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Colour remains one of the key factors in presenting an object and, consequently, has been widely applied in retrieval of images based on their visual contents. However, a colour appearance changes with the change of viewing surroundings, the phenomenon that has not been paid attention yet while performing colour-based image retrieval. To comprehend this effect, in this article, a chromatic contrast model, CAMcc, is developed for the application of retrieval of colour intensive images, cementing the gap that most of existing colour models lack to fill by taking simultaneous colour contrast into account. Subsequently, the model is applied to the retrieval task on a collection of museum wallpapers of colour-rich images. In comparison with current popular colour models including CIECAM02, HSI and RGB, with respect to both foreground and background colours, CAMcc appears to outperform the others with retrieved results being closer to query images. In addition, CAMcc focuses more on foreground colours, especially by maintaining the balance between both foreground and background colours, while the rest of existing models take on dominant colours that are perceived the most, usually background tones. Significantly, the contribution of the investigation lies in not only the improvement of the accuracy of colour-based image retrieval but also the development of colour contrast model that warrants an important place in colour and computer vision theory, leading to deciphering the insight of this age-old topic of chromatic contrast in colour science. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 361-373, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grain size is an important appearance quality trait in rice, which also affects grain yield. In this study, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between indica variety 9311 and japonica variety Cypress was constructed. And 181 out of 600 RILs were sequenced, and a high-density genetic map containing 2842 bin markers was constructed, with a total map length of 1500.6 cM. A total of 10 quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to grain length (GL), grain width (GW), grain length-to-width ratio (LWR), and 1000-grain weight (TGW) were detected under two environments. The genetic effect of qGL4, a minor QTL for GL and TGW, was validated using three heterogeneous inbred family (HIF) segregation populations. It was further dissected into two closed linked QTL, qGL4.1 and qGL4.2. By progeny testing, qGL4.1 and qGL4.2 were successfully delimited to intervals of 1304-kb and 423-kb, respectively. Our results lay the foundation for the map-based cloning of qGL4.1 and qGL4.2 and provide new gene resources for the improvement of grain yield and quality in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amylose content (AC) is one of the physicochemical indexes of rice quality, which is largely determined by the Waxy (Wx) gene. Fragrance in rice is favored because it adds good flavor and a faint scent. Loss of function of the BADH2 (FGR) gene promotes the biosynthesis of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP), which is the main compound responsible for aroma in rice. Here, we used a CRISPR/Cas9 system to simultaneously knock out Wx and FGR genes in 1892S and M858, which are the parents of an indica two-line hybrid rice, Huiliangyou 858 (HLY858). Four T-DNA-free homozygous mutants (1892Swxfgr-1, 1892Swxfgr-2, M858wxfgr-1, and M858wxfgr-2) were obtained. The 1892Swxfgr and M858wxfgr were crossed to generate double mutant hybrid lines HLY858wxfgr-1 and HLY858wxfgr-2. Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) data indicated that true AC of the wx mutant starches ranged from 0.22 to 1.63%, much lower than those of the wild types (12.93 to 13.76%). However, the gelatinization temperature (GT) of the wx mutants in backgrounds of 1892S, M858, and HLY858 were still high, and showed no significant differences with the wild type controls. The aroma compounds 2AP content in grains of HLY858wxfgr-1 and HLY858wxfgr-2 were 153.0 μg/kg and 151.0 μg/kg, respectively. In contrast, 2AP was not detected in grains of HLY858. There were no significant differences in major agronomic traits between the mutants and HLY858. This study provides guidelines for cultivation of ideal glutinous and aromatic hybrid rice by gene editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, the reconstruction of particle size distributions (PSDs) using particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques from dynamic light scattering (DLS) data was established. Three different objective functions containing non-smooth constrained objective function, smooth functional objective function of Tikhonov regularization and L objective function, were employed. Simulated results of unimodal, bimodal and bi-dispersed particles show that the PSO technique with non-smooth constrained objective function produces narrower PSDs focusing on peak position in the presence of random noise, the PSO technique with smooth functional of Tikhonov regularization creates relative smooth PSDs, which could be successfully applied to the broad particles inversion, and the PSO technique with L objective function yields smooth PSDs, which saves calculation amount. Experimental results as well as comparisons with CONTIN algorithm and Cumulants method demonstrate the performance of our algorithms. Therefore, the PSO techniques employing the three different objective functions, which only require objective function and need a few initial guesses, may be applied to the reconstruction of PSDs from DLS data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Ribosomes responsible for transcription and translation of plastid-encoded proteins in chloroplasts are essential for chloroplast development and plant growth. Although most ribosomal proteins in plastids have been identified, the molecular mechanisms regulating chloroplast biogenesis remain to be investigated. Results: Here, we identified albinic seedling mutant albino seedling lethality 4 (asl4) caused by disruption of 30S ribosomal protein S1 that is targeted to the chloroplast. The mutant was defective in early chloroplast development and chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis. A 2855-bp deletion in the ASL4 allele was verified as responsible for the mutant phenotype by complementation tests. Expression analysis revealed that the ASL4 allele was highly expressed in leaf 4 sections and newly expanded leaves during early leaf development. Expression levels were increased by exposure to light following darkness. Some genes involved in chloroplast biogenesis were up-regulated and others down-regulated in asl4 mutant tissues compared to wild type. Plastid-encoded plastid RNA polymerase (PEP)-dependent photosynthesis genes and nuclear-encoded phage-type RNA polymerase (NEP)-dependent housekeeping genes were separately down-regulated and up-regulated, suggesting that plastid transcription was impaired in the mutant. Transcriptome and western blot analyses showed that levels of most plastid-encoded genes and proteins were reduced in the mutant. The decreased contents of chloroplast rRNAs and ribosomal proteins indicated that chloroplast ribosome biogenesis was impaired in the asl4 mutant. Conclusions: Rice ASL4 encodes 30S ribosomal protein S1, which is targeted to the chloroplast. ASL4 is essential for chloroplast ribosome biogenesis and early chloroplast development. These data will facilitate efforts to further elucidate the molecular mechanism of chloroplast biogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of compound polysaccharides (cPS) on the immune responses via chicken models. First, in screening experiment, a comprehensive analysis for immunomodulatory activity of four cPSs, including Astragalus polysaccharides (APS), Epimedium polysaccharides (EPS), sulfated APS (sAPS) and sulfated EPS (sEPS), was performed in vitro and in vivo. APS–sEPS was picked out having the best effect on lymphocyte proliferation and raising the antibody titers. Therefore, the adjuvanticities of APS–sEPS on Newcastle disease (ND) and avian influenza (AI) vaccine were further validated. Chickens were administrated with ND or AI vaccines containing APS–sEPS of 150, 100 and 50mg/kg, respectively, taking oil adjuvant vaccine as control. It was observed ND or AI antibody titers and lymphocyte proliferation were enhanced at 100mg/kg of APS–sEPS. In conclusion, appropriate dose of APS–sEPS may be a safe and efficacious immune stimulator candidate suitable for vaccines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Based on our previous research, sulfated modification conditions of Tremella polysaccharide (TPS), the chlorosulfonic acid to pyridine (CSA-Pry) ratio, reaction temperature and time, were optimized by L9 (34) orthogonal design taking the yield and degree of sulfation (DS) of modifiers as indexes. Two TPSs, TPStp and TPS70c, were modified under optimized conditions. The effects of two modifiers, sTPStp and sTPS70c, on cellular infectivity of NDV were determined by MTT method taking the non-modified TPStp, TPStc and TPS70c as controls. The results showed that the optimized modification conditions were reaction temperature of 80°C, CSA-Pry ratio of 1:6 and reaction time of 1.5h. Five polysaccharides at proper concentrations could significantly inhibit the infectivity of NDV to CEF. The virus inhibitory rates of sTPStp at 1.563μgmL−1 group were the highest and significantly higher than those of other three non-modified polysaccharide groups in three sample-adding modes. This indicated that sulfated modification could significantly improve the antiviral activity of TPS. sTPStp possessed the best efficacy and would be as a component of antiviral polysaccharide drug. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Four prescriptions, epimedium flavone plus propolis flavone (EF–PF), epimedium flavone plus propolis extracts (EF–PE), epimedium polysaccharide plus propolis flavone (EP–PF) and epimedium polysaccharide plus propolis extracts (EP–PE), were prepared and their immune-enhancing effects were compared. In test in vitro, the effects of them on chicken peripheral lymphocyte proliferation were determined by MTT method. The results showed that EP–PF group presented the highest stimulating index at most concentrations. In immune test, 300 14-day-old chickens were randomly divided into six groups and vaccinated with ND vaccine except for blank control (BC) group, re-challenged at 28 days of age. At the same time of the first vaccination, the chickens in four experimental groups were injected, respectively, with four prescriptions. The changes of the lymphocyte proliferation and antibody titer were determined. On day 28 after the first vaccination, the chickens except for BC group were challenged with NDV, the immune protective effect was observed. The results displayed that in EP–PF group, the antibody titers, lymphocyte proliferation and protective rate were the highest, the morbidity and mortality were the lowest. In dose test, 14-day-old chickens were randomly divided into five groups. The treatment and determinations were the same as the immune test except that the chickens in experimental groups were injected, respectively, with high, medium and low doses of EP–PF. The results revealed that in medium dose group, the antibody titers, lymphocyte proliferation and protective rate were the highest, the morbidity and mortality were the lowest. These results indicated that EP and PF possessed synergistically immune enhancement, EP–PF had the best efficacy, especially at medium dose, and would be expected to exploit into a new-type immunopotentiator. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]