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Excessive nitrogen promotes the formation of nonproductive tillers in rice, which decreases nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Developing high-NUE rice cultivars through balancing nitrogen uptake and the formation of productive tillers remains a long-standing challenge, yet how these two processes are coordinated in rice remains elusive. Here we identify the transcription factor OsGATA8 as a key coordinator of nitrogen uptake and tiller formation in rice. OsGATA8 negatively regulates nitrogen uptake by repressing transcription of the ammonium transporter gene OsAMT3.2. Meanwhile, it promotes tiller formation by repressing the transcription of OsTCP19, a negative modulator of tillering. We identify OsGATA8-H as a high-NUE haplotype with enhanced nitrogen uptake and a higher proportion of productive tillers. The geographical distribution of OsGATA8-H and its frequency change in historical accessions suggest its adaption to the fertile soil. Overall, this study provides molecular and evolutionary insights into the regulation of NUE and facilitates the breeding of rice cultivars with higher NUE.

Objective To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of depression in elderly with hypertension in a community of Beijing, so as to provide evidence for individualized treatment of healthy aging. Methods Six hundred and thirteen elderly patients aged over 60 with hypertension were selected from Yuetan community of Beijing by overall sampling method from June 2019 to October 2019. Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale was used to determine depression. General demographic information, chronic diseases and health status of the subjects were collected at the same time. Single factor and binary logistic regression models were used to analyze the associated factors and independent risk factors of depression in elderly hypertensive patients of different genders. Results The overall incidence rate of depression in elderly hypertensive patients in the community was 11.58%, among which male accounted for 9.81% while female 12.53%. Univariate analysis showed that the incidence of depression in male elderly with hypertension was associated with sulfuring form coronary heart disease and sleep disorders, while in female associated with suffering from economic pressure, hearing impairment, vision impairment, chronic gastritis, chronic hepatobiliary diseases and sleep disorders, with a statistically significant difference (P＜0.05). Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis showed that male elderly with hypertension suffering from sleep disorders had a higher risk of depression, with an OR value of 4.825 (95% CI: 1.777-13.105), while female elderly sulfuring from economic pressure, hearing impairment, visual impairment, chronic gastritis and sleep disorders had a higher risk of depression, with OR values of 14.362 (95% CI: 2.224-92.747), 11.174 (95% CI: 2.535-49.258), 3.994 (95% CI: 1.444-11.043), 3.780 (95% CI: 1.608-8.887), 4.968 (95% CI: 2.430-10.156), respectively. Conclusions The prevalence of depression is high among the elderly with hypertension in Yuetan community of Beijing. The majority of elderly with hypertension showed mild degree depression. The incidence rates of elderly between genders are similar. Sleep disorder is an independent risk factor and economic stress, visual impairment, hearing impairment,chronic gastritis and sleep disorder as indepandent risk factors are more significant in old females with hypertension.

Summary: Soil salinity has negative impacts on food security and sustainable agriculture. Ion homeostasis, osmotic adjustment and reactive oxygen species scavenging are the main approaches utilized by rice to resist salt stress. Breeding rice cultivars with high salt tolerance (ST) and yield is a significant challenge due to the lack of elite alleles conferring ST. Here, we report that the elite allele LEA12OR, which encodes a late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) protein from the wild rice Oryza rufipogon Griff., improves osmotic adjustment and increases yield under salt stress. Mechanistically, LEA12OR, as the early regulator of the LEA12OR‐OsSAPK10‐OsbZIP86‐OsNCED3 functional module, maintains the kinase stability of OsSAPK10 under salt stress, thereby conferring ST by promoting abscisic acid biosynthesis and accumulation in rice. The superior allele LEA12OR provides a new avenue for improving ST and yield via the application of LEA12OR in current rice through molecular breeding and genome editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the dust-resistance efficiency of radial swirling air curtain in fully mechanized excavation face and prevent high-concentration dust pollution on the working area, the method of combining numerical simulation and engineering measurement is used to analyze the influences of ventilation conditions on dust-resistance rule of radial swirling air curtain. The results show that as the distance between the air curtain and the working face increases, the radial air volume of the air curtain device increases, and the pressure-exhaust ratio of the ventilation system decreases, the radial swirling air curtain is easier to transform into an axial direction with uniform air volume and velocity distribution during the migration process, and the dust pollution degree reduces as well. Fitting the quantitative relationship between the high-concentration dust diffusion distance and various ventilation conditions, combined with the actual production conditions, it is determined that the better ventilation conditions for the radial swirling air curtain dust resistance are as following: the air curtain is 30 m away from the working face, the radial air volume of the air curtain device is 270 m3/min and the pressure-exhaust ratio of the ventilation system is 0.8. Through engineering measurement of the simulation result, the validity of the numerical simulation was verified. The dust concentration ofthe tunneling driver’s section was reduced to 35.5 mg/m3, and the air curtain dust resistance efficiency reached to 90.5%.

Many exceptional deep learning networks have demonstrated remarkable proficiency in general object detection tasks. However, the challenge of detecting ships in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery increases due to the complex and various nature of these scenes. Moreover, sophisticated large-scale models necessitate substantial computational resources and hardware expenses. To address these issues, a new framework is proposed called a stepwise attention-guided multiscale feature fusion network (SAFN). Specifically, we introduce a stepwise attention mechanism designed to selectively emphasize relevant information and filter out irrelevant details of objects in a step-by-step manner. Firstly, a novel LGA-FasterNet is proposed, which incorporates a lightweight backbone FasterNet with lightweight global attention (LGA) to realize expressive feature extraction while reducing the model's parameters. To effectively mitigate the impact of scale and complex background variations, a deformable attention bidirectional fusion network (DA-BFNet) is proposed, which introduces a novel deformable location attention (DLA) block and a novel deformable recognition attention (DRA) block, strategically integrating through bidirectional connections to achieve enhanced features fusion. Finally, we have substantiated the robustness of the new framework through extensive testing on the publicly accessible SAR datasets, HRSID and SSDD. The experimental outcomes demonstrate the competitive performance of our approach, showing a significant enhancement in ship detection accuracy compared to some state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methyltransferase-like 23 (METTL23) is a kind of RNA methyltransferase that catalyzes the methylation transfer to the N6-adenosine of RNA, serving as one of the key mediators in this process. However, the METTL23 gene has been poorly researched in pigs. In this study, we investigated the genetic effects of METTL23 single-nucleotide polymorphism(SNPs) on reproductive traits in Kele pigs. The DNA was extracted from 228 healthy multiparous Kele sows, and Sanger sequencing revealed three SNPs, g.4804958 G > T (intron 2), g.4805082 C > T (exon 2), and g.4806821 A > G (exon 3). The polymorphism information content (PIC) for each SNP was 0.264, 0.25, and 0.354, indicating moderate polymorphism (0.25 < PIC < 0.5) and providing genetic information. Linkage disequilibrium analysis showed no strong linkage disequilibrium between the three SNPs. The association analysis revealed that in the SNP g.4804958 G > T individuals with the GG genotype had a significantly higher number of piglets born alive, litter birth weight, number of weaned piglets, and weaning litter weight compared to those with the TT genotype (p < 0.05). Individuals with the GG genotype in the SNP g.4806821 A > G group had significantly higher litter birth weight and average birth weight than those with the AA genotype (p < 0.05). The H4H4 diplotype showed significant effects on the number of piglets born alive, litter birth weight, number of weaned piglets, weaning litter weight, and weaning weight (p < 0.05). Together, the METTL23 gene could be used as a candidate gene for the selection of reproductive traits in Kele pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Insects, like other animals, must face severe winter low temperature conditions in northern areas. Some insects even freeze entirely and wait out the winter until spring comes. Epigenetic modifications have been suggested to play a vital role in regulating the cold responses of insects. However, the dynamics of the enzymes involved in histone lysine methylation, histone H3 acetylation and methylation in response to cold winters in the freeze-tolerant goldenrod gall fly larvae Eurosta solidaginis and the freeze-avoiding gall moth caterpillars Epiblema scudderiana remains unclear. This paper investigates the modifications of key nuclear proteins that act as gene regulators and mainly focuses on proteins—called histones—that act to depress metabolism. The results indicate that histones are modified in E. solidaginis and Ep. scudderiana during winter. Significant reductions were observed in most of the targets of histone methylation/acetylation for decreasing temperatures of Ep. scudderiana larvae, whereas selected histone methylation/acetylation targets were conversely elevated in E. solidaginis. These epigenetic changes are shown to be an important element in winter survival. Overwintering survival by insects, whether of the freeze-tolerant or freeze-avoiding types, is typically associated with a strong suppression of metabolic rate (e.g., entry into diapause) that involves the differential expression of many genes with regulation at the transcriptional, translational or post-translational levels. Epigenetic modifications have been suggested to play a vital role in regulating cold responses of insects. However, knowledge of the roles of epigenetic mechanisms in modulating gene expression for winter survival of the larvae of two goldenrod gall formers, the freeze-tolerant dipteran Eurosta solidaginis and the freeze-avoiding lepidopteran Epiblema scudderiana, remain unknown. The current study evaluates the role of cold-induced lysine methylation and histone modifications, with enzymes of lysine methylation (SETD8, SETD7, SUV39H1, SMYD2 and ASH2L), as well as relative levels of histone H3 acetylation (H3K9ac, H3K18ac, H3K27ac, H3K56ac) and methylation (H3K4me1, H3K9me3, H3K36me2) examined in two insects. Significant (p < 0.05) reductions were observed in most of the targets of histone methylation/acetylation for decreasing temperatures of Ep. scudderiana larvae, whereas selected histone methylation/acetylation targets were conversely elevated (p < 0.05) in E. solidaginis, particularly under conditions of 5 °C for 4 h. Histone H3 expression was found to be variable without statistical differences in larval goldenrod gall moths and gall flies. These results provide basic information on the patterns of epigenetic regulation involved in insect cold hardiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adjustment of aboveground biomass allocation is an important part of plant growth adaptation strategies. Due to global climate change, rising temperatures are causing changes in global air circulation patterns. Therefore, more extreme drought and flood events will happen in the future. Xerophytic shrubs are the main vegetation types of dryland ecosystems and are expected to be sensitive to changes in rainfall, which would inevitably affect the stability of the ecosystem. We conducted field experiments to simulate the effects of rainfall on Artemisia ordosica Krasch annual net primary productivity (ANPP) and allocation in the Mu Us Desert in northern China. This study examined six different rainfall levels: natural rainfall level (control); natural rainfall level reduced by 30%, 50%, and 70% (−30%, −50%, −70% treatment); and natural rainfall level increased by 30% and 50% (+30%, +50% treatment). The plant height, cover/volume, size/number of vegetative and reproductive twigs, and dry weight of vegetative and reproductive twigs were measured. The results showed the following: (1) Twig size and number are more sensitive to rainfall changes than the cover/volume of this species. (2) Rainfall has a significant influence on shrub ANPP (maximum ANPP was reached at + 30% treatment, and the minimum value was reached at −70% treatment). (3) With the increase or decrease of rainfall, A. ordosica number of twigs increased, and the length became shorter. (4) Rainfall had a significant effect on ANPP allocation (vegetative growth and reproductive growth). With the increase or decrease of rainfall, vegetative growth and reproductive growth of A. ordosica showed a trade-off strategy. Under the condition of adding rainfall, vegetative twig ANPP increased significantly. Under severe drought stress (-70% treatment), ANPP decreased significantly. Adding or subtracting rainfall caused a significant decrease in the vegetative twig ANPP ratio and a significant increase in the reproduction twig ANPP ratio. Our results highlight the sensitivity of twig size and number as indicators of shrub production estimation and the mechanism underpinning desert shrub ANPP response to global environmental changes.

A novel method for the determination of diquat in aqueous samples was developed and applied to environmental water samples. The method involved sodium borohydride--nickel chloride (NaB[H.sub.4]--NiCl2) reduction and headspace solid phase microextraction (HS--SPME) of the perhydrogenated products. Gas chromatography--mass spectrometry was used to identify and quantify the analytes in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The parameters and variables that affected the reduction and extraction were also investigated. The optimal conditions for the reduction were found to be 20 mg NaB[H.sub.4], 200 µL 10% of Ni[Cl.sub.2] (w/v) and heating at 90°C for 10 min. For the extraction, the SPME fiber was exposed for 20 min at 60°C. Using these conditions, the recovery rates of diquat ranged from 92.59 to 101.27% in water. Good linearity (y = 0.0769x + 0.2748, [r.sup.2] = 0.999) was obtained, intra- and inter-day precision were less than 3.99 and 5.64%, respectively. We found that reduzates of diquat exist as cis- and trans-isomers, and their ratio is 1 : 5.3, with RSD of 13.1% (n = 17). Keywords: diquat, water samples, SPME, GC--MS DOI: 10.1134/S1061934815050081, Diquat (1,1'-ethylene-2,2'-dipyridylium dibro mide, DQ) is one of the series of quaternary bipyridylium compounds widely used in agriculture because of their powerful herbicidal action [1]. It is toxic to algae, [...]

Bacillus spp. could be one of the most suitable substitutes for the control and prevention of aquatic diseases. The occurrence of species population, antimicrobial character, and virulence diversity in Bacillus spp. recovered from the mariculture system in China between 2009 and 2021 were investigated, screening for probiotic Bacillus strains with good biological safety that can inhibit Vibrio parahaemolyticus, V. alginolyticus, V. harveyi, V. owensii, V. campbellii. The results showed that 116 Bacillus isolates were divided into 24 species, and the top three species were B. subtilis (37/116), B. velezensis (28/116), and B. amyloliquefaciens (10/116). Among the 116 Bacillus isolates, 32.8% were effective against V. parahaemolyticus, 30.1% for V. alginolyticus, 60.3% for V. harveyi, 69.8% for V. owensii and 74.1% for V. campbellii. More than 62% of Bacillus isolates were susceptible to florfenicol, doxycycline and tetracycline, etc., and 26/116 Bacillus isolates were found to be multiple-antibiotic-resistant (MAR), with MARI values ranging from 0 to 0.06. Eighteen kinds of antibiotic resistance genes were tested; only tetB, blaTEM, and blaZ were detected. And 9 isolates in 2 Bacillus species were excluded by 6/10 kinds of Bacillus-related toxin gene (hblA, hblC, nheB, nheC, entFM, cykK). Bio-safety testing indicated that three kinds of probiotics were good probiotic candidates to prevent Vibriosis. These results provide comprehensive genetic diversity, potential risks, and probiotic characteristics of Bacillus in the mariculture system in China, and provide basic support for green and healthy development of aquatic industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]