Identification and Comparative Analysis of CBS Domain-Containing Proteins in Soybean (Glycine max) and the Primary Function of GmCBS21 in Enhanced Tolerance to Low Nitrogen Stress

Nitrogen is an important macronutrient required for plant growth, and is a limiting factor for crop productivity. Improving the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is therefore crucial. At present, the NUE mechanism is unclear and information on the genes associated with NUE in soybeans is lacking. cystathionine beta synthase (CBS) domain-containing proteins (CDCPs) may be implicated in abiotic stress tolerance in plants. We identified and classified a CBS domain–containing protein superfamily in soybean. A candidate gene for NUE, GmCBS21, was identified. GmCBS21 gene characteristics, the temporal expression pattern of the GmCBS21 gene, and the phenotype of GmCBS21 overexpression in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana under low nitrogen stress were analyzed. The phenotypes suggested that the transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings performed better under the nitrogen-deficient condition. GmCBS21-overexpressing transgenic plants exhibit higher low nitrogen stress tolerance than WT plants, and this suggests its role in low nitrogen stress tolerance in plants. We conclude that GmCBS21 may serve as an excellent candidate for breeding crops with enhanced NUE and better yield

A Review on Modification Methods of Adsorbents for Naphthalene in Environment

Naphthalene is one of the most hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to public health. This paper comprehensively summarized the recent development of modification methods of adsorbents for naphthalene removal in the environment. Various modification methods used in the adsorbent were summarized, mainly including acid oxidation modification, salt modification, doping modification, amino modification, microwave modification, and plasma modification. These methods enhance the adsorption performance of naphthalene mainly by changing the pore size and the oxygen content on the surface of the adsorbent. The modification parameters and their effects on naphthalene removal as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method are described in detail. This review provides the necessary inspiration and guidance for the researchers who develop polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons adsorption materials in the environment

A Review on Modification Methods of Adsorbents for Naphthalene in Environment

Naphthalene is one of the most hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to public health. This paper comprehensively summarized the recent development of modification methods of adsorbents for naphthalene removal in the environment. Various modification methods used in the adsorbent were summarized, mainly including acid oxidation modification, salt modification, doping modification, amino modification, microwave modification, and plasma modification. These methods enhance the adsorption performance of naphthalene mainly by changing the pore size and the oxygen content on the surface of the adsorbent. The modification parameters and their effects on naphthalene removal as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method are described in detail. This review provides the necessary inspiration and guidance for the researchers who develop polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons adsorption materials in the environment

Gully Erosion Induced by Snowmelt in Northeast China: A Case Study

Gully erosion stands out as one of the worst aspects of farmland degradation, which induces the loss of arable soil and tractor operation. Most of the gully erosion studies focused on the influence of precipitation erosion, slope erosion, and the freeze–thaw cycle on soil characteristics. Few studies discussed the effect of snowmelt on gully development. In this paper, the gully development induced by snowmelt was observed in a typical gully in Hailun City, the center of the Mollisols area of northeast China. The results showed that, during the snow melting period of 2017, the soil loss induced by snow melting was 0.22 t at the gully head + 0 m, 14.27 t at the gully head + 77 m, and 7.63 t at the gully head + 239 m, while 98.1% of the sediment was from the gully erosion. The horizontal projected area of the observed gully increased by 56.96 m2, and the gully head advanced 2.3 m during the snow melting period. About 92.2% of the total runoff occurred in the initial snow melting period. The discharge runoff and sediment concentration had a significant correlation with the air temperature above 0 °C, and the same relationship existed between the discharge runoff and sediment concentration in the initial and middle snowmelt stages. The results indicate that the gully development induced by snowmelt should not be ignored in the area

DualAfford: Learning Collaborative Visual Affordance for Dual-gripper Object Manipulation

It is essential yet challenging for future home-assistant robots to understand and manipulate diverse 3D objects in daily human environments. Towards building scalable systems that can perform diverse manipulation tasks over various 3D shapes, recent works have advocated and demonstrated promising results learning visual actionable affordance, which labels every point over the input 3D geometry with an action likelihood of accomplishing the downstream task (e.g., pushing or picking-up). However, these works only studied single-gripper manipulation tasks, yet many real-world tasks require two hands to achieve collaboratively. In this work, we propose a novel learning framework, DualAfford, to learn collaborative affordance for dual-gripper manipulation tasks. The core design of the approach is to reduce the quadratic problem for two grippers into two disentangled yet interconnected subtasks for efficient learning. Using the large-scale PartNet-Mobility and ShapeNet datasets, we set up four benchmark tasks for dual-gripper manipulation. Experiments prove the effectiveness and superiority of our method over three baselines. Additional results and videos can be found at https://hyperplane-lab.github.io/DualAfford

High-Efficiency Adsorption of SARS-CoV-2 Spike 1 Protein by Plasma-Modified Porous Polymers

Under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study reports an affordable and easily prepared porous material modified by nanosecond-pulsed discharge plasma, which can adsorb SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein efficiently. Both Western blotting and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to detect the adsorption efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein. The physical and chemical properties of the modified porous polymer were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We found that the new type of porous polymer material presented an excellent performance on SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein adsorption, whose adsorption efficiency reached 99.99% in 1 min. Both the physical and chemical characterizations showed that the material has many fresh pores on the material surface and that the surface is implanted with polar functional groups (C−O, C=O, O−C=O and −NH), which gives the material a high chemisorption performance along with an enhanced physical adsorption performance. Notably, the material can be prepared at prices ranging in the tens of dollars per kilogram, which shows that it could have great applications for respiratory virus protection in global epidemic states

High-Efficiency Adsorption of SARS-CoV-2 Spike 1 Protein by Plasma-Modified Porous Polymers

Under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study reports an affordable and easily prepared porous material modified by nanosecond-pulsed discharge plasma, which can adsorb SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein efficiently. Both Western blotting and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to detect the adsorption efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein. The physical and chemical properties of the modified porous polymer were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We found that the new type of porous polymer material presented an excellent performance on SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein adsorption, whose adsorption efficiency reached 99.99% in 1 min. Both the physical and chemical characterizations showed that the material has many fresh pores on the material surface and that the surface is implanted with polar functional groups (C−O, C=O, O−C=O and −NH), which gives the material a high chemisorption performance along with an enhanced physical adsorption performance. Notably, the material can be prepared at prices ranging in the tens of dollars per kilogram, which shows that it could have great applications for respiratory virus protection in global epidemic states