Analyzing platform evolution in the new digital era - case indoor positioning in China

In recent years, a World 2.0 new digital era has been reshaping the whole business world, leading to the emergence of many new digital platforms, which not only won in their own industry but also started offering services in other industries, including sometimes the emerging fields. In this regard, platforms may become useful for helping companies to expand in the new business area. Nevertheless, as the digital environment is highly dynamic and the platforms are always evolving, it is difficult to find an effective tool to estimate to which degree those platforms could be useful. In the meantime, technological advancements in different industries have been converging into four areas: social media & social networking, mobile/mobility, analytics, and cloud computing, resulting in the formation of a new term – SMAC. The aim of this thesis is to discuss whether SMAC can be used as a tool to assess the platform ecosystem and evaluate the platform evolution. To achieve the objective, a Chinese social networking platform – WeChat was studied with a focus on emerging indoor positioning business. The findings of case analysis can help the focal companies to identify more easily the potential partners in each vertical or horizontal market and to define their expansion strategy more adequately

Enhancing multiple harmonics in tapping mode atomic force microscopy by added mass with finite size

A method to enhance the harmonics of tapping mode atomic force microscopy is proposed in this study through an attached mass with finite size. It is demonstrated that ratios between higher-order natural frequencies and the fundamental one can be tuned to be specified integers with this method. The first three eigenmodes could be excited simultaneously, defining a highly-sensitive multi-harmonic cantilever, which can be utilized to resolve the sample properties effectively. The established theoretical model is validated by finite element analysis. This method can also be developed for the determination of mass, position and geometry of micro-particle in mass sensing application

Laboratory Study of the Heavy Weight Reversible Invert Emulsion Drilling Fluid

A novel reversible invert emulsion drilling fluid which is useful in resolving the contradiction between drilling efficiency, cementing and environmental effect has been invented based on the protonation reversibility of amine. The new drilling fluid has reversible emulsion-phase behavior. The formulation of the reversible invert emulsion drilling fluid was: white oil (5)+25% CaCl2 brine+50% weight agent ZFU-3+1.5% organoclay+0.5% lime +4.5% reversible emulsifier UPSG-1+1% wetting agent DYSL-3+an appropriate amount barite, oleaginous fluid to non-oleaginous fluid-ratio was 50/50, drilling fluid density was 1.9 kg/L, weight agent ZFU is sodium formate. Comprehensive performance evaluation with laboratory test showed that the new drilling fluid could be readily and reversibly converted from a water-in-oil emulsion to an oil-in water emulsion and back to a water-in-oil emulsion using an acid-based chemical switch. And before and after converting the emulsion mud maintains good performance, with emulsion-breaking voltage of 900-1,100 V, resistance to temperature of 150℃, HEHP filter loss of less than 6 ml. Additionally, the filter cake and oily cuttings could be treated easily. This suggests that the reversible invert emulsion drilling fluid has both merits of oil-based fluid and water –based fluids, and all properties are excellent. The reversible invert emulsion drilling fluid is capable of resolving the problems with the application of conventional oil-based drilling fluid. The density of the reversible invert emulsion is 1.9 kg/L, which is also better than the traditional reversible invert emulsion drilling fluid

Chromosome-level genome assembly of the largefin longbarbel catfish (Hemibagrus macropterus)

The largefin longbarbel catfish, Hemibagrus macropterus, is an economically important fish species in southwestern China, with males growing faster than females. This study presents a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly of the largefin longbarbel catfish, generated by integrating Illumina short reads, PacBio HiFi long reads, and Hi-C data. The assembled genome size was 858.5 Mb, with a contig and scaffold N50 of 5.8 Mb and 28.4 Mb, respectively. A total of 656 contigs were successfully anchored to 30 pseudochromosomes with a BUSCO score of 97.7%, consistent with the number of chromosomes analyzed by karyotype. The genome contained 29.5% repeat sequences, and a predicted total of 26,613 protein-coding genes, of which 25,769 (96.8%) were functionally annotated in different databases. Evolutionary analysis showed that H. macropterus was most closely related to H. wyckioides, with a divergence time of approximately 16.3 million years. Chromosomal syntenic relationships among H. macropterus, H. wyckioides, and Pelteobagrus fulvidraco revealed a one-to-one relationship for most chromosomes, except for break, fission, and inversion of some chromosomes. The first high-quality reference genome will not only provide a valuable genetic resource for the study of sex determination mechanisms and genetic breeding of largefin longbarbel catfish, but also contribute to comparative analyses of genome and chromosome evolution within Siluriformes

The asparagus genome sheds light on the origin and evolution of a young Y chromosome

Several models have been proposed to explain the emergence of sex chromosomes. Here, through comparative genomics and mutant analysis, Harkess et al. show that linked but separate genes on the Y chromosome are responsible for sex determination in Asparagus, supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution

The complete reference genome for grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) genetics and breeding

Grapevine is one of the most economically important crops worldwide. However, the previous versions of the grapevine reference genome consisted of thousands of fragments with missing centromeres and telomeres, which limited the accessibility of the repetitive sequences, the centromeric and telomeric regions, and the inheritance of important agronomic traits in these regions. Here, we assembled a telomere-to-telomere (T2T) gap-free reference genome for the pinot noir cultivar (PN40024) using the PacBio HiFi long reads. The T2T reference genome (PN_T2T) was 69 Mb longer with 9026 more genes identified than the 12X.v2 version (Canaguier et al., 2017). We annotated 67% repetitive sequences, 19 centromeres and 36 telomeres, and incorporated gene annotations of previous versions into the PN_T2T. We detected a total of 377 gene clusters, which showed associations with complex traits, such as aroma and disease resistance. Even though the PN40024 sample had been selfed for nine generations, we still found nine genomic hotspots of heterozygous sites associated with biological processes, such as the oxidation-reduction process and protein phosphorylation. The fully annotated complete reference genome, therefore, provides important resources for grapevine genetics and breeding.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Fund for Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas) to Yongfeng Zhou, the National Key Research and Development Program of China(grant2019YFA0906200), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (CAAS-ZDRW202101), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (grant KQTD2016113010482651), the BMBF funded de.NBI Cloud within the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI). We thank Bianca Frommer, Marie Lahaye, David Navarro-Payá, Marcela K. Tello-Ruiz and Kapeel Chougule for their help in analyzing the RNA-Seq data and in running the gene annotation pipeline. This study is also based upon work from COST Action CA17111 INTEGRAPE and form COST Innovators Grant IG17111 GRAPEDIA, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).ViticultureT2Tgap-fregene clustercentromeretelomerePublishe