Bioluminescence, photophysical, computational and molecular docking studies of fully conformationally restricted enamine infraluciferin

A new rationally designed fully rotationally restricted luciferin has been synthesised. This synthetic luciferin, based upon the structure of infraluciferin, has two intramolecular H-bonds to reduce degrees of freedom, an amine group to enhance ICT process, and an alkenyl group to increase π-conjugation. In the spectroscopic measurements and computational calculations, enamine luciferin showed more red-shifted absorption and fluorescence emission than LH2 and iLH2. With PpyWT luciferase enamine luciferin gave bioluminescence at 564 nm which is similar to LH2 at 561 nm. Further investigation by docking studies revealed that the emission wavelength of enamine luciferin might be attributed to the unwanted twisted structure caused by Asp531 within the enzyme. With mutant luciferase FlucRed, the major emission peak was shifted to 606 nm, a distinct shoulder above 700 nm, and 21% of its spectrum located in the nIR range

Intra- and Inter-Individual Variance of Gene Expression in Clinical Studies

BACKGROUND: Variance in microarray studies has been widely discussed as a critical topic on the identification of differentially expressed genes; however, few studies have addressed the influence of estimating variance. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To break intra- and inter-individual variance in clinical studies down to three levels--technical, anatomic, and individual--we designed experiments and algorithms to investigate three forms of variances. As a case study, a group of "inter-individual variable genes" were identified to exemplify the influence of underestimated variance on the statistical and biological aspects in identification of differentially expressed genes. Our results showed that inadequate estimation of variance inevitably led to the inclusion of non-statistically significant genes into those listed as significant, thereby interfering with the correct prediction of biological functions. Applying a higher cutoff value of fold changes in the selection of significant genes reduces/eliminates the effects of underestimated variance. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data demonstrated that correct variance evaluation is critical in selecting significant genes. If the degree of variance is underestimated, "noisy" genes are falsely identified as differentially expressed genes. These genes are the noise associated with biological interpretation, reducing the biological significance of the gene set. Our results also indicate that applying a higher number of fold change as the selection criteria reduces/eliminates the differences between distinct estimations of variance

Void Structures in Regularly Patterned ZnO Nanorods Grown with the Hydrothermal Method

The void structures and related optical properties after thermal annealing with ambient oxygen in regularly patterned ZnO nanrorod (NR) arrays grown with the hydrothermal method are studied. In increasing the thermal annealing temperature, void distribution starts from the bottom and extends to the top of an NR in the vertical (c-axis) growth region. When the annealing temperature is higher than 400°C, void distribution spreads into the lateral (m-axis) growth region. Photoluminescence measurement shows that the ZnO band-edge emission, in contrast to defect emission in the yellow-red range, is the strongest under the n-ZnO NR process conditions of 0.003 M in Ga-doping concentration and 300°C in thermal annealing temperature with ambient oxygen. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy data indicate that the concentration of hydroxyl groups in the vertical growth region is significantly higher than that in the lateral growth region. During thermal annealing, hydroxyl groups are desorbed from the NR leaving anion vacancies for reacting with cation vacancies to form voids

A survey of localization in wireless sensor network

Localization is one of the key techniques in wireless sensor network. The location estimation methods can be classified into target/source localization and node self-localization. In target localization, we mainly introduce the energy-based method. Then we investigate the node self-localization methods. Since the widespread adoption of the wireless sensor network, the localization methods are different in various applications. And there are several challenges in some special scenarios. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of these challenges: localization in non-line-of-sight, node selection criteria for localization in energy-constrained network, scheduling the sensor node to optimize the tradeoff between localization performance and energy consumption, cooperative node localization, and localization algorithm in heterogeneous network. Finally, we introduce the evaluation criteria for localization in wireless sensor network

Localized concentration reversal of lithium during intercalation into nanoparticles.

Nanoparticulate electrodes, such as Li x FePO4, have unique advantages over their microparticulate counterparts for the applications in Li-ion batteries because of the shortened diffusion path and access to nonequilibrium routes for fast Li incorporation, thus radically boosting power density of the electrodes. However, how Li intercalation occurs locally in a single nanoparticle of such materials remains unresolved because real-time observation at such a fine scale is still lacking. We report visualization of local Li intercalation via solid-solution transformation in individual Li x FePO4 nanoparticles, enabled by probing sub-angstrom changes in the lattice spacing in situ. The real-time observation reveals inhomogeneous intercalation, accompanied with an unexpected reversal of Li concentration at the nanometer scale. The origin of the reversal phenomenon is elucidated through phase-field simulations, and it is attributed to the presence of structurally different regions that have distinct chemical potential functions. The findings from this study provide a new perspective on the local intercalation dynamics in battery electrodes

Microarray meta-analysis database (M2DB): a uniformly pre-processed, quality controlled, and manually curated human clinical microarray database

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Over the past decade, gene expression microarray studies have greatly expanded our knowledge of genetic mechanisms of human diseases. Meta-analysis of substantial amounts of accumulated data, by integrating valuable information from multiple studies, is becoming more important in microarray research. However, collecting data of special interest from public microarray repositories often present major practical problems. Moreover, including low-quality data may significantly reduce meta-analysis efficiency.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>M²DB is a human curated microarray database designed for easy querying, based on clinical information and for interactive retrieval of either raw or uniformly pre-processed data, along with a set of quality-control metrics. The database contains more than 10,000 previously published Affymetrix GeneChip arrays, performed using human clinical specimens. M²DB allows online querying according to a flexible combination of five clinical annotations describing disease state and sampling location. These annotations were manually curated by controlled vocabularies, based on information obtained from GEO, ArrayExpress, and published papers. For array-based assessment control, the online query provides sets of QC metrics, generated using three available QC algorithms. Arrays with poor data quality can easily be excluded from the query interface. The query provides values from two algorithms for gene-based filtering, and raw data and three kinds of pre-processed data for downloading.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>M²DB utilizes a user-friendly interface for QC parameters, sample clinical annotations, and data formats to help users obtain clinical metadata. This database provides a lower entry threshold and an integrated process of meta-analysis. We hope that this research will promote further evolution of microarray meta-analysis.</p

Correcting Front-end RF Impedance Mismatch for 2.4GHz Wireless Long- Distance Data Transmission

ABSTRACT In order to increase the higher competition in lowpower wireless network communication market, a highperformance and low-cost product is necessary to distinguish the difference with others. Through integrating the system performance with suitable L-shape impedance-match circuit assisting with some network analyzer, this target with a 2.4 GHz radio-frequency (RF) product in long-distance data transportation seems to be promisingly implemented. In short-distance data transportation, the ideal outputlink transportation rate (~ max. 54 Mb/sec) is slightly influenced by impedance mismatch between power amplifier (PA) and antenna port. However, it is tremendously reduced at long-distance condition and the transportation rate is decreased to ~ 24 Mb/sec. Using the attenuator to attenuate the real input signal to -70dB to simulate the real signal transportation, the packet error rate (PER) is less than 10% at a physical sublayer service data unit (PSDU) length of 1000 bytes under the communication 802.11g spec. as the real transmission rate is 20 Mb/sec. If the impedance of the transmission line is shifted, the long-distance transportation rate will be reduced to, almost, 20 x 24 / 54 = 8.8 Mb/sec. The transportation performance is greatly deducted. With the delicate design and the feasible component arrangement, the impedance mismatch influencing the long-distance (~ 100 m) data transportation is overcome and reduced to the acceptable range. In this investigation using 3.3 V power supply, we observe that the selection of electronic components with miniaturization is also an art to reduce the radiation side-effect

Model-Informed Drug Development:Steps Toward Harmonized Guidance

Global alignment of expectations is required to achieve consistency in the planning, conduct, reporting, and regulatory review of modelinformed drug development (MIDD) applications. An International Council for Harmonization (ICH) MIDD general principles guideline has been positioned to provide a common standard of practice including a framework for risk-based assessment of MIDD-derived evidence within the context of global regulatory decision-making. This perspective provides the background, our viewpoints, and the next steps in the development of this guideline

Tyrosinase inhibitors and insecticidal materials produced by Burkholderia cepacia using squid pen as the sole carbon and nitrogen source

[[abstract]]Reports of tyrosinase inhibitors from microorganisms are rare. A tyrosinase inhibitor- and insecticidal materials-producing bacterium, strain TKU026, was isolated from Taiwanese soil and identified as Burkholderia cepacia. Among the tested chitin-containing materials, squid pen best enhanced the production of tyrosinase inhibitors and insecticidal materials. The tyrosinase inhibitory activity (5000 U/mL) and insecticidal activity (81%) against Drosophila larvae was maximised after cultivation on 1% squid-pen containing medium for three days. The tyrosinase inhibitory activity persisted even when the culture was treated with acidic or alkaline conditions of pH 3 or 11. The activities of both tyrosinase inhibitors and insecticide remained at 100%, even after treatment at 100℃ for 30 min. The culture supernatant after three days of cultivation also showed antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium oxysporum with maximal activities of 100% and 80%, respectively, but no antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli was observed. The tyrosinase inhibitors were assumed to be polyphenolic compounds according to the results of chromatography.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]NL