Application of Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method Based on Entropy Weight Theory in Evaluation of Salt Tolerance of Cotton

[Objective] The aim was to propose a new entropy weight fuzzy compre- hensive evaluation method for assessing cotton salt tolerance, realizing the objective, accurate and comprehensive evaluation of salt tolerance of cotton. [Method] A sand culture experiment under salt stress of 150 mmol/L of NaCI was designed. The in- dicator weight was determined with the entropy weight fuzzy comprehensive evalu- ation method, based on the salt injury index of indicators. The salt tolerance of cotton was evaluated comprehensively. [Result] At the germination stage, the entropy and weight of salt injury index of germination energy, vigor index, hypocotyl length and fresh weight were highest, followed by germination rate and germination index, and of root length were lowest. At the seedling stage, the entropy and weight of salt injury index of plasma membrane permeability, root vigor and leaf expansion rate were highest, followed by plant height and net photosynthetic rate, and of shoot dry weight and root dry weight were lowest. The salt tolerance of cotton differed a- mong growth stages and cultivars. Among the 11 cultivars, CCRI-44 and CCRI-75 were steadily salt-tolerant at both germination and seedling stages; CCRI-17, Sumi- an 22, Sumian 15 and Dexiamianl had a stable moderate salt tolerance; while Sumian 12 and Simian 3 were steadily salt-sensitive. [Conclusion] The evaluated result was objective and exact, which indicated that this method could be used in comprehensive evaluation of salt tolerance of cotton.

Evaluation of Cold Tolerance of Sugarcane under Drought Frost Condition

[Objective]The aim was to understand the change characteristics of sugarcane traits and evaluate the cold tolerance of sugarcane varieties under the drought and frost conditions.[Method] The experiment was carried out in Ziyuan County,Guangxi Province where the frost occurred often with 21 domestic and abroad sugarcane varieties（elites）.[Result] There were significant changes in the brix,green leaf number and photosynthetic rate of sugarcane before and after light frost and decreased more in cold-sensitive varieties.However,the correlation was only significant between the damage rate of stem length and internode,percentage of green leaves after heavy frost in relation to sugarcane brix and brix changes after light frost.Further analysis showed that the evaluation for cold tolerance of sugarcane would be more simple and reliable with traits of the damage rate of stem length and percentage of upper green leaves.The evaluation for varieties indicated that if it was not carried out for cold-tolerance identification in breeding program,the percentage of sugarcane varieties with good cold-tolerance will be lower than30%,and higher than 60% with poor cold-tolerance in subtropical and tropical regions.[Conclusion] This study had provided theoretical basis for the cold-resistant evaluation of sugar cane and the breeding of the varieties of cold-resistant.

Callus Induction of Alfalfa and Evaluation of Callus Tolerance to Acid and Aluminum

Medicago is an important grass in the legume family,which is suitable to be grown in neutral or alkalescent soils,and hence,can be widely spread in south of China with low pH value.It is one of major objectives to cultivate acid-aluminum tolerant species.In the research,6 high-quality species with high-yielding potential were taken as materials to make evaluation on acid-aluminum tolerance by cell-culture technique,and the results showed that tolerance capacity from high to low was GT13R＞Muge 701=Muge 702＞Acrora＞AC-3＞Sheshou No.2=Medicago sativa.

On the Identification and Evaluation of Salt Tolerance of Peanut Germplasm

For screening out salt tolerance germplasm and providing materials for ge- netic research of peanut, based on the indexes including relative germination poten- tial, relative germination rate, relative germination index and salt-injury rate, 128 peanut germplasms were selected for salt-tolerant identification and estimation under 2.5% NaCI. We found significant but various depressing levels of germination rate under salt stress among different germplasms, and only 5% of 128 germplasms were highly resistant to salinity. We also found that the relative germination index was a useful evaluation index for salt tolerance besides salt damage rate and rela- tive germination rate. After all, we comprehensively screened out 7 materials （JS011, JS024, JS125, JS491, JS523, JS524 and JS525） as salt tolerance germplasms for further research. Key

Response to Low Temperature and Evaluation on Cold Tolerance of Sugarcane at Seedling Stage

This study aimed to screen out cold-tolerant sugarcane cultivars through acomprehensive cold tolerance evaluation. A total of 9 sugarcane cultivars with good agronomic traits, bred by the Yunnan Agricultural University, were selected. They were treated by low temperaturestress （3 ℃）, and the changes of their cold-tolerant physiological and biochemical indices were monitored. The cold tolerance of the sugarcane cultivars was evaluated comprehensively by polar ordination. The results showed that the low temperature stress increased the averagemembrane conductivi- ty, soluble sugar content, MDA content, proline content, soluble protein content, chlorophyll content and peroxidase （POD） activity in sugarcane leaves by 21.21%, 134.1%, 83.60%, 35.47%, 47.72%, 9.07% and 565.2%, respectively, but decreased the superoxide dismutase （SOD） activity in sugarcane leaves by 19.67%. Among the 9 sugarcane cultivars, Dianzhe 03-91 showed the strongest cold tolerance, while Dianzhe 02-39 showed the poorest cold tolerance; the cold tolerance of Dianzhe 08-5, Dianzhe 05-103 and Dianzhe 01-58 was stronger than that of Dianzhe 04- 14, Dianzhe 04-429, Dianzhe 05-522 and Dianzhe 02-227.

Large-scale evaluation of pea(Pisum sativum L.)germplasm for cold tolerance in the field during winter in Qingdao

As a cool-season crop, pea(Pisum sativum L.) can tolerate frost at the vegetative stage but experiences yield loss when freezing stress occurs at the reproductive stage. Cold-tolerance improvement of pea varieties is important for stable yield and expansion of the winter pea planting area. Under natural low-temperature conditions during winter in Qingdao,Shandong, China, we evaluated the cold tolerance of 3672 pea germplasm accessions in the field and categorized them as displaying high resistance(214), moderate resistance(835), or susceptibility(2623). The highly and moderately resistant genotypes were validated in the following year. We found that genotypes from the winter production region showed higher cold tolerance than genotypes from the spring production region. The accessions identified as having high levels of cold tolerance are recommended as potential genetic resources in cold-tolerance breeding of pea.

Evaluation on Sixty-eight Rice Germplasms in Cold Tolerance at Germination Stage

Sixty-eight rice germplasms were used for cold tolerance evaluation at the germination stage in laboratory. Seeds of rice germplasms germinated at three different temperatures containing low temperature （constant 13°C for 28 days）, alternative temperature （a temperature cycle of 12 h at 20°C and 12 h at 23°C for 14 days） and control （constant 26°C for 7 days）. Analysis of variance revealed that temperature had a significant effect on germination rate, coleoptile length and radicle length. Germination rate was strongly affected by the low temperature and alternative treatments. Stress of low temperature at the germination stage on the tested rice germplasms caused a reduction in final germination rate and the lengths of coleoptile and radicle. The normal and healthy seeds began to germinate within 36 h after imbibition and germination were completed on the 7th day in the control, but delayed under the low and alternative temperature treatments. The low and alternative temperature treatments delayed the growth of coleoptile and radicle compared to the control, and the average lengths of coleoptile and radicule were strongly inhibited with the decreasing temperature in all of the tested germplasms. Taichung, a semi-dwarf, low amylose content and early maturing rice variety, showed a significantly higher germination rate at the three temperature treatments and its coleoptile length was significantly higher than other germplasms.

Evaluation of the Strategic Tolerance Human Resource Management Based on Matter-Element Analysis Method

The main features and connotation of the tolerance human resource management based on strategy are analyzed and summarized. The theory and method of systematic engineering is used to build the evaluation index systems for the tolerance human resource management. On the basis of it, by using the theory of matter-element analysis, the matter-element models are formulated for the evaluation of the tolerance human resource management. Regarding annual tolerance human resource management as the object of matter-dement, the tolerance human resource ：management for two years are analyzed and evaluated through using the matter. element models proposed. A ease study is carried out and the satisfactory results are obtained. A new scientific methed is provided for the evaluation of human resource management based on strategy.

Tolerance evaluation of rice varieties to the brown planthopper,Nilaparvata lugens feeding

The brown planthopper,Nilaparata lugens(Stl)(BPH)is one of the most important insect pests of rice in China and other east-southern Asian countries.Untilization of rice resistance varieties is one of the most econnomic and effective ways for

A New Tolerance Allocation Approach Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation and Annealing Evolution

A new approach of tolerance allocation is presented.Firstly, manufacturing difficulties ζs of components of an assembly are evaluated using the Fuzzy Comprehensive evaluation, then a new mathematical model is established by combining their function sensitivity factor ωs, and finally, annealing evolution is used to solve the problem. The example shows that the approach can give tolerances more economically.

Evaluation of Salt Tolerance in Nine Shandong Soybean Cultivars at the Germination Stage

[Objectives] Salt stress is an important abiotic stress affecting soybean yield. This study aimed to screen salt-tolerant soybean varieties to improve the utilization efficiency of saline-alkali land. [Methods]Under three concentrations of salt stress（ 5,10 and 15 g/L）,salt tolerance of nine Shandong soybean cultivars was identified at the germination stage. The number of germinated seeds,relative germination rate,plant height,radicle length and number of fibrous roots were recorded to analyze the relative salt damage index and evaluate the salt tolerance of different soybean cultivars. [Results]With the increase of salt concentration,the number of germinated seeds,plant height and number of fibrous roots showed a decreasing trend with significant differences among different soybean cultivars. Under three concentrations of salt stress,Shengdou 10,Lindou 10 and Hedou 28 exhibit relatively strong salt tolerance,indicating that these cultivars are relatively salt-tolerant and highly salt-tolerant cultivars; Hedou 12,Gaofeng 1,Weidou 9 and Qihuang 34 are moderately salt-tolerant cultivars; Qihuang 30 and Qihuang 31 are relatively sensitive to salt solution under 15 g/L NaC l stress. [Conclusions] This study provided high-quality germplasm materials for the improvement of salt tolerance of soybean varieties.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Aluminum Tolerance in Sugarcane Varieties at the Seedling Stage and Screening of Identification Indexes

[Objectives]Aluminum toxicity is one of the important stress factors affecting sugarcane quality and yield in south China,breeding aluminum tolerant varieties is a cost-effective and practical way.In order to explore the characteristics of aluminum toxicity tolerance in different sugarcane varieties and establish the comprehensive evaluation system for screening and breeding new varieties with aluminum toxicity tolerance,this study was conducted to perform comprehensive evaluation of aluminum tolerance in different sugarcane varieties and screening of identification indexes.[Methods]With 26 sugarcane varieties bred in different ecological areas as materials,through a pot experiment,nine indexes which include sugarcane plant height,root length,shoot dry weight,root dry weight,root-shoot ratio,relative chlorophyll content,leaf proline content,and shoot and root aluminum contents at the seedling stage under acid-aluminum stress and control conditions were measured,and the aluminum toxicity tolerance coefficients of various indexes of each variety were calculated.On this basis,the aluminum tolerance of all varieties was comprehensively evaluated by principal component analysis,subordinate function,cluster analysis and stepwise regression analysis.[Results]Compared with the control,the nine indexes showed more abundant variation among the 26 varieties under acid-aluminum stress.The correlation analysis confirmed that the contributions of the nine measured indexes to aluminum tolerance were significantly overlapped,and the subsequent principal component analysis summarized and combined the ones with strong correlation among the nine indexes,converting them into two new independent comprehensive indexes.The cumulative contribution rate showed that the two new indexes covered 82.448%of the information of the original nine indexes.Then,the comprehensive evaluation D values of the acid-aluminum tolerance of the 26 varieties were calculated based on the subordinate function values combined with the weights of the contribution rates of the two new comprehensive indexes.By clustering analysis on the D values,the 26 varieties were divided into 3 groups.Three varieties with the highest D values among the 26 varieties,Yunzhe 11-1074,Zhongtang 2 and Haizhe 28,were classified as varieties with strong aluminum tolerance,and 11 varieties including Yuegan 56 and Guitang 58,were moderately aluminum tolerant,while 12 varieties including Haizhe 32 and Yunrui 10-187 were sensitive to aluminum stress.Finally,the optimal regression equation analysis was carried out with the comprehensive evaluation D value of aluminum tolerance as the dependent variable and the aluminum toxicity tolerance coefficients of various indexes as independent variables,and the evaluation model of aluminum tolerance in sugarcane was established.Root length,root dry weight,relative chlorophyll content,leaf proline content,shoot aluminum content and root aluminum content,which had significant effects on aluminum tolerance of sugarcane seedlings,were selected as the evaluation indexes of acid-aluminum tolerance of sugarcane seedlings.[Conclusions]This study not only obtained a number of aluminum-tolerant varieties,but also provides a theoretical basis and reference for future genetic breeding of aluminum-tolerant sugarcane.

Screening and Evaluation of Salt Tolerant Varieties in Peanut

The selection and application of salt tolerance varieties in peanut is impor- tant for the exploitation of saline soil. In this study, 41 peanut varieties were select- ed for the evaluation of salt tolerance in both germination and young seedling stage. The results showed the germination and growth of peanut were significantly inhibited by salt stress, which were enhanced by salt concentration increasing. The 0.5% NaCI was selected as the most suitable concentration for further identification, and the characters in germination stage （including the relative germination potential, relative germination rate and germination index） and young seedling stage （including relative main root length, seedling height, fresh weight, dry weight, et aL） were measured. Cluster analysis showed the varieties could be divided into different groups, and 9 and 3 salt-tolerant varieties were identified in the two stages, respec- tively, including two varieties performed well in both two stages, which could be useful for the breeding of new salt tolerance varieties and the study of salt toler- ance mechanism.

Saline-Alkali Tolerance in Rice: Physiological Response, Molecular Mechanism, and QTL Identification and Application to Breeding

Salinity-alkalinity is incipient abiotic stress that impairs plant growth and development.Rice(Oryza sativa)is a major food crop greatly affected by soil salinity and alkalinity,requiring tolerant varieties in the saline-alkali prone areas.Understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms of saline-alkali tolerance paves the base for improving saline-alkali tolerance in rice and leads to progress in breeding.This review illustrated the physiological consequences,and molecular mechanisms especially signaling and function of regulating genes for saline-alkali tolerance in rice plants.We also discussed QTLs regarding saline-alkali tolerance accordingly and ways of deployment for improvement.More efforts are needed to identify and utilize the identified QTLs for saline-alkali tolerance in rice.

A new method for evaluating the drought tolerance of upland rice cultivars

Worldwide, approximately 27 million ha of rice are grown in upland rather than paddy fields, and is subject to drought stress. To counter this stress, it is desirable to breed new rice cultivars with improved drought tolerance. For breeding purposes, especially for breeding upland rice, it is desirable to develop a simple and accurate method to evaluate rice drought tolerance. We describe a new method that can be used to evaluate efficiently the drought tolerance degree(DTD) of upland rice cultivars, and call it the DTD method.DTD is defined as the mean of the ratios of green leaf length to total leaf length of the top three leaves in every rice seedling after drought treatment, and thus takes values from zero to one. To test whether the DTD method works effectively to evaluate drought tolerance of upland rice cultivars, we determined the DTD values of 13 upland rice cultivars showing varying degrees of drought tolerance in drought-tolerance trials. The idrl-1 mutant, which displayed the strongest drought tolerance of the 13 cultivars as identified by drought-tolerance trials under severe drought stress, had the highest DTD value and297-28, displaying the weakest drought tolerance, had the lowest DTD value. Further analyses of water potential, survival rate, panicles per plant, spikelets per panicle, seed setting rate, yield per plant, and contents of proline, chlorophyll, and malondialdehyde(MDA) indicated that DTD values are in general correlated with the values of these traits,making this new method useful for assessing the drought tolerance of upland rice cultivars.These results show that the DTD method is a simple, direct and relatively accurate evaluation method for drought-tolerance breeding of upland rice.

Overexpression of vacuolar proton pump ATPase(V-H^+-ATPase) subunits B, C and H confers tolerance to salt and saline-alkali stresses in transgenic alfalfa(Medicago sativa L.)

The vacuolar proton pump ATPase（V-H^＋-ATPase）, which is a multi-subunit membrane protein complex, plays a major role in the activation of ion and nutrient transport and has been suggested to be involved in several physiological processes, such as cell expansion and salt tolerance. In this study, three genes encoding V-H^＋-ATPase subunits B（Sc VHA-B, Gen Bank： JF826506）, C（Sc VHA-C, Gen Bank： JF826507） and H（Sc VHA-H, Gen Bank： JF826508） were isolated from the halophyte Suaeda corniculata. The transcript levels of Sc VHA-B, Sc VHA-C and Sc VHA-H were increased by salt, drought and saline-alkali treatments. V-H^＋-ATPase activity was also examined under salt, drought and saline-alkali stresses. The results showed that V-H^＋-ATPase activity was correlated with salt, drought and saline-alkali stress. Furthermore, V-H^＋-ATPase subunits B, C and H（Sc VHA-B, Sc VHA-C and Sc VHA-H） from S. corniculata were introduced separately into the alfalfa genome. The transgenic alfalfa was verified by Southern and Northern blot analysis. During salt and saline-alkali stresses, transgenic lines carrying the B, C and H subunits had higher germination rates than the wild type（WT）. More free proline, higher superoxide dismutase（SOD） activity and lower malondialdehyde（MDA） levels were detected in the transgenic plants under salt and saline-alkali treatments. Moreover, the Sc VHA-B transgenic lines showed greater tolerance to salt and saline-alkali stresses than the WT. These results suggest that overexpression of Sc VHA-B, Sc VHA-C and Sc VHA-H improves tolerance to salt and saline-alkali stresses in transgenic alfalfa.

COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF FAULT-TOLERANT PROPERTIES OF REDUNDANT ROBOTS

When a redundant robot performs a fault-tolerant operation for locked joint failures, its fault tolerant properties should include dexterity and sudden change of joint velocity at the moment of locking failed joints and the dexterity during the post-failure. Firstly three fault-tolerant indexes, reduced condition number, sudden change of relative joint velocity and centrality are proposed, which can comprehensively evaluate the kinematical performance of a redundant robot during its entire fault-tolerant operations. Then, the influence of the initial postures of robot＇s end-effector on these fault-tolerant indexes is analyzed with a planar robot and a spatial robot. Simulation results show that for a given task the joint trajectory with the best comprehensive effect of fault tolerance can be determined by optimizing the initial posture of a robot.

Evaluation and Quantitative Inheritance of Several Drought-Relative Traits in Maize

The authors evaluated 57 parental inbred lines of maize hybrids disseminated in Southwest China for drought tolerance under drought-stressed and well-watered conditions. Multiple regression analyses between drought tolerant coefficients of the grain yield per plant and 15 morphological and physiological traits measured from a subset of 12 selected lines, identified traits 1 and 5, which were important for drought tolerance, at the seedling and reproductive stages respectively. Gene effects, combining abilities, and heritabilities of these traits were estimated using generation mean and diallel cross methods. Dominance effect was more important than additive effect for the plant height, anthesis-silking interval （ASI）, root weight, and the grain yield per plant, whereas, they were about equal for the leaf emergence rate. The variances of special combining ability （SCA） were about double that of the general combining ability （GCA） for plant height, ASI and grain yield per plant, although they were about equal for leaf emergence rate and root weight. Narrow sense heritabilities of the five traits for the reproductive stage were not high （12.8-29.6%）, although broad sense heritabilities for plant height, ASI, and grain yield were as high as 70-85%. A segregating population consisting of 183 F2 plants from the cross N87-1 （drought tolerant） × 9526 （susceptible）, was genotyped at 103 SSR loci and the F2：4 families were evaluated under two water regimes. Twelve quantitative trait loci （QTLs） （two for plant height, five for ASI, four for root biomass, and one for grain yield） were identified, most of which had overdominant gene action. Some chromosomal regions, such as those linked to markers umcl051 （bin 4.08）, umc2881 （bin 4.03）, and phi034 （bin 7.02）, had overlapping QTLs.

Comparison of Cold Tolerance in Three Ground-cover Chrysanthemum Cultivars during Wintering in the Open Field

[Objectives]Among many chrysanthemum types,the ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivar group has the characteristics of dwarf plant,long flowering period,rich color and strong resistance to stress.This study aimed to screen out cultivars with strong cold tolerance in order that they can be used for planting in urban green space and economic forests in northern cold areas,so as to enrich the plant community structures of landscape in cold regions.[Methods]Three ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivars,i.e.,‘Meiaihuang’,‘Xinhong’and‘Zixunzhang’,were selected as the experimental materials.During the wintering period in the field in Beijing,they were observed and measured for the changes of the morphological manifestations and the physiological indices,and the relationship between the indices and low temperature was analyzed.The cold tolerance of the three ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivars was also comprehensively evaluated.[Results]During the open-field overwintering period,the root activity of the three ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivars increased slowly with cooling,decreased at the freezing low temperature,and then increased again in early spring.With natural cooling,the membrane injury percentages(MIPs)of the leaves and foot shoots increased significantly,and the contents of malondialdehyde(MDA)increased;the contents of soluble sugar(SS)and proline(Pro)gradually accumulated,and the contents of SS and Pro in foot shoots increased significantly in late winter;and the superoxide dismutase(SOD)activity showed a similar trend of rising slowly at first and then increasing significantly.There were correlations between MIPs in the leaves and foot shoots of the three cultivars and other physiological indices:a significant negative correlation with MDA content,and a significant positive correlation with SS content,Pro content and SOD activity.[Conclusions]Combining the morphological manifestations and physiological indices,the cold tolerance of the three ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivars was evaluated by the subordinate function method.The results showed that the cold tolerance of the three ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivars ranked as‘Meiaihuang’>‘Xinhong’>‘Zixunzhang’.The strong cold tolerance of foot shoots and roots was the main reason that the three ground-cover chrysanthemum cultivars could overwinter in the open field.

Evaluation of Tomato Genetic Resources for Response to Water Deficit

Water deficit strongly affects plant yield and quality. However, plants can minimize drought injury by adaptation mechanisms that have evolved to escape harmful conditions. The response to water deprivation is a complex trait controlled by several genes. In order to gain a deeper understanding of drought response mechanisms in tomato, a collection of 27 genotypes was studied under different water deficit conditions. Since developmental stages might be differently influenced by drought, analyses were carried out on young plantlets during fruit setting. The only genotype that showed good performances both as water retention and fruit production was the ecotype Siccagno. All the genotypes were analyzed at molecular level with the aim of detecting structural polymorphisms in selected stress-responsive genes. In addition, the expression level of a number of these genes was measured in the genotypes more tolerant to water deficit. Many polymorphisms were detected in six stress-responsive genes, and some could imply significant modifications in the protein structure. Furthermore, the expression analysis by RT-qPCR of three stress-responsive genes allowed arguing that a higher level of expression of the gene erd15 might be related to the better response to water deficit exhibited by Siccagno. Similarly, the lower expression of eight genes in the same genotype analysed through a microarray experiment confirmed the involvement of these stress-related genes in the tomato response to drought. Further investigations are required for a better comprehension of the mechanisms underlying response to water deficit in tomato by exploiting the genetic resource identified as more tolerant. The use of new technologies able to globally analyze structural polymorphism and expression level of genes will succeed to identify crucial genes involved in stress response in the ecotype Siccagno grown under different water regimes.