Thermal field over Tibetan Plateau and Indian summer monsson rainfall

The interannual variability of the temperature anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau (25-45 °N, 75-105 °E) is examined in relation to the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR: June to September total rainfall). For this purpose, the temperature anomaly data of the central-eastern Tibetan Plateau is divided into three regions using principal component analysis and the ISMR data for the period 1957-89 have been used. It is found that the January temperature anomaly of Region 2 has a significant negative relationship (r = -0.67) with the ISMR of the subsequent season. This region is located over the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, mostly in Qinghai province, including the Bayan Harr Mountain range and the Qaidam Basin. This relationship is consistent and robust during the period of analysis and can be used to predict the strength of the Indian summer monsoon in the subsequent season. It was found that the January temperature anomaly in this region was associated with a persistent winter circulation pattern over the Eurasian continent during January through to March. Finally, the variation patterns of the temperature anomalies in all three regions over the central-eastern Tibetan Plateau during extreme years of the ISMR are examined. It is concluded that the January temperature anomaly over the northeastern Tibetan Plateau can be useful in forecasting the drought and flood conditions over India, especially in predicting the monsoon rainfall over the areas lying along the monsoon trough

Extract of Zanthoxylum bungeanum maxim seed oil reduces hyperlipidemia in hamsters fed high-fat diet via activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ

Purpose: To investigate the anti-hyperlipidaemic effect of extract of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. seed oil (EZSO) on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hyperlipidemic hamsters.Methods: Following feeding with HFD for 30 days, hyperlipidemic hamsters were intragastrically treated with EZSO for 60 days. Serum levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density-lipoproteincholesterol (LDL-C), nitric oxide (NO) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were analyzed. Protein expression and location of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in liver were determined by Western blot and immunohistochemical assays, respectively.Results: EZSO at 5 and 10 g/kg significantly reduced levels of TG by 26 and 23 % (p < 0.05), TC by 19 % (p < 0.01) and 13 % (p < 0.01), LDL-C by 18 % (p < 0.05) and 21 % (p < 0.01), NO by 15 % (p < 0.01) and 31 % (p < 0.01), and MDA by 16 % (p < 0.05) and 30 % (p < 0.01), respectively, in serum of hyperlipidemic hamsters. However, EZSO did not show significant effect on HDL-C level in serum. Furthermore, EZSO at 5 and 10 g/kg markedly promoted protein expression of PPARγ by 71 % (p < 0.05) and 102 % (p < 0.01) in liver tissue of hyperlipidemic hamsters. EZSO also notably increased the content of PPARγ protein in the nucleus of liver cells of hyperlipidemic hamsters.Conclusion: These findings suggest that EZSO can reduce hyperlipidemia and improve oxidative stress in hyperlipidemic hamsters through activation of PPARγ, and that EZSO is a promising novel hypolipidemic health product.Keywords: Zanthoxylum bungeanum, Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ, Hyperlipidemia, Hamster, High-fat die

Electrically Tunable Excitonic Light Emitting Diodes based on Monolayer WSe2 p-n Junctions

Light-emitting diodes are of importance for lighting, displays, optical interconnects, logic and sensors. Hence the development of new systems that allow improvements in their efficiency, spectral properties, compactness and integrability could have significant ramifications. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as interesting candidates for optoelectronic applications due to their unique optical properties. Electroluminescence has already been observed from monolayer MoS2 devices. However, the electroluminescence efficiency was low and the linewidth broad due both to the poor optical quality of MoS2 and to ineffective contacts. Here, we report electroluminescence from lateral p-n junctions in monolayer WSe2 induced electrostatically using a thin boron nitride support as a dielectric layer with multiple metal gates beneath. This structure allows effective injection of electrons and holes, and combined with the high optical quality of WSe2 it yields bright electroluminescence with 1000 times smaller injection current and 10 times smaller linewidth than in MoS2. Furthermore, by increasing the injection bias we can tune the electroluminescence between regimes of impurity-bound, charged, and neutral excitons. This system has the required ingredients for new kinds of optoelectronic devices such as spin- and valley-polarized light-emitting diodes, on-chip lasers, and two-dimensional electro-optic modulators.Comment: 13 pages main text with 4 figures + 4 pages upplemental material

Minicircle-oriP-IFNγ: A Novel Targeted Gene Therapeutic System for EBV Positive Human Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

) in which the transgene expression was under the transcriptional regulation of oriP promoter.. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression and the activity of the IFNγ in tumor sections. Our results demonstrated that mc-oriP vectors mediated comparable gene expression and anti-proliferative effect in the EBV-positive NPC cell line C666-1 compared to mc-CMV vectors. Furthermore, mc-oriP vectors exhibited much lower killing effects on EBV-negative cell lines compared to mc-CMV vectors. The targeted expression of mc-oriP vectors was inhibited by EBNA1-siRNA in C666-1. This selective expression was corroborated in EBV-positive and -negative tumor models. as a safe and highly effective targeted gene therapeutic system for the treatment of EBV positive NPC

A Piezoelectric Immunosensor Using Hybrid Self-Assembled Monolayers for Detection of Schistosoma japonicum

BACKGROUND: The parasite Schistosoma japonicum causes schistosomiasis disease, which threatens human life and hampers economic and social development in some Asian countries. An important lesson learned from efforts to reduce the occurrence of schistosomiasis is that the diagnostic approach must be altered as further progress is made towards the control and ultimate elimination of the disease. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using mixed self-assembled monolayer membrane (mixed SAM) technology, a mixture of mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and mercaptoethanol (ME) was self-assembled on the surface of quartz crystals by gold-sulphur-bonds. Soluble egg antigens (SEA) of S. japonicum were then cross-linked to the quartz crystal using a special coupling agent. As compared with the traditional single self-assembled monolayer immobilization method, S. japonicum antigen (SjAg) immobilization using mixed self-assembled monolayers exhibits much greater immunoreactivity. Under optimal experimental conditions, the detection range is 1:1500 to 1:60 (infected rabbit serum dilution ratios). We measured several infected rabbit serum samples with varying S. japonicum antibody (SjAb) concentrations using both immunosensor and ELISA techniques and then produced a correlation analysis. The correlation coefficients reached 0.973. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have developed a new, simple, sensitive, and reusable piezoelectric immunosensor that directly detects SjAb in the serum. This method may represent an alternative to the current diagnostic methods for S. japonicum infection in the clinical laboratory or for analysis outside the laboratory

A novel mitochondrial DnaJ/Hsp40 family protein BIL2 promotes plant growth and resistance against environmental stress in brassinosteroid signaling

Funding Information: Acknowledgments We thank Dr. Tsuyoshi Nakagawa (Shimane University) for the gift of the gateway vectors, pGWB2, pGWB80, pGWB5, and pGWB3. This work was supported in part by funding from the Program for Promotion of Basic Research Activities for Innovation Bioscience (PROBRAIN) to T.N. and T.A., and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency to T.N. and T.A.Plant steroid hormones, brassinosteroids, are essential for growth, development and responses to environmental stresses in plants. Although BR signaling proteins are localized in many organelles, i.e., the plasma membrane, nuclei, endoplasmic reticulum and vacuole, the details regarding the BR signaling pathway from perception at the cellular membrane receptor BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1 (BRI1) to nuclear events include several steps. Brz (Brz220) is a specific inhibitor of BR biosynthesis. In this study, we used Brz-mediated chemical genetics to identify Brz-insensitive-long hypocotyls 2-1D (bil2-1D). The BIL2 gene encodes a mitochondrial-localized DnaJ/Heat shock protein 40 (DnaJ/Hsp40) family, which is involved in protein folding. BIL2-overexpression plants (BIL2-OX) showed cell elongation under Brz treatment, increasing the growth of plant inflorescence and roots, the regulation of BR-responsive gene expression and suppression against the dwarfed BRI1-deficient mutant. BIL2-OX also showed resistance against the mitochondrial ATPase inhibitor oligomycin and higher levels of exogenous ATP compared with wild-type plants. BIL2 participates in resistance against salinity stress and strong light stress. Our results indicate that BIL2 induces cell elongation during BR signaling through the promotion of ATP synthesis in mitochondria.Peer reviewe