Raising interest in master of physical education during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of Baidu Index data

Objective: Current evidence shows the master of physical education has attracted attention since its opening. The study aims to quantify recent trends in the public interest and related online search behavior for master of physical education, and “nowcast” future scenarios with respect to the master of physical education. Methods: Baidu Index, a database of search engines with massive information, was employed. By searching for the keyword master of physical education, and using content analysis to understand the data information related to master of physical education. It extracted the search trend data regarding Chinese interest in the master of physical education from November 21, 2016, to November 21, 2022. Finally, it compares the search trend of search interests in the master of physical education with related terms. Results: It found that the search trend of master of physical education was on the rise overall. Specifically, the peak value appeared in September 2019, the valley value appeared around the Spring Festival each year, and the search trend in other periods was stable. Conclusion: The raise in public interest in a master of physical education will likely result in an increase in the number of candidates who are going to attend the National Graduate Entrance Exam to pursue a master of physical education. In the coming months or more, the competition for the employment of sports professionals in China will become more intense. Affected by the COVID-19, more people are interested in health and physical exercise, and then pay attention to the Master of Physical Education. The Sports Law of the People's Republic of China has been revised recently, which has led to more people interested in the master of physical education

Increasing Interest in Inclusive Education in the Context of Action Plan for the Development and Enhancement of Special Education during the Fourteenth Five-Year Period in China: An Analysis of Baidu Index Data

Objective: Current evidence shows that public interest in inclusive education has been rising since the implementation of Action Plan for the development and enhancement of special education during the Fourteenth Five-Year period in China. The aim of this study was to quantify recent trends in public interest and related online search behavior for inclusive education in the context of this Action Plan. Methods: Baidu Index, a database of search engines with massive information, was employed. By searching for the keyword inclusive education, and using content analysis to understand the data information related to inclusive education. This study also extracted the search trend data of Chinese netizens on the related terms "Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities " and "Regulation on the Education of Persons with Disabilities" from January 1, 2022 to October 27, 2022. Finally, it compares the search trend of public search interests of inclusive education with related terms. Results: The public's interest in "inclusive education" and the related terms "Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities " and "Regulation on the Education of Persons with Disabilities" has been on the rise since the implementation of the Action Plan. The search trend reached its peak in February and May 2022, the valley in January 2022, and the search volume in other time periods tended to be stable. Conclusion: Baidu Index can understand the public's interest in inclusive education. The study shows that the rising search trend of inclusive education is closely related to the implementation of the Action Plan. The search volume of the "Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities " and "Regulation on the Education of Persons with Disabilities" is basically the same as that of "inclusive education", but the average search volume daily of "inclusive education" is slightly higher than that of "Regulation on the Education of Persons with Disabilities"

Different Distribution of Core Microbiota in Upper Soil Layer in Two Places of North China Plain

Backgrounds: Soils harbor diverse bacteria, and these bacteria play important roles in soil nutrition cycling and carbon storage. Numerous investigations of soil microbiota had been performed, and the core microbiota in different soil or vegetation soil types had been described. The upper layer of soil, as a source of organic matter, is important and affected by the habitats and dominant bacteria. However, the complexity of soil environments and relatively limited information of many geographic areas had attracted great attention on comprehensive exploration of soil microbes in enormous types of soil. Methods: To reveal the core upper layer soil microbiota, soil samples from metropolis and countryside regions in the North China Plain were investigated using high-throughput sequencing strategy. Results: The results showed that the most dominant bacteria are Proteobacteria (38.34%), Actinobacteria (20.56%), and Acidobacteria (15.18%). At the genus-level, the most abundant known genera are Gaiella (3.66%), Sphingomonas (3.6%), Acidobacteria Gp6 (3.52%), and Nocardioides (2.1%). Moreover, several dominant operational taxanomy units OTUs, such as OTU_3 and OTU_17, were identified to be associated with the soil environment. Microbial distributions of the metropolis samples were different from the countryside samples, which may reflect the environments in the countryside were more diverse than in the metropolis. Microbial diversity and evenness were higher in the metropolis than in the countryside, which might due to the fact that human activity increased the microbial diversity in the metropolis. Conclusion: The upper layer soil core microbiota of the North China Plain were complex, and microbial distributions in these two places might be mainly affected by the human activity and environmental factors, not by the distance. Our data highlights the upper layer soil core microbiota in North China Plain, and provides insights for future soil microbial distribution studies in central China

Effect of saline stress on the physiology and growth of maize hybrids and their related inbred lines

Salinity is one major abiotic stress that restrict plant growth and crop productivity. In maize (Zea mays L), salt stress causes significant yield loss each year. However, indices of maize response to salt stress are not completely explored and a desired method for maize salt tolerance evaluation is still not established. A Chinese leading maize variety Jingke968 showed various resistance to environmental factors, including salt stress. To compare its salt tolerance to other superior maize varieties, we examined the physiological and growth responses of three important maize hybrids and their related inbred lines under the control and salt stress conditions. By compar- ing the physiological parameters under control and salt treatment, we demonstrated that different salt tolerance mechanisms may be involved in different genotypes, such as the elevation of superoxide dismutase activity and/ or proline content. With Principal Component Analysis of all the growth indicators in both germination and seedling stages, along with the germination rate, superoxide dismutase activity, proline content, malondialdehyde content, relative electrolyte leakage, we were able to show that salt resistance levels of hybrids and their related inbred lines were Jingke968 > Zhengdan958 > X1132 and X1132M > Jing724 > Chang7-2 > Zheng58 > X1132F, respectively, which was consistent with the saline field observation. Our results not only contribute to a better understanding of salt stress response in three important hybrids and their related inbred lines, but also this evaluation system might be applied for an accurate assessment of salt resistance in other germplasms and breeding material

Carotenoids synthesis affects the salt tolerance mechanism of Rhodopseudomonas palustris

Rhodopseudomonas palustris CGA009 is a Gram-negative, purple non-sulfur, metabolically diverse bacterium with wide-ranging habitats. The extraordinary ability of R. palustris to decompose a variety of raw materials and convert them into high-value products makes it an attractive host for biotechnology and industrial applications. However, being a freshwater bacterium R. palustris has limited application in highly-saline environments. Therefore, it is of great significance to obtain the salt-tolerant strain of R. palustris and understand its tolerance mechanism. In this study, R. palustris CGA009 was successfully evolved into eight salt-tolerant strains using an adaptive laboratory evolution technique. RPAS-11 (R. palustris anti-salt strain 11) was selected as the best salt-tolerant strain and was used in further studies to explore the salt-tolerance mechanism. The expression of most genes associated with the carotenoid synthesis in RPAS-11 increased significantly under high concentration of salt stress, suggesting that carotenoid synthesis is one of the reasons for the salt tolerance of RPAS-11. Gene overexpression and knockout experiments were performed to get clear about the role of carotenoids in salt stress tolerance. RPAS-11-IDI, the mutant with overexpression of IDI (Isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase) exhibited enhanced salt tolerance, whereas the knockout mutant CGA009-∆crtI showed a decline in salt tolerance. In addition, the results indicated that rhodopin, a carotenoid compound, was the key pigment responsible for the salt tolerance in R. palustris. Furthermore, the production of lycopene, a widely-used carotenoid, was also increased. Taken together, our research helps to deepen the understanding of the salt tolerance mechanism of R. palustris and also widens the application of R. palustris in highly-saline environments

Molecular mechanisms underlying the impact of muscle fiber types on meat quality in livestock and poultry

In the past, the primary emphasis of livestock and poultry breeding was mainly on improving the growth rate, meat production efficiency and disease resistance. However, the improvement of meat quality has become a major industrial focus due to the ongoing advancements in livestock and poultry breeding. Skeletal muscles consist of multinucleated myofibers formed through the processes of myoblast proliferation, differentiation and fusion. Muscle fibers can be broadly classified into two main types: slow-twitch (Type I) and fast-twitch (Type II). Fast-twitch fibers can be further categorized into Type IIa, Type IIx, and Type IIb. The proportion of Type I and Type IIa muscle fibers is positively associated with meat quality, while the presence of Type IIb muscle fibers in skeletal muscle tissue is inversely related to meat quality. Consequently, muscle fiber composition directly influences meat quality. The distribution of these fiber types within skeletal muscle is governed by a complex network, which encompasses numerous pivotal regulators and intricate signaling pathways. This article aims to succinctly outline the parameters utilized for assessing meat quality, elucidate the relationship between muscle fiber composition and meat quality as well as elaborate on the relevant genetic factors and their molecular mechanisms that regulate muscle fiber types in livestock and poultry. This summary will enrich our comprehension of how to improve meat quality in livestock and poultry, providing valuable insights for future improvements

Development of New Microsatellite DNA Markers from Apostichopus japonicus and Their Cross-Species Application in Parastichopus parvimensis and Pathallus mollis

Twenty microsatellite DNA markers were developed for sea cucumber and used to investigate polymorphisms of 60 wild Apostichopus japonicus individuals collected from China. It revealed that all the markers were polymorphic. A total of 164 alleles were detected at 20 loci. The number of alleles per locus varied from 3 to 17 with an average of 8.2, and the expected heterozygosities of each locus ranged from 0.03 to 0.89 with an average of 0.64. Cross-species amplification was also conducted in Parastichopus parvimensis collected from the United States and Pathallus mollis collected from Peru. The result showed that 17 loci amplified Parastichopus parvimensis DNAs while only 4 loci could amplify Pathallus mollis DNAs. All of the polymorphic markers would be useful for future genetic breeding and the assessment of genetic variation within sea cucumbers

Mitochondrial genome in Hypsizygus marmoreus and its evolution in Dikarya

Background Hypsizygus marmoreus, a high value commercialized edible mushroom is widely cultivated in East Asia, and has become one of the most popular edible mushrooms because of its rich nutritional and medicinal value. Mitochondria are vital organelles, and play various essential roles in eukaryotic cells. Results In this study, we provide the Hypsizygus marmoreus mitochondrial (mt) genome assembly: the circular sequence is 102,752 bp in size and contains 15 putative protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs subunits and 28 tRNAs. We compared the mt genomes of the 27 fungal species in the Pezizomycotina and Basidiomycotina subphyla, with the results revealing that H. marmoreus is a sister to Tricholoma matsutake and the phylogenetic distribution of this fungus based on the mt genome. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Ascomycetes mitochondria started to diverge earlier than that of Basidiomycetes and supported the robustness of the hyper metric tree. The fungal sequences are highly polymorphic and gene order varies significantly in the dikarya data set, suggesting a correlation between the gene order and divergence time in the fungi mt genome. To detect the mt genome variations in H. marmoreus, we analyzed the mtDNA sequences of 48 strains. The phylogeny and variation sited type statistics of H. marmoreus provide clear-cut evidence for the existence of four well-defined cultivations isolated lineages, suggesting female ancestor origin of H. marmoreus. Furthermore, variations on two loci were further identified to be molecular markers for distinguishing the subgroup containing 32 strains of other strains. Fifteen conserved protein-coding genes of mtDNAs were analyzed, with fourteen revealed to be under purifying selection in the examined fungal species, suggesting the rapid evolution was caused by positive selection of this gene. Conclusions Our studies have provided new reference mt genomes and comparisons between species and intraspecies with other strains, and provided future perspectives for assessing diversity and origin of H. marmoreus.Ope

Flame Perception APP： Enabling Fire Engineers and Researchers to Understand and Analyze Flame Data

Existing research on flame detection mainly focuses on the improvement of algorithms, from traditional image processing methods to the combination of image processing and machine learning methods. However, people from the fire engineering field who analyze fire information in their daily work have limited access to these algorithmic improvements, meaning they can not readily apply emerging novel techniques to practical work. In this project, we aim to bridge this gap by exploring and applying the recent computer vision and deep learning techniques along with interface design to help fire engineers and researchers access and analyze flame data without previous knowledge in computer science. To achieve this aim, we participate in weekly lab meetings in the fire protection department in Worcester Polytechnic Institute to observe their fire research behavior and understand user needs. We conduct experiments in both traditional computer vision methods and a combination of computer vision and deep learning models to find the appropriate techniques that satisfy user needs from fire experts. We then build a software pipeline integrated with those algorithms to help fire experts calculate, visualize, and analyze flame data, deploying this application on the cloud. Finally, we evaluate the application by inviting both fire researchers and students from other majors to test the application in a semi-structured user study. The results of the evaluation suggest that the web application prototype is a useful tool for understanding flame data, but also the software pipeline has room for improvement. We discuss the implications of the feedback gathered during our testing process and propose how we could improve the application in future work