Celastrol Protects TGF-β1-induced Endothelial-mesenchymal Transition

The endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition（End MT） in endothelial cells contributes to the development of cardiac fibrosis,ultimately leading to cardiac remodeling.In this study,the effects and molecular mechanisms of celastrol（CEL） on transforming growth factor-β1（TGF-β1）-induced End MT in human umbilical vein endothelial（HUVEC-12） cells were investigated.The presented data demonstrated that CEL significantly blocked the morphology change of HUVEC-12 cells induced by TGF-β1 without cell cytotoxicity.In accordance with these findings,CEL blocked TGF-β1-induced EndM T as evidenced by the inhibition of the mesenchymal markers,including collagen Ⅰ,Ⅲ,α-SMA,fibronectin m RNA expression,and the increase in the m RNA expression of endothelial cell marker CD31.These changes were also confirmed by double immunofluorescence staining of CD31 and vimentin.The in vitro scratch assay showed that CEL inhibited the migration capacity of the transitioned endothelial cells induced by TGF-β1.Further experiments showed that the beneficial effect of CEL on blocking the End MT in HUVEC-12 cells was associated with the suppression of the TGF-β1/Smads signalling pathway,which was also confirmed by the inhibition of its downstream transcription factor snail1,twist1,twist2,ZEB1 and ZEB2.These results indicate that CEL blocks TGF-β1-induced End MT through TGF-β1/Smads signalling pathway and suggest that it may be a feasible therapy for cardiac fibrosis diseases.

Large Signal Modulation Characteristics in the Transition Regime for Two-State Lasing Quantum Dot Lasers

Large-signal modulation capability, as an important performance indicator, is directly related to the high-speed optical communication technology involved. We experimentally and theoretically investigate the large-signal modulation characteristics of the simultaneous ground-state （GS） and the excited-state （ES） lasing in InAs/OaAs quantum dot laser diodes. The large-signal modulation capability of total light intensity in the transition regime from OS lasing to two-state lasing is unchanged as the bias-current increases. However, GS and ES large-signal eye diagrams show obvious variations during the transition. Relaxation oscillations and large-signal eye diagrams for OS, ES, and total light intensities are numerically simulated and analyzed in detail by using a rate-equation model. The -ndings show that a complementary relationship between the light intensities for OS and ES lasing exists in both the transition regime and the two-state lasing regime, leading to a much smaller overshooting power and a shorter settling time for the total light intensity. Therefore, the eye diagrams of GS or ES lasing are diffuse whereas those of total light intensity are constant as the bias-current increases in the transition regime.

Optimization of Adaptive Transit Signal Priority Using Parallel Genetic Algorithm

Optimization of adaptive traffic signal timing is one of the most complex problems in traffic control systems. This paper presents an adaptive transit signal priority （TSP） strategy that applies the parallel genetic algorithm （PGA） to optimize adaptive traffic signal control in the presence of TSP. The method can optimize the phase plan, cycle length, and green splits at isolated intersections with consideration for the performance of both the transit and the general vehicles. A VISSIM （VISual SIMulation） simulation testbed was developed to evaluate the performance of the proposed PGA-based adaptive traffic signal control with TSP. The simulation results show that the PGA-based optimizer for adaptive TSP outperformed the fully actuated NEMA control in all test cases. The results also show that the PGA-based optimizer can produce TSP timing plans that benefit the transit vehicles while minimizing the impact of TSP on the general vehicles.