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Cs2LiLaBr6: Ce (CLLB) scintillator with the size of Φ 21mm × 25 mm coupled with PMT was used to detect neutron and gamma rays. The pulse shape discrimination (PSD) of neutrons and gamma rays by charge comparison method, the neutrons and gamma rays from AmBe source and fast neutron beam can be separated with figure-of-merit (FOM) values of 0.9 and 1.3, respectively. However, some neutron and gamma rays are difficult to distinguish, so new algorithms need to be investigated to improve the PSD performance of neutron and gamma. Artificial neural networks (ANN) have a very good image recognition capability, thus the ANN model was constructed to discriminate the waveforms of neutron and gamma rays. After ANN model training, the neutron and gamma signals of the CLLB detector were recognized with an accuracy of 98%, and the FOM value of the ANN method was calculated to be 19.4. This result is much higher than the charge comparison method, indicating better discrimination between neutrons and gamma rays with the ANN method.

Although most of the damage caused by lepidopteran insects to plants is caused by the larval stage, chemosensory systems have been investigated much more frequently for lepidopteran adults than for larvae. The fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous and worldwide pest. To understand the larval chemosensory system in S. frugiperda, we sequenced and assembled the antennae and maxillae transcriptome of larvae in the sixth instar (larval a-m) using the Illumina platform. A total of 30 putative chemosensory receptor genes were identified, and these receptors included 11 odorant receptors (ORs), 4 gustatory receptors (GRs), and 15 ionotropic receptors/ionotropic glutamate receptors (IRs/iGluRs). Phylogeny tests with the candidate receptors and homologs from other insect species revealed some specific genes, including a fructose receptor, a pheromone receptor, IR co-receptors, CO2 receptors, and the OR co-receptor. Comparison of the expression of annotated genes between S. frugiperda adults and larvae (larval a-m) using RT-qPCR showed that most of the annotated OR and GR genes were predominantly expressed in the adult stage, but that 2 ORs and 1 GR were highly expressed in both the adult antennae and the larval a-m. Although most of the tested IR/iGluR genes were mainly expressed in adult antennae, transcripts of 3 iGluRs were significantly more abundant in the larval a-m than in the adult antennae of both sexes. Comparison of the expression levels of larval a-m expressed chemosensory receptors among the first, fourth, and sixth instars revealed that the expression of some of the genes varied significantly among different larval stages. These results increase our understanding of the chemosensory systems of S. frugiperda larvae and provide a basis for future functional studies aimed at the development of novel strategies to manage this pest.

Plasmids are commonly used tools in microbiology and molecular biology and have important and wide-ranging applications in the study of gene function, protein expression, and compound synthesis. The complex relationship between necessary antibiotic addition, compatibility between multiple plasmids, and the growth burden of host bacteria has plagued the wider use of compatibility plasmids. In this study, we constructed the terminal polymerization pathway of PSA by exogenously expressing the neuA, neuD, and neuS genes after the knockdown of Eschesrichia coli BL21 (DE3). Duet series vectors were utilized to regulate the expression level of neuA, neuD, and neuS genes to study the gene expression level, plasmid copy number growth burden, pressure of antibiotic addition, stability of compatible plasmids, and the level of expression stability of exogenous genes, as well as the effect on the biological reaction process. The results showed that the three genes, neuA, neuD, and neuS, were enhanced in the recombinant strain E. coli NA-05, with low copy, medium copy, and high copy, respectively. The effect of PSA synthesis under standard antibiotic pressure was remarkable. The results of this thesis suggest the use of a Duet series of compatible expression vectors to achieve the stable existence and co-expression of multiple genes in recombinant bacteria, which is a good reason for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flash evaporation of droplets under reduced pressures is versatile in industrial applications for its low energy consumption. More vigorous flash explosions may occur by the subsecond expansion of internal bubbles, leading to inefficient heat transfer and facility damage. In this work, we propose using the aerosol with an inherent low thermal conductivity as the substrate to study the flash evaporation of sessile droplets, which reduces the number of nucleate sites and suppresses the flash explosion, in contrast to the pendant one. We experimentally reveal the effect of ambient pressure, initial droplet temperature, and size on droplet temperature evolution and evaporation rate. A revised diffusion coefficient is proposed based on the experimental droplet lifetime with the aid of D 2 -law, which is utilized in axisymmetric simulations for acquiring the flow field, temperature, and vapor concentration distribution. The analogy between experimental and numerical results has demonstrated the validity of this revision. The interplay of two convection flows aroused by the Marangoni effect and thermal convection is displayed at the early stage of flash evaporation, and the latter is predominant for the rest of evaporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been great interest in species characteristics that promote invasiveness, still little is known about the characteristics that distinguish invasive from non‐invasive insects. Using a database on the naturalised distributions of alien insects and expert opinions about their impacts, we identified the world's 100 worst invasive insect species.By comparing species characteristics reported in the literature using a meta‐analysis, between the 100 worst invasive species and related non‐invasive species, we found that invasive insects overall have more pathways of introduction, occur in more habitats, have higher fecundities, higher voltinism, more genes, shorted lifespans and faster development from egg to adult. Some of the differences in species characteristics related to propagule pressures, life‐histories and biotic interactions, conditional on whether the non‐invasive species compared is known to be naturalised somewhere, whether the invasive species is globally distributed, and the climatic region of the species.Synthesis and applications. We show for the first time, using a multi‐species comparative approach, that invasive insects differ in several characteristics from related non‐invasive insects. Our results show that invasive species, such as Spodoptera frugiperda, typically are habitat generalists with a high fecundity, a short lifespan and fast development, whereas the importance of female body size and number of enemies are context dependent. Our study can guide and improve existing screening tools for assessing the invasion potential of alien insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosability is often considered as an important factor for measuring the self-diagnostic ability of network systems. However, classic system-level diagnosis focuses only on processor faults and ignores the objective reality of communication faults. Under real circumstances, missing edges and node failures usually occur simultaneously in multiprocessor systems (called hybrid fault circumstances). Therefore, it is important to study the diagnosability of multiprocessor systems under hybrid fault circumstances. In this paper, we propose several diagnosabilities of interconnection networks with missing edges and faulty nodes. By exploring some important relationships between diagnosability and the minimum degree of a network under hybrid fault circumstances, we present and prove the diagnosability of several classic interconnection networks, including BC (bijective connection) networks, star graphs, folded hypercubes, exchanged hypercubes, exchanged crossed cubes, k-ary n-cubes, bubble-sort star graphs and balanced hypercubes, with missing edges and broken-down nodes under the PMC (Preparata, Metze and Chien) and MM* (Maeng and Malek) models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, chalcogenide phase-change materials have been widely applied in phase-change random access memory. However, the materials still have shortcomings of poor stability and low crystalline resistivity, causing high-power consumption, resistance drift, and short device life in phase-change random access memory. These do not meet the technical requirements and need to be modified. To improve Sb-Te systems alloy materials' properties and discover new phase-change materials, in this work, we construct 16 solid-solution systems based on SbTe (Sb1−xNMx)Te and Sb(Te1−xNMx) (NM = noble metals). We use a high-throughput computing method to calculate and analyze the underlying physical mechanism of solid-solution noble metal atoms' effects on improving the performance of phase-change materials. Based on the calculation results, we believe that the (Sb1−xNMx)Te solid solutions are more stable than Sb(Te1−xNMx). At the same time, the solid solution of the substituted Sb atom sites keeps the crystal structure symmetry improved structural stability. Furthermore, lone-pair electrons exist due to (Sb1−xNMx)Te keeping the SbTe's unique layer structure, which confers a higher activity of the surrounding atoms. This is an essential determinant for keeping the phase-change properties. On the other hand, (Sb1−xNMx)Te solid solutions increase the band gap, leading to increased resistivity. Considering the structural stability and electrical properties, we believe that the (Sb1−xRux) and (Sb1−xPdx)Te systems can create new phase-change materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as a gasotransmitter, is involved in various pathophysiological processes. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), which leads to structural and functional abnormalities of the myocardium and eventually causes heart failure (HF). Systolic and diastolic dysfunction are fundamental features of heart failure. SERCA2a, as a key enzyme for calcium transport in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), affects the process of myocardial relaxation and contraction. H2S can protect the cardiac function against diabetic hearts, however, its mechanisms are unclear. This study found that exogenous H2S affects cellular calcium transport by regulating the H2S/MuRF1/SERCA2a/cardiac contractile pathway. Our results showed that, compared with the db/db mice, exogenous H2S restored the protein expression levels of CSE and SERCA2a, and the activity of SERCA2a, while reducing cytosolic calcium concentrations and MuRF1 expression. We demonstrated that MuRF1 could interact with SERCA2a via co-immunoprecipitation. Using LC-MS/MS protein ubiquitylation analysis, we identified 147 proteins with increased ubiquitination levels, including SERCA2a, in the cardiac tissues of the db/db mice compared with NaHS-treated db/db mice. Our studies further revealed that NaHS administration modified MuRF1 S-sulfhydration and enhanced the activity and expression of SERCA2a. Under hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia, overexpression of the MuRF1-Cys44 mutant plasmid reduced the S-sulfhydration level of MuRF1 and decreased the ubiquitination level of SERCA2a and the intracellular Ca2+ concentration. These findings suggested that H2S modulates SERCA2a ubiquitination through MuRF1 S-sulfhydration of Cys44 to prevent decreased myocardial contractility due to increased cytosolic calcium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The study aimed to investigate the correlation between the severity of disease and postoperative neurological recovery in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) combined with developmental spinal stenosis. Methods. A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 114 CSM patients combined with developmental spinal stenosis admitted to our hospital from June 2019 to June 2020 was performed. All of the patients who underwent posterior cervical unidoor vertebroplasty were divided into the mild, moderate, and severe groups according to the Torg–Pavlov ratio. The clinical data including patients' age, course of spinal cord high signal change, and first onset age were collected. The recovery time, preoperative, and postoperative Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores of patients in each group were compared with the calculation of the improvement rate. The correlation between the severity of disease and postoperative neurological recovery in CSM patients combined with developmental spinal stenosis was analyzed by Pearson correlation. The factors influencing postoperative neurological recovery were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the value of each influencing factor in predicting postoperative recovery. Results. Significant differences were observed in the proportion of linear hyperintensity changes in the spinal cord, the age of first onset, the course of the disease, and the Torg–Pavlov ratio among the mild, moderate, and severe groups (P < 0. 05). The postoperative recovery time of the moderate and severe groups was significantly higher than that of the mild group, while the preoperative JOA score was significantly lower than that of the mild group. On the other hand, the postoperative recovery time of the severe group was prominently higher than that of the moderate group, whereas the preoperative JOA score was observably lower than that of the moderate group (P < 0. 05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the postoperative recovery time was significantly negatively correlated with the Torg–Pavlov ratio, age at first onset, and disease course (r = −0.359, −0.502, −0.368, P < 0. 05), while it was positively correlated with spinal cord linear high-signal changes (r = 0.641, P < 0. 05). Multifactorial logistic regression analysis revealed that the Torg–Pavlov ratio, age at first onset, and disease course were protective factors, while spinal cord linear high-signal alterations were risk factors affecting the recovery time of postoperative neurological function (P < 0. 05). The area under the curve (AUC) of the Torg–Pavlov ratio, linear hyperintensity changes in the spinal cord, age at first onset, and disease duration in predicting the postoperative neurological recovery time were 0.794, 0.767, 0.772, and 0.802, respectively. The AUC predicted by the combined detection of each factor was 0.876, which was better than the area under the curve of single prediction. Conclusion. Patients with CSM combined with developmental spinal stenosis were characterized by younger age of onset, a short course of the disease, and linear changes in the spinal cord high signal. The degree of developmental spinal stenosis may affect the postoperative recovery time of neurological function in CSM patients but had little effect on postoperative neurological recovery. The Torg–Pavlov ratio, age of first onset, course of the disease, and changes in the spinal cord linear hyperintensity were the factors that affected postoperative neurological recovery, which may provide a basis for reasonably predicting a postoperative neurological recovery in patients with CSM combined with developmental spinal stenosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]