A Corpus-based Comparison between the Academic Word List and the Academic Vocabulary List

This study was a corpus-based comparison between two lists of academic words: Coxhead’s (2000) Academic Word List (AWL) and Gardner and Davies’ (2014) Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). Comparisons were made between different types of lexical coverage provided by the AWL and the AVL in the self-created University Academic Corpus (72-million tokens). The findings indicated that the performance of the AWL and the AVL was different when different evaluation criteria were adopted. Implications, limitations, and suggestions are listed for future research

Child population, economic development and regional inequality of education resources in China

There is great inequality of educational resources between different provinces in China due to unbalanced economic development. Despite continued redistribution of financial resources by the central government in favor of poorer provinces, educational inequality remains. In this paper, we argue that focusing on educational resources is far from sufficient. Poorer provinces do not only suffer from a lower level of educational resources, but they also have more children to educate, i.e. a greater need for education. Combining and analyzing the data in the Sixth National Population Census of China and the official statistics on education spending and resources, we found that provincial-level variations in the child population and the child dependency ratio have made access to educational resources even more unequal given the unequal financial capacity at the provincial level. Poorer provinces face a higher child dependency ratio and have lower economic development, and these two factors jointly lead to limited educational resources. Apart from a much higher level of redistribution in favor of less developed provinces, encouraging more balanced distribution of teachers and more broadly promoting economic equality are essential to reduce inequality in educational resources in China

Estimated values for unknown parameters.

<p>Estimated values for unknown parameters.</p

Information entropy of ciphered images with three color components.

<p>Information entropy of ciphered images with three color components.</p

A semi-symmetric image encryption scheme based on the function projective synchronization of two hyperchaotic systems

<div><p>Both symmetric and asymmetric color image encryption have advantages and disadvantages. In order to combine their advantages and try to overcome their disadvantages, chaos synchronization is used to avoid the key transmission for the proposed semi-symmetric image encryption scheme. Our scheme is a hybrid chaotic encryption algorithm, and it consists of a scrambling stage and a diffusion stage. The control law and the update rule of function projective synchronization between the 3-cell quantum cellular neural networks (QCNN) response system and the 6^<i>th</i>-order cellular neural network (CNN) drive system are formulated. Since the function projective synchronization is used to synchronize the response system and drive system, Alice and Bob got the key by two different chaotic systems independently and avoid the key transmission by some extra security links, which prevents security key leakage during the transmission. Both numerical simulations and security analyses such as information entropy analysis, differential attack are conducted to verify the feasibility, security, and efficiency of the proposed scheme.</p></div

BAG9 Confers Thermotolerance by Regulating Cellular Redox Homeostasis and the Stability of Heat Shock Proteins in <i>Solanum lycopersicum</i>

The Bcl-2-associated athanogene (BAG) family, a group of co-chaperones that share conservative domains in flora and fauna, is involved in plant growth, development, and stress tolerance. However, the function of tomato BAG genes on thermotolerance remains largely unknown. Herein, we found that the expression of BAG9 was induced during heat stress in tomato plants. Knockout of the BAG9 gene by CRISPR/Cas9 reduced, while its overexpression increased thermotolerance in tomato plants as reflected by the phenotype, photosynthesis rate, and membrane peroxidation. Heat-induced reactive oxygen species and oxidative/oxidized proteins were further increased in bag9 mutants and were normalized in BAG9 overexpressing plants. Furthermore, the activities of antioxidant enzymes, ascorbic acid (AsA)/dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), and reduced glutathione (GSH)/oxidized glutathione (GSSG) were reduced in bag9 mutants and were increased in BAG9 overexpressing plants under heat stress. Additionally, BAG9 interacted with Hsp20 proteins in vitro and in vivo. Accumulation of Hsp proteins induced by heat showed a reduction in bag9 mutants; meanwhile, it was increased in BAG9 overexpressing plants. Thus, BAG9 played a crucial role in response to heat stress by regulating cellular redox homeostasis and the stability of heat shock proteins

Research Progress and Development Demand of Nanocellulose Reinforced Polymer Composites

Nanocellulose is a type of nanomaterial with high strength, high specific surface area and high surface energy. Additionally, it is nontoxic, harmless, biocompatible and environmentally friendly and can be extracted from biomass resources. The surface groups of cellulose show high surface energy and binding activity on the nanoscale and can be modified by using various methods. Because nanocellulose has a high elastic modulus, rigidity and a low thermal expansion coefficient, it is an excellent material for polymer reinforcement. This paper summarizes the reinforcement mechanisms of nanocellulose polymer composites with a focus on the role of theoretical models in elucidating these mechanisms. Furthermore, the influence of various factors on the properties of nanocellulose reinforced polymer composites are discussed in combination with analyses and comparisons of specific research results in related fields. Finally, research focus and development directions for the design of high-performance nanocellulose reinforced polymer composites are proposed

Diguanylate Cyclase GdpX6 with c-di-GMP Binding Activity Involved in the Regulation of Virulence Expression in Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae

Cyclic diguanylate monophosphate (c-di-GMP) is a secondary messenger present in bacteria. The GGDEF-domain proteins can participate in the synthesis of c-di-GMP as diguanylate cyclase (DGC) or bind with c-di-GMP to function as a c-di-GMP receptor. In the genome of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), the causal agent of bacterial blight of rice, there are 11 genes that encode single GGDEF domain proteins. The GGDEF domain protein, PXO_02019 (here GdpX6 [GGDEF-domain protein of Xoo6]) was characterized in the present study. Firstly, the DGC and c-di-GMP binding activity of GdpX6 was confirmed in vitro. Mutation of the crucial residues D403 residue of the I site in GGDEF motif and E411 residue of A site in GGDEF motif of GdpX6 abolished c-di-GMP binding activity and DGC activity of GdpX6, respectively. Additionally, deletion of gdpX6 significantly increased the virulence, swimming motility, and decreased sliding motility and biofilm formation. In contrast, overexpression of GdpX6 in wild-type PXO99A strain decreased the virulence and swimming motility, and increased sliding motility and biofilm formation. Mutation of the E411 residue but not D403 residue of the GGDEF domain in GdpX6 abolished its biological functions, indicating the DGC activity to be imperative for its biological functions. Furthermore, GdpX6 exhibited multiple subcellular localization in bacterial cells, and D403 or E411 did not contribute to the localization of GdpX6. Thus, we concluded that GdpX6 exhibits DGC activity to control the virulence, swimming and sliding motility, and biofilm formation in Xoo