ChIP-seq identifies McSLC35E2 as a novel target gene of McNrf2 in Mytilus coruscus, highlighting its role in the regulation of oxidative stress response in marine mollusks

NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) plays a crucial role in the oxidative regulatory process, which could trigger hundreds of antioxidant elements to confront xenobiotics. In the previous study, we identified Nrf2 from the marine mussel Mytilus coruscus, and the findings demonstrated that McNrf2 effectively protected the mussels against oxidative stress induced by benzopyrene (Bap). In order to delve deeper into the underlying mechanism, we utilized Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) technology to systematically identify potential novel target genes of McNrf2. A total of 3,465 potential target genes were screened, of which 219 owned binding sites located within the promoter region. During subsequent experimental verification, it was found that McSLC35E2, a candidate target gene of McNrf2, exhibited negative regulation by McNrf2, as confirmed through dual luciferase and qRT-PCR detection. Further, the enzyme activity tests demonstrated that McNrf2 could counteract Bap induced oxidative stress by inhibiting McSLC35E2. The current study provides valuable insights into the application of ChIP-seq technology in the research of marine mollusks, advancing our understanding of the key role of Nrf2 in antioxidant defense mechanisms, and highlighting the significance of SLC35E2 in the highly sophisticated regulation of oxidative stress response in marine invertebrates

Synthesis of Aqueous CdTe/CdS/ZnS Core/shell/shell Quantum Dots by a Chemical Aerosol Flow Method

This work described a continuous method to synthesize CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/shell/shell quantum dots. In an integrated system by flawlessly combining the chemical aerosol flow system working at high temperature (200–300°C) to generate CdTe/CdS intermediate products and an additional heat-up setup at relatively low temperature to overcoat the ZnS shells, the CdTe/CdS/ZnS multishell structures were realized. The as-synthesized CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/shell/shell quantum dots are characterized by photoluminescence spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Fluorescence and XRD results confirm that the obtained quantum dots have a core/shell/shell structure. It shows the highest quantum yield above 45% when compared to the rhodamine 6G. The core/shell/shell QDs were more stable via the oxidation experiment by H2O2

Screening and identification of seed-specific genes using digital differential display tools combined with microarray data from common wheat

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops for human beings, with seeds being the tissue of highly economic value. Various morphogenetic and metabolic processes are exclusively associated with seed maturation. The goal of this study was to screen and identify genes specifically expressed in the developing seed of wheat with an integrative utilization of digital differential display (DDD) and available online microarray databases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 201 unigenes were identified as the results of DDD screening and microarray database searching. The expressions of 6 of these were shown to be seed-specific by qRT-PCR analysis. Further GO enrichment analysis indicated that seed-specific genes were mainly associated with defense response, response to stress, multi-organism process, pathogenesis, extracellular region, nutrient reservoir activity, enzyme inhibitor activity, antioxidant activity and oxidoreductase activity. A comparison of this set of genes with the rice (<it>Oryza sativa</it>) genome was also performed and approximately three-fifths of them have rice counterparts. Between the counterparts, around 63% showed similar expression patterns according to the microarray data.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In conclusion, the DDD screening combined with microarray data analysis is an effective strategy for the identification of seed-specific expressed genes in wheat. These seed-specific genes screened during this study will provide valuable information for further studies about the functions of these genes in wheat.</p

Harmonized Dense Knowledge Distillation Training for Multi-Exit Architectures

Multi-exit architectures, in which a sequence of intermediate classifiers are introduced at different depths of the feature layers, perform adaptive computation by early exiting ``easy" samples to speed up the inference. In this paper, a novel Harmonized Dense Knowledge Distillation (HDKD) training method for multi-exit architecture is designed to encourage each exit to flexibly learn from all its later exits. In particular, a general dense knowledge distillation training objective is proposed to incorporate all possible beneficial supervision information for multi-exit learning, where a harmonized weighting scheme is designed for the multi-objective optimization problem consisting of multi-exit classification loss and dense distillation loss. A bilevel optimization algorithm is introduced for alternatively updating the weights of multiple objectives and the multi-exit network parameters. Specifically, the loss weighting parameters are optimized with respect to its performance on validation set by gradient descent. Experiments on CIFAR100 and ImageNet show that the HDKD strategy harmoniously improves the performance of the state-of-the-art multi-exit neural networks. Moreover, this method does not require within architecture modifications and can be effectively combined with other previously-proposed training techniques and further boosts the performance

A Practical Accessibility Evaluation Method for Port-Centric Coal Transportation Chains: Considering the Environment and Operational Adaptability

Improving the accessibility of coal transportation is a crucial issue for energy security, national defense, and livelihoods. In this study, a method to evaluate the performance of the port-centric coal transportation chain (PCTC), which is a crucial part of the international coal production and delivery process, is proposed. After analyzing the features of the port-centric coal transportation chain, a practical accessibility evaluation model is established based on the gravity model. Both the foreland and hinterland features are considered in the model. Based on the features of coal transportation, the concept of port operational adaptability is introduced to indicate the port’s ability to manage a fluctuating irregular workload. Moreover, environmental factors, including transportation emissions and dust pollution, are included in the evaluation system. Based on real data collected from China’s north-south coal transportation corridor, a case study presents the implementation of this comprehensive evaluation system in practice. This evaluation system enables us to determine the vulnerable areas in the coal maritime transportation network and provides a decision-making basis for both shippers and port owners

Design and Analysis of Novel Linear Oscillating Loading System

Although linear motor has vital and potential applications in air compressors, hydraulic pumps, earphones and electric vehicles because of its good reliability, high power density and convenient maintenance, most researchers rarely concentrate on the dynamic performance of the linear oscillating motor with external force loads. It is essential to study the dynamic performance of the linear oscillating motor with accurate and multi-mode force loads. In this paper, a novel linear oscillating loading system is proposed and the loading system structure is depicted. Then, a mathematical model is built to match the simulation analyses of the dynamic performance of the linear oscillating motor with multi-mode external force loads. Moreover, the linear oscillating loading system platform is built and experiments are undertaken to verify the simulation analyses about the dynamic performance and efficiency with respect to different external force loads, and the simulation and experimental results show good agreement and will have promising significance for linear oscillating motor research and applications

Advancing Motivation Feedforward Control of Permanent Magnetic Linear Oscillating Synchronous Motor for High Tracking Precision

Linear motors have promising application to industrial manufacture because of their direct motion and thrust output. A permanent magnetic linear oscillating synchronous motor (PMLOSM) provides reciprocating motion which can drive a piston pump directly having advantages of high frequency, high reliability, and easy commercial manufacture. Hence, researching the tracking performance of PMLOSM is of great importance to realizing its popularization and application. Traditional PI control cannot fulfill the requirement of high tracking precision, and PMLOSM performance has high phase lag because of high control stiffness. In this paper, an advancing motivation feedforward control (AMFC), which is a combination of advancing motivation signal and PI control signal, is proposed to obtain high tracking precision of PMLOSM. The PMLOSM inserted with AMFC can provide accurate trajectory tracking at a high frequency. Compared with single PI control, AMFC can reduce the phase lag from −18 to −2.7 degrees, which shows great promotion of the tracking precision of PMLOSM. In addition, AMFC will promote the application of PMLOSM to other working conditions needing high frequency reciprocating tracking performance and give PMLOSM greater future prospects

Skill Acquisition and Controller Design of Desktop Robot Manipulator Based on Audio–Visual Information Fusion

The development of AI and robotics has led to an explosion of research and the number of implementations in automated systems. However, whilst commonplace in manufacturing, these approaches have not impacted chemistry due to difficulty in developing robot systems that are dexterous enough for experimental operation. In this paper, a control system for desktop experimental manipulators based on an audio-visual information fusion algorithm was designed. The robot could replace the operator to complete some tedious and dangerous experimental work by teaching it the arm movement skills. The system is divided into two parts: skill acquisition and movement control. For the former, the visual signal was obtained through two algorithms of motion detection, which were realized by an improved two-stream convolutional network; the audio signal was extracted by Voice AI with regular expressions. Then, we combined the audio and visual information to obtain high coincidence motor skills. The accuracy of skill acquisition can reach more than 81%. The latter employed motor control and grasping pose recognition, which achieved precise controlling and grasping. The system can be used for the teaching and control work of chemical experiments with specific processes. It can replace the operator to complete the chemical experiment work while greatly reducing the programming threshold and improving the efficiency

A Simulation-Based Dynamic Programming Method for Interchange Scheduling of Port Collecting and Distributing Network

As one of the effective methods to reduce congestion, grade intersection has already been changed to interchange in port collecting and distributing network (PCDN) of many Chinese ports, since the first interchange was built in the PCDN of Dalian port in 1924. Due to the growing demand for port freight transportation, congestion in PCDN is becoming one of the inevitable problems that need to be solved. This paper addresses the best interchange scheduling multistage decision problem in PCDN at a network level. The main challenges are how to estimate the delay time and cope with high uncertainties in port network and PCDN. Therefore, a simulation-based dynamic programming (DP) model is proposed with the purpose of minimizing total cost in lifetime period by combining a DP model and two nested simulation models together. Two simulation models are built to figure out the delay cost in the optimization model, which cannot be calculated by mathematical analysis due to complex vehicle travel patterns and irregular traffic volume caused by random events, such as the arrival pattern of ships’, natural conditions, and storage period of cargos. Finally, a real project in northern China is presented as a case study. The proposed method can be applied in similar cases and can help solve analogous complicated multistage problems