Auxin is a key regulator of plant growth and development. Within the root tip, auxin distribution plays a crucial role specifying developmental zones and coordinating tropic responses. Determining how the organ-scale auxin pattern is regulated at the cellular scale is essential to understanding how these processes are controlled. In this study, we developed an auxin transport model based on actual root cell geometries and carrier subcellular localizations. We tested model predictions using the DII-VENUS auxin sensor in conjunction with state-of-the-art segmentation tools. Our study revealed that auxin efflux carriers alone cannot create the pattern of auxin distribution at the root tip and that AUX1/LAX influx carriers are also required. We observed that AUX1 in lateral root cap (LRC) and elongating epidermal cells greatly enhance auxin's shootward flux, with this flux being predominantly through the LRC, entering the epidermal cells only as they enter the elongation zone. We conclude that the nonpolar AUX1/LAX influx carriers control which tissues have high auxin levels, whereas the polar PIN carriers control the direction of auxin transport within these tissues.

No abstract

Detection and interpretation of human activities have emerged as a challenging healthcare problem in areas such as assisted living and remote monitoring. Besides traditional approaches that rely on wearable devices and camera systems, WiFi based technologies are evolving as a promising solution for indoor monitoring and activity recognition. This is, in part, due to the pervasive nature of WiFi in residential settings such as homes and care facilities, and unobtrusive nature of WiFi based sensing. Advanced signal processing techniques can accurately extract WiFi channel status information (CSI) using commercial off-theshelf (COTS) devices or bespoke hardware. This includes phase variations, frequency shifts and signal levels. In this paper, we describe the healthcare application of Doppler shifts in the WiFi CSI, caused by human activities which take place in the signal coverage area. The technique is shown to recognize different types of human activities and behaviour and be very suitable for applications in healthcare. Three experimental case studies are presented to illustrate the capabilities of WiFi CSI Doppler sensing in assisted living and residential care environments. We also discuss the potential opportunities and practical challenges for real-world scenarios.

Building heterostructures containing dissimilar coupling components with different bandgaps can promote interfacial reaction kinetics and accelerate charge carrier transport for Li–S batteries.

BackgroundThe role of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in targeted therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains largely unknown. The current study aimed to clarify the mechanistic effects of targeting TNF-α to overcome sorafenib resistance in HCC.MethodsA correlation of TNF-α expression with the prognosis was analyzed in 62 HCC patients who underwent surgical resection and subsequent received adjuvant sorafenib treatment. The relation of TNF-α expression and sorafenib sensitivity was determined in different HCC cell lines. The combined therapeutic effects of sorafenib and ulinastatin, which could inhibit TNF-α expression, on HCC were examined in vitro and in vivo.FindingsHigh TNF-α expression was correlated with poor outcomes in HCC patients who received adjuvant sorafenib after surgery. In vitro experiments showed that TNF-α promotes HCC cell resistant to sorafenib through inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Notably, the current study revealed that sorafenib has no significant influence on the expression and secretion of TNF-α, and sorafenib had limited effectiveness on reversing EMT in HCC cells with high TNF-α expression. Inhibiting the expression of TNF-α with ulinastatin significantly enhanced the anti-tumor effect of sorafenib on HCC cells with high expression of TNF-α in vitro and in vivo.Interpretation: Our findings indicate that TNF-α may serve as a novel predictor of sorafenib sensitivity in HCC patients. Sorafenib combined with ulinastatin may improve the effectiveness of treatment of HCC in patients with high expression of TNF-α.FundThis work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no.81572398; no.81672419), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (no. 2017A010105003; no.2015A050502023; no.2016A020216010), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (no.2014A030313061; no. 2013B021800101).

This paper proposes a passive Doppler radar as a non-contact sensing method to capture human body movements, recognize respiration, and physical activities in e-Health applications. The system uses existing in-home wireless signal as the source to interpret human activity. This paper shows that passive radar is a novel solution for multiple healthcare applications which complements traditional smart home sensor systems. An innovative two-stage signal processing framework is outlined to enable the multi-purpose monitoring function. The first stage is to obtain premier Doppler information by using the high speed passive radar signal processing. The second stage is the functional signal processing including micro Doppler extraction for breathing detection and support vector machine classifier for physical activity recognition. The experimental results show that the proposed system provides adequate performance for both purposes, and prove that non-contact passive Doppler radar is a complementary technology to meet the challenges of future healthcare applications.

No abstract

Metal sulfides have attracted tremendous research interest for developing high-performance electrodes for potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) for their high theoretical capacities. Nevertheless, the practical application of metal sulfides in PIBs is still unaddressed due to their intrinsic shortcomings of low conductivity and severe volume changes during the potassiation/depotassiation process. Herein, robust Fe7S8/C hybrid nanocages reinforced by defect-rich MoS2 nanosheets (Fe7S8/C@d-MoS2) were designed, which possess abundant multichannel and active sites for potassium-ion transportation and storage. Kinetic analysis and theoretical calculation verify that the introduction of defect-rich MoS2 nanosheets dramatically promotes the potassium-ion diffusion coefficient. The ex-situ measurements revealed the potassium-ion storage mechanism in the Fe7S8/C@d-MoS2 composite. Benefitting from the tailored structural design, the Fe7S8/C@d-MoS2 hybrid nanocages show high reversible capacity, exceptional rate property, and superior cyclability.