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Terrestrial compound protein (Cpro) can be potentially used to replace fishmeal (FM) in the marine carnivorous teleost, golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus). Four isonitrogenous (45%) and isolipidic (12%) diets named FM30, AP80, PP80, and CP80 were formulated. FM30 (control) contained 30% FM and 25% basic protein, while AP80, PP80, and CP80 only contained 6% FM, where 80% FM and 25% basic protein of control diet were completely replaced by animal protein, plant protein, and Cpro, respectively. After golden pompano juveniles (initial weight: 10.32 ± 0.09 g) were, respectively, fed the four diets in floating sea cages for 10 weeks, the growth performance, intestinal digestive enzyme activity, and immune responses, protein metabolism indices of the CP80 group were similar to or better than those of the FM30 group (P>0.05), and significantly better than those of the AP80 and PP80 groups. Specifically, the weight gain (WG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), activity of alanine transaminase (ALT), growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) contents of serum, mRNA level of interleukin-10 (il-10), zonula occludens-2 (zo-2), claudin-3, claudin-12, and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4G (eif4g) were significantly higher, and the activity of α-amylase (AMS), lipase (LPS) in the foregut and midgut, interleukin-8 (il-8) expression in the intestine was significantly lower than that in the CP80 group, compared with those in AP80 and PP80 groups (P0.05), but was significantly lower than those of AP80 and PP80 groups (P

Introduction Mutations of CEL gene were first reported to cause a new type of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) denoted as MODY8 and then were also found in patients with type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, its genotype-phenotype relationship has not been fully determined and how carboxyl ester lipase (CEL) variants result in diabetes remains unclear. The aim of our study was to identify pathogenic variants of CEL in patients with diabetes and confirm their pathogenicity.Research design and methods All five patients enrolled in our study were admitted to Shandong Provincial Hospital and diagnosed with diabetes in the past year. Whole-exome sequencing was performed to identify pathogenic variants in three patients with MODY-like diabetes, one newborn baby with T1D and one patient with atypical T2D, as well as their immediate family members. Then the consequences of the identified variants were predicted by bioinformatic analysis. Furthermore, pathogenic effects of two novel CEL variants were evaluated in HEK293 cells transfected with wild-type and mutant plasmids. Finally, we summarized all CEL gene variants recorded in Human Gene Mutation Database and analyzed the mutation distribution of CEL.Results Five novel heterozygous variants were identified in CEL gene and they were predicted to be pathogenic by bioinformatic analysis. Moreover, in vitro studies indicated that the expression of CELR540C was remarkably increased, while p.G729_T739del variant did not significantly affect the expression of CEL. Both novel variants obviously abrogated the secretion of CEL. Furthermore, we summarized all reported CEL variants and found that 74.3% of missense mutations were located in exons 1, 3, 4, 10 and 11 and most missense variants clustered near catalytic triad, Arg-83 and Arg-443.Conclusion Our study identified five novel CEL variants in patients with different subtypes of diabetes, expanding the gene mutation spectrum of CEL and confirmed the pathogenicity of several novel variants.

Organic photothermal materials excited by near‐infrared (NIR) light display promising applications in biomedicine, optoelectronic devices, water purification, and so on. However, the most NIR responsive organic photothermal materials are in the mire of laborious synthesis, high cost, and limited functions. The newly emerging charge‐transfer complexes (CTCs) are promising photothermal materials to solve the issues and are receiving much attention. Compared with traditional photothermal agents, CTCs possess strong NIR absorption, high photo‐to‐thermal conversion efficiency, simple synthesis, and function‐directed material design. Herein, the latest advances in NIR‐excited CTCs for photothermal agents are systematically summarized. First, the basic structure–performance relationships are introduced. Then, several important factors affecting the photothermal properties of the CTCs are discussed from the sight of photophysics, and a comprehensive comparison is made among the nanoparticle systems. Finally, organic photothermal CTCs are highlighted as a multifunctional platform for applications and the perspective is given.

Locked segment-dominated landslides initiate when locked segments are sufficiently damaged to be unlocked. The evolution of such slopes toward instability displays either an exponentially or stepwise accelerated displacement pattern, but the underlying mechanisms of these patterns are elusive. We show that the displacement pattern is governed by mechanical synergy (resistance homogenization) between the ruptured locked segment and the transfixion segment. Using a mechanical model, we demonstrate that rapid and slow resistance homogenizations, which depend mainly on the brittleness of locked segments, cause two unlocking-induced startup mechanisms that lead to loss of slope stability: one occurring at the peak-stress points and the other at the residual-strength points of the locked segments. Accordingly, the evolution toward instability exhibits one of the two abovementioned patterns. External factors, such as rainwater, can deteriorate the strength of geomaterials but hardly alter the inherent mechanical rules that a locked segment adheres to. These findings provide insights into the mechanism of locked segment-dominated landslides and pave the way for reliably predicting their occurrence.

Our recent study demonstrated that diet with blend oil (named BO1) as lipid, which is designed on the base of essential fatty acid requirement of Trachinotus ovatus, achieved good performance. Here, to confirm its effect and investigate the mechanism, three isonitrogenous (45%) and isolipidic (13%) diets (D1-D3) only differing in dietary lipids, which were, respectively, fish oil (FO), BO1, and blend oil 2 (BO2) consisting of FO and soybean oil at 2 : 3, were formulated and used to feed the T. ovatus juveniles (average initial weight: 7.65 g) for 9 weeks. The results showed that the weight gain rate of fish fed D2 was higher than that of fish fed D3 (P0.05). Correspondingly, compared with the D3 group, fish of the D2 group exhibited better oxidative stress parameters such as lower serum malondialdehyde content and inflammatory indexes in the liver such as the lower expression level of genes encoding four interleukin proteins and tumor necrosis factor α, as well as higher hepatic immune-related metabolites such as valine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid, tyramine, l-targinine, p-synephrine, and butyric acid (P

Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) is a rare neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by bilateral symmetric intracranial calcification along the microvessels or inside neuronal cells in the basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum. Slc20a2 homozygous (HO) knockout mice are the most commonly used model to simulate the brain calcification phenotype observed in human patients. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms related to brain calcification, particularly at the early stage much prior to the emergence of brain calcification, remain largely unknown. In this study, we quantified the central nervous system (CNS)-infiltrating T-cells of different age groups of Slc20a2-HO and matched wild type mice and found CD45+CD3+ T-cells to be significantly increased in the brain parenchyma, even in the pre-calcification stage of 1-month-old -HO mice. The accumulation of the CD3+ T-cells appeared to be associated with the severity of brain calcification. Further immunophenotyping revealed that the two main subtypes that had increased in the brain were CD3+ CD4− CD8– and CD3+ CD4+ T-cells. The expression of endothelial cell (EC) adhesion molecules increased, while that of tight and adherents junction proteins decreased, providing the molecular precondition for T-cell recruitment to ECs and paracellular migration into the brain. The fusion of lymphocytes and EC membranes and transcellular migration of CD3-related gold particles were captured, suggesting enhancement of transcytosis in the brain ECs. Exogenous fluorescent tracers and endogenous IgG and albumin leakage also revealed an impairment of transcellular pathway in the ECs. FTY720 significantly alleviated brain calcification, probably by reducing T-cell infiltration, modulating neuroinflammation and ossification process, and enhancing the autophagy and phagocytosis of CNS-resident immune cells. This study clearly demonstrated CNS-infiltrating T-cells to be associated with the progression of brain calcification. Impairment of blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability, which was closely related to T-cell invasion into the CNS, could be explained by the BBB alterations of an increase in the paracellular and transcellular pathways of brain ECs. FTY720 was found to be a potential drug to protect patients from PFBC-related lesions in the future.

FinTech is an emerging financial innovation model that promotes a ''technological anti-corruption'' effect. Credit corruption is a worldwide problem; however, previous studies have not focused on the anti-corruption effect of FinTech. This study first uses micro data from FinTech companies to construct city-level FinTech measurement indicators in China. An objective measurement of credit corruption is then formed by separating the expenditures for credit corruption from total business entertainment expenses. This study empirically explores the impact of FinTech on credit corruption using a sample of Chinese listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2011 to 2019. The results show that FinTech can significantly curb credit corruption, and that the expenditures for credit corruption of local companies are lower with better regional FinTech. These findings are valid after addressing endogeneity issues and conducting a series of robustness tests. The results of the heterogeneity test show that FinTech offers greater advantages for risk identification, information mining, and inclusive development than traditional finance. The curbing effect on credit corruption is stronger in companies with better intrinsic quality, more transparent information disclosure, located in less financially developed and more corrupt regions. Economic consequence analysis suggests that FinTech can correct resource misallocation caused by credit corruption and promote corporate investment efficiency. These findings are valuable for policy practices for technological anti-corruption in the financial sector.

BackgroundAcute ischemic stroke (AIS) with intracranial large vessel occlusion (LVO) is refractory to reperfusion because of the underlying intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS), and this condition often requires salvage methods such as balloon angioplasty and rescue stenting (RS). In this study, we investigated the short-term outcomes of RS after failed mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for the treatment of acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion.MethodsWe retrospectively evaluated the clinical data of 127 patients who underwent MT for acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion in our hospital between August 2018 and January 2022. The degree of recanalization was evaluated immediately after the treatment by Modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction (mTICI). The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was used 90 days after treatment to evaluate the neurological functions. In addition, the incidence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) and postoperative mortality within 90 days of treatment were calculated.ResultsAmong the 127 patients, 86 patients (67.7%) had revascularization (mTICI 2b-3) immediately after MT (non-RS group), and RS was performed in 41 patients (32.3%) after MT failure (RS group). No difference in the sICH rate was observed between the two groups (17.1 vs. 16.3%, p = 0.91). There was a slightly higher mortality rate in the RS group (14.6 vs. 12.8%, p = 0.71); however, the difference was not significant. There was no difference in the proportion of patients in the RS and non-RS groups who had a 90-day mRS score of 0–2 (48.8 vs. 52.3%, p = 0.76).ConclusionsRescue stenting after MT failure might be a feasible rescue modality for treating acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion.

The research progress of numerical simulation of parabolic trough solar collector was introduced. Especially the numerical simulation studies of the internal flow field in the collector tube and the external flow field of the concentrator were reviewed. In the study of the internal flow field in the collector tube, the type of heat transfer fluids and the characteristics of optical concentration have a significant effect on the heat collection performance and thermal stress distribution, especially in the water/steam medium heat collection loop. The unique gas-liquid two-phase flow superposition of the non-uniform heat flux distribution outside the tube may lead to serious thermal stress bending deformation of the collector tube. In the study of the external flow field of the concentrator, due to the high actual wind speed and the low structural strength of the ultra-thin lens, the concentrator is subjected to wind load deformation, resulting in the loss of optical efficiency, and even leading to the failure of the parabolic trough collector structure, which directly affects the normal operation of the whole collector field.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant global health and economic consequences. There is an unmet need to define a molecular fingerprint of severity of the disease that may guide an early, rational and directed intervention preventing severe illness. We collected plasma from patients with moderate (nine cases), severe (22 cases) and critical (five cases) COVID-19 within three days of hospitalization (approximately one week after symptom onset) and used a cytokine antibody array to screen the 105 cytokines included in the array. We found that I-TAC, IP-10, ST2 and IL-1ra were significantly upregulated in patients with critical disease as compared to the non-critical (moderate and severe combined). ELISA further quantified I-TAC levels as 590.24±410.89, 645.35±517.59 and 1613.53±1010.59 pg/ml in moderate, severe and critical groups, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that I-TAC levels were significantly higher in patients with critical disease when compared with moderate (p = 0.04), severe (p = 0.03) or the combined non-critical (p = 0.02) group. Although limited by the low sample numbers, this study may suggest a role of I-TAC as a potential early marker to discriminate between critical and non-critical COVID-19 cases. Such knowledge is urgently needed for appropriate allocation of resources and to serve as a platform for future research towards early interventions that could mitigate disease severity and save lives.

Abstract In recent years, several progressive studies promote the development of aerial tracking. One of the representative studies is our previous work Fast‐Tracker which is applicable to various challenging tracking scenarios. However, it suffers from two main drawbacks: (1) the oversimplification in target detection by using artificial markers and (2) the contradiction between simultaneous target and environment perception with limited onboard vision. In this study, we upgrade the target detection in Fast‐Tracker to detect and localise a human target based on deep learning and non‐linear regression to solve the former problem. For the latter one, we equip the quadrotor system with 360° active vision on a customised gimbal camera. Furthermore, we improve the tracking trajectory planning in Fast‐Tracker by incorporating an occlusion‐aware mechanism that generates observable tracking trajectories. Comprehensive real‐world tests confirm the proposed system's robustness and real‐time capability. Benchmark comparisons with Fast‐Tracker validate that the proposed system presents better tracking performance even when performing more difficult tracking tasks. The cover image is based on the Original Article Fast‐Tracker 2.0: Improving autonomy of aerial tracking with active vision and human location regression by Can Cui et al., https://doi.org/10.1049/csy2.12033.

Abstract This study considers a control problem related to the regulation of fractional‐order systems controlled by fractional order proportional‐integral‐derivative controllers (PIλDμ). The stability result of PIλDμ‐based control systems is provided, such that the closed‐loop systems can accomplish global stabilisation under some suitable conditions related to the system uncertainties. Finally, a simulation is demonstrated to verify the results.

PurposeChordoma is a rare and locally invasive neoplasm, and the prognostic factors are limited. Deregulation of Histone 3 lysine 27 (H3K27) trimethylation (H3K27me3) is considered to be related with poor prognosis in some tumors. The purpose of this study was to detect the expression of H3K27me3 in chordomas and analyze the correlation with clinicopathological features and explore the roles as potential prognostic markers and therapeutic targets.Material and methodSpecimens of 162 chordoma patients (consisting of 156 conventional chordoma, 4 dedifferentiated chordoma and 2 poorly differentiated chordoma) were enrolled in a tissue microarray (TMA) in order to assess the immunohistochemical staining by H3K27me3 antibodies. Correlations between H3K27me3 expression and clinicopathological features were analyzed. Clinical data of the patients were correlated and survival analysis was performed. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank test were used to analyze the recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify potential prognostic factors.ResultsThe expression of H3K27me3 was lower in 37 chordoma patients (37/162, 22.8%), and higher in 125 patients (125/162, 77.2%). H3K27me3-low expression significantly correlated with spine location (P < 0.001), conventional histological subtype (P < 0.001), and recurrence (P < 0.001). Log-rank test showed that H3K27me3-low expression was associated with poor RFS (P =0.027) and OS (P =0.009) in conventional chordoma patients. Cox multivariate analysis revealed that low expression of H3K27me3 was an independent predictor of poor OS (P =0.007) and RFS (P =0.025) in conventional chordoma patients.ConclusionsOur study indicates that low expression of H3K27me3 might be considered as a predictor for poor prognosis and recurrence, and it may provide a potential therapeutic target for conventional chordoma patients.

IntroductionIt is well-documented that systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with dementia. However, the genetic causality of this association remains unclear. Mendelian randomization (MR) was used to investigate the potential causal relationship between SLE and dementia risk in the current study.MethodsWe selected 45 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with SLE from publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Summary level statistics were obtained from the dementia GWAS database. MR estimates were performed using the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method, MR-Egger method and weighted median (WM) method. Cochran’s Q test, the intercept of MR-Egger, MR-Pleiotropy Residual Sum and Outlier method, leave-one-out analysis and funnel plot were applied for sensitivity analyses.ResultsNo significant causal association was found between SLE and any type of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies. These findings were robust across several sensitivity analyses.ConclusionOverall, our findings do not support a causal association between SLE and dementia risk.

BackgroundNumerous observational studies have revealed that circulating adiponectin (ADPN) is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. However, the causality remains unknown. We aimed to assess the causality of circulating ADPN on AD risk using Mendelian randomization (MR).MethodsFourteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with ADPN were selected from publicly available genetic abstract data. We applied these SNPs to two recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of AD, one from the FinnGen consortium and the other from a large meta-analysis. The inverse variance weighted method, MR–Egger method, the weighted median method, the Cochran Q statistic, the MR-Pleiotropy Residual Sum and Outlier methods, and the leave-one-out analysis were applied for MR analyses.ResultsIn MR analysis, no significant genetic association was found between plasma ADPN levels and AD risk by analyzing the FinnGen consortium GWAS database in the inverse variance weighted method [odds ratio (OR): 0.874, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.701–1.089, p = 0.230], MR–Egger (OR: 0.944, 95% CI: 0.692–1.288, p = 0.721), and weighted median method (OR: 0.900, 95% CI: 0.678–1.194, p = 0.449). Additionally, the same analysis was conducted for the meta-analysis database, and we found no significant association (OR: 1.000, 95% CI: 0.999–1.001, p = 0.683).ConclusionOur findings reveal no significant causal association between circulating ADPN and AD risk.

Afforestation is one of the most important measures to control soil erosion and desertification in Northern China. Meanwhile, considering that afforestation in Northern China needs to increase carbon sequestration (CS) and reduce water consumption (WC), it is essential to select prioritized afforestation types in suitable regions. In this work, we identified ecologically vulnerable zones based on soil water and wind erosion assessment, evaluated tree and shrub afforestation suitability, and thus recognized potential afforestation regions. Further, we set four scenarios for different goals, and identified the prioritized afforestation types in each scenario. The results showed that potential afforestation regions are mainly distributed in the Loess Plateau, Western Liao River, Ordos Plateau, and Tarim Basin. Scenario 1 (aiming to minimize WC) is dominated by shrub afforestation and grassland restoration. This scenario will reduce WC by 3.1%-6.4% compared to other scenarios, but it will also decrease CS by 9.4%-56.1% and soil conservation (SC) by 7.7%-13.0%. Scenario 2 (aiming to maximize CS) is dominated by tree and shrub afforestation. This scenario will fix 41.8%-56.1% more carbon, and consume 3.0%-6.4% more water than the other scenarios. Meanwhile, this scenario can maximize SC, but also may reduce sand fixation (SF). Scenario 3 (aiming to maximize CS in humid region and minimize WC in arid region) and Scenario 4 (aiming to enhance both SC and SF) are dominated by shrub afforestation, tree afforestation and grassland restoration. The two scenarios can balance CS and WC, and have advantages in improving both SC and SF. In addition, Scenario 4 performs better than Scenario 3. In the future, it is better to implement tree afforestation mainly in sub-humid area, and conduct shrub afforestation mainly in arid and semi-arid regions. This study can provide guidance for the planning and management of afforestation projects in Northern China and other water scarcity areas.

Exploring the responses of microbial communities and their functions to marine frontal systems are the foci of marine ecologists. However, most of the existing studies have focused on only microbial communities or their functions. The relationships between microbial communities and their functions across coastal fronts therefore remain unclear. Here we studied a coastal front in the Taiwan Strait during late spring and examined the bacterial community structure, extracellular enzymatic activity (EEA), and their linkages. The results showed that the coastal front strongly delineated zones of bacterial community composition and diversity and functioned as a transitional zone rather than a hotspot between the coastal water and offshore water. Co-occurrence network analysis indicated that the interaction of bacterial communities was much weaker in the frontal zone than in the water masses on both sides. The suggestion was that the highly fluctuating environment in the frontal zone reduced the complexity and stability of the bacterial co-occurrence network. The activities of β-glucosidase (BGA) and leucine aminopeptidase (LAPA) were as high in the frontal zone as in the coastal water and much higher than those in offshore waters. We therefore suggest that, despite obvious shifts in the bacterial community structure in the frontal zone, the bacterial community was able to maintain its ability to hydrolyze organic substrates via functional redundancy. The composition of key microbial assemblies differed among the three water masses, and the relative abundance of module 2 in the frontal zone was positively correlated with BGA and LAPA. The indication was that changing the bacterial assemblage was the mechanism that made it possible for the bacterial community to maintain EEA in the frontal zone. Our results help to improve understanding on how bacterial community-function linkages vary in marine frontal systems.

The porosity and degradation rate are critical properties of biodegradable bone implants, as they facilitate the regeneration of bone tissues and ensure a gradual load transfer. Herein, porous iron-hydroxyapatite (Fe-HA) metal-matrix composites (MMCs) with independently adjustable porosity and degradation rate are fabricated through a 3D printing technique, i.e., direct ink writing (DIW). HA micro powders exhibit a significant acceleration effect on the degradation rate, which act as a variable that is independent of the porosity to regulate the degradation rate. The mass losses of Fe-HA MMCs with the porosities of 30%, 50%, and 70% after 21d in-vitro immersion increased by 26%, 38%, and 93%, respectively, with the rising of HA content from 0 to 7.5 wt%. The novel porous Fe-HA MMCs have an adjustable and wide porosity-degradation rate range, yielding great potential to match with varied porosity and regeneration rate among various bones of different people.

Geogrid reinforced soil slope is a new type of slope supporting structure, which is of great significance for improving the slope stability, saving construction land and preserving the ecological environment. In order to provide the optimal design solution of the reinforced soil slope for high fill slopes, a case study is conducted on the No.6 slope at the northwest corner of the airport runway. Three design schemes with different slope ratios are carried out firstly based on the geological conditions of the slope and the field situation of the high fill slope. Secondly, the simplified Bishop method, Spencer wedge method and Morgenstern price method are used to calculate the stability factors of the reinforced slopes under the natural, rainstorm and earthquake conditions. Finally, the deformation characteristics of the slope and tensile force in reinforcements are investigated based on the finite element method under the natural conditions. The results show that all the proposed design schemes can meet the requirements of slope stability under different working conditions. A zigzag distribution of the tensile force in reinforcements in the multi-stage reinforced soil slope is observed along the slope height, and the maximum axial force of reinforcement increases abruptly at the toe of each slope. Compared with the design scheme of the gentle reinforced soil slope with the slope ratio of 1∶1.5, the reinforced retaining wall with the slope ratio of 1∶0.25 shows obvious advantages in reducing the slope height, consumption of geosynthetics, filling and excavation amount as well as slope protection area. The key issues including the slope stability, construction cost and duration are comprehensively considered, and the design scheme of the reinforced earth wall is reasonable.

Machine-assisted recognition of colorectal cancer has been mainly focused on supervised deep learning that suffers from a significant bottleneck of requiring massive amounts of labeled data. Here, the authors propose a semi-supervised model based on the mean teacher architecture that provides pathological predictions at both patch- and patient-levels.

Joshi, Gomes et al. employ a chemical modulation approach of the cellular interactome to a hyperconnectivity state and show association with the increased response of pancreatic cancer cell lines to specific drugs, including those that target the MAPK-pathways and PI3K-mTOR pathway. To achieve this, the authors employ chemical modulation of the interactome via epichaperome inhibition with the small molecule PU-H71.

Abstract The authors present a new multi‐exposure images fusion method based on feature evaluation with adaptive factor. It is noticed the existing multi‐exposure fusion algorithm is not well adapted to the input images, which are overall bright or dark, the fused image quality is not pretty good, and the details are not preserved completely. So an adaptive factor to adapt the intensity of input images is presented here. First, the exposure assessment weight, texture change weight, and colour intensity weight are calculated by a sliding window. Finally, the images are fused by using a pyramid to avoid the seams. Twenty exposure input images of different scenes are selected, the subjective and objective aspects are analysed and compared with several existing multi‐exposure image fusion methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method can retain more details and obtain satisfactory visual effects on static scenes.

Reinforcing electronic and ionic conductivity is very important to realize the high-rate Li2ZnTi3O8 (LZTO) anode for Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Here, we reported a synthetic strategy toward in situ growth of homodispersed Li2ZnTi3O8 on ultralight 3D carbon aerogels (CAs) via facile heat treatment and activation process taking LiOH as activating agent. Such an optimized composite obtains a specific surface area of 154.427 m2 g−1 and a high pore volume. The strong interaction between the LZTO and N-doped CAs, a highly electrical conductivity and multidimensional ion transport channels of the hybrid result in a high capacity, outstanding high-rate performance and long cycle life. As a result, the NPC-LZTO electrode (NPC-LZTO-B) delivers a commendable reversible capacity at high-rate (e.g. 162.4 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1 (22 C) and 127.3 mAh g−1 at 10 A g−1) and durable long-term performance (capacity retention of 73% after 4500 cycles at 5 A g−1). Moreover, the kinetic analysis confirms that the feature of pseudocapacitance boosts lithium-ion storage performance at high rate. Porous carbon aerogels frame constructed LZTO nanocomposite electrodes provide a facile way to design high durable LIBs anode.

Abstract DNA barcoding has become one of the most important techniques in plant species identification. Successful application of this technology is dependent on the availability of reference database of high species coverage. Unfortunately, there are experimental and data processing challenges to construct such a library within a short time. Here, we present our solutions to these challenges. We sequenced six conventional DNA barcode fragments (ITS1, ITS2, matK1, matK2, rbcL1, and rbcL2) of 380 flowering plants on next‐generation sequencing (NGS) platforms (Illumina Hiseq 2500 and Ion Torrent S5) and the Sanger sequencing platform. After comparing the sequencing depths, read lengths, base qualities, and base accuracies, we conclude that Illumina Hiseq2500 PE250 run is suitable for conventional DNA barcoding. We developed a new “Cotu” method to create consensus sequences from NGS reads for longer output sequences and more reliable bases than the other three methods. Step‐by‐step instructions to our method are provided. By using high‐throughput machines (PCR and NGS), labeling PCR, and the Cotu method, it is possible to significantly reduce the cost and labor investments for DNA barcoding. A regional or even global DNA barcoding reference library with high species coverage is likely to be constructed in a few years.

A novel laminated TiAl matrix composite (LMC) consisting of alternating equiaxed grain layers (EGLs) and fully lamellar grain layers (FGLs) has been fabricated successfully by hot pressing of alternating Ti/Al–6Si foils and subsequent multi-step reaction annealing. The oxidation behavior of the LMC at 800 °C was studied. The results show that the oxide scale is formed with typical multilayer structure after oxidized at 800 °C for 100 h. The oxidation behavior is different between EGLs and FGLs while the thickness of oxide scale is almost identical, suggesting an isotropy oxidation resistance of the LMC. Si addition effectively enhances the oxidation resistance of the LMC.

C. elegans piRNA biogenesis and chromosome segregation (PICS) complex is composed of TOFU-6, PICS-1, ERH-2, and two mutually exclusive factors PID-1 and TOST-1. By employing biochemical, structural, and cellular biology methods, the authors show that the PICS complex is an octamer consisting of two copies of each subunit, and functions in piRNA biogenesis and mitosis.

Background: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play an important role in the tumorigenesis, immunosuppression and metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC), and can predict poor prognosis in patients with CRC. The present study aimed to construct a CAFs-related prognostic signature for CRC.Methods: The clinical information and corresponding RNA data of CRC patients were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumor tissues (ESTIMATES) and xCell methods were applied to evaluate the tumor microenvironment infiltration from bulk gene expression data. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to construct co-expression modules. The key module was identified by calculating the module-trait correlations. The univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage operator (LASSO) analyses were combined to develop a CAFs-related signature for the prognostic model. Moreover, pRRophetic and Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) algorithms were utilized to predict chemosensitivity and immunotherapy response. Human Protein Atlas (HPA) databases were employed to evaluate the protein expressions.Results: ESTIMATES and xCell analysis showed that high CAFs infiltration was associated with adverse prognoses. A twenty-gene CAFs-related prognostic signature (CAFPS) was established in the training cohort. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses reveled that CRC patients with higher CAFs risk scores were associated with poor prognosis in each cohort. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses verified that CAFPS was as an independent prognostic factor in predicting overall survival, and a nomogram was built for clinical utility in predicting CRC prognosis. Patients with higher CAFs risk scores tended to not respond to immunotherapy, but were more sensitive to five conventional chemotherapeutic drugs.Conclusion: In summary, the CAFPS could serve as a robust prognostic indicator in CRC patients, which might help to optimize risk stratification and provide a new insight into individual treatments for CRC.

Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance between prooxidants and antioxidants, which is the cause of various chronic human diseases. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been considered as an effective antioxidant to alleviate oxidative stress in the host. To obtain bacterium resources with good antioxidant properties, in the present study, 113 LAB strains were isolated from 24 spontaneously fermented chili samples and screened by tolerance to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Among them, Lactobacillus plantarum GXL94 showed the best antioxidant characteristics and the in vitro antioxidant activities of this strain was evaluated extensively. The results showed that L. plantarum GXL94 can tolerate hydrogen peroxide up to 22 mM, and it could normally grow in MRS with 5 mM H2O2. Its fermentate (fermented supernatant, intact cell and cell-free extract) also had strong reducing capacities and various free radical scavenging capacities. Meanwhile, eight antioxidant-related genes were found to up-regulate with varying degrees under H2O2 challenge. Furthermore, we evaluated the probiotic properties by using in vitro assessment. It was showed that GXL94 could maintain a high survival rate at pH 2.5% or 2% bile salt or 8.0% NaCl, live through simulated gastrointestinal tract (GIT) to colonizing the GIT of host, and also show higher abilities of auto-aggregation and hydrophobicity. Additionally, the usual antibiotic susceptible profile and non-hemolytic activity indicated the safety of the strain. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that L. plantarum GXL94 could be a potential probiotic candidate for producing functional foods with antioxidant properties.

Green economy development has become a mainstream value orientation in social and global economic development to protect and improve the ecological environment. Multiple stakeholders are needed to address complex issues, such as climate change and its impact on the ecological environment and public health. This study investigates the impact of energy policy and green finance on green economic recovery via the controlling role of social capital and public health. An entropy approach was used to measure the green economic index in addition to an econometric approximation for interpreting the longitudinal dataset for the scenarios for E7 countries between 2010 and 2020. The findings show that the development of green finance significantly improves green productivity. Higher levels of economic and social conditions, a lower level of public involvement in environmental protection, and a higher level of pollution amplify this positive effect. On the other hand, energy policy can enhance the impact of green finance development. The findings suggest that the empirical findings benefit green finance planning and energy policy.

Abstract By exploiting the self‐therapeutic properties of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) a molecular axis that promotes the growth of high‐grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), one of the deadliest gynecologic malignancies with poorly understood underlying molecular mechanisms, has been identified. The biodistribution and toxicity of GNPs administered by intravenous or intraperitoneal injection, both as a single dose or by repeated dosing over two weeks are first assessed; no biochemical or histological toxicity to vital organs is found. Using an orthotopic patient‐derived xenograft (PDX) model of HGSOC, the authors then show that GNP treatment robustly inhibits tumor growth. Investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the GNP efficacy reveals that GNPs downregulate insulin growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) by disrupting its autoregulation via the IGFBP2/mTOR/PTEN axis. This mechanism is validated by treating a cell line‐based human xenograft tumor with GNPs and an mTOR dual‐kinase inhibitor (PI‐103), either individually or in combination with GNPs; GNP and PI‐103 combination therapy inhibit ovarian tumor growth similarly to GNPs alone. This report illustrates how the self‐therapeutic properties of GNPs can be exploited as a discovery tool to identify a critical signaling axis responsible for poor prognosis in ovarian cancer and provides an opportunity to interrogate the axis to improve patient outcomes.

Meishan pigs are a famous local pig breed in China, with high fertility and early sexual maturity, and stronger immunity compared to other breeds. The spleen is the largest lymphoid organ in pigs and performs essential functions, such as those relating to immunity and haematopoiesis. The invasion of many pathogenic microorganisms in pigs is associated with spleen damage. Long non-coding RNAs participate in a broad range of biological processes and have been demonstrated to be associated with splenic immune regulation. However, the expression network of mRNAs and lncRNAs in the spleen of Meishan pigs remains unclear. This study collected spleen tissues from Meishan piglets at three different ages as a model, and mRNA and lncRNA transcripts were profiled for each sample. Additionally, 1,806 differential mRNAs and 319 differential lncRNAs were identified. A complicated interaction between mRNAs and lncRNAs was identified via WGCNA, demonstrating that lncRNAs are a crucial regulatory component in mRNA. The results show that the modules black and red have similar mRNA and lncRNA transcription patterns and are mainly involved in the process of the immune defense response. The core genes (DHX58 and IFIT1) and key lncRNAs (TCONS-00002102 and TCONS-00012474) of piglet spleen tissue were screened using the ceRNA network. The expression of these genes is related to the immune response of pigs. Our research may contribute to a further understanding of mRNA and lncRNA expression in the spleen of piglets, and provide new ideas to improve the disease resistance of piglets.

Objectives Optimal periprocedural blood pressure (BP) management during mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for acute ischaemic stroke is still controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between intraprocedural BP variability (BPV) and outcomes in patients with large vessel occlusion (LVO) following MT with general anaesthesia.Design A prospective observational cohort study.Setting This study was conducted in a single tertiary hospital of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.Participants A total of 141 patients with LVO treated with MT were finally included between January 2018 and September 2020.Main outcome measures Intraprocedural BP was recorded every 5 min throughout the procedure. BPV was measured as SD, coefficient of variation (CV), max-min (RANGE) and successive variation. Haemorrhagic transformation was assessed on 24-hour CT images according to European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study III trial. Poor functional outcome was defined as 90-day modified Rankin Scale score 3–6. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association of BPV parameters with the incidence of parenchymal haemorrhage (PH) and poor functional outcome.Results After controlling for age, female, history of smoking, hypertension and atrial fibrillation, baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, baseline systolic BP (SBP), baseline Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score, bridging thrombolysis and times of retrieval attempts, the results demonstrated that intraprocedural SBPRANGE (OR 1.029; 95% CI 1.003 to 1.055; p=0.027), SBPSD (OR 1.135; 95% CI 1.023 to 1.259; p=0.017) and SBPCV (OR 1.189; 95% CI 1.053 to 1.342; p=0.005) were independently associated with poor functional outcome. However, the independent association between intraprocedural BPV and PH at 24 hours has not been established in this study.Conclusions Increased intraprocedural BPV was more likely to have poor functional outcome in patients with LVO following MT with general anaesthesia. This finding indicates that special precautions should be taken to minimise BP fluctuation during procedure.

Purpose: To establish an effective prognostic model for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).Methods: We identified four hub differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and verified them in the Cancer Gene Atlas (TCGA), STRING, UALCAN, TIMER, and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) databases. We then used TCGA and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) to identify tumor pathway molecules highly correlated with hub DEGs. And by further LASSO and Cox regression analysis, we successfully identified five genes as prognostic factors.Results: We successfully identified a risk prediction model consisting of five genes: IGF2BP3, CDKN1A, GSDMB, FABP5, RBMX. We next distributed patients into low-risk and high-risk groups using the median as a cutoff. The low-risk group obviously had better survival than those in the predicted high-risk group. The results showed discrepancies in tumor-associated immune cell infiltration between risk groups. We also combined the risk model with clinical variables to create a nomogram.Conclusion: Our model has a satisfactory predictive effect on the prognosis of ccRCC patients and may provide new ideas for future immune therapy.

The gut microbiota and related metabolites are positively regulated by soluble dietary fiber (SDF). In this study, we explored the effects of SDF from pear pomace (PP) on the regulation of gut microbiota and metabolism in high-fat-diet-fed (HFD-fed) C57BL/6J male mice. The results showed that PP-SDF was able to maintain the HFD disrupted gut microbiota diversity with a significant increase in Lachnospiraceae_UCG-006, Akkermansia, and Bifidobacterium spp. The negative effects of high-fat diet were ameliorated by PP-SDF by regulating lipid metabolisms with a significant increase in metabolites like isobutyryl carnitine and dioscoretine. Correlation analysis revealed that gut microbiota, such as Akkermansia and Lachnospiraceae_UCG-006 in the PP-SDF intervention groups had strong positive correlations with isobutyryl carnitine and dioscoretin. These findings demonstrated that PP-SDF interfered with the host's gut microbiota and related metabolites to reduce the negative effects caused by a high-fat diet.

Mariner-like elements (MLEs) are promising tools for gene cloning, gene expression, and gene tagging. We have characterized two MLE transposons from moso bamboo, Ppmar1 and Ppmar2. Ppmar2, is smaller in size and has higher natural activities, thus making it a more potential genomic tool compared to Ppmar1. Using a two-component system consisting of a transposase expression cassette and a non-autonomous transposon cotransformed in yeast, we investigated the transposition activity of Ppmar2 and created hyperactive transposases. Five out of 19 amino acid mutations in Ppmar2 outperformed the wild-type in terms of catalytic activities, especially with the S347R mutant having 6.7-fold higher transposition activity. Moreover, 36 yeast mutants with single-gene deletion were chosen to screen the effects of the host factors on Ppmar2NA transposition. Compared to the control strain (his3Δ), the mobility of Ppmar2 was greatly increased in 9 mutants and dramatically decreased in 7 mutants. The transposition ability in the efm1Δ mutant was 15-fold higher than in the control, while it was lowered to 1/66 in the rtt10Δ mutant. Transcriptomic analysis exhibited that EFM1 defection led to the significantly impaired DDR2, HSP70 expression and dramatically boosted JEN1 expression, whereas RTT10 defection resulted in significantly suppressed expression of UTP20, RPA190 and RRP5. Protein methylation, chromatin and RNA transcription may affect the Ppmar2NA transposition efficiency in yeast. Overall, the findings provided evidence for transposition regulation and offered an alternative genomic tool for moso bamboo and other plants.

Benthivorous fish disturbance and nitrogen loading are two important factors that influence the community structure of submersed macrophytes, but their interactive effect is not well elucidated. We conducted an outdoor mesocosm experiment to examine the individual and combined effects of these two factors on the growth of two submersed macrophytes of different growth forms, i.e., the rosette-forming Vallisneria natans and the canopy-forming Myriophyllum spicatum. The treatments involved two levels of fish (Carassius auratus) disturbance crossed with two levels (0 and 12 g NH4Cl per month) of ammonium (NH4+-N) loading. For M. spicatum, we found that maximum height (MH) was reduced by 30.7%, 26.4%, and 51.0% in fish addition alone (F) and nitrogen addition treatments (N, F + N), respectively, compared with the control (C) treatment. The density of M. spicatum declined by 20%, 62% and 68.8% in the F, N and F + N treatment. The above-ground biomass (AGB) of M. spicatum respectively reduced by 56.7%, 94%, and 96.5% in the F, N and F + N treatments, and the roots/shoots ratio (R/S) increased by 114%, and 176% in N and N + F treatments, respectively. Regarding V. natans, only the MH in the N treatment was reduced (71.9%), and the density exhibited a reduction of 59.1% and 64.5% in the N and F + N treatments, respectively. The AGB of V. natans was significantly lower in the N (90.3%) and N + F (78.4%) treatments compared with the C treatment, while increased by 60.3% in F treatment. The R/S of V. natans increased by 227%, and 74.4% in the N and F + N treatments compared with the C treatment. The interactive effect of fish disturbance and high N on MH and AGB of V. natans and density of M. spicatum were antagonistic. However, the interactive effect on density and BGB of V. natans and AGB of M. spicatum were negatively synergistic. Moreover, fish activity significantly increased the concentration of total suspended solids (TSS) in the water, while total nitrogen (TN), ammonium, total phosphorus (TP), light, pH and salinity were unaffected. When fish and nitrogen were combined, TN, TP, TSS and salinity increased significantly, while pH decreased. Our study reveals that the interactive effects of fish disturbance and high N are synergistic and/or antagonistic, suggesting that the same stressor interaction may vary from synergistic to antagonistic depending on the response variables and growth forms of the macrophytes examined. Our study contributes to the understanding of how different factors can interact with each other and affect submersed macrophytes in aquatic ecosystems. This is timely and relevant knowledge, considering the range of multiple stressors involved in the decline of aquatic ecosystems worldwide at present.

AbstractLandslides have posed a huge threat to the ecological environment and human society all over the world. As the most conventional reinforcement method, anti-slide piles are widely used in the reinforcement of slopes. Currently, more and more attention has been paid to the low-cost and high-efficiency optimal design of anti-slide piles. However, limitations in the method of the optimization design for slopes reinforced with piles still exist. In this paper, a new multi-objective comprehensive optimization method was proposed for the optimization of the slope reinforced with anti-slide piles. The factor of safety, internal force, and deflection of piles were selected as the optimization indexes, and the optimization index weight was determined by integrating the subjective and objective weights. The influence of pile locations, pile lengths, and pile spacings on the reinforcement effect of a homogeneous slope was analyzed via the numerical simulation. Through the simulation case analysis, the proposed model had achieved good effects on the optimization design of anti-slide piles, which could effectively reduce the engineering costs. The optimization results showed that the best reinforcement effect for the homogeneous slope could be obtained when the anti-slide piles with the critical pile length and small pile spacing were located in the middle of the slope. This provides a new solution for the optimization design of other types of complex slopes and has broad application prospects.

When attacked by pathogens, plants need to reallocate energy from growth to defense to fend off the invaders, frequently incurring growth penalties. This phenomenon is known as the growth–defense tradeoff and is orchestrated by a hardwired transcriptional network. Altering key factors involved in this network has the potential to increase disease resistance without growth or yield loss, but the mechanisms underlying such changes require further investigation. By conducting a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of leaves infected by the hemi-biotrophic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000, we discovered that the Arabidopsis transcription factor REPLUMLESS (RPL) is necessary for bacterial resistance. More importantly, RPL functions in promoting both disease resistance and growth. Transcriptome analysis revealed a cluster of genes in the GRETCHEN HAGEN 3 (GH3) family that were significantly upregulated in rpl mutants, leading to the accumulation of indole-3-acetic acid-aspartic acid (IAA-Asp). Consistent with this observation, transcripts of virulence effector genes were activated by IAA-Asp accumulated in the rpl mutants. We found that RPL protein could directly bind to GH3 promoters and repress their expression. RPL also repressed flavonol synthesis by directly repressing CHI expression and thus activated the auxin transport pathway, which promotes plant growth. Therefore, RPL plays an important role in plant immunity and functions in the auxin pathway to optimize Arabidopsis growth and defense.

BackgroundBladder cancer patients have a high recurrence and poor survival rates worldwide. Early diagnosis and intervention are the cornerstones for favorable prognosis. However, commonly used predictive tools cannot meet clinical needs because of their insufficient accuracy.MethodsWe have developed an enhancer RNA (eRNA)-based signature to improve the prediction for bladder cancer prognosis. First, we analyzed differentially expressed eRNAs in gene expression profiles and clinical data for bladder cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Then, we constructed a risk model for prognosis of bladder cancer patients, and analyzed the correlation between this model and tumor microenvironment (TME). Finally, regulatory network of downstream genes of eRNA in the model was constructed by WGCNA and enrichment analysis, then Real-time quantitative PCR verified the differentiation of related genes between tumor and adjacent tissue.ResultsWe first constructed a risk model composed of eight eRNAs, and found the risk model could be an independent risk factor to predict the prognosis of bladder cancer. Then, the log-rank test and time-dependent ROC curve analysis shown the model has a favorable ability to predict prognosis. The eight risk eRNAs may participate in disease progression by regulating cell adhesion and invasion, and up-regulating immune checkpoints to suppress the immunity in TME. mRNA level change in related genes further validated regulatory roles of eRNAs in bladder cancer. In summary, we constructed an eRNA-based risk model and confirmed that the model could predict the prognosis of bladder cancer patients.

Soil salinization is a common abiotic stress that seriously affects soybean growth and yield, underscoring the need to enhance plant salt tolerance for sustainable agriculture development. Selenium is a beneficial element that has been shown to promote plant growth, development and stress resistance. This study employed pot experiments to investigate the effects of different salt levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl) on salt-tolerant (Zhonghuang 13) and salt-sensitive soybean (Dongnong 63) varieties. Additionally, the critical salt concentration (100 mM NaCl) was selected to explore the effects of exogenous selenium (0, 0.5, 1 and 3 mg·kg−1) on improving salt tolerance in salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive soybeans under salt stress. Results showed that as salt concentration increased, plant height, shoot and root fresh weight, SPAD value and enzyme activity of both salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive soybeans significantly decreased. The increasing concentration of exogenous selenium significantly decreased the proline content of salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant soybeans by 40.65–58.87% and 38.51–50.46%, respectively, and the MDA content by 19.33–30.36% and 16.94–37.48%, respectively. Selenium supplementation also reduced the content of Na+ in salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant soybeans and improved K+ absorption in soybeans, which increased the K+/Na+ ratio. Moreover, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene demonstrated that selenium application optimized the rhizosphere microecology structure of salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive soybean varieties and enhanced functional genes related to lipid metabolism, energy metabolism and cell motility of rhizosphere microorganisms. In summary, selenium application improved the salt tolerance of the two soybean varieties by enhancing the physiological resistance to salt stress and optimizing the structure and function of the rhizosphere microbial community.

Cervical cancer is a prevalent chronic malignant tumor in gynecology, necessitating high-quality images of cervical precancerous lesions to enhance detection rates. Addressing the challenges of low contrast, uneven illumination, and indistinct lesion details in such images, this paper proposes an enhancement algorithm based on retinex and histogram equalization. First, the algorithm solves the color deviation problem by modifying the quantization formula of retinex theory. Then, the contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization algorithm is selectively conducted on blue and green channels to avoid the problem of image visual quality reduction caused by drastic darkening of local dark areas. Next, a multi-scale detail enhancement algorithm is used to further sharpen the details. Finally, the problem of noise amplification and image distortion in the process of enhancement is alleviated by dynamic weighted fusion. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in optimizing brightness, enhancing contrast, sharpening details, and suppressing noise in cervical precancerous lesion images. The proposed algorithm has shown superior performance compared to other traditional methods based on objective indicators such as peak signal-to-noise ratio, detail-variance–background-variance, gray square mean deviation, contrast improvement index, and enhancement quality index.

The red palm weevil (RPW, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) is an invasive and highly destructive pest that poses a serious threat to palm plants. To improve the efficiency of adult RPWs’ management, an enhanced YOLOv5 object detection algorithm based on an attention mechanism is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the detection capabilities for small targets are enhanced by adding a convolutional layer to the backbone network of YOLOv5 and forming a quadruple down-sampling layer by splicing and down-sampling the convolutional layers. Secondly, the Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) attention mechanism and Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) attention mechanism are inserted directly before the SPPF structure to improve the feature extraction capability of the model for targets. Then, 2600 images of RPWs in different scenes and forms are collected and organized for data support. These images are divided into a training set, validation set and test set following a ratio of 7:2:1. Finally, an experiment is conducted, demonstrating that the enhanced YOLOv5 algorithm achieves an average precision of 90.1% (mAP@0.5) and a precision of 93.8% (P), which is a significant improvement compared with related models. In conclusion, the enhanced model brings a higher detection accuracy and real-time performance to the RPW-controlled pest pre-detection system, which helps us to take timely preventive and control measures to avoid serious pest infestation. It also provides scalability for other pest pre-detection systems; with the corresponding dataset and training, the algorithm can be adapted to the detection tasks of other pests, which in turn brings a wider range of applications in the field of monitoring and control of agricultural pests.

Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic material has become the most promising third-generation semiconductor material for its excellent mechanical properties at room temperature and high temperature. However, SiC ceramic machining has serious tool wear, low machining efficiency, poor machining quality and other disadvantages due to its high hardness and high wear resistance, which limits the promotion and application of such materials. In this paper, comparison experiments of longitudinal torsional ultrasonic vibration grinding (LTUVG) and common grinding (CG) of SiC ceramics were conducted, and the longitudinal torsional ultrasonic vibration grinding SiC ceramics cutting force model was developed. In addition, the effects of ultrasonic machining parameters on cutting forces, machining quality and subsurface cracking were investigated, and the main factors and optimal parameters affecting the cutting force improvement rate were obtained by orthogonal tests. The results showed that the maximum improvement of cutting force, surface roughness and subsurface crack fracture depth by longitudinal torsional ultrasonic vibrations were 82.59%, 22.78% and 30.75%, respectively. A longitudinal torsional ultrasonic vibrations cutting force prediction model containing the parameters of tool, material properties and ultrasound was established by the removal characteristics of SiC ceramic material, ultrasonic grinding principle and brittle fracture theory. And the predicted results were in good agreement with the experimental results, and the maximum error was less than 15%. The optimum process parameters for cutting force reduction were a spindle speed of 22,000 rpm, a feed rate of 600 mm/min and a depth of cut of 0.011 mm.

Compared with optical coherence tomography (OCT) in the near-infrared domain, the visible-light OCT (vis-OCT) system affords a higher axial resolution for discerning subtle pathological changes associated with early diseases. However, the significant material dispersion at the visible-light range leads to a severe problem for dispersion management in vis-OCT systems, which results in a compromised axial resolution. While dispersion compensators (such as prism pairs) are commonly used, a digital method is still highly desirable and has been widely used to compensate for the residual dispersion imbalance between the reference and sample arms in an OCT system. In this paper, we develop a generic approach to effectively compensate for the system dispersion, especially the higher-order dispersion in the vis-OCT system, by using a single arbitrary measurement of the mirror-reflection (SAMMR) method and its resulting phase information. Compared with the previous methods, including the method based on the Taylor series iterative fitting and differential method, the proposed method does not need to extract the dispersion coefficients or use the metric functions and affords a better performance for axial resolution and the signal-to-noise ratio in vis-OCT systems. Its effectiveness is further validated in an OCT system operating in the near-infrared domain.

Amino acid balance is central to improving the efficiency of feed protein utilization and for reducing environmental pollution caused by intensive farming. In previous studies, supplementation with limiting amino acids has been shown to be an effective means of improving animal nutrient utilization and performance. In this experiment, the effects of methionine on the apparent digestibility of nutrients, antler nutrient composition, rumen fluid amino acid composition, fecal volatile fatty acids and intestinal bacteria in antler-growing sika deer were investigated by randomly adding different levels of methionine to the diets of three groups of four deer at 0 g/day (CON), 4 g/day (LMet) and 6 g/day (HMet). Methionine supplementation significantly increased the apparent digestibility of organic matter, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) in the LMet group (p < 0.05). The crude protein and collagen protein of antlers were significantly higher in the LMet and HMet groups compared to the CON group and also significantly higher in the HMet group compared to the LMet group, while the calcium content of antlers was significantly lower in the HMet group (p < 0.05). Ruminal fluid free amino acid composition was altered in the three groups of sika deer, with significant changes in aspartic acid, citrulline, valine, cysteine, methionine, histidine and proline. At the phylum level, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were highest in the rectal microflora. Unidentified bacterial abundance was significantly decreased in the HMet group compared to the CON group. Based on the results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and Adonis analysis, there was a significant difference in the composition of the intestinal flora between the CON and HMet groups (p < 0.05). At the genus level, compared with the CON group, the abundance of Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group and Lachnospiraceae_UCG-010 in the LMet group increased significantly (p < 0.05), the abundance of dgA-11_gut_group in the HMet group decreased significantly (p < 0.05) and the abundance of Lachnospiraceae_UCG-010, Saccharofermentans and Lachnospiraceae_NK3A20_group increased significantly. Taken together, the results showed that methionine supplementation was beneficial in increasing the feed utilization efficiency and improving antler quality in sika deer, while affecting the composition of fecal bacteria.

After high-temperature treatment, both nano-titanium dioxide-modified concrete and ordinary concrete exhibit typical splitting failure. High-temperature heating reduces the mechanical properties and brittleness of concrete and improves the ductility of concrete. The stress–strain relationship of the specimens was obtained through the uniaxial compression test of ordinary concrete and nano-titanium dioxide-modified concrete cube specimens under normal temperature and high-temperature conditions. In addition, the relationship between temperature and damage variables was established, and the unified constitutive model containing damage variables after room temperature and high-temperature treatment of ordinary concrete and nano-titanium dioxide-modified concrete were established. It provides a reference for future research on the mechanical properties of high-performance concrete structures after high temperatures (fire).

NiP coating has excellent physicochemical properties and is one of the best materials for coating optical components. When processing NiP coatings on optical components, single-point diamond turning (SPDT) is generally adopted as the first process. However, SPDT turning produces periodic turning patterns on the workpiece, which impacts the optical performance of the component. Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a deterministic sub-aperture polishing process based on computer-controlled optical surface forming that can correct surface shape errors and improve the surface quality of workpieces. This paper analyzes the characteristics of NiP coating and develops a magnetorheological fluid specifically for the processing of NiP coating. Based on the basic Preston principle, a material removal model for the MRF polishing of NiP coating was established, and the MRF manufacturing process was optimized by orthogonal tests. The optimized MRF polishing process quickly removes the SPDT turning tool pattern from the NiP coating surface and corrects surface profile errors. At the same time, the surface quality of the NiP coating has also been improved, with the surface roughness increasing from Ra 2.054 nm for SPDT turning to Ra 0.705 nm.

In this paper, the spatial spectral characteristics of partial discharge (PD) under different electrode models are mainly studied. In the initial corona discharge stage, the emission spectrum is mainly emitted by the N2(C3IIu→B3IIg) energy level transition of the N2 second positive band system. The spectrum is in the ultraviolet range of 294–436 nm, and its main peak is at 337 nm. The streamer discharge stage spectrum is mainly emitted by the energy level transition of the second positive band system of N2, N+, NO, and O+ and the first positive band system of N2(B3IIg→A3Σu+). In the gap of different polarity electrodes, the ultraviolet spectrum content near the positive polarity is more abundant. The UV spectra ranges are 202–225 nm and 229–292 nm, respectively. The discharge of the needle–sphere system is more intense in visible light and near-infrared light, with peaks at 500 nm and 777 nm, respectively. In addition, the PD process based on the finite element method is simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics software. The simulation results show that the distribution of high-energy electron density varies with the electrode spacing and discharge model. The influence of particle energy level transition on the spatial spectral characteristics of PD is verified. This work provides important insights and possibilities for future fluorescent fiberoptic sensing and positioning for spatial PD detection and positioning using spectral characteristic peaks as detection quantities or excitations.

This study conducted plane-strain scaled model tests to investigate the deformation characteristics of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) abutments subjected to vertical loads. Setback distance, i.e., the distance between the back of the abutment facing and the front of the loading plate, was chosen as the investigated influencing factor since it is one of the most frequently used variables by engineers for the design of GRS abutments. This study analyzed the settlements at the top of the abutment, the lateral displacements of the abutment facing, and the volumetric deformations of the abutment under the applied vertical loads. Test results showed that increasing the setback distance could effectively reduce the deformations of the GRS abutment. There existed an optimum setback distance and further increasing the setback distance beyond this optimum value did not have a significant effect on reducing the abutment deformations. The vertical, lateral, and total volumetric deformations of the GRS abutment showed an approximately linear increase with the increase of the applied vertical loads. The lateral volumetric deformations of the GRS abutment were larger than its vertical volumetric deformations and therefore the total volumetric strains of the GRS abutment were not zero based on the test results. However, the theory of zero volume change may still be suitable for the deformation calculation of the GRS abutment since the values of the volumetric strains were minimal. The measured maximum lateral facing displacements were compared with the calculated values using the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) method, which assumes zero volume change of the GRS abutment under vertical loads. Comparison results indicated that the FHWA method overestimated the maximum lateral facing displacements of the GRS abutment under vertical loads. An improved method was proposed in this study to calculate the maximum lateral facing displacements under vertical loads based on the theory of zero volume change and a revised distribution of the settlements at the top of the GRS abutment. Results showed that the improved method could better predict the maximum lateral facing displacements as compared to the FHWA method.