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Box Behnken design (BBD) was used to optimize the extraction of Paxillus involutus (EPI) in ethanol. The optimum extraction conditions were as follows: temperature 45°C; solid:liquid ratio 1:35; time 5 h. Under these conditions, the yield of EPI was 13.57%. The antioxidant activity of EPI was evaluated in vitro, and DPPH free radical scavenging, ABTS free radical scavenging, and hydroxyl free radical scavenging effects were found to be equal to or close to that of the positive control vitamin C (VC). The antioxidant activity of EPI was next evaluated in vivo using aging mice; it was found to have appreciable effect on scavenging malonic dialdehyde (MDA) and could increase the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) in mice. Overall, EPI showed antioxidant effects in aging mice, thereby delaying aging, and has potential for application as a natural antioxidant and in medical applications.

Contexts The invasion of fast growing Phyllostachys edulis (Moso bamboo) into forest is likely further favored by climate change, creating more transitional regions within forests. Such forest-bamboo transitional zones provide windows to look at ecological processes driving bamboo’s interaction with competing species across space. Objectives We tested the hypothesis that spatial patterns at scales of ecotone and individual stems can inform bamboo’s invasive spread and its competitive engulfing strategy, with the allocation of biomass and resources within a bamboo colony being a key life-history strategy to facilitate its spatial spread. Methods We used remote sensing imagery and field survey data to analyze the dynamics of bamboo-tree transitional boundaries in Tianmu Mountain Nature Reserve (TMNR) of southeastern China. We evaluated bamboo’s invasive spread and its allocation of resources along the transitional gradient. Results Both remote sensing and field data showed bamboo recovery and advancement into tree territories after the extensive logging of bamboo but with a slower spread compared to historical records. The spatial distributions of bamboo and tree stems were not random at their transitional interfaces and were affected by competition. Successful invasion of bamboo required close coordination between stems and rhizomes within a colony, as they served different functions in clonal integration. Conclusions Our study initiates a mechanistic, scale-dependent analysis of bamboo invasion strategies, which provides insights on how to accurately predict future bamboo distributions under climate change accounting for interspecific competition and bamboo’s clonal integration of resources.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) based on choline chloride (C) and L-(+)-tartaric acid diethyl ester (L) were prepared and used in transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS). The internal chemistry structure including the formation and changes of hydrogen bonds of choline chloride and L-(+)-tartaric acid diethyl ester DES was characterized via attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and

To investigate lumbar spondylolisthesis screw placement assisted by TiRobot in terms of digital screw path design, accurate implementation, and accuracy evaluation method.In this study, we enrolled 40 patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis between December 2020 and August 2021 who underwent spine surgery at the Affiliated Hospital of PuTian University. Pre-operative computed tomography position and screw path designation, intra-operative pedicle screw placement according to pre-operative planning, and post-operative evaluation of the accuracy of screw placement were performed. 3D coordinates of the entry and exit points before and after the operation were collected. The qualified points at different levels of accuracy were counted. The screw placement accuracy was based on the absolute difference using the Chi-squared test.In total, 194 screws were successfully implanted with no screws penetrating the cortex. The absolute difference of entry points X, Y, and Z coordinates before and after the operation was 0.425 ± 0.294 mm, 0.417 ± 0.310 mm, and 0.466 ± 0.327 mm, respectively. The corresponding values in terms of exit points were 0.702 ± 0.470 mm, 0.963 ± 0.595mm, and 0.983 ± 0.566 mm, respectively. No obvious differences in coordinates before and after the operation were observed with an entry point degree of accuracy of ≥ 1.2 mm and exit point degree of accuracy of ≥ 2.1 mm. Therefore, the real surgery was consistent with the design.TiRobot-assisted lumbar spondylolisthesis surgery achieved optimal path designation and precise surgery.

A platinum-substituted alumina-promoted sulfated zirconia (PtAu/SZA) was prepared and used for the conversion of isobutane to n-butane, aiming to optimize the ethylene feedstock in the steam thermal cracking process and increase the ethylene yield. PtAu bimetallic catalysts showed higher catalytic activity than Pt-alone catalyst, and the enhancement is attributed to PtAu alloying. By diluting and separating Pt with PtAu alloy agglomerates, continuous Pt agglomerates disappear and hydrogen dissociation on Pt is enhanced. In addition, the reduction temperature of Pt is decreased with the increase in Au content, while the reduction temperature of sulfate was increased which will delay the loss of sulfate according to the results of H2-TPR and NH3-TPD. However, the acidity of the catalyst decreases with the increase in Au, which is due to that PtAu alloy covers the acid sites on the surface. Overall, we found that the Pt0.5Au0.3/SZA showed the highest yield to n-butane (34.69%).

Mg–Al oxides were prepared by facile solvent-free grinding of Mg–Al layered double hydroxide and were used as catalysts for continuous-flow transesterification of dimethyl carbonate and ethanol. Th...

Person re-identification is still a useful and challenging task in pattern recognition and computer vision. Based on a probe image, the task focuses on identifying a set of matching images from a gallery set. In this work, a novel multi-feature fusion-based person re-identification framework is proposed. The key technique is to intelligently fuze hand-crafted feature and deeply-learned feature. More specifically, hand-crafted features from both local and global region are extracted from each image. Afterward, a novel Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) is trained based on combining the three datasets, wherein robust deep features can be obtained. Finally, the above hand-crafted feature as well as the deep features are optimally fuzed for calculating a robust re-identification result. Extensive experimental results on three state-of-the-art data sets have demonstrated the effectiveness of our method.

In China, Armillaria mellea (Vahl) P. Kumm. has been used as a folk medicine to treat insomnia for several hundred years. However, the underlying mechanisms involved are currently unknown. In this study, the anti-insomnia efficacy of A. mellea fermentation liquor (AFL) was evaluated in p-chlorophenylalanine-induced insomnia rats by measuring the serotonergic systems and gut microbiota. Our results demonstrate that all doses of AFL significantly reduced locomotor activity and alleviated decreasing weights in insomnia rats. Further, AFL exhibited better sedative effects by reducing sleep latency and increasing sleep duration in pentobarbital-treated rats. AFL treatment also elevated serum glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase levels, while reducing serum interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-1β levels. Furthermore, AFL alleviated insomnia by enhancing 5-hydroxytryptamine content and the expression 5-HT

Phallus rubrovolvatus is an important commercially cultivated mushroom species in China. However, the volva of P. rubrovolvatus usually discarded as a by-product due to the unpleasant flavor and difficulty in processing. In this study, we investigated the chemical constituents and bioactivities of the volva of P. rubrovolvatus. As a result, fifteen rare aniline derivatives, including twelve new compounds (1-11, 14) and three new natural products (12, 13, 15) were isolated from the volva. Their structures were determined using 1D and 2D NMR data and HR-ESI-MS data, while the relative and absolute configurations were confirmed by NOESY correlations and comparison between experimental and calculated ECD spectra. In addition, compounds 1-15 were tested for anti-inflammatory activity against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced NO production in RAW264.7 macrophages. Compounds 4, 9 and 10 exhibited anti-inflammatory activity with IC

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) with one and two ends are grafted onto poly(styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene) (SEBS) via polydopamine (PDA) as a spacer to fabricate a hemocompatible surface. Linear and looped conformational PEGs modified SEBS are obtained, and the structures and compositions are confirmed by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The hemocompatibility of SEBS are improved by the modification of PDA and PEG, and the proteins resistances of the looped PEG are superior to that of the linear PEG with the same grafting length and mass. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation illustrates that the protein resistance mechanism of looped PEG is because of the huge viscoelasticity and deformation. Furthermore, looped and linear PEGs with the same grafting density are grafted onto SEBS surface to clarify the superiority of the looped conformation. Protein adsorption of looped PEG with twice length of linear PEG shows lower adsorbed amount than the others. Therefore, immobilizing the looped conformation of PEG on SEBS surface is a versatile and efficient way to improve the hemocompatibility of SEBS.

Facial expression recognition (FER) plays an important role in the applications of human computer interaction. Given the wide use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in automatic video and image classification systems, higher-level features can be automatically learned from hierarchical neural networks with big data. However, learning CNNs require large amount of training data for adequate generalization, while the Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) does not need large training samples to generate useful feature. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid feature representation for the recognition of facial expressions from a single image frame that uses a combination of SIFT and deep-learning feature of different level extracted from the CNN model, then adopt the combined features and classify the expression by support vector machines (SVM). The performance of the proposed method has been validated on public CK+ databases. To evaluate the generalization ability of our method, we also performed an experiment on a cross-database environment. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can achieve better classification rates compared with state-of-art CNN methods, which indicate the considerable potential of combining shallow feature with deep-learning feature.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Two-way ANOVA of the effects of nitrogen (N) addition and management scheme on soil CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes in a Moso bamboo forest. Table S2 Sensitivities of soil CO2 efflux to soil temperature (Q10) at a depth of 5 cm. Table S3 Annual soil CO2, N2O and CH4 emissions calculated in different treatment plots. Table S4 Soil physicochemical properties under different treatments (mean ± standard error, n = 12). Table S5 CO2 emission, N2O emission and CH4 uptake contribution to GWP in different treatment plots.

Plasma activated water (PAW) is a promising green antibacterial agent and the bactericidal effect is complicatedly affected by electron bombardment, ultraviolet radiation, interface reaction, and cascade chemical reaction. In this paper, a case of preparing PAW by treating aqueous solutions with afterglow gas is constructed based on surface micro-discharge (SMD), which focuses on the effect of afterglow gas–liquid mass transfer and liquid phase chemistry on PAW sterilization. The correlation of the bactericidal effect of PAW to the reactive species was studied based on the model of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) in PAW with the regulation of N2/O2 ratios in the working gas for SMD. The RONS in both gas and liquid phases and the physicochemical properties of PAW were measured through optical and chemical methods. In addition, the effects of liquid types, liquid conductivity, and storage time on the bactericidal effects of PAW were explored. The key species for bacteria inactivation were identified by equivalent mixed solutions and specific scavengers. The results demonstrated that control of the N2/O2 ratios in the working gas can effectively improve the RONS in plasma and PAW. The bactericidal effect of PAW is correlated with peroxynitrite, superoxide anion, and their synergistic effects in an acidic liquid environment. This study provides a new strategy for insight into the bactericidal mechanism of PAW in biomedical applications.

Aims To study the risk factors associated with blindness after treatment of acute primary angle closure (APAC), and to identify the critical time window to decrease rate of blindness. Methods In this multicentre retrospective case series, 1030 consecutive subjects (1164 eyes) with APAC in China were recruited. The rates of blindness were analysed up to 3 months after treatment of APAC. A logistic regression was used to identify the risk factors associated with blindness, including age, gender, distance to hospital, rural or urban settings, treatment method, education level, time from symptom to treatment (TST, hours) and presenting intraocular pressure (IOP). The critical time window associated with a blindness rate of ≤1% was calculated based on a cubic function by fitting TST to the rate of blindness at each time point. Results The rate of blindness after APAC was 12.54% after treatment. In multivariate regression, education level, TST and presenting IOP were risk factors for blindness (p=0.022, 0.004 and 0.001, respectively). The critical time window associated with a blindness rate of ≤1% was 4.6 hours. Conclusions and relevance Education level, TST and presenting IOP were risk factors for blindness after APAC. Timely medical treatment is key in reducing blindness after APAC.

Aiming at the problem that the manual monitoring cannot guarantee the safe and stable operation of the power operation at all times, according to the principle and development status of the feature extraction and the target detection technology, the rational application of this technology in the power operation process is analyzed to ensure the reliability of the power supply. At present, the patrol work of the overhead power lines basically adopts the manual patrol mode. This mode of operation is of great labor intensity, great danger and low efficiency. Therefore, it is very necessary to extract the specific characteristics of the electric power operation according to the specific conditions of the specific electric power operation process, and systematically develop the target detection technology and explore the reasonable application strategies, which is extremely important.

To estimate the prevalence of vision impairment and blindness in 2014 among older adults in rural China with comparisons with the 2006 Nine-Province Survey.Population-based, cross-sectional study.Geographical cluster sampling was used in randomly selecting residents from a rural county or semi-rural district within 9 provinces: Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Hebei, Ningxia, Chongqing, and Yunnan. Persons 50 years of age or older were enumerated through household visits and invited to examination sites for visual acuity testing and examination. Vision impairment and blindness in 2014 was compared with data from the 2006 survey.Among 51 310 examined persons, the prevalence of presenting vision impairment (20/63 to ≥20/400) in the better-seeing eye ranged from 6.05% to 15.3% across the 9 study sites, with presenting blindness (20/400) ranging from 0.66% to 5.35%. With best-corrected visual acuity, the prevalence of vision impairment ranged from 1.96% to 8.74%, and blindness from 0.47% to 5.01%. Vision impairment was associated with older age, female sex, and little or no education. The overall prevalence of presenting vision impairment and blindness decreased during the 2006-2014 interval by 6.31% and 29.0%, respectively; and by 16.1% and 38.0%, respectively, after standardization of 2006 prevalence rates to the 2014 population.Substantial progress has been made in the reduction of vision impairment in rural China. Nevertheless, vision impairment remains an important public health problem with substantial geographic disparities and with older age, female sex, and illiteracy as risk factors.

Methane (CH4) is one of the three most important greenhouse gases. To date, observations of ecosystem-scale methane (CH4) fluxes in forests are currently lacking in the global CH4 budget. The environmental factors controlling CH4 flux dynamics remain poorly understood at the ecosystem scale. In this study, we used a state-of-the-art eddy covariance technique to continuously measure the CH4 flux from 2016 to 2018 in a subtropical forest of Zhejiang Province in China, quantify the annual CH4 budget and investigate its control factors. We found that the total annual CH4 budget was 1.15 ± 0.28~4.79 ± 0.49 g CH4 m−2 year−1 for 2017–2018. The daily CH4 flux reached an emission peak of 0.145 g m−2 d−1 during winter and an uptake peak of −0.142 g m−2 d−1 in summer. During the whole study period, the studied forest region acted as a CH4 source (78.65%) during winter and a sink (21.35%) in summer. Soil temperature had a negative relationship (p &lt, 0.01, R2 = 0.344) with CH4 flux but had a positive relationship with soil moisture (p &lt, R2 = 0.348). Our results showed that soil temperature and moisture were the most important factors controlling the ecosystem-scale CH4 flux dynamics of subtropical forests in the Tianmu Mountain Nature Reserve in Zhejiang Province, China. Subtropical forest ecosystems in China acted as a net source of methane emissions from 2016 to 2018, providing positive feedback to global climate warming.

The effects of nitrogen (N) deposition and management practices on leaf litterfall and N and P return in Moso bamboo forest are not yet known. In this study, we investigated the effects of four levels of simulated N deposition, including low-N (N30, 30 kg ha−1 year−1), medium-N (N60, 60 kg ha−1 year−1), and high-N (N90, 90 kg ha−1 year−1), and a control with no N (N-free addition). The experiment was performed in a Moso bamboo forest under conventional management (CM) and intensive management (IM). The results showed that leaf litterfall and N and P return occurred mainly from March to June and accounted for 78.2–82.2, 78.5–82.1, and 85.6–94.6% of annual leaf litterfall, N return, and P return, respectively. Unlike CM, IM significantly increased leaf litterfall and N and P return. The positive effects were further amplified by low- and medium-N deposition, but not high-N deposition. The combination of low- and medium-N deposition and IM significantly increased N and P return, but not litterfall. Our results indicated that the interaction of anthropogenic management practices and N deposition need to be considered when estimating the effects of N deposition on the biogeochemical cycle of a forest ecosystem.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitro- (NPAHs) and oxy-derivatives (OPAHs) are of considerable concern due to their toxicity and carcinogenic hazards. Ships are recognized as an important emission source of these compounds. Marine diesel oil (MDO) and heavy fuel oil (HFO) are the two most commonly used fuels. The emission characteristics and toxicities of PM2.5-bound PAHs, NPAHs and OPAHs due to HFO and MDO combustion in atypical ocean-going vessel were investigated. The EF variability of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) varied considerably with the fuel formulation (HFO and MDO) and engine loading (20%–100%). The concentration of ΣPACs was 0.63 mg/kWh for MDO and ranged from 2.14 to 9.80 mg/kWh for HFO. Compared to HFO-20%, the EFs of ΣPAHs, ΣNPAHs and ΣOPAHs from MDO-20% were reduced by 97%, 77% and 73%, respectively. As identified through the coefficient of divergence, the profile of HFO-20% was notably different from those under the other three engine loadings for HFO. In addition, the emissions of ΣPAHs and ΣOPAHs showed a significant correlation with PM2.5, while they were relatively weak for ΣNPAHs. However, the CO and PAC emissions were not highly correlated. Furthermore, the BaPeq-ΣPAHs values were 0.010 mg/g for MDO and ranged from 0.092 mg/g to 0.306 mg/g for HFO, and the reduction ranged from 89% to 97% by substituting MDO for HFO. These data highlight the importance of improving fuel quality in close proximity to port areas and are useful for enhancing relevant databases.

An experimental evaluation of bending fatigue strength for austempered ductile iron (ADI) spur gears have been performed using Zwick fatigue tester. The gear material was manufactured by vertically continuous casting, in which the radius of the graphite grains is smaller. The Stress-Number of Cycles curve (S-N curve) for the bending fatigue strength of the ADI spur gears are manufactured without any specific surface treatments, and have been obtained by post-processing software. It was observed that when the reliability was 50%, the fatigue limit was 304.89 MPa. It has provided a reliable basis to rate the reliability design of the small gearboxes in automation later.

Hemocompatibility and antibacterial property are essential for blood contact devices and medical intervention materials. In this study, positively charged quaternary ammonium (QAC) and hydrophobic benzyl group (OBzl) were introduced onto hydrophilic lysine methacrylamide (LysAAm) to obtain two monomers LysAAm-QAC and LysAAm-OBzl, respectively. The structure characterizations of LysAAm-QAC and LysAAm-OBzl were determined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. LysAAm-QAC and LysAAm-OBzl were cografted onto a silicon wafer with different feeding ratios to construct antifouling and antibacterial properties. The results of fibrinogen adsorption and platelet adhesion proved that the modified sample with the feeding ratio of 3:7 had superior antifouling property. Furthermore, an antimicrobial test with both 2 and 24 h indicated that the modified sample with the feeding ratio of 3:7 had antibacterial ability. The antifouling property was provided by the high surface coverage of LysAAm-QAC and LysAAm-OBzl (91.49%) and the hydrophilic main structure LysAAm on LysAAm-QAC and LysAAm-OBzl (water contact angle was 43.6°). The antibacterial property was improved with the proportion of LysAAm-OBzl (43.6-58.5%) because the increasing hydrophobic OBzl enhanced the ability to insert into the membrane of bacteria and raise the bactericidal efficiency. In application, LysAAm-QAC and LysAAm-OBzl with the feeding ratio of 3:7 were grafted onto the surface of poly(styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene), and a bifunctional surface with antifouling and antibacterial properties was fabricated, which had promising applications in blood contact devices and medical intervention materials.

Aim. To identify the risk factors for clinical and radiographic grades of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) in small (< 5 mm) intracranial aneurysms (SIAs). Material and methods. We retrospectively analysed patients with SIAs treated in our centre between February 2009 and June 2018. The clinical status was graded using the Hunt and Hess (H&H) score and the radiological severity of SAH was graded by Fisher grades (FG). The risk factors were determined using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results. A total of 160 patients with ruptured SIAs (< 5 mm) were included. In univariate analysis, smoking (P = 0.007), alcohol use (P = 0.048), aspirin use (P = 0.001), and higher size ratio (SR) (P = 0.001) were significantly associated with a higher HH and smoking (P = 0.019), aspirin use (P = 0.031), inflow angle < 90 degrees (P = 0.011), and aneurysm size (P = 0.039) were significantly associated with a higher FG score (3–4). In the adjusted multivariate analysis, previous SAH (OR, 12.245, 95% CI, 2.261–66.334, P = 0.004), aspirin use (OR, 4.677, 95% CI, 1.392–15.718, P = 0.013), alcohol use (OR, 3.392, 95% CI, 1.146–10.045, P = 0.027), inflow angle < 90 (OR, 3.881, 95% CI, 1.273–11.831, P = 0.017), and higher SR (OR, 6.611, 95% CI, 2.235–19.560, P = 0.001) were independent risk factors for a higher HH smoking (OR, 2.157, 95% CI, 1.061–4.384, P = 0.034), and inflow angle < 90 degrees (OR, 2.603, 95% CI, 1.324–5.115, P = 0.006) were independent risk factors for a higher FG (3–4). Conclusions. This study revealed that inflow angle < 90 degrees and size ratio, but not absolute size, may highly predict poorer grade of SAH in SRA. Aspirin use, previous SAH, and alcohol use were significantly associated with a higher H&H grade in ruptured SIAs, and smoking was a significant predictor of poorer FG.

Ecosystem-level effects of increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on the phosphorus (P) cycle and P use strategy are poorly understood. Here, we conducted a seven year N-addition experiment to comprehensively evaluate the effects of N deposition on P limitation, cycling, and use strategy in a subtropical Moso bamboo forest. N addition significantly increased foliar litterfall by 4.7%–21.7% and subsequent P return to the soil by 49.0%–70.1%. It also increased soil acidity, acid phosphatase activity, and soil microbial biomass P, which substantially contributed to a significantly increased soil P availability and largely alleviated the P limitation. This resulted in a significant decrease in the foliar P-resorption efficiency and the abundance and colonization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Our results indicate that N deposition can reduce plant internal cycling while enhancing ecosystem-scale cycling of P in Moso bamboo forests. This suggests a shift in P use from a ‘conservative consumption’ strategy to a ‘resource spending’ strategy. Our findings shed new light on N deposition effects on P cycle processes and P use strategy at the ecosystem scale under increasing atmospheric N deposition.