Methods for visualizing protein or nucleic acid motifs have traditionally relied upon residue frequencies to graphically scale character heights. We describe the pLogo, a motif visualization in which ...residue heights are scaled relative to their statistical significance. A pLogo generation tool is publicly available at http://plogo.uconn.edu/ and supports real-time conditional probability calculations and visualizations.
•This article discusses the effect of temperature and the applied magnetic field strength, through SQUID-VSM studies, on the magnetic behavior of the cobalt nickel ferrites nano powders.•The magnetic ...behavior is studied through BH curves, BH Vs H curves, ZFC and FC curves.•These powders synthesized by a simple and environmentally benign method were further characterized to study their structural and optical behavior of the samples through XRD, TEM, RAMAN and DRS studies.•Thus it gives and elaborate study on these magnetic samples and their possible applications.
Spinel ferrites have come a long way in their versatile applications. The ever growing applications of these materials demand detailed study of material properties and environmental considerations in their synthesis. In this article, we report the effect of temperature and applied magnetic field strength on the magnetic behavior of the cobalt nickel ferrite nano powder samples. Basic structural properties of spinel ferrite nano particles, that are synthesized by an environmentally benign method of auto combustion, are characterized through XRD, TEM, RAMAN spectroscopy. Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) is done to understand the nickel substitution effect on the optical properties of cobalt ferrite nano particles. Thermo magnetic studies using SQUID in the temperature range 5 K to 400 K and room temperature (300 K) VSM studies are performed on these samples. Fields of 0Oe (no applied field: ZF), 1 kOe (for ZFC and FC curves), 5 kOe (0.5 T), 50 kOe (5T) (for M-H loop study) are used to study the magnetic behavior of these nano particles. The XRD,TEM analysis suggest 40 nm crystallites that show changes in the cation distribution and phase changes in the spinel structure with nickel substitution. Raman micrographs support phase purity changes and cation redistributions with nickel substitution. Diffuse reflectance study on powder samples suggests two band gap values for nickel rich compounds. The Magnetic study of these sample nano particles show varied magnetic properties from that of hard magnetic, positive multi axial anisotropy and single-magnetic-domain structures at 5 K temperature to soft magnetic core shell like structures at 300 K temperature. Nickel substitution effect is non monotonous. Blocking temperature of all the samples is found to be higher than the values suggested in the literature.
Summary
Cereal yields decrease when grain fill proceeds under conditions of prolonged, moderately elevated temperatures. Endosperm‐endogenous processes alter both rate and duration of dry weight ...gain, but underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Heat effects could be mediated by either abnormal, premature cessation of storage compound deposition or accelerated implementation of normal development. This study used controlled environments to isolate temperature as the sole environmental variable during Zea mays kernel‐fill, from 12 days after pollination to maturity. Plants subjected to elevated day, elevated night temperatures (38°C day, 28°C night (38/28°C)) or elevated day, normal night (38/17°C), were compared with those from controls grown under normal day and night conditions (28/17°C). Progression of change over time in endosperm tissue was followed to dissect contributions at multiple levels, including transcriptome, metabolome, enzyme activities, product accumulation, and tissue ultrastructure. Integrated analyses indicated that the normal developmental program of endosperm is fully executed under prolonged high‐temperature conditions, but at a faster rate. Accelerated development was observed when both day and night temperatures were elevated, but not when daytime temperature alone was increased. Although transcripts for most components of glycolysis and respiration were either upregulated or minimally affected, elevated temperatures decreased abundance of mRNAs related to biosynthesis of starch and storage proteins. Further analysis of 20 central‐metabolic enzymes revealed six activities that were reduced under high‐temperature conditions, indicating candidate roles in the observed reduction of grain dry weight. Nonetheless, a striking overall resilience of grain filling in the face of elevated temperatures can be attributed to acceleration of normal endosperm development.
Significance Statement
Prolonged moderate temperature elevation during cereal grain fill reduces the period of storage compound accumulation, and hence yield, but the mechanisms responsible are unknown. This study revealed that the complete program of apparently normal development is executed, but at a faster rate, therefore enabling new approaches toward ameliorating yield loss in critical food crops as average global temperatures rise.
Five percent to 9% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) develop in patients with a germline
or
(g
+) mutation. Phase IB data from a trial that used cisplatin, gemcitabine, and veliparib ...treatment demonstrated a high response rate (RR), disease control rate (DCR), and overall survival (OS) in this population. We designed an open-label, randomized, multicenter, two-arm phase II trial to investigate cisplatin and gemcitabine with or without veliparib in g
+ PDAC.
Eligible patients had untreated g
PDAC with measurable stage III to IV disease and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 1. Treatment for patients in arm A consisted of cisplatin 25 mg/m
and gemcitabine 600 mg/m
intravenously on days 3 and 10; treatment for patients in arm B was the same as that for patients in arm A, and arm A also received veliparib 80 mg orally twice per day on days 1 to 12 cycled every 3 weeks. The primary end point was RRs of arm A and arm B evaluated separately using a Simon two-stage design. Secondary end points were progression-free survival, DCR, OS, safety, and correlative analyses.
Fifty patients were evaluated by modified intention-to-treat analysis. The RR for arm A was 74.1% and 65.2% for arm B (
= .55); both arms exceeded the prespecified activity threshold. DCR was 100% for arm A and 78.3% for arm B (
= .02). Median progression-free survival was 10.1 months for arm A (95% CI, 6.7 to 11.5 months) and 9.7 months for arm B (95% CI, 4.2 to 13.6 months;
= .73). Median OS for arm A was 15.5 months (95% CI, 12.2 to 24.3 months) and 16.4 months for arm B (95% CI, 11.7 to 23.4 months;
= .6). Two-year OS rate for the entire cohort was 30.6% (95% CI, 17.8% to 44.4%), and 3-year OS rate was 17.8% (95% CI, 8.1% to 30.7%). Grade 3 to 4 hematologic toxicities for arm A versus arm B were 13 (48%) versus seven (30%) for neutropenia, 15 (55%) versus two (9%) for thrombocytopenia, and 14 (52%) versus eight (35%) for anemia.
Cisplatin and gemcitabine is an effective regimen in advanced g
+ PDAC. Concurrent veliparib did not improve RR. These data establish cisplatin and gemcitabine as a standard approach in g
/
+ PDAC.
The use of surface-directing species and surface additives to alter nanoparticle morphology and physicochemical properties of particular exposed facets has recently been attracting significant ...attention. However, challenges in their chemical analysis, sometimes at trace levels, and understanding their roles to elucidate surface structure-activity relationships in optical (solar cells) or (photo)catalytic performance and their removal are significant issues that remain to be solved. Here, we show a detailed analysis of TiO
facets promoted with surface species (OH, O, SO
, F) with and without post-treatments by
P adsorbate nuclear magnetic resonance, supported by a range of other characterization tools. We demonstrate that quantitative evaluations of the electronic and structural effects imposed by these surface additives and their removal mechanisms can be obtained, which may lead to the rational control of active TiO
(001) and (101) facets for a range of applications.Metal oxide nanocrystals can be grown with different facets exposed to give variations in reactivity, but the chemical state of these surfaces is not clear. Here, the authors make use of a phosphine probe molecule allowing the differences in surface chemistry to be mapped by NMR spectroscopy.
The objective of this study is to produce and purify monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal antibodies (PAbs) against human alphafetoprotein (AFP). Hyperimmune ICR mice produced PAbs after injection ...with 0.5 mL pristane, and were injected with NS-1 myeloma cells 2 weeks later. Hyperimmune Balb/c mice were used for the production of MAbs. Mice were immunized four times, given a final boost, and their spleen cells were collected and fused with NS-1 myeloma cells under the presence of PEG 1500. The fused cells were then selected in the hypoxanthine, aminopterine, and thymidine (HAT)-RPMIX medium. Anti-AFP antibody-secreting hybridoma cell lines with high titer were cloned by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and then subcloned by limiting dilution in 15% fetal bovine serum (FBS), hypoxanthine, thymidine (HT)-RPMIX medium. Twelve murine hybridoma producing anti-AFP MAbs were obtained and designated as A73F3, A73E8, B73C5, A73G3, A73F8, 67B3, B73C2, B73E1, A73G2, B73G7, B73D7, and B73F4. Isotypes of these MAbs were identified as IgG(1) heavy chain and kappa light chain. The MAbs with high purity were obtained by affinity chromatography. The purity analysis of AFP and the MAbs was performed by capillary electrophoresis.
Twenty Mimosa-nodulating bacterial strains from Brazil and Venezuela, together with eight reference Mimosa-nodulating rhizobial strains and two other {szligbeta}-rhizobial strains, were examined by ...amplified rRNA gene restriction analysis. They fell into 16 patterns and formed a single cluster together with the known {szligbeta}-rhizobia, Burkholderia caribensis, Burkholderia phymatum, and Burkholderia tuberum. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of 15 of the 20 strains were determined, and all were shown to belong to the genus Burkholderia; four distinct clusters could be discerned, with strains isolated from the same host species usually clustering very closely. Five of the strains (MAP3-5, Br3407, Br3454, Br3461, and Br3469) were selected for further studies of the symbiosis-related genes nodA, the NodD-dependent regulatory consensus sequences (nod box), and nifH. The nodA and nifH sequences were very close to each other and to those of B. phymatum STM815, B. caribensis TJ182, and Cupriavidus taiwanensis LMG19424 but were relatively distant from those of B. tuberum STM678. In addition to nodulating their original hosts, all five strains could also nodulate other Mimosa spp., and all produced nodules on Mimosa pudica that had nitrogenase (acetylene reduction) activities and structures typical of effective N₂-fixing symbioses. Finally, both wild-type and green fluorescent protein-expressing transconjugant strains of Br3461 and MAP3-5 produced N₂-fixing nodules on their original hosts, Mimosa bimucronata (Br3461) and Mimosa pigra (MAP3-5), and hence this confirms strongly that Burkholderia strains can form effective symbioses with legumes.
As a highly heterogeneous disease, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) needs fine risk stratification to get an optimal outcome of patients. MicroRNAs have florid biological functions and have critical ...roles in the pathogenesis and prognosis in AML. Expression levels of some single microRNAs are influential for prognosis, but a system integrating several together and considering the weight of each should be more powerful. We thus analyzed the clinical, genetic and microRNA profiling data of 138 de novo AML patients of our institute. By multivariate analysis, we identified that high expression of hsa-miR-9-5p and hsa-miR-155-5p were independent poor prognostic factors, whereas that of hsa-miR-203 had a trend to be a favorable factor. We constructed a scoring system from expression of these three microRNAs by considering the weight of each. The scores correlated with distinct clinical and biological features and outperformed single microRNA expression in prognostication. In both ours and another validation cohort, higher scores were associated with shorter overall survival, independent of other well-known prognostic factors. By analyzing the mRNA expression profiles, we sorted out several cancer-related pathways highly correlated with the microRNA prognostic signature. We conclude that this 3-microRNA scoring system is simple and powerful for risk stratification of de novo AML patients.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a precision particle physics detector on the International Space Station (ISS) conducting a unique, long-duration mission of fundamental physics research in ...space. The physics objectives include the precise studies of the origin of dark matter, antimatter, and cosmic rays as well as the exploration of new phenomena. Following a 16-year period of construction and testing, and a precursor flight on the Space Shuttle, AMS was installed on the ISS on May 19, 2011. In this report we present results based on 120 billion charged cosmic ray events up to multi-TeV energies. This includes the fluxes of positrons, electrons, antiprotons, protons, and nuclei. These results provide unexpected information, which cannot be explained by the current theoretical models. The accuracy and characteristics of the data, simultaneously from many different types of cosmic rays, provide unique input to the understanding of origins, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays.
The piriform cortex (PC) is a major cortical processing center for the sense of smell that receives direct inputs from the olfactory bulb. In mice, the PC consists of three neuronal layers, which are ...populated by cells with distinct developmental origins. One origin of PC neurons is the pool of Dbx1-expressing neural progenitors located in the ventral pallium at the pallial-subpallial boundary. Since the precise mechanisms of PC neuron development are largely unknown, we sought to define the distribution, timing of neurogenesis, morphology and projection patterns of PC neurons from the Dbx1 lineage. We found that Dbx1-lineage neurons are preferentially distributed in layer 2 and enriched in the ventral portion of the PC. Further, Dbx1 neurons are early-born neurons and contribute to most neuronal subtypes in the PC. Our data also revealed an enrichment of Dbx1-lineage neurons in the ventral anterior PC that project to the orbitofrontal cortex. These findings suggest a specific association between the developmental origin of PC neurons and their neuronal properties.
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