This paper aims to develop a hierarchical risk assessment model using the newly-developed evidential reasoning (ER) rule, which constitutes a generic conjunctive probabilistic reasoning process. In this paper, we first provide a brief introduction to the basics of the ER rule and emphasize the strengths for representing and aggregating uncertain information from multiple experts and sources. Further, we discuss the key steps of developing the hierarchical risk assessment framework systematically, including (1) formulation of risk assessment hierarchy, (2) representation of both qualitative and quantitative information, (3) elicitation of attribute weights and information reliabilities, (4) aggregation of assessment information using the ER rule and (5) quantification and ranking of risks using utility-based transformation. The proposed hierarchical risk assessment framework can potentially be implemented to various complex and uncertain systems. A case study on the fire/explosion risk assessment of marine vessels demonstrates the applicability of the proposed risk assessment model.

This paper proposed a three-layer distributed simulation network architecture: 1. Distributed virtual simulation network, 2. Perception and control sub-network, and 3. Collaborative communication service network. This simulation architecture runs on a distributed platform. The platform can provide a unique virtual scenario and several simulation services to verify the individual robot system's basic perception, control, and planning algorithms and the distributed collaborative algorithms of heterogeneous multi-robot systems. Furthermore, we designed a simulation experiment scenario for classical heterogeneous robot systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). At last, We gave a rough estimation model of the bandwidth.

System-of-systems (SoS) evolution is a complex and unpredictable process. Although various principles to facilitate collaborative SoS evolution have been proposed, there is a lack of experimental data validating their effectiveness. To address these issues, we present an Agent-Based Model (ABM) for SoS evolution in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) , serving as a quantitative analysis tool for SoS research. By integrating multiple complex and rational behaviors of individuals, we aim to simulate real-world scenarios as accurately as possible. To simulate the SoS evolution process, our model employs multiple agents with autonomous interactions and incorporates external environmental variables. Furthermore, we propose three evaluation metrics: evolutionary time, degree of variation, and evolutionary cost, to assess the performance of SoS evolution. Our study demonstrates that enhanced information transparency significantly improves the evolutionary performance of distributed SoS. Conversely, the adoption of uniform standards only brings limited performance enhancement to distributed SoSs. Although our proposed model has limitations, it stands out from other approaches that utilize Agent-Based Modeling to analyze SoS theories. Our model focuses on realistic problem contexts and simulates realistic interaction behaviors. This study enhances the comprehension of SoS evolution processes and provides valuable insights for the formulation of effective evolutionary strategies.

Rhododendron chrysanthum Pall., live in Changbai Mountain being exposed to chilling temperature, high light intensities and water scarcity condition. To adapt to the harsh environment, the cold resistance mechanisms of R. chrysanthum have been successfully evolved in the long-term adaptive process. In our present work, the methods of proteomics combined with physiological and biochemical analyses were used to investigate the effects of cold stress on the photosynthesis and antioxidant system of Rhododendron chrysanthum Pall. and the molecular mechanisms involved in cold resistance of plants. A total of 153 photosynthesis related proteins were identified in present work, of which 7 proteins including Rubisco large subunit (rbcL) were up-regulated in experiment group (EG) compared with control group (CG). Simultaneously, four chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were measured in present study. The results showed that the maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), actual quantum yield of PSII (Y(II)) and photochemical quenching (qP) were significantly higher in EG, whereas the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) was notably decreased. Cold stress could lead to a significant reduction in electron transport rate (ETR) accompanied with an increase in excitation pressure (1-qP). The abundance of PetE which involved in the plants photosynthetic electron transfer was also significantly influenced by cold stress. Moreover, the up-regulated expressions and higher levels of enzymatic activities of Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and Ascorbate peroxidases (APXs) were detected in EG. All these changes which can help plants to survive in low temperature are considered as the crucial parts of cold tolerance mechanisms. These results revealed that photosynthesis and redox adjustment play significant roles in the defense of cold-induced damage.

(1) Background: Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is when fertilized ovum implanted outside of uterine cavity. The incidence was 1.5% to 2.0% of all pregnancies [1, 2]. EP decreases fertility ability [3]. This study focused on the pregnancy rate after EP and various parameters influencing pregnancy. (2) Methods: The data was extracted from National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) during 2000-2013. The study group enrolled women with one EP history. Those who did not have EP was put into the control group. Chi-square/Fisher exact test was performed on category variable and t-test was used on continue variables. (3) Results: The EP group had a higher cumulative rate of conceive, 41.55% than control group, 37.14% and 1.16 times higher risk in developing pregnancy (P<0.001). The conceiving rate was lower than the control group in the first 5 years, but higher than the control group in the 10th to 14th years. (4) Conclusions: The fecundability after EP is lower at the beginning, but regained after long term follow.

In this paper we report a new development on the numerical model for aluminum-steam combustion. This model is based on diffusion flame of continuum regime and the thermal equilibrium between the particle and the flow field, which can be used to calculate the aluminum particle combustion model for two phase calculation conditions. The model prediction is in good agreement with the experimental data. A new type of vortex combustor was proposed for the combustion of aluminum and steam, and the mathematical model of the two phase reacting flow with in this combustor was established. The turbulence effects are modeled using the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) with Linear Pressure-Strain approach, and the Eddy-Dissipation model is used to simulate the gas phase combustion. Aluminum particles are injected into the vortex combustor and form a swirling flow around the chamber and their trajectories are traced using the Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The simulation results show that the vortex combustor can achieve high efficient combustion of aluminum and steam. The influencing factors, such as the eccentric distance of the inlet of aluminum particles, particle size and steam inlet diameter, etc., are studied. The work described in this paper represents an attempt to the design of a vortex combustor in order to increase aluminum combustion efficiency.

Apis mellifera, especially weak ones, are highly vulnerable to Carpoglyphus lactis mites, which can rapidly infest and consume stored pollen, leading to weakened colonies and potentially colony collapse. This study aimed to ascertain and investigate the prevalence of this mite in honeybee colonies across 9 provinces in the Republic of Korea (ROK). A total of 615 honeybee colonies were collected, from 66 apiaries during the spring and 58 apiaries during the summer of 2023. A 1,242 bp segment of the the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction method. The detection levels of C. lactis in the honeybees were compared between winter and summer. Based on the COI sequence analysis, the nucleotide sequence similarity of C. lactis mites isolated in the ROK with those from China (NC048990.1) was found to be 99.5%, and with those from the United Kingdom (KY922482.1) was 99.3%. This study is the first report of C. lactis in Korean apiaries. The findings in this study demonstrate a significantly higher detection rate in winter, which is 4.1 times greater than that in summer (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the results underscore the usefulness of molecular diagnostic techniques for detecting C. lactis mites.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected medical practice. More than 7,000,000 patients died worldwide after being infected with COVID-19; however, no specific laboratory markers have yet been established to predict death related to this disease. In contrast, electrocardiographic changes owing to COVID-19 include QT prolongation and ST-T changes; however, there have been no studies on ambulatory electrocardiographic markers of COVID-19. We encountered three patients diagnosed as having COVID-19 who did not have a prior history of significant structural heart diseases. All had abnormalities in ambulatory echocardiogram parameters detected by high-resolution 24-h electrocardiogram monitoring: positive late potentials (LPs) and T-wave alternans (TWA), abnormal heart rate variability (HRV), and heart rate turbulence (HRT). Case 1 involved a 78-year-old woman with a history of chronic kidney disease, Case 2 a 76-year-old man with hypertension and diabetes, and Case 3 a 67-year-old man with renal cancer, lung cancer, and diabetes. None of them had a prior history of significant structural heart disease. Although no significant consistent increases in clinical markers were observed, all three patients died, mainly because of respiratory failure with mild heart failure. LP, TWA, HRV, and HRT were all positive in three cases with no significant structural cardiac disease at the initial phase of admission. There is a possibility that LP, TWA, HRV, and HRT have the potential to be risk stratifiers of COVID-19 pneumonia in the early phase of admission. Further accumulation of data regarding ambulatory electrocardiographic markers in patients with COVID-19 is needed.

The radar sensor described realizes healthcare monitoring capable of detecting subject chest-wall movement caused by cardiopulmonary activities, and wirelessly estimating the respiration and heartbeat rates of the subject without attaching any devices to the body. Conventional single-tone Doppler radar can only capture Doppler signatures because of a lack of bandwidth information with noncontact sensors. In contrast, we take full advantage of impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar to achieve low power consumption and convenient portability, with a flexible detection range and desirable accuracy. A noise reduction method based on improved ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and a vital sign separation method based on the continuous-wavelet transform (CWT) are proposed jointly to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in order to acquire accurate respiration and heartbeat rates. Experimental results illustrate that respiration and heartbeat signals can be extracted accurately under different conditions. This noncontact healthcare sensor system proves the commercial feasibility and considerable accessibility of using compact IR-UWB radar for emerging biomedical applications.

Global agriculture has been forced to increase food production to feed the growing human population, while confronting various environmental obstacles such as global warming, resistance to pathogens, and constraints on arable land caused by soil salinity, drought, rising sea level, saltwater intrusion, and urbanization. Regarding abiotic stresses, salinity is a worldwide problem for agricultural production. Many efforts, therefore, have been made to cope with the environmental challenges, however, the progress of salinization, which is mainly caused and accelerated by anthropogenic activities, is likely faster than our progress in finding ways to deal with this problem. In addition, drought represents a global threat to the production of major crops. In addition, pests and pathogens cause significant crop losses and diminish global food security. Among the various strategies that have been investigated and applied in plant science, antimicrobial peptides derived from plants have caught widespread attention from scientists since these peptides exhibit beneficial biological activities. In agricultural science, there have been reports on the roles of antimicrobial peptides with active properties against biotic and abiotic stresses. Non-specific plant lipid transfer proteins, thionins, systemins, defensins, cyclotides, and heveins-like antimicrobial peptides are common antimicrobial peptides that have been found to be involved in the defense system against fungi and insect pests. Based on their potential ability to protect crops from pests, bacteria, and pathogenic fungi, the use of antimicrobial peptide genes in creating transgenic plants has been largely conducted during the last decades, and these studies have obtained positive results against the growth of fungi and bacteria. This review will focus on the latest progress in studies of antimicrobial peptides related to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. We will also update the current progress in the development of antimicrobial peptide-based transgenic crops.

By introducing environmental mediator, for avoiding randomness in selecting indicators and subjectivity in deciding interaction path coefficients to reveal interaction mechanism among forest industry, ecology and environmental capacity, structural Pressure–State–Impact–Response (PSIR) and quantitative Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) are utilized with data on thirty–one provinces of China. We can find that: (i) forest industry has a negative influence on ecology, whereas ecology has a positive influence on industry; (ii) the destructive influence that industry has on ecology is much greater than the positive effect ecology has on industry; and (iii) environmental capacity plays a partial mediating role between industry and ecology. According to these results we can conclude that: (i) forest industry and ecology are not in a symbiotic relationship and have not reached a level of ecological security; (ii) the interaction between industry and ecology is in a period of transition from antagonistic to beneficial; and (iii) industry dominates ecology. However, we prospect the following advice: (i) methods of forest industry should be changed; (ii) new modes of industrial integration and circular economy should be developed; and (iii) the ability of the environment to sustain itself should be enhanced. The level of forest ecological security to discuss the symbiotic mechanism of industry and ecology will propose to be measured in future.

{This study investigates the coordinated behaviors and the underlying collective intelligence in biological groups, particularly those led by informed leaders. By establishing new convergence criteria based on real biological group experiments, this research introduces the concept of a volitional term and heterogeneous networks, constructing a coupled force Cucker-Smale model with informed leaders. The inclusion of the informed leader aspect distinctively characterizes the dynamics of leaders and followers, enabling a more accurate representation of biological group behavior. The paper then proposes the Flock Leadership Hierarchy Network (FLH), a model reflecting real biological interactions. By employing time slicing and rolling time windows, the study methodically analyses group behavior stages, using volatility and convergence time as metrics to examine the relationship between group consistency and interactions. Comparative experiments show the FLH network's superior performance. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that the FLH network follows a power-law distribution, highlighting the evolutionary intelligence of biological groups. This research offers new perspectives on the evolution of biological groups, contributing to our understanding of both natural and artificial systems, such as animal migration and autonomous drone operations.

Taiwan’s auditors have suffered from processing excessive audit data, including drawing audit evidence. This study advances sampling techniques by integrating machine learning with sampling. This machine learning integration helps avoid sampling bias, keep randomness and variability, and target the risker samples. We first apply a Naive Bayes classifier to classify data into some classes. Next, a user-based, item-based, or hybrid approach is employed to draw audit evidence. The representativeness index is the primary metric for measuring the representativeness of audit evidence. The user-based approach denotes the selection of samples between two percentiles in a class as audit evidence. It may be equivalent to a combination of monetary and variable sampling methods. The item-based approach represents the choice of risky samples as audit evidence. It may be identical to a combination of non-statistical and monetary sampling methods. Auditors can hybridize those user-based and item-based approaches to balance representativeness and riskiness in selecting audit evidence. Three experiments show that sampling using machine learning integration has the benefits of drawing unbiased samples, handling complex patterns, correlations, and unstructured data, and improving efficiency in sampling big data. However, the limitations are the classification accuracy output by machine learning algorithms and the range of prior probabilities.

Sunflower is one of the oil crops and its planting areas was listed behind Soybean, peanut and rapeseeds in China. It will encounter different kind of diseases during planting, thus limited the seeds yield. Fusarium species are the major threat to different crops nowadays, it is very important to identify the species caused diseases on different hosts, so that the potential control measures may be explored. In Inner mongolia, Sunflower Disk Rot (SDR) was found in different sunflower planting field, the average infection ratio around 8.50%, typically in some verieties, its infection ratio reach to 11.67%. The diseased receptacle were collected from different locations and Koch’s postulate was conducted. The results showed that Fusarium verticillioides was the main causal agent caused SDR. Fungicide toxicity tests shown that Fludioxonil and Flutolanil were screened out from six fungicides for controlling F. verticillioides, with EC50 values of 0.05 µg/mL (R = 0.9825) and 0.96 µg/mL (R = 0.9964) , respectively. This is the first report of SDR caused by F. verticillioides, and it will alert sunflower reseachers to include SDR in the disease list, so as to control sunflower diseases with integrated management strategy successfully.

In the dynamic landscape of the telecommunications industry, understanding and mitigating customer churn is paramount for maintaining competitive advantage and sustaining revenue streams. This comprehensive literature review delves into the intricacies of customer churn prediction, a crucial aspect in fortifying the bond between telecom businesses and their customers. The review methodically analyzes 11 articles published between 2000 and March 2024, spotlighting the strategic role of Customer Relationship Management and the prevalence of high churn rates that necessitate a shift from customer acquisition to retention strategies. Furthermore, the review navigates through the challenges inherent in churn prediction, including the complexities of managing large, imbalanced, and noisy datasets and the intricacies involved in model selection and optimization. Despite these challenges, the paper highlights the superior capability of machine learning techniques in handling complex datasets to provide accurate predictions, albeit acknowledging their practical complexities. The main aim of the study is to provide an overview, serving as a knowledge base for researchers interested in machine learning techniques within the realm of telecommunications.

Recent technological advancements in conservation genetics and genomics have resulted in diverse tools for aiding conservation of species. The precision and resolution of high throughput sequencing technologies provide valuable insights to aid conservation decisions, but these technologies are often financially unfeasible or unavailable in resource constrained countries. Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers, when combined with sensitive automated detection systems, provide a simple, cheap means to investigate genetic diversity and discriminate closely related species. Here we apply this technology to assess genetic diversity and taxonomic delimitation in the Encephalartos eugene-maraisii species complex, a highly threatened, taxonomically dubious group of cycads in South Africa. Silica dried cycad leaflets were extracted using the Oktopure robot employing Sbeadex chemistry and amplified with fluorescently tagged ISSR primers. Band presence was scored with an ABI 3130 genetic sequencer under three different fluorescence cut-off values. Phenetic analyses were performed in NTSYS software while Bayesian analysis was performed in STRUCTURE, and haplotype network analysis, AMOVA and Tajima’s D statistic was computed with PopART. Our analyses support taxonomic singularity of E. dyerianus, E. dolomiticus and E. eugene-maraisii. Relationships between E. nubimontanus and E. cupidus remain uncertain. E. middelburgensis samples showed no clustering but had poor amplification success. This study demonstrated the suitability of automated ISSR fingerprinting as a method for plant conservation studies, especially in resource-constrained countries.

Herein, we present the design technique of a resonant rectifier for piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting. We propose two diode equivalents to reduce the voltage drop in the rectifier operation, a minuscule-drop-diode equivalent (MDDE) and a low-drop-diode equivalent (LDDE). The diode equivalents are embedded in resonant rectifier integrated circuits (ICs), which use symmetric bias-flip to reduce the power wasted for charging and discharging the internal capacitance of a PE transducer. The self-startup function is supported by synchronously generating control pulses for the bias-flip from the PE transducer. Two resonant rectifier ICs, using both MDDE and LDDE, are fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS process and their performances are characterized under external and self-power conditions. Under the external-power condition, the rectifier using LDDE delivers an output power POUT of 564 μW and a rectifier output voltage VRECT of 3.36 V with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 90.1%. Under self-power conditions, the rectifier using MDDE delivers a POUT of 288 μW and a VRECT of 2.4 V with a corresponding PCE of 74.6%. The result shows that the power extraction capability of the proposed rectifier is 5.9 and 3.0 times higher than that of a conventional full-bridge rectifier.

Retrospective information about the climate system and plant ecophysiology are key inputs in climate and Earth system modelling. Dendrochronology provides such information with large spatiotemporal coverage, and stable carbon isotope (¹³C/¹²C) analysis across tree-ring series is among the most advanced dendrochronological tools. For the past seventy years, this analysis was performed on whole molecules, and, to this day, ¹³C/¹²C variation is attributed to ¹³C discrimination during CO₂ diffusion into leaves and assimilation by rubisco. By contrast, ¹³C discrimination by post-rubisco processes is presumed constant. Here, recently reported results on the first dataset of intramolecular ¹³C discrimination in tree rings were synthesised by variance component analysis. The emerging picture is not consistent with the classical (DR-discrimination-centred) concepts and practices of carbon-isotope dendrochronology. Specifically, leaf and stem post-rubisco discrimination each account for more variation in the data than diffusion-rubisco discrimination, i.e., post-rubisco discrimination is not constant. Furthermore, diffusion-rubisco discrimination is used widely as proxy of leaf intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), a key determinant in the responses of global biogeochemical cycles to climate change. However, since diffusion-rubisco discrimination is a small component of the total data variance, whole-molecule analysis yields confounded iWUE estimates, yet intramolecular analysis will likely offer solutions. Lastly, all currently observed ¹³C/¹²C-climate relationships are attributed to diffusion-rubisco discrimination. However, here, relationships with temperature and radiation derive from leaf-level post-rubisco discrimination while relationships with precipitation derive from stem-level post-rubisco discrimination. That said, advances in mass spectrometry may soon make intramolecular ¹³C/¹²C analysis broadly available taking carbon-isotope dendrochronology to the next level.

This paper proposes a novel single-stage buck-boost three-Level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter with two independent dc sources coupled for the grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) application, which can effectively solve the unbalanced operational conditions generally appeared between two coupled independent PV sources induced by the unequal irradiation and temperature distribution. The proposed control scheme can simultaneously guarantee the maximum power point (MPP) operation of both PV sources and maintain the output waveform quality. Compared to the traditional two-stage PV inverter, the proposed NPC inverter could reduce the PV array voltage requirement and dc-link capacitors’ voltage rating, meanwhile show the advantage in operational efficiency. MATLAB simulations and the captured experimental results are presented to show the performance of the proposed three-level inverter.

The article presents several innovative systems developed through student laboratory projects, including two autonomous vehicles, a four-legged walking robot, an active ankle-foot orthosis, a ball on beam balancing mechanism, a ball on plate system, and a manipulator arm—all powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs). Fluidic muscles offer significant potential in various mechatronic systems, robots, and manipulators due to their flexible, lightweight nature and compliance. Their ability to produce smooth and adaptable motions is particularly beneficial in applications requiring natural and human-like movement, such as rehabilitation and assistive devices. Although PAMs powered control systems face challenges with nonlinear phenomena, their biologically inspired design holds promise for future applications across various industries. These may include innovative applicability in industrial, automotive, and aerospace sectors, as well as use in sports, medical aids, entertainment, and animatronics. Incorporating self-made laboratory systems actuated by PAMs into control systems education offers a comprehensive learning opportunity that combines theoretical concepts with hands-on experience. This approach develops the necessary skills of future engineers, expanding their understanding of technical principles and preparing them for future challenges in engineering practice.

In this study the effects of three different main preparatory tillage operations [ploughing at 0.4 m (P40) and 0.20 m (P20) depth and minimum tillage at 0.20 m depth (MT) each of them carried out at two different soil water contents (WC) [low, 58% (LH) and high, 80% (HH) of field capacity] were investigated. The results obtained in this research show high values of soil strength in term of Penetration resistance (CI) and shear strength (SS) particularly in deeper soil layers at lower water content. Fossil-fuel energy requirements both for P40 LH and P20 LH were 25 and 35% higher with respect to the HH treatments and tractor slip were very high (P40 LH = 32.4%) with respect to the P40 HH treatment (16%). Therefore soil water content had significantly influenced tractor performance during soil ploughing, particularly at 0.40 m depth while MT was not influenced at all. A significant correlation between grain yield and soil penetration resistance was found highlighting how soil strength may be good indicator of its productivity. Obtained results during these field tests allowed considering MT and P20 treatments more suitable for this type of soil in climate change scenarios.

Intelligent fault diagnosis techniques have replaced the time-consuming and unreliable human analysis, increasing the efficiency of fault diagnosis. Deep learning model can improve the accuracy of intelligent fault diagnosis with the help of its multilayer nonlinear mapping ability. This paper has proposed a novel method named Deep Convolutional Neural Networks with Wide First-layer Kernels (WDCNN). The proposed method uses raw vibration signals as input (data augmentation is used to generate more inputs), and uses the wide kernels in first convolutional layer for extracting feature and suppressing high frequency noise. Small convolutional kernels in the preceding layers are used for multilayer nonlinear mapping. AdaBN is implemented to improve the domain adaptation ability of the model. The proposed model addresses the problem that currently, the accuracy of CNN applied to fault diagnosis is not very high. WDCNN can not only achieve 100% classification accuracy on normal signals, but also outperform state of the art DNN model which is based on frequency features under different working load and noisy environment.

In this paper, a method is developed for presenting a novel virtual torque sensor based on precise model and position measurements avoids the need of traditional strain gauges and amplifiers. More specifically, the harmonic drive compliance model and the Gaussian process regression (GPR) technique are used together to achieve virtual torque sensor measurement. While the harmonic drive compliance model provides the analytic part, the Gaussian process regression method is used to reconstruct the unmolded part based on motor-side and link-side joint angles as well as motor current. After an automatic offline calibration, the method allows for a lean online implementation. The virtual torque sensor measurement is compared with measurements of a commercial torque sensor, and the results have attested the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Abstract: Kiwifruit, a perennial horticultural crop known for its nutritional value, faces significant challenges due to biotic and abiotic stresses, affecting its yield and quality. Leucine-rich repeat receptor-like proteins (LRR-RLPs), a major group of receptor-like proteins in plants, have diverse functions in plant physiology, including growth, development, signal transduction, and stress responses. Despite their importance, the specific roles of kiwifruit LRR-RLPs in response to biotic and abiotic stresses remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the expression patterns of kiwifruit LRR-RLPs under various stress conditions, including pathogen stress, heat stress, waterlogging stress, and copper stress. Through genome and transcriptome analyses, we identified a total of 101, 164, and 105 LRR-RLPs in Actinidia Chinensis 'Hongyang', Actinidia eriantha 'Huate', and Actinidia chinensis 'Red5' kiwifruit, respectively, classified into 9 subgroups based on phylogenetic relationships. Synteny analysis revealed that the expansion of kiwifruit LRR-RLPs was primarily attributed to segmental duplication events. Using RNA-seq data from pathogen-infected kiwifruits, we identified specific LRR-RLP genes potentially involved in different stages of pathogen infection. Additionally, we observed the potential involvement of kiwifruit LRR-RLPs in abiotic stress responses, with upstream transcription factors possibly regulating their expression. Furthermore, protein interaction network analysis unveiled the participation of kiwifruit LRR-RLP genes in the regulatory network of abiotic stress responses. These findings highlight the crucial roles of LRR-RLPs in mediating both biotic and abiotic stress responses in kiwifruit, offering valuable insights for the breeding of stress-resistant kiwifruit varieties.

Rice, as a staple crop feeding billions, faces constant threats from various diseases jeopardizing global food security. Precise understanding of disease resistance mechanisms is crucial for developing resilient rice varieties. Traditional genetic mapping methods, such as QTL mapping, provide valuable insights into the genetic basis of diseases. However, the complex nature of rice diseases demands a holistic approach to gain accurate knowledge of it. Omics technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, enable a comprehensive analysis of biological molecules, uncovering intricate molecular interactions within the rice plant. Integration of various mapping techniques using multi-omics data has revolutionized our understanding of rice disease resistance. By overlaying genetic maps with high-throughput omics datasets, researchers can pinpoint specific genes, proteins, or metabolites associated with disease resistance. This integration enhances the precision of disease-related biomarkers with better understanding of their functional roles in disease resistance. Improvement of rice breeding for disease resistance through this integration represents a significant stride in agricultural science because better understanding of the molecular intricacies and interactions underlying disease resistance architecture leads to more precise and efficient development of resilient and productive rice varieties. In this review, we explore how the integration of mapping and omics data can give a transformative impact on rice breeding for enhancing disease resistance.

Abstract: High step-up voltage gain nonisolated DC-DC converter have attracted much attention in photovoltaic, fuel cells and other renewable energy system applications. In this paper, by combining input current ripple-free boost cell with coupled-inductor voltage-doubler cell, an input current ripple-free high voltage gain nonisolated converter is proposed. In addition, passive lossless clamp circuit is adopted to recycle the leakage inductor energy and to reduce the voltage spike across the power switch. By utilizing voltage-doubler cell consisting of diode and capacitor, the voltage stress of switch is further reduced and the resonance between the leakage inductor and the stray capacitor of the output diode is eliminated. A low switch-on-resistance low-voltage-rated MOSFET can therefore be employed to reduce the conduction loss and cost. The reverse recovery loss of output diode is reduced, and the efficiency of converter can be improved. Furthermore, the proposed converter can achieve nearly zero input current-ripple and make the design of electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter easy. Steady state analysis and operation mode of the converter is performed. Finally, experimental results are presented to verify the analysis results of the proposed converter.

Estimating ground surface PM2.5 with fine spatiotemporal resolution is a critical technique for exposure assessments in epidemiological studies of its health risks. Previous studies have utilized monitoring, satellite remote sensing or air quality modeling data to evaluate the spatiotemporal variations of PM2.5 concentrations, but such studies rarely combined these data simultaneously. We develop a three-stage model to fuse PM2.5 monitoring data, satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) and community multi-scale air quality (CMAQ) simulations together and apply it to estimate daily PM2.5 at a spatial resolution of 0.1˚ over China. Performance of the three-stage model is evaluated using a cross-validation (CV) method step by step. CV results show that the finally fused estimator of PM2.5 is in good agreement with the observational data (RMSE = 23.00 μg/m^3 and R2 = 0.72) and outperforms either AOD-retrieved PM2.5 (R2 = 0.62) or CMAQ simulations (R2 = 0.51). According to step-specific CVs, in data fusion, AOD-retrieved PM2.5 plays a key role to reduce mean bias, whereas CMAQ provides all-spacetime-covered predictions, which avoids sampling bias caused by non-random incompleteness in satellite-derived AOD. Our fused products are more capable than either CMAQ simulations or AOD-based estimates in characterizing the polluting procedure during haze episodes and thus can support both chronic and acute exposure assessments of ambient PM2.5. Based on the products, averaged concentration of annual exposure to PM2.5 was 55.75 μg/m3, while averaged count of polluted days (PM2.5 > 75 μg/m3) was 81, across China during 2014. Fused estimates will be publicly available for future health-related studies.

Genetic enhancement of grain production and quality is a priority in wheat breeding projects. In this study, we assessed two key agronomic traits - grain protein content (GPC) and thousand kernel weight (TKW) - across 179 Bulgarian contemporary and historic varieties, and landraces in three growing seasons. Significant phenotypic variation existed for both traits among genotypes and seasons, and no discernible difference was evident between the old and modern accessions. To understand the genetic basis of the traits, we conducted a genome-wide association study with MLM using phenotypic data from the crop seasons, best linear unbiased estimators, genotypic data from the 25K Infinium iSelect array, and a Bonferroni-adjusted p-value. As a result, 776 significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) organized into quantitative trait loci were discovered, including 25 loci associated with GPC, and 35 loci linked to TKW. Additionally, 14 environmentally stable QTNs were identified for TKW. Certain loci on chromosomes 2A, 3A, and 6B favorably in-fluenced GPC, while the locus on chromosome 6D impacted TKW positively. These loci may reflect novel associations to the two traits. Annotations for proteins involved in the remobilization of carbon and nitrogen from vegetative tissues to developing grain during senescence, as well as in the following buildup of resources required for seed germination, have been found for selected pu-tative candidate genes. These include genes coding for 11S globulin seed storage protein, glutamine synthetase, metalloendopeptidase, components of the ubiquitin/proteasome system, sucrose transporter, alpha-amylase, NAC and bZIP transcription factors. Our findings highlight promising genomic regions for targeted breeding programs aimed at improving grain yield and protein content.

Natural polluted insulator surfaces are always coated with various kinds of soluble constituents, and those constituents affect flashover performance differentially. Currently this fact is not considered either in laboratory experiments or field pollution degree measurements, causing the existing insulation selection method to be deficient. In this paper a systematical research on insulator flashover voltage gradient correction involving types of soluble pollution constituents was presented. Taking typical type glass insulator as the sample, its flashover tests polluted by typical soluble chemicals NaCl, NaNO₃, KNO₃, NH₄NO₃, MgSO₄, Ca(NO₃)₂ and CaSO₄ were carried out. Then the flashover gradient correction was made combining the flashover performance of each soluble constituent, the ESDD contribution of the seven constituents, as well as the saturation performance of CaSO₄. The correction was well verified with the flashover test results of insulator polluted by three types of soluble mixture. Research results indicate that the flashover gradient correction method proposed by this paper performs well in reducing the calculating error. It is recommended to carry out component measurements and flashover gradient correction to better select outdoor insulation configuration.

The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) is very destructive crucifers specialized pest that has resulted in significant crop losses worldwide. The pest is well attracted to glucosinolate-containing crucifers such as; Barbarea vulgaris (Brassicaceae), and generally to other plants in the genus Barbarea. B. vulgaris on their part, build up resistance against DBM and other herbivorous insects using glucosinolates; that are plant secondary metabolites used in plant defense–contained only in plants of the order Brassicales. Aside glucosinolates, plants in this genus Barbarea (Brassicaceae) also contain saponins; which is toxic to insects and act as feeding deterrents for plant herbivores, most importantly, DBM, as it was found to prevent the survival of DBM larvae on the plant. Saponins are plant secondary metabolites have been established in higher concentrations in younger in contrast to older leaves within the same plant. Previous studies have found a relationship between ontogenetical changes in the host plant’s saponin content and attraction/resistance to P. xylostella. The younger leaves recorded higher concentrations of glucosinolates and saponins, which naturally attracts the plant herbivores. DBM was reported to have evolved mechanisms to avoid the toxicity of the former. The plant-herbivore had adapted glucosinolates for host plant recognition, feeding and oviposition stimulants. Despite the adaptation for oviposition by P. xylostella adults, larvae of the insect cannot survive on the same plant. An example is in some varieties of B. vulgaris. The triterpenoid saponins which act as feeding deterrents in larvae are responsible for this direct defense mechanism against P. xylostella. In the future, trials by plant breeders could aim at transferring this insect resistance to other crops. The previous trials had limited because of lack of knowledge on the biosynthetic pathways and regulatory networks of saponins. Herein, we discussed exclusively; saponins mediated plant defense mechanisms against the DBM.

Extensive genome structure variation, such as copy number variations (CNVs) and presence/absence variations, is the basis for the remarkable maize genetic diversity; however, the effect of CNVs on maize herbivory defense remains largely underexplored. Here, we report that the naturally occurring duplication of the maize 9-lipoxygenase gene, ZmLOX5, leads to increased resistance of maize to herbivory by fall armyworms (FAW). Previously, we showed that ZmLOX5-derived oxylipins are required for defense against chewing insect herbivores and identified several inbred lines, including Yu796, that contained duplicated CNVs of ZmLOX5, referred to as Yu796-2×LOX5. To test whether introgression of the Yu796-2×LOX5 locus into the herbivore-susceptible B73 background that contains a single ZmLOX5 gene is a feasible approach to increase resistance, we generated a series of near-isogenic lines that contained either 2, 1 or 0 copies of the Yu796-2×LOX5 locus in the B73 background by six back crosses (BC6). Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) confirmed the successful introgression of the Yu796-2×LOX5 locus in B73. The resulting B73-2×LOX5 inbred line displayed increased resistance against FAW associated with increased expression of ZmLOX5, increased wound-induced production of its primary oxylipin product, the α-ketol, 9-hydroxy-10-oxo-12(Z),15(Z)-octadecadienoic acid (9,10-KODA), and the downstream defense hormones regulated by this molecule, 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid (12-OPDA) and abscisic acid (ABA). Surprisingly, wound-induced JA-Ile production was not increased in B73-2×LOX5, resulting from the increased JA catabolism. Furthermore, B73-2×LOX5 displayed enhanced drought tolerance likely due to increased ABA and 12-OPDA content. Taken together, this study revealed that the duplicated CNV of ZmLOX5 quantitively contributes to maize antiherbivore defense and presents proof-of-concept evidence that the introgression of naturally occurring duplicated CNVs of a defensive gene into the productive, but susceptible, crop varieties is a feasible breeding approach for enhancing plant resistance to herbivory and tolerance to abiotic stress.

In Germany, the phloem sucking planthopper Pentastiridius leporinus (Hemiptera: Cixiidae) currently represents the epidemiological driver for the spread of the syndrome “Basses Richesses” in sugar beet, which results in a reduced sugar content and an economic loss for the farmers. This disease is associated with the γ-proteobacterium ‘Candidatus Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus’ and the Stolbur phytoplasma ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’. Recently, P. leporinus was found in potato fields in Germany associated with Stolbur-like symptoms in this crop. In this study, we confirmed that the vector completes its lifecycle on sugar beet as well as on potato when reared under controlled conditions. Transmission experiments with adults of this vector combined with molecular analyses showed for the first time that both pathogens are transmitted by this vector to potato. For an accurate assessment of the Ca. P. solani and Ca. A. phytopathogenicus titers in the vector and host plants, gBlocks derived from the hsp20- and 16S rRNA gene were employed, respectively. For Ca. P. solani the limit of detection was determined in potato and sugar beet material. The results of this study will further research on the epidemiology of the syndrome “Basses Richesses” and “Stolbur” diseases and the response of host plants and vector insects to both pathogens.

This study investigates the long-term stability of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) moderate-resolution Thermal Emissive Bands (M TEBs; M12 – M16) covering a period from February 2012 to August 2020. It also assesses inter-sensor consistency of the VIIRS M TEBs among three satellites-S-NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 over eight months spanning from March 18 to November 30, 2023. The field of interesting is limited to the ocean surface between 60°S and 60°N, specifically under clear-sky conditions. Taking radiative transfer modeling (RTM) as the transfer reference, we employed the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) to simulate VIIRS TEB brightness temperature (BTs), incorporating European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis data as inputs. Our results reveal two key findings. Firstly, the reprocessed S-NPP VIIRS TEBs exhibit a robust long-term stability, as demonstrated through analyses of the observation minus background BT differences (O-B ∆BTs) between VIIRS measurements (O) and CRTM simulations (B). The drifts of the O-B BT differences are consistently less than 0.105 K/Decade across all S-NPP VIIRS M TEB bands. Notably, observations from VIIRS M14 and M16 stand out with drifts well within 0.04 K/Decade, reinforcing their exceptional reliability for climate change studies. Secondly, excellent inter-sensor consistency among these three VIIRS instruments is confirmed through the double-difference analysis method (O-O). This method relies on the O-B BT differences obtained from daily data. The mean inter-VIIRS O-O BT differences remain within 0.08 K for all M TEBs, except for M13. Even in the case of M13, the O-O BT differences between NOAA-21 and NOAA-20/S-NPP have values of 0.312 K and 0.234 K, respectively, which are comparable to the 0.2 K difference between some TEBs among VIIRS and MODIS. These disparities are primarily attributed to the significant differences in the Spectral Response Function (SRF) of NOAA-21 compared to NOAA-20 and S-NPP. Our study confirms the RTM-based TEB quality evaluation method’s versatility and effectiveness in assessing long-term sensor stability and inter-sensor consistency. The double-difference approach effectively mitigates uncertainties and biases inherent to CRTM simulations, establishing itself a robust mechanism for assessing inter-sensor consistency. In addition, we’ve observed that, except for M13, M12 always exhibits larger spatial variations of O-O BT differences with greater uncertainties compared to the other M TEBs. The influence of solar contribution through sea surface reflection on the Top of Atmosphere (TOA) radiance measurements during daytime in M12 should not be underestimated.

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) is a lipid kinase that phosphorylates diacylglycerol (DAG) to generate phosphatidic acid (PA). Based on converting one important signaling molecule (DAG) to another (PA), DGK plays an important role in plant responses to abiotic stress including waterlogging stress. However, no studies have been reported on the characterization of the DGK gene family in the waterlogging-tolerant kiwifruit germplasm, Actinidia valvata Dunn. Here, we identified 18 AvDGK genes in the A. valvata genome. The phylogenetic analysis showed that AvDGKs can be classified into three clusters, and members within the same cluster have similar domain distribution, exon-intron structures and conserved motif compositions. Chromosome localization analysis revealed that all the AvDGK genes are located across 18 different chromosomes. There were 29 duplicated gene pairs in kiwifruit and all had undergone purifying selection during evolution. Promoter cis-element analysis revealed that the cis-elements within AvDGK genes are associated with multiple functions, including phytohormone signal transduction, stress response, and plant growth and development. The expression pattern analyses indicated that AvDGK play an important role in the fruit development and plant response to waterlogging stress. AvDGKs gene family in the tetraploid A. valvata genome might promote PA synthesis and subsequent signal transduction both under short-term and long-term waterlogging stress. These results provide information regarding the structural characteristics and potential function of DGK genes within kiwifruit and lay a fundamental basis for further research into breeding for enhancing the kiwifruit’s tolerance to waterlogging stress.

This review provides a comprehensive and updated information on chalcones, presenting their sources, methods of identification and properties putting emphasis on applications in agricultural industry. Vast exploitation of synthetic pesticides led to the weed and pest resistance issue, causing economic loss but more importantly health risk due to pesticide overuse. Because one of the aim of the European Green Deal 2030 is the Farm to Fork strategy which targets on reducing by 50% the use of chemical pesticides by 2030, and push towards natural pesticides which are more environmentally friendly and restore natural resources, chalcones and their derivatives seem to fit perfectly. They have herbicidal, fungicidal, bactericidal and antiviral properties. Moreover, chalcones are naturally occurring substances, known for their favorable health effect for years, working on many areas. This review is complementary to the previous ones describing chalcones use in agriculture, updates them but additionally shows methods of detection.

Utilization of wasted heat instead of fuel combustion is effective to reduce primary energy consumption for mitigating global warming problem. Because wasted heat sources are not necessarily located close to areas of heat demand, one of the difficulties is that wasted heat has to be transferred from heat source side to heat demand side, which may require heat transportation over long distance. From this point we proposed and have examined new idea of heat transportation using ammonia-water as the working fluid which system is named Solution Transportation Absorption chiller, in short STA. Our previous studies of STA were mainly the experimental investigation with STA facility which cooling power was 25RT (90kW). As a result, the COP of STA was found almost same value 0.65 with the conventional absorption chiller without depending on the transportation distances. The simulation using AspenHYSYS also examined with same experimental condition. The experimental data showed good agreement with the simulation calculation. In this study, we examined the large-scale cooling power STA on simulation. The examination cooling powers were from 90 kW(25RT) to 3517 kW(1000RT). All cooling power achieved around COP 0.64 including pump power consumptions. In addition, we performed the dynamic simulation. As the results, there was no effect of pipeline size on the cooling capacities and mass flow rates. Furthermore, the stability time of the cooling capacities and mass flow rates were almost same regardless of the pipeline size and cooling capacity. In other words, STA may be achieved the same COP even though having various complex conditions compared with the conventional absorption chiller.

Structural health monitoring has been studied by a number of researchers as well as various industries to keep up with the increasing demand for preventive maintenance routines. This work presents a novel method for reconstruct prompt, informed strain/stress responses at the hot spots of the structures based on strain measurements at remote locations. The structural responses measured from usage monitoring system at available locations are decomposed into modal responses using empirical mode decomposition. Transformation equations based on finite element modeling are derived to extrapolate the modal responses from the measured locations to critical locations where direct sensor measurements are not available. Then, two numerical examples (a two-span beam and a 19956-degree of freedom simplified airfoil) are used to demonstrate the overall reconstruction method. Finally, the present work investigates the effectiveness and accuracy of the method through a set of experiments conducted on an aluminium alloy cantilever beam commonly used in air vehicle and spacecraft. The experiments collect the vibration strain signals of the beam via optical fiber sensors. Reconstruction results are compared with theoretical solutions and a detailed error analysis is also provided.

This study examined the impact of differences in fruit load of olive trees on the rate of stem refilling. The experiment was conducted in a commercial olive orchard over the consecutive years of 2021 and 2022, during which the biennial bearing cycle of olive trees resulted in minimal fruit production in 2021 and maximal production in 2022. The rate of stem refilling was determined by quantifying the differences in water volume traversing the apex and base of the principal branches of experimental trees using sap flow sensors. Concurrent measurements of tree water status were also conducted using psychrometers, while soil moisture content dynamics were continuously recorded. Results indicate that alternate bearing significantly influences the stem refilling process, while soil moisture availability also plays a pivotal role. Water reserves were more intensively utilized during the year of full production (“ON” year) primarily to fulfill the water demands of developing fruits. This replenishment occurred in various periods during the day, including early morning, afternoon, and night, when stomatal conductance measurements indicated stomatal closure. The study suggests a more intense replenishment of reserves during the night in "ON" year trees, irrespective of soil moisture, water vapor pressure deficit, or phenological fruit development stage.

The forest regeneration phase in Sweden commonly involves mechanical soil preparation followed by planting of Scots pine or Norway spruce seedlings. The prepared soil offers planting positions with different properties, including decreased damage by pine weevil (Hylobius abietis L.). Nitrogen fertilization can be applied at the time of planting to aid establishment of the seedlings. In this study we compared the effect of organic nitrogen-fertilization for different planting positions, and seedling sizes on early survival and growth of Scots pine and Norway spruce seedlings. The main planting positions were capped mound, hinge, and mineral soil. Seedlings planted close to organic material were categorized as “low quality positions”, since proximity to organic material increase pine weevil attraction. Higher mortality rates related to pine weevil damage were recorded for seedlings planted in the low-quality positions, regardless of seedling size or N-fertilization. Pine weevil attack rates increased with increasing seedling size. Growth was in general lowest in mineral soil positions. The effect of organic N-fertilization on growth was positive for spruce regardless of planting positions and seedling size, while depending on planting position and seedling size for pine, indicating that effects of organic N-fertilization depend on seedling species, -size and planting position.

This study explores optimizing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite constellation scheduling for multi-imaging missions in densely targeted areas using an in-house developed Modified Dynamic Programming (MDP) algorithm. By employing Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) to define the mission planning problem, the research aims to maximize observation of high-value targets within restricted planning horizons. Numerical simulations, covering a wide range of target numbers and satellite configurations, reveal the MDP algorithm’s superior mission allocation efficiency, enhanced success rates, and reduced revisit times, compared to the Greedy algorithm. The findings underscore the MDP algorithm’s improved operational efficiency and planning robustness for complex imaging tasks, demonstrating significant advancements over traditional approaches.

We report a facile route for the green synthesis of trimethylchitosan nitrate-capped silver nanoparticles (TMCN-AgNPs) with positive surface charge. In this synthesis, silver nitrate, glucose, and trimethyl chitosan nitrate (TMCN) were used as silver precursor, reducing agent, and stabilizer, respectively. The reaction was carried out in a stirred basic aqueous medium at room temperature without the use of energy-consuming or expensive equipment. We investigated the effects of the concentrations of NaOH, glucose, and TMCN on the particle size, zeta potential, and formation yield. The AgNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, photon correlation spectroscopy, laser Doppler anemometry, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The catalytic activity of the TMCN-AgNPs was studied by the reduction of 4-nitrophenol using NaBH₄ as a reducing agent. We evaluated the antibacterial effects of the TMCN-AgNPs on Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus using the broth microdilution method. The results showed that both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria were killed by the TMCN-AgNPs at very low concentration (< 6.13 μg/mL). Moreover, the TMCN-AgNPs also showed high antibacterial activity against clinically isolated multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was ≤ 12.25 μg/mL.

Mitochondria are semiautonomous organelles, which are pivotal for the energy metabolism of eukaryotic cells. These organelles contain their own genetic system (mtDNA, mitogenome) that encodes to some structural RNAs and organellar proteins. The biogenesis and function of mitochondria is tightly regulated by nuclear-encoded protein cofactors. The mtDNAs of land plants are characteristically large, with a complex mode of gene organization and expression, in particularly at the post-transcriptional level. To become functional, the primary organellar transcripts undergo extensive maturation steps, which include endo- and exo-nucleolytic cleavage, RNA-base editing, and both ‘cis’- and ‘trans’-splicing events. These essential processing steps rely on the activities of a large set of nuclear-encoded factors. Among these, the RNA helicases serve as key players in organellar (mt-)RNA metabolism. This review summarizes the important roles played by these factors in regulating the highly dynamic processes of transcription, RNA processing, and translation within the mitochondria of land plants. We further discuss recent advancements in understanding how dysregulation of mitochondrial RNA helicases affects the organellar gene expression, respiratory functions, and hence the growth, development and physiology of land plants.

Aiming at the limitations of single-functionality, limited applicability, and complex designs prevalent in current metasurfaces, we propose a terahertz multifunctional and multiband tunable metasurface utilizing a VO2-metal hybrid structure. This metasurface structure comprises a top VO2-metal resonance layer, a middle polyimide dielectric layer, and a gold film reflective layer at the bottom. This metasurface exhibits multifunctionality, operating independently of polarization and incident angle. The varying conductivity states of the VO2 layers, enable the metasurface to achieve various terahertz functionalities, including single-band absorption, broadband THz absorption, and multiband perfect polarization conversion for linear (LP) and circularly polarized (CP) incident waves. Finally, we believe that the functional adaptability of the proposed metasurface expands the repertoire of options available for future terahertz device designs.

Soil-borne Trichoderma spp. have been extensively studied for their biocontrol activities against pathogens and growth promotion ability with plants. However, the beneficial effect of Trichoderma on inducing resistance against insect herbivores has been considered only recently. Among diverse Trichoderma species, consistent with previous reports, we showed that root colonization by T. virens triggered induced systemic resistance (ISR) to leaf-infecting fungal pathogens. Whether T. virens induces ISR to insect pests has not been tested before. In this study, we investigated whether T. virens affects jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and defense against fall armyworm (FAW) and western corn rootworm (WCR). Unexpectedly, the results showed that T. virens colonization of maize seedlings grown in autoclaved soil suppressed wound-induced production of JA, resulting in reduced resistance to FAW. Similarly, the bacterial endophyte Pseudomonas chlororaphis 30-84 suppressed systemic resistance to FAW due to reduced JA. Further comparative analyses of the systemic effects of these endophytes when applied into sterile or non-sterile field soil showed that both T. virens and P. chlororaphis 30-84 triggered ISR against hemibiotrophic fungal pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola in both soil conditions, but only suppressed resistance to FAW in sterile soil. In contrast to the effect on FAW defense, T. virens colonization of maize roots suppressed WCR larvae survival and weight gain. This is the first report suggesting the potential role of T. virens as a biocontrol agent against WCR.

The variation of aerosols, especially dust aerosol, in time and space plays an important role in climate forcing studies. Aerosols can effectively reduce land surface longwave emission and re-emit energy at a colder temperature, making estimation of downwelling surface longwave radiation (DSLR) with satellite data difficult. Using the latest atmospheric radiative transfer code (MODTRAN 5.0), we simulate the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and DSLR under different land surface and atmospheric profile conditions. The results show that dust aerosol has an obvious “warming” effect to longwave radiation compared with other aerosols, that aerosol longwave radiative forcing (ALRF) increased with increasing aerosol optical depth (AOD), and that the atmospheric water vapor content (WVC) is critical to the understanding of ALRF. A method is proposed to improve the accuracy of DSLR estimation from satellite data for the skies under heavy dust aerosols. The AOD and atmospheric WVC under cloud-free conditions with a relatively simple satellite-based radiation model that yields the high accurate DSLR under heavy dust aerosol are used explicitly as model input to reduce the effects of dust aerosol on the estimation of DSLR. Validations of the proposed model with satellites data and field measurements show that it estimates the DSLR accurately under heavy dust aerosol skies. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) are 20.4 W/M² and 24.2 W/M² for Terra and Aqua satellites, respectively, at the Yingke site, and the biases are 2.7 W/M² and 9.6 W/M², respectively. For the Arvaikheer site, the RMSEs are 23.2 W/M² and 19.8 W/M² for Terra and Aqua, respectively, and the biases are 7.8 W/M² and 10.5 W/M², respectively. The proposed method is especially applicable to acquire relatively high accurate DSLR under heavy dust aerosol using MODIS data with available WVC and AOD data.

According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the world population will increase to about 91 million (Asia 51 million, Africa 19 million). A rise in the world’s population means an increased need for food. However, climate change has caused desertification and unpredictable weather, creating problems in the supply and demand of food. Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an alternative to solving the food problem, as it is one of the world’s most important food crops, especially in developing countries. The tuberous roots of sweet potato are usually used as staple food, animal feed, industrial material, or raw material for alcohol production. In the future, more variations of sweet potato will be needed for breeding this crop. Recently, molecular markers developed for sweet potato have demonstrated good potential for use in genetic selection. In this study, a cDNA library was constructed from the total RNA of sweet potato leaves. A total of 789 copies of the cDNA were cloned in Escherichia coli by employing the pGEM-T Easy vector. Sequencing was carried out by Solgent Co. (Korea). As many as 579 expressed sequence tag–simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were designed (73.38%) from the known cDNA nucleotide base sequences. The lengths of the developed EST-SSR markers ranged from 100 to 499 bp (average length 238 bp). Their motif sequence types were varied, with most being dinucleotides and pentanucleotides, and the most commonly found motifs were CAGAAT (29.0%) and TCT (2.8%). Based on these SSR-containing sequences, 619 pairs of high-quality SSR primers were designed using WebSat and Primer3web. The total number of primers designed was 144. Polymorphism was evident in 82 EST-SSR markers among 20 Korean sweet potato cultivars tested and in 90 EST-SSR markers in the two parents of a mapping population, Yeseumi and Annobeny. In this study, the hexaploid sweet potato (2n = 6x = 90) EST-SSR markers were developed in the absence of full-sequence data. Moreover, by acting as a molecular tag for particular traits, the EST-SSR marker can also simultaneously identify information about the corresponding gene. These EST-SSR markers will allow the molecular analysis of sweet potato to be done more efficiently. Thus, we can develop high-quality sweet potato while overcoming the challenges from climate change and other unfavorable conditions.

Climate change, growing world population and increasing food demand require higher yields and adaptability of crops, including spring bread wheat. Modern plant breeding based on achievements of genetics has a significant impact on plant resistance to diseases, climate variability and other factors. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) is one of genetics tools for mining of genome loci associated with economically important traits. In the current study, we applied GWAS to reveal QTL for spike productivity and grain quality using a panel of spring varieties of Triticum aestivum L. bred in different decades of the last century in Russia and Germany. The study has enabled to find new genetic markers associated with grain yield and quality. Studying genetic basis of grain yield and quality by comparison of wheat varieties from different breeding periods, including landraces preserved as the source of valuable genetic diversity for breeding and genetic studies, makes it possible not only to understand selection processes in the past, but also to develop strategies for future breeding work.

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum Linn.) is widely cultivated in China. The polyphagous insect Adelphocoris suturalis (Jakovlev) is a serious insect pest in cotton growing regions. Plants have evolved sophisticated systems to cope with herbivore attacks. However, the cotton defense mechanisms induced by A. suturalis feeding have lagged behind. We carried out untargeted proteomic analysis using the iTARQ technique and metabolomics based on LC-MS/MS analysis of cotton leaves fed upon by A. suturalis. Proteomic analysis identified 775 upregulated proteins and 477 downregulated proteins in plants that were infested by A. sututralis compared to the controls. Metabolomic analysis identified 50 differentially expressed metabolites in the positive ion mode and 14 in the negative ion mode compared to the controls. The tryptophan metabolism pathway was significantly changed in both the positive and negative ion mode in the metabolomics analysis. The alpha-linolenic acid pathway was significantly changed in both the proteomic and metabolomics analyses. Furthermore, the result was validated by RT-qPCR analysis of 5 related genes involved in alpha-linolenic acid pathway. These results indicate that tryptophan metabolism and the alpha-linolenic acid pathway may be important in cotton defense against herbivores and would enhance our understanding of plant defenses induced by A. sututrali feeding.

Natural host defensins, also sometimes termed antimicrobial peptides, are evolutionarily conserved. They have been studied as antimicrobials, but some pharmaceutical properties, undesirable for clinical use, led to the development of synthetic molecules with constructed peptide arrangements and/or peptides not found in nature. The leading development currently is synthetic small molecule nonpeptide mimetics, whose physical properties capture the characteristics of the natural molecules, and share their biological attributes. We studied brilacidin, an arylamide of this type, for its activity in vitro against fungi (40 clinical isolates, 20 species) that the World Health Organization has highlighted as problem human pathogens. We find antifungal activity at low concentrations for many pathogens, which indicates further screening for activity, particularly in vivo, is justified to evaluate this compound, and other mimetics, as attractive leads for development of effective antifungal agents.

This paper explores the capability of various machine learning algorithms, including Random Forests and advanced gradient boosting techniques such as XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost, to predict customer churn in the telecommunications sector. For this analysis, a dataset available to the public was employed. The performance of these algorithms was assessed using recognized metrics, including Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1-score, and the Receiver Operating Characteristic Area Under Curve (ROC AUC). These metrics were evaluated at different phases: subsequent to data preprocessing and feature selection; following the application of SMOTE and ADASYN sampling methods; and after conducting hyperparameter tuning on the data that had been adjusted by SMOTE and ADASYN. The outcomes underscore the notable efficiency of upsampling techniques such as SMOTE and ADASYN in addressing the imbalance inherent in customer churn prediction. Notably, the application of random grid search for hyperparameter optimization did not significantly alter the results, which remained comparatively unchanged. The algorithms' performance post- ADASYN application marginally surpassed that observed after SMOTE application. Remarkably, LightGBM achieved an exceptional F1-score of 89% and an ROC AUC of 95% subsequent to the ADASYN sampling technique. This underlines the effectiveness of advanced boosting algorithms and upsampling methods like SMOTE and ADASYN in navigating the complexities of imbalanced datasets and intricate feature interdependencies.

To date, soil salinity becomes a huge obstacle for food production worldwide since salt stress in plants is one of the major factors limiting agricultural productivity. It is estimated that a significant loss of crops (20%–50%) would be due to drought and salinity. To embark upon this harsh situation, numerous strategies such as plant breeding, plant genetic engineering, and a large variety of agricultural practices including the applications of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and seed biopriming technique have been developed to improve plant defense system against salt stress, resulting in higher crop yields to meet human’s increasing food demand in the future. In the present review, we update and discuss the advantageous roles of beneficial PGPR as green bioinoculants in mitigating the burden of high saline conditions on morphological parameters and on physio-biochemical attributes of plant crops via diverse mechanisms. In addition, the applications of PGPR as a useful tool in seed biopriming technique are also updated and discussed since this approach exhibits promising potentials in improving seed vigor, rapid seed germination, and seedling growth uniformity, Furthermore, the controversial findings regarding the fluctuation of antioxidants and osmolytes in PGPR-treated plants are also pointed out and discussed.

We evaluated the potential of using fish species and functional traits as indicators of land use impacts to fish assemblages. We used environmental data collected at multiple spatial scales (local, reach, and upstream catchment) for 19 tributary and main stem sites in the Nolichucky River watershed in Tennessee. Canonical correspondence analyses showed that temperature, elevation, specific conductivity, sediment yield, impervious surfaces, and row crop cover at the catchment scale were strongly associated with fish assemblage structure, as well as forest cover from all three spatial scales. Blocked indicator species analysis, with stream size as the block, showed that significantly strong indicators of the least-impacted riparian land use condition (≥60% forest cover) were Saffron Shiner (Notropis rubricroceus), Rainbow Trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss), Longnose Dace (Rhynichthys cataractae), Creek Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus), and Mottled Sculpin (Cottus bairdi). Traits indicative of the least-impacted sites were the herbivorous trophic guild, mean female age-at-maturity, longevity, rock-gravel spawners, montane geology and pelagic swimmers. Specific conductivity was strongly related to multiple catchment-scale land use variables, and was a strong local-scale influence on fish assemblage structure. Our results show promise for using a relatively common but endemic southern Appalachian fish species, the Saffron Shiner, as an indicator for land-use related impacts to these streams.

This article develops a multi-perspective view on motivations and methods for tobamovirus purification through the ages, and presents a novel efficient, easy-to-use approach that can be well-adapted to different species of native and functionalized virions. We survey the various driving forces prompting researchers to enrich tobamoviruses: from the search for the causative agents of mosaic diseases in plants to their increasing recognition as versatile nanocarriers in biomedical and engineering applications. Best practice and also rarely applied options for the serial processing steps required for successful isolation of tobamoviruses are then reviewed. Adaptations for distinct particle species, pitfalls and 'forgotten' or underrepresented technologies are considered as well. The article is topped off with our own development of a method for virion preparation, rooted in historical protocols. It combines selective re-solubilization of polyethylene glycol (PEG) virion raw precipitates with density step gradient centrifugation in biocompatible iodixanol formulations, yielding ready-to-use particle suspensions. This newly established protocol and some considerations for perhaps worthwile further developments could serve as putative stepping stones towards preparation procedures appropriate for routine practical uses of the multivalent soft-matter nanorods.

The doctoral defense is an important step towards obtaining the doctoral degree. As such, preparing for the event is necessary. Anecdotal evidence highlights that there is a wide variety of ways in which doctoral candidates prepare for the defense. In this work, I want to explore if there is a relation between the way in which a doctoral candidate prepares for the defense and two important aspects of the defense: the outcome of the defense, and the student perception during and after the defense. For this purpose, I first reviewed the literature on the topic of the preparation for the doctoral defense. Then, I carried out an international survey on the doctoral defense and analyzed the data of the 204 completed surveys with respect to the preparation for the defense using quantitative and qualitative methods. The methods I used included the statistical tests of the correlation between on one hand the preparation and on the other hand the defense outcome and student perception. I used inductive thematic analysis of the open-ended survey questions to gain deeper insight in the way candidates prepared for their defense. I found that candidates most often prepare by making their presentation, reading their thesis, and practicing. The most effective measure is the mock defense, followed by a preparatory course. Reading blogs, books, and chapters is a less effective preparation measure. The conclusion of this work is that doctoral candidates need to understand the format of their defense in order to be able to prepare properly, and that universities should explore either individual pathways to the defense or pilots using a mock defense and/or preparatory course to give their doctoral candidates the necessary tools to prepare for their doctoral defense.

One of the most crucial elements in deeply understanding humans on a psychological level is manifested through facial expressions. The analysis of a human behavior can be informed by their facial expressions, making it essential to employ indicators such as expression (Expr), valence-arousal (VA), and action units (AU). In this paper, we introduce the method proposed in the Challenge of the 6th Workshop and Competition on Affective Behavior Analysis in-the-wild (ABAW) at CVPR 2024. Our proposed method utilizes the multi-modal Aff-wild2 dataset, which is splitted into spatial and audio modalities. For the spatial data, we extract features using a SimMiM model that was pre-trained on a diverse set of facial expression data. For the audio data, we extract features using a WAV2VEC model. To fusion the extracted spatial and audio features, we employed the cascaded cross-attention mechanism of a transformer.

Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs), as immune effectors synthesized by a variety of organisms, not only constitute a robust defense mechanism against a broad spectrum of pathogens in the host, but also show promising applications as effective antimicrobial agents. Notably, insects are significant reservoirs of natural AMPs. However, the complex array of variations in types, quantities, antimicrobial activities, production pathways of AMPs, and evolution of AMPs across insect species presents a significant challenge for immunity system understanding and AMP applications. This review covers insect AMP discoveries, classification, common properties, and mechanisms of action. Additionally, we summarize the types, quantities, and activities of im-mune-related AMPs in each model insect. We also conducted the first comprehensive investigation into the diversity, distribution, and evolution of 20 types of AMPs in model insects, employing phylogenetic analysis to describe their evolutionary relationships and shed light on conserved and distinctive AMP families. Furthermore, we summarize the regulatory pathways of AMP production through classical signaling pathways and additional pathways associated with Nitric Oxide, insulin-like signaling, and hormones. This review advances our understanding of AMP as guardians in insect immunity system and also unlocks a gateway to insect AMP resources, facilitating the use of AMPs to address food safety concerns.

Estimating parameters for multiple datasets can be time consuming, especially when the number of datasets is large. One solution is to sample from multiple datasets simultaneously using Bayesian methods such as adaptive multiple importance sampling (AMIS). Here we use the AMIS approach to fit a von Misses distribution to multiple datasets for wind trajectories derived from a Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model driven from a 3D meteorological data. The primary objective is to characterise the uncertainties in wind trajectories in a form that can be used as inputs for predictive models of wind-dispersed insect pests and pathogens of agricultural crops for use in evaluating risk and in planning mitigation actions. Our results show that AMIS can significantly improve the efficiency of parameter inference for multiple datasets.

Abstract: This study investigates the transition to sustainable shipping industry within the framework of the IMO's 2050 carbon neutrality objective, focusing on socio-technical systems analysis. The research delves into the sustainable paradigm shift towards alternative marine fuels such as LNG, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen from a socio-technical transition perspective, analyzing the multi-level per-spective challenges and opportunities. Specifically, it scrutinizes the implications of adopting these al-ternative fuels for global shipping, identifying technical uncertainties, financial constraints, and infra-structure needs. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature on ship emissions and alterna-tive fuels, coupled with socio-technical transition theory, the study addresses the multifaceted chal-lenges and opportunities in meeting the IMO's environmental objectives. It emphasizes the necessity of collaborative governance, innovative niche strategies, and a holistic approach to leverage the current window of opportunity in facilitating the maritime industry's transition to sustainable fuel options. Fi-nally, this research enhances our understanding of the intricate interplay between technological, social, industrial, and cultural dynamics in the greening of shipping and offers insights into the strategic adop-tion of environmentally friendly marine fuels for a sustainable future.

Abstract: Brassinosteroids (BR) are essential plant hormones that play a crucial role in regulating plant growth and development, as well as their resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses, including pathogen infections. In the context of plant im-munity, BR influence various processes such as the expression of genes related to pathogen defense, the production of antimicrobial compounds, and the re-inforcement of the plant cell structure. The aim of work is understand the role of BR in plant defense against abiotic and biotic stresses. BR are involved in the regulation of metabolic processes, water economy, and photosynthesis, contributing to increased plant resistance to abiotic stresses. The study discusses various mechanisms of BR action on plant immunity, including the regulation of gene expression related to defense, activation of the plant defense system, in-teraction with other plant hormones, regulation of water and salt balance, and influence on photosynthetic processes. In the context of plant immunity, BR influence various processes, including the expression of genes related to pathogen defense, the production of antimicrobial compounds, and the reinforcement of the plant cell structure. Additionally, BR are involved in the regulation of metabolic processes, water economy, and photosynthesis, con-tributing to increased plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. The paper emphasizes the importance of further research on the role and mechanisms of action of BR in plant immunity, which may contribute to the development of more effective strategies for the use of BR in agriculture, horticulture, and plant protection.

Sarcopenia is associated with clinical complications, which increase mortality. Effective sarcopenia risk screening in the elderly should be grounded in a comprehensive assessment, encompassing both nutritional status and medication use. Current screening tools, while emphasizing muscular per-formance, exhibit limited sensitivity in identifying elderly individuals at risk of sarcopenia. This cross-sectional study aimed to develop a sarcopenia risk screening tool, named Sarc-Global, with enhanced sensitivity, incorporating factors pertinent to the overall health of the elderly. Utilizing the criteria established by EWGSOP2 for diagnosing sarcopenia, we evaluated 395 communi-ty-dwelling elderly individuals. This evaluation served as a reference for assessing the efficacy of two validated questionnaires, Sarc-F and Sarc-CalF, and our newly developed Sarc-Global. Con-structed through multiple logistic regression, Sarc-Global integrates variables such as sex, age, medication use, body mass index, arm circumference, and handgrip strength – all significantly associated with sarcopenia (p

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in males in America, with advanced prostate cancers exhibiting a 5-year survival rate of only 32%. Castration-resistance is often developed during the course of treatment, though its influences require further understanding. This study explores the human microbiome for its implications in castration-resistance and metastasis in prostate cancer. RNA sequencing data was downloaded for bone and soft tissue biopsies of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. These sequences were mapped to bacterial sequences to yield species-level abundance approximations. Numerous species were found to correlate to the expression of known markers of castration-resistance, including AR, PI3K, and AKT. Castration-resistance-associated signaling pathways were also enriched with these species, including PI3K-AKT signaling and endocrine resistance. For their implications in cancer aggression and metastasis, cancer stem cell markers were further explored for relation to these species. EGFR and SLC3A2 were widely downregulated with greater abundance of most species. Our results suggest that the microbiome is heavily associated with castration-resistance and stemness in prostate cancer. By considering the microbiome’s importance in these factors, we may better understand the highly aggressive and highly invasive nature of prostate cancer, allowing for needed improvement in the treatment of this disease.

Bartonella species, intracellular parasitic zoonotic pathogens, has drawn increasing attention for their diverse host range and associated human diseases. This study investigates Bartonella infection in small mammals in Yunnan Province, China, focusing on tissue tropism. 333 small mammals were sampled from 13 species, 3 orders, 4 families, and 4 genera in Heqing and Gongshan Counties. Conventional PCR and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) were utilized for detection and quantification, followed by bioinformatic analysis of obtained DNA sequences. Results show a 31.5% detection rate, varying across species. Notably, Apodemus chevrieri, Eothenomys eleusis, Niviventer fulvescens, Rattus tanezumi, Episoriculus leucops, Anourosorex squamipes, and Ochotona Thibetana exhibited infection rates of 44.4%, 27.7%, 100.0%, 6.3%, 60.0%, 23.5%, and 22.2%, respectively. Genetic analysis identified 30, 10, and 5 strains based on ssrA, rpoB, and gltA genes, with nucleotide identities ranging from 92.1% to 100.0%. Bartonella strains were assigned to B. grahamii, B. rochalimae, B. sendai, B. koshimizu, B. phoceensis, B. taylorii, and a new species identified in the Episoriculus leucops (GS136). Tissue distribution analysis revealed varied copy numbers across different tissues, with the highest load in spleen. These findings underscore Bartonella's diverse species and host range in Yunnan Province, highlighting its broad tissue tropism in small mammals.

Ultrasound, as mechanical waves with frequencies exceeding 20 thousand hertz, has found wide applications in medicine, physiotherapy, and more recently in agriculture. This study aimed to investigate the impact of ultrasound on potato yield and its parameters, particularly on seed potato yield, quantity, mass, and multiplication coefficient of potato tubers. The research was based on a three-year field experiment, utilizing the randomized block design in a split-split-plot arrangement, in the central-eastern region of Poland. The primary factor were technologies: a) technology with employing ultrasonic pre-planting treatment, b) traditional cultivation without this treatment. The secondary factors were potato varieties. Sonication of tubers was conducted using a bath-type ultrasonic device equipped with piezoe-lectric transducers. Results revealed a significant influence of cultivation technology, cultivar, and weather conditions on seed tubers yield, quantity, and multiplication coefficient of potato tubers. However, genetic traits of the examined varieties and random factors significantly affected the individual seed tuber mass and the number of shoots emerging from a single tuber. Future Outlook: Future research could focus on further optimizing ultrasound application techniques in potato cultivation, considering diverse varieties and environmental conditions. Additionally, it would be worthwhile to analyze the long-term effects of ultrasound on tuber seed potato quality and their ability to adapt to changing climatic and soil conditions. Furthermore, studies investi-gating the impact of ultrasound on other plant species could broaden our understanding of po-tential benefits in agriculture.

This research investigates the complex transformation of the Baltic Clean and Dirty Tankers markets from 1998 to 2023. Our study quantifies the market multifractality in two distinct periods, from 1998 to 2010 and 2010 to 2023. We compare multifractal measures of the original, surrogated, and shuffled data, which indicate high multifractality and a complex market structure influenced by temporal organization and inherent volatility. Shuffled data analysis emphasizes the critical role of temporal sequences within market behaviour. Additionally, the study delves into external factors such as regulatory changes, economic disturbances, technological innovation, and environmental concerns contributing to market complexity. A distinct shift in multifractal values between the two periods suggests an evolution from crisis-induced complexities to a market influenced by diversified and modern dynamics. Our findings offer a concise understanding of the multifractal nature of the tanker markets and how global crises can impact the markets, emphasizing the importance of considering systemic risks in freight market analysis.

Background and Objectives: In this current state, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is more prevalent in the population, and metformin is used as a first-line medication for treating it. There was up surge in the utilization of alternative therapies in the management of diabetes. Especially in diabetes, Herbal medicines are considered safe and reliable by majority of the population. Aim: The purpose of this research is aimed to estimate the safety and efficacy of Polyherbal Metabolite Compounds (PHMC) capsules in adults with T2DM. Materials and Methods: In this study, 60 T2DM patients aged 18-60 years were randomly assigned to Groups A (30) receiving Metformin 500 mg twice a day after food and Group B (30) receiving PHMC capsule 500 mg twice a day after food in a prospective, randomized and open-label clinical study. The in-silico simulation study was performed to selected plants major compounds on target protein Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (1K3A). Result: The PHMC is found to be safe and effective in the management of T2DM. The FBS, PPBS and HbA1c were significantly lowered (p

Investigation of oomycete diversity in rice paddies of Fars Province in Iran led to the identification of two new Pythium sensu lato (s.l.) species as Globisporangium izadpanahii sp. nov. and Pythium banihashemianum sp. nov. The identification was based on morphological and physiological features as well as the phylogenetic analysis of nuclear (ITS and βtub) and mitochondrial (cox1 and cox2) loci using Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood. A major characteristic of G. izadpanahii was the production of globose hyphal swellings; this species did not produce vesicles and zoospores. The present paper describes formally these two new species and defines their phylogenetic relationships with other congeneric species. According to multiple gene genealogy analysis, G. izadpanahii grouped with other species of Globisporangium in the former clade G of Pythium s.l. and was closely related to both G. nagaii and the recently described G. coniferarum. The second species, designated P. banihashemianum, grouped with other species of Pythium sensu stricto in the former clade B of Pythium s.l. and according to the phylogenetic analysis shared an ancestor with P. plurisporium. In pathogenicity tests on rice seedlings, P. banihashemianum isolates were highly pathogenic causing severe root and crown rot, while G. izadpanahii isolates were not pathogenic.

Recently, the Integrated Air Defense System (IADS) has become vital for the defense system as the military defense system is vital for national security. Placing Integrated Air Defense System batteries among locations to protect locations assets is a crucial problem because optimal solutions are needed for interceptor missiles to intercept attacker missiles for maximizing protection of assets across locations or places. In this research, the procedures of using network algorithms along with developing several network algorithms are going to be demonstrated to develop a model for sequential development of seven network securing strategies of placing Surface to Air Missile (SAM) batteries to maximize the protection of assets across locations (based on given asset values) by generating optimal solutions through computation to destroy maximum attacker missiles by using minimum interceptor missiles with given intercept probability. This network securing strategies can be implemented not only for Integrated Air Defense System (IADS) planning but also Counter Air (CA) planning as Integrated Air Defense System (IADS) is conducted with defensive counter air supported by attack operations in offensive counter air.

A method based on ultra performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (UPLC-DAD) was developed for quantitative analysis of five active compounds and chemical fingerprint analysis of Rosa rugosa. Ten batches of Rosa rugosa collected from different plantations in the Xinjiang region of China were used to establish the fingerprint. The feasibility and advantages of the used UPLC fingerprint were verified for its similarity evaluation by systematically comparing chromatograms with professional analytical software recommended by State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) of China. In quantitative analysis, the five compounds showed good regression (R²=0.999 5) within the test ranges and the recovery of the method was in the range of 94.2–103.8%. The similarities of the fingerprints of 10 batches of the samples were more than 0.981. The developed UPLC fingerprint method is simple, reliable and validated for the quality control and identification of Rosa rugosa. Additionally, simultaneous quantification of five major bioactive ingredients in the Rosa rugosa samples was conducted to interpret the consistency of the quality test. The results indicated that the UPLC fingerprint as a characteristic distinguishing method combining similarity evaluation and quantification analysis, can be successfully used to assess the quality and to identify the authenticity of Rosa rugosa.

Abstract: Field studies with large-stemmed plants Artemisia dubia (wormwood) have been carried out at Vėžaičiai Branch LAMMC since 2018. According to three years of experimental results, annual dry matter (DM) yield varied from 7.94 to 10.14 t ha-1. Growing conditions, nitrogen ap-plication level and harvesting time had significant impacts on Artemisia dubia productivity. This article presents the results of research on preparation and use of Artemisia dubia biomass for en-ergy conversion and evaluation of technological-technical and environmental parameters of these plants utilization for solid biofuel. For experiments were used 6 variants of Artemisia dubia samples, which were grown in 2021: plants were cut three times and two fertilization options were used: (1) no fertilization and (2) fertilization with 180 kg ha-1 of nitrogen fertilizer. These harvested plants were chopped, milled and were pressed into the pellets. The physi-cal-mechanical characteristics (mоisture content, density and strength) of Artemisia dubia pellets were investigated. During this study, it was found that the density in dry mass (DM) of pellets ranged from 1119.86 to 1192.44 kg m-3. The pellet moisture content ranged from 8.80 to 10.49%. After testing of pellet strength, it was found that the pellets which were made from plant bio-mass PK-1-1, were the most resistant to compression, they withstood 560.36 N of pressure. Dry fuel lower heating value (LHV) of pellets was sufficiently high and was very close to pine saw-dust pellets, it varied from 17.46±0.25 MJ kg-1 to 18.14±0.28 MJ kg-1. The ash content of burned pellets ranged from 3.62±0.02% to 6.47±0.09%. Emissions of harmful pollutants – CO2, CO, NOx and unburnt hydrocarbons (CxHy) did not exceed the maximum permissible levels. Summariz-ing the results of investigated properties, cоmbustion and emissiоns of Artemisia dubia pellets, it can be concluded that this biofuel can be used for production of pressed biofuel and it is charac-terized by sufficient high quality, efficient combustion and permissible emissions to the envi-ronment.

An entomopathogenic nematode, Oscheius tipulae, was isolated from a soil sample. The identification of this species was supported by morphological and molecular markers. The nematode isolate exhibited pathogenicity against different target insects including lepidopteran, coleopteran, and dipteran insects. The virulence of this nematode was similar to that of a well-known entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae, against the same insect targets. A comparative metagenomics analysis of these two nematode species predicted the existence of a combined total of 272 bacterial species in their intestines, of which 51 bacterial species were shared between the two nematode species. In particular, the common gut bacteria included several entomopathogenic bacteria including Xenorhabdus nematophila, which is known as a symbiotic bacterium to S. carpocapsae. The nematode virulence of O. tipulae to insects was enhanced by an addition of dexamethasone but suppressed by an addition of arachidonic acid, suggesting that the immune defenses of the target insects against the nematode infection is mediated by eicosanoids, which would be manipulated by the symbiotic bacteria of the nematode. Unlike S. carpocapsae, O. tipulae showed high virulence against dipteran insects including fruit flies, onion flies, and mosquitoes. O. tipulae showed particularly high control efficacies against the onion maggot, Delia platura, infesting the Welsh onion in the rhizosphere in both pot and field assays.

Duckweed (Lemnaceae) rises as a crucial model system due to its unique characteristics and wide-ranging utility. The significance in physiological research and phytoremediation highlights the intricate potential of Duckweed in the current era of plant biology. Special attention to Duckweed has been brought due to its distinctive features of nutrient uptake, ion transport dynamics, detoxification, intricate signaling, and stress tolerance. In addition, Duckweed can alleviate environmental pollutants and enhance sustainability by participating in bioremediation processes and wastewater treatment. Furthermore, insights into the genomic complexity of Lemnaceae species and the flourishing field of transgenic development highlight the opportunities for genetic manipulation and biotechnological innovations. The novel methods for germplasm conservation of Duckweed can be adopted to preserve genetic diversity for future research endeavors and breeding programs. This review centers on prospects in Duckweed research promoting interdisciplinary collaborations and technological advancements to drive its full potential as a model organism.

Understanding morphological and genetic diversity of forest trees is essential to facilitate their conservation, sustainable management and genetic improvement for addressing the economic and environmental demands and challenges. We have examined variation in morphometric seed and pod traits and seed germination of multipurpose and widely distributed forest tree Albizia lebbek (Indian siris) from 12 provenances covering the species’ range in northern India and its relationships with bioclimatic factors. Highly significant inter-provenance variation was observed in seed size (seed length (SL), seed width (SW), SW/SL, SL×SW), seed mass (1000 seed weight), pod size (pod length (PL), pod width (PW), PW/PL), seed germination, number of seeds per pod, and insect infected seeds (IIS). The provenance effect contributed a major portion to the total phenotypic variance. Morphometric variation in all traits except for IIS was not clinal related to longitude, latitude, altitude or rainfall. There was an indication of the presence of ecotypic variation. IIS showed clinal variation with significant negative correlation with latitude. Most seed size and pod size traits showed positive correlations with several temperature bioclimatic factors and negative correlations with several precipitation bioclimatic factors. Our results have significance for genetic improvement, population genetics and genomics studies and conservation and sustainable management of A. lebbek genetic resources.

Studies of Phytophthora impacts in forests generally focus on individual species without recogni-tion that Phytophthora occur in multispecies communities. We investigated community structure of Phytophthora species in the rhizosphere of Agathis australis (kauri) in Te Wao Nui o Tiriwa / Waitākere Ranges, New Zealand, in the context of kauri dieback disease expression. Soil sampling and tree health monitoring was conducted on 767 randomly selected mature kauri trees. Phy-tophthora species were detected using both soil baiting and DNA metabarcoding of eDNA. Four species were detected with soil baiting (P. agathidicida, P. cinnamomi, P. multivora, and P. pseudo-cryptogea) and an additional three species with metabarcoding (P. kernoviae, P. cactorum/P. aleatoria and an unknown clade 7 species). Phytophthora cinnamomi was the most abundant species and was distributed throughout the forest. Both P. multivora and P. agathidicida were limited to forest edges, suggesting more recent arrivals. P. agathidicida presence was strongly correlated with declining canopy health, confirming its role as the main river of kauri dieback. The limited distribution of P. agathidicida and infrequent detections (11.0% samples) suggests that that this species is spreading as an introduced invasive pathogen and provide hope that with strategic management uninfected areas of the forest can be protected. The frequent detections of P.cinnamomi and P. multivora, from symptomatic trees in the absence of P. agathidicida suggest more research is needed to understand their roles in kauri forest health.

The multifunctional carbon-catabolite repression-negative on TATA box less complex (CCR4-NOT) is a multi-subunit complex present in all eukaryotes, including fungi. This complex plays an essential role in gene expression; however, a functional study of the CCR4-NOT complex in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae has not been conducted. Seven genes encoding the putative CCR4-NOT complex were identified in the M. oryzae genome. Among these, a homologous gene, MoNOT3, was overexpressed during appressorium development in a previous study. Deletion of MoNOT3 in M. oryzae resulted in a significant reduction in hyphal growth, conidiation, abnormal septation in conidia, conidial germination, and appressorium formation compared to the wild-type. Transcriptional analyses suggested that the MoNOT3 gene affects conidiation and conidial morphology by regulating COS1 and COM1 in M. oryzae. Furthermore, monot3 exhibited a lack of pathogenicity, both with and without wounding, which is attributable to deficiencies in the development of invasive growth in planta. This result was also observed in onion epidermal cells, which are non-host plants. In addition, the MoNOT3 gene was involved in cell wall stress responses and heat shock. Taken together, these observations suggest that the MoNOT3 gene is required for fungal infection-related cell development and stress responses in M. oryzae.

The maintenance of traditional agricultural practices in protected small islands is closely linked to the preservation of the land, the protection of natural resources, and the conservation of local traditions. For this purpose, the Tuscan Archipelago National Park promoted the census of ancient horticultural varieties preserved by some farmers on the island of Elba. The survey revealed a deep-rooted historical, cultural, social, and economic link between this germplasm and the island’s territory. A scientific characterization of the landrace under ethnobotanical, morphological, and genetic aspects was carried out. Among these local varieties, two landraces of the Brassica species and three landraces of the Phaseolus species were identified and analyzed in this study. To ascertain their distinguishability and uniqueness, similar varieties were also identified based on morpho-physiological characteristics or territorial proximity and compared with the Elban landraces. Morpho-phenological data were collected, and molecular analyses were carried out using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. Ten different SSR loci were considered for the Phaseolus species and nine for the Brassica species. The Tuscan Archipelago landraces showed a high level of internal variability but were clearly distinct from each other and from the analyzed varieties, as shown by AMOVA (Analysis of Molecular Variance). Their distinctness was further highlighted by the UPGMA dendrogram obtained from the genetic distance matrix. The same results were confirmed by Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA). This study confirms the peculiarity of the Elban landraces, their biodiversity is a heritage to be safeguarded, which can also be used in future breeding programs. These ancient Elban landraces were allocated to local farmers (most were young farmers) to protect them from extinction and to promote more resilient varieties cultivation compared to commercial hybrids widely spread in the area. Local farmhouses also play a strategic role in safeguarding the germplasm and dissemination of sustainable agricultural practices. There is high demand for ancient Elban landraces, this has led to the development of a new local economy balanced between agricultural tradition and innovation.

Food systems will need to undergo considerable transformation. To be better prepared for and resilient to uncertainty and disturbances in the future, resource users and managers need to further develop knowledge about the food and farming system, with its dominating feedback structures and complexities, and to test robust and integrated system-based solutions. This paper investigates how participatory system dynamics modeling can be adapted to groups at the community level with low or no formal educational background. The paper also analyzes the refinement of workshop participants’ mental models as a consequence of a participatory system dynamics intervention. For this purpose, we ran two workshops with small-scale farmers in Zambia. Analysis of workshop data and post-workshop interviews shows that participatory system dynamics is well adaptable to support an audience-specific learning-by-doing approach. The use of pictures, objects and water glasses in combination with the basic aspects of causal loop diagramming makes for a well-balanced toolbox. Participants acquire understanding that is also relevant beyond systems thinking in that is offers a range of practical insights such as a critical evaluation of common food security strategies.

With the development of higher voltage power grid, the high and low voltage parallel loops are emerging, which lead to energy losses, even threaten the security and stability of power system. The multi-infeed HVDC configurations widely appearing in AC/DC interconnected power system make this situation even worse. Aimed at energy saving and system security, a decision optimization method for power grid operating condition with high and low voltage parallel loops is proposed in this paper. Firstly, considering hub substation distribution and power grid structure, parallel loop opening schemes are generated with GN algorithm. Then, candidate opening schemes are preliminarily selected from all these generated schemes based on a filtering index. Finally, with the influence on power system security, stability and operation economy in consideration, an evaluation model for candidate opening schemes is founded based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP). And a fuzzy evaluation algorithm is used to find the optimal scheme. Simulation results of New England 39-bus system and an actual power system validate the effectiveness and superiority of this proposed method.

We present an automated system for nutrient solution management. Prior arts usually measure only pH and EC of the nutrient solutions for maintenance. When EC drops, they just simply add concentrated nutrient to the horticulture bed. Such approach can maintain the density of nutrient solution but cannot maintain the rates of individual ion particles. To prevent nutrition related disorders, fertilization methods with ion selective electrodes are widely introduced. This trend measures individual ion concentration of nutrient solution to maintain appropriate nutrient composition by supplying only insufficient ions. Many researchers have suggested ISE based automated fertilization systems. However, they failed to control a chemical artifact called ion interference effect, which becomes greater at higher density. Our system measures individual concentration of multiple ions and add only deficient nutrients, while handling the ion interference effect issue. To ensure the performance of ion selective electrodes, the system also performs fully automated 3-point calibration 24 times a day. A machine learning algorithm is applied on the sensory parts to remove ion interference effect which make measurement of complex solution with ISE almost impossible. With automated calibration and signal processing technology, the system robustly and continuously maintains nutrient condition for plants. We suggest applying this system on closed hydroponic systems such as smart farms or plant factory, to reduce water consumption and to provide more appropriate environment for the crops.

In this opinion article, we have analyzed the relevancy of a hypothesis which is based on the idea that in Arabidopsis thaliana jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated defense system against necrotrophic fungi is weakened when NO3- supply is high. Such hypothesis is based on the fact that when NO3- supply is high, it induces an increase in the amount of bioactive ABA which induces the sequestration of the phosphatase ABI2 (PP2C) into the PYR/PYL/RCAR receptor. Consequently, the Ca sensors CBL1/9 - CIPK23 are not dephosphorylated by ABI2, thus remaining able to phosphorylate targets such as AtNPF6.3 and AtKAT1, a NO3- and K+ transporters respectively. Therefore, the impact of phosphorylation on the regulation of these two transporters, could 1) reduce NO3- influx as in its phosphorylated state AtNPF6.3 shifts to low capacity state and 2) increase K+ influx, as in its phosphorylated state KAT1 becomes more active. It is also well known that in the roots K+ loading in the xylem and its transport to the shoot is activated in the presence of NO3-. As such, the enrichment of plant tissues in K+ can impair jasmonic acid (JA) regulatory pathway and the induction of the corresponding biomarkers. The latter are known to be up-regulated under K+ deficiency and inhibited when K+ is resupplied. We therefore suggest that increased K+ uptake and tissue content induced by high NO3- supply modifies JA regulatory pathway, resulting in weakened JA-mediated plant’s defense system against necrotrophic fungi.

A simple approach was developed to predict corn yields using the MoDerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data product from two geographically separate major corn crop production regions: Illinois, USA and Heilongjiang, China. The MOD09A1 data product, which are 8-day interval surface reflectance data, were obtained from day of the year (DOY) 89 to 337 to calculate the leaf area index (LAI). The sum of the LAI from early in the season to a given date in the season [end of DOY (EOD)] was well fitted to a logistic function and represented seasonal changes in leaf area duration (LAD). A simple phenology model was derived to estimate the dates of emergence and maturity using the logistic function parameters b1 and b2, which represented the rate of increase in LAI and the date of maximum LAI, respectively. The phenology model predicted emergence and maturity dates fairly well, with root mean square error (RMSE) values of 6.3 and 4.9 days for the validation dataset, respectively. Two simple linear regression models (YP and YF) were established using LAD as the variable to predict corn yield; the yield model (YP) used LAD from predicted emergence to maturity, and the yield model (YF) used LAD for a predetermined period from DOY 89 to a particular EOD. When state/province corn yields for the validation dataset were predicted at DOY 321, near completion of the corn harvest, the YP model performed much better than the YF model, with RMSE values of 0.68 t/ha and 0.66 t/ha for Illinois and Heilongjiang, respectively. The YP model showed a similar or better performance, even for the much earlier yield prediction at DOY 257, compared to that of the YF model. In conclusion, the phenology and yield models were developed based only on logistic changes in remote sensing-derived LAD, and predicted phenological dates and corn yields with considerable accuracy and precision for the two regions selected for this study. However, these models must be examined for spatial portability in more diverse agro-climatic regions.

Analysis of 49 strains of F. langsethiae originating from northern Europe (Russia, Finland, Sweden, UK, Norway, and Latvia) revealed the presence of spontaneous auxotrophic mutants that reflect natural intraspecific diversity. Our investigations detected that 49.0% of F. langsethiae strains were auxotrophic mutants for biotin, and 8.2% of the strains required thiamine as a growth factor. They failed to grow on vitamin-free media. For both prototrophic and auxotrophic strains, no growth defect was observed in rich organic media. Without essential vitamins, a significant reduction in the growth of the auxotrophic strains results in a decrease of the formation of T-2 toxin and diacetoxyscirpenol. In addition, all analysed F. langsethiae strains were distinguished into two subgroups based on PCR product sizes. According to our results, 26 and 23 strains of F. langsethiae belong to subgroups I and II respectively. We determined that the deletion in the IGS region of the rDNA of F. langsethiae belonging to subgroup II is linked with temperature sensitivity and causes a decrease in strain growth at 30 °C. Four thiamine auxotrophic strains were found in subgroup I, while 21 biotin auxotrophic strains were detected in subgroups II. To the best of our knowledge, the spontaneous mutations in F. langsethiae observed in the present work have not been previously reported.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) persists throughout the world with over 65 million registered cases of survivors with post-COVID-19 sequelae, also known as LongCOVID-19 (LongC). LongC survivors exhibit various symptoms that span multiple organ systems, including the nervous system. To search for neurological biomarkers of LongC, we investigated the soluble proteins present in the plasma and the proteins associated with plasma neuronal-enriched extracellular vesicles (nEVs) in 33 LongC patients with neurological impairment (nLongC), 12 COVID-19 survivors without any LongC symptoms (Cov), and 28 pre-COVID-19 healthy controls (HC). COVID-19 positive participants were infected from 2020-2022, not hospitalized, and were vaccinated or unvaccinated before infection. IL-1b was significantly increased in both nLongC and Cov and IL-8 elevated in only nLongC. Both brain-derived neurotropic factor and cortisol were significantly elevated in nLongC and Cov compared to HC. nEVs from people with nLongC had significantly elevated protein markers of neuronal dysfunction, including amyloid beta 42, pTau181 and TDP-43. This study shows chronic peripheral inflammation with increased stress after COVID-19 infection. Additionally, differentially expressed nEV neurodegenerative proteins were identified in people recovering from COVID-19 regardless of persistent symptoms.

.Various synthetic nematicides are currently used effectively in the control of plant parasitic nematodes. However, these nematicides have adverse effects on humans and the environment. Neem oil is eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic nematicides. The effectiveness of repeated neem oil application in suppressing the root-knot nematodes infestation in figs seedlings was therefore examined in this study, both in its natural form (10 ml/L) and in its nano-emulsion form (5 and 7 ml/L). The recorded reduction parameters of M. incognita were J2/250g soil, galls and egg masses / 5g roots of infected fig seedlings were measured at that time, and the effects of these natural additives were compared with the Fosthiazate (Krenkel 75%EC). The impact of such soil amendments on some typical plant parameters, the total microbial count of soil, and the overall enzymatic activity of the fig rhizosphere were also included. Obtained results revealed that the soil population density of root knot nematode suppressed by 80.3% , reduction of nematode egg masses (60.4%) due to the application of nano-emulsion of neem oil (at 7ml/L). Present work recommend the use of nano-emulsion of neem oil as one of the effective and eco-friendly means to reduce the root- knot nematode on fig .

Six bacterial strains with differing abilities to produce varying concentrations of Indole Acetic Acid were tested individually and in consortia for plant growth promoting and fitness related traits of Cicer arietinum. In all experiments the presence of the nitrogen fixer Mesorhizobium ciceri resulted in increased biomass production. In the absence of this strain, IAA Psedomonas putida and Bacillus megaterium hinder plant growth and fitness related traits. The application of mixes of the three strains always resulted in better plant performance when M. ciceri was present. Whereas P. putida has a noticeable plant growth-promoting effect B. megaterium resulted less effective. The low levels of IAA produced by the selected strains had a significantly greater positive effect on plant biomass accumulation, flower, pods and seed production as well as on total plant nitrogen and nitrogen concentration in seed than high IAA producer strains.

Rosette caused by rose rosette virus (RRV) is the most devastating malady of rose in the United States. Because of the recent discovery of the virus and the completion of Koch’s postulates all assumptions about the disease are based on visual observations of material that may or may have not been infected by the virus. This study addresses several aspects of virus and disease epidemiology. Twenty rose genotypes were screened for mite and/or virus resistance. Phyllocoptes fructiphilus the only known vector of RRV, was able to establish, lay eggs and develop to nymphs and adults in all genotypes. ‘Stormy Weather’ shows resistance to the virus as assessed by both mite and cleft-grafting transmission experiments. The acquisition/latent and inoculation access periods were studied revealing long acquisition/latent periods but rapid inoculation time frames. The outputs of this study will assist in the better management of the vector and the disease. The resistant genotype identified could be used in areas with high disease pressure to minimize spread and for identification of the mechanisms behind resistance or as breeding material to incorporate virus resistance to new cultivars. The short inoculation access period indicates that chemical control for the vector may be a challenging undertaking.

Urea cycle disorders (UCDs) are common inborn errors of metabolism, with an incidence of one in 30,000 births. They are caused by deficiencies in any of six enzymes and two carrier proteins, the most common being Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency (OTCD). OTCD results in impairment to excrete nitrogen, causing toxic buildup of ammonia with resultant encephalopathy. Hyperammonemia (HA) induces the conversion of glutamate to glutamine in the brain. Excess glutamine in the brain causes osmotic changes cerebral edema, changes in astrocyte morphology, and cell death. Acute symptoms of HA include vomiting, hyperventilation, seizures, and irritability. Long-term neurological changes include deficits in working memory and executive function. To date, there are no predictors of prognosis of infants with neonatal onset OTCD outside of plasma ammonia level at presentation and duration of hyperammonemic coma. We provide a comprehensive analysis of a 16-year-old male with neonatal onset of OTCD as an example of how brain biomarkers may be useful to monitor disease course and outcome. This male presented at 8 days post natal with plasma ammonia and glutamine of 677 and 4024 micromol/L and had a missense mutation in Exon 4 (p.R129H). Treatment included protein restriction, sodium benzoate, and citrulline, arginine, and iron. He suffered recurrent acute hyperammonemic episodes despite compliance, triggered by infections or catabolic stressors. We discuss the long-term effects of the hyperammonemic episodes by following MRI based disease biomarkers.

The rest-breaking agent, hydrogen cyanamide (HC), can substitute insufficient chill unit accumulation in Vitis vinifera and induce uniform bud-break; however, due to its toxicity it is being banned. In South Africa, red seedless grapes, including V. vinifera Crimson Seedless (CS), are the largest table grape export group; therefore, replacing HC in V. vinifera CS is crucial. This study aimed to confirm the molecular triggers induced by HC and assess the bud-break-enhancing abilities of commercial plant biostimulants. Forced bud-break assay experiments using V. vinifera CS single-node cuttings and a small-scale field trial were performed. Results demonstrated that increased chill unit accumulation (CUA), reduced HC efficacy. Bud-break started between 10 and 20 days after treatment, irrespective of final CUA. The small-scale field trial found that HC3 % resulted in a slightly delayed bud-break rate, whilst biostimulants were similar to the negative control. The treatment of dormant grapevine compound buds with nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and hypoxia trigger dormancy-release to a certain extent, supporting the molecular models proposed for HC action. NO, H2O2, and hypoxia, in combination with PBs, may potentially replace HC; however, this needs to be confirmed in future experiments.

Despite the expansion of financial institutions and proliferation of mobile financial services, reaching the unbanked and bringing them under formal financial services has become a policy concern in many developing countries. Due to the lack of financial accounts, unbanked people prefer informal, risky, and inconvenient mechanisms for receiving, sending and transferring money. Previous studies rely much on common intervention like no account maintenance and opening fees, easy documentation processes and money subsidies for opening financial accounts. This study aims to examine the impact of the motivational workshop on opening savings accounts through causality among the unbanked people in a setting where the respondents are unbanked despite having all the requirements and many institutional offers for opening savings accounts. We encouraged the unbanked people through a one-hour-long motivational workshop to open saving account. Based on our cross-sectional data and randomized controlled trial experiment among 505 unbanked Village Defense Party (VDP) members at Dhubil Union under Sirajganj in Bangladesh, we have the evidence that motivational workshop positively impacts opening ac-counts by 32.33 percent. However, the account opening rate differs in terms of respondent’s pref-erence for financial institutions. Our study also finds that unbanked people have the highest pref-erence for mobile financial services for opening accounts resulting in 15.33 percent. The result of the study has some policy implications for adopting effective strategies of financial access in many developing countries.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial regulatory RNAs, originated from hairpin precursors. For the past decade, researchers are focusing extensively on miRNA profiles in various plants. However studies on precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNAs) global profiling stay static even in model plants. Here, for the first time in a non-model plant, Abelmoschus esculentus with negligible genome information, we are reporting the global profiling to characterize the miRNAs and their associated pre-miRNAs by applying next generation sequencing approach. Preliminarily we performed sRNA (small RNA) sequencing with five biological replicates of leaf samples to attain 207,285,863 reads and data analysis using miRPlant keyed out 128 known and 845 novel miRNA candidates. With the objective to seize their associated hairpin precursors, we accomplished pre-miRNA sequencing to attain 83,269,844 reads. The paired end reads are merged, adaptor trimmed and the resulting 40-241 nt (nucleotide) sequences were picked out for analysis by using perl scripts from miRGrep tool and in-house built shell script for Minimum Fold Energy Index (MFEI) calculation. Applying stringent criteria of dicer cleavage pattern and perfect stem loop structure revealed precursors for 57 known miRNAs of 15 families and 18 novel miRNAs. Quantitative Real Time (qRT) PCR was performed to determine the expression of selected miRNAs.

Fourteen Russian potato cultivars (cvs.) grown for three years in field plots of VIR (Northwestern region of the Russian Federation) were evaluated for productivity and a number of biochemical parameters of tubers. The 12 parameters that have been evaluated in tubers annually one month after harvesting and after cold storage (at 2 - 4°C) include the content of dry matter, starch, protein, ascorbic acid, carotenoids and β-carotene, anthocyanins, total sugars and monosaccharides (reducing sugars), phenolic compounds, as well as total acidity, and antioxidant activity. The cultivars differed significantly in productivity and biochemical composition of tubers. Dry matter content ranged from 16.40% in cv. ʻKumachʼ to 27.28% in ʻNayadaʼ, starch content ranged from 8.96 % in cvs. ʻFioletovyjʼ, ʻKumachʼ to 20.08% in ‘Sokur’, the total sugar content reached 2.46% in cv. ʻSiverskij’ whereas ‘Sokur’ has the smallest content of reducing sugars in post-harvest tubers. Protein content ranged from 1.02% to 2.77% with the highest accumulation in cv. ʻSokurʼ. Content of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) ranged from 6.3 mg/100 g FW in ʻKrasa Meŝeryʼ to 26.6 mg/100 g FW in cv. ʻKrasavchikʼ. Carotenoids content ranged from 0.157 mg/100 g FW in cv. ‘Nayada’ to 0.645 mg/100 g FW in cv. ʻGrandʼ. Content of anthocyanins in potato ranged from 1.04 mg/100g FW (not colored tubers of cv. ʻKrasa Meŝeryʼ) to 283.04 mg/100g FW (colored tubers of cv. ʻFioletovyiʼ). The nutritional value of tubers (content of dry matter, sugars, starch and protein) was determined to a greater extent (38-49%) by varietal characteristics, rather than by meteorological conditions in vegetation period. The content of vitamin C, carotenoids, protein and anthocyanins varied depending on the year. The highest content of dry matter, starch and carotenoids was noted in tubers harvested in 2019, marked by low temperatures and precipitation deficit in growing season. The conditions of 2020 with low temperatures and excess precipitation were the most favorable for anthocyanin’s accumulation in potato tubers while not for other biochemical parameters. Of the cultivars, ʻSokurʼ had the highest content of dry matter, protein and starch. Cv. ʻFioletovyiʼ had small starch content and high level of anthocyanins. Cv. ʻPlamyaʼ can be recommended for potato products manufacturing due to dry matter content above 20% and reducing sugars content 0.24%..

The review scrutinizes the currently performed research on the new methods for enhancing bituminous binder performance through radiation and radical grafting of polymer modifers of bitumen. It investigates innovative methods, including using waste polymers as modifiers, and applying radiation for polymer grafting, to overcome challenges like high costs, low aging resistance and storage stability issues, of which separation of phases polymer/bitumen is the most significant obstacle. These advanced modification techniques promise sustainability through the decrease of the carbon footprint of transportation systems by improving the properties and durability of binders. Additionally, the review discusses the parameters and mechanistic aspects from a scientific perspective, shedding light on the underlying processes that contribute to the improved performance of modified bituminous binders.

During choriogenesis in insects, chorion (eggshell) is formed by surrounding follicular epithelial cells in ovarioles. However, the regulatory endocrine factor(s) activating choriogenesis and the chemical components on eggshell deserve further exploration. In two representative Coleopterans, a Coccinellid Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata and a Chrysomelid Leptinotarsa decemlineata, genes encoding the 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) receptor heterodimer, ecdysone receptor (EcR) and ultraspiracle (USP), and two chitin biosynthesis enzymes UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP) and chitin synthase (ChS1), were highly expressed in ovaries of the young females. RNA interference (RNAi)-aided knockdown of either HvEcR or Hvusp in H. vigintioctopunctata inhibited oviposition, suppressed the expression of HvChS1, and lessened the positive signal of Calcofluor staining on the chorions, which suggests the reduction of a chitin-like substance (CLS) deposited on eggshells. Similarly, RNAi of LdEcR or Ldusp in L. decemlineata constrained oviposition, decreased the expression of LdUAP1 and LdChS1, and declined CLS contents in the resultant ovaries. Knockdown of LdUAP1 or LdChS1 caused similar defective phenotypes, i.e., reduced oviposition and CLS contents in the L. decemlineata ovaries. These results, for the first time, indicate that 20E signaling activates choriogenesis in two Coleopteran species. Moreover, our findings propose the deposition of a CLS on the chorions.

Use of rhizosphere microorganisms provides an alternative or supplement to conventional plant breeding to improve water deficit tolerance of tomato plants. Experiment was carried out to explore the effect of two microbial species, AMF (Rhizophagus irregularis) and Bacillus subtilis, in single and co-application, on growth, colonization, and molecular aspects of tomato plants under drought stress. Co-inoculated plants showed less reduction in growth traits, photosynthetic pigments, colonization rate, and increased compatible solutes like proline which help in sustaining relative water content than non-inoculated plants. Inoculation considerably enhanced proline dehydrogenase activity, and significantly reduced both Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase activity causing lower proline accumulation in inoculated plants under drought stress. Co-inoculated plants showed obvious upregulation of antioxidant system, thus facilitating amelioration of oxidative stress through exclusion of reactive oxygen species. No inoculation under drought stress upregulated abscisic acid related genes expression but have no effect in plants inoculated either sole or mixed inoculation. Expression of aquaporin genes was upregulated in plants co-inoculated and with AMF alone under normal condition. However the expression of aquaporin genes were decreased or unaffected in plants inoculated with Bacillus subtilis but increased in non-inoculated plants. Co-applied AMF and bacillus subtilis substantially increase drought tolerance by upregulating proline metabolism, antioxidant enzymes and aquaporin genes. Therefore our results suggest that co-inoculation mediated drought tolerance is linked with increased proline accumulation, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and differential regulation of ABA biosynthetic and aquaporin genes, which is vital for osmotic adjustment of host plant.

Keywords: leptophages; Cas system; bacteriophages; Leptospira interrogans

The doctoral defense is an important step in the doctoral journey and an essential requirement for obtaining the doctoral degree. Past research on the doctoral defense has focused solely on national practices. In this work, I investigate the potential link between the doctoral defense format based on its major and minor elements and the perception of the defense by the student. For this purpose, I first reviewed the different defense formats used internationally to extract the different elements of the doctoral defense, as well as the literature on students’ perceptions of the doctoral defense. Then, I carried out an international survey which received 297 responses, of which 204 completed surveys which I used for the analysis in this article. I first analyzed the outcomes of the survey using qualitative and quantitative methods, and then cross-correlated the outcomes of defense format to the outcomes of student perception. From this analysis, I observe that the defense elements that positively impact the students’ perception are: publication of the thesis before the defense, receiving committee feedback before the defense, knowing the recommendation of one or more committee members in advance, having the supervisor present in the audience or as part of the committee, using a dress code, and including a laudatio. The final conclusion of this work is threefold. The first conclusion is that the details of the defense format impact most the students’ perception. The second conclusion is that doctoral students on average value the defense as a positive experience. The third conclusion is that the defense format cannot influence two important aspects of how a student perceives the defense: the student’s inner life and lived experience during the defense, and the behavior of the committee members.

Cobalt (Co) is a transition metal and is classified as a beneficial metal for plants, but its benefits for plants remain obscure. Cobalt has been reported to negatively affect plant physiochemical processes both at higher (toxic) and lower (deficient) applied levels. High concentrations of cobalt in plant organs cause irreversible changes to the plant cells, mainly via enhanced production of reactive radicals. Moreover, Co and its compound play an essential role in humans as they are the central atoms of cobalamin, a co-enzyme precursor whose absence causes anemia. Hence, the optimum Co supply to plants is critical for customary plant metabolic workings. Henceforth, monitoring Co behavior in the soil-plant-human system is highly imperative. This review highlighted the latest literature on (i) Co in soil and plants; (ii) its mobility and phyto-availability in soil; (iii) phytouptake and translocation towards shoot tissues; (iv) toxic and deficient effects of Co on plants; (v) plant detoxification mechanisms under increased Co levels inside plants; and (v) its role in the human body. For this purpose, 1026 plant observations from literature data were analyzed related to Co biogeochemical behavior in the soil-plant system. The data analysis revealed an overall increase in 567 observations and a decrease in 381 observations. However, these general trends in plant responses vary significantly for different types of plant species and physiological attributes. Overall, the current review delineates an updated and critical representation of the biogeochemical behavior of Co in the soil-plant-human system, supported by up-to-date 9 main tables, 14 supporting tables, and 3 figures. The authors believe that the literature presented here can be of great interest to scientists, researchers, policymakers, and graduate-level students.

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a diverse group of microorganisms including genera such as Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Serratia, Enterobacter and Klebsiella. These bacteria have the ability to colonize roots externally and internally, and to directly enhance plant growth employing various mechanisms like phytohormone production and nutrient mineralization. These microbes can also promote plant growth indirectly by secreting antimicrobial compounds (e.g., siderophores, hydrogen cyanide) to antagonize root pathogens or by inducing defensive responses in the plant. Interestingly, there are also cases where production of antibiotic compounds such as 2,4-Diacetylphloroglucinol have the direct effect of enhancing plant growth and yield, irrespective of their biocontrol effects. The objective of this paper is to review publications showcasing PGPRs that have the capacity to both control root pathogens and stimulate plant growth, and to discuss what mechanisms might be involved.

Aim. To study the processes of lipid peroxidation and the activity of antioxidant defense enzymes depending on the chemiluminescent activity of neutrophilic granulocytes in patients with gastric cancer associated with H. pylori infection, depending on the stage. Materials and methods. 39 patients with stage I-II gastric cancer and 30 patients with stage III-IV gastric cancer were examined. The study of the chemiluminescent activity of neutrophilic granulocytes was carried out, the parameters of the lipid peroxidation system and antioxidant protection in plasma were determined using the spectrophotometric method. Statistical data processing was performed using the Statistica 7.0 software package (StatSoft, USA). Results. In patients with gastric cancer associated with H. pylori infection, regardless of stage, the proportion of neutrophilic granulocytes with normal activity does not exceed 1/3 of the total number of patients, the remaining 2/3 of patients have an altered chemiluminescent activity of neutrophilic granulocytes: in patients with gastric cancer by I -II stage of the disease, the majority revealed a reduced function of neutrophilic granulocytes, and in patients with gastric cancer stage III-IV of the disease, the majority showed increased chemiluminescent activity of neutrophilic granulocytes. In all patients with gastric cancer associated with H. pylori infection, regardless of the stage of the disease, an increase in lipid peroxidation processes with activation of antioxidant defense enzymes was detected. Conclusion. In all patients with gastric cancer associated with H. pylori infection, regardless of the stage of the disease, an increase in lipid peroxidation processes with activation of antioxidant defense enzymes was detected. At the same time, there are no statistically significant differences between the indicators of the system lipid peroxidation - antioxidant protection depending on the stage of gastric cancer and the chemiluminescent activity of neutrophilic granulocytes, which probably indicates that all reactive oxygen species produced by neutrophilic granulocytes in the respiratory burst are consumed locally, minimally affecting the development of oxidative stress in the blood plasma.

The stinging nettle caterpillar, Darna pallivitta (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae) is a serious invasive pest of agricultural products and a health hazard on the Hawaiian Islands first discovered in 2001. Nursery workers and homeowners have been stung by the caterpillars while handling their plants, especially rhapis palms (Rhapis sp.). Throughout its invaded range, it causes widespread damage including the many cultivated and native palm species grown in Hawaii. Of medical importance are the stinging spines of the larva, which cause dermatitis on contact with the skin. Horticulture and nursery products impacted by the limacodid pest are estimated at $84.3 million (2018 value). An eradication attempt with pesticides and lure traps was made but proved unsuccessful and the moth population continued to spread to major Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii, Kauai, Maui, Oahu). The introduction of specific biological control agents from the native region was thought to be the long-term solution for this invasive pest. Initial exploration in Indonesia and Thailand resulted in the introduction of a pupal ectoparasitoid, Nesolynx sp. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Tetrastichinae), that was not specific. The oriental wasp, Aroplectrus dimerus Lin (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Eulophinae), idiobiont gregarious ectoparasitoid of the stinging nettle caterpillar, was introduced from Taiwan in 2004 for host specificity studies and biocontrol in Hawaii. Host range testing showed the parasitoid attacked only limacodid species and it was approved for field release in 2010. The parasitoid identity, host specificity under containment facility conditions, reproductive performance, colonization on the major infested sites were assessed. A total of 13379 parasitoids were colonized on162 release sites on four Hawaiian Islands. Evaluations were conducted using field surveys of larvae, pupal counts, and male lure traps. Field parasitism was thoroughly investigated on Oahu Island averaging 18.9 ± 5.6 % of 3923 collected larvae during 2010 – 2023. The numbers of male moths caught/trap/month were significantly reduced on Oahu Island (P

Aim: To evaluate the panmacular subthreshold micropulse laser treatment results among patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) and their correlation with functional and morphological parameters. Material and methods: The examined group included 10 non-treated and 41 treated patients with acute, recurrent, and chronic CSC (13 F, 38 M, mean age 44.11±6.5) and 14 healthy controls (6 F, 8 M, mean age 45±9.3). The BCVA examination, ophthalmoscopy, microp-erimetry, angio-OCT and OCT were performed. The medical history regarding chronic general disorders and known risk factors were recorded. Results: Complete resorption of SRF was obtained in 100% aCSC, 86.66% cCSC, and 63.63% r CSC. BCVA and RetSens significantly improved most of the patients treated in aCSC. The lowest BCVA and RetSens, but the largest pachyvessel and disease duration, were found in rCSC. A strong negative correlation between final BCVA and disease duration was found. No patient demonstrated laser lesions following treatment. Conclusions: The panmacular MPLT therapy leads to long-term enhancement of functional and morphological parameters in all CSC patients. The acute CSC patients showed the most significant improvement. The procedure is safe and could be considered a preferred treatment option for all active CSC cases. Timely treatment is crucial for beneficial outcomes.