Recognition of outer membrane proteins using multiple feature fusion

Introduction: Outer membrane proteins are crucial in maintaining the structural stability and permeability of the outer membrane. Outer membrane proteins exhibit several functions such as antigenicity and strong immunogenicity, which have potential applications in clinical diagnosis and disease prevention. However, wet experiments for studying OMPs are time and capital-intensive, thereby necessitating the use of computational methods for their identification.Methods: In this study, we developed a computational model to predict outer membrane proteins. The non-redundant dataset consists of a positive set of 208 outer membrane proteins and a negative set of 876 non-outer membrane proteins. In this study, we employed the pseudo amino acid composition method to extract feature vectors and subsequently utilized the support vector machine for prediction.Results and Discussion: In the Jackknife cross-validation, the overall accuracy and the area under receiver operating characteristic curve were observed to be 93.19% and 0.966, respectively. These results demonstrate that our model can produce accurate predictions, and could serve as a valuable guide for experimental research on outer membrane proteins

Synthesis and Characterization of the Optical Properties of Pt-TiO 2

Composite Pt-doped TiO2 nanotubes (Pt-TNTs) were synthesized via alkaline fusion-hydrothermal method (AFHM) under ambient atmosphere pressure. Further systematic characterization of Pt-TNTs was performed by using XPS, surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), electric field-induced surface photovoltage spectroscopy (FISPS), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), TEM, and XRD. XPS spectrum showed double peaks which accounted for the presence of platinum dioxide and platinum oxide (PtO2 and PtO, PtOxδ+). Composition analysis showed that the particulate matters on surface of Pt-TNTs were composed of PtOxδ+ and TiO2. The results of SPS and FISPS demonstrated that the bound exciton showed sub-band gap transition characteristics with the asymmetric changes of photoelectric property corresponding to changes in polarity and strength of the external electric field. Furthermore, the influence of the changed microstructure morphology of Pt-doped TNTs on both the photovoltage spectroscopy and the lifetime of photogenerated carriers which occurred at the interfaces of Pt-TNTs was observed. Result of XRD indicated that a mixture of anatase and rutile phases prevailed in Pt-TNTs. Contact potential barriers consisting of PtOxδ+, anatase, rutile, and PtOxδ+ are presumed to form upon PtOxδ+ particle that deposited on the surface of Pt-TNTs

Saliency-Guided Collaborative-Competitive Representation for Hyperspectral Anomaly Detection

Hyperspectral anomaly detection based on representation learning has received much attention in recent years. Due to the lack of prior knowledge about anomalies, it is difficult for a collaborative representation (CR) model to obtain a pure dictionary in the ideal case. Some algorithms proposed to remove anomalous pixels from a dictionary, which may result in the removal of contributing background atoms. To address such a problem, this article introduces a competitive regularization constraint term into the CR model, and divides the dictionary into anomaly and background classes using an outlier searching strategy, while adding competition weights to improve the competitiveness of the background. To better reconstruct the pixels, the Jaccard similarity coefficient is combined with the distance-weighted regularization matrix to adjust the representation coefficients. In addition, to make the most of the information from the hyperspectral data, a significance mechanism is introduced to construct an anomaly saliency weight to achieve the purpose of suppressing the background and highlighting anomalies. Experiments on five real datasets show that the detection performance of the proposed method is better than other advanced algorithms

Removal of organics by combined process of coagulation–chlorination–ultrafiltration: optimization of overall operation parameters

<p>To gain the run parameters of the combined process of coagulation/<i>in situ</i> chlorination/ultrafiltration (UF) so that the system can remove as much organic contaminants as possible without serious membrane fouling, the impacts of operation conditions in coagulation and pre-chlorination unit were investigated in a pilot-scale test. The characteristics of organics in UF influent were examined by excitation emission matrix spectroscopy to find out fouling behavior of different natural organic matter compositions to UF membrane. Thereafter, the operation parameters of different processing units of the hybrid device were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). The results showed that the tests with the agitation speed of 40 r min⁻¹ had the lowest membrane fouling rate and the highest COD_Mn removal, in addition, inappropriate dosage of sodium hypochlorite in membrane influent might exert negative impacts on membrane by lowering UV₂₅₄ rejection, especially during the high algae laden period. The predominant factors of membrane fouling were the existence of tryptophan protein-like substances and the soluble microbial products. Optimum values of the mechanical rotation speed in coagulation unit, chemical dosage in pre-chlorination unit, and membrane flux in UF unit of the integrative process were 41.79 r min⁻¹, 1.40 mg L⁻¹, and 82.26 LMH, respectively.</p

Effects of Rapamycin Combined with Low Dose Prednisone in Patients with Chronic Immune Thrombocytopenia

We conducted this randomized trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of rapamycin treatment in adults with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Eighty-eight patients were separated into the control (cyclosporine A plus prednisone) and experimental (rapamycin plus prednisone) groups. The CD4+CD25+CD127low regulatory T (Treg) cells level, Foxp3 mRNA expression, and the relevant cytokines levels were measured before and after treatment. The overall response (OR) was similar in both groups (experimental group versus control group: 58% versus 62%, P=0.70). However, sustained response (SR) was more pronounced in the experimental group than in the control group (68% versus 39%, P<0.05). Both groups showed similar incidence of adverse events (7% versus 11%, P=0.51). As expected, the low pretreatment baseline level of Treg cells was seen in all patients (P<0.001); however, the experimental group experienced a significant rise in Treg cell level, and there was a strong correlation between the levels of Treg cells and TGF-beta after the treatment. In addition, the upregulation maintained a stable level during the follow-up phase. Thus, rapamycin plus low dose prednisone could provide a new promising option for therapy of ITP

A novel nonsense NBEAL2 gene mutation causing severe bleeding in a patient with gray platelet syndrome

<p>Gray platelet syndrome (GPS) is a rare, inherited bleeding disorder characterized by the defect of platelet α-granule. Up to date, these are only four studies identifying NBEAL2 gene correlated with GPS. In the current report, we present a Chinese GPS patient who had severe bleeding tendency, abnormalities of platelet functions, and absence of platelet α-granules. Genomic DNA sequencing for the patient identified a nonsense mutation (g.27713C>A) of NBEAL2 gene (g.NG__031914.1) resulting in a premature protein (p.Glu1726*). In comparison with the reported patients, we conclude that homozygotes with nonsense or deletion mutation leading to a premature stop codon exhibit more serious bleeding problem than those with missense mutations.</p

Serine Catabolism Feeds NADH when Respiration Is Impaired

NADH provides electrons for aerobic ATP production. In cells deprived of oxygen or with impaired electron transport chain activity, NADH accumulation can be toxic. To minimize such toxicity, elevated NADH inhibits the classical NADH-producing pathways: glucose, glutamine, and fat oxidation. Here, through deuterium-tracing studies in cultured cells and mice, we show that folate-dependent serine catabolism also produces substantial NADH. Strikingly, when respiration is impaired, serine catabolism through methylene tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (MTHFD2) becomes a major NADH source. In cells whose respiration is slowed by hypoxia, metformin, or genetic lesions, mitochondrial serine catabolism inhibition partially normalizes NADH levels and facilitates cell growth. In mice with engineered mitochondrial complex I deficiency (NDUSF4-/-), serine's contribution to NADH is elevated, and progression of spasticity is modestly slowed by pharmacological blockade of serine degradation. Thus, when respiration is impaired, serine catabolism contributes to toxic NADH accumulation