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of food insecurity, but other complementary government interventions are needed to guarantee the food security of families living in extreme poverty.

Farmers were correct in their perception that the Boardwalk Cisterns program improved their food security situation. The program resulted in greater access to water, and greater production and consumption of food. However, by itself, the Boardwalk Cisterns program was not enough to raise beneficiary families above their food-insecure status. The program alleviated the problem of food insecurity, but other complementary government interventions are needed to guarantee the food security of families living in extreme poverty.Water-in-oil emulsions widely exist in various chemical and petroleum engineering processes, and their stabilization and destabilization behaviors have attracted much attention. In this work, molecular dynamic (MD) simulations were conducted on the water-in-oil emulsion droplets with the presence of surface-active components, including a polycyclic aromatic compound (VO-79) and two nonionic surfactants the PEO5PPO10PEO5 triblock copolymer and Brij-93. At the surface of water droplets, films were formed by the adsorbate molecules that redistributed during the approaching of the droplets. The redistribution of PEO5PPO10PEO5 was more pronounced than that of Brij-93 and VO-79, which contributed to lower repulsion during coalescence. The interaction forces during droplet coalescence were also measured using atomic force microscopy. Jump-in phenomenon and coalescence were observed for systems with VO-79, Brij-93, and a low concentration of Pluronic P123. The critical force before jump-in was lowest for the low concentration of Pluronic P123, consistent with the MD results. Proteasome inhibitor drugs Adhesion was measured when separating water droplets with a high concentration of Pluronic P123. By correlating theoretical simulations and experimental force measurements, this work improves the fundamental understanding on the interaction behaviors of water droplets in an oil medium in the presence of interface-active species and provides atomic-level insights into the stabilization and destabilization mechanisms of water-in-oil emulsion.Clathrate hydrates are crystalline solid compounds consisting of a water caged framework and guest molecules such as CH4, C2H6, and CO2. Understanding the phase equilibrium conditions of hydrates is significantly important for the industrial exploitation and experimental synthesis of hydrates. Based on the correct description of the intermolecular noncovalent interactions of clathrate hydrates with vdW-DF2, we studied the crystal structures and the chemical potential phase diagrams of sII hydrates encapsulated with CO2 molecules to provide a deep understanding of the stability mechanism of hydrates. Under the given p-T conditions, the partially occupied hydrates (136H2O·1CO2 and 136H2O·16CO2) and fully occupied hydrates (136H2O·24CO2) are thermodynamically stable, and the equilibrium temperature decreases as the relative CO2 chemical potential increases at the same pressure. We expect that the present study may provide vital information on the stability conditions of CO2 hydrates and trigger new experiments to establish an effective replacement strategy for CO2/CH4.Screening of characteristic biomarkers from chiral amino-containing metabolites in biological samples is difficult and important for the noninvasive diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC). Here, an enantiomeric pair of chlorine-labeled probes d-BPCl and l-BPCl was synthesized to selectively label d- and l-amino-containing metabolites in biological samples, respectively. Incorrect structural annotations were excluded according to the characteristic 31 abundance ratio of natural chlorine isotopes (35Cl and 37Cl) derived from the probes. A sensitive C18 HPLC-QQQ-MS/MS method in combination with the probes was then developed and applied in metabolomic analysis of amino-containing metabolites in urine samples. A total of 161 amino-containing metabolites were rapidly separated and determined, and 28 chiral amino acids and achiral glycine were quantified with good precision and accuracy. A total of 18 differential variables were discriminated by analyzing chiral amino-containing metabolites in urine samples of the GC patient and healthy person using the probe-based HPLC-MS/MS-MRM method combined with the orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis and Mann-Whitney U test with false discovery rate correction for multiple hypotheses. A diagnostic regression model including d-isoleucine, d-serine, and β-(pyrazol-1-yl)-l-alanine and age was then constructed with an average prediction correctness of 88.9% in the validation set. This work established a close connection between gastric cancer and chiral amino-containing metabolites. The mass spectrometry data analyzed in the study are publicly available via Mendeley Data (DOI 10.17632/4bd93j9yrr.1).We have recently described a new generation of potent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and EV-A71 entry inhibitors. The prototypes contain three or four tryptophan (Trp) residues bearing an isophthalic acid moiety at the C2 position of each side-chain indole ring. This work is now extended by both shifting the position of the isophthalic acid to C7 and synthesizing doubly arylated C2/C7 derivatives. The most potent derivative (50% effective concentration (EC50) HIV-1, 6 nM; EC50 EV-A71, 40 nM), 33 (AL-518), is a C2/C7 doubly arylated tetrapodal compound. Its superior anti-HIV potency with respect to the previous C2-arylated prototype is in consonance with its higher affinity for the viral gp120. 33 (AL-518) showed comparable antiviral activities against X4 and R5 HIV-1 strains and seems to interact with the tip and base of the gp120 V3 loop. Taken together, these findings support the interest in 33 (AL-518) as a useful new prototype for anti-HIV/EV71 drug development.Elucidating the multifaceted processes of molecular activation and subsequent reactions gives a fundamental view into the development of iridium catalysts as they apply to fuels and propellants, for example, for spacecraft thrusters. Hydroxylamine, a component of the well-known hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) ionic liquid, is a safer alternative and mimics the chemistry and performance standards of hydrazine. The activation of hydroxylamine by anionic iridium clusters, Irn- (n = 1-5), depicts a part of the mechanism, where two hydrogen atoms are removed, likely as H2, and Irn(NOH)- clusters remain. The significant photoelectron spectral differences between these products and the bare clusters illustrate the substantial electronic changes imposed by the hydroxylamine fragment on the iridium clusters. In combination with DFT calculations, a preliminary reaction mechanism is proposed, identifying the possible intermediate steps leading to the formation of Ir(NOH)-.