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The expansion of China’s highways and railways, as well as the growing demand for them, has focused attention on the impact of traffic loads on foundation settling, uneven deformation, and ground cracking. These effects have garnered considerable research attention, with particular emphasis placed on integrating innovative materials into the soil matrix. This investigation involved loading experiments utilizing a combination of lightweight soil, expanded polystyrene (EPS), and cement. Consolidation tests assessed the extent of deformation and settlement, incorporating varying proportions of EPS and cement. The test results show that when subjected to confined conditions, the stress–strain relationship curve assumes a hyperbolic shape closely linked to the e-p curve. This shape effectively captures the unique structural characteristics exhibited by lightweight soils. As the size of the EPS particles and the applied stress increase, a corresponding rise in the strain of the specimens is observed. Simultaneously, as the strain magnitude increases, the elastic modulus experiences a decline. Additionally, it is noted that this trend further increases as the doping of the cement with EPS particles increases. When the EPS volume ratio and cement mix ratio remain constant across different specimens, there is a decrease in structural strength as the size of the EPS increases. In lightweight soil, settlement can occur rapidly, with approximately 95% of total consolidation deformation happening within a few minutes, which suggests that the settlement is instantaneous and primarily consolidation settlement. The structural strength of lightweight soil shows a negative correlation with the size of EPS, implying that larger EPS size may lead to a reduction in strength. Therefore, it is recommended to consistently use EPS beads with a diameter of 3–4 mm during construction.

Background: To explore the serum HMGB1 levels in patients with smoking-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the correlations with airflow restriction and immune function.

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) concrete is a new typical composite concrete, but its material toughness and hydrophilicity are poor, leading to low strength and poor toughness. To solve this critical issue, this study used an interactive method of experimentation and simulation to systematically study the mechanism of how the synergistic strengthening of styrene–butadiene latex (SBL) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers improves the performance of EPS concrete from the macro, micro, and nano multiscale systems. Macromechanical tests showed that the mechanical properties of EPS concrete are obviously improved by adding PVA and SBL. PVA fiber can reduce the compressive strength of EPS concrete but increase the flexural strength. The addition of SBL has a positive effect on the anticompression and flexural properties. Observation and analysis of microexperiments using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and infrared spectroscopy showed that the addition of SBL improved the weak interface zone, increased the hydration crystallinity of unhydrated cement products, and formed a more abundant cement-based gel to fill weak cement pores, resulting in a more uniform and stable internal structure. At nano scale, the molecular dynamics interface models of EPS/calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), EPS/SBL/C-S-H, PVA/C-S-H, and PVA/SBL/C-S-H were established and simulated and analyzed at the nanoscale. The results showed that the addition of SBL played a crucial role in connecting organic polymers with inorganic silicates in a "bridge" form. It formed numerous hydrogen bonds and ionic bonds with EPS, PVA molecular chains, and C-S-H, effectively stabilizing the crystalline layer structure of hydrated calcium silicate and compensating for the weak hydrophilicity of EPS particles, making the EPS/C-S-H and PVA/C-S-H systems more tightly stable. Practical Applications: Expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam concrete, with its advantages of ultralightweight, easy construction, and environmental friendliness, has been widely used in the construction industry. It finds applications in load-bearing precast concrete components, thermal insulation boards, cushioning or structural insulation boards, composite floors, pavement substrates, building envelope structures, and offshore floating structures, among others. These structures possess high strength, excellent insulation performance, high fire resistance, good water repellency, affordability, and strong sound absorption and noise reduction capabilities. However, the hydrophobic nature and porosity of EPS material result in uneven stratification and segregation during the preparation of EPS particles, as well as the existence of numerous weak interface transition zones between EPS and cement-based materials. In order to further expand its prospects in engineering applications and meet the requirements of modern engineering, it is necessary to enhance the workability and mechanical performance of EPS concrete. This study combines experiments and simulations to investigate the mechanisms and methods for reinforcing EPS concrete from a multiscale and multiangle perspective, providing references for the preparation of more stable and high-performance EPS concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkylation repair homolog protein 5 (ALKBH5) is reported to participate in infantile hemangioma (IH) progression. However, the underlying mechanism of ALKBH5 in IH remains unclear. Using qRT-PCR and Western blotting, ALKBH5, forkhead box F1 (FOXF1) and hexokinase 2 (HK-2) expressions in IH tissues and IH-derived endothelial cells XPTS-1 were assessed. The Me-RIP assay was used to analyze FOXF1 m6A level. CCK8, colony formation, flow cytometry and transwell assays were employed to determine IH cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion. The interactions between YTH (YT521-B homology) domain 2 (YTHDF2), FOXF1 and HK-2 were analyzed by RIP, dual luciferase reporter gene assay and/or ChIP assay. The in vivo IH growth was evaluated in immunocompromised mice. FOXF1 was overexpressed in IH tissues, and its silencing inhibited IH cell proliferation, migration and invasion whereas promoting cell apoptosis in vitro. ALKBH5 upregulation facilitated FOXF1 mRNA stability and expression in IH cells in a m6A-YTHDF2-dependent manner. FOXF1 downregulation reversed the impact of ALKBH5 upregulation on IH cellular phenotypes. It also turned out that FOXF1 positively regulated HK-2 expression in IH cells through interacting with the HK-2 promoter. HK-2 upregulation abolished FOXF1 knockdown's inhibition on IH cell aggressive behaviors. ALKBH5 or FOXF1 silencing suppressed IH tumor development via HK-2 signaling in immunocompromised mice. ALKBH5 promoted FOXF1 expression m6A-YTHDF2 dependently, which in turn elevated HK-2 expression, thereby accelerating IH development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partial cubes are the graphs which can be embedded into hypercubes. The cube polynomial of a graph G is a counting polynomial of induced hypercubes of G, which is defined as C(G,x)≔∑i⩾0αi(G)xi, where αi(G) is the number of induced i‐cubes (hypercubes of dimension i) of G. The clique polynomial of G is defined as Cl(G,x)≔∑i⩾0ai(G)xi, where ai(G) (i⩾1) is the number of i‐cliques in G and a0(G)=1. Equivalently, Cl(G,x) is exactly the independence polynomial of the complement G¯ of G. The crossing graphG# of a partial cube G is the graph whose vertices are corresponding to the Θ‐classes of G, and two Θ‐classes are adjacent in G# if and only if they cross in G. In the present paper, we prove that for a partial cube G, C(G,x)⩽Cl(G#,x+1) and the equality holds if and only if G is a median graph. Since every graph can be represented as the crossing graph of a median graph, the above necessary‐and‐sufficient result shows that the study on the cube polynomials of median graphs can be transformed to the one on the clique polynomials of general graphs (equivalently, on the independence polynomials of their complements). In addition, we disprove the conjecture that the cube polynomials of median graphs are unimodal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding the terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) gap between the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-on (-FO) gravity satellite missions, a BEAST (Bayesian estimator of abrupt change, seasonal change and trend)+GMDH (group method of data handling) gap-filling scheme driven by hydrological and meteorological data is proposed. Considering these driving data usually cannot fully capture the trend changes of the TWSA time series, we propose first to use the BEAST algorithm to perform piecewise linear detrending for the TWSA series and then fill the gap of the detrended series using the GMDH algorithm. The complete gap-filling TWSAs can be readily obtained after adding back the previously removed piecewise trend. By comparing the simulated gap filled by BEAST + GMDH using Multiple Linear Regression and Singular Spectrum Analysis with reference values, the results show that the BEAST + GMDH scheme is superior to the latter two in terms of the correlation coefficient, Nash-efficiency coefficient, and root-mean-square error. The real GRACE/GFO gap filled by BEAST + GMDH is consistent with those from hydrological models, Swarm TWSAs, and other literature regarding spatial distribution patterns. The correlation coefficients there between are, respectively, above 0.90, 0.80, and 0.90 in most of the global river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) significantly influences the modification of flower color. To explore the role of DFR in the synthesis of strawberry anthocyanins, in this study, we downloaded the CDS sequences of the DFR gene family from the Arabidopsis genome database TAIR; the DFR family of forest strawberry was compared; then, a functional domain screen was performed using NCBI; the selected strawberry DFR genes were analyzed; and the expression characteristics of the family members were studied by qRT-PCR. The results showed that there are 57 members of the DFR gene family in strawberry, which are mainly expressed in the cytoplasm and chloroplast; most of them are hydrophilic proteins; and the secondary structure of the protein is mainly composed of α-helices and random coils. The analysis revealed that FvDFR genes mostly contain light, hormone, abiotic stress, and meristem response elements. From the results of the qRT-PCR analysis, the relative expression of each member of the FvDFR gene was significantly different, which was expressed throughout the process of fruit coloring. Most genes had the highest expression levels in the full coloring stage (S4). The expression of FvDFR30, FvDFR54, and FvDFR56 during the S4 period was 8, 2.4, and 2.4 times higher than during the S1 period, indicating that the DFR gene plays a key role in regulating the fruit coloration of strawberry. In the strawberry genome, 57 members of the strawberry DFR gene family were identified. The higher the DFR gene expression, the higher the anthocyanin content, and the DFR gene may be the key gene in anthocyanin synthesis. Collectively, the DFR gene is closely related to fruit coloring, which lays a foundation for further exploring the function of the DFR gene family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) concrete is a new green building material. In order to make it more widely used, this study used butylbenzene emulsion (SBL) to modify PVA fiber concrete. The enhancement mechanism of SBL on the PVA/cement interface was systematically investigated at multiple scales, including macroscopic mechanical properties, microstructural characteristics, nano-interface interactions. On a macro scale, the addition of SBL and PVA fibers can significantly improve the shear strength and flexural strength of composite concrete at 7 and 28 days, and SBL can make up for the decrease in compressive strength caused by PVA. On a micro scale, the corresponding polymer cement concrete was tested by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). It was observed that some gels and polymers filled the interfacial gap and effectively repaired the interfacial defects. The SBL brought the two interfaces closer together and described its bonding effect at the micro-interface. On the nano scale, SBL/PVA/C-S-H is modeled by molecular dynamics method. Binding energy, Relative concentrations, Radial distribution function, Mean-square displacement and Time correlation function were analyzed and calculated. The results show that SBL reduces the interfacial effect, enhances the interfacial hydrogen bond, van der Waals interaction, Ca-H coordination bond and stability, improves the interfacial adhesion, and further enhances the weak interfacial bond between organic polymer (PVA) and inorganic silicate (C-S-H). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A differentiated creative search algorithm with multi-strategy improvement (MSDCS) is proposed for the path planning problem for agricultural UAVs under different complicated situations. First, the good point set and oppositional learning strategies are used to effectively improve the quality of population diversity; the adaptive fitness–distance balance reset strategy is proposed to motivate the low performers to move closer to the region near the optimal solution and find the potential optimal solution; and the vertical and horizontal crossover strategy with random dimensions is proposed to improve the computational accuracy of the algorithm and the ability to jump out of the local optimum. Second, the MSDCS is compared to different algorithms using the IEEE_CEC2017 test set, which consists of 29 test functions. The results demonstrate that the MSDCS achieves the optimal value in 23 test functions, surpassing the comparison algorithms in terms of convergence accuracy, speed, and stability by at least one order of magnitude difference, and it is ranked No. 1 in terms of comprehensive performance. Finally, the enhanced algorithm was employed to address the issue of path planning for agricultural UAVs. The experimental results demonstrate that the MSDCS outperforms comparison algorithms in path planning across various contexts. Consequently, the MSDCS can generate optimal pathways that are both rational and safe for agricultural UAV operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]