Poly[bis­[μ2-8-ethyl-5-oxo-2-(piperazin-1-yl)-5,8-dihydro­pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine-6-carboxyl­ato]nickel(II)]

The title compound, [Ni(C14H16N5O3)2]n or [Ni(ppa)2]n, where ppa is 8-ethyl-5-oxo-2-(piperazin-1-yl)-5,8-dihydro­pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine-6-carboxyl­ate, was synthesized under hydro­thermal conditions. The NiII atom (site symmetry ) exhibits a distorted trans-NiN2O4 octa­hedral geometry defined by two monodentate N-bonded and two bidentate O,O′-bonded ppa monoanions. The extended two-dimensional structure is a square grid. An inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs

mer-Triaqua­(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)(sulfato-κO)magnesium(II)

In the title compound, [Mg(SO4)(C12H8N2)(H2O)3], the MgII centre exhibits a slightly distorted octa­hedral coordination environment defined by two N atoms from a 1,10-phenanthroline mol­ecule, one O atom from a sulfate dianion and three meridionally arranged O atoms from coordinated water mol­ecules. The crystal structure involves intra- and intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Performance evaluation of the 8-inch MCP-PMT for Jinping Neutrino Experiment

Jinping Neutrino Experiment plans to deploy a new type of 8-inch MCP-PMT with high photon detection efficiency for MeV-scale neutrino measurements. This work studies the performance of the MCP-PMTs, including the photon detection efficiency, the charge resolution of the single photoelectron, the transition time spread, single photoelectron response, rates of dark counts and after pulses. We find a long tail in the charge distribution, and combined with the high photon detection efficiency, the overall energy resolution sees substantial improvements. Those results will be provided as the inputs to detector simulation and design. Our results show that the new PMT satisfies all the requirements of the Jinping Neutrino Experiment

CMTM2 is essential for spermiogenesis in mice

Objective: This study is to investigate whether CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing protein 2 (CMTM2) is involved in spermatogenesis in mice. CMTM2 is highly expressed in testis, and could possibly a potential spermagogenesis specific gene. Methods: CMTM2-deficient mouse model was generated. Northern, RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis were performed on total RNA derived from wild-type (WT, CMTM2(+/+)) and CMTM2(+/-)(heterozygote) and CMTM2(-/-)(homozygote) mice to examine the CMTM2 level. The number of litters and the number of pups were counted and pregnancy rates calculated. The motility and morphology of the sperm and the histology of testes were analyzed. Serum testosterone and FSH concentrations were also measured. Standard t-tests (Excel, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) were used and standard error of means were calculated. Results: CMTM2 is highly expressed in a finely regulated pattern in the mouse testis during spermatogenesis. The body weight of adult mice with CMTM2 deficiency was not significantly different from that of wild type mice. No obvious anatomical or behavioral abnormalities were observed. The testes of CMTM2(-/-)were smaller than that of CMTM2(+/+) mice. Female CMTM2 null mice are fertile, indicating that CMTM2 is not required for female gametogenesis. The CMTM2(-/-)mice produced virtually no sperm, and CMTM2(+/-)mice sperm count showed a significant decline. The hormone levels are not significantly different. The CMTM2(-/-)male mice are sterile due to a late, complete arrest of spermiogenesis. The organized architecture of the seminiferous epithelium of the seminiferous tubules seen in CMTM2(+/+) mice was lost in CMTM2(-/-)mice. Conclusions: This study suggests CMTM2 is not required for embryonic development in the mouse but is essential for spermiogenesis.NIH [AG14875]; Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, China [20-120001120056]SCI(E)[email protected]

Yield enhancement of recombinant α-Amylases in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens by ARTP mutagenesis-screening and medium optimization

α-Amylase is the most extensively applied enzyme in industry. There is an urgent need for improvement on the yield of α-amylases currently. Herein, a strategy which combined Atmospheric and Room Temperature Plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis tool for construction of mutant library of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens with a 24-well plates screening technique was adopted to improve the yield of recombinant Bacillus amyloliquefaciens α-amylases (BAA). A mutant strain named B. amyloliquefaciens ZN mut-7# was obtained, and the activity of BAA produced by this mutant strain was 86.92% higher than that of the original strain. B. amyloliquefaciens ZN mut-7# has an unchanged BAA gene and genetic stability. This successful application proved that ARTP can be applied to the genetically engineering strains that contain recombinant plasmid. Furthermore, response surface methodology offers an achievable and efficient strategy to optimize the composition of medium used to generate BAA in B. amyloliquefaciens ZN mut-7#. A 1.28-fold increase had been obtained compared to the production of non-optimized fermentation medium. This study demonstrates that ARTP mutagenesis and medium optimization are efficient and feasible methods for increasing recombinant enzyme production in the genetically engineering strains

Bloch surface plasmon enhanced blue emission from InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode structures with Al-coated GaN nanorods

InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode structures with Al-coated GaN nanorods were fabricated by using soft ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography. The intensity of light emission was found to be greatly enhanced due to the strong near-fields confined at the interface of Al/GaN and extended to the multiple quantum wells (MQWs) active region. The dynamics of carrier recombination and plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering were also investigated, providing a progressive view on the effective energy transfer between MQWs and surface plasmons.This work was supported by Special Funds for Major State Basic Research Project (Nos. 2011CB301900 and 2012CB619304), the Hi-tech Research Project (No. 2014AA032605), National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11104130, 61274003, 60990311, 61176063, and 61422401), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-11-0229), Nature Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK2011556, BK2011010, BK2010385, BY2013077, and BE2011132), Funds of Key Laboratory (No. 9140C140102120C14), Scientific Innovation Research of College Graduate in Jiangsu Province (CXZZ12_0052), PAPD, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Research Funds from NJUYangzhou Institute of Opto-electronics, and the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE130101700)

Synthetic five-wave mixing in an integrated microcavity for visible-telecom entanglement generation

Nonlinear optics processes lie at the heart of photonics and quantum optics for their indispensable role in light sources and information processing. During the past decades, the three- and four-wave mixing ($\chi^{(2)}$ and $\chi^{(3)}$) effects have been extensively studied, especially in the micro-/nano-structures by which the photon-photon interaction strength is greatly enhanced. So far, the high-order nonlinearity beyond the $\chi^{(3)}$ has rarely been studied in dielectric materials due to their weak intrinsic nonlinear susceptibility, even in high-quality microcavities. Here, an effective five-wave mixing process ($\chi^{(4)}$) is synthesized for the first time, by incorporating $\chi^{(2)}$ and $\chi^{(3)}$ processes in a single microcavity. The coherence of the synthetic $\chi^{(4)}$ is verified by generating time-energy entangled visible-telecom photon-pairs, which requires only one drive laser at the telecom waveband. The photon pair generation rate from the synthetic process shows an enhancement factor over $500$ times upon intrinsic five-wave mixing. Our work demonstrates a universal approach of nonlinear synthesis via photonic structure engineering at the mesoscopic scale rather than material engineering, and thus opens a new avenue for realizing high-order optical nonlinearities and exploring novel functional photonic devices.Comment: 4 figure

Chronic IL-1β-induced inflammation regulates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition memory phenotypes via epigenetic modifications in non-small cell lung cancer.

Chronic inflammation facilitates tumor progression. We discovered that a subset of non-small cell lung cancer cells underwent a gradually progressing epithelial-to-mesenchymal (EMT) phenotype following a 21-day exposure to IL-1β, an abundant proinflammatory cytokine in the at-risk for lung cancer pulmonary and the lung tumor microenvironments. Pathway analysis of the gene expression profile and in vitro functional studies revealed that the EMT and EMT-associated phenotypes, including enhanced cell invasion, PD-L1 upregulation, and chemoresistance, were sustained in the absence of continuous IL-1β exposure. We referred to this phenomenon as EMT memory. Utilizing a doxycycline-controlled SLUG expression system, we found that high expression of the transcription factor SLUG was indispensable for the establishment of EMT memory. High SLUG expression in tumors of lung cancer patients was associated with poor survival. Chemical or genetic inhibition of SLUG upregulation prevented EMT following the acute IL-1β exposure but did not reverse EMT memory. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and methylation-specific PCR further revealed a SLUG-mediated temporal regulation of epigenetic modifications, including accumulation of H3K27, H3K9, and DNA methylation, in the CDH1 (E-cadherin) promoter following the chronic IL-1β exposure. Chemical inhibition of DNA methylation not only restored E-cadherin expression in EMT memory, but also primed cells for chemotherapy-induced apoptosis

Downregulation of connective tissue growth factor inhibits the growth and invasion of gastric cancer cells and attenuates peritoneal dissemination

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) has been shown to be implicated in tumor development and progression. However, the role of CTGF in gastric cancer remains largely unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we showed that CTGF was highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues compared with matched normal gastric tissues. The CTGF expression in tumor tissue was associated with histologic grade, lymph node metastasis and peritoneal dissemination (P < 0.05). Patients with positive CTGF expression had significantly lower cumulative postoperative 5 year survival rate than those with negative CTGF expression (22.9% versus 48.1%, P < 0.001). We demonstrated that knockdown of CTGF expression significantly inhibited cell growth of gastric cancer cells and decreased cyclin D₁expression. Moreover, knockdown of CTGF expression also markedly reduced the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells and decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9. Animal studies revealed that nude mice injected with the CTGF knockdown stable cell lines featured a smaller number of peritoneal seeding nodules than the control cell lines.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that CTGF plays an important role in cell growth and invasion in human gastric cancer and it appears to be a potential prognostic marker for patients with gastric cancer.</p