A Scorpion Defensin BmKDfsin4 Inhibits Hepatitis B Virus Replication in Vitro

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major worldwide health problem which can cause acute and chronic hepatitis and can significantly increase the risk of liver cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nowadays, clinical therapies of HBV infection still mainly rely on nucleotide analogs and interferons, the usage of which is limited by drug-resistant mutation or side effects. Defensins had been reported to effectively inhibit the proliferation of bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. Here, we screened the anti-HBV activity of 25 scorpion-derived peptides most recently characterized by our group. Through evaluating anti-HBV activity and cytotoxicity, we found that BmKDfsin4, a scorpion defensin with antibacterial and Kv1.3-blocking activities, has a comparable high inhibitory rate of both HBeAg and HBsAg in HepG2.2.15 culture medium and low cytotoxicity to HepG2.2.15. Then, our experimental results further showed that BmKDfsin4 can dose-dependently decrease the production of HBV DNA and HBV viral proteins in both culture medium and cell lysate. Interestingly, BmKDfsin4 exerted high serum stability. Together, this study indicates that the scorpion defensin BmKDfsin4 also has inhibitory activity against HBV replication along with its antibacterial and potassium ion channel Kv1.3-blocking activities, which shows that BmKDfsin4 is a uniquely multifunctional defensin molecule. Our work also provides a good molecule material which will be used to investigate the link or relationship of its antiviral, antibacterial and ion channel–modulating activities in the future

Compound word frequency modifies the effect of character frequency in reading Chinese

In two eye-tracking studies, reading of two-character Chinese compound words was examined. First and second character frequency were orthogonally manipulated to examine the extent to which Chinese compound words are processed via the component characters. In Experiment 1, first and second character frequency were manipulated for frequent compound words, whereas in Experiment 2 it was done for infrequent compound words. Fixation time and skipping probability for the first and second character were affected by its frequency in neither experiment, nor in their pooled analysis. Yet, in Experiment 2 fixations on the second character were longer when a high-frequency character was presented as the first character compared with when a low-frequency character was presented as the first character. This reversed character frequency effect reflects a morphological family size effect and is explained by the constraint hypothesis, according to which fixation time on the second component of two-component compound words is shorter when its identity is constrained by the first component. It is concluded that frequent Chinese compound words are processed holistically, whereas with infrequent compound words there is some room for the characters to play a role in the identification process.</p

Human Performance Modeling and Rendering via Neural Animated Mesh

We have recently seen tremendous progress in the neural advances for photo-real human modeling and rendering. However, it's still challenging to integrate them into an existing mesh-based pipeline for downstream applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive neural approach for high-quality reconstruction, compression, and rendering of human performances from dense multi-view videos. Our core intuition is to bridge the traditional animated mesh workflow with a new class of highly efficient neural techniques. We first introduce a neural surface reconstructor for high-quality surface generation in minutes. It marries the implicit volumetric rendering of the truncated signed distance field (TSDF) with multi-resolution hash encoding. We further propose a hybrid neural tracker to generate animated meshes, which combines explicit non-rigid tracking with implicit dynamic deformation in a self-supervised framework. The former provides the coarse warping back into the canonical space, while the latter implicit one further predicts the displacements using the 4D hash encoding as in our reconstructor. Then, we discuss the rendering schemes using the obtained animated meshes, ranging from dynamic texturing to lumigraph rendering under various bandwidth settings. To strike an intricate balance between quality and bandwidth, we propose a hierarchical solution by first rendering 6 virtual views covering the performer and then conducting occlusion-aware neural texture blending. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in a variety of mesh-based applications and photo-realistic free-view experiences on various platforms, i.e., inserting virtual human performances into real environments through mobile AR or immersively watching talent shows with VR headsets.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figure

Directive Emission Obtained by Coordinate Transformation

We use coordinate transformation theory to realize substrates that can modify the emission of an embedded source. Simulation results show that with proper transformation functions the energy radiated by a source embedded in these space variant media will be concentrated in a narrow beam. The thickness of the slab achieved with our transformations will no longer be restricted by the evanescent modes and the source can be placed at any position along the boundary of the substrate without affecting the radiation pattern. We also discuss the case where reduced parameters are used, which still performs well and is physically realizable.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Architecture engineering of carbonaceous anodes for high‐rate potassium‐ion batteries

The limited lithium resource in earth's crust has stimulated the pursuit of alternative energy storage technologies to lithium‐ion battery. Potassium‐ion batteries (KIBs) are regarded as a kind of promising candidate for large‐scale energy storage owing to the high abundance and low cost of potassium resources. Nevertheless, further development and wide application of KIBs are still challenged by several obstacles, one of which is their fast capacity deterioration at high rates. A considerable amount of effort has recently been devoted to address this problem by developing advanced carbonaceous anode materials with diverse structures and morphologies. This review presents and highlights how the architecture engineering of carbonaceous anode materials gives rise to high‐rate performances for KIBs, and also the beneficial conceptions are consciously extracted from the recent progress. Particularly, basic insights into the recent engineering strategies, structural innovation, and the related advances of carbonaceous anodes for high‐rate KIBs are under specific concerns. Based on the achievements attained so far, a perspective on the foregoing, and proposed possible directions, and avenues for designing high‐rate anodes, are presented finally

The Transient Receptor Potential Channel, Vanilloid 5, Induces Chondrocyte Apoptosis via Ca2+ CaMKII–Dependent MAPK and Akt/ mTOR Pathways in a Rat Osteoarthritis Model

Background/Aims: Chondrocyte apoptosis is a central pathological feature of cartilage in osteoarthritis (OA). Accumulating evidence suggests that calcium ions (Ca2+) are an important regulator of apoptosis. Previously, we reported that the transient receptor potential channel vanilloid (TRPV5) is upregulated in monoiodoacetic acid (MIA)-induced OA articular cartilage. Methods: The protein levels of TRPV5, phosphorylated Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (p-CaMKII), and total CaMKII were detected in vivo using western blotting techniques. Primary chondrocytes were isolated and cultured in vitro. Then, p-CAMKII was immunolocalized by immunofluorescence in chondrocytes. Fluo-4AM staining was used to assess intracellular Ca2+. Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate / propidium iodide flow cytometric analysis was performed to determine chondrocyte apoptosis. Western blotting techniques were used to measure the expression of apoptosis-related proteins. Results: We found that ruthenium red (aTRPV5inhibitor)or(1-[N,O-bis-(5-isoquinolinesulfonyl)-N-methyl-L-tyrosyl]-4-phenylpiperaze (KN-62) (an inhibitor of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) phosphorylation) can relieve or even reverse OA in vivo. We found that TRPV5 has a specific role in mediating extracellular Ca2+ influx leading to chondrocyte apoptosis in vitro. The apoptotic effect in chondrocytes was inhibited by KN-62. We found that activated p-CaMKII could elicit the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 1/2, c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and p38, three important regulators of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. Moreover, we also showed that activated p-CaMKII could elicit the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt) and two important downstream regulators of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR): 4E-binding protein, and S61 kinase. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that upregulated TRPV5 may be an important initiating factor that activates CaMKII phosphorylation via the mediation of Ca2+ influx. In turn, activated p-CaMKII plays a critical role in chondrocyte apoptosis via MAPK and Akt/mTOR pathways

Preparation and Performance Research of Baking-Carbonized Functional Flavors/Konjac Glucomannan Porous Composite Membrane

To develop one porous additive material that can be assembled on cigarette filter, and achieve both functions of reducing hazard substances like tar and providing special aroma and moisture, this study innovatively selects the raw materials like baking-carbonized functional flavors with special aroma and konjac glucomannan (KGM) with properties of water absorption, gelling and film-forming, following the steps of casting into membrane shape, thermostatic crosslinking for strength enhancement and freeze-drying for pore creating to prepare 5 porous composite membranes based on baked-carbonized functional flavors and konjac glucomannan (KGM) were prepared. The composite structure, morphologies on the surface and the cross section, porosity structures including mesoporous and macropore of the porous composite membranes were characterized, the tensile performance and aroma constituents through solid phase microextraction and hazardous substances adsorption as packed into the commercial cigarette were also studied. Results showed that all baked-carbonized functional flavors were carbonized into amorphous, and contained the groups of aromatic components like ≡C-H, C=O, C-O-C (aldehydes, esters), cross-linking achieved the entanglement of KGM segments by deacetylation. When compounded, KGM acted as the framework to build the 3D porous network structure, and the functional flavor powders were wrapped into the KGM layer. All porous composite membranes owned some mechanical strength and the internal porosity over 90%, the mesopores and the macropores were ranged with 5–50 nm and 20–255 µm, respectively, which was satisfied for gas flowing and harmful substances adsorption. Aroma and resulting abundance of extracted constituents changed with timing, which equipped the membranes with a comprehensive aroma feeling. Among them, the membrane prepared with the raw material of dark plum showed a better comprehensive performance, especially it could significantly reduce the contents of harmful HCN and phenol in cigarette during smoking.2022 International Conference on Smart Manufacturing and Material Processing (SMMP2022), 12 - 13 August, 2022, virtual even

Persepsi Masyarakat terhadap Alun-alun Kota Bandung sebagai Ruang Terbuka Publik

Bandung merupakan sebuah kota yang strategis yang memiliki nilai sejarah yang cukup panjang dalam masa perjuangan. Alun alun Bandung merupakan hasil warisan ciri kota tradisional yang dibangun oleh penguasa kolonial yang merupakan pusat ruang terbuka kota. Dari masa kemasa Alun-alun kota Bandung telah mengalami beberapa kali Perubahan, baik bentuk maupun fungsinya sehingga mengakibatkan degradasi makna terhadap fungsinya bagi masyarakat Kota Bandung itu sendiri. Maka fenomena tersebut mengarahkan kepada pertanyaan penelitian yaitu bagaimana persepsi masyarakat terhadap Alun-alun Kota Bandung ditinjau sebagai ruang terbuka publik. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui persepsi masyarakat terhadap Alun-alun Kota Bandung. Dari tujuan tersebut maka sasaran yang dilakukan adalah mengidentifikasi karakter dan fungsi ruang terbuka publik yaitu fungsi ekologis, arsitektural, dan sosial. Dari hasil analisis dengan menggunakan kuesioner yaitu uji sampel dengan regresi linear sederhana dengan pendekatan analisis pengguna dan analisis karakteristik ruang terbuka publik. Hasil penelitian ini menghasilkan penilaian baik terhadap korelasi variabel bebas yaitu persepsi masyarakat terhadap variabel terikat yaitu Alun-alun Kota Bandung, setiap kali pertanyaan yang berkenaan dengan Persepsi masyarakat terhadap Alun-alun Kota Bandung akan mempengaruhi nilai hasil pengujian yang cenderung meningkat akan keberadaan Alun-alun itu sendiri. Hasil penelitian ini bisa dimanfaatkan untuk mengangkat kembali citra Alun-alun Kota Bandung sebagai ruang publik atau (Central Square).[Public Perception of The Alun-alun Bandung as Public Open Space] Bandung is a city that has a value that strategic long history in the struggle. Alun Bandung square is the result of inherited traits of traditional town built by the colonial rulers which is the center of the city open space. Over time, Bandung town square has undergone several changes, both form and function, resulting in degradation of the meaning of the function for the city of London itself. The phenomenon then leads to the research question is how the public perception of the square is the city of Bandung reviewed as public open space for the present study tries to analyze the function of the existence of Bandung City Square as a public space. The purpose of this study was to determine the public perception of the square is the city of Bandung. From these objectives, the target does is identify the character and function of public open space that is the function of ecological, architectural and social. From the analysis by using a questionnaire that test samples with a simple linear regression analysis approach and analysis of the characteristics of users of public open space. The results of this study resulted in better assessment of the correlation of the independent variable is the public perception of the dependent variable is the town square of Bandung, every time queries regarding the public\u27s perception of the town square Bandung will affect the value of the test results are likely to increase in the existence Square itself. the results of this study can be used to lift the image of Bandung city square as a public space or (Central Square)