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Research results show that comparing to unfrozen soil, frozen soil has more complicated deformation behavior owing to the presence of ice. On the basis of triaxial tests results of frozen silty clay (FSC) at ˗6 °C, due to the ice cementation, the critical state line (CSL) of FSC does not cross the origin of the deviatoric plane. The critical deviatoric stress of FSC increases nonlinearly as the mean stress growing; however, further increases of the mean stress give rise to the decreases in the critical deviatoric stress. Because under high mean stresses, the ice-melting and-crushing (IMAC) cause ice cementation degradation. To predict the deformation of FSC, a new anisotropic constitutive model that considers the degradation of ice cementation is proposed. In the proposed model, first, the elastic parameters of FSC are obtained by conducting triaxial shear loading-unloading (TSLU) tests and isotropic compression loading-unloading (ICLU) tests. Second, yield and plastic potential functions are proposed, the two involve the modified mean stress and indicate the degradation of ice cementation. Third, a double hardening law pertaining to isotropic hardening and rotational hardening is developed by considering initial anisotropy and stress-induced particle rotation under shear loading. Finally, the comparison results confirm that the developed constitutive model is valid and suitable for describing the stress–strain relations of FSC.

CD102 is an enriched biomarker for long-lived plasma cells in non-human primates (NHPs) and is conserved across NHPs, humans, and mice.

Highlights Monodomain liquid crystals of graphene oxide over 30 cm is realized by boundary-free sheargraphy. The achieved monodomain liquid crystals have bidirectional sheet ordering, exhibiting unique optical, rheological, and conductive properties. Boundary-free sheargraphy extends to freely design delicate topology of two-dimensional colloids, including topological structures with defect strength from − 2 to + 2 and complex polydomain.

Strong, electroactive and ultrafine conducting polymer fibres are prepared at the large scale by a modified wet spinning strategy. The obtained ultrafine polyaniline fibres are qualified to build tactile organic electrochemical transistors.

With the continuous improvement of China's infrastructure, integrated pipeline corridors have become an indispensable part of intelligent city management. Because of complex environments and numerous potential failures in integrated pipeline corridor operation and maintenance, the risks in integrated pipeline corridors present dynamic characteristics. The analysis of only their static characteristics is therefore insufficient. In this paper, based on the combination of the design structure matrix (DSM) method and the principle of pairwise comparison in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), we determine the interaction and the strength of the relationship between the risks of integrated pipeline corridor operation and maintenance, construct a dynamic risk model based on system dynamics, and analyze the influence mechanism of the risk control input on the system risk in integrated pipeline corridor operation and maintenance management. The simulation results show that the integrated pipeline corridor operation and maintenance risks form various risk paths under the influence of unreasonable design and construction, third-party damage, natural disasters and management team level factors. The risk control input can reduce the integrated pipeline corridor operation and maintenance risk to a certain extent.

Since ancient times, earthquakes have been frequent in China. They have caused serious damage to people's lives and the economic conditions of the country. A large earthquake will cause serious casualties, and a large number of emergency supplies will be needed in the disaster area. However, since earthquakes regularly occur quickly, it is impossible to determine the demand for emergency supplies. Therefore, emergency supplies lose accuracy in distribution. In this paper, we adopt an indirect prediction method. We use particle swarm optimization to improve and optimize the initial weights and thresholds of the BP neural network. Then we predict the mortality rate and injury rate of a large earthquake. Hence the number of casualties and survivors can be obtained. Finally, quantitative relationships between the number of survivors, injured and different supplies are used to estimate the demand for various supplies. By comparing the BP neural network before the improvement, we find that the improved model has higher prediction accuracy and less prediction error. In addition the simulation value fits better with the desired output value. This paper enriches the modeling method for the study of demand prediction of large earthquake emergency supplies.

Duty-free shops, which have emerged in major airports, first-tier cities, free trade zones and other places, have become ideal places for not only facilitating people to buy goods but also promoting the development of the local economy, which makes the study of the heterogeneous consumer purchase behavior in duty-free stores of great importance and great practical significance. Based on this, the agent model is used to study the purchase behavior of heterogeneous consumers in duty-free stores, the structure of the agent model is proposed, the consumer submodel and situation submodel are designed, and a service recommendation is made. On this basis, the consumer behavior is simulated and analyzed both with and without considering situational factors. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The display, the month, holidays, and other factors have an important impact on the heterogeneous consumers of duty-free stores and affect consumers' consumption behavior. (2) Salespeople's recommendation rules and consumers' purchase preferences affect consumers' purchase behavior, which has an important impact on the types and quantity of goods consumers buy.

Abstract The processing capability is vital for the wide applications of materials to forge structures as-demand. Graphene-based macroscopic materials have shown excellent mechanical and functional properties. However, different from usual polymers and metals, graphene solids exhibit limited deformability and processibility for precise forming. Here, we present a precise thermoplastic forming of graphene materials by polymer intercalation from graphene oxide (GO) precursor. The intercalated polymer enables the thermoplasticity of GO solids by thermally activated motion of polymer chains. We detect a critical minimum containing of intercalated polymer that can expand the interlayer spacing exceeding 1.4 nm to activate thermoplasticity, which becomes the criteria for thermal plastic forming of GO solids. By thermoplastic forming, the flat GO-composite films are forged to Gaussian curved shapes and imprinted to have surface relief patterns with size precision down to 360 nm. The plastic-formed structures maintain the structural integration with outstanding electrical (3.07 × 105 S m−1) and thermal conductivity (745.65 W m−1 K−1) after removal of polymers. The thermoplastic strategy greatly extends the forming capability of GO materials and other layered materials and promises versatile structural designs for more broad applications. Graphical abstract

Here, the authors design macroscopic multi-layered graphene fibres with light-emission and -detection dual functionality in the mid-infrared range, offering megahertz modulation frequencies and bidirectional data transmission operation.

The importance of public spaces in the Chinese population is growing along with China's social and economic development. As a result, the potential for human casualties and economic loss if the emergency evacuation of public space is not timely and effective is also increasing. How to evacuate people from public places quickly and safely is the focus of current research in the field. This paper explores the role of people and the evacuation environment as factors that influence emergency evacuations. Then, an evacuation model is established using cellular automata and agent-hybrid theory. Matlab software is used to simulate the evacuation process of people from a school building in the event of a natural disaster, verifying the effectiveness of the model. At the same time, the model provides ideas for the formulation of relevant evacuation schemes.

The strength of frozen saline soil is influenced by various factors, such as confining pressure, salt content, and temperature. To investigate the influences of these factors on strength parameters, a series of triaxial tests were performed for frozen saline samples. According to the test results, as the mean principal stress increases, the failure strength increases firstly and then reaches a peak value, followed by a decreasing tendency. The pressure corresponding to ice melting is higher for frozen samples at a lower temperature. A strength function, which consists of cohesion and friction components, is developed in p‐q plane. Then, the relationships between temperature and strength parameters are given by fitting the test data. The envelope between those for the SMP and von Mises criteria is employed to describe the strength properties in π plane. By comparing the predicted data with test results, the developed strength criterion can well reproduce the strength variation of frozen sandy samples considering the effects of confining pressure, salt content, and temperature.

High temperature (HT) is an important factor for limiting global plant distribution and agricultural production. As the global temperature continues to rise, it is essential to clarify the physiological and molecular mechanisms of alfalfa responding the high temperature, which will contribute to the improvement of heat resistance in leguminous crops. In this study, the physiological and proteomic responses of two alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) varieties contrasting in heat tolerance, MS30 (heat-tolerant) and MS37 (heat-sensitive), were comparatively analyzed under the treatments of continuously rising temperatures for 42 days. The results showed that under the HT stress, the chlorophyll content and the chlorophyll fluorescence parameter (Fv/Fm) of alfalfa were significant reduced and some key photosynthesis-related proteins showed a down-regulated trend. Moreover, the content of Malondialdehyde (MDA) and the electrolyte leakage (EL) of alfalfa showed an upward trend, which indicates both alfalfa varieties were damaged under HT stress. However, because the antioxidation-reduction and osmotic adjustment ability of MS30 were significantly stronger than MS37, the damage degree of the photosynthetic system and membrane system of MS30 is significantly lower than that of MS37. On this basis, the global proteomics analysis was undertaken by tandem mass tags (TMT) technique, a total of 6,704 proteins were identified and quantified. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that a series of key pathways including photosynthesis, metabolism, adjustment and repair were affected by HT stress. Through analyzing Venn diagrams of two alfalfa varieties, 160 and 213 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) that had dynamic changes under HT stress were identified from MS30 and MS37, respectively. Among these DEPs, we screened out some key DEPs, such as ATP-dependent zinc metalloprotease FTSH protein, vitamin K epoxide reductase family protein, ClpB3, etc., which plays important functions in response to HT stress. In conclusion, the stronger heat-tolerance of MS30 was attributed to its higher adjustment and repair ability, which could cause the metabolic process of MS30 is more conducive to maintaining its survival and growth than MS37, especially at the later period of HT stress. This study provides a useful catalog of the Medicago sativa L. proteomes with the insight into its future genetic improvement of heat-resistance.

With the explosive growth in Internet news media and the disorganized status of news texts, this paper puts forward an automatic classification model for news based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). In the model, Word2vec is firstly merged with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to generate an effective text feature representation. Then when an attention mechanism is combined with the proposed model, higher attention probability values are given to key features to achieve an accurate judgment. The results show that the precision rate, the recall rate and the F1 value of the model in this paper reach 96.4%, 95.9% and 96.2% respectively, which indicates that the improved CNN, through a unique framework, can extract deep semantic features of the text and provide a strong support for establishing an efficient and accurate news text classification model.

Electronic medical record (EMR) is the comprehensive description of the patients' individual health information in medical activities, which paves the way for intelligent-assisted medical decision-making research. However, due to the problems of data preprocessing, time-consuming and laborious data labeling in the Chinese electronic medical records, and the diversity of electronic medical record data storage, the research on electronic medical records poses certain challenges. Therefore, this paper intends to construct a medical domain dictionary in the word segmentation to improve the accuracy of the Chinese medical terminology recognition in electronic medical records. The Chinese text feature is extracted by using the latent Dirichl et al location (LDA) model, and the patient feature vector is constructed by feature stitching. At the same time, this paper uses the cumulative method of multi-impact indicators to construct the patient paired constraint set as the supervision information and guides the cluster learning model to optimize the patient category effect. In this paper, the comparison results show that the clustering algorithm with supervisory information is better than the simple unsupervised clustering algorithm. When constructing the supervised information set, the influence factor of the multi-dimensional attribute of the patient is better than the single-diagnosis result factor, and the clustering effect is improved as the number of paired constraint information increases.

Erianthus arundinaceus is not only a candidate plant for sugarcane breeding programs, but also a potential bioenergy grass. Genetic variation that is affected by geographic environments and ploidy level is very important for the utilization of Erianthus arundinaceus. In this study, effects of geographic environments and ploidy level on genetic variation were studied through analyzing the genetic diversity, genetic similarity and cluster analysis of 46 E. arundinaceus materials from natural habitats in China by using 7 ISSRs and 15 SSRs. Results showed that: 1) Seven ISSRs generated total 66 bands, of which 77% were polymorphic bands, the Nei's genetic similarity coefficient of tested materials ranged from 0.642 to 0.904 with an average value of 0.765. Fifteen SSRs generated 138 bands, of which 81% were polymorphic bands, the Nei's genetic similarity coefficient of tested materials ranged from 0.634 to 0.963 with an average value of 0.802. The results indicated great genetic diversity existed in the tested materials. 2)The tested materials were clustered into 3 groups and 7 subgroups, which demonstrated a strong geographic effect on variation of the local E. arundinaceus, and weak relationship was found between genetic distance and geographic distance. Five tetraploid materials were not clustered together, and were clustered together with materials from similar geographical location. 3) The genetic variation and cluster results were affected by geographic landforms and environments, the gene flow was blocked by Ocean and mountains, and promoted by river. The effect of ploidy level on genetic variation was little.

The widely used pseudorabies virus (PRV) Bartha-K61 vaccine has played a key role in the eradication of PRV. Since late 2011, however, a disease characterized by neurologic symptoms and a high number of deaths among newborn piglets has occurred among Bartha-K61–vaccinated pigs on many farms in China. Clinical samples from pigs on 15 farms in 6 provinces were examined. The PRV gE gene was detectable by PCR in all samples, and sequence analysis of the gE gene showed that all isolates belonged to a relatively independent cluster and contained 2 amino acid insertions. A PRV (named HeN1) was isolated and caused transitional fever in pigs. In protection assays, Bartha-K61 vaccine provided 100% protection against lethal challenge with SC (a classical PRV) but only 50% protection against 4 challenges with strain HeN1. The findings suggest that Bartha-K61 vaccine does not provide effective protection against PRV HeN1 infection.

Plant tillering and related traits are morphologically important components contributing to switchgrass ( L.) biomass yield. The objectives of this study were to estimate broad-sense heritabilities for tillering-related traits, to analyze correlations between biomass yield and the traits, and to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for them. A first-generation selfed population of NL94 plant and a hybrid population between NL94 and SL93 plants were field established in a randomized complete block design with three replications in Stillwater and Perkins, OK. Phenotypic data were collected in 2 yr and genotypic data were obtained by genotyping simple-sequence repeat (SSR) markers in the two populations on the basis of two preexisting genetic maps. Plant base size (PBS), plant girth (PG), tillering ability (TA), tiller diameter (TD), and tiller dry weight (TDW) were positively correlated with biomass yield in both populations. Consistently, PBS had the largest correlation coefficients for biomass yield, suggesting its value as an indirect selection criterion for biomass yield. Twenty and 26 QTL for six tillering-related traits were detected in the hybrid and selfed population, respectively. Among the QTL, one on linkage group (LG) 5a between sww-2387/PVCAG-2197/2198 and PVGA-1649/1650 for PBS, PG, and TA and another on LG 2a between sww-2640/sww-2545 and PVCA-765/766 for TD and TDW were stably detected in multiple environments in the two populations. The findings add to the knowledge base regarding the genetics of tillering-related traits that could be used in accelerating the development of high-yielding cultivars through marker-assisted selection.

Erianthus arundinaceus is not only an important germplasm resource for sugarcane breeding but also a potential bioenergy plant. Making clear the distribution of the chromosome ploidy of wild E. arundinaceus in china is the premise of the research and utilization of this species. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the ploidy level and DNA content of the 55 E. arundinaceus accessions using flow cytometry and to identify the correlation between ploidy and phenotypic traits. Among the 55 accessions, four tetraploids and 51 hexaploids were identified. The four tetraploids originated from Mengma Yunnan, Shuangjiang Yunnan, Gaozhou Guangdong and Chengle Sichuan. The mean DNA content was 4.82 pg/2C for the tetraploid and 7.30 pg/2C for the hexaploid plants. The ploidy was negatively correlated with cellulose content and positively correlated (P

In response to the wide spread of microbial contamination induced by bacterial pathogens, the development of novel materials with excellent antibacterial activity is of great interest. In this study, novel antibacterial chitosan (CS) and polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride (PHGC) dual-polymer-functionalized graphene oxide (GO) (GO-CS-PHGC) composites were designed and easily fabricated. The as-prepared materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Raman spectroscopy. Their antibacterial capability towards bacterial strains was also studied by incubating both Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive bacteria in their presence. More significantly, the synergistic antibacterial action of the three components was assayed, and the findings implied that the as-prepared GO-CS-PHGC shows enhanced antibacterial activity when compared to its single components (GO, CS, PHGC or CS-PHGC) and the mixture of individual components. Not only Gram-negative bacteria but also Gram-positive bacteria are greatly inhibited by GO-CS-PHGC composites. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of GO-CS-PHGC against E. coli was 32 μg/mL. With the powerful antibacterial activity as well as its low cost and facile preparation, GO-CS-PHGC has potential applications as a novel antibacterial agent in a wide range of biomedical uses.

BACKGROUND:Members of the predatory gastropod genus Conus use a venom comprised of a cocktail of peptide neurotoxins, termed conotoxins or conopeptides, to paralyze prey and conotoxin gene family members diversify via strong positive selection. Because Conus venoms are used primarily to subdue prey, the evolution of venoms is likely affected by predator-prey interactions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:To identify the selective forces that drive the differentiation of venoms within species of Conus, we examined the distribution of alleles of a polymorphic O-superfamily conotoxin locus of Conus ebraeus at Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii. Previous analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene sequences suggest that populations of C. ebraeus, a worm-eating Conus, are not structured genetically in the western and central Pacific. Nonetheless, because the sample size from Guam was relatively low, we obtained additional data from this location and reexamined patterns of genetic variation at the mitochondrial gene at Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii. We also utilized a DNA-based approach to identify prey items of individuals of C. ebraeus from Guam and compared this information to published data on diets at Okinawa and Hawaii. Our results show that conotoxin allelic frequencies differ significantly among all three locations, with strongest differentiation at Hawaii. We also confirm previous inferences that C. ebraeus exhibits no genetic differentiation between Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii at the mitochondrial locus. Finally, DNA-based analyses show that eunicid polychaetes comprise the majority of the prey items of C. ebraeus at Guam; while this results compares well with observed diet of this species at Okinawa, C. ebraeus preys predominantly on nereid polychaetes at Hawaii. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:These results imply that strong selection pressures affect conotoxin allelic frequencies. Based on the dietary information, the selection may derive from geographic variation in dietary specialization and local coevolutionary arms races between Conus and their prey.

In this study, titanium metal (99.99%) was deposited on quartz glass substrate test specimens by DC magnetron sputtering. Thereafter, radio-frequency magnetron sputtering was used to create an oxide layer of ITO:Ga (97.3 at%) to form a final dual-layer transparent and conductive film on the glass substrate. The film was then annealed at different temperatures under vacuum. The thermal energy rearranged the internal crystalline structure, and this reduced the number of crystalline defects. The multilayer structure of the dual-layer film was explored after annealing: the film thickness, electrical properties, transmission properties, surface structure, grain size, and quality factors were all analyzed. The results showed that the electrical properties of ITO:Ga/Ti improved after annealing at 500 °C (100 W; 30 min) and that the resistivity was 6.51 × 10-4 O·cm. The average penetration of ITO:Ga/Ti after annealing at 400 °C was 87.52%, and after annealing at 500 °C, it was 89.70%. The figure of merit was the optimal value of 4.78 × 10-3 O-1 after annealing at 500 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering was used to sputter a thin layer of ITO:Ga with a purity of 97:3 at% on glass substrates. A layer of Zr with a purity of 99.99% was then deposited on the ITO:Ga layer by direct current magnetron sputtering. Finally, RF magnetron sputtering was used once again to deposit a thin ZnO layer with a purity of 99.99 at% on top of the Zr layer. The three-layered film structure was annealed in a vacuum at various temperatures in the range of 200–500 °C in order to prompt a rearrangement of the crystal structure and reduce the number of internal defects. The effects of the annealing temperature on the film thickness, electrical properties, optical properties, surface morphologies, and quality factors of the multilayered films were investigated. The trilayer film showed a minimum resistivity of 1.79 × 10−3 Ω-cm after annealing at a temperature of 500 °C and an average optical transmission of 88.14% after annealing at 300 °C. The optimal quality factor (1.44 × 10−3 Ω−1) was obtained for the film annealed at 500 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]