Search

Abstract Exploiting highly maneuverable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been considered as an efficient way to assist wireless systems, e.g., for applications of data collection. However, several challenges remain to be addressed in the design of such UAV-assisted networks, including multi-UAV joint trajectory determination, data privacy protection, and adaption to the complex channel environment particularly with mobile ground devices (GDs). In this paper, we study a multi-UAV assisted data collection system where UAVs collect data locally from mobile GDs. The aim is to minimize the whole operation time cost via jointly optimizing the UAVs’ three-dimensional (3D) trajectory together with the GDs’ communication scheduling, while satisfying the constraints of no-fly zones (NFZs) and collision avoidance. With a nonconvex feasible set (due to the NFZs), the established problem is nonconvex. Moreover, the randomness of GDs movements significantly reduces the performance of a typical redesign, i.e., determining the UAVs’ trajectory and users’ scheduling before starting the data collection task. To tackle these issues, we first transform the established problem into a Markov decision one, and then propose a multi-agent federated reinforcement learning (MAFRL)-based approach to optimize the dynamic long-term objective via jointly determining UAVs’ 3D trajectory and GD’s communication scheduling. A multi-step propagation technique and a dueling network architecture are adopted to enhance the neural network utilized to train agents, i.e., to accelerate the convergence rate of the proposed method and improve its overall stability. Finally, experimental results reveal the effectiveness of our proposed method in the considered practical scenario.

Abstract Energy efficiency and physical-layer security are crucial considerations in the advancement of mobile edge computing systems. This paper addresses the trade-off between secure-reliability and energy consumption in finite blocklength (FBL) communications. Specifically, we examine a three-node scenario involving a user, a legitimate edge computing server, and an eavesdropper, where the user offloads sensitive data to the edge server while facing potential eavesdropping threats. We propose an optimization framework aimed at minimizing energy consumption while ensuring secure-reliability by decomposing the problem into manageable subproblems. By demonstrating the convexity of the objective function concerning the variables, we establish the existence of an optimal parameter selection for the problem. This implies that practical optimization of parameters can significantly enhance system performance. Our numerical results demonstrate that the application of FBL regime and retransmission mechanism can effectively reduce the energy consumption of the system while ensuring secure-reliability. For the quantitative analyses, the retransmission mechanism is 33.1% better than no retransmission, and the FBL regime is 13.1% better than infinite blocklength (IBL) coding.

Abstract The human cannot detect light with a wavelength exceeding 700 nm, primarily due to limitations in the physiological structure of the human eye. However, in certain specific scenarios, the ability to detect near-infrared (NIR) light proves to be extremely valuable. To attain this desired capability, NIR up conversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) were prepared and doped in the optical lens materials, aiming to obtain a NIR light “visible” optical lens. It is demonstrated that the doping of UCNPs in the optical lens materials does not significantly impact on their mechanical properties, optical properties, surface properties and it exhibits excellent biocompatibility in cell and animal experiments. More importantly, the UCNPs doping can convert NIR light into visible light within the material effectively and stably. The eyes can “see” the NIR light after wearing such UCNPs doped optical lens. Such NIR light visible optical lens could have great potential in actual applications. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs), one of the major contents of exosomes, have been shown to participate in the occurrence and progression of cancers. The role and the diagnostic potential of exosome-transported circRNAs in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain largely unknown. Methods The NSCLC-associated exosomal circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 were screened by circRNA microarray. The role of circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 in NSCLC was examined in vitro and in vivo. The encapsulation of the two circRNAs into exosomes and the transport to recipient cells were observed by confocal microscopy. The effects of exosome-transported circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 on recipient cells were investigated using a co-culture device. Bioinformatics analyses were performed to predict the mechanisms by which circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 affected NSCLC. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to quantify the exosome-containing circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 in the serum samples of healthy, pneumonia, benign lung tumours, and NSCLC. The diagnostic efficacy was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results The levels of circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 within exosomes were down-regulated in the serum of patients with NSCLC. The up-regulation of circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 inhibited the proliferation, migration/invasion, cloning formation of NSCLC cells in vitro and inhibited lung tumour growth in vivo. Circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 were observed to be packaged in exosomes and transported to recipient cells, where they inhibited the proliferation, migration/invasion, and cloning formation abilities of the recipient cells. Moreover, circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 might be involved in the progression of NSCLC by interacting with microRNAs and proteins. Additionally, lower serum exosomal circ_0061407 and circ_0008103 levels were associated with advanced pathological staging and distant metastasis. Conclusions This study identified two novel exosome-transported circRNAs (circ_0061407 and circ_0008103) associated with NSCLC. These findings may provide additional insights into the development of NSCLC and potential diagnostic biomarkers for NSCLC.

Abstract Melatonin improves chronic stress-induced hippocampal damage and depression-like behaviors, but the mechanism needs further study. This study was to explore the mechanism of melatonin inhibiting microglia pyroptosis. In virtro experiments, melatonin improved corticosterone-induced the ultrastructure and microstructure damage of HAPI cells by inhibiting pyroptosis, thereby increasing cell survival rate. Protein-protein interaction network and molecular autodocking predicted that Cathespin B might be the target of melatonin inhibition of NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis. Melatonin inhibited corticosterone-induced Cathespin B expression. Both Cathepsin B inhibitor CA-074Me and NLRP3 knockout inhibited the HAPI cells pyroptosis. Similarly, melatonin inhibited Cathepsin B agonist Pazopanib-induced activation of Cathepsin B/NLRP3 signaling pathway and HAPI cells pyroptosis. In vivo studies, melatonin inhibited chronic restraint stress (CRS)-induced activation of Cathepsin B/NLRP3 signaling pathway and alleviated hippocampal microglia pyroptosis in rats. Inhibition of microglia pyroptosis improved CRS-induced depression-like behaviors of rats. In addition, inhibition of Cathepsin B and NLRP3 alleviated hippocampal pyroptosis. Melatonin inhibited Pazopanib-induced activation of Cathepsin B/NLRP3 signaling pathway and hippocampal pyroptosis. These results demonstrated that melatonin could alleviate CRS-induced hippocampal microglia pyroptosis by inhibiting Cathepsin B/NLRP3 signaling pathway, thereby improving depression-like behaviors in rats. This study reveals the molecular mechanism of melatonin in the prevention and treatment of chronic stress-related encephalopathy.

Facilitating energy resource deficiency and environmental contamination, this work focuses on sustainable biodiesel production through the esterification reactions of oleic acid (OA) with methanol. To address the reaction, a novel heterogeneous acid catalyst, 12-tungstophosphoric acid (TPA) immobilized on Sn-based MOFs (Sn(II)-BDC) was synthesized via a simple, green solvent, and easy-to-implement synthesis strategy for the first time, and applied effectively for esterification process of OA to produce biodiesel. The structure and composition of as-obtained catalyst have been verified using XRD, FTIR, N2 physisorption, SEM, EDX, TG, Py-FTIR, TPD-NH3, and XPS techniques. The obtained TPA/Sn(II)-BDC catalyst was found to be the best with 60 wt% of TPA loading, which resulted in an OA conversion of 91.7 % at optimized conditions of 0.15 g catalyst loading and methanol to OA molar ratio of 20:1 at temperature of 120 °C in 4 h, and the excellent performance arises from available pores structure, large amounts of acidic sites, good stability and the synergistic catalytic effect of TPA and Sn(II)-BDC. Furthermore, the composite catalyst reusability has been studied for five cycles, and it exhibits an acceptable conversion. This research provides a green and large-scale synthesis route for the sustainable production of biofuels by constructing heteropolyacids/Sn-based MOFs synergistic catalysts.

● Low-value biowaste including wood chip and potato peel was valorized to syngas.● O2-blown co-gasification of wood chip and potato peel was simulated.● Different reaction conditions on CCE, gas composition, and LHV were studied.● Positive interaction between wood chip and potato peel in co-gasification was found. Potato is the fifth largest agricultural crop in Canada and contributes to the generation of an abundant amount of potato peel. However, disposal/recycling this peel remains a challenge due to the stringent environmental regulations. Consequently, there is a lack of an appropriate recycling and valorization methods of potato peel. Gasification is an effective technology for producing syngas and an ecofriendly waste disposal approach. Syngas is an important industrial intermediate to produce synthetic fuels and chemicals. To develop an ecofriendly and cost-effective valorization approach for potato peel, this study used a mixture of woody biomass (i.e., wood chips) and potato peel to produce syngas by co-gasification using O2 as the gasifying agent at a constant equivalence ratio of 0.3 using Aspen Plus simulation software. The influences of gasification temperature and wood chip/potato peel weight ratio on the carbon conversion efficiency (CCE), and product gas composition (molar fraction) and lower heating value (LHV) of product gas were investigated. This simulation indicated that a positive synergistic interaction occurs between wood chips and potato peel in co-gasification process in terms of an increase in CCE by comparing the arithmetic value and real value at all simulated wood chip to potato peel weight ratios (44.9% to 85.8%, 46.5% to 76.2%, and 48.1% to 78.6% at ratios of 25:75, 50:50, and 75:25, respectively, for wood chips to potato peel). While the molar fraction of H2 and CO decreased continuously with increase in the weight percentage of wood chips in the wood chip-potato peel mixture from 0 wt% to 100 wt% (H2, at 42.1 mol% to 41.4 mol%; and CO at 44.0 mol% to 40.4 mol%), accompanied by a decrease of the LHV of the product gas (10.3 to 9.78 MJ·Nm−3). The study concluded that co-gasification for producing syngas is feasible and environmental-friendly option to recycle and valorize potato peel.

In this work, we investigate a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) where multiple sources are jointly utilized for wireless power transfer (WPT). By consuming the energy harvested from the these WPT sources, a set of sensors are expected to accomplish reliable transmissions carried by finite blocklength (FBL) codes. This work proposes a fairness-aware resource allocation design with low-complexity in such a multi-source WPCN, where the practical nonlinear energy harvesting process is considered (including the effects of components nonlinearity in rectifier circuits and mutual interference between multiple radio frequency signals). In particular, a joint power and blocklength optimization problem minimizing the maximum reliability of all short packet transmissions is considered. To cope with the formulated extremely intractable nonconvex problem, we decompose it into two subproblems, i.e., a power allocation problem and a blocklength allocation problem, nevertheless, both of which are still nonconvex. To address the power allocation subproblem, auxiliary variables are introduced. Subsequently variable substitutions are performed to convert the problem into one being analytically tractable, and an efficient iterative approach is provided via applying the successive convex approximation technique. For the blocklength allocation problem, we for the first time verify the convexity of error probability with respect to blocklength under a harvested energy constraint, which is of great theoretical value and can be extended to numerous applications with energy limitations. Finally, by alternatingly addressing the two subproblems, an efficient sub-optimal solution to the original problem is achieved. We provide numerical results to validate and evaluate the proposed design, and a set of guidelines are provided for practical system designs.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy with high mortality rates. While surgery can be curative in early-stage disease, 80% of patients cannot undergo surgical resection. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), an emerging, non-invasive, precision treatment, has shown promising results across various stages of HCC and has thus been adopted in practice to varying degrees around the world. This article aims to review current guideline recommendations on SBRT, clinical evidence, and outcome comparisons with other local treatment modalities. Attempts are also made to compare the differences in clinical trials between Asian and Western countries.

Abstract Background Banana fruits are rich in various high-value metabolites and play a key role in the human diet. Of these components, carotenoids have attracted considerable attention due to their physiological role and human health care functions. However, the accumulation patterns of carotenoids and genome-wide analysis of gene expression during banana fruit development have not been comprehensively evaluated. Results In the present study, an integrative analysis of metabolites and transcriptome profiles in banana fruit with three different development stages was performed. A total of 11 carotenoid compounds were identified, and most of these compounds showed markedly higher abundances in mature green and/or mature fruit than in young fruit. Results were linked to the high expression of carotenoid synthesis and regulatory genes in the middle and late stages of fruit development. Co-expression network analysis revealed that 79 differentially expressed transcription factor genes may be responsible for the regulation of LCYB (lycopene β-cyclase), a key enzyme catalyzing the biosynthesis of α- and β-carotene. Conclusions Collectively, the study provided new insights into the understanding of dynamic changes in carotenoid content and gene expression level during banana fruit development.

In this paper, we consider mission-critical task offloading in the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-assisted mobile edge computing (MEC) networks, where local information collected from multiple local devices are processed at the MEC node. The process of the MEC service contains a NOMA-assisted communication phase and a computation phase, which is required to be reliable and low-latency. For such network, we derive the overall reliability of the service. On the one hand, we characterize the communication behavior in the finite blocklength (FBL) regime, where the impact of imperfect successive interference cancellation in the NOMA scheme is considered. On the other hand, we exploit the extreme value theory (EVT) to study the delay violation error of the computation phase. Following the characterizations, we provide an optimal design framework minimizing the overall error probability via a joint time and power allocation. To address the formulated non-convex problem, a modified block coordinate descent method is proposed, with which the original problem is decomposed into two sub-problems that can be solved optimally after conducting a set of analytical results. We validate our analytical model via simulations and demonstrate the proposed design’s improved performance in comparison to benchmarks.

Cotton is an important natural fiber crop worldwide. Cotton fiber cell is regarded as an ideal material for studying the growth and development of plant cells. Sphingolipids are important components of biomembrane and bioactive molecules which participate in many processes such as plant growth, development regulation, stimulus sensing, and stress response. However, the functions of sphingolipids in the cotton fiber development are still unclear. In the present study, we identified a cotton ceramide synthase gene, GhCS1, which is predominantly expressed in fiber cell. The GhCS1 is located in the endoplasmic reticulum and has the conserved domains of ceramide synthase. Overexpression of GhCS1 gene inhibited both vegetative and reproductive growth in cotton. Importantly, the fiber cell initiation and elongation were severely inhibited when compared with control. Comparison of the sphingolipid profile in the 0-DPA (days past anthesis) ovule (with fiber cell) between control and transgenic cotton plants showed that the content of sphingosines (Sph) decreased significantly in transgenic ovules, whereas the content of phyto-sphingosines (Phyto-Sph) had no change. Meanwhile, the content of ceramide containing Sph and very-long-chain fatty acid (VLCFA) increased significantly in transgenic ovules, while ceramide containing Phyto-Sph and long-chain fatty acids (LCFA)/VLCFA significantly decreased. These results indicated that GhCS1 was a functional ceramide synthase, which preferentially used Sph and VLCFA as substrates and was different from the Arabidopsis ceramide synthase AtLOH1/AtLOH3, which preferentially used Phyto-Sph and VLCFA as substrates, and also different from AtLOH2, which preferentially used Sph and LCFA as substrates. It is suggested that GhCS1 might be a new ceramide synthase gene in the plant, play some roles in the development of fiber cells and cotton plants.

Abstract Background Lymphopenia can decrease immune function of the host and is a known risk factor for poor prognosis in malignant tumors. Radiation induced lymphopenia was common in patients with breast cancer and was also reported to have a negative effect on long‐term outcome. Aims Lymphopenia may be associated with baseline immune status before radiotherapy (RT). This study aimed to explore the rate and risk factors of lymphopenia before start of the adjuvant RT in patients with breast cancer. Methods Patients with invasive breast cancer treated from March 2015 to February 2020 and with peripheral lymphocyte counts (PLC) available within 7 days from the beginning of RT were eligible for this study. Data were presented as mean and 95% confidence interval unless otherwise specified. The risk factors of low PLC before RT were identified using univariate and multivariable linear regressions. Results A total of 1012 consecutive patients met the study criteria. The mean PLC before RT commencement was 1.58*109/L (95%CI: 1.55–1.62*109/L) with 15.2% (95%CI: 13.1%–17.6%) CTCAE defined lymphopenia, rendering 12.3%, 2.6%, 0.3%, and 0% for grade 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Univariate and multivariable linear regression showed prior chemotherapy was the most significant risk factor (p .05). A total of 912 (90.1%, 95%CI: 88.1%–91.9%) patients had chemotherapy before adjuvant RT in this study. In patients with HR+/HER2‐ breast cancer, 69.0% (95%CI: 63.0%–74.5%) N0 and 98.1% (95%CI: 95.1%–99.5%) N1 had also received chemotherapy. Conclusions Patients with breast cancer might have lymphopenia from prior chemotherapy at the start of adjuvant RT which could have negative effect on long‐term outcome. It is also noted that most of the patients with HR+/HER2‐, early‐stage breast cancer were treated with aggressive chemotherapy without knowing the risk of chemotherapy induced lymphopenia. Future study on predictive or prognostic multigene assays is warranted to avoid unnecessary chemotherapy and subsequent lymphopenia in patients with low risk breast cancer.

In this work, we explore a multi-UAV-assisted wireless power transfer (WPT) network, where multiple UAVs are deployed to provide WPT services to multiple ground devices (GDs) in order to extend their lifespan. To enhance the WPT efficiency while considering fairness, we investigate the joint trajectories and transmit power design. For fairness-aware consideration, our objective is to maximize the harvested energy of the GD with the worst condition, taking into account UAV mobility, anti-collision, and power budget constraints. Unlike previous works that focus on the simplified linear energy harvesting (EH) model, a more accurate multi-source nonlinear EH model is, for the first time, adopted to formulate the problem. Given the highly non-convex nature of the original problem due to the presence of coupled variables, we leverage the convexity of the multi-source nonlinear EH model and introduce a convex approximation method, which enables us to construct a tightly convex problem in each iteration for the original joint design problem, thereby obtaining a high-quality solution. Finally, we present numerical results to showcase the convergence of our algorithm and validate the performance advantages of the proposed multi-UAV WPT scheme with a nonlinear EH model versus benchmarks.

Crop yields are adversely affected by climate change; therefore, it is crucial to develop climate adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts of increasing climate variability on the agriculture system to ensure food security. As one of the largest potato-producing provinces in Canada, Prince Edward Island (PEI) has recently experienced significant instability in potato production. PEI’s local farmers and stakeholders are extremely concerned about the prospects for the future of potato farming industries in the context of climate change. This study aims to use the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) potato model to simulate future potato yields under the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) climate scenarios (including SSP1–1.9, SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5, SSP3–7.0, and SSP5–8.5). The study evaluates the combined effects of changing climatic conditions at local scales (i.e., warming temperature and changing precipitation patterns) and increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere. The results indicate future significant declines in potato yield in PEI under the current farming practices. In particular, under the high-emission scenarios (e.g., SSP3–7.0 and SSP5–8.5), the potato yield in PEI would decline by 48% and 60% in the 2070s and by 63% and 80% by 2090s; even under the low-emission scenarios (i.e., SSP1–1.9 and SSP1–2.6), the potato yield in PEI would still decline by 6–10%. This implies that it is important to develop effective climate adaptation measures (e.g., adjusting farming practices and introducing supplemental irrigation plans) to ensure the long-term sustainability of potato production in PEI.

Abstract Edge computing has become one of the key enablers for ultra-reliable and low-latency communications in the industrial Internet of Things in the fifth generation communication systems and is also a promising technology in the future sixth generation communication systems. In this work, we consider the application of edge computing to smart factories for mission critical task offloading through wireless links. In such scenarios, although high end-to-end delays from the generation to completion of tasks happen with low probability, they may incur severe casualties and property loss and should be seriously treated. Inspired by the risk management theory widely used in finance, we adopt the Conditional Value at Risk to capture the tail of the delay distribution. An upper bound of the Conditional Value at Risk is derived through analysis of the queues both at the devices and the edge computing servers. We aim to find out the optimal offloading policy taking into consideration both the average and the worst-case delay performance of the system. Given that the formulated optimization problem is a non-convex mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, a decomposition into subproblems is performed and a two-stage heuristic algorithm is proposed. The simulation results validate our analysis and indicate that the proposed algorithm can reduce the risk in both the queueing and end-to-end delay.

Abstract In this paper, we study the integration of unmanned aerial vehicle small cells (UAV-SCs) for the purpose of augmenting or temporarily restoring service to an ultra-dense cellular network. The aim is to minimize the overall power consumption of the network by jointly optimizing the number of UAV-SCs, their placement, associations, and the power allocation, subject to user QoS (quality of service), transmit power, and fronthaul capacity constraints. As the resulting optimization problem is non-convex and computationally inefficient to solve, we investigate lower complexity alternatives. By reformulating the original problem, a linear structure can be obtained that is efficiently solved by off-the-shelf solvers. Furthermore, we also propose a meta-heuristic method that is based on particle swarm optimization. The performance of the proposed methods is evaluated via simulation studies and compared to state-of-the-art techniques. The results illustrate that the proposed methods consistently outperform conventional techniques by deploying fewer UAV-SCs and also lowering the transmit powers. Furthermore, considerable power savings were observed particularly for low QoS demands and dense scenarios.

A quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) code is called type-II, if the maximum weight over all circulants appearing in the parity-check matrix has the value of two. On the basis of multiplicative subgroup analysis for the prime field, a novel algebraic approach for type-II QC-LDPC codes is proposed from Tanner's method. For column weight of four, the new type-II codes possess girth at least six and include a subset with very small circulant sizes almost attaining the theoretical lower bound. The new approach can yield type-II codes with two times smaller circulant sizes, in comparison with the state-of-the-art method. To enhance the flexibility of circulant sizes, a generalized Chinese-remainder-theorem (gCRT) method is proposed as well for type-II codes. Simulation results show that combining gCRT with the proposed short code yields compound type-II codes with a very promising decoding performance and flexible circulant sizes.

A type of MCM-41 supported dicationic imidazolium ionic liquid nanocatalyst has been synthesized and found to be competent for the synthesis of 2-oxazolidinones through the sustainable chemical conversion of CO2 with aziridines. It was shown that the highest efficiency was achieved in the cycloaddition of a series of aziridines and CO2 in the presence of a catalytic amount of the solid catalyst MCM-41@ILLaCl4 under mild conditions. Merits of this meticulously designed protocol are the use of a novel supported ionic liquid catalyst, the easy work-up process, good to excellent yields, a short reaction time, and purification without column chromatography. Overall, the present protocol of synthesizing 2-oxazolidinones under cocatalyst- and solvent-free conditions using MCM-41@ILLaCl4 is promising for industrial applications.

Abstract Background Mature fruit cracking during the normal season in African Pride (AP) atemoya is a major problem in postharvest storage. Our current understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying fruit cracking is limited. The aim of this study was to unravel the role starch degradation and cell wall polysaccharide metabolism in fruit ripening and cracking after harvest through transcriptome analysis. Results Transcriptome analysis of AP atemoya pericarp from cracking fruits of ethylene treatments and controls was performed. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that the starch and sucrose metabolism pathway was significantly enriched, and approximately 39 DEGs could be functionally annotated, which included starch, cellulose, pectin, and other sugar metabolism-related genes. Starch, protopectin, and soluble pectin contents among the different cracking stages after ethylene treatment and the controls were monitored. The results revealed that ethylene accelerated starch degradation, inhibited protopectin synthesis, and enhanced the soluble pectin content, compared to the control, which coincides with the phenotype of ethylene-induced fruit cracking. Key genes implicated in the starch, pectin, and cellulose degradation were further investigated using RT-qPCR analysis. The results revealed that alpha-amylase 1 (AMY1), alpha-amylase 3 (AMY3), beta-amylase 1 (BAM1), beta-amylase 3 (BAM3), beta-amylase 9 (BAM9), pullulanase (PUL), and glycogen debranching enzyme (glgX), were the major genes involved in starch degradation. AMY1, BAM3, BAM9, PUL, and glgX all were upregulated and had higher expression levels with ethylene treatment compared to the controls, suggesting that ethylene treatment may be responsible for accelerating starch degradation. The expression profile of alpha-1,4-galacturonosyltransferase (GAUT) and granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS) coincided with protopectin content changes and could involve protopectin synthesis. Pectinesterase (PE), polygalacturonase (PG), and pectate lyase (PEL) all involved in pectin degradation; PE was significantly upregulated by ethylene and was the key enzyme implicated pectin degradation. Conclusion Both KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs and material content analysis confirmed that starch decomposition into soluble sugars and cell wall polysaccharides metabolism are closely related to the ripening and cracking of AP atemoya. A link between gene up- or downregulation during different cracking stages of atemoya fruits and how their expression affects starch and pectin contents were established by RT-qPCR analysis.

Abstract Background Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the world’s most important fruits and its production is largely limited by diverse stress conditions. SROs (SIMILAR TO RCD-ONE) have important functions in abiotic stress resistance and development of plants. They contain a catalytic core of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) domain and a C-terminal RST (RCD-SRO-TAF4) domain. In addition, partial SROs also include an N-terminal WWE domain. Although a few of SROs have been characterized in some model plants, little is known about their functions in banana, especially in response to biotic stress. Results Six MaSRO genes in banana genome were identified using the PARP and RST models as a query. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 77 SROs from 15 species were divided into two structurally distinct groups. The SROs in the group I possessed three central regions of the WWE, PARP and RST domains. The WWE domain was lacking in the group II SROs. In the selected monocots, only MaSROs of banana were present in the group II. Most of MaSROs expressed in more than one banana tissue. The stress- and hormone-related cis-regulatory elements (CREs) in the promoter regions of MaSROs supported differential transcripts of MaSROs in banana roots treated with abiotic and biotic stresses. Moreover, expression profiles of MaSROs in the group I were clearly distinct with those observed in the group II after hormone treatment. Notably, the expression of MaSRO4 was significantly upregulated by the multiple stresses and hormones. The MaSRO4 protein could directly interact with MaNAC6 and MaMYB4, and the PARP domain was required for the protein-protein interaction. Conclusions Six MaSROs in banana genome were divided into two main groups based on the characteristics of conserved domains. Comprehensive expression analysis indicated that MaSROs had positive responses to biotic and abiotic stresses via a complex interaction network with hormones. MaSRO4 could interact directly with MaNAC6 and MaMYB4 through the PARP domain to regulate downstream signaling pathway.

Abstract In this paper, we propose an optimal resource allocation policy for sparse code multiple access (SCMA) networks supporting ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). The network is assumed to operate with finite blocklength (FBL) codes, which is opposed to the classical information-theoretic works with infinite blocklength (IBL) codes. In particular, we aim at maximizing the average transmission rate in the FBL regime while guaranteeing the transmission reliability. A joint design is proposed, which combines the power allocation with the codebook assignment. The convexity of the corresponding optimization problem is analyzed and an iterative search algorithm is further provided. We study the impact of reliability and short blocklength constraints on the performance of the proposed optimal resource allocation policy through numerical simulations. In addition, we evaluate the FBL performance of the proposed joint design in comparison to the scenario with an IBL assumption.

In recent studies, various reports reveal that stubble burning of crop residues in India generates nearly 150 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), more than 9 million tons of carbon monoxide (CO), a quarter-million tons of sulphur oxides (SOX), 1 million tons of particulate matter and more than half a million tons of black carbon. These contribute directly to environmental pollution, as well as the haze in the Indian capital, New Delhi, and the diminishing glaciers of the Himalayas. Although stubble burning crop residue is a crime under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Air and Pollution Control Act (APCA) of 1981, a lack of implementation of these government acts has been witnessed across the country. Instead of burning, crop residues can be utilized in various alternative ways, including use as cattle feed, compost with manure, rural roofing, bioenergy, beverage production, packaging materials, wood, paper, and bioethanol, etc. This review article aims to present the current status of stubble-burning practices for disposal of crop residues in India and discuss several alternative methods for valorization of crop residues. Overall, this review article offers a solid understanding of the negative impacts of mismanagement of the crop residues via stubble burning in India and the other more promising management approaches including use for bioenergy, which, if widely employed, could not only reduce the environmental impacts of crop residue management, but generate additional value for the agricultural sector globally.

The genus Batracomorphus Lewis is the third largest leafhopper genus in the world, with its greatest diversity in the Oriental region. Here, nine species of Batracomorphus, including one new species, are recorded from Shaanxi Province, China, for the first time: B. allionii (Turton), B. clavatus Cai and Shen, B. fletcheri Hu and Dai sp. nov., B. geminatus (Li and Wang), B. juno Knight, B. lateprocessus Li and Wang, B. lunatus Cai and He, B. subfuscus (Li and Wang) and B. pandarus Knight. Among them, B. juno Knight is recorded from China for the first time. One new synonym is revealed: B.nigromarginattus Cai and Shen, 1999 is a junior synonym of B. subfuscus (Li and Wang, 1993). All taxa are described, and photographs of male genitalia are given based on observations of specimens from Qinling Mountain in Shaanxi of China. A key to the species found in Qinling Mountain of Shaanxi is also provided.

Proanthocyanidins (PAs) are responsible for several health benefits of many fruits, but they could cause a generally disliked sensation of astringency. Traditional deastringency methods remove bioactive ingredients, resulting in the loss of valuable nutrients and associated health benefits. This work aimed to microencapsulate PAs from grape seeds using oxidized starch hydrogel (OSH) and mask its perceived astringency in beverages while maintaining its bioavailability. The maximum PA uptake capabilities of OSH, as well as the binding site and primary binding force between these two components, were determined. The resulting PA-OSH complex was stable under in vitro digestion, with only 1.6% of PA being released in the salivary digestion, and it has an intestine-specific release property. The reaction of PA with α-amylase in artificial saliva was substantially reduced by OSH microencapsulation, leading to 41.5% less precipitation of the salivary proteins. The sensory evaluation results showed that the microencapsulation was able to mask the astringency of PA-fortified water, as the perceived threshold of astringency increased by 3.85 times. These results proved that OSH could be used as a novel food additive to reduce the astringency of beverage products due to its hydrogel properties and ability to encapsulate phenolic compounds.

In recent decades, a great deal of attention has been paid to the exploration of alternative and sustainable resources to produce biofuels and valuable chemicals, with aims of reducing the reliance on depleting confined fossil resources and alleviating serious economic and environmental issues. In line with this, lignocellulosic biomass-derived lactic acid (LA, 2-hydroxypropanoic acid), to be identified as an important biomass-derived commodity chemical, has found wide applications in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. In spite of the current fermentation of saccharides to produce lactic acid, sustainability issues such as environmental impact and high cost derived from the relative separation and purification process will be growing with the increasing demands of necessary orders. Alternatively, chemocatalytic approaches to manufacture LA from biomass (i.e., inedible cellulose) have attracted extensive attention, which may give rise to higher productivity and lower costs related to product work-up. This work presents a review of the state-of-the-art for the production of LA using homogeneous, heterogeneous acid, and base catalysts, from sugars and real biomass like rice straw, respectively. Furthermore, the corresponding bio-based esters lactate which could serve as green solvents, produced from biomass with chemocatalysis, is also discussed. Advantages of heterogeneous catalytic reaction systems are emphasized. Guidance is suggested to improve the catalytic performance of heterogeneous catalysts for the production of LA.

In the lanthanide complexes with some organic ligands, the use of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid derivatives as sensitizers was better than using others. In this paper, dimethyl 4-(2-(2,6-bis(methoxycarbonyl)pyridine-4-yl)vinyl)pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate (DVDPA) was synthesized starting from dimethyl 4-(chloromethyl)pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate (CMDPA) catalyzed by ionic liquid [bmim]OH. The results indicated that the catalytic system presented the highest catalytic activity in the case of 60°C and 40 min and DVDPA yield of 83% can be obtained when ionic liquid dosage is 10% of reactant. The ionic liquid [bmim]OH can be recycled five times without obviously decreasing the catalytic activity after vacuum drying dehydration and the stability of the yield of DVDPA can be maintained.

Banana is a commercially important fruit, but its flavonoid composition and characteristics has not been well studied in detail. In the present study, the metabolism of flavonoids was investigated in banana pulp during the entire developmental period of fruit. ‘Xiangfen 1’, a novel flavonoid-rich banana germplasm, was studied with ‘Brazil’ serving as a control. In both varieties, flavonoids were found to exist mainly in free soluble form and quercetin was the predominant flavonoid. The most abundant free soluble flavonoid was cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride, and quercetin was the major conjugated soluble and bound flavonoid. Higher content of soluble flavonoids was associated with stronger antioxidant activity compared with the bound flavonoids. Strong correlation was observed between antioxidant activity and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride content, suggesting that cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride is one of the major antioxidants in banana. In addition, compared with ‘Brazil’ , ‘Xiangfen 1’ fruit exhibited higher antioxidant activity and had more total flavonoids. These results indicate that soluble flavonoids play a key role in the antioxidant activity of banana, and ‘Xiangfen 1’ banana can be a rich source of natural antioxidants in human diets.