PVP-assisted Sn-Ti microspheres for the efficient B–V oxidation of cyclohexanone

Journal of Porous Materials - New Sn-Ti microspheres were first successfully synthesized by a PVP-assisted sol-gel method in this paper, and their performance in the B–V oxidation of...     

Facile synthesis of nitrogen and oxygen co-doped hierarchical porous carbon materials for high performance super capacitors

Journal of Porous Materials - Nitrogen and oxygen co-doped hierarchical porous carbons (NOPCs) is prepared by the pyrolysis of polyethylene glycol-200 (PEG) and triazine carbon forming agent (CFA)...     

Ovule Development and in Planta Transformation of Paphiopedilum Maudiae by Agrobacterium-Mediated Ovary-Injection

In this paper, the development of the Paphiopedilum Maudiae embryo sac at different developmental stages after pollination was assessed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The mature seeds of P. Maudiae consisted of an exopleura and a spherical embryo, but without an endosperm, while the inner integument cells were absorbed by the developing embryo. The P. Maudiae embryo sac exhibited an Allium type of development. The time taken for the embryo to develop to a mature sac was 45-50 days after pollination (DAP) and most mature embryo sacs had completed fertilization and formed zygotes by about 50–54 DAP. In planta transformation was achieved by injection of the ovaries by Agrobacterium, resulting in 38 protocorms or seedlings after several rounds of hygromycin selection, corresponding to 2, 7, 5, 1, 3, 4, 9, and 7 plantlets from Agrobacterium-mediated ovary-injection at 30, 35, 42, 43, 45, 48, 50, and 53 DAP, respectively. Transformation efficiency was highest at 50 DAP (2.54%), followed by 2.48% at 53 DAP and 2.45% at 48 DAP. Four randomly selected hygromycin-resistant plants were GUS-positive after PCR analysis. Semi-quantitative PCR and quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed the expression of the hpt gene in the leaves of eight hygromycin-resistant seedlings following Agrobacterium-mediated ovary-injection at 30, 35, 42, 43, 45, 48, 50, and 53 DAP, while hpt expression was not detected in the control. The best time to inject P. Maudiae ovaries in planta with Agrobacterium is 48-53 DAP, which corresponds to the period of fertilization. This protocol represents the first genetic transformation protocol for any Paphiopedilum species and will allow for expanded molecular breeding programs to introduce useful and interesting genes that can expand its ornamental and horticulturally important characteristics.     

Adsorption characteristics of hexadecyl ammonium with different numbers of carbon chains in montmorillonite and the structure of the prepared composites

Journal of Porous Materials - The dynamics and thermodynamics of adsorption of hexadecyl ammonium with different numbers of carbon chains in montmorillonite (Mt) with different layer charge density...     

Cytological Observations and Bulked-Segregant Analysis Coupled Global Genome Sequencing Reveal Two Genes Associated with Pollen Fertility in Tetraploid Rice

Neo-tetraploid rice with high fertility is a useful germplasm for polyploid rice breeding, which was developed from the crossing of different autotetraploid rice lines. However, little information is available on the molecular mechanism underlying the fertility of neo-tetraploid rice. Here, two contrasting populations of tetraploid rice, including one with high fertility (hereafter referred to as JG) and another with low fertility (hereafter referred to as JD), were generated by crossing Huaduo 3 (H3), a high fertility neo-tetraploid rice that was developed by crossing Jackson-4x with 96025-4x, and Huajingxian74-4x (T452), a low fertility autotetraploid rice parent. Cytological, global genome sequencing-based bulked-segregant (BSA-seq) and CRISPR/Cas9 technology were employed to study the genes associated with pollen fertility in neo-tetraploid rice. The embryo sacs of JG and JD lines were normal; however, pollen fertility was low in JD, which led to scarce fertilization and low seed setting. Cytological observations displayed low pollen fertility (25.1%) and approximately 31.3 and 27.2% chromosome lagging at metaphase I and II, and 28.8 and 24.8% chromosome straggling at anaphase I and II in JD, respectively. BSA-seq of F_2–3 generations and RNA-seq of F₄ generation detected a common fragment, i.e., 18,915,234–19,500,000, at chromosome 7, which was comprised of 78 genes associated with fertility. Among 78 genes, 9 genes had been known to be involved in meiosis and pollen development. Two mutants ny1 (LOC_Os07g32406) and ny2 (LOC_Os07g32040) were generated by CRISPR/Cas9 knockout in neo-tetraploid rice, and which exhibited low pollen fertility and abnormal chromosome behavior. Our study revealed that two unknown genes, LOC_Os07g32406 (NY1) and LOC_Os07g32040 (NY2) play an important role in pollen development of neo-tetraploid rice and provides a new perspective about the genetic mechanisms of fertility in polyploid rice.     

Permissive Modulation of Sphingosine-1-Phosphate-Enhanced Intracellular Calcium on BKCa Channel of Chromaffin Cells

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), is a signaling sphingolipid which acts as a bioactive lipid mediator. We assessed whether S1P had multiplex effects in regulating the large-conductance Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channel (BK_Ca) in catecholamine-secreting chromaffin cells. Using multiple patch-clamp modes, Ca²⁺ imaging, and computational modeling, we evaluated the effects of S1P on the Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ currents (I_K(Ca)) in bovine adrenal chromaffin cells and in a pheochromocytoma cell line (PC12). In outside-out patches, the open probability of BK_Ca channel was reduced with a mean-closed time increment, but without a conductance change in response to a low-concentration S1P (1 µM). The intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration (Ca_i) was elevated in response to a high-dose (10 µM) but not low-dose of S1P. The single-channel activity of BK_Ca was also enhanced by S1P (10 µM) in the cell-attached recording of chromaffin cells. In the whole-cell voltage-clamp, a low-dose S1P (1 µM) suppressed I_K(Ca), whereas a high-dose S1P (10 µM) produced a biphasic response in the amplitude of I_K(Ca), i.e., an initial decrease followed by a sustained increase. The S1P-induced I_K(Ca) enhancement was abolished by BAPTA. Current-clamp studies showed that S1P (1 µM) increased the action potential (AP) firing. Simulation data revealed that the decreased BK_Ca conductance leads to increased AP firings in a modeling chromaffin cell. Over a similar dosage range, S1P (1 µM) inhibited I_K(Ca) and the permissive role of S1P on the BK_Ca activity was also effectively observed in the PC12 cell system. The S1P-mediated I_K(Ca) stimulation may result from the elevated Ca_i, whereas the inhibition of BK_Ca activity by S1P appears to be direct. By the differentiated tailoring BK_Ca channel function, S1P can modulate stimulus-secretion coupling in chromaffin cells.     

Damping forced oscillations in power system via interline power flow controller with additional repetitive control

With the continuous expansion of power systems and the application of power electronic equipment, forced oscillation has become one of the key problems in terms of system safety and stability. In this paper, an interline power flow controller (IPFC) is used as a power suppression carrier and its mechanism is analyzed using the linearized state-space method to improve the system damping ratio. It is shown that although the IPFC can suppress forced oscillation with well-designed parameters, its capability of improving the system damping ratio is limited. Thus, combined with the repetitive control method, an additional repetitive controller (ARC) is proposed to further dampen the forced power oscillation. The ARC control scheme is characterized by outstanding tracking performance to a system steady reference value, and the main IPFC controller with the ARC can provide higher damping, and further reduce the amplitude of oscillations to zero compared with a supplementary damping controller (SDC). Simulation results show that the IPFC with an ARC can not only greatly reduce the oscillation amplitude, but also actively output the compensation power according to the reference value of the ARC tracking system.     

Effective DOA Estimation Under Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Based on Multi-Source Information Meta Fusion

Efficiently performing high-resolution direction of arrival (DOA) estimation under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions has always been a challenge task in the literatures. Obvi-ously, in order to address this problem, the key is how to mine or reveal as much DOA related in-formation as possible from the degraded array outputs. However, it is certain that there is no per-fect solution for low SNR DOA estimation designed in the way of winner-takes-all. Therefore, this paper proposes to explore in depth the complementary DOA related information that exists in spa-tial spectrums acquired by different basic DOA estimators. Specifically, these basic spatial spec-trums are employed as the input of multi-source information fusion model. And the multi-source in-formation fusion model is composed of three heterogeneous meta learning machines, namely neural networks (NN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forests (RF). The final meta-spec-trum can be obtained by performing a final decision-making method. Experimental results illus-trate that the proposed information fusion based DOA estimation method can really make full use of the complementary information in the spatial spectrums obtained by different basic DOA estim-ators. Even under low SNR conditions, promising DOA estimation performance can be achieved.     

含冰蓄冷空调的CCHP微电网优化调度

冷热电联供(CCHP)型微电网作为综合能源系统的基本物理构成,可实现可再生能源的消纳和多能互补,是实现能源可持续发展和改善生态环境的重要手段。考虑经济性和环保性,以综合运行成本最小为目标,搭建了含冰蓄冷空调的CCHP型微电网优化调度模型采用改进粒子群算法进行求解,得到不同调度方式下系统的产能方案。通过算例分析对比了运行策略对于优化结果的影响,并验证了优化模型的有效性。