Isolation of Unusual N-Thiophenyl Ebselenamines and other Intermediates during the 77Se NMR Mechanistic Study of Azo-Bis-Ebselen: Their Antioxidant Behaviour against Oxidative Stress

Based on the traditional 77Se NMR spectroscopy investigation, a catalytic cycle for the formation of N-thiophenyl ebselenamine 12 involving diselenide 9, selenenyl sulfide 10 and ebselenamine 7a was reported by the reaction of azo-bis-ebselen 8 with PhSH and H2O2. The signals detected in the 77Se NMR spectrum corresponding to 7a, 10 and 12 were directly isolated from the NMR mixture. Mechanistic investigation for the formation of N-thiophenyl ebselenamine 12 was confirmed from an independent reaction of diselenide 9 and PhSSPh in the presence of H2O2. This was further supported by another diselenide 19 containing p-tolyl group with equimolar amount of H2O2 and PhSH in an independent experiment followed by the 77Se NMR spectroscopy, yielding similar observations. These results, which illustrated diselenide has been observed as the main precursor in the formation of all intermediates. The new novel selenium antioxidants quenched lipidperoxyl radicals much more efficiently than α-tocopherol and were regenerable by the aqueous ascorbic acid in a two-phase (chlorobenzene/water) azo-initiated peroxidation system. The notable benefit of the organoselenium biology, the novel ebselenamine analogues and their corresponding selenenyl sulfides were found to mimic the activity of the glutathione peroxidase enzymes better than ebselen in the coupled reductase assay.

Semi-Natural and Spontaneous Speech Recognition Using Deep Neural Networks with Hybrid Features Unification

Recently, identifying speech emotions in a spontaneous database has been a complex and demanding study area. This research presents an entirely new approach for recognizing semi-natural and spontaneous speech emotions with multiple feature fusion and deep neural networks (DNN). A proposed framework extracts the most discriminative features from hybrid acoustic feature sets. However, these feature sets may contain duplicate and irrelevant information, leading to inadequate emotional identification. Therefore, an support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is utilized to identify the most discriminative audio feature map after obtaining the relevant features learned by the fusion approach. We investigated our approach utilizing the eNTERFACE05 and BAUM-1s benchmark databases and observed a significant identification accuracy of 76% for a speaker-independent experiment with SVM and 59% accuracy with, respectively. Furthermore, experiments on the eNTERFACE05 and BAUM-1s dataset indicate that the suggested framework outperformed current state-of-the-art techniques on the semi-natural and spontaneous datasets.

Productivity of quails for use in fodder of polyphenol carbon complex from antarctic black yeast Nadsoniella nigra

In the article, results of researches on an establishment of an optimum level of polyphenolic carbon complex from Antarctic black yeast Nadsoniella nigra are resulted. Experimental studies conducted in terms of problem research laboratory of feed additives National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. Independent experiment was conducted with growing quails. We conducted a randomized block experiment with 4 treatments, each with 4 replicates of 30 growing birds (1 to 42 d of age). It was experimentally established that feeding quails polyphenolcarbonate complex from antarctic black yeast Nadsoniella nigra, the basis of which is melanin, in the compound feed at 1.0 mg/kg increased body weight at 42 days of age by 3.2 % (P < 0.001). Feeding the complex at the level of 0.5 mg/kg contributed to a probable increase in body weight of animals by 2.9 % (P < 0.001). The difference between animals of groups 3 and 4 was 0.3 %. This indicates an already effective dose of the complex at the level of 0.5 mg/kg of feed. Adding to the feed complex at the level of 0.1–1.0 mg/1 kg of feed helps to reduce feed costs by 0.6–1.6 %. The most effective feed conversion for the 1–42-day period is set at 3,345 kg per 1 kg of body weight gain of quails.

Parameter design of PLA/Wood Fused Filament Fabrication using Taguchi optimization methodology

This study investigates the effects of four variables during fused filament fabrication of organic biocompatible composite material, PLA with coconut flour, at the ultimate tensile strength and elasticity module of the printed parts. The parameter optimization uses Taguchi L18 design and regression models. The examined deposition variables are the layer thickness, the nozzle temperature, the raster deposition angle, and filament printing speed. The effects of the above variables on the strength of the parts are essential to enhance the mechanical response of the printed parts. The experimental outcomes are investigated using the ANOM and ANOVA analysis and modeled utilizing linear regression models. In addition, an independent experiment was repeated three times at optimum parameters' levels to evaluate the methodology, giving predictions errors less than 3%.

Performance Analysis of 3kW Residential Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System with Microinverter Topology using System Advisor Model

Grid connected rooftop PV systems are the most common form of solar energy utilization that helps home owners to reduce carbon footprint and save money in utility bills. This project focuses on the design and modelling of a 3KW residential PV system connected to a 240V single phase grid. The purpose of this study was to conduct an independent experiment on a photovoltaic system with microinverters, to determine their performance characteristics in shaded and unshaded conditions. The systems have fixed tilt angle and fixed azimuth angle. In order to analyse the performance of the systems, the Energy Yield, Performance Ratio, Capacity factor and Annual Energy have been used. This allowed to obtain reliable metrics even with different Irradiance values and different Peak Powers. In the conventional central inverters, several strings of PV modules are combined in order to achieve the power required from the inverter to operate. Strings are connected in parallel and then these strings are led to the inverter after running several meters of DC cables. These cables are often very thick and as a result are very expensive while at the same time, they add losses to the overall system. On the other hand, AC cables are much less expensive and they have fewer losses. A residential system was designed in SAM using specific weather data. The simulation results supported the fact that micro inverters perform well in both shaded and non-shaded conditions. A significant advantage of Micro Inverters is the avoidance of shading losses and mismatch among different PV technologies which consists a great challenge on PV installations. The String Inverter system produced an annual energy of 4763 kWh in the first year with no shading and 4286 kWh in the first year with shading losses. Keywords: Inverters, Photovoltaic cells, Photovoltaic systems, Solar energy, Solar panels.

The Protective Effects of GPR55 Against Hippocampal Neuroinflammation and Neurogenic Damage in CSDS Mice

BackgroundDepression is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the world today, the onset of depression is usually accompanied by neuroinflammation and neurogenic damage. Recently, G protein coupled receptor 55 (GPR55) has been associated with mood regulation as a third kind of cannabinoid receptor, and the activation of GPR55 was demonstrated recently to have a neuroprotective effect on hippocampal neurogenesis against inflammatory insult. However, its role in regulating depression and anxiety remains poorly understood.Methods10-day chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) was utilized as an animal model of depression to explore the potential antidepressant effect of GPR55 agonist and electroacupuncture (EA), a common therapy for depression in China. Several behavioral tests i.e. forced swimming test, open field test and elevated plus maze were performed to evaluate the depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in mice. Expression of GPR55, hippocampal neuroinflammation, and neurogenesis were detected using immunohistochemistry, western blot and RT-PCR. Then, the effect of a GPR55 agonist, O-1602 on depression- and anxiety-like behaviors as well as hippocampal neuroinflammation and neurogenesis was examined. Furthermore, the potential antidepressant effect of 3-week EA treatment was also evaluated in another independent experiment. In the experiment, the behaviors and hippocampal neuroinflammation and neurogenesis were also subsequently examined.ResultsAfter CSDS, the protein level of GPR55 was decreased only in susceptible mice but the mRNA expression was not significantly different in all CSDS mice. Additionally, depression- and anxiety-like behaviors are accompanied by neuroinflammation and reduced neurogenesis in the hippocampus. And the activation of GPR55 during the process of CSDS prevented the development of depression- and anxiety- like behaviors, as well as hippocampal neuroinflammation and neurogenetic damage. Similarly, EA alleviated the depression- and anxiety-like behaviors, hippocampal neuroinflammation, and neurogenetic damage as well as decreased protein level of GPR55 in hippocampus induced by CSDS.ConclusionsOur research demonstrated that activation of hippocampal GPR55 could rescue depression and anxiety phenotypes, reduce hippocampal neuroinflammation, and enhance hippocampal neurogenesis. Moreover, GPR55 might be involved in the beneficial effect of EA on depression.

Glucocorticoid Abnormalities in Female Rats Exposed to a Predator-Based Psychosocial Stress Model of PTSD

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibit heightened anxiety and enhanced negative feedback of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We previously reported that male rats exposed to a predator-based psychosocial stress model of PTSD exhibited comparable changes in anxiety-like behavior and HPA axis activity, including lower baseline levels of corticosterone and a greater suppression of corticosterone after dexamethasone administration. Here, we assessed whether we would observe similar effects in female rats exposed to this model. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to a cat on two occasions (separated by 10 days), in combination with chronic social instability. Three weeks after the second cat exposure, we assessed anxiety-like behavior on an elevated plus maze (EPM) and collected blood samples from rats in the absence or presence of dexamethasone to quantify serum corticosterone levels. Although stressed females did not display heightened anxiety on the EPM, they exhibited significantly lower overall corticosterone levels and a greater suppression of corticosterone after dexamethasone administration. The observation of significantly lower overall corticosterone levels in stressed females was replicated in a separate, independent experiment. These findings suggest that the predator-based psychosocial stress model of PTSD may be useful for studying mechanisms that underlie changes in HPA axis function in females exposed to trauma.

Reform of Paleontology Experiment Teaching for Geology Majors

Due to the development of science and technology and the transformation of society’s demand for talents of geology majors, many changes have taken place in the arrangement of teaching hours and teaching content of paleontology experiment teaching. The paleontology experiment teaching of geology majors has problems such as unreasonable experiment design, no independent experiment arrangement, single teaching method, absence of experiment contents, etc. the article believes that the reform should be made in the following aspects: setting up independent experiment teaching arrangement, improvement of experiment teaching design, continuing to improve the laboratory hardware and software construction, reform of teaching methods.

Neocortical substrates of feelings evoked with music in the ACC, insula, and somatosensory cortex

Neurobiological models of emotion focus traditionally on limbic/paralimbic regions as neural substrates of emotion generation, and insular cortex (in conjunction with isocortical anterior cingulate cortex, ACC) as the neural substrate of feelings. An emerging view, however, highlights the importance of isocortical regions beyond insula and ACC for the subjective feeling of emotions. We used music to evoke feelings of joy and fear, and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to decode representations of feeling states in functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) data of n = 24 participants. Most of the brain regions providing information about feeling representations were neocortical regions. These included, in addition to granular insula and cingulate cortex, primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, premotor cortex, frontal operculum, and auditory cortex. The multivoxel activity patterns corresponding to feeling representations emerged within a few seconds, gained in strength with increasing stimulus duration, and replicated results of a hypothesis-generating decoding analysis from an independent experiment. Our results indicate that several neocortical regions (including insula, cingulate, somatosensory and premotor cortices) are important for the generation and modulation of feeling states. We propose that secondary somatosensory cortex, which covers the parietal operculum and encroaches on the posterior insula, is of particular importance for the encoding of emotion percepts, i.e., preverbal representations of subjective feeling.