Trade-off Strategy Research Articles

Heat stress-induced decapping of WUSCHEL mRNA enhances stem cell thermotolerance in Arabidopsis

The plasticity of stem cells in response to environmental change is critical for multicellular organisms. Here, we show that MYB3R-like directly activates the key plant stem cell regulator WUSCHEL (WUS) by recruiting the methyltransferase ROOT INITIATION DEFECTIVE 2 (RID2), which functions in m7G methylation at the 5’ cap of WUS mRNA to protect it from degradation. We demonstrated that protein-folding genes are repressed by WUS to maintain precise protein synthesis in stem cells by preventing the reuse of misfolded proteins. However, upon heat stress, the MYB3R-like/RID2 module is repressed to reduce WUS transcripts via the decapping of nascent WUS mRNA. This releases the inhibition of protein folding capacity in stem cells and protects plant stem cells from heat-shock by eliminating misfolded protein aggregation. Our results reveal a tradeoff strategy in plants by reducing the accuracy of protein synthesis in exchange for the survival of stem cells at high temperatures.

A Novel Control Strategy for Optimal Tradeoff between Overshoot and Switching Loss Based on Double Closed-Loop Self-Regulating Active Gate Driver

A Novel Control Strategy for Optimal Tradeoff between Overshoot and Switching Loss Based on Double Closed-Loop Self-Regulating Active Gate Driver

Reversible Li-ion trade-off in ultrathick sulfur cathodes for practical lean Li–S batteries

The use of low electrolyte volume is beneficial to improve energy density but severely limits access over obscured sulfur, along with sluggish ion kinetics and aggravated polarization, as the ion imbalance across the multicomponent interface of thick sulfur cathodes at a lean electrolyte viciously dominates the sulfur electrokinetics. Herein, we demonstrate that an ion imbalance at the interfaces of a thick electrode with a lean electrolyte can be compensated by the ion trade-off strategy utilizing a cationic ion conductive active binder. It ensures sustained lithium-ion donation/release over the vicinity of slow electrolyte percolation to realize an ion-enriched sulfur–binder–electrolyte interface. The in-situ evolved ionic interface essentially activates the inaccessible sulfur, bringing about additional capacity and low ion and charge transfer resistances. The active binder adopts sulfur cathodes housing 8.1 mg cm–2 with an E/S ratio of 6 µL mg–1 electrochemically utilized 60.89 % sulfur, corresponding to a 1020 mAh g–1 capacity. The lean Li–S pouch cell delivers an energy density of 324 Wh kg–1, demonstrating the efficacy of ion trade-off to ease the interfacial barrier. This study would open up a new paradigm in potentially designing thick electrodes for multiple high energy density batteries.

ACDRL: A constraint-guided dynamic reinforcement learning for index selection

Index selection aims to find the optimal index configuration for a certain workload. In recent years, the database committee has attempted to develop an intelligent index advisor for replacing database administrators (DBAs). Although some researches show that applying reinforcement learning (RL) to index selection is a significant and promising direction, many problems still exist in applying the RL agent to the index selection i.e. long training time, unstable performance, and limited state representation. To address these issues, we propose a constraint-guided dynamic RL for index selection. Specifically, our method has three major contributions: (i) To balance the space consumption and index configuration quality, we design a dynamic index state structure to avoid missing effective indexes in limited space consumption. (ii) To accelerate agent training, we design a constraint-guided method to largely reduce useless explorations. (iii) To keep the stability of the RL, we propose the trade-off strategy for value function design instead of using Q_network mindlessly. We test our ACDRL with two open-source benchmarks, TPC-H and TPC-DS. The experimental results show that our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods and could find the optimal index configurations with limited time consumption.

Growth response of dominant species and companion species to grazing and precipitation addition in a typical steppe

Growth strategies of plant populations plays an important role in biodiversity and productivity of community while over half 77% of global terrestrial ecosystem is used for grazing and simultaneously 30%-40% is exposed to precipitation addition (PA). However, the combined effects of grazing and PA on plant population growth and their relationship with community characteristics remain poorly understood, largely due to the limited number and quality of field experiments. Hereby, a four-year PA experiment was conducted in long-term grazed paddocks in a typical steppe, which aimed to compare the effects of both grazing and PA on the growth, reproduction, and trade-offs between dominant and companion species. The interaction between grazing and PA prompted the dominant species to adopt a horizontal growth strategy and sexual reproduction, allocating 69 % of its resources to offspring production, whereas the companion species opted for a vertical growth strategy and asexual reproduction, allocating 87 % of its resources to individual survival and dispersal. This trade-off strategy increased the proportion of dominant species while companion species remained stable, and PA mitigated this trend while concurrently decreasing the proportion of other species within the community. The interaction between grazing and PA promotes the coupling of aboveground biomass and species riches in community by decreasing plant height of dominant and companion species and increasing canopy diameter of companion species. There were mainly four biotic response curves of dominant and companion species to grazing and PA interaction: full saturation, sufficient saturation, equal saturation, and deficit saturation. Correspondingly, there were three pairs of threshold values for three phases of each pattern. Our study reveals how communities improve their adaptability by regulating population growth, providing important insights for developing sustainable grazing management strategies under global climate change.

An agent-based persuasion model using emotion-driven concession and multi-objective optimization

Multi-attribute negotiation is essentially a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem, where models of agent-based emotional persuasion (EP) can exhibit characteristics of anthropomorphism. This paper proposes a novel EP model by fusing the strategy of emotion-driven concession with the method of multi-objective optimization (EDC-MOO). Firstly, a comprehensive emotion model is designed to enhance the authenticity of the emotion. A novel concession strategy is then proposed to enable the concession to be dynamically tuned by the emotions of the agents. Finally, a new EP model is constructed by integrating emotion, historical transaction, persuasion behavior, and concession strategy under the framework of MOO. Comprehensive experiments on bilateral negotiation are conducted to illustrate and validate the effectiveness of EDC-MOO. These include an analysis of negotiations under five distinct persuasion styles, a comparison of EDC-MOO with a non-emotion-based MOO negotiation model and classic trade-off strategies, negotiations between emotion-driven and non-emotion-driven agents, and negotiations involving human participants. A detailed analysis of parameter sensitivity is also discussed. Experimental results show that the proposed EDC-MOO model can enhance the diversity of the negotiation process and the anthropomorphism of the bilateral agents, thereby improving the social welfare of both parties.

Comparative study of integrated bio-responses in deep-sea and nearshore mussels upon abiotic condition changes: Insight into distinct regulation and adaptation

Deep-sea mussels, one of the dominant species in most deep-sea ecosystems, have long been used as model organisms to investigate the adaptations and symbiotic relationships of deep-sea macrofauna under laboratory conditions due to their ability to survive under atmospheric pressure. However, the impact of additional abiotic conditions beyond pressure, such as temperature and light, on their physiological characteristics remains unknown.In this study, deep-sea mussels (Gigantidas platifrons) from cold seep of the South China Sea, along with nearshore mussels (Mytilus coruscus) from the East China Sea, were reared in unfavorable abiotic conditions for up to 8 days. Integrated biochemical indexes including antioxidant defense, immune ability and energy metabolism were investigated in the gill and digestive gland, while cytotoxicity was determined in hemocytes of both types of mussels. The results revealed mild bio-responses in two types of mussels in the laboratory, represented by the effective antioxidant defense with constant total antioxidant capability level and malondialdehyde content. There were also disparate adaptations in deep-sea and nearshore mussels. In deep-sea mussels, significantly increased immune response and energy reservation were observed in gills, together with the elevated cytotoxicity in hemocytes, implying the more severe biological adaptation was required, mainly due to the symbiotic bacteria loss under laboratory conditions. On the contrary, insignificant biological responses were exhibited in nearshore mussels except for the increased energy consumption, indicating the trade-off strategy to use more energy to deal with potential stress.Overall, this comparative study highlights the basal bio-responses of deep-sea and nearshore mussels out of their native environments, providing evidence that short-term culture of both mussels under easily achievable laboratory conditions would not dramatically alter their biological status. This finding will assist in broadening the application of deep-sea mussels as model organism in future research regardless of the specialized research equipment.

Low-Latency Adaptive Distributed Stream Join System Based on a Flexible Join Model

Stream join is a fundamental operation in stream processing and has attracted extensive research due to its large resource consumption and serious impact on system performance. As the theoretical basis of stream join systems, the stream join model greatly affects system performance. State-of-the-art stream join models either consume too much computing resources or too much storage resources, thus resulting in lower throughput or higher latency. In this paper, we propose a new stream join model for processing arbitrary join predicates, called CoModel, which offers a flexible trade-off between memory and computing resource consumption. More importantly, CoModel can achieve the minimum sum of the number of store operations and join operations among all existing join models, and thus can achieve the lowest latency and highest throughput when the overheads associated with the local stream join for each input tuple are approximately constant. We give a trade-off strategy for CoModel and theoretically prove its performance advantages based on queuing theory. Furthermore, we design and implement an adaptive distributed stream join system, CoStream, based on CoModel. CoStream can adaptively adjust its structure according to resource constraints and statistics of input data. We conduct extensive experiments for CoStream to evaluate its performance and adaptivity, and the results show that CoStream has the lowest latency and highest throughput in various scenarios.

The detoxification ability of sex-role reversed seahorses determines the sexual dimorphism in immune responses to benzo[a]pyrene exposure

Sexual dimorphism in immune responses is an essential factor in environmental adaptation. However, the mechanisms involved remain obscure owing to the scarcity of data from sex-role-reversed species in stressed conditions. Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is one of the most pervasive and carcinogenic organic pollutants in coastal environments. In this study, we evaluated the potential effects on renal immunotoxicity of the sex-role-reversed lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) toward environmental concentrations BaP exposure. Our results discovered the presence of different energy-immunity trade-off strategies adopted by female and male seahorses during BaP exposure. BaP induced more severe renal damage in female seahorses in a concentration-dependent manner. BaP biotransformation and detoxification in seahorses resemble those in mammals. Benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-oxide (BPDE) and 9-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene (9-OH-BaP) formed DNA adducts and disrupted Ca2+ homeostasis may together attribute the renal immunotoxicity. Sexual dimorphisms in detoxification of both BPDE and 9-OH-BaP, and in regulation of Ca2+, autophagy and inflammation, mainly determined the extent of renal damage. Moreover, the mechanism of sex hormones regulated sexual dimorphism in immune responses needs to be further elucidated. Collectively, these findings contribute to the understanding of sexual dimorphism in the immunotoxicity induced by BaP exposure in seahorses, which may attribute to the dramatic decline in the biodiversity of the genus.

Exploration the interaction of cadmium and copper toxic effects in pakchoi (Brassica chinensis L) roots through combinatorial transcriptomic and weighted gene co-expression network analysis

The interaction between cadmium(Cd) and copper(Cu) during combined pollution can lead to more complex toxic effects on humans and plants.However, there is still a lack of sufficient understanding regarding the types of interactions at the plant molecular level and the response strategies of plants to combined pollution. To assess this, we investigated the phenotypic and transcriptomic patterns of pakchoi (Brassica chinensis L) roots in response to individual and combined pollution of Cd and Cu. The results showed that compared to single addition, the translocation factor of heavy metals in roots significantly decreased (p < 0.05) under the combined addition, resulting in higher accumulation of Cd and Cu in the roots. Transcriptomic analysis of pakchoi roots revealed that compared to single pollution, there were 312 and 1926 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) specifically regulated in the Cd2Cu20 and Cd2Cu100 combined treatments, respectively. By comparing the expression of these DEGs among different treatments, we found that the combined pollution of Cd and Cu mainly affected the transcriptome of the roots in an antagonistic manner. Enrichment analysis indicated that pakchoi roots upregulated the expression of genes involved in glucosetransferase activity, phospholipid homeostasis, proton transport, and the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids and flavonoids to resist Cd and Cu combined pollution. Using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified hub genes related to the accumulation of Cd and Cu in the roots, which mainly belonged to the LBD, thaumatin-like protein, ERF, MYB, WRKY, and TCP transcription factor families. This may reflect a transcription factor-driven trade-off strategy between heavy metal accumulation and growth in pakchoi roots. Additionally, compared to single metal pollution, the expression of genes related to Nramp, cation/H+ antiporters, and some belonging to the ABC transporter family in the pakchoi roots was significantly upregulated under combined pollution. This could lead to increased accumulation of Cd and Cu in the roots. These findings provide new insights into the interactions and toxic mechanisms of multiple metal combined pollution at the molecular level in plants.

Optimal operation of multi-microgrid systems considering multi-level energy-certificate-carbon coupling trading

Under the background of sustainable development, the microgrid (MG) has become an important method for energy saving, emission reduction and meeting multiple energy demand. With the continuous promotion of China's carbon emission right market and green certificate market, to further promote the low-carbon development of MG, a multi-level trading optimization strategy is proposed for multi-microgrids (MMG) that considers the coupling of energy-certificate-carbon market. First, a MMG trading framework including a two-level certification-carbon and a three-level electric-thermal coupled trading is proposed. Second, based on the game theory pricing strategy and the elastic price mechanism of the supply-demand ratio, the MMG operation optimization strategy model is constructed considering multi-level energy-certification-carbon coupled trading. Finally, based on the principle of fair benefit allocation, the Shapley value method is utilized to redistribute the comprehensive income among the alliance members. The simulation results show that compared with the MMG baseline scenario, the overall economic efficiency of the proposed trading model is improved by 3.94 % and the carbon emissions are reduced by 11.71 %. In this way, it can effectively release the potential of MMG resource sharing and mutual benefit, so as to optimise the trade-off strategy for joint participation in the energy-certificate-carbon market.

Leaf Traits Explain the Growth Variation and Nitrogen Response of Eucalyptus urophylla × Eucalyptus grandis and Dalbergia odorifera in Mixed Culture.

Mixed cultivation with legumes may alleviate the nitrogen (N) limitation of monoculture Eucalyptus. However, how leaf functional traits respond to N in mixed cultivation with legumes and how they affect tree growth are unclear. Thus, this study investigated the response of leaf functional traits of Eucalyptus urophylla × Eucalyptus grandis (E. urophylla × E. grandis) and Dalbergia odorifera (D. odorifera) to mixed culture and N application, as well as the regulatory pathways of key traits on seedling growth. In this study, a pot-controlled experiment was set up, and seedling growth indicators, leaf physiology, morphological parameters, and N content were collected and analyzed after 180 days of N application treatment. The results indicated that mixed culture improved the N absorption and photosynthetic rate of E. urophylla × E. grandis, further promoting seedling growth but inhibiting the photosynthetic process of D. odorifera, reducing its growth and biomass. Redundancy analysis and path analysis revealed that leaf nitrogen content, pigment content, and photosynthesis-related physiological indicators were the traits most directly related to seedling growth and biomass accumulation, with the net photosynthetic rate explaining 50.9% and 55.8% of the variation in growth indicators for E. urophylla × E. grandis and D. odorifera, respectively. Additionally, leaf morphological traits are related to the trade-off strategy exhibited by E. urophylla × E. grandis and D. odorifera based on N competition. This study demonstrated that physiological traits related to photosynthesis are reliable predictors of N nutrition and tree growth in mixed stands, while leaf morphological traits reflect the resource trade-off strategies of different tree species.

Reproduction-mobility trade-off in rock-paper-scissors models in changing environmental conditions

We investigate a tritrophic system in which organisms’ energy depletion, resulting from failed selection attempts, leads to a partial loss of capacity to win the cyclic spatial game. The energy required to maintain optimal organism fitness may be impacted by changes in environmental conditions, increasing the death risk due to accelerated deterioration of health. We simulate the evolutionary behavioural strategy performed by individuals of one species, which consists in balancing efforts dedicated to reproduction and mobility to minimise the chances of death by lack of energy. We show that the unevenness introduced by the trade-off strategy unbalances the rock-paper-scissors model, with the predominant species profiting from enemies’ lower birth rate. Quantifying the spatial patterns, we demonstrate that the characteristic length scale of single-species domains decreases as energy loss accelerates due to environmental changes. The erosion in the spatial patterns provoked by the reproduction-mobility trade-off benefits biodiversity, with coexistence probability rising for faster energy depletion and higher trade-off factors. The findings have implications for ecologists seeking to understand the impact of survival behaviour on biodiversity promotion.

Effects of Leaf Size and Defensive Traits on the Contribution of Soil Fauna to Litter Decomposition

Leaf litter quality has been acknowledged as a crucial determinant affecting litter decomposition on broad spatial scales. However, the extent of the contribution of soil fauna to litter decomposability remains largely uncertain. Nor are the effects of leaf size and defensive traits on soil fauna regulating litter decomposability clear when compared to economics traits. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of 81 published articles on litterbag experiments to quantitatively evaluate the response ratio of soil fauna to litter decomposition at the global level. Our results revealed that soil fauna significantly affected litter mass loss across diverse climates, ecosystems, soil types, litter species, and decomposition stages. We observed significantly positive correlations between the response ratio of soil fauna and leaf length, width, and area, whereas the concentrations of cellulose, hemicellulose, total phenols, and condensed tannins were negatively correlated. Regarding economic traits, the response ratio of soil fauna showed no relationship with carbon and nitrogen concentrations but exhibited positive associations with phosphorus concentration and specific leaf area. The mean annual temperature and precipitation, and their interactions were identified as significant moderators of the effects of soil fauna on litter decomposition. We evidenced that the contribution of soil fauna to litter decomposability is expected to be crucial under climate change, and that trait trade-off strategies should be considered in modulating litter decomposition by soil fauna.

Variation and Correlation among Fine Root Traits of Desert Plants in Arid Areas of Northwest China

Variation and Correlation among Fine Root Traits of Desert Plants in Arid Areas of Northwest China

Trade-Off Strategy for Usage of Phosphorus Fertilizer in Calcareous Soil-Grown Winter Wheat: Yield, Phosphorus Use Efficiency, and Zinc Nutrition Response

Although phosphorus (P) fertilizer application is widely used to improve production, irrational P application has a negative impact on the zinc (Zn) nutrition of cereal crops. Previous researchers observed and confirmed that P application decreases grain Zn concentrations and bioavailability in cereal crops. However, it remains unclear whether different P fertilizer types can alleviate the antagonism of P and Zn in the soil and grain and, thus, enhance the Zn nutritional level of cereal crops while maintaining production. Thus, a completely randomized pot experiment was conducted on winter wheat grown in two calcareous soils (lime concretion black soil and fluvo-aquic soil). Five P fertilizer types (single superphosphate, diammonium phosphate, fused calcium–magnesium phosphate, triple superphosphate, and ammonium polyphosphate, abbreviated, respectively, as SSP, DAP, FMP, TSP, and APP) were applied to each soil compared to no P fertilizer (CK). Plant and topsoil samples were collected during the flowering and maturity stages of winter wheat, and biomass, Zn concentrations in each organ, and grain phytic acid concentrations were analyzed. Grain yield was not affected by the application of different P fertilizer types to lime concretion black soil, while it was significantly increased by the application of TSP and APP to fluvo-aquic soil. The application of DAP and APP effectively promoted soil available Zn concentrations in both calcareous soils. In lime concretion black soil, the application of FMP significantly increased Zn remobilization to grains, while the application of DAP increased post-anthesis Zn uptake, thereby increasing grain Zn concentrations and its bioavailability. In fluvo-aquic soil, post-anthesis Zn remobilization and uptake were significantly increased by the application of TSP and APP, finally achieving higher grain Zn concentrations and Zn harvest index and effectively promoting grain Zn bioavailability. In conclusion, the rational application of DAP to wheat grown in lime concretion black soil and of TSP or APP to fluvo-aquic soil can achieve superior grain Zn nutrition quality while concurrently retaining high production and high P use efficiency, reducing micronutrient deficiency and further contributing to green agricultural development and human health.

Influence of surface water and groundwater on functional traits and trade-off strategies of oasis communities at the end of the Keriya River, China.

Plant functional traits reflect the capacity of plants to adapt to their environment and the underlying optimization mechanisms. However, few studies have investigated trade-off strategies for functional traits in desert-wetland ecosystems, the mechanisms by which surface water disturbance and groundwater depth drive functional trait variation at the community scale, and the roles of intraspecific and interspecific variation. Therefore, this study analyzed specific differences in community-weighted mean traits among habitat types and obtained the relative contribution of intraspecific and interspecific variation by decomposing community-weighted mean traits, focusing on the Daliyabuyi Oasis in the hinterland of the Taklamakan Desert. We also explored the mechanisms by which surface water and groundwater influence different sources of variability specifically. The results showed that plant height, relative chlorophyll content, leaf thickness, leaf nitrogen content, and nitrogen-phosphorus ratio were the key traits reflecting habitat differences. As the groundwater depth becomes shallower and surface water disturbance intensifies, plant communities tend to have higher leaf nitrogen content, nitrogen-phosphorus ratio, and relative chlorophyll content and lower height. Surface water, groundwater, soil water content, and total soil nitrogen can influence interspecific and intraspecific variation in these traits through direct and indirect effects. As arid to wet habitats change, plant trade-off strategies for resources will shift from conservative to acquisitive. The study concluded that community functional traits are mainly contributed by interspecific variation, but consideration of intraspecific variation and the covariation effects that exist between it and interspecific variation can help to further enhance the understanding of the response of community traits in desert-wetland ecosystems to environmental change. Surface water disturbance has a non-negligible contribution to this adaptation process and plays a higher role than groundwater depth.

Strategic planning and optimal tactical management of regional bioethanol supply‐chain system with high spatial resolution and uncertainties

AbstractAlthough bioethanol is viewed as a promising alternative to traditional fossil fuels, its commercialization is hindered by high production costs and uncertain policies. This study proposes a novel integrated framework to support decision making in the bioethanol supply‐chain system under complex uncertainties. By considering various geographical, economic, and environmental factors, potentially suitable sites are identified using a geographic information systems‐based (GIS‐based) multi‐criteria decision‐making approach. Then, a two‐stage stochastic, fuzzy, chance‐constrained programming model is developed to determine investment decisions (i.e. site and size of biorefineries) and operational strategies (i.e. production schedule, biomass supply network, etc.) in the face of uncertainties. The proposed research framework is tailored for a case study in Henan Province, China, which suggests the installation of six biorefineries with a total capacity of 679.11 million liters to reduce local carbon emissions by 1.54 million tons. Decision makers with different risk preferences can use this method to find optimal tradeoff strategies between system cost and risk under uncertainties. Sensitivity analysis also reveals that increasing the proportion of bioethanol blending targets is the key exogenous variable to promote the use of local biomass resources.

Retracted: Security and Makespan Trade-Off Strategy in Fog-Enabled IoT Networks

Retracted: Security and Makespan Trade-Off Strategy in Fog-Enabled IoT Networks

Understory seedlings of Quercus mongolica survive by phenological escape

Understanding understory seedling regeneration mechanisms is important for the sustainable development of temperate primary forests in the context of increasingly intense climate warming events. The poor regeneration of dominant tree species, however, is one of the biggest challenges it faces at the moment. Especially, the regeneration of the shade-intolerant Quercus mongolica seedling is difficult in primary forests, which contrasts with the extreme abundance of understory seedlings in secondary forests. The mechanism behind the interesting phenomenon is still unknown. This study used in-situ monitoring and nursery-controlled experiment to investigate the survival rate, growth performance, as well as nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations and pools of various organ tissues of seedlings for two consecutive years, further analyze the understory light availability and simulate the foliage carbon (C) gain in the secondary and primary forest. Results suggested that seedlings in the secondary forest had greater biomass allocation aboveground, height and specific leaf area (SLA) in summer, which allowed the seedling to survive longer in the canopy closure period. High light availability and positive C gain in early spring and late autumn are key factors affecting the growth and survival of understory seedlings in the secondary forest, whereas seedlings in the primary forest had annual negative carbon gain. Through the growing season, the total NSC concentrations of seedlings gradually decreased, whereas those of seedlings in the secondary forest increased significantly in autumn, and were mainly stored in roots for winter consumption and the following year's summer shade period, which was verified by the nursery-controlled experiment that simulated autumn enhanced light availability improved seedling survival rate and NSC pools. In conclusion, our results revealed the survival trade-off strategies of Quercus mongolica seedlings and highlighted the necessity of high light availability during the spring and autumn phenological periods for shade-intolerant tree seedling recruitment.