EVIDENCE FOR INVOLVEMENT OF PHYTOCHROME REGULATION IN MALE STERILITY OF A MUTANT OF Oryza sativa L.

Abstract— A rice mutant ( Oryza sativa L. Nongken 58S) "Hubei photoperiod-sensitive genie male-sterile rice" ( ms mutant) has been found to be male sterile under long day cycles (LD) and fertile in short day cycles (SD). After formation of the secondary rachis-branch primodia the mutant plants under SD were interrupted in the middle of the long night phase (night break) for 10 days with 5 min pulses of red light (R) or far-red light (FR). Rates of normal pollen and seed setting of the mutant treated by R or R → FR → R declined significantly, while the rates after FR or R → FR treatments were similar to those under SD alone. The result of these induction reversion experiments is consistent with the operational criteria for the involvement of photochrome. Wild-type rice ( O. sativa L. Nongken 58) under the same treatment showed no change in fertility. Experiments on the effect of different dark intervals (20 s to 15 min) between R and FR on male sterility of the ms mutant showed that the longer the dark interval, the greater the escape of R induction from FR reversibility. Treatment with SD or LD after formation of pollen mother cells had no influence on fertility of the ms mutant plants treated previously with R or FR night breaks.     

二元光学反／衍混合Schmidt望远系统光学设计

针对空间光学系统轻型的特点，采用衍射光学元件取代Ｓｃｈｍｉｄｔ校正板来校正系统像差，设计了一个二元光学反／衍混合Ｓｃｈｍｉｄｔ望远系统。光学系统的通光孔径为＝２００ｍｍ，相对孔径Ｆ／＃＝１．９，波长λ＝４．３μｍ，视场２ω＝１０°。光学设计采用ＯＳＬＯｓｉｘ软件。光学设计结果：空间频率ν≤６０ｃｙｃｌｅｓ／ｍｍ时，调制传递函数ＭＴＦ≥０．４。     

Numerical simulation: The dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete plates under normal impact

This investigation deals with the use of the finite element method on the reinforced concrete structural dynamic response and failure behavior when subjected to the projectile impacts of different velocities, using the test conducted in [S.J. Hanchak, M.J. Forrestal, E.R. Young, J.Q. Ehrgott, Perforation of concrete slabs with 48 MPa (7 ksi) and 140 MPa (20 ksi) unconfined compressive strengths, Int. J. Impact Eng. 12 (1992) 1–7]. The Johnson–Holmquist concrete material constitutive law model is employed to simulate the large strains, high strain states and high pressures to which the concrete is subjected. The projectile impact velocity ranges from 381 m/s to 1058 m/s. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the Johnson–Holmquist concrete material constitutive model can describe the different failure modes without any predefined defects in the element mesh, and normally obtain good agreement between the numerical simulations and test results.     

Shaping the Light: The Key Factors Affecting the Photophysical Properties of Fluorescent Polymer Nanostructures

To manipulate the functions of nanomaterials more precisely for diverse applications, the controllability and critical influencing factors of their properties must be thoroughly investigated. In this work, the macroscopic and microscopic effects are studied on the photophysical properties of various pyrene‐ended poly(styrene‐block‐methyl methacrylate) nanostructures. Fluorescent polymer nanospheres, nanorods, and nanotubes are prepared by different template‐based methods using anodic aluminum oxide membranes. Chain arrangements and conformations are determined as the key factors affecting the photophysical properties of the fluorescent polymer nanostructures. This work not only gives a deeper understanding of the effects on the photophysical properties of polymer nanomaterials influenced by morphologies, chain arrangements, and chain conformations, but also provides a reference for designing proper fluorescent nanostructures for specific applications.

     

TMDIM: an improved algorithm for the structure prediction of transmembrane domains of bitopic dimers

\(\alpha\)-Helical transmembrane proteins are the most important drug targets in rational drug development. However, solving the experimental structures of these proteins remains difficult, therefore computational methods to accurately and efficiently predict the structures are in great demand. We present an improved structure prediction method TMDIM based on Park et al. (Proteins 57:577–585, 2004) for predicting bitopic transmembrane protein dimers. Three major algorithmic improvements are introduction of the packing type classification, the multiple-condition decoy filtering, and the cluster-based candidate selection. In a test of predicting nine known bitopic dimers, approximately 78% of our predictions achieved a successful fit (RMSD <2.0 Å) and 78% of the cases are better predicted than the two other methods compared. Our method provides an alternative for modeling TM bitopic dimers of unknown structures for further computational studies. TMDIM is freely available on the web at https://cbbio.cis.umac.mo/TMDIM. Website is implemented in PHP, MySQL and Apache, with all major browsers supported.     

Distortion theorems for normalized biholomorphic quasi-convex mappings

In this paper, we will use the Schwarz lemma at the boundary to character the distortion theorems of determinant at the extreme points and distortion theorems of matrix on the complex tangent space at the extreme points for normalized locally biholomorphic quasi-convex mappings in the unit ball B ⁿ respectively.     

Phragmen-Lindelöf alternative results for the initial boundary problem of stokes equation

In this paper we prove Phragmén-Lindelöf type alternative for the initial boundary problem of Stokes equation, i. e. we show that the energy expression for the solution of the initial boundary problem must either grow exponentially or decay exponentially with axial distance from the end of a semi-infinite strip. For the case of decay, we also establish the pointwise estimate for the maximum module of the Stokes flow and present a method for obtaining explicit bounds for the total energy.Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Zhongshan University Science Foundation     

Synthesis and microwave dielectric properties of Ca<Subscript>0.6</Subscript>La<Subscript>0.267</Subscript>TiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> nanocrystalline powders by sol–gel method

Ca_0.6La_0.267TiO₃ nanocrystalline powders were successfully synthesized by the sol–gel method using PEG1000 as a dispersant in this study. The sinterability of the powders and the microwave dielectric properties of the ceramics were also investigated. The XRD diffraction result showed that pure Ca_0.6La_0.267TiO₃ powder with orthorhombic perovskite structure could be synthesized at 600 °C for 2 h without any detectable intermediate phase. The average grain size of the as-synthesized powder was as low as 35 nm. Compared with Ca_0.6La_0.267TiO₃ ceramics fabricated by conventional solid-state process, the bulk materials prepared by sintering as-prepared nanopowders performed better in densification and microwave dielectric properties. The ceramics sintered at 1,300 °C exhibited a higher relative density of 98.3% combined with a dielectric constant (ε _r ) of 120.3, a quality factor (Q × f) of 23,550 GHz and a temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ _f ) of +220.7 ppm/°C, respectively.     

Induction of a High-Yield Lovastatin Mutant of Aspergillus terreus by 12C6+ Heavy-Ion Beam Irradiation and the Influence of Culture Conditions on Lovastatin Production Under Submerged Fermentation

Heavy-ion beams, possessing a wide mutation spectrum and increased mutation frequency, have been used effectively as a breeding method. In this study, the heavy-ion beams generated by the Heavy-Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou were used to mutagenize Aspergillus terreus CA99 for screening high-yield lovastatin strains. Furthermore, the main growth conditions as well as the influences of carbon and nitrogen sources on the growth and the lovastatin production of the mutant and the original strains were investigated comparatively. The spores of A. terreus CA99 were irradiated by 15, 20, 25, and 30 Gy of 80 MeV/u (12)C(6+) heavy-ion beams. Based on the lovastatin contents in the fermentation broth, a strain designated as A. terreus Z15-7 has been selected from the clone irradiated by the heavy-ion beam. When compared with the original strain, the content of lovastatin in the fermentation broth of A. terreus Z15-7 increased 4-fold. Moreover, A. terreus Z15-7 efficiently used the carbon and nitrogen sources for the growth and production of lovastatin when compared to the original strain. The maximum yield of lovastatin, 916.7 μg/ml, was obtained as A. terreus Z15-7 was submerged cultured in the chemically defined medium supplemented with 3% glycerol as a carbon source, 1% corn meal as an organic nitrogen source, and 0.2% sodium nitrate as an inorganic nitrogen source at 30 °C in the shake flask. The result shows that heavy-ion beam irradiation is an effective method for the mutation breeding of lovastatin production of A. terreus.