyla.