40 research outputs found

    The mHz quasi-regular modulations of 4U 1630--47 during its 1998 outburst

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    We present the results of a detailed timing and spectral analysis of the quasi-regular modulation (QRM) phenomenon in the black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630--47 during its 1998 outburst observed by Rossi X-ray Timing Explore (RXTE). We find that the ∌\sim 50-110 mHz QRM is flux dependent, and the QRM is detected with simultaneous low frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs). According to the behavior of the power density spectrum, we divide the observations into four groups. In the first group, namely behavior A, LFQPOs are detected, but no mHz QRM. The second group, namely behavior B, a QRM with frequency above ∌\sim 88 mHz is detected and the ∌\sim 5 Hz and ∌\sim 7 Hz LFQPOs are almost overlapping. In the third group, namely behavior C, the QRM frequency below ∌\sim 88 mHz is detected and the LFQPOs are significantly separated. In the forth group, namely behavior D, neither QRM nor LFQPOs are detected. We study the energy-dependence of the fractional rms, centroid frequency, and phase-lag of QRM and LFQPOs for behavior B and C. We then study the evolution of QRM and find that the frequency of QRM increases with hardness, while its rms decreases with hardness. We also analyze the spectra of each observation, and find that the QRM rms of behavior B has a positive correlation with Fpowerlaw\rm F_{\rm powerlaw} / Ftotal\rm F_{\rm total}. Finally, we give our understanding for this mHz QRM phenomena.Comment: 14pages, 15 figure

    In-orbit background simulation of a type-B CATCH satellite

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    The Chasing All Transients Constellation Hunters (CATCH) space mission plans to launch three types of micro-satellites (A, B, and C). The type-B CATCH satellites are dedicated to locating transients and detecting their time-dependent energy spectra. A type-B satellite is equipped with lightweight Wolter-I X-ray optics and an array of position-sensitive multi-pixel Silicon Drift Detectors. To optimize the scientific payloads for operating properly in orbit and performing the observations with high sensitivities, this work performs an in-orbit background simulation of a type-B CATCH satellite using the Geant4 toolkit. It shows that the persistent background is dominated by the cosmic X-ray diffuse background and the cosmic-ray protons. The dynamic background is also estimated considering trapped charged particles in the radiation belts and low-energy charged particles near the geomagnetic equator, which is dominated by the incident electrons outside the aperture. The simulated persistent background within the focal spot is used to estimate the observation sensitivity, i.e. 4.22×\times10−13^{-13} erg cm−2^{-2} s−1^{-1} with an exposure of 104^{4} s and a Crab-like source spectrum, which can be utilized further to optimize the shielding design. The simulated in-orbit background also suggests that the magnetic diverter just underneath the optics may be unnecessary in this kind of micro-satellites, because the dynamic background induced by charged particles outside the aperture is around 3 orders of magnitude larger than that inside the aperture.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom

    The invasion of tobacco mosaic virus RNA induces endoplasmic reticulum stress-related autophagy in HeLa cells

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    The ability of human cells to defend against viruses originating from distant species has long been ignored. Owing to the pressure of natural evolution and human exploration, some of these viruses may be able to invade human beings. If their ‘fresh’ host had no defences, the viruses could cause a serious pandemic, as seen with HIV, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian influenza virus that originated from chimpanzees, the common palm civet and birds, respectively. It is unknown whether the human immune system could tolerate invasion with a plant virus. To model such an alien virus invasion, we chose TMV (tobacco mosaic virus) and used human epithelial carcinoma cells (HeLa cells) as its ‘fresh’ host. We established a reliable system for transfecting TMV-RNA into HeLa cells and found that TMV-RNA triggered autophagy in HeLa cells as shown by the appearance of autophagic vacuoles, the conversion of LC3-I (light chain protein 3-I) to LC3-II, the up-regulated expression of Beclin1 and the accumulation of TMV protein on autophagosomal membranes. We observed suspected TMV virions in HeLa cells by TEM (transmission electron microscopy). Furthermore, we found that TMV-RNA was translated into CP (coat protein) in the ER (endoplasmic reticulum) and that TMV-positive RNA translocated from the cytoplasm to the nucleolus. Finally, we detected greatly increased expression of GRP78 (78 kDa glucose-regulated protein), a typical marker of ERS (ER stress) and found that the formation of autophagosomes was closely related to the expanded ER membrane. Taken together, our data indicate that HeLa cells used ERS and ERS-related autophagy to defend against TMV-RNA

    Optogenetische Methoden zur Regulierung des Wassertransports und zur Reinigung von Proteinen

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    Water transport through the water channels, aquaporins (AQPs), is involved in epithelial fluid secretion and absorption, cell migration, brain edema, adipocyte metabolism, and other physiological or pathological functions. Modulation of AQP function has therapeutic potential in edema, cancer, obesity, brain injury, glaucoma, etc. The function of AQPs is in response to the osmotic gradient that is formed by the concentration differences of ions or small molecules. In terms of brain edema, it is a pathophysiological condition, resulting from dysfunction of the plasma membrane that causes a disorder of intracellular ion homeostasis and thus increases intracellular fluid content. Optogenetics can be used to regulate ion transport easily by light with temporal and spatial precision. Therefore, if we control the cell ion influx, boosting the water transport through AQPs, this will help to investigate the pathological mechanisms in e.g. brain edema. To this end, I investigated the possibility for optogenetic manipulating water transport in Xenopus oocytes. The main ions in Xenopus oocyte cytoplasm are ~10 mM Na+, ~50 mM Cl- and ~100 mM K+, similar to the mammalian cell physiological condition. Three light-gated channels, ChR2-XXM 2.0 (light-gated cation channel), GtACR1 (light-gated anion channel) and SthK-bPAC (light-gated potassium channel), were used in my study to regulate ion transport by light and thus manipulate the osmotic gradient and water transport. To increase water flow, I also used coexpression of AQP1. When expressing ChR2-XXM 2.0 and GtACR1 together, mainly Na+ influx was triggered by ChR2-XXM2.0 under blue light illumination, which then made the membrane potential more positive and facilitated Cl- influx by GtACR1. Due to this inward movement of Na+ and Cl-, the osmotic gradient was formed to trigger water influx through AQP1. Large amounts of water uptake can speedily increase the oocyte volume until membrane rupture. Next, when co-expressing GtACR1 and SthK-bPAC, water efflux will be triggered with blue light because of the light-gated KCl efflux and then oocyte shrinking could be observed. I also developed an optogenetic protein purification method based on a light-induced protein interactive system. Currently, the most common protein purification method is based on affinity chromatography, which requires different chromatography columns and harsh conditions, such as acidic pH 4.5 - 6 and/or adding imidazole or high salt concentration, to elute and collect the purified proteins. The change in conditions could influence the activity of target proteins. So, an easy and flexible protein purification method based on the photo-induced protein interactive system iLID was designed, which regulates protein binding with light in mild conditions and does not require a change of solution composition. For expression in E. coli, the blue light-sensitive part of iLID, the LOV2 domain, was fused with a membrane anchor and expressed in the plasma membrane, and the other binding partner, SspB, was fused with the protein of interest (POI), expressed in the cytosol. The plasma membrane fraction and the soluble cytosolic fraction of E. coli can be easily separated by centrifugation. The SspB-POI can be then captured to the membrane fraction by light stimulation and released to clean buffer in the dark after washing. This method does not require any specific column and functions in mild conditions, which are very flexible at scale and will facilitate extensive protein engineering and purification of proteins, sensitive to changed buffer conditions.Der Wassertransport durch die WasserkanĂ€le, Aquaporine (AQPs), ist unter anderem an der Sekretion und Absorption der EpithelflĂŒssigkeit, der Zellmigration, dem Hirnödem und dem Adipozytenstoffwechsel beteiligt. Die Modulation der AQP-Funktion hat therapeutisches Potenzial bei Ödemen, Krebs, Fettleibigkeit, Hirnverletzungen, Glaukom usw. Die Funktion von AQPs reagiert auf den osmotischen Gradienten, der durch Konzentrationsunterschiede von Ionen oder kleinen MolekĂŒlen gebildet wird. In Bezug auf das Hirnödemhandelt es sich um einen pathophysiologischen Zustand, der aus einer Funktionsstörung der Plasmamembran resultiert und eine Störung der intrazellulĂ€ren Ionenhomöostase verursacht und somit den intrazellulĂ€ren Wassergehalt erhöht. Die Optogenetik kann verwendet werden, um den Ionentransport durch Licht mit zeitlicher und rĂ€umlicher PrĂ€zision leicht zu regulieren. Wenn wir also den Ioneneinstrom in die Zelle erhöhen, wird dies den Wasserimport durch AQPs fördern. ..

    Data anomaly detection for structural health monitoring by multi-view representation based on local binary patterns

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    Funding Information: The authors greatly appreciate the financial support from the Academy of Finland (Decision number: 339493). The authors also appreciate the kind support from Prof. Hui Li from Lab of Intelligent Civil Infrastructure (LiCi) for sharing the dataset and Prof. Yuequan Bao for the valuable comments. We also acknowledge the computational resources provided by the Aalto Science-IT project. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems provide opportunities to understand the structural behaviors remotely in real-time. However, anomalous measurement data are frequently collected from structures, which greatly affect the results of further analyses. Hence, detecting anomalous data is crucial for SHM systems. In this article, we present a simple yet efficient approach that incorporates complementary information obtained from multi-view local binary patterns (LBP) and random forests (RF) to distinguish data anomalies. Acceleration data are first converted into gray-scale image data. The LBP texture features are extracted in three different views from the converted images, which are further aggregated as the anomaly representation for the final RF prediction. Consequently, multiple types of data anomalies can be accurately identified. Extensive experiments validated on an acceleration dataset acquired on a long-span cable-stayed bridge highlight the advantages of the proposed method. State-of-the-art performances are achieved by the proposed method, demonstrating its effectiveness and generalization ability.Peer reviewe

    mem-iLID, a fast and economic protein purification method

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    Protein purification is the vital basis to study the function, structure and interaction of proteins. Widely used methods are affinity chromatography-based purifications, which require different chromatography columns and harsh conditions, such as acidic pH and/or adding imidazole or high salt concentration, to elute and collect the purified proteins. Here we established an easy and fast purification method for soluble proteins under mild conditions, based on the light-induced protein dimerization system improved light-induced dimer (iLID), which regulates protein binding and release with light. We utilize the biological membrane, which can be easily separated by centrifugation, as the port to anchor the target proteins. In Xenopus laevis oocyte and Escherichia coli, the blue light-sensitive part of iLID, AsLOV2-SsrA, was targeted to the plasma membrane by different membrane anchors. The other part of iLID, SspB, was fused with the protein of interest (POI) and expressed in the cytosol. The SspB-POI can be captured to the membrane fraction through light-induced binding to AsLOV2-SsrA and then released purely to fresh buffer in the dark after simple centrifugation and washing. This method, named mem-iLID, is very flexible in scale and economic. We demonstrate the quickly obtained yield of two pure and fully functional enzymes: a DNA polymerase and a light-activated adenylyl cyclase. Furthermore, we also designed a new SspB mutant for better dissociation and less interference with the POI, which could potentially facilitate other optogenetic manipulations of protein–protein interaction

    Ä°nek sĂŒtĂŒ proteini allerjisinden kaynaklanan hemorajik gastrit

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    Ä°nek s&uuml;t&uuml; proteini allerjisi bebeklik d&ouml;neminde sıklıkla g&ouml;r&uuml;l&uuml;r. Ä°nek s&uuml;t&uuml; proteini allerjisinde y&uuml;zeysel gastritten hemorajik gastrite kadar &ccedil;ok farklı histopatolojik tutulum olabilir. Ä°nek s&uuml;t&uuml; allerjili &ccedil;ocuklarda, inat&ccedil;ı kusma ve hematemez durumunda hemorajik gastritten Ɵ&uuml;phelenilmelidir. Endoskopi ve biyopsi tanıda &ouml;nemlidir. Anahtar Kelimeler: &nbsp; &nbsp; Allerji, hemoraji, gastrit Cow&rsquo;s milk protein allergy is frequently seen in infancy. Its findings can be diverse, including different histopathological involvement ranging from a superficial to hemorrhagic gastritis. Children presenting with resistant emesis, hematemesis and hemorrhagic gastritis should be investigated for cow&rsquo;s milk allergy. Endoscopy and biopsy are important in the diagnosis. Key words &nbsp; &nbsp; : Allergy, hemorrhagic, gastritis</p

    Effects of Urban Vibrancy on an Urban Eco-Environment: Case Study on Wuhan City

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    In the context of rapid urbanisation and an emerging need for a healthy urban environment, revitalising urban spaces and its effects on the urban eco-environment in Chinese cities have attracted widespread attention. This study assessed urban vibrancy from the dimensions of density, accessibility, liveability, diversity, and human activity, with various indicators using an adjusted spatial TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution) method. The study also explored the effects of urban vibrancy on the urban eco-environment by interpreting PM 2.5 and land surface temperature using &ldquo;big&rdquo; and &ldquo;dynamic&rdquo; data, such as those from mobile and social network data. Thereafter, spatial modelling was performed to investigate the influence of urban vibrancy on air pollution and temperature with inverted and extracted remote sensing data. This process identified spatial heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation. The majority of the dimensions, such as density, accessibility, liveability, and diversity, are negatively correlated with PM 2.5, thereby indicating that the advancement of urban vibrancy in these dimensions potentially improves air quality. Conversely, improved accessibility increases the surface temperature in most of the districts, and large-scale infrastructure construction generally contributes to the increase. Diversity and human activity appear to have a cooling effect. In the future, applying spatial heterogeneity is advised to assess urban vibrancy and its effect on the urban eco-environment, to provide valuable references for spatial urban planning, improve public health and human wellbeing, and ensure sustainable urban development
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