(Main Section: Community Planning)

More and more international students come to China for higher education, and their host cities become key platforms for demonstrating China’s image and soft power. So far, many studies have analysed international students’ language learning and cultural adaptation, however, very few focus on what factors attract international students to certain Chinese cities instead of others. This study aims to determine the key factors attracting international students to study in Changchun, a city in northeast China, from a qualitative approach. The authors apply both survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews to obtain insights and determine the underlying reasons influencing their selection. Results from a total of 190 questionnaires and 59 interviews are collected for analysis. The results indicate that certain factors, including economic factors, such as the cost of living and scholarships, political factors, such as government coordination, and sociological factors, such as religious tolerance, play dominating roles in their decision-making process. Additionally, the discussion and policy recommendations of each section offer useful insights for policy-makers for attracting and accommodating international visitors to cities like Changchun

Identification of transcriptome induced in roots of maize seedlings at the late stage of waterlogging

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Plants respond to low oxygen stress, particularly that caused by waterlogging, by altering transcription and translation. Previous studies have mostly focused on revealing the mechanism of the response at the early stage, and there is limited information about the transcriptional profile of genes in maize roots at the late stage of waterlogging. The genetic basis of waterlogging tolerance is largely unknown. In this study, the transcriptome at the late stage of waterlogging was assayed in root cells of the tolerant inbred line HZ32, using suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH). A forward SSH library using RNA populations from four time points (12 h, 16 h, 20 h and 24 h) after waterlogging treatment was constructed to reveal up-regulated genes, and transcriptional and linkage data was integrated to identify candidate genes for waterlogging tolerance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Reverse Northern analysis of a set of 768 cDNA clones from the SSH library revealed a large number of genes were up-regulated by waterlogging. A total of 465 ESTs were assembled into 296 unigenes. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the genes were involved in complex pathways, such as signal transduction, protein degradation, ion transport, carbon and amino acid metabolism, and transcriptional and translational regulation, and might play important roles at the late stage of the response to waterlogging. A significant number of unigenes were of unknown function. Approximately 67% of the unigenes could be aligned on the maize genome and 63 of them were co-located within reported QTLs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The late response to waterlogging in maize roots involves a broad spectrum of genes, which are mainly associated with two response processes: defense at the early stage and adaption at the late stage. Signal transduction plays a key role in activating genes related to the tolerance mechanism for survival during prolonged waterlogging. The crosstalk between carbon and amino acid metabolism reveals that amino acid metabolism performs two main roles at the late stage: the regulation of cytoplasmic pH and energy supply through breakdown of the carbon skeleton.</p

A Brassica napus Reductase Gene Dissected by Associative Transcriptomics Enhances Plant Adaption to Freezing Stress

Cold treatment (vernalization) is required for winter crops such as rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). However, excessive exposure to low temperature (LT) in winter is also a stress for the semi-winter, early-flowering rapeseed varieties widely cultivated in China. Photosynthetic efficiency is one of the key determinants, and thus a good indicator for LT tolerance in plants. So far, the genetic basis underlying photosynthetic efficiency is poorly understood in rapeseed. Here the current study used Associative Transcriptomics to identify genetic loci controlling photosynthetic gas exchange parameters in a diversity panel comprising 123 accessions. A total of 201 significant Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and 147 Gene Expression Markers (GEMs) were detected, leading to the identification of 22 candidate genes. Of these, Cab026133.1, an ortholog of the Arabidopsis gene AT2G29300.2 encoding a tropinone reductase (BnTR1), was further confirmed to be closely linked to transpiration rate. Ectopic expressing BnTR1 in Arabidopsis plants significantly increased the transpiration rate and enhanced LT tolerance under freezing conditions. Also, a much higher level of alkaloids content was observed in the transgenic Arabidopsis plants, which could help protect against LT stress. Together, the current study showed that AT is an effective approach for dissecting LT tolerance trait in rapeseed and that BnTR1 is a good target gene for the genetic improvement of LT tolerance in plant

Developing Temperature-Resilient Plants: A Matter of Present and Future Concern for Sustainable Agriculture

Plants are decisive for nurturing life on Earth, but climate change threatens global food security, poverty decrease, and sustainable agriculture [...

Children&rsquo;s Filial Piety Changes Life Satisfaction of the Left-Behind Elderly in Rural Areas in China?

Along with the aging of the population and miniaturization of family structure, the problem of the left-behind elderly has become more and more prominent in China. According to the Report on the family development in China (2015) released by the National Health Commission of the People&rsquo;s Republic of China, left-behind elderly people account for half of the total number of the elderly, of whom 10% live alone. The left-behind elderly not only suffer physiological obstacles such as body function decline, but also face a lack of support at the material level and loneliness at the spiritual level, which greatly affects their quality of life, accounting for their lower life satisfaction than that of the ordinary elderly. The rural areas of Sichuan Province are relatively backwards in terms of economic level and have limited pension security. Therefore, the left-behind elderly in rural areas are confronted with more complicated and severe pension problems compared with those in urban areas. Meanwhile, limited by economic and regional factors, a large number of rural labor forces in Sichuan Province have transferred to cities. These long-time migrant workers cannot provide material, spiritual and life care support for their left-behind parents in rural areas in a timely fashion, which changes their filial piety behaviors, and this affects the life satisfaction of the rural left-behind elderly. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the living conditions of empty-nest elderly and their children&rsquo;s filial piety in rural areas of Sichuan province in order to verify the influence mechanism of filial piety on the life satisfaction of the elderly, and to explore how to improve the rural empty-nest elderly&rsquo;s life satisfaction, enabling the elderly to live a healthy and happy life

Genome-Wide Analysis of the β-Amylase Gene Family in Brassica L. Crops and Expression Profiles of BnaBAM Genes in Response to Abiotic Stresses

The &beta;-amylase (BAM) gene family, known for their property of catalytic ability to hydrolyze starch to maltose units, has been recognized to play critical roles in metabolism and gene regulation. To date, BAM genes have not been characterized in oil crops. In this study, the genome-wide survey revealed the identification of 30 BnaBAM genes in Brassica napus L. (B. napus L.), 11 BraBAM genes in Brassica rapa L. (B. rapa L.), and 20 BoBAM genes in Brassica oleracea L. (B. oleracea L.), which were divided into four subfamilies according to the sequence similarity and phylogenetic relationships. All the BAM genes identified in the allotetraploid genome of B. napus, as well as two parental-related species (B. rapa and B. oleracea), were analyzed for the gene structures, chromosomal distribution and collinearity. The sequence alignment of the core glucosyl-hydrolase domains was further applied, demonstrating six candidate &beta;-amylase (BnaBAM1, BnaBAM3.1-3.4 and BnaBAM5) and 25 &beta;-amylase-like proteins. The current results also showed that 30 BnaBAMs, 11 BraBAMs and 17 BoBAMs exhibited uneven distribution on chromosomes of Brassica L. crops. The similar structural compositions of BAM genes in the same subfamily suggested that they were relatively conserved. Abiotic stresses pose one of the significant constraints to plant growth and productivity worldwide. Thus, the responsiveness of BnaBAM genes under abiotic stresses was analyzed in B. napus. The expression patterns revealed a stress-responsive behaviour of all members, of which BnaBAM3s were more prominent. These differential expression patterns suggested an intricate regulation of BnaBAMs elicited by environmental stimuli. Altogether, the present study provides first insights into the BAM gene family of Brassica crops, which lays the foundation for investigating the roles of stress-responsive BnaBAM candidates in B. napus

Gene Ontology (GO) analyses of commonly differentially expressed genes at three time points.

<p>The differentially expressed genes were assigned into three groups, including biological process, cellular components and molecular function. The x-axis represents the most abundant categories of each group, and the y-axis represents the percentages of the total genes in each category.</p

Hierarchical cluster analyses of the 163 common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at three time points.

<p>This map shows the changes of log₂(foldchange) values at the indicated times (3 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours) during salt stress. The genes were assigned into four clusters.</p

Transcriptome Analysis of Canola (<i>Brassica napus</i>) under Salt Stress at the Germination Stage

<div><p>Canola (<i>Brassica napus</i>) is one of the most important oil crops in the world. However, its yield has been constrained by salt stress. In this study, transcriptome profiles were explored using Digital Gene Expression (DGE) at 0, 3, 12 and 24 hours after H2O (control) and NaCl treatments on <i>B. napus</i> roots at the germination stage. Comparisons of gene-expression between the control and the treatment were conducted after tag-mapping to the sequenced <i>Brassica rapa</i> genome. The differentially expressed genes during the time course of salt stress were focused on, and 163 genes were identified to be differentially expressed at all the time points. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses revealed that some of the genes were involved in proline metabolism, inositol metabolism, carbohydrate metabolic processes and oxidation-reduction processes and may play vital roles in the salt-stress response at the germination stage. Thus, this study provides new candidate salt stress responding genes, which may function in novel putative nodes in the molecular pathways of salt stress resistance.</p></div

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) validations of gene expression levels from digital gene expression (DGE) analysis.

<p>The qPCR values are presented as the averages of three independent experiments. The genes were randomly selected. “S3/H3” indicates a comparison between the expressions of the corresponding genes in the S3 library with that in the H3 library. The “S12/H12” and “S24/H24” ratios indicate analogous comparisons. The y-axis indicates the fold-changes obtained by two methods. The “A-F” indicates the genes with the assay names of Bra041014, Bra000150, Bra020731, Bra011843, Bra023573 and Bra000090, respectively.</p