BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 genes regulate abiotic stress and anther development in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 (BES1) family members are crucial downstream regulators that positively mediate brassinosteroid signaling, playing vital roles in the regulation of plant stress responses and anther development in Arabidopsis. Importantly, the expression profiles of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) BES1 genes have not been analyzed comprehensively and systematically in response to abiotic stress or during anther development. In this study, we identified 23 BES1-like genes in common wheat, which were unevenly distributed on 17 out of 21 wheat chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the BES1 genes into four major clades; moreover, TaBES1-3A2, TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 belonged to the same clade as Arabidopsis BES1/BZR1 HOMOLOG3 (BEH3) and BEH4, which participate in anther development. The expression levels of 23 wheat BES1 genes were assessed using real-time quantitative PCR under various abiotic stress conditions (drought, salt, heat, and cold), and we found that most TaBES1-like genes were downregulated under abiotic stress, particularly during drought stress. We therefore used drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive wheat cultivars to explore TaBES1 expression patterns under drought stress. TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 expression was high in drought-tolerant cultivars but substantially repressed in drought-sensitive cultivars, while TaBES1-6D presented an opposite pattern. Among genes preferentially expressed in anthers, TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 expression was substantially downregulated in thermosensitive genic male-sterile wheat lines compared to common wheat cultivar under sterile conditions, while we detected no obvious differences under fertile conditions. This result suggests that TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 might not only play roles in regulating drought tolerance, but also participate in low temperature-induced male sterility

Chemisorption Induced Formation of Biphenylene Dimer on Surfaces

We report an example that demonstrates the clear interdependence between surface-supported reactions and molecular adsorption configurations. Two biphenyl-based molecules with two and four bromine substituents, i.e. 2,2-dibromo-biphenyl (DBBP) and 2,2,6,6-tetrabromo-1,1-biphenyl (TBBP), show completely different reaction pathways on a Ag(111) surface, leading to the selective formation of dibenzo[e,l]pyrene and biphenylene dimer, respectively. By combining low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations, we unravel the underlying reaction mechanism. After debromination, a bi-radical biphenyl can be stabilized by surface Ag adatoms, while a four-radical biphenyl undergoes spontaneous intramolecular annulation due to its extreme instability on Ag(111). Such different chemisorption-induced precursor states between DBBP and TBBP consequently lead to different reaction pathways after further annealing. In addition, using bond-resolving scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we determine the bond length alternation of biphenylene dimer product with atomic precision, which contains four-, six-, and eight-membered rings. The four-membered ring units turn out to be radialene structures

Chemisorption-induced formation of biphenylene dimer on Ag(111)

We report an example that demonstrates the clear interdependence between surface-supported reactions and molecular-adsorption configurations. Two biphenyl-based molecules with two and four bromine substituents, i.e., 2,2′-dibromobiphenyl (DBBP) and 2,2′,6,6′-tetrabromo-1,1′-biphenyl (TBBP), show completely different reaction pathways on a Ag(111) surface, leading to the selective formation of dibenzo[e,l]pyrene and biphenylene dimer, respectively. By combining low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations, we unravel the underlying reaction mechanism. After debromination, a biradical biphenyl can be stabilized by surface Ag adatoms, while a four-radical biphenyl undergoes spontaneous intramolecular annulation due to its extreme instability on Ag(111). Such different chemisorption-induced precursor states between DBBP and TBBP consequently lead to different reaction pathways after further annealing. In addition, using bond-resolving scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we determine with atomic precision the bond-length alternation of the biphenylene dimer product, which contains 4-, 6-, and 8-membered rings. The 4-membered ring units turn out to be radialene structures.This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21773222, 51772285, 21872131, U1732272, and U1932214), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0403402, 2017YFA0403403, and 2019YFA0405601), and Users with Excellence Program of Hefei Science Center CAS (2020HSC-UE004). The work at Washington State University was primarily funded through the National Science Foundation CAREER program under Contract no. CBET-1653561. This work was also partially funded by the Joint Center for Deployment and Research in Earth Abundant Materials (JCDREAM) in Washington State. Most of the computational resources were provided by the Kamiak HPC under the Center for Institutional Research Computing at Washington State University. This research also used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated under Contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The work at Donostia International Physics Center was primarily funded through the Juan de la Cierva Grant (no. FJC2019-041202-I) from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (no. 101022150), and the MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 (Grant no. PID2019-107338RB-C63).Peer reviewe

The verticality of policy mixes for sustainability transitions: A case study of solar water heating in China

Climate change and sustainable development are the defining challenges of the modern era. The field of sustainability transitions seeks systematic solutions for fundamental transformations of socio-technical systems towards sustainability, and exploring the role of policy mixes has been a central research agenda within the field. In the extant literature, there exists a lack of both conceptual and empirical research on the vertical dimension of policy mixes for sustainability transitions. This study provides a multilevel and evolutionary interpretation of the vertical interactions of policy mixes in the process of industrial path development towards sustainability transitions. An exemplary case of solar water heating (SWH) technology in Shandong Province in China is presented, capturing both the bottom-up and top-down processes of interactions. On the one hand, urban-level policy initiatives can inform higher-level policymaking; on the other hand, national-level priorities can greatly configure policy strategies for lower-level governments. Moreover, as the industry matures, the interactions of multilevel policy mixes evolve from simpler, unidirectional patterns to more complex, bidirectional ones through a vertical policy-learning feedback mechanism. This study generates two important policy implications that extend beyond the Chinese context: first, dynamic vertical interactions between multilevel governments indicate the need to develop more nuanced perspectives on the design of policy mixes; second, policy makers need to hold a more dynamic view of policy mixes by recognizing their temporal and coevolutionary nature through the policy learning process

Co-located social interaction using mobile devices

Majority of the smartphone games of today are designed for individual-based or remote interactions, led to a decrease in social interactions such as verbal and body language communications. Given its collaborative and arithmetic processing nature, Number Bonds provides a platform to explore interactivity for co-located collaboration within a same physical space. The project aims to encompass social interactions, collaboration, group process and effective communications all in one game for children. A user study was done to solicit and evaluate on the project with respect to users' experiences with it. The result of the study suggests that the design of the game achieved in engaging and encouraged children and adults of varied ages and backgrounds to work and collaborate as a team to complete the game by using effective communications, strategies and group processing. The project have great potential as an educational game for classroom teaching of mathematics of number bonds concept, results have proven children enjoys the numerical calculations game. Results obtained from the field trials has shown that the level of enjoyment experienced by players are in relation with the challenges experienced in the game.Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering

Jacobian Nonsingularity in Nonlinear Symmetric Conic Programming Problems and Its Application

This paper considers the nonlinear symmetric conic programming (NSCP) problems. Firstly, a type of strong sufficient optimality condition for NSCP problems in terms of a linear-quadratic term is introduced. Then, a sufficient condition of the nonsingularity of Clarke’s generalized Jacobian of the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) system is demonstrated. At last, as an application, this property is used to obtain the local convergence properties of a sequential quadratic programming- (SQP-) type method

The Research of Through-casing Resistivity Logging Logging Calibration System Leakage Current Measurement Method

This paper introduces the logging principle of through-casing resistivity logging technology, finds a phenomenon that the leakage current measurements are susceptible to sufferring interferences. The through-casing resistivity logging technology in Russia and that of Schlumberger are studied, and the system of through-casing resistivity logging is established to improve the accuracy of calibrating, testing and measuring of the instrument. In this paper, distribution parameters of the form is replaced by the lumped parameter, and precision resistor array simulation in formation leakage current and scale pool simulation in different resistivity of formation are conducted, which make the dynamic range of the simulation in formation resistivity of the medium increase to 1- 300 Ω·m and meet the requirement of through-casing resistivity logging technology measurement range, 1 Ω·m ~ 100 Ω·m. Since the measuring signals of calibration acquisition and processing systems are extremely weak and calculation signals need to tell the nV (nanovolts) level, the high accurate data acquisition system of 24 digits is applied. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i12.367

Bastnaesite, Barite, and Calcite Flotation Behaviors with Salicylhydroxamic Acid as the Collector

The flotation of bastnaesite, as a major mineral source of rare earth elements, attracting much attention in the mineral processing field, is challenging owing to the natural flotability of calcium-bearing minerals. To promote the application of flotation, we systematically investigated the flotation behavior of bastnaesite, barite, and calcite, with salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) as the collector through micro-flotation experiments, zeta-potential measurements, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analyses, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, and solution chemistry analyses. Micro-flotation experiments confirm that the flotability of bastnaesite is high at pH 6.5–8.5, while calcite floats at pH 8.0–9.5, and barite has little flotation response. The results of FT-IR, XPS, and zeta-potential measurements indicate that there is chemical adsorption of SHA on the bastnaesite surface, and physical adsorption also occurs. However, as for barite and calcite, there is only physical adsorption of SHA on the surfaces. The solution chemistry results show that SHA anions can interact with RE3+, REOH2+, and RE(OH)2+ on bastnaesite surfaces in aqueous suspensions, resulting in bastnaesite flotation

Non-coding RNA in exosomes: Regulating bone metastasis of lung cancer and its clinical application prospect

Lung cancer is a highly prevalent malignancy with poor prognosis and rapid progression. It most frequently metastasizes to the bone, where it can pose a severe threat to the patient's survival. Once metastasized, the disease is often incurable and can result in severe complications such as hypercalcemia, bone pain, fractures, spinal cord compression, and subsequent paralysis. Exosomes are bilayer vesicle nanoparticles secreted by most of the extracellular vesicles, which can be found in almost all organisms and play an essential role in intercellular communication. Through their ability to regulate related bone cells, exosomes carry bioactive molecules, including proteins, lipids, and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), that can be extremely important in bone remodeling. Studies have been conducted on the role play by proteins, lncRNA, and microRNA—all ncRNAs—carried by exosomes in the bone metastases of lung cancer. In this review, the latest progress of the regulatory mechanism of ncRNAs carried by exosomes in lung cancer bone metastasis has been reviewed. The clinical use of exosomes as a promising biomarker, drug transporter, and therapeutic target was highlighted to offer a novel diagnostic and treatment approach for patients with lung cancer bone metastases