By designing a structured gas density profile between the dual-stage gas jets to manipulate electron seeding and energy chirp reversal for compressing the energy spread, we have experimentally ...produced high-brightness high-energy electron beams from a cascaded laser wakefield accelerator with peak energies in the range of 200-600 MeV, 0.4%-1.2% rms energy spread, 10-80 pC charge, and ∼0.2 mrad rms divergence. The maximum six-dimensional brightness B_{6D,n} is estimated as ∼6.5×10^{15} A/m^{2}/0.1%, which is very close to the typical brightness of e beams from state-of-the-art linac drivers. These high-brightness high-energy e beams may lead to the realization of compact monoenergetic gamma-ray and intense coherent x-ray radiation sources.
Whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) are phloem feeders, and some invasive species are composed of cryptic species complexes that cause extensive crop damage, particularly via the direct transmission of plant ...viruses. Apoptosis is a type of programmed cell death essential for organismal development and tissue homeostasis. The caspases belong to a family of cysteine proteases that play a central role in the initiation of apoptosis in many organisms. Here, we employed a comprehensive genomics approach to identity caspases in B. tabaci Middle East Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1), an invasive whitefly that carries a cryptic species complex that is devastating to crops. Four caspase genes were identified, and their motif compositions were predicted. Structures were relatively conserved in both putative effector and initiator caspases. Expression patterns of caspase genes differed across insect developmental stages. Three caspase genes were induced immediately after ultraviolet (UV) treatment. Expression levels of Bt‐caspase‐1 and Bt‐caspase‐3b increased in the midgut and salivary glands during apoptosis induced by UV treatments, whereas silencing of both genes reduced UV‐triggered apoptosis. Our study demonstrates that Bt‐caspase‐1 and Bt‐caspase‐3b, respectively, act as putative initiator and effector apoptotic caspases in the MEAM1 whitefly.
Abstract
We report the discovery of a new unidentified extended
γ
-ray source in the Galactic plane named LHAASO J0341+5258 with a pretrial significance of 8.2 standard deviations above 25 TeV. The ...best-fit position is R.A. = 55.°34 ± 0.°11 and decl. = 52.°97 ± 0.°07. The angular size of LHAASO J0341+5258 is 0.°29 ± 0.°06
stat
± 0.°02
sys
. The flux above 25 TeV is about 20% of the flux of the Crab Nebula. Although a power-law fit of the spectrum from 10 to 200 TeV with the photon index
α
= 2.98 ± 0.19
stat
± 0.02
sys
is not excluded, the LHAASO data together with the flux upper limit at 10 GeV set by the Fermi-LAT observation, indicate a noticeable steepening of an initially hard power-law spectrum with a cutoff at ≈50 TeV. We briefly discuss the origin of ultra-high-energy gamma rays. The lack of an energetic pulsar and a young supernova remnant inside or in the vicinity of LHAASO J0341+5258 challenge, but do not exclude, both the leptonic and hadronic scenarios of gamma-ray production.
Summary
We investigated whether the presence of Y chromosome azoospermia factor (AZF) microdeletions impacts upon the outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) using fresh ejaculated ...spermatozoa. Sixteen oligozoospermia patients with Y chromosome AZFb or AZFc microdeletions and undergoing ICSI cycles between March 2013 and November 2014 were studied. Twenty‐six infertile men with normal Y chromosomes and also undergoing IVF/ICSI in the same time period were used as controls. A retrospective case–control study approach was used. Among the 16 cases, 12 (75%, 12/16) had deletions of AZFc markers (sY152, sY254 and sY255), one (6.25%, 1/16) had a deletion of sY152, and two (12.5%, 2/16) had deletions of sY152, sY254, sY255 and sY157. AZFb microdeletions were found in one patient (6.25%, 1/16). There were no significant differences between groups for cleaved embryo rate, high‐grade embryo rate, blastocyst formation rate, embryo implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate and delivery rate. The clinical outcomes of ICSI for oligozoospermic patients with Y chromosome AZF microdeletion are comparable to those of infertile patients with normal Y chromosomes. Our findings indicate that ICSI should be offered to patients with an AZFc deletion and that oligozoospermia patients with AZFb microdeletions are likely to father children.
Aims
The aim of this study was to determine the effects of unsaturated fatty acids on clinical plasmids.
Methods and Results
Two unsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid (LA) and α‐linolenic acid (ALA) ...at final concentration 0, 0·03, 0·3 and 3 mmol l−1, respectively, were used to assess the effects on conjugative transfer of a mcr‐1‐harbouring plasmid pCSZ4 (IncX4) in conjugation experiment. The inhibitory mechanisms were analysed by molecular docking and the gene expression of virB11 was quantitated by qRT‐PCR. Target plasmid diversity was carried out by TrwD/VirB11 homology protein sequence prediction analysis. Our results showed that LA and ALA inhibit plasmid pCSZ4 transfer by binding to the amino acid residues (Phe124 and Thr125) of VirB11 with dose‐dependent effects. The expression levels of virB11 gene were also significantly inhibited by LA and ALA treatment. Protein homology analysis revealed a wide distribution of TrwD/VirB11‐like genes among over 37 classes of plasmids originated from both Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates representing a diversity of plasmids that may be potentially inhibited by unsaturated fatty acids.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Our work reported here provides additional support for application of curbing the spread of multiple plasmids by unsaturated fatty acids.
A simple, efficient scheme was developed to obtain near-gigaelectronvolt electron beams with energy spreads of few per-mille level in a single-stage laser wakefield accelerator. Longitudinal plasma ...density was tailored to control relativistic laser-beam evolution, resulting in injection, dechirping, and a quasi-phase-stable acceleration. With this scheme, electron beams with peak energies of 780–840 MeV, rms energy spreads of 2.4‰–4.1‰, charges of 8.5–23.6 pC, and rms divergences of 0.1–0.4 mrad were experimentally obtained. Quasi-three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations agreed well with the experimental results. The dechirping strength was estimated to reach up to 11 TeV/mm/m, which is higher than previously obtained results. Such high-quality electron beams will boost the development of compact intense coherent radiation sources and x-ray free-electron lasers.
Ionospheric outflow has been shown to be a dominant ion source of Earth's magnetosphere. However, most studies in the literature are about ionospheric outflow injected into the nightside ...magnetosphere. We still know little about ionospheric outflow injected into the dayside magnetosphere and its further energization after it enters the magnetosphere. Here, with data from Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, we report direct observations of the modulation of dayside ionospheric outflow ions by ultralow frequency (ULF) waves. The observations indicate that the modulation is mass dependent, which demonstrates the possibility of using ULF waves as a mass spectrometer to identify ion species. Moreover, the measurement suggests that polarization drift may play a role in O+ modulation, which may lead to a true acceleration and even nonadiabatic behavior of O+. This interaction scenario can work throughout the whole magnetosphere and impact upon the plasma environment and dynamics.
Key Points
Interaction between ULF waves and ionospheric outflow ions injected into the dayside magnetosphere was observed by MMS
ULF waves can serve as an auxiliary diagnostic for the detection of ionospheric outflow ions and inference of their mass species
Polarization drift plays a role in the modulation of oxygen ions
The aim of this study was to develop a widely accepted prognostic nomogram for extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal-type (NKTCL). The clinical data from 1383 patients with NKTCL treated at 10 ...participating institutions between 2000 and 2011 were reviewed. A nomogram was developed that predicted overall survival (OS) based on the Cox proportional hazards model. To contrast the utility of the nomogram against the widely used Ann Arbor staging system, the International Prognostic Index (IPI) and the Korean Prognostic Index (KPI), we used the concordance index (C-index) and a calibration curve to determine its predictive and discriminatory capacity. The 5-year OS rate was 60.3% for the entire group. The nomogram included five important variables based on a multivariate analysis of the primary cohort: stage; age; Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status; lactate dehydrogenase; and primary tumor invasion. The calibration curve showed that the nomogram was able to predict 5-year OS accurately. The C-index of the nomogram for OS prediction was 0.72 for both cohorts, which was superior to the predictive power (range, 0.56-0.64) of the Ann Arbor stage, IPI and KPI in the primary and validation cohorts. The proposed nomogram provides an individualized risk estimate of OS in patients with NKTCL.
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