Low Temperature during Seedling Stage Promotes Female Flower Determination but Not Yield of Chieh-qua

Shiwei Song,Hongxing Huang,Houcheng Liu,Guangwen Sun,Riyuan Chen 한국원예학회 2012 Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology Vol.53 No.5

Temperature has an important effect on plant growth and sex determination in flowers. The effect of different temperatures (high temperature: 30 /25 (day/night), medium temperature: 25 /18 and low temperature: 15 /10 )on flower sex determination and fruit yield was studied in Chieh-qua (Benincasa hispida Cogn. var. Chieh-qua How. ‘No. 4 Jiang xin’), also the content of absicsic acid (ABA) and indole acetic acid (IAA) in the shoot apex was measured. The results showed that medium and low temperatures during seedling stage boost the female flower differentiation after transplanting, compared with high temperature treatment, and the effect was more obvious when the temperature was lower. Lower temperature increased the content of ABA and IAA in shoot apex of Chieh-qua. There was a positive relationship between the ratio of IAA/ABA and plant female flower determination under different temperature treatments (R = 0.8744). Temperature may affect female flower differentiation of Chieh-qua by changing the contents of ABA and IAA in shoot apex. Fruit yield was not significantly affected by different temperature treatments.

Engineering a High-Affinity PD-1 Peptide for Optimized Immune Cell-Mediated Tumor Therapy

Yilei Chen,Hongxing Huang,Yin Liu,Zhanghao Wang,Lili Wang,Quanxiao Wang,Yan Zhang,Hua Wang 대한암학회 2022 Cancer Research and Treatment Vol.54 No.2

Purpose The purpose of this study was to optimize a peptide (nABP284) that binds to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) by a computer-based protocol in order to increase its affinity. Then, this study aimed to determine the inhibitory effects of this peptide on cancer immune escape by coculturing improving cytokine-induced killer (ICIK) cells with cancer cells. Materials and Methods nABP284 that binds to PD-1 was identified by phage display technology in our previous study. AutoDock and PyMOL were used to optimize the sequence of nABP284 to design a new peptide (nABPD1). Immunofluorescence was used to demonstrate that the peptides bound to PD-1. Surface plasmon resonance was used to measure the binding affinity of the peptides. The blocking effect of the peptides on PD-1 was evaluated by a neutralization experiment with human recombinant programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein. The inhibition of activated lymphocytes by cancer cells was simulated by coculturing of human acute T lymphocytic leukemia cells (Jurkat T cells) with human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells (Cal27 cells). The anticancer activities were determined by coculturing ICIK cells with Cal27 cells in vitro. Results A high-affinity peptide (nABPD1, KD=11.9 nM) for PD-1 was obtained by optimizing the nABP284 peptide (KD=11.8 μM). nABPD1 showed better efficacy than nABP284 in terms of increasing the secretion of interkeulin-2 by Jurkat T cells and enhancing the in vitro antitumor activity of ICIK cells. Conclusion nABPD1 possesses higher affinity for PD-1 than nABP284, which significantly enhances its ability to block the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and to increase ICIK cell-mediated antitumor activity by armoring ICIK cells. PurposeThe purpose of this study was to optimize a peptide (nABP284) that binds to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) by a computer-based protocol in order to increase its affinity. Then, this study aimed to determine the inhibitory effects of this peptide on cancer immune escape by coculturing improving cytokine-induced killer (ICIK) cells with cancer cells.Materials and MethodsnABP284 that binds to PD-1 was identified by phage display technology in our previous study. AutoDock and PyMOL were used to optimize the sequence of nABP284 to design a new peptide (nABPD1). Immunofluorescence was used to demonstrate that the peptides bound to PD-1. Surface plasmon resonance was used to measure the binding affinity of the peptides. The blocking effect of the peptides on PD-1 was evaluated by a neutralization experiment with human recombinant programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein. The inhibition of activated lymphocytes by cancer cells was simulated by coculturing of human acute T lymphocytic leukemia cells (Jurkat T cells) with human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells (Cal27 cells). The anticancer activities were determined by coculturing ICIK cells with Cal27 cells <i>in vitro</i>.ResultsA high-affinity peptide (nABPD1, K_D=11.9 nM) for PD-1 was obtained by optimizing the nABP284 peptide (K_D=11.8 μM). nABPD1 showed better efficacy than nABP284 in terms of increasing the secretion of interkeulin-2 by Jurkat T cells and enhancing the <i>in vitro</i> antitumor activity of ICIK cells.ConclusionnABPD1 possesses higher affinity for PD-1 than nABP284, which significantly enhances its ability to block the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and to increase ICIK cell-mediated antitumor activity by armoring ICIK cells.

The abundance and diversity of gut bacteria of rice leaffolder Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenée) across life stages

Yang Yajun,Liu Xiaogai,Xu Hongxing,Liu Yinghong,Ali Panna,Adnan Bodlah Muhammad,Lu Zhongxian 한국응용곤충학회 2020 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.23 No.2

The bacterial community living in the insect gut may play an important role in nutrition, immunity and protection, detoxification of toxins, and inter- and intra-specific communication. Rice leaffolder Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is a notorious pest in rice, and the diversity of the gut bacteria of C. medinalis across life stages are not well understood. Here, the diversity and abundance of the gut bacterial community in C. medinalis through life stages were investigated using Illumina Miseq technology. A total of 22 bacterial phyla, 42 classes, 100 orders, 179 families, 350 genera and 395 species were identified across the different life stages of C. medinalis. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes phyla were the dominant bacterial taxa. Members of the genera Enterococcus, unclassified Enterobacteriaceae, Wolbachia, Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Microbacterium, Bacillus, Corynebacterium, Lampropedia, and Sphingobacterium were found at all life stages. Enterococcus and unclassified Enterobacteriaceae occupied higher relative abundance among bacteria community in the 2nd to 5th instar larvae, pupae and adults. The structure of bacterial community differed across the life stages of C. medinalis. Our findings will enrich the understanding of gut bacteria in C. medinalis, and will provide foundation and assistance for the development of novel pest management strategies through utilization of microbiota.

On the characteristics of an ultra-low frequency nonlinear isolator using sliding beam as negative stiffness

Xiuchang Huang,Xintian Liu,Hongxing Hua 대한기계학회 2014 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.28 No.3

A novel structured ultra-low frequency nonlinear passive isolator is presented. The isolator is composed of a knife-edge supported slidingbeam which offers negative stiffness and a vertical mechanical spring in parallel to get quasi-zero dynamic stiffness. The static characteristicsof the isolator are studied. Assuming light viscous damping, the dynamic behavior is investigated and the response under harmonicexcitation is derived using a simple approximation. Frequency response curves (FRCs), which exhibit complex double jump phenomenon,are obtained by harmonic balance method (HBM). The limitation of the excitation force level is obtained. The force transmissibilityis derived and compared with an equivalent linear system with the same damping ratio. The isolation performance of the nonlinearisolator is shown to outperform the linear system for providing a wider isolation region. The influence of system parameters on thetransmissibility is examined and some useful guidelines are given.

An investigation of DNA-like structured dye-sensitized solar cells

Yuanhao Wang,Yong Liu,Hongxing Yang,Hai Wang,Hui Shen,Ming Li,Jin Yan 한국물리학회 2010 Current Applied Physics Vol.10 No.1

This paper reports a 3D DNA-like structured dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with all-Ti substrates. A selforganized TiO2 nanotubular arrays layer was directly grown on the photoanode surface by electrochemical anodization. Compared with the traditional flat-type DSSC, the DNA-like DSSC showed superiority of light utilization due to its symmetrical double-helix structure. Different thickness of the nanotubular arrays layers were investigated to find their influence on the cell’s photovoltaic parameters, and the cell with a 15.3 ㎛ layer exhibited the highest Pmax, about 0.49 mW. The series.parallel connection characteristics of the DNA-like DSSCs reveal that the total voltage and the total short current equalled the sum of each cell’s in series and in parallel, respectively. It is anticipated that the novel DNA-like structured DSSCs have great application potential in larger modules using integrated circuit.

A Simplified Numerical Model for Post-tensioned Steel Connections with Bolted Angles

Zhi-Hua Chen,Hongxing Li,Zhongwei Zhao,Haiqing Liu 한국강구조학회 2017 International Journal of Steel Structures Vol.17 No.4

Post-tensioned (PT) self-centering beam–column connections has been developed for its good seismic performance. Many researchers have investigated its mechanical behavior by numerical or experimental method. Prior researches have indicated that the analysis by elaborate FE models is very time consuming. To overcome this disadvantage, a simplified numerical model was established in this paper. The accuracy of results derived by this model was validated against prior investigations on interior PT connections with top-and-seat angles. Influence of initial PT force on mechanical behavior of PT connection was investigated. The Geometric and material nonlinearities, and strands can be considered in the modeling. A planar steel frame structure was established and hysteretic analysis was conducted. Results indicated that the computational cost can be greatly reduced by this model.

Coupled irradiation-thermal-mechanical analysis of the solid-state core in a heat pipe cooled reactor

Yugao Ma,Jiusong Liu,Hongxing Yu,Changqing Tian,Shanfang Huang,Jian Deng,Xiaoming Chai,Yu Liu,Xiaoqiang He 한국원자력학회 2022 Nuclear Engineering and Technology Vol.54 No.6

The solid-state core of a heat pipe cooled reactor operates at high temperatures over 1000 K withthermal and irradiation-induced expansion during burnup. The expansion changes the gap thicknessbetween the solid components and the material properties, and may even cause the gap closure, whichthen significantly influences the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the reactor core. This studydeveloped an irradiation behavior model for HPRTRAN, a heat pipe reactor system analysis code, tointroduce the irradiation effects such as swelling and creep. The megawatt heat pipe reactor MegaPowerwas chosen as an application case. The coupled irradiation-thermal-mechanical model was developed tosimulate the irradiation effects on the heat transfer and stresses of the whole reactor core. The resultsshow that the irradiation deformation effect is significant, with the irradiation-induced strains up to2.82% for fuel and 0.30% for monolith at the end of the reactor lifetime. The peak temperatures during thelifetime are 1027:3 K for the fuel and 956:2 K for monolith. The gap closure enhances the heat transferbut caused high stresses exceeding the yield strength in the monolith

Design and Characteristic Measurement of 8000 mm Large Aperture Integrating Sphere

Zhao Zhang,Zhi Wan,Xiansheng Li,Hongxing Liu,Jingxu Sun,Zexun Liu,Yamin Wang,Jianwei Ren,Jianyue Ren 한국광학회 2016 Current Optics and Photonics Vol.20 No.4

Integrating spheres play a central role in the radiometric calibration of remote sensors. With thedevelopment of the wide field of view (FOV) remote sensors, aperture diameters of remote sensors arebecoming larger and larger. To satisfy the radiometric calibration requirements of full FOV and fullaperture, an 8000mm diameter large aperture integrating sphere uniform source with a variable exit portwas designed and manufactured. This integrating sphere will be used for pre-launch test and radiometriccalibration of remote satellites. In this paper, optical theories were used to design the output spectralradiance. The LightTools software based on ray-tracing simulation method was used to determine the bestcombination and distribution of inner light sources. A spectral experiment was made to verify the spectralradiance design. To reduce the influence of longtime power-on, a new characteristic measurement methodwas developed to obtain the radiation characteristic of the integrating sphere, which could greatly improvethe measuring efficiency. This method could also be applied to measure other large aperture uniformsources. The obtained results indicate that the spatial uniformity is 98.35%, and the angular uniformityat center position is 98.78%.

Improved Genetic Algorithm based 3-D deployment of UAVs

Xiting Wen,Yuhan Ruan,Yongzhao Li,Hongxing Xia,Rui Zhang,Chao Wang,Wei Liu,Xiaoyu Jiang 한국통신학회 2022 Journal of communications and networks Vol.24 No.2

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely usedas aerial base stations (BSs) to provide flexible connectivity andcoverage for ground users in various scenarios such as disasterrelief, traffic offloading, and so on. Especially, UAV deployment isan important issue that directly affects the coverage performanceof the UAV network. In this paper, we propose a novel heuristic algorithmbased three-dimensional (3-D) UAV deployment schemewhile guaranteeing the connectivity of the UAV network in bothstatic and dynamic user scenarios. For the static user scenario, weaim to deploy the minimum number of UAVs to provide coveragefor the users from the perspective of deployment cost. To reducethe deployment complexity, we decouple the 3-D UAV deploymentproblem from the vertical and horizontal dimensions. Specifically,we firstly determine the optimal vertical height of UAVs based onthe air-to-ground (A2G) model. Then, to alleviate the prematureconvergence of standard genetic algorithm (SGA), we designan improved genetic algorithm (IGA) to obtain the optimalhorizontal locations of UAVs. On this basis, when the users moveor increase, i.e., the dynamic user scenario, the already deployedUAVs cannot provide effective coverage. For this scenario, wepropose a UAV redeployment scheme to maximize the numberof covered users without increasing the number of UAVs. Tofurther reduce the cost of redeployment, we firstly modify theproposed IGA to obtain a feasible set of two-dimensional (2-D)redeployed locations of the UAVs. Then, we design a backtrackingalgorithm (BA) based UAV movement strategy to minimize thetotal flying distance of the UAVs. The simulation results showthat the effectiveness and convergence of our proposed schemes.

OSI-027 alleviates rapamycin insensitivity by modulation of mTORC2/AKT/TGF-β1 and mTORC1/4E-BP1 signaling in hyperoxia-induced lung injury infant rats

Long Li,Liang Mulin,Yanling Liu,Wang Pan,Dang Hongxing 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2021 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.17 No.3

Background The mechanism of long time and high-concentration oxygen treatment leading to acute lung injury (ALI) or developmental lung disease in infants is currently unclear. Here we found that compared with the effect of rapamycin, pan-mTOR1/2 inhibitor OSI-027, alleviates hyperoxia-induced lung injury (HILI) by modulation of mTORC2/AKT/TGF-β1 and mTORC1/4E-BP1 signaling in infant rats. Objective Infant rats were treated with continuous inhalation of 90% medical oxygen. Normal saline, rapamycin, or OSI-027 was intraperitoneally injected, and the status of lung injury was tested on days 3, 7, and 14. The activation of mTOR/AKT/TGFβ1 and mTORC1/4E-BP1 signaling was confirmed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis in normal and hyperoxia-treated live precision-cut lung tissues. The inhibitory effect of OSI-027 extended to the active state of other proteins implicated in mTOR1/2 signaling was demonstrated in hyperoxia-induced injured lung tissues. Results Our data demonstrate that hyperoxia-induced serious lung inflammation and fibrosis. OSI-027 significantly attenuated the pathological process of HILI, inhibit the phosphorylation of the primary downstream targets of mTORC1/C2, and reduce the activation of TGF-β1 signaling. Conclusions The results suggest that mTORC2/AKT/TGF-β1 and the rapamycin-insensitive mTORC1/4E-BP1 (Thr37/46) signaling has an important effect during HILI with a potential meaning for the progress of novel anti-hyperoxia-injury strategies. Background The mechanism of long time and high-concentration oxygen treatment leading to acute lung injury (ALI) or developmental lung disease in infants is currently unclear. Here we found that compared with the effect of rapamycin, pan-mTOR1/2 inhibitor OSI-027, alleviates hyperoxia-induced lung injury (HILI) by modulation of mTORC2/AKT/TGF-β1 and mTORC1/4E-BP1 signaling in infant rats. Objective Infant rats were treated with continuous inhalation of 90% medical oxygen. Normal saline, rapamycin, or OSI-027 was intraperitoneally injected, and the status of lung injury was tested on days 3, 7, and 14. The activation of mTOR/AKT/TGFβ1 and mTORC1/4E-BP1 signaling was confirmed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis in normal and hyperoxia-treated live precision-cut lung tissues. The inhibitory effect of OSI-027 extended to the active state of other proteins implicated in mTOR1/2 signaling was demonstrated in hyperoxia-induced injured lung tissues. Results Our data demonstrate that hyperoxia-induced serious lung inflammation and fibrosis. OSI-027 significantly attenuated the pathological process of HILI, inhibit the phosphorylation of the primary downstream targets of mTORC1/C2, and reduce the activation of TGF-β1 signaling. Conclusions The results suggest that mTORC2/AKT/TGF-β1 and the rapamycin-insensitive mTORC1/4E-BP1 (Thr37/46) signaling has an important effect during HILI with a potential meaning for the progress of novel anti-hyperoxia-injury strategies.