Identification of genes related to floral organ development in pak choi by expression profiling.

Pak choi is a highly nutritious vegetable that is widely grown in China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world. Because it reproduces by seed, it is very important to understand the mechanism of floral organ development. Therefore, using the Chinese cabbage genome as a reference, this study analyzed the expression profiles of shoot apex genes at flower bud differentiation stages 1 and 5, in order to identify genes related to floral organ development. The results showed that the proportion of mapped genes was high, with 84.25 and 83.80% of clean reads from the two sample saligned to the reference genome, respectively. A total of 525 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, 224 of which were upregulated and 301 were downregulated. The expression levels of genes homologous to Chinese cabbage flowering genes were also analyzed at stages 1 and 5; the expression levels of Bra012997 (ap1), Bra000393 (SOC1), and Bra004928 (SOC1) were significantly upregulated at stage 5, suggesting that these three genes positively regulate floral development in pak choi. DEGs involved in floral organ development were analyzed with homologous genes from Arabidopsis thaliana; the homologous genes Bra029281 (AGL42), Bra026577 (ARPN), Bra022954 (SPL3), Bra029293 (ARF2), Bra007978 (AtRLP12), Bra033221 (SPL8), Bra008037 (LOX4), Bra001598 (IAA19), Bra003892 (PATL1), Bra038778 (AT4G21323), Bra025315 (KLCR2), and Bra013906 (DTX35) are directly related to floral organ development in Arabidopsis, suggesting that these genes have corresponding functions during flower organ development in pak choi, and could be candidates for further genetic research. These results provide a foundation for research on the molecular mechanism of flower organ development in pak choi and other Brassica rapa vegetables.

Streamflow calculation for medium-to-small rivers in data scarce inland areas.

Inland streamflow estimation is essential in global water supply and environment protection. In data-scarce areas a highly efficient way of estimating streamflow is through remote sensing methods. However, high requirement of most previous methods on ground-measured data hinder their wide use in data-scarce areas. Therefore, this paper presented a new framework for estimation of streamflow in medium-to-small rivers with few ground measurements by using high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery. A new Virtual Hydraulic Radius (VHR) method was proposed to complement AMHG (at-many-stations hydraulic geometry), a method not requiring any ground measurements when global parameters are used (global-AMHG) in large-scaled rivers but yielding great uncertainties in smaller scaled rivers, thus creating a VHR-AMHG method for medium-to-small rivers. The accuracy verification of the proposed method was performed by comparing it to field measurement data and the global parameters of the original AMHG (global-AMHG). Results showed that the root mean square error calculated from VHR-AMHG was 32.15 m3/s, while that from global-AMHG was 305.65 m3/s, indicating that the VHR-AHRG method yields a significantly higher accuracy for streamflow estimation for medium-to-small rivers. We found that regardless of the size of the river, AMHG is not applicable for rivers having excessively small b values in the equation w = aQb (low-b rivers). For medium-to-small rivers with b < 0.25, AMHG is not recommended. The accuracy of the original AMHG method is limited by the initial value of the model parameters and the condition that the congruent discharge (Qc) has to be within the range of observational discharge. The initial value setting of the model parameters significantly impacts the calculation accuracy. The VHR-AMHG method is able to overcome the deficiencies of the original AMHG, i.e. being overly dependent on the initial value setting with long-series known discharge data. It also eliminates the limitation of the Qc condition, as it achieves a higher accuracy for rivers in which Qc does not satisfy the condition compared to using global-AMHG on rivers that actually meet the condition, thus greatly expanding its usage scope. Thus VHR-AMHG method can provide detailed data on the spatial and temporal distribution of regional and national streamflow for governments and stakeholders, and offer scientific data support for wisely making water supply polices and sustainably protecting eco-environment.

The aggregation of Fe3+ and their d-d radiative transitions in ZnSe:Fe3+ nanobelts by CVD growth.

Transition metal (TM) doped II-VI semiconductors have attracted great attention due to their luminescence and diluted magnetism. In this study, the Fe3+-doped ZnSe nanobelts (NBs) were grown by a facile CVD method. The surface morphology observed via SEM is smooth and clean and the elemental composition measured via EDS confirms that the Fe3+ ions were incorporated into ZnSe NBs successfully. The micro-Raman scattering spectra demonstrate that the as-prepared NBs have the zinc blende structure. Furthermore, the Raman spectra of the Fe3+-doped NBs were compared with those of pure and Fe2+-doped reference samples. The former with a higher signal-to-noise ratio, an enhanced 2LO mode, a stronger LO mode redshift and a larger intensity ratio of LO/TO mode as well as the lower acoustic phonon modes confirms the better crystallization and the stronger electron-phonon coupling on Fe3+-incorporation. The emission of single Fe3+ ion, assigned to the 4T1 → 6A1 transition, was observed at about 570 nm. Moreover, increasing the doping concentration of Fe3+ ions caused the formation of different Fe-Fe coupled pairs in the lattice, which emitted light at about 530-555 nm for an antiferromagnetic-coupled pair, possibly due to the stacking faults and at about 620-670 nm for a ferromagnetic-coupled pair.