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Soybean quality and production are determined by seed viability. A seed's capacity to sustain germination via dry storage is known as its seed life. Thus, one of the main objectives for breeders is to preserve genetic variety and gather germplasm resources. However, seed quality and germplasm preservation have become significant obstacles. In this study, four artificially simulated aging treatment groups were set for 0, 24, 72, and 120 hours. Following an aging stress treatment, the transcriptome and metabolome data were compared in two soybean lines with notable differences in seed vigor--R31 (aging sensitive) and R80 (aging tolerant). The results showed that 83 (38 upregulated and 45 downregulated), 30 (19 upregulated and 11 downregulated), 90 (52 upregulated and 38 downregulated), and 54 (25 upregulated and 29 downregulated) DEGs were differentially expressed, respectively. A total of 62 (29 upregulated and 33 downregulated), 94 (49 upregulated and 45 downregulated), 91 (53 upregulated and 38 downregulated), and 135 (111 upregulated and 24 downregulated) differential metabolites accumulated. Combining the results of transcriptome and metabolome investigations demonstrated that the difference between R31 and R80 responses to aging stress was caused by genes related to phenylpropanoid metabolism pathway, which is linked to the seed metabolite caffeic acid. According to this study's preliminary findings, the aging-resistant line accumulated more caffeic acid than the aging-sensitive line, which improved its capacity to block lipoxygenase (LOX) activity. An enzyme activity inhibition test was used to demonstrate the effect of caffeic acid. After soaking seeds in 1 mM caffeic acid (a LOX inhibitor) for 6 hours and artificially aging them for 24 hours, the germination rates of the R31 and R80 seeds were enhanced. In conclusion, caffeic acid has been shown to partially mitigate the negative effects of soybean seed aging stress and to improve seed vitality. This finding should serve as a theoretical foundation for future research on the aging mechanism of soybean seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NAC transcription factors (TFs) are plant-specific TFs that play essential roles in plant development; however, the function of NAC TFs in loquat development remains unknown. The natural triploid loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.), Longquan No.1. B355, has larger organs than its corresponding diploid loquat (B2). Here, we cloned an NAC-like TF (EjNACL47 (NAC-like 47)) from the cDNA of triploid loquat B355 flowers. EjNACL47 has a conserved domain of NAC TFs and is homologous to AtNAC47. Transient expression in tobacco leaves revealed that EjNACL47 localized to the nucleus, and yeast-two-hybrid screening confirmed that the C-terminus displayed transcriptional activity. Interestingly, real-time qRT-PCR indicated that the expression levels of EjNACL47 in leaves and flower organs in triploid loquat (B355) were higher than those in diploid loquat (B2), implying that EjNACL47 might be associated with the larger organ size in B355. Moreover, Arabidopsis lines ectopically expressing EjNACL47 presented obviously larger leaves, flowers, and siliques than the wild-type variant, suggesting that EjNACL47 plays a positive role in Arabidopsis organ enlargement. These results offer insight into the molecular mechanism of NAC TFs involved in regulating organ size in loquat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a vital role in cancers. Accumulated evidences showed that the physiological condition of cells can be reflected by the circRNAs in the exosomes they secrete, and these exosomal circRNAs can be captured by the receptor cells, thereby inducing a series of cellular responses. We performed qRT-PCR to detect the expression level of circ-0000284 in cholangiocarcinoma cell lines, tissues and plasma exosomes. Then the direct interaction between circ-0000284 and miR-637 was investigated through dual-luciferase reporter assay, RNA binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay and Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) assay. Subsequently, EdU (5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine), migration, invasion assay, flow cytometry and nude mouse tumorigenicity assay were adopted to evaluate the effect of circ-0000284 on migration, invasion, proliferation and apoptosis of cholangiocarcinoma cells. Additionally, TEM was conducted to investigate the shape and size of exosomes from cholangiocarcioma and 293T cell lines. Circ-0000284 was evidently elevated in cholangiocarcinoma cell lines, tumor tissues and plasma exosomes. Meanwhile, the high expression of circ-0000284 enhanced the migration, invasion and proliferation abilities of cholangiocarcinoma cells in vivo and in vitro. Besides, the levels of circ-0000284 were increased in cholangiocarcinoma cells and exosomes from them. Moreover, exosomes from cholangiocarcinoma cells enhanced circ-0000284 expression and stimulated migration and proliferation of the surrounding normal cells. Our findings suggest that on the one hand circ-0000284 functions as a competitive endogenous RNA to promote cholangiocarcinoma progression, and on the other hand, circ-0000284 can be directly transferred from cholangiocarcinoma cells to surrounding normal cells via exosomes and in this way regulate the biological functions of surrounding normal cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean is one of the most important economic crops for both China and the United States (US). The exchange of germplasm between these two countries has long been active. In order to investigate genetic relationships between Chinese and US soybean germplasm, 277 Chinese soybean accessions and 300 US soybean accessions from geographically diverse regions were analyzed using 5,361 SNP markers. The genetic diversity and the polymorphism information content (PIC) of the Chinese accessions was higher than that of the US accessions. Population structure analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis all showed that the genetic basis of Chinese soybeans is distinct from that of the USA. The groupings observed in clustering analysis reflected the geographical origins of the accessions; this conclusion was validated with both genetic distance analysis and relative kinship analysis. FST-based and EigenGWAS statistical analysis revealed high genetic variation between the two subpopulations. Analysis of the 10 loci with the strongest selection signals showed that many loci were located in chromosome regions that have previously been identified as quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with environmental-adaptation-related and yield- related traits. The pattern of diversity among the American and Chinese accessions should help breeders to select appropriate parental accessions to enhance the performance of future soybean cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the fuzzy Value-at-Risk (VaR) into crop production planning and proposes a risk-based decision-making approach to the problem in imprecise or fuzzy parameters environments. In the proposed fuzzy crop production planning VaR model, the profit coefficients are imprecise uncertain and assumed to be fuzzy variables with known possibility distributions. Due to the fuzzy variable parameters with infinite supports, the VaR model is inherently an infinitedimensional optimization problem that can rarely be solved directly via conventional mathematical programming methods. Therefore, algorithm procedures for solving this optimization problem must rely on approximation schemes and heuristic computing. The paper presents a heuristic algorithm, which integrates approximation approach (AA), neural network (NN) and genetic algorithm (GA), to solve the fuzzy crop production planning VaR model. Finally, a practical example is given to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and heuristic algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among various flat optical devices, metasurfaces have presented their great ability in efficient manipulation of light fields and have been proposed for variety of devices with specific functionalities. However, due to the high phase dispersion of their building blocks, metasurfaces significantly suffer from large chromatic aberration. Here we propose a design principle to realize achromatic metasurface devices which successfully eliminate the chromatic aberration over a continuous wavelength region from 1200 to 1680 nm for circularly-polarized incidences in a reflection scheme. For this proof-of-concept, we demonstrate broadband achromatic metalenses (with the efficiency on the order of ~12%) which are capable of focusing light with arbitrary wavelength at the same focal plane. A broadband achromatic gradient metasurface is also implemented, which is able to deflect wide-band light by the same angle. Through this approach, various flat achromatic devices that were previously impossible can be realized, which will allow innovation in full-color detection and imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces an approach to assess the value andmanage flexibility in engineering systems design based on decision rules and stochastic programming. The approach differs from standard Real Options Analysis (ROA) that relies on dynamic programming in that it parameterizes the decision variables used to design and manage the flexible system in operations. Decision rules are based on heuristic-triggering mechanisms that are used by Decision Makers (DMs) to determine when it is appropriate to exercise the flexibility. They can be treated similarly as, and combined with, physical design variables, and optimal values can be determined using multistage stochastic programming techniques. The proposed approach is applied as demonstration to the analysis of a flexible hybrid waste-to-energy system with two independent flexibility strategies under two independent uncertainty drivers in an urban environment subject to growing waste generation. Results show that the proposed approach recognizes the value of flexibility to a similar extent as the standard ROA. The form of the solution provides intuitive guidelines to DMs for exercising the flexibility in operations. The demonstration shows that the method is suitable to analyze complex systems and problems when multiple uncertainty sources and different flexibility strategies are considered simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expectation function of fuzzy variable is an important and widely used criterion in fuzzy optimization, and sound properties on the expectation function may help in model analysis and solution algorithm design for the fuzzy optimization problems. The present paper deals with some analytical properties of credibilistic expectation functions of fuzzy variables that lie in three aspects. First, some continuity theorems on the continuity and semicontinuity conditions are proved for the expectation functions. Second, a differentiation formula of the expectation function is derived which tells that, under certain conditions, the derivative of the fuzzy expectation function with respect to the parameter equals the expectation of the derivative of the fuzzy function with respect to the parameter. Finally, a law of large numbers for fuzzy variable sequences is obtained leveraging on the Chebyshev Inequality of fuzzy variables. Some examples are provided to verify the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the enhanced photothermal effect, which was achieved using a silver film, a low power weakly focused continuous-wave laser (532 nm) was applied to create a vapor bubble. A convective flow was formed around the bubble. Microparticles dispersed in water were carried by the convective flow to the vapor bubble and accumulated on the silver film. By moving the laser spot, we easily manipulated the location of the bubble, allowing us to direct-write micropatterns on the silver film with accumulated particles. The reported simple controllable accumulation method can be applied to bimolecular detection, medical diagnosis, and other related biochip techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YBaCuO (YBCO) film was deposited on {001} SrTiO (STO) substrate by pulse laser deposition (PLD). The microstructure of YBCO and STO was analyzed by High resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The results showed that the YBCO film alignment was C-axis coexisting with about 1 vol.% a-axis, and the spreading of YBCO's out-plane alignment is anisotropic inherited from STO's. In addition, there was 90° 〈110〉 twin domain with in-plane distort angle ±0.85° distort angle in the film, which was caused by T-O phase transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In real-world regression analysis, statistical data may be linguistically imprecise or vague. Given the co-existence stochastic and fuzzy uncertainty, real data cannot be characterized by using only the formalism of random variables. In order address regression problems in the presence of such hybrid uncertain data, fuzzy random variables are introduced in this study serve as an integral component of regression models. A new class fuzzy regression models that is based on fuzzy random data is built, and is called the confidence-interval-based fuzzy random regression model (CI-FRRM). First, a general fuzzy regression model for fuzzy random data is introduced. Then, using expectations and variances of fuzzy random variables, σ-confidence intervals constructed for fuzzy random input-output data. The CI-FRRM is established based on the σ-confidence intervals. The proposed regression model gives rise to a nonlinear programming problem that consists of fuzzy numbers or interval numbers. Since sign changes in the fuzzy coefficients modify the entire programming structure of the solution process, the inherent dynamic nonlinearity of this optimization makes it difficult to exploit the techniques linear programming or classical nonlinear programming. Therefore, we resort to some heuristics. Finally, an illustrative example is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor seed-set limits potential for soybean hybrid seed production. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of different pollinators on the rate of seed set in three soybean cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines, JLCMS9A, JLCMS82A, and JLCMS89A. The following five treatments were applied under net room isolation-conditions: (i) insecticide application and release of alfalfa leafcutter bees (Megachile rotundata) during flowering; (ii) insecticide application in the absence of leafcutter bees; (iii) release of alfalfa leafcutter bees during flowering without insecticide application; (iv) the absence of insecticide or alfalfa leafcutter bees during flowering; (v) plants without a net cover and pesticide application. Results indicated that the rate of pod production and seed set differ significantly between CMS lines and between treatments. Alfalfa leafcutter bees were an effective pollinator as evidenced by increases in pod-bearing rate and seed-set rate respectively from 21.35 to 53.22% and from 19.91 to 58.77% in the three CMS lines. The three CMS lines also showed significant differences in seed set, with JLCMS82A exhibiting the highest rate in all five treatments, followed by JLCMS9A and then JLCMS89A. These results suggested that thrips (Sericothrips variabilis) might have some effect on soybean pollination, but did not elicit a major influence based on the low increases in seed production. The natural insect population served an important role in outcrossing and seed set in soybean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A four-pole open-loop resonator bandpass filter fabricated on high dielectric constant (Zn0.9Mg0.1)TiO3 ceramic substrates is presented. The full-wave simulator IE3D is utilized to calculate the coupling coefficients of each basic coupling structure and simulate S-parameters of the designed bandpass filters. The center frequency of designed bandpass filter is fo = 2.45 GHz and the fractional bandwidth is 4%. The center frequency of the fabricated bandpass filter is at 2.47 GHz and the fractional bandwidth is 5%. The measured insertion loss and return loss of the filter is -3.68 and -14.92 dB, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 2087–2090, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22698 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss is a crucial problem in plasmonic integrated optical circuits and metamaterials. The Er, Yb codoped gain material is introduced into a magnetic plasmon waveguide composed of a chain of nanosandwiches in order to solve the loss problem in such subwavelength waveguide. The magnetic plasmon mode and a higher order mode are chosen as the signal and pump light to enhance the radiation and pump efficiencies. The signal light propagating in the waveguide is investigated with different Er3+ doping concentration and signal decay time. It is shown that the gain effect cannot only compensate the loss but also is able to amplify the signal, when exceeding certain threshold values of doping concentration and signal decay time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilayer cross-coupled open-loop resonator bandpass filters have been developed on low temperature cofired ceramic substrates. The center frequency of the designed bandpass filter is at 5.2 GHz and the fractional bandwidth is 4%. The measured center frequency is 5.2 GHz, passband insertion loss is 1.46 dB, and fraction bandwidth is 2%. The measured frequency responses of the fabricated bandpass filters are in agreement with simulated results. By constructing multilayer structure, a compact bandpass filter can be realized. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 1977–1979, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22580 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]