Astragalus Polysaccharides Attenuate Ovalbumin-Induced Allergic Rhinitis in Rats by Inhibiting NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation and NOD2-Mediated NF-κB Activation

Jiangtao Xu,Qiong Zhang,Zhaoxin Li,Yuhang Gao,Zhiyu Pang,Yina Wu,Geng Li,Dongyong Lu,Lijuan Zhang,Detang Li 한국식품영양과학회 2021 Journal of medicinal food Vol.24 No.1

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is an IgE-mediated chronic inflammatory disease of the allergic nasal mucosa. It has a significant effect on quality life; most patients with AR also suffer from sleep disorders, mood disorders, and deterioration in social relationships. As increasing numbers of medicinal plants show productive anti-inflammatory activity against inflammatory diseases, there is growing interest in natural medicinal plant ingredients. To this end, we selected Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) to evaluate its anti-inflammatory effect on ovalbumin-induced AR rats, and we further explored its impact on NLRP3 inflammasome activation and NOD2-mediated NF-κB activation. We found that APS can alleviate the nasal symptom of AR rats and attenuate pathological alterations. APS also reduced the inflammatory cytokine levels. APS not only inhibited the NLRP3 inflammasome activation but also inhibited NF-κB activation by decreasing NOD2 expression and blocking the phosphorylation of NF-κB (p65). In conclusion, APS can effectively improve the inflammatory symptoms of nasal mucosa in AR rats, which may be mediated by the inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and NOD2-mediated NF-κB activation. These findings indicate that APS has the potential to be used as a therapeutic agent for AR.

Distortion Elimination for Buck PFC Converter with Power Factor Improvement

Jiangtao Xu,Meng Zhu,Suying Yao 전력전자학회 2015 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.15 No.1

A quasi-constant on-time controlled buck front end in combined discontinuous conduction mode and boundary conduction mode is proposed to improve power factor (PF).When instantaneous AC input voltage is lower than the output bus voltage per period, the buck converter turns into buck-boost converter with the addition of a level comparator to compare input voltage and output voltage. The gate drive voltage is provided by an additional oscillator during distortion time to eliminate the cross-over distortion of the input current. This high PF comes from the avoidance of the input current distortion, thereby enabling energy to be delivered constantly. This paper presents a series analysis of controlling techniques and efficiency, PF, and total harmonic distortion. A comparison in terms of efficiency and PF between the proposed converter and a previous work is performed. The specifications of the converter include the following: input AC voltage is from 90V to 264V, output DC voltage is 80V, and output power is 94W.This converter can achieve PF of 98.74% and efficiency of 97.21% in 220V AC input voltage process.

Distortion Elimination for Buck PFC Converter with Power Factor Improvement

Xu, Jiangtao,Zhu, Meng,Yao, Suying The Korean Institute of Power Electronics 2015 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.15 No.1

A quasi-constant on-time controlled buck front end in combined discontinuous conduction mode and boundary conduction mode is proposed to improve power factor (PF).When instantaneous AC input voltage is lower than the output bus voltage per period, the buck converter turns into buck-boost converter with the addition of a level comparator to compare input voltage and output voltage. The gate drive voltage is provided by an additional oscillator during distortion time to eliminate the cross-over distortion of the input current. This high PF comes from the avoidance of the input current distortion, thereby enabling energy to be delivered constantly. This paper presents a series analysis of controlling techniques and efficiency, PF, and total harmonic distortion. A comparison in terms of efficiency and PF between the proposed converter and a previous work is performed. The specifications of the converter include the following: input AC voltage is from 90V to 264V, output DC voltage is 80V, and output power is 94W.This converter can achieve PF of 98.74% and efficiency of 97.21% in 220V AC input voltage process.

INFLUENCE OF INLET WATER INJECTION ON ENERGY CONSERVATION AND EMISSION OF GASOLINE ENGINE

Xu Jiangtao,Zhou Zhiyuan,Jiang Liyi,Zhou Haojie,Zhang Chuan 한국자동차공학회 2023 International journal of automotive technology Vol.24 No.4

Increased compression ratio of auto engine can effectively improve thermal efficiency. However, the risk of engine knock becomes higher when increasing the intake boosting. In this paper, the role of an inlet Water Injection (WI) system in improving the performance of a spark ignition engine was investigated, which was through a comparative study of Miller cycle with electromagnetic intake valve train (EMIT). The numerical simulation method was developed in AVL BOOST based on the engine test rig, and then the port water injection modelling was introduced. The results showed that when the engine speed was lower than 1800 r/min, the water spray scheme had a better effect on the engine performance as compared with the Miller cycle, and such advantage was increasingly significant with the decrease of the speed. This is due to the fact that the water injection takes into account the temperature reduction in the cylinder. When the engine speed was over 1800 r/min, it had a negative impact on engine performance with IWI due to the excessive suppression of combustion. This study provides a theoretical basis for design and research of gasoline engines

Numerical and Experimental Study on Knock Sources in Spark Ignition Engine with Electromagnetic Valve Train

Xu Jiangtao,Feng Yong,Chang Siqin,Guo Tongjun 한국자동차공학회 2020 International journal of automotive technology Vol.21 No.6

As one of the most common engine types in nowadays, the thermal efficiency of spark-Ignition (SI) engine is limited due to the lower compression ratio. Various technical solutions have been proposed to suppress knock and improve compression ratio of SI engines. In this paper, an new technical solution based on electromagnetic valve train (EMVT) was proposed to suppress knock of spark ignition engines, so that high compression ratio (HCR) engine (13:5) was obtained. Moreover, experimental and numerical analyses were carried out to optimize the proposed EMVT strategy. The result showed that the proposed EMVT strategies could well suppress the engine knock by reducing end-gas temperature and pressure and improving the spark-flame rate, resulting in significantly enhanced power, economic, and emission characteristics of SI engines. This study provides theoretical basis and technical approach for the development of internal combustion engines with high efficiency and high compression ratio.

ULTRA-NARROW NEGATIVE FLARE FRONT OBSERVED IN HELIUM-10830 Å USING THE 1.6 m NEW SOLAR TELESCOPE

Xu, Yan,Cao, Wenda,Ding, Mingde,Kleint, Lucia,Su, Jiangtao,Liu, Chang,Ji, Haisheng,Chae, Jongchul,Jing, Ju,Cho, Kyuhyoun,Cho, Kyungsuk,Gary, Dale,Wang, Haimin American Astronomical Society 2016 The Astrophysical journal Vol.819 No.2

<P>Solar flares are sudden flashes of brightness on the Sun and are often associated with coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particles that have adverse effects on the near-Earth environment. By definition, flares are usually referred to as bright features resulting from excess emission. Using the newly commissioned 1.6. m New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory, we show a striking 'negative' flare with a narrow but unambiguous 'dark' moving front observed in He I 10830 angstrom, which is as narrow as 340 km and is associated with distinct spectral characteristics in Ha and Mg II lines. Theoretically, such negative contrast in He I 10830 angstrom can be produced under special circumstances by nonthermal electron collisions or photoionization followed by recombination. Our discovery, made possible due to unprecedented spatial resolution, confirms the presence of the required plasma conditions and provides unique information in understanding the energy release and radiative transfer in astronomical objects.</P>

Highly Durable and Robust Superhydrophobic/Superoleophilic Cotton Fabric with Well-designed Roughness for Oil/Water Separation

Jiangtao Hu,Qianhong Gao,Lu Xu,Minglei Wang,Maojiang Zhang,Kuo Zhang,Xiaojing Guo,Weihua Liu,Guozhong Wu 한국섬유공학회 2018 Fibers and polymers Vol.19 No.7

Herein we report a simple and reproducible method for fabricating highly durable and robust superhydrophobic and superoleophilic cotton fabrics via simultaneous radiation-induced graft polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate and subsequent chemical modifications with aminopropyltriethoxysilane and hexamethyldisilazane. The chemical structure and the surface topography of the pristine and the modified cotton fabrics were investigated in detail by ATR-FTIR, XPS, and 29Si NMR, and a grafting layer was successfully immobilized onto the surface of the cotton fabric by forming covalent bonds. Multi-dimensional surface roughness was created by combining micro-sized fibers of the cotton fabric, nanoscaled protuberances of the grafting chain, and molecular level spherical projection points of silicon methyl. The superhydrophobic cotton fabric exhibited long-term stability, ultra-high durability and robustness, and maintained its properties even after 25 wash cycles. The fabric also showed excellent water repellency with a water contact angle of 153 o and a high efficiency of oil/water separation (98 %). The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic cotton fabric developed in the present work exhibits important potential applications in superhydrophobic textiles and oil/water separation.

Simultaneous activation of KHSO5 and BuOOH by iron octacarboxyphthalocyanine loaded on fly ash microspheres to boost pollutant degradation

Dapeng Li,Peng Zhang,Jiangtao Duan,Yaxin Wu,Na Ding,Zhenyu Wan,Longqi Chen,Jingli Xu,Suxiang Ge,Juntao Ma 한국공업화학회 2022 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.114 No.-

Utilization of fly ash (FA) wastes as the carriers of catalysts for the environmental application is an economicand practical strategy for their low cost, easy accessibility and thermal stability. However, mostcatalysts immobilized on fly ash were metal or metal oxides, some potential catalysts such as metalphthalocyanine complexes have not been reported upon their heterogeneous catalysis with FA as the carriers. In this paper, highly active iron octacarboxyphthalocyanine were immobilized onto the bird nestlikesurfaces of fly ash microspheres after NaOH activation. It is noted that the FeOCPc@FA compositeswith only 2 wt.% exhibited the high catalytic efficiency in the organic dye degradation. The high concentrationof 30 mg/L rhodamine B and methylene blue could be fast decolorized in the presence ofFeOCPc@FA–2 % and KHSO5. Moreover, the ultrafast decolorization of these dyes could be observed inthe catalytic system composed of FeOCPc@FA–2 %, KHSO5 and BuOOH (tert-butyl hydroperoxide). Simultaneous activation of KHSO5 and BuOOH could be realized in our designed catalytic system. Based on the structural characterizations of composites and active species generated during the catalyticprocesses, the probable generation pathway of metal–oxygen active species and various radicals wereanalyzed to explicate the catalytic mechanism. Our investigation provides a high efficiency, low costand environmentally friendly strategy for advanced oxidation treatment of organic pollutants.