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The existing conventional traffic flow models aims to simulate human-driven following vehicles in real world. In this era of emerging transport solutions, controlling or intervening traffic flow to achieve high fuel efficiency along with good driving safety and travel efficiency becomes a reality. As such, it is worth exploring the possibility of developing eco-driving models to optimise vehicle movements for fuel consumption minimisation, while maintaining safety and efficiency. In this study, we propose a modified genetic algorithm (GA) based calibration method that enables the calibrated parametric traffic flow (car following) models to simulate or control vehicles in an eco-driving manner. By developing a novel objective function for the GA method based on the widely-used VT-Micro fuel consumption model, the proposed method can calibrate model parameters towards improving fuel efficiency. Besides, by subtly using heavy fuel consumptions as a surrogate index to represent low travel efficiency or dangerous driving strategies, the modified GA method with the novel objective function can guide the calibrated model towards achieving complete eco-driving requirements. Experimental simulation results further indicate that traffic flow models calibrated by the modified GA-based method can also alleviate traffic disturbances and oscillations in a more effective manner.

In this paper, a Ni coating was deposited on the surface of the A356 aluminum alloy by high velocity oxygen fuel spraying to improve the performance of the AZ91D magnesium/A356 aluminum bimetal prepared by a compound casting. The effects of the Ni coating as well as its thickness on microstructure and mechanical properties of the AZ91D/A356 bimetal were systematically researched for the first time. Results demonstrated that the Ni coating and its thickness had a significant effect on the interfacial phase compositions and mechanical properties of the AZ91D/A356 bimetal. The 10µm's Ni coating cannot prevent the generation of the Al-Mg intermetallic compounds (IMCs) at the interface zone of the AZ91D/A356 bimetal, while the Ni coating with the thickness of 45 µm and 190 µm can avoid the formation of the Al-Mg IMCs. When the Ni coating was 45 µm, the Ni coating disappeared and transformed into Mg-Mg2Ni eutectic structures+Ni2Mg3Al particles at the interface zone. With a thickness of 190µm's Ni coating, part of the Ni coating remained and the interface layer was composed of the Mg-Mg2Ni eutectic structures+ Ni2Mg3Al particles, Mg2Ni layer, Ni solid solution (SS) layer, Al3Ni2 layer, Al3Ni layer and sporadic Al3Ni+Al-Al3Ni eutectic structures from AZ91D side to A356 side in sequence. The interface layer consisting of the Mg-Ni and Al-Ni IMCs obtained with the Ni coating had an obvious lower hardness than the Al-Mg IMCs. The shear strength of the AZ91D/A356 bimetal with a Ni coating of 45 µm thickness enhanced 41.4% in comparison with that of the bimetal without Ni coating, and the fracture of the bimetal with 45µm's Ni coating occurred between the Mg matrix and the interface layer with a mixture of brittle fracture and ductile fracture.

A novel virtual material layer model based on the fractal theory was proposed to predict the natural frequencies of carbon fiber reinforced plastic composite bolted joints. Rough contact surfaces of composite bolted joints are modeled with this new proposed approach. Numerical and experimental modal analyses were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model. A good consistence is noted between the numerical and experimental results. To demonstrate the necessity of accurately modeling the rough contact surfaces in the prediction of natural frequencies, virtual material layer model was compared with the widely used traditional model based on the Master-Slave contact algorithm and experiments, respectively. Results show that the proposed model has a better agreement with experiments than the widely used traditional model (the prediction accuracy is raised by 8.77% when the pre-tightening torque is 0.5 N∙m). Real contact area ratio A* of three different virtual material layers were calculated. Value of A* were discussed with dimensionless load P*, fractal dimension D and fractal roughness G. This work provides a new efficient way for accurately modeling the rough contact surfaces and predicting the natural frequencies of composite bolted joints, which can be used to help engineers in the dynamic design of composite materials.

Morphing leading edge has great potential for noise abatement and aerodynamic efficiency improvement. The drooping effect is realized by bending of the flexible skin which encloses to form the leading edge. Since the flexible skin is often made of composite laminates of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics (GFRP), the lay-up sequences have become the determinant, which affects not only the morphing quality but also the manufacturing complexity. Two optimizing methods of lay-up sequences are comparatively studied. In the first method, the laminal quantities in 0°, ±45° and 90° vary independently, while in the second one, the concept of isotropic laminate unit [0/45/−45/90]s is employed and the unit quantity is the unique variable. Final evaluation demonstrates that for both methods there is insignificant impact to the overall morphing quality; however, specific concern is equally necessary for these two methods to the tip of the leading edge where the skin is at its minimum thickness and bears the most severe bending deformation. In terms of computational efficiency and post-processing labor, the second method has better performance.

Catalysts/co-catalysts for cathodic oxygen reduction and anodic methanol oxidation reactions (ORR/MOR) play the major roles in promoting the commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells. Herein, bimetallic zeolite-imidazolate-frameworks (CoZn-ZIFs) is used as precursor to synthesize Co3O4@NPC/CuO composites as catalysts for ORR and Pt supports/co-catalysts for MOR. The ORR activity (E1/2 = 0.83 V) and long-term stability (activity retention of 85.5% after 30,000 s) of Co3O4@NPC/CuO-400 (400 °C) dodecahedron are better than those of commercial Pt/C (10 wt%) in alkaline electrolytes. The surface CuO with variable valence states (Cu0 and Cu2+) can be used as both the active component for ORR and the protective layer for Co3O4 to enhance catalytic stability. Partial removal of CoOx from carbon framework promotes the exposure of highly active sites (Co2+) on the Co3O4. For MOR, the mass activity of Pt-Co3O4@NPC/CuO-400 (5 wt%) (1947 mA mgPt−1) is much higher than that of Pt/C (751 mA mgPt−1), mainly attributing to that the Pt active sites are uniformly dispersed on Co3O4@NPC/CuO support. The strong interaction between Pt and CuO can reduce the bond strength of Pt-CO to enhance CO resistance. Co3O4 can activate H2O molecules to provide sufficient OH− species to promote MOR. This study provides a new idea for preparation of active ORR catalysts and MOR co-catalyst from bimetallic ZIFs.

Integrating the advantages of the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM) and a temporally piecewise adaptive algorithm (TPAA), an effective numerical approach is developed for the dynamic analysis of viscoelastic problems. By virtue of a piecewise variables separation, a temporally and spatially coupled dynamic viscoelastic problem is decoupled into a series of recursive spatial problems which are solved by SBFEM. A stable and accurate temporal solution can be achieved via an adaptive process when the step size varies, and the convenience for the treatment of stress singularity and mesh generation in the viscoelastic dynamic analysis can be provided by SBFEM. Numerical tests are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach and to highlight the advantages introducing SBFEM over the conventional methods in the dynamic analysis, and the proposed results agree well with references.

We report the synthesis and characterization of a new water-soluble cavitand 1. The container features 2-aminobenzimidazole panels at the "rim" and pyridiniums at the "feet". In the solid state, a single-crystal X-ray structure of the organic-soluble precursor 2 showed a stable vase form. The structure is stabilized by hydrogen-bonded bridges between adjacent panels through solvents and ions. In aqueous solution, binding of hydrophobic and amphiphilic guest molecules to 1 was investigated using 1H NMR. Alkanes, alcohols, acids, diols, and diacids formed 1:1 host-guest complexes, and the guest conformations were deduced from characteristic chemical shift changes. In the presence of [Pd(ethylenediamine)(H2O)2·2NO3], cavitand 1 formed a complex incorporating two metals. The metal-coordinated cavitand also bound hydrophobic linear alkanes and difluorobenzene isomers in aqueous medium. The metallo-cavitand showed shape and size selectivity and was used to separate o-difluorobenzene from its isomers as observed by 19F NMR spectroscopy. The primary amino function of the cavitands offers possibilities for further elaboration to covalent clusters of these container compounds.

Many uncertainties exist in pile-stabilized slopes which make their design substantially complicated. In this paper, a first-order reliability method (FORM) based on a support vector machine (SVM) and uniform design (UD) is proposed to investigate the reliability of a pile-stabilized slope. A deterministic model considering soil-pile interaction and using a strength reduction method based on the displacement criterion is employed to calculate the factor of safety and the corresponding pile-bending moment. The uncertainties involved in both the soil and the stabilizing pile are taken into consideration in the proposed method. Two typical failure modes, namely the insufficient factor of safety of a pile-stabilized slope and the insufficient flexural bearing capacity of stabilizing piles, are investigated from a probabilistic viewpoint. The proposed method is illustrated with an artificial homogeneous slope and a real slope engineering case. The influence of stabilizing pile installation locations on the reliability results were studied. The sensitivity of random variability was also investigated. The results of the proposed method show high accuracy while having a smaller computational time requirement when compared with the polynomial response surface method. The case study of a real highway slope shows the feasibility of the proposed method applied to practical engineering problems.

Germanium selenide attracts emerging attention for applications in high-performance field-effect transistors and photodetector, due to its unique photoelectric performances and tunable bandgap. Herein, the germanium selenide-reduced graphene oxide (GeSe-RGO) hybrid is successfully synthesized by loading liquid-phase exfoliated GeSe nanosheets on the 2D graphene via a hydrothermal reduction process. It is demonstrated that the photoresponse performance of the photoelectrochemical (PEC) device constructed by the synthesized GeSe-RGO hybrid is significantly enhanced in comparison to the one built by the sole GeSe nanosheets. The results of the PEC tests display the photocurrent density can reach to 8.45 μA/cm2 at the bias of 0.8 V, which is approximately 4 times that of sole GeSe nanosheets. Meanwhile, with the increase of illumination intensity, the photocurrent density of the GeSe-RGO photodetector almost presents a linear increase. When the illumination intensity is 90 mW/cm2, the photoresponsivity value is up to 116 μA/W. In addition, the GeSe-RGO hybrid shows a durable photoresponse capability under the bias of 0 V, revealing that such a hybrid has the excellent self-powered ability in the PEC system. There is no evident degradation on the photoresponsive performance of GeSe-RGO photodetector after 50 light on-off cycling, indicating the good stability of the hybrids. The enhanced performance of the GeSe-RGO hybrid is attributed to the outstanding photoresponsive capability of RGO and the effective separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Our work indicates that the GeSe-RGO hybrid has great prospects for future applications in PEC-type photodetector devices.

The main work of this paper focuses on identifying the heat flux in inverse problem of two-dimensional nonhomogeneous parabolic equation, which has wide application in the industrial field such as steel-making and continuous casting. Firstly, the existence of the weak solution of the inverse problem is discussed. With the help of forward solution and dual equation, this paper proves the Lipchitz continuity of the cost function and derives the Lipchitz constant. Furthermore, in order to accelerate the convergence rate and reduce the running time, this paper presents a sufficient descent Levenberg–Marquard algorithm with adaptive parameter (SD-LMAP) to solve this inverse problem. At last, compared with other methods, the results of simulation experiment show that this algorithm can obviously reduce the running time and iterative number.

Bone mineral consists of calcium hydroxy-carbonate apatite (HCA) that incorporates other minor cation substituents, primarily Na+ (0.5–0.8 wt %). We examine the carbonate species in various HCA spe...

Oxygen release and irreversible cation migration are the main causes of voltage fade in Li-rich transition metal oxide cathode. But their correlation is not very clear and voltage decay is still a bottleneck. Herein, we modulate the oxygen anionic redox chemistry by constructing Li2ZrO3 slabs into Li2MnO3 domain in Li1.21Ni0.28Mn0.51O2, which induces the lattice strain, tunes the chemical environment for redox-active oxygen and enlarges the gap between metallic and anionic bands. This modulation expands the region in which lattice oxygen contributes capacity by oxidation to oxygen holes and relieves the charge transfer from anionic band to antibonding metal–oxygen band under a deep delithiation. This restrains cation reduction, metal–oxygen bond fracture, and the formation of localized O2 molecule, which fundamentally inhibits lattice oxygen escape and cation migration. The modulated cathode demonstrates a low voltage decay rate (0.45 millivolt per cycle) and a long cyclic stability., Voltage fade is a critical issue for Li-rich transition metal oxide cathode. Here, the authors modulate the oxygen anionic redox chemistry and enlarges the gap between metallic and anionic states by constructing Li2ZrO3 slabs into Li2MnO3 domain in Li1.21Ni0.28Mn0.51O2 which fundamentally suppresses the voltage decay.

In this work, cabon nanofiber supported cobalt ferrite composites (C/CFO) were prepared by electrospinning combined with hydrothermal method. The morphology, structure and microwave absorption properties were discussed in detail. The results revealed that the C/CFO composites with 3 D network structure exhibited excellent microwave absorption properties, which were linked to the composite compositions and synergistic effect between C NFs and CFO NPs. When the content of CFO NPs was 10 wt %, the C/CFO sample showed RLmax of −137 dB at 11.36 GHz and the EAB (RL

Seed size is a major factor determining crop yields that is controlled through the coordinated development of maternal and zygotic tissues. Here, we identified Arabidopsis MATERNAL EFFECT EMBRYO ARREST45 (MEE45) as a B3 transcription factor that controls cell proliferation and maternally regulates seed size through its transcriptional activation of AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) and its downstream control of auxin biosynthesis in the ovule integument. After characterizing reduced seed and organ size phenotypes in mee45 mutants and finding that overexpression of MEE45 causes oversized seeds, we discovered that the MEE45 protein can bind to the promoter region of the ANT locus and positively regulate its transcription. ANT in-turn activates the expression of auxin biosynthetic genes (e.g. YUCCA4) in the ovule integument. Our results thus illustrate mechanisms underlying maternal tissue-mediated regulation of seed size and suggest that MEE45 and its downstream components can be harnessed to develop higher-yielding crop varieties.

Plant subtilases (SBTs) or subtilisin-like proteases comprise a very diverse family of serine peptidases that participates in a broad spectrum of biological functions. Despite increasing evidence for roles of SBTs in plant immunity in recent years, little is known about wheat (Triticum aestivum) SBTs (TaSBTs). Here, we identified 255 TaSBT genes from bread wheat using the latest version 2.0 of the reference genome sequence. The SBT family can be grouped into five clades, from TaSBT1 to TaSBT5, based on a phylogenetic tree constructed with deduced protein sequences. In silico protein-domain analysis revealed the existence of considerable sequence diversification of the TaSBT family which, together with the local clustered gene distribution, suggests that TaSBT genes have undergone extensive functional diversification. Among those TaSBT genes whose expression was altered by biotic factors, TaSBT1.7 was found to be induced in wheat leaves by chitin and flg22 elicitors, as well as six examined pathogens, implying a role for TaSBT1.7 in plant defense. Transient overexpression of TaSBT1.7 in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves resulted in necrotic cell death. Moreover, knocking down TaSBT1.7 in wheat using barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing compromised the hypersensitive response and resistance against Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, the causal agent of wheat stripe rust. Taken together, this study defined the full complement of wheat SBT genes and provided evidence for a positive role of one particular member, TaSBT1.7, in the incompatible interaction between wheat and a stripe rust pathogen.

The effects of solid carbon on NO electrocatalytic reduction in the presence of O2 content, as low as can be found in a gasoline engine, were investigated. Tubular solid-state fuel cells filled with Fe-loaded carbon materials (Fe-loaded activated carbon, Fe-AC, and Fe-loaded carbon black, Fe-BC) were fabricated for electrochemical reduction in the configuration of LSM as the cathode, NiO-YSZ mixed powder as the anode, and YSZ as the electrolyte. A moderate NO removal efficiency of 60% and maximum peak power density of 0.035 W cm−2 were achieved for Fe-AC in the presence of 1% O2, whereas no such performances were detected in the case of AC. Following TGA-MS and in-situ analyses of exit gases from the anodes, it can be concluded that Fe-loaded carbon materials promote CO formation in Boudouard reactions by utilizing excess oxygen transported from the cathode, which is capable of alleviating the impact of oxygen on NO removal while also enhancing electrical performance. The formation of CO contributes to the reduction of both concentration polarization loss and activation polarization loss at both electrodes.

Obtaining the time and space features of the travel of urban residents can facilitate urban traffic optimization and urban planning. As traditional methods often have limited sample coverage and lack timeliness, the application of big data such as mobile phone data in urban studies makes it possible to rapidly acquire the features of residents’ travel. However, few studies have attempted to use them to recognize the travel modes of residents. Based on mobile phone call detail records and the Web MapAPI, the present study proposes a method to recognize the travel mode of urban residents. The main processes include: (a) using DBSCAN clustering to analyze each user’s important location points and identify their main travel trajectories; (b) using an online map API to analyze user’s means of travel; (c) comparing the two to recognize the travel mode of residents. Applying this method in a GIS platform can further help obtain the traffic flow of various means, such as walking, driving, and public transit, on different roads during peak hours on weekdays. Results are cross-checked with other data sources and are proven effective. Besides recognizing travel modes of residents, the proposed method can also be applied for studies such as travel costs, housing–job balance, and road traffic pressure. The study acquires about 6 million residents’ travel modes, working place and residence information, and analyzes the means of travel and traffic flow in the commuting of 3 million residents using the proposed method. The findings not only provide new ideas for the collection and application of urban traffic information, but also provide data support for urban planning and traffic management.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a promising sensing technique that can provide unique chemical and structural fingerprint information, but gaining reliable SERS quantitative data with high sensitivity and stability still remains a challenge. Although using a molecule as an internal standard (IS) can improve the SERS quantitative capability, the reliability and SERS measuring conditions for signal fluctuations during calibration based on IS are yet to be explored when the embedded IS molecules and target objects are located in different environments. Herein, a 3D hotspot matrix SERS platform based on Au@4-MPy@AgNPs was constructed in water with the assistance of glycerol and the dynamic signal changes from the IS, i.e. 4-Mpy, and target molecules were monitored during the process of evaporation with high sensitivity and stability. In contrast to the traditional water-dispersed drying film system, the variation trends of IS and target molecules were consistent in the glycerol-assisted liquid film protection system. Therefore, it is reasonable to calibrate the signal fluctuation by utilizing the embedded IS based on the construction strategy of a glycerol-assisted 3D hotspot platform. This work demonstrates a rational, reliable and precise SERS quantitative technique for testing analyte concentrations in practical systems and has great application prospects in the field of analytical chemistry.

We disclose a transition-metal-free decarbonylative alkylation reaction for the synthesis of N-aryl α-hydroxy amides via precise cleavages and reorganizations of three C–C σ bonds. For the first time, a medium-sized cycloalkyl was used as a leaving group to initiate the decarbonylative alkylation process. We also demonstrate the concept of “one-pot” inert C–C bond activation/deuteration. This strategy allows the formation of α,β-deuterated hydroxyamides by using DMSO-d6 as a solvent.

Topic Detection and Tracking technique (TDT) has been commonly used to identify the hot topics from the huge volume of Internet news information and keep up with the hot news. However, traditional topic detection and tracking methods have shown low accuracy and low efficiency. In this paper, a topic detection system driven by big data is built on the Spark platform, which aims at improving the efficiency of news collecting from the Internet and improving the accuracy and efficiency of topic detection and tracking tasks. This system can be easily employed in a distributed architecture and work as a parallelized news collecting and topic detection system. An improved density-based spatial clustering of application with noise (DBSCAN) clustering algorithm based on the time window is proposed to achieve accurate topic detection with the auxiliary advantage of reducing the time complexity. A parallel KNN based topic tracking algorithm is proposed for the topic tracking task. Experiments including comparison with some baseline algorithms and quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted on pseudo-distributed Spark platform, which demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of the parallelized topic detection system.

This study presents an evolutionary game to model interactions among stakeholders with potential conflicts, including the operational enterprise of incineration plant, the local government, and the residents nearby. System dynamics is used to simulate the change of strategic actions corresponding to the three players, in order to seek for the evolutionary stability strategies. A numerical case is proposed to demonstrate the game theory application, in which the impacts of governmental incentive and punishment on the player’s actions are investigated. The results indicated that administrative penalty is effective not only in motivating the enterprises to upgrade treatment facilities for ensuring environmental quality but also in helping the local government and residents to approach dominant strategies. Policy implications are given based on the results to lay out a foundation for the alleviation of the conflicts.

Aims Intercropping cereals with legumes may achieve high crop yields at reduced input levels. Several studies have indicated that intercropping increases phosphorus use efficiency but no overarching analysis exists on the role of species traits and input levels. Here we synthesize the available information on P use efficiency in cereal/legume intercropping. Methods Global data on yields, P uptake and nutrient input in cereal/legume mixtures were extracted from the literature and statistically analyzed. Co-variables explaining P uptake efficiency and yield were considered. Results P uptake was substantially increased with an average value of LERP, the land equivalent ratio for P uptake, of 1.24, and an average NEP (observed P uptake minus expected P uptake) of 3.67 kg P ha−1. The conversion efficiency of P uptake to biomass decreased with P uptake and was lower in intercrops than in sole crops but the conversion efficiency to yield was not affected by intercropping. The P fertilizer requirement was 21% lower in intercrops than in sole crops for the same yields. Conclusions Substantial improvements in land use efficiency and P uptake are obtained by cereal/legume intercropping. Cereal/legume intercropping has therefore potential to increase P fertilizer use efficiency in agriculture.

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have found many successful real-world applications, where the optimization problems are often subject to a wide range of uncertainties. To understand the practical behaviors of EAs theoretically, there are a series of efforts devoted to analyzing the running time of EAs for optimization under uncertainties. Existing studies mainly focus on noisy and dynamic optimization, while another common type of uncertain optimization, i.e., robust optimization, has been rarely touched. In this paper, we analyze the expected running time of the (1+1)-EA solving robust linear optimization problems (i.e., linear problems under robust scenarios) with a cardinality constraint $k$. Two common robust scenarios, i.e., deletion-robust and worst-case, are considered. Particularly, we derive tight ranges of the robust parameter $d$ or budget $k$ allowing the (1+1)-EA to find an optimal solution in polynomial running time, which disclose the potential of EAs for robust optimization., Comment: 17 pages, 1 table

In this paper, a fast and effective method based on multiple image features and a weighted K-means clustering algorithm is proposed to achieve the automatic grading of apples. The method provides a novel way of using four images (top, bottom and two sides) and average gray values for each apple to distinguish between the apple defects, stem and calyx. Furthermore, weighted features (MCSAD (maximum cross-sectional average diameter), circularity, PRA (proportion of red area) and defect regions) were carefully selected according to the requirements of the national apple grading standard, which improves the practicality of the proposed method. Finally, qualitative and quantitative evaluation results demonstrate that the total accuracy of the proposed multi-feature grading method is greater than 96%, which provides encouragement for the additional research and implementation of multi-feature automatic grading for the fruit industry.

Lattice oxygen undergoes redox reaction to achieve high specific capacity of the material in lithium-rich cathode oxides. However, irreversible oxygen loss causes a change in the crystal structure, and the cations migrate in the transition metal layer, resulting in a rearrangement of the electronic structure and ultimately a severe voltage decay. Herein, we introduce Pt nanoparticles with good catalytic activity and electrical conductivity into lithium-rich cathode materials to improve the loss of lattice oxygen for the first time. We have revealed that the evolution of the lattice structure after the lattice oxygen redox reaction is relatively stable in the lithium-rich oxide with Pt nanoparticles, which is in stark contrast to the apparently deformed crystal structure in the lithium-rich oxide without Pt. Pt-containing electrodes exhibit excellent high-capacity retention rate (more than 80% after 200 cycles), and voltage decay is significantly reduced (less than 0.4 V after 200 cycles). Our results highlight the role of Pt nanoparticles in alleviating the loss of lattice oxygen and stabilizing the crystal structure, which opens up the field of vision for the design of high-energy-density lithium rich cathode oxides with stable structure.

Solidification heat transfer process of billet is described by nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE). Due to the poor productive environment, the boundary condition of this nonlinear PDE is difficult to be fixed. Therefore, the identification of boundary condition of two-dimensional nonlinear PDE is considered. This paper transforms the identification of boundary condition into a PDE optimization problem. The Lipchitz continuous of the gradient of cost function is proved based on the dual equation. In order to solve this optimization problem, this paper presents a modified conjugate gradient algorithm, and the global convergence of which is analyzed. The results of the simulation experiment show that the modified conjugate gradient algorithm obviously reduces the iterative number and running time. Due to the ill-posedness of the identification of boundary condition, this paper combines regularization method with the modified conjugate gradient algorithm. The simulation experiment illustrates that regularization method can eliminate the ill-posedness of this problem. Finally, the experimental data of a steel plant illustrate the validity of this paper’s method.

Background Poa L. is a large genus of grass in Gramineae, among which P. pratensis is widely cultivated as turf and forage. Satellite DNA is the main components of the plant genome. Information of satellites will helpful for dissection the genome composition and definition of the phylogeny relationship of these species. However, the knowledge about the satellites in genus Poa is still limited. Results Four satellite DNAs were identified using the Repeat Explorer pipeline in HiSeq Illumina reads from diploid plants in P. malaca (2n = 26). Two satellites showed high similarity with the previously identified PpTr-1 and PpTr-3, whereas two others are newly identified with the monomer of 326 bp (Poa-326) and 353 bp (Poa-353) respectively. The clone DNAs of PpTr-1 and PpTr-3, and oligonucleotides designed representing satellites Poa-326 and Poa-353 were probed to test on chromosomes across 13 Poa speceis with different polyploidy level by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). PpTr-1, PpTr-3, and Poa-362 were stably positioned in the subtelomeric regions in nearly all species with the variation of hybridization sites number. However, Poa-353 showed different FISH patterns of multiple regions with the variation of hybridization intensity and distribution sites across species. In addition, 5S rDNA and 45S rDNA were used to characterize the genome of the Poa species. Four rDNA FISH patterns were revealed in the tested species. Conclusion Four identified satellite were high conservable across Poa species. Genome distribution of these satellites can be characterized by FISH. The variation of satellite DNAs and rDNA chromosomal distributions between species provide useful information for phylogenetic analysis in genus Poa.

Plant spermatogenesis is a complex process that directly affects crop breeding. A rapid change in gene abundance occurs at early meiosis prophase, when gene regulation is selective. However, how these genes are regulated remains unknown. Here, we show that rice reproductive phasiRNAs are essential for the elimination of a specific set of RNAs during meiotic prophase I. These phasiRNAs cleave target mRNAs in a regulatory manner such that one phasiRNA can target more than one gene, and/or a single gene can be targeted by more than one phasiRNA to efficiently silence target genes. Our investigation of phasiRNA-knockdown and PHAS-edited transgenic plants demonstrates that phasiRNAs and their nucleotide variations are required for meiosis progression and fertility. This study highlights the importance of reproductive phasiRNAs for the reprogramming of gene expression during meiotic progression and establishes a basis for future studies on the roles of phasiRNAs with a goal of crop improvement., 21-nucleotide phased secondary siRNAs are expressed in the developing rice anthers during meiosis. Here, the authors show that phasiRNAs can cleave target mRNA and act to ensure the progression of meiosis and fertility in rice.

Klebsiella pneumoniae causes pneumonia and liver abscesses in humans worldwide and contains virulence factor capsular polysaccharides and lipopolysaccharides linked to the cell wall. Although capsular polysaccharides are good antigens for vaccine production and capsular oligosaccharides conjugate vaccines are proven effective against infections caused by encapsulated pathogens, there is still no Klebsiella pneumoniae vaccine available. One obstacle is that the capsular polysaccharide of a dominated Klebsiella pneumoniae serotype K2 is difficult to synthesize chemically due to the three 1,2-cis linkages in its structure. In this study, we successfully synthesized K2 capsular polysaccharides from tetra- to octasaccharides in highly a stereoselective manner. Subsequently, three synthesized glycans were conjugated to DT protein to provide glycoconjugate vaccine candidates (DT-Hexa, DT-Hepta, and DT-Octa) that were used in in vivo immunization experiments in mice. The results of immunized studies showed all three glycoconjugates elicited antibodies that recognized all of the synthetic glycans at 1:200-fold dilution. Particularly, the DT-Hepta conjugate elicited a higher level of antibodies that can recognize longer glycan (octasaccharide) even at 1:12800-fold dilution and exhibited good bactericidal activity. Our results concluded that heptasaccharide is the minimal epitope and a potential candidate for the vaccine against the K2 sero group of Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The flexible energy storage film based on PVDF matrix has very extensive application. The electrical properties of PVDF composite films doped by nanometer MnO2 was studied in this research, and the influences of MnO2 content on dielectric constant, breakdown strength and energy storage properties were systematic investigated. The results indicated that using MnO2 as fillers is an effective approach to improve the dielectric constant and breakdown strength of PVDF matrix composites. The dielectric constant is 18.1 and the breakdown electric field is 100 kV/mm when the content of MnO2 is 10 wt%. In addition, both large energy storage density (1.67 J/cm3) and high energy storage efficiency (81.9%) are obtained in composite film with 10 wt% MnO2. The enhancement of dielectric constant and energy storage efficiency are due to the ionic polarization of MnO2 under applied electric field. Moreover, the effect of MnO2 on electron trapping improves the breakdown strength and energy storage density of MnO2/PVDF composite films. This work provides a feasible route for designing flexible composites with excellent energy storage performance.

Blueberry is an important agricultural crop with high nutritional, health, and economic value. Despite the well‐studied blueberry cultivation methods and soil requirements, little is known about how beneficial bacteria function in organic blueberry cultivation systems and their effects on acidic soils. In this study, a single bacteria Bacillus amyloliquefaciens JC65 and three biocontrol bacteria consortiums containing JC65 were applied to organic system. The effect of bacteria to blueberry growth, yield, fruit quality, and soil quality was investigated. A consortium of three mixed Bacillus (B. amyloliquefaciens JC65, B. licheniforims HS10 and B. subtilis 7ze3) showed the highest growth improvement efficiency. The bacterial inoculation increased blueberry leaf chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate by 21.50%, 13.21% at 30 days, and increased average plant height by 2.72% at 69 days. Compared with the control, the inoculated plants showed an increased yield of 14.56%. Interestingly, blueberry fruit quality was also improved with supplement of the bacterial consortium. Fruit anthocyanin, soluble sugar, vitamin C, soluble solids, and soluble protein content were increased by 5.99%, 4.21%, 17.31%, 2.41%, and 21.65%, respectively. Besides, beneficial bacterial consortium also enables sustainable agriculture by improving soil ammonium nitrogen and organic matter by 3.77% and 2.96% after blueberry planting. In conclusion, the combination of beneficial bacteria showed a synergistic activity in organic system to promote the blueberry yield, fruit quality, and soil nutrient preservation., We conclude that addition of beneficial microbe in organic blueberry production significantly promotes plant growth and improves blueberry fruit quality. Interestingly, by combination of different beneficial microorganism, the promotion effect on blueberry production was enhanced significantly, indicating synergistic activity among specific mixture of bacteria. The soil retention ability of the beneficial microbe is also shown, especially for increase of soil organic matter.

Here, we report a β-galactosidase (β-Gal)-responsive photochromic fluorescent probe, NpG, that was designed to prebind to human serum albumin (HSA) to form the probe/protein hybrid, NpG@HSA. The formation of NpG@HSA led to an increase in fluorescence emission (520 nm) corresponding to the binding of the fluorescent naphthalimide unit with HSA. In addition, this enabled visualization of the spiropyran fluorescence emission in aqueous media. Our probe/protein hybrid approach afforded a unique imaging platform with enhanced cell permeability and solubility that was capable of visualizing the cellular uptake of NpG@HSA before its activation by β-Gal. The β-Gal-mediated cleavage of the galactose unit within the NpG@HSA hybrid resulted in the formation of NpM@HSA and an increase in red fluorescence emission (620 nm). The resultant merocyanine unit was then able to undergo photoisomerization (merocyanine ↔ spiropyran) to facilitate STORM (i.e., stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) imaging with minimal phototoxicity and excellent photostability/reversibility. Using STORM, NpG@HSA was able to determine the subcellular distribution of β-Gal activity between cell lines with nanoscale precision. We believe that this system represents a versatile imaging platform for the design of photochromic fluorescent probes suitable for illuminating the precise location of disease-specific biomarkers in various cellular processes.

Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is one of the most important and devastating diseases of wheat; therefore, it is necessary to rapidly and accurately quantify fungicide effectiveness to monitor Pst sensitivity and manage the disease. In this study, a rapid method of quantifying the fungicide effectiveness with detached leaves was developed. The results showed that 0.5% water agar containing 75 μg/ml of 6-benzylaminopurine and filter paper worked the best for maintaining wheat leaves. The disease incidences of different concentrations of spore suspension were compared. When the spore concentrations were 5 and 10 mg/ml, the disease incidences had no significant differences at 12 and 15 days after inoculation (P < 0.05). Fungicide treatment tests revealed that there were no significant differences in the efficacies of triadimefon on rust suppression between detached leaves in the culture dishes and direct spray on seedlings. We also developed a Photoshop software method that can replace the current classification method and accurately measure the proportion of sporulation area on infected leaves. The sensitivity baseline of Pst to triadimefon was estimated as 0.1453 ± 0.0081 μg/ml, and all the values of EC50 were tested for normal distribution using the Shapiro–Wilk test (W = 0.204). The baseline can be used to test the sensitivity of different Pst isolates to triadimefon.

There are eight provinces and autonomous regions (Gansu Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, Shanxi Province, and Shaanxi Province) in Northwest China, most areas of which are located in arid and semi-arid regions (northwest of the 400 mm precipitation line), accounting for 58.74% of the country’s land area and sustaining approximately 7.84×106 people. Because of drought conditions and fragile ecology, these regions cannot develop agriculture at the expense of the environment. Given the challenges of global warming, the green total factor productivity (GTFP), taking CO2 emissions as an undesirable output, is an effective index for measuring the sustainability of agricultural development. Agricultural GTFP can be influenced by both internal production factors (labor force, machinery, land, agricultural plastic film, diesel, pesticide, and fertilizer) and external climate factors (temperature, precipitation, and sunshine duration). In this study, we used the Super-slacks-based measure (Super-SBM) model to measure agricultural GTFP during the period 2000–2016 at the regional level. Our results show that the average agricultural GTFP of most provinces and autonomous regions in arid and semi-arid regions underwent a fluctuating increase during the study period (2000–2016), and the fluctuation was caused by the production factors (input and output factors). To improve agricultural GTFP, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Gansu should reduce agricultural labor force input; Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Shanxi should decrease machinery input; Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Shanxi should reduce fertilizer input; Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Ningxia should reduce diesel input; Xinjiang and Gansu should decrease plastic film input; and Gansu, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia should cut pesticide input. Desirable output agricultural earnings should be increased in Qinghai and Tibet, and undesirable output (CO2 emissions) should be reduced in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Shaanxi. Agricultural GTFP is influenced not only by internal production factors but also by external climate factors. To determine the influence of climate factors on GTFP in these provinces and autonomous regions, we used a Geographical Detector (Geodetector) model to analyze the influence of climate factors (temperature, precipitation, and sunshine duration) and identify the relationships between different climate factors and GTFP. We found that temperature played a significant role in the spatial heterogeneity of GTFP among provinces and autonomous regions in arid and semi-arid regions. For Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet, a suitable average annual temperature would be in the range of 7°C–9°C; for Gansu, Shanxi, and Ningxia, it would be 11°C–13°C; and for Shaanxi, it would be 15°C–17°C. Stable climatic conditions and more efficient production are prerequisites for the development of sustainable agriculture. Hence, in the agricultural production process, reducing the redundancy of input factors is the best way to reduce CO2 emissions and to maintain temperatures, thereby improving the agricultural GTFP. The significance of this study is that it explores the impact of both internal production factors and external climatic factors on the development of sustainable agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions, identifying an effective way forward for the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China.

Heterogeneous nucleation and subsequent growth of surface water occur on hydrophobic natural substrates under supersaturation; however, this basic physical relationship has been explained only empirically as yet. In order to derive a new method to determine supersaturation at the canopy–air interface, we considered the parameters that contribute to surface water formation (SWF) and examined their importance by field observations at an urban site in the period 2015–2017. We found that both the interfacial and vertical temperature differences ranged 1–3 K and that they were necessary but not sufficient for supersaturated condensation on natural surfaces. Excess supply of moisture must exist and continuously contribute to the growth of the condensed water nuclei, which may originate from external sources such as atmospheric advection. Under the additional moisture supply, SWF appeared not only on the ground soil but also on the vegetation canopy at heights of 1–2 m. We also found that the SWF plays a role in the removal of ground-level air pollutants. The removal efficiency for [SO42− + NO3−] of the deposition flux was estimated as ~ 0.3 mmol (per [Ca2+] meq)/m2(per leaf area) during SWF.

International audience; The ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman (Acar: Varroidae), is a major threat for the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. Varroa behavior and physiology are influenced by compounds produced by the honey bee, as well as cues from the general colony environment. As part of our effort to disrupt varroa host chemosensing, we tested 1-allyloxy-4-propoxybenzene, 3c{3,6}, a known feeding deterrent of Lepidoptera larvae and a repellent of mosquitoes of similar activity to DEET. Its effect on varroa mites was evaluated by electrophysiological and behavioral bioassays. Its effect on honey bee chemosensing was also assessed. Compound 3c{3,6} is sensed by honey bees, but the detection of the compound alone by varroa is not clear. The electrophysiological study showed that 3c{3,6} decreases the varroa foreleg responses towards head space odor of nurse bees. However, the response of honey bee antennae towards nurse bee head space odor was not affected. Consistent with electrophysiological studies, in the presence of 3c{3,6}, the ability of varroa to reach any host decreased at the end of the experiment. No lethal effect to the honey bees was recorded. These data showed that 3c{3,6} affects the peripheral olfactory system of varroa by disrupting the chemical recognition process.

A damaged-based numerical manifold method is proposed in this paper to investigate the micro- and macro- mechanical properties of rocks. This model accounts for material heterogeneity and local material degradation using an exponential material softening law. The Mohr-Coulomb criterion with a tension cut-off is chosen as the strength criterion to capture the rock damage and fracture modes. Once the induced tensile or compressive stress in an element fulfills the criterion, this element will be damaged and a crack will initiate from the centroid of this damaged element to the centroid of its adjacent damaged manifold element. To verify the proposed damage-based numerical manifold method (NMM), a series of benchmark tests are conducted and the results are compared with the numerical manifold method incorporated with a Mohr-Coulomb criterion-based fracturing algorithm to simulate the progressive failure. The simulated results are consistent with the analytical solutions, and the advantages and disadvantages of two methods are compared and analyzed. Numerical results indicate that the proposed damage-based numerical manifold method can capture the process of crack initiation and propagation, and this method is an effective and reliable approach for modelling cracking behavior of rocks.

The development of effective but earth-abundant electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution is still a great challenge. Non-noble metal-based multi-phase nanocomposites are regarded as emerging catalysts for efficient catalysts, but their practical application is still hindered by the lack of both satisfying activity and cost-effective synthesis. In this work, ternary CoSe2/MoO2/MoSe2 nanocomposites with controllable phases have been successfully synthesized by simply direct selenization of cobalt molybdate (CoMoO4) nanorods. Compared with related pure Mo-based and Co-based counterparts, the electric conductivity and the active sites of the as-prepared ternary nanocomposites have been both increased due to the synergistic effects. The as-prepared ternary CoSe2/MoO2/MoSe2 nanocomposites electrocatalysts demonstrated superior HER performance which only requiring an overpotential of 229 mV for reaching 10 mA/cm2 current density in acidic media.

High power piezoelectric ceramics 0.04Bi(Ni1/2Ti1/2)O3-xPb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3-(0.96-x)Pb(ZryTi1-y)O3 (BNT-xPMnN-PZyT) with various contents of PMnN from 0 to 12 mol% (keep y = 0.50) and Zr/Ti ratio gradually increasing from 48/52 to 52/48 (keep x = 0.06) were prepared by solid-state method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show a single phase of polycrystalline perovskite and indicate that the phase structure transforms from tetragonal phase to rhombohedral with x and y increasing. The optimal comprehensive properties of BNT-xPMnN-PZyT ceramic, d33 (355 pC/N), kp (0.58), er (1512), tanδ (0.40%), Tc (336 °C) and Qm (2010), are obtained at x = 0.06 and y = 0.50, which are apparently superior to typical or commercial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) based power ceramics. Within the range from room temperature to 200 °C, the variation of electric-field induced strains is less than 8.3%, indicating its good temperature stability. The maximum vibration velocity of the ceramic at temperature rise of 20 °C is measured to be 0.92 m/s, which is about 2 times higher than that of commercial hard PZT ceramics, suggesting the BNT-xPMnN-PZyT ceramic is a competitive and potential candidate for power piezoelectric transduction and actuation applications.

Drainage is a cost-effective way to stabilize slopes. However, clogging has always been a factor that decreases the sustainability and efficiency of the drainage method in slope stabilization. A new drainage method utilizing the hydraulic principle is presented in this paper. A deterministic method, which is performed by integrated software, for evaluating the factor of safety (FOS) under the action of a given self-starting drainage design is proposed correspondingly. A framework for the optimized design of self-starting drainage is established, and the following steps are mainly included: The optimal dip angles of the inclined boreholes are determined by a plotting method; the optimal lengths of the permeable section of the inclined boreholes are determined based on uniform design and support vector machine; the concept of Pareto front is introduced to determine the most preferred design in design space considering multiple objectives including safety, cost, and drain effectiveness. The entire process is illustrated with a case study, the Qili landslide in Zhejiang Province, China.

This paper empirically investigates the impact of economic growth and industrial structure on China's Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions reduction in a comprehensive Kaya-PLS framework. It is found that the influencing coefficients of economic growth and industrial structure are 0.27 and 2.53, respectively. It indicates that economic growth and industrial structure do bring positive effects on China's NOx emissions, and industrial structure plays a much greater role than economic growth in the process of NOx emissions reduction in China. Moreover, we incorporate additional variables involving energy consumption structure, energy intensity, population and cement production to augment the NOx emissions function. In addition, six scenarios are set to calculate China's NOx emissions for 2019–2030. The prediction results show that China's NOx emissions decreased by 9.11% on average during 2019–2030 because of the decline of the proportion of secondary industry. It means that the decrease of proportion of secondary industry would make a significant decrease for China's NOx emissions. What's more, China's NOx emissions in six scenarios in 2020 are not more than 15.74 million tons, indicating that it is realistic to achieve China's reduction target on NOx emissions according to the 13th Five-Year Plan. Therefore, the government should adjust the energy structure and industrial structure as soon as possible to control China's NOx emissions and improve air quality.

The corrosion behavior and passive film properties of CrMnFeCoNi and CrFeCoNi coatings in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 solution were investigated by potentiodynamic and potentiostatic measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Mott-Schottky tests. The chemical compositions of passive film were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results indicated that CrFeCoNi coating possessed lower passive current density, higher polarization resistance, lower donor and acceptor density compared with CrMnFeCoNi coating, which determined CrFeCoNi coating has higher corrosion resistance than CrMnFeCoNi coating. The excellent resistance to corrosion could be attributed to the structure and chemical compositions of passive film

Drynarioid ferns comprise a large group in the Polypodiaceae family and are characterised by anastomosing venation and line of abscission between the pinna and the costa. In this paper, after morphological comparison with other ferns, we report and describe a new species, Drynaria diplosticha Y. Yu and S. P. Xie, sp. nov. from the upper Miocene sediments of the Bangmai Formation in Lincang City, Yunnan, China. This species is characterised by sori lining the midrib in two rows. The acute curvature of the midrib and the areolae at the base, as well as the slight decurrency, indicate that the fossil was connected to a costa. The occurrence of this fossil suggests that the climate in southwestern Yunnan during the late Miocene was humid and warm with clear seasonality influenced by monsoons which, based on other studies, were weaker than those experienced at present. Given that other Neogene drynarioid fossils (i.e. Drynaria cf. propinqua from the late Miocene and Drynaria callispora, Drynaria dimorpha, Drynaria lanpingensis from the late Pliocene) were reported exclusively from western Yunnan, that region might be a radiation centre of Drynaria in the Neogene where its extant species rapidly diversified and the distribution expanded. This may have been driven by the formerly proposed rapid topographic and climatic changes there. These Drynaria fossils may indicate that western Yunnan was one of the cradles of Drynarioid ferns during their early evolution.

Summary Template effects are at the origin of supramolecular chemistry, but the behavior of folded molecules is a relatively new undertaking. Water-soluble cavitand hosts bind hydrocarbons through hydrophobic effects and force long-chain guests into folded conformations. This brings their ends closer together, and sites that were remote in solution become neighbors in the confined space and affect each other’s reactivity. Amphiphilic guests fold in the cavitand to bury hydrophobic surfaces and expose the hydrophilic surfaces to the bulk solution. This arrangement leads to product distributions in monofunctionalization reactions that are significantly altered from the statistically determined outcomes in solution. The cavitand also acts as a template for macrocyclic processes involving direct reaction of the guests’ ends. We propose applying the effects of folding in cavitands to truly remote functionalization reactions and provide access to molecules that cannot be made by conventional means.

We present a comprehensive composition analysis of calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) incorporating increasing amounts of bioactive pyrophosphate species (up to 17 wt% P2O7). These cements comprise p ...

This paper presents a doubly dynamic day-to-day (DTD) traffic assignment model with simultaneous route-and-departure-time (SRDT) choices while incorporating incomplete and imperfect information as well as bounded rationality. Two SRDT choice models are proposed to incorporate imperfect travel information: One based on multinomial Logit (MNL) model and the other on sequential, mixed multinomial/nested Logit model. These two variants, serving as based models, are further extended with two features: bounded rationality (BR) and information sharing. BR is considered by incorporating the indifference band into the random utility component of the MNL model, forming a BR-based DTD stochastic model. A macroscopic model of travel information sharing is integrated into the DTD dynamics to account for the impact of incomplete information on travelers' SRDT choices. These DTD choice models are combined with within-day dynamics following the Lighthill-Whitham-Richards (LWR) fluid dynamic network loading model. Simulations on large-scale networks (Anaheim) illustrate the interactions between users' adaptive decision making and network conditions (including local disruption) with different levels of information availability and user behavior. Our findings highlight the need for modeling network transient and disequilibriated states, which are often overlooked in equilibrium-constrained network design and optimization. The MATLAB package and computational examples are available at https://github.com/DrKeHan/DTD, Comment: 40 pages, 19 figures

Ceria has been used for catalyst support for long time due to its unique structural properties resulting from oxygen vacancies and reversible valence change (Ce4+ and Ce3+). In this report, ceria nanorods (NR) and nanocubs (NC) were prepared with hydrothermal method and 5 wt% nickel was loaded on it. The effect of morphology of ceria supports for CO2 methanation reaction was studied. Characterization including TPR, TEM, XRD and XPS shows that Ni/CeO2-NR had a higher number of Ce3+ proportion compared with Ni/CeO2-NC. Both catalysts showed high conversion and selectivity for methane at low temperature range at200–250 °C and interestingly Ni/CeO2-NR exhibited a higher activity than Ni/CeO2–NC. A kinetic study and DRIFTs investigation were carried out to formulate the mechanism. It turned out that CO2 methanation on Ni/CeO2 goes through a formate route instead of CO2 dissociation and the oxygen vacant sites are supposed to be the active sites for the formate formation in this mechanism.

Population structure is a key determinant in fostering cooperation among naturally self-interested individuals in microbial populations, social insect groups, and human societies. Traditional research has focused on static structures, and yet most real interactions are finite in duration and changing in time, forming a temporal network. This raises the question of whether cooperation can emerge and persist despite an intrinsically fragmented population structure. Here we develop a framework to study the evolution of cooperation on temporal networks. Surprisingly, we find that network temporality actually enhances the evolution of cooperation relative to comparable static networks, despite the fact that bursty interaction patterns generally impede cooperation. We resolve this tension by proposing a measure to quantify the amount of temporality in a network, revealing an intermediate level that maximally boosts cooperation. Our results open a new avenue for investigating the evolution of cooperation and other emergent behaviours in more realistic structured populations., Population structure enables emergence of cooperation among individuals, but the impact of the dynamic nature of real interaction networks is not understood. Here, the authors study the evolution of cooperation on temporal networks and find that temporality enhances the evolution of cooperation.

Objective To study the antipyretic and anti-inflammatory constituents from the active fraction of Reduning (RDN) Injection. Methods In this study, the active fraction of RDN Injection was screened by the LPS-induced mouse endotoxin shock model. The chemical constituents were isolated by chromatography on HP-20 macroporous adsorptive resins, silica gel, ODS columns and reverse phase MPLC and HPLC repeatedly, and their structures were elucidated based on spectroscopic analysis (HR-ESI-MS, NMR, ECD) and chemical methods. Meanwhile, we evaluated the anti-inflammatory activities of the isolates by measuring their inhibitory effects on TNF-α production in LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Results The 95% ethanol eluate of RDN Injection by the macroporous adsorption resin column was proved to be the antipyretic and anti-inflammatory active fraction of this injection. A novel iridoid, named jasminoide A (1), and a new guaiane sesquiterpenoid, named (1R,7R,8S,10R)-7,8,11-trihydroxy-4-guaien-3-one (2), were isolated from Reduning injection, and compound 2 can inhibit TNF-α production with IC50 values of 72.24 µmol/L. Conclusion In this study, two new terpenoids were isolated from Reduning Injection, and compound 2 showed inhibitory activity against LPS-activated TNF-α production in RAW 264.7 cells in vitro.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is one of the most devastating fungal plant pathogens of oilseed Brassica and is distributed worldwide. In particular, Sclerotinia stem rot has always been a serious threat to rapeseed production in Chongqing City, China. In this study, simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and mycelial compatibility groups (MCGs) were used to characterize the population structure of 90 geographic isolates of S. sclerotiorum collected from rapeseed in nine counties of Chongqing. A total of 52 microsatellite haplotypes were identified, and a few haplotypes were found with high frequency. Gene diversity ranged from 0.1570 to 0.4700 in nine populations. A constructed unweighted pair group with arithmetic mean dendrogram based on Nei genetic distance and a STRUCTURE analysis revealed that the genetic composition of the isolates collected in the five counties located in western Chongqing are different from those collected in the two eastern counties, suggesting that breed lines should be cultivated in both the western and eastern regions to effectively evaluate resistance levels. A total of 47 MCGs were identified, and 72% of the MCGs was represented by single isolates. Seven of 13 MCGs that included at least two isolates contained isolates from only one county. SSR haplotypes were not correlated with MCGs. A subset of 34 isolates were inoculated on rapeseed stems, and the aggressiveness showed variation. This research revealed the population genetic structure and aggressiveness of this pathogen in Chongqing, and the results will help to develop disease management and resistance screening strategies.