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In order to study the structure and expression patterns of uridine diphosphate glucose dehydrogenase (UDPGH) genes in Ipomoea batatas, the transcriptome database of this plant constructed in our lab was first analyzed to screen UDPGH contigs. It was found that there were 23 UDPGH contigs of different sizes in the transcriptome database. Primers were designed to amplify the coding regions of UDPGH, and five UDPGH-coding genes (named IbUDPGH1-IbUDPGH5) were cloned and sequenced. Open reading frames of all the UDPGH were 1443 bp in length, and their identity was more than 97 and 99% at the nucleotide and protein level, respectively. Homology comparison among different plant UDPGH showed that the identity ranged from 73 to 95% at the nucleotide level and from 84 to 95% at the protein level. The results of digital gene expression profile analysis (DGE) displayed that IbUDPGH1 had the highest expression in the tuberous roots, lower in the young and mature leaves, and the lowest in stems and fibrous roots, while IbUDPGH2 and IbUDPGH5 had the highest transcript level in stems, lower in roots, and very low in leaves. The rest genes were expressed at a low level in different tissues. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR results were similar to above data from the DGE. These results imply that the high expression of UDPGH might make large contribution to the accumulation of cell wall polysaccharides in sweet potato stems and roots.

Very recent work of Kerner and Mann involving fermions tunnelling from the Rindler space-time and a general non-rotating black hole is extended to the case of Reissner-Nordström-anti-de Sitter black hole. Due to the couple between the gravity field and electromagnetic field, we introduce the Dirac equation of the charged particles to determine the action of the radiation. We further consider the correction of the thermal spectrum in the unfixed background space time. It is shown that when the energy and charge conservations are considered, the tunnelling rate of fermions is also related to the change of Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, implying the underlying unitary theory is satisfied.

Ischemia-induced cell death is a major cause of disability or death after stroke. Identifying the key intrinsic protective mechanisms induced by ischemia is critical for the development of effective stroke treatment. Here, we reported that 14-3-3 γ was a selective ischemia-inducible survival factor in cerebral cortical neurons reducing cell death by downregulating Bax depend direct 14-3-3 γ /p- β -catenin Ser37 interactions in the nucleus. 14-3-3 γ , but not other 14-3-3 isoforms, was upregulated in primary cerebral cortical neurons upon oxygen–glucose deprivation (OGD) as measured by quantitative PCR, western blot and fluorescent immunostaining. The selective induction of 14-3-3 γ in cortical neurons by OGD was verified by the in vivo ischemic stroke model. Knocking down 14-3-3 γ alone or inhibiting 14-3-3/client interactions was sufficient to induce cell death in normal cultured neurons and exacerbate OGD-induced neuronal death. Ectopic overexpression of 14-3-3 γ significantly reduced OGD-induced cell death in cultured neurons. Co-immunoprecipitation and fluorescence resonance energy transfer demonstrated that endogenous 14-3-3 γ bound directly to more p- β -catenin Ser37 but not p-Bad, p-Ask-1, p-p53 and Bax. During OGD, p- β -catenin Ser37 but not p- β -catenin Ser45 was increased prominently, which correlated with Bax elevation in cortical neurons. OGD promoted the entry of 14-3-3 γ into the nuclei, in correlation with the increase of nuclear p- β -catenin Ser37 in neurons. Overexpression of 14-3-3 γ significantly reduced Bax expression, whereas knockdown of 14-3-3 γ increased Bax in cortical neurons. Abolishing β -catenin phosphorylation at Ser37 (S37A) significantly reduced Bax and cell death in neurons upon OGD. Finally, 14-3-3 γ overexpression completely suppressed β -catenin-enhanced Bax and cell death in neurons upon OGD. Based on these data, we propose that the 14-3-3 γ /p- β -catenin Ser37/Bax axis determines cell survival or death of neurons during ischemia, providing novel therapeutic targets for ischemic stroke as well as other related neurological diseases.

Various forms of damage, such as cracks, breakages and dislocations of shield tunnel segments, exert negative effects on the structure stress during the operation of a tunnel. Based on the water gushing accident that occurred in a section of a shield tunnel between North Street Station and Wulukou Station of a Xi’an subway, the segment damage caused by water gushing and the sources of damage were analyzed through field investigation, ground penetrating radar (GPR) detection, ultrasonic crack detection and displacement monitoring. Two treatment schemes are proposed on that basis: the balloon injection for concrete structures (BICS) method was used in the treatment of segment cracks, while reinforcing steel mesh and high-performance polymer mortar were used to treat the dislocation. The evaluation indicates that the treatment plans have met the expectations. Thus, the treatments used for other similar engineering damages can be improved by the results of this study.

To analyze the temperature field of freeze-proof separate lining in cold-region tunnels, based on a tunnel on national highway number 307, the numerical model was established by the finite element software ANSYS, combined with the heat transfer theory using a cylindrical coordinate system. The change law of temperature field of the separate lining was investigated when the ventilation temperatures were -5 deg , -10 deg and -15 deg . The heat insulation effect of separate lining was also analyzed when the diameters of holes in the insulating layer were 5 mm, 10 mm and 15 mm, respectively. The results show that the temperature of lining and rock masses decreases gradually with the decrease of ventilation temperature and that the maximum temperature difference occurs in a closed air layer; considering that the temperature is still above 0 deg . When the ventilation temperature is -15 deg , the separate lining structure can protect the tunnel from freezing damage. The temperature field of the lining changes significantly if the diameters of holes in the insulating layer are large; the temperature of rock masses is -8.5 deg when the diameter is 15 mm, and the structure of the tunnel may suffer freezing damage. The tightness of the insulation layer has significant influence on the heat insulation effect of separate lining.

Dissolved oxygen is well known as an inhibitor in radical polymerization of vinyl monomer. Though the monomer solution is often saturated with argon or nitrogen to remove oxygen before polymer synthesis, there are few experimental data for the gas solubility. Thus, gas solubilities in solutions are reported for four binary systems. The solubilities of argon in styrene and nitrogen, oxygen or argon in methyl methacrylate (MMA) were measured at pressures up to 3.8 MPa, at 293, 303, 313 K. Gas solubilities at a given isotherm had linear pressure dependences, whereas Henry’s constants decreased with increasing temperature. Argon solubilities in MMA were about 1.35 times larger than those in styrene. Nitrogen and oxygen solubilities in MMA were about 1.53 and 1.35 times larger than those for styrene. Experimental data could be correlated with the Peng–Robinson equation of state to within AARDs of 0.85% for argon in styrene and 1.31%, 1.53% and 0.81% for argon, nitrogen and oxygen solubilities in MMA, respectively. The data and the correlation allow analysis not only for Henry constants but also for gas concentration in monomer solution at given temperature and pressure.

Some mixing rules were proposed with simple functional form to predict binary gas mixture solubility in pure solvent/pure gas solubility in binary solvent mixture. The experimental data employed were those of Tsuji et al. (2019) for equimolar binary gas mixture (nitrogen (N2) + oxygen (O2)) solubility in styrene at 303 K, and of Tsuji et al. (2005) for hydrogen (H2) solubility in equimolar mixture of benzene + cyclohexane at 303 K. These solubilities have a linear pressure dependence like Henry’s law at least up to 4.827 MPa. To predict gas solubilities, the mixing rules were proposed for Henry constant of gas mixtures in pure solvent and that of pure gas in solvent mixture just by using Henry constant of pure gas in pure solvent without any binary parameter. The function form was similar to that of van der Waals one fluid model, Q = ∑ i ∑ j zi zj Q ij for the mole ratio of constituent of gas or solvent mixture, zi . The Q = H and Q ij = ( H i + H j )/2 show the best reproducibility for (N2 + O2) solubility in styrene with average absolute relative deviation (AARD) 0.667 %. Otherwise, the Q = 1/H and Q ij = (1/ H i + 1/ H j )/2 show the best reproducibility for H2 solubility in benzene + cyclohexane with AARD 5.605 %. The results were well described by a universality of physical properties and Lorentz-Berthelot theorem.

Based on the turbulent convection model (TCM) of Li & Yang (2007), we have studied the characteristics of turbulent convection in the envelopes of 2 and 5M stars at the RGB and AGB phases. The TCM has been applied successfully in the whole convective envelopes including the convective unstable zone and the overshooting regions. We find that the convective motions become stronger and stronger when the stellar models are located upper and upper along the Hayashi line. In the convective unstable zone, we find that the turbulent correlations are proportional to functions of a common factor \\((-_ad)T\\), which explains similar distributions of those correlations. For the TCM we find that if the obtained stellar structure of temperature is close to that of the MLT, the convective motion will be at a much larger velocity and thus more violent. However, if the turbulent velocity is adjusted to close to that of the MLT, the superadiabatic convection zone is much more extended inward and a lower effective temperature of the stellar model will be obtained. For the overshooting distance we find that the e-folding lengths of the turbulent kinetic energy k in both the top and bottom overshooting regions decrease as the stellar model is located up along the Hayashi line, but both the extents of the decrease are not obvious. And the overshooting distances of the turbulent correlation \\(u_r^'T^'\\) are almost the same for the different stellar models with a same set of TCM's parameters. ...

High-speed gas-lubricated porous journal bearings up to 200,000 rpm are analyzed numerically. The effects of rotation speed, bearing eccentricity, permeability and thickness of the porous wall on bearing load capacity and attitude angle are investigated. The adequate initial conditions are necessary to improve the convergence of the numerical solutions for high rotation speeds. The results show that the hydrodynamic effect of high rotation speed is not as significant in gas-lubricated film as the effect of bearing eccentricity to increase the load capacity. The results also show that the lower permeability and the thicker wall of the porous bearing produce the higher load capacity.