The electric regulation mechanism of drug molecules intercalating with DNA.

The insertion of small drug molecules into DNA can change its electrical properties, thereby controlling the probability of its electrical transmission. This characteristic has enabled its widespread application in molecular electronics. However, the current understanding of the intercalation properties and electronic transmission mechanisms is still not deep enough, which severely restricts its practical application.

Temporal multiplexing of perception and memory codes in IT cortex.

A central assumption of neuroscience is that long-term memories are represented by the same brain areas that encode sensory stimuli. Neurons in inferotemporal (IT) cortex represent the sensory percept of visual objects using a distributed axis code. Whether and how the same IT neural population represents the long-term memory of visual objects remains unclear.

Ball-milled zero-valent iron with formic acid for effectively removing Cu(II)-EDTA accomplished by EDTA ligands oxidative degradation and Cu(II) removal.

Heavy metal complexes in industrial wastewater are challenging to be removed by conventional methods arising from their stable chelating structure. In this study, zero-valent iron (ZVI) was ball-milled with tiny formic acid (FA), and the as-prepared sample (FA-ZVI) was attempted to eliminate a model heavy metal complex of Cu(II)-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (Cu(II)-EDTA). The addition of FA to ball-milling could dramatically enhance the performance of ball-milled ZVI (ZVI) towards Cu(II)-EDTA removal and increase the removal rate constant by 80 times.

Potential differentiation of successive SARS-CoV-2 mutations by RNA: DNA hybrid analyses.

The constant mutation of SARS-CoV-2 has triggered a new round of public health crises and has had a huge impact on existing vaccines and diagnostic tools. It is essential to develop a new flexible method to distinguish mutations to prevent the spread of the virus. In this work, we used the combination of density functional theory (DFT) and non-equilibrium Green's function formulation with decoherence, to theoretically study the effect of viral mutation on charge transport properties of viral nucleic acid molecules.

Video-based Person re-identification with parallel correction and fusion of pedestrian area features.

Deep learning has provided powerful support for person re-identification (person re-id) over the years, and superior performance has been achieved by state-of-the-art. While under practical application scenarios such as public monitoring, the cameras' resolutions are usually 720p, the captured pedestrian areas tend to be closer to 128×64 small pixel size. Research on person re-id at 128×64 small pixel size is limited by less effective pixel information.

Global enhancement of cortical excitability following coactivation of large neuronal populations.

Correlated activation of cortical neurons often occurs in the brain and repetitive correlated neuronal firing could cause long-term modifications of synaptic efficacy and intrinsic excitability. We found that repetitive optogenetic activation of neuronal populations in the mouse cortex caused enhancement of optogenetically evoked firing of local coactivated neurons as well as distant cortical neurons in both ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres. This global enhancement of evoked responses required coactivation of a sufficiently large population of neurons either within one cortical area or distributed in several areas.

A map of object space in primate inferotemporal cortex.

The inferotemporal (IT) cortex is responsible for object recognition, but it is unclear how the representation of visual objects is organized in this part of the brain. Areas that are selective for categories such as faces, bodies, and scenes have been found, but large parts of IT cortex lack any known specialization, raising the question of what general principle governs IT organization. Here we used functional MRI, microstimulation, electrophysiology, and deep networks to investigate the organization of macaque IT cortex.

Effects of fungicides on the yeast-like symbiotes and their host, Nilaparvata lugens Stål (Hemiptera: Delphacidae).

Yeast-like symbiotes (YLS) are endosymbionts that are closely related to the growth, development and reproduction of their host, the brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens Stål (Hemiptera: Delphacidae). In order to understand the relationship between the population of YLS in BPH cells and the survival rate of BPH, eight different fungicides were applied to rice plants infested by BPH, and the number of YLS and mortality of BPH were determined. Three of the fungicides, 27% toyocamycin & tetramycin P & tetrin B & tetramycin A, 0.

Spatial structure of neuronal receptive field in awake monkey secondary visual cortex (V2).

Visual processing depends critically on the receptive field (RF) properties of visual neurons. However, comprehensive characterization of RFs beyond the primary visual cortex (V1) remains a challenge. Here we report fine RF structures in secondary visual cortex (V2) of awake macaque monkeys, identified through a projection pursuit regression analysis of neuronal responses to natural images.

Activation of acid-sensing ion channels by localized proton transient reveals their role in proton signaling.

Extracellular transients of pH alterations likely mediate signal transduction in the nervous system. Neuronal acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) act as sensors for extracellular protons, but the mechanism underlying ASIC activation remains largely unknown. Here, we show that, following activation of a light-activated proton pump, Archaerhodopsin-3 (Arch), proton transients induced ASIC currents in both neurons and HEK293T cells co-expressing ASIC1a channels.

Autocrine action of BDNF on dendrite development of adult-born hippocampal neurons.

Dendrite development of newborn granule cells (GCs) in the dentate gyrus of adult hippocampus is critical for their incorporation into existing hippocampal circuits, but the cellular mechanisms regulating their dendrite development remains largely unclear. In this study, we examined the function of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is expressed in adult-born GCs, in regulating their dendrite morphogenesis. Using retrovirus-mediated gene transfection, we found that deletion and overexpression of BDNF in adult-born GCs resulted in the reduction and elevation of dendrite growth, respectively.

Protein kinase LKB1 regulates polarized dendrite formation of adult hippocampal newborn neurons.

Adult-born granule cells in the dentate gyrus of the rodent hippocampus are important for memory formation and mood regulation, but the cellular mechanism underlying their polarized development, a process critical for their incorporation into functional circuits, remains unknown. We found that deletion of the serine-threonine protein kinase LKB1 or overexpression of dominant-negative LKB1 reduced the polarized initiation of the primary dendrite from the soma and disrupted its oriented growth toward the molecular layer. This abnormality correlated with the dispersion of Golgi apparatus that normally accumulated at the base and within the initial segment of the primary dendrite, and was mimicked by disrupting Golgi organization via altering the expression of Golgi structural proteins GM130 or GRASP65.

Axon position within the corpus callosum determines contralateral cortical projection.

How developing axons in the corpus callosum (CC) achieve their homotopic projection to the contralateral cortex remains unclear. We found that axonal position within the CC plays a critical role in this projection. Labeling of nearby callosal axons in mice showed that callosal axons were segregated in an orderly fashion, with those from more medial cerebral cortex located more dorsally and subsequently projecting to more medial contralateral cortical regions.

Forward transport of proteins in the plasma membrane of migrating cerebellar granule cells.

Directional flow of membrane components has been detected at the leading front of fibroblasts and the growth cone of neuronal processes, but whether there exists global directional flow of plasma membrane components over the entire migrating neuron remains largely unknown. By analyzing the trajectories of antibody-coated single quantum dots (QDs) bound to two membrane proteins, overexpressed myc-tagged synaptic vesicle-associated membrane protein VAMP2 and endogenous neurotrophin receptor TrkB, we found that these two proteins exhibited net forward transport, which is superimposed upon Brownian motion, in both leading and trailing processes of migrating cerebellar granule cells in culture. Furthermore, no net directional transport of membrane proteins was observed in nonmigrating cells with either growing or stalling leading processes.

Priming with real motion biases visual cortical response to bistable apparent motion.

Apparent motion quartet is an ambiguous stimulus that elicits bistable perception, with the perceived motion alternating between two orthogonal paths. In human psychophysical experiments, the probability of perceiving motion in each path is greatly enhanced by a brief exposure to real motion along that path. To examine the neural mechanism underlying this priming effect, we used voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging to measure the spatiotemporal activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) of awake mice.

Tumor inhibition and improved immunity in mice treated with flavone from Cirsium japonicum DC.

The purpose of these experiments is to study the effects of flavone from Cirsium japonicum DC (FLCJ) on tumor activity and on the regulation of the immune response in mice with S180 and H22 tumors. Pectolinarin and 5, 7-dihydroxy-6, 4'-dimethoxyflavone are two major components of FLCJ. FLCJ, pectolinarin and 5, 7-dihydroxy-6, 4'-dimethoxyflavone can inhibit the growth of the implanted tumors S180 and H22 and promote cellular and humoral immune responses.

[Relation between root structure and accumulation of anthraquinones of Morinda officinalis].

The histological structures of the roots of Morinda officinalis How of different ages were observed, the distribution and accumulation of anthraquinones in the root were studied with the help of paraffin section, fluorescent microscope and ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The results indicated that the mature structures of the roots of M. officinalis were similar to those of common perennial herbs, and that the anthraquinones in the root of M.