Isolation and Characterization of P450 Gene from the Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes formosanus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

A cytochrome P450 gene belonging to family9 was isolated from the midgut transcriptome of the termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, for screening enzymes related to biomass degeneration. Some studies show that insect P450 enzymes have ligninase activities for catalyzing lignin degradation. We employed the RACE method to clone this cytochrome P450 gene, named CYP9AX1 (GenBank accession No.JN969113). To the best of our knowledge, CYP9AX1 is the first member of the CYP9 family cloned from this termite. The full-length CYP9AX1 cDNA was 2242 bp long and included a 1599bp open-reading-frame (ORF), a 61-bp 5’-untranslated region (UTR) and a 592-bp 3’-UTR (excluding the poly-A tail). The CYP9AX1 protein deduced from the ORF contains 532 amino acids with a predicted signal peptide composed of 20 amino acid at its N-terminal and the classic heme-binding domain FXXGXXXCXG (residues 468-477). At position 473, residue Arg (R) changes to Gln (Q), this suggests that CYP9AX1 is a new type of CYP subfamily 9A. The phylogenetic tree showed that C. formosanus has high genetic relationship with Blattella germanica and Diploptera punctata. Quantitative RT-PCR assays demonstrated that CYP9AX1 was expressed most abundantly in malpighian tubules, and slightly lower in the head, foregut, midgut and hindgut. The results suggested that CYP9AX1 may be involved in enzymatic detoxification systems of the delignification process in C. formosanus

An indirect space-vector modulated three-phase AC-DC matrix converter for hybrid electric vehicles

This paper presents a bi-directional AC-DC matrix converter for the power supply systems of hybrid electric vehicles. Compared to conventional PWM rectifier and associated DC-DC converter, large DC bus capacitor banks are eliminated. The converter converts three-phase AC power into the desired DC output with higher energy density via a single power stage. A closed-loop control strategy based on indirect space vector modulation is proposed and the validity has been verified. The strategy ensures that the output voltage can be regulated tightly against different loads and wide input variation and high-quality input current can be achieved

Virosome, a hybrid vehicle for efficient and safe drug delivery and its emerging application in cancer treatment

A virosome is an innovative hybrid drug delivery system with advantages of both viral and non-viral vectors. Studies have shown that a virosome can carry various biologically active molecules, such as nucleic acids, peptides, proteins and small organic molecules. Targeted drug delivery using virosome-based systems can be achieved through surface modifications of virosomes. A number of virosome-based prophylactic and therapeutic products with high safety profiles are currently available in the market. Cancer treatment is a big battlefield for virosome-based drug delivery systems. This review provides an overview of the general concept, preparation procedures, working mechanisms, preclinical studies and clinical applications of virosomes in cancer treatment

Pleistocene glacial cycle effects on the phylogeography of the Chinese endemic bat species, Myotis davidii

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Global climatic oscillations, glaciation cycles and the unique geographic topology of China have profoundly influenced species population distributions. In most species, contemporary distributions of populations cannot be fully understood, except in a historical context. Complex patterns of Pleistocene glaciations, as well as other physiographic changes have influenced the distribution of bat species in China. Until this study, there had been no phylogeographical research on <it>Myotis davidii</it>, an endemic Chinese bat. We used a combination of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers to investigate genetic diversity, population structure, and the demographic history of <it>M. davidii</it>. In particular, we compared patterns of genetic variation to glacial oscillations, topography, and environmental variation during the Pleistocene in an effort to explain current distributions in light of these historical processes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>M. davidii </it>comprises three lineages (MEP, SWP and SH) based on the results of molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) and phylogenetic analyses. The results of a STRUCTURE analysis reveal multi-hierarchical population structure in <it>M. davidii</it>. Nuclear and mitochondrial genetic markers reveal different levels of gene flow among populations. In the case of mtDNA, populations adhere to an isolation-by-distance model, whereas the individual assignment test reveals considerable gene flow between populations. MDIV analysis indicate that the split of the MEP and SWP/SH lineages, and from the SWP and SH lineages were at 201 ka BP and 158 ka BP, respectively. The results of a mismatch distribution analysis and neutrality tests indicate a population expansion event at 79.17 ka BP and 69.12 ka BP in MEP and SWP, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The complex demographic history, discontinuous extant distribution of haplotypes, and multiple-hierarchy population structure of <it>M. davidii </it>appear associated with climatic oscillations, topography and eco-environmental variation of China. Additionally, the three regions are genetically differentiated from one another in the entire sample set. The degree of genetic differentiation, based on the analysis of mtDNA and nDNA, suggests a male-mediated gene flow among populations. Refuges were in the MEP, SH and the lower elevations of SWP regions. This study also provides insights for conservation management units (MEP, SWP and SH).</p

VLC-Assisted Safety Message Dissemination in Roadside Infrastructure-Less IoV Systems: Modeling and Analysis

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an emerging paradigm with significant potential to improve traffic efficiency and driving safety. Here, we focus on the design of a novel visible light communication (VLC)-assisted scheme to enable driving safety-related Internet of Vehicles (IoV) services that require ultrareliable and low-latency communications (URLLC). Specifically, the Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication mode is adopted to satisfy the ultralow latency requirement of URLLC in roadside infrastructure-less IoV systems. In the outdoor V2V- VLC scenarios, the quality of the received optical signal is degraded by path loss, atmospheric turbulence and additive noise. In addition, the short-packet feature of URLLC introduces inevitable data decoding errors and imperfect channel state information (CSI). With this background, we aim to investigate the reliability performance of URLLC in outdoor V2V- VLC systems, which is described by the average packet loss probability under given user-plane transmission latency. First, we consider the ideal case of a perfect CSI at the receiver, and derive an analytical expression of average packet loss probability. Further, a closed-form approximation is provided to simplify the numerical calculation. Next, we extend the theoretical analysis to a practical V2V- VLC system with imperfect CSI at the receiver. Through numerical results, we validate the accuracy of our designed theoretical framework and propose ideas to enable driving safety-related IoV services in outdoor V2V- VLC systems

IIS: Intelligent identification scheme of massive IoT devices

Device identification is of great importance in system management and network security. Especially, it is the priority in industrial internet of things (IIoT) scenario. Since there are massive devices producing various kinds of information in manufacturing process, the robustness, reliability, security and real-time control of the whole system is based on the identification of the massive IIoT devices. Previous IIoT device identification solutions are mostly based on a centralized architecture, which brings a lot of problems in scalability and security. In addition, most traditional identification systems can only identify inherent types of devices which is not suitable for the adaptive device management in IIoT. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a Intelligent Identification Scheme(IIS) of Massive IoT Devices, a completely distributed intelligent identification scheme of massive IIoT devices. The scheme changes the traditional centralized architecture and realizes more efficient clustering identification of massive IIoT devices. Moreover, IIS can identify more and more types of devices intelligently with the continuous learning ability since the identification model is constantly updated according to the ledger which is maintained by all gateways collaboratively. We also conduct experiments to evaluate the performance of IIS based on the data obtained from real IIoT devices, which proves that IIS is efficient in device identification and intelligent for the adaptive device management in IIoT

High-Salt Diet Has a Certain Impact on Protein Digestion and Gut Microbiota: A Sequencing and Proteome Combined Study

High-salt diet has been considered to cause health problems, but it is still less known how high-salt diet affects gut microbiota, protein digestion, and passage in the digestive tract. In this study, C57BL/6J mice were fed low- or high-salt diets (0.25 vs. 3.15% NaCl) for 8 weeks, and then gut contents and feces were collected. Fecal microbiota was identified by sequencing the V4 region of 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Proteins and digested products of duodenal, jejunal, cecal, and colonic contents were identified by LC-MS-MS. The results indicated that the high-salt diet increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, the abundances of genera Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcus (P &lt; 0.05), but decreased the abundance of Lactobacillus (P &lt; 0.05). LC-MS-MS revealed a dynamic change of proteins from the diet, host, and gut microbiota alongside the digestive tract. For dietary proteins, high-salt diet seemed not influence its protein digestion and absorption. For host proteins, 20 proteins of lower abundance were identified in the high-salt diet group in duodenal contents, which were involved in digestive enzymes and pancreatic secretion. However, no significant differentially expressed proteins were detected in jejunal, cecal, and colonic contents. For bacterial proteins, proteins secreted by gut microbiota were involved in energy metabolism, sodium transport, and protein folding. Five proteins (cytidylate kinase, trigger factor, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, transporter, and undecaprenyl-diphosphatase) had a higher abundance in the high-salt diet group than those in the low-salt group, while two proteins (acetylglutamate kinase and PBSX phage manganese-containing catalase) were over-expressed in the low-salt diet group than in the high-salt group. Consequently, high-salt diet may alter the composition of gut microbiota and has a certain impact on protein digestion

Interaction between electrical storm and left ventricular ejection fraction as predictors of mortality in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator: A Chinese cohort study

AimsTo determine the interaction of electrical storm (ES) and impaired left ventircular ejection fraction (LVEF) on the mortality risk of patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).Methods and resultsA total of 554 Chinese ICD recipients from 2010 to 2014 were retrospectively included and the mean follow-up was 58 months. The proportions of dilated cardiomyopathy and the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were 26.0% (144/554) and 5.6% (31/554), respectively. There were 8 cases with long QT syndrome, 6 with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and 2 with Brugada syndrome. Patients with prior MI accounted for 15.5% (86/554) and pre-implantation syncope accounted for 23.3% (129/554). A total of 199 (35.9%) patients had primary prevention indications for ICD therapy. Both ES and impaired LVEF (&lt;40%) were independent predictors for all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 2.40, 95% CI 1.57–3.68, P &lt; 0.001; HR 1.94, 95% CI 1.30–2.90, P = 0.001, respectively] and cardiovascular mortality (HR 4.63, 95% CI 2.68–7.98, P &lt; 0.001; HR 2.56, 95% CI 1.47–4.44, p = 0.001, respectively). Compared with patients with preserved LVEF (≥40%) and without ES, patients with impaired LVEF and ES had highest all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risks (HR 4.17, 95% CI 2.16–8.06, P &lt; 0.001; HR 11.91, 95% CI 5.55–25.56, P &lt; 0.001, respectively). In patients with impaired LVEF, ES increased the all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risks (HR 1.84, 95% CI 1.00–3.37, P = 0.034; HR 4.86, 95% CI 2.39–9.86, P &lt; 0.001, respectively). In patients with ES, the deleterious effects of impaired LVEF seemed confined to cardiovascular mortality (HR 2.54, 95% CI 1.25–5.14, p = 0.038), and the HR for all-cause mortality was not significant statistically (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.54–2.38, P = 0.735).ConclusionBoth ES and impaired LVEF are independent predictors of mortality risk in this Chinese cohort of ICD recipients. The interaction of ES and impaired LVEF in patients significantly amplifies the deleterious effects of each other as distinct disease