MicroRNAs are regulators in regulation of broad range of phenotypes. The purple urchin, Strongylocentrotus nudus, is one of the most important marine economic animals that widely distributed in the ...cold seas along the coasts of eastern pacific area. To date, only 45 microRNAs have been identified in a related species, Strongylocentrotus purpurtus, and there is no report on S. nudus microRNAs. Herein, solexa sequencing technology was used to high throughput sequencing analysis of microRNAs in small RNA library isolated from five tissues of S. nudus. Totally, 8,966,865 reads were yielded, 131,015 of which were related to 415 unique microRNAs including 345 deuterostoma conserved and 70 urchin specific microRNAs, as well as 5 microRNA* sequences. The miRNA features including length distribution, end variations and genomic locations were characterized. Annotation of targets revealed a broad range of biological processes and signal transduction pathways that regulated by urchin miRNAs, of which signal transduction mechanisms was the subgroup containing the maximum targets. In addition, the expression of 100 miRNAs in female gonad was confirmed using microRNA microarray analysis. This study provides a first large scale cloning and characterization of S.nudus miRNAs and their potential targets, providing the foundation for further characterization for their role in the regulation of diversity of physiological processes.
Magnetic field treatments have been utilized to promote germination and growth of a variety of species of plants; however the mechanism of concern has not been fully elucidated. In this research, ...wheat seedlings were treated with 500 mT and 1500 mT static magnetic field (SMF) for 10 and 20 min, respectively. Analyzing Fourier transform infrared spectra collected from leaves of seedlings showed that SMF treatments decreased the contents of lipids and proteins, shifted bands to higher wavenumbers in 3000–2800 cm−1 regions, and increased the ratio of CH2/CH3 which likely indicates a structural variation of lipids. For bands assigned to different second structures of proteins, slight bands shifting and changing the ratio of different second structures of proteins were observed due to SMF treatments. To summarize, the results revealed that lipids rather than proteins were sensitive to SMF treatments. The results provided insight into the SMF induced conformational changes of lipids and proteins in wheat leaves, which will help elucidate the biological mechanisms of SMF on plant growth and development.
Full text
Available for:
FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and their partner PIWI proteins play an essential role in fertility, germline stem cell development, as well as the basic control and evolution of animal genomes. ...However, research was rare with regard to piRNA population in sea urchin, a model animal intensively used for development and genetics studies. Utilizing Solexa sequencing, we present an identification of 13,051 piRNA-like RNAs expressed in male gonad of Strongylocentrotus nudus. Out of 202 tested RNAs, 94 sequences were confirmed to express in female gonad using microarray assay, suggesting that both male and female gonads are piRNA-like RNA-enriched organs. These RNAs with “U” at the 5′ end or “A” at position of 10, in size from 26 to 30 nucleotides, were predominantly 28 nt in length and tend to be clustered in small regions in genome, achieving the longest piRNA-like RNA-enriched region about 5.5 kb in scaffold78427. Alignment results showed 11 RNAs were homologous to the known piRNAs. Furthermore, BLASTn searching against sea urchin repeat element database showed these piRNA-like RNAs matched to 101 types of DNA transposons and retrotransposons, of which SPRP1, Harbinger-N2, piggyBac-N10, SINE2-1, and piggyBac-N11 were the most frequent hit elements, suggesting a transposon silencing function of these piRNA-like RNAs.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, 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
Abstract
The warehousing logistics mode of “pre-warehouse plus terminal distribution” is a decentralized resource allocation scheme around the logistics industry at the end of distribution, ...supporting the development of New Retail, a data-driven extensive retail form centered on consumer experience. Firstly, taking the stand-alone pre-warehouse as the research object, this paper analyzed the distribution characteristics of new retail fresh goods, the consumption structure of demand and the functional characteristics of the pre-warehouse. Secondly, the extended CFLP (Capacitated Facility Location Problem) model was established with processing fee, freshness loss, time penalty and warehouse service capacity. In addition, the one-to-one distribution relationship between demand point and storage facilities in the traditional CFLP model was changed to many-to-many in order to improve the overall facility utilization. Finally, an improved coding genetic algorithm was adopted to solve the nonlinear mixed 0-1 programming model. Therefore, location, matching and distribution volume were showed at the same time. The results of the example demonstrated that the model gave priority to meet the timeliness and fully utilized the facility capacity.
Pool-rewarding in N-person snowdrift game Li, Kun; Mao, Yizhou; Wei, Zhenlin ...
Chaos, solitons and fractals,
February 2021, 2021-02-00, Volume:
143
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
•Pool-rewarding is incorporated into N-person snowdrift game to reveal its influence on cooperation.•In well-mixed population, increasing rewarding synergy factor generates oscillating periodic ...phase.•In structured population, rewarders tend to dominate at moderate rewarding synergy factor for small cost.
We extend the N-person snowdrift game (NSG) to incorporate the effects of pool rewarding. An individual who chooses to reward pays a certain cost to provide additional benefits to cooperative behaviors. Thus, rewarding can be considered as a second-order altruistic behavior. But rewarders are actually indirectly protected by defectors as system dynamics evolves. Both the well-mixed version of NSG and the spatial game have been investigated. For well-mixed population, increasing the synergy factor of rewarding r2 facilitates the formation of an oscillating state, while the increment of NSG synergy factor r1 promotes the transition from the stable closed orbit to a fixed state of the system. For structured population, dynamic diversity is dramatically enriched. Especially, the existence of rewarders makes “cooperation monopolization”(the domination of cooperators or rewarders) emerge under feasible parameters. Moreover, for small reward cost, the system dynamics can converge to the absorbing state of rewarding even when the r2 value is low. Larger reward cost, however, is not conducive to the prevalence of rewarding, but dramatically promotes second-order free-riding. Based on this study, we hope to provide guidance for the future research of positive incentives in NSG.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Experimental studies have demonstrated that the gas phase contact angle (CA) of a surface nanobubble (SNB) is much smaller than that of a macroscopic gas bubble. This reduced CA plays a crucial role ...in prolonging the lifetime of SNBs by lowering the bubble pressure and preventing gas molecules from dissolving in the surrounding liquids. Despite extensive efforts to explain the anomalously small CA, a consensus about the underlying reasons is yet to be reached. In this study, we conducted experimental investigations to explore the influence of gas molecules adsorbed at the solid–liquid interface on the CA of SNBs created through the solvent exchange (SE) method and temperature difference (TD). Interestingly, no significant change is observed in the CA of SNBs on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces. Even for nanobubbles on micro/nano pancakes, the CA only exhibited a slight reduction compared to SNBs on bare HOPG surfaces. These findings suggest that gas adsorption at the immersed solid surface may not be the primary factor contributing to the small CA of the SNBs. Furthermore, the CA of SNBs formed on polystyrene (PS) and octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) substrates was also investigated, and a considerable increase in CA was observed. In addition, the effects of other factors including impurity, electric double layer (EDL) line tension, and pinning force upon the CA of SNBs were discussed, and a comprehensive model about multiple factors affecting the CA of SNBs was proposed, which is helpful for understanding the abnormally small CA and the stability of SNBs.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
•Evolutionary game theory and complex network theory are combined to investigate epidemic spreading.•A rewarding mechanism is introduced to enhance the strategy of self-isolation.•Larger network ...degree is conducive to the prevalence of self-isolation, thereby hindering epidemic spreading.
How to effectively control virus spreading remains an open challenging problem since the environments for virus propagation are complex and heterogeneous, and more importantly, the dynamics of virus spreading usually co-evolves with that of human beings' travelling behavior. Motivated by this, we combine evolutionary game theory and complex network theory to investigate the influence of the competition between different travelling strategies on virus propagation. Simulation results show that the strategy of self-isolation can substantially inhibit the spread of infectious diseases on complex social networks, and introducing rewarding mechanism would further enhance this effect. Moreover, counterintuitively, larger network degree is conducive to the prevalence of self-isolation, thereby hindering virus spreading. We hope our work can provide more insight into the effective control of virus propagation in the real world.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and Nitrogen-doped CQDs (N-CQDs) were synthesized through a one-step hydrothermal process, utilizing reed leaves and urea as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The ...maximum excitation wavelength of CQDs and N2-CQDs was 325 nm, and the corresponding emission wavelength was 407 nm and 406 nm, respectively. Synthetic CQDs have excellent fluorescence properties, while N-doping enhances the fluorescence intensity and stability of CQDs. Next, the adsorption effect of N2-CQDs on various metal ions was also studied using the fluorescence quenching method. The results showed that N2-CQDs have a significant capacity for adsorption of Cu
2+
ions. The following quantitative analysis indicated that the Cu
2+
concentration showed an excellent linear relationship between 0~500 μmol/L and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.074 μmol/L. The N2-CQDs at 0-200 μg/mL have no deleterious effects on the viability of HeLa cells and the survival rate of
Artemia
nauplii. Finally, the agarose gel containing N2-CQDs was constructed, and its absorption behavior of Cu
2+
in artificial seawater was evaluated. The results showed that this N2-CQDs-based gel was able to efficiently remove Cu
2+
from seawater, leading to a higher survival rate of the nauplii under 10 and 50 mg/L Cu
2+
stress. Our results collectively provide a cost-effective method for removing heavy metal ions from seawater and mitigating their harmful effects on sea animals.
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
This paper addresses a practical problem in road transportation regarding how the arrangement of three-dimensional facilities on a road (e.g., toll stations, construction guardrails and safety cones) ...will affect driving behavior. According to literature research and site investigations, in most cases, such facilities cause drivers to perceive a certain level of variation in the lane width, which will ultimately affect their driving behavior. For example, a driver will control a vehicle more carefully when approaching such a facility and usually reduce the passing speed according to his/her perception and experience. To the best of our knowledge, however, few related numerical studies and corresponding practical test cases have been reported at present. This paper uses a cellular automata traffic flow model to analyze this traffic problem. Notably, the existing models of this kind do not consider the cell width and its effect on vehicle speed. Motivated by the above problems and based on the human eye imaging principle, the dynamic visual field mechanism and test data, the present work first proposes a numerical relationship among the vehicle speed, the distance to the target and the perceived width of a fixed facility alongside the lane. Then, a new cellular automata traffic flow model with spatial variation in the cell width is designed to correlate the cell shape variable with the perceived width of the lane. Simulations based on this new model are conducted to simulate and compare the statuses of vehicles in a single lane with and without fixed facilities. The simulation results show that the speed reduction caused by cell deformation has a significant influence on the flow of traffic and that a “gate” effect occurs in deformed cells, resulting in behavior close to actual traffic phenomena. However, as the traffic density increases, the influence of deformed cells on a vehicle’s movement lessens. The proposed model may be a meaningful extension of cellular automata traffic flow models.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The last mile issue is a hot topic in traffic engineering, corresponding to how to complete the last part of a long journey. In this issue, taxis, buses and shared bikes, which are three different ...ways for individuals to choose, will have a significant impact on their personal utility. Firstly, we quantified the perceived cost of users. According to the characteristics of different travel modes, taking pedestrian perception and travel cost into account, an evolutionary game model of travel mode selection was established based on the replication dynamic equation. By calculating the stable equilibrium state of the system with different cost parameters, how travel modes evolve in infinite populations was analyzed. Secondly, the scene of finite populations was investigated on complex network for comparison. Both results show that when the system reaches a stable equilibrium state, the proportion of the three modes of travel is very sensitive to the change in travel cost. Through this study, we hope to provide guidance for traffic planners to formulate traffic policies and solve traffic congestion in connection problems.
•The impact of economic cost on the choice of travel strategy is studied.•The perception of pedestrians is taken into consideration.•How economic costs influence travel modes is investigated.•Effective ways to improve traffic order in the last mile are established.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PDF
