Ediacaran Macro Body Fossils

This paper, Ediacaran Macro Body Fossils, reports a new discovery of well preserved three dimensional macro body fossils of the Ediacaran Period in central YunNan province in the People's Republic of China. These body fossils will enable more detailed and in-depth exploration of the evolution of multi-cellular macro organisms on this planet, whereas in the past, researches could only rely on cast or imprint fossils

5-[(2-Chloro-4-nitro­anilino)methyl­idene]-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione

In the title compound, C13H11ClN2O6, the dihedral angles between the benzene ring and the amino­methyl­ene unit and between the amino­methyl­ene group and the dioxane ring are 8.19 (14) and 1.39 (17)°, respectively. The dioxane ring has a half-boat conformation, in which the C atom between the dioxane O atoms is 0.662 (4)Å out of the plane through the remaining ring atoms. Intra­molecular N—H⋯O and N—H⋯Cl inter­actions occur

Effect of Three Gorges Reservoir Backwater on Bed Load Transport Discharge of Chongqing Reach by Backwater of Three Gorges Reservoir in Upper Yangtze River

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Hyperphalangy in a new sinemydid turtle from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota

Hyperphalangy is a rare condition in extant aquatic turtles, and mainly limited to soft-shelled turtles. Here we report a new freshwater turtle, Jeholochelys lingyuanensis gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of western Liaoning, China. This new turtle is characterized by a hyperphalangy condition with one additional phalanx in pedal digit V, rather than the primitive condition (phalangeal formula: 2-3-3-3-3) of crown turtles. J. lingyuanensis is recovered with other coexisting turtles in the family Sinemydidae in the phylogenetic analysis. This discovery further confirms that hyperphalangy occurred multiple times in the early evolutionary history of the crown turtles. Hyperphalangy is possibly a homoplasy in Jeholochelys and the soft-shelled turtles to adapt to the aquatic environments

Scaling of quantum Fisher information for quantum exceptional point sensors

In recent years, significant progress has been made in utilizing the divergence of spectrum response rate at the exceptional point (EP) for sensing in classical systems, while the use and characterization of quantum EPs for sensing have been largely unexplored. For a quantum EP sensor, an important issue is the relation between the order of the quantum EP and the scaling of quantum Fisher information (QFI), an essential quantity for characterizing quantum sensors. Here we investigate multi-mode quadratic bosonic systems, which exhibit higher-order EP dynamics, but possess Hermitian Hamiltonians without Langevin noise, thus can be utilized for quantum sensing. We derive an exact analytic formula for the QFI, from which we establish a scaling relation between the QFI and the order of the EP. We apply the formula to study a three-mode EP sensor and a multi-mode bosonic Kitaev chain and show that the EP physics can significantly enhance the sensing sensitivity. Our work establishes the connection between two important fields: non-Hermitian EP dynamics and quantum sensing, and may find important applications in quantum information and quantum non-Hermitian physics.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

High-Efficiency Monolayer Molybdenum Ditelluride Light-Emitting Diode and Photodetector

Developing a high-efficiency and low-cost light source with emission wavelength transparent to silicon is an essential step toward silicon-based nanophotonic devices and micro/nano industry platforms. Here, a near-infrared monolayer MoTe2 light-emitting diode (LED) has been demonstrated and its emission wavelength is transparent to silicon. By taking advantage of the quantum tunneling effect, the device has achieved a very high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 9.5% at 83 K, which is the highest EQE obtained from LED devices fabricated from monolayer TMDs so far. When the device is operated as a photodetector, the MoTe2 device exhibits a strong photoresponsivity at resonant wavelength 1145 nm. The low dark current of ∼5pA and fast response time 5.06 ms are achieved due to suppression of hBN tunneling layer. Our results open a new route for the investigation of novel near-infrared silicon integrated optoelectronic devicesThe authors acknowledge Financial support from ANU Ph.D. student scholarship, China Scholarship Council, ANU Major Equipment Committee fund (14MEC34), Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) (DE140100805) and ARC Discovery Project (DP180103238)

Circular RNAs and Their Emerging Roles in Immune Regulation

Circular ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules (circRNAs) are covalently closed loop RNA molecules with no 5′ end caps or 3′ poly (A) tails, which are generated by back-splicing. Originally, circRNAs were considered to be byproducts of aberrant splicing. However, in recent years, development of high-throughput sequencing has led to gradual recognition of functional circRNAs, and increasing numbers of studies have elucidated their roles in cancer, neurologic diseases, and cardiovascular disorders. Nevertheless, studies of the functions of circRNAs in the immune system are relatively scarce. In this review, we detail relevant research on the biogenesis and classification of circRNAs, describe their functional mechanisms and approaches to their investigation, and summarize recent studies of circRNA function in the immune system

Drug-herb interactions between Scutellaria baicalensis and pharmaceutical drugs : insights from experimental studies, mechanistic actions to clinical applications

Whilst the popular use of herbal medicine globally, it poses challenges in managing potential drug-herb interaction. There are two folds of the drug-herb interaction, a beneficial interaction that may improve therapeutic outcome and minimise the toxicity of drug desirably; by contrast, negative interaction may evoke unwanted clinical consequences, especially with drugs of narrow therapeutic index. Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is one of the most popular medicinal plants used in Asian countries. It has been widely used for treating various diseases and conditions such as cancer, diabetes, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Studies on its extract and bioactive compounds have shown pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic interactions with a wide range of pharmaceutical drugs as evidenced by plenty of in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies. Notably, S. baicalensis and its bioactives including baicalein, baicalin and wogonin exhibited synergistic interactions with many pharmaceutical drugs to enhance their efficacy, reduce toxicity or overcome drug resistance to combat complex diseases such as cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases. On the other hand, S. baicalensis and its bioactives also affected the pharmacokinetic profile of many drugs in absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination via the regulatory actions of the efflux pumps and cytochrome P450 enzymes. This review provides comprehensive references of the observed pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic drug interactions of Scutellaria baicalensis and its bioactives. We have elucidated the interaction with detailed mechanistic actions, identified the knowledge gaps for future research and potential clinical implications. Such knowledge is important for the practice of both conventional and complementary medicines, and it is essential to ensure the safe use of related herbal medicines. The review may be of great interest to practitioners, consumers, clinicians who require comprehensive information on the possible drug interactions with S. baicalensis and its bioactives

A Novel Wireless Localization Fusion Algorithm: BP-LS-RSSI

With the increasing demand for location-aware services, high-precision indoor positioning play more important role for some applications. People also put forward higher requirements on positioning accuracy. BP neural network as a kind of typical forward neural network has the very strong self learning ability and can approximate any discontinuity of rational function. This paper proposes BP-LS-RSSI localization model, then use the model to fix received signal strength indication (RSSI) values for positioning by the LS algorithm. Since the positioning accuracy do not satisfy the needs by the traditional LS algorithm, we transfer the RSSI values into confidence weights according to the topology of network, then use the weighted least squares (LS) method to further optimize the positioning system. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has obvious increase to the positioning accuracy is a feasible localization algorithm

Continuous genomic surveillance monitored the in vivo evolutionary trajectories of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and identified a new virulent genotype

Our ability to predict evolutionary trajectories of pathogens is one of the promising leverages to fight against the pandemic disease, yet few studies have addressed this question in situ, due to the difficulty in monitoring the milestone evolutionary events for a given pathogen and in understanding the evolutionary strategies. In this study, we monitored the real-time evolution of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in response to successive antibiotic treatment in three shrimp farms in North China from 2011 to 2018 by whole-genome sequencing. Results showed that the stepwise emergence of resistance was associated with the antibiotic usage. Genomic analysis of resistant isolates showed that the acquisition of the resistant mobile genetic elements flanked by an insertion sequence (ISVal1) closely mirrored the antibiotics used in shrimp farms since 2014. Next, we also identified 50 insertion sites of ISVal1 in the chromosome, which facilitated the formation of pathogenicity islands (PAIs) and fitness islands in the following years. Further, horizontal transfers of a virulent trh-nikure genomic island (GI) and two GIs improving the fitness have been observed in two farms since 2016. In this case study, we proposed that the insertion sequence triggered four major evolutionary events during the outbreaks of shrimp disease in three farms, including horizontal transfer of transposon (HTT) (stage 1), the formation of resistance islands (stage 2) and the PAIs (stage 3), and horizontal transfer of the PAIs (stage 4). This study presented the first in vivo evolutionary trajectories for a given bacterial pathogen, which helps us to understand the emergence mechanisms of new genotypes. IMPORTANCE Most human infectious diseases originate from animals. Thus, how to reduce or prevent pandemic zoonoses before they emerge in people is becoming a critical issue. Continuous genomic surveillance of the evolutionary trajectories of potential human pathogens on farms is a promising strategy to realize early warning. Here, we conducted an 8-year surveillance of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in three shrimp farms. The results showed that the use of antibiotics and horizontal transfer of transposons (HTT) drove the evolution of V. parahaemolyticus, which could be divided into four stages: HTT, formation of resistance islands, formation of pathogenicity islands (PAIs), and horizontal transfer of PAIs. This study presented the first in vivo monitoring of evolutionary trajectories for a given bacterial pathogen, providing valuable information for the prevention of pandemic zoonoses