Search

Precise quantification of vascular developments in Zebrafish requires continuous in-vivo 3D imaging. Here we employed a bi-directional light-sheet illumination microscope to characterize the development process of Zebrafish’s intersegmental vessels. A Virtual Reality-based method was used to measure the lengths of intersegmental vessels (ISVs). The quantified growth rates of typical ISVs can be plotted, and unusual growth of some specific vessels was also observed.

The use of flexible, self-healing conductive hydrogels as a type of typical electronic skin with the function of transmitting sensory signals has attracted wide attention in the field of biomaterials. In this study, composite hydrogels based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), gelatin (GEL), oxidized sodium alginate (OSA), graphene oxide (GO), and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were successfully prepared. The hydrogen and imine bonding of the composite hydrogels gives them excellent self-healing properties. Their self-healing properties restore 68% of their breaking strength and over 95% of their electrical conductivity. The addition of GO and SWNTs enables the PGO-GS hydrogels to achieve a compressive modulus and conductivity of 42.2 kPa and 29.6 mS/m, which is 8.2 times and 1.5 times that of pure PGO, respectively. Furthermore, the PGO-GS hydrogels can produce profound feedback signals in response to deformation caused by external forces and human movements such as finger flexion and speech. In addition, the PGO-GS hydrogels exhibit superior biocompatibility compared to PGO. All of these results indicate that the PGO-GS hydrogels have great potential with respect to future applications in the field of electronic skin. Published version

Supplemental Document

The fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is considered the leading cause of death in immunocompromised patients. Despite numerous investigations concerning its molecular epidemiology, there are only a few studies addressing the impacts of varying factors on genotype-phenotype correlations. It remains largely unknown whether genetic and environmental variabilities among isolates from different sources may have dramatic consequences on virulence. In this study, we analyzed 105 Chinese C. neoformans isolates, including 54 from HIV-infected patients, 44 from HIV-uninfected individuals and 7 from a natural environment, to investigate factors influencing the outcome of C. neoformans infection. MLST analysis clearly identified sequence type (ST) 5 as the prevalent sequence type in all clinical isolates and interestingly, genotypic diversities were observed in isolates from both HIV-uninfected individual and natural environment but not those from HIV-infected patients. Moreover, we found that compared to those from HIV-infected patients, the isolates from HIV-uninfected individuals exhibited enhanced virulence-associated traits including significantly elevated capsule production and melanin formation, increases in survival in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), less effective uptake by host phagocytes, and higher mortality in a mouse model of cryptococcosis. Consistently, pathogenic phenotypes were associated with CD4 counts of patients, implying environmental impact on within-host C. neoformans virulence. Importantly, a large-scale whole-genome sequencing analysis revealed that genomic variations within genes related to specific functions may act as a vital driving force of host intrinsic virulence evolution. Taken together, our results support a strong genotype-phenotype correlation suggesting that the pathogenic evolution of C. neoformans could be heavily affected by both genetic and environmental factors.

With the continuous service time, long-span track cable-stayed bridges are inevitably affected by material time-varying and fatigue load periodic effects, and permanent down-deflection phenomenon is inevitable. The down-deflection of the main girder would lead to the irregularity of bridge deck, which would directly affect the running comfort and safety of the train. The permanent deformation control value should be set reasonably. In this paper, based on the research and analysis of domestic and foreign codes and standards, the evaluation criteria for the service performance of long-span track cable-stayed bridges was determined, aiming at the problem of deformation classification control in the service stage of the long-span track cable-stayed bridge. The limit of permanent deformation of main girder was analyzed, and the decision processing was put forward and applied to an engineering example. According to the vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis, the maximum vertical deformation safety control value in the service stage is L/400, and the pre-warning control value is L/500. With the non-permanent deformation value β deducted, the permanent deformation safety control value is L/400- β, and the pre-warning control value is L/500- β. The rationality of the grading control limit of permanent deformation based on service performance analysis has been verified by application analysis.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has become a widely used tool for insight into biomedical challenges due to its rapid, long-term, and super-resolution (SR) imaging. However, artifacts that often appear in SIM images have long brought into question its fidelity, and might cause misinterpretation of biological structures. We present HiFi-SIM, a high-fidelity SIM reconstruction algorithm, by engineering the effective point spread function (PSF) into an ideal form. HiFi-SIM can effectively reduce commonly seen artifacts without loss of fine structures and improve the axial sectioning for samples with strong background. In particular, HiFi-SIM is not sensitive to the commonly used PSF and reconstruction parameters; hence, it lowers the requirements for dedicated PSF calibration and complicated parameter adjustment, thus promoting SIM as a daily imaging tool.

To investigate the characteristics and formation mechanism of grinding-induced burns and cracks in 20CrMnTi steel gear, diverse distribution characteristics including metallographic structure, Micr...

In order to analyze the influence of the stiffness change of the long-span track bridge on running safety of the train, a bridge and train analysis model, based on Chongqing Egongyan track bridge, is established to simulate and evaluate the spatial coupling dynamic response of the wind–train–bridge system through stiffness change and to propose the reasonable stiffness limit range of the long-span track suspension bridge. The results show that the dynamic characteristics of the bridge are good, and the safety of train operation and ride comfort meet the requirements when the vertical stiffness is 1/300–1/500 and the lateral stiffness is 1/600–1/1200; the dynamic response of the bridge and the running safety of the train are significantly sensitive to the stiffness change of the bridge, especially when the wind speed is 25 m/s and the vertical stiffness is 1/300, at this time, the derailment coefficient and the wheel load reduction rate reach 0.72 and 0.54, respectively, which are close to the limit standard, indicating that there are some potential safety hazards in train operation.

Supplemental document