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Apoptosis and autophagy have been shown to act cooperatively and antagonistically in self-elimination process. On the one side, apoptosis and autophagy can act as partners to induce cell death in a coordinated or cooperative manner; on the flip side, autophagy acts as an antagonist to block apoptotic cell death by promoting cell survival. Our previous research indicated that trillin could induce apoptosis of PLC/PRF/5 cells, but the effects of trillin on autophagy as well as its functional relationship to apoptosis have not been elucidated. Here, the running study aims to investigate the function and molecular mechanism of trillin on autophagy with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. The objective of this study is to investigate the molecular mechanism of trillin on autophagy in HCC cells. Protein levels of autophagy markers beclin1, LC3B, and p62 were detected by western blotting. 6-Hydroxyflavone and stattic were used to test the role of trillin regulation of autophagy via serine threonine kinase (AKT)/extracellular-regulated protein kinases (ERK) 1/2/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway. Flow cytometry was used to detect caspase 3 activity and apoptosis in PLC/PRF/5 cells treated with trillin for 24 h with or without rapamycin, stattic, and 6-hydroxyflavone. The protein level of autophagy marker beclin1 was decreased, whilst the protein level of p62 was significantly increased by trillin treatment, indicating trillin treatment led to inhibition of autophagy in HCC cells. Trillin treatment could reduce the protein levels of p-AKT and p-ERK1/2, but enhance the protein levels of mTOR and p-mTOR, suggesting that trillin could inhibit AKT/ERK rather than mTOR. The AKT/ERK activator 6-hydroxyflavone could reverse the loss of AKT and ERK1/2 phosphorylation induced by trillin, implying that trillin impairs autophagy through activated mTOR rather than AKT/ERK. STAT3 and p-STAT3 were significantly upregulated by the trillin treatment with an increase in dose from 0 to 50 μM, suggesting that autophagy inhibition is mediated by trillin via activation of STAT3 signaling. The STAT3 inhibitor stattic significantly reversed the increased STAT3 phosphorylation at tyrosine 705 induced by trillin. The mTOR signaling inhibitor rapamycin reversed the trillin-induced mTOR phosphorylation enhancement but exerted no effects on total mTOR levels, suggesting trillin treatment led to inhibition of autophagy in HCC cells through activating mTOR/STAT3 pathway. Furthermore, caspase 3 activities and the total rate of apoptosis were increased by trillin treatment, which was reversed by rapamycin, stattic, and 6-hydroxyflavone, proving that trillin promotes apoptosis via activation of mTOR/STAT3 signaling. Trillin induced autophagy inhibition and promoted apoptosis in PLC/PRF/5 cells via the activation of mTOR/STAT3 signaling. Trillin has the potential to be a viable therapeutic option for HCC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the synergistic removal effect of various schemes based on demisters on boiler flue gas dust on a pilot-scale experimental bench. The results show that the dust removal efficiency is 28.43–51.30% when demisters are put into operation alone; the larger the inlet dust concentration of demisters is, the higher the dust removal efficiency will be; but it still cannot reach the 10 mg/Nm3 ultra-low emission standard. The dust removal efficiency is 93.13% when wet electro-static precipitator and demisters are put into operation simultaneously. Furthermore, the outlet dust concentration is lower than 5 mg/Nm3, and the dust removal efficiency of the demisters themselves increases to 67.28%, which has shown a significant improvement compared with operation alone. The dust removal efficiency is 70.98–78.37% when the water-washing layer and demisters are put into operation simultaneously. Moreover, the outlet dust concentration reaches the standard of 10 mg/Nm3 when the liquid–gas ratio (L/G) is more than 3.5. This research shows that when the inlet dust concentration is ≤ 35 mg/Nm3, the method of "water-washing layer + demisters" can be used as an equivalent alternative to the wet electro-static precipitator when L/G ≥ 3.5, which has reference value for reducing the construction cost of ultra-low emission reformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the filtration efficiency of submicron dust by dual-layer granular bed filters, filtration experiments for micro-silica powder were conducted for removing particles smaller than 1 μm that account for more than 96% (by volume) using a dual-layer granular bed filter with an external electric field. Electrostatic enhancement methods, including dust pre-charging, application of an electric field to the lower filter layer, and that to both the upper and lower filter layers, were examined. Results showed that the average filtration efficiency of a dual-layer granular bed filter for micro-silica powder without electric field was 76.52%, the average outlet dust concentration was 263.53 mg/m3, and the filtration cycle time was 73 min. With pre-charged dust, the average outlet dust concentration dropped to 82.51 mg/m3. A decrease in the thickness of the lower filter layer from 45 to 25 mm with electric field reduced the pressure drop from 2570 to 1770 Pa. Meanwhile, the application of an electric field to the lower/upper filter layer reduced the average outlet dust concentration to 25.98 mg/m3. Increasing the initial face velocity from 0.25 to 0.45 m/s increased the average outlet dust concentration from 25.98 to 30.27 mg/m3 and increased the pressure drop from 2570 to 3500 Pa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at perfecting the proposed three-stage cascade-scrubbing desulfurization technology, ASPEN PLUS simulations of seawater/seawater cascade-scrubbing desulfurization for an exhaust gas scrubber designed for a 10-MW large-scale marine diesel engine were performed to fix a reasonable desulfurization share for the main scrubbing section. Accordingly, three typical desulfurization share setups of 80%, 85%, and 90% were compared under various operational conditions by varying the fuel-sulfur content, liquid/gas ratio, and seawater alkalinity. In complying with the desulfurization requirements of emission control areas, 85% was obtained as the optimal desulfurization share among the three setups. Again, under the selected 85% setup, the cascade-scrubbing desulfurization was numerically compared with the conventional once-through open-loop solution, so as to confirm the seawater-saving advantage of the cascade-scrubbing desulfurization technology used for the exhaust gas of large-scale marine diesels. At relatively higher sulfur content above 3.5%, the open-loop solution solely achieved the desulfurization requirements of non-emission control areas by using higher liquid/gas ratio levels of 6.5–8.0 L/Nm3, while fully failed to meet the much stricter requirements of emission control areas except the lowest 1.5% fuel-sulfur conditions. On the contrary, the cascade-scrubbing solution could meet the requirements of emission control areas under various fuel-sulfur content conditions and reduced the liquid/gas ratio by about 45%, in comparison to the open-loop solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemotherapeutic and radiation therapy have emerged as two most important treatment strategies to treat cancer in clinical practice; however, to improve anticancer efficacy, combination chemotherapy still remains challenge. Dichloroacetate (DCA) could produce significant cytotoxic effects in certain tumor cells through its distinct mechanism. Radiation therapy with fast neutrons (FNT) has high relative biolgical effectiveness compared to other radiotherapeutics. Herein, we reported the combination chemotherapy with FNT for effective tumor growth inhibition with the assistance of a multilayered nanofiber loading DCA and DCA derivatives. We first synthesized a biodegradable polylysine to condense DCA with negative charge, or to conjugate DCA by condensing synthesis, to obtain Ion-DCA and Co-DCA, respectively. DCA, Ion-DCA or Co-DCA was then loaded into fibers to form multilayer drug-loaded mats. Upon adhesion on the surface of subcutaneous and orthotopic liver tumors, the multilayer drug-loaded mats realized a controllable release of DCA, which reversed the Warburg effect and inhibited cancer cell proliferation. Meantime, irradiation of fast neutrons could seriously damage DNA structure. Combination of the controllable release of DCA and FNT resulted in synergistic cell apoptosis in vitro, and the tumor inhibition in vivo. This study thus provides a new approach to integrate chemotherapy and FNT with the assistance of biocompatible nanofiber for synergistic tumor therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reveal the residual distribution pattern and obtain a wide range of high-accurate vertical movement field, we systematically analyzed the joint geodetic adjustment with vertical rate parameters (denoted as joint adjustment) issues based on the simulated and actual multi-source vertical data. First of all, 1000 sets of simulated leveling data containing rand noise were constructed and processed. The corresponding adjustment results show that network shape and observation interval are two main factors affecting the reliability of the vertical rates. Particularly, vertical rates of the small loops, internal points and loops with longer intervals are prior to those of large loops, edge points and loops with short intervals, respectively. Subsequently, we developed a Helmert adjustment program, which can jointly process leveling data and space geodetic data. Compared with the single leveling data adjustment (SLDA), the joint adjustment results of leveling data and 500 geodetic observations (including 2–4 mm/yr errors) demonstrate that the Helmert adjustment can reduce the residual distribution range by roughly 46%. Finally, both SLDA and Helmert methods are applied to actual survey data in eastern China. We find that the error of the latter approach is decreased by about 48% compared with the former. In summary, the Helmert adjustment method can significantly improve the reliability and accuracy of vertical movement in large area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins immunoassay (TSI IA) and thyrotrophin receptor antibody immunoassay (TRAb IA) are commonly used for the diagnosis of Graves' disease (GD). The aim of the present study was to compare the clinical diagnostic performance of these two methods. Methods: Sera were obtained from 1103 subjects presenting a variety of clinical conditions from three centers: 100 subjects with untreated GD, 200 with treated GD, 62 with autoimmune thyroid disease(AIT), 216 with other thyroid diseases (OTHER-T), 214 with non-thyroid autoimmune diseases (NTAD), 191 with other diseases (OD), and 120 healthy subjects (HS). Both TSI and TRAb IAs were performed for all 1013 serum samples. Bioassay was performed for 86 samples whose TSI results were inconsistent the TRAb assay results. Results: Comparing untreated GD patients with the control groups (AIT, NTAD, OTHER-T, OD, and HS) resulted in an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.992 for the TSI IA and 0.989 for the TRAb IA with no statistically significant difference observed between these AUC values (P = 0.2733). The best TSI CDP (clinical decision point) value was 0.42 IU/L. The differences in sensitivity (100% vs. 95%, P = 0.7991) and specificity (97.1% vs. 97.6%, P = 0.9426) between the TSI and TRAb IA were not statistically significant. TSI IA had a higher agreement with the TSI bioassay than TRAb IA. Conclusion: The clinical diagnostic performance of the TSI IA for diagnosing Graves' disease was very similar to that of the TRAb IA. TSI IA can be used to diagnose GD in the Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trillin is a constituent of total Trillium Tschonoskii Maxim (TTM), which is extracted from TTM and displayed anti-tumor effect in many tumor cell lines. However, the anti-tumor mechanism of trillin is still unclear. This study demonstrated that trillin could dramatically inhibit hepatoma carcinoma cell proliferation, induce apoptosis and decrease migration and invasion through suppressing phosphorylated STAT3 translocated to nucleus. Trillin could down-regulate Bcl-2 and Survivin, up-regulate cleaved PRAP, leading to dramatically apoptosis; trillin could also down-regulate MMP1, MMP2, MucI and VEGF, which displayed an inhibition effect on hepatocellular tumor cells invasion and development. The results of this study indicated the potential utility of trillin as a STAT3 inhibitor for the treatment of cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the issues of serious wear, blockage, and poisoning of the catalyst in the denitration process of industrial furnaces such as glass furnaces and cement kiln, it was proposed to integrate the high-temperature dual-layer granular bed filter and the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) reactor into a device to realize the denitration of the SCR catalyst in a dust-free state. In the device, the upper part was a dual-layer granular bed filter and the lower part was a V2O5-WO3/TiO2 honeycomb ceramic catalyst. In the self-built dust removal and denitration integrated test equipment with an inner diameter of 100 mm, the effects of flue gas temperature, flue gas flow rate, nitric oxide (NO) concentration, and catalyst height on the denitration efficiency of the catalyst were investigated by orthogonal testing under dust-free conditions. The results show that the flue gas flow rate had the greatest influence on the denitration efficiency of the catalyst. With an increase in flue gas flow rate, the denitration efficiency first increased and then decreased. When the flue gas flow rate was 0.3 m/s, the denitration efficiency reached a maximum. The denitration test was carried out using flue gas with a dust concentration of 15 g/m3. The results show that the denitration efficiency continued to decrease with the deposition of dust on the catalyst surface (from an initial value of 96.51 to 80.59% at the 140th min), and the pressure drop correspondingly increased from 100 to 630 Pa. Additional integration testing of dust removal and denitration showed that the average dust removal efficiency of the integrated device for dust removal and denitration using a dual-layer granular bed filter could reach 99.84%, and the average denitration efficiency could reach 95.07%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialog state tracking (DST) is the key component of goal-driven Spoken Dialog Systems. Almost all existing dialog state trackers are unable to handle unknown slot values. The continuous emergence of unknown slot values in dialogs is inevitable. If unknown slot values cannot be accurately detected and distinguished, the dialog states cannot be correctly updated in real time. This paper proposes a hierarchical dialog state tracking framework to model the dialog state tracking with unknown slot values. Three levels are included in the framework. Unknown slot values are identified at the first-level by a two-layer cascaded neural network as well as known slot values. Distributions for unknown and known slot values are updated separately in the second level and integrated in the third level. Experimental results on DSTC and WOZ2.0 datasets show that the proposed framework achieves good performance. Especially, the detection and distinction of unknown slot values greatly improve the final performance of dialog state tracking, illustrating the effectiveness of our proposed framework for addressing the problem of unknown slot values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialog state tracking (DST) maintains and updates dialog states at each time step as the dialog progresses. It is necessary to include dialog historical information in DST. Previous word-based DST models took historical utterances as a word sequence and used n-grams in the sequence as inputs of models. It suffered from the problem of data sparseness. This paper proposes a cascaded deep neural network framework for DST. It alleviates the problem of data sparseness by making use of the hierarchical structure in dialog. The bottom layer of the cascaded framework, implemented by an Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) or a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), encodes the word sequence into a sentence embedding in each dialog turn, and the upper layer integrates the representation of each turn gradually to get the dialog state using an LSTM. The cascaded models integrate natural language understanding into DST, and the entire network is trained as a whole. The experimental results on the DSTC2 dataset indicate that the proposed models, LSTM+LSTM and CNN + LSTM, can achieve better performance than existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C-C primary carboxylic acids were selected as model compounds to observe the nature and stability of bio-oil adsorption in zeolite HZSM-5 via DFT-D2 theoretical calculation. Adsorptions with and without solvents of water, dimethyl sulfoxide, methanol, and ethanol were studied. The most stable adsorption configuration is hydrogen bonding (HB) through the carbonyl oxygen of acid over the Brønsted acid site of zeolite with the strong energies range from −133.2 to −154.8 kJ/mol. Partial transfer of the Brønsted proton to the acid was observed. Strength of intramolecular-zeolite acid site interaction increases in the order: carbonyl oxygen HB > hydroxyl oxygen HB > CH physisorption. The vdW interactions increase notably with the size of the acids. The adsorption energies are significantly reduced by solvation effect. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Two genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified several new acute leukemia susceptibility loci in populations of European descent. However, the roles of these loci in the development of acute leukemia in other populations are largely unknown. Methods: We genotyped 16 single-nucleotide polymorphisms selected from published GWASs in an independent case-control study with a total of 545 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cases and 1034 cancer-free controls in a Chinese population. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the associations between these variants and AML risk. Results: We found that with the similar effect to GWASs, risk alleles of rs2191566, rs9290663, rs11155133, rs2239633, rs10821936, and rs2242041 significantly increased the risk of AML in at least one genetic model [odds ratios (ORs) range from 1.26 to 4.34, P values range from <0.001 to 0.043]. However, the variant T allele of rs10873876 decreased the AML risk, which was in the opposite effect direction (OR 0.62, P < 0.001 in additive model). Besides, we found significant multiplicative interaction between rs9290663 and age (≤45 years old and >45 years old; P = 0.009). Conclusion: Our results indicated that genetic variants associated with acute leukemia risk in European populations may also play important roles in AML development in Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combustion-generated hydrogen chloride (HCl) is considered to be a very hazardous acid gaseous pollutant. This paper presents a laboratory study on the dry adsorption of HCl. The experiments were conducted in a dual-layer granular bed filter, at gas temperatures of 500°C-700°C and n(Ca)/ n(Cl)molar ratios of 1.0-5.0 using the silver nitrate titration method by dry adsorbent powders Ca(OH). Mainly, the adsorption efficiency of HCl and utilization efficiency of Calcium were studied, by varying relevant factors including n(Ca)/ n(Cl), temperature, feeding method, water vapor and CO. With a relatively higher HCl concentration of 1000 ppm, the experimental results revealed that 600°C may be the optimum temperature for HCl adsorption when optimum n (Ca)/ n(Cl) was 2.5 in our tests. The results also demonstrated that the feeding at a constant pressure was more effective, and the HCl adsorption efficiency could rapidly reach over 90% with n(Ca)/ n(Cl) = 2.5 at 600°C. Furthermore, the HCl adsorption efficiency was found to be slightly promoted by water vapor, while could be impeded by CO, and the utilization efficiency of calcium could be up to 74.4% without CO, while was only 36.8% with CO when n(Ca)/ n(Cl) was 2.5 at 600°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metagenomic characterization of water virome was performed in four Mississippi catfish ponds. Although differing considerably from African swine fever virus (ASFV), 48 of 446,100 sequences from 12 samples were similar enough to indicate that they represent new members in the family Asfarviridae. At present, ASFV is the only member of Asfarviridae, and this study presents the first indication of a similar virus in North America. At this point, there is no indication that the identified virus(es) pose a threat to human or animal health, and further study is needed to characterize their potential risks to both public health and agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous researches showed that the expression level of E-Cad in most infiltrating cancer cells was reduced or negative. This study explored whether 4HPR restrained the infiltration of bladder cancer cells through regulating the expression of E-Cad. The infiltrating bladder cancer cells T24 were cultured, and then treated by a proper dosage of drug. Their viability was a determined by MTT method. Western blotting and RT-PCR were adopted to detect the changes of E-Cad gene expression at both protein and mRNA levels. Moreover, immunofluorescent staining and confocal fluorescence microscopy were employed for the observation of the expression of E-Cad. The result showed that, at both mRNA and protein levels, the expression level of E-Cad in T24 cells treated by 4HPR was significantly higher than that of control group, while the β-Cat expression was also relocated from the cell nucleus to cytoplasm. Our findings suggested that the regulatory function of 4HPR on infiltration of bladder cancer cells T24 is at least partly achieved by regulating the expression of E-Cad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital cataract is a highly heterogeneous disorder at both the genetic and the clinical-phenotypic levels. A unique cataract was observed in a 4-generation Chinese family, which was characterized by autosomal dominant inheritance and late-onset. Mutations in the 13 known genes (CRYAA, CRYAB, CRYBB1, CRYBB2, CRYGC, CRYBA1/A3, CRYGD, Connexin50, Connexin46, intrinsic membrane protein LIM2, cytoskeletal protein BFSP2, the major intrinsic protein-MIP and the heat shock factor HSF4) have previously been demonstrated to be the frequent reason for isolated congenital cataracts, but the exact molecular basis and underlying mechanisms of congenital cataract still remain unclear. This study was designed to find whether these 13 genes developed any mutation in the family members and to identify the disease-causing gene. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct DNA sequence analysis were carried out to detect the 13 genes. The results showed that no mutation causing amino acid alternations was found in these potential candidate genes among all patients in the family, and only several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified. A transitional mutation in the fourth intron of CRYBB2 and some silent mutations in the first exon of BFSP2 and CRYGD were found in the cataract family, but further study showed that these mutations could also be found in normal controls. It was concluded that some unidentified genes may underlie the occurrence of late-onset cataract in this family. A genome-wide screening will be carried out in the next study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrophoretic mobility shift assay is a useful tool to identify proteins and nucleic acids interactions. Traditionally, the nucleic acids fragments are end-labeled with 32P. We present here the use of fluorescent methodologies for studies of RNA in place of radioactivity. The method is highly sensitive and quantitative with the use of an infrared fluorescence imaging system. Fluorescently labeled primers can be used to monitor protein–RNA interactions by fluorescent mobility shift assays. The simplicity and validity of this approach may have more advantages than that of previous methods that traditionally used hazardous radioisotopes. This method was successfully tested in the study of the interactions between MS2 Coat Protein and its RNA target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The action mechanism of matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP-2) in the genesis, development and degeneration of haemangioma was investigated by detecting their expression in the tissue of haemangioma in different phases by using the immunohistochemistry. Fifty paraffin-embedded specimens of skin capillary haemangioma were collected, which were documented in the Department of Pathology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from 2000 to 2006. All samples were stained by regular HE method, and proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was tested by immunohistochemical S-P method. The samples were classified according to the Mulliken criteria and the expression pattern of PCNA. Immunohistochemical S-P method was applied to detect the expression of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in proliferative and degenerative phases of cutaneous capillary haemangioma, and in normal skin tissues. In combination with the detection of the expression of factor VIII-related antigen, it was verified that in haemangioma tissues, the cells expressing MMP-2 and TIMP-2 were vascular endothelial cells. The MMP-2 and TIMP-2 expression was quantitatively analyzed by image analysis system (HPIAS-1000), and one-way ANOVA(107) and SNK( q) test were done to analyze average absorbance ( A) and positive area rate of immunohistochemically positive particles by using SPSS11.5. The results showed: (1) Among 50 samples of haemangioma, there were 26 proliferative haemangiomas, and 24 degenerative haemangiomas, respectively; (2) The expression of MMP-2 was weak in normal vascular endothelial cells, cytoplasm of connective tissues and extracellular matrix around blood vessels. The expression of MMP-2 in proliferative group was significantly higher than in degenerative group and control group (normal skin) ( P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference between the latter two groups; (3) TIMP-2 was highly expressed in normal tissues, degenerative vascular endothelial cells, cytoplasm of connective tissues and extracellular matrix around blood vessels. The expression level of TIMP-2 in proliferative phase was significantly lower than in degenerative phase ( P<0.05), and the expression of TIMP-2 in proliferative phase was significantly different from that in degenerative phase and normal tissues ( P<0.05). It was concluded that in proliferative phase of haemangioma, MMP-2 may promote over-proliferation of endothelial cells of haemangioma, and in degenerative phase, TIMP-2 can inhibit the proliferation of endothelial cells of haemangioma. The two substances play important roles in the genesis, development and degeneration of haemangiomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A population of 117 doubled haploid (DH) lines derived from the cross of Zhaiyeqing 8 ( indica)× Jingxi 17 ( japonica) was employed to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying four physiological traits related to chlorophyll contents of the flag leaf. There were significantly positive correlations among chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and chlorophyll a + b content. Chlorophyll a/b ratio was significantly negatively correlated with chlorophyll b content. These four traits were normally distributed with transgressive segregation, suggesting that they were controlled by multiple minor genes. A total of 11 QTLs were detected for the four traits and they lay on six chromosomes. Each of them explained 9.2%–19.6% of the phenotypic variations, respectively. Of these, two QTLs controlling chlorophyll a content were mapped on chromosomes 2 and 5; four QTLs underlying chlorophyll b content were mapped on chromosomes 2, 3, 5 and 9; three QTLs underlying chlorophyll a + b amount were mapped on chromosomes 3, 5 and 9; two QTLs underlying chlorophyll a/b ratio were mapped on chromosomes 6 and 11. The intrinsic relationship among the four traits and the practical implication in rice breeding are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definition of active block is given from the angles of crustal deformation and strain. The movement and strain parameters of active blocks are estimated according to the unified velocity field composed of the velocities at 1598 GPS stations obtained from GPS measurements carried out in the past years in the Chinese mainland and the surrounding areas. The movement and strain conditions of the blocks are analyzed. The active blocks in the Chinese mainland have a consistent E-trending movement component, but its N and S components are not consistent. The blocks in the western part have a consistent N-trending movement and the blocks in the eastern part have a consistent S-trending movement. In the area to the east of 90°E, that is the area from Himalayas block towards NE, the movement direction of the blocks rotates clockwisely and the movement rates of the blocks are different. Generally, the movement rate is large in the west and south and small in the east and north with a difference of 3 to 4 times between the rates in the west and east. The distributions of principal compressive strain directions of the blocks are also different. The principal strain of the blocks located to the west of 90°E is basically in the SN direction, the principal compressive strain of the blocks in the northeastern part of Qingzang plateau is roughly in the NE direction and the direction of principal compressive strain of the blocks in the southeastern part of Qingzang plateau rounds clockwisely the east end of Himalayas structure. In addition, the principal strain and shear strain rates of the blocks are also different. The Himalayas and Tianshan blocks have the largest principal compressive strain and the maximum shear strain rate. Then, Lhasa, Qiangtang, Southwest Yunnan (SW Yunnan), Qilian and Sichuan-Yunan (Chuan-Dian) blocks followed. The strain rate of the blocks in the eastern part is smaller. The estimation based on the stain condition indicates that Himalayas block is still the area with the most intensive tectonic activity and it shortens in the NS direction at the rate of 15.2 ± 1.5 mm/a. Tianshan block ranks the second and it shortens in the NS direction at the rate of 10.1 ± 0.9 mm/a. At present, the two blocks are still uprising. It can be seen from superficial strain that the Chinese mainland is predominated by superficial expansion. Almost the total area in the eastern part of the Chinese mainland is expanded, while in the western part, the superficial compression and expansion are alternatively distributed from the south to the north. In the Chinese mainland, most EW-trending or proximate EW-trending faults have the left-lateral or left-lateral strike-slip relative movements along both sides, and most NS-trending faults have the right-lateral or right-lateral strike-slip relative movements along both sides. According to the data from GPS measurements the left-lateral strike-slip rate is 4.8 ± 1.3 mm/a in the central part of Altun fault and 9.8 ± 2.2 mm/a on Xianshuihe fault. The movement of the fault along the block boundary has provided the condition for block movement, so the movements of the block and its boundary are consistent, but the movement levels of the blocks are different. The statistic results indicate that the relative movement between most blocks is quite significant, which proves that active blocks exist. Himalayas, Tianshan, Qiangtang and SW Yunnan blocks have the most intensive movement; China-Mongolia, China-Korea (China-Korea), Alxa and South China blocks are rather stable. The mutual action of India, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates versus Eurasia plate is the principal driving force to the block movement in the Chinese mainland. Under the NNE-trending intensive press from India plate, the crustal matter of Qingzang plateau moves to the NNE and NE directions, then is hindered by the blocks located in the northern, northeastern and eastern parts. The... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Capital area of China, many faultdeformational surveying sites were set up sequentiallyfrom 1967. With short leveling, short base line andshort ranging net across fault, a lot of data havebeen accumulated. In 1992, GPS (Global PositioningSystem) measurements were started in China. Two timesof GPS measurements have been made in 1992 and 1995respectively. The International Terrestrial ReferenceFrame 93 and the Precision Ephemeris provided byInternational GPS Geodynamics Service (IGS) fromGlobal GPS tracing network solution are used. In GPSanalysis and data processing, GAMIT software and GLOBKsoftware are used. The results from these two kinds ofdata are discussed. For earthquake risk area judgment,it is of interest to know where is compressional areaand where is tensional area, and generally thecompressional areas are considered as risk area andcalled abnormal area. All the data from shortleveling, short ranging (measured bylaser-range-finder), short base line (measured by baseline tape) and GPS methods can give us the descriptionabout the deformational state of the crust –compressional state or tensional state. The comparisonshows that, some of the two kinds of data areconsistent, a few of them are contradictory, and thenthe results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some filamentous cyanobacteria form heterocysts under conditions lacking combined nitrogen for nitrogen fixation. Photosystem II is removed from heterocyst during the process of cell differentiation. Here, we demonstrate that Alr3815 is a protease that is capable of degrading D1 protein of photosystem II. Strain-322, which lacks alr3815, is impaired in nitrogen fixation in air because some oxygen evolving activity is retained in its heterocysts. Our results also suggest that calcium may play a regulatory role in D1 degradation during heterocyst differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a Neumann boundary value problem in a d-dimensional box Td=(0,π)d (d=1,2,3) for a nonlinear diffusion chemotaxis model with logistic source. By using the embedding theorem, the higher-order energy estimates and bootstrap arguments, the condition of chemotaxis-driven instability and the nonlinear evolution near an unstable positive constant equilibrium for this chemotaxis model are proved. Our result provides a quantitative characterization for early spatial pattern formation on the positive constant equilibrium. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to support our theoretical nonlinear instability results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2-SiO2 nanotubes, with high specific surface area, were prepared by hydrothermal methods using tetraethyl orthosilicate and tetrabutyl titanate as precursors. These nanotubes were used as carriers to prepare a V2O5-WO3/TiO2-SiO2 catalyst by an impregnation method. The deNOx activity of catalysts used for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) was examined as a function of the silica-to-titania molar ratio, vanadium loading, and calcination temperature. The catalyst performance was also tested in the presence of sulfur and water. The experimental results showed that the nanotube catalyst loaded with 3 wt% vanadium and a SiO2/TiO2 molar ratio of 2:8 exhibited the best activity after calcination at 650 °C. The NO conversion efficiency reached 100% at a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 100,000 h−1 over the reaction temperature range of 300-500 °C. Characterization by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurements, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, temperature-programmed reduction, and temperature-programmed desorption demonstrated that formation of the nanotube structure significantly increased the specific surface area of the catalyst and that the active components exhibited high degree of dispersion on the carrier. Moreover, SiO2 doping enhanced the number of acidic sites on the catalyst surface while inhibiting anatase-to-rutile phase transformation, resulting in a wider temperature window for catalytic activity and higher NOx conversion efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]