Erratum: Electromagnetic Irradiation Evokes Physiological and Molecular Alterations in Rice.

Spatio-spectral analyses of electromagnetic wave energy absorption and heating effect

Model of the electromagnetic field absorption in granular high T c superconductors

Rice (Oryza sativa L.), originating from tropical and subtropical regions, is a cold-sensitive and water-demanding crop whose yield and quality are severely compromised by chilling injury or water deficits during growth and development. In this study, we systematically characterized Cold and Drought Resistance 1 (OsCDR1), a nucleus-localized transcription activator belonging to the bZIP transcription factor family. OsCDR1 overexpression enhances rice tolerance to cold and drought stress, whereas knockout mutants of OsCDR1 exhibit reduced resistance to low temperatures and drought conditions. Furthermore, OsCDR1 positively regulates abscisic acid (ABA) signaling in rice, and mediates ABA-regulated drought tolerance responses in rice. Integrated RNA-seq and CUT&Tag analyses demonstrated that OsCDR1 coordinates with ABA-dependent (PIP2;2) and -independent genes (DREB1J). OsCDR1 specifically binds to the G-box cis-element in the promoters of PIP2;2 and DREB1J, thereby activating their transcription and regulating the abiotic stress responses in rice. Protein interaction analysis revealed that OsCDR1 interacts with the kinase OsMPK9 in vivo and in vitro, and a dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that OsMPK9 and OsCDR1 regulate the transcription of DREB1J and PIP2;2 in the same functional pathway. Overexpression of OsMPK9 inhibits ABA responses in rice and reduces cold and drought tolerance. Our findings establish the OsMPK9-OsCDR1 module as a critical hub connecting ABA signaling to abiotic stress resilience, providing new insights for breeding crops.

The application of microwaves has a demonstrated potential for the ultimate removal of water from fine coal. The electromagnetic energy absorption in coal during microwave drying is controlled by several factors, with dielectric properties being among the most important. In this paper, the measured dielectric properties of various ranks of coal are presented as a function of frequency and moisture content. A knowledge of the dielectric properties is essential in estimating the electromagnetic energy absorption in coal during microwave heating.

An empircal relationship is presented for the whole-body-average electromagnetic energy absorption in a 180-cell block model of man for near-field exposure conditions. Consideration is restricted to near fields with P polarization (no component of E directed arm-to-arm) in which the magnitude of the incident electric field is maximum immediately in front of the abdominal region. A highlight of this work is the considerably reduced whole-body average energy absorption for near-field partial-body exposures as compared to that obtained under plane-wave irradiation conditions.

Diverse abiotic and biotic stresses have marked effects on plant growth and productivity. To combat such stresses, plants have evolved complex but not well understood responses. Common effects upon perception of environmental stress are differential expression of the plant proteome and the synthesis of novel regulatory proteins for protection from and acclimation to stress conditions. Plants respond differently in terms of activation of stress-responsive signaling pathways depending upon the type and nature of the stresses to which they are exposed. Progress in proteomics and systems biology approaches has made it possible to identify the novel proteins and their interactions that function in abiotic stress responses. This will enable elucidation of the functions of individual proteins and their roles in signaling networks. Proteomic analysis of the responses to various stress conditions is performed most commonly using 2D gel electrophoresis and high-throughput identification by LC-MS/MS. Because of recent developments in proteomics techniques, numerous proteomics studies of rice under abiotic stress conditions have been performed. In this review, proteomics studies addressing rice responses to the major environmental stresses--including cold, heat, drought, salt, heavy metals, minerals, UV radiation, and ozone--are discussed. Unique or common protein responses to these stress conditions are summarized and interpreted according to their possible physiological responses in each stress. Additionally, proteomics studies on various plant systems under various abiotic stress conditions are compared to provide deeper understanding of specific and common proteome responses in rice and other plant systems, which will further contribute to the identification of abiotic stress tolerance factor at protein level. Functional analysis of stress-responsive proteins will provide new research objectives with the aim of achieving stable crop productivity in the face of the increasing abiotic stress conditions caused by global climate change.

Electromagnetic wave absorption performance of porous geopolymer: Dual effects of fly ash on alkali activation and microwave dissipation

Lesion mimic mutants spontaneously produce disease spots in the absence of biotic or abiotic stresses. Analyzing lesion mimic mutants’ sheds light on the mechanisms underlying programmed cell death and defense-related responses in plants. Here, we isolated and characterized the rice (Oryza sativa) spotted leaf 36 (spl36) mutant, which was identified from an ethyl methanesulfonate-mutagenized japonica cultivar Yundao population. spl36 displayed spontaneous cell death and enhanced resistance to rice bacterial pathogens. Gene expression analysis suggested that spl36 functions in the disease response by upregulating the expression of defense-related genes. Physiological and biochemical experiments indicated that more cell death occurred in spl36 than the wild type and that plant growth and development were affected in this mutant. We isolated SPL36 by map-based cloning. A single base substitution was detected in spl36, which results in a cysteine-to-arginine substitution in SPL36. SPL36 is predicted to encode a receptor-like protein kinase containing leucine-rich domains that may be involved in stress responses in rice. spl36 was more sensitive to salt stress than the wild type, suggesting that SPL36 also negatively regulates the salt-stress response. These findings suggest that SPL36 regulates the disease resistance response in rice by affecting the expression of defense- and stress-related genes.

C2 domain-containing proteins (C2DPs) have been identified in different genomes that contain single or multiple C2 domains in their C- or N-terminal. It possesses higher functional activity in the transmembrane regions. The identification of C2 domains were reported in a previous study, such as multiple C2 domains and transmembrane-region proteins (MCTPs) and N-terminal-TM-C2 domain proteins (NTMC2s) of rice, Arabidopsis thaliana, and cotton, whereas the C2DP gene family in rice has not been comprehensively studied, and the role of the C2DP gene in rice in response to abiotic stress is not yet fully understood. In this study, we identified 82 C2DPs in the rice genome and divided them into seven groups through phylogenetic analysis. The synteny analysis revealed that duplication events were either exhibited within the genome of rice or between the genomes of rice and other species. Through the analysis of cis-acting elements in promoters, expression profiles, and qRT-PCR results, the functions of OsC2DPs were found to be widely distributed in diverse tissues and were extensively involved in phytohormones-related and abiotic stresses response in rice. The prediction of the microRNA (miRNA) targets of OsC2DPs revealed the possibility of regulation by consistent miRNAs. Notably, OsC2DP50/51/52 as a co-tandem duplication exhibited similar expression variations and involved the coincident miRNA-regulation pathway. Moreover, the results of the genotypic variation and haplotype analysis revealed that OsC2DP17, OsC2DP29, and OsC2DP49 were associated with cold stress responses. These findings provided comprehensive insights for characterizations of OsC2DPs in rice as well as for their roles for abiotic stress.

Abiotic stress causes loss of crop production. Under abiotic stress conditions, expression of many genes is induced, and their products have important roles in stress responses and tolerance. Progress has been made in understanding the biological roles of regulons in abiotic stress responses in rice. A number of transcription factors (TFs) regulate stress-responsive gene expression. OsDREB1s and OsDREB2s were identified as abiotic-stress responsive TFs that belong to the AP2/ERF family. Similar to Arabidopsis, these DREB regulons were most likely not involved in the abscisic acid (ABA) pathway. OsAREBs such as OsAREB1 were identified as key components in ABA-dependent transcriptional networks in rice. OsNAC/SNACs including OsNAC6 were characterized as factors that regulate expression of genes important for abiotic stress responses in rice. Here, we review on the rice abiotic-stress responses mediated by transcriptional networks, with the main focus on TFs that function in abiotic stress responses and confer stress tolerance in rice.

Ternary Mo2C/Co/C composites with enhanced electromagnetic waves absorption

A technique is proposed for thermal diffusivity measurement in fluids. It is based on the Angstrom method, but with excitation of thermal waves by electromagnetic energy absorption and pyroelectric detection. The good agreement between measured thermal diffusivity of air and some test liquids with literature values shows the validity of the method. It is free of some limitations of conventional photopyroelectric technique with length scanning because it is free of moving parts inside the sample and because it avoids problems associated with the non-parallelism between thermal wave generator surface and sensor. It does not require any data normalization procedure or special sample preparation.

Influence of the polarization relaxation times on the cascade mechanism of high energy level excitation is investigated. Appearance of this mechanism in any situation is shown.

The specific absorption rate (SAR) is an indicator of the thermal effects caused by microwave exposure in biological tissues. Electric field probe scanning has been used as a practical SAR evaluation technology until now. A measurement standard is necessary for any physical quantity. In general, the existence of a standard constructed with a physically different procedure is important in uncertainty evaluation of the measurement standard. In this paper, a thermal SAR measurement method using an optical fiber thermal sensor is proposed. The thermal SAR measurement method is not suitable for dosimetric assessments for an actual cellular phone. Nevertheless, the proposed method is a simple measurement technique for measuring the temperature rise caused in an equivalent biological tissue (semisolid phantom) by electromagnetic energy absorption. A thermal sensor works independently of the frequency and is, therefore, suitable for primary testing of an electric field probe scanning system. The measurement utility of the proposed thermal SAR measurement method was verified in this paper. The results show that the proposed method is able to measure SAR within an error range of 1%-3% above 2 GHz.

This paper deals with experimental results obtained on a laboratory scale dryer. Two porous media were dried, a packing of initially water saturated glass beads and a packing of initially unsaturated pharmaceutical granules. For the first one, the main parameter is permeability of the bed varying the beads diameter and for the second one it is the porosity of the bed varying the amount of product. These experiments were carried out at fixed incident power and pressure level. During the first period of drying, it was observed that permeability was a limiting parameter to internal mass transfers when free liquid water is expulsed, revealing high gas pressure gradients inside the product. They occur when we have a massive vaporization with ebullition. As for the porosity of the granules bed, it has no effect on mass transfers. During the second period, we have no influence of both parameters on the drying kinetics. In the last period, so in the hygroscopic field or below the irreducible saturation, the internal mass transfers are governed by the electromagnetic energy absorption.