[en] The liver X receptors (LXRs) are transcriptional regulators of lipid homeostasis and may be critical for neurodegeneration and neurogenesis in vivo. However, it remains largely unknown about the role of LXRs and its agonists in the in vitro proliferation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Here we revealed for the first time that LXRs were markedly expressed in mouse NPCs and were critical for the in vitro proliferation. LXR agonists GW3965 and LXR623 promoted the proliferation of wildtype NPCs, but not NPCs from LXR double-knockout mice. Mechanistically, phosphorylation of MEK1/2 and ERK1/2 in NPCs was enhanced upon LXR agonist treatment, while abrogation of MEK/ERK phosphorylation by the inhibitors PD98059 and U0126 impaired the proliferation of wildtype NPCs in the presence or absence of LXR agonists. Collectively, our findings suggest that LXR agonists GW3965 and LXR623 can stimulate the NPC proliferation in LXR- and MEK/ERK-dependent manner. - Highlights: • LXRs are expressed and functional in the mouse neural progenitor cells (NPCs). • LXRs are essential for the in vitro proliferation of mouse NPCs. • LXR agonists stimulate the proliferation of wildtype NPCs, but not LXRαβ−/− cells. • Phosphorylation of ERK/MEK was enhanced by LXR agonists in wildtype NPCs. • Inhibition of MEK/ERK phosphorylation impaired the proliferation of NPCs.

[en] The thermodynamic properties of a nano-graphene bilayer, consisting of the upper layer A of spin-3/2 with antiferromagnetic intralayer exchange coupling and the bottom layer B of spin-5/2 with ferromagnetic intralayer exchange coupling, have been studied by the use of Monte Carlo simulation. We find a number of characteristic phenomena. The effects of the exchange coupling, the single-ion anisotropy and the longitudinal magnetic field on the internal energy, the specific heat and the blocking temperature of the mixed-spin bilayer system have been investigated in detail. The internal energy and the specific heat profiles are clarified. In particular, we have found that the specific heat curve may show two peaks phenomenon for appropriate values of the system parameters.

[en] In the string theory, the fundamental blocks of nature are not particles but one-dimensional strings. Therefore, a generalization of this idea is to think of it as a cloud of strings. Rodrigues et al. embedded the black bounces spacetime into the string cloud, which demonstrates that the existence of the string cloud makes the Bardeen black hole singular, while the black bounces spacetime remains regular. On the other hand, the echoes are the correction to the late stage of the quasinormal ringing for a black hole, which is caused by the deviation of the spacetime relative to the initial black hole spacetime geometry in the near-horizon region. In this work, we study the gravitational wave echoes of black bounces spacetime surrounded by a cloud of strings under scalar field and electromagnetic field perturbation to explore the effects caused by a string cloud in the near-horizon region. The ringing of the regular black hole and traversable wormhole with string cloud are presented. Our results demonstrate that the black bounce spacetime with strings cloud is characterized by gravitational wave echoes as it transitions from regular black holes to wormholes, i.e. the echoes signal will facilitate us to distinguish between black holes and the wormholes in black bounces surrounded by the string cloud.

[en] We utilize quantum Fisher information to investigate the damping parameter precision of a dissipative qubit. PT symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is used to enhance the parameter precision in two models: one is direct PT symmetric quantum feedback; the other is that the damping rate is encoded into a effective PT symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonian conditioned on the absence of decay events. We find that compared with the case without feedback and with Hermitian quantum feedback, direct PT symmetric non-Hermitan quantum feedback can obtain better precision of damping rate. And in the second model, the result shows that the uncertainty of damping rate can be close to 0 at the exceptional point. We also obtain that non-maximal multiparticle entanglement can improve the precision to reach Heisenberg limit.

[en] We investigate the simultaneous estimation of the intensity and the orientation of a magnetic field by the multi-parameter quantum Fisher information matrix. A general expression is achieved for the simultaneous estimation precision of the intensity and the orientation, which is better than the independent estimation precision for the given number of spin states. Moreover, we consider an imperfect measurement device, coarsened measurement reference. For the case of the measurement reference rotating around the y-axis randomly, the simultaneous estimation always performs better than the independent estimation. For all other cases, the simultaneous estimation precision will not perform better than the independent estimation when the coarsened degree is larger than a certain value.

[en] To study the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) light produced during the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) studies on SG-Ⅲ prototype laser facility, the spectra of scattered light from vacuum hohlraum and gas filled hohlraum are measured using a new backscatter light diagnostic system. Experimental results show that the gas filled hohlraums produce more SRS light than the vacuum hohlraums under the same experimental parameters. Meanwhile, the scattered light will be reduced with the application of smoothing into optical module. The temporal evolution of the intensity and spectra of the scattered light can be recorded by this new backscatter light diagnostic system, which is valuable for the studies of ICF. (authors)

[en] To fabricate highly functional biochips, we propose a novel technique termed hybrid femtosecond laser processing, in which femtosecond laser 3D glass micromachining (subtractive manufacturing) and two-photon polymerization (TPP) (additive manufacturing) are combined. In this process, 3D microfluidic structures are first formed inside the glass by femtosecond laser 3D glass micromachining, and functional micro and nano components are then integrated in the 3D microfluidics by TPP. We refer such glass microfluidics integrated with 3D polymer micro and nanostructures to as a ship-in-a-bottle biochip. (author)

[en] A novel three-dimensional inorganic-organic hybrid compound, Mn(H₂O)[HO₃PCH₂NH(CH₂CO₂)₂] from a hydrothermal reaction of Mn (II) ion with N-(phosphonomethyl)iminodiacetic acid (H₄PMIDA) was reported. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic P2₁/n with cell dimensions of a=5.215(5) A, b=14.111(15) A, c=12.727(12) A, β=93.646(16) deg., V=934.6(16) A³ and Z=4. In this structure each Mn atom is six-coordinated with the carboxylic groups and phosphonic groups to form layers along the bc plane. These layers are further connected with the organic moieties of H₂PMIDA, resulting in a complicated three-dimensional network structure. Thermogravimetric analysis, IR spectrum and magnetic susceptibility of this compound are given

[en] A new high-throughput method for screening 2-deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase variants with a higher activity toward aldol reaction of unnatural aldehydes was established for the first time by coupling with an aldehyde dehydrogenase LeADH. The error-prone PCR and site-directed saturation mutagenesis libraries of aldolase LbDERA were constructed and screened using the high-throughput method. Two improved variants, LbDERA_T29L and LbDERA_F163Y, were identified and combined, giving a double mutant LbDERA_T29L/F163Y which showed 7-fold higher activity than the native enzyme. The crystal structure of LbDERA_T29L/163Y obtained by X-ray diffraction with 1.77 Å resolution revealed the structural changes responsible for the significant activity improvement. - Highlights: • A high-throughput method for screening aldolase variants was established. • A variant LbDERA_T29L/F163Y with 7-fold improved activity was identified. • The crystal structure reveals structure changes responsible for activity improvement.

[en] Differential elastic scattering cross sections for backscattering of 0.96-2.74 MeV protons incident on an aluminum layer covered by a gold layer deposited on a graphite crystal have been measured. The lowest proton energy in the experiment is in the Rutherford backscattering energy region. The measured cross sections are compared with the previous data and presented in graphical and tabular forms. (author)