An Innovative K-Anonymity Privacy-Preserving Algorithm to Improve Data Availability in the Context of Big Data

The development of technologies such as big data and blockchain has brought convenience to life,but at the same time,privacy and security issues are becoming more and more prominent.The K-anonymity algorithm is an effective and low computational complexity privacy-preserving algorithm that can safeguard users’privacy by anonymizing big data.However,the algorithm currently suffers from the problem of focusing only on improving user privacy while ignoring data availability.In addition,ignoring the impact of quasi-identified attributes on sensitive attributes causes the usability of the processed data on statistical analysis to be reduced.Based on this,we propose a new K-anonymity algorithm to solve the privacy security problem in the context of big data,while guaranteeing improved data usability.Specifically,we construct a new information loss function based on the information quantity theory.Considering that different quasi-identification attributes have different impacts on sensitive attributes,we set weights for each quasi-identification attribute when designing the information loss function.In addition,to reduce information loss,we improve K-anonymity in two ways.First,we make the loss of information smaller than in the original table while guaranteeing privacy based on common artificial intelligence algorithms,i.e.,greedy algorithm and 2-means clustering algorithm.In addition,we improve the 2-means clustering algorithm by designing a mean-center method to select the initial center of mass.Meanwhile,we design the K-anonymity algorithm of this scheme based on the constructed information loss function,the improved 2-means clustering algorithm,and the greedy algorithm,which reduces the information loss.Finally,we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in improving the effect of 2-means clustering and reducing information loss.

Effects of biochar-based fertilizers on nutrient leaching in a tobacco-planting soil

Biochar is a soil amendment for increasing soil quality and decreasing nutrient leaching. However, there is little information on the impact of biochar-based fertilizer(BF) on soil nutrient leaching in agricultural soils. We conducted a soil column leaching experiment to study the effects of BF on the leaching of total nitrogen(TN), total phosphorus, and total potassium(TK) in tobacco soils. The distribution characteristics of NH_4^+-N, available P, and available K in soil profiles were analyzed after the application of BF. Biochar was prepared by pyrolysis of fluecured tobacco stems. It was applied at four levels, 0%, 3%,9%, and 15%(w/w), respectively, to the compound fertilizer. Compared with the control, the leaching loss of soil TN decreased by 8.36%, 6.72%, and 6.45%, and the loss of soil TK decreased by 9.18%, 9.31% and 11.82% in the 3%,9%, and 15% BF treatments, respectively. However, BF had no significant effect on the P leaching due to the low movement of P in the soil profile. In addition, the BF addition increased the immobilization of NH_4^+-N, available P, and available K in the soil profile. These results indicate that addition of BF to a tobacco-planting soil reduced nutrient leaching, and suggest that BF could be an effective method of applying biochar to agriculture fields.

Effects of plastic mulching film-induced leaf burning on seedling growth in tobacco cultivation:Different findings beyond conservation view

Solving high-temperature plastic mulching film-induced leaf burning in the first week during tobacco cultivation would take much time and effort. In the present study, the growth as well as the leaf sugar and nicotine contents of seedlings with or without leaf burning induced by high-temperature plastic mulching film were tested at two independent sites in 2015 and 2016 to identify the influence of leaf burning on seedling growth. The results showed that the growth of seedlings with leaf burning was improved with increased leaf area, leaf number and plant height compared to those without leaf burning, combined with an increased seedling survival rate at two sites in two years. In seedlings with leaf burning, the contents of fructose and glucose increased and peaked at 11：00 and 13：00 in the leaf and root, respectively, with an increased root nicotine content beginning at 13：00, highlighting the signalling role of sugars. Activities of antioxidant enzymes including peroxidase （POD）, superoxide dismutase （SOD） and catalase （CAT） were all increased in seedlings with leaf burning. More plant biomass was allocated to roots in seedlings with leaf burning with increased root volume compared to control seedlings, which might facilitate the absorption of water and nutrients from the soil. Our findings demonstrate that high-temperature plastic mulching film-induced leaf burning not inhibited but benefited seedling survival and growth, suggesting that the time and labour-consuming manual plucking of burnt leaves can be avoided during tobacco cultivation.

Curing Technology for Improving the Quality of Upper Tobacco Leaves

In order to improve the curing quality and industrial availability of upper tobacco leaves,the effects of different temperature differences between dry and wet bulbs in yellowing stage on the chemical composition,aroma substances and economic characters of upper tobacco leaves were investigated using field test and indoor test. The results showed that when the dry bulb temperature was 38℃ and the temperature difference between dry and wet bulbs was 1. 5℃,the coordination of chemical constituents and the content of aroma substances in the upper tobacco leaves were increased,the appearance quality and sensory evaluation quality were significantly improved,and the economic characters after curing were improved,thereby improving the yield and quality of the upper tobacco leaves.

Mapping epistasis and environment × QTX interaction based on four-omics genotypes for the detected QTX loci controlling complex traits in tobacco

Using newly developed methods and software, association mapping was conducted for chromium content and total sugar in tobacco leaf, based on four-omics datasets. Our objective was to collect data on genotype and phenotype for 60 leaf samples at four developmental stages, from three plant architectural positions and for three cultivars that were grown in two locations. Association mapping was conducted to detect genetic variants at quantitative trait SNP(QTS) loci, quantitative trait transcript(QTT) differences,quantitative trait protein(QTP) variability, and quantitative trait metabolite(QTM) changes,which can be summarized as QTX locus variation. The total heritabilities of the four-omics loci for both traits tested were 23.60% for epistasis and 15.26% for treatment interaction.Epistasis and environment × treatment interaction had important impacts on complex traits at all-omics levels. For decreasing chromium content and increasing total sugar in tobacco leaf, six methylated loci can be directly used for marker-assisted selection, and expression of ten QTTs, seven QTPs and six QTMs can be modified by selection or cultivation.

Haplotype variations in QTL for salt tolerance in Chinese wheat accessions identified by marker-based and pedigree-based kinship analyses

Most modern wheat cultivars were selected on the basis of yield-related indices measured under optimal fertilizer and irrigation inputs.With climate change,land degradation and salinity caused by sea water encroachment,wheat is increasingly subjected to environmental stress.Moreover,expanding urbanization increasingly encroaches upon prime agricultural land in countries like China,and alternative cropping areas must be found.Some of these areas have moderate constraining factors,such as salinity.Therefore,it is important to investigate whether current genetic materials and breeding procedures are maintaining adequate variability to address future problems caused by abiotic stress.In this study,a panel of 307 wheat accessions,including local landraces,exotic cultivars used in Chinese breeding programs and Chinese cultivars released during different periods since1940,were subjected to a genome-wide association study to dissect the genetic basis of salinity tolerance.Both marker-based and pedigree-based kinship analyses revealed that favorable haplotypes were introduced in some exotic cultivars as well as a limited number of Chinese landraces from the 1940 s.However,improvements in salinity tolerance during modern breeding are not as obvious as that of yield.To broaden genetic diversity for increasing salt tolerance,there is a need to refocus attention on local landraces that have high degrees of salinity tolerance and carry rare favorable alleles that have not been exploited in breeding.

A re-evaluation of the Chaetothyriales using criteria of comparative biology

Chaetothyriales is an ascomycetous order within Eurotiomycetes.The order is particularly known through the black yeasts and filamentous relatives that cause opportunistic infections in humans.All species in the order are consistently melanized.Ecology and habitats of species are highly diverse,and often rather extreme in terms of exposition and toxicity.Families are defined on the basis of evolutionary history,which is reconstructed by time of divergence and concepts of comparative biology using stochastical character mapping and a multi-rate Brownian motion model to reconstruct ecological ancestral character states.Ancestry is hypothesized to be with a rock-inhabiting life style.Ecological disparity increased significantly in late Jurassic,probably due to expansion of cytochromes followed by colonization of vacant ecospaces.Dramatic diversification took place subsequently,but at a low level of innovation resulting in strong niche conservatism for extant taxa.Families are ecologically different in degrees of specialization.One of the clades has adapted ant domatia,which are rich in hydrocarbons.In derived families,similar processes have enabled survival in domesticated environments rich in creosote and toxic hydrocarbons,and this ability might also explain the pronounced infectious ability of vertebrate hosts observed in these families.Conventional systems of morphological classification poorly correspond with recent phylogenetic data.Species are hypothesized to have low competitive ability against neighboring microbes,which interferes with their laboratory isolation on routine media.The dataset is unbalanced in that a large part of the extant biodiversity has not been analyzed by molecular methods,novel taxonomic entities being introduced at a regular pace.Our study comprises all available species sequenced to date for LSU and ITS,and a nomenclatural overview is provided.A limited number of species could not be assigned to any extant family.

Turnip mosaic virus manipulates DRM2 expression to regulate host CHH and CHG methylation for robust infection

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic marker for the suppression of transposable elements(TEs)and the regu-lation of plant immunity.However,little is known how RNA viruses counter defense such antiviral machinery.In this study,the change of DNA methylation in turnip mosaic virus(TuMV)-infected cells was analyzed by whole genome bisulfite sequencing.Results showed that the total number of methylated sites of CHH and CHG increased in TuMV-infected cells,the majority of differentially methylated regions(DMRs)in the CHH and CHG contexts were associated with hypermethylation.Gene expression analysis showed that the expression of two methylases(DRM2 and CMT3)and three demethylases(ROS3,DML2,DML3)was significantly increased and decreased in TuMV-infected cells,respec-tively.Pathogenicity tests showed that the enhanced resistance to TuMV of the loss-of-function mutant of DRM2 is associated with unregulated expression of several defense-related genes.Finally,we found TuMV-encoded NIb,the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase,was able to induce the expression of DRM2.In conclusion,this study discov-ered that TuMV can modulate host DNA methylation by regulating the expression of DRM2 to promote virus infection.