Analysis of environmental selection pressure of superoxide dismutase in deep-sea sea cucumber

Manganese superoxide dismutase(MnSOD)is an antioxidant that exists in mitochondria and can effectively remove superoxide anions in mitochondria.In a dark,high-pressure,and low-temperature deep-sea environment,MnSOD is essential for the survival of sea cucumbers.Six MnSODs were identified from the transcriptomes of deep and shallow-sea sea cucumbers.To explore their environmental adaptation mechanism,we conducted environmental selection pressure analysis through the branching site model of PAML software.We obtained night positive selection sites,and two of them were significant(97F→H,134K→V):97F→H located in a highly conservative characteristic sequence,and its polarity c hange might have a great impact on the function of MnSOD;134K→V had a change in piezophilic a bility,which might help MnSOD adapt to the environment of high hydrostatic pressure in the deepsea.To further study the effect of these two positive selection sites on MnSOD,we predicted the point mutations of F97H and K134V on shallow-sea sea cucumber by using MAESTROweb and PyMOL.Results show that 97F→H,134K→V might improve MnSOD’s efficiency of scavenging superoxide a nion and its ability to resist high hydrostatic pressure by moderately reducing its stability.The above results indicated that MnSODs of deep-sea sea cucumber adapted to deep-sea environments through their amino acid changes in polarity,piezophilic behavior,and local stability.This study revealed the correlation between MnSOD and extreme environment,and will help improve our understanding of the organism’s adaptation mechanisms in deep sea.

Biomass-Derived Carbon Heterostructures Enable Environmentally Adaptive Wideband Electromagnetic Wave Absorbers

Although advances in wireless technologies such as miniature and wearable electronics have improved the quality of our lives,the ubiquitous use of electronics comes at the expense of increased exposure to electromagnetic(EM)radiation.Up to date,extensive efforts have been made to develop high-performance EM absorbers based on synthetic materials.However,the design of an EM absorber with both exceptional EM dissipation ability and good environmental adaptability remains a substantial challenge.Here,we report the design of a class of carbon heterostructures via hierarchical assembly of graphitized lignocellulose derived from bamboo.Specifically,the assemblies of nanofibers and nanosheets behave as a nanometer-sized antenna,which results in an enhancement of the conductive loss.In addition,we show that the composition of cellulose and lignin in the precursor significantly influences the shape of the assembly and the formation of covalent bonds,which affect the dielectric response-ability and the surface hydrophobicity(the apparent contact angle of water can reach 135°).Finally,we demonstrate that the obtained carbon heterostructure maintains its wideband EM absorption with an effective absorption frequency ranging from 12.5 to 16.7 GHz under conditions that simulate the real-world environment,including exposure to rainwater with slightly acidic/alkaline pH values.Overall,the advances reported in this work provide new design principles for the synthesis of high-performance EM absorbers that can find practical applications in real-world environments.

Human Visual Attention Mechanism-Inspired Point-and-Line Stereo Visual Odometry for Environments with Uneven Distributed Features

Visual odometry is critical in visual simultaneous localization and mapping for robot navigation.However,the pose estimation performance of most current visual odometry algorithms degrades in scenes with unevenly distributed features because dense features occupy excessive weight.Herein,a new human visual attention mechanism for point-and-line stereo visual odometry,which is called point-line-weight-mechanism visual odometry(PLWM-VO),is proposed to describe scene features in a global and balanced manner.A weight-adaptive model based on region partition and region growth is generated for the human visual attention mechanism,where sufficient attention is assigned to position-distinctive objects(sparse features in the environment).Furthermore,the sum of absolute differences algorithm is used to improve the accuracy of initialization for line features.Compared with the state-of-the-art method(ORB-VO),PLWM-VO show a 36.79%reduction in the absolute trajectory error on the Kitti and Euroc datasets.Although the time consumption of PLWM-VO is higher than that of ORB-VO,online test results indicate that PLWM-VO satisfies the real-time demand.The proposed algorithm not only significantly promotes the environmental adaptability of visual odometry,but also quantitatively demonstrates the superiority of the human visual attention mechanism.

Seasonal changes of endogenous ABA and cytokinins in environmental adaptation of different ecotypes of reed plants

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Marine green alga Cladophora aokii Yamada and its epiphytes from Yinggehai, Hainan, China： morphological taxonomy, formation and analysis of its environmental adaption

Based on specimens collected in Yinggehai, Hainan, China from 2013 to 2016, a stable epiphytic taxon is found on the surface of the individual of marine green alga Cladophora aokii Yamada. According to the morphological characteristics, the taxonomy of Cl. aokii and its epiphytes is carried out. There are some epiphytes attached on Cl. aokii Yamada including Cl. fascicularis （Mertens ex C. Agardh） Kfitzing, Chaetomorpha pachynerna （Montagne） Kiitzing, Cerarniurn carnouii Dawson, Licmophora abbreviata Agardh, Lyngbya sp. and Chattonella sp.. The formation of the individual of Cl. aokii is dissected and explained, which can help to analyze the adaption in details among this species, its epiphytes and native marine environment. The results reveal the marine macroepiphytic taxonomy in Ha/nan, China, and preliminarily explain the adaptive relationship between macroalgae and environment.

Research on Rapid Initial Adaption to the Environment of a Plateau

We designed two types of pre-adaption plans for this study. One was a pre-adaption training with progressive intermittent hypoxia, with a constant lower pressure oxygen tank used in the plain before arriving at the plateau （PG）. The other was by progressively increasing the time of exposure to hypoxia with oxygen supplied in stages after radical plateau （RG）. By testing the blood oxygen saturation （SpO2）, heart rate （HR）, and quality of sleep after arriving at the 3800 m high plateau, results showed that the pre-acclimatization and radical groups performed better than the control group （CG）. Both strategies were equivalent in terms of effects and principles in providing more flexible choices for acclimatization.

The environmental adaptability and reproductive properties of invasive green alga Codium fragile from the Nan'ao Island,South China Sea

It has been widely recognized that biological invasion has become one of the greatest threats to the ecosystem.Codium fragile is an invasive species which exhibits a variety of attributes like parthenogenesis,winter fragment,and vegetative reproduction;and therefore,it has become a successful invader,colonizing most subtropical regions.In China’s southeast coastal aquaculture waters,the green algal bloom caused by C.fragile will probably become a serious problem.In order to understand more details about the species,an experiment focused on its reproductive characteristics was conducted using culture established from a sample collected in the aquaculture raft of the Nan’ao Island in the South China Sea.The results showed that there were two types of gametes resembling aplanospores and zoospores respectively,both of which were able to germinate.During the gametes liberation,a long mucilage tube was formed out of the mouth of the gametangium assisting dispersal of gametes away from the parent plant.This tube was adapted not only to its surrounding flowing water environment but also to its parent plant’s outer gelatinous structure.In general,the optimum temperature for gametes release and germination was 15-20℃ and 15℃,respectively,which corresponded to the local offshore marine water.The plant was observed to produce vegetative buds under favourable reproductive conditions which were called propagules.They were capable of developing into filamentous thalli.The results will provide some scientific evidences for revealing the biological mechanism of bloom and control strategies of invasive green algae.

Taking Diplomatic Strategy Adaptable to Environment

Looking from China’s neighboring environment, the America factor is undoubtedly the most important factor in analyzing China’s neighboring security. Speaking of U. S. influence on China’s neighboring security, some scholars tend to believe that the unfavorable factors play a dominant role. This conclusion comes from the "new moonshape encirclement" already existing since the Cold War in America,

Autonomous Chemistry Enabling Environment-Adaptive Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices

Next-generation electronics that are fused into the human body can play a key role in future intelligent communication,smart healthcare,and human enhancement applications.As a promising energy supply component for smart biointegrated electronics,environment-adaptive electrochemical energy storage(EES)devices with complementary adaptability and functions have garnered huge interest in the past decade.Owing to the advancements in autonomous chemistry,which regulate the constitutional dynamic networks in materials,EES devices have witnessed higher freedom of autonomous adaptability in terms of mechano-adaptable,biocompatibility,and stimuli-response properties for biointegrated and smart applications.In this mini-review,we summarize the recent progress in emerging environmentadaptive EES devices enabled by the constitutional dynamic network of mechanical adaptable materials,biocompatible materials,and stimuli-responsive supramolecular polymer materials.Finally,the challenges and perspectives of autonomous chemistry on the environment-adaptive EES devices are discussed.

Chemical diversity of scleractinian corals revealed by untargeted metabolomics and molecular networking

The chemical diversity of scleractinian corals is closely related to their physiological,ecological,and evolutionary status,and can be influenced by both genetic background and environmental variables.To investigate intraspecific variation in the metabolites of these corals,the metabolomes of four species(Pocillopora meandrina,Seriatopora hystrix,Acropora formosa,and Fungia fungites)from the South China Sea were analyzed using untargeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics.The results showed that a variety of metabolites,including amino acids,peptides,lipids,and other small molecules,were differentially distributed among the four species,leading to their significant separation in principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering plots.The higher content of storage lipids in branching corals(P.meandrina,S.hystrix,and A.formosa)compared to the solitary coral(F.fungites)may be due to the high densities of zooxanthellae in their tissues.The high content of aromatic amino acids in P.meandrina may help the coral protect against ultraviolet damage and promote growth in shallow seawater,while nitrogen-rich compounds may enable S.hystrix to survive in various challenging environments.The metabolites enriched in F.fungites,including amino acids,dipeptides,phospholipids,and other small molecules,may be related to the composition of the coral's mucus and its life-history,such as its ability to move freely and live solitarily.Studying the chemical diversity of scleractinian corals not only provides insight into their environmental adaptation,but also holds potential for the chemotaxonomy of corals and the discovery of novel bioactive natural products.

Ice-covered Environmental Adaptability Assessment for Overhead Contact System in High-speed Railways

High-speed trains rely on pantograph-catenary systems(PCSs)to collect electrical energy from power systems.However,the dynamic interaction between the pantograph and the catenary system may become mismatched once ice accumulates on the overhead conductors.More frequent arcing may occur within the PCS during train operation,posing an unpredictable threat to operational safety.Therefore,it is crucial to evaluate the ability of overhead contact system(OCS)to withstand ice-covered variability during line desgin.A new strategy is proposed to evaluate the adaptive performance of an OCS under various icing conditions.First,a dynamic model considering icing conditions is constructed to simulate the interaction within the PCS.Five different OCS structures with various icing thicknesses are studied.The parameters of the contact force within the PCS and proportion of high-possibility arcing moments are obtained.The dependence of the contact force on the icing thickness and pantograph displacement has been illustrated in the form of cloud maps.Finally,the OCS sensitivity coefficient is calculated,and ice-covered environmental adaptability assessments for the five different OCS structures are compared.

DEVELOPMENT OF A SHAPE-SHIFTING MOBILE ROBOT FOR URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE

A portable shape-shifting mobile robot system named as Amoeba Ⅱ（A-Ⅱ） is developed for the urban search and rescue application. It is designed with three degrees of freedom and two tracked drive systems. This robot consists of two modular mobile units and a joint unit. The mobile unit is a tracked mechanism to enforce the propulsion of robot. And the joint unit can transform the robot shape to get high environment adaptation. A-Ⅱ robot can not only adapt to the environment but also change its body shape according to the locus space. It behaves two work states including the linear state （named as I state） and the parallel state （named as Ⅱ state）. With the linear state the robot can climb upstairs and go through narrow space such as the pipe, cave, etc. The parallel state enables the robot with high mobility on rough ground. Also, the joint unit can propel the robot to roll in sidewise direction. Two modular A-Ⅱ robots can be connected through jointing common interfaces on the joint unit to compose a stronger shape-shifting robot, which can transform the body into four wheels-driven vehicle. The experimental results validate the adaptation and mobility of A-Ⅱ robot.

Reproductive characteristics of Psilorhynchus homaloptera Hora and Mukerji,1935 (Cyprinidae: Psilorhynchidae) in the lower Yarlung Zangbo River,Tibet

Psilorhynchus homaloptera mainly inhabits turbulent waters in the lower reach of the Yarlung Zangbo River,Tibet,China,and it is the only species of Psilorhynchus in China.However,many important aspects of its biology remain poorly documented,which hinders the conservation eff orts.Therefore,we studied its reproduction using 801 specimens from the Motuo sector of the lower Yarlung Zangbo River from December 2015 to November 2016.The sex ratio was 0.68꞉1(male꞉female)for the overall population.Females reached a larger total length and weight(134 mm and 18.6 g)than males did(113 mm and 12.2 g).Lengths at maturity were estimated 80.0 mm for males and 93.1 mm for females.Our analyses of gonad development and the size distribution of oocytes suggest that P.homaloptera is a single spawner with the peak spawning period between September and October.Furthermore,the estimated mean absolute fecundity was 557±204 eggs per fish,and mean relative fecundity was 50.9±10.9 eggs per g of female weight.The fecundity of P.homaloptera increased linearly with increasing total length,total weight,ovary weight,and age.This study on the reproductive biology of P.homaloptera demonstrates that the fish was in a vulnerable state due to the increasing anthropogenic activities in the lower Yarlung Zangbo River.

Investigation of the thermal adaptability for a mobile cold atom gravimeter

The cold atom gravimeter offers the prospect of a new generation of inertial sensors for field applications. We ac- complish a mobile atom gravimeter. With the compact and stable system, a sensitivity of 1.4× 10-7 g.Hz-1/2 is achieved. Moreover, a continuous gravity monitoring of 80 h is carried out. However, the harsh outdoor environment is a big challenge for the atom gravimeter when it is for field applications. In this paper, we present the preliminary investigation of the thermal adaptability for our mobile cold atom gravimeter. Here, we focus on the influence of the air temperature on the performance of the atom gravimeter. The responses to different factors （such as laser power, fiber coupling efficiency, etc.） are evaluated when there is a great temperature shift of 10 ℃. The result is that the performances of all the factors deteriorate to different extent, nevertheless, they can easily recover as the temperature comes back. Finally, we conclude that the variation of air temperature induces the increase of noise and the system error of the atom gravimeter as well, while the process is reversible with the recovery of the temperature.

The complete genome of hydrocarbon-degrading Pseudoalteromonas sp. NJ289 and its phylogenetic relationship

Genus Pseudoalteromonas belongs to Family Pseudoalteromonadaceae in Gammaproteobacteria. A cold-adapted gram-negative bacterium, hydrocarbon-degrading Pseudoalteromonas sp. NJ289, was isolated from sea-ice of the Antarctica region, and sequenced the whole genome through the next generation sequencing platform. The assembly yielded three contigs representing two chromosomes and one plasmid with the sizes of 3.2 Mb, 636 kb and 1.8 kb, respectively. The G＋C contents of genome were 40.83% and included 3 589 ORFs. Functional annotation indicated some potential roles in enzymatic activity and environmental adaptability. This study may help for understanding the population diverse, evolutionary ecology and the microbial interaction.

High-stability electrostatic field micro sensor for sounding thunderstorm applications

In this paper,the design and experimental results for a novel high-stability sounding electrostatic field micro sensor are presented.By means of hermetic chip sealing,digital weak signal demodulation unit,and probe sensor structure design,harsh environmental adaptation problems such as low temperature,high humidity,low air pressure,waterfall are solved.The sensor has a high resolution of 14 V/m,a wide measurement range of±100 kV/m,and is proved to have superior stability and performance in sounding electric field experiments than traditional sensors under different kinds of weather.

An Algorithm of Voice Activity Detection Based on EMD and Wavelet Entropy Ratio

A new method was proposed to identify speech-segment endpoints based on the empirical mode decomposition（EMD） and a new wavelet entropy ratio with improving the accuracy of voice activity detection.With the EMD, the noise signals can be decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions（IMFs）. Then the proposed wavelet energy entropy ratio can be used to extract the desired feature for each IMFs component. In view of the question that the method of voice endpoint detection based on the original wavelet entropy ratio cannot adapt to the low signal-to-noise ratio（SNR）condition, an appropriate positive constant was introduced to the basic wavelet energy entropy ratio with effectively improved discriminability between the speech and noise. After comparing the traditional wavelet energy entropy ratio with the proposed wavelet energy entropy ratio, the experiment results show that the proposed method is simple and fast. The speech endpoints can be accurately detected in low SNR environments.

Global dispersal and adaptive evolution of domestic cattle:a genomic perspective

Domestic cattle have spread across the globe and inhabit variable and unpredictable environments.They have been exposed to a plethora of selective pressures and have adapted to a variety of local ecological and management conditions,including UV exposure,diseases,and stall-feeding systems.These selective pressures have resulted in unique and important phenotypic and genetic differences among modern cattle breeds/populations.Ongoing efforts to sequence the genomes of local and commercial cattle breeds/populations,along with the growing availability of ancient bovid DNA data,have significantly advanced our understanding of the genomic architecture,recent evolution of complex traits,common diseases,and local adaptation in cattle.Here,we review the origin and spread of domestic cattle and illustrate the environmental adaptations of local cattle breeds/populations.

Regulation of insect behavior by non-coding RNAs

The adaptation of insects to environments relies on a sophisticated set of behaviors controlled by molecular and physiological processes.Over the past several decades,accumulating studies have unveiled the roles of non-coding RNAs(nc RNAs)in regulating insect behaviors.nc RNAs assume particularly pivotal roles in the behavioral plasticity of insects by rapidly responding to environmental stimuli.nc RNAs also contribute to the maintenance of homeostasis of insects by fine-tuning the expression of target genes.However,a comprehensive review of nc RNAs'roles in regulating insect behaviors has yet to be conducted.Here,we present the recent progress in our understanding of how nc RNAs regulate various insect behaviors,including flight and movement,social behavior,reproduction,learning and memory,and feeding.We refine the intricate mechanisms by which nc RNAs modulate the function of neural,motor,reproductive,and other physiological systems,as well as gene expression in insects like fruit flies,social insects,locusts,and mosquitos.Furthermore,we discuss potential avenues for future studies in nc RNA-mediated insect behaviors.

Liquid-metals-induced formation of MXene/polyacrylamide composite organohydrogels for wearable flexible electronics

Organohydrogels have demonstrated superior environmental adaptability and frost resistance compared to conventional hydrogels,thereby prompting considerable interests in the development and design of innovative organohydrogels.Herein,we report an effective one-pot method for fabricating MXene/polyacrylamide(MXene/PAM)composite organohydrogel(MAOH)by employing Ga liquid metals(Ga LMs)as a highly reactive component in the induced free radical polymerization reaction,without the need for additional heating or cross-linking agents.This synthetic protocol addresses the time-consuming and organic solvent waste concerns associated with traditional solvent displacement methods for organohydrogel preparation.The incorporation of MXene not only highly enhances the conductivity but also confers improved mechanical properties of MAOH.The MAOH exhibits excellent environmental adaptability(>7 d),sustained moisture retention,remarkable self-healing capabilities,and outstanding mechanical properties under low temperatures(-20℃).It demonstrates exceptional performance in micro-motion monitoring,rapid response time(125 ms),superior stretchability,and a broad range of strains(0.3%–600%).Therefore,the designed MAOH has great potential for applications in diverse fields such as prosthetics,electronic skin,human–machine interaction,and smart terminals.