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Wall-associated kinase (WAK) is widely involved in signal transduction, reproductive growth, responses to pathogen infection and metal ion stress in plants. In this study, 19, 12, and 37 SsWAK genes were identified in Saccharum spontaneum, Saccharum hybrid and Sorghum bicolor, respectively. Phylogenetic tree showed that they could be divided into three groups. These WAK genes contained multiple cis-acting elements related to stress, growth and hormone response. RNA-seq analysis demonstrated that SsWAK genes were constitutively expressed in different sugarcane tissues and involved in response to smut pathogen (Sporisorium scitamineum) stress. Additionally, ScWAK1 (GenBank Accession No. OP479864), was then isolated from sugarcane cultivar ROC22. It was highly expressed in leaves and roots and its expression could be induced under SA and MeJA stress. Besides, ScWAK1 was significantly downregulated in both smut-resistant and susceptible sugarcane cultivars in response to S. scitamineum infection. ScWAK1 was a membrane protein without self-activating activity. Furthermore, transient expression of ScWAK1 in Nicotiana benthamiana enhanced the susceptibility of tobacco to the inoculation of Ralstonia solanacearum and Fusarium solani var. coeruleum, suggesting its negative role in disease resistance. The present study reveals the origin, distribution and evolution of WAK gene family and provides potential gene resources for sugarcane molecular breeding.

Global climate change has affected the human race for decades. As a result, severe weather changes and more substantial hurricane impact have become a typical scenario. Utility trucks with the morphing boom equipment are the first responders to access these disaster areas in bad weather conditions and restore the damages caused by the disaster. The stability of the utility trucks while driving in a heavy wind scenario is an essential aspect for the safety of the rescue crew, and aerodynamic forces caused by the wind flow constitute a significant factor that influences the stability of the utility truck. In this paper, the aerodynamic performance of the utility truck is modeled using the incompressible unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (URANS) model. The Ahmed body, a well-recognized benchmark test case used by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) community for the aerodynamic model validation of automobiles, is used to validate this aerodynamic model. The validated aerodynamic model investigates the impact of heavy wind on the utility truck with the morphing boom equipment. The visualization of the flow field around the utility truck with the force and moment coefficients at various side slip angles are presented in this paper.

Background Glioma is the most frequent, highly aggressive primary intracranial malignant tumor. Circular RNA (circRNA) circ_0037655 has been reported to be a vital regulator in glioma. The different functional mechanism behind circ_0037655 was investigated in the current study. Methods The expression of circ_0037655, microRNA-1229-3p (miR-1229-3p) and integrin beta-8 (ITGB8) was detected via the quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Cellular research was performed via colony formation assay for cell proliferation, flow cytometry for cell cycle and cell apoptosis, scratch assay for cell migration, as well as transwell assay for cell migration and invasion. Western blot was used for detection of ITGB8 protein and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was implemented for the binding analysis of potential targets. In vivo assay was administered via xenograft in mice. Results Upregulation of circ_0037655 was affirmed in glioma samples and cells. Tumor formation and metastasis of glioma were inhibited after circ_0037655 was downregulated. miR-1229-3p acted as a target of circ_0037655, and its upregulation was responsible for the function of si-circ_0037655 in glioma cells. miR-1229-3p functioned as a tumor inhibitor in glioma progression by targeting ITGB8. circ_0037655 modulated the ITGB8 expression by targeting miR-1229-3p. In vivo knockdown of circ_0037655 also suppressed glioma tumorigenesis by acting on the miR-1229-3p/ITGB8 axis. Conclusion This study showed that downregulation of the expression of circ_0037655 could inhibit glioma progression by acting on the miR-1229-3p/ITGB8 axis. The specific circ_0037655/miR-1229-3p/ITGB8 axis was disclosed in glioma research.

During the process of watching 3D synthesised video (3D-SV) and switching viewpoints, there is a case of asymmetric distortion, the left(right) viewpoint is a synthesised video generated by rendering technique, and the right(left) viewpoint is a real video taken by the camera. How to accurately estimate the quality of 3D-SV with binocular asymmetric distortions is a new and challenging problem. Aiming at this problem, a blind quality assessment method for 3D-SV with binocular asymmetric distortions is proposed. Firstly, the local edge deformations of synthesised videos at different scales are measured by calculating their standard deviations. Secondly, the global naturalness of synthesised videos is computed by analysing their natural statistical characteristics. Thirdly, a strategy for fusing left and right quality scores is proposed, which considers their texture information in different directions. Finally, the random forest is used to obtain an objective quality score. The experimental results show the superiority of the proposed method on asymmetry 3D-SV database.

Microwaves (MWs) are widely known and used in human life and production activities based on their thermal effects. In contrast, their nonthermal effects are still under debate. Fortunately, the nonthermal effects of MWs have been investigated by an increasing number of researchers and have shown great potential in industrial production. In this review, typical studies that demonstrate the nonthermal effects of MWs in chemistry and materials science are introduced and discussed, and the applications of and the harms that are caused by these effects are summarized to facilitate the safe use of these MW effects. The mechanisms of the nonthermal effects of MWs that have been proposed by researchers with various backgrounds are presented. Because some researchers did not detect nonthermal effects of MWs, four typical relevant studies are identified and introduced. Various types of MW reactors (single-mode and multimode reactors and reactors without a MW cavity) are summarized and compared. Finally, possible directions for future research on the nonthermal effects of MWs are proposed.

We report the design and synthesis of uniform PdAu alloy nanoclusters immobilized on diamine and graphene oxide-functionalized silica nanospheres. The structure-dependent activity for selectively catalytic dehydrogenation of formic acid (FA) has been evaluated and optimized by controlling the Pd/Au mole ratio and the carrier components. The relationship between the catalyst structure and activity has been investigated via both experiments and characterization. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) proved the formation of PdAu alloy nanoclusters. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analyses verified the electron transfer between Au, Pd, and the support. An outstanding turnover frequency (TOF) value of 16 647 h-1 at 323 K, which is among the highest activity for FA dehydrogenation ever reported, can be achieved at optimized conditions and ascribed to the combination of the bimetallic synergistic effect and the carrier effect.

Multiview video plus depth is one of the mainstream representations of 3D scenes in emerging free viewpoint video, which generates virtual 3D synthesized images through a depth-image-based-rendering (DIBR) technique. However, the inaccuracy of depth maps and imperfect DIBR techniques result in different geometric distortions that seriously deteriorate the users’ visual perception. An effective 3D synthesized image quality assessment (IQA) metric can simulate human visual perception and determine the application feasibility of the synthesized content. In this paper, a no-reference IQA metric based on visual-entropy-guided multi-layer features analysis for 3D synthesized images is proposed. According to the energy entropy, the geometric distortions are divided into two visual attention layers, namely, bottom-up layer and top-down layer. The feature of salient distortion is measured by regional proportion plus transition threshold on a bottom-up layer. In parallel, the key distribution regions of insignificant geometric distortion are extracted by a relative total variation model, and the features of these distortions are measured by the interaction of decentralized attention and concentrated attention on top-down layers. By integrating the features of both bottom-up and top-down layers, a more visually perceptive quality evaluation model is built. Experimental results show that the proposed method is superior to the state-of-the-art in assessing the quality of 3D synthesized images.

Background Radiation therapy is the primary method of treatment for glioblastoma (GBM). Therefore, the suppression of radioresistance in GBM cells is of enormous significance. Ribophorin II (RPN2), a protein component of an N-oligosaccharyl transferase complex, has been associated with chemotherapy drug resistance in multiple cancers, including GBM. However, it remains unclear whether this also plays a role in radiation therapy resistance in GBM. Methods We conducted a bioinformatic analysis of RPN2 expression using the UCSC Cancer Genomics Browser and GEPIA database and performed an immunohistochemical assessment of RPN2 expression in biopsy specimens from 34 GBM patients who had received radiation-based therapy. We also studied the expression and function of RPN2 in radiation-resistant GBM cells. Results We found that RPN2 expression was upregulated in GBM tumors and correlated with poor survival. The expression of RPN2 was also higher in GBM patients with tumor recurrence, who were classified to be resistant to radiation therapy. In the radiation-resistant GBM cells, the expression of RPN2 was also higher than in the parental cells. Depletion of RPN2 in resistant cells can sensitize these cells to radiation-induced apoptosis, and overexpression of RPN2 had the reverse effect. Myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1) was found to be the downstream target of RPN2, and contributed to radiation resistance in GBM cells. Furthermore, STAT3 was found to be the regulator of MCL1, which can be activated by RPN2 dysregulation. Conclusion Our study has revealed a novel function of RPN2 in radiation-resistant GBM, and has shown that MCL1 depletion or suppression could be a promising method of therapy to overcome the resistance promoted by RPN2 dysregulation.

Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDHs) belong to NAD(P)+-dependent enzymes and are considered ‘‘aldehyde scavengers’’. They play crucial roles in growth, development, and environmental stress adaptation in plants. In this study, a total of 70 SsALDH and 14 ShALDH superfamily genes were identified in Saccharum spontaneum and Saccharum spp. R570 cultivar, respectively. Results showed that the SsALDH superfamily was classified into 10 ALDH families, and the ShALDH superfamily was divided into eight ALDH families. A co-expression network analysis suggested that these ALDH proteins may play vital roles in the stress response due to the fact that they are involved in the metabolism of proline, γ-aminobutyrate, and lysine. The promotor cis-element prediction revealed that the ALDH genes may be regulated by many phytohormones and are involved in various stress responses. RNA-seq data and qRT-PCR analysis inferred that ALDH genes in Saccharum played various roles in response to drought, cold and Sporisorium scitamineum stresses, and they were constitutively expressed in different sugarcane tissues. Additionally, an expression analysis of ScALDH2B-1 suggested significant changes under various stresses. The prokaryotic expression of ScALDH2B-1 in Escherichia coli BL21 cells resulted in enhanced tolerance to salinity. The ectopic expression of ScALDH2B-1 in Nicotiana benthamiana showed that, after challenged by Fusarium solani var. coeruleum, several HR maker genes were upregulated, while the accumulation of H2O2 and HR-like cell death were triggered. A working model of the function of ALDHs in the Saccharum species was thus proposed. This study contributes to our understanding of the evolution and function of ALDH superfamily genes in Saccharum, and it also provides a baseline for the function identification of ScALDH2B-1 under biotic stress.

Depth-image-based-rendering (DIBR) techniques are significant for view synthesis. However, such technique may introduce challenging distortions. Unlike traditional uniform artifacts, the distortions of the synthesized could be local and non-uniform, thus are challenging for traditional image quality assessment metrics. To tackle this problem, aiming at the geometric distortions, a no reference quality assessment for DIBR-synthesized images is proposed in this paper. First, considering that the hue distribution of disoccluded regions is different from that of the natural image, the disoccluded regions are extracted from the hue difference map. The disoccluded regions with different sizes are calculated adaptively by overlapping the hue difference map according to the distortion intensity based on the progressive layer partitioning principle. Second, the artifacts of edges are measured as the distance between the patches at critical regions and their down-sampled versions based on the property of scale invariance. Finally, the perceptual quality is estimate by linearly pooling the scores of two geometric distortions together. The experimental results show that the PLCC, SRCC, RMSE of the proposed model are 0.7613, 0.6965, and 0.4244, respectively. In summary, the proposed metric achieves higher performance, but lower computational complexity than other models.

A novel bacterial strain BDG-2 was isolated and used to augment the treatment of silicon plate manufacturing wastewater that primarily contains diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (DGBE). BDG-2 was identified as a Serratia sp. Under the optimal conditions of 30 °C, pH 9 and DGBE concentration of 2000 mg L(-1), the bioaugmented system achieved 96.92% COD removal after 39.9h. Laboratory-scale technological matching results indicated that, in a biofilm process with the addition of 100 mg L(-1) ammonia and 5 mg L(-1) total phosphorus (TP), 70.61% COD removal efficiency could be obtained in 46 h. Addition of polyaluminium chloride (PAC) to the reactors during the suspension process enhanced the settleability of the BDG-2 culture. Subsequently, successful start-up and stable operation of a full-scale bioaugmented treatment facilities were accomplished, and the volumetric organic load in the plug-flow aeration tank was 2.17 ± 0.81 kg m(-3) d(-1). The effluent COD of the facilities was stable and always below 100 mg L(-1).

A compact microstrip ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter (BPF) with two narrow notched bands in the passband is presented in this letter. Firstly, a multi-mode resonator (MMR) with an embedded open-circuited stub is utilized in the filter design. Such an MMR structure leads to bring out a notched band. The length of the stub can be tuned to select a specific frequency for one of the notched bands. Secondly, Asymmetric parallel-coupled lines are applied to the input and output (I/O) to produce another notched band in the passband, and furthermore the location of the notched band can be adjusted by changing the length of the stubs loaded on the coupled lines. Finally, a prototype filter is designed and fabricated, and its measured results are provided to verify the predicted frequency response.

It is challenging to develop an effective quality assessment method for the stereoscopic video (SV) in the free viewpoint video (FVV) system because of asymmetric distortion and the interactively changing combinations. This paper proposes a quality assessment method that takes the characteristics of the SV in FVV systems into consideration. Specifically, considering the distortion introduced by the rendering process, the proposed method extracts a critical distortion area that can be perceivable by the human eye. The distortion degree of each critical distortion area is quantified and the overall results are pooled to obtain the initial quality score. The video pairs are classified into different combination types and the initial quality score is refined to obtain the final quality score. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional objective methods.

Infectious diseases have seriously inhibited the aquaculture of mud crab Scylla paramamosain in southeastern China. Identification of the immune molecules and characterization of the defense mechanisms will be pivotal to the reduction of these diseases. Available data show that leucine-rich repeat (LRR) proteins play a crucial role in protein-protein interactions, recognition processes or immune reactions in both invertebrates and vertebrates. In the present study, we cloned and characterized a LRR cDNA from the mud crab Scylla paramamosain (SpLRR) by using the RACE strategy. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that SpLRR contains one open reading frame of 1893 bp and encodes a LRR protein of 630 amino acids with 17 LRR domains and 5 potential N-glycosylation sites. Further, SpLRR and other arthropod LRR proteins could be clustered into one branch in a phylogenetic tree. SpLRR transcripts were detected using RT-PCR from examined tissues including heart, gill, stomach, intestine, muscle and hemocytes, whereas not from hepatopancreas. More importantly, the SpLRR mRNA expression was up-regulated after infection with Vibrio alginolyticus, Beta streptococcus or Poly I: C for 12-48 h, suggesting a novel LRR homolog in crab might be associated with the resistance to pathogens. The result could be important for future investigation of crab immune defense mechanisms.

Cylinders of TiNi shape-memory alloy were synthesized from mixtures of equiatomic fine irregular titanium and nickel powders by explosive-wave compression with a detonation velocity of about 6500 m s-1. B2 type parent phase, R phase, B19′ type martensite, Ti2Ni, Ti3Ni4 and Ti2Ni3 phases were observed in this as-synthesized material. In the B2 matrix high density dislocations existed. The Burgers vectors of many dislocations were determined to be parallel to \(\left\langle {111} \right\rangle \) directions. The R phase variants formed (0 0 1) B2 twinning structure. The substructure of the B19′ martensite was (0 0 1) B19′ type I twin and stacking faults on the (0 0 1) B19′ plane. When increasing the temperature of the as-synthesized material in a differential scanning calorimeter, no B19 ′ → R → B2 transitions were observed on the temperature range −50 to 100 °C. However, B2 → B19′(R) transitions occurred during the cooling cycle. After heat treating the specimen at 800 °C for 1 h and then ageing at 400 °C for 10 min, both B2 → R → B19′ and B19′(R) → B2 phase transitions were observed.

Bainitic precipitation and its influence on the martensitic transformation in the Cu–11.9Al–5Ni–1.6Mn–1Ti (wt %) shape-memory alloy has been observed in situ using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Bainite was observed to be precipitated when the alloy was aged at 553–700 K. The orthorhombic distortion of the precipitated bainite decreased with increasing ageing temperature and time. The bainitic precipitation strongly decreased the martensitic transformation temperature, and changed the martensite from faulted M18R1 type to twinned 2H type.

The martensite structure and substructure in a Ti36.5Ni48.5Hf15 high temperature shape memory alloy were investigated by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution electrom microscopy (HREM). The high temperature phase of this shape memory alloy was determined as being CsCl (B2) type structure with a = 0.309 nm. The martensite structure is B19′ type monoclinic structure with a = 0.293 nm, b = 0.411 nm, c = 0.473 nm, β = 100.4° and the space group is P21/m. The substructure in a martensite variant is (001)B19′ compound twins. The orientation relationship between B2 and B19′ was determined to be: [100]B19′ ∥ [100]B2 and (011)B19′ ∥ (001)B2, and the junction plane between two martensite variants was determined to be (011)B19′ ∥ (001)B2 or (1, − 1, 0.64)B19′ ∥ (1 − 1 0)B2.

The heating effects on the structure and fine structure of Cu-11.9Al-5Ni-1.6Mn-1Ti (wt%) shape memory alloy have been studied by means of transmission electron microscopy and microscopic compositional analysis. With the increase of the heating temperature and time, the stabilized M18R{sub 1} martensite, transformed from the parent phase of L2{sub 1} structure type, underwent the following structural variations: M18R{sub 1} {r_arrow} N18R{sub 1} {r_arrow} disorder N9R. Disorder N9R bainite precipitates and retained parent phases were observed in specimens heated at 573 and 623 K for 7.2 ks or longer. When the alloy was heated at 673 K for 133.2 ks, equilibrium {alpha}, {gamma}{sub 2} and Ni,Al-rich phases were formed without any retained {beta}{sub 1} parent phase. While the size of the X{sub s} particles decreased in the specimen heated at 623 K for 7.2 ks and they disappeared completely in the specimen heated at 673 K, the X{sub L} particles were coarsened after heating. With the increase of the heating temperature and time the growth of the antiphase domains was observed.

In recent years, high temperature shape memory alloy (SMA) has attracted much interest by many groups of researchers. Many kinds of alloys, such as TiNiPd and NiAL alloys were reported to have shape memory effect in high temperatures. But for different kinds of reasons, these alloys were not put to practical use. TiNi alloys have been considered the best shape memory materials until now. Adding a third element whose characteristics are similar to Ti or Ni in TiNi binary alloys can produce a new style SMA, which has been done in many cases. In most circumstances, Ni was substituted and only a few investigations on the TiNi alloys was Ti replaced. But in recent years, many investigators have given more attention to this subject. In 1976, Eckelmeyer showed that Zr was one of the element that can raise the phase transformation temperatures of TiNi alloys. In 1990, Krupp obtained a patent on TiNiZr SMA with high transformation temperatures for TiNi alloys. J.H. Mulder also published his work on TiNiZr alloys in 1992. In their previous work, a new type of high temperature SMA Ti{sub 36.5}Ni{sub 48.5}Hf{sub 15} alloy were investigated in more detail by DSC measurement, TEM and high-resolution observations.

As a modification of Cu-Zn-Al shape memory alloy (SMA), the characteristics of Cu-21Zn-6Al-1Mn-0.5Zr (wt%) SMA are examined and compared with that of Cu-21Zn-6Al (wt%) SMA in the present work. After added Zr into the Cu-Zn-Al alloy, the average grain size of Cu-Zn-Mn-Zr alloy is reduced from 300 micrometers (that of Cu-Zn-Al alloy) to 75 micrometers . Two Zr-rich new phases were found in Zr added alloy by means of transmission electron microscopy. The tensile testing results and scanning electron microscopy observations show that the strength of grain boundary and the ductility of the Mn, Zr added alloy were enhanced. This has made the alloy exhibit better mechanical property than ordinary Cu-Zn-Al SMA. Moreover, upon ageing, the reordering phenomenon was not serious when the aging temperature was below 200 degree(s)C in Cu-Zn-Al-Mn-Zr alloy while significant decrease of order degree and shape memory capacity were found for Cu-Zn-Al alloy.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.