Search

Survival prediction based on whole slide images (WSIs) is a challenging task for patient-level multiple instance learning (MIL). Due to the vast amount of data for a patient (one or multiple gigapixels WSIs) and the irregularly shaped property of WSI, it is difficult to fully explore spatial, contextual, and hierarchical interaction in the patient-level bag. Many studies adopt random sampling pre-processing strategy and WSI-level aggregation models, which inevitably lose critical prognostic information in the patient-level bag. In this work, we propose a hierarchical vision Transformer framework named HVTSurv, which can encode the local-level relative spatial information, strengthen WSI-level context-aware communication, and establish patient-level hierarchical interaction. Firstly, we design a feature pre-processing strategy, including feature rearrangement and random window masking. Then, we devise three layers to progressively obtain patient-level representation, including a local-level interaction layer adopting Manhattan distance, a WSI-level interaction layer employing spatial shuffle, and a patient-level interaction layer using attention pooling. Moreover, the design of hierarchical network helps the model become more computationally efficient. Finally, we validate HVTSurv with 3,104 patients and 3,752 WSIs across 6 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The average C-Index is 2.50-11.30% higher than all the prior weakly supervised methods over 6 TCGA datasets. Ablation study and attention visualization further verify the superiority of the proposed HVTSurv. Implementation is available at: https://github.com/szc19990412/HVTSurv., accepted by AAAI 2023

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the ELANE (Elastase, Neutrophil Expressed) gene are associated with severe congenital neutropenia, while the ELANE gene provides instructions for making a protein called neutrophil elastase. We identified disease susceptibility single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ELANE gene using several computational tools. We used cutting-edge computational techniques to investigate the effects of ELANE mutations on the sequence and structure of the protein. Our study suggested that eight nsSNPs (rs28931611, rs57246956, rs137854448, rs193141883, rs201723157, rs201139487, rs137854451, and rs200384291) are the most deleterious in ELANE gene and disturb protein structure and function. The mutants F218L, R34W, G203S, R193W, and T175M have not yet been identified in patients suffering from SCN and cyclic hematopoiesis, while C71Y, P139R, C151Y, G214R, and G203C reported in our study are already associated with both of the disorders. These mutations are shown to destabilize structure and disrupt ELANE protein activation, splicing, and folding and might diminish trypsin-like serine protease efficiency. Prediction of posttranslation modifications highlighted the significance of deleterious nsSNPs because some of nsSNPs affect potential phosphorylation sites. Gene-gene interactions showed the relation of ELANE with other genes depicting its importance in numerous pathways and coexpressions. We identified the deleterious nsSNPs, constructed mutant protein structures, and evaluated the impact of mutation by employing molecular docking. This research sheds light on how ELANE failure upon mutation results in disease progression, including congenital neutropenia, and validation of these novel predicted nsSNPs is required through the wet lab. © 2022 Khyber Shinwari et al. Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, UB RAS: AAAAA-A21- 121012090091-6 The work was carried out in accordance with the state order of the Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, AAAAA-A21- 121012090091-6.

Domestic geese can reduce the amount of food intake when brooding. Because of the reduction in food intake, the total number of microorganisms in the gut is also reduced. Will this affect the goose’s thinking and make the goose stop brooding and eat food? We hypothesize that gut microbiota affects the brain through a brain–gut peptide and further regulates the breeding behavior of geese. In this study, we evaluated the microbiome related to the goose and transcription groups of brooding and egg production periods. The changes and differences in gut microbiota and gene expression of female geese in different reproduction periods were analyzed, and the possible interaction between them was explored. The results showed that the relative abundance of Faecalibacterium with a growth-promoting effect in the cecum was higher in the egg production group than in the brooding group. Microbial metabolic pathways with significant differences between the two groups were also enriched in the secondary functional groups with different gut microbiota metabolism. The downregulated genes in the egg production group were mainly related to energy metabolism, such as ATP synthesis-related genes. These results suggest that the brooding group’s gut microbiota can make relevant changes according to the reproduction stage of the goose. Since the amount of food taken in is reduced, it can promote the decomposition of the host’s fat. Simultaneously, insulin is also used to deliver messages to the brain; it is necessary to end the brooding behavior at an appropriate time and for eating to start.

Agroforestry system has been considered as an efficient solution to reconcile land use conflicts by tree-crop interaction and supplement. However, the water productivity, tradeoffs, and water-use portfolios of farm diversification in agroforestry combination with tree and/or crop monocultures are still missing, especially in arid water shortage regions. Based on portfolio theory and farmer perception, this study integrates experimental data, meteorological parameters, farmers questionnaire, and yields and prices to assess water use efficiencies, economic return-risk tradeoffs, and portfolio optimizations of diversification farm systems in Moyu oasis of Northwest China. Results show that all the planting layouts of agroforestry systems provide a better economic income than the combination in mixing agroforestry and monocultures in water-use tradeoffs using Sharp ratio. Moreover, allocating part farm area to the nut/fruit trees can increase economic water-use return compared to more crop cultivations, providing a good complement to farm income. The Sharpe ratios of the walnut/wheat, walnut/maize, and walnut/alfalfa intercropping for 23.70%, 15.71%, and 60.60% give the highest economic water-use return compared to the other planting layouts. Nevertheless, according to the minimum risk portfolio and risk-averse farmers’ preference, the combination of the walnut/wheat, walnut/maize, and walnut/alfalfa intercropping and monocultures of jujube and apricot (the ratios of 32.01%, 27.63%, 8.11%, 9.81 and 22.45%) is recommended to use for planting layout in the study area. It is concluded that the combination with nut/fruit-crop agroforestry and sole nut/fruit tree is a financially efficient diversification strategy to improve the water use efficiency and economic tradeoffs in arid water shortage regions.

Powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), is a devastating fungal disease that seriously damages the yield and quality of wheat in many regions of the world. Identifying new resistance genes and breeding new resistant varieties are effective methods to control this disease. The breeding line SN15218 shows good resistance against powdery mildew. We, therefore, developed an F2 population and 287 F2:3 families crossed between SN15218 and the powdery mildew susceptible cultivar Huixianhong (HXH). Genetic analysis indicated that a single dominant gene, designated herein PmSN15218, conferred resistance to the Bgt isolate E09 in SN15218. Bulked segregant RNA-Seq (BSR-Seq) analysis revealed that PmSN15218 is located in a ∼25-Mb interval on chromosome 2AL. Using the polymorphism information between SN15218 and HXH, we developed 13 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) markers and mapped this gene to a 0.5-cM genetic interval between the two flanking markers PmM12 and PmM14, corresponding to a 6.01-Mb physical region in the Chinese Spring reference genome. The results of molecular marker analysis, allelic tests of resistance spectrum, and DNA resequencing indicated that PmSN15218 is distinct from the known resistance gene Pm4b on 2AL.

Graph embedding based retrieval has become one of the most popular techniques in the information retrieval community and search engine industry. The classical paradigm mainly relies on the flat Euclidean geometry. In recent years, hyperbolic (negative curvature) and spherical (positive curvature) representation methods have shown their superiority to capture hierarchical and cyclic data structures respectively. However, in industrial scenarios such as e-commerce sponsored search platforms, the large-scale heterogeneous query-item-advertisement interaction graphs often have multiple structures coexisting. Existing methods either only consider a single geometry space, or combine several spaces manually, which are incapable and inflexible to model the complexity and heterogeneity in the real scenario. To tackle this challenge, we present a web-scale Adaptive Mixed-Curvature ADvertisement retrieval system (AMCAD) to automatically capture the complex and heterogeneous graph structures in non-Euclidean spaces. Specifically, entities are represented in adaptive mixed-curvature spaces, where the types and curvatures of the subspaces are trained to be optimal combinations. Besides, an attentive edge-wise space projector is designed to model the similarities between heterogeneous nodes according to local graph structures and the relation types. Moreover, to deploy AMCAD in Taobao, one of the largest ecommerce platforms with hundreds of million users, we design an efficient two-layer online retrieval framework for the task of graph based advertisement retrieval. Extensive evaluations on real-world datasets and A/B tests on online traffic are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed system., Comment: To appear in ICDE 2022

Alleviating the delayed feedback problem is of crucial importance for the conversion rate(CVR) prediction in online advertising. Previous delayed feedback modeling methods using an observation window to balance the trade-off between waiting for accurate labels and consuming fresh feedback. Moreover, to estimate CVR upon the freshly observed but biased distribution with fake negatives, the importance sampling is widely used to reduce the distribution bias. While effective, we argue that previous approaches falsely treat fake negative samples as real negative during the importance weighting and have not fully utilized the observed positive samples, leading to suboptimal performance. In this work, we propose a new method, DElayed Feedback modeling with UnbiaSed Estimation, (DEFUSE), which aim to respectively correct the importance weights of the immediate positive, the fake negative, the real negative, and the delay positive samples at finer granularity. Specifically, we propose a two-step optimization approach that first infers the probability of fake negatives among observed negatives before applying importance sampling. To fully exploit the ground-truth immediate positives from the observed distribution, we further develop a bi-distribution modeling framework to jointly model the unbiased immediate positives and the biased delay conversions. Experimental results on both public and our industrial datasets validate the superiority of DEFUSE. Codes are available at https://github.com/ychen216/DEFUSE.git., This paper has been accepted by WWW 2022

Al-Mg-Si (AA6xxx) series alloys have been used widely in automotive industry for lightweight purpose. This work focuses on developing a short process for manufacturing Al-0.5Mg-1.3Si (wt.%) alloy sheets with good mechanical properties. Hereinto, a preparation route without homogenization was proposed on the basis of sub-rapid solidification (SRS) technique. The sample under SRS has fine microstructure and higher average partition coefficients of solute atoms, leading to weaker microsegregation owing to the higher cooling rate (160 °C/s) than conventional solidification (CS, 30 °C/s). Besides, Mg atoms tend to be trapped in Al matrix under SRS, inducing suppression of Mg2Si, and promoting generation of AlFeSi phase. After being solution heat treated (T4 state), samples following the SRS route have lower yield strength compared with that by CS route, indicating better formability in SRS sample. After undergoing pre-strain and artificial aging (T6 state), the SRS samples have comparable yield strength to CS samples, satisfying the service requirements. This work provides technological support to industrially manufacture high performance AA6xxx series alloys with competitive advantage by a novel, short and low-cost process, and open a door for the further development of twin-roll casting based on SRS technique in industries.

Goose is a seasonal breeding animal. Its reproduction is regulated by hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis and also affected by environmental factors such as light and location. Zi-goose is characterized with long egg-laying period and high egg-laying potential and belongs to the long-day type of seasonal breeding. In this study, the regulation mechanism of different lighting on reproductive performance of Zi-goose by using metabonomics analysis technology. In addition, 1,481 differential metabolites were screened out totally. 583 differential metabolites were identification in hypothalamus of Zi-goose. 196 differential metabolites were identification in pituitary of Zi-goose. 692 differential metabolites were identification in ovary of Zi-goose. Under red light condition for 12 h, expression of 433 differential metabolites were down-regulated and expression of 150 differential metabolites were up regulated in hypothalamus of Zi-goose, expression of 125 differential metabolites were down-regulated and expression of 71 differential metabolites were up-regulated in pituitary of Zi-goose, expression of 355 differential metabolites were down-regulated and expression of 337 differential metabolites were up-regulated in ovary of Zi-goose. 33 differential metabolites were closely associated with 1,264 transcripts and 400 homologous genes of related enzymes in hypothalamus of Zi-goose. 15 differential metabolites were closely associated with 163 transcripts and 47 homologous genes of related enzymes in pituitary of Zi-goose. 55 differential metabolites were closely associated with 1,255 transcripts and 360 homologous genes of related enzymes in ovary of Zi-goose. It was confirmed that four metabolic pathways were closely related to light regulation of reproductive performance of Zi-goose, namely GnRH signaling pathway, prolactin signaling pathway, thyroid hormone synthesis and ovarian steroidogenesis. Typical differential metabolites of arachidonic acid, glucose-6-phosphate, progesterone, glutathione, oxidized glutathione, testosterone, deoxyepiandrosterone and their related protein genes would play an important role in light regulation of reproductive performance of Zi-goose.

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-pic-10.1177_09544062211070502 for Controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles using an acoustofluidic micromixer based on ultrasonic vibration by Guojun Liu, Meng Wang, Duanyi Zhu, Qiang Liu, Luntao Dong, Conghui Wang, Xinbo Li and Xiaodong Sun in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-pic-10.1177_09544062211070502 for Controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles using an acoustofluidic micromixer based on ultrasonic vibration by Guojun Liu, Meng Wang, Duanyi Zhu, Qiang Liu, Luntao Dong, Conghui Wang, Xinbo Li and Xiaodong Sun in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the

Background The long-standing paradigm is that almost all BSIs stem from a single, clonal organism (“single-organism” hypothesis). We hypothesized that CG-positive BCs were comprised of genetically diverse strain variants. Methods Five to ten CG colonies were isolated from positive BC bottles from ten distinct patients (pts) for a total of 94 clones, which underwent NextGen short-read sequencing (Illumina). Variants were analyzed using SNPeff, and a phylogeny was constructed with Maximum Likelihood method. Results BCs harbored a diverse population of CG strains that were unique to each pt [Fig. 1]. All strains were genetically distinct, differing by unique SNPs and insertions-deletions (indels) [Fig. 2-3]. SNPs were ~8-fold more common than indels. Individual genomes from the same time point in the same pt exhibited consistent magnitude of variations relative to reference genome; however, variations were unique, pointing to significant genomic variability that could be both intra- and interclonal. The number of variant sites for within-pt pairwise clone comparisons ranged from 1924-8500. There were 124,145 variant sites when all clones are compared. Roughly half of all SNPs were identical in different samples from a given pt; the remainder were present/absent in at least one sample per pt. Long-read WGS revealed strains with structural variants in each pt, including chromosomal recombinations and gene duplications that were not evident by short-read WGS. A genomic phylogeny construction showed that 94 clones spanned 3 distinct clades that were distinct from the reference strain. Finally, comparison of non-synonymous mutations among intra-pt clones showed overwhelming overrepresentation of adhesin and adhesin-like genes, pointing to possible importance in host adaptation. Venn diagram of core genome SNPs of 5 Candida glabrata recovered from blood cultures of patient C. Conclusion Preliminary analyses revealed genetically diverse populations of C. glabrata in BCs of individuals with BSIs. We are studying phenotypic diversity of strain variants, and the clinical implications of genetically diverse Candida BSIs. Disclosures Cornelius J. Clancy, MD, Merck (Grant/Research Support) Minh-Hong Nguyen, MD, Merck (Grant/Research Support)

Hennekam lymphangiectasia-lymphedema syndrome has been linked to single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the CCBE1 (collagen and calcium-binding EGF domains 1) gene. Several bioinformatics methods were used to find the most dangerous nsSNPs that could affect CCBE1 structure and function. Using state-of-the-art in silico tools, this study examined the most pathogenic nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) that disrupt the CCBE1 protein and extracellular matrix remodeling and migration. Our results indicate that seven nsSNPs, rs115982879, rs149792489, rs374941368, rs121908254, rs149531418, rs121908251, and rs372499913, are deleterious in the CCBE1 gene, four (G330E, C102S, C174R, and G107D) of which are the highly deleterious, two of them (G330E and G107D) have never been seen reported in the context of Hennekam syndrome. Twelve missense SNPs, rs199902030, rs267605221, rs37517418, rs80008675, rs116596858, rs116675104, rs121908252, rs147974432, rs147681552, rs192224843, rs139059968, and rs148498685, are found to revert into stop codons. Structural homology-based methods and sequence homology-based tools revealed that 8.8% of the nsSNPs are pathogenic. SIFT, PolyPhen2, M-CAP, CADD, FATHMM-MKL, DANN, PANTHER, Mutation Taster, LRT, and SNAP2 had a significant score for identifying deleterious nsSNPs. The importance of rs374941368 and rs200149541 in the prediction of post-translation changes was highlighted because it impacts a possible phosphorylation site. Gene-gene interactions revealed CCBE1’s association with other genes, showing its role in a number of pathways and coexpressions. The top 16 deleterious nsSNPs found in this research should be investigated further in the future while researching diseases caused CCBE1 gene specifically HS. The FT web server predicted amino acid residues involved in the ligand-binding site of the CCBE1 protein, and two of the substitutions (R167W and T153N) were found to be involved. These highly deleterious nsSNPs can be used as marker pathogenic variants in the mutational diagnosis of the HS syndrome, and this research also offers potential insights that will aid in the development of precision medicines. CCBE1 proteins from Hennekam syndrome patients should be tested in animal models for this purpose.

Traditional embankment is widely used in the permafrost regions along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) because of its simple construction and lower cost. However, this form of embankment has insufficient ability to resist external thermal disturbance. To clarify the thermal characteristics of traditional embankment under climate warming, the ground temperature change process of section K1068 + 750 of the QTR was analysed in this study. Based on the field monitoring data from 2006 to 2019 and the established heat transfer model, the past and future changes of permafrost thermal regime under the embankment were analysed. The results show that the degradation of permafrost under the embankment is faster than that under the undisturbed site due to the combined of embankment construction and climate warming. The sunny-shady slope effect related to embankment orientation makes the distribution of permafrost temperature under embankment asymmetric. In the long term, permafrost degrades both under the undisturbed site and embankment. The continuous degradation of permafrost causes the settlement and deformation of embankment, especially the asymmetric degradation of permafrost on sunny side and shady side will cause longitudinal cracks on the embankment. Therefore, timely application of strengthening measures which can slow down the degradation of permafrost and adjust the uneven ground temperature on the sunny and shady sides under the embankment is of great significance to the safety of the traditional embankment.

Additional file 3: Table S1. Baseline characteristics of patients in the TCGA cohort. Table S2. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses for OS in TCGA. Table S3. Correlation between TMB / CD8+ T cells and immune checkpoints. Table S4. Baseline characteristics of patients in the IMvigor210 cohort.

This paper discusses the problem of dynamic internet protocol address allocation with new virtual server configuration method. With the help of virtual machine system, dynamic domain name system resolution software (such as PeanutHull) and internet information service system components, a virtual server which embodies the function of allocating dynamic internet protocol address is built via a series of software configuration. The practice shows that active server pages could be connected to local and external network in conducting experiments with the well-designed virtual server, which has realized the goal of dynamic allocation and expansion of internet protocol address as well as solving the potential problem of internet protocol address in short supply around the corner.

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Mg–8Al–2Sn (AT82) base alloys with different Zn additions have been studied. The as-cast AT82 alloy consists of α-Mg, Mg17Al12 and Mg2Sn eutectic phases. Zn addition refines α-Mg dendrites and eutectic phases, and promotes the age-hardening response. When aged at 175°C, the β-Mg17Al12 precipitates are mainly formed in the studied alloys. The Zn addition reduces the discontinuous β precipitates near grain boundaries, meanwhile refines continuous β precipitates formed at the intragranular and increases the number density. Tensile tests indicate that the Zn addition and ageing treatment evidently improve the mechanical properties of AT82 base alloys at room temperature (RT) and 175°C. The ATZ821 alloy with 1.0 wt% Zn addition exhibits an optimal combination of high strength and good ductility at both conditions. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and elongation to failure (Ef) of peak-aged state are 235 MPa, 147 MPa and 10.2% at RT, and 185 MPa, 122 MPa and 14.2% at 175 °C, respectively.

Effects of Zn addition on the microstructure and tensile properties of as-extruded Mg-8Al-2Sn (AT82) alloy were investigated in the present work. All the extruded AT82 alloys exhibited a fully dynamically recrystallized (DRXed) microstructure, while the grains were slightly refined with Zn addition. Moreover, second phase particles (Mg2Sn and Mg17Al12) increased significantly in amount with increasing Zn content. It was found the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) gradually increased with increasing Zn content from 0 to 1.5 wt%, meanwhile the elongation maintained unchanged at a high level, i.e. ~17–19%. In particular, the as-extruded AT82-1.0Zn alloy exhibited both a high strength and high ductility at room temperature, e.g. UTS of ~357 MPa and elongation of ~19%. The superior combination of strength and ductility is mainly benefited from the enhanced work-hardening ability resulted from Zn solid solutes and the presence of more well-dispersed fine particles in AT82-1.0Zn alloy.

Cast-rolling AZ31 Mg alloy sheets were manufactured at four rolling speed ratios of 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.3. The results show that the basal texture can be weakened by differential speed rolling (DSR). The AZ31 alloy sheet manufactured at a speed ratio of 1.2 exhibits a fine microstructure with an average grain size of 10.3 μm. The yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation-to-failure at this speed ratio are 145 MPa, 240 MPa and 28.5% at room temperature, respectively. These parameters mainly benefit from the fine grains and weakened basal texture. The AZ31 alloy sheets processed by the DSR exhibit a remarkable improvement in elongation-to-failure compared with the AZ31 alloy sheets processed by equal speed rolling (ESR) primarily due to the weakened basal texture at room temperature. However, the difference in elongation-to-failure of the AZ31 alloy sheets processed by the ESR and DSR decreases at elevated temperatures, which can be attributed to the weakening of the influence of basal texture, with probable activation of non-basal slips and grain boundary sliding (GBS). The results obtained here will shed light on some DSR methods, which is critical to the development of Mg alloys with high mechanical properties.

We experimentally demonstrate end-to-end key on demand (KoD) service provisioning over quantum key distribution networks with software defined networking (SDN), achieving efficient and flexible on-demand secret-key rate allocation for end-to-end data security.

E-commerce sponsored search contributes an important part of revenue for the e-commerce company. In consideration of effectiveness and efficiency, a large-scale sponsored search system commonly adopts a multi-stage architecture. We name these stages as ad retrieval, ad pre-ranking and ad ranking. Ad retrieval and ad pre-ranking are collectively referred to as ad matching in this paper. We propose an end-to-end neural matching framework (EENMF) to model two tasks---vector-based ad retrieval and neural networks based ad pre-ranking. Under the deep matching framework, vector-based ad retrieval harnesses user recent behavior sequence to retrieve relevant ad candidates without the constraint of keyword bidding. Simultaneously, the deep model is employed to perform the global pre-ranking of ad candidates from multiple retrieval paths effectively and efficiently. Besides, the proposed model tries to optimize the pointwise cross-entropy loss which is consistent with the objective of predict models in the ranking stage. We conduct extensive evaluation to validate the performance of the proposed framework. In the real traffic of a large-scale e-commerce sponsored search, the proposed approach significantly outperforms the baseline.

This work was carried out to investigate the relationship between microstructures and mechanical properties of extruded Al–20Mg 2 Si–4Cu alloys unmodified and modified with 0.5 wt% Sb addition at room and high temperatures. Various techniques including metallography, field emission scanning electron microscope, differential thermal analysis and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure, tensile behavior and fracture mechanism of the alloys. It was found that 0.5 wt% Sb additions were highly effective in refining microstructures by changing the morphology of primary Mg 2 Si from coarse dendrite into smaller polyhedral shape with average size less than 20 µm. Tensile test showed that ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the modified alloy increased dramatically to 283 MPa at room temperature and 213 MPa at 150 °C, evidently higher than the 220 MPa and 185 MPa for the unmodified alloy, respectively. Fracture surface examinations revealed a transition from particle fracture of primary Mg 2 Si in the unmodified alloy to particle–matrix interface debonding in the modified alloy. The transformation of primary Mg 2 Si from coarse dendrites to refined polygonal shapes contributes to the enhanced strength and ductility of the modified alloy, since the polygonal primary Mg 2 Si particles dispersed uniformly in modified alloy, impeding dislocation motions and freeing stress concentrations. A schematic map was established to further elucidate the mechanisms of fracture behavior during stretching process.

To explore the relationship among the level of fiber, gut microbiota, and nutritional substances, we applied the next generation sequencing technology for the identification of the composition and structure of microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract. In this study, a total of 25 phyla and 298 genera were identified from the gastrointestinal tract; Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria were the predominant phyla. The ability of cecum in carbohydrate metabolism was significantly higher than that of the gizzard and ileum (P < 0.05). The bacterial community structure in various stages of the development of the cecum was different. In the different growth stages of cecum, the increase in the microbiota structure of the fiber level elevates the ability of carbon hydration. Second, the apparent metabolic rates of the other nutrients were affected by the fiber and period except for acid detergent fiber (P < 0.05); the apparent utilization rate of the nutrients increased with time. However, with the increase in the fiber level, the apparent utilization of nutrients was initially increased, followed by a decrease. Therefore, a correlation was established between the fiber level and gastrointestinal microbiota and apparent nutrient utilization rate of the 3 phyla. Our results suggest that the fiber level and growth stages could impact the composition of gut microbiota.

A fine-grained (∼3.6 μm) Mg–6Al–3Sn (AT63) alloy prepared by a hot rolled method is subjected to uniaxial tensile tests within the temperature range of 25–250 °C. Mg2Sn and Mg17Al12 precipitates at grain boundaries effectively retard the growth of dynamically recrystallized (DRXed) grains. Grain boundary sliding (GBS) is activated at 250 °C, which is indicated by the stable DRXed grain size and agglomeration of the precipitates at grain boundaries. Moreover, Mg2Sn and Mg17Al12 precipitates promote the formation of dynamic recrystallization (DRX). Both the DRX and GBS result in the high elongation (151.4%) of the AT63 alloy at 250 °C. Results obtained here will shed some light on elevated temperature deformation mechanisms of a new type of Mg–Al–Sn system, which is critical to the development of new Mg alloys with potential for applications at elevated temperatures.

Uniaxial tensile tests were performed on fine-grained, rolled AT33 alloy at strain rates of 1.0 × 10−4–1.0 × 10−1 s−1 and temperatures of 25–250 °C. The rolled AT33 alloy with an average grain size of 7 μm was produced by cast-rolling and hot-rolling. The relative deformation mechanisms at high temperature were investigated in this study. It was found that the strain rate sensitivity increases from 0.01 at room temperature to 0.13 at 250 °C. The average stress exponent and the activation energy have been calculated to be 6.5 and 145 kJ mol−1, respectively, indicating that the dominant tensile deformation mechanism is dislocation climb-controlled creep profiting from the lattice self-diffusion. The dispersed nano-sized Mg2Sn particles in the rolled AT33 alloy increase dislocation accumulation, which not only contributes to a promising tensile strength at high temperature but also provides a high driving force for the dynamic recrystallization (DRX). It has found that DRX is mainly responsible for the obtained high tensile ductility of 76–205% at temperatures of 200–250 °C.

Electricity is the major energy form of energy internet and the smart grid is the carrier. Compared with the traditional power grid, it puts forward higher requirements for communication. Introduction of new communication technology will effectively improve the performance of energy internet communication network, but how to evaluate the adaptability of new communication technologies is a key problem to be solved in the process of the development of energy internet communication network. The adaptability to the energy internet communication network should consider the development level of the regional power grid, the economy and other factors, and not only based on the single index, so we proposed an index system considered from four aspects: safety, economy, maturity and effectiveness. In addition, the evaluation method of the adaptability should be objective and reflect the intention and strategy of the evaluation subject. Based on these, an evaluation method of adaptability based on principal component analysis and analytic hierarchy process is proposed which focuses on the process of assessment and implementation plan. An example shows the proposed evaluation method by comparing the adaptability of PTN, POTN and enhanced MSTP. And the result demonstrates that POTN is more suitable for the communication network of energy internet.

The microstructure and texture evolutions of a rolled Mg–6Al–3Sn (AT63) alloy were investigated during uniaxial tension along the rolling and transverse directions. Combination of experimental examination and Schmid factor analysis indicates that the texture evolution during the two tensions results mainly from dislocation slip. The texture variations in (0002) and (1010) poles are related to basal slip and non-basal slips, respectively. The final textures exhibit the lowest SF values not only for basal slip but also for non-basal slips. Our results will be helpful in the investigation of slip mechanism based on texture examination.

A novel comblike polymer, long side-chain polycarboxylate (LcPC), was designed as a dispersant for coal–water slurry (CWS) and synthesized in aqueous solution from the copolymerization of macromonomer polyethylene glycol-acrylate monoester(PA), sodium p-styrene sulfonate (SSS) and acrylamide (AM). PA was prepared by esterifying with polyethylene glycol (PEG200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 2000) and acrylic acid (AA). The structure of LcPC was characterized. The performance of LcPC as dispersant for the low rank China coal–water slurry (i.e. Shenfu coal) was evaluated and the dispersion mechanism was also explored. Results showed that the dispersant was a polymer with long side-chains modified by ArSO 3 Na and CONH 2 groups. The CWS with LcPC displayed the better rheological and stability characteristics than the traditional dispersant in stock for the low rank China coal (i.e. the apparent viscosity and penetration ratio of CWS with 65 wt.% coal and 0.4 wt.% dispersant were 389 mPa·s and 82.0%, respectively). The properties of the CWS can be further improved in the presence of LcPC because of not only the better electrostatic force with the coal but also the stable steric hindrance of long side-chain.

In view of the difficulty in calculating the safe thickness of complex and difficult-to-mine orebody in the process of resource recovery, based on the elastic-plastic theory and mechanics method, the mechanical models of the safe thickness of orebody recovery above the collapse area and that of orebody recovery at the side of the collapse area are constructed respectively. The results show that: 1. Using the fixed beam model to calculate the safety thickness, the additional load on the roof, the volume weight and span of the rock stratum, the width of the rock stratum and the water pressure are the important influencing factors. When the water pressure exists, the safety thickness can be reduced; 2. When the safety thickness is calculated by the elastic plate model with fixed support around, the safety thickness decreases with the increase of the tensile strength or shear strength of rock mass, and increases with the increase of the external load; 3. When the collapse area is located at the side of the ore body to be mined, the safety thickness decreases with the increase of the tensile or shear strength of rock mass, and with the increase of the external force. The load increases with the increase of load. The research can provide theoretical support for mining residual mineral resources.

A first-principles method was performed to calculate generalized stacking fault (GSF) energies in Mg alloys with Sn, Pb and Sn+Pb dopings for acting as references of designing Mg–Sn–Pb alloys. We clarify the effect of Sn is dominated than Pb atom on reduced unstable stacking fault energy ( γ u s ), especially in basal { 0001 } 〈 11 2 ¯ 0 〉 and pyramidal { 11 2 ¯ 2 } 〈 11 2 ¯ 3 〉 slip systems. Such a reduction of non-basal slip GSF energy is in favor of improving the ductility of Mg matrix.

The effects of doping atoms (X) on the uniaxial deformation and universal ductility of Mg47X1 are investigated. A first-principles “design map” in regard to the generalized stacking-fault energy (GSFE) provides a database for new Mg alloys design. The calculation and analysis of GSFEs here, considering the weighting of each slip system, solubility of alloying elements and ductility capacity, provide a basis for further understanding and controlling alloying elements, which will inspire developing new Mg alloys with tailored properties.

The plastic deformation behavior of as-cast Mg–3Sn–1Zn (TZ31) alloy was investigated at room temperature, which exhibits strong strain hardening ability (i.e. n=0.55 and Hc=3.62) and high elongation (ep=19.1%). The generalized stacking fault (GSF) energy of TZ31 alloy is reduced owing to dopings of Sn and Zn atoms, which is beneficial to improving activity of basal slip, activation of non-basal slips and formation of numerous deformation twins. The high density of twins significantly restricts dislocation motion, leading to strong strain hardening ability of the TZ31 alloy. Results obtained here will shed some light on deformation mechanisms of Mg–Sn–Zn alloys, critical to the development of new high-plastic magnesium alloys.

Coke oven gas collector is important in coking plant, and the pressure control of which is closely relevant to the coke oven gas collecting and the production afterwards. Pressure control of coke oven gas collector is difficult in the coking system, mainly due to the strong coupling and time delay. In this paper, a particular form of coke oven with symmetrical structure is studied, and a decoupling solution to the coking system based on the internal model control theory is proposed, using the feedforward controller combined with the decoupling controller. With the MATLAB toolbox, a numerical solution of the decoupling controller is derived. Simulation results of the real system indicate that the designed decoupling controller is effective in improving the performance of the gas collector to the selected coke oven with symmetrical structure.

Twin-roll casting AZ31 Mg alloy sheets have been fabricated by normal unidirectional-rolling, head-to-tail rolling, and clock-rolling, respectively. It has been demonstrated that head-to-tail rolling is the most effective to refine the microstructure and weaken the basal texture among the three rolling routes. Excellent integrated tensile properties can be obtained by the head-to-tail rolling. The yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and plastic elongation are 196 MPa, 301 MPa, and 28.9%, respectively. The strength can benefit from the fine grains (average value of 4.0 μm) of the AZ31 alloy processed by the head-to-tail rolling route, while the excellent plastic elongation is achieved owing to the weakened basal texture besides the fine grains. Results obtained here can be used as a basis for further study of some simple rolling methods, which is critical to the development of Mg alloys with high strength and plasticity.

Natural vegetation in arid desert areas has been severely affected by uneven spatial-temporal precipitation and underground water distribution. Therefore, it is quite necessary to reserve maintenance water sources and water utilization strategies of natural vegetation. In our experiment, the Haloxylon ammodendron was selected to learn about the maintenance water sources and water utilization strategies. The results displayed that H. ammodendron could utilize various water sources, in which groundwater (30%) and shallow soil water (average 35%) accounted for very huge proportion to be the most important maintenance water sources H. ammodendron does not directly absorb from snowfall, but the application of shallow soil water was stemed from melt snow. The utilization percentage of groundwater is relatively higher in winter (80%) and summer (30%). The utilization percentages of different water sources change with the actual situations of these water sources; Precipitation is also one of main water sources of H. ammodendron (respond quickly but not influential). The mainly water of H. ammodendron in the study area are as follows: groundwater, shallow soil water formed by snowmelt, medium and large precipitation. Therefore, H. ammodendron can make efficient use of water sources in arid desert areas, and transform water sources reasonably under the tremendous variations in water conditions to meet the water requirements.

Objective: In order to synthesize the gold nanoparticles with high sphericility, good monodispersity and uniform sizes, a method of synthesizing by integrated modular microfluidic reactor based on piezoelectric actuation is proposed. Method: First, the entrance angle and channel section of the micromixing channel of microreactor are simulated by the software FLUENT, and the related structure parameters are optimized. Second, the two modules of microreactor chips including micromixing chip and growing channel chip are designed, and the microreactor prototype is fabricated. Finally, the synthesis tests of gold nanoparticles based on liquidus chemical reaction are carried out, and the characteristics of the obtained specimen are tested by UV-VIS spectrophotometer and transmission electron microscopy. Result: The test result indicates that with the output flow rate of 4.2ml/min and the frequency of 200 Hz, the average particle size and standard deviation of the obtained gold nanoparticles is (27.89±5.28) nm, and the nanoparticles have uniform sizes, good monodispersity, and high sphericility. Conclusion: The result verifies the feasibility of using the microfluidic reactor presented in this paper to synthesize gold nanoparticles with uniform sizes and good monodispersity.

The reaction pathway of combustion synthesis (CS) of Ti5Si3 in Cu–Ti–Si system was explored through a delicate microstructure and phase analysis on the resultant products during differential thermal analysis (DTA). The formation of Cu–Si eutectic liquids plays a key role in the reaction pathway, which provides easy route for reactant transfer and accelerates the occurrence of complete reaction. Cu initially reacted with Si to form Cu3Si by a solid-state diffusion reaction, which further reacted with Cu to form Cu–Si liquids at the eutectic point of ~802°C; then Ti was dissolved into the surrounding Cu–Si liquids and led to the formation of Cu–Ti–Si ternary liquids; finally, Ti5Si3 was precipitated out of the saturated liquids by a solution–reaction–precipitation mechanism. The reaction pathway in CS of titanium silicide (Ti5Si3) could be described briefly as: Cu(s) + Ti(s) + Si(s)→Cu3Si(s) + Ti(s) + Si(s)→(Cu–Si)(l) + Ti(s)→(Cu–Ti–Si)(l)→Cu(l) + Ti5Si3(s).