Design of Trehalose-Based Amide/Sulfonamide C-type Lectin Receptor Signaling Compounds

Mincle agonists have been shown to induce inflammatory cytokine production, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) and promote the development of a Th1/Th17 immune response that might be crucial to development of effective vaccination against pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As an expansion of our previous work, a library of 6,6′-amide and sulfonamide α,α-d -trehalose compounds with various substituents on the aromatic ring was synthesized efficiently in good to excellent yields. These compounds were evaluated for their ability to activate the human C-type lectin receptor Mincle by the induction of cytokines from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. A preliminary structure–activity relationship (SAR) of these novel trehalose diamides and sulfonamides revealed that aryl amide-linked trehalose compounds demonstrated improved activity and relatively high potency cytokine production compared to the Mincle ligand trehalose dibehenate adjuvant (TDB) and the natural ligand trehalose dimycolate (TDM) inducing dose-dependent and human-Mincle-specific stimulation in a HEK reporter cell line.     

Decorative near-infrared transmission filters featuring high-efficiency and angular-insensitivity employing 1D photonic crystals

We present a new scheme for visibly-opaque but near-infrared-transmitting filters involving 7 layers based on one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals, with capabilities in reaching nearly 100% transmission efficiency in the near-infrared region. Different decorative reflection colors can be created by adding additional three layers while maintaining the near-infrared transmission performance. In addition, our proposed structural colors show great angular insensitivity up to ±60° for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations, which are highly desired in various fields. The facile strategy described here involves a simple deposition method for the fabrication, thereby having great potential in diverse applications such as image sensors, anti-counterfeit tag, and optical measurement systems.

     

Analytical Modeling of Surface Potential and Drain Current of Hetero-Dielectric DG TFET and Its Analog and Radio-Frequency Performance Evaluation

Semiconductors - In the present paper, analytical modeling of surface potential and drain current for hetero-dielectric double gate tunnel FET (HDG-TFET) has been done. The two dimensional (2D)...     

Effect of swirl and number of swirler vanes on combustion characteristics of methane inverse diffusion flame

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - An experimental study is performed to explore the effect of swirl and number of swirler vanes on combustion characteristics of methane inverse...     

Preparation and physicochemical study of jute and glass composites of epoxy resin of (2E, 6E)-bis(4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexanone

Polymer Bulletin - Jute and glass composites of epoxy resin of (2E, 6E)-bis(4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexanone (EBHBC) were prepared by compressing molding technique using three different hardeners...     

Phytoplankton primary production, chlorophyll-a and nutrient concentrations in the water column of mountainous Lake Phewa, Nepal

The seasonal patterns of phytoplankton primary production, chlorophyll‐a concentration, cell number and several other limnological variables in Lake Phewa, located in the active monsoon zone in Central Himalaya, Nepal, were studied for a year beginning in April 2001. During the study period, the gross primary production and chlorophyll‐a concentrations were relatively low during the monsoon season. The phytoplankton cell number, represented by 24 genera, also fluctuated seasonally, but tended to increase in the pre‐ and post‐monsoon period. These results suggest that the monsoon plays a crucial role in the primary production and phytoplankton dynamics for Lake Phewa. Among the phytoplankton species, Microcystis aeruginosa, a representative species for eutrophic lakes, was the dominant phytoplankton. At the same time, however, it is clear that the lake is not yet heavily eutrophic. The present study suggests that the exchange of lake water during the monsoon season contributes to maintaining the health of the lake against further degradation. Nevertheless, the silt carried in the monsoon rain run‐off from the lake's catchment area suggests increasingly serious degradation problems for this small mountainous lake.     

全流程低功耗设计技术的应用

随着便携式电子设备的日益使用,要求集成电路IC及SoC的功耗越来越低。在今后日益复杂的设计中,实现一个可靠的电源网络以减小功耗变成了主要的挑战。对于使用者来说,期待每一代新产品都具有新型功能,同时也希望产品的体积小并具有较长的工作时间。解决这个难题的方法之一就是采用新型的IC设计技术,以提供小而且高效的晶体管。在整个设计流程中,为了使器件的性能和可靠性最优,电源方面的限制非常关键。例如在逻辑门应用中,由于开关从一种状态转换到另一种状态从而引起动态功耗。在开关的转换过程中,和晶体管门极相连的所有内部电容将会被…     

Enhancing both network and user performance for networks supporting best effort traffic

With a view on improving user-perceived performance on networks supporting best effort flows, e.g., multimedia/data file transfers, we propose a family of bandwidth allocation criteria that depends on the residual work of on-going transfers. Analysis and simulations show that allocating bandwidth in this fashion can significantly improve the user-perceived delay, bit transmission delay, and throughput over traditional approaches, e.g., by 58% on an 80% loaded linear network. A simple implementation based on TCP Reno, exemplifies how one might approach practically realizing such gains. We discuss several other advantages of incorporating such differentiation at the transport level. In particular we make the case that favoring small transfers combined with user impatience or peak rate constraints, both of which are natural mechanisms for users to express the utility of completing transfers, offers a lightweight approach to achieving good overall network goodput and/or utility for best effort networks.     

Validity of the PAS-ADD for detecting psychiatric symptoms in adults with learning disability (mental retardation)

The Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with Developmental Disability (PAS-ADD) is a semi-structured interview for use with respondents who have learning disability and for key informants. This report investigates the ability of the instrument to detect symptoms that had been found to exist during routine clinical assessment of the patients. Field trials involved 95 referred patients with learning disability and a key informant for each sample member. Clinical opinions of the referring psychiatrists were sought using a symptom checklist. Referrer checklist symptoms and PAS-ADD data were both factor analysed. Validity testing involved (a) computation of correlations between PAS-ADD factors and checklist data and (b) comparison of PAS-ADD and referrers' diagnoses. Results indicated good validity for the PAS-ADD in relation to psychotic symptoms and depressive symptoms. Anxiety symptom identification was not well validated, probably due to small numbers. Expansive mood identified by the referrers was not detected by the PAS-ADD because there is currently no corresponding section in the interview. Where the PAS-ADD produced a diagnosis (in 58 members of the sample), 44 were in agreement with the referrer. Probability of diagnosis by PAS-ADD increased with the number of relevant active symptoms identified by the referrer. The PAS-ADD has been shown in a previous report to have the sensitivity to detect mental disorders not known to psychiatric services. For psychotic and depressive conditions, our results showed that symptom detection was in good agreement with the information provided by the referring psychiatrists on their patients. The PAS-ADD needs a section on hypomania and further investigation of its detection of anxiety disorders.