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Firmness is an important fruit quality trait in northern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). Many researchers, growers, and packers rely on machines for measuring firmness right after harvest and during postharvest cold storage of fresh fruit. In this study, we compared two machines that use compression firmness measurements to determine a force-deformation value. The first firmness-testing machine has been in use for the past 30 years by blueberry (Vaccinium) researchers and packers worldwide. The second has been on the market for the past 5 years. We compared fruit firmness and size measurements for several commercial cultivars and breeding accessions of northern highbush blueberry by both machines at harvest and 2 weeks postharvest. In general, we found there were slight differences in fruit firmness and size measurements between the two machines, but these measurements were generally consistent across the machines. Our study suggests that, in general, one machine can predict the measurements taken on the other machine.

Unlike studies of Asian, Hispanic, Indian, and white panethnicity, systematic research on black panethnicity is lacking. To fill this lacuna, this study examines the origins of black panethnicity in colonial America and follows its evolution through U.S. historical periods. Comparative-historical methods are used to assess the creation and development of black panethnicity and to compare it with other types of panethnicity. The analysis focuses on two periods of black panethnicity. In the first stage, black panethnicity emerged from the racialization of black Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the black slavery era. The second stage revealed how black panethnicity evolved during the historical periods of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights. The similarities and differences between black panethnicity and panethnicities of other groups are also discussed.

As a basic flow model for engineering applications, wall-bounded turbulent flow has been widely studied in the field of aero-optics, but the flow control methods that could effectively suppress aero-optical effects are relatively rare. As an urgent requirement in engineering application, the concept of the steady wall blowing and suction is proposed by the author. Firstly, the author briefly described the flow model and physical method. Secondly, the choice of disturbance type is given. Then, the results of wall blowing-suction, suction and blowing ways based on steady and unsteady disturbance are compared. Finally, it is concluded that employing the high steady wall blowing disturbance (A = 0.2) could realise aero-optical suppression by around 20%. Besides, the steady wall suction scheme contributes to about 70%–80% reduction effect within a wide amplitude range (A = 0.2–1.0), which suppresses this effect by maintaining laminar state downstream contrasted by the baseline case.

To investigate the diagnostic value of quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of aluminium (Al) workers.The basic data of 53 workers in an Al factory were collected and divided into the MCI group and normal control (NC) group by Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. All participants were tested for plasma Al concentration and had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The QSM values of many areas of the brain were delineated and measured. Independent two-sample t-tests or non-parametric tests were used to compare the parameter values between the two groups. Spearman's correlation analysis was performed between QSM values, MoCA scores, and plasma Al concentration. The receiver operating characteristic curve and z test were performed to assess diagnostic efficacy and the best parameter.There was no difference in age and educational level. Plasma Al concentration of the MCI group was higher than that of NC group (p=0.057). QSM values of the left hippocampus, left dentate nucleus, right substantia nigra, and left putamen in MCI group were higher than that of NC group (p0.05), and the left hippocampus had the best diagnostic efficacy. QSM values correlated negatively with MoCA scores. No correlation was found between QSM values and plasma Al concentration (p0.05).QSM might be a neuroimaging marker for the diagnosis of MCI. The left hippocampus showed the best diagnostic efficacy. Plasma Al concentration of the MCI group was higher than that of the NC group. A correlation between QSM and plasma Al concentration was not found.

Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) reduce mortality in patients with end-stage heart failure, but LVAD management is frequently complicated by bleeding. Bleeding prediction post-LVAD implantation is challenging as prediction rules for hemorrhage have not been rigorously studied in this population. We aimed to validate clinical prediction rules for bleeding, derived in the atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism populations, in an LVAD cohort. This was a retrospective cohort study of LVAD recipients at an academic center. The primary end-point was time to gastrointestinal bleed or intracranial hemorrhage after implant; the secondary end-point was time to any major hemorrhage after hospital discharge. Four hundred and eighteen patients received an LVAD (135 HeartMate II, 125 HeartMate 3, 158 HVAD) between November 2009 and January 2019. The primary end-point occurred in 169 (40.4%) patients with C-statistics ranging 0.55-0.58 (standard deviation [SD] 0.02 for all models). The secondary end-point occurred in 167 (40.0%) patients with C-statistics ranging 0.53-0.58 (SD 0.02 for all models). Modifying the age and liver function thresholds increased the C-statistic range to 0.56-0.60 for the primary and secondary end-points. In a sensitivity analysis of HeartMate 3 patients, prediction rules performed similarly. Existing prediction rules for major bleeding had mediocre discrimination in an LVAD cohort.

Based on erosion coupon tests, a sand erosion model for 17-4PH steel was developed. The developed erosion model was validated against the results of compressor erosion tests from a generic rig and from other researchers. A high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the test rig was built, a user-defined function was developed to implement the erosion model into the ANSYS CFD software, and the turbulent, two-phase flow-field in multiple reference frames was solved. The simulation results are consistent with the test results from the compressor rig and with experimental findings from other researchers. Specifically, the sand erosion blunts the leading edge, sharpens the trailing edge and increases pressure-surface roughness. The comparisons between the experimental observations and numerical results as well as a quantitative comparison with three other sand erosion models indicate that the developed sand erosion model is adequate for erosion prediction of engine components made of 17-4PH steel.

Aspergillus flavus causes huge crop losses, reduces crop quality and has adverse effects on human and animal health. A large amount of food contaminated with aflatoxin can greatly increase the risk of liver cancer. Therefore, prevention and control of aflatoxin production have aroused attention of research in various countries. Natamycin extracted from Streptomyces spp. has been widely used in production practice due to its good specificity and safety. Here, we found that natamycin could significantly inhibit fungal growth, conidia germination, ergosterol and AFB1 production by A. flavus in a dose-dependent manner. Scanning electron microscope analysis indicated that the number of conidia was decreased, the outer wall of conidia was destroyed, and the mycelia were shrivelled and tangled by natamycin. RNA-Seq data indicated that natamycin inhibited fungal growth and conidia development of A. flavus by significantly down-regulating some genes involved in ergosterol biosynthesis, such as Erg13, HMG1 and HMG2. It inhibited conidia germination by significantly down-regulating some genes related to conidia development, such as FluG and VosA. After natamycin exposure, the decreased ratio of aflS/aflR caused by the down-regulation of all the structural genes, which subsequently resulted in the suppression of AFB1 production. In conclusion, this study served to reveal the inhibitory mechanisms of natamycin on fungal growth and AFB1 biosynthesis in A. flavus and to provide solid evidence for its application in controlling AFB1 contamination.

Background:Right heart failure (RHF) is associated with worse clinical outcomes. In addition to hemodynamic perturbations, the syndrome of RHF involves liver congestion and dysfunction. The mechanisms that underlie heart-liver interactions are poorly understood and may involve secreted factors. As a first step to understand the cardiohepatic axis, we sought to elucidate the circulating inflammatory milieu in patients with RHF.Methods:Blood samples were collected from the IVC and hepatic veins during right heart catheterization from 3 groups of patients: 1) controls with normal cardiac function, 2) patients with heart failure (HF) who did not meet all criteria of RHF, and 3) patients who met prespecified criteria for RHF defined by hemodynamic and echocardiographic parameters. We performed multiplex protein assay to survey levels of several circulating markers and analyzed their association with mortality and need for left ventricular assist device or heart transplant. Finally, we leveraged publicly available single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) data and performed tissue imaging to evaluate expression of these factors in the liver.Results:In this study of 43 patients, RHF was associated with elevated levels of a subset of cytokines/chemokines/growth factors compared to controls. In particular, soluble CD163 (sCD163) and CXCL12 were higher in RHF and predicted survival in an independent validation cohort. Furthermore, scRNAseq and immunohistochemistry of human liver biopsies suggest that these factors are expressed by Kupffer cells and may be liver derived.Conclusions:RHF is associated with a distinct circulating inflammatory profile. sCD163 and CXCL12 are novel biomarkers that can prognosticate patient outcomes. Future studies to define how these molecules influence HF phenotypes and disease progression may lead to new approaches to management of patients with RHF.

Light sheet microscopes enable rapid, high-resolution imaging of biological specimens; however, biological processes span a variety of spatiotemporal scales. Moreover, long-term phenotypes are often instigated by rare or fleeting biological events that are difficult to capture with a single imaging modality and constant imaging parameters. To overcome this limitation, we present smartLLSM, a microscope that incorporates AI-based instrument control to autonomously switch between epifluorescent inverted imaging and lattice light sheet microscopy. We apply this technology to two major scenarios. First, we demonstrate that the instrument provides population-level statistics of cell cycle states across thousands of cells on a coverslip. Second, we show that by using real-time image feedback to switch between imaging modes, the instrument autonomously captures multicolor 3D datasets or 4D time-lapse movies of dividing cells at rates that dramatically exceed human capabilities. Quantitative image analysis on high-content + high-throughput datasets reveal kinetochore and chromosome dynamics in dividing cells and determine the effects of drug perturbation on cells in specific mitotic stages. This new methodology enables efficient detection of rare events within a heterogeneous cell population and records these processes with high spatiotemporal 4D imaging over statistically significant replicates.

One critical issue in steady-state and high-performance operation in future tokamak fusion reactors is to develop H-mode operational regimes that mitigate or eliminate the large-amplitude ELMs to decrease the transient heat flux on the divertor and first wall. This paper reviews recent advances in extending and understanding the access and sustainment of natural and impurity-induced small/no-ELM H-mode regimes in EAST. Highly reproducible stationary grassy ELM regime with good energy confinement and excellent tungsten impurity exhaust capability has been obtained in EAST with water-cooled metal wall, compatible with low rotation, high normalized density, high bootstrap current fraction, radiative divertor and fully non-inductive operations, which are the conditions required for future fusion reactor-level plasmas. Grassy-like small-ELM H-mode regime has been achieved in helium (He) plasma experiments, which will be conducted during the pre-fusion power operation phase in ITER. The exploration for type-II ELM regime in EAST is also briefly introduced. Three spontaneous no-ELM H-mode regimes frequently observed in EAST are introduced, including an enhanced-recycling no-ELM regime, a non-inductive low-recycling no-ELM regime and a transient spontaneous no-ELM regime at relatively low pedestal collisionality ($${v}_{e}^{*} v e ∗ < 1 ). These no-ELM regimes show different characteristic signatures of pedestal fluctuation and profiles, and the physical mechanisms behind have been studied. In addition, small/no-ELM regimes with impurity seeding have also been achieved in EAST. The ELM behavior changing from mixed small and large ELMs to pure grassy ELMs has been observed with neon (Ne) seeding. A highly reproducible no-ELM H-mode regime with radiative divertor has been demonstrated through CD4 seeding in EAST. These results are believed to be helpful for the application of small/no-ELM H-mode regimes to future tokamak fusion reactors.

A global crisis generated by human-made climate change has added urgency to the need to fully understand human pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) that may help slow down the crisis. Factors influencing personal and public PEBs may or may not be the same. Only a few studies have empirically investigated the determinants of personal and public PEBs simultaneously, but they contain major limitations with mixed results. This study develops a conceptual model for explaining both personal and public PEBs that incorporate demographic, socioeconomic, political, and attitudinal variables, and their direct and indirect effects. Using the latest available data from the 2010 General Social Survey and structural equation modeling (SEM), we tested the determinants of both personal and public PEBs in the United States. The results reveal that environmental concerns, education, and political orientation demonstrate similar significant impacts on both personal and public PEBs, but income, gender, race, urban/rural residency, region, and party affiliation have differential effects on these behaviors. Age, cohort, and religion have no significant effect on both types of behaviors. Our results confirm some existing findings; however, they challenge the findings of much of the literature.

Punica granatum 'Tunisia' is widely planted in several areas of Kaiyang County, Guizhou Province, China. Symptoms of leaf spot and fruit rot were observed in April 2020. Infected pomegranate leaves exhibited scattered, oval, yellow-to-brown spots (2-5 mm), and numerous melanized pycnidia were observed in the center of the lesions. All 7-year-old pomegranate trees in a private orchard (Shangyi orchard, E27°09'08", N107°10'58"), exhibited the same symptoms, and 25% of the diseased pomegranate trees had blighted leaves in the late stage. Eighty diseased P. granatum leaves were collected in the orchard. Abundant fruiting bodies were observed on the surface of diseased spots examined using a dissecting microscope. Portions of the symptomatic leaves were surface disinfected with 75% ethanol for 30 s and then in 2% NaClO for 1 min, rinsed three times with sterile distilled water, and transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28°C for 3 weeks. The morphological characteristics of potential pathogens were observed and photographed under a compound light microscope (Zeiss Scope 5) equipped with an AxioCam 208 color camera. Pycnidial conidiomata were erumpent, globose, black, with a central ostiole, and oozed a slimy black conidial mass. Conidiophores were reduced to conidiogenous cells, ampulliform to subcylindrical, hyaline to pale brown, and proliferated percurrently at the apex. Macroconidia were solitary, one-celled, obovoid, truncate at the base, rounded at the apex, dark brown, aseptate, granular, and thick-walled, (11.0-)12.8-18.2(-19.0) × (9.2-)10.0-15.1(-16.0) μm (av: 14.8 × 12.0 μm, n = 30). No meso- or microconidia were observed. In morphology, our fungi were very similar to Dwiroopa punicae K.V. Xavier, A.N. Kc, J.Z. Groenew, ValladCrous (Xavier et al., 2019). Primers ITS4 and ITS5 were used to amplify the ITS, LROR and LR5 were for the LSU (White et al. 1900), and fRPB2-5F and fRPB2-7cR for rpb2 (Liu et al. 1999). Phylogenetic analysis based on these three loci also suggested that our strain was D. punicae, since there were 100% match for ITS and LSU and only two base differences in rpb2 gene between our strain and the D. punicae (CBS 143163). The qualified sequences were submitted to GenBank (ITS: MZ816695, MZ816696, MZ816697; LSU: MZ816692, MZ816693, MZ816694; rpb2: MZ802953). To fulfill Koch's postulates, mycelial plugs (5 mm diameter) were used for an inoculation experiment, only because the fungal isolates failed to produce conidia on PDA, and conidia from diseased tissues were also fewer to make the required spore suspension. A total of 20 attached leaves were used from three pots of pomegranate seedlings in the artificial climate chamber (25°C). Each mycelial plugs cut from 1-week-old PDA cultures were placed on one healthy leaf wrapped with a plastic fresh-keeping film. As control, leaves were inoculated with sterile PDA plugs. After 24h, the plugs were removed. The inoculation experiment was performed three times. Symptoms similar to the original were observed at the 7th day after inoculation on all inoculated plant leaves and necrosis occurred in 30-50% of leaf tissue, but control plants remained healthy. Dwiroopa punicae was successfully re-isolated from the inoculated diseased tissues after morphological and phylogenetic analyses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of D. punicae causing leaf spot disease on pomegranate trees in China. This first report of D. punicae in China provides a basis for the diagnosticians and researchers to identify the disease and formulate disease management strategies.

The intrinsic mechanical and interfacial characteristics of precipitates in Mg–Sn–Y alloys were calculated to predict strengthening precipitates and to design novel Mg alloys. The first-principle calculations results indicated that the Sn3Y5 phase had a higher bulk and shear moduli than the Mg24Y5 and Mg2Sn phases. The Mg/Sn3Y5 interface was more stable and possessed a higher adhesive strength than the Mg/Mg2Sn and Mg/Mg24Y5 interfaces. Four as-cast alloys (S10Y3 (Mg-0.5Sn-0.16Y), S5Y3 (Mg-0.43Sn-0.25Y), S1Y1 (Mg-0.36Sn-0.37Y) and S3Y5 (Mg-0.27Sn-0.48Y) alloy (at.%)) were then designed according to the different Sn to Y atomic ratios (10:3, 5:3, 1:1 and 3:5). The lower Sn to Y atomic ratio promoted the formation of the Sn3Y5 phase in the S3Y5 alloy, whereas the S10Y3 alloy with a higher Sn to Y atomic ratio mainly consisted of the Mg2Sn phase. Compared with the S10Y3 alloy, the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the S3Y5 alloy were increased by 70% and 16% without sacrificing the elongation at room temperature, which was greatly improved by 127% and 104% at elevated temperatures simultaneously. These results suggested that the calculations of intrinsic mechanical and interfacial characteristics of precipitates may provide an effective tool to design high-strength Mg alloys.

Data availability: The authors do not have permission to share data. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Due to more affordable solar and wind power, and the European Union regulations for decarbonisation of the economy, more than 40% of the Fortune 500 companies have targets related to green energy. This is one of the main reasons why multi-technology Power-Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are becoming increasingly important. However, there are risks associated with the uncertainty and variable generation patterns in wind speed and solar radiation. Moreover, there are challenges to predict intermittent wind and solar generation for the forecasting horizon required by PPAs, which is usually of several years. We propose a long-term wind and solar energy generation forecasts suitable for PPAs with cost optimisation in energy generation scenarios. We use Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations with suitable models of wind and solar generation and optimise long-term energy contracts with purchase of renewable energy. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom; Brunel University London. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council DTP of Brunel University London; National Physical Laboratory; Mitie.

The use of health insurance to cover legal abortion is a controversial issue on which Americans are sharply divided. Currently, there is a lack of research on this issue as data became available only recently. Using data from the newly released General Social Survey in 2018, this study examines who is more or less likely to support health insurance coverage for legal abortion. The results show that the support and opposition were about evenly divided. The findings from the logistic regression analysis reveal that, holding other variables constant, Democrats, liberals, urban residents, the more educated, and the older were more likely to support health insurance coverage for legal abortion while women, Southerners, Christians, the currently married, and those with more children were less likely to favor it, compared to their respective counterparts. Additionally, the effect of education was stronger for liberals than for non-liberals. Race, family income, and full-time work status make no difference in the outcome. The findings have significant implications for research and practices in health insurance coverage for legal abortion.

With the expansion of human exploration and activities, increasing people work and live in special natural environments with relatively unique characteristics, which can not only lead to pathophysiological changes and metabolic disorders, but also have a great impact on eyes and intraocular pressure (IOP). This article reviews the effects of the high-altitude hypoxia environment, space microgravity environment, deep water environment, dark environment, cold environment and ambient air pollution on IOP, and discusses the mechanisms of related IOP changes.随着人类探索和活动范围不断扩大，越来越多人群在特殊自然环境中工作和生活。特殊自然环境有其相对独特的环境特点，不仅可导致人机体发生病理生理变化和新陈代谢紊乱，而且可对眼部造成影响，需要关注维持正常视功能。本文总结了高原缺氧、太空微重力、深水、黑暗、寒冷及空气污染等特殊自然环境对眼压的影响，并探讨眼压在这些特殊自然环境下改变的机制，以期为临床诊疗和研究工作提供参考。.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of miR-16-5p in regulating biological behaviors of paclitaxel- resistant breast cancer cells and its molecular mechanism. METHODS: The expression of miR-16-5p was examined in 13 pairs of breast cancer and adjacent tissues and in parental SKBR-3 cells and paclitaxel-resistant SKBR-3/PR cells using qRT-PCR. The target genes of miR-16- 5p were predicted by bioinformatic analysis, and their targeted binding was tested using luciferase assay. The cells were transfected with a miR-16-5p mimics, a miR-16-5p inhibitor, a specific siRNA targeting YWHAQ (si-YWHAQ), or both the miR-16-5p mimics and si-YWHAQ, and the changes in cellular expressions of YWHAQ, Bcl-2 and Bax were detected using Western blot. The changes in proliferation and migration of the cells were evaluated with CCK-8 assay and Transwell assay, and the cell cycle changes and cell apoptosis were analyzed with flow cytometry. RESULTS: The expression of miR-16-5p was significantly lower in breast cancer tissues than in paired adjacent tissues (P < 0.01). Bioinformatic analysis predicted that YWHAQ was the target gene of miR-16-5p, which was confirmed by luciferase assay. Compared with parental SKBR- 3 cells, SKBR- 3/PR cells showed a lowered level of miR-16-5p expression and an increased expression of YWHAQ. Transfection with the miR-16-5p mimics significantly inhibited YWHAQ expression (P < 0.01), while miR-16-5p inhibitor promoted YWHAQ expression in SKBR-3/PR cells (P < 0.01). The miR-16-5p mimics caused cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase (P < 0.0l), suppressed proliferation and migration, and increased apoptosis rate of SKBR-3/PR cells (P < 0.0l). Knocking down YWHAQ also reduced the migration ability of SKBR-3/PR cells and increased cell apoptosis rate. Transfection with either miR-16-5p mimics or si-YWHAQ resulted in increased Bax expression and lowered expressions of YWHAQ and Bcl-2 in the cells. The cells transfected with both miR-16-5p mimics and si-YWHAQ showed obviously suppressed cell migration (P < 0.01) and significantly increased apoptosis rate (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: miR-16-5p can modulate the expressions of Bcl- 2 and Bax by targeted regulation of YWHAQ to modify the biological behaviors of paclitaxel-resistant breast cancer cells.

This article presents a novel decoupling technique for the circularly polarized multiple-inputmultiple- output (CP-MIMO) system composed of Guoshaped patch antennas. A comparative study has been conducted on antenna performance as a function of packing distance before and after applying the technique. A prototype of two-element Guo-shaped patch MIMO at a small inter-element spacing of 12.5 mm has devised aiming for the 5G new radio n38 (2.57-2.62 GHz) applications. Simulation reinforced with experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed technique, whereas the two Guo-shaped patch elements packed in such small spacing can be operated independently. Both the envelope correlation coefficient and diversity gain are approaching their ideal values.

A long-term Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) snow cover extent (SCE) product from 1981 until 2019 over China has been generated by the snow research team in the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The NIEER AVHRR SCE product has a spatial resolution of 5 km and a daily temporal resolution, and it is a completely gap-free product, which is produced through a series of processes such as the quality control, cloud detection, snow discrimination, and gap-filling (GF). A comprehensive validation with reference to ground snow-depth measurements during snow seasons in China revealed the overall accuracy is 87.4 %, the producer's accuracy was 81.0 %, the user's accuracy was 81.3 %, and the Cohen's kappa (CK) value was 0.717. Another validation with reference to higher-resolution snow maps derived from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images demonstrates an overall accuracy of 87.3 %, a producer's accuracy of 86.7 %, a user's accuracy of 95.7 %, and a Cohen's kappa value of 0.695. These accuracies were significantly higher than those of currently existing AVHRR products. For example, compared with the well-known JASMES AVHRR product, the overall accuracy increased approximately 15 %, the omission error dropped from 60.8 % to 19.7 %, the commission error dropped from 31.9 % to 21.3 %, and the CK value increased by more than 114 %. The new AVHRR product is already available at https://doi.org/10.11888/Snow.tpdc.271381 (Hao et al., 2021).

Multi-loop scattering amplitudes/null polygonal Wilson loops in ${\mathcal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills are known to simplify significantly in reduced kinematics, where external legs/edges lie in an $1+1$ dimensional subspace of Minkowski spacetime (or boundary of the $\rm AdS_3$ subspace). Since the edges of a $2n$-gon with even and odd labels go along two different null directions, the kinematics is reduced to two copies of $G(2,n)/T \sim A_{n{-}3}$. In the simplest octagon case, we conjecture that all loop amplitudes and Feynman integrals are given in terms of two overlapping $A_2$ functions (a special case of two-dimensional harmonic polylogarithms): in addition to the letters $v, 1+v, w, 1+w$ of $A_1 \times A_1$, there are two letters $v-w, 1- v w$ mixing the two sectors but they never appear together in the same term; these are the reduced version of four-mass-box algebraic letters. Evidence supporting our conjecture includes all known octagon amplitudes as well as new computations of multi-loop integrals in reduced kinematics. By leveraging this alphabet and conditions on first and last entries, we initiate a bootstrap program in reduced kinematics: within the remarkably simple space of overlapping $A_2$ functions, we easily obtain octagon amplitudes up to two-loop NMHV and three-loop MHV. We also briefly comment on the generalization to $2n$-gons in terms of $A_2$ functions and beyond., 26 pages, several figures and tables, an ancilary file

Cotton is an important fibre-producing crop. Cotton fibres consist of highly elongated trichomes derived from the ovule. To improve the quality of cotton, it is necessary to identify the genes regulating fibre development. GhMYB3 was identified through bioinfomatic analysis and introduced to Arabidopsis and cotton to observe the phenotype. Protein inteaction and promoter bingding assays were conducted to explore the role of GhMYB3 in trichome fibre growth. Cotton fibre development might share a similar regulatory mechanism to Arabidopsis leaf trichomes, which is determined by the essential regulatory complex, MYB-bHLH-WD40. The GL1-like R2R3 MYB transcription factor GhMYB3 interacts with the AtGL3 protein involved in Arabidopsis trichome development. Ectopic expression of GhMYB3 could rescue the glabrous phenotype of the Arabidopsis gl1 mutant and produced more ectopic trichomes on inflorescence stems and floral organs, confirming its orthologous function in plant trichome development. The expression of GhMYB3 increased in response to exogenous gibberellin (GA3 ), auxin (IAA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Overexpression of this gene in cotton leads to a slight increase in fibre length and lint percentage, possibly by activating the transcription of its downstream gene GhRDL1 or other fibre-related genes. The results increase our understanding of the key role of GhMYB3 in positively controlling plant trichome development, and this gene could be a potential target for molecular breeding in cotton.

Compared with cold lateral condensation and continuous wave of condensation which are classically used in clinical, newly emerging single-cone obturation technique is easy-to-operate as well as time-saving. Especially when combined with bioceramic root canal sealers of improved physicochemical and biological properties, single-cone obturation technique showed satisfactory short-term outcomes in clinical observations. However, difficulties still exist in avoiding the root canal overfilling and in operating the retreatment. Besides, the long-term effects of single-cone obturation with bioceramic sealers still remain unclear. This article makes an overview on the history and development of single-cone obturation ,and provides analysis of its pros and corns. Furthermore, we would also like to summarize its clinical application and look into its future improvements.冷侧压充填技术和热牙胶连续波充填技术是临床经典的根管充填方法。单尖法根管充填技术具有操作简便省时的特点，近年来结合具有优良理化和生物学性能的生物陶瓷根管封闭剂，取得了较好的短期临床效果。但目前针对生物陶瓷封闭剂单尖充填后根管超填、根管再治疗困难，以及长期临床疗效不明确等情况尚缺乏合理的规避及解决办法。本文回顾单尖法根管充填的起源与发展，解析其优缺点和临床应用现状，并对该技术的改良及临床应用前景进行展望。.