From Coke to Maine: The Formation of Concept of “Legal Fiction” at English Law

From Edward Coke to Henry Maine, the discussions on the “legal fiction” gradually rose from the practical level to the intellectual level, and the discussants themselves have changed their positions, from users or makers of legal fictions to pure observers, with different view-points. The nature of a fiction is always falsehood according to its definition, but scholars made different judgments on its role in English legal history. William Blackstone praised legal fictions, but Jeremy Bentham denounced them as tools by which the judges and lawyers stole legislative power. Henry Maine gave his definition of legal fictions and emphasized their historical role

A hydrothermal route to water-stable luminescent carbon dots as nanosensors for pH and temperature

Carbon dots (CDs) as a class of heavy-metal-free fluorescent nanomaterials has drawn increasing attention in recent years due to their high optical absorptivity, chemical stability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity. Herein, we report a facile method to prepare stable CDs by hydrothermal treatment of glucose (glc) in the presence of glutathione (GSH). With this approach, the formation and the surface passivation of CDs are carried out simultaneously, resulting in intrinsic fluorescence emission. The influence of reaction temperature, reaction time and feed ratio of GSH/glc on the photoluminescence property of CDs is studied. The as-prepared CDs are characterized by UV–Vis, photoluminescence, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscope, from which their structural information and property are interpreted. These CDs may be useful as pH sensors or as versatile nanothermometry devices based on the pronounced temperature dependence of their steady-state fluorescence emission spectra, which changes considerably over the physiological temperature range (15–60 °C).This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50925207), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK20140157), Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (111 Project B13025), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP11418)

Dual Defense: Adversarial, Traceable, and Invisible Robust Watermarking against Face Swapping

The malicious applications of deep forgery, represented by face swapping, have introduced security threats such as misinformation dissemination and identity fraud. While some research has proposed the use of robust watermarking methods to trace the copyright of facial images for post-event traceability, these methods cannot effectively prevent the generation of forgeries at the source and curb their dissemination. To address this problem, we propose a novel comprehensive active defense mechanism that combines traceability and adversariality, called Dual Defense. Dual Defense invisibly embeds a single robust watermark within the target face to actively respond to sudden cases of malicious face swapping. It disrupts the output of the face swapping model while maintaining the integrity of watermark information throughout the entire dissemination process. This allows for watermark extraction at any stage of image tracking for traceability. Specifically, we introduce a watermark embedding network based on original-domain feature impersonation attack. This network learns robust adversarial features of target facial images and embeds watermarks, seeking a well-balanced trade-off between watermark invisibility, adversariality, and traceability through perceptual adversarial encoding strategies. Extensive experiments demonstrate that Dual Defense achieves optimal overall defense success rates and exhibits promising universality in anti-face swapping tasks and dataset generalization ability. It maintains impressive adversariality and traceability in both original and robust settings, surpassing current forgery defense methods that possess only one of these capabilities, including CMUA-Watermark, Anti-Forgery, FakeTagger, or PGD methods

Antifungal activity of metabolites of the endophytic fungus Trichoderma brevicompactum from garlic

The endophytic fungus strain 0248, isolated from garlic, was identified as Trichoderma brevicompactum based on morphological characteristics and the nucleotide sequences of ITS1-5.8SITS2 and tef1. The bioactive compound T2 was isolated from the culture extracts of this fungus by bioactivity-guided fractionation and identified as 4β-acetoxy-12,13-epoxy-Δ9-trichothecene (trichodermin) by spectral analysis and mass spectrometry. Trichodermin has a marked inhibitory activity on Rhizoctonia solani, with an EC50 of 0.25 µgmL-1. Strong inhibition by trichodermin was also found for Botrytis cinerea, with an EC50 of 2.02 µgmL-1. However, a relatively poor inhibitory effect was observed for trichodermin against Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (EC50 = 25.60 µgmL-1). Compared with the positive control Carbendazim, trichodermin showed a strong antifungal activity on the above phytopathogens. There is little known about endophytes from garlic. This paper studied in detail the identification of endophytic T. brevicompactum from garlic and the characterization of its active metabolite trichodermin

Tunable Carbon-Dot-Based Dual-Emission Fluorescent Nanohybrids for Ratiometric Optical Thermometry in Living Cells

The use of carbon-dot-based dual-emission fluorescent nanohybrids (DEFNs) as versatile nanothermometry devices for spatially resolved temperature measurements in living cells is demonstrated. The carbon dots (CDs) are prepared in the organic phase and display tunable photoluminescence (PL) across a wide visible range by adjusting the excitation wavelengths and extend of N-doping. DEFNs are formed in a straightforward fashion from CDs (emitting blue PL) and gold nanoclusters (AuNCs, emitting red PL). The DEFNs display ideal single-excitation, dual-emission with two well-resolved, intensity-comparable fluorescence peaks, and function in optical thermometry with high reliability and accuracy by exploiting the temperature sensitivity of their fluorescence intensity ratio (blue/red). Furthermore, the DEFNs have been introduced into cells, exhibiting good biocompatibility, and have facilitated physiological temperature measurements in the range of 25-45 °C; the DEFNs can therefore function as "non-contact" tools for the accurate measurement of temperature and its gradient inside a living cell.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 50925207, 51432006, and 51503085), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China for the International Science Linkages Program (No. 2011DFG52970), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (No. BK20140157), the Changjiang Innovation Research Team (IRT14R23), the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (111 Project B13025). M.G.H. and C.Z. thank the Australian Research Council (ARC) for support

Cloning and Characterization of Low-Molecular-Weight Glutenin Subunit Alleles from Chinese Wheat Landraces ( Triticum aestivum

Low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) are of great importance in processing quality and participate in the formation of polymers in wheat. In this study, eight new LMW-GS alleles were isolated from Chinese wheat landraces (Triticum aestivum L.) and designated as Glu-A3-1a, Glu-A3-1b, Glu-B3-1a, Glu-B3-1b, Glu-B3-1c, Glu-D3-1a, Glu-D3-1b, and Glu-D3-1c, which were located at the Glu-A3, Glu-B3, and Glu-D3 loci, respectively. Based on the proteins encoded, the number of deduced amino acids of Glu-B3 alleles was approximately 50 more than those of Glu-A3 and Glu-D3 alleles. The first cysteine of Glu-A3 and Glu-D3 alleles was located at the N-terminal domain, while that of Glu-B3 alleles was found in the repetitive domain, which may lead to the different functioning in forming disulfide bonds. All the eight genes were LMW-m types and the new allele of Glu-B3-1a which had nine cysteine residues may be the desirable LMW-GS gene for improving bread-making quality

Cloning and characterization of low-molecular-weight glutenin subunit alleles from Chinese wheat landraces (Triticum aestivum L.)

Publisher's Version/PDFLow-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) are of great importance in processing quality and participate in the formation of polymers in wheat. In this study, eight new LMW-GS alleles were isolated from Chinese wheat landraces (Triticum aestivum L.) and designated as Glu-A3-1a, Glu-A3-1b, Glu-B3-1a, Glu-B3-1b, Glu-B3-1c, Glu-D3-1a, Glu-D3-1b, and Glu-D3-1c, which were located at the Glu-A3, Glu-B3, and Glu-D3 loci, respectively. Based on the proteins encoded, the number of deduced amino acids of Glu-B3 alleles was approximately 50 more than those of Glu-A3 and Glu-D3 alleles. The first cysteine of Glu-A3 and Glu-D3 alleles was located at the N-terminal domain, while that of Glu-B3 alleles was found in the repetitive domain, which may lead to the different functioning in forming disulfide bonds. All the eight genes were LMW-m types and the new allele of Glu-B3-1a which had nine cysteine residues may be the desirable LMW-GS gene for improving bread-making quality

Clinical outcomes after vascular reconstruction using synthetic grafts for limb salvage in patients with lower extremity sarcoma: a single-center retrospective experience

IntroductionLimb-salvage surgery has become the mainstream approaches for the treatment of sarcoma in the lower extremity. In cases where the sarcoma infiltrates the primary vessel, concurrent resection of the vessels and vascular reconstruction are required to ensure sufficient resection and preservation of limb function. The objective of this study is to assess the clinical outcomes of patients who underwent vascular reconstruction utilizing synthetic grafts for limb salvage, specifically in terms of postoperative complications and limb functional status.MethodsBetween September 2016 and October 2021, 15 consecutive patients who underwent 15 arterial and 3 venous reconstruction procedures were included in this retrospective study. Incidence of postoperative morbidity, graft patency, rate of limb salvage, and overall survival of patients were analyzed.ResultsThe median follow-up was 12.5 months (range, 4.5-72.0). Graft thrombosis occurred in 5 patients (33.3%) and graft occlusion occurred in 3 patients (20.0%). The median overall survival was 28.0 months with the estimated 2-year and 5-year overall survival of 57.8% and 43.4% respectively. The 1-year and 2-year estimated patency rates of arterial reconstructions were 82.3% and 62.1%, respectively. None of the included patients with limb amputation were observed as a consequence of severe vascular complications, while two patients underwent amputation due to the repeat recurrence, resulting in a limb salvage rate of 86.7%.ConclusionOur results show that the combination of vascular reconstruction and oncologic resection is a feasible option for preserving limbs in cases of musculoskeletal sarcoma with vessel involvement in the lower extremity. When vascular reconstruction surgery is performed, synthetic substitutes can be effectively used with low perioperative morbidity and an acceptable rate of limb salvage

Cloning and Characterization of TaTGW-7A Gene Associated with Grain Weight in Wheat via SLAF-seq-BSA

Thousand-grain weight (TGW) of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) contributes significantly to grain yield. In the present study, a candidate gene associated with TGW was identified through specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) of DNA bulks of recombinant inbred lines (RIL) derived from the cross between Jing 411 and Hongmangchun 21. The gene was located on chromosome 7A, designated as TaTGW-7A with a complete genome sequence and an open reading frame (ORF). A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was present in the first exon between two alleles at TaTGW-7A locus, resulting in a Val to Ala substitution, corresponding to a change from higher to lower TGW. Cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) (TGW7A) and InDel (TG9) markers were developed to discriminate the two alleles TaTGW-7Aa and TaTGW-7Ab for higher and lower TGW, respectively. A major QTL co-segregating with TaTGW-7A explained 21.7–27.1% of phenotypic variance for TGW in the RIL population across five environments. The association of TaTGW-7A with TGW was further validated in a natural population and Chinese mini-core collections. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed higher transcript levels of TaTGW-7Aa than those of TaTGW-7Ab during grain development. High frequencies of the superior allele TaTGW-7Aa for higher TGW in Chinese mini-core collections (65.0%) and 501 wheat varieties (86.0%) indicated a strong and positive selection of this allele in wheat breeding. The molecular markers TGW7A and TG9 can be used for improvement of TGW in breeding programs