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BACKGROUND: Piriformospora indica is an endophytic fungus that can promote the growth and confer resistance against diverse stresses in host plants by root colonization. However, the effects of P. indica colonization on improving plant resistance to insect pests are still less explored. The brown planthopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens is a serious monophagous pest that causes extensive damage to rice plants. Here, we aimed to evaluate the effects of P. indica colonization on rice resistance against BPH. RESULTS: The colonization of P. indica in rice roots resisted damage from BPH. Age‐stage, two‐sex life table analyses showed that feeding on P. indica‐colonized rice plants affected BPH's female adult longevity, oviposition period, fecundity, population parameters and population size. BPH female adults feeding on P. indica‐colonized plants excreted less honeydew. P. indica colonization remarkably increased the duration of np, N2, and N3 waveform, as well as the occurrences of N1 and N2, and decreased the duration of N4‐b for BPH on rice plants. Meanwhile, the weight of BPH on the colonized plants was significantly lower than the control. In addition, the feeding and oviposition preferences of BPH to P. indica‐colonized plants were reduced. qRT‐RCR analyses revealed that P. indica colonization induced the expressions of jasmonic acid (JA)‐ and salicylic acid (SA)‐related genes in rice plants. CONCLUSION: P. indica colonization can reduce BPH performance on rice plants with potential inhibitory effects on population growth. Collectively, these results support the potential for endophytically colonized P. indica as an effective strategy to improve insect resistance of crops. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Insects use odor detection to sense their surroundings. Use of volatile compounds, such as essential oils (EOs) of plants, to repel pests and disrupt their olfaction‐driven behaviors has great practical potential for use in integrated pest management. Despite the available information on the repellent effects of EOs on herbivorous insects, the olfaction‐based mechanisms remain unknown. RESULTS: Y‐tube olfactometer tests showed that the EOs of three Lamiaceae plants – Mentha arvensis L., Mentha piperita L. and Lavandula angustifolia Mill. – were significantly repellent to winged cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover. Electrical penetration graph (EPG) tests indicated the EOs reduced phloem feeding and increased the level of non‐productive probing by the aphids. The EOs also reduced the fecundity of winged Aphis gossypii. Electrophysiological bioassays and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) identified five physiologically active volatiles, that is menthone, isomenthone, neomenthol and menthol from Mentha piperita; menthone and menthol from Mentha arvensis; and linalool from L. angustifolia. Behavioral tests confirmed that all five compounds repelled winged Aphis gossypii. Under field conditions, the growth rate of aphid populations after 7 days was significantly lower in fields treated with these compounds than in the control fields. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that three EOs not only repelled winged Aphis gossypii but also interfered with the aphid's feeding behavior and reduced its fecundity. These EOs and their active constituents have great potential as eco‐friendly control products for use against Aphis gossypii. The effects of these EOs also exceed other repellents that only keep pests away from host plants. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmaceutical safety has received increasing attention from governments and corporations, and building a safe and effective pharmaceutical cold supply chain network has become an important issue. This paper proposes a two‐stage pharmaceutical cold supply chain network design problem considering drug safety, in which the drug demand, transportation costs, and drug safety risk costs are assumed to be random variables. Due to the presence of uncertainty and the fact that information about the distribution of uncertain parameters is often only partially known, a distributionally robust optimization method is used to handle the uncertainty. A two‐stage distributionally robust optimization model is constructed, in which the reliability of the estimation of the demand necessary to satisfy the entire cold chain network is ensured to be greater than a certain predetermined level by introducing an ambiguous joint chance constraint. The decision process for the problem can be divided into strategic and operational decisions with the goal of minimizing the total costs related to facility construction, the purchase of raw materials, drug production, transportation, and safety risks. By introducing an ambiguity set with mean and covariance information to describe the uncertain parameters, the two‐stage model is eventually reformulated as a standard second‐order cone program, thus making it computationally tractable. Finally, numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models and optimization methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the complex form of distribution line faults, the accuracy of fault location using traditional artificial intelligence networks needs to be further improved. Here, a combined fault location method is proposed for a 110 kV distribution line based on the improved complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (ICEEMDAN), mantis search algorithm (MSA), and convolutional gate recurrent unit (ConvGRU). Firstly, the study used the ICEEMDAN algorithm to decompose the signals and discard the high‐frequency signals with low correlation so as to achieve the purpose of noise cancellation. Then, the study used the root mean square error (RMSE) of the ConvGRU model training as the adaptation value, optimized the internal parameters of the model using the MSA algorithm, and obtained a combined fault locating model. By using the proposed model, the effects of the fault form and transition impedance changes on the location accuracy were analysed, and the location accuracy was compared with other artificial intelligence methods. The location accuracy index showed that the proposed model had a better convergence speed of training error than the traditional model. Also, the RMSE of the localization results was reduced by 50%, with a higher fault location accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible capacitive pressure sensors play a crucial role in wearable electronics and robotics. However, their susceptibility to environmental noise poses challenges to sensing precision. To mitigate the impact of environmental influences, a sensor capable of producing signals orders of magnitudes larger than the noise becomes essential. One straightforward method to enhance capacitance values involves reducing the thickness of the dielectric layer. Yet, when this reduction reaches nanometer scale, the dielectric layer may become mechanically vulnerable and more importantly, their charge storage capability is compromised due to electron tunneling. To address these challenges, here the naturally formed alumina (Al2O3) on aluminum (Al) surface is employed as a stable and ultra‐thin dielectric layer. Simultaneously, the Schottky effect at the Al‐Al2O3‐carbon black (CB) interface is harnessed to prevent electron tunneling. These strategies collectively yielded a large unit‐area capacitance (UAC) of 50 nF cm−2 and demonstrated high electrical and environmental stability. Furthermore, hollow hemispherical microstructures are incorporated at the interface, resulting in a flexible pressure sensor with high sensitivity (8.6 kPa−1) and a linear response up to 50 kPa. With its simple two‐layer structure, this sensor can be seamlessly integrated in situ and offers commercial‐grade resolution at mN‐level for monitoring human biomechanical signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the active fault tolerant load frequency control of multi‐area power systems with electric vehicles under deception attacks. An integrated design of fault estimation and fault‐tolerant control is proposed to guarantee the stability of the system under sensor faults and deception attacks. Considering the uncertainty caused by the demand of the owner and the state of the battery, a multi‐area power system model is proposed. Then, an active fault tolerant load frequency control scheme is designed. The proportional‐derivative sliding mode observer is used to estimate the fault and system status in real‐time. During the fault occurrence, the estimated value obtained by the observer is utilized to design the controller without any fault diagnosis scheme, which simplifies the controller design process. A sufficient Lyapunov‐Krasovskii criterion is derived to ensure the stability performance of the multi‐area power system. Finally, simulation examples are provided for a three‐area power system contains electric vehicles, and the results prove the correctness and feasibility of the proposed fault‐tolerant control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparation of flexible supercapacitors with excellent mechanical properties and self‐healing properties is of great significance but still remains a challenge. A self‐healable conductive hydrogel based on poly N‐hydroxyethyl acrylamide (PHEAA) is fabricated as electrolyte for supercapacitors. The design of the physically cross‐linked dual network, and rich hydrogen bonds endow the hydrogel with robust mechanical properties and strong self‐healing ability. The hydrogel exhibited an excellent stretchability (723 %) and a high ionic conductivity (21.8 mS/cm). Specially, by in situ growth of electrode film, a non‐laminated supercapacitor is obtained with flexibility and self‐healing ability. Due to the non‐laminated structure, the supercapacitor can work stably under bending and punching. The supercapacitor possessed an areal capacitance of 253.1 mF/cm2 and the capacitance retention was 80 % after five cutting‐healing cycles. The pseudo‐capacitance contribution of the supercapacitor after self‐healing was discussed. It is noteworthy that the supercapacitor maintains the ability to power a clock after self‐healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a nickela‐electrocatalyzed cross‐electrophile coupling of readily available aryl aziridines and aryl bromides under mild and sustainable electrochemical conditions to access synthetic useful β‐arylethylamines is developed. This protocol is characterized by its exquisite chemo‐ and regioselectivity, broad substrate scope and good functional group compatibility. Mechanistic studies confirmed that the regioselectivity and reactivity observed are a result of electro‐induced ring‐opening of aziridines under electroreductive conditions to generate a benzyl radical intermediate as the active species. Furthermore, this strategy also enables cross‐coupling with CO2 to access β‐amino acids under mild conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have examined the influence of global climate change and regional human activities on the climate of arid Central Asia, but their separate contributions have rarely been reported due to lack of a comprehensive description of regional human activities, especially the irrigation process, in the model. In this study, we conducted two sets of 40‐year continuous simulations with and without human activities to distinguish the effects of regional human activities and global climate change on the surface air temperature (T2), humidity (Q2) and precipitation of a typical mountain‐oasis‐desert system in northern Tianshan by using a modified WRF‐Noah model with irrigation processes. The results indicated that the annual average T2, Q2 and convective precipitation during the past 40 years increased by 0.393°C, 0.063 g/kg and 0.014 mm/d, respectively, and the annual average large‐scale precipitation and total annual average precipitation decreased by approximately −0.017 and −0.003 mm/d, respectively. Regional human activities contributed 52.63% and 50.38% of the change in large‐scale precipitation and total precipitation, respectively, while global climate change accounted for more than 80% of the change in temperature and humidity. Among the human activities, irrigation had the largest impact on T2/Q2 over the local irrigation region and on precipitation in the upstream Tianshan mountainous area. However, for the whole region, the increase in the green vegetation fraction was the core factor that impacted the regional climate. Our results can deepen the understanding of the attribution and mechanism of climate change and provide water and heat change references for other mountain‐oasis‐desert systems in arid endorheic regions. Plain Language Summary: We counted the separate contributions of global climate change and regional human activities on the surface air temperature (T2), humidity (Q2) and precipitation of arid Central Asia by difference of two sets of 40‐year continuous simulations with and without human activities. The results indicated that regional human activities contributed 52.63% and 50.38% of the change in large‐scale precipitation and total precipitation, respectively, while global climate change accounted for more than 80% of the change in temperature and humidity. Among the human activities, irrigation had the largest impact on T2/Q2 over the local irrigation region and on precipitation in the upstream Tianshan mountainous area. But the vegetation greening was main reason for the changes of regional climate for the whole region. Our results can deepen the understanding of the attribution and mechanism of climate change and provide water and heat change references for other mountain‐oasis‐desert systems in arid endorheic regions. Key Points: The attribution and mechanism of regional climate change in a typical mountain‐oasis‐desert system of arid Central Asia were exploredGlobal climate change dominated regional temperature change while regional human activities dominated regional precipitation changeThe increase in the green vegetation fraction was the core factor that impacted regional climate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, an electroreductive carboxylation of organic carbon‐halogen bonds (X=Br and Cl) promoted by catalytic amounts of naphthalene as an organic mediator is reported. This transformation proceeds smoothly under mild conditions with a broad substrate scope of 59 examples, affording the valuable and versatile carboxylic acids in moderate to excellent yields without the need of costly transition metal, wasted stoichiometric metal reductants, or sacrificial anodes. Further late‐stage carboxylations of natural product and drug derivatives demonstrate its synthetic utility. Mechanistic studies confirmed the activation of carbon‐halogen bonds via single‐electron transfer and the key role of naphthalene in this reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodically modulated systems with parity symmetry have been extensively investigated in recent years and exhibited various novel phenomena and potential applications in quantum technologies. In this study, a pump‐probe structure is used to observe the influence of generalized parity on the alignment spectra of magnetic resonance in a periodically biharmonic modulated warm atomic cesium ensemble. The alignment spectra are symmetric when the generalized parity of modulated Floquet atomic ensemble is present. The breaking of spectral symmetry is accompanied by the absence of generalized parity. The influence of generalized parity on atomic alignment polarization distribution is analyzed based on the perspective of the angular‐momentum probability surface. A necessary and sufficient condition for generalized parity to maintain spectral symmetry is verified experimentally and theoretically, providing a new perspective to investigative complex periodic modulation system. The results are universally applicable to atomic and solid‐state systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, an efficient and facile approach to valuable β‐hydroxy acid derivatives from readily available aryl epoxides and CO2 with high chemo‐ and regioselectivity under mild and sustainable electrochemical conditions is described. This approach showed broad substrate scope and good functional‐group compatibility. In addition to aryl epoxides, four‐ to six‐membered aryl cyclic ethers could all be tolerated in the reaction to provide synthetically useful hydroxy acids with high efficiency. Further late‐stage carboxylation of complex molecules and drug derivatives demonstrated its potential application in the pharmaceutical industry. Mechanistic studies disclosed possible reaction pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic skins (e‐skins) have gained tremendous attention in health monitoring and disease diagnosis. However, the accumulated sweat at the skin/e‐skin interface would compromise the comfort, reliability, and fidelity for long‐term monitoring. Here, inspired by the active liquid transport phenomenon in nature, a biomimetic gold/thermoplastic polyurethane/cellulose membrane (Au/TPU/CM) based e‐skin is reported that can "pump" perspiration from the interface immediately through the combination of gradient porosity and surface energy gradient. The resulting electrode possesses good conductivity (2.68 Ω sq–1), excellent flexibility (the resistance only fluctuated 1.1% and 0.4% after 10 000 bending cycles and 2500 tensile cycles, respectively), and outstanding water vapor transmission and water evaporation rate (2.2 and 7.1 times as much as that of cotton fabric, respectively). The ultrafast perspiration‐wicking capability not only improves the wearing comfort but also minimizes the measurement error of skin hydration and temperature due to perspiration, eliminates the risk of short circuit in sensor array, and reduces the noise level, significantly enhancing the accuracy and reliability of multimodal sensing in e‐skins. The design strategy may encourage more material and structure development in e‐skins with improved sweat tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/Introduction: Given that mutations related to maturity‐onset diabetes of the young (MODY) are rarely found in Chinese populations, we aim to characterize the mutation spectrum of MODY pedigrees. Materials and Methods: Maturity‐onset diabetes of the young candidate gene‐ or exome‐targeted capture sequencing was carried out in 76 probands from unrelated families fulfilling the clinical diagnostic criteria for MODY. MAF <0.01 in the GnomAD or ExAC database was used to filter significant variants. Sanger sequencing was then carried out to validate findings. Function prediction by SIFT, PolyPhen‐2 and PROVEAN or CADD was carried out in missense mutations. Results: A total of 32 mutations in six genes were identified in 31 families, accounting for 40.79% of the potential MODY families. The MODY subtype detection rate was 18.42% for GCK, 15.79% for HNF1A, 2.63% for HNF4A, and 1.32% for KLF11, PAX4 and NEUROG3. Seven nonsense/frameshift mutations and four missense mutations with damaging prediction were newly identified novel mutations. The clinical features of MODY2, MODY3/1 and MODYX are similar to previous reports. Clinical phenotype of NEUROG3 p.Arg55Glufs*23 is characterized by hyperglycemia and mild intermittent abdominal pain. Conclusions: This study adds to the emerging pattern of MODY epidemiology that the proportion of MODY explained by known pathogenic genes is higher than that previously reported, and found NEUROG3 as a new causative gene for MODY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to verify the escape‐from‐enemy hypothesis from the changes of nutrient substance and fitness of natural enemies on alien plants, contents of free amino acids in native and invasive plant populations of Ageratina adenophora and life history parameters of specialist herbivore Procecidochares utilis reared on these plants were investigated. Our results showed that the contents of glycine, valine, γ‐aminobutyric acid, proline, serine, alanine, and arginine in the invasive plants were higher than those in the native plants of A. adenophora. There was a shorter developmental duration and higher fecundity of P. utilis when fed on the invasive plants. The results indicated a possible fitness tradeoff of natural enemies between invasive and native plants arose from nutrient substance changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Rice stripe virus (RSV) is one of the most serious rice diseases in East Asia. The small brown planthopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus, is an economically important rice pest. SBPH transmits RSV horizontally and vertically, resulting in serious rice economic losses. Exposure to sublethal doses of insecticides can induce many physiological and cellular changes in insects. However, the mechanism underlying triazophos‐induced RSV vertical transmission remains unclear. Here, we investigated the role of vitellogenin (Vg) in triazophos‐induced RSV vertical transmission. RESULTS: RSV vertical transmission rates were significantly induced by sublethal exposure to triazophos. The transcript abundance of viral RNA3 segment (RNA3) and capsid protein (CP) in the ovaries of SBPH were also significantly increased. Triazophos induced the expression level of Vg in L. striatellus (LsVg) and increased the contents of ovarian protein and fat body protein. Knockdown of Vg significantly reduced the expression levels of LsVg and Vg receptor (LsVgR), and decreased RSV accumulations in the ovaries. Double‐stranded Vg (dsVg)‐mediated down‐regulation could be rescued by exposure to triazophos. Vertical transmission rate of the dsVg‐injected group was significantly decreased compared with the dsGFP‐injected group, and triazophos significantly rescued the RSV vertical transmission rate of the dsVg‐injected group. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that triazophos‐induced RSV vertical transmission is associated with Vg. This work will help us to further elucidate sublethal doses of insecticides‐mediated effects and develop new strategies for pest control. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The chemical stability of anion exchange membrane especially in strong alkaline medium under high temperature is one of the crucial challenges for the commercialization of alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, the degradation mechanism of guanidimidazolium ionic group used in anion exchange membrane was calculated by density functional theory method. The whole transition states of every elemental reaction were systematically searched, and the changes of crucial bonds length were further analyzed for understanding of the reaction mechanism. It was found that the reaction pathway of OH− attacking guanidinium group of guanidimidazolium was the dominant way for the degradation of guanidimidazolium. Through comparing the energy barriers of guanidimidazolium, imidazolium, and guanidinium, it can be concluded that the electron‐inducing effect had an intimate connection with the alkali stability of ionic groups. The chemical stability of the conjugated structure groups decreased when linking with electron‐drawing groups, while it increased when linking with electron‐donating groups. This work provides theoretical basis for the design of decent alkali‐resistance and high‐performance anion exchange membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study focused on using carbon‐14‐labeled few‐layer graphene (FLG) to determine its uptake, distribution, transformation, and depuration in rice plants. After 7 d hydroponic exposure to FLG suspension at 250 μg L−1, roots accumulated 694.8 mg kg−1 graphene and shoots had 53.7 mg kg−1 graphene from intra‐plant translocation. FLG could likely pass through the cell wall and membrane and enter the chloroplast in the shoots. After 14 days of depuration, only about 15 % of the accumulated FLG were eliminated into the depuration solution with about 70 % of graphene retained in the plants. About 9 % of the accumulated FLG was degraded to 14CO2 and proposed that reaction with OH. in the leaves may likely contribute to the degradation of FLG, which had structural defects. These findings have an important impact on the long‐term environmental fate of graphene‐related materials in soil–plant systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND The miridbug, Cyrtorhinus lividipennis, is a significant predacious enemy of rice planthoppers. The effects of sub-lethal concentrations of triazophos, deltamethrin and imidacloprid on fecundity, egg hatchability, expression levels of genes associated with reproduction, and population growth in C. lividipennis were investigated. RESULTS The fecundities for three pair combinations (♀c × ♂t, ♀t × ♂c and ♀t × ♂t) treated with sub-lethal concentrations of the insecticides triazophos, deltamethrin and imidacloprid (LC10 and LC20) showed a significant increase compared to the untreated pairs (♀c × ♂c). However, sub-lethal concentration treatments did not affect the egg hatchability. The ClVg expression levels of female adults exposed to triazophos, deltamethrin and imidacloprid (LC20) increased by 52.6, 48.9 and 91.2%, respectively. The ClSPATA13 expression level of adult males exposed to triazophos, deltamethrim and imidacloprid (LC20) increased by 80.7, 41.3 and 48.3%, respectively. Furthermore, sub-lethal concentrations of insecticides (LC20) caused increased population numbers in C. lividipennis. CONCLUSION Sub-lethal concentrations of triazophos, deltamethrin and imidacloprid stimulated reproduction and enhanced population growth of C. lividipennis. The reproductive stimulation might result from the up-regulation of ClVg or ClSPATA13. These findings may be useful in mediating populations of planthoppers. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the optimal control design methodology for linear systems which are collaboratively manipulated by multiple agents based on choices such that certain team targets are achieved. By minimizing the average energy cost subject to the set of specified target-state constraints based on modern variation theory and the Lagrange method, a series of optimal control solutions are established for linear scalar and vector systems jointly controlled by two agents. In addition, a set of sub-optimal controls are derived, which can lead to a tight upper bound on the average energy cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A seed mix strategy has been used to provide refuge to susceptible insects for resistance management in planting transgenic maize expressing Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt) proteins. To determine whether larval movement in a seed mix planting creates favorable conditions for resistant heterozygotes of a target pest, performance of Cry1Ab-susceptible ( SS) and -heterozygous resistant ( RS) populations of the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis ( Fabricius) ( Lepidoptera: Crambidae), was evaluated in sequential feeding on non-Bt and Cry1Ab (event MON 810) maize plant tissue. For each insect population, nine feeding sequences were employed. SS and RS feeding on non-Bt plants for their entire larval stages survived well and >60% of the adult pairs produced viable eggs, with an average of 269 progeny per female, whereas none of the two populations on Bt maize plants survived to the pupal stage. SS larvae could not develop to adults if the larvae fed on non-Bt plants for ≤15 days and then moved to Bt plants. In contrast, 4.2-29.2% of RS larvae that fed on non-Bt plants for ≥9 days and then moved to Bt plants developed to adults, and 63.6% of pairs of these adults produced viable eggs, with an average of 185 progeny per female. For SS larvae that fed on Bt plants for 1 or 2 days and then moved to non-Bt plants, few larvae developed to adults with varied emergence times, whereas 28.1 and 13.5% RS larvae feeding on Bt plants for 1 and 2 days, respectively, successfully developed to adults; 43.8% of pairs of these adults produced viable eggs, with an average of 220 progeny per female. For the case of the single Bt gene maize plants (event MON 810), the results suggest that RS insects may have advantages in survival and reproduction over SS if RS larvae hatch and feed on Bt plants during the first 1 or 2 days and then move to non-Bt plants. This advantage is less for RS larvae that hatch and feed on non-Bt plants first and then move to Bt plants, unless the larval movement occurs in the later stages (e.g., fourth or fifth instars). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]