Impacts of high temperature,relative air humidity,and vapor pressure deficit on the seed set of contrasting maize genotypes during flowering

Heat stress is a major constraint to current and future maize production at the global scale.Male and female reproductive organs both play major roles in increasing seed set under heat stress at flowering,but their relative contributions to seed set are unclear.In this study,a 2-year field experiment including three sowing dates in each year and 20 inbred lines was conducted.Seed set,kernel number per ear,and grain yield were all reduced by more than 80%in the third sowing dates compared to the first sowing dates.Pollen viability,silk emergence ratio,and anthesis-silking interval were the key determinants of seed set under heat stress;and their correlation coefficients were 0.89^(***),0.65^(***),and-0.72^(***),respectively.Vapor pressure deficit(VPD)and relative air humidity(RH)both had significant correlations with pollen viability and the silk emergence ratio.High RH can alleviate the impacts of heat on maize seed set by maintaining high pollen viability and a high silk emergence ratio.Under a warming climate from 2020 to 2050,VPD will decrease due to the increased RH.Based on their pollen viability and silk emergence ratios,the 20 genotypes fell into four different groups.The group with high pollen viability and a high silk emergence ratio performed better under heat stress,and their performance can be further improved by combining the improved flowering pattern traits.

ARTC1-mediated VAPB ADP-ribosylation regulates calcium homeostasis

Mono-ADP-ribosylation(MARylation)is a post-translational modification that regulates a variety of biological processes,including DNA damage repair,cell proliferation,metabolism,and stress and immune responses.In mammals,MARylation is mainly catalyzed by ADP-ribosyltransferases(ARTs),which consist of two groups:ART cholera toxin-like(ARTCs)and ART diphtheria toxin-like(ARTDs,also known as PARPs).The human ARTC(hARTC)family is composed of four members:two active mono-ADP-ARTs(hARTC1 and hARTC5)and two enzymatically inactive enzymes(hARTC3 and hARTC4).In this study,we systematically examined the homology,expression,and localization pattern of the hARTC family,with a particular focus on hARTC1.Our results showed that hARTC3 interacted with hARTC1 and promoted the enzymatic activity of hARTC1 by stabilizing hARTC1.We also identified vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein B(VAPB)as a new target of hARTC1 and pinpointed Arg50 of VAPB as the ADP-ribosylation site.Furthermore,we demonstrated that knockdown of hARTC1 impaired intracellular calcium homeostasis,highlighting the functional importance of hARTC1-mediated VAPB Arg50 ADP-ribosylation in regulating calcium homeostasis.In summary,our study identified a new target of hARTC1 in the endoplasmic reticulum and suggested that ARTC1 plays a role in regulating calcium signaling.

Cloud-based storage and computing for remote sensing big data:a technical review

The rapid growth of remote sensing big data(RSBD)has attracted considerable attention from both academia and industry.Despite the progress of computer technologies,conventional computing implementations have become technically inefficient for processing RSBD.Cloud computing is effective in activating and mining large-scale heterogeneous data and has been widely applied to RSBD over the past years.This study performs a technical review of cloud-based RSBD storage and computing from an interdisciplinary viewpoint of remote sensing and computer science.First,we elaborate on four critical technical challenges resulting from the scale expansion of RSBD applications,i.e.raster storage,metadata management,data homogeneity,and computing paradigms.Second,we introduce state-of-the-art cloud-based data management technologies for RSBD storage.The unit for manipulating remote sensing data has evolved due to the scale expansion and use of novel technologies,which we name the RSBD data model.Four data models are suggested,i.e.scenes,ARD,data cubes,and composite layers.Third,we summarize recent research on the application of various cloud-based parallel computing technologies to RSBD computing implementations.Finally,we categorize the architectures of mainstream RSBD platforms.This research provides a comprehensive review of the fundamental issues of RSBD for computing experts and remote sensing researchers.

Vertical accuracy assessment of freely available digital elevation models over low-lying coastal plains

The frequency of coastal flood damages is expected to increase significantly during the twenty-first century as sea level rises in the coastal floodplain.Coastal digital elevation model(DEM)data describing coastal topography are essential for assessing future flood-related damages and understanding the impacts of sea-level rise.The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(SRTM)and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model(ASTER GDEM)are currently the most accurate and freely available DEM data.However,an accuracy assessment specifically targeted at DEMs over low elevation coastal plains is lacking.The present study focuses on these areas to assess the vertical accuracy of SRTM and ASTER GDEM using Ice,Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite,Geoscience Laser Altimeter System(ICESat/GLAS)and Real Time Kinematic(RTK)Global Positioning System(GPS)field survey data.The findings show that DEM accuracy is much better than the mission specifications over coastal plains.In addition,optical remote sensing image analysis further reveals the relationship between DEM vertical accuracy and land cover in these areas.This study provides a systematic approach to assess the accuracy of DEMs in coastal zones,and the results highlight the limitations and potential of these DEMs in coastal applications.

Transmission of antibiotic resistance genes in agroecosystems: an overview

The use of antibiotics in human medicine andanimal husbandry has resulted in the continuous release ofantibiotics into the environment, which imposes highselection pressure onbacteria to develop antibioticresistance. The spread and aggregation of antibioticresistance genes (ARGs) in multidrug-resistant pathogensisone of the most intractable clinical challenges.Numerous studies have been conducted to profile thepatterns of ARGS in agricultural ecosystems, as this isclosely related to human health and wellbeing. This paperprovides an overview of the transmission of ARGs inagricultural ecosystems resulting from the application ofanimal manures and other organic amendments. The futureneed to control and mitigate the spread of antibioticresistance in agricultural ecosystems is also discussed,particularly from a holistic perspective, and requiresmultiple sector efforts to translate fundamental knowledgeinto effective strategies.

3D Path prediction of moving objects in a video-augmented indoor virtual environment

Augmented virtual environments(AVE)combine real-time videos with 3D scenes in a Digital Earth System or 3D GIS to present dynamic information and a virtual scene simultaneously.AVE can provide solutions for continuous tracking of moving objects,camera scheduling,and path planning in the real world.This paper proposes a novel approach for 3D path prediction of moving objects in a video-augmented indoor virtual environment.The study includes 3D motion analysis of moving objects,multi-path prediction,hierarchical visualization,and path-based multi-camera scheduling.The results show that these methods can give a closed-loop process of 3D path prediction and continuous tracking of moving objects in an AVE.The path analysis algorithms proved accurate and time-efficient,costing less than 1.3 ms to get the optimal path.The experiment ran a 3D scene containing 295,000 triangles at around 35 frames per second on a laptop with 1 GB of graphics card memory,which means the performance of the proposed methods is good enough to maintain high rendering efficiency for a video-augmented indoor virtual scene.