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High transformation efficiency is a prerequisite for study of gene function and molecular breeding. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation is a preferred method in many plants. However, the transformation efficiency in soybean is still low. The objective of this study is to optimize Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in soybean by improving the infection efficiency of Agrobacterium and regeneration efficiency of explants. Firstly, four factors affecting Agrobacterium infection efficiency were investigated by estimation of the rate of GUS transient expression in soybean cotyledonary explants, including Agrobacterium concentrations, soybean explants, Agrobacterium suspension medium, and co-cultivation time. The results showed that an infection efficiency of over 96% was achieved by collecting the Agrobacterium at a concentration of OD650 = 0.6, then using an Agrobacterium suspension medium containing 154.2 mg/L dithiothreitol to infect the half-seed cotyledonary explants (from mature seeds imbibed for 1 day), and co-cultured them for 5 days. The Agrobacterium infection efficiencies for soybean varieties Jack Purple and Tianlong 1 were higher than the other six varieties. Secondly, the rates of shoot elongation were compared among six different concentration combinations of gibberellic acid (GA3) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The shoot elongation rate of 34 and 26% was achieved when using the combination of 1.0 mg/L GA3 and 0.1 mg/L IAA for Jack Purple and Tianlong 1, respectively. This rate was higher than the other five concentration combinations of GA3 and IAA, with an 18 and 11% increase over the original laboratory protocol (a combination of 0.5 mg/L GA3 and 0.1 mg/L IAA), respectively. The transformation efficiency was 7 and 10% for Jack Purple and Tianlong 1 at this optimized hormone concentration combination, respectively, which was 2 and 6% higher than the original protocol, respectively. Finally, GUS histochemical staining, PCR, herbicide (glufosinate) painting, and QuickStix Kit for Liberty Link (bar) were used to verify the positive transgenic plants, and absolute quantification PCR confirmed the exogenous gene existed as one to three copies in the soybean genome. This study provides an improved protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in soybean and a useful reference to improve the transformation efficiency in other plant species.

As an emerging subclass of 2D materials, Xenes (e.g., borophene, silicene, germanene, stanene, phosphorene, arsenene, antimonene, and bismuthene) consist of one single element and have opened the door for various important applications. Benefiting from their impressive characteristics, including ultrathin folded structure, ultrahigh surface–volume ratio, excellent mechanical strength and flexibility, Xenes are considered as promising electrode materials in the field of electrochemical energy with large capacity, high rate, and high safety. This review provides a comprehensive summary of selected properties, synthetic challenges, and the latest theoretical and experimental advances in the energy‐related applications of Xenes, including Li/Na ion batteries, Li–S batteries, electrocatalysis, and supercapacitors. Finally, the challenges and outlook of this emerging field are discussed.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) broke out in China in January 2020 and has been effectively controlled in April 2020 after China's relentless efforts. People's engagement in disease-related preventive behaviors is crucial in containing such infectious disease. Vulnerable populations often have higher chances of developing severe illness from COVID-19 and the mortality rate is also higher. Thus, at-risk populations for COVID-19 request extra attention. The current study conducted a national online survey among vulnerable populations in China in early February 2020 to examine their engagement in coronavirus-related preventive health behaviors (e.g., frequent handwashing) and the potential determinants including factors from the Health Belief Model, trust in different media sources, and health literacy. The results suggested that the vulnerable populations' engagement in coronavirus-related preventive behaviors were significantly associated with barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, trust in doctors' social media, and trust in TV for COVID-19-related information. Besides, barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, trust in doctors' social media, and trust in TV mediated the effects of health literacy on preventive behaviors. Our findings provided directions for future health promotions and interventions targeting vulnerable populations to enhance their preventive behaviors in China.

Background Since January 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) swept over China and then the world, causing a global public health crisis. People’s adoption of preventive and intervening behaviors is critical in curbing the spread of the virus. Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate Chinese people’s adoption of health behaviors in responding to COVID-19 and to identify key determinants for their engagement. Methods An anonymous online questionnaire was distributed in early February 2020 among Mainland Chinese (18 years or older) to examine their engagement in preventive behaviors (eg, frequent handwashing, wearing masks, staying at home) and intervening behaviors (eg, advising family to wash hands frequently), and to explore potential determinants for their adoption of these health behaviors. Results Out of 2949 participants, 55.3% (n=1629) reported frequent engagement in preventive health behaviors, and over 84% (n=2493) performed at least one intervening health behavior. Greater engagement in preventive behaviors was found among participants who received higher education, were married, reported fewer barriers and greater benefits of engagement, reported greater self-efficacy and emotional support, had greater patient-centered communication before, had a greater media literacy level, and had greater new media and traditional media use for COVID-19 news. Greater engagement in intervening behaviors was observed among participants who were married, had lower income, reported greater benefits of health behaviors, had greater patient-centered communication before, had a lower media literacy level, and had a greater new media and traditional media use for COVID-19 news. Conclusions Participants’ engagement in coronavirus-related preventive and intervening behaviors was overall high, and the associations varied across demographic and psychosocial variables. Hence, customized health interventions that address the determinants for health behaviors are needed to improve people’s adherence to coronavirus-related behavior guidelines.

Objective Recent studies have revealed a link between toll-like receptors (TLRs), Kruppel-like factors (KLFs), and the adipose tissue inflammation associated with obesity. TLR4 is associated with chronic inflammation in obesity. KLF7 is known to play an important role in the differentiation of adipocytes, but its role in visceral adipose tissue inflammation has not yet been investigated. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the correlation of TLR4 and KLF7 in inflammation induced by obesity. Methods A total of 32 Wistar male rat subjects were fed in the center for experimental animals of Shihezi University. The rats were divided into normal control (NC) and high-fat diet (HFD) group. Surgical instruments were used to collect rats' visceral adipose tissue samples in the 10th week after HFD feeding. Ninety-five Uygur subjects between 20 and 90 years old were enrolled in the present study. The subjects were divided into two groups: the normal control group (NC, 18.0 kg/m ≤ BMI ≤ 23.9 kg/m, n = 50) and the obesity group (OB, BMI ≥ 28 kg/m, n = 45), and visceral adipose tissue was collected from the subjects. Anthropometric and clinical parameters were measured using standard procedures; biochemical indices were detected using the glucose oxidase-peroxidase method and a standardized automatic biochemistry analyzer; the plasma levels of inflammatory factors and adipocytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); the mRNA and protein expression levels of key genes involved in the inflammatory signaling pathway were measured by real-time PCR and Western blot. Results In rats, compared with the NC group, the weight, Lee's index, waist circumference, visceral fat mass, and the plasma level of Glu, TG, FFA, and TNF-α were higher in the HFD group, while the plasma levels of LPT and APN were significantly lower in the HFD group in the 10th week. Furthermore, compared with the NC group, visceral adipose tissue's mRNA expression levels of TLR4, KLF7, and SRC were higher in the HFD group, and KLF7 was significantly positively correlated with LDL, TLR4, SRC, and IL-6 (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, in the Uygur population, the plasma levels of TG, LDL, and TNF-α in the OB group were significantly higher than those in the NC group (P < 0.05). Moreover, compared with the NC group, visceral adipose tissue's mRNA expression levels of TLR4, KLF7, and SRC were significantly higher in the OB group (P < 0.05), and KLF7 was significantly positively correlated with TC, TLR4, MYD88, SRC, and IL-6 (P < 0.05); the protein expression levels of TLR4 and KLF7 were significantly higher than those in the NC group (P < 0.05). Conclusion Higher expression of TLR4 and KLF7 may play a vital role in the process of inflammation induced by obesity in visceral adipose tissue.

Grasslands in semi-arid Northern China are widely desertified, thus inducing the formation of a large area of moving sand lands. Revegetation of the sandy land is commonly adopted to restore degraded grasslands. The structure of the soil microbial community might dramatically change during degradation and recovery because microorganisms are one of the major drivers of ecological process through their interactions with plants and soil. Assuming that soil properties are the key determinants of the structure of soil bacterial community within the same soil type, whether the vegetation type causes the significant difference in the structure of soil bacterial community during revegetation and restoration of the degraded grasslands remains poorly understood. Our study aimed to (1) investigate the response of soil bacterial communities to the changes during vegetation degradation and recovery and (2) evaluate whether the soil bacterial communities under plantations return to their native state. We detected the shifts in diversities and compositions of the soil bacterial communities and the relative abundance of dominant bacterial taxa by using the high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing technique in an area covered by 32-year-old Caragana microphylla, Artemisia halodendron, Hedysarum fruticosum, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Populus simonii, and Salix gordejevii sand-fixing plantations and in the native community (NC) dominated by elm, and moving sandy dune (MS). We found that the obtained operational taxonomic units by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and diversity index in MS were all significantly lower than those in NC, and the number and composition of dominant genera were significantly different between NC and MS. Interestingly, the compositions of bacterial communities and the dominant genera in different sand-fixation plantations (C. microphylla, A. halodendron, H. fruticosum, P. sylvestris var. mongolica, P. simonii, and S. gordejevii) were all similar to those of the native soil of NC, suggesting that the plantation type and soil properties exhibit a minimal effect on the compositions of soil microbial communities within a continuous landscape. These results revealed that the structure of the soil bacterial community of degraded sandy grassland (even degenerated into a mobile sand dunes) in semi-arid region can be reversibly restored by planting indigenous shrub or semi-shrub plantation on human time scales.

To meet the radiosonde requirement of high sensitivity and linearity, this study designs and implements a monolithically integrated array-type piezoresistive intelligent pressure sensor system which is made up of two groups of four pressure sensors with the pressure range of 0–50 kPa and 0–100 kPa respectively. First, theoretical models and ANSYS (version 14.5, Canonsburg, PA, USA) finite element method (FEM) are adopted to optimize the parameters of array sensor structure. Combing with FEM stress distribution results, the size and material characteristics of the array-type sensor are determined according to the analysis of the sensitivity and the ratio of signal to noise (SNR). Based on the optimized parameters, the manufacture and packaging of array-type sensor chips are then realized by using the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process. Furthermore, an intelligent acquisition and processing system for pressure and temperature signals is achieved. The S3C2440A microprocessor (Samsung, Seoul, Korea) is regarded as the core part which can be applied to collect and process data. In particular, digital signal storage, display and transmission are realized by the application of a graphical user interface (GUI) written in QT/E. Besides, for the sake of compensating the temperature drift and nonlinear error, the data fusion technique is proposed based on a wavelet neural network improved by genetic algorithm (GA-WNN) for average measuring signal. The GA-WNN model is implemented in hardware by using a S3C2440A microprocessor. Finally, the results of calibration and test experiments achieved with the temperature ranges from −20 to 20 °C show that: (1) the nonlinear error and the sensitivity of the array-type pressure sensor are 8330 × 10−4 and 0.052 mV/V/kPa in the range of 0–50 kPa, respectively; (2) the nonlinear error and the sensitivity are 8129 × 10−4 and 0.020 mV/V/kPa in the range of 50–100 kPa, respectively; (3) the overall error of the intelligent pressure sensor system is maintained at ±0.252% within the hybrid composite range (0–100 kPa). The involved results indicate that the developed array-type composite pressure sensor has good performance, which can provide a useful reference for the development of multi-range MEMS piezoresistive pressure sensor.