We propose and demonstrate a synchronously pumped mode-locked Tm-doped fiber（TDF） laser without any extra mode-locking elements. Pumped by a 1.56 μm pulse fiber laser, the TDF laser generates 1.17 ps pulses with a ...We propose and demonstrate a synchronously pumped mode-locked Tm-doped fiber（TDF） laser without any extra mode-locking elements. Pumped by a 1.56 μm pulse fiber laser, the TDF laser generates 1.17 ps pulses with a spectral width of 9.7 nm and a repetition rate of 9.33 MHz. The emission wavelength is tunable along with the cavity length detuning in a wide range of 3 mm. The high detuning toleration is beneficial to achieve high temperature and vibration stability in all-fiber configuration lasers.展开更多
Religious convictions are a source of bitter confrontations between especially the Muslims and Christians ofNigeria. The problem is so endemic that there are conspicuous spillovers into the political and social sphere...Religious convictions are a source of bitter confrontations between especially the Muslims and Christians ofNigeria. The problem is so endemic that there are conspicuous spillovers into the political and social spheres ofeveryday living in the country. This reality threatens the already fragile unity and social health of the country andhence becomes one that needs special attention. The need to proffer solution to this cankerworm demands that wetake a historical survey of similar or near-similar situations in the human civilization and excavate ideas that weregiven as a way forward. It is in this bid that the ideas of John Locke in his book A Letter Concerning Tolerationbecome very useful. Locke argued for a secular state with a clear dichotomy between government activities, whichbelong to the public domain and hence involve every citizen and matters of faith which are private and devoid ofany form of coercion. Such differentiation is meant to remove the force of compulsion from religion and thepractice thereof as well as keep the government ＂undefiled＂ when the need for adjudication in matters that pertainto religion eventually arises. Locke＇s ideas in the book were aimed at forging peace and decorum in an Englishsociety that was virtually turned asunder by the demon of religious intolerance. This scenario exactly qualifiespresent-day Nigeria, hence there is much need to x-ray these ideas and apply same in our desire to nip the menaceof religious bigotry in the bud. The nature of this work made it necessary to apply the method of text analysis andevaluation to enable us to get an adequate appreciation of Locke＇s intentions and how these can serve our purposein present-day Nigeria.展开更多
In this paper I examine some presuppositions of toleration and pluralism and explore two models, viz., a deontological and a consequentialist model, respectively, which could support the view that rational agents shou...In this paper I examine some presuppositions of toleration and pluralism and explore two models, viz., a deontological and a consequentialist model, respectively, which could support the view that rational agents should act in a tolerant way. Against the background which is offered by the first model, I give two arguments in favor of the view that people are better off and more rational if they act in a tolerant way. The first argument draws upon aprinciple of charity which is usually applied in philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, but which could, equally well, work with regard to foundational issues in ethics and philosophy of action. The second argument is built upon the epistemic principle offallibilism and it is meant to show that acting in a tolerant way is the rational thing to do from this perspective.展开更多
Global warming impacts plant growth and development,which in turn threatens food security.Plants can clearly respond to warm-temperature(such as by thermomorphogenesis)and high-temperature stresses.At the molecular le...Global warming impacts plant growth and development,which in turn threatens food security.Plants can clearly respond to warm-temperature(such as by thermomorphogenesis)and high-temperature stresses.At the molecular level,many small molecules play crucial roles in balancing growth and defense,and stable high yields can be achieved by fine-tuning the responses to external stimuli.Therefore,it is essential to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying plant growth in response to heat stress and how plants can adjust their biological processes to survive heat stress conditions.In this review,we summarize the heat-responsive genetic networks in plants and crop plants based on recent studies.We focus on how plants sense the elevated temperatures and initiate the cellular and metabolic responses that allow them to adapt to the adverse growing conditions.We also describe the trade-off between plant growth and responses to heat stress.Specifically,we address the regulatory network of plant responses to heat stress,which will facilitate the discovery of novel thermotolerance genes and provide new opportunities for agricultural applications.展开更多
The chalcone isomerase gene OsCHI,one of the key genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway,plays an important role in rice(Oryza sativa)resistance to abiotic stresses.This study reveals how the chalcone isomerase ge...The chalcone isomerase gene OsCHI,one of the key genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway,plays an important role in rice(Oryza sativa)resistance to abiotic stresses.This study reveals how the chalcone isomerase gene family member OsCHI3 participates in rice responses to drought stress through the regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis.Overexpression of OsCHI3 increased the tolerance of rice to drought stress.In contrast,CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of OsCHI3 reduced the drought tolerance of rice,an effect that is reversed by exogenous ABA treatment.Transcriptomic and physiological biochemical analyses indicated that flavonoids regulated by OsCHI3 not only scavenge reactive oxygen species(ROS)but also increase drought tolerance in rice by stimulating ABA biosynthesis through the regulation of OsNCED1 and OsABA8ox3 expression.These findings demonstrate that OsCHI3 increases drought stress tolerance in rice by activating the antioxidant defense system and the ABA metabolic pathway,providing new clues for drought-resistant rice breeding research.展开更多
Objectives:Cold-acclimated organisms accumulate low molecular weight organic solutes such as sugar alcohols and soluble sugars.This study aimed to compare the efficacy of five sugar alcohols and 14 soluble sugars in s...Objectives:Cold-acclimated organisms accumulate low molecular weight organic solutes such as sugar alcohols and soluble sugars.This study aimed to compare the efficacy of five sugar alcohols and 14 soluble sugars in stabilizing proteins under freezing,freeze-drying,and air-drying stresses.Materials and methods:Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase(G6PD)was used as the model protein.G6PD solutions with or without sugar alcohols and or sugars were subjected to freezing,freeze-drying,and air-drying stresses.The recovery of G6PD activity was measured to evaluate the protective efficacy of these compounds.Results:Without stabilizers,freezing G6PD at-20℃ or-80℃ reduced enzyme activity by around 24%,while freeze-drying or air-drying reduced activity by 90%-95%.Among the five sugar alcohols tested,pinitol,quebrachitol and sorbitol stabilized G6PD,whereas mannitol and myo-inositol destabilized it.Among 14 soluble sugars,trehalose and raffinose showed slightly lower enzyme recovery after repeated freeze-thaw cycles at-20℃.Most soluble sugars(except arabinose and xylose)protected G6PD during freeze-drying,with di-,tri-,and oligosaccharides generally outperforming monosaccharides.During air-drying,lactose was ineffective,while arabinose,galactose,and xylose were detrimental.Conclusion:The study highlights the diverse mechanisms of sugar alcohols and sugars in protein stabilization under stress,offering insights for formulating stable protein-and cell-based drugs.展开更多
The leucine-rich repeat(LRR)protein family is involved in a variety of fundamental metabolic and signaling processes in plants,including growth and defense responses.LRR proteins can be divided into two categories:tho...The leucine-rich repeat(LRR)protein family is involved in a variety of fundamental metabolic and signaling processes in plants,including growth and defense responses.LRR proteins can be divided into two categories:those containing LRR domains along with other structural elements,which are further subdivided into five groups,LRR receptor-like kinases,LRR receptor-like proteins,nucleotide-binding site LRR proteins,LRR-extensin proteins,and polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins,and those containing only LRR domains.Functionally,various LRR proteins are primarily involved in plant development and responses to environmental stress.Notably,the LRR protein family plays a central role in signal transduction pathways related to stress adaptation.In this review,we classify and analyze the functions of LRR proteins in plants.While extensive research has been conducted on the roles of LRR proteins in disease resistance signaling,these proteins also play important roles in abiotic stress responses.This review highlights recent advances in understanding how LRR proteins mediate responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.Building upon these insights,further exploration of the roles of LRR proteins in abiotic stress resistance may aid efforts to develop rice varieties with enhanced stress and disease tolerance.展开更多
Frequent drought events severely restrict global crop productivity,especially those occurring in the reproductive stages.Moderate drought priming during the earlier growth stages is a promising strategy for allowing p...Frequent drought events severely restrict global crop productivity,especially those occurring in the reproductive stages.Moderate drought priming during the earlier growth stages is a promising strategy for allowing plants to resist recurrent severe drought stress.However,the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.Here,we subjected wheat plants to drought priming during the vegetative growth stage and to severe drought stress at 10 days after anthesis.We then collected leaf samples at the ends of the drought priming and recovery periods,and at the end of drought stress for transcriptome sequencing in combination with phenotypic and physiological analyses.The drought-primed wheat plants maintained a lower plant temperature,with higher stomatal openness and photosynthesis,thereby resulting in much lower 1,000-grain weight and grain yield losses under the later drought stress than the non-primed plants.Interestingly,416 genes,including 27 transcription factors(e.g.,MYB,NAC,HSF),seemed to be closely related to the improved drought tolerance as indicated by the dynamic transcriptome analysis.Moreover,the candidate genes showed six temporal expression patterns and were significantly enriched in several stress response related pathways,such as plant hormone signal transduction,starch and sucrose metabolism,arginine and proline metabolism,inositol phosphate metabolism,and wax synthesis.These findings provide new insights into the physiological and molecular mechanisms of the long-term effects of early drought priming that can effectively improve drought tolerance in wheat,and may provide potential approaches for addressing the challenges of increasing abiotic stresses and securing food safety under global warming scenarios.展开更多
Heat stress causes overgrowth,leaf dryness and fruit malformation,which negatively impacts cucumber quality and yield.Yet,in spite of the devastating consequences of this abiotic stress,few genes for heat tolerance in...Heat stress causes overgrowth,leaf dryness and fruit malformation,which negatively impacts cucumber quality and yield.Yet,in spite of the devastating consequences of this abiotic stress,few genes for heat tolerance in cucumber have been identified.Here,the heat injury indices of 88 cucumber accessions representing diverse ecotypes were collected in two open-field environments,with naturally occurring high temperatures over two years.Seventeen of the 88 accessions were identified as highly heat-tolerant.Using a genome-wide association study,five loci(gHII3.1,gHII3.2,gHII3.3,gHII4.1 and gHII6.1)on three chromosomes associated with heat tolerance were detected.Pairwise linkage disequilibrium correlation,sequence polymorphisms,and qRT-PCR analyses at these loci,identified five candidate genes predicted to be casual for heat stress response in cucumber.CsaV3_3G04883,CsaV3_4G029050 and CsaV3_6G005370 each had nonsynonymous SNPs,and were significantly up-regulated by heat stress in the heat-tolerant genotypes.CsaV3_3G031890 was also induced by heat stress,but in the heatsensitive genotypes,and sequence polymorphism was only found in the promoter region.Identifying these candidate genes lays a foundation for understanding cucumber thermotolerance mechanisms.Our study is one of the few to examine heat stress in adult cucumber plants and it therefore fills a critical gap in knowledge.It is also an important first-step towards accelerating the breeding of robust heat-tolerant varieties.展开更多
Thedeployment of the Internet of Things(IoT)with smart sensors has facilitated the emergence of fog computing as an important technology for delivering services to smart environments such as campuses,smart cities,and ...Thedeployment of the Internet of Things(IoT)with smart sensors has facilitated the emergence of fog computing as an important technology for delivering services to smart environments such as campuses,smart cities,and smart transportation systems.Fog computing tackles a range of challenges,including processing,storage,bandwidth,latency,and reliability,by locally distributing secure information through end nodes.Consisting of endpoints,fog nodes,and back-end cloud infrastructure,it provides advanced capabilities beyond traditional cloud computing.In smart environments,particularly within smart city transportation systems,the abundance of devices and nodes poses significant challenges related to power consumption and system reliability.To address the challenges of latency,energy consumption,and fault tolerance in these environments,this paper proposes a latency-aware,faulttolerant framework for resource scheduling and data management,referred to as the FORD framework,for smart cities in fog environments.This framework is designed to meet the demands of time-sensitive applications,such as those in smart transportation systems.The FORD framework incorporates latency-aware resource scheduling to optimize task execution in smart city environments,leveraging resources from both fog and cloud environments.Through simulation-based executions,tasks are allocated to the nearest available nodes with minimum latency.In the event of execution failure,a fault-tolerantmechanism is employed to ensure the successful completion of tasks.Upon successful execution,data is efficiently stored in the cloud data center,ensuring data integrity and reliability within the smart city ecosystem.展开更多
In this editorial,we comment on the article by Mu et al,published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology.We pay special attention to the immune tolerance mechanism caused by hepatitis B ...In this editorial,we comment on the article by Mu et al,published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology.We pay special attention to the immune tolerance mechanism caused by hepatitis B virus(HBV)infection,the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),and the role of antiviral therapy in treating HCC related to HBV infection.HBV infection leads to systemic innate immune tolerance by directly inhibiting pattern recognition receptor recognition and antiviral signaling pathways,as well as by inhibiting the immune functions of macrophages,natural killer cells and dendritic cells.In addition,HBV leads to an immunosuppressive cascade by expressing inhibitory molecules to induce exhaustion of HBV-specific cluster of differentiation 8+T cells,ultimately leading to long-term viral infection.The loss of immune cell function caused by HBV infection ultimately leads to HCC.Long-term antiviral therapy can improve the prognosis of patients with HCC and prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis.展开更多
An in-memory storage system provides submillisecond latency and improves the concurrency of user applications by caching data into memory from external storage.Fault tolerance of in-memory storage systems is essential...An in-memory storage system provides submillisecond latency and improves the concurrency of user applications by caching data into memory from external storage.Fault tolerance of in-memory storage systems is essential,as the loss of cached data requires access to data from external storage,which evidently increases the response latency.Typically,replication and erasure code(EC)are two fault-tolerant schemes that pose different trade-offs between access performance and storage usage.To help make the best performance and space trade-off,we design ElasticMem,a hybrid fault-tolerant distributed in-memory storage system that supports elastic redundancy transition to dynamically change the fault-tolerant scheme.ElasticMem exploits a novel EC-oriented replication(EOR)that carefully designs the data placement of replication according to the future data layout of EC to enhance the I/O efficiency of redundancy transition.ElasticMem solves the consistency problem caused by concurrent data accesses via a lightweight table-based scheme combined with data bypassing.It detects correlated read and write requests and serves subsequent read requests with local data.We implement a prototype that realizes ElasticMem based on Memcached.Experiments show that ElasticMem remarkably reduces the time of redundancy transition,the overall latency of correlated concurrent data accesses,and the latency of single data access among them.展开更多
OBJECTIVE To explore hypoglycemic effect of 95%ethanol fraction of Nitraria roborowskii Kom(NRK-C)and its possible mechanism evaluated in the type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)mice.METHODS The body weight,organ indices,bl...OBJECTIVE To explore hypoglycemic effect of 95%ethanol fraction of Nitraria roborowskii Kom(NRK-C)and its possible mechanism evaluated in the type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)mice.METHODS The body weight,organ indices,blood glucose levels,serum biochemical indexes,as well as HE/PAS histopathological section were all analyzed to assess the hypoglycemic effect of NRK-C in T2DM mice induced by a high-fat diet(HFD)combined with six intraperitoneal injections of 35 mg·kg^(-1)of streptozotocin(STZ).The Western blotting and immunofluorescence were further applied to determine the regulatory effect of NRK-C on key signaling proteins.RESULTS The fasting blood glucose levels were significantly reduced after 7 weeks of administration of NRK-C.In addition,NRK-C could also significantly improve glucose tolerance,hepatic glycogen levels,and lipid levels(total cholesterol,triglyceride,low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein),and significantly reduced insulin resistance of diabetic mice,which played an important role in the antidiabetic effects.Further mechanism research demonstrated that phosphorylated PI3K expression was up-regulated and p-GSK3βexpression was up-regulated after NRK-C intervention,indicating that NRK-C might exert a potential antidiabetic effect by modulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.CONCLUSION All these results suggested that NRK-C might improve T2DM and had the potential to be used as an adjunctive therapy.展开更多
Highlights●Salinity commonly hindered wheat germination,and using herb-derived carbon dots was an emerging approach to enhancing plant salt tolerance in agricultural production.●Wolfberry-driven carbon dots(Wo-CDs)w...Highlights●Salinity commonly hindered wheat germination,and using herb-derived carbon dots was an emerging approach to enhancing plant salt tolerance in agricultural production.●Wolfberry-driven carbon dots(Wo-CDs)were synthesized and applied as a nano-primer to enhance wheat salt tolerance by maintaining reactive oxygen species levels through early oxidative stress conditioning.展开更多
Flooding in rice fields,especially in coastal regions and low-lying river basins,causes significant devastation to crops.Rice is highly susceptible to prolonged flooding,with a drastic decline in yields if inundation ...Flooding in rice fields,especially in coastal regions and low-lying river basins,causes significant devastation to crops.Rice is highly susceptible to prolonged flooding,with a drastic decline in yields if inundation persists for more than 7 d,especially during the reproductive stage.Although the SUB1 QTL,which confers tolerance to complete submergence during the vegetative stage,has been incorporated into breeding programs,the development of alternative sources is crucial.These alternatives would broaden the genetic base,mitigate the influence of the genomic background,and extend the efficacy of SUB1 QTL to withstand longer submergence periods(up to approximately 21 d).Contemporary breeding strategies predominantly target submergence stress at the vegetative stage.However,stagnant flooding(partial submergence of vegetative parts)during the reproductive phase inflicts severe damage on the rice crop,leading to reduced yields,heightened susceptibility to pests and diseases,lodging,and inferior grain quality.The ability to tolerate stagnant flooding can be ascribed to several adaptive traits:accelerated aerenchyma formation,efficient underwater photosynthesis,reduced radial oxygen loss in submerged tissues,reinforced culms,enhanced reactive oxygen species scavenging within cells,dehydration tolerance post-flooding,and resistance to pests and diseases.A thorough investigation of the genetics underlying these traits,coupled with the integration of key alleles into elite genetic backgrounds,can significantly enhance food and income security in flood-prone rice-growing regions,particularly in coastal high-rainfall areas and low-lying river basins.This review aims to delineate an innovative breeding strategy that employs genomic,phenomic,and traditional breeding methodologies to develop rice varieties resilient to various dimensions of flooding stress at both the vegetative and reproductive stages.展开更多
Salinity stress is a major challenge for global agriculture,particularly in arid and semi-arid regions,limiting plant productivity due to water and soil salinity.These conditions particularly affect countries along th...Salinity stress is a major challenge for global agriculture,particularly in arid and semi-arid regions,limiting plant productivity due to water and soil salinity.These conditions particularly affect countries along the southern Mediterranean rim,including Algeria,which primarily focuses on pastoral and forage practices.This study investigates salinity tolerance and ecotypic variability in Vicia narbonensis L.,a fodder legume species recognized for its potential to reclaim marginal soils.Morphological,physiological,and biochemical responses were assessed in three ecotypes(eco2,eco9,and eco10)exposed to different salinity levels(low,moderate,and severe).The study was conducted using a completely randomized block design with three blocks per ecotype per dose.The results from the two-way analysis of variance demonstrate significant effects across nearly all attributes studied,revealing distinct ecotypic responses.These findings underscore variations in growth parameters,osmotic regulation mechanisms,and biochemical adjustments.The substantial diversity observed among these ecotypes in their response to salinity provides valuable insights for breeders addressing both agronomic and ecological challenges.Multivariate analyses,including Principal Component Analysis(PCA),revealed key variables distinguishing between ecotypes under salinity stress.Moreover,Classification based on Salinity Tolerance Indices(STI)further differentiated ecotypic performance with more precision,and this is because of the combination of the different parameters studied.These results open up new prospects for the development of strategies to improve the salinity tolerance of forage legumes.展开更多
Morpho-physiological evaluation of a crop’s genetic resources is necessary to find possible genotypes to include in breeding initiatives.The objective of this study was to identify heat-tolerant wheat genotypes among...Morpho-physiological evaluation of a crop’s genetic resources is necessary to find possible genotypes to include in breeding initiatives.The objective of this study was to identify heat-tolerant wheat genotypes among 36 mutant lines using morpho-physiological indices.Seedlings of mutant lines and check varieties were grown under both normal(control)and heat-stress conditions in growth chambers.Data were recorded on root-shoot parameters(length,fresh weight,dry weight,and ratio),relative water content(RWC),stability of cell membrane,pigment content,and chlorophyll fluorescence.Two-way analysis of variance showed significant(p<0.01,p<0.001)variation among 15 morpho-physiological features in both growing conditions.Correlation studies showed that pigment-specific indices(total chl,chl a,chl b,carotenoid,Fv/Fm—chlorophyll fluorescence)had significant positive correlations with rootshoot fresh weight(RFW,SFW)and root-shoot dry weight(RDW,SDW),and negative association with relative water content,stability of cell membrane at both conditions.Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three primary clusters where cluster III(18 genotypes)showed minimal changes in studied characters than cluster I(11 genotypes)and cluster II(13 genotypes).Results obtained from this study revealed that the identified heat-sensitive(30-2 SSH)and heat-tolerant genotypes(27-2(4),29-2(2),and 30-2 SSH)of wheat might provide useful breeding materials for enhancing wheat yield even more in this period of uncertain climate change.展开更多
Tolerance,coexistence,exchanges and mutual learning among different civilisations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity's modernisation process when the future of all countries are closely connected.
Evaluating plant stress tolerance and screening key regulatory genes under the combined stresses of high temperature and drought are important for studying plant stress tolerance mechanisms. In this study, the drought...Evaluating plant stress tolerance and screening key regulatory genes under the combined stresses of high temperature and drought are important for studying plant stress tolerance mechanisms. In this study, the drought tolerance of five grape varieties was evaluated under high-temperature conditions to screen key genes for further exploration of resistance mechanisms. By comparing and analysing the morphological characteristics and physiological indicators associated with the response of grapevines to drought stress and integrating them with the membership function to assess the strength of their drought tolerance, the order of drought tolerance was found to be as follows: 420A>110R>Cabernet Sauvignon(CS)>Fercal>188-08. To further analyse the mechanism of differences in drought tolerance, transcriptomic sequencing was performed on the drought-tolerant cultivar 420A, the drought-sensitive cultivar 188-08 and the control cultivar CS. The functional analysis of differential metabolic pathways indicated that the differentially expressed genes were enriched mainly in biological process category, that 420A had higher antioxidant activity. Furthermore, differentially expressed transcription factors were analyzed in five grape varieties. Genes like Vv AGL15, Vv LBD41, and Vv MYB86 showed close associations with drought tolerance,indicating their potential role in regulating drought tolerance and research significance.展开更多
Saline-alkali soil severely reduces the productivity of crops,including maize(Zea mays).Although several genes associated with saline-alkali tolerance have been identified in maize,the underlying regulatory mechanism ...Saline-alkali soil severely reduces the productivity of crops,including maize(Zea mays).Although several genes associated with saline-alkali tolerance have been identified in maize,the underlying regulatory mechanism remains elusive.Here,we report a direct link between colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF)and saline-alkali tolerance in maize.We identify s75,a natural maize mutant that cannot survive under moderate saline-alkali soil conditions or establish AM symbioses.The saline-alkali hypersensitive phenotype of s75 is caused by a 1340-bp deletion in Zm00001d033915,designated as ZmL75.This gene encodes a glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase localized in the endoplasmic reticulum,and is responsible for AMF colonization.ZmL75 expression levels in roots correspond with the root length colonization(RLC)rate during early vegetative development.Notably,the s75 mutant line shows a complete loss of AMF colonization,along with alterations in the diversity and structure of its root fungal microbiota.Conversely,overexpression of ZmL75 increases the RLC rate and enhances tolerance to saline-alkali soil conditions.These results suggest that ZmL75 is required for symbiosis with AMF,which directly improves saline-alkali tolerance.Our findings provide insights into maize-AMF interactions and offer a potential strategy for maize improvement.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 61675188 and 61875052the Open Fund of Key Laboratory Pulse Power Laser Technology of China under Grant No SKL2016KF03
文摘We propose and demonstrate a synchronously pumped mode-locked Tm-doped fiber（TDF） laser without any extra mode-locking elements. Pumped by a 1.56 μm pulse fiber laser, the TDF laser generates 1.17 ps pulses with a spectral width of 9.7 nm and a repetition rate of 9.33 MHz. The emission wavelength is tunable along with the cavity length detuning in a wide range of 3 mm. The high detuning toleration is beneficial to achieve high temperature and vibration stability in all-fiber configuration lasers.
文摘Religious convictions are a source of bitter confrontations between especially the Muslims and Christians ofNigeria. The problem is so endemic that there are conspicuous spillovers into the political and social spheres ofeveryday living in the country. This reality threatens the already fragile unity and social health of the country andhence becomes one that needs special attention. The need to proffer solution to this cankerworm demands that wetake a historical survey of similar or near-similar situations in the human civilization and excavate ideas that weregiven as a way forward. It is in this bid that the ideas of John Locke in his book A Letter Concerning Tolerationbecome very useful. Locke argued for a secular state with a clear dichotomy between government activities, whichbelong to the public domain and hence involve every citizen and matters of faith which are private and devoid ofany form of coercion. Such differentiation is meant to remove the force of compulsion from religion and thepractice thereof as well as keep the government ＂undefiled＂ when the need for adjudication in matters that pertainto religion eventually arises. Locke＇s ideas in the book were aimed at forging peace and decorum in an Englishsociety that was virtually turned asunder by the demon of religious intolerance. This scenario exactly qualifiespresent-day Nigeria, hence there is much need to x-ray these ideas and apply same in our desire to nip the menaceof religious bigotry in the bud. The nature of this work made it necessary to apply the method of text analysis andevaluation to enable us to get an adequate appreciation of Locke＇s intentions and how these can serve our purposein present-day Nigeria.
文摘In this paper I examine some presuppositions of toleration and pluralism and explore two models, viz., a deontological and a consequentialist model, respectively, which could support the view that rational agents should act in a tolerant way. Against the background which is offered by the first model, I give two arguments in favor of the view that people are better off and more rational if they act in a tolerant way. The first argument draws upon aprinciple of charity which is usually applied in philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, but which could, equally well, work with regard to foundational issues in ethics and philosophy of action. The second argument is built upon the epistemic principle offallibilism and it is meant to show that acting in a tolerant way is the rational thing to do from this perspective.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32171945,32301760)the Program for Innovative Research Team(in Science and Technology)in University of Henan Province,China(22IRTSTHN023)+2 种基金the Scientific and Technological Research Project of Henan Province,China(242102111116)the National Science Foundation for Postdoctoral Scientists of China(2023M731003)the Postdoctoral Research Subsidize Fund of Henan Province,China(HN2022139)。
文摘Global warming impacts plant growth and development,which in turn threatens food security.Plants can clearly respond to warm-temperature(such as by thermomorphogenesis)and high-temperature stresses.At the molecular level,many small molecules play crucial roles in balancing growth and defense,and stable high yields can be achieved by fine-tuning the responses to external stimuli.Therefore,it is essential to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying plant growth in response to heat stress and how plants can adjust their biological processes to survive heat stress conditions.In this review,we summarize the heat-responsive genetic networks in plants and crop plants based on recent studies.We focus on how plants sense the elevated temperatures and initiate the cellular and metabolic responses that allow them to adapt to the adverse growing conditions.We also describe the trade-off between plant growth and responses to heat stress.Specifically,we address the regulatory network of plant responses to heat stress,which will facilitate the discovery of novel thermotolerance genes and provide new opportunities for agricultural applications.
基金supported by Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan province(2024NK1010,2023NK1010,2023ZJ1080)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(U21A20208).
文摘The chalcone isomerase gene OsCHI,one of the key genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway,plays an important role in rice(Oryza sativa)resistance to abiotic stresses.This study reveals how the chalcone isomerase gene family member OsCHI3 participates in rice responses to drought stress through the regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis.Overexpression of OsCHI3 increased the tolerance of rice to drought stress.In contrast,CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of OsCHI3 reduced the drought tolerance of rice,an effect that is reversed by exogenous ABA treatment.Transcriptomic and physiological biochemical analyses indicated that flavonoids regulated by OsCHI3 not only scavenge reactive oxygen species(ROS)but also increase drought tolerance in rice by stimulating ABA biosynthesis through the regulation of OsNCED1 and OsABA8ox3 expression.These findings demonstrate that OsCHI3 increases drought stress tolerance in rice by activating the antioxidant defense system and the ABA metabolic pathway,providing new clues for drought-resistant rice breeding research.
基金supported by a research grant from the National University of Singapore to WQS(RP-3960366)a collaborative research grant from Sichuan Zhongke Organ Co.Ltd(Chengdu,China).
文摘Objectives:Cold-acclimated organisms accumulate low molecular weight organic solutes such as sugar alcohols and soluble sugars.This study aimed to compare the efficacy of five sugar alcohols and 14 soluble sugars in stabilizing proteins under freezing,freeze-drying,and air-drying stresses.Materials and methods:Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase(G6PD)was used as the model protein.G6PD solutions with or without sugar alcohols and or sugars were subjected to freezing,freeze-drying,and air-drying stresses.The recovery of G6PD activity was measured to evaluate the protective efficacy of these compounds.Results:Without stabilizers,freezing G6PD at-20℃ or-80℃ reduced enzyme activity by around 24%,while freeze-drying or air-drying reduced activity by 90%-95%.Among the five sugar alcohols tested,pinitol,quebrachitol and sorbitol stabilized G6PD,whereas mannitol and myo-inositol destabilized it.Among 14 soluble sugars,trehalose and raffinose showed slightly lower enzyme recovery after repeated freeze-thaw cycles at-20℃.Most soluble sugars(except arabinose and xylose)protected G6PD during freeze-drying,with di-,tri-,and oligosaccharides generally outperforming monosaccharides.During air-drying,lactose was ineffective,while arabinose,galactose,and xylose were detrimental.Conclusion:The study highlights the diverse mechanisms of sugar alcohols and sugars in protein stabilization under stress,offering insights for formulating stable protein-and cell-based drugs.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.32072048 and U2004204)National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2023YFF1001200)+2 种基金China Rice Research Institute Basal Research Fund(Grant No.CPSIBRF-CNRRI-202404)Academician Workstation of National Nanfan Research Institute(Sanya),Chinese Agricultural Academic Science(CAAS),(Grant Nos.YBXM2422 and YBXM2423)Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of CAAS,China.
文摘The leucine-rich repeat(LRR)protein family is involved in a variety of fundamental metabolic and signaling processes in plants,including growth and defense responses.LRR proteins can be divided into two categories:those containing LRR domains along with other structural elements,which are further subdivided into five groups,LRR receptor-like kinases,LRR receptor-like proteins,nucleotide-binding site LRR proteins,LRR-extensin proteins,and polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins,and those containing only LRR domains.Functionally,various LRR proteins are primarily involved in plant development and responses to environmental stress.Notably,the LRR protein family plays a central role in signal transduction pathways related to stress adaptation.In this review,we classify and analyze the functions of LRR proteins in plants.While extensive research has been conducted on the roles of LRR proteins in disease resistance signaling,these proteins also play important roles in abiotic stress responses.This review highlights recent advances in understanding how LRR proteins mediate responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.Building upon these insights,further exploration of the roles of LRR proteins in abiotic stress resistance may aid efforts to develop rice varieties with enhanced stress and disease tolerance.
基金supported by the projects of the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2023YFD2300202)the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province,China(BK20241543)+5 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32272213,32030076,U1803235,and 32021004)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(XUEKEN2023013)the Jiangsu Innovation Support Program for International Science and Technology Cooperation Project,China(BZ2023049)the Jiangsu Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation Fund,China(CX(22)1006)the China Agriculture Research System(CARS-03)the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production,China(JCIC-MCP)。
文摘Frequent drought events severely restrict global crop productivity,especially those occurring in the reproductive stages.Moderate drought priming during the earlier growth stages is a promising strategy for allowing plants to resist recurrent severe drought stress.However,the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.Here,we subjected wheat plants to drought priming during the vegetative growth stage and to severe drought stress at 10 days after anthesis.We then collected leaf samples at the ends of the drought priming and recovery periods,and at the end of drought stress for transcriptome sequencing in combination with phenotypic and physiological analyses.The drought-primed wheat plants maintained a lower plant temperature,with higher stomatal openness and photosynthesis,thereby resulting in much lower 1,000-grain weight and grain yield losses under the later drought stress than the non-primed plants.Interestingly,416 genes,including 27 transcription factors(e.g.,MYB,NAC,HSF),seemed to be closely related to the improved drought tolerance as indicated by the dynamic transcriptome analysis.Moreover,the candidate genes showed six temporal expression patterns and were significantly enriched in several stress response related pathways,such as plant hormone signal transduction,starch and sucrose metabolism,arginine and proline metabolism,inositol phosphate metabolism,and wax synthesis.These findings provide new insights into the physiological and molecular mechanisms of the long-term effects of early drought priming that can effectively improve drought tolerance in wheat,and may provide potential approaches for addressing the challenges of increasing abiotic stresses and securing food safety under global warming scenarios.
基金supported by Beijing Joint Research Program for Germplasm Innovation and New Variety Breeding(Grant No.G20220628003-03)Chongqing Municipal People's Government and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences strategic cooperation project,Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province(Grant No.2020B020220001)+3 种基金the Earmarked Fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System(Grant No.CARS-23)Science and Technology Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science(Grant No.CAAS-ASTIP-IVFCAAS)Central public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund(Grant No.Y2017PT52)the Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops,Ministry of Agriculture,P.R.China。
文摘Heat stress causes overgrowth,leaf dryness and fruit malformation,which negatively impacts cucumber quality and yield.Yet,in spite of the devastating consequences of this abiotic stress,few genes for heat tolerance in cucumber have been identified.Here,the heat injury indices of 88 cucumber accessions representing diverse ecotypes were collected in two open-field environments,with naturally occurring high temperatures over two years.Seventeen of the 88 accessions were identified as highly heat-tolerant.Using a genome-wide association study,five loci(gHII3.1,gHII3.2,gHII3.3,gHII4.1 and gHII6.1)on three chromosomes associated with heat tolerance were detected.Pairwise linkage disequilibrium correlation,sequence polymorphisms,and qRT-PCR analyses at these loci,identified five candidate genes predicted to be casual for heat stress response in cucumber.CsaV3_3G04883,CsaV3_4G029050 and CsaV3_6G005370 each had nonsynonymous SNPs,and were significantly up-regulated by heat stress in the heat-tolerant genotypes.CsaV3_3G031890 was also induced by heat stress,but in the heatsensitive genotypes,and sequence polymorphism was only found in the promoter region.Identifying these candidate genes lays a foundation for understanding cucumber thermotolerance mechanisms.Our study is one of the few to examine heat stress in adult cucumber plants and it therefore fills a critical gap in knowledge.It is also an important first-step towards accelerating the breeding of robust heat-tolerant varieties.
基金supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research and Graduate Studies at King Khalid University under research grant number(R.G.P.2/93/45).
文摘Thedeployment of the Internet of Things(IoT)with smart sensors has facilitated the emergence of fog computing as an important technology for delivering services to smart environments such as campuses,smart cities,and smart transportation systems.Fog computing tackles a range of challenges,including processing,storage,bandwidth,latency,and reliability,by locally distributing secure information through end nodes.Consisting of endpoints,fog nodes,and back-end cloud infrastructure,it provides advanced capabilities beyond traditional cloud computing.In smart environments,particularly within smart city transportation systems,the abundance of devices and nodes poses significant challenges related to power consumption and system reliability.To address the challenges of latency,energy consumption,and fault tolerance in these environments,this paper proposes a latency-aware,faulttolerant framework for resource scheduling and data management,referred to as the FORD framework,for smart cities in fog environments.This framework is designed to meet the demands of time-sensitive applications,such as those in smart transportation systems.The FORD framework incorporates latency-aware resource scheduling to optimize task execution in smart city environments,leveraging resources from both fog and cloud environments.Through simulation-based executions,tasks are allocated to the nearest available nodes with minimum latency.In the event of execution failure,a fault-tolerantmechanism is employed to ensure the successful completion of tasks.Upon successful execution,data is efficiently stored in the cloud data center,ensuring data integrity and reliability within the smart city ecosystem.
基金Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China,No.81970529the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province,No.20230508074RC and No.YDZJ202401218ZYTS.
文摘In this editorial,we comment on the article by Mu et al,published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology.We pay special attention to the immune tolerance mechanism caused by hepatitis B virus(HBV)infection,the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),and the role of antiviral therapy in treating HCC related to HBV infection.HBV infection leads to systemic innate immune tolerance by directly inhibiting pattern recognition receptor recognition and antiviral signaling pathways,as well as by inhibiting the immune functions of macrophages,natural killer cells and dendritic cells.In addition,HBV leads to an immunosuppressive cascade by expressing inhibitory molecules to induce exhaustion of HBV-specific cluster of differentiation 8+T cells,ultimately leading to long-term viral infection.The loss of immune cell function caused by HBV infection ultimately leads to HCC.Long-term antiviral therapy can improve the prognosis of patients with HCC and prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis.
基金supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(WK2150110022)Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation(2208085QF189)National Natural Science Foundation of China(62202440).
文摘An in-memory storage system provides submillisecond latency and improves the concurrency of user applications by caching data into memory from external storage.Fault tolerance of in-memory storage systems is essential,as the loss of cached data requires access to data from external storage,which evidently increases the response latency.Typically,replication and erasure code(EC)are two fault-tolerant schemes that pose different trade-offs between access performance and storage usage.To help make the best performance and space trade-off,we design ElasticMem,a hybrid fault-tolerant distributed in-memory storage system that supports elastic redundancy transition to dynamically change the fault-tolerant scheme.ElasticMem exploits a novel EC-oriented replication(EOR)that carefully designs the data placement of replication according to the future data layout of EC to enhance the I/O efficiency of redundancy transition.ElasticMem solves the consistency problem caused by concurrent data accesses via a lightweight table-based scheme combined with data bypassing.It detects correlated read and write requests and serves subsequent read requests with local data.We implement a prototype that realizes ElasticMem based on Memcached.Experiments show that ElasticMem remarkably reduces the time of redundancy transition,the overall latency of correlated concurrent data accesses,and the latency of single data access among them.
文摘OBJECTIVE To explore hypoglycemic effect of 95%ethanol fraction of Nitraria roborowskii Kom(NRK-C)and its possible mechanism evaluated in the type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)mice.METHODS The body weight,organ indices,blood glucose levels,serum biochemical indexes,as well as HE/PAS histopathological section were all analyzed to assess the hypoglycemic effect of NRK-C in T2DM mice induced by a high-fat diet(HFD)combined with six intraperitoneal injections of 35 mg·kg^(-1)of streptozotocin(STZ).The Western blotting and immunofluorescence were further applied to determine the regulatory effect of NRK-C on key signaling proteins.RESULTS The fasting blood glucose levels were significantly reduced after 7 weeks of administration of NRK-C.In addition,NRK-C could also significantly improve glucose tolerance,hepatic glycogen levels,and lipid levels(total cholesterol,triglyceride,low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein),and significantly reduced insulin resistance of diabetic mice,which played an important role in the antidiabetic effects.Further mechanism research demonstrated that phosphorylated PI3K expression was up-regulated and p-GSK3βexpression was up-regulated after NRK-C intervention,indicating that NRK-C might exert a potential antidiabetic effect by modulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.CONCLUSION All these results suggested that NRK-C might improve T2DM and had the potential to be used as an adjunctive therapy.
基金funded by the President’s Fund of Tarim University,China(TDZKBS202408 and TDZKCX202414)the Shihezi University High-Level Talent Project,China(RCZK202339)+1 种基金the Key Technology R&D Fund for Key Fields in the Production and Construction Corps,China(2024AB007)the Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(GJ05040103)。
文摘Highlights●Salinity commonly hindered wheat germination,and using herb-derived carbon dots was an emerging approach to enhancing plant salt tolerance in agricultural production.●Wolfberry-driven carbon dots(Wo-CDs)were synthesized and applied as a nano-primer to enhance wheat salt tolerance by maintaining reactive oxygen species levels through early oxidative stress conditioning.
基金the University Grants Commission(UGC),Government of India for the UGC-Non-NET Fellowship during the PhD degree program(Grant No.R/Dev/IX-Sch/BHU-Res-Sch/2022-23/51137).
文摘Flooding in rice fields,especially in coastal regions and low-lying river basins,causes significant devastation to crops.Rice is highly susceptible to prolonged flooding,with a drastic decline in yields if inundation persists for more than 7 d,especially during the reproductive stage.Although the SUB1 QTL,which confers tolerance to complete submergence during the vegetative stage,has been incorporated into breeding programs,the development of alternative sources is crucial.These alternatives would broaden the genetic base,mitigate the influence of the genomic background,and extend the efficacy of SUB1 QTL to withstand longer submergence periods(up to approximately 21 d).Contemporary breeding strategies predominantly target submergence stress at the vegetative stage.However,stagnant flooding(partial submergence of vegetative parts)during the reproductive phase inflicts severe damage on the rice crop,leading to reduced yields,heightened susceptibility to pests and diseases,lodging,and inferior grain quality.The ability to tolerate stagnant flooding can be ascribed to several adaptive traits:accelerated aerenchyma formation,efficient underwater photosynthesis,reduced radial oxygen loss in submerged tissues,reinforced culms,enhanced reactive oxygen species scavenging within cells,dehydration tolerance post-flooding,and resistance to pests and diseases.A thorough investigation of the genetics underlying these traits,coupled with the integration of key alleles into elite genetic backgrounds,can significantly enhance food and income security in flood-prone rice-growing regions,particularly in coastal high-rainfall areas and low-lying river basins.This review aims to delineate an innovative breeding strategy that employs genomic,phenomic,and traditional breeding methodologies to develop rice varieties resilient to various dimensions of flooding stress at both the vegetative and reproductive stages.
基金Direction Generale de la Recherche Scientifique et du Developpement Technologique(DGRSDT)Algeria,and the Researchers Supporting Project No.(RSP2025R390),King Saud University,Riyadh,Saudi Arabia.
文摘Salinity stress is a major challenge for global agriculture,particularly in arid and semi-arid regions,limiting plant productivity due to water and soil salinity.These conditions particularly affect countries along the southern Mediterranean rim,including Algeria,which primarily focuses on pastoral and forage practices.This study investigates salinity tolerance and ecotypic variability in Vicia narbonensis L.,a fodder legume species recognized for its potential to reclaim marginal soils.Morphological,physiological,and biochemical responses were assessed in three ecotypes(eco2,eco9,and eco10)exposed to different salinity levels(low,moderate,and severe).The study was conducted using a completely randomized block design with three blocks per ecotype per dose.The results from the two-way analysis of variance demonstrate significant effects across nearly all attributes studied,revealing distinct ecotypic responses.These findings underscore variations in growth parameters,osmotic regulation mechanisms,and biochemical adjustments.The substantial diversity observed among these ecotypes in their response to salinity provides valuable insights for breeders addressing both agronomic and ecological challenges.Multivariate analyses,including Principal Component Analysis(PCA),revealed key variables distinguishing between ecotypes under salinity stress.Moreover,Classification based on Salinity Tolerance Indices(STI)further differentiated ecotypic performance with more precision,and this is because of the combination of the different parameters studied.These results open up new prospects for the development of strategies to improve the salinity tolerance of forage legumes.
文摘Morpho-physiological evaluation of a crop’s genetic resources is necessary to find possible genotypes to include in breeding initiatives.The objective of this study was to identify heat-tolerant wheat genotypes among 36 mutant lines using morpho-physiological indices.Seedlings of mutant lines and check varieties were grown under both normal(control)and heat-stress conditions in growth chambers.Data were recorded on root-shoot parameters(length,fresh weight,dry weight,and ratio),relative water content(RWC),stability of cell membrane,pigment content,and chlorophyll fluorescence.Two-way analysis of variance showed significant(p<0.01,p<0.001)variation among 15 morpho-physiological features in both growing conditions.Correlation studies showed that pigment-specific indices(total chl,chl a,chl b,carotenoid,Fv/Fm—chlorophyll fluorescence)had significant positive correlations with rootshoot fresh weight(RFW,SFW)and root-shoot dry weight(RDW,SDW),and negative association with relative water content,stability of cell membrane at both conditions.Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three primary clusters where cluster III(18 genotypes)showed minimal changes in studied characters than cluster I(11 genotypes)and cluster II(13 genotypes).Results obtained from this study revealed that the identified heat-sensitive(30-2 SSH)and heat-tolerant genotypes(27-2(4),29-2(2),and 30-2 SSH)of wheat might provide useful breeding materials for enhancing wheat yield even more in this period of uncertain climate change.
文摘Tolerance,coexistence,exchanges and mutual learning among different civilisations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity's modernisation process when the future of all countries are closely connected.
基金supported by the Major Innovation Project of Shandong Province, China (2022CXGC010605)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172518 and 32002023)+1 种基金the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFD2301103)the Key R&D Projects in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China (2022BBF02014)。
文摘Evaluating plant stress tolerance and screening key regulatory genes under the combined stresses of high temperature and drought are important for studying plant stress tolerance mechanisms. In this study, the drought tolerance of five grape varieties was evaluated under high-temperature conditions to screen key genes for further exploration of resistance mechanisms. By comparing and analysing the morphological characteristics and physiological indicators associated with the response of grapevines to drought stress and integrating them with the membership function to assess the strength of their drought tolerance, the order of drought tolerance was found to be as follows: 420A>110R>Cabernet Sauvignon(CS)>Fercal>188-08. To further analyse the mechanism of differences in drought tolerance, transcriptomic sequencing was performed on the drought-tolerant cultivar 420A, the drought-sensitive cultivar 188-08 and the control cultivar CS. The functional analysis of differential metabolic pathways indicated that the differentially expressed genes were enriched mainly in biological process category, that 420A had higher antioxidant activity. Furthermore, differentially expressed transcription factors were analyzed in five grape varieties. Genes like Vv AGL15, Vv LBD41, and Vv MYB86 showed close associations with drought tolerance,indicating their potential role in regulating drought tolerance and research significance.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.32171947 and No.31671699)which supported this research.
文摘Saline-alkali soil severely reduces the productivity of crops,including maize(Zea mays).Although several genes associated with saline-alkali tolerance have been identified in maize,the underlying regulatory mechanism remains elusive.Here,we report a direct link between colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF)and saline-alkali tolerance in maize.We identify s75,a natural maize mutant that cannot survive under moderate saline-alkali soil conditions or establish AM symbioses.The saline-alkali hypersensitive phenotype of s75 is caused by a 1340-bp deletion in Zm00001d033915,designated as ZmL75.This gene encodes a glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase localized in the endoplasmic reticulum,and is responsible for AMF colonization.ZmL75 expression levels in roots correspond with the root length colonization(RLC)rate during early vegetative development.Notably,the s75 mutant line shows a complete loss of AMF colonization,along with alterations in the diversity and structure of its root fungal microbiota.Conversely,overexpression of ZmL75 increases the RLC rate and enhances tolerance to saline-alkali soil conditions.These results suggest that ZmL75 is required for symbiosis with AMF,which directly improves saline-alkali tolerance.Our findings provide insights into maize-AMF interactions and offer a potential strategy for maize improvement.
