Negative Elongation Factor Controls Energy Homeostasis in Cardiomyocytes

SummaryNegative elongation factor (NELF) is known to enforce promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II (Pol II), a pervasive phenomenon observed across multicellular genomes. However, the physiological impact of NELF on tissue homeostasis remains unclear. Here, we show that whole-body conditional deletion of the B subunit of NELF (NELF-B) in adult mice results in cardiomyopathy and impaired response to cardiac stress. Tissue-specific knockout of NELF-B confirms its cell-autonomous function in cardiomyocytes. NELF directly supports transcription of those genes encoding rate-limiting enzymes in fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. NELF also shares extensively transcriptional target genes with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα), a master regulator of energy metabolism in the myocardium. Mechanistically, NELF helps stabilize the transcription initiation complex at the metabolism-related genes. Our findings strongly indicate that NELF is part of the PPARα-mediated transcription regulatory network that maintains metabolic homeostasis in cardiomyocytes

Solidification Processing of Metallic Materials in Static Magnetic Field: A Review

The application of a static magnetic field (SMF) to solidification processing has emerged as an advanced strategy for efficiently regulating the macro/micro structures and the mechanical performance of metallic materials. The SMF effects have been proved to be positive in various processes of metal solidification. Firstly, this review briefly introduces two basic magnetic effects, i.e., magnetohydrodynamic effects and magnetization effects, which play crucial roles in regulating metal solidification. Further, the state of the art of solidification processing in the SMF, including undercooling and nucleation, interface energy, grain coarsening and refinement, segregation and porosity, are comprehensively summarized. Finally, the perspective future of taking advantage of the SMF for regulating metal solidification is presented

Crustal structure along the Zhenkang–Luxi deep seismic sounding profile in Yunnan derived from receiver functions

The crustal thicknesses and the Poisson's ratios under the seismic stations can be calculated by receiver function method with H-ҡ stacking effectively. But the stacking results are affected to some extent by the average crustal P-wave velocity. To eliminate this effect and get more accurate crustal structure along the Zhenkang–Luxi deep seismic sounding profile which lies in Yunnan Province, we calculate the receiver functions from the teleseismic events recorded by 11 temporary stations as well as 5 permanent ones along the profile and carry out the stacking with Vp obtained from the profile in this study. Our study shows that the crustal thicknesses along the Zhenkang–Luxi profile range from 34.8 km to 41.8 km with an average of 39 km. The crust is thicker in the middle part of the profile and thinner in both sides in general. Dramatic changes of crustal thickness about 3 km are detected across both the Lancangjiang fault and the Xiaojiang fault, which implies that these faults cut through the Moho. The lowest Poisson's ratio under the stations is 0.22 and the highest is 0.27 with the mean of 0.25, which is lower than the global average value 0.27 in the continental crust. It suggests that most of the crust along the profile lacks mafic component, but contains more felsic substance. The low Poisson's ratio also indicates that there is no satisfying condition for partial melting. We deduce that the material flow in the middle-lower crust in the southeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau may occur only in the north region of 24°N. Keywords: Receiver function, Crustal structure, Lancangjiang fault, Xiaojiang fault, Mid-lower crust flo

Camel: Smart, Adaptive Energy Optimization for Mobile Web Interactions

Web technology underpins many interactive mobile applications. However, energy-efficient mobile web interactions is an outstanding challenge. Given the increasing diversity and complexity of mobile hardware, any practical optimization scheme must work for a wide range of users, mobile platforms and web workloads. This paper presents CAMEL, a novel energy optimization system for mobile web interactions. CAMEL leverages machine learning techniques to develop a smart, adaptive scheme to judiciously trade performance for reduced power consumption. Unlike prior work, CAMEL directly models how a given web content affects the user expectation and uses this to guide energy optimization. It goes further by employing transfer learning and conformal predictions to tune a previously learned model in the end-user environment and improve it over time. We apply CAMEL to Chromium and evaluate it on four distinct mobile systems involving 1,000 testing webpages and 30 users. Compared to four state-of-the-art web-event optimizers, CAMEL delivers 22% more energy savings, but with 49% fewer violations on the quality of user experience, and exhibits orders of magnitudes less overhead when targeting a new computing environment.Peer reviewe

The Evolution of Microstructure, Mechanical Properties and Fracture Behavior with Increasing Lanthanum Content in AZ91 Alloy

AZ91 alloy is a widely applied commercial magnesium alloy due to its good castability, balanced mechanical properties and acceptable price, and lanthanum alloying has been proven to be one of the most effective methods to further improve its mechanical properties. Therefore, we reveal the evolution of microstructure, mechanical properties and fracture behavior with increasing lanthanum content in AZ91 alloy in this study. The magnesium matrix was significantly refined by lanthanum content, and this effect became more evident with increasing addition of lanthanum. The presence of Al3La precipitates significantly reduced the grain mobility and suppressed the formation of Mg17Al12 discontinuous precipitates along the grain boundaries. The rheo-cast alloys exhibited improved and balanced tensile strength and ductility after aging treatment. The fracture type of AZ91-La alloys could be classified as ductile fracture due to the presence of less quasi-cleavage planes and more dimples with a mixture of tear ridges and micropores. Due to the fully refined microstructure and the balanced mechanical properties, the AZ91–1.0La (mass%) alloy presented the greatest potential for industrial applications among the three studied AZ91-La alloys

Susceptibility of Chickens to Porcine Deltacoronavirus Infection

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a novel swine enteropathogenic coronavirus with worldwide distribution. PDCoV belongs to the Deltacoronavirus (DCoV) genus, which mainly includes avian coronaviruses (CoVs). PDCoV has the potential to infect human and chicken cells in vitro, and also has limited infectivity in calves. However, the origin of PDCoV in pigs, the host range, and cross-species infection of PDCoV still remain unclear. To determine whether PDCoV really has the ability to infect chickens in vivo, the three lines of chicken embryos and specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens were inoculated with PDCoV HNZK-02 strain to investigate PDCoV infection in the current study. Our results indicated that PDCoV can infect chicken embryos and could be continuously passaged on them. Furthermore, we observed that PDCoV-inoculated chickens showed mild diarrhea symptoms and low fecal viral RNA shedding. PDCoV RNA could also be detected in multiple organs (lung, kidney, jejunum, cecum, and rectum) and intestinal contents of PDCoV-inoculated chickens until 17 day post-inoculation by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). A histology analysis indicated that PDCoV caused mild lesions in the lung, kidney, and intestinal tissues. These results prove the susceptibility of chickens to PDCoV infection, which might provide more insight about the cross-species transmission of PDCoV

A New Smart Grid Control and Operation Concept - Autonomic Power System

As the distributed energy resource (DER) penetrance increasing, future power system will be more large-scale with much complexity and uncertainty. Taking an active approach, active distribution network (ADN) can deal with future complex and uncertain challenges to some extent. However, too much re-lying on information exchange of each layer, ADN will lack global adaptability and stability. To make up for the deficiency, this paper proposes a new smart grid control and operation concept, namely autonomic power system (APS). Based on goal-directed mechanism, APS obtains global self-adaptive management. Meanwhile, under the concept of distributed coordination and autonomic control, autonomic units (AUs) in APS coordinate each other and make their own autonomic operation. APS takes not only an optimally and co-ordinately active control of power system, but also brings more intelligence with characteristics of self-configuration, self-optimization, self-protection and self-healing, i.e. self-management and overall self-adaption. Thus, APS completes real-time dynamic goals and makes the operation of future power system more intelligent, effective, safe and reliable

A New Smart Grid Control and Operation Concept - Autonomic Power System

As the distributed energy resource (DER) penetrance increasing, future power system will be more large-scale with much complexity and uncertainty. Taking an active approach, active distribution network (ADN) can deal with future complex and uncertain challenges to some extent. However, too much re-lying on information exchange of each layer, ADN will lack global adaptability and stability. To make up for the deficiency, this paper proposes a new smart grid control and operation concept, namely autonomic power system (APS). Based on goal-directed mechanism, APS obtains global self-adaptive management. Meanwhile, under the concept of distributed coordination and autonomic control, autonomic units (AUs) in APS coordinate each other and make their own autonomic operation. APS takes not only an optimally and co-ordinately active control of power system, but also brings more intelligence with characteristics of self-configuration, self-optimization, self-protection and self-healing, i.e. self-management and overall self-adaption. Thus, APS completes real-time dynamic goals and makes the operation of future power system more intelligent, effective, safe and reliable