Sulfonated poly(arylene thioether phosphine oxide)s copolymers for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Abstract High molecular weight sulfonated poly(arylene thioether phosphine oxide)s (sPATPO) with various sulfonation degrees were prepared directly by aromatic nucleophilic polycondensation of 4,4 -thiobisbenzenethiol with sulfonated bis(4-fluorophenyl) phenyl phosphine oxide and bis(4-fluorophenyl) phenyl phosphine oxide. sPATPO in the acid form with sulfonation degrees of 60-100% exhibits a glass transition temperature higher than 230 • C and a 5% weight loss temperature above 400 • C, indicating high thermal stability. sPATPO with a high sulfonation degree shows high proton conductivity and good resistance to swelling as well. For instance, sPATPO-70 displays the conductivity of 0.0783 S/cm and a swelling ratio of 11.6% at 90 • C. TEM micrographs showed that sPATPO membranes with a high sulfonation degree could form continuous ion channels, which are favorable for improving the proton conductivity but harmful to remaining the mechanical property. The membranes are expected to show good performances in fuel cell applications

Genome Editing of Pik3cd Impedes Abnormal Retinal Angiogenesis

Abnormal angiogenesis is associated with myriad human diseases including proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Signaling transduction via phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) plays a critical role in angiogenesis. Herein, we showed that p110δ, the catalytic subunit of PI3Kδ, was highly expressed in pathological retinal vascular endothelial cells (ECs) in a mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) and in fibrovascular membranes from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. To explore novel intervention with PI3Kδ expression, we developed a recombinant dual adeno-associated viral (rAAV) system for delivering CRISPR/Cas9 in which Streptococcus pyogenes (Sp) Cas9 expression was driven by an endothelial specific promoter of intercellular adhesion molecule 2 (pICAM2) to edit genomic Pik3cd, the gene encoding p110δ. We then demonstrated that infection of cultured mouse vascular endothelial cells with the dual rAAV1s of rAAV1-pICAM2-SpCas9 and rAAV1-SpGuide targeting genomic Pik3cd resulted in 80% DNA insertion/deletion in the locus of genomic Pik3cd and 70% depletion of p110δ expression. Furthermore, we showed that in the mouse model of OIR editing retinal Pik3cd with the dual rAAV1s resulted in not only a significant decrease in p110δ expression, and Akt activation, but also a dramatic reduction in pathological retinal angiogenesis. These findings reveal that Pik3cd editing is a novel approach to treating abnormal retinal angiogenesis

Correction to: Genome Editing of Pik3cd Impedes Abnormal Retinal Angiogenesis, by Wu et al. Hum Gene Ther 2023;34(1-2):30-41; doi: 10.1089/hum.2022.079

In the January 2023 issue of Human Gene Therapy (vol. 34, no. 1-2; 30–41), the article titled Genome Editing of Pik3cd Impedes Abnormal Retinal Angiogenesis, by Wu et al. requires correction. The author byline originally appeared with the 13th author's name incorrectly published as GuomingZhao Wenyi Wu,1,2,3 Gaoen Ma,4 Hui Qi,5 Lijun Dong,5 Fang Chen,6 Yun Wang,5 Xingxing Mao,5 Xiaoqing Guo,2,3 Jing Cui,7 Joanne Aiko Matsubara,7 Bart Vanhaesebroeck,8 Xiaohe Yan,5Guoming Zhao,5 Shaochong Zhang,5,* and Hetian Lei 5,* The correct spelling of the author's name is GuomingZhang The online version of the article has been corrected to reflect this. The authors apologize for the error

Tembusu Virus in Ducks, China

In China in 2010, a disease outbreak in egg-laying ducks was associated with a flavivirus. The virus was isolated and partially sequenced. The isolate exhibited 87%–91% identity with strains of Tembusu virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus of the Ntaya virus group. These findings demonstrate emergence of Tembusu virus in ducks

Effects of Topographic Factors on Cultivated-Land Ridge Orientation in the Black Soil Region of Songnen Plain

Topographic factors are essential to the spatial distribution of ridge orientation, yet the literature shows limited exploration of the mechanisms underlying the effects of terrain on cultivated-land ridge orientation in a black soil region. To better understand this subject, interpretation, statistical analyses and field verification were carried out in Songnen Plain, a typical Mollisol area. The results revealed that inclined-ridge cultivation was the most common farming method in the study area. When the slope gradient of cultivated land was greater than 13°, the influence of slope on ridge orientation was obvious, and the residual ridge angle increased with the increase in slope. There was a strongly significant negative correlation between the residual ridge angle and the azimuth angle, and the proportion curves of all ridge orientations with respect to different slope aspects were axisymmetric with respect to azimuth angles of 0°–180°. The relationship among indices such as slope gradient, slope aspect and ridge orientation could be modeled using a Poly2D function. This study indicates that topographic factors are the dominant factor in ridge-orientation selection, and provides a scientific basis for block-scale cultivated-land protection and utilization in black soil region; however, the scientific configuration of ridge orientation requires further research

UltraJam: Ultrasonic adaptive jammer based on nonlinearity effect of microphone circuits

The widely used devices (e.g. smartphones, recorders) equipped with microphones have posed a severe threat to confidential conversations. In this paper, we design an inaudible anti-eavesdropping method: UltraJam, to reduce the risk of unwanted and secret recordings. UltraJam uses the ultrasonic signal to mask conversation. By leveraging the nonlinear effect of microphone circuits, the adaptive ultrasonic signal can be recorded and demodulated into low-frequency which can effectively squash the sound. Based on the characteristics of the attenuation coefficient and frequency response, we construct a number of jamming signals with different bandwidths and designed a wideband signal injection array, meanwhile adaptively adjust the power at each bandwidth signal to cover more frequency bands and increase usage scenarios. To verify the security of the microphone jamming system, we also utilize several audio recovery methods to recover the raw signal from jamming noise. The experimental results show that less than 1% of the words are recognized in the jamming recording, and even with the audio recovery method, 99% of the words still cannot be recognized in the recovered jamming recording

Variation on sandbar of tributary in Xiaolangdi Reservoir on Yellow River, China

Sandbar development would stop the water and sediment exchange between main river and tributary and even influence the normal reservoir opeartion. From the surveyed data of reservoir built many years ago, it shows that when there is a bar in tributary mouth, the tributary volume below the bar will become nullification during the period of flood control or water and sediment regulation of reservoir. There are more tributaries in Xiaolangdi reservoir than the others that it occupies 41.3% of the total initial volume of tributary volume. Obviously, the effective use of tributary volume has been important influenced by comprehensive utilization efficiency of reservoir scheduling, such as flood control, sedimentation reduction and comprehensive utilization. Results of Xiaolangdi Reservoir mobile-bed physical model experiments show that tributary is equivalent to lateral extension of river bed, the tributary intrusion deposition process have strongly relations with the factors, such as original topography, river bed deposition shape and its regime, process with input discharge and input sediment, and method of reservoir regulation. The variation trends of main river and tributary terrain forecasted by model test are basically in accordance with field surveyed data. The results could be used for research, design, and forecasting of reservoirs in sediment-laden river