Identification of the forensically important flies (Diptera: Muscidae) based on cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in China

Accurate species identification is a crucial step in forensic entomology, as the insect collected on a corpse can provide useful information for estimation of postmortem interval (PMI). However, morphological distinction may on occasion be impossible to the adult flies and nymphs of the same genus. DNA-based method can be used as a supplemental means of morphological method. In this study, 31 forensically important Muscidae flies were collected from 15 locations in 11 provinces of China, and a 272 base pair region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was sequenced. The monophyletic branches of the phylogenetic tree revealed that this marker is suitable for discrimination between these five species of four genera of Muscidae. The genetic variations found on COI can be applied not only to identify the forensically important species, but also to understand the taxonomic positions of the sarcophagine species. In addition, this research will be instrumental for implementation of the Chinese Muscidae database.Keywords: Forensic science, forensic entomology, Muscidae, cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), species identificatio

Proteomics-based analysis of differentially expressed proteins in the CXCR1-knockdown gastric carcinoma MKN45 cell line and its parental cell

C-X-C chemokine receptor types 1 (CXCR1), a cell-surface G-protein-coupled receptor has been found to be associated with tumorigenesis, development, and progression of some tumors. Previously, we have found that CXCR1 overexpression is associated with late-stage gastric adenocarcinoma. We also have demonstrated that knockdown of CXCR1 could inhibit cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we compared the changes of protein expression profile between gastric carcinoma MKN45 cell line and CXCR1-knockdown MKN45 cell line by 2D electrophoresis. Among the 101 quantified proteins, 29 spots were significantly different, among which 13 were downregulated and 16 were up-regulated after CXCR1 knockdown. These proteins were further identified by mass spectrometry analysis. Among them, several up-regulated proteins such as hCG2020155, Keratin8, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C (C1/C2), and several downregulated proteins such as Sorcin, heat shock protein 27, serpin B6 isoform b, and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K were confirmed. These proteins are related to cell cycle, the transcription regulation, cell adherence, cellular metabolism, drug resistance, and so on. These results provide an additional support to the hypothesis that CXCR1 might play an important role in proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and prognosis, and drug resistance of gastric carcinoma

Surface Ni-rich engineering towards highly stable Li 1.2 Mn 0.54 Ni 0.13 Co 0.13 O 2 cathode materials

Abstract(#br)Li-rich layered oxide cathode materials (LLOs) are regarded as promising next-generation cathode candidate in high-energy-density lithium ion batteries due to their high specific capacity over 250 mA h g −1 . However, LLOs always suffer from a series of severe issues, such as rapid voltage fading, fast capacity decay and bad cycling stability. In this work, Li 1.2 Mn 0.54 Ni 0.13 Co 0.13 O 2 -Li 1.2 Mn 0.44 Ni 0.32 Co 0.04 O 2 (LLO-111@111/811) hybrid layered-layered cathode is constructed via facilely increasing surface Ni content. Profiting from this special design, the prepared LLO-111@111/811 cathode exhibits a remarkable specific capacity of 249 mA h g −1 with a high capacity retention of 89.3% and a high discharge voltage of 3.57 V with a voltage retention of 83.0% after cycling 350 times at 0.5 C. As a result, the specific energy of LLO-111@111/811 cathode is 887 Wh Kg −1 at 0.5 C and it keeps as high as 658 Wh Kg −1 after 350 cycles. LLO-111@111/811 also exhibits an initial high capacity of 169 mA h g −1 at a high rate of 5 C and maintains a good capacity retention of 90.0% after 200 cycles. This strategy can successfully improve structural stability, suppress capacity decay and restrain voltage fading of LLOs, which is beneficial for their practical application

Abnormal Activity Detection Using Pyroelectric Infrared Sensors

Healthy aging is one of the most important social issues. In this paper, we propose a method for abnormal activity detection without any manual labeling of the training samples. By leveraging the Field of View (FOV) modulation, the spatio-temporal characteristic of human activity is encoded into low-dimension data stream generated by the ceiling-mounted Pyroelectric Infrared (PIR) sensors. The similarity between normal training samples are measured based on Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence of each pair of them. The natural clustering of normal activities is discovered through a self-tuning spectral clustering algorithm with unsupervised model selection on the eigenvectors of a modified similarity matrix. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are employed to model each cluster of normal activities and form feature vectors. One-Class Support Vector Machines (OSVMs) are used to profile the normal activities and detect abnormal activities. To validate the efficacy of our method, we conducted experiments in real indoor environments. The encouraging results show that our method is able to detect abnormal activities given only the normal training samples, which aims to avoid the laborious and inconsistent data labeling process

On the piezoresistive behavior of carbon fibers - Cantilever-based testing method and Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory modeling

On the piezoresistive behavior of carbon fibers - Cantilever-based testing method and Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory modelin

Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cell small extracellular vesicle transfer of microRNA-223-3p to lung epithelial cells attenuates inflammation in acute lung injury in mice

Abstract Background Acute lung injury (ALI), manifested as strong pulmonary inflammation and alveolar epithelial damage, is a life-threatening disease with high morbidity and mortality. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), secreted by multiple types of cells, are critical cellular communication mediators and can inhibit inflammation by transferring bioactive molecules, such as microRNAs (miRNAs). Thus, we hypothesized that sEVs derived from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC sEVs) could transfer miRNAs to attenuate inflammation of lung epithelial cells during ALI. Methods C57BL/6 male mice were intratracheally administered LPS (10 mg/kg). Six hours later, the mice were randomly administered with MSC sEVs (40 µg per mouse in 150 µl of saline), which were collected by ultracentrifugation. Control group received saline administration. After 48 h, the mice were sacrificed to evaluate pulmonary microvascular permeability and inflammatory responses. In vitro, A549 cells and primary human small airway epithelial cells (SAECs) were stimulated with LPS with or without MSC sEVs treatment. Results In vitro, MSC sEVs could also inhibit the inflammation induced by LPS in A549 cells and SAECs (reducing TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and MCP-1). Moreover, MSC sEV treatment improved the survival rate, alleviated pulmonary microvascular permeability, and inhibited proinflammatory responses (reducing TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and JE-1) in ALI mice. Notably, miR-223-3p was found to be served as a critical mediator in MSC sEV-induced regulatory effects through inhibition of poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) in lung epithelial cells. Conclusions Overall, these findings suggest that MSC sEVs may offer a novel promising strategy for ALI

Selective photoelectrochemical oxidation of glucose to glucaric acid by single atom Pt decorated defective TiO2

Photoelectrochemical oxidation provides a promising strategy for glucaric acid production. Here, selective oxidation of glucose to glucaric acid is realized on the photoanode of defective TiO2 decorated with single-atom Pt via a photoelectrochemical strategy