Can a Six‐Letter Alphabet Increase the Likelihood of Photochemical Assault to the Genetic Code?

In 2014, two unnatural nucleosides, d5SICS and dNaM, were shown to selectively base pair and replicate with high fidelity in a modified strain of E. coli, thus effectively expanding its genetic alphabet from four to six letters. More recently, a significant reduction in cell proliferation was reported in cells cultured with d5SICS, and putatively with dNaM, upon exposure to brief periods of near‐visible radiation. The photosensitizing properties of the lowest‐energy excited triplet state of both d5SICS and dNaM were implicated in their cytotoxicity. Importantly, however, the excited‐state mechanisms by which near‐visible excitation populates the triplet states of d5SICS and dNaM are currently unknown. In this study, steady‐state and time‐resolved spectroscopies are combined with quantum‐chemical calculations in order to reveal the excited‐state relaxation mechanisms leading to efficient population of the triplet states in these unnatural nucleosides in solution. It is shown that excitation of d5SICS or dNaM with near‐visible light leads overwhelmingly to ultrafast population of their triplet states on the femtosecond time scale. The results presented in this work lend strong support to the proposal that photoexcitation of these unnatural nucleosides can accelerate oxidatively generated damage to DNA and other biomolecules within the cellular environment.     

Asymptotic expansion homogenization of discrete fine-scale models with rotational degrees of freedom for the simulation of quasi-brittle materials

Discrete fine-scale models, in the form of either particle or lattice models, have been formulated successfully to simulate the behavior of quasi-brittle materials whose mechanical behavior is inherently connected to fracture processes occurring in the internal heterogeneous structure. These models tend to be intensive from the computational point of view as they adopt an “a priori” discretization anchored to the major material heterogeneities (e.g. grains in particulate materials and aggregate pieces in cementitious composites) and this hampers their use in the numerical simulations of large systems. In this work, this problem is addressed by formulating a general multiple scale computational framework based on classical asymptotic analysis and that (1) is applicable to any discrete model with rotational degrees of freedom; and (2) gives rise to an equivalent Cosserat continuum. The developed theory is applied to the upscaling of the Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM), a recently formulated discrete model for concrete and other quasi-brittle materials, and the properties of the homogenized model are analyzed thoroughly in both the elastic and the inelastic regime. The analysis shows that the homogenized micropolar elastic properties are size-dependent, and they are functions of the RVE size and the size of the material heterogeneity. Furthermore, the analysis of the homogenized inelastic behavior highlights issues associated with the homogenization of fine-scale models featuring strain-softening and the related damage localization. Finally, nonlinear simulations of the RVE behavior subject to curvature components causing bending and torsional effects demonstrate, contrarily to typical Cosserat formulations, a significant coupling between the homogenized stress–strain and couple-curvature constitutive equations.     

Numerical analysis of stress distribution in the upper arm tissues under an inflatable cuff: Implications for noninvasive blood pressure measurement

An inflatable cuff wrapped around the upper arm is widely used in noninvasive blood pressure measurement. However, the mechanical interaction between cuff and arm tissues, a factor that potentially affects the accuracy of noninvasive blood pressure measurement, remains rarely addressed. In the present study, finite element (FE) mod-els were constructed to quantify intra-arm stresses generated by cuff compression, aiming to provide some theoretical evi-dence for identifying factors of importance for blood pressure measurement or explaining clinical observations. Obtained results showed that the simulated tissue stresses were highly sensitive to the distribution of cuff pressure on the arm sur-face and the contact condition between muscle and bone. In contrast, the magnitude of cuff pressure and small variations in elastic properties of arm soft tissues had little influence on the efficiency of pressure transmission in arm tissues. In par-ticular, it was found that a thickened subcutaneous fat layer in obese subjects significantly reduced the effective pres-sure transmitted to the brachial artery, which may explain why blood pressure overestimation occurs more frequently in obese subjects in noninvasive blood pressure measurement.     

甲型H1N1流感的死亡率高吗——Bayes计量分析框架下的建模与估算

在全球甲型H1N1流感大流行背景下,本文在充分考虑各国甲流感死亡率可能存在个体混合效应、独立效应、相关效应及空间相关效应基础上,运用Bayes计量分析框架下的模型选择标准确定描述各国甲流感死亡率的最优模型,并基于该模型对不同国家甲流感死亡率进行估算。结果显示:个体独立、空间相关效应模型能很好拟合各国甲流感疫情统计数据,利用该模型估算的全球甲流感平均死亡率为0.577%。     

A high accuracy flow segmentation method in crowded scenes based on streakline

Flow segmentation based on similar motion patterns in crowded scenes remains an open problem in computer vision due to inherent complexity and vast diversity found in such scenes. To solve this problem, the streakline framework based on Lagrangian fluid dynamics had been proposed recently. However, this framework computed optical flow field using conventional optical flow method (Lucas Kanade method) which has poor anti-interference performance, and serious deviation would be brought to the computation of optical flow field. Moreover, our experimental results show that using the formulation of streak flow similarity in this framework can result in incorrect flow segmentation. Therefore, we combine this framework with a high accurate variational model, and modify the corresponding formulation of streak flow similarity after analyzing the streakline framework in detail. Finally, an improved method is proposed to solve flow segmentation in crowded scenes. Experiments are done to compare these two methods and results verify the validity and accuracy of our method.     

Numerical simulation of indoor suspension particles based on v-f model

This paper presents a new algorithm for the prediction of indoor suspension particle dispersion based on a v²-f model. In order to handle the near-wall turbulence anisotropy properly, which is significant in the dispersion of fine particles, the particle eddy diffusivity is calculated using different formulae among regions of the turbulent core and in the vicinity of walls. The new algorithm is validated by several cases performed in two ventilated rooms with various air distribution patterns. The simulation results reveal that v²-f nonlinear turbulence model combined with a particle convective equation gives satisfactory agreement with the experimental data. It is generally found that the dynamic equation combined with the v²-f model can properly handle low Reynolds number (LRN) flows which are usually encountered in indoor air flows and fine particle dispersion.     

Microstructure change in deuterium implanted CLAM steel induced by electron irradiation

As Reduced Activation Ferritic/Martensitic (RAFM) steel is considered the primary candidate for use as a structural material in fusion power reactors,many countries are developing different kinds of RAFM.China is developing new CLAM (China Low Activation Martensitic) steel.The study investigates microstructural changes in CLAM steel implanted with deuterium ions induced by 1250 keV electron irradiation from R.T.to 873 K,and observes both the growth and shrinkage of the defect clusters produced by deuterium ...     

Approximate and efficient calculation of dominant Lyapunov exponents of high-dimensional nonlinear dynamic systems

This short communication presents an efficient method for calculating dominant Lyapunov exponents (LEs) of high-dimensional nonlinear dynamic systems based on their reduced-order models obtained from the linear model reduction theory. Mathematical derivation shows that the LEs of the reduced-order models correspond to the dominant LEs of the original systems. Two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.     

C_(2~6)烯烃在H-ZSM-5分子筛周期性模型上吸附的理论研究

采用密度泛函理论中的PBE-D方法研究了C2~6直链烯烃以及丁烯异构体在H-ZSM-5分子筛周期性模型上的吸附行为。结果表明,对于C2~6直链烯烃,随着碳数的增加,烯烃的吸附能以-12 kJ/mol的常数线性增大,体系中色散校正能ED以-13 kJ/mol的常数线性增大,而不考虑范德华力的能量E*随碳数增加变化不大,只在C5和C6时由于空间阻力凸显而减小。ED显著大于E*,说明烯烃在分子筛孔道中吸附时范德华力起主要作用,且碳数增加其影响增大。丁烯异构体吸附能大小顺序为:反式-2-丁烯顺式-2-丁烯正丁烯异丁烯。正丁烯的3种异构体ED相近且都比正丁烯的大,3种异构体的吸附能差异由E*不同引起。差分电荷密度分析表明,烯烃双键与酸性中心之间有电子聚集,且聚集程度与π配位作用相一致,而且酸性中心H原子有质子化趋向,O原子及其周围电子增加。