Search

Toll/IL-1R domain-containing adaptor-inducing IFN-β (TRIF), tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) and TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) are critical signal transducers in toll-like receptors (TLRs) signaling pathway. In the present study, TRIF, TRAF6 and TBK1 were characterized from golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus), named as TroTRIF, TroTRAF6 and TroTBK1, respectively. The full cDNA length of TroTRIF, TroTRAF6 and TroTBK1 was 2297 bp, 2293 bp, and 2482 bp, which respectively encoded 589, 573 and 723 amino acids. The deduced amino acids sequences of TroTRIF, TroTRAF6 and TroTBK1 contained conserved motifs, similar to their counterparts in other vertebrates. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that TroTRIF, TroTRAF6 and TroTBK1 were well clustered with their counterparts in other fish species. Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR) analysis showed that TroTRIF, TroTBK1 and TroTRAF6 were detected in all examined tissues of healthy fish, but shared distinct transcript levels. Moreover, the expressions of TroTRIF, TroTBK1 and TroTRAF6 were generally induced by polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid (polyI:C), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and Vibrio alginolyticus stimulation in vivo, indicating their critical roles in the immune defense of golden pompano against pathogen invasion. Our results provide valuable information for understanding the functions of these genes in golden pompano.

Summary Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is receiving growing interest for energy storage because it can be locally synthesized from renewable energy through the two-electron water oxidation and the two-electron oxygen reduction reactions. Recently, engineering the microenvironment of existing catalysts has become a promising approach to address the activity, selectivity, and stability challenges of H2O2 synthesis and fuel cells, reducing the gap between theoretical prediction and experimental observations. We summarize these progresses from a multi-scale perspective, including tailoring the active sites on the catalytic surface, engineering the interface near the reactive sites, and improving the device design to achieve selective H2O2 conversion. Such strategies tune the thermodynamic energy barriers and reaction pathways, facilitate mass transfer for reactants and products, and stabilize the products and catalytic surfaces. The discussions here are expected to stimulate further efforts to achieve efficient on-site H2O2 production and power generation by H2O2 with high round-trip efficiency.

Aims Osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of deformity in aging people. Emerging evidence suggests that microRNAs and Wnt signaling pathway are associated with its pathogenesis. We aimed to determine whether microRNA-320c inhibits the development of osteoarthritis by suppressing Wnt signaling pathway. Materials and methods MiR-320c and β-catenin expression was assessed in human adipose derived stem cells (hADSCs) model of chondrogenesis and in normal and OA primary human chondrocytes. OA chondrocytes were transfected with miR-320c or its antisense inhibitor and β-catenin siRNA respectively. Direct interaction between miR-320c and β-catenin mRNA as well as activity of β-catenin/TCF complex were confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Mmu-miR-320-3p agomir was intra-articularly injected in collagenase-induced OA mouse model. OA progression was evaluated histologically and immunohistochemically. Key findings MiR-320c was decreased and β-catenin was increased in OA chondrocytes and late stage of hADSCs chondrogenesis. Overexpression of miR-320c and knockdown of β-catenin had similar effects that the cartilage-specific genes were elevated and hypertrophy-related genes were down-regulated in OA chondrocytes. Luciferase reporter assay confirm that miR-320c regulated the expression of β-catenin by directly targeting 3′UTR of β-catenin mRNA and decreased the relative transcriptional activity of the β-catenin/TCF complex. Injection of mmu-miR-320-3p attenuated OA progression in the OA mouse model. Significance Our results supports that miR-320c can inhibits the degeneration of osteoarthritis chondrocytes via suppressing the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and indicates the potential of miR-320c as a novel therapeutic agent for osteoarthritis treatment.

A tunable blue random laser based on solid waveguide gain films with silver nanoparticles (NPs) and SiO2 NPs is demonstrated. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) property and multiple scattering are proven playing an important role simultaneously. The tunability of the blue random laser is realized by simply roughing and changing the thickness of the solid waveguide gain films. To our knowledge, it is the first time using this method to achieve a wide wavelength tuning range of ∼24 nm.

Firms usually offer trade-in programs to entice consumers to purchase next generation products. By considering the purchase behavior of both myopic consumers and strategic consumers, we propose a game-theoretic analytical model to determine the optimal price of the next generation products and the optimal trade-in rebate. We find that firm’s optimal price of the next generation products increases with the incremental value. The optimal trade-in rebate decreases with the trade-in duration. The firm’s optimal profit increases with the trade-in duration, but decreases with the incremental value.

Films of two-dimensional (2D) perovskite (PEA)2(MA)n-1PbnI3n+1 (PEA = phenylethylammonium, MA = methylammonium) series (n = 1, 2, 3) show high stability in contrast to their three-dimensional counterparts. Development of an effective means to fabricate 2D perovskite solar cells which can achieve a better power conversion efficiency (PCE) and have less current density-voltage (J-V) hysteresis, is crucial to boost their applications. We present a one-step solution process to fabricate the 2D perovskite (PEA)2(MA)2Pb3I10 as light absorbers in solar cells by adding methylammonium acetate (MAAc) in a precursor solution. With an appropriate molar ratio of MAAc, the 2D perovskite films show a smoother surface, higher coverage, and better crystallinity, resulting in an optimal PCE of 5.7%, and importantly, no J-V hysteresis.

Optical pumped metastable rare gas lasers show great potential for high power operation. It is essential for understanding energy transfer processes between excited states of rare gas. In this work, two photon pumped laser induced amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) was used to study the kinetics of high lying state of Xe 6p'[1/2]0. Spectra and waveform of these ASEs were studied in the region of 1000–5000 nm when Xe was excited to the 6p'[1/2]0 state. Cascade transitions from the excited state were found to have two dominant channels which are 6p'[1/2]0 - 5d[1/2]1 - 6p[1/2]1 and 6p'[1/2]0–7s[3/2]1 - 6p(6p[5/2]2, 6p[3/2]1 and 6p[3/2]2). In addition, three delayed ASEs appeared when the Xe pressure is low. They are 3107 nm (5d[5/2]3 - 6p[3/2]2), 3368 nm (5d[5/2]2 - 6p[3/2]1) and 3508 nm (5d[7/2]3 - 6p[5/2]2). By the comparison of waveforms of cascade ASEs under different Xe pressures, prepared states by two photon excitation etc., it was found that 5d[5/2]3, 5d[5/2]2 and 5d[7/2]3 states of Xe were produced directly by collision relaxations and the corresponding relaxation rate constants were obtained by fitting the delay time of ASEs.

Random lasing from a polydimethylsiloxane substrate prepared from abalone shell by soft lithography was investigated. The substrate has better scattering efficiency than abalone shell and its groove structure can support both incoherent and coherent random lasing when covered with a layer of dye solution. When employing rhodamine 640 dye as gain medium, a dual-band random laser signal based on the mechanism of optical feedback intensity and mode competition can be observed, where the signals of the two bands are shown as incoherent and coherent random lasing regimes respectively. Speckle-free imaging is achieved by using incoherent and coherent random lasers as illumination sources and imaging effects are compared. This research shall promote the development of random lasers in the fields of illumination and imaging.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) subgenomic replicon is a valuable tool for studying virus replication and HCV drug development. Despite the fact that HCV genotype 1a (HCV1a) is the most prevalent genotype in the United States, few HCV1a reporter replicon constructs have been reported, and their replication capacities are not as efficient as those of HCV1b or 2a, especially in transient expression. In this study, we selected efficient HCV1a replicons and characterized the novel adaptive mutations derived from stable HCV1a (strain H77) replicon cells after G418 selection. These novel adaptive mutations were scored in NS3 (A1065V, C1073S, N1227D, D1431Y, and E1556G), NS4A (I1694T and E1709V), and NS4B (G1871C). The D1431Y mutation alone or combinations of other adaptive mutations introduced into the parental HCV1a replicon construct was observed to differentially enhance either transient or stable expression of replicon. In particular, two replicon mutants VDYG (A1065V, N1227D, D1431Y, and E1556G within NS3) and VDYGRG, VDYG with two additional adaptive mutations (NS4A-K1691R and NS4B-E1726G), displayed robust replication and exhibited no impairment in the susceptibility of replicon activity to various known HCV inhibitors.

We describe the exploitation of the selective catalytic property of anthraquinone (AQ) for solar photocatalytic synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as a green, sustainable alternative to organic-solvent-based and energy-intensive industry-benchmark processes that also rely on AQ catalysis. We accomplished this by anchoring AQ onto polymeric carbon nitride (C3N4), a metal-free visible light photocatalyst (band gap energy = 2.7 eV), that has been previously demonstrated for selective H2O2 synthesis. A net H2O2 production rate of 361 μmol g−1 h−1 and an apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 19.5% at 380 nm excitation were achieved using AQ-augmented C3N4 under simulated 1-sun illumination in the presence of an organic electron donor (2-propanol); these results were 4.4-fold and 8.3-fold higher than those reported for bare C3N4, respectively. A suite of experimental analyses confirmed the unique roles of AQ co-catalysis in (i) capturing electrons from the conduction band of C3N4, thereby reducing futile exciton recombination, which is otherwise prevalent in bare C3N4; (ii) effectively mediating electron transfer to drive hydrogenation reaction to form anthrahydroquinone (AQH2) from AQ; and (iii) catalyzing oxygen reduction to H2O2 through the dehydrogenation of AQH2 back to AQ, resulting in the facile and selective formation of H2O2. In addition, the reduced decomposition of produced H2O2 by the C3N4/AQ composite photocatalysts, when compared to bare C3N4 or C3N4 composited with common metallic co-catalysts such as Pt and Ag, was found to contribute to the significant enhancement in H2O2 production through the oxidation of both organic and water.

We present the time-resolved character of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and backward stimulated Raman scattering (BSRS) in heavy water and its application in Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) technique. A nanosecond laser from a frequency-doubled Nd: YAG laser is introduced into a heavy water cell, to generate SBS and BSRS beams. The SBS and BSRS beams are collinear, and their time resolved characters are studied by a streak camera, experiment show that they are ideal source for an alignment-free CARS system, and the time resolved property of SBS and BSRS beams could affect the CARS efficiency significantly. By inserting a Dye cuvette to the collinear beams, the time-overlapping of SBS and BSRS could be improved, and finally the CARS efficiency is increased, even though the SBS energy is decreased. Possible methods to improve the efficiency of this CARS system are discussed too.