Synthesis of mordenite by solvent-free method and its application in the dimethyl ether carbonylation reaction

Mordenite with different Si/Al ratios were synthesized by solvent-free method and used for dimethyl ether(DME)carbonylation reaction.The influence of Si/Al ratio in the feedstock on the structure,porosity and acid sites were systematically investigated.The characterization results showed that with the increase of Si/Al ratio in the feedstock,part of silicon species fail to enter the skeleton and the specific surface area and pore volume of the samples decreased.The amount of weak acid and medium strong acid decreased alongside with the increasing Si/Al ratio,and the amount of strong acid slightly increased.The Al atoms preferentially enter the strong acid sites in the 8 member ring(MR)channel during the crystallization process.The high Si/Al ratio sample had more acid sites located in the 8 MR channel,leading to more active sites for carbonylation reaction and higher catalytic performance.Appropriately increasing the Si/Al ratio was beneficial for the improvement of carbonylation reaction activity over the mordenite(MOR)catalyst.

Dark rearing maintains tyrosine hydroxylase expression in retinal amacrine cells following optic nerve transection

The present study examined changes in retinal tyrosine hydroxylase （TH） expression in rats having undergone optic nerve transection and housed under a normal day/night cycle or in the dark. The aim was to investigate the effects of amacrine cells on axonal regeneration in retinal ganglion cells and on the synapses that transmit visual signals. The results revealed that retinal TH expression gradually decreased following optic nerve transection in rats housed under a normal day/night cycle reaching a minimum at 5 days. In contrast, retinal TH expression decreased to a minimum at 1 day following optic nerve transection in dark reared rats, gradually increasing afterward and reaching a normal level at 5 7 days. The number of TH-positive synaptic particles correlated with the TH levels indicating that dark rearing can help maintain TH expression during the synaptic degeneration stage （5 7 days after optic nerve injury） in retinal amacrine cells.

Discovery of molecular associations among aging, stem cells, and cancer based on gene expression profiling

The emergence of a huge volume of "omics" data enables a computational approach to the investigation of the biology of cancer. The cancer informatics approach is a useful supplement to the traditional experimental approach. I reviewed several reports that used a bioinformatics approach to analyze the associations among aging, stem cells, and cancer by microarray gene expression profiling. The high expression of aging- or human embryonic stem cell-related molecules in cancer suggests that certain important mechanisms are commonly underlying aging, stem cells, and cancer. These mechanisms are involved in cell cycle regulation, metabolic process, DNA damage response, apoptosis, p53 signaling pathway, immune/inflammatory response, and other processes, suggesting that cancer is a developmental and evolutional disease that is strongly related to aging. Moreover, these mechanisms demonstrate that the initiation, proliferation, and metastasis of cancer are associated with the deregulation of stem cells. These findings provide insights into the biology of cancer. Certainly, the findings that are obtained by the informatics approach should be justified by experimental validation. This review also noted that next-generation sequencing data provide enriched sources for cancer informatics study.

Research Progress of Pretreatment Technology and Equipment for Raw Materials of Reconstituted Tobacco

The purpose of pretreating raw materials of reconstituted tobacco is to improve the quality of raw materials as well as product quality and production efficiency.In recent years,the research achievements and equipment status of the pretreatment technology of reconstituted tobacco raw materials in China were systematically reviewed,and the research and equipment development prospects of the pretreatment technology of reconstituted tobacco raw materials were prospected.

Comparison of Different Virtual Inertia Control Methods for Inverter-based Generators

With the rapid development of inverter-based generators(IGs),power grid is faced with critical frequency stability challenges because the existing IGs have no inertia.To equip IGs with inertial response,researchers have proposed several virtual inertia control methods,which can be classified into two categories:virtual synchronous generator(VSG)control and droop control based on rate of change of frequency(ROCOFdroop control).In this paper,the comparison between both virtual inertia control methods is conducted from three perspectives:mathematical model,output characteristic and small-signal stability.State-space models are firstly built to analyze the control mechanism of VSG control and ROCOF-droop control methods.Simulation and eigenvalue analysis are conducted to study the transient responses and oscillation characteristics of both methods,which is helpful to understand the advantages and limitations of existing virtual inertia control methods.Finally,the obtained theoretical results are validated through realtime laboratory(RT-LAB)hardware-in-loop simulation platform.

Microarray Analysis of Ageing-related Signatures and Their Expression in Tumors Based on a Computational Biology Approach

Ageing and cancer have been associated with genetic and genomic changes. The identification of common signatures between ageing and cancer can reveal shared molecular mechanisms underlying them. In this study, we collected ageing-related gene signatures from ten pub- lished studies involved in six different human tissues and an online resource. We found that most of these gene signatures were tissue- specific and a few were related to multiple tissues. We performed a genome-wide examination of the expression of these signatures in various human tumor types, and found that a large proportion of these signatures were universally differentially expressed among normal vs. tumor phenotypes. Functional analyses of the highly-overlapping genes between ageing and cancer using DAVID tools have iden- tified important functional categories and pathways linking ageing with cancer. The convergent and divergent mechanisms between age- ing and cancer are discussed. This study provides insights into the biology of ageing and cancer, suggesting the possibility of potential interventions aimed at postponing ageing and preventing cancer.