Evaluation of Water Ammonium Ion Test Kit and Its Feasibility for the Analysis of Protein in Food

The traditional method for the determination of protein in food needs the operations of digestion, distillation, absorption, and titration; therefore, it is complicated and time-consuming and requires professional personnel. Is there a more convenient and faster detection method that can directly determine the ammonium ions in protein digestion solution to obtain the protein content of food and avoid the distillation–absorption–titration process? The feasibility of water ammonium ion test kits for food protein rapid detection was discussed here. After digestion, the protein in food transforms into ammonium ions in the digestion solution. Because of the variety of food, there are many different inorganic ions left in the food digestion solution, and at the same time, digestion agents are added in the digestion process and become potential interference factors in ammonium determination. Therefore, the detection accuracy of ammonium test kits needs to be evaluated first, including their anti-interference ability. The standard curve of ammonium was established by the test kit. When the ammonium concentration was 0.00–2.50 mg/L, the absorbance at 620 nm was linearly related to the ammonium concentration, the determination coefficient R² was 0.9995, and the detection limit of this method was 0.01 mg/L. The influences of temperature, pH value, and reaction time on the test kit method were discussed. The precision was 0.90–3.33%; the repeatability was 1.71–4.86%; and the recovery rate of tap water, river water, and sea water was controlled within 90–103%. The anti-interference ability of the evaluated test kit was better than that of the national standard detection method. The test kit, combined with sample pretreatment and protein conversion formula, was used to detect protein in different types of food (milk powder, rice flour, wheat flour, soy, banana, milk, fish food, chicken food, and dog food). The results showed that there were no significant differences (ρ > 0.05) between the national method and the test kit method. The ammonium ion test kit method shortened the determination time and had higher sensitivity, showing its potential for the rapid determination of food protein.     

Activation of Stimulation of Interferon Genes (STING) Signal and Cancer Immunotherapy

Stimulator of interferon gene (STING), an intracellular receptor in the endoplasmic reticulum, could induce the production of cytokines such as type I interferon (IFN) by activating the cGAS-STING signal pathway. In recent years, activation of STING has shown great potential to enhance anti-tumor immunity and reshape the tumor microenvironment, which is expected to be used in tumor immunotherapy. A number of STING agonists have demonstrated promising biological activity and showed excellent synergistic anti-tumor effects in combination with other cancer therapies in preclinical studies and some clinical trials. The combination of STING agonists and ICI also showed a potent effect in improving anti-tumor immunity. In this review, we introduce the cGAS-STING signaling pathway and its effect in tumor immunity and discuss the recent strategies of activation of the STING signaling pathway and its research progress in tumor immunotherapy.     

Cloning, Expression and Purification of Wheat Acetyl-CoA Carboxylases CT Domain in E.coil

The entire gene of carboxyltransferase(CT) domain of acetyl-CoA carboxylase(ACCase) from Chinese Spring wheat(CSW) plastid was cloned firstly,and the 2.3 kb gene was inserted into PET28a+ vector and expressed in E.coil in a soluble state.The (His)6 fusion protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot.The recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography,and the calculated molecular mass(Mr) was 88000.The results of the sequence analysis indicate that the cloned gene(GeneBank accession No.EU124675) was a supplement and revision of the reported ACCase CT partial cDNA from Chinese Spring wheat plastid.The recombinant protein will be significant for us to investigate the recognizing mechanism between ACCase and herbicides,and further to screen new herbicides.     

近江牡蛎受精细胞学研究

用醋酸──地衣红染色的方法对近江牡蛎人工授精的卵子减数分裂和受精过程进行了详细的细胞学观察．精子入卵前，卵子处于第一次减数分裂的前期（胚泡期），精子入卵后，胚泡消失，然后进行两次减数分裂，在海水温度为２８．８℃的情况下，授精后３３ｍｉｎ和４５ｍｉｎ，绝大部分受精卵已排出第一极体和第二极体，雄原核可在第一极体排出后及第二极体排出前任何时期内形成，雌雄原核以联合的方式将两组染色体合并，授精后１ｈ，大部分卵子完成第一次卵裂．在２５℃和２６℃授精的情况下，观察到了较多的多精入卵的现象．卵子发育的非同步性现象非常明显．     

The stability analysis of rolling motion of hypersonic vehicles and its validations

The stability of the rolling motion of near space hypersonic vehicles with rudder control is studied using method of qualitative analysis of nonlinear differential equations, and the stability criteria of the deflected rolling motions are improved. The outcomes can serve as the basis for further study regarding the influence of pitching and lateral motion on the stability of rolling motion. To validate the theoretical results, numerical simulations were done for the rolling motion of two hypersonic vehicles with typical configurations. Also, wind tunnel experiments for four aircraft models with typical configurations have been done. The results show that: 1) there exist two dynamic patterns of the rolling motion under statically stable condition. The first one is point attractor, for which the motion of aircraft returns to the original state. The second is periodic attractor, for which the aircraft rolls periodically. 2) Under statically unstable condition, there exist three dynamic patterns of rolling motion, namely, the point attractor, periodic attractor around deflected state of rolling motion, and double periodic attractors or chaotic attractors.     

基于一维标定物和改进进化策略的相机标定

为了解决运动参数光电探测过程中的相机标定问题,制作一种两端及中间各安装一个红外反光标记球的一维标定物.不需要其它复杂标定装置,只要将这种特制的一维标定物在测量空间内多次随意移动并摄取其图像,即可实现标定.算法首先假定主点位于像面中心附近的某个位置,再求出焦距、旋转矩阵、平移向量和比例因子,最后通过评价函数将相机标定转换成寻找两相机最佳主点对的非线性最小化问题.在传统进化策略中引进个体的自我改进系数、个体间距离等概念,提出了求取子代个体间的欧式距离并排序的方法,设计了搜索最佳主点对的改进型进化策略算法.与传统标定方法相比,基于一维标定物的方法克服了多相机场合的遮挡问题,改进进化策略的引入打破了一维标定物需做某种特殊运动的限制,使一维标定物自由运动时相机内、外参数的同时求解成为可能,改进的模拟退火进化策略改善了算法的全局收敛性能并加快了收敛速度.     

Security analysis of a spatiotemporal-chaos-based cryptosystem

An S-box modified one-way coupled map lattice is applied as a chaotic cryptograph. The security of the system is evaluated from various attacks currently used, including those based on error function analysis, statistical property analysis, and known-plaintext and chosen-ciphertext analytical computations. It is found that none of the above attacks can be better than the brute force attack of which the cost is exhaustively quantitated by the key number in the key space. Also, the system has fairly fast encryption (decryption) speed, and has extremely long period for finite-precision computer realization of chaos. It is thus argued that this chaotic cryptosystem can be a hopeful candidate for realistic service of secure communications.     

石墨烯纳米带电极区N掺杂电子输运性质研究

运用密度泛函理论和非平衡格林函数结合的方法,研究电极区N掺杂对扶手椅型石墨烯纳米带电子输运特性的影响.结果表明,与本征扶手椅型石墨烯纳米带电流-电压曲线相比,宽度为7的石墨烯纳米带电流-电压曲线表现出明显的不对称性,其中心N掺杂表现强烈的整流特性,整流系数达到102数量级,且将N原子从电极区中心位置移动到边缘,整流特性减弱.研究结果表明宽度为7的扶手椅型石墨烯纳米带出现强整流现象的原因主要是负向偏压下能量窗内没有透射峰引起的,该研究结果对将来石墨烯整流器件的设计具有重要的意义.     

Tomatidine-stimulated maturation of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for modeling mitochondrial dysfunction

Human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) have been reported to exhibit immature embryonic or fetal cardiomyocyte-like phenotypes. To enhance the maturation of hESC-CMs, we identified a natural steroidal alkaloid, tomatidine, as a new substance that stimulates the maturation of hESC-CMs. Treatment of human embryonic stem cells with tomatidine during cardiomyocyte differentiation stimulated the expression of several cardiomyocyte-specific markers and increased the density of T-tubules. Furthermore, tomatidine treatment augmented the number and size of mitochondria and enhanced the formation of mitochondrial lamellar cristae. Tomatidine treatment stimulated mitochondrial functions, including mitochondrial membrane potential, oxidative phosphorylation, and ATP production, in hESC-CMs. Tomatidine-treated hESC-CMs were more sensitive to doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity than the control cells. In conclusion, the present study suggests that tomatidine promotes the differentiation of stem cells to adult cardiomyocytes by accelerating mitochondrial biogenesis and maturation and that tomatidine-treated mature hESC-CMs can be used for cardiotoxicity screening and cardiac disease modeling.Subject terms: Heart failure, Embryonic stem cells, Stem-cell differentiation     

Bioactive Components and Anticancer Activities of Spray-Dried New Zealand Tamarillo Powder

Tamarillo fruit contains many phytochemicals that have beneficial therapeutic and nutritional properties. Spray-drying is widely used to preserve fruit puree in powder form. However, to obtain high-quality fruit powder, the optimisation of spray-drying conditions is necessary, as a high drying temperature can damage sensitive bioactive compounds. This study investigated the effects of spray-drying on the microstructure, polyphenolics, total flavonoids, total carotenoids, antioxidant activity, and anticancer capacity of tamarillo powder. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimise the spray-drying process to produce tamarillo powder. The independent variables were inlet drying temperature (120–160 °C), flow rate (1–5 g/mL), and maltodextrin concentration (0–10%). These variables influenced the microstructural attributes, bioactive components, and cytotoxicity of the spray-dried tamarillo powder. The increase in polyphenols and antioxidant activities were favoured under high-temperature spray drying conditions and a low carrier concentration. The optimised spray-drying conditions for producing tamarillo powder with high antioxidant and anticancer activities, high yield, and stable bioactive compounds were found to be at 146.8 °C inlet temperature, and a flow rate of 1.76 g/mL.