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Infusing undergraduate curricula with authentic research training is an important contemporary challenge. Such exposure typically occurs through mentored research (MR) or course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). In Asian contexts, CURE implementation is rare, while MR is often a graduation requirement. In this study, mentor interviews and mentee focus groups were used to characterize the learning challenges associated with this requirement at a Chinese university. An intensive 6-week CURE was then implemented as an MR preparatory program to help mitigate the identified challenges. This program contained seven site-specific features not typically included in other CUREs, each designed to improve different aspects of student readiness for MR. Post-CURE surveys, focus groups, and interviews demonstrated CURE enrollment significantly improved subsequent MR outcomes. Almost 90% of all enrollees, for example, began their first MR experience in their second year, more than twice the rate of non-enrollees. Enrollees also reported greater confidence in their research skills and more frequent experiences working in multiple labs. This study reports both immediate CURE and downstream MR outcomes, using the former to help explain the latter. A comprehensive CURE implementation process is described, offering a potential model for the design of other programs with similar research enhancement goals.

This paper investigates the finite-time time-varying formation-containment control problem for satellite formation flying under discontinuous control protocols based on nonsmooth analysis. The desired consequence is that the follower satellites can converge into a dynamic convex hull in finite time, which is spanned by leader satellites' time-varying formation according to the reference signal. Firstly, to accomplish this objective, a finite-time time-varying formation-containment control strategy is proposed for satellite formation system in present of the bounded disturbances and satellites' accelerations, which are known for each satellite. Then, considering the case that the information of disturbances may not be measured accurately and the accelerations of satellites may not be obtained globally in some practice application scenarios, a fully distributed adaptive control strategy is proposed by introducing the dynamic variables. The adaptive variables can compensate the unknown items and adjust with the evolution of neighbour satellites' states, which makes the controller more flexible. Moreover, the proposed control strategies are able to guarantee a fast dynamic response and also a suppression of disturbance. Finally, the performances of the proposed strategies are demonstrated by numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RNA‐binding proteins (RBPs) are components of the post‐transcriptional regulatory system, but their regulatory effects on complex traits remain unknown. Using an integrated strategy involving map‐based cloning, functional characterizations, and transcriptomic and population genomic analyses, we revealed that RBP‐K (LOC_Os08g23120), RBP‐A (LOC_Os11g41890), and RBP‐J (LOC_Os10g33230) encode proteins that form an RBP‐A‐J‐K complex that negatively regulates rice yield‐related traits. Examinations of the RBP‐A‐J‐K complex indicated RBP‐K functions as a relatively non‐specific RBP chaperone that enables RBP‐A and RBP‐J to function normally. Additionally, RBP‐J most likely affects GA pathways, resulting in considerable increases in grain and panicle lengths, but decreases in grain width and thickness. In contrast, RBP‐A negatively regulates the expression of genes most likely involved in auxin‐regulated pathways controlling cell wall elongation and carbohydrate transport, with substantial effects on the rice grain filling process as well as grain length and weight. Evolutionarily, RBP‐K is relatively ancient and highly conserved, whereas RBP‐J and RBP‐A are more diverse. Thus, the RBP‐A‐J‐K complex may represent a typical functional model for many RBPs and protein complexes that function at transcriptional and post‐transcriptional levels in plants and animals for increased functional consistency, efficiency, and versatility, as well as increased evolutionary potential. Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of RBP‐mediated post‐transcriptional regulation for the diversity of complex traits. Furthermore, rice grain yield and quality may be enhanced by introducing various complete or partial loss‐of‐function mutations to specific RBP genes using clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR‐associated protein 9 technology and by exploiting desirable natural tri‐genic allelic combinations at the loci encoding the components of the RBP‐A‐J‐K complex through marker‐assisted selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]