Laying performance is an important economic trait in hens, and this physiological process is largely influenced by the liver function. The livers of hens at 20- and 30-week-old stages were investigated using the next generation sequencing to identify the differences of microRNA expression profiles. Compared with the 20-week-old hens, 67 down- and 13 up-regulated microRNAs were verified to be significant differentially expressed (false discovery rate, FDR ≤ 0.05) (SDE) in the 30-week-old. We also identified 13 down- and 6 up-regulated novel differentially expressed (DE) microRNAs. miR-22-3p and miR-146b-5p, which exhibit critical roles in mammalian lipid metabolism, showed the most abundant expression and the highest fold-change, respectively. A total of 648 potential target genes of the SDE microRNAs were identified through an integrated analysis of microRNAs and the DE genes obtained in previous RNA-sequencing, including FADS1, FADS2, ELOVL6 and ACSL5, which are critical lipid metabolism-related regulators. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that target genes were mainly enriched in lipid-related metabolism processes. This work provides the first study of the expression patterns of hepatic microRNAs between 20- and 30-week old hens. The findings may serve as a fundamental resource for understanding the detailed functions of microRNAs in the molecular regulatory systems of lipid metabolism.

Artificial haptic sensors form the basis of touch-based human-interfaced applications. However, they are unable to respond to remote events before physical contact. Some elasmobranch fishes, such as seawater sharks, use electroreception somatosensory system for remote environmental perception. Inspired by this ability, we design a soft artificial electroreceptor for sensing approaching targets. The electroreceptor, enabled by an elastomeric electret, is capable of encoding environmental precontact information into a series of voltage pulses functioning as unique precontact human interfaces. Electroceptor applications are demonstrated in a prewarning system, robotic control, game operation, and three-dimensional object recognition. These capabilities in perceiving proximal precontact events can lenrich the functionalities and applications of human-interfaced electronics.

The tribovoltaic effect at the dynamic semiconductor interfaces has been an emerging hot topic due to its potential impact in energy harvesting and smart electronics. Previously, this effect is mainly...

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Chlorophyll-containing oxygenic photoautotrophs have been well known to play a fundamental role in the development of biological soil crusts (BSCs) by harvesting solar radiations and providing fixed carbon to the BSCs ecosystems. Although the same functions can be theoretically fulfilled by the widespread bacteriochlorophyll-harboring aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAnPB), whether AAnPB play a role in the formation of BSCs and how important they are to this process remain largely unknown. To address these questions, we set up a microcosm system with surface sands of the Hopq desert in northern China and observed the significant effects of near-infrared illumination on the development of BSCs. Compared to near-infrared or red light alone, the combined use of near-infrared and red lights for illumination greatly increased the thickness of BSCs, their organic matter contents and the microalgae abundance by 24.0, 103.7, and 1447.6%, respectively. These changes were attributed to the increasing abundance of AAnPB that can absorb near-infrared radiations. Our data suggest that AAnPB is a long-overlooked driver in promoting the development of BSCs in drylands.

Exchange bias field (HEB) accompanying vertical magnetization shift (ΔM) is observed in a granular system composed of ferrimagnetic (Ferri) NiFe2O4 nanoparticles embedded in an antiferromagnetic NiO matrix, after the sample is cooled from 350 to 10 K under a 40 kOe magnetic field. Consecutive hysteresis loops show that both HEB and ΔM decrease with magnetic field cycling, which is referred to as the training effect. Furthermore, HEB shows a linear dependence on ΔM throughout the training procedure, and HEB originates mainly from the cycle-dependent shift of the left coercivity (HC1) while the right coercivity (HC2) remains almost constant. This observed training effect is interpreted in the framework of the spin configurational relaxation model.

Rill erosion accounts for approximately 70% of the total erosion of upland areas in China's Loess Plateau. A laboratory rainfall experiment with deionized water was conducted to examine the process of rill evolution and the relationship between runoff, rill evolution, and erosion rates for clay loam and loess soils given a fixed slope gradient (10°) and two rainfall intensities (1.5 and 2.0 mm min−1). The results show that rills evolved from a series of parallel drop‐pit chains along the down‐slope direction. Clay loam soil produced rills under a rainfall intensity of 1.5 mm min−1, and loess soil produced rills only under higher rainfall intensity. The temporal change in sediment concentration and erosion rate shows good consistency with the emergence of drop pits and rills. An increase in rainfall intensity had little effect on the sediment concentration and erosion rate for clay loam soil, whereas for loess soil, both increased rapidly and exceeded those of clay loam soil, with the emergence of a rill when the rainfall intensity was higher. Rills have a much greater effect on sediment concentration and erosion rate for loess soil than for clay loam soil. This study indicates that soil texture has a major impact on rill formation; clay loam soil is more subject to rill formation, but the rills formed are generally small and do not substantially increase soil loss. In contrast, the well‐developed rills in silt loam soil can result in intensive soil loss, though rills occur infrequently. Basic understanding of these results, causes, and quantification are essential for the prediction and evaluation of soil loss.

The segregation phenomena of a mixture of two types of particles with different frictional properties in a rotating drum are studied by simulations which mimic the granular flow by a surface flow and a bulk solid rotation. The surface flow is modeled by rules similar to sandpile models. Radial segregation is clearly observed but will occur only if the rotational transport rate is less than some critical value. Furthermore, linear growth in segregation is also observed in the early stage of demixing, similar to observations of real experiments. [S0031-9007 (97)04873-4] PACS numbers: 46.10. + z, 05.70.Jk, 64.75. + g Granular materials (see Refs. [1,2] for reviews) consist of macroscopic solid particles which are not especially interesting if considered individually. However, unusually collective behaviors such as heaping [3,4], fluidization [5,6], and segregation [7,8] are observed when these solid particles are subjected to excitations. Since these collective behaviors are produced by hydrodynamic, frictional, and geometric nonlinear interactions among the particles, the mechanisms underlying these collective behaviors are not well understood yet. Here we are interested in the problem of segregation of binary granular materials in a rotating drum or cylinder which have received a lot of attention recently [7-11]. Although many system parameters, such as sizes, shapes, friction, filling factors, etc., can affect the segregation mechanism, earlier studies of the segregation problems were mainly concerned with the geometric effects or size factors [12][13][14] because these effects can be readily simulated by methods of Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics. However, a friction driven segregation mechanism is proposed recently to explain the observations of the segregation of a mixture of grains of nearly the same size [9] but of different frictional properties in a rotating cylinder. Very little is known about the nature of the proposed friction driven segregation mechanism.In this Letter, we report the results of a new simulation model which is designed to study the friction driven segregation mechanism. Our simulation model is essentially an extended version of the well known sandpile model proposed by Bak, Tang, and Wiesenfeld (BTW) [15] that exhibits self-organized criticality (SOC), but with two types of grains. Rules similar to the sandpile model are constructed to incorporate the difference in the frictional properties of the two types of grains. Additional rules are also added to mimic the material transport in a rotating drum or cylinder. Therefore, our model can be qualitatively mapped to the rotating drum experiments. We find that radial segregation, similar to the size segregation, can be observed in our friction driven model. However, this radial segregation will occur only if the rotational transport rate v is less than some critical value. Furthermore, our results also show that the dynamics of friction driven seg-regation is similar to those driven by size effects as both segregations increase linearly w...