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Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) affects 10% of infertile men worldwide, and genetic studies revealed that there are plenty of monogenic mutations that responsible for a part of idiopathic NOA cases. Testis-expressed gene 11 (TEX11) is an X-linked meiosis-specific gene, many pathogenic variants in TEX11 have been detected in NOA patients, and the deficiency of this gene can cause abnormal meiotic recombination and chromosomal synapsis. However, many NOA-affected cases caused by TEX11 mutation remain largely unknown. This study reported three novel TEX11 mutations (exon 5, c.313C>T: p.R105*), (exon 7, c.427A>C: p.K143Q) and (exon 29, c.2575G>A: p.G859R). Mutations were screened using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and further verified by amplifying and sequencing the specific exon. Histological analysis of testicular biopsy specimens revealed a thicker basement membrane of the seminiferous tubules and poorly developed spermatocytes, and no post-meiotic round spermatids or mature spermatozoa were observed in the seminiferous tubules of patients with TEX11 mutation.ConclusionThis study presents three novel variants of TEX11 as potential infertility alleles that have not been previously reported. It expanded the variant spectrum of patients with NOA, which also emphasizes the necessity of this gene screening for the clinical auxiliary diagnosis of patients with azoospermia.

A combination of pullulanase debranching, chloroacetic acid etherification, and sodium tripolyphosphate esterification was selected for the modification of waxy corn starch (WCS) to ameliorate its properties and expand its application. The results showed that the carboxymethylation and phosphorylation were chiefly completed on the big particles. The crystalline structure of WCS was an A-type, but the crystalline structure of debranched waxy corn starch (DWCS) was a C-type. The carboxymethylation destroyed the crystal structure of DWCS. The debranching could result in the reduction of the swelling capacity of WCS, while the carboxymethylation and esterification improved the swelling capacity. The characteristic absorption peaks of carbonyl bonds at 1736.8 cm− 1 and P = O bonds at 1301.2 cm− 1 confirmed that WCS was successfully etherified and esterified. Phosphate carboxymethyl debranched waxy corn starch (PDWCS) could be used to remove Zn2+, and at suitable adsorption conditions, the removal rate of Zn2+ could reach 72.9%

Natural antioxidants are more attractive than synthetic chemical oxidants because of their non-toxic and non-harmful properties. Microalgal bioactive components such as carotenoids, polysaccharides, and phenolic compounds are gaining popularity as very effective and long-lasting natural antioxidants. Few articles currently exist that analyze microalgae from a bibliometric and visualization point of view. This study used a bibliometric method based on the Web of Science Core Collection database to analyze antioxidant research on bioactive compounds in microalgae from 1996 to 2022. According to cluster analysis, the most studied areas are the effectiveness, the antioxidant mechanism, and use of bioactive substances in microalgae, such as carotene, astaxanthin, and tocopherols, in the fields of food, cosmetics, and medicine. Using keyword co-occurrence and keyword mutation analysis, future trends are predicted to improve extraction rates and stability by altering the environment of microalgae cultures or mixing extracts with chemicals such as nanoparticles for commercial and industrial applications. These findings can help researchers identify trends and resources to build impactful investigations and expand scientific frontiers.

Upgrading toilets in rural areas is an effective way to protect public health and reduce environmental pollution. Although there are studies on rural toilets, the sustainable performance of rural toilets in developing areas is considerably less understood. The study aims to build a sustainability assessment model of rural toilet technology to support the local government in upgrading rural toilets. The unascertained measure theory is integrated into the model to quantify the sustainability performance of rural toilet technology in three dimensions: economy, service and management, and environment. A case study of Honghai Village, Inner Mongolia, China, is conducted to verify the reliability of the sustainability assessment model. The results indicate that the sustainability performance of the three-compartment septic tank toilet technology is good in Honghai Village. The results are consistent with the situation of the three-compartment septic tank toilets in the village, which verifies the model’s validity. This study can help local government significantly upgrade rural toilets and improve the living standards of rural residents.

Photoelectron spectroscopy in intense laser fields has proven to be a powerful tool for providing detailed insights into molecular structure. The ionizing molecular orbital, however, has not been reconstructed from the photoelectron spectra, mainly due to the fact that its phase information can be hardly extracted. In this work, we propose a method to retrieve the phase information of the ionizing molecular orbital with laser-induced electron tunneling spectroscopy. By analyzing the interference pattern in the photoelectron spectrum, the weighted coefficients and the relative phases of the constituent atomic orbitals for a molecular orbital can be extracted. With this information we reconstruct the highest occupied molecular orbital of N$_2$. Our work provides a reliable and general approach for imaging of molecular orbitals with the photoelectron spectroscopy., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, including Supplementary Materials

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) was immobilized in zeolite imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) through biomimetic mineralization method, namely SOD@ZIF-8, which was then used in the treatment of nerve damage by eliminating reactive oxygen species (ROS). A series of chemical characterization and enzymatic activity researches revealed that SOD was successfully embedded into ZIF-8 without apparent influence on the antioxidant activity of SOD. Cell level experiments showed that SOD@ZIF-8 could be effectively endocytosed by cells. The activity of SOD@ZIF-8 in scavenging ROS played a critical role in protecting SHSY-5Y cells from MPP+-induced cell model and relieving cell apoptosis, indicating that SOD@ZIF-8 could effectively rescue ROS-mediated neurological disorders though removing excessive ROS produced in vitro.

As a core component of the bucking coil helicopter transient electromagnetic (TEM) system, the current pulse inverter should agree two crucial aspects, high power and fast turn- OFF . In this article, based on the design and modeling of transmitting coil and bucking coil, a novel current inverter topology based on the double constant voltage clamping technology, which differs from the traditional single clamping technology is firstly proposed and analyzed. By using double clamping technology, both the current pulse's rising edge and falling edge are improved effectively. What's more, the turn-OFF time of the current inverter is adjustable, which is of great difference from the conventional clamping technology with nonadjustable turn-OFF time. The ground and field experiments are implemented to test the performance of the current inverter. The results of the ground test of the performance comparison with worldwide VTEM transmitter verify that it successfully converts the standard 28 V dc source from helicopter power to bipolar approximately trapezoid pulses with a peak current of 300 A and a much faster turn-OFF time than the VTEM transmitter. The results of field exploration further demonstrate that it achieves a high quality of primary field compensation and effectively improve the detection capability of the helicopter TEM surveying system.

This study investigates the motives behind the degrees of molecular pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic, which persisted from first walk 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. A spatial Durbin file model is used linked to an edge backslide model in this article to find the widely inclusive and nearby consequences of present-day plan and urbanization on nonrenewable energy source by things. The outcomes are discussed next: both were available in modern-day plan and urbanization from a generally inclusive standpoint. The geological consequences of CO2 emissions were concentrated on utilizing information from 22 European countries somewhere in the range of 1990–2020, and all through the examination cycle, the Durbin spatial model was discovered. Although factors such as gross domestic product per capita, urbanization, and energy power impact CO2 emissions, exchange receptivity stays unaltered. The findings will fill in as critical repercussions for state-run administrations, wellbeing experts, and regulators in the war against the return of COVID-19 in Europe. The great number of suggestions were worthless since the concept integrated six money-connected creation assessments into a coordinated arrangement. There is information to indicate that CO2 emissions are associated with money-related events in neighboring nations.

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Distribution of SNPs on each chromosome. Figure S2. Distribution of SNPs on chromosome position. Figure S3. Population structure evaluated by the first two principal components. Figure S4. Manhattan and quantile-quantile (QQ) plot on Serum TG, T-CHO, LDL-C and P. Figure S5. Manhattan and quantile-quantile (QQ) plot on body weight and shank girth.

Additional file 8: Table S5. Primer list.

Additional file 3: Figure S1. Linkage disequilibrium analysis (LD) of SNPs in ELOVL genes in Gushi-Anka F2 population.

Additional file 5: Figure S2. The expression levels of ELOVL genes in hypothalamus, liver, abdominal fat and pectorals of AFL and AFH.

The abstractive methods lack of creative ability is particularly a problem in automatic text summarization. The summaries generated by models are mostly extracted from the source articles. One of the main causes for this problem is the lack of dataset with abstractiveness, especially for Chinese. In order to solve this problem, we paraphrase the reference summaries in CLTS, the Chinese Long Text Summarization dataset, correct errors of factual inconsistencies, and propose the first Chinese Long Text Summarization dataset with a high level of abstractiveness, CLTS+, which contains more than 180K article-summary pairs and is available online. Additionally, we introduce an intrinsic metric based on co-occurrence words to evaluate the dataset we constructed. We analyze the extraction strategies used in CLTS+ summaries against other datasets to quantify the abstractiveness and difficulty of our new data and train several baselines on CLTS+ to verify the utility of it for improving the creative ability of models.

Additional file 1.

In complex terrain, semi-airborne transient electromagnetic surveying can effectively solve the detailed exploration problems to replace ground manual operation. This method has the advantages of high efficiency, deep exploration depth, and high signal-to-noise ratio. As the core component of the system, the constant-current transmission converter determines the primary field source of the surveying system. High-accurate and stable-output electromagnetic transmission technology is the key issues of the surveying equipment development. In this paper, the converter circuit topology is designed in detail and a novel model reference adaptive proportional-integral control algorithm is put forward. The rising overshoot of current is eliminated and falling edge is linear. Finally, the 20-kW high-power transmitting instrument has been completed and used for field experiments. A large number of experimental results show that the transmitting instrument can achieve high-power constant-current emission, stable output, and good dynamic performance. And the steady-state accuracy is better than the traditional transmitter. The converter successfully improved the semi-airborne transient electromagnetic system detection capability and achieved satisfactory results in field experiments.

In this paper we introduce an end-to-end deep learning (DL) framework for magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) and denoising. This framework consists of two neural networks: a binary classification network for magnetic anomaly detection and a regression network for geomagnetic noise suppression. The two networks work in a cascade mode: the magnetic field measurement is first sent to the detection network to check the existence of the anomaly signal, and then to the denoising network for extracting the signal from the geomagnetic noise if the detection result is positive. The core idea of our proposed method is that the characteristics of both the magnetic anomaly signal and the geomagnetic noise can be learned from massive training data. The experimental results show that: (1) under the same false alarm rate constraint, the probability of detection of our proposed method is above 80% when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) equals -6 dB, while the orthogonal basis function (OBF) method fails when the SNR is below 0 dB; (2) for geomagnetic noise suppression, an improvement of 10 to 15 dB is achieved for data with input SNRs between -5 and 15 dB. Our results paved the way for data-driven magnetic anomaly detection and denoising.

Background: An increasing number of studies have explored disease and growth traits through quantitative trait locus (QTLs) in chickens. Nevertheless, the pathogenic genes underlying the QTL effects remain poorly understood. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is a marker of osteoblast maturation and an important indicator of bone metabolism. The change of ALP can reflect the bone metabolism and growth traits of animals to a certain extent. Results: In this study, we identified a SNP site at ST3GAL4 that found by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in previous studies, and found another 8 SNPs by DNA sequencing. Interestingly, there are 4 SNPs rs475471G>A, rs475533C>T, rs475621A>G, rs475647C>A were completely linked by haplotype analysis, and selected a tag SNP rs475471G>A to analyze the correlation between this SNP and ALP level in Hubbard leg disease population and an F2 chicken resource population produced by Anka and Gushi chickens, and carried out population genetic analysis in 18 chicken breeds. Association analysis showed that this QTL within ST3GAL4 were highly correlated with ALP level, the mutant individuals with genotype AA had the highest ALP level, followed by GA and GG genotypes. The mutant individuals with genotype AA and GA genotype had higher values for body weight (BW), chest width (CW), body slanting length (BSL), pelvis width (PW) at 4-week, the semi-evisceration weight (SEW), evisceration weight (EW) and Leg weight (LW) of AA and GA genotype also higher. The amplification and typing of 4,852 DNA samples from 18 different breeds and the result shown GG genotype mainly existed in egg-type chickens and dual-type chickens, while AA genotype mainly distributed in commercial broilers and F2 resource population. The individuals of AA genotype had the highest ALP and showed better growth performance. This is the first time to report the causal variant of ST3GAL4 gene that located at chromosome 24 related to chicken serum ALP level. Besides, tissue expression analysis used Cobb broiler showed that there were significant differences between different genotypes in spleen and duodenum.Conclusions: This study the first time to determine 9 SNPs within ST3GAL4 were related to ALP in chickens, 4 of them were complete linkage sequence variants, which provide useful information on the mutation of ST3GAL4 and could predict the serum ALP level of chicken early and effectively as a potential molecular breeding marker.

Accurate and timely wheat yield prediction is of great importance to global food security. Early prediction of wheat yield at a field scale is essential for site-specific precision management. This study aimed to develop an in-season wheat yield prediction model at field-scale by integrating proximal sensing and weather data. Nine multi-N rates field experiments were conducted at five sites involving different wheat cultivars from 2010 to 2020. Proximal sensing data were collected from a Crop Circle sensor at the stem elongation stage and weather data were collected from 30 days before planting to the flowering date. Eleven statistical and machine learning (ML) regression algorithms were adopted, along with two aggregation intervals (disaggregated or aggregated data) and two feature selection methods (based on Pearson Correlation Coefficient or Recursive Feature Elimination). The results revealed that the ensemble learning models (Random Forest, eXtreme Gradient Boosting) achieved the best overall performance (R2 = 0.74 ∼ 0.78, RMSE = 0.78 ∼ 0.85 t ha−1). Feature importance analysis showed that Normalized Difference Red Edge Index (NDRE), average temperature, minimum temperature, and relative humidity were the most contributory features, especially from the planting date to the stem elongation date (for weather features). The aggregation approach and feature selection method did not significantly affect the yield prediction performance for the seven ML methods. This study introduced a promising framework that complements county-scale models and provided insights into understanding yield responses to environmental conditions. The best prediction model can be applied for guiding real-time sensor-based precision fertilization.

Additional file 7: Table S7. ChIP-qPCR primers.

Large amounts of secondary date waste (pulp and seeds) are produced and discarded in Tunisia without proper valorisation methods. To study the possibility of valorising different varieties of Tunisian date waste (pulp and seeds) via anaerobic digestion, batch biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests were carried out under mesophilic temperature. The bio-methane production curves were fitted to the model of modified Gompertz in search of the kinetic parameters. The bio-chemical characterisation of the substrates from different varieties (total and volatile solids, COD and contents in carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, polyphenols) was realised. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to investigate the correlations between the model parameters and biochemical variables. Results show that the biochemical compositions of date pulp and seeds strongly depend on the varieties. The BMP are in the range of 0.295���0.345 and 0.267���0.327 Nm3 CH4��kg COD���1 for pulp and seeds respectively, resulting from the significant biochemical variance among the varieties. The BMP of date seeds was significantly correlated with their VS/TS ratio, carbohydrate and protein contents (p

Additional file 6: Table S6. qRT-PCR primers.

Additional file 3: Table S3. Descriptive summary of data generated by miRNA-seq.

Unlike 2D object detection where all RoI features come from grid pixels, the RoI feature extraction of 3D point cloud object detection is more diverse. In this paper, we first compare and analyze the differences in structure and performance between the two state-of-the-art models PV-RCNN and Voxel-RCNN. Then, we find that the performance gap between the two models does not come from point information, but structural information. The voxel features contain more structural information because they do quantization instead of downsampling to point cloud so that they can contain basically the complete information of the whole point cloud. The stronger structural information in voxel features makes the detector have higher performance in our experiments even if the voxel features don't have accurate location information. Then, we propose that structural information is the key to 3D object detection. Based on the above conclusion, we propose a Self-Attention RoI Feature Extractor (SARFE) to enhance structural information of the feature extracted from 3D proposals. SARFE is a plug-and-play module that can be easily used on existing 3D detectors. Our SARFE is evaluated on both KITTI dataset and Waymo Open dataset. With the newly introduced SARFE, we improve the performance of the state-of-the-art 3D detectors by a large margin in cyclist on KITTI dataset while keeping real-time capability.

Additional file 1: Fig. S1. a Western blotting and statistical graphic for ANGPTL4 in ovarian tumors of WT, VEGFR2Y949F/Y949F (Y949F), MISIIR-TAg WT (TAg-WT), and MISIIR-TAg Y949F (TAg-Y949F) mice transfected with siANG or Scrambled siRNA control to testify the ANGPTL4 inhibition, n=3 independent experiments per group. NOTE: WT and Y949F groups in Fig.6 correspond to TAg-WT and TAg-Y949F mice. b qRT-PCR to verify the ANGPTL4 mRNA expression in ovarian tumors of transgenic mice, n=3 independent experiments per group. c Western blotting and VEGFR2 pY949 expression normalized to VEGFR2 or GAPDH in ovarian tumors of transfected transgenic mice to confirm the inactivation of VEGFR2 at Y949, n=3 independent experiments per group. d A representative image of reproductive tract of MISIIR-TAg mouse exhibiting bilateral ovarian tumors. Arrowheads indicate ovarian tumors. Scale bar: 0.5 cm. ***p < 0.001 with indicated groups. Data were presented as mean ± SEM. siANG, small interfering RNA targeting ANGPTL4. Fig. S2. No difference in tumor growth was observed in WT and VEGFR2 Y949F/Y949F mice with control vehicle treatment. a Experimental strategy. TAg-WT (WT) and TAg-VEGFR2Y949F/Y949F (Y949F) mice were constructed and pups were evaluated for sex, and tail tips were acquired from female mice for genotyping. On postnatal day (pnd) 28, mice were injected with control lentiviruses into their ovaries. On pnd 56, mice were sacrificed for further analysis. b Ovarian tumor volumes in WT-Ctl and Y949F-Ctl mice on pnd 56, n=9-10 mice per genotype. c Tumor diameter distribution (1-5 mm and >5 mm) on pnd 56, n=9-10 mice per genotype. d Immunofluorescent staining and statistical graphic of VE-cadherin in WT-Ctl and Y949F-Ctl tumors, n=4 tumors per genotype. Scale bar: 50 μm. e Western blotting for VE-cadherin and GAPDH in WT-Ctl and Y949F-Ctl tumors, n=4 tumors per genotype. f Western blotting for slug, snail, and GAPDH in WT-Ctl and Y949F-Ctl tumors, n=4 tumors per genotype. ns indicates no significance. Data were presented as mean ± SEM. Table S1. Primer sequences used for PCR and siRNA sequences.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Descriptive summary of data generated by RNA-seq.

Additional file 4: Table S4. Descriptive summary of data generated by ChIP-seq.

BACKGROUND: We conducted a phase I clinical trial that infused CCR5 gene–edited CD4(+) T cells to determine how these T cells can better enable HIV cure strategies. METHODS: The aim of trial was to develop RNA-based approaches to deliver zinc finger nuclease (ZFN), evaluate the effect of CCR5 gene–edited CD4(+) T cells on the HIV-specific T cell response, test the ability of infused CCR5 gene–edited T cells to delay viral rebound during analytical treatment interruption, and determine whether individuals heterozygous for CCR5 Δ32 preferentially benefit. We enrolled 14 individuals living with HIV whose viral load was well controlled by antiretroviral therapy (ART). We measured the time to viral rebound after ART withdrawal, the persistence of CCR5-edited CD4(+) T cells, and whether infusion of 10 billion CCR5-edited CD4(+) T cells augmented the HIV-specific immune response. RESULTS: Infusion of the CD4(+) T cells was well tolerated, with no serious adverse events. We observed a modest delay in the time to viral rebound relative to historical controls; however, 3 of the 14 individuals, 2 of whom were heterozygous for CCR5 Δ32, showed post-viral rebound control of viremia, before ultimately losing control of viral replication. Interestingly, only these individuals had substantial restoration of HIV-specific CD8(+) T cell responses. We observed immune escape for 1 of these reinvigorated responses at viral recrudescence, illustrating a direct link between viral control and enhanced CD8(+) T cell responses. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate how CCR5 gene–edited CD4(+) T cell infusion could aid HIV cure strategies by augmenting preexisting HIV-specific immune responses. REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02388594. FUNDING: NIH funding (R01AI104400, UM1AI126620, U19AI149680, T32AI007632) was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Sangamo Therapeutics also provided funding for these studies.

Synthetic aperture imaging and virtual point detection have been exploited to extend the depth-ofview of photoacoustic microscopy. The approach is commonly based on a constant assumed sound speed, which reduces image quality. We propose a new self-adaptive technique to estimate the speed of sound for being integrated with this hybrid strategy. It is accomplished through linear regression between the square of time-of-fight detected at individual virtual detectors and the square of their horizontal distances on the focal plane. The imaging results show our proposed method can significantly improve the lateral resolution, imaging intensity and spatial precision for inhomogeneous tissue.

Trans fatty acids (TFA) have been shown to be associated with various health disorders. The major source of dietary TFA is high-temperature deodorization of vegetable oils. In this study, precision minimal deodorization was proposed to obtain healthier zero-TFA vegetable oils. Dual columns with dual temperatures (DCDT) deodorizer was designed, transformed and industrially implemented among dozens of plants. Also the deodorization temperatures were optimized and customized respectively for four kinds of vegetable oil (soybean oil and rapeseed oil: tray column 205°C and packed column 225°C, maize oil and sunflower seed oil: tray column 210°C and packed column 230°C). Four kinds of oils can all achieve zero-TFA by DCDT deodorization at the customized temperatures, and meanwhile oil qualities and shelf life stabilities were compared with corresponding conventional refining oils. The initial FFA and color were a little higher than conventional refining oils, however, they showed no significant differences in odors and shelf life stability, which indicated a good and stable oil quality of zero-TFA oils for future industrial productions and sales.

Background SH3RF2 gene was a protein-coding gene located in the quantitative trait locus associated with body weight , and its deletion was positively correlated with body weight in chickens.ResultsIn the present study, the SH3RF2 genotype of the “Gushi ×Anka” F2 resource population , as well as local chickens and commercial layers and broilers in China was detected , and the relationship between the genotype and chicken production traits was further studied by molecular biology technology. The results showed that the local chickens and commercial layers were all homozygous for the wild-type allele. In commercial broiler breeds, deletion mutation individuals were detected in all commercial broiler breeds except Hubbard breeds.In addition , 798 individuals in the F2 resource group were used to analyze the effects of different genotypes (DD\ ID\ II) on chicken production traits. The results showed that the mutation was associated with 2 , 6 , 10 , and 12-week body weight and a significant correllation with 8-week breast bone length (PConclusionsThe results of this study indicated that the copy number variation of the SH3RF2 gene contributed to the growth and weight gain of chickens.

The interlayer bonding in two dimensional materials is particularly important because it is not only related to their physical and chemical stability but also affects their mechanical, thermal, electronic, optical, and other properties. To address this issue, we report the direct characterization of the interlayer bonding in 2D SnSe using contact-resonance atomic force microscopy in this study. Site specific CR spectroscopy and CR force spectroscopy measurements are performed on both SnSe and its supporting SiO2 substrate comparatively. Based on the cantilever and contact mechanic models, the contact stiffness and vertical Young's modulus are evaluated in comparison with SiO2 as a reference material. The interlayer bonding of SnSe is further analyzed in combination with the semi-analytical model and density functional theory calculations. The direct characterization of interlayer interactions using this nondestructive methodology of CR AFM would facilitate a better understanding of the physical and chemical properties of 2D layered materials, specifically for interlayer intercalation and vertical heterostructures., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures

Understanding how extreme drought and precipitation influence the water uptake patterns of vegetation is essential to assessing the responses of vegetation to climate change and evaluating regional water security. We introduced stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes to determine the seasonal pattern of water uptake by the evergreen coniferous species Platycladus orientalis from June 2011 to June 2014 in the semiarid rocky areas of North China with shallow soil. Temporal variations in the soil water content (SWC), transpiration and root distribution were examined to analyze the key role of groundwater in plant water sources during the extreme drought. Platycladus orientalis showed great dependence on the surface soil water (0–20 cm) and a water uptake proportion greater than 50% in all rainy seasons (June–September) was observed. Our study also revealed that P.orientalis preferred to use upper soil moisture (0–40 cm) in the dry seasons as long as the supply met the demand, and it would turn to deep soil water and groundwater under dramatic reduction in the surface soil water content. During prolonged extreme drought, groundwater use increased from 25.3% in the early period to 61.3% in the late period. These findings suggest that P. orientalis water uptake has great plasticity and that its water uptake depth varies with a decline in soil water. In addition, a long extreme drought period will lead to a preference for and an increase in groundwater use, which means that P. orientalis can adapt well to extreme climates.

We developed a novel method of microwave irradiation to deal with Escherichia coli (E. coli), realized the trans-membrane and trans-wall direct electron transfer of Guanine in viable E. coli. Typical surface controlled irreversible electrode process of E. coli was achieved by cyclic voltammetry with the participating of two electrons and two protons. The method of bacterium culture and colony count showed that the direct electrochemistry of E. coli could be realized with its biological activity maintained. In addition, the electrochemical parameters of E. coli were further achieved, which provided a paradigm for direct electrochemical study of other bacteria.

In order to improve the interlaminar shear property of the composites manufactured by the additive of aramid fiber (AF) reinforced with polylactic acid (PLA), the preparation process of AF reinforced thermoplastic resin composite micro-wires has been optimized, which could promote impregnated and toughness. The influence of different water bath temperatures on the interlaminar shear properties of the composites was studied. And the results showed that the largest interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of AF/PLA composite material was 12.0 MPa, which had confirmed in the water bath temperature of 30°C. As the bath temperature increased, the interlaminar shear performance decreased, and the ILSS of composite micro-wires in 70°C water bath was 74.67% of that in 30°C water bath. The composite fiber with high impregnation degree and good toughness has laid a foundation for further research on additive manufacturing of AF/PLA composite.

Dynamically changing machining conditions and uncertain manufacturing resource availability are forcing manufacturing enterprises to search advanced process planning in order to increase productivity and ensure product quality. As growing quantities of the three-dimensional process models are gradually applied, reusing the embedded manufacturing information in process models with less time and lower cost attracts a lot of attention. In this paper, a new flexible method is presented to reuse the existing process information based on retrieval of the similar machining feature. First, the three-level organization model is introduced to represent the process information; the machining feature which is seen as the parent layer carries the corresponding manufacturing information. To ensure accurately that the process information are obtained, the associated mechanism between the machining feature and process information is created. Second, an eight-node representation scheme is designed to represent the similar machining feature having same variations in topology and geometry. For accelerating similar feature retrieval, the extension-attributed adjacency graph and the topological relationship of the machining feature faces are built. Finally, some aircraft structural parts are utilized in the developed prototype module to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. This method can be used as the basis for accumulation of the process information; it can promote the development and application of the intelligent process planning.

It is of great importance to do research on the preparation and applications of the Mg2Si film as an ecological friendly semiconducting material. Semiconducting Mg2Si films were prepared by electron beam evaporation deposition of Mg film onto Si substrate and subsequent heat treatment. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize and analyse the obtained Mg2Si films. Effects of heat treatment temperature (300–700 °C) under Ar gas pressure (200 Pa) on the crystal structure and surface morphologies of Mg2Si films were investigated. The XRD results show that heat treatment at 400–500 °C for 4–5 h is the optimal heat treatment condition to prepare Mg2Si films by the diffusion between the Mg atoms and Si atoms, and high temperature treatment above 600 °C causes the decomposition of Mg2Si and the formation of MgO. The SEM images show that the surfaces of obtained films become smooth and compact with the increase in heat treatment temperature. However, significant differences on the surface of the films occur when heat temperature is above 600 °C because of the decomposition of Mg2Si phase and the formation of MgO phase. These experimental results are beneficial to the development of optoelectronic devices based on the Mg2Si films.

Self-lubricating wear-resistant NiCr–Cr3C2–MoS2–CeO2 layers were fabricated on 38CrMoAl extruder screws by laser processing. The effect of scanning speeds on microstructure, phases, microhardness, and wear behavior was investigated. The obtained results indicate that the laser-processed layers had fine and nonuniform microstructures with undissolved MoS2 particles distributed on the matrix. With an increase of the laser-scanning speeds, the microstructures changed from hypoeutectic to hypereutectic, volume fraction of martensite increased, microhardness increased, and thickness and friction coefficients of the layers decreased. Wear resistance of the optimized layer was increased by 29.76 times compared with that of the substrate. The undissolved MoS2 was separated from the matrix on loading. In addition to the grain-refining and solution-strengthening effects, oxide films formed on the surface of the layers shielded them and enhanced their wear resistance. The crack or fracture behavior of the laser-processed layers on loading was determined by its toughness, which also had an important effect on the wear behavior of the processed layers.

Design of mechanical and control system of walking uprighttype intelligent vehicle. The system uses MK60 as the main controller, with the gyro sensor and acceleration sensor together, using complementary filter methods to measure the til tangle and angular velocity of the intelligent vehicle. Using the PD algorithm to control the intelligent vehicle wheel acceleration to offset the car movement tendency, realize the intelligent vehicle upright. MK60 array camera sensor, through a new kind of edge detection methods to complete the processing of image information,attitude angle fusion of gyroscope and accelerometer using the complementary filtering algorithm,complete the vertical,movement and steering control of the intelligent vehicle. After testing, the intelligent vehicle to stay upright at the sametime, complete identification of the track, and runs smooth and fast.

In this study, covalent conjugation of thrombolytic drug urokinase to water-soluble magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) is proposed to enhance the efficiency of thrombolysis. Hydrophobic NPs of oleic acid (OA)-coated Fe3O4 are first synthesized and then surface-modified with the amphipathic copolymer poly(maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecylene) (PMAO) to form water-soluble NPs of PMAO-OA-Fe3O4 with monodispersed sizes. PMAO-OA-Fe3O4 NPs display a good water-based stability without aggregation at near neutral pH and show good magnetic separation characteristics. The thrombolytic drug urokinase is then covalently linked with the former product through dehydration condensation reaction between the amino and carboxyl produced by dehydration of the anhydride under N-Ethyl-N&prime, (3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS). Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and dynamic light scattering (DLS) results show that the urokinase@PMAO-OA-Fe3O4 NPs are uniformly dispersed in water. The in vitro thrombolytic effect based on the manipulation of magnetic coupling, combined with static and alternating current (AC) magnetic fields, in a mimic blood-vascular system was studied. Drug release test shows that AC magnetic field can be used as switch and accelerator for NPs to release drugs. In addition, thrombolytic efficiency is nearly four times that of pure urokinase. This indicates that the coupling magnetic field may be a promising method to improve thrombolytic effect of the prepared magnetic carrier drug conjugates.

The interlaminar shear properties of SiO2f/SiO2 composites reinforced by needle-punched and 2.5D braided preforms are studied and analyzed. The effects of different temperatures and braiding structures on the interlaminar shear strength were investigated by analyzing the stress curves, macrostructure and microstructure of the composites. The increase of temperature, in a certain range, will change sintering condition of matrix and the bonding between matrix and interface, and thus increase the interlaminar shear strength. Because of the different shape of warp and weft yarn, there is a considerable discrepancy in the interlaminar shear strength of different direction. The interlaminar shear strength of needle-punched braided SiO2f/SiO2 composites is a little higher than the warp direction of 2.5D braided SiO2f/SiO2 composites. The interlaminar shear strength, time and economic cost should be considered comprehensively to select a more suitable braiding structure.