Biomolecules can form condensates through liquid-liquid phase separation(LLPS)to perform biological functions.It is well established that intrinsically disordered proteins play essential roles in driving LLPS,and thei...Biomolecules can form condensates through liquid-liquid phase separation(LLPS)to perform biological functions.It is well established that intrinsically disordered proteins play essential roles in driving LLPS,and their conformations tend to adopt more extended states within the dense phase.However,for proteins with folded structures,how the folding of individual chains and phase separation mutually influence each other remains unclear.Here,using the nucleocapsid protein 7(NCp7)of human immunodeficiency virus 1(HIV-1)and its cognate RNA as a model system,we investigated the coupling between protein folding and phase separation through coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations.We found that the folding of NCp7 into its native structure,which contains two zinc finger(ZF)motifs,increases the multivalency of protein-RNA interactions and promotes their co-condensation.In turn,phase separation further stabilizes the native structure of the protein by facilitating non-native interactions within the condensates,where biomolecule concentration and molecular crowding are high.Additionally,RNA exhibits a highly dynamic structure,which enables it to simultaneously engage in protein interactions and adopt interchain double-stranded helical conformations,thereby mediating a balance between protein-RNA attraction and RNA-RNA repulsion.The results of this work suggest that tuning the folding and stability of individual biomolecules(e.g.,through metal-ion binding)offers an effective route to modulate biomolecular condensation,highlighting a promising strategy for drug design targeting the macroscopic phase behavior of biomolecules.展开更多
Hands-on work in junior high school mathematics has instructional value when it draws students into mathematical questions rather than stopping at finished products.Taking the lesson“Geometric Relationships in Paper ...Hands-on work in junior high school mathematics has instructional value when it draws students into mathematical questions rather than stopping at finished products.Taking the lesson“Geometric Relationships in Paper Folding”as a case,this paper discusses how a sequence of folding tasks can be organized around creases.Students begin with familiar paper shapes,make and mark creases,compare the relationships they see,and then explain parallelism,symmetry,equal sides,and transfer under changed conditions.The chain is arranged as situational activation,operational generation,relationship discovery,mathematical explanation,and transfer application.The crease becomes the hinge between action and reasoning:It starts as a physical trace,is read as a geometric line,axis,bisector,or boundary relation,and finally serves as evidence in explanation.When students are required to record their folds,name relationships,and check their reasons,paper folding can remain open-ended while keeping a clear mathematical focus.展开更多
In an attempt to realize a flapping wing micro-air vehicle with morphing wings, we report on improvements to our previousfoldable artificial hind wing.Multiple hinges, which were implemented to mimic the bending zone ...In an attempt to realize a flapping wing micro-air vehicle with morphing wings, we report on improvements to our previousfoldable artificial hind wing.Multiple hinges, which were implemented to mimic the bending zone of a beetle hind wing, weremade of small composite hinge plates and tiny aluminum rivets.The buck-tails of rivets were flared after the hinge plates wereassembled with the rivets so that the folding/unfolding motions could be completed in less time, and the straight shape of theartificial hind wing could be maintained after fabrication.Folding and unfolding actions were triggered by electrically-activatedShape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires.For wing folding, the actuation characteristics of the SMA wire actuator were modifiedthrough heat treatment.Through a series of flapping tests, we confirmed that the artificial wings did not fold back and arbitrarilyfluctuate during the flapping motion.展开更多
An efficient strategy has been developed to reconstruct chain folding and traversing of poly(L-lactide)(PLLA)during melt crystallization based on the selective hydrolysis of its amorphous regions.The molecular weights...An efficient strategy has been developed to reconstruct chain folding and traversing of poly(L-lactide)(PLLA)during melt crystallization based on the selective hydrolysis of its amorphous regions.The molecular weights of the pristine PLLA(crystalline part),single stem,and single cluster were determined by gel permeation chromatography(GPC)according to their evolution during alkali hydrolysis.The maximum-folding-number(in a single cluster)and minimum-cluster-number(in one polymer chain)were obtained using these molecular weights.With the help of two numbers,the chain folding and traversing during the melt crystallization process(at 120℃)of PLLA can be described as follows.Statistically,in a single polymer chain,there are at least 2 clusters consisting of up to 6.5 stems in each of them,while the rest of the polymer chain contributes to amorphous regions.Our results provide a new strategy for the investigation and fundamental understanding of the melt crystallization of PLLA.展开更多
Spectrin domains,characterized by a distinctive triple helix structure,are crucial in physiological processes,particularly in maintaining membrane shape and crosslinking cytoskeletons.Previous research on the 16th dom...Spectrin domains,characterized by a distinctive triple helix structure,are crucial in physiological processes,particularly in maintaining membrane shape and crosslinking cytoskeletons.Previous research on the 16th domain of a-spectrin repeats(R16)has yielded conflicting results:bulk experiments showed an unfolding rate approximately two orders of magnitude faster than the zero-force result extrapolated from single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments using atomic force microscopy(AFM).To address this discrepancy,we investigated the folding and unfolding rates of R16 across a broader range of forces using magnetic tweezers(MT).Our findings reveal that AFM results at higher forces cannot be directly extrapolated to the low-force regime due to a nonlinear relationship between force and the logarithm of the unfolding rate.We demonstrated that two-dimensional model,structural-elastic model,and two-pathway model can all effectively explain the experimental data when they capture the core physics of the short unfolding distance at low forces.Our study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the unfolding dynamics of the spectrin domain,resolves previous contradictory experimental results,and highlights the common basis of different theoretical models.展开更多
Two types of bound states in continuum(BICs),symmetry-protected and Brillouin zone folding driven,are identified in hollow Si nanorod arrays.By modulating the direction and distance of the air holes from the center of...Two types of bound states in continuum(BICs),symmetry-protected and Brillouin zone folding driven,are identified in hollow Si nanorod arrays.By modulating the direction and distance of the air holes from the center of the nanorods,it is possible to achieve either a single quasi-BIC or three quasi-BICs.The transmission spectra exhibit ultra-narrow lines,and the quasi-BICs demonstrate ultra-high Q factors.Additionally,efficient third-harmonic generation occurs at low pump intensities.The results indicate that the proposed nanostructures of two types of BICs with a flexible modulation hold great potential applications for nonlinear photonic devices.展开更多
An accurate period is important to recover the pulse profile from a recorded photon event series of an X-ray pulsar and to estimate the pulse time of arrival,which is the measurement of X-ray pulsar navigation.Epoch f...An accurate period is important to recover the pulse profile from a recorded photon event series of an X-ray pulsar and to estimate the pulse time of arrival,which is the measurement of X-ray pulsar navigation.Epoch folding is a classical period estimation method in the time domain;however,its computational complexity grows as the number of trail periods increases.In order to reduce the computational complexity,this paper improves the fast folding algorithm through segment correlation and amplitude accumulation,which is based on the post-order traversal of a binary tree.Compared with epoch folding,the improved fast folding algorithm can achieve a similar accuracy at the cost of a lower computational burden.Compared with the original fast folding algorithm,the improved algorithm can be applied to detectors with a much smaller effective area.The performance of the method is investigated by simulation data and observation data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer(NICER).展开更多
Artificial molecular chaperone(AMC)and ion exchange chromatography(IEC)were integrated,thus a new refolding method,artificial molecular chaperone-ion exchange chromatography(AMC-IEC)was developed.Compared with AMC and...Artificial molecular chaperone(AMC)and ion exchange chromatography(IEC)were integrated,thus a new refolding method,artificial molecular chaperone-ion exchange chromatography(AMC-IEC)was developed.Compared with AMC and IEC,the activity recovery of lysozyme obtained by AMC-IEC was much higher in the investigated range of initial protein concentrations,and the results show that AMC-IEC is very efficient for protein refolding at high concentrations.When the initial concentration of lysozyme is 180 mg/mL,its activity recovery obtained by AMC-IEC is still as high as 76.6%,while the activity recoveries obtained by AMC and IEC are 45.6%and 42.4%,respectively.展开更多
X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XPNAV) is an attractive method for autonomous deep- space navigation in the future. The pulse phase estimation is a key task in XPNAV and its accuracy directly determines the navigatio...X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XPNAV) is an attractive method for autonomous deep- space navigation in the future. The pulse phase estimation is a key task in XPNAV and its accuracy directly determines the navigation accuracy. State-of-the-art pulse phase estimation techniques either suffer from poor estimation accuracy, or involve tile maximization of generally non- convex object function, thus resulting in a large computational cost. In this paper, a fasl pulse phase estimation method based on epoch folding is presented. The statistical properties of the observed profle obtained through epoch folding are developed. Based on this, we recognize the joint prob- ability distribution of the observed profile as the likelihood function and utilize a fast Fourier transform-based procedure to estimate the pulse phase. Computational complexity of the proposed estimator is analyzed as well. Experimental results show that the proposed estimator significantly outperforms the currently used cross-correlation (CC) and nonlinear least squares (NLS) estima- tors, while significantly reduces the computational complexity compared with NLS and maxinmm likelihood (ML) estimators.展开更多
Folding and spinning behavior of Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenee) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in different categories of rice genotypes viz., resistant, susceptible, hybrid, scented, popular and wild rice genotypes...Folding and spinning behavior of Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenee) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in different categories of rice genotypes viz., resistant, susceptible, hybrid, scented, popular and wild rice genotypes were significantly different. Longer leaf selection time and folding time per primary fold; shorter primary fold and whole leaf fold; lower number of binds per primary fold and whole leaf fold were recorded in resistant and wild rice genotypes. In the correlation analysis, it was found that the leaf folding parameters were positively correlated to leaf folder damage whereas the leaf spinning parameters were negatively correlated. Similarly, the morphological characters differed significantly among the chosen genotypes and were related to leaffolder damage. The leaf width and total productive tiller number were positively correlated to leaffolder infestation. Results also indicated that the trichome density and length, leaf length and plant height might contribute to resistance whereas total number of green leaves had no effect on leaffolder infestation. In the scatter plot analysis between leaf folding and spinning characters and leaffolder damage, the genotypes were separated into four groups viz., resistant (TKM6, Ptb 33, LFR831311, Oryza rhizomatis and O. minuta), moderately resistant (ASD16 and CORH1), moderately susceptible (ADT36, Pusa Basmati and CB200290) and susceptible (IR36 and TN1). The present investigation proved that the leaf morphology viz., leaf length and width, plant height and trichome density and length may play a vital role in resistance against rice leaffolder.展开更多
Investigation on the folding mode of a single polymer chain in its crystal is significant to the understanding of the mechanism of the fundamental crystallization as well as the engineering of new polymer crystal-base...Investigation on the folding mode of a single polymer chain in its crystal is significant to the understanding of the mechanism of the fundamental crystallization as well as the engineering of new polymer crystal-based materials. Herein, we use the combined techniques of atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and force spectroscopy to pull a single polyethylene oxide (PEO) chain out of its spiral crystal in amyl acetate. From these data, the folding mode of polymer chains in the spiral crystal has been reconstructed. We find that the stems tilt in the typical flat area, leading to the decrease in the apparent lamellar height. While in the area of screw dislocation, the lamellar height gradually increases in the range of several nanometers. These results indicate that the combined techniques present a novel tool to directly unravel the chain folding mode of spiral crystals at single-molecule level.展开更多
A serial of"comb-like and trough-like"folds developed in eastern Sichuan,controlled by the multi-layer detachment folding,is different from the classical Jura-type structure in their development.The key factor resul...A serial of"comb-like and trough-like"folds developed in eastern Sichuan,controlled by the multi-layer detachment folding,is different from the classical Jura-type structure in their development.The key factor resulting in the development of these structures is the occurrence of detachment layers in different parts of Neoprotozoic to Mesozoic stratigraphy of study area,which, from the bottom to the top,are the lower part of Banxi Group,Lower Cambrian(Niutitang Formation),Lower Silurian(Longmaxi Formation and Luoreping Formation),Upper Permian (Wujiaping Formation) and Lower Triassic(Daye Formation).On the basis of field survey combined with sand-box modeling,this study argued that the detachment layer of the lower part of Banxi Group controlled the development of the"comb-like"folds,and the lower part of Cambrian detachment layer controlled the development of"trough-like"folds.Because of several detachment layers occurring in the study area,the development of duplex structures different scales is an important deformation mechanism,and the duplexes are the important structures distinguished from the typical detachment folding structures.Due to these duplexes,the surface structures and structural highs may not be the structural highs in the depth.Meanwhile,the detachment layers are good channels for oil/ gas migration benefiting the understanding of accumulation and migration of oil and gas.展开更多
The endoplasmic reticulum is a key site for protein production and quality control.More than one-third of proteins are synthesized and folded into the correct three-dimensional conformation in the endoplasmic reticulu...The endoplasmic reticulum is a key site for protein production and quality control.More than one-third of proteins are synthesized and folded into the correct three-dimensional conformation in the endoplasmic reticulum.However,during protein folding,unfolded and/or misfolded proteins are prone to occur,which may lead to endoplasmic reticulum stress.Organisms can monitor the quality of the proteins produced by endoplasmic reticulum quality control(ERQC)and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation(ERAD),which maintain endoplasmic reticulum protein homeostasis by degrading abnormally folded proteins.The underlying mechanisms of protein folding and ERAD in mammals have not yet been fully explored.Therefore,this paper reviews the process and function of protein folding and ERAD in mammalian cells,in order to help clinicians better understand the mechanism of ERAD and to provide a scientific reference for the treatment of diseases caused by abnormal ERAD.展开更多
Objective To characterize the relationship between the refolding process of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin and its immunoreactivity for clinical purposes. To establish a spectral method which examine the extent o...Objective To characterize the relationship between the refolding process of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin and its immunoreactivity for clinical purposes. To establish a spectral method which examine the extent of recombinant allergen renaturation. Methods The refolding process of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin was investigated by using circular dichroism, fluorescence and synchronous fluorescence spectra. IgE-binding capacity of recombinant protein was analyzed by ELISA. In addition, bioinformatic methods were used to explain the spectral characteristics and analyze the relationship between the conformational changes and the immunoreactivity of the protein during renaturation in vitro. Results Renaturation of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin resulted in a more compact structure resembling the natural counterpart with stronger IgE-binding capacity. Conclusion The degree of protein renaturation Results from this study may be of help for food future. correlated with the IgE-binding capacity of the protein. allergy therapy and development of vaccination in the展开更多
Emulating periodic main wing movement of a bird for generating lift and thrust remains a significant challenge in developing a robotic bird.The sequences of main wing motion are comprised of flapping,folding,bending,a...Emulating periodic main wing movement of a bird for generating lift and thrust remains a significant challenge in developing a robotic bird.The sequences of main wing motion are comprised of flapping,folding,bending,and twisting.In this paper,we concentrate on the flapping and folding motion,and design two wing mechanisms based on a 4-bar linkage structure:one is only for Flapping Motion(FM)and the other is for simultaneous Flapping and Folding Motion(FFM)during a wing stroke.We derive relationships between length and angle of links to analyze kinematic characteristics of the mechanisms and conduct an optimization to select the length parameters of links that allow maximization of the flapping angle.We run a simulation to confirm the performance of the optimized parameters by examining physical properties,and fabricate two wing mechanisms accordingly.In particular,the folding motion is achieved without using an additional actuator.Force measurements to investigate a lift profile of each mechanism and their quantitative comparison of the performance of both types confirm the benefits of the folding motion in the perspectives of wing frequency and lift.We expect that our kinematic formulation,design procedures,and comparative measurement results can help develop a wing mechanism to create a truly biomimetic robotic bird.展开更多
Spectral compressive imaging has emerged as a powerful technique to collect the 3D spectral information as 2D measurements.The algorithm for restoring the original 3D hyperspectral images(HSIs)from compressive measure...Spectral compressive imaging has emerged as a powerful technique to collect the 3D spectral information as 2D measurements.The algorithm for restoring the original 3D hyperspectral images(HSIs)from compressive measurements is pivotal in the imaging process.Early approaches painstakingly designed networks to directly map compressive measurements to HSIs,resulting in the lack of interpretability without exploiting the imaging priors.While some recent works have introduced the deep unfolding framework for explainable reconstruction,the performance of these methods is still limited by the weak information transmission between iterative stages.In this paper,we propose a Memory-Augmented deep Unfolding Network,termed MAUN,for explainable and accurate HSI reconstruction.Specifically,MAUN implements a novel CNN scheme to facilitate a better extrapolation step of the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm,introducing an extra momentum incorporation step for each iteration to alleviate the information loss.Moreover,to exploit the high correlation of intermediate images from neighboring iterations,we customize a cross-stage transformer(CSFormer)as the deep denoiser to simultaneously capture self-similarity from both in-stage and cross-stage features,which is the first attempt to model the long-distance dependencies between iteration stages.Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed MAUN is superior to other state-of-the-art methods both visually and metrically.Our code is publicly available at http://gffzz188fe103f8f1460as5poffoq56xfw6qqf.ffgz.tsg.suse.edu.cn/HuQ1an/MAUN.展开更多
The DNA i-motif is a quadruplex structure formed in tandem cytosine-rich sequences in slightly acidic conditions. Besides being considered as a building block of DNA nano-devices, it may also play potential roles in r...The DNA i-motif is a quadruplex structure formed in tandem cytosine-rich sequences in slightly acidic conditions. Besides being considered as a building block of DNA nano-devices, it may also play potential roles in regulating chromo- some stability and gene transcriptions. The stability of i-motif is crucial for these functions. In this work, we investigated the mechanical stability of a single i-motif formed in the human telomeric sequence 51-(CCCTAA)3CCC, which revealed a novel pH and loading rate-dependent bimodal unfolding force distribution. Although the cause of the bimodal unfolding force species is not clear, we proposed a phenomenological model involving a direct unfolding favored at lower loading rate or higher pH value, which is subject to competition with another unfolding pathway through a mechanically stable inter- mediate state whose nature is yet to be determined. Overall, the unique mechano-chemical responses of i-motif-provide a new perspective to its stability, which may be useful to guide designing new i-motif-based DNA mechanical nano-devices.展开更多
The thin-walled tube flexure(TWTF) hinges have important potential application value in the deployment mechanisms of satellite and solar array, but the optimal design of the TWTF hinges haven't been completely solv...The thin-walled tube flexure(TWTF) hinges have important potential application value in the deployment mechanisms of satellite and solar array, but the optimal design of the TWTF hinges haven't been completely solved, which restricts their applications. An optimal design method for the qusai-static folding and deploying of TWTF hinges with double slots is presented based on the response surface theory. Firstly, the full factorial method is employed to design of the experiments. Then, the finite element models of the TWTF hinges with double slots are constructed to simulate the qusai-static folding and deploying non-linear analysis. What's more, the mathematical model of the TWTF flexure hinge quasi-static folding and deploying properties are derived by the response surface method. Considering of small mass and high stability, the peak moment of quasi-static folding and deploying as well as the lightless are set as the objectives to get the optimal performances. The relative errors of the objectives between the optimal design results and the FE analysis results are less than 7%, which demonstrates the precision of the surrogate models. Lastly, the parameter study shows that both the slots length and the slots width both have significant effects to the peak moment of quasi-static folding and deploying of TWTF hinges with double slots. However, the maximum Mises stress of quasi-static folding is more sensitive to the slots length than the slots width. The proposed research can be applied to optimize other thin-walled flexure hinges under quasi-static folding and deploying, which is of great importance to design of flexure hinges with high stability and low stress.展开更多
To understand how the stabilities of key nuclei fragments affect protein folding dynamics, we simulate by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in aqueous solution four fragments cut out of a protein G, including one a...To understand how the stabilities of key nuclei fragments affect protein folding dynamics, we simulate by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in aqueous solution four fragments cut out of a protein G, including one a-helix (seqB: KVFKQYAN), two -turns (seqA: LNGKTLKG and seqC: YDDATKTF), and one -strand (seqD: DGEWTYDD). The Markov State Model clustering method combined with the coarse-grained conformation letters method are employed to analyze the data sampled from 2-#s equilibrium MD simulation trajectories. We find that seqA and seqB have more stable structures than their native structures which become metastable when cut out of the protein structure. As expected, seqD alone is flexible and does not have a stable structure. Throughout our simulations, the native structure of seqC is stable but cannot be reached if starting from a structure other than the native one, implying a funnel-shape free energy landscape of seqC in aqueous solution. All the above results suggest that different nuclei have different formation dynamics during protein folding, which may have a major contribution to the hierarchy of protein folding dynamics.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12574224,12090052,and 12347102)the Basic Research Program of Jiangsu Province(Grant No.BK20253050)+1 种基金the grant of Wenzhou Institute,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant Nos.WIUCASQD2021010 and WIUCASQD2022036)the support from HPC Center of Nanjing University,e-Science center of Nanjing University,Nanjing Kunpeng&Ascend Center of Cultivation,and the Nanjing Key Laboratory for Cardiovascular Information and Health Engineering Medicine(funded by the Nanjing Municipal Health Commission)and its Jiangsu counterpart.
摘要Biomolecules can form condensates through liquid-liquid phase separation(LLPS)to perform biological functions.It is well established that intrinsically disordered proteins play essential roles in driving LLPS,and their conformations tend to adopt more extended states within the dense phase.However,for proteins with folded structures,how the folding of individual chains and phase separation mutually influence each other remains unclear.Here,using the nucleocapsid protein 7(NCp7)of human immunodeficiency virus 1(HIV-1)and its cognate RNA as a model system,we investigated the coupling between protein folding and phase separation through coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations.We found that the folding of NCp7 into its native structure,which contains two zinc finger(ZF)motifs,increases the multivalency of protein-RNA interactions and promotes their co-condensation.In turn,phase separation further stabilizes the native structure of the protein by facilitating non-native interactions within the condensates,where biomolecule concentration and molecular crowding are high.Additionally,RNA exhibits a highly dynamic structure,which enables it to simultaneously engage in protein interactions and adopt interchain double-stranded helical conformations,thereby mediating a balance between protein-RNA attraction and RNA-RNA repulsion.The results of this work suggest that tuning the folding and stability of individual biomolecules(e.g.,through metal-ion binding)offers an effective route to modulate biomolecular condensation,highlighting a promising strategy for drug design targeting the macroscopic phase behavior of biomolecules.
基金Wuxi Educational Science“14th Five-Year Plan”Project,“Exploration of Junior High School Mathematics Comprehensive Practice Curriculum Oriented to the Basic Cultivation of Innovative Talents”(E/D/2023/04)Jiangsu Provincial“14th Five-Year Plan”Project,“Practical Research on Unit-Based Holistic Teaching of Junior High School Mathematics From the Perspective of Contextual Continuity”(C/2023/03/36).
摘要Hands-on work in junior high school mathematics has instructional value when it draws students into mathematical questions rather than stopping at finished products.Taking the lesson“Geometric Relationships in Paper Folding”as a case,this paper discusses how a sequence of folding tasks can be organized around creases.Students begin with familiar paper shapes,make and mark creases,compare the relationships they see,and then explain parallelism,symmetry,equal sides,and transfer under changed conditions.The chain is arranged as situational activation,operational generation,relationship discovery,mathematical explanation,and transfer application.The crease becomes the hinge between action and reasoning:It starts as a physical trace,is read as a geometric line,axis,bisector,or boundary relation,and finally serves as evidence in explanation.When students are required to record their folds,name relationships,and check their reasons,paper folding can remain open-ended while keeping a clear mathematical focus.
基金supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation Grant(National Research Laboratory Program,R0A-2007-000-200012-0)the Korea Research Foundation(KRF-006-005-J03301)partially supported by the 2009 KU Brain Pool of Konkuk University
摘要In an attempt to realize a flapping wing micro-air vehicle with morphing wings, we report on improvements to our previousfoldable artificial hind wing.Multiple hinges, which were implemented to mimic the bending zone of a beetle hind wing, weremade of small composite hinge plates and tiny aluminum rivets.The buck-tails of rivets were flared after the hinge plates wereassembled with the rivets so that the folding/unfolding motions could be completed in less time, and the straight shape of theartificial hind wing could be maintained after fabrication.Folding and unfolding actions were triggered by electrically-activatedShape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires.For wing folding, the actuation characteristics of the SMA wire actuator were modifiedthrough heat treatment.Through a series of flapping tests, we confirmed that the artificial wings did not fold back and arbitrarilyfluctuate during the flapping motion.
基金financially supported by"Pioneer"and"Leading Goose"R&D Program of Zhejiang(No.2023C03130)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.22373029)+1 种基金Interdisciplinary Research Project of Hangzhou Normal University(No.2024JCXK02)Open Project Program of Key Laboratory of Yarn Materials Forming and Composite Processing Technology of Zhejiang Province(No.MTC2022-09)。
摘要An efficient strategy has been developed to reconstruct chain folding and traversing of poly(L-lactide)(PLLA)during melt crystallization based on the selective hydrolysis of its amorphous regions.The molecular weights of the pristine PLLA(crystalline part),single stem,and single cluster were determined by gel permeation chromatography(GPC)according to their evolution during alkali hydrolysis.The maximum-folding-number(in a single cluster)and minimum-cluster-number(in one polymer chain)were obtained using these molecular weights.With the help of two numbers,the chain folding and traversing during the melt crystallization process(at 120℃)of PLLA can be described as follows.Statistically,in a single polymer chain,there are at least 2 clusters consisting of up to 6.5 stems in each of them,while the rest of the polymer chain contributes to amorphous regions.Our results provide a new strategy for the investigation and fundamental understanding of the melt crystallization of PLLA.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foun-dation of China(Grant Nos.12174322,12474200,32271367,and 12204389)111 Project(B16029)Research Grant from Wenzhou Institute.
摘要Spectrin domains,characterized by a distinctive triple helix structure,are crucial in physiological processes,particularly in maintaining membrane shape and crosslinking cytoskeletons.Previous research on the 16th domain of a-spectrin repeats(R16)has yielded conflicting results:bulk experiments showed an unfolding rate approximately two orders of magnitude faster than the zero-force result extrapolated from single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments using atomic force microscopy(AFM).To address this discrepancy,we investigated the folding and unfolding rates of R16 across a broader range of forces using magnetic tweezers(MT).Our findings reveal that AFM results at higher forces cannot be directly extrapolated to the low-force regime due to a nonlinear relationship between force and the logarithm of the unfolding rate.We demonstrated that two-dimensional model,structural-elastic model,and two-pathway model can all effectively explain the experimental data when they capture the core physics of the short unfolding distance at low forces.Our study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the unfolding dynamics of the spectrin domain,resolves previous contradictory experimental results,and highlights the common basis of different theoretical models.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12174228 and 12274271)。
摘要Two types of bound states in continuum(BICs),symmetry-protected and Brillouin zone folding driven,are identified in hollow Si nanorod arrays.By modulating the direction and distance of the air holes from the center of the nanorods,it is possible to achieve either a single quasi-BIC or three quasi-BICs.The transmission spectra exhibit ultra-narrow lines,and the quasi-BICs demonstrate ultra-high Q factors.Additionally,efficient third-harmonic generation occurs at low pump intensities.The results indicate that the proposed nanostructures of two types of BICs with a flexible modulation hold great potential applications for nonlinear photonic devices.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61703413).
摘要An accurate period is important to recover the pulse profile from a recorded photon event series of an X-ray pulsar and to estimate the pulse time of arrival,which is the measurement of X-ray pulsar navigation.Epoch folding is a classical period estimation method in the time domain;however,its computational complexity grows as the number of trail periods increases.In order to reduce the computational complexity,this paper improves the fast folding algorithm through segment correlation and amplitude accumulation,which is based on the post-order traversal of a binary tree.Compared with epoch folding,the improved fast folding algorithm can achieve a similar accuracy at the cost of a lower computational burden.Compared with the original fast folding algorithm,the improved algorithm can be applied to detectors with a much smaller effective area.The performance of the method is investigated by simulation data and observation data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer(NICER).
基金the National Natural Science Foundation in China(No.20705028)the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Modem Separation Science in Shaanxi Province(No.05JS61).
摘要Artificial molecular chaperone(AMC)and ion exchange chromatography(IEC)were integrated,thus a new refolding method,artificial molecular chaperone-ion exchange chromatography(AMC-IEC)was developed.Compared with AMC and IEC,the activity recovery of lysozyme obtained by AMC-IEC was much higher in the investigated range of initial protein concentrations,and the results show that AMC-IEC is very efficient for protein refolding at high concentrations.When the initial concentration of lysozyme is 180 mg/mL,its activity recovery obtained by AMC-IEC is still as high as 76.6%,while the activity recoveries obtained by AMC and IEC are 45.6%and 42.4%,respectively.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61301173)
摘要X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XPNAV) is an attractive method for autonomous deep- space navigation in the future. The pulse phase estimation is a key task in XPNAV and its accuracy directly determines the navigation accuracy. State-of-the-art pulse phase estimation techniques either suffer from poor estimation accuracy, or involve tile maximization of generally non- convex object function, thus resulting in a large computational cost. In this paper, a fasl pulse phase estimation method based on epoch folding is presented. The statistical properties of the observed profle obtained through epoch folding are developed. Based on this, we recognize the joint prob- ability distribution of the observed profile as the likelihood function and utilize a fast Fourier transform-based procedure to estimate the pulse phase. Computational complexity of the proposed estimator is analyzed as well. Experimental results show that the proposed estimator significantly outperforms the currently used cross-correlation (CC) and nonlinear least squares (NLS) estima- tors, while significantly reduces the computational complexity compared with NLS and maxinmm likelihood (ML) estimators.
基金the University Grant Commission, New Delhi, India for providing financial assistance as student fellowship to carry out these studies
摘要Folding and spinning behavior of Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenee) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in different categories of rice genotypes viz., resistant, susceptible, hybrid, scented, popular and wild rice genotypes were significantly different. Longer leaf selection time and folding time per primary fold; shorter primary fold and whole leaf fold; lower number of binds per primary fold and whole leaf fold were recorded in resistant and wild rice genotypes. In the correlation analysis, it was found that the leaf folding parameters were positively correlated to leaf folder damage whereas the leaf spinning parameters were negatively correlated. Similarly, the morphological characters differed significantly among the chosen genotypes and were related to leaffolder damage. The leaf width and total productive tiller number were positively correlated to leaffolder infestation. Results also indicated that the trichome density and length, leaf length and plant height might contribute to resistance whereas total number of green leaves had no effect on leaffolder infestation. In the scatter plot analysis between leaf folding and spinning characters and leaffolder damage, the genotypes were separated into four groups viz., resistant (TKM6, Ptb 33, LFR831311, Oryza rhizomatis and O. minuta), moderately resistant (ASD16 and CORH1), moderately susceptible (ADT36, Pusa Basmati and CB200290) and susceptible (IR36 and TN1). The present investigation proved that the leaf morphology viz., leaf length and width, plant height and trichome density and length may play a vital role in resistance against rice leaffolder.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.20974039,21221063 and 91127031)the National Basic Research Program(2013CB834503)the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities(NCET-11-0205)
摘要Investigation on the folding mode of a single polymer chain in its crystal is significant to the understanding of the mechanism of the fundamental crystallization as well as the engineering of new polymer crystal-based materials. Herein, we use the combined techniques of atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and force spectroscopy to pull a single polyethylene oxide (PEO) chain out of its spiral crystal in amyl acetate. From these data, the folding mode of polymer chains in the spiral crystal has been reconstructed. We find that the stems tilt in the typical flat area, leading to the decrease in the apparent lamellar height. While in the area of screw dislocation, the lamellar height gradually increases in the range of several nanometers. These results indicate that the combined techniques present a novel tool to directly unravel the chain folding mode of spiral crystals at single-molecule level.
基金funded by the Science and Technology Research and Development Program of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation(No.P06088)Nonprofit Special Research Program(No.200811015)the Land Resource Survey Project of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources,China(No.1212010782003).
摘要A serial of"comb-like and trough-like"folds developed in eastern Sichuan,controlled by the multi-layer detachment folding,is different from the classical Jura-type structure in their development.The key factor resulting in the development of these structures is the occurrence of detachment layers in different parts of Neoprotozoic to Mesozoic stratigraphy of study area,which, from the bottom to the top,are the lower part of Banxi Group,Lower Cambrian(Niutitang Formation),Lower Silurian(Longmaxi Formation and Luoreping Formation),Upper Permian (Wujiaping Formation) and Lower Triassic(Daye Formation).On the basis of field survey combined with sand-box modeling,this study argued that the detachment layer of the lower part of Banxi Group controlled the development of the"comb-like"folds,and the lower part of Cambrian detachment layer controlled the development of"trough-like"folds.Because of several detachment layers occurring in the study area,the development of duplex structures different scales is an important deformation mechanism,and the duplexes are the important structures distinguished from the typical detachment folding structures.Due to these duplexes,the surface structures and structural highs may not be the structural highs in the depth.Meanwhile,the detachment layers are good channels for oil/ gas migration benefiting the understanding of accumulation and migration of oil and gas.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.82071762)the Shanghai Key Lab of Human Performance(Shanghai University of Sport)(No.11DZ2261100)the 2021 Capacity Building of Shanghai Universities(No.21010503600),China。
摘要The endoplasmic reticulum is a key site for protein production and quality control.More than one-third of proteins are synthesized and folded into the correct three-dimensional conformation in the endoplasmic reticulum.However,during protein folding,unfolded and/or misfolded proteins are prone to occur,which may lead to endoplasmic reticulum stress.Organisms can monitor the quality of the proteins produced by endoplasmic reticulum quality control(ERQC)and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation(ERAD),which maintain endoplasmic reticulum protein homeostasis by degrading abnormally folded proteins.The underlying mechanisms of protein folding and ERAD in mammals have not yet been fully explored.Therefore,this paper reviews the process and function of protein folding and ERAD in mammalian cells,in order to help clinicians better understand the mechanism of ERAD and to provide a scientific reference for the treatment of diseases caused by abnormal ERAD.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (30871752)the High-tech Industrialization Funding of Guangdong Province (2009B011300010)
摘要Objective To characterize the relationship between the refolding process of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin and its immunoreactivity for clinical purposes. To establish a spectral method which examine the extent of recombinant allergen renaturation. Methods The refolding process of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin was investigated by using circular dichroism, fluorescence and synchronous fluorescence spectra. IgE-binding capacity of recombinant protein was analyzed by ELISA. In addition, bioinformatic methods were used to explain the spectral characteristics and analyze the relationship between the conformational changes and the immunoreactivity of the protein during renaturation in vitro. Results Renaturation of recombinant bovine β-1actoglobulin resulted in a more compact structure resembling the natural counterpart with stronger IgE-binding capacity. Conclusion The degree of protein renaturation Results from this study may be of help for food future. correlated with the IgE-binding capacity of the protein. allergy therapy and development of vaccination in the
基金This research was supported by a grant to Bio-Mimetic Robot Research Center Funded by Defense Acquisition Program Administration,and by Agency for Defense Development(UD190018ID).
摘要Emulating periodic main wing movement of a bird for generating lift and thrust remains a significant challenge in developing a robotic bird.The sequences of main wing motion are comprised of flapping,folding,bending,and twisting.In this paper,we concentrate on the flapping and folding motion,and design two wing mechanisms based on a 4-bar linkage structure:one is only for Flapping Motion(FM)and the other is for simultaneous Flapping and Folding Motion(FFM)during a wing stroke.We derive relationships between length and angle of links to analyze kinematic characteristics of the mechanisms and conduct an optimization to select the length parameters of links that allow maximization of the flapping angle.We run a simulation to confirm the performance of the optimized parameters by examining physical properties,and fabricate two wing mechanisms accordingly.In particular,the folding motion is achieved without using an additional actuator.Force measurements to investigate a lift profile of each mechanism and their quantitative comparison of the performance of both types confirm the benefits of the folding motion in the perspectives of wing frequency and lift.We expect that our kinematic formulation,design procedures,and comparative measurement results can help develop a wing mechanism to create a truly biomimetic robotic bird.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62276192)。
摘要Spectral compressive imaging has emerged as a powerful technique to collect the 3D spectral information as 2D measurements.The algorithm for restoring the original 3D hyperspectral images(HSIs)from compressive measurements is pivotal in the imaging process.Early approaches painstakingly designed networks to directly map compressive measurements to HSIs,resulting in the lack of interpretability without exploiting the imaging priors.While some recent works have introduced the deep unfolding framework for explainable reconstruction,the performance of these methods is still limited by the weak information transmission between iterative stages.In this paper,we propose a Memory-Augmented deep Unfolding Network,termed MAUN,for explainable and accurate HSI reconstruction.Specifically,MAUN implements a novel CNN scheme to facilitate a better extrapolation step of the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm,introducing an extra momentum incorporation step for each iteration to alleviate the information loss.Moreover,to exploit the high correlation of intermediate images from neighboring iterations,we customize a cross-stage transformer(CSFormer)as the deep denoiser to simultaneously capture self-similarity from both in-stage and cross-stage features,which is the first attempt to model the long-distance dependencies between iteration stages.Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed MAUN is superior to other state-of-the-art methods both visually and metrically.Our code is publicly available at http://gffzz188fe103f8f1460as5poffoq56xfw6qqf.ffgz.tsg.suse.edu.cn/HuQ1an/MAUN.
基金supported by Grants from the National Research Foundation through the Mechanobiology Institute Singapore and the Ministry of Education of Singapore(Grant No.MOE2012-T3-1-001)[to Yan J]the National Basic Research Program of China(Grant No.2013CB932800)+1 种基金the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.91027046 and 91027045)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(Grant No.2013121005)
摘要The DNA i-motif is a quadruplex structure formed in tandem cytosine-rich sequences in slightly acidic conditions. Besides being considered as a building block of DNA nano-devices, it may also play potential roles in regulating chromo- some stability and gene transcriptions. The stability of i-motif is crucial for these functions. In this work, we investigated the mechanical stability of a single i-motif formed in the human telomeric sequence 51-(CCCTAA)3CCC, which revealed a novel pH and loading rate-dependent bimodal unfolding force distribution. Although the cause of the bimodal unfolding force species is not clear, we proposed a phenomenological model involving a direct unfolding favored at lower loading rate or higher pH value, which is subject to competition with another unfolding pathway through a mechanically stable inter- mediate state whose nature is yet to be determined. Overall, the unique mechano-chemical responses of i-motif-provide a new perspective to its stability, which may be useful to guide designing new i-motif-based DNA mechanical nano-devices.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation ofChina(Grant No.50935002)
摘要The thin-walled tube flexure(TWTF) hinges have important potential application value in the deployment mechanisms of satellite and solar array, but the optimal design of the TWTF hinges haven't been completely solved, which restricts their applications. An optimal design method for the qusai-static folding and deploying of TWTF hinges with double slots is presented based on the response surface theory. Firstly, the full factorial method is employed to design of the experiments. Then, the finite element models of the TWTF hinges with double slots are constructed to simulate the qusai-static folding and deploying non-linear analysis. What's more, the mathematical model of the TWTF flexure hinge quasi-static folding and deploying properties are derived by the response surface method. Considering of small mass and high stability, the peak moment of quasi-static folding and deploying as well as the lightless are set as the objectives to get the optimal performances. The relative errors of the objectives between the optimal design results and the FE analysis results are less than 7%, which demonstrates the precision of the surrogate models. Lastly, the parameter study shows that both the slots length and the slots width both have significant effects to the peak moment of quasi-static folding and deploying of TWTF hinges with double slots. However, the maximum Mises stress of quasi-static folding is more sensitive to the slots length than the slots width. The proposed research can be applied to optimize other thin-walled flexure hinges under quasi-static folding and deploying, which is of great importance to design of flexure hinges with high stability and low stress.
基金Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant No.2013CB932804the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.11421063the CAS Biophysics Interdisciplinary Innovation Team Project
摘要To understand how the stabilities of key nuclei fragments affect protein folding dynamics, we simulate by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in aqueous solution four fragments cut out of a protein G, including one a-helix (seqB: KVFKQYAN), two -turns (seqA: LNGKTLKG and seqC: YDDATKTF), and one -strand (seqD: DGEWTYDD). The Markov State Model clustering method combined with the coarse-grained conformation letters method are employed to analyze the data sampled from 2-#s equilibrium MD simulation trajectories. We find that seqA and seqB have more stable structures than their native structures which become metastable when cut out of the protein structure. As expected, seqD alone is flexible and does not have a stable structure. Throughout our simulations, the native structure of seqC is stable but cannot be reached if starting from a structure other than the native one, implying a funnel-shape free energy landscape of seqC in aqueous solution. All the above results suggest that different nuclei have different formation dynamics during protein folding, which may have a major contribution to the hierarchy of protein folding dynamics.