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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) exert a vital role in sperm quality during semen preservation, where excessive ROS leads to oxidative damage and undermines sperm integrity. Curcumin, a botanical extract, is capable of neutralizing ROS and enhancing the activity of antioxidant enzymes. This study was aimed at evaluating the effects of curcumin on sperm viability, acrosome integrity, and antioxidant levels, as well as metabolomic and lipidomic profiles. The results demonstrated that curcumin at 25 µmol/L significantly enhanced sperm motility, plasma membrane, and acrosome integrity, elevated the levels of antioxidant enzymes (T-AOC, CAT, SOD), and decreased ROS production (p < 0.05). Metabolomic analysis identified 93 distinct metabolites that showed significant differences between the control and curcumin-treated groups. KEGG pathways emphasized the participation of these metabolites in key metabolic processes such as the citric acid cycle, cholesterol metabolism, and fatty acid metabolism. Curcumin treatment brought about notable variations in lipid profiles, including increased levels of phosphatidylcholine, acylcarnitine, and triglyceride over the storage time, suggesting enhanced lipid anabolic activity. Overall, the supplementation of curcumin at 25 µmol/L effectively mitigates oxidative stress and prolongs the viability of semen storage at 16 °C by modulating specific metabolic and lipid profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China's reform and opening up in 1978, the reclamation and abandonment of cropland in Xinjiang have become significant features of the land use change in the arid land of Northwest China. However, the spatiotemporal changes and driving mechanisms of cropland reclamation and abandonment over long time periods are still unclear, but this is crucial in understanding cropland changes in inland arid land, providing important insights for land management and agricultural development. Based on 40 years of remote sensing data on resources and the environment, this study examines the spatiotemporal characteristics of cropland reclamation and abandonment in Xinjiang over four periods since 1980. Additionally, it uses an optimal parameter geographical detector model to quantify the driving factors for each period. The results indicate that cropland reclamation experiences a "slow decrease–rapid increase" trend, forming a "V-shaped" pattern, while abandonment shows a "rapid decrease–slow decrease–slow increase" trend, forming a "U-shaped" pattern. These trends can be divided into three periods: 1980–1990 (unstable growth), 1990–2010 (stable growth), and 2010–2020 (growth with constraints). The movement pattern of cropland reclamation's center of gravity is "slightly southeast–slightly northeast–southwest", whereas the abandonment's center of gravity shifts "northeast–southwest–northeast". Further analysis reveals that the impact of agricultural technological investment and infrastructure on cropland reclamation has increased, while the influence of natural environmental factors has decreased. Although climate and water resources remain key factors in cropland abandonment, the influence of economic and social factors has gradually diminished, and the impact of agricultural mechanization has steadily risen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data of multiple Chinese household finance surveys, the interactive relationship between mobile payment, inclusive digital finance, and household consumption is discussed. It is found that mobile payment can directly and effectively improve household consumption, and the impact on hedonistic and developmental consumption is greater than survival consumption, which is conducive to upgrading household consumption. At the same time, mobile payment can indirectly promote basic and developmental consumer spending through digital inclusive financial mechanisms and weaken hedonistic consumer spending. The heterogeneity analysis found that the impact of mobile payment on household consumption was affected by income level, dependency structure, and regional attributes, and the low-income and high-income groups benefited more significantly, and the consumption promotion effect in the eastern and central regions was greater than that in the western and northeastern regions. Further research finds that with the improvement of income status, the promotion effect of mobile payment on consumption shows a marginal decreasing trend. It is recommended to continue to promote the popularization and application of mobile payment, accelerate the matching of supply and demand in the consumer market, formulate financial inclusion policies according to local conditions, and form a good interaction mechanism between mobile payment, digital finance, and household consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large language models (LLMs) have gained immense attention and are being increasingly applied in various domains. However, this technological leap forward poses serious security and privacy concerns. This paper explores a novel approach to data stealing attacks by introducing an adaptive method to extract private training data from pre-trained LLMs via backdooring. Our method mainly focuses on the scenario of model customization and is conducted in two phases, including backdoor training and backdoor activation, which allow for the extraction of private information without prior knowledge of the model's architecture or training data. During the model customization stage, attackers inject the backdoor into the pre-trained LLM by poisoning a small ratio of the training dataset. During the inference stage, attackers can extract private information from the third-party knowledge database by incorporating the pre-defined backdoor trigger. Our method leverages the customization process of LLMs, injecting a stealthy backdoor that can be triggered after deployment to retrieve private data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed attack through extensive experiments, achieving a notable attack success rate. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our stealing attack in popular LLM architectures, as well as stealthiness during normal inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we performed a quantitative analysis of 12 compounds derived from Piper sarmentosum extract (PSE) and guava leaf extract (GE). In addition, we investigated the effects of mixed extract (ME) of PSE and GE (1:1) on piglets' gut microbiome and metabolome. A total of 200 piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Large Yorkshire, 21‐day‐old) were randomly assigned into two groups with five replicates of 20 piglets/pen having the same initial body weight. Piglets were fed a basal diet supplemented with ME at 0 (T0) or 200 mg/kg (T1) for 3 weeks. The quantitation results by ultraperformance liquid chromatography linked to triple‐quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry showed that vitexin 2‐O‐rhamnoside and pellitorine were the greatest abundant among six compounds detected in the PSE. In addition, quercetin, isoquercitrin and avicularin were found to be the richest of all detected compounds in the GE. Findings on experimental animals indicated that three differential metabolites, comprising L‐alanine, sarcosine and dihydrofolic acid, in T1 compared with T0 groups, have exactly opposite levels trends in serum and faeces. Moreover, two metabolic pathways (i.e., urea cycle and glutamate metabolism) differed significantly in the serum and faeces of piglets between T0 and T1 (p < 0.05). At the same time, T1 had significantly higher relative abundances of Agathobacter and Alloprevotella than T0 at genus level (p < 0.05). Correlation analysis revealed that the genus Agathobacter correlated positively with carbamoyl phosphate (p < 0.01) and oxoglutaric acid (p < 0.05), and negatively with succinic acid (p < 0.01) and ornithine (p < 0.05). These four differential metabolites were also involved in the urea cycle and/or glutamate metabolism pathways. The results here indicated that the tested plant extract mixture represents a worthy feed additive with obvious antioxidative properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) changes caused by land use changes are still unclear, and understanding this response is essential for many environmental policies and land management practices. In this study, we investigated the temporal–spatial and vertical distribution characteristics of the SOCS in the Western Sichuan Plateau (WSP) using the sparrow search algorithm–random forest regression (SSA-RFR) models with excellent model applicability and accuracy. The temporal–spatial variations in the SOCS were modeled using 1080 soil samples and a set of nine environmental covariates. We analyzed the effect of land use changes on the SOCS in the WSP. The total SOCS increased by 18.03 Tg C from 1990 to 2020. The results of this study confirmed a significant increase in the SOCS in the study area since 2010. There was a 27.88 Tg C increase in the SOCS in 2020 compared to the total SOCS in 2010. We found that the spatial distribution of the SOCS increased from southeast to northwest, and the vertical distribution of the SOCS in the study area decreased with increasing soil depth. Forests and grasslands are the main sources of SOCS the total SOCS in the forest and grassland accounted for 37.53 and 59.39% of the total soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in 2020, respectively. The expansion of the wetlands, forest, and grassland areas could increase the SOCS in the study area. A timely and accurate understanding of the dynamics of SOC is crucial for developing effective land management strategies to enhance carbon sequestration and mitigate land degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviewed the development of optically pumped GaSb based semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs) emission at 2 μm wavelength region from the aspects of wavelength extending, power scaling, line-width narrowing and short-pulse generation. Most recently, the wavelength of GaSb based SDLs has been extended to 2.8 μm. The highest output power of the GaSb based SDLs has been reached to 17 W at the temperature of 20 ℃. By using active stabilization, the GaSb based SDL with line-width of 20 kHz and output power of 1 W was realized. Moreover, the shortest pulse obtained from the GaSb based SDLs was generated as short as 384 fs by incorporating semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM) in the cavity.

During the early period of the Joseon Dynasty, the government undertook currency reform at both central and local levels to promote currency exchange and restructure market order. Drawing on historical sources and utilizing game theory methodologies, this study examines the challenges of state governance and the dynamics of central-local relations during this era. The findings suggest that the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty's governance system arose from the rulers' deliberate decisions; however, it was also driven by the necessity to reconcile the development of productive forces with the superstructure. The study highlights the impact of the "official" issue on communication efficiency between central and local authorities, which contributed to the currency reform's failure. Consequently, the central government's regulation and control over local regions, as well as its ability to govern the aspirations of grassroots populations, emerged as crucial factors for successful national governance. This research provides valuable insights into the academic value and significance of historical state governance practices and informs contemporary centrallocal relations and policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]