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Low permeation flux and rapid flux decline are challenging membrane technology in wastewater treatment. Here we used a metal–ligand complexation protocol to construct novel forward osmosis (FO) membrane for efficient and sustainable phosphorus removal. Disodium and tetrasodium salts of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA-2Na, EDTA-4Na) were separately grafted onto the conventional polyamide (PA) membranes via chemical complexation using Fe3+ as a bridge. These EDTA salts substantially improved the membrane properties. Consequently, the water fluxes produced by the EDTA-2Na and EDTA-4Na modified membranes increased by 109% (11.1 LMH) and 140% (12.7 LMH), respectively, relative to that of the pristine membrane (5.3 LMH) with 0.5 M NaCl as the draw solution. Meanwhile, the EDTA-4Na modified membrane surpassed the naked PA membrane in performance with higher water recovery efficiencies and solute rejections after long-term experiments against a mixture of bovine serum albumin and HPO42−. Moreover, the water flux recovery ratio of the naked PA membrane was only 51%, while that of the EDTA-4Na modified membrane reached over 93% after three cycles of fouling experiments. This study provides a new paradigm to develop FO membrane via a metal–ligand complexation protocol for efficient and sustainable wastewater treatment. Novel FO membranes synthesized through a complexation protocol are used for phosphorus removal and fouling resistance in forward osmosis.

Acids are extensively used in contemporary industries; however, time-consuming and environmentally unfriendly processes hinder their isolation from wastes containing various ionic species. While membrane technology can overcome these challenges by efficiently extracting analytes of interest, the associated processes typically exhibit inadequate ion-specific selectivity. In this regard, we rationally designed a membrane with uniform angstrom-sized pore channels and built-in charge-assisted hydrogen bond donors that preferentially conduct monobasic acids while exhibiting negligible conductance for other compounds. The ionic selectivity originates from the size screening ability of angstrom-sized channels between protons and other hydrated cations, while the built-in charge-assisted hydrogen bond donor enables the screening of acids by exerting host-guest interactions to varying extent, acting as an anion filter. Furthermore, in contrast to conventional cationic membranes, the strong hydrogen-bonding interactions between the guanidinium moieties and their counter anions resulted in charge transfer from the anions to the membrane skeleton, which switched the effective pore surface charge from positive to negative, thereby facilitating the transport of protons. Ion transport measurements indicated that the resulting membrane exhibited exceptional permeation for protons over other cations and anions of monobasic acids over those of polybasic acids with selectivities up to 4334 and 183, respectively, demonstrating prospects for monobasic acid extraction from waste streams. These findings will aid the design of advanced multifunctional membranes for sophisticated separation.

Rubisco, which consists of eight large subunits (RBCLs) and eight small subunits (RBCSs), is a major photosynthetic enzyme that is sensitive to chilling stress. However, it is largely unclear how plants maintain high Rubisco content under low temperature conditions. Here, we report that tomato WHIRLY1 (SlWHY1) positively regulates the Rubisco level under chilling stress by directly binding to the promoter region of SlRbcS1, resulting in the activation of SlRbcS1 expression. SlRbcS1-overexpressing lines had higher Rubisco contents and were more resistant to chilling stress compared with the wild type. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses showed that, among the five RbcS genes, only SlRbcS1 expression is up-regulated by chilling treatment. These results indicate that SlWHIRLY1 specifically enhances the levels of SlRbcS1 and confers tolerance to chilling stress. The amino acid sequence of SlRBCS1 shows 92.67% identity with those of another two RBCS proteins and three residues are specifically found in SlRBCS1. However, mutation of these residues to alanine in SlRBCS1 does not influence its function during cold adaptation. Thus, we conclude that high levels of Rubisco, but not the specific residues in SlRBCS1, play important roles in tolerance to chilling stress in tomato.

Water contaminated with low concentrations of pollutants is more difficult to clean up than that with high pollutant content levels. Membrane separation provides a solution for removing low pollutant content from water. However, membranes are prone to fouling, losing separation performances over time. Here we synthesized—a neutral (IM-NH2) and positively-charged (IL-NH2) imidazole derivatives to chemically functionalize membranes. With distinct properties, these imidazole grafts could tailor membrane physicochemical properties and structures to benefit forward osmosis (FO) processes for the removal of 20 − 100 ppm of Safranin O dye − a common dye employed in the textile industry. The water fluxes produced by IM-NH2 and IL-NH2 -modified membranes increased by 67% and 122%, respectively, with DI water as the feed compared to that with the nascent membrane. A 39% flux increment with complete dye retention (∼ 100%) was achieved for the IL-NH2-modified membrane against 100ppm of Safranin O dye. Regardless of the dye concentration, the IL-NH2 -modified membrane exhibited steadily higher permeation performance than the original membrane in long-term experiments. Reproducible experimental results were obtained with the IL-NH2 -modified membrane after cleaning with DI water, demonstrating the good antifouling properties and renewability of the newly developed membrane.

With the advancement of tumor subtype-specific treatments, precise histopathologic distinction between adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is of significant clinical importance. Nevertheless, the current markers are insufficiently precise in poorly differentiated tissue. This study aimed to establish a histology-specific immunomarker combination to subclassify non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) specimens. Based on previous work, we assessed the differential expression of anterior gradient 2 (AGR2) and keratin 5 (KRT5) in ADC and SCC by analyzing public datasets and postoperative specimens. Subsequently, we established a train set (n = 188) and a validation set (n = 42) comprised of NSCLC surgical specimens for training and verifying the subtype-identification capabilities of the two biomarkers separately and in combination, and contrasted the diagnostic utility of AGR2-KRT5 with that of the classic immunomarker combination, TTF1-P40. Differential expression of the two genes was statistically significant in ADC and SCC samples, both at the mRNA and protein levels. The specificity and sensitivity of AGR2 to detect ADC in the training set were 97.0% and 94.4%, while the sensitivity and specificity of KRT5 to determine SCC were 93.9% and 98.9%, respectively. The accuracies of AGR2-KRT5 in ADC, SCC, and across all samples were 93.3%, 92.0% and 92.6% respectively. In the validation cohort, the predictive accuracy of AGR2-KRT5 was up to 100% for ADC and 86.7% for SCC. Compared with TTF1-P40 in ADC samples, AGR2-KRT5 had 8.4% higher accuracy. In summary, the AGR2-KRT5 immunomarker combination reliably distinguished SCC from ADC, and was more accurate than TTF1-P40 in ADC.

Chlorophyll (Chl) degradation is one of the most obvious signs of leaf senescence and fruit ripening. Stay-green (SGR) homologs that can remove magnesium from Chl a are the most important components in Chl degradation pathway in green plants. SGR homologs are not only universally involved in Chl breakdown during the senescence of green organs, but also play crucial roles in other organs during plant growth and development, such as fruit mature and nodule development. In this review, we focus on the diverse functions of SGR homologs in plant growth and development. A better understanding of SGR would be helpful for providing a theoretical basis for further illustrating the regulatory mechanism of SGR homologs.

The NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2) transcription factor family participates in responses to various kinds of environmental stimuli in plants. However, the roles of NAC protein in cold resistance, especially in the cold resistance of tomatoes, are not completely understood. This study examined the roles of a tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) NAC transcription factor (SlNAC35) in resisting chilling using transgenic tomatoes. GUS staining and expression analysis revealed that SlNAC35 expression was induced at 4 °C, thereby suggesting its involvement in plant responses to chilling stress. Moreover, transgenic lines over-expressing SlNAC35 exhibited high chlorophyll content, fresh mass, and low accumulation of reactive oxygen species and membrane damage under chilling stress. These results indicated that SlNAC35 overexpression enhanced the chilling tolerance of transgenic tomatoes. High expressions of cold tolerance markers SlCOR518 and SlCOR413IM1 were observed under chilling stress in transgenic lines. This observation suggested that SlNAC35 overexpression enhanced the chilling tolerance of transgenic lines by involving the c-repeat binding factor-cold stress response (CBF-COR) signaling pathway and by regulating SlCOR expression.

WHIRLY transcription factors play critical roles in responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, but their other biological functions remain unclear. In this study, SlWHY2, a member of the WHIRLY family, was isolated from Solanum lycopersicum. The role of SlWHY2 was studied using transgenic tobacco plants. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that SlWHY2 expression was induced by polyethylene glycol, NaCl, salicylic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and bacterial pathogens. SlWHY2 overexpression in tobacco caused enhanced tolerance to drought stress, as indicated by lower accumulation of malondialdehyde and relative electrolyte leakage, as well as higher relative water content and activities of superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase. Moreover, higher expression of cytochrome oxidase 1 (NtCOX1) and open reading frame 1 (NtORF1) were observed under drought in the transgenic lines. This suggested that overexpression of SlWHY2 enhanced tolerance to drought stress by regulating the transcription of mitochondrial genes and stabilizing mitochondrial function. Transgenic tobacco also displayed greater resistance to Pseudomonas solanacearum infection as evidenced by lower reactive oxygen species content and higher expression of defence-related genes. Overall, these findings suggest that SlWHY2 acts as a positive regulator in response to biotic and abiotic stresses.

In order to design a high-efficiency cost-effective high-power LED driver, a single-stage integrated boost- LLC -type soft-switched ac–dc converter is usually employed. The minimized number of semiconductors and the reduced power loss are its main advantages. However, the high bus voltage is its well-known disadvantage, which is caused by the employment of a conventional pulse frequency modulation (PFM) control strategy with the duty cycle of 0.5. The range of the input ac voltage is severely limited. In order to overcome this problem, a hybrid PFM-asymmetric pulse width modulation strategy is proposed in this paper. The proposed strategy can significantly reduce the bus voltage while maintaining the soft-switching operation for both primary MOSFETs and secondary diodes. Furthermore, the electrolytic capacitors are removed by increasing the bus voltage ripple. Hence, high efficiency, long lifetime, low cost, and universal operation are achieved on the proposed LED driver, which is well matched to the virtues of LED lighting source. The detailed operation principles and design consideration for the proposed modulation approach are analyzed and discussed. The feature of the proposed solution was demonstrated using a universal-input 100-W hardware prototype. The experimental results verified the full-range zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation for primary switches and the efficiency achieved 91.6% under the 130-V input voltage.

Condenser tube tubes are widely applied in condenser in thermal power plants. Leakage often occurs in condenser tube groups due to the quality of condenser media or high serving stress. Condenser tube leakage not only brings economic losses to power stations, but even influences the safety operation of the power generation units. This paper simulates and experimentally studies the ferromagnetic heat exchanger tubes based on the detection mechanism of far field eddy current. The results show that the position of the far field is with the increase of the wall thickness and the inner diameter of the tubes, and the detection sensitivity of the far field is high for the same size defect, but the difference of the magnetic flux intensity varies equally when the defects with the same size are located at the inner and outer walls. This is consistent with the experimental results of real tube defect detection and meets the principle of far field eddy current detection. It is concluded that far field eddy current testing technology can better determine and identify ferromagnetic tube defects, and has a good application prospect for online nondestructive testing and safety performance evaluation of service tubes

It is challenging to purify wastewater containing heavy metals at low concentrations. Forward osmosis (FO) is promising to remove most of contaminants from wastewater. However, the lack of suitable membranes disables FO to achieve its full potential. Here we designed positively charged PA-Fe-H2O and PA-Fe-Bet membranes for efficient chromium (CrO42-) removal through micellar-enhanced FO (MEFO) separation. These membranes were developed by functionalizing the ready-made polyamine (PA) membrane via eco-friendly complexation between Fe3+ and carboxyl groups of the PA layer and/or betaine (Bet). A Fe3+-bridged hydration or quaternary ammonium layer was formed which imbued the membrane with desirable properties for FO separation. The water permeability of the PA-Fe-H2O and PA-Fe-Bet membranes was increased by 92% and 142%, respectively, compared to that of the PA membrane when 0.5 M MgCl2 as the draw solution. The PA-Fe-Bet membrane greatly improved CrO42- removal efficiency by increasing the water flux from 6.2 to 12.0 LMH along with complete CrO42- retention in the cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) facilitated MEFO process. Moreover, this membrane exhibited enhanced antifouling properties when exposed to CPC solutions. The environmentally benign synthesis approach, high CrO42- removal efficiency and fouling resistance of the PA-Fe-Bet membrane demonstrate its potential for contaminants removal.

SUMOylation is an important post-translational modification process that regulates different cellular functions in eukaryotes. SIZ/PIAS-type SAP and Miz1 (SIZ1) proteins exhibit SUMO E3 ligase activity, which modulates SUMOylation. However, SIZ1 in tomato has been rarely investigated. In this study, a tomato SIZ1 gene (SlSIZ1) was isolated and its molecular characteristics and role in tolerance to drought stress are described. SlSIZ1 was up-regulated by cold, sodium chloride (NaCl), polyethylene glycol (PEG), hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) and abscisic acid (ABA), and the corresponding proteins were localized in the nucleus. The expression of SlSIZ1 in Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) siz1-2 mutants partially complemented the phenotypes of dwarf, cold sensitivity and ABA hypersensitivity. SlSIZ1 also exhibited the activity of SUMO E3 ligase to promote the accumulation of SUMO conjugates. Under drought stress, the ectopic expression of SlSIZ1 in transgenic tobacco lines enhanced seed germination and reduced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. SlSIZ1 overexpression conferred the plants with improved growth, high free proline content, minimal malondialdehyde accumulation and increased accumulation of SUMO conjugates. SlSIZ1 is a functional homolog of Arabidopsis SIZ1 with SUMO E3 ligase activity. Therefore, overexpression of SlSIZ1 enhanced the tolerance of transgenic tobacco to drought stress.

Ascorbate (AsA) is an important antioxidant that can scavenge reactive oxygen species to protect plant cells against oxidative stress. Guanosine 5'-diphosphate (GDP)-L-galactose phosphorylase (GGP) is a key enzyme in the AsA biosynthetic pathway. To investigate the functions of GGP in AsA synthesis and oxidative stress tolerance in tomato, antisense lines with a reduced expression of SlGGP were obtained. Photobleaching after treatment of leaf disks with methyl viologen was more severe in transgenic lines compared to wild type (WT) plants. Moreover, compared with the WT plants, the transgenic plants showed a higher content of hydrogen peroxide, superoxide anion, malondialdehyde, as well as ion leakage, but a lower content of AsA and chlorophylls, ascorbate peroxidase activity, net photosynthetic rate, and maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II. Results of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction show that suppression of the SlGGP gene in the transgenic plants reduced their oxidative stress tolerance.

Software-defined networking (SDN) enables the network virtualization through SDN hypervisors to share the underlying physical SDN network among multiple logically isolated virtual SDN networks (vSDNs), each with its own controller. The vSDN embedding, which refers to mapping a number of vSDNs to the same substrate SDN network, is a key problem in the SDN virtualization environment. However, due to the distinctions of the SDN, such as the logically centralized controller and different virtualization technologies, most of the existing embedding algorithms cannot be applied directly to SDN virtualization. In this paper, we consider controller placement and virtual network embedding as a joint vSDN embedding problem, and formulate it into an integer linear programming with objectives of minimizing the embedding cost and the controller-to-switch delay for each vSDN. Moreover, we propose a novel online vSDN embedding algorithm called CO-vSDNE, which consists of a node mapping stage and a link mapping stage. In the node mapping stage, CO-vSDNE maps the controller and the virtual nodes to the substrate nodes on the basis of the controller-to-switch delay and takes into account the subsequent link mapping at the same time. In the link mapping stage, CO-vSDNE adopts the k-shortest path algorithm to map the virtual links. The evaluation results with simulation and Mininet emulation show that the proposed CO-vSDNE not only significantly increases the long-term revenue to the cost ratio and acceptance ratio while guaranteeing low average and maximum controller-to-switch delay, but also achieves good vSDN performance in terms of end-to-end delay and throughput.

The NAC transcription factor (TF) is one of the largest families of TFs in plants and plays an important role in plant growth, development, and response to environmental stress. The structural and functional characteristics of NAC TFs have been uncovered in the past years, including sequence binding features of the DNA-binding domain located in the N-terminus and dynamic interplay between the domain located at the C-terminus and other proteins. Studies on NAC TF are increasing in number; these studies distinctly contribute to our understanding of the regulatory networks of NAC-mediated complex signaling and transcriptional reprogramming. Previous studies have indicated that NAC TFs are key regulators of the plant stress response. However, these studies have been for six years so far and mainly focused on drought and salt stress. There are relatively few reports about NAC TFs in plant cold signal pathway and no related reviews have been published. In this review article, we summarize the structural features of NAC TFs, the target genes, upstream regulators and interaction proteins of stress-responsive NAC TFs, and the roles NAC TFs play in plant cold stress signal pathway.

Heat stress poses a major threat to plant productivity and crop yields. The induction of heat shock proteins (HSPs) by heat shock factors is a principal defense response of plants exposed to heat stress. In this study, we identified and analyzed the heat stress-induced Whirly1 (SlWHY1) gene in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). We generated various SlWHY1-overexpressing (OE) and SlWHY1-RNA interference (RNAi) lines to investigate the role of WHIRLY1 in thermotolerance. Compared with the wild type (WT), the OE lines showed less wilting, as reflected by their increased membrane stability and soluble sugar content and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation under heat stress. By contrast, RNAi lines with inhibited SlWHY1 expression showed the opposite phenotype and corresponding physiological indices under heat stress. The heat-induced gene SlHSP21.5A, encoding an endoplasmic reticulum-localized HSP, was upregulated in the OE lines and downregulated in the RNAi lines compared with the WT. RNAi-mediated inhibition of SlHSP21.5A expression also resulted in reduced membrane stability and soluble sugar content and increased ROS accumulation under heat stress compared with the WT. SlWHY1 binds to the elicitor response element-like element in the promoter of SlHSP21.5A to activate its transcription. These findings suggest that SlWHY1 promotes thermotolerance in tomato by regulating SlHSP21.5A expression.

DnaJ proteins, which are molecular chaperones that are widely present in plants, can respond to various environmental stresses. At present, the function of DnaJ proteins was studied in many plant species, but only a few studies were conducted in tomato. Here, we examined the functions of a novel tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) DnaJ protein (SlDnaJ20) in heat tolerance using sense and antisense transgenic tomatoes. Transient conversion assays of Arabidopsis protoplasts showed that SlDnaJ20 was targeted to chloroplasts. Expression analysis showed that SlDnaJ20 expression was induced by chilling, NaCl, polyethylene glycol, and H2O2, especially via heat stress. Under heat stress, sense plants showed higher fresh weights, chlorophyll content, fluorescence (Fv/Fm), and D1 protein levels, and a lower accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) than antisense plants. These results suggest that SlDnaJ20 overexpression can reduce the photoinhibition of photosystem II (PSII) by relieving ROS accumulation. Moreover, higher expression levels of HsfA1 and HsfB1 were observed under heat stress in sense plants, indicating that SlDnaJ20 overexpression contributes to HSF expression. The yeast two-hybrid system proved that SlDnaJ20 can interact with the chloroplast heat-shock protein 70. Our results indicate that SlDnaJ20 overexpression enhances the thermotolerance of transgenic tomatoes, whereas suppression of SlDnaJ20 increases the heat sensitivity of transgenic tomatoes.

In plants, the chilling response involves decreased photosynthetic capacity and increased starch accumulation in chloroplasts. However, the mechanisms that modulate these processes remain unclear. We found that the SlWHY1 gene is significantly induced by chilling stress (4°C) in tomato. Three SlWHY1 overexpression (OE) lines grew better than the wild type (WT) under chilling stress; the OE plants retained intact photosynthetic grana lamellae and showed enhanced hydrolysis of starch. By contrast, RNAi lines that inhibited SlWHY1 were more affected than the corresponding WT cultivar. Their grana lamellae were damaged and starch content increased. The psbA gene encodes the key photosystem II (PSII) protein D1. We show that SlWHY1 binds to the upstream region (A/GTTACCCT/A) of SlpsbA and enhances the de novo synthesis of D1 in chloroplasts. Additionally, SlWHY1 regulates the expression of the starch-degrading enzyme α-amylase (SlAMY3-L) and the starch synthesis-related enzyme isoamylase gene (SlISA2) in the nucleus, thus modulating the starch content in chloroplasts. We demonstrate that SlWHY1 enhances the resistance of tomato to chilling stress by maintaining the function of PSII and degrading starch. Thus, overexpression of WHY1 may be an effective strategy for enhancing resistance to chilling stress of chilling-sensitive crops in agricultural production.

Background: Preclinical studies have demonstrated that β-adrenergic receptor antagonists could improve the prognosis of breast cancer. However, the conclusions of clinical and pharmacoepidemiological studies have been inconsistent. This review was conducted to re-assess the relationship between beta-adrenoceptor blockers and breast cancer prognosis. Materials and Methods: The literature was searched from PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Nature (Thompson Reuters) databases through using key terms, such as breast cancer and betaadrenoceptor blockers. Results: Ten publications met the inclusion criteria. Six suggested that receiving betaadrenoceptor blockers reduced the risk of breast cancer–specific mortality, and three of them had statistical significance (hazard ratio (HR)=0.42; 95% CI=0.18-0.97; p=0.042). Two studies reported that risk of recurrence and distant metastasis (DM) were both significantly reduced. One study demonstrated that the risk of relapsefree survival (RFS) was raised significantly with beta-blockers (BBS) (HR= 0.30; 95% CI=0.10-0.87; p=0.027). One reported longer disease-free interval (Log Rank (LR)=6.658; p=0.011) in BBS users, but there was no significant association between overall survival (OS) and BBS (HR= 0.35; 95% CI=0.12–1.0; p=0.05) in five studies. Conclusions: Through careful consideration, it is suggested that beta-adrenoceptor blockers use may be associated with improved prognosis in breast cancer patients. Nevertheless, larger size studies are needed to further explore the relationship between beta-blocker drug use and breast cancer prognosis.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid that accumulates in a number of plant species under various environmental stresses. In this paper, the ability of applied GABA for the alleviation of NaCl stress was investigated in view of growth parameters, gas exchange, photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll fluorescence, activities of antioxidant enzymes, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and electrolyte conductivity (REC) in wheat seedlings. Germination rate and shoot dry mass decreased with an increasing NaCl concentration and this decrease was less pronounced when 0.5 mM GABA was applied. In the NaCl-treated seedlings, exogenous GABA partially enhanced photosynthetic capacity and antioxidant enzyme activities and decreased MDA content and REC. Therefore, GABA reduced the impact of salinity on the wheat seedlings.

A new high-gain cylindrical Dielectric res- onator antenna (DRA) with a large bandwidth is proposed. A cylindrical Dielectric resonator (DR), a double-annular patch and a metallic cylinder are used to obtain a large bandwidth and a high gain. The mode TM12 excited in the patch is used to enhance the gain of the DRA, and the cavity formed by the metallic cylinder provides a further higher gain and a larger bandwidth. The measured results demonstrate that the proposed DRA achieves a large band- width of 23% from 5.3 to 6.8GHz with VSWR less than two and a high gain around 11 dBi. In this paper, a new broadband, high-gain DRA design is proposed using a double-annular patch and a conducting cav- ity formed by a concentric metallic cylinder. Firstly, a single- annular patch is used to improve the gain of the DRA. After- ward, a double-annular patch is used to achieve a large gain bandwidth. Finally, a metallic cylinder is introduced to en- hance the resonating and obtain a higher gain. The antenna is manufactured and measured in the microwave anechoic cham- ber. The results of simulations and measurements are com- pared together, showing a good agreement. The results show that the antenna provides a further higher gain and a larger bandwidth using the proposed double-annular patch and a metallic cylinder.

Juvenile hormone III (JH III) plays primary roles in regulation of metamorphosis, reproduction and diapause in Leptinotarsa decemlineata, a notorious defoliator of potato. The neurosecretory cell-borne substance(s) negatively affects the final two steps in JH biosynthesis, catalyzed respectively by an epoxidase CYP15A1 and a juvenile hormone acid methyltransferase (JHAMT). In a few insect species other than L. decemlineata, the inhibitory substance is allatostatin (AS) neuropeptide. In this study, two putative AS genes encoding LdAS-C and LdAS-B precursors were cloned. Both LdAS-C and LdAS-B were expressed in the egg, larvae, pupae and adults, and highly expressed in the brain and the gut. Dietary introduction of double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) targeting LdAS-C and LdAS-B successfully knocked down respective target genes. Ingestion during 3 and 6 consecutive days of dsLdAS-C significantly increased the LdJHAMT mRNA levels by 3.8 and 9.9 fold respectively. In contrast, ingestion of dsLdAS-B only slightly increased the LdJHAMT expression level by 1.1 and 1.7 fold. Moreover, after one, two and three days' ingestion of dsLdAS-C, the relative JH levels in the hemolymph of treated larvae were 2.5, 4.2 and 1.9 fold higher than those in control beetles. Furthermore, ingestion of dsLdAS-C and dsLdAS-B significantly affected larval growth and delayed larval development. Thus, we provide a line of experimental evidence in L. decemlineata to support the concept that AS-C acts as an allatostatin and inhibit JH biosynthesis.

NAC (NAM, ATAF1,2, and CUC2) transcription factors play an important role in the responses of plants to various environmental stresses. To investigate the function of SlNAC1, which was found to be a member of the ATAF subfamily in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants under heat stress conditions, transgenic tomato plants were generated using an antisense technology. After a treatment at 40 °C for 48 h, in comparison with wild-type (WT) plants, the transgenic plants were severely wilted and exhibited a lower net photosynthetic rate and a maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II. Moreover, the transgenic plants displayed a higher ion leakage and malondialdehyde content and a lower proline content. The content of reactive oxygen species (superoxide anion radicals and hydrogen peroxide) were higher, and activities of ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide dismutase lower in the transgenic plants than in the WT plants. The transgenic plants also exhibited a lower accumulation of the transcripts of some heat shock protein genes (Hsp70, Hsp90, sHsp17.4, and sHsp17.6). All of these results suggest that the suppression of SlNAC1 could obviously reduce heat resistance in the tomato plants, and this indicates that SlNAC1 played an important role in the thermal tolerance of the tomato plants.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the safety and survival outcomes of early stage cervical cancer patients treated by laparoscopically assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy (LARVH) versus abdominal radical hysterectomy (ARH). Methods: Since March 2008 to July 2012, the patients with early stage cervical cancer undergoing LARVH or ARH in Beijing hospital have been entered into this study. Statistical analysis used Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) and significance was defined as P

LeAN2 encoding an anthocyanin-associated R2R3-MYB transcription factor was isolated from tomato. The expression of LeAN2 in tomato was induced by low temperature and oxidative stress. Green fluorescent protein was fused to LeAN2 and the complex was expressed transiently in onion epidermal cells. Green fluorescence was observed only in the nucleus. Overexpression of LeAN2 under the control of the CaMV35S promoter in tobacco induced expression of several anthocyanin biosynthetic genes and the content of anthocyanin was markedly higher in transgenic tobacco compared with wild type plants. Transgenic tobaccos conferred tolerance to chilling stress by maintaining a higher chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate, and maximal photochemical efficiency of PS II compared to the wild type plants. Furthermore, the transgenic plants showed lower ion leakage, a lower content of reactive oxygen species, and a higher content of non-enzymatic antioxidans under the chilling stress. They also showed an enhanced resistance to the oxidative stress induced by methyl viologen based on a decreased chlorophyll content loss, lower ion leakage, and an enhanced maximal photochemical efficiency of PS II. These results indicate that overexpression of LeAN2 resulted in an increased anthocyanin accumulation and enhanced resistance to the chilling and oxidative stresses in transgenic tobacco.

The roles of a tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) chloroplast-targeted DnaJ protein (LeCDJ1) were investigated using wild-type (WT) and sense transgenic tomatoes. The LeCDJ1 expression was upregulated by 38 °C, 42 °C, 45 °C, NaCl, PEG, methyl viologen (MV) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), but not by 30 °C and 35 °C. Meanwhile, LeCDJ1 was involved in the response of plants to abscisic acid (ABA). Under heat stress, the sense plants showed better growth, higher chlorophyll content, lower malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation and relative electrical conductivity (REC), and also less PSII photoinhibition than WT. Interestingly, the sense plants treated with streptomycin (SM), an inhibitor of organellar translation, still showed higher maximum photochemistry efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and D1 protein levels than the SM-untreated WT, suggesting that the protective effect of LeCDJ1 on PSII was, at least partially, independent of D1 protein synthesis. Furthermore, the relatively lower superoxide radical (O2(•-)) and H2O2 levels in the sense plants were considered to be due to the higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, which seemed unlikely dependent on their transcription level. These results indicated that LeCDJ1 overexpression facilitated heat tolerance in transgenic tomatoes.

A novel tomato chloroplast-targeted DnaJ protein, LeCDJ1 was found to contribute to the maintenance of photosystem II under chilling stress and this maintenance effect was, at least partially, independent of D1 protein synthesis, DnaJ proteins act as essential molecular chaperones in protein homeostasis and protein complex stabilization under stress conditions. The roles of a tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) chloroplast-targeted DnaJ protein (LeCDJ1), whose expression was upregulated by treatment at 4 and 42 °C, and with high light, NaCl, polyethylene glycol, and H2O2, were investigated here using sense and antisense transgenic tomatoes. The sense plants exhibited not only higher chlorophyll content, fresh weight and net photosynthetic rate, but also lower accumulation of reactive oxygen species and membrane damage under chilling stress. Moreover, the maximal photochemistry efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) (F v/F m) and D1 protein content were higher in the sense plants and lower in the antisense plants, and the photoinhibitory quenching was lower in the sense plants and higher in the antisense plants, suggesting that the inhibition of PSII was less severe in the sense plants and more severe in the antisense plants compared with the wild type. Furthermore, the PSII protein complexes were also more stable in the sense plants. Interestingly, the sense plants treated with streptomycin (SM), an inhibitor of organellar translation, still showed higher F v/F m, D1 protein content and PSII stability than the SM-untreated antisense plants. This finding suggested that the protective effect of LeCDJ1 on PSII was, at least partially, independent of D1 protein synthesis. Furthermore, chloroplast heat-shock protein 70 was identified as the partner of LeCDJ1. These results indicate that LeCDJ1 has essential functions in maintaining PSII under chilling stress.

Uninterrupted wide range operations are salient features of the process industries. Characteristics including nonlinearity, time-delay, and inertia, of industrial control loops are always significantly changed with the working conditions. To qualify the nonlinear degree, a nonlinearity measure based on the minimum variance lower bound ratio is presented in this paper. This measure belongs to the data-driven class, and can be applied to Hammerstein structure, Wiener structure and Wiener–Hammerstein structure, whether the controller is linear or nonlinear. The effectiveness and consistency of this measure are illustrated through five simulation tests. An industrial case in the fossil fuel power generation process is studied to confirm the practicability of the proposed measure.

We studied how tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) chloroplast omega-3 fatty acid desaturase gene (Lefad7) overexpression enhanced low-temperature (LT) tolerance in transgenic tomato plants. In these plants, the content of linolenic acid (18:3) markedly increased and, correspondingly, the content of linoleic acid (18:2) decreased. Similar changes were found after 6 h under LT (4°C) treatment. Under LT stress, wild type (WT) tomato plants showed a much greater increase in relative electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents compared with transgenic plants. Transgenic plants exhibited higher activities of antioxidative enzymes and a lower content of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Transgenic plants maintained a relatively higher level of the net photosynthetic rate (PN) and chlorophyll (Chl) content than WT plants under LT stress. Taken together, we suggested that overexpression of Lefad7 enhanced LT tolerance by changing the composition of membrane lipids in tomato plants, with the increased content of trienoic fatty acids and reduced content of dienoic fatty acids that led to series of physiological alterations.

Unreasonable sizes of grooves would aggravate the hot air recirculation and improve the air inlet temperature of outdoor units, which would result in a degradation of the energy efficiency ratio (EER) of air conditioner. This study used controlling variables method to design 40 kinds of working conditions by changing the distance from outdoor unit to each wall as well as discussed the change rules of the air inlet temperature of outdoor unit and EER. Finally, it is concluded by the analysis for experimental data that the influence of change in width or height of grooves on the heat dispersion performance of outdoor unit is significant, but that of change in depth of grooves is slight.

High temperature has become a major abiotic stress that limits crop productivity. Heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) and heat shock proteins (HSPs) play important roles in enhancing thermotolerance of plants. SUMOylation is an important post-translational modification in regulating cellular functions in eukaryotes. SIZ1, a well-characterized SUMO E3 ligase, mediates the process of SUMOylation. In this study, SUMO conjugations were clearly induced by high temperature. Overexpression of SIZ1 SUMO E3 ligase (SlSIZ1) in tomato could enhance the tolerance to heat stress in tomato. The RNA interference (RNAi) plants were more wilted than the wild type with heat treatment. Under heat stress, SlSIZ1 could decrease the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induce some genes of HSF and HSP transcription. Furthermore, overexpression of SlSIZ1 could increase the level of Hsp70 under high temperature. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays showed that SlSIZ1 could interact with SlHsfA1 to mediate the SUMOylation of SlHsfA1 and consequently enhance thermotolerance of tomato. In conclusion, overexpression of SlSIZ1 enhanced heat tolerance by regulating the activities of HsfA1 and increasing the content Hsp70.

Low temperature has a negative impact on plant cells and results in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In order to study the role of ascorbate under chilling stress, the response of an ascorbate-deficient Arabidopsis thaliana mutant vtc2-1 to low temperature (2°C) was investigated. After chilling stress, vtc2-1 mutants exhibited oxidative damage. An increase in the H2O2 generation and the production of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and a decrease in chlorophyll content, the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and oxidizable P700 were also noted. The ratio of ascorbate/dehydroascorbate and reduced glutathione/oxidzed glutathione in the vtc2-1 mutants were reduced, compared with the wild type (WT) plants. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and soluble antioxidants were lower in the vtc2-1 mutants than those in WT plants. These results suggested that the ascorbate-deficient mutant vtc2-1 was more sensitive to chilling treatment than WT plants. The low temperature-induced oxidative stress was the major cause of the decrease of PSII and PSI function in the vtc2-1 mutants. Ascorbate plays a critical role of defense without which the rest of the ROS defense network is unable to react effectively.

The effects of inhibition of mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX) respiratory pathway on photosynthetic apparatus in Rumex K-1 leaves were studied. Under high irradiance, the inhibition of AOX pathway caused over-reduction of photosystem (PS) 2 acceptor side, a decrease in the energy transfer in the PS 2 units, damage of donor side of PS 2 and decrease in pool size of electron acceptors. The inhibition of AOX pathway also decreased photosynthetic performance index (PIABS), actual photochemical efficiency (ΦPS2), photochemical quenching (qP) and photosynthetic O2 evolution rate. The results demonstrate that mitochondrial AOX pathway plays a vital role in photoprotection of photosynthetic apparatus.

RNA gel hybridization showed that the expression of monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) in the wild type (WT) tomato was decreased firstly and then increased under salt- and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced osmotic stress, and the maximum level was observed after treatment for 12 h. WT, sense transgenic and antisense transgenic tomato plants were used to analyze the antioxidative ability to cope with osmotic stresses. After salt stress, the fresh mass (FM) and height of sense transgenic lines were greater than those of antisense lines and WT plants. Under salt and PEG treatments, sense transgenic plants showed a lower level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), a higher net photosynthetic rate (PN), and the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) compared with WT and antisense transgenic plants. Moreover, sense lines maintained higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity than WT and antisense plants under salt- and PEG-induced osmotic stress. These results indicate that chloroplastic MDHAR plays an important role in alleviating photoinhibition of PSII by elevating ascorbate (AsA) level under salt- and PEG-induced osmotic stress.

We report here that disruption of function of the ω-3 FATTY ACID DESATURASE7 (FAD7) enhances plant defenses against aphids. The suppressor of prosystemin-mediated responses2 (spr2) mutation in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), which eliminates the function of FAD7, reduces the settling behavior, survival, and fecundity of the potato aphid (Macrosiphum euphorbiae). Likewise, the antisense suppression of LeFAD 7 expression in wild-type tomato plants reduces aphid infestations. Aphid resistance in the spr2 mutant is associated with enhanced levels of salicylic acid (SA) and mRNA encoding the pathogenesis-related protein P4. Introduction of the Naphthalene/salicylate hydroxylase transgene, which suppresses SA accumulation, restores wild-type levels of aphid susceptibility to spr2. Resistance in spr2 is also lost when we utilize virus-induced gene silencing to suppress the expression of NONEXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED PROTEINS1 (NPR1), a positive regulator of many SA-dependent defenses. These results indicate that FAD7 suppresses defenses against aphids that are mediated through SA and NPR1. Although loss of function of FAD7 also inhibits the synthesis of jasmonate (JA), the effects of this desaturase on aphid resistance are not dependent on JA; other mutants impaired in JA synthesis (acx1) or perception (jai1-1) show wild-type levels of aphid susceptibility, and spr2 retains aphid resistance when treated with methyl jasmonate. Thus, FAD7 may influence JA-dependent defenses against chewing insects and SA-dependent defenses against aphids through independent effects on JA synthesis and SA signaling. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutants Atfad7-2 and Atfad7-1fad8 also show enhanced resistance to the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) compared with wild-type controls, indicating that FAD7 influences plant-aphid interactions in at least two plant families.