Search

Ubiquitin-like with plant homeodomain and ring finger domains 1 (UHRF1) promotes the maintenance of established patterns of DNA methylation in mammalian cells. Extensive methylation of connexin26 (COX26) during hearing impairment has been demonstrated. The present study aims to determine whether UHRF1 can induce the methylation of COX26 in cochlea damaged by intermittent hypoxia (IH). After the establishment of the cochlear injury model through IH treatment or isolation of the cochlea containing Corti’s organ, pathological changes were observed via HE staining. Expressions of COX26 and UHRF1 were detected by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. The effect of COX26 methylation levels was analyzed by methylation-specific PCR (MSP). Phalloidin/immunofluorescence staining was used to observe structural changes. The binding relationship between UHRF1 and COX26 was verified by chromatin immunoprecipitation. IH caused cochlear damage, accompanied by increased methylation of COX26 and expression of UHRF1 in the cochlea of neonatal rats. CoCl2 treatment caused the loss of cochlear hair cells, downregulation and hypermethylation of COX26, abnormal upregulation of UHRF1, and disordered expressions of apoptosis-related proteins. UHRF1 in cochlear hair cells binds to COX26, and its knockdown upregulated COX26 level. Overexpressed COX26 partially alleviated the CoCl2-caused cell damage. UHRF1 induces COX26 methylation and aggravates the cochlear damage caused by IH.

In board and chip interconnection, SRIO(Serail RapidIO) has higher bandwidth and reliability than other protocol. In this paper, the HELLO format of the MSG (message) interface is used to multi-interface design method at the sending end, and the Round-Robin processing mechanism is used internally to realize the competition processing of the multi-channel interface sharing one SRIO interface when sending data at the same time. It supports the arbitrary expansion of the number of interfaces and the clock domain. After testing and verification, the system can realize the data sending and receiving of 64 channels under different clocks at most, and the delay between the single channel and the packet can be as low as 4μs. It has good application value in the direction of SRIO transmission application.

With the increase in the number of microgrids in the same distribution area usually belong to different subjects of interest, forming a multi-subject game pattern. Considering the interests of distribution networks and microgrids, a distribution network-multi-microgrid master-slave game model is established by selecting distribution networks as game masters and microgrids as game slaves. A master-slave game equilibrium algorithm based on a Kriging metamodel is proposed. The method replaces the microgrid energy internal management model with a proposed Kriging metamodel. In the iterative optimization process, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to generate new sampling points and modify the model in a targeted way so as to quickly and accurately obtain the transaction price and output plan of each microgrid. The algorithm does not need all the parameters of the microgrid, which both achieves the purpose of protecting the privacy of the microgrid and avoids a large number of calls to the lower optimization model, effectively reducing the amount of computation and improving the efficiency of the solution. The results show that the overall operating costs of the three microgrids used in the case study are reduced by 1.4%, 4.6%, and 1.6%, respectively, which effectively balances the interests of multiple parties in the microgrid system; the revenue of the distribution network is increased by 50.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nickel–cobalt layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) is a promising electrode material for supercapacitors due to its high electrochemical activity. However, it easily restacks and aggregates due to its nanosheet structure, which limits the effective utilization of redox active sites. Herein, the NiCo-LDH nanosheets derived from ZIF-67 were in situ grown on the surface of a basic copper cobalt carbonate (CoCu) urchin-like skeleton and supported by nickel foam (CoCu@NiCo-LDH). The well-designed three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical nanostructure not only effectively prevents the aggregation of NiCo-LDH nanosheets, but also provides a rapid charge transport channel, which facilitates ion diffusion and electron transport, therefore enhancing the utilization of NiCo-LDH redox active sites to a greater extent. Besides, the synergistic interactions between NiCo-LDH nanosheets and CoCu nanoneedles further enrich the redox reactions and increase the electrical conductivity and reaction kinetics of the electrode at the same time. As a result, the CoCu@NiCo-LDH electrode exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance with an ultrahigh mass loading of 14 mg cm−2, including excellent specific capacitance (18.71 F cm−2 or 1346 F g−1 at 3 mA cm−2) and distinguished rate capability of 87.3% from 3 mA cm−2 to 50 mA cm−2. When the CoCu@NiCo-LDH electrode was assembled with active carbon (AC) to form an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC), the CoCu@NiCo-LDH//AC ASCs display outstanding energy density (1.98 mW h cm−2) and power density (97.5 mW cm−2) with excellent cycling stability (86.0% initial capacitance after 5000 cycles), and could keep an LED light bulb working for 90 min after only charging for 60 s. This work provides an effective strategy for the design and application of layered double hydroxide based pseudocapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing application of novel and high-performance metallic materials poses new challenges to the problem of joining sheets. Clinching technology has become the common means of green joining in the automotive industry. The application of conventional clinching to visible surfaces in automobiles is limited by the external protrusion of the clinched joint. It cannot be ignored the important role of the blank holder in controlling the material flow in the clinching process. In this study, the joint quality of Al5052 sheets for the flat clinch-rivet process was investigated by experimental methods. A flat bottom die and rivets were used to form joints under different blank holder structures. Geometric parameters, static strength, failure modes, and energy absorption were analyzed. The results indicate the flat clinch-riveted joints created by the conical stepped blank holder have the advantages of no indentation, high energy absorption, and high joint strength. The flat clinch-rivet process should preferably use a conical stepped blank holder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives In order to make the antenna performance meet the design requirements in required angle range, an optimized design method of cosecant square beam antenna is proposed, which analyzes the far-field performance of the antenna based on the physical optics theory and optimizes the reflector shape through the genetic algorithm.Methods The phase distribution was adjusted by optimizing the shape of reflector, thus the problem of antenna pattern distortion can be resolved. The B-spline function was used to characterize the distortions of the surface and the gain of antenna at different angles on the elevation plane was set as optimization objective of genetic algorithms. Finally, a cosecant beam antenna was optimized and simulated by a self-designed program.Results The simulation results show that the shape variable of the optimized reflector gradually increases with the increase of the x-axis direction of the antenna, but the shape variable of the optimized reflector is in the range of 0~0.12 m when compared with the standard paraboloid, and the deformation of the whole reflector is relatively smooth; after further optimization, the gain of the antenna is higher than the design index in the range of 0°~70°, and the gain of the antenna is about 1.2 dB higher than the previous design index in the range of 30°~60°.Conclusions This design method is of great guiding significance, which can not only improve the machinability of the antenna, but also reduce the complexity of the system in engineering application.