Six new conjugates were designed and synthesized by introducing glucose, methyl glucuronate or glucuronic acid moieties on tralopyril. Phytotoxicity and phloem mobility results demonstrated that the introduction of glucose, methyl glucuronate or glucuronic acid moieties can simultaneously solve the tough phytotoxicity problem and phloem mobility transformation of tralopyril. Conjugates 12 and 18 containing the glucuronic acid moiety exhibited higher phloem mobility than conjugates 9, 11, 15 and 17. Conjugates 15, 17 and 18 with methoxymethyl groups on the tralopyril pyrrole nitrogen atom showed activity against Plutella xylostella, while conjugates 9, 11 and 12 with a methene group on the pyrrole N showed no activity. Cabbage roots were incubated in a buffered solution containing conjugates 15, 17 and 18 at 4 mM for 72 h. Only 18 showed systemic insecticidal activity with 100% mortalityagainst P. xylostella, while 15 and 17 showed lower activity andchlorfenapyr showed no activity. The glucuronic acid promoiety imparted more phloem mobility to tralopyril than glucose and methyl glucuronate. The methoxymethyl group bond on the tralopyril skeleton was the key factor in determining the insecticidal activity of the conjugates. A promising systemic proinsecticide containing glucuronic acid and tralopyril moieties was proposed. Full article

It is well known that elastic instabilities induce pattern transformations when a soft cellular structure is compressed beyond critical limits. The nonlinear phenomena of pattern transformations make them a prime candidate for controlling macroscopic or microscopic deformation and auxetic properties of the material. In this present work, the novel mechanical properties of soft cellular structures and related hydrogel–elastomer composites are examined through experimental investigation and numerical simulations. We provide two reliable approaches for fabricating hydrogel–elastomer composites with rationally designed properties and transformed patterns, and demonstrate that different geometries of the repeat unit voids of the periodic pattern can be used to influence the global characteristics of the soft composite material. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the transformation event is dependent on the boundary conditions and material properties of matrix material for soft cellular structures; meanwhile, the deformation-triggered pattern of matrix material affects the pattern switching and mechanical properties of the hydrogel–elastomer material, thus providing future perspectives for optimal design, or serving as a fabrication suggestion of the new hydrogel–elastomer composite material. Full article

Carsharing is growing rapidly in popularity worldwide. When the vehicles involved are Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), carsharing has been proven to remarkably contribute to easing energy and environment crises. In this study, individuals’ acceptance to carsharing in China was measured from three aspects: carsharing mode choice behavior, highest acceptable price to use carsharing, and willingness to forgo car purchases. The data were collected by a web-based survey. The hierarchical tree-based regression (HTBR) method was applied to explore the effects of potential influencing factors on individuals’ acceptance, and some interesting findings were obtained: participants who know about carsharing were more likely to use carsharing, pay higher prices and forgo car purchases; the most competitive trip purpose and trip distance for choosing carsharing were, respectively, business activities and 11–20 km; most participants (47.1%) were willing to pay 1–2 Yuan per minute to use carsharing, and males or participants with higher income-level could accept higher price; and when car purchase restrain policy (CPRP) was carried out in a city or the urban public transport service level (UPTSL) was high, participants were more willing to forgo car purchases. Based on the above findings, corresponding policies were proposed to provide guidance for successful establishment of carsharing in China. Full article

Carrier recombination behavior in c-plane GaN-based laser diodes (LDs) is numerically investigated by using the commercial software LASTIP. It is found that efficiency droop phenomenon does exist in GaN-based LDs before lasing, which is confirmed by experimental results. However, the current density corresponding to the peak efficiency of GaN-based LDs before lasing, J_max, is nearly 40 A/cm², which is much lower than that reported by other studies. The reported J_max, measured from the cavity facet side is modulated by the absorption of quantum wells, which shifts the J_max to a higher value. In addition, the currents due to various recombinations are calculated. It is found that Auger recombination affects the threshold current greatly, but it only plays a small role at high current injection levels. Full article

The penetration of a 30CrMnMo ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene armor by a high-speed fragment was investigated via experiments and simulations. Analysis of the projectile revealed that the nose (of the projectile) is in the non-equilibrium state at the initial stage of penetration, and the low-speed regions undergo plastic deformation. Subsequently, the nose-tail velocities of the projectile were virtually identical and fluctuated together. In addition, the effective combination of the steel plate and polyethylene (PE) laminate resulted in energy absorption by the PE just before the projectile nose impacts the laminate. This early absorption plays a positive role in the ballistic performance of the composite armor. Further analysis of the internal energy and mass loss revealed that the PE laminate absorbs energy via the continuous and stable failure of PE fibers during the initial stages of penetration, and absorbs energy via deformation until complete penetration occurs. The energy absorbed by the laminate accounts for 68% of the total energy absorption, indicating that the laminate plays a major role in energy absorption during the penetration process. Full article

Emission in the nanostructured materials is important in micro/nanoelectronic devices. We report here a strategy for the processing of micron and submicron fibers from a cobalt-containing hyperbranched polysilazane by electrospinning. The electrospun nanofibers have uniform average diameters of ~600 nm and lengths of ~10 μm. The photophysical properties of polycobaltsilazane (PCSN) are studied using UV-VIS and photoluminescence spectroscopies. PCSN fibers display a series of emission peaks between 490 and 615 nm. The Co(II) doping into polysilazane leads to the emission from 465 to 415 nm. The emission wavelength shift of Co(III)-containing polysilazane is specific under 340 and 470 nm excitation wavelengths, respectively, while it is not observed with metal-free polysilazane. Thermogravimetric analysis-Differentical thermal analysis (TGA-DTA) profiles also show good thermostability of the PCSN fibers at 800 °C under Ar atmosphere. The use of PCSN offers both enhanced ceramic yields against ~5 wt % starting material and the fluorescence intensity of polymeric fibers. Full article

The search for new molecular constructs that resemble the critical two-metal binding pharmacophore and the halo-substituted phenyl functionality required for HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibition represents a vibrant area of research within drug discovery. As reported herein, we have modified our recently disclosed 1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-pyrrole-2,5-dione scaffolds to design 35 novel compounds with improved biological activities against HIV-1. These new compounds show single-digit micromolar antiviral potencies against HIV-1 and low toxicity. Among of them, compound 9g and 15i had potent anti-HIV-1 activities (EC₅₀ < 5 μM) and excellent therapeutic index (TI, CC₅₀/EC₅₀ > 100). These two compounds have potential as lead compounds for further optimization into clinical anti-HIV-1 agents. Full article

Lysophospholipase I (LYPLA1) is an important protein with multiple functions. In this study, the full-length cDNA of the LYPLA1 gene from Ovis aries (OaLypla1) was cloned using primers and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technology. The full-length OaLypla1 was 2457 bp with a 5′-untranslated region (UTR) of 24 bp, a 3′-UTR of 1740 bp with a poly (A) tail, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 693 bp encoding a protein of 230 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 24,625.78 Da. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the OaLypla1 protein shared a high amino acid identity with LYPLA1 of Bos taurus. The recombinant OaLypla1 protein was expressed and purified, and its phospholipase activity was identified. Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) against OaLypla1 that bound native OaLypla1 were generated. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that OaLypla1 was constitutively expressed in the liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and white blood cells of sheep, with the highest level in the kidney. Additionally, the mRNA levels of OaLypla1 in the buffy coats of sheep challenged with virulent or avirulent Brucella strains were down-regulated compared to untreated sheep. The results suggest that OaLypla1 may have an important physiological role in the host response to bacteria. The function of OaLypla1 in the host response to bacterial infection requires further study in the future. Full article

During virus infection, the cascade signaling pathway that leads to the production of proinflammatory cytokines is controlled at multiple levels to avoid detrimental overreaction. HACE1 has been characterized as an important tumor suppressor. Here, we identified HACE1 as an important negative regulator of virus-triggered type I IFN signaling. Overexpression of HACE1 inhibited Sendai virus- or poly (I:C)-induced signaling and resulted in reduced IFNB1 production and enhanced virus replication. Knockdown of HACE1 expression exhibited the opposite effects. Ubiquitin E3 ligase activity of the dead mutant HACE1/C876A had a comparable inhibitory function as WT HACE1, suggesting that the suppressive function of HACE1 on virus-induced signaling is independent of its E3 ligase activity. Further study indicated that HACE1 acted downstream of MAVS and upstream of TBK1. Mechanistic studies showed that HACE1 exerts its inhibitory role on virus-induced signaling by disrupting the MAVS-TRAF3 complex. Therefore, we uncovered a novel function of HACE1 in innate immunity regulation. Full article

In this paper, we present a novel automatic pipeline to build personalized parametric models of dynamic people using a single RGB camera. Compared to previous approaches that use monocular RGB images, our system can model a 3D human body automatically and incrementally, taking advantage of human motion. Based on coarse 2D and 3D poses estimated from image sequences, we first perform a kinematic classification of human body parts to refine the poses and obtain reconstructed body parts. Next, a personalized parametric human model is generated by driving a general template to fit the body parts and calculating the non-rigid deformation. Experimental results show that our shape estimation method achieves comparable accuracy with reconstructed models using depth cameras, yet requires neither user interaction nor any dedicated devices, leading to the feasibility of using this method on widely available smart phones. Full article

Okadaic acid (OA) is produced by Dinophysis and Prorocentrum dinoflagellates and primarily accumulates in bivalves, and this toxin has harmful effects on consumers and operators. In this work, we first report the use of aptamers as novel non-toxic probes capable of binding to a monoclonal antibody against OA (OA-mAb). Aptamers that mimic the OA toxin with high affinity and selectivity were generated by the magnetic bead-assisted systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) strategy. After 12 selection rounds, cloning, sequencing and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis, four candidate aptamers (O24, O31, O39, O40) were selected that showed high affinity and specificity for OA-mAb. The affinity constants of O24, O31, O39 and O40 were 8.3 × 10⁸ M⁻¹, 1.47 × 10⁹ M⁻¹, 1.23 × 10⁹ M⁻¹ and 1.05 × 10⁹ M⁻¹, respectively. Indirect competitive ELISA was employed to determine the internal-image function of the aptamers. The results reveal that O31 has a similar competitive function as free OA toxin, whereas the other three aptamers did not bear the necessary internal-image function. Based on the derivation of the curvilinear equation for OA/O31, the equation that defined the relationship between the OA toxin content and O31 was Y = 2.185X − 1.78. The IC₅₀ of O31 was 3.39 ng·mL⁻¹, which was close to the value predicted by the OA ELISA (IC₅₀ = 4.4 ng·mL⁻¹); the IC₁₀ was 0.33 ng·mL⁻¹. The above data provides strong evidence that internal-image functional aptamers could be applicable as novel probes in a non-toxic assay. Full article

Accurate motion capture plays an important role in sports analysis, the medical field and virtual reality. Current methods for motion capture often suffer from occlusions, which limits the accuracy of their pose estimation. In this paper, we propose a complete system to measure the pose parameters of the human body accurately. Different from previous monocular depth camera systems, we leverage two Kinect sensors to acquire more information about human movements, which ensures that we can still get an accurate estimation even when significant occlusion occurs. Because human motion is temporally constant, we adopt a learning analysis to mine the temporal information across the posture variations. Using this information, we estimate human pose parameters accurately, regardless of rapid movement. Our experimental results show that our system can perform an accurate pose estimation of the human body with the constraint of information from the temporal domain. Full article

Although previous studies reported the associations between the intakes of individual foods or nutrients and the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the relationship between dietary patterns and NAFLD in the Chinese population has been rarely studied to date. This study aimed to investigate the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of NAFLD in a middle-aged Chinese population. The Study subjects were 999 Chinese adults aged 45–60 years in the Anhui province who participated in the Hefei Nutrition and Health Study. Dietary intake was collected by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. NAFLD was defined as the presence of moderate-severe hepatic steatosis (by B-ultrasonic examination); the absence of excessive alcohol use (>20 g day⁻¹ in men and 10 g day⁻¹ in women); no use of steatogenic medications within the past six months; no exposure to hepatotoxins; and no history of bariatric surgery. Log-binomial regression analysis was used to examine the association between dietary patterns and NAFLD with adjustment of potential confounding variables. Out of 999 participants, 345 (34.5%) were classified as having NAFLD. Four major dietary patterns were identified: “Traditional Chinese”, “Animal food”, “Grains-vegetables” and “High-salt” dietary patterns. After adjusting for potential confounders, subjects in the highest quartile of the “Animal food” pattern scores had greater prevalence ratio for NAFLD (prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.354; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.063–1.724; p < 0.05) than did those in the lowest quartile. After adjustment for body mass index (BMI), compared with the lowest quartile of the “Grains-vegetables” pattern, the highest quartile had a lower prevalence ratio for NAFLD (PR = 0.777; 95% CI: 0.618–0.977, p < 0.05). However, the “traditional Chinese” and “high-salt” dietary patterns showed no association with the risk of NAFLD. Our findings indicated that the “Animal food” dietary pattern was associated with an increased risk of NAFLD. Full article

Central Asia comprises a large fraction of the world’s drylands, known to be vulnerable to climate change. We analyzed the inter-annual trends and the impact of climate variability in the vegetation greenness for Central Asia from 1982 to 2011 using GIMMS3g normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data. In our study, most areas showed an increasing trend during 1982–1991, but experienced a significantly decreasing trend for 1992–2011. Vegetation changes were closely coupled to climate variables (precipitation and temperature) during 1982–1991 and 1992–2011, but the response trajectories differed between these two periods. The warming trend in Central Asia initially enhanced the vegetation greenness before 1991, but the continued warming trend subsequently became a suppressant of further gains in greenness afterwards. Precipitation expanded its influence on larger vegetated areas in 1992–2011 when compared to 1982–1991. Moreover, the time-lag response of plants to rainfall tended to increase after 1992 compared to the pre-1992 period, indicating that plants might have experienced functional transformations to adapt the climate change during the study period. The impact of climate on vegetation was significantly different for the different sub-regions before and after 1992, coinciding with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was suggested that these spatio-temporal patterns in greenness change and their relationship with climate change for some regions could be explained by the changes in the socio-economic structure resulted from the USSR collapse in late 1991. Our results clearly illustrate the combined influence of climatic/anthropogenic contributions on vegetation growth in Central Asian drylands. Due to the USSR collapse, this region represents a unique case study of the vegetation response to climate changes under different climatic and socio-economic conditions. Full article

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) induced the proliferation of lens epithelial cells (LECs) and may be a major cause of posterior capsule opacification (PCO), which is the most frequent postoperative complication of cataract surgery. To date, several agents that can block LECs proliferation have been studied, but none have been used in clinic. Recently, accumulating evidence has suggested rapamycin, the inhibitor of mTOR (mammalian target of Rapamycin), was associated with the induction of apoptosis in LECs. The purpose of our study was to investigate the potential effects of rapamycin on HGF-induced LECs and the underlying mechanisms by which rapamycin exerted its actions. Using cell proliferation, cell viability and flow cytometric apoptosis assays, we found that rapamycin potently not only suppressed proliferation but also induced the apoptosis of LECs in a dose-dependent manner under HGF administration. Further investigation of the underlying mechanism using siRNA transfection revealed that rapamycin could promote apoptosis of LECs via inhibiting HGF-induced phosphorylation of AKT/mTOR, ERK and JAK2/STAT3 signaling molecules. Moreover, the forced expression of AKT, ERK and STAT3 could induce a significant suppression of apoptosis in these cells after treatment of rapamycin. Together, these findings suggested that rapamycin-induced apoptosis in HGF-stimulated LECs is accompanied by inhibition of AKT/mTOR, ERK and JAK2/STAT3 pathways, which supports its use to inhibit PCO in preclinical studies and provides theoretical foundation for future possible practice. Full article

Type II acid soluble collagen (CIIA), pepsin soluble collagen (CIIP) and type II gelatin (GII) were isolated from silvertip shark (Carcharhinus albimarginatus) cartilage and examined for their physicochemical and antioxidant properties. GII had a higher hydroxyproline content (173 mg/g) than the collagens and cartilage. CIIA, CIIP and GII were composed of two identical α₁ and β chains and were characterized as type II. Amino acid analysis of CIIA, CIIP and GII indicated imino acid contents of 150, 156 and 153 amino acid residues per 1000 residues, respectively. Differing Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of CIIA, CIIP and GII were observed, which suggested that the isolation process affected the secondary structure and molecular order of collagen, particularly the triple-helical structure. The denaturation temperature of GII (32.5 °C) was higher than that of CIIA and CIIP. The antioxidant activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals and the reducing power of CIIP was greater than that of CIIA and GII. SEM microstructure of the collagens depicted a porous, fibrillary and multi-layered structure. Accordingly, the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of type II collagens (CIIA, CIIP) and GII isolated from shark cartilage were found to be suitable for biomedical applications. Full article

Non-contact human body measurement plays an important role in surveillance, physical healthcare, on-line business and virtual fitting. Current methods for measuring the human body without physical contact usually cannot handle humans wearing clothes, which limits their applicability in public environments. In this paper, we propose an effective solution that can measure accurate parameters of the human body with large-scale motion from a Kinect sensor, assuming that the people are wearing clothes. Because motion can drive clothes attached to the human body loosely or tightly, we adopt a space-time analysis to mine the information across the posture variations. Using this information, we recover the human body, regardless of the effect of clothes, and measure the human body parameters accurately. Experimental results show that our system can perform more accurate parameter estimation on the human body than state-of-the-art methods. Full article

As a major indicator of lake eutrophication that is harmful to human health, the chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a) is often estimated using remote sensing, and one method often used is the spectral derivative algorithm. Direct derivative processing may magnify the noise, thus making spectral smoothing necessary. This study aims to use spectral smoothing as a pretreatment and to test the applicability of the spectral derivative algorithm for Chl-a estimation in Taihu Lake, China, based on the in situ hyperspectral reflectance. Data from July–August of 2004 were used to build the model, and data from July–August of 2005 and March of 2011 were used to validate the model, with Chl-a ranges of 5.0–156.0 mg/m³, 4.0–98.0 mg/m³ and 11.4–35.8 mg/m³, respectively. The derivative model was first used and then compared with the band ratio, three-band and four-band models. The results show that the first-order derivative model at 699 nm had satisfactory accuracy (R² = 0.75) after kernel regression smoothing and had smaller validation root mean square errors of 15.21 mg/m³ in 2005 and 5.85 mg/m³ in 2011. The distribution map of Chl-a in Taihu Lake based on the HJ1/HSI image showed the actual distribution trend, indicating that the first-order derivative model after spectral smoothing can be used for Chl-a estimation in turbid lake. Full article

An efficient approach for the synthesis of biologically interesting fused tetracyclic isoquinolines in high yields and with a broad substrate scope has been developed. The strategy features an AgNO₃ catalyzed ‘one-pot’ cascade process involving formation of two new C–N bonds and one new C–O bond. Full article

Genetically modified (GM) rice KMD1, TT51-1, and KF6 are three of the most well known transgenic Bt rice lines in China. A rapid and sensitive molecular assay for risk assessment of GM rice is needed. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), currently the most common method for detecting genetically modified organisms, requires temperature cycling and relatively complex procedures. Here we developed a visual and rapid loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method to amplify three GM rice event-specific junction sequences. Target DNA was amplified and visualized by two indicators (SYBR green or hydroxy naphthol blue [HNB]) within 60 min at an isothermal temperature of 63 °C. Different kinds of plants were selected to ensure the specificity of detection and the results of the non-target samples were negative, indicating that the primer sets for the three GM rice varieties had good levels of specificity. The sensitivity of LAMP, with detection limits at low concentration levels (0.01%–0.005% GM), was 10- to 100-fold greater than that of conventional PCR. Additionally, the LAMP assay coupled with an indicator (SYBR green or HNB) facilitated analysis. These findings revealed that the rapid detection method was suitable as a simple field-based test to determine the status of GM crops. Full article

In one-shot color structured light systems, the color of stripe patterns are typically distorted with respect to color crosstalk, ambient light and the albedo of the scanned objects, leading to mismatch in the correspondence of color stripes between the projected and captured images. In this paper, an adaptive color calibration and Discrete Trend Transform algorithm are presented to achieve high-resolution 3D reconstructions. The adaptive color calibration, according to the relative albedo in RGB channels, can improve the accuracy of labeling stripe by alleviating the effect of albedo and ambient light while decoding the color. Furthermore, the Discrete Trend Transform in the M channel makes the color calibration an effective method for detecting weak stripes due to the uneven surfaces or reflectance characteristics of the scanned objects. With this approach, the presented system is suitable for scanning moving objects and generating high-resolution 3D reconstructions without the need of dark laboratory environments. Full article

This paper focuses on developing a novel technique based on machine vision for detection of foreign substances in injections. Mechanical control yields spin/stop movement of injections which helps to cause relative movement between foreign substances in liquid and an ampoule bottle. Foreign substances are classified into two categories: subsiding-slowly object and subsiding-fast object. A sequence of frames are captured by a camera and used to recognize foreign substances. After image preprocessing like noise reduction and motion detection, two different methods, Moving-object Clustering (MC) and Frame Difference, are proposed to detect the two categories respectively. MC is operated to cluster subsiding-slowly foreign substances, based on the invariant features of those objects. Frame Difference is defined to calculate the difference between two frames due to the change of subsiding-fast objects. 200 ampoule samples filled with injection are tested and the experimental result indicates that the approach can detect the visible foreign substances effectively. Full article

This paper presents the fabrication process of a single-chamber planar valveless micropump driven by an external electromagnetic actuator. This micropump features a pair of micro diffuser and nozzle elements used to rectify the fluid flow, and an elastic magnetic membrane used to regulate the pressure in the enclosed fluid chamber. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used as the main construction material of this proposed micropump, including the structural substrate and the planar actuation membrane embedded with a thin micro magnet. Both the Finite Element Method and experimental analysis are used to assess the PDMS-membrane actuation under the applied electromagnetic forces and characterize the pump performance at variable working conditions. The resonant frequency of this micropump is identified experimentally and de-ionized (DI) water is loaded to account for the coupling effects of the working fluid. The experimental data was used to demonstrate the reliability of flow rates and how it can be controlled by consistently adjusting the driving frequencies and currents. The proposed micropump is capable of delivering a maximum flow rate of 319.6 μL/min and a maximum hydrostatic backpressure of 950 Pa (9.5 cm H₂O). The planar design feature of the pump allows for potential integration of the pump with other PDMS-based microfluidic systems for biomedical applications. Full article