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Rice, a staple crop that feeds more than one-third of the world's population, encounters a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses due to climate change. Rising temperature is one of the significant abiotic stresses affecting rice productivity worldwide. The development of heat-tolerant rice cultivars is critical in this regard. Weedy rice could potentially serve as a natural resource for genes conferring agronomically important traits beneficial to cultivated rice. However, heat tolerance in both cultivated and weedy rice is still understudied. This study screened a set of 180 weedy rice accessions for heat stress tolerance and further characterised them using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) analysis. Five heat-tolerant (HT) accessions (MU244, MU235, MU249, MU260 and MU237), along with five heat-susceptible (HS) accessions (MU100, MU114, MU264, MU251 and MU005), were subjected to relative electrical conductivity (REC) test and reactive oxidative species assay (ROS). These tests verified that the five HT accessions performed better under heat stress than their HS counterparts. In addition, whole-genome sequences of three HT (MU235, MU237 and MU066) and four HS (MU100, MU114, MU022 and MU005) accessions were selected for the genome-wide SNPs comparison, revealing substantial amino acid variation in the heat-tolerance-related genes between the HT and HS rice groups. The proposed genes and genome-wide SNP markers may help rice breeders better understand how different rice cultivars respond to heat stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One new stigmasterol along with one known analogue were isolated from the twigs and leaves of Croton tiglium. The new structure was elucidated by means of extensive spectroscopic data, including 1D and 2D NMR as well as HR-ESI-MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: One hundred and sixty-seven B. juncea varieties were genotyped on the 90K Brassica assay (42,914 SNPs), which led to the identification of sixteen candidate genes for Rlm6. Brassica species are at high risk of severe crop loss due to pathogens, especially Leptosphaeria maculans (the causal agent of blackleg). Brassica juncea (L.) Czern is an important germplasm resource for canola improvement, due to its good agronomic traits, such as heat and drought tolerance and high blackleg resistance. The present study is the first using genome-wide association studies to identify candidate genes for blackleg resistance in B. juncea based on genome-wide SNPs obtained from the Illumina Infinium 90 K Brassica SNP array. The verification of Rlm6 in B. juncea was performed through a cotyledon infection test. Genotyping 42,914 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a panel of 167 B. juncea lines revealed a total of seven SNPs significantly associated with Rlm6 on chromosomes A07 and B04 in B. juncea. Furthermore, 16 candidate Rlm6 genes were found in these regions, defined as nucleotide binding site leucine-rich-repeat (NLR), leucine-rich repeat RLK (LRR-RLK) and LRR-RLP genes. This study will give insights into the blackleg resistance in B. juncea and facilitate identification of functional blackleg resistance genes which can be used in Brassica breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement of the volume of gas adsorbed per unit mass of coal with increasing pressure at a constant temperature produces an isotherm that describes the gas storage capacity of this type of coal. The accurate testing and interpretation of coal sorption isotherm plays an important role in the areas of coal mine methane drainage, coalbed methane (CBM) reservoir resource assessment, enhanced coalbed methane (ECBM) recovery, as well as the carbon dioxide (CO) sequestration in deep coal seams or similar geological formations. Different coal sorption isotherm testing apparatus and associated calculation methods are critically reviewed and presented in this paper. These include both volumetric and gravimetric based methods, as well as experimental sorption tests with confining stress and direction sorption methods. The volumetric techniques utilise experimental apparatus with sample cell and injection pump and that with both sample cell and reference cell. Whilst the gravimetric approachesinclude methods with sample cell and suspension magnetic balance and that with both sample cell and reference cell. Different testing methods are compared and discussed in this study. A unique in-house-built coal sorption isotherm testing apparatus at the University of Wollongong was presented together with the calculation method, procedures and experimental results. The isotherm results can be calculated by both Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) equation and calibration cure methods which can be used directly to convert the volume of adsorbed gas in different test conditions to standard condition (NTP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CFD models have been developed to investigate the longwall goaf gas flow patterns under different mining and geological control conditions. The longwall goaf was treated as porous regions and gas flow was modelled as a momentum sink added to the momentum equation. Gas desorption from the caved goaf and destressed coal seams within the mining disturbed area was modelled as additional mass sources in the continuity equation. These CFD models were developed according to specific longwall layouts and calibrated against field monitoring data. Two case studies were presented demonstrating the application of CFD modelling of goaf gas flow characteristics for improved goaf gas capture and the reduction of oxygen ingress into the goaf areas for self-heating prevention. Results from the case studies indicate that the optimum goaf drainage strategy would be a combination of shallow (near the face) and deep holes to improve the overall drainage efficiency and gas purity. For gassy longwall faces retreating against the seam dip, it is recommended to conduct cross-measure roof hole drainage targeting the fractured zones overlying the return corner, rather than high capacity surface goaf drainage deep in the goaf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:To observe the clinical effect and protection of vascular endothelium of Zhixinkang Capsule (ZXKC) in middle-aged and old people with unstable effort angina and hyperlipidemia. Methods: Sixty-five patients with unstable effort angina were randomly divided into ZXKC group (34 cases) and control group (31 cases). Conventional western medical therapy was given to both groups, with ZXKC group receiving additional ZXKC treatment. Data of 20 healthy persons were taken as normal group. Forty-eight patients with hyperlipidemia were divided into ZXKC group treated with ZXKC (31 cases) and control group treated with Yixintong (17 cases). The changes of clinical symptoms and laboratory indexes in all the patients were observed before and after treatment. Results: In patients with unstable effort angina, the efficacy of treatment of ZXKC, the withdrawal rate of nitroglycerin, the relieving of symptoms, the improvement of the electrocardiogram, the counts of circulating endothelial cells, the content of platelet P-selectin, the content of plasma endothelin (ET), the activity of Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the activity of malonyldialdehyde (MDA) were all better than those in the control group. In patients with hyperlipidemia, there was no significant difference in lipids reduction between ZXKC group and the control group. In both groups, the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], ET, oxidized low density lipoprotein, MDA, arteriosclerotic index (AI) all lowered obviously, while the SOD, HDL-C and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) were all elevated markedly. In the ZXKC group, the nitric oxide (NO) increased significantly whereas the ET/CGRP and ET/NO decreased markedly. The total effective rate in symptom relieving, the markedly effective rate, the reduction of TC, ET and ET/CGRP, and the elevation of SOD in ZXKC group were all superior to those in the control group. Conclusion: ZXKC could effectively resist myocardial ischemia, relieve angina, reduce blood lipids, protect vascular endothelial cells, inhibit the activation of platelets, and resist lipid peroxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an improvement of heating method for measuring wetness of the flowing wet steam is developed, the basic principle of the heating method is presented and the mathematical model has been built for analyzing the thermodynamics problems during the process of heating. Moreover, an instrument for measuring wetness of wet steam flow was designed and made out. This instrument has been used for measuring wetness of the wet steam flow at the outlet of the nozzle rig in Thermal Turbine Laboratory, Xi’an Jiaotong University. By analyzing the relative error of the result, it was found that this instrument has fairly high accuracy, it can be used as the prototype of practical instrument and has an important applicable value in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have investigated the use of fluorescent molecular rotors as probes for detection of p53 binding to DNA. These are a class of fluorophores that undergo twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT). They are non-fluorescent in a freely rotating conformation and experience a fluorescence increase when restricted in the planar conformation. We hypothesized that intercalation of a molecular rotor between DNA base pairs would result in a fluorescence turn-on signal. Upon displacement by a DNA binding protein, measurable loss of signal would facilitate use of the molecular rotor in the fluorescent intercalator displacement (FID) assay. A panel of probes was interrogated using the well-established p53 model system across various DNA response elements. A novel, readily synthesizable molecular rotor incorporating an acridine orange DNA intercalating group (AO-R) outperformed other conventional dyes in the FID assay. It enabled relative measurement of p53 sequence-specific DNA interactions and study of the dominant-negative effects of cancer-associated p53 mutants. In a further application, AO-R also proved useful for staining apoptotic cells in live zebrafish embryos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]