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This study introduces a deep learning framework based on SMILES representations of chemical structures to predict drug–drug interactions (DDIs). The model extracts Morgan fingerprints and key molecular descriptors, transforming them into raw graphical features for input into a modified ResNet18 architecture. The deep residual network, enhanced with regularization techniques, efficiently addresses training issues such as gradient vanishing and exploding, resulting in superior predictive performance. Experimental results show that StructNet-DDI achieved an AUC of 99.7%, an accuracy of 94.4%, and an AUPR of 99.9%, demonstrating the model’s effectiveness and reliability. These findings highlight that StructNet-DDI can effectively extract crucial features from molecular structures, offering a simple yet robust tool for DDI prediction.

Southern stem canker (SSC) of soybean, attributable to the fungal pathogen Diaporthe aspalathi, results in considerable losses of soybean in the field and has damaged production in several of the main soybean-producing countries worldwide. Early and precise identification of the causal pathogen is imperative for effective disease management. In this study, we performed an RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a, as well as LAMP, PCR and real-time PCR assays to verify and compare their sensitivity, specificity and simplicity and the practicality of the reactions. We screened crRNAs targeting a specific single-copy gene, and optimized the reagent concentrations, incubation temperatures and times for the conventional PCR, real-time PCR, LAMP, RPA and Cas12a cleavage stages for the detection of D. aspalathi. In comparison with the PCR-based assays, two thermostatic detection technologies, LAMP and RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a, led to higher specificity and sensitivity. The sensitivity of the LAMP assay could reach 0.01 ng μL−1 genomic DNA, and was 10 times more sensitive than real-time PCR (0.1 ng μL−1) and 100 times more sensitive than conventional PCR assay (1.0 ng μL−1); the reaction was completed within 1 h. The sensitivity of the RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a assay reached 0.1 ng μL−1 genomic DNA, and was 10 times more sensitive than conventional PCR (1.0 ng μL−1), with a 30 min reaction time. Furthermore, the feasibility of the two thermostatic methods was validated using infected soybean leaf and seeding samples. The rapid, visual one-pot detection assay developed could be operated by non-expert personnel without specialized equipment. This study provides a valuable diagnostic platform for the on-site detection of SSC or for use in resource-limited areas.

We aimed to obtain the optimal formula for human milk fat substitute (HMFS) through a combination of software and an evaluation model and further verify its practicability through an animal experiment. The results showed that a total of 33 fatty acid (FA) and 63 triglyceride (TAG) molecular species were detected in vegetable oils. Palmitic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, 18:1/16:0/18:1, 18:2/16:0/18:2, 18:1/18:1/18:1 and 18:1/18:2/18:1, were the main molecular species among the FAs and TAGs in the vegetable oils. Based on the HMFS evaluation model, the optimal mixed vegetable oil formula was blended with 21.3% palm oil, 2.8% linseed oil, 2.6% soybean oil, 29.9% rapeseed oil and 43.4% maize oil, with the highest score of 83.146. Moreover, there was no difference in the weight, blood routine indices or calcium and magnesium concentrations in the feces of the mice between the homemade mixed vegetable oil (HMVO) group and the commercial mixed vegetable oil (CMVO) group, while nervonic acid (C24:1) and octanoic acid (C8:0) were absorbed easily in the HMVO group. Therefore, these results demonstrate that the mixing of the different vegetable oils was feasible via a combination of computer software and an evaluation model and provided a new way to produce HMFS.

Dendrobium nobile Lindl. polysaccharide (DNP1) showed good anti-inflammatory activity in our previous study. In this study, the structural characterization of DNP1 and its mode of action on TLR4 were investigated. Structural characterization suggested that DNP1 was a linear glucomannan composed of (1 → 4)-β-Manp and (1 → 4)-β-Glcp residues, and the acetyl group was linked to the C-2 of Manp. The possible repeating structural units of DNP1 were [→4)-2-OAc-β-Manp-(1→]3 →4)-β-Glcp-(1→. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) binding test results showed that DNP1 did not bind directly to TLR4. The TLR4 and MD2 receptor blocking tests confirmed that DNP1 needs MD2 and TLR4 to participate in its anti-inflammatory effect. The binding energy of DNP1 to TLR4-MD2 was −7.9 kcal/mol, indicating that DNP1 could bind to the TLR4-MD2 complex stably. Therefore, it is concluded that DNP1 may play an immunomodulatory role by binding to the TLR4-MD2 complex and inhibiting the TLR4-MD2-mediated signaling pathway.

During early lactation, dairy cows have a negative energy balance since their energy demands exceed their energy intake: in this study, we aimed to investigate the association between diet and plasma metabolomics profiles and how these relate to energy unbalance of course in the early-lactation stage. Holstein-Friesian cows were randomly assigned to a glucogenic (n = 15) or lipogenic (n = 15) diet in early lactation. Blood was collected in week 2 and week 4 after calving. Plasma metabolite profiles were detected using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and a total of 39 metabolites were identified. Two plasma metabolomic profiles were available every week for each cow. Metabolite abundance and metabolite ratios were used for the analysis using the XGboost algorithm to discriminate between diet treatment and lactation week. Using metabolite ratios resulted in better discrimination performance compared with the metabolite abundances in assigning cows to a lipogenic diet or a glucogenic diet. The quality of the discrimination of performance of lipogenic diet and glucogenic diet effects improved from 0.606 to 0.753 and from 0.696 to 0.842 in week 2 and week 4 (as measured by area under the curve, AUC), when the metabolite abundance ratios were used instead of abundances. The top discriminating ratios for diet were the ratio of arginine to tyrosine and the ratio of aspartic acid to valine in week 2 and week 4, respectively. For cows fed the lipogenic diet, choline and the ratio of creatinine to tryptophan were top features to discriminate cows in week 2 vs. week 4. For cows fed the glucogenic diet, methionine and the ratio of 4-hydroxyproline to choline were top features to discriminate dietary effects in week 2 or week 4. This study shows the added value of using metabolite abundance ratios to discriminate between lipogenic and glucogenic diet and lactation weeks in early-lactation cows when using metabolomics data. The application of this research will help to accurately regulate the nutrition of lactating dairy cows and promote sustainable agricultural development.

The Yellow-Bohai Sea is an important semi-enclosed continental shelf marginal seas with an intensive aquaculture industry in China. The current study analyzed the contamination status and the time variations of paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) in shellfish between 2019 and 2020 from the Yellow-Bohai Sea in the Dalian area and estimated the acute health risks to consumers in China. A total of 199 shellfish samples (including 34 Pacific oysters, 25 Mediterranean blue mussels, 34 Manila clams, 36 bay scallops, 34 veined rapa whelks and 36 bloody clams) were analyzed from four representative aquaculture zones around the Yellow-Bohai Sea in Dalian. Among the samples, scallops and blood clams were the shellfish species with the highest detection rate of PSTs (94.4%), and the highest level of PSTs was detected in scallops with 3953.5 μg STX.2HCl eq./kg (μg STX.2HCL equivalents per kg shellfish tissue), followed by blood clams with 993.4 μg STX.2HCl eq./kg. The contents of PSTs in shellfish showed a time variation trend, and autumn was the season of concern for PST contamination in Dalian. For general Chinese consumers, the probability of acute health risks to shellfish consumers from dietary exposure to PSTs was around 13%. For typical consumers in coastal areas of China, especially those with higher shellfish intake, there was an acute health risk associated with exposure to PSTs through shellfish consumption during the occurrence of harmful algal blooms. It is suggested that the government continue to strengthen the monitoring of the source of PSTs and the monitoring of harmful algal blooms and give reasonable advice on shellfish consumption for consumers in coastal areas, such as not eating scallop viscera.

The occurrence of optical loss on the surface of solar cells is inevitable due to the difference in the refractive index between air and glass, as well as the insufficient absorption of the active layer. To address this challenge, micron-sized geometry arrays, such as hemispheres and hemisphere pits, are prepared on quartz glass through the advanced indirect patterning technology of UV-LIGA. These geometric arrays exhibit multiple mechanisms for controlling light waves, including multiple rebounds, diffraction scattering, and total internal reflection. These synergistic effects suppress optical losses at the device’s surface and prolong the photon propagation path in the active layer. After being patterned with this structure, the average transmittance and haze of the quartz glass reach 93.91% and 75%, respectively. Compared to their flat counterpart, the decorated monocrystalline silicon solar cells demonstrated an apparent improvement in photocurrent and produced a 7.2% enhancement in power conversion efficiency.

The North China Plain is an important area for agricultural economic development in China. But water shortages, severe groundwater over-exploitation and drought problems make it difficult to exercise the topographic resource advantages of the plain. Therefore, the precise monitoring of soil moisture is of great significance for the rational use of water resources. Soil characteristics vary in natural farmland ecosystems, crops are constrained by multiple compound stresses and the precise extraction of soil moisture stress is a difficult and critical problem. The long time series was decomposed via complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) to obtain different intrinsic mode function (IMF) components, and the statistical descriptors of each component were calculated to realize the precise discrimination of soil moisture stress. A quantitative evaluation model of soil moisture was established, and the different noise addition ratios and modeling types were set respectively to investigate the optimal inversion model. The results showed that: (1) The reconstruction error of the CEEMDAN was small and almost 0; it had a high reconstruction accuracy and was more suitable for the decomposition of the long time series. The first two components, IMF1 and IMF2, were soil moisture stress subsequences, and it could effectively reflect the moisture stress situation. (2) The inversion model performed well when ε was 0.05 and the model type was quadratic, with a coefficient of determination R2 of 0.98, which gave a better fit and less error. (3) The overall soil moisture content in the study area was low, basically in the range of 6.9% to 15.7%, with the central part, especially the south-central part, being the most affected by soil moisture stress, and the overall impact of soil moisture stress showed a decreasing trend from February to May. The utilization of CEEMDAN further enhances the accuracy of soil moisture inversion in agricultural fields, realizing the effective application of remote sensing observation technology and time-frequency analysis technology in the field of soil moisture research.

Cadmium (Cd) stress greatly limits the growth of rapeseed, and selenium is a micronutrient that is essential for rapeseed growth, but whether and how selenium application alleviates Cd-induced inhibition remains poorly understood. The present study investigated the alleviating effects of exogenous selenium on rapeseed growth under cadmium (Cd) stress based on the aspects of agronomic traits and soil bacterial community structure and diversity. The results show that low-selenium treatment increased the rapeseed yield by 20.92% by increasing the number of pods per plant under Cd stress, but such effects were not prominent when the selenium application rate was high. Meanwhile, selenium application significantly reduced the cadmium content by 4.74–26.89% in different organs of rapeseed. Further analysis suggested that the benefits of selenium in alleviating Cd stress might be induced by changes in soil bacterial community structure and diversity. In addition, in the functional metabolism spectrum of rapeseed microorganisms treated with selenium, there were 5 primary metabolic pathways with significant differences, and there were 32 and 169 pathways for secondary and tertiary metabolic pathways, respectively. Therefore, selenium treatment in rapeseed soil can alter the composition and metabolic function spectrum of soil microbial communities, ultimately affecting plant growth and Cd tolerance.

The efficiency and cognitive limitations of manual sample labeling result in a large number of unlabeled training samples in practical applications. Making full use of both labeled and unlabeled samples is the key to solving the semi-supervised problem. However, as a supervised algorithm, the stacked autoencoder (SAE) only considers labeled samples and is difficult to apply to semi-supervised problems. Thus, by introducing the pseudo-labeling method into the SAE, a novel pseudo label-based semi-supervised stacked autoencoder (PL-SSAE) is proposed to address the semi-supervised classification tasks. The PL-SSAE first utilizes the unsupervised pre-training on all samples by the autoencoder (AE) to initialize the network parameters. Then, by the iterative fine-tuning of the network parameters based on the labeled samples, the unlabeled samples are identified, and their pseudo labels are generated. Finally, the pseudo-labeled samples are used to construct the regularization term and fine-tune the network parameters to complete the training of the PL-SSAE. Different from the traditional SAE, the PL-SSAE requires all samples in pre-training and the unlabeled samples with pseudo labels in fine-tuning to fully exploit the feature and category information of the unlabeled samples. Empirical evaluations on various benchmark datasets show that the semi-supervised performance of the PL-SSAE is more competitive than that of the SAE, sparse stacked autoencoder (SSAE), semi-supervised stacked autoencoder (Semi-SAE) and semi-supervised stacked autoencoder (Semi-SSAE).

Tree growth is under the combined influence of abiotic and biotic factors. Trees with different sizes may respond differently to these factors, implying that tree size heterogeneity may also modulate the overall growth trend. To test this hypothesis, we focused on the radial growth trends of natural subalpine forests on the Tibetan Plateau. We first extended the iterative growth model (IGM) to the tree ring scale (IGMR) to test the applicability of the generalized metabolic growth theory to tree growth. As predicted by the IGMR, the radial growth of trees at the aggregate scale is constrained by a unimodal pattern. Using the IGMR, we reconstructed the historical best growth trajectory (HBGT) of trees within the same community based on the tree with the largest radius and/or longest age in the community. From the average difference between the HBGT and the current radial growth rate of trees with different sizes, we constructed an indicator that can measure the overall variation in tree radial growth. Based on this indicator, we found a negative effect of tree size heterogeneity on the overall variability of tree growth across elevations. Further analysis also revealed that the radial growth rate of trees on the Tibetan Plateau has increased significantly compared to the past, where the growing season average temperature and annual minimum temperature were negatively and positively correlated with tree growth below and above the treeline, respectively. Our study not only confirmed that the overall variability of tree growth depends on tree size heterogeneity but also proposed an indicator that reveals net changes in the tree radial growth rate relative to the past. These theoretical advances are highly beneficial for understanding changes in the extent of subalpine forests.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is widely used in aviation science and technology, transportation, electronics, kitchenware, and other household products. It is stable in the environment and has potential nephrotoxicity. To investigate the effect of PFOA exposure during pregnancy on the kidneys of offspring mice, a total of 20 mice at day 0 of gestation were randomly divided into two groups (10 mice in each group), and each group was administered 0.2 mL of PFOA at a dose of 3.5 mg/kg or deionized water by gavage during gestation. The kidney weight, kidney index, histopathological observation, serum biochemistry, transcriptomics, and metabolomics of the kidneys of the 35-day offspring mice were analyzed. In addition, malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) levels in the kidney were measured. Transcriptome analysis results showed that 387 genes were up-regulated and 283 genes were down-regulated compared with the control group. These differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly concentrated in the peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway and circadian rhythm. Compared with the control group, 64 and 73 metabolites were up- and down-regulated, respectively, in the PFOA group. The altered metabolites were mainly enriched in the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids. PFOA can affect the expression levels of circadian rhythm-related genes in the kidneys of offspring mice, and this change is influenced by the PPAR signaling pathway. PFOA causes oxidative stress in the kidneys, which is responsible for significant changes in metabolites associated with the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids.

This study aimed to determine chemical composition and assess exposure in flavored milk among Chinese residents, based on risk assessment methodologies of acceptable daily intake (ADI) and toxicological concern threshold (TTC). Esters (32.17%), alcohols (11.19%), olefins (9.09%), aldehydes (8.39%), and ketones (7.34%) comprised the majority of the flavoring samples. Methyl palmitate (90.91%), ethyl butyrate (81.82%), and dipentene (81.82%) had the highest detection rates in flavor samples. This study screened fifteen flavor components of concern and discovered that 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, furfural, benzaldehyde, and benzenemethanol were detected in 100% of flavored milk samples. Benzenemethanol was found in the highest concentration (14,995.44 μg kg−1). The risk assessment results revealed that there was no risk for Chinese residents in consuming flavored milk, and the maximum per capita daily consumption of 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, furfural, and benzenemethanol were 226.208 g, 140.610 g, and 120.036 g, respectively. This study could provide guidelines for amounts of flavor additive ingredients in milk.

Freshwater aquaculture is an important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions are expected to lead to global warming and climate change. A reduction in GHG emissions is urgently required for the sustainable development of freshwater aquaculture. In this study, a laboratory-scale experiment was conducted to analyze the effects of a vegetable–fish co-culture on CH4 and N2O emissions from a freshwater aquaculture pond. The results show that the co-culturing of yellow catfish with pak choi (PC-F) or water spinach (WS-F) significantly reduced the N2O emission from the aquaculture pond by 60.20% and 67.71%, respectively, as compared with a yellow catfish monoculture (F). However, the co-culture of these two vegetables did not affect the level of CH4 emissions. The reduction in N2O emissions was primarily attributed to the decrease in the concentration of N2O and NO3− in the water. The overall global warming potential (GWP) of CH4 and N2O was significantly reduced by 19.1% with PC-F compared to F, but it did not significantly differ between WS-F and F. PC and WS cultivation improved the food yield by 1555.52% and 419.95% compared to F, respectively. Consequently, the GHG emissions intensity (GHGI) under PC-F and WS-F decreased by 96.15% and 80.77% compared to F, respectively. Altogether, the results highlight that a vegetable–fish co-culture is likely an efficient system for mitigating GWP per unit of food yield in freshwater aquaculture ponds. These results can provide a reference for the mitigation of GHG emissions from freshwater aquaculture.

A high oleic acid content is considered an essential characteristic in the breeding of high-quality rapeseed in China. Long-chain non-coding RNA (lncRNA) molecules play an important role in the plant’s growth and its response to stress. To better understand the role of lncRNAs in regulating plant reproductive development, we analyzed whole-transcriptome and physiological data to characterize the dynamic changes in lncRNA expression during the four representative times of seed development of high- and low-oleic-acid rapeseed in three regions. We identified 21 and 14 lncRNA and mRNA modules, respectively. These modules were divided into three types related to region, development stages, and material. Next, we analyzed the key modules related to the oil content and the oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid contents with physiological data and constructed the key functional network analysis on this basis. Genes related to lipid metabolism, such as 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase 16 (KCS16) and acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), were present in the co-expression network, suggesting that the effect of these genes on lipid metabolism might be embodied by the expression of these lncRNAs. Our results provide a fresh insight into region-, development-stage-, and material-biased changes in lncRNA expression in the seeds of Brassica napus. Some of these lncRNAs may participate in the regulatory network of lipid accumulation and metabolism, together with regulated genes. These results may help elucidate the regulatory system of lncRNAs in the lipid metabolism of high-oleic-acid rapeseed seeds.

The color of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) petal is usually yellow but can be milky-white to orange or pink. Thus, the petal color is a popular target in rapeseed breeding programs. In his study, metabolites and RNA were extracted from the yellow (Y), yellow/purple (YP), light purple (LP), and purple (P) rapeseed petals. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), RNA-Seq, and quantitative real-time (qRT-PCR) analyses were performed to analyze the expression correlation of differential metabolites and differential genes. A total of 223 metabolites were identified in the petals of the three purple and yellow rapeseed varieties by UPLC-MS/MS. A total of 20511 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between P, LP, YP, versus Y plant petals were detected. This study focused on the co-regulation of 4898 differential genes in the three comparison groups. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional annotation and quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of BnaA10g23330D (BnF3'H) affects the synthesis of downstream peonidin and delphinidin and is a key gene regulating the purple color of petals in B. napus. L. The gene may play a key role in regulating rapeseed flower color; however, further studies are needed to verify this. These results deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying petal color and provide the theoretical and practical basis for flower breeding targeting petal color.

This study examined whether diets with high dietary methionine levels could alleviate chronic heat stress in Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis. Crabs were fed three dietary methionine levels of 0.49%, 1.29% and 2.09% for six weeks. The analyzed methionine concentration of diets was 0.48%, 1.05% and 1.72%, respectively. Crabs were fed three different supplemental concentrations of dietary methionine at 24 °C and 30 °C, respectively. The trial was divided into six groups with five replicates in each group, and 40 juvenile crabs (initial average weight 0.71 ± 0.01 g) in each replicate. During the trial, crabs were fed twice daily (the diet of 4% of the body weight was delivered daily). The effects of dietary methionine level on nutrient metabolism, antioxidant capacity, apoptosis factors and immunity were evaluated at a normal water temperature of 24 °C and high temperature of 30 °C. Feed conversion ratio decreased under chronic heat stress. Chronic heat stress increased weight gain, specific growth rate, molting frequency, and protein efficiency ratio. The survival of crabs decreased under chronic heat stress, whereas a high level of dietary methionine significantly improved survival. Chronic heat stress induced lipid accumulation and protein content reduction. The high-methionine diet decreased lipid in the body and hepatopancreas, but increased protein in the body, muscle and hepatopancreas under chronic heat stress. Simultaneously, the high dietary methionine levels mitigated oxidative stress by reducing lipid peroxidation, restoring the antioxidant enzyme system, decreasing apoptosis and activating immune function under chronic heat stress. This study suggests that supplementing 1.72% dietary methionine could alleviate the adverse effects of a high water temperature in E. sinensis farming.

The Cu(111) surface is an important substrate for catalysis and the growth of 2D materials, but a comprehensive understanding of the preparation and formation of well-ordered and atomically clean Cu(111) surfaces is still lacking. In this work, the morphology and structure changes of the Cu(111) surface after treatment by ion bombardment and annealing with a temperature range of 300–720 °C are investigated systematically by using in situ low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. With the increase of annealing temperature, the surface morphology changes from corrugation to straight edge, the number of screw dislocations changes from none to numerous, and the surface atomic structure changes from disordered to ordered structures (with many reconstructions). In addition, the changing trend of step width and step height in different stages is different (first increased and then decreased). A perfect Cu(111) surface with a step height of one atom layer (0.21 nm) and a width of more than 150 nm was obtained. In addition, two interesting superstructures and a new surface phase with a large number of line defects were found. This work serves as a strong foundation for understanding the properties of Cu(111) surface, and it also provides important guidance for the effective pretreatment of Cu(111) substrates, which are widely used.

In spite of increasing use in the food industry, high relative levels of palmitic acid (C16:0) in cottonseed oil imposes harmful effects on human health when overconsumed in the diet. The limited understanding of the mechanism in controlling fatty acid composition has become a significant obstacle for breeding novel cotton varieties with high-quality oil. Fatty acyl–acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase B (FatBs) are a group of enzymes which prefer to hydrolyze the thioester bond from saturated acyl-ACPs, thus playing key roles in controlling the accumulation of saturated fatty acids. However, FatB members and their roles in cotton are largely unknown. In this study, a genome-wide characterization of FatB members was performed in allotetraploid upland cotton, aiming to explore the GhFatBs responsible for high accumulations of C16:0 in cotton seeds. A total of 14 GhFatB genes with uneven distribution on chromosomes were identified from an upland cotton genome and grouped into seven subfamilies through phylogenetic analysis. The six key amino acid residues (Ala, Trys, Ile, Met, Arg and Try) responsible for substrate preference were identified in the N-terminal acyl binding pocket of GhFatBs. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression profiles of GhFatB genes varied in multiple cotton tissues, with eight GhFatBs (GhA/D-FatB3, GhA/D-FatB4, GhA/D-FatB5, and GhA/D-FatB7) having high expression levels in developing seeds. In particular, expression patterns of GhA-FatB3 and GhD-FatB4 were positively correlated with the dynamic accumulation of C16:0 during cotton seed development. Furthermore, heterologous overexpression assay of either GhA-FatB3 or GhD-FatB4 demonstrated that these two GhFatBs had a high substrate preference to 16:0-ACP, thus contributing greatly to the enrichment of palmitic acid in the tested tissues. Taken together, these findings increase our understanding on fatty acid accumulation and regulation mechanisms in plant seeds. GhFatBs, especially GhA-FatB3 and GhD-FatB4, could be molecular targets for genetic modification to reduce palmitic acid content or to optimize fatty acid profiles in cotton and other oil crops required for the sustainable production of healthy edible oil.

The brain is susceptible to perturbations of redox balance, affecting neurogenesis and increasing the risks of psychiatric disorders. Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) is an endogenous inhibitor of the thioredoxin antioxidant system. Its deletion or inhibition suggests protection for a brain with ischemic stroke or Alzheimer’s disease. Combined with conditional knockout mice and schizophrenia samples, we aimed to investigate the function of TXNIP in healthy brain and psychiatric disorders, which are under-studied. We found TXNIP was remarkedly expressed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during healthy mice’s prenatal and early postnatal periods, whereas it rapidly decreased throughout adulthood. During early life, TXNIP was primarily distributed in inhibitory and excitatory neurons. Contrary to the protective effect, the embryonic deletion of TXNIP in GABAergic (gamma-aminobutyric acid-ergic) neurons enhanced oxidative stress in PV+ interneurons of aging mice. The deleterious impact was brain region-specific. We also investigated the relationship between TXNIP and schizophrenia. TXNIP was significantly increased in the PFC of schizophrenia-like mice after MK801 administration, followed by oxidative stress. First episode and drug naïve schizophrenia patients with a higher level of plasma TXNIP displayed severer psychiatric symptoms than patients with a low level. We indicated a bidirectional function of TXNIP in the brain, whose high expression in the early stage is protective for development but might be harmful in a later period, associated with mental disorders.

Enhanced-efficiency nitrogen fertilizer (EENF) is a recommend nitrogen fertilizer for rice production because of its advantage on improving nitrogen use efficiency. However, its efficacy on CH4, the dominant greenhouse gas, emission from rice fields showed great variation under field conditions. And the factors influencing its efficacy are still unclear. We synthesized the results of 46 field studies and analyzed the impact of product type, rice variety, and primary agronomic measures (rice cropping system, nitrogen (N) application rate, and water management options) on the effectiveness of EENF on the CH4 emission and rice yield. Overall, EENF, including inhibitors (IS) and slow/control-released fertilizer (S/CRF), significantly reduced CH4 emission by 16.2% and increased rice yield by 7.3%, resulting in a significant reduction in yield-scaled CH4 by 21.7%, compared with conventional N fertilizer. Nitrapyrin, DMPP (3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate), and HQ (Hydroquinone) + Nitrapyrin showed relative higher efficacy on the mitigation of CH4 emission than other EENF products; and HQ showed relative lower efficacy on rice yield than other EENF products. The reduction in CH4 emission response of hybrid rice varieties to IS and S/CRF was greater than that of inbred rice varieties. IS significantly reduced the CH4 emission and increased the rice yield under all three rice cropping systems, and showed the highest efficacy in the late rice season of double rice cropping system. Whereas, S/CRF did not significantly reduce the CH4 emission from rice seasons of single rice cropping system and rice-upland crops rotation system. IS did not reduce the CH4 emission when N application rate less than 100 kg ha−1, and S/CRF did not affect the CH4 emission when N application rate less than 100 kg ha−1 or above 200 kg ha−1. Continuous flooding was unfavorable for IS and S/CRF to mitigate CH4 emission and enhance rice yield. These results emphasized the necessary to link EENF products with rice varieties and agronomic practices to assess their efficacy on CH4 emissions and rice yield.

Based on the paucity of studies on the analysis of the coupled vibration response of the train-track-overhead System, in this article, finite element software ABAQUS was integrated with multi-body dynamics software, Universal Mechanism (UM), to construct a joint simulation model of the train-track overhead system under a railway line, with the focus on the investigation of the influence of different track irregularity levels, speeds and damping coefficients on the coupled vibration response of the vehicle-track-overhead system. The findings demonstrate that the response of the train body is sensitive to track irregularity, which primarily impacts the safety index of train operation. The results also suggest that the level of track irregularity should be rigorously regulated above AAR5 during construction. The train-track-overhead system functions well and satisfies the overhead system’s design requirements when the train travels through the reinforced line at a speed of no more than 60 km/h. When the train speed is 100 km/h, the vertical acceleration exceeds the limit for the “I” overhead system. There is a possibility of excessive lateral acceleration of the train body and excessive lateral force of the wheel and rail when the train speed is greater than 60 km/h, which endangers the safety of the driver. While it has little effect on the mid-span and vertical displacements, the damping factor of the bridge has a substantial impact on the vertical acceleration and mid-span acceleration of the vertical and horizontal beams. The study’s findings provide useful guidance.

The objective of this study was to detect the influence of dietary Schizochytrium microalgae on milk composition, milk fatty acids, and milk sn-2 fatty acids in goat’s milk. Firstly, we could see that the fat content increased in low microalgae supplementation goat’s milk (LM, 15 g/day) and the lactose content decreased in medium microalgae supplementation goat’s milk (MM, 25 g/day) compared with control goat’s milk (C, 0 g/day). Moreover, the absolute concentration of the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) of LM, MM, and high microalgae supplementation (HM, 35 g/day) goat’s milk was 29.485, 32.351, and 24.817 mg/100 g raw milk, respectively, which were all higher than that in the control goat’s milk with 4.668 mg/100 g raw milk. In addition, the sn-2 DHA content increased in MM and HM goat’s milk. However, the decreasing trend of the sn-2 DHA content was observed in LM goat’s milk. As for other fatty acids, the oleic acid (C18:1n9c) and linolenic acid (C18:3n3) content decreased and increased, respectively, in all experimental goat milk. Finally, an interesting phenomenon was found, which was that docosanoic acid (C22:0) and tetracosenic acid (C24:1) were only detected in test goat’s milk. Consequently, the phenomena of this study demonstrated that dietary Schizochytrium microalgae have an obvious effect on the fatty acid and sn-2 fatty acid profile of goat’s milk, and they provide an effective method to improve the content of goat’s milk DHA in practical production.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and emerging Alternaria toxins often co-occur in cereal-based products, but the current risk assessment is commonly conducted for only one type of mycotoxin at a time. Compared to adults, infants and young children are more susceptible to mycotoxins through food consumption, especially with cereal-based food products which are the main source of exposure. This study aimed to perform a probabilistic risk assessment of combined exposure to DON and three major Alternaria toxins, namely including alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), alternariol (AOH), and tenuazonic acid (TeA) through consumption of cereal-based foods for Chinese infants and young children. A total of 872 cereal-based food products were randomly collected and tested for the occurrence of DON and three major Alternaria toxins. The results on mycotoxin occurrence showed the DON, TeA, AOH, and AME was detected in 56.4%, 47.5%, 7.5%, and 5.7% of the samples, respectively. Co-contamination of various mycotoxins was observed in 39.9% of the analyzed samples. A preliminary cumulative risk assessment using the models of hazard index (HI) and combined margin of exposure (MoET) was performed on DON and Alternaria toxins that were present in cereal-based food products for infants and young children in China for the first time. The results showed that only 0.2% and 1.5%, respectively, of individuals exceeded the corresponding reference value for DON and TeA, indicating a low health risk. However, in the case of AME and AOH, the proportion of individuals exceeding the reference value was 24.1% and 33.5%, respectively, indicating the potential health risks. In the cumulative risk assessment of AME and AOH, both HI and MoET values indicated a more serious risk than that related to individual exposure. Further research is necessary to reduce the uncertainties that are associated with the toxicities of the Alternaria toxins and cumulative risk assessment methods.

Transcriptional regulation is a major mechanism by which organisms integrate gene x environment interactions. It can be achieved by coordinated interplay between cis-regulatory elements (CREs) and transcription factors (TFs). Euryhaline tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) tolerate a wide range of salinity and thus are an appropriate model to examine transcriptional regulatory mechanisms during salinity stress in fish. Quantitative proteomics in combination with the transcription inhibitor actinomycin D revealed 19 proteins that are transcriptionally upregulated by hyperosmolality in tilapia brain (OmB) cells. We searched the extended proximal promoter up to intron1 of each corresponding gene for common motifs using motif discovery tools. The top-ranked motif identified (STREME1) represents a binding site for the Forkhead box TF L1 (FoxL1). STREME1 function during hyperosmolality was experimentally validated by choosing two of the 19 genes, chloride intracellular channel 2 (clic2) and uridine phosphorylase 1 (upp1), that are enriched in STREME1 in their extended promoters. Transcriptional induction of these genes during hyperosmolality requires STREME1, as evidenced by motif mutagenesis. We conclude that STREME1 represents a new functional CRE that contributes to gene x environment interactions during salinity stress in tilapia. Moreover, our results indicate that FoxL1 family TFs are contribute to hyperosmotic induction of genes in euryhaline fish.

High-pressure polymorphism is a developing interdisciplinary field. Pressure up to 20 GPa is a powerful thermodynamic parameter for the study and fabrication of hydrogen-bonded polymorphic systems. This review describes how pressure can be used to explore polymorphism and surveys the reports on examples of compounds that our group has studied at high pressures. Such studies have provided insight into the nature of structure–property relationships, which will enable crystal engineering to design crystals with desired architectures through hydrogen-bonded networks. Experimental methods are also briefly surveyed, along with two methods that have proven to be very helpful in the analysis of high-pressure polymorphs, namely, the ab initio pseudopotential plane–wave density functional method and using Hirshfeld surfaces to construct a graphical overview of intermolecular interactions.

The rapidly emerging fertilizer rapeseed used as green manure has wide applications for use. However, there have been few studies on its decomposition and effects on soil nutrients and microorganisms after its decay. In this study, 12 rapeseed lines to be screened were decomposed through a randomized block field design with two green-manure-specific varieties as the controls. The contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from the plants, soil nutrients, and microbial changes after degradation were measured. There were substantial differences in the rates of decomposition and cumulative release of nutrients among the different lines after 30 days of rolling. The contents of phosphorus and potassium in the soil were 1.23–2.03 and 3.93–6.32 times those before decomposition, respectively. In addition, there was a significant difference in the relative content of soil microorganisms at the phylum level after the decomposition of different species of rapeseeds. Most of the top 20 bacterial groups significantly correlated with the characteristics of plant decomposition and soil nutrient content, including Proteobacteria, Actinomycetes, Armatimonadetes, Rokubacteria, and Planctomycetes. A principal component analysis showed that the soil microorganisms and nutrients are the leading factors that enable the evaluation of the decomposing characteristics of green manure rapeseed. Numbers 5 (purple leaf mustard) and 8 (Xiafang self-seeding) were more effective than two controls, which can be used as excellent types of germplasm to promote the breeding of green manure rapeseed.

Formic acid (FA) is found to be a potential candidate for the storage of hydrogen. For dehydrogenation of FA, the supports of our catalysts were acquired by conducting ZnCl2 treatment and carbonation for biomass waste. The texture and surface properties significantly affected the size and dispersion of Pd and its interaction with the support so as to cause the superior catalytic performance of catalysts. Microporous carbon obtained by carbonization of ZnCl2 activated peanut shells (CPS-ZnCl2) possessing surface areas of 629 m2·g−1 and a micropore rate of 73.5%. For ZnCl2 activated melon seed (CMS-ZnCl2), the surface area and micropore rate increased to 1081 m2·g−1 and 80.0%, respectively. In addition, the introduction of ZnCl2 also caused the increase in surface O content and reduced the acidity of the catalyst. The results represented that CMS-ZnCl2 with uniform honeycomb morphology displayed the best properties, and the as-prepared Pd/CMS-ZnCl2 catalyst afforded 100% hydrogen selectivity as well as excellent catalytic activity with an initial high turnover number (TON) value of 28.3 at 30 °C and 100.1 at 60 °C.

Three Solanaceae hosts (TSHs), S. tuberosum, N. benthamiana and S. lycopersicum, represent the three major phylogenetic clades of Solanaceae plants infected by Phytophthora infestans, which causes late blight, one of the most devastating diseases seriously affecting crop production. However, details regarding how different Solanaceae hosts respond to P. infestans are lacking. Here, we conducted RNA-seq to analyze the transcriptomic data from the TSHs at 12 and 24 h post P. infestans inoculation to capture early expression effects. Macroscopic and microscopic observations showed faster infection processes in S. tuberosum than in N. benthamiana and S. lycopersicum under the same conditions. Analysis of the number of genes and their level of expression indicated that distinct response models were adopted by the TSHs in response to P. infestans. The host-specific infection process led to overlapping but distinct in GO terms and KEGG pathways enriched for differentially expressed genes; many were tightly linked to the immune response in the TSHs. S. tuberosum showed the fastest response and strongest accumulation of reactive oxygen species compared with N. benthamiana and S. lycopersicum, which also had similarities and differences in hormone regulation. Collectively, our study provides an important reference for a better understanding of late blight response mechanisms of different Solanaceae host interactions.

In this study, using the botanical active component thiochromanone as the lead compound, a total of 32 new thiochromanone derivatives containing a carboxamide moiety were designed and synthesized and their in vitro antibacterial activities against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicolaby (Xoc), and Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri (Xac) were determined, as well as their in vitro antifungal activities against Botryosphaeria dothidea (B. dothidea), Phomopsis sp., and Botrytis cinerea (B. cinerea). Bioassay results demonstrated that some of the target compounds exhibited moderate to good in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities. In particular, compound 4e revealed excellent in vitro antibacterial activity against Xoo, Xoc, and Xac, and its EC50 values of 15, 19, and 23 μg/mL, respectively, were superior to those of Bismerthiazol and Thiodiazole copper. Meanwhile, compound 3b revealed moderate in vitro antifungal activity against B. dothidea at 50 μg/mL, and the inhibition rate reached 88%, which was even better than that of Pyrimethanil, however, lower than that of Carbendazim. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the antibacterial and antifungal activities of this series of novel thiochromanone derivatives containing a carboxamide moiety.

Understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of regional drought is of great significance in decision-making processes such as water resources and agricultural systems management. The North China Plain is an important grain production base in China and the most drought-prone region in the country. In this study, the monthly standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) was used to monitor the spatiotemporal variation of agricultural drought in the North China Plain from 1960 to 2017. Seven spatial patterns of drought variability were identified in the North China Plain, such as Huang-Huai Plain, Lower Yangtze River Plain, Haihe Plain, Shandong Hills, Qinling Mountains Margin area, Huangshan Mountain surroundings, and Yanshan Mountain margin area. The spatial models showed different trends in different time stages, indicating that the drought conditions in the North China Plain were complex and changeable in the past 58 years. As an important agricultural area, the North China Plain needs more attention since this region shows a remarkable trend of drought and, as such, will definitely increase the water demand for agricultural irrigation. The strong correlation between these spatial distribution patterns indicates that the climate and weather conditions leading to drought are consistent and that drought conditions are independent for regions that are not correlated. If this trend continues, the characteristics of drought variability in the North China Plain will become more complex, and a more detailed water management strategy will be needed to address the effects of drought on agro-ecosystems. Recognizing the drought variability in the North China Plain can provide a basis for agricultural disaster reduction planning and water resources allocation.

Regional climate variability assessment is of great significance in decision-making such as agriculture and water resources system management. The identification of sub-regions with similar drought variability can provide a basis for agricultural disaster reduction planning and water resource distribution. In this research, a modified daily Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) was used to monitor the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of agricultural drought in the North China Plain from 1960 to 2017, which was studied by using the rotated empirical orthogonal functions (REOF). Through the seasonal REOF process, 7–9 seasonal drought sub-regions are confirmed by applying time series and the correlation relationship of SPEI original data. The strong correlation of these sub-regions indicates that the climate and weather conditions causing the drought are consistent and the drought conditions are independent for the regions that show no correlation. In general, the results of the seasonal trend analysis show that there has been no significant trend value in most areas since 1960. However, it is worth noting that some regions have the positive and negative temporal trends in different seasons. These results illustrate the importance of seasonal analysis, particularly for agro-ecosystems that depend on timely rainfall during different growing seasons. If this trend continues, seasonal drought will become more complex, then a more elaborate water management strategy will be needed to reduce its impact.

Long-term exposure to hyperosmotic environments can induce severe immune damage and increase risk in tilapia breeding. As an effective immunoregulator, β-glucan has attracted extensive attention in nutritional research and given rise to high expectations of improving health status and alleviating organismal damage in tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, in brackish water. In this study, an 8-week cultivation experiment was conducted on tilapia fed a basal diet or diets with β-glucan supplementation in freshwater (control) and brackish water. Growth performance, hematological aspects, immune cytokine expression, and the intestinal microbiota of tilapia were analyzed. The results indicated that supplementation with β-glucan significantly reduced the enlarged spleen of tilapia resulting from hypersaline stress. Tilapia fed β-glucan showed significantly-greater decreases in the red blood cell count, hematocrit, red cell distribution width, platelet count, and plateletcrit than those fed the basal diet. β-glucan significantly decreased the high expression of immune-related genes in the spleen induced by hyperosmotic stress. In the intestine, the high migration inhibitory factor-2 (MIF-2) and IL-1β gene expression induced by hypersaline stress was significantly reduced. β-glucan supplementation also significantly increased the abundance of beneficial microbiota such as Lactobacillus, Phycicoccus, and Rikenellaceae. Therefore, dietary β-glucan supplementation can significantly reduce spleen enlargement and improve immune function in tilapia in brackish water. β-glucan intake can also optimize the intestinal microbiota of tilapia in brackish water and improve fish health.

To determine the response of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei to different levels of dietary choline, juvenile white shrimp (1.75 ± 0.09 g) were fed six semi-purified diets supplemented with 0 (control), 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12,000 mg/kg choline chloride for eight weeks. Growth performance, whole-body composition, serum characteristics and hepatopancreatic antioxidant indexes were evaluated. Meanwhile, serum metabolome and hepatopancreas transcriptome were performed to examine the overall difference in metabolite and gene expression. The weight gain, survival, specific growth rate, condition factor and hepatosomatic index were not affected by dietary choline levels. The shrimp fed 6000 mg/kg dietary choline chloride gained the maximal whole-body crude protein, which was significantly higher than that of shrimp fed with 12,000 mg/kg dietary choline. Serum total cholesterol of shrimp fed 6000 mg/kg dietary choline was higher than that in shrimp fed 4000 mg/kg choline. Dietary choline significantly decreased malondialdehyde content, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase activities in shrimp hepatopancreas. Compared with the shrimp fed 6000 mg/kg dietary choline chloride, the glycerophospholipid metabolism pathway was significantly enriched in the shrimp fed 0 mg/kg dietary choline chloride, and the choline content and bile salt-activated lipase-like expression were upregulated. The expression of trypsin-1-like in protein digestion and absorption pathway was significantly downregulated in the shrimp fed 12,000 mg/kg dietary choline chloride. Apolipoprotein D might be a potential biomarker in shrimp, and dietary choline played an important role in lipid metabolism, especially in the reduction of oxidative damage in L. vannamei. Based on the results of weight gain and degree of oxidative damage, 1082 mg/kg dietary choline could meet the growth requirement of L. vannamei, but 2822 mg/kg dietary choline was needed to reduce peroxidation damage.

This study investigated the effect of dietary myo-inositol (MI) on alleviating the adverse effect of the high carbohydrate diet in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Six diets contained either low carbohydrate (LC 30%) or high carbohydrate (HC 45%) with three levels of MI supplementation (0, 400 and 1200 mg/kg diet) to each level of the carbohydrate diet. After an 8-week trial, the fish fed 400 mg/kg MI under HC levels had the highest weight gain and fatness, but the fish fed 1200 mg/kg MI had the lowest hepatosomatic index, visceral index and crude lipid in the HC group. The diet of 1200 mg/kg MI significantly decreased triglyceride content in the serum and liver compared with those fed the MI supplemented diets regardless of carbohydrate levels. Dietary MI decreased triglyceride accumulation in the liver irrespective of carbohydrate levels. The content of malondialdehyde decreased with increasing dietary MI at both carbohydrate levels. Fish fed 1200 mg/kg MI had the highest glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, aspartate aminotransferase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activities. The HC diet increased the mRNA expression of key genes involved in lipid synthesis (DGAT, SREBP, FAS) in the fish fed the diet without MI supplementation. Dietary MI significantly under expressed fatty acid synthetase in fish fed the HC diets. Moreover, the mRNA expression of genes related to lipid catabolism (CPT, ATGL, PPAR-α) was significantly up-regulated with the increase of dietary MI levels despite dietary carbohydrate levels. The gene expressions of gluconeogenesis, glycolysis and MI biosynthesis were significantly down-regulated, while the expression of the pentose phosphate pathway was up-regulated with the increase of MI levels. This study indicates that HC diets can interrupt normal lipid metabolism and tend to form a fatty liver in fish. Dietary MI supplement can alleviate lipid accumulation in the liver by diverging some glucose metabolism into the pentose phosphate pathway and enhance the antioxidant capacity in O. niloticus.

The basic leucine-region zipper (bZIP) transcription factors (TFs) act as crucial regulators in various biological processes and stress responses in plants. Currently, bZIP family members and their functions remain elusive in the green unicellular algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, an important model organism for molecular investigation with genetic engineering aimed at increasing lipid yields for better biodiesel production. In this study, a total of 17 C. reinhardtii bZIP (CrebZIP) TFs containing typical bZIP structure were identified by a genome-wide analysis. Analysis of the CrebZIP protein physicochemical properties, phylogenetic tree, conserved domain, and secondary structure were conducted. CrebZIP gene structures and their chromosomal assignment were also analyzed. Physiological and photosynthetic characteristics of C. reinhardtii under salt stress were exhibited as lower cell growth and weaker photosynthesis, but increased lipid accumulation. Meanwhile, the expression profiles of six CrebZIP genes were induced to change significantly during salt stress, indicating that certain CrebZIPs may play important roles in mediating photosynthesis and lipid accumulation of microalgae in response to stresses. The present work provided a valuable foundation for functional dissection of CrebZIPs, benefiting the development of better strategies to engineer the regulatory network in microalgae for enhancing biofuel and biomass production.

Virtual power plant (VPP) is an effective technology form to aggregate the distributed energy resources (DERs), which include distributed generation (DG), energy storage (ES) and demand response (DR). The establishment of a unified and coordinated control of VPP is an important means to achieve the interconnection of energy internet. Therefore, this paper focuses on the research of VPP construction model. Firstly, a preliminary introduction on all kinds of the DERs is carried out. According to the relevant guidelines, the decision area of the VPP is carefully divided, and the decision variables representing the various resources in the area are determined. Then, in order to get a VPP with low daily average cost, good load characteristics, high degree of DG consumption and high degree of resource aggregation, a multi-objective VPP construction model based on decision area division is established, and various constraints including geographic information are considered. The improved bat algorithm based on priority selection is used to solve this model. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the model are verified by an example.

In view of the obvious distinctions among energy utilization characteristics in various functional districts, a method for optimizing the location of an integrated energy system for a typical new district is proposed. This method integrates the spatial location and energy load density of each functional district. Based on the timing characteristics and seasonal division of electric/thermal/cold load fluctuations, the improved fuzzy C means (FCM) algorithm combined with the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is applied to build different multi-scenarios in various functional districts, and a more representative ‘typical maximum load value’ is obtained. The architectural characteristics and the different energy utilization habits are combed on the weight of the electric/thermal/cold load for each functional district. By taking the minimum improved integrated load moment of the system and the minimum partition inner interval ratio as the objective functions, the location optimization model of an integrated energy supply centre in a typical new district is established, and the improved adaptive evolutionary immune algorithm is applied to the nested model. Finally, a typical new district in Northern China is taking as an example to verify the correctness and feasibility of the planning method proposed in this paper.

To fully investigate the characteristics and the complementarities of demand side resources (DSRs), and to achieve efficient utilization of resources, the aggregation of DSRs is studied in this paper. Considering the uncertainty of DSRs, the characteristics analysis and the selection of relevant daily feature corresponding to various types of DSR are carried out. Then a multi-scenario model based on quarter division and self-organizing map (SOM) neural network algorithm is proposed. In the model, the clustering feature vector is selected as the input vector of the SOM algorithm to perform DSR clustering analysis to get the different scenarios. In addition, to obtain the resource aggregation (RA) with good load characteristics, response characteristics and distributed generation (DG) consumption, a multi-scenario objective optimization aggregation model of DSR based on scenario partition is established, and an the model is solved by an improved niche evolutionary multi-objective immune algorithm. Finally, the case studies are given to verify the validity of the model.

With increased direct current (DC) load density and the penetration of a large number of distributed generation (DG) units in alternating current (AC) distribution networks (DNs); a planning approach that considers transforming some of the AC lines into DC lines and building the DC network is proposed. Considering the DG output uncertainty and the load fluctuation, a planning model for an AC/DC hybrid distribution network (DN) with the DG based on the construction of multi-scenario technology with timing characteristics is built. In the DG configuration planning model, the lines to be transformed into DC form the access location and the decision regarding the DC or AC form of the newly built lines are considered optimizing variables. The DG investment, the network and converters of the DG and load, the active power loss and the voltage stability are considered in the objective functions. An improved adaptive niche genetic algorithm based on the fuzzy degree of membership and variance weighting is used to solve the nested model. Finally, considering the improved electrical and electronic engineers 33 (IEEE33) node system as an example, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed planning method are verified. Compared to the plan without transforming some of the AC lines into DC lines and building a DC network, more DG can be admitted, and the economic cost of the AC/DC hybrid DN is notably decreased when planning to transform some of the AC lines into DC lines and build a DC network. The active power network loss and the voltage stability index are similarly further optimized.

This paper quantitatively evaluates the performance of an adaptive-gain parabolic sliding mode filter (AG-PSMF), which is for removing noise in feedback control of mechatronic systems under different parameter values and noise intensities. The evaluation results show that, due to the nonlinearity of AG-PSMF, four performance measurements, i.e., transient time, overshoot magnitude, tracking error and computational time, vary widely under different conditions. Based on the evaluation results, the paper provides practical tuning guidelines for AG-PSMF to balance the tradeoff among the four measurements. The effectiveness of the guidelines is validated through numerical examples.

In feedback control of mechatronic systems, sensor signals are usually noisy and uncertain because of measurement errors and environmental disturbances. Such uncertainty and noise of feedback signals may cause instability of the controlled systems. This paper presents a new model-free discrete-time sliding mode filter for effectively removing noise by balancing the tradeoff between the filtering smoothness and the suppression of delay. The presented filter is an extension of a sliding mode filter (Jin et al. Real-time quadratic sliding mode filter for removing noise. Adv. Robot., 2012) by including an adaptive gain, of which value is determined in a similar way to that of a first-order adaptive windowing filter (Janabi-Sharifi et al. Discrete-time adaptive windowing for velocity estimation. IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol., 2000). The effectiveness of the presented filter is validated through numerical examples and experiments.