Computational identification of putative cytochrome P450 genes in soybean (Glycine max) using expressed sequence tags (ESTs)

Cytochrome P450 is a group of monooxygenase that exists as a gene superfamily and plays an important role in metabolizing physiologically important compounds in plants. However, to date only a limited number of P450s have been identified and characterized in soybean (Glycine max.). In this work, a computational study of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of soybean was performed by data mining methods and bio-informatics tools and as a result 78 putative P450 genes were identified, including 57 new ones. These genes were classified into five clans and 20 families by sequence similarities and among those 57 new families, 18 new subfamilies were found which have not been observed previously in soybean. This work may provide a basis for further functional dissection of P450 genes in soybean and other legumes.Key words: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs), in silico, soybean (Glycine max.), P450

Superconductivity in the cobalt-doped V3Si A15 intermetallic compound

The A15 structure of superconductors is a prototypical type-II superconductor that has generated considerable interest since the early history of superconducting materials. This paper discusses the superconducting properties of previously unreported V3-xCoxSi alloys. It is found that the lattice parameter decreases with increasing cobalt-doped content and leads to an increased residual resistivity ratio (RRR) value of the V3-xCoxSi system. Meanwhile, the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) cobalt-doped content. Furthermore, the fitted data show that the increase of cobalt-doped content also reduces the lower/upper critical fields of the V3-xCoxSi system. Type-II superconductivity is demonstrated on all V3-xCoxSi samples. With higher Co-doped content, V3-xCoxSi alloys may have superconducting and structural phase transitions at low-temperature regions. As the electron/atom (e/a) ratio increases, the Tc variation trend of V3Si is as pronounced as in crystalline alloys and monotonically follows the trend observed for amorphous superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Superconductivity in the high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx with possible nontrivial band topology

Topological superconductors have drawn significant interest from the scientific community due to the accompanying Majorana fermions. Here, we report the discovery of electronic structure and superconductivity in high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx (x = 1 and 0.8) combined with experiments and first-principles calculations. The Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx high-entropy ceramics show bulk type-II superconductivity with Tc about 4.00 K (x = 1) and 2.65 K (x = 0.8), respectively. The specific heat jump is equal to 1.45 (x = 1) and 1.52 (x = 0.8), close to the expected value of 1.43 for the BCS superconductor in the weak coupling limit. The high-pressure resistance measurements show that a robust superconductivity against high physical pressure in Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, with a slight Tc variation of 0.3 K within 82.5 GPa. Furthermore, the first-principles calculations indicate that the Dirac-like point exists in the electronic band structures of Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, which is potentially a topological superconductor. The Dirac-like point is mainly contributed by the d orbitals of transition metals M and the p orbitals of C. The high-entropy ceramics provide an excellent platform for the fabrication of novel quantum devices, and our study may spark significant future physics investigations in this intriguing material.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures,The manuscript with the same title will be published by Advanced Scienc

More Constructions of 3-Weight Linear Codes

Linear codes with few weights have become an interesting research topic and important applications of cryptography and coding theory. In this paper, we apply some ternary near-bent and 2-plateaued functions or r-ary functions to construct more 3-weight linear codes, where r is a prime. Moreover, we determine the weight distributions of the resulted linear codes by means of some exponential sums

Characterization of synaptic structural plasticity in mouse spinal dorsal horn neurons

Summary: Here, we present a pipeline for the characterization of synaptic structural plasticity in mouse spinal dorsal horn (SDH) neurons. We describe steps for the intra-SDH microinjection of the EGFP virus to sparsely label L4 SDH neurons without laminectomy, wide dynamic range neuron imaging, dendritic spine morphometric analysis, and F-actin to G-actin ratio measurement. This protocol can be applied to investigate the synaptic structural plasticity mechanisms in the SDH as well as in the brain.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Li et al. (2023).1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics

Weight of energy consumption parameters of rural residences in severe cold area

Appropriate management and optimization of energy consumption provides great support for the sustainable development of rural buildings. Although some research results are helpful for the energy-saving design and transformation of rural residential buildings, there is no systematic analysis of the impact of energy consumption parameters on energy-saving, which is not conducive to further optimization of energy-saving design. Based on more than 200 groups of field survey data, a typical initial rectangle model of rural residence in the severe cold area of northern China is established, and the orientation, aspect ratio, south window-wall ratio (WWR), north WWR, and enclosure structure are five main factors affecting the energy consumption in heating period. The method to evaluate the heating energy consumption of buildings was proposed based on EnergyPlus and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) from different functional parameters. The climate conditions of four cities of three secondary severe cold areas (1A, 1B, 1C) in northern China are selected for the building model, and the change rates and weights of energy consumption related parameters are analyzed. The results from the energy consumption simulation analysis show that the weight of enclosure structure is the largest, followed by the South WWR, the ratio of length to width is the third, and the orientation is the smallest in the four cities, which provides a good reference for the prediction and optimization of energy consumption in the rural residences in severe cold area

On-Orbit Calibration of the KBR Antenna Phase Center of GRACE-Type Gravity Satellites

The coordinates of the KBR (K-band ranging system) antenna phase center of GRACE-type gravity satellites in the satellite Science Reference Frame should be precisely known, and the determination accuracy should reach 0.3 mrad in the Y (pitch) and Z (yaw) directions. Due to the precision limitation of ground measurement and the change of space environment during orbit, the KBR antenna phase center changes. In order to obtain more accurate KBR antenna phase center coordinates, it is necessary to maneuver the satellite to achieve the on-orbit calibration of the KBR antenna phase center. Based on the in-orbit calibration data of KBR of GRACE-FO satellites, a new method is proposed to estimate the antenna phase center of KBR using the inter-satellite range acceleration as the observation value. The antenna phase center of KBR is solved by the robust estimation method, and the obtained calibration results are better than 72 μm in the Y and Z directions and better than 1.3 mm in the X direction, which is 50% better than the least squares estimation algorithm. The accuracy of KBR calibration results obtained by using the data of positive maneuvers or mirror (negative) maneuvers, respectively, does not meet 0.3 mrad. It is shown that mirror maneuvers are required for KBR calibration of a GRACE-type gravity satellite to obtain antenna phase center estimation results that meet the accuracy requirements. The calibration algorithm proposed in this paper can provide reference for KBR antenna phase center calibration of Chinese GRACE-type gravity satellites

Modeling and Forecasting Average Temperature for Weather Derivative Pricing

The main purpose of this paper is to present a feasible model for the daily average temperature on the area of Zhengzhou and apply it to weather derivatives pricing. We start by exploring the background of weather derivatives market and then use the 62 years of daily historical data to apply the mean-reverting Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process to describe the evolution of the temperature. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are used to price heating degree day (HDD) call option for this city, and the slow convergence of the price of the HDD call can be found through taking 100,000 simulations. The methods of the research will provide a frame work for modeling temperature and pricing weather derivatives in other similar places in China