The ecosystem services concept: a new Esperanto to facilitate participatory planning processes?

Landscape Ecology - Several case studies investigated the role of ecosystem services in participatory planning processes. However, no systematic study exists that cuts across a large number of...     

陆地棉GRF基因家族的鉴定和生物信息学分析

为了揭示陆地棉生长调控因子(growth-regulating factors, GRF)家族的功能,本研究利用全基因组信息在陆地棉基因组中鉴定了 33个GRF蛋白,并对这些家族成员进行了保守结构域分析、蛋白的基本理化性质分析、进化分析、基因的结构分析、染色体定位、保守基序分析和组织表达模式分析。研究表明,陆地棉GRF均含有QLQ和WRC 2个保守结构域,系统进化分为4个亚家族,基因定位在19条染色体上,基因上有2~19个蛋白编码区域,大多数的基因在柱头、子房和20 d的种子中高量表达。本研究弄清了棉花GRF家族的基本信息,为进一步研究棉花GRF家族成员的功能提供了理论指导。     

星花玉兰新品种‘粉荷’

‘粉荷’星花玉兰,成蕾早,花蕾产量高。花期2月中旬至3月下旬,花瓣形如荷花,色泽艳丽,花量大,抗性强,病害少,易管理,观赏价值高。     

Conservation planning with spatially explicit models: a case for horseshoe bats in complex mountain landscapes

Context

Context Bats are considered as an ecological indicator of habitat quality due to their sensitivity to human-induced ecosystem changes. Hence, we will focus the study on two indicator species of bats as a proxy to evaluate structure and composition of the landscape to analyze anthropic pressures driving changes in patterns.

Objectives

This study develops a spatially-explicit model to highlight key habitat nodes and corridors which are integral for maintaining functional landscape connectivity for bat movement. We focus on a complex mountain landscape and two bat species: greater (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and lesser (Rhinolophus hipposideros) horseshoe bats which are known to be sensitive to landscape composition and configuration.

Methods

Species distribution models are used to delineate high-quality foraging habitat for each species using opportunistic ultrasonic bat data. We then performed connectivity analysis combining (modelled) suitable foraging habitat and (known) roost sites. We use graph-theory and the deviation in the probability of connectivity to quantify resilience of the landscape connectivity to perturbations.

Results

Both species were confined to lowlands (<1000 m elevation) and avoided areas with high road densities. Greater horseshoe bats were more generalist than lesser horseshoe bats which tended to be associated with broadleaved and mixed forests.

Conclusions

The spatially-explicit models obtained were proven crucial for prioritizing foraging habitats, roost sites and key corridors for conservation. Hence, our results are being used by key stakeholders to help integrate conservation measures into forest management and conservation planning at the regional level. The approach used can be integrated into conservation initiatives elsewhere.

     

基于智能交流接触器的采摘机器人机械臂设计

在充分考虑机械臂伺服电机智能速度检测装置的结构和闭环运动过程控制的基础上,将智能交流接触器引入到了采摘机器人机械臂关节伺服电机的反馈控制中,并建立了PID闭环反馈调节回路,有效地提高了机械臂的控制精度。同时,将智能交流接触器以速度控制函数的形式嵌入到了PID控制环节,采用ADMAS和MatLab软件对机械臂的轨迹控制精度进行了测试,并利用Mat Lab软件计算得到了关节的控制变量,以Spline形式将变量导入到了ADMAS中对机械臂两关节进行控制。通过仿真得到了机械臂关节的输入和输出位移随时间变化曲线和机械臂末端的运动结果,结果表明:输入和输出的位移基本吻合,并且机械臂末端可以按照预定的圆环轨迹运动,从而验证了智能交流接触器PID控制的控制精度。     

汉中市小麦条锈病流行的影响因子及预测模型

为掌握汉中市小麦条锈病流行规律,提高病害测报的科学性和准确性,采用DPS数据处理系统,对多年来汉中市小麦条锈病测报资料进行了主导因素分析,筛选出影响发病程度的主要因子包括小麦感病品种种植比例(x1)、秋苗病田率(x2)、秋苗单位面积平均病叶数(x3)、1月份平均气温(x6)、上年11月份降雨量(x11)、早春病田率(x18)、3月中旬病田率(x19),与发生程度(y)进行逐步回归分析,建立了发病程度预测模型:y=-6.354 7+0.084 0x1+0.022 8x3+0.662 8x6+0.020 9x11,R2=0.968 7。拟合预测符合率为92.31%,相对误差8.96%。利用预测模型对2014-2016年汉中市小麦条锈病进行预测,预测的病级分别为2.93、3.21、1.92,与2014、2015、2016年发生的实际病级3、3、2相吻合。此模型可应用于生产中小麦条锈病的测报。     

Large-scale deployment of a rice 6 K SNP array for genetics and breeding applications

Background

Fixed arrays of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers have advantages over reduced representation sequencing in their ease of data analysis, consistently higher call rates, and rapid turnaround times. A 6 K SNP array represents a cost-benefit “sweet spot” for routine genetics and breeding applications in rice. Selection of informative SNPs across species and subpopulations during chip design is essential to obtain useful polymorphism rates for target germplasm groups. This paper summarizes results from large-scale deployment of an Illumina 6 K SNP array for rice.

Results

Design of the Illumina Infinium 6 K SNP chip for rice, referred to as the Cornell_6K_Array_Infinium_Rice (C6AIR), includes 4429 SNPs from re-sequencing data and 1571 SNP markers from previous BeadXpress 384-SNP sets, selected based on polymorphism rate and allele frequency within and between target germplasm groups. Of the 6000 attempted bead types, 5274 passed Illumina’s production quality control. The C6AIR was widely deployed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for genetic diversity analysis, QTL mapping, and tracking introgressions and was intensively used at Cornell University for QTL analysis and developing libraries of interspecific chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) between O. sativa and diverse accessions of O. rufipogon or O. meridionalis. Collectively, the array was used to genotype over 40,000 rice samples. A set of 4606 SNP markers was used to provide high quality data for O. sativa germplasm, while a slightly expanded set of 4940 SNPs was used for O. sativa X O. rufipogon populations. Biparental polymorphism rates were generally between 1900 and 2500 well-distributed SNP markers for indica x japonica or interspecific populations and between 1300 and 1500 markers for crosses within indica, while polymorphism rates were lower for pairwise crosses within U.S. tropical japonica germplasm. Recently, a second-generation array containing ~7000 SNP markers, referred to as the C7AIR, was designed by removing poor-performing SNPs from the C6AIR and adding markers selected to increase the utility of the array for elite tropical japonica material.

Conclusions

The C6AIR has been successfully used to generate rapid and high-quality genotype data for diverse genetics and breeding applications in rice, and provides the basis for an optimized design in the C7AIR.

     

Flavan-3-ols and procyanidins in grape seeds: biodiversity and relationships among wild and cultivated vines

Flavan-3-ol monomers and polymers composition of seeds from wild (17) and autochthonous (8) Vitis vinifera grapes growing in northern Tunisia were evaluated. Wild grape seeds were spherical with a small beak and relatively a high seed/berry ratio (~ 18.1%w/w). Local cultivars developed pyriform-shaped seeds with a well-developed beak representing on average 2.2% of total weight of the berry. Flavanol concentrations ranged between 40.9 and 67.5 mg/g FW in seeds from wild accessions and between 48.9 and 96.7 mg/g FW in seeds from cultivated grapes. Differences between accessions were highly significant (p < 0.01) and seeds from cultivar ‘Boukhasla’ showed the highest polyphenols content. Among flavan-3-ol monomers, (+)-catechin was predominant for all ecotypes and generally their abundance was: (+)-catechin (Cat) > (?)-epicatechin (Ec) > (?)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate (EcG). The Cat/Ec ratio was approximately 1.7 for wild grapes while it was about 2.5 for cultivated grapes. Procyanidins in wild seeds differed from cultivated ones by a lower mDP and higher proportions of galloylated derivatives, likely to affect fruit bitterness and astringency. (?)-epicatechin was the main extension subunit in grape seed procyanidins, reaching on average 52% in wild and 58% in cultivated seeds. Hierarchical cluster analysis based on seeds morphometry and procyanidin profile indicated close proximity between some wild and cultivated grapes suggesting that some cultivars derived from ancestral events of local domestication or cross hybridization with native wild plants.