Evidence of Mineral Dust Altering Cloud Microphysics and Precipitation

Multi-platform and multi-sensor observations are employed to investigate the impact of mineral dust on cloud microphysical and precipitation processes in mesoscale convective systems. It is clearly evident that for a given convection strength,small hydrometeors were more prevalent in the stratiform rain regions with dust than in those regions that were dust free. Evidence of abundant cloud ice particles in the dust sector, particularly at altitudes where heterogeneous nucleation process of mineral dust prevails, further supports the observed changes of precipitation. The consequences of the microphysical effects of the dust aerosols were to shift the precipitation size spectrum from heavy precipitation to light precipitation and ultimately suppressing precipitation

LC/MS Guided Isolation of Alkaloids from Lotus Leaves by pH-Zone-Refining Counter-Current Chromatography

The traditional methods used in natural product separation primarily target the major components and the minor components may thus be lost during the separation procedure. Consequently, it’s necessary to develop efficient methods for the preparative separation and purification of relatively minor bioactive components. In this paper, a LC/MS method was applied to guide the separation of crude extract of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) leaves whereby a minor component was identified in the LC/MS analysis. Afterwards, an optimized pH-zone-refining CCC method was performed to isolate this product, identified as N-demethylarmepavine. The separation procedure was carried out with a biphasic solvent system composed of hexane-ethyl acetate-methyl alcohol-water (1:6:1:6, v/v) with triethylamine (10 mM) added to the upper organic phase as a retainer and hydrochloric acid (5 mM) to the aqueous mobile phase eluent. Two structurally similar compounds – nuciferine and roemerine – were also obtained from the crude lotus leaves extract. In total 500 mg of crude extract furnished 7.4 mg of N-demethylarmepavine, 45.3 mg of nuciferine and 26.6 mg of roemerine with purities of 90%, 92% and 96%, respectively. Their structures were further identified by HPLC/ESI-MSn, FTICR/MS and the comparison with reference compounds

Otopetrin 1 protects mice from obesity-associated metabolic dysfunction through attenuating adipose tissue inflammation.

Chronic low-grade inflammation is emerging as a pathogenic link between obesity and metabolic disease. Persistent immune activation in white adipose tissue (WAT) impairs insulin sensitivity and systemic metabolism, in part, through the actions of proinflammatory cytokines. Whether obesity engages an adaptive mechanism to counteract chronic inflammation in adipose tissues has not been elucidated. Here we identified otopetrin 1 (Otop1) as a component of a counterinflammatory pathway that is induced in WAT during obesity. Otop1 expression is markedly increased in obese mouse WAT and is stimulated by tumor necrosis factor-α in cultured adipocytes. Otop1 mutant mice respond to high-fat diet with pronounced insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis, accompanied by augmented adipose tissue inflammation. Otop1 attenuates interferon-γ (IFN-γ) signaling in adipocytes through selective downregulation of the transcription factor STAT1. Using a tagged vector, we found that Otop1 physically interacts with endogenous STAT1. Thus, Otop1 defines a unique target of cytokine signaling that attenuates obesity-induced adipose tissue inflammation and plays an adaptive role in maintaining metabolic homeostasis in obesity

Kernel Adaptive Filtering for Nonlinearity-Tolerant Optical Direct Detection Systems

Kernel adaptive filtering (KAF) is proposed for nonlinearity-tolerant optical direct detection. For 7x128Gbit/s PAM4 transmission over 33.6km 7-core-fiber, KAF only needs 10 equalizer taps to reach KP4-FEC limit ([email protected]), whereas decision-feedback-equalizer needs 43 equalizer taps to reach HD-FEC limit ([email protected]).Comment: 3 pages, 44th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2018), Rome, Italy, 201

A data analysis method for isochronous mass spectrometry using two time-of-flight detectors at CSRe

The concept of isochronous mass spectrometry (IMS) applying two time-of-flight (TOF) detectors originated many years ago at GSI. However, the corresponding method for data analysis has never been discussed in detail. Recently, two TOF detectors have been installed at CSRe and the new working mode of the ring is under test. In this paper, a data analysis method for this mode is introduced and tested with a series of simulations. The results show that the new IMS method can significantly improve mass resolving power via the additional velocity information of stored ions. This improvement is especially important for nuclides with Lorentz factor $\gamma$-value far away from the transition point $\gamma _t$ of the storage ring CSRe.Comment: published in Chinese Physics C Vol. 39, No. 10 (2015) 10620

Benzotriazolium Ionic Liquid Immobilized on Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica as an Effective Reusable Catalyst for Chemical Fixation of CO2 into Cyclic Carbonates

A type of dichloro(dimethoxyethane)nickel anionic benzotriazolium ionic liquid-functionalized periodic mesoporous organosilicas were synthesized and tested as effective and practical heterogeneous catalysts in the cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxides. The catalyst PMO@ILC4H10O2NiCl3(1.0) showed brilliant catalytic activity for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates with high yields and selectivities under solvent- and cocatalyst-free conditions. We also found that the catalytic activity could be significantly influenced by the hydroxyl groups sites of periodic mesoporous organosilica and the active sites (hydroxyl groups/ dichloro(dimethoxyethane)nickel anion) of the benzotriazolium-cation ionic liquid, probably due to an intensification of intramolecular synergistic effect. The catalytic process displayed ease of recovery, excellent stability and recyclability for at least five runs without significant loss of its catalytic activity. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Protein tyrosine kinase 6 is associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma poor prognosis and metastasis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of protein tyrosine kinase 6 (PTK6) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) samples, and to identify whether PTK6 can serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of NPC. METHODS: We used quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis to detect mRNA and protein expression of PTK6 in NPC cell lines and immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial cell lines. 31 NPC and 16 non-tumorous nasopharyngeal mucosa biopsies were collected to detect the difference in the expression of mRNA level of PTK6 by quantitative RT-PCR. We also collected 178 NPC and 10 normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cases with clinical follow-up data to investigate the expression of PTK6 by immunohistochemistry staining (IHC). PTK6 overexpression on cell growth and colony formation ability were measured by the method of cell proliferation assay and colony formation assay. RESULTS: The expression of PTK6 was higher in most of NPC cell lines at both mRNA and protein levels than in immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial cell lines (NPECs) induced by Bmi-1 (Bmi-1/NPEC1, and Bmi-1/NPEC2). The mRNA level of PTK6 was high in NPC biopsies compared to non-tumorous nasopharyngeal mucosa biopsies. IHC results showed the expression of PTK6 was significantly correlated to tumor size (P<0.001), clinical stage (P<0.001), and metastasis (P=0.016). The patients with high-expression of PTK6 had a significantly poor prognosis compared to those of low-expression (47.8% versus 80.0%, P<0.001), especially in the patients at the advanced stages (42.2% versus 79.1%, P<0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that the level of PTK6 expression was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival of patients with NPC (P <0.001). Overexpression of PTK6 in HNE1 cells enhanced the ability of cell proliferation and colony formation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that high-expression of PTK6 is an independent factor for NPC patients and it might serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for patients with NPC