The spliceosome-associated protein CWC15 promotes miRNA biogenesis in Arabidopsis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in regulating gene expression and their biogenesis is precisely controlled through modulating the activity of microprocessor. Here, we report that CWC15, a spliceosome-associated protein, acts as a positive regulator of miRNA biogenesis. CWC15 binds the promoters of genes encoding miRNAs (MIRs), promotes their activity, and increases the occupancy ofDNA-dependent RNA polymerases atMIR promoters, suggesting that CWC15 positively regulates the transcription of primary miRNA transcripts (pri-miRNAs). In addition, CWC15 interacts with Serrate (SE) and HYL1, two key components of microprocessor, and is required for efficient primiRNA processing and the HYL1-pri-miRNA interaction. Moreover, CWC15 interacts with the 20 S proteasome and PRP4KA, facilitating SE phosphorylation by PRP4KA, and subsequent non-functional SE degradation by the 20 S proteasome. These data reveal that CWC15 ensures optimalmiRNA biogenesis by maintaining proper SE levels and by modulating pri-miRNA levels. Taken together, this study uncovers the role of a conserved splicing-related protein in miRNA biogenesis

Learning and Practicing Fundamentals of Electrical and Computer Engineering through Building and Programming a Microcontroller Board

A required sophomore course on microcontrollers and computer architecture was designed and offered for the first time in 2009 to expose our electrical engineering (EE) sophomore students to microcontroller-based applications so that they could appreciate and be exposed to fundamentals of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) through hardware and software design and interfacing. The course also helps students to obtain a broad view of various subjects of ECE from circuits, signals, digital logic, microcontrollers, C and assembly language programming to system design, implementation and measurement so that they can make a well informed decision on whether to continue to major in EE. The course builds a foundation for future classes that may require instrumentation or microcontroller-based applications such as those on communications, control, power electronics as well as junior and senior design courses. In addition, the students are required to purchase most of the hardware components for the course so that they can use the components for future projects

Learning and Practicing Fundamentals of Electrical and Computer Engineering through Building and Programming a Microcontroller Board

A required sophomore course on microcontrollers and computer architecture was designed and offered for the first time in 2009 to expose our electrical engineering (EE) sophomore students to microcontroller-based applications so that they could appreciate and be exposed to fundamentals of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) through hardware and software design and interfacing. The course also helps students to obtain a broad view of various subjects of ECE from circuits, signals, digital logic, microcontrollers, C and assembly language programming to system design, implementation and measurement so that they can make a well informed decision on whether to continue to major in EE. The course builds a foundation for future classes that may require instrumentation or microcontroller-based applications such as those on communications, control, power electronics as well as junior and senior design courses. In addition, the students are required to purchase most of the hardware components for the course so that they can use the components for future projects

Inter-Campus Sharable Potential of Hardware Educational Resources in A University Town: Connotation, Determination Method and A Case Study

Sharing educational resources (ERs) among campuses in a university town (UT) could avoid the waste or repeated construction of ERs, which is beneficial to the sustainable utilization of resources. For hardware educational resources (HERs) greatly attached to land resources, whether they have surplus shareable potential is the key factor relating to inter-campus sharing. However, there is a serious lack of definition and quantitative research on HERs’ shareable potential. Based on the correlation between land resource utilization and HER sharing, we firstly defined the connotation of inter-campus sharable potential of HERs (ISPHERs), put forward its calculation method and carried out a case study in Longzi Lake UT of Zhengzhou City, Henan province, China. The results show that: (1) ISPHERs could be defined from the perspective of “the best utilization degree” which mainly depended on the utilization and development gap between the present area value and the possible most intensive one under certain conditions; (2) based on the area quota and the students’ number, the ISPHERs was calculated by the Delphi and multi-factor model methods; (3) the case study in Longzi Lake UT of Zhengzhou City, Henan province, China showed that the comprehensive ISPHERs was high in the south and low in the north, and the libraries and canteens in five colleges and universities mainly providing vocational skills training were insufficient. If all the 11 campuses could freely share HERs, there would be an overall surplus of the five kinds of HER (i.e., classroom, laboratory, library, indoor sports room and canteen). The comprehensive management framework should include sustainable concept guidance, cooperation system construction, planning control, benefit adjustment and technological innovation, etc

Atomic Receiver by Utilizing Multiple Radio-Frequency Coupling at Rydberg States of Rubidium

Rydberg atoms have been extensively utilized in microwave measurement with high sensitivity, which has great potential in the field of communication. In this study, we discuss the digital communication based on a Rydberg atomic receiver under simultaneously coupling by resonant and near detuning microwaves. In addition, we verify the feasibility of the Rydberg atom-based frequency division multiplexing (FDM) in microwave communication. We demonstrate the principle and performance of the atom-based FDM receiver by applying amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM), respectively. To demonstrate the actual communication performance at different data transfer rates, we consider monochromatic images as an example. The experimental results show that the maximum acceptable data transfer rate of both AM and FM is about 200 kbps, whereas their maximum bit error rates (BER) is less than 5%. When compared with the traditional electronic receiver, this atomic receiver, which is compatible with FDM, has numerous advantages, such as small size, low power consumption, and high sensitivity. Furthermore, this receiver has a strong ability of anti-electromagnetic interference, and the signals transmitted do not interfere with each other in different channels

Spatiotemporal Variation in Actual Evapotranspiration and the Influencing Factors in Ningxia from 2001 to 2020

Surface evapotranspiration (ET) is an important part of the hydrological cycle. Based on the MOD16 ET product and the data collected by meteorological stations, this study investigated, for the first time, the characteristics, variation trend and influencing factors of actual ET in Ningxia from 2001 to 2020 along temporal and spatial scales using the Theil–Sen median trend analysis, Mann–Kendall test and Hurst index, and predicted the future trend of ET. The results revealed a strong correlation between the MOD16 ET product and ET data collected at meteorological stations (r = 0.837, R2 = 0.701). Over the past 20 years, the annual ET in Ningxia showed an overall increasing trend, and the proportion of the increasing area was 96.58%. Quarterly ET varied over time, with the highest value in the third quarter and the lowest value in the second quarter. Annual ET showed a positive correlation with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), surface temperature and precipitation but no correlation with relative humidity. Additionally, the Hurst index revealed areas showing a persistent increase in ET, accounting for 84.91% of the total area, indicating that the future trend of ET in Ningxia is consistent with the past trend

The spliceosome-associated protein CWC15 promotes miRNA biogenesis in Arabidopsis

Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in regulating gene expression and their biogenesis is precisely controlled through modulating the activity of microprocessor. Here, we report that CWC15, a spliceosome-associated protein, acts as a positive regulator of miRNA biogenesis. CWC15 binds the promoters of genes encoding miRNAs (MIRs), promotes their activity, and increases the occupancy of DNA-dependent RNA polymerases at MIR promoters, suggesting that CWC15 positively regulates the transcription of primary miRNA transcripts (pri-miRNAs). In addition, CWC15 interacts with Serrate (SE) and HYL1, two key components of microprocessor, and is required for efficient pri-miRNA processing and the HYL1-pri-miRNA interaction. Moreover, CWC15 interacts with the 20 S proteasome and PRP4KA, facilitating SE phosphorylation by PRP4KA, and subsequent non-functional SE degradation by the 20 S proteasome. These data reveal that CWC15 ensures optimal miRNA biogenesis by maintaining proper SE levels and by modulating pri-miRNA levels. Taken together, this study uncovers the role of a conserved splicing-related protein in miRNA biogenesis

Conversion from natural wetlands to forestland and farmland alters the composition of soil fungal communities in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

To understand the effect of human activities on fungal communities in wetland, forestland and farmland soils, in this study, we investigated the relationship between the composition of soil fungal communities and their perturbations in wetland in northeast China. The results showed that a total of 132 OTUs were identified from all three site types combined, while 72 were exclusively shared between farmland and pristine wetland, 60 between forestland and pristine wetland, and 305 between farmland and forestland. All sites also hosted unique fungal OTUs, with 397 OTUs unique to farmland, 388 unique to pristine wetland and 463 unique to forestland. The obtained sequences were affiliated to nine different phyla throughout the dataset. Sequence abundance showed that Ascomycota members were more frequently identified than Basidiomycota, in all soil samples. The dominant phyla were specific for habitat type with Ascomycota for wetland, Ascomycota and Zygomycota for farmland, and Ascomycota and Basidiomycota for forest land. The diversity of the fungal community was found highest in farmland, lower in forestland, and lowest in wetland. Canonical correlation analyses demonstrated that changes in land use significantly altered the fungal community composition of the soil. The β-diversity of the soil fungal community was most affected by soil pH, total carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as available nitrogen and available phosphorus in the soil. Cultivation can significantly enhance the fungal diversity. These findings highlight the importance of effectively managing the soil fungal community to maintain a naturally functioning soil ecosystem

Field Distortion and Optimization of a Vapor Cell in Rydberg Atom-Based Radio-Frequency Electric Field Measurement

Highly excited Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell are promising for developing a radio-frequency (RF) electric field (E-field) sensor and relevant measurement standards with high accuracy and sensitivity. The all-optical sensing approach is based on electromagnetically-induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting induced by the RF E-field. Systematic investigation of measurement uncertainty is of great importance for developing a national measurement standard. The presence of a dielectric vapor cell containing alkali atoms changes the magnitude, polarization, and spatial distribution of the incident RF field. In this paper, the field distortion of rubidium vapor cells is investigated, in terms of both field strength distortion and depolarization. Full-wave numerical simulation and analysis are employed to determine general optimization solutions for minimizing such distortion and validated by measuring the E-field vector distribution inside different vapor cells. This work can improve the accuracy of atom-based RF E-field measurements and contributes to the development of related RF quantum sensors