Fast genetic mapping in barley: case studies of cuticle mutants using RNA-sequencing

Barley(Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the earliest domesticated crop species and ranked as the fourth largest cereal production worldwide. Forward genetic studies in barley have greatly advanced plant genetics during the last century; however, most genes are identified by the conventional mapping method. Array genotyping and exome-capture sequencing have also been successfully used to target the causal mutation in barley populations, but these techniques are not widely adopted because of associated costs and partly due to the huge genome size of barley. This review summarizes three mapping cases of barley cuticle mutants in our laboratory with the help of RNA-sequencing. The causal mutations have been successfully identified for two of them and the target genes are located in the pericentromeric regions. Detailed information on the mapping-by-sequencing, mapping-and-sequencing, and RNA-sequencing assisted linkage mapping are presented and some limitations and challenges on the mapping assisted by RNA sequencing are also discussed. The alternative and elegant methods presented in this review may greatly accelerate forward genetics of barley mapping, especially for laboratories without large funding.     

A modified numerical model for moisture-salt transport in unsaturated sandy soil under evaporation

Soil salinization, caused by salt migration and accumulation underneath the soil surface, will corrode structures. To analyze the moisture-salt migration and salt precipitation in soil under evaporation conditions, a mathematical model consisting of a series of theoretical equations is briefly presented. The filling effect of precipitated salts on tortuosity factor and evaporation rate are taken into account in relevant equations. Besides, a transition equation to link the solute transport equation before and after salt precipitation is proposed. Meanwhile, a new relative humidity equation deduced from Pitzer ions model is used to modify the vapor transport flux equation. The results show that the calculated values are in good agreement with the published experimental data, especially for the simulation of volume water content and evaporation rate of Toyoura sand, which confirm the reliability and applicability of the proposed model.     

观驾山—黑岛一带信息量法找金研究

本文以成矿地质模型为依据，对观驾山—黑山岛一带的化探、物探、遥感及地质等信息变量进行了详细的分析，选取了１０个信息变量２４个标志状态；在此基础上，运用信息量法对研究区内４５８个单元的信息量值进行计算，并由此确定了研究范围内的成矿远景区。事实表明，研究区信息量成矿预测是非常有效的     

Microwave Type III Burst Group in the 1993 October 2 Flare

Microwave Type III bursts with positive frequency drifting rate were found by Stahli and Benz (1987) for first time. Type III events are especially interesting because they are well-known to be signatures of electron beams in coronal plasma, and they are effective means for diagnosting of source plasma. A microwave burst consisting of some microwave type III burst groups was registered at Beijing Astronomical Observatory with the 2545–2645–2840 MHz synchronous observing system. The distributions of frequency drifting rate, half power duration, and intensity for each impulse in the groups have been statistically analysed. From this analysis, some important parameters for the dynamic process in the flare are deduced and discussed.     

富氏谱分析法模拟地壳垂直运动的地学依据及其策应力模型

应用地壳波浪与镶嵌构造学说对富氏谱分析法提取地壳垂直形变信息的科学性做了地质学意义上的阐释 ,并提出了根据多期形变资料提取特定波段上构造策应力的数学模型     

The Statistical Analysis of Migration of Strong Earthquakes-Taking the North China Region as an Example

The migration of strong earthquakes is an important research topic because the migration phenomena reflect partly the seismic mechanism and involve the prediction of tendency of seismic activity. Research on migration of strong earthquakes has mostly focused on finding the phenomena. Some attempts on getting regularity were comparatively subjective. This paper suggests that there should be indices of migration in earthquake dataset and the indexes should have statistical meaning if there is regularity in the migration of strong earthquakes. In this study, three derivative attributes of migration, i.e., migration orientation, migration distance and migration time interval, were statistically analyzed. Results in the North China region show that the migration of strong earthquakes has statistical meaning. There is a dominant migration orientation (W by S to E by N), a dominant distance (≤100km and on the confines of 300～700km), and a dominant time interval (≤1a and on the confines of 3～4a). The results also show that the migration will differ slightly with different magnitude range or earthquake activity phase.     

星际A型CH_3CH－H_2含超精细能级的碰撞跃迁速率系数的理论计算

本文作者利用ＩＯＳ近似模型，计算了星际分子云条件下Ａ型ＣＨ３ＣＮ－Ｈ２含超精细能级的碰撞跃迁速率系数。温度范围是２０Ｋ－１４０Ｋ。为研究分子云与恒星形成区的物理、化学性质提供了有用的基础分子数据。     

A micromechanical finite element model for linear and damage‐coupled viscoelastic behaviour of asphalt mixture

This study presents a finite element (FE) micromechanical modelling approach for the simulation of linear and damage‐coupled viscoelastic behaviour of asphalt mixture. Asphalt mixture is a composite material of graded aggregates bound with mastic (asphalt and fine aggregates). The microstructural model of asphalt mixture incorporates an equivalent lattice network structure whereby intergranular load transfer is simulated through an effective asphalt mastic zone. The finite element model integrates the ABAQUS user material subroutine with continuum elements for the effective asphalt mastic and rigid body elements for each aggregate. A unified approach is proposed using Schapery non‐linear viscoelastic model for the rate‐independent and rate‐dependent damage behaviour. A finite element incremental algorithm with a recursive relationship for three‐dimensional (3D) linear and damage‐coupled viscoelastic behaviour is developed. This algorithm is used in a 3D user‐defined material model for the asphalt mastic to predict global linear and damage‐coupled viscoelastic behaviour of asphalt mixture. For linear viscoelastic study, the creep stiffnesses of mastic and asphalt mixture at different temperatures are measured in laboratory. A regression‐fitting method is employed to calibrate generalized Maxwell models with Prony series and generate master stiffness curves for mastic and asphalt mixture. A computational model is developed with image analysis of sectioned surface of a test specimen. The viscoelastic prediction of mixture creep stiffness with the calibrated mastic material parameters is compared with mixture master stiffness curve over a reduced time period. In regard to damage‐coupled viscoelastic behaviour, cyclic loading responses of linear and rate‐independent damage‐coupled viscoelastic materials are compared. Effects of particular microstructure parameters on the rate‐independent damage‐coupled viscoelastic behaviour are also investigated with finite element simulations of asphalt numerical samples. Further study describes loading rate effects on the asphalt viscoelastic properties and rate‐dependent damage behaviour. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Automated Separation of Stars and Normal Galaxies Based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with RBF Neural Networks

For LAMOST, the largest sky survey program in China, the solution of the problem of automatic discrimination of stars from galaxies by spectra has shown that the results of the PSF test can be significantly refined. However, the problem is made worse when the redshifts of galaxies are not available. We present a new automatic method of star/(normal) galaxy separation, which is based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (SMM-RBFNN). This work is a continuation of our previous one, where active and non-active celestial objects were successfully segregated. By combining the method in this paper and the previous one, stars can now be effectively separated from galaxies and AGNs by their spectra-a major goal of LAMOST, and an indispensable step in any automatic spectrum classification system. In our work, the training set includes standard stellar spectra from Jacoby's spectrum library and simulated galaxy spectra of EO, SO, Sa, Sb types with redshift ranging from 0 to 1