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Chinese driver behavior in heterogeneous traffic is commonly available, but it is difficult to acquire due to view limitations and sensor limitations. In this study, Chinese typical lane change behavior in car-truck heterogeneous traffic flow was collected and analyzed using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The velocity of ego vehicle, relative velocity and distance of ego and surrounding vehicles, time to collision (TTC), time headway (THW) at the lane change moment, and brake and accelerate reaction time during lane changes were investigated. Results showed that large differences existed in various car follow types and lane change types. Cars drove more aggressively than trucks with shorter reaction times, and cars would change lanes at a longer distance when facing trucks. Smaller TTC and THW were found for trucks when facing cars. Chinese drivers showed more frequent lane-change maneuvers and shorter reaction times compared to other countries. The driver characteristic in China provided data support for the training of artificial intelligence-based decision algorithms, the development of a localized system, and the design of roads.

This report focuses on the crucial role of lipids and starch metabolism in the growth and ultrastructure of the cell wall (CW) in rice calli. Non-habituated calli (NH-calli) were isolated from a rice embryo-derived callus culture supplemented with 2,4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid); however, the habituated calli (H-calli) were isolated from NH ones and cultured subsequently on exogenous hormone-free medium. The phenotypes of the H- and NH-calli differed significantly between each other as reported in our recently published work. The H-calli CW was thinner, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), mitochondria (MT) and starch grains (SGs) were less in the H-calli. The intracellular free fatty acids (FAs) and starch content were much less in the H- if compared to NH-calli. By microarray analysis, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to primary and secondary metabolism, lipid and starch metabolism were down-regulated in H- vs NH-calli. The response at the transcriptomic level involved in these changes, as well as the corresponding variations in cytology and FAs metabolism were also accurately elucidated herein. The study reveals that the decreased levels of lipids and starch in the H-calli are mainly attributable to their (H-calli) elevated consumption, in the absence of exogenous hormonal supply to ensure the demand in energy of the calli to survive and maintain an optimum growth and development with the available resource of energy (starch and lipids). This report displays as well the slowdown of the H-calli metabolism, in the absence of exogenous growth regulators supply, if compared to that of the NH-ones. Lipids and starch decreased in the H-calli is mainly attributable to their elevated consumption to survive and maintain an optimal growth and development with the available resource of energy.

The testing of the intelligent driving systems is faced with the challenges of efficiency because real traffic scenarios are infinite, uncontrollable and difficult to be precisely defined. Based on the complexity index of scenario that designed to measure the test effect indirectly, a new combinational testing algorithm of test cases generation is proposed to make a balance among multiple objects including test coverage, the number of test cases and test effect. Then a joint simulation platform based on Matlab, PreScan and Carsim is built up to realize the construction of 3D test environment, execution of test scenarios and evaluation of test results automatically and seamlessly. The strategy proposed in this paper is validated by applying it to a traffic jam pilot system. The result shows that the proposed strategy can improve the overall complexity of the designed test scenarios effectively, which can help us detect system faults faster and easier. And the time required to conduct tests is reduced obviously by means of automation.

The habituated rice calli grown on an auxin-free medium were isolated from rice embryo-derived calli previously cultivated on medium supplemented with 2,4-D. The habituated rice calli grow faster than the non-habituated ones, particularly during the first week. We performed microarray analysis to unravel the changes in the transcriptomic level of rice calli grown on hormone-free medium. Several genes related to hormone metabolism and signaling were differentially expressed between the two calli types. Especially, the expressions of two amido-transferase enzymes genes Gretchen Hagen 3s (GH3.1 and GH3.8) were down-regulated and one indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-amino acid (IAA-AA) hydrolase gene ILR1-like 3 was up-regulated in habituated calli compared to non-habituated. We further assessed the contents of different hormones in these two calli kinds. The IAA content was indeed significantly increased by about 7 times in habituated calli compared to non-habituated, initially grown in plant hormone-free medium. In parallel to the increase in the endogenous auxin, IAA-AA conjugates, abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene and GA12, GA19, GA29 were decreased in the habituated calli. Our results indicate that the regeneration of endogenous auxin is essential and required for the habituation of callus cells. The changes in the endogenous hormones might be coordinated and monitored during the habituation process by various biological pathways. Eventually, this study debates the interrelated changes and adjustment in endogenous plant hormones occurred (happened) in the habituated calli. This report exhibits also a completely different hormonal composition status for each rice calli, which might potentially be responsible for the calli growth regulation and its acclimation process.

In this article, we study an energy sustainable Internet-of-Underwater Things (IoUT) network with tidal energy harvesting. Specifically, an analytical model is first developed to analyze the performance of the IoUT network, characterizing the stochastic nature of energy harvesting and traffic demands of IoUT nodes, and the salient features of acoustic communication channels. It is found that the spatial uncertainty resulting from underwater acoustic communication may cause a severe fairness issue. As such, an optimization problem is formulated to maximize the network throughput under fairness constraints, by tuning the random access parameters of each node. Given the global network information, including the number of nodes, energy harvesting rates, communication distances, etc., the optimization problem can be efficiently solved with the Branch and Bound (BnB) method. Considering a realistic network where the network information may not be available at the IoUT nodes, we further propose a multiagent reinforcement learning approach for each node to autonomously adapt the random access parameter based on the interactions with the dynamic network environment. The numerical results show that the proposed learning algorithm greatly improves the throughput performance compared with the existing solutions, and approaches the derived theoretical bound.

Chloroplast pre-ribosomal RNA (rRNA) undergoes maturation, which is critical for ribosome assembly. While the central and auxiliary factors in rRNA maturation have been elucidated in bacteria, their mode of action remains largely unexplored in chloroplasts. We now reveal chloroplast-specific factors involved in 16S rRNA maturation, RsmD methyltransferase (AtRsmD) and ribosome maturation factor RimM-like protein (AtRimM) in Arabidopsis thaliana. A forward genetic screen aimed to find suppressors of the Arabidopsis yellow variegated 2 (var2) mutant defective in photosystem II (PSII) quality control found a causal nonsense mutation in AtRsmD. The substantially impaired 16S rRNA maturation and translation due to the mutation rescued the leaf variegation phenotype by lowering the levels of PSII core proteins in var2. The subsequent co-immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry analyses and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay found that AtRsmD interacts with AtRimM. Consistent with their interaction, loss of AtRimM also considerably impairs 16S rRNA maturation, with less methylation in m2G915 in 16S rRNA catalyzed by AtRsmD. The atrimM mutation also rescued var2 mutant phenotypes, corroborating the functional interplay between AtRsmD and AtRimM towards 16S rRNA maturation and chloroplast proteostasis.

The plant stress hormone salicylic acid (SA) participates in local and systemic acquired resistance, which eventually leads to whole-plant resistance to bacterial pathogens. However, if SA-mediated signaling is not appropriately controlled, plants incur defense-associated fitness costs such as growth inhibition and cell death. Despite its importance, to date only a few components counteracting the SA-primed stress responses have been identified in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). These include other plant hormones such as jasmonic acid and abscisic acid, and proteins such as LESION SIMULATING DISEASE1, a transcription coregulator. Here, we describe PLANT NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE A (PNP-A), a functional analog to vertebrate atrial natriuretic peptides, that appears to antagonize the SA-mediated plant stress responses. While loss of PNP-A potentiates SA-mediated signaling, exogenous application of synthetic PNP-A or overexpression of PNP-A significantly compromises the SA-primed immune responses. Moreover, we identify a plasma membrane–localized receptor-like protein, PNP-R2, that interacts with PNP-A and is required to initiate the PNP-A–mediated intracellular signaling. In summary, our work identifies a peptide and its putative cognate receptor as counteracting both SA-mediated signaling and SA-primed cell death in Arabidopsis.

Fast-response communication is crucial for Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET). In practice, the conventional VANETs, suffering from the high mobility of the vehicles and the ever-growing data to percept and process, cannot meet the demand of fast response currently. In this paper, we study the Dimensioning and Layout Planning (DLP) problem under 5G-based Vehicular Edge Computing Network (VECN) architecture which integrates the 5G Micro Base Station (gNB) and Edge Computing (EC) to reduce the response time. The DLP problem aims to minimize the total placement cost under the constraint of the full coverage. This paper formulates the DLP problem as an integer linear program (ILP) and then proposes a Greedy Algorithm (GA) and a Cost-Effective Heuristic Algorithm (CEHA) toimprove the computation efficiency. The case studies have verified the feasibility and scalability of the DLP formulation and showed that the proposed CEHA is fairly effective and efficient to solve the DLP problem.

Tunnel surrounding rock deformation is dynamic, sensitive to time and space, nonlinear, and highly complicated. By combining the firefly algorithm (FA) and nonlinear auto-regressive (NAR) dynamic neural network method, an algorithm model was proposed for predicting dynamic nonlinear surrounding rock deformation. The FA improved the prediction accuracy of the NAR dynamic neural network by determining the optimum values of two network parameters—delay order and number of units in the hidden layer; combined with the monitoring results of Beishan exploration tunnel (BET), this is demonstrated by a comparative analysis of predictions yielded by the FA–NAR dynamic neural network and by the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). In general, the comparation shows that the FA–NAR dynamic neural network model yielded predictions that are fundamentally consistent with measurements and exhibits higher prediction accuracy than the LS-SVM. Results also show that the surrounding rock deformation prediction of BET for March 4, 2020 was marginally smaller than 2.43 mm.

GOLDEN2-LIKE (GLK) transcription factors drive the expression of photosynthesis-associated nuclear genes (PhANGs) indispensable for chloroplast biogenesis. Salicylic acid (SA)-induced SIGMA FACTOR-BINDING PROTEIN 1 (SIB1), a transcription coregulator and positive regulator of cell death, interacts with GLK1 and GLK2 to reinforce the expression of PhANGs, leading to photoinhibition of photosystem II and singlet oxygen (1O2) burst in chloroplasts. 1O2 then contributes to SA-induced cell death via EXECUTER 1 (EX1; 1O2 sensor protein)-mediated retrograde signaling upon reaching a critical level. This earlier finding has initiated research on the potential role of GLK1/2 and EX1 in SA signaling. Consistent with this view, we reveal that LESION-SIMULATING DISEASE 1 (LSD1), a transcription coregulator and negative regulator of SA-primed cell death, interacts with GLK1/2 to repress their activities in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Overexpression of LSD1 repressed GLK target genes, including PhANGs, whereas loss of LSD1 enhanced their expression. Remarkably, LSD1 overexpression inhibited chloroplast biogenesis, resembling the characteristic glk1glk2 double mutant phenotype. Subsequent chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with expression analyses further revealed that LSD1 inhibits the DNA-binding activity of GLK1 toward its target promoters. SA-induced nuclear-targeted SIB1 proteins appeared to interrupt the LSD1–GLK interaction, and the subsequent SIB1–GLK interaction activated EX1-mediated 1O2 signaling, elucidating antagonistic modules SIB1 and LSD1 in the regulation of GLK activity. Taken together, we provide a working model that SIB1 and LSD1, mutually exclusive SA-signaling components, antagonistically regulate GLK1/2 to fine-tune the expression of PhANGs, thereby modulating 1O2 homeostasis and related stress responses.

In Drosophila melanogaster, processing of gustatory information and controlling feeding behavior are executed by neural circuits located in the subesophageal zone (SEZ) of the brain.

The genes in the subfamily PG1β (beta subunit of poly-galacturonase isoenzyme 1) have a clear effect on the biosynthesis pathway of pectin, a main component of the cell wall. However, the detailed functions of the PG1β-like gene members in Arabidopsis (AtPG1–3) have not yet been determined. In this study, we investigated their functional roles in response to aluminum (Al) stress. Our results indicate that the PG1β-like gene members are indeed involved in the Al-stress response and they can modulate its accumulation in roots to achieve optimum root elongation and hence better seedling growth. We found that transcription factor EIN3 (ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 3) alters pectin metabolism and the EIN3 gene responds to Al stress to affect the pectin content in the root cell walls, leading to exacerbation of the inhibition of root growth, as reflected by the phenotypes of overexpressing lines. We determined that EIN3 can directly bind to the promoter regions of PG1–3, which act downstream of EIN3. Thus, our results show that EIN3 responds to Al stress in Arabidopsis directly through regulating the expression of PG1–3. Hence, EIN3 mediates their functions by acting as a biomarker in their molecular biosynthesis pathways, and consequently orchestrates their biological network in response to Al stress.

The weak interfacial interactions between carbon nanotube (CNT) always results in low stress load transfer efficiency in CNT yarns, herein we fabricated strong, highly conducting CNT yarns at room temperature using molecules having aromatic end groups, π bridging neighboring CNTs. The resulting CNT yarns have high tensile strength with 1697 ± 24 MPa, toughness with 18.6 ± 1.6 MJ/m3, and electrical conductivity with 656.2 S/cm, which are 3.9, 2.5, and 3.5 times, respectively, as high as that of the neat CNT yarn. The specific tensile strength of the resulting CNT yarn is higher than that for previously reported CNT yarns fabricated at room temperature, even that for some CNT yarns fabricated using corossive environments or extreme temperature. This π bridging strategy provides a promising avenue for fabricating high performance CNT yarns under ambient conditions.

Arabidopsis var2 mutants with defective PSII repair trigger chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signaling that results in a response resembling the unfolded protein response, leading to accumulation of proteins involved in proteostasis and detoxification., Cellular protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is maintained through the balance between de novo synthesis and proteolysis. The unfolded/misfolded protein response (UPR) that is triggered by stressed endoplasmic reticulum (ER) also plays an important role in proteostasis in both plants and animals. Although ER-triggered UPR has been extensively studied in plants, the molecular mechanisms underlying mitochondrial and chloroplastic UPRs are largely uncharacterized despite the fact that these organelles are sites of production of harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage proteins. In this study, we demonstrate that chloroplasts of the Arabidopsis yellow leaf variegation 2 (var2) mutant, which lacks the metalloprotease FtsH2, accumulate damaged chloroplast proteins and trigger a UPR-like response, namely the accumulation of a suite of chloroplast proteins involved in protein quality control (PQC). These PQC proteins include heat-shock proteins, chaperones, proteases, and ROS detoxifiers. Given that FtsH2 functions primarily in photosystem II proteostasis, the accumulation of PQC-related proteins may balance the FtsH2 deficiency. Moreover, the apparent up-regulation of the cognate transcripts indicates that the accumulation of PQC-related proteins in var2 is probably mediated by retrograde signaling, indicating the occurrence of a UPR-like response in var2.

It is very difficult to observe the deformation of the surrounding rock within a very short time after excavation in hard rock such as granite. This paper reports an in situ monitoring test of the internal displacement of the surrounding rock conducted using multi-point extensometers that were pre-embedded before excavation in the Beishan Exploration Tunnel (BET) in China's Gansu Province. The internal deformation characteristics of the surrounding rock throughout the whole tunnel excavation process were analyzed, and an analysis of the spatial effect of the tunnel excavation face and an estimation of the loss displacement were carried out with 3 typical longitudinal deformation profile (LDP) curve equations: the Lee equation, the Hoek equation and the Vlachopoulos and Diederichs (V-D) equation. The results show that under the geological conditions of Beishan granite, the internal displacement of the surrounding rock throughout the whole process of blasting excavation passes through 3 stages, including initial growth, rapid growth and stable convergence. The temporal curve of the internal displacement of the surrounding rock near a measuring section shows stepwise characteristics, which are similar to the morphological characteristics of a creep test curve for rock subjected to graded loading. Measuring points farther from the side wall of the tunnel are less affected by the spatial effect of the tunnel excavation face and experience a larger displacement release ahead of the tunnel face relative to the total displacement. The loss displacement calculated with the Hoek equation is closest to the measured value; thus, the Hoek equation is the optimal estimation equation. When the measuring section is located 2 m from the tunnel face, the loss displacement accounts for more than 50% of the total displacement.

AURKA is a potential kinase target in various malignancies. The kinase-independent oncogenic functions partially disclose the inadequate efficacy of the kinase inhibitor in a Phase III clinical trial. Simultaneously targeting the catalytic and noncatalytic functions of AURKA may be a feasible approach. Here, a set of AURKA proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are developed. The CRBN-based dAurA383 preferentially degrades the highly abundant mitotic AURKA, while cIAP-based dAurA450 degrades the lowly abundant interphase AURKA in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. The proteomic and transcriptomic analyses indicate that dAurA383 triggers the "mitotic cell cycle" and "stem cell" processes, while dAurA450 inhibits the "MYC/E2F targets" and "stem cell" processes. dAurA383 and dAurA450 are combined as a PROTAC cocktail. The cocktail effectively degrades AURKA, relieves the hook effect, and synergistically inhibits AML stem cells. Furthermore, the PROTAC cocktail induces AML regression in a xenograft mouse model and primary patient blasts. These findings establish the PROTAC cocktail as a promising spatial-temporal drug administration strategy to sequentially eliminate the multifaceted functions of oncoproteins, relieve the hook effect, and prevent cancer stem cell-mediated drug resistance.

A highly regioselective copper-catalyzed 1,4-chloro- and bromotrifluoromethylation of 1,3-enynes has been presented for the first time, which affords an efficient transformation to access halo- and CF3-containing tetrasubstituted allene derivatives with good to excellent yield. This protocol is practical and convenient, in which a wide range of functional groups are compatible. Applications of this method for the gram-scale preparation and late-stage functionalization of biologically active molecules are also demonstrated.

In response to cellular stress and damage, certain tissues are able to regenerate and to restore tissue homeostasis. InDrosophilaimaginal wing discs, dying cells express mitogens that induce compensatory proliferation in the surrounding tissue. Here we report that high levels of the BTB/POZ transcription factor Bab2 in the posterior compartment of wing discs activates c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling and local, cell-autonomous apoptotic cell death. This in turn triggered the upregulation of the Dpp mitogen and cellular proliferation in the anterior compartment in a JNK-dependent manner. In the posterior compartment, however,dppexpression was suppressed, most likely by direct transcriptional repression by Bab2. This dual-mode of JNK-signaling, autocrine pro-apoptotic signaling and paracrine pro-proliferative signaling, led to opposite effects in the two compartments and reprogramming of the adult wing structure. We establish Bab2 as a regulator of wing disc development, with the capacity to reprogram development via JNK activation in a cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous manner.Summary statementZhao et al. shows that the BTB/POZ transcription factor Bab2 is a potent activator of JNK signaling, apoptosis and compensatory proliferation, thereby driving both pro-tumorigenic and anti-tumorigenic processes.

GOLDEN2-LIKE (GLK) transcription factors drive the expression of photosynthesis-associated nuclear genes (PhANGs), indispensable for chloroplast biogenesis. We previously demonstrated that the salicylic acid (SA)-induced SIGMA FACTOR-BINDING PROTEIN 1 (SIB1), a transcription coregulator and positive regulator of cell death, interacts with GLK1 and GLK2 to reinforce their activities. The SIB1-GLK interaction raises the level of light-harvesting antenna proteins in photosystem II, aggravating photoinhibition and singlet oxygen (1O2) burst. 1O2 then contributes to SA-induced cell death via EXECUTER 1 (EX1, 1O2 sensor protein)-mediated retrograde signaling upon reaching a critical level. We now reveal that LESION-SIMULATING DISEASE 1 (LSD1), a transcription coregulator and negative regulator of SA-primed cell death, interacts with GLK1/2 to repress their activities. Consistently, the overexpression of LSD1 represses GLK target genes including PhANGs, whereas the loss of LSD1 increases their expression. Remarkably, LSD1 overexpression inhibits chloroplast biogenesis, resembling the characteristic glk1glk2 double mutant phenotype. The subsequent chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis coupled with quantitative PCR further reveals that LSD1 inhibits the DNA-binding activity of GLK1 towards its target promoters. The SA-induced nuclear-targeted SIB1 appears to counteractively interact with GLK1/2, leading to the activation of EX1-mediated 1O2 signaling. Taken together, we provide a working model that SIB1 and LSD1, mutually exclusive SA-signaling components, antagonistically regulate GLK1/2 to fine-tune the expression of PhANGs, thereby modulating 1O2 homeostasis and related stress responses.

For improving the performance of ADAS and AD system in China, the driving behavior of Chinese drivers is being increasingly focused. The purpose of this study is to investigate the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of typical Chinese driving behavior, by using UAV to capture and extract them. Traffic flow rate, traffic density, velocity, acceleration and offset from the lane center were acquired and their influence by the vehicle types and lane types studied. Minimum TTC and THW during lane changing and car following and their influence by following types and lane types were also studied. Results showed that the Chinese traffic state was more stable than in Germany, however, with more aggressive behavior, compared to HighD. The entire velocity was small due to strict speed regulation in China. Different characteristics were found for different vehicle types, following types and lanes. Car and car-car following showed more dangerous potential. Cars tended to drive left and trucks tended to right of the lane center. Conclusions can be made that Chinese driving behavior is largely different from German driving behavior. These driver characteristics in China provided data support for the training of an AI-based decision algorithm, development from a localized system and design of roads.