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Geese feather production and the quality of downy feathers are additional economically important traits in the geese industry. However, little information is available about the molecular mechanisms fundamental to feather formation and the quality of feathers in geese. This study conducted de novo transcriptome sequencing analysis of two related geese species using the Illumina 4000 platform to determine the genes involved in embryonic skin feather follicle development. A total of 165,564,278 for Anser anser and 144,595,262 for Anser cygnoides clean reads were generated, which were further assembled into 77,134 unigenes with an average length of 906 base pairs in Anser anser and 66,041 unigenes with an average length of 922 base pairs in Anser cygnoides. To recognize the potential regulatory roles of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during geese embryonic skin feather follicle development, the obtained unigenes were annotated to Gene Ontology (GO), Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups (KOG), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) for functional analysis. In both species, GO and KOG had shown similar distribution patterns during functional annotation except for KEGG, which showed significant variation in signaling enrichment. Anser asnser was significantly enriched in the calcium signaling pathway, whereas Anser cygnoides was significantly enriched with glycerolipid metabolism. Further analysis indicated that 14,227 gene families were conserved between the species, among which a total of 20,715 specific gene families were identified. Comparative RNA-Seq data analysis may reveal inclusive knowledge to assist in the identification of genetic regulators at a molecular level to improve feather quality production in geese and other poultry species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in the goose embryo transcriptome during feather development. RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) was used to find the transcriptome profiles of feather follicles from three stages of embryonic dorsal skin at embryonic day 13, 18, and 28 (E13, E18, E28). The results showed that 3001, 6634, and 13,780 genes were differently expressed in three stages. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis revealed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in E13 vs. E18 were significantly mapped into the GO term of extracellular structure organization and the pathway of extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction. In E18 vs. E28, the top significantly mapped into GO term was the single-organism developmental process; the pathway was also the ECM-receptor interaction. DEGs in E13 vs. E28 were significantly mapped into the GO term of the multicellular organismal process and the pathway of cell adhesion molecules. Subsequently, the union of DEGs was categorized by succession cluster into eight profiles, which were then grouped into four ideal profiles. Lastly, the seven genes spatio-temporal expression pattern was confirmed by real-time PCR. Our findings advocate that interleukin 20 receptor subunit alpha (IL20RA), interleukin 6 receptor (IL6R), interleukin 1 receptor type 1 (IL-1R1), Wnt family member 3A (WNT3A), insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3), bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7), and secreted-frizzled related protein 2 (SFRP2) might possibly play vital roles in skin and feather follicle development and growth processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rocking mass gyroscope (RMG) is a kind of vibrating mass gyroscope with high sensitivity, whose driving mode and sensing mode are completely uniform. MEMS RMG devices are a research hotspot now because they have the potential to be used in space applications. Support loss is the dominant energy loss mechanism influencing their high sensitivity. An accurate analytical model of support loss for RMGs is presented to enhance their Q factors. The anchor type and support loss mechanism of an RMG are analyzed. Firstly, the support loads, powers flowing into support structure, and vibration energy of an RMG are all developed. Then the analytical model of support loss for the RMG is developed, and its sensitivities to the main structural parameters are also analyzed. High-Q design guidelines for rocking mass microgyroscopes are deduced. Finally, the analytical model is validated by the experimental data and the data from the existing literature. The thicknesses of the prototypes are reduced from 240 μm to 60 μm, while Q factors increase from less than 150 to more than 800. The derived model is general and applicable to various beam resonators, providing significant insight to the design of high-Q MEMS devices.

Here we propose a novel quartz micromachined gyroscope. The sensor has a simple cross-fork structure in the x-y plane of quartz crystal. Shear stress rather than normal stress is utilized to sense Coriolis' force generated by the input angular rate signal. Compared to traditional quartz gyroscopes, which have two separate sense electrodes on each sidewall, there is only one electrode on each sidewall of the sense beam. As a result, the fabrication of the electrodes is simplified and the structure can be easily miniaturized. In order to increase sensitivity, a pair of proof masses is attached to the ends of the drive beam, and the sense beam has a tapered design. The structure is etched from a z-cut quartz wafer and the electrodes are realized by direct evaporation using the aperture mask method. The drive mode frequency of the prototype is 13.38 kHz, and the quality factor is approximately 1,000 in air. Therefore, the gyroscope can work properly without a vacuum package. The measurement ability of the shear stress detection design scheme is validated by the Coriolis' force test. The performance of the sensor is characterized on a precision rate table using a specially designed readout circuit. The experimentally obtained scale factor is 1.45 mV/°/s and the nonlinearity is 3.6% in range of ± 200 °/s.