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Tools to measure in vivo redox activity of the gut microbiome and its influence on host health are lacking. In this paper, we present the design of new in vivo gut oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) sensors for rodents, to study host-microbe and microbe-environment interactions throughout the gut. These are the first in vivo sensors to combine ultrasonic wake-up and galvanic coupling telemetry, allowing for sensor miniaturization, experiment flexibility, and robust wireless measurements in live rodents. A novel study of in situ ORP along the intestine reveals biogeographical redox features that the ORP sensors can uniquely access in future gut microbiome studies.

In this research, the natural frequency responses of joined hemispherical–cylindrical–conical shells made of composite three-phase materials have been dealt with in the framework of First-Order Shear Deformation Theory (FOSDT). The joined hemispherical–cylindrical–conical shells are assumed to be made of hybrid porous nanocomposite material with three phases including a matrix of epoxy, macroscale carbon fiber, and nanoscale 3D Graphene Foams (3GFs). For getting the equivalent mechanical properties of the Hybrid Matrix (HM) including polymer epoxy and 3GFs, the well-known rule of the mixture is used. In addition, the effect of porosity throughout the HM is considered using two novel and one well-known porosity distribution pattern. Moreover, the HM is reinforced with transversely isotropic macroscale carbon fibers in which the Halpin–Tsai scheme is used for multiscale homogenization procedure. The governing equations of motion associated with hybrid porous nanocomposite joined hemispherical–cylindrical–conical structures are figured out by implementing Donnell-type shell formulation and Hamilton’s approach. Moreover, an efficient and well-known semi-analytical solution method entitled Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (GDQM) is employed to solve the governing differential equations. To verify the proposed formulation some well-known benchmarks, especially those are composed of homogenous materials have been analyzed, and a good agreement has been achieved. Besides, some other new and applicable problems are considered to investigate the effects of different parameters including various boundary conditions, patterns of porosity distributions, and geometric properties of structure on the vibration behavior of joined shells.

Iron oxide nanoparticle fabrications have gained increasing attention owing to their vital role in industrial application. Taking green synthesis of nano-products into account, this experiment was conducted to provide a simple, facile, economic, and fast procedure for the biosynthesis of Fe2O3nanoparticles using fruit extracts of Cornelian cherry. The FTIR spectroscopy revealed that hydroxyl and amino groups have the ability to perform dual functions of reduction and stabilization of iron oxide nanoparticles. XRD analysis manifested the crystal structure of the Fe2O3nanoparticle. The SEM image of synthesized Fe2O3nanoparticle demonstrated the morphology of nanoparticles is spherical. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed very fine spherical Fe2O3nanoparticles ranging from 20 to 40 nm. The EDXRF spectra displayed only iron and oxygen elements, which implies that the sample is highly pure Fe2O3nanoparticle. The Fe2O3nanoparticle and its bulk form at the concentrations ranging from 10 to 100 mg L−1showed statistically significant stimulation in both root and shoot biomass. However, Fe2O3nanoparticle was more effective than the bulk to stimulate barley growth. The findings may be functionalized in the production and formulations of nano-based fertilizers.

Non-reciprocal devices such as isolators and circulators are key enabling technologies for communication systems, both at microwave and optical frequencies. Although non-reciprocal devices based on magnetic effects are available for free-space and fibre-optic communication systems, their on-chip integration has been challenging, primarily due to the concomitant high insertion loss, weak magneto-optical effects and material incompatibility. We show that χ(3)nonlinear resonators can be used to achieve all-passive, low-loss, bias-free non-reciprocal transmission for applications in photonic systems such as chip-scale LiDAR. A multi-port nonlinear Fano resonator is used as an on-chip, non-reciprocal pulse router for frequency comb-based optical ranging. Because time-reversal symmetry imposes stringent limitations on the operating power range and transmission of a single nonlinear resonator, we implement a cascaded Fano–Lorentzian resonator system that overcomes these limitations and substantially improves the insertion loss and operating power range of current state-of-the-art devices. This work provides a platform-independent design for non-reciprocal transmission and routing that is ideally suited for photonic integration.

ABSTRACTTransient receptor potential (TRP) channels form a family of polymodal cation channels gated by thermal, mechanical, or chemical stimuli, with many of them involved in the control of proliferation, apoptosis, or cell cycle. From an evolutionary point of view, TRP family is characterized by high conservation of duplicated genes originating from whole-genome duplication at the onset of vertebrates. The conservation of such “ohnolog” genes is theoretically linked to an increased probability of generating phenotypes deleterious for the organism upon gene mutation. We aimed to test experimentally the hypothesis that TRP mutations, in particular gain-of-function, could be involved in the generation of deleterious phenotypes involved in cancer, such as gain of invasiveness. Indeed, a number of TRP channels have been linked to cancer progression, and exhibit changes in expression levels in various types of cancers. However, TRP mutations in cancer have been poorly documented. We focused on 2 TRPV family members, TRPV4 and TRPV6, and studied the effect of putative gain-of-function mutations on invasiveness properties. TRPV channels have a C-terminal calmodulin-binding domain (CaMBD) that has important functions for regulating protein function, through different mechanisms depending on the channel (channel inactivation/potentiation, cytoskeleton regulation). We studied the effect of mutations mimicking constitutive phosphorylation in TRPV4 and TRPV6 CaMBDs: TRPV4 S823D, S824D and T813D, TRPV6 S691D, S692D and T702. We found that most of these mutants induced a strong gain of invasiveness of colon adenocarcinoma SW480 cells, both for TRPV4 and TRPV6. While increased invasion with TRPV6 S692D and T702D mutants was correlated to increased mutant channel activity, it was not the case for TRPV4 mutants, suggesting different mechanisms with the same global effect of gain in deleterious phenotype. This highlights the potential importance to search for TRP mutations involved in cancer.

A time-of-flight imaging system is proposed and its working principle demonstrated. To realize this system, a new device, a free-space optical mixer, is designed and fabricated. A scene is illuminated (flashed) with a megahertz-level amplitude-modulated light source, and the reflected light from the scene is collected by a receiver. The receiver consists of the free-space optical mixer, comprising a photoelastic modulator sandwiched between polarizers, placed in front of a standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. This free-space optical mixer downconverts the megahertz-level amplitude modulation frequencies into the temporal bandwidth of the image sensor. A full-scale extension of the demonstrated system will be able to measure phases and Doppler shifts for the beat tones and use signal processing techniques to estimate the distance and velocity of each point in the illuminated scene with high accuracy.

A time-of-flight imaging system is proposed and its working principle demonstrated. To realize this system, a new device, a free-space optical mixer, is designed and fabricated. A scene is illuminated (flashed) with a megahertz-level amplitude-modulated light source, and the reflected light from the scene is collected by a receiver. The receiver consists of the free-space optical mixer, comprising a photoelastic modulator sandwiched between polarizers, placed in front of a standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. This free-space optical mixer downconverts the megahertz-level amplitude modulation frequencies into the temporal bandwidth of the image sensor. A full-scale extension of the demonstrated system will be able to measure phases and Doppler shifts for the beat tones and use signal processing techniques to estimate the distance and velocity of each point in the illuminated scene with high accuracy.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of magnetically treated water on the growth, antioxidant activity, and other physiological parameters of Lentil (Lens culinarisL.) during both vegetative and reproductive phases. The seeds of Lentil were cultured in greenhouse for 8 months between 10th September 2014 and 8th may 2015. The lentil crop was irrigated with magnetically treated water or no magnetically treated water (control experiment). Tap water was used in this study which was allowed to pass through magnetic field of 110 mT produced by electromagnet and the water becomes magnetically treated water. The results indicated that the values of ferric reducing/antioxidant power, carotenoid, flavonoid, sugar and protein contents in the leaf of the lentil for magnetically treated water were 6.64 μg/g, 2.54 mg/g, 3742.81, 138.35, and 1.64 μg/g, respectively, while the corresponding values for no magnetically treated water were 5.20 μg/g, 2.02 mg/g, 3700.09, 87.52, and 1.48 μg/g. For the seed, the values of ferric reducing/antioxidant power and protein contents with magnetically treated water were 2.25 and 3.50, while the corresponding values with no magnetically treated water (control experiment) were 1.39 and 3.22 μg/g. The analysis of proteins of seeds and leaves by SDS-PAGE also confirmed their increase in those plants which were treated with magnetically treated water. The number of seed in legumes, fresh and dry weights of the seeds was also significantly higher with lentil plant irrigated with magnetically treated water.

AbstractThe histological structure of the anthers and developmental processes of the male and female gametophytes in Ocimum basilicumL. were studied for the first time. To study developmental stages of the flower, young flowers and buds at different developmental stages were embedded in paraffin, sliced with a microtome and analyzed using a photomicroscope. It was observed that sporogenous meristem is formed as a result of cellular divisions in tunica and corpus regions. The initial ring (IR) activities remarkably decreased. Successive divisions in the peripheral and surface regions of sporogenous meristem results in the stamens primordia. Petals were grown from the peripheral parts of the region. Stamens were tetrasporangiate and cytokinesis in microsporocyte is simultaneous. The tetrads were also tetrahedral and the tapetum is of the secretory type. The mature pollen grain was three-celled and composed of a vegetative cell and two sperms. The ovary in O. basilicumwas observed to be hypogynous, quadri-locular with several ovules in each loculus. The ovules were anatropous, unitegmic, and tenuinucellate. Finally, the embryo sac development belonged to the Polygonumtype.

We investigate the fundamental physical constraints and tradeoffs in common millimeter-wave dielectric waveguides proposed for high speed links. We consider waveguides with different geometries, dimensions and operating frequencies, and show that the capacity of optimized longer links is limited by the dispersion and not necessarily the loss. In our analysis, the required capacity and distance determine the choice of waveguide and the operating frequency, which would then determine the energy efficiency of the link. Our generic theoretical analyses are in agreement with the measurements presented in the recent literature.

The major task in proteomics is to understand how proteins interact with their partners. The photo-cross-linking technique enables direct probing of protein−protein interaction. Here we report the development of three novel sulfhydryl-reactive benzophenone photoprobes of short “arm” length, each with a substitution of either amino, iodo, or nitro at the para-position, rendering the benzophenone moiety directly radioiodinatable. Their potential for study of protein−protein interaction was assessed using the inhibitory subunit of rod cGMP phosphodiesterase (PDEγ) and the activated transducin α subunit (Gαt-GTPγS) as a model system. These photoprobes proved to be stable at neutral pH and dithiothreitol-cleavable in addition. The PDEγ constructs derivatized at the C-terminal positions with these probes could be readily purified, had unaltered PDEγ functional activity, and were shown to photo-cross-link to Gαt-GTPγS with an efficiency as high as 40%. Additionally, the amino benzophenone probe was radioiodinated, facilitating sensitive detection of label transfer. The uniquely combined features of these benzophenone photoprobes promise robust and flexible methods for characterization of protein−protein interaction, either by mass spectrometry when a nonradioactive label is available or by autoradiography when using radioiodinated derivatives.

This publisher’s note corrects the Funding section in Appl. Opt.58, 2235 (2019)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.58.002235.