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In an attempt to analyze the effect of different oral tasks on the use of discourse markers (DMs) in second language (L2) Portuguese by first language (L1) Chinese speakers at different L2 proficiency levels, the current study is oriented by two research questions: (1) in what way does L2 proficiency of L1 Chinese speakers influence the use of DMs in Portuguese across tasks in terms of the frequency and variety of different DM classes? (2) how does oral task type affect the use of DMs by L1 Chinese speakers of L2 Portuguese in terms of the frequency and variety of different DM classes? Data for the present study were collected by using two oral tasks, conversation task and narrative task, conducted by 12 Chinese speakers of Portuguese at a lower and higher L2 proficiency levels. Results showed that the Chinese speakers tended to use the DMs in L2 Portuguese at a higher rate and wider variety when they were asked to perform the conversation task and the use of some DM categories seems not to stay correlated with the L2 proficiency levels across tasks.

Background The inflammatory burden index (IBI) is a novel indicator to assess the systemic inflammatory response. Patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and non-hyperlipidemia still experience major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). This study aims to investigate the relationship between IBI and in-hospital prognosis in patients with AMI and non-hyperlipidemia. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of 835 patients with AMI and non-hyperlipidemia. The receiver operator characteristic curve was used to compare the prognostic predictive value of systemic inflammation biomarkers. Associations between IBI continuous levels or quartile groups and in-hospital outcomes were evaluated by restricted cubic spline and Logistic regression adjusted for clinical factors and cardiovascular biomarkers. Results Compared with other systemic inflammation biomarkers, the IBI had the highest accuracy in predicting in-hospital MACE (C-statistic = 0.639, p

Given the high risk of lung cancer (LC) in patients with combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE), and the difficulty of early diagnosis, it is important to understand the impact of LC in these patients. The effect of LC on the development of acute exacerbation (AE) as a natural course of CPFE is still unknown. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients at the West China Hospital and enrolled 59 patients with CPFE combined with LC and 68 CPFE patients without LC for initial diagnosis matched in the same period. We compared the clinical characteristics and imaging features of CPFE patients with LC and without LC, and analyzed the associated factors for the prevalence of LC using binary logistic regression. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to explore risk factors of AE as a natural course of CPFE. Patients with CPFE combined with LC were more common among elderly male smokers. The most common pathological type of tumor was adenocarcinoma (24/59, 40.7%) and squamous cell carcinoma (18/59, 30.5%). Compared with those in the without LC group, the proportions of men, and ex- or current smokers, and the levels of smoking pack-years, serum CRP, IL-6, fibrinogen, complement C3 and C4 in patients with LC were significantly higher (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the proportion of natural-course-related AE (10.2% vs. 16.2%, p > 0.05) between the two groups. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that pack-years ≥ 20 (OR: 3.672, 95% CI: 1.165–11.579), family history of cancer (OR: 8.353, 95% CI: 2.368–10.417), the level of fibrinogen > 4.81 g/L (OR: 3.628, 95% CI: 1.403–9.385) and serum C3 > 1.00 g/L (OR: 5.299, 95% CI: 1.727–16.263) were independently associated with LC in patients with CPFE. Compared to those without AE, CPFE patients with AE had significantly higher levels of PLR and serum CRP, with obviously lower DLCO and VC. The obviously increased PLR (HR: 3.731, 95% CI: 1.288–10.813), and decreased DLCO%pred (HR: 0.919, 95% CI: 0.863–0.979) and VC%pred (HR: 0.577, 95% CI: 0.137–0.918) rather than the presence of LC independently contributed to the development of natural-course-related AE in patients with CPFE. Pack-years, family history of cancer, the levels of fibrinogen and serum C3 were independently associated with LC in patients with CPFE. The presence of LC did not significantly increase the risk of AE as a natural course of CPFE. Clinicians should give high priority to CPFE patients, especially those with more severe fibrosis and systemic inflammation, in order to be alert for the occurrence of AE.

This paper addresses the problem of resilient adaptive event-triggered control (AETC) for networked stochastic control systems (NSCSs) in the presence of the external disturbance and the energy-constrained, nonperiodic denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. A novel adaptive event-triggered scheme (AETS) that considers the effect of the energy-constrained, nonperiodic DoS attacks on the communication network is proposed to reduce the usage of system resources and adapt the variation of the plant state, and the model of closed-loop control system is established in the framework of time-delay systems and switched systems. Then, based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the stability criterion and the co-design algorithm are derived, which are used to ensure that the closed-loop control system is stochastically exponentially stable (SES) with an [Formula: see text] disturbance attenuation performance and to implement the co-design of state-feedback controller and proposed AETS, respectively. Unlike the network-based [Formula: see text] control approach for NSCSs in the existing literature, the resilient adaptive event-triggered network-based [Formula: see text] control approach proposed in this paper not only can considerably save the usage of system resources, but also can be resilient towards the energy-constrained, nonperiodic DoS attacks. Finally, a resilient AETC for the F16 aircraft system shows the effectiveness and superiority of proposed strategy.

In this paper, we focus on the false data injection attacks (FDIAs) on state estimation and corresponding countermeasures for data recovery in smart grid. Without the information about the topology and parameters of systems, two data-driven attacks (DDAs) with noisy measurements are constructed, which can escape the detection from the residue-based bad data detection (BDD) in state estimator. Moreover, in view of the limited energy of adversaries, the feasibility of proposed DDAs is improved, such as more sparse and low-cost DDAs than existing work. In addition, a new algorithm for measurement data recovery is introduced, which converts the data recovery problem against the DDAs into the problem of the low rank approximation with corrupted and noisy measurements. Especially, the online low rank approximate algorithm is employed to improve the real-time performance. Finally, the information on the 14-bus power system is employed to complete the simulation experiments. The results show that the constructed DDAs are stealthy under BBD but can be eliminated by the proposed data recovery algorithms, which improve the resilience of the state estimator against the attacks.

Owing to the deep integration of the information and communication technologies, power cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have become smart but are vulnerable to cyber attacks. To correctly assess the vulnerability of power CPSs and further study feasible countermeasures, we verify that a data-driven target attack on a nonlinear Granger causality graph (NGCG) can be constructed successfully, even if adversaries cannot acquire the configuration information of the systems. A NGCG is a unified framework for the processing and analysis of nonlinear measurement data or datasets and can be used to evaluate the significance of power nodes or lines. In addition, an algorithm including data-driven parameter estimation, noise removal and data reconstruction based on symplectic geometry is introduced to make the NGCG a parameter-free and noise-tolerant method. In particular, three new indexes on the weight analysis of the NGCG are defined to quantitatively evaluate the significance of power nodes or lines. Finally, several case studies of a nonlinear simulation model and power systems in detail verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed data-driven target attack. The results show the proposed target attack can select the key attack targets more accurately and lead to physical system collapse with the least number of attack steps.

This paper focuses on the data-driven optimal attack strategy against state estimation in cyber-physical systems (CPSs). Different from the research on attack strategies of specific attack types, the proposed attack strategy addresses the optimal selection of attacked targets, which can combine with different attack types and produce greater threats to CPS. In particular, a causality analysis (CA) on the measurement data is first proposed to evaluate the significance of nodes (sensor groups) and help the implementation of the optimal node attack, since the system topology and parameters are not available to adversaries. On the one hand, a multivariate transfer entropy and several data preprocessing methods are employed to complete the CA between sensor groups qualitatively. On the other hand, three new indexes, e.g., driver degree, are defined to complete the CA quantitatively. Moreover, the theoretical basis for the proposed node attack is provided, in which the superiority of the node attack is proven from the view of observability. Finally, the case studies on the smart grid are illustrated to verify the superiority of the proposed attack strategy.

In the present study on a wheat stay-green mutant, tasg1, we found that its delayed senescence at the late filling stage was related to the high cytokinin (CK) and N contents. RNA sequencing suggested that several genes may be responsible for the different senescence processes between wild-type (WT) and tasg1 plants. WT and tasg1 seedlings were treated with NH4NO3, lovastatin, and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), and the results suggested that the feedback of CK with N content regulated the leaf senescence in the tasg1 plants. Furthermore, a knock-out of the candidate gene cisZOGT1 (catalytic O-glucosylation in cis-zeatin) in the wheat mutant pool ‘Kronos’ exhibited delayed senescence at the late grain filling stage. Overall, our results suggested the cisZOGT1 gene has an important role in regulating wheat leaf senescence by regulating CK and N metabolism. At the same time, CK and N metabolism involved in delayed flag leaf senescence of tasg1 may be by a feedback pattern.

Cadmium (Cd) accumulation in agricultural soils is an increasingly serious problem, as plants absorb Cd, which inhibits their growth and development. Nonetheless, the molecular mechanisms underlying Cd detoxification and accumulation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) are unclear. Here, we isolated the U-box E3 ligase TaPUB1 from wheat and reported the functional characterization of TaPUB1 in Cd uptake and tolerance in wheat. Under Cd stress, TaPUB1 overexpression lines displayed higher photosynthetic rates than the wild type; opposite results were observed in the TaPUB1-RNAi lines. In addition, TaPUB1 overexpression lines showed reduced Cd uptake and accumulation, whereas RNAi plants exhibited a significant increase in Cd accumulation after Cd treatment. We further found that TaPUB1 enhanced the resistance of wheat to Cd stress in three ways. First, TaPUB1 interacts with and ubiquitinates TaIRT1, resulting in the inhibition of Cd uptake. Second, TaPUB1 interacts directly with and ubiquitinates TaIAA17, facilitates its degradation, and results in primary root elongation by activating the Aux signaling pathway under Cd stress. Moreover, TaPUB1 decreases ROS accumulation by regulating antioxidant-related gene expression and antioxidant enzyme activity under Cd stress. Thus, a molecular mechanism by which TaPUB1 regulates Cd uptake and tolerance by modulating the stability of TaIRT1 and TaIAA17 proteins was revealed.

Our purpose was to study the effect of hyperglycemia on macrophage TBK1-HIF-1α-mediated IL-17/IL-10 signaling and its correlation with coronary atherosclerosis. A total of 135 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) were divided into a stable CHD (SCHD) group (n = 30) and an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) group (n = 105) [nondiabetes mellitus (non-DM)-AMI, n = 60; DM-AMI, n = 45] from January to September 2020. The SYNTAX score and metabolic and inflammatory markers were quantified and compared. THP-1 cell studies and an animal study of coronary intimal hyperplasia were also carried out. We found that the DM-AMI group showed a higher SYNTAX score than the non-DM-AMI group (P < .05). The DM-AMI group showed the highest expression levels of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1), hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α), and interleukin (IL)-17 and the lowest expression level of IL-10, followed by the non-DM-AMI group and the SCHD group (P < .05). THP-1 cell studies showed that BAY87-2243 (a HIF-1α inhibitor) reversed the increase in IL-17 and decrease in IL-10 expression induced by hyperglycemia. Amlexanox (a TBK1 inhibitor) reversed the increase in HIF-1α expression induced by hyperglycemia. Amlexanox treatment resulted in lower coronary artery intimal hyperplasia and a larger lumen area in a diabetic swine model. We conclude that hyperglycemia might aggravate the complexity of coronary atherosclerosis through activation of TBK1-HIF-1α-mediated IL-17/IL-10 signaling. Thus, TBK1 may be a novel drug therapy target for CHD complicated with DM.

Objective This study aimed to explore whether treatment with the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog liraglutide reduces intimal hyperplasia after coronary stent implantation via regulation of glycemic variability, the NLRP3 inflammasome, and IL-10 in diabetic swine. Methods Fifteen pigs were divided into a diabetes mellitus (DM) group (n = 6), a DM + liraglutide treatment group (L group) (n = 6) and a sham group (n = 3). A total of 24 everolimus-eluting stents were implanted in the left anterior descending and right coronary arteries at 3 weeks. A novel continuous glucose monitoring system (GMS) was used for 2 weeks. The means and standard deviations (SDs) were measured and calculated by the GMS. At 22 weeks, the lumen area (LA), neointimal thickness (NIT), neointimal area (NIA), and percent area stenosis (%AS) were analyzed by optical coherence tomography. Plasma tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-10 were assayed by ELISA. The intima protein expression levels of NLRP3, interleukin-1β, interleukin-18 and interleukin-10 were examined using Western blot analysis. Histology was used to evaluate the healing response. In an in vitro study, THP-1 cells were divided into control, high glucose (HG), HG + liraglutide, and HG + liraglutide + Exe(9-39) (a GLP-1 receptor inhibitor) groups. Results The L group had a lower SD, NIT, NIA, and %AS; a larger LA; reduced inflammation and injury scores; lower expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, NLRP3, interleukin-1β, and interleukin-18; and higher expression of interleukin-10 compared with those of the DM group (p < 0.05). In the in vitro study, similar results were obtained in the HG + liraglutide group, and Exe(9-39) abolished the effect of liraglutide (p < 0.05). Conclusions Liraglutide treatment reduces intimal hyperplasia after stent implantation via regulation of glycemic variability, the NLRP3 inflammasome, and IL-10 in diabetic pigs in a GLP-1 receptor-dependent manner. Reducing the inflammation induced by glycemic variability may be one of the cardioprotective mechanisms of liraglutide.

The mechanism of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2)-mediated inflammatory signalling in macrophages when plaques rupture and the impact of hyperglycaemia on the signalling are unclear. The present study aimed to explore the impact of hyperglycaemia on PKM2-mediated NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome/stress granule signalling in macrophages and its correlation with plaque vulnerability in vivo and in vitro.From July to December 2019, 80 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) were divided into acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) (n = 57) (DM-STEMI, n = 21; non-DM-STEMI, n = 36) and stable CHD (SCHD) groups (n = 23). Circulating mononuclear cells were isolated. The value of peak troponin I (TnI), the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score, and the expression levels of the related markers were quantified and compared. In vitro studies on the THP-1 cells were also performed.The DM-STEMI group had a higher value of peak TnI and a higher GRACE risk score than the non-DM-STEMI group (p0.05). The highest expression levels of PKM2, NLRP3, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-18 and the lowest expression level of GTPase activating protein (SH3 domain)-binding protein 1 (G3BP1) (a stress granule marker protein) were observed in the DM-STEMI group, and they were followed by the non-DM-STEMI group and the SCHD group (p0.05). In vitro studies showed similar results and that TEPP-46 (a PKM2 activator) and 2-deoxy-d-glucose (a toxic glucose analogue) reversed the hyperglycaemia-induced increase in the NLRP3 inflammasome and decrease in G3BP1 expression.Hyperglycaemia might increase the activation of PKM2-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome/stress granule signalling and increase plaque vulnerability, associating it with worse prognosis. PKM2 may be a novel prognostic indicator and a new target for the treatment of patients with CHD and DM.

The TaMP gene from wheat encodes an α-mannosidase induced by salt stress that functions as negative regulator of salt tolerance in plants. Salt stress significantly affects growth and yield of crop plants. The α-mannosidases function in protein folding, trafficking, and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation in eukaryotic cells, and they are involved in abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Previously, we identified the α-mannosidase gene TaMP in wheat (Triticum aestivum). In this study, we investigated the function of TaMP in salt stress tolerance. TaMP expression was induced in wheat leaves by salt, drought, abscisic acid, and H2O2 treatments. Overexpressing TaMP in Brachypodium distachyon was associated with a salt-sensitive phenotype. Under salt stress, the overexpressing plants had reduced height, delayed growth status, low photosynthetic rate, decreased survival rate, and diminished yield. Moreover, the overexpression of TaMP aggravated the tendency for ions to become toxic under salt stress by significantly affecting the Na+ and K+ contents in cells. In addition, TaMP could negatively regulate salt tolerance by affecting the antioxidant enzyme system capacity and increasing the reactive oxygen species accumulation. Our study was helpful to understand the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms of salt stress tolerance in plants.

Without the known state equation, a new state estimation strategy is designed to be against malicious attacks for cyber physical systems. Inspired by the idea of data reconstruction, the compressive sensing (CS) is applied to reconstruction of residual measurements after the detection and identification scheme based on the Markov graph of the system state, which increases the resilience of state estimation strategy against deception attacks. First, the observability analysis is introduced to decide the triggering time of the measurement reconstruction and the damage level from attacks. In particular, the dictionary learning is proposed to form the over-completed dictionary by K-singular value decomposition (K-SVD), which is produced adaptively according to the characteristics of the measurement data. In addition, due to the irregularity of residual measurements, a sampling matrix is designed as the measurement matrix. Finally, the simulation experiments are performed on 6-bus power system. Results show that the reconstruction of measurements is completed well by the proposed reconstruction method, and the corresponding effects are better than reconstruction scheme based on the joint dictionary and the traditional Gauss or Bernoulli random matrix respectively. Especially, when only 29% available clean measurements are left, performance of the proposed strategy is still extraordinary, which reflects generality for five kinds of recovery algorithms.

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important regulator of plant growth, development, and biotic and abiotic stress responses. Ubiquitination plays important roles in regulating ABA signaling. E3 ligase, a key member in ubiquitination, actively participates in the regulation of biosynthesis, de-repression, and activation of ABA response and degradation of signaling components. In this study, we found that that overexpression of wheat E3 ligase TaPUB1 decreased the sensitivity of wheat seedlings to ABA, whereas TaPUB1-RNA interference (TaPUB1-RNAi) lines increased wheat sensitivity to ABA during germination, root growth, and stomatal opening. TaPUB1 influenced the expression of several ABA-responsive genes, and also interacted with TaPYL4 and TaABI5, which are involved in ABA signal transduction, and promoted their degradation. Additionally, we observed that TaPUB1-OE lines resulted in lower single-split grain numbers, larger seed size, and higher thousand kernel weight, when compared with the WT lines. Contrasting results were obtained for TaPUB1-RNAi lines. It suggests that TaPUB1 acts as a negative regulator in the ABA signaling pathway by interacting with TaPYL4 and TaABI5, subsequently affecting seed development in wheat. In addition, the enhanced abiotic tolerance of overexpression lines due to enhanced photosynthesis and root development may be related to the degradation of TaABI5 by TaPUB1.

Freezing tolerance in taft plants relied more upon an ABA-independent- than an ABA-dependent antifreeze signaling pathway. Two wheat (Triticum aestivum) near isogenic lines (NIL) named tafs (freezing sensitivity) and taft (freezing tolerance) were isolated in the laboratory and their various cytological and physiological characteristics under freezing conditions were studied. Proplastid, cell membrane, and mitochondrial ultrastructure were less damaged by freezing treatment in taft than tafs plants. Chlorophyll, ATP, and thylakoid membrane protein contents were significantly higher, but malondialdehyde content was significantly lower in taft than tafs plants under freezing condition. Antioxidant capacity, as indicated by reactive oxygen species accumulation and antioxidant enzyme activity, and the relative gene expression were significantly greater in taft than tafs plants. Soluble sugars and abscisic acid (ABA) contents were significantly higher in taft plants than in tafs plants under both normal and freezing conditions. The upregulated expression levels of certain freezing tolerance-related genes were greater in taft than tafs plants under freezing treatment. The addition of sodium tungstate, an ABA synthesis inhibitor, led to only partial freezing tolerance inhibition in taft plants and the down-regulated expression of some ABA-dependent genes. Thus, both ABA-dependent and ABA-independent signaling pathways are involved in the freezing tolerance of taft plants. At the same time, freezing tolerance in taft plants relied more upon an ABA-independent- than an ABA-dependent antifreeze signaling pathway.

Various abiotic stresses, including high salinity, affect the growth and yield of crop plants. We isolated a gene, TaPUB26, from wheat that encodes a protein containing a U-box domain and armadillo (ARM) repeats. The TaPUB26 transcript levels were upregulated by high salinity, temperature, drought and phytohormones, suggesting the involvement of TaPUB26 in abiotic stress responses. An in vitro ubiquitination assay revealed that TaPUB26 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase. We overexpressed TaPUB26 in Brachypodium distachyon to evaluate TaPUB26 regulation of salt stress tolerance. Compared with the wild type (WT) line, the overexpression lines showed higher salt stress sensitivity under salt stress conditions, but lower chlorophyll (Chl) content, lower photosynthetic levels and overall reduced salt stress tolerance. Additionally, the transgenic plants showed more severe membrane damage, lower antioxidant enzyme activity and more reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation than WT plants under salt stress, which might be related to the changes in the expression levels of some antioxidant genes. In addition, the transgenic plants also had higher Na+ and lower K+ contents, thus maintaining a higher cytosolic Na+/K+ ratio in leaves and roots than that in WT plants. Further analysis of the molecular mechanisms showed that TaPUB26 interacted with TaRPT2a, an ATPase subunit of the 26S proteasome complex in wheat. We speculated that TaPUB26 negatively regulates salt stress tolerance by interacting with other proteins, such as TaRPT2a, and that this mechanism involves altered antioxidant competition and cytosolic Na+/K+ equilibrium.

In this work, we fabricated the ternary bulk hetero junction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) by doping a phosphorescent small molecule bis[2-(4-tertbutylphenyl)benzothiazolato-N,C2′] iridium(acetylacetonate)[(tbt)2Ir(acac)] into the conventional active layer of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). After doping (tbt)2Ir(acac), the short circuit current and fill factor are simultaneously enhanced compared with binary device and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of P3HT:PC71BM based ternary devices is improved from 2.99% to 4.14%. More excellent photovoltaic performance of ternary PSCs is mainly attributed to enhanced charge transportation by appropriate energy cascade alignment and enhanced exciton harvesting by Foerster resonance energy transfer from (tbt)2Ir(acac) to P3HT.

In this study, we report the ternary organic solar cells by doping a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material (4 s ,6 s )-2,4,5,6-tetra( 9H -carbazol-9-yl) isophthalonitrile (4CzIPN) in the binary poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) :[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) blends. Given the complementary absorption with P3HT, 4CzIPN was doped into (P3HT:PC71BM)-based binary blends, and ternary OSCs were developed, The ternary OSCs with 1.0 wt% of 4CzIPN displayed better phase separation of active layer, thus leading to an impressive efficiency of 3.94 % with open-circuit voltage of 0.54 V, short-circuit density of 11.58 mA/cm-2 and fill factor of 63.32%.

U-box E3 ubiquitin ligases play important roles in the ubiquitin/26S proteasome machinery and in abiotic stress responses. TaPUB1-overexpressing wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were generated to evaluate its function in salt tolerance. These plants had more salt stress tolerance during seedling and flowering stages, whereas the TaPUB1-RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knock-down transgenic wheat showed more salt stress sensitivity than the wild type (WT). TaPUB1 overexpression upregulated the expression of genes related to ion channels and increased the net root Na+ efflux, but decreased the net K+ efflux and H+ influx, thereby maintaining a low cytosolic Na+ /K+ ratio, compared with the WT. However, RNAi-mediated knock-down plants showed the opposite response to salt stress. TaPUB1 could induce the expression of some genes that improved the antioxidant capacity of plants under salt stress. TaPUB1 also interacted with TaMP (Triticum aestivum α-mannosidase protein), a regulator playing an important role in salt response in yeast and in plants. Thus, low cytosolic Na+ /K+ ratios and better antioxidant enzyme activities could be maintained in wheat with overexpression of TaPUB1 under salt stress. Therefore, we conclude that the U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase TaPUB1 positively regulates salt stress tolerance in wheat.

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates plant growth and development, as well as responses to various stresses, such as salt and drought. The wheat TaFBA1 gene, which encodes an F-box protein, was previously identified in our laboratory by homologous cloning. We previously found that TaFBA1 expression was induced by ABA and drought stress. In this study, wild-type (WT), TaFBA1 over-expressing (OEs), TaFBA1 homologous gene mutants, and TaFBA1 recovery (Rs) Arabidopsis plants were used. We found that the germination rate, the cotyledon greening rate, the root length, and the photosynthetic performance of TaFBA1 OE plants were better than those of WT under drought and ABA conditions, but mutant plants showed the opposite trend, and overexpression of TaFBA1 in mutants can recover their phenotype. In addition, TaFBA1 was found to be a negative regulator of ABA-induced stoma movement; mRNA transcription of certain ABA signaling-related genes was lower in TaFBA1 OE plants than in WT plants following ABA treatment. Further, we found that TaFBA1 can interact with RCAR1 (an ABA receptor) and ABI5. BiFC assay showed that TaFBA1 may interact with RCAR1 in the plasma membrane. In addition, accumulation of ROS and MDA in TaFBA1 OE plants was lower than that in the WT plants after ABA and drought treatments. Based on these results, we suggest that TaFBA1-regulated ABA insensitivity may be dependent on regulating ABA-mediated gene expression through interacting with RCAR1 and ABI5. Increased antioxidant competence and decreased ROS accumulation may be an important mechanism that underlies improved drought tolerance in TaFBA1 OE plants.

By measuring the cytokinin content directly and testing the sensitivity to the cytokinin inhibitor lovastatin, we demonstrated that tasg1 cytokinin metabolism is different from wild-type. Our previous studies have indicated that compared with wild-type (WT) plants, a wheat stay-green mutant tasg1 exhibited delayed senescence. In this study, we found that the root development of tasg1 occurred later than that of WT. The number of lateral roots was fewer, but the lateral root length was longer in tasg1 than in WT, which resulted in a lower root to shoot ratio in tasg1 than WT. The levels of cytokinin (CK), CK activity, and expression of CK metabolic genes were measured. We found that the total CK content in the root tips and leaf of tasg1 was greater than in WT. The accumulation of mRNA of the CK synthetic gene (TaIPT) in tasg1 was higher than in WT at 9 and 11 days during seedling growth, but the expression of CK oxidase gene (TaCKX) was significantly lower in tasg1. Furthermore, the CK inhibitor lovastatin was used to inhibit CK activity. When treated with lovastatin, both the chlorophyll content and thylakoid membrane protein stability were significantly lower in tasg1 than WT, consistent with the inhibited expression of senescence-associated genes (TaSAGs) in tasg1. Lovastatin treatment also inhibited the antioxidative capability of wheat seedlings, and tasg1 was more sensitive to lovastatin than WT, as indicated by the MDA content, protein carbonylation, and antioxidant enzyme activity. The decreased antioxidative capability after lovastatin treatment may be related to the down-regulation of some antioxidase genes. These results suggest that the CK metabolism was altered in tasg1, which may play an important role in its ability to delay senescence.

Expansins loosen plant cell walls and are involved in cell enlargement and various abiotic stresses. In previous studies, we cloned the expansin gene TaEXPA2 from the wheat cultivar HF9703. Here, we studied its function and regulation in wheat drought stress tolerance. The results indicated that TaEXPA2-overexpressing wheat plants (OE) exhibited drought tolerant phenotypes, whereas down-regulation of TaEXPA2 by RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in elevated drought sensitivity, as measured by survival rate, photosynthetic rate and water containing ability under drought stress. Overexpression of TaEXPA2 enhanced the antioxidant capacity in wheat plants, via elevation of antioxidant enzyme activity and the increase of the transcripts of some ROS scavenging enzyme-related genes. Further investigation revealed that TaEXPA2 positively influenced lateral root formation under drought conditions. A MYB transcription factor of wheat named TaMPS activates TaEXPA2 expression directly by binding to its promoter. Overexpression of TaMPS in Arabidopsis conferred drought tolerance associated with improved lateral root number, and the close homolog genes of TaEXPA2 were up-regulated in Arabidopsis roots overexpressing TaMPS, which suggest that TaMPS may function as one of the regulator of TaEXPA2 gene expression in the root lateral development under drought stress. These findings suggest that TaEXPA2 positively regulates drought stress tolerance in wheat.

In this paper, we focus on false data injection attacks (FDIAs) on state estimation in smart grid. Without topology information and parameters of smart grid, two kinds of Data-Driven FDIAs (DDFDIAs) are constructed with noisy measurements, which can keep stealth in the residue-based bad data detection (BBD) of state estimator. Furthermore, the proposed DDAs are more lower cost and sparser due to the limited energy of the attackers. Finally, the simulation experiments are achieved on 30-bus power system. Results show that the constructed DDFDIAs are feasible and undetected by BBD.

Adverse environmental conditions, including high temperature, often affect the growth and production of crops worldwide. F-box protein, a core component of the Skp1-Cullin-F-box (SCF) E3 ligase complex, plays an important role in abiotic stress responses. A previously cloned gene from wheat, TaFBA1, encodes a homologous F-box protein. A Yeast two-Hybrid (Y2H) assay showed that TaFBA1 interacted with other SCF proteins. We found that the expression of TaFBA1 could be induced by heat stress (45°C). Overexpression of TaFBA1 enhanced heat stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco, because growth inhibition was reduced and photosynthesis increased as compared with those in the wild type (WT) plants. Furthermore, the accumulation of H2O2, O2-, and carbonyl protein decreased and cell damage was alleviated in transgenic plants under heat stress, which resulted in less oxidative damage. However, the transgenic plants contained more enzymatic antioxidants after heat stress, which might be related to the regulation of some antioxidant gene expressions. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that the overexpression of TaFBA1 upregulated the expression of genes involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, proline biosynthesis, and abiotic stress responses. We identified the interaction of TaFBA1 with Triticum aestivum stress responsive protein 1 (TaASRP1) by Y2H assay and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay. The results suggested that TaFBA1 may improve enzymatic antioxidant levels and regulate gene expression by interacting with other proteins, such as TaASRP1, which leads to the enhanced heat stress tolerance seen in the transgenic plants.

Salt stress inhibited the growth of both tasg1 and wild-type (WT) wheat seedlings, but the inhibition in tasg1 plants was relatively weaker than that of WT. Compared to the WT, the chlorophyll content, thylakoid membrane polypeptides, Hill reaction activity, actual photochemical efficiency of PSII (ΦPSII), and Mg2+- and Ca2+-ATPase activities were higher in tasg1 under salt stress. At the same time, the photosynthetic activity of the tasg1 was significantly higher than that of WT. In addition, tasg1 plants displayed relatively less accumulation of reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage accompanied by higher activity of some antioxidant enzymes, and the up-regulation of antioxidant genes further demonstrated the improvement of antioxidant activity in tasg1 under salt stress. Furthermore, tasg1 plants also showed relatively weaker Na+ fluorescence and lower Na+ content, but relatively higher content of K+ in their roots and shoots, and then, the roots of tasg1 plants enhanced net outward Na+ flux and a correspondingly increased net inward K+ flux during salt stress. This might be associated with the relatively higher activity of H+-ATPase in tasg1 plants. These results suggest that the improved antioxidant competence and Na+/K+ ion homeostasis play an important role in the enhanced salinity tolerance of tasg1 plants.

Adverse environmental conditions, including high temperature, often affect the growth and production of crops worldwide. F-box protein, a core component of the Skp1-Cullin-F-box (SCF) E3 ligase complex, plays an important role in abiotic stress responses. A previously cloned gene from wheat, TaFBA1, encodes a homologous F-box protein. A Yeast two-Hybrid (Y2H) assay showed that TaFBA1 interacted with other SCF proteins. We found that the expression of TaFBA1 could be induced by heat stress (45°C). Overexpression of TaFBA1 enhanced heat stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco, because growth inhibition was reduced and photosynthesis increased as compared with those in the wild type (WT) plants. Furthermore, the accumulation of H2O2, O2-, and carbonyl protein decreased and cell damage was alleviated in transgenic plants under heat stress, which resulted in less oxidative damage. However, the transgenic plants contained more enzymatic antioxidants after heat stress, which might be related to the regulation of some antioxidant gene expressions. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that the overexpression of TaFBA1 upregulated the expression of genes involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, proline biosynthesis, and abiotic stress responses. We identified the interaction of TaFBA1 with Triticum aestivum stress responsive protein 1 (TaASRP1) by Y2H assay and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay. The results suggested that TaFBA1 may improve enzymatic antioxidant levels and regulate gene expression by interacting with other proteins, such as TaASRP1, which leads to the enhanced heat stress tolerance seen in the transgenic plants.

E3 ligases play significant roles in plant stress tolerance by targeting specific substrate proteins for post-translational modification. In a previous study, we cloned TaPUB1 from Triticum aestivum L., which encodes a U-box E3 ligase. Real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that the gene was up-regulated under drought stress. To investigate the function of TaPUB1 in the response of plants to drought, we generated transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana (N. benthamiana) plants constitutively expressing TaPUB1 under the CaMV35S promoter. Compared to wild type (WT), the transgenic plants had higher germination and seedling survival rates as well as higher photosynthetic rate and water retention, suggesting that the overexpression of TaPUB1 enhanced the drought tolerance of the TaPUB1 overexpressing (OE) plants. Moreover, less accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and stronger antioxidant capacity were detected in the OE plants than in the WT plants. To characterize the mechanisms involved, methyl viologen (MV) was used to induce oxidative stress conditions and we identified the functions of this gene in the plant tolerance to oxidative stress. Our results suggest that TaPUB1 positively modulates plant drought stress resistance potential by improving their antioxidant capacity.

To improve the resilience of state estimation strategy against cyber attacks, the Compressive Sensing (CS) is applied in reconstruction of incomplete measurements for cyber physical systems. First, observability analysis is used to decide the time to run the reconstruction and the damage level from attacks. In particular, the dictionary learning is proposed to form the over-completed dictionary by K-Singular Value Decomposition (K-SVD). Besides, due to the irregularity of incomplete measurements, sampling matrix is designed as the measurement matrix. Finally, the simulation experiments on 6-bus power system illustrate that the proposed method achieves the incomplete measurements reconstruction perfectly, which is better than the joint dictionary. When only 29% available measurements are left, the proposed method has generality for four kinds of recovery algorithms.

Two wheat near-isogenic lines (NILs; -GS (small grain size) and + GS (large grain size)) were obtained by backcrossing. We found that the grain volume and weight of + GS were significantly higher than those of -GS. There was a corresponding increase in grain yield associated with the + GS line. For analysis of causes, we investigated and compared the anatomic and physiological characteristics of two NILs during the grain filling stage. The bigger grain size in + GS likely resulted from the longer endosperm cells, which is related to the higher IAA content and expansin activity accompanied by the up-regulation of some expansin-related genes. For the higher grain weight of + GS, starch accumulation was higher in + GS than in -GS, which was consistent with relatively higher glucose (Glu), fructose (Fru), and sucrose (Suc) contents. Elevated sugar level may be correlated with sucrose synthase (SuSy) activity and up-regulation of GBSS I, SSS III, and SBE I. The amount of soluble protein in + GS grains also exceeded that in -GS grains, possibly because of increased NR, NiR, and GS activities and up-regulation of nitrogen assimilation and nitrate transporter genes in + GS grains. Furthermore, the photosynthetic rate was higher in + GS and -GS at the early filling stage before 21 DAA. The same trends were observed in sugar content (Suc, Fru, and Glu) and SPS activity. However, the increase in the rate of grain length and width in + GS plants at the late filling stage was significantly higher than that at the early filling periods. These suggest that high accumulation of dry matter (such as starch and protein) at early filling stage was the important factor in achieving the final increased size of wheat grains, besides cell expansion.