Dual Pattern Research Articles

Improving Sustainable Forest Management of Pinus halepensis Mill. Mid-Aged Stands in a Context of Rural Abandonment, Climate Change, and Wildfires

Pinus halepensis Mill. covers most lowland forests on limestone soils and semiarid to sub-humid climates in the Mediterranean basin. It is considered a key species in climate change due to its pioneer nature, versatility, and flexibility. Moreover, its industrial potential is an additional incentive to promote forest management to increase its quality and productivity while contributing to other environmental and social objectives. However, there is a considerable gap in science-based knowledge on the effects of different silvicultural treatments on Pinus halepensis stands. Thus, this research compares the impact of four different treatments (light thinnings, strong thinnings, transformation to uneven-aged, and diameter-driven uneven-aged) on even-aged mid-rotation stands of Pinus halepensis in terms of growth, vulnerability, and resilience to extreme weather events, regeneration, and shrub cover. The effects of four treatments are evaluated in 12 research plots of 0.49 ha each (three per treatment) and contrasted with the other three non-managed control plots. Light and strong thinning treatments show better growth—at least in the short term—and stock results than those reported in the reference yield tables. Transformation to uneven-aged treatment shows advantages in maintaining periodic growth, regeneration, and stability. In addition, it offers an alternative for steep slope stands, smallholders, and extended narrow-aged estates to speed up the desirable balanced age class distribution. Diameter-driven uneven-aged treatment implies greater vulnerability to extreme weather events during the first years and considerable stock reduction while offering faster and taller tree regeneration. A dual regeneration pattern of Ulex parviflorus Pourr is observed in addition to post-fire regeneration in the case of sudden and well-distributed tree cover reduction around 40% of the canopy due to the transformation into the uneven-aged stand. An observation period longer than a decade of the research plots will confirm these first conclusions.

Abstract P2-16-09: Dual Specific Phosphatase-7 (DUSP7/PYST2) and its role in regulating vascular endothelial functions

Abstract Dual Specific Phosphatase-7 (DUSP7/PYST2) and its role in regulating vascular endothelial functions Wenxiao Ji, Wen G. Jiang, Lin Ye, Tracey A. Martin CCMRC, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, Wales, UK Introduction. Dual specific phosphatases (DUSPs) are a large family of enzyme able to trigger tyrosine phosphorylation, and phosphorylation of serine and/or threonine. This feature of a dual phosphorylation pattern by DUSPs, renders them with diverse roles in cells, from cytoskeletal regulation of cell migration, regulation of multiple kinases in cell signalling, to regulation of proteins such as microtubules and cell growth. We have investigated DUSP family members, in particular DUSP-7 (otherwise known as PYST2), identified from our studies as being one of prominent DUSPs found to be highly aberrant in certain cancer types including gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer. In breast cancer cells, DUSP7 has been reported as a potential factor linked to drug sensitivity. The role played by DUSP7 in vascular endothelial cells has been poorly studied. Here, we present our findings on the role of DUSP-7 in the regulation of biological functions of vascular endothelial cells. Methods. Human vascular endothelial cells were used in the present study. Cell sub-models were created by knock down of DUSP7. The cells were evaluated for their biological response to loss of DUSP7, including proliferation, migration, matrix adhesion and response to downstream signalling. DUSP7 responses to various exogenous factors were also evaluated by a protein kinase platform. Results. Knock down of DUSP7 in human endothelial cells rendered them manifesting significantly reduced matrix adhesiveness (p< 0.05) and most strikingly, reduced cellular migration (P< 0.0001, control versus DUSP7 knock down). Interestingly, there was little change with the rate of cell growth. When cells were tested by inhibiting a tight junctional molecule, HAVcR1, the endothelial cells responded with markedly reduced DUSP7 (reduction of 46%). Likewise, the cells were also exhibited reduced levels of DUSP7 after being challenged by exogenous metastasis related Kisspeptin, indicating that DUSP7 may participated the wide network of signalling and functional regulations shared with the tight junction regulator HAVcR1 and possibly utilising Mitogen-activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3 or Extracellular signal regulated kinase-1). Conclusion. Dual specific phosphatase-7 has an important role to play in vascular endothelial cells, primarily on cell matrix adhesion and cellular migration. A possible route of regulation is by targeting the extracellular signalling network. Citation Format: WENXIAO JI, Wen G. Jiang, Lin Ye, Tracey A. Martin. Dual Specific Phosphatase-7 (DUSP7/PYST2) and its role in regulating vascular endothelial functions [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-16-09.

Clinically Relevant Anatomical Variations in the Brachial Plexus.

Anatomical variation in the brachial plexus may result in a variety of clinically relevant patterns, including various neuralgias of the upper extremity and differing nerve territories. Some conditions can be debilitating in symptomatic patients, resulting in paresthesia, anesthesia, or weakness of the upper extremity. Others may simply result in cutaneous nerve territories that deviate from a traditional dermatome map. This study evaluated the frequency and anatomical presentations of a large number of clinically relevant brachial plexus nerve variations in a sample of human body donors. We identified a high frequency of various branching variants, of which clinicians, especially surgeons, should be aware. The medial pectoral nerves in 30% of the sample were found to originate from either the lateral cord, or both the medial and lateral cords of the brachial plexus rather than exclusively from the medial cord. The dual cord innervation pattern greatly increases the number of spinal cord levels traditionally believed to innervate the pectoralis minor muscle. The thoracodorsal nerve arose as a branch of the axillary nerve 17% of the time. The musculocutaneous nerve sent branches to the median nerve in 5% of specimens. The medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve shared a common trunk with the medial brachial cutaneous nerve in 5% of individuals and derived from the ulnar nerve in 3% of specimens.

Non-Bulk Morphologies of Extremely Thin Block Copolymer Films Cast on Topographically Defined Substrates Featuring Deep Trenches: The Importance of Lateral Confinement.

Directed self-assembly of block copolymers is evolving toward applications that are more defect-tolerant but still require high morphological control and could benefit from simple, inexpensive fabrication processes. Previously, we demonstrated that simply casting ultra-thin block copolymer films on topographically defined substrates leads to hierarchical structures with dual patterns in a controlled manner and unraveled the dependence of the local morphology on the topographic feature dimensions. In this article, we discuss the extreme of the ultraconfined thickness regime at the border of film dewetting. Additional non-bulk morphologies are observed at this extreme, which further elaborate the arsenal of dual patterns that could be obtained in coexistence with full placement control. It is shown that as the thickness confinement approaches its limit, lateral confinement imposed by the width of the plateaus becomes a critical factor influencing the local morphology.

Research on the innovation of time-honored brands from the perspective of dual ethical patterns.

Innovation has become an important means to promote the high-quality development of time-honored brands. However, the research on how to stimulate innovation investment in time-honored brands, especially that conducted in the local context, is still rare. To supplement the research limitations, this study adopts the perspective of dual ethical patterns and is set in the domestic context to explore the ethical influence of traditional cultures and marketization on the innovation investment of time-honored brands. We proposed two complementary methods, which are OLS regression and fsQCA analysis respectively, to systematically analyze the mechanism and key path of the dual ethical pattern to promote the innovation of time-honored brands. The results show that traditional culture and marketization level are both positively related to the innovation of time-honored brands. However, traditional culture and marketization level are mutually exclusive in their process of affecting the innovation of time-honored brands. This paper advances time-honored brands literature by highlighting the dual ethic pattern formed by traditional culture and marketization level on the innovation investment of time-honored brands. The findings respond to the academic debate between traditional culture and the innovation of time-honored brands, while enriching the research scope on the innovation mechanism of time-honored brands in the local context.

Dual localization of the carboxy-terminal tail of GLR3.3 in sieve element–companion cell complex

ABSTRACT Glutamate receptor-like (GLR) 3.3 and 3.6 proteins are required for mediating wound-induced leaf-to-leaf electrical signaling. In the previous study, we found that the carboxy-terminal tail of GLR3.3 contains key residues that are indispensable for its action in electrical signaling. In the present work, we generated plants that expressed the truncated C-tail fraction of GLR3.3. To our expectation, the truncated C-tail itself was not functional in propagating leaf-to-leaf signals. However, we identified that the C-tail-mVENUS fusion proteins had dual localization patterns in sieve elements and companion cells. In companion cells, the fusion proteins overlapped largely with the nucleus. We speculated that a possible nuclear localization signal is present in the C-tail of GLR3.3, paralleling the C-tails of the ionotropic glutamate receptors in animal cells. Our further findings on the C-tail of GLR3.3 open up new possibilities for the regulatory roles of the C-tails to GLR proteins.

A three-component model of the spinal nerve ramification: Bringing together the human gross anatomy and modern Embryology.

Due to its long history, the study of human gross anatomy has not adequately incorporated modern embryological findings; consequently, the current understanding has often been incompatible with recent discoveries from molecular studies. Notably, the traditional epaxial and hypaxial muscle distinction, and their corresponding innervation by the dorsal and ventral rami of the spinal nerve, do not correspond to the primaxial and abaxial muscle distinction, defined by the mesodermal lineages of target tissues. To resolve the disagreement between adult anatomy and embryology, we here propose a novel hypothetical model of spinal nerve ramification. Our model is based on the previously unknown developmental process of the intercostal nerves. Observations of these nerves in the mouse embryos revealed that the intercostal nerves initially had superficial and deep ventral branches, which is contrary to the general perception of a single ventral branch. The initial dual innervation pattern later changes into an adult-like single branch pattern following the retraction of the superficial branch. The modified intercostal nerves consist of the canonical ventral branches and novel branches that run on the muscular surface of the thorax, which sprout from the lateral cutaneous branches. We formulated the embryonic branching pattern into the hypothetical ramification model of the human spinal nerve so that the branching pattern is compatible with the developmental context of the target muscles. In our model, every spinal nerve consists of three components: (1) segmental branches that innervate the primaxial muscles, including the dorsal rami, and short branches and long superficial anterior branches from the ventral rami; (2) plexus-forming intramural branches, the serial homolog of the canonical intercostal nerves, which innervate the abaxial portion of the body wall; and (3) plexus-forming extramural branches, the series of novel branches located outside of the body wall, which innervate the girdle and limb muscles. The selective elaboration or deletion of each component successfully explains the reasoning for the standard morphology and variability of the spinal nerve. Therefore, our model brings a novel understanding of spinal nerve development and valuable information for basic and clinical sciences regarding the diverse branching patterns of the spinal nerve.

The Online Construction of Digital Spatial Representation in Alphanumeric Mixed Situations Is Not Automaticity

SNARC effect is called the joint effect of spatial digital response coding, which is the proof of the connection between number and space. There are mainly theoretical explanations, such as the mental number line explanation of long-term memory, the working memory explanation of short-term memory, and the dual path pattern explanation. Recent studies have demonstrated that SNARC effect is the online construction of digits in working memory during task execution, and the online construction of digits SNARC effect is interfered by letter processing in the mixed situation of digits and letters, which further supports the hypothesis of working memory. Although online encoding of SNARC effect has been proved, it is not clear whether online encoding of digital spatial representation in the mixed alphanumeric context has automaticity, and if so, whether it will be interfered by letter processing. In this study, three digit color judgment experiments were conducted, and the ratio of digits to letters was 1:1. 1:6. The paper explores whether the online construction of digital space representation is automaticity in the mixed interference situation of 6:1. To investigate the interference of letter processing on digital SNARC effect, explore whether the interference is regulated by the proportion of number letters, and further explore the automatic mechanism of the interference of letter processing on digital space coding. The results showed that SNARC effect was not observed in the mixed numbers and letters at different proportions. It shows that the online construction of digital space representation in the mixed alphanumeric situation does not have automaticity. When the task does not directly activate the size order information of the number letters, the letters will interfere with the online construction of the number SNARC effect, which is not proportional adjustment.

Dual ingress architecture design pattern for Kubernetes applications

Purpose: The article focuses on the analysis of the mechanism for exposing Services running on a Kubernetes cluster using an Ingress type definition. It discusses the basics of this mechanism, pointing out its fundamental limitation of being able to use only single technology simultaneously in handling traffic to a web application. The paper presents an architectural pattern that enables the simultaneous integration of two Ingress definitions, combining the advantages of both systems used. Design/methodology/approach: Available solutions for exposing applications served in the Kubernetes cluster were analyzed. As a result of the research, an enhancement was proposed to allow the use of two services simultaneously, providing broader system functionality. Findings: An approach was proposed to use two Ingress controllers simultaneously in the form of an external cloud service and an internal Nginx service running on a Kubernetes cluster. Originality/value: A design pattern is presented along with an example implementation of dual Ingress on an AKS cluster in Azure. Keywords: Kubernetes, Ingress, architectural pattern, limitations, Azure, Application Gateway, Nginx. Category of the paper: Research paper, Technical paper.

The Dual Circulation Pattern and the Construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor-A Historical Opportunity for the High Quality Economic Development of Kashgar

The Dual Circulation Pattern and the Construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor-A Historical Opportunity for the High Quality Economic Development of Kashgar

MPPM: A Mobile-Efficient Part Model for Object re-ID

Object re-identification (re-ID) is one of the core technologies in Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) that requires real-time decision-making. A Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is a low-power device that is dedicated to deploying neural network-based algorithms and has become one of the most important devices in today's mobile onboard systems. However, the current mainstream re-ID methods rarely consider the NPU characteristics, which makes it difficult for these methods to achieve both high onboard frame rates and high accuracies on an NPU. To address this problem, this paper focuses on designing a re-ID algorithm suitable for NPU deployment. The model of the object re-ID can be divided into two parts: the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">encoder</i> ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">backbone</i> ) and the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">decoder</i> . In this article, a Mobile-efficient Pure Part Model (MPPM) is presented for re-ID task. First, for the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">backbone</i> of re-ID, we propose an efficient structure GogglesNet, which is composed of traditional convolutions. GogglesNet performs well on the re-ID task and can be comparable to lightweight networks on ImageNet with regard to accuracy and is faster on NPU. We then revisit the architectures of Pure Part Model (PPM) in person re-ID, including PCB and MGN, and propose a mobile-efficient <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">decoder</i> Dual Pattern Network (DPN) for re-ID. The proposed MPPM achieves comparable performance with MGN on five re-ID datasets Market-1501, DukeMTMC-reID, MSMT17, VeRi-776, and VehicleID, while the proposed parameter amount is only 10.2% of it, and the speed on NPU is more than eight times higher.

A novel S-shaped frequency and pattern reconfigurable patch antenna for 4G LTE, WLAN/Wi-Max application

PurposeIn wireless communication system, use of multiple antennas for different requirements of system will increase the system complexity. However, reconfigurable antenna is maximizing the connectivity to cover different wireless services that operate different frequency range. Pattern reconfigurable antenna can improve security, avoid noise and save energy. Due to their compactness and better performance at different applications, reconfigurable antennas are very popular among the researchers. The purpose of this work, is to propose a novel design of S-shaped antenna with frequency and pattern diversity. The pattern and frequency reconfiguration are controlled via ON/OFF states of the PIN diode.Design/methodology/approachThe geometrical structure of the proposed antenna dimension is 18 × 18 × 0.787 mm3 with εr = 2.2 dielectric constant. Three S-shaped patches are connected to a ring patch through PIN diodes. The approximate circumference of ring patch is 18.84 mm and length of patch is 5 mm, so approximate length of radiating patch is 14.42 mm and effective dielectric constant is 1.93. Conductor backed coplanar waveguide (CPW) is used for feeding. The proposed antenna is designed and simulated on CST microwave studio and fabricated using photolithography process. Measurements have been done in anechoic chamber.FindingsAntenna shows the dual band operation at 2.1 and 3.4 GHz frequency. The first band remains constant at 2.1 GHz resonant frequency and 200–400 MHz impedance bandwidth. Second band is switched at seven different resonant frequencies as 3.14, 3.45, 3.46, 3.68, 3.69, 3.83 and 3.86 GHz with switching of the diodes. The −10 dB bandwidth is more than 1.4 GHz.Research limitations/implicationsPattern reconfigurability can be achieved using mechanical movement of antenna easily but it is not a reliable approach for planar antennas. Electronic switching method is used in proposed antenna. Antenna size is very small so fabrication is very crucial task. Measured results are deviated from simulation results due to fabrication error and effect of leads of diodes, connecting wires and battery.Practical implicationsThe reconfiguration of the proposed antenna is controlled via ON/OFF states of the three PIN diodes. The lower band of 2.1 GHz is fixed, while second band is switched at five different resonant frequencies as 3.27, 3.41, 3.45, 3.55 and 3.88 GHz, with switching of the PIN diodes with all state of diodes and exhibit pattern reconfigurability at 2.1 GHz frequency. At second band center frequency is significantly changed with state of diodes and at 3.4 GHz pattern is also changed with state of diodes, hence antenna exhibits frequency and pattern reconfigurability.Originality/valueA novel design of pattern and frequency reconfigurable antenna is proposed. Here, work is divided into two parts: first is frequency reconfiguration and second is radiation pattern reconfiguration. PIN diodes as switch are used to select the frequency band and reconfigure the radiation pattern. This proposed antenna design is novel dual band frequency and pattern reconfigurable antenna. It resonates at two distinct frequencies, i.e. 2.1 and 3.4 GHz, and has a pattern tilt from 0° to 355°. The conductor backed CPW feed technique is used for impedance matching.

Spectral signatures associated with cognitive aging, APOE4, amyloid‐β and measures of axonal integrity in cognitively unimpaired adults

AbstractBackgroundOscillatory brain rhythms are a defining feature of neuronal activity that support cognition in humans. Previous studies that showed associations of spectral changes in individuals who harbor high risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) were limited to identify abnormalities within select brain regions defined apriori. Comprehensive whole‐brain spatiotemporal patterns of oscillatory changes associated with cognitive‐aging and with AD risk are only partly known. Our main goals were to understand how frequency specific spectral changes relate to cognitive abilities in normal aging and to identify oscillatory signatures that indicate pre‐symptomatic AD pathophysiological processes in cognitively unimpaired elderly.MethodsWe used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the spectral signatures within delta‐theta (2‐7Hz), alpha (8‐12Hz) and beta (13‐35Hz) oscillations, in cognitively unimpaired adults (n=70). Using a partial‐least‐square regression, we correlated spectral patterns to executive, memory, and processing‐speed abilities (n=40). Next, we compared the spectral signatures between amyloid‐β (Aβ)+ vs. Aβ‐ and between APOE‐Ɛ4+ vs. APOE‐Ɛ4‐, in sub‐cohorts evaluated with Aβ‐PET (n=46) and APOE4 (n=65), respectively. In a subset of participants (n=19), we also examined associations between spectral signatures and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers indicating damage to: presynaptic (growth‐associated protein‐43, GAP43); postsynaptic (neurogranin, NG); axonal (neurofilament light chain, NFL), levels.ResultsAn age dependent, low‐grade, increase in alpha power and decrease in delta‐theta power were associated with better cognitive performance in memory, executive and processing speed (Figure‐1). APOE4+ individuals showed reduced alpha power within bilateral medial temporal and right precuneus, compared to APOE4‐. Aβ+ individuals showed a dual pattern of alpha change with increased frontal and reduced medial and lateral temporal cortex pattern and a frontally distributed increased delta‐theta power (Figure‐2). Higher CSF‐NFL was correlated with lower alpha power.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that higher alpha power indicates a positive spectral change towards better cognitive health in aging. Importantly, a reduced alpha power signature indicated early neurodegenerative changes, as demonstrated by: (1)Aβ+ individuals and APOE‐Ɛ4+ individuals showing reduced alpha power within the regions known for earliest tau accumulations; (2) lower alpha correlating with higher NFL, which reflects Aβ‐independent neurodegeneration. Collectively alpha signatures may indicate tau related neuropathology with aging and in early AD.

Dual seasonal pattern for hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and its potential determinants in China

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) continued to affect human health across Eurasia, which complicated by climate change has posed a challenge for the disease prevention measures. Nation-wide surveillance data of HFRS cases were collected during 2008–2020.The seasonality and epidemiological features were presented by combining the HFRS incidence and the endemic types data. Factors potentially involved in affecting incidence and shaping disease seasonality were investigated by generalized additive mixed model, distributed lag nonlinear model and multivariate meta-analysis. A total of 76 cities that reported totally 111,054 cases were analyzed. Three endemic types were determined, among them the Type I cities (Hantaan virus-dominant) were related to higher incidence level, showing one spike every year in Autumn-Winter season; Type II (Seoul virus-dominant) cities were related to lower incidence, showing one spike in Spring, while Type III (Hantaan/Seoul-mixed type) showed dual peaks with incidence lying between. Persistently heavy rainfall had significantly negative influence on HFRS incidence in Hantaan virus-dominant endemic area, while a significantly opposite effect was identified when continuously heavy rainfall induced floods, where temperature and relative humidity affected HFRS incidence via an approximately parabolic or linear manner, however few or no such effects was shown in Seoul virus-dominant endemic areas, which was more vulnerable to temperature variation. Dual seasonal pattern of HFRS was depended on the dominant genotypes of hantavirus, and impact of climate on HFRS was greater in Hantaan virus-dominant endemic areas, than in Seoul virus-dominant areas.

Investigation of white matter functional networks underlying different behavioral profiles in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Cortical functional network alterations have been widely accepted as the neural basis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recently, white matter has also been recognized as a novel neuroimaging marker of psychopathology and has been used as a complement to cortical functional networks to investigate brain-behavior relationships. However, disorder-specific features of white matter functional networks (WMFNs) are less well understood than those of gray matter functional networks. In the current study, we constructed WMFNs using a new strategy to characterize behavior-related network features in ADHD. We recruited 46 drug-naïve boys with ADHD and 46 typically developing (TD) boys, and used clustering analysis on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data to generate WMFNs in each group. Intrinsic activity within each network was extracted, and the associations between network activity and behavior measures were assessed using correlation analysis. Nine WMFNs were identified for both ADHD and TD participants. However, boys with ADHD showed a splitting of the inferior corticospinal-cerebellar network and lacked a cognitive control network. In addition, boys with ADHD showed increased activity in the dorsal attention network and somatomotor network, which correlated positively with attention problems and hyperactivity symptom scores, respectively, while they presented decreased activity in the frontoparietal network and frontostriatal network in association with poorer performance in response inhibition, working memory, and verbal fluency. We discovered a dual pattern of white matter network activity in drug-naïve ADHD boys, with hyperactive symptom-related networks and hypoactive cognitive networks. These findings characterize two distinct types of WMFN in ADHD psychopathology.

Dual neighborhood thresholding patterns based on directional sampling

Dual neighborhood thresholding patterns based on directional sampling

Relationship between the Molecular Geometry and the Radiative Efficiency in Naphthyl-Based Bis-Ortho-Carboranyl Luminophores.

The efficiency of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT)-based emission on π-aromatic-group-appended closo-ortho-carboranyl luminophores is known to be affected by structural fluctuations and molecular geometry, but investigation of this relationship has been in progress to date. In this study, four naphthyl-based bis-o-carboranyl compounds, in which hydrogen (15CH and 26CH) or trimethysilyl groups (15CS and 26CS) were appended at the o-carborane cage, were synthesized and fully characterized. All the compounds barely displayed an emissive trace in solution at 298 K; however, 15CH and 26CH distinctly exhibited a dual emissive pattern in rigid states (in solution at 77 K and in films), attributed to locally excited (LE) and ICT-based emission, while 15CS and 26CS showed strong ICT-based greenish emission. Intriguingly, the molecular structures of the four compounds, analyzed by single X-ray crystallography, showed that the C-C bond axis of the o-carborane cage in the trimethysilyl group-appended compounds 15CS and 26CS were more orthogonal to the plane of the appended naphthyl group than those in 15CH and 26CH. These features indicate that 15CS and 26CS present an efficient ICT transition based on strong exo-π-interaction, resulting in a higher quantum efficiency (Φem) for ICT-based radiative decay than those of 15CH and 26CH. Moreover, the 26CS structure revealed most orthogonal geometry, resulting in the highest Φem and lowest knr values for the ICT-based emission. Consequently, all the findings verified that efficient ICT-based radiative decay of aromatic group-appended o-carboranyl luminophores could be achieved by the formation of a specific geometry between the o-carborane cage and the aromatic plane.

E-cigarette and Combustible Cigarette Single Use, Ever Dual Use Pattern, and Amount of Nicotine Consumed among Korean College Students

E-cigarette and Combustible Cigarette Single Use, Ever Dual Use Pattern, and Amount of Nicotine Consumed among Korean College Students

Structurally Altered, Not Wild-Type, Pentameric C-Reactive Protein Inhibits Formation of Amyloid-β Fibrils.

The structure of wild-type pentameric C-reactive protein (CRP) is stabilized by two calcium ions that are required for the binding of CRP to its ligand phosphocholine. CRP in its structurally altered pentameric conformations also binds to proteins that are denatured and aggregated by immobilization on microtiter plates; however, the identity of the ligand on immobilized proteins remains unknown. We tested the hypotheses that immobilization of proteins generated an amyloid-like structure and that amyloid-like structure was the ligand for structurally altered pentameric CRP. We found that the Abs to amyloid-β peptide 1-42 (Aβ) reacted with immobilized proteins, indicating that some immobilized proteins express an Aβ epitope. Accordingly, four different CRP mutants capable of binding to immobilized proteins were constructed, and their binding to fluid-phase Aβ was determined. All CRP mutants bound to fluid-phase Aβ, suggesting that Aβ is a ligand for structurally altered pentameric CRP. In addition, the interaction between CRP mutants and Aβ prevented the formation of Aβ fibrils. The growth of Aβ fibrils was also halted when CRP mutants were added to growing fibrils. Biochemical analyses of CRP mutants revealed altered topology of the Ca2+-binding site, suggesting a role of this region of CRP in binding to Aβ. Combined with previous reports that structurally altered pentameric CRP is generated in vivo, we conclude that CRP is a dual pattern recognition molecule and an antiamyloidogenic protein. These findings have implications for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases caused by amyloidosis and for the diseases caused by the deposition of otherwise fluid-phase proteins.

An Integrated Entropy-COPRAS Framework for Ningbo-Zhoushan Port Logistics Development from the Perspective of Dual Circulation

To promote the construction of new development patterns of dual circulation and to accelerate the smooth flow of logistics channels, port logistics has become a new growth point for the logistics industry that accelerates the connection between domestic and foreign dual circulation. Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, as one of the main hub ports in China, is facing the key issue of how to clarify its current development status and future development direction. To scientifically measure and evaluate the status quo of the logistics development of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, clarify the advantages and disadvantages of the development and construction of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port logistics industry, based on the situation of new standards and new requirements for the logistics industry in the dual circulation pattern, this study firstly constructs a scientific and reasonable evaluation index system of port logistics from seven aspects, including port infrastructure, international logistics capacity, and smart logistics capacity. An integrated comprehensive evaluation method based on entropy and Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) is then proposed, and a comprehensive evaluation and longitudinal comparative analysis of the logistics level of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port are carried out. The results show that the development of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in recent years is in line with that of many other ports due to the benefit of green logistics capacity, but it is seriously limited by smart logistics capabilities, and in the future, it should choose to continue to exert efforts in international logistics capabilities, green logistics capabilities, and total logistics capabilities.