99 research outputs found
A C-terminally truncated form of β-catenin acts as a novel regulator of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in planarians
β-Catenin, the core element of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, is a multifunctional and evolutionarily conserved protein which performs essential roles in a variety of developmental and homeostatic processes. Despite its crucial roles, the mechanisms that control its context-specific functions in time and space remain largely unknown. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway has been extensively studied in planarians, flatworms with the ability to regenerate and remodel the whole body, providing a 'whole animal' developmental framework to approach this question. Here we identify a C-terminally truncated β-catenin (β-catenin4), generated by gene duplication, that is required for planarian photoreceptor cell specification. Our results indicate that the role of β-catenin4 is to modulate the activity of β-catenin1, the planarian β-catenin involved in Wnt signal transduction in the nucleus, mediated by the transcription factor TCF-2. This inhibitory form of β-catenin, expressed in specific cell types, would provide a novel mechanism to modulate nuclear β-catenin signaling levels. Genomic searches and in vitro analysis suggest that the existence of a C-terminally truncated form of β-catenin could be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to achieve a fine-tuned regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in specific cellular contexts
IL-10 signaling in CD4+ T cells is critical for the pathogenesis of collagen-induced arthritis
Large anomalous Hall effect in a hexagonal ferromagnetic Fe5Sn3 single crystal
In this paper, we report an experimental observation of the large anomalous
Hall effect (AHE) in a hexagonal ferromagnetic Fe5Sn3 single crystal with
current along the b axis and a magnetic field normal to the bc plane. The
intrinsic contribution of the anomalous Hall conductance sigma_AH^int was
approximately 613 {\Omega}-1 cm-1, which was more than 3 times the maximum
value in the frustrated kagome magnet Fe3Sn2 and nearly independent of the
temperature over a wide range between 5 and 350 K. The analysis results
revealed that the large AHE was dominated by a common, intrinsic term, while
the extrinsic contribution, i.e., the skew scattering and side jump, turned out
to be small. In addition to the large AHE, it was found the types of majority
carriers changed at approximately 275 and 30 K, consistent with the critical
temperatures of the spin reorientation. These findings suggest that the
hexagonal ferromagnetic Fe5Sn3 single crystal is an excellent candidate to use
for the study of the topological features in ferromagnets.Comment: accepted as a rapid communication in Phy. Rev.
Effect of swelling agent treatment on grape fruit quality and the application of electronic nose identification detection
The swelling agent is a plant growth regulator that alters the composition and content of nutrients and volatile gases in the fruit. To identify whether grape fruit had been treated with swelling agent, the odor information and quality indexes of grape berries treated with different concentrations of swelling agent were examined by using electronic nose technology and traditional methods. The contents of soluble sugars, soluble solids, soluble proteins and vitamin C were significantly increased in N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N’-phenylurea (CPPU) treated fruit. The contents of hexanal, (E)-2-hexenal, and nonanal aldehydes decreased significantly. Similarly, the levels of phenyl ethanol, 1-octanol, ethanol, and ethyl acetate alcohols and esters also decreased noticeably. Additionally, the levels of damascenone, linalool, and geraniol ketones and terpenoids decreased. However, the contents of benzaldehyde, D-limonene, acetic acid and hexanoic acid increased. In addition, the electrical signals generated by the electronic nose (e-nose) were analyzed by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). The average recognition rate of SVM was 94.4%. The results showed that electronic nose technology can be used to detect whether grapes have been treated with swelling agent, and it is an economical and efficient detection method
Resolution of the stochastic strategy spatial prisoner's dilemma by means of particle swarm optimization
We study the evolution of cooperation among selfish individuals in the
stochastic strategy spatial prisoner's dilemma game. We equip players with the
particle swarm optimization technique, and find that it may lead to highly
cooperative states even if the temptations to defect are strong. The concept of
particle swarm optimization was originally introduced within a simple model of
social dynamics that can describe the formation of a swarm, i.e., analogous to
a swarm of bees searching for a food source. Essentially, particle swarm
optimization foresees changes in the velocity profile of each player, such that
the best locations are targeted and eventually occupied. In our case, each
player keeps track of the highest payoff attained within a local topological
neighborhood and its individual highest payoff. Thus, players make use of their
own memory that keeps score of the most profitable strategy in previous
actions, as well as use of the knowledge gained by the swarm as a whole, to
find the best available strategy for themselves and the society. Following
extensive simulations of this setup, we find a significant increase in the
level of cooperation for a wide range of parameters, and also a full resolution
of the prisoner's dilemma. We also demonstrate extreme efficiency of the
optimization algorithm when dealing with environments that strongly favor the
proliferation of defection, which in turn suggests that swarming could be an
important phenomenon by means of which cooperation can be sustained even under
highly unfavorable conditions. We thus present an alternative way of
understanding the evolution of cooperative behavior and its ubiquitous presence
in nature, and we hope that this study will be inspirational for future efforts
aimed in this direction.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ON
The clinicopathological significance of miR-1307 in chemotherapy resistant epithelial ovarian cancer
Preparation of Stable Phase Change Material Emulsions for Thermal Energy Storage and Thermal Management Applications: A Review
Thermal energy storage (TES) is an important means for the conservation and efficient utilization of excessive and renewable energy. With a much higher thermal storage capacity, latent heat storage (LHS) may be more efficient than sensible heat storage. Phase change materials (PCMs) are the essential storage media for LHS. PCM emulsions have been developed for LHS in flow systems, which act as both heat transfer and thermal storage media with enhanced heat transfer, low pumping power, and high thermal storage capacity. However, two major barriers to the application of PCM emulsions are their instability and high degree of supercooling. To overcome these, various strategies have been attempted, such as the reduction of emulsion droplet size, addition of nucleating agents, and optimization of the formulation. To the best of our knowledge, however, there is still a lack of review articles on fabrication methods for PCM emulsions or their latest applications. This review was to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive summary on the effective strategies and the underlying mechanisms for the preparation of stable PCM emulsions and reduction of supercooling, especially with the organic PCMs of paraffin. It was also to share our insightful perspectives on further development and potential applications of PCM emulsions for efficient energy storage
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