Ultrathin-Layer Structure of BiOI Microspheres Decorated on N-Doped Biochar With Efficient Photocatalytic Activity

Bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) is among the most potential photocatalysts due to its photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. However, the photoinduced carrier separation efficiency has limited the BiOI photocatalytic activity. Herein, we utilized the direct carbonation of sapless cattail grass to obtain N-doped hierarchical structure cattail-based carbon (NCC). The NCC not only served as an appropriate host but also as a self-sacrificing template for BiOI microspheres for the preparation of BiOI/NCC composite material. The acidic solutions (HCl or AcOH) were used as a solvent which helped to obtain a well-defined micro/nano hierarchical BiOI microspheres composed of ultrathin nanosheets. Thus, BiOI/NCC composites were successfully designed through the in-situ self-template rapid dissolution-recrystallization mechanism. Additionally, numerous well-contacted interfaces were formed between NCC and BiOI, which served as an electron-acceptor bridge function for ultrafast electron transfer process in order to hinder the electron-hole pairs recombination. On account of the multiple synergistic effects of micro/nano hierarchical microsphere structure, ultrathin nanosheets, and well-contacted interface, the as-prepared BiOI/NCC composites exhibit the superior degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) than pure BiOI under visible light irradiation

An Improved Vector Quantizer Design Method: the Codebook Reorganization Algorithm

Abstract Generalized Lloyd Algorithm(GLA) is important in vector quantizer design. It runs fast, but it is sensitive to initial conditions and it may find a local optimum. We propose an improved approach based on GLA, named vector quantized codebook reorganization algorithm (VQCRA). VQCRA finds better codebooks in less time, and is insensitive to initial conditions as compared with GLA.. The experiments are performed on the 10 images extracted from USC-SIPI Image Database. The performance improvement ranges from 7.3% (the size of the codebook is 32) to 46.4% (the size of the codebook is 512)

Causal Evidence for the Role of Specific GABAergic Interneuron Types in Entorhinal Recruitment of Dentate Granule Cells

The dentate gyrus (DG) is the primary gate of the hippocampus and controls information flow from the cortex to the hippocampus proper. To maintain normal function, granule cells (GCs), the principal neurons in the DG, receive fine- tuned inhibition from local-circuit GABAergic inhibitory interneurons (INs). Abnormalities of GABAergic circuits in the DG are associated with several brain disorders, including epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer disease. Therefore, understanding the network mechanisms of inhibitory control of GCs is of functional and pathophysiological importance. GABAergic inhibitory INs are heterogeneous, but it is unclear how individual subtypes contribute to GC activity. Using cell-type-specific optogenetic perturbation, we investigated whether and how two major IN populations defined by parvalbumin (PV) and somatostatin (SST) expression, regulate GC input transformations. We showed that PV-expressing (PV+) INs, and not SST- expressing (SST+) INs, primarily suppress GC responses to single cortical stimulation. In addition, these two IN classes differentially regulate GC responses to θ and γ frequency inputs from the cortex. Notably, PV+ INs specifically control the onset of the spike series, whereas SST+ INs preferentially regulate the later spikes in the series. Together, PV+ and SST+ GABAergic INs engage differentially in GC input-output transformations in response to various activity patterns

Ultrathin-Layer Structure of BiOI Microspheres Decorated on N-Doped Biochar With Efficient Photocatalytic Activity

Bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) is among the most potential photocatalysts due to its photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. However, the photoinduced carrier separation efficiency has limited the BiOI photocatalytic activity. Herein, we utilized the direct carbonation of sapless cattail grass to obtain N-doped hierarchical structure cattail-based carbon (NCC). The NCC not only served as an appropriate host but also as a self-sacrificing template for BiOI microspheres for the preparation of BiOI/NCC composite material. The acidic solutions (HCl or AcOH) were used as a solvent which helped to obtain a well-defined micro/nano hierarchical BiOI microspheres composed of ultrathin nanosheets. Thus, BiOI/NCC composites were successfully designed through the in-situ self-template rapid dissolution-recrystallization mechanism. Additionally, numerous well-contacted interfaces were formed between NCC and BiOI, which served as an electron-acceptor bridge function for ultrafast electron transfer process in order to hinder the electron-hole pairs recombination. On account of the multiple synergistic effects of micro/nano hierarchical microsphere structure, ultrathin nanosheets, and well-contacted interface, the as-prepared BiOI/NCC composites exhibit the superior degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) than pure BiOI under visible light irradiation

Overexpression of hTERT increases stem-like properties and decreases spontaneous differentiation in human mesenchymal stem cell lines

To overcome loss of stem-like properties and spontaneous differentiation those hinder the expansion and application of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), we have clonally isolated permanent and stable human MSC lines by ectopic overexpression of primary cell cultures of hMSCs with HPV 16 E6E7 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) genes. These cells were found to have a differentiation potential far beyond the ordinary hMSCs. They expressed trophoectoderm and germline specific markers upon differentiation with BMP4 and retinoic acid, respectively. Furthermore, they displayed higher osteogenic and neural differentiation efficiency than primary hMSCs or hMSCs expressed HPV16 E6E7 alone with a decrease in methylation level as proven by a global CpG island methylation profile analysis. Notably, the demethylated CpG islands were highly associated with development and differentiation associated genes. Principal component analysis further pointed out the expression profile of the cells converged toward embryonic stem cells. These data demonstrate these cells not only are a useful tool for the studies of cell differentiation both for the mesenchymal and neurogenic lineages, but also provide a valuable source of cells for cell therapy studies in animal models of skeletal and neurological disorders

Characterization and Roles of Cherry Valley Duck NLRP3 in Innate Immunity During Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli Infection

The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor (NLR) pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) is a pattern recognition receptor that is involved in host innate immunity and located in the cytoplasm. In the present study, the full-length cDNA of Cherry Valley duck NLRP3 (duNLRP3) (2,805 bp encode 935 amino acids) was firstly cloned from the spleen of healthy Cherry Valley ducks, and the phylogenetic tree indicated that the duNLRP3 has the closest relationship with Anas platyrhynchos in the bird branch. According to quantitative real-time PCR analysis, the duNLRP3 mRNA has a broad expression spectrum in healthy Cherry Valley duck tissues, and the highest expression is in the pancreas. There was significant up-regulation of duNLRP3 mRNA expression in the liver and down-regulation in the spleen after infection with avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) O1K1, especially at 3 days after the infection. Ducks hatched from NLRP3-lentiviral vector-injected eggs had significantly higher duNLRP3 mRNA expression in the liver, spleen, brain, and cecum, which are tissues usually with lower background expression. The mRNA expression levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-18, and TNF-α significantly increased after the APEC infection in those tissues. The bacterial content in the liver and spleen decreased significantly compared with the NC-lentiviral vector-injected ducks. In addition, in the duck embryo fibroblasts, both of the overexpression and knockdown of duNLRP3 can trigger the innate immune response during the E. coli infection. Specifically, overexpression induced antibacterial activation, and knockdown reduced the antibacterial activity of the host cells. The IL-1β, IL-18, and TNF-α mRNA expressions showed up-regulation or down-regulation. The results demonstrate that duNLRP3 has a certain antibacterial activity during E. coli infection. These findings also contribute to better understanding the importance of duNLRP3 in regulating the inflammatory response and the innate immune system of ducks