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Deep vertical rotary tillage (DVRT) is an innovative soil tillage technology that has been widely adopted in China and shown significant potential in enhancing soil quality, optimizing water use efficiency, and increasing crop yields across diverse ecological and agronomic conditions. DVRT utilizes a vertical spiral drill bit for deep plowing, which preserves soil structure, reduces soil compaction, and improves water retention, making it particularly effective in regions facing climatic challenges such as drought. This review synthesizes the effects of DVRT on soil's physical and chemical properties, crop root systems, photosynthesis, and water use efficiency, demonstrating its advantages in promoting robust root development and improving nutrient utilization. Although the technology has been applied successfully across various crops and regions, its nationwide adoption remains limited. This paper emphasizes the need for further research to refine the theoretical framework of DVRT and develop tailored strategies for different local conditions. Additionally, integrating DVRT with other agronomic practices and advancing machinery design, supported by policy measures, is essential for maximizing its benefits. In conclusion, DVRT presents a promising approach for sustainable agriculture in China, contributing to improved soil quality, increased crop yields, and enhanced food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emission spectroscopy based on laser induced plasma. Due to the unique advantages such as minimal sample pre-treatment, rapid analysis, multi-element simultaneous analysis, on-site online and remote analysis, it has attracted more and more attention in the metallurgy industry. This paper reviews the recent developments of LIBS application in metallurgy industry for the whole routines, including the iron ore, molten steel, steel product, slag, and aerosol particles analysis. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of LIBS application in metallurgy industry are also summarized, and the potential and promising application are prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of long non‐coding RNA actin fiber‐associated protein‐1 antisense RNA 1 (lncRNA AFAP1‐AS1) on the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC). Methods: Based on meta‐analysis, the association between the expression of AFAP1‐AS1 and the prognosis of GC was estimated. GC tissue and non‐cancer tissues from 136 patients were determined by quantitative real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) and verified by Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). Kaplan–Meier and Cox proportional hazards models were conducted to analyze the correlation between AFAP1‐AS1 expression and GC prognosis. Results: The pooled analysis from five studies revealed that the AFAP1‐AS1 expression was significantly associated with GC overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.49 and 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 2.02–3.08, p < 0.001). Compared with non‐cancer tissues, AFAP1‐AS1 expression level of GC tissues were significantly upregulated (p < 0.001), which was confirmed by the results of GEPIA. The area under the receiver‐operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.893, and the high expression of AFAP1‐AS1 was correlated with poor prognosis in patients with GC (p = 0.005). Clinical grade (HR = 1.912, 95% CI: 1.246–2.934, p = 0.003), pathologic tumor node metastasis (pTNM) (HR = 2.393, 95% CI: 1.431–4.033, p = 0.001), log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) (HR = 2.910, 95% CI: 1.787–4.793, p < 0.001) and AFAP1‐AS1 expression (HR = 2.393, 95% CI: 1.869–3.064, p < 0.001) were independent prognostic factors for GC revealed by multivariate Cox‐regression analysis. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the AFAP1‐AS1 may be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current industrial production of HNO3 relies on the Ostwald process via catalytic oxidation of NH3, which is responsible for the vast bulk of CO2 emission. An attractive alternative route to HNO3 is direct N2 oxidation to aqueous HNO3, which avoids the NH3 intermediate. Herein, we for the first time report a non‐thermal plasma‐assisted nitrogen fixation process characteristic of a large gas‐liquid contact based on the water falling film dielectric barrier discharge, wherein HNO3 is produced directly from ambient air and H2O at atmospheric pressure and room temperature without the presence of any catalytic material. By optimizing the plasma reaction conditions, a relatively high synthesis rate and low energy consumption was achieved at the same time with good product selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the CO2 splitting process was performed under atmospheric pressure in a multi-electrode cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor. The influence of the plasma processing parameters including discharge voltage, discharge length and gas flow rate was investigated. Besides, the effect of the similar specific energy input (SEI) values obtained using different plasma powers and gas flow rates was studied. The experimental results indicated that the CO2 conversion and energy efficiency increased along with the increased discharge length due to the increased residence time and the enhanced electric field. The increase of the applied voltage and hence the plasma power or the decrease of the gas flow rate generated enhanced effect on CO2 conversion while negative influence on energy efficiency. In addition, by comparing the energy efficiency at similar SEI values obtained with different discharge powers and gas flow rates, it was found that the gas flow rate played a more important role in CO2 conversion. The proposed multi-electrode plasma reactor led to the highest CO2 conversion of 18.50% and maximum energy efficiency of 12.83%. Compared with other types of cylindrical DBD plasma reactors, the multi-electrode design proposed in this work can give a similar CO2 conversion and higher energy efficiency. The multi-electrode design can enhance the local electric field at the electrode edges, leading to the enhanced corona discharge and the generation of more micro-discharges, which is considered to be responsible for enhanced CO2 conversion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a compact laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument was developed based on a high energy lightweight laser source and an integrated control system, making the instrument well integrated and convenient to use. The instrument has a compact size of 45 cm ×36 cm ×45 cm and weights only 21 kg. The spectrometer operated in the range from 180 to 850 nm with a resolution of 0.15 nm, which was customizable. The client software was customized as the interface for process control and data acquisition. Some procedures were carried out to evaluate the performance of this instrument. First, the laser source worked at an average energy value of 116 mJ, with a relative standard deviation of 2.58% for 9999 laser pulses after continuously running for 3 hr. Second, qualitative analysis was performed to show the classification ability for copper mineral samples. Besides, the calibration curves were achieved by using the emission lines of Cu (I) 510.55 nm, Cu (I) 521.82 nm, Zn (I) 307.58 nm, and Zn (I) 328.23 nm, with the correlation coefficient R2 of 0.97432, 0.9826, 0.97286, and 0.98176, and the limit of detection was shown to be 0.0365%, 0.0399%, 39.581 µg·g−1, and 47.081 µg·g−1, respectively. According to the evaluation results, the compact laser source was excellent for stable measurement and the proposed compact instrument performed well for the qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis with satisfied results. Therefore, the proposed LIBS instrument has potential to find applications in a variety of circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combustion provides about 80% energy for our daily life and industrial production. But thermal efficiency of traditional combustion technologies is low, which causes energy waste and serious environmental pollution. In order to improve the combustion efficiency, a combined method based on non-equilibrium plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge and OH radicals coming from water-steam additive was proposed in this work, and plasma assisted propane combustion was examined and evaluated. The results indicated that when relative humidity (RH) was 20% and applied peak voltage was fixed at 8.75 kV, the relative intensity of OH radical and the flame temperature reached the maximum value at the flame root. At the same time, propane combustion was the most complete. In addition, we found that the erosion of the inner electrode was weakened by H2O addition, and the symmetry of discharge current was changed from symmetry to asymmetry with the increase of RH. Compared with the pure air undischarged combustion, when the relative humidity was 20% and under the discharge conditions of 8.75 kV, the lean-burn extinction limit was extended to 0.4,which is far lower than the traditional lean-burn limit (0.51). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) integrated with random forest (RF) was developed and applied to the identification and discrimination of ten iron ore grades. The classification and recognition of the iron ore grade were completed using their chemical properties and compositions. In addition, two parameters of the RF were optimized using out-of-bag (OOB) estimation. Finally, support vector machines (SVMs) and RF machine learning methods were evaluated comparatively on their ability to predict unknown iron ore samples using models constructed from a predetermined training set. Although results show that the prediction accuracies of SVM and RF models were acceptable, RF exhibited better predictions of classification. The study presented here demonstrates that LIBS–RF is a useful technique for the identification and discrimination of iron ore samples, and is promising for automatic real-time, fast, reliable, and robust measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]