Search

To priority areas for conservation in the coast of Zhejiang, this study attempts to map the spatial patterns of the intra-specific genetic diversity of two intertidal species, Septifer virgatus and Tetraclita japonica, using the sequences of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and large subunit ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) genes. In total, 129 and 112 specimens were collected from 12 and 11 populations for S. virgatus and T. japonica, respectively. These two species revealed congruent population historical signals, including (1) high levels of haplotype diversity and low values of nucleotide diversity, (2) post-LGM expansion, (3) the lack of population genetic structure, sharing haplotypes over all sampling populations, (4) gene flow connections, and (5) migration directions. Largely, all results supported that all sampling populations could be divided into two main metapopulations, exhibiting a northern and southern distribution. The north metapopulation could be considered as a marine protected area. The genetic patterns of the two species should be considered in the management and conservation in the islands along the Zhejiang, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase change materials (PCMs) require an excellent matrix support material such as porous carbon materials. Orange peel, a discarded, readily available raw material, could potentially be used to prepare biological porous carbon material (BPCM) with abundant pores of uniform size and strong loading capacity through a vacuum freeing method and a carbonization process under nitrogen atmosphere. Herein, paraffin (PA) was encapsulated into BPCM by vacuum impregnation method to obtain environmentally friendly; recyclable PA/carbonized-abandoned orange peel (CAOP) shape-stable PCMs (PA/CAOP SS-PCMs). CAOP was composed of amorphous carbon and a certain degree of graphitization occurred, the best of which was observed following carbonization at 1000 °C. Further, at this temperature, the pores were abundant and PA loading was sufficient. PA/CAOP SS-PCMs were shown to undergo simple physical loading with no chemical interactions and to have good thermal stability and a maximum loading percentage of 88.46%; the calculated maximum loading percentage was of 88.07%. The temperature and latent heat during the melting of PA/CAOP SS-PCMs were 47.68 °C and 180.25 J/g, respectively, and the solidification process occurred 34.47 °C and 177.55 J/g, respectively. The composite exhibited excellent thermal stability and reliability after 200 thermal cycles. Therefore, it has very broad application prospects and value in the fields of energy saving and emission reduction, including solar energy, air conditioning storage cooling systems, and building cladding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

mTOR is an important therapeutic target in many types of cancers. In melanoma, the mTOR nonsynonymous mutation rate is up to 10.4%. However, mTOR inhibitors have shown limited effects in clinical trials of melanoma. Because mTOR mutations are distributed, not selecting patients with specific mTOR mutations may be the main reason for therapeutic failures. Our previous research found that mutations in the mTOR P2213S and S2215Y kinase domains resulted in gain-of-function and were sensitive to specific inhibitors. The purpose of this study was to test the effect of heterozygous/homozygous H2189Y mutations on downstream pathways and sensitivity to inhibitors. mTOR kinase activity was analyzed by western blot and a K-LISA™ mTOR activity kit. The sensitivity of melanoma cells to inhibitors was tested by a proliferation assay. The expression of downstream pathway proteins was also analyzed by western blot. The results showed that heterozygous/homozygous H2189Y mutations were gain-of-function. The heterozygous H2189Y mutation was sensitive to the AKT inhibitor, AZD5363, and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, LY294002. The homozygous H2189Y mutation was sensitive to the mTOR inhibitor, everolimus, and the AKT inhibitors AZD5363 and MK-2206 2HCL,and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, LY294002. These results indicated that homozygous mutations in the kinase domain have a greater effect on protein function than heterozygous mutations. The mTOR kinase domain may play an important role in mTOR kinase activity and may be the target of selective inhibitors. Our study can facilitate the selection of appropriate inhibitors for patients in clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon felt composites were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using Ni(NO3)2as a catalyst and methane as a pyrocarbon precursor. The pyrocarbon which has been deposited on fiber surface increased gradually with increase in deposition temperature. Besides, the surface of the deposited pyrocarbon was seen to contain many micropores. The phenol-adsorption capability evaluation of the composites showed that the adsorption equilibrium was achieved in 90 min, and the maximum adsorption quantity reached was 13.37 mg/g. The Langmuir isotherm model was preferred in fitting the adsorption data compared with the Freundilch isotherm model. The theoretical maximum adsorption was calculated to be 17.45 mg/g. At pH = 5, the adsorption quantity was a minimum of 10.66 mg/g. Moreover, the phenol-adsorption quantity increased with increasing deposition temperature. The adsorption quantity on carbon felt composites without pyrolytic carbon deposition was minimum, being 9.11 mg/g, while that of carbon fiber produced at 950°C reached the maximum of 13.37 mg/g. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sargassum hemiphyllum (Turner) C. Agardh is an important brown macroalga. In this study, we presented the complete chloroplast genome of its variety S. hemiphyllum var. chinense using genome skimming approach. Circular mapping revealed its sequence length was 124,319 bp, with a large single-copy region (LSC, 73,505 bp) and a small single copy region (SSC, 39,922 bp) separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRs, 5446 bp). Its chloroplast genome contained 173 genes, including 139 protein-coding, 6 rRNA, and 28 tRNA genes. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that S. hemiphyllum var. chinense was closely related with S. confusum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]