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Objective Knowledge of the regional groundwater level is an important foundation for groundwater resource evaluation and protection. Due to the limited amount of groundwater level data available at the regional scale, Kriging interpolation and deep learning methods are gradually being used for regional groundwater level prediction, but their applicability and robustness lack comparative analysis. Methods In this paper, spatial interpolation of groundwater levels in the Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone was carried out using ordinary Kriging, coKriging and deep learning methods to explore the potential of these three methods for practical application to regional groundwater level prediction. To investigate the effect of the training set sample size on the prediction effect of the three methods, 239 monitoring wells were divided into two groups of 76 and 163 wells for the training of the three models. Results The results showed that the RMSEs were 6.09, 4.04, and 7.11 when the training data of 76 wells were used to fit the validation set, and the Kriging method, which accounts for surface elevation information, was significantly better than the ordinary Kriging method and the deep learning method. In addition, the predicted water level distribution improved when a larger number of samples was used to predict the water level in the region. However, the spatial distribution characteristics still differed significantly. Conclusion The results show that when the observation data are sparse, the prediction effect of coKriging with elevation information is significantly greater than that of ordinary Kriging and deep learning methods, while the RMSEs obtained by the three methods are similar when the amount of observation data increases to a certain amount.

Abstract Ring rot, caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea, is an important fungal disease of pear fruit during postharvest storage. Melatonin, as a plant growth regulator, plays an important role in enhancing the stress resistance of pear fruits. It enhances the resistance of pear fruits to ring rot by enhancing their antioxidant capacity. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of melatonin on the growth of B. dothidea. Results showed that melatonin did not limit the growth of B. dothidea during in vitro culture. However, metabolomics and transcriptomics analyses of ‘Whangkeumbae’ pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) revealed that melatonin increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, including peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), in the fruit and activated the phenylpropanoid metabolic pathway to improve fruit resistance. Furthermore, melatonin treatment significantly increased the contents of jasmonic acid and phlorizin in pear fruit, both of which could improve disease resistance. Jasmonic acid regulates melatonin synthesis and can also promote phlorizin synthesis, ultimately improving the resistance of pear fruit to ring rot. In summary, the interaction between melatonin and jasmonic acid and phlorizin enhances the antioxidant defense response and phenylpropanoid metabolism pathway of pear fruit, thereby enhancing the resistance of pear fruit to ring rot disease. Our results provide new insights into the application of melatonin in the resistance to pear fruit ring rot.

IntroductionRed spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) infestation (SMI) is a detrimental factor for roses grown indoors. Although predatory mite (Neoseiulus californicus) antagonism (PMA) is often utilized to alleviate SMI damage, little is known about the defensive response of greenhouse-grown roses to SMI and the molecular mechanism by which PMA protects roses.MethodsTo determine the transcriptome and metabolome responses of roses to SMI and PMA, the leaves of a rose cultivar (“Fairy Zixia/Nightingale”) were infested with T. urticae, followed by the introduction of predator mite. Leaf samples were collected at various time points and subjected to transcriptome and metabolome analyses.ResultsWe found that 24 h of SMI exerted the most changes in the expression of defense-related genes and metabolites in rose leaves. KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and metabolites revealed that rose responses to SMI and PMA were primarily enriched in pathways such as sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis, benzoxazinoid biosynthesis, stilbenoid, diarylheptanoid and gingerol biosynthesis, phytosterol biosynthesis, MAPK signaling pathway, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and other pathways associated with resistance to biotic stress. Rose reacted to SMI and PMA by increasing the expression of structural genes and metabolite levels in phytosterol biosynthesis, mevalonate (MVA) pathway, benzoxazinoid biosynthesis, and stilbenoid biosynthesis. In addition, PMA caused a progressive recover from SMI, allowing rose to revert to its normal growth state. PMA restored the expression of 190 essential genes damaged by SMI in rose leaves, including transcription factors DRE1C, BH035, MYB14, EF110, WRKY24, NAC71, and MY108. However, after 144 h of PMA treatment, rose responsiveness to stimulation was diminished, and after 192 h, the metabolic levels of organic acids and lipids were recovered in large measure.ConclusionIn conclusion, our results offered insights on how roses coordinate their transcriptome and metabolome to react to SMI and PMA, therefore shedding light on how roses, T. urticae, and N. californicus interact.

A comprehensive assessment of machine learning applications is conducted to identify the developing trends for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in the oil and gas sector, specifically focusing on geological and geophysical exploration and reservoir characterization. Critical areas, such as seismic data processing, facies and lithofacies classification, and the prediction of essential petrophysical properties (e.g., porosity, permeability, and water saturation), are explored. Despite the vital role of these properties in resource assessment, accurate prediction remains challenging. This paper offers a detailed overview of machine learning’s involvement in seismic data processing, facies classification, and reservoir property prediction. It highlights its potential to address various oil and gas exploration challenges, including predictive modelling, classification, and clustering tasks. Furthermore, the review identifies unique barriers hindering the widespread application of machine learning in the exploration, including uncertainties in subsurface parameters, scale discrepancies, and handling temporal and spatial data complexity. It proposes potential solutions, identifies practices contributing to achieving optimal accuracy, and outlines future research directions, providing a nuanced understanding of the field’s dynamics. Adopting machine learning and robust data management methods is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency in an era marked by extensive data generation. While acknowledging the inherent limitations of these approaches, they surpass the constraints of traditional empirical and analytical methods, establishing themselves as versatile tools for addressing industrial challenges. This comprehensive review serves as an invaluable resource for researchers venturing into less-charted territories in this evolving field, offering valuable insights and guidance for future research.

Abstract Background Accurately predicting the future development trend of population aging is conducive to accelerating the development of the elderly care industry. This study constructed a combined optimization grey prediction model to predict the structure and density of elderly population. Methods In this paper, a GT-FGM model is proposed, which combines Theta residual optimization with fractional-order accumulation operator. Fractional-order accumulation can effectively weaken the randomness of the original data sequence. Meanwhile, Theta residual optimization can adjust parameter by minimizing the mean absolute error. And the population statistics of Shanghai city from 2006 to 2020 were selected for prediction analysis. By comparing with the other traditional grey prediction methods, three representative error indexes (MAE, MAPE, RMSE) were conducting for error analysis. Results Compared with the FGM model, GM (1,1) model, Verhulst model, Logistic model, SES and other classical prediction methods, the GT-FGM model shows significant forecasting advantages, and its multi-step rolling prediction accuracy is superior to other prediction methods. The results show that the elderly population density in nine districts in Shanghai will exceed 0.5 by 2030, among which Huangpu District has the highest elderly population density, reaching 0.6825. There has been a steady increase in the elderly population over the age of 60. Conclusions The GT-FGM model can improve the prediction accuracy effectively. The elderly population in Shanghai shows a steady growth trend on the whole, and the differences between districts are obvious. The government should build a modern pension industry system according to the aging degree of the population in each region, and promote the balanced development of each region.

As important transcription factors, WRKYs play a vital role in the defense response of plants against the invasion of multiple pathogens. Though some WRKY members have been reported to participate in pepper immunity in response to Ralstonia solanacearum infection, the functions of the majority of WRKY members are still unknown. Herein, CaWRKY22b was cloned from the pepper genome and its function against R. solanacearum was analyzed. The transcript abundance of CaWRKY22b was significantly increased in response to the infection of R. solanacearum and the application of exogenous methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Subcellular localization assay in the leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana showed that CaWRKY22b protein was targeted to the nuclei. Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression in pepper leaves indicated that CaWRKY22b overexpression triggered intensive hypersensitive response-like cell death, H2O2 accumulation, and the up-regulation of defense- and JA-responsive genes, including CaHIR1, CaPO2, CaBPR1, and CaDEF1. Virus-induced gene silencing assay revealed that knock-down of CaWRKY22b attenuated pepper’s resistance against R. solanacearum and the up-regulation of the tested defense- and jasmonic acid (JA)-responsive genes. We further assessed the role of CaWRKY22b in modulating the expression of JA-responsive CaDEF1, and the result demonstrated that CaWRKY22b trans-activated CaDEF1 expression by directly binding to its upstream promoter. Collectively, our results suggest that CaWRKY22b positively regulated pepper immunity against R. solanacearum in a manner associated with JA signaling, probably by modulating the expression of JA-responsive CaDEF1.

Abstract The formation of large igneous provinces (LIPs) has been widely believed to be linked to mantle plume activity. However, how the plume modifies the overlying lithosphere, particularly its compositional structure, remains uncertain. Here, we characterize the deep thermochemical structure beneath the Emeishan LIP (ELIP), which is a well‐known Permian plume‐related LIP in China, by taking a multi‐observable probabilistic inversion. Our results find a clear correlation between the lithospheric composition with the ELIP's concentric zones. We infer that the fertile feature of the lithospheric mantle in the ELIP's inner zone was caused by the plume‐derived fertile magmas which infiltrated into and chemically refertilized the ambient depleted lithosphere. This plume‐modified lithospheric compositional structure is likely to be preserved after the plume event, while the present lithospheric thermal structure has been mainly influenced by the subsequent thermal‐tectonic activity. Our results improve our understanding of the physicochemical interactions between the lithosphere and ancient plume.

Heart failure (HF) is a complicated clinical syndrome caused by abnormal cardiac structure and/or function, leading to ventricular filling and/or ejection dysfunction. Pyroptosis is a newly identified form of programmed cell death often accompanied by inflammation during HF. The NLRP3 inflammasome, acting as a caspase-1 activation platform, plays a critical role in the production of key pro-inflammatory cytokines and pyroptosis. Therefore, cell death and inflammasomes are involved in the pathophysiological process of HF. Our paper will review the latest research progress on the relationship among pyroptosis, inflammasomes, and HF.

Abstract Background To meet the needs of diversified pension services and the construction of aged care institutions is one of the urgent livelihood issues in China. Under the major national needs of pension and care for the elderly, it is necessary to optimize the allocation of pension and care for the elderly resources, and formulate operational coping strategies and optimization plans. It is of great significance to deal with the urgent problem of population aging in a timely and scientific way. Methods The economic benefits and social costs of aged care institutions are regarded as objective functions. To satisfy the economic benefits, it is necessary to reduce the social costs, and its construction quantity can only be an integer. The multi-objective genetic algorithm is improved with integer programming, and the global optimal solution is achieved after several times of searching. Under the multi-objective optimization model, the improved genetic algorithm was combined with the superior and inferior solution distance method to solve the genetic algorithm, and the corresponding objective function value was obtained after rounding. Finally, Pareto optimal solution set is selected by multi-objective decision, and the result of construction planning is obtained. Results Based on multi-attribute decision analysis and taking three years as the construction cycle, the planning scheme of aged care institutions construction in each district of Nanjing in the next 15 years was proposed. In addition, considering the intelligent trend of future pension, the proportion of home-based pension is increasing year by year, and the model is promoted to meet the needs of diversified pension services. With the gradual increase of the elderly population in Nanjing, the proportion of intelligent home-based care has been increasing year by year since 2027, and the construction demand of aged care institutions has also increased. The number of construction at all levels rises gradually in each cycle, and the increase is more obvious after 2027. Conclusions The layout and planning of aged care institutions proposed in this paper not only considers economic and environmental benefits, but also combines the current situation of aged care institutions in various districts of Nanjing. The model is reasonable and effective, and has practical application value. It will help China optimize the allocation of elderly care resources under the target of active aging, and scientifically and comprehensively deal with the problem of population aging.

One of the essential epigenetic processes in higher eukaryotes, DNA methylation is essential for maintaining genome integrity and influencing gene expression. There is limited research on how plant growth regulators (PGR) affect DNA methylation during the pear callus formation process. In this study, using methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP), DNA methylation in pear callus caused by various quantities of thidiazuron (TDZ) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) was compared. The concentrations of TDZ and IBA could affect the callus induction rate and methylation level. It was discovered that induction rate and methylation were negatively correlated. The rate of pear callus induction was highest (54%) while the medium suppled with 3.0 mg·L−1 TDZ and 4.0 mg·L−1 IBA, although the matching DNA methylation level was lowest (27.96%). Additionally, there were significant difference in the level of genes' expression between different treatments and both methylation and demethylation are regulated by these genes. As for genes related to auxin and cytokinin, gene expression analysis revealed that their levels of expression after different concentrations of TDZ combined with IBA present in differences significantly. Our findings shed light on DNA methylation mechanisms of plant tissue culture (PTC) dedifferentiation.

Highlights Establishment and Validation of a risk model includes APOD, APOC1 and SQLE; APOD, APOC1 and SQLE are related to immunotherapy; APOD, APOC1 and SQLE associates with prognosis in cervical cancer

Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa), a leguminous crop, is vital globally for forage, crop rotation, and soil fertility. Though, the microbiome of alfalfa grown in uncultivated land has not been studied yet. Here, we employed the high-throughput 16S rRNA and nifH gene amplicon sequencing to unravel the rhizosphere microbiome and nodules endosymbionts of alfalfa grown in poor lawn and coastal sandy soils. The root nodule of alfalfa of coastal sands and poor lawn soil, Sinorhizobia/Ensifer accounted for 80.599% and 67.727% of the total microbiome, respectively. The class Actinobacteria (except Frankiales) and order Rhizobiales, Sphingomonadales, Burkholderiales, Pseudomonas, and Cytophagia were found significantly enriched. Culturable studies displayed the dominance of Bacillus followed by Arthrobacter, Microbacterium, and Streptomyces. Hydroponics studies revealed the efficiency of cultured isolates for nodulation and plant growth attributes. Overall studies decipher the soil indigenous microbiome associated with root nodule and rhizosphere of Alfalfa grown in uncultivated coastal and sandy land.

Abstract Background Iron is essential for the growth and development of trace elements in plants, and iron deficiency can lead to leaf chlorosis. Ammonium and nitrate are the major forms of nitrogen present in soils. Ammonium nitrate alleviates the chlorosis of leaves caused by iron deficiency, but the mechanism is not clear in pear. Results Ammonium nitrate induced the increase of nitric oxide (NO) under iron deficiency. We further analyzed the effect of NO by exogenous NO treatment. The results showed that ammonium nitrate and NO increased the activity of ferric chelate reductase. NO induced the expression of multiple IRT genes and promoted the transmembrane transport of irons. Ammonium nitrate and NO promoted the activity of nitrogen assimilation-related enzymes and the nitrogen absorption capacity, and they also increased glutamine synthetase activity. Finally, ammonium nitrate and NO increased chlorophyll synthesis, with subsequent increase in the photosynthetic capacity of plants and accumulation of biomass. Conclusion Ammonium nitrate indirectly alleviates the symptoms of plant yellowing by promoting the increase of NO, which increases the response of iron transporters. Both substances increase the nitrogen accumulation in plants. This study demonstrates a new option for minimizing Fe deficiency by regulating the balance between nutrients.

The oxysterol-binding protein-related protein 4 (ORP4L) is expressed in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is required for leukemogenesis. Here the authors show that ORP4L orchestrates the transport of the phospholipid PI(4)P from Golgi to the plasma membrane, contributing to PI3K/AKT hyperactivation and T-cell leukemogenesis.

ObjectiveThe widespread use of antibiotics has inevitably led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial strains, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), making treatment of this infection a serious challenge. This study aimed to explore new treatment strategies for MRSA infection.MethodsThe structure of Fe3O4 NPs with limited antibacterial activity was optimized, and the Fe2+ ↔ Fe3+ electronic coupling was eliminated by replacing 1/2 Fe2+ with Cu2+. A new type of copper-containing ferrite nanoparticles (hereinafter referred to as Cu@Fe NPs) that fully retained oxidation–reduction activity was synthesized. First, the ultrastructure of Cu@Fe NPs was examined. Then, antibacterial activity was determined by testing the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and safety for use as an antibiotic agent. Next, the mechanisms underlying the antibacterial effects of Cu@Fe NPs were investigated. Finally, mice models of systemic and localized MRSA infections was established for in vivo validation.ResultsIt was found that Cu@Fe NPs exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against MRSA with MIC of 1 μg/mL. It effectively inhibited the development of MRSA resistance and disrupted the bacterial biofilms. More importantly, the cell membranes of MRSA exposed to Cu@Fe NPs underwent significant rupture and leakage of the cell contents. Cu@Fe NPs also significantly reduced the iron ions required for bacterial growth and contributed to excessive intracellular accumulation of exogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, these findings may important for its antibacterial effect. Furthermore, Cu@Fe NPs treatment led to a significant reduction in colony forming units within intra-abdominal organs, such as the liver, spleen, kidney, and lung, in mice with systemic MRSA infection, but not for damaged skin in those with localized MRSA infection.ConclusionThe synthesized nanoparticles has an excellent drug safety profile, confers high resistant to MRSA, and can effectively inhibit the progression of drug resistance. It also has the potential to exert anti-MRSA infection effects systemically in vivo. In addition, our study revealed a unique multifaceted antibacterial mode of Cu@Fe NPs: (1) an increase in cell membrane permeability, (2) depletion of Fe ions in cells, (3) generation of ROS in cells. Overall, Cu@Fe NPs may be potential therapeutic agents for MRSA infections.

The quality of seedlings is an important factor for development of the pear industry. A strong seedling with few branches and suitable internodes is ideal material as a rootstock for grafting and breeding. Several branching mutants of pear rootstocks were identified previously. In the present study, ‘QAU-D03’ (Pyrus communis L.) and it’s mutants were used to explore the mechanism that affects branch formation by conducting phenotypic trait assessment, hormone content analysis, and transcriptome analysis. The mutant plant (MP) showed fewer branches, shorter 1-year-old shoots, and longer petiole length, compared to original plants (OP), i.e., wild type. Endogenous hormone analysis revealed that auxin, cytokinin, and jasmonic acid contents in the stem tips of MP were significantly higher than those of the original plants. In particular, the jasmonic acid content of the MP was 1.8 times higher than that of the original plants. Transcriptome analysis revealed that PcCOI1, which is a transcriptional regulatory gene downstream of the jasmonic acid signaling pathway, was expressed more highly in the MP than in the original plants, whereas the expression levels of PcJAZ and PcMYC were reduced in the MP compared with that of the original plants. In response to treatment with exogenous methyl jasmonate, the original plants phenotype was consistent with that of the MP in developing less branches. These results indicate that jasmonic acid negatively regulates branch growth of pear trees and that jasmonic acid downstream regulatory genes play a crucial role in regulating branching.

Cork spot is a common physiological disorder in pear fruits, which has been found in some pear cultivars. Mineral nutrition imbalance in fruit is regarded as the principal influence factor for disorder incidence, with some ongoing confusion and controversy. In our research, we explored the cork spot characteristics in Japanese pear ‘Akizuki’ (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai), adopted metabolome and mineral content analysis for healthy and disordered fruits, and made a correlation analysis of mineral and metabolites. Cork spots are mainly distributed on the outer flesh beneath the fruit peel. In cork spotted tissues, superoxide (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities, as well as malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increased. A total of 1024 known metabolites were identified from all the samples and more changes in metabolism were detected between normal and cork spotted flesh tissues. Correlation analysis displayed that Ca, especially the Mg/Ca in fruits, could be used to predict whether an orchard will develop cork spot disorder; Mg and B were associated with the appearance of symptoms, and the contents of Zn, Fe, and Mg, as well as Mg/B and Zn/B, might be strongly tied to the formation of cork spots in pears. This research provides insights into the occurrence of pear cork spot disorder and clarifies the role of minerals.

Different weakening buffer operators in a time-series model analysis usually result in different model sensitivities, which sometimes affect the effectiveness of relevant operator-based methods. In this paper, the stability of two classic fractional-order weakening buffer operator-based series models is studied; then, a new data preprocessing method based on a novel fractional-order bidirectional weakening buffer operator is provided, whose effect in improving the model’s stability is tested and utilized in prediction problems. Practical examples are employed to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method in improving the model’s stability in noise scenarios. The comparison indicates that the proposed method overcomes the disadvantage of many weakening buffer operators in the subjectively biased weighting of the new or old information in forecasting. These expand the application of the proposed method in time series analysis.

Abstract The investigation of highly effective, durable, and cost-effective electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a prerequisite for the upcoming hydrogen energy society. To establish a new hydrogen energy system and gradually replace the traditional fossil-based energy, electrochemical water-splitting is considered the most promising, environmentally friendly, and efficient way to produce pure hydrogen. Compared with the commonly used platinum (Pt)-based catalysts, ruthenium (Ru) is expected to be a good alternative because of its similar hydrogen bonding energy, lower water decomposition barrier, and considerably lower price. Analyzing and revealing the HER mechanisms, as well as identifying a rational design of Ru-based HER catalysts with desirable activity and stability is indispensable. In this review, the research progress on HER electrocatalysts and the relevant describing parameters for HER performance are briefly introduced. Moreover, four major strategies to improve the performance of Ru-based electrocatalysts, including electronic effect modulation, support engineering, structure design, and maximum utilization (single atom) are discussed. Finally, the challenges, solutions and prospects are highlighted to prompt the practical applications of Ru-based electrocatalysts for HER.

Offline handwritten Chinese text recognition is one of the most challenging tasks in that it involves various writing styles, complex character-touching, and large number of character categories. In this paper, we propose a residual-attention offline handwritten Chinese text recognition based on fully convolutional neural networks, which is segmentation-free handwritten recognition that avoids the impact of incorrect character segmentation. By designing a smart residual attention gate block, our model can help to extract important features, and effectively implement the training of deep convolutional neural networks. Furthermore, we deploy an expansion factor to indicate the trade-off between computing resources for model training and the ability of a gradient to propagate across multiple layers, and make our model training adapt to different computing platforms. Experiments on the CASIA-HWDB and ICDAR-2013 competition dataset show that our method achieves a competitive performance on offline handwritten Chinese text recognition. On the CASIA-HWDB test set, the character-level accurate rate and correct rate achieve 97.32% and 97.90% respectively.

ABSTRACT: Methods to control microbial contamination in confined livestock facilities are important to the health of both animals and workers. In addition, bacterial contamination is also a food safety issue. The most common disinfection technique employed in livestock facilities is the application of oxidizing agents (e.g., potassium peroxymonosulphate, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, ozone). However, these techniques are associated with a number of limitations (e.g., toxicity, high cost, corrosiveness). Recently, engineered water nanostructures (EWNS) generated using an electrospray system was found effective in inactivating foodborne bacteria. Thus, this study investigated the efficacy of EWNS generated using a laboratory-scale electrospray system in inactivating bacteria found in poultry facilities. The effects of various operating conditions (distance between the injector and grounded electrode of the electrospray system, applied voltage, liquid pH and conductivity, liquid flow rate, and treatment time) on the efficacy were also assessed. In these various experiments, airborne bacterial samples were collected from a pullet room using tryptic soy agar plates and then exposed to EWNS under varying conditions. After treatment, the plates were incubated at 37°C prior to colony counting. Reductions in bacterial concentrations up to 1.26 logs were obtained. The results indicate that the EWNS generated by the electrospray system can be a potential chemical-free alternative to conventional disinfection methods. Future tests will focus on scaling up the system for larger scale trials.

A sustainable growth of grain outputs mainly relies on improving output per unit area through scientific and technological innovation. From the perspective of scientific and technological innovation, taking the grain production process as the research object, a systems model of scientific and technological innovation in grain production is constructed based on the relevant data of Henan Province from 2010 to 2019. Firstly, the internal mechanism of grain production scientific and technological innovation is explored, and the feedback loop of grain production scientific and technological innovation is then established. Secondly, system dynamics and grey system theory are combined to construct table functions and logistic functions to establish the grain production scientific and technological innovation system model. Through testing the model, the stability and feasibility of the model are demonstrated, and the simulation and prediction of the innovation system of grain production scientific and technological in Henan Province are carried out. Thirdly, in order to explore the impact of feasible policy schemes on grain production, seven policy plans are designed to simulate grain production policy scenarios from the perspective of scientific and technological innovation. The results show that: (1) The adjustment of individual policies, especially the adjustment of the protection policy of scientific and technological innovation in grain production or the subsidy policy of agricultural materials, has a weak influence on the improvement of grain output. The progress of agricultural technology is the main support for improving the comprehensive grain production capacity. (2) The future grain growth potential of Henan Province should focus on increasing the yield per unit area, and the protection of cultivated land resources should not be ignored. (3) The combination of policies has mutually reinforcing effect, which leads to an ideal system simulation effect. Finally, from the perspective of the composition of scientific and technological innovation system in Henan Province, this study puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for the implementation of the strategy of “storing grain in technology” in Henan Province.

KNOTTED1-like homeobox (KNOX) transcription factors (TFs) belonging to the homeobox TF family play important roles in plant growth, development, and responses to abiotic and biotic stress. However, little information is available on KNOX TF in pear (Pyrus). In this study, 19 PbKNOXs TFs were re-identified in pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the TFs were clustered into three groups with 10 conserved motifs, some of which were group- or subgroup-specific, implying that they are important for the functions of the KNOX in these clades. PbKNM1 and PbKNM2 are KNM (encodes a MEINOX domain but not a homeodomain) genes identified in pear for the first time. KNOX genes in Pyrus and Malus were closely related, and a collinear relationship among PbKNOX genes in Pyrus and Malus was observed. Analysis of the expression patterns of PbKNOX genes in different tissues, at various growth stages, and in response to abiotic and biotic stress revealed that PbKNOXs are involved in plant growth and development. Our comparative transcriptional analysis of dwarf mutant varieties revealed that genes belonging to class I are highly expressed compared with genes in other classes. Analysis of the expression of PbKNOX genes in the hybrid offspring of vigorous and dwarf varieties revealed that PbKNOX genes were highly expressed in the vigorous offspring and weakly expressed in the dwarf offspring. These findings provide new insight into the function of KNOX TFs in pear and will aid future studies of dwarf fruit trees.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for data analytics where everything is grey in nature and the associated uncertainty is considered as an essential part in data collection, profiling, imputation, analysis and decision making. Design/methodology/approach – A comparative study is conducted between the available uncertainty models and the feasibility of grey systems is highlighted. Furthermore, a general framework for the integration of grey systems and grey sets into data analytics is proposed. Findings – Grey systems and grey sets are useful not only for small data, but also big data as well. It is complementary to other models and can play a significant role in data analytics. Research limitations/implications – The proposed framework brings a radical change in data analytics. It may bring a fundamental change in our way to deal with uncertainties. Practical implications – The proposed model has the potential to avoid the mistake from a misleading data imputation. Social implications – The proposed model takes the philosophy of grey systems in recognising the limitation of our knowledge which has significant implications in our way to deal with our social life and relations. Originality/value – This is the first time that the whole data analytics is considered from the point of view of grey systems.

Abstract The Datong volcanoes erupted episodically from ca. 0.74 to ca 0.10 Ma with the last eruption at ca. 100 ka, and ever since has remained dormant. It remains elusive whether the Datong volcanoes are being recharged and would become active again in the near future. Here, we image the crustal structures beneath the Datong volcanoes using local earthquake data recorded at a newly deployed dense Datong Nodal Array. The high‐resolution 3‐D model reveals, for the first time, the geometry and melt fraction of a shallow crustal magma chamber at the depths of 10–20 km beneath the Datong volcanoes. Here, we suggest a magmatic system beneath the Datong volcanoes that could transport basaltic melt from the uppermost mantle to the shallow crustal magma chamber beneath the Datong volcanoes. Further, the melt‐poor crustal magma chamber (melt fraction of 5%–10%) can explain why the Datong volcanoes are inactive at present, and future eruptions can be expected if melt recharge from a mantle source is sustained.

Improving the understanding of rural female labor employment transfer and its impact on family welfare is of great significance to the improvement of rural family welfare and the rational transfer of labor forces. However, there are few studies on the effect of rural female transfer and there is a lack of comprehensive quantitative measurement and mechanism analysis of influences of female employment transfer on themselves and their families. Based on the peasant household survey in the mountainous rural areas of Sichuan Province, China, in 2013, 2016, and 2019, results were organized as panel data and divided the employment features into three aspects: employment industry, employment locations and whether the migrant was working or not. The family welfare effects (impact on children and impact on the elderly) of rural female labor transfer for employment were investigated by using the fixed effect and random effect regression models. Some major conclusions could be drawn: (1) age, education degree, employment industry and locations of rural females all had a significant impact on their children’s education degree; (2) age, urbanization rate and industry of rural females had a significant impact on their number of children; (3) age, education degree of females, employment location and urbanization rate had a significant positive influence on the number of elderly in the family: only the age of rural females had a significant negative influence on the health condition of the elderly. This study can enhance our understanding of the relationship between rural women’s employment and family welfare effects, the results can provide a reference for rural women’s rational employment mobility and maximizing of family welfare.

At present, the many domestic, large mined-out areas caused by single filling ability of the slurry flow state, thin layer flow and hardening after filling in multilayer structure generally need to finish filling for many times, because after a filling experience shows that filling body in the last solidification of flow, this leads to a lower one side of the roof, and far distance part of the filling body cannot pick up top. The determination of backfill strength is the key problem of the cemented backfill method, and it is affected by many factors. Therefore, through theoretical calculation, laboratory testing and numerical simulation methods, combined with the field filling process, this paper has verified the flow accumulation and stratification characteristics of stope layered filling slurry. When the slurry concentration is 60–73%, the slope increases exponentially from 2.5° to 8°. It is revealed that the delamination and meshing state are the key factors to determine the overall strength of large-scale stope filling through the testing of particle size distribution in interlayer and flow direction. The reduction effect of the number and Angle of structural weak surface formed by layering and filling on strength is revealed: cement–sand ratio 1:12, concentration 68%, standard curing R28 > 1.81 MPa. The strength reduction coefficient is 61.31% and 92.96% when the number of layers is 1–4. The higher the number of layers, the greater is the reduction coefficient, and when the stratification angle increases by 2, the strength of backfill decreases by 20–30%. The verification of stope filling coring shows that the in situ strength reaches 2.42 MPa, which is 0.61 MPa higher than the standard curing strength, with an increase of 33.7%. When the depth is from 1 m to 5 m, the strength increases from 2.26 MPa to 2.69 MPa, with an increase rate of 18.2%. Finally, through the research and application of the comprehensive technology of mining and filling coordination under the complex goaf group, the residual ore resources of Xianglushan tungsten mine are effectively recovered, the volume of goaf is significantly reduced, and the safety of goaf is improved.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. In spite of the mature managements of myocardial infarction (MI), post-MI reperfusion (I/R) injury results in high morbidity and mortality. Cardiomyocyte Ca2+ overload is a major factor of I/R injury, initiating a cascade of events contributing to cardiomyocyte death and myocardial dysfunction. Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) plays a critical role in cardiomyocyte death response to I/R injury, whose activation is a key feature of myocardial I/R in causing intracellular mitochondrial swelling, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ leakage, abnormal myofilament contraction, and other adverse reactions. CaMKII is a multifunctional serine/threonine protein kinase, and CaMKIIδ, the dominant subtype in heart, has been widely studied in the activation, location, and related pathways of cardiomyocytes death, which has been considered as a potential targets for pharmacological inhibition. In this review, we summarize a brief overview of CaMKII with various posttranslational modifications and its properties in myocardial I/R injury. We focus on the molecular mechanism of CaMKII involved in regulation of cell death induced by myocardial I/R including necroptosis and pyroptosis of cardiomyocyte. Finally, we highlight that targeting CaMKII modifications and cell death involved pathways may provide new insights to understand the conversion of cardiomyocyte fate in the setting of myocardial I/R injury.

BackgroundThis study aimed to develop and validate a computed tomography (CT)-based radiomics model to predict microsatellite instability (MSI) status in colorectal cancer patients and to identify the radiomics signature with the most robust and high performance from one of the three phases of triphasic enhanced CT.MethodsIn total, 502 colorectal cancer patients with preoperative contrast-enhanced CT images and available MSI status (441 in the training cohort and 61 in the external validation cohort) were enrolled from two centers in our retrospective study. Radiomics features of the entire primary tumor were extracted from arterial-, delayed-, and venous-phase CT images. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method was used to retain the features closely associated with MSI status. Radiomics, clinical, and combined Clinical Radiomics models were built to predict MSI status. Model performance was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.ResultsThirty-two radiomics features showed significant correlation with MSI status. Delayed-phase models showed superior predictive performance compared to arterial- or venous-phase models. Additionally, age, location, and carcinoembryonic antigen were considered useful predictors of MSI status. The Clinical Radiomics nomogram that incorporated both clinical risk factors and radiomics parameters showed excellent performance, with an AUC, accuracy, and sensitivity of 0.898, 0.837, and 0.821 in the training cohort and 0.964, 0.918, and 1.000 in the validation cohort, respectively.ConclusionsThe proposed CT-based radiomics signature has excellent performance in predicting MSI status and could potentially guide individualized therapy.

Abstract Background Studies have indicated that changed expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) in epithelial cells from the kidney could affect the renal function in chronic kidney disease (CKD). As Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a critical active effector in the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and was proved to be closely related to the inflammatory injury. Meanwhile, researchers found that Ang II could alter the expression of HIF-1α in the kidney. However, whether HIF-1α is involved in mediating Ang II-induced inflammatory injury in podocytes is not clear. Methods Ang II perfusion animal model were established to assess the potential role of HIF-1α in renal injury in vivo. Ang II stimulated podocytes to observe the corresponding between HIF-1α and inflammatory factors in vitro. Results The expression of inflammatory cytokines such as MCP-1 and TNF-α was increased in the glomeruli from rats treated with Ang II infusion compared with control rats. Increased HIF-1α expression in the glomeruli was also observed in Ang II-infused rats. In vitro, Ang II upregulated the expression of HIF-1α in podocytes. Furthermore, knockdown of HIF-1α by siRNA decreased the expression of MCP-1 and TNF-α. Moreover, HIF-1α siRNA significantly diminished the Ang II-induced overexpression of HIF-1α. Conclusion Collectively, our results suggest that HIF-1α participates in the inflammatory response process caused by Ang II and that downregulation of HIF-1α may be able to partially protect or reverse inflammatory injury in podocytes.

Abstract Streptomyces rochei 7434AN4 produces two structurally unrelated polyketide antibiotics, lankacidin and lankamycin, and carries three linear plasmids, pSLA2-L (211 kb), -M (113 kb), and -S (18 kb), whose nucleotide sequences were previously reported. The complete nucleotide sequence of the S. rochei chromosome has now been determined using the long-read PacBio RS-II sequencing together with short-read Illumina Genome Analyzer IIx sequencing and Roche 454 pyrosequencing techniques. The assembled sequence revealed an 8,364,802-bp linear chromosome with a high G + C content of 71.7% and 7,568 protein-coding ORFs. Thus, the gross genome size of S. rochei 7434AN4 was confirmed to be 8,706,406 bp including the three linear plasmids. Consistent with our previous study, a tap-tpg gene pair, which is essential for the maintenance of a linear topology of Streptomyces genomes, was not found on the chromosome. Remarkably, the S. rochei chromosome contains seven ribosomal RNA (rrn) operons (16S-23S-5S), although Streptomyces species generally contain six rrn operons. Based on 2ndFind and antiSMASH platforms, the S. rochei chromosome harbors at least 35 secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters, including those for the 28-membered polyene macrolide pentamycin and the azoxyalkene compound KA57-A.

‘Xinqihong’ is a recently selected and well-colored red pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.) cultivar that is popular in the marketplace owing to the bright red color and high quality of the fruit. The red pigmentation is strongly associated with the light signal. However, its responses to bagging treatment and to light exposure after shading are unknown. In this study, the fruit were treated with three types of fruit bags. ’Xinqihong’ fruit colored rapidly in response to light stimulation. A white fruit bag was optimal for bagging of ‘Xinqihong’ fruit. To ensure satisfactory red pigmentation, the fruit required exposure to 30 days of light after bag removal. A transcriptome analysis was conducted to screen light-signal-related genes and identify their possible functions. PbCRY1 activated the promoter of PbHY5.2 and enhanced its expression. PbHY5.2 activated the promoter activity of PbUFGT and induced anthocyanin synthesis, and also showed self-activation characteristics. Both PbCRY2 and PbPHY1 induced anthocyanin accumulation. Thus, blue-light receptors played an important role in anthocyanin synthesis. This study provides a theoretical basis for the bagging cultivation of new varieties of ‘Xinqihong’, and lays a foundation for the study of the mechanisms of red pear fruit coloring in response to light signals.

A comprehensive study was conducted to investigate the effects of applied voltage, distance between needle tip and counter electrode, liquid flow rate, pH and conductivity of water on the electrical current in a capillary electro-spray. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was employed to measure the size distribution of water droplets, which presented a mean diameter of 299 ​± ​76 ​nm. Statistical analysis using three-way ANOVA and nonlinear multivariate regression model were employed to study the interactions of applied voltage, distance between needle tip and counter electrode, and liquid feed rate with electrical current, and to develop regression equations to predict the current. It was found that electrical current was significantly (p ​

Summary: Luminescent biosensing in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) region, which has weak tissue scattering and low autofluorescence, draws extensive attention owing to its deep tissue penetration, good spatial resolution and high signal-to-background ratio. As a new generation of NIR-II probes, lanthanide (Ln3+)-containing nanoprobes exhibit several superior properties. With the rapid development of Ln3+-containing NIR-II nanoprobes, many significant advances have been accomplished in their optical properties tuning and surface functional modification for further bioapplications. Rather than being exhaustive, this review aims to survey the recent advances in the design strategies of inorganic Ln3+-containing NIR-II luminescent nanoprobes by highlighting their optical performance optimization and surface modification approaches. Moreover, challenges and opportunities for this kind of novel NIR-II nanoprobes are envisioned.

Apple moldy core disease is a common internal fungal disease. The online detection and classification of apple moldy core plays a vital role in apple postharvest processing. In this paper, an online non-destructive detection system for apple moldy core disease was developed using near-infrared transmittance spectroscopy in spectral range of 600–1100 nm. A total of 120 apple samples were selected and randomly divided into a training set and a test set based on the ratio of 2:1. First, basic parameters for detection of apples with moldy core were determined through detection experiments of samples in a stationary state. Due to the random distribution of the diseased tissue inside diseased apples, stationary detection cannot accurately identify the diseased tissue. To solve this problem, the spectra of apples in motion state transmitted forward by the transmission line were acquired. Three placement orientations of the apple in the carrying fruit cup were tested to explore the influence of fruit orientation on spectral characteristics and prediction. According to the performance of the model, the optimal preprocessing method and modeling method were determined (fixed orientation model and arbitrary orientation model). SPA was used to select the characteristic wavelengths to further improve the online detection speed. The overall results showed that the multi-spectra model using mean spectra of three orientations was the best. The prediction accuracies of multi-spectra model using SPA for three orientations were 96.7%, 97.5% and 97.5% respectively. As a conclusion, the arbitrary orientation model was beneficial to improve the online detection of apple moldy core disease.

Pear (Pyrus L.) is an important temperate fruit worldwide, and grafting is widely used in pear vegetative propagation. However, the mechanisms of graft healing or incompatibility remain poorly understood in Pyrus. To study the differences in graft healing in Pyrus, the homograft “Qingzhen D1/Qingzhen D1” and the heterograft “QAUP-1/Qingzhen D1” as compatibility and incompatibility combinations were compared. Anatomical differences indicated the healing process was faster in homografts than in heterografts. During the healing process, four critical stages in graft union formation were identified in the two types of grafts. The expression of the genes associated with hormone signaling (auxin and cytokinins), and lignin biosynthesis was delayed in the healing process of heterografts. In addition, the PbBglu13 gene, encoded β-glucosidase, was more highly up-regulated in heterografts than in homografts to promote healing. Meanwhile, the most of DEGs related starch and sucrose metabolism were found to be up-regulated in heterografts; those results indicated that cellulose and sugar signals were also involved in graft healing. The results of this study improved the understanding of the differences in the mechanisms of graft healing between homografts and heterografts.

Soil salinization limits crop growth and yield in agro-ecosystems worldwide by reducing soil health and altering the structure of microbial communities. Salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) alleviate plant salinity stress. Wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.) is unique in agricultural ecosystems owing to its ability to grow in saline-alkali soils and fix atmospheric nitrogen via symbiotic interactions with diverse soil microbes. However, this rhizosphere microbiome and the nodule endosymbionts have not been investigated to identify PGPR. In this study, we investigated the structural and functional rhizosphere microbial communities in saline-alkali soil from the Yellow River Delta and coastal soil in China, as well as wild soybean root nodule endosymbionts. To reveal the composition of the microbial ecosystem, we performed 16S rRNA and nifH gene amplicon sequencing on root nodules and root zones under different environmental conditions. In addition, we used culture-independent methods to examine the root bacterial microbiome of wild soybean. For functional characterization of individual members of the microbiome and their impact on plant growth, we inoculated isolates from the root microbiome with wild soybean and observed nodulation. Sinorhizobium/Ensifer accounted for 97% of the root nodule microbiome, with other enriched members belonging to the phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Gemmatimonadetes; the genera Sphingomonas, Microbacterium, Arthrobacter, Nocardioides, Streptomyces, Flavobacterium, Flavisolibacter, and Pseudomonas; and the family Enterobacteriaceae. Compared to saline-alkali soil from the Yellow River Delta, coastal soil was highly enriched for soybean nodules and displayed significant differences in the abundance and diversity of β-proteobacteria, δ-proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. Overall, the wild soybean root nodule microbiome was dominated by nutrient-providing Sinorhizobium/Ensifer and was enriched for bacterial genera that may provide salt resistance. Thus, this reductionist experimental approach provides an avenue for future systematic and functional studies of the plant root microbiome.

As a social problem involving a wide range of objects, targeted poverty alleviation governance needs to clearly define stakeholders and identify their behaviour choices, so as to seek a multiagent collaborative governance strategy, and strive to jointly promote the realization of a targeted poverty alleviation goals in an atmosphere to win-win cooperation and benefit sharing. By constructing a three-subject evolutionary game model of local government, social organization, and poverty group in the process of targeted poverty alleviation, this paper discusses the influence of their behavioural decisions on multisubject collaborative governance of targeted poverty alleviation and selects samples to carry out simulation experiments on the model. The results show that, first, superior government support has little effect on the evolution of tripartite competition, and the conclusion is inconsistent with the general cognition. However, the enhancement of support from local governments and social organizations can effectively promote the transformation of the willingness of the poor groups to cooperate. Second, a modest increase in the punishment of social organizations and poor groups can have a binding effect on the behavioural strategy choices of both sides and ultimately promote the process of targeted poverty alleviation. Third, the increase in the benefits of social organizations and poor groups can significantly improve the willingness of both sides to cooperate, so the “endogenous driving force” of the poor groups should be enhanced to achieve the Pareto optimal state of targeted poverty alleviation.

The continuous expansion of the market demand and scale of commercial amidoxime chelating resins has caused large amounts of resin to be discarded around the world. In this study, the waste amidoxime chelating resin was reutilized as an adsorbent for the removal and recovery of Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The physical morphology and chemical composition of the waste amidoxime chelating resin (WAC-resin) from the factory was characterized by the elemental analyzer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The influence of the initial metal ions concentration, contact time, temperature and the solution pH on the adsorption performance of the metal ions was explored by batch experiments. It was shown that the optimal pH was 4. Kinetic studies revealed that adsorption process corresponded with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the adsorption isotherm was consistent with the Langmuir model. At room temperature, the adsorption capacities of WAC-resin for Pb2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ reached 114.6, 93.4, 24.4 and 20.7 mg/g, respectively.

The Orchidaceae is a diverse and wide spread family of flowering plants that are of great value in ornamental, medical, conservation, and evolutionary research. The broad diversity in morphology, growth form, life history, and habitat mean that the members of Orchidaceae exhibit various physiological properties. Epiphytic orchids are often characterized by succulent leaves with thick cell walls, cuticles, and sunken stomata, whereas terrestrial orchids possess rhizomes, corms, or tubers. Most orchids have a long juvenile period, slow growth rate, and low photosynthetic capacity. This reduced photosynthetic potential can be largely explained by CO2 diffusional conductance and leaf internal structure. The amount of light required for plant survival depends upon nutritional mode, growth form, and habitat. Most orchids can adapt to their light environments through morphological and physiological adjustments but are sensitive to sudden changes in irradiance. Orchids that originate from warm regions are susceptible to chilling temperatures, whereas alpine members are vulnerable to high temperatures. For epiphytic orchids, rapid water uptake by the velamen radicum, water storage in their pseudobulbs and leaves, slow water loss, and Crassulacean Acid Metabolism contribute to plant-water balance and tolerance to drought stress. The presence of the velamen radicum and mycorrhizal fungi may compensate for the lack of root hairs, helping with quick absorbance of nutrients from the atmosphere. Under cultivation conditions, the form and concentration of nitrogen affect orchid growth and flowering. However, the limitations of nitrogen and phosphorous on epiphytic orchids in the wild, which require these plants to depend on mycorrhizal fungi for nutrients throughout the entire life cycle, are not clearly understood. Because they lack endosperm, seed germination depends upon obtaining nutrients via mycorrhizal fungi. Adult plants of some autotrophic orchids also gain carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements from their mycorrhizal partners. Future studies should examine the mechanisms that determine slow growth and flower induction, the physiological causes of variations in flowering behavior and floral lifespan, the effects of nutrients and atmospheric-nitrogen deposition, and practical applications of mycorrhizal fungi in orchid cultivation. Keywords: Orchid, Abiotic environments, Photosynthesis, Morphology, Mycorrhiza

Analyzing and evaluating the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation in grain production is conducive to the rational allocation of resources, promoting the development of scientific and technological innovation in grain production and providing guarantee for grain security. By refining the elements of grain production and scientific and technological innovation, an evaluation system of scientific and technological innovation in grain production is constructed. Firstly, combining linear programming together with the traditional grey synthetic incidence analysis model, a incidence analysis of the scientific and technological innovation indicators of grain production is carried out, and the key and secondary indexes affecting grain outputs are screened by an improved grey incidence analysis model. Secondly, based on DEA-Malmquist index model and taking the grain production process as the research object, the scientific and technological achievement transformation indicators are divided into pre-production, in-production and post-production indicators. The key indicators and secondary indicators of scientific and technological innovation of grain production in various cities of Henan Province from 2010 to 2019 are used to analyze the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation in each stage of grain production. The results show that: (1) The type of basic ability of scientific and technological innovation indicators and the transformation ability of scientific and technological innovation achievements are the major indicators influencing grain outputs, and the investment of basic resources of scientific and technological innovation and the transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements are the most important to improve grain outputs. (2) In addition, the study reveals that the secondary indicators of the technological innovation efficiency of grain production based on the DEA-Malmquist index model are more efficient than the key indicators in the pre-production, in-production and post-production stages. And there are gaps in the scientific and technological innovation performance of grain production among cities in Henan Province, and the index of technological progress is the leading factor for the gap.

We derive the reconstruction formulae for the inflation model with the non-minimal derivative coupling term. If reconstructing the potential from the tensor-to-scalar ratio r, we could obtain the potential without using the high friction limit. As an example, we reconstruct the potential from the parameterization r=8α/(N+β)γ, which is a general form of the α-attractor. The reconstructed potential has the same asymptotic behavior as the T- and E-model if we choose γ=2 and α≪1. We also discuss the constraints from the reheating phase by assuming the parameter wre of state equation during reheating is a constant. The scale of big-bang nucleosynthesis could put an upper limit on ns if wre=2/3 and a low limit on ns if wre=1/6.

The harm caused by defective vaccines to human health and social stability is immeasurable. Aiming at the government’s supervision of the vaccine market, an evolutionary game model is constructed to analyze the quality of supervision and the key factors in the dynamic interaction between government departments and vaccine manufacturers under different supervision modes in the vaccine manufacturing process. The results show that: (1) Severe punishment by government regulatory authorities, and increased costs of rectification after investigation and handling of involuntary behaviors of vaccine enterprises can effectively prevent involuntary behaviors of vaccine enterprises. (2) In the early stage of the game, the success rate of the government’s efficient supervision will make the vaccine enterprises continuously self-disciplined; when the vaccine market is relatively stable, the government’s supervision departments tend to be more conducive to passive supervision. (3) The success rate of government regulatory departments and the probability of a third-party reporting to play a great role in promoting the self-discipline of enterprises. (4) The power of government and regulation are conducive to promoting the active supervision of the government regulatory authorities but corruption of government and awareness of people are different. Once the phenomenon of vaccine enterprises’ non-discipline increases, the government regulation must change from passive regulation to active regulation. Therefore, the government should implement different measures according to the characteristics of each period in the manufacturing process to effectively prevent problematic vaccines. The conclusions and policy recommendations are significant for addressing the issue of insufficient self-discipline of vaccine manufacturers.

PIN-FORMED (PIN) encodes a key auxin polar transport family that plays a crucial role in the outward transport of auxin and several growth and development processes, including dwarfing trees. We identified a dwarfing pear rootstock ‘OHF51’ (Pyrus communis), which limits the growth vigor of the ‘Xueqing’ (Pyrus bretschneideri × Pyrus pyrifolia) scion, and isolated 14 putative PbPINs from the pear Pyrus bretschneideri. The phylogenic relationships, structure, promoter regions, and expression patterns were analyzed. PbPINs were classified into two main groups based on the protein domain structure and categorized into three major groups using the neighbor-joining algorithm. Promoter analysis demonstrated that PbPINs might be closely related to plant growth and development. Through quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis, we found that the expression patterns of 14 PbPINs varied upon exposure to different organs in dwarfing and vigorous stocks, ‘OHF51’ and ‘QN101’ (Pyrus betulifolia), indicating that they might play varying roles in different tissues and participated in the regulation of growth vigor. These results provide fundamental insights into the characteristics and evolution of the PINs family, as well as the possible relationship between dwarfing ability and auxin polar transport.

Inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases (5PTases) function in inositol signaling by regulating the catabolism of phosphoinositol derivatives. Previous reports showed that 5PTases play a critical role in plant development and stress responses. In this study, we identified a novel 5PTase gene, Gs5PTase8, from the salt-tolerance locus of chromosome 3 in wild soybean (Glycine soja). Gs5PTase8 is highly up-regulated under salt treatment. It is localized in the nucleus and plasma membrane with a strong signal in the apoplast. Ectopic expression of Gs5PTase8 significantly increased salt tolerance in transgenic BY-2 cells, soybean hairy roots and Arabidopsis, suggesting Gs5PTase8 could increase salt tolerance in plants. The overexpression of Gs5PTase8 significantly enhanced the activities of catalase and ascorbate peroxidase under salt stress. The seeds of Gs5PTase8-transgenic Arabidopsis germinated earlier than the wild type under abscisic acid treatment, indicating Gs5PTase8 would alter ABA sensitivity. Besides, transcriptional analyses showed that the stress-responsive genes, AtRD22, AtRD29A and AtRD29B, were induced with a higher level in the Gs5PTase8-transgenic Arabidopsis plants than in the wild type under salt stress. These results reveal that Gs5PTase8 play a positive role in salt tolerance and might be a candidate gene for improving soybean adaptation to salt stress.

This paper investigates and analyzes the characteristics of video data and puts forward a campus surveillance video storage system with the university campus as the specific application environment. Aiming at the challenge that the content-based video retrieval response time is too long, the key-frame index subsystem is designed. The key frame of the video can reflect the main content of the video. Extracted from the video, key frames are associated with the metadata information to establish the storage index. The key-frame index is used in lookup operations while querying. This method can greatly reduce the amount of video data reading and effectively improves the query’s efficiency. From the above, we model the storage system by a stochastic Petri net (SPN) and verify the promotion of query performance by quantitative analysis.

Different from traditional distances between Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS), the spherical distance between two IFSs relies not only on their relative differences but also their absolute values. In this paper, we generalize the properties of spherical distance measures between IFSs, and investigate the applications of spherical distance measures in group decision making, pattern recognition and medical diagnosis. We develop an optimization spherical distance model with IFS preference in group decision making, and demonstrate that this model is feasible and practical with an evaluation model of drought risk. By using comparative analysis method, we show that this new spherical distance can also be applied in other fields such as pattern recognition and medical diagnosis.

The WRKY web, which is comprised of a subset of WRKY transcription factors (TFs), plays a crucial role in the regulation of plant immunity, however, the mode of organization and operation of this network remains obscure, especially in non-model plants such as pepper (Capsicum annuum). Herein, CaWRKY22, a member of a subgroup of IIe WRKY proteins from pepper, was functionally characterized in pepper immunity against Ralstonia Solanacearum. CaWRKY22 was found to target the nuclei, and its transcript level was significantly upregulated by Ralstonia Solanacearum inoculation (RSI) and exogenously applied salicylic acid (SA), Methyl jasmonate (MeJA), or ethephon (ETH). Loss-of-function CaWRKY22, caused by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS), enhanced pepper’s susceptibility to RSI. In addition, the silencing of CaWRKY22 perturbed the hypersensitive response (HR)-like cell death elicited by RSI and downregulated defense-related genes including CaPO2, CaPR4, CaACC, CaBPR1, CaDEF1, CaHIR1, and CaWRKY40. CaWRKY22 was found to directly bind to the promoters of CaPR1, CaDEF1, and CaWRKY40 by chromatin immuno-precipitation (ChIP) analysis. Contrastingly, transient overexpression of CaWRKY22 in pepper leaves triggered significant HR-like cell death and upregulated the tested immunity associated maker genes. Moreover, the transient overexpression of CaWRKY22 upregulated the expression of CaWRKY6 and CaWRKY27 while it downregulated of the expression of CaWRKY58. Conversely, the transient overexpression of CaWRKY6, CaWRKY27, and CaWRKY40 upregulated the expression of CaWRKY22, while transient overexpression of CaWRKY58 downregulated the transcript levels of CaWRKY22. These data collectively recommend the role of CaWRKY22 as a positive regulator of pepper immunity against R. Solanacearum, which is regulated by signaling synergistically mediated by SA, jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene (ET), integrating into WRKY networks with WRKY TFs including CaWRKY6, CaWRKY27, CaWRKY40, and CaWRKY58.