Immunoglobulin 1 (IgG1) Fc-glycosylation profiling of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies from human serum

In several autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), autoantibodies are thought to be the driving force of pathogenicity. Glycosylation of the Fc-part of human Igs is known to modulate biological activity. Hitherto, glycosylation of human IgG-Fc has been analyzed predominantly at the level of total serum IgG, revealing reduced galactosylation in RA. Given the pathogenic relevance of autoantibodies in RA, we wished, in the present study, to address the question whether distinct Fc-glycosylation features are observable at the level of antigen-specific IgG subpopulations. For this purpose, we have developed a method for the microscale purification and Fc-glycosylation analysis of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA). ACPA represent a group of autoantibodies that occur with unique specificity in RA patients. Their presence is associated with increased inflammatory disease activity and rapid joint destruction. Results indicate that ACPA of the IgG1 subclass vary considerably from total serum IgG1 with respect to Fc-galactosylation, with galactosylation being higher on ACPA than on serum IgG1 for some patients, while other patients show higher galactosylation on serum IgG1 than on ACPA. Using this method, studies can be performed on the biological and clinical relevance of ACPA glycosylation within RA patient cohorts.     

Usability Research in the Writing Lab: Sustaining Discourse and Pedagogy

Redesigning Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) presented the opportunity for collaboration among Writing Center and Professional Writing Program members. While the article briefly describes the OWL redesign process, the argument focuses on collaboration and presents a model for sustainable intraprogram collaboration. Following Hawhee, usability research is defined as “invention-in-the-middle,” which offers a model for understanding research process as part of the infrastructure of new media instruction as described by DeVoss, Cushman, and Grabill. This article offers four stakeholder perspectives on the process of participatory technology design: of writing center administrators, graduate students, technical writing practitioners, and writing program graduate faculty members. The model asserted by this article presents a dynamic understanding of expertise and of fluidity in the roles of participants. Collaborative usability research, seen as invention-in-the-middle, contributes both to long-term sustainability of technological artifacts as well as the discursive interactions among stakeholders whose work supports these artifacts.     

基于Hibernate的通用分页查询设计

引用Hibernate作为持久化层,专门处理教据库的操作.     

Science of dry etching of III-V materials

A review is given of dry etching of III-V semiconductors. Gas chemistries based on chlorine have traditionally been used for plasma etching of these materials due to the volatilities of both group III and group V chlorides. Recent work on the use of iodine- or bromine-based discharges has shown promising results, although the corrosiveness of the feedstock gases is of concern. For indium-containing III-V semiconductors, CH₄/H₂ plasmas have produced smooth anisotropic etching at relatively low rates. In applications requiring etch rates near 1 m min^–1, Cl₂/CH₄/H₂ electron cyclotron resonance discharges have proved effective. Examples are given of the structural and chemical changes induced in the semiconductor as a result of dry etching, due to the combined effects of energetic ion bombardment and preferential removal of one of the lattice constituents. Applications for dry etching in modern microelectronic fabrication range from shallow (30 nm) mesa formation to creation of through-wafer via holes typically 100 m deep.     

基于微波无线能量传输多径效应的多角度超表面能量收集器

文中深入研究了基于微波无线能量传输技术的多径效应及其对多角度超表面能量收集器的性能的影响。首先,概述了微波无线能量传输技术的基本原理与发展现状,随后详细讨论了超表面结构在多角度能量接收中的应用。通过理论分析与仿真实验,文中提出了一种优化的超表面设计方案,以提高能量收集效率。实验结果显示,该方案能显著提高多角度超表面能量收集器在复杂传播环境下的能量收集性能,不仅为超表面能量收集器的设计提供了新的视角,也为未来无线能量传输技术的发展提供了理论参考。     

Macrophage Membrane-Coated Nanoparticles Sensitize Glioblastoma to Radiation by Suppressing Proneural–Mesenchymal Transformation in Glioma Stem Cells

Radiotherapy is identified as a crucial treatment for patients with glioblastoma, but recurrence is inevitable. The efficacy of radiotherapy is severely hampered partially due to the tumor evolution. Growing evidence suggests that proneural glioma stem cells can acquire mesenchymal features coupled with increased radioresistance. Thus, a better understanding of mechanisms underlying tumor subclonal evolution may develop new strategies. Herein, data highlighting a positive correlation between the accumulation of macrophage in the glioblastoma microenvironment after irradiation and mesenchymal transdifferentiation in glioblastoma are presented. Mechanistically, elevated production of inflammatory cytokines released by macrophages promotes mesenchymal transition in an NF-κB-dependent manner. Hence, rationally designed macrophage membrane-coated porous mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MMNs) in which therapeutic anti-NF-κB peptides are loaded for enhancing radiotherapy of glioblastoma are constructed. The combination of MMNs and fractionated irradiation results in the blockage of tumor evolution and therapy resistance in glioblastoma-bearing mice. Intriguingly, the macrophage invasion across the blood-brain barrier is inhibited competitively by MMNs, suggesting that these nanoparticles can fundamentally halt the evolution of radioresistant clones. Taken together, the biomimetic MMNs represent a promising strategy that prevents mesenchymal transition and improves therapeutic response to irradiation as well as overall survival in patients with glioblastoma.     

Implicit discrete-time fast terminal sliding mode control with disturbance compensation

In this paper, an implicit discrete-time fast terminal sliding mode (DFTSM) control with disturbance compensation is designed and analyzed for uncertain high-order systems. First, a recursive discrete sliding surface is constructed based on implicit Euler technique, which can completely eliminate discretization chattering so as to significantly reduce the boundary layer of sliding mode motion. With the help of a high-order disturbance compensator, the accuracy limitation of implicit DFTSM control systems is overcome by increasing the order of sliding mode. Then the finite-time convergence of implicit DFTSM is proved for the first time, and the influence relationship of control parameters on the convergence speed and control accuracy of the algorithm is established. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed design approach.     

Development,integration, and field evaluation of an autonomous citrus-harvesting robot

Citrus harvesting is a labor-intensive and time-intensive task. As the global population continues to age, labor costs are increasing dramatically. Therefore, the citrus-harvesting robot has attracted considerable attention from the business and academic communities. However, robotic harvesting in unstructured and natural citrus orchards remains a challenge. This study aims to address some challenges faced in commercializing citrus-harvesting robots. We present a fully integrated, autonomous, and innovative solution for citrus-harvesting robots to overcome the harvesting difficulties derived from the natural growth characteristics of citrus. This solution uses a fused simultaneous localization and mapping algorithm based on multiple sensors to perform high-precision localization and navigation for the robot in the field orchard. Besides, a novel visual method for estimating fruit poses is proposed to cope with the randomization of citrus growth orientations. Further, a new end-effector is designed to improve the success and conformity rate of citrus stem cutting. Finally, a fully autonomous harvesting robot system has been developed and integrated. Field evaluations showed that the robot could harvest citrus continuously with an overall success rate of 87.2% and an average picking time of 10.9 s/fruit. These efforts provide a solid foundation for the future commercialization of citrus-harvesting robots.     

Infrared target tracking based on proximal robust principal component analysis method

Applied Intelligence - Infrared target tracking plays an important role in both civil and military fields. The main challenges in designing a robust and high-precision tracker for infrared...     

Epitaxial growth and thermal-conductivity limit of single-crystalline Bi2Se3/In2Se3 superlattices on mica

Nano Research - Thermal transport in superlattices is governed by various phonon-scattering processes. For extracting the phonon-scattering contribution of hetero-interfaces in chalcogenide...