Science China Press., Co. Ltd.

Recent progress in the research of radical anion ligands and their complexes with metals were summarized in this review. Radical anions were sorted into several types including iminosemiquinonate and iminoquinonate radical, nitroxide radical, heterocycle radical etc. Structural characteristics and properties of the corresponding complexes were introduced. The complexes exhibited novel properties and possibility for applications in organic magnetic materials and transition metal catalysis.

As a building integrated solar thermal system, the dual-function solar collector integrated with building works for passive space heating in cold winter season, and for water heating in warm seasons. In this paper, the study is made on the dual-function solar collector integrated with building when it works in water heating mode with natural circulation. The coupled model of the collector and building’s environment is established and validated. A numerical simulation is achieved to show the thermal effect of the novel system on the building in summer. By comparing with the cooling loads of the rooms with or without the novel collector in summer, the results show that when in summer, the novel solar system is available for serving hot water, and it does not have the summer overheating problem, and can even improve the thermal environment of its building slightly.

In this study, we explored the effects of soy isoflavone extracts on the growth of estrogen-dependent human breast cancer (MCF-7) tumors implanted in ovariectomized athymic mice. The ovariectomized athymic mice were implanted with MCF-7 cells. They were fed with low, moderate and high doses of soy isoflavone extracts, at dietary concentrations of 6.25, 12.5 and 25 g/kg, respectively. The expression of ki-67 was detected by immunohistochemistry. The pS 2 expression in tumors was analyzed by real-time PCR. Estrogen level in the serum was measured by chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay. Compared with the control group, dietary soy isoflavone extracts had a significant stimulatory effect on MCF-7 tumor growth in mice (P < 0.05). The ki-67 and pS 2 mRNA expressions in tumors were significantly increased by 6.25 and 12.5 g/kg dose of soy isoflavone extracts (P < 0.05). And, estrogen level in serum of 6.25 and 12.5 g/kg dose groups was higher than that of control group (P > 0.05). In conclusion, in the tested dietary concentration range soy isoflavone extracts had a stimulatory effect on tumor growth. 6.25 and 12.5 g/kg doses of soy isoflavone extracts can increase the cell proliferation in tumors and induce estrogen-responsive pS2 expression.

Forty-two climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phases 3 and 5 were first evaluated in terms of their ability to simulate the present climatology of the East Asian winter (December–February) and summer (June–August) monsoons. The East Asian winter and summer monsoon changes over the 21st century were then projected using the results of 31 and 29 reliable climate models under the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) mid-range A1B scenario or the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) mid-low-range RCP4.5 scenario, respectively. Results showed that the East Asian winter monsoon changes little over time as a whole relative to the reference period 1980–1999. Regionally, it weakens (strengthens) north (south) of about 25°N in East Asia, which results from atmospheric circulation changes over the western North Pacific and Northeast Asia owing to the weakening and northward shift of the Aleutian Low, and from decreased northwest-southeast thermal and sea level pressure differences across Northeast Asia. In summer, monsoon strengthens slightly in East China over the 21st century as a consequence of an increased land-sea thermal contrast between the East Asian continent and the adjacent western North Pacific and South China Sea.

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces selectively apoptosis in various tumor cells and virus-infected cells, but rarely in normal cells. A chloroplast expression vector, p64TRAIL, containing the cDNA coding for the soluble TRAIL (sTRAIL), was constructed with clpP-trnL-petB-chlL-rpl23-rpl2 as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii plastid homologous recombinant fragments and spectinomycin-resistant aadA gene as a select marker. The plasmid p64TRAIL was transferred into the chloroplast genome of C. reinhardtii by the biolistic method. Three independently transformed lines were obtained by 100 mg/L spectinomycin selection. PCR amplification, Southern blot analysis of the sTRAIL coding region DNA and cultivation cells in the dark all showed that the exogenous DNA had been integrated into chloroplast genome of C. reinhardtii. Western blot analysis showed that human soluble TRAIL was expressed in C. reinhardtii chloroplast. The densitometric analysis of Western blot indicated that the expressed human sTRAIL protein in the chloroplasts of C. reinhardtii accounted for about 0.43%–0.67% of the total soluble proteins. These experimental results demonstrated the possibility of using transgenic chloroplasts of green alga as bioreactors for production of biopharmaceuticals.

Two kinds of highly efficient, bright hybrid white organic light emitting diodes have been fabricated by utilizing ambipolar material 4,4-N,N-dicarbazolebiphenyl (CBP) and unipolar material N,N′-di(naphthalene-1-yl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (NPB) as the spacer, respectively. By adjusting the thickness of spacers together with effectively utilizing combinations of exciton-harnessed orange-phosphorescence/blue-fluorescence, the current efficiency of optimal device with CBP spacer and device with NPB spacer are 31.0 and 38.9 cd/A, the maximum power efficiency are 23.9 and 29.1 lm/W, the maximum brightness are 87,249 and 75,501 cd/m2, and the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates are (0.42, 0.43) and (0.47, 0.44) at a voltage of 11 V, respectively. Furthermore, systematic investigations focused on the effects of spacers on device performance have been performed. By virtue of the multifunctional spacer, energy transfer between the phosphorescent and fluorescent emitters can be avoided while the carriers still can pass through this spacer bridge, which is important to realize such high device performance. In addition, a novel concept that both ambipolar materials and unipolar materials can be the promising candidates for spacers has been proposed if the thickness of spacers with high triplet energy is optimized.

Human B1 binding factor (hB1F) is a novel transcription factor cloned in our laboratory, which has the capacity of binding the Bl region of HBV enhancer II (EN II) and stimulating its activity. In this report, the functional relationship between hB1F and other liver-enriched activators of EN II was investigated. The results of CAT assay indicated that there was only additive effect between hB1F and HNF4 as well as HNF3β. On the contrary, the presence of both hB1F and HNF1 would result in significant functional synergism. Further GST pull down assay indicated that hB1F could interact with HNF1 directlyin vitro. This study provides the evidence that hB1F and HNF1 work synergistically in the regulation of the activity of HBV EN II.