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Mixed-matrix membranes containing both two-dimensional (ns-CuBDC) and three-dimensional (ZIF-8) metal-organic frameworks were fabricated to investigate their potential capabilities in CO2/CH4 separation. The mixed-matrix membrane containing ns-CuBDC alone was capable of improving CO2/CH4 selectivity whereas the mixed-matrix membrane containing ZIF-8 alone ensured improved CO2 permeability. However, by combining both fillers in a mixed-matrix membrane aimed at tailoring the CO2/CH4 separation properties, both CO2 permeability and CO2/CH4selectivity were successfully improved by 16.6% and 30.5%, respectively, which indicates a highly desirable method of performance enhancement. Analysis of solubility-diffusivity in the mixed-matrix membranes revealed that the use of both fillers could improve both solubility selectivity and diffusivity selectivity. Our overall results imply that the separation properties of gas separation membranes can be readily adjusted to meet the requirements of real-world applications by the combined use of two fillers with different geometries. MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Accepted version

Rationale: Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) have markers of chronic inflammation, but the mechanism of inflammation and its relevance to patient survival are unknown. Objective: To assess the relationship between iron, inflammation, and early death in SCD. Methods and Results: Using peripheral blood mononuclear cell transcriptome profile hierarchical clustering, we classified 24 patients and 10 controls in clusters with significantly different expression of genes known to be regulated by iron. Subsequent gene set enrichment analysis showed that many genes associated with the high iron cluster were involved in the toll-like receptor system (TLR4, TLR7, and TLR8) and inflammasome complex pathway (NLRP3, NLRC4, and CASP1). Quantitative PCR confirmed this classification and showed that ferritin light chain, TLR4, and interleukin-6 expression were >100-fold higher in patients than in controls ( P P P Conclusions: Gene expression markers of high intracellular iron in patients with SCD are associated with markers of inflammation and mortality. The results support a model in which intracellular iron promotes inflammatory pathways, such as the TLR system and the inflammasome, identifying important new pathways for additional investigation.

Polyelectrolyte complex membranes were prepared from poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylonitrile)s and imidazolium-based polycations via a combination of blend film casting and ammonia solution immersion procedures. The membranes were free-standing and tough, showing excellent mechanical properties (with tensile strength of 6.71–23.7 MPa and elongation at break of 15–59%). Hierarchically structured nanopores were formed in the membranes during the ammonia soaking step, due to NH3-triggered –COOH deprotonation and in situ ionic crosslinking with polycations. Zeta potential measurements indicated that the membranes were negatively charged under neutral conditions. The membranes exhibited moderate rejection to salts in the order of Na2SO4 > NaCl > MgCl2, but high rejection to methyl orange (>99.9%).

A novel strategy for fabricating a Cu2+ sensor based on rhodamine B hydrazide (RBH)-immobilized graphene oxide (GO) was reported. The thiol-modified Au electrode was functionalized by carboxyl functionalized GO through intermolecular interactions, followed by chemical bonding with RBH. The developed nanocomposite was used as an electrochemical sensor for detecting Cu2+ in aqueous solution using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis with a detection limit of 0.061 nM within the range from 0.1 to 50 nM. Furthermore, the interference from potentially interfering ions such as Hg2+, Ag+, Cr2+, Fe2+, Pb2+, Ba2+, Mn2+, Co2+, and Ni2+ associated with Cu2+ analysis could be effectively inhibited. In addition, the developed Cu2+ sensor could be reproduced up to 10 cycles. In this approach, the fluorescent probe RBH can be replaced by other fluorescein derivatives which could identify the corresponding ions, which makes the approach a widely applicable strategy for metal ion detection.

Ethephon is a plant growth regulator and is often applied in the process of fruit growth. It could result in considerable inhibition of cholinesterase in blood plasma and erythrocytes and is very harmful to human beings on excessive consumption. Nanocomposites from polyaniline and stannic oxide (SnO2@PANI) were synthesized and developed as the electrode material for detecting ethephon. Herein, SnO2 nanoparticles were prepared by the method of liquid phase precipitation. Afterwards, the as-prepared SnO2 nanoparticles were mixed with the aniline polymerization system to form the SnO2@PANI nanocomposite. The basic chemical components of the fabricated sensor were characterized in detail using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that the developed SnO2@PANI nanocomposite exhibits good electrochemical performance with relatively low charge-transfer resistance. Compared with the pristine SnO2 and PANI, ethephon preferred to adsorb onto the SnO2@PANI nanocomposite surface because of the synergic interaction between the two components of SnO2 and PANI. The electrochemical impedance spectra illustrated that the fabricated ethephon sensor had excellent sensitivity, with a detection limit of 4.76 pg mL−1 within the range from 0.01 to 5 ng mL−1. Moreover, the developed electrochemical biosensor exhibits good selectivity and stability. All of these good performances provide a promising tool to detect illegal food additives.

Be aware enough of the fact that performance gap between CPU and memory, employing novel memory techniques in embedded systems is a feasible way to reduce the performance gap. For MPSoC which is equipped with SRAM and STTRAM based hybrid SPMs, data can be effectively parallel accessed. This paper explores data allocation, task assignment and scheduling on MPSoC with SRAM and STT-RAM based hybrid SPMs. We proposed a mixed integer quadratically constrained program(MIQCP) formulations and a heuristic method (HA) to generates optimal and near optimal data allocation, task assignment, and scheduling solution. Experimental results show that MIQCP and HA can reduce 32.6% and 20.1% schedule length on average.

The utility of autologous induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapies for tissue regeneration depends on reliable production of immunologically silent functional iPSC derivatives. However, rejection of autologous iPSC-derived cells has been reported, although the mechanism underlying rejection is largely unknown. We hypothesized that de novo mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which has far less reliable repair mechanisms than chromosomal DNA, might produce neoantigens capable of eliciting immune recognition and rejection. Here we present evidence in mice and humans that nonsynonymous mtDNA mutations can arise and become enriched during reprogramming to the iPSC stage, long-term culture and differentiation into target cells. These mtDNA mutations encode neoantigens that provoke an immune response that is highly specific and dependent on the host major histocompatibility complex genotype. Our results reveal that autologous iPSCs and their derivatives are not inherently immunologically inert for autologous transplantation and suggest that iPSC-derived products should be screened for mtDNA mutations.

Background Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) often progresses to poor health outcomes in lung transplant recipients (LTRs). This, combined with the relatively insensitive clinical tools used for its diagnosis (spirometry, histopathology) led us to determine whether clinical AMR is diagnosed significantly later than its pathologic onset. In this study, we leveraged the high sensitivity of donor-derived cell-free DNA (ddcfDNA), a novel genomic tool, to detect early graft injury after lung transplantation. Methods We adjudicated AMR and acute cellular rejection (ACR) in 157 LTRs using the consensus criteria of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT). We assessed the kinetics of allograft injury in relation to ACR or AMR using both clinical criteria (decline in spirometry from baseline) and molecular criteria (ddcfDNA); percent ddcfDNA was quantitated via shotgun sequencing. We used a mixed-linear model to assess the relationship between and ddcfDNA levels and donor-specific antibodies (DSA) in AMR + LTRs. Results Compared with ACR, AMR episodes ( n = 42) were associated with significantly greater allograft injury when assessed by both spirometric (0.1 liter vs −0.6 liter, p 0.01) and molecular (ddcfDNA) analysis (1.1% vs 5.4%, p 0.001). Allograft injury detected by ddcfDNA preceded clinical AMR diagnosis by a median of 2.8 months. Within the same interval, spirometry or histopathology did not reveal findings of allograft injury or dysfunction. Elevated levels of ddcfDNA before clinical diagnosis of AMR were associated with a concurrent rise in DSA levels. Conclusion Diagnosis of clinical AMR in LTRs lags behind DSA-associated molecular allograft injury as assessed by ddcfDNA.

Background Heart failure preceded by hypertrophy is a leading cause of death, and sex differences in hypertrophy are well known, although the basis for these sex differences is poorly understood. Methods and Results This study used a systems biology approach to investigate mechanisms underlying sex differences in cardiac hypertrophy. Male and female mice were treated for 2 and 3 weeks with angiotensin II to induce hypertrophy. Sex differences in cardiac hypertrophy were apparent after 3 weeks of treatment. RNA sequencing was performed on hearts, and sex differences in mRNA expression at baseline and following hypertrophy were observed, as well as within‐sex differences between baseline and hypertrophy. Sex differences in mRNA were substantial at baseline and reduced somewhat with hypertrophy, as the mRNA differences induced by hypertrophy tended to overwhelm the sex differences. We performed an integrative analysis to identify mRNA networks that were differentially regulated in the 2 sexes by hypertrophy and obtained a network centered on PPAR α (peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor α). Mouse experiments further showed that acute inhibition of PPAR α blocked sex differences in the development of hypertrophy. Conclusions The data in this study suggest that PPAR α is involved in the sex‐dimorphic regulation of cardiac hypertrophy.

Opinion mining focuses on analyzing opinions in documents. Existing most algorithms for mining opinion either are machine-only, leaving plenty of confused puzzles due to lacking human background knowledge, or using opinion dictionary from domain experts. The latter is expensive and hard to scale. In this paper, we propose a novel approach RULING (conveRging hUman knowLedge opInion miNinG) for opinion mining, where human include both the crowd and the experts. Firstly, we propose a method for combining expert knowledge with the machine learning method. Then we use the prediction result to find out the hard item, and classify them using crowdsourcing. This method can scale better than the previous methods and get a better result. Experimental results demonstrate our RULING approach outperforms related proposals in terms of classification performance.

This paper presents a stable double-wireless wearable-band platform that can detect hand gesture using a wearable wireless sensor platform with a digital accelerometer. The real-time monitoring and control system utilizes an MCU, a Bluetooth transceiver, and a commercial three-axis, digital output MEMS accelerometer. It is a fairly recent research development to allow the user to specify desired double hand postures for controlling a variety of robotic devices. Compared with a single wearable band, double wearable bands can identify more gestures with improved stability. To detect the user's hand movements, a 3D virtual environment is created via a double wearable band controller. In the system, the defined two-hand postures also allow the user to add control elements to various applications, which bridge the gap between humans and the systems.

Two-dimensional (2-D) CuBDC nanosheets (ns-CuBDC) with high-aspect-ratios were deliberately paired with polymers possessing high free volumes to fabricate high performance gas separation membranes. Owing to the molecular sieving effect of the filler, a small ns-CuBDC loading (2-4 wt%) could significantly improve the CO2/CH4 selectivities of membranes, resulting in performances that surpass the upper bound limit for polymer membranes.

Along with the popularization of smart mobile devices and the rapid development of wireless networks, a new class of crowdsourcing, termed with spatial crowdsourcing, is drawing much attention, which enables workers to perform spatial tasks based on their positions. In this paper, we study an important spatial crowdsourcing problem, namely information based maximum task matching (IG-MTM), in which each spatial task needs to be performed before its expiration time and workers are dynamically moving. The goal of IG-MTM problem is to maximize the number of spatial tasks that are assigned to workers while satisfying the quality requirement of collected answers. We first define this problem, and then two approximation approaches are proposed, namely greedy and extremum algorithms. Subsequently, in order to improve time efficiency, we propose an optimization methodology. Through extensive experiments on both real-world and synthetic datasets, we evaluate the performance of our proposed approaches.

To aggregate opinions on aspects of entities mentioned in large-scale online reviews, it is important to automatically extract aspects of different granularities, identify associated opinions, especially aspect-specific opinions, and classify sentiment polarity. Recently, various topic models are proposed to process some of these tasks, but there is little work available to do all simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a Joint Aspect-Based Sentiment Topic (JABST) model to jointly extracting multi-grain aspects and opinions, which addresses all the tasks mentioned above. JABST models aspect, opinion, sentiment polarity and granularity simultaneously. To better separate opinion and aspect words, we propose JABST-ME, in which a maximum entropy (ME) classifier is applied to extend JABST. We evaluated the models on reviews of electronic devices and restaurants qualitatively and quantitatively. The experimental results show that the proposed models outperform state-of-the-art baselines.

A novel Tb(III) complex-based time-resolved luminescent probe, BBPNA-(DO3A-Tb3+)(2) (L), was designed and synthesized for the recognition of Cu2+ and sulfide ions in aqueous solutions. The luminescent probe L was efficiently quenched by Cu2+ and displayed "on-off" type luminescence change towards Cu2+. Once combined with Cu2+ to form the non-luminescent L-Cu complex, the L-Cu complex could serve as an "off-on" probe for sulfide ions due to the high affinity of sulfide ions towards Cu2+. In the presence of S2-, the L-Cu complex reacted with S2- to cause the release of the Cu2+ and turn on the luminescence of L again. The rebuilding of luminescence was highly selective to S2- over other common anions, which allowed L function as an "on-off-on" probe for Cu2+ and S2- alternately. Especially, the luminescence lifetime of the probe was about 1.91 ms, much longer than most organic fluorophores. Due to the long luminescence lifetime of the probe L, the probe could be used for time-resolved luminescence measurements to eliminate the interferences from autofluorescence and scattering lights and significantly to improve the signal-to-noise for detection. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Despite the high toxicity of mercury (Hg), it has broad-ranging applications such as in thermometers and batteries. Consequently, serious environmental pollution is inevitable. In this study, we prepared graphene nanostructures used as highly sensitive and selective DNA sensors for the determination of Hg2+ ions. The sensors consisted of multiple layers of nanostructured plasma-polymerized allylamine (PPAA) and nanosheets of conductive graphene. After immobilizing the probe DNA onto the sensitive layer and upon introducing the target analyte, Hg2+ ions became intercalated into the DNA poly-ion complex membrane based on T-Hg2+-T coordination chemistry. Experimental results revealed that the frequency variation of the quartz chip of our system increased with increased Hg2+ level in the sample and had limits of detection of 0.031 and 0.017 nM determined by QCM and electrochemical measurements, respectively. The strategy afforded high selectivity of Hg2+ against other interfering metal ions. In addition, the developed DNA sensor for the determination of Hg2+ ions could be reproduced up to 10 cycles at approximately 88% recovery.

A series of poly(arylene ether sulfone) containing bulky imidazole groups (PSf-Im-x) have been successfully synthesized based on a novel monomer 2,2′-bis-(2-ethyl-4-methyl-imidazole-1-ylmethyl)-biphenyl-4,4′-diol (EMIPO). After quaternized by n-bromobutane, these polymers are evaluated for alkaline anion exchange membranes (AEMs). The functional group, 2-ethyl-3-butyl-4-methyl-imidazolium, is employed in these new polymers for reason that attaching bulky groups around the imidazolium ring reduces the access of OH− to imidazolium, which enhances the alkaline stability of the membranes. The membrane with an IEC value of 2.07 possesses ionic (OH−) conductivity of 0.014 S cm−1 at 30 °C and 80% of the ionic conductivity is maintained after treatment in 1 M KOH at 60 °C for 144 h.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) regulate numerous aspects of gene expression; thus, identification of their endogenous targets is important for understanding their cellular functions. Here we identified transcriptome-wide targets of Rbfox3 in neuronally differentiated P19 cells and mouse brain by using photoactivatable ribonucleoside-enhanced cross-linking and immunoprecipitation (PAR-CLIP). Although Rbfox3 is known to regulate pre-mRNA splicing through binding the UGCAUG motif, PAR-CLIP analysis revealed diverse Rbfox3 targets including primary microRNAs (pri-miRNAs) that lack the UGCAUG motif. Induced expression and depletion of Rbfox3 led to changes in the expression levels of a subset of PAR-CLIP-detected miRNAs. In vitro analyses revealed that Rbfox3 functions as a positive and a negative regulator at the stage of pri-miRNA processing to precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA). Rbfox3 binds directly to pri-miRNAs and regulates the recruitment of the microprocessor complex to pri-miRNAs. Our study proposes a new function for Rbfox3 in miRNA biogenesis.

Pipeline leak detection is an important part of pipeline safety, which is usually carried out by extracting feature vectors of leakage signal. However, the complexity of the leakage acoustic emission signal makes the extraction of feature vectors very difficult. To solve this problem, the authors propose an improved wavelet packet algorithm to extract the fea- ture vectors which are constituted by five time-frequency domain parameters: time-domain energy, frequency-domain en- ergy, frequency-domain peak, kurtosis coefficient and variance. Many experiments have been performed to extract feature vectors based on the proposed algorithm, with the results showing the proposed algorithm to be efficient enough to over- come the mixing effects caused by traditional wavelet packet when reconstructing the single sub-band signal. Thus, the proposed algorithm can accurately extract the feature vectors. The study of this article provides a good foundation for the subsequent work such as pipeline leak detection and positioning analysis.

Purpose Organ transplant (Tx) recipients of non-European ancestry experience higher rejection rates. Stem cell research shows that single nucleotide variant mismatches (SNVMs) in mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) of the donor and host cells trigger alloimmune responses. However, no prior studies have addressed mtDNA SNVMs in organ transplantation. We hypothesized that SNVMs between donor-recipient (D-R) mtDNA sequences contribute to allograft immunogenicity. Our purpose was to conduct a proof-of-concept study examining the relationship between mtDNA SNVMs and immunogenicity in human thoracic Tx recipients. Methods We assayed 364 mtDNAs in pre-Tx peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) samples from 182 Tx recipients (19 heart and 163 lung) and their respective donors, using customized standard techniques for mtDNA next-generation sequencing to a mean depth of 9750x. MtDNA sequence reads for D-R pairs were compared to a reference: rCRS database. SNVMs were identified and analyzed for relationships to donor and recipient self-reported sex and race. To determine if nonsynonymous SNVMs trigger allo-specific immunity, we constructed peptides with and without SNVMs and ran Elispot assays to quantify Interferon gamma (INFγ) release from recipients’ re-activated PBMCs collected 1 year post-transplant. Results We identified on average 46 (SD=20) mtDNA SNVMs per D-R pair, 13 (SD=7) of which were nonsynonymous and could form allo-specific immunogenic proteins. Nonsynonymous SNVMs did not differ significantly in D-R sex-matched (N=133, M=13, SD=6) and sex-mismatched pairs (N=46, M=14, SD=7), t(72)=0.87, p = 0.386. In contrast, nonsynonymous SNVMs were significantly higher in D-R race-discordant transplant pairs (N=50, M=16, SD=9) compared to race-concordant pairs (N=100, M=12, SD=5); t(64)=3.07, p=0.003. This difference persisted even after excluding 69 mtDNA haplogroups hot spots: race-discordant pairs (N=50, M=11, SD=7) and race-concordant pairs (N=100, M=8, SD=4); t(68)=2.14, p=0.029. Elispot data showed 30-200 fold increase in INFγ release from peptides with SNVM compared to control, p Conclusion The higher frequency of D-R mtDNA SNVMs in race-discordant transplant pairs, and the immunogenicity of peptides generated from patients with mtDNA SNVMs supports the hypothesis that SNVMs may contribute to allograft immunogenicity.

A novel positively charged thin film composite nanofiltration (NF) membrane comprising a nanoporous hyper-crosslinked polyamide barrier layer has been developed by utilizing the highly functional 2,2',4,4',6,6'-biphenyl hexaacyl chloride (BHAC) monomer bearing a rigid and contorted biphenyl skeleton which undergoes interfacial polymerization with piperazine (PIP) on a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) support membrane. The physicochemical properties of the corresponding BHAC-PIP barrier layer were characterized with respect to chemical structure, surface charge performance, morphology as well as film thickness. Moreover, the NF properties studied revealed that the optimized BHAC-PIP composite membrane having a mean effective pore radius of 0.44 nm and molecular weight cut off (MWCO) of 570 Da exhibits high efficiencies for many NE applications including rejection of divalent cations, removal of basic dyes and selective separation of mixed cations. More importantly, the developed BHAC-PIP composite membrane shows higher pure water permeability of 15.3 lm(-2) h(-1) bar when compared with a number of previously reported positively charged NE membranes, the common trimesoyl chloride (TMC)-PIP membrane, as well as our previously developed 3,3',5,5'-biphenyl tetraacyl chloride (BTEC)-PIP NE membranes. Furthermore, comparative studies on the porous properties of the three unsupported BHAC-PIP, BTEC-PIP and TMC-PIP polyamides measured by means of gas sorption experiments indicate the greater porosity of the hyper-crosslinkecl BHAC-PIP polyamide matrix, which is believed to give rise to the highly permeable feature of the resultant BHAC-PIP polyamide barrier layer. This study may provide useful insights for the molecular-level design of NF membrane materials with improved water permeability. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This article describes the synthesis and characterization of microporous organic copolymers (PP-N-x, where "x" is the molar percent of triphenylamine) prepared from triphenylamine and dichloro-p-xylene using a combination of oxidative polymerization and Friedel Crafts alkylation process promoted by anhydrous FeCl3. The samples possessed BET specific surface areas from 318 to 1530 m(2) g(-1) with the increasing content of dichloro-p-xylene. The highest CO2 uptake of 4.60 mmol g(-1) was observed for PP-N-25, which was one of the highest values among MOPs reported to date under these conditions. The polymers possessed stable and reversible CO2 adsorption-desorption performance in at least 5 consecutive runs without noticeable deterioration of CO2 uptake capacities. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The volatile components of Prunella vulgaris L. were determined by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The optimal conditions for HS-SPME were 1.5 g of sample, extraction using a polydimethylsiloxane-divinylbenzene fiber for 50 min at 90°C, and a desorption time of 5 min. The volatile compounds of Prunella vulgaris L. from different parts of the herb (cultivated in Jiangsu) and from different geographical regions (Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, and Zhejiang) were comparatively analyzed. There were 26, 28, 28, 28, and 34 compounds identified in Prunella vulgaris L. from Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, and Zhejiang, respectively. Among them, the following 12 were found in all origins: 1-nonanol, dodecane, tridecane, α-bourbonene, tetradecane, geranyl acetone, pentadecane, caryophyllene oxide, hexadecane, tetradecanal, isobutyl phthalate, and n-butyl hexadecanoate. In addition, Prunella vulgaris L. cultivated in Guangxi and Zhejiang h...

This article describes the synthesis and functions of phosphine or phosphine oxide functionalized networks (PP-P or PP-PO; PP = porous polymer). These materials were predominantly microporous and exhibited high surface areas (S(BET): 1284 and 1353 m(2) g(-1) for PP-P and PP-PO, respectively), with high CO2 (2.46 and 3.83 mmol g(-1) for PP-P and PP-PO, respectively) uptake capacities. Pd nanoparticles can be simply incorporated into the functionalized networks (PP-P-Pd or PP-PO-Pd) through a facile one-step impregnation. A yield of 98 % was obtained in the Suzuki reaction between 1-chlorobenzene and p-tolylboronic acid with the PP-P-Pd system, which was higher than that obtained when PP-PO-Pd (53.2 %) or [Pd(PPh3)4] (38.2 %) was used as the catalyst. The superior catalytic ability of PP-P-Pd can be attributed to the structural features that incorporate triarylphosphine within a microporous structure.

Two types of microporous polymeric networks have been prepared from monomers containing N-tert-butoxycarbonyl-protected pyrrole by FeCl3-mediated oxidative coupling polymerization. These materials were predominantly microporous (with BET surface areas of 828 m(2) g(-1) and 1408 m(2) g(-1)), exhibiting high CO2 uptake capacities (1.96 mmol g(-1) and 2.69 mmol g(-1) at 273 K, 1 bar). Novel microporous polymeric films (with BET surface areas of 570 m(2) g(-1) and 593 m(2) g(-1)) were fabricated through in situ polymerization of monomers on a flat glass dish using a sol gel process catalyzed by trifluoroacetic acid. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Critically short telomeres activate p53-mediated apoptosis, resulting in organ failure and leading to malignant transformation. Mutations in genes responsible for telomere maintenance are linked to a number of human diseases. We derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from 4 patients with aplastic anemia or hypocellular bone marrow carrying heterozygous mutations in the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) or the telomerase RNA component (TERC) telomerase genes. Both mutant and control iPSCs upregulated TERT and TERC expression compared with parental fibroblasts, but mutant iPSCs elongated telomeres at a lower rate compared with healthy iPSCs, and the deficit correlated with the mutations' impact on telomerase activity. There was no evidence for alternative lengthening of telomere (ALT) pathway activation. Elongation varied among iPSC clones derived from the same patient and among clones from siblings harboring identical mutations. Clonal heterogeneity was linked to genetic and environmental factors, but was not influenced by residual expression of reprogramming transgenes. Hypoxia increased telomere extension in both mutant and normal iPSCs. Additionally, telomerase-mutant iPSCs showed defective hematopoietic differentiation in vitro, mirroring the clinical phenotype observed in patients and demonstrating that human telomere diseases can be modeled utilizing iPSCs. Our data support the necessity of studying multiple clones when using iPSCs to model disease.

Copper ferrite (CuFe2O4), which is easy-made, air-stable, low cost, easy separable, and regenerable, was applied as catalyst in an efficient method for C–O coupling reactions between various kinds of unactivated alkyl alcohols and aryl halides. This method only adopts 2.5% mol CuFe2O4 catalyst and selectively proceeds to C–O bond formation even sensitive substituents exist in the system.

This paper presents a stable double-wireless-wearable-band platform that can detect hand gestures. The real-time monitoring and control system utilizes an MCU processor, a wireless transceiver, and a commercial three-axis, digital-output MEMS accelerometer. To detect the user’s hand movements, a 3D virtual environment is created via a double-wearable-band controller. Compared with a single wearable band, double wearable bands can identify more gestures with improved stability. Performances in terms of control and detection are discussed in detail. This research development allows the user to specify desired two-hand postures using the multi-sensor information fusion technique for controlling a variety of robotic devices. In the system, the defined two-hand postures also allow the user to add freestyle control to various applications, which bridge the communication gap between humans and the systems. Moreover, the integration of the action recognition algorithm of the combination of two bracelets and the server brings out a real-time approach to analyze and make decisions based on the users’ data. Therefore, the system can call for help in a timely manner under critical conditions.

Maturation of Internet and rapid development in mobile communication make smart device could bring enhanced services to person especially in health care center. Therefore, we focus on developing a fall detection application running on Android mobile phones. The detector is fit to indoor and outdoor, without confine of its surroundings. We propose a novel method which fuses Derivative Dynamic Time Warping (DDTW) to detect a fall event and algorithm sensitivity is 84.7%, as well as 94% of specificity. Our algorithm is considerable concise and efficient, what’s more, it do not intrude on privacy of its users or degrade the quality of life. And above all, the method not only overcomes the shortage of thresholding-based fall detection method, but also applicable to all kinds of people with different weight and height.

Nonmuscle myosin IIB (NMIIB; heavy chain encoded by MYH10) is essential for cardiac myocyte cytokinesis. The role of NMIIB in other cardiac cells is not known. Here, we show that NMIIB is required in epicardial formation and functions to support myocardial proliferation and coronary vessel development. Ablation of NMIIB in epicardial cells results in disruption of epicardial integrity with a loss of E-cadherin at cell–cell junctions and a focal detachment of epicardial cells from the myocardium. NMIIB-knockout and blebbistatin-treated epicardial explants demonstrate impaired mesenchymal cell maturation during epicardial epithelial–mesenchymal transition. This is manifested by an impaired invasion of collagen gels by the epicardium-derived mesenchymal cells and the reorganization of the cytoskeletal structure. Although there is a marked decrease in the expression of mesenchymal genes, there is no change in Snail (also known as Snai1) or E-cadherin expression. Studies from epicardium-specific NMIIB-knockout mice confirm the importance of NMIIB for epicardial integrity and epicardial functions in promoting cardiac myocyte proliferation and coronary vessel formation during heart development. Our findings provide a novel mechanism linking epicardial formation and epicardial function to the activity of the cytoplasmic motor protein NMIIB.

With the increasing development of technologies and reducing costs of materials, satellite networks have been widely investigated both on demand and supply for many years. Multi-Path routing has been applied as an effective method to support end-to-end reliability. But there exist inter-satellite links loss and long end-to-end delay in current multi-path routing due to much frequency of route request flooding. In this paper, an improved multi-path routing algorithm (IMP) for hierarchical Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites is proposed and evaluated. The algorithm uses the improved multi-path dynamic source routing protocol to calculate the optimal path and decrease the frequency of route request flooding. During route discovery, the algorithm is able to find out reliable paths to avoid broken nodes. The simulation results demonstrate that our algorithm decreases the end-to-end delay and the time to establish the path.

Data transmission through satellite networks provides ubiquitous communication all over the world. But the time-variant topologies lead to lossy inter-satellite links and long end-to-end delay. To address these problems, in this paper we propose a novel satellite network management method and routing algorithm. The former specializes satellites in different layers to utilize network resources efficiently, and the latter is an optimized layered routing algorithm based on TORA and Dijkstra's algorithms. The proposed algorithm is customized for the hybrid GEO/LEO satellite networks and aimed at balancing between data traffic and end-to-end delay.

The benefits of network layer cooperation cognitiveradio networks have been gradually recognized in recent years. In this paper we consider the network layer cooperation incognitive radio network, whereby primary users select somesecondary users to relay packets, in return for more favourablespectrum access rules for secondary users. Under this cooperationscheme, we investigate how to enlarge the throughput of the wholenetwork, where a QoS(Quality of Service)-guaranteed adaptivecooperation scheme is developed. Our scheme can guarantee theQoS demand of primary users and update its frequency divisioncooperation scheme dynamically according to the status of nodes. Our algorithm requires knowledge of only instantaneous queuelengths at secondary nodes and the predictable end-to-end delay. Simulation results reveal that our proposed scheme significantlyoutperforms previous works in terms of throughput.

Herein, an efficient method for the Ullmann C?O coupling reaction between various kinds of phenols and aryl halides, including amino, ketone, cyano, methyl, methoxy, fluoro, chloro and bromo derivatives, is described. The catalyst used, copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) nanoparticles, are easily made, air-stable, and of low cost. The catalyst can be recycled easily just by using an external magnet. Even in the presence of sensitive substituents, the reaction proceeds successfully to provide the desired products in high yields without protection of other functional groups.

A simple, metal- and ligand-free procedure for the Ullmann-type C-O coupling reactions has been achieved by allowing aryl bromides to react with a variety of phenols in the presence of t-BuOK. Moderate to excellent yields of O-arylation products are obtained under mild conditions in a short time. In addition, two examples of C-N coupling reactions are also reported. A benzyne mechanism is proposed according to the experiment data. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lung and breast adenocarcinoma at advanced stages commonly involve the serosal cavities, giving rise to malignant effusions. The aim of the present study was to compare the global gene expression patterns of metastases from these 2 malignancies, to expand and improve the diagnostic panel of biomarkers currently available for their differential diagnosis, as well as to define type-specific biological targets. Gene expression profiles of 7 breast and 4 lung adenocarcinoma effusions were analyzed using the HumanRef-8 BeadChip from Illumina. Differentially expressed candidate genes were validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering using all 54,675 genes in the array separated lung from breast adenocarcinoma samples. We identified 289 unique probes that were significantly differentially expressed in the 2 cancers by greater than 2-fold using moderated t statistics, of which 65 and 224 were overexpressed in breast and lung adenocarcinoma, respectively. Genes overexpressed in breast adenocarcinoma included TFF1, TFF3, FOXA1, CA12, PITX1, RARRES1, CITED4, MYC, TFAP2A, EFHD1, TOB1, SPDEF, FASN, and TH. Genes overexpressed in lung adenocarcinoma included TITF1, SFTPG, MMP7, EVA1, GPR116, HOP, SCGB3A2, and MET. The differential expression of 15 genes was validated by quantitative real-time PCR, and differences in 8 gene products were confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Expression profiling distinguishes breast adenocarcinoma from lung adenocarcinoma and identifies genes that are differentially expressed in these 2 tumor types. The molecular signatures unique to these cancers may facilitate their differential diagnosis and may provide a molecular basis for therapeutic target discovery.

The aim of the present work was to produce a polyaluminium ferric silicate chloride (PAFSiC) coagulant from acidic and alkaline wastewater of purifying graphite by roasting, and subsequently to evaluate coagulation efficiency of the reagent by treating surface water from the Yellow River as well as municipal wastewater in comparison with the conventional coagulant polyaluminium chloride (PAC). The PAFSiC coagulant was prepared by co-polymerization. The effects of (Al+Fe)/Si molar ratio, OH/(Al+Fe) molar ratio (i.e., y value), coagulant dosage and pH value of test suspension on the coagulation behavior of FAFSiC and the stability of the PAFSiC were also examined. Results showed that PAFSiC performed more efficiently than PAC in removing turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total phosphate (TP). The PAFSiC with a y value of 2.0 and (Al+Fe)/Si ratio of 5 (PAFSiC 2.0/5) showed excellent coagulation effect for both turbidity and COD, while PAFSiC 1.0/5 was the best for TP. The optimum coagulation pH range of PAFSiC 2.0/5 was 5.0-9.0, slightly wider than that of PAC (6.0-8.0). The process can be easily incorporated into high-purity graphite production plants, thereby reducing wastewater pollution and producing a valuable coagulant.

Scratch-pad memory (SPM), a small, fast, software-managed on-chip SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) is widely used in embedded systems. With the ever-widening performance gap between processors and main memory, it is very important to reduce the serious off-chip memory access overheads caused by transferring data between SPM and off-chip memory. In this paper, we propose a novel compiler-assisted technique, ISOS (Iteration-access-pattern-based Space Overlapping SPM management), for dynamic SPM management with DMA (Direct Memory Access). In ISOS, we combine both SPM and DMA for performance optimization by exploiting the chance to overlap SPM space so as to further utilize the limited SPM space and reduce the number of DMA operations. We implement our technique based on IMPACT and conduct experiments using a set of benchmarks from DSPstone and Mediabench on the cycle-accurate VLIW simulator of Trimaran. The experimental results show that our technique achieves run-time performance improvement compared with the previous work. The average improvements are 13.15, 19.05, and 25.52% when the SPM sizes are 1KB, 512 bytes, and 256 bytes, respectively. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multi-dimensional nanomaterials possess a porous structure and plenty of active sites, so they have promising prospects in supercapacitor applications. As the typical pseudocapacitance materials, interlaced CoS nanoflakes and two-dimensional NiO nanosheets were assembled into multi-dimensional CoS/NiO architectures. The fabricated CoS/NiO nanostructures on nickel foam can directly serve as the supercapacitor electrodes. Such multi-dimensional CoS/NiO architectures exhibit the enhanced electrochemical performances in the light of the cyclic voltammetry curves and galvanostatic charging-discharging (GCD) tests. A multi-dimensional CoS/NiO electrode releases a high specific capacitance of 1620 F g-1 at 1.0 A g-1, which is distinctly higher than those of pristine CoS and NiO electrodes. The CoS/NiO//nitrogen-doped carbon nanoarrays (NC) asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) can operate stably at 1.6 V. The GCD curves of the ASC at diverse current densities within the voltage window of 0-1.6 V exhibit reasonable symmetry. The CoS/NiO//NC ASC shows great long-term cycling performance, it has 93.5% capacity retention after 3000 cycles. Electrochemical analyses and detailed material characterizations are performed to reveal the mechanism for the enhanced performance of capacitance.

Fractional calculus is an important branch of mathematical analysis, which is specialized in the study of the mathematical properties and applications of arbitrary order integral and differential, and is the extension of the traditional integral calculus. At present, fractional integral and derivative operators are mainly used to calculate fractional calculus, among which the most famous ones are Riemann-Liouville fractional integral and derivative, Caputo fractional derivative, Grümwald-Letnikov fractional integral and derivative, etc. At present, the numerical algorithm of finite difference scheme is mainly used to solve the approximate solution of the equation, to solve the fractional differential equation. Through the finite difference of time fractional order or space fractional order, the approximate solution of the equation is obtained, and the stability, convergence and compatibility of the scheme are checked, and the convergence order and estimation error are calculated. At present, the theory and method of nonlinear fractional differential equation are widely used in the study of various intermediate processes and critical phenomena in finance, physics and mechanics, which can better fit some natural physical processes and dynamic system processes.