Lessons from a Minimal Genome: What Are the Essential Organizing Principles of a Cell Built from Scratch?

One of the primary challenges facing synthetic biology is reconstituting a living system from its component parts. A particularly difficult landmark is reconstituting a self-organizing system that can undergo autonomous chromosome compaction, segregation, and cell division. Here, we discuss how the syn3.0 minimal genome can inform us of the core self-organizing principles of a living cell and how these self-organizing processes can be built from the bottom up. The review underscores the importance of fundamental biology in rebuilding life from its molecular constituents.     

Characterizing pathological imperfections in macromolecular crystals: lattice disorders and modulations

Macromolecular crystal structure determination can be complicated or brought to a halt by crystal imperfections. These issues motivated us to write up what we affectionately call ‘The Definitive Hitchhiker’s Guide to Pathological Macromolecular Crystals: Lattice Disorders and Modulations’. Perhaps the most challenging imperfections are lattice order–disorder phenomena and positional modulations. Many of these types of crystals have been solved, and progress has been made on the more challenging forms. Diagnostic tools and how to solve many of these problem crystal structures are reviewed. New avenues are provided for approaching the solution of incommensurately modulated crystals. There are a good number of case studies in the literature of lattice order–disorder phenomena and crystallographic modulations that make it timely to write a review. This review concludes with a projected pathway for solving incommensurately modulated crystals, personal views of future directions and needs of the crystallographic community.     

基于人工神经网络的柴油机失火故障诊断

车载诊断系统在诊断失火故障时,采用基于曲轴段角加速度和阈值规则相结合的方法,该方法在内燃机高速轻载运行时诊断单缸完全失火工况存在一定的局限性。通过对比分析失火和正常工况下曲轴瞬时转速的幅频和相频特征,提取不同谐次的幅值和相位信息,结合人工神经网络作为故障模式识别工具,得到了一种改善方法。通过台架实验,对此改善方法进行了单缸完全失火、两缸完全失火和单缸一定程度失火的故障诊断测试。结果表明,在实验条件下该方法可以有效识别不同的失火模式,并可在单缸失火模式下实现失火程度判别。同时,该方法通过少量工况数据训练神经网络,即可实现一定转速范围内的失火诊断,可行性强,可用于发动机失火故障在线诊断。     

Preparation of CaO granules using the granulation method

ABSTRACT

Improving the hydration resistance of CaO particle in manufacturing and application of free CaO-containing materials has practical significance. In this study, CaO granules was made from Ca(OH)₂ particles, which were fabricated by the granulation method. The results showed that the hydration resistance of the CaO granules which was prepared under 1700?r?min^?1 was the best, the CaO granules was sintered well in calcination process, the shell of CaO granules was relatively dense, which improves the hydration resistance of CaO granules, and the rate of hydration weight increment was 0.58% after placed in the air for 20 days under a temperature of 10–14°C and a relative humidity of 57–81%.     

Ultra-smooth BaTiO3 surface morphology using chemical mechanical polishing technique for high-k metal-insulator-metal capacitors

The surface roughness of barium titanate (BTO) following its implication by aerosol deposition method (ADM), is a very important characteristic affecting its potential for use in high-k metal-insulator-metal capacitors. The ADM is the best candidate to deposit ceramic films but has two major problems: macroscopic defects and rough interface effects on the BTO surface. In this work, a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technique is applied to obtain an ultra-smooth BTO surface morphology by the optimization of several factors including the slurry type, the head rotational speed, and the down pressure. Statistically, we were able to achieve a root mean square (RMS) value of the BTO surface of 1.746 nm by utilizing a two-step polishing process, applied at a head rotational speed of 70 rpm under 5 kg/cm² of down pressure; this RMS value is improved at least 8 times over previous studies. This analysis is based on representative pattern images, three-dimensional images, line profiles, histograms, and power spectra of selected BTO surface areas, further verified with data from both energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.     

基于正交试验及非线性回归分析的铝灰渣水解参数研究

采用L9（34）正交试验设计的方法,研究了铝灰渣水解过程中时间、温度、转速等因素对铝灰渣中AlN含量的影响,确定了水解参数的主次关系及最优组合。同时,通过非线性回归分析对水解参数进行深入分析,建立铝灰渣中AlN含量与各水解参数的非线性关系。通过试验值与理论值对比,发现相对误差值基本可以控制在±9.65%以内,为水解过程中铝灰渣AlN含量的预测与控制提供一定指导意义。     

A Method for Systematic Assessment of Intrinsically Disordered Protein Regions by NMR

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) that lack stable conformations and are highly flexible have attracted the attention of biologists. Therefore, the development of a systematic method to identify polypeptide regions that are unstructured in solution is important. We have designed an “indirect/reflected” detection system for evaluating the physicochemical properties of IDPs using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This approach employs a “chimeric membrane protein”-based method using the thermostable membrane protein PH0471. This protein contains two domains, a transmembrane helical region and a C-terminal OB (oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide binding)-fold domain (named NfeDC domain), connected by a flexible linker. NMR signals of the OB-fold domain of detergent-solubilized PH0471 are observed because of the flexibility of the linker region. In this study, the linker region was substituted with target IDPs. Fifty-three candidates were selected using the prediction tool POODLE and 35 expression vectors were constructed. Subsequently, we obtained ¹⁵N-labeled chimeric PH0471 proteins with 25 IDPs as linkers. The NMR spectra allowed us to classify IDPs into three categories: flexible, moderately flexible, and inflexible. The inflexible IDPs contain membrane-associating or aggregation-prone sequences. This is the first attempt to use an indirect/reflected NMR method to evaluate IDPs and can verify the predictions derived from our computational tools.     

Additive manufacturing of architected catalytic ceramic substrates based on triply periodic minimal surfaces

The exhibited geometry of catalytic substrates can have a significant influence on the chemical activity and efficiency. Controlling their geometry can be challenging using the traditional techniques. In this work, we propose new and novel catalytic substrates with architected and controllable topologies based on the minimal surfaces framework. A novel design approach and an additive manufacturing (AM) technique were proposed to manufacture the catalytic substrates using ceramic materials. After 3D printing, their mechanical and flow properties were investigated experimentally. An elastic-plastic-damage coupled model was employed to investigate the underlying deformation mechanism of the investigated substrates. Results showed that the CLP substrate exhibited the highest mechanical properties as well as the least pressure drop among the tested substrates. Also, numerical simulations showed that the strut-based substrates exhibit stress localization which leads to faster failure, while stress is distributed more homogeneously in the sheet-based substrates. While the model showed to have a good agreement in the experimental and simulation stress-strain responses, the damage mechanism was not fully captured by the numerical simulations. This was attributed mainly to the process-induced defects in the form of microcracks and microvoids that can alter the nature of deformation and damage.