Taxonomic notes on the
species from China are provided. Two new species,
Yao & Liu,
and
Yao & Liu,
are described and illustrated, and a further three species are redescribed based on their genitalic ...characters:
Tang, Yin, Ubick & Peng, 2008,
Tang, Yin, Ubick & Peng, 2008, and
Tang & Li, 2010. The species
Zhu & Ono, 2007 is considered a junior synonym of
Simon, 1886 based on an examination of many recently collected female and male specimens from Guangxi Province, China. Diagnoses, detailed illustrations and a map of distributional records of the six treated species of
in China are provided.
The size of the sensing region in solid-state nanopores is determined by the size of the pore and the thickness of the pore membrane, so ultrathin membranes such as graphene and single-layer ...molybdenum disulphide could potentially offer the necessary spatial resolution for nanopore DNA sequencing. However, the fast translocation speeds (3,000-50,000 nt ms(-1)) of DNA molecules moving across such membranes limit their usability. Here, we show that a viscosity gradient system based on room-temperature ionic liquids can be used to control the dynamics of DNA translocation through MoS2 nanopores. The approach can be used to statistically detect all four types of nucleotide, which are identified according to current signatures recorded during their transient residence in the narrow orifice of the atomically thin MoS2 nanopore. Our technique, which exploits the high viscosity of room-temperature ionic liquids, provides optimal single nucleotide translocation speeds for DNA sequencing, while maintaining a signal-to-noise ratio higher than 10.
The development of perovskite light‐emitting diodes (PeLEDs) with both high efficiency and excellent stability remains challenging. Herein, a strong correlation between the lattice strain in ...perovskite films and the stability of resulting PeLEDs is revealed. Based on high‐efficiency PeLEDs, the device lifetime is optimized by rationally tailoring the lattice strain in perovskite films. A PeLED with a high peak external quantum efficiency of 18.2% and a long lifetime of 151 h (T70, under a current density of 20 mA cm−2) is realized with a minimized lattice strain in the perovskite film. In addition, an increase in the lattice strain is found during the long‐time device stability test, indicating that the degradation of the local perovskite lattice structure could be one of the degradation mechanisms for long‐term stable PeLEDs.
For the first time, the impacts of lattice strain on the lifetime, efficiency, and degradation of perovskite light‐emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are systematically investigated. A strong correlation between lattice strain and the stability of PeLEDs is revealed, but a negligible impact of lattice strain on peak external quantum efficiency. An increase in lattice strain after long‐time electrical aging is also found.
In addition to their use in DNA sequencing, ultrathin nanopore membranes have potential applications in detecting topological variations in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This is due to the fact that ...when topologically edited DNA molecules, driven by electrophoretic forces, translocate through a narrow orifice, transient residings of edited segments inside the orifice modulate the ionic flow. Here we utilize two programmable barcoding methods based on base-pairing, namely forming a gap in dsDNA and creating protrusion sites in ssDNA for generating a hybrid DNA complex. We integrate a discriminative noise analysis for ds and ss DNA topologies into the threshold detection, resulting in improved multi-level signal detection and consequent extraction of reliable information about topological variations. Moreover, the positional information of the barcode along the template sequence can be determined unambiguously. All methods may be further modified to detect nicks in DNA, and thereby detect DNA damage and repair sites.
Promotion of patient safety is among the most important goals and challenges of healthcare systems worldwide in countries including China. Donabedian’s Structure-Process-Outcome model implies that ...patient safety is affected by hospital nursing organizational factors and nursing care process. However, studies are imperative for a clear understanding about the mechanisms by which patient safety is affected to guide practice.
The objective of this study was to explore the impact of hospital nursing work environment, workload, nursing care left undone, and nurse burnout on patient safety.
This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 23 hospitals in Guangdong province, China in 2014. Data from nurses (n = 1542) responsible for direct care on 111 randomly sampled medical and surgical units were analyzed.
Work environment was measured by the Practice Environment Scale of Nursing Work Index. Workload was measured by day shift unit patient-nurse ratio and non-professional tasks conducted by nurses. Nursing care left undone was measured by 12 items addressing necessary nursing activities. Nurse burnout was measured by the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey. Patient safety was measured by three items indicating nurses’ perception of overall patient safety and nine items addressing patient adverse events. Structural equation modeling was used to examine a hypothesized model that supposed work environment and workload have both direct and indirect effects on patient safety through nursing care left undone and nurse burnout.
The findings generally supported the hypothesized model. Better work environment was associated with better patient safety both directly and indirectly. Lower workload primarily indirectly related to better patient safety. Nursing care left undone and nurse burnout were mediators negatively associated with patient safety.
Improving work environment, increasing nurse staffing levels, and providing sufficient support for nurses to spend more time on direct patient care would be beneficial to patient safety improvement.
Recent work has demonstrated great potentials of neural network-inspired analog-to-digital converters (NNADCs) in many emerging applications. These NNADCs often rely on resistive random-access memory ...(RRAM) devices to realize basic NN operations, and usually need high-precision RRAM (6-12 b) to achieve moderate quantization resolutions (4-8 b). Such an optimistic assumption of RRAM precision, however, is not well supported by practical RRAM arrays in the large-scale production process. In this article, we evaluate two new designs of NNADC with low-precision RRAM devices. They take advantage of traditional two-stage/pipelined hardware architecture and a custom deep-learning-based building block design methodology. Results obtained from SPICE simulations demonstrate a robust design of an 8-b subranging NNADC using 4-b RRAM devices, as well as a 14-b pipelined NNADC using 3-b RRAM devices. The evaluations on the two NNADCs suggest that pipelined architecture is better to achieve higher-resolution using lower precision RRAM. We also perform design space exploration on the building blocks of NNADCs to achieve a balanced performance tradeoff. Comprehensive comparisons reveal improved power, speed performance, and competitive figure of merits (FoMs) of the pipelined NNADC, compared with state-of-the-art NNADCs and traditional ADCs. In addition, the proposed pipelined NNADC can support reconfigurable high-resolution nonlinear quantization with high conversion speed and low conversion energy, enabling intelligent analog-to-information interfaces for near-sensor processing.
CXXC domain-containing proteins are often involved in different biological processes, such as cell proliferation and development, apoptosis, DNA repair, signaling transduction, and tumorigenesis, by ...regulating transcription. 12 CXXC domain-containing proteins have been identified in human, and structural together with DNA binding studies reveal that these CXXC domains, a 50–70 residues module of two conserved CXXCXXC motifs, bind to non-methylated DNA in different sequence contexts. These CXXC domain-containing proteins and their complexes regulate various biological processes, and the CXXC domain plays an important role in the recruitment and regulation of their associated chromatin-modifying activities. In this review, we summarize these human CXXC domain-containing proteins in terms of their structures, biology, and biochemistry, and also discuss how they mediate cross-talk among different epigenetic modifications.
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•Structural basis for diverse DNA sequence binding by different groups of CXXC domains.•Comprehensive review of biological functions of CXXC domain–containing proteins.•CXXC domain–containing proteins and their complexes engage in cross talk of different epigenetic marks.•Perspectives on the future studies of CXXC domain–containing proteins.
•Multi-objective optimization in DG planning.•Time sequence characteristics of loads and DGs.•Wind turbine generation and Photovoltaic combination.•Improved Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm ...II.
With the consideration of time sequence characteristics of load and distributed generator (DG) output, a novel method is presented for optimal sitting and sizing of DG in distributed system. Multi-objective functions have been formulated with the consideration of minimum investment and operational cost of DG, minimum purchasing electricity cost from main grid and minimum voltage deviation. To solve the multi-objective optimization problem, an improved Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II has been proposed. The compromised solution is extracted from the Pareto set using the fuzzy theory method. Several experiments have been made on the modified PG&E 69-bus and multiple actual test cases with the consideration of multiple DGs. The computational result and comparisons indicate the proposed method for optimal placement and sizing of DG is feasible and effective.
Isoniazid (INH) is a first-line anti-tuberculosis drug. INH has been detected in surface waters which may create a risk to aquatic organisms. In this study, the hepatotoxicity of INH was elucidated ...using zebrafish. The liver morphology, transaminase level, redox-related enzyme activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) content and mRNA levels of liver injury-related genes were measured. The results showed that INH (4, 6 mM) significantly caused liver atrophy and increased levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in zebrafish. INH (6 mM) led to decreased catalase (CAT) activity, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity and glutathione (GSH) content but increased ROS and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Moreover, INH (6 mM) decreased expression levels of miR-122 and pparα but increased mRNA levels of ap-1 and c-jun. Furthermore, mRNA levels of factors related to endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) (grp78, atf6, perk, ire1, xbp1s and chop), apoptosis (bax, cyt, caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9) and the Nrf2 signalling pathway (nrf2, ho-1, nqo1, gclm and gclc) were significantly upregulated. INH may act on hepatotoxicity in zebrafish by increasing ROS content, which weakens the antioxidant capacity, leading to ERS, cell apoptosis and liver injury. In addition, the Nrf2 signalling pathway is activated as a stress compensation mechanism during INH-induced liver injury, but it is not sufficient to counteract INH-induced hepatotoxicity.
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•INH caused dose- and time-dependent increase in hepatotoxicity in zebrafish larvae.•INH (4 and 6 mM) caused an increase in ROS, which induced oxidative stress, leading to ERS, apoptosis and liver injury.•The Nrf2 signalling pathway is activated during the early stages of INH-induced liver injury.
Two species assigned to Massuria Thorell, 1887 are reviewed. The female of Massuria bandian Tang & Li, 2010 is described for the first time from Jianfengling National Natural Reserve, Hainan ...Province, China. The species Diaea simplex Xu, Han & Li, 2008 is described as a synonym of Massuria bellula Xu, Han & Li, 2008 based on female and male specimens from Guangdong Province, China. Massuria min sp. nov. described as a new species (female, Fujian Province, China). Detailed illustrations and a distribution map are provided for these three species of Massuria .
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