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C31H22N4O2Cl2Cu, orthorhombic, C2221 (no. 20), a = 6.869(2) Å, b = 18.535(7) Å, c = 21.199(7) Å, V = 2698.9(16) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0385, wRref(F2) = 0.1036, T = 293 K.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a pleiotropic cytokine regulating the immune and nervous systems. Mammalian and bird IL-2s have different protein sequences, but perform similar functions. In the current study, two bands were detected by immunoblotting using an antibody against freshly purified chicken IL-2 (chIL-2). The molecular weight of the larger band was approximately twice as much of the chIL-2 monomer, although a chIL-2 complex or homodimer has never been reported. To explain this intriguing result, several dissociation reagents were used to examine the intermolecular forces between components of the proposed chIL-2 complex. It was found that intermolecular disulphide bond promotes homodimerization of chIL-2. Subsequently, mutation of Cys residues of chIL-2 revealed that mutation of all four Cys residues disrupted homodimerization, but a single, dual, or triple Cys mutation failed to disrupt homodimerization, suggesting that all four Cys residues on chIL-2 contribute to this dimerization. Functional analysis showed that both monomeric and dimeric chIL-2 consisting of either wild type or mutant chIL-2 were able to stimulate the expansion of CD4+ T cell in vivo or in vitro, and effectively bind to chIL-2 receptor. Overall, this study revealed that the recombinant chIL-2 purified from either Escherichia coli (E. coli) or Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells could homodimerize in vitro, with all four Cys residues on each chIL-2 protein contributing to this homodimerization, and dimerization and Cys mutation not impacting chIL-2 induced stimulation of chicken CD4+ T cells.

Sodium chloride (NaCl) induced expression of a jacalin-related mannose-binding lectin (JRL) gene in leaves, roots, and callus cultures of Populus euphratica (salt-resistant poplar). To explore the mechanism of the PeJRL in salinity tolerance, the full length of PeJRL was cloned from P. euphratica and was transformed into Arabidopsis. PeJRL was localized to the cytoplasm in mesophyll cells. Overexpression of PeJRL in Arabidopsis significantly improved the salt tolerance of transgenic plants, in terms of seed germination, root growth, and electrolyte leakage during seedling establishment. Under NaCl stress, transgenic plants retained K+ and limited the accumulation of Na+. PeJRL-transgenic lines increased Na+ extrusion, which was associated with the upward regulation of SOS1, AHA1, and AHA2 genes encoding plasma membrane Na+/proton (H+) antiporter and H+-pumps. The activated H+-ATPases in PeJRL-overexpressed plants restricted the channel-mediated loss of K+ that was activated by NaCl-induced depolarization. Under salt stress, PeJRL⁻transgenic Arabidopsis maintained reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis by activating the antioxidant enzymes and reducing the production of O2− through downregulation of NADPH oxidases. Of note, the PeJRL-transgenic Arabidopsis repressed abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis, thus reducing the ABA-elicited ROS production and the oxidative damage during the period of salt stress. A schematic model was proposed to show the mediation of PeJRL on ABA response, and ionic and ROS homeostasis under NaCl stress.

CDPKs (Ca2+-Dependent Protein Kinases) are very important regulators in plant response to abiotic stress. The molecular regulatory mechanism of CDPKs involved in salt stress tolerance remains unclear, although some CDPKs have been identified in salt-stress signaling. Here, we investigated the function of an Arabidopsis CDPK, CPK12, in salt-stress signaling. The CPK12-RNA interference (RNAi) mutant was much more sensitive to salt stress than the wild-type plant GL1 in terms of seedling growth. Under NaCl treatment, Na+ levels in the roots of CPK12-RNAi plants increased and were higher than levels in GL1 plants. In addition, the level of salt-elicited H2O2 production was higher in CPK12-RNAi mutants than in wild-type GL1 plants after NaCl treatment. Collectively, our results suggest that CPK12 is required for plant adaptation to salt stress.

To compare the biological behaviors of human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) isolated from adipose tissue by lipectomy and liposuction, with the purpose of providing the basis for clinical application.The proliferation and apoptosis of ADSCs were analyzed by CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry. Cell migration was measured by a wound healing assay. An ELISA assay was used to evaluate paracrine functions. SOD and MDA were tested by xanthine oxidase and thiobarbituric acid reactions, respectively. In addition, we used a CCK-8, LDH assay and flow cytometry to analyze the proliferation and apoptosis of ADSCs treated with lidocaine or adrenaline.The viable ADSCs yield from liposuction was significantly lower than that from lipectomy, while the apoptosis of cells from liposuction was significantly higher than from lipectomy. The paracrine secretion of the two sources of ADSCs was highest when treated with 10-7 mol/L insulin and 10 ng/mL TGF-α, but there were no significant differences in VEGF, IL-6, IL-8 or HGF levels. The ADSCs from lipectomy migrated faster than those from liposuction, and SOD in the lipectomy group was higher than in the liposuction group, whereas MDA of the lipectomy group was lower than that of the liposuction group. The proliferation ADSCs treated with lidocaine or adrenaline was greatly decreased, while apoptosis was significantly increased, and cytotoxicity of lidocaine or adrenaline to ADSCs was dose-dependent.Compared with ADSCs from liposuction, the ADSCs from lipectomy have better biological characteristics. Lidocaine and adrenaline decreased the viability of ADSCs, and their cytotoxicity to ADSCs was dose-dependent.

Urban warfare has become one of the main forms of modern combat in the twenty-first century. The main reason why urban warfare results in hundreds of casualties is that the situational information of the combatant is insufficient. Accessing information via an Augmented Reality system can elevate combatants’ situational awareness to effectively improve the efficiency of decision-making and reduce the injuries. This paper begins with the concept of Urban Warfare Augmented Reality (UWAR) and illuminates the objectives of developing UWAR, i.e., transparent battlefield, intuitional perception and natural interaction. Real-time outdoor registration, information presentation and natural interaction are presented as key technologies of a practical UWAR system. Then, the history and current research state of these technologies are summarized and their future developments are highlighted from three perspectives, i.e., (1) Better integration with Geographic Information System and Virtual Geographic Environment; (2) More intelligent software; (3) More powerful hardware.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been considered as the major cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) has been reported to be oncogenic. The underlying mechanisms of HBV-related HCC are not fully understood, and the role played by the HBx protein in HBV induced carcinogenesis remains controversial. CDC42, a member of the Rho GTPase family, has been reported to be overexpressed in several different cancers, including HBV-related HCC. However, the specific role of CDC42 in HCC development remains unclear. Here, we investigated the cellular mechanisms by which CDC42 was responsible for the higher proliferation of HuH-7 cells mediated by HBx. We found that the expression level of CDC42 and its activity were significantly increased in HuH-7-HBx cells. The deficiency of CDC42 using the CRISPR/Cas9 system and inhibition by specific inhibitor CASIN led to the reduction of HBx-mediated proliferation. Furthermore, we observed that IQ Motif Containing GTPase Activating Protein 1 (IQGAP1), the downstream mediator of the CDC42 pathway, might be involved in the carcinogenesis induced by HBx. Therefore, the HBx/CDC42/IQGAP1 signaling pathway may potentially play an important role in HBx-mediated carcinogenesis.

Car cameras have been used extensively to assist driving by make driving visible. However, due to the limitation of the Angle of View (AoV), the dead zone still exists, which is a primary origin of car accidents. In this paper, we introduce a system to extend the vision of drivers to 360 degrees. Our system consists of four wide-angle cameras, which are mounted at different sides of a car. Although the AoV of each camera is within 180 degrees, relying on the image mosaic technique, our system can seamlessly integrate 4-channel videos into a panorama video. The panorama video enable drivers to observe everywhere around a car as far as three meters from a top view. We performed experiments in a laboratory environment. Preliminary results show that our system can eliminate vision dead zone completely. Additionally, the real-time performance of our system can satisfy requirements for practical use.

Abstract Background Previous meta-analysis suggested that transdermal fentanyl was not inferior to sustained-release oral morphine in treating moderate-severe cancer pain with less adverse effects. Now, we updated the data and performed a systematic review. Methods Updated cohort studies on transdermal fentanyl and oral morphine in the treatment of cancer pain were searched in electronic databases including CBMdisc, CNKI, VIP, Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane Library. Primary end points assessed by meta-analysis were remission rate of pain and incidence of adverse effects. Quality of life was assessed by systematic review, which was the second end point. Results 32 cohort studies, which included 2651 patients, were included in present study. The remission rate in transdermal fentanyl group and sustained-release oral morphine group were 86.60% and 88.31% respectively, there was no significant difference [RR = 1.13, 95% CI (0.92, 1.38), P = 0.23]. Compared with oral morphine group, there were less adverse effects in terms of constipation [RR = 0.35, 95% CI (0.27, 0.45), P < 0.00001], nausea/vomiting [RR = 0.57, 95% CI (0.49, 0.67), P < 0.00001], and vertigo/somnolence [RR = 0.59, 95% CI (0.51, 0.68), P < 0.00001] in transdermal fentanyl group. Six of selected trials supported either transdermal fentanyl or sustained-release oral morphine improved QOL of cancer patients and one of them showed more patients got better QOL after sustained-release oral morphine transferred to transdermal fentanyl. Conclusions Our study showed again that both transdermal fentanyl and oral morphine had the same efficacy in the treatment of moderate-severe cancer pain in Chinese population, but the former might have less adverse effects and better quality of life.

The objective of 3D hand pose estimation (HPE) based on depth images is to accurately locate and predict keypoints of the hand. However, this task remains challenging because of the variations in hand appearance from different viewpoints and severe occlusions. To effectively address these challenges, this study introduces a novel approach, called the multi-perspective cue-aware joint relationship representation for 3D HPE via the Swin Transformer (MPCTrans, for short). This approach is designed to learn multi-perspective cues and essential information from hand depth images. To achieve this goal, three novel modules are proposed to utilize features from multiple virtual views of the hand, namely, the adaptive virtual multi-viewpoint (AVM), hierarchy feature estimation (HFE), and virtual viewpoint evaluation (VVE) modules. The AVM module adaptively adjusts the angles of the virtual viewpoint and learns the ideal virtual viewpoint to generate informative multiple virtual views. The HFE module estimates hand keypoints through hierarchical feature extraction. The VVE module evaluates virtual viewpoints by using chained high-level functions from the HFE module. Transformer is used as a backbone to extract the long-range semantic joint relationships in hand depth images. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the MPCTrans model achieves state-of-the-art performance on four challenging benchmark datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn this paper, we study some characterizations of q-spaces, strict q-spaces and strong q-spaces under ω-balanced topological groups. First we characterize a topological group G to be ω-balanced and a q-space whenever for each open neighborhood O of the identity in G, there is a countably compact invariant subgroup H which is of countable character in G, such that H ⊆ O and the canonical quotient mapping p : G → G/H is quasi-perfect and the quotient group G/H is metrizable. Secondly, we characterize G to be ω-balanced and a strict q-space, replacing the condition of being a q-space with an appropriate condition which is designed for the so-called “strict q-spaces”. Finally, we characterize G to be ω-balanced and a strong q-space, illustrating an additional condition to be replaced to that of q-space, or strict q-space. As applications of our three main results, we found new characterizations of the ω-narrow topological groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]