Two new aryltetralin lactone lignans, petasitesins A and B were isolated from the hot water extract of the leaves of butterbur (Petasites japonicus) along with six known compounds. The chemical structures of lignans 1 and 2 were elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic data, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra. Petasitesin A and cimicifugic acid D showed significant inhibitory effects on the production of both prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and NO in RAW264.7 macrophages. The expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were inhibited by compound 1 in RAW264.7 cells. Furthermore, compounds 1 and 3 exhibited strong affinities with both iNOS and COX-2 enzymes in molecular docking studies.

Vegetation at mining sites can produce increased heavy metal leaching by the organic acids and protons originating from root secretion and litter degradation. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of organic acids and pH on the extraction of Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu from an alkaline mine soil (sampled from a mining site of Chenzhou City, Hunan Province) and an acid mine soil (sampled from a mining site of Daxin county, Guangxi Province). The results showed that in the presence of organic acids (acetic, oxalic, malic, fumaric, tartaric and citric acids) at pH 7, the extraction of Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu from the acid mine soil was much higher than that from the alkaline mine soil, in which only citric acid with higher concentration was capable of extracting some heavy metals. Citric acid had the strongest ability in extracting heavy metals, followed by oxalic acid. Heavy metal extraction dramatically decreased with increasing pH. Moreover, at low pH, oxalic acid promoted the risk of Cu leaching; at high pH, the leaching of Pb, Zn, Cd and Cu was enhanced by both oxalic and citric acids. This indicated that those plants, which can produce substantial citric acid or oxalic acid by root secretion and litter degradation, should not be selected for the revegetation of mining sites.

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a novel seismic observation system developed in recent years that can realize ultrahigh density observations and has attracted extensive attention in the field of seismology. DAS uses fiber-optic cables as sensing units, which are easy to incorporate with urban telecommunication fiber-optic cables for seismological observations. Compared with seismometers, DAS has the advantages of being rapidly deployed and recyclable, being able to acquire dense observations at low cost, and convenient data collection. In this study, a 5.2 km long telecom fiber-optic internet cable was utilized as a DAS array in an urban area to record ambient noise, and the noise cross-correlation function (NCF) was calculated. There are two different distribution types of ambient noise sources along the cable, regular along-road trucks (Taihe Road) and complex ambient noise, including human activities and traffic sources along and across the Jinniu road. In the first case, we constructed a 2D S-wave velocity model down to 100 m depth and a low-velocity zone was revealed. The S-wave model well explained the traffic signal along the Taihe road and the low-velocity zone is also consistent with the results obtained from co-located geophone arrays. In the second case, due to the complexity of the traffic noise distribution, empirical Green's functions were barely achieved. Therefore, we performed a synthetic test obtaining different NCFs with different source distributions, and two specific cases that dominate the NCF results were matched. Finally, we obtained the traffic noise distribution along the road, which is consistent with the power spectra density of the ambient noise. In conclusion, by combining DAS and urban fiber-optic internet cables with urban traffic noise, we can effectively reveal the traffic activities and image shallow structures with high resolution, which could offer a reference for urban construction and disaster prevention. Keywords Distributed acoustic sensing • Urban area • Ambient noise tomography • Ambient noise source distribution Article Highlights• DAS turns the urban fiber-optic internet cables into ultra-dense permanent seismic observation arrays • We revealed a high-resolution shallow structure using urban fiber-optic internet cables • We obtained the distribution of traffic activities along the road

ABSTRACT:In this paper, a novel approach is presented that applies multiple overlapping UAV imagesto building damage detection. Traditional building damage detection method focus on 2D changes detection (i.e., those only in image appearance), whereas the 2D information delivered by the images is often not sufficient and accurate when dealing with building damage detection. Therefore the detection of building damage in 3D feature of scenes is desired. The key idea of 3D building damage detection is the 3D Change Detection using 3D point cloud obtained from aerial images through Structure from motion (SFM) techniques. The approach of building damage detection discussed in this paper not only uses the height changes of 3D feature of scene but also utilizes the image's shape and texture feature. Therefore, this method fully combines the 2D and 3D information of the real world to detect the building damage. The results, tested through field study, demonstrate that this method is feasible and effective in building damage detection. It has also shown that the proposed method is easily applicable and suited well for rapid damage assessment after natural disasters.

No abstract

No abstract

Ten new ent-kaurane diterpenoids, including two pairs of epimers 1/2 and 4/5 and a 6,7-seco-ent-kauranoid 10, were obtained from the aerial parts of Isodon serra. The structures of the new compounds were confirmed by extensive spectroscopic methods and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data analysis. An anti-inflammatory assay was applied to evaluate their nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory activities by using LPS-stimulated BV-2 cells. Compounds 1 and 9 exhibited notable NO production inhibition with IC50 values of 15.6 and 7.3 μM, respectively. Moreover, the interactions of some bioactive diterpenoids with inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were explored by employing molecular docking studies.

No abstract