Mechanical properties of the constituent material of fiber-reinforced braided composites will inevitably change after the manufacturing process. An approach to constituent parameters' identification ...of braided composites was proposed to obtain the basic information of composites for structural analysis. Identification of the constituent parameters was transformed as an optimization problem, which was solved by adopting the sensitivity analysis method, iteratively minimizing the discrepancies between the numerically calculated displacement field and the measured displacement field. The sensitivity matrix of displacements with respect to the constituent parameters was directly derived based on the constitutive material model for the first time. Considering that the large magnitude differences between parameters will lead to an ill-posed problem of the sensitivity matrix, the identification was susceptible to noise from the experimental data, the relative sensitivity was adopted, and a condition number-based response point selection was applied to improve the robustness of the parameter identification. A 2.5-dimensional braided composite was employed to illustrate the constituent parameter identification method by comparing with the finite difference method. In addition, the influence of selected measuring points and measuring errors on the proposed method were discussed. The results showed that the proposed method can be used to identify the constituent parameters efficiently and accurately. When the measured displacements are polluted by noise, the condition number of the sensitivity matrix is an effective indicator of preceding information to enhance the identification accuracy.
Alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR), a hub of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP), is required for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. HIV-1 infection can upregulate ...the expression of α7 nAChR in T lymphocytes and affect the role of CAP. However, whether α7 nAChR regulates HIV-1 infection in CD4+ T cells is unclear. In this study, we first found that activation of α7 nAChR by GTS-21 (an α7 nAChR agonist) can promote the transcription of HIV-1 proviral DNA. Then, through transcriptome sequencing analysis, we found that p38 MAPK signaling was enriched in GTS-21 treated HIV-latent T cells. Mechanistically, activation of α7 nAChR could increase reactive oxygen species (ROS), reduce DUSP1 and DUSP6, and consequently enhance the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK. By co-immunoprecipitation and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, we found that p-p38 MAPK interacted with Lamin B1 (LMNB1). Activation of α7 nAChR increased the binding between p-p38 MAPK and LMNB1. We confirmed that knockdown of MAPK14 significantly downregulated NFATC4, a key activator of HIV-1 transcription. Taken together, activation of the α7 nAChR could trigger ROS/p-p38 MAPK/LMNB1/NFATC4 signaling pathway enhancing HIV-1 transcription. We have revealed an unrecognized mechanism of α7 nAChR-mediated neuroimmune regulation of HIV infection.
Whether α7 nAChR regulates HIV-1 infection in CD4+ T cells is unclear. Wen et al. reveal that activation of the α7 nAChR could trigger ROS/p38 MAPK/LMNB1/NFATC4 signaling pathway enhancing HIV-1 transcription. Display omitted
•Activation of α7 nAChR promotes HIV-1 transcriptional initiation.•Activation of α7 nAChR reduces phosphorylation of p38 MAPK.•Phosphorylation of p38 MAPK is required for α7 nAChR-mediated HIV transcription.•Activation of α7 nAChR promotes HIV-1 transcription depending on interaction between p-p38 MAPK and LMNB1.
Vagus nerve regulates viral infection and inflammation via the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR); however, the role of α7 nAChR in ZIKA virus (ZIKV) infection, which can cause ...severe neurological diseases such as microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome, remains unknown. Here, we first examined the role of α7 nAChR in ZIKV infection in vitro. A broad effect of α7 nAChR activation was identified in limiting ZIKV infection in multiple cell lines. Combined with transcriptomics analysis, we further demonstrated that α7 nAChR activation promoted autophagy and ferroptosis pathways to limit cellular ZIKV viral loads. Additionally, activation of α7 nAChR prevented ZIKV-induced p62 nucleus accumulation, which mediated an enhanced autophagy pathway. By regulating proteasome complex and an E3 ligase NEDD4, activation of α7 nAChR resulted in increased amount of cellular p62, which further enhanced the ferroptosis pathway to reduce ZIKV infection. Moreover, utilizing in vivo neonatal mouse models, we showed that α7 nAChR is essential in controlling the disease severity of ZIKV infection. Taken together, our findings identify an α7 nAChR-mediated effect that critically contributes to limiting ZIKV infection, and α7 nAChR activation offers a novel strategy for combating ZIKV infection and its complications.
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Su and colleagues find that activation of α7 nAChR significantly limits ZIKV infection by enhancing autophagy and ferroptosis. Moreover, α7 nAChR is essential to control ZIKV-induced disease severity in neonatal mice. Harnessing α7 nAChR activation holds promising potential as a novel strategy to combat ZIKV infection and its associated complications.
In this paper, a fast mass transfer anaerobic inner loop fluidized bed biofilm reactor (ILFBBR) was developed to improve purified terephthalic acid (PTA) wastewater treatment. The emphasis of this ...study was on the start-up mode of the anaerobic ILFBBR, the hydraulic loadings and the operation stability. The biological morphology of the anaerobic biofilm in the reactors was also analyzed. The anaerobic column could operate successfully for 46 days due to the pre-aerating process. The anaerobic column had the capacity to resist shock loadings and maintained a high stable chemical oxygen demand (COD) and terephthalic acid removal rates at a hydraulic retention time of 5-10 h, even under conditions of organic volumetric loadings as high as 28.8 kg COD·m(-3).d(-1). The scanning electron microscope analysis of the anaerobic carrier demonstrated that clusters of prokaryotes grew inside of pores and that the filaments generated by pre-aeration contributed to the anaerobic biofilm formation and stability.
Erythroleukemia belongs to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) type 6 (M6), and treatment remains difficult due to the poor prognosis of the disease. Friend virus (FV) is a complex of two viruses: Friend ...murine leukemia virus (F-MuLV) strain along with a defective spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV), which can induce acute erythroleukemia in mice. We have previously reported that activation of vagal α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) signaling promotes HIV-1 transcription. Whether vagal muscarinic signaling mediates FV-induced erythroleukemia and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, sham and vagotomized mice were intraperitoneally injected with FV. FV infection caused anemia in sham mice, and vagotomy reversed this change. FV infection increased erythroblasts ProE, EryA, and EryB cells in the spleen, and these changes were blocked by vagotomy. In bone marrow, FV infection reduced EryC cells in sham mice, an effect that was counteracted by vagotomy. FV infection increased choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) expression in splenic CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and this change was reversed by vagotomy. Furthermore, the increase of EryA and EryB cells in spleen of FV-infected wild-type mice was reversed after deletion of ChAT in CD4+ T cells. In bone marrow, FV infection reduced EryB and EryC cells in sham mice, whereas lack of ChAT in CD4+ T cells did not affect this change. Activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor 4 (mAChR4) by clozapine N-oxide (CNO) significantly increased EryB in the spleen but decreased the EryC cell population in the bone marrow of FV-infected mice. Thus, vagal-mAChR4 signaling in the spleen and bone marrow synergistically promotes the pathogenesis of acute erythroleukemia. We uncover an unrecognized mechanism of neuromodulation in erythroleukemia.
•Vagotomy reverses FV infection-induced increases in ProE, EryA, and EryB cells in the spleen.•Vagotomy can counteract the decrease in EryC cells in the bone marrow caused by FV infection.•Deletion of ChAT in CD4+ T cells reverses the increase in EryA and EryB cells in FV infected spleen.•Activation of mAChR4 increases spleen EryB but decreases bone marrow EryC cell populations from FV-infected mice.
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•A highly efficient EDS system with polyether-based ILs has been developed.•The polyether ILs exhibit high affinities for benzothiophenes and phenyl sulfides.•The extraction ...equilibrium can be achieved within a few minutes.•The polyether IL stabilized by NaCl exhibits a remarkable recyclability.•The polyether IL only has a very low mass loss (6.1%) after 64 times of recycles.
A highly efficient extractive desulfurization (EDS) system with polyether-based ionic liquids (ILs) as extractants has been developed. The polyether ILs, with two PEG chains and a benzyl group, exhibit very high affinities for sulfur compounds, in particular, for benzothiophenes and phenyl sulfides. These exceptional affinities are due to various interactions between the IL and sulfur compounds, which include electrostatic effects, hydrogen bonding, π–π interactions, and so on. The extraction equilibrium can be achieved within a few minutes near room temperature. The desulfurization rates of the refractory sulfur compounds, viz. benzothiophene (BT), dibenzothiophene (DBT), and 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT), in model gasoline can reach 84.7%, 91.4%, and 81.0%, respectively. For multiple extractions of real gasolines, within four extraction cycles, the desulfurization rate of gasoline 93# was nearly 100%, while the desulfurization rates of gasoline 90# and light hydrocarbon gasoline reached 88.0% and 91.0%, respectively. Furthermore, the polyether IL stabilized by NaCl exhibited remarkable recyclability. The addition of NaCl into the IL minimized the loss of the extractant, making it negligible. After recycling the IL over 64 extraction cycles, the desulfurization rate was reduced by only a small amount and the mass loss of the IL was also very low (6.1%).
A subnano-g electrostatic force-rebalanced flexure accelerometer is designed for the rotating accelerometer gravity gradient instrument. This accelerometer has a large proof mass, which is supported ...inversely by two pairs of parallel leaf springs and is centered between two fixed capacitor plates. This novel design enables the proof mass to move exactly along the sensitive direction and exhibits a high rejection ratio at its cross-axis directions. Benefiting from large proof mass, high vacuum packaging, and air-tight sealing, the thermal Brownian noise of the accelerometer is lowered down to less than 0.2 ng / Hz with a quality factor of 15 and a natural resonant frequency of about 7.4 Hz . The accelerometer's designed measurement range is about ±1 mg. Based on the correlation analysis between a commercial triaxial seismometer and our accelerometer, the demonstrated self-noise of our accelerometers is reduced to lower than 0.3 ng / Hz over the frequency ranging from 0.2 to 2 Hz, which meets the requirement of the rotating accelerometer gravity gradiometer.
The ship exhaust sniffing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system can be applied to monitor vessel emissions in emission control areas (ECAs) to improve the efficiency of maritime law enforcement and ...reduce ship pollution. To solve the problems of large size, heavy weight and high cost of ship exhaust sniffing sensors, in this paper, a unique diffused mini-sniffing sensor was designed, which provides a low-cost, lightweight, and highly adaptable solution for ship exhaust sniffing UAV. To verify the measurement accuracy of the system, a large number of on-site tests were performed based in the mouth of the Yangtze River, and some cases of violation of the fuel sulfur content (FSC) were verified and punished. Maritime law enforcement officers boarded the ship to take oil samples from eight suspected ships and sent them to the laboratory for testing. The results showed that the FSCs of the eight ships in chemical inspection were all greater than the regulatory limit 0.5% (m/m) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The system enables authorities to monitor emissions using rotary UAVs equipped with diffused mini-sniffing sensors to measure the FSC of navigating ships, which couple hardware and operational software with a dedicated lab service to produce highly reliable measurement results. The system offers an effective tool for screening vessel compliance.
A series of low-cost Lewis acidic deep eutectic solvents (DESs) was synthesized and applied for the first time for catalyzing the polymerization of α-pinene to produce terpene resins. The DES ...catalyst of AlCl
3
3
CPL prepared
via
the self-assembly of AlCl
3
and caprolactam (CPL) exhibited the highest catalytic activity, and polymerization conditions were optimized by a single-factor method: 15 g α-pinene, 3 g catalyst, 1 g initiator, −5 °C reaction temperature, and 4 h reaction time. Under these conditions, the softening point of the terpene resin reached (annular spheroid method) 118.3 °C, the acid value was 0.22 mg KOH g
−1
, and the depth of color (Fe-Co method) was 5. The structure of AlCl
3
3
CPL was characterized using FT-IR,
1
H-NMR, and UV-vis spectroscopy. GPC measure showed that the number-average molecular weight of the terpene resin was 510, the weight-average molecular weight was 776, and the polydispersity index was 1.523. TG results indicated that the terpene resin had favorable thermal stability. After the reaction, the product and the catalyst could be automatically divided into two phases, which was beneficial for recycling the catalyst. The results revealed that AlCl
3
3
CPL exhibited good recyclability.
A green and effective catalytic system for α-pinene polymerization using a recyclable Lewis acidic DES catalyst has been developed.
In this study, a novel silk fibroin films with robust mechanical properties was fabricated by dissolving silk under ultraviolet light (Uv-light) in ionic liquid. Uv-light irradiation can promote the ...transformation of the silk fibroin structure from the α-helix to the β-sheet, thereby the strength of the film was enhanced. The wavelength of the Uv-light, the irradiation time and the distance from the light source all have an effect on the strength of the silk fibroin film. Under the optimum conditions, the strength of silk fibroin film could reach 23.7Mpa, which was nearly 85% higher than that of the conventional system. In the meantime, the wettability and swellability of the film were investigated. The results showed that groups with oxygen atoms on the surface of silk fibroin film increased after irradiation, and its wettability and swellability increased significantly, which was more conducive to cell adhesion. Furthermore, the silk fibroin film exhibit excellent biocompatibility, supporting L-929 (mouse fibroblasts) adhesion and proliferation. The study provides a new direction for the preparation of high-strength silk fibroin films, as well as its application in life sciences.
•A new method for preparing robust silk fibroin film under the synergism of ILs and Uv-light.•BmimAc is the excellent ILs for silk fibroin film.•With the content of β-sheet increasing, the strength of silk fibroin film enhance•The Strength of silk fibroin film could be increased 85%•The wettability and swellability of the film were excellent•The silk fibroin film exhibit biocompatibility
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