Mesoporous carbon spheres (MCS) with tunable porosity are prepared by a mass-producible spray-drying process using chitosan as carbon precursor with ethanol as porosity tuning agent. By this template-free method, MCSs with different porosity are deduced by manipulating the volume ratio of ethanol in the solvent for chitosan. The resulted MCSs show controllable surface areas, pore volumes and bimodal pore size distribution. They are employed as substrates for the preparation of sulfur/carbon composite cathode. Electrochemical performance of the MCSs with 50 wt% sulfur loading is investigated. One of the S/MCS composite cathodes displays initial discharge capacity of 1163 mAhg(-1), excellent rate capability of 510 mAhg(-1) at 2 C and good cycling stability of 715 inAhg(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. The sulfur loading content could reach as high as 60%, while it still could deliver a capacity of 642 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2 C.

Background: Acetaminophen (AP) overdose causes acute liver injury inducing the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Hydrogen-rich saline (HS) has a protective role for injuries by selectively reducing hydroxyl radical and peroxynitrite as hydrogen. This study evaluated the protective effects of HS on acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice. Methods: Forty-two mice were divided randomly into three groups: sham, AP and AP+HS groups. The sham group received a single dose of NS (500 mg/kg) intraperitoneal injection. In the AP and AP+HS groups, liver injury was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 500 mg/kg AP. The AP+HS group received HS (6 ml/kg) every 3 hours after AP administration. All animals were killed 24 hours after AP administration. Blood samples and liver tissues were harvested to determine liver injury, inflammatory reaction, oxidative stress parameters, mitochondrial damage and histopathological analyses. Results: In acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice, HS can significantly decrease the levels of plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and inhibit the generations of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and decrease the contents of the myeloperoxidase (MPO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and increase the reservation of glutathione (GSH). Additionally, HS can also markedly reduce the degree of hepatocyte necrosis and attenuate mitochondrial damage. Conclusions: HS has a protective effect against acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice.

Large-scale 3D city building models have been widely used in urban planning, intelligent transportation, military simulation and other fields. The traditional ways of modeling generally have common problems such as low efficiency, waste of manpower and time consumption. How to find a rapid approach to automatically complete large-scale 3D modeling is a very hot research topic. In this paper we propose a novel approach of procedural modeling of buildings with CityEngine, which is combined with ArcGIS technology for the geographic information. This approach produces extensive architectural 3D models with high visual quality and geometric details at low cost. It includes following two contents concretely. At first, directly writing computer generated architecture (CGA) shape grammar to complete procedural modeling of building and other objects. Secondly, using facade modeling based on two-dimensional images to generate architectural model as well as creating high geometry details. It is validated that this novel approach of procedural modeling is a significant step forward that reduces a lot of modeling times by CGA shape grammars.

This work focused on the interaction of creep and fatigue and cyclic strain analysis in high-chromium ferritic P92 steel based on load-controlled creep-fatigue (CF) tests and conventional creep test at 873 K. Mechanical testing shows that the cyclic load inhibits the propagation of creep damage in the P92 steel and CF interaction becomes more severe with the decrease in the holding period duration and stress ratio. These results are also verified by the analysis of cyclic strain. The fatigue lifetime reduces with the increasing of the holding period duration and it does not reduce much with the increasing stress ratio especially under the conditions of long holding period duration. The cyclic strains (i.e., the strain range and creep strain) of CF tests consist of three stages, which is the same as those for the conventional creep behavior. The microscopic fracture surface observations illustrated that two different kinds of voids are observed at the fracture surfaces and Laves phase precipitates at the bottom of the voids.

Mesoporous carbon (MC) spheres with hierarchical pores, controlled pore volume and high specific surface areas have been prepared by a mass-producible spray drying assisted template method using sodium alginate as carbon precursor and commercial colloidal silica particles as hard template. The resulting MC spheres, possessing hierarchical pores in the range of 3-30 nm, are employed as conductive matrices for the preparation of cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. A high pressure induced one-step impregnation of elemental sulfur into the pore of the MC spheres has been exploited. The electrochemical performances of sulfur-impregnated MC spheres (S-MC) derived from MC spheres with different pore volume and specific surface area but with the same sulfur loading ratio of 60 wt% (S-MC-X-60) have been investigated in details. The S-MC-4-60 composite cathode material displayed a high initial discharge capacity of 1388 mAhg(-1) and a good cycling stability of 857 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2C, and shows also excellent rate capability of 864 mAhg(-1) at 2C. More importantly, the sulfur loading content in MC-4 spheres can reach as high as 80%, and it still can deliver a capacity of 569 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2C. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Machine tool is the basic equipment of machinery industry, playing very important role in today's manufacturing, and its variety, quality and processing efficiency directly affects economic benefits and the technology level of the mechanical industry production. The modular machine tool is widely used in the industry, and its production efficiency is increased by several times or even several times than the common machine tool, with such processing methods of multi-axis, multi-knife and multi-process. This paper designs the small combined machine with a set of turning, milling, drilling and grinding by PTC's 3D software, namely Pro/Engineer. At last, the technique of the interference analysis and visual simulation has been carried on, verifying the feasibility of the machine design. The machine tool is mainly used to meet the needs of processing the small parts in scientific research, teaching unit or small repair industry, not only improving the machining efficiency, but also saving space and processing costs.

Taking the P92 steel as the object,Creep-Fatigue (CF) tests of P92 steel at 873K under stress-controlled were carried out with GWT2504 equipment to investigate the CF life prediction. The life prediction model based on Applied Mechanical Work Density (AMWD) was developed in this study,and introduce the effective coefficient ƞ to modify the former. To verify the prediction capability of the AMWD-based and the modified model, comparisons of the models predicted lives with the experimental data of CF tests on P92 steel at 873K were made, it is found out that the AMWD-based model predictions for CF are in agreement with the experimental lives with the factors of 0.9013 and 1.0600, which verifies the model has a good predictability, and the Modified model with the factors of 0.9558 and 1.0469.

LIV-1, a zinc transporter, is a mediator downstream of STAT3 both in zebrafish and mammalian cells, and is involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Despite LIV-1 participates in cancer growth and metastasis, little is known about the association of LIV-1 with human liver cancer development. Therefore, the expression of LIV-1 mRNA was analyzed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in 4 cultured cell lines (3 carcinoma and 1 normal liver cell lines), and the localization of LIV-1 protein was investigated by immunohistochemistry. Expression of LIV-1 protein was analyzed by Western blot both in 4 cultured cell lines and 120 liver tissues (100 carcinoma and 20 histologically normal tissues), and the relationship between its expression and clinicopathological finding was investigated in 100 hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) tissues. Then stable siRNA expressing Hep-G2 cells were generated to assess the function of LIV-1 in liver cancer cells. We found that LIV-1 mRNA was more highly expressed in liver cancer cell lines compared to normal liver cell line. Western blot showed the expression of LIV-1 was higher in 61% liver carcinoma tissues than that in normal liver tissues. Down-regulated LIV-1 cells showed significant inhibition of proliferation in vitro and reduction of tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, E-cadherin expression increased in LIV-1 siRNA expressing Hep-G2. These findings indicated that LIV-1 may induce the EMT in HCC cells.

4100 Background: A pCR following chemoradiation (CRT) is associated with improved survival in EC patients (pts). Our prior study noted the safety of combination C, OXP and RT. The present phase II ...

e15543 Background: Novel chemotherapy regimens in combination with RT aim to improve the pathologic complete response (pCR) in EC. Following our dose-finding phase I study, the present phase II neo-adjuvant (NA) EC trial was designed to examine the pCR rate using C, OXP and RT, with secondary end-points of evaluating toxicity, quality of life, and GEP of tumor tissue for correlation to therapeutic response. METHODS EC patients (PTS) with stages II-IVa, adequate organ function and performance status (ECOG 0-1) were eligible. Treatment consisted of OXP, 85mg/m2 iv on days 1, 15 and 29, C (oral or enteral tube) 625 mg/m2 bid on days of RT, and 50.4 Gy RT (3-D conformal) in 28 fractions, followed by an esophagectomy (E) 4-6 weeks later. 2 cycles of OXP + C were administered post-operatively. GEP using Agilent microarrays was conducted on primary tumor tissue pre-treatment (Rx), day (D) 17 and at E; > 50% viable tumor cells were required. RESULTS 20 PTS have been enrolled (17 male, 3 female); median age 59.5 yrs; 17 adenocarcinomas & 3 squamous-cell cancers. Clinical stage: II (3), III (13) and IVa (4). 18 PTS have completed NA therapy; Grade 4 toxicity includes anemia (1), lymphopenia (2); grade 3 toxicity includes esophagitis (1), pneumonia (1), wound infection (1), anastomotic leak (2), esophageal fistula (1), bowel obstruction (1), fatigue (1), hyperbilirubinemia (1), elevated ALT, AST (1 & 2, respectively), hypoalbuminemia (3), OXP hypersensitivity (2) & leucopenia (1). One PT died > 60d post- operatively secondary to infection. 15 PTS have undergone an E with 3 pCR (20%). Analysis on pre-Rx GEP on 17 PTS revealed a distinct pattern for pCR PTS with 325 over-expressed and 79 under-expressed genes. Ongoing functional analysis will characterize GEP changes in 1) pCR PTS pre-Rx & at D17, 2) pCR & non-pCR PTS pre-Rx, and 3) by histology. Validation will be performed via RT-PCR. Accrual to the trial continues. CONCLUSIONS C, OXP & RT appears to be a tolerable and efficacious NA regimen for EC. The exploratory GEP analysis may provide insight on predicting response to NA therapy. Acknowledgement: The study was approved and funded by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) from general research support provided by Roche Laboratories, Inc. [Table: see text].

Deuteration of organic molecules using D2O as the deuterium source is affected with catalytic systems based on the ruthenium solvento hydride complex TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)H. The deuteration reactions can be performed under Ar or H-2. In the former case, the hydride ligand is rapidly deuterated by D2O, and in the course of the catalysis, D2O converts TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)D into the acetamido complex TpRu(PPh3)(D2O)(NDC(O)CH3), which at the later stage of the reaction generates two additional minor species, one of which is the partially deuterated carbonyl hydride species TpRu(PPh3)(CO)H(or D). All of these complexes are, however, found to be inactive for the H/D exchange reactions between the organic molecules and D2O. In the exchange reactions under H-2, a mixture of the HD isotopomers, TpRu(PPh3)H3-xDx, of the dihydrogen hydride complex TpRu(PPh3)(H-2)H are the active species. On the basis of our previous work on the TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)H-catalyzed H/D exchange reactions between deuterated organic molecules and CH4, it is proposed that TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)D and TpRu(PPh3)(H3-x)D-x exchange their deuteride ligands Ru-D with R-H via the intermediacies of the eta(2)-R-H(or D) and eta(2)-H-H(or D) sigma-complexes; the Ru-H bonds thus formed after the exchange are deuterated by D2O to regenerate the metal deuterides. The solvento complex TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)D under Ar is suggested to be more active than TpRu(PPh3)(H3-x)D-x under H-2 for the H/D exchange reactions because the former reacts more readily with the organic molecule R-H to generate the eta(2)-R-H sigma-complex due to higher lability of the CH3CN ligand in comparison with the dihydrogen or hydrogen-deuterium ligand of TpRu(PPh3)(H3-x)D-x. The acetamido complex TpRu(PPh3)(H2O)(NHC(O)CH3) was independently prepared by refluxing a THF solution of TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)H containing excess water for 24 h, and its molecular structure was determined by X-ray crystallography. Theoretical calculations at the Becke3LYP level of DFT theory have been performed to study the reaction of TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)H with H2O that leads to the formation TpRu(PPh3)(H2O)(NHC(O)CH3). It is shown that the hydration reaction is promoted by a Ru-H center dot center dot center dot H-OH dihydrogen-bonding interaction between the hydride ligand and the attacking water molecule. An explanation for the failure of the chloro analogue TpRu(PPh3)(CH3CN)Cl to react with water to form the acetamido complex is also provided.

Over the past few years, the catalytic asymmetric Friedel-Crafts reaction has attracted great interest. In particular, its use in the synthesis of chiral aromatic hydroxy(trifluoromethyl) ethyl esters have been studied because of the possible biological properties of those compounds (W. Zhuang, N. Gathergood, R. G. Hazell, K. A. Jørgensen J. Org. Chem. 2001, 66, 1009-1013). In the present article, the authors report on ligand-free conditions to reach high yields and enantio­selectivities.

American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 85, No. 8 Magnesium content in architectural flat-glass usually is determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) or an ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA) complexometric titration procedure. Instruments for the first two methods are relatively expensive. The third method requires difficult titration of the magnesium, because, in high-quality sands, the magnesium content is low. Moreover, the EDTA titration error is significant.

A polarographic method based on the reduction of Mg-EBT complex in aqueous ethylenediamine medium at the surface of a dropping-mercury electrode has been developed to determine magnesium content in sand and flat glass.

A phenylfluorone spectrophotometry method was described in order to determine the amount of tin on the bottom surface of float-glass. Phenylfluorone complexes with tin in hydrochloric acid (HCl) to form an orange-red colloidal complex. The tin on the bottom surface of float-glass was etched by hydrofluoric acid (HF). A crust was formed on the glass surface during etching. The results of the amount of tin that penetrated into bottom surface of float-glass have been determined using the phenylfluorone method. The correlation coefficient shows that the optical densities were linear with tin content.

High-performance frontal analysis (HPFA) was used for a protein binding study of isoflavones (daidzein, genistin, and genistein), enantiomers of perillyl alcohol and S-ibuprofen to human serum albumin (HSA). The analyses were performed on a Develosil and Inertsil 100-Diol-5 column (10 cm×4.6mm). Sodium phosphate solution (pH 7.4, ionic strength 0.17) was used as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. To ensure the drug to be eluted as a trapezoidal peak with a plateau, injection volumes were each fixed up the zonal profile with an evident plateau appears. The unbound drug concentration was determined from a plateau height of the plateau region after that experimental data were fitted by Scatchard equation. The binding constants (K) and total binding affinities (nK) of drugs to HSA were calculated, respectively.