A Phytophthora sojae effector suppresses endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated immunity by stabilizing plant Binding immunoglobulin Proteins

Phytophthora pathogens secrete an array of specific effector proteins to manipulate host innate immunity to promote pathogen colonization. However, little is known about the host targets of effectors and the specific mechanisms by which effectors increase susceptibility. Here we report that the soybean pathogen Phytophthora sojae uses an essential effector PsAvh262 to stabilize endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-luminal binding immunoglobulin proteins (BiPs), which act as negative regulators of plant resistance to Phytophthora. By stabilizing BiPs, PsAvh262 suppresses ER stress-triggered cell death and facilitates Phytophthora infection. The direct targeting of ER stress regulators may represent a common mechanism of host manipulation by microbes.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by Nature Publishing Group. The published article can be found at: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/index.htm

Evaluation of the Segmental Casting Length of Strongly Restrained Super-Long Mass Concrete Based on Crack Resistance

The cracking of ultra-long and large concrete structures with strong constraints is a key issue under the action of shrinkage and hydration heat. The length of section pouring during construction is one of the main parameters to control the cracking of concrete. In this paper, the shrinkage test of concrete specimens under the condition of coculture is carried out under the background of the landing gear slide test platform of large aircraft. The measured early shrinkage curve of the expanded concrete is obtained, and the finite element model is established. The effects of the casting thickness, mould temperature, and limited expansion rate on the stress and cracking of super-long and large concrete are studied. The results show that factors such as the casting thickness, mould temperature, and limited expansion rate have significant effects on the limited length of the section after pouring. When the casting thickness is increased by 200%, the limit of the section length is reduced by 42%. When the mould temperature increases by 66.7%, the section length limit decreases by 28.2%, while the value increases by 24.2%, with an increasing expansion rate of 75%. The relationship between the three parameters and the piecewise pouring length is approximately linear. The exact calculation of the section length limit of strongly constrained ultra-long mass concrete under different pouring thicknesses, mould temperatures, and limited expansion rates is derived, and a simplified calculation formula is also proposed through data regression analysis. The errors between them are less than 1.7%, which provides a basis for calculating the section length of strongly constrained ultra-long mass concrete construction

Investigation on AgGaSe

The electronic structure of AgGaSe2 has been investigated as a photocatalyst candidate by first-principles calculation. Our results demonstrate that the band edge positions of bulk AgGaSe2 straddle the water redox potentials. From the band offset calculation, we find that Al-doping of AgGaSe2 shifts the conduction band minimum upwards, whereas Cu-doping of AgGaSe2 shifts the valence band maximum upwards. By (Ag, Cu)(Ga, Al)Se2 alloying one can thereby tailor both the band edge positions and the band gap energy, and this effect provides an approach to optimize the band properties for overall water splitting. Moreover, AgGaSe2 forms a suitable junction with CuGaSe2 with a type-II band offset, which facilitates electron-hole separation. The AgGaSe2 and CuGaSe2 junction can be designed as a tandem photoelectrochemical device to improve the photocatalytic properties of the system

Contrasting characteristics of the surface energy balance between the urban and rural areas of Beijing

A direct comparison of urban and rural surface energy balances, as well as a variety of other variables including incoming shortwave/longwave radiation and aerosol optical depth, is conducted for the Beijing metropolitan area. The results indicate that, overall, the urban area receives a smaller amount of incoming shortwave radiation but a larger amount of incoming longwave radiation. However, comparisons in the aerosol optical depth and cloud fraction at the two locations suggest that neither aerosol optical depth nor cloud fraction alone can explain the difference in the incoming shortwave radiation. The urban-rural differences in the incoming longwave radiation are unlikely to be caused by the presence of more abundant greenhouse gases over the urban area, as suggested by some previous studies, given that water vapor is the most dominant greenhouse gas and precipitable water is found to be less in urban areas. The higher incoming longwave radiation observed over the urban area is mostly likely due to the higher temperatures of the ambient air. The urban area is also found to always produce higher sensible heat fluxes and lower latent heat fluxes in the growing season. Furthermore, the urban area is associated with a larger amount of available energy (the sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes) than the rural area, except in May and October when evapotranspiration in the rural area significantly exceeds that in the urban area. This study provides observational evidence of urban-rural contrasts in relevant energy-balance components that plausibly arise from urban-rural differences in atmospheric and land-surface conditions

Nanoscale Characterization of V-Defect in InGaN/GaN QWs LEDs Using Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy

The size of the V-defects in the GaN/InGaN-based quantum wells blue light-emitting diode (LED) was intentionally modified from 50 nm to 300 nm. High resolution photoluminescence and electroluminescence of a single large V-defect were investigated by near-field scanning optical microscopy. The current distribution along the {10-11} facets of the large defect was measured by conductive atomic force microscopy. Nearly 20 times the current injection and dominant emission from bottom quantum wells were found in the V-defect compared to its vicinity. Such enhanced current injection into the bottom part of quantum wells through V-defect results in higher light output power. Reduced external quantum efficiency droops were achieved due to more uniform carrier distribution. The un-encapsulated fabricated chip shows light output power of 172.5 mW and 201.7 mW at 400 mA, and external quantum efficiency drop of 22.3% and 15.4% for the sample without and with large V-defects, respectively. Modified V-defects provide a simple and effective approach to suppress the efficiency droop problem that occurs at high current injection, while improving overall quantum efficiency

Metamaterial study of quasi-three-dimensional bowtie nanoantennas at visible wavelengths

In this paper, a novel array of quasi-three-dimensional (quasi-3D) bowtie nanoantennas has been investigated numerically and experimentally. A low-cost and facile method has been designed and implemented to fabricate the quasi-3D bowtie nanoantennas. The fabrication processes containing laser patterning and wet etching have demonstrated the advantages of easily tuning the periodic and diameter of microhole arrays. According to the simulated results, the electric and magnetic resonances at visible wavelengths are obtained in the tips and contours of the metamaterials made of the quasi-3D bowtie nanoantennas, respectively. The effects of the size and gap of quasi-3D bowtie nanoantennas on the array performance have also been studied. The underlying mechanism suggests that different electric and magnetic resonant ranges of the metamaterials could contribute to the broad resonant range for the monolithic metamaterials

Efficiency droop suppression of distance-engineered surface plasmon-coupled photoluminescence in GaN-based quantum well LEDs

Ag coated microgroove with extreme large aspect-ratio of 500:1 was fabricated on p-GaN capping layer to investigate the coupling behavior between quantum wells and surface plasmon in highly spatial resolution. Significant photoluminescence enhancement was observed when the distance between Ag film and QWs was reduced from 220 nm to about 20 nm. A maximum enhancement ratio of 18-fold was achieved at the groove bottom where the surface plasmonic coupling was considered the strongest. Such enhancement ratio was found highly affected by the excitation power density. It also shows high correlation to the internal quantum efficiency as a function of coupling effect and a maximum Purcell Factor of 1.75 was estimated at maximum coupling effect, which matches number calculated independently from the time-resolved photoluminescence measurement. With such Purcell Factor, the efficiency was greatly enhanced and the droop was significantly suppressed

Use of the COOH Portion of the Nucleocapsid Protein in an Antigen-Capturing Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Specific and Sensitive Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

Antibody detection with a recombinant COOH portion of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus nucleocapsid (N) protein, N13 (amino acids 221 to 422), was demonstrated to be more specific and sensitive than that with the full-length N protein, and an N13-based antigen-capturing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay providing a convenient and specific test for serodiagnosis and epidemiological study of SARS was developed