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Coastal communities around the world face an increasing risk from surge-driven inundation because of rising sea levels and intensifying storm conditions. During storm surges, inland propagation of ocean water drives infiltration of saltwater into the fresh groundwater, jeopardizing coastal water resources. The magnitude, shape, and duration of these ocean surges vary both between storm events and spatially during a given storm, resulting from differences in bathymetry, coastline shape, and the path and characteristics of the storm. Our study aims to understand how these temporal and spatial variabilities in ocean surge affect groundwater salinization and recovery in the Delaware (DE) Inland Bays. The DE Inland Bays are composed of two adjoining, shallow bays in Eastern Delaware connected to the Atlantic Ocean via a single inlet. The geometry of the bays results in complex surface water hydrodynamics. To study the effect of spatial variability in surge levels we used the output from a surface water hydrodynamic model, NearCOM-TVD, simulated for past storm surge events, as boundary conditions for 2D Hydrogeosphere simulations of groundwater flow and salt transport. During Hurricane Sandy (2012), the largest surge event in the past decade, there was a 0.7 m range in the maximum surge height within the bays. Corresponding groundwater simulations showed that for this range, there was 33% more surge-induced aquifer salinization for the highest surge level within the bays relative to the lowest. This elevated salt mass persisted over the ten year recovery period. Results from Hurricane Sandy will be compared with more moderate storm surge events. The resulting salinized volumes and recovery times from all the storm simulations were used to develop a salinization vulnerability metric for the Delaware Inland Bays. The goal of these simulations is to identify the surge conditions that present the greatest salinization risk and the locations in the Inland Bays that have the highest salinization vulnerability, as well as to improve understanding of the feedbacks between ocean and groundwater hydrodynamics.

Background The transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth involves various pathways. Vernalization is a crucial process for floral organ formation and regulation of flowering time that is widely utilized in plant breeding. In this study, we aimed to identify the global landscape of mRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs) related to vernalization in Chinese cabbage. These data were then used to construct a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network that provides valuable information to better understand the vernalization response. Results In this study, seeds sampled from the Chinese cabbage doubled haploid (DH) line ‘FT’ with or without vernalization treatment were used for whole-transcriptome sequencing. A total of 2702 differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs, 151 DE lncRNAs, 16 DE circRNAs, and 233 DE miRNAs were identified in the vernalization-treated seeds. Various transcription factors, such as WRKY, MYB, NAC, bHLH, MADS-box, zinc finger protein CONSTANS-like gene, and B3 domain protein, and regulatory proteins that play important roles in the vernalization pathway were identified. Additionally, we constructed a vernalization-related ceRNA–miRNA–target gene network and obtained 199 pairs of ceRNA relationships, including 108 DEmiRNA‒DEmRNA, 67 DEmiRNA‒DElncRNA, and 12 DEmiRNA‒DEcircRNA interactions, in Chinese cabbage. Furthermore, several important vernalization-related genes and their interacting lncRNAs, circRNAs, and miRNAs, which are involved in the regulation of flowering time, floral organ formation, bolting, and flowering, were identified. Conclusions Our results reveal the potential mRNA and non-coding RNAs involved in vernalization, providing a foundation for further studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying vernalization in Chinese cabbage.

Cross-national studies of age patterns among couples have tended to compare the ages at which men and women first marry, but few have analysed age differences between current spouses or cohabiting partners (i.e. partner age gaps). We address this gap in the literature by using recent census and survey data to analyse age differences between current partners in 130 countries. Worldwide, men are an average of 4.2 years older than their wives or cohabiting partners. However, age gaps vary by region, ranging from 8.6 years in sub-Saharan Africa to 2.2 years in North America. The religious group with the largest age gap is Muslims (6.6 years), while the smallest age gap is seen among Jews (2.2 years). Differences between Muslims and non-Muslims remain even after controlling for country-level gender inequality and per-capita GDP.

In this report, the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, presents a numerical modeling study using FUNWAVE-TVD to investigate ship-induced waves of large container-type vessels with related erosion and scour effects. The new vessel wake generating models implemented in the FUNWAVE-TVD Vessel Module are presented and validated against field data in the Sabine-Neches Waterway, Texas. Utilizing the Sediment Transport and Morphology Change Modules, ship wake-induced erosion is analyzed to assess potential impacts to Sabine-to-Galveston Hurricane Flood Protection Systems.

We describe the development of a block-structured, equal-CPU-load (central processing unit), multi-grid-nesting interface for the Boussinesq wave model FUNWAVE-TVD (Fully Nonlinear Boussinesq Wave Model with Total Variation Diminishing Solver). The new model framework does not interfere with the core solver, and thus the core program, FUNWAVE-TVD, is still a standalone model used for a single grid. The nesting interface manages the time sequencing and two-way nesting processes between the parent grid and child grid with grid refinement in a hierarchical manner. Workload balance in the MPI-based (message passing interface) parallelization is handled by an equal-load scheme. A strategy of shared array allocation is applied for data management that allows for a large number of nested grids without creating additional memory allocations. Four model tests are conducted to verify the nesting algorithm with assessments of model accuracy and the robustness in the application in modeling transoceanic tsunamis and coastal effects.

Male sterility is an ideal character for the female parent in commercial hybrid seed production in Chinese cabbages. We identified three allele male sterile mutants

We describe the development of a block-structured, equal CPU-load, multigrid nesting interface for the Boussinesq wave model FUNWAVE-TVD. The new model framework does not interfere with the core solver, and thus the core program, FUNWAVE-TVD, is still a stand-alone model used for a single grid. The nesting interface manages the time sequencing and two-way nesting processes between the parent grid and child grid with grid refinement in a hierarchical manner. Workload balance in the MPI-based parallelization is handled by an equal-load scheme. A strategy of shared array allocation is applied for data management, that allows a large number of nested grids without creating additional memory allocations. Four model tests are conducted to verify the nesting algorithm, model accuracy, wetting-drying treatment, and the robustness in the application to modeling transoceanic tsunamis and coastal effects.

We describe the development of a time-resolved model for tsunami-induced morphology change, based on an existing Boussinesq model for weakly-dispersive free-surface waves coupled to a depth-integrated model for sediment concentration and an equation for bed level change. The model allows for spatial variability in bottom friction coefficients and accounts for the presence of non-erodible beds or finite depths of available sediment. The model is verified using one laboratory data set and against field observations of morphology change in the Crescent City, CA harbor during the 2011 Tohoku tsunami event. The model is then applied to a hypothetical example illustrating the impact of tsunami inundation on an undeveloped barrier island.

Leaf flattening influences plant photosynthesis, thereby affecting product yield and quality. Here, we obtained a stably inherited leaf crinkled mutant (lcm), derived from the Chinese cabbage doubled haploid (DH) ‘FT’ line using EMS mutagenesis combined with isolated microspore culture. The crinkled phenotype was controlled by a single recessive nuclear gene, namely Bralcm, which was preliminarily mapped to chromosome A01 by bulked segregant analysis RNA-seq, and further between markers SSRS-1 and IndelD-20 using 1,575 recessive homozygous individuals in F2 population by a map-based cloning method. The target region physical distance was 126.69 kb, containing 23 genes; the marker SSRMG-4 co-segregated with the crinkled trait. Further, we found SSRMG-4 to be located on BraA01g007510.3C, a homolog of AHA2, which encodes H+-ATPase2, an essential enzyme in plant growth and development. Sequence analysis indicated a C to T transition in exon 7 of BraA01g007510.3C, resulting in a Thr (ACT) to Ile (ATT) amino acid change. Genotyping revealed that the leaf crinkled phenotype fully co-segregated with this SNP within the recombinants. qRT-PCR demonstrated that BraA01g007510.3C expression in lcm mutant leaves was dramatically higher than that in wild-type ‘FT’. Thus, BraA01g007510.3C is a strong candidate gene for Bralcm, and AHA2 is possibly associated with leaf flattening in Chinese cabbage.

Polyploidy promotes morphological, physiological, and reproductive diversity in plants. The imminent effect of chromosome doubling in plants is the enlargement of organs such as flowers and fruits, which increases the commercial value of crops. Flowering plays a vital role in the growth and development of angiosperms. Here, we prepared an isolated microspore culture of 'FT', a doubled haploid (DH) line of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis), and obtained diploid and autotetraploid plants with the same genetic background. Compared with diploids, the autotetraploids were characterized by large floral organs, dark petals, delayed flowering, and reduced fertility. The indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and jasmonic acid (JA) levels in autotetraploid petals were significantly higher and the abscisic acid (ABA) level was significantly lower than those in the diploid petals. The lutein level in autotetraploid petals was nearly two times higher than that in the diploid petals. A comparative transcriptome analysis revealed 14,412 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the diploids and autotetraploids, and they were enriched in 117 Gene Ontology terms and 110 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways. We detected 231 DEGs related to phytohormone signal transduction and 29 DEGs involved in carotenoid biosynthesis. An miRNA-target mRNA analysis showed that 32 DEGs regulated by 16 DEMs were associated with flowering timing (BraA03000336, BraA09004319, and BraA09000515), petal development (BraA05002408, BraA01004006, BraA09004069, and BraA04000966), flower opening (BraA07000350), and pollen development (BraA01000720, BraA09005727, and BraA01000253). This study provides information to help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic variations induced by autopolyploidy in Chinese cabbage.

In this work, we carried out a case study of numerical simulations of low-frequency wave motions at the Marina di Carrara Harbor, where field observations have been conducted from 2005 to ...

This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) documents the development through verification and validation of three instability-suppressing mechanisms in FUNWAVE-TVD, a Boussinesq-type numerical wave model, when modeling deep-draft vessels with a low under-keel clearance (UKC). Many large commercial ports and channels (e.g., Houston Ship Channel, Galveston, US Army Corps of Engineers [USACE]) are traveled and affected by tens of thousands of commercial vessel passages per year. In a series of recent projects undertaken for the Galveston District (USACE), it was discovered that when deep-draft vessels are modeled using pressure-source mechanisms, they can suffer from model instabilities when low UKC is employed (e.g., vessel draft of 12 m¹ in a channel of 15 m or less of depth), rendering a simulation unstable and obsolete. As an increasingly large number of deep-draft vessels are put into service, this problem is becoming more severe. This presents an operational challenge when modeling large container-type vessels in busy shipping channels, as these often will come as close as 1 m to the bottom of the channel, or even touch the bottom. This behavior would subsequently exhibit a numerical discontinuity in a given model and could severely limit the sample size of modeled vessels. This CHETN outlines a robust approach to suppressing such instability without compromising the integrity of the far-field vessel wave/wake solution. The three methods developed in this study aim to suppress high-frequency spikes generated nearfield of a vessel. They are a shock-capturing method, a friction method, and a viscosity method, respectively. The tests show that the combined shock-capturing and friction method is the most effective method to suppress the local high-frequency noises, while not affecting the far-field solution. A strong test, in which the target draft is larger than the channel depth, shows that there are no high-frequency noises generated in the case of ship squat as long as the shock-capturing method is used.

An offshore shoal or bar refracts ocean surface waves and causes wave focusing/defocusing on the adjacent beach. Wave focal patterns characterized by alongshore variations in wave height, wave angle, and breaking location induce alongshore non-uniformities of wave setup and nearshore circulation, e.g., rip currents and alongshore currents, in the surfzone. A simplified analytic model for nearshore circulation generated by focused/defocused waves on a planar beach is developed and theoretical solutions are obtained using transport stream function and perturbations in alongshore distributions of wave height and wave angle at the breaker line. The analytic model suggests that alongshore currents are strongly affected by a pair of counter-rotating vortices generated shoreward of the wave focal zone. The vortices are persistent, and their strengths depend on the amplitudes of alongshore variations in wave height and wave angle. The alongshore gradient in wave height tends to intensify the vortices while the convergence of wave angle tends to weaken the vortices. Divergent flows associated with the vortices in the surfzone are intense, strengthening alongshore currents in the downstream of the wave focal zone and weakening alongshore currents or causing flows reversal in the upstream. Alongshore currents are modulated by rip currents associated with the wave focusing/defocusing patterns.

A wave forecasting system using FUNWAVE-TVD which is based on the fully nonlinear Boussinesq equations by Chen (2006) was developed to provide an accurate wave prediction in the Port of Busan, South Korea. This system is linked to the Korea Operational Oceanographic System (KOOS) developed by Park et al. (2015). The computational domain covers a region of 9.6 km×7.0 km with a grid size of 2 m in both directions, which is sufficient to resolve short waves and dominant sea states. The total number of grid points exceeds 16 millions, making the model computational expensive. To provide real-time forecasting, an interpolation method, which is based on pre-calculated results of FUNWAVE-TVD and SWAN forecasting results at the FUNWAVE-TVD offshore boundary, was used. A total of 45 cases were pre-calculated, which took 71 days on 924 computational cores of a Linux cluster system. Wind wave generation and propagation from the deep water were computed using the SWAN in KOOS. SWAN results provided a boundary condition for the FUNWAVE-TVD forecasting system. To verify the model, wave observations were conducted at three locations inside the port in a time period of more than 7 months. A model/model comparison between FUNWAVE-TVD and SWAN was also carried out. It is found that, FUNWAVE-TVD improves the forecasting results significantly compared to SWAN which underestimates wave heights in sheltered areas due to incorrect physical mechanism of wave diffraction, as well as large wave heights caused by wave reflections inside the port.

We present estimates of how Muslim populations in Europe increased between 2010 and 2016 and projections of how they will continue to grow under three migration scenarios. If all migration were to immediately and permanently stop – a “zero migration” scenario – the Muslim population of Europe still would be expected to rise from the current level of 4.9% to 7.4% by the year 2050 because Muslims are younger (by 13 years, on average) and have higher fertility (one child more per woman, on average) than other Europeans. A second, “medium” migration scenario assumes all refugee flows stopped as of mid-2016 but that recent levels of “regular” migration to Europe will continue. Under these conditions, Muslims could reach 11.2% of Europe’s population in 2050. Finally, a “high” migration scenario projects the record flow of refugees into Europe between 2014 and 2016 to continue indefinitely into the future with the same religious composition (i.e., mostly made up of Muslims) in addition to the typical annual flow of regular migrants. In this scenario, Muslims could make up 14% of Europe’s population by 2050. Refugee flows around 2015, however, were extremely high and already have begun to decline as the European Union and many of its member states have made refugee policy changes.

Microspore culture has been implemented in breeding programs to produce doubled haploids (DH) and thus accelerate the breeding process. This study aimed to establish an efficient microspore culture protocol for Zengcheng flowering Chinese cabbage, a highly nutritious and valued vegetable, that would be suitable for heterosis breeding. Microspores of three genotypes, 17AY010, 17AY011, and 17AY012 were successfully induced to produce embryos in NLN-13 medium. Two genotypes, 17AY011 and 17AY012 were cultivated in NLN-13 medium supplemented with different concentrations (0, 0.2, 1, 5 or 25 μM) of L-ascorbic acid sodium salt (Vitamin C Sodium Salt, VcNa) to enhance microspore embryogenesis and plant regeneration without an intervening callus phase. In both genotypes, the addition of 1 μM and 0.2 μM VcNa significantly increased the frequency of embryogenesis, 6.55-fold and 10.33-fold as compared with the control, respectively. The optimum concentration of VcNa application that would improve the rates of direct plant regeneration in the two tested genotypes was 1 μM. Moreover, the doubled haploid rates of regenerated plants of the three genotypes were above 60%. Five DH lines of 17AY012 with high yield were obtained. According to the measurement of the affinity index, they were prospective self-incompatible lines for hybrid breeding.

In this study, we assessed the performance of five shock-capturing-type reconstruction schemes in modeling shallow water waves implemented in the public-domain Boussinesq model, FUNWAVE-TVD. The five shock-capturing schemes include two fourth-order Monotonic Upwind Scheme for Conservation Laws - Total Variation Diminishing (MUSCL-TVD) schemes with the Minimod and van-Leer limiters, respectively, a second-order MUSCL-TVD scheme with the van-Leer limiter, a fifth-order Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) scheme, and a third-order Multi-dimensional Limiting Process (MLP) scheme. Numerical simulations on solitary waves and laboratory measurements showed that for one-dimensional simulations all five shock-capturing schemes maintain non-oscillatory properties, but exhibit different numerical dissipations. Numerical dissipation can be affected by both the order of shock-capturing schemes and choice of limiters. The van-Leer limiter is more dissipative than Minimod when used in fourth-order schemes, which is different from what would be inferred from the linear analysis for the second order. For two-dimensional problems, the shock-capturing schemes can generate either fewer or more high-frequency oscillations, depending on the applied Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) number. The most stable results occur in the second-order MUSCL-TVD scheme with the van-Leer limiter, which has large numerical dissipation, and the third-order MLP scheme, which has the ability to control the oscillations in multi-dimensional simulations. The wavelet analysis showed that high-frequency oscillations usually occur at later time and thus affect long-time simulation. Decreasing the CFL number is an effective way of reducing high-frequency oscillations in two-dimensional applications. Models with different shock-capturing schemes can predict similar strength and patterns of wave-induced currents in the breaking wave application. However, the analysis based on the vorticity or enstrophy (integral of the square of the vorticity) calculations show that the schemes with higher numerical dissipation have more significant damping effect on the vorticity field, which may affect the model accuracy in predicting wave-current interaction in a long time simulation.

We present a parametric study of surface wave effects on storm surge and coastal inundation. Hurricane wind forcing terms, atmosphere pressure gradient terms, and radiation open boundary conditions are implemented into an existing quasi-3D nearshore model, NearCoM-TVD, which uses a shock-capturing TVD scheme and can better simulate the wetting-drying process during inundation than a conventional finite difference model. Systematic numerical experiments are carried out in an idealized continental shelf-beach-land system to identify the role of waves in modeling storm surge and inundation under different storm characteristics. Four storm parameters, including storm intensity, storm size, translation speed and incident angle are investigated. Modeling results reveal that the presence of waves can increase the maximum storm surge heights significantly through wave setup, and the contribution of waves varies considerably depending on the storm characteristics. In addition to direct wave forcing, the wave-enhanced bottom stress in the surfzone also promotes higher wave setup and hence higher surge heights. Waves also have a major influence on the maximum inland inundation distance, however, we find that waves do not always favor more inundation as expected. For storms traveling at very slow translation speeds or nearly parallel to the coast, waves surprisingly exert a negative effect on the maximum inundation distance. We argue that wave-enhanced bottom stress combined with longer forcing duration in such storms counteract the positive effect of wave setup, and thus less inundation is predicted in wave-current coupled simulations. Our results highlight the necessity of fully-incorporating wave effects in storm surge and inundation modeling.

During Hurricane Sandy, wave overtopping occurred along the barrier beach in front of the Rehoboth Bay, one of the Delaware Inland Bays, as indicated by field observations and the morphological profile model CSHORE. CSHORE estimated a total overtopping volume of about 9.7 × 10 7 m 3 which is close to the storm surge-induced water volume entering the bays through the inlet (about 1.3 × 10 8 m 3 ). In this study, we incorporated the wave overtopping result from CSHORE into the nearshore community model, NearCoM-TVD, to investigate the wave overtopping-induced excessive surge (OIS) in the Delaware Inland Bays. With the wave overtopping applied in the flux boundary condition, the model successfully reproduced the high water level measured at the station located in the Rehoboth Bay. Additional numerical experiments for the separate effects of wave forcing and local winds are also carried out. The results show that wave forcing has a minimal effect on the water level inside the bays. The adjustment of local wind forcing does not qualitatively improve the agreement between the model and data. The model with included wave overtopping predicted an excessive surge of about 20 cm in the Rehoboth Bay, agreeing better with the measured data. Finally, the responses of OIS to different overtopping conditions were performed using an idealized model setup. A strong asymmetry, represented by a much longer draining period versus a shorter period of overtopping increase to the OIS peak, was found in the OIS process for a given temporally symmetric time series of overtopping flux. The asymmetric feature is caused by the imbalance between the overtopping flux and the discharge through the inter-connecting channel inside the Inland Bays. Nonlinearity plays an important role in the process of OIS as demonstrated in modeling OIS-tide-surge interaction.

To improve the genetic transformation system for Brassica rapa L., we established a high-efficiency shoot regeneration protocol. A double haploid line ‘CX001’ with strong regeneration ability was identified from among 25 genotypes. Cotyledons from 4-d-old ‘CX001’ exhibited high-frequency (77.14%) shoot regeneration when explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with 1.0 mg L−1 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and 0.5 mg L−1 α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The highest regeneration frequency (85.40%) and the maximum shoots number per explant (1.79) were achieved on medium containing 2.0 mg L−1 BA and 0.5 mg L−1 NAA. The addition of 2.5 mg L−1 AgNO3 was critical to shoot regeneration of the cotyledonal explants. The highest rooting rate was obtained on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg L−1 NAA. Flow cytometric analysis indicated that there was no ploidy variation between the mother plant and the regenerated plants. Regenerated plantlets with healthy roots were domesticated and transplanted into pots under greenhouse conditions. A reliable and efficient shoot regeneration protocol was established, which lays the foundation for genetic transformation in Brassica rapa.

Based on the linear shallow-water equations, new analytical solutions are derived for trapped waves over a ridge with a hyperbolic-cosine squared cross-sectional profile which may be used to idealize many real-world ocean ridges. In the new analytical formulation, the free surface of the trapped waves is described using the combination of the first and second kinds of the associated Legendre functions, which is further analysed to reveal the existence of both symmetrical and anti-symmetrical trapped waves on the ridge under consideration. New algebraic equations are also derived to depict the wave dispersion relationships, allowing explicit quantification of their sensitivity to the topographic profile. Furthermore, a ray-tracing method is applied to interpret the propagation paths of trapped waves over the ridge and better understand the excitation mechanisms. Finally, an extensively validated Boussinesq wave model is used to conduct numerical experiments for trapped waves induced by tsunamis. The numerical predictions are consistent with the new analytical solutions, which effectively confirms the validity of the new analytical framework for trapped waves over a more general type of oceanic ridges.

Plastids are important plant cell organelles containing a genome and bacterial-type 70S ribosomes-primarily composed of plastid ribosomal proteins and ribosomal RNAs. In this study, a chlorophyll-deficient mutant (cdm) obtained from double-haploid Chinese cabbage 'FT' was identified as a plastome mutant with an A-to-C base substitution in the plastid gene encoding the ribosomal protein RPS4. To further elucidate the function and regulatory mechanisms of RPS4, a comparative proteomic analysis was conducted between cdm and its wild-type 'FT' plants by isobaric tags and a relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based strategy. A total of 6,245 proteins were identified, 540 of which were differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) in the leaves of cdm as compared to those of 'FT'-including 233 upregulated and 307 downregulated proteins. Upregulated DAPs were mainly involved in translation, organonitrogen compound biosynthetic process, ribosomes, and spliceosomes. Meanwhile, downregulated DAPs were mainly involved in photosynthesis, photosynthetic reaction centres, photosynthetic light harvesting, carbon fixation, and chlorophyll binding. These results indicated an important role of RPS4 in the regulation of growth and development of Chinese cabbage, possibly by regulating plastid translation activity by affecting the expression of specific photosynthesis- and cold stress-related proteins. Moreover, a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) test and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis confirmed our iTRAQ results. Quantitative proteomic analysis allowed us to confirm diverse changes in the metabolic pathways between cdm and 'FT' plants. This work provides new insights into the regulation of chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosynthesis in Chinese cabbage.

Background: Plastids are important plant-cell organelles containing a genome and bacterial-type 70S ribosomes—primarily composed of plastid ribosomal proteins and ribosomal RNAs. In this study, a chlorophyll-deficient mutant (cdm) obtained from double-haploid Chinese cabbage ‘FT’ was identified as a plastome mutant with an A-to-C base substitution in the plastid gene encoding the ribosomal protein RPS4. To further elucidate the function and regulatory mechanisms of RPS4, a comparative proteomic analysis was conducted between cdm and ‘FT’ plants using isobaric tags and a relative and absolute quantitation by (iTRAQ)-based strategy.Results: A total of 6,245 proteins were identified, 540 of which were differentially expressed (DEPs) in the leaves of cdm as compared to those of ‘FT’—including 233 upregulated and 307 downregulated proteins. Upregulated DEPs were mainly involved in translation, organic nitrogen synthesis, ribosomes, and spliceosomes. Meanwhile, downregulated DEPs were mainly involved in photosynthesis, photosynthetic reaction centres, photosynthetic light harvesting, carbon fixation, and chlorophyll binding. Our findings indicate an important role of RPS4 in the regulation of growth and development of Chinese cabbage, possibly by regulating plastid translation activity by affecting the expression of specific photosynthesis- and cold stress-related proteins. Moreover, a multiple reaction monitoring test and quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction analysis confirmed our iTRAQ results.Conclusions: Quantitative proteomic analysis allowed us to confirm diverse changes in the metabolic pathways between cdm and ‘FT’ plants. Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses revealed that DEPs were significantly associated with photosynthesis, chlorophyll metabolism, carbon metabolism, RNA transport, glucosinolate biosynthesis, and gene splicing. This work provides new insights into the regulation of chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosynthesis in Chinese cabbage.

The impact of boat traffic on the health of coastal ecosystems is a multi-scale process: from minutes (individual wakes) to days (tidal modulation of sediment transport), to seasons and years (traffic is seasonal). A considerable numerical effort, notwithstanding the value of a boat-by-boat numerical modeling approach, is questionable, because of the practical impossibility of specifying the exact type and navigation characteristics for every boat comprising the traffic at any given time. Here, we propose a statistical-mechanics description of the traffic using a joint probability density of the wake population in some characteristic parameter space. We attempt to answer two basic questions: (1) what is the relevant parameter space and (2) how should a numerical model be tested for a wake population? We describe the linear and nonlinear characteristics of wakes observed in the Florida Intracoastal Waters. Adopting provisionally a two-dimensional parameter space (depth- and length-based Froude numbers) we conduct numerical simulations using the open-source FUNWAVE-TVD Boussinesq model. The model performance is excellent for weakly-dispersive, completely specified wakes (e.g., the analytical linear wakes), and also for the range of Froude numbers observed in the field, or for large container ships generating relatively long waves. The model is challenged by the short waves generated by small, slow boats. However, simulations suggest that the problem is confined to the deeper water domain and linear evolution. Nonlinear wake shoaling, essential for modeling wake-induced sediment transport and wake impact on the environment, is described well.