circRNA3669 promotes goat endometrial epithelial cells proliferation via miR-26a/RCN2 to activate PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways

The development of receptive endometrium(RE) from pre-receptive endometrium(PE) for successful embryo implantation is a complex dynamic process in which the morphology and physiological states of the endometrial epithelium undergo a series of significant changes, including cell proliferation and apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In this study, a higher circRNA3669 level was observed in PE than in RE of goats. Functional assays revealed that this overexpression promoted the proliferation of goat endometrial epithelial cells(GEECs) by activating the expression of genes related to the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways,thereby inhibiting apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, circRNA3669 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA(ceRNA) to upregulate Reticulocalbin-2(RCN2) expression at the post-transcriptional level by interacting with and downregulating miR-26a in GEECs. In addition, RCN2, which is highly expressed in the PE of goats, was found to be regulated by β-estradiol(E2) and progesterone(P4). Our results demonstrated that RCN2 also affected the key proteins PI3K, AKT, mTOR, JNK, and P38 in the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways, thereby facilitating GEECs proliferation and suppressing their apoptosis in vitro. Collectively, we constructed a new circRNA3669-miR-26aRCN2 regulatory network in GEECs, which further provides strong evidence that circRNA could potentially play a crucial regulatory role in the development of RE in goats.

Food nutrition and toxicology targeting on specific organs in the era of single-cell sequencing

Due to the complex natures of dietary food components,it is difficult to elucidate how the compounds affect host health.Dietary food often selectively presents its mechanism of action on different cell types,and participates in the modulation of targeted cells and their microenvironments within organs.However,the limitations of traditional in vitro assays or in vivo animal experiments cannot comprehensively examine cellular heterogeneity and the tissue-biased influences.Single-cell RNA sequencing(sc RNA-seq)has emerged as an indispensable methodology to decompose tissues into different cell types for the demonstration of transcriptional profiles of individual cells.Sc RNA-seq applications has been summarized on three typical organs(brain,liver,kidney),and two representative immune-and tumor related health problems.The everincreasing role of sc RNA-seq in dietary food research with further improvement can provide sub-cellular information and the coupling between other cellular modalities.In this review,we propose utilizing sc RNAseq to more effectively capture the subtle and complex effects of food chemicals,and how they may lead to health problems at single-cell resolution.This novel technique will be valuable to elucidate the underlying mechanism of both the health benefits of food nutrients and the detrimental consequences food toxicants at the cellular level.

Conditional Generative Adversarial Network Enabled Localized Stress Recovery of Periodic Composites

Structural damage in heterogeneousmaterials typically originates frommicrostructures where stress concentration occurs.Therefore,evaluating the magnitude and location of localized stress distributions within microstructures under external loading is crucial.Repeating unit cells(RUCs)are commonly used to represent microstructural details and homogenize the effective response of composites.This work develops a machine learning-based micromechanics tool to accurately predict the stress distributions of extracted RUCs.The locally exact homogenization theory efficiently generates the microstructural stresses of RUCs with a wide range of parameters,including volume fraction,fiber/matrix property ratio,fiber shapes,and loading direction.Subsequently,the conditional generative adversarial network(cGAN)is employed and constructed as a surrogate model to establish the statistical correlation between these parameters and the corresponding localized stresses.The stresses predicted by cGAN are validated against the remaining true data not used for training,showing good agreement.This work demonstrates that the cGAN-based micromechanics tool effectively captures the local responses of composite RUCs.It can be used for predicting potential crack initiations starting from microstructures and evaluating the effective behavior of periodic composites.

Experimental research and energy analysis of a new type of dry ice powder pneumatic rock breaking technology

When the traditional drill and blast method is applied to rock crushing projects,it has strong vibration,loud noise and dust pollution,so it cannot be used in densely populated areas such as urban public works.We developed a supercritical CO_(2)true triaxial pneumatic rock-breaking experimental system,and conducted laboratory and field tests of dry ice powder pneumatic rock-breaking.The characteristics of the blast-induced vibration velocity waveform and the evolution of the vibration velocity and frequency with the focal distance were analyzed and discussed.The fracturing mechanism of dry ice powder pneumatic rock breaking is studied.The research results show that:(1)The vibration velocity induced by dry ice powder pneumatic rock breaking decays as a power function with the increase of the focal distance;(2)The vibration frequency caused by dry ice powder pneumatic rock breaking is mainly distributed in 1–120 Hz.Due to the dispersion effect,the dominant frequency of 10–30 Hz appears abnormally attenuated;(3)The traditional CO_(2)phase change fracturing energy calculation formula is also applicable to dry ice pneumatic rock breaking technology,and the trinitrotoluene(TNT)equivalent of fracturing energy is applicable to the Sadovsky formula;(4)Dry ice powder pneumatic rock breaking is shock wave and highenergy gas acting together to fracture rock,which can be divided into three stages,among which the gas wedge action of high-energy gas plays a dominant role in rock mass damage.

Robust state of charge estimation of lithium-ion battery via mixture kernel mean p-power error loss LSTM with heap-based-optimizer

The state of charge(SOC)estimation of lithium-ion battery is an important function in the battery management system(BMS)of electric vehicles.The long short term memory(LSTM)model can be employed for SOC estimation,which is capable of estimating the future changing states of a nonlinear system.Since the BMS usually works under complicated operating conditions,i.e the real measurement data used for model training may be corrupted by non-Gaussian noise,and thus the performance of the original LSTM with the mean square error(MSE)loss may deteriorate.Therefore,a novel LSTM with mixture kernel mean p-power error(MKMPE)loss,called MKMPE-LSTM,is developed by using the MKMPE loss to replace the MSE as the learning criterion in LSTM framework,which can achieve robust SOC estimation under the measurement data contaminated with non-Gaussian noises(or outliers)because of the MKMPE containing the p-order moments of the error distribution.In addition,a meta-heuristic algorithm,called heap-based-optimizer(HBO),is employed to optimize the hyper-parameters(mainly including learning rate,number of hidden layer neuron and value of p in MKMPE)of the proposed MKMPE-LSTM model to further improve its flexibility and generalization performance,and a novel hybrid model(HBO-MKMPE-LSTM)is established for SOC estimation under non-Gaussian noise cases.Finally,several tests are performed under various cases through a benchmark to evaluate the performance of the proposed HBO-MKMPE-LSTM model,and the results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid method can provide a good robustness and accuracy under different non-Gaussian measurement noises,and the SOC estimation results in terms of mean square error(MSE),root MSE(RMSE),mean absolute relative error(MARE),and determination coefficient R2are less than 0.05%,3%,3%,and above 99.8%at 25℃,respectively.

Genome-wide identification of apple auxin receptor family genes and functional characterization of MdAFB1

The auxin receptor(TIR1/AFBs)family encodes the F-box protein subunit,which is involved in the formation of the E3 ubiquitin ligase SCFTIR1/AFBs complex,a key component of the auxin signaling pathway.However,there are few studies on the auxin receptor family in apple(Malus×domestica).In this study,eight MdAFBs were identified,and phylogenetic analysis showed that they were classified into four groups and distributed on eight chromosomes.Herein,a comprehensive analysis of the MdAFB gene family was conducted to identify cis-acting elements,gene structures,protein structures,aligned sequences,conserved motifs,conserved amino acids,and the protein–protein interaction network.The results of yeast two-hybrid assays showed that MdAFB1 interacted with three auxin repressor proteins.The results of qRT-PCR showed that MdAFB1 responded to osmotic and salt stress.The overexpression of MdAFB1 increased osmotic and salt resistance in apple calli,and the ectopic expression of MdAFB1 enhanced osmotic and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.This study provided a basis for the identification of auxin receptor genes in apple and their functions in mediating osmotic and salt stress.

Enhanced hydrodeoxygenation of lignin-derived anisole to arenes catalyzed by Mn-doped Cu/Al_(2)O_(3)

Lignin is a renewable carbon resource to produce arenes due to its abundant aromatic structures.For the liquid-phase hydrodeoxygenation(HDO)based on metallic catalysts,the preservation of aromatic rings in lignin or its derivatives remains a challenge.Herein,we synthesized Mndoped Cu/Al_(2)O_(3) catalysts from layered double hydroxides(LDHs)for liquid-phase HDO of lignin-derived anisole.Mn doping significantly enhanced the selective deoxygenation of anisole to arenes and inhibited the saturated hydrogenation on Cu/Al_(2)O_(3).With Mn doping increasing,the surface of Cu particles was modified with MnO_(x) along with enhanced generation of oxygen vacancies(Ov).The evolution of active sites structure led to a controllable adsorption geometry of anisole,which was beneficial for increasing arenes selectivity.As a result,the arenes selectivity obtained on 4Cu/8Mn4AlO_(x) was increased to be more than 6 folds of that value on 4Cu/4Al_(2)O_(3) over the synergistic sites between metal Cu and Ov generated on MnO_(x).

Effect of aggregation on thermally activated delayed fluorescence and ultralong organic phosphorescence:QM/MM study

Aggregation-induced thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF)phenomena have attracted extensive attention recently.In this paper,several theoretical models including monomer,dimer,and complex are used for the explanation of the luminescent properties of(R)-5-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-2-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-1-yl)isoindoline-1,3-dione((R)-ImNCz),which was recently reported[Chemical Engineering Journal 418129167(2021)].The polarizable continuum model(PCM)and the combined quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics(QM/MM)method are adopted in simulation of the property of the molecule in the gas phase,solvated in acetonitrile and in aggregation states.It is found that large spin–orbit coupling(SOC)constants and a smaller energy gap between the first singlet excited state and the first triplet excited state(△E_(st))in prism-like single crystals(SC_(p)-form)are responsible for the TADF of(R)-lmNCz,while no TADF is found in block-like single crystals(SC_(b)-form)with a larger △E_(st).The multiple ultralong phosphorescence(UOP)peaks in the spectrum are of complex origins,and they are related not only to ImNCz but also to a minor amount of impurities(ImNBd)in the crystal prepared in the laboratory.The dimer has similar phosphorescence emission wavelengths to the(R)-lmNCz-SC_(p) monomers.The complex composed of(R)-lmNCz and(R)-lmNBd contributes to the phosphorescent emission peak at about 600 nm,and the phosphorescent emission peak at about 650 nm is generated by(R)-lmNBd.This indicates that the impurity could also contribute to emission in molecular crystals.The present calculations clarify the relationship between the molecular aggregation and the light-emitting properties of the TADF emitters and will therefore be helpful for the design of potentially more useful TADF emitters.

RETRACTED ARTICLE:Sapflow characteristics of three afforestation species during the wet and dry seasons in a dry–hot valley in Southwest China

This article is retracted by the publisher due to duplicate publication caused by technical mishap during the pro-duction process.

Insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying responses of apple trees to abiotic stresses

Apple(Malus×domestica)is a popular temperate fruit crop worldwide.However,its growth,productivity,and quality are often adversely affected by abiotic stresses such as drought,extreme temperature,and high salinity.Due to the long juvenile phase and highly heterozygous genome,the conventional breeding approaches for stress-tolerant cultivars are time-consuming and resource-intensive.These issues may be resolved by feasible molecular breeding techniques for apples,such as gene editing and marker-assisted selection.Therefore,it is necessary to acquire a more comprehensive comprehension of the molecular mechanisms underpinning apples’response to abiotic stress.In this review,we summarize the latest research progress in the molecular response of apples to abiotic stressors,including the gene expression regulation,protein modifications,and epigenetic modifications.We also provide updates on new approaches for improving apple abiotic stress tolerance,while discussing current challenges and future perspectives for apple molecular breeding.

政府补助、寻租活动与高管薪酬

本文基于薪酬契约理论考察政府补助对企业高管薪酬契约的影响，并重点探讨经济转型背景下高管寻租行为在这一过程中的作用及其机制，研究发现：（1）政府补助的获得提升了高管薪酬水平，并且寻租活动的存在加剧了这一现象，（2）企业内部控制质量与寻租行为作用下政府补助与高管薪酬的提升密切相关，企业内部控制较差时，高管薪酬提升效果更为明显，（3）寻租活动降低了高管薪酬与企业业绩之间的敏感性，研究结果表明，寻租行为增加政府补助对高管薪酬提升作用的机制更多体现在寻租高管对政府补助的权力攫取，反映政府补助沦为寻租者的“分红盛宴”，在这一机制作用下，高管薪酬契约的有效性显著降低，本文结论为探明政府补助存在效率损失的原因，厘清高管薪酬提升的作用机制提供了参考，有助于促使政府部门完善企业补助制度以及企业部门设计最优薪酬契约，从而最大化社会福利，

Adventitious root formation in rice requires OsGNOM1 and is mediated by the OsPINs family

The fibrous root system in cereals comprises primarily adventitious roots （ARs）, which play important roles in nutrient and water uptake. Current knowledge regarding the molecular mechanism underlying AR development is still limited. We report here the isolation of four rice （Oryza sativa L.） mutants, from different genetic backgrounds, all of which were defective in AR formation. These mutants exhibited reduced numbers of lateral roots （LRs） and partial loss of gravitropism. The mutants also displayed enhanced sensitivity to N-l-naphthylphthalamic acid, an inhibitor of polar auxin transport （PAT）, indicating that the mutations affected auxin transport. Positional cloning using one of the four mutants revealed that it was caused by loss-of-function of a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for ADP- ribosylation factor （OsGNOM1）. RT-PCR and analysis of promoter：：GUS transgenic plants showed that OsGNOM1 is expressed in AR primordia, vascular tissues, LRs, root tips, leaves, anthers and lemma veins, with a distribution pattern similar to that of auxin. In addition, the expressions of OsPIN2, OsPIN5b and OsPIN9 were altered in the mutants. Taken together, these findings indicate that OsGNOM1 affects the formation of ARs through regulating PAT.

Numerical analysis of the failure process of soil-rock mixtures through computed tomography and PFC3D models

Soil-rock mixture （SRM） is a unique type of geomaterial characterized by a heterogeneous composition and a complicated structure. It is intractable for the continuum-based soil and rock mechanics theories to accurately characterize and predict the SRM＇s mechanical properties. This study reports a novel numerical method incorporating microfocus computed tomography and PFC3D codes to probe the deformation and failure processes of SRM. The three-dimensional （3D） PFC models that represent the SRM＇s complex structures were built. By simulating the entire failure process in PFC3D, the SRM＇s strength, elastic modulus and crack growth were obtained. The influence of rock ratios on the SRM＇s strength, deformation and failure processes, as well as its internal mesoscale mechanism, were analyzed. By comparing simulation results with experimental data, it was verified that the 3D PFC models were in good agreement with SRM＇s real structure and the SRM＇s compression process, deformation and failure patterns; its intrinsic mesomechanism can be effectively analyzed based on such 3D PFC models.

Federated Learning for 6G Communications:Challenges,Methods,and Future Directions

As the 5G communication networks are being widely deployed worldwide,both industry and academia have started to move beyond 5G and explore 6G communications.It is generally believed that 6G will be established on ubiquitous Artificial Intelligence(AI)to achieve data-driven Machine Learning(ML)solutions in heterogeneous and massive-scale networks.However,traditional ML techniques require centralized data collection and processing by a central server,which is becoming a bottleneck of large-scale implementation in daily life due to significantly increasing privacy concerns.Federated learning,as an emerging distributed AI approach with privacy preservation nature,is particularly attractive for various wireless applications,especially being treated as one of the vital solutions to achieve ubiquitous AI in 6G.In this article,we first introduce the integration of 6G and federated learning and provide potential federated learning applications for 6G.We then describe key technical challenges,the corresponding federated learning methods,and open problems for future research on federated learning in the context of 6G communications.

The Growth-Promoting Mechanism of Brevibacillus laterosporus AMCC100017 on Apple Rootstock Malus robusta

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria(PGPR) located in rhizobacteria soil are beneficial to plant growth and development. A PGPR strain AMCC100017 of Brevibacillus laterosporus synthesizes the plant hormone IAA in a tryptophan-dependent manner. In this study, the AMCC100017 strain was used to treat Malus robusta, an excellent natural rootstock for apple production, and assess its ability to promote growth. The fresh weight, dry weight, plant height, and lateral root growth of M. robusta were significantly increased with treatment. The presence of the AMCC100017 strain increased IAA content in M. robusta and promoted root secretion of tryptophan. Colonization of the strain in the roots allowed continuous synthesis of IAA and promoted plant growth. In addition, the photosynthetic efficiency in leaves increased after microbial treatment, and the utilization of nitrogen, zinc, iron, copper and magnesium in leaves was increased, which was conducive to photosynthesis.Interestingly, the activities of CAT and SOD, as well as the contents of ROS in plants colonized by AMCC100017 were increased compared to control plants, but the activities of POD and MDA contents were decreased. AMCC100017 strain affected the antioxidant capacity and stress resistance of plants. AMCC100017 strain increased the content of soluble protein and soluble sugar in plants, improved plant metabolic activity and stress resistance. Therefore, AMCC100017 not only increased IAA content and photosynthetic efficiency to promote M. robusta growth, but also affected plant through multiple metabolic pathways.

CRISPR/Cas9 technology and its application in horticultural crops

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR associated 9(CRISPR/Cas9)system has recently become one popular technology due to its efficiency,precision,and simplicity compared with other genome editing tools such as Zinc Finger Nucleases(ZFNs)and Transcription Activator Like Effector Nucleases(TALENs).Horticultural crops provide energy and health-keeping nutrients to humankind.Genome-editing technology has become widely adopted in horticultural breeding with the increasing demand for high yield and better-quality horticultural crops.Here,we describe the CRISPR/Cas9 system construction,its optimization,including sgRNA promoter,sgRNA design,Cas9 protein promoter,SpCas9 variants and orthologs,and vector delivery methods.We also summarized the application of this technology in horticultural plants for stress responses enhancement,fruit quality improvement,and cultivation traits modification.This detailed review was compiled to help establish comprehensive understanding of the CRISPR/Cas9 systems and provide a reference for further developing this technology to manipulate horticultural plant traits effectively.

Experimental investigation on hard rock fragmentation of inserted tooth cutter using a newly designed indentation testing apparatus

This investigation aims to explore the effects of stress conditions and rock cutting rates on hard rock fragmentation through indentation tests on a newly designed triaxial testing apparatus.This apparatus was designed to realize a triaxial loading and indentation test of cylindrical specimens using inserted tooth cutter.The boreability and crushing efficiency of granite rock was investigated by analyzing the change rules of the thrusting force,penetration depth,characteristics of chippings and failure patterns.Several quantitative indexes were used to evaluate rock boreability in this investigation.The granite rock samples all had a chiselled pit and a crushed rock core.Under initial stress conditions,only flat-shape chippings were stripped from the rock surface when the thrusting force reached 20 kN.The rock cutting special energy had a close correlation with the initial stress conditions and inserted tooth shape.Moreover,a thrusting force prediction model was proposed in this paper.The contribution of this study is that for the first time the influence mechanism of the initial triaxial stress conditions on rock fragmentation is investigated using an inserted tooth and the newly designed testing apparatus.This study has a crucial importance for practical underground hard rock crushing in geoengineering.

植物油体蛋白基因家族研究进展

油体也称脂滴或油滴,是植物细胞中一种重要的储藏油脂的细胞器。油体由单层磷脂膜包裹中性脂肪酸组成,膜上镶嵌有多种膜蛋白,包括油体蛋白、油体钙蛋白和油体固醇蛋白,其中油体蛋白占80%~90%。油体蛋白在影响油体大小与稳定性、油体形成和降解、脂质代谢、种子成熟及萌发等多种生命活动中都发挥着重要的生物学作用。本文结合近些年国内外关于植物油体蛋白基因家族的研究进展系统总结了油体蛋白序列与结构特征及在植物生长发育中所扮演的重要角色,讨论了油体蛋白作为一种新型植物蛋白在实际生产中的应用场景和油体蛋白研究及应用过程中仍存在的一些问题,以期为人们后期更加深入研究植物油体蛋白相关分子功能及在生产实践中应用提供有益的参考。

Path following control of underactuated ships based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control

A path following controller is developed for underactuated ships with only surge force and yaw moment available to follow a predefined path.The proposed controller is based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control.It is shown that the optimal control law for a nonlinear path following system with ill-defined relative degree is continuous and nonsingular.The problem of ill-defined relative degree is solved.The path-following ability of the nonlinear system is guaranteed.Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law.

Sap flow characteristics of three afforestation species during the wet and dry seasons in a dry-hot valley in Southwest China

Assessing and using tree species （exotic or native） with superior tolerance to environmental stresses （such as drought and high temperature） play an important role in afforestation practices. In the present study, stem sap flow characteristics and responses to ambient meteo- rological factors of three tree species, Albizzia kalkora （native）, Azadirachta indica （exotic）, and Acacia auriculaeformis （exotic）, in a dry-hot valley （Yuanmou, Yunnan Province, China） were investigated using thermal dissipation probes. The diurnal dynamics of sap flow in three studied species displayed an obvious circadian rhythm during the wet and dry seasons, with the exception of A. indica during the dry season. The sap flow velocity （SFV） in A. kalkora and A. auriculaeformis was significantly positively correlated with photosynthetically active radiation （PAR）, air temperature, vapour pressure deficit （VPD） and wind speed, but negatively correlated with atmospheric relative humidity over the two seasons. The cross-corre- lation analysis also revealed that the SFV of the three species was significantly correlated with PAR and VPD （P 〈 0.001）. Additionally, stem sap flow lagged behind PAR but ahead of VPD, and the diurnal sap flow was more dependent on PAR than on VPD. However, we found that the dominant climatic factor influencing the stem sap flow differed between daytime and nighttime. PAR was more influential than other meteorological factors during the daytime, while VPD or other factors were more influential overnight. When the nighttime refilling ability of the three tree species was compared, our results suggest that A. indica has higher drought resistance and better for afforestation of the studied region.