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In this study, the optimal concentrations of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and methyl dihydrojasmonate (MDJA) for Cabernet Gernischt were selected based on basic physicochemical properties of grapes. The key volatile metabolites and key enzyme activities in response to MeJA and MDJA were analyzed by headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The effects of pre-harvest MeJA or MDJA treatment on the fruit quality and green leaf volatile components in the lipoxygenase (LOX) metabolic pathway of Cabernet Gernischt were also investigated. The findings revealed that the application of 0.1 mmol/L MeJA or 5 mmol/L MDJA significantly enhanced mass of 100 berries, total sugar content, soluble solids content, pH, total phenol and total anthocyanin contents. Compared with the control group, MeJA increased these indexes by 10.24%, 27.83%, 28.24%, 4.80%, 77.63% and 85.29%, respectively, while MDJA increased them by 9.15%, 24.01%, 24.41%, 8.30%, 69.21% and 71.57%, respectively. Furthermore, MeJA and MDJA reduced titratable acid content by 40.0% and 30.24%, respectively. Accordingly, both MeJA and MDJA significantly improved fruit quality. Moreover, they significantly increased the contents of C6 compounds responsible for the typical aroma of Cabernet Gernischet. Significant correlations were observed between the activity of each key enzyme in the lipoxygenase metabolic pathway and the corresponding metabolites, indicating that the application of MeJA or MDJA at a suitable concentration could positively influence the accumulation of green leaf volatiles in Cabernet Gernischt.

Due to the non-commutativity of fundamental operators of quantum mechanics, the classical computer can do nothing with operation of quantum gates, in this paper, we propose operator-orderization programme, so that using classical computers we can derive quantum unitary gates from the corresponding classical transformation, as examples, we employ operator-orderization programme to derive Squeezing gate, Not gate, Swap gate and Hadamard gate on classical computers. We predict that our this scheme may have profound applications in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Protein instability has been reported to be an important cause of haze in white wines; to investigate the feasibility of protease as a substitute for bentonite in the protein stability of white grape liqueurs, the effect of protease combined with heat treatment on the composition and protein stability of liqueur wines was investigated by chemical analysis, sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE), and amino acid analysis. Results: The results showed that the contents of total acid, volatile acid, pH, and glycerol were not significantly different from the blank control; the effect on total protein content and thermal stability were similar to the bentonite treatment; the L∗, b∗, and Cab∗ values of liqueur wines increased by 5.59%, 4.33%, and 4.33% after protease combined with heat treatment (p < 0.05); SDS‐PAGE results confirmed that protease combined with heat treatment had good hydrolysis for thaumatin‐like proteins (TLPs) and chitinases (CHIs) in liqueur wines. Amino acid analysis revealed that the levels of threonine, serine, tyrosine, arginine, and proline had increased, respectively, and isoleucine (1.26 mg/L) and leucine (1.16 mg/L) were newly detected after protease combined with heat treatment. Particle size analysis showed that the protease combined with heat treatment had less effect on the particle size distribution of the wines. Conclusion: Protease combined with heat treatment had a certain protein stabilizing effect and had no significant negative impact on other nutrients of liqueur wines. Thus, it can be used as an alternative to bentonite for the protein stabilization of liqueur wines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Ensuring the efficient recognition and management of crop pests is crucial for maintaining the balance in global agricultural ecosystems and ecological harmony. Deep learning‐based methods have shown promise in crop pest recognition. However, prevailing methods often fail to address a critical issue: biased pest training dataset distribution stemming from the tendency to collect images primarily in certain environmental contexts, such as paddy fields. This oversight hampers recognition accuracy when encountering pest images dissimilar to training samples, highlighting the need for a novel approach to overcome this limitation. RESULTS: We introduce the Decoupled Feature Learning (DFL) framework, leveraging causal inference techniques to handle training dataset bias. DFL manipulates the training data based on classification confidence to construct different training domains and employs center triplet loss for learning class‐core features. The proposed DFL framework significantly boosts existing baseline models, attaining unprecedented recognition accuracies of 95.33%, 92.59%, and 74.86% on the Li, DFSPD, and IP102 datasets, respectively. CONCLUSION: Extensive testing on three pest datasets using standard baseline models demonstrates the superiority of DFL in pest recognition. The visualization results show that DFL encourages the baseline models to capture the class‐core features. The proposed DFL marks a pivotal step in mitigating the issue of data distribution bias, enhancing the reliability of deep learning in agriculture. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rock–lining interaction significantly affects the stability and safety of a tunnel in service. In this study, a mechanical model is proposed to explore the rock–lining interaction under hydrostatic pressure. The model takes into account the alterable mechanical property (such as the elastic modulus) of the lining in the rheological rock mass, which may be subjected to inner surface pressure along the radial direction of the highway tunnel. The alterable elastic modulus is assumed as a power function of the radius. The analytical solutions of this model are first verified by comparison with existing solutions and corresponding results are obtained by numerical simulation. Then, systematic parametric investigations are carried out to analyze the influence of the main model parameters on the radial deformation of the rock–lining interface and the normalized supporting pressure provided by the lining. The research conclusions obtained by this study can offer some valuable references for the safety evaluation of a tunnel in service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (C.medinalis) is an agricultural pest with recurrent outbreaks. The investigation into automated pest and disease detection technology holds significant value for in‐field surveys. Current generic detection methods are inadequate due to arbitrary orientations and a wide range of aspect ratios in damage symptoms. To tackle these issues, we put forward a rotated two‐stage detection method for in‐field C.medinalis surveys. This method relies on an anchor‐free rotated region proposal network (AF‐R2PN), bypassing the need for hyper‐parameter optimization induced by predefined anchor boxes. An in‐field C.medinalis dataset is constructed during on‐site pest surveys to validate the effectiveness of our method. RESULTS: The experimental results show that our method can accomplish 80% average precision (AP), surpassing the corresponding horizontal detector by 2.3%. The visualization results of our work showcase its exceptional localization capability over generic detection methods, facilitating inspection by plant protectors. Meanwhile, our proposed method outperforms other state‐of‐the‐art rotated detection algorithms. The AF‐R2PN module can generate superior arbitrary‐oriented proposals even with a decreased number of proposals, balancing inference speed and detection performance among other rotated two‐stage methods. CONCLUSION: The proposed method exhibits superiority in detecting C. medinalis damage under complex field conditions. It provides greater practical applicability during in‐field surveys, enhancing their efficiency and coverage. The findings hold significance for pest and disease monitoring, providing important technical support for agricultural production. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the adaptability to complex shaped products, TiC particulates (TiCp) reinforced high-manganese steel matrix (TiCp/HMS) composites were prepared by the squeeze casting infiltration method, and the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the composites were investigated, with different TiCp volume fractions (35%, 50%, 65%). Water glass was applied as binder in the TiCp preforms, in which iron powder was added to adjust the TiCp fractions, and Si powder to activate the bonding of TiCp/steel interface. The results showed that with the increase of the volume fraction, the hardness of the composites increases gradually, with the highest reaching 60.7 HRC at 65 % TiCp, which is 2.7 times that of the matrix. However, the bending strength decreases gradually, with the maximum 439.0 MPa obtained at 35% TiCp. The impact toughness of the composites changes slightly. Due to the use of water glass, brittle glass phase is formed at the TiCp/steel interface, which reduces the mechanical properties of the composites. The addition of Si powder can improve the comprehensive mechanical properties of the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate how methyl jasmonate (MeJA) affects the storage quality of fresh-cut Cistanche deserticola, this study immersed fresh-cut Cistanche deserticola in MeJA solutions of 100, 150, and 200 μmol/L concentrations and measured changes in hardness, weight loss rate, total soluble solids (TSS), total colony count, color, browning degree, total phenol content, polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) content during storage.Results indicated that after 14 days of storage, fresh-cut Cistanche deserticola treated with 200 μmol/L MeJA showed a decrease in MDA, PPO, and POD activities by 21.32%, 23.62%, and 24.08%, respectively, while the total phenol content increased by 33.68%, resulting in higher antioxidant capacity and a significant delay in the degree of browning during storage. MeJA treatment also slowed down color changes and weight loss during storage, reduced the total colony count by 23.88%, and increased the hardness and TSS content by 17.89% and 40.22%, respectively, effectively maintaining the storage quality of fresh-cut Cistanche deserticola. This study contributes theoretical support for developing preservation techniques and extending the shelf life of fresh-cut Cistanche deserticola. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]