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Far-red (FR) light influences plant development significantly through shade avoidance response and photosynthetic modulation, but there is limited knowledge on how FR treatments influence the growth and nutrition of vegetables at different maturity stages in controlled environment agriculture (CEA). Here, we comprehensively investigated the impacts of FR on the yield, morphology, and phytonutrients of ruby streaks mustard (RS) at microgreen, baby leaf, and flowering stages. Treatments including white control, white with supplementary FR, white followed by singularly applied FR, and enhanced white (WE) matching the extended daily light integral (eDLI) of FR were designed for separating the effects of light intensity and quality. Results showed that singular and supplemental FR affected plant development and nutrition similarly throughout the growth cycle, with light intensity and quality playing varying roles at different stages. Specifically, FR did not affect the fresh and dry weight of microgreens but increased those values for baby leaves, although not as effectively as WE. Meanwhile, FR caused significant morphological change and accelerated the development of leaves, flowers, and seedpods more dramatically than WE. With regard to phytonutrients, light treatments affected the metabolomic profiles for baby leaves more dramatically than microgreens and flowers. FR decreased the glucosinolate and anthocyanin contents in microgreens and baby leaves, while WE increased the contents of those compounds in baby leaves. This study illustrates the complex impacts of FR on RS and provides valuable information for selecting optimal lighting conditions in CEA.

Agricultural ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to invasions by various pestiferous organisms. Bactrocera dorsalis is one of the invasive insect pests on fruits and vegetables in southern China, gradually spreading northward in past decades. To clarify its risk to damage to the northern fruits, the performance and fitness of the first and third reared generations of B. dorsalis were studied with two-sex life table on northern fruits (apples and peaches as dominant fruits) and southern fruit (oranges as appropriate host). Furthermore, the preference of host and oviposition selection were also conducted in laboratory experiments. Also, the CLIMEX model was used to comprehensively assess its potential risk in northern orchards. It was found that B. dorsalis had high fitness on peaches and good-performance on apples within first and third generations. This implies that peaches and apples are liable to become one of its most favorable hosts in northern orchards. The simulation based on CLIMEX model showed B. dorsalis had a high population growth potential in summer and autumn in some regions of northern China, where the life cycle can be completed and two simulated occurrence peaks last two to three months from early June to late July and from mid-late August to early September, long enough to cause serious harm. Projection for its distribution by 2080 indicated that the suitable area for B. dorsalis would further expand northward. Innate ability of B. dorsalis in flight, adaptability and wide range of hosts is conducive to its diffusion into new habitats, and external causes including harm concealment within fruits, frequent transportation were also discussed. Therefore, monitoring of B. dorsalis occurrence in northern orchards is necessary, combined with strict quarantine and control efforts, to avoid its further expansion and the consequent economic losses.

Fresh produce continues to be the main source of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, implicating bacterial pathogens such as Escherichia coliO157:H7 (EHEC). The efficacy of nanoemulsified carvacrol (NCR) as a washing treatment in reducing EHEC on fresh produce was investigated. Fresh baby spinach, romaine lettuce, and iceberg lettuce leaves (2.5-cm-diameter cores) were spot inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of nalidixic acid–resistant EHEC at ∼6 log CFU/cm2. After air drying for 1 h, 20 pieces of each inoculated produce leaf were immersed in water-based treatment solutions (200 mL per group), including water alone, 25 or 50 ppm of free chlorine, and 0.25 or 0.75% NCR for 2 min. Inoculated produce leaves without any treatment served as baseline. Produce leaves were stored at 10°C, and surviving EHEC populations were enumerated on days 0, 2, 7, and 14. The viability of EHEC following NCR treatments on the fresh produce was visualized under a fluorescence microscope. NCR treatment at 0.75% immediately reduced EHEC populations on iceberg lettuce by 1.3 log CFU/cm2as compared with the produce treated with water alone (P< 0.05). Antimicrobial activity of NCR against EHEC was comparable to chlorine treatments on day 0 for all produce (P> 0.05). After 14 days of storage at 10°C, populations of EHEC on 0.75% NCR-treated romaine lettuce were reduced by 2.3 log CFU/cm2compared with the recovery from 50 ppm of chlorine-treated samples (P< 0.05). Microscopic images revealed that EHEC cells were observed to be clustered on the baseline samples, indicating the development of cell aggregation, compared with the scattered cells seen on NCR-treated leaf surfaces. Treatments with NCR did not significantly affect the color of the fresh produce leaves during 14 days of storage at 10°C. Results of this study support the potential use of NCR as a water-soluble natural antimicrobial wash treatment for controlling EHEC on fresh produce.

Fresh and fresh-cut tomatoes are high in phytonutrients. However, illness outbreaks associated with contaminated tomatoes have significantly impacted public health and the economic well-being of the tomato industry. Scientific information is needed to develop an effective, practical food safety standard to reduce pathogen contamination. The aim of this study was to assess factors impacting the deterioration of the quality of tomato wash water and the proliferation of indigenous microorganisms during a simulated dump tank washing process. Freshly harvested grape tomatoes were sorted into four groups: prime, defective, underripe, and nontomato debris. Tomatoes with leaf or stem harvest debris, combined or separate, were washed in tap water with or without free chlorine. Water samples were analyzed for total dissolved solids, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand, and chlorine demand. Microbial populations in water and on tomatoes as impacted by chlorine concentration and water filtration (300 μm) were also quantified. Field debris and defective tomatoes were the major contributors to microbial populations in wash water. Field debris, although accounting for <1% of the total weight of harvested material, contributed 37.84% of total dissolved solids, 46.15% of turbidity, 48.77% of chemical oxygen demand, and 50.55% of chlorine demand in the wash water. Water quality deterioration was proportional to the cumulative quantity of tomatoes and debris washed, and free chlorine at ≥5 mg/L significantly reduced the Enterobacteriaceae,aerobic mesophilic bacteria, and yeast and mold populations. These results highlight the importance of minimizing field debris and defective fruits in harvested grape tomatoes to reduce the microbial load and prevent deterioration of wash water quality. This information will be useful for the development of data-driven harvesting and packinghouse food safety practices for grape tomatoes.

Chemotherapeutic drugs can cause reproductive damage by affecting sperm quality and other aspects of male fertility. Stem cells are thought to alleviate the damage caused by chemotherapy drugs and to play roles in reproductive protection and treatment. This study aimed to explore the effects of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) on alleviating paclitaxel (PTX)-induced spermatogenesis and male fertility defects. An in vivo PTX-induced mice model was constructed to evaluate the reproductive toxicity and protective roles of hUC-MSCs in male fertility improvement. A 14 day PTX treatment regimen significantly attenuated mice spermatogenesis and sperm quality, including affecting spermatogenesis, reducing sperm counts, and decreasing sperm motility. hUC-MSCs treatment could significantly improve sperm functional indicators. Mating experiments with normal female mice and examination of embryo development at 7.5 days post-coitum (dpc) showed that hUC-MSCs restored male mouse fertility that was reduced by PTX. In IVF experiments, PTX impaired sperm fertility and blastocyst development, but hUC-MSCs treatment rescued these indicators. hUC-MSCs’ protective role was also displayed through the increased expression of the fertility-related proteins HSPA2 and HSPA4L in testes with decreased expression in the PTX-treated group. These changes might be related to the PTX-induced decreases in expression of the germ cell proliferation protein PCNA and the meiosis proteins SYCP3, MLH1, and STRA8, which were restored after hUC-MSCs treatment. In the PTX-treated group, the expression of testicular antioxidant proteins SIRT1, NRF2, CAT, SOD1, and PRDX6 was significantly decreased, but hUC-MSCs could maintain these expressions and reverse PTX-related increases in BAX/BCL2 ratios. hUC-MSCs may be a promising agent with antioxidant and anti-apoptosis characteristics that can maintain sperm quality following chemotherapy treatment.

Highly efficient antimicrobial agents with low toxicity and resistance have been enthusiastically pursued to address public concerns on microbial contamination in food. Silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) are known for their ultrasmall sizes and unique optical and chemical properties. Despite extensive studies of AgNCs for biomedical applications, previous research on their application as antimicrobials for food applications is very limited. Here, for the first time, by incorporating AgNCs (∼2 nm in diameter) into zein films that are widely used as food packaging materials, we developed a novel coating material with potent antimicrobial activity, low toxicity to human cells, and low potential to harm the environment. In addition, we systematically evaluated the antimicrobial activities and cytotoxicity of AgNCs-embedded zein films and compared them to zein films embedded with AgNO3or Ag nanoparticles with diameters of 10 and 60 nm (AgNP10 and AgNP60, respectively). At equivalent silver concentrations, AgNCs and AgNO3solutions exhibited considerably higher antimicrobial activities than those of AgNP10 and AgNP60 solutions. Moreover, AgNCs exhibited less cytotoxicity to human cells than AgNO3, with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 34.68 μg/mL for AgNCs, compared to 9.14 μg/mL for AgNO3. Overall, the novel AgNCs coating developed in this research has great potential for antimicrobial applications in food packaging materials due to its high antimicrobial efficacy, ultrasmall size, and low cytotoxicity.

Deformation of casting during the solidification process has puzzled many engineers and scientists for years. In order to attain the goal of near-net forming by casting, numerical simulation is a powerful tool. Traditional methods compute the thermal stress of both the casting and the mold. This method suffers the problem of massive calculation and failure of convergence. This paper proposes an improved Mold Surface Element Method, the main idea of which is to use the surface elements instead of body elements to express the interactions between the casting and the mold. The proposed method shows a high computation efficiency and provides satisfactory precision for engineering. Two practical casting products were used to verify the proposed method. The simulated results agree well with those observed in practical products. The proposed method is believed to benefit production practice and to provide theoretical guidance.

In this letter, we propose a joint coded modulation scheme for a 3-node relay system. In the relay system, the source node broadcasts modulation symbols to relay and destination node simultaneously. With the directly received modulation symbols as side information at destination node, the relay node can send coset coded modulation symbols at the second slot to destination node. Since the coset coding takes place at modulation symbol level instead of bit level, its decoding algorithm is quite different from the traditional bit-level coset decoding. We derive the probability distribution and design a coset decoding algorithm to resolve the ambiguity at the receiver of destination node. Coset coding can reduce the peak to average power ratio in relay node effectively and thus improve the system capacity. The simulation shows that the proposed scheme can lead to gain of 3–4 dB at a BER of $10^{ {-5}}$ compared to the original single link random projection code.

For the sake of a more accurate shell boundary and calculation of radiation heat transfer in the Directional Solidification (DS) process, a radiation heat transfer model based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) is developed in this study. Key technologies, such as distinguishing boundaries automatically, local matrix and lumped heat capacity matrix, are also stated. In order to analyze the effect of withdrawing rate on DS process, the solidification processes of a complex superalloy turbine blade in the High Rate Solidification (HRS) process with different withdrawing rates are simulated; and by comparing the simulation results, it is found that the most suitable withdrawing rate is determined to be 5.0 mm∙min-1. Finally, the accuracy and reliability of the radiation heat transfer model are verified, because of the accordance of simulation results with practical process.

Bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) has been widely used in capacity-achieving communication systems. In this paper, we propose an enhanced BICM, namely, arithmetic-BICM (A-BICM), which is able to achieve high channel throughput and seamless rate adaptation in time-varying wireless channels. The A-BICM generates modulation symbols through arithmetic weighted sum operations, and it adapts to data rate via adjusting the number of transmitted symbols. Our contributions in the design of A-BICM are twofold. First, we use an extrinsic information transfer chart to analyze a demapping procedure, and this facilitates the selection of the weighting multiset, which is a key design parameter in A-BICM mapping. Second, we employ a systematic channel code in A-BICM and design an adaptation scheme to strike a balance between the performances in both high- and low-SNR regions. Simulation results show that the A-BICM outperforms the conventional BICM with length-864 low-density parity check coding in both additive white Gaussian noise and fading channels. The experiments in real WLAN environments reveal that A-BICM achieves 42.1% and 20.9% throughput gain over conventional BICM and hybrid automatic repeat request rate adaptation schemes. Furthermore, the channel coding rate and its constellation in A-BICM do not need to change within a fairly wide SNR region from 1 to 30 dB to reduce communication overhead.

Microsoft China had announced that it would end on a Windows XP system support and maintenance in the April 8, 2014, progress in the new study. NET development environment, further research database development technology is very important. C# in. NET framework most popular development language, compared to other languages, which have simple, convenient, rapid development, etc.[1]. Based on data access technology under. NET Framework, which provides a number of features to improve the operation of data. This article also describes in the latest. NET Framework, a new language inheritance query technology LINQ.

The copyright protection of multimedia information is more and more important in the digital age, digital watermarking is a solution to address the topic. This paper proposes a new robust image watermarking scheme based on discrete ridgelet transform (DRT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The scheme respectively embeds a copy of color image watermark into DWT domain and DRT domain, and uses a conception of semi-watermark. Experiment results demonstrate that the watermark can resist various attacks such as adding Gaussian or Union Distribution Noise, JPEG compression, brightness adjustment, contrast adjustment, altering color balance, lens blur, zooming in or out, cropping and some combined attacks etc.