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Objective: Asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) often occur simultaneously, with GERD being a comorbidity of asthma. This study aimed to explore the biological markers related to asthma and GERD by bioinformatics analysis. Methods: Initially, gene expression datasets for asthma and GERD were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and subsequent differential expression analysis yielded 620 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for asthma and 2367 DEGs for GERD. The intersection of these two gene sets yielded a total of 84 DEGs. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses revealed that these genes may be involved in steroid hormone secretion and cellular stress response. Five hub genes (PTGDR2, CPA3, FCER1A, TPSAB1, and IL1RL1) were identified by a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis and topological algorithm. Results: Enrichment analysis results indicated that hub genes may be involved in hormone secretion and disease development, particularly in regulating the renin–angiotensin system and systemic arterial blood pressure. PTGDR2, CPA3, TPSAB1, and IL1RL1 were upregulated in both asthma and GERD patient groups, while FCER1A was upregulated in asthma patients but downregulated in GERD patients. Through drug prediction, 22 drugs targeting hub genes PTGDR2, FCER1A, and TPSAB1 were identified. By constructing a transcription factor (TF)-target gene network, we found that eight TFs may regulate the expression of PTGDR2, FCER1A, and IL1RL1. Conclusion: Hence, Asthma and GERD were related to steroid hormone secretion and the renin–angiotensin system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Ear length (EL) is a key trait that greatly contributes to yield in maize. Although dozens of EL quantitative trait loci have been mapped, very few causal genes have been cloned, and the molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Our previous study showed that YIGE1 is involved in sugar and auxin pathways to regulate ear inflorescence meristem (IM) development and thus affects EL in maize. Here, we reveal that YIGE2, the paralog of YIGE1, regulates maize ear development and EL through auxin pathway. Knockout of YIGE2 causes a significant decrease of auxin level, IM length, floret number, EL, and grain yield. yige1 yige2 double mutants had even shorter IM and ears implying that these two genes redundantly regulate IM development and EL. The genes controlling auxin levels are differential expressed in yige1 yige2 double mutants, leading to lower auxin level. These results elucidated the critical role of YIGE2 and the redundancy between YIGE2 and YIGE1 in maize ear development, providing a new genetic resource for maize yield improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced a high economic growth rate over the last two decades, which has been accompanied by concerns about increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study aims to find out whether renewable energy and agriculture can help reduce CO2 emissions for selected SSA countries. A balanced dataset incorporating CO2 emissions, renewable energy consumption, agricultural land per capita, GDP per capita, urbanization level and energy intensity of 38 SSA countries covering the period 2000–2019 is utilized. The differentiated-generalized method of moments (GMM) is employed as a benchmark estimation method to estimate the effects of renewable energy and agriculture on CO2. The regional heterogeneity analysis of countries at different income levels is then carried out. The moderating role of government governance in the energy-agriculture-environment nexus is also investigated. The following conclusions are highlighted: (1) the consumption of renewable energy can reduce CO2 emissions, while agriculture increases them; (2) the mitigating effect of renewable energy on CO2 emissions is relatively larger in countries at a low income level countries than in high-income countries, while agriculture aggravates CO2 emissions in lower middle-income and low-income regions, but mitigates emissions in upper middle-income regions; and (3) governance quality turns the mitigating role of renewable energy use on CO2 emissions into an increasing one, and exaggerates the polluting effect of agriculture. Finally, the study proposes policy implications for improving renewable energy use and green agricultural growth to achieve sustainable development in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides are devastating natural disasters that seriously threaten human life and property. Landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) plays a key role in landslide hazard management. Machine learning (ML) models are widely used in LSM but suffer from limitations such as overfitting and unreliable accuracy. To improve the classification performance of a single machine learning (ML) model, this study selects logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), and proposes a novel heterogeneous ensemble framework based on Bayesian optimization (BO), namely, stratified weighted averaging (SWA), to test its applicability in a typical landslide area in Yanbian Prefecture, China. Firstly, a dataset consisting of 1531 historical landslides was collected from field investigations and historical records, and a spatial database containing 16 predisposing factors was established. The dataset was divided into a training set and a test set in a ratio of 7:3. The results showed that SWA effectively improved the Accuracy, AUC, and robustness of the model compared to a single ML model. The SWA achieved the best classification results (Accuracy = 91.39% and AUC = 0.967). To verify the generalization ability of SWA, we selected published landslide datasets from Yanshan country and Yongxin country in China for testing. SWA also performed well, with an AUC of 0.871 and 0.860, respectively. As indicated by shapely values (SVs), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the factor that has the greatest impact on landslide occurrence. The landslide susceptibility maps obtained from this study will provide an effective reference program for land use planning and disaster prevention and mitigation projects in Yanbian Prefecture, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The harnessing of heavy atom effect of chalcogen elements offers a way for boosting the thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) of purely organic luminescent materials that can harvest triplet excitons. However, the conformational and electronic variations induced by the heavy and large atoms may also have adverse effects on the TADF properties. Herein, the design, synthesis, and structures of a new type of through‐space charge transfer (TSCT) emitters containing benzothiazino[2,3,4‐kl]phenothiazine (DPTZ) as the donor unit are reported. The influences of S atoms on the emission properties have been systematically investigated by means of theoretical simulations, electrochemical and spectroscopic studies. Although the presence of π‐stacking interactions and calculated spin‐orbit coupling (SOC) values are beneficial for TSCT‐TADF properties, the triplet TSCT states are uplifted to above the locally excited (LE) state of the acceptor moieties. As a result, the new emitters display longer delayed fluorescence lifetimes (τDF) of 255.0–114.3 μs and lower PLQYs of 45–61 % in comparison with the O‐containing congeners (τDF=26.9–6.8 μs; PLQYs=74–71 %). This work highlights that a full consideration of various effects is essential when making use of heavy chalcogen atoms for the design of TADF emitters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purely organic compounds with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) are promising sustainable emitters for organic light‐emitting diodes. But the simultaneous realization of a high efficiency, short lifetime, and good color purity in single TADF molecule remains challenging. Herein it is reported that the confinement of rigid and planar N‐ and B‐centered donor and acceptor in sandwich‐type structures, named BNB‐m and BNB‐p, can lead to green TADF emissions with up to unity efficiency and improved color purity from through‐space charge‐transfer excited states. The full width at half maximum of 58 nm (0.28 eV) for BNB‐m is significantly smaller than those for most of the TADF emitters having a twisted donor‐acceptor structure. Single‐crystal structures, NMR spectroscopy, and theoretical simulations manifest the presence of strong noncovalent π‐stacking interactions in BNB‐m which account for the reduced intramolecular motions and enhanced through‐space electronic coupling. With a relatively short delayed fluorescence lifetime of 11 µs, the emitter BNB‐m demonstrates attractive green electroluminescence with a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 34.9% and an EQE of 27.4% at 1000 cd m−2. This work validates a promising molecular design to TADF emitters which can realize a balanced emission property in terms of color purity and emission lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endowing a chatbot with the capability of specific emotion expression will significantly improve both chatbot’s usability and users’ satisfaction. Recently, many studies on open-domain neural emotional, conversational models (chatbots) have been conducted. However, enabling a chatbot to control what kind of emotion to respond to in conversation explicitly is still under exploration. This paper proposes a novel affective chatbot based on the sequence-to-sequence framework, responding with appropriate emotion like a human. In particular, a new module called single emotion generator is designed in the new chatbot model to address the existing issue of controlling over reacting emotion. It enables the chatbot to select the appropriate emotion for a response when interacting with users. In the decoder, an affective lexicon-based method generates emotion-awareness responses based on the specific emotion controlled by the single emotion generator. The proposed chatbot outperforms mainstream baseline algorithms for both semantic fluency and emotion consistence metrics through experimental evaluation. The experimental results also demonstrate that the new chatbot obtains the ability to control the emotion for response explicitly and responds emotionally with the specific emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian elephant is large herbivorous animal with elongated hindgut. To explore fecal microbial community composition with various ages, sex and diets, and their role in plant biomass degrading and nutrition conversation. We generated 119 Gb by metagenome sequencing from 10 different individual feces and identified 5.3 million non-redundant genes. The comprehensive analysis established that the Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria constituted the most dominant phyla in overall fecal samples. In different individuals, the alpha diversity of the fecal microbiota in female was lower than male, and the alpha diversity of the fecal microbiota in older was higher than younger, and the fecal microbial diversity was the most complex in wild elephant. But the predominant population compositions were similar to each other. Moreover, the newborn infant elephant feces assembled and maintained a diverse but host-specific fecal microbial population. The discovery speculated that Asian elephant maybe have start to building microbial populations before birth. Meanwhile, these results illustrated that host phylogeny, diets, ages and sex are significant factors for fecal microbial community composition. Therefore, we put forward the process of Asian elephant fecal microbial community composition that the dominant populations were built first under the guidance of phylogeny, and then shaped gradually a unique and flexible gut microbial community structure under the influences of diet, age and sex. This study found also that the Bacteroidetes were presumably the main drivers of plant fiber-degradation. A large of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters, and genes related to enediyne biosynthesis were found and showed that the Asian elephant fecal microbiome harbored a diverse and abundant genetic resource. A picture of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) reservoirs of fecal microbiota in Asian elephants was provided. Surprisingly, there was such wide range of ARGs in newborn infant elephant. Further strengthening our speculation that the fetus of Asian elephant has colonized prototypical fecal microbiota before birth. However, it is necessary to point out that the data give a first inside into the gut microbiota of Asian elephants but too few individuals were studied to draw general conclusions for differences among wild and captured elephants, female and male or different ages. Further studies are required. Additionally, the cultured actinomycetes from Asian elephant feces also were investigated, which the feces of Asian elephants could be an important source of actinomycetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haploid induction (HI) is an important tool in crop breeding. Phospholipase A1 (ZmPLA1) /NOT LIKE DAD (NLD) /MATRILINEAL (MTL) is a key gene controlling HI in maize; however, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this study, to dissect why loss of ZmPLA1 function could mediate HI we performed a comprehensive multiple omics analysis of zmpla1 mutant anthers by integrating transcriptome, metabolome, quantitative proteome, and protein modification data. Functional classes of significantly enriched or differentially abundant molecular entities were found to be associated with the oxidative stress response, suggesting that a reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst plays a critical role in HI. In support of this, we further discovered that a simple chemical treatment of pollen with ROS reagents could lead to HI. Moreover, we identified ZmPOD65 , which encodes a sperm-specific peroxidase, as a new gene controlling HI. Taken together, our study revealed a likely mechanism of HI, discovered a new gene controlling HI, and created a new method for HI in maize, indicating the importance of ROS balance in maintaining normal reproduction and providing a potential route to accelerate crop breeding. Reactive oxygen species production triggered by phosphatidylcholine was revealed as a central factor for ZmPLA1 / MTL / NLD -derived haploid induction. Both the mutation in ZmPOD65 , encoding a sperm-specific peroxidase, and treatment of pollens with ROS reagents could lead to haploid induction in maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Generating chromosome-scale haplotype resolved assembly is important for functional studies. However, current de novo assemblers are either haploid assemblers that discard allelic information, or diploid assemblers that can only tackle genomes of low complexity. Results: Here, Using robust programs, we build a diploid genome assembly pipeline called gcaPDA (gamete cells assisted Phased Diploid Assembler), which exploits haploid gamete cells to assist in resolving haplotypes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of gcaPDA based on simulated HiFi reads of maize genome which is highly heterozygous and repetitive, and real data from rice. Conclusions: With applicability of coping with complex genomes and fewer restrictions on application than most of diploid assemblers, gcaPDA is likely to find broad applications in studies of eukaryotic genomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outburst prediction during coal roadway excavation, which is characterized by multiple prediction numbers and rapid cyclic construction, is a key link of outburst prediction in coal mines. This study is aimed at accurately predicting the outburst risk of coal roadway working face by the initial gas emission from boreholes (IGEB) indicator in the field. First, a theoretical calculation model for gas emissions from drill cuttings and borehole wall was established. Based on this model, it is concluded that the drilling speed significantly influences the critical value of IGEB for outburst prediction. Furthermore, the IGEB per meter was experimentally investigated at different drilling speeds and under different gas pressures with the aid of a self-developed IGEB outburst prediction device. The investigation results show that the value of IGEB is linearly correlated with the gas pressure at the same drilling speed, and it is also linearly correlated with the drilling speed. Besides, the values and critical values of IGEB at different drilling speeds were normalized to the values at the standard drilling speed, for the purpose of eliminating the influence of drilling speed on the determination of the critical value of IGEB for outburst prediction. Finally, a field test was carried out on the 3# coal seam of Xinjing Coal Mine, and a good application effect was achieved in the field test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) typically suffer from a negative effect of the residual solvent on the performance due to the use of the solvent processing additive. One solution to solve this problem is to use a solid polymer additive that can promote the phase separation of the blend film of the active layers. In this work, two new D−A type photovoltaic polymers, namely PIT‐DTBT and PIT‐DTffBT, based on asymmetric indenothiophene (IT) donor unit and nonfluorinated or difluorinated benzothiadiazole acceptor unit were designed and synthesized, respectively. Then a triblock copolymer, poly(styrene‐block‐butadiene‐block‐styrene) (SBS), was employed as a polymer additive into the active layers of PIT‐DTBT/PC71BM and PIT‐DTffBT/PC71BM based devices, and the SBS effect on the morphology of the blend films of the active layers, and then the performance of the two kinds of devices was investigated. The results demonstrated that the addition of SBS improved the molecule packing and induced the crystallization of PIT‐DTffBT, making the device have higher charge mobilities, more efficient charge dissociation and collection, and less charge recombination. Thus, power conversion efficiency (PCE) was increased from 4.61 % to 6.57 % for PIT‐DTffBT based device. Although almost no improvement in molecule packing and crystallization was observed for SBS‐treated nonfluorinated PIT‐DTBT, the fact of PCE of the PIT‐DTBT based device increased from 2.94 % to 3.13 % can also be attributed to the improved phase separation of the blend film by SBS. These findings indicate that SBS is more sensitive to fluorinated polymers than nonfluorinated polymers in improving molecule packing and inducing crystallization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strain YIM 102744-1T was isolated from Rhinopithecus roxellanae fecal sample collected at Yunnan Wild Animal Park, Yunnan province, PR China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and irregular rods. Optimal growth occurred in the presence of 0–1.0% (w/v) NaCl, at pH 7.0–8.0, and at 30 °C. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-10. The major cellular fatty acids (> 10.0%) were C18:1ω7c and C16:1ω7c/C16:1ω6c. The dominant polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine. The DNA G + C content was 62.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that YIM 102744-1T belonged to the family Rhodobacteraceae and shared the highest similarity with the type strain Gemmobacter intermedius 119/4T (96.6%). In addition, phylogenetic trees indicated that strain YIM 102744-1T formed a distinct clade together with the closest relative G. intermedius 119/4T. Based on the results of polyphasic taxonomic analysis, strain YIM 102744-1T is considered to represent a novel species within a new genus Falsigemmobacter, for which the name Falsigemmobacter faecalis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Falsigemmobacter faecalis is YIM 102744-1T(= KCTC 52106T = CCTCC AB 2016031T). Because Gemmobacter intermedius 119/4T formed a branch with YIM 102744-1 in the phylogenetic trees and was clearly separated from the other members within the genus Gemmobacter, it is also proposed to transfer into the genus Falsigemmobacter as Falsigemmobacter intermedius comb. nov. (type strain 119/4T = CIP 110795T = LMG 28215T = CCM 8510T). The type species of the genus Falsigemmobacter is Falsigemmobacter intermedius gen. nov., comb. nov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel bacterial strain, designated YIM 132548 T, was isolated from Lepraria sp. lichen collected from Yunnan province, south-west PR China. The organism was Gram-stain negative, aerobic and methylotrophic. The cell was catalase positive and oxidase negative, asporogenous, rod-shaped and motile with three polar flagella. The strain could grow at 15–30 °C (optimum, 20 °C), at pH 6.0–9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and does not grow in the presence of NaCl. According to the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain YIM 132548 T showed high levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Methylobacterium soli YIM 48816 T (97.6%) and Methylobacterium durans NBRC 112876 T (97.3%), less than 97.0% with other validly named type strains of the genus Methylobacterium. Ubiquinone Q-10 was the predominant respiratory ubiquinone. The predominant cellular fatty acid was identified as summed feature 8 (C18:1ω7c). The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine. The DNA G + C content of the draft genome sequence is 70.2 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridizations values of strain YIM 132548 T with M. soli YIM 48816 T and M. durans NBRC 112876 T were 87.0% and 82.0%, 40.6% and 27.2% based on draft genome sequences, respectively. On the basis of phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and genomic data, strain YIM 132548 T is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Methylobacterium, for which the name Methylobacterium planium sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 132548 T (= CGMCC 1.17323 T = NBRC 114056 T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ensure the intactness of pressure-measuring boreholes and the accuracy of gas pressure determination, pregrouting treatment with polymer materials is frequently applied to bedding drilling in coal mines. However, the existing polyurethane materials are of high viscosity, low permeability, and poor safety, bringing great difficulties to their field promotion and application. In view of this problem, after optimization and experiments, polylactide polyol/polyether polyol 4110/isocyanate was determined as the target system. Bio-based benzoxazine (Boz-F), red phosphorus, and melamine with a mass ratio of 2 : 1 : 2 were used as the flame retardant, which then underwent mechanical modification by hollow glass bubbles. Finally, the pregrouting material with low viscosity and high permeability was compounded, and its interaction with coal was experimentally studied. The results show that compared with traditional polyurethane, the new material increases the effective consolidation distance in the coal seam by 40% on average. Its permeation radius is also larger than the calculated radius of the plastic softening zone of a borehole. In addition, the strengths of coal-new material consolidated products with different ratios fully surpass those of coal-polyurethane material consolidated products. The enhancement of compressive strength and bending strength is up to 153% and 161%, respectively. The field application indicates that after pregrouting treatment of boreholes in the coal seam with the new material, the borehole formation rate reaches 100%. Therefore, the new material is safe and practical for gas pressure measurement through bedding drilling on site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before uncovering an outburst coal seam in crosscut and shaft, it is necessary to detect the effect of outburst prevention measure applied to the seam, which is a key step and the last link for ensuring the safety of coal miners. However, in the working face where outburst prevention measures have been taken, the large number of densely arranged discharge boreholes, as well as the difficulty in sealing pressure-measuring boreholes, makes it extremely hard to accurately detect the effect of the measure. In order to solve this problem, this paper studied the relationship between the initial rate of gas emission from the borehole (IRGEB) and the outburst danger through carrying out experiments on a self-designed oblong simulation device of outburst coal seam and a detection device of IRGEB. In addition, it proposed a method of testing the prevention effect using the initial volume of gas emission from the borehole (IVGEB) per unit length which actually refers to the time integral of IRGEB per meter. The experimental results show that IVGEB grows with the increase of outburst danger, but its critical value varies with the types of coal seams and gasses. As a result, it may take over 20 days to get the critical value of outburst detection of a specific coal seam. For this reason, this paper presented a simplified method of determining the critical value of IVGEB per unit length. When this method is applied, the total time taken up can be enormously reduced to shorter than 4 h just by drilling another borehole for measuring the IVGEB. The field application results indicate that the method can quickly detect whether outburst danger has been locally eliminated. Hence, it can be regarded as a very applicable method for the rapid detection of outburst prevention effect before coal uncovering in crosscut and shaft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aurantiadioic acids A (1) and B (2), two new furan-containing polyketides, and aurantoic acid A (3), a new natural product, were isolated from the liquid fermentation of the sika deer dung-derived actinomycete Actinocorallia aurantiaca. The structures of the new compounds were established by extensive spectroscopic methods, including 1D & 2D NMR, HRESIMS spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configuration of 3 was assigned by comparison of the specific optical rotations with the reported derivatives. Biological activity evaluations suggested that compounds 1–3 showed weak inhibition on NO production in the murine monocytic RAW 264.7 macrophages with IC50 values of 35.8, 41.8, 45.2 μM, respectively. Compound 3 showed weak inhibition on influenza A virus (A/PuertoRico/8/1934, H1N1) with an EC50 value of 35.9 μM, and a selective index higher than 13.3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strains YIM 102796T and YIM 102701-2T were isolated from the feces of Macaca mulatta and Hylobates hoolock, respectively, living in the Yunnan Wild Animal Park, Yunnan province of China. The two strains were Gram-stain-negative, non-gliding, produced flexirubin pigments, non-flagellated and aerobic bacteria. The 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analysis indicate that both YIM 102796T and YIM 102701-2T are members of the genus Flavobacterium, closely related to F. ummariense DS-12T (95.9% similarity) and F. ceti 454-2T (93.8% similarity), respectively. The two strains shared 95.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between the two strains were 76.5% and 22.9%, respectively, indicating that they are separate species. DNA G+C contents of YIM 102796T and YIM 102701-2T were 32.3 mol% and 34.0 mol%, respectively. Strains are able to grow at 4–37 °C, at pH 7.0–8.0 and in 0–2% (w/v) NaCl. Predominant fatty acid constituents (>7 %) were iso-C15:0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c) and summed feature 9 (iso-C17:1ω9c and/or 10-methylC16:0). Menaquinone 6 is major respiratory quinone. The predominant polar lipids were very similar to each other, comprising phosphatidylethanolamine, and multiple unknown aminolipids and unidentified polar lipids, and an unidentified aminophospholipid. On the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic distinctiveness, it is suggested that the two strains represent two novel Flavobacterium species with strain YIM 102796T (=KCTC 52101T=CCTCC AB 2016015T) as the type strain of Flavobacterium viscosus sp. nov. and strain YIM 102701-2T (=KCTC 52100T=CCTCC AB 2016028T) as the type strain of Flavobacterium tangerina sp. nov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fracture patterns of brittle materials in different stress loading modes are different. In order to study the fracture characteristics of brittle materials under confining pressure, in this study, both uniaxial compression tests and loading confining pressure tests were conducted on three concrete samples of different strengths, respectively. Meanwhile, the failure process of the samples during the loading of confining pressure was monitored using an acoustic wave tester; finally, the failure characteristics of the concrete samples were further investigated on a mesoscopic level by carrying out numerical simulations. The test results show that different failure modes were revealed in the concrete samples subjected to uniaxial compression: The failure initially started at both ends and then gradually extended to the middle part along the longitudinal direction; eventually, splitting failure, single inclined plane shear failure and conjugated inclined plane shear failure occurred. However, as the confining pressure was loaded, the samples failed merely in a simple mode, that is, the fractures occurred around the middle parts of the samples, perpendicular to the specimens axis. According to the acoustic measurements, the local failure processes before fracturing under confining pressure were consistent with those under uniaxial compression. The simulation results suggest that the failure initially started inside the samples due to the effects of longitudinal tensile stress under confining pressure, and then, it gradually extended to both sides along the lateral direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we propose a set of rapid prediction technologies for the outburst risk of coal uncovering in crosscuts and shafts (CUCS). These technologies are needed because of the ideal model to uncover coal in crosscuts and the law that coal seam outburst intensity increases as the initial expansion energy of released gas (IEERG) increases. Our technologies include rapid coal seam gas pressure determination under complex geological conditions, complete coal-core coring and the IEERG measurement. We successfully applied these technologies in the Panyi Coal Mine in Huainan. The field application results demonstrated that these technologies could accurately and rapidly measure coal seam gas pressure, greatly minimize human damages to coal samples in the coal coring process, and accurately predict outburst risks in CUCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lichens are structured associations of a fungus with a cyanobacteria and/or green algae in a symbiotic relationship, which provide specific habitats for diverse bacterial communities, including actinomycetes. However, few studies have been performed on the phylogenetic relationships and biosynthetic potential of actinomycetes across lichen species. In the present study, a total of 213 actinomycetes strains were isolated from 35 lichen samples (22 lichen genera) collected in Yunnan Province, China. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed an unexpected level of diversity among these isolates, which were distributed into 38 genera, 19 families, and 9 orders within the Actinobacteria phylum. The detailed taxa of isolates had no clear relationship to the taxonomic affiliations of the associated lichens. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to describe the isolation of Actinophytocola, Angustibacter, Herbiconiux, Kibdelosporangium, Kineosporia, Kitasatospora, Nakamurella, Nonomuraea, Labedella, Lechevalieria, Lentzea, Schumannella, and Umezawaea species from lichens. At least 40 isolates (18.78%) are likely to represent novel actinomycetes taxa within 15 genera. In addition, all 213 isolates were tested for antimicrobial activity and screened for genes associated with secondary metabolite production to evaluate their biosynthetic potential. These results demonstrate that the lichens of Yunnan Province represent an extremely rich reservoir for the isolation of a significant diversity of actinomycetes, including novel species, which are potential source for discovering biologically active compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of coal and gas outbursts can be predicted using a method that is linear and continuous and based on the initial gas flow in the borehole (IGFB); this method is significantly superior to the traditional point prediction method. Acquiring accurate critical values is the key to ensuring accurate predictions. Based on ideal rock cross-cut coal uncovering model, the IGFB measurement device was developed. The present study measured the data of the initial gas flow over 3 min in a 1 m long borehole with a diameter of 42 mm in the laboratory. A total of 48 sets of data were obtained. These data were fuzzy and chaotic. Fisher’s discrimination method was able to transform these spatial data, which were multidimensional due to the factors influencing the IGFB, into a one-dimensional function and determine its critical value. Then, by processing the data into a normal distribution, the critical values of the outbursts were analyzed using linear discriminant analysis with Fisher’s criterion. The weak and strong outbursts had critical values of 36.63 L and 80.85 L, respectively, and the accuracy of the back-discriminant analysis for the weak and strong outbursts was 94.74% and 92.86%, respectively. Eight outburst tests were simulated in the laboratory, the reverse verification accuracy was 100%, and the accuracy of the critical value was verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel halotolerant actinomycete, designated strain AFM 10238, was isolated from a sediment sample collected from the Dead Sea of Israel. The isolate grew at 15-45 °C, pH 6-12 and with 0-15 % (w/v) NaCl. Strain AFM 10238 contains meso-diaminopimelic acid as cell wall diamino acid, and galactose and arabinose as the whole cell sugars. The major polar lipids are phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, and diphosphatidylglycerol. Major fatty acids are iso-C, iso-C, iso-C, anteiso-C and C ω8 c. MK-9(H) is the predominant menaquinone and the DNA G + C content is 72.7 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain AFM10238 belongs to the genus Saccharopolyspora. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain AFM 10238 and its close neighbours, Saccharopolyspora halophila YIM 90500 , Saccharopolyspora spinosa DSM 44228, Saccharopolyspora dendranthemae KLBMP 1305 and Saccharopolyspora cebuensis DSM 45019 were 98.2, 97.2, 97.1 and 97.0 %, respectively. Sequence similarities to other type strains of this genus were below 97 %. DNA-DNA relatedness data, together with phenotypic and chemotaxonomic differences, clearly distinguished the isolate from its close neighbours. On the basis of the data from this polyphasic analysis, a novel species Saccharopolyspora griseoalba sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AFM 10238 (= DSM 46,663 = CGMCC 4.7124). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the proposed identification model for the outburst of coal and gas. Topics include the experiments carried to obtain the threshold of the initial expansion energy of released gas (IEERG) indicator, the mechanical conditions which must be met by occurrence of coal and gas outburst, and the potential for the gas in soft coal to transport through the cracks of the barrier layer.

For the purpose of investigating the turbulent and spatial coherent characteristics of strong wind during typhoon landing period, two 3-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer stations were set up 30 m horizontally apart on the Macao Friendship Bridge to caputure the turbulent wind velocities of Typhoon Nuri. Based on the reliable and representative field measured data, the mean wind speed and direction, turbulence intensity, turbulence integral scale, turbulence power spectra, spatial correlation coefficient and coherence function were statistically evaluated. The field measurement analysis have presented the following results: 1) Two anemometer stations provided consistent results. The mean wind speed variation in time domain presented typical M-shape curves. The strong wind (10-minute mean wind speed higher than 8 grade in Beaufort wind scale) direction changed in a big range up to 122-degrees-angle, indicating the field measurements scoped over the typhoon landing period. 2) The ratio of the longitudinal, lateral and vertical turbulence intensities of the strong wind in the typhoon eye wall region was 1:0.96:0.36. Compared with the code defined ratio 1:0.88:0.5, the lateral component was larger and the vertical component was smaller. 3) The value of integral scale increased when the eye wall of Typhoon Nuri passed over the field measurement site. Before the center of Typhoon Nuri arrived, the integral scale of the strong typhoon wind was about twice compared with that for the non-typhoon wind. 4) The spatial correlation of the turbulent wind, coherence function curve and the decay factor had significant differences at different times during the typhoon process. In the eye wall of the typhoon, the horizontal spatial correlation was relatively strong and horizontally spatial correlation spectrum decayed slower with frequency increase. The minimum regressed coefficient C in coherence function model was 4.67, which is lower than the code defined low limit. The maximum decay factor was 27.75 which is larger than the code defined upper bound. The strong wind characteristic parameters of Typhoon Nuri mentioned above partly represented the turbulent and spatial coherent characteristic during strong typhoon wind period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new cyclohexenone derivatives, 4 β,5 α-dihydroxy-2,5 β-dimethylcyclohex-2-enone ( 1) and its isomer, 4 α,5 α-dihydroxy-2,5 β-dimethylcyclohex-2-enone ( 2), were isolated from a novel actinobacterium, Enteractinococcus coprophilus, obtained from Panthera tigris amoyensis feces. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR as well as MS, IR, and UV spectroscopic data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The law of gas initial desorption from coals is greatly important for understanding the occurrence mechanism and predicting coal and gas outburst (hereinafter referred to as 'outburst'). However, dynamic characterization of gas initial desorption remains to be investigated. In this study, by monitoring the gas pressure and temperature of tectonically deformed (TD) coal and primary-undeformed (PU) coal, we established the evolution laws of gas key parameters during the initial desorption. The results indicate that the gas pressure drop rate, mass flow rate, initial desorption rate, and gas velocity increase with increasing gas pressure, with stronger gas dynamic effect, generating a high pressure gradient on the coal surface. Under the same gas pressure, the pressure gradient formed on the TD coal surface is greater than that formed on the surface of the PU coal, resulting in easily initiating an outburst in the TD coal. Moreover, the increased gas pressure increases temperature change rates (falling rate and rising rate) of coal mass. The minimum and final stable temperatures in the TD coal are generally lower compared to the PU coal. The releasing process of gas expansion energy can be divided into two stages exhibiting two peaks which increase as gas pressure increases. The two peak values for the TD coal both are about 2–3 times of those of the PU coal. In addition, the total gas expansion energy released by TD coal is far greater than that released by PU coal. The two peaks and the total values of gas expansion energy also prove that the damage of gas pressure to coal mass increases with the increased pressure, more likely producing pulverized coals and more prone to initiate an outburst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]