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SAUR (small auxin-up RNA) is an early auxin-responsive gene. In this study, a novel SAUR gene PtSAUR8 was cloned from poplar (Populus trichocarpa), and subcellular location analysis showed that it is targeted to the nuclear membrane. In addition, PtSAUR8 overexpression in Arabidopsis improved the plant resistance to drought stress. Meanwhile, the loss of function mutant saur53 showed more drought sensitivity compared to the WT. PtSAUR8 conferred drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis, as determined through phenotypic and stress-associated physiological indicator analyses, namely, root length, germination rate, relative water content, proline content, CAT content, POD content, malondialdehyde content, hydrogen peroxide content, and relative conductivity. In addition, after the 1 μM abscisic acid (ABA) treatment, the PtSAUR8-OE lines promoted stomata closure. Quantitative fluorescence analysis of related genes induced by drought mutant stress further confirmed that overexpression of PtSAUR8 can improve drought resistance in transgenic Arabidopsis lines. Therefore, PtSAUR8 may play a role in plant drought resistance through ABA-mediated pathways; thus, providing new research materials for molecular breeding of poplar resistance.

The advantage of quantum metrology has been experimentally demonstrated for phase estimations where the dynamics are commuting. General noncommuting dynamics, however, can have distinct features. For example, the direct sequential scheme, which can achieve the Heisenberg scaling for the phase estimation under commuting dynamics, can have even worse performances than the classical scheme when the dynamics are noncommuting. Here we realize a scalable optimally controlled sequential scheme, which can achieve the Heisenberg precision under general noncommuting dynamics. We also present an intuitive geometrical framework for the controlled scheme and identify sweet spots in time at which the optimal controls used in the scheme can be prefixed without adaptation, which simplifies the experimental protocols significantly. We successfully implement the scheme up to eight controls in an optical platform and demonstrate a precision near the Heisenberg limit. Our work opens the avenue for harvesting the power of quantum control in quantum metrology, and provides a control-enhanced recipe to achieve the Heisenberg precision under general noncommuting dynamics.

A new strategy for the synthesis of functionalized tetrahydrofuran derivatives was developed via a phosphine-catalysed [3 + 2] cyclization reaction of aromatic aldehydes with 4-phenylbut-3-yn-2-one. This is the first example of intermolecular cyclization of ynones with benzaldehydes, which essentially benefited from the intramolecular hydrogen bonding. This new protocol features a broad substrate scope, mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity and easy scale-up.

Because biomass lignin shows good adsorption activity, its derivatives such as alkali lignin and kraft lignin have been applied in water treatment; however, sodium lignosulfonate (SLS), mainly limited by its high water solubility, is not applicable in this respect. In this work, we fabricated SiO2@SLS mesoporous adsorbent using a facile solution coating method by one step. SLS coating SiO2 enables the former to be “separated” from water, accomplishing the soluble to insoluble conversion. This change makes the composite more suitable and efficient to remove organic pollutants from water than the SLS precursor. It is found that interfacial hydrogen bonds play a significant role in the conversion, which is further corroborated by density functional theory calculations. Various characterizations show that SiO2@SLS is composed of uniform particles around 80 nm in size. Abundant mesopores with diameters ranging from 2 to 3 nm are found on the surface of SiO2@SLS nanoparticles. The specific surface areas of SiO2@SLS were measured between 293.4 and 33.2 m2 g−1, depending on the SLS amount used in the preparing process. Originating from the bio-adsorbent lignin precursor, the SiO2@SLS composite shows excellent adsorption property. Representatively, SiO2@SLS-0.6 is able to efficiently remove methylene blue (MB), almost twice as much as SiO2-0 does; its adsorption capacity (Qm) reaches 206.2 mg g−1 according to the Langmuir model fitting; notably, SiO2@SLS-0.6 works very well even in a high-concentration MB solution (50 mg L−1), showing removal efficiencies at 90.0% (within 1 h) and 99.9% (720 h, i.e., 30 days). Plus having remarkable adsorption stability, our composite SiO2@SLS is anticipated to be promising in application of polluted water treatment.

Focusing on load characteristics of inverted plasma cutting power supply, this paper puts forward a nonlinear control method. This method integrates fuzzy control technology into the controller of power supply, thereby optimizing dynamic characteristics of power supply. The SIMULINK simulation technology is also used. To compare steady-state precision, robustness, response speed and other control indexes between fuzzy control and conventional PI control, the comparative simulation experiments were made respectively under constant non-disturbance steady-state condition, aperiodic load disturbance condition, and periodic load disturbance condition. The simulation results show that power supply with fuzzy controller has perfect steady robustness, fast system response and strong harmonic suppression ability. The simulation model is accurate and reliable, and it can be an efficient tool for further studying mechanism and algorithm optimization of plasma cutting power supply.

The propagating properties of the mode waves excited by multipole sources in a fluid-filled borehole embedded in radially layered transversely isotropic porous formation are investigated. The results show that the propagating characteristics of the mode waves are determined largely by the virgin formation in the low frequency band, and with the frequency increasing the characteristics of the mode waves are controlled by the invaded zone gradually. In the Biot theory the attenuation is easier to be affected by the formation around the borehole wall than the velocity. The frequency-dependent sensitivity coefficients with respect to the parameters of the radial layers are computed quantitatively. Comparing the horizontal permeability with the vertical permeability, the horizontal mobility plays the predominant role over the entire frequency range. The Stoneley wave is more sensitive to the velocity of the horizontally propagating SH wave than the flexural wave. The results of the work also show that the acoustic logging tool with broadband and distributed receiver array is advantageous to image the acoustic parameters in different radial depths.