物联网体系结构模型与互连机理

网络实现了信息资源的共享,极大地改变了人们的生产生活方式.物联网将网络从信息空间进一步向物理空间延伸,通过对物理环境的感知与控制,丰富了人类认识世界与改造世界的手段.本文首先提出了包括对象感控层、数据交换层、信息整合层和应用服务层等4个层次的物联网体系结构功能模型,并对体系结构模型及各层实体进行了面向对象的描述.对于物联网系统中最为核心的网元互连问题,我们兼顾考虑强弱网元间的互连互通和网元与物理对象间的互动互操作,提出了支持强弱网元共存的物联网互连模型和基于能力映射与任务迁移的强弱网元互连机制.论文通过原型系统对提出的互连模型和互连机制进行了验证.     

Mycorrhizas and root architecture

Summary Roots function dually as a support system and as the nutrient uptake organ of plants. Root morphology changes in response to the soil environment to minimize the metabolic cost of maintaining the root system, while maximizing nutrient acquisition. In response to nutrient-limiting conditions, plants may increase root fineness or specific root length (root length per gram root weight), root/shoot ratio, or root hair length and number. Each of these adaptations involves a different metabolic cost to the plant, with root hair formation as the least costly change, buffering against more costly changes in root/shoot ratio. Mycorrhizal symbiosis is another alternative to such changes. Plants with high degrees of dependence on the symbiosis have coarser root systems, less plasticity in root/shoot ratio, and develop fewer root hairs in low-fertility soils. In nutrient-limited soils, plants highly dependent on mycorrhiza reduce metabolic cost by developing an even more coarse or magnolioid root system, which is less able to obtain nutrients and thus creates a greater dependence of the plant on the symbiosis. These subtle changes in root architecture may be induced by mycorrhizal fungi and can be quantified using topological analysis of rooting patterns. The ability of mycorrhizal fungi to elicit change in root architecture appears to be limited to plant species which are highly dependent upon mycorrhizal symbiosis.     

Myelin architecture: zippering membranes tightly together

Rapid nerve conduction requires the coating of axons by a tightly packed multilayered myelin membrane. In the central nervous system, myelin is formed from cellular processes that extend from oligodendrocytes and wrap in a spiral fashion around an axon, resulting in the close apposition of adjacent myelin membrane bilayers. In this review, we discuss the physical principles underlying the zippering of the plasma membrane of oligodendrocytes at the cytoplasmic and extracellular leaflet. We propose that the interaction of the myelin basic protein with the cytoplasmic leaflet of the myelin bilayer triggers its polymerization into a fibrous network that drives membrane zippering and protein extrusion. In contrast, the adhesion of the extracellular surfaces of myelin requires the down-regulation of repulsive components of the glycocalyx, in order to uncover weak and unspecific attractive forces that bring the extracellular surfaces into close contact. Unveiling the mechanisms of myelin membrane assembly at the cytoplasmic and extracelluar sites may help to understand how the myelin bilayers are disrupted and destabilized in the different demyelinating diseases.     

网构软件体系结构代数模型

由于网络化软件的规模和复杂程度的不断增加,设计可伸缩的软件体系结构,开发可演化的软件系统遇到了挑战．挑战之一是很难把软件模型与原系统说明区分开来,使得软件系统的可演化性受到限制．一个有效的途径是建立可范用软件体系结构的抽象模型,指导网构软件设计,从而提高软件模型的概括能力和可伸缩能力．本文提出一种网构软件体系结构代数模型,其中一个创新思想是把网构连接子解释成网构变量的运算．结合代数学方法和软件实现技术,定义了6种网构连接运算,所有运算是对连接子的代数抽象,因此软件体系结构的抽象表达能力得到了加强．为了展示提出代数模型的建模与分析辅助作用,介绍了一个基于代数模型的网构软件设计与演化的案例研究．     

Influence of an additional magnetic field on hornet nest architecture

Summary An additional horizontal magnetic field is lethal for adult hornets and larvae. The juvenile hornets, however, are capable of adapting to the additional magnetic field. They build combs commencing in the regions of high field intensity, and proceeding in the direction of the field intensity decrease.     

Serially arranged myofibers: An unappreciated variant in muscle architecture

Our comparative studies suggest that the length of myofibers in tetrapods is subject to an unappreciated degree of variability. Many mammalian strap muscles are composed of short, overlapping myofibers. This arrangement and its associated distribution pattern of motor endplates (neural control) appear to be general in birds and widespread in other tetrapods. Contrariwise, most muscles of primates appear to be composed of long myofibers. The implications of this variation for studies of development, neuromuscular control, and muscle function are largely unexplored.     

Positive and negative influence of the matrix architecture on antitumor immune surveillance

The migration of T cells and access to tumor antigens is of utmost importance for the induction of protective anti-tumor immunity. Once having entered a malignant site, T cells encounter a complex environment composed of non-tumor cells along with the extracellular matrix (ECM). It is now well accepted that a deregulated ECM favors tumor progression and metastasis. Recent progress in imaging technologies has also highlighted the impact of the matrix architecture found in solid tumor on immune cells and especially T cells. In this review, we argue that the ability of T cells to mount an antitumor response is dependent on the matrix structure, more precisely on the balance between pro-migratory reticular fiber networks and unfavorable migration zones composed of dense and aligned ECM structures. Thus, the matrix architecture, that has long been considered to merely provide the structural framework of connective tissues, can play a key role in facilitating or suppressing the antitumor immune surveillance. A new challenge in cancer therapy will be to develop approaches aimed at altering the architecture of the tumor stroma, rendering it more permissive to antitumor T cells.     

Splenic architecture reflected in the connective tissue structure of the human spleen

Summary An analysis of the connective-tissue structure of the human spleen can give us information about the basic architecture of the organ. The most important part of the spleen is the lienic center around which the subcapsular zone forms an envelope, like a mantle. This zone has but little depth and develops superficially. The tangential radial beam net (Tangentialbalkennetz) is formed partly by the radial trabeculae of the capsule and partly by the outer branches of thearbor trabecularis. Thisarbor divides into 5–6 branching orders. The branches of orders 1 to 3 surround the parenchyma of the spleen center's inner layer. The lienic lobuli which are found between these branches are relatively large and are connected very extensively with their parenchyma. The branches of orders 4, 5, and 6 enclose the lienic lobuli of the outer layer of the spleen center. The splenic lobuli are defined by the vascular course. Mostly they are provided with one or two arterial influxes and, as a rule, with only one venous drain. Their mutual delimitation is more of a funcitional than of a morphological nature. This led von Herrath^{12, 13} to coin the term functional spleen lobuli. The lienic envelope lies between the inside of the capsule and the outermost branchings of thearbor trabecularis. Thisarbor is subdivided by the radial trabeculae, which never have any vessels, into elongated lobuli and serves first and foremost to regulate pressure. The lattice fibers are of high tensile strength and are extensions of the collagenous fibers seen at the microscopic level.     

Splenic architecture reflected in the connective tissue structure of the human spleen

An analysis of the connective-tissue structure of the human spleen can give us information about the basic architecture of the organ. The most important part of the spleen is the lienic center around which the subcapsular zone forms an envelope, like a mantle. This zone has but little depth and develops superficially. The tangential radial beam net ('Tangentialbalkennetz') is formed partly by the radial trabeculae of the capsule and partly by the outer branches of the arbor trabecularis. This arbor divides into 5-6 branching orders. The branches of orders 1 to 3 surround the parenchyma of the spleen center's inner layer. The lienic lobuli which are found between the branches are relatively large and are connected very extensively with their parenchyma. The branches of orders 4, 5, and 6 enclose the lienic lobuli of the outer layer of the spleen center. The splenic lobuli are defined by the vascular course. Mostly they are provided with one or two arterial influxes and, as a rule, with only one venous drain. Their mutual delimitation is more of a functional than of a morphological nature. This led von Herrath to coin the term 'functional spleen lobuli'. The lienic envelope lies between the inside of the capsule and the outermost branchings of the arbor trabecularis. This arbor is subdivided, by the radial trabeculae, which never have any vessels, into elongated lobuli and serves first and foremost to regulate pressure. The lattice fibers are of high tensile strength and are extensions of the collagenous fibers seen at the microscopic level.     

Emergence of symmetric protein architecture from a simple peptide motif: evolutionary models

Structural symmetry is observed in the majority of fundamental protein folds and gene duplication and fusion evolutionary processes are postulated to be responsible. However, convergent evolution leading to structural symmetry has also been proposed; additionally, there is debate regarding the extent to which exact primary structure symmetry is compatible with efficient protein folding. Issues of symmetry in protein evolution directly impact strategies for de novo protein design as symmetry can substantially simplify the design process. Additionally, when considering gene duplication and fusion in protein evolution, there are two competing models: “emergent architecture” and “conserved architecture”. Recent experimental work has shed light on both the evolutionary process leading to symmetric protein folds as well as the ability of symmetric primary structure to efficiently fold. Such studies largely support a “conserved architecture” evolutionary model, suggesting that complex protein architecture was an early evolutionary achievement involving oligomerization of smaller polypeptides.     

Dissecting the biochemical architecture and morphological release pathways of the human platelet extracellular vesiculome

Platelet extracellular vesicles (PEVs) have emerged as potential mediators in intercellular communication. PEVs exhibit several activities with pathophysiological importance and may serve as diagnostic biomarkers. Here, imaging and analytical techniques were employed to unveil morphological pathways of the release, structure, composition, and surface properties of PEVs derived from human platelets (PLTs) activated with the thrombin receptor activating peptide (TRAP). Based on extensive electron microscopy analysis, we propose four morphological pathways for PEVs release from TRAP-activated PLTs: (1) plasma membrane budding, (2) extrusion of multivesicular α-granules and cytoplasmic vacuoles, (3) plasma membrane blistering and (4) “pearling” of PLT pseudopodia. The PLT extracellular vesiculome encompasses ectosomes, exosomes, free mitochondria, mitochondria-containing vesicles, “podiasomes” and PLT “ghosts”. Interestingly, a flow cytometry showed a population of TOM20⁺LC3⁺ PEVs, likely products of platelet mitophagy. We found that lipidomic and proteomic profiles were different between the small PEV (S-PEVs; mean diameter 103 nm) and the large vesicle (L-PEVs; mean diameter 350 nm) fractions separated by differential centrifugation. In addition, the majority of PEVs released by activated PLTs was composed of S-PEVs which have markedly higher thrombin generation activity per unit of PEV surface area compared to L-PEVs, and contribute approximately 60% of the PLT vesiculome procoagulant potency.     

Expanding the roles of chromatin insulators in nuclear architecture,chromatin organization and genome function

Of the numerous classes of elements involved in modulating eukaryotic chromosome structure and function, chromatin insulators arguably remain the most poorly understood in their contribution to these processes in vivo. Indeed, our view of chromatin insulators has evolved dramatically since their chromatin boundary and enhancer blocking properties were elucidated roughly a quarter of a century ago as a result of recent genome-wide, high-throughput methods better suited to probing the role of these elements in their native genomic contexts. The overall theme that has emerged from these studies is that chromatin insulators function as general facilitators of higher-order chromatin loop structures that exert both physical and functional constraints on the genome. In this review, we summarize the result of recent work that supports this idea as well as a number of other studies linking these elements to a diverse array of nuclear processes, suggesting that chromatin insulators exert master control over genome organization and behavior.