BID: a novel BH3 domain-only death agonist

The BCL-2 family of proteins consists of both antagonists (e.g., BCL-2) and agonists (e.g., BAX) that regulate apoptosis and compete through dimerization. The BH1 and BH2 domains of BCL-2 are required to heterodimerize with BAX and to repress cell death; conversely, the BH3 domain of BAX is required to heterodimerize with BCL-2 and to promote cell death. To extend this pathway, we used interactive cloning to identify Bid, which encodes a novel death agonist that heterodimerizes with either agonists (BAX) or antagonists (BCL-2). BID possesses only the BH3 domain, lacks a carboxy-terminal signal-anchor segment, and is found in both cytosolic and membrane locations. BID counters the protective effect of BCL-2. Moreover, expression of BID, without another death stimulus, induces ICE-like proteases and apoptosis. Mutagenesis revealed that an intact BH3 domain of BID was required to bind the BH1 domain of either BCL-2 or BAX. A BH3 mutant of BID that still heterodimerized with BCL-2 failed to promote apoptosis, dissociating these activities. In contrast, the only BID BH3 mutant that retained death promoting activity interacted with BAX, but not BCL-2. This BH3-only molecule supports BH3 as a death domain and favors a model in which BID represents a death ligand for the membrane-bound receptor BAX.     

Experimental studies of new ductile coupling beams and multi-storey shear walls

The span-depth ratios of coupling beams to interconnect shear walls are generally small, so that brittle shear failure may occur and lead to reduced ductility. In order to improve the ductility of coupling beams for earthquake loading, a new type of ductile coupling beam is proposed in this paper. Along the middle depth of this beam, a slit through the entire thickness (a narrow hole) near each end and two lateral keyways along the remaining middle part of the span are made. The reductions of the stiffness under service load and the ultimate carrying capacity of the beam due to the weakening mentioned above are small and the ductility is greatly increased. Tests of 4-storey walls interconnected by coupling beams in three different constructions (monolithic beams, beams with a through-slit and new-type beams) indicated that shear walls with the new coupling beams possess the best aseismic behaviours under cyclic loading. The proposed new coupling beam has been used in a high-rise building.     

城市河道堤防工程的岁修与管理

本文通过分析阜阳市现有河道堤防存在的问题，探讨了如何合理进行河道堤防的岁修与管理，为使市区河道建管工作进入良性循环，提出建管结合、自我发展的建议。     

用PIXE方法研究骨折家兔骨骼微量元素的变化

用质子激发X荧光分析法测定48只家兔在挠骨骨折愈合过程中骨骼中多种微量元素含量的变化。结果表明，Fe和Sr分别呈鼓凸形和下凹形规律性变化，故Fe和Sr含量的变化可作为骨折愈合过程的指示剂。在骨折愈合过程中发现骨骼和血液中元素钙的相对含量保持不变，故无法为西医用补充钙来治疗骨折的疗法提供依据，但我们的研究结果却表明中医补充微量元素治疗骨折的疗法是有道理的。     

A conditional classification recurrent RBM for improved series mid-term forecasting

In the context of human-robot and robot-robot interactions, the better cooperation can be achieved by predicting the other party’s subsequent actions based on the current action of the other party. The time duration for adjustment is not sufficient provided by short term forecasting models to robots. A longer duration can by achieved by mid-term forecasting. But the mid-term forecasting models introduce the previous errors into the follow-up forecasting and amplified gradually, eventually invalidating the forecasting. A new mid-term forecasting with error suppression based on restricted Boltzmann machine(RBM) is proposed in this paper. The proposed model can suppress the error amplification by replacing the previous inputs with their features, which are retrieved by a deep belief network(DBN). Furthermore, a new mechanism is proposed to decide whether the forecasting result is accepted or not. The model is evaluated with several datasets. The reported experiments demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed model compared to the state-of-the-art approaches.

     

Least squares approach in measurement-dependent filtering for selective medical images

An image-processing method called measurement-dependent filtering has been introduced to improve the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of selective images produced by various medical imaging systems. The basic algorithm involves the combination of the low-frequency information of the selective image with the high-frequency information of a nonselective image. A spatially variant control function modulates the amount of high frequency to be added at each point. A least-mean-square (LMS) control function formed from two basis images, namely the high-passed versions of the nonselective image (M(b)) and the selective image (S(b)), is introduced. The original algorithm is now viewed as a two-stage filtering method, including the low-pass filtering noise reduction and least squares filtering for the edge restoration. An appropriate linear transformation is used to convert the original basis images M(b) and S(b) into a new pair with orthogonal noise. This allows the implementation of the LMS and control function with practically obtainable a priori knowledge.     

Study on heat conduction and adsorption/desorption characteristic of MIL-101/few layer graphene composite

Journal of Porous Materials - Aiming at the poor heat conduction performance of porous MIL-101 applied in adsorption cooling process, few layer graphene (FLG) was selected as a promising thermal...     

Conductivity enhancement in transparetn ZnO films via Al-dopping produced by CW-CO2 laser-induced evaporation

Highly conductive transparent aluminium-doped ZnO (ZnO:A1) films were successfully deposited by CW-CO₂ laser-induced evaporation. Optimisation of evaporation parameters was based on laser power, substrate temperature, O₂ partial pressure in the vacuum chamber and amount of Al in the ZnO source pellet. ZnO:A1 films with an electrical resistivity as low as 6.6 × 10⁻²Ω·cm and an optical transmission of 80% at 500nm were obtained at laser power of 15 W, substrate temperature of about 200°C, O₂ partial pressure of 6—7 × 10⁻⁴ Torr and 5wt.% Al. Conductivity of ZnO films can be increased one order via Al-doping in ZnO films. The films obtained by laser-induced evaporation have compared quite favorably with the high quality films obtained by sputtering.