WRKY transcription factors play a key role in the tolerance of biotic and abiotic stresses across various crop species, but the function of some WRKY genes, particularly in tomato, remains ...unexplored. Here, we characterize the roles of a previously unstudied WRKY gene, SlWRKY8, in the resistance to pathogen infection and the tolerance to drought and salt stresses. Expression of SlWRKY8 was up‐regulated upon Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst. DC3000), abiotic stresses such as drought, salt and cold, as well as ABA and SA treatments. The SlWRKY8 protein was localized to the nucleus with no transcription activation in yeast, but it could activate W‐box‐dependent transcription in plants. The overexpression of SlWRKY8 in tomato conferred a greater resistance to the pathogen Pst. DC3000 and resulted in the increased transcription levels of two pathogen‐related genes SlPR1a1 and SlPR7. Moreover, transgenic plants displayed the alleviated wilting or chlorosis phenotype under drought and salt stresses, with higher levels of stress‐induced osmotic substances like proline and higher transcript levels of the stress‐responsive genes SlAREB, SlDREB2A and SlRD29. Stomatal aperature was smaller under drought stress in transgenic plants, maintaining higher water content in leaves compared with wild‐type plants. The oxidative pressure, indicated by the concentration of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), was also reduced in transgenic plants, where we also observed higher levels of antioxidant enzyme activities under stress. Overall, our results suggest that SlWRKY8 functions as a positive regulator in plant immunity against pathogen infection as well as in plant responses to drought and salt stresses.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Aqueous rechargeable zinc‐ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted considerable attention as a promising candidate for low‐cost and high‐safety electrochemical energy storage. However, the advancement of ...ZIBs is strongly hindered by the sluggish ionic diffusion and structural instability of inorganic metal oxide cathode materials during the Zn2+ insertion/extraction. To address these issues, a new organic host material, poly(2,5‐dihydroxy‐1,4‐benzoquinonyl sulfide) (PDBS), has been designed and applied for zinc ion storage due to its elastic structural factors (tunable space and soft lattice). The aqueous Zn‐organic batteries based on the PDBS cathode show outstanding cycling stability and rate capability. The coordination moieties (O and S) display the strong electron donor character during the discharging process and can act as the coordination arms to host Zn2+. Also, under the electrochemical environment, the malleable polymer structure of PDBS permits the rotation and bending of polymer chains to facilitate the insertion/extraction of Zn2+, manifesting the superiority and uniqueness of organic electrode materials in the polyvalent cation storage. Finally, quasi‐solid‐state batteries based on aqueous gel electrolyte demonstrate highly stable capacity under different bending conditions.
A new organic polymer has been identified as a cathode material for efficient zinc ion storage due to its elastic structural factors. The coordination moieties (O and S) display strong electron donor character during the charging process and can act as the coordination arms to synergistically host Zn2+, manifesting the superiority and uniqueness of organic electrode materials in the multi‐valence cation storage.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
In this technical note, the problem of adaptive tracking control is investigated for a class of stochastic uncertain nonlinear systems in the presence of input saturation. To analyze the effect of ...input saturation, an auxiliary system is employed. With the help of backstepping technique, an adaptive stochastic tracking control approach is developed. Under the proposed adaptive tracking controller, the boundedness of all the signals in the closed-loop system is achieved almost surely. Moreover, distinct from most of the existing results, the ultimate tracking error can be bounded by an explicit function of design parameters and input saturation error (the error between the control input and saturated input) in the mean quartic sense. Finally, an example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is commonly complicated by septic conditions, and is responsible for increased mortality and poor outcomes in septic patients. Uncontrolled neuroinflammation ...and ischemic injury are major contributors to brain dysfunction, which arises from intractable immune malfunction and the collapse of neuroendocrine immune networks, such as the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and sympathetic nervous system. Dysfunction in these neuromodulatory mechanisms compromised by SAE jeopardizes systemic immune responses, including those of neutrophils, macrophages/monocytes, dendritic cells, and T lymphocytes, which ultimately results in a vicious cycle between brain injury and a progressively aberrant immune response. Deep insight into the crosstalk between SAE and peripheral immunity is of great importance in extending the knowledge of the pathogenesis and development of sepsis-induced immunosuppression, as well as in exploring its effective remedies.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Nearly 700 fast radio burst (FRB) sources have been detected so far, of which 29 are found to burst out repeatedly. Although a firm connection between at least some FRBs and magnetars has ...been established, the trigger mechanism and radiation process in these enigmatic phenomena are still highly controversial. In this study, we build a sample of 16 repeating FRBs from which at least five bursts have been detected, including the most active four repeaters of FRBs 20121102A, 20180916B, 20190520B, and 20201124A. Various key parameters of their bursts are collected from the literature, which include the arrival time, pulse width, dispersion measure (DM), Faraday rotation measure (RM), bandwidth, waiting time, peak flux, and fluence. The distribution and time evolution of these parameters are investigated. Potential correlations between various parameter pairs are also extensively explored. The behaviors of different repeaters are then compared. It is found that the DM of FRB 20121102A seems to increase continuously on a long timescale. While the DM of most repeaters varies in a narrow range of ±3 cm
−3
pc, FRB 20190520B is found to have a large variation range of ±12 cm
−3
pc. The RM evolves with time in a much more chaotic behavior in different repeaters. A linear correlation is found between the absolute mean RM and DM
Host
, which may provide a method to estimate the redshift of FRBs. Generally, the waiting time shows a similar bimodal distribution for the active repeating sources. The implications of these features to the underlying physics are discussed.
Abstract
The X-ray afterglow of many gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) exhibits a plateau phase before the normal power-law decay stage, which may be related to continued activities of the central engine. Tang ...et al. collected 174 such GRBs and confirmed the so-called
L
–
T
–
E
correlation which involves three key parameters, i.e., the isotropic
γ
-ray energy
E
γ
,iso
of the prompt phase, the end time
T
a
of the plateau phase, and the corresponding X-ray luminosity
L
X
. In this study, the
L
–
T
–
E
correlation is confirmed and updated as
L
X
∝
T
a
−
0.99
E
γ
,
iso
0.86
with a large sample consisting of 210 plateau GRBs with known redshifts. The tight correlation is then applied to derive the pseudo-redshift of other 130 plateau GRBs whose redshifts are not directly measured. Statistical analysis is also carried out on this pseudo-redshift sample.
Numerous studies have investigated the environmental occurrence, human exposure, and toxicity of bisphenol A (BPA). Following stringent regulations on the production and usage of BPA, several ...bisphenol analogues have been produced as a replacement for BPA in various applications. The present review outlines the current state of knowledge on the occurrence of bisphenol analogues (other than BPA) in the environment, consumer products and foodstuffs, human exposure and biomonitoring, and toxicity. Whereas BPA was still the major bisphenol analogue found in most environmental monitoring studies, BPF and BPS were also frequently detected. Elevated concentrations of BPAF, BPF, and BPS (i.e., similar to or greater than that of BPA) have been reported in the abiotic environment and human urine from some regions. Many analogues exhibit endocrine disrupting effects, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, dioxin-like effects, and neurotoxicity in laboratory studies. BPAF, BPB, BPF, and BPS have been shown to exhibit estrogenic and/or antiandrogenic activities similar to or even greater than that of BPA. Knowledge gaps and research needs have been identified, which include the elucidation of environmental occurrences, persistence, and fate of bisphenol analogues (other than BPA), sources and pathways for human exposure, effects on reproductive systems and the mammary gland, mechanisms of toxicity from coexposure to multiple analogues, metabolic pathways and products, and the impact of metabolic modification on toxicity.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
MicroRNA-34a (miR-34a), a transcriptional target of p53, is a well-known tumor suppressor gene. Here, we identified Fra-1 as a new target of miR-34a and demonstrated that miR-34a inhibits Fra-1 ...expression at both protein and messenger RNA levels. In addition, we found that p53 indirectly regulates Fra-1 expression via a miR-34a-dependant manner in colon cancer cells. Overexpression of miR-34a strongly inhibited colon cancer cell migration and invasion, which can be partially rescued by forced expression of the Fra-1 transcript lacking the 3'-untranslated region. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-9, two enzymes involved in cell migration and invasion, was decreased in miR-34a-transfected cells, and this can be rescued by Fra-1 overexpression. Moreover, we found that miR-34a was downregulated in 25 of 40 (62.5%) colon cancer tissues, as compared with the adjacent normal colon tissues and that the expression of miR-34a was correlated with the DNA-binding activity of p53. Unexpectedly, the DNA-binding activity of p53 was not inversely correlated with Fra-1 expression, and a significant statistical inverse correlation between miR-34a and Fra-1 expression was only observed in 14 of 40 (35%) colon cancer tissues. Taken together, our in vitro data suggest that p53 regulates Fra-1 expression, and eventually cell migration/invasion, via a miR-34a-dependent manner. However, in vivo data indicate that the p53-miR-34a pathway is not the major regulator of Fra-1 expression in human colon cancer tissues.
The conductive hydrogels always suffered from high internal friction, large hysteresis, and low capability of accurately predicting physical deformation, which seriously restricted their application ...in smart wearable devices. To address these problems, solvent molecules are directionally inserted into the polymer molecule chains via bridge effect to effectively reduce the molecular internal friction. Moreover, swelling is also combined to eliminate the temporary entanglements in the hydrogel system. The cooperation between the bridge and swollen effect endows the prepared polyacrylamide (PAM)/laponite/H3BO3/ethylene glycol (Eg) organohydrogel (PLBOH) ultralow hysteresis (1.38%, ε = 100%), ultrafast response (≈10 ms), and high linearity in the whole‐strain‐range (R2 = 0.996) with a great sensitivity (GF = 2.68 at the strain range of 0–750%). Meanwhile, the prepared PL10B30OH exhibits long‐term stability, excellent stretchability, and low dissipated energy. Furthermore, the assembled triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) displays an outstanding energy harvesting performance with an output voltage of 200 V with the size of 20 mm × 20 mm. The assembled strain sensors can monitor the small strain of facial expressions and large strain of human movements, indicating the tremendous applications in self‐powered intelligent and flexible wearable electronics under harsh environmental conditions.
An innovative method is developed to prepare the hydrogel via bridge effect to directionally insert solvent molecules into the hydrogel, which effectively acts as lubricate to reduce the molecular internal friction. The developed hydrogel exhibits ultralow‐hysteresis, ultrafast‐response, and whole‐strain‐range linearity contributed by the special molecular structure, which also holds great potential in flexible wearable devices.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Linguistic steganography based on text carrier auto-generation technology is a current topic with great promise and challenges. Limited by the text automatic generation technology or the ...corresponding text coding methods, the quality of the steganographic text generated by previous methods is inferior, which makes its imperceptibility unsatisfactory. In this paper, we propose a linguistic steganography based on recurrent neural networks, which can automatically generate high-quality text covers on the basis of a secret bitstream that needs to be hidden. We trained our model with a large number of artificially generated samples and obtained a good estimate of the statistical language model. In the text generation process, we propose fixed-length coding and variable-length coding to encode words based on their conditional probability distribution. We designed several experiments to test the proposed model from the perspectives of information hiding efficiency, information imperceptibility, and information hidden capacity. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms all the previous related methods and achieves the state-of-the-art performance.
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