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In 2013, the second outbreak of peste des petits ruminants occurred in China, leading to a spillover in more than 20 provinces and municipalities over the next few months. Thereafter, the epidemic situation was stable owing to strict prevention and control measures. In February 2024, several bharals and argali with suspected symptoms of PPR were discovered in Rutog country, Tibet Autonomous Region. Samples collected from these animals were delivered to our laboratory for diagnosis; the results of fluorescence quantitative reverse-transcription (RT) PCR indicated that all samples were positive for PPR viral RNA. The N and F gene fragments were amplified successfully via RT-PCR, and these results confirmed that these animals were infected with PPRV. A PPRV strain (subsequently named ChinaTibet2024) was sequenced, and its genome length was 15,954 nucleotides. A phylogenetic tree analysis using N and F genes and viral genomes showed that the ChinaTibet2024 genome was classified into lineage IV of the PRRV genotypes. The genome of the ChinaTibet2024 strain was found to be closely related to PPRVs isolated in China between 2013 and 2014. A base insertion and a base deletion were detected in the M gene 5′ untranslated region. Results indicated that the prevalent PPRV strains in China did not show significant changes and that special attention should be paid to the surveillance of wild animals as an important part of PPR prevention and control.

The numerical shock instability problem significantly limits the application of the finite volume method in hypersonic flow simulations, especially for high-order schemes, which will encounter more severe shock instability problems. In the previous work, the MSAT (matrix stability analysis tool) was introduced to quantitatively analyze the numerical shock instability problem. However, the utilization of the three-point reconstruction stencil in the original version of MSAT presents challenges in conducting investigations into high-order schemes. The current work provides an extension of MSAT by extending the reconstruction stencil to five points, a challenging but necessary endeavor for high-order schemes. This extension enables MSAT to provide analyses for schemes with high-order reconstruction methods. Furthermore, the updated MSAT can be utilized to investigate the impact of characteristic variable reconstruction on the shock instability problem. Results demonstrate the reliability of the updated MSAT and reveal novel characteristics in the shock instability of high-order schemes. Consequently, the updated MSAT will contribute to the investigation of shock instabilities for high-order schemes, ultimately aiding in mitigating this challenging problem.

The second phases at grain boundaries including block-shaped long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) phases and bright W phases are the chief culprits damage the deformability of as cast Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr magnesium alloy. The industry homogenization (520 °C/12 h) is indispensable for microstructure homogeneity, but has the disadvantages including long period, low efficiency and high oxidation burning rate. Here it was found that the microstructure homogeneity can be rapidly performed under electropulsing at a relative low temperature of 422 °C, and the holding time is only 10 min. The block-shaped LPSO phases and bright W phases at the grain boundaries were selectively dissolved and decomposed. The volume fraction of the second phases was reduced from 17 % to 12 %, indicating that the electropulsing is a more efficient method. Meanwhile, the elongation was enhanced to 6.2 %, which is higher than that of the traditional industry homogenized sample. The numerical calculation results present that the high current density regions at the tips of lamellar LPSO phases (near the grain boundaries) are the key factors to accelerate the solute elements exchange, so as to complete the fast microstructure homogeneity enhancement.

The simulation of supersonic or hypersonic flows often suffers from numerical shock instabilities if the flow field contains strong shocks, limiting the further application of shock-capturing schemes. In this paper, we develop the unified matrix stability analysis method for schemes with three-point stencils and present MSAT (matrix stability analysis tool), an open-source tool to quantitatively analyze the shock instability problem. Based on the finite-volume approach on the structured grid, MSAT can be employed to investigate the mechanism of the shock instability problem, evaluate the robustness of numerical schemes, and then help to develop robust schemes. Also, MSAT has the ability to analyze the practical simulation of supersonic or hypersonic flows, evaluate whether it will suffer from shock instabilities, and then assist in selecting appropriate numerical schemes accordingly. As a result, MSAT is a helpful tool that can investigate the shock instability problem and help to cure it.

Near-infrared laser radiation based on Nd3+-doped yttrium ortho-aluminate (Nd:YAlO3, Nd:YAP) has garnered significant interest regarding solid-state lasers. Nevertheless, the crystal microstructures and electronic characteristics of Nd:YAP are still unclear, and the unique physical properties underlying its enormous applications require clarification. In this study, we conducted first-principles calculations at the atomic level to explore the electronic properties and mechanical characteristics of both pure YAP and Nd3+-doped YAP. The results suggest that the substitution of the Y3+ ion site with the Nd3+ impurity ion induces slight structural distortion in the YAP crystal lattice. An impurity band emerges between the original conduction band and the valence band, attributed to the 4f orbital of the Nd3+ ion, exerting a substantial influence on the narrowing of the band gap. Through an analysis of the mechanical characteristics of both pure YAP and Nd:YAP, we conclude that the incorporation of Nd3+ atoms leads to a reduction in the mechanical properties of YAP to a certain extent. Our study can serve as a foundational data source for investigations into material performance, especially for the application of Nd:YAP in solid-state laser systems.

In this paper, the design of reduced-order and full-order interval observers for discrete-time system is investigated. First, the original system is transformed into a descriptor system with the ability to estimate the unknown noise of sensors. Next, a reduced-order interval observer design method for descriptor system is presented. The state matrix of the system is obtained by linear transformation, and a Sylvester equation is constructed to find the appropriate observer gain matrix. Then, an existing design method of full-order interval observer is introduced in this paper. Finally, a simulation example is given to demonstrate that the reduced-order interval observer has more accurate interval estimation results than the full-order interval observer.

In free-space optical (FSO) communication systems, on–off keying (OOK) is a widely used modulation format. Coherent and non-coherent OOK receivers with sensitivities of −54.60 dBm and −51.25 dBm, respectively, were built with a communication rate of 1 Gbit/s and a bit error rate of 10−3. In an FSO communication system, the parameters must be designed to ensure a sufficient link margin. In contrast to optical fiber systems, FSO systems have ambient light (AL) noise such as sunlight. The efficiency of sunlight coupling in the single-mode fiber (SMF) of the receivers was calculated in this study. For a signal light with AL, the change in the main components of noise and the sensitivity deterioration were theoretically analyzed and experimentally verified in conditions of coherent reception and non-coherent reception with a preamplifier. For coherent reception, the theoretical sensitivity deterioration results are consistent with the experimental results which indicate that coherent reception exhibits better anti-AL noise performance than non-coherent reception when the power spectral density of the AL is the same. Coherent and non-coherent receivers coupled with SMF can work in direct sunlight. When the receiver lens diameter is greater than 4.88 × 10−4 m, the anti-AL noise performance of the receiver can be improved by increasing the receiver lens diameter.

Marine biological object detection is of great significance for the exploration and protection of underwater resources. There have been some achievements in visual inspection for specific objects based on machine learning. However, owing to the complex imaging environment, some problems, such as low accuracy and poor real-time performance, have appeared in these object detection methods. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a detection method of marine biological objects based on image enhancement and YOLOv5S. Contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization is taken to solve the problems of underwater image distortion and blur, and we put forward an improved YOLOv5S to improve accuracy and real-time performance of object detection. Compared with YOLOv5S, coordinate attention and adaptive spatial feature fusion are added in the improved YOLOv5S, which can accurately locate the target of interest and fully fuse the features of different scales. In addition, soft non-maximum suppression is adopted to replace non-maximum suppression for the improvement of the detection ability for overlapping objects. The experimental results show that the contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization algorithm can effectively improve the underwater image quality and the detection accuracy. Compared with the original model (YOLOv5S), the proposed algorithm has a higher detection accuracy. The detection accuracy AP50 reaches 94.9% and the detection speed is 82 frames per second; therefore, the real-time performance can be said to reach a high level.

The marine boiler-turbine system is the core part for the steam-powered ships with complicated dynamics. To improve the power tracking performance and fulfill the requirement of high utilization rate of fossil energy, the control performance of the system should be improved. In this paper, a nonlinear model predictive control method is proposed for the boiler-turbine system with fractional order cost functions. Firstly, a nonlinear model of the boiler-turbine system is introduced. Secondly, a nonlinear extended predictive self adaptive control(EPSAC) method is designed to the system. Then, integer order cost function is replaced with a fractional order cost function to improve the control performance, and also the configuration of the cost function is simplified. Finally, the superiority of the proposed method is proved accordring to the comparison experiments between the fractional order model predictive control and the traditional model predictive control.

Sandstone and coal are the two most common types of reservoirs in nature. The permeability of sandstone in oil-bearing formations controls its oil and gas production; the permeability of the coal seam containing gas has a crucial influence on the gas drainage efficiency. One of the main factors affecting rock permeability is the spatial distribution and connectivity of pores and fissures in the rock. In this paper, a small-sized sample with a diameter of 5 mm and a height of 10 mm was used for the test. The rock samples under different stress states were scanned in real-time during the seepage testing. Based on 2D images, a 3D digital sample was reconstructed. We extracted the pores and fissures from the 3D digital sample, studied the size and distribution of the largest cluster in the sample, and revealed the influence of confining pressure and seepage pressure on the percolation probability and permeability of the sample. The research results show that brittle sandstone and plastic coal, two types of rocks with completely different properties of mechanics, have obvious differences in the spatial distribution of the largest clusters. Under the same stress state, in brittle sandstone-like rocks, the connectivity of the fissures is the primary factor affecting permeability, and the pores are the auxiliary factor; for plastic rocks such as coal, the situation is just the opposite, pores are the primary factor affecting permeability, and fissures are the auxiliary factor. The research results answer the question: Hydraulic fracturing technology can increase the oil and gas production of sandstone reservoirs but cannot increase the drainage efficiency of coalbed methane.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining technique, which can avoid surface distortion and grain coarsening, and is very suitable for the joining of magnesium (Mg) alloys. However, a pronounced and inhomogeneous deformation texture was usually formed in the stir zone (SZ) of Mg welds. This has significant effect on the joint strength and fracture behavior of FSW Mg joints. In this review, microstructure and texture evolutions in weld zone (WZ) are analyzed based on the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data. Schmid factor (SF) changes for slip and extension twinning were observed and discussed. The localized plastic deformation and fracture mechanisms of Mg welds are analyzed. In addition, some methods for improving the joint strength of FSW Mg welds are tested. Finally, the research direction of FSW Mg alloys in the future is determined.

On August 3, 2018, an outbreak of African swine fever in pigs was reported in China. We subjected a virus from an African swine fever–positive pig sample to phylogenetic analysis. This analysis showed that the causative strain belonged to the p72 genotype II and CD2v serogroup 8.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) genotype dominance has shifted to genotype I (GI) from genotype III (GIII) in China as demonstrated by molecular epidemiological surveillance. In this study, we performed a serological survey in JEV-non-vaccinated pigs to confirm JEV genotype shift at the sero-epidemiological level. The average ratio of GI/GIII infection was 1.87, suggesting co-circulation of GI and GIII infections with GI infection being more prevalent in pigs in China. To gain an insight into the reasons for this JEV genotype shift, the replication kinetics of seven recently-isolated JEV isolates including three GI strains and four GIII strains were compared in mosquito C6/36 cells, chicken fibroblast cells (DF-1) and porcine iliac artery endothelial cells (PIEC). We observed that GI strains replicated more efficiently than GIII strains in DF-1 and PIEC cells, particularly in DF-1 cells with titers reaching 22.9-225.3 fold higher than GIII strains. This shows an enhanced replication efficiency of GI viruses in avian cells. To examine this enhanced replication efficiency in vivo, young domestic ducklings were used as the animal model and inoculated with GI and GIII strains at day 2 post-hatching. We observed that GI-inoculated ducklings developed higher viremia titers and displayed a comparatively longer viremic duration than GIII-inoculated ducklings. These results conform to the hypothesis of an enhanced replication efficiency for GI viruses in birds. There are 36 amino acid differences between GI and GIII viruses, some of which may be responsible for the enhanced replication efficiency of GI viruses in birds. Based on these findings, we speculated that the enhanced replication of GI viruses in birds would have resulted in higher exposure and therefore infection in mosquitoes, which could result in an increased transmission efficiency of GI viruses in the birds-mosquitoes-birds enzootic transmission cycle, thereby contributing to JEV genotype shift.

Air pollution has become a global environmental problem, because it has a great adverse impact on human health and the climate. One way to explore this problem is to monitor and predict air quality index in an economical way. Accurate monitoring and prediction of air quality index (AQI), e.g., PM2.5 concentration, is a challenging task. In order to accurately predict the PM2.5 time series, we propose a supplementary leaky integrator echo state network (SLI-ESN) in this paper. It adds the historical state term of the historical moment to the calculation of leaky integrator reservoir, which improves the influence of historical evolution state on the current state. Considering the redundancy and correlation between multivariable time series, minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR) feature selection method is introduced to reduce redundant and irrelevant information, and increase computation speed. A variety of evaluation indicators are used to assess the overall performance of the proposed method. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by the experiment of Beijing PM2.5 time series prediction. The comparison of learning time also shows the efficiency of the algorithm.

The prediction of chaotic time series has been a popular research field in recent years. Due to the strong non-stationary and high complexity of the chaotic time series, it is difficult to directly analyze and predict depending on a single model, so the hybrid prediction model has become a promising and favorable alternative. In this paper, we put forward a novel hybrid model based on a two-layer decomposition approach and an optimized back propagation neural network (BPNN). The two-layer decomposition approach is proposed to obtain comprehensive information of the chaotic time series, which is composed of complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and variational mode decomposition (VMD). The VMD algorithm is used for further decomposition of the high frequency subsequences obtained by CEEMDAN, after which the prediction performance is significantly improved. We then use the BPNN optimized by a firefly algorithm (FA) for prediction. The experimental results indicate that the two-layer decomposition approach is superior to other competing approaches in terms of four evaluation indexes in one-step and multi-step ahead predictions. The proposed hybrid model has a good prospect in the prediction of chaotic time series.

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) has been widely employed to refine the grain size of Mg alloys, with the main objective to improve the strength and ductility of Mg alloys, since the well-known Hall-Petch equation suggests that a decreased grain size leads to an increased yield strength. However, the yield strength of Mg alloys processed by SPD is often decreased even though the grain size is effectively reduced. The abnormal flow behavior in Mg alloys processed by SPD has attracted great attention although this mechanism is still unclear, due to its complex and extensive influence factors. In this paper, the relationships between the processing conditions, grain refinement, and mechanical properties of the SPD treated Mg alloys are reviewed, with the emphasis on the effects of grain size and texture on the yield strength.