Branching Frequency Research Articles

Root traits of soybeans exposed to polyethylene films, polypropylene fragments, and biosolids

Biosolid use imports microplastics into the rhizosphere where they may interfere with root-soil-microbial interactions and cause morphological adaptations in crop root systems. Few studies have examined the response of crop roots to microplastics at documented soil concentrations, and many studies collect root traits using destructive techniques. Hence, there is little information on when and how microplastics effect the physical structure of root systems. Using the rhizobox method, soybeans (Glycine max) were grown in soil amended with biosolid microplastic mimics (polyethylene film or polypropylene fragments at 2,000 and 15,000 particles/kg dry soil) or biosolids and imaged weekly until maturity (11 weeks) using a custom scanner system. Plant biomass increased in the polyethylene treatments and decreased in the high concentration polypropylene treatment. Relative to the Control, polyethylene treatments had larger root length, reduced root diameters, reached maturity faster, had deeper root systems, and had a greater number of lateral roots. In contrast, polypropylene treatments had a mixed response, with high concentrations eliciting a lower root length, fewer laterals, and a more vertical root orientation. Segmented linear regression revealed that root growth in the Control and Biosolid treatments continued through the course of the experiment, while the microplastic treatments reached maturity up to two weeks earlier. Imagery revealed that microplastics elicited deeper rooting depth within the first week and differences in all root traits were evident by the development of the first trifoliate leaflets. Microplastic effects on root traits at early life stages suggest soil physiological drivers, while increased branching frequency and lower lateral elongation are suggestive of changes in soil nitrogen availability. The minimal difference in root traits in the biosolid treatment may be attributable to differences in microplastic properties or counteractive effects by other biosolid constituents.

Population Characteristics and Habitat Management of the Useful Seaweed Silvetia siliquosa

We aimed to analyze the natural population characteristics and habitat growth conditions of the valuable seaweed Silvetia siliquosa. Its population characteristics and habitat conditions were assessed monthly from May 2022 to April 2023 and April to August 2022, respectively, on selected habitats. The average population density, coverage, and frequency of S. siliquosa were 579 ± 94.18 ind./m2, 27.82 ± 6.92%/m2, and 78.37 ± 5.98/m2, respectively. The average thallus length and width were 47.53 ± 4.35 and 46.33 ± 4.17 mm, respectively, while the branch width, thickness, and frequency were 2.35 ± 0.03 mm, 0.59 ± 0.12 mm, and 2.8 ± 0.2 times, with a receptacle length and width of 24.13 ± 2.07 and 2.81 ± 0.19 mm, respectively. Among the 40 previously known natural habitats of S. siliquosa, growth was confirmed only in Sepo, Sebang, and Bangpo. The causes for the declining S. siliquosa populations could be attributed to habitat changes due to construction, coastal road maintenance projects, habitat disturbances, and increased pollutants. Habitat substrate disturbances and changes were the main causes of the decrease in S. siliquosa growth. Studies on environmental factors and habitat degradation, growth related to environmental factors, mass cultivation, and the marine ecosystem restoration of S. siliquosa are needed.

Exploring the principles of embryonic mammary gland branching morphogenesis.

Branching morphogenesis is a characteristic feature of many essential organs, such as the lung and kidney, and most glands, and is the net result of two tissue behaviors: branch point initiation and elongation. Each branched organ has a distinct architecture customized to its physiological function, but how patterning occurs in these ramified tubular structures is a fundamental problem of development. Here, we use quantitative 3D morphometrics, time-lapse imaging, manipulation of ex vivo cultured mouse embryonic organs and mice deficient in the planar cell polarity component Vangl2 to address this question in the developing mammary gland. Our results show that the embryonic epithelial trees are highly complex in topology owing to the flexible use of two distinct modes of branch point initiation: lateral branching and tip bifurcation. This non-stereotypy was contrasted by the remarkably constant average branch frequency, indicating a ductal growth invariant, yet stochastic, propensity to branch. The probability of branching was malleable and could be tuned by manipulating the Fgf10 and Tgfβ1 pathways. Finally, our in vivo data and ex vivo time-lapse imaging suggest the involvement of tissue rearrangements in mammary branch elongation.

Efficient production and enhanced accumulation of Valerenic acid in Valeriana officinalis: Early identification of high-performing hairy root clones and Pioneering use of hydrogen peroxide as an elicitor

Valeriana officinalis (valerian) roots and rhizomes possess a long history of medicinal use due to their sedative, antiepileptic, and anticonvulsant properties. Valerenic acid, a bioactive sesquiterpene with therapeutic potential, is present in limited quantities within these tissues. This study explores the application of hairy root cultures for enhanced valerenic acid production. Hairy root induction was attempted on valerian leaves and petioles using three Rhizobium rhizogenes strains (ATCC15834, A4, and MSU440) across three culture media (Murashige and Skoog (MS), Gamborg's B5 (B5), and Schenk and Hildebrandt (SH)). A non-destructive imaging system and periodic analyses were employed to identify superior hairy root clones exhibiting increased branching frequency. Leaf explants co-cultured with R. rhizogenes strain ATCC15834 yielded the most promising clones, characterized by the highest dry weight (1.03 mg) and valerenic acid content (0.384 mg/g dry weight) when grown in a half-strength SH liquid medium. Following strain and media optimization, the impact of 50 mM hydrogen peroxide as an elicitor on valerenic acid production was investigated. This treatment resulted in a significant 1.76-fold increase in valerenic acid accumulation compared to the control group at the first day post-treatment. This approach presents a valuable strategy for the early identification of high-yielding hairy root lines. Moreover, the utilization of hydrogen peroxide, a safe and cost-effective elicitor, offers a rapid method for enhancing valerenic acid production in the selected superior clone. This study establishes a promising platform for the sustainable production of valuable plant compounds within both research and industrial settings.

Canopy Architectural Characteristics of Ten New Olive (Olea europaea L.) Genotypes and Their Potential for Cultivation in Super-High-Density Orchards.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in olive genotypes (Olea europaea L.) suitable for super-high-density (SHD > 1200 trees/hectare) orchards. To date, only a few cultivars are considered fitting for such cultivation system. In this study, the first results on the architectural characteristics of the canopy of ten new olive genotypes are presented. Their suitability for SHD orchards was evaluated and compared with the cultivar 'Arbequina', which is considered suitable for SHD olive orchards and, for this reason, was used as the control. Several canopy measurements were taken, and some architectural parameters, such as branching frequency, branching density, and branch diameter/stem diameter ratio were calculated. The branching frequency value was greater than 0.20 in 'Arbequina' and in only four of the genotypes. The branching density in five genotypes was similar to 'Arbequina'. 'Arbequina' had the lowest value for the branch diameter/stem diameter ratio, and only three genotypes had similar values. These initial results showed that only one genotype has all canopy architectural characteristics comparable to those of the cv. 'Arbequina'. Further studies are needed to evaluate the production traits of these new genotypes and complete their characterization.

Convolution-transformer blend pyramid network for underwater image enhancement

Underwater images suffer from different types of degradation, where color degradation occurs in the spatial domain and edge degradation in the frequency domain. The high-quality underwater image enhancement represents a crucial milestone in advancing computer vision systems tailored for marine environments. This foundational endeavor encompasses a wide array of applications in computer vision tasks, including underwater inspection, underwater archaeology, and environmental monitoring. However, current convolutional neural network (CNN)-based pyramid frameworks primarily focus on capturing local features, often overlooking the significance of global semantic features that play a crucial role in understanding underwater scenes. Moreover, these frameworks handle spatial and frequency features independently, failing to enhance images by exploring correlation among domain-specific attributes for enabling information consistency. Besides, optimizing the model using a loss function with the same domain attributes from the ground truth may not lead to a better generalization ability. To solve these problems, we propose a new Convolution-Transformer Blend Pyramid Network (CTPN), which consists of a spatial branch and several frequency branches. The CTPN has four key components: a Swin transformer encoder, a CNN-Transformer aggregated encoder–decoder (CTED) and a blend pyramid framework. The Swin transformer encoder is employed to capture global semantic features, benefiting from its ability to extract long-range and global dependencies among features. The CTED fuses local features captured by CNN layers and global semantic features captured by the Swin transformer encoder in the spatial branch, with the help of the Cross-Model Fusion Module (CFM) and Skip-Aggregation Module (SAM). Subsequently, a blend pyramid framework is designed which not only progressively expands the transformed information of the previous domain branch to the current domain branch via the CTED-based refining operation, but also utilizes the proposed Domain Affinity Block (DAB) to explore the connection between domain attributes, ensuring information consistency. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing underwater image enhancement methods quantitatively and qualitatively.

How do the carbon and nitrogen sources affect the synthesis of β-(1,3/1,6)-glucan, its structure and the susceptibility of Candida utilis yeast cells to immunolabelling with β-(1,3)-glucan monoclonal antibodies?

BackgroundThe need to limit antibiotic therapy due to the spreading resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to these medicinal substances stimulates research on new therapeutic agents, including the treatment and prevention of animal diseases. This is one of the goals of the European Green Deal and the Farm-To-Fork strategy. Yeast biomass with an appropriate composition and exposure of cell wall polysaccharides could constitute a functional feed additive in precision animal nutrition, naturally stimulating the immune system to fight infections.ResultsThe results of the research carried out in this study showed that the composition of Candida utilis ATCC 9950 yeast biomass differed depending on growth medium, considering especially the content of β-(1,3/1,6)-glucan, α-glucan, and trehalose. The highest β-(1,3/1,6)-glucan content was observed after cultivation in deproteinated potato juice water (DPJW) as a nitrogen source and glycerol as a carbon source. Isolation of the polysaccharide from yeast biomass confirmed the highest yield of β-(1,3/1,6)-glucan after cultivation in indicated medium. The differences in the susceptibility of β-(1,3)-glucan localized in cells to interaction with specific β-(1,3)-glucan antibody was noted depending on the culture conditions. The polymer in cells from the DPJW supplemented with glycerol and galactose were labelled with monoclonal antibodies with highest intensity, interestingly being less susceptible to such an interaction after cell multiplication in medium with glycerol as carbon source and yeast extract plus peptone as a nitrogen source.ConclusionsObtained results confirmed differences in the structure of the β-(1,3/1,6)-glucan polymers considering side-chain length and branching frequency, as well as in quantity of β-(1,3)- and β-(1,6)-chains, however, no visible relationship was observed between the structural characteristics of the isolated polymers and its susceptibility to immunolabeling in whole cells. Presumably, other outer surface components and molecules can mask, shield, protect, or hide epitopes from antibodies. β-(1,3)-Glucan was more intensely recognized by monoclonal antibody in cells with lower trehalose and glycogen content. This suggests the need to cultivate yeast biomass under appropriate conditions to fulfil possible therapeutic functions. However, our in vitro findings should be confirmed in further studies using tissue or animal models.

Hysteresis phenomenon of the sloshing-mode resonance in a moonpool induced by rolling motion excitations

Sloshing-mode resonance in the moonpool induced by roll motion excitations is investigated numerically using the OpenFOAM® package. Nonlinear characteristics of the sloshing-mode resonance are the main focus of the present study. When the roll motion excitation has a time-invariant amplitude, a typical softening spring behavior can be observed in the variation of free surface amplitude against the excitation frequency, including the decreased resonant amplitude and the jump frequency. Furthermore, the dimensionless jump frequency is independent of the moonpool breadth and draft in this situation. The hysteresis phenomenon is clearly observed under the roll excitation with varying amplitudes, where the phase locked-in mechanism is the essential reason for this phenomenon. The hysteresis loop is located between two jump frequencies by the accelerating and decelerating excitations that generate the lower and upper branches, respectively. With the increase in moonpool breadth, the decreased upper branch frequency and unchanged lower branch frequency are observed, leading to the increased region of the hysteresis loop. The variation of the moonpool draft has an insignificant effect on the region of the hysteresis loop.

High temperature-size exclusion chromatography with triple detection to assess the molecular architecture of low-density polyethylene: Insight into branching and processability correlations.

In this study, three commercially available low-density polyethylene (LDPE) polymers produced via a tubular reactor process, with varying melt flow rates at 190°C/2.16kg (4.0, 1.9, and 0.75g/10min), have been selected and subjected to high temperature-size exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis coupled with an infrared-5 (IR-5), viscometer (VISCO), and multiangle laser light-scattering detectors. The molecular weight (MW), MW distribution, short-chain branching (SCB), and long-chain branching parameters were investigated. It was found that MW obtained by the universal technique (∼1.57-1.7 times) and multiangle laser light-scattering detection technique is (∼1.43-1.55 times) higher than that of the conventional calibration technique, which could be attributed to structural complexity associated with LDPEs which is not clearly understood by conventional SEC mode alone. The bulk SCB per 1000 total carbon atoms estimated by IR-5 detection was found to range from 16.50 to 17.80. On the other hand, long chain branching frequency per 1000 total carbon atoms obtained by online VISCO and multiangle laser light-scattering detection ranged from 0.46 to 0.54 and 0.65 to 0.94, respectively. Further, the significance of long chain branching parameters on the polymer processing behavior was studied in correlation with rheological property (Die swell ratio).

A multi-level wavelet-based underwater image enhancement network with color compensation prior

Due to the scattering of light and the influence of different water types, underwater images usually suffer from different type of hybrid degradation, e.g. color distortion, blurred details and low contrast. Existing underwater image enhancement methods are weak at handling hybrid degradation simultaneously, resulting in low quality results. Inspired by the fact that wavelet-based enhancement methods can correct color and enhance details in frequency domain and the color compensation prior can compensate missing color information in spatial domain, we design the Multi-level Wavelet-based Underwater Image Enhancement Network (MWEN) with the color compensation prior to enhance image in both frequency domain and spatial domain. Specifically, we integrate the multi-level wavelet transform and the color compensation prior into a multi-stage enhancement framework, where each stage consists of a Multi-level Wavelet-based Enhancement Module (MWEM), a Color Compensation Prior Extraction Module (CCPEM) and a color filter with prior-aware weights. The MWEM decomposes image features into low frequency and high frequency by a wavelet transform, and then enhances them by a low frequency enhancement branch and several high frequency enhancement branches, respectively. The low frequency reduces the color distortion of different water types using Instance Normalization for style transfer, while the high frequency enhancement enhances sparse details using a non-local sparse attention mechanism. After the inverse wavelet transform, the preliminary enhanced result by the MWEM is obtained. Then, the color filter whose weights are customized by the color compensation information extracted from the CCPEM dynamically is applied to output of the MWEM for color compensation. Such an operation enables network to adapt to hybrid degradation and achieve better performance. The experiments demonstrate MWEN outperforms existing UIE methods quantitatively and qualitatively.

Assessment of application of ZnO nanoparticles on physiological profile, root architecture and antioxidant potential of Solanum lycopersicum

Plant growth can be impacted by ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs), in addition to their effects on photosynthesis and seed germination. The degree to which nanoparticles (NPs) enhance or inhibit shoot and root growth can vary depending on the specific type of NPs and their concentrations. This research aimed to explore the effects of ZnO-NPs on tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.). The study measured the growth of the plants, their photosynthetic abilities, chlorophyll, physiology responses, antioxidant activities in 24-day-old plants. The results indicated that ZnO-NPs applications improved germination percentage (30.7%), shoot length (47.6%) and root length (33.1%) of the tomato plants, particularly at 75 μg/mL, and enhanced chlorophyll content in a manner proportional to the concentration. Moreover, in current research, it has been found that ZnO-NPs applications improved antioxidant response, and production of antioxidant enzymes. ZnO-NPs also had a beneficial impact on various root parameters including number of root tips (29.6%), number of branching points (16.6%), average diameter (46.2%), branching frequency (26.6%), total root length (33.1%), network area (26.3%), surface area (24.0%), perimeter (22.0%) and root volume (25.2%). Above 75 μg/mL, a reduction in all of them have been noticed, which indicates that concentrations of ZNPs above 75 μg/mL are harmful to tomato plants. Moreover, ZNPs appear to stimulate the transcription of various genes which have antioxidant activities, implying that they may bolster the plant's defense mechanism by enhancing antioxidant enzyme activity. According to our best knowledge, this is a novel aspect to study of impact of ZnO-NPs on root architecture of Solanum lycopersicum L.

Comparison of Canopy Architecture of Five Olive Cultivars in a High-Density Planting System in Sicily

In a young super-high-density (SHD) olive orchard located in Aidone (EN), in the Sicily Region, Italy, the architectural features of five olive cultivars were studied, specifically Arbequina, Arbosana, Oliana®, Giulia®, and FS-17®. Surveys were conducted in November 2019 considering biometric measurements for the whole tree, the canopy, and the primary and secondary branches. The “total branching frequency”, the “sectorial branching frequency”, the “total branching efficiency”, the “sectorial branching efficiency”, and the “total relative vigour” indexes were also calculated from the previous measurements. In addition, olive yield recorded for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 (respectively, the third, fourth, and fifth years from planting) are shown in order to provide a more exhaustive description of the features of the cultivars. Giulia® and Oliana® resulted in being more similar to Arbequina and Arbosana, presenting a compact shape of the canopy and high and regular ramification of primary and secondary branches. FS-17® showed a higher expansion in canopy volume and higher vigour than the other cultivars, features that suggest it can be more susceptible to damage during mechanical harvest. Regarding the elaborated indexes, “total branching frequency” resulted in being not statistically different among the cultivars. “Sectorial branching frequency” resulted in being higher in the middle sector of the trunk height (51–100 cm) for all the tested cultivars. This study supplies helpful information about the different canopy and branch architectural characteristics of the five studied olive cultivars with respect to their suitability to high-density plantations.

A comparison of tunnel geometry between the Formosan subterranean termite and the Asian subterranean termite (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae).

Stake surveys and in-ground monitoring stations have been widely used to study field populations of many subterranean termite species, but thus far they have never been intercepted by the invasive Asian subterranean termite, Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann), in southeastern Florida. To investigate the reasons for the inability of C. gestroi to intercept these in-ground monitoring devices, we compared its tunnel geometry with that of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki. Two-year-old incipient colonies of both species confined in simulated structural infestations were connected to planar arenas containing four wooden discs. Coptotermes formosanus colonies constructed more abundant and more complex tunnel networks and intercepted more wooden discs than C. gestroi. C. formosanus propagated shorter primary tunnels and longer secondary tunnels with more branching frequency than C. gestroi, and probably adopted an area searching strategy to search for food in an area before moving on to other areas. In comparison, C. gestroi used a distance searching strategy by constructing linear and long primary tunnels to search for food at distance. Because tunnels of C. gestroi were less abundant and they tend to travel straight for some distance, they may have bypassed survey stakes or in-ground monitoring stations that are sparsely distributed in soil. The tunnel geometry of C. gestroi may explain why none of these in-ground monitoring devices has been intercepted by this species in southeastern Florida. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Local Microtubule and F-Actin Distributions Fully Constrain the Spatial Geometry of Drosophila Sensory Dendritic Arbors.

Dendritic morphology underlies the source and processing of neuronal signal inputs. Morphology can be broadly described by two types of geometric characteristics. The first is dendrogram topology, defined by the length and frequency of the arbor branches; the second is spatial embedding, mainly determined by branch angles and straightness. We have previously demonstrated that microtubules and actin filaments are associated with arbor elongation and branching, fully constraining dendrogram topology. Here, we relate the local distribution of these two primary cytoskeletal components with dendritic spatial embedding. We first reconstruct and analyze 167 sensory neurons from the Drosophila larva encompassing multiple cell classes and genotypes. We observe that branches with a higher microtubule concentration tend to deviate less from the direction of their parent branch across all neuron types. Higher microtubule branches are also overall straighter. F-actin displays a similar effect on angular deviation and branch straightness, but not as consistently across all neuron types as microtubule. These observations raise the question as to whether the associations between cytoskeletal distributions and arbor geometry are sufficient constraints to reproduce type-specific dendritic architecture. Therefore, we create a computational model of dendritic morphology purely constrained by the cytoskeletal composition measured from real neurons. The model quantitatively captures both spatial embedding and dendrogram topology across all tested neuron groups. These results suggest a common developmental mechanism regulating diverse morphologies, where the local cytoskeletal distribution can fully specify the overall emergent geometry of dendritic arbors.

Anatomical Variations in Aortic Arch Branching Pattern: A Computed Tomography Angiography Study.

Variations in the branching pattern of the aortic arch (AA) are common. Modification of intravascular stents should be considered taking into account these AA branching variations. Identification of supra-aortic branching types and frequencies is important for specialists planning surgery in this region.In endovascular interventions to the AA, aortic stent grafts should be modified according to the variations of the branching patterns of the AA.In any surgical intervention to the region where the supra-aortic branches are located, ignorance of the variations may cause unwanted injuries or complications. In this study, 699 computed tomography angiography (CTA) images were reviewed to investigate AA branching variations using the Horos software (an open-source image viewer). Four groups were constructed based on the number of branches emerging from the aortic arch, which were further divided into subtypes. A total of 699 CTA images from 320 males and 379 females were included in this study. The usual AA branching pattern (type 3b1) was found in 68.5% of the patients. The combined prevalence of other eight branching patterns, designated as variations, was 31.5%. Variation types 1b1, 3b2, and 4b5 were identified in one patient each. Overall, types 2b1 and 2b2 had a prevalence of 28.3%. The type 2b3 variation was observed in 1.6% of the patients. The least common variations were type 4b1 (0.7%) and type 3b2 (0.1%). The identification of variations in AA branching patterns by CTA prior to surgical or endovascular interventions involving the aortic arch is important. Thus, specialists planning interventions in this region need to be aware and have knowledge of atypical aortic branching patterns. Higher prevalence rates of AA branching patterns compared to previous studies were identified in the Turkish population in this study and therefore, a comprehensive, multicenter study is needed to determine the cause of this differential finding.

PECULIARITIES OF ENDOTHELIAL DYSFUNCTION AND CAPILLARY BLOOD FLOW IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS DISEASE AND CONCOMITANT TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS

The aim of the study was to investigate the indicators of endothelial dysfunction and capillary blood flow in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and concomitant type 2 diabetes mellitus.Materials and methods. We examined 60 patients with moderate and severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Group I (main) – 30 patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with concomitant type 2 diabetes mellitus, mean age (66.70±1.47) years; Group II (comparison group) – 30 patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) without diabetes mellitus, mean age (60.13±2.21) years; control group (practically healthy) - 20 people. Nail capillaroscopy, determination of endothelin-1, D-dimer levels, and coagulation parameters were performed on the 2-3rd day after admission to the hospital.Results. In patients of both groups, a significant increase in the level of D-dimer, endothelin-1 was observed. The average values of D-dimer in patients of group I significantly exceeded the average values in patients of group II: 1543.20±254.01 ng FEU/ml and 522.74±39.45 ng FEU/ml respectively (p<0.001). During capillaroscopy in patients of group I, a high frequency of capillary branching (25.8%), bushy capillaries (25.8%) and tortuosity of capillaries (63.3%) was found, microthrombosis and microbleeding were observed more often. In patients of group II, the most common abnormalities were pericapillary edema (83.3%), capillary dilatation (36.7%), dilated and tortuous capillaries (13.3%), and hemosiderin deposits (36.7%). Conclusions. In patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with concomitant type 2 diabetes mellitus, the levels of D-dimer and endothelin-1 indicated a more pronounced endothelial dysfunction. Changes in nail capillaroscopy indicating microvascular damage associated with COVID-19 were more pronounced in patients with concomitant type 2 diabetes.

Analysis and experimental study on vibration response characteristics of mechanical harvesting of jujube

To explore the vibration energy transmission characteristics of mechanical harvesting of jujube and improve the effectiveness of vibration harvesting, the vibration response characteristics of small and densely planted Jun jujube branches were experimentally studied and evaluated. According to the agronomic requirements of mechanical harvesting of jujube, first, this paper analyzes the vibration harvesting mechanism of jujube, establishes the transverse bending vibration mechanical model of jujube branches, and obtains the sixth-order natural frequency of jujube branches through vibration frequency sweep experiments. Based on the slope scoring principle and response surface method, the impact of different excitation parameters on the jujube branch vibration effect evaluation index Pz was characterized through field experiments, and an optimized vibration effect score was obtained. The results showed that the low-order natural frequencies of small and densely planted jujube branches were mainly concentrated in the range of 6 ∼ 22 Hz, and the vibration response was the most intense at 17.5, 18.0 and 22.5 Hz, which was more conducive to vibration harvesting. By optimizing the relationship between the excitation parameters and evaluation index Pz, a better jujube branch vibration effect score of Pz = 85.63 is obtained, which provides a reference for the design and development of high-efficiency jujube vibration harvesting devices.

Role of vibrational properties and electron–phonon coupling on thermal transport across metal-dielectric interfaces with ultrathin metallic interlayers

We systematically analyze the influence of 5 nm thick metal interlayers inserted at the interface of several sets of different metal-dielectric systems to determine the parameters that most influence interface transport. Our results show that despite the similar Debye temperatures of Al2O3 and AlN substrates, the thermal boundary conductance measured for the Au/Al2O3 system with Ni and Cr interlayers is ∼2× and >3× higher than the corresponding Au/AlN system, respectively. We also show that for crystalline SiO2 (quartz) and Al2O3 substrates having highly dissimilar Debye temperature, the measured thermal boundary conductance between Al/Al2O3 and Al/SiO2 are similar in the presence of Ni and Cr interlayers. We suggest that comparing the maximum phonon frequency of the acoustic branches is a better parameter than the Debye temperature to predict the change in the thermal boundary conductance. We show that the electron–phonon coupling of the metallic interlayers also alters the heat transport pathways in a metal-dielectric system in a nontrivial way. Typically, interlayers with large electron–phonon coupling strength can increase the thermal boundary conductance by dragging electrons and phonons into equilibrium quickly. However, our results show that a Ta interlayer, having a high electron–phonon coupling, shows a low thermal boundary conductance due to the poor phonon frequency overlap with the top Al layer. Our experimental work can be interpreted in the context of diffuse mismatch theory and can guide the selection of materials for thermal interface engineering.

Synthesis of bioactive (1→6)-β-glucose branched poly-amido-saccharides that stimulate and induce M1 polarization in macrophages

β-Glucans are of significant interest due to their potent antitumor and immunomodulatory activities. Nevertheless, the difficulty in purification, structural heterogenicity, and limited solubility impede the development of structure-property relationships and translation to therapeutic applications. Here, we report the synthesis of a new class of (1→6)-β-glucose-branched poly-amido-saccharides (PASs) as β-glucan mimetics by ring-opening polymerization of a gentiobiose-based disaccharide β-lactam and its copolymerization with a glucose-based β-lactam, followed by post-polymerization deprotection. The molecular weight (Mn) and frequency of branching (FB) of PASs is readily tuned by adjusting monomer-to-initiator ratio and mole fraction of gentiobiose-lactam in copolymerization. Branched PASs stimulate mouse macrophages, and enhance production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in a FB-, dose-, and Mn-dependent manner. The stimulation proceeds via the activation of NF-κB/AP-1 pathway in a Dectin-1-dependent manner, similar to natural β-glucans. The lead PAS significantly polarizes primary human macrophages towards M1 phenotype compared to other β-glucans such as lentinan, laminarin, and curdlan.

The C-Terminal Domain of Y-Box Binding Protein 1 Exhibits Structure-Specific Binding to Poly(ADP-Ribose), Which Regulates PARP1 Activity.

Y-box-binding protein 1 (YB-1) is a multifunctional protein involved in the regulation of gene expression. Recent studies showed that in addition to its role in the RNA and DNA metabolism, YB-1 is involved in the regulation of PARP1 activity, which catalyzes poly(ADP-ribose) [PAR] synthesis under genotoxic stress through auto-poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation or protein trans-poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation. Nonetheless, the exact mechanism by which YB-1 regulates PAR synthesis remains to be determined. YB-1 contains a disordered Ala/Pro-rich N-terminal domain, a cold shock domain, and an intrinsically disordered C-terminal domain (CTD) carrying four clusters of positively charged amino acid residues. Here, we examined the functional role of the disordered CTD of YB-1 in PAR binding and in the regulation of PARP1-driven PAR synthesis in vitro. We demonstrated that the rate of PARP1-dependent synthesis of PAR is higher in the presence of YB-1 and is tightly controlled by the interaction between YB-1 CTD and PAR. Moreover, YB-1 acts as an effective cofactor in the PAR synthesis catalyzed by the PARP1 point mutants that generate various PAR polymeric structures, namely, short hypo- or hyperbranched polymers. We showed that either a decrease in chain length or an increase in branching frequency of PAR affect its binding affinity for YB-1 and YB-1–mediated stimulation of PARP1 enzymatic activity. These results provide important insight into the mechanism underlying the regulation of PARP1 activity by PAR-binding proteins containing disordered regions with clusters of positively charged amino acid residues, suggesting that YB-1 CTD-like domains may be considered PAR “readers” just as other known PAR-binding modules.