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Sepsis and septic shock threaten the survival of millions of patients in the intensive care unit. Secondary fungal infections significantly increased the risk of mortality in sepsis patients. Chinese medicine Xuebijing injection (XBJ) has been routinely used as an add-on treatment to sepsis and septic shock in China. Our network pharmacology analysis predicted that XBJ also influences fungal infection, consisting with results of pioneer clinical studies. We conducted in vivo and in vitro experiments to verify this prediction. To our surprise, XBJ rescued mice from lethal Candida sepsis in a disseminated Candida albicans infection model and abolished the colonization of C. albicans in kidneys. Although XBJ did not inhibit the growth and the virulence of C. albicans in vitro, it enhanced the viability of 293T cells upon C. albicans insults. Further RNA-seq analysis revealed that XBJ activated the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathway upon C. albicans infection. Western blot confirmed that XBJ maintained the expression of GRP78 in the presence of C. albicans. Interestingly, key active ingredients in XBJ (C0127) mirrored the effects of XBJ. C0127 not only rescued mice from lethal Candida sepsis and prevented the colonization of C. albicans in kidneys, but also sustained the survival of kidney epithelial cells partially by maintaining the expression of GRP78. These results suggested that XBJ may prevent fungal infection in sepsis patients. Pre-activation of ER stress pathway is a novel strategy to control C. albicans infection. Network pharmacology may accelerate drug development in the field of infectious diseases.

Under the background of "the Belt and Road", the rapid development of tourism and financial industry in China has made important contributions to the economic and cultural construction of "the Belt and Road ". Through the construction of coupling correlation model and coupling index system, this paper conducts an empirical analysis on the integrated development of tourism and financial industry in China from 2013 to 2017 under the background of "the Belt and Road". The results show that China's tourism and financial industry have developed rapidly in the period of 2013-2017, and there is a significant coupling relationship between them. However, there is a lag in the development of financial industry in 2013-2014 and a lag in the development of tourism industry in 2015-2017. In general, under the background of "the Belt and Road", China's tourism and financial industry continue to develop, and the links and interactions between the two industries are getting stronger and stronger. The two industries promote each other, and finally achieve the high-quality coordinated development of tourism and financial industry.

Biodiesel is regarded to be a renewable, CO2 neutral and thus sustainable biological alternative diesel fuel. With attention to the reduction of petroleum import, PM 2.5 aerosol particles and the greenhouse effect gas CO2, biodiesel has drawn great research interests and efforts in the past decade in China. Generally, biodiesel refers to fatty acid methyl ether (FAME) which has a proved effect in reducing diesel emission, particularly PM. However, FAME has a limited cetane number and oxygen content, to study the effects of elevated cetane number and oxygen content on fuel properties, engine combustion and emissions, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether is used to produce a series of new models of biodiesels by transesterification method. The feedstocks are rapeseed oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, palm oil and cottonseed oil. Ether group alcohols used in this study include ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monopropyl ether, propylene glycol monomethyl ether, diethylene glycol monomethyl ether, triethylene glycol monomethyl ether. The molecular structure was proved by FT-IR and NMR analyses. Fuel properties were measured based on the corresponding standards. The developed new model biodiesels have cetane number (CN) over 70 and oxygen content over 17% by mass, which are higher than FAME (50 CN and 11% oxygen). They have the same level of lower heating value as FAME, but have a higher density, which helps to compensate the decrease of engine power. Meanwhile, the engine tests were carried out to investigate the effects of ether ester group on engine combustion and emissions. The test results show that FAME reduced smoke 30% to 50%, while the new model biodiesel fuels reduced engine smoke as high as 80% and have the potential to decrease engine HC, CO and NOx emissions 50% or more.

[Objectives] This study was conducted to explore the relationship between morphological traits and body mass trait of Lutraria sieboldii. [Methods] 110 were randomly selected from 120 2n,i-instar L. sieboldii collected from the Tieshangang area of Beihai, Guangxi, and 132 were randomly selected from 150 shellfish at the instar of 0.6. Their morphological traits were measured: shell length (SL), shell height (SH), shell width (SW), anterior length (AL), posterior length (PL), nose length (NL) in closed shell state, and maximum open shell width (OS) between two shells in closed shell state, and the body mass trait BM was also measured. Statistical methods such as path analysis and multiple regression were used for data analysis, and the effects of these seven morphological traits on the body mass trait were studied, respectively. The correlation between the tested seven quantitative traits and one body mass trait was all positive, all reaching an extremely significant level (P <0.01). [Results] The body mass trait of the shellfish at the instar of 2 had the highest correlation coefficient with shell length (0. 922), that is, shell length had the greatest direct impact on the body mass trait; the path coefficient was 0.700; and the final multiple regression equation established was BM - -124.882 + 1.189SL + 1.551 SH+1.035SW + 0.119NL, and the total determination coefficient (ß2) on body mass was 0.849. The body mass trait of the shellfish at the instar of 0. 6 had the highest correlation coefficient with shell length (0. 859), that is, shell length had the greatest direct impact on the body mass trait; the path coefficient was 0.494; and the final multiple regression equation established was BM = -1.917 + 0.111SL +0.021 NL +0.078SW + 0.0320S, and the total determination coefficient (ß2) on body mass was 0. 828. The multivariate regression variance analysis showed that the regression between the morphological traits and body mass trait of the L. sieboldii at the instars of 2 and 0. 6 reached an extremely significant level (P <0. 01). [Conclusions] This study provides a scientific basis for the selection of broodstock in the selection and breeding of L. sieboldii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: C8 α‐olefins are regarded as top value‐added compounds from Fischer–Tropsch (F−T) products. However, the separation of purified C8 α‐olefins has proven to be a daunting challenge owing to their relative volatility. As the traditional methods for C8 α‐olefins purification are energy‐ and capital cost‐intensive, an efficient method for the separation of n‐hydrocarbons and iso‐hydrocarbons will provide a valuable and more sustainable alternative to address these challenges. RESULTS: In the urea‐adduction method, the purity of 1‐octene was increased from 96.02 to 98.04 wt%, and the yield was 93.62 %, which broke the limitation of traditional distillation on the purification of 1‐octene. By combining the urea‐adduction method and distillation, a promising and energy‐efficient integrated separation process was proposed. First, it recovers C8n‐hydrocarbons through adduction reactions. Second, 1‐octene and n‐octane are separated with integrated distillation technology. The results indicated that this process can be utilized to recover 1‐octene from the C8 fraction of F–T synthetic products with a recovery yield of 93.6 % and an increase in purity from 65.6 to 98.7 wt%. As shown in Fig. 6(b), process modeling demonstrates that it trims energy consumption to 50.1% and total TAC to 55.1% in comparison with the traditional separation process. CONCLUSION: It was found that the integrated process can produce high‐purity 1‐octene, indicating that the integration process demonstrates clear potential advantages, such as reducing energy consumption and increasing economic value. This approach can be adopted on an industrial scale. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis and septic shock threaten the survival of millions of patients in the intensive care unit. Secondary fungal infections significantly increased the risk of mortality in sepsis patients. Chinese medicine Xuebijing injection (XBJ) has been routinely used as an add-on treatment to sepsis and septic shock in China. Our network pharmacology analysis predicted that XBJ also influences fungal infection, consisting with results of pioneer clinical studies. We conducted in vivo and in vitro experiments to verify this prediction. To our surprise, XBJ rescued mice from lethal Candida sepsis in a disseminated Candida albicans infection model and abolished the colonization of C. albicans in kidneys. Although XBJ did not inhibit the growth and the virulence of C. albicans in vitro , it enhanced the viability of 293T cells upon C. albicans insults. Further RNA-seq analysis revealed that XBJ activated the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathway upon C. albicans infection. Western blot confirmed that XBJ maintained the expression of GRP78 in the presence of C. albicans. Interestingly, key active ingredients in XBJ (C0127) mirrored the effects of XBJ. C0127 not only rescued mice from lethal Candida sepsis and prevented the colonization of C. albicans in kidneys, but also sustained the survival of kidney epithelial cells partially by maintaining the expression of GRP78. These results suggested that XBJ may prevent fungal infection in sepsis patients. Pre-activation of ER stress pathway is a novel strategy to control C. albicans infection. Network pharmacology may accelerate drug development in the field of infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiesel is regarded to be a renewable, CO2 neutral and thus sustainable biological alternative diesel fuel. With attention to the reduction of petroleum import, PM 2.5 aerosol particles and the greenhouse effect gas CO2, biodiesel has drawn great research interests and efforts in the past decade in China. Generally, biodiesel refers to fatty acid methyl ether (FAME) which has a proved effect in reducing diesel emission, particularly PM. However, FAME has a limited cetane number and oxygen content, to study the effects of elevated cetane number and oxygen content on fuel properties, engine combustion and emissions, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether is used to produce a series of new models of biodiesels by transesterification method. The feedstocks are rapeseed oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, palm oil and cottonseed oil. Ether group alcohols used in this study include ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monopropyl ether, propylene glycol monomethyl ether, diethylene glycol monomethyl ether, triethylene glycol monomethyl ether. The molecular structure was proved by FT-IR and NMR analyses. Fuel properties were measured based on the corresponding standards. The developed new model biodiesels have cetane number (CN) over 70 and oxygen content over 17% by mass, which are higher than FAME (50 CN and 11% oxygen). They have the same level of lower heating value as FAME, but have a higher density, which helps to compensate the decrease of engine power. Meanwhile, the engine tests were carried out to investigate the effects of ether ester group on engine combustion and emissions. The test results show that FAME reduced smoke 30% to 50%, while the new model biodiesel fuels reduced engine smoke as high as 80% and have the potential to decrease engine HC, CO and NOx emissions 50% or more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]