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In orchard environments, negative obstacles such as ditches and potholes pose significant safety risks to robots working within them. This paper proposes a negative obstacle detection method based on LiDAR tilt mounting. With the LiDAR tilted at 40°, the blind spot is reduced from 3 m to 0.21 m, and the ground point cloud density is increased by an order of magnitude. Based on geometric features of laser point clouds (such as rear wall height and density, and spacing jump between points), a method for detecting negative obstacles is presented. This method establishes a mathematical model by analyzing changes in point cloud height, density, and point spacing, integrating features captured from multiple frames to enhance detection accuracy. Experiments demonstrate that this approach effectively detects negative obstacles in orchard environments, achieving a success rate of 92.7% in obstacle detection. The maximum detection distance reaches approximately 8.0 m, significantly mitigating threats posed to robots by negative obstacles in orchards. This research contributes valuable technological advancements for future orchard automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near‐infrared (NIR) phosphors are a vital component of phosphor‐converted light‐emitting diodes (pc‐LEDs), with simultaneous high quantum efficiency and thermal stability being essential attributes for optimal performance. In this paper, a novel ZnAlB(1‐x)GaxO4:0.05Cr3+ system is designed by gradually substituting B with Ga. Surprisingly, a significant enhancement in photoluminescence performance is observed, reaching peak efficiency at x = 1. Further development led to a series of ZnAlGaO4:yCr3+ (ZAGO:yCr3+) phosphors, exhibiting variable full width at half maximum (FWHM) ranging from 32 to 163 nm with increasing Cr3+ content, attributed to energy transfer between two Cr3+ emission centers. Among these, ZAGO:0.05Cr3+ emerges as the optimal phosphor, boasting a high internal/external quantum efficiency of 80%/34% with a FWHM of 80 nm. Notably, this phosphor demonstrates anti‐thermal quenching behavior (125.53% @ 423 K), with its exceptional thermal stability elucidated through the defect level model. The fabricated NIR pc‐LEDs featuring ZAGO:Cr3+ phosphors show great prospect in multifunctional applications in plant cultivation, night vision, non‐destructive analysis and veins imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of landscape architecture has placed significant emphasis on low-carbon landscapes due to the increasing challenges posed by global warming and environmental deterioration in recent years. The soil ecological conditions in saline–alkaline areas are characterized by poor quality, resulting in suboptimal growth conditions for trees. This, in turn, hampers their ability to effectively sequester carbon, thereby diminishing the potential benefits of carbon sinks. Additionally, the maintenance of tree landscapes in such areas generates more carbon emissions than does conventional green land, making it difficult to reap the benefits of tree-based carbon. A comprehensive evaluation of trees in green park spaces in saline–alkaline areas is conducted from a low-carbon perspective; by identifying the dominant tree species that are well suited to greening, we can offer a precise scientific foundation for implementing low-carbon greening initiatives in cities situated in saline–alkaline environments. Therefore, as a case study, this study investigates Tianjin Qiaoyuan Park, a typical saline park in the Bohai Bay region. The hierarchical analysis method (AHP) was used to evaluate 50 species of trees and shrubs in the park from a low-carbon perspective. The results show that the evaluation system consists of four criterion layers and 15 indicator factors. The relative weight of the criterion layer followed the order of habitat adaptability (B2) > carbon sequestration capacity (B1) > low-carbon management and conservation (B3) > landscape aesthetics (B4). The indicator layer assigned greater weight values to net assimilation (C1), saline and alkaline adaptability (C3), drought tolerance (C4), irr igation and fertilization needs (C8), growth rate (C2), and adaptability to barrenness (C5). The trees were classified into five distinct categories, with each exhibiting significant variation in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of the indicators. According to the comprehensive score, the trees were categorized into three levels. The Grade I plants exhibited the best carbon efficiency performance, comprising a total of 12 species (e.g. Sabina chinensis, Fraxinus chinensis 'Aurea' and Hibiscus syriacu), and demonstrated superior performance in all aspects. Grade II trees, consisting of 26 species (e.g Pinus tabuliformis, Paulownia fortunei, Ligustrum × vicaryi), had the second-highest comprehensive score. Moreover, Grade III trees, encompassing 12 species (e.g Acer mono, Cedrus deodara, Magnolia denudata), exhibited lower comprehensive scores. The extensive use of Grade I and II tree species is recommended in the implementation of low-carbon greening projects in the Bohai Bay region, while Grade III tree species should be judiciously utilized. The findings of this research can serve as a valuable resource for the scientific identification of tree species that are suitable for urban park green spaces in the Bohai Bay region, which is characterized by predominantly saline and alkaline soil. Additionally, the development of an evaluation system can guide the selection of low-carbon tree species when evaluating other types of saline and alkaline lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinization, an intractable problem, is becoming increasingly serious and threatening fragile natural ecosystems and even the security of human food supplies. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is one of the main crops growing in salinized soil. However, the tolerance mechanisms of sorghum to saline–alkaline soil are still ambiguous. In this study, RNA sequencing was carried out to explore the gene expression profiles of sorghum treated with sodium bicarbonate (150 mM, pH = 8.0, treated for 0, 6, 12 and 24 h). The results show that 6045, 5122, 6804, 7978, 8080 and 12,899 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in shoots and roots after 6, 12 and 24 h treatments, respectively. GO, KEGG and weighted gene co-expression analyses indicate that the DEGs generated by saline–alkaline stress were primarily enriched in plant hormone signal transduction, the MAPK signaling pathway, starch and sucrose metabolism, glutathione metabolism and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Key pathway and hub genes (TPP1, WRKY61, YSL1 and NHX7) are mainly related to intracellular ion transport and lignin synthesis. The molecular and physiological regulation processes of saline–alkali-tolerant sorghum are shown by these results, which also provide useful knowledge for improving sorghum yield and quality under saline–alkaline conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Umbelliprenin is a sesquiterpene coumarin isolated from Artemisia absinthium L. and shows antitumor effects in various cancers by inducing apoptosis. However, the antitumor effect of umbelliprenin in human pancreatic cancer has not been clarified. Methods: The antitumor effects were determined by MTT and AnnexinV/PI double staining assay in vitro and xenograft mice in vivo. Autophagy was determined via immunofluorescence analysis. Apoptotic or autophagic related proteins were measured by immunoblotting. The pancreatic cancer cell stemness were determined by mammosphere formation and ALDEFLUOR assay. Results: It revealed that umbelliprenin inhibited pancreatic cancer cell proliferation in vitro and pancreatic cancer tumor growth in vivo. Moreover, umbelliprenin induced pancreatic cancer cell BxPC3 apoptosis and autophagy as evidenced by upregulated apoptosis and autophagy‐ related protein expression (p < 0.01). Blocking autophagy by 3‐MA or Atg7 knockout enhanced umbelliprenin‐induced apoptosis (p < 0.05). Umbelliprenin also reduced pancreatic cancer cell stemness by reducing Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2 mRNA levels (p < 0.01). Mechanistically, umbelliprenin greatly inhibited Akt/mTOR and Notch1 signal pathway. Conclusion: Umbelliprenin may be a novel therapeutic approach for pancreatic cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The target of EGR1 protein 1 (TOE1) is evolutionarily conserved from Caenorhabditis elegans to mammals, which plays a critical role in the maturation of a variety of small nuclear RNAs. Mutation in human TOE1 has been reported to cause pontocerebellar hypoplasia type 7, a severe neurodegenerative syndrome. However, the role of TOE1 in early embryonic development remains unclear. Herein, we found that Toe1 mRNA and protein were expressed in mouse preimplantation embryos. Silencing Toe1 by siRNA led to morula-to-blastocyst transition failure. This developmental arrest can be rescued by Toe1 mRNA microinjection. EdU incorporation assay showed a defect in blastomere proliferation within developmentally arrested embryos. Further studies revealed that Toe1 knockdown caused increased signals for γH2AX and micronuclei, indicative of sustained DNA damage. Moreover, mRNA levels of cell cycle inhibitor p21 were significantly upregulated in Toe1 knockdown embryos before developmental arrest. Together, these results suggest that TOE1 is indispensable for mouse early embryo development potentially through maintaining genomic integrity. Our findings provide further insight into the role of TOE1 in mouse preimplantation embryonic development. • The expression pattern of Toe1 and its role in early embryogenesis is characterized. • Loss of TOE1 suppresses proliferation and induces apoptosis. • Knockdown of Toe1 activates cell cycle inhibitor p21. • Silencing Toe1 triggers DNA damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal nonessential for plants; this toxic metal accumulation in crops has significant adverse effects on human health. The crosstalk between copper (Cu) and Cd has been reported; however, the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. The present study investigated the function of wheat Cu transporter 3D (TaCOPT3D) in Cd tolerance. The TaCOPT3D transcripts significantly accumulated in wheat roots under Cd stress. Furthermore, TaCOPT3D-overexpressing lines were compared to wildtype (WT) plants to test the role of TaCOPT3D in Cd stress response. Under 20 mM Cd treatment, TaCOPT3D-overexpressing lines exhibited more biomass and lower root, shoot, and grain Cd accumulation than the WT plants. In addition, overexpression of TaCOPT3D decreased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and increased the active antioxidant enzymes under Cd conditions. Moreover, the transcription factor (TF) TaWRKY22, which targeted the TaCOPT3D promoter, was identified in the regulatory pathway of TaCOPT3D under Cd stress. Taken together, these results show that TaCOPT3D plays an important role in regulating plant adaptation to cadmium stress through bound by TaWRKY22. These findings suggest that TaCOPT3D is a potential candidate for decreasing Cd accumulation in wheat through genetic engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Propose a framework for identifying risk tree species under climate change at the city level. • Currently, below-optimal precipitation levels are the key factors limiting the survival of tree species in Tianjin. • Increased temperatures will lead to a rise in the number of risk tree species in Tianjin in the future. • Emphasize the risk differences among tree species of different climate types. Climate change poses a threat to the health and survival of urban trees. To bolster the resilience and adaptability of urban trees to climate change impacts, an essential step involves assessing the risks faced by urban trees due to climatic shifts. Based on key climate variables including Annual Mean Temperature (AMT), Annual Mean Precipitation (AMP), Minimum temperature of the coldest month (MTCM), Precipitation of driest quarter (PDQ) and Maximum Temperature of the Warmest Month (MTWM). These variables are essential for identifying tree species at risk in different baseline and future periods in the city by calculating three indicators: climate exposure, safety margin, and climate risk. Based on the climate of origin categories for sixty tree species in Tianjin, China, have been classified into four distinct groups: Temperate Dry Climate (TDC), Warm-Temperate Sub-Humid Climate (WTSC), Subtropical Semi-Humid Climate (SSHC), and Humid Subtropical Climate (HSC). We found that species exceeded their safety margins in each variable, with precipitation conditions being a key constraint on survival during the baseline period. By 2050, the number of tree species at risk in AMT and MTWM significantly increased. Among the four climate types, SSHC trees showed high habitat suitability under both baseline and projected future climate conditions. Conversely, TDC trees demonstrated lower habitat suitability and should be prioritized for monitoring and protection in the future. The workflow and results in this study can provide references for future-oriented urban tree monitoring, management, and species selection under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Missing data pose significant challenges during representation learning of observational data. The incompleteness of data can result in a deterioration of generative performance in disentangled representation learning. Conventional data imputation solutions, such as regression imputation or multiple imputation, often neglect the underlying causal relationships among the data. To address these issues, the causal disentangled representation learning for missing data (CDRM) framework was proposed. Missing data with graph representations are integrated to construct heterogeneous networks composed of observations, features, and known feature values. To achieve data completeness, an interaction module consisting of a parallel neighbor interaction layer and an embedded update layer are integrated with the heterogeneous network to predict missing values. To recover the true causal relationship of missing data, edge embeddings are further introduced during message passing of heterogeneous networks, which can capture the interaction of different features and enrich the representation of observations. Furthermore, the causal relationship is incorporated into the VAE using two distinct encoders to learn representations of causally related concepts. In a series of experimental evaluations on diverse datasets, CDRM consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art method, namely, CausalVAE, in disentangled representation learning, particularly in scenarios with limited labeled data. Notably, CDRM can generate counterfactual data in response to missing data, further enhancing its utility in machine learning applications. The source code and data are available at https://github.com/Causal-Disentangled/CDRM. • A causal disentangled representation learning framework CDRM for missing data is proposed. • The causal relationships of missing data are recovered by capturing the feature interactions with edge embeddings. • Causal relationships of the data are incorporated as constraints to learn disentangled representations. • Counterfactual outputs can be generated by manipulating the intervening causal variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Linking sewer carbon emissions to urban water cycles. • In-depth analysis of greenhouse gas emissions factors in sewer. • Role of advanced modeling techniques. • Advocacy for interdisciplinary and technology-driven approaches. • Reveal the carbon emissions contradiction at different research boundaries. As urbanization accelerates, understanding and managing carbon emissions from urban sewer networks have become crucial for sustainable urban water cycles. This review examines the factors influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within urban sewage systems, analyzing the complex effects between water quality, hydrodynamics, and sewer infrastructure on GHG production and emission processes. It reveals significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity in GHG emissions, particularly under long-term scenarios where flow rates and temperatures exhibit strong impacts and correlations. Given the presence of fugitive and dissolved potential GHGs, standardized monitoring and accounting methods are deemed essential. Advanced modeling techniques emerge as crucial tools for large-scale carbon emission prediction and management. The review identifies that traditional definitions and computational frameworks for carbon emission boundaries fail to fully consider the inherent heterogeneity of sewers and the dynamic changes and impacts of multi-source pollution within the sewer system during the urban water cycle. This includes irregular fugitive emissions, the influence of stormwater systems, climate change, geographical features, sewer design, and the impacts of food waste and antibiotics. Key strategies for emission management are discussed, focusing on the need for careful consideration of approaches that might inadvertently increase global emissions, such as ventilation, chemical treatments, and water management practices. The review advocates for an overarching strategy that encompasses a holistic view of carbon emissions, stressing the importance of refined emission boundary definitions, novel accounting practices, and comprehensive management schemes in line with the water treatment sector's move towards carbon neutrality. It champions the adoption of interdisciplinary, technologically advanced solutions to mitigate pollution and reduce carbon emissions, emphasizing the importance of integrating cross-scale issues and other environmentally friendly measures in future research directions. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this population-based retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the association between age at diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients using data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and the End Results database. Different factors for stratification, like race, sex, year of diagnosis, pathological grade, American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, historic stage, and tumour location, were included to compare the survival rates of patients of different age groups, and the five-year survival rate was calculated. Multivariate analysis using Cox regression was performed to control for confounder bias, and the hazard ratio was calculated. In total, 126,066 patients were enrolled in this study. The five-year PC-specific survival of patients aged 20–40 years was almost three times that of patients aged >40 years. Stratified by race, sex, year of diagnosis, pathological grade, clinical stage, and tumour location, a descending trend of survival was observed with an increase in age. On multivariate analysis, the mortality risk of PC patients aged 40–80 years was twice that of patients aged <40 years; however, patients aged >80 years had a mortality risk three times that of patients aged <40 years. The survival rate of PC patients has improved in the last few decades. Age at diagnosis is a significant and negative prognostic factor for PC, and patients diagnosed at a relatively earlier stage had the best survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat is a vital food crop that faces threats from various abiotic and biotic stresses. Understanding the molecular mechanism of cadmium (Cd) resistance can provide valuable insights into the tolerance of wheat. Plant proteins known as Topless/Topless–Related (TPL/TPR) play a role in growth, development, defense regulation, and stress response. In this study, we identified TaTPR2 as being induced by Cd stress treatment. Upon Cd treatment, wheat plants overexpressing TaTPR2 exhibited better growth compared to wild–type (WT) plants. Moreover, the transgenic lines showed reduced accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), along with significantly higher activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) compared to WT plants. Additionally, the transgenic lines exhibited lower levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and electrolyte leakage compared to WT plants. Further analysis revealed that TabHLH41 directly binds to the E–box motif of the TaTPR2 promoter and positively regulates its expression. Overall, the overexpression of TaTPR2 in transgenic wheat resulted in reduced accumulation of Cd and ROS. These findings highlight the significance of the TabHLH41– TaTPR2 pathway as a crucial response to Cd stress in wheat. • The overexpression of TaTPR2 led to a decrease in Cd accumulation in wheat. • The overexpression of TaTPR2 resulted in an enhancement in the capacity to quench ROS under Cd stress. • TabHLH41 binds directly to the promoter of TaTPR2 and upregulates its expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new strain of Qinchuan cattle (QNS) has been obtained after more than forty years of selective breeding, and it shows good performance and production traits. To characterize the genetic changes that have resulted from breeding, we sequenced 10 QNS and 10 of the original breed Qinchuan cattle (QCC) for the first time, with average of 12.5-fold depth. A total of 31,242,284 and 29,612,517 SNPs were identified in the QCC and QNS genomes, 47.81% and 44.36% of which were found to be novel, respectively. Furthermore, population structure analysis revealed the selection that these cattle had experienced. Then, 332 and 571 potential selected genes were obtained, associated with enhanced immunity and acclimatization in QCC (CD5, SMARCA2, CATHL2, etc.) and production or meat quality traits in QNS (PLCD3, MB, PPARGC1A, etc.). These results revealed the efforts of selective breeding for Chinese Qinchuan cattle, and will be helpful for future cattle breeding. • Genomes of the new strain of Qinchuan cattle and the original breed Qinchuan cattle were sequenced for the first time. • A large number of genetic variations were found to be novel. • Selective sweep analysis revealed the efforts of selective breeding for Chinese Qinchuan cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tb3+/Dy3+ co-doped Y 6 Si 3 O 9 N 4 :Ce3+ oxynitride phosphors were prepared in this work. The properties of the prepared phosphors, e.g. X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectra, lifetime and thermal-dependent luminescence quenching were investigated systematically. Under near-UV excitation, co-doped Tb3+ and Dy3+ into Y 6 Si 3 O 9 N 4 :Ce3+ phosphor generated a narrow green line peaked at 550 nm and a yellow line peaked at 575 nm, respectively. Energy is efficiently transferred from Ce3+ to Dy3+ and Tb3+ ions according to the study results. Fluorescence decay patterns are studied as a function of Tb3+ and Dy3+ concentrations. For the new synthesized phosphors, their temperature-dependent photoluminescence properties were investigated, which demonstrates that the emission intensity at 150 ○C reduced from 100% to 32.0% measured at 30○C. Commission on illumination value of color tumble emission is also discussed in detail. This work verifies the suitable application of the new oxynitride phosphor in the LEDs. We introduce a Tb3+/Dy3+ co-doped oxynitride Y 6 Si 3 O 9 N 4 :Ce3+ phosphor for near-UV LEDs. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, microfluidics in biological applications have experienced significant growth due to their advantages of small volume, low cost, short reaction time and high throughput. Almost all cross-section shapes of micro-channels in microfluidic chips are rectangular or triangular by the existing chip fabricating technologies, including hot embossing, lithography, etching and injection molding, etc. However, compared with the above micro-channel shapes, the circular one has the advantages in aspects of fluid flow, droplet generating, heat transfer and its replication for blood vessels. This paper presents a T-junction droplet microfluidic chip with circular cross-section micro-channels. The effect of micro-channel wettability, interfacial tension, velocity and flow rate of continuous phase on droplet size are simulated and mechanism of droplets generating process is explored. Comparing with continuous phase viscosity and interfacial tension, flow rate plays a decisive role in determining the droplet size which is in the range of 100–350  μ m according to the simulation result. The Capillary number is affected by the above three parameters and an estimating numerical method for generated droplet size was proposed according to the above simulation results and calculated by Capillary number. The droplets, the sizes of which were in the range of 20–400  μ m, were produced by varying the parameters of water and oil flow rates in the designed T-junction droplet microfluidic chip with circular cross-section micro-channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Ethnopharmacological relevance Radix Scutellariae (RS) , the dried root of Scutellariae baicalensis Georgi, known as a herbal medicine in several Asian countries including China, has been widely used to treat inflammation, hypertension, cardiovascular disease as well as cancer. The total flavonoid aglycone extracted (TFAE) was extracted by ethyl acetate and this extraction methodology was optimized and obtained the protection of Chinese patents. Aim of the study To investigate the underlying mechanism of the chemotherapeutic effects of TFAE in inducing autophagy and apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Materials and methods We performed CCK8 assays, AnnexinV-FITC/PI staining, flow cytometry assays, transmission electron microscopy, immunofluorescence analysis and Western blot to study the molecular mechanism of TFAE in inducing autophagy and apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Results In vitro , TFAE exhibits significant anti-tumor activity against pancreatic cancer cell lines, especially for BxPC3 (IC 50 = 6.5 μg mL−1). Moreover, TFAE induces apoptosis and autophagy as evidenced by the increased apoptosis or autophagy-related protein level, the increased the fraction of apoptotic cells and the punctuate patterns of LC3 II. Furthermore, TFAE induce autophagy through PI3K/Akt/mTOR inhibition. Interestingly, pharmacological block autophagy by 3-MA enhanced TFAE-induced apoptosis, indicating that TFAE induced autophagy functions as a cytoprotective process against apoptosis. In vivo , 150 mg/kg TFAE inhibited the BxPC3 tumor growth in immune deficient mice with the inhibitory rate of 66.87% and induced both apoptosis and autophagy. Conclusion TFAE have anti-tumor activity against pancreatic cancer and can induce apoptosis and autophagy through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway. TFAE might be a potential anticancer drug to be further developed for human pancreatic cancer therapy. Graphical abstract fx1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer, characterized by its poor prognosis, exhibits a marked resistance to conventional chemotherapy and immunotherapy, underscoring the urgent need for more effective treatment modalities. In light of this, the present study is designed to assess the potential antineoplastic efficacy of a combined regimen involving tetrandrine, a plant-derived alkaloid, and autophagy inhibitors in the context of pancreatic cancer. Electron microscopy and immunoblots showed that tetrandrine promoted the formation of autophagosomes and the upregulation of LC3II and the downregulation of p62 expression, indicating that tetrandrine induced autophagy in pancreatic cancer cells. Western blot revealed that tetrandrine inhibited the phosphorylation of AKT and mTOR, as well as the expression of Bcl-2, while upregulating Beclin-1 expression. Moreover, tetrandrine promoted the transcription and protein expression of ATG7. Following the combination of autophagy inhibitors and tetrandrine, the apoptotic rate and cell death significantly increased in pancreatic cancer cells. Consistent results were obtained when ATG7 was silenced. Additionally, tetrandrine induced the generation of ROS, which was involved in the activation of autophagy and apoptosis. Further investigation revealed that upon autophagy inhibition, ROS accumulated in pancreatic cancer cells, resulting in decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and further induction of apoptosis. The results of treating subcutaneous xenograft tumors with a combination of tetrandrine and chloroquine validated that autophagy inhibition enhances the toxicity of tetrandrine against pancreatic cancer in vivo. Altogether, our study demonstrates that tetrandrine induces cytoprotective autophagy in pancreatic cancer cells. Inhibiting tetrandrine-induced autophagy promotes the accumulation of ROS and enhances its toxicity against pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate aminotransferase (GFAT) catalyzes the formation of glucosamine-6-phosphate, and its gene is one of the genes essential for microbes. Using the GFAT-encoding gene can prevent the use of a drug-resistant gene as a selection marker in a bacterial system. Another unique property of the GFAT selection marker is that no particular compound is prohibited or required for creating a selective stress for a yeast. Filamentous fungi are major producers of industrial enzymes. However, there has been no report on the construction and application of the GFAT gene as a selection marker in filamentous fungi. To develop a new selection marker, the GFAT-encoding gene gfaA was deleted from the genome of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, and the gfat gene of the straw mushroom Volvariella volvacea was used as the selection marker to mediate the transformation and overexpression of a thermostable bacterial laccase in A. nidulans. The GFAT-deficient strain A. nidulans ∆gfaA was not able to grow in the culture medium containing 0.5% yeast extract unless about 20 mM glucosamine was used to supplement to the medium. The gfat gene was amplified and inserted into the integration vector pAL5 and autonomous replication vector Prg3-AMA1-NotI for A. nidulans to generate the gfat vectors pALG and pAMAG, respectively. Using these gfat vectors, the laccase gene lcs from a hyperthermophilic bacterium was overexpressed intra- and extracellularly in A. nidulans ∆gfaA. Therefore, recombinant filamentous fungi can be constructed with gfat vectors, which can be maintained stably in host cells with the naturally occurred selective stress of a medium, forage, pulp, animal gut, wastewater, or soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stable continuous micro-feeding of fine cohesive powders has recently gained importance in many fields. However, it remains a great challenge in practice because of the powder aggregate caused by interparticle cohesive forces in small capillaries. This paper describes a novel method of feeding fine cohesive powder actuated by a pulse inertia force and acoustic radiation force simultaneously in an ultrasonic standing wave field using a tapered glass nozzle. Nozzles with different outlet diameters are fabricated using glass via a heating process. A pulse inertia force is excited to drive powder movement to the outlet section of the nozzle in a consolidated columnar rod mode. An acoustic radiation force is generated to suspend the particles and make the rod break into large quantities of small agglomerates which impact each other randomly. So the aggregation phenomenon in the fluidization of cohesive powders can be eliminated. The suspended powder is discharged continuously from the nozzle orifice owing to the self-gravities and collisions between the inner particles. The micro-feeding rates can be controlled accurately and the minimum values for RespitoseSV003 and Granulac230 are 0.4 mg/s and 0.5 mg/s respectively. The relative standard deviations of all data points are below 0.12, which is considerably smaller than those of existing vibration feeders with small capillaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cranial vasculature is crucial for the survival and development of the central nervous system and is closely related to brain pathologies. Characterizations of the underlying mechanisms by which cranial vessels acquire their stereotypic patterning remain to be the key interest in the cerebrovascular research. In this report, we show an interesting zebrafish cq37 mutant displaying aberrant patterning of the central arteries. Genetic mapping results indicate that the gene responsible for cq37 encodes G1 to S phase transition 1, like (Gspt1l) with a nonsense mutation. Complementation studies with a CRISPR-generated allele, as well as mRNA rescues, together strongly demonstrate that gspt1l is the cq37 gene. Zebrafish gspt1l is broadly expressed in the brain with enhanced expression in hindbrain during central artery sprouting. Further studies reveal that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling and unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway are activated in gspt1l cq37 mutants. In addition, expression analysis shows that vegfa and activating transcription factor-4 ( atf4 ) are strongly upregulated in regions of gspt1l expression. Our results suggest that loss of Gspt1l activates the UPR pathway, which in turn induces ectopic expression of vegfa via Atf4, thus disturbing the patterning of the central arteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation is solved based on Jacobi elliptic function and other auxiliary equation methods Two new families of exact analytical solutions are reached, i.e., hybrid Jacobi elliptic function solutions and single special function solutions. Some solutions are degenerated to new solitary solutions and new triangular functions solutions in the limit case. A new solitary wave solution family like a single soliton pulse embedded on a pronounced platform is also obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal that is absorbed from the soil through roots and transmitted through the food chain, posing a serious threat to human health and food security. Exogenous NaCl can reduce the uptake of Cd by plants, but the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear. In this study, we elucidated the molecular mechanism by which exogenous NaCl inhibited Cd absorption in wheat seedlings. Notably, 50 mM NaCl altered the wheat physiological response and reduce the Cd uptake by plants. Overexpression of the NaCl–responsive gene TaNHX2 increased the levels of chlorophyll and proline, enhanced antioxidant enzyme (CAT, POD, and SOD) activity, decreased the MDA content, and improved tolerance to Cd stress in transgenic wheat plants. We further found that TaWRKY13 binds directly to the TaNHX2 promoter to regulate its transcription. Subsequent research found that TaWRKY13 can also bind to the promoter of the heavy metal transporter gene TaHMA2 to activate its expression. TaNHX2 overexpression obviously downregulated the expression of TaHMA2 in the presence of both NaCl and Cd. In vivo and in vitro assays revealed that NaCl inhibited the binding of TaWRKY13 to the TaHMA2 promoter. This work reveals that NaCl and Cd antagonize uptake at the molecular level and provides new insights for future reductions in Cd accumulation in wheat. [Display omitted] • Exogenous NaCl can reduce the uptake of Cd by wheat plants. • Overexpression of TaNHX2 improved tolerance to Cd stress in wheat. • TaWRKY13 binds the promoters of TaNHX2 and TaHMA2. • NaCl promoted the binding of TaWRKY13 to the TaNHX2 promoter. • NaCl inhibited the binding of TaWRKY13 to the TaHMA2 promoter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel context-driven approach to image-based crack detection for automated inspection of aircraft surface and subsurface defects. In contrast to existing image-based crack detection methods, which rely mostly on low-level image processing and data-driven methods, our method explicitly incorporates multiple high-level context into low-level processing. We present two classes of context: geometric/structural context and physical context. We formulate mathematically a sparse decomposition problem to incorporate the context and apply robust principal component analysis to decompose typical repetitive rivet regions into a normal component and a sparse component. Cracks are detected in the sparse component. By applying the proposed context-driven approach to coated and uncoated test specimens, we achieve significant reduction in false detections compared to the approach without exploiting context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A one-dimensional linear waveguide array with a parity-time()-symmetric defect, which is represented by a pair of waveguides carrying equal amount of nonlinear gain and loss, is considered. Compared to the system with linear -symmetric defect, a different instability of solitons is exhibited in this model, in which the unstable fundamental discrete solitons suffer either decay or blowup. The effect of nonlinear -symmetry on the stability of fundamental solitons is investigated numerically by obtaining the stability region of the solitons. The region has a finite threshold of total power as the coupling within the defect is less than the counterpart of other linear waveguides, while the threshold is absent as the coupling within the defect is larger than the one between other linear waveguides. The stability region is intensely enlarged by the increase of the coupling strength within the defect, and descends exponentially with the increase of the total power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The canonical functions of Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs) are indispensable for protein synthesis. However, recent evidence indicates that some AARSs possess additional biological functions (noncanonical functions) related to immune responses and vascular development. Here, we identified a zebrafish cq16 mutant presenting the disorganized vessels with abnormal branching of the established intersegmental vessels (ISVs) as well as aberrant patterning of the brain vascular network after 50 h post fertilization. The cq16 mutant gene is responsible for encoding threonyl-tRNA synthetase ( tars ) with a missense mutation. The abnormal branching of ISVs was caused by the increased expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A ( vegfa ) in tars cq16 mutant. Inhibition of Vegf signaling suppresses the abnormal vascular branching observed in tars cq16 mutant. Furthermore, injection of human TARS mRNA potently reduced the vascular aberrant branching in tars cq16 mutant, indicating a conserved function of tars in regulating angiogenesis between zebrafish and human. Therefore, we conclude that noncanonical function of tars regulates vascular development presumably by modulating the expression of vegfa . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new image reconstruction method for Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT). ECT image reconstruction is generally ill-posed because the number of measurements is small whereas the image dimensions are large. Here, we present a sparsity-inspired approach to achieve better ECT image reconstruction from the small number of measurements. Our approach for ECT image reconstruction is based on Total Variation (TV) regularization. We apply an efficient Split-Bregman Iteration (SBI) approach to solve the problem. We also propose three metrics to evaluate image reconstruction performance, i.e., a joint metric of positive reconstruction rate (PRR) and false reconstruction rate (FRR), correlation coefficient, and a shape and location metric. The results on both synthetic and real data show that the proposed TV-SBI method can better preserve the edges of images and better resolve different objects within reconstructed images, as compared to a representative state-of-the-art ECT image reconstruction algorithm, Projected Landweber Iteration with Linear Back Projection initialization (LBP-PLI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugar will eventually be exported transporter (SWEET) protein involved in various developmental and stress responses in plants. Here, we report the mechanisms and transcriptional regulatory pathway of the wheat TaSWEET14 in response to cadmium stress. Overexpression of TaSWEET14 improves cadmium stress tolerance and decreases cadmium accumulation in wheat grains. The overexpression of TaSWEET14 in wheat seedlings altered the expression pattern of the ion transporter genes NRAMP5 , LCT1 , HMA3 , and IRT1. These genes were remarkably down-regulated in shoot tissues of TaSWEET14 transgenic wheat lines under cadmium stress. However, there was no significant difference in their expression levels in roots between the wild type (WT) and transgenic plants. In addition, the transgenic plants had a strong ability to remove reactive oxygen species and showed increased activity of antioxidant enzymes. Notably, the transgenic lines had significantly lower cellulose content but higher lignin content than the WT under cadmium stress. The cell wall cadmium content was also significantly higher in the transgenic lines. Lastly, we revealed that TaMYB41 binds directly to the promoter of TaSWEET14 to activate its transcription. This study describes a novel cadmium-responsive regulatory pathway in wheat and demonstrates that TaSWEET14 directly controls wheat cadmium accumulation by altering lignin content. • Overexpression of wheat (Triticum aestivum) SWEET14 (TaSWEET14) significantly improves resistance to cadmium. • Overexpression of TaSWEET14 in wheat resulted in a change of the contents of lignin and cellulose. • Transcription factor TaMYB41 regulates TaSWEET14 gene transcription. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A resonator with a right-angle conical reflector has been proposed to produce high-power CO 2 laser beams. To analyze eigenfields of the right-angle conical reflector resonator, this paper adopts and demonstrates the transfer matrix method. In this paper, the mode-fields and corresponding losses are described as eigenvectors and eigenvalues of a transfer matrix according to the self-reproducing principle of laser field. By solving the transfer matrix for eigenvectors and eigenvalues, we obtain field distributions and losses of the dominant eigenmodes. The calculation results reveal that the right-angle conical reflector resonator could be used for a high-power CO 2 laser to achieve low-order modes. However, the beam quality is reduced due to the residual blind-hole, which is in accord with the experimental result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe shares various important properties with higher eukaryotes and is now considered a useful host for elevated production of mammalian proteins for medicinal applications. The full-length nmt1 promoter has been widely used as a strong promoter in S. pombe expression system. In the present study, the promoters of the eno101 and gpd3 genes in S. pombe were identified as strong constitutive promoters. For convenient applications in the plasmids of S. pombe, these promoters were refined to 276-bp eno and 273-bp gpd promoters by deleting undesired sequences and examining the expression of reporter genes including lacZ and xynA. Both the refined eno and gpd promoters provided approximately 1.5-fold higher expression of LacZ than nmt1 promoter. Furthermore, gene expression under the control of the eno or gpd promoter was not repressed by the components of YES medium while nmt1 promoter was inhibited by thiamine in yeast extract. Therefore, both eno and gpd promoters offer opportunities for efficient production of recombinant proteins by S. pombe in high cell-density fermentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A Bessel-Gauss resonator (BGR) was proposed to produce the Bessel Gauss beams. In this paper transverse profiles and their corresponding losses of the BGR are computed by use of the entire matrix formalism and the transfer matrix method, and the computation results from two algorithms are compared. The computation results show that for the BGR there is no inconsistence in the mode fields yielded by two methods, and the transfer matrix methods are more accurate in the mode losses than the entire matrix formalism, which lead to a believable conclusion that the BGR with a convex-spherical mirror easily produces the fundamental Bessel-Gauss mode of good quality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A theory is presented to investigate the existence and the properties of circularly polarized spatial solitons supported by multi-photon isomerization(MPI). It is found that circularly polarized dark or gray solitons can be formed spontaneous in bulk polymers with MPI nonlinearity. The soliton FWHM, intensity and phase profiles are discussed. By employing the stability criterion and direct numerical simulations, the stability properties of these circularly polarized MPI solitons are investigated. It is found that all these solitons are stable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic, nonessential heavy metal; its accumulation in plants alters metabolism and limits productivity. Although various studies have addressed the Cd stress response in various species, the detailed molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Therefore, the present work investigated the influence of the TaMYC8 transcription factor (TF) on the Cd-induced stress response in wheat. The present study found that TaMYC8 is a nuclear protein highly induced in the roots under Cd stress. Overexpression of TaMYC8 in the wheat cultivar 'Bobwhite' increased sensitivity to Cd stress, probably due to the increased levels of superoxide (O 2 .-), malonaldehyde (MDA), jasmonic acid (JA), and Cd, and reduced the proline content and antioxidant enzyme activity. In contrast, silencing TaMYC8 via RNA interference (RNAi) significantly lowered Cd accumulation and improved Cd tolerance. Using the yeast one-hybrid assay (Y1H), chromatin immunoprecipitation-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (ChIP–qPCR), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), and dual luciferase reporter assay, it was found that TaMYC8 could physically bind to the TaERF6 promoter and activate TaERF6 transcription. More importantly, knockdown of TaMYC8 by RNAi inhibited the activities of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic (ACC) acid synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO) of the ethylene biosynthetic pathway. In conclusion, TaMYC8 promotes TaERF6 transcription and affects the ethylene biosynthetic pathway. These findings provide a theoretical basis for breeding low-Cd-accumulating wheat cultivars. • TaMYC8 decreased Cd tolerance of transgenic wheat. • TaMYC8 binds to the promoter of TaERF6 as well as regulating the transcription of TaERF6. • TaMYC8 affects Cd tolerance of wheat by regulating ethylene synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells, the molecular mechanism regulating the tumor metabolic shift is still poorly understood. Deregulation of Jumonji-C domain-containing protein 5 (JMJD5) has been associated with multiple facets of biological processes in cancer cells. However, the role of JMJD5 in pancreatic cancer cells has seldom been discussed and requires further investigation. In the present study, by silencing or overexpressing JMJD5 in pancreatic cancer cells, we examined the impact of JMJD5 on cell proliferation and glucose metabolism. Using a dual luciferase assay, we assessed the effect of JMJD5 on the transcriptional activity of the c-Myc target gene. Analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Gene Expression Omnibus datasets revealed that low JMJD5 expression was associated with poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer. JMJD5 loss promoted pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and induced a cellular metabolic shift from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis. In addition, in vivo experiments confirmed that ectopic JMJD5 expression inhibited cancer cell growth and the expression of glycolytic enzymes, such as lactate dehydrogenase and phosphoglycerate kinase 1. Moreover, JMJD5 negatively regulated c-Myc expression, the main regulator of cancer metabolism, leading to decreased c-Myc-targeted gene expression. Overall, the present study indicated that decreased JMJD5 expression promoted cell proliferation and glycolytic metabolism in pancreatic cancer cells in a c-Myc-dependent manner. • JMJD5 is positively correlated with pancreatic cancer patient survival. • JMJD5 negatively regulates the cell proliferation and glucose metabolism in pancreatic cancer cells. • JMJD5 regulates glucose metabolism in a c-Myc-dependent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We study the dynamics of dissipative spatial solitons by using antisymmetric-type spatially inhomogeneous loss that locally modulates an optical medium described by the complex Ginzburg–Landau model. We reveal soliton dynamics by launching input solitons at different positions of the spatial modulation loss profile, including its zero value and positive value. The soliton transverse drift exhibits tilt straightaway propagation except for the oscillation in initial stage. The tilt angle of the soliton drift can be controlled by the modulation parameters. We also investigate the dependences of the tilt angle of the soliton drift on the amplitude of the inhomogeneous loss and the linear loss coefficient. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We investigate the modulational instability of two incoherently coupled beams in a photovoltaic photorefractive crystal with a uniform background illumination. Our results show, as a precursor to soliton formation, the strength of modulational instability can be adjusted and controlled by the intensity ratio of two signal beams. Especially, the characteristics of modulational instability are totally distinct for different ratios of Glass coefficients of the signal to background beams. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Adverse weather conditions such as snow, fog or heavy rain greatly reduce the visual quality of outdoor surveillance videos. Video quality enhancement can improve the visual quality of surveillance videos providing clearer images with more details to better meet human perception needs and also improve video analytics performance. Existing work in this area mainly focuses on the quality enhancement for high-resolution videos or still images, but few algorithms are developed for enhancing surveillance videos, which normally have low resolution, high noises and compression artifacts. In addition, for snow or rain conditions, the image quality of near-field view is degraded by the obscuration of apparent snowflakes or raindrops, while the quality of far-field view is degraded by the obscuration of fog-like snowflakes or raindrops. Very few video quality enhancement algorithms have been developed to handle both problems. In this paper, we propose a novel video quality enhancement algorithm for see-through snow, fog or heavy rain. Our algorithm not only improves human visual perception experiences for video surveillance, but also reveal more video contents for better video content analyses. The proposed algorithm handles both near-field and far-field snow/rain effects by proposed a two-step approach: (1) the near-field enhancement algorithm identifies obscuration pixels by snow or rain in the near-field view and removes these pixels as snowflakes or raindrops; different from state-of-the-art methods, our proposed algorithm in this step can detect snowflakes on foreground objects or background, and apply different methods to fill in the removed regions. (2) The far-field enhancement algorithm restores the image's contrast information not only to reveal more details in the far-field view, but also to enhance the overall image's quality; in this step, the proposed algorithm adaptively enhances the global and local contrast, which is inspired on the human visual system, and accounts for the perceptual sensitivity to noises, compression artifacts, and the texture of image content. From our extensive testing, the proposed approach significantly improves the visual quality of surveillance videos by removing snow/fog/rain effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We investigate the formation of high-order polarization vortex spatial solitons. The high-order polarization vortex solitons have novel polarization states which are different from fundamental polarization vortex solitons and have rotational symmetry only in intensity. It is proved that the polarization vortex solitons cannot carry vortex phase. The existence domain and dynamical characteristic of these high-order polarization vortex solitons in Bessel optical lattices are discussed in detail. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A MLMBR and a conventional IMBR with DO control system were investigated for simultaneously removing organic carbon and nitrogen in the low-strengthen complex wastewater. Four stages of the laboratory scale system with SRT of 30day and HRTs of 20, 16, 12, and 8h, respectively, were conducted. During the 4months experimental period, COD removal efficiencies averaged at 92.2% and 85.3%, SS removal efficiencies averaged at 93.8% and 85.2%, and NH4 +–N removal efficiencies averaged at 84.1% and 65.3%, respectively, for MLMBR and IMBR. What’s more, the sludge characteristics were explored explicitly, results demonstrate that MLMBR not only perform better in substrates removal, also can alleviate the membrane fouling due to better sludge characteristics. In addition, mathematical statistical models, built on the linear regression techniques were developed for explore the inner relationship between HRTs and the performance of the MLMBR. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A full-scale novel combined anaerobic/micro-aerobic and two-stage aerobic biological process is used for the treatment of an actual chemical synthesis-based pharmaceutical wastewater containing amoxicillin. The anaerobic system is an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB), the micro-aerobic system is a novel micro-aerobic hydrolysis acidification reactor (NHAR) and the two-stage aerobic process comprised cyclic activated sludge system (CASS) and biological contact oxidation tank (BCOT). The influent wastewater was high in COD, NH3-N varying daily 4016–13,093mg-CODL−1 and 156.4–650.2mg-NH3-NL−1, amoxicillin varying weekly between 69.1 and 105.4mg-amoxicillinL−1, respectively; Almost all the COD, NH3-N, amoxicillin were removed by the biological combined system, with removal percentages 97%, 93.4% and 97.2%, respectively, leaving around 104mg-CODL−1, 9.4mg-NH3-NL−1 and 2.6±0.8mg-amoxicillinL−1 in the final clarifier effluent. The performance evaluation of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) by mathematical statistic methods shown that at most of time effluent can meet the higher treatment discharge standard. In addition, the fate of amoxicillin in the full-scale WWTP and the amoxicillin removal rate of each different removal routes in UASB, NHAR, CASS, BCOT and final clarifier processes are investigated in this paper. The results show that biodegradation, adsorption and hydrolysis are the major mechanisms for amoxicillin removal. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The propagation behavior of an optical pulse is investigated at the interface of two different nonlinear bi-dispersive waveguide arrays. It is found that the peak power has a great impact on the propagation of the pulse. When the peak power is high enough, the major part of the initial pulse can be guided and confined in the interface of this waveguide array. Because of the interplay between asymmetry discrete diffraction, dispersion and Kerr nonlinearity of hetero-structure waveguide array, the output pulse develops a rectangular-like intensity profile with richer bandwidth, and its power spectrum in the frequency domain is rather uniform, i.e., less modulated. Therefore, the output pulse from the hetero-structure waveguide array can be compressed more efficiently than that of a homogeneous element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A full-scale test was conducted with an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) pre-treating pharmaceutical wastewater containing 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) and amoxicillin. The aim of the study is to investigate the performance of UASB in the condition of a high chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading rate from 12.57 to 21.02kgm−3 d−1 and a wide pH from 5.57 to 8.26, in order to provide a reference for treating the similar chemical synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater containing 6-APA and amoxicillin. The results demonstrated that the UASB average percentage reduction in COD, 6-APA and amoxicillin were 52.2%, 26.3% and 21.6%, respectively. In addition, three models, built on the back propagation neural network (BPNN) theory and linear regression techniques were developed for the simulation of the UASB system performance in the biodegradation of pharmaceutical wastewater containing 6-APA and amoxicillin. The average error of COD, 6-APA and amoxicillin were −0.63%, 2.19% and 5.40%, respectively. The results indicated that these models built on the BPNN theory were well-fitted to the detected data, and were able to simulate and predict the removal of COD, 6-APA and amoxicillin by UASB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• TmNAS3 from Triticum monococum encoded a nicotianamine synthase gene. • TmNAS3 increases Fe content of wheat grain. • TmNAS3 was directly regulated by TmbHLH47. Biofortification is an effective way to enhance wheat grain Fe content. However, Fe overload inhibits the growth and development of wheat. In this work, the impact of Triticum monococcum nicotianamine synthase 3 (TmNAS3) on Fe accumulation in wheat grain was analyzed. Transgenic wheat expressing TmNAS3 was obtained via Agrobacterium -mediated transformation. The concentrations of Fe in the grains of two transgenic wheat lines were 62.42 μg/g and 68.75 μg/g, while that in the non-transgenic line (NT) was only 29.51 μg/g. Exogenous Fe application induced the expression of natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 3 (NRAMP3), NRAMP6 , yellow stripe - like protein 3 (YSL3), YSL6 , and vacuolar iron transporter 2 in transgenic wheat. The transcription factor that bound to the TmNAS3 promoter was identified, and the findings suggested that TmbHLH47 directly interacted and promoted the transcription of TmNAS3. Moreover, TmbHLH47 was observed to bind directly to the G-box in TmNAS3 promoter and regulated the transcriptional level of TmNAS3. Our findings contribute a TmbHLH47 / TmNAS3 transcriptional pathway and thereby provide a potential strategy for improving the Fe concentration of wheat through genetic engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel unsupervised learning method for human action categories. A video sequence is represented as a collection of spatial-temporal words by extracting space-time interest points. The algorithm automatically learns the probability distributions of the spatial-temporal words and the intermediate topics corresponding to human action categories. This is achieved by using latent topic models such as the probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (pLSA) model and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Our approach can handle noisy feature points arisen from dynamic background and moving cameras due to the application of the probabilistic models. Given a novel video sequence, the algorithm can categorize and localize the human action(s) contained in the video. We test our algorithm on three challenging datasets: the KTH human motion dataset, the Weizmann human action dataset, and a recent dataset of figure skating actions. Our results reflect the promise of such a simple approach. In addition, our algorithm can recognize and localize multiple actions in long and complex video sequences containing multiple motions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A simple scheme is presented to steer the propagation of a spatial photovoltaic soliton in a photovoltaic crystal. The basic idea is to impose a sinusoidal phase modulation on the light beam before entering the crystal. It is found that the self-deflection, soliton-like propagation, annihilation and splitting of this spatial-phase-modulated (SPM) beam can be realized by choosing appropriate modulation parameters; besides, a SPM beam can produce a waveguide with strong stability to steer a non-phase-modulated beam. These unique properties would have potential applications in the optical switch, splitter, modulator, and waveguide, etc. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dimensionality reduction has recently been extensively studied for computer vision applications. We present a novel multilinear algebra based approach to reduced dimensionality representation of multidimensional data, such as image ensembles, video sequences and volume data. Before reducing the dimensionality we do not convert it into a vector as is done by traditional dimensionality reduction techniques like PCA. Our approach works directly on the multidimensional form of the data (matrix in 2D and tensor in higher dimensions) to yield what we call a Datum-as-Is representation. This helps exploit spatio-temporal redundancies with less information loss than image-as-vector methods. An efficient rank-R tensor approximation algorithm is presented to approximate higher-order tensors. We show that rank-R tensor approximation using Datum-as-Is representation generalizes many existing approaches that use image-as-matrix representation, such as generalized low rank approximation of matrices (GLRAM) (Ye, Y. in Mach. Learn. 61:167–191, ), rank-one decomposition of matrices (RODM) (Shashua, A., Levin, A. in CVPR’01: Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE computer society conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, p. 42, ) and rank-one decomposition of tensors (RODT) (Wang, H., Ahuja, N. in ICPR ’04: ICPR ’04: Proceedings of the 17th international conference on pattern recognition (ICPR’04), vol. 1, pp. 44–47, ). Our approach yields the most compact data representation among all known image-as-matrix methods. In addition, we propose another rank-R tensor approximation algorithm based on slice projection of third-order tensors, which needs fewer iterations for convergence for the important special case of 2D image ensembles, e.g., video. We evaluated the performance of our approach vs. other approaches on a number of datasets with the following two main results. First, for a fixed compression ratio, the proposed algorithm yields the best representation of image ensembles visually as well as in the least squares sense. Second, proposed representation gives the best performance for object classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A theory is presented to show that gray and dark solitons can exist in bulk polymers with two-photon isomerization (TPI) nonlinearity. The soliton FWHM, intensity and phase profiles are discussed in detail. In addition, the stability properties of these TPI solitons are also investigated by employing the stability criterion based on the renormalized momentum. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]