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The study was an experimental endeavor to explore the use of an online bilingual dictionary in EFL writing by gauging its effect on writing scores, assessing its impact on lexical sophistication, and examining learners’ dictionary lookup behavior during writing. A class of EFL students (n=34) at a Chinese university were asked to write two English compositions, one without access to a dictionary and the other with the help of Bing.dict, one of the most popular online bilingual dictionaries in China. A screen recorder was installed to capture in real time the whole process of dictionary consultation and writing. Results indicate that the use of Bing.dict exerted a significantly negative effect on the overall composition scores and the component scores for content and language use, although it did help to increase the students’ lexical range as measured by the Lexical Frequency Profile. A variety of dictionary-based errors were committed in terms of lexicon, syntax and collocation due to the students’ inadequate dictionary use skills and the unsatisfactory quality of the dictionary for productive language use. A close examination of the screen recordings reveals that the students adopted a range of poor consultation strategies during writing. They were content to find an English equivalent to a Chinese lexical item without bothering to further check its meaning and usage. In addition, they tried in vain to find ready text translations for Chinese sentences or sentence fragments. Focusing on the unreliable web-crawled examples, very few of the students paid attention to the source dictionaries. Besides, most of them were prone to accept what was offered in the dictionary without independent thinking. The findings of the study show a rather disappointing picture of the use of an online bilingual dictionary for language production, suggesting that it is absolutely imperative to train EFL learners on dictionary use.

Mixed-species plantations of trees with N-fixing species have the potential of promoting forest productivity and soil fertility. However, few studies in the literature have addressed the advantages of mixed-species plantations of leguminous trees over monocultures of leguminous trees based on in situ inventories over a long time period. Here, we monitored the dynamics of tree community composition, vegetation biomass, soil nutrients, and soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), in an Acacia mangium monoculture plantation during 33 years of development and compared it with a mixed-species plantation of A. mangium associated with 56 native species which were underplanted 14 years after the initial establishment. Leaf N and phosphorus (P) concentrations of three main species in the overstory and understory of the A. mangium monoculture were measured. Our results showed that the soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and available phosphorus (AP) concentrations significantly increased over time during the approximately thirty years of A. mangium monoculture plantation, while the disadvantages were associated with new species regeneration and the increment of vegetation biomass. In the A. mangium monoculture plantation, leaf N concentration of A. mangium, Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, and Dicranopteris dichotoma continuously increased from 21 to 31 years, while the leaf P concentration of A. mangium and R. tomentosa decreased. The mixed-species plantations of A. mangium with native tree species had lower SOC and soil TN concentrations, more new tree species recruitment in the understory, and faster vegetation biomass increment than the A. mangium monoculture. However, the PLFAs of soil microbial groups were slightly different between the two types of plantations. We conclude that improved soil N nutrient condition by A. mangium monoculture benefits N absorption by A. mangium, R. tomentosa, and D. tomentosa, while low soil AP limits P absorption by A. mangium and R. tomentosa. Meanwhile, transforming the A. mangium monoculture into a mixed-species plantation via the introduction of multiple native species into the A. mangium monoculture decreases SOC and TN concentrations but the advantages include improving forest regeneration and maintaining forest growth in a long-term sequence. These findings provide useful and practical suggestions for managing forest monocultures of A. mangium in subtropical regions., Forests, 14 (5), ISSN:1999-4907

Aims Reforestation can enhance soil carbon (C) stability and promote soil C accumulation. Experimental results are, however, highly variable, and the efficacy of reforestation in enhancing soil C stability is still in debate. Consequently, it remains unclear how the different soil C pools respond to reforestation in forest ecosystems. Methods The response of different soil C fractions to reforestation was examined in five subtropical forests, including the plantations of Eucalyptus urophylla (EU), Acacia crassicarpa (AC), Castanopsis hystrix (CH) and 10 species mixed (MX), and a naturally recovered shrubland (NS). Soil labile C fractions (readily oxidized organic C by KMnO4: ROC; dissolved organic C: DOC), distribution of aggregate-size classes and aggregate-associated C from different soil layers (0–10, 10–20, 20–40 and 40–60 cm) were evaluated. Important Findings We found that reforestation and forest type did not affect ROC concentration, yet the highest DOC concentration was detected in NS at four soil layers. Aggregate C concentration was the highest in all aggregate-size classes of CH at 0–10 cm depth. In addition, forest type did not alter the proportion of soil water-stable aggregates at four soil layers. However, soil depths significantly affected the distribution of soil aggregates with >0.25 mm aggregates dominating in the topsoils (0–20 cm), but 0.053–2 mm aggregates being dominant in the deep soils (20–60 cm). These results indicate that reforestation and forest type affected soil DOC (0–60 cm) and aggregate C (0–10 cm). Furthermore, soil DOC and aggregate C were more susceptive to reforestation than ROC. The findings suggest that plantations reduce soil DOC concentration, highlighting that C leaching loss may decrease compared with natural recovery. Moreover, C. hystrix plantation may enhance soil C stability by physical protection in topsoil. This study provides valuable information on tree species selection for reforestation concerning soil C sequestration in southern subtropical China.

Fufang Zhenzhu Tiao Zhi (FTZ) formula is a Chinese herbal preparation used in the clinical treatment of disorders of glucolipid metabolism. Given its effective actions on the regulation of lipid dysfunction and its anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects, we designed this study to investigate the cardioprotective effect and possible mechanism of FTZ in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) mice.FTZ was administered to diabetic mice by oral gavage daily at a dose of 1.2 g/kg or 2.4 g/kg bodyweight for 8 weeks. Doppler echocardiography, HE, and WGA staining were used to evaluate cardiac function and structure in the mice. The levels of proinflammatory cytokines and lipids in serum were detected with corresponding commercial kits. Immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry were used to detect oxidation damage and pyroptosis in myocardial cells. RT-PCR and western blotting were used to analyze the protein and mRNA expression levels of NLRP3 inflammasome-related genes.Our study indicated that FTZ improved cardiac function, attenuated heart hypertrophy, improved serum lipid and proinflammatory cytokine levels, and restrained oxidative stress and NLRP3 inflammasome-induced inflammatory activities in diabetic mouse hearts. The in vitro data suggested that FTZ suppressed intercellular lipid accumulation as well as palmitic acid (PA)-induced oxidative stress and NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent pyroptosis in cardiomyocytes.Our present findings indicate that FTZ inhibits DCM by inhibiting both oxidative stress and NLRP3 inflammasome activation induced by cardiac lipotoxicity.

The mesoporous Co3O4 nanorods were fabricated on a nickel foam conductive substrate following a facile general strategy of hydrothermal technique; then thermally annealed. The self-growth property without additives, the porous structure of Co3O4 nanorods observed from transmission electron microscopy, and the pore size distribution account for their exceptional electrochemical performances. As the anode for lithium-ion storage, the Co3O4 nanorods electrode exhibits prominent battery behaviors with high specific capacity, superior rate capability and excellent cycle life. To be specific, a high discharge capacity of 611 mAh g−1 will be retained after 70 cycles at a current density of 300 mA g−1. Besides, a discharge capacity up to 848 mAh g−1 even at 100 mA g−1 can be kept. Water oxidation electrocatalysts based on Co3O4 nanorods electrodes also exhibit a low overpotential of 383 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under long stability of 100,000 s. The present study confirmed a mesoporous Co3O4 nanorods electrode as a superb candidate for a high-performance anode in lithium storage and OER activity.

Nuclear factor-κB interacting long non-coding RNA (LncRNA NKILA) is a well-studied tumor suppressor lncRNA in several types of malignancies. The present study reports the involvement of this lncRNA in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DC). A 8-year-follow-up study on 312 diabetic patients without exhibiting obvious complications demonstrated that plasma lncRNA NKILA levels were upregulated specifically in diabetic patients who developed DC but not in patients with other complications. Plasma levels of lncRNA NKILA at 6 months prior to diagnosis is sufficient to distinguish patients with DC from other diabetic patients without significant complications. Although in vitro experiments demonstrated that lncRNA NKILA expression in cardiomyocyte cells was not affected by high-glucose treatment, ectopic lncRNA NKILA expression and lncRNA NKILA knockdown potentiated, and inhibited cardiomyocyte apoptosis, respectively. Therefore, the data from the present study suggests that overexpression of lncRNA NKILA is involved in DC, and overexpression of lncRNA NKILA may serve as a therapeutic target for treating DC.

In order to alleviate urban traffic congestion, it is necessary to obtain roadway network traffic flow parameters to estimate the traffic conditions. Single-detector data may not be sufficient to obtain a comprehensive, effective, accurate and high-quality traffic flow data. Neural networks and regression analysis data fusion methods are employed to expand data sources as well as for improving data quality. The multi-source detector data can provide fundamental support for traffic management. An empirical analysis was conducted using acquisition technology employed by the Beijing urban expressway to estimate traffic flow parameters. The results show that the proposed data fusion method is feasible and provides reliable data sources.

The optical catastrophic damage that usually occurs at the cavity surface of semiconductor lasers has become the main bottleneck affecting the improvement of laser output power and long-term reliability. To improve the output power of 680 nm AlGaInP/GaInP quantum well red semiconductor lasers, Si–Si3N4 composited dielectric layers are used to induce its quantum wells to be intermixed at the cavity surface to make a non-absorption window. Si with a thickness of 100 nm and Si3N4 with a thickness of 100 nm were grown on the surface of the epitaxial wafer by magnetron sputtering and PECVD as diffusion source and driving source, respectively. Compared with traditional Si impurity induced quantum well intermixing, this paper realizes the blue shift of 54.8 nm in the nonabsorbent window region at a lower annealing temperature of 600 °C and annealing time of 10 min. Under this annealing condition, the wavelength of the gain luminescence region basically does not shift to short wavelength, and the surface morphology of the whole epitaxial wafer remains fine after annealing. The application of this process condition can reduce the difficulty of production and save cost, which provides an effective method for upcoming fabrication.

In this paper, optimal thresholds for multi-level thresholding in image segmentation are gained by maximizing Otsu’s between-class variance using bat algorithm (BA). The performances of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated by considering four benchmark images. The performance assessment is carried using peak-to-signal ratio (PSNR) and root mean square error (RMSE). The experiment results show that the more threshold, the better the segmentation effect.

Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for Paralichthys olivaceus metamorphosis. Exogenous TH treatment induces premature metamorphosis in P. olivaceus larvae and a series of studies have been conducted to identify thyroid hormone-regulated functional genes and microRNAs involved in the metamorphosis of P. olivaceus; however, the proteins involved in this process remain to be fully clarified. In this study, the differential proteomic responses of P. olivaceus larvae to exogenous TH treatment were examined using tandem mass tags (TMT) for quantitation labeling followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The expression levels of 629 cellular proteins were identified to be significantly affected by TH treatment. The reliability of our TMT-labeled LC-MS/MS analysis was verified by examining the mRNA and protein levels of four selected proteins using quantitative real-time reverse-transcription PCR and western blot analyses. The possible biological significance of these proteins was further investigated by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment, and protein-protein interaction analyses. Notably, we identified and described five groups of proteins involved in different important life events that were significantly regulated by exogenous TH treatment. Our study provides an improved understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which TH regulates the metamorphosis of P. olivaceus.

Soil erosion control and water retention is a major ecological function of plantations and may be affected by both plantation type and age. In this study, we investigated both surface runoff and sediment load under different plantations in southern China for six years (2008–2013) in order to illustrate the influence of plantation type and age on water retention and soil erosion. Our results showed that mature plantations functioned better than young plantations in terms of soil erosion control and runoff reduction, which reduced runoff and soil erosion by 64.5 ± 6.2% and 72.2 ± 7.9% more than young plantations, respectively. Our study indicated that plantations play a beneficial role in controlling soil erosion and reducing water loss, and this effect is more pronounced with plantation age. Both runoff coefficient and sediment load were least under Eucalyptus spp. either in young or mature plantations, suggesting that Eucalyptus spp. is better adapted for water retention and soil conservation compared to other plant species. Correlation analysis showed that herb species and herb Margalef index were the top two factors affecting the surface runoff and sediment load in young plantations but litter storage and tree Shannon index were the top two affecting factors in mature plantations. This shift was consistent with the decreasing trend of herbs and increasing trend of litter storage with the time of vegetation restoration.

Three tensile GaInP quantum well laser diode wafers were grown in the same run by low-pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on GaAs substrates misoriented by 10°, 15°, and 22° toward (1 1 1)A respectively. The photoluminescence peak wavelength and intensity of the active region, the strain mismatch and the doping carrier concentration of the epitaxial layers, the whole thickness and the surface morphology of the wafers were all found to be strongly dependent on the misorientation of the substrates. Considering the comprehensive effects of material, electrical, and optical properties, the 15° substrate was superior to the 10° substrate for the growth of shorter wavelength red-light laser diode wafer, while substrate with too large misorientation of 22° was not a good choice for the epitaxy of red-light laser diode wafer.

Changes of complement and oxidative stress parameters in patients with acute cerebral infarction (ACI) or cerebral hemorrhage (CH), and their clinical significance were explored. A total of 122 patients with ACI or CH admitted to the People's Hospital of Zhangqiu Area from August 2018 to September 2019 were collected. There were 59 ACI patients assigned into a cerebral infarction group (CIG) and further 63 CH patients in a cerebral hemorrhage group (CHG). Additionally, 53 healthy people in physical examination during the same period were enrolled as a control group (CG). Both the CIG and the CHG were treated with edaravone, Xueshuantong, brain protein hydrolysates, aspirin and statin-related drugs. The levels of complement C3, complement C4, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were determined. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed to analyze the predictive value of C3, C4, SOD and TAG in ACI and CH, and logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of stroke. Both CIG and CHG showed higher C3 level, and lower C4, SOD and TAC levels than the CG. The NIHSS

Plant attributes have direct and indirect effects on soil microbes via plant inputs and plant-mediated soil changes. However, whether plant taxonomic and functional diversities can explain the soil microbial diversity of restored forest ecosystems remains elusive. Here, we tested the linkage between plant attributes and soil microbial communities in four restored forests (Acacia species, Eucalyptus species, mixed coniferous species, mixed native species). The trait-based approaches were applied for plant properties and high-throughput Illumina sequencing was applied for fungal and bacterial diversity. The total number of soil microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) varied among the four forests. The highest richness of fungal OTUs was found in the Acacia forest. However, bacterial OTUs were highest in the Eucalyptus forest. Species richness was positively and significantly related to fungal and bacterial richness. Plant taxonomic diversity (species richness and species diversity) explained more of the soil microbial diversity than the functional diversity and soil properties. Prediction of fungal richness was better than that of bacterial richness. In addition, root traits explained more variation than the leaf traits. Overall, plant taxonomic diversity played a more important role than plant functional diversity and soil properties in shaping the soil microbial diversity of the four forests.

Traditional exhaustive search methods have high time complexity in solving multilevel threshold problems. To address this problem, a Levy flight based firefly algorithm called LFA is proposed. Otsu is regard as its objective function. A series of standard test images were used to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. The Peak signal to noise ratio(PSNR) and Structural similarity index (SSIM) are utilized to evaluate the segmented image. The experimental results show that the LFA is better than FA for multilevel thresholding image segmentation.

As teachers, especially language teachers, we do hope that our lessons can be deeply appreciated by our students. But how can we create a successful lesson? What are the key factors involved in teaching which affect the result of our lesson? What should we do? During the four weeks of visiting schools and colleges and attending lectures given by the professors in UK, I do think I have gained a lot. The more I think of the life and ways of studying here, the more I feel I should write something on this topic.

We report on the design and fabrication of high power density vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with ring close packing structure (RCP) emitting at 808 nm. The RCP-VCSELs with a broad area of 100 μm in diameter contains seven-small-mesas sharing the same super-cavity, and the oxide-aperture diameters of each small mesa was 20 μm. A detailed theoretical analysis is conducted with the help of a thermoelectric model and far-field model. The current density distribution and temperature characteristics were improved. The RCP-VCSELs with maximum power density of 3.73 kW/cm2, slope efficiency of 1.1 W/A, and overall wall-plug efficiency (WPE) of 35% have been realized from the broad area of 100 μm in diameter. An improved transverse-mode emission performance featuring a low beam divergence of FWHM (3.3°) and a stable temperature tolerance of the studied device shows the potential of our approach. It is anticipated that this work will provide an effective strategy for the fabrication of high performance large-area VCSELs with good beam quality under ambient and harsh conditions.

We propose a composite top reflector composed of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a subwavelength high-contrast grating (HCG) for a high-power 808-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The DBR and HCG in the reflector are connected by an indium tin oxide (ITO) surrounding layer, which makes it possible for the reflector to improve current injection uniformity and reduce heat generation while providing high reflectivity. The angle-dependent reflectivity of the composite reflector is optimized to suppress the high-order transverse modes of VCSEL while ensuring sufficient fundamental mode feedback. The number of top DBR periods and the thickness of the ITO surrounding layer are optimized to reduce the loss and provide high out-coupling efficiency. The double resonator coupled by top DBR is designed to provide optimal resonant wavelength stability, longitudinal optical confinement factor, and thermoelectric characteristics. Optical simulation results demonstrate that the well-designed configuration can provide a highest fundamental mode reflectivity of 99.7%, an out-coupling efficiency of 65%, a wavelength stability rate of 0.011 with the thickness of the ITO layer, and a confinement factor of 0.05. The transverse modes with order greater than 2 are effectively suppressed. The result of the thermoelectric model shows that the composite reflector-based VCSEL has low operating temperature and uniform current injection; thermal resistance of 0.87 K/mW is realized. In this context, devices with high emission efficiency and beam quality can be expected.

We use traveling wave coupling theory to investigate the time domain characteristics of tapered semiconductor lasers with DBR gratings. We analyze the influence of the length of second order gratings on the power and spectrum of output light, and optimizing the length of gratings, in order to reduce the mode competition effect in the device, and obtain the high power output light wave with good longitudinal mode characteristics.

Understanding biodiversity and its relationship with ecosystem functioning along forest succession is extremely important to assessing dynamics of community stability and ecosystem integrity. Previous studies have revealed that increases in species richness, phylogenetic diversity (PD), species asynchrony and dominance can stabilize the temporal stability of community biomass in grasslands. However, how these determinants influence the stabilizing effect of biodiversity on forest productivity remains poorly understood. We analyzed the relationships between woody plant diversity and productivity stability along 30 years of restoration (1985–2015) in four types of subtropical forest: a mixed Eucalyptus plantation (EE), an Acacia mangium monoculture (AM), a mixed native species plantation (NS), and a mixed coniferous plantation (MC). Our results showed that community stability in three mixed species plantations (EE, NS, and MC) rather than the AM monoculture augmented remarkably as restoration proceeded. Both species richness and phylogenetic diversity significantly stabilized community productivity in the mixed species plantations instead of the monoculture during the 30-year restoration period. Species asynchrony was not a significant factor contributing to the forest productivity stability. Instead, community stability was mainly driven by that of the dominant tree species, and to a lesser extent, by the species richness. We demonstrated the more important role of species dominance in maintaining the temporal stability of forest productivity, which differs from that (species asynchrony) for grassland communities.

Liver transplantation is currently a standard therapy for patients with end-stage liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma. Given that liver transplantation has undergone a thriving development in these decades, the survival rates after liver transplantation have markedly improved as a result of the critical advancement in surgical techniques, immunosuppressive therapies, and post-operative care. However, infection remains a fatal complication after liver transplantation surgery. In particular, enterogenic infection represents a major complication in liver transplant recipients. This article gives an overview of infection cases after liver transplantation and focuses on the discussion of enterogenic infection in terms of its pathophysiology, risk factor, outcome, and treatment.

This study was conducted to study the growth process of silkworm eggs in a silkworm research center under the condition of no electromagnetic radiation and strong electromagnetic radiation. In the course of the study, the silkworm seeds were randomly divided into two groups. All the mulberry leaves were used to observe and record the time of molting dormancy growth and the related physiological parameters were recorded and recorded. The effect of mobile phone radiation on the growth process of silkworm larvae was analyzed. Based on the experimental results, the microcosmic mechanism of the effects of mobile radiation on organisms and adolescents was analyzed and the preventive measures were put forward. First, for young people as much as possible to reduce the frequency of mobile phone use, thereby reducing the adverse effects of electromagnetic radiation on the growth and development of young people, to develop good habits. Second, the social and electromagnetic wave management departments attach importance to strengthen the rational use of electromagnetic waves.

In order to alleviate urban traffic congestion, it is necessary to obtain roadway network traffic flow parameters to estimate the traffic conditions. Single-detector data may not be sufficient to obtain a comprehensive,effective,accurate and high quality traffic flow data. The neural network and regression analysis data fusion methods are employed to expand data sources as well as improve data quality. The multi-source detector data can provide fundamental support for traffic management. An empirical analysis is conducted using Beijing urban expressway traffic flow parameters acquisition technology. The results show that the proposed data fusion method is feasible and can provide reliable data sources.

In recent years, China’s traditional retail enterprises are looking for transition, to develop the O2O e-commerce, but because of enterprise resources, capital and experience are inadequate in the transformation, caused the risk of transformation is high, and the enterprise innovation ability is insufficient, mode is single and lack of experience. Therefore, this paper put forward that traditional enterprises in the process of transformation need to improve their management service level, choose differentiation strategy integration channel and improve the consumer experience to realize the transformation of enterprises.