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Coding transcript-derived siRNAs (ct-siRNAs) produced from specific endogenous loci can suppress the translation of their source genes to balance plant growth and stress response. In this study, we generated Arabidopsis mutants with deficiencies in RNA decay and/or post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) pathways and performed comparative sRNA-seq analysis, revealing that multiple RNA decay and PTGS factors impede the ct-siRNA selective production. Genes that produce ct-siRNAs often show increased or unchanged expression and typically have higher GC content in sequence composition. The growth and development of plants can perturb the dynamic accumulation of ct-siRNAs from different gene loci. Two nitrate reductase genes, NIA1 and NIA2, produce massive amounts of 22-nt ct-siRNAs and are highly expressed in a subtype of mesophyll cells where DCL2 exhibits higher expression relative to DCL4, suggesting a potential role of cell-specific expression of ct-siRNAs. Overall, our findings unveil the multifaceted factors and features involved in the selective production and regulation of ct-siRNAs and enrich our understanding of gene silencing process in plants. Research on Arabidopsis indicates that RNA decay, PTGS pathway, GC content, and spatial-temporal gene expression impact ct-siRNA production, vital for gene silencing during plant growth and stress responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first organic–inorganic lacunary polyoxometalate catalytic oxidation system with H2O2 as an oxidant for the preparation of aliphatic carboxylic acids from primary alcohols has been developed. This new catalytic system not only exhibits good catalytic activity with high selectivity toward acids, but also satisfactorily resolves the separation of the catalyst for reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group-buying is an intriguing e-commerce model that aims to recruit more participants to generate sufficient orders to establish a low-price foundation. It appears to be a good model for both sellers and buyers; however, most online group-buying websites have failed. Many academics believe that reputation-sharing across multiple platforms is the way to solve the industry's dilemma. RS-Chain is a blockchain-based decentralized reputation-sharing framework, has been proposed in this paper. It is a hybrid blockchain comprising multiple public chains that store transaction ledgers and a consortium chain that stores reputation ledgers. It employs a trusted execution environment as a data verification component. We introduce the framework and describe the reputation operations. For the public chain, we propose proof of reputation (PoR), a new consensus protocol. The comparison experiment demonstrates that the PoR protocol outperforms the proof of work protocol in terms of fairness, orphan blocks, throughput, and latency. RS-Chain is the first reputation-sharing framework based on blockchain technology in the group-buying industry. It could be applied to similar reputation-sensitive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to convert a resistivity field into a local factor of safety (LFS) field in order to capture the characteristics of the water infiltration and slope failure processes in loess landslides. The generalized earth pressure coefficient and the LFS were introduced, and a method based on the monitoring of the resistivity field was proposed. An improved electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method was then adopted. The water infiltration and the distribution of water inside the slope were analyzed using the slope sequence resistivity field for two rainfall scenarios. The validity and the physical justification of the proposed method were then verified. The results were as follows: (i) the proposed method could effectively capture the failure location and the instability process of the slope. (ii) Although the proposed method ignored the heterogeneity of the slope body, when the migration process and the distribution characteristics of the water within the slope under two rainfall scenarios were clearly presented, the conversion from the slope resistivity field to the soil moisture content (SMC) field was theoretically feasible. (iii) The uniform infiltration pattern induced the shallow landslides or mudflows with long-term light rainfall. Middle and deep loess landslides were easily induced by the significant preferential infiltration phenomenon with short-term heavy rainfall. The proposed method is very important for the early identification and risk mitigation of water-inducing landslides in loess areas, and it is helpful for developing a deeper understanding of the preferential flow within soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To elucidate possible additive effects of electroencephalogram-based neurofeedback (EEG-NF) on medications against the core symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were retrieved from electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, ClinicalKey, Cochrane CENTRAL, ScienceDirect, and ClinicalTrials.gov from inception to March 2022. The primary outcomes were changes in ADHD symptoms (i.e., global, inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity) assessed with validated rating scales, while secondary outcome was all-cause discontinuation rate. Meta-analysis of five RCTs involving 305 participants [Median age = 9.285 years (range 8.6–11.05)] with a median follow-up of 12 weeks showed additive effects of EEG-NF on medications from parents' observations against ADHD global symptoms (Hedges' g = 0.2898, 95%CI [0.0238; 0.5557]) and inattention symptoms (Hedges' g = 0.3274, 95%CI [0.0493; 0.6055]). However, additive effects failed to sustain six months after EEG-NF intervention. Besides, there was no difference in improvement of hyperactivity/impulsivity from parents' observation, attentional performance, and all-cause discontinuation rate between the two groups. Our results supported additional benefits of combining EEG-NF with medications compared to medication alone in treating global symptoms and symptoms of inattention in ADHD patients. Nevertheless, given a lack of evidence showing a correlation between underlying physiological changes and small effect sizes in our preliminary results, further studies are warranted to support our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first one that reveals two potential problems in CSMA/CN and proposes an adaptive collision notification (ACN) to solve them. The famous CSMA/CN (collision notification) protocol can detect the ongoing transmission collision early and use CN feedback to inform the sender to abort its transmission immediately, thereby improving the channel utilization. However, there are two potential problems in CN: (a) CN cross-boundary, namely the CN feedback might be later than a standard transmission, and (b) CN interference, namely the CN feedback might interfere with other links. To solve the above problems, in ACN, we design a generalized CN structure and a flexible CN feedback mechanism. The receiver will determine whether to send CN feedback by the collision occurring position for solving the problem (a) and select the transmission power and length of the CN feedback by the interference range for solving the problem (b). We also theoretically quantify the transmission opportunity and power of the CN feedback. We compared ACN and standard CSMA/CN through simulation experiments. Extensive simulations verify that ACN can solve both problems and significantly improve the system throughput, while CSMA/CN will have low throughput due to both problems. Therefore, the design of ACN is an extension of the standard CSMA/CN, which can help wireless network engineers to optimize CSMA/CN network deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light bending by the strong gravity around the black hole will form the so-called black hole shadow, the shape of which can shed light on the structure of the near-horizon geometry to possibly reveal novel physics of strong gravity and black hole. In this work, we adopt both analytical and ray-tracing methods to study the black hole shadow in the presence of the infrared structure of gravity theory, which manifests the asymptotic symmetries of spacetime as the supertranslation soft hairs of the black hole. Though the black hole metrics with and without the soft hair are related by large gauge transformations, the near horizon geometries relevant for the shape of the shadow are quite different. Moreover, the Hamiltonian for the geodesic seems intrinsically different, i.e., the loss of separability due to the breaking of spherical symmetry by soft hair. By applying ray-tracing computations, we find that the soft hair, although not affecting the shape of the shadow, may change the average size and position of the shadow. Images resulting from soft hair black holes with surrounding accretion flows are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of the leading-edge serrations on the dynamic behaviors and flow fields of an inverted flag is investigated using particle image velocimetry technique. Since the leading-edge serrations show a more obvious promotion effect on the flapping amplitude of an inverted flag in water tunnel than in wind tunnel, a detailed water tunnel experiment is further conducted. In the water tunnel experiment, like a clean inverted flag, the straight, periodic flapping, aperiodic flapping and deflected modes are also observed for a serrated inverted flag with a successive increase in flow velocity. The leading-edge serrations in water tunnel indeed significantly increase the flapping amplitude of a clean inverted flag without changing the critical flow velocities between the above four modes. This increase in amplitude is mainly attributed to the leading-edge serrations delaying the flow separation, which is also the high lift mechanism of a serrated flat plate. However, the leading-edge serrations with a wide width and a small vertex angle can change the shape of leading-edge vortex, thereby weakening the high lift effect. Therefore, in actual energy harvesting, it is a commendable choice to avoid selecting a serrated inverted flag with wide width and small vertex angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding an accurate, stable and effective model to predict the rise and fall of stocks has become a task increasingly favored by scholars. This paper proposes a long short-term memory (LSTM) network based on Pearson's correlation coefficient and a Bayesian-optimized LightGBM hybrid model, named as LSTM-BO-LightGBM, to solve the problem of stock price fluctuation prediction. The multilayer bidirectional LSTM-BO-LightGBM prediction model is compared with the LSTM-BO-XGBoost hybrid model, the LSTM-LightGBM hybrid model, the LSTM-XGBoost hybrid model, the single LSTM network model and the RNN network model. The prediction result of the LSTM-BO-LightGBM model for the "ES = F" stock is an RMSE value of 596.04, MAE value of 15.24, accuracy value of 0.639 and f1_score value of 0.799, which are improved compared with the prediction results of the other five models. At the same time, when applying the model to "YM = F", "CL = F", "^TNX", "^N225", "NQ = F", "AAPL", "GC = F", "JPY = X" and "SI = F", all of the nine stocks showed good forecasting performance. The results demonstrate that the multilayer bidirectional LSTM-BO-LightGBM model proposed in this paper has better approximation ability and generalization ability in the stock fluctuation forecast than previous models and can well fit the stock fluctuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under a strong electron-LO-phonon coupling in asymmetric Gaussian confinement potential quantum wells (AGCPQWs) when exposed to external magnetic fields, the AGCPQW qubit coherent time can be obtained from Fermi's golden rule and the variational method of Pekar type. We have calculated the coherence times of two-level quantum systems in RbCl AGCPQWs in external magnetic fields with varying with cyclotron frequency of magnetic field, confinement potential range (CPR), AGCPQW height, oscillating frequency and polaron radius were theoretically calculated. Based on the numerical results, we found that the coherence time was increased by decreasing magnetic field cyclotron frequency, AGCPQW height, oscillating frequency and polaron radius. Also, the coherence time was decreased with CPR for R < 0.7 nm and increased for R > 0.7 nm , with minimum value at R = 0.7 nm , ω c = 10 × 10 13 Hz and τ = 409.9 ps . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extrapolation theorem is an essential and important theory in signal analysis. Since the offset linear canonical transform (OLCT) has proven to be an effective method in signal processing and optics, extrapolation theorems for continuous band-limited signals associated with the OLCT have been well studied. However, the extrapolation theorem for discrete signals in the OLCT domain remains unknown. In this short paper, by using the discrete generalized prolate spheroidal sequences (DGPSSs), the extrapolation theorem for discrete signals is presented. First, the definition of DGPSSs in the OLCT domain is proposed. Subsequently, the extrapolation theorem for OLCT discrete band-limited signals is obtained using the DGPSSs. In addition, a simplified computation of the extrapolation theorem for discrete band-limited signals in the OLCT domain is also obtained. Finally, simulation results are presented to show the utility and efficacy of the derived theorems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an automated solar flare detection software tool to automatically process solar observed images, detect and track solar flares, and finally compile an event catalog. It can identify and track flares that happen simultaneously or temporally close together. The method to identify a flare is based on the local intensity changes in macropixels. The basic characteristics, such as the time and location information of a flare, are determined with a triple-threshold scheme, with the first threshold (global threshold) to determine the occurrence (location) of the flare and the second and third thresholds (local thresholds) to determine the real start and end times of the flare. We have applied this tool to one month of continuous solar ultraviolet (UV) images obtained by the Solar Disk Imager (SDI) onboard the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), which show active phenomena such as flares, filaments or prominences, and solar jets. Our automated tool efficiently detected a total number of 226 solar events. After a visual inspection, we found that only one event was misidentified (unrelated to an active event). We compared the detected events with the GOES X-ray flare list and found that our tool can detect 81% of GOES M-class and above flares (29 out of 36), from which we conclude that the intensity increase in SDI UV images can be considered as a good indicator of a solar flare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal feed is vulnerable to fungal infections, and the use of bio-preserving probiotics has received increasing attention. In contrast to Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria spp., fewer Bacillus spp. have been recognized as antifungal probiotics. Therefore, our objective was to screen antifungal strains and provide more Bacillus candidates to bridge this gap. Here, we screened 56 bacterial strains for cyclic lipopeptide genes and conducted an antifungal assay with Aspergillus niger as a representative fungus. We found that a Bacillus strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PM415, isolated from pigeon manure, exhibited the highest fungal inhibition activity as demonstrated by the confrontation assay and morphological observation under scanning electron microscope (SEM). Preliminary safety assessment and probiotic characterization revealed its non-pathogenic feature and stress tolerance capability. Whole genome sequencing of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PM415 revealed a genome size of 4.16 Mbp and 84 housekeeping genes thereof were used for phylogenetic analysis showing that it is most closely related to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LFB112. The in silico analysis further supported its non-pathogenic feature at the genomic level and revealed potential biosynthetic gene clusters responsible for its antifungal property. RNA-seq analysis revealed genome-wide changes in transportation, amino acid metabolism, non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) biosynthesis and glycan degradation during fungal antagonism. Our results suggest that Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PM415 is a safe and effective probiotic strain that can prevent fungal growth in animal feeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic behaviors of multiple inverted flags, the surrounding flow fields and the underlying fluid–structure interaction mechanism under staggered, triangular and inverted triangular arrangements are investigated experimentally using the particle image velocimetry technique. The results show that, like two parallel inverted flags, contact flapping can also be observed for two staggered inverted flags at small streamwise distances, thus indicating the inapplicability of the staggered arrangement in this case. However, compared with two tandem inverted flags, the amplitude of the downstream inverted flag in the staggered arrangement is significantly improved and can even reach the amplitude of a single inverted flag at a suitable transverse distance. Furthermore, owing to the weak vortex interaction mode of two staggered inverted flags and the almost similar incoming flow conditions of the downstream inverted flag at different streamwise distances, the amplitudes of two staggered inverted flags are insensitive to their streamwise distance. Therefore, a small streamwise distance is recommended to save space in practical application. Additional experiments on three inverted flags show that the triangular arrangement can be regarded as a linear superposition of two staggered arrangements due to the weak coupling interaction between the two downstream inverted flags, also resulting to an in-phase oscillation of these two downstream inverted flags. However, for the inverted triangular arrangement, the anti-phase oscillation of two upstream inverted flags causes a random small amplitude oscillation of the downstream inverted flag, fully exposing the disadvantage of this arrangement in energy harvesting. These findings are helpful to design an efficient energy harvesting device using multiple inverted flags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present experiment, a new metal–organic framework (MOF) containing Eu(III) of {[Eu(CA)(OA)0.5(H2O)2]·H2O}n (1, in which H2OA = oxalic acid and H2CA = chelidonic acid) has been generated by using the solvothermal reaction approach. The as-prepared Eu-MOF was investigated for the high sensitive detection performance for the p-nitroaniline, a harmful chemical in food and water. As a kind of luminescent sensor, the Eu-MOF reflects an obvious fluorescent quenching toward the p-nitroaniline, while other similar nitroaromatic compounds only show weak quenching effects. To relieve the stigma and mental disorders in syphilis patients, the dopamine content in cerebrospinal fluid was detected by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent detection kit after the compound treatment. In addition to this, the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was also implemented for the detection of the dopamine receptor relative expression levels in the striatum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humpback whales have higher hydrodynamic maneuverability due to the unique protuberance structures on the leading edge of their flippers. The leading-edge protuberance, therefore, is regarded as an attractive flow control method. Although some results have shown the effect of the leading-edge protuberance on a static airfoil, its effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of dynamic airfoils is still not clear. In present study, direct force measurements are conducted on dynamic NACA 0012 wings with sinusoidal leading-edge protuberances as well as a baseline configuration at a low Reynolds number of 2 × 104. Three typical motions of the wing, including pitching, plunging, and combined pitching-plunging, are employed to examine the effect of motion styles on aerodynamic characteristics of airfoils. Under the static case, it is found that leading-edge protuberances delay the stall angle of attack of airfoils by about 67%, and increase the maximum lift coefficient, which are different from previous studies of thick straight wings, such as NACA 634–021, NACA 0020, and NACA 0021. Under dynamic cases, motion styles have a significant effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of airfoils. The lift coefficient of the modified airfoil becomes larger than the baseline airfoil mainly at upstroke phases for pitching motion, downstroke phases for plunging motion, and all phases for combined pitching-plunging motion, considering positive angles of attack. Compared to the static condition, the range of angles of attack where the lift of the modified airfoil is larger than the baseline airfoil extends; however, the lift difference between both airfoils decreases. Under pitching motion, phase-locked two-dimensional particle image velocimetry is performed to investigate the mechanism behind different aerodynamic characteristics between two dynamic airfoils. It is revealed that leading-edge protuberances inhibit formation of the secondary vortex, and weaken coherency of the leading-edge vortex (LEV). The flow acceleration effect of trough planes, different evolution of the LEV and the spanwise flow on the upper surface, are the main reasons that affect the aerodynamic characteristics of the modified airfoil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enrollment rate of freshmen has always been a headache for colleges and universities. It is also very difficult to accurately predict the number of freshmen before they register. In recent years, deep learning and machine learning technology have made a breakthrough and are widely used in data processing, edge computing, and situation awareness. So far, no researcher has used machine learning methods to forecast the enrollment of new students, because the intuitive feeling is that the registration of a freshman is very subjective, dependent on several factors. To date, the number of freshmen in universities has always been forecasted using traditional methods, that is, phone calls and fee payment status inquiries. On the basis of the historical admission enrollment data of a university, this study used a variety of machine learning methods, including decision tree, random forest, and back propagation neural network, for forecasting. Based on the results of our research, it is possible to predict whether a freshman will register in a university, which makes this work very worthy of further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of exogenous hydroxyl, carboxyl groups and/or Sn2+ on pyrolysis reactions of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The activation energy (Ea) of pyrolysis reactions was estimated by the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose method. The kinetic models were also explored by the Malek method, and the random degradation behavior was determined by comparing the plots of In{-In[1 - (1 - w)0.5]} versus 1/T for experimental data from TGA with model reactions. The pyrolysis reaction rate of PLLA was affected slightly by exogenous hydroxyl and carboxyl groups at lower levels of Sn with 65–70 mg·kg-1 but increased appreciably in the presence of extraneous Sn2+, -COOH/Sn2+, or -OH/Sn2+. The Ea values for the pyrolysis reactions of the PLLAs that provided lactide were different under the catalysis of Sn2+ in different chemical environments because Sn2+ can form the new Sn-carboxylate and Sn-alkoxide with exogenous carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, which were different in steric hindrance for the formation of activated complex between Sn2+ and PLLA. Under the catalysis of Sn2+, a lactide molecule can be directly eliminated selectively at a random position of PLLA molecular chains, and the molecular chain of PLLA cannot change two PLLA fragments at the elimination site of lactide. However, it was regenerated into a new PLLA molecule with the molecular weight reduced by 144 g·mol-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional temperature-humidity index (THI) based on observation stations has been widely used to evaluate regional climate comfort, but it is impossible to obtain the spatiotemporal characteristics of larger-scale regional comfort. This study uses MODIS remote sensing data combined with a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to improve the classic THI model, and the results are compared with traditional interpolation methods to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of annual and monthly average climate comfort in China from 2005 to 2018. The GWR model uses the land surface temperature (LST), the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and a digital elevation model (DEM) as independent variables to fit the air temperature and accurately express the surface air temperature. According to the average annual THI change from 2005 to 2018, the cooler-more comfortable area increased to 136.11 km2, and the annual average comfort level in China changed from cold to comfortable. The Yunnan Province has the most comfortable months, and the central provinces have more comfortable periods than the southeastern coastal provinces. Except for Xinjiang, Tibet, and parts of Northeast China, the spatial distribution of the annual comfort level in China tends to change from comfortable to cold with increasing latitude. Compared with the traditional interpolation method, the THI model based on remote sensing data can more accurately express the spatial distribution characteristics of climate comfort in areas with sparse stations (e.g., northern Qinghai, western Xinjiang, and Hengduan Mountains), especially in mountainous areas in the southwest. This model can also reduce the influence of terrain, elevation, and other factors on the spatial distribution characteristics of comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar white-light flares (WLFs) are those accompanied by brightenings in the optical continuum or integrated light. The White-light Solar Telescope (WST), as an instrument of the Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST) on the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), provides continuous solar full-disk images at 360 nm, which can be used to study WLFs. We analyze 205 major flares above M1.0 from October 2022 to May 2023 and identify 49 WLFs at 360 nm from WST observations, i.e. with an occurrence rate of 23.9%. The percentages of WLFs for M1 – M4 (31 out of 180), M5 – M9 (11 out of 18), and above X1 (7 for all) flares are 17.2%, 61.1%, and 100%, respectively, namely the larger the flares, the more likely they are WLFs at 360 nm. We further analyze 39 WLFs among the identified WLFs and investigate their properties such as white-light enhancement, duration, and brightening area. It is found that the relative enhancement of the white-light emission at 360 nm is mostly (>90%) less than 30% and the mean enhancement is 19.4%. The WLFs' duration at 360 nm is mostly (>80%) less than 20 minutes and its mean is 10.3 minutes. The brightening area at 360 nm is mostly (>75%) less than 500 arcsecond2 and the median value is 225. We find that there exist good correlations between the white-light enhancement/duration/area and the peak soft X-ray (SXR) flux of the flare, with correlation coefficients of 0.68, 0.58, and 0.80, respectively. In addition, the white-light emission in most WLFs peaks around the same time as the temporal derivative of SXR flux as well as the hard X-ray emission at 20 – 50 keV, indicative of the Neupert effect. It is also found that the limb WLFs are more likely to have a greater enhancement, which is consistent with numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematically review the comparison of anterior and posterior framed walker in terms of biomechanical analysis and energy expenditure and to discuss the implications for clinical practice. A systematic literature search was performed to identify studies that evaluated the gait pattern, upper extremity (UE) kinetics and kinematics and energy consumption. Outcome measures and treatment results for them were identified. 6 studies met the criteria and were included in this systematic review. Gait analysis, UE kinetics and kinematics and energy consumption were all assessed in 4 different papers. Gait parameters were comparable between walkers but declined torso tilt was found in the posterior walker group. In UE joints, two groups showed no significant difference but adaptive therapeutic posterior walker helped decrease UE burden. Most of papers prefer posterior walkers because of low oxygen cost. For better gait pattern, less UE burden and energy consumption, the adaptive therapeutic posterior walker is relatively the proper choice among all. For future studies, crossover studies or randomized controlled trails (RCTs) with larger sample size and more accurate measurement equipment may provide more persuasive evidence. Long term effects of walker users can also be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorption capacities of CH4, CO2, CO, N2 and H2 on NaY zeolite were measured at 298 K, 318 K, 338 K and 358 K with pressure ranged from 0 to 10 bar. The order of adsorption capacity was CO2 ≫ CH4 > CO > N2 ≫ H2. The experiment data were fitted by the Langmuir, Toth and Sips equations. The fitting relativity of above models were also compared. Moreover, the isosteric heat of adsorption were calculated by the Clausius–Clapeyron equation, the results showed that the adsorption heat of CO2 is the largest (41.89764 kJ/mol with adsorption loading of 5.8 mmol/g) and that of H2 is the smallest. Finally, the selectivity of binary mixture was predicted according to the IAS theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronal waves are large-scale disturbances often driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We investigate a spectacular wave event on 7 March 2012, which is associated with an X5.4 flare (SOL2012-03-07). By using a running center-median (RCM) filtering method for the detection of temporal variations in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images, we enhance the EUV disturbance observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing (SWAP) onboard the PRoject for Onboard Autonomy 2 (PROBA2). In coronagraph images, a halo front is observed to be the upper counterpart of the EUV disturbance. Based on the EUV and coronagraph images observed from three different perspectives, we have made three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions of the wave surfaces using a new mask-fitting method. The reconstructions are compared with those obtained from forward-fitting methods. We show that the mask-fitting method can reflect the inhomogeneous coronal medium by capturing the concave shape of the shock wave front. Subsequently, we trace the developing concave structure and derive the deprojected wave kinematics. The speed of the 3D-wave nose increases from a low value below a few hundred km s − 1 to a maximum value of about 3800 km s − 1 , and then slowly decreases afterwards. The concave structure starts to decelerate earlier and has significantly lower speeds than those of the wave nose. We also find that the 3D-wave in the extended corona has a much higher speed than the speed of EUV disturbances across the solar disk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microglial activation and phenotypic shift play vital roles in many neurological diseases. Runt-related transcription factor-1 (Runx1), which is localized on microglia, inhibits amoeboid microglial proliferation. Preliminary data have indicated that the interaction of Runx1 with the Notch1 pathway affects the hemogenic endothelial cell shift. However, little is known about the effect of Runx1 and the Notch1 signaling pathway on the phenotypic shift of microglia during neuroinflammation, especially in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). A mouse model of TLE induced by pilocarpine and the murine microglia cell line BV-2 were used in this study. The proportion of microglia was analyzed using flow cytometry. Western blot (WB) analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to analyze protein and gene transcript levels, respectively. Immunohistochemistry was used to show the distribution of Runx1. In the present study, we first found that in a male mouse model of TLE induced by pilocarpine, flow cytometry revealed a time-dependent M2-to-M1 microglial transition after status epilepticus. The dynamic expression patterns of Runx1 and the downstream Notch1/Jagged1/Hes5 signaling pathway molecules in the epileptic hippocampus were determined. Next, Runx1 knockdown by small interfering RNA in BV-2 cells strongly promoted an M2-to-M1 microglial phenotype shift and inhibited Notch1/Jagged1/Hes5 pathway expression. In conclusion, Runx1 may play a critical role in the M2-to-M1 microglial phenotype shift via the Notch1 signaling pathway during epileptogenesis in a TLE mouse model and in BV-2 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2/sericite (Ser) was prepared by depositing a nano-TiO2 film onto a carrier composed of sericite, an inorganic and nonmetallic mineral. Ultraviolet-resistant and antibacterial layers were then separately loaded onto the nano-TiO2 film, forming a multifunctional composite. The obtained functional TiO2/Ser composite was used as a filler and introduced into a rubber composite. It was indicated that the functional TiO2/Ser composite was straightforward, cost-effective, and easy to prepare under a low temperature. The nano-TiO2 layer exhibited a high loading capacity and was firmly loaded onto the inorganic and nonmetallic mineral carrier. The morphology and structure of the filler were observed using transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, the air permeability, antibacterial, aging-protection, and mechanical properties were measured and analyzed using the functional TiO2/Ser as a filler for SBR/TRR blend rubber. Compared with silica, the TiO2/Ser filler could reduce the material cost and improve the density, antibacterial, aging-protection, and mechanical properties of the SBR/TRR blend rubber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixteen new camphor-based imidazolium salts have been synthesized with renewable camphorsulfonic acid as the starting material. The chemical shifts of the characteristic proton of C2 on the imidazolium ring (N−C=N) were discussed thoroughly and all of these imidazolium salts exhibit good thermal stability. Furthermore, the excellent catalytic performance of the synthesized imidazolium salts were observed in the oxidative esterification between aromatic or aliphatic aldehydes containing electron-withdrawing or electron-donating groups on aromatic ring and primary or secondary alcohol by air as the sole oxidant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research, a new dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) based nanocatalyst (DFNS/Dy2Ce2O7) that has high surface zone as well as easy availability of active zones has been properly expanded using an easy approach. DFNS that possess high surface zone is functionalized by amino groups working as the anchors such that the nanoparticles of Dy2Ce2O7 are fine-dispersed onto the DFNS microspheres fibres, without any aggregation. The nanoparticles of Dy2Ce2O7 are produced by a green approach in the attendance of gum of ferula assa-foetida of Dy(NO3)3 and (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6 as ceric and dysprosium sources. The structural evaluation of the samples proved the synthesis of Dy2Ce2O7 NPs. Moreover, a straight way for the production of 3-aryl-2-oxazolidinones by carbon dioxide, olefins, and anilines was obtained utilizing nano catalyst of DFNS/Dy2Ce2O7 in the lack of solvent. The reaction works properly at moderate states. This method that is cheap and simple may be used to different olefins that has proper to excellent 3-aryl-2-oxazolidinones productions. The catalyst may be simply recycled for ten times without considerable losing the activity of its catalytic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The offset linear canonical transform (OLCT) is a novel and effective method in signal processing and optics. Many important properties and results of the OLCT have been well studied and published. However, the extrapolation theorem of the OLCT bandlimited signals still remains unknown. In this short paper, by using the generalized prolate spheroidal wave functions (GPSWFs), the extrapolation theorem for the OLCT bandlimited signals has been provided. Firstly, the concept of the GPSWFs in the OLCT domain has been proposed. Subsequently, the dual orthogonality and completeness of the GPSWFs associated with the OLCT have been derived based on the definition. In addition, the extrapolation theorem of the OLCT bandlimited signals has been obtained by using the orthogonality and completeness properties of the GPSWFs. Finally, the simulation results are presented to show the usefulness and effectiveness of the derived theorems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using commutative C*-algebra techniques, spectrum and essential spectrum of normal weighted composition operators on the Fock space over ℂN are completely characterized. As an application, spectrum of self-adjoint weighted composition operators on the Fock space are obtained also. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a dynamic rate allocation and relaying strategy adaption scheme for data transmission over wireless relay networks, where autonomous nodes expose node-selfishness, i.e. being unwilling to forward other nodes’ data packets, for saving their energy resources. Aided by an incentive mechanism, we develop a virtual node-selfishness queue (VSQ) to portray the node’s dynamic selfish characteristic in terms of its energy resource and incentives. Then, a stochastic optimization model is employed to maximize the average network throughput whilst keeping the network stable and bounding the node-selfishness. The problem of stochastic optimization is further decomposed into two subproblems via the Lyapunov optimization theory, which corresponds to the rate allocation for source and the relaying strategy adaption for autonomous relay, respectively. After that, a joint rate allocation and relaying strategy adaption algorithm is developed to accommodate the wireless network only according to the current network state information, i.e. the data queue sate information, VSQ information at relays and the channel state information of the links. The explicit tradeoff between network throughput and average data transmission delay is theoretically proven. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis of our proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alumina toughened zirconia (ATZ) ceramic particle reinforced gray iron matrix surface composite was successfully manufactured by pressureless infiltration. The porous preform played a key role in the infiltrating progress. The microstructure was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM); the phase constitutions was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD); and the hardness and wear resistance of selected specimens were tested by hardness testing machine and abrasion testing machine, respectively. The addition of high carbon ferrochromium powders leads to the formation of white iron during solidification. The wear volume loss rates of ATZ ceramic particle reinforced gray iron matrix surface composite decreases first, and then tends to be stable. The wear resistance of the composite is 2.7 times higher than that of gray iron matrix. The reason is a combination of the surface hardness increase of gray iron matrix and ATZ ceramic particles and alloy carbides protecting effect on gray iron matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of low-aspect-ratio rectangular synthetic jets is investigated with dye and laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) flow visualization techniques. This paper analyzes the impacts of three key parameters on the evolution of vortical structures, respectively, including orifice aspect-ratio (AR), dimensionless stroke length, and Reynolds number. Compared with circular synthetic jet, all the rectangular synthetic jets display vortex ring axis switching, and may develop into two types of stream-wise vortices I and II. The evolution of the vortex ring and the generation of stream-wise vortices are influenced by three parameters. In particular, stream-wise vortices are not detected for a low AR, stroke length or Reynolds number case. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We calculate various quantities that characterize the dissimilarity of reduced density matrices for a short interval of length ℓ in a two-dimensional (2D) large central charge conformal field theory (CFT). These quantities include the Rényi entropy, entanglement entropy, relative entropy, Jensen-Shannon divergence, as well as the Schatten 2-norm and 4-norm. We adopt the method of operator product expansion of twist operators, and calculate the short interval expansion of these quantities up to order of ℓ for the contributions from the vacuum conformal family. The formal forms of these dissimilarity measures and the derived Fisher information metric from contributions of general operators are also given. As an application of the results, we use these dissimilarity measures to compare the excited and thermal states, and examine the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) by showing how they behave in high temperature limit. This would help to understand how ETH in 2D CFT can be defined more precisely. We discuss the possibility that all the dissimilarity measures considered here vanish when comparing the reduced density matrices of an excited state and a generalized Gibbs ensemble thermal state. We also discuss ETH for a microcanonical ensemble thermal state in a 2D large central charge CFT, and find that it is approximately satisfied for a small subsystem and violated for a large subsystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric cancer is one of the lethal causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The incidence and mortality rates of this disease is comparatively higher in China. In the current study, we evaluated the anticancer effects of Thymoquinone (TQ) against gastric cancer cells (MGC80-3 and SGC-7901) and normal noncancerous GES-1 cells and attempted to investigate the underlying mechanism. Our results indicated that TQ exhibited significant growth inhibitory effects on gastric cancer cells (MGC80-3 and SGC-7901). However, lower cytotoxicity was observed against normal GES-1 cells. Moreover, TQ could inhibit the colony formation potential of MGC80-3 and SGC-7901 cells in a dose-dependent manner. TQ also inhibited cell migration ability of the gastric cancer cells and down-regulated the expression of the mesenchymal genes such as N-cadherin, Vimentin, and TWIST. However, the epithelial markers such as E-cadherin and cytokeratin-19 were distinctly up-regulated in TQ-treated gastric cancer cells. Since PI3K/Akt/ mTOR plays an important role in progression and tumorigenesis, we also investigated the effect of TQ on PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling pathway in gastric cancer cells. It was observed that TQ down-regulated the expression of some of the key proteins of this pathway. Taken together, we conclude that TQ may prove lead molecule for the treatment of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using a variational method of Pekar type, we investigate the effects of the hydrogen-like impurity and magnetic field on the electron's probability density (PD) and oscillating frequency (OF) of a RbCl quantum pseudodot qubit. Numerical results indicate that (1) the PD oscillates periodically; (2) the crest of the PD will decrease with increasing the cyclotron frequencies and the Coulombic impurity potential strength; (3) as the cyclotron frequency of the magnetic field and the strength of the Coulombic impurity potential increases, PD's peaks will occur more frequently; (4) besides, Figs. 1b and 2b clearly show that in a single period the PD will decrease with increasing the cyclotron frequency and the Coulombic impurity potential strength when $$ t > 1.8\;\text{fs} $$ ; whereas the changing law is just the opposite when $$ t < 1.8\;\text{fs} $$ ; (5) the OF is an aggrandizing function of the strength of the Coulombic impurity potential, whereas it is a decaying one of the cyclotron frequencies of the magnetic field. The coherence of qubit is crucial to the investigations of quantum information and quantum computation, where the electron's PD, the OF and the coherence time are the physical quantities representing the properties of coherence. Our research results fine that by changing the cyclotron frequency of the magnetic field and the strength of the Coulombic impurity potential one can adjust the electron's PD and the OF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate a weak version of subsystem eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) for a two-dimensional large central charge conformal field theory by comparing the local equivalence of high energy state and thermal state of canonical ensemble. We evaluate the single-interval Rényi entropy and entanglement entropy for a heavy primary state in short interval expansion. We verify the results of Rényi entropy by two different replica methods. We find nontrivial results at the eighth order of short interval expansion, which include an infinite number of higher order terms in the large central charge expansion. We then evaluate the relative entropy of the reduced density matrices to measure the difference between the heavy primary state and thermal state of canonical ensemble, and find that the aforementioned nontrivial eighth order results make the relative entropy unsuppressed in the large central charge limit. By using Pinsker's and Fannes-Audenaert inequalities, we can exploit the results of relative entropy to yield the lower and upper bounds on trace distance of the excited-state and thermal-state reduced density matrices. Our results are consistent with subsystem weak ETH, which requires the above trace distance is of power-law suppression by the large central charge. However, we are unable to pin down the exponent of power-law suppression. As a byproduct we also calculate the relative entropy to measure the difference between the reduced density matrices of two different heavy primary states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal-based SiO2/GO nanosheets were prepared by modified Hummers method using Xinjiang Wucaiwan coal as raw materials. According the characterization tests results, graphite-like crystal structures had formed. Meanwhile, the Si elements presented in coal could form SiO2 particles during the oxidation process and loaded onto the GO surface in situ to produce structurally stable coal-based SiO2/GO sheets which is quite advantageous as carrier. Ag nanoparticles prepared by thermal reduction was loaded on the surface of coal-based SiO2/GO. The structure of Ag/SiO2/GO was characterized, and the photocatalytic performance of nitrogen fixation to ammonia was discussed. It was found that coal-based SiO2/GO as a carrier not only improved the dispersion of Ag nanoparticles through avoiding the agglomeration, but also improved the absorption of visible light of the composite photocatalyst, which in turn improved the performance of Ag/SiO2/GO for ammonia synthesis. The ammonia yield reached 449.32 μmol L−1 g−1·cat when 80%-Ag/SiO2/GO was used as photocatalyst reacting for 4 h. Besides, the composite photocatalyst had good stability and lifetime. The ammonia yield could still reach 82.49% after five cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of sphere-rod shape amphiphiles were designed and synthesized by connecting the rod-like oligofluorenes with different lengths (OF) to the different positions of the spherical [60]fullerene (C) through a rigid linkage. The conjugates were characterized by H-NMR, C-NMR, FTIR, EA and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The optical and electronic properties of the conjugates were studied by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectrometry, and cyclic voltammetry. The results from UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry indicated that the energy profiles of C and OF remained unchanged when different lengths of OF were attached to C. The electron affinities of the OF-C conjugates were close to that of C, while slight electronic interaction was found between the two individual chromophores (C and OF) in their ground states. The fluorescence spectra exhibited a complete fluorescence quenching in the toluene solution, suggesting an effective energy transfer from OF to C. It presents a systematic study on the self-assembly, structure-property relationship, and potential technical applications of the conjugates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shrinkage porosity is a type of random distribution defects and exists in most large castings. Different from the periodic symmetry defects or certain distribution defects, shrinkage porosity presents a random "cloud-like" configuration, which brings difficulties in quantifying the effective performance of defected casting. In this paper, the influences of random shrinkage porosity on the equivalent elastic modulus of QT400-18 casting were studied by a numerical statistics approach. An improved random algorithm was applied into the lattice model to simulate the "cloud-like" morphology of shrinkage porosity. Then, a large number of numerical samples containing random levels of shrinkage were generated by the proposed algorithm. The stress concentration factor and equivalent elastic modulus of these numerical samples were calculated. Based on a statistical approach, the effects of shrinkage porosity's distribution characteristics, such as area fraction, shape, and relative location on the casting's equivalent mechanical properties were discussed respectively. It is shown that the approach with randomly distributed defects has better predictive capabilities than traditional methods. The following conclusions can be drawn from the statistical simulations: (1) the effective modulus decreases remarkably if the shrinkage porosity percent is greater than 1.5%; (2) the average Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) produced by shrinkage porosity is about 2.0; (3) the defect's length across the loading direction plays a more important role in the effective modulus than the length along the loading direction; (4) the surface defect perpendicular to loading direction reduces the mean modulus about 1.5% more than a defect of other position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simulation models of the thermal and macrostructural evolutions during directional solidification of Ni-base single crystal (SX) turbine blades under high rate solidification (HRS) and liquid metal cooling (LMC) have been constructed using ProCAST software, coupled with a 3D Cellular Automaton Finite Element (CAFE) model. The models were used to investigate the tendencies of stray grain (SG) formation in the platform region of turbine blades fabricated by HRS and LMC techniques. The results reveal that the LMC technique can prohibit SG formation by smoothing the concaved isotherm and in turn alleviating the undercooling in the platform ends to let the dendrites fill up the undercooled zone before SG nucleation. The simulation results agreed well with the experimental results, indicating that these models could be used to analyze the macrostructural evolution or to optimize process parameters to suppress SG formation. Using these models, the critical withdrawal rate for casting SX turbine blades without SG formation were determined to be around 75 μm·s-1 and 100 μm·s-1 for HRS and LMC respectively, suggesting that LMC can be used as an efficient technique in fabricating SX turbine blades without any SG defect formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gradual solar energetic particle (SEP) event is thought to happen when particles are accelerated at a shock due to a fast coronal mass ejection (CME). To quantify what kind of solar eruptions can result in such SEP events, we have conducted detailed investigations on the characteristics of CMEs, solar flares and metric-to-decahectometric wavelength type II radio bursts (herein after m-to-DH type II bursts) for SEP-associated and non-SEP-associated events, observed during the period of 1997-2012. Interestingly, 65% of m-to-DH type II bursts associated with CMEs and flares produced SEP events. The SEP-associated CMEs have higher sky-plane mean speed, projection corrected speed, and sky-plane peak speed than those of non-SEP-associated CMEs respectively by 30%, 39%, and 25%, even though the two sets of CMEs achieved their sky-plane peak speeds at nearly similar heights within LASCO field of view. We found Pearson's correlation coefficients between the speeds of CMEs (sky-plane speed and corrected speed) and logarithmic peak intensity of SEP events are $\mathit{cc} = 0.62$ and $\mathit{cc} = 0.58$ , respectively. We also found that the SEP-associated CMEs are on average of three times more decelerated ( $-21.52~\mbox{m}\, \mbox{s}^{- 2}$ ) than the non-SEP-associated CMEs ( $- 5.63~\mbox{m}\, \mbox{s}^{-2}$ ). The SEP-associated flares have a mean peak flux ( $1.85 \times 10^{- 4}~\mbox{W}\, \mbox{m}^{- 2}$ ) three times larger than that of non-SEP-associated flares, even though the flare duration (rise time) of both sets of events is similar. The SEP-associated m type II bursts have higher frequency drift rate and associated shock speed than those of the non-SEP-associated events by 70% and 25% respectively. The average formation heights of m and DH type II radio bursts for SEP-associated events ( $1.31~R_{\mathrm{o}}$ and $3.54~R_{\mathrm{o}}$ , respectively) are lower than for non-SEP-associated events ( $1.61~R_{\mathrm{o}}$ and $3.91~R_{\mathrm{o}}$ , respectively). 93% of SEP-associated events originate from the western hemisphere and 65% of SEP-associated events are associated with interacting CMEs. The obtained results indicate that, at least for the set of CMEs associated with m-to-DH type II bursts, SEP-associated CMEs are more energetic than those not associated with SEPs, thus suggesting that they are effective particle accelerators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thioacetylation poly(aryl ether ketone) (AcSPEK-C) as the precursor of thoilation poly(aryl ether ketone) (SHPEK-C) was synthesized via chloromethylation and thioacetylation of a phenolphthalein poly(aryl ether ketone) (PEK-C) successively. Then AcSPEK-C nanofiber mat was prepared by electrospinning technique, after the deacetylation and the acidification reaction, the SHPEK-C nanofiber mat with the average diameter of 570 nm (SEM test) was successfully obtained ultimately. DSC test showed that SHPEK-C had a single glass transition temperature ( T =300°C). Adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics of the static adsorption process were used to examine the fundamental adsorption properties of Hg ions. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity was 3.75 mmol Hg g. In addition, the SHPEK-C superfine fibrous membrane also showed high recyclable removal efficiency through the adsorption/desorption experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In widely deployed wireless 'hot-spot' networks, nodes frequently join or leave, and inelastic/elastic and saturated/nonsaturated flows coexist. In such dynamic and diverse environments, it is challenging to maximize the channel utilization while providing satisfactory user experiences. In this paper, we propose a novel contention-on-demand (CoD) MAC scheme to address this problem. The CoD scheme consists of a fixed-CW algorithm, a dynamic-CW algorithm, and an admission control rule. The fixed-CW algorithm allows elastic flows to access limited system bandwidth; the dynamic-CW algorithm enables inelastic flows to contend for channel on demand and quickly adapt to network change; and the admission control rule rejects overloaded traffic for providing good user experiences. We then perform an asymptotic analysis to develop a simple and practical admission control rule for homogeneous and heterogeneous traffic; our rule can not only adapt to the change in offered loads and node number, but also maximize the system utilization . Finally, extensive simulations verify that our scheme is very effective and our theoretical result is very accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly(ether urethane)s (PEU), including PEUI15 and PEUH15, were prepared through chain-extension reaction of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-1500) using diisocyanate as a chain extender, including isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). These PEUs were used to toughen polylactide (PLA) by physical and reactive blending. Thermal, morphological, mechanical and aging properties of the blends were investigated in detail. These PEUs were partially compatible with PLA. The elongation at break of the reactive blends in the presence of triphenyl phosphate (TPP) for PLA with PEUH15 or PEUI15 was much higher than that of the physical blends. The aging test was carried out at -20 °C for 50 h in order to accelerate the crystallization of PEUs. The PEUs in the PLA/PEU blends produced crystallization and formed new phase separation with PLA, resulting in the declined toughness of blends. Fortunately, under the aging condition, although PEUH15 in blends could also form crystallization, the reactive blend of PLA/PEUH15/TPP(80/20/2) had higher toughness than the other blends. The elongation at break of PLA/PEUH15/TPP(80/20/2) dropped to 287% for the aging blend from 350% for the original blend. The tensile strength and modulus of PLA/PEUH15/TPP blend did not change obviously because of the crystallization of PEUH15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) effect on dendritic cells (DCs) to gastric cancer (GC) cells in vitro involving immune escape mechanism of GC, we observed DC-SIGN (CD209), Ii chain (CD74), MHC-II and collaborative costimulatory molecules CD40, CD80, CD86 expressions in DCs, which co-incubated with GC cells and VIP. Human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) were obtained from healthy volunteers and human mononuclear cells were isolated from HUCB by density gradient centrifugation. Monocytes were purified from mononuclear cells using adherence separation and were treated with recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rh GM-CSF), recombinant human interleukin-4 (rh IL-4) to induce immature monocyte-derived DCs (moDCs). Recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (rh TNF-α) was added on the 5th day to induce mature moDCs. Mature moDCs were collected on the 10th day, and co-incubated with MKN45, VIP and mannan, respectively. CD1a and CD83 expressions were detected by immunocytochemistry. VIP, VPAC1, CD209, CD74, MHC-II, CD40, CD80 and CD86 expressions of DCs were detected by immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR. VPAC1 was detected in DCs, but VIP did not detected in DCs. When DCs were co-incubated with MKN45 cells, MKN45 cells could inhibit DCs' expressions of CD209, CD74, MHC-II, CD40, CD80 and CD86 in the mRNA and protein levels (p < 0.05), and VIP could further inhibit CD209, CD74, MHC-II, CD40, CD80 and CD86 expressions of DCs in the mRNA and protein levels (p < 0.05). The inhibition could not been reversed by mannan. CD209 was positively correlated with CD74, MHC-II, CD40, CD80 and CD86 in mRNA level and protein expression intensity in DCs. VIP could inhibit CD209, CD74, MHC-II, CD40, CD80 and CD86 expressions of DCs, and inhibit antigen-presenting ability of DCs. VIP may promote immune escape of GC by inhibiting CD209, CD74, MHC-II, CD40, CD80 and CD86 expressions of DCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]