Search

IFNAR1 (type I IFN receptor) plays a crucial role in mammalian host immunity against virus invasion. However, the immune function of the fish teleost IFNAR1, which is also named CRFB5, remains largely unknown. Here, we report the successful cloning of the whole cDNA of the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) CRFB5 homolog AjCRFB5b. AjCRFB5b is similar in its three-dimensional structure to grass carp, zebrafish, and humans. It comprises typically two fibronectin-3 domains and a transmembrane region. Expression analysis revealed that AjCRFB5b was widely expressed in all tissues detected, especially in the liver. In vivo, AjCRFB5b was significantly induced in the liver by Aeromonas hydrophila and poly I:C. In vitro, enhanced expression of AjCRFB5b was found in Japanese eel liver cells upon Aeromonas hydrophila infection or poly I:C stimulation. Fluorescence microscopy results showed that EGFP-AjCRFB5b proteins were distributed in the cytoplasm, some in a condensed form in Japanese eel liver cells. Luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that AjCRFB5b overexpression not only significantly induced human IFN-β promoter activity in HEK293 cells and FHM cells but also strongly upregulated immune-related genes in Japanese eel liver cells, including IFN1 (Interferon1), IFN4, IRF5 (Interferon regulatory factor5), and IRF7 of the type I IFN signaling pathway, as well as one of the essential antimicrobial peptides LEAP-2. In addition, RNA interference (RNAi) results showed that knocking down AjCRFB5b caused all five genes to be significantly downregulated in Japanese eel liver cells. Our findings indicate that AjCRFB5b positively regulates host antiviral immune responses by the IRF5- and IRF7-mediated type I IFN signaling pathways and that it also participates in the host immune response to bacterial infection through the production of antimicrobial peptides mediated by LEAP-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To estimate decadal trends in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in economically developed regions in China and its association with city economic levels. Methods Using a comprehensive Chinese healthcare database, repeated cross-sectional studies were conducted on adults who had annual health check-ups from 2012 to 2021 in 4 economically developed cities. MetS was defined by the criteria of the Chinese Diabetes Society in 2013. The crude prevalence of MetS adjusted for sex and age was reported. The association between prevalence, calendar year, and city gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was analyzed by regression model. Results 158 274 participants aged 18 years and older were included. The unadjusted prevalence of MetS increased from 15.5% (95% CI: 14.2%-16.8%) to 20.0% (95% CI: 19.5%-20.5%) from 2012 to 2021. The adjusted overall prevalence has increased steadily from 12.8% to 20.8% after controlling age and sex (P <.001). Male and older age groups had a higher MetS prevalence. In the regression model of the association between the MetS prevalence, calendar year, and city GDP per capita, calendar year had a positive association with the prevalence (P <.001, 95% CI: 0.648-1.954) and city GDP per capita had a negative association (P =.030, 95% CI: −0.136 to −0.007). Conclusion The MetS prevalence increased steadily in the economically developed regions in China among the health check-up population during 2012-2021. The MetS prevalence is shown to be negatively associated with GDP per capita in the study population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) caused by mechanical contusion are frequently encountered in clinical practice, using nerve guidance conduits (NGCs) is now a promising therapy. An NGC creates a microenvironment for cell growth and differentiation, thus understanding physical and biochemical cues that can affect nerve-cell fate is a prerequisite for rationally designing NGCs. However, most of the previous works were focused on some static cues, the dynamic nature of the nerve microenvironment has not yet been well captured. Herein, we develop a micropatterned shape-memory polymer as a programmable substrate for providing a dynamic cue for nerve-cell growth. The shape-memory properties enable temporal programming of the substrate, and a dynamic microenvironment is created during standard cell culturing at 37 °C. Unlike most of the biomedical shape-memory polymers that recover rapidly at 37 °C, the proposed substrate shows a slow recovery process lasting 3–4 days and creates a long-term dynamic microenvironment. Results demonstrate that the vertically programmed substrates provide the most suitable dynamic microenvironment for PC12 cells as both the differentiation and maturity are promoted. Overall, this work provides a strategy for creating a long-term dynamic microenvironment for regulating nerve-cell fate and will inspire the rational design of NGCs for the treatment of PNIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feedback regulatory effects of estrogen (E2) and androgen (T) on the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and gonadotropin (GtH) within the brain–pituitary–gonad (BPG) axis in eels with undeveloped ovaries were investigated through in vivo studies. However, the regulatory role of the BPG axis only became apparent during ovary development in the migratory stage. To further elucidate the direct feedback regulation of the BPG axis, female Anguilla japonica underwent artificial induction of vitellogenesis, and the regulation of BPG axis tissues by GtH (human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG), E2, and T was explored through in vitro exposure. The mRNA expression levels of GnRH (mGnRH), GtH (fshb and lhb), and steroid biosynthesis enzymes (cyp11a1, hsd3b, cyp17a1, and cyp17a2) in the diencephalon, pituitary, and ovary, respectively, were determined. The results showed that the expression level of mGnRH in the diencephalon was significantly downregulated by 0.1 IU/mL hCG but upregulated by both 1 nM E2 and higher concentrations of T, suggesting a direct positive feedback regulation of E2 on mGnRH. In the pituitary, the expression levels of fshb and lhb were upregulated by E2, while fshb was suppressed by T. In the ovaries, the expression of cyp11a1 and hsd3b was upregulated by 1 nM E2, whereas T exposure resulted in an opposite effect. Cyp17a1 mRNA levels did not differ significantly with E2 treatment but were upregulated by 1 nM T. These findings suggest that low concentrations of E2 exhibited positive feedback regulation on all three levels (diencephalon, pituitary, and ovary) of the BPG axis, while T showed weaker and differential feedback regulation in BPG axis tissues. Overall, this study's results revealed the direct feedback regulation of hCG, E2, and T on the BPG axis in eels, a phylogenetic base of teleosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of artificial intelligence in physical education (AIPE) has provided new ways to improve learning and teaching activities in physical classes. However, literature reviews that provide a systematic review and analysis of AIPE are limited. To address this gap, this study provided an overview of AIPE-related empirical research. Specifically, it examined the general state of AIPE, algorithms used for AIPE, and the impact and challenges of AIPE. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses,130 empirical studies related to AIPE were included in the final synthesis. The findings of this study demonstrated that numerous studies have explored the use of AI technologies to enhance physical education classes and training processes. These technologies have been widely employed in athletic performance analysis, health monitoring, and personalized training. AIPE offered great potential for providing personalized instruction, real-time feedback and assessment, and diverse learning environments. However, the use of AI technology poses challenges, including technical reliability and accuracy, privacy and security issues, as well as technical training and teacher support. These findings provide insights for future research on AIPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aimed at the problems that the traditional underground garage fire detection is not timely and can't give detailed fire information, the target detection is difficult to detect small target smoke and flame, and the accuracy of other smoke and flame detection is low, an improved YOLOv5s underground garage smoke and flame detection algorithm is proposed. Attention mechanism is added to the last C3 module of YOLOv5s backbone network to help the network model extract the multi-scale spatial information and important features of smoke and flame more fully. The Neck part is improved to enhance the ability of feature interaction and small target smoke detection. The convolution module of backbone network is improved to improve the ability of smoke and flame feature extraction. WIoU (wise intersection over union) is introduced as a new bounding box loss function to enhance the generalization ability of the model. Soft NMS (soft nonmaximum suppression) is introduced to enhance the detection ability of overlapping smoke and flame. Comparative experiments are carried out on the self-made smoke and flame data set, and the results show that the weight of the improved model is reduced by 0.2 MB, and the accuracy is improved by 6.8 percentage points, which can meet the requirements of smoke and flame detection in underground garages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epidemic characters of Omicron (e.g. large‐scale transmission) are significantly different from the initial variants of COVID‐19. The data generated by large‐scale transmission is important to predict the trend of epidemic characters. However, the results of current prediction models are inaccurate since they are not closely combined with the actual situation of Omicron transmission. In consequence, these inaccurate results have negative impacts on the process of the manufacturing and the service industry, for example, the production of masks and the recovery of the tourism industry. The authors have studied the epidemic characters in two ways, that is, investigation and prediction. First, a large amount of data is collected by utilising the Baidu index and conduct questionnaire survey concerning epidemic characters. Second, the β‐SEIDR model is established, where the population is classified as Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, Dead and β‐Recovered persons, to intelligently predict the epidemic characters of COVID‐19. Note that β‐Recovered persons denote that the Recovered persons may become Susceptible persons with probability β. The simulation results show that the model can accurately predict the epidemic characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demolding process in micro‐injection molding constitutes a critical phase, exerting a decisive influence on the quality of polymer microstructures. In this study, the demolding forces of PMMA microfluidic chips were measured under different demolding temperatures, packing pressures, and demolding speeds by using pure nickel (Ni) mold insert. The dimensional deviations of the microchannels with different aspect ratios were analyzed. In addition, the effect of mold insert modification on the demolding force was further analyzed. The results showed that the effect of demolding temperature on the demolding force was the most significant, and the peak demolding force decreased with the decrease in temperature. The width of the microchannels increased and the depth decreased after demolding, while the opposite results were observed for the micro‐mixing structures. However, the dimensional deviation of the micro‐mixing structures was larger than that of the microchannels. Using the optimal molding parameters, the peak demolding force could be reduced from 114.0 N at 110°C to 47.0 N, a decrease of 58.8%. It is noteworthy that, when the microchannel was narrower than 100 μm, achieving precise replication of microchannel dimensions became progressively more challenging as the microchannel width decreased. Using the Ni‐WS2 mold insert with low surface energy and low friction coefficient, the demolding force could be further reduced by 38.3%. The effect of the molding quality of microfluidic chip microstructures on the mixing performance of heavy metals was demonstrated by micro‐mixing experiments. Highlights: Demolding temperature crucially affects microstructure dimensions.Optimal parameters and modified mold insert reduce demolding force by 38.3%.Dimensional deviation increases with the increase of microchannel aspect ratio.Optimized microfluidic chip enhances Co2+ chemiluminescence by 6.42%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of the maximum radius of maximum wind (RMW) contraction rate for the tropical cyclone (TC) before the maximum TC intensification rate has been observed in several previous studies. However, it remains unclear whether and how the maximum RMW contraction rate preceding the maximum TC intensification rate affects the TC lifetime maximum intensity (LMI). In this study, tropical cyclones are grouped into three types depending on whether the peak RMW contraction rate precedes, occurs simultaneously with, or lags the time of the peak intensification rate in the North Atlantic and western North Pacific. Results indicate that when the maximum RMW contraction rate occurs before the maximum intensification rate, TCs are more likely to gain a greater LMI. TCs with the time of maximum RMW contraction rate preceding the time of the maximum intensification rate are more likely to achieve a small RMW and intermediate intensity after the maximum RMW contraction rate period, which is conducive to higher intensification rates. An intermediate initial intensity and higher maximum intensification rate both lead to a greater LMI. Environmental factors are also examined but are found to have little impact on the LMI for the three types of TCs. This work suggests that TCs with a higher LMI are often characterized by a notable maximum rate of RMW contraction before the peak intensification rate and helps to a better understanding of TC structure and intensity changes. Plain Language Summary: Although the contraction of the radius of maximum wind (RMW) and the tropical cyclone (TC) intensification are considered to occur simultaneously according to early theoretical studies, observations found the maximum RMW contraction rate occurs before the maximum TC intensification rate in about 2/3 of total TCs in the North Atlantic and western North Pacific. This study aims to investigate whether and how the maximum RMW contraction rate preceding the maximum TC intensification rate affects the TC lifetime maximum intensity. Our findings suggest that TCs with the peak RMW contraction rate preceding the peak intensification rate are more likely to experience rapid intensification and attain a higher lifetime maximum intensity than other TCs. This is because TCs are more likely to reach a state of small RMW and intermediate intensity after the maximum RMW contraction period. Both smaller RMW and intermediate intensity are favorable for higher intensification rate. Our results indicate the importance of the maximum RMW contraction rate preceding the maximum intensification rate on TC lifetime maximum intensity and help to improve our understanding of TC structure and intensity changes. Key Points: Storms with the peak radius of maximum wind contraction before the peak intensification are more prone to rapid intensificationStorms with the peak radius of maximum wind contraction preceding the peak intensification tend to gain a higher lifetime maximum intensityThe higher lifetime maximum intensity is mainly controlled by internal dynamical processes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanogenerators are attempting to be one of the ideal power supply devices for dealing with the global energy crisis. Nowadays, piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are widely studied in the energy field. Herein, a hybrid arch‐shaped nanogenerator is fabricated by combining piezoelectric and triboelectric effects. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is used for PENGs. The titanium nitride/polydimethylsiloxane (TiN/PDMS) composite films with microporous structures are prepared for use in TENG. The maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage and output peak‐to‐peak current of the PENG are 24 V and 17 μA, respectively, with peak power of 0.8 μW. The maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage and peak‐to‐peak current of the TENG are 35 V and 17 μA, respectively, with peak power of 1.6 μW. The hybrid nanogenerator has a maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage and peak‐to‐peak current of 73 V and 35 μA, respectively, and a peak power of 3.9 μW. In addition, the hybrid nanogenerator has a stable charging voltage of DC 4 V, which is better than a single TENG (DC 0.3 V) or PENG (DC 2.2 V). The hybrid nanogenerator shows excellent output performance and energy conversion efficiency among existing nanogenerators of similar size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The porous boundary between popular culture and politics has often led to the political appropriation of popular cultural venues for promoting official ideologies and fostering patriotic consciousness. To understand how patriotic values are infused into popular culture, this study analyzes a 2019 Chinese "main melody" film, My People, My Country, from a social semiotic perspective. To examine the interplay between power, narrative, and patriotism, a framework is developed to analyze the patriotic values and how they are constructed through linguistic and visual resources. Analysis shows that patriotism represented in the film incorporates four types of values, namely, national shame and pride, self-sacrifice, kindness, and diligence. These values are realized through the multimodal design of characters' actions and historical events. The findings shed new light on evolving Chinese patriotism and the unique cultural governance in China shaped by the entangled forces of neoliberalism and Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dark web vendor identification can be seen as an authorship aliasing problem, aiming to determine whether different accounts on different markets belong to the same real-world vendor, in order to locate cybercriminals involved in dark web market transactions. Existing open-source datasets for dark web marketplaces are outdated and cannot simulate real-world situations, while data labeling methods are difficult and suffer from issues such as inaccurate labeling and limited cross-market research. The problem of identifying vendors' multiple identities on the dark web involves a large number of categories and a limited number of samples, making it difficult to use traditional multiclass classification models. To address these issues, this paper proposes a metric learning-based method for dark web vendor identification, collecting product data from 21 currently active English dark web marketplaces and using a multi-dimensional feature extraction method based on product titles, descriptions, and images. Using pseudo-labeling technology combined with manual labeling improves data labeling accuracy compared to previous labeling methods. The proposed method uses a Siamese neural network with metric learning to learn the similarity between vendors and achieve the recognition of vendors' multiple identities. This method achieved better performance with an average F1-score of 0.889 and an accuracy rate of 97.535% on the constructed dataset. The contributions of this paper lie in the proposed method for collecting and labeling data for dark web marketplaces and overcoming the limitations of traditional multiclass classifiers to achieve effective recognition of vendors' multiple identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon–neutral growth is a crucial long-term climatic aim in the context of global warming. This paper introduces complex network theory and explores its potential application to achieve this goal. Specifically, we investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of nodes and sources in the ecological network, and examine whether a relationship exists between the topological index of network nodes and the landscape pattern index of ecological source areas. We also determine the contribution of nodes to the carbon stock of the entire network by exploring the correlation between the carbon stock of nodes and sources to develop an optimization strategy based on the synergistic effect of node-source carbon enhancement. Finally, we test the effect of network optimization through robustness. Our results show that: (1) The correlation topological feature index analysis reveals that the degree distribution of the node network's topological characteristics becomes dispersed and modular, exhibiting the characteristics of small-world networks according to a large clustering coefficient. The heterogeneity and extent of ecological source landscapes have increased by modularity index but remain distributed and locally fragmented; (2) According to correlation analysis, by enhancing the eccentricity of the node topology, the patch cohesion index (COHESION) of the ecological source site can maximize the contribution of the node to the enhancement of the carbon stock benefits of the source site; (3) According to the tests on the robustness of nodes and edges and the robustness of network links, network stability is improved and carbon sink capacity is enhanced. Simultaneously, the restoration and rejuvenation of ecological space through national ecological construction projects can effectively improve the carbon sink within the organized region, contributing to the carbon neutrality aim. This research gives scientific and quantifiable references for potential ecological construction projects for sustainable cities and the optimization of urban ecological space structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective strategy to optimize the gas separation performance of hyperbranched polyimide (hyper‐PI) membranes by tuning their average cavity sizes is reported. Triphenylamine (TAPA) and 4,4′‐(Hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride (6FDA) were used to prepare the hyper‐PI membrane, and the transformation in free fraction volume (FFV) was realized by the addition of an extra B2‐type monomer, 2,4,6‐Trimethylbenzene‐1,3‐diamine (DAM). In hyperbranched networks, DAM, in conjunction with 6FDA, generates longer linear parts and reduces the density of dendritic architectures formed by TAPA. The conformational freedom of hyperbranched TAPA‐6FDA is restricted, and chain packing is hindered. The ratio of DAM:TAPA predominantly influences both the average cavity sizes and the FFVs of the membranes, leading to the variation in gas permeabilities. DAM5:TAPA1‐6FDA shows the best performance in both O2/N2 and CO2/N2 separations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge graph (KG) has been fully considered in natural language generation (NLG) tasks. A KG can help models generate controllable text and achieve better performance. However, most existing related approaches still lack explainability and scalability in large‐scale knowledge reasoning. In this work, we propose a novel CogNLG framework for KG‐to‐text generation tasks. Our CogNLG is implemented based on the dual‐process theory in cognitive science. It consists of two systems: one system acts as the analytic system for knowledge extraction, and another is the perceptual system for text generation by using existing knowledge. During text generation, CogNLG provides a visible and explainable reasoning path. Our framework shows excellent performance on all datasets and achieves a BLEU score of 36.7, which increases by 6.7 compared to the best competitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone regeneration for large, critical-sized bone defects remains a clinical challenge nowadays. Guided bone regeneration (GBR) is a promising technique for the repair of multiple bone defects, which is widely used in oral and maxillofacial bone defects but is still unsatisfied in the treatment of long bone defects. Here, we successfully fabricated a bilayer mineralized collagen/collagen (MC/Col)-GBR membrane with excellent osteoinductive and barrier function by coating the MC particles prepared via in situ biomimetic mineralization process on one side of a sheet-like pure collagen layer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the physicochemical properties and biological functions of the MC/Col film, and to further evaluate its bone regeneration efficiency in large bone defect repair. Fourier-transform infrared spectra and X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the presence of both hydroxyapatite and collagen phase in the MC/Col film, as well as the chemical interaction between them. stereo microscope, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscope showed the uniform distribution of MC particles in the MC/Col film, resulting in a rougher surface compared to the pure Col film. The quantitative analysis of surface contact angle, light transmittance and tensile strength demonstrated that the MC/Col film have better hydrophilicity, mechanical properties, light-barrier properties, respectively. In vitro macrophage co-culture experiments showed that the MC/Col film can effectively inhibit macrophage proliferation and fusion, reducing fibrous capsule formation. In vivo bone repair assessment of a rabbit critical segmental radial defect proved that the MC/Col film performed better than other groups in promoting bone repair and regeneration due to their unique dual osteoinductive/barrier function. These findings provided evidence that MC/Col film has a great clinical potential for effective bone defect repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To estimate the up-to-date prevalence of chronic kidney disease among the health check-up population in economically developed areas of China using estimated glomerular filtration rate, urinary albumin creatinine ratio, and kidney ultrasound. Healthcare data from 38,093 subjects in 10 megalopolises of China who had an annual health check-up in 2021 were used. The overall and stratified prevalence of chronic kidney disease by sex, age, region and comorbidity group was reported. The association between chronic kidney disease and covariates of demographics, and comorbidities were analyzed in the multivariable-adjusted logistic regression model. A total of 3837 CKD cases were detected meeting any of the three CKD diagnostic criteria, with a crude prevalence of 10.1% in the study population. Using one criterion of decreased glomerular filtration rate, albuminuria and kidney structural abnormalities alone detected 204 (5.3%), 3289 (85.7%) and 563 (14.7%) cases, respectively. The addition of kidney ultrasound detected 427 (11.1%) structural abnormality cases without decreased GFR and albuminuria. The most common abnormalities were renal masses, hydronephrosis due to obstruction and congenital anomalies of kidney and urinary tract. Female, older age, low city-tier, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, hypertriglyceridemia as well as early disease stages such as pre-hypertension, impaired fasting glucose and overweight were significantly associated with chronic kidney disease. Kidney ultrasound helps to amplify the detection of CKD patients, which is a supplement to kidney function and urine protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this study, we investigated the response mechanism of type I interferon receptor in the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) after an immune challenge, and we also explored the key role of type I interferon receptor in its immune response mechanism, which will provide new evidence for the study of type I interferon receptor in vertebrates, especially in teleost. IFNAR1, one of the type I IFN receptors, is crucial to mammalian host defense against viral invasion. However, largely unknown is the immunological role of the fish teleost protein IFNAR1, also known as CRFB5. We have successfully cloned the whole cDNA of the Japanese eel's (Anguilla japonica) CRFB5a homolog, AjCRFB5a. The two fibronectin-3 domains and the transmembrane region (238–260 aa) of AjCRFB5a are normally present, and it shares a three-dimensional structure with zebrafish, Asian arowana, and humans. According to expression analyses, AjCRFB5a is highly expressed in all tissues found, particularly the liver and intestine. In vivo, Aeromonas hydrophila, LPS, and the viral mimic poly I:C all dramatically increased AjCRFB5a expression in the liver. Japanese eel liver cells were reported to express AjCRFB5a more strongly in vitro after being exposed to Aeromonas hydrophila or being stimulated with poly I: C. The membranes of Japanese eel liver cells contained EGFP-AjCRFB5a proteins, some of which were condensed, according to the results of fluorescence microscopy. Luciferase reporter assays showed that AjCRFB5a overexpression strongly increased the expression of immune-related genes in Japanese eel liver cells, such as IFN1, IFN2, IFN3, IFN4, IRF3, IRF5, and IRF7 of the type I IFN signaling pathway, as well as one of the essential antimicrobial peptides LEAP2, in addition to significantly inducing human IFN-promoter activities in HEK293 cells. Additionally, RNA interference (RNAi) data demonstrated that knocking down AjCRFB5a caused all eight of those genes to drastically lower their expression in Japanese eel liver cells, as well as to variable degrees in the kidney, spleen, liver, and intestine. Our findings together showed that AjCRFB5a participates in the host immune response to bacterial infection by inducing antimicrobial peptides mediated by LEAP2 and favorably modulates host antiviral immune responses by activating IRF3 and IRF7-driven type I IFN signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's environmental problems have been thrust into the limelight of both domestic and international media, the Chinese government is eager to present a positive country image in terms of environmental planning and protection. Against this backdrop, this study aims to investigate how a "Green China" image is constructed through state-sanctioned eco-documentaries. Drawing on the Attitude System in Appraisal theory and multimodal discourse analysis, the study develops an analytical framework to investigate country image as semantic categories, as well as how it is constructed through multimodal resources. The analysis shows that these documentaries create an eco-friendly country image through: (1) highlighting the significance and desirability of the Chinese landscape (appreciation), (2) constructing a positive image of Chinese social actors in terms of environmental protection (judgment), and (3) depicting non-human characters' happiness and security of living in China (affect). These positive attitudes reflect and constitute China's green image branding practices shaped by the entangled forces of the Party-state's rejuvenation of traditional culture, its development of globally competitive green technologies, and its promotion of participatory environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federated learning is an emerging paradigm that enables multiple organizations to jointly train a model without revealing their private data. As an important variant, vertical federated learning (VFL) deals with cases in which collaborating organizations own data of the same set of users but with disjoint features. It is generally regarded that VFL is more secure than horizontal federated learning. However, recent research (USENIX Security'22) reveals that it is still possible to conduct label inference attacks in VFL, in which attacker can acquire privately owned labels of other participants; even VFL constructed with model splitting (the kind of VFL architecture with higher security guarantee) cannot escape it. To solve this issue, in this paper, we propose the dispersed training framework. It utilizes secret sharing to break the correlations between the bottom model and the training data. Accordingly, even if the attacker receives the gradients in the training phase, he is incapable to deduce the feature representation of labels from the bottom model. Besides, we design a customized model aggregation method such that the shared model can be privately combined, and the linearity of secret sharing schemes ensures the training accuracy to be preserved. Theoretical and experimental analyses indicate the satisfactory performance and effectiveness of our framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wearable flexible electronics that are derived from hydrogels inevitably undergo dehydration, and the sensing performance is highly affected because the stretchability and conductivity weaken. Monitoring the water retention rate of hydrogels as they operate without dismantling the assembled sensing device is vital for evaluating sensing performances and intervening in a timely manner to address the problem. However, relevant research is still lacking. Herein, an autofluorescent hydrogel is engineered based on clusterization‐triggered emission (CTE) for wearable strain‐sensing electronics that can undergo self‐visualizing dehydration. The fluorescence intensity of the CTE‐type autofluorescent hydrogel depends on the aggregation level of molecule clusters that are dangled on the gel networks, which is dominated by the water retention rate of the hydrogel. Thus, the dehydration process can be reflected by the fluorescent images taken in a scenario of long‐term strain‐sensing. This strategy helps the operator evaluate the water retention rate of the hydrogel without removing it from the assembled electronics and then quickly address the problem. In addition, this strategy is also applicable for dehydration‐tolerant systems, demonstrating the versatility of the autofluorescent hydrogel. Overall, the CTE‐type autofluorescent hydrogel will promote the development of high‐performance and smart wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital age, cities around the world are mobilizing various symbolic resources to rebrand their images through social media. Against this background, this study investigates how Xi'an, a second-tier developing city in China, constructs its digitalized urban imaginary using the popular social media platform of TikTok. A semiotic framework is developed to model Xi'an's urban imaginary as evaluative attributes and to elucidate how they are constructed through linguistic and visual resources in short videos on TikTok. The analysis of 294 videos shows that Xi'an highlights its dual identity as a modern metropolis and a historical city. The modern metropolis image is characterized by the personification of Xi'an as a stylish, young, popular, and international microcelebrity; the historical city image is constructed through recreating the Great Tang dynasty and revitalizing local folk art. The characteristics of city branding discourse reflect China's wanghong economy, urban policies and the affordances of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optimal diet is an important factor for the proper growth and health of crustaceans. However, the regulation of antioxidant activity and non‐specific immunity related to the consumption of feed additives has not been studied in RC‐crayfish. Triplicate groups of 20 crayfish/tank (36.72 ± 0.70 g) fed with a basal diet and sixteen experimental diets that contained five feed additives with four grade levels (40, 160, 240 and 320 mg/kg vitamin E, 2, 4, 6 and 8 g/kg nucleotides, 2, 4, 6 and 8 g/kg Haematococcus pluvialis, 5, 10, 15 and 20 g/kg arachidonic acid and 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 g/kg yeast extract) on physiological parameters, fatty acids profile and growth of Cherax quadricarinatus for a period of 70 days by using orthogonal array method (L16 45). The results showed that the antioxidants activity in the haemolymph and hepatopancreas were both higher in crayfish fed with diets NO. 9 to 12 than others. Also, all the diets except diets NO. 13 to 16 showed lower free radicals contents than the control group. Similarly, significantly higher non‐specific immune parameters were observed in the hepatopancreas of crayfish supplementations than those fed a control diet. Biochemical parameters related to protein profile in haemolymph increased in diets NO. 9 to 12 and then decreased in control and diets NO. 13 to 16, while the highest biochemical parameters related to lipid profile except HDL‐c contents in haemolymph were observed in crayfish fed the control diet. Fatty acid composition in the hepatopancreas, muscle and ovary of RC‐crayfish was significantly influenced by using the combination of Vit E, NT, H. pluvialis and YP compared to the control group. Compared to all treatments, RC‐crayfish fed with diets NO. 2 and 12 had significantly stimulated higher growth performance and feed utilisation. Overall, our results suggest that diets supplemented with Vit E level of 240 mg/kg, in combination with 8 g/kg NT, 4 g/kg, H. pluvialis, 5 g/kg ARA and 10 g/kg YP are the promising treatments to increase antioxidants activity, non‐specific immune response, fatty acids composition and growth of RC‐crayfish. However, high dietary supplementations level can reduce antioxidants activity, immunity and inhibit growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous study, we reported the identification, tissue distribution, and the roles of Spdsx played in the testis, androgenic gland, and ovary in Scylla paramamosain. Here, we primally identify its potential target genes in the ovary with RNAi and RNA-Seq technology. By comparing the transcriptome data of two groups (ovaries that injected with dsRNA for EGFP and Dsx), we found that 6520 Unigenes were differentially expressed, including a plenty of conserved crucial genes involved in ovarian development, such as vitellogenin (vtg), vtg receptor (vtgR), apolipoprotein D, adenylate cyclase 3, adenylate cyclase 5, cyclin A, cyclin B, and cell division cycle 2 (cdc2). In addition, these DEGs were also enriched in pathways related to ovary development, including PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, insulin signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, relaxin signaling pathway, estrogen signaling pathway, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, ovarian steroidogenesis, and oocyte meiosis. Moreover, several genes were selected for qRT-PCR to validate the accuracy of the bioinformatic result. According to current transcriptome result, we speculate that the Spdsx is a crucial regulator of ovary development in S. paramamosain. To the best of our knowledge, the current study was the first report about dsx function through comparative transcriptome analysis in crustacean species, which not only identified relevant genes and pathways involved in ovarian development of S. paramamosain, but also shed light on the regulatory mechanisms of dsx at the molecular level in crustacean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction data on the public chain is open and transparent to all participants, which poses a potential threat to the privacy of participants. Some privacy‐conscious token holders want to employ obfuscation methods to protect the origin and destination of their tokens, and the need for token shuffling services (TSS) arose at a historical moment. The prevailing token shuffling policies rely too heavily on blacklists in the token shuffling process, which is contrary to the idea of decentralization. Therefore, weakening or even eliminating the usage of blacklisting mechanisms in TSSs, which is an urgent issue to be addressed. In this paper, we adopt the idea of machine learning and propose a general framework for TSSs, which replaces the natural role under incomplete information with machine learning, so as to achieve the goal of eliminating the blacklist mechanism in TSSs. Then, the token shuffling process is constructed as an extended game under incomplete information on the basis of different token shuffling policies, and this incomplete information game is analyzed on the basis of poison policy, haircut policy, and suicide policy respectively. Finally, the sequential equilibrium under different games is investigated through simulations. The simulation results show that in the incomplete information game based on the poison policy, the participation of two players in the TSS is a sequential equilibrium, while in the incomplete information game based on the haircut policy, the players do not participate in the TSS is an sequential equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of fish cell lines can provide an important in vitro model for developmental biology, pathology, and genetics and also an effective tool to investigate the interactions and related functions of genes. Two-spot puffer Takifugu bimaculatus is a high economic and nutritional value marine fish in Fujian in recent years. Nevertheless, dmrt1 plays a key role in the male differentiation from invertebrates to vertebrates. To understand the molecular regulatory mechanisms of dmrt1 in T. bimaculatus, a testis cell line called TBTc from a juvenile testis of this organism was established with modified Leibovitz's L-15 medium supplemented with 20% FBS, fish serum, embryo extract, and other growth factors. The TBTc with a stable karyotype can be passaged continuously, which was composed of fibroblast-like cells and expressed the marker genes of male-special cells, dmrt1, and amh, and the absence of vasa expression may rule out the possibility of the presence of germ cells. Therefore, TBTc appeared to consist of the mixture of the Sertoli cell and germ cell of the testis. The dmrt1 was significantly expressed in the testes and slightly expressed in the late embryonic development, illustrating that the dmrt1 may participate in the molecular regulation of gonads development and sex differentiation. With the high transfection efficiency of TBTc by electroporation, the cell lines could be used effectively in the study for the expression of exogenous and endogenous genes. Meanwhile, after the knockdown of dmrt1, the morphological changes and survival rates of cells proved that dmrt1 could affect the growth of testicular cells. Furthermore, with the loss of dmrt1, the expression of male-bias genes amh, sox9, and cyp11a was significantly decreased, and the expression of female-bias genes foxl2, sox3, and cyp19a was increased, which suggested that dmrt1 upregulates amh, sox9, and cyp11a and downregulates foxl2, sox3, and cyp19a to participate in the testis development. As a first fish gonadal cell lines of T. bimaculatus, which can be a more convenient, efficient, and rapid model for the investigation of the expression and function of genes, the results will lay a foundation for the next study of the molecular regulation mechanism in gonadal development and sex determination of fish in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data interaction scenarios involving multiple parties in network communities have problems of trust, data security, and reliability of the parties, and secure multiparty computation (SMPC) can effectively solve these problems. To address the security and fairness issues of SMPC, this study considers that semi-honest participants can lead to deviations in the security and fairness of the protocol and combines information entropy and mutual information to present an n-round information exchange protocol in which each participant broadcasts a relevant information value in each round without revealing other information. The uncertainty of the correct outcome value is blurred by the interaction information in each round, and each participant is not sure of the correct outcome value until the end of the protocol, which effectively prevents malicious behavior and ensures the correct execution of the protocol. Security and fairness analysis shows that the protocol guarantees the security and relative fairness of the output obtained by the participants after completing the protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine unlearning is the process through which a deployed machine learning model is enforced to forget about some of its training data items. It normally generates two machine learning models, the original model and the unlearned model, indicating training results before and after data items are deleted. However, recent studies find that machine unlearning is vulnerable to membership inference attacks—as the directivity of training and nontraining data (i.e., data items in the training set have high posterior probabilities), the attackers can utilize this property to infer whether an item has been used for original model training. Nevertheless, such attacks are incapable in label‐only settings, in which the attackers are infeasible to get the posteriors. In this paper, we propose a new label‐only membership inference attack scheme targeted at machine unlearning to eliminate the dependence on posteriors. Our heuristic is that injected turbulence on candidate samples will present different behaviors for training and nontraining data. Thus, in our scheme, the attacker iteratively query on the original/unlearned models and inject turbulence to change their predicting labels; it determines whether an item is having‐been‐delated by observing the disturbance amplitude. Extensive experiments (i.e., on MNIST, CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and STL10 data sets) show that our method achieves high inference accuracy (measured by AUC) in label‐only settings, for example, AUC = 0.96 for MNIST data set. Besides, we analyze the existing countermeasures in mitigating inference attacks and find that our scheme can bypass most of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is urgent to identify the development of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in countries around the world. Therefore, visualization is particularly important for monitoring the COVID‐19. In this paper, we visually analyze the real‐time data of COVID‐19, to monitor the trend of COVID‐19 in the form of charts. At present, the COVID‐19 is still spreading. However, in the existing works, the visualization of COVID‐19 data has not established a certain connection between the forecast of the epidemic data and the forecast of the epidemic. To better predict the development trend of the COVID‐19, we establish a logistic growth model to predict the development of the epidemic by using the same data source in the visualization. However, the logistic growth model only has a single feature. To predict the epidemic situation in an all‐round way, we also predict the development trend of the COVID‐19 based on the Susceptible Exposed Infected Removed epidemic model with multiple features. We fit the data predicted by the model to the real COVID‐19 epidemic data. The simulation results show that the predicted epidemic development trend is consistent with the actual epidemic development trend, and our model performs well in predicting the trend of COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Payment channel networks (PCNs) are generally regarded as one of the most effective and promising scalability solutions for blockchain‐based cryptocurrency systems, but suffer the issues of low success ratio and long confirmation latency in processing transactions. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of tremendously increasing the success ratio of transactions and improving their execution efficiency by enhancing network nodes' connectivity and enforcing a balanced network channel capacity. To implement such ideas, multiple designs have been made. First, to extent nodes connectivity, we transform the nearly‐linear ordered nodes into a star payment structured typology, and design an incentive financing mechanism to restructure a new landmark routing typology design. Especially, for the marginalized or dissociative nodes, we utilize specific financial loan strategies to encourage them to (re)join the system. Besides, we propose the Power Atomic Multi‐Path Payments (Power AMP) traffic distribution method, which hierarchically allocates the bottleneck's currently‐available capacity (to replace the random or equal division used in traditional AMP), and thus archives a balanced traffic usage. With such efforts, we improve the transaction success ratio and efficiency of transaction exertion by order of magnitude—compared with traditional PCN using the benchmark of landmark route, our method improves the success ratio by 11.06%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the demolding process, the interfacial interaction between the polymer and the metal mold insert will lead to the deformation of the micro-structure, which will directly affect the molding quality and performance of injection molded microfluidic chips. In this study, the demolding quality of micro-channels and micro-mixing structures of polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), and polystyrene (PS) microfluidic chips for heavy metal detection were investigated by molding experiments. The experimental results showed that the structures of microfluidic chips could be completely replicated. However, tensile deformation and fracture defects were observed at the edges of the micro-structures after demolding. Compared to the Ni mold insert, the calculation of the relative deviation percentages showed that the width of the micro-channel became larger and the depth became smaller, while the dimensions of the micro-mixing structure changes in the opposite direction. Subsequently, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation model of polymer/nickel (Ni) mold insert for injection molding was established. The changes of adhesion work, demolding resistance and potential energy during demolding were analyzed. The simulation results showed that the polymer structures had some deformations such as necking, molecular chain stretching and voids under the action of adhesion work and demolding resistance. The difference in the contact area with the mold insert directly brought different interfacial interactions. In addition, the potential energy change of the polymer system could be used to quantitatively characterize the demolding deformation of the structure. Overall, the MD method is able to effectively explain the internal mechanisms of interfacial interactions, leading to the demolding deformation of polymer structures from the molecular/atomic scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of web APIs published on the Internet allows mashup developers to discover appropriate web APIs for polishing mashups. Developers often have to manually pick and choose several web APIs from extremely massive candidates, which is a laborious and cumbersome task. Fortunately, recommender system comes into existence. Some approaches perform recommendations in cloud platforms by utilizing historical records of Mashup-API interactions stored in edge nodes. However, many of these methods often pay more attention to recommendation accuracy while ignoring recommendation diversity, i.e., there are usually popular web APIs in recommendation list while most of the other novel web APIs are absent. The poor recommendation diversity may limit the usefulness of the recommendation results due to the lack of novelty. In order to implement an accurate and diversified web API recommendation, a novel MF-based recommendation approach named Div_PreAPI is put forward in this paper. Div_PreAPI integrates a weighting mechanism and neighborhood information into matrix factorization (MF) to implement diversified and personalized APIs recommendations. Finally, we conduct a series of experiments on a real-world dataset. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on computer vision technology, this paper presents a human motion analysis and target tracking technology based on computer vision. In terms of moving target detection, the current moving target detection technology is summarized, and some experimental results of the algorithm are given. The background difference method under monocular camera is emphatically analyzed. The preliminary human contour is obtained by the background difference method. In order to obtain a smoother target contour, the mathematical morphology is used to remove the noise, and the judgment algorithm of the size of the image connected domain is added. A specific threshold is set to remove the connected domain of the noise block less than the threshold. In the aspect of human motion recognition, this paper selects human motion features, including minimum external rectangle aspect ratio, rectangularity, circularity, and moment invariant. The criteria for selecting human motion features are strong noise resistance and obvious distinction. Then, the three types of human motion images are classified and recognized. After cross-validation and parameter optimization, the recognition accuracy is significantly improved. The experimental results show that the video sequence collected in the field has a total of 376 frames, and the frame rate is 10 frames/s. Due to the small traffic, the mean shift algorithm based on adaptive feature fusion is used to track the target every 2-3 frames. And set the inverse X direction as the direction of entering the scene and the X direction as the direction of moving out of the scene so that the allowable error of the distance between the detection and tracking results is 10. The weight of each feature is dynamically updated by the similarity between the candidate model and the target model, which solves the problem that the mean shift algorithm is not robust enough when similar objects are occluded and interfered and achieves more accurate tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the interfacial bonding effect of carbon fibers (CFs) and epoxy resins, we prepared a fluorine‐containing high‐epoxy‐value sizing agent (named TS) in this article. It is an emulsion with a more uniform particle size distribution and higher stability better than a commercial Takemoto sizing agent. In addition, sulfonic acid groups can improve the hydrophilicity of the TS, and the presence of epoxy groups enhances the wettability between CFs and the matrix. The properties of the sizing agents were examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and thermogravimetric analysis. The sized CFs were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, monofilament tensile test, and dynamic contact angle. Afterward, CF/epoxy composites were prepared, and their fracture morphology and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) were examined. Results indicated that the TS sizing significantly increased the content of activated carbon on the surface of the CFs and improved the bonding effect between the fiber and the matrix. After TS was sized, the ILSS increased from 49.64 to 58.74 MPa, 18.34% higher than unsized CF/epoxy composites, showing the prominent interfacial reinforcement better than commercial Takemoto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vitellogenin (Vtg) is the precursor of major yolk protein and plays a crucial role in the maturation of oocytes and the production of eggs in oviparous animals. Vitellogenin receptor (VtgR) mediates the transport of Vtg explicitly to oocytes in the membrane. In a previous study, we found that miR-34 can regulate the expression of some eyestalk genes and affect reproduction in mud crab Scylla paramamosain, one of the most important economic crabs on the coasts of southern China. Methods and results: In this study, firstly, we found that miR-34 can target at 3'-UTR of Vtg and VtgR genes by using bioinformatic tools and predicted miR-34 might depress the expression of Vtg and VtgR. Secondly, the relative luciferase activity of HEK293T cells co-transfected with miRNA mimic and pmir-RB-REPORTTM-Vtg/VtgR-3'UTR was significantly lower than those of cells co-transfected with mimic NC and pmir-RB-REPORTTM-Vtg/VtgR-3'UTR. Finally, in vivo experiments showed that agomiR-34 could repress the expression of Vtg and VtgR genes, while Antigomir-34 could promote the expression of these two genes. Conclusions: These results confirm our hypothesis and previous published results that miR-34 may indirectly regulate ovarian development by binding to the 3'-UTR of Vtg and VtgR genes and inhibiting their expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid increase of users, Scratch, as a popular online social and programming platform, has accumulated massive project resources and complex relations across its social and programming learning network. However, it is challenging to utilize the network information for providing Scratch users with personalized services, despite there are already some useful network representation learning models. In this paper, a network representation learning model with preference‐based generative adversarial nets for Scratch (ScratchGAN) is proposed to resolve this problem. In ScratchGAN, we first design a node‐vector initialization approach to preserve structure information and side information of Scratch network. Then, considering to learn the fine‐grained user preference information of network, we propose a novel Scratch adversarial learning model which includes a Scratch generative adversarial net and a user preference difference constraint component. The former aims to capture user preferences through a new generating strategy based on the delivery nature of preference. The latter attempts to embed users' detailed preference differences according to their interaction behaviors. ScratchGAN can mine user preferences while preserving network structure information and side information. Extensive experiments on the Scratch network show that ScratchGAN outperforms other state‐of‐the‐art models in link prediction and recommendation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Service evaluation model is an essential ingredient in service‐oriented Internet of things (IoT) architecture. Generally, traditional models allow each user to submit their comments with respect to IoT services individually. However, these kind of models are fragile to resist various attacks, like comment denial attacks, and Sybil attacks, which may decrease the comments submission rate. In this article, we propose a new aggregation digital signature scheme to resolve the problem of comments aggregation, which may aggregate different comments into one with high efficiency and security level. Based on the new aggregation digital signature scheme, we further put forward a new service evaluation model named Tesia allowing specific users to submit the comments as a group in IoT networks. More specifically, they aggregate comments and assign one user as a submitter to submit these comments. In addition, we introduce the synchronization token mechanism into the new service evaluation model, to assure that all users in the group may sign their comments one by one, and the last one who receives the token is assigned as the final submitter. Tesia has more acceptable robustness and can greatly improve the comments submission rate with rather lower submission delay time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The mud crab Scylla paramamosain is an economically important species for aquaculture in China and has sexually dimorphic between females and males. Understanding sex differentiation in this species is essential for the development of monosex aquaculture. The Dmrt genes play a vital role in sex differentiation in animals. Methods and results: In this study, two dmrt-like transcript variants, Spdmrt-like-tv1 and Spdmrt-like-v2, were cloned. SpDmrt-like-tv1 contained a DM domain, while SpDmrt-like-tv2 contained a DM and a DMA domain. Spdmrt-like-tv1 and Spdmrt-like-tv2 were both specifically expressed in testis. During testicular development, the expression level of Spdmrt-like-tv1 increased from stage I to stage II (P > 0.05) and then decreased from stage II to stage III (P < 0.05). The expression level of Spdmrt-like-tv2 in stages I and II was significantly higher than that in stage III (P < 0.05). During embryonic development, the expression level of Spdmrt-like-tv1 was higher in the mid-embryonic stage compared with the early and late stages, but the differences were not significant. Moreover, the expression level of Spdmrt-like-tv2 was stable and remained high throughout embryonic development. Furthermore, the expression level of Spdmrt-like-tv2 was significantly higher than that of Spdmrt-like-tv1. Knockdown of Spdmrt-like variants indicated that the regulative target gene of Spdmrt-like-tv1 was Spsox21, and the regulative target genes of Spdmrt-like-tv2 were Spfoxl2 and Spsox21. Combined with the results in our previously published peer-reviewed articles that the expression of Spfoxl2 in the testis was significantly higher than that in the ovary, and Spfoxl2 negatively regulated Spvtg expression. Spsox21 played a role in the development and maintenance of testis as well as in the process of neural development and regulation of body segmentation. Conclusion: Therefore, we suggest that Spdmrt-like-tv1 and Spdmrt-like-tv2 might be involved in testicular development and embryonic development, and Spdmrt-like-tv2 might play more important roles in these two developmental processes by regulating the expression of Spfoxl2 and Spsox21 due to its high expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 60‐day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of yellow mealworm (YM) (Tenebrio molitor) (9%, 18%, 27% and 36%) and black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) (Hermetia illucens) (7%, 14%, 21% and 28%) meal replacing fish meal (FM) on growth performance and antioxidant capacity of red claw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus). Nine diets, including control, were fed with quadruplicate of 20 crayfish (0.20 ± 0.05 g). The highest weight gain (WG) and lowest feed conversion ratio were observed in crayfish fed YM18 and BSFL14. The highest superoxide dismutase activity and the lowest malondialdehyde content were detected in the hepatopancreas of the crayfish fed YM18 and BSFL14. Compared with the control group, crayfish fed BSFL14 had higher levels of glutathione peroxidase, catalase acid and alkaline phosphatase and the lowest malondialdehyde (MDA) content in hemocytes. The mRNA expression of CqBAF, HSP70 and MnSOD in the hepatopancreas of crayfish showed an increasing trend. Based on the second‐order polynomial regression analysis of WG, the optimal dietary replacement level of FM with YM meal and BSFL was determined to be 21.9% and 17.1% for juvenile C. quadricarinatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Blockchain has started to appear as a potentially reliable and underlying technology for various fields. There have been lots of surveys focusing on blockchain with respect to specific topics, such as security, architecture, applications, and so on. However, a systematic mapping study, including all related fields about blockchain, has been largely ignored. In this article, we revisit the problem of complex networks in the form of scientific collaboration networks. More specifically, we utilize the method of systematic mapping and implement them into blockchain technology. We collect 233 articles by searching Baidu scholar with the keyword "blockchain," then construct two complex networks according to the relationship of keywords and authors, respectively. The keywords' complex network is a small‐world network while the authors' complex network is not. Furthermore, the tool of Netdraw provides a visualized graph for the complex network. Meanwhile, we find some subgroups in the network, which may highlight the future direction of blockchain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the overwhelming characteristics of computer vision technology, the trend of intelligent upgrading in sports industry is obvious. Video technical and tactical data extraction, big data analysis, and match assistance systems have caused profound changes to all aspects of the sports industry. One of the important applications is the playback and analysis of sports videos. People can observe the videos and summarize the experience of sports matches, and in this process, people prefer the computers to also interpret and analyze sports matches, which can not only help coaches in postmatch analysis but also design robots to assist in teaching and training. In this paper, we have examined and designed an automatic detection system for ping pong balls, in which the motion trajectory and rotation information of ping pong balls are mainly detected. To achieve this goal, the detection and tracking algorithm of ping pong balls based on deep neural network is used, and better results are achieved on the data set established by ourselves and the actual system test. After obtaining the position of the ping pong ball in the image, the rotation direction and speed of the ping pong ball are calculated next, and the Fourier transform-based speed measurement method and the CNN-based rotation direction detection method are implemented, which achieve better results in the testing of lower speed datasets. Finally, this paper proposes an LSTM-based trajectory prediction algorithm to lay the foundation for the design of table tennis robot by predicting the trajectory of table tennis. Experimental tests show that the proposed system can better handle the ping pong ball tracking and rotation measurement problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event-based Social Networks (EBSN), combining online networks with offline users, provide versatile event recommendations for offline users through complex social networks. However, there are some issues that need to be solved in EBSN: (1) The online static data could not satisfy the online dynamic recommendation demand; (2) the implicit behavior information tends to be ignored, reducing the accuracy of the recommendation algorithm; and (3) the online recommendation description is inconsistent with the offline activity. To address these issues, an Incentive Improved DQN (IIDQN) based on Deep Q-Learning Networks (DQN) is proposed. More specifically, we introduce the agents to interact with the environment through online dynamic data. Furthermore, we consider two types of implicit behavior information: the length of the user's browsing time and the user's implicit behavior factors. As for the problem of inconsistency, based on blockchain technology, a new activities event approach on EBSN is proposed, where all activities are recorded on the chain. Finally, the simulation results indicate that the IIDQN algorithm greatly outperforms in mean rewards and recommendation performance than before DQN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, traditional flight data sharing models cannot resist quantum attacks, which poses the risk of data leakage. The research on the flight data sharing model against quantum attack has become one of the research hotspots. Lattice-based cryptography is recognized as an effective way to resist quantum attacks. A flight data sharing model on consortium blockchain is proposed in this paper to resolve data leakage during data sharing. First, a new lattice-based multisignature scheme (Lamus) is proposed, capable of resisting quantum attacks. We prove the security of the proposed Lamus scheme in the random oracle model. Moreover, a flight data sharing model on consortium blockchain is proposed by applying the proposed Lamus scheme to resist quantum attacks. Security and performance analysis show that the model guarantees antiquantum security, and it achieves good performance in terms of storage efficiency and operating efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated the impact of a combined vitamin E (vit E), a mixture of nucleotide (mixed-NT), Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pluvialis), arachidonic acid (AA), and yeast extract powder (YEP) supplementations on the relative mRNA expression of reproduction and antioxidant-related genes in red claw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus using an orthogonal design (L16 45) plus control diet for 70 days feeding trial. Five factors with four levels: A, vit E 40, 160, 240, and 320 mg/kg diet; B, mixed-NT 2, 4, 6, and 8 g/kg diet; C, H. pluvialis2, 4, 6, and 8 g/kg diet; D, AA 5, 10, 15, and 20 g/kg diet; E, YEP 2.5, 5, 10, and 15 g/kg diet were studied. The relative mRNA expression of reproduction-related genes (vitellogenin (vtg) and fatty acid-binding protein (fabp)), and antioxidant-related genes (heat shock protein 70 (hsp70), glutathione peroxidase (gpx), glutathione S-transferase (gst), mitochondrial manganese superoxide dismutase (mmnsod), and ferritin) in hemocyte, hepatopancreas, and ovary tissues were measured. There was a major depression in gene expression levels throughout the experimental diet at high vit E 320 mg/kg level with other factors. Expression of antioxidant enzyme genes significantly increased in treatments of T9, T10, T11, and T12, while significantly decreasing in treatment of T13 and other treatment groups with high vit E 320 mg/kg levels with the other factors. Gene expression of vtg and fabp demonstrated similar patterns to those of antioxidant genes. These results provide evidence that combined supplementations of vit E, mixed-NT, H. pluvialis, AA, and YEP with vit E 240 mg/kg, mixed-NT 8 g/kg, H. pluvialis4 g/kg, AA 5 g/kg, and YEP 10 g/kg may present a novel strategy for improving reproduction performance and antioxidant activities in RC-crayfish, C. quadricarinatus by the positive impact on the molecular level of reproduction and antioxidant genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycobacterium tuberculosis antimicrobial resistance has been continually reported and is a major public health issue worldwide. Rapid prediction of drug resistance is important for selecting appropriate antibiotic treatments, which significantly increases cure rates. Gene sequencing technology has proven to be a powerful strategy for identifying relevant drug resistance information. This study established a sequencing method and bioinformatics pipeline for resistance gene analysis using an Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencer. The pipeline was validated by Sanger sequencing and exhibited 100% concordance with the identified variants. Turnaround time for the nanopore sequencing workflow was approximately 12 h, facilitating drug resistance prediction several weeks earlier than that of traditional phenotype drug susceptibility testing. This study produced a customized gene panel assay for rapid bacterial identification via nanopore sequencing, which improves the timeliness of tuberculosis diagnoses and provides a reliable method that may have clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously, we reported the identification, tissue distribution and confirmed the roles of Spfoxl-2 in regulating vitellogenin (vtg) expression in Scylla paramamosain. Here, we primally analyzed its potential target genes in the ovary with RNAi and RNA-Seq technology. By comparing the transcriptome data of two groups (ovaries that injected with EGFP and Foxl-2 siRNA, respectively), we found 645 DEGs (differentially expressed genes), including several conserved crucial genes involved in ovarian development, such as vtg, vitellogenin receptor (vtgR), adenylate cyclase (AC), cyclinB, and cell division cycle 2 (cdc2). In addition, these DEGs were also enriched in pathways related to ovary development, including relaxin signaling pathway, ovarian steroidogenesis, and progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation. Moreover, several genes were selected for qRT-PCR to validate the accuracy of the bioinformatic result. To the best of our knowledge, the current study was the first report about foxl-2 function through comparative transcriptome analysis in crustacean species, which identified not only relevant genes and pathways involved in ovarian development of S. paramamosain, but also provided new insights into the regulatory mechanisms of foxl-2 at the molecular level in crustacean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the big data background, data privacy becomes more and more important when data leakage and other security events occur more frequently. As one of the key means of privacy protection, anonymous communication attracts large attention. Aiming at the problems such as low efficiency of message forwarding, high communication delay and abusing of anonymity, this paper presents an identity-based traceable anonymous communication model by adding a preprocessing phase, modifying the ciphertext structure and increasing the controllability of anonymity. Firstly, a new identity-based signature algorithm is proposed, and its security is proved via existential unforgeability against chosen-message attacks (EU-CMA). The signature algorithm is further applied to the anonymous communication model to implement the controllability of revocable anonymity. Secondly, by adding a preprocessing Setup phase, the operations of identifications distribution and user authentication are launched before the anonymous communication phase starts, and this practice significantly improves the efficiency of the anonymous communication model. Finally, by adding the hash value of the message and the user identification as the message authentication code, we design a new ciphertext structure, which can efficiently guarantee the integrity of the ciphertext. Performance analysis and simulation results show that the proposed anonymous communication model has high message forwarding efficiency and better security and controllability of anonymity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]