The present study was performed to understand the effects of high temperature (HT) during filling on the expression of storage proteins and the quality of rice grains. HT (35/30 °C day/night) reduced the weight, amylose content, and flour gel consistency of grains. It increased the accumulation of all classes of storage proteins at early filling stage but decreased the accumulation of prolamins at maturation. For albumins, the expressions of cyclophilin 2, peroxiredoxin, and HSP16.9 were differentially enhanced by HT. For globulins, HT decreased the accumulation of globulin but increased that of glyoxalase I and peroxiredoxin. HT enhanced the transcription of genes for glutelins, prolamins, globulins, and protein disulfide isomerase at early filling stage but decreased the expression of these genes at a later stage. Low amounts of prolamins and globulins, as well as low pH value, were found in sound, immature, and dead kernels grown under HT. The relationships among HT, storage proteins, and grain quality are discussed.

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This paper presents our latest investigation on modeling backchannel in conversations. Motivated by a proactive backchanneling theory, we aim at developing a system which acts as a proactive listener by inserting backchannels, such as continuers and assessment, to influence speakers. Our model takes into account not only lexical and acoustic cues, but also introduces the simple and novel idea of using listener embeddings to mimic different backchanneling behaviours. Our experimental results on the Switchboard benchmark dataset reveal that acoustic cues are more important than lexical cues in this task and their combination with listener embeddings works best on both, manual transcriptions and automatically generated transcriptions.

In this work, we investigate the effects of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) on a facile reversible addition− fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization driven by visible light. A DES composed of tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBACl) and ethylene glycol served as a nonvolatile medium for a variety of monomers, including methyl methacrylate, methyl acrylate, dimethylacrylamide, and styrene. We first employed the polymerization-through pathway to overcome oxygen inhibition in an open-to-air environment using methyl methacrylate as the model compound. The photoiniferter polymerization using trithiocarbonates as the chain transfer agent (CTA) in DESs exhibited enhanced polymerization rates and achieved a narrow molecular weight distribution. Interestingly, even dithiobenzoate, the CTA with low efficiency for photoiniferter polymerization, exhibited a nearly 4.5-fold increase in the apparent polymerization rate constants when compared to the reaction in dimethyl sulfoxide. Moreover, the stability of the CTAs was increased in DESs for efficient control of molecular weight distribution and preservation of functional chain ends. We then surveyed photocatalysts for photoelectron/energy transfer (PET) RAFT polymerization and found that eosin Y was compatible with DESs. The PET-RAFT polymerization using dithiobenzoate in DESs showed even higher polymerization rates than the photoiniferter polymerization and enabled the polymerization under natural sunlight. Besides methyl methacrylate, other monomers also exhibited an increased polymerization rate in DESs, comparable to reactions in ionic liquids. These results suggest that DESs are effective and green media to facilitate photo-induced RAFT polymerization without additives or tedious degassing processes.

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