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Understanding the mechanisms underlying the responses to inorganic phosphate (Pi) deficiency in alfalfa will help enhance Pi acquisition efficiency and the sustainable use of phosphorous resources. Integrated global metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of mid-vegetative alfalfa seedlings under 12-day Pi deficiency were conducted. Limited seedling growth were found, including 13.24%, 16.85% and 33.36% decreases in height, root length and photosynthesis, and a 24.10% increase in root-to-shoot ratio on day 12. A total of 322 and 448 differentially abundant metabolites and 1199 and 1061 differentially expressed genes were identified in roots and shoots. Increased (>3.68-fold) inorganic phosphate transporter 1;4 and SPX proteins levels in the roots (>2.15-fold) and shoots (>2.50-fold) were related to Pi absorption and translocation. The levels of phospholipids and Pi-binding carbohydrates and nucleosides were decreased, while those of phosphatases and pyrophosphatases in whole seedlings were induced under reduced Pi. In addition, nitrogen assimilation was affected by inhibiting high-affinity nitrate transporters (NRT2.1 and NRT3.1), and nitrate reductase. Increased delphinidin-3-glucoside might contribute to the gray-green leaves induced by Pi limitation. Stress-induced MYB, WRKY and ERF transcription factors were identified. The responses of alfalfa to Pi deficiency were summarized as local systemic signaling pathways, including root growth, stress-related responses consisting of enzymatic and nonenzymatic systems, and hormone signaling and systemic signaling pathways including Pi recycling and Pi sensing in the whole plant, as well as Pi recovery, and nitrate and metal absorption in the roots. This study provides important information on the molecular mechanism of the response to Pi deficiency in alfalfa.

We consider sequential state and parameter learning in state-space models with intractable state transition and observation processes. By exploiting low-rank tensor-train (TT) decompositions, we propose new sequential learning methods for joint parameter and state estimation under the Bayesian framework. Our key innovation is the introduction of scalable function approximation tools such as TT for recursively learning the sequentially updated posterior distributions. The function approximation perspective of our methods offers tractable error analysis and potentially alleviates the particle degeneracy faced by many particle-based methods. In addition to the new insights into algorithmic design, our methods complement conventional particle-based methods. Our TT-based approximations naturally define conditional Knothe--Rosenblatt (KR) rearrangements that lead to filtering, smoothing and path estimation accompanying our sequential learning algorithms, which open the door to removing potential approximation bias. We also explore several preconditioning techniques based on either linear or nonlinear KR rearrangements to enhance the approximation power of TT for practical problems. We demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of our proposed methods on several state-space models, in which our methods achieve state-of-the-art estimation accuracy and computational performance.

My PhD project intends to explore the importance of play in child development. To examine the longitudinal influence of play on children's learning and mental health development, I conduct three studies by using the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children population cohort and the National Education Panel Study (in Germany). These three studies all intend to understand whether children’s play experiences and skills at around age 2/3 would affect their language, mathematical and mental health outcomes at around age 6/7. My study one explores the relation between symbolic play skills and structural language development among autistic and non-autistic. Through propensity score matching, I matched 92 autistic children and their 92 non-autistic peers in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children population cohort. These two groups of children had exact same sociodemographic backgrounds and development levels. Through correlational and hierarchical regression analyses, I discovered that autistic children’s symbolic play skills at age 3 significantly contributed towards their semantics, syntax, and coherence skills at age 7. My study two explores the role of playful home mathematics environment activities on children’s mathematical development. I used structural equation modelling and mediational analyses with bootstrapping on 1,184 children in the National Education Panel Study. My study two shows that a mathematically and linguistically stimulating, attentive and responsive home learning environment at age 2, alongside with more frequent formal and informal home mathematics at age 5 were essential for children’s mathematical development between age 4 and 6. My study three explores the role of peer play abilities in children’s mental health development. I conducted analyses on 1,676 children from the general population in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children population cohort, as well as on 243 children from the high-reactivity group and 270 children from low-persistence group, who tended to be at higher risks for mental health problems. Through structural equation modelling, I demonstrated that better peer play abilities at age 3 predicted lower risks of internalising and externalising problems at age 7 for the general population. Better peer play abilities at age 3 also predicted lower risks of hyperactivity problems for the high-reactivity group, whereas better peer play abilities at age 3 predicted lower risks of hyperactivity, emotional and peer problems for the low-persistence group. These studies all together suggest that play in early years could generate positive growth in children’s language, mathematical and mental health development, for both neurotypical and neurodivergent children. Educational and practical implications are provided, alongside with suggested future directions., LEGO Foundation Cambridge Trust

We endow Large Language Models (LLMs) with fine-grained self-evaluation to refine multi-step reasoning inference. We propose an effective prompting approach that integrates self-evaluation guidance through stochastic beam search. Our approach explores the reasoning search space using a well-calibrated automatic criterion. This enables an efficient search to produce higher-quality final predictions. With the self-evaluation guided stochastic beam search, we also balance the quality-diversity trade-off in the generation of reasoning chains. This allows our approach to adapt well with majority voting and surpass the corresponding Codex-backboned baselines by $6.34\%$, $9.56\%$, and $5.46\%$ on the GSM8K, AQuA, and StrategyQA benchmarks, respectively, in few-shot accuracy. Analysis of our decompositional reasoning finds it pinpoints logic failures and leads to higher consistency and robustness. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/YuxiXie/SelfEval-Guided-Decoding., Comment: Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/YuxiXie/SelfEval-Guided-Decoding

International audience; Widely investigated in the 70’s and 80’s, photo-electrochemistry of semiconductors (SC-PEC) has regained a huge interest in the context of global warming, especially with the quest of solar fuel production. Considerable advances have indeed been made from those days to understand and tailor the physics of semiconductor photoelectrodes, with the development of protection and catalytic coatings for aqueous operation,[1] and the development of novel electrochemical schemes such as photo-induced electrochemiluminescence.[2]Compared to photovoltaics where solar spectrum harvesting and carrier transport are the main challenges, PEC devices also require the management of the electrolyte/SC interface. In most photoelectrodes, this Schottky-like interface is the heart of the device, enabling to feed the electrolyte with the ad-hoc photo-carrier, depending on the intended chemical reaction. Still, it is also the place where harmful effects can appearsuch as surface trapping and corrosion. Engineering of this interface is thus crucial in view of chemical stability, photovoltage and overpotential optimization.In this talk, we will first introduce the basics of SC photo-electrodes, emphasizing on the conceptual gaps between experiments and numerical simulations of the devices. This will allow us to address the concept of III-V thin films on silicon for PEC where the physics of the device not only depends on the electrolyte/III-V interface but also on the III-V/silicon one and on structural defects with semimetal properties which cross the III-V layer.[3] These novel heterojunctions show promising performances at both poles of PEC cells for solar hydrogen production (see Figure 1).

Background Heparan sulfate (HS) degradation mediates pulmonary endothelial hyper-permeability and acute pulmonary edema during acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aim of this study was to examine whether histone H4 induced HS degradation by activating heparanase (HPSE) in chlorine gas (Cl2)-induced ARDS. Methods Acute lung injury was induced by Cl2 exposure or histone H4 injection in C57BL/6 mice. Histone H4 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and plasma was measured by ELISA. HS degradation was measured by immunostaining, ELISA, and flow cytometry. HPSE mRNA and protein were measured by real-time qPCR and western blot analysis, respectively, at preset timepoints. The HPSE inhibitor OGT2115 and specific siRNAs were used to study the role of HPSE during HS degradation caused by Cl2 exposure or histone H4 challenge. Blocking antibodies against TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, or TLR6 were used in vitro to investigate which signaling pathway was involved. The transcriptional regulation of HPSE was studied vis-à-vis NF-κB, which was assessed by nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 and phosphorylation of I-κBα protein. Results Histone H4 in BALF and plasma increased evidently after Cl2 inhalation. Cl2 exposure or histone H4 challenge caused obvious acute lung injury in mice, and the pulmonary glycocalyx was degraded evidently as observed from endothelial HS staining and measurement of plasma HS fragments. Pretreatment with OGT2115, an HPSE inhibitor, relieved the acute lung injury and HS degradation caused by Cl2 exposure or histone H4 challenge. Targeted knockdown of HPSE by RNA interference (RNAi) significantly inhibited histone H4 induced HS degradation in HPMECs, as measured by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. By inducing phosphorylation of I-κB α and nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65, histone H4 directly promoted mRNA transcription and protein expression of HPSE in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, a blocking antibody against TLR4 markedly inhibited both activation of NF-κB and expression of HPSE induced by histone H4. Conclusions Histone H4 is a major pro-inflammatory mediator in Cl2-induced ARDS in mice, and induces HS degradation by activating HPSE via TLRs- and NF-κB-signaling pathways.

Additional file 1 Supplementary Table 1. The information of reference strains in the study.

The plant-specific TCP transcription factor plays important roles in plant development and environment adaptation. Setaria italica and Setaria viridis, the C4 model plants, can grow on drought or arid soils. However, there is no systematic information about the genomic dissection and the expression of Setaria TCP genes. A total of 22 TCP genes were both identified from S. italica and S. viridis genomes. They all contained bHLH domain and were grouped into three main clades (PCF, CIN, and CYC/TB1). The TCP genes in the same clades shared similar gene structures. Cis-element in the TCP promoter regions were analyzed and associated with hormones and stress responsiveness. Ten TCP genes were predicted to be targets of miRNA319. Moreover, gene ontology analysis indicated three SiTCP and three SvTCP genes were involved in the regulation of shoot development, and SiTCP16/SvTCP16 were clustered together with tillering controlling gene TB1. The TCP genes were differentially expressed in the organs, but SiTCP/SvTCP orthologs shared similar expression patterns. Ten SiTCP members were downregulated under drought or salinity stresses, indicating they may play regulatory roles in abiotic stresses. The study provides detailed information regarding Setaria TCP genes, providing the theoretical basis for agricultural applications.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-dli-10.1177_23969415211063822 for Solitary symbolic play, object substitution and peer role play skills at age 3 predict different aspects of age 7 structural language abilities in a matched sample of autistic and non-autistic children by Yiran Vicky Zhao and Jenny Louise Gibson in Autism & Developmental Language Impairments

Supplemental Document

Achnatherum splendens (Trinius) Nevskia dominates areas of degraded grasslands in China. However, the spatio-chronological patterns of A. splendens and its soil properties remain unknown. We conducted a field study comprising four tussock diameter classes (i.e., an age series) of A. splendens in three degraded grasslands of China (HB: Hebei Province; IM: Inner Mongolia, and QH: Qinghai Province) to determine the soil bacterial community and diversity in the root-associated soil of A. splendens by high-throughput sequencing technology. Achnatherum splendens exhibited strong adaptability and could survive under a low soil water content in the region of IM and in highly alkaline soil in the region of HB. Our findings demonstrated that the biomass of the degraded A. splendens grasslands had a significantly different spatio-chronological distribution, and the plant biomass decreased significantly as the diameter increased. The main bacteria in the root-associated soil of A. splendens showed a significant difference at the spatial scale. Based on the Calinski–Harabasz index, HB belonged to the Actinobacteria enterotype, and IM and QH belonged to the Proteobacteria enterotype, implying that the bacterial structure in root-associated soil of A. splendens had significant spatial differences that were mainly affected by climate factors. The relative abundances of Firmicutes and Gemmatimonadetes decreased significantly as the plant tussock diameter increased. The plant C/N ratio, plant biomass, and soil pH had a positive impact on bacterialβ-diversity between the three habitats, but negatively influenced the bacterial Shannon diversity (α-diversity) in the A. splendens root-associated soil. Our findings highlight that A. splendens not only reduces plant productivity as the diameter increased, but also changes the soil microbial characteristics. Therefore, the spatio-chronological preventive treatment of A. splendens, especially for the older age classes, is very important for improving the productivity of degraded grasslands in China.

“Oblivia Mosaic” was created by the team members of the international performance company Oblivia. In this text, as well as in Oblivia’s way of devising performances, the individual meets the collective in the process where grand ideas are introduced in a minimalist disguise with a splash of humour. In 2020, the Helsinki-based company celebrates its 20th anniversary. • Anna-Maija Terävä: Matkalla Unholaan • Alice Ferl: Many ones • Annika Tudeer: Bodies memories • Meri Ekola: Valo nousee kun pimeys on tiivistynyt tarpeeksi • Yiran Zhao: Visible music • Timo Fredriksson: Let's be dishonest

In this paper we describe a prototype implementation of an augmented reality (AR) system for accessing and interacting with crowd simulation software. We identify a target audience and tasks (access to the software in a science museum) motivate the choice of AR system (an interactive table complemented with handheld AR via smartphones) and describe its implementation. Our system has been realized in a prototypical implementation verifying its feasibility and potential. Detailed user testing will be part of our future work.

In this paper we describe a prototype implementation of an augmented reality (AR) system for accessing and interacting with crowd simulation software. We identify a target audience and tasks (access to the software in a science museum) motivate the choice of AR system (an interactive table complemented with handheld AR via smartphones) and describe its implementation. Our system has been realized in a prototypical implementation verifying its feasibility and potential. Detailed user testing will be part of our future work.

The Yangtze River drainage basins are China’s most important economic development zones and also the locations of several large-scale fluorine chemical industries. In order to reveal the contribution from the tributaries at the dividing point between the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with respect to perfluorinated substances (PFASs), 17 PFAS compounds in surface water, groundwater, and tap water samples were analyzed in the tributary system of the Jiujiang section of the Yangtze River. The total concentrations of PFASs in the surface waters ranged from 7.8 to 586.2 ng/L. High proportion of short-chain compound PFBS in surface waters in Nanchang City, Poyang Lake, and the Yangtze River was observed which is likely of WWTPs’ origin.

The thesis discusses how to make a harmonious place with nature, keeping the spirit of place which we call “Genius Loci”, and using phenomenological analysis to understand the meaning of place through its structure. Symbolization and concretion are also discussed as they are used to transform natural landscape to architecture, and orientation and identification are used to prove the existence. This thesis also connects place to man’s image with social and cultural aspects, and seeks a way to keep continuity in history. Therefore a humanistic place should have agreements with essence of place, human demand, and historic continuity.

Compared with other EOR technique like gas flooding, chemical flooding, and thermal production in heavy oil, the prominent advantages MEOR has environment-friendliness and lowest cost. MEOR has various applications not only in sandstone but also carbonate reservoirs, light oil reservoirs as well as heavy oil reservoirs. This paper mainly reviewed progress in laboratory studies and MEOR field tests including six big successful field tests in China. Present focus on MEOR has been changed from qualitative analysis to quantitative characterization, and high-tech like 16S rDNA and advanced method has being tried to investigate its mechanism on molecular level. The mechanism of microbial effects on making oil emulsification and wettability alternation was the main interest of recent study. Application of high resolution mass spectrum (HRMS) on MEOR mechanism has revealed the change of polar compound structures before and after oil degradation by the microbial on molecular level. MEOR could be divided into indigenous microorganism and exogenous microorganism flooding. The key of exogenous microorganism flooding, was to develop effective production strains, and difficulty lies in the compatibility of microorganism, performance degradation and high cost. Indigenous microorganism flooding, has good adaptation but no follow up process on production strains development, thus it represents the main direction of MEOR. China has some of the most complex and diversified reservoirs and was notable for the scale of MEOR field tests since there has been six big MEOR field tests since 1998 after many precious small-cale tests. All field tests have shown positive results in incremental oil and water cut reduction. The combination of indigenous microorganism and exogenous microorganism flooding was adopted because of the cost and difficulty of exogenous microorganism flooding. MEOR screening criteria for reservoirs has been improved. The parameters include temperature, salinity, oil viscosity, permeability, porosity, wax content, water cut, and microorganism concentration in which production fluid, temperature, and salinity were the most important three parameters. MEOR was suitable in reservoirs of which temperature lower than 80°C, salinity less than 100,000 ppm, and permeability above 50 mD. MEOR experience and study in reservoirs of 120°C, salinity more than 350,000ppm and permeability of 10 mD has expanded the reservoirs range suitable to carry out MEOR.