Can We Improve the Salinity Tolerance of Genotypes of Taxidium by Using Varietal and Hybrid Crosses?

Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. var. distichum [baldcypress (BC)], Taxodium distichum var. mexicanum Gordon [Montezuma cypress (MC)], and a Taxodium hybrid (‘Nanjing Beauty’: BC · MC cross, T302) were evaluated for salt tolerance in 2006 at Nacogdoches, TX. Plants were irrigated weekly with four levels of salinity [0, 1, 3.5, and 6 ppt (0, 17, 60, and 102 mol[1]m–3)] for 13 weeks and then 0, 2, 7, and 12 ppt (0, 34, 120, and 204 mol[1]m–3) for another 12 weeks. Salinity treatments did not have a significant effect on growth rate; however, there were significant differences in growth rate among the three genotypes. Genotype T302 produced the greatest wet weight, whereas MC had stronger apical dominance and exhibited the greatest increase in height over the course of study. As expected, sodium (Na) concentration in Taxodium leaves increased as sea salt concentrations increased but did not tilt Na/potassium (K) ratios to stressful disproportions. Of the three genotypes, BC exhibited the highest leaf content of Na, calcium (Ca), sulfur (S), and iron (Fe); MC had the lowest leaf content of Na, Ca, S, and Fe; and T302 was intermediate. The benefits of using a hybrid cross (T302) that maintains greater biomass than BC or MC across a range of salinities must be weighed against the potential additional pruning and training necessary for cutting-grown clones relative to BC and MC propagated from seed and flood tolerance relative to BC. Still, combining the best characteristics of different varieties of T. distichum should facilitate the production of favorable genotypes tolerant to a number of soil physical and chemical property fluctuations for arboricultural operations

Characterization of microstructure and oxidation resistance of Y and Ge modified silicide coating on Nb-Si based alloy

Y and Ge modified silicide coating was prepared on the Nb-Si based alloy by Si–Ge–Y co-deposition at 1300°C for 10h. The coating consists of an outer layer and a transitional layer(Fig.1a). The outer layer is consist of( Nb , X )(Si, Ge)2(X represents Ti, Cr, Ge and Hf elements) and the transitional layer is composed of ( Nb , X )5(Si, Ge)3. The mass gain of the coated specimen is 2.78 mg cm−2 after oxidation at 1250 °C for 100 h(Fig.1b), which reveals that Ge and Y modified silicide coating exhibits better oxidation resistance than Ge-modified silicide coating and Y element is significantly beneficial for the oxidation resistance. The results indicate that Y refines grain size due to the formation of Y3Al5O12 particles at grain boundaries, which could promote the rapid formation of protective SiO2 and GeO2 scale, and then oxygen diffusion could be decreased. Therefore, the oxidation resistance of the coating is improved. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

New Graviton Mass Bound from Binary Pulsars

In Einstein's general relativity, gravity is mediated by a massless metric field. The extension of general relativity to consistently include a mass for the graviton has profound implications for gravitation and cosmology. Salient features of various massive gravity theories can be captured by Galileon models, the simplest of which is the cubic Galileon. The presence of the Galileon field leads to additional gravitational radiation in binary pulsars where the Vainshtein mechanism is less suppressed than its fifth-force counterpart, which deserves a detailed confrontation with observations. We prudently choose fourteen well-timed binary pulsars, and from their intrinsic orbital decay rates we put a new bound on the graviton mass, $m_g \lesssim 2 \times 10^{-28}\,{\rm eV}/c^2$ at the 95% confidence level, assuming a flat prior on $\ln m_g$. It is equivalent to a bound on the graviton Compton wavelength $\lambda_g \gtrsim 7 \times 10^{21}\,{\rm m}$. Furthermore, we extensively simulate times of arrival for pulsars in orbit around stellar-mass black holes and the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center, and investigate their prospects in probing the cubic Galileon theory in the near future.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures; accepted by PR

Superradiant instabilities of massive bosons around exotic compact objects

Superradiantly unstable ultralight particles around a classical rotating black hole (BH) can form an exponentially growing bosonic cloud, which have been shown to provide an astrophysical probe to detect ultralight particles and constrain their mass. However, the classical BH picture has been questioned, and different theoretical alternatives have been proposed. Exotic compact objects (ECOs) are horizonless alternatives to BHs featuring a reflective surface (with a reflectivity $\mathcal{K}$) in place of the event horizon. In this work, we study superradiant instabilities around ECOs, particularly focusing on the influence of the boundary reflection. We calculate the growth rate of superradiant instabilities around ECOs, and show that the result can be related to the BH case by a correction factor $g_{\mathcal{K}}$, for which we find an explicit analytical expression and a clear physical interpretation. Additionally, we consider the time evolution of superradiant instabilities and find that the boundary reflection can either shorten or prolong the growth timescale. As a result, the boundary reflection alters the superradiance exclusion region on the Regge plane, potentially affecting constraints on the mass of ultralight particles. For a mildly reflective surface ($|\mathcal{K}|\lesssim 0.5$), the exclusion region is not substantially changed, while significant effects from the boundary reflection can occur for an extreme reflectivity ($|\mathcal{K}|\gtrsim0.9$).Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures; accepted by PR

Antiviral Decoction of Isatidis Radix (板藍根 bǎn lán gēn) Inhibited Influenza Virus Adsorption on MDCK Cells by Cytoprotective Activity

AbstractThe aim of this study is to elucidate how the Isatidis Radix (板藍根 bǎn lán gēn) tonic, as an aqueous mixture of hundreds of compositions, interrupts the infection of influenza viruses to their host cells. The efficacy of the tonic was evaluated and expressed as cell proliferation rate and plaque reduction rate in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells, against 3 strains of influenza A and B viruses. This boiling water (at 100°C) extract of Isatidis Radix (RIE) showed antiviral activity against influenza virus A and B. The concentration for 50% inhibition of influenza virus A replication (IC50) in MDCK cell was 12.6mg/mL with a therapeutic index >8. When cells were incubated with RIE prior to virus adsorption, the numbers of viable cell were at least doubled compared to the numbers of virus control, RIE incubation after virus adsorption and RIE incubation with virus prior to adsorption, in both influenza virus A and B. Moreover, much less virus particles were spotted by scanning electron microscope (SEM) in the RIE pre-treated cells than the cells without RIE treatment. These results indicate the antiviral activity of RIE is mainly attributed to its host cell protection effect but not actions on virus or post-virus-adsorption interruption. Cell, but not virus, is more likely to be the action target of RIE

Research Article An Improved Data Correlation Algorithm for Multi-passive-sensor Tracking System

Abstract: For improving the performance of the optimal assignment problem of data correlation of multi-passivesensor system, an improved optimal assignment algorithm based on multi-source information fusion is put forward. The new algorithm takes advantage of the optimal solution and a certain number of near-optimal solutions of the traditional optimal assignment problem to construct a set of effective multi-tuple of measurement and constructs correlation probability fusing multi-source information between above effective multi-tuple of measurement and target track by using combination rule of D-S evidence theory. The result of simulation experiments shows that, compared with the traditional optimal assignment algorithm, the new algorithm not only improves the accuracy of multi-target tracking in different degrees but also saves a lot of time. So it is an effective data correlation algorithm for multi-passive-sensor system

Anthocyanins, Phenolics, and Antioxidant Capacity of Vaccinium L. in Texas, USA

Berries of Vaccinium spp. have long been an important source of food and pharmaceutical ingredients and are considered to have high antioxidant potential. Growing blueberries in Texas, United States is a substantial industry, but there is no report on their antioxidant capacity, total phenolics, and anthocyanins. This study evaluates antioxidant capacity and contents of total phenolics and anthocayanins in both fruits and leaves of 19 genotypes including five commercial cultivars and 11 selections of rabbiteye blueberry (V. ashei) and southern highbush (V. corymbosum hybrids), and three native species (V. darrowii, V. arboreum, and V. fuscatum) grown in Nacogdoches, Texas. Significant variations in antioxidant capacity (as measured by FRAP) and contents of total phenolics and anthocyanins in fruit were observed among different species, cultivars or selections with less variation observed among individual plants of the same genotype. Our data from rabbiteye blueberry selections and cultivars support the hypothesis that antioxidant capacity is more highly correlated to total phenolics than anthocyanins. The analysis of five species indicates that antioxidant activity decreased during ripening but total phenolics contents tended to increase with maturity. Antioxidant capacity, total phenolics, and anthocyanin content did not change significantly during storage at 4ºC or -20ºC for two weeks but decreased significantly when berries were oven dried at 65ºC for 48 h. Antioxidant capacity and total phenolics content in leaves of each genotype were 3 to 15 times higher than those in fruits

On the Construction of Lightweight Orthogonal MDS Matrices

In present paper, we investigate 4 problems. Firstly, it is known that, a matrix is MDS if and only if all sub-matrices of this matrix of degree from 1 to $n$ are full rank. In this paper, we propose a theorem that an orthogonal matrix is MDS if and only if all sub-matrices of this orthogonal matrix of degree from 1 to $\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor$ are full rank. With this theorem, calculation of constructing orthogonal MDS matrices is reduced largely. Secondly, Although it has been proven that the $2^d\times2^d$ circulant orthogonal matrix does not exist over the finite field, we discover that it also does not exist over a bigger set. Thirdly, previous algorithms have to continually change entries of the matrix to construct a lot of candidates. Unfortunately, in these candidates, only very few candidates are orthogonal matrices. With the matrix polynomial residue ring and the minimum polynomials of lightweight element-matrices, we propose an extremely efficient algorithm for constructing $4\times4$ circulant orthogonal MDS matrices. In this algorithm, every candidate must be an circulant orthogonal matrix. Finally, we use this algorithm to construct a lot of lightweight results, and some of them are constructed first time

Bicoptor 2.0: Addressing Challenges in Probabilistic Truncation for Enhanced Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning

This paper primarily focuses on analyzing the problems and proposing solutions for the probabilistic truncation protocol in existing PPML works from the perspectives of accuracy and efficiency. In terms of accuracy, we reveal that precision selections recommended in some of the existing works are incorrect. We conduct a thorough analysis of their open-source code and find that their errors were mainly due to simplified implementation, more specifically, fixed numbers are used instead of random numbers in probabilistic truncation protocols. Based on this, we provide a detailed theoretical analysis to validate our views. We propose a solution and a precision selection guideline for future works. Regarding efficiency, we identify limitations in the state-of-the-art comparison protocol, Bicoptor's (S\&P 2023) DReLU protocol, which relies on the probabilistic truncation protocol and is heavily constrained by the security parameter to avoid errors, significantly impacting the protocol's performance. To address these challenges, we introduce the first non-interactive deterministic truncation protocol, replacing the original probabilistic truncation protocol. Additionally, we design a non-interactive modulo switch protocol to enhance the protocol's security. Finally, we provide a guideline to reduce computational and communication overhead by using only a portion of the bits of the input, i.e., the key bits, for DReLU operations based on different model parameters. With the help of key bits, the performance of our DReLU protocol is further improved. We evaluate the performance of our protocols on three GPU servers, and achieve a 10x improvement in DReLU protocol, and a 6x improvement in the ReLU protocol over the state-of-the-art work Piranha-Falcon (USENIX Sec 22). Overall, the performance of our end-to-end (E2E) privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML) inference is improved by 3-4 times.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure