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IntroductionParkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder. However, effective preventative or therapeutic agents for PD remain largely limited. Marigold Calendula officinalis L. (CoL) has been reported to possess a wide range of biological activities, but its neuroprotective activity including anti-neurodegenerative diseases is unclear. Here, we aim to investigate whether the extract of CoL (ECoL) has therapeutic activity on PD.MethodsWe identified the chemical composition of flavonoid, an important active ingredient in ECoL, by a targeted HPLC-Q-TOF-MS analysis. Subsequently, we evaluated the anti-PD effect of ECoL by using zebrafish PD model induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). After ECoL+MPTP co-treatments, the changes of dopaminergic neurons, neural vasculature, nervous system, and locomotor activity were examined, respectively. The expressions of genes related to neurodevelopment and autophagy were detected by RT-qPCR. Further, the interaction between autophagy regulators and ECoL flavonoids was predicted using molecular docking method.ResultsAs a result, 5 kinds of flavonoid were identified in ECoL, consisting of 121 flavones and flavonols, 32 flavanones, 22 isoflavonoids, 11 chalcones and dihydrochalcones, and 17 anthocyanins. ECoL significantly ameliorated the loss of dopaminergic neurons and neural vasculature, restored the injury of nervous system, and remarkably reversed the abnormal expressions of neurodevelopment-related genes. Besides, ECoL notably inhibited the locomotor impairment in MPTP-induced PD-like zebrafish. The underlying anti-PD effect of ECoL may be implicated in activating autophagy, as ECoL significantly upregulated the expressions of genes related to autophagy, which contributes to the degradation of α-synuclein aggregation and dysfunctional mitochondria. Molecular docking simulation showed the stable interaction between autophagy regulators (Pink, Ulk2, Atg7, and Lc3b) and 10 main compounds of flavonoid in ECoL, further affirming the involvement of autophagy activation by ECoL in anti-PD action.ConclusionOur results suggested that ECoL has the anti-PD effect, and ECoL might be a promising therapeutic candidate for PD treatment.

Traditional agricultural production requires numerous human and material resources; however, agricultural production efficiency is low. The successful development of plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has changed the operation mode of traditional agricultural production, saving human, material, and financial resources and significantly improving production efficiency. To summarize the process of improving the productivity of plant protection UAVs, this study established a productivity calculation model of UAVs based on the time composition of the UAV agricultural plant protection process, including spraying, turning, replenishment, and transfer times. The time required for the unmanned aircraft application process was counted through years of tracking the application process of eight different plant protection unmanned aircraft. Plot lengths of 100, 300, 500, 700, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,500, 3,000, and 3,500 m were established to calculate the theoretical productivity. The results showed that the productivity of different types of plant protection UAVs increased with an increase in plot length in the range of 100 to 1,500 m; however, when the plot length reached a certain value, the productivity growth rate slowed down or even decreased slightly. Simultaneously, based on the working area per 10,000 mu, the recommended plot length and the number of configured models for different models were recommended. If the plant protection UAV was distinguished by electric and oil power, the time utilization rate of electric plant protection UAVs was 72.7%, and the labor productivity was 56.4 mu/person·h. In contrast, the time utilization rate of the heavy load oil-powered plant protection unmanned aircraft was 86%, and the labor productivity was 63.5 mu/person ·h. This study can support plant protection UAV enterprises to optimize equipment efficiency, provide evaluation methods for the operation efficiency assessment of plant protection UAVs, provide a reference for the selection of plant protection UAVs, and provide a basis for field planning.

Plant protection unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) were developed rapidly in China. The operation performances of different models of UAVs were different. This paper systematically studied droplet deposition distribution; pesticide-mixture utilization rate; operational efficiency; wheat-disease control efficacy; and a comprehensive score of three types of UAVs, a boom sprayer, and a knapsack sprayer. The results showed the descending order of the droplet penetration rate of the pesticide application equipment (PAE) was boom sprayer; UAVs; and knapsack sprayer. The pesticide-mixture utilization rates of the UAVs and boom sprayer were more than 50% while that of the knapsack electric sprayer was only 27.8%. The UAVs’ average labor productivity was 5.75 ha per man-hour, which was slightly less than that of the boom sprayer and 21.3 times that of the knapsack sprayer. The control efficacy of each machine on wheat Fusarium head blight was more than 90%. The average performance comprehensive score of the UAVs was 0.812, which was slightly lower than the score of 0.929 for the 3WPZ-700 self-propelled boom sprayer but much higher than the score of 0.399 for the 3WBD-18 knapsack electric sprayer. The results clearly showed the potential of UAVs for improving the pesticide-mixture utilization rate and operational efficiency, as well as the wheat Fusarium head blight control efficacy.

Lead (Pb) is among the deleterious heavy metal and has caused global health concerns due to its tendency to cause a detrimental effect on the development of the central nervous system (CNS). Despite being a serious health concern, treatment of Pb poisoning is not yet available, reflecting the pressing need for compounds that can relieve Pb-induced toxicity, especially neurotoxicity. In the quest of exploring protective strategies against Pb-induced developmental neurotoxicity, compounds from natural resources have gained increased attention. Chlorogenic acid (CGA) and its analogues neochlorogenic acid (NCGA) and cryptochlorogenic acid (CCGA) are the important phenolic compounds widely distributed in plants. Herein, utilizing zebrafish as a model organism, we modeled Pb-induced developmental neurotoxicity and investigated the protective effect of CGA, NCGA, and CCGA co-treatment. In zebrafish, Pb exposure (1,000 μg/L) for 5 days causes developmental malformation, loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons, and brain vasculature, as well as disrupted neuron differentiation in the CNS. Additionally, Pb-treated zebrafish exhibited abnormal locomotion. Notably, co-treatment with CGA (100 µM), NCGA (100 µM), and CCGA (50 µM) alleviated these developmental malformation and neurotoxicity induced by Pb. Further underlying mechanism investigation revealed that these dietary phenolic acid compounds may ameliorate Pb-induced oxidative stress and autophagy in zebrafish, therefore protecting against Pb-induced developmental neurotoxicity. In general, our study indicates that CGA, NCGA, and CCGA could be promising agents for treating neurotoxicity induced by Pb, and CCGA shows the strongest detoxifying activity.

In this paper, the design of a fractional-order proportional integral (FOPI) controller and integer-order (IOPI) controller are compared for the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) speed regulation system. A high-precision implementation method of a fractional-order proportional integral (FOPI) controller is proposed in this work. Three commonly used numerical implementation methods of fractional operators are investigated and compared for comprehensively evaluating the numerical implementation performance in this work. Furthermore, for the impulse response invariant implementation method, the effects of different discretization orders on the control performance of the system are compared. The high-order fractional-order controller can be implemented accurately in a control system with the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with the capability of parallel calculation. The simulation and experimental results show that the high-precision numerical implementation method of the designed high-order FOPI controller has better performance than the ordinary precision fractional operation implementation method and traditional order integer order PI controller.

Small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a timely and effective pesticide sprayer, can be used to spray pesticide in a high efficiency without harming the crop, and is especially suitable for spraying for small farms and hills in Asian countries. In recent years, it has been chosen as a key and new technique for pesticide application. This paper studied the impact of UAV (UAV N-3) spraying parameters (different working height and different spraying concentrations) on the deposition of droplets on the wheat canopy and the prevention of powdery mildew. Water sensitive paper was used as the sampler to collect the pesticide droplets and image processing software Deposit Scan was used to compute the coverage rate of droplets on the wheat top layer to acquire the proportional distribution of droplets on the wheat lower layer. The experimental results showed the impact of spraying height on the distribution of droplets on the wheat upper layer was quite significant, when the spraying height was 5.0 m and the spraying speed was 4 m/s, the coverage rate of droplets on the wheat lower layer was the largest, as it was 45.6% of that on the upper layer, the droplets distribution was the most uniform, and the coefficient of variation was 33.13%. 450 g/hm2 (dosage registered) of triadimefon SC (44%) was sprayed by the UAV, the control efficiency reached 55.1% after applying which was better than 20% and 40% of dosage decreased for each hectare, and the applying effect (35.6%) of 20% dosage decreased for each hectare had no significant difference from the applying effect (34.6%) applied by a knapsack-type electric sprayer. At 10 d after applying, the prevention effect realized by UAV was lower than that realized by a knapsack-type electric sprayer, and it may be correlated to the meteorological condition and water amount in the pesticide sprayed. Thus, when UAV spraying was chosen to prevent wheat powdery mildew under a serious disease situation, an auxiliary agent for spraying could be added to prolong the retention of pesticide on the plant surface to extend the pesticide effect. This study can provide a reference for the optimized design, performance upgrade and reasonable application of small UAV sprayers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]