Coupling the two-level programming and copula for optimizing energy-water nexus system management – A case study of Henan Province

National Natural Science Foundation of China (51909239), the Key Research Project of Henan Higher Education Institution (20A570001) and the Postdoctoral Foundation of Henan Province (1901008

A copula-based fuzzy interval-random programming approach for planning water-energy nexus system under uncertainty

National Natural Science Foundation of China; Key Research Project of Henan Higher Education Institution; Postdoctoral Foundation of Henan Provinc

A Novel and Critical Role for Oct4 as a Regulator of the Maternal-Embryonic Transition

Compared to the emerging embryonic stem cell (ESC) gene network, little is known about the dynamic gene network that directs reprogramming in the early embryo. We hypothesized that Oct4, an ESC pluripotency regulator that is also highly expressed at the 1- to 2-cell stages in embryos, may be a critical regulator of the earliest gene network in the embryo.Using antisense morpholino oligonucleotide (MO)-mediated gene knockdown, we show that Oct4 is required for development prior to the blastocyst stage. Specifically, Oct4 has a novel and critical role in regulating genes that encode transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators as early as the 2-cell stage. Our data suggest that the key function of Oct4 may be to switch the developmental program from one that is predominantly regulated by post-transcriptional control to one that depends on the transcriptional network. Further, we propose to rank candidate genes quantitatively based on the inter-embryo variation in their differential expression in response to Oct4 knockdown. Of over 30 genes analyzed according to this proposed paradigm, Rest and Mta2, both of which have established pluripotency functions in ESCs, were found to be the most tightly regulated by Oct4 at the 2-cell stage.We show that the Oct4-regulated gene set at the 1- to 2-cell stages of early embryo development is large and distinct from its established network in ESCs. Further, our experimental approach can be applied to dissect the gene regulatory network of Oct4 and other pluripotency regulators to deconstruct the dynamic developmental program in the early embryo

Discovery and Genomic Characterization of a Novel Ovine Partetravirus and a New Genotype of Bovine Partetravirus

Partetravirus is a recently described group of animal parvoviruses which include the human partetravirus, bovine partetravirus and porcine partetravirus (previously known as human parvovirus 4, bovine hokovirus and porcine hokovirus respectively). In this report, we describe the discovery and genomic characterization of partetraviruses in bovine and ovine samples from China. These partetraviruses were detected by PCR in 1.8% of bovine liver samples, 66.7% of ovine liver samples and 71.4% of ovine spleen samples. One of the bovine partetraviruses detected in the present samples is phylogenetically distinct from previously reported bovine partetraviruses and likely represents a novel genotype. The ovine partetravirus is a novel partetravirus and phylogenetically most related to the bovine partetraviruses. The genome organization is conserved amongst these viruses, including the presence of a putative transmembrane protein encoded by an overlapping reading frame in ORF2. Results from the present study provide further support to the classification of partetraviruses as a separate genus in Parvovirinae

A quantified study method and its application to sustainable management of water resources in arid basins

According to the features of the basins in arid areas, in this paper a quantified study framework of sustainable management of water resources is developed, and the contents include mainly the quantification rules, index system, basic models and quantification method. A quantified study method (M-D method) about sustainable management of water resources is put forward based on the simulation and integrative development degree. In the method, the fuzzy subordinatness description and the multi-rule integration are used to calculate the integrative development degree so as to quantitatively describe the sustainable development degree of economic society; the mathematical simulation is used to quantitatively describe the interactions between water resources, economic society and ecosystems so as to lay a foundation for quantitatively giving expression to the development situation of economic society related to the management of water resources; based on the organic combination of these two, quantification rules and other constraint conditions, a quantified model of water resources management is developed. The M-D method is applied to developing a scientific scheme of water resources management in the Bosten Lake Basin, Xinjiang, China