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We analyze 214 freshly laid eggs belonging to 16 species across three orders of Class Reptilia. Using mechanical compression tests, we measure each egg’s absolute stiffness (K, unit: N m−1) and relative stiffness (C number). The effective Young’s modulus, E, was obtained by combining experimental and numerical methods. The mineral (CaCO3) content was measured by acid–base titration, the microstructures by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the crystallography by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). We find that the C number of reptilian eggs is, on average, higher than that of bird eggs, indicating that reptilian eggs are stiffer with respect to the egg mass than birds. However, Young’s moduli of the reptilian eggshells (32.85 ± 3.48 GPa) are similar to those of avian eggshells (32.07 ± 5.95 GPa), even though those eggshells have different crystal forms, microstructures, and crystallography. Titration measurement shows that the reptilian eggshells are highly mineralized (>89% for nine Testudines species and 96% for Caiman crocodilus). Comparing the species with aragonite and calcite crystals, we find that calcite shells, including those of the Kwangsi gecko (inner part) and spectacled caiman (outer part), generally have larger grains than the aragonite ones. However, the grain size is not correlated to the effective Young’s modulus. Also, as measured by the C number, the aragonite shells are, on average, stiffer than the calcite ones (except for the Kwangsi gecko), primarily due to their thicker shells.

Determining the photophysical processes for biomaterial–semiconductor systems has been beneficial for developing optoelectronic devices that exhibit biodegradability and biocompatibility. Here, we systematically investigated the optical properties and photophysical mechanisms of CsPbBr3 nanoparticles (NPs)-incorporated chlorophyll material. Steady-state photoluminescence (PL) studies reveal a large fluorescence enhancement in the chlorophyll once the perovskite was incorporated in the pristine chlorophyll with an associated PL quenching of the CsPbBr3 emission. A spectral overlap was measured from the PL and absorption spectra of CsPbBr3 NPs and chlorophyll indicative of a Förster-type resonance energy transfer (FRET). Using time-resolved PL, faster PL decay curves were observed from the CsPbBr3 NPs in the mixture suggesting that most of its energy was transferred to the chlorophyll. The corresponding Jablonski diagram was built and the energy transfer parameters, such as FRET efficiencies and transfer rates, were calculated to fully explain the FRET process. Slow PL degradation for the mixtures was also observed, highlighting the advantage of the FRET proposed. The demonstration of the photophysical mechanism in biomaterial–semiconductor systems is influential in improving the performance of emerging bio-inspired optoelectronic devices.

We analyze 700 freshly-laid eggs from 58 species (22 families and 13 orders) across three orders of magnitude in egg mass. We study the elastic moduli using three metrics: (i) effective Young’s modulus, EFEM, by a combined experimental and numerical method, (ii) elastic modulus, Enano, by nanoindentation, and (iii) theoretical Young’s modulus, Etheory. We measure the mineral content by acid-base titration, and crystallographic characteristics by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), on representative species. We find that the mineral content ranges between 83.1% (Zebra finch) and 96.5% (ostrich) and is positively correlated with EFEM—23.28 GPa (Zebra finch) and 47.76 GPa (ostrich). The EBSD shows that eggshell is anisotropic and non-homogeneous, and different species have different degrees of crystal orientation and texture. Ostrich eggshell exhibits strong texture in the thickness direction, whereas chicken eggshell has little. Such anisotropy and inhomogeneity are consistent with the nanoindentation tests. However, the crystal characteristics do not appear to correlate with EFEM, as EFEM represents an overall “average” elasticity of the entire shell. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical prediction of linear elasticity. Our comprehensive investigation into the elastic moduli of avian eggshell over broad taxonomic scales provides a useful dataset for those who work on avian reproduction.

Seed maturity in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) determines economic return to a producer because of its impact on seed weight (yield), and critically influences seed vigour and other quality characteristics. During seed development, the inner mesocarp layer of the pericarp (hull) transitions in colour from white to black as the seed matures. The maturity assessment process involves the removal of the exocarp of the hull and visually categorizing the mesocarp colours into varying colour classes from immature (white, yellow, orange) to mature (brown, and black). This visual colour classification is time consuming because the exocarp must be manually removed. In addition, the visual classification process involves human assessment of colours, which leads to large variability of colour classification from observer to observer. A more objective, digital imaging approach to peanut maturity is needed, optimally without the requirement of removal of the hull's exocarp. This study examined the use of a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) process to determine pod maturity with intact pericarps. The HSI method leveraged spectral differences between mature and immature pods within a classification algorithm to identify the mature and immature pods. Therefore, there is no need to remove the exocarp nor is there a need for subjective colour assessment in the proposed process. The results showed a consistent high classification accuracy using samples from different years and cultivars. In addition, the proposed method was capable of estimating a continuous-valued, pixel-level maturity value for individual peanut pods, allowing for a valuable tool that can be utilized in seed quality research. This new method solves issues of labour intensity and subjective error that all current methods of peanut maturity determination have.

Peanut is an important oilseed crop and legume species, with more than 1.9 M tons produced annually in the U.S. Being indeterminate, peanut continually flowers and sets pods throughout the growing season, leading to the potential harvest of both mature and immature pods. To quantify the physiological impacts of peanut seed maturity, a two-year field study was conducted to elucidate the difference in canopy structure and reproductive characteristics, including flower production, yield, and grade between seed obtained from immature and mature seed of two commercial peanut cultivars: TUFRunner™ ‘727’ and FloRun™ ‘107’. Data indicated that seed from the yellow class of pods have lower vigor and overall plant development and performance; further, plants developed from immature seed never achieved a level of performance comparable to that of the mature brown/black pod classes. There were differences between cultivars in the severity of the impact of immaturity, with larger detrimental effects on immature TUFRunner™ ‘727’, which exhibited reduced emergence. Despite these cultivar differences, this study illustrated that mature seed performs better in a field setting than immature seed. These results are critically important to disproving the ‘catch-up' assumption: seed maturity not only has an impact on emergence, but on subsequent life history and performance traits through the remainder of the season.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important crop worldwide. Functional rice has exhibited health benefits. The aim of this study was to use marker-assisted selection (MAS) to introgress two genes, GE (giant embryo) and OsALDH7 (aldehyde dehydrogenase, golden-like endosperm) into colored rice and obtain high yield functional rice. CNY103108 and CNY103107 are two rice lines with golden-like endosperms and giant embryos. They were used as the donor parents. CNY922401, an elite purple waxy rice line, and TNGSW26, an indica red waxy rice cultivar were used as the recurrent parents. Foreground selection of the progenies was completed using functional markers for GE and OsALDH7, and background selection was completed using molecular markers to recover the background of the recurrent parents. MAS results showed a purple functional rice population (PFR) (CNY922401/CNY103108), with the recovery rate of the recurrent parental genome as 91.3%, and a red functional rice population (RFR) (TNGSW26/CNY103107) with the recovery as 89.8%. After five-season yield trials and several antioxidant activities analyses, PFR32 and RFR13 lines, which have similar yields and antioxidant activities, were selected as the recurrent parents with a golden-like endosperm and a giant embryo. For a biofortification purpose, they can become valuable products and be adapted to the current agricultural community.

Spotted wilt, caused by tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), is a major disease of peanut (Arachis hypogaea) in the south‐eastern United States. Cultivar resistance is the most important factor in disease control. However, spotted wilt resistance in current cultivars still carries risk in the absence of other practices when disease is severe. In contrast, a newly developed cultivar, Florida‐EP™ “113,” has demonstrated excellent resistance even when spotted wilt is severe. Information on heritability of this resistance can help breeders better utilize it in breeding. F₂‐derived populations from the cross Florida‐EP™ “113”/Georgia Valencia were developed and tested in field experiments in Florida from 2012 to 2014. Disease symptoms were evaluated visually, and the frequency of TSWV infection was measured by ImmunoStrip®. Heritability estimated from ImmunoStrip® was higher (0.66) compared to visual ratings (0.48). Genetic correlations among evaluation methods (rA = 0.92–0.99) and environments (rB = 0.86–0.99) were high. These results indicate that resistance in Florida‐EP™ “113” is highly heritable and that selection in a high disease risk environment is feasible without significant erosion of genetic gain.

The indeterminate nature and underground fruiting habit of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) makes it a challenge to determine the optimal harvest time. The objectives of this study were (1) to gain additional information about how maturity and canopy health influence peg strength, yield, and grade and (2) to address anecdotal claims of differences in peg strength and digging losses among cultivars. Field trials were established in Citra, FL, and Tifton, GA. Two peanut cultivars (“Georgia-06G” and “Tifguard”) were grown under two fungicide programs (full program: every 14-day spraying interval; and reduced program: every 28-day spraying interval), and harvested at three different maturity levels (early, optimum, and late based on an accumulated growing degree day method). The fungicide program had a significant impact on yield only in 2013 at Citra, likely because the canopy structure was decreased because of fungal disease known as leaf spots (causal agents: Cercospora arachidicola and Cercosporidium ...

A total of 33 additive stem rot QTLs were identified in peanut genome with nine of them consistently detected in multiple years or locations. And 12 pairs of epistatic QTLs were firstly reported for peanut stem rot disease. Stem rot in peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is caused by the Sclerotium rolfsii and can result in great economic loss during production. In this study, a recombinant inbred line population from the cross between NC 3033 (stem rot resistant) and Tifrunner (stem rot susceptible) that consists of 156 lines was genotyped by using 58 K peanut single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and phenotyped for stem rot resistance at multiple locations and in multiple years. A linkage map consisting of 1451 SNPs and 73 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers was constructed. A total of 33 additive quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for stem rot resistance were detected, and six of them with phenotypic variance explained of over 10% (qSR.A01-2, qSR.A01-5, qSR.A05/B05-1, qSR.A05/B05-2, qSR.A07/B07-1 and qSR.B05-1) can be consistently detected in multiple years or locations. Besides, 12 pairs of QTLs with epistatic (additive × additive) interaction were identified. An additive QTL qSR.A01-2 also with an epistatic effect interacted with a novel locus qSR.B07_1-1 to affect the percentage of asymptomatic plants in a row. A total of 193 candidate genes within 38 stem rot QTLs intervals were annotated with functions of biotic stress resistance such as chitinase, ethylene-responsive transcription factors and pathogenesis-related proteins. The identified stem rot resistance QTLs, candidate genes, along with the associated SNP markers in this study, will benefit peanut molecular breeding programs for improving stem rot resistance.

Mechanical instability, such as buckling of films, plates and shells, has emerged as a viable means of functional shape morphing, and has attracted much attention. Despite the extensive studies, examples with elastoplastic double-curved shells are rare, primarily because of the difficulties in fabrication and the complexities involved in analyzing their underlying high nonlinearities in materials, geometry, and contact. Here we use ping pong balls as specimens to study the post-buckling behavior of thin elastoplastic shells compressed by circular and polygonal indenters via compression tests and finite element simulations. We show that, for circular indenters, the nucleation and evolution of the buckling patterns, i.e., s-cones, are strongly affected by the indenter size and the yield stress of the shell. We also show that plastically deformed s-cones can be formed via the compression of a polygonal indenter of proper size with respect to the shell. Our findings may shed new light on rationalizing this highly nonlinear process, and may provide design guidelines that circumvent the need for creating inhomogeneous materials or geometrical imperfections.

Tainung82 (TNG82) is one of the most popular japonica varieties in Taiwan due to its relatively high yield and grain quality, however, TNG82 is susceptible to bacterial blight (BB) disease. The most economical and eco-friendly way to control BB disease in japonica is through the utilization of varieties that are resistant to the disease. In order to improve TNG82&rsquo, s resistance to BB disease, five bacterial blight resistance genes (Xa4, xa5, Xa7, xa13 and Xa21) were derived from a donor parent, IRBB66 and transferred into TNG82 via marker-assisted backcrossing breeding. Five BB-resistant gene-linked markers were integrated into the backcross breeding program in order to identify individuals possessing the five identified BB-resistant genes (Xa4, xa5, Xa7, xa13 and Xa21). The polymorphic markers between the donor and recurrent parent were used for background selection. Plants having maximum contribution from the recurrent parent genome were selected in each generation and crossed with the recipient parent. Selected BC3F1 plants were selfed in order to generate homozygous BC3F2 plants. Nine pyramided plants, possessing all five BB-resistant genes, were obtained. These individuals displayed a high level of resistance against the BB strain, XF89-b. Different BB gene pyramiding lines were also inoculated against the BB pathogen, resulting in more than three gene pyramided lines that exhibited high levels of resistance. The five identified BB gene pyramided lines exhibited yield levels and other desirable agronomic traits, including grain quality and palatability, consistent with TNG82. Bacterial blight-resistant lines possessing the five identified BB genes exhibited not only higher levels of resistance to the disease, but also greater yield levels and grain quality. Pyramiding multiple genes with potential characteristics into a single genotype through marker-assisted selection can improve the efficiency of generating new crop varieties exhibiting disease resistance, as well as other desirable traits.

Background Genetic data for traditional Taiwanese (Formosan) agriculture is essential for tracing the origins on the East Asian mainland of the Austronesian language family, whose homeland is generally placed in Taiwan. Three main models for the origins of the Taiwanese Neolithic have been proposed: origins in coastal north China (Shandong); in coastal central China (Yangtze Valley), and in coastal south China. A combination of linguistic and agricultural evidence helps resolve this controversial issue. Results We report on botanically informed linguistic fieldwork of the agricultural vocabulary of Formosan aborigines, which converges with earlier findings in archaeology, genetics and historical linguistics to assign a lesser role for rice than was earlier thought, and a more important one for the millets. We next present the results of an investigation of domestication genes in a collection of traditional rice landraces maintained by the Formosan aborigines over a hundred years ago. The genes controlling awn length, shattering, caryopsis color, plant and panicle shapes contain the same mutated sequences as modern rice varieties everywhere else in the world, arguing against an independent domestication in south China or Taiwan. Early and traditional Formosan agriculture was based on foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and rice. We trace this suite of cereals to northeastern China in the period 6000–5000 BCE and argue, following earlier proposals, that the precursors of the Austronesians, expanded south along the coast from Shandong after c. 5000 BCE to reach northwest Taiwan in the second half of the 4th millennium BCE. This expansion introduced to Taiwan a mixed farming, fishing and intertidal foraging subsistence strategy; domesticated foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and japonica rice; a belief in the sacredness of foxtail millet; ritual ablation of the upper incisors in adolescents of both sexes; domesticated dogs; and a technological package including inter alia houses, nautical technology, and loom weaving. Conclusion We suggest that the pre-Austronesians expanded south along the coast from that region after c. 5000 BCE to reach northwest Taiwan in the second half of the 4th millennium BCE. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12284-018-0247-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Table S1. Aboriginal rice accessions, control varieties and their domestication-related phenotypes. Table S2. Information on functionally characterized genes and mutations that underlie phenotypic changes during rice domestication. Table S3. Tribe, village and gender of informants. Table S4. Accessions used in the phylogenetic study, regions collected and their DNA accession numbers. Table S5. Primers used in the studies. (DOCX 67 kb)

Background Spotted wilt caused by tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is one of the major peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) diseases in the southeastern United States. Occurrence, severity, and symptoms of spotted wilt disease are highly variable from season to season, making it difficult to efficiently evaluate breeding populations for resistance. Molecular markers linked to spotted wilt resistance could overcome this problem and allow selection of resistant lines regardless of environmental conditions. Florida-EPTM ‘113’ is a spotted wilt resistant cultivar with a significantly lower infection frequency. However, the genetic basis is still unknown. The objective of this study is to map the major quantitative trait loci (QTLs) linked to spotted wilt resistance in Florida-EPTM ‘113’. Results Among 2,431 SSR markers located across the whole peanut genome screened between the two parental lines, 329 were polymorphic. Those polymorphic markers were used to further genotype a representative set of individuals in a segregating population. Only polymorphic markers on chromosome A01 showed co-segregation between genotype and phenotype. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) of the representative set of individuals in the segregating population also depicted a strong association between several SNPs on chromosome A01 and the trait, indicating a major QTL on chromosome A01. Therefore marker density was enriched on the A01 chromosome. A linkage map with 23 makers on chromosome A01 was constructed, showing collinearity with the physical map. Combined with phenotypic data, a major QTL flanked by marker AHGS4584 and GM672 was identified on chromosome A01, with up to 22.7 % PVE and 9.0 LOD value. Conclusion A major QTL controlling the spotted wilt resistance in Florida-EPTM ‘113’ was identified. The resistance is most likely contributed by PI 576638, a hirsuta botanical-type line, introduced from Mexico with spotted wilt resistance. The flanking markers of this QTL can be used for further fine mapping and marker assisted selection in peanut breeding programs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-016-0435-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

TSWV infection results on F2:4 population and parental lines (checks) by visual rating in 2013. a) F2:4 population at PSREU; b) checks of F2:4 population at PSREU; c) F2:4 population at NFREC; d) checks of F2:4 population at NFREC. (DOCX 66 kb)

The number of plot, replication, check at different sites and phenotyping methods in F3, F4 and F5 populations. (DOCX 62Â kb)

Literature reference of sources of SSR primers screened. (DOCX 49Â kb)

TSWV infection results on F2:5 population and parental lines (checks) by visual rating in 2014 at NFREC. a) F2:5 population; b) checks of F2:5 population. (DOCX 48Â kb)

The surface hydrophilic activation of a polyethylene membrane separator was achieved using an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet. The surface of the atmospheric-pressure-plasma-treated membrane separator was found to be highly hydrophilic realized by adjusting the plasma power input. The variations in membrane separator chemical structure were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Chemical analysis showed newly formed carbonyl-containing groups and high surface concentrations of oxygen-containing species on the atmospheric-pressure-plasma-treated polymeric separator surface. It also showed that surface hydrophilicity primarily increased from the polar component after atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment. The surface and pore structures of the polyethylene membrane separator were examined by scanning electron microscopy, revealing a slight alteration in the pore structure. As a result of the incorporation of polar functionalities by atmospheric-pressure plasma activation, the electrolyte uptake and electrochemical impedance of the atmospheric-pressure-plasma-treated membrane separator improved. The investigational results show that the separator surface can be controlled by atmospheric-pressure plasma surface treatment to tailor the hydrophilicity and enhance the electrochemical performance of lithium ion batteries.

This article proposes a column driver circuit design for a passive organic electro-luminescent display (PMOELD). A new method for grayscale driving has been developed for providing better visual effect. Besides, a novel programmable current-mode data driver circuit with calibration techniques is used to overcome process and environmental variations, especially there is column current mismatch due to the different distance to a bias reference. The proposed circuit has been designed and verified by using VIS 0.35mum, 2P4M and 13.5V high voltage process. The brightness current has been emphasized to simulate the performance of the variations elimination between different column circuits. By using the Monte Carlo simulation, the result of the current variation in different column is under 2% when the standard deviation of threshold voltage is 0.18V