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Summary: Iron deposition is one of the key factors in the etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). Iron-free-apoferritin has the ability to store iron by combining with a ferric hydroxide-phosphate compound to form ferritin. In this study, we investigated the role of apoferritin in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD mice models and elucidated the possible underlying mechanisms. Results showed that apoferritin remarkably improved MPTP-induced motor deficits by rescuing dopaminergic neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra. Apoferritin inhibited MPTP-induced iron aggregation by down-regulating iron importer divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1). Meanwhile, we also showed that apoferritin prevented MPTP-induced ferroptosis effectively by inhibiting the up-regulation of long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase 4 (ACSL4) and the down-regulation of ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1). These results indicate that apoferritin exerts a neuroprotective effect against MPTP by inhibiting iron aggregation and modulating ferroptosis. This provides a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of PD.

The design, synthesis, and structural characterization of a new anionic metal-organic framework, namely, {(H2N(Me)2)[Cu(bidc)](H2O)3}n (1), with 1D helical metal chains is reported here. The title complex was synthesized by solvothermal reaction of Cu(NO3)2·3H2O and benzimidazole-5,6-dicarboxylic acid (H3bidc) in a mixed solvent of DMF, 1,4-dioxane, H2O and HNO3 (aq) at 120 °C for three days, which reveals a 3D porous framework with 1D nanotubular channels running along the c axis. The pore characteristics and gas sorption properties of this compound were investigated at both cryogenic temperature and room temperature by experimentally measuring N2, CH4 and CO2 adsorption/desorption isotherms. The amount of the N2 and CO2 uptake is 146 cm3/g at 77 K and 52 cm3/g at 273 K, which is the highest among MOFs constructed from the H3bidc ligand. In addition the activated 1 shows high adsorption selectivity of CO2 over CH4 at room temperature.

Hemothorax is an extremely rare complication of Henoch–Schonlein purpura. In this report, we encountered a 9-year-old girl who suffered from nonthrombocytopenic purpura on her eyelids, buttocks, and lower limbs with hypertension, heme-positive stools, high serum immunoglobulin A, and low serum complement component 3. Her skin biopsy revealed leukocytoclastic vasculitis with immunoglobulin A deposition. In addition, physical examination showed dullness on percussion and quiet breath sounds on the left chest. Chest X-ray showed a large pleural effusion on the left hemithorax. Computed tomography of her thorax revealed massive left-sided hemothorax with mediastinal shift to the right side. Most critically, pleural fluid evacuated by the chest tube was bloody. The patient was diagnosed as having Henoch–Schonlein purpura in combination with hemothorax, and treated with pulse methylprednisolone followed by oral corticosteroids plus cyclophosphamide. Fortunately, we achieved excellent outcomes and the patient recovered gradually within a week.

The morphology and distribution of the antennal sensilla of adult diving beetle Cybister japonicus Sharp (Dytiscidae, Coleoptera), have been examined. Five types of sensilla on the antennae were identified by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Sensilla placodea and elongated s. placodea are the most abundant types of sensilla, distributing only on the flagellum. Both these types of sensilla carry multiple pore systems with a typical function as chemoreceptors. Three types of s. coeloconica (Type I-III) were also identified, with the characterization of the pit-in-pit style, and carrying pegs externally different from each other. Our data indicated that both type I and type II of s. coleconica contain two bipolar neurons, while the type III of s. coleconica contains three dendrites in the peg. Two sensory dendrites in the former two sensilla are tightly embedded inside the dendrite sheath, with no space left for sensilla lymph. There are no specific morphological differences in the antennal sensilla observed between males and females, except that the males have longer antennae and more sensilla than the females.

Single crystals of K3Y3(BO3)4 were grown using the KBO2, LiF, and Li2CO3 as the fluxes by the top-seed solution method. The K3Y3(BO3)4 can be an excellent host for doping of Yb3+, because there are six low-symmetric yttrium atoms in one unit-cell of K3Y3(BO3)4. The growth of K3Y3(BO3)4 was studied in detail, and a good crystal with sizes of 24 mm × 15 mm × 8 mm was grown successfully below 900 °C. Some characteristics, such as the X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and thermal analysis, were also performed.

This passage mainly introduces about the design of liquid level and boundary measuring control at sewage re-flooding craft in small split oil field. In order to achieve automatically cutting flooding and re-flooding in the procedure in small split oil-field, the scheme is to test liquid level and boundary by using high performance to price ratio new double level gauge, to utilize electric valve instead of mechanical valve and to choose PLC to control system logic. Eventually, it will reduce the labor intensity.

We perform a first-principles simulation to research the electronic and optical properties of wurtzite Zn1-xCoxO. The simulations are based on the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof form of generalized gradient approximation within the density functional theory. Calculations are carried out in different concentrations. With increasing Co concentration, the band gap of Zn1-xCoxO decreases due to the shift of valence band. Besides, it is shown that the insertion of Co atom leads to redshift of the optical absorption edge. Meanwhile, the optical constants of pure ZnO and ZnCoO alloys such as loss function, refractive index and reflectivity, are discussed.

With the rolling development of Suqiao-Wenan Oilfield, the original small treatment station-Station Wen 11, cannot satisfy production requirements. It is necessary to reform and expand the crude oil storage and treatment capacity, water-injection capability and natural gas treatment capacity, on the basis of the original construction; establish new crude oil treatment, fire-fighting and heating systems, as well as supporting systems like crude oil loading and unloading, automatic monitoring and cathodic protection systems, to form a medium-sized centralized oil-gas-water treatment station with complete functions. This paper introduces design, implementation and application effect of the process automation system after Station Wen 11 undergoes reconstruction and expansion.

Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) play critical roles in chemical communication of insects, as they recognize and transport environmental chemical signals to receptors. The diving beetle Cybister japonicus Sharp shows a remarkable sexual dimorphism. The foreleg tarsi of males are equipped with large suction cups, believed to help holding the female during underwater courtship and mating. Here, we identified two OBPs highly and specifically expressed in male tarsi, suggesting important functions of these structures in chemical communication. The first protein, CjapOBP1, exhibits the 6 conserved cysteines motif of classic OBPs, while the second, CjapOBP2, contains only four cysteines and can be assigned to the sub-class of C-minus OBPs. Both proteins were expressed in a bacterial system and the purified recombinant proteins were used to for antibodies preparation. Western Blot analysis showed that CjapOBP1 is predominantly expressed in male tarsi and could be also detected in antennae and palpi of both sexes, while CjapOBP2, besides male tarsi, is also present in testis. Ligand-binding experiments showed a good binding affinity between CjapOBP1, CjapOBP2 and citral and coniferyl aldehyde, respectively. These results support a possible function of these two OBPs in the male foreleg tarsi of diving beetles in chemical communication.

A noise filtration technique for fabric defects image using curvelet transform domain Filters is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we used FDCT_WARPING to decompose image into five scales curvelet coefficients. Secondly, the proposed algorithm distinguished major edges from noise background at the third scale. Thirdly, the possible lost edges in the procedure above were detected according to the decaying lever of the coefficients. Fourthly, the edges of the defect at the second scale were detected by four correlation coefficients in the two directions at the third scale. Fifthly, the curvelet coefficients at the fourth scale are filtered by the decaying lever. Sixthly, the curvelet coefficients at the fifth scale are filtered by hard threshing. Finally, the processed coefficients are reconstructed. The tests on the developed algorithms were performed with images from TILDA's Textile Texture Database, and suggest that the new approach outperforms wavelet methods in image denoising.

It is a challenging problem to overcome shift and rotation and nonlinearity in fingerprint images. By analyzing the shortcoming of fingerprint recognition algorithm on shift or rotation images at present, manifold learning algorithm is introduced. A fingerprint recognition algorithm has been proposed based on locally linear embedding of variable neighbourhood k (VK-LLE). Firstly, approximate geodesic distance between any two points is computed by ISOMAP ( isometric feature mapping) and then the neighborhood is determined for each point by the relationship between its local estimated geodesic distance matrix and local Euclidean distance matrix. Secondly, the dimension of fingerprint image is reduced by nonlinear dimension-reduction method. And the best projected features of original fingerprint data of large dimension are acquired. By analyzing the changes of recognition accuracy with the neighborhood and embedding dimension, the neighborhood and embedding dimension is determined at last. Finally, fingerprint recognition is accomplished by Euclidean distance Classifier. The experimental results based on standard fingerprint datasets have verified the proposed algorithm had a better robustness to those fingerprint images of shift or rotation or nonlinearity than the algorithm using LLE, thus this method has some values in practice.

Aiming at the change of battery location, environment light or camera location in Li/MnO2 automatic inspection process, a novel WT-FEBFNN (Wavelet Transform Fuzzy Ellipsoidal Basis Function Neural Network) approach to battery defect inspection is proposed. Firstly, WT is applied on original battery image, and low-frequency signal and de-noised signal is obtained, respectively, by setting different thresholds on different scale WT decomposition. Secondly, signal only containing defect (nick) is obtained by subtracting low-frequency signal from de-noised signal. Finally, model of FEBFNN is established and defect recognition is accomplished on 1000 battery images. Experiments have shown the proposed algorithm had a better robustness to the change of battery location, or environment light or camera location than multilayer perception(MLP), and shown that the reason for the high recognition accuracy in battery defect inspection is due to the information contents of the features as well as to proper classifier.