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There are hundreds, even thousands of various pallets and hangers, which we call them carriers collectively in this paper, in automobile assembly workshop for car assembly and car parts delivery. Their geometry accuracy is very important to ensure equipment availability (EA) and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), the two KPIs of the workshop. So, either good or bad, equipment management department of each automobile plant all have their own methods to check and ensure geometry accuracy of carriers. To make equipment management standardized, one set of geometry accuracy check and control method should be established. Firstly, based on the brief introduction of automobile assembly process, what are carriers in automobile assembly workshop is presented through some examples. Then, what is geometry accuracy of carrier is illustrated through three kinds of typical carriers used in automobile assembly workshop. And then reasons of geometry accuracy loss of carriers are simply summarized. Finally, considering functionality, practicability, operation easiness and traceability, one set of standardized check methods of geometry accuracy which can be used practically in automobile assembly workshop are raised for different types of carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore the value of whole tumour- and subregion-based radiomics of contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) in differentiating the HER2 expression status of breast cancers. Methods: 352 patients underwent preoperative CEM from two centres were consecutively enroled and divided into the training, internal validation, and external validation cohorts. The lesions were divided into HER2-positive and HER2-negative groups. Besides the radiological features, radiomics features capturing the whole tumour-based (wITH) and subregion-based intratumoral heterogeneity (sITH) were extracted from the craniocaudal view of CEM recombined images. The XGBoost classifier was applied to develop the radiological, sITH, and wITH models. A combined model was constructed by fusing the prediction results of the three models. Results: The mean age of the patients was 51.1 ± 10.7 years. Two radiological features, four wITH features, and three sITH features were selected to establish the models. The combined model significantly improved the AUC to 0.80 ± 0.03 (95% CI: 0.73–0.86), 0.79 ± 0.06 (95% CI: 0.67–0.90), and 0.79 ± 0.05 (95% CI: 0.69–0.89) in the training, internal validation, and external validation cohorts, respectively (All P < 0.05). The combined model showed good agreement between the predicted and observed probabilities and favourable net clinical benefit in the validation cohorts. Conclusions: Both whole tumour- and subregion-based ITH radiomics features of CEM exhibited potential for differentiating the HER2 expression status. Combining conventional radiological features and ITH features can improve the model's performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citrus huanglongbing (HLB) is a major challenge that impacts the flourishing of the citrus industry. Therefore, analyzing the genomic information of HLB-resistant or tolerant citrus resources is crucial for breeding HLB-resistant citrus varieties. The Carrizo citrange, a hybrid of Citrus sinensis and Poncirus trifoliata, plays a pivotal role in citrus cultivation. However, its genetic explorations are difficult due to the absence of a reference genome or full-length transcriptome. In order to enhance our understanding of the genetic information of citrange, we conducted a full-length transcriptomic sequencing of multiple tissues from the Carrizo citrange using the PacBio Sequel II platform. Moreover, we performed gene ontology (GO) annotation, gene functional annotation, simple sequence repeats (SSR) types analysis, as well as identification of lncRNAs, alternative splicing events, and analysis of pathogen defense-related genes. Results showed that a total of 43,452 isoforms were generated, with 43,307 of them being annotated. GO annotation indicated the involvement of these isoforms in various biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions. The coding sequence length of the isoforms ranged from 1,000 to 4,000 base pairs (bp). Moreover, we have discovered 54 varieties of transcription factors and regulators, along with 16 classifications of genes associated with resistance. Among all types of SSRs, trimer type SSRs were the most abundant. 130 lncRNAs were predicted to be highly reliable in the isoforms of the Carrizo citrange, with alternative splicing events identified, and the most frequent being retained intron. The analysis of gene family expansion and contraction revealed a significant increase in pathogen defense-related genes within the Carrizo citrange. The results of this study will be of great value for future investigations into gene function in citrange and for expanding the genetic pool for breeding citrus varieties resistant or tolerant to HLB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal sulfides (TMSs) such as NbSe2 and TaS3, with their exfoliable layered structures, exhibit novel physical properties arising from dimensionality effects with the reduced thickness, including changes in superconducting transition temperature (Tc). Exploring lower-dimensional TMSs has become a research focus. However, fabricating 2D-TMSs into 1D structures using micro-nano machining may bring lattice imperfections and dislocations. Here, we report the synthesis of superconducting NbSe2 and TaS3 nanowires. The characterization shows that the NbSe2 and TaS3 nanowires with high crystallinity have Tc = 6.98 K and 3.80 K, respectively. Our work provides a simple method for realizing 1D TMSs superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: The underlying migration mechanism of Mg2+ in cathode materials and roles of defects in Mg2+ migration in cathode materials were studied. Applications of defect engineering to Mg2+ migration in cathode materials and the strategies for introducing various defects were summarized. New development directions of defect engineering in cathode materials for rechargeable magnesium battery were prospected Rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) have been considered a promising "post lithium-ion battery" system to meet the rapidly increasing demand of the emerging electric vehicle and grid energy storage market. However, the sluggish diffusion kinetics of bivalent Mg2+ in the host material, related to the strong Coulomb effect between Mg2+ and host anion lattices, hinders their further development toward practical applications. Defect engineering, regarded as an effective strategy to break through the slow migration puzzle, has been validated in various cathode materials for RMBs. In this review, we first thoroughly understand the intrinsic mechanism of Mg2+ diffusion in cathode materials, from which the key factors affecting ion diffusion are further presented. Then, the positive effects of purposely introduced defects, including vacancy and doping, and the corresponding strategies for introducing various defects are discussed. The applications of defect engineering in cathode materials for RMBs with advanced electrochemical properties are also summarized. Finally, the existing challenges and future perspectives of defect engineering in cathode materials for the overall high-performance RMBs are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ascorbate peroxidases (APXs) are essential for plants as they act as hydrogen peroxide-scavenging enzymes, providing protection against oxidative damage. Using bioinformatic methods, five APX genes were discovered in the genome of Citrus sinensis in this study. APX genes of C. sinensis (CsAPXs) encode polypeptides between 250 and 436 residues in length, with molecular weights that range from 27.56 to 47.34 kDa. Additionally, the isoelectric point of CsAPXs varies from 5.64 to 8.63. The predicted locations of CsAPXs are peroxisome, chloroplast, and mitochondrion, with an uneven distribution across four chromosomes and eight orthologous gene pairs with Arabidopsis thaliana. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that the CsAPXs were divided into three clades. The CsAPXs all contained a conserved APX domain and six common motifs. Upon promoter analysis, it was found that CsAPXs could respond to abscisic acid, auxin, ethylene, gibberellin, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, and wounding stress treatments. In addition, the analysis of expression patterns revealed that the presence of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) has a dynamic impact on the expression of CsAPXs, with CsAPX2 showing significant inhibition in response to CLas infection. These findings will provide novel insights for the forthcoming functional investigations of CsAPXs within the process of citrus-CLas interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the coexistence of topology and superconductivity has garnered considerable attention. Specifically, the dimensionality of these materials is crucial for the realization of topological quantum computation. However, the naturally grown materials, especially with one-dimensional feature that exhibits the coexistence of topology and superconductivity, still face challenges in terms of experimental realization and scalability, which hinders the fundamental research development and the potential to revolutionize quantum computing. Here, we report the first experimental synthesis of quasi-one-dimensional InNbS2 nanoribbons that exhibit the coexistence of topological order and superconductivity via a chemical vapor transport method. Especially, the in-plane upper critical field of InNbS2 nanoribbons exceeds the Pauli paramagnetic limit by more than 2.2 times, which can be attributed to the enhanced spin-orbit coupling and the weakened interlayer interaction between the NbS2 layers induced by the insertion of In atoms, making InNbS2 exhibit spin-momentum locking similar to that of monolayer NbS2. Moreover, for the first time, we report the superconducting diode effect in a quasi-one-dimensional superconductor system without any inherent geometric imperfections. The measured maximum efficiency is manifested as 14%, observed at μ0H ≈ ±60 mT, and we propose that the superconducting diode effect can potentially be attributed to the presence of the nontrivial topological band. Our work provides a platform for studying exotic phenomena in condensed matter physics and potential applications in quantum computing and quantum information processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citrus Huanglongbing (HLB), caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), is a devastating immune-mediated disorder that has a detrimental effect on the citrus industry, with the distinguishing feature being an eruption of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This study explored the alterations in antioxidant enzyme activity, transcriptome, and RNA editing events of organelles in C. sinensis during CLas infection. Results indicated that there were fluctuations in the performance of antioxidant enzymes, such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), in plants affected by HLB. Transcriptome analysis revealed 3604 genes with altered expression patterns between CLas-infected and healthy samples, including those associated with photosynthesis, biotic interactions, and phytohormones. Samples infected with CLas showed a decrease in the expression of most genes associated with photosynthesis and gibberellin metabolism. It was discovered that RNA editing frequency and the expression level of various genes in the chloroplast and mitochondrion genomes were affected by CLas infection. Our findings provide insights into the inhibition of photosynthesis, gibberellin metabolism, and antioxidant enzymes during CLas infection in C. sinensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zn is considered one of the most attractive bioresorbable candidates for metal implants, because it does not exhibit the inherent limitations of Fe and Mg. To explore the coordination of the toughness and strength of Zn alloys via grain size, secondary phase, and texture modification, we designed a micro-alloyed binary Zn–0.5 Mg (wt%) alloy. The sample was processed through hot extrusion at 220 °C with an extrusion ratio of 25:1 and subjected to rapid heat treatment at varying temperatures. Interestingly, the ductility of the low-temperature annealed alloys increased without exhibiting strength loss, in contrast to the known behavior of most other metallic alloys. The mechanical properties were optimized in the sample by thermal deformation and 30 min annealing at 150 °C, exhibiting the following results: yield strength of 240.3 ± 4.3 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 293.6 ± 3.8 MPa, and elongation to failure of 36.3 ± 4.5%. During the low-temperature annealing of extruded Zn–0.5 Mg rods, the fine Mg2Zn11 phase particles pinning effect and the recrystallization behavior inhibited grain coarsening. The prismatic and pyramidal slip systems were activated by a non-basal texture, which contributed to the enhanced toughness. The balance between strength and ductility was mainly attributed to a synergistic effect of grain refinement, unique texture modification, and secondary phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reductive soil disinfestation (RSD) incorporated with sole plant residues or liquid-readily decomposable compounds is an effective management strategy to improve soil health. However, the synthetic effects of RSD incorporated with liquid-readily decomposable compounds and solid plant residues on soil ecosystem services remain unclear. Field experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of untreated soil (CK), RSD incorporated with sawdust (SA), molasses (MO), and their combinations (SA + MO) on the bacterial community and functional composition. The results showed that RSD treatments significantly altered soil bacterial community structure compared to CK treatment. The bacterial community structure and composition in MO and SA + MO treatments were clustered compared to SA treatment. This was mainly attributed to the readily decomposable carbon sources in molasses having a stronger driving force to reshape the soil microbial community during the RSD process. Furthermore, the functional compositions, such as the disinfestation efficiency of F. oxysporum (96.4 − 99.1%), abundances of nitrogen functional genes, soil metabolic activity, and functional diversity, were significantly increased in all of the RSD treatments. The highest disinfestation efficiency and abundances of denitrification (nirS and nrfA) and nitrogen fixation (nifH) genes were observed in SA + MO treatment. Specifically, SA + MO treatment enriched more abundant beneficial genera, e.g., Oxobacter, Paenibacillus, Cohnella, Rummeliibacillus, and Streptomyces, which were significantly and positively linked to disinfestation efficiency, soil metabolic activity, and denitrification processes. Our results indicated that combining RSD practices with liquid-readily decomposable compounds and solid plant residues could effectively improve soil microbial community and functional composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tweaking the distribution of grains, precipitates, and texture components is a successful strategy employed to enhance the strength and formability of Mg alloys. Herein, moderate temperature equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) deformation was employed to control the microstructure and tune the corresponding mechanical properties of the Mg–6Zn–1Mn alloy. The analysis results indicated a uniform distribution of grains and second phases. The original strong basal texture of the extruded Mg–6Zn–1Mn alloy was disintegrated, and a weak basal texture gradually developed after 2 passes of ECAP deformation. The fine grains, second phases, and high-density dislocations provide high strength to the alloy, with contributions of 105.1 MPa, 47.1 MPa and 78.8 MPa, respectively. The excellent ductility (20.6%) is mainly attributed to the weak basal texture and high Schmid factor of prismatic slip. The 2P sample exhibits good strength-ductility synergy effects with a value of YS × EL equal to 5.8. The results indicate that moderate temperature ECAP deformation can enable the formation of a uniform microstructure and unique texture to enhance the mechanical properties of the Mg–6Zn–1Mn alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite all the promising benefits, the adoption of fully autonomous vehicles (FAVs) is expected to require a long transitional process. While innovators and early adopters tend to adopt the technology fast, most will gradually adopt the technology after varying periods. Meanwhile, today's social networking technologies have strengthened the influence of peer effects and caused noticeable changes to decision-making behavior. To date, there is relatively little study on how peer effects influence autonomous vehicles (AVs) adoption. The current paper explores how AV adoption is influenced by various factors, especially by different levels of individual susceptibility and prior-AV knowledge. Susceptibility is a latent variable measuring to what extent individuals will follow the influence of their peers in AV adoption. Prior-AV knowledge is another latent variable that measures people's knowledge about AVs, which will further impact their price sensitivity. A stated preference (SP) survey was carried out in five cities in China. 1132 new car buyers were surveyed, resulting in 3855 valid records for vehicle preference. The Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) Model is used to measure the susceptibility and prior-AV knowledge attributes, and identify their contribution to the heterogeneity of AV adoption intentions. The results show that many demographic factors influence the adoption of AVs. Younger individuals, those with higher education levels, higher income, and more driving experience are more readily influenced by their peers. High market penetration has a significant influence on FAV adoption, but to a varying degree depending on the individual susceptibility level. People with prior-AV knowledge, who are more likely to be older drivers, have no children under 18, have higher incomes and higher education levels, are found to be less sensitive to vehicle price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of flash combustion of copper concentrates has been traditionally approached from the phenomenological perspective by describing the physicochemical transformation at the particle level. Few works have focused on analyzing and modeling the behavior of flames produced by a cloud of particles under equivalent flash smelting furnace conditions. The present work aims to demonstrate the ability of non-invasive optoelectronic instrumentation to determine the temperature of the flame formed in a copper concentrate burner in flash smelting conditions at laboratory scale with a Drop Tube furnace. The temperatures measured with the optoelectronic system (Radiometric Temperature) were compared with the temperature obtained by the mass and heat transfer balance through global reactions of a set industrial copper concentrates (Measured Temperature). According to the mineral-chemical characterization of flash smelting products at a laboratory scale made with an automated mineralogy equipment, the radiometric temperatures are highly correlated with those calculated through the macroscopic chemical reaction model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, ion imprinted technology incorporated with mesoporous silica materials (MCM-41) to obtain the novel specific adsorbent, ion imprinted mesoporous silica. Cr(VI) imprinted mesoporous silica (Cr(VI)IMS) was synthesized and used for adsorption studies and waste water application. A synthesized imidazolyl silane agent act as the functional monomer in the imprinted process to build up highly ordered functionalized imprinted materials. The chemical composition, porosity, and highly ordered morphology were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area was 1054.51 m2 g−1 in this study. The Cr(VI)IMS showed great adsorption capacity to hexavalent chromium ions in acidic solution up to 45.6 mg g−1. Cr(VI)IMS reached the adsorption equilibrium in a short time (10 min) at acid and weak acid conditions, while most of adsorbents need more than 30 min to achieve adsorption equilibrium. Cr(VI)IMS displayed much higher adsorption capacity to Cr(VI) ions than other negative ions. The relative selectivity coefficient was 2.56, higher than those of other anions (below 1.5). After eight adsorption-regeneration cycles, the adsorption efficiency of Cr(VI)IMS still reached 92.5%. The Cr(VI)IMS was found to exhibit equivalent property after multiple cycles of experiments, indicating good repeatability and reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) from agricultural activities aggravates global, regional, and local air pollution. The detailed emission evaluation for major crops can be used to understand, predict, and control the release of atmospheric PM from or in agriculture. However, previous studies on sources of emissions from agricultural activities have tended to focus only on straw burning, livestock or fertilizer, etc. at a macro scale, such that there is a lack of spatial–temporal and high-resolution quantitative data on particulate emissions generated from typical farming and harvesting activities. In this study, we developed high-resolution emission inventory of atmospheric PM10 generated as a result of tilling and harvesting in China using a crop emission factor–based approach, combining agricultural, meteorological, and soil information. Temporal, spatial, and historical features of agricultural PM10 emission in China were analyzed, and an optimization methodology was proposed. The historical trends (1978–2015) for agricultural emissions have been increasing with rate of 4.3% per year for the period. The annual emissions from all agricultural operations were estimated to be 986.8kt in 2015. The contribution rate for tilling (51.0%) was higher than that for harvesting (39.0%) and planting (10.0%). The PM10 emissions at the county level were all higher by 30.5% than those at the high-resolution scale. After correction, the decreases of M2 (optimization of soil texture), M3 (optimization of soil texture and moisture), and M4 (optimization of soil texture, soil moisture, and wind speed) were 52.3%, 82.5%, and 89.6%, respectively. These results indicate the soil texture and moisture are the main factors for the decrease of emissions. The high-resolution inventory of emissions of PM10 due to farming practices and harvesting is helpful for assessing the impact of agricultural activities on regional air quality in China and providing a scientific basis for the development of pollution control measures in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To conduct perilesional region radiomics analysis of contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) images to differentiate benign and malignant breast lesions.Methods and Materials: This retrospective study included patients who underwent CEM from November 2017 to February 2020. Lesion contours were manually delineated. Perilesional regions were automatically obtained. Seven regions of interest (ROIs) were obtained for each lesion, including the lesion ROI, annular perilesional ROIs (1 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm), and lesion + perilesional ROIs (1 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm). Overall, 4,098 radiomics features were extracted from each ROI. Datasets were divided into training and testing sets (1:1). Seven classification models using features from the seven ROIs were constructed using LASSO regression. Model performance was assessed by the AUC with 95% CI.Results: Overall, 190 women with 223 breast lesions (101 benign; 122 malignant) were enrolled. In the testing set, the annular perilesional ROI of 3-mm model showed the highest AUC of 0.930 (95% CI: 0.882-0.977), followed by the annular perilesional ROI of 1 mm model (AUC = 0.929; 95% CI: 0.881-0.978) and the lesion ROI model (AUC = 0.909; 95% CI: 0.857-0.961). A new model was generated by combining the predicted probabilities of the lesion ROI and annular perilesional ROI of 3-mm models, which achieved a higher AUC in the testing set (AUC = 0.940).Conclusions: Annular perilesional radiomics analysis of CEM images is useful for diagnosing breast cancers. Adding annular perilesional information to the radiomics model built on the lesion information may improve the diagnostic performance.Key Points: • Radiomics analysis of the annular perilesional region of 3 mm in CEM images may provide valuable information for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions. • The radiomics information from the lesion region and the annular perilesional region may be complementary. Combining the predicted probabilities of the models constructed by the features from the two regions may improve the diagnostic performance of radiomics models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop a preoperative MRI-based radiomic-clinical nomogram for prediction of residual disease (RD) in patients with advanced high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC). Methods: In total, 217 patients with advanced HGSOC were enrolled from January 2014 to June 2019 and randomly divided into a training set (n = 160) and a validation set (n = 57). Finally, 841 radiomic features were extracted from each tumor on T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging (CE-T1WI) sequence, respectively. We used two fusion methods, the maximal volume of interest (MV) and the maximal feature value (MF), to fuse the radiomic features of bilateral tumors, so that patients with bilateral tumors have the same kind of radiomic features as patients with unilateral tumors. The radiomic signatures were constructed by using mRMR method and LASSO classifier. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to develop a radiomic-clinical nomogram incorporating radiomic signature and conventional clinico-radiological features. The performance of the nomogram was evaluated on the validation set. Results: In total, 342 tumors from 217 patients were analyzed in this study. The MF-based radiomic signature showed significantly better prediction performance than the MV-based radiomic signature (AUC = 0.744 vs. 0.650, p = 0.047). By incorporating clinico-radiological features and MF-based radiomic signature, radiomic-clinical nomogram showed favorable prediction ability with an AUC of 0.803 in the validation set, which was significantly higher than that of clinico-radiological signature and MF-based radiomic signature (AUC = 0.623, 0.744, respectively). Conclusions: The proposed MRI-based radiomic-clinical nomogram provides a promising way to noninvasively predict the RD status. Key Points: • MRI-based radiomic-clinical nomogram is feasible to noninvasively predict residual disease in patients with advanced HGSOC. • The radiomic signature based on MF showed significantly better prediction performance than that based on MV. • The radiomic-clinical nomogram showed a favorable prediction ability with an AUC of 0.803. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is attractive to use green activators to prepare hierarchical porous carbon with controllable pore size distribution. Herein, we attempted plant ash as the activator to prepare hierarchical porous carbon through high-temperature carbonization and activation. The pore size of the obtained porous carbon varies from 1 to 7 nm with temperature. It has a high specific capacitance (387.8 F/g at 1 A/g) in 6 M KOH, showing high rate performance (capacitance retention rate of 73.2%, from 1 to 10 A/g). Then, it also exhibits excellent cycle stability after 10,000 cycles. The assembled symmetrical supercapacitor (PC-6/PC-6) has a high energy density of 23.25 Wh/kg in 1 M Na2SO4 solution when the power is 450 W/kg. In short, biomass as the green activator achieves high specific capacitance and excellent rate performance for the first time in supercapacitors. This work provides ideas for the green preparation of porous carbon with controlled pore size distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of bifunctional non-precious metal catalyst with good ORR and OER activity is of great significance for the development and commercialization of fuel cells. However, the sluggish and strong irreversible nature of the oxygen electrochemical kinetics makes it difficult to manufacture single bifunctional material. Therefore, we prepared a bifunctional catalyst (Co3O4/N-rGO) with different particle diameters through a one-pot synthesis method, and studied the dependence of the electrocatalytic performance of the catalyst on the particle size of Co3O4. The results showed that Co3O4/N-rGO with 27–31 nm particle size prepared by using N-rGO as the carrier, cobalt acetate concentration of 0.075 M, hydrothermal temperature of 190 °C, and hydrothermal time of 3 h takes a 4e-reaction pathway, which exhibited better ORR and OER activity, excellent current stability and methanol tolerance than JM 20% Pt/C and JM 5% RuO2/C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A general framework to tackle the problem of few-shot learning is meta-learning, which aims to train a well-generalized meta-learner (or backbone network) to learn a base-learner for each future task with small training data. Although a lot of work has produced relatively good results, there are still some challenges for few-shot image classification. First, meta-learning is a learning problem over a collection of tasks and the meta-learner is usually shared among all tasks. To achieve image classification of novel classes in different tasks, it is needed to learn a base-learner for each task. Under the circumstances, how to make the base-learner specialized, and thus respond to different inputs in an extremely task-wise manner for different tasks is a big challenge at present. Second, classification network usually inclines to identify local regions from the most discriminative object parts rather than the whole objects for recognition, thereby resulting in incomplete feature representations. To address the first challenge, we propose a task-wise attention (TWA) module to guide the base-learner to extract task-specific image features. To address the second challenge, under the guidance of TWA, we propose a part complementary learning (PCL) module to extract and fuse the features of multiple complementary parts of target objects, and thus we can obtain more specific and complete information. In addition, the proposed TWA module and PCL module can be embedded into a unified network for end-to-end training. Extensive experiments on two commonly-used benchmark datasets and comparison with state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burning of crop residues emits large quantities of atmospheric aerosols. Published studies have developed inventories of emissions from crop residue burning based on statistical data. In contrast, this study used satellite-retrieved land-cover data (1 km × 1 km) as activity data to compile an inventory of atmospheric pollutants emitted from the burning of crop residues in China in {dy2015}. The emissions of PM10, PM2.5, VOCs, NOx, SO2, CO, and NH3 from burning crop straw on nonirrigated farmland in China in 2015 were 610.5, 598.4, 584.4, 230.6, 35.4, 3329.3, and 36.1 Gg (1 Gg = 109 g), respectively; the corresponding emissions from burning paddy rice residues were 234.1, 229.7, 342.3, 57.5, 57.5, 1122.1, and 21.5 Gg, respectively. The emissions from crop residue burning showed large spatial and temporal variations. The emissions of particulate matter and gaseous pollutants from crop residue burning in nonirrigated farmland were highest in east China, particularly in Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Sichuan provinces. Emissions from burning paddy rice residue were highest in east and central China, with particularly high levels in Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Hunan provinces. The monthly variations in atmospheric pollutant emissions were similar among different regions, with the highest levels observed in October in north, northeast, northwest, east, and southwest China and in June and July in central and south China. The developed inventory of emissions from crop residue burning is expected to help improve air quality models by providing high-resolution spatial and temporal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of app-based taxi services has disrupted the urban taxi market. It has seen significant demand shift between the traditional and emerging app-based taxi services. This study explores the influencing factors for determining the ridership distribution of taxi services. Considering the spatial, temporal, and modal heterogeneity, we propose a mixture modeling structure of spatial lag and simultaneous equation model. A case study is designed with 6-month trip records of two traditional taxi services and one app-based taxi service in New York City. The case study provides insights on not only the influencing factors for taxi daily ridership but also the appropriate settings for model estimation. In specific, the hypothesis testing demonstrates a method for determining the spatial weight matrix, estimation strategies for heterogeneous spatial and temporal units, and the minimum sample size required for reliable parameter estimates. Moreover, the study identifies that daily ridership is mainly influenced by number of employees, vehicle ownership, density of developed area, density of transit stations, density of parking space, bike-rack density, day of the week, and gasoline price. The empirical analyses are expected to be useful not only for researchers while developing and estimating models of taxi ridership but also for policy makers while understanding interactions between the traditional and emerging app-based taxi services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve traffic operations and management under inclement weather, this work quantificationally investigated the influence of rainfall on the traffic flow characteristics of urban expressways in Beijing. Four basic traffic flow models (Greenshields model, Greenberg model, Underwood model, and Drake function model) were compared to determine the most suitable model for the detected data, which were collected by microwave detectors in the Beijing 2nd and 4thring expressway under normal or rainfall condition. Results showed that the Greenshields model was the best-fitted model. Under rainfall conditions, varying degrees of reductions were observed in the road capacity, free-flow speed, and speed at capacity. The findings also showed that the reductions of road capacity were 7.26%, 10.87%, and 17.09%, and the reductions of free-flow speed were 3.07%, 5.29%, and 6.64% under light rain, medium rain, and heavy rain, respectively. The reductions of speed at capacity revealed a similar tendency as that of the free-flow speed. Simultaneously, a new model that incorporated rainfall intensity is proposed on the basis of the Greenshields model and can achieve good performance. Overall, the results are beneficial for traffic managers in improving their decisions and predictions under rainfall weather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced traveller information system is an important intelligent transportation systems application area, which provides information to transport users and managers in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the transportation system, in the face of increasing congestion in urban cities around the world. So far very limited research attention has been focused on long-term travel time prediction (i.e. predicting greater than 60 min ahead). Long-term travel time forecasts can play a critical role in journey planning decisions for both private road users and logistics operators. In this paper, we have considered a fuzzy neural network incorporated with both imprecise and numerical information and developed a hybrid long-term travel time prediction model, which shows the better prediction capability than naive methods and highlights the importance of different data variables. The model combines the learning ability of neural networks and the knowledge extraction ability of fuzzy inference systems. The model was validated by using travel time data compiled from electronic toll tags on a 14 km length section of the CityLink tollway in Melbourne, Australia. The validation results highlight the ability of the fuzzy neural network model to accommodate imprecise and linguistic input information, while providing reliable predictions of travel times up to a few days ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major latex protein/ripening-related protein (MLP/RRP) subfamily is known to be involved in a wide range of biological processes of plant development and various stress responses. However, the biological function of MLP/RRP proteins is still far from being clear and identification of them may provide important clues for understanding their roles. Here, we report a genome-wide evolutionary characterization and gene expression analysis of the MLP family in European Vitis species. A total of 14 members, was found in the grape genome, all of which are located on chromosome 1, where are predominantly arranged in tandem clusters. We have noticed, most surprisingly, promoter-sharing by several non-identical but highly similar gene members to a greater extent than expected by chance. Synteny analysis between the grape and Arabidopsis thaliana genomes suggested that 3 grape MLP genes arose before the divergence of the two species. Phylogenetic analysis provided further insights into the evolutionary relationship between the genes, as well as their putative functions, and tissue-specific expression analysis suggested distinct biological roles for different members. Our expression data suggested a couple of candidate genes involved in abiotic stresses and phytohormone responses. The present work provides new insight into the evolution and regulation of Vitis MLP genes, which represent targets for future studies and inclusion in tolerance-related molecular breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulforaphane is a significant chemopreventive compound which is the predominant glucosinolate in broccoli sprouts. However, the existence of the epithiospecifier protein could direct the hydrolysis of glucosinolates toward sulforaphane nitrile formation instead of sulforaphane. Therefore, the study aimed on improving the yielding of sulforaphane in broccoli sprouts with a new method of the united hydrolysis of cruciferous sprouts. According to the results, the addition of radish, rocket and rape sprouts to broccoli sprouts could promote the hydrolysis of the glucoraphanin to anticancer effective sulforaphane to 2.03, 2.32 and 1.95-fold, respectively, compared to single broccoli sprouts. Meanwhile, the formation of non-bioactive sulforaphane nitrile in these three groups decreased greatly. However, the addition of mustard sprouts had no positive effect. These observations could make a contribution to the potential chemoprotective effects of broccoli sprouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We described a new strategy to combine hybridization chain reaction (HCR) process and triplex DNA through Ag/cysteine, thus to pursue the controllable process of HCR. H1, a specially-designed triplex DNA, with homopyrimidines which can bind to dsDNA through Hoogsteen bonding, forming a cap-like triplex DNA. The presence of Ag can play the role as a H1 locker to stop initiator from triggering HCR process, forming Ag-stabilized triplex DNA molecular switch (denoted as Ag-STDMS). However, the strong binding ability of cysteine towards Ag forming stable Ag-cysteine can release the locking tail of H1 and realize the retriggering of HCR. This study presented a promising tool to regulate the self-assembly processes of DNA-based nanostructures in neutral environment. Under the optimum conditions, fluorescence intensity (peaking at 582 nm) of HCR is proportional to the concentration of Ag in the 0.2-4.0 μM range. Within the presence of Ag, the fluorescence intensity is also proportional to the concentration of cysteine in the 0.2-3.0 μM range. The method can successfully manipulate the assembly and disassembly of DNA in HCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleic acid amplification test is a reliable method for primary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection diagnosis. Herein, a novel fluorescent method for sequence-specific recognition of DNA fragment of HIV-1 was established based upon nicking-assisted strand displacement amplification (SDA) and triplex DNA. In the presence of target dsDNA, nicking-assisted SDA process generated a lot of ssDNA, which hybridized with molecular beacon to produce signal. The fluorescence intensity was proportional to the concentration of target dsDNA within the range from 5 to 1000 pmol/L, with a detection limit of 1.4 pmol/L. Moreover, it successfully distinguished target dsDNA from the nucleic acid extractive of human blood. Thus this method has the merit of high sensitivity, and it is suitable for sequence-specific recognition of target dsDNA in complex matrices, which made it a potential application in diagnosis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposed a homogenous fluorescence assay for proteins, based on the target-triggered proximity DNA hybridization in combination with strand displacement amplification (SDA). It benefited from target-triggered proximity DNA hybridization to specifically recognize the target and SDA making recycling signal amplification. The system included a molecular beacon (MB), an extended probe (EP), and an assistant probe (AP), which were not self-assembly in the absence of target proteins, due to the short length of the designed complementary sequence among MB, EP, and AP. Upon addition of the target proteins, EP and AP are bound to the target proteins, which induced the occurrence of proximity hybridization between MB, EP, and AP and followed by strand displacement amplification. Through the primer extension, a tripartite complex of probes and target was displaced and recycled to hybridize with another MB, and the more opened MB enabled the detection signal to amplify. Under optimum conditions, it was used for the detection of streptavidin and thrombin. Fluorescence intensity was proportional to the concentration of streptavidin and thrombin in the range of 0.2-30 and 0.2-35 nmol/L, respectively. Furthermore, this fluorescent method has a good selectivity, in which the fluorescence intensity of thrombin was ~37-fold or even larger than that of the other proteins at the same concentration. It is a new and simple method for SDA-involved target protein detection and possesses a great potential for other protein detection in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucoraphenin, the predominant glucosinolate in radish sprouts, is hydrolyzed by myrosinase to sulforaphene that is implicated to exert anticancerogenic effects. The effects of germination and subsequent cooking processes on the levels of glucoraphenin and its hydrolysis products were investigated in this research. HPLC analysis revealed that the levels of glucoraphenin and sulforaphene decreased with germination time. In agreement with the above results, the antiproliferation activity of radish sprouts extracts on human lung cancer cells was also found to decline gradually in line with the germination process. Furthermore, when we applied three traditional cooking treatments to radish sprouts, the glucoraphenin and sulforaphene were markedly decreased; while the antiproliferation activity of cooked radish sprouts was considerably decreased. This research showed that 3-day-old radish sprouts are an excellent source of bioactive compounds that could potentially benefit human health, while any cooking process appears to cause the devastation of beneficial attributes in radish sprouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors describe a method for sensitive quantitation of the tumor inducing DNA virus Simian virus 40. It is based on strand displacement amplification using triplex DNA. The molecular beacon (MB) probe with a guanine-rich fragment of the stem region is locked in its G-quadruplex structure and inactive. However, on addition of target dsDNA (oligo-1/oligo-2), which is the homopyrimidine/homopurine sequence located in the T antigen gene of SV40 DNA, it will hybridize with the hairpin structure. The resulting G-rich fragment is liberated and forms a G-quadruplex structure that binds the added fluorophore N-methyl mesoporphyrin IX that has a red fluorescence. The released 3′-end forms a shorter stem, which can trigger another strand displacement amplification in the presence of deoxy-ribonucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) and Klenow Fragment (exo) polymerase. Under the optimum conditions, fluorescence intensity (peaking at 614 nm) is proportional to the concentration of target dsDNA in the 1 pM to 250 pM concentration range, with a detection limit of 0.4 pM. The method is selective and does not recognize other dsDNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates and identifies significant contributing variables that affect the duration of three traffic accident stages, namely, preparation, travel, and clearance as well as the total duration of the accident. Accelerated failure time (AFT) hazard-based models were developed with different underlying probability distributions for the hazard function, including models with gamma heterogeneity and models with time-varying covariates. The results indicate that the gamma distribution model with a time variable is the best model for the four different duration stages, and different parameters and variables were appropriate for modeling the different duration stages of traffic accidents. The findings of this study provide an important demonstration of method and an empirical basis for accident management programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To facilitate genetic improvement, an efficient system of embryogenic culture induction, maintenance and transformation in Vitis vinifera cv. Chardonnay was developed using picloram. Whole flowers produced the most embryogenic calluses on induction media containing Murashige and Skoog's (MS) basal salts and 3.0 mg L picloram with different concentrations of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 6-benzyladenine. Proembryonic masses (PEM) cultured on maintenance and proliferation media (MPM) containing MS basal salts and picloram had the highest proliferation efficiency within 2 months. Additionally, the best PEM formation was found with MPM containing MS basal salts and 2.0 mg L picloram. Then this PEM cultured on MPM were transferred to embryo germination medium containing MS basal salts, 0.2 mg L kinetin and 0.1 mg L 2-naphthoxyacetic acid, the optimal medium for normal plantlets regeneration. A single copy of the stilbene synthase gene VpSTSgDNA2 from Chinese wild Vitis pseudoreticulata was transferred into regenerated Chardonnay via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation and confirmed by Southern blot analysis. The positive transgenic grapevine lines exhibited higher levels of stilbene and HO than wild-type vines and could slightly reduced the growth of powdery mildew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitis amurensis Rupr. is an exceptional wild-growing Vitis (grape) species that can safely survive a wide range of cold conditions, but the underlying cold-adaptive mechanism associated with gene regulation is poorly investigated. We have analyzed the physiochemical and transcriptomic changes caused by cold stress in a cold-tolerant accession, 'Heilongjiang seedling', of Chinese wild V. amurensis. We statistically determined that a total of 6,850 cold-regulated transcripts were involved in cold regulation, including 3,676 up-regulated and 3,174 down-regulated transcripts. A global survey of messenger RNA revealed that skipped exon is the most prevalent form of alternative spicing event. Importantly, we found that the total splicing events increased with the prolonged cold stress. We also identified thirty-eight major TF families that were involved in cold regulation, some of which were previously unknown. Moreover, a large number of candidate pathways for the metabolism or biosynthesis of secondary metabolites were found to be regulated by cold, which is of potential importance in coordinating cold tolerance with growth and development. Several heat shock proteins and heat shock factors were also detected to be intensively cold-regulated. Furthermore, we validated the expression profiles of 16 candidates using qRT-PCR to further confirm the accuracy of the RNA-seq data. Our results provide a genome-wide view of the dynamic changes in the transcriptome of V. amurensis, in which it is evident that various structural and regulatory genes are crucial for cold tolerance/adaptation. Moreover, our robust dataset advances our knowledge of the genes involved in the complex regulatory networks of cold stress and leads to a better understanding of cold tolerance mechanisms in this extremely cold-tolerant Vitis species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basic helix-loop-helix ( bHLH)-type transcription factors play diverse roles in plant physiological response and stress-adaptive regulation network. Here, we identified one grapevine bHLH transcription factor from a cold-tolerant accession 'Heilongjiang seedling' of Chinese wild Vitis amurensis ( VabHLH1) as a transcriptional activator involved in cold stress. We also compared with its counterpart from a cold-sensitive Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon ( VvbHLH1). These two putative proteins are characterized by the presence of the identically conserved regions of 54 amino acid residues of bHLH signature domain, and shared 99.1 % amino acid identity, whereas several stress-related cis-regulatory elements located in both promoter regions differed in types and positions. Expressions of two bHLHs in grapevine leaves were induced by cold stress, but evidently differ between two grapevine genotypes upon cold exposure. Two grapevine bHLH proteins were exclusively localized to the nucleus and exhibited strong transcriptional activation activities in yeast cells. Overexpression of either VabHLH1 or VvbHLH1 transcription factor did not affect the growth and development of transgenic Arabidopsis plants, but enhanced tolerance to cold stress. The improved tolerance in VabHLH1- or VvbHLH1-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants is associated with multiple physiological and biochemical changes that occurred during the time-course cold stress. These most common changes include the evaluated levels of proline, decreased amounts of malondialdehyde and reduced membrane injury as reflected by electrolyte leakage. VabHLH1 and VvbHLH1 displayed overlapping, but not identical, roles in activating the corresponding CBF cold signaling pathway, especially in regulating the expression of CBF3 and RD29A. Our findings demonstrated that two grapevine bHLHs act as positive regulators of the cold stress response, modulating the level of COR gene expression, which in turn confer tolerance to cold stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater is the main water source in the Hebei Plain. Evolution of groundwater chemistry can not only provide scientific data for sustainable usage of groundwater resources, but also help us in better understanding hydrogeochemical processes in aquifers. Spatial distribution and temporal evolution were analyzed on basis of monitoring data between 1975 and 2005. Results showed that major components in groundwater had increasing trends since 1970s. Major components in shallow groundwater increased more than those in deep one. In shallow groundwater of piedmont alluvial fan-recharge zone, concentrations of Na, Ca, SO had great increasing trends, while other major components increased by less than 30%. There were great increasing trends in Na, Cl, SO concentrations in deep groundwater of central alluvial plain-intermediate zone, while other major components increased by no more than 20%. Deep groundwater from coast plain-discharge zone and piedmont alluvial fan-recharge zone showed no significant variations in major ion concentrations. In shallow groundwater, dissolution, evaporation and human activities played a major role in the increase in major components. However, groundwater mixture resulting from deep groundwater exploitation was believed to be the major factors for the increases in major components in deep groundwater of central alluvial plain-intermediate zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Non-recurrent congestion caused by traffic incident is difficult to predict but should be dealt with in a timely and effective manner to reduce its influence on road capacity reduction and enormous travel time loss. Influence factor analysis and reasonable prediction of traffic incident duration are important in traffic incident management to predict incident impacts and aid in the implementation of appropriate traffic operation strategies. The objective of this study is to conduct a thorough review and discusses the research evolution, mainly including the different phases of incident duration, data resources, and the various methods that are applied in the traffic incident duration influence factor analysis and duration time prediction.Methods: In order to achieve the goal of this study, we presented a systematic review of traffic incident duration time estimation and prediction methods developed based on various data resource, methodologies etc.Results: based on the previous studies, we analyse (i) Data resources and characteristics: different traffic incident time phases, data set size, incident types, duration time distribution, available data resources, significant influence factors and unobserved heterogeneity and randomness, (ii) traffic incident duration analysis methods, mainly including hazard-based duration model and regression and statistical tests, (iii) traffic incident duration prediction methods and evaluation of prediction accuracy.Conclusions: After a comprehensive review of literature, this study identifies and analyses future challenges and what can be achieved in the future to estimate and predict the traffic incident duration time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents an amplified colorimetric biosensor for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), which associates the hybridization chain reaction (HCR) amplification with G-Quadruplex DNAzymes activity through triplex DNA formation. In the presence of ctDNA, HCR occurs. The resulting HCR products are specially recognized by one sequence to include one GGG repeat and the other containing three GGG repeats, through the synergetic effect of triplex DNA and asymmetrically split G-Quadruplex forming. Such design takes advantage of the amplification property of HCR and the high peroxidase-like catalytic activity of asymmetrically split G-Quadruplex DNAzymes by means of triplex DNA formation, which produces color signals in the presence of ctDNA. Nevertheless, in the absence of ctDNA, no HCR happens. Thus, no triplex DNA and G-Quadruplex structure is formed, producing a negligible background. The colorimetric sensing platform is successfully applied in complex biological environments such as human blood plasma for ctDNA detection, with a detection limit corresponding to 0.1 pM. This study unambiguously uses triplex DNA forming as the pivot to integrate nucleic acid amplification and DNAzymes for producing a highly sensitive signal with low background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Radiomics plays an important role in the field of oncology. Few studies have focused on the identification of factors that may influence the classification performance of radiomics models. The goal of this study was to use contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) images to identify factors that may potentially influence the performance of radiomics models in diagnosing breast lesions., Methods: A total of 157 women with 161 breast lesions were included. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and the random forest (RF) algorithm were employed to construct radiomics models. The classification result for each lesion was obtained by using 100 rounds of five-fold cross-validation. The image features interpreted by the radiologists were used in the exploratory factor analyses. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the association between the image features and misclassification. Additional exploratory analyses were performed to examine the findings., Results: Among the lesions misclassified by both LASSO and RF ≥ 20% of the iterations in the cross-validation and those misclassified by both algorithms ≤5% of the iterations, univariate analysis showed that larger lesion size and the presence of rim artifacts and/or ripple artifacts were associated with more misclassifications among benign lesions, and smaller lesion size was associated with more misclassifications among malignant lesions (all p <  0.050). Multivariate analysis showed that smaller lesion size (odds ratio [OR] = 0.699, p = 0.002) and the presence of air trapping artifacts (OR = 35.568, p = 0.025) were factors that may lead to misclassification among malignant lesions. Additional exploratory analyses showed that benign lesions with rim artifacts and small malignant lesions (< 20 mm) with air trapping artifacts were misclassified by approximately 50% more in rate compared with benign and malignant lesions without these factors., Conclusions: Lesion size and artifacts in CEM images may affect the diagnostic performance of radiomics models. The classification results for lesions presenting with certain factors may be less reliable., (© 2022. The Author(s).)