Pesticide food safety standards as companions to tolerances and maximum residue limits

Allowable levels for pesticide residues in foods, known as tolerances in the US and as maximum residue limits （MRLs） in much of the world, are widely yet inappropriately perceived as levels of safety concern. A novel approach to develop scientifically defensible levels of safety concern is presented and an example to determine acute and chronic pesticide food safety standard （PFSS） levels for the fungicide captan on strawberries is provided. Using this approach, the chronic PFSS level for captan on strawberries was determined to be 2 000 mg kg-1 and the acute PFSS level was determined to be 250 mg kg-1. Both levels are far above the existing tolerance and MRLs that commonly range from 3 to 20 mg kg-~, and provide evidence that captan residues detected at levels greater than the tolerance or MRLs are not of acute or chronic health concern even though they represent violative residues. The benefits of developing the PFSS approach to serve as a companion to existing tolerances/MRLs include a greater understanding concerning the health significance, if any, from exposure to violative pesticide residues. In addition, the PFSS approach can be universally applied to all potential pesticide residues on all food commodities, can be modified by specific jurisdictions to take into account differences in food consumption practices, and can help prioritize food residue monitoring by identifying the pesticide/commodity combinations of the greatest potential food safety concern and guiding development of field level analytical methods to detect pesticide residues on prioritized pesticide/commodity combinations.

Effects of Dimensional Tolerances on the Friction Power Loss of Hydrodynamic Journal Bearing System

According to the dimensional tolerances on hydrodynamic journal bearing system, a nonlinear oil film force model was established,and the Reynolds' equation was solved by adopting finite difference method. In order to fulfill different dimensional tolerances in the system,adopting 2kfactor design and using the eccentricity ratio corresponding to the stability critical curve,the effects of the friction power loss brought by the dimensional tolerances of the dynamic viscosity,bearing width,bearing diameter and journal diameter were analyzed. The effect on dynamic characteristics of the hydrodynamic journal bearing system was quantitatively analyzed,and the nonlinear dynamic analysis, modeling and calculation methods were studied while considering the manufacturing tolerances. The results show that in contrast to the impacts of the tolerances in journal diameter,dynamic viscosity and bearing width,the bearing diameter tolerance would lead to the rise in the power loss, and the dimensional tolerances have different degrees of impacts on the journal bearing system. The friction power loss decreased as the eccentricity ratio increased, and when the eccentricity ratio was 0. 695 the power loss came to the minimum.The investigation would find the best solution and reduce energy consumption,then control varieties of nonlinear dynamical behavior effectively,and provide a theoretical basis for hydrodynamic journal bearing system in parameter design.

Robust Fault Diagnosis of Analog Circuits with Tolerances

A method for robust analog fault diagnosis using hybrid neural networks is proposed. The primary focus of the paper is to provide robust diagnosis using a mechanism to deal with the problem of element tolerances and reduce testing time. The proposed approach is based on the fault dictionary diagnosis method and backward propagation neural network (BPNN) and the adaptive resonance theory (ART) neural network. Simulation results show that the method is robust and fast for fault diagnosis of analog circuits with tolerances.

Extensive Taguchi's Quality Loss Function Based On Asymmetric tolerances

If specification interval is asymmetric, basic specification is the target value of quality characteristics. In this paper Taguchi's quality loss function is applied to describe quality loss based on asymmetric tolerances. The measurement of quality loss which is caused by the deviation of quality characteristics from basic specification is further presented.

Selection efficiencies for improving drought/salt tolerances and yield using introgression breeding in rice(Oryza sativa L.)

The backcross(BC) breeding strategy has been increasingly used for developing high yielding varieties with improved abiotic stress tolerances in rice. In this study, 189Huang-Hua-Zhan(HHZ) introgression lines(ILs) developed from three different selection schemes were evaluated for yield related traits under drought stress and non-stress conditions in the target and off-season winter nursery environments to assess the selection efficiency of BC breeding for improving different complex traits, and led us to five important results. The first result indicated that the primary target traits should be selected first in the target environments(TEs) in order to achieve the maximum genetic gain. Secondly, BC breeding for drought tolerance(DT) in rice was almost equally effective by strong phenotypic selection in the main target environments and in the winter-season of Hainan.Thirdly, exploiting genetic diversity in the subspecific gene pools is of great importance for future genetic improvement of complex traits in rice. Fourthly, considerable genetic gain can be effectively achieved by selection for secondary target traits among the ILs with the primary traits. Finally, the developed ILs provide useful materials for future genetic/genomic dissection and molecular breeding of complex traits.

Production of Transgenic Tall Fescue Plants with Enhanced Stress Tolerances by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-Mediated Transformation

In order to improve stress tolerances of turf-type tall fescue （Festuca arundinacea Schreb.）, Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105 carrying plasmid pCMD containing stress tolerance-related CBF1 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana was used to transform mature seeds-derived embryogenic calli of four cultivars. A total of 112 transgenic plants were regenerated from 32 independent lines and verified by histochemical detection of GUS activity, PCR assay and Southern hybridization analysis. The transformation frequency ranged from 0.92 to 2.87% with apparent differences among the cultivars. Stress tolerances of transgenic plants were enhanced, which was shown by the facts that transgenic plants had distinct growth superiority and significantly higher survival rate than non-transformed ones under high salinity and high osmosis stresses, and that relative electronic conductivity of in vitro leaves treated with low and high temoeratures, dehvdration and high salinity stresses was 25-30% lower in transgenic plants than in control plants.In addition,it was observed that growth of transgenic plants was inhibited due to constitutive overexpression of CBF1 gene under normal environmental conditions.

QTL underlying iron and zinc toxicity tolerances at seedling stage revealed by two sets of reciprocal introgression populations of rice(Oryza sativa L.)

Iron and zinc are two trace elements that are essential for rice. But they are toxic at higher concentrations, leading to severe rice yield losses especially in acid soils and inland valleys. In this study, two reciprocal introgression line(IL) populations sharing the same parents were used with high-density SNP bin markers to identify QTL tolerant to iron and zinc toxicities. The results indicated that the japonica variety 02,428 had stronger tolerance to iron and zinc toxicities than the indica variety Minghui 63. Nine and ten QTL contributing to iron and zinc toxicity tolerances,respectively, were identified in the two IL populations. The favorable alleles of most QTL came from 02,428. Among them, q FRRDW2, q ZRRDW3, and q FRSDW11 appeared to be independent of genetic background. The region C11S49–C11S60 on chromosome 11 harbored QTL affecting multiple iron and zinc toxicity tolerance-related traits, indicating partial genetic overlap between the two toxicity tolerances. Our results provide essential information and materials for developing excellent rice cultivars with iron and/or zinc tolerance by marker-assisted selection(MAS).

Estimation of genetic parameters for upper thermal tolerances and growth-related traits in turbot Scophthalmus maximus

An abnormally high temperature produces a stress response in turbot causing large economic losses in the turbot aquaculture industry of China. A genetic improvement of the upper thermal tolerance (UTT) of turbot could allow cultured fi sh to adapt. A genetic evaluation of UTT is required for determining the practicability of including this trait into a breeding program. In this study, data were recorded from a temperature tolerance test conducted on 3 200 individual turbots from 32 full-sib groups. A cross-sectional linear model and a cross-sectional threshold probit model were used to analyze the test-period survival and a cross-sectional threshold logit model was used to analyze the test-day survival. In addition, phenotypic and genetic correlations between body weight and survival data were estimated. The estimated heritability values obtained from the cross-sectional linear model (CSL), the cross-sectional threshold (probit) model (THRp), and the cross-sectional threshold (logit) model (THRl) were 0.247 9±0.108 3, 0.288 3±0.161 2, and 0.106 9±0.045 2, respectively. The correlation coeffi cients among the full-sib family estimated breeding values (EBVs) obtained from the three models were greater than 0.998 6 and all models produced an almost identical family ranking. The accuracies of selection obtained with the CSL, THRp, and THRl model were 0.773 8, 0.775 4, and 0.784 4, respectively, the greatest from the THRl model. The genetic correlations between body weight and survival data EBVs from the CSL, THRp, and THRl models were 0.020 1,-6.201 1×10^-4 , and -3.115 4×10^-4 , respectively, and the phenotypic correlations between the two traits were -0.837 1 and -0.667 1, respectively. The findings of this study provide background information to determine the best strategy of selection for the genetic improvement of UTT in turbot.

Effect of Flaxseed on Bile Tolerances of <i>Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus</i>, and <i>Streptococcus thermophilus</i>

Consumption of flaxseed provides health benefits. Bile tolerance allows survival of probiotics in the intestinal tract. The objective was to determine whether or not flaxseed enhances bile tolerance of Lactobacillus acidophilus (L. acidophilus) LA-K, Lactobacillus delbruekii ssp. bulgaricus (L. bulgaricus) LB-12, and Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus (S. thermophilus) ST-M5. Control and experimental (62 g flaxseed/L) broths containing 0.3% oxgall were prepared for each culture, sterilized, cooled, inoculated, and plated for 8 h. Growth of each microorganism in both the control and experimental broths was evaluated by the slope of the regression line of its log count versus time after inoculation. Flaxseed significantly enhanced growth of L. acidophilus but not L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus over 8 h compared to its corresponding control. Therefore, flaxseed improved the bile tolerance of L. acidophilus but not of S. thermophilus and L. bulgaricus.

Robustness Criteria for Concurrent Evaluation of the Impact of Tolerances in Multiobjective Electric Machine Design Optimization

This article is about a comparison of different measures for determining the robustness or reliability of electric machine designs in the presence of inevitable tolerances.The selected criteria shall be suitable for concurrent evaluation in the course of solving state-of-the-art large scale multi-objective opti-mization problems.In the past,besides particularly customized criteria,mainly gradient based measures,worst case information,or standard deviation based quantities were considered.In this work,the quantile measure is introduced for electric machine design optimization and compared with the existing solutions.The evaluation of a design’s robustness is typically examined based on finite element simulations.As for most measures a signif-icant number of parameter combinations and thus computations are required,a surrogate model assisted approach is presented to minimize computational effort and runtime.A test problem is defined and analyzed to illustrate the differences of selected robustness measures.Results reveal the importance of considering robustness in the optimization process.Moreover,a careful choice of appropriate measures has to be taken.Selected designs are compared and conclusions and an outlook on future activities are presented.

Influence of substrate process tolerances on transmission characteristics of frequency-selective surface

Frequency-selective surface （FSS） is a two-dimensional periodic structure consisting of a dielectric substrate and the metal units （or apertures） arranged periodically on it. When manufacturing the substrate, its thickness and dielectric constant suffer process tolerances. This may induce the center frequency of the FSS to shift, and consequently influence its characteristics. In this paper, a bandpass FSS structure is designed. The units are the Jerusalem crosses arranged squarely. The mode-matching technique is used for simulation. The influence of the tolerances of the substrate＇s thickness and dielectric constant on the center frequency is analyzed. Results show that the tolerances of thickness and dielectric constant have different influences on the center frequency of the FSS. It is necessary to ensure the process tolerance of the dielectric constant in the design and manufacturing of the substrate in order to stabilize the center frequency.

Leaf Morphology Genes SRL1 and RENL1 Co-Regulate Cellulose Synthesis and Affect Rice Drought Tolerance

The morphological development of rice(Oryza sativa L.)leaves is closely related to plant architecture,physiological activities,and resistance.However,it is unclear whether there is a co-regulatory relationship between the morphological development of leaves and adaptation to drought environment.In this study,a drought-sensitive,roll-enhanced,and narrow-leaf mutant(renl1)was induced from a semi-rolled leaf mutant(srl1)by ethyl methane sulfonate(EMS),which was obtained from Nipponbare(NPB)through EMS.Map-based cloning and functional validation showed that RENL1 encodes a cellulose synthase,allelic to NRL1/OsCLSD4.The RENL1 mutation resulted in reduced vascular bundles,vesicular cells,cellulose,and hemicellulose contents in cell walls,diminishing the water-holding capacity of leaves.In addition,the root system of the renl1 mutant was poorly developed and its ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species(ROS)was decreased,leading to an increase in ROS after drought stress.Meanwhile,genetic results showed that RENL1 and SRL1 synergistically regulated cell wall components.Our results revealed a theoretical basis for further elucidating the molecular regulation mechanism of cellulose on rice drought tolerance,and provided a new genetic resource for enhancing the synergistic regulation network of plant type and stress resistance,thereby realizing simultaneous improvement of multiple traits in rice.

Differences in leaf cuticular wax induced by whole-genome duplication in autotetraploid sour jujube

Drought-resistant plants exhibit strong water retention capability.In this regard,the autotetraploid sour jujube leaves exhibit better water retention than diploid leaves.Morphological comparisons and physiological comparisons of diploid and autotetraploid leaves showed that the autotetraploid leaves had thicker leaf cuticles and more leaf wax accumulation than the diploid leaves,which could reduce cuticle permeability and improve the drought tolerance of leaves.In this study,the cuticular wax crystalloids on the adaxial and abaxial sides of young and mature jujube leaves were observed in the two ploidy types,and unique cuticular wax crystalloids covering a large area of the cuticle on autotetraploid sour jujube leaves may provide an advantage in reducing leaf non-stomata transpiration and improving plant drought tolerance.Based on the transcriptome,115 differentially expressed genes between diploids and autotetraploids were further analyzed and found to be involved in the accumulation of cuticular wax components,including terpenoids,fatty acids,and lipids,as well as ABC transporter and wax biosynthetic process.Finally,14 genes differentially expressed between glossy autotetraploid leaves and nonglossy diploid leaves,such as LOC107414787,LOC107411574 and LOC107413721,were screened as candidate genes by qRT-PCR analysis.This findings provided insights into how polyploidization improved drought tolerance.

Transcription factor CabHLH035 promotes cold resistance and homeostasis of reactive oxygen species in pepper

Plant basic helix-loop-helix(bHLH)transcription factors(TFs)play central roles in various abiotic stresses.However,its role in plant cold resistance is largely unknown.Previously,we characterised CaNAC035 in pepper,which positively regulates tolerance to cold,salt and drought stresses tolerance.Here,we identified CabHLH035,a CaNAC035-interacting protein in pepper.To explore its functions in cold stress tolerance,we silenced the gene in pepper via virus-induced gene silencing(VIGS)and overexpressed the gene in Arabidopsis.The results showed that CabHLH035 expression was induced by cold treatment,and silencing of CabHLH035 decreased cold stress tolerance.Conversely,overexpression of CabHLH035 in Arabidopsis increased cold stress tolerance.To investigate homologs genes of C-repeat binding factor(CBF)pathway proteins and reactive oxygen species(ROS)marker gene expression blocking by CabHLH035,we performed yeast one-hybrid(Y1H),dual luciferase and electrophoretic mobility shift assay experiments.The results showed that CabHLH035 bound to the region upstream of the CaCBF1A and CaAPX promoters.Additionally,CaCBF1A bound to the CaDHN4 promoter.Taken together,our results showed that CabHLH035 plays a crucial role in cold stress tolerance and its potential as a target for breeding cold-resistant crops.The findings provide a basis for studying the functions and regulatory network of cold stress tolerance in pepper.

The ABA synthesis enzyme allele OsNCED2^(T)promotes dryland adaptation in upland rice

Upland rice shows dryland adaptation in the form of a deeper and denser root system and greater drought resistance than its counterpart,irrigated rice.Our previous study revealed a difference in the frequency of the OsNCED2 gene between upland and irrigated populations.A nonsynonymous mutation(C to T,from irrigated to upland rice)may have led to functional variation fixed by artificial selection,but the exact biological function in dryland adaptation is unclear.In this study,transgenic and association analysis indicated that the domesticated fixed mutation caused functional variation in OsNCED2,increasing ABA levels,root development,and drought tolerance in upland rice under dryland conditions.OsNCED2-overexpressing rice showed increased reactive oxygen species-scavenging abilities and transcription levels of many genes functioning in stress response and development that may regulate root development and drought tolerance.OsNCED2^(T)-NILs showed a denser root system and drought resistance,promoting the yield of rice under dryland conditions.OsNCED2^(T)may confer dryland adaptation in upland rice and may find use in breeding dryland-adapted,water-saving rice.

An Environment‑Tolerant Ion‑Conducting Double‑Network Composite Hydrogel for High‑Performance Flexible Electronic Devices

High-performance ion-conducting hydrogels(ICHs)are vital for developing flexible electronic devices.However,the robustness and ion-conducting behavior of ICHs deteriorate at extreme tempera-tures,hampering their use in soft electronics.To resolve these issues,a method involving freeze–thawing and ionizing radiation technology is reported herein for synthesizing a novel double-network(DN)ICH based on a poly(ionic liquid)/MXene/poly(vinyl alcohol)(PMP DN ICH)system.The well-designed ICH exhibits outstanding ionic conductivity(63.89 mS cm^(-1) at 25℃),excellent temperature resistance(-60–80℃),prolonged stability(30 d at ambient temperature),high oxidation resist-ance,remarkable antibacterial activity,decent mechanical performance,and adhesion.Additionally,the ICH performs effectively in a flexible wireless strain sensor,thermal sensor,all-solid-state supercapacitor,and single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator,thereby highlighting its viability in constructing soft electronic devices.The highly integrated gel structure endows these flexible electronic devices with stable,reliable signal output performance.In particular,the all-solid-state supercapacitor containing the PMP DN ICH electrolyte exhibits a high areal specific capacitance of 253.38 mF cm^(-2)(current density,1 mA cm^(-2))and excellent environmental adaptability.This study paves the way for the design and fabrication of high-performance mul-tifunctional/flexible ICHs for wearable sensing,energy-storage,and energy-harvesting applications.

MIR1868 negatively regulates rice cold tolerance at both the seedling and booting stages

Low temperature causes rice yield losses of up to 30%–40%,therefore increasing its cold tolerance is a breeding target.Few genes in rice are reported to confer cold tolerance at both the vegetative and reproductive stages.This study revealed a rice-specific 24-nt miRNA,miR1868,whose accumulation was suppressed by cold stress.Knockdown of MIR1868 increased seedling survival,pollen fertility,seed setting,and grain yield under cold stress,whereas its overexpression conferred the opposite phenotype.Knockdown of MIR1868 increased reactive oxygen species(ROS)scavenging and soluble sugar content under cold stress by increasing the expression of peroxidase genes and sugar metabolism genes,and its overexpression produced the opposite effect.Thus,MIR1868 negatively regulated rice cold tolerance via ROS scavenging and sugar accumulation.

ATSSC:An Attack Tolerant System in Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a promising paradigm in cloud computing that greatly simplifies cloud programming.With serverless computing,developers only provide function code to serverless platform,and these functions are invoked by its driven events.Nonetheless,security threats in serverless computing such as vulnerability-based security threats have become the pain point hindering its wide adoption.The ideas in proactive defense such as redundancy,diversity and dynamic provide promising approaches to protect against cyberattacks.However,these security technologies are mostly applied to serverless platform based on“stacked”mode,as they are designed independent with serverless computing.The lack of security consideration in the initial design makes it especially challenging to achieve the all life cycle protection for serverless application with limited cost.In this paper,we present ATSSC,a proactive defense enabled attack tolerant serverless platform.ATSSC integrates the characteristic of redundancy,diversity and dynamic into serverless seamless to achieve high-level security and efficiency.Specifically,ATSSC constructs multiple diverse function replicas to process the driven events and performs cross-validation to verify the results.In order to create diverse function replicas,both software diversity and environment diversity are adopted.Furthermore,a dynamic function refresh strategy is proposed to keep the clean state of serverless functions.We implement ATSSC based on Kubernetes and Knative.Analysis and experimental results demonstrate that ATSSC can effectively protect serverless computing against cyberattacks with acceptable costs.

Alkali Tolerance of Concrete Internal Curing Agent Based on Sodium Carboxymethyl Starch

Internal curing agents (ICA) based on super absorbent polymer have poor alkali tolerance and reduce the early strength of concrete.An alkali tolerate internal curing agent (CAA-ICA) was designed and prepared by using sodium carboxymethyl starch (CMS) with high hydrophilicity,acrylic acid (AA) containing anionic carboxylic group and acrylamide (AM) containing non-ionic amide group as the main raw materials.The results show that the ratio of CAA-ICA alkali absorption solution is higher than that existing ICA,which solves the low water absorption ratio of the ICA in alkali environment.The water absorption ratio of CAA-ICA in saturated Ca(OH)_(2) solution is 95.8 g·g^(-1),and the alkali tolerance coefficient is 3.4.The application of CAA-ICA in cement-based materials can increase the internal relative humidity and miniaturize the pore structure.The compressive strength of mortar increases up to 12.95%at 28 d,which provids a solution to overcome the reduction of the early strength.

Drought-Tolerant Rice at Molecular Breeding Eras:An Emerging Reality

Rice(Oryza sativa L.)stands as the most significantly influential food crop in the developing world,with its total production and yield stability affected by environmental stress.Drought stress impacts about 45%of the world’s rice area,affecting plants at molecular,biochemical,physiological,and phenotypic levels.The conventional breeding method,predominantly employing single pedigree selection,has been widely utilized in breeding numerous drought-tolerant rice varieties since the Green Revolution.With rapid progress in plant molecular biology,hundreds of drought-tolerant QTLs/genes have been identified and tested in rice crops under both indoor and field conditions.Several genes have been introgressed into elite germplasm to develop commercially accepted drought-tolerant varieties,resulting in the development of several drought-tolerant rice varieties through marker-assisted selection and genetically engineered approaches.This review provides up-to-date information on proof-of-concept genes and breeding methods in the molecular breeding era,offering guidance for rice breeders to develop drought-tolerant rice varieties.