Impact of the interaction between herpes simplex virus 1 ICP22 and FACT on viral gene expression and pathogenesis.

Facilitates chromatin transcription (FACT) interacts with nucleosomes to promote gene transcription by regulating the dissociation and reassembly of nucleosomes downstream and upstream of RNA polymerase II (Pol II). A previous study reported that herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) regulatory protein ICP22 interacted with FACT and was required for its recruitment to the viral DNA genome in HSV-1-infected cells. However, the biological importance of interactions between ICP22 and FACT in relation to HSV-1 infection is unclear. Here, we mapped the minimal domain of ICP22 required for its efficient interaction with FACT to a cluster of five basic amino acids in ICP22. A recombinant virus harboring alanine substitutions in this identified cluster led to the decreased accumulation of viral mRNAs from UL54, UL38, and UL44 genes, reduced Pol II occupancy of these genes in MRC-5 cells, and impaired HSV-1 virulence in mice following ocular or intracranial infection. Furthermore, the treatment of mice infected with wild-type HSV-1 with CBL0137, a FACT inhibitor currently being investigated in clinical trials, significantly improved the survival rate of mice. These results suggested that the interaction between ICP22 and FACT was required for efficient HSV-1 gene expression and pathogenicity. Therefore, FACT might be a potential therapeutic target for HSV-1 infection.IMPORTANCEICP22 is a well-known regulatory factor of HSV-1 gene expression, but its mechanism(s) are poorly understood. Although the interaction of FACT with ICP22 was reported previously, its significance in HSV-1 infection is unknown. Given that FACT is involved in gene transcription, it is of interest to investigate this interaction as it relates to HSV-1 gene expression. To determine a direct link between the interaction and HSV-1 infection, we mapped a minimal domain of ICP22 required for its efficient interaction with FACT and generated a recombinant virus carrying mutations in the identified domain. Using the recombinant virus, we obtained evidence suggesting that the interaction between ICP22 and FACT promoted Pol II transcription from HSV-1 genes and viral virulence in mice. In addition, CBL0137, an inhibitor of FACT, effectively protected mice from lethal HSV-1 infection, suggesting FACT might be a potential target for the development of novel anti-HSV drugs.

Spectral-Spatial Feature Fusion for Hyperspectral Anomaly Detection.

Hyperspectral anomaly detection is used to recognize unusual patterns or anomalies in hyperspectral data. Currently, many spectral-spatial detection methods have been proposed with a cascaded manner; however, they often neglect the complementary characteristics between the spectral and spatial dimensions, which easily leads to yield high false alarm rate. To alleviate this issue, a spectral-spatial information fusion (SSIF) method is designed for hyperspectral anomaly detection. First, an isolation forest is exploited to obtain spectral anomaly map, in which the object-level feature is constructed with an entropy rate segmentation algorithm. Then, a local spatial saliency detection scheme is proposed to produce the spatial anomaly result. Finally, the spectral and spatial anomaly scores are integrated together followed by a domain transform recursive filtering to generate the final detection result. Experiments on five hyperspectral datasets covering ocean and airport scenes prove that the proposed SSIF produces superior detection results over other state-of-the-art detection techniques.

Learning to Guide Particle Search for Dynamic Multiobjective Optimization.

Dynamic multiobjective optimization problems (DMOPs) are characterized by multiple objectives that change over time in varying environments. More specifically, environmental changes can be described as various dynamics. However, it is difficult for existing dynamic multiobjective algorithms (DMOAs) to handle DMOPs due to their inability to learn in different environments to guide the search. Besides, solving DMOPs is typically an online task, requiring low computational cost of a DMOA. To address the above challenges, we propose a particle search guidance network (PSGN), capable of directing individuals' search actions, including learning target selection and acceleration coefficient control. PSGN can learn the actions that should be taken in each environment through rewarding or punishing the network by reinforcement learning. Thus, PSGN is capable of tackling DMOPs of various dynamics. Additionally, we efficiently adjust PSGN hidden nodes and update the output weights in an incremental learning way, enabling PSGN to direct particle search at a low computational cost. We compare the proposed PSGN with seven state-of-the-art algorithms, and the excellent performance of PSGN verifies that it can handle DMOPs of various dynamics in a computationally very efficient way.

Total Syntheses of Uncommon C30 Terpenoids: Chamaecydin and Isochamaecydin.

(-)-Chamaecydin and (-)-isochamaecydin, two uncommon C30 terpenoids comprising abietane-type diterpenes and thujane-type monoterpenes, were achieved from ß-pinene with (-)-sabinene in 18 and 20 steps, respectively. Key steps include a Claisen-Ireland rearrangement to establish the all-carbon quaternary center, a Rh catalyzed C-H bond insertion reaction to install a spiro-five-membered ring and a Lewis acid promoted cyclization of polyenes to construct the two six-membered rings.

Ratiometric photon reassignment based on fluorescence lifetime to improve resolution in pulse STED microscopy.

Depletion beams with long pulse durations (∼600ps) have recently been applied in stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy to reduce photobleaching and phototoxicity. Therefore, improving the resolution of pulse STED at lower depletion power for the super-resolution imaging of live biological specimens has attracted increasing interest. Herein, we present a simple method termed ratiometric photon reassignment based on the fluorescence lifetime, in which highly spatially resolved long-lifetime fluorophore components in the center are extracted, and short-lifetime fluorophore components in the periphery are discarded to improve resolution without increasing the depletion power. The experimental results demonstrate improved resolution and signal-to-noise ratio compared with traditional time-gated STED. Our proposed method requires lower budget and data processing because, in contrast to the separation of photons by lifetime tuning), lifetime measurements are not required.

Ultrasound-assisted electrochemical treatment for phenolic wastewater.

With the rapid development of industry, especially the rapid rise of the chemical industry, the problem of water pollution is becoming more and more serious. Among them, the discharge of organic pollutants represented by phenolic substances has always been at the forefront. In this paper, ultrasound-assisted electrochemical treatment for phenolic wastewater is investigated. The effects of ultrasonic frequency, current, pH value and the amount of fly ash-loaded titanium TiO2-Fe3+ particles on phenol removal from phenol-containing wastewater are investigated. The experimental results demonstrate that the removal rate of phenol in phenol-containing wastewater is the best when ultrasonic frequency is 45 kHz, power is 200 W, the current is 1.2 A, pH is 5 and the dosage of fly ash-loaded titanium TiO2-Fe3+ particles is 3 g. In addition, microwave-assisted-Fenton reagent treatment for phenol wastewater is investigated. The effects of Fenton reagent dosage, initial pH value, microwave power density and radiation time on phenol degradation rate are investigated. The results show that microwave can accelerate the reaction rate, reduce the number of metal ions, save the process cost and reduce the difficulty of post-treatment. Finally, the research status of phenol wastewater treatment technology at the present stage is reviewed, and the future development direction is discussed.

Label-free difference super-resolution microscopy based on parallel detection.

In this paper, a new method is proposed for super-resolution imaging of non-fluorescent samples. This approach is based on the intensity difference between confocal image and negative confocal image, which are simultaneously acquired at one sample scanning. In order to get these two different images simultaneously, the sample was illuminated by two different focused spots from the same laser source: the doughnut spot and the solid spot. The effectiveness of the label-free difference microscopy based on parallel detection was validated by experiments on some samples including 80 nm gold beads, 100 nm silver nanowires, and Blu-ray DVD without fluorescent dyes. By subtraction of the reflected light intensity from the sample, the final resolution of the image without deconvolution was enhanced about 1.6 times compared with confocal imaging. This technique can be applied to surface topography detection of metallographic or other non-fluorescent materials.

Image scanning difference microscopy.

Here, we propose a novel imaging method, which is called image scanning difference microscopy (ISDM), for superresolution imaging. In ISDM, we implement a detector array composed of 19 avalanche photodiodes (APD) rather than single-point detector in standard confocal microscopy for reconstructing superresolved images with higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Combining with our former proposed fluorescence emission difference (FED) method, we have achieved a lateral resolution of 111 nm (∼λ/6) without the damage of image quality, the highest FED resolution to the best of our knowledge. With its simple setup and remarkable performance, we believe that ISDM can become a versatile observation tool in biology and other fundamental studies. LAY DESCRIPTION: Fluorescence emission difference (FED) microscopy is a really simple and generalisable superresolved fluorescence microscopy method based on PSF engineering and difference algorithm recently. Compared to stimulated-emission-depletion fluorescence microscopy (STED), FED don't need complicated system or precise alignment and polarisation, available for wide variety of dyes and has low photobleaching and phototoxicity for living cells. However, the distortion caused by negative value is one of the biggest obstacles to the further development of FED. In light of this, we propose a novel superresolution imaging method based on the FED method with parallel detection system, which is called image scanning difference microscopy (ISDM). Our method has achieved a significant breakthrough in FED, increasing the resolution further while reducing artefacts generated by negative values, which cannot be accomplished through combining other methods. In addition, ISDM does not require complex setup and optical alignment, long time imaging and imposing no constraint on dyes. Importantly, we realised a transverse resolution of ∼λ/6 (triple diffraction limit) with single wavelength, single incident path and low light intensity, which has never been achieved in any other far-field superresolution microscopy.

Fluorescence emission difference microscopy by superoscillation excitation.

A superresolution fluorescence emission difference (FED) microscopy based on superoscillation excitation is investigated. The solid superoscillation excitation spot is produced by the radially polarised Laguerre-Gaussian beam (LG), and the donut superoscillation excitation spot is produced by the same LG beam with spiral phase modulation. We show that the superoscillation excitation can enhance the spatial resolution of FED microscopy. When the ratio of the pupil radius and the second moment radius of the LG3,1 beam is 0.85 and the subtractive factor is 0.3, the resolution can be enhanced about 2 times than the general confocal microscopy. Compared with the general FED microscopy, the resolution can be enhanced about 1.1 times. Our simulations also demonstrate that two-view Richardson-Lucy (RL) deconvolution method can reduce the effect of side lobes, which is related to subtractive factor and pinhole. LAY DESCRIPTION: The fluorescence emission difference (FED) microscopy is a high-resolution light microscopy, which is based on the subtraction of images produced by two different confocal imaging modes. Here, the solid excitation spot is used in one imaging mode, and the donut excitation spot is in another imaging mode. There are various ways that the solid and donut excitation spots can be structured, but superoscillation excitation spots are still not used in the FED microscopy. Considering that the main lobe of superoscillation can be arbitrarily small in principle, we exploit the radially polarised Laguerre-Gaussian beam (LG) and spiral phase plate to produce superoscillation solid and donut spots. We present a detailed analysis about the performance of FED microscopy via superoscillation excitation. Our analysis is based on vector diffraction theory and supported by simulations of imaging. We find the proposed FED microscopy has better resolution than the confocal microscopy or the general FED microscopy excited by Gaussian beam. Especially, two-view Richardson-Lucy (RL) deconvolution method can reduce the negative impact of strong side lobes, which is related to the subtractive factor and the size of pinhole located at the detector.

Improving the resolution of two-photon microscopy using pixel reassignment.

An imaging system combining parallel detection and two-photon excitation is presented in this paper. In the proposed method, seven avalanche photodiodes (APD) are used in the detection path. The light is guided onto the APD sensor by a fiber bundle with seven fibers. The circular arranged fiber end faces together function as a detection array. The outer contour fiber ends deviate from optical axis center and thus obtain higher frequency information. Seven images are acquired simultaneously by the detection array. By using deconvolution and pixel reassignment to process the images acquired, both the resolution and the contrast of the final image are enhanced. The capability of image quality enhancement of the system constructed is demonstrated successfully both by theoretical simulation and experimental results.

Two-photon microscopy with enhanced contrast and resolution.

A method combining the saturation effect with the ratio concerned quadratic intensity weighted subtraction (RQIWS) algorithm for resolution and contrast enhancement in a two-photon microscopy system is presented in this paper. In the proposed method, the saturation effect is utilized to get a profile-extended solid spot and a center-shrunken doughnut-shaped spot for a smaller effective point spread function, which enhances the resolution of the system. The RQIWS algorithm uses the intensity ratio of the two original images acquired respectively with the solid spot and the doughnut-shaped spot as one of the subtraction parameters and takes the fluorescence quadratic dependence of excitation intensity into account for better subtraction results compared with the intensity weighted subtraction algorithm in a two-photon excitation system. The capability in the enhancement of resolution and contrast of the method proposed is demonstrated successfully both by theoretical simulations and experimental results.

[Research on granary temperature network monitoring system based on the linear frequency shift of spectrum].

In order to obtain the distribution of the temperature in the range of the granary precisely and stably, we designed a temperature measurement system of the fiber Bragg grating. Through the fiber-optic network the system can detect granary temperature in a wide range, and there is a linear relationship between the measured temperature by fiber Bragg grating and the center wavelength, so according to the function of spectrum linear frequency shift it obtained precise temperature in the granary. The working wavelengths of each grating in the system are separated from each other. After reflected by 3 dB coupler, the wavelength detection and demodulation system was used to measure the linear frequency shift of the plurality grating, and the system can get temperature data of everywhere in the granary. The experimental obtained the temperature information by equipments, such as LPT-101 light source, optical fiber with FBG encapsulated, magnification processing circuit, simulation granary, etc. With Origin software the diagram of the relationship between the frequency shift of the measured temperature and wavelength was drawn, and compared with the traditional measuring method of the K-type thermocouple measurement data. Experimental results show that the measured temperature of the fiber Bragg grating is closer to standard temperature, and the anti-jamming ability can meet the requirements of the granary large range temperature monitoring.

Determination of perfluorinated compounds in packaging materials and textiles using pressurized liquid extraction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A simultaneous determination method of trace amounts of perfluorinated compounds, such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in packaging materials and textiles, has been developed, using pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The perfluorinated compounds were primarily extracted from the samples by a PLE procedure, in which the parameters were optimized by response surface methodology. The solvent was then removed by blowing nitrogen and a silylation step was carried out with N,N-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide. The silylated compounds were identified and quantified by GC/MS. The proposed method was applied to determine the PFOA and PFOS in polytetrafluoroethylene packaging materials and textiles, where the detection limits of the two compounds were 1.6 and 13.9 ng mL(-1), respectively. The results showed that the concentrations of PFOA and PFOS in the packaging materials and textiles ranged from 17.5 to 45.9 and 33.7 to 81.3 ng g(-1), respectively.