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Terpenoids are known for their diverse structures and broad bioactivities with significant potential in pharmaceutical applications. However, natural products with low yields are usually ignored in traditional chemical analysis. Feature-based molecular networking (FBMN) was developed recently to cluster compounds with similar skeletons, which can highlight trace amounts of unknown compounds. Fusoxypene A is a sesterterpene synthesized by Fusarium oxysporum fusoxypene synthase (FoFS) with a unique 5/6/7/3/5 ring system. In this study, the FoFS-containing biosynthetic gene cluster was identified from F. oxysporum FO14005, and an efficient FBMN-based strategy was established to characterize four new sesterterpenoids, fusoxyordienoid A–D (1–4), based on a small-scale fermentation strategy. A cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, FusB, was found to be involved in the functionalization of fusoxypene A at C-17 and C-24 and responsible for the hydroxylation of fusoxyordienoid A at C-1 and C-8. This study highlights the potential of FBMN as a powerful tool for the discovery and characterization of natural compounds with low abundance. Key points: Combined small-scale fermentation and FBMN for rapid discovery of fusoxyordienoids Characterization of four new fusoxyordienoids with 5/6/7/3/5 ring system Biosynthetic pathway elucidation via tandem expression and substrate feeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, model averaging has attracted more and more attention and is regarded as a much better tool to solve model uncertainty than model selection. Compared with the conditional mean regression, the quantile regression serves as a robust alternative and shows a lot more information about the conditional distribution of a response variable. In this paper, we propose a jackknife model averaging procedure that chooses the weights by minimizing a leave-one-out cross-validation criterion function for mixed-data kernel-weighted spline quantile regressions that contain both continuous and categorical regressors when all candidate models are potentially misspecified. We demonstrate the JMA estimator is asymptotically optimal in terms of minimizing the out-of-sample final prediction error. Simulation experiments are conducted to assess the relative finite-sample performance of the proposed JMA method with respect to other model selection and averaging methods. Our JMA method is applied to the wage and house datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses regression analysis of current status data with dependent censoring, a problem that often occurs in many areas such as cross-sectional studies, epidemiological investigations and tumorigenicity experiments. Copula model-based methods are commonly employed to tackle this issue. However, these methods often face challenges in terms of model and parameter identification. The primary aim of this paper is to propose a copula-based analysis for dependent current status data, where the association parameter is left unspecified. Our method is based on a general class of semiparametric linear transformation models and parametric copulas. We demonstrate that the proposed semiparametric model is identifiable under certain regularity conditions from the distribution of the observed data. For inference, we develop a sieve maximum likelihood estimation method, using Bernstein polynomials to approximate the nonparametric functions involved. The asymptotic consistency and normality of the proposed estimators are established. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness and practical applicability of our method, we conduct an extensive simulation study and apply the proposed method to a real data example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the genomes of ubiquitous Penicillium spp. might carry dozens of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), yet many clusters have remained uncharacterized. In this study, a detailed investigation of co-culture fermentation including the basidiomycete Armillaria mellea CPCC 400891 and the P. brasilianum CGMCC 3.4402 enabled the isolation of five new compounds including two bisabolene-type sesquiterpenes (arpenibisabolanes A and B), two carotane-type sesquiterpenes (arpenicarotanes A and B), and one polyketide (arpenichorismite A) along with seven known compounds. The assignments of their structures were deduced by the extensive analyses of detailed spectroscopic data, electronic circular dichroism spectra, together with delimitation of the biogenesis. Most new compounds were not detected in monocultures under the same fermentation conditions. Arpenibisabolane A represents the first example of a 6/5-fused bicyclic bisabolene. The bioassay of these five new compounds exhibited no cytotoxic activities in vitro against three human cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7, and HepG2). Moreover, sequence alignments and bioinformatic analysis to other metabolic pathways, two BGCs including Pb-bis and Pb-car, responsible for generating sesquiterpenoids from co-culture were identified, respectively. Furthermore, based on the chemical structures and deduced gene functions of the two clusters, a hypothetic metabolic pathway for biosynthesizing induced sesquiterpenoids was proposed. These results demonstrated that the co-culture approach would facilitate bioprospecting for new metabolites even from the well-studied microbes. Our findings would provide opportunities for further understanding of the biosynthesis of intriguing sesquiterpenoids via metabolic engineering strategies. Key points: • Penicillium and Armillaria co-culture facilitates the production of diverse secondary metabolites • Arpenibisabolane A represents the first example of 6/5-fused bicyclic bisabolenes • A hypothetic metabolic pathway for biosynthesizing induced sesquiterpenoids was proposed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dissimilar butt joining of aluminum alloy and copper was successfully realized by cold metal transfer (CMT) welding–brazing with the help of preheating on copper. Preheating could balance the effect of the high thermal conductivity of copper on weld formation, and eliminate welding defects such as porosity, unfused zone, and cracks at the interface. Three layers of intermetallic compounds were observed at the brazing interface, namely, Al4Cu9, Al2Cu3, and Al2Cu. When the heat input was reduced to 648 J/mm, the total thickness of the interfacial IMC layers was suppressed to 4.83 μm, and the mechanical property of the joint was up to 91.35 MPa. The corrosion resistance of the Al/Cu welded joint was worse than that of the base metals, and corrosion occurred at the interfacial IMCs and the grain boundaries of the weld microstructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, model averaging, as a way to solve model uncertainty, has attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the authors propose a jackknife model averaging (JMA) method for the quantile single-index coefficient model, which is widely used in statistics. Under model misspecification, the model averaging estimator is proved to be asymptotically optimal in terms of minimizing out-of-sample quantile loss. Simulation experiments are conducted to compare the JMA method with several model selections and model averaging methods, and the results show that the proposed method has a satisfactory performance. The method is also applied to a real dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Gene therapies for sickle cell disease (SCD) may offer meaningful benefits for patients and society. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of lovotibeglogene autotemcel (lovo-cel), a one-time gene therapy administered via autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, compared with common care for patients in the United States (US) with SCD aged ≥ 12 years with ≥ 4 vaso-occlusive events (VOEs) in the past 24 months. Methods: We developed a patient-level simulation model accounting for lovo-cel and SCD-related events, complications, and mortality over a lifetime time horizon. The pivotal phase 1/2 HGB-206 clinical trial (NCT02140554) served as the basis for lovo-cel efficacy and safety. Cost, quality-of-life, and other clinical data were sourced from HGB-206 data and the literature. Analyses were conducted from US societal and third-party payer perspectives. Uncertainty was assessed through probabilistic sensitivity analysis and extensive scenario analyses. Results: Patients treated with lovo-cel were predicted to survive 23.84 years longer on average (standard deviation [SD], 12.80) versus common care (life expectancy, 62.24 versus 38.40 years), with associated discounted patient quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gains of 10.20 (SD, 4.10) and direct costs avoided of $1,329,201 (SD, $1,346,446) per patient. Predicted societal benefits included discounted caregiver QALY losses avoided of 1.19 (SD, 1.38) and indirect costs avoided of $540,416 (SD, $262,353) per patient. Including lovo-cel costs ($3,282,009 [SD, $29,690] per patient) resulted in incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of $191,519 and $124,051 per QALY gained from third-party payer and societal perspectives, respectively. In scenario analyses, the predicted cost-effectiveness of lovo-cel also was sensitive to baseline age and VOE frequency and to the proportion of patients achieving and maintaining complete resolution of VOEs. Conclusions: Our analysis of lovo-cel gene therapy compared with common care for patients in the US with SCD with recurrent VOEs estimated meaningful improvements in survival, quality of life, and other clinical outcomes accompanied by increased overall costs for the health care system and for broader society. The predicted economic value of lovo-cel gene therapy was influenced by uncertainty in long-term clinical effects and by positive spillover effects on patient productivity and caregiver burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jingfang Granule (JFG), a traditional Chinese medicine, is frequently employed in clinical settings for the treatment of infectious diseases. Nevertheless, the anti-aging and anti-infection effects of JFG remain uncertain. In the present study, these effects were evaluated using the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) N2 as a model organism. The results demonstrated that JFG significantly increased the median lifespan of C. elegans by 31.2% at a dosage of 10 mg/mL, without any discernible adverse effects, such as alterations in the pharyngeal pumping rate or nematode motility. Moreover, JFG notably increased oviposition by 11.3%. Subsequent investigations revealed that JFG enhanced oxidative stress resistance in C. elegans by reducing reactive oxygen species levels and significantly improved survival rates in nematodes infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027. These findings suggest that JFG delays reproductive senescence in C. elegans and protects them from oxidative stress, thereby extending their lifespan. Additionally, JFG improves the survival of P. aeruginosa-infected nematodes. Consequently, JFG has potential as a candidate for the development of anti-aging and anti-infection functional medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histone acetylation modifications in filamentous fungi play a crucial role in epigenetic gene regulation and are closely linked to the transcription of secondary metabolite (SM) biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play a pivotal role in determining the extent of histone acetylation modifications and act as triggers for the expression activity of target BGCs. The genus Chaetomium is widely recognized as a rich source of novel and bioactive SMs. Deletion of a class I HDAC gene of Chaetomium olivaceum SD-80A, g7489, induces a substantial pleiotropic effect on the expression of SM BGCs. The C. olivaceum SD-80A ∆g7489 strain exhibited significant changes in morphology, sporulation ability, and secondary metabolic profile, resulting in the emergence of new compound peaks. Notably, three polyketides (A1–A3) and one asterriquinone (A4) were isolated from this mutant strain. Furthermore, our study explored the BGCs of A1–A4, confirming the function of two polyketide synthases (PKSs). Collectively, our findings highlight the promising potential of molecular epigenetic approaches for the elucidation of novel active compounds and their biosynthetic elements in Chaetomium species. This finding holds great significance for the exploration and utilization of Chaetomium resources. Key points: • Deletion of a class I histone deacetylase activated secondary metabolite gene clusters. • Three polyketides and one asterriquinone were isolated from HDAC deleted strain. • Two different PKSs were reported in C. olivaceum SD-80A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, frequentist model averaging has received more and more attention. However, the majority of related work focuses on the parametric model setup and devotes more energy to different mean structures but ignores the form of variance. In this paper, we consider a regression model with the mean being a varying-coefficient model and the variance being multiplicative heteroscedasticity and introduce a model averaging approach that uses the B-spline smoothing method to estimate unknown coefficient functions and obtains the estimators of unknown parameters in both the mean and variance functions of the model by the maximum likelihood method. The resulting model averaging estimator is proved to have asymptotic optimality under some regular conditions. Simulation experiments are conducted to compare the performance of our method with that of other common heteroscedasticity-robust model selection and model averaging methods under the finite-sample case. Our method is also verified in a real dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Zygotic genome activation (ZGA) is an important event in the early embryo development, and human embryo developmental arrest has been highly correlated with ZGA failure in clinical studies. Although a few studies have linked maternal factors to mammalian ZGA, more studies are needed to fully elucidate the maternal factors that are involved in ZGA. Methods and results: In this study, we utilized published single-cell RNA sequencing data from a Dux-mediated mouse embryonic stem cell to induce a 2-cell-like transition state and selected potential drivers for the transition according to an RNA velocity analysis. Conclusions: An overlap of potential candidate markers of 2-cell-like-cells identified in this research with markers generated by various data sets suggests that Trim75 is a potential driver of minor ZGA and may recruit EP300 and establish H3K27ac in the gene body of minor ZGA genes, thereby contributing to mammalian preimplantation embryo development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helianthemum songaricum and H. ordosicum are two shrubs disjunctively distributed in Central Asia and northwestern China. For conservation purposes, we used genotyping by sequencing (GBS) to investigate the genetic diversity and genetic structure of their populations. Based on the GBS data, H. songaricum populations showed considerable genetic differences from H. ordosicum populations. Helianthemum songaricum populations also showed a stronger population genetic structure within the isolated valleys in the Tianshan Mountains than was seen in previous studies. We speculated that the two species may represent two cotemporal migration events between the Middle East and Central Asia/Ordos Plateau since the early Pliocene. Due to the intense uplift of the Tianshan Mountains in the late Pliocene, populations of H. songaricum were isolated in different valleys. Subsequently, the cold glacial climate during the Pleistocene intensified the in situ intraspecific differentiation of the species. Based on our single nucleotide polymorphism data, we propose habitat damage by anthropological activities, where the two species inhabit should be urgently prohibited by executive management. In addition, a nursery for germplasm resources should be urgently set up to culture adequate progenies for the purpose of expanding the populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart materials that integrate multi-stimuli response, full reversibility, and dual-visual read-out channel are highly desired for anti-counterfeiting and information encryption applications. Herein, we developed a multiresponsive perchlorate terpyridyl Pt(II) nano complex which could undergo fully reversible conversion between three forms stimulated by water or formaldehyde molecule due to the extent of Pt–Pt interaction. Meanwhile, a dual-visual channel, i.e., the colorimetric channel changed from yellow to orange or red and the corresponding luminescent channel from orange to orange-red or red, has also been found. The weak and equivalent strength of ion-dipole interaction and hydrogen bond that generated between formaldehyde/water and Pt(II) salt result in the easy-control reversibility between the three forms. Furthermore, by introducing different polymer matrices, 1Cl·ClO4@PMMA (1Cl·ClO4: [Pt(tpy)Cl]·ClO4, tpy: 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine), PMMA: poly(methyl methacrylate)) and 1Cl·ClO4@PVA (PVA: polyvinyl alcohol) are successfully constructed, which exhibit different reversible behaviors since the PMMA and PVA matrix exert different influences on the strength of hydrogen-bond. Those smart Pt(II) salt nanostructures present great potential for high-security-level anticounterfeiting application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distributed fiber sensor was fabricated by splicing two single-mode fibers (SMFs) using the few-mode fiber (FMF) technique. A Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) system was developed to measure the sensor's temperature and bending performance. Two-mode and four-mode step FMFs were combined to splice the few-mode segment. The results indicate that the temperature response coefficients of the few-mode segment are only slightly higher than those of the connected single-mode segment, measuring at 1.13 MHz/°C and 1.12 MHz/°C, respectively. The minimum bending radius for the sensor is 0.9 cm, and the four-mode bending response curve is superior to that of the two-mode one, proving that 4-SI-FMF offers better bending sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of adversarial attacks is crucial in the design of robust neural network models. In this work, we propose a hyperparameter optimization framework for black-box adversarial attacks. We observe that hyperparameters are extremely important to enhance the query efficiency of many black-box adversarial attack methods. Hence, we propose an adaptive hyperparameter tuning framework such that, in each query iteration, the attacker can adaptively selects the hyperparameter configuration based on the feedback from the victim to improve the attack success rate and query efficiency of the attack algorithm. The experiment results show, by adaptively tuning the attack hyperparameters, our technique outperforms the original algorithm, where the query efficiency is improved by 33.63% on the NES algorithm for untargeted attacks, 44.47% on the Bandits algorithm for untargeted attacks, and 32.24% improvement on the Bandits algorithm for targeted attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enteric pathogens cause widespread foodborne illness and are increasingly resistant to important antibiotics yet their ecological impact on the gut microbiome and resistome is not fully understood. Herein, shotgun metagenome sequencing was applied to stool DNA from 60 patients (cases) during an enteric bacterial infection and after recovery (follow-ups). Overall, the case samples harbored more antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) with greater resistome diversity than the follow-up samples (p < 0.001), while follow-ups had more diverse gut microbiota (p < 0.001). Although cases were primarily defined by genera Escherichia, Salmonella, and Shigella along with ARGs for multi-compound and multidrug resistance, follow-ups had a greater abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla and resistance genes for tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamides, and streptogramins, and aminoglycosides. A host-tracking analysis revealed that Escherichia was the primary bacterial host of ARGs in both cases and follow-ups, with a greater abundance occurring during infection. Eleven distinct extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) genes were identified during infection, with some detectable upon recovery, highlighting the potential for gene transfer within the community. Because of the increasing incidence of disease caused by foodborne pathogens and their role in harboring and transferring resistance determinants, this study enhances our understanding of how enteric infections impact human gut ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few-shot imbalanced classification tasks are commonly faced in the real-world applications due to the unbalanced data distribution and few samples of rare classes. As known, the traditional machine learning algorithms perform poorly on the imbalanced classification, usually ignoring the few samples in the minority class to achieve a good overall accuracy. To solve this few-shot problem, a novel data augmentation method was proposed in this study, called H-SMOTE, to rebalance the original imbalanced data in a stable and reasonable way. Extensive experiments were carried out on 12 open datasets covering a wide range of imbalance rate from 3.8 to 16.4. Moreover, two typical classifiers SVM and Random Forest were selected to testify the performance and generalization of proposed H-SMOTE. Further, the typical data oversampling algorithm SMOTE was adopted as the baseline of comparison. The average experimental results show that the proposed H-SMOTE method outperforms the typical SMOTE in terms of accuracy (2.58%), recall (0.67%), F-measure (2.33%), G-mean (2.58%), and AUC (2.5%). Besides, the distribution of augmented dataset by H-SMOTE is more uniform and stable. Thus, this work provides a useful data augmentation method to solve the few-shot imbalanced classification, which can also be generalized to many areas in multimedia systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermophilic cell factories have remarkably broad potential for industrial applications, but are limited by a lack of genetic manipulation tools and recalcitrance to transformation. Here, we identify a thermophilic type I-B CRISPR-Cas system from Parageobacillus thermoglucosidasius and find it displays highly efficient transcriptional repression or DNA cleavage activity that can be switched by adjusting crRNA length to less than or greater than 26 bp, respectively, without ablating Cas3 nuclease. We then develop an orthogonal tool for genome editing and transcriptional repression using this type I-B system in both thermophile and mesophile hosts. Empowered by this tool, we design a strategy to screen the genome-scale targets involved in transformation efficiency and established dynamically controlled supercompetent P. thermoglucosidasius cells with high efficiency (~ 108 CFU/μg DNA) by temporal multiplexed repression. We also demonstrate the construction of thermophilic riboflavin cell factory with hitherto highest titers in high temperature fermentation by genome-scale identification and combinatorial manipulation of multiple targets. This work enables diverse high-efficiency genetic manipulation in P. thermoglucosidasius and facilitates the engineering of thermophilic cell factories. Thermophilic genetic manipulation tools are limited. Here the authors report a thermophilic type I-B CRISPR-Cas system and show it displays efficient transcriptional repression or DNA cleavage activity: they develop a tool for genome editing and transcriptional repression in both thermophile and mesophile hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Color vision is mediated by the expression of different major visual pigment proteins (opsins) on retinal photoreceptors. Vertebrates have four classes of cone opsins that are most sensitive to different wavelengths of light: short wavelength sensitive 1 (SWS1), short wavelength sensitive 2 (SWS2), medium wavelength sensitive (RH2), and long wavelength sensitive (LWS). UV wavelengths play important roles in foraging and communication. However, direct evidence provide links between sws1 and first feeding is lacking. Here, CRISPR/Cas9 technology was performed to generate mutant zebrafish lines with sws1 deletion. sws1 mutant zebrafish larvae exhibited decreased sws1, rh2-2, and lws1 expression, and increased rod gene (rho and gnat1) expression. Furthermore, the sws1-deficient larvae exhibited significantly reduced food intake, and the orexigenic genes npy and agrp signaling were upregulated at 6 days postfertilization (dpf). The transcription expression of sws1 and rh2-3 genes decreased in sws1−/− adults compared to wild type. Surprisingly, the results of feeding at the adult stage were not the same with larvae. sws1 deficiency did not affect food intake and appetite gene expression at adult stages. These results reveal a role for sws1 in normal cone development and first feeding in larval zebrafish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Obesity may be a risk factor for severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). However, its precise mechanism is not yet fully understood. Methods: We fed rats with a standard laboratory diet (SLD) and a high-fat diet (HFD). SAP model rats were established by retrograde injection of sodium taurocholate. Serum non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), lipase (LPS), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were measured, as were adipose IL-1, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α levels. HE staining was performed to determine the severity of pancreatitis. Serum exosomes were extracted from rats with obesity-related SAP, verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and western blot analysis, and co-cultured with THP-1 cells. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the M1 and M2 phenotypes of macrophages in adipose tissues and THP-1 cells. Q-PCR was used to analyze the levels of IL-1, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α in each group of cells. Results: The body weight and serum NEFA concentrations of rats in the HFD group were significantly higher than those in the SLD group. Adipose tissue macrophages in the HFD group exhibited a higher percentage of the M1 type than those in the SLD group. The severity of pancreatitis were significantly increased in the HFD + SAP group. Pro-inflammatory macrophages and cytokines were significantly higher in the HFD + SAP group and THP-1 cells co-cultured with serum exosomes extracted from rats with obesity-related SAP. Conclusions: Obesity might worsen the severity of pancreatitis by amplifying the immune response and activating M1 polarization in adipose tissue macrophages via serum exosomes in rats of obesity-related SAP. In our study, we isolated exosomes from the serum of mice with obesity-related SAP. After inducing THP-1 cells to become M0-typed macrophages, we co-cultured the cells with exosomes and observed that exosomes from obesity-related SAP increased the proportion of M1-typed macrophages and promoted the release of pro-inflammatory factors such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNF. Therefore, obesity might worsen the severity of pancreatitis by amplifying the immune response and activating M1 polarization in adipose tissue macrophages via serum exosomes in rats of obesity-related SAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a global problem limiting plant growth and productivity by hampering the physiological and biochemical processes. Acetylcholine (ACh), a potential neurotransmitter found in lower and higher plants, has the potential to promote growth. However, little is known about ACh-mediated physiological and biochemical changes that promote plants' growth under drought stress conditions. Current experiments were undertaken to assess the effect of ACh (0.01 and 0.1 mM ACh) supplementation on the growth performance of tobacco under drought stress (10%, PEG 6000). The current findings exhibit that drought stress substantially reduced the physiological and biochemical parameters. However, the ACh application enhanced the growth and biomass of tobacco plants. Moreover, ACh application significantly enhanced the activity of PSII and chlorophyll fluorescence under normal and drought stress treatment, respectively. Furthermore, PEG treatment increases reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage; however, ACh application reduced H2O2, O2− and lipid peroxidation. In addition, exogenous application of ACh improved plant water status by improving the accumulation of proline and regulating the stomatal opening and closing. Besides, ACh-induced amelioration of oxidative stress was related to the up-regulation of antioxidant enzyme activities like SOD, POD, CAT, and APX. Hence, it can be concluded that ACh treatment improved photosynthesis in tobacco by regulating the stomatal and non-stomatal factors and up-regulation of the antioxidant system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is a typical short-day and temperate crop that is sensitive to photoperiod and temperature. Responses of soybean to photothermal conditions determine plant growth and development, which affect its architecture, yield formation, and capacity for geographic adaptation. Flowering time, maturity, and other traits associated with photothermal adaptability are controlled by multiple major-effect and minor-effect genes and genotype-by-environment interactions. Genetic studies have identified at least 11 loci (E1-E4, E6-E11, and J) that participate in photoperiodic regulation of flowering time and maturity in soybean. Molecular cloning and characterization of major-effect flowering genes have clarified the photoperiod-dependent flowering pathway, in which the photoreceptor gene phytochrome A, circadian evening complex (EC) components, central flowering repressor E1, and FLOWERING LOCUS T family genes play key roles in regulation of flowering time, maturity, and adaptability to photothermal conditions. Here, we provide an overview of recent progress in genetic and molecular analysis of traits associated with photothermal adaptability, summarizing advances in molecular breeding practices and tools for improving these traits. Furthermore, we discuss methods for breeding soybean varieties with better adaptability to specific ecological regions, with emphasis on a novel strategy, the Potalaization model, which allows breeding of widely adapted soybean varieties through the use of multiple molecular tools in existing elite widely adapted varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercropping leguminous plant species with non-legume crops could be an effective strategy to maintain soil fertility. Additionally, the application of nano-Zn and Fe in trace amounts can substantially improve the bioavailable fraction of Zn and Fe. We studied the effect of foliar application of some nanomaterials on the agronomic, physio-biochemical attributes under a radish/pea intercropping system. The radish and pea were sprayed with different nanomaterials (Zn–Fe nanocomposite, nZnO, and nanobiochar) at 0 and 50 mg L-1 concentrations. Results indicated that the growth parameters of radish were higher in intercropping than in monocropping, while pea growth was inhibited in intercropping compared with monocropping. The shoot and root length, fresh weight, and dry matter of radish were increased by 28–50%, 60–70%, and 50–56% by intercropping than monocropping. Foliar spray of nano-materials further increased the growth traits of intercropped radish, such as shoot and root length, fresh weight, and dry matter, by 7–8%, 27–41%, and 50–60%, respectively. Similarly, pigments such as chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoids and the concentration of free amino acids, soluble sugars, flavonoids, and phenolics were differentially affected by intercropping and nanomaterials. The yield of the non-legume crop was increased by intercropping, whereas the legume crop exhibited significant growth inhibition due to competitive interactions. In conclusion, both intercropping and foliar spray of nanomaterials could be used as a combined approach to benefit plant growth and enhance the bioavailable Fe and Zn fractions of both crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites have the potential to provide positioning, navigation and timing services in the future and are attracting widespread attention from researchers. However, due to rapid movements and a large number of LEO satellites, directly adopting the traditional code division multiple access (CDMA) method in the LEO mega-constellation navigation system will introduce a high computational complexity to the signal acquisition process of receivers and make the acquisition time much longer if receivers are in case of a cold start without assistance data. To decrease the acquisition complexity, we propose a new Doppler frequency code division multiple access (DFCDMA) method for LEO mega-constellation navigation systems. In this method, navigation signals broadcast by satellites in the same orbital plane are modulated with the same pseudorandom noise (PRN) code, while navigation signals broadcast by satellites in different orbital planes are modulated with distinct PRN codes. Through theoretical analysis and simulation, it is shown that satellites in the same orbital plane can achieve multiple access only by Doppler frequency at any position on the ground if the receiver velocity is less than 500 m/s. Therefore, low-speed receivers can distinguish LEO navigation signals by multiple combinations of different Doppler frequencies and PRN codes acquired. The results show that DFCDMA can achieve a fast acquisition and significantly shorten the acquisition time with similar acquisition sensitivity compared to CDMA in case of a cold start. Compared with the Doppler frequency code phase division multiple access (DFCP-DMA), DFCDMA has higher availability in the case of LEO mega-constellations and multipath environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil amendment with nanobiochar (a novel nanomaterial) may benefit crop production by modulating water-holding capacity, increasing biotic interactions, and providing an additional source of macro- and micronutrients. We reported nano-biochar-induced changes in carrot agronomic, ionomic, and nutriomic profiles. Root-zone application of nanobiochar at four levels [0 (control), 0.1 (S1), 0.3 (S3), and 0.5% (S5)] was performed at sowing and foliar spray of nanobiochar suspension [0 (control), 1 (F1), 3 (F3), and 5% (F5)] after 30 days of germination. The combined application of soil and foliar nanobiochar induced more growth and improved pigments in the shoot and storage root of the carrot. Results indicated maximum improvements (+ 3–4 folds) in shoot agronomic traits at S3F3. This trend was also evident in the case of chlorophyll content (both a and b), some primary and specialized metabolites (sugars, free amino acids, phenolics, flavonoids), and P, N, and K content in leaves which were maximum at S3F3. The chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoids in shoot showed 2-, 2-, 4-fold, and anthocyanin, β-carotene, and lycopene in roots showed 2-, 2-, and 3-fold increase at S3F3, and it showed a fold increase in than control. While carrot root weight (4-fold increase than at control) was maximum at S3F1. The root nutriomic profile revealed the highest N, P, and K content and root pigments (lycopene, beta-carotene, and anthocyanins) at S3F1, while the least values were associated with control plants. These results showed that nanobiochar could be used as sustainable fertilizer due to its beneficial effects and high nutritional content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undoubtedly, it is important to remain vigilant and manage invasive grasses to prevent their spread and mitigate their negative impact on the environment. However, these aggressive plants can also play a beneficial role in certain contexts. For example, several invasive grasses provide valuable forage for livestock and have disease control potential. Therefore, a research experiment was conducted to explore the pros and cons of this approach, not only for surrounding vegetation but also for human and animal disease control. The study is primarily focused on developing livestock feed, plant-derived herbicides, and an understanding of the phytotoxic effects of invasive species. All plant parts of Cenchrus ciliaris L., Polypogon monspeliansis L., and Dicanthium annulatum (Forssk.) Stapf, were tested for their phyto-chemical screening, proximate, and toxicity analysis which was caused by the methanolic extract of these grass species. Qualitative phytochemical screening tests were performed for proximate composition analysis and toxicity assessment essays. The phytochemical analysis revealed the positive results for alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarins, phenols, saponins, and glycosides, while negative for tannins. Comparison of proximate analysis intimated maximum moisture (10.8%) and crude fat (4.1%) in P. monspeliensis, whereas maximum dry matter (84.1%), crude protein (13.95%), crude fiber (11%), and ash (7.2%) in D. annulatum. Five (10, 100, 500, 100, 10,000 ppm) and three (10, 1000, 10,000 ppm) different concentrations of methanolic extract prepared from C. ciliaris, P. monspeliansis, and D. annulatum were used respectively for root inhibition and seed germination essay. Furthermore, three different concentrations (10, 30, 50 mg) of plant fine powder were used for sandwich method test. There was a significant decline in the growth rate of experimental model radish seeds (P > 0.005), and results from sandwich method tests showed suppressed growth of root hairs, inhibiting the anchoring of the radish seed. In comparison, results manifest that; P. monspeliansis indicated an upsurge of inhibition (66.58% at 10,000 ppm), D. annulatum revealed soar germination (75.86% in controlled conditions), and C. ciliaris exhibited dramatic shoot up of inhibition because of sandwich method test (14.02% at 50 mg). In conclusion, although grasses are toxic, it is important to consider the beneficiary account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most promising solid electrolytes, Li7La3Zr2O12(LLZO) has received great attention in the field of all solid-state lithium-ion batteries. However, LLZO, as a solid material, has far less contact with the electrode than original liquid electrolyte with wettable properties in practical applications. In this study, porous LLZO solid electrolytes were fabricated by both mechanical and dispersive mixing methods with modified kapok fibers as pore-forming agents. The results show that the pores of LLZO prepared by dispersive mixing are more homogeneous than that prepared by mechanical mixing, and the ionic conductivity of LLZO fabricated by dispersive mixing remains in the same order of magnitude as the ionic conductivity of the original LLZO solid electrolyte. At the same time, the formation of ordered pore channels for porous LLZO is conducive to increasing the contact area between the solid electrolyte and the electrode material, which lays a foundation for reducing the impedance of solid electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report analyzes the problem of complex soil movement patterns under the action of coupled forces, such as tension and shear, in agricultural processes and aims to improve the accuracy of contact parameters used in discrete element simulation studies of rototiller-soil interactions. This study focuses on the soil of Shihezi cotton field in the 8th division of Xinjiang and investigates the rotating tiller roller as a soil-touching component of tillage machinery. A combination of simulations and physical testing is used. We perform angle of repose tests and use edge detection, fitting, and other image processing methods to automatically, quickly, and accurately detect the soil accumulation and angle calibration of the contact parameters with soil particles. Additionally, soil slip tests are conducted to calibrate the contact parameters between the soil and the rotary blades. Optimization is achieved based on orthogonal simulations and the Box-Behnken response surface method using physically measured values as the target. A regression model of the stacking angle and rolling friction angle is established to determine the optimal combination of simulation contact parameters: between soil and soil, the recovery coefficient is 0.402, static friction coefficient is 0.621, and rolling friction coefficient is 0.078; between soil contact parts and soil, the recovery coefficient is 0.508, static friction coefficient is 0.401, and rolling friction coefficient is 0.2. Furthermore, the calibration parameters are selected as contact parameters for the discrete element simulation. By combining the above two simulation methods to analyze and compare the simulation process of cutting soil from rototiller roller parts to rototiller single blade parts, we obtained the changes in energy, cutting resistance, and soil particle movement at different depths of the soil cutting process. Finally, the average cutting resistance was used as an index for validation in the field tests. The measured value is 0.96 kN and the error of the discrete element simulation is 13%. This demonstrates the validity of the calibrated contact parameters and the accuracy of the simulation, which can provide a theoretical reference and technical support for the study of the interaction mechanisms between of tillage equipment parts and soil, as well as the design and optimization of these interactions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alexithymia is a common, but less-recognized affective deficit in patients with schizophrenia. To date, no definitive conclusions have been drawn about the relationship between alexithymia and the clinical symptoms or their clinical correlates, particularly in stable patients with schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the link between alexithymia and psychopathological symptoms, as well as any associated correlates, in stable patients with schizophrenia. A total of 435 Chinese patients with schizophrenia were recruited. The Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) was used to evaluate each patient's psychopathological symptoms. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to measure alexithymia. The percentage of alexithymia was 35.2% in stable patients with schizophrenia. Compared to non-alexithymia patients, patients with alexithymia had higher PANSS total scores, negative subscores, depressive subscores, and cognitive subscores (all p < 0.05). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the following variables were positively associated with TAS-20 total scores: PANSS negative subscores (β = 0.274, t = 3.198, p = 0.001) and PANSS depressive subscores (β = 0.366, t = 2.500, p = 0.013). Education years (β = – 0.453, t = – 2.824, p = 0.005) was negatively associated with TAS-20 total scores. Our results suggest that the percentage of alexithymia was relatively higher in stable patients with schizophrenia. Education levels, negative symptoms, and depressive symptoms were independently associated with alexithymia in this specific population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mastering the creep deformation characteristics of rock under different temperature conditions is of great significance for studying the long-term stability and deformation mechanism of geotechnical engineering. Based on the classical Burgers model, the creep model under different temperature conditions is established by introducing a nonlinear Newton body. The parameters of the creep model are identified and the influence law of different parameters on rock creep deformation is analyzed. The relationship between model parameters and temperature is quantitatively expressed. The results show that the newly established model can describe the characteristics of the rock in the decay creep stage and the constant creep stage, especially can quantitatively characterize the relationship between the strain and the time of the rock in the tertiary creep under different temperatures conditions. The model fitting curve is highly consistent with the test data, and the correlation coefficient R2 is above 0.98, which thoroughly verifies the accuracy and rationality of the model. It is found that when the temperature is constant, the creep increases with the increase of the shear modulus of the elastomer G1, the shear modulus of the viscoelastic body G2, and the viscosity coefficient of the viscous body η1 in the constant creep stage. The decay creep property of rock is more obvious with the increase of the viscosity coefficient η2, and the axial strain tends to a constant value. The achievement can be used to predict the deformation trend of geotechnical engineering with time under different temperature conditions and provide the theoretical basis for long-term stability analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates detecting the presence of significant predictors in marginal quantile regression. The main idea comes from the connection between the quantile correlation and the slope parameter of the marginal quantile regression, which is quite different from other methods. By introducing the local linear model and the plug-in empirical likelihood method, consistent asymptotic distribution and its adjusted version are obtained. We not only circumvent the non-regularity encountered by post-model-selected estimators but also make the results more concise. Two adaptive resampling test procedures are proposed in practice by comparing the t-statistics with a threshold to decide whether to use the traditional centered percentile bootstrap or otherwise adapt to the asymptotic distribution under the local model. Simulation studies compare these two resampling tests with other competing methods in several cases. Results show that the approaches proposed are more robust for each quantile level and can control type I error well. Two real datasets from Forbes magazine and the HIV drug resistance database are also applied to illustrate the new methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a promising photocatalyst for its high catalytic activity, low-cost and high-biosafety characteristics. Due to the complexity of underwater photochemical reaction conditions and the disadvantages of g-C3N4 itself such as low specific surface area, easy recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs and insufficient light absorption capacity, the application of g-C3N4 in the field of water purification is limited. For improving underwater photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4, a g-C3N4/carbon nanotubes (CNT-CN) composite photocatalyst with high specific surface area and enhanced light absorption capacity were prepared by in situ solvothermal method. Its photodegradation efficiency at different underwater transmission light was further studied. The results show that CNT has good compatibility with g-C3N4. g-C3N4 can grow in situ on the surface of CNT and form a stable composite structure. Moreover, its degradation efficiency under long-wavelength irradiation is improved significantly. The degradation rate of CNT-CN at 550-700 nm was about 3 times than that of g-C3N4. Furthermore, CNT-CN can maintain higher photocatalytic activity under water. At 40 cm depth where light intensity and ultraviolet spectra were attenuated 63.8% and 80.1%, respectively, the degradation rate of CNT-CN3 can still reach 3.49 times than that of g-C3N4. Based on this study, the introduction of CNT effectively promotes the electron–hole separation efficiency of g-C3N4, widens its spectral response range, and thus improves its underwater degradation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the pit mud used in manufacturing Taorong-type Baijiu was collected from the upper, middle, lower and bottom layers of pits at Henan Yangshao Liquor Co., LTD. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) technology was used to analyze the microbial community structure of the pit mud. In addition, the volatile compounds in the pit mud were subjected to preliminary qualitative analysis through headspace-solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The HTS results demonstrated that there were 5, 3, 5 and 5 dominant bacterial phyla (including 11, 11, 9 and 8 dominant bacterial genera) and 3, 3, 3 and 3 dominant fungal phyla (including 4, 7, 7 and 5 dominant fungal genera) in the pit mud from the F-S (upper), G-Z (middle), H-X (lower) and I-D (bottom) layers, respectively. In the qualitative analysis of the volatile compounds, a total of 77types of volatile compounds were detected in the pit mud, including 46, 45, 39 and 49 types in the pit mud from layers F-S, G-Z, H-X and I-D, respectively. Esters and acids were the two main components of the pit mud. The correlation between the microorganisms present and the main volatile compounds in the pit mud was analyzed. Lentimicrobium, Syner-01 and Blvii28_wastewater-sludge groups were found for the first time in pit mud used for manufacturing Taorong-type Baijiu. The findings of this study could provide a theoretical foundation for improving the quality of pit mud and the flavor of Taorong-type Baijiu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The damage of pillars induced by blasting mining of mine room is vital to mining safety; however, the effect of blasting damage on the pillars' stability is often neglected and not clear enough. To reveal the blasting damage characteristics of pillars in deep mining, the SPH-FEM-coupled method was employed to realize the dynamic simulation based on a three-dimensional model of fan-pattern boreholes, and the blasting damage characteristics of pillars under different in situ stress and different lateral pressure coefficients were studied. The results indicate that in the central section of blast holes, the tensile stress generated by blasting load is restrained by the in situ stress, which will reduce the damage depth of pillars, but the section where the blasting damage is maximum is not always located in the blast hole center, the in situ stress will make the maximum damage section closer to the free surface, and the strength of pillars will be overestimated that is dangerous for safety production due to ignoring the blasting damage. In order to ensure the pillar stability and reduce the influence of blasting damage on pillars, the safety distance at different buried depths was suggested and the optimization of detonation sequence was proposed. The research can provide a certain reference for the stability analysis of blasting excavation in the deep mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The serine/threonine protein kinase AKT plays a pivotal role within the PI3K pathway in regulating cellular proliferation and apoptotic cellular functions, and AKT hyper-activation via gene amplification and/or mutation has been implicated in multiple human malignancies. There are 3 AKT isoenzymes (AKT1-3) which mediate critical, non-redundant functions. We present the discovery and development of ALM301, a novel, allosteric, sub-type selective inhibitor of AKT1/2. ALM301 binds in an allosteric pocket created by the combined movement of the PH domain and the catalytic domain, resulting in a DFG out conformation. ALM301 was shown to be highly selective against a panel of over 450 kinases and potently inhibited cellular proliferation. These effects were particularly pronounced in MCF-7 cells containing a PI3KCA mutation. Subsequent cellular downstream pathway analysis in this sensitive cell line revealed potent inhibition of pAKT signalling up to 48 h post dosing. ALM301 treatment was well tolerated in an MCF-7 xenograft model and led to a dose-dependent reduction in tumour growth. Enhanced efficacy was observed in combination with tamoxifen. In summary, ALM301 is a highly specific AKT 1/2 inhibitor with an excellent pharmacological profile suitable for further clinical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal bifunctional terpene synthases (BFTSs) have been reported to contribute to the biosynthesis of a variety of di/sesterterpenes via different carbocation transportation pathways. Genome mining of new BFTSs from unique fungal resources will, theoretically, allow for the identification of new terpenes. In this study, we surveyed the distribution of BFTSs in our in-house collection of 430 pathogenetic fungi and preferred two BFTSs (CsSS and NnNS), long distance from previously characterized BFTSs and located in relatively independent branches, based on the established phylogenetic tree. The heterologous expression of the two BFTSs in Aspergillus oryzae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae led to the identification of two new sesterterpenes separately, 5/12/5 tricyclic type-A sesterterpene (schultriene, 1) for CsSS and 5/11 bicyclic type-B sesterterpene (nigtetraene, 2) for NnNS. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, 2 is the first 5/11 bicyclic type-B characterized sesterterpene to date. On the basis of this, the plausible cyclization mechanisms of 1 and 2 were proposed based on density functional theory calculations. These new enzymes and their corresponding terpenes suggest that the chemical spaces produced by BFTSs remain large and also provide important evidences for further protein engineering for new terpenes and for understanding of cyclization mechanism catalyzed by BFTSs. Key points: • Genome mining of two BFTSs yields two new sesterterpenoids correspondingly. • Identification of the first 5/11 ring system type-B product. • Parse out the rational cyclization mechanism of isolated sesterterpenoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrow space characteristic is a common structural feature of aircraft assembly, which puts forward higher requirements for the end-effector of a robot drilling system. This paper proposed a new robotic simple and fast drilling system for aircraft automatic assembly. The robot drilling system and control scheme are designed. The end-effector is designed and calculated theoretically. The workflow of the whole system is designed and analyzed. Besides, a new calibration method is proposed for the system calibration includes the calibration of the robot end-effector and the calibration of the robot system relative to the machined parts. Finally, some drilling experiments are designed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system. The results show that the newly designed robotic drilling system can meet the requirements of aircraft part drilling, such as the drilling accuracy is better than 0.5 mm, the drilling process is more stable, and the rigidity of the system is better. The drilling error of the hole diameter of this system can be controlled below 0.1 mm. The relative distances between holes in the X and Y direction and the hole edge distance meet the technical requirements, and all errors can be controlled to less than 0.5 mm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural soil has the ability to suppress the soil-borne pathogen to a certain extent, and the assemblage of soil microbiome plays a crucial role in maintaining such ability. Long-term monoculture accelerates the forms of soil microbiome and leads to either disease conducive or suppressive soils. Here, we explored the impact of soil conditions on bacterial wilt disease (healthy or diseased) under long-term tobacco monoculture on the assemblage of bacterial and fungal communities in bulk and rhizosphere soils during the growth periods. With Illumina sequencing, we compared the bacterial and fungal composition of soil samples from tobacco bacterial wilt diseased fields and healthy fields in three growth periods. We found that Proteobacteria and Ascomycota were the most abundant phylum for bacteria and fungi, respectively. Factors of soil conditions and tobacco growth periods can significantly influence the microbial composition in bulk soil samples, while the factor of soil conditions mainly determined the microbial composition in rhizosphere soil samples. Next, rhizosphere samples were further analyzed with LEfSe to determine the discriminative taxa affected by the factor of soil conditions. For bacteria, the genus Ralstonia was found in the diseased soils, whereas the genus Flavobacterium was the only shared taxon in healthy soils; for fungi, the genus Chaetomium was the most significant taxon in healthy soils. Besides, network analysis confirmed that the topologies of networks of healthy soils were higher than that of diseased soils. Together, our results suggest that microbial assemblage in the rhizosphere will be largely affected by soil conditions especially after long-term monoculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fan et al. (Ann Stat 47(6):3009–3031, 2019) constructed a distributed principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm to reduce the communication cost between multiple servers significantly. However, their algorithm's guarantee is only for sub-Gaussian data. Spurred by this deficiency, this paper enhances the effectiveness of their distributed PCA algorithm by utilizing robust covariance matrix estimators of Minsker (Ann Stat 46(6A):2871–2903, 2018) and Ke et al. (Stat Sci 34(3):454–471, 2019) to tame heavy-tailed data. The theoretical results demonstrate that when the sampling distribution is symmetric innovation with the bounded fourth moment or asymmetric with the finite 6th moment, the statistical error rate of the final estimator produced by the robust algorithm is similar to that of sub-Gaussian tails. Extensive numerical trials support the theoretical analysis and indicate that our algorithm is robust to heavy-tailed data and outliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-extrusion process of miniature heat pipe (MHP) with axial micro grooves is particularly difficult due to ultra-large extrusion ratio and complex cross-sectional shape. In this study, the shape control of 6063 aluminum alloy MHP fabricated by micro-extrusion was successfully overcome, and the microstructure evolution in micro-extrusion using as-extruded billets was studied. The results obtained by finite element (FE) analysis and experiments show that the material flow deformation behavior in micro-extrusion is highly affected by size effect, and lower ram speed is conductive to forming integrity, dimension accuracy, and surface quality of extruded MHP profiles. The primary mechanism for the micro-extrusion failure of micro-grooves is severely more uneven material flow between the micro rib and base region at higher ram speed, which is caused by size effect and results in shear deformation and even fractures of micro ribs. Further research shows that compared to the extrusion using as-cast billets, much coarser grains were obtained after micro-extrusion using as-extruded billets at an ultra-large extrusion ratio of 205. Besides that, the entirely different texture components after micro-extrusion were obtained instead of the typical < 100 > //the extrusion direction (ED) or < 111 > //ED fiber texture components. These atypical texture components can be regarded as the texture deviating from ideal texture by a certain angle (15° or 20°) along φ axis or φ1 axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and inexpensive sensing structure, single mode fiber (SMF) alignment fusion to 62.5 µm stepped index-multimode fiber (SI-MMF), combined with Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR) system, is used as a distributed sensor in the field of structural safety and health monitoring (SSHM) of large infrastructures in terms of its prominent bending resistance. The bend loss principle and influencing factors of the fiber are analyzed, and the bending resistances of different fibers are discussed on the basis of theoretical and experimental comparisons. The bend-tolerant capacity and temperature sensing characteristics of the 5 km sensing structure are measured by using the self-developed frequency-shifted local heterodyne BOTDR system. The results show that the proposed sensing structure has excellent bend-tolerant capacity with a minimum bend radius and temperature measurement error of 1.25 mm and 0.69 °C, respectively, which indicates that the proposed sensing structure has huge potential in the field of SSHM of large infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining the surface temperature of billets in heating furnaces has been a hot research in metallurgical industry applications. In order to accurately identify the billet location in infrared images and thus obtain the surface temperature of billets, this paper proposes a real-time segmentation network model based on multi-scale feature fusion to solve the problems of low resolution, low accuracy and slow detection speed of infrared images of traditional target image detection methods. In our method, a dataset with billet infrared images as the experimental object is firstly established, and the proposed network structure adopts multi-scale feature fusion to enhance the information interaction between feature maps at all levels and reduce the information loss during up-sampling by a dense up-sampling strategy. Meanwhile, a lightweight backbone network and deep separable convolution are used to reduce the number of network parameters and speed up the network inference, finally realizing real-time and accurate segmentation of the infrared images of blanks. The highest accuracy of the model in this paper reaches 94.89 % . Meanwhile, an inference speed of 80fps is achieved on GTX2080Ti. Compared with the existing mainstream methods, the method in this paper can better meet the real-time and accuracy requirements of industrial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chaetomium fungi produce a diversity of bioactive compounds. Chaetomium cochliodes SD-280 possesses 91 secondary metabolite gene clusters and exhibits strong antibacterial activity. One of the active compounds responsible for that activity, chetomin, has a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) of 0.05 μg/mL (vancomycin: 0.625 μg/mL). This study demonstrated that the addition of glutathione (GSH) can enhance chetomin yield dramatically, increasing its production 15.43-fold. Following genome sequencing, cluster prediction, and transcriptome and proteome analyses of the fungus were carried out. Furthermore, a relatively complete chetomin biosynthetic gene cluster was proposed, and the coding sequences were acquired. In the cluster of GSH-treated cells, proteome analysis revealed two up-regulated proteins that are critical enzymes for chetomin biosynthesis. One of these enzymes, a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), was heterologously expressed in Aspergillus nidulans, and one of its metabolites was determined to be an intermediate in the chetomin biosynthetic pathway. We present here, to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence that chetomin exhibits strong bioactivity against MRSA. Our work also provides extensive insights into the biosynthetic pathway of chetomin, in particular identifying two key enzymes (glutathione S-transferase (CheG) and NRPS (CheP)) that substantially up-regulate chetomin. These mechanistic insights into chetomin biosynthesis will provide the foundation for further investigation into the anti-pathogenic properties and applications of chetomin. Key points: • Chetomin exhibits strong anti-MRSA activity with MIC of 0.05 μg/mL. • Addition of glutathione improved the yield of chetomin by 15.43-fold. • CheG and CheP involved in the chetomin biosynthesis were revealed for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnO is extensively utilized as anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) owing to its high theoretical specific capacity (978 mAh g−1). Integrating ZnO and carbon to fetch up the defects of single material is one of the means to effectively exploit high-performance anode materials. Hence, ultrafine ZnO particles anchored on hollow porous carbon (ZnO@HPCNs) were developed for LIBs by a simple etching method, indicating excellent lithium storage performance. The initial discharge specific capacity is 1329.5 mAh g−1 (at 0.05 A g−1), and it still maintains an excellent specific capacity of 277.6 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1. After 1000 consecutive cycles, the specific capacity is 570 mAh g−1 (at 1.0 A g−1). The above results demonstrate that the nanostructure of hollow carbon box (~ 200 nm) and ultrafine ZnO particles (~ 25 nm) can effectively alleviate the volume effect and shorten the diffusion path of Li+, which is the sticking point for the high reversible capacity, remarkable capacity retention rate, and long cycle life of ZnO@HPCNs electrodes. This furnishes a marvelous idea for the structural control of high-performance LIBs anode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problems of small signal intensity and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in single-ended Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) system based on Fresnel reflection, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a pulse coding single-ended BOTDA system, which can improve the SNR and temperature measurement accuracy. A single-ended BOTDA temperature sensing system using single pulse and pulse coding is designed, and the Brillouin time domain signal and Brillouin frequency shift under different pulse coding bits are measured. The experimental results show that the fluctuations of Brillouin power and Brillouin frequency shift are gradually decreased with the increase of pulse coding bits, and the SNR under 32 bit Golay coding offers a 6.18 dB improvement with respect to traditional single pulse system. And the temperature measurement accuracy under 32 bit coding over a 9.35-km-long sensing fiber can be accurately measured as 1.59 °C, while providing a 1.73 °C enhancement when compared to single pulse system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new type of under-film drip irrigation, water-fertilizer integrated fertilizer application device in Northwest China, the hose pump has achieved excellent results in practical applications, but its pulsation has exhibited some adverse effects on the fertilization process. By analyzing the cause of pulsation and flow characteristics, we proposed a shell optimization method to reduce pulsation. We used a release time deformation curve as the shape curve of the outlet shell of the hose pump. Based on the fluid–structure interaction analysis, we developed a numerical model of an optimized three roller hose pump and a conventional three roller hose pump for dynamic simulations. The simulation results showed the optimized hose pump flow pressure variation range was reduced by 26.92%, the average fluid flow velocity increased by about 10%, and mass flow rate improved by 8.84% over the conventional hose pump. We tested the optimized hose pump prototype and the conventional hose pump on the test bench. The test results showed that the pulsating pressure variation range of the optimized pump decreased by about 20%, and flow output increased by about 8.63%. These results suggest that shell shape optimization assist in the decrease of flow pulsation and contribute to further hose pump popularization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deg1 protease functions in protease and chaperone of PSII complex components, but few works were performed to study the effects of Deg1 on electron transport activities on the donor and acceptor side of PSII and its correlation with the photoprotection of PSII during photoinhibition. Therefore, we performed systematic and comprehensive investigations of electron transfers on the donor and acceptor sides of photosystem II (PSII) in the Deg1-reduced transgenic lines deg1-2 and deg1-4. Both the maximal quantum efficiency of PSII photochemistry (Fv/Fm) and the actual PSII efficiency (ΦPSII) decreased significantly in the transgenic plants. Increases in nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) and the dissipated energy flux per reaction center (DI0/RC) were also shown in the transgenic plants. Along with the decreased D1, CP47, and CP43 content, these results suggested photoinhibition under growth light conditions in transgenic plants. Decreased Deg1 caused inhibition of electron transfer on the PSII reducing side, leading to a decline in the number of QB-reducing centers and accumulation of QB-nonreducing centers. The Tm of the Q band shifted from 5.7 °C in the wild-type plant to 10.4 °C and 14.2 °C in the deg1-2 and deg1-4 plants, respectively, indicating an increase in the stability of S2QA¯ in transgenic plants. PSIIα in the transgenic plants largely reduced, while PSIIβ and PSIIγ increased with the decline in the Deg1 levels in transgenic plants suggesting PSIIα centers gradually converted into PSIIβ and PSIIγ centers in the transgenic plants. Besides, the connectivity of PSIIα and PSIIβ was downregulated in transgenic plants. Our results reveal that downregulation of Deg1 protein levels induced photoinhibition in transgenic plants, leading to loss of PSII activities on both the donor and acceptor sides in transgenic plants. These results give a new insight into the regulation role of Deg1 in PSII electron transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a pattern-moving-based modified model free adaptive control (PMFAC) scheme and illustrates the convergence of its tracking error for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown model and multi-threshold quantized observations. The basic idea is to consider the system's quantization error as an external disturbance and an improved performance index function of control law is proposed from the perspective of two-player zero-sum game (TP-ZSG) based on the existed MFAC algorithms. The PMFAC scheme is established which mainly includes an improved tracking control law and a pseudo-partial derivative (PPD) estimation algorithm. Under certain conditions, the bounded convergence of system tracking error and the stability of PMFAC system with quantization errors can be guaranteed. The theoretical results are demonstrated by two numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a major environmental threat limiting worldwide crop production. Drought stress affects the tobacco quality and yield; therefore, the current research studies were undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) under drought stress on morphological and biochemical attributes of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. variety Yunyan 87). AMF-inoculated and AMF-non-inoculated plants were maintained in a greenhouse and irrigated with a half-strength Hoagland solution (100 mL pot−1) once a week. At harvesting, the plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weights, mycorrhizal colonization, and concentration of leaf photosynthetic pigments and photosynthetic rate were measured. Data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and the principal component (PCA) analyses. The effect of root colonization significantly increased biomass production and essential oil accumulation. Results showed that drought at mild and severe stressed levels significantly affected tobacco growth by decreasing plant height, biomass, and a number of leaves. However, inoculation of AMF considerably increased plant height, fresh and dry weights, chlorophyll (a, b), total chlorophyll, and carotenoid content by 43.84, 40.87 and 49.76, 185.29, 325.60, 173.12, and 211.49%, respectively. Compared with non-inoculated plants, AMF inoculation significantly enhanced the essential oil yield and the uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium with the increase of 257.36, 102.71, and 90.76, 62.32, and 84.51%, respectively, in mild drought + AMF-treated plants. Similarly, the antioxidant enzymatic activity, glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP), and accumulation of phenols and flavonoids and osmolytes content were also significantly improved in inoculated plants under drought stress. Additionally, AMF inoculation significantly upregulated the lipoxygenase (LOX) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) enzymes by 197 and 298.44% under drought conditions. These findings depicted that the symbiotic association of AMF improved the overall growth pattern and secondary metabolism in tobacco plants under severe drought stress conditions and may be used as an approaching source of important drugs in the field of pharmacology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]