Improved zero-sum distinguisher for full round <Emphasis Type="Italic">Keccak-f</Emphasis> permutation

Keccak is one of the five hash functions selected for the final round of the SHA-3 competition,and its inner primitive is a permutation called Keccak-f.In this paper,we observe that for the inverse of the only nonlinear transformation in Keccak-f,the algebraic degree of any output coordinate and the one of the product of any two output coordinates are both 3,which is 2 less than its size of 5.Combining this observation with a proposition on the upper bound of the degree of iterated permutations,we improve the zero-sum distinguisher for the Keccak-f permutation with full 24 rounds by lowering the size of the zero-sum partition from 21590 to 21575.     

Investigation of the interfacial water structure on poly[2-（dimethylamino）ethyl methacrylate] at the air/water interface by sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

The effect of pH on the conformation of surface alkyl groups and the structure of interfacial water molecules on poly[2-(dime-thylamino)ethyl methacrylate](PDEM) at the air/water interface were investigated with sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy(SFG-VS).At pH 4.1,the hydrogen bonding SFG spectra were similar to that of the air/pure water interface.As the pH increased from 5.4 to 9.6,the SFG intensities of both highly ordered hydrogen bonding(3200 cm-1 band) and less-ordered hydrogen bonding(3400 cm-1 band) were enhanced because of the charge-induced effect of deprotonated PDEM.The free OH peak disappeared completely because it was replaced by interfacial PDEM molecules.At pH 11.5,a new spectral band appeared at about 3580 cm-1 in the ppp and sps spectra,and this could be assigned to the C2v asymmetric stretching mode of the water molecules through molecular symmetry simulation.These hydrogen bonding structures are fully consistent with the conformational change of PDEM alkyl groups,and PDEM molecules act as a Hofmeister solvent.PDEM molecules are kosmotropic when they are charged and become more chaotropic as the pH increases.     

First record of Lower Triassic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Undichna</Emphasis> spp. fish swimming traces from Emei,Sichuan Province,China

We discuss traces from the ichnospecies Undichna unisulca recorded from the Triassic that are reported for the first time in this paper. These fossils are also some of the oldest vertebrate ichnites discovered in China to date. The fish swimming traces (Undichna unisulca) described originate from the Lower Triassic. These traces were found in the Jialingjiang Formation and are located at a gorge ~7.5 km from Emei, Sichuan Province, China. The ichnospecies Undichna unisulca consists of a regular sinusoidal wave. The wavelengths and amplitudes are quite constant between each specimen ranging between 28-32 mm and 9-12 mm, respectively. The fish swimming traces and distribution within the same bed are preserved as hypichnial ridges at the undersurface.     

Efficient synthesis of functionalized 2-pyridones by ytterbium chloride catalyzed tandem condensation

An efficient method was developed for the synthesis of arylidene heterobicyclic 3-cyano-2-pyridones via ytterbium chloride catalyzed tandem condensation of aromatic aldehydes,cyclic ketones,and cyanoacetamide.The conditions and scope of the reaction were investigated and a reaction mechanism was proposed.     

Variability of snail growing season at the Chinese Loess Plateau during the last 75 ka

Knowledge of seasonal climate change is one of the key issues facing Quaternary paleoclimatic studies and estimating seasonal climate change is difficult,especially changes such as seasonal length on glacial-interglacial timescales.The stable isotope composition from seasonal land snail shells provides the potential to reveal seasonal climatic features.Two modern land snail species,cold-aridiphilous Pupilla aeoli and thermo-humidiphilous Punctum orphana,were collected from different climatic zones in 18 localities across the Chinese Loess Plateau,spanning 11 degrees of longitude and covering a range of 1000 km2.The duration of the snail growing season(temperature ≥10℃) was shorter(202 ± 6 d) in the eastern Loess Plateau compared with in the western Loess Plateau(162 ±7 d).The δ13C of P.aeoli shells was ?9.1‰ to ?4.7‰ and ?5.0‰ to 0.3‰ for δ18O.For P.orphana,the δ13C ranged from ?9.1‰ to ?1.9‰ and ?8.9‰ to ?2.9‰ for δ18O.Both the δ13C and δ18O differences between the two snail species were reduced from the east to the western Loess Plateau(2.8‰ to 0.2 ± 1.1‰ for δ13C and 4.7‰ to 2.9 ± 1.3‰ for δ18O).These isotopic differences roughly reflect the difference in the growing season lengths between the east and west Loess Plateau indicating that the duration of the snail growing season shortens by 15 d or 19 d if the difference decreases by 1‰ in δ13C or δ18O,respectively.Thus,the difference in δ13C and δ18O between both snail species can be used to reveal the length of the snail growing season in the past.Based on our investigation,the length of the snail growing seasons from the Xifeng region during the last 75 ka was reconstructed.During the mid-Holocene(8-3 ka),the mean isotopic difference from both snail species reached maximum values of 2.6 ± 0.7‰ and 2.1 ± 1.4‰ for δ13C and δ18O,respectively.This was followed by MIS 3 that ranged from 2.5 ± 0.4‰ for δ13C and 1.6 ± 0.8‰ for δ18O.The Last Glacial Maximum changed by only 0.2‰ and 0.4‰ for δ13C and δ18O,respectively.Therefore,we estimate that the duration of the snail growing seasons to be ～200 ± 10 d during the mid-Holocene,190 ± 6 d in MIS 3 and 160 ± 3 d during the last glacial period.     

Degradation of the antibiotic sulfamonomethoxine sodium in aqueous solution by photo-Fenton oxidation

In this study, photo-Fenton oxidation was applied to degradation of sulfamonomethoxine sodium (SMMS) in aqueous solution. The operation parameters of pH, temperature, and concentrations of H2O2, Fe2+ and SMMS were investigated. The optimum conditions for the photo-Fenton process were determined as follows: [SMMS]=4.53 mg/L, pH 4.0, [H2O2]=0.49 mmol/L, [Fe2+]= 19.51 μmol/L and T=25°C. Under these conditions 98.5% of the SMMS degraded. The kinetics were also studied, and degradation of SMMS by the photo-Fenton process could be described by first-order kinetics. The apparent activation energy was calculated as 23.95 kJ/mol. Mineralization of the process was investigated by measuring the chemical oxygen demand (COD), and the COD decreased by 99% after 120 min. This process could be used as a pretreatment method for wastewater containing sulfamonomethoxine sodium.     

Catalytic oxidation of phenol in wastewater-A new application of the amorphous Fe78Si9B13 alloy

The amorphous Fe78Si9B13 alloy was used as a heterogeneous Fenton catalyst in the process of phenol degradation.The influences of main operating parameters such as reaction temperature,catalyst amount,hydrogen peroxide dosage and initial pH of solution on phenol degradation rate were investigated.The maximum mineralization of phenol was achieved at 60°C,6 g/L Fe78Si9B13, 0.31 mol/L hydrogen peroxide,with an initial pH of 2.5.More than 99%of phenol was completely removed under the optimum conditions within 10 min for a solution containing 1000 mg/L of phenol.Batch experiments for solutions containing phenol con- centrations ranging from 50 to 2000 mg/L were investigated under the above conditions and the same excellent degradation rate was obtained.The Fe78Si9B13 showed better catalytic activity than iron powder and Fe 2+ .Addition of n-butannol(hydroxyl radical scavenger)decreased the degradation rate of phenol,which demonstrates that hydroxyl radicals were mainly responsible for the removal of phenol.We demonstrated that phenol may be degraded by hydroxyl radicals decomposed by hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Fe78Si9B13 and illustrated the reaction mechanism for this process.This amorphous alloy exhibited high stability in recycling experiments and showed excellent reuse performance even after continuous operations of 8 cycles.     

Changes in the power spectrum of electrical signals in maize leaf induced by osmotic stress

To quantify the characteristics of the power spectrum of plant electrical signals, we defined the following concepts:spectral edge frequency (SEF), spectral center frequency (SCF), power index (PI) and power spectral entropy (PSE). These parameters were used to examine and quantify changes in the power spectrum of electrical signals in maize leaves under osmotic stress. In the absence of osmotic stress, the SEF of the electrical signal in maize leaves was approx. 0.2 Hz and the SCF was approx. 0.1 Hz. The electrical signal in maize leaves was mainly a slow wave signal with a frequency of 0-0.1 Hz. After 2 h osmotic stress, the SEF and SCF of the electrical signal increased to higher frequencies. The proportion of the fast wave frequency also increased to 0.1-0.2 Hz, resulting in a dramatic increase in PSE. We also found that the changes in PSE and SCF were significantly correlated during osmotic stress. We propose that the changes in the PSE and SCF in maize leaves can be used as a sensitive signal indicating water deficit in leaf cells under osmotic stress. Thus, measurement of SCF or PSE of electrical signals in maize leaves could be used to develop early warning and rapid diagnosis techniques for the water demands of plants.     

Pharmaco-metabonomic phenotyping and personalized drug treatment

There is a clear case for drug treatments to be selected according to the characteristics of an individual patient, in order to improve efficacy and reduce the number and severity of adverse drug reactions. However, such personalization of drug treatments requires the ability to predict how different individuals will respond to a particular drug/dose combination. After initial optimism, there is increasing recognition of the limitations of the pharmacogenomic approach, which does not take account of important environmental influences on drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. For instance, a major factor underlying inter-individual variation in drug effects is variation in metabolic phenotype, which is influenced not only by genotype but also by environmental factors such as nutritional status, the gut microbiota, age, disease and the co- or pre-administration of other drugs. Thus, although genetic variation is clearly important, it seems unlikely that personalized drug therapy will be enabled for a wide range of major diseases using genomic knowledge alone. Here we describe an alternative and conceptually new 'pharmaco-metabonomic' approach to personalizing drug treatment, which uses a combination of pre-dose metabolite profiling and chemometrics to model and predict the responses of individual subjects. We provide proof-of-principle for this new approach, which is sensitive to both genetic and environmental influences, with a study of paracetamol (acetaminophen) administered to rats. We show pre-dose prediction of an aspect of the urinary drug metabolite profile and an association between pre-dose urinary composition and the extent of liver damage sustained after paracetamol administration.