The ciliary GTPase Arl13b regulates cell migration and cell cycle progression

Acknowledgments We acknowledge Prof. Tamara Caspary from Emory University for kindly providing the cell lines, Linda Duncan from the University of Aberdeen Ian Fraser Cytometry Center for help with flow cytometry. MP was funded by the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance (SULSA) and the University of Aberdeen. Funding This work was supported by grants from British Council China (Sino-UK higher Education for PhD studies) to YD and CM, The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (70190) and The NHS Grampian Endowment Funds (14/09) to BL, and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31528011) to BL and YD.Peer reviewedPostprin

Programa computacional para geração de séries sintéticas de precipitação

Desenvolveu-se um programa computacional que permite a aplicação da metodologia para geração de séries sintéticas de precipitação desenvolvida por OLIVEIRA (2003). O desenvolvimento do aplicativo foi viabilizado pela elaboração de um algoritmo computacional em ambiente de programação “Borland Delphi 6.0”. Os dados de entrada necessários são provenientes de banco de dados no formato padronizado pela Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA) com registros pluviométricos diários provenientes de estações meteorológicas. A partir dessas informações, o programa computacional é capaz de gerar séries sintéticas de precipitação diária contendo o total precipitado em milímetros, a duração do evento em horas, o tempo padronizado de ocorrência da intensidade máxima instantânea e a intensidade máxima instantânea padronizada. A série sintética gerada é armazenada em arquivos no formato “Texto” que podem ser acessados posteriormente por outros aplicativos e/ou planilhas eletrônicas. Além dos arquivos, são apresentadas várias informações na forma de gráficos e quadros, facilitando a avaliação do desempenho da metodologia desenvolvida.A computational model was developed to generate synthetic series of rainfall using the method developed by OLIVEIRA (2003). The software was developed in Borland Delphi 6.0 environment. The input data come from the daily precipitation data in the standardized format of the National Water Agency (ANA). The software is capable to generate synthetic series of daily rainfall containing the amount and the duration of the rainfall, and the standardized event time of the maximum instantaneous intensity. The generated synthetic series are stored in text-formatted files that may be accessed by others softwares and/or electronic datasheets. There were also presented graphs and tables format, to easily evaluate the performance of the method developed

Control of cortex development by ULK4, a rare risk gene for mental disorders including schizophrenia

This work was supported by the grants from British Council China (Sino-UK higher Education for PhD studies) to Y.D. and C.D.M., and also from the following funding resources: Tenovus Scotland (G12/05, B.L.), The Carnegie Trust (RG13060-10, B.L.) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (91232724, Y.D.; 31100788, L.Z.; 81200933, N.N.S.; 31528011, B.L. and Y.D.).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Roles for IFT172 and primary cilia in cell migration, cell division and neocortex development

This work is supported by the grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (31528011, B.L.; 81571332, 91232724, Y.D.), Key Research and Development Program from Hunan Province (2018DK2011), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2018SHZDZX01) and ZJLab. We are grateful to Prof. Tamara Caspary for providing the WIM and WT cells. M.P. was funded by a Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) studentship to C.M. and a Scholarship from Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). L. H. is also a Scholarship awardee of CSC.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Upcycling Single-Use Polyethylene into High-Quality Liquid Products

Our civilization relies on synthetic polymers for all aspects of modern life; yet, inefficient recycling and extremely slow environmental degradation of plastics are causing increasing concern about their widespread use. After a single use, many of these materials are currently treated as waste, underutilizing their inherent chemical and energy value. In this study, energy-rich polyethylene (PE) macromolecules are catalytically transformed into value-added products by hydrogenolysis using well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles (NPs) supported on SrTiO3 perovskite nanocuboids by atomic layer deposition. Pt/SrTiO3 completely converts PE (Mn = 8000− 158,000 Da) or a single-use plastic bag (Mn = 31,000 Da) into high-quality liquid products, such as lubricants and waxes, characterized by a narrow distribution of oligomeric chains, at 170 psi H2 and 300 °C under solvent-free conditions for reaction durations up to 96 h. The binding of PE onto the catalyst surface contributes to the number averaged molecular weight (Mn) and the narrow polydispersity (Đ) of the final liquid product. Solidstate nuclear magnetic resonance of 13C-enriched PE adsorption studies and density functional theory computations suggest that PE adsorption is more favorable on Pt sites than that on the SrTiO3 support. Smaller Pt NPs with higher concentrations of undercoordinated Pt sites over-hydrogenolyzed PE to undesired light hydrocarbons

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Loaded with Surfactant: Low Temperature Magic Angle Spinning 13C and 29Si NMR Enhanced by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization

We show that dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) can be used to enhance NMR signals of13C and 29Si nuclei located in mesoporous organic/inorganic hybrid materials, at several hundreds of nanometers from stable radicals (TOTAPOL) trapped in the surrounding frozen disordered water. The approach is demonstrated using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN), functionalized with 3-(N-phenylureido)propyl (PUP) groups, filled with the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The DNP-enhanced proton magnetization is transported into the mesopores via 1H–1H spin diffusion and transferred to rare spins by cross-polarization, yielding signal enhancements εon/off of around 8. When the CTAB molecules are extracted, so that the radicals can enter the mesopores, the enhancements increase to εon/off ≈ 30 for both nuclei. A quantitative analysis of the signal enhancements in MSN with and without surfactant is based on a one-dimensional proton spin diffusion model. The effect of solvent deuteration is also investigated