Search

IntroductionWith the advent of trio-based whole-exome sequencing, the identification of epilepsy candidate genes has become easier, resulting in a large number of potential genes that need to be validated in a whole-organism context. However, conducting animal experiments systematically and efficiently remains a challenge due to their laborious and time-consuming nature. This study aims to develop optimized strategies for validating epilepsy candidate genes using the Drosophila model.MethodsThis study incorporate behavior, morphology, and electrophysiology for genetic manipulation and phenotypic examination. We utilized the Gal4/UAS system in combination with RNAi techniques to generate loss-of-function models. We performed a range of behavioral tests, including two previously unreported seizure phenotypes, to evaluate the seizure behavior of mutant and wild-type flies. We used Gal4/UAS-mGFP flies to observe the morphological alterations in the brain under a confocal microscope. We also implemented patch-clamp recordings, including a novel electrophysiological method for studying synapse function and improved methods for recording action potential currents and spontaneous EPSCs on targeted neurons.ResultsWe applied different techniques or methods mentioned above to investigate four epilepsy-associated genes, namely Tango14, Klp3A, Cac, and Sbf, based on their genotype-phenotype correlation. Our findings showcase the feasibility and efficiency of our screening system for confirming epilepsy candidate genes in the Drosophila model.DiscussionThis efficient screening system holds the potential to significantly accelerate and optimize the process of identifying epilepsy candidate genes, particularly in conjunction with trio-based whole-exome sequencing.

Figure S1. Chemotherapy-induced niche contributes to the increase of ROS and apoptosis in HSCs. (a) HSCs apoptosis in Ctrl+DNR and B-ALL+DNR was analyzed by flow cytometry. (b) Statistical summary of apoptotic cell ratio of HSCs in (a). n = 4–8 mice per group. (c) The intracellular ROS level of HSCs in Ctrl+DNR and B-ALL+DNR was detected by H2-DCFDA staining. (d) Statistical summary of ROS level distribution in (c). n = 4–8 mice per group. (PPTX 111 kb)

Rationale: Absent pulmonary valve syndrome (APVS) is a rare congenital heart disease that is often associated with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Here, we report 2 cases of APVS associated with TOF diagnosed via fetal echocardiography and discuss their specific ultrasonographic characteristics. Patient concerns: Two pregnant women with suspicion of fetal heart anomaly were referred from their local hospitals to our hospital for fetal malformation screening and detailed fetal echocardiography. Color and spectral Doppler flow imaging were utilized to evaluate the axis, size, situs, cardiac chambers, and both inflow and outflow tracts of the heart as well as the great arteries. Both cases had a severe dilatation of the pulmonary trunk and its branches and an absence or dysplasia of the pulmonary valve, which was associated with subaortic ventricular septal defect (VSD) with an overriding aorta. In addition, the fetus in case 1 showed a patent ductus arteriosus, and the fetus in case 2 showed arterial duct agenesis. Furthermore, color Doppler flow imaging showed a bi-directional multicolored flow signal in the pulmonary valve ring. Diagnoses: Both fetuses were diagnosed with APVS associated with TOF. Interventions: No therapeutic intervention was performed. Outcomes: On the request of the pregnant women and their families, both fetuses were aborted. Lessons: Although APVS is a rare congenital heart disease and often associated with TOF, it has an overall poor prognosis. Nowadays, it can be easily diagnosed via ultrasonography because of its typical ultrasonographic features, such as aneurysmal dilatation of pulmonary artery, massive regurgitation of the pulmonary valve, VSD, and an overriding aorta. Therefore, early fetal echocardiography screening should be performed for every fetus.

The diffraction limit of light greatly limits the development of conventional optical devices, which are difficult to be miniaturized and integrated with high density. Surface plasmons, electromagnetic modes at the metal-dielectric interface, can concentrate light into deep subwavelength dimensions, enabling the manipulation of light at the nanometer scale. Surface plasmons can be used as information carrier to transmit and process optical signals beyond the diffraction limit. Therefore, nanodevices based on surface plasmons have received much attention. By modulating surface plasmons, the modulation of optical signals at nanoscale can be realized, which is important for the development of on-chip integrated nanophotonic circuits and optical information technology. In this article, we review the modulations of propagating surface plasmons and their applications in nano-optical modulators. The wave vector of propagating surface plasmons is very sensitive to the dielectric function of the metal and the environment. By tuning the dielectric function of the metal and/or the surrounding medium, both the real and imaginary part of the wave vector of surface plasmons can be modified, leading to the modulation of the phase and propagation length of surface plasmons and thereby modulating the intensity of optical signals. We first introduce the basic principles of different types of modulations, including all-optical modulation, thermal modulation, electrical modulation, and magnetic modulation. The all-optical modulation can be achieved by modulating the polarization and phase of input light, pumping optical materials, changing the dielectric function of metal by control light, and manipulating a nanoparticle by optical force to modulate the scattering of surface plasmons. The modulation based on thermal effect depends on thermo-optic materials and phase-change materials, and the temperature change can be triggered by photothermal effect or electrical heating. For electrically controlled modulation, Pockels electro-optic effect and Kerr electro-optic effect can be employed. Electrical modulation can also be realized by controlling the carrier concentration of semiconductors or graphene, using electrochromatic materials, and nanoelectromechanical control of the waveguide. The modulation of surface plasmons by magnetic field relies on magneto-optic materials. We review recent research progresses of modulating propagating surface plasmons by these methods, and analyze the performances of different types of plasmonic modulators, including operation wavelength, modulation depth or extinction ratio, response time or modulation frequency, and insertion loss. Finally, a brief conclusion and outlook is presented.

A two-point touch method for three-dimension space is proposed through introducing true three-dimension display and unmarked spatial orientation,while a two-point touch for true three-dimension display system is built.Interactive approach,which offers the solution of spatial orientation,tracking and gesture recognition,has been considered.Demonstrated in the experiments,optical-based two-point touch system meets the needs of human-computer interaction without any markers and sensors and changes of ambient light does not interfere with the operation of the human-computer interaction.

By introducing Ag nanocrystallites into rare earth ions doped tellurite glass,the fluorescence intensity were enhanced through surface plasmon resonance(SPR),and the up-conversion luminous efficiency were improved obviously.The influence of Ag nanocrystallites on Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped tellurate glass was studied,and the up-conversion luminescence mechanism was also discussed.The results show that Ag nanocrystallites with the size from 5 to 8 nm were gained by heat treatment under 330 ℃ for 30 min.After introducing Ag nanocrystallites,the three-photon absorption of blue-red transition in glass turn to two-photon absorption.Because of the enhanced local field surface plasmon resonance and the energy transfer between Ag and Tm3+,the fluorescence intensity of Ag-contained glass is 5 times more than glass without Ag nanocrystallites.

C38H42F2CuN8O12, triclinic, P1̅ (no. 2), a = 5.4709(2) Å, b = 10.4100(4) Å, c = 17.3373(6) Å, α = 95.014(2)°, β = 92.041(2)°, γ = 103.223(2)°, V = 955.96(6) Å3, Z = 1, Rgt(F) = 0.0347, wRref(F2) = 0.1125, T = 296 K.

Microfluidic is of great significance for biomedical research and chemical engineering. The mixing of liquids is an essential and necessary procedure for the sample preparation. Due to the low Reynolds number, laminar flow is dominant in a microfluidic channel and it is difficult to mix the fluids in the microchannel quickly and effectively. To improve the mixing efficiency of the liquids in microfluidic channels, we develop an acoustic mixer based on single microbubble oscillation. By designing the cylinder structure on the bottom surface, when the fluid flows through cylinder structure with a diameter of 40 m, the microbubble can be generated by the surface tension of the liquid. The device is fabricated by using standard soft lithography and the replica moulding technique, ensuring the stability and repeatability of the mixing. A piezoelectric transducer (PZT) with a resonant frequency of 165 kHz is attached to the polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic device on the glass substrate by ultrasound coupling gel. When the microbubble is excited by the PZT at a resonant frequency of 165 kHz, microbubble oscillates immediately. To verify whether ultrasound can induce microbubble cavitation, a passive cavitation detection system is established. The results show that the higher harmonics can be detected, indicating that the stable cavitation occurs. The microstreaming induced by the oscillating microbubble disturbs the fluid dramatically, achieving the mixture of liquids. Particle image velocimetry method is utilized to characterize the microstreaming, and a pair of counter-rotating vortices in the microchannel is detected. Furthermore, to test the performance of the device, the deionized water and rhodamine B are injected into the Y-shape microchannel. Relative mixing index is used to quantitatively analyze the mixing performance by measuring the grayscale values of the optical images. The results indicate that with the increase of the input power, mixing time can be shortened correspondingly. When the input power is 14.76 W, the mixing process is ultrafast, within 37.5 ms the high mixing uniformity can be achieved to be 92.7%. With the advantages of simple design, high efficient and ultrafast mixing, and low power consumption, this oscillating microbubble-based acoustic micromixer may provide a powerful tool for various biochemical studies and applications.

The present study describes the optimization of a series of novel benzoxazole-piperidine (piperazine) derivatives combining high dopamine D2 and serotonin 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A receptor affinities. Of these derivatives, the pharmacological features of compound 29 exhibited high affinities for the DA D2, 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors, but low affinities for the 5-HT2C and histamine H1 receptors and human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) channels. Furthermore, compound 29 reduced apomorphine-induced climbing and 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)-2-aminopropane (DOI)-induced head twitching without observable catalepsy, even at the highest dose tested. Thus, compound 29 is a promising candidate as a multi-target antipsychotic treatment.

A new frequency dependent finite difference time domain (FD-FDTD) method using digital signal processing (DSP) is proposed. The dispersive media is characterized as an infinite-impulse response (IIR) filter, directly leading to FDTD equations. The representation of a dispersive medium is therefore converted to a problem of digital IIR design. It is shown that the numerical results are consistent with analytic solution.

As an important factor of ecology, vegetation is not only enduring the climate change but also has a feedback on climate change positively. It is a sensitive indicator for environment change. Climate is the uppermost factor deciding vegetation type and distributing on the earth, while vegetation is the brightest reflection and integration symbol about climate. Using the distribution of arid and humid regions of China, the typical semi-arid/semi-humid region(Xilamulun river) as a study areas. Xilamulun river has important ecological significance because it is ecological conservation and water source protection area of Northern china. As an index of denoting basin's vegetation cover,NDVI is influenced by many climatic factors such as precipitation and average air temperature.The influence of precipitation on vegetation coverage of xilamulun river basin was qualitatively analyzed using multi-temporal Landsat TM(MSS) image during the recent 10 years,and analyze the vegetation dynamic changes in xilamulun river basin and its relationship with human activities. Firstly, the influence of exterior factor, such as phonology and relative radiometric correction, on NDVI was removed by normalization of different period remote sensing image. Preliminary Comparison of coverage in Xilamulun river,The coverage appeared to have a increase trend from 2000 to 2010. Therefore, Through protracted efforts the basin has made great achievements in the protection and nurturing of the ecological environment, of which afforestation is an outstanding example. Analysis of dynamic changes of the vegetation covers in two phases from 2000 to 2005, 2005 to 2010, respectively. The vegetation cover showed an 1 increased trend from 2000 to 2010, which increased significantly in 2000 to 2005.The spring and winter showed in the opposite direction change in 2000 to 2005, but the same direction change trend in 2005 to 2010 by synthesized analysis of relationship of precipitation and vegetation cover. There are also an opposite direction change trend in spring and fall in two phases. The main factors influencing the vegetation cover change is human activity rather than climate factors in 2000 to 2010. According to the comprehensive analysis of precipitation and related data of the protection of the ecological environment in Balin right banner, human activities were proven as the main reason of vegetation fraction change during 2000-2010, such as conversion of cropland to forest, ecological migration, afforestation by the Balin right banner. Finally, the residual analysis of NDVI indicates that human activities have promoted or destroyed the vegetation cover in some areas of xilamulun river basin.

As a case study on analysis of soil erosion change, in Hulunbeir, Inner Mongolia, China, was once one of the most severely eroded regions in semi-arid and semi-humid China. However, its soil erosion is becoming a matter of concern for more and more people in recent years. The main body of vegetation is Daxinganling virgin forests and Hulunbeir grassland, However, large areas of forest were destroyed and excessive grazing in pastureland, which resulted in the increase of soil erosion. Fortunately, the government has taken corresponding measures to prevention and control soil erosion in recent years. In this study, based on TM imagines, and employing ArcGIS 9.3 technique and empirical Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model, this paper studied the dynamics of soil erosion at the Hulunbeir from 1995 to 2005 years. Use of the Markov model to predicted the soil erosion in Hulunbeir next 15 years. The results show that the main erosion types arte the tiny degree erosion as clue, above the light degree erosion is 10 percent of Hhulunbeir area in the past 10 years from 1995 to 2005. The net decrease of the tiny degree erosion in 2000 is 534.33km2 compared with 1995, and the area of above the light degree erosion increased 580.02km2 from 1995 to 2000. This explains that the soil erosion of Hulunbeir area shows the increasing tendency in the past 5 years. The net increased of the tiny degree erosion in 2005 is 8326.69km2 compared with 2000, and the area of above the light degree erosion is decreased by 8360.54km2. This shows the decreasing tendency of the soil erosion intention in Hulunbeir region. And comparing to 2000 year, the soil erosion have undergone great changes. Then, the development and the future tendency of soil erosion in 2010,2015 and 2020 year that uesed simulated with Markov process, the soil erosion intensity for Hulunbeir area will be alleviated, among which above the light degree erosion land area will be decreased by 5.4%, 4.4% and 3.9% proportion to that of 2005. Indicating that soil erosion had been substantially controlled.

Growth characteristics of diamond films synthesized by using a dc arc discharge plasma CVD were studied by means of XRD, SEM and reflection electron diffraction. The results showed that columnar growth of the diamond films was observed, the columns having an average diameter of about 15 μm, with sharp and regular base edges. Diamond grains grown on the substrate were initially of uniform polygons. An interfacial transition layer of polycrystalline SiC was observed between the diamond film and Si substrate. Diamond grains grown during the early-stage on W substrate were also uniform, and an interfacial transition layer of polycrystalline WC was observed between the diamond film and the substrate.

A functional field effect transistor with self-organized In0.15Ga0.85As/GaAs quantum wires (QWRs) as a channel was achieved by molecular beam epitaxy on a (553)B GaAs substrate. Both the three-dimensional image of atomic force microscopy and the polarization of the photoluminance peaks reveal that the channel of the device is a self-organized QWR structure. The device with a gate length of 2 µm and a source-drain spacing of 5 µm performed a good enhancement-mode characteristic and a maximum transconductance of 65 mS/mm was obtained at the gate voltage of 1.0 V by the geometric gate width at room temperature. The saturated drain current is as high as 5.6 mA. The device exhibited a much larger current capacity due to the high density of the self-organized QWRs in its channel layer. In addition, the effective gate width was discussed in comparison with the geometric gate width of the device, from which a larger maximum transconductance of 130 mS/mm could be estimated.

The defects in diamond films, synthesized by dc arc discharge plasma CVD and hot filament CVD, were studied using ESR and IR measurements, and the effects of annealing on defect states were investigated for the first time. The results showed that the films exhibited ESR signals produced by carbon dangling bonds of diamond and graphite. The g values of them were the same, g = 2.0027, the peak-to-peak line widths were 3.6 and 12.5 G respectively, and the spin density ( N s ) of the sample as-deposited was about 1.3 × 10 17 cm −3 . H atoms in the diamond films saturated the C dangling bonds, forming Cz.sbnd;H bonds. After annealing at different temperatures, Cz.sbnd;H bonds broke and H atoms escaped, and as a result, N s varied.

The basic rule of musical notation for image processing is analyzed, in this paper. Using the structuring elements of musical notation and the basic algorithms of mathematical morphology, a new recognizing for the musical information of digital musical score is presented, and then the musical information is transformed to MIDI file for the communication and restoration of musical score. The results of experiment show that the statistic average value of recognition rate for musical information from digital musical score is 94.4%, and can be satisfied the practical applied demand, and it is a new way for applications of digital library, musical education, musical theory analysis and so on.

The single-phase earth fault usually happens in power distribution line, but it is very difficult to detect most earth fault locations. The traditional methods have great difficulty in detecting earth fault, cannot quickly resume supplying power for customers and affect reliability of power supply. Tongzhou Power Supply Company of Beijing Electric used signal infusion, detection and other international advanced fault location technology to organize a large scale experiment. The results prove that the technology has a great effect on detecting earth fault and can meet the needs of real application. It introduces the technology in the experiment and test process in detail and reaches primary conclusions, which is of great importance to resolve problems in China.

This paper proposes the microwave equivalent circuit models of the tuned MEMS shunt-capacitive switches and presents their down-state resonance choice formulation and upstate impedance matching formulation. The design method of this kind of MEMS switches is developed based on the analysis of microwave equivalent circuits. The circuit simulation results of the MEMS switch for X band based on those equivalent models are described and compared with the results of HFSS software. The good agreement verifies the effectiveness of those formulations. Those simplified models help to design high-performance RF MEMS switches in an easier way.

A dissipative particle swarm optimization is developed according to the self-organization of dissipative structure. The negative entropy is introduced to construct an opening dissipative system that is far-from-equilibrium so as to driving the irreversible evolution process with better fitness. The testing of two multimodal functions indicates it improves the performance effectively, Proceedings of the 2002 Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2002. Volume: 2, On page(s): 1456-1461

A swarm algorithm framework (SWAF), realized by agent-based modeling, is presented to solve numerical optimization problems. Each agent is a bare bones cognitive architecture, which learns knowledge by appropriately deploying a set of simple rules in fast and frugal heuristics. Two essential categories of rules, the generate-and-test and the problem-formulation rules, are implemented, and both of the macro rules by simple combination and subsymbolic deploying of multiple rules among them are also studied. Experimental results on benchmark problems are presented, and performance comparison between SWAF and other existing algorithms indicates that it is efficiently., Comment: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Part I, 2004: 238-250 (LNCS 3102)

A new method for modeling wave propagation in arbitrary frequency-dispersive dielectric media using FDTD and DSP is discussed. This approach involves modeling the simulation region of dispersive media as an IIR digital filter, whereby the difference equations in the time domain are obtained directly and are used to model the transform function /spl epsiv/(t). In order to verify this approach, the authors simulate Gauss pulse plane wave propagation on an air/water interface and compare the numerical reflection/transmission coefficients with analytic results. The study shows that the numerical results are consistent with the analytic solution.

The selection of gametes and the chromosome variations of regenerated plants were studied via chromosome manipulation and anther culture. A higher transmission ratio for the gametes of euhaploid (n=21) was found, compared with that of haploid substituted 60 with 6R (n=20+6R). And the gametes of nullihaploid (n=20) without 60 were hardly transmitted through anther culture. Several kinds of chromosome constitutions including addition, substitution and telosmics were identified with some pollen plants which were resistant to powdery mildew. The telosomic additions are good materials for investigating gene location and expression.

Textured diamond films were depsited on (100) Si substrates via microwave plasma CVD (MWCVD) with bias - enhanced nucleation or without substrate bias. The samples were identified by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to be textured. The nucleation and growth process of textured diamond films were investigated, the mechanism of nucleation and growth were discussed.

A model for option pricing of a (γ,2H)-fractional Black–Merton–Scholes equation driven by the dynamics of a stock price S(t) satisfying (dS)2H=μS2H(dt)2H+σS2HdBH(t), where BH(t) is a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent H∈(0,1), is established. We obtain the explicit option pricing formulas for the European call option and put option for γ>0,12≤H≤1.