ALBERT

Description: Japanese flounder ( Paralichthys olivaceus ) is one of the economic important fish in China. Sexual dimorphism, especially the different growth rates and body sizes between two sexes, makes this fish a good model to investigate mechanisms responsible for such dimorphism for both fundamental questions in evolution and applied topics in aquaculture. However, the lack of "omics" data has hindered the process. The recent advent of RNA-sequencing technology provides a robust tool to further study characteristics of genomes of nonmodel species. Here, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing for a double haploid Japanese flounder individual using Illumina sequencing. A single lane of paired-end sequencing produced more than 27 million reads. These reads were assembled into 107,318 nonredundant transcripts, half of which (51,563; 48.1%) were annotated by blastx to public protein database. A total of 1051 genes that had potential alternative splicings were detected by Chrysalis implemented in Trinity software. Four of 10 randomly picked genes were verified truly containing alternative splicing by cloning and Sanger sequencing. Notably, using a doubled haploid Japanese flounder individual allow us to analyze gene duplicates. In total, 3940 "single-nucleotide polymorphisms" were detected form 1859 genes, which may have happened gene duplicates. This study lays the foundation for structural and functional genomics studies in Japanese flounder.

Description: The great amount of solid particles contained in a weighting agent is a major cause of the problems in both rheology properties and damage control mechanism of an oil-based drilling fluid (OBM). Therefore, a proper type of weighting agent can be a solution for the application of OBM. In this study, three weighting agents that have been commonly used with OBM, namely, standard barite, submicron barite and superfine manganese ore, are studied. Rheological properties of OBM and the degree of formation damage are assessed with regard to the three weighting agents. The agents are also studied in aspects of particle size, micromorphology, filtration loss and wall-building property, acid dissolution efficiency of mud cake, lubricity and sedimentation stability to analyse the effects of the agents on rheological properties and the degree of damage as well as to figure out the mechanism of rheology control and damage control. For the OBM, there is a mutual effect between rheological stability and the degree of damage. In consideration of the agents' properties, we can enhance the rheological stability of the OBM and control the degree of formation damage by properly selecting particle size, using acid-soluble materials and forming the mud cake with ultra-low permeability that can easily be cleared away.

Description: A series of corrosion problems caused by high-temperature, high-pressure and high-acid gas environments has been an issue in oil and gas production for a long time. During the development of a high-acid gas field, the petroleum pipe is subjected to many aspects of corrosion, and the corrosion mechanism is complicated by the condition of the coexistence of H 2 S/CO 2 . Based on the study of the corrosion problem associated with the formate packer fluid in Southwest China, three kinds of steels were studied for corrosion prevention in the alloy G3/N80 steel/TP110SS steel. The study shows that the corrosion rate of the formate packer fluid is low, but corrosion is severe in environments characterized by high temperatures, high pressures and high-acid gas contents. Based on the consideration of cost and the difficulty of realization, an anti-corrosion system was constructed based on the existing packer fluid, mainly through the introduction of a variety of anti-corrosion additives. Through the selection of various additives and corrosion experiments, a corrosion protection system of formate packer fluid was developed. Corrosion tests show that the corrosion rate of the system must be less than 0.076 mm yr –1 to achieve the purpose of corrosion protection. The formate packer fluid with corrosion protection can meet the needs of the current application.

Description: The internode length above the uppermost ear (ILAU) is an important influencing factor for canopy architecture in maize. Analyzing the genetic characteristics of internode length is critical for improving plant population structure and increasing photosynthetic efficiency. However, the genetic control of ILAU has not been determined. In this study, quantitative trait loci (QTL) for internode length at five positions above the uppermost ear were identified using four sets of recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations in three environments. Genetic maps and initial QTL were integrated using meta-analyses across the four populations. Seventy QTL were identified: 16 in population 1; 14 in population 2; 25 in population 3; and 15 in population 4. Individual effects ranged from 5.36% to 26.85% of phenotypic variation, with 27 QTL 〉10%. In addition, the following common QTL were identified across two populations: one common QTL for the internode length of all five positions; one common QTL for the internode length of three positions; and one common QTL for the internode length of one position. In addition, four common QTL for the internode length of four positions were identified in one population. The results indicated that the ILAU at different positions above the uppermost ear could be affected by one or several of the same QTL. The traits may also be regulated by many different QTL. Of the 70 initial QTL, 46 were integrated in 14 meta-QTL (mQTLs) by meta-analysis, and 17 of the 27 initial QTL with R 2  〉10% were integrated in 7 mQTLs. Four of the key mQTLs (mQTL2-2, mQTL3-2, mQTL5-1, mQTL5-2, and mQTL9) in which the initial QTL displayed R 2 〉10% included four to 11 initial QTL for an internode length of four to five positions from one or two populations. These results may provide useful information for marker-assisted selection to improve canopy architecture.

Description: Recent works revealed that the energy required to control a complex network depends on the number of driving signals and the energy distribution follows an algebraic scaling law. If one implements control using a small number of drivers, e.g. as determined by the structural controllability theory, there is a high probability that the energy will diverge. We develop a physical theory to explain the scaling behaviour through identification of the fundamental structural elements, the longest control chains (LCCs), that dominate the control energy. Based on the LCCs, we articulate a strategy to drastically reduce the control energy (e.g. in a large number of real-world networks). Owing to their structural nature, the LCCs may shed light on energy issues associated with control of nonlinear dynamical networks.

Description: OsWUS has recently been shown to be a transcription factor gene critical for tiller development and fertility in rice. The OsWUS protein consists of three conserved structural domains, but their biological functions are still unclear. We discovered a new rice mutant resulting from tissue culture, which hardly produced tillers and exhibited complete female sterility. The male and female floral organs of the mutant were morphologically indistinguishable from those of the wild type. We named the mutant srt1 for completely s terile and r educed t illering 1. Map-based cloning revealed that the mutant phenotypes were caused by a mutation in OsWUS . Compared with the two previously reported null allelic mutants of OsWUS ( tab1-1 and moc3-1 ), which could produce partial N-terminal peptides of OsWUS, the srt1 protein contained a deletion of only seven amino acids within the conserved homeobox domain of OsWUS. However, the mutant phenotypes (monoculm and female sterility) displayed in srt1 were as typical and severe as those in tab1-1 and moc3-1 . This indicates that the homeobox domain of SRT1 is essential for the regulation of tillering and sterility in rice. In addition, srt1 showed an opposite effect on panicle development to that of the two null allelic mutants, implying that the srt1 protein might still have partial or even new functions on panicle development. The results of this study suggest that the homeobox domain is pivotal for OsWUS function.

Description: The fat-1 gene from Caenorhabditis elegans encodes a fatty acid desaturase which was widely studied due to its beneficial function of converting n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6PUFAs) to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3PUFAs). To date, many fat-1 transgenic animals have been generated to study disease pathogenesis or improve meat quality. However, all of them were generated using a random integration method with variable transgene expression levels and the introduction of selectable marker genes often raise biosafety concern. To this end, we aimed to generate marker-free fat-1 transgenic pigs in a site-specific manner. The Rosa26 locus, first found in mouse embryonic stem cells, has become one of the most common sites for inserting transgenes due to its safe and ubiquitous expression. In our study, the fat-1 gene was inserted into porcine Rosa 26 (pRosa26) locus via Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9 (Cas9) system. The Southern blot analysis of our knock-in pigs indicated a single copy of the fat-1 gene at the pRosa26 locus. Furthermore, this single-copy fat-1 gene supported satisfactory expression in a variety of tissues in F1 generation pigs. Importantly, the gas chromatography analysis indicated that these fat-1 knock-in pigs exhibited a significant increase in the level of n-3PUFAs, leading to an obvious decrease in the n-6PUFAs/n-3PUFAs ratio from 9.36 to 2.12 (*** P 〈 0.0001). Altogether, our fat-1 knock-in pigs hold great promise for improving the nutritional value of pork and serving as an animal model to investigate therapeutic effects of n-3PUFAs on various diseases.

Description: The combustion of multi-hole pyrophoric activated metal is solid combustion and the combustion mechanism is quite complex, which is a difficult problem to be solved. Once the pyrophoric activated metal is exposed to air, the oxygen diffuses to the interior of the activated metal within plenty of holes and reacts with it, which enlarges the contact area with oxygen. Consequently, the whole combustion is vigorous and the temperature rises rapidly. To study the combustion mechanism of the chaff, the surface heat balance equation is established in this work by taking Mg as the activated metal. To solve this equation, the chaff adiabatic wall temperature distribution is computed by computational fluid dynamics in the presence of high-speed airflow. Then, the chaff surface temperature distribution is obtained by solving the heat balance equations. Finally, numerical and experimental results obtained via an infrared thermal imager are compared to demonstrate the effectiveness of the established equation.

Description: We recently developed a polyethylenimine (PEI) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) dual-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (GO) (PEG–nrGO–PEI, RGPP) for high-efficient gene delivery in HepG2 and Hela cell lines. To evaluate the feasibility and applicability of RGPP as a gene delivery carrier, we here assessed the transfection efficiency of RGPP on gene plasmids and siRNA in 11 different cell lines. Commercial polyalkyleneimine cation transfection reagent (TR) was used as comparison. In HepG2 cells, RGPP exhibited much stronger delivery ability for siRNA and large size plasmids than TR. For green fluorescent protein (GFP) plasmid, RGPP showed about 47.1% of transfection efficiency in primary rabbit articular chondrocytes, and about 27% of transfection efficiency in both SH-SY5Y and A549 cell lines. RGPP exhibited about 37.2% of GFP plasmid transfection efficiency in EMT6 cells and about 26.0% of GFP plasmid transfection efficiency in LO2 cells, but induced about 33% of cytotoxicity in both cell lines. In 4T1 and H9C2 cell lines, RGPP had less than 10% of GFP plasmid transfection efficiency. Collectively, RGPP is a potential nano-carrier for high-efficiency gene delivery, and needs to be further optimized for different cell lines.

Description: In this study, photocatalytic experiments of 20 mg l –1 sulfamethazine (SMN) in aqueous solution containing ZnO with different morphologies, tetra-needle-like ZnO (T-ZnO), flower-like ZnO (F-ZnO) and nanoparticles ZnO (P-ZnO), were performed. The results indicated that photocatalytic degradation of SMN was effective and followed the pseudo-first-order reaction, but the degree of SMN mineralization showed obvious differences using ZnO with different shapes. After 12 h irradiation, 86%, 71% and 50% of the initial total organic carbon was eliminated in SMN suspension containing T-ZnO, F-ZnO and P-ZnO, respectively. The release ratio of sulfur was close to 100% in the presence of T-ZnO, but reached to 86% and 67% in the presence of F-ZnO and P-ZnO, respectively. The release ratio of nitrogen was about 76%, 63% and 40% using T-ZnO, F-ZnO and P-ZnO as photocatalyst, respectively. The morphology of ZnO played an important role in determining its catalytic activity. Seven intermediates were observed and identified in the UV/T-ZnO reaction system by LC-MS/MS analysis, and a possible degradation pathway was proposed.