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Wheat is the main component for producing the flavor liquor Daqu. It is essential to meet the raw material quality requirements for high-quality Daqu to breed special wheat varieties and simultaneously develop the supporting cultivation practices. From 2018 to 2020, a field experiment involving four representative wheat cultivars (Chuanmai 104, Mianmai 367, Xikemai 8, and Shumai 1671) and six nitrogen application rates (0, 45, 90, 135, 180, and 225 kg/hm2) in four different agro-ecological sites (Guanghan, Zitong, and Xichang in Sichuan Province, and Nanzhang in Hubei Province) in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River basin was conducted. This study evaluated the main quality parameters of wheat raw materials and the quality of the flavor liquor Daqu. The results showed that, for most sensory and chemical parameters of Daqu, the main effects of year, location and variety, were all significant (P

Background: Sleep deprivation (SD) has emerged as a significant public health concern because of its adverse effects on cognition and behavior. However, the influence of circadian rhythms on SD and brain activities has been less studied. This study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional connectivity density (FCD) metrics to investigate the interaction between sleep pressure and circadian rhythms during SD. Methods: Thirty-six volunteers with good sleep habits underwent a sleep deprivation trial. Sleepiness was assessed using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) at multiple time points, and fMRI scans were conducted to derive global and local FCD (gFCD and iFCD) values. This study focused on specific brain regions and networks, including the thalamus, the frontoparietal network (FPN), and the default mode network (DMN). Results: Analysis indicated significant changes in gFCD and iFCD values in several key brain regions. A strong correlation was found between sleepiness and both gFCD and iFCD values in certain areas, such as the left superior temporal gyrus and left thalamus. The gFCD values in these regions showed a gradual increase across sessions, while iFCD values in the right superior frontal gyrus decreased. Conclusions: This study revealed that SD leads to enhanced functional activities in the DMN and thalamus and decreased activity in the FPN. These changes in brain activity were significantly correlated with increases in sleepiness, as measured by the SSS. Our findings underscore the importance of understanding the neural underpinnings of SD and could guide future clinical interventions aimed at mitigating its effects.

Abstract The circadian clock participates in maintaining homeostasis in peripheral tissues, including intervertebral discs (IVDs). Abnormal mechanical loading is a known risk factor for intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Based on the rhythmic daily loading pattern of rest and activity, we hypothesized that abnormal mechanical loading could dampen the IVD clock, contributing to IDD. Here, we investigated the effects of abnormal loading on the IVD clock and aimed to inhibit compression-induced IDD by targeting the core clock molecule brain and muscle Arnt-like protein-1 (BMAL1). In this study, we showed that BMAL1 KO mice exhibit radiographic features similar to those of human IDD and that BMAL1 expression was negatively correlated with IDD severity by systematic analysis based on 149 human IVD samples. The intrinsic circadian clock in the IVD was dampened by excessive loading, and BMAL1 overexpression by lentivirus attenuated compression-induced IDD. Inhibition of the RhoA/ROCK pathway by Y-27632 or melatonin attenuated the compression-induced decrease in BMAL1 expression. Finally, the two drugs partially restored BMAL1 expression and alleviated IDD in a diurnal compression model. Our results first show that excessive loading dampens the circadian clock of nucleus pulposus tissues via the RhoA/ROCK pathway, the inhibition of which potentially protects against compression-induced IDD by preserving BMAL1 expression. These findings underline the importance of the circadian clock for IVD homeostasis and provide a potentially effective therapeutic strategy for IDD.

Premium wheat with a high end-use quality is generally lacking in China, especially high-quality hard and soft wheat. Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1 (puroindoline genes) influence wheat grain hardness (i.e., important wheat quality-related parameter) and are among the main targets in wheat breeding programs. However, the mechanism by which puroindoline genes control grain hardness remains unclear. In this study, three hard wheat puroindoline variants (MY26, GX3, and ZM1) were compared with a soft wheat variety (CM605) containing the wild-type puroindoline genotype. Specifically, proteomic methods were used to screen for differentially abundant proteins (DAPs). In total, 6253 proteins were identified and quantified via a high-throughput tandem mass tag quantitative proteomic analysis. Of the 208 DAPs, 115, 116, and 99 proteins were differentially expressed between MY26, GX3, and ZM1 (hard wheat varieties) and CM605, respectively. The cluster analysis of protein relative abundances divided the proteins into six clusters. Of these proteins, 67 and 41 proteins were, respectively, more and less abundant in CM605 than in MY26, GX3, and ZM1. Enrichment analyses detected six GO terms, five KEGG pathways, and five IPR terms that were shared by all three comparisons. Furthermore, 12 proteins associated with these terms or pathways were found to be differentially expressed in each comparison. These proteins, which included cysteine proteinase inhibitors, invertases, low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits, and alpha amylase inhibitors, may be involved in the regulation of grain hardness. The candidate genes identified in this study may be relevant for future analyses of the regulatory mechanism underlying grain hardness.

Through many field geology observations, the authors find that sandstone and carbonate rocks, which were originally thought to be sedimentary, have magmatic characteristics and should classified as magmatic rather than sedimentary rocks. Combining this information with the principles of Bowen’s reaction series, the authors infer that the Earth has evolved gradually from high temperature to low temperature and, through crystallization differentiation, has experienced the following stages: high melting point metal to ultramafic rock to mafic rock to neutral rock to acidic rock to sandstone to carbonate rock to mudstone to ice. Since fossils that preserve the remains of creatures, such as fossil fish, occur in magmatic rocks rather than sedimentary rocks, the organisms were not aquatic but lived in high-temperature fluids with magmatic characteristics. Therefore, the authors conclude that during the evolution of rocks from high temperature to low temperature, biological evolution from high temperature to low temperature also occurred on the Earth and that carbon-based life did not originate in the ocean but in high-temperature carbon-containing fluids; this is a subversive statement. This understanding contradicts the original interpretation, that is, that fossils formed under normal temperature and pressure conditions. This point explains the Cambrian explosion and later mass extinctions.

Biofortification is a sustainable strategy to alleviate micronutrient deficiency in humans. It is necessary to improve grain zinc (GZnC) and iron concentrations (GFeC) in wheat based on genetic knowledge. However, the precise dissection of the genetic architecture underlying GZnC and GFeC remains challenging. In this study, high-resolution genome-wide association studies were conducted for GZnC and GFeC by three different models using 166 wheat cultivars and 373,106 polymorphic markers from the wheat 660K and 90K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. Totally, 25 and 16 stable loci were detected for GZnC and GFeC, respectively. Among them, 17 loci for GZnC and 8 for GFeC are likely to be new quantitative trait locus/loci (QTL). Based on gene annotations and expression profiles, 28 promising candidate genes were identified for Zn/Fe uptake (8), transport (11), storage (3), and regulations (6). Of them, 11 genes were putative wheat orthologs of known Arabidopsis and rice genes related to Zn/Fe homeostasis. A brief model, such as genes related to Zn/Fe homeostasis from root uptake, xylem transport to the final seed storage was proposed in wheat. Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers were successfully developed for two major QTL of GZnC on chromosome arms 3AL and 7AL, respectively, which were independent of thousand kernel weight and plant height. The 3AL QTL was further validated in a bi-parental population under multi-environments. A wheat multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) transporter TraesCS3A01G499300, the ortholog of rice gene OsPEZ2, was identified as a potential candidate gene. This study has advanced our knowledge of the genetic basis underlying GZnC and GFeC in wheat and provides valuable markers and candidate genes for wheat biofortification.

Permutation-based steganography in polygonal meshes can provide considerably large embedding capacities for hiding secret messages. However, corresponding steganalysis techniques against such methods have never been studied. This paper identifies the essential differences between naturally generated meshes and meshes produced by permutation-based steganography methods. It is found that the two types of meshes differ significantly in the distribution of topological distances between consecutive mesh elements. Therefore, by measuring the orderliness of the vertex list and the face list of meshes, we develop solutions for several mesh steganalysis problems. These solutions are effective, leading to high detection accuracy; and they are also universal, requiring no knowledge such as which steganography method is used and what data embedding rate is adopted for the detection mechanism to work. Moreover, this paper also presents a security-improved permutation-based mesh steganography approach, by taking advantage of the connectivity information of polygonal meshes and establishing a good trade-off between embedding capacity and undetectability. Without bringing global changes, our approach embeds secret messages into local neighborhoods on meshes. As a result, meshes generated by the proposed steganography approach tend to have natural structures that are unlikely to draw suspicions to steganalyzers.

Sleep deprivation (SD) has become very common in contemporary society, where people work around the clock. SD-induced cognitive deficits show large inter-individual differences and are trait-like with known neural correlates. However, few studies have used neuroimaging to predict vulnerability to SD. Here, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) data were collected from 60 healthy subjects after resting wakefulness and after one night of SD. The number of PVT lapses was then used to classify participants on the basis of whether they were vulnerable or resilient to SD. We explored the viability of graph-theory-based degree centrality to accurately classify vulnerability to SD. Compared with during resting wakefulness, widespread changes in degree centrality (DC) were found after SD, indicating significant reorganization of sleep homeostasis with respect to activity in resting state brain network architecture. Support vector machine (SVM) analysis using leave-one-out cross-validation achieved a correct classification rate of 84.75% [sensitivity 82.76%, specificity 86.67%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 0.94] for differentiating vulnerable subjects from resilient subjects. Brain areas that contributed most to the classification model were mainly located within the sensorimotor network, default mode network, and thalamus. Furthermore, we found a significantly negative correlation between changes in PVT lapses and DC in the thalamus after SD. These findings suggest that resting-state network measures combined with a machine learning algorithm could have broad potential applications in screening vulnerability to SD.

OBJECTIVES: Cerebral ischemia seriously threatens human health and is characterized by high rates of incidence, disability and death. Developing an ideal animal model of cerebral ischemia that reflects the human clinical features is critical for pathological studies and clinical research. The goal of this study is to establish a local cerebral ischemia model in rhesus macaque, thereby providing an optimal animal model to study cerebral ischemia. METHODS: Eight healthy rhesus monkeys were selected for this study. CT scans were performed before the operation to exclude cerebral vascular and intracranial lesions. Under guidance and monitoring with digital subtraction angiography (DSA), a microcatheter was inserted into the M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) via the femoral artery. Then, autologous white thrombi were introduced to block blood flow. Immediately following embolization, multisequence MRI was used to monitor cerebrovascular and brain parenchymal conditions. Twenty-four hours after embolization, 2 monkeys were sacrificed and subjected to perfusion, fixation and pathological examination. RESULTS: The cerebral ischemia model was established in 7 rhesus monkeys; one animal died during intubation. DSA and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) indicated the presence of an arterial occlusion. MRI showed acute local cerebral ischemia. HE staining revealed infarct lesions formed in the brain tissues, and thrombi were present in the cerebral artery. CONCLUSION: We established a rhesus macaque model of local cerebral ischemia by autologous thrombus placement. This model has important implications for basic and clinical research on cerebral ischemia. MRI and DSA can evaluate the models to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.

In this work, a 3D multi-physics coupled model was developed to analyze the temperature and thermal stress distribution in a planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack, and then the effects of different flow channels (co-flow, counter-flow and cross-flow) and electrolyte thickness were investigated. The simulation results indicate that the generated power is higher while the thermal stress is lower in the co-flow mode than those in the cross-flow mode. In the cross-flow mode, a gas inlet and outlet arrangement is proposed to increase current density by about 10%. The generated power of the stack increases with a thin electrolyte layer, but the temperature and its gradient of the stack also increase with increase of heat generation. The thermal stress for two typical sealing materials is also studied. The predicted results can be used for design and optimization of the stack structure to achieve lower stress and longer life.

Leaf pubescence is an important trait closely associated with plant adaptability to specialized habitats. Baimaomai (BMM) is a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) landrace originating from the high-altitude, drought-prone environment of Sichuan Province, China with long, dense leaf pubescence. A population of 234 recombinant inbred lines (F10) developed from the cross between Chuanmai104 (CM104), which lacks leaf pubescence, and BMM with pubescent leaves, was used to conduct a phenotypic evaluation of leaf pubescence. Three quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected on chromosome arms 7BS, 3DL and 3AL using a high-density wheat 50K single-nucleotide polymorphism array in four environments. The QTLs were designated QLp.saas-7BS, QLp.saas-3DL and QLp.saas-3AL. QLp.saas-3AL, derived from BMM, and QLp.saas-3DL, derived from CM104, were new minor-effect loci. QLp.saas-7BS, derived from BMM, was a novel major-effect locus detected in all environments and was localized in a 0.48 Mb interval on chromosome arm 7BS based on the wheat ‘Chinese Spring’ reference genome. QLp.saas-7BS explained up to 40.77% of the total phenotypic variance. KASP markers tightly linked to QLp.saas-7BS were developed and verified. The present results provide valuable information for further fine mapping, cloning, and marker-assisted selection with QLp.saas-7BS in wheat.

In the field of robotic hand design, soft body and anthropomorphic design are two trends with a promising future. Designing soft body anthropomorphic robotic hands with human-like grasping ability, but with a simple and reliable structure, is a challenge that still has not been not fully solved. In this paper, we present an anatomically correct robotic hand 3D model that aims to realize the human hand’s functionality using a single type of 3D-printable material. Our robotic hand 3D model is combined with bones, ligaments, tendons, pulley systems, and tissue. We also describe the fabrication method to rapidly produce our robotic hand in 3D printing, wherein all parts are made by elastic 50 A (shore durometer) resin. In the experimental section, we show that our robotic hand has a similar motion range to a human hand with substantial grasping strength and compare it with the latest other designs of anthropomorphic robotic hands. Our new design greatly reduces the fabrication cost and assembly time. Compared with other robotic hand designs, we think our robotic hand may induce a new approach to the design and production of robotic hands as well as other related mechanical structures.

Abstract We present a variational method for subdivision surface reconstruction from a noisy dense mesh. A new set of subdivision rules with continuous sharpness control is introduced into Loop subdivision for better modeling subdivision surface features such as semi-sharp creases, creases, and corners. The key idea is to assign a sharpness value to each edge of the control mesh to continuously control the surface features. Based on the new subdivision rules, a variational model with L1 norm is formulated to find the control mesh and the corresponding sharpness values of the subdivision surface that best fits the input mesh. An iterative solver based on the augmented Lagrangian method and particle swarm optimization is used to solve the resulting non-linear, non-differentiable optimization problem. Our experimental results show that our method can handle meshes well with sharp/semi-sharp features and noise.

The Non-Uniform Rational B-spline (NURBS) surface not only has the characteristics of the rational Bézier surface, but also has changeable knot vectors and weights, which can express the quadric surface accurately. In this paper, we investigated new bounds of the first- and second-order partial derivatives of NURBS surfaces. A pilot study was performed using inequality theorems and degree reduction of B-spline basis functions. Theoretical analysis provides simple forms of the new bounds. Numerical examples are performed to illustrate that our method has sharper bounds than the existing ones.

Dexterity robotic hands can (Cummings, 1996) greatly enhance the functionality of humanoid robots, but the making of such hands with not only human-like appearance but also the capability of performing the natural movement of social robots is a challenging problem. The first challenge is to create the hand’s articulated structure and the second challenge is to actuate it to move like a human hand. A robotic hand for humanoid robot should look and behave human like. At the same time, it also needs to be light and cheap for widely used purposes. We start with studying the biomechanical features of a human hand and propose a simplified mechanical model of robotic hands, which can achieve the important local motions of the hand. Then, we use 3D modeling techniques to create a single interlocked hand model that integrates pin and ball joints to our hand model. Compared to other robotic hands, our design saves the time required for assembling and adjusting, which makes our robotic hand ready-to-use right after the 3D printing is completed. Finally, the actuation of the hand is realized by cables and motors. Based on this approach, we have designed a cost-effective, 3D printable, compact, and lightweight robotic hand. Our robotic hand weighs 150 g, has 15 joints, which are similar to a real human hand, and 6 Degree of Freedom (DOFs). It is actuated by only six small size actuators. The wrist connecting part is also integrated into the hand model and could be customized for different robots such as Nadine robot (Magnenat Thalmann et al., 2017). The compact servo bed can be hidden inside the Nadine robot’s sleeve and the whole robotic hand platform will not cause extra load to her arm as the total weight (150 g robotic hand and 162 g artificial skin) is almost the same as her previous unarticulated robotic hand which is 348 g. The paper also shows our test results with and without silicon artificial hand skin, and on Nadine robot.