2,6,7-Trioxa-1-phosphabicyclo­[2.2.2]octan-4-ylmethanol 1-sulfide

The title compound, C5H9O4PS, was synthesized by the reaction of penta­erythritol with thio­phosphoryl chloride. In the crystal structure, the three six-membered rings all adopt boat conformations. Mol­ecules form chains along the c axis via inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Synchronization of fractional chaotic complex networks with delays

summary:The synchronization of fractional-order complex networks with delay is investigated in this paper. By constructing a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii function $V$ and taking integer derivative instead of fractional derivative of the function, a sufficient criterion is obtained in the form of linear matrix inequalities to realize synchronizing complex dynamical networks. Finally, a numerical example is shown to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method

An improved closed-form solution to interfacial stresses in plated beams using a two-stage approach

The shear stress and the normal stresses in the thickness direction at interfaces (referred as interfacial shear and transverse normal stresses hereafter) have played a significant role in understanding the premature debonding failure of beams strengthened by bonding steel/composite plates at their tension surfaces. Due to the occurrence of dissimilar materials and the abrupt change of the cross section, the stress distribution at plate ends becomes singular and hence is considerably complicated. Extensive experimental and analytical analyses have been undertaken to investigate this problem. Large discrepancies have been found from various studies, particularly from experimental results due to the well-acknowledged difficulty in measuring interfacial stresses. Numerical analyses, e.g. 2-D or 3-D finite element analysis (FEA), may predict accurate results, but they demand laborious work on meshing and sensitivity analysis. Analytical solutions, in particular those in a closed form, are more desirable by engineering practitioners, as they can be readily incorporated into design equations. This paper reports an improved closed-form solution to interfacial stresses in plated beams using a two-stage approach. In this solution, beams and bonded plates can be further divided into a number of sub-layers to facilitate the inclusion of steel bars or multiple laminae. Thermal effects may also be considered by using equivalent mechanical loads, i.e. equivalent axial loads and end moments. Numerical examples are presented to show interfacial stresses in concrete or cast iron beams bonded with steel or FRP plates under mechanical and/or thermal loads. The effect of including the steel reinforcement with various ratios in the RC beam on the interfacial stresses is also investigated. Compared with previously published analytical results, this one improves the accuracy of predicting the transverse normal stresses in both adhesive-beam and plate-adhesive interfaces and the solution is in a closed form

Illuminating cell signaling with genetically encoded FRET biosensors in adult mouse cardiomyocytes.

FRET-based biosensor experiments in adult cardiomyocytes are a powerful way of dissecting the spatiotemporal dynamics of the complicated signaling networks that regulate cardiac health and disease. However, although much information has been gleaned from FRET studies on cardiomyocytes from larger species, experiments on adult cardiomyocytes from mice have been difficult at best. Thus the large variety of genetic mouse models cannot be easily used for this type of study. Here we develop cell culture conditions for adult mouse cardiomyocytes that permit robust expression of adenoviral FRET biosensors and reproducible FRET experimentation. We find that addition of 6.25 µM blebbistatin or 20 µM (S)-nitro-blebbistatin to a minimal essential medium containing 10 mM HEPES and 0.2% BSA maintains morphology of cardiomyocytes from physiological, pathological, and transgenic mouse models for up to 50 h after adenoviral infection. This provides a 10-15-h time window to perform reproducible FRET readings using a variety of CFP/YFP sensors between 30 and 50 h postinfection. The culture is applicable to cardiomyocytes isolated from transgenic mouse models as well as models with cardiac diseases. Therefore, this study helps scientists to disentangle complicated signaling networks important in health and disease of cardiomyocytes

An Invasive Whitefly Feeding on a Virus-Infected Plant Increased Its Egg Production and Realized Fecundity

Plant-pathogenic begomoviruses have a complex association with their insect vectors. The interactions of begomoviruses and reproduction of their vectors are poorly understood. Bemisia tabaci is known to transmit many begomoviruses, and the spread of B. tabaci, especially the B and Q 'biotypes', has been accompanied by the epidemics of begomoviruses. One of these identified disease-causing agents was Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus (TYLCCNV).In this study, we compared the egg production and realized fecundity of two 'biotypes' or putative species of the whitefly B. tabaci, including the alien invasive B and the indigenous ZHJ1 from Zhejiang, China, feeding on either healthy or TYLCCNV-infected tobacco plants. The ovary of the whitefly was composed of 12-22 telotrophic ovarioles. According to the morphology of the oocytes and level of yolk content, oocytes in ovarioles were divided into four developmental phases (I-IV). Significantly higher proportion of immature oocytes (phase II, III) and mature oocytes (phase IV) was observed in ovary of females that fed on TYLCCNV-infected tobacco compared to that on healthy plants. Moreover, there was significant increase of eggs laid of B whitefly that fed on TYLCCNV-infected tobacco plants during the early developmental stages. In contrast, the proportion of oocytes of different developmental phases and eggs laid had no significant differences between ZHJ1 whiteflies feeding on TYLCCNV-infected and non-infected host plants.The invasive B whitefly benefits from feeding on a begomovirus-infected plant through increased egg production and realized fecundity

Enhancing Evolutionary Couplings with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

While genes are defined by sequence, in biological systems a protein's function is largely determined by its three-dimensional structure. Evolutionary information embedded within multiple sequence alignments provides a rich source of data for inferring structural constraints on macromolecules. Still, many proteins of interest lack sufficient numbers of related sequences, leading to noisy, error-prone residue-residue contact predictions. Here we introduce DeepContact, a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based approach that discovers co-evolutionary motifs and leverages these patterns to enable accurate inference of contact probabilities, particularly when few related sequences are available. DeepContact significantly improves performance over previous methods, including in the CASP12 blind contact prediction task where we achieved top performance with another CNN-based approach. Moreover, our tool converts hard-to-interpret coupling scores into probabilities, moving the field toward a consistent metric to assess contact prediction across diverse proteins. Through substantially improving the precision-recall behavior of contact prediction, DeepContact suggests we are near a paradigm shift in template-free modeling for protein structure prediction. Many protein structures of interest remain out of reach for both computational prediction and experimental determination. DeepContact learns patterns of co-evolution across thousands of experimentally determined structures, identifying conserved local motifs and leveraging this information to improve protein residue-residue contact predictions. DeepContact extracts additional information from the evolutionary couplings using its knowledge of co-evolution and structural space, while also converting coupling scores into probabilities that are comparable across protein sequences and alignments. Keywords: contact prediction; convolutional neural networks; deep learning; protein structure prediction; structure prediction; co-evolution; evolutionary couplingsNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01GM081871

The effect of capsaicin on expression patterns of CGRP in trigeminal ganglion and trigeminal nucleus caudalis following experimental tooth movement in rats

Objectives The aim of this study was to explore the effect of capsaicin on expression patterns of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the trigeminal ganglion (TG) and trigeminal subnucleus caudalis (Vc) following experimental tooth movement. Material and Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study and divided into small-dose capsaicin+force group, large-dose capsaicin+force group, saline+force group, and no force group. Closed coil springs were used to mimic orthodontic forces in all groups except for the no force group, in which springs were inactivated. Capsaicin and saline were injected into periodontal tissues. Rats were euthanized at 0 h, 12 h, 1 d, 3 d, 5 d, and 7 d following experimental tooth movement. Then, TG and Vc were obtained for immunohistochemical staining and western blotting against CGRP. Results Immunohistochemical results indicated that CGRP positive neurons were located in the TG, and CGRP immunoreactive fibers were distributed in the Vc. Immunohistochemical semiquantitative analysis and western blotting analysis demonstrated that CGRP expression levels both in TG and Vc were elevated at 12 h, 1 d, 3 d, 5 d, and 7 d in the saline + force group. However, both small-dose and large-dose capsaicin could decrease CGRP expression in TG and Vc at 1 d and 3 d following experimental tooth movement, as compared with the saline + force group. Conclusions These results suggest that capsaicin could regulate CGRP expression in TG and Vc following experimental tooth movement in rats