Key message
A novel QTL
qGLF5
from
Oryza rufipogon
Griff. improves yield per plant and plant architecture in rice.
Kernel size and plant architecture are critical agronomic traits that are key ...targets for improving crop yield. From the single-segment substitution lines of
Oryza rufipogon
Griff. in the
indica
cultivar Huajingxian74 (HJX74) background, we identified a novel quantitative trait locus (QTL), named
qGLF5
, which improves kernel shape, plant architecture, and yield per plant in rice. Compared with the control HJX74, the plant height, panicles per plant, panicle length, primary branches per panicle, secondary branches per panicle, and kernels per plant of the near-isogenic line-
qGLF5
(NIL-
qGLF5
) are significantly increased. NIL-
qGLF5
has long and narrow kernels by regulating cell number, cell length and width in the spikelet hulls. Yield per plant of NIL-
qGLF5
is increased by 35.02% compared with that of HJX74. In addition,
qGLF5
significantly improves yield per plant and plant architecture of NIL-
gw5
and NIL-
GW7
. These results indicate that
qGLF5
might be beneficial for improving plant architecture and kernel yield in rice breeding by molecular design.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
In recent years, the effects of quercetin on autophagy and apoptosis of cancer cells have been widely reported, while effects on HeLa cells are still unclear. Here, HeLa cells were subjected to ...quercetin treatment, and then proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy were evaluated using MTT, flow cytometry, and MDC staining, respectively. The LC3-I/II, Beclin 1, active caspase-3, and S6K1 phosphorylation were detected using Western blot assay. The ultrastructure of HeLa was observed via transmission electron microscope (TEM). Our findings showed that quercetin can dose-dependently inhibit the growth of HeLa cells. The MDC fluorescence was enhanced with increased concentration of quercetin and hit a plateau at 50 μmol/l. Western blot assay revealed that LC3-I/II ratio, Beclin 1, and active caspase-3 protein were enforced in a dose-dependent method. However, the phosphorylation of S6K1 gradually decreased, concomitant with an increase of autophagy. In addition, TEM revealed that the number of autophagic vacuoles was peaked at 50 μmol/l of quercetin. Besides, interference of autophagy with 3-MA led to proliferation inhibition and increased apoptosis in HeLa cells, accompanied by the decreased LC3-I/II conversion and the increased active caspase-3. In conclusion, quercetin can inhibit HeLa cell proliferation and induce protective autophagy at low concentrations; thus, 3-MA plus quercetin would suppress autophagy and effectively increased apoptosis.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
With advancements in medical research, more and more diseases may be curable, which indicates some patients may not die of the disease of interest. Mixture cure models, which can capture patients ...being cured, attracts an increasing attention in practice. However, the existing mixture cure models only focused on the major event with a potential cure while ignoring the potential risk from other non-curable competing events, which are commonly seen in the real world. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian approach to estimate a proportional hazards mixture cure (PHMC) model allowing non-curable competing risk. Data augmentation method with latent binary cure indicators and event indicators are adopted to simplify the Markov chain Monte Carlo implementation. The baseline cumulative hazards for the PHMC model are formulated by counting processes with gamma process priors. Its performance is demonstrated through comprehensive simulation studies. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a prostate cancer clinical trial data set.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Objective. A hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) is a device combined with at least one other communication system that takes advantage of both parts to build a link between humans and machines. To ...increase the number of targets and the information transfer rate (ITR), electromyogram (EMG) and steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) were combined to implement a hybrid BCI. A multi-choice selection method based on EMG was developed to enhance the system performance. Approach. A 60-target hybrid BCI speller was built in this study. A single trial was divided into two stages: a stimulation stage and an output selection stage. In the stimulation stage, SSVEP and EMG were used together. Every stimulus flickered at its given frequency to elicit SSVEP. All of the stimuli were divided equally into four sections with the same frequency set. The frequency of each stimulus in a section was different. SSVEPs were used to discriminate targets in the same section. Different sections were classified using EMG signals from the forearm. Subjects were asked to make different number of fists according to the target section. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) and mean filtering was used to classify SSVEP and EMG separately. In the output selection stage, the top two optimal choices were given. The first choice with the highest probability of an accurate classification was the default output of the system. Subjects were required to make a fist to select the second choice only if the second choice was correct. Main results. The online results obtained from ten subjects showed that the mean accurate classification rate and ITR were 81.0% and 83.6 bits min−1 respectively only using the first choice selection. The ITR of the hybrid system was significantly higher than the ITR of any of the two single modalities (EMG: 30.7 bits min−1, SSVEP: 60.2 bits min−1). After the addition of the second choice selection and the correction task, the accurate classification rate and ITR was enhanced to 85.8% and 90.9 bit min−1. Significance. These results suggest that the hybrid system proposed here is suitable for practical use.
Key message
We report coding and long noncoding RNAs in maize upon phytohormone gibberellin stimulation.
Plant hormone gibberellin (GA) orchestrates various facets of biological processes. Dissection ...the transcriptomic dynamics upon GA stimulation has biological significance. Feature of maize transcriptome in response to GA application remains largely elusive. Herein, two types of plants, one was with normal height, the other was GA-sensitive dwarfism, were selected from advanced backcross population for GA
3
treatment with different concentrations. In control and GA
3
-treated plants, we identified a large number of coding and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) through sequencing eight ribosomal-depleted RNA libraries. Transcripts encoding GA biosynthetic and metabolic enzymes KS, GA20ox, GA3ox, and GA2ox were significantly differentially expressed in GA
3
-treated samples. A total of 78 protein-coding transcripts were shared between GA
3
-treated normal height and dwarf plants. Shared transcripts encoding terpene synthase, MYB transcription factor, and receptor-like protein kinase were co-regulated with their corresponding partners. Out of identified lncRNAs, 22 and 34 significantly differentially expressed lncRNAs were responsive to GA application in normal height and dwarf plants, respectively. Shared GA-responsive lncRNAs were found in GA
3
-treated normal height and dwarf plants. Some lncRNAs corresponded to precursors of known miRNA, such as zma-miR528a and zma-miR528b. Multiple promising targets of significantly differentially expressed lncRNAs were discovered, including
Lazy plant1
for auxin- and GA-mediated shoot gravitropism, bZIP transcription factor member for GA-controlled cell elongation. This study will improve our knowledge of GA-triggered transcriptome change and facilitate a comprehensive understanding of regulatory cascade centering on GA.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is an organic material with good electrochemical activity and electrical conductivity, and it is usually electrochemically deposited on the neural probes to ...improve their interface properties. However, the workload for electrode modification using an electropolymerization method becomes greater with the increase in the number of electrode channels. Moreover, the integration of electrodes and amplification circuits makes electropolymerization difficult to implement. In this study, a chemical polymerization method was proposed to produce conducting polymer PEDOT on the electrode sites. Compared with electropolymerization, it does not require each electrode site to be connected to a power source. It is competitive in batch preparation and is particularly suitable for neural microelectrodes prepared by a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) process. The charge storage capacity, impedance, mechanical stability, and electrochemical stability of conducting polymer PEDOT prepared by the proposed method are evaluated. The results indicate that the method is feasible for batch modification of the microelectrodes, and it is also suitable in cases where energization is inconvenient.
Display omitted
•A chemical polymerization method for poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) modified neural probes is firstly reported.•The proposed modified method is high-efficiency for neural probes with a large amount of electrodes.•The proposed method can be conducted on wafer-level, which is compatible with the micro-electromechanical system process.•The electrodes modified with the chemical polymerization method show good electrochemical characteristics.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The microwave light emitting plasma (MLEP) is an important environmentally friendly UV light source. Finding the optimal condition (pressure, ratio and microwave power) of a MLEP spectral line which ...makes its intensity strongest is the key work to improve its efficiency in applications, but it has not been studied under the condition with multiple variables yet. In this paper, taking Ar+N2 MLEP as an example, a novel method for optimizing the condition of MLEP by employing ANN to model the relationship between the condition and target spectral line intensity using experimental optical emission spectra data is proposed for the first time. The evaluation parameters showed that the ANN has good prediction accuracy. The optimal pressure, Ar concentration and microwave power were simultaneously predicted for UV spectral lines of 281.13 nm, 295.27 nm, 308.91 nm, 313.14 nm, 336.14 nm and 353.00 nm of Ar+N2 MLEP. Their intensities were increased by 53%, 22%, 64%, 17%, 20% and 22% respectively under the predicted optimal condition compared with the maximum intensity in pure experimental method. Therefore, the proposed method is feasible for optimizing the condition of UV luminescence of MLEP, and has great significance in accurately improving the specific spectral line intensity of light sources.
•A novel method for optimizing the condition of MLEP is presented for the first time.•The optimal condition of six UV spectral lines of Ar+N2 MLEP were predicted.•The six UV spectral lines intensities were greatly improved after optimization.•This method is applicable to a variety of light sources without limitation.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The main objectives of the study were to compare the phenolic composition, chemical and biological antioxidant activities, and cytotoxicity towards IMR90, HCT8, and A549 cell lines of eight grades of ...Chinese keemun black tea (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis) using a statistical approach. No cytotoxic effects were observed on IMR90 normal cells. Our results all together show that the chemical antioxidant capacity of high-grade black teas measured by DPPH, FRAP, and total reducing capacity assays was correspondingly higher than the mean values of low-grade teas and these antioxidant assays were not associated with cytotoxicity towards cancerous cell lines (HCT8 and A549). High grades of Chinese keemun black teas contained higher contents of total phenolics, flavonoids and ortho-diphenols than lower grades and theaflavin-3,3′-di-gallate could only be detected in high black tea grades (T1 and T2). Intermediate-high keemun black tea grades - C1, C3, T1, and T2 - which also had the highest mean values of TPC, flavonoids, o-diphenols, theaflavin-3-gallate, theaflavin-3′-gallate, Fe2+ chelating ability, and chemical antioxidant activity, presented the highest inhibition of Wistar rat's brain oxidation. No clear differentiation and trend were observed between erythrocyte protection and Chinese black tea grades as results clearly showed that intermediate black tea grades (C3 and C4) protected more the human erythrocytes against mechanical stress. Our study shows that although higher Chinese keemun black tea grades (T1 and T2) presented the highest TPC, flavonoids, and chemical antioxidant activity, these in vitro chemical assays were not translated into higher biological activity.
Display omitted
•Eight keemun black tea grades were analyzed for chemical composition and functional properties.•Antioxidant activity is not associated with cytotoxicity towards HCT8 and A549 cells.•T1 and T2 grades presented the highest levels of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity.•Erythrocyte protection against hypotonic hemolysis was observed in all teas.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
With the development of IoT and artificial intelligence, location-based services are getting more and more attention. For solving the current problem that indoor positioning error is large and ...generalization is poor, this paper proposes a Model Stacking Algorithm for Indoor Positioning System using WiFi fingerprinting. Firstly, we adopt a model stacking method based on Bayesian optimization to predict the location of indoor targets to improve indoor localization accuracy and model generalization. Secondly, Taking the predicted position based on model stacking as the observation value of particle filter, collaborative particle filter localization based on model stacking algorithm is realized. The experimental results show that the algorithm can control the position error within 2m, which is superior to KNN, GBDT, Xgboost, LightGBM, RF. The location accuracy of the fusion particle filter algorithm is improved by 31%, and the predicted trajectory is close to the real trajectory. The algorithm can also adapt to the application scenarios with fewer wireless access points.
Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have potential to realize high-speed communication between the human brain and the external environment. Recently, ...multiple access (MA) methods in telecommunications have been introduced into the system design of BCIs and showed their potential in improving BCI performance. This study investigated the feasibility of hybrid frequency and phase coding methods in multi-target SSVEP-based BCIs. Specifically, this study compared two hybrid target-coding strategies: (1) mixed frequency and phase coding, and (2) joint frequency and phase coding. In a simulated online BCI experiment using a 40-target BCI speller, BCI performance for both coding approaches were tested with a group of six subjects. At a spelling speed of 40 characters per minute (1.5 seconds per character), both approaches obtained high information transfer rates (ITR) (mixed coding: 172.37±28.67 bits/min, joint coding: 170.94±28.32 bits/min) across subjects. There was no statistically significant difference between the two approaches (p>0.05). These results suggest that the hybrid frequency and phase coding methods are highly efficient for multi-target coding in SSVEP BCIs with a large number of classes, providing a practical solution to implement a high-speed BCI speller.
PDF
