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Blue mold, caused by Penicillium. italicum, is one of the most damaging postharvest diseases of citrus fruit. P. italicum Sterol 14α-demethylase (PiCYP51), an important enzyme in membrance sterol biosynthesis, is a key target of antifungal compounds for citrus disease caused by P. italicum. The three-dimensional structure of PiCYP51 from P. italicum Chinese isolate (HS-1) was constructed through homology modeling basing on the crystal structure of human CYP51. After molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, the refined model was assessed by PROCHECK on the quality. Following evaluation on the reliability was performed by investigating the binding interaction of two commercial sterol 14α-demethylase inhibitors (DMIs) with the enzyme. The binding mode predicted by the molecular docking revealed that the DMIs interacted with PiCYP51 mainly through hydrogen-bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Furthermore, the results were compatible with the detected EC50 values, which were determined as 0.25 and 0.31mg/L for tebuconazole and diniconazole. The binding mode of antifungal agents with PiCYP51 can provide references for DMIs optimization, virtual screening, or de novo antifungal compounds design.

Flexible hetero-nanowire electronics: A simple solution process has been developed for the first time to fabricate macroscopic flexible, ordered Au-Te hetero-nanowire film electronics with tunable resistance from MΩ to Ω at room temperature (see the Figure). Nanowire films with an electrical conductivity as low as 10,000 S cm(-1) and a sheet resistance of 15Ω sq(-1) can generate reliable interconnections for light-emitting diode (LED) arrays. The Au-Te hetero-nanowire films remain conductive after bending 6000 times with a maximum bending radius of 2.0 mm without any obvious degradation.

Understanding the adaptive characters of some important species is not only very important for restoration biology, but also very important for environmental protection and resource collection.Stipa grandisP. Smirn is an important dominant species in the middle and eastern parts of Inner Mongolia steppe. The present study took morphological traits into account in order to examine the adaptive characters ofS. grandisto local environmental conditions. At four sampling sites presenting various climatic characteristics and community characteristics, 22 morphological traits were measured in the end of the growth season. Four populations were categorized into two sub-groups based on Euclideans distances of morphological traits, and Mantels tests showed significant relationships between Euclideans distances of morphological traits and climatic divergence. The divergence of morphological traits seemed to be shaped by climatic difference in a certain sense, but the effects of other environmental factors could not be neglected. Such information is important for a better understanding of the adaptive strategy ofS. grandisin northern China and will be useful for policy makers to work out a plan to protect and to utilize this important species.

Large scale aspherical optical component plays an important role in National defense industry. It is based on the large size aspherical machine tools, so the stiffness and accuracy of the machine tools lead to the accuracy of the mirror directly. The tools consist of a turntable shaft and three linear axes including X/Y/Z axises. This paper analyzes a desirable arrangement of Y-axis linear motors so that the error of Y-axis produced indirectly can be minimized.

Ordered W18O49 nanowire thin films were fabricated by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) coating. The well-organized monolayer of W18O49 nanowires with periodic structures can be readily used as electrochromic sensors, showing reversibly switched electrochromic properties between the negative and positive voltage. Moreover, the electrochromism properties of the W18O49 nanowire films exhibit significant relationship with their thickness. The coloration/bleaching time was around 2 s for the W18O49 nanowire monolayer, which is much faster than the traditional tungsten oxide nanostructures. Moreover, the nanowire devices display excellent stability when color switching continues, which may provide a versatile and promising platform for electrochromism device, smart windows, and other applications.

In this paper an efficient grinding mode which is employed by the Cranfield BoX ultra precision grinding machine is discussed. The equations of workpiece surface and grinding wheel surface are proposed and the grinding motion is simulated via Matlab. The trajectory of the changing cutting region is discussed. The simulation results show that this grinding mode is suit to manufacture low slope surfaces. Generally, the workpiece surface is steeper, and the cutting range of the machine is smaller. The angle of the spindle inclination, the grinding wheel width and the cutting depth should be chose properly for different manufacturing capacity.

Base on the force balance theory, a model is set up to analyze the hydrostatic guideway with the closed four pads. Each oil pocket force is calculated, which is caused by the gravity center and the driving center of a slide carriage. According to the hydrostatic theory, the oil film variation that is generated during the movement is obtained. It is composed of linear and angle errors. The results show the driving force center and the geometrical center of the slide carriage have an effect on each oil film thickness, as well as the size and the location of the driving force. The article states their relationship and supplies the theoretical foundation for the design and employment of the hydrostatic guideway.

High nitrogen Fe-18Cr-12Mn-3Mo-xN austenitic stainless steels were prepared by mechanical alloying and powder metallurgical pressing-sintering techniques. The microstructures, nitrogen contents and sintering properties of the milled powders and sintered bodies had been also investigated. The results show that high nitrogen and nearly spherical composite powders with good compressibility can be obtained by high-energy vibration ball milling and high temperature nitriding. It is also found that the sintering temperature has a significant effect on the density and the nitrogen content of sintered specimens, and the optimal sintering temperature are determined to be 1250°C, at which a favorable combination of the relative density as high as 97.1% and the final nitrogen content of 0.79wt% in sintered specimens can be obtained. The sintered bodies mainly consist of γ-austenite, α-ferrite and the lamellar Cr2N phase. After solution-annealing at 1150°C for 1.5h followed by water-quenching, high nitrogen austenitic stainless steels reveal a fully austenitic structure.

On the basis of the mathematical model of asynchronous motor combined with two-axis theory of revolving frame transformation simulating model was established under the environment of MATLAB/Simulink. At the same time, by using this simulation model, the analysis of the starting procedure of asynchronous motor was presented to demonstrate its correctness and such merits as quick response, flexibility, convenience, intuition and so on.

According to the requirement of remote real-time water quality monitoring, this paper design a heterogeneous network topology including wireless sensor network and wireless mesh network. Based on Zigbee protocol a network system that can realize real-time water PH remote monitoring was constructed. In the system, the networking technology and network performance were studied by programming on real equipment. The study results shown that the system can realize real-time water quality PH monitoring data acquire and wireless transmission. Through Zigbee protocol under wireless mesh sensor network the performance of data transmission such as drop rate, delay, error rate are better than before. Those result proved that the manual based water quality monitoring can be replaced by Zigbee based wireless mesh sensor network monitoring system with more detail data acquire.

The C2H2 zinc finger protein family, one of the largest families of transcription factor/transcriptional regulator in mammal, arose from a small ancestral group of eukaryotic zinc finger transcription factors through many repeated gene duplications accompanied by functional divergence. As the biggest subfamily of C2H2 zinc finger protein family, Kruppel-associated box-containing zinc finger proteins (KRAB-ZFPs) appeared at the period oftetrapod, expand rapidly along with species evolution, and take about 60% of the total C2H2 zinc finger proteins in human. During species evolution, the DNA binding ability of KRAB-ZFPs is changed while the KRAB-ZFPs-mediate transcriptional repression ability maintains stable under the evolution pressure. Moreover, multiple KRAB-ZFPs function synergistically with KAP1 on transcriptional silencing of retroelements, and the coevolution between KRAB-ZFPs and target retrotransposons restrict the jumping ability of the retroelements. In this review, we summarize the roles of KRAB-ZFPs duplication, the flexibility of zinc finger structure, transcriptional repression of KRAB-ZFPs/KAP1 and retroelement "jump" in promoting the divergence in regulatory network, stable genome change and species evolution, in order to reveal the characters and functions of KRAB-ZFPs in driving species evolution stably.

In this paper, the biophysically plausible neuron model i.e. the Hodgkin-Huxley neuron model has been implemented in the field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) by employing Altera DSP Builder. The action potential generated by Hodgkin-Huxley neurons implemented in FPGA has been compared with the numerical prediction, leading to a good agreement between them. It is believed that this approach could greatly speed up simulations of both highly complex single neuron model and network of neurons.

In the practical engineer, the infilled-wall frame structure is widely used by its economy and applicability. Under the project research, the paper establishes a finite element model for infilled-brick-wall structure based on the infilled-wall frame structure performance and after Pushover's analyses,it obtains the inter-story displacement angle, which is anti-seismic performance index to the point each floor of the infilled-wall structure under the different earthquake action . The paper analysis and assesses the infilled-wall frame structure anti-seismic performance based on the anti-seismic performance index and it provides a reference and basis for anti-seismic standard's development towards based-performance direction.

A new method called mixed Lagrangian and Eulerian method (MiLE method) was used to simulate the thermomechanical behavior during continuous casting process of steel YF45MnV. The simulation results are basically in agreement with the measured data. The delaying period at the beginning of solidification is about 0.1 in square root of solidification time which is agreement with the data in literatures, and shell thickness increases in linear relation to square root of solidification time. The bloom surface temperature decreases gradually as the casting proceeds. The effective stress in the corner is much larger than that in the mid-face. The corner area is the dangerous zone of cracking. The effects of mold flux break temperature on the air gap and hot tearing indicator were also modeled. The model predicts that the bloom surface temperature increases with the increase of the mold flux break temperature, but the heat flux decreases with the increase of the mold flux break temperature. The hot tearing indicator is much smaller when the mold flux break temperature is higher.

Converting biomass into fuel is becoming increasingly important owing to the desirability of finding substitutes for fossil fuels and to the need to address the problem of global warming. Cellulose, one of the main constituents of biomass, is the most abundant bio-renewable material on the planet. Considerable effort has been devoted to the hydrolysis of cellulose in order to convert it into fuel. In this paper, both two-dimensional electrode electrochemical degradation of cellulose and the use of biological degradation of cellulose were investigated, which provides a detailed study of cellulose activity and stability in various ionic liquids. In the two-dimensional electrode reaction system, after 5 hours at the voltage of 8 V under the conditions of electrolysis, the degradation of cellulose reached 43.7%, BOD5/COD also significantly improved with biological treatment to the combination of electrochemical techniques. As the result, HEMA is a promising, novel, green medium for performing cellulose hydrolysis reactions to convert biomass into bio-fuels.

The subsea connector for manifolds is working in bad conditions. The water environment is harsh. And the inner pressure of the jumper which is connected by the subsea connector is high. In this paper, a new design of metal gasket for the connector is proposed. The metal gasket develops a surface contact with the upper and lower hubs. Under the effect of internal pressure, the seal ring will expand outward to ensure good seal performance. The design has a simple structure, and is easy to manufacture and disassemble .This paper uses the finite element analysis to investigate the gasket’s performance in different working conditions, and provides reference for real tests and the engineering application.

The finite element model of damping plate for the airbag Vibration Damper was established.Displacement and stress analysis of the damping plate structure was done by means of software ANSYS,and the displacement diagram and effective stress distribution of the of damping plate were obtained. The simulation results indicate that the bottom zones of damping plate , which bear considerably great forces,and the displacement variation of the hole have less influence, it could satisfy the demand of sustained vibration attenuation.

Three-dimensional finite element model of the mine escape capsule is established. With the different values of explosion shock waves, simulation analysis of the entry locker is performed by using ABAQUS. The simulation results indicate that the mine escape capsule is safe and available if the surge pressure of shock waves is less than 3.5Mpa.

In mobile ad hoc networks, mobile nodes have to communicate to each other without any infrastructure or base station. Thus, a lot of critical routing decision factors should be taken into considerations, such as reputation, reliability, availability, security, and mobility. Specially, the misconduct nodes due to unreliability, malfunction, migration, or malice may result in the loss and delay of packets. This paper proposes a fuzzy-based routing scheme based on reputation, bandwidth, and distance to overcome the misconduct mobile nodes and to enhance the performance of throughput. The scheme utilizes the ad hoc on-demand distance vector, the exponential smoothing model, and the fuzzy multiple-criteria group decision-making method to perform the routing path decision. Finally, the simulation is used to illustrate the performance of proposed scheme and existing methods. From the simulation results, the proposed scheme has better throughput than other schemes.

The finite model of the oil tank was built,and model analysis and seismic response analysis were studied,Vertical and horizontal dynamic response and the structural integral displacement ratio and X/Y directional stress and Y directional bending moment and were gained under Seismic Loads. The analysis can supply the more scientific basis for aseismatic design of the oil tank.

The finite element model about greenhouse canopy of seismic analysis was setted up, The finite element analysis software ANSYS was used to study structure displacement, stress analysis on greenhouse shed. The results showed that the dangerous part of the canopy were located on upper chord members,lower chord members, web members of the framework and the lower and upper, the inside of both sides of the wall with seismic load.Corresponding to this results ,the main destroied form were the framework damage caused by the bending deformation of upper chord members, lower chord members and the upper web members and the unstability caused by the distortion of both sides of the wall.

A new method called mixed Lagrangian and Eulerian (MiLE) method was used to simulate the continuous casting process in a mold of free-cutting steel 38MnVS. The simulation results are basically in agreement with experimental data in the literature, achieving the three-dimensional visualization of temperature distribution, melt flow, shell thickness, and stress distribution of blooms in a mold. It is shown that the flow velocity of steel melt becomes smaller gradually as the casting proceeds. When the flow reaches a certain depth, two types of flow patterns can be observed in the upper zone of the mold. The first flow pattern is to flow downwards, and the second one is to flow upwards to the meniscus. The corner temperature is higher, and the thickness is thinner than those in the mid-face. The effective stress in the corner area is much bigger than that in the mid-face, indicating that the corner area is the dangerous zone of cracking.

For the request that was proposed in research and design for measurement research and payment system of the highway engineering: flexible business process control and integration management issues of spatial and attribute data and so on. The article proposed a method in which GIS integrated with workflow: using construction supervision for highway measurement and payment workflow as main line, using component software technology as basis ,and with a development platform achieving the integration of workflow with GIS. Based on the fusion technology, the article completed the technical framework and design of the system. The feasibility and effectiveness of this fusion technology was verified in the practical application.

The secondary dendritic arm spacing (SDAS) of free cutting steel 38MnVS during continuous casting process was simulated based on a Mixed Lagrangian and Eulerian Method (MiLE Method) and SDAS model. The simulation results are basically in agreement with measured ones. The effect of composition, superheat and casting speed on SDAS are studied, and the relationship between SDAS and interdendritic segregation is discussed. The results show that SDAS increases with increasing carbon and silicon content, and decreases with increasing manganese and sulfur content. The increase of superheat and casting speed also makes SDAS increase. The permeability of columnar mushy zone which is parallel to the primary dendritic arms is calculated based on Carman-Kozeny relationship, and the increase of SDAS makes the permeability increase, which exacerbates interdendritic segregation of columnar crystal zone.

Device detection and diagnosis technology is one of the key technologies to guarantee safe, reliable and economical production, to achieve scientific management and to maximize efficiency of the equipment. Off-line diagnosis, which is also called point inspection, has been applied in most modern large-scale enterprises. According to the running state of the point inspection management system of Coal Washing and Processing in Shendong Mine Group Co…LTD, this paper mainly gives a brief introduction to information point inspection management system in modern coal preparation plant in terms of the architecture, implementation, characteristics and workflow of it, and offer the experience for other enterprises of our country to draw on.

A mathematic model on the optimum design of the gas station roof was established, and made an optimization to its grid structure parameters by the finite element software ANSYS.According to the actual condition of work and on the premise of meeting the need, the minimum cross section of the grid structure was determined. The results indicate that materials and cost can evidently decreased by optimum analysis method.

Analyze and study the deformation and damage of asphalt pavement which is under the combined action of seepage and vehicle payload by the finite element analysis software ANSYS. Through the study and analysis of the deformation and damage of the asphalt pavement in the three cases of seepage, vehicle payload, and the combined action of seepage and vehicle payload, the study shows: the damage of the asphalt pavement emerges mainly under the vehicle payload, but after the seepage, the damage under the combined action of seepage and vehicle payload will be more serious.

We consider the problem of transmit power and bit rate allocation for OFDM based cognitive radio systems. An efficient allocation algorithm which mainly consists of two steps is proposed to maximize the sum rate of secondary users. In the first step of the algorithm, original nonlinear problem is converted to a convex problem which is solved by dual methods, and in the second step the final resource allocation results is obtained via iterative power rescale operation. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

The finite element model of the reinforced beam was established. The results were obtained, such as the structural distortion diagram, the cleavage process diagram, the deflection contour map, the stress contour map to the X axle and the equivalent stress map. The result of the simulation shows that the established reinforced beam bring plastic strain and appear crack under the uniform pressure.

High nitrogen nanostructured Fe-17Cr-11Mn-3Mo stainless steel powders were produced by high energy ball milling under a nitrogen atmosphere. It was found with increasing the milling time, the nitrogen contents of the powder mixtures increase linearly up to 1.98 wt pct after 96h, and a linear regression equation, WN = 0.19357 + 0.01887t , has been further established. In addition, with the increased milling time, the crystallite sizes and particle sizes of the powders decrease continuously, the lattice strains and sphericity of the powders increase gradually. After milling 60h, the high nitrogen nanocrystalline stainless steel powders with a fine particle size range of 5~10μm, excellent sphericity and uniform components can be obtained, whose crystallite size is about 5.0nm and lattice strain is about 1.0%. The powders milled for 60h was compacted using spark plasma sintering process at different temperatures. It is found that a fully austenitic high nitrogen stainless steel with almost full densification can be obtained by SPS at 1000°C, whose nitrogen content is 0.82 wt pct.

In a periodic spectrum sensing framework where each frame consists of a sensing block and a data transmitting block, increasing sensing duration decreases the probabilities of both missed opportunity and interference with primary users, but increasing sensing duration also decreases the energy efficiency and the transmitting efficiency of the cognitive network. Therefore, the sensing duration to use is a trade-off between sensing performance and system efficiencies. The relationships between sensing duration and state transition probability are analyzed firstly, when the licensed channel stays in the idle and busy states respectively. Then a state transition probability based sensing duration optimization algorithm is proposed, which can dynamically optimize the sensing duration of each frame in the current idle/busy state by predicting each frame's state transition probability at the beginning of the current state. Analysis and simulation results reveal that the time-varying optimal sensing duration increases as the state transition probability increases and compared to the existing method, the proposed algorithm can use as little sensing duration in each frame as possible to satisfy the sensing performance constraints so as to maximize the energy and transmitting efficiencies of the cognitive networks.

The 3D-microstructure in 9SMn28 free-cutting steel under water cooling condition was simulated based on the finite element–cellular automaton method with convection and porosity, and the simulated results are consistent with that of the experiment. The casting of 9SMn28 alloy is a stepwise solidification mode under water cooling condition. Convection is mainly made of buoyancy-driven flows and feeding flows in perpendicular direction of the solid–liquid interface. Convection is the reason of shaggy on free surface; it can decrease pipe shrinkage and columnar grain zone. Flow field plays an importance role in even temperature field and irregulation porosity morphology. The simulated result of pipe shrinkage is consistent with that of this experiment; the simulated result of porosity is identical with that of this experiment basically.

Blind beamforming plays an important role in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Systems, radar, cognitive radio, and system identification. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for multiple blind beamforming algorithm based on the least square constant modulus algorithm (LSCMA). The new method consists of the following three parts: (a) beamforming of one signal with LSCMA. (b) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation of the remaining signals by rooting the weight vector polynomial. (c) beamforming of the remaining signals with linear constraints minimum variance (LCMV) method. After the convergence of LSCMA, one signal is captured and the arrival angles of the remaining signals can be obtained by rooting the weight vector polynomial. Therefore, beamforming can be quickly established for the remaining signals using LCMV method. Simultaneously the DOA of the signals can also be obtained. Simulation results show the performance of the presented method.

The physiological characteristics of four dominant Caragana species (Caragana korshinskii, Caragana stenophylla, Caragana tibetica and Caragana roborovskyi) in the desert region of the Inner Mongolia Plateau were studied. These were compared with a semi-arid species of the same genus, Caragana microphylla, in order to understand physiological adaptation mechanisms of Caragana species to desert environments. Leaf osmotic potential of the four desert Caragana species was more negative than that of C. microphylla, and turgor potential was higher. The concentrations of soluble sugars and inorganic ions in the desert Caragana species were higher than those of the semi-arid species. Leaf water content and water potential of the four desert Caragana species were relatively low, as was the free water content, while bound water content and the ratio of bound water to free water were high. These characters favoured extracting and retaining water and enhanced resistance to drought and heat stresses. The four desert Caragana species had low stomatal conductance and transpiration rate, and high water-use efficiency (WUE), indicating a water-saving strategy. In addition, the four desert Caragana species had higher peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities. As a result, the free radical content was not higher, and sometimes lower, than that of C. microphylla in the semi-arid area. In conclusion, Caragana species adapt to the arid environment through effective osmotic adjustment, low transpiration, high WUE, and by efficient removal of free radicals.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to characterize genetic heterogeneity within and among five populations of Stipa grandis in the Xilingol Plateau. Estimates of the percentage of polymorphic bands, Shannon's diversity information index and Nei's gene diversity index were comparatively high in the five populations, and the Population GSM was found to have the highest genetic diversity among all populations. An analysis of molecular variance indicated that the majority of variation existed within populations (74.12%), and that there was significant differentiation among populations ( Φ ST = 25.88%, P Φ ST ) ranged from 0.198 to 0.310 and the differentiation between pair-wise populations was significant when individual pairs of populations were compared. Based on the Φ ST values, gene flow (Nm) was estimated and was found to vary from 0.556 to 1.013 between pair-wise populations and 0.7412 among populations. The results of UPGMA cluster analysis and nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling analysis indicated that most variation occurred within populations and that genetic differentiation had happened between populations. These findings are important for a better understanding of the adaptive strategy of S. grandis in northern China and will be useful for conservation managers to work out an effective strategy to protect this important species.

Since 1952 when Branemark first reported osseointegration of titanium (Ti) with bone, many academic and industrial research activities have endeavored to improve the efficacy of Ti or Ti alloy (Ti6Al4V) by modifying the chemistry, topography and design of the implant surface. Strong bonding between implant and host tissue minimize the micromovements that promote fibrous tissue formation at the implant interface that may lead to implant failure. Surface design include lateral holes perpendicular to the implant axis, grooves, variations of spacings between ridges, etc. Physico-mechanical means of surface modification is by grit-blasting with various abrasives (alumina, silica, apatitic abrasive), laser ablation, spark discharge, etc. Chemical modifications include: acid etching, treatment with alkali, treatment with fluoride, coating with titanium or with calcium phosphate (by plasma spray, electromagnetic sputtering, electrochemical deposition). A review of studies on Ti or Ti alloy implants with different surfaces showed the following methods to enhance osseointegration and greater bone formation: (1) grit-blasting with apatitic abrasive; (2) acid-etching with mixed acids; (3) adjusting plasma-spray parameter to get a higher HA/ACP ratio in the coating; (4) employing electrochemical deposition (with pulse modulation) or precipitation to obtain thin coating with homogeneous composition; and/or (5) Ftreatment.

A general chemical transformation process for synthesis of more than 45 kinds of one-dimensional metal chalcogenide nanostructure., One-dimensional metal chalcogenide nanostructures are important candidates for many technological applications such as photovoltaic and thermoelectric devices. However, the design and synthesis of one-dimensional metal chalcogenide nanostructured materials with controllable components and properties remain a challenge. We report a general chemical transformation process for the synthesis of more than 45 kinds of one-dimensional alloyed/hybrid metal chalcogenide nanostructures inherited from mother template TexSey@Se core-shell nanowires with tunable compositions. As many as nine types of monometal chalcogenide alloy nanowires (including AgSeTe, HgSeTe, CuSeTe, BiSeTe, PbSeTe, CdSeTe, SbSeTe, NiSeTe, and CoSeTe) can be synthesized. Alloyed and hybrid nanowires integrated with two or more alloyed metal chalcogenide phases can also be prepared. The compositions of all of these metal chalcogenide nanowires are tunable within a wide range. This protocol provides a new general route for the controllable synthesis of a new generation of one-dimensional metal chalcogenide nanostructures.

AIM: To study whether transfer of blood between the right gastroepiploic artery and gastroduodenal artery could lessens the damage to bile canaliculi. METHODS: Forty male Bama miniature pigs were divided into four groups as follows: a control group, two hepatic artery ischemia groups (1 h and 2 h), and a hepatic artery bridging group. The hemodynamics of the hepatic artery in the hepatic artery bridging group was measured using color Doppler ultrasound. Morphological changes in the bile canaliculus were observed by transmission electron microscopy. Cofilin, heat shock protein 27 and F-actin expression was detected by immunohistochemistry, Western blot, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end-labeling method was used to evaluate liver injury. RESULTS: The hemodynamics was not changed in the hepatic artery bridging group. The microvilli in the bile canaliculus were impaired in the two hepatic artery ischemia groups. The down-regulation of cofilin and F-actin and up-regulation of heat shock protein 27 were observed in the two hepatic artery ischemia groups, while there were no significant differences between the control group and hepatic artery bridging group. CONCLUSION: Hepatic artery ischemia aggravates damage to bile canaliculi, and this damage can be diminished by a hepatic artery bridging duct.

Background Gossypium raimondii is a Verticillium wilt-resistant cotton species whose genome encodes numerous disease resistance genes that play important roles in the defence against pathogens. However, the characteristics of resistance gene analogues (RGAs) and Verticillium dahliae response loci (VdRLs) have not been investigated on a global scale. In this study, the characteristics of RGA genes were systematically analysed using bioinformatics-driven methods. Moreover, the potential VdRLs involved in the defence response to Verticillium wilt were identified by RNA-seq and correlations with known resistance QTLs. Results The G. raimondii genome encodes 1004 RGA genes, and most of these genes cluster in homology groups based on high levels of similarity. Interestingly, nearly half of the RGA genes occurred in 26 RGA-gene-rich clusters (Rgrcs). The homology analysis showed that sequence exchanges and tandem duplications frequently occurred within Rgrcs, and segmental duplications took place among the different Rgrcs. An RNA-seq analysis showed that the RGA genes play roles in cotton defence responses, forming 26 VdRLs inside in the Rgrcs after being inoculated with V. dahliae. A correlation analysis found that 12 VdRLs were adjacent to the known Verticillium wilt resistance QTLs, and that 5 were rich in NB-ARC domain-containing disease resistance genes. Conclusions The cotton genome contains numerous RGA genes, and nearly half of them are located in clusters, which evolved by sequence exchanges, tandem duplications and segmental duplications. In the Rgrcs, 26 loci were induced by the V. dahliae inoculation, and 12 are in the vicinity of known Verticillium wilt resistance QTLs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0508-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The implementation of an optical function into supercapacitors is an innovative approach to make energy storage devices smarter and to meet the requirements of smart electronics. Here, it is reported for the first time that nickel-cobalt hydroxide on reduced graphene oxide can be utilized for flexible electrochromic supercapacitors. A new and straightforward one-step electrochemical deposition process is introduced that is capable of simultaneously reducing GO and depositing amorphous Co(1-x)Ni(x)(OH)2 on the rGO. It is shown that the rGO nanosheets are homogeneously coated with metal hydroxide and are vertically stacked. No high temperature processes are used so that flexible polymer-based substrates can be coated. The synthesized self-stacked rGO-Co(1-x)Ni(x)(OH)2 nanosheet material exhibits pseudocapacitive charge storage behavior with excellent rate capability, high Columbic efficiency, and nondiffusion limited behavior. It is shown that the electrochemical behavior of the Ni(OH)2 can be modulated, by simultaneously depositing nickel and cobalt hydroxide, into broad oxidization and reduction bands. Further, the material exhibits electrochromic property and can switch between a bleached and transparent state. Literature comparison reveals that the performance characteristics of the rGO-Co(1-x)Ni(x)(OH)2 nanosheet material, in terms of gravimetric capacitance, areal capacitance, and long-term cycling stability, are among the highest reported values of supercapacitors with electrochromic property.

AIMS: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactor disease that has been reported to have a close association with type 2 diabetes (T2D) where the v‐akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog 1 (AKT1) plays an important role in the protein synthesis pathways and cell apoptosis processes. Evidence has been shown that AKT1 protein may be related to AD risk among patients with T2D. The aim of this study was to analyze the potential association between single nucleotide polymorphisms of AKT1 promoter and the risk of AD among patients with T2D. METHODS: The association between AKT1 polymorphisms and AD risk in patients with T2D was assessed among 574 consecutive unrelated subjects including 112 AD patients with T2D, 231 patients with AD, and 231 healthy controls in a case–control study. The cognitive function of all subjects was assessed using MMSE. Six single nucleotide polymorphisms with minor allele frequency >0.2 (rs2498786, rs74090038, rs2494750, rs2494751, rs5811155, and rs2494752) in AKT1 promoter were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the concentration of AKT1 protein in serum was tested using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Overall, there was statistically significant difference in AKT1 rs2498786 polymorphism. The CC frequency of AKT1 rs2498786 polymorphism in AD with T2D group and AD control group was significantly higher than that in healthy control group (P (AD+T2D vs. health)

In this paper, we consider a multiple-input-multiple-output optical wireless communication (MIMO-OWC) system suffering from log-normal fading. In this scenario, a general criterion for the design of full large-scale diversity space code (FLDSC) with the maximum likelihood (ML) detector is developed. Based on our criterion, FLDSC is attained if and only if all the entries of the space coding matrix are positive. Particularly for $2\times 2$ MIMO-OWC with unipolar pulse amplitude modulation (PAM), a closed-form linear FLDSC satisfying this criterion is attained by smartly taking advantage of some available properties as well as by developing some new interesting properties on Farey sequences in number theory to rigorously attack the continuous and discrete variables mixed max-min problem. In fact, this specific design not only proves that a repetition code (RC) is the best linear FLDSC, but also uncovers a significant difference between MIMO radio frequency (RF) communications and MIMO-OWC that space-only transmission is sufficient for a full diversity achievement. Computer simulations demonstrate that FLDSC substantially outperforms spatial multiplexing with the same total optical power and spectral efficiency and the latter obtains only the small-scale diversity gain., Comment: accepted by ISIT 2015

In this paper, we consider a multiple-input-multiple-output optical wireless communication (MIMO-OWC) system in the presence of log-normal fading. In this scenario, a general criterion for the design of full-diversity space code (FDSC) with the maximum likelihood (ML) detector is developed. This criterion reveals that in a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime, MIMO-OWC offers both large-scale diversity gain, governing the exponential decaying of the error curve, and small-scale diversity gain, producing traditional power-law decaying. Particularly for a two by two MIMO-OWC system with unipolar pulse amplitude modulation (PAM), a closed-form solution to the design problem of a linear FDSC optimizing both diversity gains is attained by taking advantage of the available properties on the successive terms of Farey sequences in number theory as well as by developing new properties on the disjoint intervals formed by the Farey sequence terms to attack the continuous and discrete variables mixed max-min design problem. In fact, this specific design not only proves that a repetition code (RC) is the optimal linear FDSC optimizing both the diversity gains, but also uncovers a significant difference between MIMO radio frequency (RF) communications and MIMO-OWC that space dimension alone is sufficient for a full large-scale diversity achievement. Computer simulations demonstrate that FDSC substantially outperforms uncoded spatial multiplexing with the same total optical power and spectral efficiency, and the latter provides only the small-scale diversity gain.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA was used to assess the level of genetic diversity and genetic structure of Stipa krylovii (Gramineae), an important dominant species in the northern grasslands of China. Genetic diversity was low within S. krylovii populations, and diversity at the population level was associated with precipitation and cumulative temperature variations. There was much genetic differentiation among populations and among habitats as well. A Mantel test indicated no significant correlation between genetic distance and geographic distance of populations. A nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed some spatial relationships among the 90 individuals in a two-dimensional plot. Habitat fragmentation and degradation throughout the geographic range of S. krylovii could account for the low genetic diversity and high genetic differentiation of the species. Such information will be useful for conservation managers trying to plan an effective strategy to protect this important species.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was used to characterize the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of Stipa krylovii populations in Inner Mongolia steppe of North China. Thirteen 10-bp oligonucleotide primers, which generated 237 RAPD bands, were used to analyze 90 plants of five populations from three regions, meadow steppe, typical steppe and desert steppe, from the east to the west. The genetic diversity of Stipa krylovii that was revealed by observed number of alleles (na), expected number of alleles (ne), Nei’s diversity index (h), Shannon’s diversity index (H), amplificated loci, polymorphic loci and the percentage of polymorphic loci (PPB) increased from the east to the west. The Pearson’s correlation analysis between genetic diversity parameters and ecological parameters indicated that the genetic diversity of Stipa krylovii was associated with precipitation and cumulative temperature variations along the longitude (humidity were calculated by precipitation and cumulative temperature). Dendrogram based on Jaccard’s genetic distance showed that the individuals from the same population formed a single subgroup. Although most variation (56.85%) was within populations, there was high genetic differentiation among populations of Stipa krylovii, high differentiation within and between regions by AMOVA analysis. Either Nei’s unbiased genetic distance (G ST) or gene flow (Nm) among pairwise populations was not correlated with geographical distance by Mantel’s test (P > 0.05), suggesting that there was no consistency with the isolation by distance model in these populations. Natural selection may have played a role in affecting the genetic diversity and population structure, but habitat destruction and degradation in northem grassland in China may be the main factor responsible for high genetic differentiation among populations, within and among regions.

The genetic diversity of Stipa grandis P.Smirn and its relationship with the climatic variables were studied using the RAPD technique for 90 genes from five natural populations sampled in the Xilingol steppe, China. Sixteen oligonucleotides screened from 100 random primers were used to amplify 310 trackable RAPD loci, which were all polymorphic. By analyzing the RAPD data using POPGENE software, different geographic S. grandis populations were studied, which indicated a high level of genetic diversity, and the maximum variation was observed within the populations with a 28% variation observed among the populations. Using Pearson correlation analysis, significant (P < 0.05) or highly significant (P < 0.01) relationships were found between gene diversity indexes and temperature factors (≥10°C cumulative temperature in a year, annual mean temperature and mean temperature in January). Mantel's tests showed that there was no significant correlation between Nei's unbiased genetic distance and the geographic distance of S. grandis populations (r = 0.184, P = 0.261). However, there were significant or highly significant correlations between Nei's genetic distance and the several climatic divergences in pairwise S. grandis populations. All results indicated that natural selection resulting from variations in water and temperature was responsible for the adaptive eco-geographical differentiation indicated by the RAPD markers of different S. grandis populations, and that immigration and gene drift did not play an important role in affecting the differentiation of S. grandis populations.