Reliable and accurate localization of objects is essential for many applications in wireless networks. Especially for large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs), both low cost and high accuracy are ...targets of the localization technology. However, some range-free methods cannot be combined with a cooperative method, because these range-free methods are characterized by low accuracy of distance estimation. To solve this problem, we propose a hard decision-based cooperative localization method. For distance estimation, an exponential distance calibration formula is derived to estimate distance. In the cooperative phase, the cooperative method is optimized by outlier constraints from neighboring anchors. Simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that localization accuracy is improved in different scenarios, while high node density or anchor density contributes to the localization. For large-scale WSNs, the hard decision-based cooperative localization is proved to be effective.
Abstract
Background
Large-scale genotype–phenotype association studies of crop germplasm are important for identifying alleles associated with favorable traits. The limited number of ...single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in most wheat genome-wide association studies (GWASs) restricts their power to detect marker-trait associations. Additionally, only a few genes regulating grain number per spikelet have been reported due to sensitivity of this trait to variable environments.
Results
We perform a large-scale GWAS using approximately 40 million filtered SNPs for 27 spike morphology traits. We detect 132,086 significant marker-trait associations and the associated SNP markers are located within 590 associated peaks. We detect additional and stronger peaks by dividing spike morphology into sub-traits relative to GWAS results of spike morphology traits. We propose that the genetic dissection of spike morphology is a powerful strategy to detect signals for grain yield traits in wheat. The GWAS results reveal that
TaSPL17
positively controls grain size and number by regulating spikelet and floret meristem development, which in turn leads to enhanced grain yield per plant. The haplotypes at
TaSPL17
indicate geographical differentiation, domestication effects, and breeding selection.
Conclusion
Our study provides valuable resources for genetic improvement of spike morphology and a fast-forward genetic solution for candidate gene detection and cloning in wheat.
Plant architecture associated with increased grain yield and adaptation to the local environments is selected during wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding. The internode length of individual stems and ...tiller length of individual plants are important for the determination of plant architecture. However, few studies have explored the genetic basis of these traits.
Here, we conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to dissect the genetic basis of geographical differentiation of these traits in 306 worldwide wheat accessions including both landraces and traditional varieties. We determine the changes of haplotypes for the associated genomic regions in frequency in 831 wheat accessions that are either introduced from other countries or developed in China from last two decades. We identify 83 loci that are associated with one trait, while the remaining 247 loci are pleiotropic. We also find 163 associated loci are under strong selective sweep. GWAS results demonstrate independent regulation of internode length of individual stems and consistent regulation of tiller length of individual plants. This makes it possible to obtain ideal haplotype combinations of the length of four internodes. We also find that the geographical distribution of the haplotypes explains the observed differences in internode length among the worldwide wheat accessions.
This study provides insights into the genetic basis of plant architecture. It will facilitate gene functional analysis and molecular design of plant architecture for breeding.
•A freeze-thaw process varified sulfhydryl/disulfide interchange and surface hydrophobicity of albumen proteins.•A freeze-thaw process resulted in protein partial denaturation, dissociation and ...aggregation.•A freeze-thaw process enhanced foaming properties of individual albumen proteins and whole egg white.
In this study, major albumen proteins (ovalbumin, ovomucoid, ovotransferrin, lysozyme and ovomucin) were singly subjected to a multiple freeze-thaw process, and the resulting changes in structural characteristics and foamability were investigated. Structural changes of proteins occurred during the process, regarding by sulfhydryl-disulfide interchange and exposure of hydrophobic groups. The differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy showed that these albumen proteins underwent denaturation, dissociation and possibly aggregation. Correspondingly, the foaming ability of albumen proteins improved after the freeze-thaw treatment, except for ovalbumin. The foaming ability of whole egg white was higher than that of each albumen protein, and improved after the multiple freeze-thaw process. This study extended knowledge of the relative contribution of each albumen protein to foaming properties of whole egg white during a freeze-thaw process, and suggested that a multiple freeze-thaw process is a promising technique for improving foaming properties of egg white proteins.
The late Quaternary paleoceanography and paleoenvironment of the South China Sea (SCS) have been well reconstructed over the last decade. In contrast, the provenance of the terrigenous sediments that ...have accumulated in the northwestern continental shelf mud area remains enigmatic. This study investigated the provenance of these sediments and the paleoenvironmental changes archived in Core X2 via the analysis of geochemical elements, grain size, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C ages. Based on the upper continental crust (UCC)-normalized REE patterns and REE fractionation parameters, southwestern and western Taiwanese rivers and the Pearl River were identified as the main sources of the fine-grained sediment deposited in the northwestern shelf mud area off Hainan Island. This finding further confirms the long-distance transport (> 1000km) of fine-grained sediment from Taiwanese rivers to the northern SCS shelf and slope. Obvious changes in the grain size and Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) record occurred at approximately 4.0cal kyr BP and were likely caused by increased Hainan Island inputs due to sea level changes.
•REE compositions constrain the sediment sources for the northwestern South China Sea shelf.•Small rivers in SW and W Taiwan and the Pearl River dominated the sediment supply.•Taiwan may be an important source area.•Changes in coastal currents and sea level affected the sedimentation.
A symbiotic system of algae-bacteria, and attached cultivation, are two ways to increase microalgae biomass, and beneficially effect wastewater treatment. However, the possible advantages of the ...algae-bacteria co-culture in attached cultivation, are still unclear. This paper investigates the effects of different morphologies of a phosphate solubilizing bacteria-Paenibacillus xylanexedens (bacteria supernatant, bacteria, broken bacteria), on the growth of microalgae-Chlorella pyrenoidosa and wastewater treatment in an attached co-culture system. The results show that the broken bacteria had the most significant effect, with the biomass and protein content of Chlorella pyrenoidosa increasing by 125.67% and 25.04%; and the removal rate of COD, NH4+-N and PO43− in wastewater increasing by 23.57%, 146.15% and 9.96% respectively. This indicates that the intracellular material of the Paenibacillus xylanexedens was more effective in promoting the biomass growth of Chlorella pyrenoidosa and the removal rates of COD, NH4+-N and PO43−, compared to the algae growing without the bacteria. The algae-bacteria symbiotic attached mode was superior to the suspended mode, in terms of both Chlorella pyrenoidosa biomass enhancement and effective wastewater treatment. The addition of different morphologies of Paenibacillus xylanexedens significantly enlarged the difference between the two culture modes. This study provides a new method for coupled algae-bacteria co-cultures for wastewater treatment, based on the symbiotic effect.
Intracellular substances of Paenibacillus xylanexedens significantly promoted the growth of Chlorella pyrenoidosa and wastewater treatment effect. Display omitted
•Intracellular substances of Paenibacillus xylanexedens have a significant effect.•The biomass and protein of Chlorella pyrenoidosa increased by 125.67% and 25.04% respectively.•COD, NH4+-N and PO43− removal rate increased by 23.57%, 146.15% and 9.96% respectively.•The algae-bacteria co-culture enlarged the differences between attached and suspended cultures.
Three novel non-fullerene small molecular acceptors ITOIC, ITOIC-F, and ITOIC-2F were designed and synthesized with easy chemistry. The concept of supramolecular chemistry was successfully used in ...the molecular design, which includes noncovalently conformational locking (via intrasupramolecular interaction) to enhance the planarity of backbone and electrostatic interaction (intersupramolecular interaction) to enhance the π–π stacking of terminal groups. Fluorination can further strengthen the intersupramolecular electrostatic interaction of terminal groups. As expected, the designed acceptors exhibited excellent device performance when blended with polymer donor PBDB-T. In comparison with the parent acceptor molecule DC-IDT2T reported in the literature with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.93%, ITOIC with a planar structure exhibited a PCE of 8.87% and ITOIC-2F with a planar structure and enhanced electrostatic interaction showed a quite impressive PCE of 12.17%. Our result demonstrates the importance of comprehensive design in the development of high-performance non-fullerene small molecular acceptors.
•A novel egg yolk phosvitin–resveratrol microemulsion has been produced.•The physicochemical characterization of the microemulsion has been described.•A synergistic antioxidant activity was observed ...in the microemulsion.
Egg yolk phosvitin is the most highly phosphorylated protein found in the nature. The physicochemical properties of phosvitin–resveratrol complexes and their synergistic antioxidant activities in microemulsions were investigated. The particle diameters of microemulsions containing 0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0% phosvitin were 2.660, 0.501 and 0.414μm, respectively. The emulsifying activity index increased largely from 3.72 to 21.5m2/g with increasing phosvitin concentration from 0.5% to 2.0%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermal analyses indicated that the microemulsions underwent a conformational change during homogenization. Antioxidant assays showed that phosvitin–resveratrol microemulsions exhibited a higher antioxidant activity than that of phosvitin–resveratrol primary emulsions. The MTT assay indicated that HepG2 cell viability remained higher than 80% at phosvitin concentration below 1.0mg/ml. This suggested that phosvitin, when coupled with polyphenol, can effectively inhibit lipid oxidation in food emulsions, which provided valuable insights into deep processing and application of egg proteins in food industry.
Desalination based on interfacial solar evaporation is emerging as one of the most promising water treatment technologies. However, the inevitable salt-accumulation at the evaporation interface is ...still a major challenge facing the long-term application. Herein, a salt-resistant evaporator (SRE) is proposed under the guidance of computational fluid dynamics simulation. Theoretical simulation clearly suggests that well-aligned multiscale channels represent the optimal geometry of the photothermal evaporator, as they contribute high hydraulic conductivity and diffusion flux and derivate strong convection. During solar evaporation, these channels provide the pathways for the rapid transfer of bulk brine, which excretes the salt and self-regenerates the evaporator in real time. Rattan naturally features regular multiscale channels. Consequently, this sustainable biomass material is employed to carbonize and assemble the desired SRE. This rattan-based evaporator exhibits a high evaporation rate (1.47 kg m−2 h−1) and efficiency (91 %) in a highly concentrated brine (20 wt% NaCl) under 1 sun. Owing to the convection effect tuning, its performance is kept constant during a continuous week operation, indicative of the long-term stability of the system. Moreover, convective effect tuning can be generalized to other photothermal materials, which opens up the possibilities for large-scale application of solar desalination of high salinity brine.
Display omitted
•A carbon based photothermal material with well-aligned and multi-scale pore structure derived from biomass was prepared.•The well-aligned and multi-scale aperture can effectively promote fluid convection compared with the tortuous aperture.•Based on the convection tuning effect, a salt resistant evaporator was prepared, which can work stably in 20wt% brine.•Convective tuning effect is realized by structure independent of materials, which has strong universality.
Underwater imaging is often affected by light attenuation and scattering in water, leading to degraded visual quality such as color distortion, reduced contrast, and noise. Existing underwater image ...enhancement (UIE) methods often lack generalization capabilities, making them unable to adapt to various underwater images captured in different aquatic environments and lighting conditions. To address these challenges, a UIE method based on conditional denoising diffusion probabilistic model (DDPM) is proposed (DiffWater), which leverages the advantages of DDPM, and trains a stable and well-converged model capable of generating high-quality and diverse samples. Considering the multiple distortion issues in underwater imaging, unconditional DDPM may not achieve satisfactory enhancement and restoration results. Therefore, DiffWater utilizes the degraded underwater image with added color compensation as a conditional guide, through which the DiffWater achieves highquality restoration of degraded underwater images. Particularly, the proposed DiffWater introduces a color compensation method that performs channel-wise color compensation in the RGB color space, tailored to different water conditions and lighting scenarios, and utilizes this condition to guide the denoising process. In the experimental section, the proposed DiffWater method is tested on four real underwater image datasets and compared against existing methods. Experimental results demonstrate that DiffWater outperforms existing comparison methods in terms of enhancement quality and effectiveness, exhibiting stronger generalization capabilities and robustness
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