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The interpolation of sparse seismic data is important for seismic data processing, especially in the case of marine data acquisition. The conventional interferometric interpolation method interpolates missing data based on seismic interferometry in the time-space domain. However, missing traces and the limited acquisition aperture will reduce the quality and accuracy of virtual shot gathers, thereby affecting the final interpolation results. To improve the conventional method, we have adopted a four-step Radon domain interferometric interpolation method for sparse seismic data. First, we generate synthetic seismic data with a water-layer model and replace missing traces in the input data with synthetic traces. Second, we sort the input shot gathers into common-receiver-point (CRP) gathers and transform the CRP gathers into the Radon domain using a sparse Radon transform method. Third, we perform Radon domain seismic interferometric interpolation by cross-correlating traces with the same ray parameter and summing over all different ray parameters to obtain a virtual shot gather. Fourth, we apply a 1D least-squares matching filter to the virtual shot gather to obtain the interpolation result. Numerical and field examples demonstrate that our method can effectively interpolate sparse seismic data. Compared with the conventional time-space domain interferometric interpolation method, our method can provide more accurate interpolation results. Moreover, it is less sensitive to the depth of the water layer and an inaccurate impedance contrast of the water bottom.

Through downhole monitoring, the focal mechanisms of microearthquakes can be quantitatively determined, thus providing valuable information for characterizing the fracturing process and the in situ stress status. The double-couple (DC) and moment tensor (MT) source models are commonly used to study microearthquakes. However, the DC model fails to include non-DC mechanisms, and MT inversion from single-well data is still challenging. One possible way to address this is using the shear–tensile general dislocation (GD) source model. We provide a detailed comparison of the DC, GD, and MT models, and introduce the differences in their modeling and inversion theories. These three models are described by four, five, and six parameters, and correspond to a single point, a straight line, and the entire space in the Hudson source-type plots, respectively. Both the DC and GD models yield nonlinear inversions, whereas the MT inversion is linear. Synthetic tests set up from a field single-well monitoring case are performed to study the resolvability of the DC, GD, and MT models in single-well focal mechanism inversions. The results indicate that the inversion error increases from DC→GD→MT for a single-well acquisition system, and the GD and DC inversions are both stable, whereas the MT inversion deviates from the inputs in cases with a perfectly vertical receiver array, 5% model velocity perturbations, 10 m horizontal source location errors, or 40% noise levels. We also find that the focal mechanism inversion mainly depends on the horizontal source–receiver azimuth coverage, and that the nonvertical well direction is helpful for constraining single-well inversions. According to our study, focal mechanism inversions based on the GD model can obtain reliable solutions from near-vertical single-well data, which will help improve non-DC earthquake studies.

Research on the non-double-couple (NDC) components in an earthquake is important for characterizing true source processes. The moment-tensor (MT) source model is commonly used to study NDC earthquakes. However, MT inversions are still challenging when earthquakes have small magnitudes, especially microearthquakes. The general-dislocation (GD) model specifies the focal mechanism as a shear-tensile slip on a fault plane; thus, GD inversion is better constrained than MT inversion. We focus on GD model-based waveform forward modeling and its application to microseismic source inversions. We expand the generalized reflection-transmission matrix method to synthesize waveforms based on the GD model and fully describe a GD source with five parameters: the scalar seismic moment (which defines the magnitude) and the strike, dip, rake, and slope angles (which define the fault geometry). We compare the GD, MT, and double-couple models and introduce the differences in their characterization and wave synthesis theories. We have developed a GD model-based microseismic focal mechanism inversion method that requires calculating only four angles under hybrid constraints. Two sets of solutions correspond to the same seismograms in a GD model-based inversion. These two solutions have the same scalar seismic moment and slope angle but different strike, dip, and rake angles, and we have derived formulas for mapping from one solution to the other. Synthetic and field surface microseismic data sets are used to test our GD model-based modeling and inversion methods. According to our study, the GD model is effective in microseismic focal mechanism inversion. By developing specific wave synthesis and inversion methods for the GD model, we offer a novel perspective to study this model and the NDC mechanisms for hydraulic fracturing-induced microearthquakes.

Asarum is a traditional medicine and has been widely used as remedies for inflammatory diseases, toothache, headache, local anesthesia, and aphthous stomatitis in China, Japan, and Korea. Our previous research found that safrole and methyl eugenol were vital compounds that contribute to distinguish the different species and raw Asarum and its processed products apart. The pharmacokinetics of safrole and methyl eugenol after oral administration of Asarum extract has not been reported yet. In this study, a rapid and simple gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) method that has a complete run time of only 4.5 min was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination and pharmacokinetic study of safrole and methyl eugenol in rat plasma after administration of Asarum extracts. The chromatographic separation was realized on a DB-17 column ( 30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μ m ). And detection was carried out under selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Plasma samples were pretreated by n -hexane. The pharmacokinetic parameters provided by this study will be beneficial for further developments and clinical applications of Asarum.

AtPHB2 was cloned from Arabidopsis thaliana and localized to mitochondria. AtPHB2 expression in A. thaliana increased under different stresses, and promotion of seed germination and plant growth was observed in transgenic plants. In terms of physiological indices, the transgenic plants were more resistant to saline-alkali and oxidative stresses than wild-type and mutant plants. The transgenic plants also had the highest K+/Na+ ratio after 24 h of salt treatment and maintained lower H2O2 contents than wild-type and mutant plants under stress. Taken together, these results reveal that AtPHB2 affects plant tolerance against salt stresses and is involved in ROS decrease mechanisms.

Through the study of microseismic focal mechanisms, information such as fracture orientation, event magnitude, and in situ stress status can be quantitatively obtained, thus providing a reliable basis for unconventional oil and gas exploration. Most source inversion methods assume that the medium is isotropic. However, hydraulic fracturing is usually conducted in sedimentary rocks, which often exhibit strong anisotropy. Neglecting this anisotropy may cause errors in focal mechanism inversion results. We have developed a microseismic focal mechanism inversion method that considers velocity anisotropy in a vertically transverse isotropic medium. To generate synthetic data, we adopt the moment-tensor model to represent microearthquake sources. We use a staggered-grid finite-difference method to calculate synthetic seismograms in anisotropic media. We perform seismic moment-tensor (SMT) inversion with only P-waves by matching the synthetic and observed waveforms. The synthetic and field data sets are used to test the inversion method. For the field data set, we investigate the inversion stability using randomly selected partial data sets in the calculation. We pay special attention to analyze the sensitivity of the inversion. We test and evaluate the impact of noise in the data and errors in the model parameters ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]) on the SMT inversion using synthetic data sets. The results indicate that, for a surface acquisition system, our method can tolerate moderate noise in the data and deviations in the anisotropy parameters can cause errors in the SMT inversion, especially for dip-slip events and the inverted percentages of non-double-couple (DC) components. According to our study, including anisotropy in the model is important to obtain reliable non-DC components of moment tensors for hydraulic fracturing-induced microearthquakes.

Hydraulic fracturing reservoir reconstruction technology is crucial in the development of shale gas exploitation techniques. Large quantities of high-pressure fluids injected into shale reservoirs significantly alter compressional (P) and shear (S) wave velocities, rock mechanical parameters, and anisotropic characteristics. In this study, differentiated hydraulic fracturing petrophysical experiments were carried out on Longmaxi Formation shale under pseudo-triaxial stress loading conditions. The effects of stress loading methods, and water-rock physical and chemical reactions on P- and S-wave velocities and rock mechanical parameters were compared. The experimental results showed that isotropic stress loading may increase the P- and S-wave velocities and Young’s modulus of dry shale kldnsample. Furthermore, it may lead to a weakening of the corresponding anisotropy. In contrast, differential stress loading was able to improve the anisotropy of Young’s modulus and accelerate the decrease in the compressive strength of shale in the vertical bedding direction. The water-rock physical and chemical reactions prompted by hydraulic fracturing was found to “soften” shale samples and reduce Young’s modulus. The influence of this “soften” effect on the compressional and shear wave velocities of shale was negligible, whilst there was a significant decrease in the anisotropy characteristics of Thomsen parameters, Young’s modulus, and Poisson’s ratio. The negative linear relationship between the Poisson’s ratios of the shale samples was also observed to lose sensitivity to stress loading, as a result of the “soften” effect of fracturing fluid on shale. The results of this study provide a reliable reference point and data support for future research on the mechanical properties of Longmaxi shale rocks.

Small structures in coal mine working face is one of the main hidden dangers of safe and efficient production in coal mine. Currently, seismic exploration is often used as the main method for detecting such structures. However, limited by the accuracy of seismic data processing and interpretation, the interpreted location of small structures is often deviated. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) can detect small structures accurately, but the exploration depth is shallow. The combination of the two methods can improve the exploration accuracy of small structures in coal mine. Aiming at the 1226# working face of Shuguang coal mine, we propose a method of seismic-attributes based small-structure prediction error correction using GPR data. First, we extract the coherence, curvature, and dip attributes from seismic data, that are sensitive to small structures, then by considering factors such as the effective detection range of GPR and detection environment, we select two structures from the prediction results of seismic attributes for GPR detection. Finally, based on the relationship between the positions of small structures predicted by the two methods, we use statistical methods to determine the overall offset distance and azimuth of the small structures in the entire study area and use the results as a standard for correcting each structure position. The results show that the GPR data can be used to correct the horizontal position errors of small structures predicted by seismic attribute analysis. The accuracy of the prediction results is greatly improved, with the error controlled within 5 m and reduced by more than 80%. Therefore, the feasibility of the method proposed in this study is verified.

The interpretation of seismic attributes has been developed for more than 40 years, but it still cannot be fully matched with the study of geologic sedimentology. There are two main bottlenecks. One is that almost no attributes can completely characterize amplitudes from a 3D perspective. Another is the influence of wavelets (frequency and phase). Accordingly, a new volumetric attribute extraction technique is presented for solving these two problems as much as possible. A high-dimensional co-occurrence matrix (HCM), as a statistical representation of the spatial structural relationship between data points, can be one of the solutions to extracting 3D attributes. By considering the global spatial distribution, the HCM fixes the directional distortion of the existing co-occurrence matrix methods and effectively suppresses vertical wavelet illusions. By realizing a rapid transformation of seismic data to 3D geologic target visualizations, this method does not rely heavily on structural information such as dip and azimuth and becomes a convenient bridge from seismic to geologic interpretation. We have applied the methodology to channel delineation in a 3D seismic survey acquired in Ordos, China. The results indicate that the attribute volume extracted from HCM expresses the geologic target convincingly and eliminates the illusions caused by the wavelets. The deposition history of the channels could be observed continuously through geologic time.

A few advancing technologies for natural product analysis have been widely proposed, which focus on decreasing energy consumption and developing an environmentally sustainable manner. These green sample pretreatment and analysis methods following the green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) criteria have the advantage of improving the strategy of chemical analyses, promoting sustainable development to analytical laboratories, and reducing the negative effects of analysis experiments on the environment. A few minimized extraction methodologies have been proposed for replacing the traditional methods in the quality evaluation of natural products, mainly including solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and liquid phase microextraction (LPME). These procedures not only have no need for large numbers of samples and toxic reagent, but also spend a small amount of extraction and analytical time. This overview aims to list out the main green strategies on the application of quality evaluation and control for natural products in the past 3 years.

PurposeBench scale and flame manikin tests are two typical methods to evaluate thermal protective performance (TPP) of fire protective clothing. However, flame manikin test is limited to be widely used for its complication and high cost. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to evaluate the thermal performance of protective clothing from the bench scale test results and garment parameters, which predicts the body burn injuries without conducting flame manikin tests.Design/methodology/approachBench scale and flame manikin tests’ data were collected from the previous research literature and then statistical analysis was performed to quantitatively investigate the correlations between the two test methods. Equations were established to predict the TPP values accounting for the effects of entrapped air gap and thermal shrinkage. Fitting analysis was conducted to analyze the relationship between the predicted TPP values and total burn injury. Finally, a method to predict total burn injury from the TPP values was proposed and validated.FindingsThe results showed that when the TPP value was predicted with the effects of air gap and thermal shrinkage considered, there was an approximate linear relationship between the predicted TPP values and total burn injury from the manikin test. Therefore, the prediction model of burn injury was developed based on the correlation analysis and verified with a generally good accuracy.Originality/valueThis paper presented a new prediction method to evaluate the thermal performance of protective clothing, which saved significant time and cost compared to the conventional methods. It can provide useful information for burn injury prediction of protective clothing.

The Meso-Tethys was a late Paleozoic to Mesozoic ocean basin between the Cimmerian continent and Gondwana. Part of its relicts is exposed in the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone, in the north-central Tibetan Plateau, that played a key role in the evolution of the Tibetan plateau before the India-Asia collision. A Penrose-type ophiolitic sequence was newly discovered in the Ren Co area in the middle of the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone, which comprises serpentinized peridotites, layered and isotropic gabbros, sheeted dikes, pillow and massive basalts, and red cherts. Zircon U-Pb dating of gabbros and plagiogranites yielded 206Pb/238U ages of 169–147 Ma, constraining the timing of formation of the Ren Co ophiolite. The mafic rocks (i.e., basalt, diabase, and gabbro) in the ophiolite have uniform geochemical compositions, coupled with normal mid-ocean ridge basalt-type trace element patterns. Moreover, the samples have positive whole-rock εNd(t) [+9.2 to +8.3], zircon εHf(t) [+17 to +13], and mantle-like δ18O (5.8–4.3‰) values. These features suggest that the Ren Co ophiolite is typical of mid-ocean ridge-type ophiolite that is identified for the first time in the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone. We argue that the Ren Co ophiolite is the relic of a fast-spreading ridge that occurred in the main oceanic basin of the Bangong–Nujiang segment of Meso-Tethys. Here the Meso-Tethyan orogeny involves a continuous history of oceanic subduction, accretion, and continental assembly from the Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous.

The conventional reverse time migration of ground‐penetrating radar data is implemented with the two‐way wave equation. The cross‐correlation result contains low‐frequency noise and false images caused by improper wave paths. To eliminate low‐frequency noise and improve the quality of the migration image, we propose to separate the left‐up‐going, left‐down‐going, right‐up‐going and right‐down‐going wavefield components in the forward‐ and backward‐propagated wavefields based on the Hilbert transform. By applying the reverse time migration of ground‐penetrating radar data with full wavefield decomposition based on the Hilbert transform, we obtain the reverse time migration images of different wavefield components and combine correct imaging conditions to generate complete migration images. The proposed method is tested on the synthetic ground‐penetrating radar data of a tilt‐interface model and a complex model. The migration results show that the imaging condition of different wavefield components can highlight the desired structures. We further discuss the reasons for incomplete images by reverse time migration with partial wavefields. Compared with the conventional reverse time migration methods for ground‐penetrating radar data, low‐frequency noise can be eliminated in images generated by the reverse time migration method with full wavefield decomposition based on the Hilbert transform.

Hydrosoluble trehalose lipid (a biosurfactant) was employed for the first time as a green extraction solution to extract the main antioxidant compounds (geniposidic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and rutin) from functional plant tea (Eucommia ulmoides leaves). Single-factor tests and response surface methodology were employed to optimize the extraction conditions for ultrasound-assisted micellar extraction combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography in succession. A Box-Behnken design (three-level, three-factorial) was used to determine the effects of extraction solvent concentration (1-5 mg/mL), extraction solvent volume (5-15 mL), and extraction time (20-40 min) at a uniform ultrasonic power and temperature. In consequence, the best analyte extraction yields could be attained when the trehalose lipid solution concentration was prepared at 3 mg/mL, the trehalose lipid solution volume was 10 mL and the extraction time was set to 35 min. In addition, the recoveries of the antioxidants from Eucommia ulmoides leaves analyzed by this analytical method ranged from 98.2 to 102%. These results indicated that biosurfactant-enhanced ultrasound-assisted micellar extraction coupled with a simple ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography method could be effectively applied in the extraction and analysis of antioxidants from Eucommia ulmoides leaf samples.

Reverse time migration is an advanced seismic migration imaging method. When the source wavefield and the receiver wavefield are cross‐correlated, the cross‐correlations of direct arrivals, backscattered waves and overturned waves will produce a lot of low‐frequency noise, which will mask the final imaging results. Laplacian filtering, as a common method to suppress low‐frequency noise, can adapt to any complex media, just adding a little computational cost. However, simple direct Laplacian filtering will destroy the characteristics of the useful signals. Therefore, the amplitude needs to be compensated before filtering when using the Laplacian filtering method. Zhang and Sun proposed an improved Laplacian filtering method and gave a simple calculation formula and explanation. This method can effectively suppress the low‐frequency noise in reverse time migration while retaining the useful signal characteristics, but lacks detailed and strict mathematical derivation. Therefore, this paper gives a detailed and rigorous mathematical derivation of the amplitude‐compensated Laplace filtering method from the point of view of amplitude‐preserved filtering. The source wavelet is used instead of the source wavefield to compensate amplitude, just adding a little calculation cost. Finally, the amplitude‐compensated Laplace filtering method is verified by two theoretical models and compared with the direct Laplacian filtering method.

In this study, a sensitive and reliable HPLC-MS/MS method was established to quantify tamarixetin in rat plasma. This method was then applied to research on the pharmacokinetic and bioavailability of tamarixetin after intravenous and oral administrationin vivo. The study was performed on CORTECS C18column (4.6 mm × 150 mm, 2.7 μm) using mobile phase composed of methanol-water-formic acid (85 : 15 : 0.1, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min by a tandem mass system with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source in the negative multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The calibration curves showed good linearity in the range of 5–4000 ng/mL. The intra- and interday precision of tamarixetin was less than 8.7% and 4.8%, respectively, and accuracy was within ±9.5%. Extraction recovery (91.4–100.0%) and matrix effect (99.4–107.4%) met the guidelines published by regulatory authorities. The oral bioavailability of tamarixetin was 20.3 ± 12.4%.

In this study, PM10 samples at four locations of Loudi, China were collected from January 2017 to March 2017 and December 2017 to February 2018 at first. Then, a new analytical strategy of second-o...

To accurately image the geologic structures from walkaway vertical seismic profile (VSP) data, it is necessary to estimate the subsurface velocity field with high resolution and enhanced illumination of deep reservoirs. Because full-waveform inversion (FWI) suffers from cycle skipping when the initial model is far from the true model, we have adopted frequency-dependent reflection wave-equation traveltime inversion (FRWT) to generate the background velocity model for VSP migration. The upgoing reflection data are separated from the original shot gathers, and dynamic warping is used to evaluate the traveltime differences between the observed data and the calculated data. Different frequency bands of the data are inverted in sequence to reconstruct the velocity model with higher resolution. We also implement wavefield decomposition on the gradient field to extract the contributions of reflection components and improve the updated model. The inverted results obtained from FRWT can be used as the initial model for conventional FWI or the velocity model for reverse time migration. The experiments on synthetic data and field data demonstrate that our approach can effectively recover the background velocity model from walkaway VSP data.

Phase-separated Pb/Zn heterogeneous nanoparticles (Pb/Zn HNPs) with a controllable phase ratio were firstly prepared by long-pulse-width millisecond laser ablation of Pb/Zn binary metal target immersed in anhydrous ethanol under room conditions. The phase ratio in the as-ablated Pb/Zn HNPs was mainly determined by the molar ratio of Pb/Zn in the initial binary metal target and the structure of Pb/Zn HNPs was partly influenced by the pulse laser width. Then the PBS tipped ZnS nanorods heterostructures (PbS/ZnS heterostructures) were grown by simply heating the mixture of the as-ablated Pb/Zn HNPs and thioacetamide (TAA) at 450 °C in a tube furnace. The size and morphology of Pbs/ZnS heterostructures were decided by the original absolute size and relative size between phase-separated Pb and Zn nanoparticle. The formation of Pbs/ZnS heterostructures was the result of the diffusion-limited of S atoms in the Pb/Zn HNPs. This study not only provides a new strategy for the controllable preparation of phase-separated bimetallic nanoparticles that can be used for the growth of specific heterostructures but a new view on the fundamental physical and chemical aspects of nanocrystal formation after laser ablation of solids in liquids.

A high-throughput HPLC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of four antihypertensive drugs including metoprolol tartrate, hydrochlorothiazide, nifedipine, and valsartan in rat plasma. The Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: A Group: gastric-administration of metoprolol tartrate, hydrochlorothiazide, nifedipine, or valsartan; B Group: a single intravenous injection of SXT, then dosing as the A group; C Group: daily injection of SXT through the tail vein for 8 consecutive days and dosing as the A group on the eighth day. For metoprolol tartrate and valsartan, blood samples were collected before administration and at time points 0.03, 0.08, 0.17, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 24 h from the fossa orbitalis vein. For hydrochlorothiazide and nifedipine, the time points were 0, 0.08, 0.17, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 24 h. The plasma samples containing different individual antihypertensive drug were mixed and prepared by protein precipitation with methanol. The chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Eclipse Plus C18 column (2.1 mm×100 mm, 3.5 μm) using gradient elution with mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water (containing 0.1% formic acid). The flow rate was 0.3 mL/min. The detection was accomplished on a tandem mass spectrometer with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in both positive and negative modes. The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic interaction study of Shuxuetong injection on the antihypertensive drugs. The results suggested that SXT could increase the total amount of metoprolol tartrate and nifedipine in plasma and showed little influence on the pharmacokinetic behaviors of hydrochlorothiazide and valsartan.

High-pressure (2–4 GPa) solidified AZ91D alloy was prepared and the microstructure was investigated by X-ray energy diffraction and scanning electronic microscopy. The room-temperature comp...

Ultrasmall spherical magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) coated with one single carbon layer (Fe3O4@1C NPs) were directly synthesized by a simple, fast one-step hydrothermal reaction at low temperature (200 °C). The as-synthesized Fe3O4@1C NPs were easily separated and purified from the resultant mixture, without the need for any additional energy input and chemicals. The as-purified Fe3O4@1C NPs not only displayed typical superparamagnetic behavior but also exhibited quite good long-term stability after being exposed to the open air under the room conditions for more than 2 months. Importantly, the long-term stored Fe3O4@1C NPs exhibited a highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) response toward Rhodamine-B (RdB) molecules with low concentration. The multifunctional and recyclable Fe3O4@1C NPs presented a prospective application for the selective enrichment and sensitive SERS detection of chemical and biomolecular assays.

An industrial MCM-41-miniaturized matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction coupled with response surface methodology was explored to determine L-epicatechin, typhaneoside, isorhamnetin-3-O-neohespeidoside, naringenin, kaempferol, and isorhamnetin in Pollen typhae by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography connected to a photodiode array detection. Several variables were optimized in detail, including mesh number of sieve, type of adsorbent, mass ratio of sample to adsorbent, grinding time, methanol concentration, and elution volume. Central composite design was applied to optimize the best conditions for the maximum yields of the total flavonoids. The results displayed a good linear relationship (R > 0.9992) and the recoveries ranged from 92.9 to 103% (RSD < 4.53%) of the six flavonoids. The optimal method with high efficiency and low consumption was obviously better than heating reflux and ultrasonic extraction. It was proven that the developed industrial MCM-41-miniaturized matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction coupled with simple ultra-high performance liquid chromatography method could be a rapid and efficient tool for extraction and determination of flavonoids in natural products.

An in-capillary 2,2-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)-sweeping micellar electrokinetic chromatography-diode array detector (ABTS+-sweeping MEKC-DAD) method was developed and successfully applied to screening and quantifying antioxidative ingredients from natural products. The parameters affecting sweeping and separation were optimized including components of background electrolyte and sample matrix. Comparing with previously reported MEKC, the sensitivity enhancement factors of trace natural antioxidants obtained by this proposed method were from 17 to 167. The limit of detection was as low as 6 ng·mL−1. The results of other validation parameters including linearity, reproducibility, accuracy and recovery were satisfactory. Seven compounds including schizandrin, schisandrol B, schisantherin B, schisantherin A, schisanhenol, deoxyschizandrin, schisandrin B were identified as the main antioxidants in Schisandra chinensis. It was demonstrated that this developed in-capillary ABTS+-sweeping MEKC-DAD is simple, sensitive, reliable and rapid method for screening and quantifying trace antioxidants from natural products.

A novel ionic-liquid-based vortex-simplified matrix solid-phase dispersion method using 2,6-dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin was established by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode array detector. 2,6-Dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin was first used as a promising adsorbent in this proposed method for simultaneous determination of eight compounds in Gardeniae fructus. These compounds are terpenoids (geniposidic acid, genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, geniposide, 8-o-acetyl shanzhiside methyl ester), crocins (crocin-I, crocin-II), quinic acid derivatives (chlorogenic acid), and flavonoids (isoquercitrin), respectively. Several parameters were investigated in the adsorption and desorption processes to obtain the optimal conditions, including 2,6-dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin as sorbent, 0.5 mL 100 mM 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate as the extraction solvent, 2:1 of sample/sorbent ratio, grinding for 2 min and vortexing for 60 s. The recoveries of the eight compounds ranged from 96.6 to 100% (3.50%). The limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.02-0.30 and 0.06-1.25 μg/mL, respectively. Meanwhile, a good linearity was attained with r values (0.9997). The established method showed higher extraction efficiency and less reagent consumption than traditional matrix solid phase dispersion and ultrasonic-assisted extraction. Hence, it could be applied for sample preparation and analysis of natural products.

Based on a newly developed interatomic potential, the mechanical properties and fracture behavior of monolayer InSe are investigated by using the classical molecular dynamics method. We find that monolayer InSe exhibits excellent mechanical properties comparing with other two-dimensional materials. Especially, it can sustain an axial tensile strain of 27% in the zigzag direction at room temperature 300 K. Furthermore, the numerical results indicate that the monolayer InSe has an isotropy in the mechanical behaviors with the Youngs modulus being about 43 N/m both in the armchair and zigzag directions. We also discuss the effects of temperature and strain rate on the mechanical properties of monolayer InSe and find the high temperature-sensitivity. It’s found that the mechanical properties significantly decrease as the increasing temperature. In contrast, the mechanical properties has a relatively weak dependence on the strain rate. As the strain rate increases from 0.0002 to 0.0008 ps−1, Young’s modulus nearly keeps a constant. The fracture stress and strain in armchair direction only increase by 3.6% and 8.3%, respectively.

Objective Monitoring the unbound drug concentration in blood in combination therapy is necessary, because its concentration determines the efficacy of drug therapy. This study was designed to explore the effect of Dan Hong Injection (DHI) on the unbound warfarin using two approaches including an in vivo pharmacokinetic and in vitro fluorescence studies. Methods The effect of DHI on the pharmacokinetic properties of the unbound warfarin was investigated by a microdialysis sampling method coupled with LC–MS/MS. The effect of DHI and salvianolic acid B (SaB) on warfarin binding with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was conducted by fluorescence spectrometry. Results The AUC0-tn of warfarin with DHI group was higher than that of warfarin alone group. The result showed that DHI could increase the concentration of unbound warfarin in rat blood, which may be due to the competition between warfarin and DHI as well as its components binding to serum albumin. The competition process was demonstrated by fluorescence study. Conclusion Combination therapy of DHI with warfarin could enhance the release profile of warfarin from serum protein.

An effective ultrasonic-assisted extraction method for the separation of phenolic acids and flavonoids in Cuscuta chinensis Lam. was conducted by combining uniform design (UD) coupled with response surface methodology (RSM) and orthogonal design (OD) experiment. A sensitive and selective high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method was applied to quantify the sixteen active ingredients (chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid C, caffeic acid, hyperin, isoquercitrin, quercetin, campherol, p-coumaric acid, isorhamnetin, rutin, astragalin, and apigenin). The extraction method was optimized with respect to concentration of extraction solvent, extraction time, and ratio of liquid to solid as a consequence of getting a high sensitive and feasible method for simultaneous determination of contents of multiple components and evaluation of quality control of Cuscuta chinensis Lam. from different origins. It was also considered useful and valuable in the further study for quality control of Cuscuta chinensis Lam.

Noise attenuation is an important data processing step in exploration geophysics, which is used to extract useful information or improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) from the raw measurements. The vector median filter (VMF), as an extension of the scalar median filter (SMF), can efficiently suppress random noise and preserve discontinuities of the spreading structures within the data, but it faces questions of how to define a minimum distance and what appropriate additional constraints should be introduced for a reasonable unique median-output vector. Additionally, to avoid uncertainty in data processing using the 2D-VMF method and to more reasonably describe the 3D seismic cube, this study introduces a 3D multi-directional VMF. The new 3D-MDVMF method primarily consists of two steps: 1) detecting the main local dip using some trial angles with a similarity judgement and 2) applying the filter with the constraints for noise suppression and structure enhancement. Synthetic simulated data and marine data are tested. The results show that the proposed method can enhance local dip detection, separate the random noise, and well preserve discontinuities of the structures. This method might be significant for general noise attenuation for data containing spreading structures. Keywords Noise attenuation Median filter Seismic data Multi-directional operator

In this paper, we present a new analysis on the P-wave charmonium annihilation into two photons up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections by using the principle of maximum conformality (PMC). The conventional perturbative QCD prediction shows strong scale dependence and deviates largely from the BESIII measurements. After applying the PMC, we obtain a more precise scale-invariant pQCD prediction, which also agrees with the BESIII measurements within errors, i.e. $$R={\Gamma _{\gamma \gamma }(\chi _{c2})} /{\Gamma _{\gamma \gamma }(\chi _{c0})}=0.246\pm 0.013$$ R = Γ γ γ ( χ c 2 ) / Γ γ γ ( χ c 0 ) = 0.246 ± 0.013 , where the error is for $$\Delta \alpha _s(M_\tau )=\pm 0.016$$ Δ α s ( M τ ) = ± 0.016 . By further considering the color-octet contributions, even the central value can be in agreement with the data. This shows the importance of a correct scale-setting approach. We also give a prediction for the ratio involving $$\chi _{b0, b2} \rightarrow \gamma \gamma $$ χ b 0 , b 2 → γ γ , which could be tested in future Belle II experiment.

Baijiu is an important fermented product in China. A yeast named YX3307 that is capable of producing a large amount of ethyl caproate (EC) was isolated from Daqu, a crude fermentation starter for Baijiu. This yeast was identified as Clavispora lusitaniae on the basis of its morphological properties, physiological and biochemical characteristics, and 26S rDNA sequence. Single-factor experiments were conducted to obtain the optimum fermentation conditions for EC production by YX3307. The highest EC yield (62.0 mg/L) from YX3307 was obtained with the following culture conditions: inoculum size 7.5% (v/v), seed cell age 30 h, sorghum hydrolysate medium (SHM) with a sugar content of 10 Brix and an initial pH of 6.0; incubation at 28°C with shaking at 180 rpm for 32 h; addition of 10% (v/v) anhydrous ethanol and 0.04% (v/v) caproic acid at 32 and 40 h, respectively, static culture at 20°C until 72 h. YX3307 synthesized more EC than ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate, ethyl butyrate, and ethyl octanoate. An intracellular enzyme or cell membrane enzyme was responsible for EC synthesis. YX3307 can produce many flavor compounds that are important for high-quality Baijiu. Thus, it has potential applications in improving the flavor and quality of Baijiu.

This study aimed to extract polysaccharides from citron and analyze their structures and potential bioactivities. Two novel polysaccharides CM-1 and CM-2 were purified from citron by DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow and Sephadex G-100 column chromatography. Monosaccharide composition, linkage and NMR data were used to infer their sugar chains composition. The anti-breast cancer cells and immunoregulatory activities of CM-1 and CM-2 were investigated. Results indicated that CM-1 (Mw = 21,520 Da), composed of arabinose, xylose, mannose and glucose in a molar ratio of 10.78:11.53:1.00:1.70, was arabinoxylan (AX) with (1 → 4)-linked β- d -Xylp skeleton monosubstituted with α- l -Araf units at O-3 position. While CM-2 (Mw = 22,303 Da), composed of arabinose, mannose, glucose and galactose in a molar ratio of 25.46:1.45:1.00:6.57, was galactoarabinan (GA) with (1 → 5)-linked α- l -Araf backbone substituted by β- d -Galp units at O-2 and/or O-3 positions. Both polysaccharides exhibited potential inhibiting cancer and immunostimulatory activities in vitro, especially CM-1. These results provide a basis for further research on citron polysaccharides.

A simultaneous phase-shifting interferometer with a monitored spatial light modulator (SLM) flexible reference mirror is proposed to balance the flexibility and accuracy of aspheric-surface in-process measurements. In this method, polarization simultaneous phase-shifting camera systems are applied to reduce the influence of environmental vibrations on the in-process measurements. An SLM reference mirror is employed to improve the flexibility of in-process measurements. A device is integrated to monitor the SLM surface in order to improve measurement accuracy caused by the spatial phase nonuniformity and modulation instability of the SLM. Thus, the SLM surface is monitored and the aspheric surface is measured simultaneously in only one interferometer, which presents the advantages of a compact structure and simple calibration. A flat acrylic mirror with an unknown surface figure error is measured by the proposed interferometer. Cross tests demonstrate the feasibility of this interferometer.

In the paper, we calculate the fragmentation functions for a quark to fragment into a spin-singlet quarkonium, where the flavor of the initial quark is different from that of the constituent quark in the quarkonium. The ultraviolet divergences in the phase space integral are removed through the operator renormalization under the modified minimal subtraction scheme. The fragmentation function $D_{q \to \eta_Q}(z,\mu_F)$ is expressed as a two-dimensional integral. Numerical results for the fragmentation functions of a light quark or a bottom quark to fragment into the $\eta_c$ are presented. As an application of those fragmentation functions, we study the processes $Z \to \eta_c+q\bar{q}g(q=u,d,s)$ and $Z \to \eta_c+b\bar{b}g$ under the fragmentation and the direct nonrelativistic QCD approaches., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

In the paper, we calculate the fragmentation functions for $c \to \eta_c$ and $b \to \eta_b$ up to next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD accuracy. The ultraviolet divergences in the real corrections are removed through operator renormalization under the modified minimal subtraction scheme. We then obtain the fragmentation functions $D_{c \to \eta_c}(z,\mu_F)$ and $D_{b \to \eta_b}(z,\mu_F)$ up to NLO QCD accuracy, which are presented as figures and fitting functions. The numerical results show that the NLO corrections are significant. The sensitives of the fragmentation functions to the renormalization scale and the factorization scale are analyzed explicitly., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures

The failure mechanisms of unreinforced and reinforced layered rocks with various layer dip angles were analyzed using acoustic emission (AE) activities, failure modes, and load–displacemen...

Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) were directly synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of medicinal mulberry leaves (Morus alba L.) residues without the need for any chemical reagent. The CDs were collected successively through filtration, centrifugation, and dialysis from the resultant solution. The as-purified CDs were almost non-cytotoxic and successfully used for the intracellular fluorescence imaging of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2). Due to the presence of plentiful surface groups, the CDs were further used as drug carriers for the loading of Lycorine, an anti-cancer alkaloidal extracted from bulbs of Lycoris radiata L. Importantly, the Lycorine-loaded CDs were successfully applied for simultaneous intracellular imaging and drug delivery for the better anti-cancer cell activity. The present work both provides a strategy for the reuse of medicinal herb residues for the preparation of CDs and promotes a potential application of CDs in biomedicine and bioimaging.

In the paper, we study the properties of the top-quark $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ running mass computed from its on-shell mass by using both the four-loop $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$-on-shell relation and the principle of maximum conformality (PMC) scale-setting approach. The PMC adopts the renormalization group equation to set the correct magnitude of the strong running coupling of the perturbative series, its prediction avoids the conventional renormalization scale ambiguity, and thus a more precise pQCD prediction can be achieved. After applying the PMC to the four-loop $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$-on-shell relation and taking the top-quark on-shell mass ${M}_{t}=172.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ as an input, we obtain the renormalization scale-invariant $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ running mass at the scale ${m}_{t}$, e.g., ${m}_{t}({m}_{t})\ensuremath{\simeq}162.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$, in which the error is the squared average of those from $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}({M}_{Z})$, $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{M}_{t}$, and the approximate error from the uncalculated five-loop terms predicted by using the Pad\'e approximation approach.

To test the standard model (SM) precisely and to look for the clues deviating from SM, a proposal for determining the effective electro-weak mixing angles sin2 θeff (particularly f = lept, c, b) is proposed. It is via observing the asymmetries (the forward-backward one AFB, the left-right one ALR and the combined left-right forward-backward one ALRFB ) of the doubly heavy-flavored hadrons in the production at a super Z-factory (an e+e− collider designed with a luminosity as high as possible for modern-day techniques runs around the center-of-mass energy $$\sqrt s = {m_Z}$$ ). To see the sensitivity, uncertainties as well as the event accumulation precisely, the observables for describing the asymmetries of the produced hadrons are computed numerically with varying effective mixing angles, and based on the result analyses, it is concluded that the proposal may offer an independent complement determination of the effective mixing angles.

In this paper, we calculate the total decay widths for the ${W}^{+}$-boson decays, ${W}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{B}_{c}+b+\overline{s}+X$ and ${W}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{B}_{c}^{*}+b+\overline{s}+X$, up to next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy within the framework of the nonrelativistic QCD theory. Both the fixed-order and the fragmentation approaches are adopted to do the calculation. Differential decay widths $d\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}/dz$ and $d\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}/d{s}_{1}$ are also given. We find that the NLO corrections are significant in those two ${W}^{+}$ decay channels. Our numerical results show that at the LHC, there are about $7.03\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ ${B}_{c}$-meson events and $5.10\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ ${B}_{c}^{*}$-meson events to be produced via the ${W}^{+}$-boson decays per operation year.

Neuraminidase plays an essential role in the spread of influenza viruses via cleaving sialic acids from the host cell receptors and virions. Neuraminidase has been regarded as an essential target for prevention and treatment of influenza infection. The one-step high-performance liquid chromatography-fraction collector (HPLC-FC) was selected to prepare fractions from Reduning (RDN) injection, while ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS) was used to identify fractions depending on their retention time and molecular ion. As a result, 75 fractions were prepared and 28 fractions out of them exhibited NA inhibitory effects with the dose-effect relationship. Exploring it further, six components including neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid A, and isochlorogenic acid C were the main components that accounted for almost 80% of inhibitory activity of RDN injection. Accordingly, these results demonstrated that this strategy could not only rapidly identify but also accurately screen active components from traditional Chinese medicine.

The extract of Gardeniae Fructus (GF) with different processing methods processed the different medicinal properties and efficacy. Crude GF (CGF) could be processed into stir-frying GF (SGF), gancao mix-frying GF (GCGF), and ginger mix-frying GF (GIGF) in practice. An LC-MS/MS method was established for simultaneous quantification of geniposidic acid, geniposide, genipin-1-β-gentiobioside, genipin, and crocetin in the rat plasma. The LLOQs for determination of all five components were 10 ng/mL. The accuracies of intraday and interday were in the range of 91%–105%. The recoveries of 5 analytes ranged from 81.0% to 114% with RSD less than 14%. The results showed that the AUCs (area under the plasma concentration-time curve) and Cmax (maximum plasma concentration) of geniposidic acid, genipin-1-β-gentiobioside, and geniposide after oral administration of the CGF extract were apparently higher than those after oral administration of other processed extracts. Cmax of geniposide in plasma after administration of GIGF significantly decreased (p<0.01). Genipin was not detected in rat plasma after administration of the GIGF extract, but it can be detected in plasma after administration of CGF, SGF, and GCGF extract. Furthermore, crocin I and crocin II were not detected in plasma samples. Crocetin had higher concentration in rat plasma versus lower contents in extract. It was demonstrated that the different processing methods might influence the pharmacokinetics of geniposidic acid, genipin-1-β-gentiobioside, geniposide, genipin, and crocetin.

Veratrum nigrum L. is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine with a lot of pharmacological activities including antihypertensive, anticancer, and antifungal effects. In the current experiment, a rapid and sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method that takes only 7 min run time has been established and validated for simultaneous determination of eight bioactive compounds including cyclopamine, jervine, veratramine, polydatin, quercetin, apigenin, resveratrol, and veratrosine in rat plasma. The chromatographic separation of analytes and internal standard was performed on a Phenyl-Hexyl column ( 2.1 × 100 mm , 1.7 μm) with the mobile phase consisting of water (0.1% formic acid) and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. An electrospray ionization (ESI) source was used to detect the samples in both positive and negative ion modes. The intra- and interday precisions of the compounds were less than 9.5% and the accuracy ranged from -10.8% to 10.4%. The extraction recoveries of the compounds were in the range of 85.1 ± 1.5 % to 102.6 ± 8.0 % , and the matrix effect ranged from 91.2 ± 4.5 % to 113.8 ± 1.5 % . According to the results of the stability test, the eight compounds have good stability under various conditions and the relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 13.2%. The pharmacokinetic parameters of the eight compounds in rat plasma after oral administration of Veratrum nigrum L. extract were successfully determined by the established UPLC-MS/MS method.

Red ginseng is often combined with Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata to reduce alkaloids-related toxicity of the latter. Such herb-pairing also results in better therapeutic effect in heart failure, as compared to the singular use of either herb. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata and its combination with red ginseng on the activities of CYP450 enzymes in rats. A sensitive and reliable HPLC-MS/MS method was established and validated for the simultaneous determination of eight probe drugs, phenacetin (CYP1A2), tolbutamide (CYP2C9), omeprazole (CYP2C19), dextromethorphan (CYP2D6), dapsone (CYP3A4), 7-hydroxycoumarin (CYP2A6), bupropion (CYP2B6), and amodiaquine (CYP2C8), in rat plasma using diazepam as internal standard (IS). The chromatographic separation was performed on a Waters XBridge™ C18 column (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 3.5 μm) using a gradient elution with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water (containing 0.1% formic acid) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The method was successfully applied in evaluating the effect of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata and red ginseng on the activities of CYP450 enzymes. The pharmacokinetic results of the eight probe drugs suggested that Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata may inhibit the activity of CYP2A6, CYP2C19, CYP2B6, CYP1A2, CYP3A4, and CYP2C9 enzymes in rats. Comparison between the two groups, Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata combined with red ginseng and Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, indicated that red ginseng may inhibit the activity of CYP2D6 and CYP2B6 enzymes while inducing the activity of CYP1A2, CYP3A4, and CYP2C9 enzymes.

Asarum (Aristolochiaceae) is one of the common herbs used to relieve exterior syndromes. Some volatile components of Asarum which have toxic effect may cause adverse reactions such as headache, general tension, unconsciousness, and respiratory paralysis. Therefore, Asarum is normally processed to reduce such toxicity and adverse effects. The bioactive ingredients contained in different Asarum herbs vary significantly; this variation may be attributed to their differences in species, origins, or processing methods. In this study, 16 batches of Asarum herbs were collected, and their species were identified using DNA barcoding, which is a method for distinguishing plant species, coupled with microscopy. A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for simultaneous determination of 10 compounds was established to evaluate the contents of raw and processed Asarum herbs. Multivariate analysis was then applied to compare different batches of herbs based on the GC-MS data. DNA barcoding identified the herbs as being derived from four sources, and herbs from different origins showed different microscopic features. The results demonstrated that most of the samples were clearly clustered into distinct groups that corresponded to species types. All raw and processed samples were classified by partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) based on the 10 analyzed compounds. The findings suggested that safrole and methyleugenol with a variable importance in the project (VIP) > 1 are unique compounds that can be used to differentiate between Asarum species. Safrole, methyleugenol, and 2,6,6-trimethylcyclohepta-2,4-dien-1-one were identified as significant constituents, the presence of which can be used to differentiate between raw and processed Asarum samples. These results indicate that species and processing methods show important effects on the composition of Asarum herbs.

A rapid and reliable UPLC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of thirteen bioactive compounds (luteolin, cynaroside, luteolin 7-O-glucuronide, isochlorogenic acid C, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, apigenin, apigenin 7-glucoside, acacetin, hyperoside, isoquercitrin, tilianin, and hesperidin) in rat plasma. The compounds were separated on an ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column (2.1×100 mm, 1.7 μm) with a gradient mobile phase system of acetonitrile and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. All compounds were quantitated using Agilent Jet Stream electrospray ionization (AJS ESI) in a negative ion mode. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) for all compounds was below 5 ng/mL. The intra- and interday accuracy ranged from -13.0% to 14.0%, and precisions were less than 12.2%. The extraction recoveries of the compounds were in the range of 56.9% to 95.0%, and the matrix effect ranged between 71.6% and 109.3%. Stability studies proved that the thirteen compounds were stable under tested conditions, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 11.4%. This developed method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of the 13 bioactive compounds after oral administration of Flos Chrysanthemi extract in rat by UPLC-MS/MS. Pharmacokinetic parameters of 8 out of the 13 compounds investigated are presented in this paper.

The momentum space subtraction (MOM) scheme is one of the most frequently used renormalization schemes in perturbative QCD (pQCD) theory. In the paper, we make a detailed discussion on the gauge dependence of the pQCD prediction under the MOM scheme. Conventionally, there is renormalization scale ambiguity for the fixed-order pQCD predictions, which assigns an arbitrary range and an arbitrary error for the fixed-order pQCD prediction. The principle of maximum conformality (PMC) adopts the renormalization group equation to determine the magnitude of the coupling constant and hence determines an effective momentum flow of the process, which is independent to the choice of renormalization scale. There is thus no renormalization scale ambiguity in PMC predictions. To concentrate our attention on the MOM gauge dependence, we first apply the PMC to deal with the pQCD series. We adopt the Higgs boson decay width, $\Gamma(H\to gg)$, up to five-loop QCD contributions as an example to show how the gauge dependence behaves before and after applying the PMC. It is found that the Higgs decay width $\Gamma (H\to gg)$ depends very weakly on the choices of the MOM schemes, being consistent with the renormalization group invariance. It is found that the gauge dependence of $\Gamma(H\to gg)$ under the $\rm{MOMgg}$ scheme is less than $\pm1\%$, which is the smallest gauge dependence among all the mentioned MOM schemes., Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures. References updated

In order to enhance the properties of polymer anion-exchange membranes (AEMs), a class of side-chain-type poly (arylene ether sulfone)s containing tri-imidazole cations in pendant phenoxyphenyl spacer (i.e., Im-PES-xx) were designed and prepared by polymer grafting reaction. Based on these imidazole functionalized polymers, a series of new AEMs were successfully prepared by their solution coating and ion exchange. The obtained membranes exhibited good alkaline stability with the retention of ion-exchange capacity in the range of 78.5%–83.3% after immersion in 4 M NaOH solution at 80 °C for 336 h. The membranes also had high hydroxide conductivity with the values of 34.1–70.5 mS cm−1 at 80 °C. Meanwhile, these membranes possessed good dimensional stability, and their swelling ratio was in the range of 2.5%–7.0% at 80 °C. The incorporation of the dense and local imidazole cations in the side chains for AEMs plays an important role for their properties.

Both magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) and luminescent carbon dots (CDs) were simultaneously synthesized via a hydrothermal route at temperature as low as 200 °C. The synthesized magnetic Fe3O4 NPs and luminescent CDs were readily separated and purified from the reaction mixture, without the need for additional energy input and chemicals. The magnetic properties of purified Fe3O4 and photoluminescence (PL) behaviors of purified CDs were investigated using Squid-VSM magnetic property measurement system and fluorescence spectrophotometer, respectively. The size of Fe3O4 NPs and the luminescent properties of CDs were tunable by changing the reaction time or ratio between starting materials within a certain range. Fe3O4 NPs exhibited high saturation magnetization in the range of 36.59–68.22 emu/g and their magnetic behavior significantly depend on the size and structure of Fe3O4 NPs. This work was expected to provide a kind of green and high efficiency simultaneously synthesis of size-controllable Fe3O4 NPs and photoluminescence tunable CDs.

Ophiolites are widespread along the Bangong-Nujiang suture zone, northern Tibet. However, it is still debated on the formation ages and tectonic evolution process of these ophiolites. The Zhongcang ophiolite is a typical ophiolite in the western part of the Bangong-Nujiang suture zone. It is composed of serpentinized peridotite, cumulate and isotropic gabbros, massive and pillow basalts, basaltic volcanic breccia, and minor red chert. Zircon SHRIMP U–Pb dating for the isotropic gabbro yielded weighted mean age of 163.4 ± 1.8 Ma. Positive zircon ɛHf(t) values (+15.0 to +20.2) and mantle-like δ18O values (5.29 ± 0.21)‰ indicate that the isotropic gabbros were derived from a long-term depleted mantle source. The isotropic gabbros have normal mid-ocean ridge basalt (N-MORB) like immobile element patterns with high MgO, low TiO2 and moderate rare earth element (REE) abundances, and negative Nb, Ti, Zr and Hf anomalies. Basalts show typical oceanic island basalt (OIB) geochemical features, and they are similar to those of OIB-type rocks of the Early Cretaceous Zhongcang oceanic plateau within the Bangong-Nujiang Ocean. Together with these data, we suggest that the Zhongcang ophiolite was probably formed by the subduction of the Bangong-Nujiang Ocean during the Middle Jurassic. The subduction of the Bangong-Nujiang Tethyan Ocean could begin in the Early–Middle Jurassic and continue to the Early Cretaceous, and finally continental collision between the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes at the west Bangong-Nujiang suture zone probably has taken place later than the Early Cretaceous (ca. 110 Ma). Keywords: Tibetan plateau, Bangong-Nujiang suture zone, Ophiolite, Geochronology, Geochemistry, Subduction