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Plant metal tolerance proteins (MTPs) play major roles in enhancing resistance to heavy metal tolerance and homeostasis. However, the role of MTPs genes in tomato, which is one of the most popular crops, is still largely limited. Hence, we investigated genome-wide study of tomato MTPs , including phylogenetic, duplication, gene structure, gene ontology and previous transcriptomic data analysis. Moreover, the MTPs expression behaviour under various heavy metals stress has rarely been investigated. In the current study, eleven MTP candidate genes were genome-wide identified and classified into three major groups; Mn-cation diffusion facilitators (CDFs), Fe/Zn-CDFs, and Zn-CDFs based on the phylogeny. Structural analysis of SlMTP s showed high gene similarity within the same group with cation_efflux or ZT_dimerdomains. Evolutionary analysis revealed that segmental duplication contributed to the expansion of the SlMTP family. Gene ontology further showed the vital roles of MTPs in metal-related processes. Tissue-specific expression profiling exhibited similar expression patterns in the same group, whereas gene expression varied among groups. The MTPs expression was evaluated after tomato treatments by five divalent heavy metals (Cd2+, Co2+, Mn2+, Zn2+, and Fe2+). SlMTP genes displayed differential responses in either plant leaves or roots under heavy metals treatments. Nine and ten SlMTPs responded to at least one metal ion treatment in leaves and roots, respectively. In addition SlMTP1 , SlMTP3 , SlMTP4 , SlMTP8 , SlMTP10 and SlMTP11 exhibited the highest expression responses in most of heavy metals treatments. Overall, our findings presented a standpoint on the evolution of MTPs and their evolution in tomato and paved the way for additional functional characterization under heavy metal toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thraustochytrium is a marine protist producing a specific profile of nutritionally important fatty acids, including very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLCPUFAs) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3), even chain saturated fatty acids (SFAs) palmitic acid (16:0), and odd chain SFAs pentadecanoic acid (15:0). To study how these fatty acids are synthesized, a series of radiolabeled precursors were used to trace the biosynthetic process in vivo and in vitro . When Thraustochytrium was fed with long chain fatty acid intermediates such as [1– 14 C]-oleic acid, [1– 14 C]-linoleic acid and [1– 14 C]-α-linolenic acid, no VLCPUFAs were produced, indicating that the aerobic pathway for the biosynthesis of VLCPUFAs was not functional in Thraustochytrium . When fed with [1– 14 C]-acetic acid, both SFAs and VLCPUFAs were labeled, and when fed with [1– 14 C]-propionic acid, mainly SFAs were labeled. However, when fed with [1– 14 C]-acetic acid in the presence of cerulenin, a type I FAS inhibitor, only VLCPUFAs were labeled, and when fed with [1– 14 C]-propionic acid in the presence of cerulenin, neither SFAs nor VLCPUFAs were labeled. This result clearly indicates that the type I fatty acid synthase (FAS) in Thraustochytrium could use acetic acid and propionic acid as the primers to synthesize even chain and odd chain SFAs, respectively, and VLCPUFAs were synthesized by the PUFA synthase using acetic acid as the primer. In addition, radioactive acetic acid could label both phospholipids (PL) and triacylglycerols (TAG), and VLCPUFAs appeared first and were largely accumulated in PL, whereas TAG accumulated much more SFAs than VLCPUFAs. The in vitro assay with [1– 14 C]-malonyl-CoA in presence of cerulenin showed that the crude protein of Thraustochytrium produced only VLCPUFAs, not SFAs, further confirming the role of the PUFA synthase in the biosynthesis of VLCPUFAs. Collectively, these results have elucidated the biochemical mechanisms for the biosynthesis of all fatty acids in Thraustochytrium . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy saving and improvement of product quality are of crucial importance in hot rolling of 304 stainless steel. In this paper, oil-in-water (O/W) based nanolubricants containing TiO 2 nanoparticles were developed to reduce the rolling force and improve the surface quality of rolled 304 stainless steel product. Practical hot rolling tests with and without application of lubricant were conducted to systematically investigate the effects of the developed O/W based nanolubricants on the rolling force, surface roughness, oxide scale thickness and tribological behaviour. The obtained results indicate that the nanoparticles can enter the deform zone with oil droplets to take a lubrication effect. The optimal lubrication effect can be achieved when the O/W (1% oil mass fraction) based nanolubricant with a TiO 2 mass fraction of 1.5% was applied. The novel nanolubricant has a great potential to be applied in the hot steel rolling, to realise the cost-effective and environmental-friendly manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, research on 60Si2Mn spring steel has focused on decarburization and ignored its oxidation behavior. However, Si affects the oxide layer structure of 60Si2Mn spring steel, so it significantly impacts the decarburization behavior. Because the effect of the oxide layer structure on its decarburization behavior has not been systematically clarified, this paper examines it for 60Si2Mn spring steel in dry air using a combination of experiments and first-principles calculations. It was found that at 1000 °C and 1100 °C, the oxide layer was mainly composed of the Fe 2 O 3 + Fe 3 O 4 + FeO/Fe 2 SiO 4 layers. Decarburization was significantly hindered by Fe 2 SiO 4. Fe 2 SiO 4 has a much higher crack formation energy (3.14 J/m2) than FeO (0.51 J/m2), which indicates that it is more difficult to form cracks in the Fe 2 SiO 4 layer. It is difficult for the gas produced by the reaction between FeO and C to diffuse out through a crack in the inner FeO/Fe 2 SiO 4 oxide layer, which hinders decarburization. The presence of a Fe 2 SiO 4 layer is effective in providing decarburized protection. • The effect of oxide layer on decarburization was studied by oxidation experiments and first-principle calculations. • There are three states of silicon oxides that were present in the FeO layer, granular SiO 2 , strip-like and melted Fe 2 SiO 4. • The formation of strip-like Fe 2 SiO 4 layer significantly hinder decarburization. • It provides an available method for controlling the decarburization of 60Si2Mn spring steel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A newly developed manufacturing technology - micro cross wedge rolling technology is an appropriate method to produce micro axisymmetric components such as micro stepped shafts. The development of this classic cold forming process is limited by a lack of sufficient understanding of geometric and material effects due to the size reduction of the components. In this study, a numerical model is proposed to simulate micro cross wedge rolling where the grain size effect is taken into account. Pure copper is chosen as the raw material. A finite element simulation is implemented where the diameter of the cylindrical workpiece is 0.8 mm and the polycrystalline aggregates are represented by Voronoi tessellation. The mean grain sizes of these workpiece range from 6 to 248 μm, in order to evaluate the grain size effect on the material flow. Meanwhile, a set of experiments are performed on the workpieces that have been heat treated. The experimental results show a good agreement with the simulation results by comparing the rolling forces and evolution of microstructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of microforming technology, the demand on accuracy of the metallic micro components is elevating. While springback phenomenon which is inevitable during bending process, can cause unpredicted dimensional error, bringing difficulties to the downstream assembly, and let alone the springback in microforming as the measurements of tools and workpieces downsize hundreds even thousands times. This paper focuses on the springback effect that occurs after the micro V-bending a classic processing method to manufacture microparts. Numerical simulation has been conducted to investigate the size effect in terms of Voronoi tessellation and springback. A finite element (FE) model of the micro V-bending has been established by utilising ABAQUS/Standard commercial software. The grain sizes of 98, 152 and 201 μ m have been adopted in FE model to study the relationship between the size effect and springback angle during the V-bending process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voronoi tessellation has been employed to characterise material features in Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation, however, a poor mesh quality of the voronoi tessellations causes problems in explicit dynamic simulation of forming processes. Although centroidal voronoi tessellation can partly improve the mesh quality by homogenisation of voronoi tessellations, small features, such as short edges and small facets, lead to an inferior mesh quality. Further, centroidal voronoi tessellation cannot represent all real micro structures of materials because of the almost equal tessellation shape and size. In this paper, a density function is applied to control the size and distribution of voronoi tessellations and then a Laplacian operator is employed to optimise the centroidal voronoi tessellations. After optimisation, the small features can be eliminated and the elements are quadrilateral in 2D and hexahedral in 3D cases. Moreover, the mesh quality is significantly higher than that of the mesh generated on the original voronoi or centroidal voronoi tessellation. This work is beneficial for explicit dynamic simulation of forming processes, such as micro deep drawing processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a D-band photonics-aided long-distance and large-capacity wireless transmission system. Based on photonics-aided millimeter wave communication technology, advanced equipment, and an advanced digital signal processing (DSP) algorithm, we have successfully realized the wireless transmission of a 15G baud PS-16QAM signal in the D-band of 4.6 km. At the transmitting end, the probability shaping (PS) technique and the truncated probability shaping (TPS) technique are introduced to alleviate the nonlinear impairment introduced by the photoelectric/electro-optic (OE/EO) conversion. Meanwhile, a high-gain power amplifier (PA) and a pair of self-designed polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) lenses are used to achieve long-distance transmission. At the receiving end, the Volterra nonlinear equalization (VNE) algorithm based on the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) structure is deployed to compensate the residual I/Q imbalance impairment and nonlinear impairment. By utilizing this advanced equipment and DSP algorithms, a 4.6 km wireless transmission with a net bit rate of 41.7 Gb/s has been successfully realized over D-band, and its bit error rate (BER) is below the 25 % soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) threshold of 4.2 × 10−2. The product of the net bit rate and wireless transmission distance has reached a record 41.7 Gb/s × 4.6 km = 191.8 Gb/s·km. As far as we know, this is the first experimental demonstration of a net rate exceeding 40 Gb/s in a D-band long-distance transmission system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aims: To examine the effects of metoprolol on expression of myocardial inflammatory cytokines and myocardial function in rats following coronary microembolization (CME). Main methods: Male rats were randomly assigned to receive either sham-operation (control group), CME plus saline (CME group), or CME plus metoprolol (metoprolol group). CME was induced by injecting 3000 polyethylene microspheres (42μm) into the left ventricle during a 10-second occlusion of the ascending aorta. Metoprolol (2.5mg/kg) or saline was administered as three intravenous bolus injections after CME. At 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h and 4weeks after CME, myocardial function was measured with echocardiography; and the mRNA and protein levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interleukin 1-β (IL-1β) were determined. Key findings: Induced CME led to markedly higher mRNA and protein levels of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-10 at 3, 6, 12, and 24h, as well as reduced left ventricular function, compared to the control group. Metoprolol administration reduced TNF-α and IL-1β levels, but increased IL-10 levels at 3, 6, 12, and 24h compared to the CME group. Moreover, metoprolol treatment resulted in significantly improved left ventricular function at 12h, 24h and 4weeks, but afforded no cardiac protection at 3h and 12h, compared to the CME group. Significance: Higher levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in rats following CME are associated with the development of myocardial contractile dysfunction. Metoprolol-conferred protection against progressive contractile dysfunction following CME may be mediated by its anti-inflammation potential. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Subjected to the environmental influence of minewater drainage, a new method of minewater deep transfer and storage (MWDTS) was proposed and trialed in the eastern margin of Ordos basin, China. Based on the scientific issue, why, where, how, what and the consequence of MWDTS were presented in this paper. Two target geological mediums, including Baotashan coarse sandstone (BCS) in Yan'an Formation of Jurassic and Liujiagou Formation (LFm) of Triassic, were compared and analyzed to acquire the ideal aquifer as the groundwater reservoir. LFm was eventually selected as the final minewater reservoir and the scientific well named MC-1 was constructed, and the permeability of LFm reservoir was enhanced by artificial hydraulic fracturing. The laboratory tests including SEM, XRD, mercury injection, mechanical strength, microscopic permeability evolution and hydrochemical composition, as well as the field tests covering groundwater table recovery and different pressure water injection, revealed that the deep LFm was the optimal minewater reservoir. The original LFm was low porosity at 7.5% and lower permeability at 5.31 × 10−6 m/d to 6.19 × 10−6 m/d. The space with natural & artificial hydraulic fracture and pores was the main storage space. The pressure of hydraulic fracturing should be greater than 31.5 MPa, the continuous MWDTS would change the mechanical strength, and the whole permeability of the screening section was shown 1788 to 2858 times greater than natural. As the continued reinjection of minewater, the total amount of 1.00 million cubic meters had conducted. The capacity of MWDTS in the rejection well was predicted at 2.85 to 3.68 million cubic meters. On the basis of technical and economic evaluation, it would reduce the environmental pollution caused by minewater drainage and be one option method for minewater management of coal mine enterprises in the Ordos Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]