Structural basis for concerted recruitment and activation of IRF-3 by innate immune adaptor proteins

Type I IFNs are key cytokines mediating innate antiviral immunity. cGMP-AMP synthase, ritinoic acid-inducible protein 1 (RIG-I)–like receptors, and Toll-like receptors recognize microbial double-stranded (ds)DNA, dsRNA, and LPS to induce the expression of type I IFNs. These signaling pathways converge at the recruitment and activation of the transcription factor IRF-3 (IFN regulatory factor 3). The adaptor proteins STING (stimulator of IFN genes), MAVS (mitochondrial antiviral signaling), and TRIF (TIR domain-containing adaptor inducing IFN-β) mediate the recruitment of IRF-3 through a conserved pLxIS motif. Here we show that the pLxIS motif of phosphorylated STING, MAVS, and TRIF binds to IRF-3 in a similar manner, whereas residues upstream of the motif confer specificity. The structure of the IRF-3 phosphomimetic mutant S386/396E bound to the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB)-binding protein reveals that the pLxIS motif also mediates IRF-3 dimerization and activation. Moreover, rotavirus NSP1 (nonstructural protein 1) employs a pLxIS motif to target IRF-3 for degradation, but phosphorylation of NSP1 is not required for its activity. These results suggest a concerted mechanism for the recruitment and activation of IRF-3 that can be subverted by viral proteins to evade innate immune responses

Dynamic Modeling and Vibration Analysis for the Vehicles with Rigid Wheels Based on Wheel-Terrain Interaction Mechanics

The contact mechanics for a rigid wheel and deformable terrain are complicated owing to the rigid flexible coupling characteristics. Bekker's equations are used as the basis to establish the equations of the sinking rolling wheel, to vertical load pressure relationship. Since vehicle movement on the Moon is a complex and on-going problem, the researcher is poised to simplify this problem of vertical loading of the wheel. In this paper, the quarter kinetic models of a manned lunar rover, which are both based on the rigid road and deformable lunar terrain, are used as the simulation models. With these kinetic models, the vibration simulations were conducted. The simulation results indicate that the quarter kinetic model based on the deformable lunar terrain accurately reflects the deformable terrain's influence on the vibration characteristics of a manned lunar rover. Additionally, with the quarter kinetic model of the deformable terrain, the vibration simulations of a manned lunar rover were conducted, which include a parametric analysis of the wheel parameters, vehicle speed, and suspension parameters. The results show that a manned lunar rover requires a lower damping value and stiffness to achieve better vibration performance

Removal and adsorption of diuron through nanofiltration membrane : the effects of ionic environment and operating pressure

A study was conducted on the removal and adsorption of diuron through a 200 Da nanofiltration (NF) membrane. The effects of ionic environment (0.002, 0.02 and 0.2 M of NaCl, CaCl2·2H2O and MgCl2·6H2O solutions), and operating pressure (5 and 25 bar), on the removal and adsorption of diuron, were investigated. There was a gradual increase in the removal efficiency with an increase in ionic strength. However, a better removal performance of NF membrane was achieved with the presence of intermediate ionic strength (0.02 M of NaCl). The presence of the highest ionic strength did not exhibit the highest removal efficiency for diuron. Moreover, ionic strength had a much more significant influence on the removal of diuron at a lower operating pressure (5 bar). The adsorption results indicated that there was a shielding effect of ionic strength on the adsorption of diuron, which was stronger at 5 bar. In contrast, the removal of diuron decreased significantly as the concentration of divalent cations increased at 25 bar. The experimental results also showed that the size exclusion mechanism seemed to be significant with the presence of electrolyte for the removal of diuron through the NF membrane

Effect of coagulants categories on the fouling and performance of ultrafiltration (UF) membrane

The combined coagulation and ultrafiltration (UF) system (C-UF system) is an advanced technology to treat natural organic matter (NOM) present in water. Traditional coagulants—prehydrolyzed inorganic coagulants, organic coagulants and composite coagulants were chosen to treat synthetic water containing humic acid (HA) in order to find an efficient coagulant that could remove NOM from the water effectively. The fouling, removal efficiency of UF and the chlorine decay in the permeate were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the coagulants. The initial UV254 absorption of the tested water samples were from 0.208 to 0.234, and the UV254 after coagulation was from 0.05 to 0.184. The UV254 did not increase after coagulation. Since the humic acid used was soluble, the initial turbidity of the tested water samples were very close to zero. The turbidity increased after coagulation, as the coagulants react with humic acid to form micro-flocs, which cannot be removed fully by sedimentation. The results showed that Polyferric chloride could not remove humic acid efficiently during coagulation process, but removed the humic acid well when used in the C-UF system. Moreover, for polyferric chloride and UF system, the concentration of organic compounds in permeates were minimal indicating very low levels of disinfection by-product formation, if chlorinated

Coagulation and nano-filtration: a hybrid system for the removal of lower molecular weight organic compounds (LMWOC)

The removal of lower molecular weight organic compounds (LMWOC) from water is of increasing concern. While, nano-\ud filtration (NF) is a good option, it removes only a fraction of the LMWOC. In this paper, NF experiments were conducted to remove oxalic acid and diuron in combination with coagulation using poly-aluminum chloride (PAC) as the coagulant. The results showed that this hybrid treatment system was effective in removing oxalic acid where almost a 100% removal effi ciency of oxalic acid was achieved. However, using PAC as coagulant to remove diuron from water was not effective. In order to improve the removal efficiency of diuron, 0.02 M NaCl was added to diuron and a 40% increase in the removal of diuron was achieved. Higher removal of diuron was achieved when the solution was treated with reverse osmosis (RO) when compared to the nano-filtration

Preparation of well-developed mesoporous activated carbon with high yield by ammonium polyphosphate activation

Ammonium polyphosphate was used as a novel activating agent for producing activated carbons (APACs) with well-developed mesoporous structure and high carbon yield from a renewable biomass (Enteromorpha). The influences of activation temperature and chemical impregnation ratio on the carbon yield and porous structure were investigated. APACs were characterized by pore structural analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that ammonium polyphosphate promoted the development of mesopore at lower temperature (around 600 degrees C) and the average pore diameter concentrated around 37 nm. All the APACs were prepared with high carbon yield (maximum 71%) and high mesopore fraction (>60%). The advantage of the generated mesoporous carbon was demonstrated by the high adsorption capacity for acid brilliant scarlet up to 416.7 mg/g. These results indicated that ammonium polyphosphate holds promise for producing activated carbon with excellent yield and mesoporous structure. (C) 2016 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Effect of coagulants on the fouling and performance of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes

The combined coagulation and ultrafiltration (UF) system (C-UF system) is an advanced technology to treat natural organic matter (NOM) present in water. Traditional coagulants &mdash; prehydrolyzed inorganic coagulants, organic coagulants and composite coagulants were chosen to treat synthetic water containing humic acid (HA) in order to find an efficient coagulant that could remove NOM from the water effectively. The fouling, removal efficiency of UF and the chlorine decay in the permeate were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the coagulants. The initial UV254 absorption of the tested water samples were from 0.208 to 0.234, and the UV254 after coagulation was from 0.05 to 0.184. The UV254 did not increase after coagulation. Since the humic acid used was soluble, the initial turbidity of the tested water samples were very close to zero. The turbidity increased after coagulation, as the coagulants react with humic acid to form micro-flocs, which cannot be removed fully by sedimentation. The results showed that polyferric chloride could not remove humic acid efficiently during coagulation process, but removed the humic acid well when used in the C-UF system. Moreover, for polyferric chloride and UF system, the concentration of organic compounds in permeates were minimal indicating very low levels of disinfection by-product formation, if chlorinated.<br /

Synthesis and characterization of heteroatom-enriched biochar from keratin-based and algous-based wastes

In this work, human hair and Enteromorpha prolifera were firstly used to synthesize heteroatom-doped biochars. The effects of pyrolysis temperature and holding time on the yield and pore structure of the obtained biochars were investigated. The different pyrolysis characteristics of hair and E. prolifera were compared through thermogravimetric analyser under nitrogen atmosphere. The pore properties, surface morphology and surface chemical composition were studied by N2 adsorption, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The biochar from hair was typical dual O, N-doped material, which possessed 21.14 at.% of O-doped and 9.61 at.% of N-doped on the surface, while the biochar from E. prolifera was typical dual O, S-doped material, which possessed 30.68 at.% of O-doped and 5.18 at.% of S-doped on the surface. The present study provides a good prospect for development of heteroatomenriched biochar materials from renewable biomass wastes. (C) 2016 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved

Characteristics of Pore Structure and Fractal Dimension of Isometamorphic Anthracite

The geologic conditions of No. 3 coal seams are similar to Sihe and Zhaozhuang Collieries, however, the gas production is significantly different. To better understand the effect of pores, by means of experimental measurements and quantitative analysis, the pore properties of high-rank isometamorphic anthracite were thoroughly studied. Our study showed that the pore structures were predominantly adsorptive, accounting for more than 88% of the specific surface area. The coal pores showed typical three-stage fractal characteristics at boundary points of 1 nm and 9 nm (7 nm of coal samples from Zhaozhuang Colliery), and the fractal dimension with 1–9 nm (or 1–7 nm), as being significantly larger than those measured outside the given ranges. Pores in samples from Sihe Colliery were mainly open spherical or ellipsoidal pores in shape; conversely, those from Zhaozhuang Colliery were mainly Y-shaped, V-shaped, or ‘ink-bottle’ type