Northwest A & F University

Based on the data of China’s overseas arable land investment in 47 countries along the “Belt and Road”, the Tobit model is used to analyze the effects of cultural distance and friendship cities on the production rates of contracted arable land in China’s overseas arable land investment. This study provided theoretical basis and empirical support for promoting China’s agricultural “going abroad” and improving the production rates of contracted arable land in China’s overseas arable land investment. The results show that differences in cultural distance, power distance and the degree of uncertainty avoidance have significant positive effects on the production rates of contracted arable land in China’s overseas arable land investment, and differences in individualism have a significant negative effect on the production rates. Friendship city has a positive but insignificant effect on the production rates, meanwhile, it also weaken the positive impact of cultural distance on production rates of contracted arable land in China’s overseas arable land investment. The proportion of joint ventures with host country, the economic level and institutional environment of the host country will all have an impact on the production rates. Finally, recommendations are proposed to promote the production rates of contracted arable land, such as focusing on the positive role of cultural distance, establishing friendship cities, and investing host countries with high potential precisely.

Distributed manufacturing and fine-manufacturing are two typical scenarios of modern manufacturing industries in the context of globalization and customization. The distributed differentiation flowshop integrated scheduling problem (DDFISP) is a novel model that deals with the integrated scheduling problem of these two manufacturing scenarios. In the DDFISP, jobs have multiple customized types and are manufactured in a number of distributed factories. Each factory includes three fine-processing stages: parallel machine fabrication, single machine assembly, and dedicated machine differentiation. In the paper, a new distributed memetic evolutionary architecture is first built, which consists of four modules with distinct functions, including global exploration, local exploitation, knowledge transfer, and search restart. The exploration and exploitation are coevolved in the distributed way and communicated by knowledge transfer. This architecture can be used as a universal model to construct evolutionary algorithms. Following this architecture and devising each module innovatively, a novel knowledge transfer-driven distributed memetic algorithm (KTDMA) is constructed to solve the DDFISP. Specifically, global exploration is performed on multiple populations by dynamically selecting global exploration optimizers from predefined external repository. Local exploitation is executed on an independent elite archive by a destruction-construction local search and a key block local search. Knowledge transfer is conducted to communicate the superior information between exploration and exploitation based on a point-ring topology. Search restart is adaptively carried out to alleviate the search homogeneity. Computational results show the effectiveness of the proposed evolutionary architecture and special designs, and demonstrate that the KTDMA performs more competitive than the compared state-of-the-art algorithms.

Tribbles pseudokinase 3 (TRIB3) interacts with a variety of proteins and plays a key role in the regulation of glucose metabolism and glycolysis in nonruminants, but whether it has a specific role in goat mammary lipid metabolism has still been kept unknown. In this study, we observed that TRIB3 is highly expressed in the mammary tissues of lactating dairy goats. Overexpressing TRIB3 in goat mammary epithelial cells (GMECs) suppressed the mRNA expression of GPAM, DGAT1, and PLIN1, which are associated with the formation of triacylglycerol and lipid droplets (p < 0.05). The fatty acid‐sensitive transcription regulator PPARG was also downregulated. Interfering TRIB3 had the opposite effect and decreased Akt phosphorylation. The TRIB3 gene influenced fatty acid composition in GMECs, and its overexpression reduced the total concentration of intracellular triacylglycerol (p < 0.01), this response was verified using BODIPY staining. Overall, these data indicated that TRIB3 suppresses milk fatty acids metabolism through inhibiting p‐AKT/PPARG signaling in GMECs.

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors represent one of the largest gene families and play critical roles in plant development and stress response modulation. However, the bHLH gene family in Zanthoxylum bungeanum (ZB)—a species with notable economic and medicinal importance—remains unexplored. In this study, we conducted a thorough genome-wide analysis of the ZBbHLH family. Our findings revealed that 415 ZBbHLH genes are distributed across 60 different chromosomes and are classified into 24 subfamilies based on phylogenetic analysis. Gene structure and protein motif analyses demonstrated the conservation of these genes. Duplication events indicated that ZBbHLH genes have undergone strong purifying selection during evolution. Codon usage analysis showed a bias toward A/T-ending codons, suggesting a significant influence of natural selection. Exposure to salt stress for different durations (0, 3, 9, and 24 h) facilitated the identification of 100 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were significantly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction (KO04075) and MAPK signaling pathways (KO04016). Moreover, the qRT-PCR results were largely in agreement with the transcriptome sequencing results, confirming the accuracy of the findings. This study provides valuable insights into the structural features, functional roles, and evolutionary divergence of the ZBbHLH gene family. It lays a foundation for further exploring the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying bHLH transcription factors in ZB.

Human interventions, such as farmland management, have long been considered crucial for soil carbon sequestration, but little is known about the exact impact of these interventions on the net carbon flux, represented by net ecosystem productivity (NEP). Here, using multiple long-term, large-scale data and statistical data, we reveal that 75.54% of farmland NEP in China experiences an increase, with northern regions showing the greatest potential for future farmland carbon sequestration. This growth is primarily attributed to the role of farmland management, especially the enhancement of no-tillage, land consolidation and multiple cropping level (17.02%, major grain-producing areas in 2020). Notably, the current unreasonable practices of mechanized straw returning and irrigation have a negative impact on farmland NEP. Our results show that it is imperative to acknowledge the crucial role of human interventions on farmland NEP to strike a balance between food security and farmland carbon sequestration.

Background Polyamine oxidase (PAO) is a crucial enzyme involved in the breakdown of polyamines (PAs) in plants. It not only regulates the levels of PAs, but also plays a role in the oxidative decomposition of PAs and the release of stress-related signals, contributing to the plant’s response and resistance to various adversities. While there have been numerous studies on the response of PAO to stress in other crops, there is a lack of research on this topic in potatoes, a major food crop. Results In this study, we aimed to explore the biological function of the StPAO gene in potato growth and development, as well as its expression patterns under stress. Using bioinformatics methods, we identified 14 StPAO genes in the potato genome. Protein sequence comparisons revealed a high similarity between the PAO proteins of potato and Arabidopsis. Chromosomal mapping and gene structure analysis showed that the StPAO genes were not evenly distributed on the chromosome and all contained an amino-oxidase domain. Furthermore, analysis of the promoters of these genes revealed the presence of abiotic and stress-related cis-acting elements, indicating their potential role in responding to different stresses. To investigate the expression patterns of these genes under stress, we used qRT-PCR to study their response to high temperature, drought, and ABA stress. Our results showed that StPAO6 and StPAO10 were significantly up-regulated under high temperature stress, indicating that they were involved in the process of potato resistance to high temperatures. Similarly, StPAO1, StPAO3, and StPAO4 were significantly up-regulated under drought stress, indicating their potential role in potatoes’ responses to drought. After ABA treatment, the expression levels of StPAO4, StPAO5, StPAO7, and StPAO14 were significantly up-regulated, suggesting their involvement in chemical defense mechanisms. Interestingly, the expression of StPAO11–13 was inhibited by all three stresses. Conclusions In conclusion, our study highlights the multifunctional nature of the StPAO gene family in potatoes, which plays a crucial role in coping with various stresses. This research deepens our understanding of the potato StPAO gene family and provides a reference for future studies on its function. It also serves as a theoretical basis for breeding stress-resistant potato varieties in the future.

Parthanatos is distinct from caspase-dependent apoptosis in that it does not necessitate the activation of caspase cascades; Instead, it relies on the translocation of Apoptosis-inducing Factor (AIF) from the mitochondria to the nucleus, resulting in nuclear DNA fragmentation. Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) is an oncolytic virus that selectively targets and kills tumor cells by inducing cell apoptosis. It has been reported that NDV triggers classic apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway. In this study, we observed that NDV infection induced endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), which caused a rapid release of endogenous calcium ions (Ca ²⁺ ). This cascade of events resulted in mitochondrial depolarization, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, and structural remodeling of the mitochondria. The overload of Ca ²⁺ also initiated an increase in mitochondrial membrane permeability, facilitating the transfer of AIF to the nucleus to induce apoptosis. Damaged mitochondria produced excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), which further exacerbated mitochondrial damage and increased mitochondrial membrane permeability, thus promoting additional intracellular Ca ²⁺ accumulation and ultimately triggering an ROS burst. Collectively, these findings indicate that NDV infection promotes excessive calcium accumulation and ROS generation, leading to mitochondrial damage that releases more calcium and ROS, creating a feedback loop that exacerbates AIF-dependent parthanatos. This study not only provides a novel perspective on the oncolytic mechanism of NDV but also highlights new targets for antiviral research.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is currently an important technology for identifying cell types and studying diseases at the genetic level. Identifying rare cell types is biologically important as one of the downstream data analyses of single-cell RNA sequencing. Although rare cell identification methods have been developed, most of these suffer from insufficient mining of intercellular similarities, low scalability, and being time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a single-cell similarity division algorithm (scSID) for identifying rare cells. It takes cell-to-cell similarity into consideration by analyzing both inter-cluster and intra-cluster similarities, and discovers rare cell types based on the similarity differences. We show that scSID outperforms other existing methods by benchmarking it on different experimental datasets. Application of scSID to multiple datasets, including 68K PBMC and intestine, highlights its exceptional scalability and remarkable ability to identify rare cell populations.

italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Unsupervised feature selection (UFS) is an important technology for dimensionality reduction and has gained great interest in a wide range of fields. Recently, most popular methods are spectral-based which frequently use adaptive graph constraints to promote performance. However, no literature has considered the grouping characteristic of the data features, which is the most basic and important characteristic for arbitrary data. In this paper, based on the spectral analysis method, we first simulate the data feature grouping characteristic. Then, the similarity between data is adaptively reconstructed through the similarity between groups, which can explore the more fine-grained relationship between data than the previous adaptive graph methods. In order to achieve the aforementioned goal, the local similarity matrix and the global similarity matrix are defined, and the weighted KL entropy is used to constrain the relationship between the global similarity matrix and the local similarity matrices. Furthermore, the symmetrical self-representation structure is used to improve the performance of the reconstruction error term in the conventional spectral-based methods. After the model is constructed, a simple but efficient algorithm is proposed to solve the full model. Extensive experiments on 8 benchmark dataset with different types to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. The source code is available at: https://github.com/misteru/SSDS .

Paperbark maple (Acer griseum), an endemic and endangered wild plant in China, has red-colored autumn leaves of high ornamental and garden application value. Leaf color change serves as a crucial indicator for evaluating garden tree aesthetics; however, research on A. griseum's leaf color change remains limited. This study aims to elucidate the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying leaf color change in maple leaves through physiological, transcriptional, and metabolic assays. Data analysis encompasses gene expression levels and metabolite changes in three distinct states of maple leaves: green, half-red, and red. The progessive decrease of chlorophyll and carotenoids and the continuous accumulation of anthocyanidins caused a sharp change in leaf coloration, which was most drastic in the green to half-red period. Subsequently, targeted metabolomics analysis was performed, and a total of 71 anthocyanidins were detected, and the content of eight types of anthocyanidins increased significantly in the half-red and red periods, compared with that in the green period; of which the multiplicative difference was the largest for cyanidin-3,5-O diglucoside, delivering the largest multiplicative difference. Thus, it was plausible that cyanidin-3,5-O-diglucoside-dominated compoundswere likely to be the main metabolites associated with leaf reddening. Correlation analysis revealed that 12 key transcription factors (TFs) were significantly correlated with the anthocyanin-related metabolites and structural genes, which play important regulatory roles during the biosynthesis of anthocyanosides in A. griseum. These findings offered useful insights into the molecular basis of leaf color variation in A. griseum; providing valuable information to guide targeted genetic breeding and varietal improvement strategies.

The Loess Critical Zone (LCZ) is located in the intersection of bedrock, groundwater, pedosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. It is a key issue to understand the structural characteristics and soil carbon (C) cycle of the LCZ. We summarized the mechanisms of C exchange between rocks and the atmosphere, and discussed the mechanisms of C stabilization and persistence of the LCZ. Due to the deep layer, C stocks of the CLZ could be underestimated. In light of the recent theory of microbial C pump, soil microorganisms play an important role in C cycle, however, the microbial function is not widely considered in C cycling model of the LCZ. For future studies, it is suggested to systematically study the C cycling process from plant canopy to bedrock by the framework system of the LCZ. A variety of techniques and methods are integrated to combine short-term and high-frequency observations with long-term positioning observations, and pay attention to the response and feedback mechanisms of soil organic C (SOC) cycling to global changes and human activities, especially the migration and transformation of SOC in each circle and interface of the LCZ. We also recommend the necessity for intensive and long-term C monitoring in LCZ over broad geographic scale, to improve microbial C model for accurately evaluating terrestrial C budget and its dynamics. Altogether, this is the first review of C cycling, spanning from the land surface down to the bedrock in the LCZ, which is significant implications for biogeochemical cycling of C in surface and deep layers down to the bedrock.

This review article provides a comprehensive analysis of the sheep industry in Pakistan, focusing on its constraints and future trends. The article provides insights into the importance of sheep farming in Pakistan’s agricultural sector and rural economy by analyzing historical changes, current status, and emerging issues. The article provides a detailed discussion of the primary obstacles that the industry encounters, such as insufficient infrastructure, restricted availability of veterinary services, fluctuating markets, and environmental issues. The article additionally analyzes future trends and potential for the sustainable growth and resilience of Pakistan’s sheep industry. It emphasizes the importance of specific interventions and policy measures to overcome challenges in the sector and take advantage of new opportunities.

Food losses and waste (FLW) have multidimensional environmental, social, and economic impacts, and avoidance efforts may yield better environmental gains than recovery. Horticulture has the highest FLW (≈50% of production loss), representing 38% of total global FLW. The primary data were collected from 343 grape farmers and middlemen in Egypt, and the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and the Category Method (C-Method) have been employed to estimate the percentage of Postharvest Losses (PHL) and its socio-economic and environmental effects across the supply chain (SC). Empirical findings show average PHL percentages of 10.06%, 5.82%, 6.53%, and 7.06% for growers, rural traders, wholesalers, and retailers. The total arable land, water, and energy consumed to grow this lost food are estimated at around 23 thousand hectares, 158 million m³, and 3.16 billion MJ of fossil energy (96.9 million liters of petrol), besides other agricultural inputs. This costs the economy of Egypt about $203.5 million yearly and emits 145 million tons of CO2eq. These findings highlight the significant role of cooperative marketing, shorter supply chains, and access to cold shipping, handling, and storage services to sustain product quality. Furthermore, agricultural education and extension are necessary to disseminate the best postharvest practices to increase stakeholders' knowledge and sustainably enhance SC actors' skills for using limited resources. These interventions require intensive public-private investment to incentivize small stakeholders to mitigate PHLs, accelerate food system transformation, and achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns.

A large-scale conversion of apple orchards into farmland has occurred in the tableland region of the Chinese Loess Plateau due to the aging of apple trees and the increase in pests and diseases. However, the impact of this conversion on soil desiccation recovery and soil nutrient transportation remains unclear, posing a new challenge for sustainable agricultural development in the region. The study employed the space-time substitution approach to select a long-standing orchard and croplands that has been growing maize for 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-years post-orchard conversion as sampling sites, to investigate the effects of recovery durations of orchard-to-cropland conversion on deep soil water recharge and residual nitrate dynamics, as well as the key factors driving these changes. The results indicated that within 5 years, the conversion led to a rapid recharge of desiccated deep soil (6–9 m), followed by a stable and slow increase in subsequent years. The annual soil water recovery rate in the deep soil was as high as 5.90 mm m⁻¹ a⁻¹. While, the increased water input also caused rapid leaching and accumulation of nitrate in the deep soil, with its peak depth increasing significantly from 3.4 m to 7.0 m over time (R² = 0.92). Soil water was identified as the key factor influencing nitrate leaching, with a correlation coefficient of 0.48 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, orchard-to-cropland conversion effectively replenished the deep soil water in the short term but also accelerated soil nitrate leaching. Therefore, while large-scale conversion of orchards to farmland is undertaken, it is crucial to acknowledge the trade-off relationship involving the recharge of deep soil water and the subsequent increase in deep nitrogen leaching. The findings of this study hold significant implication for the management of water and nutrient resources after the conversion of orchards to farmland, highlighting the necessity to mitigate nitrogen leaching while soil water is being restored.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of salicylic acid (SA) on wheat subjected to cadmium (Cd) stress. The experiments were conducted during the winter season of 2022-2023 (November to February) at the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan. The study involved four wheat varieties: Akbar-2019, Galaxy-2013, Ujala-16, and Chakwal-86. The study utilized a factorial design with three replicates, examining three Cd levels (0.1 mM, 0.2 mM, and 0.3 mM) and two SA levels (0.5 mM and 0.9 mM). SA was applied as a seed priming agent, while cadmium sulfate (CdSO4) solution induced Cd toxicity. Various growth parameters, including plant height, total plant length, leaf length, leaf breadth, and leaf area, were measured alongside physiological and biochemical parameters such as total chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, oxidative stress indicators (MDA and H2O2), and antioxidants (total soluble protein, CAT, and APX)—to assess the effects of SA under Cd stress. The results indicated that the application of 0.5 mM SA resulted in the highest vegetative growth and maximum physiological and biochemical parameters, while 0.3 mM Cd significantly reduced growth. The performance of the treatments was observed in the following order: 0.5 mM SA > 0.3 mM Cd. Ujala-16 showed intermediate growth and yield, while Chakwal-86 had the lowest growth rate and yield. The study demonstrated that SA mitigates Cd stress effects, with 0.9 mM SA and 0.1 mM Cd yielding the highest growth, second only to 0.5- and 0.9-mM SA treatments. These findings underscore the potential of SA to enhance wheat growth and yield in Cd-contaminated soils. In conclusion, SA is suggested as a beneficial treatment for improving productivity and economic returns in Cd-stressed areas. Future recommendations include conducting long-term studies to evaluate cumulative treatment effects and investigating how salicylic acid mitigates cadmium stress through biochemical pathways and gene expression, enhancing agricultural practices.

Fermented fruits and vegetables are rich in phenolic compounds, minerals, and vitamins, which have potential health benefits for the prevention of many diseases such as cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. There is a growing demand for the development of nondairy probiotic products based on fruits and vegetables in view of changing lifestyles (e.g., vegetarianism, veganism, and allergy to dairy products) and the rise of nutritional diet therapy. In this review, the processes and health potential of fermented fruits and vegetables are described. The study focuses on the role of bacteria and fungi in fermented fruits and vegetables, outlines the process of transformation of bioactive components, and systematically summarizes the possible mechanisms of antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and blood pressure‐lowering effects. The health effects of fermented fruits and vegetables depend mainly on the microorganisms present in the fermentation process and the bioactive components they produce, such as phenols, vitamins, and organic acids. These active compounds exert many health effects such as antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, anti‐obesity, hypotensive, hypoglycemic, and other health benefits. Therefore, the development of fermented foods based on fruits and vegetables can be a promising way to adapt to the market demand and to reduce the wastage of agriculturally produced fruits and vegetables.

Stimulus‐responsive multimodal luminescence (MML) within a single material system is highly desirable for anti‐counterfeiting and information encryption applications. However, achieving adjustable MML within a unified material framework is challenging due to the distinct responses of different luminescence modes to a common external stimulus. In the work, a novel approach is devised for regulating the aggregation or dispersion state of carbon dots (CDs) to exhibit responsive MML, including fluorescence (FL), room temperature phosphorescence (RTP), and chemiluminescence (CL). Specifically, aggregation‐caused luminescence quenching CDs (ACQCDs) are synthesized via a one‐step hydrothermal method using levofloxacin. These ACQCDs exhibit ACQ and significant aggregation‐induced color change effects. When ACQCDs interact with paper‐based materials, they form hydrogen bonds, establishing a high‐density hydrogen bond network that induces ACQCDs aggregation. Upon external stimulation, the hydrogen bond network undergoes dynamic changes, triggering ACQCDs dispersion. This process effectively deactivates nonradiative defect centers, stabilizes triplet excitons, and promotes simultaneous MML of tunable FL, RTP, and CL. The integration of multimodal luminescence with external stimulus input enables the creation of a programmable multi‐input logic gate, offering significant potential for encoded information anti‐counterfeiting applications. Overall, this research provides valuable insights into the conduction of MML CDs, thereby advancing the utilization of nanomaterials in intelligent encryption and anti‐counterfeiting technologies. The findings pave the way for the development of more sophisticated and secure anti‐counterfeiting measures based on the unique luminescent properties of CDs.