Xiao Chen

The Yr5 gene confers resistance to all races of the wheat stripe rust pathogen [Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici Eriks. ] identified so far in the USA. Cosegregating resistance gene analog polymorphism markers for Yr5 are available but their use requires skills in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and may not be polymorphic across various varieties. To develop better markers to be used in marker-assisted selection for the Yr5 resistance, sequence tagged site primers were designed on the basis of the sequences of RGAP markers Xwgp-18 from the spring wheat 'Avocet Susceptible' and Xwgp-17 from the Yr5 near isogenic line in the AVS background carrying the Yr5 gene from T. aestivum subsp. spelta Thell. cv. Album. Three sets of STS markers were developed to amplify a region including a polymorphic 6-base pairs insertion-deletion. The cosegregation of the STS markers with Yr5 was confirmed with 114 BC 7:F3 lines developed from the cross between AVS and TSA. The STS markers worked well in five out of 17 non-Yr5 wheat varieties, but the remaining varieties had a similar size of fragment to the Yr5 marker. Because the codominant STS markers were based on a 6-bp indel, they could not be separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence markers were then developed on the basis of a DpnII restriction site that is present in all non-Yr5 varieties and absent in the Yr5 NIL. The CAPS markers for the Yr5 NIL and non-Yr5 varieties can be separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. The codominant STS markers are easier to score than the original RGAP markers. The CAPS markers are not only easier to score, but also can be used in crosses of an Yr5 donor with a much wider range of wheat germplasms. These markers should be valuable tools to accelerate the introgression of Yr5 into commercial cultivars and to combine Yr5 with other genes for durable resistance to stripe rust.

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.One of the primary goals of nuclear physics is to understand the force between nucleons, which is a necessary step for understanding the structure of nuclei and how nuclei interact with each other. Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus in 1911, and the large body of knowledge about the nuclear force that has since been acquired was derived from studies made on nucleons or nuclei. Although antinuclei up to antihelium-4 have been discovered and their masses measured, little is known directly about the nuclear force between antinucleons. Here, we study antiproton pair correlations among data collected by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, where gold ions are collided with a centre-of-mass energy of 200 gigaelectronvolts per nucleon pair. Antiprotons are abundantly produced in such collisions, thus making it feasible to study details of the antiproton-antiproton interaction. By applying a technique similar to Hanbury Brown and Twiss intensity interferometry, we show that the force between two antiprotons is attractive. In addition, we report two key parameters that characterize the corresponding strong interaction: the scattering length and the effective range of the interaction. Our measured parameters are consistent within errors with the corresponding values for proton-proton interactions. Our results provide direct information on the interaction between two antiprotons, one of the simplest systems of antinucleons, and so are fundamental to understanding the structure of more-complex antinuclei and their properties.

Recently implemented Chinese health insurance schemes have failed to achieve a Chinese health care system that is family-oriented, family-based, family-friendly, or even financially sustainable. With this diagnosis in hand, the authors argue that a financially and morally sustainable Chinese health care system should have as its core family health savings accounts supplemented by appropriate health insurance plans. This essay’s arguments are set in the context of Confucian moral commitments that still shape the background culture of contemporary China.

The apolipoprotein E gene plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, and amyloid plaque comprised mostly of the amyloid-beta peptide ) is one of the major hallmarks of AD. However, the relationship between these two important molecules is poorly understood. We examined how A treatment affects APOE expression in cultured cells and tested the role of the transcription factor NF-B in APOE gene regulation. To delineate NF-B's role, we have characterized a 1098 nucleotide segment containing the 5'-flanking region of the human APOE gene. Sequence analysis of this region suggests the presence of two potential NF-B elements. To demonstrate promoter activity, the region was cloned upstream of a promoterless luciferase gene. This segment was able to drive expression of luciferase in transient transfections of human fetal glial cells. Promoter activity was stimulated twofold by A treatment. Pretreatment with double-stranded DNA decoy oligonucleotides against NF-B reduced A stimulation. Deletion and mutagenetic analyses demonstrated that the distal NF-B element was functional and showed a strong DNA-protein complex band in gel shift analysis, similar to that from control NF-B consensus element. An anti-inflammatory and anti-NF-B drug, sodium salicylate, significantly blocked A-induced APOE promoter function. Our data provide evidence that upregulation of APOE by A in astroglial cells is mediated by an NF-B-element present in the 5'-flanking region of the APOE gene.

Gender bias in artificial intelligence (AI) applications has recently gained increasing attention in academia. While some studies have explored gender disparities in specific contexts, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis on how AI-driven gender biases impact female learners across different educational settings worldwide. This systematic review examines research on gender bias in AI applications used in education across various global regions, following PRISMA guidelines. It synthesizes findings from 23 empirical and conceptual papers published between 2019 and 2024—a period marked by the rapid integration of AI technologies in education. The review reveals that research on AI gender bias in educational contexts remains limited, with most studies originating from North America and Western regions. At the same time, South Asia, South America, and Africa receive comparatively little attention. Second, the focus of existing studies is on higher education, neglecting other educational levels. Third, the review found several methodological gaps in the reviewed literature that need improvement. Lastly, the results highlight persistent gender biases in AI tools, particularly in content generation, assessments, and feedback systems. The presence of these biases in the educational context discourages female participation and poses a significant challenge to achieving gender equality in education. The review emphasizes the need for more research in the neglected regions and educational levels to highlight the female issues with AI usage in general. The review also recommends inclusive AI development to foster equitable educational practices and mitigate gender bias in AI-driven learning environments.

Background As the global population continues to age, home-based care has gained increasing popularity as a way to address the growing need for long-term care among older adults. At the same time, healthcare and social care providers working in home care settings are experiencing a rise in ethical conflicts. This qualitative meta-synthesis aims to explore the ethical conflicts experienced by healthcare and social care providers in home-based care, offering insights and guidance for resolving moral dilemmas in this setting. Methods Qualitative systematic review utilizing meta-ethnography. A systematic search was conducted across four databases (Web of Science, Embase, MEDLINE, and CINAHL) from their inception through April 2025. Two reviewers independently screened articles against the eligibility criteria, appraised them using the JBI critical appraisal tools, and extracted qualitative data in duplicate. 16 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed using thematic synthesis. Results The sixteen included studies were synthesized into three main themes and seven subthemes. The three main themes were Paternalism versus Respect for Autonomy, Blurred Boundaries, and Shortcomings of the Health System. Conclusion Our findings reveal that healthcare and social care providers experience diverse forms of moral conflict during home care; these experiences jeopardize their physical and mental well-being and urgently call for targeted support and intervention.

This chapter advances understanding of person–environment misfit by framing it through self-regulation theory and goal hierarchies. The authors argue that misfit reflects a discrepancy between internal standards and external conditions, and that people are motivated to reduce such discrepancies through cognitive, affective, and behavioural regulation. Integrating self-regulation and person–environment fit research, the chapter develops a hierarchical model that distinguishes misfit at three levels: top (value or ideological incongruence), middle (interpersonal and relational dissimilarity), and bottom (skill or task mismatch). Each level elicits distinct forms of self-regulatory response, from sensemaking and identity negotiation to interpersonal adjustment and task adaptation. The authors demonstrate that misfit is not inherently negative but may generate constructive outcomes, such as innovation or learning, depending on its level and content. By mapping misfit within a goal hierarchy, the chapter provides a unifying framework linking individual motivation, emotion, and behaviour to environmental correspondence. This approach explains why some employees endure, reinterpret, or even embrace misfit while others disengage or exit. Overall, it contributes a theoretically integrative perspective that connects multilevel experiences of misfit with fundamental self-regulatory processes shaping work attitudes and outcomes.

Wir leben in einer Welt des massiven Wandels, und jedes Jahrzehnt scheint schneller und schneller zu vergehen. Es sind nicht nur die Erfindungen, die an Geschwindigkeit zunehmen, sondern auch die Übernahme von Technologien durch Unternehmen und Verbraucher nimmt zu. Die frühen Anpasser wechseln in einem zunehmenden Tempo zum allgemeinen Konsum. Ein Teil der Zunahme der Übernahme ist auf Herausforderungen wie eine Pandemie zurückzuführen. Dennoch werden im Allgemeinen die Konzepte einer VUCA (volatil, unsicher, komplex und mehrdeutig) Jahr für Jahr durch das exponentielle Wachstum des Wissens und daher der Technologie (Jari & Lauraeus, 2019) zum Standard. Wie dieses Kapitel erklären wird, wäre dieses exponentielle Wachstum der Technologie ohne den kreativen Aufschwung, der uns bevorsteht, nicht möglich. Organisationen fördern das Denken außerhalb der Box und Kreativität. Historisch gesehen war Kreativität nur für die Künste und philosophischen Denker notwendig. Kreativität hat ihren rechtmäßigen Platz als Teil unserer Problemlösung eingenommen. Keine Diskussion über Störungen ist vollständig, ohne die Arbeit des Harvard-Professors Dr. Christensen zu behandeln, der sich über 20 Jahre lang im Detail mit dem Phänomen der Störung auf technologischer und Geschäftsmodellebene beschäftigt hat. Christensen war sich nicht nur der disruptiven Natur einiger neuer Technologien bewusst und gab Richtlinien, wie Organisationen verschiedene disruptive Technologien betrachten sollten (Christensen, 1997; Christensen, 2015; Christensen et al., 2018). Akademische Einrichtungen und Wirtschaftsschulen müssen Kreativität und Technologie als Teil der Kernkompetenzen anerkennen, die für erfolgreiche Organisationen erforderlich sind.

This essay illustrates what the Chinese family-based and harmony-oriented model of medical decision making is like as well as how it differs from the modern Western individual-based and autonomy-oriented model in health care practice. The essay discloses the roots of the Chinese model in the Confucian account of the family and the Confucian view of harmony. By responding to a series of questions posed to the Chinese model by modern Western scholars in terms of the basic individualist concerns and values embedded in the modern Western model, we conclude that the Chinese people have justifiable reasons to continue to apply the Chinese model to their contemporary health care and medical practice.

Copyright © 2016 is held by owner/author.In this paper we present optimizations that use DVFS mechanisms to reduce the total energy usage in scientific applications. Our main insight is that noise is intrinsic to large scale parallel executions and it appears whenever shared resources are contended. The presence of noise allows us to identify and manipulate any program regions amenable to DVFS. When compared to previous energy optimizations that make per core decisions using predictions of the running time, our scheme uses a qualitative approach to recognize the signature of executions amenable to DVFS. By recognizing the "shape of variability" we can optimize codes with highly dynamic behavior, which pose challenges to all existing DVFS techniques. We validate our approach using offline and online analyses for one-sided and two-sided communication paradigms. We have applied our methods to NWChem, and we show best case improvements in energy use of 12% at no loss in performance when using online optimizations running on 720 Haswell cores with one-sided communication. With NWChem on MPI two-sided and offline analysis, capturing the initialization, we find energy savings of up to 20%, with less than 1% performance cost.

Knowledge of three-dimensional structures of each individual particles of asymmetric and flexible proteins is essential in understanding those proteins' functions; but their structures are difficult to determine. Electron tomography provides a tool for imaging a single and unique biological object from a series of tilted angles, but it is challenging to image a single protein for three-dimensional reconstruction due to the imperfect mechanical control capability of the specimen goniometer under both a medium to high magnification and an optimized beam coherence condition. Here, we report a fully mechanical control method for automating ET data acquisition without using beam tilt/shift processes. This method could reduce the accumulation of beam tilt/shift that used to compensate the error from the mechanical control, but downgraded the beam coherence. Our method was developed by minimizing the error of the target object center during the tilting process through a closed-loop proportional-integral control algorithm. The validations by both negative staining and cryo-electron microscopy suggest that this method has a comparable capability to other ET methods in tracking target proteins while maintaining optimized beam coherence conditions for imaging.

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved. Genome-wide gene expression measurements have enabled comprehensive studies that integrate the changes of gene expression and phenotypic information to uncover their novel associations. Here we reported the association analysis between psychophysical phenotypes and genome-wide gene expression changes in human adaptation to one of the most extreme climates on Earth, the Antarctic Dome Argus. Dome A is the highest ice feature in Antarctica, and may be the coldest, driest and windiest location on earth. It is considered unapproachable due to its hostile environment. In 2007, a Chinese team of 17 male explorers made the expedition to Dome A for scientific investigation. Overall, 133 psychophysical phenotypes were recorded, and genome-wide gene expression profiles from the blood samples of the explorers were measured before their departure and upon their arrival at Dome A. We found that mood disturbances, including tension, depression, anger and fatigue, had a strong, positive, linear relationship with the level of a male sex hormone, testosterone, using the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. We also demonstrated that significantly lowest-level Gene Ontology groups in changes of gene expression in blood cells with erythrocyte removal were consistent with the adaptation of the psychophysical characteristics. Interestingly, we discovered a list of genes that were strongly related to significant phenotypes using phenotype and gene expression PCC analysis. Importantly, among the 70 genes that were identified, most were significantly related to mood disturbances, where 42 genes have been reported in the literature mining, suggesting that the other 28 genes were likely novel genes involved in the mood disturbance mechanism. Taken together, our association analysis provides a reliable method to uncover novel genes and mechanisms related to phenotypes, although further studies are needed.

© 2014 Li et al. Aedes albopictus is a very invasive and aggressive insect vector that causes outbreaks of dengue fever, chikungunya disease, and yellow fever in many countries. Vector ecology and disease epidemiology are strongly affected by environmental changes. Urbanization is a worldwide trend and is one of the most ecologically modifying phenomena. The purpose of this study is to determine how environmental changes due to urbanization affect the ecology of Aedes albopictus. Aquatic habitats and Aedes albopictus larval population surveys were conducted from May to November 2013 in three areas representing rural, suburban, and urban settings in Guangzhou, China. Ae. albopictus adults were collected monthly using BG-Sentinel traps. Ae. albopictus larva and adult life-table experiments were conducted with 20 replicates in each of the three study areas. The urban area had the highest and the rural area had the lowest number of aquatic habitats that tested positive for Ae. albopictus larvae. Densities in the larval stages varied among the areas, but the urban area had almost two-fold higher densities in pupae and three-fold higher in adult populations compared with the suburban and rural areas. Larvae developed faster and the adult emergence rate was higher in the urban area than in suburban and rural areas. The survival time of adult mosquitoes was also longer in the urban area than it was in suburban and rural areas. Study regions, surface area, water depth, water clearance, surface type, and canopy coverage were important factors associated with the presence of Ae. albopictus larvae. Urbanization substantially increased the density, larval development rate, and adult survival time of Ae. albopictus, which in turn potentially increased the vector capacity, and therefore, disease transmissibility. Mosquito ecology and its correlation with dengue virus transmission should be compared in different environmental settings.

We live in a world of massive change, and each decade appears to move faster and faster. It is not just the inventions that are picking up speed, but the adoption of technologies is increasing by businesses and consumers. The early adaptors switch to general consumption at an increasing pace. Part of the increase in adoption is attributed to challenges such as a pandemic. Nevertheless, in general, the concepts of a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) are becoming a standard year-on-year driven by the exponential growth of knowledge and, therefore, technology (Jari & Lauraeus, 2019). As this chapter will explain, this exponential growth in technology would not be possible without the creative surge upon us. Organizations are promoting out-of-the-box thinking and creativity. Historically, creativity was only necessary for the arts and philosophical thinkers. Creativity has moved to its rightful place as part of our problem solving. No discussion of disruption is complete without addressing the work of Harvard professor Dr. Christensen, who for over 20 years has looked in detail at the phenomenon of disruption at the technology and business model levels. Christensen was not just aware of some new technologies’ disruptive nature and provided guidelines on how organizations should view different disruptive technologies (Christensen, 1997; Christensen, 2015; Christensen et al., 2018). Academic institutions and business schools need to embrace creativity and technology as part of the core skill sets required for successful organizations.

Self-serving leadership is a form of unethical leadership behavior that has destructive effect on its targets and the overall organization. Adopting a social cognition perspective, this study expands our knowledge of its adverse effect and the way to mitigate the effect. Integrating two sub-theories of social cognition, we propose a theoretical model wherein self-serving leadership hinders team creativity through psychological safety as well as knowledge hiding, with task interdependence acting as a contextual condition. Results from a sample of 107 R&D teams revealed that self-serving leadership not only reduced team psychological safety, but also induced team knowledge hiding, both of which ultimately affected team creativity. The presence of high task interdependence buffered the destructive effect of self-serving leadership on team creativity via team psychological safety as well as the indirect effect via knowledge hiding.