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Various quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) systems have been developed and applied in the vibration control domain in recent years. However, most QZS systems are usually unstable against external disturbances, and the QZS ranges of them are very limited. To address the above issues, this study develops a highly stable QZS vibration isolation system integrated with magnetorheological fluids (MRFs). The MRFs endow the vibration isolation system with stiffness variability in vertical and lateral directions against external disturbances, which innovatively solves the unstable problem of the QZS system. Meanwhile, the stiffness variability also makes the system adaptable to vibrations with different frequencies, so the system can deliver the best vibration isolation performance in response to various excitations. The system consists of a vertical isolation unit and a lateral isolation unit. Through paralleling a nonlinear positive stiffness QZS component with a nonlinear negative stiffness QZS component in the vertical isolation unit, a large QZS range in the vertical direction and smaller stiffness are realised, thus improving the vibration isolation performance. In this study, the vibration isolation system is designed and prototyped; its QZS characteristics and adjustable stiffness features in both the vertical and lateral directions are experimentally verified; the frequency responses of the system are obtained experimentally; the stability and the vibration isolation performance of the system are also evaluated by experiments. This study provides a solution to overcome the unstable problem of QZS systems and extend the limited QZS range, whilst realising QZS characteristics in both vertical and lateral directions, thus broadening the application of QZS systems.

Applying the emerging molecular networking strategy, an uncommon cembranoid orthoester, sarcotortin A (1), featuring a 3/14/8/5-fused scaffold, an unusual eunicellane-type diterpenoid, sarcotorolide A (2), and two new biscembranoids, ximaolides M and N (7 and 8), along with nine known terpenoids 3-6 and 9-13 were isolated from the Hainan soft coral Sarcophyton tortuosum. The structure and absolute configuration of all new compounds were established by a combination of spectroscopic data, X-ray diffraction analysis, and/or quantum chemical computational approaches. The plausible biogenetic relationship among these skeletally different terpenoids was proposed and discussed. In in vitro bioassay, new compound 7 exhibited a remarkable inhibitory activity against protein tyrosine phosphatases 1B (PTP1B) with the IC50 value of 8.06 μM. In addition, compounds 4 and 10 displayed significant inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in RAW264.7 macrophages cells with the IC50 values of 19.13 and 16.45 μM, respectively. Compound 9 showed interesting cytotoxicity against H1975, MDA-MB231, A549, and H1299 cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 31.59, 34.96, 43.87, and 27.93 μM, respectively.

Chemical investigation of a marine sponge-associated Bacillus sp. led to the discovery of bacillibactins E and F (1 and 2). Despite containing the well-established cyclic triester core of iron-binding natural products such as enterobactin, bacillibactins E and F (1 and 2) are the first bacterial siderophores that contain nicotinic and benzoic acid moieties. The structures of the new compounds, including their absolute configurations, were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses and Marfey's method. A plausible biosynthetic pathway to 1 and 2 is proposed; this route bears great similarity to other previously established bacillibactin-like pathways but appears to differentiate itself by a promiscuous DhbE, which likely installs the nicotinic moiety of 1 and the benzoic acid group of 2.

International audience; Placobranchus ocellatus, regarded as a “solar-powered” sacoglossan mollusk, is well known to produce diverse and complex γ-pyrone polypropionates. Unexpectedly, in this study, the chemical investigation of P. ocellatus from the South China Sea led to the discovery of ocellatusones AD, a series of racemic non-γ-pyrone polyketides with novel skeletons, characterized by a bicyclo[3.2.1]octane (1, 2), a bicyclo[3.3.1]nonane (3) or a mesitylene-substituted dimethylfuran-3(2H)-one core (4). Extensive spectroscopic analysis, quantum chemical computation, chemical synthesis, and/or X-ray diffraction analysis were used to determine the structure and absolute configuration of the new compounds, including each enantiomer of racemic compounds 14 after chiral HPLC resolution. An important array of new and diversity-generating rearrangements is proposed to explain the biosynthesis of these unusual compounds based on careful structural analysis and comparison with six known co-occurring γ-pyrones (510). Furthermore, the successful biomimetic synthesis of ocellatusone A (1) from its γ-pyrone precursor (5) confirmed the biosynthetic relationship of these two compounds and the proposed rearrangement through an unprecedented acid promoted cascade reaction. Besides, an initially untargeted semisynthetic product, polycyclic lactone 11 with another novel carbocyclic skeleton was proved to be naturally occurring in the mollusk by comparative LC-MS/MS analysis, which provides a strategy to fish a vast number of novel trace components in Nature.

Lactobacillus crispatus is a well-established probiotic with antimicrobial activity against pathogens across several niches of the human body generally attributed to the production of bacteriostatic molecules, including hydrogen peroxide and lactic acid. Here, we show that the cell-free supernatants of clinical isolates of L. crispatus harbor robust bactericidal activity. We further identify phenyl-lactic acid as a bactericidal compound with properties and a susceptibility range nearly identical to that of the cell-free supernatant. As such, we hypothesize that phenyl-lactic acid is a key active ingredient in L. crispatus supernatant. IMPORTANCE Although Lactobacillus crispatus is an established commensal microbe frequently used in probiotics, its protective role in the bladder microbiome has not been clarified. We report here that some urinary isolates of L. crispatus exhibit bactericidal activity, primarily due to its ability to excrete phenyl-lactic acid into its environment. Both cell-free supernatants of L. crispatus isolates and phenyl-lactic acid exhibit bactericidal activity against a wide range of pathogens, including several that are resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Further chemical investigation of the South China Sea soft coral Lemnalia flava resulted in the isolation and characterization of two new cembranoids, namely, xishaflavalins G and H (1 and 2), along with three known related compounds (3-5). The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis and by the comparison of their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. The discovery of cembrane-type diterpenes from soft coral of the genus Lemnalia was reported for the first time. In addition, compound 5 exhibited moderate inhibitory effects on the ConA-induced T lymphocytes and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced B lymphocytes proliferation.

Marine sponges of the genus Stelletta are well known as rich sources of diverse and complex biologically relevant natural products, including alkaloids, terpenoids, peptides, lipids, and steroids. Some of these metabolites, with novel structures and promising biological activities, have attracted a lot of attention from chemists seeking to perform their total synthesis in parallel to intensive biological studies towards new drug leads. In this review, we summarized the distribution of the chemically investigated Stelletta sponges, the isolation, synthesis and biological activities of their secondary metabolites, covering the literature from 1982 to early 2018., Graphical abstract Marine sponges of the genus Stelletta are well known as rich sources of diverse and complex natural products with novel structures and broad biological activities, which have attracted a lot of attention from chemists seeking to perform their total synthesis in parallel to intensive biological studies towards new drug leads. In this review, we summarize the chemical and biological aspects of Stelletta sponges as promising drug sources.fx1

A detailed chemical investigation of the Chinese soft coral Lemnalia flava yielded four new nardosinane-type sesquiterpenoids (1–4), one new neolemnane-type sesquiterpenoid (5), and one new sesquiterpenoid with an uncommon 6/9 fused bicyclic skeleton (6), together with two known related compounds (7 and 8). The structures and absolute configurations of 1–8 were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data analyses, X-ray diffraction analysis, chemical reactions, and computer-assisted structural elucidation including 13C NMR data calculation, residual dipolar coupling based NMR analysis, and time-dependent density functional theoryelectronic circular dichroism calculation. Plausible biogenetic pathways of two uncommon sesquiterpenoids (4 and 6) were proposed.

Different chemotypes of Sinularia flexibilis exist in the Hainan island. Thus, a collection of this soft coral from a location different from the one of our previous study afforded three novel cembranoid esters featuring a n-butyl alcohol moiety, a structural element rare in natural products of both terrestrial and marine origin. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis and by the comparison of their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. In addition, the absolute stereochemistry of the previously reported diepoxycembrene (9) was first time determined by the X-ray diffraction analysis. In bioassays, compounds 6-8 exhibited strong anti-inflammatory effect with IC values of 2.7, 4.7, and 4.2 μM, respectively, whereas compound 5 displayed cytotoxicity against several cancer cells with IC values ranging from 8.9 to 27.4 μM. A preliminary structural-activity relationship (SAR) was also described.

Antibiotic resistance and emerging viral pandemics have posed an urgent need for new anti-infective drugs. By screening our microbial extract library against the main protease of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the notorious ESKAPE pathogens, an active fraction was identified and purified, leading to an initial isolation of adipostatins A (1) and B (2). In order to diversify the chemical structures of adipostatins toward enhanced biological activities, a type III polyketide synthase was identified from the native producer, Streptomyces davawensis DSM101723, and was subsequently expressed in an E. coli host, resulting in the isolation of nine additional adipostatins 3-11, including two new analogs (9 and 11). The structures of 1-11 were established by HRMS, NMR, and chemical derivatization, including using a microgram-scale meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid epoxidation-MS/MS analysis to unambiguously determine the double bond position in the alkyl chain. The present study discovered SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitory activity for the class of adipostatins for the first time. Several of the adipostatins isolated also exhibited antimicrobial activity against selected ESKAPE pathogens.

Five novel biscembranoids, ximaolides H–L (1–5), along with four known related compounds (6–9) were isolated from the Hainan soft coral Sarcophyton tortuosum. The structures of the new compounds were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis, quantum chemical calculations, and/or by comparing their CD spectra with those of the known compounds. Compounds 1 and 2 are the first examples of biscembranoids bearing a 1, 35-bridged lactone moiety, 4 is the first biscembranoid comprising an uncommon oxetane ring, and 5 represents the first 36-peroxyl biscembranoid. Ximaolides I (2), K (4) and F (9) exhibited interesting anti-inflammatory activity by the inhibition of LPS-induced TNF-α protein release in RAW264.7 macrophages., This research work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Nos. 81991521, 8202290170, 42076099), the NSFC/CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) Joint Project (No. 81811530284), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC0310903), and the SKLDR/ SIMM Project (No. SIMM1903ZZ-04). X.-W. Li is also thankful for the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (No. 20QA1411100) and SA-SIBS Scholarship Program. We thank Prof. X.-B. Li from Hainan University for the taxonomic identification of the soft coral material.

With advances in technologies, data science techniques, and computing equipment, there has been rapidly increasing interest in the applications of reinforcement learning (RL) to address the challenges resulting from the evolving business and organisational operations in logistics and supply chain management. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the development and applications of RL techniques in the field of logistics and supply chain management. We first provide an introduction to RL methodologies, followed by a classification of previous research studies by application. The state-of-the-art research is reviewed and the current challenges are discussed. It is found that Q-learning (QL) is the most popular RL approach adopted by these studies and the research on RL for urban logistics is growing in recent years due to the prevalence of E-commerce and last mile delivery. Finally, some potential directions are presented for future research.

Chemical investigation of a marine sponge-associated Bacillus sp. led to the discovery of bacillibactins E and F (1 and 2). Despite containing the well-established cyclic triester core of iron-binding natural products such as enterobactin, bacillibactins E and F (1 and 2) are the first bacterial siderophores that contain nicotinic and benzoic acid moieties. The structures of the new compounds, including their absolute configurations, were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses and Marfey’s method. A plausible biosynthetic pathway to 1 and 2 is proposed; this route bears great similarity to other previously established bacillibactin-like pathways but appears to differentiate itself by a promiscuous DhbE, which likely installs the nicotinic moiety of 1 and the benzoic acid group of 2.

This paper presents parameter sensitivity analysis for a FPSO numerical model updating. Generally, model test data are considered a better presentation of physical phenomena than its numerical counterpart. To minimize the discrepancy, model updating is of pragmatically importance. Model updating of a certain FPSO can be achieved by specific steps. In each step, the required properties of numerical model and test results are matched by means of tuning of the related parameters. To avoid inefficiency and physical meaning loss resulting from large modification of parameters which are insensitive to objective properties, parameter sensitivity analyses using the direct method are conducted in this paper. The investigated parameters mainly are the FPSO’s mooring line length, mooring line mass per unit length, mooring line cross-sectional area, fairlead position, FPSO hydrostatic stiffness, FPSO mass properties, linear and quadratic damping coefficients. According to the different stages of FPSO model updating, the objective functions are set to be the FPSO’s mooring line pretension, mooring system horizontal restoring force, the natural periods of the FPSO’s 6 degree of freedom motions and the standard deviation of motion response spectra under irregular waves.

In this paper, we deal with time-varing quasi-cyclic (QC) spatially-coupled (SC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes by lifting the coupled protographs. The construction method of girth-6 protographs for any code rate is proposed. We provide a theoretical lower bound on the syndrome former constraint length under condition of the protographs without 4-cycles in their Tanner graphs. Then we use periodic QC lifting method to search the QC-SC-LDPC matrices with larger girth based on the protographs. The minimum dimension size of QC-SC-LDPC codes is given to count the girth of QC-SC-LDPC codes with a semi- infinite binary-check matrix structure. The performance of such constructed codes with lower complexity and delay is superior to the LDPC block codes.

The first and in-depth chemical investigation of the South China Sea soft coral Sinularia scabra has resulted to the isolation of a library of diverse cembrane type diterpenoids, including six new compounds, namely xiguscabrates A and B ( 1 and 2 ), xiguscabral A ( 3 ), xiguscabrols A and B ( 4 and 5 ), and 8- epi -xiguscabrol B ( 6 ), and twenty-seven known analogs ( 7 – 33 ). Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and by the comparison with literature data. In bioassay, several isolates exhibited inhibitory effects on the ConA-induced T lymphocytes and/or LPS-induced B lymphocytes proliferation. Among them, compound 24 showed considerable specific inhibition on B cell proliferation, with IC 50 value of 4.4 μ M and selectivity index (SI) of 10.9. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) of the tested metabolites was analyzed, and the further mechanism study of the specific B-cell targeted immunosuppressive compound 24 on purified CD19 + B cells was also performed to uncover the effects on the function and maturity of B cells, including cytokines production, abnormal activation, antigen presenting capacity and plasma cells formation.

A detailed chemical investigation of two South China Sea nudibranchs Phyllidiella pustulosa and Phyllidia coelestis, as well as their possible sponge-prey Acanthella cavernosa, led to the isolation of one new nitrogenous cadinane-type sesquiterpenoid xidaoisocyanate A (1), one new naturally occurring nitrogen-containing kalihinane-type diterpenoid bisformamidokalihinol A (16), along with 17 known nitrogenous terpenoids (2&ndash, 15, 17&ndash, 19). The structures of all the isolates were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis and by the comparison of their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. In addition, the absolute stereochemistry of the previously reported axiriabiline A (5) was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. In a bioassay, the bisabolane-type sesquiterpenoids 8, 10, and 11 exhibited cytotoxicity against several human cancer cell lines.

A detailed chemical investigation of two South China Sea nudibranchs Phyllidiella pustulosa and Phyllidia coelestis, as well as their possible sponge-prey Acanthella cavernosa, led to the isolation of one new nitrogenous cadinane-type sesquiterpenoid xidaoisocyanate A (1), one new naturally occurring nitrogen-containing kalihinane-type diterpenoid bisformamidokalihinol A (16), along with 17 known nitrogenous terpenoids (2–15, 17–19). The structures of all the isolates were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis and by the comparison of their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. In addition, the absolute stereochemistry of the previously reported axiriabiline A (5) was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. In a bioassay, the bisabolane-type sesquiterpenoids 8, 10, and 11 exhibited cytotoxicity against several human cancer cell lines.

The human gut microbiome harbors hundreds of bacterial species with diverse biochemical capabilities. Dozens of drugs have been shown to be metabolized by single isolates from the gut microbiome, but the extent of this phenomenon is rarely explored in the context of microbial communities. Here, we develop a quantitative experimental framework for mapping the ability of the human gut microbiome to metabolize small molecule drugs: Microbiome Derived Metabolism (MDM)-Screen. Included are a batch culturing system for sustained growth of subject-specific gut microbial communities, an ex vivo drug metabolism screen, and targeted and untargeted functional metagenomic screens to identify microbiome-encoded genes responsible for specific metabolic events. Our framework identifies novel drug-microbiome interactions that vary between individuals and demonstrates how the gut microbiome might be used in drug development and personalized medicine.

The natural products discovery program in our group utilizes deep-sea sediment-derived microorganisms and employs a bio-active guided isolation procedure and one strain many compounds (OSMAC) approach to screen bio-active natural products for practical applications in the medicinal and agricultural industry. OSMAC strategy is employed to stimulate secondary metabolite production through changing culture conditions. In this paper, we applied cultivation-dependent procedure, changing media type, leading to the discovery of a bio-active compound named inthomycin B (1) from a marine-derived Streptomyces sp. YB104. The compound was characterized based on extensive spectroscopic analyses and comparison to that in the reported literature. The quantification of inthomycin B demonstrated that Streptomyces sp. YB104 produced moderate yield of inthomycin B with a yield around 25 mg/l after 14 days. Thus, Streptomyces sp. YB104 was considered to be a useful potential as a first industrial-producing strain of inthomycins.

Maleated glycidyl 3-pentadecenyl phenyl ether with styrene (MGS) was synthesized from glycidyl 3-pentadecenyl phenyl ether (GPPE), maleic anhydride (MAH) and styrene (St) in the presence of AIBN initiator at 80°C, and then the resultant MGS was applied as a compatibilizer to prepare SBR/silica composites. Meanwhile, the commercial compatibilizer bis-(triethoxysilylpropyl) tetrasulfide (named Si69) added into composite was also prepared for comparison purpose. The synthetic MGS structure was characterized by GPC and FTIR, and SBR/silica compounds with different compatibilizer were analyzed using RPA, DMA and so on. The results showed that Mn and Mw of MGS were 19,538 g/mol and 23,790 g/mol, respectively. The curing time of compounds with MGS increased, whereas the maximum and minimum torques decreased. The addition of MGS decreased Payne effect of SBR/silica compounds, which implied an improvement of silica dispersion in the compounds. Bound rubber content of compound with MGS was about 1.7 times higher than the absence and 1.5 times higher than that with Si69. The tensile strength of the composites was improved by increasing compatibilizer loading, and the optimum value was observed at 6 phr of MGS. Meanwhile the use of MGS can improve the anti-aging property of composite. According to DMA, the tanδ value at 0°C of composite with MGS was higher than composite without compatibilizer suggesting that MGS can improve the wet skid resistance of composite. The SEM analysis revealed that introduction of MGS enhanced the compatibility between SBR and silica. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Two V–Ni microalloyed transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels with different Ni content were designed and investigated. Transformed volume fraction of retained austenite as a function of tensile strain was measured using an X-ray stress apparatus aided by microelectronic universal testing machine and the evaluation of the stability of retained austenite was conducted. Precipitation of carbides during bainitic isothermal transformation was investigated using the technique of carbon extraction replica and transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction was used to determine the volume fraction of retained austenite and its carbon content. In the present work, the effect of Ni addition on the stability of retained austenite and mechanical properties for TRIP steels was detailed.

Annealing furnace is the key equipment of hot galvanizing production line. Process monitoring and fault trace for annealing furnace is quite essential for its essential influence on the product quality. In view of the complex annealing process and the nonlinear relationship between the fault reasons and symptoms, nonlinear methods kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) is used to monitor the condition and support vector machine (SVM) is used for fault trace. Method based on data reconstruction is used to distinguish the fault variables. Depending on the monitoring method, simulation study for annealing furnace of galvanizing line is conducted. This method proposed is proved usable through results of the simulation experiments.

Tensile deformation behavior of Si–Mn TRIP (TRansformation Induced Plasticity) steel with vanadium and without vanadium and the DP (Dual Phase) steel of the same composition were studied in a large range of strain rate (0.001–2000 s −1 ) by routine material testing machine, rotation disk bar–bar tensile impact apparatus and high-speed material testing machine of servo-hydraulic type. In situ measurement of the transformation of retained austenite was performed by means of X-ray stress apparatus in order to have detailed knowledge about the transformation of retained austenite at quasi-static tensile. Microstructure of steels before and after tensile were observed by means of optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). It is shown that there is no yield plateau observed on the stress–strain curve at quasi-static condition for TRIP steel containing vanadium because the vanadium carbide suppress the formation of Cottrell atmosphere in matrix. Retained austenite of Si–Mn TRIP steel containing vanadium transforms to martensite at loading stress of 502 MPa (its yielding strength is 486 MPa), while the transformation of retained austenite in matrix of Si–Mn TRIP steel without vanadium happens when its yielding process is finished at quasi-static tensile. It is confirmed that phase transformation of retained austenite in TRIP steel is strain induced phase transformation. It is noted that tensile elongation of TRIP steel at dynamic tensile is always lower than that at quasi-static tensile. That is because gradually strain induced phase transformation of retained austenite in TRIP steel is suppressed by deformation localization at dynamic tensile.

Lemnalia is one of the most widely-distributed marine soft coral in tropical oceans and is known to produce novel terpenoids with a broad spectrum of biological activities. This review provides the first comprehensive overview of terpenoids produced by soft coral Lemnalia since their first discovery in 1974.