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RNA alternative polyadenylation contributes to the complexity of information transfer from genome to phenome, thus amplifying gene function. Here, we report the first X. tropicalis resource with 127,914 alternative polyadenylation (APA) sites derived from embryos and adults. Overall, APA networks play central roles in coordinating the maternal-zygotic transition (MZT) in embryos, sexual dimorphism in adults and longitudinal growth from embryos to adults. APA sites coordinate reprogramming in embryos before the MZT, but developmental events after the MZT due to zygotic genome activation. The APA transcriptomes of young adults are more variable than growing adults and male frog APA transcriptomes are more divergent than females. The APA profiles of young females were similar to embryos before the MZT. Enriched pathways in developing embryos were distinct across the MZT and noticeably segregated from adults. Briefly, our results suggest that the minimal functional units in genomes are alternative transcripts as opposed to genes. more...

This paper discusses the influence of major disruptions, especially their ripple effects, on strategic and tactical decisions from the perspective of quantitative analysis. To mitigate the adverse consequence, we introduce proactive and reactive strategies and investigate the performance of these strategies. Considering the risk preference of decision-makers, we formulate the above problem as uncertain programming models under three different criteria (minimizing the expected cost, optimistic cost, and pessimistic cost). In the presented models, the side consequences and ripple effects of major disruptions are quantified by the facility capacity loss, production cost variation, and demand shift using uncertainty theory since disruption-related data are limited. Then, the developed models are converted into crisp deterministic ones with the aid of inverse distributions. Finally, we conduct a series of numerical experiments based on a real-world geographic data set of China to illustrate the validity of the presented models. The comparison between resilient solutions for the resilient supply portfolios and the non-resilient solutions with no measures available demonstrates the effectiveness of developed strategies in mitigating the ripple effects. Confronted with uncertainty of production cost, decision-makers are advised to adopt the reactive strategy, rather than the proactive strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Route planning to evade potential pollution holds critical importance for aquaculture vessels. This study establishes a fish-feed pollutant drift model based on the Lagrangian particle tracking algorithm and designs four sets of sensitivity experiments in the East China Sea. The research investigates the impact of model input uncertainties on the drift trajectory, centroid position, and sweeping area of the fish-feed pollutants. Numerical results indicate that the uncertainty in the background flow field significantly affects the uncertainty in the centroid position and sweeping area in the numerical simulations. Specifically, when a 35% random error is added to the background flow field, the centroid shift distance reaches its maximum, and the sweeping area also attains its largest value. The uncertainty in the background wind field affects the centroid position of particles but to a much lesser extent compared to the background flow field. When considering only the uncertainty of the background wind field, the sweeping area does not significantly differ from the control experiment as the uncertainty of the background wind field increases. The initial release position has little effect on the drift direction of the fish-feed pollutants but does affect the drift distance; it has minimal impact on the trajectory but significantly affects the final position of the pollutant centroid. By analyzing the model uncertainties, this study reveals the key factors influencing the drift of fish-feed pollutants. This information is crucial for aquaculture vessels in planning routes, considering environmental factors, and reducing potential pollution risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Modern supply chain operates in a highly uncertain environment caused by natural disasters and market changes. Such a fact has motivated academics and practitioners to pay more attention to the supply chain resilience. This paper reports on designing a resilient supply chain under uncertain environment by an uncertain programming method. The desired resilience level against disruption is achieved with less redundancy by controlling them in the presented models. And parameter uncertainty caused by the limited historical data is also addressed using uncertainty theory. To cope with the problem's complexity, we convert the proposed models into their deterministic formulations, which can easily be solved by cplex solver. The results from sensitivity analysis demonstrate the necessity of including uncertainty during the planning phase of supply chain network design. The performance of resilience constraint and the positive effect of sticker redundancy constraint in improving service level are also investigated fully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...