PIKfyve,a Class III PI Kinase,Is the Target of the Small Molecular IL-12/IL-23 Inhibitor Apilimod and a Player in Toll-like Receptor Signaling

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Piper nigrum: Micropropagation, Antioxidative enzyme activities, and Chromatographic Fingerprint Analysis for Quality Control

A reliable in vitro regeneration system for the economical and medicinally important Piper nigrum L. has been established. Callus and shoot regeneration was encouraged from leaf portions on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium augmented with varied concentrations of plant growth regulators. A higher callus production (90 %) was observed in explants incubated on MS medium incorporated with 1.0 mg?L^?1 6-benzyladenine (BA) along with 0.5 mg?L^?1 gibberellic acid after 4 weeks of culture. Moreover, a callogenic response of 85 % was also recorded for 1.0 mg?L^?1 BA in combination with 0.25 mg?L^?1 α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 0.25 mg?L^?1 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid or 0.5 mg?L^?1 indole butyric acid (IBA) along with 0.25 mg?L^?1 NAA and indole acetic acid. Subsequent sub-culturing of callus after 4 weeks of culture onto MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg?L^?1 thiodiazoran or 1.5 mg?L^?1 IBA induced 100 % shoot response. Rooted plantlets were achieved on medium containing varied concentrations of auxins. The antioxidative enzyme activities [superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX)] revealed that significantly higher SOD was observed in regenerated plantlets than in other tissues. However, POD, CAT, and APX were higher in callus than in other tissues. A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint analysis protocol was established for quality control in different in vitro-regenerated tissues of P. nigrum L. During analysis, most of the common peaks represent the active principle “piperine.” The chemical contents, especially piperine, showed variation from callus culture to whole plantlet regeneration. Based on the deviation in chromatographic peaks, the in vitro-regenerated plantlets exhibit a nearly similar piperine profile to acclimated plantlets. The in vitro regeneration system and HPLC fingerprint analysis established here brought a novel approach to the quality control of in vitro plantlets, producing metabolites of interest with substantial applications for the conservation of germplasm.     

An alternative realization of 't Hooft's quantum determinism

We present an alternative to 't Hooft's mechanism relating a deterministic system to a 1D quantum oscillator. We argue that it is possible to map 't Hooft's ontological space onto an irreducible representation of a 2D isotropic oscillator. A direct group contraction procedure can then be applied to achieve the correspondence.     

Extraction of iron(III) with diphenyl-2-pyridylmethane dissolved in benzene from aqueous chloride solutions

The mechanism of extraction has been investigated by partition, slope analysis and loading-ratio data. The results obtained give a picture of the mechanism of extraction of FeCl ₄ ⁻ ions in relation to the hydration and solvation of the compound extracted. The possible formula of the extracted species is (DPPM)₃H₃O⁺(H₂O)_n−FeCl ₄ ⁻ . In dilute aqueous hydrochloric acid systems the influence of the concentration of a number of salts with cations of different electrical potentials (Ze/r), on iron(III) extraction, has been studied. Splitting of the organic phases occurs at high acid and/or high salt concentrations. The phenomenon is explained on the basis of the variability of the hydration number. Investigations have been made to understand the parameters controlling the extraction of the metal and its is shown that the extraction offers a simple, fast and selective separation method of iron from solutions.     

Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of novel oxysterols from lanosterol

Chemically diverse oxysterols and their synthetic manipulations were carried out from variety of Δ⁸⁽⁹⁾-lanosterol derivatives and evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activities. Most of the synthesized oxysterols exhibited significant antifungal activity against the tested strains.     

Single-cell protein analysis of a single mouse embryo by two-dimensional capillary electrophoresis

The characterization of protein expression from a single-cell mouse embryo using two-dimensional capillary electrophoresis (2D-CE) is described. These zygotes were obtained from Hsf1 gene knockout mice. Single zygotes were lysed off-column and proteins were fluorescently labeled using the fluorogenic dye 3-(2-furoyl)quinoline-2-carboxaldehyde (FQ). After injection, analytes were separated first according to molecular weight using capillary sieving electrophoresis (CSE) and then by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) to obtain protein expression fingerprints. Analytes were detected in a sheath flow cuvette using laser-induced fluorescence. In a 1-h 2D-CE separation, over 100 components were resolved with a spot capacity of 380.     

A Critical Review on Physical Vapor Deposition Coatings Applied on Different Engine Components

Friction and wear in different engine components have crucial effects on the engine performance, combustion efficiency, oil consumption and lifetime of the internal combustion (IC) engine. Under certain loads, speeds, and temperatures, the metallic components of the IC engine, especially the piston and valve system suffer from a higher friction. Thin film coating is one of the novel techniques to reduce the frictional forces and improve the mechanical properties of engine components. Due to some versatile tribological properties, increasing attention has been paid to the physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology in the recent decade to deposit thin film coating on engine components. This article presents a comprehensive literature review on thin film coatings for IC engine components deposited by PVD technique. Issues related to tribological properties (wear and coefficient of friction) and mechanical properties (hardness and roughness) are also highlighted. Scientific improvements are presented in the light of literature. It is revealed that PVD coating is significantly effective on wear resistance, scuffling resistance, surface roughness, and friction of the components in IC engine. Laboratory test and data from actual service so far suggest that the plasma-activated electron beam evaporation coating is perhaps one of the best choices for smooth surface finishing with improved mechanical and tribological properties. However, there are still some problems in its practical usage. This compressive review paper presents the major shortcomings of PVD coatings on IC engine components and the possible solutions if any. Finally, a number of issues have been reported which need to be encountered for further studies.     

SER estimation method for 56 GBaud PAM-4 transmission system

In this Letter, we have proposed a generalized Gaussian probability density function(GGPDF)-based method to estimate the symbol error ratio(SER) for pulse amplitude modulation(PAM-4) in an intensity modulation/direct detection(IM/DD) system. Furthermore, a closed form expression of SERGGDfor PAM-4 has been derived. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through simulation as well as experimental work.The fitting of probability density functions of the received signal is applied via GGPDF and shape parameters P1 and P2 associated with different PAM-4 levels are determined. The optimum single value of shape parameter P is then calculated to estimate the SER. The mathematical relationship of P with different received optical powers and receiver bandwidths has been determined and verified. The proposed method is a fast and accurate method to estimate SER of a PAM-4 system, which is more reliable and in agreement with the error counting method.     

金属-介质-金属渔网超表面结构调控的荧光辐射：空间选择性激发和双增强

增强荧光辐射在生物成像、高灵敏探测、集成光源等方面都具有重要的应用价值.金属纳米颗粒的周围或者金属纳米结构的间隙都可以产生强的电磁场,相应的,这些结构附近的局域态密度也被极大地增强.虽然增强荧光辐射已经在多种金属纳米颗粒和颗粒对中被证明,但是利用金属纳米结构对荧光分子的吸收和辐射过程同时进行调制仍然是一个有挑战的问题.本文研究了金属-介质-金属超表面对荧光辐射的调控,其中局域表面等离激元(LSP)和磁等离激元(MPP)分別与于分子的吸收和辐射过程发中耦合相互作用.对于吸收过程,LSP的耦合作用使得可以通过旋转泵浦激光的偏振态来实现荧光分子的空间选择激发.此外,MPP模式的偏振依赖特性使得矩形渔网结构中的荧光分子的辐射波长和偏振态也受到调控.实验观测结果经过了时域有限差分模拟的验证.本文报道的纳米结构在光辐射器件和纳米尺度集成光源等方面都具有潜在的应用价值.     

Fluorescence Emission Mediated by Metal-Dielectric-Metal Fishnet Metasurface: Spatially Selective Excitation and Double Enhancement

Enhancement of fluorescent radiation is of great importance for applications including biological imaging, high-sensitivity detectors, and integrated light sources. Strong electromagnetic fields can be created around metallic nanoparticles or in gap of nanostructures, where the local state density of radiating mode is then dramatically enhanced. While enhanced fluorescent emission has been demonstrated in many metallic nanoparticles and nanoparticle pairs, simultaneous mediation of absorption and emission processes of fluorescent emitters remains challenging in metallic nanostructures. Here, we investigate fluorescent emission mediated by metal-dielectric-metal fishnet metasurface, in which localized surface plasmon (LSP) and magnetic plasmon polaritons (MPPs) modes are coupled with absorption and emission processes, respectively. For absorption process, coupling of the LSP mode enables spatially-selective excitation of the fluorescent emitters by rotating the polarization of the pump laser beam. In addition, the polarization-dependent MPP mode enables manipulation of both polarization and wavelength of the fluorescent emission by introducing a rectangular fishnet structure. All the experimental observations are further corroborated by finite-difference time-domain simulations. The structure reported here has great potentialfor application to color light-emitting devices and nanoscale integrated light sources.