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African swine fever virus (ASFV) is contagious and can cause highly lethal disease in pigs. ASFV DNA ligase (AsfvLIG) is one of the most error-prone ligases identified to date; it catalyzes DNA joining reaction during DNA repair process of ASFV and plays important roles in mutagenesis of the viral genome. Here, we report four AsfvLIG:DNA complex structures and demonstrate that AsfvLIG has a unique N-terminal domain (NTD) that plays critical roles in substrate binding and catalytic complex assembly. In combination with mutagenesis, in vitro binding and catalytic assays, our study reveals that four unique active site residues (Asn153 and Leu211 of the AD domain; Leu402 and Gln403 of the OB domain) are crucial for the catalytic efficiency of AsfvLIG. These unique structural features can serve as potential targets for small molecule design, which could impair genome repair in ASFV and help combat this virus in the future., The DNA ligase of African swine fever virus is one of the most error-prone ligases identified to date, but underlying molecular details are lacking. Here, Chen et al. report four AsfvLIG:DNA structures and identify a unique N-terminal domain and four unique active site residues that are crucial for its catalytic efficiency.

After pipeline construction burst china energy pipeline industry commonly faced with aging and abandonment problem. The study on pipeline abandonment was still in preliminary state, because there is nearly no pipeline abandonment standards and guidelines. Pipeline cleaning is the first step to dispose the abandoned pipeline to eliminate the risk of environment and safety. In foreign developed countries there are many chemical cleaning agents. But this chemical cleaning agent is not suitable for residual of chines pipeline because of oil difference between china and foreign country. The most of residual in china have a very high paraffin and resin-asphaltenes content. So preparation of chemical cleaning suitable for china residual is a challenge on the technology of abandonment pipeline. In this paper two kinds of chemical cleaning agent were prepared to clean the different type of residual. They are hydrophilic chemical cleaning agent and oil soluble chemical cleaning agent. The result of cleaning project shows that the both kind of chemical cleaning have good performance for the abandoned pipeline. The chemical cleaning agents will assist pipeline company to totally clean the abandoned pipeline to ensure the public safety and environment protection.

Terahertz communication is recognized as a transformational technology that can meet the future demands of point-to-point communication. The study of terahertz atmospheric transmission characteristics is important for guiding the terahertz communication window selection process. In this report, based on the modified ITU-R P.676-10 model, we determined that the terahertz communication windows above 100 GHz were located at the bands at approximately 140, 220, 340, 410, and 460 GHz, which is verified by recent experiments. We also verified the feasibility of indoor point-to-point communication by the 110 m transmission experiment through the communication window around 460 GHz.

This publisher’s note amends the author affiliations in Appl. Opt.57, 7673 (2018)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.57.007673.

Objective To determine whether the joint use of the transtheoretical model and latent profile analysis could help us better understand the shared characteristics of patients with diabetes and explore the association of patients’ latent classes and glucose control. Methods Five hundred twenty-three (523) patients with diabetes were included in the study. The questionnaire evaluated patients’ stages of change for medication-taking, diet control, exercise, and glucose-monitoring. Latent profile analysis was performed based on the four indicators. Results Patients were classified into four latent groups and defined as follows: good medication-taking/good lifestyle (GM/GL, 41.7%), poor medication-taking/poor lifestyle (PM/PL, 27.7%), good medication-taking/poor lifestyle (GM/PL, 21.6%), and poor medication-taking/good lifestyle (PM/GL, 9.0%). Patients in the PM/PL group were generally younger and better educated while those in the GM/GL group exhibited the opposite pattern. Compared with patients in the PM/PL group, those in the PM/GL and GM/GL groups had significantly lower HbA1c values (PM/GL: standardized β = -0.694, P = 0.007; GM/GL: standardized β = -0.499, P = 0.003). Conclusion With the help of the transtheoretical model and latent profile analysis, future study could cluster homogeneous patients before the initiation of intervention and provide tailored instructions to different types of patients accordingly. Practice implications A combination of the transtheoretical model and latent profile analysis could shed some light into future diabetic interventions.

DUX4 plays critical role in the molecular pathogenesis of the neuromuscular disorder facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in humans. As a master transcription regulator, DUX4 can also bind the promoters and activate the transcription of hundreds ZGA-associated genes. Here we report on the structural and biochemical studies of DUX4 double homeodomains (DUX4-DH), representing the only structures contain both homeodomain 1 (HD1) and homeodomain 2 (HD2). HD1 and HD2 adopt classical homeobox fold; via the helix inserted into the major groove and the N-terminal extended loop inserted into the minor groove, HD1 and HD2 recognize the box1 (5′-TAA-3′) and box2 (5′-TGA-3′) nucleotides of the consensus sequence, respectively. Among the box1 and box2 linking nucleotides (CCTAA), the two adenine residues are reported to be highly conserved; however, they are not directly recognized by DUX4-DH in the structures. Besides different nucleotides, our ITC analysis indicated that DUX4-DH can also tolerate various changes in the linker length. Our studies not only revealed the basis for target DNA recognition by DUX4, but also advanced our understanding on multiple gene activation by DUX4.

Turning natural products into value-added herbicide preparation is an alternative to synthetic compounds for environmentally friendly weed management. In continuation of our research on rosin-based herbicidal agents, 33 acrylopimaric acid (APA) derivatives were synthesized, and were structurally characterized using proton nuclear magnetic resonance, elemental analysis, electrospray ionization mass spectra, melting point, infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. In addition, the herbicidal activity of APA derivatives against Amaranthus retroflexus, Echinochloa crus-galli, and Brassica campestris L. were investigated. Among the APA derivatives, the diacylthiourea compounds 3a–f showed significant post-emergence herbicidal activity against E. crus-galli. Moreover, compounds 3b–d (with EC50 values of 13.191, 13.441, and 13.191 g ai/ha, respectively) displayed more promising herbicidal activity against E. crus-galli than sulfentrazone (a commercial herbicide with an EC50 value of 15.606 g ai/ha). In quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) study, optimal conformers and best multilinear regression analysis were performed using Gaussian and CODESSA software. The four descriptors correlating the molecular structures with their herbicidal activities were as follows: Total Charge, log MS, qNmax and qCmax. The generated QSAR model had a correlation coefficient of 0.9625, a Fisher significance ratio of 185.96, and a squared standard error of the estimates of 0.0012. Preliminary studies on the structure–activity relationship and QSAR showed that the higher electron density around the substituent groups on the nitrogen atoms of rosin-based backbone structure and smaller volume of spatial structure played a beneficial effect on the herbicidal activity. Thus, rosin is a promising source of a value-added product for crop protection.

Rosin is extensively distributed and renewable natural resource in China. In continuation of our research on natural product-based insecticidal agents endowed with eco-friendly properties, 37 rosin-based amide derivatives containing thiadiazole group were prepared. Meanwhile, the structures of rosin-based derivatives containing thiadiazole group were characterized by melting point, IR spectroscopy, 1 H NMR, elemental analysis, ESI-MS and X-ray crystallography. In addition, the insecticidal activities of rosin-based amide derivatives containing thiadiazole group (3a–w and 7a–n) against Mythimna separata and Plutella xylostella were investigated. Compounds 3p–r, 7f and 7n (with LC 50 values of 0.222, 0.222, 0.224, 0.223 and 0.214 μg/mL) displayed outstanding insecticidal activity in comparison with flunbendiamide (a commercial insecticide, with LC 50 value of 0.222 μg/mL). The optimal conformers and best multilinear regression analysis were performed by Gaussian and CODESSA software package, and five descriptors correlating the molecular structures with their insecticidal activities were selected as follows: HOMO–LUMO, log MV, log P, Total Charge I and Total Charge II. For this built QSAR model, the correlation coefficient ( R 2 ) was 0.9604, the squared standard error of the estimates ( S 2 ) was 0.0052, and the Fisher significance ratio ( F ) was 103.79. The preliminary SAR and QSAR studies showed that electronic and steric effect of target compounds had an important influence on the larvicidal activity.

Optically immersed detectors with high index of refraction lenses were an effective technique to improve the performance of thermistor bolometer for infrared detection. In this paper we described the design and fabrication of back-incident optically immersed bolometer with germanium hemispherical lens using the Mn1.56Co0.96Ni0.48O4 thin films prepared by chemical solution deposition method on amorphous Al2O3 substrate. The characteristics of back-incident immersed bolometer operated at room temperature were investigated. It was found that the performance of the detector was significantly enhanced by the use of germanium hemispherical lens. The fabricated bolometer exhibited noise equivalent temperature of 1.56 × 10−7 K/Hz1/2, responsivity of 3.2 × 103 V/W, and detectivity of approximate 9.2 × 108 cmHz1/2/W at 30 Hz. The thermal time constant of 7.3 ms was about one third of the non-immersion ones. Field of view of ±35° and optical immersion gain of up to 14 times were also obtained. The results demonstrated that the feasibility of back-incident optically immersed bolometer could be used to uncooled infrared bolometric applications.

Turpentine is a volatile component of resin, which is an abundant forest resource in Southern China. As one of the most important components, the integrated application of β-pinene has been studied. The broad-spectrum evaluation of β-pinene and its analogues has, therefore, been necessary. In an attempt to expand the scope of agro-activity trials, the preparation and the evaluation of the herbicidal activity of a series of β-pinene analogues against three agricultural herbs were carried out. In accordance with the overall herbicidal activity, it is noteworthy that compounds 6k, 6l, and 6m demonstrated extreme activity with IC50 values of 0.065, 0.065, and 0.052 mol active ingredients/hectare against E. crus-galli. The preliminary structure–activity relationship (SAR) was analyzed and the compounds with the appropriate volatility and substituent type that had beneficial herbicidal activity were analyzed. Simultaneously, the quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model was built and the most important structural features were indicated, which was, to a certain extent, in line with the SAR study. The study aimed to study the application of the forest resource turpentine in agriculture as a potential and alternative approach for comprehensive utilization.

A thermal sensitive infrared and THz detector was fabricated by a double layered Mn-Co-Ni-O/Mn-Co-Ni-Cu-O films. The Mn-Co-Ni-O material, as one type of transition metal oxides, has long been used as a candidate for thermal sensors or infrared detectors. The resistivity of a most important Mn-Co-Ni-O thin film, Mn1. 96Co0.96Ni0.48O4(MCN) , is about 200 Ω·cm at room temperature, which ranges about 2 orders larger than that of VOx detectors. Therefore, the thickness of a typical squared Mn-Co-Ni-O IR detector should be about 10 μm, which is too large for focal plane arrays applications. To reduce the resistivity of Mn-Co-Ni-O thin film, 1/6 of Co element was replaced by Cu. Meanwhile, a cover layer of MCN film was deposited onto the Mn-Co-Ni-Cu-O film to improve the long term stability. The detector fabricated by the double layered Mn-Co-Ni-O/Mn-Co-Ni-Cu-O films showed large response to blackbody and 170 GHz radiation. The NEP of the detector was estimated to be the order of 10-8 W/Hz0. 5. By applying thermal isolation structure and additional absorption materials, the detection performance can be largely improved by 1-2 orders according to numerical estimation. The double layered Mn-Co-Ni-O film detector shows great potentials in applications in large scale IR detection arrays, and broad-band imaging.

International audience; The development of novel approaches that control absorption and emission operating in the long wavelength infrared (LWIR) spectral region is of fundamental importance for many applications, such as remote temperature sensing, thermal imaging, radiation cooling, environmental monitoring, and night vision. A high performance plasmonic metasurface–based absorber for the LWIR spectral region is presented. In the design, a pyroelectric thin film, poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) copolymer, is introduced as spacer, that offers the device not only multiple selective high absorption bands but also promising potential for application in optoelectronics. The angle-resolved optical responses show that the absorption effect is sensitive to the incident angles and can be controlled by the periodicity, indicating that the design can function as optical devices with directional and frequency-selective absorption/emission characteristics. By employing near-field optical microscopy, both the near-field amplitude and phase optical responses of the absorber are investigated at resonant wavelength, thereby providing direct experimental evidence to verify the nature of the absorption effect. To further demonstrate the versatility of the design, a particular metasurface patterned by the building blocks of the absorber is fabricated. 2D hyperspectral images show that such a patterned structure exhibits both frequency and spatially selective absorption.

In consideration of turpentine and its analogues possessing some agricultural biological activity, persistent efforts to take advantage of renewable, abundant natural resources have been made. Three series of derivatives from β-pinene were synthesized and their fungicidal activities against Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium graminearum, and Botrytis cinerea were investigated. Most of the synthesized compounds exhibited moderate to significant fungicidal activity. Among them, the acylthiourea derivatives from β-pinene showed more promising results than the other compounds. It was worth noting that compounds 7b and 7d displayed excellent fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia solani, with IC50 values of 2.439 and 1.857 μg mL−1, which was close to or even better than the control triadimenol (1.945 μg mL−1, a commercial fungicide). The structure–activity relationship (SAR) analysis indicated that the compounds with more net positive charge possessed better fungicidal activity. The quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model (R2 = 0.9879, F = 348.41, S2 = 0.0047) was obtained through the best multi-linear regression. The built model revealed a strong correlation of fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia solani with the molecular features of the title compounds. Additionally, the SAR and QSAR studies showed that the introduction of an electron-withdrawing group, which can increase the positive charge, was favorable towards the fungicidal activity. These encouraging results may provide an alternative, promising use of β-pinene through the design and exploration of eco-friendly fungicides with low toxicity and high efficiency.

Recently identified T memory stem (Tscm) cells have stem-cell-like properties, including long lifespan, self-renewal capacity, and multipotency to differentiate into other memory T cell types. In the study of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection, selective depletion of CCR5

Mn-Co-Ni-O (MCNO) flexible thermistors are fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate or polyimide sheets by RF magnetron sputtering method at room temperature. The whole fabricating processes is completed at room temperature. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) is -3.1% and resistivity as low as 110Ωcm at 295K. The bendingstraightening cycle test indicates the flexible MCNO sheet is stable. The temperature sensing test shows the thermistors respond to temperature change rapidly and sensitively. Due to the heat-treat free process, high TCR and moderate resistivity features, the technique we provide here allows a convenient and low cost industrial manufacture of high performance flexible thermistors and wide band infrared detectors.

Long bases RT THz standoff spectrometer is designed. GaSe 91 S 0.09 :Al(0.03 at.%) DFG of near IR lasers was seeded by THz emission from electronic system. THz generation efficiency was improved by the factor of ≥10 at principally reduced emission bandwidth, and pulse magnitude variation decreased for at least of 4–5 times.

MCNO flexible thermistors have been fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate or polyimide sheets by RF magnetron sputtering method at room temperature. The whole fabricating processes have been done at room temperature. The temperature coefficient of resistance is −3.1% and resistivity as low as 110Ωcm at 295K. Due to the heat-treat free process, high TCR and moderate resistivity features, the technique we provide here allows a convenient and low cost industrial manufacture of high performance flexible thermistors and wide band infrared detectors.

Linear optical properties of vanadium (V) and nitrogen (N) doped single-crystal sub-millimeter wafers of 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC grown for industrial applications in optics and electronics are studied in detail within transparency window and from 0.2 THz to 2.1 THz range to reveal usability in parametric frequency conversion. Manufactured wafers are found not uniform in polytype composition. Optical properties of majority of wafers indicated applicability for THz wave generation by optical rectification method. The wafers demonstrated large optical damage threshold exceeding that for widely used crystals GaSe at least for from 3 to 5 times and up to 10 times lower (from a few tens to below 1 cm−1) absorption coefficient in the THz range. Birefringence of doped 4H-SiC are still close to that for pure crystals, i.e. suitable for phase matched frequency conversion within the transparency window or into the THz region. Polytype 6H seems suitable for phase matched down-conversion into the THz range. Nevertheless, absolute values of refractive indices are seriously varying wafer to wafer.

We launched into a development of a new stand-off sensing system that can detect atmospheric and hazardous gases in real atmosphere utilizing THz technology. Narrow line width

A new proper orthogonal decomposition reduced-order model (POD-ROM) for fluid flow and heat transfer processes in a fractured geothermal reservoir is proposed. First, the primary governing equations are established based on the embedded discrete fracture model. Second, the POD-ROM is developed by projecting the discrete matrix equations instead of the primary governing equations onto the low-dimensional space spanned by the pressure and temperature basis functions. Compared with the typical POD modeling method, the new model reduction technique can easily deal with mass and energy transfer between the matrix and fractures, thus ensuring the mass and energy conservation of the whole system in the projection process. The new model does not require complex mathematical deduction and is easy to implement in practical applications. The accuracy and robustness of the model were carefully studied for three complex heat transfer cases. Calculation results indicated that the computational efficiency can be improved by at least 10–15 times while high reconstruction and prediction accuracy is maintained.

In order to investigate the effect of thiophene heterocyclic group on antifungal activity, two series of rosin-based derivatives were designed and synthesized. The antifungal effects on Thanatephorus cucumeris, Botrytis cinerea, Valsa mali, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum were assessed. The dehydroabietyl acyl-thiourea compounds containing a thiophene heterocyclic group had mild to strong antifungal effects on V. mali. Among these molecules, compound 5e showed more excellent effects on V. mali with concentration for 50% of maximal effect (EC50) of 0.184 mg/L, which was lower than carbendazim. Compound 5e was also efficient against V. mali in vivo, with remarkably altered morphology, elevated cell membrane permeability, and decreased pectinase activity compared with the control group. Next, four parameters linking structural features and antifungal effects on V. mali were examined, including max net atomic charge for a S atom (qSmax), energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbit and the lowest unoccupied orbit in atomic units (HOMO-LUMO), the logarithm of molecular surface area (log MS), and dipole moment (DM), and used for building a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model (R2 = 0.9660). Preliminary structure-activity relationship (SAR) and QSAR evaluations indicated electronic and steric effects, and energy differences of different compounds had remarkable influences on antifungal properties. These results provided new insights into the mechanisms behind the antifungal properties of rosin-based with thiophene heterocyclic group derivatives. Guided by this study, some potential substitutes can be currently used in fungicides and some new antifungals can be led for developing.

This paper investigates the productivity and collaborations patterns in the publications of IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (T-ITS) between 2010 and 2013. Our findings show that industry is playing a more important role in research cooperation. Such a trend is particularly beneficial for expediting the commercialization of scientific and technological advances. In addition, growing international collaborations have become a norm as researchers in the U.S., China, and Europe are increasingly involved in joint research endeavors.

With the booming of social media, sentiment analysis has developed rapidly in recent years. However, only a few studies focused on the field of transportation, which failed to meet the stringent requirements of safety, efficiency, and information exchange of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). We propose the traffic sentiment analysis (TSA) as a new tool to tackle this problem, which provides a new prospective for modern ITSs. Methods and models in TSA are proposed in this paper, and the advantages and disadvantages of rule- and learning-based approaches are analyzed based on web data. Practically, we applied the rule-based approach to deal with real problems, presented an architectural design, constructed related bases, demonstrated the process, and discussed the online data collection. Two cases were studied to demonstrate the efficiency of our method: the “yellow light rule” and “fuel price” in China. Our work will help the development of TSA and its applications.

Thin films of Mn1.4Co1.0Ni0.6O4 (MCN) spinel oxide are grown by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method on amorphous Al2O3 substrate. We investigate the annealing effect on the micro structural and electrical properties of RF sputtered MCN films. It is found that the crystallinity of MCN film is improved with increasing annealing time at 750 °C, and the annealed films present excellent cubic spinel (220) preferred orientation in X-ray diffraction patterns. Comparing to as-sputtered thin film, the annealed films show a decrease of 60 to 70 % in resistivity at 300 K. The annealed samples with post annealing time longer than 18 min acquire a negative temperature coefficient of resistance of about −3.73 %K−1 and resistivity of about 210–220 Ω cm at 300 K. 1/f noise of MCN films are also studied and the Hooge’s parameters (γ/n) are calculated. After annealing for 18 to 90 min, the γ/n values of the films are on the order of 10−21 cm3, which ranks about two orders lower than that of amorphous silicon.

The papers in this special issue were presented at the The Mechatronic and Embedded Technologies in Intelligent Transportation Systems Symposium which includes contributions in technologies, methodologies and, in particular, applications of mechatronic and embedded systems in any aspect of ITSs, from automatic vehicle localization and monitoring to autonomous vehicles and environmental perception.

In a continuing effort to develop novel natural product-based insecticidal agents endowed with low mammalian toxicity, two series of rosin-based diamides have been synthesized, and their insecticidal activities against Plutella xylostella and Mythimna separata were evaluated. Most of the synthesized compounds exhibited moderate to significant insecticidal activity. Among them, thiadiazole-containing diamides 6a–n displayed better activity than others, especially compounds 6f and 6n which exhibited excellent insecticidal activity against P. xylostella, with LC50 values of 0.223 and 0.214 mg L−1, respectively, which approximate to, or are lower than that of, the control flubendiamide (0.222 mg L−1). The preliminary structure–activity relationship analysis indicated that rosin-based diamides with electron-withdrawing groups on the benzene ring showed better insecticidal activity than those with electron-donating groups. Via a best multilinear regression analysis, the generated quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model (R2 = 0.9566) revealed a strong correlation of insecticidal activity against P. xylostella with molecular structures of these compounds. These consequences can be expected to instruct the design and development of new rosin-based insecticides.

∼2 μm thick Mn1.56Co0.96Ni0.48O4 (MCN) films have been prepared on a Al2O3 substrate by the chemical solution deposition method. X-ray diffraction and microstructure analyses show good crystallization and the thickness of the films is 2.12 μm. Mid-infrared optical properties of MCN films have been investigated using transmission spectra and infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. The optical band gap of the MCN film has been derived to be 0.64 eV by assuming a direct transition between valence and conduction bands. The optical constants and thickness of the thin films have been obtained by fitting the measured ellipsometric parameter data with the classical infrared model. The refractive index n of the MCN films decreases as the wavelength increases, but the extinction coefficient k monotonously increases in the wavelength range of 2–7 μm. The maximal n value is 2.63, and the maximal k value is only 0.024. The above results are instructive for the applications of MCN films in infrared detecting.

The energy cost is one of the major concerns for the cloud providers. Virtual machine placement has been demonstrated as an effective method for energy saving. In addition to constraints caused by the physical machine resources such as CPU and memory (PM-constraints), the constraints caused by the network resource such as bandwidth (Net-constraints) are also crucial, since virtual machines are not isolated and require communication with each other to exchange data. However, most current research on data center power optimization only focuses on server resource. As a result, the optimization results are often inferior, because server consolidation without considering the network may cause traffic congestion and thus degraded network performance. We take the traffic demands between virtual machines into consideration and formulate the virtual machine placement problem under both PM-constraints and Net-constraints to minimize the energy cost, and propose an approach based on ant colony optimization to solve the problem. We evaluate the expected performance of our proposed algorithm through a simulation study, providing strong indications to the superiority of our proposed solution.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) can cause highly lethal disease in pigs and is becoming a global threat. ASFV DNA Polymerase X (AsfvPolX) is the most distinctive DNA polymerase identified to date; it lacks two DNA-binding domains (the thumb domain and 8-KD domain) conserved in the homologous proteins. AsfvPolX catalyzes the gap-filling reaction during the DNA repair process of the ASFV virus genome; it is highly error prone and plays an important role during the strategic mutagenesis of the viral genome. The structural basis underlying the natural substrate binding and the most frequent dG:dGTP misincorporation of AsfvPolX remain poorly understood. Here, we report eight AsfvPolX complex structures; our structures demonstrate that AsfvPolX has one unique 5′-phosphate (5′-P) binding pocket, which can favor the productive catalytic complex assembly and enhance the dGTP misincorporation efficiency. In combination with mutagenesis and in vitro catalytic assays, our study also reveals the functional roles of the platform His115-Arg127 and the hydrophobic residues Val120 and Leu123 in dG:dGTP misincorporation and can provide information for rational drug design to help combat ASFV in the future., The African swine fever virus genome encodes the most distinctive DNA polymerase known, AsfvPolX. A structural and functional study reveals the basis for its strategic error-prone misincorporation of dGTP opposite a dG residue., Author summary African swine fever virus (ASFV) is highly contagious and can cause lethal disease in pigs. AsfvPolX catalyzes the gap-filling reaction during the DNA repair process of the virus genome; it is highly error prone and plays an important role in the strategic mutagenesis of the virus genome. Unlike the homologous proteins, AsfvPolX has several unique structural features, including a 5′-P binding pocket, a His115-Arg127 platform, and hydrophobic residues Val120 and Leu123, which can all affect the catalytic efficiency (especially during dG:dGTP misincorporation) of AsfvPolX. These properties, especially the 5′-P binding pocket, provide an ideal structural basis for designing of small molecules, which can specifically inhibit the activity of AsfvPolX and disrupt the DNA repair process of the ASFV genome.

Terahertz spectrometer up to 110 m single-pass measurement trace was realized by room-temperature GaSe:S down-converter operating at 0.2–0.6 THz range with 0.1 cm−1 high resolution. Ab-initio measurements were carried out in the real atmosphere.

The coupling between photons and electrons is at the heart of many fundamental phenomena in nature. Despite tremendous advances in controlling electrons by photons in engineered energy-band systems, control over their coupling is still widely lacking. Here we demonstrate an unprecedented ability to couple photon-electron interactions in real space, in which the incident electromagnetic wave directly tailors energy bands of solid to generate carriers for sensitive photoconductance. By spatially coherent manipulation of metal-wrapped material system through anti-symmetric electric field of the irradiated electromagnetic wave, electrons in the metals are injected and accumulated in the induced potential well (EIW) produced in the solid. Respective positive and negative electric conductances are easily observed in n-type and p-type semiconductors into which electrons flow down from the two metallic sides under light irradiation. The photoconductivity is further confirmed by sweeping the injected electrons out of the semiconductor before recombination applied by sufficiently strong electric fields. Our work opens up new perspectives for tailoring energy bands of solids and is especially relevant to develop high effective photon detection, spin injection and energy harvesting in optoelectronics and electronics.

This paper reports on the synthesis of a series of amide derivatives from acrylopimaric acid (APA). The derivatives contained aromatic groups and were characterized by IR, 1HNMR, MS, and elemental analysis. The antibacterial activity of the derivatives against Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive bacteria were also investigated. When compared with the other derivatives, compounds 3a and 3f showed much higher activity against Escherichia coli (Gram-negative bacteria) with inhibition zones of 5 mm and 5.5 mm, respectively. Structure-activity relationship analysis revealed that ortho-substituted phenyl derivatives and meta-substituted phenyl derivatives exhibited higher activity than the para-substituted derivatives. Meanwhile, the halogen-substituted compounds did not show visible antibacterial activity compared with other compounds, which may have been caused by the lower electron density of the halogen-substituted phenyl rings.

Skin lesions are often associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, reflecting the immunocompromised status of the individual. We investigated the relationship between skin lesions and immune function in a retrospective study of 796 Chinese HIV patients with and without highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Of the 651 patients who had not received HAART, we found that 531 (81.6%) had apparent skin lesions. The incidence of infectious skin diseases (fungi, viruses, bacteria, spirochetes and parasites) and non-infectious skin diseases (excluding skin cancer) was 68.8% and 34.9%, respectively. Mean CD4(+) T-cell counts and CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratios were lower in patients with skin lesions than in patients without lesions (178 ± 96/µl vs. 306 ± 189/µl (p0.05) and 0.22 vs. 0.34 (p0.01), respectively). Candidiasis (25.8%), eczema (19.2%), nodular prurigo (13.8%), dermatophyte infections (10.6%) and herpes zoster (9.4%) were most common in Chinese patients with HIV. Among the 145 patients who had started HAART, there was a significantly lower prevalence of skin diseases (29.0%), although drug eruptions (12.4%) were more commonly observed. These findings indicate that HAART often reduces the incidence of infectious and non-infectious skin lesions in patients with HIV, but can itself be the cause of drug eruptions.

Ultrafast carrier dynamics in intrinsic and n-doped InSb crystals were studied by time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy using an optical pump-terahertz probe setup with pump fluence from 32 μJ/cm2 to 1910 μJ/cm2. With photoexcitation at 800 nm, the ultrafast photoinduced absorption and carrier recovery process of intrinsic and n-doped InSb showed strong pump fluence dependence. It was found that the magnitude of photoinduced absorption first increased and then decreased with pump fluence. The carrier recovery process could be well fitted with a single exponential curve at low pump fluence, but could be well fitted with a biexponential curve at high pump fluence when a fast photocarrier relaxation appeared. The magnitude of photoinduced absorption increased gradually at low pump fluence due to the increase of the carrier at the bottom of the conduction band by impact ionization. The magnitude of photoinduced absorption decreased gradually at high pump fluence, possibly due to the efficiency of transient Auger recombination greater than the rate of carriers generated in the impact ionization process. The fast decay process appearing at high pump fluence was thought to be dominated by transient Auger recombination.

Relaxor ferroelectric terpolymer, Poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofloroethylene) can be applied in many modern electronics systems. In this paper, the terpolymer films were deposited on aluminum-coated silicon substrates by horizontal Langmuir-Blodgett technology. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicates that the films have good crystallinity. The optical dispersion of the films were measured by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry over a range from 300–1300 nm. The data Ψ and Δ at multiple incident angels (θ = 75° and 85°) were fitted using the Cauchy model. The refractive index n, the extinction coefficient k and the thickness of each film were obtained.

This first comprehensive empirical study of a search function that originated in China examines its tremendous growth in recent years and its uniquely rich online/offline interactions.

Leptin is well known as a hormone important in the central control of appetitive behaviors via receptor-mediated actions in the hypothalamus, where leptin adjusts food intake to maintain homeostasis with the body’s energy stores. Recent evidence has shown that leptin and its receptors are widespread in the central nervous system and may provide neuronal survival signals. This review summarizes our current knowledge of how leptin functions in the brain and then focuses on the ability of leptin to mitigate neuronal damage in experimental models of human neurological disorders. Damage to the brain by acute events such as stroke, or longterm loss of neurons associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, may be amenable to treatment using leptin to limit death of susceptible cells. Leptin-mediated pro-survival signaling is now known to prevent the death of neurons in these models. The signaling cascades that leptin generates are shared by other neuroprotective molecules including insulin and erythropoietin, and are thus a component of the neurotrophic effects mediated by endogenous hormones. Coupled with evidence that leptin dysregulation in human disease also results in enhanced neuronal susceptibility to damage, development of leptin as a therapeutic methodology is an attractive and viable possibility.

When lightning strikes a substation or a transmission tower near the substation, high current generated by the stroke would flow into the grounding grid of the substation and dissipate in the soil. The transient characteristic of the grounding grid is very important to the safe and reliable operation of the power system. A circuit model with a lumped time-variable parameter is proposed to calculate the transient characteristics of a grounding grid under lightning current. The ionization phenomena around the ground conductors in the soil are simulated by means of time-variable parameters under appropriate conditions. The influences of different parameters on the transient characteristics of the grounding grid subjected to lightning impulse current are analyzed and the effective usage area of the grounding grid under lightning is discussed.

In consideration of the fact that the α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone moiety is a major bio-functional group in the structure of carabrone and possesses some agricultural biological activity, forty-six new ester and six new ether derivatives containing α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone moieties were synthesized, and their fungicidal activities against Colletotrichum lagenarium and Botrytis cinerea were investigated. Most of the synthesized compounds showed moderate to significant fungicidal activity. Among them, halogen atom-containing derivatives showed better activity than others, especially compounds 6a,d which exhibited excellent fungicidal activity against C. lagenarium, with IC50 values of 7.68 and 8.17 μM. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis indicated that ester derivatives with electron-withdrawing groups on the benzene ring showed better fungicidal activity than those with electron-donating groups. A quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model (R2 = 0.9824, F = 203.01, S2 = 0.0083) was obtained through the heuristic method. The built model revealed a strong correlation of fungicidal activity against C. lagenarium with the molecular structures of these compounds. These results are expected to prove helpful in the design and exploration of low toxicity and high efficiency α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone-based fungicides.

Ni80Fe20/Ni48Fe12Gr40 bilayer films and Ni80Fe20 monolayer films were deposited at room temperature on SiO2/Si(100) substrates by electron beam evaporation. The influence of the thickness of the Ni48Fe12Cr40 underlayer on the structure, magnetization, and magnetoresistance of the Ni80Fe20/Ni48Fe12Cr40 bilayer film was investigated. The thickness of the Ni48Fe12Cr40 layer varied from about 1 nm to 18 nm while the Ni80Fe20 layer thickness was fixed at 45 nm. For the as-deposited bilayer films the introducing of the Ni48Fe12Cr40 underlayer promotes both the (111) texture and grain growth in the Ni80Fe20 layer. The Ni48Fe12Cr40 underlayer has no significant influence on the magnetic moment of the Ni80Fe20/Ni48Fe12Cr40) bilayer film. However, the coercivity of the bilayer film changes with the thickness of the Ni48Fe12Cr40 underlayer. The optimum thickness of the Ni48Fe12Cr40 underlayer for improving the anisotropic magnetoresistance effect of the Ni80Fe20/Ni48Fe12Cr40 bilayer film is about 5 nm. With a decrease in temperature from 300 K to 81 K, the anisotropic magnetoresistance ratio of the Ni80Fe20(45 nm)/Ni48Fe12Cr40(5 nm) bilayer film increases linearly from 2.1% to 4.8% compared with that of the Ni80Fe20 monolayer film from 1.7% to 4.0%.

GaSe 1−x S x crystals were used for long-wave mid-IR generation by KTP OPO down-conversion. Optimal composition GaSe 1−x S x , shown 6 times higher efficiency than that of GaSe. Significant structure strengthening was achieved with Al-doping.

High quality Mn 1.56 Co 0.96 Ni 0.48 O 4 films with different layers have been prepared on Pt//Ti/SiO 2 /Si substrate. Infrared optical properties of the films have been investigated using infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. The optical constants have been obtained by fitting the measured ellipsometric parameter data with classical infrared model.

Mn-Co-Ni-O (MCN) spinel oxide material, a very important transition metal oxide (TMO) with the best application prospects in information and energy fields, was discovered over five decades ago, but its applications have been impeded by the quality of its films due to the magnitude of deposition challenge. Here we report that high quality of MCN nanofilms can be achieved by sputtering deposition via acetate precursors whose decomposition temperatures are matched to the initial synthesis temperature of the MCN thin films. Excellent performance of MCN nanofilms is demonstrated, combining for the first time preferred orientation, high temperature coefficient of resistance and moderate resistivity. The film devices show an intrinsic recombination with a much faster rate of the order of a microsecond for the laser-pumped carriers, which is ~3 orders of magnitude larger compared with that of the ceramic material. The electronic structure of the thin films confirms that it is indeed of n-type nature, exhibiting appropriate electronic states consistent with the levels of metal electrodes and semiconductors. The results offer a vital avenue for depositing high performance TMO thin films for advanced oxide devices and will have great significance for exploiting new applications in modern oxide electronics and optoelectronics.