Search

Simple Summary: Simple Summary: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are adult stem cells capable of differentiating into various cell types, including osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. Renowned for their immunomodulatory and regenerative properties, MSCs hold great promise as tools for tissue repair and therapeutic applications. To facilitate the large-scale production of sheep umbilical cord MSCs (UCMSCs), the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene was introduced into UCMSCs to promote immortalization. This study provides valuable insights into (a) the proliferation and anti-aging capabilities of transgenic MSCs compared to primary MSCs; (b) the absence of potential tumorigenicity exhibited in TERT-UCMSCs; and (c) the differentiation potential of TERT-UCMSCs. Immortalized MSCs exhibit enhanced proliferation and anti-aging abilities without tumorigenicity concerns, making them a safe immortalized cell line suitable for medical treatments. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess significant differentiation potential, making them highly promising in medicine and immunotherapy due to their regenerative capabilities and exosome secretion. However, challenges such as limited cell divisions and complex testing hinder large-scale MSC production. In this study, we successfully established an immortalized MSC line by transfecting the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene into MSCs isolated from pregnant sheep umbilical cords. This approach effectively inhibits cell senescence and promotes cell proliferation, enabling the generation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) on a larger scale. Our findings demonstrate that these transfected TERT-UCMSCs exhibit enhanced proliferative capacity and a reduced aging rate compared to regular UCMSCs while maintaining their stemness without tumorigenicity concerns. Consequently, they hold great potential for medical applications requiring large quantities of functional MSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioanalysis based on optical imaging has gained significant progress in the last few decades. Luminescence probes are capable of detecting, monitoring, and tracing particular biomolecules in complex biological systems to figure out the roles of these molecules in organisms. Considering the rapid development of luminescence probes for bio-applications and their promising future, we have attempted to explore the working principles and recent advances in bio-applications of luminescence probes, in the hope of helping readers gain a detailed understanding of luminescence probes developed in recent years. In this review, we first focus on the current widely used luminescence probes, including fluorescence probes, bioluminescence probes, chemiluminescence probes, afterglow probes, photoacoustic probes, and Cerenkov luminescence probes. The working principles for each type of luminescence probe are concisely described and the bio-application of the luminescence probes is summarized by category, including metal ions detection, secretion detection, imaging, and therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of supply chain finance (SCF) has significantly alleviated the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, it is important to recognize that within the accounts receivable financing segment of the SCF credit market, the credit risk associated with SMEs poses a serious challenge and potential threat to the stability, health, and sustainable development of the SCF system. This paper pays special attention to the stability of the two-party evolutionary game between SMEs and financial institutions (FIs) within the context of the Chinese SCF credit market. To identify a pathway to reduce credit risks for SMEs while simultaneously enhancing system stability, this paper adopts the stochastic evolutionary game (SEG) model and combines the fixed-point method to determine the conditions that satisfy the stability of the system's index p mean square of the system. This study has made attempts in various aspects, such as the innovative construction and investigation of a nonlinear SEG model, the endeavor to study the stability of SEG systems using fixed-point methods, and the innovative construction of a more realistic two-player SEG system. The data and simulation results generated from hypothetical scenarios show that the conclusions of the article are credible and feasible. Through the study, we conclude that the higher credit ratio from FI and the higher penalty intensity from core enterprises (CEs) will accelerate the stability of the system. Based on solid data and modeling analysis, insights into the regulation of FI are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought-induced stress poses a significant challenge to wheat throughout its growth, underscoring the importance of identifying drought-stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for enhancing grain yield. Here, we evaluated 18 yield-related agronomic and physiological traits, along with their drought tolerance indices, in a recombinant inbred line population derived from the XC7 × XC21 cross. These evaluations were conducted under both non-stress and drought-stress conditions. Drought stress significantly reduced grain weight per spike and grain yield per plot. Genotyping the recombinant inbred line population using the wheat 90K single nucleotide polymorphism array resulted in the identification of 131 QTLs associated with the 18 traits. Drought stress also exerted negative impacts on grain formation and filling, directly leading to reductions in grain weight per spike and grain yield per plot. Among the identified QTLs, 43 were specifically associated with drought tolerance across the 18 traits, with 6 showing direct linkages to drought tolerance in wheat. These results provide valuable insights into the genetic mechanisms governing wheat growth and development, as well as the traits contributing to the drought tolerance index. Moreover, they serve as a theoretical foundation for the development of new wheat cultivars having exceptional drought tolerance and high yield potentials under both drought-prone and drought-free conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is one of the commonly used feed ingredients in pig production and is usually characterized by high crude fat and high unsaturated fatty acids. However, the effect of adding high levels of DDGS to the diet on the lipid profile of muscle in finishing pigs is unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effects of feeding DDGS on the meat quality, chemical composition, fatty acid composition, and lipidomics profiling in the longissimus thoracis (LT) of finishing pigs. The results show that feeding DDGS affects meat quality and fatty acid composition, and alters lipid deposition in muscle by affecting lipid metabolism in finishing pigs. This study investigated the effects of adding corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) to the diet on the meat quality, chemical composition, fatty acid composition, and lipidomics profiling in the longissimus thoracis (LT) of finishing pigs. Twenty-four healthy crossbred pigs (average body weight 61.23 ± 3.25 kg) were randomly divided into two groups with three replicates per group and four pigs per pen. The control group (CON) was fed a basal diet, and the DDGS group was fed an experimental diet with 30% DDGS. The results show that adding DDGS to the diet increases the yellowness (b*), chroma (C*), linoleic acid (C18:2n-6) percentages, polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) percentages and iodine value of LT (p < 0.05). Based on LC–ESI–MS/MS, 1456 lipids from 6 classes or 44 subclasses in LT were analyzed, and 50 differential lipids were observed. Triglyceride (TG) with C18:2n-6 side chains and ceramide alpha-hydroxy fatty acid-sphingosine (Cer–AS) contents increased significantly, and the decrease in multiple glycerophospholipids (GPs) content may be related to differences in the glycerophospholipid metabolic pathway. Correlation analysis suggests that triglycerides with C18:2n-6 side chains may be one of the reasons for the changes in b* and C* values in the LT. In conclusion, feeding DDGS affects the meat quality and fatty acid composition and may affect the lipid profile in the LT of finishing pigs by regulating lipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catapult-assisted takeoff is the initiation of flight missions for carrier-based aircrafts. Ensuring the safety of aircrafts during catapult-assisted takeoff requires a thorough analysis of their motion characteristics. In this paper, a rigid–flexible coupling model using the Finite Element Method and Multibody Dynamics (FEM-MBD) approach is developed to simulate the aircraft catapult process. This model encompasses the aircraft frame, landing gear, carrier deck, and catapult launch system. Firstly, reasonable assumptions were made for the dynamic modeling of catapult-assisted takeoff. An enhanced plasticity algorithm that includes transverse shear effects was employed to simulate the tensioning and release processes of the holdback system. Additionally, the forces applied by the launch bar and holdback bar, nonlinear aerodynamics loads, shock absorbers, and tires were introduced. Finally, a comparative analysis was conducted to assess the influence of different launch bar angles and holdback bar fracture stain on the aircraft's attitude and landing gear dynamics during the catapult process. The proposed rigid–flexible coupling dynamics model enables an effective analysis of the dynamic behavior throughout the entire catapult process, including both the holdback bar tensioning and release, takeoff taxing, and extension of the nose landing gear phases. The results show that higher launch bar angle increase the load and extension of the nose landing gear and cause pronounced fluctuations in the aircraft's pitch attitude. Additionally, the holdback bar fracture strain has a significant impact on the pitch angle during the first second of the aircraft catapult process, with greater holdback bar fracture strain resulting in larger pitch angle variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate estimation of the state of charge (SOC) of lithium-ion batteries is critical in battery energy storage systems. This paper introduces a novel approach, the AdaBoost–BPNN model, to overcome the limitations of traditional data-driven estimation methods, such as a low estimation accuracy and poor generalization ability. The proposed model employs a back propagation neural network (BPNN) for the preliminary estimation. Subsequently, an AdaBoost–BPNN model is developed as a strong learner using the AdaBoost integration algorithm. Each BPNN sub-model serves as a weak learner within the AdaBoost framework. The final output of the strong learner is obtained by combining the individual outputs from the weak learners using weighting factors. This adaptive adjustment of weighting factors enhances the accuracy of SOC estimation. The proposed SOC estimation algorithm is evaluated and validated through experimental analysis. Throughout the paper, theoretical analysis is conducted, and the proposed AdaBoost–BPNN model is validated and verified using experimental results. The results demonstrate that the AdaBoost–BPNN model outperforms traditional methods in accurately estimating SOC under various conditions, including constant current-constant voltage (CCCV) charging, dynamical stress testing (DST), US06, a federal urban driving schedule (FUDS), and pulse discharge conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses to wheat worldwide, with negative effects on wheat growth and yield. Assessing genetic variation and drought stress tolerance of key agronomic and physiological traits of spring wheat and screening germplasm resources for higher drought tolerance and yield stability are a prerequisite for developing new, better-adapted spring wheat varieties. This study evaluated nine important agronomic and physiological traits in 152 spring wheat cultivars under non-stress (NS) and drought-stress (DS) conditions. Under DS conditions, grain yield per plot (GYP) and grain weight per spike (GWE) were significantly reduced by 33.8% and 31.7%, and their drought-tolerance indexes (DIs) were only 0.66 and 0.69, respectively, indicating that GYP and GWE are the most susceptible traits to drought stress. The SPAD value of flag leave at flowering stage decreased by 13.9% under DS conditions, and the DI of SPAD was 0.86. In addition, DI-SPAD was significantly positively correlated with DIs of plant height (PH), grain number per spikelet (GPS), grain number per spike (GNS), GWE and GYP, indicating that the drought tolerance and yield of wheat are closely related to chlorophyll retention. Six wheat germplasm accessions were identified for their ability to sustain grain yield and improve drought tolerance simultaneously. These results provide insights into the genetic co-variation between grain yield and drought stress tolerance and provide a theoretical basis for the development of new wheat cultivars with excellent drought tolerance and high yields in the presence and absence of drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas-liquid two-phase swirling flow is widely used for gas-liquid separation in the power, chemical, petroleum, and nuclear industries. However, the majority of current research on swirling flow focuses on identifying flow patterns and does not pay more attention to topics such as the boundary where swirling flow forms. The length and diameter of the central gas core are the main focus of the current studies as well as the distribution patterns of gas-liquid two-phase. Comparative studies on the gas-liquid distribution morphology, such as whether the gas phase is separated and the separation mode, are lacking. In this paper, a combination of visual experimental observations and numerical simulations of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to investigate the formation conditions of gas-liquid two-phase swirling flow in three types of cyclonic components. The results show that the minimum superficial liquid velocity for the formation of swirling flow in the horizontal tube is about 0.375~0.82 m/s when the superficial gas velocity is less than 10 m/s. The formation of swirling flow is almost independent of the geometric swirl number and superficial liquid velocity when the superficial gas velocity is greater than 10 m/s. At low inlet superficial velocities, the tangential velocity determines the transition from swirling flow to stratified flow. However, at higher inlet superficial velocities, the decay of the cyclonic field is mainly affected by the wave amplitude of the gas-liquid interface. In both co-current and counter-current horizontal inline gas-liquid cyclone separators, the flow split is related to the vortex core breakdown of the central gas core. In addition, the numerical simulation results show that the breakdown of the vortex core is related to the pressure distribution inside the separator. This work enriches the study of swirling flow and provides a basis for the performance improvement of inline gas-liquid cyclone separators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A class of generalized Halanay inequalities is studied via the Banach fixed point method and comparison principle. The conditions to ensure the boundedness and stability of the zero solution are obtained in this study. This research provides a new approach to the study of the boundedness and stability of Halanay inequality. Numerical examples and simulation results verify the validity and superiority of the conclusions obtained in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has focused on classification within a closed set of emitters, while emitters outside this closed set are misclassified. This paper proposes an open-set recognition model based on prototypical networks and extreme value theory to solve the problem of specific emitter identification in open-set scenes and further improve the recognition accuracy and robustness. Firstly, a one-dimensional convolutional neural network was designed for recognizing I/Q signals, and a squeeze-and-excitation block with an attention mechanism was added to the network to increase the weights of the feature channels with high efficiency. Meanwhile, the recognition was improved by group convolution and channel shuffle. Then, the network was trained with the joint loss function based on prototype learning to complete the separation of intra-class signals and the aggregation of inter-class signals in the feature space. After the training, the Weibull model was fitted for pre-defined classes by incorporating the extreme value theory. Finally, the classification results were obtained according to the known classes and the Weibull model, effectively completing the open-set recognition. The simulation results showed that the proposed model had a higher recognition performance and robustness compared with other classical models for signals collected from five ZigBee and ten USRP 310 devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis is an important swine bacterial pathogen that activates macrophages to secrete inflammatory cytokines. Primary porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) are inconvenient to obtain, but it is unknown whether immortalized PAM-Tang cells can replace them as a better cell model for the study of the interaction between S. suis and macrophages. In this study, the phagocytic integrity, polarization, and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion of PAM-Tang cells were confirmed by live-cell imaging, electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, and ELISA. Interestingly, the S. suis serotype 9 avirulent strain W7119 induced higher levels of adhesion and pro-inflammatory cytokines in PAM-Tang cells than the S. suis serotype 2 virulent strain 700794. Prolonged incubation with S. suis caused more cytotoxic cell damage, and the virulent strain induced higher levels of cytotoxicity to PAM-Tang cells. The virulent strain also induced higher levels of apoptosis in PAM-Tang cells, as shown by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. In addition, it is the first report of virulent and avirulent S. suis inducing PAM-Tang polarization towards pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages and p53- and caspase-dependent apoptosis in PAMs. Taken together, this study contributes to a better understand of interactions between macrophages and S. suis isolates of different virulence, and confirms that PAM-Tang cells provide a long-term, renewable resource for investigating macrophage infections with bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslide susceptibility evaluation (LSE) refers to the probability of landslide occurrence in a region under a specific geological environment and trigger conditions, which is crucial to preventing and controlling landslide risk. The mainstream of the Yangtze River in Yichang City belongs to the largest basin in the Three Gorges Reservoir area and is prone to landslides. Affected by global climate change, seismic activity, and accelerated urbanization, geological disasters such as landslide collapses and debris flows in the study area have increased significantly. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out the LSE in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River Basin. The main results are as follows: (1) Based on historical landslide catalog, geological data, geographic data, hydrological data, remote sensing data, and other multi-source spatial-temporal big data, we construct the LSE index system; (2) In this paper, unsupervised Deep Embedding Clustering (DEC) algorithm and deep integration network (Capsule Neural Network based on SENet: SE-CapNet) are used for the first time to participate in non-landslide sample selection, and LSE in the study area and the accuracy of the algorithm is 96.29; (3) Based on the constructed sensitivity model and rainfall forecast data, the main driving mechanisms of landslides in the Yangtze River Basin were revealed. In this paper, the study area's mid-long term LSE prediction and trend analysis are carried out. (4) The complete results show that the method has good performance and high precision, providing a reference for subsequent LSE, landslide susceptibility prediction (LSP), and change rule research, and providing a scientific basis for landslide disaster prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The headwaters of the Yangtze River are a complicated system composed of different eco-environment elements. The abnormal moisture and energy exchanges between the atmosphere and earth systems caused by global climate change are predicted to produce drastic changes in these eco-environment elements. In order to study the dynamic effect and ecological stress in the eco-environment, we adapted the Double Attention Mechanism (DAM) to improve the performance of the DeepLab V3+ network in large-scale semantic segmentation. We proposed Elements Fragmentation (EF) and Elements Information Content (EIC) to quantitatively analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and spatial relationships of eco-environment elements. In this paper, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) we established sample sets based on "Sentinel-2" remote sensing images using the interpretation signs of eco-environment elements; (2) the mAP, mIoU, and Kappa of the improved DeepLab V3+ method were 0.639, 0.778, and 0.825, respectively, which demonstrates a good ability to distinguish the eco-environment elements; (3) between 2015 and 2021, EF gradually increased from 0.2234 to 0.2394, and EIC increased from 23.80 to 25.32, which shows that the eco-environment is oriented to complex, heterogeneous, and discontinuous processes; (4) the headwaters of the Yangtze River are a community of life, and thus we should build a multifunctional ecological management system with which to implement well-organized and efficient scientific ecological rehabilitation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stacking growth of the InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) on top of a carrier injection layer is a very useful strategy to develop QD devices. This research aims to study the carrier injection effect in hybrid structures with a layer of In0.4Ga0.6As surface quantum dots (SQDs), coupled to an injection layer of either one layer of In0.4Ga0.6As buried QDs (BQDs) or an In0.15Ga0.85As quantum well (QW), both through a 10 nm GaAs thin spacer. Spectroscopic measurements show that carrier capture and emission efficiency for SQDs in the BQD injection structure is better than that of the QW injection, due to strong physical and electrical coupling between the two QD layers. In the case of QW injection, although most carriers can be collected into the QW, they then tunnel into the wetting layer of the SQDs and are subsequently lost to surface states via non-radiative recombination. Therefore, the QW as an injection source for SQDs may not work as well as the BQDs for stacking coupled SQDs structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Observational studies on the association between neuroticism and coronary artery disease (CAD) are still rare, and the results of existing studies are not consistent. The present study aimed to explore causal associations of neuroticism with CAD. Methods: The summary-level data of GWAS for neuroticism and 12 items used to assess neuroticism were extracted from the UK Biobank, and included up to 380,506 participants. The general data for CAD were obtained from the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D consortium, which assembled 60,801 CAD patients and 123,504 non-cases. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with neuroticism and 12 items at genome-wide significance were explored as instrumental variables. Two-sample Mendelian randomization (TSMR) analyses were performed to evaluate causal associations amongst the genetically predicted neuroticism and 12 items with CAD. Results: The present TSMR study did not reveal the genetic association of neuroticism with CAD. The calculated ORs for CAD using inverse-variance weighted, weighted median, and MR-Egger analysis were 1.12 (p-value = 0.187), 0.99 (p-value = 0.943), and 0.82 (p-value = 0.683), respectively. Further TSMR analysis of 12 dichotomous items for assessing neuroticism suggested that mood swings genetically increased the risk of CAD (OR = 1.67, p-value < 0.001). Conclusions: This study reported no genetically causal association of neuroticism with CAD. The present study also found that mood swings may genetically increase the risk of CAD. These findings may highlight the potential of mood control as a preventive measure for CAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The T-joints of medium-thick 6082 Al-alloy plates created by dual pulsed gas metal arc welding (P-GMAW) and bilateral synchronous welding were investigated to improve weld quality using the adaptive deposition method, which calculates the minimum amount of deposition according to the welding condition, groove size, and cross-sectional area, effectively reducing the heat input and deformation of the welds on the basis of weld filling. The optimized linear energy with a wire feed speed (WFS) of 9.5 m/min can ensure a well-formed weld with a complete root fusion, and high-quality T-joint welds were obtained both in root openings of 0 mm and 1 mm. The biggest penetration was 4 mm, which was four times more than that of the result from a single torch welding process. When the distance between the two welding torches exceeded 20 mm, the molten pool was completely separated, and process pores were observed in the unfused root zone. Influenced by the thermal cycles in asymmetric welding, the hardness distribution changed: the width of the softer zone at the base plate with the fore arc was smaller than that zone with the rear arc. Furthermore, dual P-GMAW bilateral synchronous welding with an asymmetric heat source can further reduce the deformation of the welded joint by about 20% compared to that of symmetric welding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The T-joint is one of the essential types of joints in aluminum welded structures. Double-sided welding is a preferable solution to maintain high efficiency and avoid significant distortion during T-joint welding. However, interactions between double-sided molten pools make flow behaviors complicated during welding. Numerical simulations regarding molten pool behaviors were conducted in this research to understand the complex flow phenomenon. The influences of wire feed rates and torch distances were simulated and discussed. The results show that droplet impinging drives the fluid to flow down to the root and form a frontward vortex. Marangoni stress forces the fluid to form an outward vortex near the molten pool boundary and flatten the concave-shaped molten pool surface. With an increased wire feed speed, the volume of the molten pool increases, and the root fusion is improved. With an increased torch distance, the width of the front molten pool decreases while the length increases, and the rear molten pool size decreases slightly. Both wire feed speeds and the torch distances have limited influences on the basic flow characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-net visible fidelity zooplankton collector is designed to obtain near-bottom fidelity zooplankton. The collector is sent to the designated sampling location based on the information provided by the camera and altimeter. The host computer sends instructions to control the opening of the net port for sample collection and closing of the sampling cylinder cover after sampling. The collector contains three trawls so that three samples can be collected for each test, and environmental parameters can be collected simultaneously. After sampling, The sample maintains its fidelity, that is, maintaining the temperature and pressure of the seabed sample after sampling. Two experiments were carried out in the Western Pacific, and six bottles of zooplankton samples were successfully obtained. The development of a multi-net visible zooplankton collector is of great significance for the collection of near-bottom zooplankton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective oxygen excess ratio control strategy for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) can avoid oxygen starvation and optimize system performance. In this paper, a fuzzy PID control strategy based on granular function (GFPID) was proposed. Meanwhile, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell dynamic model was established on the MATLAB/Simulink platform, including the stack model system and the auxiliary system. In order to avoid oxygen starvation due to the transient variation of load current and optimize the parasitic power of the auxiliary system and the stack voltage, the purpose of optimizing the overall operating condition of the system was finally achieved. Adaptive fuzzy PID (AFPID) control has the technical bottleneck limitation of fuzzy rules explosion. GFPID eliminates fuzzification and defuzzification to solve this phenomenon. The number of fuzzy rules does not affect the precision of GFPID control, which is only related to the fuzzy granular points in the fitted granular response function. The granular function replaces the conventional fuzzy controller to realize the online adjustment of PID parameters. Compared with the conventional PID and AFPID control, the feasibility and superiority of the algorithm based on particle function are verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canine adenovirus (CAdV) has a high prevalence in canine populations. High affinity neutralizing antibodies against conserved epitopes can provide protective immunity against CAdV and protect against future outbreaks. In this study, we identified two CAdV-2-specific neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), 2C1 and 7D7, which recognized two linear-dependent epitopes. MAb 2C1 potently neutralized CAdV-2 with a 50% neutralization titer (NT50) of 4096, and mAb 7D7 partially neutralized CAdV-2 with a 50% NT50 of 64. Immunoprecipitation, Western blot and protein spectral analysis indicated that both neutralizing mAbs recognized the hexon protein (Hex) of CAdV-2. Through a 12-mer random peptide phage display and synthetic peptides analysis, we finely mapped the neutralizing epitopes to two 10-amino acid (aa) peptides within the CAdV Hex: 634RIKQRETPAL643 located on the surface region; and 736PESYKDRMYS745 located in the inner region of the expected 3D structure of trimeric Hex. Importantly, the two epitopes are highly conserved among all CAdV isolates by sequence alignment analysis. Thus, these results provide insights into the interaction between virus and mAbs at the aa level and may have potential applications in the development of novel therapeutic or epitope-based vaccines, antibody therapeutics and a diagnostic method suitable for the rapid detection of all CAdVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid increase of photovoltaic (PV) penetration and distributed grid access, photovoltaic generation (PVG)-integrated multi-area power systems may be disturbed by more uncertain factors, such as PVG, grid-tie inverter parameters, and resonance. These uncertain factors will exacerbate the frequency fluctuations of PVG integrated multi-area interconnected power systems. For such system, this paper proposes a load frequency control (LFC) strategy based on double equivalent-input-disturbance (EID) controllers. The PVG linear model and the multi-area interconnected power system linear model were established, respectively, and the disturbances were caused by grid voltage fluctuations in PVG subsystem and PV output power fluctuation and load change in multi-area interconnected power system. In PVG subsystems and multi-area interconnected power systems, two EID controllers add differently estimated equivalent system disturbances, which has the same effect as the actual disturbance, to the input channel to compensate for the impact of actual disturbances. The simulation results in MATLAB/Simulink show that the frequency deviation range of the proposed double EID method is 6% of FA-PI method and 7% of conventional PI method, respectively, when the grid voltage fluctuation and load disturbance exist. The double EID method can better compensate for the effects of external disturbances, suppress frequency fluctuations, and make the system more stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the ecological problems caused by mine development become increasingly prominent, the conflict between mining activity and environmental protection is gradually intensifying. There is an urgent problem regarding how to effectively monitor mineral exploitation activities. In order to automatic identify and dynamically monitor open-pit mines of Hubei Province, an open-pit mine extraction model based on Improved Mask R-CNN (Region Convolutional Neural Network) and Transfer learning (IMRT) is proposed, a set of multi-source open-pit mine sample databases consisting of Gaofen-1, Gaofen-2 and Google Earth satellite images with a resolution of two meters is constructed, and an automatic batch production process of open-pit mine targets is designed. In this paper, pixel-based evaluation indexes and object-based evaluation indexes are used to compare the recognition effect of IMRT, faster R-CNN, Maximum Likelihood (MLE) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The IMRT model has the best performance in Pixel Accuracy (PA), Kappa and MissingAlarm, with values of 0.9718, 0.8251 and 0.0862, respectively, which shows that the IMRT model has a better effect on open-pit mine automatic identification, and the results are also used as evaluation units of the environmental damages of the mines. The evaluation results show that level Ⅰ (serious) land occupation and destruction of key mining areas account for 34.62%, and 36.2% of topographical landscape damage approached level I. This study has great practical significance in terms of realizing the coordinated development of mines and ecological environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betula alnoides is a valuable timber species with wide ecological adaptability in Southeast Asia and southern China. There are more than 150,000 ha of B. alnoides plantations in China until now. However, heavy differentiation in growth and quality traits with low productivity are usually seen in the practice. Elite germplasm are thus urgently needed for this species. Here growth and quality traits for 199 families of 25 provenances were assessed at four sites when 10–15 years old to estimate genetic parameters and reveal genotype by environment (G × E) interaction, and screen out superior provenances and families for plantation forestry of B. alnoides. The growth and quality performances of provenances varied with sites. Significant site, provenance, family and provenance-site effects were revealed for most growth and quality traits, while significant family-site effects were only observed in crown width (CW) and crown shape (CS), inferring that there existed significant G × E interaction. The provenance repeatability ( h p 2 ) and family heritability ( h f 2 ) of all tested traits ranged from 0.026 to 0.636 and 0.148 to 0.578, respectively. Stem volume showed the highest genetic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (GCV, PCV) among all traits at each site. The diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height (H), height to live crown base (HCB) and CW were strongly correlated with other traits, and were also under relatively higher genetic control and had stronger discriminating ability on genotype differences. Through biplot analyses of main genotypic effect and G × E interaction (GGE) for these traits, five provenances and 20 families were screened out with selection ratio of 20 % and 10% at provenance and family level, respectively. The genetic and realized gains at provenance level ranged from 0.25% to 2.01% and 2.43% to 14.84%, and those at family level ranged from 0.85% to 21.22% and 5.76% to 36.71%, respectively. The findings lay a foundation for subsequent study on genetic improvement and breeding of this species, and application of the superior provenances and families will greatly increase the productivity of its plantations in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rectangular terminal electrode is adopted in this research to conduct a resistance spot welding (RSW) process on stainless steel plate. The connection status of RSW joints under different welding current, time, and pressure were studied, and revealed how the rectangular terminal electrode shape and its dimensions influence the RSW joint dimensions. The process analysis results showed that the RSW nuggets welded with rectangular terminal electrode are normally elliptical in shape, and the dimensions of the long axis direction and the short axis direction have a certain proportion. As the welding current increases, the nuggets dimensions in long direction increase first and then decrease, and the internal grain structure also varies. As the welding time increases, the nugget size in long direction increase first and then steady and rarely splash occurs. As the welding pressure increase, the nugget dimensions in long direction increase first and then decrease, and the splash easily occurs under large welding pressure. However, when the welding pressure is too small, the unique adjacent double fusion nugget formed. By adopting proper welding parameters, the nugget size and quality can be controlled. This provides an important basis for the application of rectangular terminal electrode in RSW welding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rainy seasons have been becoming irregular and unpredictable under global warming now. This usually makes seedling preparation more difficult to match transplanting. Here applications of plant growth regulators, paclobutrazol (PBZ) and gibberellins (GA3) were studied with two trials to regulate growth of Betula alnoides Buch. Ham. ex D. Don container seedlings for the purpose of improving their quality when transplanting delayed. In the first trial five treatments (coded as P1 to P5) were laid out with total dosages of 0 mg (control), 2 mg, 6 mg, 10 mg and 20 mg PBZ per seedling to assess inhibitory effects of PBZ on growth of B. alnoides seedlings. After four and a half months, the second trial was carried out on the seedlings from the optimized PBZ treatments to detect growth recover of the seedlings by GA3, in which four treatments were arranged with GA3 dosages being 0, 1/10, 1/5 and 1/3 of the optimized paclobutrazol amounts applied. PBZ applications resulted in a significant decrease of height and root collar diameter growth since approximately one and two months after being treated, respectively. Among these treatments, P5 was the best one in controlling seedling growth, and its inhibitory effects lasted more than four and half months. PBZ treatments differed obviously in total seedling biomass from the control at 96 and 132 days after treatment (dat), and allocated more ratio of biomass into roots. Their root/shoot ratios increased and leaf areas decreased considerably with increasing PBZ dosage, while only P5-treated seedlings showed remarkable difference from the control in chlorophyll contents. The GA3 recovery showed that 15-day height increments of seedlings treated with GA3 were twice more than that without GA3 treatment, and did not differ significantly from the control without PBZ and GA3 treatment. It is concluded that the combined application of PBZ and GA3 can be recommended as a potential tool for regulating growth of B. alnoides seedlings, making it flexible to growing seedlings in the nursery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved thermal efficiency in energy-intensive metal-reheating furnaces has attracted much attention recently in efforts to reduce both fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. Thermal efficiency of these furnaces has improved in recent years (through the installation of regenerative or recuperative burners), and improved refractory insulation. However, further improvements can still be achieved through setting up reference values for the optimal set-point temperatures of the furnaces. Having a reasonable expression of objective function is of particular importance in such optimisation. This paper presents a function value-based multi-objective optimisation where the objective functions, which address such concerns as discharge temperature, temperature uniformity, and specific fuel consumption, are dependent on each other. Hooke-Jeeves direct search algorithm (HJDSA) was used to minimise the objective functions under a series of production rates. The optimised set-point temperatures were further used to construct an artificial neural network (ANN) of set-point temperature in each control zone. The constructed artificial neural networks have the potential to be incorporated into a more advanced control solution to update the set-point temperatures when the reheating furnace encounters a production rate change. The results suggest that the optimised set-point temperatures can highly improve heating accuracy, which is less than 1 °C from the desired discharge temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the issue caused by the tail gas of viscous oil fire flooding, which carries a large amount of jeopardizing liquid, the Liaohe Oilfield No. 56 desulfurization station applies the vertical processing separator as the main dehumidification equipment for moisture elimination. However, the lack of study on the separator’s gas–liquid separation mechanism leads to unclear recognition of the equipment’s processing capability, which easily causes the desulfurization tower to water out, and the tail gas gathering network system to get frozen and blocked. To result in a solution to the problems above, numerical simulation software is applied in this paper based on the oil field’s actual operation data to establish a mathematical model for calculation, which may assist in simulating the gas–liquid separating process, in analyzing the flow field distribution within the separator, and in studying the dehumidification mechanism in terms of influencing factors and laws of equipment dehumidification efficiency. Finally, this helps optimizing the separator’s structure based on the calculation results. The research results provide a theoretical basis and technical support for the practical application of dehumidification equipment in oil fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]