The FOXO Transcription Factor Controls Insect Growth and Development by Regulating Juvenile Hormone Degradation in the Silkworm, \u3cem\u3eBombyx mori\u3c/em\u3e

Forkhead box O (FOXO) functions as the terminal transcription factor of the insulin signaling pathway and regulates multiple physiological processes in many organisms, including lifespan in insects. However, how FOXO interacts with hormone signaling to modulate insect growth and development is largely unknown. Here, using the transgene-based CRISPR/Cas9 system, we generated and characterized mutants of the silkworm Bombyx mori FOXO (BmFOXO) to elucidate its physiological functions during development of this lepidopteran insect. The BmFOXO mutant (FOXO-M) exhibited growth delays from the first larval stage and showed precocious metamorphosis, pupating at the end of the fourth instar (trimolter) rather than at the end of the fifth instar as in the wild-type (WT) animals. However, different from previous reports on precocious metamorphosis caused by juvenile hormone (JH) deficiency in silkworm mutants, the total developmental time of the larval period in the FOXO-M was comparable with that of the WT. Exogenous application of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) or of the JH analog rescued the trimolter phenotype. RNA-seq and gene expression analyses indicated that genes involved in JH degradation but not in JH biosynthesis were up-regulated in the FOXO-M compared with the WT animals. Moreover, we identified several FOXO-binding sites in the promoter of genes coding for JH-degradation enzymes. These results suggest that FOXO regulates JH degradation rather than its biosynthesis, which further modulates hormone homeostasis to control growth and development in B. mori. In conclusion, we have uncovered a pivotal role for FOXO in regulating JH signaling to control insect development

The Indoor Thermal Environment Simulation and Testing Validation of a Power Plant Turbine Room in Extreme Cold Area

AbstractThis paper conducts an analysis study on indoor thermal environment of a steam turbine room in power plant by CFD. Refer to a typical steam turbine room in an actual thermal power plant which has been conducted field test, the typical numerical simulation model is built including a reasonable indoor heat conditions, structural parameters and envelope architectural opening, flow boundary conditions. Indoor air temperature distribution and air velocity distribution of steam turbine room is obtained. Comparing the simulation results with the corresponding field measurement data on typical location show that two sets of results are very close. So accuracy and applicability of CFD simulations is proved. It is also proved that complete method for CFD simulations of the paper is appropriate for interior thermal environment study of typical steam turbine room and thus laid the foundation for the further studies of a large number of universal cases

STUDY ON POLLUTANTS EMISSION CHARACTERISTIC OF COAL GASIFICATION IN A FLUIDIZED BED TEST RIG

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of coal gasification in a fluidized bed test rig of Xuzhou bituminous coal. The diameter of the fluidized bed combustor is 0.1m and the height is 4.22m. The bed temperature is maintained by a method of high temperature flue gas interline heating to overcome high heat losses associated with a oil burner. Test results are reported for variations in the bed temperature, air to coal, steam to coal and Ca to S ratio and their influence on gas yields and desulphurization efficiency. The distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metal trace elements into the char and syngas are also presented. The molar contents for CH 4 and H 2 in the coal syngas are found to decrease with increasing air to coal feed ratio from 2.5 to 5, while the content of CO shows little variation. Increasing the steam to coal feed ratio from 0.4 to 0.65 results in all three of the main gas components measured to form a local maximum content at a steam/coal feed ratio of 0.55. The efficiency of desulphurization improves as the ratio of Ca to S, air to coal and the bed temperature are increased, while decreasing with increasing steam to coal feed ratios. The volatile trace element species in decreasing order of relative mass ratio released into the gas phase are Hg, Se, As, Co, Cr, Cd, Cu, and Zn. Besides Hg, Se, and As, for all other trace heavy metals the majority of their mass distribution remains within the char with the proportion contained within char always greater than their combined yields in the coal syngas and slag. The total PAHs in the coal syngas is greater than that contained in the original coal and this indicates that PAHs are formed during the coal gasification process. Keywords: coal, gasification, fluidized bed, desulphurization, trace element, PAHs INTRODUCTION Advanced Pressurized Fluidized Bed CombustionCombined Cycle (APFBC-CC) is a promising technology for the cleaner and more efficient generation of electricity from coal. Coal partial gasification is a key step in the APFBC cycle. The majority of the sulphur present in coal changes into hydrogen sulfide under a reducing partial gasification atmosphere. At the same time, trace elements like As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Mg, Ni, Hg, Pb, V, Se, Sr and Zn and PAHs in the coal gasification redistribute themselves into the slag, fly ash and coal gas phases. Xiangling Ho

A chromosome-scale genome assembly of Castanopsis hystrix provides new insights into the evolution and adaptation of Fagaceae species

Fagaceae species dominate forests and shrublands throughout the Northern Hemisphere, and have been used as models to investigate the processes and mechanisms of adaptation and speciation. Compared with the well-studied genus Quercus, genomic data is limited for the tropical-subtropical genus Castanopsis. Castanopsis hystrix is an ecologically and economically valuable species with a wide distribution in the evergreen broad-leaved forests of tropical-subtropical Asia. Here, we present a high-quality chromosome-scale reference genome of C. hystrix, obtained using a combination of Illumina and PacBio HiFi reads with Hi-C technology. The assembled genome size is 882.6 Mb with a contig N50 of 40.9 Mb and a BUSCO estimate of 99.5%, which are higher than those of recently published Fagaceae species. Genome annotation identified 37,750 protein-coding genes, of which 97.91% were functionally annotated. Repeat sequences constituted 50.95% of the genome and LTRs were the most abundant repetitive elements. Comparative genomic analysis revealed high genome synteny between C. hystrix and other Fagaceae species, despite the long divergence time between them. Considerable gene family expansion and contraction were detected in Castanopsis species. These expanded genes were involved in multiple important biological processes and molecular functions, which may have contributed to the adaptation of the genus to a tropical-subtropical climate. In summary, the genome assembly of C. hystrix provides important genomic resources for Fagaceae genomic research communities, and improves understanding of the adaptation and evolution of forest trees

Identity-Based Encryption for Fair Anonymity Applications: Defining, Implementing, and Applying Rerandomizable RCCA-secure IBE

Our context is anonymous encryption schemes hiding their receiver, but in a setting which allows authorities to reveal the receiver when needed. While anonymous Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) is a natural candidate for such fair anonymity (it gives trusted authority access by design), the de facto security standard (a.k.a. IND-ID-CCA) is incompatible with the ciphertext rerandomizability which is crucial to anonymous communication. Thus, we seek to extend IND-ID-CCA security for IBE to a notion that can be meaningfully relaxed for rerandomizability while it still protects against active adversaries. To the end, inspired by the notion of replayable adaptive chosen-ciphertext attack (RCCA) security (Canetti et al., Crypto\u2703), we formalize a new security notion called Anonymous Identity-Based RCCA (ANON-ID-RCCA) security for rerandomizable IBE and propose the first construction with rigorous security analysis. The core of our scheme is a novel extension of the double-strand paradigm, which was originally proposed by Golle et al. (CT-RSA\u2704) and later extended by Prabhakaran and Rosulek (Crypto\u2707), to the well-known Gentry-IBE (Eurocrypt\u2706). Notably, our scheme is the first IBE that simultaneously satisfies adaptive security, rerandomizability, and recipient-anonymity to date. As the application of our new notion, we design a new universal mixnet in the identity-based setting that does not require public key distribution (with fair anonymity). More generally, our new notion is also applicable to most existing rerandomizable RCCA-secure applications to eliminate the need for public key distribution infrastructure while allowing fairness

COAL GASIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS IN A 2MWth SECOND-GENERATION PFB GASIFIER

ABSTRACT Coal gasification process and equipment feasibility research w ere carried out in a 2 MW thermal input pressurized spout-fluid bed pilot-scale gasifier and a long-time-run test was performed to study the effects of operating parameters on coal partial gasification behaviors. The test results have demonstrated the feasibility of the gasifier to provide suitable fuel gas and residual char for downstream system of 2G PFBC-CC. The concentration of methane decreased at higher gasification temperature due to the secondary cracking of methane while the carbon conversion increased, and the concentration of hydrogen increased with an increase of steam flow rate. The main experimental results were compared with those of pilot-scale facilities in the world

SAR-RARP50: Segmentation of surgical instrumentation and Action Recognition on Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy Challenge

Surgical tool segmentation and action recognition are fundamental building blocks in many computer-assisted intervention applications, ranging from surgical skills assessment to decision support systems. Nowadays, learning-based action recognition and segmentation approaches outperform classical methods, relying, however, on large, annotated datasets. Furthermore, action recognition and tool segmentation algorithms are often trained and make predictions in isolation from each other, without exploiting potential cross-task relationships. With the EndoVis 2022 SAR-RARP50 challenge, we release the first multimodal, publicly available, in-vivo, dataset for surgical action recognition and semantic instrumentation segmentation, containing 50 suturing video segments of Robotic Assisted Radical Prostatectomy (RARP). The aim of the challenge is twofold. First, to enable researchers to leverage the scale of the provided dataset and develop robust and highly accurate single-task action recognition and tool segmentation approaches in the surgical domain. Second, to further explore the potential of multitask-based learning approaches and determine their comparative advantage against their single-task counterparts. A total of 12 teams participated in the challenge, contributing 7 action recognition methods, 9 instrument segmentation techniques, and 4 multitask approaches that integrated both action recognition and instrument segmentation. The complete SAR-RARP50 dataset is available at: https://rdr.ucl.ac.uk/projects/SARRARP50_Segmentation_of_surgical_instrumentation_and_Action_Recognition_on_Robot-Assisted_Radical_Prostatectomy_Challenge/19109