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The maize (Zea mays L.) husk consists of multiple leaf layers and plays an important role in grain growth and development. Despite significant achievements in physiological and morphological research, few studies have focused on the detection of genetic loci underlying husk-related traits due to the lack of efficient tools. In this study, we constructed an ultra-high-density linkage map using genotyping by sequencing based on a recombinant inbred line population to estimate the genetic variance and heritability of 3 husk traits, i.e. husk length, husk width, and husk layer number in 3 field environments and the combined environment. The 3 husk traits showed broad phenotypic variation and high heritability; the broad-sense heritability (H2) was 0.92, 0.84, and 0.86. Twenty quantitative trait loci were consistently detected more than 1 environment, including 9 for husk length, 6 for husk width, and 5 for husk layer number. These loci were considered as stable quantitative trait loci. Based on the quantitative trait loci mapping in the recombinant inbred line population, qHL6 and qHN4 were detected across all environments and inferred to be reliable and major-effect quantitative trait loci for husk length and husk layer number, respectively. In addition, several predicted candidate genes were identified in the region of qHL6 and qHN4, of which 17 candidate genes potentially play a role in biological processes related to development process and energy metabolism. These results will be as a useful resource for performing functional studies aimed at understanding the molecular pathways involved in husk growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new energy management system based on equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) for hybrid electric vehicles. The aim is to enhance fuel economy and impose state of charge (SoC) charge-sustainability. First, the relationship between the equivalent factor (EF) of ECMS and the co-state of pontryagin's minimum principle (PMP) is derived. Second, a new method of implementing the adaptation law using fuzzy proportional plus integral (PI) controller is developed to adjust EF for ECMS in real-time. This adaptation law is more robust than one with constant EF due to the variation of EF as well as driving cycle. Finally, simulations for two driving cycles using ECMS are conducted as opposed to the commonly used rule-based (RB) control strategy, indicating that the proposed adaptation law can provide a promising blend in terms of fuel economy and charge-sustainability. The results confirm that ECMS with Fuzzy PI adaptation law is more robust than ECMS with constant EF as well as PI adaptation law and it achieves significant improvements compared with RB in terms of fuel economy, which is enhanced by 4.44% and 14.7% for china city bus cycle and economic commission of Europe (ECE) cycle, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a predictive equivalent consumption minimization (P-ECMS) strategy for a power-split hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) using predicted driving cycle speed based on Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm. The proposed P-ECMS fully takes advantage of the predicted speed profiles by the MC algorithm to optimally determine the power split among energy sources. In this study, to validate the workings of the MCbased P-ECMS scheme, a series of simulations under a total of seven replicated driving cycles including New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS), Highway Fuel Economy Test (HWFET), New York City Cycle (NYCC), California Unified Cycle (LA-92), and a combination of all (ALL-CYC) are conducted. The MC-based P-ECMS strategy is compared with a baseline ECMS in terms of fuel-saving. The fuel economy saving up to 6.01% under NEDC, 9.09% under WLTP, 6.33% under UDDS, 5.14% under HWFET, 1.96% under NYCC, 11.47% under LA-92, and 7.92% under ALL-CYC is achieved. The results in this article put forward that the proposed strategy delivers competitive fuel savings compared to the widely used baseline method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of thymidylate synthase (TYMS) and excision repair cross-complementing 1 (ERCC1) polymorphisms on chemotherapeutic efficacy in patients with gastrointestinal tumors using peripheral venous blood. Preoperative peripheral venous blood and tumor tissue samples of 43 patients with gastric cancer and the peripheral venous blood samples of 76 patients with cancer who underwent chemotherapy were studied. The 3R/3R and 2R/2R or 2R/3R genotypes of TYMS were identi- fied in 72.09 and 27.91%, respectively (P<0.01), of untreated patients, and the C/C and T/T or C/T genotypes of ERCC1 were present in 81.39 and 18.61%, respectively (P<0.01), of patients. The 3R/3R and 2R/2R or 2R/3R genotypes of TYMS were identified in 65.79 and 34.21%, respectively, of chemotherapy- treated patients. The overall response rates (ORRs) for the two aforementioned genotypes were 18.00 and 57.69%, respectively (P<0.01), and those for the C/C and T/T or C/T genotypes of ERCC1 were 63.16 and 36.84%, respectively. The ORRs were 47.91 and 3.57%, respectively (P<0.01). In conclusion, peripheral blood samples may be used to replace tumor tissue for detecting TYMS and ERCC1 polymorphisms, and may be used to evaluate the efficacy of 5-fluorouracil and platinum drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Plant disease resistance (R) genes with the nucleotide binding site (NBS) play an important role in offering resistance to pathogens. The availability of complete genome sequences of Brassica oleracea and Brassica rapa provides an important opportunity for researchers to identify and characterize NBS-encoding R genes in Brassica species and to compare with analogues in Arabidopsis thaliana based on a comparative genomics approach. However, little is known about the evolutionary fate of NBS-encoding genes in the Brassica lineage after split from A. thaliana. Results Here we present genome-wide analysis of NBS-encoding genes in B. oleracea, B. rapa and A. thaliana. Through the employment of HMM search and manual curation, we identified 157, 206 and 167 NBS-encoding genes in B. oleracea, B. rapa and A. thaliana genomes, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis among 3 species classified NBS-encoding genes into 6 subgroups. Tandem duplication and whole genome triplication (WGT) analyses revealed that after WGT of the Brassica ancestor, NBS-encoding homologous gene pairs on triplicated regions in Brassica ancestor were deleted or lost quickly, but NBS-encoding genes in Brassica species experienced species-specific gene amplification by tandem duplication after divergence of B. rapa and B. oleracea. Expression profiling of NBS-encoding orthologous gene pairs indicated the differential expression pattern of retained orthologous gene copies in B. oleracea and B. rapa. Furthermore, evolutionary analysis of CNL type NBS-encoding orthologous gene pairs among 3 species suggested that orthologous genes in B. rapa species have undergone stronger negative selection than those in B .oleracea species. But for TNL type, there are no significant differences in the orthologous gene pairs between the two species. Conclusion This study is first identification and characterization of NBS-encoding genes in B. rapa and B. oleracea based on whole genome sequences. Through tandem duplication and whole genome triplication analysis in B. oleracea, B. rapa and A. thaliana genomes, our study provides insight into the evolutionary history of NBS-encoding genes after divergence of A. thaliana and the Brassica lineage. These results together with expression pattern analysis of NBS-encoding orthologous genes provide useful resource for functional characterization of these genes and genetic improvement of relevant crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the spatio-temporal distribution of the deformation tied to the India-Eurasian convergence and the impact of pre-existing weaknesses on the Cenozoic crustal deformation is significant for understanding how the convergence between India and Eurasia contributed to the development of the Tibetan Plateau. The exhumation history of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau was addressed in this research using a new apatite fission track (AFT) study in the North Qaidam thrust belt (NQTB). Three granite samples collected from the Qaidam Shan pluton in the north tied to the Qaidam Shan thrust, with AFT ages clustering in the Eocene to Miocene. The other thirteen samples obtained from the Luliang Shan and Yuka plutons in the south related to the Luliang Shan thrust and they have showed predominantly the Cretaceous AFT ages. Related thermal history modeling based on grain ages and track lengths indicates rapid cooling events during the Eocene-early Oligocene and since late Miocene within the Qaidam Shan, in contrast to those in the Cretaceous and since the Oligocene-Miocene in the Luliang Shan and Yuka region. The results, combined with published the Cretaceous thermochronological ages in the Qaidam Shan region, suggest that the NQTB had undergo rapid exhumation during the accretions along the southern Asian Andean-type margin prior to the India-Eurasian collision. The Cenozoic deformation initially took place in the North Qaidam thrust belt by the Eocene, which is consistent with the recent claim that the deformation of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau initiated in the Eocene as a response to continental collision between India and Eurasia. The immediate deformation responding to the collision is tentatively attributed to the pre-existing weaknesses of the lithosphere, and therefore the deformation of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau should be regarded as a boundary-condition-dependent process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large scale syntheses of uniform metal nanoparticles with hollow porous structure have attracted much attention owning to their high surface area, abundant active sites and relatively efficient catalytic activity. Herein, we report a general method to synthesize hollow porous Pd nanospheres (Pd HPNSs) by templating sacrificial SiO2 nanoparticles with the assistance of polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) through layer-by-layer self-assembly. The chemically inert PAH is acting as an efficient stabilizer and complex agent to control the synthesis of Pd HPNSs, probably accounting for its long aliphatic alkyl chains, excellent coordination capability and good hydrophilic property. The physicochemical properties of Pd HPNSs are thoroughly characterized by various techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The growth mechanism of Pd HPNSs is studied based on the analysis of diverse experimental observations. The as-prepared Pd HPNSs exhibit clearly enhanced electrocatalytic activity and durability for the formic oxidation reaction (FAOR) in acid medium compared with commercial Pd black. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our previous studies, we have proved that neutron irradiation can decrease the single event latch-up (SEL) sensitivity of CMOS SRAM. And one of the key contributions to the multiple cell upset (MCU) is the parasitic bipolar amplification, it bring us to study the impact of neutron irradiation on the SRAM’s MCU sensitivity. After the neutron experiment, we test the devices’ function and electrical parameters. Then, we use the heavy ion fluence to examine the changes on the devices’ MCU sensitivity pre- and post-neutron-irradiation. Unfortunately, neutron irradiation makes the MCU phenomenon worse. Finally, we use the electric static discharge (ESD) testing technology to deduce the experimental results and find that the changes on the WPM region take the lead rather than the changes on the parasitic bipolar amplification for the 90 nm process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pattern dependence in synergistic effects was studied in a 0.18 μm static random access memory (SRAM) circuit. Experiments were performed under two SEU test environments: 3 MeV protons and heavy ions. Measured results show different trends. In heavy ion SEU test, the degradation in the peripheral circuitry also existed because the measured SEU cross section decreased regardless of the patterns written to the SRAM array. TCAD simulation was performed. TID-induced degradation in nMOSFETs mainly induced the imprint effect in the SRAM cell, which is consistent with the measured results under the proton environment, but cannot explain the phenomena observed under heavy ion environment. A possible explanation could be the contribution from the radiation-induced GIDL in pMOSFETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]