Rectangular Body-centered Cuboid Packing Lattices and Their Possible Applications

We first introduce several sphere packing ways such as simple cubic packing (SC), face-centered cubic packing (FCC), body-centered cubic packing (BCC), and rectangular body-centered cuboid packing (recBCC), where the rectangular body-centered cuboid packing means the packing method based on a rectangular cuboid whose base is square and whose height is times the length of one side of its square base such that the congruent spheres are centered at the 8 vertices and the centroid of the cuboid. The corresponding lattices are denoted as SCL, FCCL, BCCL, and recBCCL, respectively. Then we consider properties of those lattices, and show that FCCL and recBCCL are the same. Finally we point out some possible applications of the recBCC lattices

Life history traits of low-toxicity alternative bisphenol S on Daphnia magna with short breeding cycles : A multigenerational study

Due to relatively lower toxicity, bisphenol S (BPS) has become an alternative to previously used bisphenol A. Nevertheless, the occurrence of BPS and its ecological impact have recently attracted increasing attentions because the toxicology effect of BPS with life cycle or multigenerational exposure on aquatic organisms remains questionable. Herein, Daphnia magna (D. magna) multigenerational bioassays spanning four generations (F0–F3) and single-generation recovery (F1 and F3) in clean water were used to investigate the ecotoxicology of variable chronic BPS exposure. For both assays, four kinds of life-history traits (i.e., survival, reproduction, growth and ecological behavior) were examined for each generation. After an 18-day exposure under concentration of 200 μg/L, the survival rate of D. magna was less than 15 % for the F2 generation, whereas all died for the F3 generation. With continuous exposure of four generations of D. magna at environmentally relevant concentrations of BPS (2 μg/L), inhibition of growth and development, prolonged sexual maturity, decreased offspring production and decreased swimming activity were observed for the F3 generation. In particular, it is difficult for D. magna to return to its normal level through a single-generation recovery in clean water in terms of reproductive function, ecological behavior and population health. Hence, multi-generational exposure to low concentrations of BPS can have adverse effects on population health of aquatic organisms with short breeding cycles, highlighting the necessity to assess the ecotoxicology of chronic BPS exposure for public health.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Arithmetic and Efficient Fourier Transform for a Uniform and

Traditional image processing algorithms and digital image transforms are usually carried out on pixels of square grids. However the pixels of hexagonal grids provide for higher packing density of discs and give a more accurate approximation of circular regions than that of square grids. Furthermore the pixels of hexagonal grids are uniformly connected in the sense that th

Hydrophobic modification of poly(aryl ether ketone ketone) aerogel via poly(dimethylsiloxane)

Property and structure of aerogels with polar groups almost suffer from their high hydrophilicity. In this study, in order to improve the hydrophobicity of poly(aryl ether ketone ketone) aerogel prepared from poly(aryl ether ketone ketone) containing trimethoxysilane side groups, hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) was added. During gelation, hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) condensed with the methoxy groups or the hydrolyzed methoxy groups of the trimethoxysilane side groups. It was found that the hydrophobicity of poly(aryl ether ketone ketone) aerogel improved significantly even though only 5 wt% hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) was added, and the hydrophobicity of the modified poly (aryl ether ketone ketone) aerogel showed an increase trend with increasing the content of hydroxy-terminated poly (dimethylsiloxane)

AGEs induce high expression of Dll4 via endoplasmic reticulum stress PERK signaling-mediated internal ribosomal entry site mechanism in macrophages

Background and aim: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs)- exposed macrophages was characterized by Delta-like ligand 4 (Dll4) high expressed and has been shown to participate in diabetes-related atherosclerosis. This study was aimed to investigate the translational regulatory mechanism of Dll4 high expression in macrophages exposed to AGEs. Methods: Human Dll4 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) sequence was cloned and inserted into a bicistronic reporter plasmid. Human THP-1 macrophages transfected with the bicistronic reporter plasmids were exposed to AGEs. Dual-luciferase assay was used to detect internal ribosome entry site (IRES) activity contained in Dll4 5′UTR. Small interference RNA transfection was used to knock-down specific gene expression. Localization of protein was analyzed. Results: AGEs exposure significantly induced IRES activity in Dll4 5′ UTR in human macrophages. Internal potential promoter and ribosome read-through mechanisms were excluded. Inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum stress and specific silencing of protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)/eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) signaling pathway activation reduced IRES activity in Dll4 5′ UTR in human macrophages. Dll4 5′ UTR IRES activity was also inhibited by targeted silencing of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 (hnRNPA1). Moreover, specific inhibition of PERK/eIF2α signaling pathway led to deactivation of hnRNPA1, resulting to reduction of AGEs- induced Dll4 5’ UTR IRES activity in human macrophages. Conclusions: AGEs induced Dll4 5′ UTR IRES activity in human macrophages which was dependent on endoplasmic reticulum stress PERK/eIF2α signaling pathway. hnRNPA1 acted the role as an ITAF was also indispensable for AGEs-induced Dll4 5′UTR IRES activity in human macrophages

mRNA and miRNA Expression Analysis Reveal the Regulation for Flower Spot Patterning in Phalaenopsis ‘Panda’

Phalaenopsis cultivar ‘Panda’ is a beautiful and valuable ornamental for its big flower and unique big spots on the petals and sepals. Although anthocyanins are known as the main pigments responsible for flower colors in Phalaenopsis, and the anthocyanins biosynthetic pathway in Phalaenopsis is generally well known, the detailed knowledge of anthocynins regulation within the spot and non-spot parts in ‘Panda’ flower is limited. In this study, transcriptome and small RNA libraries analysis from spot and non-spot sepal tissues of ‘Panda’ were performed, and we found PeMYB7, PeMYB11, and miR156g, miR858 is associated with the purple spot patterning in its sepals. Transcriptome analyses showed a total 674 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), with 424 downregulated and 250 upregulated (Non-spot-VS-Spot), and 10 candidate DEGs involved in anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. The qPCR analysis confirmed that seven candidate structure genes (PeANS, PeF3′H, PeC4H, PeF3H, PeF3H1, Pe4CL2, and PeCHI) have significantly higher expressing levels in spot tissues than non-spot tissues. A total 1552 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were detected with 676 downregulated and 876 upregulated. However, microRNA data showed no DEMs targeting on anthocyanin biosynthesis structure gene, while a total 40 DEMs target transcription factor (TF) genes, which expressed significantly different level in spot via non-spot sepal, including 2 key MYB regulator genes. These results indicated that the lack of anthocyanidins in non-spot sepal may not directly be caused by microRNA suppressing anthocyanidin synthesis genes rather than the MYB genes. Our findings will help in understanding the role of miRNA molecular mechanisms in the spot formation pattern of Phalaenopsis, and would be useful to provide a reference to similar research in other species

Data from: Simple parameterization of aerodynamic roughness lengths and the turbulent heat fluxes at the top of midlatitude August‐one glacier, Qilian Mountains, China

The fluxes of sensible heat (H) and latent heat (LE), which are generally the important parts of the energy and mass balances over glacier surfaces, are widely quantified by the bulk method. However, due to the difficulty of determining the aerodynamic roughness length z0m in this method, H and LE values may still have large uncertainties with significant inaccuracy. To acquire reliable varying and intrinsic z0m values, new simpler parameterizations for z0m values at different ranges of the friction velocity u*b were fitted in this study. The method was implemented using the related meteorological data and glacial sublimation/condensation measured at the top of the August‐one glacier (4817 m a.s.l.) in the Qilian Mountains from 1 July 2016 to 15 August 2017. The parameterization shows that z0m increased sharply when u*b exceeded 0.43 m/s (the approximate threshold value) and that the effect of snowdrift was slight for the hourly z0m values in the range 0.15 ≤ u*b ≤ 0.43 m/s, which could thus be used to calculate the daily z0m. During the wet period (1 July to 24 September 2016 and 5 May to 15 August 2017), the turbulent fluxes calculated by the bulk method showed that net radiation Rnet was the primary source of surface energy (60.7 w/m2), whereas during the dry period (25 September 2016 to 4 May 2017), the main heat sink was the positive H (28.5 w/m2) rather than the negative Rnet (–10.0 w/m2)

mTOR Inhibition Attenuates Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis by Suppressing T Cell Proliferation and Balancing TH1/TH17/Treg Profile.

It has been established that mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors have anti-inflammatory effects in models of experimental colitis. However, the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. In this research, we investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of AZD8055, a potent mTOR inhibitor, on T cell response in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice, a commonly used animal model of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Severity of colitis is evaluated by changing of body weight, bloody stool, fecal consistency, histology evaluation and cytokine expression. We find that AZD8055 treatment attenuates DSS-induced body weight loss, colon length shortening and pathological damage of the colon. And AZD8055 treatment decreases colonic expression of genes encoding the pro-inflammatory cytokines interferon-γ, interleukin (IL)-17A, IL-1β,IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-a and increases colonic expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10. We show that AZD8055 treatment decreases the percentages of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells in spleen, lymph nodes and peripheral blood of mice. We also find that AZD8055 treatment significantly reduces the number of T helper 1(TH1) cells and TH17 cells and increases regulatory T (Treg) cells in the lamina propria and mesenteric lymph nodes. Furthermore, we demonstrates that AZD8055 suppresses the proliferation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and the differentiation of TH1/TH17 cells and expands Treg cells in vitro. The results suggest that, in experimental colitis, AZD8055 exerts anti-inflammatory effect by regulating T helper cell polarization and proliferation

Ideal Photodetector Based on WS₂/CuInP₂S₆ Heterostructure by Combining Band Engineering and Ferroelectric Modulation

Two-dimensional van der Waals (2D vdW) heterostructure photodetectors have garnered significant attention for their potential applications in next-generation optoelectronic systems. However, current 2D vdW photodetectors inevitably encounter compromises between responsivity, detectivity, and response time due to the absence of multilevel regulation for free and photoexcited carriers, thereby restricting their widespread applications. To address this challenge, we propose an efficient 2D WS2/CuInP2S6 vdW heterostructure photodetector by combining band engineering and ferroelectric modulation. In this device, the asymmetric conduction and valence band offsets effectively block the majority carriers (free electrons), while photoexcited holes are efficiently tunneled and rapidly collected by the bottom electrode. Additionally, the ferroelectric CuInP2S6 layer generates polarization states that reconfigure the built-in electric field, reducing dark current and facilitating the separation of photocarriers. Moreover, photoelectrons are trapped during long-distance lateral transport, resulting in a high photoconductivity gain. Consequently, the device achieves an impressive responsivity of 88 A W–1, an outstanding specific detectivity of 3.4 × 1013 Jones, and a fast response time of 37.6/371.3 μs. Moreover, the capability of high-resolution imaging under various wavelengths and fast optical communication has been successfully demonstrated using this device, highlighting its promising application prospects in future optoelectronic systems