Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) is a key technology for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Traditional tracking-by-detection methods firstly employ an object detector to retrieve targets in each image and then track them based on a matching algorithm. Recently, the popular multi-task learning methods has been dominating this area since they can detect targets and extract Re-Identification (Re-ID) features in a computationally efficient way. However, the detection task and the tracking task have conflicting requirements on image features, leading to the poor performance of the joint learning model compared to separate detection and tracking methods. The problem is more severe when it comes to UAV images due to the presence of irregular motion of large number of small targets. In this paper, we propose a balanced Joint Detection and Re-ID learning (JDR) network to address the MOT problem in UAV vision. To better handle the non-uniform motion of objects in UAV videos, the Set-Member Filter is applied which describes object state as a bounded set. An appearance matching cascade is then proposed based on target state set. Furthermore, a Motion-Mutation module is designed to address the challenges posed by the abrupt motion of UAV. Extensive experiments on the VisDrone-MOT2019 dataset demonstrate that our proposed model, termed as SMFMOT, outperforms state-of-the-arts by a large margin and achieves superior performance on the MOT tasks in UAV videos.

Surface urban heat island (SUHI) depicts the deteriorating thermal environment in high-density cities and local climate zone (LCZ) classification provides a universal protocol for SUHI identification. In this study, taking the central urbanized area of Guangzhou in the humid subtropical region of China as the study area, the maps or images of LCZ, land surface temperature (LST), SUHI and urban design factors were achieved by using Landsat satellite data, GIS database and a series of retrieval and classification algorithms, and the urban design factors influencing SUHI were investigated based on 625 samples of LCZs. The results show that in the summer daytime under the clear sky condition, the LST varied greatly from 26 °C to 40 °C and the SUHI changed in a wide range of -6 °C to 8 °C in the LCZs of the study area. Seven and five urban design factors influencing the summer daytime SUHI were identified for the two dominant LCZ of LCZs 1-5 (LCZ 1 to LCZ 5) and the mixed LCZ (containing at least three types of LCZs), respectively. The summer daytime SUHI prediction models were obtained by using the step-wise multiple linear regression, with the performance of R2 of 0.697, RMSE of 1.21 °C, and the d value of 0.81 for the model of LCZs 1-5, and the values of 0.666, 1.66 °C, and 0.76 for the model of the mixed LCZ, indicating that the models can predict the changes of SUHI with LCZs to a large and satisfactory extent. This study presents a methodology to efficiently achieve a large sample of SUHI and urban design factors of LCZs in the largely urbanized cities, and provides information beneficial to the urban designs and regenerations in the humid subtropical region.

Vibrations of blades and tower have important impact for wind turbine. This paper presents a active controller design to suppress blade edgewise vibrations under aerodynamic load and gravitational load.Treating the sum of aerodynamic load input in edgewise direction and gravitational load as unknown disturbance input,a stochastic disturbance accommodating control(SDAC) approach is proposed to design a controller which it utilizes a minimum-variance unbiased estimator(MVUE) to estimate both state and unknown input. The stability analysis proved that the proposed SDAC is bounded in mean square.In order to verify the performance of the minimum-variance unbiased estimator and the proposed SDAC, numerical simulations using Matlab/Simulink have been carried out for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5-MW wind turbine.Under the different circumstance which exists the random process and measure noise and noise free. It is shown that the estimation value by MVUE can tracking the real state and unknown input. The results are also compared to the traditional linear quadratic regulator(LQR) and show that the proposed stochastic disturbance accommodating control scheme can further reduce displacement in edgewise vibrations direction and the control strategy is more effective than the LQR.

With reference to our 4G model of final unification, strong coupling constant and strong interaction charge of magnitude $e_s\cong 2.95e$, it is possible to understand the nuclear stability range with a simple power law of the form, $A_s\cong \left(Z+2.95\right)^{1.2\pm0.015}$

Feedback trading theory is one of the most primitive theories about financial market. But for a long time，researches and modelings on this topic are rarely seen. The model in this paper shows the effects of sentiment shocks on asset prices in a market characterized by feedback trading in the long run. We find that，generally，feedback trading will lead to cognitive bias effect and trading inducement effect. Cognitive bias effect increases with the feedback trading parameter ( FTP) . In our model，the abnormal volatility of asset prices is captured by cognitive bias effect，sentiment shock effect and trading inducement effect．

This paper addresses challenges and solutions in urban development and infrastructure resilience, particularly in the context of Japan's rapidly urbanizing landscape. It explores the integration of smart city concepts to combat land subsidence and liquefaction, phenomena highlighted by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Using advanced technologies such as smart sensing and predictive analytics through kriging and ensemble learning, the study aims to improve the accuracy of geotechnical investigations and urban planning. By analyzing data from 433 geotechnical surveys in Setagaya, Tokyo, it develops predictive models to accurately determine the depth of bearing layers critical to urban infrastructure. The results demonstrate the superiority of ensemble learning in predicting the depth of bearing layers, with significant implications for smart city development and the sustainability of urban environments. This interdisciplinary approach not only seeks to mitigate risks associated with geological disturbances, but also promotes sustainable urban growth that prioritizes safety and prosperity. Through advanced technology and comprehensive research, the study underscores the potential of smart cities to address urban complexities and ensure a resilient, sustainable future.

The space gravitational wave detection and drag free control requires the micro-thruster to have very low thrust noise within 0.1mHz~100mHz, which poses a great challenge to the ground thrust test. The evaluation and decoupling of thermal noise are the difficulties in the application of torsion balance for most thrusters dissipate heat in the experiment. The research has adopted a calibration scheme of micro-Newton thrust torsion balance. On the basis of Lisa Pathfinder's former research and using ideas inspired from PID control and multi time scale (MTS) for reference, the paper proposes to expand the state space of temperature to be applied on thrust prediction based on fine tree regression (FTR), to subtract the thermal noise filtered by transfer function fitted with z-domain vector fitting (ZDVF). The results show that the thrust amplitude thrust density in diurnal temperature fluctuation is decoupled from 24μN/Hz1/2 to 4.9μN/Hz1/2 at 0.11mHz. And the 1μN square wave modulations of electrostatic fins (ESF) is extracted from the simultaneously ambiguous background of temperature for PTC's heating and cooling. The FTR method is well demonstrated in thermal noise decoupling and can guide the design of thermal control and be extended to other physical quantities for noise decoupling.

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are promising versatile oxidative biocatalysts. However, the practical use of P450s in vitro is limited by their dependence on the co-enzyme NAD(P)H and the complex electron transport system. Using H2O2 simplifies the catalytic cycle of P450s; however, most P450s are inactive in the presence of H2O2. By mimicking the molecular structure and catalytic mechanism of natural peroxygenases and peroxidases, an artificial P450 peroxygenase system has been designed with the assistance of a dual-functional small molecule (DFSM). DFSMs, such as N-(ω-imidazolyl fatty acyl)-l-amino acids, use an acyl amino acid as an anchoring group to bind the enzyme, and the imidazolyl group at the other end functions as a general acid-base catalyst in the activation of H2O2. In combination with protein engineering, the DFSM-facilitated P450 peroxygenase system has been used in various oxidation reactions of non-native substrates, such as alkene epoxidation, thioanisole sulfoxidation, and alkanes and aromatic hydroxylation, which showed unique activities, and regio- and enantioselectivities when compared with native P450s. Moreover, the DFSM-facilitated P450 peroxygenase system can switch to the peroxidase mode by mechanism-guided protein engineering. In this short review, the design, mechanism, evolution, application, and perspective of these novel non-natural P450 peroxygenases for the oxidation of non-native substrates are discussed.

Excessive vibration of temporary grandstand owing to crowd has lateral rhythmic motions can cause human in panic, which attracted increasing attention in recent years. This paper focuses on experiments that a temporary grandstand occupied 20 participants is oscillated by a shaking table with a series of random waves and induced by crowd with rhythmic swaying motions at lateral direction, respectively. And then a series of vibration perception questionnaires about crowd reaction are obtained. Evaluation of annoying level derives in concept of degree of membership and annoying rate method is proposed, then the human health risk of vibration serviceability of temporary grandstand is assessed with acceleration vibration dose value(VDV). From these results it is clear that standing crowd is more tolerant to vibration than seated crowd. The measured vibrations generated by crowd activities on temporary grandstand can cause panic in crowd. New relationship between the annoyance rate and structural acceleration VDV at logarithmic coordinate is proposed. The findings of this study can be utilized to manage the vibration of temporary grandstand and assess the human health risk.

Ion current rectification (ICR) is the ratio of ion current by forward bias to by backward bias and is a critical indicator of diode performance. In previous studies, many attempts have been continued to improve the performance of this ICR, but there is the intrinsic problem for geometric changes that induce ionic rectification due to their fabrication problem. Additionally, the high ICR could be achieved in the narrow salt concentration range only. Here, we propose a multi-layered bipolar ionic diode based on an asymmetric nanochannel network membrane (NCNM), which is realized by soft lithography and self-assembly of homogenous-sized nanoparticles. Owing to the freely changeable geometry based on soft lithography, the ICR performance can be explored according to the variation of microchannel shape. Interestingly, very stable ICR performance can be achieved using the multi-layered 3D configuration for the bipolar diode in a broad range of salt concentrations (0.1mM ~ 100 mM). This demonstrates the promising potential of multi-layered NCNM for applications in highly concentrated electrolytes, such as biosensors, desalination, or energy harvesting.

The azimuth wheel-rail of large aperture radio telescope is the key component, it not only sup-ports the whole weight of the antenna, but also directly affects the pointing performance of the antenna with its surface accuracy. The whole weight of the radio telescope is hundreds or even thousands of tons, its azimuth frame rollers have great contact stress with the wheel-rail surface, repeated rolling can cause rolling contact fatigue on the wheel-rail surface, resulting in wear, cracks and other damage to the wheel-rail, and even lead to failure or fracture of the wheel-rail in serious cases, so it is very important to monitor the damage of the antenna wheel-rail. In order to visually detect the use of antenna wheel-rail surface, this paper proposed the method using electromagnetic ultrasonic detection to detect the damage of antenna wheel-rail surface for the first time. Based on the electromagnetic ultrasonic nondestructive testing principle, the simplified wheel-rail model containing wear, corrosion and crack damage is simulated. The results show that this method can effectively detect the surface damage of the antenna wheel-rail surface, and it can provide an important reference for the research of wheel-rail damage detection of large radio telescope.

The problems of operating range and costs are the two most critical bottlenecks restricting the extensive application of electric vehicles at home and abroad. There are also some prominent problems in China's electric vehicles, such as slow improvement of electric vehicle's operating range, difficulty in charging, slow charging, low utilization efficiency of charging resources, and high battery cost for electric vehicles, which lead to poor competitiveness of electric vehicles compared with traditional internal combustion engine (I.C.E.) vehicles. This paper analyzes the key factors restricting the development and popularization of electric vehicles in China from the aspects of strategic policy, sales situation and self problems. Through summarizing the experience and lessons of French standardization development strategy and electric vehicle development mode, this paper puts forward the hypothesis leading the development of electric vehicles through standardization to enhance their competitiveness, gives the specific suggestions, and briefly analyzes the feasibility from the aspects of product situation. The research content of this paper provides a certain basis and ideas for the future research work.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread over the world for more than one year. COVID-19 often develops life-threatening hypoxemia. Endothelial injury caused by the viral infection leads to intravascular coagulation and ventilation-perfusion mismatch. However, besides above pathogenic mechanisms, the role of alveolar edema in the disease progression has not been discussed comprehensively. Since the exudation of pulmonary edema fluid was extremely serious in COVID-19 patients, we bring out a hypothesis that severity of alveolar edema may determine the size of poorly-ventilated area and the blood oxygen content. Treatments to pulmonary edema (alcohol-oxygen vapor therapy and fluid management) may be great helpful for reducing occurrence of severe cases. Given that late mechanical ventilation may cause mucus (edema fluid) to be blown to the deep of the small airways, oxygen therapy should be given at the early stages. The optimal time and SpO₂ threshold for oxygen therapy are also discussed.

Air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), as well as water pollutants including heavy metal, are harmful to human and environment. Effective control and reduction of their pollution is therefore an important topic for today’s scientists. Fly ash (FA) is a type of industrial waste that can cause multiple environmental problems if discharged into the air. On the other hand, because of its high porosity, large specific surface area, and other unique characteristics, the FA can also be used as a low-cost and high efficient adsorbent with some simple modifications. This paper reviews the effects of FA on treatment of the above air and water pollution based on our research experience over many years, including to the current status of global FA utilization, physicochemical properties, principle of adsorption, and the application direction of FA in the future. It focuses on the use of nanocomposite technology to fabricate functional FA fibrous membranes to adsorb VOCs from air, and treat heavy metal wastewater. This present review first describes the fabrication technology of FA nanocomposites and their mechanism of adsorption VOCs from air. Utilization of nanofiber technology to fabricate multi-functional FA emerging composite materials to mitigate air and water pollution has great potential in the future, especially use of pollutant material to control other pollutants.

The plant productivity-richness relationship (PPR) is one of the most debated and important issues in ecology. There have been distinct stages in the research of this issue, including the discovery of the different PPR shapes, respective tests of influencing processes, and integrative research with vegetation investigation, manipulation experiments, and theoretical analysis. The debate largely focuses on what the dominant shapes and underlying mechanisms are. Recent integrative research works following analyses of respective processes affecting PPR have found that the humped, asymptotic, positive, negative, and irregular shapes of PPR are linked to each other. One shape of PPR may change into another. The balance between positive and negative processes determines the different shapes of PPR. Plant diversity has a globally positive effect on plant productivity.

The safe and efficient mining of coal seams with low porosity, low permeability and high inhomogeneity under complex geological conditions is a major challenge, among which the permeability of coal seams is crucial for coal mine gas extraction. The development of coal seam permeability enhancement technology can help coal mines to produce safely and efficiently, and the extracted coal bed methane can be utilized as a green energy. In order to study the effect of freezing and thawing on the evolution of mechanical and permeability properties of coal, triaxial permeability tests were carried out on low-permeability coal under two kinds of surrounding pressures. At the same time, dry, saturated and freeze-thaw coal were set up for comparison, and the effects of water and freeze-thaw were separated from each other. The triaxial mechanics and percolation laws of dry, saturated and freeze-thaw coal rocks were obtained, and the mechanism of the influence of freeze-thaw on the permeability evolution law of coal was revealed. The research results can provide theoretical guidance for the gas extraction technology of low permeability coal seams with increased permeability.

In the field of delta-sigma modulators, reducing system power consumption without sacrificing accuracy has become a challenge. The summing circuit, as the main part of the cascade-of-integrator-in-feedforward delta-sigma modulator, consumes a significant amount of power in active summing. On the other hand, passive summing circuits have low power consumption but can cause attenuation in the summing results. This article proposes a low-power multi-bit delta-sigma modulator based on passive and attenuationless summation scheme. The summation circuit achieves multiplication of the voltage signal carried on the summation capacitor through bidirectional sampling technique, compensating for the inherent attenuation caused by passive summation, thus eliminating the need for active OTA to achieve perfect summation. A 2-order delta-sigma modulator based on 4-bit 1-order passive noise-shaping (NS) SAR quantizer is designed to verify the scheme. By combining a passive NS SAR as the 4-bit quantizer and the third-stage integrator of the system, and incorporating an energy-efficient cascode floating inverter amplifier (FIA) structure as the core active OTA, these elements have significantly enhanced the energy-efficiency of the modulator. Simulation results show that at a supply voltage of 1.2 V and a bandwidth of 20 kHz, the SNDR reaches 102.62 dB, power consumption is only 148.32 μW, and Schreier figure-of-merit (FoM) of SNDR is 183.92 dB.

The synthesis 2-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol is of great significance because of its widely application in industry, and the development of highly efficient catalyst is necessary to the alkylation of p-cresol and tert-butyl alcohol. Here, an efficient and mild method was established, caprolactam was chosen as hydrogen-bonding acceptor, p-toluenesulfonic acid was employed as hydrogen-bonding donor, and deep eutectic solvent (DES) was prepared to catalyze the alkylation reaction. The structure of the DES catalyst was characterized by 1H NMR spectra, thermogravimetric analysis and fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR). In addition, response surface design based on Box-Behnken method was employed to optimize the alkylation reaction process parameters, the study of reaction kinetics was also carried out subsequently. The recycle performance of the catalyst was evaluated by recovery experiments, and a good result was obtained. Comparing with the literature reported, we here provide a mild method to the synthesis of 2-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol.

In recent years, the problem of ecosystem degradation caused by human activities has become increasingly serious. Vegetation restoration is a key means to solve this problem, which has increased. To address the suitability and structural optimization of vegetation restoration in the Loess Plateau, the MaxEnt model was used to quantify the impacts of environmental and human activities on the planting suitability of vegetation restoration species at the raster scale. Three layers of trees, shrubs, and herbs with 12 common vegetation restoration species were selected. The factor index system was constructed by combining climatic, ecological, and socio-economic data, and the MaxEnt model predicted land suitability. It was found that human activities significantly increased the unsuitable planting area. This especially affected Robinia pseudoacacia in the tree layer and Amorpha fruticosa in the shrub layer. Highly suitable and moderately suitable areas were mainly located in sparsely populated areas with close water sources. Through maximum suitability optimization, it was identified that the overall spatial distribution of the three layers in the study area was relatively consistent, and the structural dominance of trees + shrubs + herbs and single herbs in the vertical structure was obvious, which were concentrated in the southwestern and northeastern parts of the study area, respectively. In addition, organic content (OC) and distance from the road to woodland (RW) were the dominant factors affecting land suitability, with a contribution rate of more than 50% and up to 80%. These results provide a scientific basis for optimizing planting structures. They are of significant theoretical and practical significance in guiding vegetation restoration work.

Over recent years, the importance of patent literature has become more recognized in the academic setting. In the context of artificial intelligence, deep learning, and data sciences, patents are relevant to not only industry but also academe and other communities. In this article, we focus on deep tomographic imaging and perform a preliminary landscape analysis of the related patent literature. Our search tool is PatSeer . Our patent bibliometric data is summarized in various figures and tables. In particular, we qualitatively analyze key deep tomographic patent literature.

By the study of the pattern book Ying Zao Fa Shi (building regulations of Song Dynasty, 1103 AD), while analyzing the combining and dimensioning rule of timber framework and tile work, a model self-generating program has been compiled for the first time. The operating framework has been firstly defined, while solving the issues of clustering principle, connecting method, output classification, etc. with the detailed description of algorithm theory. Taking the corner bracket set and nine-ridge roof for example, after the compilation and debug by Grasshopper, according to various input parameters, various models have been generated automatically by the plugin, proving the velocity and the veracity of the algorithm.

Influenced by geological, climatic, and natural weathering factors, the Great Wall heritage is sus-ceptible to deformations, posing significant challenges to the comprehensive preservation of the Great Wall sites. To investigate techniques for monitoring deformations in extensive linear cultural heritage sites, such as the Great Wall, this study utilizes the SBAS-InSAR technique for deformation monitoring and analysis. A dataset comprising 161 Sentinel-1A images spanning from March 2017 to January 2022 was chosen for SBAS-InSAR processing, yielding a deformation velocity field. To verify result credibility, a typical mountainous segment spanning approximately 896.53 km within the Great Wall landscape corridor underwent analysis. The findings suggest that around 75.8% of the landscape corridor along the Shanxi section of the Ming Great Wall maintain relative stability, displaying deformation rates varying from -10 to 10 mm/year. The remaining 24.2% of the land-scape corridor experiences notable deformations, including a maximum subsidence rate of 33.1 mm/year and a maximum subsidence of 148.6 mm. This study illustrates the potential utility of the SBAS-InSAR technique for monitoring and evaluating surface deformations in extensive linear cultural heritage sites.

Preeclampsia (PE) continues to be a significant cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Angiotensin II type I receptor autoantibody (AT1-AA) has been reported accompanied by PE women in numerous studies. Therefore, detecting the mechanism of AT1-AA production is the key breakthrough in understanding PE. Deficiency in MFG-E8 has been verified can lead to autoimmune diseases due to dysfunction in macrophage phagocytosis and the production of autoantibodies. In the present study, we examined the expression of MFG-E8 in PE patients. Compared with the control, PE patients had a lower expression of placental MFG-E8 and a higher expression of placental AT1R. Then, we tested the effect of MFG-E8 on AT1-AA production and macrophage phagocytosis of trophoblast apoptosis in PE rats induced by low-dose endotoxin(LPS) and trophoblast model. In vivo, experiments results showed that systolic blood pressure, 24h urinary protein, serum TNF-α,sLFt-1 and AT1-AA levels, and placental trophoblast apoptosis caused by LPS were all significantly alleviated by MFG-E8. Moreover, administrated with MFG-E8 has shown decreased trophoblast apoptosis and AT1R exposure in vitro, and enhanced the phagocytosis of dead trophoblasts by macrophages. That supports the idea that MFG-E8 could be a potential therapeutic target for attenuating AT1-AA and protecting patients from AT1-AA and PE.

TiC particles were prepared from Ti and C powders, and TiC-reinforced Cu-based composites were prepared by powder metallurgy with SPS sintering. The effects of SPS sintering temperature and TiC particle reinforcement phase content on the electrical and mechanical properties of Cu-based composites were investigated. The reinforcement of TiC particles by thermal mismatching at increasing sintering temperature has a significant strengthening effect on the composites, but the high temperature causes softening of the Cu matrix and the growth of grains reduces the properties of the composites. In this study, the effects of porosity and density on the composite properties were not significant.

In response to increasing urbanization and the need for infrastructure resilient to natural hazards, this study introduces an AI-driven predictive model designed to assess the risk of soil liquefaction. Utilizing advanced ensemble machine learning techniques, the model integrates geotechnical and geographical data to accurately predict the potential for soil liquefaction in urban areas, with a specific focus on Yokohama, Japan. This methodology leverages comprehensive datasets from geological surveys and seismic activity to enhance urban planning and infrastructure development in smart cities. The primary outputs include detailed soil liquefaction risk maps that are essential for effective urban risk management. These maps support urban planners and engineers in making informed decisions, prioritizing safety, and promoting sustainability. The model employs a robust combination of neural networks and gradient boosting decision trees to analyze and predict data points, assessing soil susceptibility to liquefaction during seismic events. Notably, the model achieves high accuracy in predicting soil classifications and N-values, which are critical for evaluating soil liquefaction risk. Validation against an extensive dataset from geotechnical surveys confirms the model’s practical effectiveness. Moreover, the results highlight the transformative potential of AI in enhancing geotechnical risk assessments and improving the resilience of urban areas against natural hazards.

Shale gas reservoirs (SGR) are important replacements for conventional energy resources and have been widely exploited by hydraulic fracturing technologies. On the one hand, due to the inherent ultra-low permeability and porosity, there is stress sensitivity in the reservoirs generally. On the other hand, hydraulic fractures and the stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) generated by the massive hydraulic fracturing operation have contrast properties with the original reservoirs. These two phenomena bring huge challenges in SGR transient pressure analysis. Although some works in the literatures have been done on the transient pressure analysis of multi-fractured horizontal wells in SGR, unfortunately, none of them has taken the stress sensitivity and spatially varying permeability of SRV zone into consideration simultaneously. To fill this gap, this paper first idealizes the SGR to be four linear composite regions. What’s more, SRV zone is further divided into sub-sections on the basis of non-uniform distribution of proppant within SRV zone which easily yields spatially varying permeability away from the main hydraulic fracture. The stress sensitivity is characterized by the varying permeability depended on the pore pressure. By means of perturbation transformation and Laplace transformation, an analytical multi-linear flow model (MLFM) is obtained and validated by the comparison with the previous model. On the basis of our model, the flow regimes are identified and the sensitivity analysis of critical parameters are conducted to further understand the transient pressure behaviors. The research results provided by this work are of significance for well test interpretation and production performance analysis of SGR.

We report a self-assembly synthesis of silicon nanoparticles/nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide/ carbon nanofiber (Si@N-doped rGO/CNF) composites as potential high-performance anodes for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIB) through the electrostatic attraction between amino and carboxyl groups. Nitrogen atoms generate a large number of vacancies or defects on the graphite plane, providing additional transmission channels for the diffusion of lithium ions, and improving the conductivity of the electrode. Carbon nanofiber (CNF) can help maintain the stability of the electrode structure and prevent silicon nanoparticles from falling off the electrode, prevent silicon nanoparticles from being directly exposed to the electrolyte, and can form a stable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film. The three-dimensional conductive structure composed of Si, nitrogen atom-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-doped rGO), and CNF can effectively buffer the volume changes of silicon nanoparticles, shorten the transmission distance of lithium ions (Li+) and electrons, and make the electrode have good conductivity and stability in mechanical properties. In addition, compared with the Si@N-doped rGO and Si/rGO/CNF composite electrode, the Si@N-doped rGO/CNF composite electrode shows good cycle performance and rate capability, and its reversible specific capacity can reach 1418.8 mAh/g. The capacity retention rate is 64.7%, and the coulomb efficiency is 95%.

Extreme climates such as droughts and hot extremes, may result in marked damage to crop yields and threaten regional and global food security. Maize is a major grain crop in Liaoning Province, severely affected by drought and hot events. The objective of this study is to advance an approach to estimate the risk of crop yield reduction under the compound dry-hot events (CDHE) in Liaoning Province. Results show that the ratio of stations experiencing compound dry-hot events during the twelfth leaf and maturity stage tended to increase on the time scale. On a spatial scale, the frequency of compound dry-hot events in central Liaoning Province was relatively low during the whole and various reproductive periods of maize. In addition to the twelfth leaf, western Liaoning Province is prone to compound dry-hot events. The high-risk area for the occurrence of the compound dry-hot events in maize is Chaoyang City, located in the western part of Liaoning Province, and the cities in the low-risk area account for about 64.3% of the total number of cities in Liaoning Province, mainly in the central and northern parts of Liaoning Province. Generally, this study emphasizes focusing on the impacts of compound dry-hot events on agricultural production and provides an index to assess the risk of compound dry-hot events on maize production.

This paper proposes an interpretable geometry solution based on the formal language set of text and diagram. Geometry problems are solved by machines, which still poses challenges in natural language processing and computer vision. Significant progress promotes existing methods in the extraction of geometric formal languages. However, the neglect of the graph structure information in the formal language and the lack of further refinement of the extracted language set can lead to the poor effect of the theorem prediction and affect the accuracy in problem solving. In this paper, the formal language graph is constructed by the extracted formal language set and used to theorem prediction by graph convolutional network. So as to better extract the relationship set of diagram elements, an improved diagram parser was proposed. The test results indicate that the improved method has good results in solving the problem with interpretability geometry.

The use of additive manufacturing in fabricating composite components has been gaining traction in the past decade. However, some issues with mechanical perfor-mance still need to be resolved. The issue of material porosity remains a pertinent one that needs more understanding to be able to determine viable solutions. Different re-searchers have examined the subject of porosity issues in AM-fabricated CFRP compo-sites. However, more research to quantitatively determine the effects of fabrication temperatures at the micro-scale is still needed. This study employed micro CT scan analysis to quantitatively compare the effects of fabrication temperatures at 230°C, 250°C, 270°C, and 290°C for CF-PA and CF-ABS composites. This followed an SEM evaluation which was used to determine the effects of the temperatures on interlayer and intralayer porosity generation. The porosity volume was related to the mechanical properties results in which it was determined how deposition temperatures affect the porosity volumes. It was also determined that semicrystalline composites are generally more affected by fabrication temperatures than amorphous composites, with the rela-tionship between porosity and mechanical properties also established. The overall po-rosity volume from the interlayer and intralayer voids was also determined, with the interlayer voids found to play a more determinant role in influencing the mechanical properties.

Under the oxidative stress condition, the small RNA (sRNA) Oxys that acts as essential post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression is produced and plays a regulatory function with the assistance of the RNA chaperone Hfq protein. Interestingly, experimental studies found that the N48A mutation of Hfq protein could enhance the binding affinity with OxyS while resulting in defection of gene regulation. But, how the Hfq protein interacts with sRNA Oxys and the origin of the stronger affinity of N48A mutation are both unclear. In this paper, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed on the complex structure of Hfq and OxyS to explore their binding mechanism. The molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area (MM/GBSA) and interaction entropy (IE) method were combined to calculate the binding free energy between Hfq and OxyS sRNA, and the computational result is in excellent correlation with the experimental result. Per-residue decomposition of the binding free energy revealed that the enhanced binding ability of the N48A mutation mainly comes from the increased van der Waals interactions (vdW). This research explores the binding mechanism between Oxys and chaperone protein Hfq, and revealed the origin of the strong binding affinity of N48A mutation. The results provided important insights on the mechanism of gene expression regulation affected by protein mutations.

The objective of this study was to investigate the liquefaction resistance of chemically improved sandy soils in a straightforward and accurate manner. Using only the existing experimental databases and artificial intelligence, the goal was to make predictions without conducting physical experiments. Emphasis was placed on the significance of data from 20 loading cycles of cyclic undrained triaxial tests to determine the liquefaction resistance and the contribution of each explanatory variable. Different combinations of explanatory variables were considered. Regarding the predictive model, it was observed that a case with the liquefaction resistance ratio as the dependent variable and other parameters as explanatory variables yielded favorable results. In terms of exploring combinations of explanatory variables, it was found advantageous to include all variables as doing so consistently resulted in a high coefficient of determination. The inclusion of the liquefaction resistance ratio in the training data was found to improve the predictive accuracy. In addition, the results obtained when using a linear model for the prediction suggested the potential to accurately predict the liquefaction resistance using historical data.

This paper considers a two-way relay network, where two source nodes exchange messages through several relays in the presence of an eavesdropper, and the channel state information (CSI) of the eavesdropper is imperfectly known. The amplify-and-forward relay protocol is used and the relay beamforming weights are designed. The model is built up to minimize the total relay transmit power while guaranteeing the quality of service at users and preventing the eavesdropper from decoding the signals. Due to the imperfect CSI, a semi-infinite programming problem is obtained. An algorithm is proposed to solve the problem, and the iterative points are updated through the linesearch technique, where the feasibility are preserved during iterations. The optimality property is analyzed. The obtained subproblems are quadratic constrained quadratic programming problems, either with less than $4$ constraints or with only one variable, which are solved optimally. Simulation results demonstrate the importance of the proposed model, and imply that the proposed algorithm is efficient and converges very fast, where more than 85% of the problems are solved optimally.

The high flammability and lack of charrability of polystyrene (PS) pose significant limitations on its broader applications. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a straightforward and efficient method for the synthesis of flame-retardant PS, which still poses a considerable challenge. In this study, we present an efficient approach to enhance the flame-retardant properties of PS through direct phosphorylating aromatic C(sp2)-H bonds using commercially available and inexpensive manganese catalyst. A range of phosphonates served as reactive substrates to enable a tunable degree of polymer functionalization. The corresponding phosphorylated PS specimens were determined by means of 1H NMR, 31P NMR, FTIR spectroscopy and GPC. Microscale combustion calorimetry (MCC) tests indicate that this protocol indeed enhances the flame-retardant performance of PS. Moreover, other advantages associated with the incorporation of the phosphonate group have been observed, including improved thermal resistance and wettability. This cost-effective strategy of Mn-catalyzed C-H can also be utilized to directly obtain phosphonate modification of waste foamed PS and styrene acrylonitrile copolymer, providing a new method for the purpose of recycling and upgrading PS plastics.

The 1060 aluminium alloy is widely applied to electronic industry, construction area, aerospace field, traffic engineering, decoration and consumption goods market for its good chemical, physical and mechanical properties. In general, excellent processing property is necessary and important for manufacturing of complicated panels. In this paper, a special 2D ultrasonic vibration incremental forming method is designed to improve its plasticity and mechanical properties. Three kind of processing methods including traditional single point incremental forming, longitudinal ultrasonic vibration incremental forming and 2D ultrasonic vibration incremental forming are conducted for flexible manufacture of conical parts of 1060 aluminium alloy sheet. Then micro-hardness tests, residual stress tests and scanning electron microscopy tests are carried out to probe its revolution of micro-structure and mechanical properties and to analysis the effects of different types of ultrasonic vibration on plasticity and fracture characteristic of 1060 aluminium alloy. It is proved that 2D ultrasonic vibration is facilitated to improvement of plasticity and surface qualities of 1060 aluminium alloy than the other two processing methods. So, the novel 2D ultrasonic vibration incremental forming possesses substantial application values on flexible and rapid manufacturing of complicated thin-walled component of aluminium alloy.

In this paper, we design two inertial-type subgradient extragradient algorithms with line-search process for solving the pseudomonotone variational inequality problems (VIPs) and common fixed-point problem (CFPP) of finite Bregman relatively nonexpansive mapping and a Bregman relatively demicontractive mapping in p-uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach spaces, which are more general than Hilbert spaces. Under mild conditions, we derive weak and strong convergence of the suggested algorithms to a common solution of the VIPs and CFPP, respectively. Additionally, an illustrated example is furnished to back up the feasibility and implementability of our proposed methods.

Warming-induced drought stress and El Nino associated summer precipitation failure are responsible for increased forest fire intensities of tropical and temperate forests in Asia and Australia. However, both effects are unclear for boreal forests, the largest biome and carbon stock over land. Here we combined fire frequency, burned area and climate data in the Altai boreal forests, the southmost extension of Siberia boreal forest into China, and explored their link with ENSO (El Nino and South Oscillation). Surprisingly, both summer drought severity and fire occurrence have shown significant (P<0.05) teleconnections with La Nina events of the previous year, and therefore provide an important reference for forest fire prediction and prevention in Altai. Despite a significant warming trend, the increased moisture over Altai has largely offset the effect of warming-induced drought stress, and lead to an insignificant fire frequency trend in the last decades, and largely reduced burned area since the 1980s. The reduced burned area could also benefit from the fire suppression efforts and greatly increased investment in fire prevention since 1987.

Interest grows in designing silicon-on-insulator slot waveguides to trap optical fields in subwavelength-scale slots and developing their optofluidic devices. However, it is worth noting that the inherent limitations of the waveguide structures may result in high optical losses and short optical paths, which challenge the device performance in optofluidics. Incorporating the planar silicon-based slot waveguide concept into a silica-based hollow-core fiber can provide a perfect solution to realize an efficient optofluidic waveguide. Here we propose a subwavelength-scale liquid-core hybrid fiber (LCHF), where the core is filled with carbon disulfide and surrounded by a silicon ring in a silica background. The waveguide properties and the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) effect in the LCHF are investigated. The fraction of power inside the core of 56.3% allows an improved sensitivity in optical sensing; while the modal Raman gain of 23.60 m-1·W-1 is 2 times larger than that generated around a nano fiber with the interaction between the evanescent optical field and the surrounding Raman media benzene-methanol, which enables a significant low-threshold SRS effect. Besides, this in-fiber structure features compactness, robustness, flexibility, ease of implementation in both trace sample consumption and reasonable liquid filling duration, as well as compatibility with optical fiber systems. The detailed analyses of the properties and utilizations of the LCHF suggest a promising in-fiber optofluidic platform, which provides a novel insight into optofluidic devices, optical sensing, nonlinear optics, etc.

This article explored how some state policies on rehabilitation, protection and utilization of mangroves are implemented at two locals; namely, Ca Mau provice and its sub-unit Ngoc Hien District as well as Ho Chi Minh City and its sub-unit Can Gio District and what are considered as emgerging issues in the implementation process. The study employed mixed research methods including document and thematic analysis, in-depth interviews, and group discussion. The findings showed that state policies would be adapted through the ways in which these two locals manage to silmultaneously orient their work toward accommodating the madates placed upon them and cope with the reality of socio-economic difficulties at their levels. The findings also showed some issues that need to consider addressing; namely, locals’ struggles to fill the gaps between written and implemented policies in mangrove rehabilitation, conflict among sectors and stakeholders in mangrove utilization and protection, problems in guaranteeing adequate budget for in-need-locals, inconsistence in policies on "forest: water surface” ratio in mangrove-shrimp farm, and unintended consequences in forest thinning and exploitation regimes. Based on the finding analysis, the articles discussed lessons learned from the policy implementation process on mangrove rehabilitation, management and forest allocation to household in the south of Vietnam.

Objective: This research was aimed to estimate the anti-fatigue effects of arecoline and elucidate its underlying mechanisms using a murine model of central fatigue precipitated by sleep deprivation (SD). Methods: Seventy-two male C57BL/6 mice were randomly allocated into six groups: a control group, a SD-induced fatigue model group, a group receiving Rhodiola Rosea capsules (2.5 mg/kg), and arecoline groups administered low, medium, and high doses (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg, respectively). Following 28 days of continuous administrations, the effects of arecoline on the mouse fatigue-related behaviors was assessed by the behavioral tests, including grip strength, rotarod performance, and weight-bearing swimming endurance. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were utilized to measure the levels of the relevant biochemical markers. Western blotting was employed to quantify the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2), Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1), heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1), sequestosome-1 (p62), and NADPH quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) in the gastrocnemius muscle. Results: Arecoline administration notably enhanced grip strength, delayed the onset of fatigue as evidenced by extended latencies in rotarod tests, and increased the duration of weight-bearing swimming in mice. In the elevated plus maze, arecoline significantly reduced both the number of entries and the total distance traveled in the open arms. Arecoline markedly decreased serum levels of creatine kinase, blood urea nitrogen, lactate dehydrogenase, triglycerides, and cholesterol, while elevated total testosterone, lactate dehydrogenase, and immunoglobulin G levels. Furthermore, it significantly increased superoxide dismutase(SOD), catalase(CAT), and glutathione peroxidase activity in the gastrocnemius muscle, reduced malondialdehyde levels, augmented hippocampal SOD and CAT activity, and elevated glycogen stores in both liver and muscle tissues. Neurotransmitter levels were significantly increased, cytokine levels were markedly reduced, and the expression of Nrf2, Keap1, NQO1, p62, and HO-1 in brain tissue was significantly upregulated. Conclusion: The current study for the first time demonstrated that arecoline has significant anti-fatigue activity, and its mechanism of action is related to elevate the levels of glucose and lipid metabolism, relieve oxidative stress damage, inhibit neuroinflammatory response, regulate neurotransmitter levels and Keap1/Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway. The current study provides a new insight into the potential of arecoline in prevention and improvement of fatigue.

Detection of early stage corrosion on slender steel members is crucial for preventing buckling failures of steel structures. An active photoacoustic fiber optic sensors (FOS) system has been reported for early stage steel corrosion detection of steel plates and rebars using surface ultrasonic waves. The objective of this paper is to investigate the surface corrosion/rust detection problem on steel rods using numerically simulated surface ultrasonic waves. The finite element method (FEM) is applied in simulating the propagation of ultrasonic waves on steel rod models. Transmission mode of damage detection is adopted, in which one source (transmitter) and one sensor (receiver) are considered. In this research, radial displacements at the receiver were simulated and analyzed by short-time Fourier transform (STFT) for detecting, locating, and quantifying a surface rust located between the transmitter and the receiver. From our time domain and frequency domain analyses, it is found that the presence, location, and dimensions (length, width, and depth) of surface rust can be estimated by ultrasonic waves propagating through the surface rust.

The stability of the filling roof as an important bearing unit in the stope of the access stope in the filling mining method is of great significance to guarantee the safe and efficient production of the mine. Arrangement of mining approach in downward cemented filling stope is the key factor af-fecting stability of filling body roof. Based on combination of laboratory test, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, the influence of different mining approach arrangement on stability of filling body roof is analyzed. The weak filling surface is formed between adjacent mining paths. The mechanical strength of the weak filling surface is significantly reduced by laboratory experiments. The relationship between distribution of the weak filling surface, azimuth angle and stability of filling roof is further studied by numerical simulation. The results show that the stability of the filler roof is the best when the upper and lower stratified mining approach is arranged vertically.

Nanoparticle-assisted polymerase chain reaction (nanoPCR) is a novel method for rapid detection of pathogens. A sensitive and specific multiple nanoPCR assay was developed for simultaneous detection of three subgroups avian leucosis virus (ALV). In this study, three pairs of primers that were designed based on gp85 gene sequences of subgroup A, B and J, optimizations were carried out for better performance of the nanoPCR assay and remarkably improved the detection limit of the assay. The detection limit of the assay was 101copies/μl, which was 100-fold more sensitive than conventional PCR assays. The nanoPCR assay amplified the specific 336 bp, 625 bp and 167 bp fragments of ALV-A, -B and –J respectively and no cross-reactivity were found with the genomic DNA or cDNA of Newcastle disease virus, avian infectious laryngotracheitis virus, Marek's disease virus, infectious bronchitis vaccine, infectious bursal disease virus and avian encephalomyelitis Virus. To evaluate the detection ability of the assay, 186 clinical samples were detected by nanoPCR and the detection results were further confirmed by sequencing. The sequencing results were 100% in coincidence with the nanoPCR detection results, suggesting the possibility of clinical application of the newly developed nanoPCR assay. Taking all the results together, a highly specific and sensitive nanoPCR was successfully developed, which could be useful for rapid diagnosis of ALV in poultry farming.

Medium-deep Borehole Heat exchanger (MBHE) has been widely paid attention for building heating. In order to avoid the thermal interference of adjacent MBHEs, temperature distribution characteristics of medium-deep rock-soil was investigated in this work. The evolution on maximum rock-soil thermal affected radius (MTAR) in full life cycle was further analyzed. The results showed that the rock-soil thermal affected area (RTAA) continuously expands in both radial and vertical directions during a heating season. Several factors of thermal extraction load, fluid velocity, geothermal gradient and pipe length have main impacts on the RTAA in vertical direction. Rock-soil thermal conductivity affects the RTAA in both radial and vertical directions. In non-heating season, temperature difference of rock-soil in radial direction dominates the temperature recovery in the first year while geothermal flow nearly dominates temperature recovery after 20 years. The thermal affected radius (TAR) in the 30 th year could be determined as an effective MTAR in full life cycle. In order to decrease installed distance of adjacent MBHEs, a new well layout form by deflecting borehole was proposed. The recommended deflection angle is equal to or larger than 4 times TAR angle. This work provides scientific reference for promoting application of multiple MBHE arrays.

The iron roughneck is an automated equipment utilized for the connection and removal of drilling tools. This paper presents the design of an integrated iron roughneck, providing a detailed introduction to its clamp body structure, along with an analysis of its structural characteristics and performance requirements. The study delves into the integration mode and working characteristics of the clamping mechanism and spin buckle mechanism for the integrated upper clamp body structure of the iron roughneck. Additionally, this paper conducts an in-depth theoretical study on the spin buckle mechanism. Firstly, it analyzes the actual working condition of the spin buckle roller from two perspectives: contact theory and rolling friction theory, determining the structural form of the spin buckle roller. Secondly, it investigates the relative displacement between the spin buckle mechanism and the drilling tool, proposing a design method for the floating device mounted on the spin buckle roller and establishing the kinematic equation of the spin buckle roller under the influence of the floating device. Furthermore, the kinematic equations of the spin buckle roller under the influence of the floating device are established. Finally, a dynamics simulation experiment is performed to simulate the working process of the spin buckle mechanism under actual working conditions, analyzing the dynamics and kinematics of the spin buckle mechanism and obtaining the relevant parameter curves of the spin buckle mechanism and drilling tools. Through data comparison and analysis, the correctness of the theoretical analysis results and the rationality of the performance and structure of the spin buckle mechanism are verified.

In a p-uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach space, let the pair of variational inequality and fixed point problems (VIFPPs) consist of two variational inequality problems (VIPs) involving two uniformly continuous and pseudomonotone mappings and two fixed point problems implicating two uniformly continuous and Bregman relatively asymptotically nonexpansive mappings. This article designs two parallel subgradient-like extragradient algorithms with inertial effect for solving this pair of VIFPPs, where each algorithm consists of two parts which are of symmetric structure mutually. Under mild registrations, we prove weak and strong convergence of the suggested algorithms to a common solution of this pair of VIFPPs, respectively. Lastly, an illustrative example is furnished to verify the applicability and implementability of our proposed approaches.

2-Methylquinazolin-4(3H)-one was prepared by reaction of anthranilic acid, acetic anhydride and ammonium acetate. The reaction of 2-methylquinazolin-4(3H)-one with N-aryl-2-chloroacetamides in acetone in the presence of potassium carbonate gave nine N-aryl-2-(2-methyl-4-oxoquinazolin-3(4H)-yl)acetamide compounds. The structures of these compounds were elucidated on the basis of their IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and HR-MS spectral data. These synthesized compounds containing the 2-methyl-3,4-dihydroquinazolin-4-one moiety exhibited excellent activity against Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae with LC50 values in the range of 2.085-4.201 μg/mL after 72 h exposure. Interestingly, these compounds did not exhibit toxicity to the non-target organism Diplonychus rusticus. In silico molecular docking revealed acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) to be potential molecular targets. These data indicated the larvicidal potential and environmental friendliness of these N-aryl-2-(2-methyl-4-oxoquinazolin-3(4H)-yl)acetamide derivatives.

Soil enzyme activity can be affected by both production and degradation, as enzymes can be degraded by proteases. However, the impact of nutrient addition on enzyme activity is often solely attributed to changes in enzyme production without fully considering degradation. Here, we demonstrated that the activities of β-1,4-glucosidase (BG), β-D-cellobiohydrolase (CBH), β-1,4-Xylosidase (BX), and β-1,4-N-acetyl-glucosaminnidase (NAG) were comparable in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilized soils and the unfertilized control under field conditions, but the reduction in activity was substantially greater in the fertilized soils during short-term laboratory incubation. The results show that the interruption of the natural, continuous supply of organic matter or non-soil microbial-derived enzymes, which typically occurs under field conditions, leads to a more significant reduction in apparent enzyme activities in fertilized soils compared to unfertilized control. This may be attributed to the higher abundance of protease in fertilized soils, resulting in faster enzyme degradation. Interestingly, P fertilization alone did not have a similar effect, indicating that N fertilization is likely the main cause of the larger decreases in enzyme activity during incubation in fertilized soils compared to unfertilized control soils, despite our study site being poor in P and rich in N. These findings highlight the importance of considering enzyme degradation when investigating material dynamics in forest ecosystems, including the impact of nutrient addition on enzyme activity, as enzyme production alone may not fully explain changes in apparent enzyme activity.

Ecological and environmental damage caused by oil spillage has attracted great attention. Used cigarette filter (CF) has also caused negative environmental consequences. Converting CF to economical materials is a feasible way to address these problems. In this study, we demonstrate a simple method for production of a highly hydrophobic absorbent from CF. CF was modified by using different volume ratios of octadecyltrichlorosilane and methyltrimethoxysilane. When the volume ratio was 3:2, the modified CF had the high water contact angle of 155°. It could selectively and completely absorb silicone oil from an oil-water mixture and showed a good absorption capacity of 38.3 g/g. The absorbed oil was readily and rapidly recovered by simple mechanical squeezing, and it could be reused immediately without any additional treatments. The as-obtained superhydrophobic modified CF retained an absorption capacity of 80% for pump oil and 82% for silicone oil after 10 cycles. The modified CF showed good elasticity in the test of repeated use. The present study provides novel design of a functional material for development of hydrophobic absorbents from used CF via a facile method toward oil spillage cleanup as well as a new recycling method of CF to alleviate the environmental impact.

Palpation is a simple but effective method to differentiate tumors from healthy tissues. Development of miniaturized tactile sensors embedded on endoscopic or robotic devices are the key toward precise palpation diagnosis and the subsequent timely treatment. This paper reports on the fabrication and characterization of a novel tactile sensor with mechanical flexibility and optical transparency that can be easily mounted on soft surgical endoscopes and robotics. Utilizing the pneumatic sensing mechanism, the sensor offers a high sensitivity of 1.25 mbar and negligible hysteresis, enabling the detection of phantom tissues with different stiffnesses ranging from 0 to 2.5 MPa. Our configuration combining pneumatic sensing and hydraulic actuating also eliminates electrical wiring from the functional elements located at the robot end-effector, thereby enhancing the system safety. The optical transparency path in the sensors together with its mechanical sensing capability open interesting possibility in early detection of solid tumor as well as in the development of all in-one soft surgical robots that can perform visual/mechanical feedback and optical therapy.

With the increasing demand for medicinal plants and the increasing shortage of resources, improving the quality and yield of medicinal plants and making more effective use of medicinal plants has become an urgent problem to be solved. In the process of growth and development of medicinal plants, due to the threat of various adversity, there are problems such as nutrient loss and yield decline. Using traditional chemical pesticides to control the stress resistance of plants will cause serious pollution to the environment and even endanger human health. Therefore, it is necessary to find suitable pesticide substitutes from natural ingredients. As an important part of the microecology of medicinal plants, endophytes can promote the growth of medicinal plants, improve the stress resistance of hosts, and promote the accumulation of active components of hosts. Because it has a more positive and direct impact on the host, and can metabolize rich medicinal ingredients, so researchers pay attention to it. This paper reviews the research in recent five years, aiming to provide ideas for improving the quality of medicinal plants, developing more microbial resources, exploring more medicinal natural products, and providing help for the development of the research on medicinal plants and endophytes.

Edge computing has emerged as a significant computing trend alongside the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). Computing operations at the network’s edge offer a solution to the high latency and service overload challenges often associated with cloud computing. Additionally, the Secure Hash Algorithm-3 (SHA-3) plays a crucial role in ensuring data integrity and is implemented for numerous applications in the IoT field. Therefore, integrating the SHA-3 accelerator into edge computing is essential. Moreover, recent studies about SHA-3 have primarily focused on achieving high performance and optimizing resource utilization for SHA-3. However, these studies have overlooked the crucial aspect of data transfer between the external memory and the hash function block, as transfer time plays a significant role. This paper proposes an efficient SHA-3 architecture designed for System-on-Chip (SoC) Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to address the aforementioned challenges and be suitable for real edge computing. The architecture contains three key techniques. First, the harmony of padding and Direct Memory Access (DMA) for managing the data transfer process and enhancing performance efficiency based on Serial Input to Parallel Output (SIPO) and a barrel shifter. Secondly, implementing internal pipelining within the Round Function (RF) to reduce critical path delays and optimize resource utilization. Finally, designing four modes (SHA3-224, SHA3-256, SHA3-384, and SHA3-512) to cater to various applications. Our architecture is implemented and tested on the DE10-Standard Development Kit (Cyclone V SX SoC-5CSXFC6D6F31C6N), which is integrated into the FPGA and is controlled by a Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 processor. The result is up to 38.34 Gbps in throughput and 5.61 Mbps/ALM in efficiency for the RF computation, 28.02 Gbps in throughput, and 3.63 Mbps/ALM for the full proposed architecture.

The rampant misuse of drones poses a serious threat to national security and human life. Currently, the CNN method has been widely used in drone detection. However, there is a challenge that traditional CNN cannot cope with, which is small drone targets often have reduced amplitude or even lost features in infrared images. This paper proposes a Progressive Feature Fusion Network (PFFNet) that gradually increases the response amplitude of the target in the deep network. The Feature Selection Model (FSM) is designed to improve the utilisation of the output coding graph and enhance the feature representation of the target in the network. A lightweight segmentation head is also designed to achieve progressive feature fusion with multi-layer outputs. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve low duration and high accuracy in drone target detection. On the public dataset, the IoU is improved by 2.53% and the detection time is reduced by 81.03%.

Inhalational anesthetics was previously reported to suppress glioma cell malignancy, but underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The present study aims to investigate the effects of sevoflurane and desflurane on glioma cell malignancy changes via microRNA (miRNA) modulation. The cultured H4 cells were exposed to 3.6% sevoflurane or 10.3% desflurane for 2 hrs. The miR-138, -210 and -335 expression were determined with qRT-PCR. Cell proliferation and migration were assessed with wound healing assay, Ki67 staining and cell count kit 8 (CCK8) assay with/without miR-138/-210/-335 inhibitor transfections. The miRNA downstream proteins, hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), were also determined with immunofluorescent staining. Sevoflurane and desflurane exposure to glioma cells inhibited their proliferation and migration. Sevoflurane exposure increased miR-210 expression whereas desflurane exposure upregulated both miR-138 and miR-335 expressions. The administration of inhibitor of miR-138, -210 or -335 inhibited the suppressing effects of sevoflurane or desflurane on cell proliferation and migration, in line with the HIF-1α and MMP9 expression changes. These data indicated that inhalational anesthetics, sevoflurane and desflurane, inhibited glioma cell malignancy via miRNA upregulation and their downstream effectors, HIF-1α and MMP9, downregulation. The implication of the current study warrants further study.

Knee Osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic disease characterized by progressive disability and joint pain. Meniscus chondrocytes apoptosis is the main cause of reduced chondrocyte number and self-repair function. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of miR-27b-3p in KOA.In this study, we found that the expression of miR-27b-3p was downregulated in cultured IL-1β treated chondrocyte and cartilage tissues in KOA. KOA overexpression evidently reduced IL-1β induced chondrocyte apoptosis and caspase-3 and caspase-9 expression.The upregulated iNOS and COX-2 mRNA and proteins expression was also inhibited by miR-27b-3p mimics. The expression of nitric oxide, PGE2, TNF-α and IL-6 was also inhibited by miR-27b-3p mimics. The target gene of miR-27b-3p was confirmed to be BDNF. TrkB/CREB pathway was proved to be the downstream pathway of miR-27b-3p/BDNF axis.The apoptotic cell percentage and nitric oxide, PGE2, TNF-α and IL-6 expression was induced by BDNF+IL-1β. This induction was inhibited by miR-27b-3p mimics. The cartilage tissues stained with safranin O results showed miR-27b-3p greatly decreased KOA induced cartilage degradation. The expression of BDNF、TrkB and p-CREB was inhibited by len-miR-27b-3p. MiR-27b-3p also reduced the expression of TNF-α、IL-6 and Bax, and increased Bcl-2 expression. These results indicated miR-27b-3p could applied to inhibit the development of KOA and miR-27b-3p/BDNF/TrkB/CREB pathway could serve as novel treatment target to handle KOA.

Pristimerin (PM) is a naturally occurring quinonemethide triterpenoid compound that isolated from the Celastraceae and Hippocrateaceae families. Its anticancer effects have attracted a great deal of attention, but the mechanisms of action remain obscure. In this study, we screened for the active compounds of Pristimerin using a drug-likeness approach. Potential protein targets of Pristimerin were predicted by PharmMapper and Coremine database. Candidate protein targets were then uploaded to GeneMANIA and GO pathway analysis. Finally, compound-target, target-pathway, and compound-target-pathway networks were constructed using Cytoscape 3.3. The results showed that Pristimerin had good drug ability and identified 13 putative protein targets. Network analysis revealed that these targets are associated with cancer, inflammation and other physiological processes. In summary, Pristimerin is predicted to target a variety of proteins and pathways to form a network that exerts systemic pharmacological effects.

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) has higher bioavailability and safety than inorganic selenium, and was widely used in medical, agricultural, nutritional supplements, and antibacterial fields. The present study screened a strain L11 producing SeNPs from a selenium rich dairy cow breeding base in Hubei Province, China. The strain was identified as Bacillus subtilis through physiological, biochemical, and molecular biology analysis. Through optimization of cultivation conditions, the optimal cultivation parameters for L11 to produce SeNPs were pH=6, cultivation temperature of 37 °C, 4 mmol/L Na2SeO3, and cultivation for 48 hours. XPS, SEM-EDS, and TEM were used to verify that the Se particles produced by L11 are SeNPs with diameters ranging from 50 to 200 nm. The combination of protein analysis of different cell components and TEM analysis showed that L11 mainly produces SeNPs through the transformation of the cell's periplasmic space, cell membrane, and cell wall. Adding L11 SeNPs complex to sheep feed can significantly enhance the antioxidant activity and immunity of sheep, and increase the Se content in the neck muscles, liver, and spleen tissues.

In recent years, the genesis of natural gas and the definition of major gas source rocks in the Baiyun Sag of the Pearl River Mouth Basin have attracted extensive attention from scholars. There is still considerable controversy over the genesis and the main gas source rocks of natural gas. In this study, the chemical kinetics method of natural gas generation and carbon isotope fractionation was used to study the generation history and isotope evolution history of Paleogene natural gas in the Y5 well area located on the north slope of Baiyun Sag. And other geochemical discriminant methods were applied simultaneously to determine the type and source rocks of natural gas. The results show that the natural gas in the Y5 well area on the northern slope of Baiyun Sag is mainly kerogen degradation gas, mixed with a small amount of oil cracking gas. The mixture of kerogen degradation gas and a small amount of crude oil cracking gas caused the inversion of the carbon isotope sequence of ethane and propane. The natural gas in the Y5 well area mainly comes from delta–shallow lacustrine facies source rock. The high–quality reservoirs in the shallower strata accumulate natural gas generated in the early stage, and the tight reservoirs in the deeper strata mainly accumulate natural gas generated in the late stage.

This research aims to explore factors that influence sustainable music learning system from psychological perspective, and innovatively constructs a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. For first time, combines nonlinear system and identifies relevant factors affecting music learning by establishing data system for questionnaire answering and a quantitative model for actual academic performance. Existing research mainly looks at several factors that affect fragmented music learning system from perspective of teachers' teaching rules, emphasizing phased teaching state and learning goals of teachers as main body, thus ignoring music learning students, who are a large group of music learning objects. The research fills gap in this type of research object, focusing on sustainable music learning system from emotional perspective and students who occupy a dominant position in music learning, so as to more accurately explore impact of their emotional influencing factors on music learning system. The most prominent innovation of this study lies in construction of stochastic nonlinear system for psychological influencing factors of student music learning and a quantitative model for actual learning effect. Through analysis of nonlinear system, weight values of several negative emotions on music learning system are obtained. The comprehensive impact of emotional factors and practical learning on music learning system can be obtained by weighting them together.

This research aims to explore factors that influence sustainable music education from a psychological perspective, and innovatively constructs a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. For first time, combines stochastic nonlinear system of control theory and identifies relevant factors affecting sustainable music learning by establishing a data system for questionnaire answering and a quantitative model for actual academic performance. Existing research mainly looks at several factors that affect fragmented music education from perspective of teachers' teaching rules, emphasizing phased teaching state and learning goals of teachers as main body, thus ignoring sustainable music education and students, who are a large group of music learning objects. The research fills gap in this type of research object, focusing on sustainable music education from an emotional perspective and students who occupy a dominant position in music learning, so as to more accurately explore impact of their emotional influencing factors on sustainable music learning. The most prominent innovation of this study lies in construction of stochastic nonlinear system for psychological influencing factors of sustainable student music learning and a quantitative model for actual learning effect. Through analysis of nonlinear system, weight values of several negative emotions on sustainable music learning are obtained.

This research aims to explore factors that influence sustainable music learning system from psychological perspective, and innovatively constructs a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. For first time, combines nonlinear system and identifies relevant factors affecting music learning by establishing data system for questionnaire answering and a quantitative model for actual academic performance. Existing research mainly looks at several factors that affect fragmented music learning system from perspective of teachers' teaching rules, emphasizing phased teaching state and learning goals of teachers as main body, thus ignoring music learning students, who are a large group of music learning objects. The research fills gap in this type of research object, focusing on sustainable music learning system from emotional perspective and students who occupy a dominant position in music learning, so as to more accurately explore impact of their emotional influencing factors on music learning system. The most prominent innovation of this study lies in construction of stochastic nonlinear system for psychological influencing factors of student music learning and a quantitative model for actual learning effect. Through analysis of nonlinear system, weight values of several negative emotions on music learning system are obtained. The comprehensive impact of emotional factors and practical learning on music learning system can be obtained by weighting them together.

Fructan, a fructose polymer, is used as carbohydrate reserve in many plants. The nutritional and therapeutic benefits of fructans have attracted increasing interest by consumers and food industry. In the course of evolution, many plants have developed the ability of regulating plant frunctan metabolism genes to produce different structures and chain length fructans, which are strongly correlated with their survival in harsh environments. De nevo domestication of fructan-rich plants based on genome editing is a viable and promising approach to improve human dietary quality and reduce the risk of chronic disease. These advances will greatly facilitate breeding and production of tailor-made fructans as a healthy food ingredient from wild plants such as polygonati rhizoma. The purpose of this review is to broaden our knowledge on plant fructan biosynthesis, evolution and beneficial applications for human health.

In industry 4.0 era, video applications such as surveillance visual systems, video conferencing, or video broadcasting have been playing a vital role. In these applications, for manipulating and tracking objects in decoded video, the quality of decoded video should be consistent because it largely affects to the performance of the machine analysis. To cope with this problem, we propose a novel perceptual video coding (PVC) solution in which a full reference quality metric named Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) is employed together with a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to obtain the consistent quality while still achieving the high compression performance. First of all, to achieve the consistent quality requirement, we propose a CNN model with an expected VMAF as input to adaptively adjust the quantization parameters (QP) for each coding block. Afterwards, to increase the compression performance, a Lagrange coefficient of Rate-Distortion optimization (RDO) mechanism is adaptively computed under Rate-QP and Quality-QP models. Experimental results show that the proposed PVC has achieved two targets simultaneously: the quality of video sequence is kept consistently with an expected quality level and the bit rate saving of the proposed method is higher than traditional video coding standards and relevant benchmark, notably with around 10% bitrate saving in average.

The structure and phenomena arising from charge transfer in cold field emission modus in a single closed carbon nanotube under cold field emission conditions were studied. By studying microphotographs in various microscopes - AFM, SEM, TEM it was found inhomogeneities in the form of two types of superlattices. The conductivity of the emitter section of a nanodiode circuit with an emitter made of an individual closed carbon nanotube (CNT) and arrays of closed CNTs was studied. High values of cold field emission were observed, as well as nonlinearity and anomalies of the current-voltage characteristic (I-V characteristics), which manifested themselves in the form of peaks at low and high current values. Peaks in the CVC have distinct areas of negative differential conductivity. It is argued, that the anomalously high currents in the I–V characteristics of cold field emission of electrons from a nanoemitter made of closed CNTs can be associated with a sharp increase in the density of electron states at energies near the van Hove singularity.

This paper investigates the impact of price and real exchange rate volatility on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in a panel of 10 Latin American and Caribbean countries, observed between 1990 and 2012. Both price and exchange rate volatility series are estimated through the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity model (GARCH). Our results, obtained employing the Fixed Effects estimator, confirm the theory of hysteresis and option value, in so far it is found a statistically significant negative effect of exchange rate volatility on FDI. Price volatility, instead, turns out to be positive but insignificant. Moreover, we show that human capital and trade openness are key for attracting foreign capital. From the policy perspective, our analysis suggests the importance of stabilization policies as well as the one of government credibility in promoting trade openness and human capital formation.

: Background: The polysaccharides are one of the main active ingredients of Polygonum sibiricum (PSP), which is a traditional food and medicine homologues in China. The antidepressant-like effects of PSP and its underlying mechanisms remain to be studied in depth, especially the regulation of microglial polarization. Methods: The chemical composition and structural characteristics of PSP was determined firstly. The CUMS procedure was carried out to the zebrafish for 5 weeks and PSP were immersed administration for 9 days (1 h/d). The body weight of zebrafish was monitored and the behavioral tests, including the novel tank test and light and dark tank test, were performed to evaluate the antidepressant-like effects of PSP. Then the function of HPI axis, the levels of peripheral inflammation, neuronal and blood-brain barrier damage in mesencephalon and telencephalon and the mRNA expression of M1/M2 phenotype genes in brain were examined. Results: PSP samples had the typical structure characteristics of polysaccharide, consisting of glucose, mannose and galactose with the average Mw 20.48 kDa, which owned a porous and agglomerated morphology. Compared with untreated zebrafish, the depression-like behaviors of CUMS-induced zebrafish were significantly attenuated. PSP significantly decreased the levels of cortisol and the pro-inflammatory cytokines and increased the levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokines in the body of CUMS-induced depressive zebrafish. Furthermore, neuronal and blood-brain barrier damage in mesencephalon and telencephalon and the mRNA expression of M1/M2 phenotype genes in brain were remarkably reversed by PSP. Conclusion: These findings indicated that the antidepressant-like effects of PSP were related to alter the HPI axis hyperactivation, suppress peripheral inflammation, inhibit neuroinflammation induced by microglia hyperactivation, and modulate microglial M1/M2 polarization. The current study provides foundation to the future exploitation of PSP in the functional foods of emotional regulation.

The alignment of nanostructures in materials such as lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) templated materials has the potential to signicantly improve their performances. However, accurately characterising and quantifying the alignement of such fine structures remains very challenging. In situ small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and molecular dynamics were employed for the first time to understand the hexagonal LLC alignment process with magnetic nanoparticles under a magnetic field. The enhanced alignment has been illustrated from the distribution of azimuthal intensity in the samples exposed to magnetic field. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the relationship between the imposed force of the magenetic nanoparticles under magnetic field and the force transferred to the LLC cylinders which leads to the LLC alignment. The combinational study with experimental measurement and computational simulation will enable the development and control of nanostructures in novel materials for various applications.

Controlling the collective behavior of micro/nanomotors with ultrasound may enable new functionality in robotic, medicine and other engineering disciplines. Currently, various collective behaviors of nanomotors, such as assembly, reconfiguration and disassembly, have been explored by using acoustic fields with a fixed frequency, while regulating their collective behaviors by varying the ultrasound frequency still remains challenging. In this work, we design an ultrasound manipulation methodology allowing nanomotors to exhibit different collective behaviors by regulating the applied ultrasound frequency. This work has important implications for design of artificial actuated nanomotors and optimize their performances.

Multi-source image registration often suffered from great radiation and geometric differences. Specifically, gray scale and texture from similar landforms in different source images often show significantly different visual features. And these differences disturb the corresponding point extraction in the following image registration process. Considering that edges between heterogeneous images can provide homogeneous information and more consistent features can be extracted based on image edges, an edge consistency radiation-change insensitive feature transform (EC-RIFT) method is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the noise and texture interference are reduced by preprocessing according to the image characteristics. Secondly, image edges are extracted based on phase congruency, and an orthogonal Log-Gabor filter is performed to replace the global algorithm. Finally, the descriptors are built with logarithmic partition of the feature point neighborhood, which improves the robustness of descriptors. Comparative experiments on datasets containing multi-source remote sensing image pairs show that the proposed EC-RIFT method outperforms other registration methods in terms of precision and effectiveness.

The total ionizing dose (TID) effect significantly impacts the electrical parameters of fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) devices and even invalidates the on-off function of devices. At present, most of the irradiation research on the circuit level is focused on the single event effect, and the research on the total ionizing dose effect is very little. Therefore, this study mainly analyzes the influence of TID effects on a CMOS inverter circuit based on 22 nm FDSOI transistors. First, we constructed and calibrated an N-type FDSOI metal-oxide semiconductor (NMOS) structure and P-type FDSOI metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) structure. The transfer characteristics and trapped charge distribution of these devices were studied under different irradiation doses. Next, we studied the TID effect on an inverter circuit composed of these two MOS transistors. The simulation results show that when the radiation dose is 400 krad (Si), the logic threshold drift of the inverter is approximately 0.052 V. These results help further investigate the impact on integrated circuits in the irradiation environment.

This study compares the physico-chemical characteristics of three different types of biochar produced from biomass residues in Vietnam as a basis for optimising their application in water purification and soil fertilisation. Wood biochar (WBC), rice husk biochar (RBC), and bamboo biochar (BBC) were produced under limited oxygen conditions using equipment available locally in Vietnam, known as a Top-Lid Updraft Drum (TLUD). The resulting biochars were characterised using a suite of state-of-the-art methods to understand their morphology, surface chemistry and cation exchange capacity. Surface areas (measured by BET) for WBC and BBC were 479.34 m²/g and 434.53 m²/g, respectively, significantly higher than that of RBC which was only 3.29 m²/g. The morphology as shown in SEM images corresponds with the BET surface area, showing a smooth surface for RBC, a hollow surface for BBC, and a rough surface for WBC. All three biochars produced alkaline, with pH values around 10, and all have high carbon contents (47.95 - 82.1 %). Cation exchange capacity (CEC) was significantly different (p<0.05) among the biochars, being 26.70 cmol/kg for RBC, 20.7 cmol/kg for BBC, and 13.53 cmol/kg for WBC, which relates to the cations (Ca, Mg, K) and functional groups with negative charge (carboxyl, hydroxyl) present on the biochar surfaces. The highest contents of Ca, Mg and K in rice husk BC may explain its highest CEC values. Thus, although the biochars were produced by the same method, the various feedstocks lead to quite different physico-chemical properties. Ongoing work is linking these physico-chemical properties to the biochar efficiencies in terms of nitrate and ammonia capture capacities for use as fertilisers, and for adsorption of heavy metals (Zn, Cu) or water filtration, in order to design optimal biochar properties for specific applications.

Mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) is associated with mitochondrial function contributing various diseases. Understanding of the association between mtDNAcn and infant neurodevelopment, as well as the role of racial disparities, remains unknown. A cohort study was conducted with 55 preterm infants and a single blood sample was collected from each infant during their NICU stay to measure mtDNAcn. NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) and Bayley Scale of Infant Developmental testing Edition III was assessed during NICU until 2 years of corrected age (CA). Linear regression models were performed to investigate the relationship between the clinical characteristics, neurobehavioral outcomes and mtDNAcn. Majority of our subjects were male, White, non-Hispanic, had C-section, and without preterm premature rupture of membrane (PPROM). Increased mtDNAcn was found associated with younger birth gestational age (GA), nonoptimal neurodevelopment. However, the opposite associations between mtDNAcn and neurodevelopmental outcomes were observed between Black and White infants up to 1 year of CA. Adverse early life experience, together with increased mtDNAcn in White infants, and decreased mtDNAcn in Black infants may be considered as significant positive predictors of poor early life neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, studies of mature plasmacytoid dendritic cell proliferation associated with T lymphoblastic lymphoma were extremely rare in the literature. Here, we report a patient who underwent both mature plasmacytoid dendritic cell proliferation and T lymphoblastic lymphoma. With the findings of lymph node biopsy taken from the right cervical and inguinal regions, we identified eye-catching mature plasmacytoid dendritic cells that were considered to be responsible for this lesion at the beginning, until the immunostaining of Ki67 and TDT showed a small group of positive cells hiding in these plasmacytoid dendritic cells. Bone marrow biopsy was also performed in this patient. Microscopically, the hematopoietic tissue was almost completely replaced by lymphoblastoid cells with condensed chromatin, inconspicuous nucleoli and scanty cytoplasm, which were basically the same as those seen in the lymph nodes in morphology. However, there was no sign of plasmacytoid dendritic cells or Langerhans cells in the bone marrow biopsy. With the help of bone marrow biopsy, our final diagnosis of the lymph node was T lymphoblastic lymphoma coexisting with mature plasmacytoid dendritic cell proliferation . Although accumulations of plasmacytoid dendritic cells may occur in some infections or reactive lymphadenopathy, the presence of extensive nodules or infiltration of plasmacytoid dendritic cells strongly reminds the pathologist to carefully evaluate the bone marrow or peripheral blood status of the patient to exclude a hidden myeloid or other neoplasm.

The Pingbei area is the main accumulation area of oil and gas in the Xihu Sag. The phase characteristics of oil and gas in this area are complex, and the understanding of their genesis is still unclear. In this paper, based upon discussions of crude oil and natural gas geochemical data, integrated with local geological features, we discuss the sources, migration, and phase state characteristics of oil and gas in the Pingbei area of the Xihu Sag. The study results showed that the crude oil and natural gas in the Pingbei area are coal-derived and the oil and gas produced by the humic organic matter during the maturity stage. The oil and gas source correlation showed that crude oil and natural gas have good affinity with the Eocene Pinghu Formation (PF) coal-bearing source rocks. Crude oil has the characteristics of near-source accumulation and short-distance migration while natural gas is supplied from a dual source: the coal-derived hydrocarbon rocks of PH in the deep part of the study area, supplemented by the coal-derived hydrocarbon rocks of PH on the bottom of the slope, and adjacent hydrocarbon-bearing sub sag. The distribution characteristics and geochemical migration indices of hydrocarbon showed that the oil generated from the hydrocarbon source rocks of PH in the deep Pingbei area mainly migrates vertically along the fault connecting the reservoir and the source rocks to the trap, where it accumulates, while the natural gas exhibits deep and large faults that mainly migrate vertically, supplemented by its lateral migration along the composite transport system composed of faults and sandstone layers in the slope zone. The mechanisms of produced, exhausted, and geochromatographic effects (PGE), as well as evaporative fractionation (EF) and phase-controlled migration fractionation (PMF), result in the obvious discrepancy of hydrocarbon’s properties on the vertical profiles.

Background. To describe the characteristics of anterior mediastinal masses on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to assess the role of the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) value in distinguishing benign from malignant mediastinal lesions. Methods. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study on 55 patients with anterior mediastinal mass who performed MRI before treatment. Biopsy and histopathological assessments were done after that. A radiologist evaluates the changes of signal intensity on these sequences: T1- weighted VIBE DIXON pre and post-contrast with Gadolinium, T2 HASTE, T2 TIRM, DWI/ADC, to determine the size, margin of the lesion, the presence of fat, cystic in it. ADCs values were calculated from the ADC maps which were constructed from b = 0 and b = 2000 Results. The study was composed of 55 patients, with 5 benign lesions and 50 malignant lesions. The ADCmean, ADCmedian, ADC10, and ADC90 in the histogram-based approach and hot-spot-ROI-based mean ADC for the malignant lesions was significantly lower than those found in benign lesions (P-value <0.05). The hot-spot-ROI-based mean ADC had the highest value in differentiation between benign and malignant mediastinal lesions, between group A (benign lesions, thymoma A, AB, B1) and group B (thymoma B2, B3 and other malignant lesions). The cut-off point of the ADC value differentiating malignant from benign mediastinal lesions was 1,17x10-3mm2/s with sensitivity of 80%, and specificity of 80%. The cut off point of the ADC value differentiating group A from group B was 0.99 x10-3mm2/s with sensitivity of 78,4%, and specificity of 88.9%. The cut-off point of the ADC value differentiating lymphoma from other malignant lesions was 0,91 x10-3mm2/s with sensitivity of 100%, and specificity of 60.5%. Conclusion. Diffusion-weighted MRI and measurement of ADC value in histogram-based approach and hot-spot-ROI-based mean ADC are very helpful in the differentiation between benign and malignant anterior mediastinal lesions.

Fracture grouting has been a widely used mitigation measure against seepage in the Yellow River Embankment. However, there is currently a lack of systematic investigation for evaluating the anti-seepage effectiveness of fracture grouting employed in this longest river embankment in China. Therefore, in this work, laboratory and in-situ experiments are carried out for investigating the reinforcement effect of fracture grouting in the Jinan Section of the Yellow River Embankment. In particular, firstly, the laboratory tests concentrate on studying the optimum strength improvement for cement-silicate grout by varying the content of backfilled fly ash and bentonite as admixtures. Flexural strength and Scanning Electron Microscope photographs are investigated for assessing the strength and compactness improvement. Subsequently, based on the obtained optimum admixtures content, in-situ grouting tests are carried out in the Jinan Section of the Yellow River Embankment to evaluate the anti-seepage effectiveness of fracture grouting, where geophysical prospecting and pit prospecting methods are employed. Laboratory results show that, compared with pure cement-silicate grouts, the gelation time of the improved slurry is longer and gelation time increases as fly ash content increases. The optimum mixing proportion of the compound cement-silicate grout is 70% cement, 25% fly ash and 5% bentonite, and the best volume ratio is 2 for the investigated cases. Geophysical prospecting using the Ground Penetrating Radar and High Density Resistivity methods can reflect the anti-seepage effectiveness of fracture grouting on site. It shows that the grouting material mainly flows along the axial direction of the embankment. The treatment that is used to generate directional fracture is proved to be effective. The injection hole interval distance is suggested to be 1.2 m, where the lapping effect of the grouting veins is relatively significant. For the investigated cases, the average thickness of the grouting veins is approximately 6.0 cm and the corresponding permeability coefficient is averagely 1.6 × 10⁻⁶ cm/s, which meets the anti-seepage criterion in practice.

Intercropping of maize (Zea mays L.) and peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) (M||P) significantly enhances crop yield. In a long-term M||P field experiment with two P fertilizer levels, we examined how long-term M||P affects topsoil aggregate fractions and stability, organic carbon (SOC), available phosphorus (AP), and total phosphorus (TP) in each aggregate fraction, along with crop yields. Compared to their respective monocultures, long-term M||P substantially increased the proportion of topsoil mechanical macroaggregates (7.6–16.3%) and water-stable macroaggregates (>1 mm) (13.8–36.1%), while reducing the unstable aggregate index (ELT) and the percentage of aggregation destruction (PAD). M||P significantly boosted the concentration (12.9–39.9%) and contribution rate (4.1–47.9%) of SOC in macroaggregates compared to single crops. Moreover, the concentration of TP in macroaggregates (>1 mm) and AP in each aggregate fraction of M||P exceeded that of the respective single crops (P<0.05). Furthermore, M||P significantly increased the Ca2-P, Ca8-P, Al-P, and Fe-P concentrations of intercropped maize (IM) and the Ca8-P, O-P, and Ca10-P concentrations of intercropped peanuts (IP). The land equivalent ratio (LER) of M||P was higher than one, and M||P stubble improved the yield of subsequent winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) compared with sole-crop maize stubble. P application augmented the concentration of SOC, TP, and AP in macroaggregates, resulting in improved crop yields. In conclusion, our findings suggest that long-term M||P combined with P application, sustains farmland productivity in the North China Plain by increasing SOC and macroaggregate fractions, improving aggregate stability, and enhancing soil P availability.

Omicron variants have higher infectivity, more immune escape but lower risk of severe clinical outcomes than the ancestral variants. However, people are still wondering whether SARS-CoV-2 may become lethal again or whether some highly-pathogenic strain may emerge in the future. Omicron is more selective proliferation in the upper respiratory tract (URT). The temperature of human URT is 33–34°C, and the virus strains other than Omicron cannot replicate effectively at this temperature. While Omicron adapted to the low temperature environment, so its distribution mainly depends on the expression levels of ACE2 in cells. Similar distribution switch from lungs to URT has been observed for the 1918 H1N1 influenza virus, who vanished after 1921 and has been turned to be the seasonal human influenza A viruses. However, some relatively high-pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 strains and influenza-virus strains may still emerge in the future. Dynamic changes in the viral virulence should be monitored constantly.

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) has undergone complex geological development within a multi-island faulted basin, shaped by the interplay of regional tectonic movements, Quaternary sea-level fluctuations, and fluvial-marine interactions. Despite a great number of studies on the Holocene sedimentary sequences and spatial difference of lithofacies and environments, scant attention has been paid to the overarching human influence on deltaic evolution and coastline modifications since the Neolithic epoch. To further elucidate the spatial variation in Holocene sedimentation and its underlying basement topography shaped during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), we compiled a comprehensive dataset incorporating borehole data from over 2,800 cores within the PRD. Subsequently, high-resolution isobath maps of Quaternary deltaic deposits were generated, offering unprecedented insights into sediment distribution. This dataset facilitated a nuanced reconstruction of pre-Holocene topography, revealing a zone characterized by elongated, deep-incised valleys governed by NW-SE fault orientations. Further, we delineated coastline shifts since the period of maximum marine transgression (~7000 years BP), contributing to an enhanced understanding of the formation and evolutionary patterns of the delta and the river network oscillations. Our findings illuminate increasing anthropogenic impact on the rate of fluvial sedimentation and land growth, particularly accentuated over the last two millennia, favoring deltaic accretion. The current study has considerable implications for understanding the dynamic interplay between land-sea interactions and anthropogenic activities in shaping the delta, and stands to significantly inform land and resource management strategies, as well as future urban planning within the delta's bay areas.

The excellent properties of nanomaterials have been confirmed in many fields, but the effects on plants are still unclear. In this study, we have found that bismuth vanadium promoted the growth of taproots and the development of lateral roots, increased the roots activity by regulating the expression of polyamine or hormone-related genes and reducing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in Arabisdopsis thaliana. Meantime, BV had higher antimicrobial effect than that of graphene oxide (GO). These results showed us a new perspective possibility of nanomaterials assisting the development of plants and crops, which is expected to become one of the ways to solve the problem of controlling and promoting the development of plants and crops.

The artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the science and engineering of creating intelligent machines for imitating and expanding human intelligence. Given the ongoing evolution of the multidisciplinary integration trend in modern medicine, numerous studies have investigated the power of AI to address orthopaedic-specific problems. One particular area of investigation focuses on the shoulder pathology, which is a range of disorders or abnormalities of shoulder joint, causing pain, inflammation, stiffness, weakness, and reduced range of motion. There has not yet been a comprehensive review of the recent advancements in this field. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to evaluate the current AI applications in the shoulder pathology. This review mainly summarizes several crucial stages of the clinical practice, including predictive models and prognosis, diagnosis, treatment, and physical therapy. In addition, the challenges and future development of AI are also discussed.

In recent years, nocturnal ozone enhancement(NOE) events have become a hot research topic in the field of atmospheric environment. By using statistically-based data analysis, we made a comparative investigation about nocturnal ozone concentrations and NOE events in 2022 and 2023, and further explored the effects of NOE events on O3 and PM2.5 at the night of the same day and the next day. The results showed that from 2022 to 2023 in Dongying, the annual average nocturnal ozone concentrations increased from 51 μg/m3 to 59 μg/m3, and the frequency of NOE events was higher in spring, summer and autumn, and lower in winter. NOE events not only had an obvious promoting effect on nocturnal O3 and Ox, and the daily maximum 8 h average concentration of O3 (MDA8-O3) of the same day (more apparent in summer and autumn), and nocturnal PM2.5 and PM2.5-bounded NO3- and SO42- (more apparent in winter), but also had a distinct influence on O3, Ox and MDA8-O3 of the next day (more apparent in summer). The results could strengthen the understanding of the phenomena of NOE events, and provide a scientific basis for the collaborative control of PM2.5 and ozone in urban areas in the Yellow River Delta, China.

This study delves into the complex dynamics of Underwater Wireless Optical Communication (UWOC) in varied Harbor water conditions. Focusing on four distinct types of Harbor water, the research employs the Monte Carlo method to simulate photon transmission and analyze critical UWOC characteristics. Key parameters such as the transmitted full divergence angle, received aperture, and Field of View (FOV) are meticulously evaluated for their impact on communication efficacy. The study first explores the relationship between laser power variation, attenuation length, and divergence angle, revealing how different water qualities influence received power and time delay spread. Notably, the received normalized power loss and time delay spread are found to be more significantly affected by communication distance than water quality. In addition, under the condition of small received aperture and FOV, the influence on normalized power loss and time spread is more obvious in Harbor water. The findings offer novel insights into the challenges of UWOC in Harbor waters, particularly in terms of light scattering and absorption properties, and contribute to the optimization of communication systems in such complex underwater environments. Furthermore, the analysis of time pulse spread in turbid water quality is of great significance for the analysis and improvement of underwater wireless optical timing, ranging and positioning.

The traditional processing of Dendrobium officinale (DO) is manufactured through five necessary processing steps: fresh strips, drying at 85 °C, curling, molding, and drying at 35 °C (Fengdou), and the antioxidant activity of DO were increased after processing into Fengdou. To comprehensively analyses the changing functional components, a plant-wide target metabolomics were employed. In total, 739 differential ingredients were identified in five processing treatments, mainly highlighting differences in variation with phenolic acids, flavonoids, lipids, and amino acids and their derivatives, and glycosylation of aglycone result in the up-regulation in flavonoid glycosides levels. Temperature is a key step in DO processing production. In addition, the main enrichment of specific differential ingredients was found in five different metabolic pathways, including glucosinolate biosynthesis, linoleic acid metabolism, flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, ubiquinone and other terpene quinone biosynthesis. Correlation analysis clarified that total phenols and flavonoids showed a significant positive correlation with antioxidant capacity. This study provides new insights into the influence of processing processes on DO quality, which may lead to guidance for the high-quality production of DO.

To explore the effects of pymetrozine on the reproductive behavior of N. lugens, we established a bioassay method to accurately evaluate the toxicity of pymetrozine in N. lugens and establish the level of pymetrozine resistance of N. lugens in the field. In this study, pymetrozine’s effects on the fecundity of N. lugens were evaluated using the topical application method and rice-seedling dipping method. Moreover, the resistance of N. lugens to pymetrozine in a pymetrozine-resistant strain (Pym-R) and two field populations (YZ21 and QS21) was determined using the rice-seedling dipping method and fecundity assay methods. The results showed that treatment of N. lugens third-instar nymphs with LC15, LC50, and LC85 doses of pymetrozine resulted in significantly reduced male fertility and female fecundity. In addition, N. lugens adults treated with pymetrozine using the rice-seedling dipping and topical application method also exhibited significantly in-hibited male courtship, fertility, and female receptivity. Using the rice-stem dipping method, pymetrozine resistance was shown to be at high levels in Pym-R (194.6-fold), YZ21 (205.9-fold), and QS21 (212.8-fold), with LC50 values of 522.520 mg/L (Pym-R), 552.962 mg/L (YZ21), and 571.315 (QS21) mg/L. However, when using the rice-seedling dipping or topical application fe-cundity assay method, Pym-R (EC50: 14.370 mg/L, RR=12.4-fold; ED50: 0.560 ng/adult, RR=10.8-fold), YZ21 (EC50: 12.890 mg/L, RR=11.2-fold; ED50: 0.280 ng/adult; RR=5.4-fold), and QS21 (EC50: 13.70 mg/L, RR=11.9-fold) exhibited moderate or low levels of resistance to pymet-rozine. Our studies show that pymetrozine can significantly inhibit the fecundity of N. lugens. The fecundity assay results showed that N. lugens only developed low to moderate levels of resistance to pymetrozine, indicating that pymetrozine can still achieve effective control on the next gen-eration of N. lugens populations.

This study aimed to solve the problems of sealing and tearing failure of packer’s rubber cylinders during CO2 downhole injection. Using the simulation software, Comsol, a rubber cylinder model in a supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) environment was established. The thermal analogy method was used to simulate the CO2 diffusion and rubber cylinder swelling process, thus we analyzed the deformation and stress of the rubber cylinder caused by temperature, pressure and CO2 as swelling agent. Results showed that, in the SC-CO2 environment, under the influence of CO2 diffusion and the consequent swelling, the rubber cylinder body is prone to large deformation, and the maximum shear stress is significantly increased, leading to shear failure of the rubber cylinder. The reduction of the initial seating pressure can alleviate the impact of deformation, whereas the reduction of the maximum contact pressure could cause the rubber cylinder to lose its seal. We also analyzed the change rules between various factors and the maximum contact pressure of the rubber cylinder, which provides a theoretical basis and technical support for improving the sealing performance of the packer’s rubber cylinder in the SC-CO2 environment.

The genus Colias Fabricius, 1807 includes numerous taxa and forms with uncertain status and taxonomic position. Among such taxa are Colias mongola Alphéraky, 1897 and Colias tamerlana Staudinger, 1897, interpreted in the literature either as conspecific forms, as subspecies of different but morphologically somewhat similar Colias species, or as distinct species-level taxa. Based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers, we reconstruct a phylogeographic pattern of the taxa in question. We recover and include in our analysis DNA barcodes of the century-old type specimens, the lectotype of C. tamerlana deposited in the Natural History Museum (Museum für Naturkunde), Berlin, Germany (ZMHU), the paralectotype of C. tamerlana and the lectoptype of C. mongola deposited in the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia (ZISP). Our analysis grouped all specimens within four (HP_I-HP-IV) deeply divergent but geographically poorly structured clades which did not support nonconspecifity of C. mongola–C. tamerlana. We also show that all studied females of the widely distributed haplogroup HP_II were infected with a single Wolbachia strain belonging to the supergroup B, while the males of this haplogroup, as well as all other investigated specimens, were not infected. Our data underline the relevance of large-scale sampling dataset analysis and the need of testing for Wolbachia infection to avoid erroneous phylogenetic reconstructions and species misidentification.

Polygonum sibiricum is a traditional Chinese food and medicine homologues with multiple active ingredients and extensive bioactive effects. Polygonum sibiricum polysaccharides (PSP) are one of the main active ingredients with the antidepressant activity, meanwhile the specific mechanisms of its action are still unclear. Recently, it is recognized by researchers that microglia play a double-edged role in neuroinflammation and the transformation of M1/M2 microglial phenotypes appears to be a potential therapeutic strategy in depression. Therefore, the present study evaluated the effects of PSP on microglial M1/M2 polarization and the molecular mechanisms were studied based on the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced BV2 cell activation model. The results show that PSP significantly inhibited NO and LDH release and reduced ROS levels in LPS-induced BV2 cells. PSP could significantly reduce the protein expression level of Iba-1, decreased the mRNA levels of TNF-, IL-1 and IL-6, increased the mRNA level of IL-10. PSP also significantly reduced the protein expression level of CD16/32 and increased it of CD206, reduced the mRNA level and fluorescence intensity of iNOS and increased them of Arg-1. However, PSP pretreatment reversed the alterations of BDNF/TrkB/CREB and Notch/Hes1 pathways in LPS-induced BV2 cells. These results suggested that PSP exerted the anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting M1 phenotype polarization and promoting microglia polarization toward M2 phenotype, and its regulation of microglia M1/M2 polarization may be associated with modulating the BDNF/TrkB/CREB and Notch/Hes1 pathways.

The microglia, displaying diverse phenotypes, play a significant regulatory role in the development, progression, and prognosis of Parkinson's disease. Research has established that glycolytic reprogramming serves as a critical regulator of inflammation initiation in pro-inflammatory macrophages. Furthermore, the modulation of glycolytic reprogramming has the potential to reverse the polarized state of these macrophages. Previous studies have shown that levetistilide A (LA), a phthalide component derived from Angelica sinensis, possesses a range of pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. In our study, we have examined the impact of LA on inflammatory cytokines and glucose metabolism in microglia induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, we explored the effects of LA on the AMPK/mTOR pathway and assessed its neuroprotective potential both in vitro and in vivo. The findings revealed that LA notably diminished the expression of M1 pro-inflammatory factors induced by LPS in microglia, while leaving M2 anti-inflammatory factor expression unaltered. Additionally, it reduced ROS production and suppressed IκB-α phosphorylation levels as well as NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation. Notably, LA exhibited the ability to reverse microglial glucose metabolism reprogramming and modulate the phosphorylation levels of AMPK/mTOR. In vivo experiments further corroborated these findings, demonstrating that LA mitigated the death of TH-positive dopaminergic neurons and reduced microglia activation in the ventral SNpc brain region of the midbrain and the striatum. In summary, LA exhibited neuroprotective benefits by modulating the polarization state of microglia and altering glucose metabolism, highlighting its therapeutic potential.

Marine industries are dependent on the ocean and often have a direct impact on the marine environment. Although previous studies have talked about pollution from marine industries, it is not known to what extent and to what extent these behaviors affect the ocean. Therefore, this study examines the impacts of major marine industries on the marine environment, using China as an example. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China categorizes the quality of seawater into Class I, Class II, Class III, Class IV, and Inferior Class IV in descending order according to the quality from good to poor. In this study, water quality of Class I and Class II are defined as good quality seawater, Class III as average quality, Class IV and Class IV as poor quality, and the proportion of the area of seawater with different water quality to the total area of the sea area symbolizes the overall quality of the marine environment. We use panel data from 11 provinces and cities along the coast of mainland China from 2006 to 2020, estimated by the full feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method, to study the impacts of the development of coastal tourism, marine transportation, marine shipbuilding, marine salt, mariculture, and marine fishing on the marine environment. The empirical results show that, in descending order of the degree of influence, the marine industries that cause a decrease in the area of good quality seawater are coastal tourism, mariculture and shipbuilding, and the marine industries that cause an increase in the area of poor quality seawater are marine transportation and shipbuilding, while the marine salt industry has no obvious influence on the marine environment, and the development of the marine fishing industry indirectly contributes to the improvement of the marine environment.

In the upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapors to hydrocarbons, dehydration accomplishes a primary objective of removing oxygen and acidic zeolites represent promising catalysts for dehydration reaction. Here, we utilize density functional theory calculations to estimate adsorption energetics and intrinsic kinetics of alcohol dehydration over H-ZSM-5, H-BEA, and H-AEL zeolites. ONIOM calculations of adsorption energies were observed to be inconsistent when benchmarked against QM/Hartree-Fock and periodic boundary condition calculations. However, reaction coordinate calculations of adsorbed species and transition states were consistent across all levels considered. Comparison of ethanol, iso-propanol (IPA), and tert-amyl alcohol (TAA) over these three zeolites allowed for a detailed examination of how confinement impacts reaction mechanisms and kinetics. TAA, seen to proceed via a carbocationic mechanism, was found to have the lowest activation barrier, followed by IPA and then ethanol, both of which dehydrate via a concerted mechanism. Barriers in H-BEA were consistently found to be lower than in H-ZSM-5 and H-AEL, attributed to late transition states and either elevated strain or inaccurately estimating long-range electrostatic interactions in H-AEL, respectively. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the diffusivity of these three alcohols in H-ZSM-5 are significantly overestimated by Knudsen diffusion, which will complicate experimental efforts to develop a kinetic model for catalytic fast pyrolysis.

pH is considered one of the paramount factors in bodily functions, because most of the cellular tasks exclusively rely on precise pH values. The regulation of pH is a necessary feature of the intracellular atmosphere and can be established as a strong indicator to judge a physiological abnormality in most of the cases. In this context, the current techniques for pH sensing provide us with the futuristic insight to further design therapeutic and diagnostic tools. Thus, pH-sensing (electrochemically and optically) is rapidly evolving toward exciting new applications and expanding researchers’ interests in many chemical contexts, especially in biomedical applications. The adaptation of cutting-edge technology is subsequently producing the modest form of these biosensors as wearable devices, which are providing us the opportunity to target the real-time collection of vital parameters, including pH for improved healthcare systems. The motif of this review is to provide an insight of trending tech-based systems employed in real time or in-vivo pH responsive monitoring. Herein, we briefly go through the pH regulation in the human body to help the beginners and scientific community with quick background knowledge, recent advances in the field, and pH detection in cancerous environments. In the end, we summarize our review by providing an outlook; challenges that need to be addressed and prospective integration of various pH in vivo platforms with modern electronics that can open new avenues of cutting-edge techniques for disease diagnostics and prevention.

Tidal inlets with attached sand spits are a very common coastal morphology. Since the evolution of the sand spits along the coastline have greatly affected on the social-economic development of local coastal areas. However, previous studies mainly focused on the sand spits which are usually in the scales of hundred meters in width. Therefore, in this study, morphological change of a smaller and unexplored sand spit located in the west coast of Phu Quoc Island, will be investigated. It was found that there is a seasonal variation in the evolution of the sand spit at Song Tranh Inlet. The Longshore sediment transport rates (LSTR) along the spit are in the order from 104 to 105 m3/year. LSTRs of fourteen inlets in the literature were reviewed and the LSTRs at Song Tranh Inlet are higher than half of the LSTRs along the fourteen reviewed inlets. This study aims at contrib-uting to the growing literature on sand spit morphological changes as well as the sustainable coastal management for Phu Quoc Island which is well known as the Pearl Island of Vietnam.

Informal caregivers are essential in supporting stroke survivors' recovery, but it is unclear whether community interventions can promote healthy eating behaviors and social participation among stroke survivors and their caregivers. The Train-Your-Brain (TYB) program's impact on adherence to national dietary guidelines and social participation among informal caregivers and stroke survivors were assessed in a quasi-experimental study. The TYB program had nine sessions, with one focusing on healthy lifestyle. Participants were prompted to discuss the topics covered, leading to social participation. Dietary habits were assessed using fruits and vegetables consumption questions, while social participation was measured using the Social Impact Measurement Framework. Mann-Whitney U-test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were utilized to analyze the data. Eighteen informal caregivers and 27 stroke survivors participated in the program. Results showed a significant increase in fruit and vegetable intake and social participation in informal caregivers after the program, but there were no significant changes in stroke survivors. Informal caregivers play a crucial role in stroke survivors' lifestyle habits and in encouraging social connections with other stroke survivors. Thus, healthcare professionals should prioritize caregiver support and education to facilitate long-term dietary and social changes that can positively impact stroke survivor's recovery and quality of life.

Sodium butyrate (NaB) is one of the short-chain fatty acids and is notably produced in large amounts from dietary fiber in the gut. Recent evidence suggests that NaB induces cell proliferation and apoptosis. The skeletal muscle is rich in plenty of mitochondrial. However, it is unclear how NaB acts on host muscle cells and whether it is involved in mitochondria-related functions in myocytes. The present study aimed to investigate the role of NaB treatment on the proliferation, apoptosis, and mitophagy of bovine skeletal muscle satellite cells (BSCs). The results showed that NaB inhibited the proliferation and promoted apoptosis of BSCs, and promoted mitophagy in a time and dose-dependent manner in BSCs. In addition, 1mM NaB increased the mitochondrial ROS level, decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), increased the number of autophagic vesicles in mitochondria, and increased the mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) and ATP level. The effects of the mTOR pathway on BSCs were investigated, and the results showed that 1mM NaB inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of mTOR and genes AKT1, FOXO1, and EIF4EBP1 in the mTOR signaling pathway, while the addition of PP242, an inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, also inhibited mRNA and protein expression levels of mTOR, AKT1, FOXO1, and EIF4EBP1, and promoted mitophagy and apoptosis, which were consistent with the effect of NaB treatment. In conclusion, NaB might promote mitophagy and apoptosis in BSCs by inhibiting the mTOR signaling pathway. Our results would expand the knowledge of sodium butyrate on bovine skeletal muscle cell state and mitochondrial function.

In the era of the post-quantum Internet of Things (IoT), the implementation of anti-quantum cryptographic algorithms in numerous terminals can successfully defend against prospective quantum computing assaults. Lattice-based cryptography can withstand quantum computing attacks, making it a viable substitute for the currently prevalent classical public-key cryptographic technique. Nevertheless, the algorithm’s significant time complexity will result in a substantial computational burden on the edge computing chip in the IoT terminal. The computation of polynomial multiplication is the most demanding task in lattice-based cryptographic algorithms. Therefore, the investigation into efficient methods for calculating polynomial multiplication is highly important. Quick number theory transformations (NTT) are a widely employed technique to accelerate polynomial multiplication. This study presents a hardware implementation of an efficient number theory transformation. We utilize a multi-level pipeline architecture in the design to accomplish parallel calculations and execute it on a low-profile Artix7-XC7A100T FPGA device. The performance evaluation results demonstrate that our implementation significantly enhances performance and reduces resource usage compared to other existing proposals on the same platform. We suggested NTT core can be implemented in edge computing chips to enhance computational speed due to its small and low-latency design. The experimental results show that the proposed design, which supports both NTT and inverse NTT, achieves 417-Megahertz and consumes only 541-LUTs on Artix-7 XC7A100T.

For the different harvest targets, the requirement for the prolificacy trait of maize was also different, so prolificacy is of great significance for modern production. Although some QTLs and genes associated with prolificacy in teosinte have been reported, the genetic mechanism of prolificacy in maize has not been fully elucidated. In this study, two RIL populations and GWAS population were used to genetic research of prolificacy trait in maize, with multi-environment. Combine linkage analysis and Genome-wide association study has identified a total of 13 QTLs and 8 significant SNPs. There were two genes related to tissue differentiation in the stable QTL qP9-2, and two significant SNPs corresponding to three genes were in QTL qP5-1 and QTL qP7-1, respectively. Four candidate genes GRMZM2G317262, GRMZM2G317584, GRMZM5G882364 and GRMZM2G141679 were finally screened out by qRT-PCR analysis. Based on the function of candidate genes, ethylene signaling pathway plays an important role in the formation of prolificacy in maize. It has deepened our understanding of the formation mechanism of prolificacy and laid a foundation for breeding new varieties with various prolificacy in maize.

The 2019 novel SARS-like coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) entry depends on the host membrane serine protease TMPRSS2, which can be blocked by some clinically-proven drugs. Here we analyzed spatial relevance between glycosylation sequons and antibody epitopes and found that, different from SARS-CoV S, most high-surface-accessible epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 S are blocked by the glycosylation, and the optimal epitope with the highest surface accessibility is covered by the S1 cap. TMPRSS2 inhibitor treatments may prevent unmasking of this epitope and therefore prolong virus clearance and may induce antibody-dependent enhancement. Interestingly, a heparin-binding sequence immediately upstream of the S1/S2 cleavage site has been found in SARS-CoV-2 S but not in SARS-CoV S. Binding of SARS-CoV-2 with heparins may lead to exposure of S686, which then facilitates the S1/S2 cleavage, induces exposure of the optimal epitope, and therefore increases the antibody titres. A combination of heparin and vaccine (or convalescent serum) treatments thus is recommended.

Polyphosphate (polyP) accumulating organisms (PAOs) are the key agent to perform enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) activity, and intracellular polyP plays a key role in this process. Potential associations between EBPR performance and the polyP structure have been suggested, but are yet to be extensively investigated, mainly due to the lack of established methods for polyP characterization in the EBPR system. In this study, we explored and demonstrated that single-cell Raman spectroscopy (SCRS) can be employed for characterizing intracellular polyPs of PAOs in complex environmental samples such as EBPR systems. The results, for the first time, revealed distinct distribution patterns of polyP length (as Raman peak position) in PAOs in lab-scale EBPR reactors that were dominated with different PAO types, as well as among different full-scale EBPR systems with varying configurations. Furthermore, SCRS revealed distinctive polyP composition/features among PAO phenotypic sub-groups, which are likely associated with phylogenetic and/or phenotypic diversity in EBPR communities, highlighting the possible resolving power of SCRS at the microdiversity level. To validate the observed polyP length variations via SCRS, we also performed and compared bulk polyP length characteristics in EBPR biomass using conventional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and solution ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (³¹P-NMR) methods. The results are consistent with the SCRS findings and confirmed the variations in the polyP lengths among different EBPR systems. Compared to conventional methods, SCRS exhibited advantages as compared to conventional methods, including the ability to characterize in situ the intracellular polyPs at subcellular resolution in a label-free and non-destructive way, and the capability to capture subtle and detailed biochemical fingerprints of cells for phenotypic classification. SCRS also has recognized limitations in comparison with ³¹P-NMR and PAGE, such as the inability to quantitatively detect the average polyP chain length and its distribution. The results provided initial evidence for the potential of SCRS-enabled polyP characterization as an alternative and complementary microbial community phenotyping method to facilitate the phenotype-function (performance) relationship deduction in EBPR systems.

In order to understand the defense response of Sanchezia nobilis to biotic and abiotic stresses, this study investigated the phenomenon of S. nobilis under biotic of feeding by Achatina fulica, and measured the temporal changes of malondialdehyde content, catalase and peroxidase activities under biotic of feeding by Achatina fulica and abiotic stress of garden pruning conditions on S. nobilis. The results showed that: 1) S. nobilis was seriously damaged by A. fulica and the average hourly food intake of A. fulica is 0.22 ± 0.01 g. 2) Leaf cutting stimulation and snail feeding stress significantly affected the content of malondialdehyde, the activities of catalase and peroxidase in the leaves of S. nobilis. 3) Compared with the control group, the snail feeding and leaf cutting stimulated stress could induce the leaf of S. nobilis to synthesize more malondialdehyde under varying durations, and the activities of catalase and peroxidase were significantly enhanced in a short time, and the induction response of snail feeding biological stress was faster than that of leaf cutting stimulated abiotic stress. 4) After the defense enzyme was strengthened, the activities of catalase and peroxidase in the feeding stress group of snails showed a gradual downward trend, while the activities of catalase and peroxidase in the leaf cutting stimulation stress group showed a first upward and then downward trend, indicating that abiotic stress had more lasting effects on plants than biological stress. It can be seen that biotic stress and abiotic stress significantly affect the defense response of plants, and the defense-related substances malondialdehyde, catalase and peroxidase play an important role in plants' response to biotic and abiotic stress. This study has important production guidance significance for carrying out stress resistance breeding or cultivation management of garden plants.