Analysis of the response regulatory network of pepper genes under hydrogen peroxide stress

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a regulatory component related to plant signal transduction. To better understand the genome-wide gene expression response to H2O2 stress in pepper plants, a regulatory network of H2O2 stress-gene expression in pepper leaves and roots was constructed in the present study. We collected the normal tissues of leaves and roots of pepper plants after 40 days of H2O2 treatment and obtained the RNA-seq data of leaves and roots exposed to H2O2 for 0.5–24 h. By comparing the gene responses of pepper leaves and roots exposed to H2O2 stress for different time periods, we found that the response in roots reached the peak at 3 h, whereas the response in leaves reached the peak at 24 h after treatment, and the response degree in the roots was higher than that in the leaves. We used all datasets for K-means analysis and network analysis identified the clusters related to stress response and related genes. In addition, CaEBS1, CaRAP2, and CabHLH029 were identified through a co-expression analysis and were found to be strongly related to several reactive oxygen species-scavenging enzyme genes; their homologous genes in Arabidopsis showed important functions in response to hypoxia or iron uptake. This study provides a theoretical basis for determining the dynamic response process of pepper plants to H2O2 stress in leaves and roots, as well as for determining the critical time and the molecular mechanism of H2O2 stress response in leaves and roots. The candidate transcription factors identified in this study can be used as a reference for further experimental verification

Optimal model for 4-band biorthogonal wavelets bases for fast calculation

Abstract A class of 4-band symmetric biorthogonal wavelet bases has been constructed, in which any wavelet system the high-pass filters can be determined by exchanging position and changing the sign of the two low-pass filters. Thus, the least restrictive conditions are needed for forming a wavelet so that the free degrees can be reversed for application requirement. Some concrete examples with high vanishing moments are also given, the properties of the transformation matrix are studied and the optimal model is constructed. These wavelets can process the boundary conveniently, and they lead to highly efficient computations in applications

The bounds estimate of sub-band operators for multi-band wavelets

Abstract A concept of the sub-band operator of multi-band wavelets is introduced, the theory of d-circular matrices is developed and the upper bound and the lower bound of the norm of the sub-band operator are obtained. Examples are provided to illustrate the results proposed in this paper

A Design Method for Gammachirp Filterbank for Loudness Compensation in Hearing Aids

Because the hearing impaired often experience different degrees of hearing loss along with the loss of frequencies, the loudness compensation algorithm in hearing aids decomposes the speech signal and compensates with different frequency bands based on their audiograms. However, the speech quality of the compensated signal is unsatisfactory because the traditional filterbanks fail to fully consider the characteristics of human hearing and personalized hearing loss. In this study, an effective design for the gammachirp filterbank for the loudness compensation algorithm was proposed to improve the speech quality of hearing aids. Firstly, a multichannel gammachirp filterbank was employed to decompose the signals. Then, the adjacent bands were merged into one channel, guided by the proposed combination method. After obtaining the personalized filterbank, each band conducted a loudness compensation to match the requirements of the audiograms. The excellent advantage of the gammachirp filterbank is that it can simulate the characteristics of the basilar membrane. Furthermore, the novel channel combination method considers the information from the audiograms and the relationship between frequency ranges and speech intelligibility. The experimental results showed that the proposed multichannel gammachirp filterbank achieves better speech signal decomposition and synthesis, and good performance can be gained with fewer channels. The loudness compensation algorithm based on the gammachirp filterbank effectively improves sentence intelligibility. The sentence recognition rate of the proposed method is higher than that of a system with a gammatone filterbank by approximately 13%

Piecewise-Linear Frequency Shifting Algorithm for Frequency Resolution Enhancement in Digital Hearing Aids

In human hearing, frequency resolution is a term used to determine how well the ear can separate and distinguish two sounds that are close in frequency. This capability of breaking speech sounds into various frequency components plays a key role in processing and understanding speech information. In this paper, a piecewise-linear frequency shifting algorithm for digital hearing aids is proposed. The algorithm specifically aims at improving the frequency resolution capability. In the first step, frequency discrimination thresholds are processed by a computer testing software. Then, the input signal is parsed through the proposed piecewise-linear frequency shifting algorithm, which comprises of linearly stretching and compressing the frequency content at different frequency ranges. Experimental results showed that by using the proposed frequency shifting algorithm, the separation of formant tracks was increased in the stretching region and slightly squeezed in the adjacent compression region. Subjective assessment on six hearing-impaired persons with V-shaped audiograms demonstrated that nearly a 10% improvement of speech discrimination score was achieved for monosyllabic word lists tested in a quiet acoustic setting. In addition, the speech reception threshold was also improved by 2~8 dB when disyllabic word listswere tested in a noisy acoustic scenario

Piecewise-Linear Frequency Shifting Algorithm for Frequency Resolution Enhancement in Digital Hearing Aids

In human hearing, frequency resolution is a term used to determine how well the ear can separate and distinguish two sounds that are close in frequency. This capability of breaking speech sounds into various frequency components plays a key role in processing and understanding speech information. In this paper, a piecewise-linear frequency shifting algorithm for digital hearing aids is proposed. The algorithm specifically aims at improving the frequency resolution capability. In the first step, frequency discrimination thresholds are processed by a computer testing software. Then, the input signal is parsed through the proposed piecewise-linear frequency shifting algorithm, which comprises of linearly stretching and compressing the frequency content at different frequency ranges. Experimental results showed that by using the proposed frequency shifting algorithm, the separation of formant tracks was increased in the stretching region and slightly squeezed in the adjacent compression region. Subjective assessment on six hearing-impaired persons with V-shaped audiograms demonstrated that nearly a 10% improvement of speech discrimination score was achieved for monosyllabic word lists tested in a quiet acoustic setting. In addition, the speech reception threshold was also improved by 2~8 dB when disyllabic word listswere tested in a noisy acoustic scenario

NHC-catalyzed enantioselective access to β-cyano carboxylic esters via in situ substrate alternation and release

A carbene-catalyzed asymmetric access to chiral β-cyano carboxylic esters is disclosed. The reaction proceeds between β,β-disubstituted enals and aromatic thiols involving enantioselective protonation of enal β-carbon. Two main factors contribute to the success of this reaction. One involves in situ ultrafast addition of the aromatic thiol substrates to the carbon-carbon double bond of the enal substrate. This reaction converts almost all enal substrate to a Thiol-click Intermediate, significantly reducing aromatic thiol substrates concentration and suppressing the homo-coupling reaction of enals. Another factor is an in situ release of enal substrate from the Thiol-click Intermediate for the desired reaction to proceed effectively. The optically enriched β-cyano carboxylic esters from our method can be readily transformed to medicines that include γ-aminobutyric acids derivatives such as Rolipram. In addition to synthetic utilities, our control of reaction outcomes via in situ substrate modulation and release can likely inspire future reaction development.Ministry of Education (MOE)Nanyang Technological UniversityNational Research Foundation (NRF)Published versionWe acknowledge funding supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21732002, 22061007, P.C.Z. and 22071036, Y.R.C.); Frontiers Science Center for Asymmetric Synthesis and Medicinal Molecules, Department of Education, Guizhou Province [Qianjiaohe KY (2020)004, Y.R.C.]; The 10 Talent Plan (Shicengci) of Guizhou Province ([2016] 5649, Y.R.C.); Science and Technology Department of Guizhou Province [Qiankehe-jichu-ZK[2022]zhongdian024, P.C.Z.], ([2018]2802, [2019]1020, Y.R.C.); Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities of China (111 Program, D20023, Y.R.C.) at Guizhou University; Singapore National Research Foundation under its NRF Investigatorship (NRF-NRFI2016-06, Y.R.C.) and Competitive Research Program (NRF-CRP22-2019-0002, Y.R.C.); Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its MOE AcRF Tier 1 Award (RG7/20, RG5/19, Y.R.C.), MOE AcRF Tier 2 (MOE2019-T2-2-117, Y.R.C.), and MOE AcRF Tier 3 Award (MOE2018-T3-1-003, Y.R.C.); a Nanyang Research Award Grant; and a Chair Professorship Grant, Nanyang Technological University