Search

Degrading the A-ring of tetracycline (TC) requires a photocatalyst with either a very negative conduction band edge (CBE) or a very positive valence band edge (VBE). In this work, a SrTiO3-based composite with a Sr/W ratio of 7.5% (CSWT75) was prepared by hybridizing the following components: n-type semiconductor Sr2WO5 with CBE of –2.10 V, n-type semiconductor SrWO4 with a VBE of 4.42 V, and p-type semiconductor Sr3WO6 with CBE of–1.26 V, resulting in formation of z-scheme and p-n heterojunctions. Over CSWT75, the photodegradation rate of the B, C, and D rings of TC was 100% in 60 min and that of A ring was 98% in 90 min. The reaction rate constant of CSWT75 was found to be 3.4-fold that of the as-prepared pure SrTiO3. It is found that a high positive VBE potential like that of SrWO4 4.42 V is more effective on degrading A-ring than a negative CBE potential −0.81 of SrTiO3, but less effective than a negative CBE potential −1.26 V of Sr3WO6. This study identified two new semiconductors with highly negative CBEs. This work also implys that a z-scheme structured composite hybridizing homeotype-semiconductors with very negative CBE favors in degrading A ring of TC.

The bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp) signaling pathway and the basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factor Hand1 are known key regulators of cardiac development. In this study, we investigated the Bmp signaling regulation of Hand1 during cardiac outflow tract (OFT) development. In Bmp2 and Bmp4loss-of-function embryos with varying levels of Bmp in the heart, Hand1 is sensitively decreased in response to the dose of Bmp expression. In contrast, Hand1 in the heart is dramatically increased in Bmp4 gain-of-function embryos. We further identified and characterized the Bmp/Smad regulatory elements in Hand1. Combined transfection assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments indicated that Hand1 is directly activated and bound by Smads. In addition, we found that upon the treatment of Bmp2 and Bmp4, P19 cells induced Hand1 expression and favored cardiac differentiation. Together, our data indicated that the Bmp signaling pathway directly regulates Hand1 expression in a dose-dependent manner during heart development.

This work studied the phase flicker of Holoeye Pluto spatial light modulator (SLM), which is a typical, pure phase and digitally addressable liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator (LCoS-SLM). We demonstrated a method for fast measuring the phase flicker of this kind of SLM, which uses only one photon detector to measure the intensity of the first order light diffracted by the binary grating. Our experimental results show that the higher the gray level, the more severe the phase flicker, but the average phase stability maintains about 3.1%. Our results also prove that the triangular wave model basically performs well as an approximate model of the phase flicker. Furthermore, the phase flicker waveform is mainly determined by the winner of the competition between two harmonics with frequencies of 300 Hz and 600 Hz. At the gray level of 125, the amplitude difference between the two harmonics is small, the model fails. Essentially, these results have nothing to do with the specific address voltage of the SLM, but are determined by the PWM waveform corresponding to the gray level.

Currently, the transition metal ions Mn4+ are fascinating for its potential in diverse luminescence application fields. Herein, a series of Mg28Ge7.55−xGaxO32F15.04: Mn4+ phosphors available for optical thermometry have been obtained by introducing Ga3+ into Mg28Ge7.55O32F15.04: Mn4+. It is noteworthy that the phosphors show excitation selective thermal characteristics with temperature changing from 303 to 473 K, i.e., decreasing (270–340 nm/405–435 nm), essentially unchanged (356–378 nm), and increasing (445–500 nm), respectively. The emission intensity of anti-Stokes and Stokes peaks of Mg28Ge6.35Ga1.2O32F15.04: Mn4+ show inverse trends under the same excitation, which imply the application potential of the phosphor in single-mode optical thermometry. The relative sensitivity (Sr) of the single-mode thermometer reached 0.68% K−1. In addition, the Eu2+/Mn4+ dual-mode optical thermometer has also been realized by taking advantage of the significantly different thermal quenching characteristics of Mg28Ge6.35Ga1.2O32F15.04: Mn4+ and Ba2Mg(PO4)2: Eu2+ under the same 365 nm excitation. The maximum Sr value of Eu2+/Mn4+ dual-mode thermometer was 1.38% K−1. This work not only indicates Mg28Ge6.35Ga1.2O32F15.04: Mn4+ can be a promising candidate for optical thermometry, but also expands new horizons with the topological composite pathway toward rational designing and perfecting dual or even multi-mode thermometers.

Cr3+-doped Ca3Y2Ge3O12 broadband near-infrared phosphor was synthesized by the high temperature solidstate reaction method. Under the excitation of 475 nm, the emission peak of Ca3Y2Ge3O12:Cr3+ is at 823 nm and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is 155 nm. The introduction of Ce3+ as a sensitizer leads to the enhancement of CYG:Cr3+ emission intensity. The emission range of CYG:Ce3+, Cr3+ can perfectly cover the frequency doubling absorption band of C–H, O–H and other hydrogen groups. There is an energy transfer process between Ce3+ and Cr3+, and the energy transfer efficiency is as high as 94.21%. According to the near-infrared response to hydrogen group and Lambert-Beer law, the dependence of absorbance Lg(I0/I) on sugar content was explored, and then the reliability and accuracy of the method were verified. The results show that the phosphor Ca3Y2Ge3O12:Ce3+, Cr3+ phosphor has prospects for a potential application in nondestructive food detection.

Adherens junctions remodeling regulated by apical polarity proteins constitutes a major driving force for tissue morphogenesis, though the precise mechanism remains inconclusive. Here we reported that Crumbs complex component MPP5a interacts with small GTPase Rab11 in Golgi to synergistically transport cadherin and Crumbs components to the apical domain, thus establishing the apical epithelial polarity and adherens junctions. In contrast, Par complex recruited by MPP5a is incapable to interact with Rab11 but may assemble cytoskeleton to facilitate the cadherin exocytosis. In accordance, dysfunction of MPP5a induced an invasive migration of epithelial cells. This adherens junctions remodeling pattern is frequently observed in zebrafish lens epithelial cells and neuroepithelial cells. The data identified an unrecognized MPP5a/Rab11 complex and described its essential role in guiding the apical polarization and zonula adherens formation in epithelial cells.

Lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy shows high potential for application in advanced nuclear systems such as lead-alloy-cooled fast reactors. However, high-temperature LBE liquid is prone to corrode the reference containment material, typically made of steel, through a process known as liquid metal corrosion. In this work, an extensive set of first-principles calculations was performed to investigate the diffusion behavior of steel alloy elements and O in liquid LBE. The results showed Bi atoms diffusing a little bit faster than Pb atoms, and the Ni atoms in steel being most likely to dissolve into the LBE. Compared to Cr atoms, Fe atoms were calculated to diffuse more slowly, and Ni atoms more rapidly. In the presence of Al and/or Si, Al–O and Si–O pairs were calculated to be more stable than Fe–O/Cr–O pairs and to be inclined to form protective stable Al/Si related oxides. The Ni–O distance and pair formation energy in LBE indicated the Ni–O pair to be inclined to decompose over a period of time. We expect these data to be used as indispensable information for understanding the dissolution and oxidation corrosion behavior of steels in liquid LBE.

In multichannel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) systems, Doppler centroid (DC) is an essential parameter for spectral reconstruction and image focusing. However, conventional DC estimator for stationary scene faces many problems in moving target with multichannel SAR, such as low sampling rate and channels selection. To estimate the baseband DC of moving target, a modified CDE method for multichannel SAR GMTI system is proposed in this paper. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.

In this paper, we present a simple and effective framework called Occlusion-adaptive Deep Networks (ODN) with the purpose of solving the occlusion problem for facial landmark detection. In this model, the occlusion probability of each position in high-level features are inferred by a distillation module that can be learnt automatically in the process of estimating the relationship between facial appearance and facial shape. The occlusion probability serves as the adaptive weight on high-level features to reduce the impact of occlusion and obtain clean feature representation. Nevertheless, the clean feature representation cannot represent the holistic face due to the missing semantic features. To obtain exhaustive and complete feature representation, it is vital that we leverage a low-rank learning module to recover lost features. Considering that facial geometric characteristics are conducive to the low-rank module to recover lost features, we propose a geometry-aware module to excavate geometric relationships between different facial components. Depending on the synergistic effect of three modules, the proposed network achieves better performance in comparison to state-of-the-art methods on challenging benchmark datasets.

Background: The exact pathogenesis of idiopathic choroidal neovascularization (ICNV) remains unclear. Cytokine-mediated inflammation has been thought to be involved in the pathophysiology of ICNV. The purpose of this study was to investigate serum cytokine profiles in patients with ICNV and to explore the relationship between serum cytokine levels and ICNV severity. Methods: This case-control study was conducted in 32 ICNV patients and 30 healthy volunteers. Clinical and demographic information was obtained from the medical data platform and the serum was analysed with a multiplex assay to determine the levels of seven cytokines: interleukin (IL)-2, IL-10, IL-15, IL-17, basic fibroblast growth factor (basic FGF), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Results: Serum levels of IL-2, IL-10, IL-17, basic FGF, and VEGF were elevated in ICNV patients compared to controls. Serum GM-CSF levels were positively related to central retinal thickness, and serum IL-17 levels were positively related to CNV lesion area. Conclusion: Serum inflammatory cytokines were significantly elevated in ICNV patients compared to controls. This suggests that systemic inflammation may play a critical role in the physiopathology of ICNV.

Breast cancer has become the most common cancer in women, and nontriple negative breast cancer (non-TNBC) accounts for 80-90% of all invasive breast cancers. Early detection, diagnosis, and treatment are considered key to a successful cure. Conventionally, breast imaging and needle core biopsy are used for detection and monitoring. However, small variations in volume might be ignored in imaging, and traditional biopsies are spatially and temporally limited, leading to a significant delay in cancer detection and thus prompting renewed focus on early and accurate diagnosis. In this article, we investigated whether there is an accurate molecule in peripheral blood that can help diagnose breast cancer. Similar to microRNAs, tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) have been reported to be involved in many pathological processes in breast cancer, but whether they can serve as candidate biomarkers for breast cancer remains unclear. Using high-throughput sequencing technology, we identified 4,021 differentially expressed tRFs in normal and breast cancer cell lines, and eight tRFs were selected to establish a signature as a predictive biomarker of non-TNBC. Furthermore, quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was performed to verify the expression of the signature and analyze the correlation between dysregulated tRFs and breast cancer. The results indicated that tDR-7816, tDR-5334, and tDR-4733 might be promising biomarkers. Through further bioinformatics analysis, we predicted that tDR-7816 influences the xenobiotic metabolic processes that support the oncogenesis of breast cancer. In summary, our results provide a rationale for using circulating tDR-7816 expression as a novel potential biomarker for the diagnosis of patients with early non-TNBC.

A non-interferometric phase retrieval method in the phase-modulated holographic data storage system is proposed. This method can not only avoid phase ambiguity issue with interferometric, but also increase the capacity by reducing media consumption. Iterative Fourier transform (IFT) algorithm is one of easiest non-interferometry methods. We choose to use IFT algorithm due to its compact and stable realized system and simple single-shot operation. Strong constraint conditions such as phase-only and embedded data which are known phase values of the certain positions on the encoded data page are provided to realize accurate and quick phase retrieval in the holographic data storage system. We demonstrated the phase retrieval process of the recorded 4-level phase pattern in the media experimentally. Besides, we can realize one-time Nyquist frequency recording which is the limitation of recording area by using the non-interferometric phase retrieval method and the periodicity of Fourier frequency spectrum. Therefore, the media consumption can be reduced by 35%. Eventually, we can increase storage capacity by at least 1.5 times.

Tumor microenvironments play critical regulatory roles in tumor growth. Although mouse cancer models have contributed to the understanding of human tumor biology, the effectiveness of mouse cancer models is limited by the inability of the models to accurately present humanized tumor microenvironments. Previously, a humanized breast cancer model in severe combined immunodeficiency mice was established, in which human breast cancer tissue was implanted subcutaneously, followed by injection of human breast cancer cells. It was demonstrated that breast cancer cells showed improved growth in the human mammary microenvironment compared with a conventional subcutaneous mouse model. In the present study, the novel mouse model and microarray technology was used to analyze changes in the expression of genes in breast cancer cells that are regulated by the human mammary microenvironment. Humanized breast and conventional subcutaneous mouse models were established, and orthotopic tumor cells were obtained from orthotopic tumor masses by primary culture. An expression microarray using Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip and database analyses were performed to investigate changes in gene expression between tumors from each microenvironment. A total of 94 genes were differentially expressed between the primary cells cultured from the humanized and conventional mouse models. Significant upregulation of genes that promote cell proliferation and metastasis or inhibit apoptosis, such as SH3-domain binding protein 5 (BTK-associated), sodium/chloride cotransporter 3 and periostin, osteoblast specific factor, and genes that promote angiogenesis, such as KIAA1618, was also noted. Other genes that restrain cell proliferation and accelerate cell apoptosis, including tripartite motif containing TRIM36 and NES1, were downregulated. The present results revealed differences in various aspects of tumor growth and metabolism between the two model groups and indicated the functional changes specific to the human mammary microenvironment.

Clutter suppression and motion parameter estimation are two of the essential issues of the signal processing in wide-area surveillance ground moving-target indication (WAS-GMTI) system. In this study, the authors propose and show how the iterative adaptive approach, which is a recently proposed non-parametric, weighted least-squares-based iterative adaptive processing approach, can be extended into multichannel WAS-GMTI system, in both ground clutter suppression and target parameter estimation. Since the proposed method does not need to estimate the interference covariance matrix from the secondary data, it has a major advantage when processing the data from non-homogeneous environments. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by both simulated experiments and real data processing.

Current algorithms for focusing a moving target usually adopt the quadratic approximation when expanding the range equation of the moving target. However, for a fast moving target, the cubic term of the range equation may lead to severe azimuth side-lobe asymmetry, which affects the quality of SAR image and thus degrades the recognition performance. Therefore, the cubic term cannot be ignored. In addition, motion parameters estimation is a key step for focusing the moving target, but the existing algorithms suffer from ambiguity, complex realisation, or heavy computation load while estimating the motion parameters of the fast moving target. To address this issue, this study proposes a novel algorithm for focusing the fast moving target and estimating its motion parameters. First, the cubic term of the range equation is kept and its impact on the imaging quality is analysed. Then, radial velocity estimation is converted into extracting the slope of the range walk trajectory, and the imaging quality of the fast moving target is improved by removing the effect of the cubic term. Finally, the Bi-Directional approach is utilised to estimate the along-track velocity with low computation load. Both simulated and real data are used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm.

Intractable cardiovascular diseases are leading causes of mortality around the world. Adult mammalian hearts have poor regenerative capacity and are not capable of self-repair after injury. Recent studies of cell-free therapeutics such as those designed to stimulate endogenous cardiac regeneration have uncovered new feasible therapeutic avenues for cardiac repair. The Hippo pathway, a fundamental pathway with pivotal roles in cell proliferation, survival and differentiation, has tremendous potential for therapeutic manipulation in cardiac regeneration. In this review, we summarize the most recent studies that have revealed the function of the Hippo pathway in heart regeneration and homeostasis. In particular, we discuss the molecular mechanisms of how the Hippo pathway maintains cardiac homeostasis by directing cardiomyocyte chromatin remodeling and regulating the cell-cell communication between cardiomyocytes and non-cardiomyocytes in the heart.

Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding was considered as one of the candidate technologies to achieve the box structure of test blanket module (TBM). In this paper, the effects of heat input on the microstructure and mechanical properties of multilayer TIG butt-welded China Low Activation Martensitic (CLAM) steel were investigated by microstructure observations, Vickers hardness, tensile and Charpy impact tests. The results showed that the microstructure of the weld metal (WM) were coarse quenched martensite and residual delta-ferrite. When the heat input value increased from 1.73 kJ/mm to 2.41 kJ/mm, the width of martensite laths increased slightly and the delta-ferrite content decreased firstly then increased. Moreover, the increasing heat input resulted in remarkable tempering effect on the previous layer of the WM by the following deposited layers. The transverse hardness distribution of the joints showed that softening occurred in the heat-affected zone (HAZ), and the hardness of WM decreased slightly as the heat input increased. The ultimate tensile strength values of the joints with various heat input were all higher than 630 MPa, and the rupture position located at the HAZ. Charpy impact toughness of the as-welded joints met the toughness criteria for the welded joint (≥27 J) of creep resistant 9Cr steel according to the standard of ISO-3580.

Er2O3 coating is one of the candidate tritium permeation barriers (TPB) to reduce tritium permeation and leakage in fusion reactors. A series of Er2O3 coatings were synthesized on China Low Activation Martensitic (CLAM) steel via sol-gel method, and systematic investigate the influence of synthesis parameters for on microstructure and properties of the Er2O3 coatings. The results showed that no cracks were observed in Er2O3 coatings as chosen 11 vol.% diethanolamine. The best heat treatment temperature could be thought 600 °C, in order to obtain a homogeneous and dense Er2O3 coating with high hardness, good crystallization and strong bonding to the substrate.

A novel algorithm of strong clutter suppression for spaceborne dual-channel SAR/GMTI is proposed in this paper. First, the adaptive two-dimensional (2D) channel calibration is performed to calibrate difference between channels. Then, the amplitude correction is performed cell by cell to balance channels amplitude. At last, the refined phase correction based on the selected strong clutter is performed to correct phase error between channels. Through the process, channel error is corrected. Clutter, especially strong clutter, is well suppressed. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified by GaoFen-3 SAR real data.

Steganographer detection task is to identify criminal users, who attempt to conceal confidential information by steganography methods, among a large number of innocent users. The significant challenge of the task is how to collect the evidences to identify the guilty user with suspicious images, which are embedded with secret messages generating by unknown steganography and payload. Unfortunately, existing methods for steganalysis were served for the binary classification. It makes them harder to classify the images with different kinds of payloads, especially when the payloads of images in test dataset have not been provided in advance. In this paper, we propose a novel steganographer detection method based on multiclass deep neural networks. In the training stage, the networks are trained to classify the images with six types of payloads. The networks can preserve even strengthen the weak stego signals from secret messages in much larger receptive filed by virtue of residual and dilated residual learning. In the inference stage, the learnt model is used to extract the discriminative features, which can capture the difference between guilty users and innocent users. A series of empirical experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves good performance in spatial and frequency domains even though the embedding payload is low. The proposed method achieves a higher level of robustness of inter-steganographic algorithms and can provide a possible solution to address the payload mismatch problem

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of epithelial breast malignancy, and chemoresistance is the major obstacle for cancer therapy. TNBC is associated with a hypoxic phenotype, and hypoxia contributes to the chemoresistance in breast cancer. Transfer RNA-derived fragments (tDRs) represent a new class of small noncoding RNAs that can be induced specifically by hypoxia. Here, we conducted a comparative analysis of the aberrant expression of tDRs in hypoxia-treated TNBC cell lines through the use of high-throughput sequencing technique. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to validate the differently expressed tDRs between two samples. The results showed that tDR-0009 [derived from transfer RNA (tRNA)Gly-GCC-1-1 ] and tDR-7336 (derived from tRNA Gly-GCC-1-2 ) were significantly upregulated when the SUM-1315 cell lines were stimulated by hypoxia. Gene ontology (GO) and pathway analysis indicated that these two upregulated tDRs were mainly involved in maintenance of stem cell population and cellular response to interleukin (IL)-6, which may be the underlying mechanism of hypoxia-induced tDRs that facilitate the doxorubicin resistance in TNBC. The protein-protein interaction network for predicted target genes established by the STRING database manifested that tDR-0009 (tDR-7336) might be involved in the chemoresistance of TNBC via regulation of the activation of phosphorylation of STAT3. In summary, our study provided a comprehensive analysis of the deviant expression profiling of tDRs in hypoxia-treated TNBC cell lines. Specific tDRs may be a new class of regulatory factors involved in the hypoxia-induced chemoresistance in TNBC, and they could serve as potential biomarkers and intervention targets.

This paper proposes a super-resolution Doppler beam sharpening (DBS) imaging method in the wide-area surveillance mode based on the iterative adaptive approach (IAA). DBS imaging is an effective technique to improve the azimuth resolution in the wide-area surveillance mode. However, the conventional DBS imaging, which is realized by fast Fourier transform (FFT) method, suffers from poor resolutions and high sidelobes. In this paper, the IAA algorithm is introduced to replace the FFT method in the DBS imaging, in order to enhance resolution and reduce sidelobe levels. Both simulation and real data processing have validated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The effect of the buffering capacity of wort on a beer fermentation and the contribution of pH, phosphate, amino acids and organic acids to the buffering capacity of wort were studied. The beer pH depended on the buffering capacity of the corresponding wort and an increase in the buffering capacity of the wort could prolong the time of diacetyl conversion. The higher the wort pH was, the larger the wort buffering capacity. Phosphate was not an effective buffer at the pH of wort. Glutamic acid, aspartic acid and histidine gave weak contributions to the buffering capacity of wort, and the total contribution of these three amino acids was

When using clutter suppression interferometry (CSI) algorithm to perform signal processing in a three-channel wide-area surveillance radar system, the primary concern is to effectively suppress the ground clutter. However, a portion of moving target’s energy is also lost in the process of channel cancellation, which is often neglected in conventional applications. In this paper, we firstly investigate the two-dimensional (radial velocity dimension and squint angle dimension) residual amplitude of moving targets after channel cancellation with CSI algorithm. Then, a new approach is proposed to increase the two-dimensional detection probability of moving targets by reserving the maximum value of the three channel cancellation results in non-uniformly spaced channel system. Besides, theoretical expression of the false alarm probability with the proposed approach is derived in the paper. Compared with the conventional approaches in uniformly spaced channel system, simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the two-dimensional detection probability of CSI algorithm is studied.

Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays a pivotal role in diverse aspects of development and postnatal physiology. Perturbation of Hh signaling and activation of GLI1 (glioma-associated oncogene 1), a dedicated transcription factor for Hh pathway, are highly associated with several cancers, such as medulloblastoma and basal cell carcinoma. Dynamic and precise control of GLI1 activity is thus important to ensure proper homeostasis and tumorigenesis. Here we show that MEKK2 (MAP3K2) and MEKK3 (MAP3K3) inhibit GLI1 transcriptional activity and oncogenic function through phosphorylation on multiple Ser/Thr sites of GLI1, which reduces GLI1 protein stability, DNA-binding ability, and increases the association of GLI1 with SUFU. Interestingly, MEKK2 and MEKK3 are responsible for FGF2-mediated inhibition on Hh signaling. Moreover, expression of MEKK2 and MEKK3 inhibits medulloblastoma cell proliferation and negatively correlates with Hh pathway activity in medulloblastoma clinical samples. Together, these findings reveal a novel noncanonical GLI1 regulation and provide a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of cancers with aberrant Hh pathway activation, such as medulloblastoma.

Steganographer detection problem is to identify culprit actors, who try to hide confidential information with steganography, among many innocent actors. This task has significant challenges, including various embedding steganographic algorithms and payloads, which are usually avoided in steganalysis under laboratory conditions. In this paper, we propose a novel steganographer detection model based on deep residual network. The proposed method strengthens the signal coming from secret messages, which is beneficial for the discrimination between guilty actors and innocent actors. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed model achieves very low detection error rates in steganographer detection task. It also outperforms the classical rich model method and other CNN based method. Moreover, the model shows the robustness of inter-steganographic algorithms and inter-payloads.

A molecular dynamics study has been performed to investigate the generation and evolution of damage states in irradiated β-SiC at high temperature. It is found that most of the C antisites (SiC) ar...

This paper proposed a robust method based on the definition of Mahalanobis distance to track ground moving target. The feature and the geometry of airborne ground moving target tracking systems are studied at first. Based on this feature, the assignment relation of time-nearby target is calculated via Mahalanobis distance, and then the corresponding transformation formula is deduced. The simulation results show the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) have wide promising applications. However, the composition design of MPEAs is challenging due to their vast options and complexity. To narrow down the composition options for MPEAs, a quick screening approach based on a two-parameter method was proposed for the MPEA design. Two thermodynamic parameters of the entropy-enthalpy difference ζ and the entropy-enthalpy quotient Ωmod were defined based on a new enthalpy parameter which was proposed as the summation of the weighted enthalpy modulus |ΔH|sum. The phase selection rules for solid solution MPEAs were statistically summarized from ~200 experimental data. The two-parameter method based on these two parameters and phase selection rules can well classify the conventional steels, high-entropy steels, high-entropy alloys and amorphous alloys. The quick screening approach developed through the two-parameter method together with Monte Carlo sampling method was applied to the alloy systems of (CoCrFeMnNi)random, Fe50(CoCrMnNi)random and Fe50(CoCrMn)random to predict the optimal compositions with stable solid solution phases from millions of options. The theoretical prediction was validated by experimental results. This quick screening approach is applicable to different kinds of MPEAs and can facilitate the research and development of MPEAs as well as other alloys with stable solid solution phases. Keywords: Multi-principal element alloys, Solid solution, Quick screening approach, Composition design

Reduced-activation Fe-Mn-Cr alloys have been regarded as the candidate structural materials for advanced nuclear systems. The phase stability of one alloy at high temperature is critically required for its application. In this work, a series of phase transformations in a new type reduced-activation duplex alloy Fe52Mn30Cr18 under isothermal heat treatment were investigated. The ferrite phase in the alloy converted to χ phase after the alloy treated at 550°C for 3 h. The cube-on-cube orientation relationship was found between χ phase and the original ferrite phase with the lattice constant ratio of 3:1. The χ phase was eutectoid decomposed into austenite and σ phases with lamellar structures due to the diffusion of Cr atoms at temperatures above 800 °C. According to the evolution of the crystal structure and magnetic properties, the transformation from ferrite to χ phase was considered as atomic rearrangement in the adjacent unit cells, accompanied by the disappearance of ferromagnetism in the alloy. The microhardness results indicated that the χ phase formation could be one of the potential reasons for the intermediate temperature embrittlement in the high Cr Fe-based alloys.

Channel balancing is one of the crucial steps to obtain a satisfactory result in multichannel moving target detection. Therefore many algorithms have been proposed to realise channel balancing in multichannel synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-ground moving target indication (GMTI) systems, such as an adaptive two-dimensional calibration algorithm, linear fitting algorithm and eigen-decomposition algorithm. However, all of these aforementioned algorithms have some small defects in certain conditions, when used in the real data of multichannel wide area surveillance (WAS)–GMTI systems. The small defects can increase the false alarm probability, which is undesirable in moving target detection. In this study, after the detailed analysis about the interference phase in the wide-area surveillance mode, a novel channel balancing algorithm is proposed to perform channel balancing in multichannel WAS–GMTI systems. The new algorithm mainly concentrates on the balancing of systematic azimuthal phase errors. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated when compared with other typical channel balancing algorithms in Monte Carlo simulations and real data processing.

Reduced-dimension space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques are often used in multichannel wide-area surveillance airborne systems to suppress ground clutter. However, it is well known that their performance degrades to some extent in non-homogeneous environments because of inaccurate estimation of the interference covariance matrix from secondary data. In this study, the authors propose an algorithm which applies Kalman filtering to suppress ground clutter based on the data model of radar echoes from multichannel wide-area surveillance systems. Since the proposed algorithm does not need to estimate the interference covariance matrix, it has a major advantage when processing the data from non-homogeneous environments. Simulated data from phased-array multifunctional imaging radar (PAMIR) system and real data from an X-band wide-area surveillance system are used to validate the proposed algorithm. The results show that the new algorithm works well in both radar systems.

SNIP1 (Smad nuclear interacting protein 1) is a transcription repressor for the TGF-β and NF-κB signaling pathways through disrupting the recruitment of co-activator p300. However, it is unclear how the functions of SNIP1 in the TGF-β signaling pathway are controlled. Our present studies show that SNIP1 is covalently modified by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) in vitro and in vivo at three lysine sites: Lys5, Lys30, and Lys108, with Lys30 being the major SUMO modification site. SUMOylation of SNIP1 is enhanced by SUMO E3 ligase PIAS proteins and inhibited by SUMO proteases SENP1/2. Furthermore, we find that SUMOylation of SNIP1 attenuates its inhibitory effect in TGF-β signaling because the SUMO-conjugated form of SNIP1 exhibits impaired ability to disrupt the formation of Smad complex and the interaction between p300 and Smads. Subsequently, SUMOylation of SNIP1 leads to the loss of SNIP1-mediated inhibition on expression of the TGF-β target genes PAI-1 and MMP2 and eventually enhances TGF-β-regulated cell migration and invasion.

Clutter suppression is a key step for efficient detection of moving targets and accurate estimation of their parameters. Current clutter suppression approaches are available, in the case that clutter echoes of each channel are free of Doppler ambiguity. However, for multichannel high-resolution wide-swath (HRWS) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, the received echoes of each channel suffer Doppler ambiguity and thus current clutter suppression approaches may not perform well. To address this issue, the signal models of stationary and moving target with Doppler ambiguity are derived. By analyzing the signal models, this paper proposes a clutter suppression approach for multichannel SAR system with the capability of HRWS imaging. Simulated results and real data results both demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

In spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), moving targets are almost buried in ground clutter due to the wide clutter Doppler spectrum and the restricted pulse repetition frequency (PRF), which increases the difficulty of moving target detection. Clutter suppression is one of the key issues in the spaceborne SAR moving target indicator operation. In this paper, we describe the clutter suppression principle and analyze the influence of amplitude and phase error on clutter suppression. In the following, a novel dual-channel SAR clutter suppression algorithm is proposed, which is suitable for the Gaofen-3(GF-3) SAR sensor. The proposed algorithm consists of three technique steps, namely adaptive two-dimensional (2D) channel calibration, refined amplitude error correction and refined phase error correction. After channel error is corrected by these procedures, the clutter component, especially a strong clutter component, can be well suppressed. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified by GF-3 SAR real data which demonstrates the ground moving-target indication (GMTI) capability of GF-3 SAR sensor.

Since the introduction of computer-controlled spatial light modulators (SLMs), holographic optical tweezers have become an important tool for dynamic parallel optical manipulation. In this paper we clarify the usefulness of a new configuration for optical trapping that creates light patterns using the combination of a diffractive optical element (DOE) and an SLM. This configuration not only enables the use of the higher part of the SLM’s diffraction efficiency curve, because a simple hologram can be chosen for the SLM, but also achieves three-dimensional dynamic optical manipulation over a large spatial range. By switching blaze-like holograms displayed on the SLM, we demonstrated simultaneous transportation of three 6-μm-diameter polystyrene beads over a range of 90 μm in the vertical direction and 37.5 μm in the horizontal direction. Compared with the same manipulation executed using only the SLM, the range of this method is extended four-fold in the vertical direction and three-fold in the horizontal direction.

Wide area surveillance (WAS) radar can monitor a large area repeatedly and acquires information of moving targets appeared in interesting area. In this paper, a novel algorithm of moving targets detection and parameters estimation is proposed for dual-channel WAS radar. The paper analyzes parameter ambiguous problem, and presents the corresponding solution. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by both the simulated data and real data.

Variable-temperature (72–20 °C) studies of Raman spectra (3100–800 cm −1 ) and thermal analysis of multicomponent paraffin wax have been carried out. The disorder–order transition under liquid–solid transition was observed and their temperature ranges were obtained through the S lateral order parameter as a function of temperature. From 56 to 43 °C, the paraffin undergoes a conformational state transition of non-extended chain state (NECS) to extended chain state (ECS). The enthalpy and entropy change for the transition obtained by van’t Hoff analysis were 214.286 ± 21 kJ/mol and 0.661 ± 0.066 kJ/mol/K, respectively. The enthalpy determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was 52.165 ± 5.2 kJ/mol, which is smaller than the van’t Hoff enthalpy due to larger effective non-extended chain state. The variation of Raman spectra with decreasing temperature presents the structure evolution and molecular motion during the crystallization of paraffin wax.

During the past decades, many efforts have been made in mimicking the clinical progress of human cancer in mouse models. Previously, we developed a human breast tissue-derived (HB) mouse model. Theoretically, it may mimic the interactions between "species-specific" mammary microenvironment of human origin and human breast cancer cells. However, detailed evidences are absent. The present study (in vivo, cellular, and molecular experiments) was designed to explore the regulatory role of human mammary microenvironment in the progress of human breast cancer cells. Subcutaneous (SUB), mammary fat pad (MFP), and HB mouse models were developed for in vivo comparisons. Then, the orthotopic tumor masses from three different mouse models were collected for primary culture. Finally, the biology of primary cultured human breast cancer cells was compared by cellular and molecular experiments. Results of in vivo mouse models indicated that human breast cancer cells grew better in human mammary microenvironment. Cellular and molecular experiments confirmed that primary cultured human breast cancer cells from HB mouse model showed a better proliferative and anti-apoptotic biology than those from SUB to MFP mouse models. Meanwhile, primary cultured human breast cancer cells from HB mouse model also obtained the migratory and invasive biology for "species-specific" tissue metastasis to human tissues. Comprehensive analyses suggest that "species-specific" mammary microenvironment of human origin better regulates the biology of human breast cancer cells in our humanized mouse model of breast cancer, which is more consistent with the clinical progress of human breast cancer.

Reduced-dimension space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques are good choices in multichannel wide-area surveillance airborne systems to suppress ground clutter. However, their performance often degrades in nonhomogeneous environments due to the inaccurate estimation of the interference covariance matrix from the secondary data. In this paper, combing with Kalman filtering, we propose a novel algorithm to suppress ground clutter based on the data model of radar echoes from multichannel wide-area surveillance systems. Since the proposed algorithm does not need to estimate the interference covariance matrix, it has a big advantage when processing the data from nonhomogeneous environments. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated by the simulated data from PAMIR system.

The paper proposes a nonparametric method for ground moving-target indication (GMTI) using along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which does not require the theoretical derivations of the joint probability density function of the interferometric magnitude and phase for both homogeneous and heterogeneous clutter. In the proposed approach, a best-fit curve is set as the detection threshold to separate moving targets from clutter and noise. A special technique, termed sliding-window technique, is then employed to reduce residual clutter and noise. The validity of the method has been demonstrated by the experiments performed on simulated spaceborne SAR data.

Mouse models play an irreplaceable role in the in vivo research of human gastric cancer. In this study, we developed a novel human Gastric tissue-derived Orthotopic and Metastatic (GOM) mouse model of human gastric cancer, in which the human normal gastric tissues were implanted subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice to create a human gastric microenvironment. Then, human gastric cancer cells were injected into the implants. GOM model could mimic the interactions between human gastric microenvironment and human gastric cancer cells, which help exhibit the real characteristics of tumor cells, and finally mimic the clinical-like tumor proliferation and metastases of human beings.