Diverse biological effects of glycosyltransferase genes from Tartary buckwheat

Background: Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is an edible cereal crop whose sprouts have been marketed and commercialized for their higher levels of anti-oxidants, including rutin and anthocyanin. UDP-glucose flavonoid glycosyltransferases (UFGTs) play an important role in the biosynthesis of flavonoids in plants. So far, few studies are available on UFGT genes that may play a role in tartary buckwheat flavonoids biosynthesis. Here, we report on the identification and functional characterization of seven UFGTs from tartary buckwheat that are potentially involved in flavonoid biosynthesis (and have varying effects on plant growth and development when overexpressed in Arabidopsis thaliana.) Results: Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the potential function of the seven FtUFGT proteins, FtUFGT6, FtUFGT7, FtUFGT8, FtUFGT9, FtUFGT15, FtUFGT40, and FtUFGT41, could be divided into three Arabidopsis thaliana functional subgroups that are involved in flavonoid biosynthesis of and anthocyanin accumulation. A significant positive correlation between FtUFGT8 and FtUFGT15 expression and anthocyanin accumulation capacity was observed in the tartary buckwheat seedlings after cold stress. Overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana showed that FtUFGT8, FtUFGT15, and FtUFGT41 significantly increased the anthocyanin content in transgenic plants. Unexpectedly, overexpression of FtUFGT6, while not leading to enhanced anthocyanin accumulation, significantly enhanced the growth yield of transgenic plants. When wild-type plants have only cotyledons, most of the transgenic plants of FtUFGT6 had grown true leaves. Moreover, the growth speed of the oxFtUFGT6 transgenic plant root was also significantly faster than that of the wild type. At later growth, FtUFGT6 transgenic plants showed larger leaves, earlier twitching times and more tillers than wild type, whereas FtUFGT15 showed opposite results. Conclusions: Seven FtUFGTs were isolated from tartary buckwheat. FtUFGT8, FtUFGT15, and FtUFGT41 can significantly increase the accumulation of total anthocyanins in transgenic plants. Furthermore, overexpression of FtUFGT6 increased the overall yield of Arabidopsis transgenic plants at all growth stages. However, FtUFGT15 shows the opposite trend at later growth stage and delays the growth speed of plants. These results suggested that the biological function of FtUFGT genes in tartary buckwheat is diverse

Operation Analysis on Refrigeration System Combined with Heat Pipe

In data center, telco equipment station and some central control rooms, there are some cases with cooling requirement all the year, their temperatures are usually controlled strictly whenever in summer or in winter. Moreover, due to clearness and safety requirement, the chiller should provide cooling water all the time even the outside environment is very cold. There had been some considerations about provide cooling capacity in cold climate with free environmental air by various heat exchangers directly. Without operating chillers, annual energy consumption on temperature control could be decreased. This paper proposed a system combined a chiller with an air-cooled heat exchanger, shown as Fig 1., there is one evaporator to provide cooled water, two condensers for the chiller and the separate type heat pipe alternatively. In warm climate, the chiller operates normally with the compressor and its condenser, the air cooling heat pipe is blocked by switching valves. In cold climate, the system is switched to the no compressor mode, the air-cooler heat exchanger could connect with the evaporator directly, the work pattern follows the separated type heat pipe, the working medium is the refrigerant still, the air cooling heat exchanger serves as the condenser of the separated type heat pipe, therefore, the evaporator is the evaporating part of the separated type heat pipe as well, the cooled water could be delivered through normal pipelines. In application of the combined refrigeration, they operation strategy for refrigeration and the heat pipe should be discussed in different climate zones. Therefore, in this paper we discussed energy consumption for cooling requirement in data center at several typical regions based on the combined cooling system. In different regions, their climates condition are different, the switching between the normal refrigeration and the heat pipe results to various annual energy consumptions

Preliminary laboratory test on navigation accuracy of an autonomous robot for measuring air quality in livestock buildings

Air quality in many poultry buildings is less than desirable. However, the measurement of concentrations of airborne pollutants in livestock buildings is generally quite difficult. To counter this, the development of an autonomous robot that could collect key environmental data continuously in livestock buildings was initiated. This research presents a specific part of the larger study that focused on the preliminary laboratory test for evaluating the navigation precision of the robot being developed under the different ground surface conditions and different localization algorithm according internal sensors. The construction of the robot was such that each wheel of the robot was driven by an independent DC motor with four odometers fixed on each motor. The inertial measurement unit (IMU) was rigidly fixed on the robot vehicle platform. The research focused on using the internal sensors to calculate the robot position (x, y, θ) through three different methods. The first method relied only on odometer dead reckoning (ODR), the second method was the combination of odometer and gyroscope data dead reckoning (OGDR) and the last method was based on Kalman filter data fusion algorithm (KFDF). A series of tests were completed to generate the robot’s trajectory and analyse the localisation accuracy. These tests were conducted on different types of surfaces and path profiles. The results proved that the ODR calculation of the position of the robot is inaccurate due to the cumulative errors and the large deviation of the heading angle estimate. However, improved use of the gyroscope data of the IMU sensor improved the accuracy of the robot heading angle estimate. The KFDF calculation resulted in a better heading angle estimate than the ODR or OGDR calculations. The ground type was also found to be an influencing factor of localisation errors

The Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Anxiety and Depression Among Working-Age Adults in Mainland China at the Early Remission Stage of the Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic

Background: The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to a considerable proportion of adverse psychological symptoms in different subpopulations. This study aimed to investigate the status of anxiety and depression and their associated factors in the adult, working-age population in Mainland China at the early remission stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An online study was conducted among 1,863 participants in 29 provinces in Mainland China from March 23 to 31, 2020. Their mental health was evaluated by the generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7) and the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9). Descriptive analysis, Chi-square, and multiple logistic regressions were applied. Results: About 44.5% of the participants had anxiety, 49.2% had depression, and 37.9% showed a combination of depression and anxiety. Around 83.7% of the participants claimed that the pandemic had a negative impact on their medical needs, which was the primary predictor of mental health, the degree of impact being positively related to the prevalence of anxiety and depression. More chronic diseases, moderate to bad self-rated health, severe perceived infection risk, and younger age group were the common risk factors for anxiety and depression. Having no children, unemployment, and a college-level educational background were associated with higher anxiety prevalence, whereas unmarried participants were correlated with higher depression prevalence. Conclusion: The working-age population showed a relatively high risk of anxiety and depression in Mainland China at the early remission stage of the pandemic. To improve medical services capacity for routine and delayed medical service needs should be a part of policy-makers\u27 priority agenda during this period of crisis

Quality of Life of Adults with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury in Mainland China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To evaluate the quality of life of patients with chronic spinal cord injury in mainland China. Design: Cross-sectional study. Subjects: A total of 247 adults ≥ 1 year post-SCI in mainland China. Methods: The World Health Organization (WHO) Quality of Life Scale Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) and the add-on modules on disability-related QoL (WHOQOL-DIS) were used to assess quality of life. Anxiety/depression was measured using the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety/Depression Scale. Quality of life was compared with that of reference populations from China, Korea, the international field trial (23 countries). Multivariate linear regression was conducted to determine the factors that might be associated with quality of life. Results: The means of the 4 domains of the WHOQOLBREF varied from 11.5 to 13.0. The mean of the 12- item WHOQOL-DIS module was 38.7. The quality of life of the participants as measured by the WHOQOLBREF was 1.1--4.7 points lower than that of the global reference population, while quality of life as measured by the WHOQOL-DIS module was 1.2 points lower than that of the Korean data. Anxiety and depression were negative factors associated with quality of life (p \u3c 0.05). Better community integration was a positive factor for physical quality of life and quality of life as measured by the WHOQOL-DIS module (p \u3c0.01). Conclusion: The quality of life of adults with chronic spinal cord injury in mainland China was lower compared with reference populations. Duration of spinal cord injury, sex, community integration, anxiety, and depression were related to quality of life

GNSS Solar Astronomy in real-time during more than one solar cycle

This work presents a summary of the continuous non-stop (hereinafter 24/7) real-time measurement and warning system for EUV solar activity, which is based on worldwide multifrequency Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations. The system relies on continuous tracking of the intensity of expected global patterns in the Earth’s ionosphere’s free electron distribution, which are associated with solar flares. The paper includes a discussion on the foundations of GNSS Solar Astronomy, along with details on its real-time implementation that began in 2011. Furthermore, a summary of the corresponding validation is provided, comparing it to external and direct solar EUV flux measurements obtained from SOHO-SEM. Finally, there will be a brief mention of the ongoing efforts to extend this technique to detect huge extra-solar sources