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Simple Summary: This study is a first attempt to address the critical issue of effect of elevation on the distribution and body size of carabid beetles in the same region, including mountainous forests and the alpine tundra of the upper limit of vegetation in the north cold temperate zone. The richness, abundance and body size of carabid beetles linearly decrease with elevation increase. The larger carabid species C. canaliculatus and C. venustus become smaller to adapt to high-elevation tundra conditions. The vegetation type changes at high elevations is an important factor that leads to changes of carabid distribution and body size along the elevation gradient. These high-elevation species such as C. macleayi, N. pektusanica and P. jaechi should be given priority attention in the context of global climate change. The environment of mountain ecosystems can change greatly in short distances as elevation increases. The effects of elevation change on the distribution and body size of carabid beetles were investigated at elevations of 750–2600 m in the Changbaishan Nature Reserve (Northeast China). The richness and abundance of carabid species decreased significantly as elevation increased. However, the change trends are different in forests and tundra. In the broad-leaved Korean pine forest and coniferous forest at low elevations, carabid beetle species have high richness and abundance. The community composition of carabid beetles was significantly different at different elevations and among different vegetation types. Some species only occurred at specific elevations. There were fewer indicator species in high-elevation areas, but Carabus macleayi Dejean, Nebria pektusanica Horratovich and Pterostichus jaechi Kirschenhofer were mainly found in high-elevation areas. The average body size of species in the carabid beetle community was negatively correlated with elevation. The sizes of the larger Carabus canaliculatus Adams and Carabus venustus Morawitz were negatively correlated with elevation. Their body sizes decreased obviously in the tundra at elevations above 2000 m. Changes in vegetation types at high elevations affect the distribution and body sizes of beetles along the elevation gradient. Some large carabid species may be smaller at high elevations where a unique insect fauna has developed. The body size and distribution range of the carabid may be the factors that affect body size reduction at high elevation. Although some high-elevation species also occur in low-elevation areas, the protection of species diversity in high-elevation areas should be emphasized in the context of global climate change. The results illustrate the mechanisms of carabid beetles' response to elevation change and the need for carabid beetles' diversity conservation under global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to explore the impacts of various ultrasonic powers (0, 300, 500, 700, and 900 W) on the structure and functional attributes of the myofibrillar protein (MP) of Tenebrio molitor. As the ultrasonic intensity escalated, the extraction efficiency and yield of the MP rose, while the particle size and turbidity decreased correspondingly. The reduction in sulfhydryl group content and the increase in carbonyl group content both suggested that ultrasonic treatment promoted the oxidation of the MP to a certain extent, which was conducive to the formation of a denser and more stable gel network structure. This was also affirmed by SEM images. Additionally, the findings of intrinsic fluorescence and FTIR indicated that high-intensity ultrasound significantly altered the secondary structure of the protein. The unfolding of the MP exposed more amino acid residues, the α-helix decreased, and the β-helix improved, thereby resulting in a looser and more flexible conformation. Along with the structural alteration, the surface hydrophobicity and emulsification properties were also significantly enhanced. Besides that, SDS–PAGE demonstrated that the MP of T. molitor was primarily composed of myosin heavy chain (MHC), actin, myosin light chain (MLC), paramyosin, and tropomyosin. The aforementioned results confirmed that ultrasonic treatment could, to a certain extent, enhance the structure and function of mealworm MP, thereby providing a theoretical reference for the utilization of edible insect proteins in the future, deep-processing proteins produced by T. molitor, and the development of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dihydrochalcones (DHCs) constitute a specific class of flavonoids widely known for their various health-related advantages. Melatonin (MLT) has received attention worldwide as a master regulator in plants, but its roles in DHC accumulation remain unclear. Herein, the elicitation impacts of MLT on DHC biosynthesis were examined in Lithocarpus litseifolius, a valuable medicinal plant famous for its sweet flavor and anti-diabetes effect. Compared to the control, the foliar application of MLT significantly increased total flavonoid and DHC (phlorizin, trilobatin, and phloretin) levels in L. litseifolius leaves, especially when 100 μM MLT was utilized for 14 days. Moreover, antioxidant enzyme activities were boosted after MLT treatments, resulting in a decrease in the levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Remarkably, MLT triggered the biosynthesis of numerous phytohormones linked to secondary metabolism (salicylic acid, methyl jasmonic acid (MeJA), and ethylene), while reducing free JA contents in L. litseifolius. Additionally, the flavonoid biosynthetic enzyme activities were enhanced by the MLT in leaves. Multiple differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in RNA-seq might play a crucial role in MLT-elicited pathways, particularly those associated with the antioxidant system (SOD, CAT, and POD), transcription factor regulation (MYBs and bHLHs), and DHC metabolism (4CL, C4H, UGT71K1, and UGT88A1). As a result, MLT enhanced DHC accumulation in L. litseifolius leaves, primarily by modulating the antioxidant activity and co-regulating the physiological, hormonal, and transcriptional pathways of DHC metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of the low integration of the current power information system security assessment method with classified protection 2.0, strong subjectivity, and the vague quantification of objective indexes, this article proposes to establish a safety index system suitable for the electric power information system with the existing safety inspection standards for power systems on the basis of the classified protection 2.0 evaluation system. Additionally, it quantifies each index through a quantitative method combining subjective and objective methods and uses the analytic hierarchy process entropy method to obtain the combined weight of the evaluation index system. Finally, this paper summarizes the expert scores and the graded protection evaluation reports of the six systems into the original data for comprehensive weight calculation and analyzes the rationality of the weight change. The comparison and analysis of the closeness of the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) and the evaluation score of the equal guarantee have confirmed the scientificity and rationality of the evaluation model. It provides a reasonable logical idea for the implementation of the classified protection 2.0 system in the power information system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a typical tea polyphenol epicatechin (EC) was investigated for its impact on the oxidative stability of whey protein isolate (WPI) in a fish oil-fortified emulsion. The oil-in-water emulsion system consisted of fish oil (1%, w/w), WPI (6 mg/mL), and EC (0.1, 1, and 2 mM), and the oxidation reaction was catalyzed by Fenton's reagent at 25 °C for 24 h. The results showed EC exhibited a dose-dependent activity in the reduction of lipid oxidation (TBARS) and protein carbonylation. A Western blot analysis demonstrated that protein lipoxidation was inhibited by EC via interrupting the covalent binding of lipid secondary oxidation products, MDA, onto proteins. In addition, protein lipoxidation induced a loss of tryptophan fluorescence, and protein hydrolysis was partially recovered by EC. The findings of this study provide an in-depth understanding of the performance of phenolic antioxidants in relieving lipid oxidation and subsequent protein lipoxidation in oil-containing dairy products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing popularity of communication devices and vehicles, the channel environment becomes more and more complex, which makes conventional channel estimation methods further increase the pilot overhead to maintain estimation performance. However, it declines the throughput of communication networks. In this paper, we provide a novel two-stage based channel estimation method by using generative adversarial networks (GANs) to handle this problem in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Specifically, the first stage aims to learn the mapping from a low-dimensional latent variable to the real channel sample. During the second stage, an iterative algorithm method is designed to find the optimal latent variable by matching the pilot channels of a real channel and generated channel. Then, the data channels are recovered based on the learned mapping relationship between the latent variable and the real channel sample. The simulation results show that our proposed method can achieve a performance gain of more than 2 dB with a pilot reduction by 75 % when SNR is 10 dB, by comparing with the widely used Wiener filter interpolation method. In addition, as the low-dimensional latent variable can be obtained simultaneously, it can also be used for reducing the feedback overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the global goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", new power system is facing a new energy development trend of increasing the capacity of new energy and reducing the capacity and quantity of coal power. Furthermore, new power systems are also moving towards new models such as the Energy Internet and energy storage diversification. This paper combines the needs of new power systems' "source-load interaction" and a differentiated analysis of the specific carbon emission characteristics of each subject of the Energy Internet "source-network-load-storage". This paper analyzes the energy efficiency coefficient and carbon emission factors of each link of "source-grid-load-storage". Therefore, the paper proposes a carbon control model for the Energy Internet. This paper focuses on the characteristics of coal power with the largest carbon reduction. Therefore, this article constructs a multi-dimensional low-carbonization evaluation index system for coal-fired power plants. In addition, this article designs a fusion weight calculation method for subjective and objective indicators based on CRITIC-G1. Additionally, this paper uses the ideal solution–gray relational method to evaluate the specified samples. Finally, this article verifies the effectiveness and feasibility of the implementation of the low-carbonization evaluation index system for coal-fired power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monolithic integrated mode converters with high integration are essential to photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and they are widely used in next-generation optical communications and complex quantum systems. It is expected that PICs will become more miniaturized, multifunctional, and intelligent with the development of micro/nano-technology. The increase in design space makes it difficult to realize high-performance device design based on traditional parameter sweeping or heuristic design, especially in the optimal design of reconfigurable PIC devices. Combining the mode coupling theory and adjoint calculation method, we proposed a design method for a switchable mode converter. The device could realize the transmission of TE0 mode and the conversion from TE0 to TE1 mode with a footprint of 0.9 × 7.5 μm2 based on the phase change materials (PCMs). We also found that the mode purity could reach 78.2% in both states at the working wavelength of 1.55 μm. The designed method will provide a new impetus for programmable photonic integrated devices and find broad application prospects in communication, optical neural networks, and sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]