Design of a high speed rat whiskers tracking and symmetry analysis system based on FPGA.

This paper presents a high-speed rat whisker tracking and symmetry analysis system based on FPGA. The system utilizes high-speed image sensors recording rat face videos at 120 and 1000 fps. The Xilinx Ultra96 single computer board is chosen as the platform to implement the system's processing system (PS) and the programmable logic (PL) part. The PL part is responsible for high-speed image processing and whisker tracking, while the PS part analyzes the symmetry of rat face using the tracking results from the PL part. With a processing speed FoM of 118.5 fps/GHz on the Xilinx Ultra96 single computer board and 275.47 fps/GHz on a laptop with Intel Core i5-11500T@1.5GHz, the presented system achieves excellent performance. The proposed whisker detection method has a precision of 98.2% when a threshold with a 4-degree error is selected, with an average error angle of 0.98 degrees across more than 10,000 video frames. Moreover, the proposed system is capable of local video processing within millisecond delays. These results demonstrate the feasibility of developing a high-speed, accurate, and efficient whisker tracking and symmetry analysis system for rat behavior research.

Chitosan and TiO2 functionalized polypropylene nonwoven fabrics with visible light induced photocatalytic antibacterial performances.

Chitosan/TiO2 functionalized polypropylene (CS/TiO2/PP) nonwoven fabrics were fabricated through crosslinking of chitosan with glutaraldehyde followed by loading of TiO2 nanoparticles. The functionalized CS/TiO2/PP has super hydrophilicity and excellent visible light induced photocatalytic antibacterial properties owing to the synergistic effects of CS and TiO2. The photocatalytic degradation performance was determined by assessing the degradation of methyl blue under simulated visible light irradiation and its recyclability was also evaluated. In addition, SEM images demonstrated that TiO2 nanoparticles were distributed evenly on the surface of the 2 g/L CS/TiO2/PP. Meanwhile, the polypropylene surface showed a significant increase in hydrophilicity after being treated with chitosan and TiO2. The photocatalytic degradation results revealed that CS/TiO2/PP had higher photocatalytic properties than those of pure PP under visible light, and the degradation rate of methylene blue reached 96.4 % after 90 min of light exposure. Compared to pure PP, the antibacterial properties of CS/TiO2/PP significantly increased, and the bacterial reduction percentages were increased to 98.7 % and 96.3 %, against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. The functionalized CS/TiO2/PP composites exhibited promising potential in environmentally friendly antibacterial materials.

Exploring the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation with CRISPR/Cas9 in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.).

BACKGROUNDS: The narrow genetic basis of cucumber makes breeding of this species difficult. CRISPR/Cas9 system is  characteristic of  simple design, low cost and  high efficiency, which has opened a new path for cucumber functional genetics and the development of cucumber mocular breeding. However, the immature genetic transformation system is the main limiting factor for applying this technology in cucumber. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, a Histochemical ß-glucuronidase (GUS) assay was used to analyze the effect of various parameters, including slight scratch of explants, pre-culture time, acetosyringone (AS) concentration, infection time in Agrobacterium solution, and co-culture period on the transformation efficiency. The results showed that the explants slightly scratched after cutting, pre-cultured for 1 day, Agrobacterium bacterial solution containing AS, and 20 min length of infection could significantly increase the GUS staining rate of explants. On this basis, two sequences with high specificity (sgRNA-1 and sgRNA-2) targeted different loci of gene CsGCN5 were designed. The corresponding vectors Cas9-sgRNA-1 and Cas9-sgRNA-2 were constructed and transformed using the above-optimized cucumber genetic transformation system, and three and two PCR positive lines were obtained from 210 and 207 explants, respectively. No sequence mutation at target loci of CsGCN5 was detected in the Cas9-sgRNA-1 transformed three PCR positive lines. However, one mutant line with targeted homozygous change was recognized from the Cas9-sgRNA-2 transformed two PCR positive lines. CONCLUSION: In this study, 2.4‰ of total explants had directed mutation in the CsGCN5 gene. The results in the present study would be beneficial to further optimize and improve the efficiency of the genetic transformation of cucumber.

Preparation of Y2O3/TiO2-Loaded Polyester Fabric and Its Photocatalytic Properties under Visible Light Irradiation.

In this study, Y2O3/TiO2-loaded polyester fabric was prepared to improve the catalytic activity of the TiO2 and to increase its reuse efficiency. The samples were systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Furthermore, the degradation performance of methyl orange in the presence of simulated visible light irradiation was also investigated. The results showed that the TiO2 in the Y2O3/TiO2 composite photocatalyst was suitably anatase. In addition, Y2O3/TiO2-loaded polyester fabric had higher photocatalytic performance than that of pure polyester fabric under visible light and the degradation rate reached 83% after 120 min of light exposure but remained above 50% after repeated exposure (three times). Compared to the pure polyester fabric, Y2O3/TiO2-loaded polyester fabric had self-cleaning effects in methyl blue and soy sauce solutions under visible light.

Mutations in CsPID encoding a Ser/Thr protein kinase are responsible for round leaf shape in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.).

KEY MESSAGE: Two round-leaf mutants, rl-1 and rl-2, were identified from EMS-induced mutagenesis. High throughput sequencing and map-based cloning suggested CsPID encoding a Ser/Thr protein kinase as the most possible candidate for rl-1. Rl-2 was allelic to Rl-1. Leaf shape is an important plant architecture trait that is affected by plant hormones, especially auxin. In Arabidopsis, PINOID (PID), a regulator for the auxin polar transporter PIN (PIN-FORMED) affects leaf shape formation, but this function of PID in crop plants has not been well studied. From an EMS mutagenesis population, we identified two round-leaf (rl) mutants, C356 and C949. Segregation analysis suggested that both mutations were controlled by single recessive genes, rl-1 and rl-2, respectively. With map-based cloning, we show that CsPID as the candidate gene of rl-1; a non-synonymous SNP in the second exon of CsPID resulted in an amino acid substitution and the round leaf phenotype. As compared in the wild type plant, CsPID had significantly lower expression in the root, leaf and female flowers in C356, which may result in the less developed roots, round leaves and abnormal female flowers, respectively in the rl-1 mutant. Among the three copies of PID genes, CsPID, CsPID2 and CSPID2L (CsPID2-like) in the cucumber genome, CsPID was the only one with significantly differential expression in adult leaves between WT and C356 suggesting CsPID plays a main role in leaf shape formation. The rl-2 mutation in C949 was also cloned, which was due to another SNP in a nearby location of rl-1 in the same CsPID gene. The two round leaf mutants and the work presented herein provide a good foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms of CsPID in cucumber leaf development.