Dynamics of cold pulses induced by super-sonic molecular beam injection in the EAST tokamak

Evolution of electron temperature, electron density and its fluctuation with high spatial and temporal resolutions are presented for the cold pulse propagation induced by super-sonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) in ohmic plasmas in the EAST tokamak. The non-local heat transport occurs for discharges with plasma current $I_p$=450 kA ($q_{95}\sim5.55$), and electron density $n_{e0}$ below a critical value of $(1.35\pm0.25)\times10^{19}~\mathrm{m^{-3}}$. In contrary to the response of core electron temperature and electron density (roughly 10 ms after SMBI), the electron density fluctuation in the plasma core increases promptly after SMBI and reaches its maximum around 15 ms after SMBI. The electron density fluctuation in the plasma core begins to decrease before the core electron temperature reaches its maximum (roughly 30 ms). It was also observed that the turbulence perpendicular velocity close to the inversion point of the temperature perturbation changes sign after SMBI

Altered microRNA expression profile with miR-146a upregulation in CD4+ T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Increasing evidence indicates that microRNAs (miRNAs) play a critical role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. The aim of the study was to investigate the expression pattern and function of miRNAs in CD4 + T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods: The expression profile of miRNAs in CD4 + T cells from synovial fluid (SF) and peripheral blood of 33 RA patients was determined by microarray assay and validated by qRT-PCR analysis. The correlation between altered expression of miRNAs and cytokine levels was determined by linear regression analysis. The role of miR-146a overexpression in regulating T cell apoptosis was evaluated by flow cytometry. A genome-wide gene expression analysis was further performed to identify miR-146a-regulated genes in T cells.Results: miRNA expression profile analysis revealed that miR-146a expression was significantly upregulated while miR-363 and miR-498 were downregulated in CD4 + T cells of RA patients. The level of miR-146a expression was positively correlated with levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and in vitro studies showed TNF-α upregulated miR-146a expression in T cells. Moreover, miR-146a overexpression was found to suppress Jurkat T cell apoptosis. Finally, transcriptome analysis of miR-146a overexpression in T cells identified Fas associated factor 1 (FAF1) as a miR-146a-regulated gene, which was critically involved in modulating T cell apoptosis.Conclusions: We have detected increased miR-146a in CD4 + T cells of RA patients and its close correlation with TNF-α levels. Our findings that miR-146a overexpression suppresses T cell apoptosis indicate a role of miR-146a in RA pathogenesis and provide potential novel therapeutic targets. © 2010 Li et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.published_or_final_versio

Application of rhodamine B hydrazide as a new fluorogenic indicator in the highly sensitive determination of hydrogen peroxide and glucose based on the catalytic effect of iron(III)-tetrasulfonato-phthalocyanine

A sensitive, selective and rapid spectrofluorimetric method is proposed for the determination of hydrogen peroxide using rhodamine B hydrazide as a fluorogenic substrate catalyzed by iron(III)-tetrasulfonatophthalocyanine. It is based on the oxidation of rhodamine B hydrazide, a colorless, non-fluorescent spirolactam hydrazide, by hydrogen peroxide which generates the highly fluorescent product rhodamine B. Under optimum conditions, the responses for hydrogen peroxide were linear from 2.0 x 10(-8) to 2.0 x 10(-6) mol L-1, with a detection limit of 3.7 x 10(-9) mol L-1 in a 3.5 min reaction period. It can easily be incorporated into the determination of biochemical substances that produce hydrogen peroxide under catalytic oxidation in the presence of their oxidase. The possibility has been tested for the determination of glucose in human sera as an example

A novel mimetic peroxidase catalyst by using magnetite-containing silica nanoparticles as carriers

A method for coating magnetite and mimetic enzyme (hemin) with amorphous silica to form a novel mimetic peroxidase (magnetite-hemin/SiO2) has been developed by combining reverse microemulsion and the modified Stober method. The magnetic silica nanoparticle supported hemin has a long-term stability toward temperature and good reusability. They can be easily separated from the reaction solution by using an external magnetic field and reused directly for next round of reaction. The peroxidase activity of the magnetite-hemin/SiO2 was studied based on its catalytic effect on the reaction of p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid and H2O2. The results indicated that the catalytic activity of the new mimetic enzyme catalyst is higher than that of the free hemin. The possibility of its application was proven by the determination of H2O2, with the detection limits of 7.3 nmol L-1 H2O2.Natural Science Foundation of China [20275055

Use of Oxalic Acid-Modified Rice Husk for the Adsorption of Neutral Red from Aqueous Solutions

Rice husk modified with oxalic acid (MRH) was tested as a lowcost adsorbent for the removal of Neutral Red (NR) dye from aqueous solutions employing batch adsorption procedures. Such studies were conducted by varying various parameters such as the pH, the adsorbent dosage, the salt concentration, the contact time, the concentration of the adsorbate and the temperature. The kinetic experimental data were analyzed using three kinetic equations, viz. the pseudo-first-order equation, the pseudo-second-order equation and the intra-particle diffusion model equation, to examine the mechanism of adsorption and the potential rate-controlling step. The mechanism of the process was found to be complex, consisting of both surface adsorption and pore diffusion. The values of the effective diffusion parameter, D eff , were estimated to be of the order of 10 −8 cm 2 /s, indicated that intra-particle diffusion was not the rate-controlling step. The equilibrium adsorption data obtained at various temperatures were analyzed using the Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich–Peterson isotherm models using non-linear regressive analysis. The equilibrium adsorption results were better fitted by the Langmuir and Redlich–Peterson isotherms relative to the Freundlich model. Calculated thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of NR onto MRH was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic under the studied conditions. The carboxyl groups on the surface of the modified rice husk (MRH) were primarily responsible for the sorption of NR. It is suggested that MRH may be suitable as an adsorbent material for adsorbing NR from aqueous solutions

Preparation and Analytical Application of Mimetic Enzyme Hemin-Loading Magnetic Silica Nanotubes

Xiamen Medical Center and Key Disciplines (Xiamen); State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University [MEL0707]We report here the preparation and analytical application of mimetic enzyme-loading magnetic silica nanotubes (MSNs), which were synthesized via alumina template membrane method. The nanotubes integrate the advantages of silica nanotubes and superparamagnetic characteristics. Hemin (a peroxidase mimic) was selected as a model for enzyme assays to demonstrate the applicability of these MSNs in enzyme immobilization. The immobilized hemin exhibited excellent catalytic activity and reusability. Using the immobilized hemin as the catalyst, the fluorometric measurement of thiamine has been achieved with a detection limit of 2.5 x 10(-8) mol/L. Our work herein reveals that the surface functionalized MSNs will be a promising platform as biocatalyst carriers

Spatial–Temporal Evolution Characteristics of Agricultural Economic Resilience: Evidence from Jiangxi Province, China

To promote the resilient and coordinated development of regional economies, in this study, to construct an index system, we used the entropy weight method to measure the agricultural economic resilience of 11 prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi province, China during 2011–2020, and we analyzed the characteristics of their spatial-temporal pattern evolution. We used the Theil index method to analyze the main sources of their spatial differences. The results showed that: First, the mean value of agricultural economic resilience of prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi trended upward during 2011–2020. Among the prefecture-level cities, Ganzhou had the highest mean agricultural economic resilience value, while Yingtan had the lowest. From the perspective of regional division, the agricultural economy in southern Jiangxi was the most resilient, whereas that in northeast Jiangxi was the least. Second, since 2011, the overall difference in agricultural economic resilience in the four regions of Jiangxi has trended downward, with the inter-regional difference being the main source of the overall difference. Based on this, we provide the following policy implications: first, to continuously enhance the intrinsic dynamics of the agricultural economic resilience and strengthen policy support in Jiangxi; second, to coordinate the development of regional agricultural economic resilience and achieve overall improvement

Functional Morphology and Defensive Behavior in a Social Aphid

Social aphids produce different morphs, which are genetically identical but morphologically different. Each morph performs a different duty in its community. Social aphids usually produce morphologically distinct soldiers to protect their colonies. The social aphid Pseudoregma bambucicola produces sterile first instar soldiers with specialized body parts and unique defensive behaviors, such as hind leg waving. By using this species as a research model, this study tested the assumption that the functional morphological basis of defensive behaviors of soldiers is related to specialized body parts. Field observations and a comprehensive morphometric analysis were carried out for natural populations. The results showed significant differences in functional morphology between soldiers, first instar nymphs, and adults. Elongated hind legs in soldiers are an important functional morphological basis for the deimatic behavior of hind leg waving, while sclerotized front legs and head horns are related to the function of directly attacking natural enemies. The size variation of different body parts among different morphs also indicates a cost–benefit trade-off in the evolution of the social aphid species

Divergent roles of amino acid residues inside and outside the BB loop affect human Toll-like receptor (TLR)2/2, TLR2/1 and TLR2/6 responsiveness.

TLR2 specifically recognizes a wide range of ligands by homodimerizing or heterodimerizing with TLR1 or TLR6. However, the molecular basis of the specific signalling transduction induced by TLR2 homodimerization or heterodimerization with TLR1 or TLR6 is largely unknown. In this study, we found three amino acid residues, two (663L and 688N) outside and one (681P) inside the BB loop, which were conserved in all of the TLRs, except for the TLR3 toll/IL-1R(TIR) domain. The responsiveness of human TLR2/2, TLR2/1 or TLR2/6 was completely lost when 663L and 688N were replaced with the corresponding amino acid residues in the TLR3 TIR domain, respectively. However, the response of TLR2 (P681A) to the high concentration of TLR2/TLR6 agonist was almost intact, but the activity of TLR2 (P681A) was greatly reduced when stimulated with the TLR2/1 agonist or the TLR2/2 agonist. Although the surface expression of TLR2 (L663E) was sharply reduced, both the intracellular distribution and the surface expression of all of the other TLR2 mutants were unchanged. The ability of all three TLR2 mutants to recruit MyD88, was consistent with their responsivenesses. Computer modelling indicated that the surface negative charge of all of the TLR2 mutants' BB loops was reduced. Thus, our data demonstrated that the 663L and 688N residues outside of the BB loop were essential for the responsiveness of TLR2/2, TLR2/1 and TLR2/6, but the 681P residue inside of the BB loop exhibited divergent roles in TLR2/2, TLR2/1 and TLR2/6 signalling transduction, thereby providing clues regarding the specific signalling transduction of TLR2/2, TLR2/1 and TLR2/6