Embeddable Soil Moisture Content Sensor based on Open–end Microwave Coaxial Cable Resonator

In This Paper, We Propose and Demonstrate a Novel Corrosion-Resistant, Embeddable Open-End Coaxial Cable Soil Moisture Sensor. This Microwave Resonator is Constructed using Two Reflectors Along the Coaxial Line. the First Reflector is a Metal Post at the Signal Input End, Short-Circuiting the Inner Conductor to the Outer Conductor. the Second Reflector Comprises a Welded Metal Plate Parallel to the Open-End of the Coaxial Line, Maintaining a Fixed Gap. a Moisture-Sensitive Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Film is Inserted into This Gap. the Resonance Frequency of the Open-End Coaxial Cable Resonator is Highly Dependent on the Fringe Capacitance, Which Varies with Soil Moisture Levels. as Such, Tracking Resonance Frequency Changes Allows for Correlation with Soil Moisture Fluctuations. We Provide a Detailed Discussion of the Embeddable Open-End Microwave Coaxial Cable Resonator (EOE-MCCR) Mathematical Model and a Proof of Concept for Soil Moisture Measurement. the Demonstration Experiments Investigate Soil Moisture Content Ranging from 4% to 24%. the Prototype Device Exhibits a Soil Moisture Measurement Sensitivity of 0.76MHz% for Soil Moisture between 4% and 10%, and 1.44MHz% for Soil Moisture between 10% and 24%. the Soil Moisture Sensor Presented Here is Robust, Easy to Manufacture, Chemically Resistant, Low-Cost, and Suitable for Long-Term Applications and Potential Industrial Uses. This Innovative Sensor is Ideal for Sensing Applications in Harsh Environments, Advancing the Field of Chemical Trace Sensing

Terminal Sliding Mode Control of Mobile Wheeled Inverted Pendulum System with Nonlinear Disturbance Observer

A terminal sliding mode controller with nonlinear disturbance observer is investigated to control mobile wheeled inverted pendulum system. In order to eliminate the main drawback of the sliding mode control, “chattering” phenomenon, and for compensation of the model uncertainties and external disturbance, we designed a nonlinear disturbance observer of the mobile wheeled inverted pendulum system. Based on the nonlinear disturbance observer, a terminal sliding mode controller is also proposed. The stability of the closed-loop mobile wheeled inverted pendulum system is proved by Lyapunov theorem. Simulation results show that the terminal sliding mode controller with nonlinear disturbance observer can eliminate the “chattering” phenomenon, improve the control precision, and suppress the effects of external disturbance and model uncertainties effectively

Robust stability conditions for remote SISO DMC controller in networked control systems

A two level hierarchy is employed in the design of Networked Control Systems (NCSs) with bounded random transmission delay. At the lower level a local controller is designed to stabilize the plant. At the higher level a remote controller with the Dynamic Matrix Control (DMC) algorithm is implemented to regulate the desirable set-point for the local controller. The conventional DMC algorithm is not applicable due to the unknown transmission delay in NCSs. To meet the requirements of a networked environment, a new remote DMC controller is proposed in this study. Two methods, maximum delayed output feedback and multi-rate sampling, are used to cope with the delayed feedback sensory data. Under the assumption that the closed-loop local system is described by one FIR model of an FIR model family, the robust stability problem of the remote DMC controller is investigated. Applying Jury's dominant coefficient lemma and some stability results of switching discrete-time systems with multiple delays; several stability criteria are obtained in the form of simple inequalities. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the theoretical results

Characterization, Genomic Organization, Abundance, and Chromosomal Distribution of Ty1-copia Retrotransposons in Erianthus arundinaceus

Erianthus arundinaceus is an important wild species of the genus Saccharum with many valuable traits. However, the composition and structure of its genome are largely unknown, which have hindered its utilization in sugarcane breeding and evolutionary research. Retrotransposons constitute an appreciable fraction of plant genomes and may have played a significant role in the evolution and sequence organization of genomes. In the current study, we investigate the phylogenetic diversity and genomic abundance of Ty1-copia retrotransposons for the first time and inspect their chromosomal distribution patterns in E. arundinaceus. In total, 70 Ty1-copia reverse transcriptase (RT) sequences with significant levels of heterogeneity were obtained. The phylogenetic analysis revealed these Ty1-copia retrotransposons were classified into four distinct evolutionary lineages (Tork/TAR, Tork/Angela, Retrofit/Ale, and Sire/Maximus). Dot-blot analysis showed estimated the total copy number of Ty1-copia retrotransposons to be about 4.5 × 103 in the E. arundinaceus genome, indicating they were a significant component. Fluorescence in situ hybridization revealed that Ty1-copia retrotransposons from the four lineages had strikingly similar patterns of chromosomal enrichment, being exclusively enriched in the subterminal heterochromatic regions of most E. arundinaceus chromosomes. This is the first clear evidence of the presence of Ty1-copia retrotransposons in the subterminal heterochromatin of E. arundinaceus. Altogether, these results promote the understanding of the diversification of Ty1-copia retrotransposons and shed light on their chromosomal distribution patterns in E. arundinaceus

Comprehensively Characterizing the Cytological Features of Saccharum spontaneum by the Development of a Complete Set of Chromosome-Specific Oligo Probes

Chromosome-specific identification is a powerful technique in the study of genome structure and evolution. However, there is no reliable cytogenetic marker to unambiguously identify each of the chromosomes in sugarcane (Saccharum spp., Poaceae), which has a complex genome with a high level of ploidy and heterozygosity. In this study, we developed a set of oligonucleotide (oligo)-based probes through bioinformatic design and massive synthetization. These probes produced a clear and bright single signal in each of the chromosomes and their eight homologous chromosomes in the ancient species Saccharum spontaneum (2n = 8x = 64). Thus, they can be used as reliable markers to robustly label each of the chromosomes in S. spontaneum. We then obtained the karyotype data and established a nomenclature based on chromosomal sizes for the eight chromosomes of the octoploid S. spontaneum. In addition, we also found that the 45S and 5S rDNAs demonstrated high copy number variations among different homologous chromosomes, indicating a rapid evolution of the highly repeated sequence after polyploidization. Our fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay also demonstrated that these probes could be used as cross-species markers between or within the genera of Sorghum and Saccharum. By comparing FISH analyses, we discovered that several chromosome rearrangement events occurred in S. spontaneum, which might have contributed to the basic chromosome number reduction from 10 in sorghum to 8 in sugarcane. Consistent identification of individual chromosomes makes molecular cytogenetic study possible in sugarcane and will facilitate fine chromosomal structure and karyotype evolution of the genus Saccharum

Genome-wide selection footprints and deleterious variations in young Asian allotetraploid rapeseed

Brassica napus (AACC, 2n=38) is an important oilseed crop grown worldwide. However, little is known about the population evolution of this species, the genomic difference between its major genetic groups, such as European and Asian rapeseed, and the impacts of historical large-scale introgression events on this young tetraploid. In this study, we reported the de novo assembly of the genome sequences of an Asian rapeseed (B. napus), Ningyou 7 and its four progenitors and compared these genomes with other available genomic data from diverse European and Asian cultivars. Our results showed that Asian rapeseed originally derived from European rapeseed but subsequently significantly diverged, with rapid genome differentiation after hybridization and intensive local selective breeding. The first historical introgression of B. rapa dramatically broadened the allelic pool but decreased the deleterious variations of Asian rapeseed. The second historical introgression of the double-low traits of European rapeseed (canola) has reshaped Asian rapeseed into two groups (double-low and double-high), accompanied by an increase in genetic load in the double-low group. This study demonstrates distinctive genomic footprints and deleterious SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) variants for local adaptation by recent intra- and interspecies introgression events and provides novel insights for understanding the rapid genome evolution of a young allopolyploid cro

MASTtreedist: Visualization of Phylogenetic Tree Space based on Maximum Agreement Subtree

Phylogenetic tree construction process might produce many candidate trees as the “best estimates.” As the number of constructed phylogenetic trees grows, the need to efficiently compare their topological or physical structures arises. One of the tree comparison\u27s software tools, the Mesquite\u27s Tree Set Viz module, allows the rapid and efficient visualization of the tree comparison distances using multidimensional scaling (MDS). Tree-distance measures, such as Robinson-Foulds (RF), for the topological distance among different trees have been implemented in Tree Set Viz. New and sophisticated measures such as Maximum Agreement Subtree (MAST) can be continuously built upon Tree Set Viz. MAST can detect the common substructures among trees and provide more precise information on the similarity of the trees, but it is NP-hard and difficult to implement. In this article, we present a practical tree-distance metric: MASTtreedist, a MAST-based comparison metric in Mesquite\u27s Tree Set Viz module. In this metric, the efficient optimizations for the maximum weight clique problem are applied. The results suggest that the proposed method can efficiently compute the MAST distances among trees, and such tree topological differences can be translated as a scatter of points in two-dimensional (2D) space. We also provide statistical evaluation of provided measures with respect to RF-using experimental data sets. This new comparison module provides a new tree–tree pairwise comparison metric based on the differences of the number of MAST leaves among constructed phylogenetic trees. Such a new phylogenetic tree comparison metric improves the visualization of taxa differences by discriminating small divergences of subtree structures for phylogenetic tree reconstruction