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Adventitious root (AR) formation plays an important role in vegetatively propagated plants. Cytokinin (CK) inhibits AR formation, but the molecular mechanisms driving this process remain unknown. In this study, we confirmed that CK content is related to AR formation and further revealed that a high auxin/CK ratio was beneficial to AR formation in apple (Malus domestica). A correlation between expression of CK-responsive TEOSINTE BRANCHED1, CYCLOIDEA, and PCF17 (MdTCP17) and AR formation in response to CK was identified, and overexpression of MdTCP17 in transgenic apple inhibited AR formation. Yeast two-hybrid, bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and co-immunoprecipitation assays revealed an interaction between MdTCP17 and WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX11 (MdWOX11), and a significant correlation between the expression of MdWOX11 and AR ability. Overexpression of MdWOX11 promoted AR primordium formation in apple, while interference of MdWOX11 inhibited AR primordium production. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between MdWOX11 and LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES DOMAIN29 (MdLBD29) expression, and yeast one-hybrid, dual luciferase reporter, and ChIP-qPCR assays verified the binding of MdWOX11 to the MdLBD29 promoter with a WOX-box element in the binding sequence. Furthermore, MdTCP17 reduced the binding of MdWOX11 and MdLBD29 promoters, and coexpression of MdTCP17 and MdWOX11 reduced MdLBD29 expression. Together, these results explain the function and molecular mechanism of MdTCP17-mediated CK inhibition of AR primordium formation, which could be used to improve apple rootstocks genetically.

International audience; Key message Bi-axis training increased vegetative shoot light interception and modeled photosynthetic rate, and reduced fruiting shoot mutual shading and vegetative growth by optimizing canopy structure compared to single-axis in young apple trees. Improving light interception and distribution within canopy are constant objectives of training through manipulating tree architecture. A bi-axis training system with two primary scaffolds has been proposed to improve flowering and dry matter production in apple trees. In this study, 'Fuji' apple trees trained using a bi-axis or single-axis training system were compared. Twelve three-dimensional (3D) virtual apple trees were reconstructed by combining 3D digitizing and allometric relationships for three shoot types (vegetative long shoot, VL; fruiting shoot, FS; vegetative short shoot, VS), to evaluate canopy structure impacts on light interception. Light interception efficiency was evaluated by silhouette to total area ratio (STAR). The potential canopy photosynthetic rate was evaluated by the eco-physiological RATP model. The leaf area of VL in bi-axis trained trees was approximately 40% lower than that in single-axis trees. Lower leaf area and more uniform spatial distribution were noted in VL in bi-axis than in single-axis trees. This led to more even spatial light distribution and more shoots having higher STAR in bi-axis than in single-axis trees, regardless of the whole tree or shoot type. In the virtual orchard, bi-axis trees had a 25% and 10% STAR increase in VS and VL, respectively, but a similar STAR for FS compared to single-axis trees. Mutual shading between neighboring trees in the virtual orchard made of bi-axis trees was significantly lower than that with single-axis trees for FS. The modeled canopy net photosynthetic rate was 26% higher in bi-axis than in single-axis trees. With the increase in tree age, the projected leaf area increased, but the porosity of the canopy decreased, and mutual shading increased for the whole canopy and all shoot types, irrespective of training systems. These results indicated that manipulating scaffolds in apple trees can regulate canopy structure, light interception, and vegetative growth during the early developmental stages.

The adsorption capacity of the water hyacinth-derived biochar on U(VI) was investigated in this study. The as-prepared sample was characterized by methods of SEM, XRD, XPS, FT-IR and BET. Functional groups on the biochar surface could undergo complexation with U(VI). Effects of adsorption dose, temperature, contact time, solution pH and ionic strength were studied by static batch experiments. Results show that the adsorption could be better fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation and Langmuir model. The solution pH has a great impact on the U(VI) adsorption, while the ionic strength exerts no significant effect.

In a conventional glass microfluidic system, the vertical connection is the most frequently used for connections between a microfluidic device and its peripheral equipment. However, it leads to a significant pressure drop at the inlet of a microfluidic device, decreases the flow velocity, and can introduce few samples than expected. To overcome these problems, a horizontal connection method for glass microfluidic devices, which have advantages such as keeping pressure/flow velocity, compatible with small space, reduced sample loss and convenience for modularisation is reported. These advantages are important for high-speed analysis on precious samples such as single-cell flow cytometry. In this work, they proposed a horizontal connection method which showed compatibility with high pressure (at least 0.6 MPa) at inlet without leakage, small loss of injected samples (

On the Chinese Loess Plateau, soil erosion models are often employed to predict erosion rates and responses to land‐use/‐cover changes (LUCCs). Previous Loess Plateau studies employed individual models with specific emphases but model comparisons have not been undertaken so the relative performance of different models is not known. In this study we employed two extensively applied models (RUSLE and PESERA) to investigate the impact of LUCCs during 1990–2000 and 2000–2011 on soil erosion rates for a typical Loess Plateau catchment (i.e. Huangfuchuan), and compared their modelling results. Land‐cover patterns for 1990, 2000 and 2011 were derived from Landsat images. The catchment was dominated by grassland (over 70%) and experienced considerable LUCCs: vegetation coverage increased from 38.3% in 1990 to 48.7% in 2011. Modelling results suggested that mean soil erosion rates of the catchment increased under the 1990–2000 LUCC and decreased under the 2000–2011 LUCC. Sandy land and scrubland were found to suffer from most severe soil erosion and thus should be the focus of future conservation work. Mean soil erosion rates on steep slopes (i.e. > 25°) were predicted to increase under the 2000–2011 LUCC, implying that further work is still needed to study soil erosion processes and their conservation on steep slopes. Model comparisons showed that RUSLE predictions were higher than PESERA predictions for most areas (particularly for steep slopes), and the former were generally closer than the latter to check‐dam sediment yield measurements. RUSLE and PESERA results were not linearly correlated, possibly due to differences in their underlying principles and their sensitivity to crucial parameters – RUSLE is more sensitive to slope gradients while PESERA is more sensitive to vegetation coverage. PESERA needs improvement to better account for steep slope erosion processes on the Loess Plateau, while RUSLE needs improvement in the description of vegetation effects.

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Adventitious shoot (AS) regeneration accelerates plant reproduction and genetic transformation. WOX11 is involved in many biological processes, but its regulation of AS regeneration has not been reported. Here, we showed that the genotype and CK/IAA ratio of apple leaves were the key factors that affected their capacity for AS formation. Moreover, the expression level of MdWOX11 was negatively correlated with the capacity for AS formation. Phenotypic analysis of MdWOX11 transgenic plants showed that overexpression of MdWOX11 inhibited AS formation. Endogenous hormone analysis demonstrated that the contents of auxin (IAA), cytokinin (CK), and abscisic acid (ABA) were higher in MdWOX11-RNAi plants than in MdWOX11-OE transgenic plants. We used RNA sequencing to examine the transcriptional responses of genes in MdWOX11-RNAi and MdWOX11-OE transgenic apple plants at different AS stages. We identified 8066 differentially expressed genes and focused our analysis on those involved in the IAA, CK, ABA, and gibberellin (GA) hormone signaling pathways. The expression of genes related to the CK signaling pathway and shoot development was higher in GL-3 than in MdWOX11-OE transgenic plants during the callus and AS emergence stages. However, the expression of MdCKX5 was higher in MdWOX11-OE transgenic plants than in GL3 and MdWOX11-RNAi transgenic plants. Yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assays, dual-luciferase reporter assays, and ChIP-qPCR showed that MdWOX11 binds to the promoter of MdCKX5, and a dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that MdWOX11 enhanced the promoter activity of MdCKX5. We concluded that MdCKX5 acts downstream of MdWOX11 to control AS formation, and we built a regulatory model of the suppression of AS formation by MdWOX11 in apple.

Adventitious shoot (AS) regeneration accelerates plant reproduction and genetic transformation.

Phosphoric acid-activated peanut shells (PS) were prepared by hydrothermal treatment at 200–800 °C and denoted as peanut shell-activated carbons (PACs). The PACs were characterized as adsorbent for...

Adventitious roots (ARs) induced are essential for apple rootstock vegetative propagation, however, a transcriptomic analysis of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that mediate AR formation under exogenous indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) treated in the apple dwarf rootstock ‘M26’ (Malus pumila Mill.) rarely been explored. To explore this, we examined ‘M26’ stem cuttings treated with IBA (1 mg L−1) and control (without IBA treatment), where anatomical analysis showed IBA-treated stems began to develop AR primordia within third day and ARs occurred after 16 days, while the control had no ARs developed. An assessment of hormone content levels in basal stem cuttings showed that, after IBA treatment, indole-3-acetic acid, zeatin riboside, and jasmonic acid were increased at third day but subsequently decreased later, however gibberellin-3 was decreased at third day. The control and IBA-treated third day basal stem cuttings were sent for whole-genome, high-throughput RNA sequencing. The results showed a total of 855 reliable lncRNAs were identified as novel lncRNAs and 63 novel lncRNAs were defined as IBA-responsive lncRNAs. Fifteen IBA-responsive lncRNAs were predicted to be putative targets for 94 miRNAs and three IBA-responsive lncRNA (CUFF.16781, CUFF.2143 and CUFF.41325) was predicted to be the target mimic of mdm-miR156 and mdm-miR396. Functional annotations of these potential target genes suggest that they are involved in many different biological processes, including plant hormone and sucrose signaling, which suggests that IBA-responsive lncRNAs may participate in AR formation in apple rootstocks. This study sheds light on IBA-mediated AR formation in apple rootstock cuttings and provides a foundation for further research.

Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is an organ-specific autoimmune disease, and its occurrence and development seriously threaten human health. Therefore, CAG is medically characterized as a serious precancerous lesion. We used a convolutional neural network (CNN) to construct a deep learning network, which helps improve the accuracy of diagnosing CAG. In this paper, we used the INPAINT_TELEA algorithm to remove the watermark in gastric antrum images. According to the characteristics of the dataset, a 14 layers’ convolutional neural network (SE-CAG) was designed, in which the BN layer and scale layer are added to prevent overfitting. The designed network is integrated into the Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) block. Through the feature reuse principle of SE block, the effective features are highlighted, to realize the classification of our datasets. From experimental results on our dataset, the detection rate of chronic atrophic gastritis is 88.15%, which makes it possible to diagnose CAG automatically. Compared with the ResNet (Deep Residual Network) and VGG16, on our own dataset, the proposed model shows a better performance in diagnosing CAG. Then, we used the FP-Growth algorithm to explore the relationship between atrophic gastritis and other gastroscopic symptoms, so that it can establish the relationship between endoscopy and diagnosis results.

Adventitious root (AR) formation is an essential process for the vegetative propagation of apple rootstocks. However, the mechanisms of miR160 mediate AR formation in apple remains to be seen. In this study, five mdm-miR160 family members were identified in apple rootstocks and two AUXIN RESPONSIVE FACTOR (MdARF16 and MdARF17) were found as the targets of mdm-miR160. Furthermore, the sequences of mdm-miR160 family members’ precursors were cloned from four different AR rooting ability apple rootstocks, whereas, mdm-miR160a, mdm-miR160c and mdm-miR160e were highly conserved than mdm-miR160b and mdm-miR160d. Mdm-miR160 and their targets expression patterns showed obviously negative relationship in different stages during AR formation. In addition, the transcript level of mdm-miR160 was higher in ‘SH6’ and lower in ‘MP’, where it responds to exogenous indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Mdm-miR160a was cloned from ‘M26’ and used for further experiments. The result of over-expressed mdm-miR160a in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.cv.SR1) inhibited AR formation in 35S:MdMIR160a transgenic lines as compared with WT, whereas, exogenous IBA treatment could promote AR formation in 35S:MdMIR160a transgenic lines. Expression of five endogenous miRNAs: miR167c, miR393a, miR396a, miR396b, and miR156 in transgenic lines were lower than in WT. Moreover, the targets of endogenous miRNAs in transgenic lines showed different expression patterns with WT. In consistent, mdm-miR160 was an auxin responsive factor and participated in AR formation in apple rootstock, however, over-expressed mdm-miR160a has inhibitory effect on AR formation while exogenous IBA treatment could raise the rooting ability of transgenic lines.

Adventitious root (AR) formation is a critical process for the clonal propagation of horticultural crops. Polyamines are involved in several processes associated with root growth such as cell division and cell development. In this study, Malus prunifolia var. ringo stem cuttings were treated with exogenous spermidine (Spd) 20 μmol/L in order to investigate the physiological and molecular mechanism of Spd to promote ARs formation. The results of the present study indicated an involvement of Spd in AR formation in apple rootstock by interacting with IAA. Morphological and anatomical observation revealed that the Spd application promotes AR formation. According to our results exogenous Spd application promoted AR formation by improving the concentration of endogenous IAA and GA3 at 1, 3 and 1, 8 days respectively as well as by decreasing the ABA and JA contents at all time points except JA at 16 day in response to Spd treatment. Furthermore no significant difference was observed in BR and ZR levels at all time points except at 8 day in both groups. Spd application obviously up-regulated the expression of Spd related genes (MdSAMDC1, MdPAO and MdSPDS6) and auxin biosynthesis related genes (MdIAA7, MdIAA14 and MdIAA23) in the basal parts of apple rootstock. On the other hand MdWOX11 up-regulated the expression of MdLBD16 and MdLBD29, which induced the expression of cell cycle related genes MdCYCD1;1 and MdCYCP4;1. Collectively, our work laid the foundation for applied research and could be useful in future crop improvement programs.

In view of the problem of how to rationally allocate berth and quay crane resources and improve service quality in container terminals, based on analyzing the actual operation of container ships, this paper first divides the port time of ships into different time intervals. Then, based on the service cost of the ship in different time intervals and that of the ship's deviation from the preferred location, a joint berths and quay cranes optimization model is proposed to minimize the total service cost of the arriving ships in the planned period. Finally, the ship berthing time, berthing location, the number of the assigned quay cranes and the start time of operation are optimized by the improved cuckoo search to solve the feasible solution of the model. The experimental results show that the method is effective and feasible.

OBJECTIVE Glucocorticoids (GCs) are the first-line treatment for myasthenia gravis (MG) and act as long-term immunosuppressants. However, GCs can induce osteoporosis and bone fractures. In this study, we evaluate the effects of oral alendronate and alfacalcidol, or alfacalcidol alone on the bone of Chinese patients with MG who will initiate treatment with GCs. DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 75 patients were included in this 12-month prospective, open-label, single-centre study. Patients with bone mineral density (BMD) T-score less than -1.0 at baseline were treated with 70 mg of alendronate per week. Patients with BMD T-score greater than -1.0 at baseline were included in the alfacalcidol-alone group. Patients in two groups were treated with 0.25 μg of alfacalcidol every other day and 600 mg of calcium daily. RESULTS After 12 months of treatment, the mean BMD of lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip increased by 3.4% (P = .002), 1.8% (P = .21) and 2.6% (P = .02), respectively, in alendronate group. In alfacalcidol-alone group, the mean BMD of lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip decreased by 6.1%, 3.2% and 3.3%, respectively (all P