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This article presents the virtual restoration of the Nine Eyes Watchtower, a significant cultural heritage site along the Great Wall. By applying the Seville Charter and digital technology, a detailed virtual restoration workflow is developed. The methodology involves acquiring data from multiple sources, including physical evidence, historical data, and comparative data. Advanced survey technologies, architectural knowledge, historical research, and computer modelling techniques are integrated to accurately capture the architectural and historical significance of the Nine Eyes Watchtower. The virtual restoration process follows a systematic approach, combining evidence interpretation and explicit deduction steps. The main outcome is a comprehensive virtual restoration model that accurately represents the architectural features and historical context of the Nine Eyes Watchtower. The virtual scene includes environmental elements, with potential for immersive exploration. By bridging the gap between interpretation and deduction, this study advances the scientific understanding and presentation of virtual restorations. The project contributes to ongoing research, education, and appreciation of the Great Wall's cultural legacy, ensuring its continued relevance for future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial communities for bioconversion of lignocellulose have received widespread attention. Many cellulose-degrading microbial communities have been enriched from different sources. Combining two microbial communities with acidic and basic properties (acid–base combination) is a technique used alongside restricted enrichment culturing. Understanding how changes to microbial communities result in community’s structure and function is important for mechanistic reconstruction of microbiomes. In this study, we analyzed changes in microbial community structure to elucidate determination of the mechanisms of acid–base combination. We found that after restricted enrichment, the bacteria that were primarily retaining included not only those that decompose and utilize lignocellulose, such as Clostridium and Pseudomonas, but also synergistic microbiota such as Alkalobacillaceae. When the proportion of these two types of bacteria was unbalanced, the degradative ability of the microbial community was low, or pH changes of it did not compound regular changes, which may lead to the failure of restricted enrichment. Microbial communities were re-constituted by acid–base combination, whereby the degrading and synergistic strains were adjusted to a more appropriate proportion. The acid–base combination fixed the instability of microbial communities caused by the randomness of restrictive screening enrichment; it provided an effective method for obtaining high-quality lignocellulose-degrading microbial community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ceramic matrix containing zirconolite, hollandite, and perovskite phases is proposed as a potential host for HLW immobilization. Hollandite phase principally immobilizes Cs, while perovskite phase mainly immobilizes Sr. In this study, hollandite–perovskite composite ceramics are considered as a specialized waste form for immobilizing the separated Cs and Sr from HLW streams and synthesized by a solid-state reaction method at 1300 °C for 5 h. The phase compositions of the synthesized composites were characterized by XRD and BSE. The XRD results indicated that the as-prepared ceramics are composed of tetragonal hollandite Ba0.8Cs0.4Al2Ti6O16, cubic perovskite SrTiO3, alongside a lesser amount of TiO2. The BSE—EDX results confirm that Cs partitions into the hollandite matrix, while Sr incorporates into perovskite host with homogenous distribution. In addition, aqueous durability testing was carried out using the MCC-1 static leach test method. The normalized release rates of Cs and Sr in HP-3 sample (i.e., 75 wt% Ba0.8Cs0.4Al2Ti6O16 + 25 wt% SrTiO3) were < 10−2 g·m−2·d−1 after 42 days, exhibiting excellent chemical durability. These results indicate that the hollandite–perovskite ceramic matrix could be considered as a customized host matrix for immobilization of the separated Cs and Sr from HLW streams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic fungicides are eco-unfriendly to agriculture and the environment. Agricultural Jiaosu (AJ), which originates from organic wastes, has the potential to be a substitute for synthetic fungicides. In this study, the characteristics of AJ and its antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea were investigated for the first time. AJ was rich in lactic acid (4.46 g/L), acetic acid (1.52 g/L), Lactobacillus (72.45%) and Acetobacter (15.23%), which was a microbial ecosystem consisting of acid-based substances (AS) and beneficial microorganisms (BM). The results of the antifungal assays suggested that B. cinerea was effectively inhibited by AJ, with the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 9.24%. AJ showed the strongest and most-lasting inhibitory effect compared to cell-free supernatant and microbial solution of AJ, indicating that AS and BM and their synergistic effect contributed to the antifungal activity of AJ. Two-step inhibition' is an antifungal mode of AJ. Firstly, AS not only inhibited the pathogen directly but also provided a dominant niche for BM of AJ. Then, BM in AJ, especially Acetobacter, proliferated and metabolized acetic acid continuously. Thus, AJ achieved high-efficiency and long-acting inhibition. AJ is a promising biological agent considering its features of an eco-friendly, low-cost and easy-to-operate biological agent in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differentially expressed genes (DEGs), morphological changes, and leaf ultrastructure alterations of "Zhong Shu 3" potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plantlets in vitro cultured under red (R), blue (B), green (G), or white (W) LEDs were analyzed using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) method. In total, 2160, 774, and 1335 DEGs were identified in plantlets that received R, B, and G LEDs, respectively, compared to W LEDs (the control). Higher expression of expasin, xyloglucan glycosyltransferase, actin, and tubulin genes were associated with the largest leaf area under B and W LEDs. Neatly arranged spongy and palisade cells were observed in plantlets exposed to R LEDs, accompanied by upregulated expression of all the DEGs enriched for "anatomical structure development" and "anatomical structure arrangement" biological processes. Well-developed chloroplasts with developed inner membranes in plantlets under B LEDs were associated with the upregulation of most DEGs enriched for gene ontology (GO) terms of the chloroplast and chloroplast membrane systems. In addition, different light qualities induced different gene expression patterns, many of which were involved in metabolic pathways, such as the "porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism pathway Ko00860." Regulation of these genes might explain the higher or lower contents of photosynthetic pigments. Although R and G LEDs triggered shade stress in potato plantlets in vitro, the health index of plantlets grown under B LEDs was higher than that grown under W LEDs. Our results provide insights into the responses of potato plantlets to different light qualities at the transcriptomic level and may contribute to the improvement of potato plantlet in vitro propagation from light spectrum aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: To explore the clustering and influencing factors of unhealthy lifestyles among elderly adults with prediabetes in rural China. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Yiyang, Hunan Province, China. Through multistage cluster random sampling and an oral glucose tolerance test, we screened 461 elderly adults aged 60 years and older with prediabetes out of 2144 elderly adults who were sampled. The prediabetic adults completed a survey examining four common lifestyle factors: diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol use and the ability to acquire diabetes-related knowledge and thereby promote one's own health-diabetes health literacy. The influencing factors were analyzed retrospectively with the Kruskal-Wallis test and ordinal logistic regression. Results: A total of 425 elderly adults completed the survey, of whom 325 were identified with unhealthy lifestyle clustering. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences between unhealthy lifestyle clusters by age, gender, marital status, occupation and hyperlipidemia (P < 0.05). Ordinal logistic regression showed that female gender (OR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.15 0.37), personal annual income ≥ 2800 CNY (OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.38 0.99) and occupation as a worker (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.34 0.92) were protective factors against unhealthy lifestyle clustering. An unsatisfactory marital status (OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.02 2.51) and low diabetes health literacy (OR = 3.17, 95% CI: 1.03 9.81) were risk factors. Conclusion: In total, 76.47% of the prediabetic elderly adults in rural China showed unhealthy lifestyle clusters. Being male and having an unsatisfactory marital status, a low personal annual income, an occupation as a farmer and low diabetes health literacy were the main risk factors for unhealthy lifestyle clustering. More effective interventions should be implemented based on these risk factors to prevent diabetes in rural elderly adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a sol-spray pyrolysis route was employed to fabricate (Cs, Ba)-hollandite ceramic waste forms. The high-phase purity (Cs0.8−xBa0.4+x)(Al1.6+xTi6.4−x)O16 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.4) ceramics were synthesized at 1050 °C using the produced powders by sol-spray pyrolysis. The results show that all samples show tetragonal hollandite with rod morphology. Additionally, the sintered (Cs, Ba)-hollandite ceramics exhibit a good chemical durability. The normalized release rates of Cs and Ba were < 10−2 g m−2 d−1 after 14 days. These results indicate that hollandite ceramics are promising candidate for immobilizing radioactive cesium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Packet filtering allows a network gateway to control the network traffic flows and protect the computer system. Most of the recent research works on the filtering systems mainly concern the performance, reliability and defence against common network attacks. However, since the gateway might be controlled by red an untrusted attacker, who might try to infer the identity privacy of the sender host and mount IP tracking to its data packets. IP spoofing is another problem. To avoid data packets to be filtered in the packet filtering system, the malicious sender host might use a spoofed source IP address. Therefore, to preserve the source IP privacy and provide source IP authentication simultaneously in the filtering system is an interesting and challenging problem. To deal with the problem, we construct a data packet filtering scheme, which is formally proved to be semantic secure against the chosen IP attack and IP guessing attack. Based on this filtering scheme, we propose the first privacy-preserving packet filtering system, where the data packets whose source IP addresses are at risk are filtered, the privacy of the source IP is protected and its correctness can be verified by the recipient host. The analysis shows that our protocol can fulfil the objectives of a data packet filtering system. The performance evaluation demonstrates its applicability in the current network systems. We also presented a packet filtering scheme, where the data packets from one subnet can be filtered with only one filter policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an amorphous Ni-W coating was electrodeposited on the low-carbon steel and then annealed in hydrogen and argon atmosphere. Their characterization was carried out using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. The corrosion characterization was carried out using the potentiodynamic polarization (Tafel) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results show that microcracks inevitably exist on the surface of Ni-W coating when annealed at 750 °C or higher temperature. After annealing treatment, amorphous structure transforms to crystalline and some new phases are precipitated, which is significantly affected by the annealing temperature and atmosphere. The microhardness of annealed Ni-W coatings is much higher than that of as-deposited coating, while an adverse corrosion performance is observed for the annealed Ni-W coatings. The coating annealed in hydrogen at 500 °C shows a huge improvement in hardness and a fairly acceptable corrosion resistance compared with the as-deposited Ni-W coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silage and dry are the two typical cornstalk forms. Either form could be used as substrate in biogas plants and might be replaced by another when shortage occurred. This study focused on the feeding sequence of these two kinds of feedstocks, aiming to discuss their specific methane potential (SMP). A 15-day hydraulic retention time was chosen for semi-continuous experiments based on the batch test results. In semi-continuous experiments, before and after feedstocks were exchanged, the significantly decreased and comparable SMPs of silage and dry cornstalks indicated that a basis of unstable digestion would result in incomplete methane release from the subsequent digestion. A higher similarity of bacterial community structure and greater quantity of bacteria were shown in acidified silage cornstalk digestion through band similarity analysis. Methanosaetaceae and methanomicrobiales were the predominant methanogens, and aceticlastic methanogenesis was the main route for methane production. The different feeding sequences affected the hydrolysis course and further influenced the methanogenic proliferation. Our work suggests that silage cornstalk digestion should be conducted before dry cornstalk digestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new and reliable method for the simultaneous determination of nine plant growth regulators in navel oranges was developed by liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass (QqQ LC/MS). Extraction was performed by acetone and ethyl acetate ( v/ v, 1:2) with microwave-assisted extraction technique. Cleanup of extracts was performed with dispersive-solid phase extraction (d-SPE) using active carbon as the sorbent. The identification of each analyte was established by chromatographic retention time, analyte-specific fragmentation patterns, and relative peak area ratios of precursor/production pairs. Under the optimized conditions, the average recoveries (six replicates), except for methyl naphthacetate, were in the range of 61.0-109.4 % and limits of detection ranging from 0.01 to 162.2 μg kg. The results demonstrated that the developed QqQ LC/MS, extraction and purification method is highly effective for analyzing trace amounts of target plant growth regulators (PGRs) in navel orange samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In arid and semiarid ecosystems, shrubs usually play an important role in determining vegetation pattern and landscape diversity. By exerting multiple effects on microhabitat, shrubs can modulate the performances, species assemblages, and spatial patterns of their understory plants. Both positive and negative interactions act simultaneously, and the balance between them shifts at different spatial locations. To better understand shrub-herb interaction and its possible mechanisms, we chose three common shrub species in a dry-land of Hexi desert region and examine their effects on microhabitat and understory vegetation among different locations. Results showed that the understory vegetation can benefit from the presence of Calligonum mongolicum, as a result of modified drought stresses, increased soil nutrients and more available seeds. However, understory vegetation exhibited better performances at the peripheral location of Nitraria sphaerocarpa patches, which can be explained by the balance between resources improvement and seeds limitation. It has been also found that the higher salt contents (e.g., Na, K, Cl, and SO ) on vegetation patches beneath Haloxylon ammodendron may interfere with herbaceous performances and thus modified their spatial pattern. Our study revealed that the multiple effects of shrubs on microhabitat are species specific and at a fine scale, which may result in various fine-scale spatial patterns of vegetation in response to different shrub species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clostridium straminisolvens (CSK1) is a novel cellulolytic bacterium isolated from a cellulose-degrading bacterial community MC1. In this study, the influence of the following cell disruption and elution methods on CSK1cellulase release was investigated: (1) freezing-thawing, (2) ultrasonication, (3) elution, (4) freezing-thawing following elution, (5) ultrasonication following elution, and lastly (6) high-pressure homogenization following elution. The activity of the cellulases CMCase, β-glucosidase, Avicelase, FPase, and xylanase in crude extracts increased 81.5, 23.8, 87.7, 46.3, and 51.7 %, respectively, with an observed optimal treatment method for each cellulase type. The release of protein from CSK1 cells increased following either cell disruption or elution and was highest at 88.3 % in the homogenization high pressure following elution treatment. A newly observed protein was present following cell elution. The performance of cell elution as determined by real time-PCR indicated that the first time cell elution removed more than 90 % of the CSK1 cells from the substrate. These findings demonstrate that cell disruption and elution are effective methods for inducing cellulase release, and elution is the key step for CSK1. To our knowledge, this study presents the first evidence of optimal treatments for induction of cellulase release of Clostridium straminisolvens. This information will be of great value for use in subsequent efforts to better understand the cellulase characteristics of CSK1 and cellulose degradation mechanisms of the MC1 community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To monitor the dynamics of the composite microbial system MC1 during its degradation of lignocellulose and to improve our understanding of the microbial communities involved in this biomass conversion, MC1 was characterized at eight time points over an 18-day, thermophilic, aerobic, static cultivation. We found the microbial communities to be dynamic, rhythmic consortia capable of changing in response to lignocellulose degradation. The growth curve over 18 days was M-shaped. Based on the quantitative changes in five major components of MC1 ( Clostridium straminisolvens CSK-1, Clostridium sp. FG4, Pseudoxanthomonas sp. M1-3, Brevibacillus sp. M1-5, and Bordetella sp. M1-6), reduction in rice straw weight, cellulase (CMCase) activity, xylanase activity, and changes in medium pH, we found that the process comprised two identifiable phases. Rapid degradation occurred from day 0 to day 9, while the post-rapid degradation phase included days 10 to 18. Day 3 and day 12 were two key time points in the rapid degradation phase and post-rapid degradation phase, respectively. Two anaerobes, C. straminisolvens CSK-1 and Clostridium sp. FG4, dominated the MC1 system from day 0 to day 18. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was added to filter paper during the hydrolysis of cellulase. Adding BSA before the addition of the cellulase enhances enzyme activity in the solution, thereby increasing the conversion rate of cellulose. After 48 h of BSA treatment, the BSA adsorption quantities are 3.3, 4.6, 7.8, 17.2, and 28.3 mg/g substrate, each with different initial BSA concentration treatments at 50 °C; in addition, more cellulase was adsorbed onto the filter paper at 50 °C compared with 35 °C. After 48 h of hydrolysis, the free-enzyme activity could not be measured without the BSA treatment, whereas the remaining activity of the filter paper activity was approximately 41 % when treated with 1.0 mg/mL BSA. Even after 96 h of hydrolysis, 25 % still remained. Meanwhile, after 48 h of incubation without substrate, the remaining enzyme activities were increased 20.7 % (from 43.7 to 52.7 %) and 94.8 % (from 23.3 to 45.5 %) at 35 and 50 °C, respectively. Moreover, the effect of the BSA was more obvious at 35 °C compared with 50 °C. When using 15 filter paper cellulase units per gram substrate cellulase loading at 50 °C, the cellulose conversion was increased from 75 % (without BSA treatment) to ≥90 % when using BSA dosages between 0.1 and 1.5 mg/mL. Overall, these results suggest that there are promising strategies for BSA treatment in the reduction of enzyme requirements during the hydrolysis of cellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of temperature on the structure and straw degradation capability of a microbial community grown from wheat straw compost. Two cellulolytic microbial communities, WDC1 and WDC2, were obtained from compost. The communities had been cultured under 50 and 60 °C by continuous enrichment, respectively. The wheat straw degradation capabilities were 45.69 % (WDC1) and 59.5 % (WDC2). By changing the culture temperatures, two new stable communities were obtained: WDC1-6N (WDC1, cultivated at 60 °C for eight generations) and WDC2-5N (WDC2, cultivated at 50 °C for eight generations). The wheat straw degradation capabilities for the new communities were 59.75 and 52.60 %, respectively. The results showed that compared to 50 °C, the wheat straw degradation capability of the communities cultured at 60 °C was stronger. Sequencing of selected denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands and analysis of DGGE profiles indicated that the WDC2 structure was significantly different from the structure of WDC1. This was so even though the two communities were enriched from the same compost. With the change of culture temperature, the community structures underwent significant transitions. Included communities were thermophilic, anaerobic bacteria, and any cellulolytic bacteria (e.g., Clostridium thermocellum) that were active and abundant at conditions under 60 °C. These results have the potential to significantly aid in the enrichment of a cellulose-degrading community from the environment and to enhance the community capability to conduct straw biotransformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone marrow smear examination is an indispensable diagnostic tool in the evaluation of hematological diseases, but the process of manual differential count is labor extensive. In this study, we developed an automatic system with integrated scanning hardware and machine learning-based software to perform differential cell count on bone marrow smears to assist diagnosis. The initial development of the artificial neural network was based on 3000 marrow smear samples retrospectively archived from Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine between June 2016 and December 2018. The preliminary field validating test of the system was based on 124 marrow smears newly collected from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University between April 2019 and November 2019. The study was performed in parallel of machine automatic recognition with conventional manual differential count by pathologists using the microscope. We selected representative 600,000 marrow cell images as training set of the algorithm, followed by random captured 30,867 cell images for validation. In validation, the overall accuracy of automatic cell classification was 90.1% (95% CI, 89.8–90.5%). In a preliminary field validating test, the reliability coefficient (ICC) of cell series proportion between the two analysis methods were high (ICC ≥ 0.883, P < 0.0001) and the results by the two analysis methods were consistent for granulocytes and erythrocytes. The system was effective in cell classification and differential cell count on marrow smears. It provides a useful digital tool in the screening and evaluation of various hematological disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]