Testicular dysfunction (TDF) is characterized by testosterone deficiency and is caused by oxidative stress injury in Leydig cells. A natural fatty amide named N-benzylhexadecanamide (NBH), derived ...from cruciferous maca, has been shown to promote testosterone production. Our study aims to reveal the anti-TDF effect of NBH and explore its potential mechanism in vitro. This study examined the effects of H
O
on cell viability and testosterone levels in mouse Leydig cells (TM3) under oxidative stress. In addition, cell metabolomics analysis based on UPLC-Q-Exactive-MS/MS showed that NBH was mainly involved in arginine biosynthesis, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, the TCA cycle and other metabolic pathways by affecting 23 differential metabolites, including arginine and phenylalanine. Furthermore, we also performed network pharmacological analysis to observe the key protein targets in NBH treatment. The results showed that its role was to up-regulate ALOX5, down-regulate CYP1A2, and play a role in promoting testicular activity by participating in the steroid hormone biosynthesis pathway. In summary, our study not only provides new insights into the biochemical mechanisms of natural compounds in the treatment of TDF, but also provides a research strategy that integrates cell metabolomics and network pharmacology in order to promote the screening of new drugs for the treatment of TDF.
The neuroprotective properties of ginsenosides have been found to reverse the neurological damage caused by oxidation in many neurodegenerative diseases. However, the distribution of ginsenosides in ...different tissues of the main root, which was regarded as the primary medicinal portion in clinical practice was different, the specific parts and specific components against neural oxidative damage were not clear. The present study aims to screen and determine the potential compounds in different parts of the main root in ginseng. Comparison of the protective effects in the main root, phloem and xylem of ginseng on hydrogen peroxide-induced cell death of SH-SY5Y neurons was investigated. UPLC-Q-Exactive-MS/MS was used to quickly and comprehensively characterize the chemical compositions of the active parts. Network pharmacology combined with a molecular docking approach was employed to virtually screen for disease-related targets and potential active compounds. By comparing the changes before and after Content-Effect weighting, the compounds with stronger anti-nerve oxidative damage activity were screened out more accurately. Finally, the activity of the selected monomer components was verified. The results suggested that the phloem of ginseng was the most effective part. There were 19 effective compounds and 14 core targets, and enriched signaling pathway and biological functions were predicted. After Content-Effect weighting, compounds Ginsenosides F1, Ginsenosides Rf, Ginsenosides Rg
and Ginsenosides Rd were screened out as potential active compounds against neural oxidative damage. The activity verification study indicated that all four predicted ginsenosides were effective in protecting SH-SY5Y cells from oxidative injury. The four compounds can be further investigated as potential lead compounds for neurodegenerative diseases. This also provides a combined virtual and practical method for the simple and rapid screening of active ingredients in natural products.
We describe pLink 2, a search engine with higher speed and reliability for proteome-scale identification of cross-linked peptides. With a two-stage open search strategy facilitated by fragment ...indexing, pLink 2 is ~40 times faster than pLink 1 and 3~10 times faster than Kojak. Furthermore, using simulated datasets, synthetic datasets,
N metabolically labeled datasets, and entrapment databases, four analysis methods were designed to evaluate the credibility of ten state-of-the-art search engines. This systematic evaluation shows that pLink 2 outperforms these methods in precision and sensitivity, especially at proteome scales. Lastly, re-analysis of four published proteome-scale cross-linking datasets with pLink 2 required only a fraction of the time used by pLink 1, with up to 27% more cross-linked residue pairs identified. pLink 2 is therefore an efficient and reliable tool for cross-linking mass spectrometry analysis, and the systematic evaluation methods described here will be useful for future software development.
Renewable energy is an advisable choice to reduce fuel consumption and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\rm CO_{2} </tex-math></inline-formula> emission. Therein, wind energy and solar ...energy are the most promising contributors to reach this goal. Although the hybrid wind/solar system has been widely studied, the real-time current sharing based on their maximum capacities is rarely achieved in terms of seconds. Based on this, this paper proposes an accurate current sharing and voltage regulation approach in hybrid wind/solar systems, which is based on distributed adaptive dynamic programming approach. Firstly, the equivalent wind/solar model is built, which is an indispensable preprocessing to achieve the complementary between wind energy and solar energy. Therein, the wind energy and solar energy can output relative current according to their respective capacity ratio, which ensure the maximum utilization ratio of renewable energy source. Furthermore, current sharing and voltage regulation problem is switched into optimal control problem. Under this effect, each source agent aims to obtain the optimal control variable and achieve accurate current sharing/voltage regulation. Moreover, an adaptive dynamic programming approach based on Bellman principle is proposed. It can achieve accurate current sharing and voltage regulation. Finally, the simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed adaptive dynamic programming approach.
Continuous‐wave (CW) room‐temperature (RT) laser operation with low energy consumption is an ultimate goal for electrically driven lasers. A monolithically integrated perovskite laser in a chip‐level ...fiber scheme is ideal. However, because of the well‐recognized air and thermal instabilities of perovskites, laser action in a perovskite has mostly been limited to either pulsed or cryogenic‐temperature operations. Most CW laser operations at RT have had poor durability. Here, crystal fibers that have robust and high‐heat‐load nature are shown to be the key to enabling the first demonstration of ultralow‐threshold CW RT laser action in a compact, monolithic, and inexpensive crystal fiber/nanoperovskite hybrid architecture that is directly pumped with a 405 nm diode laser. Purcell‐enhanced light–matter coupling between the atomically smooth fiber microcavity and the perovskite nanocrystallites gain medium enables a high Q (≈1500) and a high β (0.31). This 762 nm laser outperforms previously reported structures with a record‐low threshold of 132 nW and an optical‐to‐optical slope conversion efficiency of 2.93%, and it delivers a stable output for CW and RT operation. These results represent a significant advancement toward monolithic all‐optical integration.
Purcell‐enhanced light–matter coupling between an atomically smooth fiber microcavity and perovskite gain nanocrystallites enables a high Q (≈1500) and a high β (0.31), outperforming previously reported structures with a 132 nW record‐low threshold. This is thought to be the first demonstration of monolithic integration of a perovskite laser into a compact and inexpensive fiber platform.
The metal-semiconductor heterojunction is imperative for the realization of electrically driven nanolasers for chip-level platforms. Progress in developing such nanolasers has hitherto rarely been ...realized, however, because of their complexity in heterojunction fabrication and the need to use noble metals that are incompatible with microelectronic manufacturing. Most plasmonic nanolasers lase either above a high threshold (10
-10
MW cm
) or at a cryogenic temperature, and lasing is possible only after they are removed from the substrate to avoid the large ohmic loss and the low modal reflectivity, making monolithic fabrication impossible. Here, for the first time, record-low-threshold, room-temperature ultraviolet (UV) lasing of plasmon-coupled core-shell nanowires that are directly grown on silicon is demonstrated. The naturally formed core-shell metal-semiconductor heterostructure of the nanowires leads to a 100-fold improvement in growth density over previous results. This unprecedentedly high nanowire density creates intense plasmonic resonance, which is outcoupled to the resonant Fabry-Pérot microcavity. By boosting the emission strength by a factor of 100, the hybrid photonic-plasmonic system successfully facilitates a record-low laser threshold of 12 kW cm
with a spontaneous emission coupling factor as high as ≈0.32 in the 340-360 nm range. Such architecture is simple and cost-competitive for future UV sources in silicon integration.
Coconut is an important tropical oil and fruit crop whose evolutionary position renders it a fantastic species for the investigation of the evolution of monocot chromosomes and the subsequent ...differentiation of ancient plants.
Here, we report the assembly and annotation of reference-grade genomes of Cn. tall and Cn. dwarf, whose genome sizes are 2.40 Gb and 2.39 Gb, respectively. The comparative analysis reveals that the two coconut subspecies diverge about 2-8 Mya while the conserved Arecaceae-specific whole-genome duplication (ω WGD) occurs approximately 47-53 Mya. It additionally allows us to reconstruct the ancestral karyotypes of the ten ancient monocot chromosomes and the evolutionary trajectories of the 16 modern coconut chromosomes. Fiber synthesis genes in Cn. tall, related to lignin and cellulose synthesis, are found at a higher copy number and expression level than dwarf coconuts. Integrated multi-omics analysis reveals that the difference in coconut plant height is the result of altered gibberellin metabolism, with both the GA20ox copy number and a single-nucleotide change in the promoter together leading to the difference in plant height between Cn. tall and Cn. dwarf.
We provide high-quality coconut genomes and reveal the genetic basis of trait differences between two coconuts through multi-omics analysis. We also reveal that the selection of plant height has been targeted for the same gene for millions of years, not only in natural selection of ancient plant as illustrated in coconut, but also for artificial selection in cultivated crops such as rice and maize.
Graphene‐based photodetectors draw tremendous interests for broadband photodetection in optical communications, sensing, and hyperspectral imaging. However, the extremely low light absorption ...coefficient of graphene posts a great challenge for high‐efficiency photodetection. Although plasmonic nanostructures provide resonant absorption enhancement and impressive responsivity, the current fabrication techniques suffer from being time‐consuming, low‐yield, and potentially high‐cost. In this work, a wafer‐scale graphene‐Au nanogratings (Gra‐Au NGs) plasmonic photodetector array is fabricated via two‐beam holographic lithography, which achieves a photosensitive area of 1 mm2, showing balanced abilities of polarization‐sensitive, broadband, and enhanced photoresponse from visible to near‐infrared regions. The maximum polarization extinction ratio and responsivity of the Gra‐Au NGs photodetector reach 6.65 and 2.95 mA W−1. The surface plasmon resonance of Au NGs and near‐field coupling with graphene render strong electric field confinement and enhanced light absorption, which improve the device photoresponse and polarization sensitivity. The hot electrons generation and transportation models in the Gra‐Au NGs heterojunction are proposed, perfectly matching with the photocurrent mapping and equalized energy band distribution. This work enlightens the wafer‐scale fabrication of graphene‐based plasmonic photodetectors, and it can trigger the advances of free‐space detection, such as remote sensing and satellite communication.
A wafer‐scale graphene‐based plasmonic photodetector array with a maximum photosensitive area up to 1 mm2 is fabricated by holographic lithography, Au deposition, and graphene growth/transfer, which is suitable for mass production. Benefiting from enhanced resonant coupling absorption and hot electrons collection by the Gra‐Au NGs, the photodetector shows well‐balanced properties of polarization‐sensitive, broadband, and enhanced response.
In this letter, a multilayer balanced substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) bandpass filter (BPF) using the TE₁₀₂ and TE₂₀₁ modes is designed with an aperture etched on the common ground between two ...stacked SIWs. Under common-mode (CM) operation, the aperture is a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC). When the height is less than λg/4, the space between the perfect electric conductor (PEC) and the PMC cannot transmit the electromagnetic wave, so the structure can effectively cutoff the CM noise in a wide frequency range. Under differential-mode (DM) operation, the aperture is the PEC and has less effect on the DM frequency responses by properly selecting the location and size. Two transmission zeros near the passband edges can be generated to improve the selectivity. Finally, a compact dual-mode balanced SIW BPF with high selectivity and CM suppression has been designed and fabricated, and the measured results show good agreement with the simulated ones.
PDF
