Electromagnetic wave absorbing properties of aligned amorphous carbon nanotube/BaFe12O19 nanorod composite

Aligned amorphous carbon nanotube (AACNT)/BaFe12O19 nanorod (BNR) composite was prepared by chemical vapor deposition and ball-milling methods. Raman and XRD tests were performed to investigate the microstructures, and the microwave absorbing properties of the as prepared composite were characterized using a vector network analyzer. The experimental results indicated that the mean length of as-prepared ACNT arrays was about 24 μm and the average length of BNRs were about 50 nm. The maximum absorbing peak of AACNTs/BNR composite is −21.5 dB at the frequency of 9.3 GHz. The frequency bandwidth of the reflectivity loss below −10 dB is about 2.5 GHz. AACNTs have both features of amorphous CNTs which have multiple-reflective path inside the tube-wall and crystalline CNTs which have high conductivity.Institute of Textiles and Clothin

TBR2 coordinates neurogenesis expansion and precise microcircuit organization via Protocadherin 19 in the mammalian cortex.

Cerebral cortex expansion is a hallmark of mammalian brain evolution; yet, how increased neurogenesis is coordinated with structural and functional development remains largely unclear. The T-box protein TBR2/EOMES is preferentially enriched in intermediate progenitors and supports cortical neurogenesis expansion. Here we show that TBR2 regulates fine-scale spatial and circuit organization of excitatory neurons in addition to enhancing neurogenesis in the mouse cortex. TBR2 removal leads to a significant reduction in neuronal, but not glial, output of individual radial glial progenitors as revealed by mosaic analysis with double markers. Moreover, in the absence of TBR2, clonally related excitatory neurons become more laterally dispersed and their preferential synapse development is impaired. Interestingly, TBR2 directly regulates the expression of Protocadherin 19 (PCDH19), and simultaneous PCDH19 expression rescues neurogenesis and neuronal organization defects caused by TBR2 removal. Together, these results suggest that TBR2 coordinates neurogenesis expansion and precise microcircuit assembly via PCDH19 in the mammalian cortex

Integrated Profiling of MicroRNAs and mRNAs: MicroRNAs Located on Xq27.3 Associate with Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: With the advent of second-generation sequencing, the expression of gene transcripts can be digitally measured with high accuracy. The purpose of this study was to systematically profile the expression of both mRNA and miRNA genes in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) using massively parallel sequencing technology. Methodology: The expression of mRNAs and miRNAs were analyzed in tumor tissues and matched normal adjacent tissues obtained from 10 ccRCC patients without distant metastases. In a prevalence screen, some of the most interesting results were validated in a large cohort of ccRCC patients. Principal Findings: A total of 404 miRNAs and 9,799 mRNAs were detected to be differentially expressed in the 10 ccRCC patients. We also identified 56 novel miRNA candidates in at least two samples. In addition to confirming that canonical cancer genes and miRNAs (including VEGFA, DUSP9 and ERBB4; miR-210, miR-184 and miR-206) play pivotal roles in ccRCC development, promising novel candidates (such as PNCK and miR-122) without previous annotation in ccRCC carcinogenesis were also discovered in this study. Pathways controlling cell fates (e. g., cell cycle and apoptosis pathways) and cell communication (e. g., focal adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction) were found to be significantly more likely to be disrupted in ccRCC. Additionally, the results of the prevalence screen revealed that the expression of a miRNA gene cluster located on Xq27.3 was consistently downregulated in at least 76.7% of similar to 50 ccRCC patients. Conclusions: Our study provided a two-dimensional map of the mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of ccRCC using deep sequencing technology. Our results indicate that the phenotypic status of ccRCC is characterized by a loss of normal renal function, downregulation of metabolic genes, and upregulation of many signal transduction genes in key pathways. Furthermore, it can be concluded that downregulation of miRNA genes clustered on Xq27.3 is associated with ccRCC

Genome-wide identification and expression profiling of auxin response factor (ARF) gene family in maize

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Auxin signaling is vital for plant growth and development, and plays important role in apical dominance, tropic response, lateral root formation, vascular differentiation, embryo patterning and shoot elongation. Auxin Response Factors (ARFs) are the transcription factors that regulate the expression of auxin responsive genes. The <it>ARF </it>genes are represented by a large multigene family in plants. The first draft of full maize genome assembly has recently been released, however, to our knowledge, the <it>ARF </it>gene family from maize (<it>ZmARF </it>genes) has not been characterized in detail.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, 31 maize (<it>Zea mays </it>L.) genes that encode ARF proteins were identified in maize genome. It was shown that maize <it>ARF </it>genes fall into related sister pairs and chromosomal mapping revealed that duplication of <it>ZmARFs </it>was associated with the chromosomal block duplications. As expected, duplication of some <it>ZmARFs </it>showed a conserved intron/exon structure, whereas some others were more divergent, suggesting the possibility of functional diversification for these genes. Out of these 31 <it>ZmARF </it>genes, 14 possess auxin-responsive element in their promoter region, among which 7 appear to show small or negligible response to exogenous auxin. The 18 <it>ZmARF </it>genes were predicted to be the potential targets of small RNAs. Transgenic analysis revealed that increased miR167 level could cause degradation of transcripts of six potential targets (<it>ZmARF3</it>, <it>9</it>, <it>16</it>, <it>18</it>, <it>22 </it>and <it>30</it>). The expressions of maize <it>ARF </it>genes are responsive to exogenous auxin treatment. Dynamic expression patterns of <it>ZmARF </it>genes were observed in different stages of embryo development.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Maize <it>ARF </it>gene family is expanded (31 genes) as compared to <it>Arabidopsis </it>(23 genes) and rice (25 genes). The expression of these genes in maize is regulated by auxin and small RNAs. Dynamic expression patterns of <it>ZmARF </it>genes in embryo at different stages were detected which suggest that maize <it>ARF </it>genes may be involved in seed development and germination.</p

Investigating the Influence of Consumer Behavior and Governmental Policy on the Diffusion of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, China

The adoption behavior of electric vehicles (EVs) has received considerable attention. However, the whole process of purchase behavior has not been well understood. In response, this paper investigates the uptake of EVs in Beijing, China, with a focus on the whole process of purchasing an EV, as well as the relevant policies. Specifically, the classical Howard&ndash;Sheth theory is used to the analyze the whole process of EV purchasing, which is divided into four stages here, namely, &ldquo;Ignored and Neglected&rdquo;, &ldquo;Proactive Attention&rdquo;, &ldquo;Comparison and Selection of Vehicles&rdquo; and &ldquo;Usage Evaluation&rdquo;. Furthermore, several &ldquo;what-if&rdquo; scenarios are set up to quantify the influence of some typical EV-related polices, including the license plate lottery policy and no traffic constriction on battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The results suggest: (1) 63.4% of BEV owners have rigid travel demands with cars; (2) BEVs with a driving range of 500 km, 30-minutes charging time and price of RMB 15,000 are the first choices for the majority of people; (3) 64% of BEV owners are influenced by positive comments from the users around them in the adoption of EVs; (4) the no traffic constriction on BEVs tends to be more influential than the license plate lottery policy in terms of the numbers of applications for the vehicle purchase permits and BEV purchasers, as well as energy saving and vehicular emission reduction. These findings should be helpful for different EV-related stakeholders, such as the government, to shape their policies and promote the development of EVs

Research on Factors That Influence the Fast Charging Behavior of Private Battery Electric Vehicles

Due to the limited power cell performance of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), BEV drivers endure a short cruising range and a long charging time. Additionally, uneven charging facilities and unreasonable charging arrangements result in partial queuing and partial idling of charging stations. To solve these problems, it is critical to understand BEV charging behavior and its influential factors. Considering the urgency of BEV charging, BEV drivers tend to choose fast charging when BEV is in driving state. This study investigates fast charging behavior by utilizing private BEV connected data collected from Beijing. First, 130 private BEVs with travel rules were screened out. Using seven months of BEV data, a total of 15,752 trajectories were identified, among which 2161 have fast charging behavior. According to the relationship between fast charging behavior and some influential factors, including battery modeling, driving behavior, weather and environment, and even user habit, were empirically investigated. Moreover, the battery state of charge at the start time, time-origin, travel time duration, driving distance, driving speed, wind power, temperature, and last-fast-status are determined as significant influencing factors. Lastly, a prediction model based on the significant factors is proposed to estimate whether there is fast charging in a day trajectory. The proposed model achieves the best accuracy over compared models, i.e., univariate linear regression (ULR) with several factors and multivariate linear regression (MLR) model. The study is expected to help better understand fast charging behavior and further contribute to the future improvement of fast charging efficiency