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
Morphing aircraft are designed to adaptively adjust their shape for changing flight missions,which enables them to improve their flight performance significantly for future applications.The folding wingtips represent ...Morphing aircraft are designed to adaptively adjust their shape for changing flight missions,which enables them to improve their flight performance significantly for future applications.The folding wingtips represent a key research aspect for morphing aircraft,since they can lead to potential improvements in flight range,maneuverability,load alleviation and airport compatibility.This paper proposes a hinge mechanism design for folding wingtips based on the shape memory alloy torsion tube,aiming to achieve successful folding using the actuation effect of the shape memory alloy.The proposed design employs a shape memory alloy torsion tube as the actuator for the active folding of the wingtip,which is motivated by the characteristics of the tube,enabling a simplified structure for the integration with high energy density.Through numerical simulation and testing of the folding wingtip structure,the concept is verified,which shows its potential as an actuator for folding wingtips.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
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
Bistable Deployable Composite Boom(Bi-DCB)can achieve bistable function by storing and releasing strain energy,which has a good application prospect in space field.For example,it serves as the main support section of ...Bistable Deployable Composite Boom(Bi-DCB)can achieve bistable function by storing and releasing strain energy,which has a good application prospect in space field.For example,it serves as the main support section of deployable structures(e.g.,solar arrays and antennas).This paper investigates folding stable state of Bi-DCB through the analytical method.Based on Archimedes’helix and energy principle,an analytical model for predicting folding stable state of Bi-DCB was presented.The failure index of Bi-DCB in folding stable state were analyzed using the Tsai-Hill criterion and the maximum stress criterion.Then,a 2400 mm long Bi-DCB was fabricated using autoclave method.The prediction results of the proposed model were compared with experiments and results of two other analytical models.It is shown that the proposed model shows good prediction accuracy.Finally,the effect of geometric parameters on folding stable state of Bi-DCB was further investigated with the aid of the proposed model.展开更多
Electron-deficient viologens are widely used as ligands or structure-directing agents(SDAs)to synthesize crystalline X-ray induced photochromic materials.Here,a new rational strategy of anion-directed fold-ing a flexi...Electron-deficient viologens are widely used as ligands or structure-directing agents(SDAs)to synthesize crystalline X-ray induced photochromic materials.Here,a new rational strategy of anion-directed fold-ing a flexible cation(H_(2)imb)^(2+)((H_(2)imb)^(2+)=di-protonated 2,3-bis(imidazolin-2-yl)-2,3-dimethylbutane)has been developed.Electron-donating Cl−and(ZnCl4)2−are used to direct folding a flexible electron-deficient(H_(2)imb)^(2+)cation.Three complexes(H_(2)imb)(NO_(3))2(1),(H_(2)imb)Cl2·H_(2)O(2),and(H_(2)imb)ZnCl4(3)have been synthesized in which(H_(2)imb)^(2+)crystallize in an anti-conformation,88.8°-gauche,and 51.8°-gauche,respectively.In contrary to X-ray silent complex 1,X-ray induced photochromism has been achieved in both complex 2 and 3.An intermolecular charge-transfer mechanism has been elucidated and the anion directed folding of(H_(2)imb)^(2+)has been validated to be critical to yield colored long-lived charge-separated states.展开更多
Folding of molecules is an essential process in nature,and various molecular machines achieve their chemical and mechanical function via controlled folding of molecular conformations.The electric field offers a unique...Folding of molecules is an essential process in nature,and various molecular machines achieve their chemical and mechanical function via controlled folding of molecular conformations.The electric field offers a unique strategy to drive the folding of molecular conformation and to control charge transport through single molecules but remains unexplored.The single-molecule break junction technique provides access to detect the conformational changes via the monitoring of single-molecule conductance,and the electric field between two metal electrodes with nanoscale spacing can provide an extremely strong to achieve in-situ control and detection of molecular folding at the single-molecule level.Here,we use the electric field to control the single-molecule folding using the scanning tunneling microscope break junction(STM-BJ)technique.The electric fields induced folding could lead to a∼1400%conductance change of the single-molecule junctions,and the folding/unfolding process can be in-situ switched at the scale of milliseconds.DFT calculations suggest the conformational control originates from the electric fieldinduced charge injection,and the formation of homoconjugated conformation with the overlapped orbitals.This work provides the first demonstration of electric field-driven molecular folding,which is essential for the understanding of molecular machines in nature and for the design of artificial molecular machines.展开更多
Flasher origami pattern has been widely utilized to improve the stowage efficiency of deployable structures.Nevertheless,flasher origami cannot be folded fully flat,and they still have great potential for optimization...Flasher origami pattern has been widely utilized to improve the stowage efficiency of deployable structures.Nevertheless,flasher origami cannot be folded fully flat,and they still have great potential for optimization in terms of storage volume and folding creases.In this paper,a flat foldable equiangular spiral folding pattern inspired by the sunflower disk is introduced.Then,a parametric design method for this equiangular spiral crease diagram is introduced in detail.Subsequently,a kinematic model of the equiangular spiral folding pattern is established based on the kinematic equivalence between rigid origami and spherical linkages.A simulation of the developed model demonstrates that the equiangular spiral folding pattern can be folded flat.Using the folded ratio as an evaluation index,the calculated results and experiments show that the equiangular spiral crease pattern can yield fewer creases and improve stowage efficiency in comparison to flasher origami pattern.Equiangular spiral folding pattern can save a considerable amount of space and provide a new approach to spatially deployable structures.展开更多
Wideband spectrum sensing with a high-speed analog-digital converter(ADC) presents a challenge for practical systems.The Nyquist folding receiver(NYFR) is a promising scheme for achieving cost-effective real-time spec...Wideband spectrum sensing with a high-speed analog-digital converter(ADC) presents a challenge for practical systems.The Nyquist folding receiver(NYFR) is a promising scheme for achieving cost-effective real-time spectrum sensing,which is subject to the complexity of processing the modulated outputs.In this case,a multipath NYFR architecture with a step-sampling rate for the different paths is proposed.The different numbers of digital channels for each path are designed based on the Chinese remainder theorem(CRT).Then,the detectable frequency range is divided into multiple frequency grids,and the Nyquist zone(NZ) of the input can be obtained by sensing these grids.Thus,high-precision parameter estimation is performed by utilizing the NYFR characteristics.Compared with the existing methods,the scheme proposed in this paper overcomes the challenge of NZ estimation,information damage,many computations,low accuracy,and high false alarm probability.Comparative simulation experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed architecture in this paper.展开更多
The prion protein(PrP) is the key molecular and pathological mediator of prion diseases,a heterogeneous group of brain disorders with fatal outcomes.Prion diseases are rare but deserve special attention because of the...The prion protein(PrP) is the key molecular and pathological mediator of prion diseases,a heterogeneous group of brain disorders with fatal outcomes.Prion diseases are rare but deserve special attention because of their unique familial,sporadic,and transmissible etiologies,all caused by a single agent:misfolded conformations of PrP.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 https://github.com/HuQ1an/MAUN.展开更多
Single-molecule magnetic tweezers(MTs) have revealed multiple transition barriers along the unfolding pathway of several two-state proteins, such as GB1 and Csp. In this study, we utilized MTs to measure the force-dep...Single-molecule magnetic tweezers(MTs) have revealed multiple transition barriers along the unfolding pathway of several two-state proteins, such as GB1 and Csp. In this study, we utilized MTs to measure the force-dependent folding and unfolding rates of both protein L(PLWT) and its Y47W mutant(PLY47W) where the mutation point is not at the force-bearing β-strands. The measurements were conducted within a force range of 3–120 pN. Notably, the unfolding rates of both PLWT and PWY47W exhibit distinct force sensitivities below 50 pN and above 60 pN, implying a two-barrier free energy landscape. Both PLWT and PLY47W share the same force-dependent folding rate and the same transition barriers,but the unfolding rate of PLY47W is faster than that of PLWT. Our finding demonstrates that the residue outside of the force-bearing region will also affect the force-induced unfolding dynamics.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
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. Compar...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
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
A CMOS folding and interpolating analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for embedded application is described.The circuit is fully compatible with standard digital CMOS technology.A modified folding block implemented witho...A CMOS folding and interpolating analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for embedded application is described.The circuit is fully compatible with standard digital CMOS technology.A modified folding block implemented without resistor contributes to a small chip area.At the input stage,offset averaging reduces the input capacitance and the distributed track-and-hold circuits are proposed to improve signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio.The 200Ms/s 8bit ADC with 177mW total power consumption at 3.3V power supply is realized in standard digital 0.18μm 3.3V CMOS technology.展开更多
The folding of many small proteins is kinetically a two-state process with one major free-energy barrier to overcome,which can be roughly regarded as the inverse process of unfolding.In this work,we first use a Gaussi...The folding of many small proteins is kinetically a two-state process with one major free-energy barrier to overcome,which can be roughly regarded as the inverse process of unfolding.In this work,we first use a Gaussian network model to predict the folding nucleus corresponding to the major free-energy barrier of protein 2 GB1,and find that the folding nucleus is located in theβ-sheet domain.High-temperature molecular dynamics simulations are then used to investigate the unfolding process of 2 GB1.We draw free-energy surface from unfolding simulations,taking RMSD and contact number as reaction coordinates,which confirms that the folding of 2 GB1 is kinetically a two-state process.The comparison of the contact maps before and after the free energy barrier indicates that the transition from native to non-native structure of the protein is kinetically caused by the destruction of theβ-sheet domain,which manifests that the folding nucleus is indeed located in theβ-sheet domain.Moreover,the constrained MD simulation further confirms that the destruction of the secondary structures does not alter the topology of the protein retained by the folding nucleus.These results provide vital information for upcoming researchers to further understand protein folding in similar systems.展开更多
The design of any antagonist or inhibitor for any enzyme requires the knowledge of structure- function relationship of the protein and the optimum conformational states for maximum and minimum activities. Furthermore,...The design of any antagonist or inhibitor for any enzyme requires the knowledge of structure- function relationship of the protein and the optimum conformational states for maximum and minimum activities. Furthermore, designing of the inhibitors or drugs against an enzyme becomes easier if there is information available about various well characterized intermediate conformation of the molecule. In vivo folding pathway of any recombinant protein is an important parameter for understanding its ability to fold by itself inside the cell, which always dictates the downstream processing for the purification. In the present manuscript we have discussed about the in vivo and in vitro folding, and structure-function relationship of Dihydrofolate reductase enzyme. This is an important enzyme involved in the cell growth and hence inhibition or inactivation of the enzyme may reduce the cell growth. It was observed that the equilibrium unfolding transition of DHFR proceeds through the formation of intermediates having higher exposed surface hydrophobicity, unchanged enzymatic activity and minimum changes in the secondary structural elements. Because of enhanced surface hydrophobicity, and unchanged enzymatic activity, these intermediates could be a nice target for designing drugs against DHFR.展开更多
Understanding the folding processes of a protein into its three-dimensional native structure only with its amino-acid sequence information is a long-standing challenge in modern science. Two- hundred independent foldi...Understanding the folding processes of a protein into its three-dimensional native structure only with its amino-acid sequence information is a long-standing challenge in modern science. Two- hundred independent folding simulations (starting from non-native conformations) and two- hundred independent unfolding simulations (starting from the folded native structure) are performed using the united-residue force field and Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm for betanova (three-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet protein). From these extensive computer simulations, two representative folding pathways and two representative unfolding pathways are obtained in the reaction coordinates such as the fraction of native contacts, the radius of gyration, and the root- mean-square deviation. The folding pathways and the unfolding pathways are similar each other. The largest deviation between the folding pathways and the unfolding pathways results from the root-mean-square deviation near the folded native structure. In general, unfolding computer simulations could capture the essentials of folding simulations.展开更多
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.
文摘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supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.52305262)the Aeronautical Science Foundation of China(No.20230015052002)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.NT2024001)。
文摘Morphing aircraft are designed to adaptively adjust their shape for changing flight missions,which enables them to improve their flight performance significantly for future applications.The folding wingtips represent a key research aspect for morphing aircraft,since they can lead to potential improvements in flight range,maneuverability,load alleviation and airport compatibility.This paper proposes a hinge mechanism design for folding wingtips based on the shape memory alloy torsion tube,aiming to achieve successful folding using the actuation effect of the shape memory alloy.The proposed design employs a shape memory alloy torsion tube as the actuator for the active folding of the wingtip,which is motivated by the characteristics of the tube,enabling a simplified structure for the integration with high energy density.Through numerical simulation and testing of the folding wingtip structure,the concept is verified,which shows its potential as an actuator for folding wingtips.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12174228 and 12274271)。
文摘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。
文摘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 National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.52275231)the National Defense Basic Scientific Research Program of China(No.JCKY2019205C002).
文摘Bistable Deployable Composite Boom(Bi-DCB)can achieve bistable function by storing and releasing strain energy,which has a good application prospect in space field.For example,it serves as the main support section of deployable structures(e.g.,solar arrays and antennas).This paper investigates folding stable state of Bi-DCB through the analytical method.Based on Archimedes’helix and energy principle,an analytical model for predicting folding stable state of Bi-DCB was presented.The failure index of Bi-DCB in folding stable state were analyzed using the Tsai-Hill criterion and the maximum stress criterion.Then,a 2400 mm long Bi-DCB was fabricated using autoclave method.The prediction results of the proposed model were compared with experiments and results of two other analytical models.It is shown that the proposed model shows good prediction accuracy.Finally,the effect of geometric parameters on folding stable state of Bi-DCB was further investigated with the aid of the proposed model.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.92261109)Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(No.2020J05080)+3 种基金Project Funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2023M733496)Natural Science Foundation of Xiamen(No.3502Z20206080)Fujian Science&Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China(No.2021ZR110)Recruitment Program of Global Youth Experts,Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS(No.2021302).
文摘Electron-deficient viologens are widely used as ligands or structure-directing agents(SDAs)to synthesize crystalline X-ray induced photochromic materials.Here,a new rational strategy of anion-directed fold-ing a flexible cation(H_(2)imb)^(2+)((H_(2)imb)^(2+)=di-protonated 2,3-bis(imidazolin-2-yl)-2,3-dimethylbutane)has been developed.Electron-donating Cl−and(ZnCl4)2−are used to direct folding a flexible electron-deficient(H_(2)imb)^(2+)cation.Three complexes(H_(2)imb)(NO_(3))2(1),(H_(2)imb)Cl2·H_(2)O(2),and(H_(2)imb)ZnCl4(3)have been synthesized in which(H_(2)imb)^(2+)crystallize in an anti-conformation,88.8°-gauche,and 51.8°-gauche,respectively.In contrary to X-ray silent complex 1,X-ray induced photochromism has been achieved in both complex 2 and 3.An intermolecular charge-transfer mechanism has been elucidated and the anion directed folding of(H_(2)imb)^(2+)has been validated to be critical to yield colored long-lived charge-separated states.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.22250003 and 22205084)National Key R&D Program of China(No.2017YFA0204902).
文摘Folding of molecules is an essential process in nature,and various molecular machines achieve their chemical and mechanical function via controlled folding of molecular conformations.The electric field offers a unique strategy to drive the folding of molecular conformation and to control charge transport through single molecules but remains unexplored.The single-molecule break junction technique provides access to detect the conformational changes via the monitoring of single-molecule conductance,and the electric field between two metal electrodes with nanoscale spacing can provide an extremely strong to achieve in-situ control and detection of molecular folding at the single-molecule level.Here,we use the electric field to control the single-molecule folding using the scanning tunneling microscope break junction(STM-BJ)technique.The electric fields induced folding could lead to a∼1400%conductance change of the single-molecule junctions,and the folding/unfolding process can be in-situ switched at the scale of milliseconds.DFT calculations suggest the conformational control originates from the electric fieldinduced charge injection,and the formation of homoconjugated conformation with the overlapped orbitals.This work provides the first demonstration of electric field-driven molecular folding,which is essential for the understanding of molecular machines in nature and for the design of artificial molecular machines.
基金supported in part by National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2018YFB1304600)CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team(Grant No.JCTD-2018-11)the Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51775541).
文摘Flasher origami pattern has been widely utilized to improve the stowage efficiency of deployable structures.Nevertheless,flasher origami cannot be folded fully flat,and they still have great potential for optimization in terms of storage volume and folding creases.In this paper,a flat foldable equiangular spiral folding pattern inspired by the sunflower disk is introduced.Then,a parametric design method for this equiangular spiral crease diagram is introduced in detail.Subsequently,a kinematic model of the equiangular spiral folding pattern is established based on the kinematic equivalence between rigid origami and spherical linkages.A simulation of the developed model demonstrates that the equiangular spiral folding pattern can be folded flat.Using the folded ratio as an evaluation index,the calculated results and experiments show that the equiangular spiral crease pattern can yield fewer creases and improve stowage efficiency in comparison to flasher origami pattern.Equiangular spiral folding pattern can save a considerable amount of space and provide a new approach to spatially deployable structures.
基金supported by the Key Projects of the 2022 National Defense Science and Technology Foundation Strengthening Plan 173 (Grant No.2022-173ZD-010)the Equipment PreResearch Foundation of The State Key Laboratory (Grant No.6142101200204)。
文摘Wideband spectrum sensing with a high-speed analog-digital converter(ADC) presents a challenge for practical systems.The Nyquist folding receiver(NYFR) is a promising scheme for achieving cost-effective real-time spectrum sensing,which is subject to the complexity of processing the modulated outputs.In this case,a multipath NYFR architecture with a step-sampling rate for the different paths is proposed.The different numbers of digital channels for each path are designed based on the Chinese remainder theorem(CRT).Then,the detectable frequency range is divided into multiple frequency grids,and the Nyquist zone(NZ) of the input can be obtained by sensing these grids.Thus,high-precision parameter estimation is performed by utilizing the NYFR characteristics.Compared with the existing methods,the scheme proposed in this paper overcomes the challenge of NZ estimation,information damage,many computations,low accuracy,and high false alarm probability.Comparative simulation experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed architecture in this paper.
基金supported by the NIH grant7R21 NS09662 7-02 to PFFthe Winston and Maxine Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund award CON000000083928 to PFF and AC。
文摘The prion protein(PrP) is the key molecular and pathological mediator of prion diseases,a heterogeneous group of brain disorders with fatal outcomes.Prion diseases are rare but deserve special attention because of their unique familial,sporadic,and transmissible etiologies,all caused by a single agent:misfolded conformations of PrP.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62276192)。
文摘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 https://github.com/HuQ1an/MAUN.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12174322 to HC and 12204124 to ZG)111 Project(Grant No.B16029)+1 种基金the Graduate Scientific Research Foundation of Wenzhou University(Grant No.3162023003034 to JH)research grant from Wenzhou Institute。
文摘Single-molecule magnetic tweezers(MTs) have revealed multiple transition barriers along the unfolding pathway of several two-state proteins, such as GB1 and Csp. In this study, we utilized MTs to measure the force-dependent folding and unfolding rates of both protein L(PLWT) and its Y47W mutant(PLY47W) where the mutation point is not at the force-bearing β-strands. The measurements were conducted within a force range of 3–120 pN. Notably, the unfolding rates of both PLWT and PWY47W exhibit distinct force sensitivities below 50 pN and above 60 pN, implying a two-barrier free energy landscape. Both PLWT and PLY47W share the same force-dependent folding rate and the same transition barriers,but the unfolding rate of PLY47W is faster than that of PLWT. Our finding demonstrates that the residue outside of the force-bearing region will also affect the force-induced unfolding dynamics.
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
文摘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the National Natural Science Foundation in China(No.20705028)the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Modem Separation Science in Shaanxi Province(No.05JS61).
文摘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the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61703413).
文摘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).
文摘A CMOS folding and interpolating analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for embedded application is described.The circuit is fully compatible with standard digital CMOS technology.A modified folding block implemented without resistor contributes to a small chip area.At the input stage,offset averaging reduces the input capacitance and the distributed track-and-hold circuits are proposed to improve signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio.The 200Ms/s 8bit ADC with 177mW total power consumption at 3.3V power supply is realized in standard digital 0.18μm 3.3V CMOS technology.
基金supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDA17010504)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.11947302)。
文摘The folding of many small proteins is kinetically a two-state process with one major free-energy barrier to overcome,which can be roughly regarded as the inverse process of unfolding.In this work,we first use a Gaussian network model to predict the folding nucleus corresponding to the major free-energy barrier of protein 2 GB1,and find that the folding nucleus is located in theβ-sheet domain.High-temperature molecular dynamics simulations are then used to investigate the unfolding process of 2 GB1.We draw free-energy surface from unfolding simulations,taking RMSD and contact number as reaction coordinates,which confirms that the folding of 2 GB1 is kinetically a two-state process.The comparison of the contact maps before and after the free energy barrier indicates that the transition from native to non-native structure of the protein is kinetically caused by the destruction of theβ-sheet domain,which manifests that the folding nucleus is indeed located in theβ-sheet domain.Moreover,the constrained MD simulation further confirms that the destruction of the secondary structures does not alter the topology of the protein retained by the folding nucleus.These results provide vital information for upcoming researchers to further understand protein folding in similar systems.
文摘The design of any antagonist or inhibitor for any enzyme requires the knowledge of structure- function relationship of the protein and the optimum conformational states for maximum and minimum activities. Furthermore, designing of the inhibitors or drugs against an enzyme becomes easier if there is information available about various well characterized intermediate conformation of the molecule. In vivo folding pathway of any recombinant protein is an important parameter for understanding its ability to fold by itself inside the cell, which always dictates the downstream processing for the purification. In the present manuscript we have discussed about the in vivo and in vitro folding, and structure-function relationship of Dihydrofolate reductase enzyme. This is an important enzyme involved in the cell growth and hence inhibition or inactivation of the enzyme may reduce the cell growth. It was observed that the equilibrium unfolding transition of DHFR proceeds through the formation of intermediates having higher exposed surface hydrophobicity, unchanged enzymatic activity and minimum changes in the secondary structural elements. Because of enhanced surface hydrophobicity, and unchanged enzymatic activity, these intermediates could be a nice target for designing drugs against DHFR.
文摘Understanding the folding processes of a protein into its three-dimensional native structure only with its amino-acid sequence information is a long-standing challenge in modern science. Two- hundred independent folding simulations (starting from non-native conformations) and two- hundred independent unfolding simulations (starting from the folded native structure) are performed using the united-residue force field and Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm for betanova (three-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet protein). From these extensive computer simulations, two representative folding pathways and two representative unfolding pathways are obtained in the reaction coordinates such as the fraction of native contacts, the radius of gyration, and the root- mean-square deviation. The folding pathways and the unfolding pathways are similar each other. The largest deviation between the folding pathways and the unfolding pathways results from the root-mean-square deviation near the folded native structure. In general, unfolding computer simulations could capture the essentials of folding simulations.
