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Objective. Inflammation and pain are involved in the pathophysiology of various clinical conditions. This investigation aims to probe the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity of Maltoamide F. Methods. The possible toxicity of Maltoamide F was evaluated by an acute toxicity test. To assess the anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of Maltoamide F on rats, the models of carrageenan-caused paw edema, xylene-induced ear edema, arachidonic-acid- (AA-) induced ear edema, formalin-caused plantar edema, and cotton-pellet-induced granuloma were established. Levels of TNF-α, PGE-2, and IL-6 were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results. Maltoamide F was safe at oral doses of 1–10 mg/kg for rats. Maltoamide F (1 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg) notably reduced carrageenan-induced edema percentage of paws in rats and decreased levels of PGE-2, IL-6, and TNF-α in homogenates of foot tissues. Maltoamide F (1 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg) reduced levels of PGE-2, IL-6, and TNF-α in foot tissues of formalin-induced rats. Maltoamide F (1 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg) repressed AA-induced increase of ear thickness in rats and reduced levels of PGE-2, IL-6, and TNF-α in homogenates of ear tissues. Maltoamide F (1 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg) reduced xylene-induced weight of ear edema in rats and reduced levels of PGE-2, IL-6, and TNF-α in homogenates of ear tissues. Maltoamide F (1 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg) reduced levels of PGE-2, IL-6, and TNF-α in homogenates of cotton ball granuloma of cotton-pellet-induced rats. Conclusions. Maltoamide F possessed anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity in inflammatory models of rats.

With the proportional reduction of MOSFET size, the leakage-to-barrier reduction (DIBL) effect leads to a more significant increase in the tunneling current on the gate, and the appearance of the gate tunneling current also seriously affects the static characteristics of the device. In this paper, a new theoretical model of the relationship between the direct tunneling current and the thickness of the oxide layer under the DIBL effect is proposed for the MOSFET device with ultra-thin oxide layer. On this basis, the characteristics of the MOSFET device are studied in detail by using HSPICE, and their working conditions are quantitatively analyzed. The characteristic variation trend of small-size devices under the influence of gate tunneling current is predicted. The simulation results using BSIM4 model are consistent with the theoretical model. The theory and data in this paper will provide useful reference for large scale integrated circuit design.

Endosperm as the storage organ of starch and protein in cereal crops largely determines grain yield and quality. Despite the fact that several pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins required for endosperm development have been identified in rice, the molecular mechanisms of many P-type PPR proteins in endosperm development remains unclear. Here, we isolated a rice floury endosperm mutant ppr5 that developed small starch grains and an abnormal aleurone layer, accompanied by decreased starch, protein, and amylose contents. Map-based cloning combined with a complementation test demonstrated that PPR5 encodes a P-type PPR protein that is localized to the mitochondria. The mutation in PPR5 caused reduced splicing efficiency of mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase 4 (nad4) gene intron 3 and reduced complex I assembly and activity. Loss of PPR5 function greatly up-regulated expression of alternative oxidases (AOXs), reduced ATP production, and affected mitochondrial morphology. We demonstrate that PPR5, as a P-type PPR protein, is required for mitochondrial function and endosperm development by controlling the cis-splicing of mitochondrial nad4 intron 3.

Heading date (or flowering time) is one of the most important agronomic traits in rice, influencing its regional adaptability and crop yield. Many major-effect genes for rice heading date have been identified, but in practice they are difficult to be used for rice molecular breeding because of their dramatic effects on heading date. Genes with minor effects on heading date, which are more desirable for fine-tuning flowering time without significant yield penalty, were seldom reported. In this study, we identified a new minor-effect heading date repressor, Delayed Heading Date 4 (DHD4). The dhd4 mutant shows a slightly earlier flowering phenotype without a notable yield penalty compared with wild-type plants under natural long-day conditions. DHD4 encodes a CONSTANS-like transcription factor localized in the nucleus. Molecular, biochemical, and genetic assays show that DHD4 can compete with 14-3-3 to interact with OsFD1, thus affecting the formation of the Hd3a-14-3-3-OsFD1 tri-protein FAC complex, resulting in reduced expression of OsMADS14 and OsMADS15, and ultimately delaying flowering. Taken together, these results shed new light on the regulation of flowering time in rice and provide a promising target for fine-tuning flowering time to improve the regional adaptability of rice.

Despite the great potential of biorenewable α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone (MBL) to produce functional, recyclable polyester, the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of MBL remains a challenge due to th...

Summary Heading date is a key agronomic trait affecting crop yield. In rice, Early heading date 1 (Ehd1) is an important B‐type response regulator in determination of heading date. Although many regulatory factors of Ehd1 expression have been functionally characterized, the direct regulators of Ehd1 largely remain to be identified. Here, we identified a new regulator of Ehd1, OsRE1, that directly binds to the A‐box motif in the Ehd1 promoter. Osre1 confers an early heading phenotype due to elevated expression levels of Ehd1. OsRE1 is a nucleus‐localized bZIP transcription factor with a diurnal rhythmic expression pattern. Furthermore, we identified an OsRE1‐interacting protein, OsRIP1, and demonstrated that OsRIP1 can repress the transcript expression of Ehd1 in an OsRE1‐dependent manner. Our genetic data showed that OsRE1 and OsRIP1 may function upstream of Ehd1 in regulating heading date. Together, our results suggest that OsRE1 functions cooperatively with OsRIP1 to regulate heading date through finely modulating the expression of Ehd1. In addition, OsRE1 and OsRIP1 are two minor heading date regulators, which are more desirable for fine‐tuning heading date to improve rice regional adaptability.

It is an effective strategy to tailor material properties by copolymerization of monomers with different chemical structures and to adjust the compositions and sequence distributions of resultant c...

The method based on deep learning shows excellent performance in the recognition and classification of surface defects of some industrial products. The method based on deep learning has high efficiency in the identification and classification of surface defects of industrial products, and the false detection rate and missed detection rate are relatively low. However, the recognition accuracy of defect detection and classification of most industrial products needs to be improved, especially for those with similar contours and relatively large structural different casting. This paper takes casting defect detection as the goal and proposes a convolutional neural network casting defect detection and classification (RCNN-DC) algorithm based on the recursive attention model. Through this model, the casting can be better identified and detected, and casting defects can be avoided as much as possible, which is of great significance to the technological development of the industry. First, use a large amount of readily available defect-free sample data to detect anomalous defects. Next, we compare the accuracy and performance of the detection model and the general recognition model. The research results show that the test effect of the RCNN-DC casting defect detection network model is significantly better than the traditional detection model, with a classification accuracy of 96.67%. Then, we compare the RCNN-DC network with three classic popular networks, GooGleNet, ResNet-50, and AlexNet. Among them, AlexNet and ResNet-50 achieved 95.00% and 95.56% classification accuracy, respectively, while GooGleNet achieved slightly better results of 96.38%. In contrast, the accuracy of RCNN-DC is 1.67% higher than that of AlexNet, while the number of FLOPs is reduced by 17.2 times, and the accuracy is 1.09% higher than that of ResNet-50, while the number of FLOPs is reduced by 99.7 times, and the accuracy is higher than GooGleNet 0.29% while FLOPs whose number has been reduced by 36.5 times.

To enhance the fuel economy of a vehicle powered by a gasoline engine under road conditions, an energy flow test of a vehicle was performed experimentally under the New European Driving Cycle of cold start. The energy distributions and related influencing factors were analyzed using the test data. Results show that the effective power and thermal efficiency are mainly affected by the engine load except in the early stage of the New European Driving Cycle. Because of the retarded CA50 and longer CA10-90, the effective thermal efficiency is lower in the early phase of driving conditions. Initially, the heat transfer loss mainly comprises the loss of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. The radiator then plays the major role, with its percentage affected by the engine load and decreasing under the extra-urban driving cycle. The exhaust gas loss is decided by the temperature and flow rate of the exhaust gas, while its percentage is mainly affected by the temperature of the exhaust gas. In the early phase of driving conditions, the retarded spark advance angle leads to a higher temperature of the exhaust gas and a greater exhaust gas loss. The pumping loss and its percentage are mainly determined by the engine speed under the urban driving cycle, and both decrease under the extra-urban driving cycle except at maximum vehicle speed.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an upsurge economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Study on the time-varying effect of EPU is of substantial implication for the central bank in implementation of monetary policy. To empirically investigate the time-varying effect of EPU, the paper considers the shock of the monetary policy implemented by China's central bank on different economic variables including interest rate, output gap, and inflationary gap using the latent threshold time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model (LT-TVP-VAR Model). Data period is chosen to be January 2015 through April 2021. Our findings show that (i) EPU has a significant threshold effect on the shock of quantitative monetary policy instrument and the shock of price-based monetary policy, and that the two types of policy are positively correlated; (ii) the price-based monetary policy instrument has a significant counter-cyclical effect on both output gap and inflationary gap; (iii) relative to the quantitative monetary policy instrument, the price-based monetary policy instrument has a more significant counter-cyclical effect on output gap; and (iv) a higher level of EPU is associated with a more significant monetary policy effect on output gap and inflationary gap.

Summary Lesion mimic mutants that exhibit spontaneous hypersensitive response (HR)‐like necrotic lesions are ideal experimental systems for elucidating molecular mechanisms involved in plant cell death and defence responses. Here we report identification of a rice lesion mimic mutant, spotted leaf 35 (spl35), and cloning of the causal gene by TAIL‐PCR strategy. spl35 exhibited decreased chlorophyll content, higher accumulation of H2O2, up‐regulated expression of defence‐related marker genes, and enhanced resistance to both fungal and bacterial pathogens of rice. The SPL35 gene encodes a novel CUE (coupling of ubiquitin conjugation to ER degradation) domain‐containing protein that is predominantly localized in cytosol, ER and unknown punctate compartment(s). SPL35 is constitutively expressed in all organs, and both overexpression and knockdown of SPL35 cause the lesion mimic phenotype. SPL35 directly interacts with the E2 protein OsUBC5a and the coatomer subunit delta proteins Delta‐COP1 and Delta‐COP2 through the CUE domain, and down‐regulation of these interacting proteins also cause development of HR‐like lesions resembling those in spl35 and activation of defence responses, indicating that SPL35 may be involved in the ubiquitination and vesicular trafficking pathways. Our findings provide insight into a role of SPL35 in regulating cell death and defence response in plants.

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are reversible processes that play crucial roles in regulating organ size in plants. However, information linking deubiquitination and seed size in rice (Oryza sativa) is limited. Here, we characterized a dominant large-grain mutant, large grain1-D (lg1-D), with a 30.8% increase in seed width and a 34.5% increase in 1,000-grain weight relative to the wild type. The lg1-D mutant had more cells oriented in the lateral direction of the spikelet hull compared with the wild type. Map-based cloning showed that LG1 encodes a constitutively expressed ubiquitin-specific protease15 (OsUBP15) that possesses deubiquitination activity in vitro. Loss-of-function and down-regulated expression of OsUBP15 produced narrower and smaller grains than the control. A set of in vivo experiments indicated that the mutant Osubp15 had enhanced protein stability relative to wild-type OsUBP15. Further experiments verified that OsDA1 directly interacted with OsUBP15. Genetic data indicated that OsUBP15 and GRAIN WIDTH 2 (GW2) were not independent in regulating grain width and size. In summary, we identified OsUBP15 as a positive regulator of grain width and size in rice and provide a promising strategy for improvement of grain yield by pyramiding OsUBP15 and gw2.

The chemosynthesis of bio-renewable poly(γ-butyrolactone) (PγBL) with a high molecular weight via ring opening polymerization (ROP) of non-strained γ-butyrolactone (γBL) remains a big challenge although several catalysts have been developed in the past two years. In this contribution, we reported the efficient ROP of γBL using a strong base/urea binary synergistic catalytic system. Either an alkaline alkoxide or organophosphazene superbase was used as a strong base in this study. The base/urea binary catalyst showed high catalytic activity and high selectivity for ring opening relative to transesterification toward the ROP of γBL, and the organophosphazene superbase in combination with urea showed better catalytic activity compared to an alkaline alkoxide/urea system. The effects of bases, ureas, and reaction conditions on monomer conversions and resultant molecular weights of PγBL were systematically investigated. A PγBL homopolymer with a high molecular weight up to 35.0 kDa was synthesized using a combination of a cyclic trimeric phosphazene superbase (CTPB) and suitable ureas with electron-donating substituents. The thermal stabilities of PγBL improved dramatically with an increase in its molecular weight. The obtained PγBL exhibited unprecedented superior mechanical properties with an elongation at break of 858 ± 79%, which paves the way for its practical applications.

Biobased poly(γ-butyrolactone) (PγBL) as a fully biodegradable and bioabsorbable biomaterial has shown superior properties compared to those of other aliphatic polyesters. It is of great importance to prepare amphiphilic block copolymer containing PγBL block to make ordered nano-objects for biomedical applications such as drug delivery systems. However, such an amphiphilic copolymer containing PγBL segment was never successfully prepared mostly due to the synthetic challenges of ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of nonstrained γ-butyrolactone (γBL) monomer. Here, we reported the first preparation of amphiphilic poly(ethylene glycol)- b-poly(γ-butyrolactone) (PEG- b-PγBL) diblock copolymer by using PEG as a macroinitiator. We applied two types of bases to initiate the ROP of γBL. An organic cyclic trimeric phosphazene base (CTPB) was first applied to activate the terminal hydroxyl group of PEG as macroinitiator for ROP of γBL. On the other hand, sodium hydride was used to activate the hydroxyl group of PEG to form sodium alkoxide as an initiating system for ROP of γBL. Both catalytic/initiating system showed moderate control on ROP of γBL and successfully produced PEG- b-PγBL diblock copolymers with varied molecular weights and relatively narrow molecular weight distributions. The effects of catalytic systems, activation temperatures, and monomer concentrations on γBL conversion and molecular weight of PEG- b-PγBL were carefully explored. The thermal properties and phase behaviors of obtained PEG- b-PγBL were also investigated.

Anthocyanins cause purple, brown or red colors in various tissues of rice plants, but the specific determinant factors and regulatory systems for anthocyanin biosynthesis in almost all tissues remain largely unknown. In the present study, we mapped and isolated two complementary genes, OsC1 encoding a R2R3-MYB transcriptional factor and OsDFR encoding a dihydroflavonol 4-reductase, which are responsible for the purple coloration of apiculi and stigmas in indica cultivar Xieqingzao by the map-based cloning strategy. We also identified two tissue-specific pigmentation genes, OsPa for apiculi and OsPs for stigmas, by phylogenetic analysis of all anthocyanin biosynthesis-associated bHLH transcriptional factors in maize and rice, CRISPR/Cas9 knockout and transcriptional expression analysis. The OsC1, OsPa and OsPs proteins are all localized in the nucleus while the OsDFR protein is localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm, and the OsC1 and OsDFR genes are preferentially strongly expressed in both purple-colored tissues while the OsPa and OsPs genes are preferentially strongly expressed in apiculi and stigmas, respectively. OsC1 specifically interacts with OsPa or OsPs to activate OsDFR and other anthocyanin biosynthesis genes, resulting in purple-colored apiculi or stigmas. OsC1 itself does not produce color but can produce brown apiculi when functioning together with OsPa. Loss of function of OsDFR alone leads to brown apiculi and straw-white stigmas. Genotyping and phenotyping of a panel of 176 rice accessions revealed diverse genotypic combinations of OsC1, OsDFR, OsPa and OsPs that enable accurate prediction of their apiculus and stigma pigmentation phenotypes, thus validating the general applicability of the OsC1-OsDFR-OsPa and OsC1-OsDFR-OsPs models to natural populations. Our findings disclosed the biological functions of OsC1, OsPa and OsPs, and shed light on the specific regulatory systems of anthocyanin biosynthesis in apiculi and stigmas, a further step in understanding the regulatory network of anthocyanin biosynthesis in rice.

Additional file 15: Table S3. Amino acids sequences alignment of three bHLH transcription factors.

Additional file 20: Table S8. Analysis of haplotype combinations of the OsC1, OsDFR, OsPa and OsPs genes in lines with apiculus and stigma colors.

Fluorescence pharmacokinetics can analyze the absorption, distribution, metabolism and other pharmacokinetic processes of fluorescence agents in biological tissues over time, which can provide more specific and quantitative physiological and pathological information for the evaluation of organ function. This paper is devoted to studying pharmacokinetics of indocyanine green (ICG) in healthy mice and mice with acute alcoholic liver injury based on a home-made dynamic diffuse fluorescence tomography system that possesses high sensitivity and large dynamic measurement range on account of digital lock-in-photon-counting technique. In this study, four-week-old Kunming mice were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The time-varying distribution of ICG in mice was obtained by diffuse fluorescence tomography reconstruction, and the pharmacokinetic parameters were further extracted from the ICG concentration-time curve. The results showed that the dynamic diffuse fluorescence tomography system successfully captured the ICG metabolism process in mouse liver, and the ICG excretion rate demonstrated an obvious difference between healthy mice and the mice with acute alcoholic liver injury.

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) is a promising non-invasive optical imaging technology that can provide structural and functional information of biological tissues. Since the diffused light undergoes multiple scattering in biological tissues, and the boundary measurements are limited, the reverse problem of DOT is ill-posed and ill-conditioned. In order to overcome these limitations, two types of neural networks, back-propagation neural network (BPNN) and stacked autoencoder (SAE) were applied in DOT image reconstruction, which use the internal optical properties distribution and the boundary measurement of biological tissues as the input and output data sets respectively to adjust the neural network parameters, and directly establish a nonlinear mapping of the input and output. To verify the effectiveness of the methods, a series of numerical simulation experiments were conducted, and the experimental results were quantitatively assessed, which demonstrated that both methods can accurately predict the position and size of the inclusion, especially in the case of higher absorption contrast. As a whole, SAE can get better reconstructed image results than BPNN and the training time was only a quarter of BPNN.

Background: Ovulation rate is an extremely important factor of litter size in sows. It differs greatly among pig breeds of different genetic backgrounds. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can regulate follicle development, granulosa cell(GC) growth and hormone secretion, which in turn affects sow litter size.Results: In our research, we identified 3554 lncRNAs and 25491 mRNAs in M2 follicle from Meishan and Duroc pigs. lncRNAs sequence and open reading frame(ORF) length is shorter than mRNAs, and it has fewer exons, lower abundance and conserved than protein-coding RNAs. Furthermore, 201 lncRNAs were differentially expressed in breeds, and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis of differential expression (DE) lncRNAs were performed. 127 DE lncRNAs are located in 119 reproduction trait-related loci. In addition, the lncRNAs potential target genes (PTGs) in cis or trans were predicted. Gene ontology(GO) and KEGG pathway analysis revealed that some PTGs were include some follicular development and hormone secretion-related biological processes or pathways, such as regulation of progesterone biosynthetic process, oestrogen metabolic process and ovarian steroidogenesis and PI3K-Akt signalling pathway. Furthermore，We also screened 19 differentially expressed lncRNAs of PI3K-Akt signalling pathway as candidates. Conclusions: This study provided a new significance on the roles of lncRNAs in follicular growth and development and porcine reproduction.

Real domestic wastewater was treated initially in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), with partial nitrification achieved before the effluent was used as the influent for an anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) reactor (ASBR) system. The effects of three factors, hydraulic retention time (HRT), substrate (NO

Western blot (WB) is a classical and powerful tool to detect the level of interested protein from among a mixture of proteins. Since its invention in 1979, WB is a time-consuming technique that usually needs 1 to 2 days to obtain the result. Here, being aware of the time spent by the researcher, we share a rapid protocol that shortens the time up to 1 hour for detecting the internal loading control protein actin (42kDa) when using the HRP-conjugated anti-actin antibody. Additionally, the time for detecting other (21kDa-100kDa) could be shortened to 3 hours when using the second HRP-conjugated antibody. In conclusion, this rapid protocol dramatically improved the efficiency of WB without increasing the experiment cost or losing its high data quality.

The pre-qin Scholars’ views on human nature could be divided into two types: malleable human nature and immalleable human nature. Based on the theory of the malleability of human nature, Confucianism formed an educational concept aiming at shaping the ideal personality of Confucianism. The theory of immutability of human nature has become the root of the two distinct educational concepts of Taoism, which advocates letting nature take its course, and Taoism, which aims at reforming human behavior. Either idea has its reasonableness. All of these have a very important impact on our higher education today.

The antagonistic regulation of seed germination by the phytohormones abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellic acid (GA) has been well-established. However, how these phytohormones antagonistically regulate root growth and branching (tillering in rice, Oryza sativa) remains obscure. Rice TILLER ENHANCER (TE) encodes an activator of the APC/C(TE) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex that represses tillering but promotes seed germination. In this study, we identified a dual role of GA and APC/C(TE) in regulating root growth. High GA levels can activate APC/C(TE) to promote the degradation of rice SHORT-ROOT1 (OsSHR1, a key factor promoting root growth) in the root meristem (RM) or MONOCULM1 (MOC1, a key factor promoting tillering) in the axillary meristem (AM), leading to restricted root growth and tillering, while low GA levels can activate the role of APC/C(TE) in stimulating RM cell division to promote root growth. In addition, moderate enhancement of ABA signaling helps maintain the RM and AM size, sustaining root growth and tillering by antagonizing the GA-promoted degradation of OsSHR1 and MOC1 through the SnRK2-APC/C(TE) regulatory module. We conclude that APC/C(TE) plays a key role in regulating plant architecture by mediating the crosstalk between ABA and GA signaling pathways.

Boron and nitrogen co-doped carbon (BNDC) nanowires supporting on carbon paper substrate are designed as binder-free electrode material for supercapacitor application. Boric acid-polyaniline is synthesized via electro-polymerization route using polyvinyl pyrrolidone as a structure-directing agent, showing the close-packing nanowire structure. BNDC is then formed by simultaneously doping boron and nitrogen during carbonization process of boric acid-polyaniline, showing nanowire-interconnected network structure. BNDC exhibits high specific capacitance of 504.0 F g-1 at 1.0 A g−1 in 1.0 M H2SO4 electrolyte. The superior capacity performance results from the porous structure with high surface area of 1022.4 m2 g−1 and the pseudocapacitance of boron, nitrogen and oxygen-containing functional groups. BNDC shows the cycling capacitance retention of 97.4% after 10000 cycles at 10.0 A g−1, presenting good cycling stability. A symmetrical solid-state BNDC supercapacitor is constructed using BNDC electrode and polyvinyl alcohol-H2SO4 gel electrolyte. This device reveals specific capacitance of 255.7 F g-1 at 1.0 A g−1, energy density of 22.7 W h kg−1 at power density of 0.2 kW kg−1, the capacity retention of 91.0% after 5000 cycles at 5.0 A g−1 and an output voltage of 1.6 V. BNDC supercapacitor with comparable capacitance performance presents the promising application in electrochemical energy storage devices.

The binder-free all-carbonaceous-component electrode was constructed by directly growing electroactive materials of nitrogen-doped carbon (NDC) on the substrate material of carbon paper (CP). The nitrogen-enriched polyaniline could be converted into NDC nanowires to cover on the surface of CP through electro-polymerization and carbonization processes. The polyaniline-derivated NDC electroactive material exhibits high capacity of 404.0 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1. The superior capacitance results from the good electron-donor properties of heterocyclic nitrogen distributed in the carbon skeleton and reversible redox reactivity of exocyclic nitrogen-containing functional groups at the edge of carbon skeleton. A low capacity decay of 22% indicates high rate capability when current density increases from 1.0 to 10 A g−1. A high capacity retention ratio of 95.8% after 5000 cycles at 10.0 A g−1 presents good cycling stability. A symmetrical solid-state supercapacitor was constructed using NDC/CP electrode and polyvinyl alcohol-H2SO4 gel electrolyte. The device delivers a specific capacitance of 187.1 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1, an energy density of 66.54 Wh kg−1 at the power density of 0.8 kW kg−1, the capacity retention ratio of 94.1% after 5000 cycles at 5.0 A g−1 and an output voltage of 1.6 V, which is comparable to the reported state-of-the-art carbon-based supercapacitor. The all-carbonaceous-component electrode presents promising application in electrochemical energy storage devices.

the selection of teaching mode is related to the improvement of teaching quality. In order to improve the quality of teaching and promote the transformation of teaching results, combined with big data statistical analysis method, a choosing teaching method is proposed based on big data's analysis, which constructs the statistical analysis model of teaching mode selection by descriptive statistical analysis method, and extracts the quantity of characteristic information that reflects the optimization of teaching method selection. The big data analysis model based on fuzzy C-means clustering is used to evaluate the performance of teaching methods, and the method of segmental sample detection is used to carry out regression analysis to realize the sample fitting of teaching method selection. The mathematical model of teaching mode selection is designed through the sample fitting result, and the statistical mathematical model based on big data's teaching mode selection is constructed. The simulation results show that the method is used to select the teaching method; it can effectively extract the regular characteristic quantity, which reflects the teaching performance, realizes the association rule mining of the choice of teaching method. The teaching mode is selected according to the result of big data mining and statistical analysis, improving the teaching quality, and promoting the reform of teaching methods.

In this study, the thermodynamics, combustion and emission characteristics of a NG-diesel dual fuel engine with varying pilot injection degree at low speed and low load were investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and bench test. Based on tested in-cylinder pressure, the in-cylinder combustion process of NG-diesel dual fuel engine was quantitatively analyzed. On this basis, both the one-dimensional and three-dimensional CFD simulated models were built and then validated by tested data, which were used to analyze the combustion and emission characteristics of NG-diesel dual fuel engine. From this study, the effects of advanced pilot injection degree (APID) on the thermodynamics, combustion and emission characteristics of NG-diesel dual fuel engine were found. With the advancing of pilot injection degree, both the SOC and 50% combustion position are advanced, which leads the maximum in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate (HRR) to increase. The 10–50% combustion duration decreases slightly but the 50–90% combustion duration increases obviously. Meanwhile, both the effective expansion efficiency (EEE) and the percent of heat transfer loss increase, while their increase rates are different, which make the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) firstly increase and then decrease. The BSNOx increases largely while the BSTHC is almost unchanged with the advance of injection timing. Although more HC is generated in the early stage as the pilot injection degree is retarded, the post-combustion becomes clear which accelerates the oxidation of HC. All these have provided theoretical guidance and data support for improving the performance of NG-diesel dual fuel engine.

Motivated by online advertisement and exchange settings, greedy randomized algorithms for the maximum matching problem have been studied, in which the algorithm makes (random) decisions that are es...

In-wheel motor (IWM), as an ideal power source of independent four-wheel drive electric vehicles, has been paid more and more attention due to its high-power density, low starting current, wide speed adjustment range, simple control system and robustness. However, the electromechanical issue is enlarged in both longitudinal and vertical because of in-wheel driven scheme. In this paper, the electromagnetic multi-field characteristic of IWM is investigated based on Fourier series method. The negative vibration coupling on vehicle dynamics is discussed by proposing a conjoint electromechanical FWD-EV model. Results shows that the motor incentive coupled with the vehicle system in multi-degree of freedom, caused the body and wheel resonance in the low speed, meanwhile deteriorated the anti-rollover capability of the IWM-EV in the high speed.

By employing the energy-flow testing technique, this study probes into the environmental adaptability of electric vehicles based on the worldwide harmonized light duty driving test cycle. The following conclusions were reached. Compared with the conditions under normal temperatures, the AC system and the PTC consume 18%-20% energy of the battery, the mileage reduces by 32% to 48%, and the energy consumption per 100 km increases by 49% to 81%. From the perspective of single cycles, the total mileage divides into three stages, among which the first stage shows the largest cycle difference. A correction factor is proposed based on the energy equilibrium relations, and the correction factor for the first stage under normal, high and low temperatures are 1.022, 1.050 and 1.184 respectively. Meanwhile, the discharging internal resistance of the battery under low temperatures differs significant from those under high or normal temperatures, showing an increase by 2%-5%, while the charging internal resistance shows no significant differences.

The improved nine-step phenomenological soot model of diesel and ten-step phenomenological soot model of ABE (Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol) which had been confirmed in previous studies were implemented into KIVA-3V Release 2 code, and then multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted to investigate the combustion characteristics and soot formation process of diesel and ABE in constant volume chamber at different temperatures (800 K and 1000 K) and oxygen concentrations (21% and 16%). The comparative results of their soot formation processes and intermediate products indicate that, in the combustion process, the soot mass of ABE and diesel presents in the form of parabolic curve with time change, the soot generation tendency of ABE is lower than diesel, and the initial temperature and oxygen concentration have little effect on the relative relations of their soot and intermediate products mass. At the oxygen concentration of 21%, when initial temperature decreases from 1000 K to 800 K, the soot mass peak values of diesel and ABE reduce by 40% and 83%, respectively. At the initial temperature of 800 K, the relative relations of their soot number and OH free radical keep unchanged; nevertheless, the mass of ABE’s C2H2 and precursor exceeds that of diesel’s in the early stage of combustion. At the initial temperature of 1000 K, when oxygen concentration decreases from 21% to 16%, the soot mass peak values of diesel and ABE increase by 20% and 25%, respectively. At the same time, the C2H2, precursor and soot number increase in diesel but decrease in ABE.

WSL4 encodes a KCS6 protein which is required for cuticular wax accumulation in rice. Very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) are essential precursors for cuticular wax biosynthesis. VLCFA biosynthesis occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum and requires the fatty acid elongase (FAE) complex. The β-ketoacyl-coenzyme A synthase (KCS) catalyzes the first step of FAE-mediated VLCFA elongation. Here we characterized the Wax Crystal-Sparse Leaf 4 (WSL4) gene involved in leaf cuticular wax accumulation in rice. The wsl4 mutant displayed a pleiotropic phenotype including dwarfism, less tiller numbers and reduced surface wax load. Map-based cloning and nucleotide sequencing results revealed that wsl4 carried a single nucleotide substitution in the second exon of a putative KCS6 gene, encoding one subunit of the FAE complex for VLCFAs. Genetic complementation confirmed that the mutation in WSL4 was responsible for the phenotype of wsl4. WSL4 was constitutively expressed in various rice tissues and localized in the endoplasmic reticulum. Both WSL4-RNAi transgenic lines and WSL4 knocked-out mutants exhibited wax-deficient phenotypes similar to the wsl4 mutant. These data indicate that WSL4 is required for cuticular wax accumulation in rice.

In this paper, we formulate a novel question on maximum flow queries. Specifically, this problem aims to find which k edges would have the largest impact on a maximum flow query on a network. This problem has important applications in areas like social network and network planning. We show the inapproximability of the problems and present our heuristic algorithms. Experimental evaluations are carried out on real datasets and results show that our algorithms are scalable and return high quality solutions. HighlightsWe propose two graph problems: the k Most Beneficial New Edges (kMBNE), and the k Most Lethal Existing Edges (kMLEE).First, we prove that kMBNE and kMLEE are inapproximable. It is hard to find even an approximate solution (with constant approximation ratio), let alone find the exact solution.For both kMBNE and kMLEE, we develop polynomial-time heuristic algorithms that give high-quality solutions on real flow graphs. Moreover, we propose several pruning and optimization techniques to speedup our proposed algorithms.

Carbon quantum dots-polyaniline (CQDs-PANI) hybrid was developed as supercapacitor electorde material by incorporating CQDs into PANI. PANI nanowires were grown vertically on carbon fiber substrate to form an interconnected network structure. Meanwhile, CQDs were uniformly distributed in the interior and on the surface of well-established net-like PANI nanowires. High specific capacitance of 738.3 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1 was obtained for CQDs-PANI compared to that of 432.5 F g−1 for pure PANI. The capacitance retention after 1000 cycles of CQDs-PANI and PANI is 78.0% and 68.0% at 5.0 A g−1, respectively. The high capacitance and reasonable cycle stability were ascribed to the incorporation of CQDs into PANI, which improved the conductivity and alleviated the volume change of the CQDs-PANI electrode during the charge/discharge process. In addition, a flexible solid-state CQDs-PANI supercapacitor was constructed using carbon paper as current collector and polyvinyl alcohol gel electrolyte, exhibiting the stable capacitive performance at planar and bending state. The specific capacitance, energy and power density were determined to be 169.2 mF cm−2, 33.8 μWh cm−2 and 0.3 mW cm−2 at a potential window of 1.2 V and a current density of 1.0 mA cm−2. CQDs-PANI presented the promising application in flexible energy-related device.

Flowering time is an important trait for determining the adaptability of a crop cultivar. A novel heading date regulator, OsHAPL1, interacts with DTH8-Hd1 to negatively regulate flowering time in rice., Heading date is an important agronomic trait related to crop yield. Many genes related to heading date have already been identified in rice (Oryza sativa), and a complicated, preliminary regulatory genetic network has also already been established, but the protein regulatory network is poorly understood. We have identified a novel heading date regulator, Heme Activator Protein like 1 (OsHAPL1), which inhibits flowering under long-day conditions. OsHAPL1 is a nuclear-localized protein that is highly expressed in leaves in a rhythmic manner. OsHAPL1 can physically interact with Days To Heading on chromosome 8 (DTH8), which physically interacts with Heading date 1 (Hd1) both in vitro and in vivo. OsHAPL1 forms a complex with DTH8 and Hd1 in Escherichia coli. OsHAPL1, DTH8, and Hd1 physically interact with the HAP complex, and also with general transcription factors in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Further studies showed that OsHAPL1 represses the expression of the florigen genes and FLOWERING LOCUS T 1 (RFT1) and Hd3a through Early heading date 1 (Ehd1). We propose that OsHAPL1 functions as a transcriptional regulator and, together with DTH8, Hd1, the HAP complex, and general transcription factors, regulates the expression of target genes and then affects heading date by influencing the expression of Hd3a and RFT1 through Ehd1.

Based on the simulation software, a regeneration simulation model of diesel particulate filter (DPF) was established, and the influence of unstable incoming flow parameters on its regeneration performance was studied. The results show that when the incoming flow is in an unstable state, the maximum temperature and maximum temperature gradient are lower than the steady state regeneration, with decreased regeneration efficiency. When the incoming flow temperature is in an unsteady state, 550°C is the critical temperature. When the incoming flow temperature is lower than 550°C, the maximum temperature and the maximum temperature gradient are higher than the steady state regeneration. When the incoming flow temperature is higher than 550°C, the maximum temperature and the maximum temperature gradient has little difference, with regeneration efficiency higher than that of steady state regeneration. When the oxygen concentration of incoming flow is in an unstable state, the maximum temperature is higher than the steady state regeneration. The maximum temperature gradient is higher than the steady state regeneration when the oxygen concentration is lower than 15%, and the difference is not significant, and vice versa, with the regeneration efficiency higher than the steady state regeneration.

In this study, a four-stroke, high-speed spark ignition (SI) engine was conducted to reflect the effects of n-butanol blend ratio, spark timing and lambda. The experiments were conducted with four types of fuels including B0 (0 vol% n-butanol and 100 vol% gasoline), B10, B20 and B30, two operation conditions including the engine speed of 4000 r/min and 8000 r/min, the throttle position of 35% and 45%, respectively; with the spark timing range from 25° to 48° before top dead center (BTDC), and the lambda range from 0.85 to 1.5. The results demonstrate that with the increasing of n-butanol blend ratio, the fuel mass flow rate is increased when the lambda is fixed. The output power, brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increase with increasing n-butanol ratio. The addition of n-butanol to gasoline can decrease nitric oxide (NO) emissions significantly but increase carbon monoxide (CO) emissions slightly. The lambda relative to the maximum BTE, the minimum BSFC and the maximum combustion efficiency become larger with the content of n-butanol increase. The data of engine parameters were normalized, and a calculation formula of weighted analysis for the engine performance was presented. With the n-butanol blend ratio increasing, the test engine has a better performance. Considering the emissions, the spark timing of the highest weighted normalized score (WNS) is retarded relative to maximum brake power (MBP) timing, and the lambda of the highest WNS becomes larger.

ABE is considered as a potential alternative fuel for internal combustion engines, but few studies have paid on the energy balance when the engine is fuelled with ABE. In this paper, pure gasoline, ABE10 (10 %vol ABE blended with 90 %vol gasoline), ABE20 and ABE30 were tested on a high-speed spark-ignition (SI) engine under the operating conditions of 4000 r/min at 35% throttle position and 8000 r/min at 45% throttle position. The energy balance, the performance, and the combustion characteristics of the test engine were analyzed under the operating conditions of the maximum brake power (MBP) at lambda = 1, the MBP at fuel-rich and the minimum brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). The results have shown that with the increasing of ABE blend ratio, the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and the percentage of the unburned fuel of the engine are increased. However, increasing the ABE content decreased the percentage of exhaust energy and heat losses. The exhaust emissions show a strong relationship with lambda, and achieve a higher value when the engine fuelled more ABE, which leads to more unburned energy put out of the engine. In addition, increasing the ABE ratio in the ABE/gasoline blends could reduce the in-cylinder peak pressure and temperature, thus affecting the energy balance. The study of this paper has shown that the lower ratio of ABE blended in gasoline presented a good application prospect in high-speed SI engine.

The experiment and simulation investigation of vehicle energy management (VEM) were carried out on a passenger car equipped with a turbocharged gasoline engine. The research results show that the vehicle takes on the characteristic of overcharge under urban conditions to guarantee the power by sacrificing economy. Exhaust energy after catalytic converter and the greater circulation heat transfer loss that account for more than one-third of total energy under New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) are wasted without being used, which indicates that the tested vehicle has great potential for recovering the waste heat. To solve these problems, the VEM model coupled multiple physical fields was developed and calibrated. Original turbocharger was reformed to hybrid turbocharger with the aid of simulation model, and its optimal control strategy based on equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) was designed. The one-dimensional numerical engine model was introduced into algorithms, which opens new windows for the development of VEM optimization strategies. After the transformation of hybrid turbocharger, the overcharge phenomenon under urban driving cycle has been eliminated. The main contribution to fuel saving comes from the reduction of pumping loss and alternator power consumption. The energy saving rate of hybrid turbocharger in different driving cycles ranges from 1% to 5%, which is mainly affected by the deterioration degree of overcharge on the economy of original machine and the characteristics of regeneration conditions in different driving cycles.

In this study, the ABE was firstly mixed with the pure gasoline, and stored in different containers to make the different sample fuels (referred as ABE10, ABE20, and ABE30). Then, the effects of the ABE ratio, spark timing and lambda were comprehensively investigated on the performance and emissions characteristics of the high-speed SI engine. The results indicated that the high-speed SI engine fuelled with ABE30 boasted the largest power, and followed by ABE20 and ABE10, while the pure gasoline generated the lowest output power. The lean-burn limitation of the high-speed SI engine was greatly extended with increased the ABE ratio in the gasoline. Specifically, an extra 11.7% output power was obtained when the high-speed SI engine fuelled with ABE30 compared the pure gasoline. In addition, the higher ABE ratio in the ABE/gasoline blends yielded higher laminar flame speed of the ABE/gasoline, which increased the combustion rate and reduced the flame quenching distance near the cold wall, and thereby extending the lean-burn limitation. Apart from that, the NO emission formation was sensitive to the spark timing, and reached a peak value at the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio. The formation of CO and HC emissions did not show a strong relationship with the spark timing, and achieved a minimum value at the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio. Last, the NO emission formation dramatically decreased with increasing the ABE ratio in the ABE/gasoline blends, since the charge cooling effect reduced the in-cylinder peak combustion temperature.