This study provides an in-depth examination of the binary system of n-Nonadecane and 1-Octadecanol, representative of plant cuticular waxes. It emphasizes the crystallization and phase transitions in this hydrocarbon mixture. Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the research uncovers detailed thermal properties and phase behaviors. The findings reveal the distinct phase transitions and enthalpy changes of each component in the binary system. This research is significant for its implications in under-standing the structural properties of plant waxes. Such insights are crucial for enhancing the effi-ciency of fertilizer and pesticide absorption in plant leaves, with broad applications in bionics and materials science. This study not only furthers the understanding of identifying specific phase transitions for each compound, facing challenges in detecting subtle changes using DSC. The re-search enhances understanding of plant cuticle waxes through FTIR analysis, revealing intricate molecular interactions and structural complexities. but also opens avenues for improved agri-cultural practices and material engineering, potentially influencing future innovations in these fields.

In Hawaiʻi, the transition from customary subsistence flooded taro agroecosystems, which regulate stream discharge rate trapping sediment and nutrients, to a plantation-style economy (c. the 1840s) led to nearshore sediment deposition - smothering coral reefs and destroying adjacent coastal fisheries and customary fishpond mariculture. To mitigate sediment transport, Rhizophora mangle was introduced in estuaries across Hawai’i (c. 1902) further altering fishpond ecosystems. Here, we examine the impact of cultural restoration between 2012-2018 at Heʻeia Fishpond, a 600-800-year-old walled fishpond. Fishpond water quality was assessed by calculating water exchange rates, residence times, salinity distribution, and abundance of microbial indicators prior to and after restoration. We hypothesized that R. mangle removal and concomitant reconstruction of sluice gates would increase mixing and decrease bacterial indicator abundance in the fishpond. We find that Heʻeia Fishpond’s physical environment is primarily tidally driven; wind forcing and river flux are secondary drivers. Post-restoration, two gates in the northeastern region account for >80% of relative flux in the fishpond. Increase in exchange rates during spring and neap tide and shorter minimum water residence time corresponded with the reconstruction of a partially obstructed 56 m gap together with the installation of an additional sluice gate in the fishpond wall. Lower mean salinities post-restoration suggests increased freshwater influx due to R. mangle removal. Spatial distribution of microbial bio-indicator species inversely correlated with salinity. Average abundance of Enterococcus and Bacteroidales did not significantly change after restoration efforts, however, average abundance of a biomarker specific to birds nesting in the mangroves decreased significantly after restoration. This study demonstrates the positive impact of biocultural restoration regimes on water flushing and water quality parameters, encouraging the prospect of revitalizing this and other culturally and economically significant sites for sustainable aquaculture in the future.

Background: Internal migrants had obstacles in accessing local public health services in China. This study aimed to estimate the utilization of local public health services and its determinants among internal migrants. Methods: Data were from the 2014 and 2015 nationally representative cross-sectional survey of internal migrants in China. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to estimate the relationship between socioeconomic, migration, demographic characteristics and public health services utilization. Results: Internal migrants in more developed eastern regions used less public health services. Those with higher socioeconomic status were more likely to use public health services. The broader and shorter they migrated, the less they used public health services. Compared to migration within the city, migration across provinces is negatively associated with health records (OR=0.88, 95% CI: 0.86-0.90), health education (OR=0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-1.00), and health education on NCDs (OR=0.92, 95% CI: 0.89-0.95) or through Internet channel (OR=0.96, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99). Conclusion: Public health services coverage for internal migrants has seen great improvement due to government subsides. Internal migrants with lower socioeconomic status and across provinces need to be targeted. More attention should be given to the local government in the developed eastern regions in order to narrow the regional gaps.

Abstract:High-pressure water jet technology has received extensive attention and application due to its high efficiency and environmental protection characteristics. The high-pressure water jet nozzle is its core component, and the research on the high-pressure water jet nozzle is conducive to improving the jet performance and improving the jet efficiency. This paper introduces the characteristics of water jet and the working principle of pure water jet, abrasive water jet, pulsed water jet and cavitation water jet, reviews the theoretical analysis and experiment of the predecessor's nozzle, briefly explains the application of high-pressure water jet and looks forward to the development trend of this technology.

Cloud-induced atmospheric extinction and occlusion have a major effect on the effectiveness and quality of telescope observations. Real-time cloud cover distribution and long-term statistical data are essential for astronomical siting and telescope operations. At ground-based astronomical telescope sites, cloud cover distribution is currently analyzed using manual observation methods. However, the main disadvantages of manual observation methods are human subjective, heavy workloads and poor real-time performance. Therefore, a real-time automatic cloud images classification method is desperately needed. This paper presents a new cloud identification method, which is named PSO+XGBoost model by combining eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The entire cloud image is divided into 37 sub-regions in order to more precisely identify the distribution of the clouds. 19 features are then extracted, including the sky background, star density, lighting conditions, and subregion grayscale values. The experimental results have shown that the overall classification accuracy of 96.91% and our model is able to outperform several state-of-the-art baseline methods. Our approach achieves high accuracy in comparison with the manual observation methods. Moreover, this method meets telescope real-time scheduling requirements.

The lengthy maturation period is the key cause of the reduced hot pepper market value. An experiment was performed to assess the effects of R/B/W light qualities on reducing the maturation period. The maturation period was shortened by 16 days under 4R:1B:5W compared to the control. The appearance of the first flower is a limiting factor affecting the maturation period. It exhibited a dark purple color and an abnormal petal under 4R:1B:5W compared to the control, which was associated with increased contents of flavonoids, total organic acids, and phenolics and decreased total amino acid and carbohydrate contents. Plant hormone, flavonoid, ABC transporters, key metabolites (such as amino acid, carbohydrate, organic acid) was associated with first flower development. Ethylene response factors (ERFs) mediated by light, especially ERF021, were identified as potential hub regulators during the development of the first flower due to their involvement in all the associated metabolic pathways.

The article delves into the intricate phase transitions of 1-Octadecanol and n-Nonadecane within a binary system, unveiling dynamic structural changes under varying conditions. Through Fouri-er-transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, specific molecular vibrations were identified, shedding light on the molecular composition and interactions. The study highlights the challenges in detecting subtle phase transitions and emphasizes the individuality of molecular behaviours in closely related compounds. The findings underscore the complexity of phase transitions in binary systems and advocate for a nuanced approach to studying molecular structures and behaviours. Addi-tionally, the research contributes valuable insights into the molecular dynamics of Organic Polymer Functional Adsorption Materials, offering implications for synthetic waxy layers in plant epidermis.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, autoimmune disease that mainly affects the central nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve. This disease can cause clinical symptoms such as cognitive decline, muscle weakness, spasms, and fatigue in patients, and the onset tends to be younger. Current medication can only prevent or alleviate symptoms, so early diagnosis of this disease can increase patients' chances of treatment. Although the use of nuclear magnetic resonance detection can improve the efficiency of early auxiliary diagnosis, it still requires experienced doctors to spend too much time and energy on comprehensive judgment. To reduce the time cost and improve the efficiency of multiple sclerosis diagnosis, this article proposes a detection and recognition algorithm for multiple sclerosis based on wavelet entropy and self-adaptive particle swarm optimization. Firstly, a triple discrete wavelet transform is performed on the brain image of multiple sclerosis, and then 10 wavelet entropies are extracted from the decomposed wavelet subbands, which can reduce the feature dimensions of the image; Then, the algorithm of self-adaptive particle swarm optimization is used to optimize the feedforward neural network, in order to obtain the optimal connection weights and thresholds during the training process. The result of the model is with an average sensitivity of 92.29±1.89, specificity of 92.54±0.67, precision of 92.48±0.59, accuracy of 92.42±0.88, and F1 score of 84.85±1.74, Matthews correlation coefficient of 92.37±0.96, and Fowlkes223 Mallows Index of 92.38±0.96. The experimental results indicate that this algorithm has a very important data support role in detecting multiple sclerosis.

There is no doubt that seagrass beds constitute one of the most productive ecosystems in shallow coastal waters. Despite this, picoplankton in seagrass ecosystems has received relatively little attention. The purpose of this study was to compare picoplankton growth and mortality rates between seagrass and unvegetated habitats using chamber incubations. We tested two main hypotheses: (i) incubation with seagrass would result in higher bacterial growth rates due to increased DOM release from seagrass photosynthesis, and (ii) Synechococcus spp. would be lower in the presence of seagrass due to competition for inorganic nutrients. Our results showed bacterial growth rates of 2.31 and 2.44 d–1 without and with seagrass, respectively. In seagrass chambers, bacterial growth was higher than that in non-seagrass chambers, suggesting that organic carbon coming from the seagrass community may support bacterial production. Furthermore, we observed a negative Synechococcus spp. growth rate (-0.9 d–1) in the seagrass treatment, likely reflecting nutrient competition with the seagrass. Small-scale chambers proved to be a useful tool for studying the factors controlling spatial and temporal patterns of picoplankton across different habitats. Furthermore, future studies should examine picoplankton growth over a wider range of spatial scales in seagrass beds and adjacent unvegetated sediment.

Semi-continuous data are very common in the social science and economics. In this paper, a Bayesian variable selection procedure is developed to assess the influence of exogenous factors including observed and unobserved on the semi-continuous data. Our formulation is based on the two-part latent variable model with polytomous response. We consider two schemes for the penalties of regression coefficients and factor loadings: the Bayesian spike and slab bimodal prior and the Bayesian lasso prior. Within the Bayesian framework, we implement Markov Chains Monte Carlo sampling method to conduct posterior inference. To facilitate posterior sampling, we recast the logistic model in part one as the norm-like mixture model. Gibbs sampler is designed to draw observations from the posterior. Our empirical results show that with suitable hyper-parameters, the spike and slab bimodal method slightly outperforms the Bayesian lasso in the current analysis. Finally, a real example related to the China household finance survey is analyzed to illustrate the application of the methodology.. .

The regenerated magnesia-calcium brick samples that had added 0, 1.5, 3.0 wt.% aluminium oxide (Al2O3) were prepared by using spent magnesia-calcium bricks, fused magnesia and Al2O3 powder additive as the main raw materials. The phases, microstructures, room temperature and hot flexural strength, resistance to cement clinker corrosion and strength of coating adherence were investigated respectively. It indicated that the addition of Al2O3 increased mainly resulting in the content of tetracalcium aluminoferrite (C4AF) and tricalcium aluminate (C3A) increased in the regenerate samples. The bulk density, the room temperature flexural strength and the strength of coating adherence all increased, while the hot flexural strength and corrosion resistance both deteriorated along with the increase of Al2O3 addition. It was because that on the one hand the low melting point phases of C4AF and C3A improved the sinterability of the regenerated samples during the burning stage, on the other hand they melted or existed in liquid phase during the experimental temperature (1573 K and 1823 K) which degraded hot flexural strength and corrosion resistance, and enhanced the strength of coating adherence as the wettability of the liquid phase. The content of Al2O3 in the regenerated magnesia-calcium brick should not be higher than 1.1 wt.%, considering its room and high-temperature performances for cement rotary kiln.

In mesoscale eddies, chemical properties and biological composition are different from those in surrounding water, due to their unique physical processes. It is unclear how physical-biological coupling occurs in warm-core eddies, particularly since no study has examined the relationship between bacteria and viruses. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of anticyclonic warm eddy on the relationship between bacterial and viral abundances as well as viral activity (viral production) in different depths. In the core of warm eddy, bacterial abundance (0.48 to 2.82 ×105 cells mL−1) fluctuated less than that of the outside eddy (1.12 to 7.03×105 cells mL−1). In particular, there was four-folds higher of viral-bacterial abundance ratio (VBR) estimated within the eddy below DCM than the outside eddy. We suggest that prevailing physical forces with downwelling at the center of the anticyclonic warm eddy, viruses can also be transmitted into the deep ocean directly through adsorption on particulate organic matter during sinking. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights into the interaction between bacterial and viral communities and their ecological mechanism within the warm eddy.

3D printing is a non-traditional additive manufacturing process. It is different from the traditional subtractive manufacturing process. It offers exceptional rapid prototyping capabilities and results that traditional subtractive manufacturing methods cannot attain, especially in applications involving curved or intricately shaped components. Despite its advantages, metal 3D printing will face porosity, warpage, and surface roughness issues. These issues will affect the future practical application of the parts indirectly, for example, the structural strength and the parts assembly ca-pability. Therefore, this study compares the qualities of the warpage, weight, and surface rough-ness after milling and grinding processes under the same materials (316L stainless steel) between general rolled steel and 3D additive steel. Experimental results show that 3D printing parts are approximately 13% to 14% lighter than the general rolled steel. The surface roughness performance of 3D printing steel is better than general rolled steel under the same material after milling or grinding processing. The hardness of the 3D printing steel is better than that of the gen-eral rolled steel. The research verifies that 3D additive manufacturing can use surface processing to optimize surface performance and achieve the functions of lightness and hardness.

Aluminum wire is a common material for wire bonding due to its resistance to oxidation and low price. It does not melt when becoming a free air ball (FAB) during the electronic flame-off (EFO) process with wettability, and is applied by wedge bonding. This study used 20μm Zn-Coated Al-0.5wt.%Si (ZAS) wires to improve the FAB shape after the EFO process, while maintaining stability of the mechanical properties, including the interface bonding strength and hardness. In order to test circuit stability after ball bonding, the current-tensile test was performed. During the experiment, it was found that 80nm ZAS with wire bonding has lower resistance and higher fusing current. For the bias tensile test, the thicker Zn film diffused into the Al-Si matrix easily, after which the strength was reduced. The ball-bond interfaces had no change in their condition before and after the bias. Accordingly, ZAS could be a promising candidate for ball bonding in the future.

Chemical flooding methods are used to recover the remaining oil after water flooding, and surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding is an important chemical flooding technology. It is of great significance to design and screen high-performance oil displacement agents in order to overcome the increasingly challenging high temperature (>70 ℃) and high salinity (>10,000 mg/L) reservoirs. Based on the characteristics of high temperature (70 ℃) and high salinity (151,000 mg/L) in the Qinghai Gasi reservoir, the performance of the SP flooding system was studied. This study considered interfacial tension, emulsification, viscosity, compatibility, and oil displacement efficiency. The selected formula demonstrated high resistance to both salinity (151,000 mg/L) and temperature (70 ℃), characterized by a low oil-water interfacial tension (10-2 mN/m) and high viscosity (18.13 mPa.s). After water flooding achieved an oil recovery rate of 64.64%, the subsequent replacement rate of crude oil increased by 26.95%, confirming that SP flooding can be used as a technology for enhancing oil recovery in high-temperature, high-salinity reservoirs represented by Qinghai Gasi reservoirs.

: To improve the efficiency of rhizobial inoculation operations and address the current situation of rhizobial inoculation being labor-intensive, a spraying and control system for variable rate application (VRA) of liquid rhizobia was developed. The system can accurately regulate the spraying rate of liquid rhizobia according to the desired rate of rhizobia by incremental Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) closed-loop control algorithm, making it particularly suitable for precise spraying with small amounts. In the laboratory experiment of precise flow control, variation coefficient of spraying nozzle from 0.10 MP to 0.20 MP pressure were no more than 1.2%. A clear linear relationship was observed between the spraying rate and pressure. The maximum response time was 1.93 seconds, while the average response time was 1.62 seconds when controlling the spraying system for small amounts. Field trial was conducted in Heilongjiang Agricultural Xianghe Farm of China. Average seeds number and 100-seed weight of soybean plant with rhizobia inoculation treatment were better than control group, and average yield of spraying liquid rhizobia agent with full base fertilizer increased by 232.5 kg/hm2, representing a significant 7.4% improvement over the control group. The results of these trails clearly showed the positive effect of the spraying and control system for liquid rhizobial inoculation, which has superior to existing inoculation manners, and provides an important technical support for the widespread adoption of rhizobia technology.

The quality of healthcare services is a very important indicator of social welfare in developed and emerging countries. Good quality levels are critical to ensuring patient safety, improving health outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction, optimizing resource utilization, and meeting regulatory requirements. The stable and sustainable operation of medical institutions urgently requires the establishment of a reliable and effective medical quality performance evaluation platform. However, the complexity of the evaluation process, involving numerous evaluators and the consideration of different subjective and objective criteria, poses significant challenges and essentially constitutes a group multi-criteria decision-making problem. This article uses the overall medical environment of the institution, medical service attitude, medical security, administrative service measures, etc. as measurement standards to deal with this challenge. It proposes a medical service quality measurement model suitable for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. In view of the heterogeneity of information, the two-tuple fuzzy language calculation method is introduced to enable evaluators to skillfully manage diverse information and effectively avoid potential information omission problems in the subjective evaluation integration process. The effectiveness and feasibility of the model were demonstrated by applying it to the operational framework of a medical institution in central Taiwan.

Both lactic acid and short chain fatty acid (SCFA) play important roles in maintenance of intestinal epithelial structure and function. Trilactic glyceride (TLG) obtains both excellences of lactic acid and SCFA. This study was to investigate the effects of trilactic glyceride on growth performance, blood parameters, liver function, intestinal morphology and intestine function of piglets. Twelve weaned piglets (21±2 d) were randomly allocated to two treatment groups: 1) control group, piglets fed the basal diet; 2) TLG group, piglets fed the basal diet supplemented with 0.5 % TLG. On day 21 of the trial, D-xylose (0.1 g/kg·BW) was orally administrated to all piglets and blood samples were collected 1 h thereafter. Then, all the piglets were sacrificed to examine intestinal mucosal morphology and collect fatty tissue, liver and intestinal mucosa for further analysis. The results showed that: compared with the control group, TLG group decreased blood ALB and GGT on day 10 and 20, TLG group decreased blood TP and increased blood TG on day 20 of the trail (p < 0.05); TLG group decreased blood D-xylose and LDL, increased blood HDL (p < 0.05). These data suggested that supplementing trilactic glyceride had beneficial impacts on promoting nutrients’ metabolism, maintaining intestinal integrity, and alleviating oxidative stress and diarrhoea. Further research of molecular mechanisms showed changing expression levels of related proteins and genes, suggesting that these could be involved in the regulation of the impact. The community composition of the gut microbiota was also found to be altered in several operational taxonomic units within the genus, Prevotella (order Bacteroidales), and the order, Clostridiales.

In this paper, the synthesis of two novel luminescent Eu3+ ion complexes [Eu(TFT)3(phen) (1) and Eu(TFT)3(bpy)•Hex (2)] based on the combination of 2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)-1-tetralone (TFT), containing n-donor ligands (1,10-phenanthroline or 2,2'-Bipyridine) and Eu3+ ion is reported herein, and their structural features are discussed on the basis of X-ray crystallographic and thermal analyses. We observed that the ligands transfer energy effectively to the metal center by fluorescence, IR and UV spectrograms studies. The structures and properties of complexes 1-2 were optimized by the DFT theoretical calculation, and the calculation results were consistent with the experimental X-ray structure data and spectral analysis.

In recent decades, with the ever-growing scale of video data, near-duplicate videos continue to emerge. Data quality issue caused by near-duplicate videos is becoming more and more prominent, which has affected the application of normal videos. Although current studies on near-duplicate video detection can be helpful to uncover data quality issues for videos, they still lack a process of automatic merging for the video data represented by high-dimensional features, which are difficult to automatically clean the near-duplicate videos to improve data quality for video datasets. At present, there are few studies on near-duplicate video data cleaning. The existing studies have the sensitive problems of video data orderliness and clustering initial center under a condition that prior distribution is unknown, which seriously affect the accuracy of near-duplicate video data cleaning. To address the above issues, an automatic near-duplicate video data cleaning method based on a consistent feature hash ring is proposed in this paper. First, a residual network with convolutional block attention modules, a long short-term memory deep network, and an attention model are integrated to construct an RCLA deep network with the multi-headed attention mechanism to extract spatiotemporal features of video data. Then, a consistent feature hash ring is constructed, which can effectively alleviate the sensitivity of video data orderliness while providing a condition of near-duplicate video merging. To reduce the sensitivity of the initial cluster centers to results of near-duplicate video cleansing, an optimized feature distance-means clustering algorithm is constructed by utilizing a mountain peak function on a consistent feature hash ring, which can implement automatic cleaning of near-duplicate video data. Finally, experiments are conducted based on a commonly used dataset named CC_WEB_VIDEO and a coal mining video dataset. Compared with some existing works, simulation results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed method.

Amid the swift progression of the global automobile industry, the aspiration for lightweight vehicle design has surfaced as a crucial approach to boost fuel efficiency and curtail environmental impact. The objective of this study revolves around achieving holistic optimization of vehicle structure via detailed scrutiny of vehicle process characteristics, amalgamated with a Back Propagation neural network (BPNN) optimized by a genetic algorithm (GA) and a topology optimization (TO) method.The process initiates with an examination of the vehicle's technical characteristics, succeeded by an optimization protocol that couples GA with BPNN. This exhaustive optimization procedure derives the best-fit values of design parameters and identifies the globally optimal lightweight design approach. Subsequently, a comprehensive structural optimization is actualized by modifying the topological distribution of the structure.A simulation experiment of the conceptual car body beam skeleton is conducted as a conclusive step, and the anti-collision capacity of the car body beam skeleton is assessed by measuring deformation intrusion. The findings reveal that in the vehicle topology optimization, a comparative analysis of pre and post-optimization results indicates an improved topological density across diverse sections. The topological density of the vehicle's frontal structure escalates from 0.75 to 0.8. Following optimization, the stiffness assessment records a marginal increase (within the range of 0.02–0.05), implying that the lightweight design does not compromise the general rigidity of the structure.The optimized body structure manifests superior crashworthiness in the crash test: the deformation intrusion diminishes by 27% in front-end collisions. In side impacts, the deformation and intrusion at critical points are reduced by 13.15% to 10% respectively. The comprehensive method proposed herein proves to be an efficient strategy to actualize the lightweight design of vehicles.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent and disabling mental disorders worldwide. Among the symptoms of MDD, sleep disturbance such as insomnia is prominent and the first reason patients may seek professional help. However, the underlying pathophysiology of this comorbidity is still elusive. Recently, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have begun to unveil the genetic background of several psychiatric disorders, including MDD and insomnia. Identifying the shared genomic risk loci between comorbid psychiatric disorders could be a valuable strategy to understand their comorbidity. This study seeks to identify the shared genes and biological pathways between MDD and insomnia based on their shared genetic variants. First, we performed a meta-analysis based on the GWAS summary statistics of MDD and insomnia obtained from Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and UK Biobank, respectively. Next, we associated shared genetic variants to genes using two gene mapping strategies: (a) positional mapping based on genomic proximity and (b) expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping based on gene expression linkage across multiple tissues. As a result, a total of 719 shared genes were identified. Over half (51%) of them are protein-coding genes. Functional enrichment analysis shows that the most enriched biological pathways are related to epigenetic modification, sensory perception, and immunologic signatures. We also identified druggable targets using a network approach. Together these results may provide insights into understanding the genetic predisposition and underlying biological pathways of comorbid MDD and insomnia symptoms.

Splines and quasi-interpolation operators are important both in approximation theory and applications. In this paper, we construct a family of quasi-interpolation operators for the bivariate quintic spline spaces S₅³ (∆_mn⁽²⁾). Moreover, the properties of the proposed quasi-interpolation operators are studied, as well as its applications for solving two-dimensional Burgers’ equation and image reconstruction. Some numerical examples show that these methods, which are easy to implement, provide accurate results.

Ecological ternary cements (ECP) were perpared with powders of phosphogypsum (PG), fly ash (FA) and portland cement (PC). The evolution mechanism of the hydration product structure was characterized through macro and micro experiments.The thermodynamic characteristics of solid phase, solid solution phase and aqueous solution in process of hydration about phosphogypsum-fly ash-cement ternary cementitious system were studied based on the Gibbs-free-energy C-S-H thermodynamic model and GEM-Selektor software, and compared with experimental results. The results show that in the hydration reaction the thermodynamic interaction between mineral single-phase and hydration products plays an important role in the spatio-temporal distribution of ions in the cementitious system. The values of CaO、SiO2Hand H2Ohyd gradually increased with the increase of Ca/Si ratio, while the values of CaOext and H2OOH showed a positive proportional relationship, and the values of SiO2H and SiO2 showed an inverse proportional relationship. GEM-Selektor is accurate in the simulation calculation of the total amount of AFt and AFm mineral phases which quantitatively analysis the correlation between C-S-H gels formation and C3S with complex decomposition ion groups.

Arabidopsis contains eight different h-type thioredoxins (Trx) being distributed in different cell organelles. Although Trx h2 is deemed to be localized in mitochondria, its subcellular localization and function remains a matter of debate. Here, Trx h2 localization and function were investigated using cell fractionation studies and reverse genetics. Differential centrifugation and immunodetection showed the Trx h2 protein to be distributed to the microsomal fraction rather than to mitochondrial preparations. To analyze whether Trx h2 has different roles than mitochondrial Trxs, Arabidopsis mutants lacking Trx h2 were compared with mutants deficient in mitochondrial Trx o1 and double mutants with joint deficiencies in both Trxs. Under constant medium light, trxh2 grew as the wild type, while trxo1 and trxo1h2 mutants showed impaired growth. This was accompanied by differences in the metabolite profiles. The trxo1 and trxo1h2 mutants clustered differently from the wild type during the night, revealing a decrease in ascorbate and glutathione redox states. In fluctuating light intensities, genotypic differences in growth rates were attenuated. Compared to the wild type, the fluctuating-light induced decrease in the NADPH/NADP ratio was diminished in the mutants, with the trxo1h2 double mutant showing the strongest effect. This was accompanied by an increase in the photosynthetic efficiency of the trxo1h2 mutant, specifically in the high light phases of fluctuating light. Conclusively, these results support the view that Trxs o1 and h2 are localized in different subcellular compartments, and have different effects on ascorbate and glutathione redox states and growth in medium light, but cooperatively affect NADP(H) redox state and photosynthetic efficiency in fluctuating light.

Objective: To use the ancient and modern medical record cloud platform (V2.3.5) to organize and explore the medication patterns of the "Three Causes, Extremity, and One Disease Syndrome Formula" by Chen Wuxuan, and to summarize its therapeutic ideas. Method: Collect and organize the "San Yin Si Tian Fang" in the "San Yin Ji Yi Zheng Fang Lun", and use the modern medical record cloud platform (V2.3.5) to conduct medication frequency statistical analysis, cluster analysis, and complex network analysis. As a result, a total of 16 Chinese herbal medicines were collected in the "Three Causes, Extreme and One Disease Syndrome Formula", involving 75 traditional Chinese medicines. Statistical analysis showed that roasted licorice was the most commonly used, followed by Pinellia ternata, papaya, ginger, and Poria cocos; Medications mainly include warm drugs, sweet and pungent flavors, as well as drugs that promote lung and spleen meridians. Cluster analysis can divide the above-mentioned traditional Chinese medicine into two groups, with specific grouping as follows. Group 1: ginger, white peony, aconite, papaya, and achyranthes bidentata; Group 2: roasted licorice, poria cocos, dried ginger, pinellia ternata, and green peel. Conclusion: The characteristics of the 16 prescriptions are biased towards Xin Gan Wen, emphasizing the regulation of the spleen and stomach, which may be related to the common use of prescription by doctors in the Song Dynasty and the tendency towards warm and dry medication.

The sample data are used from Shaanxi Statistical Yearbook （1999-2018）and poverty population in X County of Southern Shaanxi in 2018. By using Eviews and Excel, this report focuses on analyzing the relationship between education investment and economic growth, education for poverty population, per capita income and poverty caused by education in X county, which can explain reasons for the phenomenon of poverty caused by education. The countermeasures are proposed to solve the phenomenon of poverty caused by education, including establishing scientific education view, correctly understanding education investment and benefit, and improving the aid mechanism for poor students to realize the effective connect among poverty alleviation through education, accurate poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

Agriculture is an industry that heavily relies on the environment. The increasing frequency of ex-treme disasters attributable to climate change has adversely affected agricultural land and dis-rupted the stability of the supply of agricultural products. Therefore, we implemented a research program focused on current strategies for adapting to agricultural meteorological disasters. The primary goal was to actively promote disaster prevention information and techniques through information platforms and applications and to provide refined forecasting and an early warning system to enhance preparedness for and recovery from agricultural disasters. This initiative can transform passive mitigation into dynamic action by disseminating crucial information to farmers. We integrated meteorological data and crop characteristics to develop disaster prevention strate-gies for the predisaster, during-disaster, and postdisaster stages to empower farmers to implement autonomous disaster prevention, ensuring their profitability and minimizing the impact of disas-ters. This paper presents an agricultural disaster prevention system involving cross-disciplinary collaboration to establish an early warning system for crop disasters. However, the effectiveness of the early warning system relies on the availability of complete meteorological and crop infor-mation, necessitating high-density agricultural meteorological stations, refined weather forecast services, historical crop damage data, and ongoing research and development on disaster preven-tion technology. In the system, a diversified social media interface is used to provide local farmers with weather forecast information. When impending disasters are identified, the platform acti-vates disaster prevention measures to reduce agricultural losses. This article paper introduces Taiwan’s agricultural disaster prevention system as a complete disaster prevention strategy.

Global warming may increase the potential evapotranspiration (Etp), thereby affecting the amount of clean water resources available in a region. In this study, the systematic biases in temperature outputs of 24 global climate models (GCMs) under 3 emission scenarios are corrected by using 8 bias correction methods. The trend of Etp in Yangzi River Delta in the 21st century is projected by using 4 Etp calculation formulas. The uncertainty of the projections is estimated and decomposed by using multi-way analysis of variance. The influence of uncertainty on the projected change signal is quantified by using the signal-to-noise ratio. The results show that, relative to the reference period (1971~2000), the annual mean daily Etp in Yangzi River Delta will increase by 0.14~0.17mm/d during the period 2021~2050 and by 0.21~0.41mm/d during the period 2061~2090, respectively. During 2021~2050, the uncertainty of Etp increase projections is dominantly contributed by the main effects of GCM (63%) and Etp calculation formula (24%). During 2061~2090, it is mainly contributed by the main effect of GCM (36%), followed by the main effects of emission scenario (34%) and Etp calculation formula (18%). The increase projections of Etp are generally reliable and robust during the two projection periods.

The aim of this study was to investigate the physicochemical characterization and biological activities of chitosan (CH) based composite films with the incorporation of chestnut flower essential oil (CFEO). The composite films were prepared by casting method and characterized in terms of structural, morphological and mechanical properties via FT-IR, XRD, UV, SEM and TGA. The results proved the significantly increased water vapor permeability (WVP), heat resistance, antibacterial and antioxidant capabilities of CH-CFEO films. The incorporation of CH and CFEO enhanced the UV blocking, which made the film shield almost all UV light. Films with the tensile strength of 6.37 ± 0.41 MPa and elongation at break of 22.57 ± 0.35% were got with 6 mg mL-1 CFEO. Subsequently, the fruit preservation experiments also confirmed that the composite films could effectively extend the shelf life of bananas through their excellent water vapor and oxygen barrier. These desirable performances enable our newly developed composite films to be a remarkable packaging material to solve the fresh fruit preservation dilemma.

With the integrated development of the Internet, wireless sensor technology, cloud computing, and mobile Internet, there has been a lot of attention given to research about and applications of the Internet of Things. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is one of the important information technologies in the Internet of Things; it integrates multi-technology to detect and gather information in a network environment by mutual cooperation, using a variety of methods to process and analyze data, implement awareness, and perform tests. This paper mainly researches the localization algorithm of sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network. Firstly, a multi-granularity region partition is proposed to divide the location region. In the range-based method, the RSSI (Received Signal Strength indicator, RSSI) is used to estimate distance. The optimal RSSI value is computed by the Gaussian fitting method. Furthermore, a Voronoi diagram is characterized by the use of dividing region. Rach anchor node is regarded as the center of each region; the whole position region is divided into several regions and the sub-region of neighboring nodes is combined into triangles while the unknown node is locked in the ultimate area. Secondly, the multi-granularity regional division and Lagrange multiplier method are used to calculate the final coordinates. Because nodes are influenced by many factors in the practical application, two kinds of positioning methods are designed: the unknown node is in the positioning unit or not. When the unknown node is on the side of the positioning unit, we use the method of vector similarity. Moreover, we use the centroid algorithm to calculate the ultimate coordinates of unknown node. When the unknown node is not on the side of the positioning unit, we establish a Lagrange equation containing the constraint condition to calculate the first coordinates. Furthermore, we use the Taylor expansion formula to correct the coordinates of the unknown node. In addition, this localization method has been validated by establishing the real environment.

It is of merit to study the appropriate amount of fiber to add to free-range chickens feed to improve the microbial diversity and gut health in times of plant fiber deprivation. OptiCell is a useful source of fiber as a type of eubiotic lignocellulose, and its positive effects on the growth performance and laying performance of chickens has already been proven. However, few researchers have researched the effects of adding OptiCell on the gut microbiota of chickens. In this research we added three different levels of OptiCell (0%, 2% and 4%) to the feed of caged and free-range Bian chickens from September to November, aiming to observe the effects of adding OptiCell and different feeding modes on the gut microbial diversity and gut health of chickens, and aiming to determine an appropriate amount of OptiCell. The results showed that adding OptiCell could increase the thickness of the cecum mucus layer and the abundance of Akkermansia and Faecalibacterium in caged chickens, and 4% OptiCell was optimum. In addition, adding OptiCell increased the microbial diversity and the abundance of the butyrate-producing bacteria Faecalibacterium and Roseburia of fee-range chickens. The α-diversity and the length of the small intestine with 2% OptiCell in free-range chickens were better than with 2% OptiCell in caged chickens. In addition, compared with caged chickens, the free-range chickens had longer small intestine and lower GLP-1. Taken together, an appropriate amount of OptiCell benefitted the microbial diversity and health of chickens; it was necessary to add dietary fiber to the feed of free-range chickens when plant fibers was lacking, and 2% OptiCell was found to be optimum.

Comprehensively understanding the spatial ecology and habitat preferences of endangered species is essential for population restoration and conservation. We investigated the home range and movement of the endangered Amur soft-shell turtle (Pelodiscus maackii) in the Ussuri River, Heilongjiang Province, Northeastern China. The study involved tracking 19 Amur soft-shell turtles from late June to mid-October, 2022, resulting in complete and partial home range size data for eight subadults and two adults, respectively. The primary analysis focused on eight subadults, and the models that best described daily movement were identified. We also explored the potential factors influencing home range size. Mean movement rate ranged from 39.18 ± 20.04 m to 72.45 ± 29.36 m and was positively correlated with the linear home range and water temperature. The most insightful home range estimate was a 95% kernel density estimate, employing likelihood cross-validation smoothing with constraints set to the river boundaries. The mean home range size was 1.02 ha and was not correlated with body size. Subadults tended to establish well-defined home ranges over time; whereas, defining home ranges for adults proved challenging. This research addresses a gap regarding the ecology of the Amur soft-shell turtle and provides a foundation for future conservation plans.

This paper aims to address the exponential stability and stabilization problems for a class of delayed nonlinear Markov jump systems under randomly occurring Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack and packet loss. Firstly, the stochastic characteristics of DoS attack and packet loss are depicted by the attack success rate and packet loss rate. Secondly, a Period Observation Window (POW) method and a hybrid-input strategy are proposed to compensate for the impact of DoS attack and packet loss on the system. Thirdly, A Dynamic Event-triggered Mechanism (DETM) is introduced to save more network resources and ensure the security and reliability of systems. Then, by constructing a general common Lyapunov functional and combining with the DETM and other inequality analysis techniques, the less conservative stability and stabilization criteria for the underlying systems are derived. In the end, the effectiveness of our result is verified through a numerical example.

Val-Phe-Val-Arg-Asn (VFVRN) has been identified and screened from lipid-lowering chickpea peptides (ChPs) by using a pharmacokinetic model in our previous experiment. The present study was conducted to investigate its effects and mechanisms on lipid metabolism. A high-fat diet C57BL/6J mice model and 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cell model were used. VFVRN was found to significantly decrease the levels of some blood lipids. The expressions of LDL receptor (LDLR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR)α, liver X receptor (LXR)α, cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) in liver were up-regulated by VFVRN treatment. The expressions of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthetase (ACC), sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c and SREBP-2 in liver were significantly (P<0.05) down-regulated. Additionally, the expressions of PPARα and PPARγ in adipose tissues were up-regulated by VFVRN significantly (P<0.05). VFVRN might also contribute to transintestinal cholesterol efflux (TICE) by up-regulating the expressions of LXRα and ATP binding cassette G5/8 transporters (ABGC5/8). Moreover, VFVRN promoted 3T3-L1 preadipocyte apoptosis by up-regulating the expressions of BaX, cleaved Caspase-3 and down-regulating Bcl-2. VFVRN had potent effects in reversing metabolic disorders of blood and liver in a high-fat diet mice model, as well as to promote the apoptosis of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.

Viruses can induce the fusion of infected and neighboring cells, leading to the formation of syncytia. Cell-cell fusion is mediated by viral fusion proteins on the plasma membrane of infected cells that interact with cellular receptors on neighboring cells. Viruses use this mechanism to spread rapidly to adjacent cells or escape host immunity. For some viruses, syncytium formation is a hallmark of infection and a known pathogenicity factor. For others, the role of syncytium formation in viral dissemination and pathogenicity remains poorly understood. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in transplant patients and the leading cause of congenital infections. Clinical HCMV isolates have broad cell tropism but differ in their ability to induce cell-cell fusions, and little is known about the molecular determinants. We developed a system to analyze HCMV glycoprotein B (gB) variants in a defined genetic background. HCMV strains TB40/E and TR were used as vectors to compare the fusogenicity of six gB variants from congenitally infected fetuses with those from three laboratory strains. Five of them conferred the ability to induce fusion of MRC-5 human embryonic lung fibroblasts to one or both backbone strains, as determined by a split GFP-luciferase reporter system. The same gB variants were not sufficient to induce syncytia in infected ARPE-19 epithelial cells, suggesting that additional factors are involved. The system described here allows a systematic comparison of the fusogenicity of viral envelope glycoproteins and may help to clarify whether fusion-promoting variants are associated with increased pathogenicity.

Excretory-secretory products (ESPs) are the main research targets for investigating the hosts and helminths interaction. Parasitic worms can migrate to parasitic sites and avoid the host immune response by secreting this product. Angiostrongylus cantonensisis an important food-borne zoonotic parasite that causes severe neuropathological damage and symptoms, including eosinophilic meningitis or meningoencephalitis in humans. Benzaldehydes are organic compounds composed of a benzene ring and formyl substituents. This compound has anti-inflammatory and antioxidation properties. Previous studies showed that 3-hydroxybenzaldehyde (3-HBA) and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (4-HBA) can reduce apoptosis in A. cantonensis ESPs treated astrocytes. These results on the protective effect underlying benzaldehyde have primarily focused on cell survival. The study was designed to investigate the molecular mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress) and oxidative stress in astrocytes in A. cantonensis ESPs treated astrocytes and to evaluate the therapeutic consequent of 3-HBA and 4-HBA. First, we initially established the RNA-seq dataset in each group, including Normal, ESPs, ESPs+3-HBA, and ESPs+4-HBA. We also found that benzaldehyde (3-HBA and 4-HBA) can stimulate astrocytes to express ER stress-related molecules after ESP treatment. The level of oxidative stress could also be decreased in astrocytes by elevating antioxidant activity and reducing ROS generation. These results suggested that benzaldehyde may be a potential therapeutic compound for human angiostrongyliasis to support brain cell survival by inducing the expression levels of ER stress- and oxidative stress-related pathway.

Increasing numbers of researchers are interested in the importance of dietary fiber for the gut microbiota, microbiotal metabolite SCFA, energy metabolism and gut health of the host. However, studies have demonstrated that long-term and longitudinal observation may be needed to evaluate the effect of dietary fiber better, and few such works have been made in chickens. Therefore, we successively fed low-fiber, high--fiber and low-fiber diets to two breeds of chickens during different growth periods (1—8, 9—20 and 21—50 weeks), aiming to longitudinally observe the long-term effect of altered dietary fiber on the gut microbiota, SCFA and development of cecum of chickens with age. The results showed that the composition and function of the gut microbiota, SCFA and the development of the cecum were different during different periods, which was largly affected by dietary fiber. However, the causes of some effects were different during the different periods. For example, compared with that in low-fiber chickens at 8 weeks, dominant fiber-degradation bacteria such as Bacteroidetes, Alloprevotella and SCFA-producing bacteria such as Faecalibacterium increased due to a high-fiber diet at 20 weeks, while due to a high feed intake in 50 weeks. Moreover, the concentration of SCFA in 20 weeks was significantly higher than in 8 weeks and 50 weeks, but the causes of this difference were also distinct. It was proposed that a long-term observation was needed to evaluate the effect of dietary fiber better on chickens. The metabolite pathways of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters encoded by Firmicutes were enriched in 8 weeks, while a two-component system and β–glucosidase encoded by Bacteroidetes were enriched in 20 and 50 weeks. The trend was the same in two breeds of chickens except for Alloprevotella. In addition, the total content of SCFA in the contents of cecum was also affected by the size of the cecum. Surprisingly, the length of the cecum shortened from 20—50 weeks, maybe due to reduced dietary fiber.

Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes that activate inflammatory responses by inducing pyroptosis and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Along with many previous studies on inflammatory responses and diseases induced by canonical inflammasomes, an increasing number of studies have demonstrated that non-canonical inflammasomes, such as mouse caspase-11 and human caspase-4 inflammasomes, are emerging key players in inflammatory responses and various diseases. Flavonoids are natural bioactive compounds found in plants, fruits, vegetables, and teas and have pharmacological properties in a wide range of human diseases. Many studies have successfully demonstrated that flavonoids play an anti-inflammatory role and ameliorate many inflammatory diseases by inhibiting canonical inflammasomes. Others have demonstrated the anti-inflammatory roles of flavonoids in inflammatory responses and various diseases, with a new mechanism by which flavonoids inhibit non-canonical inflammasomes. This review discusses recent studies that have investigated the anti-inflammatory roles and pharmacological properties of flavonoids in inflammatory responses and diseases induced by non-canonical inflammasomes and further provides insight into developing flavonoid-based therapeutics as potential nutraceuticals against human inflammatory diseases.

Managing epidemics need to unite each individual of the nations. Lockdown is an essential strategy to fatal and threatening epidemic. All of the citizens should realize that each of people has a responsibility to support the public health crisis. How to organize individual to fight against the epidemic plaque depends each of them. This essay discussed the COVID-19 pandemic relevant self-governance of community from a historical perspective in China. Self-governance of neighborhood committee and community residential office in urban and rural helped to control the COVID-19 pandemic in the communities in China. Co-operation and collective responsibility of citizens and community support is a critical condition to prevent epidemic. The community self-governance can track back Qin Dynasty in China history. It established baojia system to maintain social control for thousand years. Now, the community-based system, baojia system is becoming more autonomous for local citizenship and socialized governance in China. We reviewed a historical pneumonia plaque in North China in 1911. Chinese doctor, Wu Lien-teh (伍連德) confronted the epidemic crisis with many measures such as lockdown, quarantine, the wearing of mask, setup mobile hospitals, travel restriction, the cremation of victims, and border control. Dr. Wu made effort to establish the modern public health service in China. We think that the combination of culture background of China community with modern public healthcare system determinedly played important role to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

A systematic investigation of the dynamic clustering behavior of active particles under confinement, including the effects of both particle density and active driving force is presented based on a hybrid coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation. First, a series of scaling laws were derived with power relationships for the dynamic clustering time as a function of both particle density and active driving force. Notably, the average number of clusters N ̅ assembled from active particles in the simulation system exhibits a scaling relationship with clustering time t described by N ̅∝t^(-m). Simultaneously, the scaling behavior of the average cluster size S ̅ is characterized by S ̅∝t^m. Our findings reveals the presence of up to four distinct dynamic regions concerning clustering over time, with transitions contingent upon the particle density within the system. Furthermore, as the active driving force increases, the aggregation behavior also accelerates, while an increase in density of active particles induce alterations in the dynamic procession of the system.

This paper shows that the empirical distribution of cross-sectional analyst coverage in China's stock markets follows an exponential law in a given month from 2011 to 2020. The findings hold in both the emerging (Shanghai) and the developed market (Hong Kong). Moreover, the unique distribution parameter (i.e., mean) is directly related to the amount of market-wide information. Average analyst coverage exhibits a significant negative predictive power for stock-market uncertainty, highlighting the role of security analysts in diminishing the total uncertainty. The exponential law can be derived from the maximum entropy principle (MEP). When analysts, who are constrained by average ability in generating information (i.e., the first-order moment), strive to maximize the amount of market-wide information, this objective yields the exponential distribution. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that security analysts specialize in the generation of firm-specific information, empirical findings suggest that analysts primarily produce market-wide information for 25 countries. Nevertheless, it remains unclear why cross-sectional analyst coverage reflects market-wide information, this paper provides an entropy-based explanation.

Environmental responsibility and economic benefits have promoted the development of closed-loop supply chain (CLSC), and shortages and channels are considered to be two important issues in CLSC. This paper explores ordering and channel decisions in CLSC with new and differentiated remanufactured products, and considers the price and sales effort-dependent demands, as well as the proportion of emergency orders determined by emergency order costs and backorder losses, and establishes an integrated and decentralized CLSC game models. We introduce a stochastic sales effort, which affects two types of products. Numerical results show that sales effort and the order quantity of new and remanufactured products exhibit concave and convex functions, respectively. Wherein, the upper limit of sales effort has a greater impact on supply chain decisions. High sales efforts can serve as a means of coordinating dispersed supply chains. Moreover, in different cases, decisions of integrated channel are better than those of decentralized channel. Finally, whether the supply chain adopts an emergency order strategy depends on the relative cost of emergency orders and out of stock costs. According to the research in this article, some management insights are also provided.

Virus-infected Flu is a common disease. To date, no specific drugs are available to manage the symptoms of cough, headache and sputum production. An alternative Chinese herb medicine is introduced for virus-infected Flu or similar infection. Before hospitalization, some of patients may scare for cross-infection with mild symptoms or hardly go to hospital if encountered a temporary lockdown or quarantine. Some Chinese practice self-treatment of cough, headache and sputum production by inhalation of volatile chemicals from onion and garlic. Author used to take the same alternative approach of inhalation of onion, garlic or scallions for self-treatment when suffered virus caused flu with cough, headache and sputum production at onset disease. In this article, the biomedical effects of onion and garlic are reviewed. To help patients with mild symptoms of virus infected Flu, a simple home-based treatment was suggested to self-treatment because of temporary isolation and hardly going to hospitalization. The alternative approach may also suggest for some mild virus infected respiratory diseases caused by virus at onset disease.

COX II containing a dual core CuA active site is one of the three core subunits of mitochondrial Cco, which plays a significant role in the physiological process. In this report, the full-length cDNA of COXⅡ gene was cloned from Sitophilus zeamais, which had an ORF of 684 bp encoding 227 amino acids residues. The predicted COXⅡ protein had a molecular mass of 26.2 kDa with pI value of 6.37, and multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sitophilus zeamais COXⅡ had high sequence identity 78.51% with the COXⅡ of other insect species, especially similarity to sitophilus oryzae. This gene was subcloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a, and induced by IPTG in E.coli Transetta (DE3) expression system. Finally the COXⅡ with 6-His tag was purified using affinity chromatography with Ni²⁺-NTA agarose. WB showed the recombinant COXⅡ was about 44 kD, and the concentration of fusion protein was 50μg/mL. UV-spectrophotometer and infrared spectrometer analysis showed that recombinant COXⅡ could catalyze the oxidation of substrate Cytc, and influenced by AITC. It was found that AITC could form a hydrophobic region with COXⅡ protein via molecular docking, besides, a sulfur atom of AITC structure could form a length of 2.9 Å hydrogen bond with Leu-31. These results will provide valuable information for elucidating the role of COXⅡ in Sitophilus zeamais responses to AITC, meanwhile, it will helpful to carry out a point mutation in AITC binding sites for the future research.

Health issues of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) have gained significant attention as a key focus of China health goals. This study aimed to compare the differences in displacement skills and problem behaviors among children with varying degrees and types of ID, while also exploring their relationship. The study included 90 participants who were children with ID and had completed TGMD-2 displacement skills and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) assessments. Covariance, partial correlation, and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the differences and correlations between these factors. The findings revealed that higher severity of intellectual disability was associated with lower scores in locomotor skills and increased manifestation of problem behaviors. Notably, there were significant variations in locomotor skills and problem behaviors among children with different types of intellectual disabilities. There is a positive correlation between locomotor skills and problem behaviors in children with intellectual disabilities, where locomotor skills can predict the occurrence of problem behaviors. In Conclusion, the research confirms that the development of locomotor skills can have a positive impact on the accompanying problem behaviors of children with developmental disabilities.

In autonomous driving systems, high-speed and real-time image processing, along with object recognition, are crucial technologies. This paper builds upon the research achievements in in-dustrial item sorting systems and proposes an object recognition and sorting system for auton-omous driving. In industrial sorting lines, goods sorting robots often need to work at high speeds to efficiently sort large volumes of items. This poses a challenge to the robot's real-time vision and sorting capabilities, making it both practical and economically viable to implement a real-time and low-cost sorting system in a real-world industrial sorting line. Existing sorting systems have limitations such as high cost, high computing resource consumption, and high power consump-tion. These issues lead to the fact that existing sorting systems are typically used only in large industrial plants. In this paper, we design a high-speed, low-cost, low-resource-consumption FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) based item sorting system that achieves similar perfor-mance to current mainstream sorting systems at a lower cost and consumption than existing sorting systems. The recognition part employs a morphological recognition method, which segments the image using a frame difference algorithm and then extracts the color and shape features of the items. To handle sorting, a six-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is introduced in the sorting segment. The improved cubic B-spline interpolation algorithm is employed to plan the motion trajectory and consequently control the robotic arm to execute the corresponding actions. Through a series of experiments, this system achieves an average recognition delay of 25.26ms, ensures smooth operation of the gripping motion trajectory, minimizes resource consumption, and reduces implementation costs.

To understand the molecular mechanism underlying yellowing in pineapples during ripening, coupled with alterations in fruit quality, comprehensive metabolome and transcriptome investigations were carried out. These investigations were conducted using the pulp samples collected at three distinct stages of maturity: young fruit (YF), mature fruit (MF), and fully mature fruit (FMF). This study revealed a noteworthy increase in the levels of total phenols and flavones, coupled with a concurrent decline in lignin and total acid content, as the fruit transitioned from YF to FMF. Furthermore, the analysis yielded 167 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) and 2194 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis based on DAMs and DEGs revealed that the biosynthesis of plant secondary metabolites, particularly the flavonol, flavonoid, and phenypropanoid pathways, plays a pivotal role in fruit yellowing. Additionally, a comprehensive regulatory network encompassing genes that contribute to metabolisms of flavones, flavonols, lignin, and organic acids was proposed. This network sheds light on the intricate processes that underlies fruit yellowing and quality alterations. These findings enhance our understanding of the regulatory pathways governing pineapple ripening and offer valuable scientific insight into the molecular breeding of pineapples.

In this nano era, nanomaterials and nanostructures are popular in developing novel functional materials. However, the combinations of nanoproducts with materials at micro and macro scale can open new routes for conceiving novel materials with an improved or even new functional performances. In this study, a brand-new hybrid, containing both nanofibers and particles having a microsize, was fabricated using a sequential electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) process. Firstly, the microparticles loaded with drug (berberine hydrochloride, BH) molecules in the cellulose acetate (CA) were fabricated using a solution electrospraying process. Later, these microparticles were suspended into a co-dissolved solution containned BH and a hydrophilic polymer (polypyrrolidone, PVP), and were co-electrospun into the nanofiber/microparticle hybrids. The EHDA processes were clearly recorded, and the resultant products showed a typical hybrid topography, with microparticles distributed all over the nanofibers, which was demonstrated by SEM assessments. FTIR and XRD demonstrated that the components within the hybrids were presented in an amorphous state and have fine compatibility with each other. In vitro dissolution tests verified that the hybrids were able to provide the designed dula-step drug release profiles, a combination of the fast release step of BH from the hydrophilic PVP nanofibers through an erosion mechanism and the sustained release step of BH from the insoluble CA microparticles via a typical Fickian diffusion mechanism. The present protocols pave a new way for developing trans-scale functional materials.

Promoting the use of solar energy resources has always faced the challenges of instability and supply-demand mismatch. The key to solving these issues is to efficiently store and utilize solar energy resources using high-performance heat storage devices. This study designed a high-performance shell-and-tube phase change thermal storage device and established a numerical model using ANSYS software to summarize the device's dynamic melting law. To verify the accuracy of the numerical simulation, a performance testing platform for the phase change thermal storage device was built to investigate the impact of factors such as inlet water temperature, inlet water flow rate, type of heat storage, and initial temperature of the device, and to reveal the change law of the device's performance. The results show that the inlet water temperature has the most significant impact on the device's heat storage and release performance. When the device's heat storage or release is used for heating, changing the inlet water flow rate has a weak and limited effect on the device's performance. However, when the device's heat release is used to provide domestic hot water, increasing the makeup water temperature and reducing the inlet water flow rate can significantly improve the device's effective heat release. Furthermore, based on the experimental validation of the model's correctness, this study further simulated and studied the impact of different factors on the device's heat storage process to optimize its structural design and provide technical references for the device's actual operation and installation. The results show that the placement of fins has a negligible effect on the performance of the heat storage device while reducing the fin spacing and increasing the fin thickness can significantly improve the melting efficiency of the phase change material (PCM). Additionally, the heat storage characteristics of the device are significantly better in the vertical installation mode than in the horizontal installation mode. This study provides theoretical guidance and technical references for the design and use of phase change thermal storage devices.

This research was to investigate beneficial impact and molecular mechanism of B. coagulans on piglets intestine. Twenty-four 21 days old weaned piglets were allotted to three treatments: control group (basal diet), B6 group (basal diet + 2×10⁶ CFU/g B. coagulans), B7 group (basal diet + 2×10⁷ CFU/g B. coagulans). The results showed that compared with control group, B6 and B7 group significantly decreased diarrhea rate and the concent of CHOL, GGT and DAO in plasma; decreased villus height and increase crypt depth in jejunum and ileum; increased the activities of SOD and CAT and decreased the concent of MDA and H₂O₂ in intestine. These data suggested that supplementing B. coagulans had beneficial impacts on promoting nutrients metabolism, maintaining intestinal integrity and alleviating oxidative stress and diarrhea. Futher research of molecular mechanisms showed that, these beneficial impacts were regulated by changing expression levels of related proteins (including HSP70, Caspase-3, Bax, Villin and Occludin), and genes (including RPL4, IFN-α, IFN-β, IFN-γ, MX1, MX2, OAS1, IL-1β, IL-4, CXCL-9, CCL-2, AQP3, SGLT-1, LPL, INSR and b^0,+AT), and altering community composition of gut microbiota (particularly family Clostridiaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, and Veillonellaceae and genus Prevotella, Turicibacter, and Lactobacillus).

Neuronal lesion or injury is a traditional approach to investigate neural circuit. Is any new neural pathway or new neurodegeneration related central nerve system injury? Spinal disc herniation can cause the spinal cord injury. However, the histological examination is still lack. It happened that a case of spinal disc herniation of a 10-year old dog was examined with NADPH diaphorase (N-d) histology. We did not find the N-d neurodegenerative aberrant in the tissue of the mid-rostral lumber segment besides the metamorphoses by the compression of the disc herniation. However, the severe neuropathological changes majorly occurred in the lumbosacral spinal cord. We found more diverse neurodegenerative alterations: the aging-related N-d body (ANB), megaloneurite and N-d homogeneous formazan globule in the lumbosacral spinal cord. We also found that a new circuit pathway (intermedial collateral pathway) showed by a megaloneurite between the lateral collateral pathway and the medial collateral pathway. The enormous notch caused by spinal disc herniation located at the mid-rostral lumber segments. The aging-related neurodegeneration occurred the specific lumbosacral segments. The homogeneous formazan globule was round or oval homogeneous N-d positivity which distributed in the gray matter and dorsal column. In the medulla oblongata, ANBs were revealed in the gracile nucleus, nucleus reticularis lateralis (ventrolateral spinal trigeminal nucleus) and middle of the spinal trigeminal nucleus.

Street view images can help us better understand the city environment and potential characteristics. With the development of computer vision and deep learning, the technology of semantic segmentation algorithms has become more mature. However, DeeplabV3+, which is commonly used in semantic segmentation, has shortcomings such as a large number of parameters, high requirements for computing resources, and easy loss of detailed information. Therefore, this paper proposes LM-DeeplabV3+, which aims to greatly reduce parameters and computations of the model while ensuring the segmentation accuracy. Firstly, the lightweight network MobileNetV2 is selected as the backbone network, and the ECA attention mechanism is introduced after MobileNetV2 extracts shallow features to improve the ability of feature representation; secondly, the ASPP module is improved, and on its basis, the EPSA attention mechanism is introduced to achieve cross-dimensional channel attention and important feature interaction; thirdly, a loss function named CL loss is designed to balance the training offset of multiple categories and better indicate the segmentation quality. This paper conducted experimental verification on the Cityspaces dataset, and the results showed that the mIoU reached 74.9%, which was an improvement of 3.56% compared to DeeplabV3+; the mPA reached 83.01%, which was an improvement of 2.53% compared to DeeplabV3+.

Object detection is important in many applications, such as autonomous driving. While 2D images are lack of depth information and are sensitive to environmental conditions, 3D point cloud can provide accurate depth information and a more descriptive environment. However, sparsity is always a challenge in single-frame point cloud object detection. This paper introduces a two-stage proposal-based feature fusion method for object detection using multiple frames. The proposed method, called proposal features fusion (PFF), utilizes a cosine-similarity approach to associate proposals from multiple frames and employs an attention weighted fusion module to merge features from these proposals. It allows for feature fusion specific to individual objects and offers lower computational complexity while achieving higher precision. The experimental results on the nuScenes dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, achieving a mAP of 46.7%, which is 1.3% higher than the state-of-the-art 3D object detection method.

The shear factor of ore drawing is one of the important factors affecting the formation of underground debris flow, and it has an important contribution to the formation of underground debris flow. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of mining shear factor on underground debris flow in natural caving method. Based on the research background of the underground debris flow in Plan copper mine, this paper analyzes the characteristics of the slurry material structure of the underground debris flow, the influence of drawing shear factor on formation mechanism of underground debris flow is analyzed. The results show that the slurry of the underground debris flow in Plan mine is not only a pseudoplastic fluid but also a thixotropic fluid. It is indicated that once there is shearing force in drawing, it will deform, and its viscosity will decrease with the increase of shear rate and time. It is considered that the shear force produced by the flow of ore particles first produces shear action on the paste in the shear boundary region of ore drawing, it is reduced in viscosity and increased in fluidity, so that its “Activation” and then become a flowable paste, along with the bulk ore flow through the mouth. The continuous ore drawing process will continuously shear the new moraine slurry in the ore drawing channel and continuously “Activate” the moraine slurry in the ore drawing channel, finally, a certain scale and destructive down-hole debris flow accident. This paper is the first to study the effect of ore drawing shear factor on the formation mechanism of underground debris flow. It not only broadens the research field of debris flow, but also fills up the deficiency of systematic research on underground debris flow, and provides theoretical guidance for the prevention and control of underground debris flow.

The Simplified Spherical Harmonic (SPN) approximation was first introduced as a three-dimensional (3-D) extension of the plane-geometry Spherical Harmonic (PN) equations. A third order SPN (SP3) solver, recently implemented in the Nodal Expansion Method (NEM), has shown promising performance in the reactor core neutronics simulations. This work is focused on the development and implementation of the transport corrected interface and boundary conditions in NEM SP3 solver, following recent published work on the rigorous SPN theory for piecewise homogeneous regions. A streamlined procedure has been developed to generate the flux zero and second order/moment discontinuity factors (DFs) of the generalized equivalence theory to eliminate the error introduced by pin-wise homogenization. Moreover, several color set models with varying size and configuration are later explored for their capability of generating DFs that can produce results equivalent to that using the whole-core homogenization model for more practical implementations. The new developments are tested and demonstrated on the C5G7 benchmark. The results show that the transport corrected SP3 solver shows general improvements to power distribution prediction compared to the basic SP3 solver with no DFs or only zero order/moment DFs. The complete equivalent calculations using the DFs can almost reproduce transport solutions with high accuracy. The use of equivalent parameters from larger size color set models show better prediction in the whole-core calculations. By coupling different color set models DFs can offer the best accuracy at both eigenvalues and power distributions.

In this study, divalent Yb2+-doped silica fiber was fabricated using rod-in-tube technology. The fiber core of Yb2+-doped silica glass was prepared by high-temperature melting technology under vacuum conditions. The spectroscopic properties of the Yb2+-doped glass and fiber were studied. The experiments indicate that divalent Yb2+-doped glass has a high quantum efficiency and superbroadband fluorescence in the visible region with an excitation wavelength of 405 nm. In additionally, the results suggest that Yb2+-doped fiber has a potential for application in visible fiber laser and fiber amplification.

Limited knowledge is available about the association between autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and precocious puberty. Our study examined the association between the two medical conditions, and the effect modification by sex and neuropsychiatric comorbidities in a nationwide population. To compare the risk of precocious puberty between ASD and non-ASD cases, we conducted Cox regression analysis, using ASD as exposure and time-to-precocious puberty as outcome. We adjusted for sex, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), tics disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorder, intellectual disability, and epilepsy. We performed a moderation analysis to examine the potential moderating effects by sex or comorbidities. Patients with ASD were prone to have precocious puberty, with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.80 (95% CI: 1.61-2.01). For the effect modification, sex, specifically females, moderated the association between ASD and precocious puberty, with relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) 7.35 (95% CI 4.90-9.80). No significant effect modification was found for any of the comorbidities within the scope of additive effect modification. We found that patients with ASD were prone to precocious puberty, regardless of sex or comorbid neuropsychiatric disorders. Girls with ASD are at particularly higher risk to develop precocious puberty.

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the development trend of hazardous chemical packaging towards low carbon economy from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Four types of relatively small volume packaging with volume/weight less than 450L/400kg, respectively, and three intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), which are widely used for hazardous chemicals were studied to calculate the carbon footprint (CF) from cradle to grave using life cycle assessment (LCA) method and to predict the future carbon emission of hazardous chemical packaging in the next five years (2016-2020), based on the export data of Tianjin Port in China. Grey model (GM) was adopted in the prediction. The results showed that majority of IBCs have lower carbon footprint than other types when the packaging contained same amount of same hazardous chemical. With the development of international trading, the demand of hazardous chemicals will increase as well. As the result, carbon emission generated by hazardous chemical packaging will increase accordingly. However, based on GM simulation result, increasing the amount of IBC use will effectively reduce the relative amount of carbon emission.

To overcome the difficulty of separating bastnaesite from fluorite through the flota-tion technique, the present study examined the suitability of sodium alginate (SA) as a depressant in the flotation process. The effect of SA on the flotation separation of bastnaesite and fluorite was evaluated using micro-flotation tests, zeta potential meas-urements, adsorption density measurements, Fourier infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The micro-flotation results showed that SA exerted a strongly detrimental effect on fluorite flotation, while slightly affecting bastnaesite flotation. The surface chemistry results revealed that the -COO- and HO- functional groups in SA coordinated with Ca2+ on the fluorite surface, which induced hydro-philicity and hindered the adsorption in the subsequent collector. However, the inter-action of SA with the bastnaesite surface was marginal and did not affect the anchor-ing of the collector on the surface of bastnaesite. Based on these results, the present study proposes a possible model for the interaction of SA on the surfaces of the two minerals, laying a foundation for the flotation separation of bastnaesite from fluorite with SA as an environmentally benign depressant.

From the existing millions of fungal species only a few cause disease. In this study, we investigated invasive fungal infections in the head and neck over a 19-year period (2005 to 2024) at a large academic healthcare system. Among 413 cases, 336 were noninvasive, and 77 were invasive. The highest incidence of invasive infections occurred in the sinonasal cavities, with a 15-fold difference compared to other sites. Most infections affected adults over 40 years old. The most common organisms were Mucorales (51%), hyaline molds (29%), and Candida (11%). Risk factors included malignancy, transplant, diabetes, and illicit drug use. Mortality was high in patients with malignancy and/or transplant. Infections affecting the mandible were usually a complication of osteoradionecrosis and were associated with coinfection of Candida and Actinomyces. At other sites, infections were rare and were usually the result of penetrating injuries or immunosuppression. Treatment typically involved a combination of antifungals and surgical procedures.

This paper provides the numerical investigation of two-dimensional stochastic Navier-Stokes equation driven by additive white noises. The vorticity-stream function method is presented to calculate the incompressible fluid flow. In order to solve the formulation of steam function equation, we propose a Crank-Nicolson Fourier pseudo-spectral method. Numerical results obviously show that the presence of stochastic forcing can have an impact upon the shapes of vortex in fluid flow. To a certain extent, the phenomenon of eddy shedding and the formation of some new vortex in a random medium can be observed, which make it possible for us to conduct optimal control experiments in the development of vortex structures.

Moral observer-licensing happens when people condone others’ morally questionable conducts due to their history of moral behaviors. We investigated in four studies (N = 808) this phenomenon in the context of cyberspace and its contributing factors and boundary conditions. Study 1 determined what participants perceived as typically moral and immoral behaviors in cyberspace. Then in Study 2, participants condemned less a story character’s online immoral behavior when they were informed of the character’s prior online moral behavior than when they were not, which indicates moral observer-licensing in cyberspace. Study 3 confirmed the presence of moral observer-licensing in cyberspace and further demonstrated that a character’s prior moral or immoral behavior online respectively reduces or intensifies the negativity of the character’s subsequent immoral behavior. Finally, Study 4 showed that participants who identified with the victim in a hypothetical scenario showed less forgiveness and more condemnation of a character’s immoral behavior than those who identified with the perpetrator or the bystander. These findings are of theoretical and practical significance for our understanding of cyber ethics.

Water quality forecasting is increasingly significant for agricultural management and environmental protection. Enormous amounts of water quality data are increasingly being collected by advanced sensors, which leads to an interest in using data-driven models for predicting trends in water quality. However, the unpredictable background noises introduced during water quality monitoring seriously degrade the performance of those models. Meanwhile, artificial neural networks (ANN) with feed-forward architecture lack the capability of maintaining and utilizing the accumulated temporal information, which leads to biased predictions in processing time series data. Hence, we propose a water quality predictive model based on a combination of Kernal Principal Component Analysis (kPCA) and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to forecast the trend of dissolved oxygen. Water quality variables are reconstructed based on kPCA method, which aims to reduce the noise from the raw sensory data and preserve actionable information. With the RNN's recurrent connections, our model can make use of the previous information in predicting the trend in the future. Data collected from Burnett River, Australia was applied to evaluate our kPCA-RNN model. The kPCA-RNN model achieved R2 scores up to 0.908, 0.823 and 0.671 for predicting the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the upcoming 1, 2 and 3 hours, respectively. Compared to current data-driven methods like ANN and SVR, the predictive accuracy of the kPCA-RNN model was at least 8 %, 17 % and 21 % better than the comparative models in these 3 cases. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of the kPAC-RNN modeling technique in predicting water quality variables with noisy sensory data.

In coastal areas around the world, seagrass meadows play a crucial ecological and economic role. A large amount of seagrass beds dominates primary production and contributes to the high secondary productivity of this ecosystem. The microbial loop (consuming bacterial biomass by grazers and using seagrass-derived detritus by bacteria) may be an important mechanism for transferring seagrass-derived organic matter to the aquatic food chain. This study aims to improve our understanding of how bacterial growth and mortality (grazing and viral lysis rates) differ in seagrass and adjacent unvegetated meadow habitats. We found that viral lysis and grazing caused similar mortality rates of bacteria in a seagrass environment during the summer. It has been found, however, that bacterial production is controlled by the availability of resources (bottom-up control) and is cycled within the bacteria-virus-DOC loop in adjacent unvegetated waters. Our study region may be affected by this shift in organic matter fate and cycling.

Wearable technology has been proposed as a potential tool to change the way of human life, such as the smart bracelet and the Google Glass. In the wearable technology, the inertial sensor has great significance in tracking the object movements. The paper focused on detecting the movements of user’s finger based on the inertial sensor to give the control signals. Firstly, the attitude matrix, which represented the transformation relation of carrier coordinate system and the navigation coordinate system, was obtained. Secondly, the attitude matrix was expressed based on the quaternions. Thirdly, the finger gesture was processed by the attitude matrix to get the attitude angle. Finally, the robot was controlled by attitude angle to make the moving action. The experimental results showed the detection of the finger movement is effective.

The search of DNA polymorphisms useful for the genetic improvement of dairy farm animals lasts more than 40 years with relevant findings in cattle for milk traits, where the best combination of alleles for dairy processing have been found in casein genes and in the DGAT1. Nowadays, similar results are not reached yet in river buffaloes despite advanced genomic technologies and accurate phenotype records are available. The aim of the present study was to investigate and validate in a larger buffalo population the effect on six milk traits of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the CSN1S1, CSN3, SCD and LPL genes, previously reported to be associated with or affect dairy traits in smaller populations often belonging to one farm. A total of 800 buffaloes were genotyped. Daily milk yield (dMY, kg), protein yield (dPY, kg) and fat yields (dFY, kg), fat and protein contents (dFP, % and dPP, %), somatic cell count (SCC, 103cell/ml) and urea (mg/dl) were individually recorded in each month for the whole lactation from 2010 to 2021. A total of 15,742 individual milk test day records (2,496 lactations) were available on 680 buffalo cows with 3.6±1.7 parity (from 1 to 13) and 6.1±1.2 test day records per lactation on average. Three out four SNP in CSN1S1, CSN3 and LPL were associated with at least one of analyzed traits. In particular, the CSN1S1 (AJ005430:c.578C&gt;T) gave favorable associations with all yield traits (dMY, p=0.022; dPY, p=0.014 ; dFY, p=0.029) and SCS (p=0.032), whereas the CSN3 (HQ677596: c.536C&gt;T) positively associated with SCS (p=0.005) and milk urea (p=0.04). Favorable effect on dMY (p=0.028), dFP (p=0.027) and dPP (p=0.050) were observed for the LPL. Conversely, SCD did not show any association with milk traits. This is the first example of confirmation study carried out in the Mediterranean river buffalo for genes of economic interest in dairy field and it represents a very important indication for the preselection of young bulls destined to breeding programs in the view of a more sustainable dairy production.

To study the feasibility and effect of compounding lignin and its derivatives to improve expansive soil, the physical properties, mechanical properties, and microstructure of the improved soil mixed with calcium lignosulfonate alone, calcium lignosulfonate and lignin fibers were investigated through indoor experiments and electron microscope scanning. Select samples with better performance for water stability tests, and discuss the improvement mechanism of expansive soil by combining macroscopic mechanical changes with microstructural characteristics. The research results show that the addition of calcium lignosulfonate can reduce the water content of the soil and enhance its strength of the soil. The overall performance is the best when the calcium lignosulfonate content is 3%. 3% calcium lignosulfonate compounded with 1.5% lignin fiber has the best all-around performance; the composite improved soil has a better pore-filling effect, the whole is more compact, and the connection between particles significantly enhances the strength, which greatly inhibits the development of cracks good water stability. Lignin and its derivatives compound improved expansive soil have better effect than traditional improvement methods, and have no pollution to the environment, which can provide a particular reference for engineering practice

To study the feasibility and effect of compounding lignin and its derivatives to improve expansive soil, the physical properties, mechanical properties, and microstructure of the improved soil mixed with calcium lignosulfonate alone, calcium lignosulfonate and lignin fibers were investigated through indoor experiments and electron microscope scanning. Select samples with better performance for water stability tests, and discuss the improvement mechanism of expansive soil by combining macroscopic mechanical changes with microstructural characteristics. The research results show that the addition of calcium lignosulfonate can reduce the water content of the soil and enhance its strength of the soil. The overall performance is the best when the calcium lignosulfonate content is 3%. 3% calcium lignosulfonate compounded with 1.5% lignin fiber has the best all-around performance; the composite improved soil has a better pore-filling effect, the whole is more compact, and the connection between particles significantly enhances the strength, which greatly inhibits the development of cracks good water stability. Lignin and its derivatives compound improved expansive soil have better effect than traditional improvement methods, and have no pollution to the environment, which can provide a particular reference for engineering practice.

Under the double pressure of climate change and human activities, the restrictions of conservation policies and the increasing area of overlap between wildlife conservation areas and community living areas have led to increase conflicts and contradictions between nature reserves and neighboring communities. Effective management of such conflicts is particularly important in order to achieve reconciliation of conservation and development. In this study, we take the Mikumi-Selous region in Tanzania, Africa as an example, and through questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews, we sort out the current situation of conflicts between nature reserves and communities in the region, as well as summarize the means of conflict governance. In addition, we focus on identifying the various factors affecting community residents' protection willingness and protection action, and further verify the relationships among residents' family characteristics, protection costs and revenue, protection cognition, willingness and action through empirical analysis methods. The results show that residents' protection cognition has a significant positive effect on their willingness to protect and their actions, meanwhile willingness to protect also positively affects residents' protection action. In addition, it was found that the protection cost inhibits residents' willingness and action. Our study focuses on the willingness to participate and action of core stakeholders towards conflict governance from the perspective of community governance, emphasizing the key role of community participation in achieving coordinated development of biodiversity conservation and community. It provides a new perspective for mitigating conservation and development issues.

Three new compounds (1, 11 and 12), together with 32 known ones, were isolated from the root bark of Morus alba L. using various chromatographic methods. The structures of the undescribed compounds were elucidated based on 1D, 2D NMR and HRESIMS data analysis, while the known ones were identified by comparison of their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. All the isolates were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against human gastric cancer HGC27 cells by CCK-8 assay. Among them, compounds 5, 8, 10 and 30 exhibited cytotoxic activities on HGC27 cells with IC50 values of 10.24 ± 0.89 μM, 28.94 ± 0.72 μM, 6.08 ± 0.34 μM and 33.76 ± 2.64 μM, respectively. Furthermore, compound 10 was confirmed to reduce proliferation ability, increase apoptosis rate and inhibit cell migration pathway by annexin V/PI double staining experiment, transwell experiment and western blot analysis.

The mangrove plant Acanthus ilicifolius and its relative, A. mollis, have been previously proved to possess diverse pharmacological effects. Therefore, evaluating the differentially expressed proteins of these species under tidal flooding stress is essential to fully exploit and benefit from their medicinal values. The roots of A. ilicifolius and A. mollis were exposed to 6 h of flooding stress per day for 10 days. The dry weight, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content, anatomical characteristics, carbon and energy levels, and two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled with MALDI-TOF/TOF MS technology were used to reveal the divergent flooding resistant strategies. A. ilicifolius performed better under tidal flooding stress, which was reflected in the integrity of the morphological structure, more efficient use of carbon and energy, and a higher percentage of up-regulated proteins associated with carbon and energy metabolism. A. mollis could not survive in flooding conditions for a long time, as revealed by incomplete cell structures of the roots, less efficient use of carbon and energy, and a higher percentage of down-regulated proteins associated with carbon and energy metabolism. Energy provision and flux balance played a role in the flooding tolerance of A. ilicifolius and A. mollis.

Frontal Polymerization (FP) is recognized as a polymer synthesis method capable of generating a highly localized and self-propagating exothermic front, considered a more rapid and energy-efficient manufacturing scheme for polymer-based fiber-reinforced composite materials. This study conducts a numerical investigation based on the Finite Element Method into the initiation and propagation of frontal polymerization of acrylamide. Utilizing Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) experiments, the study phenomenologically tests the curing kinetics reactions of acrylamide (AM) in deep eutectic solvent (DES)-based polymerizable systems, thereby establishing a curing kinetics model for the autocatalytic reaction of polyacrylamide. By coupling the heat conduction diffusion equation of the frontal polymerization reaction, the Finite Element Method is employed to solve the reaction-diffusion model, aiming to explore the evolution of temperature and degree of curing during the manufacturing process. The results demonstrate the reliability and accuracy of the nth-order autocatalytic model in the study of curing kinetics for DES-based synthesis, indicating that the front propagation speed of the AM-based FP reaction is influenced by the activation temperature, duration of activation temperature, and initial temperature of the solution. Experimental validation of the polyacrylamide manufacturing through frontal polymerization corroborates the accuracy and reliability of the model predictions, providing a reference for the numerical model study and temperature control in the synthesis of acrylamide composite hydrogels via FP.

Abstract. Natural Thermoluminescence (TL) from the core of MD81349 marine calcareous biological ooze samples in the ninetyeast ridge of the equatorial northeast Indian Ocean and samples from the core of IODP306-U1312B in the high latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean was studied. The spurious TL intensity of 395 °C peak is dose independent when the heating rate is 6 °C/s in a nitrogen atmosphere . TL signals exhibit a significant correlation on the marine isotope stages (MIS) at the two oceans since the mid-Pleistocene. High TL intensity corresponds to a negative δ18O in the interglacial stages, and low TL intensity corresponds to a positive δ18O in the glacial stages. TL of both cores at the two oceans reveal that the global climate has experienced eight cold and warm cycles since the mid-Pleistocene. Single-frequency spectrum analysis of MD81349 and U1312 TL in the last 300 ka was performed.Near the equator of the Northeast Indian Ocean，it is more significant that the short cycle of 38 ka and 5 ka while it is more significant that the cycle of 8 ka at the North Atlantic.In addition, correlation analysis shows that the TL has a significant positive correlation with trace elements 135Ba, a significant negative correlation with 47Ti. The impurity ions (e.g. Ba2+, Mn2+ and Ti2+) doped in carbonate are acting as activators and suppressants respectively.Time series of the TL of calcareous biological ooze tests provide an important record of climate change. The source of TL signal is also discussed.

The diffusion coefficient--a measure of dissipation, and the entropy--a measure of fluctuation are found to be intimately correlated in many physical systems. Unlike the fluctuation dissipation theorem in linear response theory, the correlation is often strongly non-linear. To understand this complex dependence, we consider the classical Brownian diffusion in this work. Under certain rational assumption, i.e. in the bi-component fluid mixture, the mass of the Brownian particle $M$ is far greater than that of the bath molecule $m$, we can adopt the weakly couple limit. Only considering the first-order approximation of the mass ratio $m/M$, we obtain a linear motion equation in the reference frame of the observer as a Brownian particle. Based on this equivalent equation, we get the Hamiltonian at equilibrium. Finally, using canonical ensemble method, we define a new entropy that is similar to the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy. Further, we present an analytic expression of the relationship between the diffusion coefficient $D$ and the entropy $S$ in the thermal equilibrium, that is to say, $D =\frac{\hbar}{eM} \exp{[S/(k_Bd)]}$, where $d$ is the dimension of the space, $k_B$ the Boltzmann constant, $\hbar $ the reduced Planck constant and $e$ the Euler number. This kind of scaling relation has been well-known and well-tested since the similar one for single component is firstly derived by Rosenfeld with the expansion of volume ratio.

Eco-innovation denotes developing green practices using environmentally friendly innovative approaches or technologies. Although, eco-innovation has been broadly applied in different in-dustries, such as low-carbon production and manufacturing, how to implement such innovation in education for sustainable development (ESD) has rarely been studied. Therefore, this research considered a reflective and cooperative learning approach to science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) education. A case study examined Wanluan Township of Pingtung County in southern Taiwan. Four departments’ students and teachers at Meiho University were involved in situated learning. Students of hospitality management played farm owners who en-gaged in organic agriculture to produce food and beverages. These agricultural products were farm-to-table, cooked and served for customers in a natural dining setting through the students’ teamwork. Students of tourism, sports & leisure management, and food science & nutrition played tourists in a self-guided travel context, who engaged in acts such as visiting buildings to understand heritage while observing that the houses were still in use a dwelling. This encouraged reflection on the importance of cultural preservation. According to the results from the role-play farm owners and tourists, eco-innovation can represent a sustainable marketing strategy for im-proving the local-community economy and can be implemented in a practical situation in STEAM. The goal of ESD for 2030 — societal transformation — is to foster students’ responsible behavior and attitudes in a personally authentic manner, thereby fostering sustainability learning and understanding.

From the perspective of individual resource and social capital, this paper aims to explain how employees’ political skill affect their job satisfaction and turnover intention, through the mediating role of popularity. Using a sample of 237 dyad surveys from supervisors and employees in the Yangtze River Delta of China, we found that: 1) political skill is positively correlated with job satisfaction and negatively correlated with turnover intention, and that these correlations are partially mediated by individual popularity; 2) positive affect (PA) moderates the relationship between political skill and job satisfaction, and negative affect (NA) moderates the relationship between political skill and turnover intention. The implications of our findings and future research directions are discussed.

Imidacloprid is the first-generation neonicotinoid insecticide. But, the long-term use of im-idacloprid as a pesticide has caused severe water pollution. Recently, the toxicity of imidacloprid to aquatic organisms has received increasing attention. This study aimed to investigate the ab-sorption and distribution of imidacloprid in various tissues (gills, intestine, liver, muscle, brain, and gonads) of goldfish through short-term and continuous exposure tests for 28 days. The re-sults of short-term exposure indicated that the concentration of imidacloprid and its metabolites in tissues at the transfer stage decreased steadily after 1 day of 40 mg/l imidacloprid water treatment and was below the detection limit after 3 days. Continuous exposure for 28 days at various treatment concentrations showed that the concentrations of imidacloprid and its metab-olites differed significantly among the different tissues of the goldfish. In the 20 mg/l treatment group (S1), the highest concentration of imidacloprid was found in the liver (12.04 μg /gtissue), followed by the intestine (9.91 μg /gtissue), muscle (6.20 μg /gtissue), gill (6.11 μg /gtissue), gonads (5.22 μg /gtissue), and brain (2.87 μg /gtissue). In the 40 mg/l treatment group (S2), the order of tissue concentrations was similar to that of the S1 group, with the highest concentration observed in the liver (12.04 μg/gtissue), followed by the intestine (9.91 μg/gtissue), muscle (6.20 μg/gtissue), gill (6.11 μg/gtissue), gonads (5.22 μg/gtissue), and brain (2.87 μg/gtissue). Fur-thermore, the study detected 5-hydroxyimidacloprid, imidacloprid urea, and 6-chloronicotinic acid in imidacloprid metabolites in all tissues, while imidacloprid was detected only in the intes-tine and liver. Overall, the results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the met-abolic behavior of imidacloprid in organisms and provide new data to support the assessment of imidacloprid toxicity in fish.

The physics of Hubble's law, motivated by the anomalous acceleration of Pioneer 10/11, suggests that the Hubble constant corresponds to a gravitational field of the Universe. The Hubble constant inferred from Pioneer 10/11 data is $\sim 69$ km/s/Mpc. The anomalous acceleration of Pioneer 10/11 can be interpreted as an observational evidence for Mach's principle. The redshift is an apparent value. Its intrinsic value has a limit resulting to $v

The microbiota of human breast milk (HBM) contributes to infant gut colonization; however, whether bacterial extracellular vesicles (EVs) are present in HBM or might contribute to this process remains unknown. In the present study, we characterized the HBM microbiota of healthy Korean mothers and measured the key bacteria likely affecting infant gut colonization by analyzing both the microbiota and bacterial EVs. A total of 22 HBM samples were collected from lactating mothers. The DNA of bacteria and bacteria-derived EVs was extracted from each sample. Gene analysis was performed using Illumina MiSeq. Firmicutes accounted for the largest portion among the phyla, followed by Proteobacteria, Bacteroides, and Actinobacteria in both bacteria and bacterial EV samples. At the genus level, Streptococcus (25.1%) and Staphylococcus (10.7%) were predominant in bacterial samples, whereas Bacteroides (9.1%), Acinetobacter (6.9%), and Lactobacillaceae(f) (5.5%) were prevalent in bacterial EV samples. Several genera including Bifidobacterium were significantly positively correlated between the two samples. Our findings reveal the diverse bacterial communities in HBM of healthy lactating mothers and suggest the presence of key bacteria with metabolic activity in HBM and that EVs derived from these bacteria may contribute to the vertical transfer of gut microbiota from mother to infant.

State transition in the multiple-levels system has the great potential applications in the quantum technology. In this article we employ a deterministic approach in complex space to analyze the dynamics of the 1s-2p electron transition in the hydrogen atom. The electron’s spin motion is embodied in the framework of quantum Hamilton mechanics that allows us to examine the transition dynamics more precisely. The transition is driven by an oscillating electric field in the z-direction. The electron’s transition process can be visualized by monitoring its motion in the complex space. The quantum potential and the total energy proposed in this paper provide new indices to observe the dynamic changes of electrons in the transition process.

Purpose:To explore (theoretically) the key parameters and their influence on the time profiles of photosensitizer (riboflavin), free radicals, singlet oxygen, oxygen and the efficacy of corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL)in both type-I and oxygen-mediated type-II mechanisms, specially the role of oxygen and the initiator regeneration. Methodology:Coupled kinetic equations are derived and numerically solved under the quasi-steady state condition for the 2-pathway mechanisms of CXL. The key parameters explored include (bI, V, Q', K, K',Q,P) and their influence on the time profiles of photosensitizer (riboflavin, C), radicals (R), singlet oxygen(S), oxygen (X) and efficacy (E), parameters of (K,K',Q) define the relative strength of type-I and type-II process. The oxygen depletion profile, X(t), and the associated singlet oxygen, S(t), depend on the parameters of V, Q' and the initial value of oxygen. The coupling strength given by (bI) governs almost all profiles, where b is an effective absorption parameter and I is the UV light intensity.Results:Our numerical method for CXL dynamic profiles demonstrated the following important features: (i) Type-I and type-II coexit in CXL, in the presence of oxygen. However, there is no type-II when oxygen is depleted or in a condition without oxygen. (ii) Type-I with bimolecular termination, the radical R(t) is a function of [K'(bIgC)]^0.5, leading to the steady-state efficacy given by a scaling law of 1/(bI)^0.5, in contract to that of type-II which is almost independent to the light intensity. (iii) The depletion rate (2 to 5 minutes) of X(t) is much faster than that of C(t) (10 to 20 minutes), (iv) Thepure type-II profile, has a transition point from straight line to saturating curve and matches the depletion point of singlet oxygen S(t). (v) Improved CXL efficacy of type-I and type-II may be achieved by external supply of photoinitiator (riboflavin) and oxygen, respectively.

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have a promising tribological application in green precision manufacturing, but their toughness represents a serious issue in the way of their application perspective. The film thickness is on the micrometer scale and makes conventional methods unsuitable for its toughness characterization. The absence of an accepted method for characterizing the DLC toughness has hindered the related research on the development of toughening methods and understanding the mechanism. This work intends to explore a relatively simple and acceptable characterization method to measure the film toughness. Moreover, toughening mechanisms of DLC films are proposed during the characterization to reveal the toughening mechanism. The toughness can be fully characterized through combining impact toughness and scratch toughness. The impact toughness can be obtained by observing the size of the indentation and the crack state around the indentation in the impact experiment. The scratch toughness could be assessed by combining the scratch morphology and Crack Propagation Resistance (CPRS). The improvement of film toughness should be carried out from two aspects: preventing microcrack initiation and suppressing crack propagation. Appropriate doping of non-carbide metal particles can effectively improve the toughness of the film, and there are seven main factors affecting the toughening of the film. Five toughening mechanisms of non-carbide metals from film preparation to test stage are revealed during the investigation of the change patterns.

A new biodegradable paper-based film is a hot research topic in the development of green agriculture. In this paper, a black paper base film coated with cooked tung oil with excellent mechanical properties, hydrophobic surface, high heat transfer and strong weather resistance was prepared by spraying high pigment carbon black solution on the surface of base paper. The results showed that the surface solidified oil film with rough structure was made by the brush coating process of cooked tung oil, and the base film of black paper was given hydrophobic structure, and the contact angle reached 98.9 °. Cooked tung oil permeates into the inside of the paper base, and after curing, it forms a multi-dimensional network film structure. The maximum tensile stress of the black paper base film is about 123% higher than that of the original paper base film. The coloring of carbon black makes the black paper base film have heat conduction effect, and the average heat transfer rate reaches 15.12 °C/s. Cooked tung oil is combined with the paper-based fiber high-toughness layer to form a stable system. The existence of the cured film improves the basic mechanics and hydrophobicity, and the resistance to ultraviolet radiation and hot air is greatly improved. This study provides a feasible scheme for the application of a black paper base film coated with cooked tung oil.

The phycobilisome (PBS) is the major light-harvesting apparatus in cyanobacteria and red algae, a large multi-subunit protein complex of several megadaltons that is found on the stromal side of thylakoid membranes in orderly arrays. Chromophore lyases catalyse the thioether bond between apoproteins and phycobilins of PBSs. Depending on the species, composition, spatial assembly and, especially, the functional tuning of different phycobiliproteins mediated by linker proteins, PBSs can absorb light between 450 and 650 nm, making them efficient and versatile light-harvesting systems. However, basic research and technological innovations are needed, not only to understand their role in photosynthesis but also to realise the potential applications of PBSs. Synthetic biology provides an innovative approach to expand our understanding of the distinctive properties that make the PBS such an efficient light-harvesting system and to explore its heterologous synthesis, photosynthetic functions and potential medical applications. Focusing on these topics, this review describes the essential components needed for PBS assembly, the functional basis of PBS photosynthesis and the applications of phycobiliproteins. Moreover, key technical challenges for heterologous biosynthesis of phycobiliproteins in chassis cells are discussed.

As development progresses, when the bottom hole flowing pressure or formation pressure is less than the saturation pressure of crude oil in the reservoir, oil and gas two-phase seepage occurs in the reservoir. Due to the characteristics of oil and gas two-phase seepage, after the oil and gas two-phase seepage occurs in the reservoir, the well production will be reduced, or even greatly reduced. Therefore, how to predict the horizontal well capacity better in this case is an important problem that needs to be solved urgently. In this paper, the method and process of establishing the transient calculation model of two-phase flow in horizontal wells are introduced in detail from three aspects: fluid physical properties, reservoir oil-gas two-phase seepage, and the coupling model of Inflow Performance and Flow in Wellbore. The model is more reliable through the verification of production data from five wells in two oilfields.

Some peptide-based drugs including oxytocin, vasopressin, ziconotide, pramlintide, nesiritide, and octreotide, contain one intramolecular disulfide bonds. A novel and reusable monodispersed silica nanosphere-supported Pt(IV) complex (SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV)) was synthesized via a four-step procedure and used for formation of intramolecular disulfide bonds in peptides. TEM and chemical mapping results for the Pt(II) intermediates and for SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) show that the silica nanospheres possess a monodisperse spherical structure and contain uniformly distributed Si, O, C, N, Cl, and Pt. The valence state of Pt on the silica nanospheres was characterized by XPS. The Pt(IV) loaded on SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) was 0.15 mmol/g, as determined by UV-vis spectrometry. Formation of intramolecular disulfides in six dithiol-containing peptides of variable lengths by use of SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) was investigated and the relative oxidation yields were determined by HPLC. In addition, peptide 1 (Ac-CPFC-NH2) was utilized to study the reusability of SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV). No significant decrease in the relative oxidation yield was observed after ten reaction cycles. Moreover, the structure of SiO2@TPEA@Pt(IV) after being used ten cycles was determined to be similar to its initial one, demonstrating the cycling stability of the complex.

Nicotine exposure may affect NSCLC is associated with lung cancer in humans. Whether nicotine exhibits carcinogenesis promoted activities in tumor growth still unknown. Nicotine is known to have dichotomous effects on cancer biology, acting like a pro- or anti-carcinogenesis agent. There are different functions between adenocarcinoma and squamous NSCLC cancer cells. Excess generation of nicotine may inhibit mitochondrial metabolism, protein modification, and DNA cleavage. Materials and Methods: We used the H520 NSCLC line obtained from human lung epithelial cells to detected nicotine growth and toxicity using MTT assay and western blotting. The concentration of nicotine stimulated cell growth to correspond to low concentration, while high concentration was cytotoxic. Results: According to MTT assay results, at 1.0 μM nicotine has significantly enhanced the H520 cell viability (%). Nicotine induced lung cancer carcinogenesis through mechanisms of α7nAchR, EGFR, HDAC2/4/5, Cyclin D/Cyclin E, Bcl-2, p-Akt, and inflammatory proteins of NF-KappaB and COX2 increases at 1.0 μM. Apoptosis proteins were decreases at 1.0 μM nicotine by p21, p27, c-jun, and p38α using western blotting. Nicotine stimulates tumor growth is mediated through α7nicotinic-acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChR), possibly involving inflammation. On the other hand, at high nicotine concentrations (> 1.0 μM) with consistent cytotoxic effects and appeared to be due to direct cell kill. Nicotine can prevent apoptosis induced by NSCLC. Conclusion: Therefore, the effects on chemotherapeutics by NSCLC malignant cell lines, nicotine in concentrations as low as 1.0 μM decreased. These mechanisms are responsible for the genotoxic effects caused by nicotine. This leads to downstream effects on decreased apoptosis, increased cell proliferation and transformation. The malignant NSCLC cells respond to the treatment with nicotine in lung cancer, the nicotine-mediated induction of growth may provide one of its links to α7nAchR or EGFR.

Our previous studies demonstrated that quercetin (Q) could be ingested and metabolized by macrophages and exerted prophylactic immuno-stimulatory activity and therapeutic anti-inflammatory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated macrophages ex vivo. To further clarify its possible anti-inflammatory mechanism, Q was selected to treat mouse peritoneal macrophages that obtained from female BALB/c mice exposed to LPS i.p. for 12 h. Relative gene expression of pro-/anti-inflammatory (TNF-α/IL-10) cytokines and components of inflammation-related intracellular signaling pathways (TLR2, TLR4, NF-κB, JAK2 and STAT3) was analyzed using two-step reverse transcription (RT) and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). STAT3 protein phosphorylation was determined using an in-cell ELISA method. As a result, Q and its metabolite quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucuronide (Q3G) decreased TNF-α gene expression amounts and ratios of pro-/anti-inflammatory (TNF-α/IL-10) cytokine gene expressions, but increased IL-10 gene expression amounts in activated inflammatory macrophages, supporting a substantial anti-inflammatory potential of Q and Q3G treatments. However, Q3G had lower effects than those of Q. Importantly, Q inhibited TLR2 gene expression and phosphorylation of STAT3 protein in the inflamed cells. Our results are the first report to suggest that Q inhibits LPS-induced inflammation ex vivo through suppressing TLR2 gene expression and STAT3 protein phosphorylation in activated inflammatory macrophages. Q has potential to further apply for treating inflammation-associated diseases.

This study used Dutch potatoes at the end of dormancy as the material to explore the impact of menthol (0.2 and 0.5 g/kg based on potato mass) treatment on sprouting inhibition and potato quality. The findings revealed that a menthol concentration of 0.5 g/kg effectively inhibited potato tuber sprouting and significantly reduced glucoside alkaloids production. After a storage period of 15 days, the sprouting percentage and glucoside alkaloids content of potatoes treated with 0.5 g/kg menthol were observed to be significantly lower at 4.17% and 68.63 mg/kg, respectively, compared to the control group which exhibited values of 100% and 282.01 mg/kg, respectively (P < 0.05). Throughout the storage period, 0.5 g/kg of menthol promoted respiration, reduced malondialdehyde production in potatoes, inhibited polyphenol oxidase activity, and slowed down tissue browning. Additionally, it mitigated the decline in starch and soluble protein content, inhibiting the accumulation of reducing sugars.

SOC stock (SOCS) changes caused by land use changes are still unclear, and understanding this response is essential for many environmental policies and land management practices. In this study, we investigated the temporal-spatial and vertical distribution characteristics of SOCS on the Western Sichuan Plateau (WSP) using the sparrow search algorithm-random forest regression (SSA-RFR) models with excellent model applicability and accuracy. The temporal-spatial varia-tions in the SOCS were modeled using 1080 soil samples and a set of nine environmental covariates. We analyzed the effect of land use changes on the SOCS on the WSP. The total SOCS increased by 18.03 Tg C from 1990 to 2020. The results of this study confirmed that the SOCS in the study area has increased significantly since 2010, with an increase of 27.88 Tg C compared to the total SOCS in 2010. We found that the spatial distribution of the SOCS increased from southeast to northwest, and the vertical distribution of the SOCS in the study area decreased with increasing soil depth. Forest and grassland are the main sources of SOCS, the total SOCS in the forest and grassland accounted for 37.53 and 59.39% of the total SOC pool in 2020, respectively. Expansion of the wetlands, forest, and grassland areas could increase SOCS in the study area.

The structure characterization of two new polysaccharides from Agrocybe aegerita (AA-P) and Hygrophorus olivaceoalbus (HO-P) by HPGPC, GC-MS, NMR and FT-IR indicated that AA-P was composed of Galactose, Glucose and Arabinose, in the ratio of 3:2:1. Its skeleton structure was consisted of (1→4)-Arap, (1→4,6)-Glup and (1→6)-Galp with one branched chain. The HO-P was consisted of mannose, galactose and glucose in a ratio of 1:1:2. Its skeleton structure was consisted of (1→6)-Galactose residues, (→1)-glucose residues, (1→4)-glucose residues and (1→4,6)-D-mannose residues. There were two branched chains connected to the main chain. AA-P and HO-P had the best stimulation effect on B cells and RAW264.7 cells, respectively, and could both mainly by impacting and reducing G0/G1 phase which lead to a significant proliferation of B cells, T cells and RAW264.7 cells. In addition, AA-P and HO-P could significantly promote the secretion of TNF-α from T cells, the secretion of IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG and IgM from B cells, and the secretion of TNF-α from RAW264.7 cells, but neither of them could impact the secretion of IL-1β from RAW264.7 cells.

This article provides a thorough overview of biomarkers, pathophysiology, and molecular pathways involved in the transition from acute kidney injury (AKI), acute kidney disease (AKD) to chronic kidney disease (CKD). It categorizes the biomarkers of AKI into stress, damage, and functional markers, highlighting their importance in early detection, prognosis, and clinical application. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying AKI, AKD, including renal hypoperfusion, sepsis, nephrotoxicity, and immune responses, with the impact on renal injury. In addition, various molecules play pivotal roles in inflammation and hypoxia, triggering maladaptive repair, mitochondrial dysfunction, immune system reactions, and cellular senescence of renal cell. Key signaling pathways, such as Wnt/β-Catenin, TGF-β/SMAD, and Hippo/YAP/TAZ, promote fibrosis and impact renal function. The Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS) triggers a cascade leading to renal fibrosis, with aldosterone exacerbating oxidative stress and cellular changes that promote fibrosis. Clinical evidence suggests RAS inhibitors may protect against CKD progression, especially post-AKI, though more extensive trials are needed to confirm their full impact.

Marek’s disease (MD) is an important neoplastic disease caused by serotype 1 Marek's disease virus (MDV-1), which results in severe economic losses worldwide. Despite vaccination practices that have controlled the MD epidemic, current increasing MD-suspected cases indicate the persistent viral infections circulating among vaccinated chicken farms in many countries. However, the lack of available information about phylogeny and molecular characterization of circulating MDV-1 field strains in Taiwan reveals a potential risk in MD outbreaks. This study investigated the genetic characteristics of 18 MDV-1 isolates obtained from 17 vaccinated chicken flocks in Taiwan between 2018 and 2020. Based on the sequences of the meq oncogene, phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the circulating Taiwanese MDV-1 field strains were predominantly in a single cluster that showed high similarity with strains/isolates from countries of East Asian region. Because the isolated strains were obtained from CVI988/Rispens vaccinated chicken flocks and the molecular characteristics of the Meq oncoprotein showed the features like vvMDV and vv+MDV strains, the circulating Taiwanese MDV-1 field strains may have higher virulence compared with vvMDV pathotype. In conclusion, the presented data demonstrate the circulation of hypervirulent MDV-1 strains in Taiwan and highlight the importance of routine surveillance and precaution strategies in response to the emergence of enhanced virulent MDV-1.

This paper proposes a single-stage asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back (AHBF) converter with resonant mode using dual-mode control. The presented converter has an integrated boost converter and asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter and operates in resonant mode. The boost-cell always operates in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) to achieve high power factor. The presented converter operates simultaneously using a variable-frequency-controller (VFC) and pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controller. Unlike the conventional single-stage design, the intermediate bus voltage of this controller can be regulated depending on the main power switch duty ratio. The asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter utilizes a variable switching frequency controller to achieve the output voltage regulation. The asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter can achieve zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation and significantly reduce the switching losses. Detailed analysis and design of this single-stage asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter with resonant mode is described. A wide AC input voltage ranging from 90 to 264 Vrms and output 19 V/ 120 W prototype converter was built to verify the theoretical analysis and performance of the presented converter.

Previous research has paid little attention to the relationship between corporate governance and brand equity in the tourism industry. This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of corporate governance (CG) on the relationship between brand equity (BE) and corporate profit-ability (CP) with ten control variables including five company characteristics and five macroeconomic variables. Financial data is retrieved from the Taiwan Economics Journal Database (TEJ), covering a total of 196 records from 32 listed companies for 16 years. Results indicate that BE has a significantly positive impact on CP in Taiwanese-listed tourism companies, and that CG moderates the relationship between BE and CP. These findings could help management executives enhance profitability by deepening BE and CG in the tourism industry. Managerial implications are also discussed.

Livestock farming plays a crucial role in agriculture and is important in meeting people's needs for a better life in the new era. However, due to China's "double carbon" target, the development of animal husbandry has been affected by the level of carbon emissions. To study the spatial dis-tribution and dynamic evolution of livestock carbon emissions in Shandong Province, we used panel data from 16 prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province from 2001 to 2022 to determine the spatial differentiation of livestock carbon emissions in Shandong Province and their dynamic evolution by combining spatial and non-parametric estimation methods based on livestock carbon emissions and livestock emission intensity measured by city. The results of the study show that the distribution of carbon emissions from animal husbandry in Shandong Province is in a "dis-persed-aggregated" pattern, and the intensity of carbon emissions shows a gradual downward trend, with a ladder-like distribution characterized by high in the west and low in the east. Through the analysis of the dynamic evolution of nuclear density, we observe that the regional differences of animal husbandry carbon emissions in Shandong Province are expanding, showing the characteristics of polarization. The difference of carbon emissions in the peninsula is gradually narrowing, and the phenomenon of polarization is weakening. The carbon emissions of animal husbandry in the central and western regions of Shandong are polarized.

The present study propose an innovative turn-boring operation method and focuses on finding optimal turn-boring process parameters for 15-5PH Stainless steel by considering multiple performance characteristics using Taguchi orthogonal array with the grey relational analysis, the effect of machining variables such as concentration of cutting fluid , temperature of cutting fluid , feed rate, depth of cut and cutting speed are optimized with considerations of multiple performance characteristics namely surface roughness, roundness error and material removal rate, the optimal values were found out from the Grey relational grade. The result of the Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) is shown that the most significant factor is cutting speed, followed by feed rate, concentration of cutting fluid, radial depth of cut and temperature of cutting fluid. Finally, confirmation tests were carried out to make a comparison between the experimental results and developed model. Experimental results have shown that machining performance in the turn-boring process can be improved effectively through this approach.

Acemetacin (ACM) is a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antipyretic effects. However, the poor water solubility and gastrointestinal side effects limit its use. Recently, the co-amorphous (CAM) strategy has attracted great interest to improve solubility for poorly water-soluble drugs, and basic amino acids have the potential to protect the gastrointestinal tract. In order to develop highly efficient and low toxic ACM formulation, we propose to prepare ACM CAM, with basic amino acids (lysine, arginine and histidine) as co-formers, using a cryo-milling method. The solid-state behaviors of the ACM CAMs were characterized by polarizing light microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and powder X-ray diffraction. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and molecular docking were carried out to understand the formation mechanism. Moreover, the gastro-protective effects of ACM CAMs were evaluated in a rat gastric ulcer model. The results demonstrated CAMs improved the dissolution rates of ACM compared with the neat amorphous counterpart. Furthermore, ACM CAMs are significantly effective in mitigating the ACM-induced gastric ulcer in rats, and the ulcer inhibition rates were almost 90%. More importantly, this study provided a useful method for mitigating drug-induced gastrointestinal damage and broadened the applications of drug-amino acid CAMs.

According to the development needs of marine seismic station networking, it is necessary to develop a marine seismometer with a networking function to realize quasi-real-time and large-scale long-term observation of undersea seismic signals. This can lay a solid foundation for marine seismic research and research on earth tectonics, activities, and processes. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of the existing observation equipment, this study proposed to develop a new type of the Autonomous Glide Marine Seismometer(AGMS) that can be applied to the global sea area, focusing on the design and study of the main structure of the carrier of the AGMS. The ultimate strength of the ellipsoidal pressure-resistant spherical shell is investigated by using the finite element analysis method. A reasonable finite element analysis model is proposed through comparing the finite element parameter results with the theoretical formulas and relevant specifications. Finally, the design process and strength checking of the pressure-resistant shell of the AGMS are established. These relevant results can also provide a reference for the design of other deep-sea pressure-resistant chambers.