In order to study the performance of a new type of cement-based grouting material under the coupling effect of freezing-thawing cycle and sulfate attack, experiments were designed and carried out. The damage mechanism of the material under the coupling effect of freezing-thawing and Na2SO4 solution was analyzed by measuring the mass change, relative dynamic elastic modulus, compressive strength loss and microstructure of the new grouting material. With increasing freeze-thaw cycles, mass loss and compres-sive strength loss of the sample in 15% Na2SO4 solution gradually increase, and the relative dynamic elastic modulus gradually decreases. During a 30-cycle freeze-thaw cycle, the mass loss rate, compressive strength loss rate, and relative dynamic elastic modulus of the sample are 4.17%, 24.59%, and 84.3%, respectively, showing good corrosion resistance and frost resistance durability. Microscopic analysis showed that SO42- caused the decomposition of C-S-H gel in the sample and the formation of Gypsum, and the widening of crack width aggravated the internal deterioration, indicating that the material deterioration rate increased under the dual-factor coupling effect.

Suitable soil structure and nutrient security are important for plant growth and development, characteristics of soil fractal dimension and distribution of physical and chemical properties and their interactions play an important role in studying the stability of soil structure and water and fertilizer cycles. As a sustainable management model, intercropping has positive benefits for erosion control, spatial optimization of resources, as well as improving system productivity. The effects of four intercropping methods on soil fractal dimension and physicochemical properties were investigated by intercropping Salvia miltiorrhiza with forage and S. miltiorrhiza with forest under typical karst rock desertification habitats in Guizhou. The results showed that soil nutrient content of intercropping was significantly higher than that of monoculture, the organic carbon content of soil grown under forest is higher than other treatments, and there was a non-significant change in soil water content of intercropping compared with monoculture. The soil fine-grained matter of intercropping was significantly higher than that of monoculture, while the soil fractal dimension showed a tendency to become larger with the increase of fine-grained matter. The intercropping planting, due to its component types and spatial and temporal configurations, leads to differences in soil water and fertilizer interactions, which can be combined with other ecological restoration measures to optimize the composite model and jointly promote the restoration and development of ecologically fragile areas.

The achievement of reproductive competence in male mammals is dependent on the testis. Goat testis’ development and spermatogenesis involve physiological events with high complexity. In the current work, 6 testes were respectively collected from immature, sexually mature and physically mature Qianbei Ma goats (1, 6 and 12 months old, respectively). RNA-Seq was carried out to reveal changes in testis mRNA expression levels in Qianbei Ma goats at various developmental stages, and gene expression profiling at different ages was established. Totally 18 libraries were established for screening genes and pathways associated with testis development and spermatogenic processes. Totally 9,724 upregulated and 4,153 downregulated genes were identified between immature (I) and sexually mature (S) testes; 7 upregulated and 3 downregulated genes were detected between sexually mature (S) and physically mature (P) testes, and approximately 4% of genes were alternately spliced between the I and S groups. Selected genes were verified by qRT-PCR, in agreement with sequencing data indicating their reliability. Those genes have critical functions in various developmental stages of goat testicular development and spermatogenesis. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were carried out to evaluate differentially expressed genes (DEGs). GO analysis suggested DEGs were involved in “reproduction process”, “channel activity” and “cell periphery part” between I and S, and in “ion transport process”, “channel activity” and “transporter complex part” between S and P. KEGG analysis indicated that pathways such as “glycerolipid metabolism”, “steroid hormone biosynthesis” and “MAPK signaling pathway” may be involved in testis development and spermatogenesis. Genes including IGF1, TGFB1, TGFBR1 and EGFR may regulate the development of the testis from immature to sexually mature, which may be key candidate genes for the development of goat testis. These findings provide novel insights into goat testicular development and spermatogenesis.

Balanced and coordinated economic development across regions is a critical goal of regional economic development and new-type urbanization in China. However, few studies have examined economic growth convergence clubs at the county level. To extend the research on convergence clubs, this research applies a log t convergence test and a dynamic spatial ordered Probit model (DSOP) to endogenously identify economic growth convergence clubs in counties and to examine the influence of initial states and structures on club convergence probability. The study sample covers 2286 counties of China from 1992 to 2010. The results show significant convergence club patterns at the county levels, resulting in the gradual formation of six convergence clubs. The DSOP estimation results show that per capita fixed assets, population density and industrialization have promoted convergence club formation to varying degrees.

In the paper, by the Faά di Bruno formula, several identities for the Bell polynomials of the second kind, and an inversion theorem, the authors simplify coefficients of two families of nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the generating function of the Catalan numbers and discover inverses of fifteen closely related lower triangular integer matrices.

The adsorption of proteins on polymer is widely used in biosensors. Here, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was used to study the immobilization of angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2) with six initial orientations proposed on polystyrene (PS) at the ambient conditions of pH (4.5, 6, 7, 8, 9.5) and NaCl (0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25 M). ACE2 immobilization under favorable ambient conditions was characterized by minimum distance (short), settlement time (fast), interaction energy (substantial) and protein configuration (stable). ACE2 orientations proposed in 0.15M NaCl were respectively preferable to (90, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0) and (0, 270, 0), (180, 0, 0) and (0, 90, 0), (90, 0, 0) at pH 4.5, 6, 7, 9.5. ACE2 immobilization was further evaluated at pH 7 by optimizing NaCl concentration. Its proposed orientations of (i) (0, 270, 0), (ii) (0, 0, 0) and (90, 0, 0), and (iii) (0, 90, 0) and (90, 0, 0) were preferable in 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 M NaCl, respectively. The great significance of cubic-orientation settlement mode provides tangible improvement for the microfabrication of biochips for rapid diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus II (SARS-CoV-2).

This study presented a novel and sustainable method for producing chitin nanocrystals (PA-ChNCs) using phosphoric acid hydrolysis. The produced PA-ChNCs were used as stabilizers for Pickering emulsions and their physicochemical properties as well as stabilization mechanisms were systematically investigated. The PA-ChNCs exhibited small particle sizes and high surface areas, enabling an effective adsorption at the oil/water interface, which prevented coalescence in Pickering emulsions. The particle size and surface charge PA-ChNCs were strongly pH-dependent, which were critical factors for stabilizing Pickering emulsions. The study showed that emulsions with higher O:W ratios (50%) exhibited larger droplets but greater viscosity, forming a stable gel-like matrix that was more stable than emulsions with other O:W ratios after storage for 30 days. Emulsions with higher PA-ChNCs concentrations (2.0 wt%) and higher pH values (pH 10) showed small droplets and high viscosity, leading to stable emulsions. This research contributes to the development of sustainable and effective emulsifiers for use in the food industry, making utilization of seafood waste in an eco-friendly manner possible. Overall, this study highlights the potential of using newly developed PA-ChNCs as stabilizers for Pickering emulsions in food products.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of rhizome extract of Dioscorea batatas (Dioscoreae Rhizoma, Chinese Yam) and its bioactive compound, allantoin, on myoblast differentiation and mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle cells. Yams were extracted in water and the extract was analyzed by HPLC. The expression of C2C12 myotubes differentiation and mitochondrial biogenesis regulators were determined by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR or Western blot. The glucose levels and total ATP contents were determined by glucose consumption, glucose uptake and ATP assays, respectively. Treatment with yam extract (1 mg/mL) and allantoin (0.2 and 0.5 mM) significantly increased of MyHC expression compared with non-treated myotubes. Yam extract and allantoin significantly increased the expression of mitochondrial biogenesis regulating proteins, PGC1?, Sirt-1, NRF-1, and TFAM, as well as the phosphorylation of AMPK and ACC in C2C12 myotubes. Furthermore, yam extract and allantoin significantly increased the glucose uptake levels and the ATP contents. Finally, HPLC analysis revealed that the yam extract contained 1.53% of allantoin. Yam extract and allantoin, stimulated myoblast differentiation into myotubes and increased energy production through upregulation of mitochondrial biogenesis regulators. These findings indicate that yam extract and allantoin can help to prevent the skeletal muscle dysfunction through stimulation of energy metabolism.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the association between umbilical venous blood flow (UVBF) to placental pulsatility index (PPI) ratio and gestational age (GA) in women undergoing prenatal assessments and adverse pregnancy outcome (APO) screening Methods: Between January and December 2022, sonographic examinations were conducted to assess the fetal umbilical cord insertion site in singleton fetuses, and hemodynamic indices of the umbilical artery, umbilical vein, and uterine artery were computed. Through regression analysis, we derived the optimal regression equation to elucidate the UVBF/PPI ratio parameters based on GA. Results: Among 492 singleton fetuses between 21+0 and 40+6 weeks of gestation in the final study. The average fetal UVBF/PPI ratio was 180.45±119.32. Correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between the UVBF/PPI ratio and GA(p = .000). Using regression analysis, the best-fit regression equation was the linear function model, which explains the value of UVBF/PPI ratio parameters based on GA. Lower UVBF/PPI ratio revealed a positive relationship in the low birth weight fetuses (p=0.021) and higher preterm delivery rate (p=0.034). Cerebroplacental ratio (CPR) showed a high correlation with the UVBF/PPI ratio (r=0.471, p=0.000). Conclusions: The findings of our analyses revealed that contribute to our understanding of fetal hemodynamics and highlight the potential of UVBF/PPI ratio as a predictive marker for adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, or potential fetal hypoxemia. It might be useful for prenatal counseling and clinical purposes.

High-performance anodes are contributed to nanostructure of transition metal oxides for rechargeable Li-ion batteries (LIBs). In this work, we report the fabrication of high-performance anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, MnO2 nanotube directly grown into fabrics of carbon nanofibers, the MnO2/Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopies. When tested as the anode material in LIBs, the MnO2/CNFs exhibit superior performance and excellent long cycling performance with a reversible capacity of 835 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 after the 133 th cycle, a high initial specific capacity of 1094 mA h g-1 at a current density of 0.1 A g-1. The MnO2/CNFs demonstrates notable specific capacities, specifically, with a coulombic efficiency of 99.5 %, both stability and capacity are conspicuously above literature data. These impressive results indicate that MnO2/CNFs has great potential for high-energy and high-power energy storage applications.

The type of tail of sheep is an important economic trait. However, the candidate genes associated with the tail type are uncertain. The objective of this study was to identify the genetic region and genotype responsible for the tail type phenotype. Here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 40 large tailed Han sheep and 40 Altay sheep as case and 40 Tibetan sheep as control. The results indicated that a total 31 genome-wide significant SNPs associated with type of tail traits were detected. For significant SNPS loci, determine its physical location, and screening of candidate genes within section. By combining information of previously reported and annotated biological functional genes, we identified SPAG17, Tbx15, VRTN, NPC2, BMP2 and PDGFD as the most promising candidate genes for type of tail traits. Based on the above identified candidate genes on type of tail traits, we selected BMP2 and PDGFD to conduct the genetic effect analysis in a large Altay sheep and Tibetan sheep population. Rs119 T>C in the exon1 of BMP2 gene and 1 SNPs in the exon4 (rs69 C>A) of PDGFD gene were detected, rs119 that located on exon1 of BMP2 gene was TT genotype in Altay sheep, while with CC genotype in Tibetan sheep. On rs69 of PDGFD gene, Altay sheep with CC genotype, however, Tibetan sheep with AA genotype. These results indicated that the significant associations of SNPs detected in GWAS were indirectly caused by the genetic effects of BMP2 and PDGFD on sheep tail fat deposition.

Human intestinal flora refers to a large and diverse microbial population present in the digestive tract of the human body, which plays a significant role in the establishment of human immune homeostasis and the normal function of the immune system. Myasthenia Gravis is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction, mainly involved in the anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody, cellular immune dependence, and complement¹. At present, studies have found that the intestinal flora of Myasthenia Gravis is different from that of healthy people. Probiotic therapy has been shown effective in the experimental autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis animal models. This article reviews the relationship between intestinal flora and Myasthenia Gravis, to provide new ideas for further study of the pathogenesis and clinical treatment of Myasthenia Gravis.

Glycoside Hydrolase 3 (GH3) is a phytohormone-responsive family of genes that has been found in many plant species. It is implicated in the biological activity of indolacetic (IAA) and jasmonic acids (JA), and also affects plant growth and developmental processes and some stresses. In this study, GH3 genes were identified in 48 plants, which belong to algae, moss, fern, gymnosperm and angiosperm. No GH3 representative gene has been found in algae, and our research identified 4 genes in mosses, 19 in ferns, 7 in gymnosperms, and numerous in Angiosperms. The results showed that GH3 genes mainly occur in seed plants. Phylogenetic analysis of all GH3 genes showed three separate clades. Group I was related to JA adenylation, group II was related to IAA adenylation, and group III was separated from group II but the function was not clear. The structure of GH3 protein indicated highly conserved sequence in the plant kingdom. The analysis of JA-adenylation related to gene expression of GH3 in potato (Solanum tuberosum) showed that StGH3.12 highly responded to Methyl Jasmonate (MeJA) treatment. Expression levels of StGH3.1, StGH3.11, and StGH3.12 were high in flower and StGH3.11 expression was also high in stolon. Our research revealed the evolution of the GH3 family, which is useful for studying the precise function about JA-adenylation GH3 genes in S. tuberosum under development and biotic stresses.

To study the mechanism of light color on a sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla), blue light (B, λ450nm), yellow light (Y, λ585-590nm), red light (R, λ640nm), green light (G, λ510nm), white light (W, λ400-780nm) and darkness groups (H) were set up in a seawater recirculating aquaculture system. Six different LED light color treatment groups with a photoperiod of 12 L:12 D were tested for 30 d to investigate the effects of different light colors on the feeding, growth and enzyme activities of T. gratilla (142.45±4.36 g). We found that varying LED light colors significantly impacts the feeding, growth, and enzyme activity of T. gratilla. Notably, the sea urchins in group B exhibited better growth with a weight gain rate of 39.26%, while those in group R demonstrated poorer growth with a weight gain rate of only 26%. The feeding differed significantly (P<0.01) between groups B and R, with group B consuming the highest daily intake (6.03±1.69 g) and group R consuming the lowest (4.54±1.26 g). Throughout the three phases, there was no significant change in the viability of the AMS (P>0.05). Conversely, pepsin viability significantly increased (P<0.01) in group B. LPS viability remained consistently at the lowest level, with no notable differences in group W from those observed in group B. In group R, both AMS and pepsin viability remained lower, whereas lipase viability was noticeably higher in each phase compared to group B (P<0.01). Regarding antioxidant enzymes, group R exhibited a trend of initially increasing and then decreasing CAT, SOD, and GSH-PX activities, particularly during the third stage (15-30 d), with a significant decrease observed in antioxidant enzyme activities (P<0.01). The outcomes suggest that blue light positively affects the growth, feeding, digestion, and antioxidant capacity of T. gratilla in comparison to other light environments, whereas the red light has an inhibitory impact.

Effective detection of isopropyl methylfluorophosphonate (GB, sarin), a type of organophosphine poisoning agent, is an urgent issue to be addressed in maintaining public safety. In this research, a gas-sensitive film material defined as poly (4-hydroxy-4,4-bis trifluoromethyl) - butyl-1-enyl) - si-loxane (SXFA) with the structure of hexafluoroisopropyl (HFIP) functional group was synthesized by using methyl vinylpropyl dichlorosilane and hexafluoroacetone trihydrate as initial materials. Synthesis process products were characterized by FTIR. SXFA was prepared on a 200 MHz shear surface wave delay line with spin coating method for GB detected. Detection limit of ＜ 0.1 mg/m3 was obtained through conditional experiments. Meanwhile, we also obtained the maximum re-sponse of 2.168 mV at 0.1 mg/m3 concentration, which indicting a much lower detection limit of SAW-SXFA sensor. Additionally, the maximum response standard deviation of 0.11 mV with a co-efficient of variation of 0.01, as well as the maximum recovery standard deviation of 0.22 mV with a coefficient of variation of 0.02 were also obtained through 5 repeated experiments. Results showed that the SAW-SXFA sensor has strong selectivity and reproducibility, good selectivity, positive detection ability, high sensitivity, and fast alarm performance for sarin detection.

In the manufacturing of optical lenses, the lack of digital monitoring and inspection for centring processing not only results in product consistency not being guaranteed but also leads to inefficiency in processing. A centring processing digital twin system is proposed to address the problems of low virtual visualization and insufficient monitoring capability of centring processing of high-precision optical components. The layered architecture of the system is determined based on the five-dimensional model of the digital twin, coupled with a dimension-driven geometric model and a physical model that integrates data and turning mechanisms to improve the fidelity and interactivity of the virtual model of the centring lathe. The fusion of heterogeneous data from multiple sources in the centring machining process at the semantic and physical levels is realized by using an information model and an OPC UA-based data interaction method. The VMD-GRU method based on feature fusion is used to monitor the key components of the centring lathe. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by a case study of the development of a digital twin system for centring lathe, which provides a reference for the digitization and intelligence of the machining process of high-precision optical components.

Many studies have focused on the impacts of rainfall duration and intensity while overlooking the role of rainfall patterns on intensive tillage erosion in hilly agricultural landscapes. The objective of this study was to determine the combined effects of rainfall patterns and intensive tillage erosion on surface runoff and soil loss on sloping farmland in the purple-soil area of China. Five simulated rainfall patterns (constant, rising, falling, rising-falling, and falling-rising) with the same total precipitation were designed, and the intensive tillage erosion treatment (IT) and no-tillage treatment (NT) were subjected to simulated rainfall using rectangular steel tanks (2 m × 5 m) with a slope of 15°. To analyse the differences in the hydrodynamic characteristics induced by tillage erosion, we calculated the flow velocity (V), Reynolds number (Re), Froude number (Fr), and Darcy-Weisbach resistance coefficient (f). The results indicate that significant differences in surface runoff and soil loss were found among different rainfall patterns and stages (P < 0.05). The falling pattern and falling-rising pattern had faster runoff-initiating times and larger sediment yields than those of the other rainfall patterns. f varied from 0.30 to 9.05 for the IT and 0.48 to 11.57 for the NT and exhibited an approximately inverse trend to V and Fr over the course of the rainfall events. Compared with the NT, the mean sediment yield rates from the IT increased the dynamic range of 8.34%–16.21% among different rainfall patterns. The net contributions of the IT ranged from 2.77% to 46.39% on surface runoff and 10.14%–78.95% on soil loss on sloping farmland. Surface runoff and soil loss were positively correlated with rainfall intensity, V, and Fr but negatively correlated with f irrespective of tillage intensive (P < 0.05). For varying-intensity rainfall patterns, soil and water loss fluctuated during rainfall events, suggesting that the changes in rainfall intensity and tillage intensity would result in drastic variations in soil hydrological characteristics and sediment transport mechanisms. The time sequences of rainfall intensity in each rainfall pattern significantly affected surface runoff, soil erosion, and their contribution rates to total soil and water loss. Moreover, tillage erosion effects on soil and water loss were closely related to rainfall patterns in hilly agricultural landscapes. Our study not only sheds light on the mechanism of tillage erosion and rainfall erosion but also provides useful insights for developing tillage-water erosion prediction models to evaluate soil and water loss on cultivated hillslopes.

Fiber aggregation in nanocomposites has an important effect on the macroscopic electrical performance. To quantitatively evaluate its effect, an index to characterize the degree of aggregation is imperative, and ideally it should have three features simultaneously, i.e., single-parametric, dimensionless and physically meaningful, applicable to different aggregation topologies, and one-to-one corresponding to material electrical properties. To this end, a new aggregation degree is proposed, which is defined as the average increased number of fibers that connect with each one when fibers aggregate from a uniformly distributed state. This index is applicable to different aggregation topologies from lump-like aggregating clusters to network-like aggregating clusters. This index is proven to only depend on the local features of aggregating clusters, and can be concisely expressed by the characteristic parameters of local structure, via geometric probability analysis and numerical validations. Further, a one-to-one linear relation between the aggregation degree and percolation threshold is established by Monte Carlo simulations, which is independent of the distribution law of the fibers. This work provides a guide to the property characterization, performance prediction and material design of nanocomposites, and also gives a physical insight into the understanding of systems with similar non-uniform distributions.

Motivated by empirical observations, we propose a possible extension of Gibrat's law. By applying it into the random growth theory of income distribution (Gabaix, 2009), we find that the income distribution is described by a generalized Pareto-type distribution (GPD) with three parameters. We observe that there is a parameter /elta in the GPD that plays a key role in determining the shape of income distribution. By using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, we empirically show that, for typical market-economy countries, /elta is close to 0 significantly, such that the income distribution is characterized by a two-class pattern in which the bottom 90% of the population is approximated by an exponential distribution and the richest 1%~3% is approximated by an asymptotic power law. However, we empirically find that, for China both in planned economy period and in early stages of market reformation (from 1978 to 1990), /elta is significantly deviated from 0, such that the bottom of the population no longer conforms to an exponential distribution.

The pursuit of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that emulates human cognitive processes is a cornerstone of ethical AI development, ensuring that emerging technologies can integrate seamlessly into societal frameworks requiring nuanced understanding and decision-making. Zero-Shot Instance Retrieval (ZSIR) stands at the forefront of this endeavour, potentially providing a robust platform for AI systems, particularly large visual language models, to demonstrate and refine cognition-aligned learning without the need for direct experience. In this paper, we critically evaluate current cognition alignment methodologies within traditional zero-shot learning paradigms, using visual attributes and word embedding generated by large AI models. We propose a unified similarity function that quantifies the cognitive alignment level, bridging the gap between AI processes and human-like understanding. Through extensive experimentation, our findings illustrate that this similarity function can effectively mirror the visual-semantic gap, steering the model towards enhanced performance in zero-shot instance retrieval. This work not only benchmarks the cognition alignment of AI, but also sets a new precedent for the development of visual language models attuned to the complexities of human cognition.}

In order to investigate the vertical distribution pattern of soil fauna community in low-altitude mountain areas. On July 8th, 2022, a low hill was selected as the study area to collect soil arthropods were collected through trap. Leaf litter, vegetation type and distribution quantity were investigated at each sampling site while soil fauna were collected. Also, the soil physical and chemical parameters were measured simultaneously. The results of one-way ANOVA showed that there were significant differences (P

To address the challenge of recognizing ship states accurately amidst the complexities of marine environments, this study proposes a novel ship state recognition approach leveraging a graph convolutional neural network (GCNN). Initially, the method extracts canonical and efficient ship motion trajectories from AIS data. Subsequently, a state recognition network tailored for ship motion trajectories is devised and implemented employing graph convolution. Notably, the accuracy of this model is enhanced through the introduction of novel weights and optimization of the Adj parameter. Experimental evaluations conducted on a ship state dataset demonstrate significant performance improvements. Specifically, the proposed recognition network achieves a recognition accuracy of 98.3% for regulated ship trajectories, marking an impressive 8.4% enhancement over traditional convolutional neural networks. This advancement holds promise for enhancing ship state recognition accuracy across diverse maritime applications including maritime supervision, navigation safety, and ship management.

This paper realizes early bearing fault warning through bearing fault time series prediction, and proposes a bearing fault time series prediction model based on optimized maximum correlation kurtosis deconvolution (MCKD) and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network to ensure bearings operation reliability. The model is based on lifecycle vibration signal of the bearing, to begin, the cuckoo search (CS) is utilized to optimize the parameter filter length L and deconvolution period T of MCKD, taking into account the influence and periodicity of the bearing time series, the fault impact component of the optimized MCKD deconvolution time series is improved. Then select the LSTM learning rate α depending on deconvolution time series. Finally, the dataset obtained through various preprocessing approaches are used to train and predict the LSTM model. The average prediction accuracy of the optimized MCKD-LSTM model is 26 percent higher than that of the original time series, proving the efficiency of this method, and the prediction results track the real fault data well, according to the XI'AN JIAOTONG University XJTU-SY bearing dataset.

“De-[Constructing] Growth” is offered as a deeper and more useful conceptualization that avoids the negative connotations of, and resistance to, “degrowth” by decoupling profit from unsustainable consumption, production, and inequality.

For screening excellent lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains to inhibit Escherichia (E.) coli (ETEC) K88, inhibitory activities of more than 1100 LAB strains isolated from different materials and kept in the lab were evaluated in this study. Nine strains with inhibition zone at least 22.00 mm (including that of hole puncher 10.00 mm) and good physiological and biochemical characteristics identified by 16S DNA gene sequencing and recA gene multiple detection, were assigned to Lactobacillus (L.) plantarum subsp. plantarum (5), L. fermentum (1), L. reuteri (1), W. cibaria (1) and E. faecalis (1), respectively. As investigated for their tolerance abilities and safety, only strain ZA3 possessed high hydrophobicity and auto-aggregation abilities, had high survival rate in low pH, bile salt environment and GI fluids, sensitive to ampicillin, resistant to norfloxacin and amikacin, without hemolytic activity and didn’t carry antibiotic resistance genes, exhibited broad spectrum activity against a wide range of microorganisms, and antibacterial substance may attribute to organic acids, especially lactic acid and acetic acid. The results indicated that the selected strain L. plantarum subsp. plantarum ZA3 could be considered a potential probiotic to inhibit ETEC K88 for further research.

This paper first explains the theory of the origin of force from a new perspective, explaining that the origin of all forces is caused by the "missing of energy in the time dimension" (non-conservation in a certain period of time), and constructs a unified theory of force on this basis. Then, through the unified theory of force, the following phenomena are reinterpreted: (1) The common origin of the inverse square law of gravitation and electromagnetic force; (2) The origin of the repulsive force of electrons and protons at small distances; (3) The mystery of the rotation curve of galaxies and the new explanation of "dark matter"; (4) explain the origin of the magnetic field; (5) Predict that moving magnets have the same radiation effect as charged particles (electron magnetic moments also have radiation effects); (6) Reinterpret Maxwell's displacement current; (7) Reinterpret synchrotron radiation and bremsstrahlung; (8) Explain that the strong and weak forces are short-range forces; (9) Predict the true structure of black holes and the origin of gravitational waves;(10) Possible explanation for the origin of the speed of light.

This paper is another applied article based on the author's "Unified Theory of Force". The main work of this paper is as follows: (1) Reinterpretation of the Lorentz contraction effect and rigorous proof that the Lorentz contraction is a physical phenomenon based on the conservation of energy and momentum under non-completely symmetrical relative motion effects. This paper proves that the Lorentz contraction effect not only occurs in the direction of motion but also simultaneously in any direction. (2) For the first time, we attempted to explain the physical meaning of the Planck energy formula in theory and associate the Planck energy formula with the Lorentz contraction effect, which can help us to have a deeper understanding of the true physical meaning behind the Planck energy formula. At the same time, we also made reasonable theoretical predictions about the basic structure of photons.

There is currently no unified explanation for the origin of Earth's magnetic field, planetary magnetic fields, stellar magnetic fields, and neutron star magnetic fields, and most importantly, none of these theories have been experimentally verified. This paper is based on a new unified theory of mechanics and its derived applications, which may provide a better explanation for the origin of magnetic fields in celestial bodies and can be experimentally tested to better answer the observed phenomena: (1) the greater the mass of the celestial body, the stronger the magnetic field; (2) the faster the rotation speed of the celestial body, the stronger the magnetic field; (3) the higher the density of the celestial body, the stronger the magnetic field produced.

This paper is mainly based on a stricter premise of the twin paradox and the assumption of inertial frame, discusses the properties of time and space under the premise of complete symmetry, and draws an interesting conclusion: the simultaneity of different reference frames is possible realized, and the space is relatively independent. And based on this, the twin paradox, cosmic inflation, ultra-distance action of quantum entanglement, microscopic space motion of particles, measurement problems and other phenomena are tentatively explained from a new angle. This interpretation is exploratory and new. At the same time, the author also proposes an experimental way to test the relative independence of space.At the same time, this paper attempts to strictly prove that Einstein's definition of simultaneity and spatial absoluteness in special relativity may be problematic.

This paper mainly explores the feasibility of using desert sand (DS) and recycled aggregate in cement stabilized base. Recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) and DS serve as the substitutes of natural coarse and fine aggregates, respectively, in cement stabilized base. A four-factor and four-level orthogonal test is designed to analyze the unconfined compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and compressive resilient modulus. Furthermore, this paper investigates the effects of cement content, fly ash (FA) replacement rate, RCA replacement rate, and DS replacement rate on the road performance of cement stabilized base composing of RCA and DS. The test results reveal that the performance of cement stabilized base with partial RCA instead of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) and partial DS instead of natural fine aggregate satisfy the road use. Meanwhile, DS is beneficial to improve the strength of cement stabilized base. The correlation and microscopic analyses of the test results imply the feasibility of applying DS and recycled aggregate to cement stabilized base. It is hoped that this paper can offer a solid theoretical foundation for promoting the application of DS and recycled aggregate in road engineering.

A bridged 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) derivative (PN-DOPO) in combination with aluminum phosphates coated sepiolite (Sep@AlPO4) was used to improve the flame retardancy, thermal stability and mechanical properties of poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO)/poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) blends. The synergistic effects of PN-DOPO and Sep@AlPO4 on the fire resistance, thermal decomposition behavior and mechanical properties of PEO/PBAT composites were investigated systematically. The results indicated that 5 wt % Sep@AlPO4 combined with 10 wt% PN-DOPO into PEO/PBAT achieved a V-1 rating in UL-94 test and the LOI value increased to 23.7%, meanwhile, the peak-heat release rate (p-HRR), av-HRR and total heat release (THR) values of PEO/PBAT/PN10%/Sep5% composites decreased by 35.6%, 11.0% and 23.0% compared with those of PEO/PBAT, respectively. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results confirmed that PN-DOPO/Sep@AlPO4 could enhance the initial thermal stability and char yield of PEO/PBAT matrix, and TGA/Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (TGA-FTIR) results revealed that the composites exhibited the absorption peaks of phosphorous-containing groups and an increase in gas-phase volatiles during the thermal decomposition process. The digital photographs and morphological structures of char residues demonstrated that PN-DOPO and Sep@AlPO4 mixtures benefited to the formation of a more continuous and dense carbon layer on the composites surface during combustion. Rheological behavior revealed that a higher storage modulus, loss modulus and complex viscosity of PEO/PBAT/PN-DOPO/Sep@AlPO4 composites could also promote the cross-linking structure during burning. Furthermore, the PEO/PBAT/PN-DOPO/Sep@AlPO4 composites exhibited excellent mechanical properties in terms of elongation at break and flexural performance than the PEO/PBAT system. All the results demonstrated that PEO/PBAT system modified by the combination of PN-DOPO and Sep@AlPO4 not only exhibited excellent synergistic effect on the flame retardance, but also had good improvement on thermal stability and mechanical properties, indicating the potential application in areas requiring fire safety.

The AREB/ABF (ABA response element binding) proteins in plants are vital for plant stress responses, but the understanding of AREB/ABFs in orchid species, an important traditional medicinal and ornamental plants, is limited. Here, twelve AREB/ABF genes were identified within three orchids’ complete genome and classified into three groups (groups I, II, and III) via a phylogenetic analysis, which was further supported by the analysis of their conserved motifs and gene structures. The cis-elements analysis showed that hormone response elements followed by light and stress responses were widely rich in AREB/ABFs. A prediction analysis of orchid ABRE/ABF-mediated regulatory network was further constructed through cis-regulatory elements (CREs) analysis of their promoter regions and revealed that several transcriptional factor (TF) gene family were abundant as the potential regulators for orchid AREB/ABFs. Expression profile analysis based on public transcriptomic data showed that most AREB/ABF genes have distinct tissue-specific expression patterns in orchid plants. Additionally, DcaABI5 as the homolog of ABA INSENSITIVE 5 (ABI5) from Arabidopsis was selected for further analysis. The results showed that Arabidopsis transgenic overexpressing DcaABI5 could rescue the ABA insensitive phenotype in the mutant abi5. Collectively, these findings will provide valuable information on AREB/ABF genes in orchids.

Abies beshanzuensis, an extremely endangered species, attracts serious concerns on genetic diversity recovery and population protection. However, little genetic information was known about it till now. In this study, intra-/intergenomic ITS variation, secondary structure, and molecular phylogeny of A.beshanzuensis were determined by nrDNA-ITS marker, and results indicated that, ITS region featured rich polymorphism in ITS1 and highly conservative in 5.8S/ITS2 among intra-/inter-genome, implying rich genetic diversities and the occurrence of non-concerted evolution in ITS region. Predicated 5.8S structure possessed Helices-Loops with 3 motifs (M1/M2/M3) and 5 helices B4-B8, and ITS2 could form conservative Clover-like structure with 5 ribotypes, manifesting genetically structural generalities and individualities. Thirteen ITS pseudogenes were also identified from 76 samples (or clones). Molecular phylogeny revealed that, A.beshanzuensis shared genetically closer relationships with A.fanjingshanensis, A.chensiensis, A.yuanbaoshanensis among genus Abies. The available original data provided rich genetic information on ITS sequence, structure and molecular phylogeny of A.beshanzuensis, which not only updated the databases of ITS sequences as well as secondary structures essential for phylogenetic reference and DNA barcoding analyses, but also contributed to deep exploration of population diversities, origin and evolution as well theoretical direction for population recovery and protection of A.beshanzuensis.

Frequency estimation of a single sinusoid in colored noise has received a considerable amount of attention in the research community. Taking into account the recent emergence and advances in compressive covariance sensing (CCS), the aim of this work is to combine the two disciplines by studying the effects of compressed measurements of a single sinusoid in moving-average (MA) colored noise on its frequency estimation accuracy. CCS techniques can recover the second-order statistics of the original uncompressed signal from the compressed measurements, thereby enabling correlation-based frequency estimation of single tones in colored noise using higher-order lags. Acceptable accuracy is achieved for moderate compression ratios and for a sufficiently large number of available compressed signal samples. It is expected that the proposed method would be advantageous in applications involving resource-limited systems such as wireless sensor networks.

Coalbed Methane(CBM) production enhancement for single wells is a big problem to CBM industrialization. Low production is due to insufficient gas generation by thermogenic. Luckily, Biogenic gas was found in many areas and its supply is assumed to improve coalbed methane production. Therefore, microbial simulation experiment will demonstrate the effectiveness of the assumption. From microbial simulation experiment on different coal ranks, it is found that microbes can use coals to produce biogas under laboratory conditions. With different temperatures for different experiments, it turns out that the gas production at 35 ℃ is greater than that at 15℃,indicating that 35℃ is more suitable for microbes to produce gas. According to quantitative experiments, adding exogenous nutrients or exogenous bacteria can improve CBM production. Moreover, the production enhancement ratio can reach up to 115% under the condition of adding exogenous bacterial species, while the ratio for adding nutrients can be up to 144%.

The adapted Posner spatial cue-target paradigm was used to explore the relationship between exogenous temporal attention caused by rhythm and endogenous and exogenous spatial attention. The study was divided into two experiments. In Experiment 1, 33 participants used arrow cues to orient endogenous spatial attention and rhythm to orient exogenous temporal attention. In Experiment 2, with 29 participants, exogenous spatial attention was directed by highlighting the cue box. Exogenous temporal attention was directed by rhythm. Experiment 1 indicated that RTs were faster for attended targets than the unattended. The main effect of temporal attention was significant, with RTs being faster for synchrony and late compared to early. RTs were faster for late compared to synchrony. The main effect of stimulus repetition was significant, with faster RTs for targets when the rhythmic cue consisted of five compared to four. The interaction between spatial attention and temporal attention was not significant. Experiment 2 demonstrated that exogenous spatial attention only exhibited IOR under early four stimulus repetitions. The main effect of temporal attention was significant, with RTs being faster for synchrony and late compared to early. The main effect of stimulus repetition was significant, with faster RTs for targets when the rhythmic cue consisted of five compared to four. The interaction between spatial attention and temporal attention was significant. The results indicated that rhythmic temporal attention supported foreperiod effects. Exogenous temporal attention and endogenous spatial attention independently affect behavior, while exogenous temporal attention and exogenous spatial attention mutually influenced behavior.

For a long time, physicists always directly use mathematical tools to deal with physical problems, and few people pay attention to the difference between mathematical theory and physical theory. Just like the dilemma that physicists once faced when dealing with the problem of blackbody radiation function.By analyzing the difference between the theoretical basis of mathematics and the theoretical basis of physics, this paper draws the following conclusions: (1) The theoretical basis of mathematics and the theoretical basis of physics are different, so when we use mathematical tools for physics research, we need to be very careful. (2) Finiteness and discreteness should be the basis of the whole physical theory; This paper points out that it is not advisable to use infinite " " and infinitesimal "0" without restriction and demonstration in physics, as well as the continuity of functions, which will bring a lot of trouble to physical theory.At the same time, through the analysis of Banach-Tarski paradox and Bertrand paradox, this paper proposes that if we revise the basic assumptions of probability theory: assuming that "points" have quantized sizes, and "lines" also have quantized widths. After the correction, we can not only avoid the troubles caused by Bertrand paradox, but also make probability theory better for practical application.

Originally developed to image the shadow region of the central black hole in Sagittarius A* and in the nearby galaxy M87, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) provides deep, very high angular resolution data on other AGN sources too. The challenges of working with EHT data have spurred the development of new image reconstruction algorithms. This work briefly reviews the status of the EHT and its utility for observing AGN sources, with emphasis on novel imaging techniques that offer the promise of better reconstructions at 1.3 mm and other wavelengths.

To improve carbon efficiency for urban logistics service system composed of a third-party logistics service provider (3PLs) and an e-business enterprise, low-carbon operation game between them was studied. Considering low carbon technology investment cost and sales expansion effect of low carbon level, profit functions for both players were constituted. Based on their different bargaining capabilities, totally 5 types of game scenarios were designed. Through analytical solution, Nash Equilibria under varied scenarios were obtained. By analyzing these equilibria, 4 major propositions were given, in which, some key variables and system performance index were compared. Results show that the best system yields could only be achieved under the fully cooperative situation; limited cooperation only for carbon emission reduction would not benefit the system performance improvement; E-business enterprise-leading game’s performance overtook 3PLs-leading ones.

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

The rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of pathogenic bacteria is of utmost importance in ensuring food safety and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Here, we present a novel, reusable, and cost-effective impedimetric sensor based on a dual bacteria-imprinted polymer (DBIP) for the specific detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus. The DBIP sensor stands out with its remarkably short fabrication time of just 20 minutes, achieved through the efficient electro-polymerization of o-phenylenediamine monomer in the presence of dual bacterial templates, followed by in-situ template removal. The key structural feature of the DBIP sensor lies in the cavity-free imprinting sites, indicative of a thin layer of bacterial surface imprinting. This facilitates rapid rebinding of the target bacteria within a mere 15 minutes, while the sensing interface regenerates in just 10 minutes, enhancing the sensor's overall efficiency. A notable advantage of the DBIP sensor is its exceptional selectivity, capable of distinguishing the target bacteria from closely related bacterial strains, including different serotypes. Moreover, the sensor exhibits high sensitivity, showcasing a low detection limit of approximately 9 CFU mL-1. The sensor's reusability further enhances its cost-effectiveness, reducing the need for frequent sensor replacements. The practicality of the DBIP sensor was demonstrated in the analysis of real apple juice samples, yielding good recoveries. The integration of quick fabrication, high selectivity, rapid response, sensitivity, and reusability makes the DBIP sensor a promising solution for monitoring pathogenic bacteria, playing a crucial role in ensuring food safety and safeguarding public health.

With the rapid development of satellite remote sensing technology, the volume of image datasets in many application areas is growing exponentially and the demand for Land-Cover and Land-Use change remote sensing data is growing rapidly. It is thus becoming hard to efficiently and intelligently retrieve the change information that users need from massive image databases. In this paper, content-based image retrieval is successfully applied to change detection and a content-based remote sensing image change information retrieval model is introduced. First, the construction of a new model framework for change information retrieval in a remote sensing database is described. Then, as the target content cannot be expressed by one kind of feature alone, a multiple-feature integrated retrieval model is proposed. Thirdly, an experimental prototype system that was set up to demonstrate the validity and practicability of the model is described. The proposed model is a new method of acquiring change detection information from remote sensing imagery and so can reduce the need for image pre-processing, deal with problems related toseasonal changes as well as other problems encountered in the field of change detection. Meanwhile, the new model has important implications for improving remote sensing image management and autonomous information retrieval.

: During the period of COVID-19, the Chinese government implemented a series of actions to prevent the spread of the virus. It is noticed that these preventive actions have generated positive effects on air pollution in Wuhan and Beijing. And, due to the differences in city functions, geographic locations, meteorological conditions, and preventive action details between the two cities, noticeable difference is observed on how they reduced air pollution. This unfortunate incident has become a social sample for studying the industrial and livelihood activities impact on air pollution, otherwise would be highly impossible. This paper starts from observing data from NASA's real-time fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and NO2, and comparing the air pollution in this special time domain with previous years. It is discovered that both PM2.5 and NO2 have been reduced in Wuhan, while only NO2 has significant reduction in Beijing, during the COVID-19 responses. This suggests that the human activity suppression by the COVID-19 control yields different effects on different pollutants and in different cities. Possible reasons for such effects are analysed by considering the public health control levels as well as the pollutant migration, industrial activities, and the weather conditions.

(1) Background: This study aimed to investigate the effect of increased HER-2 expression on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and determine its impact on the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients; (2) Methods: HER-2, CD4, CD8, CD19, LY6G, CD56, CD68, CD11b, and EpCam expression in CRC tissues and adjacent paracancerous tissues were assessed using multiplex fluorescence immunohistochemical staining. The correlation between HER-2 expression and the number of TILs in CRC tissues was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze survival outcomes; (3) Results: The expression of HER-2 in tumor tissues was higher than that in paracancerous tissues (1.31 ± 0.45 vs. 0.86 ± 0.20, P < 0.05). Additionally, there was an increase in the numbers of CD4+, CD8+, CD19+, and CD68+ cells in CRC tissues (14.11 ± 1.10 vs. 3.40 ± 0.18, P < 0.005; 0.16 ± 0.12 vs. 0.04 ± 0.04, P < 0.005; 0.71 ± 0.46 vs. 0.25 ± 0.13, P < 0.0005; 0.27 ± 0.24 vs. 0.03 ± 0.11, P < 0.05). The increase in HER-2 expression was positively correlated with an increase in CD4, CD8, and CD19 (p < 0.0001). In HER-2-positive CRC tissues, CD68 expression was increased (0.80 ± 0.55 vs. 0.25 ± 0.22, P < 0.05). In HER-2-upregulated CRC tissues, CD4, CD8, CD19, CD68, CD11b, Ly6G, and CD56 expressions were elevated (0.70 ± 0.37 vs. 0.32 ± 0.17, P = 0.03; 0.22 ± 0.13 vs. 0.09 ± 0.06, P = 0.03; 0.31 ± 0.19 vs. 0.12 ± 0.08, P = 0.02; 1.05 ± 0.62 vs. 0.43 ± 0.21, P < 0.01; 1.34 ± 0.81 vs. 0.53 ± 0.23, P < 0.01; 0.50 ± 0.31 vs. 0.19 ± 0.10, P < 0.01; 1.26 ± 0.74 vs. 0.52 ± 0.24, P < 0.01). Furthermore, increased HER-2 expression is an independent risk factor for recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients (P < 0.01, HR = 3.421); (4) Conclusions: The increased expression of HER-2 and its relationship with immune cells will provide new insights for immunotherapy in CRC patients.

The accompanying mechanical behavior during the flow of ore-rock dispersion is an important factor leading to the instability and failure of the orepass in the ore storage section. It is of great significance to accurately understand the instability characteristics of the well wall in the ore section, during the ore drawing process by understanding the flow characteristics and internal mechanical transfer mechanism of ore-rock dispersion. Using the discrete element method to analyze the flow characteristics, contact compactness, stress distribution characteristics and contact force probability distribution of the ore-rock dispersion, it realizes the quantitative characterization of the damage degree of ore-rock flow, and reveals the damage mechanism of mine storage wall. The results show that: (1) The friction between ore-rock particles, between ore-rock and well wall is an important reason for the change of the macroscopic flow form of ore-rock from “one” to “V” type. (2) The compactness and stress concentration of ores are increasing with the increase of storage depth, which is shown that with the increase of storage depth, the greater the probability of well wall instability. (3) The probability distribution of contact force strength between particles decreases exponentially in the whole process of ore drawing, in which the strong chain plays a major role in the stability of the dispersion system. (4) The number of overpressure and the overpressure coefficient can be used to quantitatively characterize the wall damage degree under the action of ore-rock flow. The dynamic side pressure decreases periodically in the form of exponential fluctuations, and the dynamic load formed by the ore-rock flow mainly played a role in the lower area of the ore storage section.

With the development of organizational biology and forced from the EU Cosmetic Regulation (EU/1223/2009) with the complete ban of animal testing for cosmetic purposes, 3D skin models have been widely developed due to their similar physiological structure and metabolic function to native human tissue. 3D skin models for in vitro cosmetic evaluation are still promising alternative methods for evaluating phototoxicity, corrosivity and irritation. These models have been used for early screening and later validation of toxicity and efficacy evaluation by many well-known cosmetic companies. 3D skin models have become an important tool in cosmetic evaluation research. This article reviews the development of 3D skin models and their application in cosmetic evaluation. An outlook on the current application and future technological development directions in the cosmetic field is also presented.

Forest-grass intercropping patterns of protected cultivation has been widely used to increase productivity and sustainability in modern agriculture. However, there have been few studies of wolfberry (L. barbarum) intercropping and it is cultivated mostly by clean tillage. This paper takes 10 kinds of wolfberry-forage intercropping patterns, compares the effects of different planting modes on the growth, yield, photosynthetic characteristics, nutritional quality, and the degree of occurrence of diseases and pests, which aims to make clear the effects of wolfberry-forage intercropping patterns on wolfberry. The results showed that different intercropping combinations had different effects on wolfberry. The overall effect of Wolfberry-forage intercropping patterns on the growth of wolfberry were promote the photosynthetic characteristics. Ryegrass could increase the branch number, Lvyuan 5 and mangel increase branch length; Mangel, clover, sweet sorghum, ryegrass and stipas could reduce the damage of powdery mildew by 69%, and alfalfa, stipa and ryegrass could reduce the occurrence of aphids by 67% (P<0.05). Intercropping could increase carotenoids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid contents to improve wolfberry quality by 21%, 53% and 127%, respectively (P<0.05). Among all the performances, wolfberry-mangel intercropping has absolute advantages in promoting wolfberry yield and quality increase. Therefore the best patterns of wolfberry-mangel, wolfberry-ryegrass, wolfberry-alfalfa and wolfberry-clover were chosen.

This paper proposed an optimal tracking control scheme through adaptive dynamic programming(ADP) for a class of partially unknown discrete-time nonlinear systems based on radial basis function neural network(RBF-NN). In order to acquire the unknown system dynamics, we use two RBF-NNs, the one is used to construct the identifier, and the another is used to directly approximate the steady-state control input, where a novel adaptive law is proposed to update neural network weights. While the optimal feedback control and the cost function are derived via feedforward neural networks approximating, it is proposed to regulate the tracking error, the critic network and the actor network are then trained online to obtain the solution of the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation being built under the ADP framework. Simulations verify the effectiveness of the optimal tracking control technique using the neural networks.

The study is devoted to analyzing the economic sustainability of the town of Amherst, MA. The city's top employer and core enterprise is the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with over 32,000 students and almost 2,000 staff members. Based on a literature review, a hypothesis was put forward that a university city should have a high level of economic sustainability. To assess economic sustainability, the USCESI Index was developed. It evaluates sustainability in three groups of parameters: society, economy, and ecology. The first group includes the level of racial diversity, the level of education of the population, and the access to medical services. The second group consists of the Gini coefficient by income level, the median cost of housing, and the unemployment rate. The environmental situation is assessed according to the Air Quality Index developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. For comparison, the town of Braintree, MA, was taken. The USCESI was calculated for both locations. The analysis showed that both Amherst and Braintree have a high degree of economic sustainability. However, it was revealed that proximity to a significant economic center has a more powerful positive impact on economic sustainability than the location of a large university.

Accurate forecasting of icing thickness has a great significance for ensuring the security and stability of power grid. In order to improve the forecasting accuracy, this paper proposes an icing forecasting system based on fireworks algorithm and weighted least square support vector machine (W-LSSVM). The method of fireworks algorithm is employed to select the proper input features with the purpose of eliminating the redundant influence. In addition, the aim of W-LSSVM model is to train and test the historical data-set with the selected features. The capability of this proposed icing forecasting model and framework is tested through the simulation experiments using real-world icing data from monitoring center of key laboratory of anti-ice disaster, Hunan, South China. The results show that the proposed W-LSSVM-FA method has a higher prediction accuracy and it may be a promising alternative for icing thickness forecasting.

This paper presents a theory on graph topological structure and graph coloring, proving that for any N-order graph structure (with a topological structure similar to ), the maximum number of colors required for coloring is less than or equal to . The Four Color Theorem is just one special case of this theory, with the maximum structure size for a four-color graph being a 4-order structure graph, hence requiring only a maximum of 4 colors for coloring.

This paper is the third application-oriented paper based on the "unified theory of forces" and also addresses the shortcomings of previous research in fully explaining the origin and nature of the weak force. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: (1) It is argued that neutrinos are generated by the gravitational field, and their generation mechanism is similar to the radiation of photons from electron orbital transitions. Particles undergoing orbital transitions in a gravitational field will emit neutrinos. (2) We rigorously derive the energy formula for neutrinos and demonstrate that the energy formula for neutrinos does not comply with the Planck energy formula. Neutrinos with higher energy have longer wavelengths and are more easily observed in experiments.

In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimated that there were 68,928 mustangs living on United States public lands in 10 western states. The agency uses Appropriate Management Levels to determine the number of mustangs who need to be removed from the land. Once removed and processed, mustangs are sent to adoptions or sales events or retained in short-or long-term holding facilities. Adoptions and sales are the leading avenues for rehoming mustangs; however, the number of horses the BLM can place fluctuates annually and never approaches the greater number removed from the range. To explore opportunities for increasing the number of mustang adoptions, we conducted in-depth interviews with 23 horse trainers located on the U.S. East Coast, asking about participants’ training programs, relationships with horses, perceptions of mustangs, and challenges that mustangs face in the dressage and eventing industries. Participants had varying experiences with mustangs; however, all were willing to work with a mustang in some capacity. Participants voiced the need for more satellite adoption locations on the East Coast to decrease barriers to acquiring a mustang, notably cost and time, and for expanding existing training programs to include eventing and dressage.

In order to achieve better knowledge of the thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) by supersonic atmospheric plasma spraying (SAPS) process, an experimental study was carried out to elaborate physicochemical properties of particles in-flight during the SAPS process. One type of commercially available agglomerated and sintered yttria-stabilized-zirconia (YSZ) powders were injected into the SAPS plasma jet and collected by shock chilling method. The YSZ particles in-flight physicochemical properties of the melting state, morphology, microstructure, particle size distribution, element composition changes and phase transformation during the SAPS process have been systematically analyzed. The melting state, morphology and microstructure of the collected particles were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The particle size distribution was measured by a laser particle size analyzer (LPSA). Element compositions were quantitatively analysed by an electron probe X-ray microanalyzer (EPMA). Additionally, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method was used to analyse the phase transformation. The results showed that the original YSZ powders injected into the SAPS plasma jet were quickly heated and melted from the outer layer companied with breakup and collision-coalescence. The outer layer of the collected particles containing roughly hexagonal shaped grains exhibited a surface texture with high sphericity and the inside was dense with hollow structure. The median particle size was decreased from 45.65 μm to 42.04 μm. Besides, phase transformation took place and the content of zirconium (Zr) and yttrium (Y) element was decreased with the evaporation of ZrO2 and Y2O3.

Enveloped viruses represent a significant category of pathogens that cause serious diseases in animals. These viruses express envelope glycoproteins that are singularly important during infection of host cells by mediating fusion between the viral envelope and host cell membranes. Despite low homology at protein levels, three classes of viral fusion proteins have, as of yet, been identified based on structural similarities. Their incorporation into viral particles is dependent upon their proper sub-cellular localization after being expressed and folded properly in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). However, viral protein expression can cause stress in the ER, and host cells respond to alleviate the ER stress in the form of the unfolded protein response (UPR); the effects of which have been observed potentiating or inhibiting viral infection. One important arm of UPR is to elevate the capacity of the ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD) pathway, which is comprised of host quality control machinery that ensures proper protein folding. In this review, we provide relevant details regarding viral envelope glycoproteins, UPR, ERAD, and their interactions in host cells.

Colon cancer is a common malignancy of digestive tract and has high incidence and mortality worldwide. As a normal flora in the human gastrointestinal tract, lactic acid bacteria have been proved to have health benefits, such as immune-regulation, anti-infection, and anti-tumor. In the present study, the inhibitory effects of 19 heat-inactivated plant-derived lactic acid bacteria on human colon cancer cell HCT116 were investigated. The results showed that heat-inactivated plant-derived lactic acid bacteria strain 729 had the strongest inhibitory effect on HCT116 cells among all tested bacteria. Treatment with heat-inactivated bacteria strain 729 could inhibit the proliferation of HCT-116 cells in dose-dependent manner, with 54.52% inhibition at a final concentration of 1×10⁸ CFU/mL. Moreover, the heat-inactivated bacteria strain 729 could block the cell cycle, induce apoptosis, and promote cellular ferroptosis by downregulating the expression of GPX4 and xCT at protein level. According to the 16S rDNA sequencing, the plant-derived lactic acid bacteria strain 729 was Lactobacillus plantarum. Collectively, the results indicates that lactic acid bacteria strain 729 may be developed as special ingredients targeting colon cancer, but further in vivo studies are required.

Biological invasions are a human-induced environmental disturbance that can cause major changes in ecosystem structure and functioning. Located in the northeastern Mediterranean basin, the Aegean Sea is a hotspot of biological invasions. Although the presence of alien species in the Aegean has been studied and monitored, no assessment has been conducted on their cumulative impacts on native biodiversity. To address this gap and identify the most highly impacted areas and habitats and the most impactful invasive species in the Aegean, we applied the CIMPAL index, a framework developed for mapping the cumulative impacts of invasive species. Coastal habitats showed stronger impacts than the open sea. The highest CIMPAL scores were four times more frequent in the South than in the North Aegean. Shallow (0-60 m) hard substrate was the most heavily impacted habitat type, followed by soft substrates and seagrass meadows. We identified Caulerpa cylindracea, Lophocladia lallemandii, Siganus spp. and Womersleyella setacea as the most im-pactful species across their range of occurrence in the Aegean but, ranking varied depending on the habitat and impact indicator applied. Our assessment can support marine managers in prioritizing decisions and actions to control biological invasions and mitigate their impacts in the Aegean Sea.

The Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) matrix (MA) domain is involved in the highly regulated assembly process of the virus particles that occur at the host cell’s plasma membrane. High-resolution structures of the MA domain determined using cryo X-ray crystallography have provided initial insights into the possible steps in the viral assembly process. However, these structural studies have relied on large and frozen crystals in order to reduce radiation damage caused by the intense X-rays. Here, we report the first XFEL study of the HIV-1 MA domain’s interaction with inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), a phospholipid headgroup mimic. We also describe the purification, characterization and microcrystallization of two MA crystal forms obtained in the presence of IP6. In addition, we describe the capabilities of serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography (SFX) using X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) to elucidate the diffraction data of MA-IP6 complex microcrystals in liquid suspension at ambient temperature. Two different microcrystal forms of MA-IP6 complex both diffracted to beyond 3.5 Å resolution, demonstrating the feasibility of using SFX to study the complexes of MA domain of HIV-1 Gag polyprotein with IP6 at near-physiological temperatures. Further optimization of the experimental and data analysis procedures will lead to better understanding of the MA domain of HIV-1 Gag and IP6 interaction at high resolution and provide basis for optimization of the lead compounds for efficient inhibition of the Gag protein recruitment to the plasma membrane prior to virion formation.

Resection of malignant lesions in the oral and maxillofacial area causes functional and morphological defects. To recover from these defects, reconstruction surgery is needed such as a primary closure or a flap. There are advantages and disadvantages to the method of using the primary closure and the flap, and the choice of procedure is entirely up to a surgeon. The purpose of this study is to evaluate availability of primary closure in patients. For 10 years from January 2010 to May 2020, patients who recovered using flaps after removing malignant lesions from the oral cavity and those who closed the lesion using primary closure were investigated. The investigation was conducted by searching the database of the hospital. There were 85 patients who removed malignant lesions in the oral and maxillofacial area, and among them 16 patients closed the soft tissue defects using primary closure. Operation time, histologic types, stages, wound status, and period of hospitalization according to the patients' medical records were investigated retrospectively. Between the staging and the primary closure, statistically significant differences were observed between stage I and stage II patients in 13 patients using the primary closure. (P=0.046). Statistically significant differences were identified between operation time and primary closure, with an average of 4.02 hours (P=0.015). The average period of hospitality for patients who underwent primary closure was 13.4 days, compared to 26.7 days for those who underwent flap surgery. This difference was statistically significant (P=0.0003). This study evaluated the use of primary closure in patients who underwent resection of malignant lesions in the oral and maxillofacial area. Although the majority of patients underwent reconstruction with flaps, our results showed that primary closure can be a viable option for certain patients with early-stage lesions. Therefore, oral and maxillofacial surgeons should carefully consider various evaluation criteria and select appropriate reconstruction methods to optimize functional and aesthetic outcomes for each patient.

At the end of 2019, while the world was being hit by the COVID-19 virus and, consequently, was living a global health crisis, many other pandemics were putting humankind in danger. The role of social media is of paramount importance in these kinds of contexts since they help health systems to cope with emergencies by contributing to conducting some activities such as the identification of public concerns, the detection of infections’ symptoms, and the traceability of the virus diffusion. In this paper, we have analyzed comments on events related to cholera, ebola, HIV/AIDS, influenza, malaria, Spanish influenza, swine flu, tuberculosis, typhus, yellow fever, and zika, collecting 369,472 tweets from the 3rd of March to the 15th of September, 2022. Our analysis has started with the collection of comments composed of unstructured texts on which we have applied natural language processing solutions. Afterward, we have employed topic modelling and sentiment analysis techniques to obtain a collection of people’s concerns and attitudes toward these pandemics. According to our findings, people's discussions were mostly about malaria, influenza, and tuberculosis and the focus was on the diseases themselves. As regards emotions, the most popular were fear, trust, and disgust where trust is mainly regarding HIV/AIDS tweets.

Urbanization and industrialization processes in Mongolia have been significant and rapid for the last half-century. During this period, changes in political and economic systems, growth in the population, and the occasional harsh climate conditions were subject to fluctuations in the natural resource usage. The total Ecological Footprint (EF) in Mongolia has increased from 6.8 million global hectares (gha) in 1961 to 14.6 million gha in 2012. However, Biocapacity (BC) has decreased from 50.6 million gha in 1961 to 39.0 million gha in 2012. The study shows that grazing land Footprint and carbon uptake land Footprint are the two major contributors of the recent intensified use of biological resources. To ensure stable economic development and sustainable use of natural resources, environmental planning is required to consider both the population’s pressure on the environment and the ecosystem’s regeneration capacity, simultaneously. We have proposed a few possible strategies for sustainable utilization of grazing land Footprint and carbon Footprint. For grazing land Footprint, efficient management of both herding practice and number of animals should be considered. In case of carbon Footprint, it is estimated that with the improved combustion efficiencies of coal-based power plants and the maximum use of renewable energy, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Mongolia can be reduced up to 30% compared to the base line business as usual case in 2030.

To ensure consumers can purchase high-quality rice, accurate identification of rice varieties is particularly important. Methods: This article conducts research based on machine learning algorithms from the perspectives of image, spectrum, and spectrogram fusion. Six types of hyperspectral image data of rice were preprocessed using convolutional smoothing (SG) and multiple scatter correction (MSC). Texture information of the images was extracted using gray-level co-occurrence matrix. Spectra, texture, and spectrogram data were fused into a new matrix. Spectral, texture, and spectrogram fusion data were used as inputs for the model, and support vector machines (SVM), logistic regression (LR), and K-nearest neighbors (KNN) classification models were constructed and compared. Results: From the classification results, the spectrogram fusion classification performance was better than classification models using only spectra or texture. Conclusion: The research results showed that the accuracy of SVM and LR classification models exceeded 90%, and the LR model performed the best, effectively classifying rice varieties.

Abstract: High step-up voltage gain nonisolated DC-DC converter have attracted much attention in photovoltaic, fuel cells and other renewable energy system applications. In this paper, by combining input current ripple-free boost cell with coupled-inductor voltage-doubler cell, an input current ripple-free high voltage gain nonisolated converter is proposed. In addition, passive lossless clamp circuit is adopted to recycle the leakage inductor energy and to reduce the voltage spike across the power switch. By utilizing voltage-doubler cell consisting of diode and capacitor, the voltage stress of switch is further reduced and the resonance between the leakage inductor and the stray capacitor of the output diode is eliminated. A low switch-on-resistance low-voltage-rated MOSFET can therefore be employed to reduce the conduction loss and cost. The reverse recovery loss of output diode is reduced, and the efficiency of converter can be improved. Furthermore, the proposed converter can achieve nearly zero input current-ripple and make the design of electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter easy. Steady state analysis and operation mode of the converter is performed. Finally, experimental results are presented to verify the analysis results of the proposed converter.

The Silk Road pattern (SRP) and Circumglobal teleconnection pattern (CGT) are two well-known teleconnection patterns along the Eurasian westerly jet during boreal summer, which are often regarded as one teleconnection pattern. In view of the distinct features of the SRP/CGT on the interannual (IA) and interdecadal (ID) timescales, the present study investigates the linkages and differences between the SRP and CGT on the two timescales. On the IA timescale, the SRP and CGT feature a similar circumglobal wave train structure with strong and significant centers over Eurasia, but show clear independences. Specifically, the SRP and CGT illustrates largely the mid-/high-latitude-related and tropics-related parts of the Northern Hemisphere upper-tropospheric circulation variations, respectively. Also, the CGT shows a stronger connection to the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) heating and El Niño–Southern Oscillation than the SRP, which makes the CGT more like a tropical-forcing-driven atmospheric mode but the SRP more like an internal atmospheric mode. The linkages and differences between them are associated with their asymmetry relationship during their positive and negative phases, which are attributed mainly to the asymmetry impact of the ISM heating/cooling on the Eurasian circulations. On the ID timescale, the SRP and CGT are characterized by a coherent two-wave train structure over Eurasia, and feature more like the same teleconnection pattern, which are associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. The present findings on the linkages and differences between the SRP and CGT are helpful to understand the variability and prediction of the SRP and CGT.

Ti and its alloys are the most commonly used materials for biomedical applications. However, bacterial infection after implant placement is still one of the significant rising complications. Therefore, the application of the antimicrobial agents into implant surfaces to prevent implant-associated infection has attracted lots of attention. Scientific papers have shown that inorganic antibacterial metal element (e.g. Ag, Cu, Zn) can be introduced to implant surfaces with the addition of metal nanoparticles or metallic compounds into electrolyte via micro-arc oxidation (MAO) technology. In this review, the effects of the composition and concentration of electrolyte and process parameters (e.g. voltage, current density, oxidation time) on morphological characteristics (e.g. surface morphology, bonding strength), antibacterial ability and biocompatibility of MAO antimicrobial coating were discussed in detail. Anti-infection and osseo-integration can be simultaneously accomplished with the selection of the proper antibacterial elements and operating parameters. Besides, MAO assisted by magnetron sputtering (MS) to endow Ti-based implant materials with superior antibacterial ability and biocompatibility was also discussed. Finally, the development trend of MAO technology in the future was forecasted.

Abstract: Laryngoscopy for tracheal intubation has been developed for many decades. Among various conventional laryngoscopes, videolaryngoscopes (VL) have been applied in different patient populations, including difficult airways. The safety and effectiveness of VL have been repeatedly studied in both normal and difficult airways. The superiority of VL then has been observed and is advocated as the standard of care. In contrast to laryngoscopy, the development of video-assisted intubating stylet (VS, also named as styletubation) has been noticed two dec-ades ago. Since then, sporadic clinical experiences of use have appeared in literature. In this re-view article, we presented our vast use experiences of the styletubation (more than 55,000 pa-tients since 2016). We found this technique is swift (the time to intubate: from 3 s to 10 s), smooth (first-attempt success rate: 100%), safe (no airway complications), and easy (high subjective satis-faction and fast learning curve for the novice trainees) in both normal and difficult airway sce-narios. We therefore propose styletubation technique can be feasibly applied as universal rou-tine use for tracheal intubation.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of brain activity. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology formed by the EEG signal has become one of the hotspots at present. How to extract the feature signal of EEG is the most basic research of BCI technology. In this paper, A new method of recognizing fatigue, conscious, concentrated state of human brain is proposed by the combination of discrete wavelet transform and the neural network based on EEG signal. First of all, the law signal is preprocessed by the wavelet denoising method because the law EEG signal contains a large number of high frequency noise, which is decomposed into multi-layer high frequency signal and low frequency signal. thus, δ wave, θ wave, α wave, β wave are obtained by the wavelet transform. And then, frequency band energy of the different wave is regards as the feature signal of EEG. In the experiment, the feature signal is classified by radial basic function (RBF) and annealed chaotic competitive learning network (ACCLN). RBF and ACCLN networks are trained with 500 sets of sample data and are tested by 100 sets of samples in different mental states. The experimental results show that the average accuracy of RBF network under three conditions are 88.75%, 88.25%, 88.5%, respectively, and the correct rate of ACCLN network is 97%, 98%, 98%, respectively.

This paper provides attempts to formalize Hayek’s theory of knowledge. It has been theoretically shown that exponential income distribution is a spontaneous order of the well-functioning market economy. We show that this theoretical result is supported by the empirical evidence from the United Kingdom and China. In particular, we empirically show how the income structure of China evolved towards an exponential distribution after the market-oriented economic reformation. Furthermore, we strictly prove that, if the income structure of an economy obeys an exponential distribution, the income summation over all households leads to an aggregate production function with Hicks-neutral-like technical progress, in which the technology factor is exactly equal to society’s information stock that is a result of combining all of decentralized decisions.

This paper presents a piezoresistive pressure sensor with a shield layer for improved stability. Compared with the conventional piezoresistive pressure sensors, p-type piezoresistors are covered by an n-type shield layer, which is formed by ion implantation. The proposed pressure sensors have been successfully fabricated by bulk micromachining techniques. The impact of electrical field on piezoresistors is studied by simulation. The temperature drift of the pressure sensor has been investigated by both simulation and experimental measurement. Characteristics of developed pressure sensors are tested from -40 C to 125 C. A sensitivity of 0.022 mV/V/KPa and a maximum non-linearity of 0.085% FS are measured for the fabricated sensor in a pressure range of 1 MPa. The temperature coefficients of resistance of shielded piezoresistors are found to be smaller than those of un-shielded ones. It is demonstrated that the shield layer is able to reduce the drift caused by electrical field and ambient temperature variation.

Abiotic stress is an adverse environmental factor that severely affects plant growth and development, and plants have developed complex regulatory mechanisms to adapt to these unfavourable conditions through long-term evolution. In recent years, many transcription factor families of genes have been identified to regulate the ability of plants to respond to abiotic stresses. Among them, AP2/ERF (APETALA2/ethylene responsive factor) family is a large class of plant-specific that regulate plant response to abiotic stresses and can also play a role in regulating plant growth and development. This paper reviews the structural features and classification of AP2/ERF transcription factors, that transcriptional regulation, reciprocal proteins, downstream genes and hormone-dependent signalling and hormone-independent signalling pathways are involved in the response to abiotic stress. The study of AP2/ERF transcription factors and interacting proteins, as well as the identification of their downstream target genes, can provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of plant action in response to abiotic stress, which can improve the tolerance ability of plants in abiotic stress, and provide more theoretical basis for rice to obtain more yields under abiotic stress.

Resistive patch array incorporating with metallic backplane provided an effective way to the achievement of broadband metamaterial absorbers(MAs). When loading metallic metamaterial to resistive MA, the outstanding construction helps realize more flexible and diversified forms of broadband absorption. In this paper, we attempted to load metallic resonators(MRs) to resistive MA in the three-dimensional construction, which benefits further enhancement of lower-frequency absorption. Simulation showed that the partial absorption band was separated to lower frequency, while the rest of broadband absorption was unaffected. Meanwhile, after combining multi-unit of the proposed MAs, the stair-stepping broadband absorption was also achieved. At last, three samples were fabricated. The agreements between simulations and experimental results demonstrated that resistive MA loaded with MRs provided an effective way for further enhancement of lower-frequency absorption with almost no change of the absorbing structure and areal density. Thus, it is worthy to expect a wide range of applications to emerge inspired from the proposed attempt.

This study takes a two-echelon agricultural products supply chain (APSC) composed of an agricultural product processor (processor) and an agricultural product supermarket (supermarket) as the research object. In order to ensure the stable supply of high-quality agricultural products, this paper considers both fairness concern and corporate social responsibility (CSR), and establishes four Stackelberg game models with or without considering fairness concern and CSR, and obtains the influence mechanism of fairness concern and CSR on bilateral quality efforts in APSC through comparative analysis and numerical analysis. Research shows that the supermarket’s fairness concern can take the role of "profit distribution mechanism", but it is not conducive to improving bilateral quality efforts resulting in the inability to improve market demand, and it is not conducive to improving the utility of the supply chain system and consumer surplus; both members of APSC sharing CSR can not only improve the quality of agricultural products and promote the expansion of market demand, but also can achieve Pareto improvement of both profit of all members and supply chain system. Besides, The CSR shared by both members has a greater impact on bilateral quality efforts decision than the supermarket’s fairness concern, and thus the positive effect of CSR can overcome the negative effect of supermarket’s fairness concern.

Chrysoeriol (CHE) is a flavonoid substance that exists in many plants and has various physiological and pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-tumor, and protective activity, especially for the cardiovascular system and liver. This study aimed to analyze the results and possible mechanisms of CHE on early porcine embryo development. Adding CHE to the culture media can improve the development quality of early porcine embryos. CHE significantly increased the blastocyst rate and total cell number of embryos in vitro. The apoptosis of blastocyst in CHE-treated culture also decreased significantly compared with untreated culture. Furthermore, CHE downregulated intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increased glutathione (GSH) in embryos. CHE was also shown to improve the activity of mitochondria and inhibit the occurrence of autophagy. In addition, antioxidant-related genes (SOD1, SOD2, and CAT) and cell pluripotency-related genes (SOX2, OCT4, and NANOG) were upregulated, while those related to apoptosis (Caspase 3) and autophagy (LC3B) showed a downward trend after supplementation with CHE. These results indicated that CHE improved the development of porcine embryos in vitro by reducing oxidative stress and autophagy levels.

Recycling waste products is an environmental-friendly activity that can bring benefits to accompany, saving manufacturing costs and improving economic efficiency. For the beer industry, recycling bottles can reduce manufacturing costs and reduce the industry's carbon footprint. This paper presents a model for a multi-objective collection-distribution center location and allocation problem in a closed loop supply chain for the beer industry, in which the objective is to minimize total costs and transportation pollution. Uncertainties in the form of randomness and fuzziness are jointly handled in this paper to ensure a more practical problem solution, for which returned bottle sand unusable bottles are considered fuzzy random variables. A heuristic algorithm based on priority-based global-local-neighbor particle swarm optimization (pb-glnPSO) is applied to ensure reliable solutions for this NP-hard problem. A case study on a beer operation company is conducted to illustrate the application of the proposed model and demonstrate the priority-based global-local-neighbor particle swarm optimization.

We show that an exponential income distribution will emerge spontaneously in a peer-to-peer economic network that shares the publicly available technology. Based on this finding, we identify the exponential income distribution as the benchmark structure of the well-functioning market economy. However, a real market economy may deviate from the well-functioning market economy. We show that the deviation is partly reflected as the invalidity of exponential distribution in describing the super-low income class that involves unemployment. In this regard, we find, theoretically, that the lower-bound u of exponential income distribution has a linear relationship with (per capita) unemployment compensation. In this paper, we test this relationship for the United Kingdom from 2001 to 2015. Our empirical investigation confirms that the income structure of low and middle classes (about 90% of populations) in the United Kingdom exactly obeys exponential distribution, in which the lower-bound u is exactly in line with the evolution of unemployment compensation.

Even though inhalation dosimetry is determined by three factors (i.e., breathing, aerosols, and the respiratory tract), the first two categories have been more widely studied than the last. Both breathing and aerosols are quantitative variables that can be easily changed, while respiratory airway morphologies are difficult to reconstruct, modify, and quantify. Despite several methods are available for model reconstruction and modification, developing an anatomically accurate airway model and morphing it to various physiological conditions remains labor-intensive and technically challenging. The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of using an adjoint-CFD model to understand airway shape effects on vapor deposition and control vapor flux into the lung. A mouth-throat model was used, with the shape of the mouth and tongue being automatically varied via adjoint morphing, and the vapor transport being simulated using ANSYS Fluent coupled with a wall absorption model. Two chemicals with varying adsorption rates, Acetaldehyde and Benzene, were considered, which exhibited large differences in dosimetry sensitivity to airway shapes. For both chemicals, large shape deformations were explored to find the maximal possible morphing; both the maximal and intermediate deformations were simulated for morphology parametric studies. Results show that changing the mouth-tongue shape can alter the oral filtration by 3.2% for Acetaldehyde and 0.27% for Benzene under a given inhalation condition. This study demonstrates that the hybrid adjoint-CFD approach can be a practical and efficient method to investigate morphology-associated variability in inhalation dosimetry of vapors and nanomedicines.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the U.S. economy has weakened, and the world economy has slowly developed. As the world's leading country, the United States has used many methods to restore the economy. But it does work efficiently. However, there are many issues in developed countries such as domestic social, economic, immigration in the United States/United Kingdom; those are not optimistic. Developed countries have entered a dilemma. The neoliberalism financial system has been unable to move forward. Populists have pointed out that those problems have been causing by globalization. Under the leadership of the Brexit Referendum, President Trump has caused a wave of anti-globalization. Under a series of systems such as the China-US trade war and the US-Mexico border wall repairs, the anti-globalization trend is getting stronger. This article mainly analyzes the in-depth reasons and mechanism research of globalization and anti-globalization alternately—the data obtained from an international method performance study. The results show that anti-globalization is temporary, along with globalization. There are three main factors affecting globalization: the situation of the dominant country, natural disasters, and wars. After so much literature review, I believe that the United States' globalization is gradually weakening, and globalization may return to regionalization under the United States' opposition.

Long-haul COVID-19 illness first gained widespread recognition among social support groups and later in scientific and medical communities. This illness is mysterious as it affects COVID-19 survivors at all levels of disease severity, even younger adults and children. While the precise definition may be lacking, the defining symptoms are fatigue, dyspnea, and headache that last for months after hospital discharge. The less typical symptoms may include cognitive impairments, chest and joint pains, myalgia, smell and taste dysfunctions, cough, mood changes, and gastrointestinal and cardiac issues. Presently, there is limited literature discussing the possible pathophysiology, risk factors, and treatments in long-haul COVID-19, which the current review aims to address. In brief, long-haul COVID-19 may be driven by long-term lung and brain damage and unresolved inflammation from multiple sources. The associated risk factors may include female sex, more than five early symptoms, early dyspnea, and specific biomarkers like D-dimer. While only rehabilitation training has been useful for long-haul COVID-19, therapeutics repurposed from mast cell activation syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, and pulmonary fibrosis also hold potential. In sum, this review hopes to provide the current understanding of what is known about long-haul COVID-19.

Apple latent spherical virus (ALSV) is widely used as a virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) vector for function genome study. However, the application of ALSV in soybean is limited by the resistance of many varieties. In this study, the genetic loci linked to the resistance of a resistant soybean variety Heinong 84 was mapped by high-throughput sequencing‒Bulk Segregation Analysis (HTS‒BSA) using a hybrid population crossed from Heinong 84 and a susceptible variety Zhonghuang 13. Results showed that the resistance of Heinong 84 to ALSV is controlled by two genetic loci located on chromosome 2 and 11, respectively. Cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (CAPS) markers were developed for identification and genotyping. Inheritance and biochemical analyses suggest that the resistance locus on chromosome 2 plays a dominant dose-dependent role, while the other locus contributes a secondary role in resisting ALSV. The resistance locus on chromosome 2 might encode a protein that can directly inhibit viral proliferation, while the secondary resistance locus on chromosome 11 may encode a host factor required for viral proliferation. Together, these data reveal novel insights on the resistance mechanism of Heinong 84 to ALSV, which will benefit for the application of ALSV as a VIGS vector.

In the future, the pursuit of high-quality economic development and a focus on ecological environmental protection in China will inevitably result in significant conflicts between land use and ecological land use. The challenge lies in achieving sustainable high-quality development while simultaneously protecting the ecological environment, optimizing the land use structure, and promoting a harmonious relationship between humans and the land. These challenges are faced by all regions. Land use conflicts primarily occur in peri-urban areas characterized by prominent economic development and urban agglomeration. Previous studies have mainly focused on analyzing the effects of land use on habitat quality during intense urbanization. However, it is important to recognize that land pressure encompasses economic, ecological, and social aspects. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the spatial conflict of land use and the impact on habitat quality in Ankang, a city that has been advocating ecological protection for the past two decades, this study aims to objectively analyze the spatial trends in land use changes in such cities. Additionally, it aims to provide insights for the harmonious development of land use in eco-region-oriented cities. Using the SSP-RCP scenarios provided by CMIP6, this paper employs a system analysis method, PLUS model, InVEST model, and land use conflict measurement model to dynamically simulate the future habitat quality and spatial conflict patterns of land use in Ankang City. The study explores the spatial coupling effect of both factors under different scenarios. The results indicate the following:(1) Under different future shared socio-economic path scenarios, land use intensity and land conflict levels follow the order of SSP585 (high forcing scenario), SSP370 (medium to high forcing scenario), SSP245 (medium forcing scenario), and SSP126 (low forcing scenario), with intensity and conflict decreasing accordingly. (2) The overall development trend in Ankang City reveals an intensification of land use conflicts and a decrease in habitat quality. The expansion rate of construction land is increasing and exhibiting aggregation, while agricultural land area is expanding and forest land area is continuously decreasing. (3) Land use intensity exhibits a significant positive correlation with land conflict levels, while land conflict levels demonstrate a significant negative correlation with habitat quality. These findings suggest that land use has had some impact on the ecological environment, with indications of habitat degradation. Even in Ankang, where ecological development is highly valued, the city will gradually face conflicts between ecological protection and economic development in future scenarios. The study highlights that Ankang's future development space will be constrained within the context of environmental protection, leading to greater land use conflicts in urban and surrounding areas. Consequently, the quality of habitats will inevitably decline. Therefore, it is crucial to allocate sufficient space for economic development while simultaneously prioritizing ecological protection. This approach will ensure a healthy economic development trajectory and foster a harmonious relationship between humans and the land.

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau area (QTPA) features a unique environment that has witnessed the selective breeding of diverse breeds of domestic livestock, exhibiting remarkable adaptability. Nevertheless, Anaplasma spp., Rickettsia spp., Coxiella spp., and Borrelia spp. represent tick-borne bacterial pathogens that pose a global threat and have substantial impacts on both human and animal health, as well as on the economy of animal husbandry within the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau area. In this study, a total of 428 samples were systematically collected from 20 distinct areas within the Qinghai plateau. The samples included 62 ticks and 366 blood samples obtained from diverse animal species, to detect the presence of Anaplasma spp., Rickettsia spp., Coxiella spp., and Borrelia spp. The prevalence of infection in this study was determined as follows: Anaplasma bovis accounted for 16.4% (70/428), A. capra for 4.7% (20/428), A. ovis for 5.8% (25/428), Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato for 6.3% (27/428), Coxiella burnetii for 0.7% (3/428), and Rickettsia spp. for 0.5% (2/428). Notably, no cases of A. marginale and A. phagocytophilum infections were observed in this study. The findings revealed an elevated presence of these pathogens in Tibetan sheep and goats, with no infections detected in yaks, Bactrian camels, donkeys, and horses. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first investigation of tick-borne bacterial pathogens infecting goats, cattle, horses, and donkeys within the Qinghai plateau of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Area. Consequently, our findings contribute valuable insights into the distribution and genetic diversity of Anaplasma spp., Rickettsia spp., Coxiella spp., and Borrelia spp. within China.

In order to overcome the limitation of the traditional adaptive Unscented Kalman Filtering (UKF) algorithm in noise covariance estimation for statement and measurement, we propose a hybrid adaptive UKF algorithm based on combining Maximum a posteriori (MAP) criterion and Maximum likelihood (ML) criterion, in this paper. First, to prevent the actual noise covariance deviating from the true value which can lead to the state estimation error and arouse the filtering divergence, a real-time covariance matrices estimation algorithm based on hybrid MAP and ML is proposed for obtaining the statement and measurement noises covariance, respectively; and then, a balance equation the two kinds of covariance matrix is structured in this proposed to minimize the statement estimation error. Compared with the UFK based MAP and based ML, the proposed algorithm provides better convergence and stability.

To address the insufficient mechanical properties of calcined phosphogypsum, this research aims to investigate the utilization of basalt fiber and calcium carbonate whiskers as reinforcing agents. The study examines their impact on the flexural and compressive strength, toughness, water resistance, and tensile strength of calcined phosphogypsum. In the individual tests, basalt fibers with different lengths (3 mm, 6 mm, 9 mm, and 18 mm) were added at dosages of 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% respectively. The findings demonstrate that basalt fiber effectively enhances the flexural and compressive strength, toughness, and tensile strength of calcined phosphogypsum, albeit potentially compromising water resistance. Among the various fiber lengths, the 6 mm fibers exhibit the most advantageous influence on the performance of calcined phosphogypsum. A subsequent test was conducted to investigate the impact of cross-scale fibers on the properties of calcined phosphogypsum by mixing 6 mm basalt fibers and calcium carbonate whiskers. The results illustrate that calcium carbonate whisker refines the pores, thereby improving the flexural strength and toughness of calcined phosphogypsum. Furthermore, it compensates for the water resistance limitations associated with the sole utilization of basalt fiber while further augmenting the tensile strength and strain capacity. However, it should be noted that increasing the dosage of both calcium carbonate whiskers and basalt fibers concurrently leads to increased porosity of phosphogypsum and reduced compressive strength.

A space charge density wireless measurement system based on the idea of distributed measurement is proposed for collecting and monitoring the space charge density in an ultra-high-voltage direct-current (UHVDC) environment. The proposed system architecture is composed of a number of wireless nodes connected with space charge density sensors and a base station. The space charge density sensor based on atmospheric ion counter method is elaborated and developed, and the ARM microprocessor and Zigbee radio frequency module are applied. The wireless network communication quality and the relationship between energy consumption and transmission distance in the complicated electromagnetic environment is tested. Based on the experimental results, the proposed measurement system demonstrates that it can adapt to the complex electromagnetic environment under the UHVDC transmission lines and can accurately measure the space charge density.

Microcystis aeruginosa is a common cyanobacteria found in water blooms and often causes ecological harm. Antibiotics are also increasingly used for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections in aquaculture. However, since most antibiotics cannot be fully metabolized, they enter the water environment and cause ecological impacts. In this paper, the effects of the two quinolone antibiotics (enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin) on the population density and microcystins (MCs) production of Microcystis aeruginosa were studied. It is of great significance for the ecological risk assessment of antibiotics to the water environment. The results showed that the 96h EC50 values of enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin to Microcystis aeruginosa were 56.10mg/L and 49.80mg/L respectively, and the toxicity of ciprofloxacin to Microcystis aeruginosa was slightly stronger than that of enrofloxacin. With the increase of the two quinolone antibiotic concentration, the growth inhibition rate (IR) increased, but when the concentration reached a certain height, the IR would reach its threshold. Long-term exposure to low concentrations of these two quinolone antibiotics is not only more likely to lead to the outbreak of Microcystis aeruginosa, but also increase its toxin production capacity. The highest contents of MCs in enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin groups were 95.539 μg/g and 93.720 μg/g, respectively. The MCs value of these three enrofloxacin treatment groups was more than above 51.8 times that of control group (CK) on the 4th day; from 8th day to 14th day, the MCs value of these three enrofloxacin treatment groups was more than above 3.2 times that of CK group. For another ciprofloxacin, the MCs value of the treatment group was more than 64.98 times that of the CK group on the 4th day, and from 8th day to 14th day, the MCs value of the treatment group was more than 2.7 times that of the CK group. These findings provide crucial management rationale.

The genus Lirianthe in the family Magnoliaceae includes approximately 25 species, each with exceptional landscaping and horticultural or medical worth. Many of these plants are considered rare and protected due to their endangered status. The limited knowledge of species within this genus and the absence of research on its chloroplast genome have greatly impeded studies on the relationship between its evolution and systematics. In this study, the chloroplast genomes of 8 species from the genus Lirianthe were sequenced and analyzed, their phylogenetic relationships with other genera of the family Magnoliaceae are also elucidated. The results showed that the chloroplast genome sizes of the 8 Lirianthe species ranged from 159,548 to 159,833 bp. The genomes consisted of a large single copy region, a small single copy region, and a pair of inverted repeat sequences. The GC content was very similar across species. Gene annotation revealed that the chloroplast genomes contained 85 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes, totaling 130 genes. Codon usage analysis indicated that codon usage was highly conserved among the 8 Lirianthe species. Repeat sequence analysis identified 42-49 microsatellite sequences, 16-18 tandem repeats, and 50 dispersed repeats, with microsatellite sequences being predominantly single nucleotide repeats. DNA polymorphism analysis revealed 10 highly variable regions located in the large single copy and small single copy regions, among which rpl32-trnL, petA-psbJ and trnH-psbA are recommended candidate DNA barcodes for the genus Lirianthe species. The inverted repeat boundary regions show little variation between species and are generally conserved. Phylogenetic tree analysis confirmed the monophyly of the genus Lirianthe and its closest relationship with the genera, Talauma and Dugandiodendron. Morphological studies found noticeable differences between Lirianthe species in aspects including leaf indumentum, stipule scars, floral orientation, tepal number, tepal texture, and fruit dehiscence. In summary, this study elucidated the chloroplast genome evolution within Lirianthe and laid a foundation for further systematic and taxonomic research of this genus.

Polysaccharide from Ficus carica L. (FCP) exert multiple biological activities, as a biological macromolecule, the available knowledge about the specific structures and mechanisms of biological activity of purified 'Brunswick' fig polysaccharide is currently limited. In the present study, by chemical purification and characteristics identified via specific instruments, and then the impact of FCP on the immunomodulation activity in vitro and in vivo was examined. Structural char-acteristics showed that the molecular weight of the FCP was determined to be 127.5 kDa, the primary monosaccharides present in the FCP were galacturonic acid (GalA), arabinose (Ara), galactose (Gal), rhamnose (Rha), glucose (Glc), and xylose (Xyl) at a ratio of 0.321:0.287:0.269:0.091:0.013:0.011. Based on the investigation of in vitro immunomodulatory ac-tivity, FCP was found to stimulate the production of NO, TNF-α, and IL-6 and increased the pi-nocytic activity of macrophages. Further analysis revealed that FCP activated macrophages by interacting with toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Moreover, the in vivo test results indicate that FCP showed significant increase serum pro-inflammatory factors in immunosuppressed mice. Overall, this study suggests that FCP has the potential to be utilized as a novel immunomodulator in the pharmaceutical and functional food industries.

In pattern recognition domain, deep architectures are widely used nowadays and they have achieved fine grades. However, these deep architectures need special demands, especially big datasets and GPU. Aiming to gain better grades without deep networks, we propose a simplified algorithm framework using fusion features extracted from the salient areas of faces. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has achieved a better result than some deep architectures. For extracting more effective features, this paper firstly defines the salient areas on the faces. This paper normalizes the salient areas of the same location in the faces to the same size, therefore it can gain more similar features from different subjects. LBP and HOG features are extracted from the salient areas, fusion features’ dimensions are reduced by Principal Component Analysis( PCA) and we apply softmax to classify the six basic expressions at once. This paper proposes a salient areas definitude method which uses peak expressions frames to compare with their neutral faces. This paper also proposes and applies the idea of normalizing the salient areas to align the specific areas which express the different expressions. This makes the salient areas found from different subjects have the same size. Besides, gamma correction method is firstly applied on LBP features in our algorithm framework which improves our recognition rates significantly. By applying this algorithm framework, our research has gained state-of-the-art performances on CK+ database and JAFFE database.

MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) are a class of non-coding single-stranded RNA molecules of approximately 20-24 nucleotides in plants that play an important regulatory role in a variety of biological processes such as plant growth and development and response to various abiotic stresses. For example Drought, Salt, Cold, High temperature, Heavy metals and Nutrition. MiRNAs affect gene expression by manipulating the cleavage, translational expression or DNA methylation of target mRNAs. This review describes the current progress made on the way miRNAs are produced and regulated and the way miRNA/target gene is used in plant responses to abiotic stresses. Studying the molecular mechanism of action of miRNAs downstream target genes can optimize the genetic manipulation of crop growth and development conditions that provide a more theoretical basis for improving crop production.

Stellera chamaejasme L. is a fast-spreading unpalatable poisonous plant that grows in the alpine grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). The impacts of unpalatable plant species spread on animal health and plant community have been well studied, but studies into their effects on belowground organisms and processes are rare. We carried out a soil metabarcoding study using Illumina MiSeq sequencing to investigate whether the soil bacteria and fungi communities of Stellera are different to the soil microbiome of neighboring palatable grass Elymus nutans Griseb. Total carbon and nitrogen, the ratio of carbon to nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, and microbial biomass carbon were all significantly greater in Stellera soil compared to Elymus soil, while no significant differences were observed for gravimetric soil moisture, pH or nitrate nitrogen. There were no significant differences in bacterial and fungal abundance between Stellera and Elymus soil. The bacterial species richness was significantly lower in Stellera soil but no significant difference was observed for fungal species richness. The beta diversity and community composition of bacteria and fungi were markedly different between soils. The presence of bacterial phyla Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, and fungal phyla, Basidiomycota and Glomeromycota, were significantly greater under Stellera soil. This study demonstrated that the spread of undesirable unpalatable plants can potentially disrupt existing plant-soil-microbe associations with potential consequences for grassland soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Cancer is a common illness with a high mortality. Compared to traditional technologies, biomarkers detection, with low cost and simple operation, has higher sensitivity and faster speed in early screening and prognosis of cancer. Therefore, extensive research has been focused on the development of biosensors and the construction of sensing interfaces. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a promising two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial, whose unique adjustable bandgap shows excellent electronic and optical properties in the construction of biosensor interfaces. It not only has the advantages of high catalytic activity and low manufacturing costs, but also can further expand the application of hybrid structures by different functionalization, and is widely used in various biosensors fields. Herein, the application of electrochemical and optical sensing platforms based on MoS2 in the detection of cancer biomarkers was comprehensively reviewed. Firstly, the structure and preparation method of MoS2 were introduced, and its applicable characteristics in the field of biosensors were explored. Secondly, we comprehensively reviewed the recent construction and application of sensing platform based on MoS2 in the field of cancer biomarkers detection in both electrochemical and optical aspects. The prime characteristics and application performances of MoS2 and its composites were emphasized. Additionally, we also involved some other types of biosensors based on MoS2. Finally, we summarized the challenges and development prospects of MoS2 in the application of cancer biomarkers detection, and provided some insights for the application potential of this kind of emerging nano-materials in a broader field.

The production of bio-chemicals requires the use of microbial strains with efficient substrate conversion and excellent environmental robustness, such as Bacillus coagulans spp. So far the genomes of about 50 strains have been sequenced. Herein, we report a comparative genomic analysis of nine strains on the full repertoire of CAZymes, secretion systems, and resistance mechanisms to environmental challenges. Moreover, B. coagulans Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) immune system along with CRISPR-associated Cas) genes, was also analysed. Overall, this study expands our understanding of the strains genomic diversity of B. coagulans to fully exploit its potential in biotechnological applications.

Hemangioblasts give rise to endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which also express the cell surface markers CD133 and C-kit. They may differentiate into the outgrowth endothelial cells (OECs) that control neovascularization in the developing embryo. Reduced levels of EPC in circulation have been linked to human cardiovascular disorders, according to numerous studies. Furthermore, preeclampsia and senescence have been linked to levels of EPCs produced from cord blood. Uncertainties surround how preeclampsia affects the way EPCs function. It is reasonable to speculate that preeclampsia may have an impact on the function of fetal EPCs during the in utero period; however, given the present literature's suggestion that maternal vasculopathies, including preeclampsia, damage fetal circulation. Additionally, the differentiation potential and general activity of EPCs may serve as an indicator of the health of the fetal vascular system since they promote neovascularization and repair during pregnancy. Thus, the purpose of this review is to compare, through assessment of their quantity, differentiation potency, angiogenic activity, and senescence, the angiogenic function of fetal EPCs obtained from cord blood for normal and pregnancy problems. This will shed light on the relationship between the angiogenic function of fetal EPCs and pregnancy complications, which could have an effect on the management of long-term health issues like metabolic and cardiovascular disorders in offspring with abnormal vasculature development.

The intense motion of a ship can greatly impacts the comfort of crew members and the safety of the vessel. Therefore, accurately estimating and predicting ship attitudes has become an important issue. This paper introduces the latest development in functional deep learning model called DeepOnet. It takes wave height as input and ship motion as output, using a cause-to-result prediction approach. The modeling data used in this study is sourced from publicly available experimental data from the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research. Firstly, parameters system tuning was conducted for the neural network's hyperparameters to determine the appropriate combination of parameters. Secondly, the DeepOnet model for wave height and multi-degree-of-freedom motion was established, and the influence of increasing time steps on prediction accuracy was examined. Finally, a comparison was made between the DeepOnet model and the classical time series model LSTM. It was found that the DeepOnet model had a 10-fold improvement in accuracy for roll and heave attitudes. Moreover, as the forecast duration increased, the advantage of DeepOnet showed a trend of strengthening. As a functional prediction model, DeepOnet provides a new promising tool for very short-term prediction of ship motion.

Revealing the spatial distribution mechanism of the coupling effect between soil water and salt is essential for managing saline-alkali farmland. This study utilized the multifractal method to analyze soil water and salt under varying water content levels in arid saline-alkali farmland. Soil samples were collected on the second (S1), fifth (S2), eighth (S3), eleventh (S4), and fourteenth (S5) days after a rainfall event. The findings showed that a significant decrease in soil water content, contrasting with an increase in soil salt content throughout the soil layers post-rainfall. As water content decreased, the spatial variability of soil water initially increased from S1-3 and then decreased, while the spatial variability of soil salt decreased. The spatial distribution between soil water and salt exhibited a high correlation at S3-4 (with relative water content of soil ranging from 0.52 to 0.75) due to their coupling effect. However, soil salt was unevenly leached by rainfall at high water content levels (S1-2) and precipitated at low water content levels (S5), resulting in low spatial variability correlations between soil water and salt. This study elucidated the coupling process of soil water and salt, identifying their spatiotemporal distribution mechanism in dryland agricultural areas.

In typical Cobalt-chromium (CoCr) alloys powders, aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) powder can be added. In the present study, we successfully prepared alloyed samples of various powder ratios by laser cladding, and analyzed their microstructure and carbide structural characteristics, including microhardness, biological properties, morphology (using scanning electron microscopy), and crystal structure (using X-ray powder diffraction). Elemental distribution was also determined by energy-dispersive X-ray spectral analysis. The results showed that Al₂O₃ addition caused the alloy to change from slender columnar crystals to columnar grains similar, to equiaxed grains. In addition, Al₂O₃ agglomeration zones appeared, and carbide structures were altered. The mechanism of the observed performance changes was also analyzed.

Cigarette smoking and air pollution (particulate matter) are recognized as two major etiological factors for lung cancer. Of all the risk factors, cigarette smoking is significantly associated with lung carcinogenesis. The main mechanism lies in the metabolically activated carcinogens (majorly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrosamines), which could covalently bind with DNA molecules and lead to irreversible mutations in pivotal cancer genes, such as TP53 and KRAS. Another major etiological factor for lung cancer is air pollution, which is with complex compositions and ubiquitous in daily life, especially in developing countries as China and India. The latest literatures on lung cancer epidemiology and etiology have been briefly summarized and reviewed in this work.

In high-risk railway construction, personal protective equipment monitoring is critical but challenging due to small and frequently obstructed targets. We propose YOLO-EA, an innovative model that enhances safety measure detection by integrating ECA into its backbone's convolutional layers, improving discernment of minuscule objects like hardhats. YOLO-EA further refines target recognition under occlusion by replacing GIoU with EIoU loss. YOLO-EA's effectiveness was empirically substantiated using a dataset derived from real-world railway construction site surveillance footage. It outperforms YOLOv5, achieving 98.9% precision and 94.7% recall, up 2.5% and 0.5% respectively, while maintaining real-time performance at 70.774 fps. This highly efficient and precise YOLO-EA holds great promise for practical application in intricate construction scenarios, enforcing stringent safety compliance during complex railway construction projects.

This paper studies an effective finite difference scheme for solving two-dimensional Heston stochastic volatility option pricing model problems. A dynamically balanced up-downwind strategy for approximating the cross-derivative is implemented and analyzed. Semi-discretized and spatially nonuniform platforms are utilized. The numerical method comprised is simple, straightforward with reliable first order overall approximations. The spectral norm is used throughout the investigation and numerical stability is proven. Simulation experiments are given to illustrate our results.

Genetic engineering technology offers opportunities to improve many important agronomic traits in crops, including insect-resistance. However, genetically modified (GM) exogenous proteins in edible tissues of transgenic crops has become an issue of intense public concern. To advance the application of GM techniques in maize, a Cre/loxP-based strategy was developed for manipulating the transgenes in green tissues while locking it in non-green tissues. In the strategy, the site-specific excision can be used to switch on or off the expression of transgenes at specific tissues. In this work, two basic transgenic maize named KEY carrying the Cre gene and LOCK containing the Vip3A gene with a blocked element, were obtained based on their separate fusion gene cassettes. The expression level and concentration of Vip3A were observed with high specific accumulation in green tissues (leaf and stem), and only a small amount in root and kernel tissues in the KEY × LOCK hybrids. The insect-resistance of transgenic maize against two common lepidopteran pests, Ostrinia furnacalis and Spodoptera frugiperda, was assessed in the laboratory and field. The results indicated that the hybrids possessed high resistance levels against the two pests, with mortality rates above 73.6% and damage scales below 2.4 compared with the control group. Our results suggested that the Cre/loxP-mediated genetic engineering approach has a competitive advantage in GM maize. Overall, findings from this study are significant for providing a feasible strategy for transgenes avoiding expression in edible parts and exploring novel techniques toward the biosafety of GM plants.