bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Recent Advancement in the Copper Mediated Synthesis of Heterocyclic Amides as Important Pharmaceutical and Agrochemicals
Authors: Chandra Prakash 
Published: October 2021

AbstractCopper with variable oxidation states, Earth abundance was used as a tunable and multifunctional catalyst promoting organic transformations. Copper‐based catalytic materials have been effectively utilized in bioorganic chemistry, material science, and natural products synthesis. Several organic transformations involving cycloadditions, cyclizations, cross‐couplings, and condensations in one‐pot assist in the formation of multiple bonds like C−C/C−O bonds, C−C/C−N bonds, and C−N/C−S bonds. Copper has recently been explored as efficient catalytic material for the synthesis of heterocyclic amides. Heterocyclic amides are essential organic compounds are quite prevelent in the pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and natural products. The heterocyclic amides are the key components of multivarious ace drugs and bio‐molecules like peptides and proteins, and several natural products. Therefore, heterocyclic amides are of much significance, and research focusing on the facile methods is of much interest to contemporary synthetic chemists. Different techniques have been developed using copper‐based catalysts for the synthesis of heterocyclic amdes. These heterocyclic amides are prepared by the reaction of C(sp3)−H, C(sp2)−H, C(sp)−H bonds, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acid, carboxylic acid‐based surrogates, and amine surrogates. N‐alkyation of amides with multifarious substrates has been the extensively investigated for the synthesis of heterocyclic amides. Finally, multicomponent domino reactions have also been investigated for the synthesis of heterocycic amides. The present review summarises various synthetic techniques for the copper catalyzed heterocyclic amides synthesis.
Highly Effective Freshwater and Seawater Electrolysis Enabled by Atomic Rh‐Modulated Co‐CoO Lateral Heterostructures
Authors: Tran Phan Khanh Linh , Tran Duy Thanh , Malhotra Deepanshu , Prabhakaran Sampath , Kim Do Hwan , Kim Nam Hoon , Lee Joong Hee 
Published: October 2021

AbstractAtomic metal‐modulated heterostructures have been evidenced as an exciting solution to develop high‐performance multifunctional electrocatalyst toward water splitting. In this research, a catalyst of continuous cobalt‐cobalt oxide (Co‐CoO) lateral heterostructures implanted with well‐dispersed rhodium (Rh) atoms and shelled over conductive porous 1D copper (Cu) nano‐supports for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in both freshwater and seawater under alkaline condition is proposed. It is found that synergistic effects coming from uniform Rh atoms at doping level and Co‐CoO heterostructures afford rich multi‐integrated active sites and excellent charge transfer, thereby effectively promoting both HER and OER activities. The material requires overpotentials of 107.3 and 137.7 mV for HER and 277.7 and 260 mV for OER to reach an output of 10 mA cm−1 in freshwater and mimic seawater, respectively, surpassing earlier reported catalysts. Compared to a benchmark a Pt/C//RuO2‐based two‐electrode electrolyzer, a device derived from the 1D‐Cu@Co‐CoO/Rh on copper foam delivers comparable cell voltages of 1.62, 1.60, and 1.70 V at 10 mA cm−2 in freshwater, mimic seawater, and natural seawater, respectively, together with robust stability. These results evidence that 1D‐Cu@Co‐CoO/Rh is a promising catalyst for green hydrogen generation via freshwater and seawater electrolysis applications.
Metal‐Polyphenol‐Network Coated Prussian Blue Nanoparticles for Synergistic Ferroptosis and Apoptosis via Triggered GPX4 Inhibition and Concurrent In Situ Bleomycin Toxification
Authors: Zhou Lulu , Chen Jinjin , Li Ruihao , Wei Lizhen , Xiong Haitao , Wang Chunhui , Chai Keke , Chen Mengyao , Zhu Zhounan , Yao Tianming , Lin Yun , Dong Chunyan , Shi Shuo 
Published: October 2021

AbstractGiven that traditional anticancer therapies fail to significantly improve the prognoses of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), new modalities with high efficiency are urgently needed. Herein, by mixing the metal‐phenolic network formed by tannic acid (TA), bleomycin (BLM), and Fe3+ with glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) inhibitor (ML210) loaded hollow mesoporous Prussian blue (HMPB) nanocubes, the HMPB/ML210@TA‐BLM‐Fe3+ (HMTBF) nanocomplex is prepared to favor the ferroptosis/apoptosis synergism in TNBC. During the intracellular degradation, Fe3+/Fe2+ conversion mediated by TA can initiate the Fenton reaction to drastically upregulate the reactive oxygen species level in cells, subsequently induce the accumulation of lipid peroxidation, and thereby cause ferroptotic cell death; meanwhile, the released ML210 efficiently represses the activity of GPX4 to activate ferroptosis pathway. Besides, the chelation of Fe2+ with BLM leads to in situ BLM toxification at tumor site, then triggers an effective apoptosis to synergize with ferroptosis for tumor therapy. As a result, the superior in vivo antitumor efficacy of HMTBF is corroborated in a 4T1 tumor‐bearing mice model regarding tumor growth suppression, indicating that the nanoformulations can serve as efficient ferroptosis and apoptosis inducers for use in combinatorial TNBC therapy.
Structure and Charge Regulation Strategy Enabling Superior Cyclability for Ni‐Rich Layered Cathode Materials
Authors: Huang Wei , Li Wenjin , Wang Lve , Zhu He , Gao Min , Zhao Huan , Zhao Jinling , Shen Xueling , Wang Xiaodan , Wang Ze , Qi Chuanlei , Xiao Wei , Yao Lei , Wang Jiantao , Zhuang Weidong , Sun Xueliang 
Published: October 2021

AbstractNi‐rich layered oxides are significantly promising cathode materials for commercial high‐energy‐density lithium‐ion batteries. However, their major bottlenecks limiting their widespread applications are capacity fading and safety concerns caused by their inherently unstable crystal structure and highly reactive surface. Herein, surface structure and bulk charge regulation are concurrently achieved by introducing high‐valence Ta5+ ions in Ni‐rich cathodes, which exhibit superior electrochemical properties and thermal stability, especially a remarkable cyclic stability with a capacity retention of 80% for up to 768 cycles at a 1C rate versus Li/Li+. Due to the partial Ta enrichment on surface, the regulated surface enables high reversibility of Li+ insertion/extraction by preventing surface Ni reduction in deep charging. Moreover, bulk charge regulation that boosts charge density and its localization on oxygen remarkably suppresses microcracks and oxygen loss, which in turn prevents the fragmentation of the regulated surface and structural degradation associated with oxygen skeleton. This study highlights the significance of an integrated optimization strategy for Ni‐rich cathodes and, as a case study, provides a novel and deep insights into the underlying mechanisms of high‐valence ions substitution of Ni‐rich layered cathodes.
GPU acceleration of finite state machine input execution: Improving scale and performance
Authors: Yaneva Vanya , Rajan Ajitha , Dubach Christophe 
Published: October 2021

SummaryModel‐based development is a popular development approach in which software is implemented and verified based on a model of the required system. Finite state machines (FSMs) are widely used as models for systems in several domains. Validating that a model accurately represents the required behaviour involves the generation and execution of a large number of input sequences, which is often an expensive and time‐consuming process. In this paper, we speed up the execution of input sequences for FSM validation, by leveraging the high degree of parallelism of modern graphics processing units (GPUs) for the automatic execution of FSM input sequences in parallel on the GPU threads. We expand our existing work by providing techniques that improve the performance and scalability of this approach. We conduct extensive empirical evaluation using 15 large FSMs from the networking domain and measure GPU speed‐up over a 16‐core CPU, taking into account total GPU time, which includes both data transfer and kernel execution time. We found that GPUs execute FSM input sequences up to 9.28× faster than a 16‐core CPU, with an average speed‐up of 4.53× across all subjects. Our optimizations achieve an average improvement over existing work of 58.95%for speed‐up and scalability to large FSMs with over 2K states and 500K transitions. We also found that techniques aimed at reducing the number of required input sequences for large FSMs with high density were ineffective when applied to all‐transition pair coverage, thus emphasizing the need for approaches like ours that speed up input execution.
Prediction of compressive strength of geopolymer concrete using machine learning techniques
Authors: Gupta Tanuja , Rao Meesala Chakradhara 
Published: October 2021

AbstractGeopolymer concrete (GPC) is the result of an inorganic polymerization reaction that takes place in presence of an alkaline medium in the materials such as fly ash and slag, which are rich in silicates and aluminates. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN), multiple linear regression, and the multivariate nonlinear regression (MNLR) models were designed to predict the 28 days compressive strength of the GPC. To train the models, a total of 289 data sets were used, which were published by different researchers in the open literature. The input parameters, namely, binder content, amount of slag, rest period, curing temperature, curing period, the ratio of NaOH/Na2SiO3, amount of superplasticizer, extra water added, the molarity of NaOH, alkaline activator to binder ratio, amount of coarse, and fine aggregate were used. The performance of the ANN model was better than the multi linear regression (MLR) and multi non‐linear regression (MNLR) models to estimate the strength. The sensitivity analysis on ANN was also performed to study the influence of each parameter. The sensitivity analysis shows that the ratio of NaOH/Na2SiO3 significantly affects the compressive strength of GPC.
Relationship between water absorption and porosity in concrete with limestone powder addition
Authors: Li Chenzhi 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIn this work, the effect of limestone powder addition on the capillary water absorption of concrete was studied using the sorptivity coefficient to characterize the water absorption rate. MIP and SEM analyses were used to investigate the underlying microscopic mechanisms that affect the water absorption performance. The results indicate that adding less than 10 wt% limestone powder decreases the initial and second sorptivity coefficients due to densification of microstructure, which is confirmed by SEM images. An increased fineness of limestone powder also contributes to a decreased sorptivity coefficient. MIP analysis demonstrates that adding appropriate limestone powder reduces the total porosity and refines the pore structure. Variation of the second sorptivity coefficient with porosity suggests that a critical porosity for depercolation occurs at 0.09, below which the sorptivity coefficient decreases sharply due to the depercolation of the pore network. Based on the percolation theory, three water transport regimes, that is, subcritical, critical, and supercritical regimes, are identified with increasing porosity. The sorptivity coefficient in each regime is predicted based on the pore structure characteristics coupled with the percolation theory.
Quantitative evaluation and improvement of seismic resilience of a tall frame shear wall structure
Authors: Lu Xiao , Chen An 
Published: October 2021

SummaryTall buildings are an important part of a city, and their earthquake‐induced damage or collapse will lead to heavy losses, extended repair time, and casualties. Therefore, it is essential to quantify and improve the resilience of tall buildings. To this end, this paper develops a component damage‐based metric to characterize tall buildings' functionality loss and then proposes a general quantitative evaluation process to evaluate tall buildings' resilience. Next, the evaluation process is applied to a 42‐story reinforced concrete frame shear wall building to demonstrate its applicability. Finally, retrofit strategies on nonstructural components are discussed to enhance the building's resilience. It can be concluded that the proposed metric can be effectively used to evaluate tall buildings' functionality loss. The building being studied has great seismic resilience, with resilience values of 99.95%, 98.68%, and 88.69% at service level earthquake (SLE), design level earthquake (DBE), and maximum considered earthquake (MCE), respectively. The influence of nonstructural components on seismic resilience is greater than that of structural components at SLE and DBE levels. It is an effective alternative to enhance the seismic resilience of tall buildings under SLE and DBE by improving the performance of partition walls, ceilings, and equipment.
The inhibitory effect and mechanism of quetiapine on tumor progression in hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo
Authors: Su Chun‐Min , Lin Song‐Shei , Wang Hsiao‐Chia , Hsu Fei‐Ting , Chung Jing Gung , Hsu Li‐Cho 
Published: October 2021

AbstractHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the primary tumor of the liver and the fourth leading cause of cancer‐related death. Recently, several studies indicated the anti‐tumor potential of antipsychotic medicine. Quetiapine, an atypical antipsychotic, is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder since 1997. However, whether quetiapine may show potential to suppress HCC progression and its underlying mechanism is persisting unclear. Quetiapine has been shown to induce apoptosis and inhibit invasion ability in HCC in vitro. Here, we established two different HCC (Hep3B, SK‐Hep1) bearing animals to identify the treatment efficacy of quetiapine. Tumor growth, signaling transduction, and normal tissue pathology after quetiapine treatment were validated by caliper, bioluminescence image, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and hematoxylin and eosin staining, respectively. Quetiapine suppressed HCC progression in a dose‐dependent manner. Extracellular signal‐regulated kinases (ERKs) and Nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) mediated downstream proteins, such as myeloid leukemia cell differentiation protein (MCL‐1), cellular FLICE‐inhibitory protein (C‐FLIP), X‐linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP), Cyclin‐D1, matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP‐9), vascular endothelial growth factor‐A (VEGF‐A) and indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase (IDO) which involved in proliferation, survival, angiogenesis, invasion and anti‐tumor immunity were all decreased by quetiapine. In addition, extrinsic/intrinsic caspase‐dependent and caspase‐independent pathways, including cleaved caspase‐3, −8, and − 9 were increased by quetiapine. In sum, the tumor inhibition that results from quetiapine may associate with ERK and NF‐κB inactivation.
High prevalence of extended‐spectrum beta‐lactamase organisms and the COVID‐19 pandemic impact on donor recruitment for fecal microbiota transplantation in Hong Kong
Authors: Yau Yuk Kam , Mak Wing Yan Joyce , Lui Nok Shun Rashid , Ng Wai Yin Rita , Cheung Choi Yan Kitty , Li Ying Lee Amy , Ching Yuet Ling Jessica , Chin Miu Ling , Lau Ho Shing Louis , Chan Ka Leung Francis , Chan Kay Sheung Paul , Ng Siew Chien 
Published: October 2021

AbstractBackgroundWith increasing number of clinical trials relating to fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), it is crucial to identify and recruit long‐term, healthy, and regular fecal donors.ObjectiveWe aimed to report the outcomes of screening and recruitment of fecal donors for FMT.MethodsPotential donors were recruited via advertisement through internal mass emails at a university. They were required to undergo a pre‐screening telephone interview, a detailed questionnaire, followed by blood and stool investigations.ResultsFrom January 2017 to December 2020, 119 potential donors were assessed with 75 failed pre‐screening. Reasons for failure included: inability to come back for regular and long‐term donation (n = 19), high body mass index (n = 17), underlying chronic illness or on long‐term medications (n = 11), being healthcare professionals (n = 10), use of antibiotics within 3 months (n = 5) and others (n = 13). Forty‐four donors completed questionnaires and 11 did not fulfill the clinical criteria. Of the remaining 33 potential donors who had stool and blood tests, 21 failed stool investigations (19 extended‐spectrum beta‐lactamase [ESBL] organisms, one Clostridioides difficile, one C. difficile plus Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus), one failed blood tests (high serum alkaline phosphatase level), one required long‐term medication and nine withdrew consent and/or lost to follow‐up. In total, only one out of 119 (0.8%) potential donors was successfully recruited as a regular donor.ConclusionThere was a high failure rate in donor screening for FMT. Main reasons for screening failure included high prevalence of positive ESBL organisms in stool and failed commitment to regular stool donation.
Stereological and molecular studies on the effects of Ferula persica extract on wound healing in rats
Authors: Huang Lei , Wang Mengting , Ebrahimzadeh Mohammad Ali , Jafari Aref , Jiang Kejiao 
Published: October 2021

AbstractBackgroundFerula persica is one of the most important traditional medicinal plants that is used to treat various diseases such as diabetes, backache and rheumatism. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the anti‐inflammatory and wound healing potential of F. persica using stereological and molecular methods in experimental models.MethodsIn the present study, two wound models (circular excision and linear incision) were used. Male Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 16), including control, vehicle treated, treated with F. persica extract ointment (5% w/w) and treated with the reference drug (Madecassol). All the animals were treated topically once a day. The circular and linear wounds were treated for 9 and 17 days, respectively. At the end of the study, samples from wounds area were harvested for histology, stereology, immunohistochemistry and molecular assessments to determine the in vivo healing potential and anti‐inflammatory activity.ResultsWe observed significant recovery in macroscopic evaluation of wound healing in the F. persica extract treated group compared with the control and vehicle treated groups (p < 0.05). Histological and stereological assessments showed complete repair of the epidermal layer, increasing fibroblast cells and collagen density, decreasing inflammatory cells and a remarkable degree of neovascularization by determining length density of blood vessels in the extract group, which were significant as compared to the control and vehicle treated groups (p < 0.05). Expressions of TNF‐α and TGF‐β were found to be decreased and increased (p > 0.05, p < 0.05, respectively), in the extract treated group as compared to the control and vehicle treated groups. Also, greater COX‐2 expression could be detected in the control and vehicle treated groups, which was significantly attenuated in the extract group.ConclusionOur results confirm that the F. persica extract is a valuable source of antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activity and can allow damaged tissue in wounds to recover markedly.
Comparative pathology of dog and human prostate cancer
Authors: Ryman‐Tubb Toby , Lothion‐Roy Jennifer H. , Metzler Veronika M. , Harris Anna E. , Robinson Brian D. , Rizvanov Albert A. , Jeyapalan Jennie N. , James Victoria H. , England Gary , Rutland Catrin S. , Persson Jenny L. , Kenner Lukas , Rubin Mark A. , Mongan Nigel P. , de Brot Simone 
Published: October 2021

AbstractThough relatively rare in dogs, prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non‐cutaneous cancer in men. Human and canine prostate glands share many functional, anatomical and physiological features. Due to these similarities, canine PCa has been proposed as a model for PCa in men. PCa is typically androgen‐dependent at diagnosis in men and for this reason, androgen deprivation therapies (ADT) are important treatments for advanced PCa in men. In contrast, there is some evidence that PCa is diagnosed more commonly in castrate dogs, at which point, limited therapeutic options are available. In men, a major limitation of current ADT is that progression to a lethal and incurable form of PCa, termed castrate‐resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), is common. There is, therefore, an urgent need for a better understanding of the mechanism of PCa initiation and progression to CRPC to enable the development of novel therapeutic approaches. This review focuses on the functional, physiological, endocrine and histopathological similarities and differences in the prostate gland of these species. In particular, we focus on common physiological roles for androgen signalling in the prostate of men and dogs, we review the short‐ and longer‐term effects of castration on PCa incidence and progression in the dog and relate how this knowledge may be relevant to understanding the mechanisms of CRPC in men.
Using Long‐Term Data to Compare Two Sizes of Sherman Trap
Authors: Vanek John P. , Preuss Timothy S. , Rutter Andrew U. , Jones Holly P. , Glowacki Gary A. 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACTLive traps are commonly used to inventory, monitor, and sample populations of small mammals. Due to the variety of available trap types, understanding differences between traps is important to minimize bias and plan future studies. Sherman traps (H. B. Sherman Trap, Inc., Tallahassee, FL, USA; hereafter Sherman traps) are a popular live trap that come in a variety of sizes. However, studies comparing the relative efficacy of different‐sized Sherman traps often focus on a single species or are limited by a lack of temporal and spatial replication, leading to contradictory or ambiguous results. Therefore, to better understand the relative efficacy of two commonly‐used sizes, we used a paired design and 10 years of trapping data to compare species richness, capture numbers, and mortality rates between small Sherman traps (5.1 × 6.4 × 16.5 cm) and large Sherman traps (7.6 × 8.9 × 22.9 cm) across 55 preserves in northeastern Illinois. Despite wide annual variation, we captured more small mammals in large traps except for the smallest taxa (Sorex spp.), the proportion of captures in large traps increased with body size, and large traps significantly reduced mortality rates for Peromyscus spp., meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), and short‐tailed shrews (Blarina brevicauda). We recommend the 7.6 × 8.9 × 22.9 cm Sherman trap for monitoring surveys in the midwestern USA when research or monitoring objectives include maximizing captures and species richness while minimizing mortality. However, we note the smaller‐sized trap may be useful to minimize bycatch when smaller species are being targeted. Finally, managers and biologists conducting short‐term or pilot studies should be wary of year effects, as we found substantial annual variation in relative capture rates between trap sizes. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.