Elastic Fiber Supercapacitors for Wearable Energy Storage

The development of wearable devices such as smart watches, intelligent garments, and wearable health-monitoring devices calls for suitable energy storage devices which have matching mechanical properties and can provide sufficient power for a reasonable duration. Stretchable fiber-based supercapacitors are emerging as a promising candidates for this purpose because they are lightweight, flexible, have high energy and power density, and the potential for easy integration into traditional textile processes. An important characteristic that is oftentimes ignored is stretchability-fiber supercapacitors should be able to accommodate large elongation during use, endure a range of bending motions, and then revert to its original form without compromising electrical and electrochemical performance. This article summarizes the current research progress on stretchable fiber-based supercapacitors and discusses the existing challenges on material preparation and fiber-based device fabrication. This article aims to help researchers in the field to better understand the challenges related to material design and fabrication approaches of fiber-based supercapacitors, and to provide insights and guidelines toward their wearability

Fluorinated betulinic acid derivatives and evaluation of their anti-HIV activity

Several fluorinated derivatives of the anti-HIV maturation agent bevirimat (1) were synthesized and evaluated for anti-HIV replication activity. The modified positions were the C-2, C-3, C-28, and C-30 positions, either directly on the betulinic acid (2) skeleton or in the attached side chains. Compound 18, which has a trifluoromethyl group added to C-30 of its isopropenyl group, exhibited similar potency to 1 against HIV-1NL4-3. In total, our current studies support our prior conclusion that C-30 allylic modification is unlikely to be a pharmacophore for anti-HIV activity, but could be a meaningful route to manipulate other properties of 2-related compounds

Transcriptomic Responses to Different Cry1Ac Selection Stresses in Helicoverpa armigera

Helicoverpa armigera can develop resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which threaten the long-term success of Bt crops. In the present study, RNAseq was employed to investigate the midgut genes response to strains with different levels of resistance (LF5, LF10, LF20, LF30, LF60, and LF120) in H. armigera. Results revealed that a series of differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) were expressed significantly in resistant strains compared with the LF-susceptible strain. Nine trypsin genes, ALP2, were downregulated significantly in all the six resistant strains and further verified by qRT-PCR, indicating that these genes may be used as markers to monitor and manage pest resistance in transgenic crops. Most importantly, the differences in DEG functions in the different resistant strains revealed that different resistance mechanisms may develop during the evolution of resistance. The immune and detoxification processes appear to be associated with the low-level resistance (LF5 strain). Metabolic process-related macromolecules possibly lead to resistance to Cry1Ac in the LF10 and LF20 strains. The DEGs involved in the “proton-transporting V-type ATPase complex” and the “proton-transporting two-sector ATPase complex” were significantly expressed in the LF30 strain, probably causing resistance to Cry1Ac in the LF30 strain. The DEGs involved in binding and iron ion homeostasis appear to lead to high-level resistance in the LF60 and LF120 strains, respectively. The multiple genes and different pathways seem to be involved in Cry1Ac resistance depending on the levels of resistance. Although the mechanisms of resistance are very complex in H. armigera, a main pathway seemingly exists, which contributes to resistance in each level of resistant strain. Altogether, the findings in the current study provide a transcriptome-based foundation for identifying the functional genes involved in Cry1Ac resistance in H. armigera

Association between rare variants in specific functional pathways and human neural tube defects multiple subphenotypes

Background Neural tube defects (NTDs) are failure of neural tube closure, which includes multiple central nervous system phenotypes. More than 300 mouse mutant strains exhibits NTDs phenotypes and give us some clues to establish association between biological functions and subphenotypes. However, the knowledge about association in human remains still very poor. Methods High throughput targeted genome DNA sequencing were performed on 280 neural tube closure-related genes in 355 NTDs cases and 225 ethnicity matched controls, Results We explored that potential damaging rare variants in genes functioning in chromatin modification, apoptosis, retinoid metabolism and lipid metabolism are associated with human NTDs. Importantly, our data indicate that except for planar cell polarity pathway, craniorachischisis is also genetically related with chromatin modification and retinoid metabolism. Furthermore, single phenotype in cranial or spinal regions displays significant association with specific biological function, such as anencephaly is associated with potentially damaging rare variants in genes functioning in chromatin modification, encephalocele is associated with apoptosis, retinoid metabolism and one carbon metabolism, spina bifida aperta and spina bifida cystica are associated with apoptosis; lumbar sacral spina bifida aperta and spina bifida occulta are associated with lipid metabolism. By contrast, complex phenotypes in both cranial and spinal regions display association with various biological functions given the different phenotypes. Conclusions Our study links genetic variant to subphenotypes of human NTDs and provides a preliminary but direct clue to investigate pathogenic mechanism for human NTDs. </div

Loaded delta-hemolysin shapes the properties of Staphylococcus aureus membrane vesicles

BackgroundMembrane vesicles (MVs) are nanoscale vesicular structures produced by bacteria during their growth in vitro and in vivo. Some bacterial components can be loaded in bacterial MVs, but the roles of the loaded MV molecules are unclear.MethodsMVs of Staphylococcus aureus RN4220 and its derivatives were prepared. Dynamic light scattering analysis was used to evaluate the size distribution, and 4D-label-free liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis was performed to detect protein composition in the MVs. The site-mutation S. aureus RN4220-Δhld and agrA deletion mutant RN4220-ΔagrA were generated via allelic replacement strategies. A hemolysis assay was performed with rabbit red blood cells. CCK-8 and lactate dehydrogenase release assays were used to determine the cytotoxicity of S. aureus MVs against RAW264.7 macrophages. The serum levels of inflammatory factors such as IL-6, IL-1β, and TNFα in mice treated with S. aureus MVs were detected with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit.ResultsDelta-hemolysin (Hld) was identified as a major loaded factor in S. aureus MVs. Further study showed that Hld could promote the production of staphylococcal MVs with smaller sizes. Loaded Hld affected the diversity of loaded proteins in MVs of S. aureus RN4220. Hld resulted in decreased protein diversity in MVs of S. aureus. Site-mutation (RN4220-Δhld) and agrA deletion (RN4220-ΔagrA) mutants produced MVs (ΔhldMVs and ΔagrAMVs) with a greater number of bacterial proteins than those derived from wild-type RN4220 (wtMVs). Moreover, Hld contributed to the hemolytic activity of wtMVs. Hld-loaded wtMVs were cytotoxic to macrophage RAW264.7 cells and could stimulate the production of inflammatory factor IL-6 in vivo.ConclusionThis study presented that Hld was a major loaded factor in S. aureus MVs, and the loaded Hld played vital roles in the MV-property modification

Several qq-series identities from the Euler expansions of (a;q)∞(a;q)_{\infty } and 1(a;q)∞\frac{1}{(a;q)_{\infty }}

summary:In this paper, we first give several operator identities which extend the results of Chen and Liu, then make use of them to two $q$-series identities obtained by the Euler expansions of $(a;q)_{\infty }$ and $\frac{1}{(a;q)_{\infty }}$. Several $q$-series identities are obtained involving a $q$-series identity in Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook

Notes on Some Identities Related to the Partial Bell Polynomials

[[abstract]]The purpose of this paper is to establish several identities involving the partial Bell polynomials by using the generating function. These results generalize some identities by Yang in "Discrete Math., 308(2008)" and Abbas and Bouroubi in "Discrete Math., 293(2005)". Some applications are given

State-Feedback H

This paper discusses the linear parameter varying (LPV) gain scheduling control problem based on the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy linearization approach. Firstly, the affine nonlinear parameter varying (ANPV) description of a class of nonlinear dynamic processes is defined; that is, at any scheduling parameter, the corresponding system is affine nonlinear as usual. For such a class of ANPV systems, a kind of developed T-S fuzzy modeling procedure is proposed to deal with the nonlinearity, instead of the traditional Jacobian linearization approach. More concretely, the evaluation system for the approximation ability of the novelly developed T-S fuzzy modeling procedure is established. Consequently, the LPV T-S fuzzy system is obtained which can approximate the ANPV system with required accuracy. Secondly, the notion of piecewise parameter-dependent Lyapunov function is introduced, and then the stabilization problem and the state-feedback H∞ control problem of the LPV T-S fuzzy system are studied. The sufficient conditions are given in linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) form. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the availability of the above approaches. The simulation results show the high approximation accuracy of the LPV T-S fuzzy system to the ANPV system and the effectiveness of the LPV T-S fuzzy gain scheduling control