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The Internet of Things (IoT) and sensors are becoming increasingly popular, especially in monitoring large and ambient environments. Applications that embrace IoT and sensors often require mining the data feeds that are collected at frequent intervals for intelligence. Despite the fact that such sensor data are massive, most of the data contents are identical and repetitive; for example, human traffic in a park at night. Most of the traditional classification algorithms were originally formulated decades ago, and they were not designed to handle such sensor data effectively. Hence, the performance of the learned model is often poor because of the small granularity in classification and the sporadic patterns in the data. To improve the quality of data mining from the IoT data, a new pre-processing methodology based on subspace similarity detection is proposed. Our method can be well integrated with traditional data mining algorithms and anomaly detection methods. The pre-processing method is flexible for handling similar kinds of sensor data that are sporadic in nature that exist in many ambient sensing applications. The proposed methodology is evaluated by extensive experiment with a collection of classical data mining models. An improvement over the precision rate is shown by using the proposed method.

Drought stress is a severe threat to high altitude hulless barley production, which causes oxidative damage, disturbs water relations and photosynthesis, while exogenously applied nitric oxide (NO) has the potential to alleviate these effects. In the present study, the role of NO in improving drought tolerance of hulless barley was evaluated. At the three leaf stage, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a NO donor, was applied at 50, 100 and 150 μmol l–1 under drought stress, the controls, were kept at full field water capacity without NO treatment. The results showed that drought stress seriously reduced the hulless barley growth and physiological attributes, but NO application alleviated the stress effects. Drought tolerance in hulless barley was strongly related to the maintenance of water content and enhanced capacity of antioxidants, improved stability of cellular membranes and enhanced photosynthetic capacity, plausibly by signaling action of NO. Among the NO treatments, 100 μmol l–1 SNP was the most effective.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an early onset childhood neurodevelopmental disorder with high heritability. A number of genetic risk factors and environment factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ADHD. Genes encoding for subtypes of voltage-dependent K channels (Kv) and accessory proteins to these channels have been identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of ADHD. We conducted a two-stage case-control study to investigate the associations between five key genes (KChIP4, KChIP1, DPP10, FHIT, and KCNC1) and the risk of developing ADHD. In the discovery stage comprising 256 cases and 372 controls, KChIP1 rs1541665 and FHIT rs3772475 were identified; they were further genotyped in the validation stage containing 328cases and 431 controls.KChIP1 rs1541665 showed significant association with a risk of ADHD at both stages, with CC vs TT odds ratio (OR) = 1.961, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.366-2.497, in combined analyses (P-FDR = 0.007). Moreover, we also found rs1541665 involvement in ADHD-I subtype (OR (95% CI) = 2.341(1.713, 3.282), and Hyperactive index score (P = 0.005) in combined samples.Intriguingly, gene-environmental interactions analysis consistently revealed the potential interactionsof rs1541665 collaboratingwith maternal stress pregnancy (Pmul = 0.021) and blood lead (Padd = 0.017) to modify ADHD risk. In conclusion, the current study provides evidence that genetic variants of Kv accessory proteins may contribute to the susceptibility of ADHD.Further studies with different ethnicitiesare warranted to produce definitive conclusions.

The pyrochlore-type (Sr0.6Bi0.305)2Bi2O7 (SBO) containing Bi3+ and Bi5+ mixed valent states was first investigated as a photocatalyst in our very recent work. To further improve the photocatalytic performance, AgBr/SBO heterostructured composites were synthesized by using a deposition-precipitation method. The characterization of phase structure, morphology, microstructure, elemental composition, and optical properties of the obtained products were performed using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM)TEM, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The photocatalytic activity of samples was evaluated by degrading methylene blue under visible light illumination. AgBr/SBO composites possess high stability and significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance. The improvement of photocatalytic activity is due to the enhanced light absorption and the separation of photoinduced electrons and holes on the interface of AgBr/SBO heterostructured composites.

Electronic structure, optical, mechanical, and lattice dynamical properties of the tetragonal MgBi2O6 are studied using a first-principles method. The band gap of MgBi2O6 calculated from the PBE0 hybrid functional method is about 1.62 eV and agrees well with the experimental value. The calculations on elastic constants show that MgBi2O6 exhibits mechanical stability and strong elastic anisotropy. The detailed analysis of calculated optical parameters and effective masses clearly indicate that MgBi2O6 has strong optical response in the visible light region and high separation efficiency of photoinduced electrons and holes.

To investigate Mo doping effects on the hydrogen permeation performance of Nb membranes, we study the most likely process of atomic hydrogen adsorption and diffusion on/into Mo-doped Nb (100) surface/subsurface (in the Nb12Mo4 case) via first-principles calculations. Our results reveal that the (100) surface is the most stable Mo-doped Nb surface with the smallest surface energy (2.75 J/m2). Hollow sites (HSs) in the Mo-doped Nb (100) surface are H-adsorption-favorable mainly due to their large adsorption energy (−4.27 eV), and the H-diffusion path should preferentially be HS→TIS (tetrahedral interstitial site) over HS→OIS (octahedral interstitial site) because of the correspondingly lower H-diffusion energy barrier. With respect to a pure Nb (100) surface, the Mo-doped Nb (100) surface has a smaller energy barrier along the HS→TIS pathway (0.31 eV).

Autism is a disorder of neurobiological origin characterized by problems in communication and social skills and repetitive behavior. After more than six decades of research, the etiology of autism remains unknown, and no biomarkers have been proven to be characteristic of autism. A number of studies have shown that the cytokine levels in the blood, brain, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of autistic subjects differ from that of healthy individuals; for example, a series of studies suggests that interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) are significantly elevated in different tissues in autistic subjects. However, the expression of some cytokines, such as IL-1, IL-2, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), is controversial, and different studies have found various results in different tissues. In this review, we focused on several types of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines that might affect different cell signal pathways and play a role in the pathophysiological mechanism of autistic spectrum disorders.

The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors are the most diverse members of dimerizing transcription factors. In the present study, 50, 116, and 47 bZIP genes were identified in Malus domestica (apple), Prunus persica (peach), and Fragaria vesca (strawberry), respectively. Species-specific duplication was the main contributor to the large number of bZIPs observed in apple. After WGD in apple genome, orthologous bZIP genes corresponding to strawberry on duplicated regions in apple genome were retained. However, in peach ancestor, these syntenic regions were quickly lost or deleted. Maybe the positive selection contributed to the expansion of clade S to adapt to the development and environment stresses. In addition, purifying selection was mainly responsible for bZIP sequence-specific DNA binding. The analysis of orthologous pairs between chromosomes indicates that these orthologs derived from one gene duplication located on one of the nine ancient chromosomes in the Rosaceae. The comparative analysis of bZIP genes in three species provides information on the evolutionary fate of bZIP genes in apple and peach after they diverged from strawberry.

The CCCH-type (C3H-type) zinc finger (Znf) proteins are specific transcriptional factors containing a typical motif with three cysteine residues and one histidine residue. Increasing evidence suggests that members of this family play important roles in many biological processes functioning in RNA processing as RNA-binding proteins. To date, few plant C3H genes have been functionally characterized. In the present study, a comprehensive analysis of C3H-type Znf genes was performed in grapevine ( L.). A total of 69 genes were identified in (), which clustered into 12 distinct phylogenetic subgroups. These genes were unevenly distributed on 19 grapevine chromosomes with 13 segmental duplication pairs and one tandem duplication pair. Thirty-eight proteins were predicted to putatively participate in nucleon-cytoplasm shuttling and one was identified as a typical RNA-binding protein. Expression profiling of the genes indicated a pattern of differential expression of retained paralogous gene copies within . The information and data provided in the present study contributes to understand the evolutionary processes and potential functions of this gene family in grapevine growth and development, and responses to abiotic stress. The functional divergence and relationship to abiotic stresses of duplicate genes present in this family serves as a starting point.

Discriminating cell types is a daily request for stem cell biologists. However, there is not a user-friendly system available to date for public users to discriminate the common cell types, embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and somatic cells (SCs). Here, we develop WCTDS, a web-server of cell type discrimination system, to discriminate the three cell types and their subtypes like fetal versus adult SCs. WCTDS is developed as a top layer application of our recent publication regarding cell type discriminations, which employs DNA-methylation as biomarkers and machine learning models to discriminate cell types. Implemented by Django, Python, R, and Linux shell programming, run under Linux-Apache web server, and communicated through MySQL, WCTDS provides a friendly framework to efficiently receive the user input and to run mathematical models for analyzing data and then to present results to users. This framework is flexible and easy to be expended for other applications. Therefore, WCTDS works as a user-friendly framework to discriminate cell types and subtypes and it can also be expended to detect other cell types like cancer cells.

Alkylglycerols (AKGs) are ether-linked glycerols derived from shark liver oil and found in small amounts in human milk. Previous studies showed that oral AKGs administration significantly increased the immune response in mice. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro immunomodulatory effect of AKGs on stimulating splenic lymphocyte responses. C57BL/6 mice were immunized with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Splenic B cells were purified and stimulated with anti-BCR and anti-CD38. Meanwhile, splenic CD4+ T cells were purified and stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28. For antigen specific stimulation, the purified CD4+ T cells were cocultured with HBsAg -pulsed dendritic cells. The stimulated lymphocytes were treated with different concentrations of AKGs. The cell proliferation was assessed by [3H]-thymidine incorporation assay. The maturation of B cells was assessed by examining the germline (GL) transcription of IgG (γ1) mRNA expression, and the surface expressions of CD80/CD86 markers were examined by flow cytometry analysis. Th1/Th2 polarity was assessed by T-BET (Th1)/GATA-3 (Th2) flow cytometry assay and by characteristic cytokines ELISA assay (TNF-α and IFN-γ for Th1; IL-4 and IL-10 for Th2). It was found that AKGs significantly increased the BCR/CD38 -stimulated B cell proliferation. The T cell proliferation in response to CD3/CD28 or specific antigen stimulation was also increased by AKGs. The transcriptional level of IgG (γ1) and the expressions of CD80/CD86 molecules were markedly increased by AKGs in BCR/CD38 -stimulated B cells. Meanwhile, the results showed that AKGs increased the expression of T-BET transcriptional factor and the production of Th1 cytokines (TNF-α and IFN-γ) upon CD3/CD28 stimulation; whereas, levels of Th2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10) were decreased by AKGs. Our study demonstrated that AKGs can modulate immune responses by boosting the proliferation and maturation of murine lymphocytes in vitro.

In the title compound, C28H28F2N2O2, the piperazine ring has a chair conformation with the pendant N—C bonds in equatorial orientations. The C=C double bond has an E conformation and the dihedral angle between the fluorobenzene rings is 70.8 (3)°. In the crystal, molecules are linked by C—H...O and C—H...F hydrogen bonds.

In the title molecule, C29H28F2N2O, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation with the pendant N—C bonds in equatorial orientations. The conformation of the N—C—C—O linkage is gauche [torsion angle = −64.6 (4)°] and the dihedral angle between the fluorobenzene rings is 64.02 (15)°.

In the molecule of the title compound, C31H36N2O5, the piperazine ring displays a chair conformation. The dihedral angle between the benzene rings of the bis(4-methoxyphenyl)methyl group is 83.42 (15)°. In the crystal, centrosymmetrically related molecules are linked through pairs of C—H...O hydrogen bonds into dimers, generating an R22(10) ring motif. The dimers are further connected into chains parallel to [2-10] by C—H...O hydrogen bonds involving the methoxy groups.

In the title molecule, C26H28F2N2O, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation, with the N-bonded substituents in equatorial orientations. The dihedral angle between the fluorobenzene rings is 69.10 (15).

In the title compound, C27H26Br2N2O, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation with the N—C bonds in equatorial orientations. The C=C double bond has an E configuration. The dihedral angle between the bromobenzene rings is 83.0 (4)°. In the crystal, inversion dimers linked through pairs of C—H...O hydrogen bonds generate R22(10) loops.

In the title compound, C28H28Br2N2O2, the C=C double bond has an E configuration and the piperazine ring has a chair conformation, with the N—C bonds in equatorial orientations. The dihedral angle between the bromobenzene rings is 83.1 (4)°. In the crystal, molecules are linked by C—H...O and C—H...Br hydrogen bonds.

There are two crystallographically independent molecules in the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C29H30N2O5, each having an E conformation about the C=C double bond. The dihedral angles between the methoxybenzene rings in the two molecules are 71.39 (17) and 68.64 (17)°. In the crystal, molecules are linked by C—H...O interactions.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C32H38N2O5·2C2H6O, contains one main molecule and two solvent molecules, which interact via intermolecular O—H...O hydrogen bonds. The piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation. The crystal packing exhibits weak intermolecular C—H...O hydrogen bonds and voids of 31 Å3.

In the title molecule, C29H30Br2N2O3, the piperazine ring has a chair conformation and the C=C double bond has an E conformation. The dihedral angle between the bromobenzene rings is 79.1 (3)°. In the crystal, molecules are linked through C—H...O and C—H...Br hydrogen bonds.

Our previous studies had shown that DAZAP2 was profoundly downregulated in bone marrow mononuclear cells from multiple myeloma patients. In this report, we analyzed epigenetic changes in multiple myeloma cell lines to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the downregulation of DAZAP2. Four multiple myeloma cell lines, KM3, MM.1S, OPM-2 and ARH-77, were studied. The results of methylation specific PCR (MSP) showed that the promoter of DAZAP2 was methylated for KM3, MM.1S, OPM-2 and unmethylated for ARH-77. The DAZAP2 promoter region was amplified to obtain a series of different length sequences. All of the amplified sequences were inserted to luciferase reporter vector. The constructs were transfected into COS-7 cells and the luciferase activities were measured to search for the core region of DAZAP2 promoter. Two CpG islands were found in DAZAP2 promoter region. The results of luciferase assay showed that CpG island 1 displayed weak transcriptional activity, whereas CpG island 2 exhibited strong transcriptional activity (273 folds) compared to the control. The sequence that covered both CpG islands 1 and 2 showed higher activity (1,734 folds) compared to the control, suggesting that the two islands had synergistic effect on regulating DAZAP2 expression. We also found that M. Sss I methylase could inhibit the luciferase activity, whereas demethylation using 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine treatment rescued the expression of DAZAP2 for multiple myeloma cell lines. These data revealed that methylation of DAZAP2 promoter was involved in downregulation of DAZAP2 in multiple myeloma cells.

In the title molecule, C28H30N2O2, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation and the C=C bond exhibits an E conformation. The dihedral angle between the terminal phenyl rings is 71.4 (2). In the crystal, molecules are linked by C—H...O hydrogen bonds, forming [010] chains.

In the title molecule, C26H23Br3N2O, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation and the C=C double bond has an E configuration. In the crystal, molecules are linked through weak intermolecular C—H...O hydrogen bonds.

In the title molecule, C28H28F2N2O2, the ethene bond exhibits an E conformation and the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation. The amide-N atom of the piperazine ring is almost planar (bond-angle sum = 358.8°) whereas the other N atom is clearly pyramidal (bond-angle sum = 330.5°). The dihedral angle between the fluorobenzene rings is 76.36 (17)°. In the crystal, inversion dimers linked by pairs of C—H...O hydrogen bonds generate R22(22) loops.

In the title compound, C30H34N2O3·C2H6O, the piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation and the ethene bond exhibits an E conformation. In the crystal, the two components are linked by an O—H...O hydrogen bond.

In the title molecule, C29H32N2O3, the piperazine ring has a chair conformation. The amide N atom is almost planar (bond angle sum = 359.5°), whereas the other N atom is clearly pyramidal (bond angle sum = 330.4°). The dihedral angle between the methoxybenzene rings is 81.29 (16)°. In the crystal, molecules are linked by C—H...O hydrogen bonds.

In the title compound, C28H50O5·H2O, all of the six-membered rings of the pentacyclic triterpene skeleton adopt chair conformations. In the crystal, molecules are linked by O—H...O and C—H...O hydrogen bonds.