A Noise Level Prediction Method Based on Electro-Mechanical Frequency Response Function for Capacitors

The capacitors in high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) converter stations radiate a lot of audible noise which can reach higher than 100 dB. The existing noise level prediction methods are not satisfying enough. In this paper, a new noise level prediction method is proposed based on a frequency response function considering both electrical and mechanical characteristics of capacitors. The electro-mechanical frequency response function (EMFRF) is defined as the frequency domain quotient of the vibration response and the squared capacitor voltage, and it is obtained from impulse current experiment. Under given excitations, the vibration response of the capacitor tank is the product of EMFRF and the square of the given capacitor voltage in frequency domain, and the radiated audible noise is calculated by structure acoustic coupling formulas. The noise level under the same excitations is also measured in laboratory, and the results are compared with the prediction. The comparison proves that the noise prediction method is effective.     

Allyl Isothiocyanate Ameliorates Angiogenesis and Inflammation in Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Acute Colitis

Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) is a phytochemical found in cruciferous vegetables that has known chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activities. Thus far, the antiangiogenic activity of AITC has not been reported in in vivo studies. Herein, we investigated the effect of AITC on angiogenesis and inflammation in a mouse model of colitis. Experimental colitis was induced in mice by administering 3% dextran sulfate sodium via drinking water. To monitor the activity of AITC in this model, we measured body weight, disease activity indices, histopathological scores, microvascular density, myeloperoxidase activity, F4/80 staining, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A/VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) expression in the mice. We found that AITC-treated mice showed less weight loss, fewer clinical signs of colitis, and longer colons than vehicle-treated mice. AITC treatment also significantly lessened the disruption of colonic architecture that is normally associated with colitis and repressed the microvascularization response. Further, AITC treatment reduced both leukocyte recruitment and macrophage infiltration into the inflamed colon, and the mechanism these activities involved repressing iNOS and COX-2 expression. Finally, AITC attenuated the expression of VEGF-A and VEGFR2. Thus, AITC may have potential application in treating conditions marked by inflammatory-driven angiogenesis and mucosal inflammation.     

Phrasal Paraphrase Based Question Reformulation for Archived Question Retrieval

Lexical gap in cQA search, resulted by the variability of languages, has been recognized as an important and widespread phenomenon. To address the problem, this paper presents a question reformulation scheme to enhance the question retrieval model by fully exploring the intelligence of paraphrase in phrase-level. It compensates for the existing paraphrasing research in a suitable granularity, which either falls into fine-grained lexical-level or coarse-grained sentence-level. Given a question in natural language, our scheme first detects the involved key-phrases by jointly integrating the corpus-dependent knowledge and question-aware cues. Next, it automatically extracts the paraphrases for each identified key-phrase utilizing multiple online translation engines, and then selects the most relevant reformulations from a large group of question rewrites, which is formed by full permutation and combination of the generated paraphrases. Extensive evaluations on a real world data set demonstrate that our model is able to characterize the complex questions and achieves promising performance as compared to the state-of-the-art methods.     

A Novel Optimization of Water-Soluble Compound Polysaccharides from Chinese Herbal Medicines by Quantitative Theory and Study on Its Characterization and Antioxidant Activities

The present study optimized the extraction characterization and antioxidant activities of water-soluble compound polysaccharides (CPs) from hawthorn, lotus leaf, Fagopyrum tataricum, semen cassiae, Lycium barbarum, and Poria cocos Chinese herbal medicines that have mass ratios of 4 : 2 : 2 : 1.5 : 1 : 1. The CPs yield equation was predicted using quantitative theory, to which a maximum CPs yield of 7.18±0.24 % under the following optimal extraction conditions: a water-to-raw material ratio of 30 mL/g, an extraction temperature of 65 °C, an extraction time of 45 min, and extraction mode ultrasonic-assistant extraction. CPs were consisted of Ara, Gal, Glc, Xyl, Man, GalA and GlcA in a molar ratio of 3.1 : 2.6 : 50.6 : 1.7 : 20.4 : 17.2 : 4.2. The HPGPC profiles and FT-IR spectra implied that CPs were heterogeneous acidic polysaccharides and possessed the β-d -pyranose configuration. Congo red test, CD spectrum and SEM revealed that CPs with three helix conformation showed a flocculent, granulous or sheet-like appearance. Furthermore, the relationships between antioxidant activity and concentration of CPs displayed significant positive correlation, and the scavenging abilities for DPPH, hydroxyl radical, ABTS, superoxide-anion radical and reducing power of CPs were 93.56±2.51 %, 84.03±1.69 %, 83.29±1.93 %, 37.49±1.93 % and 0.467±0.006 at a concentration of 4.0 mg/mL. Therefore, CPs could be applied as a potential natural antioxidant in pharmaceutical or functional food fields.     

Splicing factor SRSF3 represses the translation of programmed cell death 4 mRNA by associating with the 5′-UTR region

Serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 3 (SRSF3), a member of the serine/arginine (SR)-rich family of proteins, regulates both alternative splicing of pre-mRNA and export of mature mRNA from the nucleus. Although its role in nuclear mRNA processing is well understood, the mechanism by which it alters the fate of cytoplasmic mRNA molecules remains elusive. Here, we provide evidence that SRSF3 not only regulates the alternative splicing pattern of programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) mRNA, but also modulates its translational efficiency in the cytoplasm by lowering translation levels. We observed a marked increase in PDCD4 mRNA in translating polysome fractions upon silencing of SRSF3, and, conversely, ectopic overexpression of SRSF3 shifted PDCD4 mRNA into non-translating ribosomal fractions. In live cells, SRSF3 colocalized with PDCD4 mRNA in P-bodies (PBs), where translationally silenced mRNAs are deposited, and this localization was abrogated upon SRSF3 silencing. Furthermore, using two different reporter systems, we showed that SRSF3 interacts directly with PDCD4 mRNA and mediates translational repression by binding to the 5′-untranslated region (5′-UTR). In summary, our data suggest that the oncogenic potential of SRSF3 might be realized, in part, through the translational repression of PDCD4 mRNA.     

Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)-induced Mitochondrial Motility Arrest and Presynaptic Docking Contribute to BDNF-enhanced Synaptic Transmission

Appropriate mitochondrial transport and distribution are essential for neurons because of the high energy and Ca²⁺ buffering requirements at synapses. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an essential role in regulating synaptic transmission and plasticity. However, whether and how BDNF can regulate mitochondrial transport and distribution are still unclear. Here, we find that in cultured hippocampal neurons, application of BDNF for 15 min decreased the percentage of moving mitochondria in axons, a process dependent on the activation of the TrkB receptor and its downstream PI3K and phospholipase-Cγ signaling pathways. Moreover, the BDNF-induced mitochondrial stopping requires the activation of transient receptor potential canonical 3 and 6 (TRPC3 and TRPC6) channels and elevated intracellular Ca²⁺ levels. The Ca²⁺ sensor Miro1 plays an important role in this process. Finally, the BDNF-induced mitochondrial stopping leads to the accumulation of more mitochondria at presynaptic sites. Mutant Miro1 lacking the ability to bind Ca²⁺ prevents BDNF-induced mitochondrial presynaptic accumulation and synaptic transmission, suggesting that Miro1-mediated mitochondrial motility is involved in BDNF-induced mitochondrial presynaptic docking and neurotransmission. Together, these data suggest that mitochondrial transport and distribution play essential roles in BDNF-mediated synaptic transmission.