Eu3+-activated red phosphor Ca3YAl3B4O15 with low thermal quenching behaviour

This paper reports a sequence of a Ca₃YAl₃B₄O₁₅:xEu³⁺ red phosphor prepared using a high-temperature solid-state reaction. At the excitation of 396 nm, the samples emitted intense red emission centred at ~623 nm, which could be attributed to the ⁵D₀→⁷F₂ transition of the Eu³⁺ ion. The results showed that the optimum Eu³⁺ doping concentration of Ca₃YAl₃B₄O₁₅:Eu³⁺ phosphor was x = 80 mol%, and the concentration quenching mechanism of Ca₃YAl₃B₄O₁₅:Eu³⁺ red phosphor belonged to the exchange coupling between Eu³⁺ ions. The Commission Internationale de l'éclairage (CIE) coordinates and colour purity of Ca₃Y_0.2Al₃B₄O₁₅:0.8Eu³⁺ were calculated as (0.6375, 0.3476) and 95.5%, respectively. Moreover, the red emission of the obtained phosphor Ca₃YAl₃B₄O₁₅:0.8Eu³⁺ exhibited a low thermal quenching behaviour with an intensity retention rate of 92.85% at 150°C. The above results manifest that the Eu³⁺-activated Ca₃YAl₃B₄O₁₅ phosphor is predicted to be a promising red luminescent component for white light-emitting diodes.     

来源于嗜热氢化杆菌的新型对苯二甲酸双(羟乙)酯水解酶的表达纯化与酶学性质

石化来源的聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯(polyethylene terephthalate,PET)被广泛用于矿泉水瓶、食品包装和纺织品等领域,因其在自然界中不易分解,大量使用后的PET废弃物造成了严重的环境污染与资源浪费。使用生物酶法对PET废弃物进行解聚,并对解聚产物进行升级循环利用是进行塑料污染治理的重要方向之一,其中关键的是PET水解酶的解聚效率。对苯二甲酸双(羟乙基)酯(bis(hydroxyethyl)terephthalate,BHET)是PET生物酶解的中间产物,其累积是限制PET水解酶催化效率的一个重要因素,BHET水解酶和PET水解酶的联用能提升PET的整体水解效率。来源于嗜热氢化杆菌(Hydrogenobacter thermophilus)的双烯内酯酶(HtBHETase)对BHET有显著水解效果,将该酶在大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli)中进行重组表达并纯化后,对其酶学性质进行了研究。结果显示,HtBHETase对短碳链的酯类如对硝基苯酚乙酸酯催化活性较高,HtBHETase以BHET为底物时的最适反应pH值和最适反应温度分别为5.0和55℃;该酶有较好的热稳定性,经80℃的条件处理1 h仍能保持80%以上活性,显示出了良好的热稳定性,HtBHETase有在PET塑料生物解聚中使用的潜力,本研究为推动生物酶法降解PET提供了新的参考。     

RagA和Nprl2在果蝇肠道发育中的调节作用关系

动物胃肠道是食物消化和营养吸收器官,对机体健康至关重要。果蝇与哺乳动物的肠道在细胞组成、遗传调控等方面高度相似,是研究肠道发育的良好模型。体外培养细胞中的研究发现,Nprl2通过作用于Rag GTPase,抑制雷帕霉素靶点复合物1(target of rapamycin complex 1,TORC1)的活性,参与细胞代谢的调节。前期报道nprl2突变果蝇具有前胃增大、消化能力降低等肠道衰老相关表型。但对于Nprl2是否通过Rag GTPase调控肠道发育等方面尚不清楚。为了探究Rag GTPase在Nprl2调控果蝇肠道发育中的作用,本研究利用遗传杂交结合免疫荧光等方法对RagA敲减和nprl2突变果蝇的肠道形态、肠道细胞组成等方面进行研究。发现单独敲减RagA可以引起肠变粗、前胃增大等表型,敲减RagA能挽救nprl2突变体中肠道变细、分泌型细胞减少的表型,但并不能挽救nprl2突变体中前胃增大的表型。以上结果表明,RagA在肠道发育中发挥重要作用,Nprl2通过作用于Rag GTPase调节肠道细胞分化和肠道形态,但Nprl2对前胃发育和肠道的消化功能的调节可能通过不依赖于Rag GTPase的机制实现。     

一种基于流式细胞术的牛多细胞因子检测方法

本研究旨在建立一种基于流式细胞术的牛多细胞因子检测方法。对前期制备并筛选出的针对牛细胞因子IFN-γ、IL-2、TNF-α、IP-10和MCP-1的单克隆抗体进行荧光标记,与细胞表面分子抗体组合搭配,进行牛多细胞因子流式检测方法的建立和优化。随后利用建立的方法进行BCG体外感染牛外周血单个核细胞的细胞因子表达规律测定,并结合CFP10-ESAT6蛋白刺激剂评价上述细胞因子作为牛结核诊断标识的潜力。建立的牛多细胞因子流式检测方法可以有效测定BCG感染牛外周血T淋巴细胞的细胞因子表达,其中IFN-γ、IL-2、TNF-α在感染40h后持续上升,而IP-10和MCP-1表达水平呈现下降趋势;对于牛外周血CD4⁺T淋巴细胞IFN-γ、IL-2、TNF-α的联合检测能有效区分牛结核阳性和阴性样品。这一方法为牛病原菌感染、疫苗注射后细胞免疫应答水平评价以及疫病诊断提供了重要技术手段。     

法尼醇X受体激动剂细胞筛选体系的建立与优化

本研究旨在建立一种基于双荧光素酶报告基因检测体系的法尼醇X受体(farnesoid X receptor, FXR)激动剂细胞筛选体系,以满足对FXR激动剂先导化合物的高通量筛选。通过在报告基因质粒pGL4-luc2P-Hygro中的萤火虫荧光素酶(firefly luciferase,Luc)基因上游克隆并插入来自FXR靶基因的FXR反应元件(FXR response element,FXRE)片段,构建用于筛选FXR激动剂的报告基因质粒,并结合海肾荧光素酶内参质粒,建立能够有效反映药物对FXR激动效应的双荧光素酶报告基因细胞检测体系。通过一系列优化实验,比较了过表达RXR、鼠源和人源FXR、不同的FXRE片段、FXR过表达质粒与报告基因质粒的混合比对筛选体系诱导效率和灵敏度的影响。根据上述结果,最终确定了优化条件,优化后体系Z因子达到0.83。本研究建立了一种用于FXR激动剂筛选的改良的基于双荧光素酶报告基因检测体系的细胞筛选体系,其主要特征在于,使用多段FXR靶基因上的FXRE片段叠加组成一种新型的增强型FXRE元件,而非传统的反向重复序列-1 (inverted repeats...     

Latent group detection in functional partially linear regression models

In this paper, we propose a functional partially linear regression model with latent group structures to accommodate the heterogeneous relationship between a scalar response and functional covariates. The proposed model is motivated by a salinity tolerance study of barley families, whose main objective is to detect salinity tolerant barley plants. Our model is flexible, allowing for heterogeneous functional coefficients while being efficient by pooling information within a group for estimation. We develop an algorithm in the spirit of the K-means clustering to identify latent groups of the subjects under study. We establish the consistency of the proposed estimator, derive the convergence rate and the asymptotic distribution, and develop inference procedures. We show by simulation studies that the proposed method has higher accuracy for recovering latent groups and for estimating the functional coefficients than existing methods. The analysis of the barley data shows that the proposed method can help identify groups of barley families with different salinity tolerant abilities.     

Elastic priors to dynamically borrow information from historical data in clinical trials

Use of historical data and real-world evidence holds great potential to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. One major challenge is to effectively borrow information from historical data while maintaining a reasonable type I error and minimal bias. We propose the elastic prior approach to address this challenge. Unlike existing approaches, this approach proactively controls the behavior of information borrowing and type I errors by incorporating a well-known concept of clinically significant difference through an elastic function, defined as a monotonic function of a congruence measure between historical data and trial data. The elastic function is constructed to satisfy a set of prespecified criteria such that the resulting prior will strongly borrow information when historical and trial data are congruent, but refrain from information borrowing when historical and trial data are incongruent. The elastic prior approach has a desirable property of being information borrowing consistent, that is, asymptotically controls type I error at the nominal value, no matter that historical data are congruent or not to the trial data. Our simulation study that evaluates the finite sample characteristic confirms that, compared to existing methods, the elastic prior has better type I error control and yields competitive or higher power. The proposed approach is applicable to binary, continuous, and survival endpoints.     

Surface imprinted bio-nanocomposites for affinity separation of a cellular DNA repair protein

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) is a multifunctional DNA repair protein localized in different subcellular compartments. The mechanisms responsible for the highly regulated subcellular localization and “interactomes” of this protein are not fully understood but have been closely correlated to the posttranslational modifications in different biological context. In this work, we attempted to develop a bio-nanocomposite with antibody-like properties that could capture APE1 from cellular matrices to enable the comprehensive study of this protein. By fixing the template APE1 on the avidin-modified surface of silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles, we first added 3-aminophenylboronic acid to react with the glycosyl residues of avidin, followed by addition of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid as the second functional monomer to perform the first step imprinting reaction. To further enhance the affinity and selectivity of the binding sites, we carried out the second step imprinting reaction with dopamine as the functional monomer. After the polymerization, we modified the nonimprinted sites with methoxypoly (ethylene glycol) amine (mPEG-NH₂). The resulting molecularly imprinted polymer-based bio-nanocomposite showed high affinity, specificity, and capacity for template APE1. It allowed for the extraction of APE1 from the cell lysates with high recovery and purity. Moreover, the bound protein could be effectively released from the bio-nanocomposite with high activity. The bio-nanocomposite offers a very useful tool for the separation of APE1 from various complex biological samples.     

Rhizosphere effect of nanoscale zero-valent iron on mycorrhiza-dependent maize assimilation

Rhizosphere effect of nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) is crucial but little reported. Maize seeds were dressed with four nZVI concentrations (0, 1.0, 1.5, 2 g kg⁻¹) and inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) (Funneliformis mosseae). The SEM images illuminated that excessive nZVI particles (2 g kg⁻¹) were agglomerated on the surface of hyphae and spore, causing severe deformation and inactivation of AMF symbionts and thereafter inhibiting water uptake in maize seedlings. This restrained the scavenging effects of enzymatic (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase) and non-enzymatic compounds (proline & malondialdehyde) on ROS, and leaf photoreduction activity and gas exchange ability (p < 0.05). Interestingly, the inoculation with AMF effectively alleviated above negative effects. In contrast, appropriate dose of nZVI, that is, ≤1.5 g kg⁻¹, can be evenly distributed on the hyphae surface and form the ordered symbionts with AMF. This help massively to enhance hyphae growth and water and nutrient uptake. The enhanced mycorrhizal infection turned to promote rhizosphere symbiont activity and leaf Rubisco and Rubisco activase activity. Light compensation point was massively lowered, which increased photosynthetic carbon supply for AMF symbionts. Particularly, such priming effects were evidently enhanced by drought stress. Our findings provided a novel insight into functional role of nZVI in agriculture and AMF-led green production.     

开垦对阿拉善荒漠啮齿动物群落功能多样性的影响

开垦会导致荒漠化的加剧,并对动物群落产生严重的影响。而功能多样性恰恰能体现环境或干扰胁迫导致的群落结构差异。但有关啮齿动物群落功能多样性的研究并不多见,为此,我们在2018至2020年的4月、7月和10月利用铗日法对开垦区和未开垦区的啮齿动物群落进行调查,选择并量化了与其营养、生活史、生理、形态及活动节律等相关的5个功能性状,以探讨开垦对啮齿动物群落组成的影响,以及性状组成和功能多样性变化。研究结果表明：(1)开垦区群落的丰富度指数、多样性指数和均匀度指数均低于未开垦区,开垦改变了啮齿动物群落性状组成;(2)阿拉善荒漠啮齿动物群落组成与蛰眠、繁殖周期和食性等功能性状显著相关;(3)开垦区春、秋季群落功能丰富度和功能均匀度高于未开垦区,各季节群落功能离散度显著高于未开垦区;而未开垦区夏季群落功能丰富度高于开垦区,秋季群落功能均匀度高于开垦区;(4)开垦区和未开垦区群落功能丰富度最高值均出现在夏季,二者在不同季节间差异较大;开垦区群落功能均匀度最高值出现在春季、功能离散度最高值出现在秋季,二者在季节间差异均较小;未开垦群落功能均匀度最高值出现在秋季、功能离散度最高值出现在夏季,二者在季节间差异均较大。上述结果说明,阿拉善荒漠区啮齿动物群落功能多样性变化与土地开垦和季节相关联,开垦会从啮齿动物群落的生态空间利用程度、资源利用、种间竞争及生态位等方面影响群落功能多样性。