Search

In order to accurately estimate the distribution of Trachinotus ovatus in marine cages, a novel method was developed using omnidirectional scanning sonar and deep-learning techniques. This method involved differentiating water layers and clustering data layer by layer to achieve precise location estimation. The approach comprised two main components: fish identification and fish clustering. Firstly, omnidirectional scanning sonar was employed to perform spiral detection within marine cages, capturing fish image data. These images were then labeled to construct a training dataset for an enhanced CS-YOLOv8s model. After training, the CS-YOLOv8s model was used to identify and locate fish within the images. Secondly, the cages were divided into water layers with depth intervals of 40 cm. The identification coordinate data for each water layer were clustered using the DBSCAN method to generate location coordinates for the fish in each layer. Finally, the coordinate data from all water layers were consolidated to determine the overall distribution of fish within the cage. This method was shown, through multiple experimental results, to effectively estimate the distribution of Trachinotus ovatus in marine cages, closely matching the distributions detected manually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a MOF-199/Ag@Au SERS sensing structure was successfully synthesized by combining metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology for the efficient detection of dopamine (DA), a biomarker for neurological diseases, in serum. Using electrochemical methods, a copper-based MOF (MOF-199) was synthesized in situ on copper substrates and further deposited with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Subsequently, gold nanoshells were encapsulated around these silver cores by in situ chemical deposition. This preparation process is simple, controllable, and inexpensive. Furthermore, a novel Azo reaction-based DA SERS method was proposed to detect 1 pM DA, which represents an improvement in sensitivity by two orders of magnitude compared to previous unlabeled SERS detection methods and by four orders of magnitude compared to another SERS approach proposed in this work. There was an excellent linear relationship (R2 = 0.976) between the SERS signal at 1140 cm−1 and the DA concentration (0.001 M~1 pM). The results indicate that the MOF-199/Ag@Au sensor structure can successfully achieve both the qualitative and quantitative detection of DA in serum, thus providing a robust technical basis for the application of SERS technology in the field of clinical neurological disease screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The summer Asian westerly jet (AWJ)'s shifting in latitudes is one important characteristic of its variability and has great impact on the East Asian summer climate. Based on the observed and reanalyzed datasets from the Hadley Center Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature dataset (HadISST), the Japanese 55-year reanalysis (JRA-55), and the fifth generation of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts atmospheric reanalysis (ERA5), this study investigates the relationship between the spring tripole North Atlantic SST (TNAT) anomalies and the summer meridional shift of the AWJ (MSJ) for the period of 1958–2020. Through the method of correlation analysis and regression analysis, we show that the '+ - +' TNAT anomalies in spring could induce a northward shift of the AWJ in the following summer. However, such a climatic effect of the spring TNAT anomalies on the MSJ is unstable, exhibiting an evident interdecadal strengthening since the early 1990s. Further analysis reveals that this is related to a strengthened intensity of the spring TNAT anomalies in the most recent three decades. Compared to the early epoch (1958–1993), the stronger spring TNAT anomalies in the post epoch (1994–2020) could cause a stronger pan-tropical climate response until the following summer through a series of ocean–atmosphere interactions. Through Gill responses, the resultant more prominent cooling in the central Pacific in response to the '+ - +' TNAT anomalies induces a pan-tropical cooling in the upper troposphere, which weakens the poleward gradient of the tropospheric temperature over subtropical Asia. As a result, the AWJ shifts northward via a thermal wind effect. By contrast, in the early epoch, the spring TNAT anomalies are relatively weaker, inducing weaker pan-tropical ocean–atmosphere interactions and thus less change in the meridional shit of the summer AWJ. Our results highlight a strengthened lagged effect of the spring TNAT anomalies on the following summer MSJ and have important implications for the seasonal climate predictability over Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely and accurate detection of viruses is crucial for infection diagnosis and treatment. However, it remains a challenge to develop a portable device that meets the requirement of being portable, powerless, user-friendly, reusable, and low-cost. This work reports a compact ∅30 × 48 mm portable powerless isothermal amplification detection device (material cost ∼$1 USD) relying on LAMP (Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification). We have proposed chromatographic-strip-based microporous permeation technology which can precisely control the water flow rate to regulate the exothermic reaction. This powerless heating combined with phase-change materials can maintain a constant temperature between 50 and 70 °C for a duration of up to 49.8 min. Compared with the conventional methods, it avoids the use of an additional insulation layer for heat preservation, greatly reducing the size and cost. We have also deployed a color card and a corresponding algorithm to facilitate color recognition, data analysis, and storage using a mobile phone. The experimental results demonstrate that our device exhibits the same limit of detection (LOD) as the ProFlex PCR for SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus samples, with that for both being 10 3 copies/μL, verifying its effectiveness and reliability. This work offers a timely, low-cost, and easy way for respiratory infectious disease detection, which could provide support in curbing virus transmission and protecting the health of humans and animals, especially in remote mountainous areas without access to electricity or trained professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of the industrial and energy industries, the development of new energy vehicles is entering a period of rapid development and is one of the hot research directions today. Due to the needs of different working environments, the demand for mobile power sources in automobiles is increasing, which means that battery design and battery system management (BMS) determine their work efficiency. How to enable users to accurately and in real-time understand the usage status of their electric vehicle batteries is a very important thing, and it is also an important challenge faced in the development process of electric vehicles. This article proposes a battery state-of-charge (SOC) estimation method based on the extended Kalman filter algorithm (EKF) for one of the core areas of the BMS–battery state-of-charge (SOC). According to the guidance and direction of Industry 4.0 in Germany, we hope to address some of the aforementioned challenges for users of automotive and robotics products while developing our industry. Therefore, we made some innovative explorations in this direction. In this study, it was found that the algorithm can adjust parameters in real-time to achieve better convergence. The final estimation results indicate that the algorithm had high accuracy and robustness and can meet the current needs of battery estimation for new energy vehicles, providing an important means for the safety control of automotive BMS. In the long run, this will change the current situation of battery monitoring using mobile power sources. At the same time, it provided an effective and practical implementation method and template for current production estimation, which has a certain heuristic effect on the future process of Industry 4.0 and production estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionospheric effects in repeat-pass SAR interferometry (InSAR) have become a rising concern with the increasing interest in low-frequency SAR. The ionosphere will introduce serious phase errors in the interferogram, which should be properly corrected. In this paper, the influence of the wavenumber shift on the Range Split-Spectrum (RSS) method is analyzed quantitatively. It is shown that the split-spectrum processing deteriorates the coherence of the sub-band interferogram and then greatly reduces the estimation accuracy. The RSS method combined with common band filtering (CBF) can improve the coherence of sub-band interferograms and estimation accuracy, but the estimation is biased due to the RSS model mismatch. To address the problem, a modified truncated singular value decomposition (MTSVD) based multi-sub-band RSS method is proposed in this paper. The proposed method divides the range common spectrum into multiple sub-bands to jointly estimate the ionospheric phase. The performance of the proposed method is analyzed and validated based on simulation experiments. The results show that the proposed method has stronger robustness and higher accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new binder, polyurethane (PU) is used to overcome the poor durability of porous pavement. This study focuses on the fatigue performance of a porous polyurethane mixture (PPM) under immersion conditions and compares it with a porous asphalt mixture (PAM). The results showed that under the immersion conditions, the initial stiffness of the PPM decreased by approximately 50%. However, the initial stiffness of the PAM was almost unaffected by the immersion conditions. In addition, the PPM exhibited a longer fatigue life under immersion conditions. In comparison, the fatigue life of the PAM decreased. The cracking propagation rate of the PPM decreased under immersion conditions, while the cracking propagation rate of the PAM increased. The fatigue termination condition for the PPM was set to S1 = 0.45S0 (S0 is the initial stiffness, and S1 is the termination stiffness), and that of the PAM was set to S1 = 0.4S0. Compared to the Weibull function, the Chaboche function provides a more accurate description of fatigue damage in the PPM and PAM. From the obtained data, it can be inferred that the fatigue performance of the PPM is far superior to that of the PAM. Therefore, polyurethane has broad application prospects in long-life permeable pavements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term, automated fish detection provides invaluable data for deep-sea aquaculture, which is crucial for safe and efficient seawater aquafarming. In this paper, we used an infrared camera installed on a deep-sea truss-structure net cage to collect fish images, which were subsequently labeled to establish a fish dataset. Comparison experiments with our dataset based on Faster R-CNN as the basic objection detection framework were conducted to explore how different backbone networks and network improvement modules influenced fish detection performances. Furthermore, we also experimented with the effects of different learning rates, feature extraction layers, and data augmentation strategies. Our results showed that Faster R-CNN with the EfficientNetB0 backbone and FPN module was the most competitive fish detection network for our dataset, since it took a significantly shorter detection time while maintaining a high AP50 value of 0.85, compared to the best AP50 value of 0.86 being achieved by the combination of VGG16 with all improvement modules plus data augmentation. Overall, this work has verified the effectiveness of deep learning-based object detection methods and provided insights into subsequent network improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work in this paper is applied to the Zhangbei Power grid. In the flexible direct current (DC) power system, the fault current rises extremely fast when a DC fault occurs. The requirements for the peak of breaking current and fault energy absorption of DC circuit breakers (DCCBs) increase linearly, which significantly increases the cost of the equipment. Therefore, in order to reduce the design difficulty of DCCBs, this paper proposes a strategy to control energy after the fault occurs. Firstly, the energy dimension is added on the basis of the traditional vector control of MMC, which constitutes a three-dimensional energy direct control. Subsequently, the architectures of energy fluctuation control and feedforward control are proposed. The influencing mechanisms for the peak fault current, peak fault voltage and energy dissipation are analyzed. Finally, the simulation of energy fluctuation control and feedforward control is constructed on PSCAD/EMTDC. The simulation results show that the energy fluctuation control is obviously better than the conventional three-dimensional energy control, and the feedforward energy control is further improved on this basis. Compared with the conventional vector control, the peak energy is reduced by 45.43% and the peak current is reduced by 25.39%, which helps to simplify the equipment design and reduce the equipment cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus (PEDV) is one of the main pathogens causing diarrhea in piglets and fattening pigs. The clinical signs of PED are vomiting, acute diarrhea, dehydration, and mortality resulting in significant economic losses and becoming a major challenge in the pig industry. PEDV possesses various crucial structural and functional proteins, which play important roles in viral structure, infection, replication, assembly, and release, as well as in escaping host innate immunity. Over the past few years, there has been progress in the study of PEDV pathogenesis, revealing the crucial role of the interaction between PEDV viral proteins and host cytokines in PEDV infection. At present, the main control measure against PEDV is vaccine immunization of sows, but the protective effect for emerging virus strains is still insufficient, and there is no ideal safe and efficient vaccine. Although scientists have persistently delved their research into the intricate structure and functionalities of the PEDV genome and viral proteins for years, the pathogenic mechanism of PEDV remains incompletely elucidated. Here, we focus on reviewing the research progress of PEDV structural and nonstructural proteins to facilitate the understanding of biological processes such as PEDV infection and pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term presence of PPCPs in the aqueous environment poses a potentially significant threat to human life and physical health and the safety of the water environment. In our previous work, we investigated low-cost pitch-based HCP adsorbents with an excellent adsorption capacity and magnetic responsiveness through a simple one-step Friedel–Crafts reaction. In this work, we further investigated the adsorption behavior of the prepared pitch-based adsorbents onto three PPCP molecules (DFS, AMP, and antipyrine) in detail. The maximum adsorption capacity of P-MPHCP for DFS was 444.93 mg g−1. The adsorption equilibrium and kinetic processes were well described through the Langmuir model and the proposed secondary kinetic model. The negative changes in Gibbs free energy and enthalpy reflected that the adsorption of HCPs onto PPCPs was a spontaneous exothermic process. The recoverability results showed that the adsorption of MPHCP and P-MPHCP onto DFS remained above 95% after 10 adsorption–desorption cycles. The present work further demonstrates that these pitch-based adsorbents can be used for multiple applications, which have a very extensive practical application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compound surfactant system has considerable development prospects for improving oil recovery. A synergistic effect can be achieved through the orderly arrangement of the two surfactants on the interface, which can make up for the performance defects of a single surfactant. In this paper, the effects of the number of propylene oxides (PO) in composite surfactants on interfacial tension and emulsion stability were systematically studied. The results showed that the solubility of composite surfactants was significantly improved under high-salinity conditions by adding anionic–nonionic surfactants to a single anionic surfactant. The interfacial tension of composite surfactants shows a V-shaped change of first decreasing and then increasing with the increase in PO groups. As the number of PO groups increases, the emulsion first increases and then decreases. Among the series of composite surfactants, LBAS/C12PO10S has the lowest interfacial tension, reaching the order of 10−3 mN/m, and the emulsion formed by it exhibits superior stability. This indicates that the synergistic effect of the two surfactants can be improved by adjusting the number of PO groups. Furthermore, the LBAS/C12PO10S composite system can be mixed with crude oil to form Winsor III microemulsion, which has great potential for application in enhanced oil recovery via chemical flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae) (B. dorsalis) is an important agricultural, major invasive, and quarantine pest that can cause significant damage to the economic value of the fruit and vegetable industry. Male bait is one of the most effective methods of surveying, monitoring, and controlling B. dorsalis. In our study, we constructed cDNA libraries using total RNA extracted independently from the antennae, mouthparts, and thoracic legs of male and female adults and the ovipositors of female adults and screened out four aldehyde-oxidase-related genes (AOX-related), C58800, C66700, C67485, and C67698. Molecular docking predictions showed that eight compounds, including 3,4-dimethoxycinnamyl alcohol, 3,4-dimethoxy-cinnamaldehyde, deet, ethyl N-acetyl-N-butyl-β-alaninate, n-butyl butyrate, n-butyl butyrate, ethyl butyrate, methyl eugenol, and ethyl acetate, could combine with proteins encoded by the four B. dorsalis AOX-related genes. Furthermore, QPCR was performed to confirm that four compounds, including 3,4-dimethoxy cinnamic aldehyde, butyl levulinic acid ethyl ester (mosquito repellent), butyl butyrate, and methyl eugenol, induced significant changes in the AOX-related genes of B. dorsalis. These results provide useful information and guidance for the batch screening of potentially useful compounds and the search for effective attractants of B. dorsalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the environment, degradable plastics are decomposed into biodegradable microplastics (Bio-MPs), but there is limited study on the impact on plant growth and development. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate biodegradable polylactic acid microplastics (PLA-MPs) and nonbiodegradable polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) with different concentrations (0.02%, 0.2%, and 2% w/w) to explore their short-term toxic effects on cucumbers. The results of this study showed that PLA-MPs significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the aboveground and belowground biomass of cucumber seedlings compared to the control. At the level of 2% MPs, the chlorophyll content and PRI vegetation index of cucumber plants decreased significantly, anthocyanin content increased, and the photosynthetic system was disturbed. Likewise, the antioxidant defensive system of cucumber was affected after exposure to MPs stress, especially under 2% levels. The hyperspectral image is a novel technique which analyzed the chlorophyll content and absorption under MPs treatment; there was still a high correlation between chlorophyll content, anthocyanin content, and MCARI vegetation index, so a single vegetation index could be used for rapid detection of plant physiological status. Our study suggests that Bio-MPs have potential ecological toxicity that could affect the growth of cucumber seedlings through deactivation of the PSII reaction center. Therefore, biodegradable plastics do not seem to be the optimal solution, and there is an urgent need for long-term monitoring and evaluation of the biological toxicity of biodegradable MPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing space application networks in space stations are mainly fiber-optic cable-based networks due to their low size, weight, and power (SWaP) values. While fiber networks in space stations offer data transmission at high speeds with minimal signal loss, their major disadvantage is the lack of flexibility and mobility when new and unplanned space scientific equipment is added to the network. To enhance the flexibility of space networks while increasing their throughput, this paper introduces the hybrid space network (HSN), a new space network architecture that incorporates an optical wireless link, to meet the ever-increasing demands for larger bandwidth and higher mobile access capabilities in space scientific experiments. To best utilize the HSN's system performance, we propose a multi-priority-based network scheduling scheme, which can dynamically adapt to the requirements of mass tasks and select the best transmission procedure. Through simulations, we find that by adding optical wireless communication (OWC) links to the state-of-the-art deterministic FC-AE-1553 space network, the HSN's bandwidth can be increased by 20 times with an average latency reduction of 87.3%. We believe that the proposed HSN's architecture may ultimately shape the future of space stations' wireless connectivity, and in the meantime, innovate many advanced space applications with larger data rates and mobility requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term stability of a coal pillar dam is a serious concern for coal mine underground reservoirs because of the creep behavior of coal in complex water immersion and mechanical environments. In order to investigate the characteristics of creep deformation of water-immersed coal and develop a proper creep model, this paper implemented a series of creep experiments of coal via multistage loading at various water-immersion times. The experiment data were analyzed, in terms of immersion-induced damage, elasto-plastic performance, creep behavior, etc., suggesting obvious mechanical properties' degradation of coal by water. The elastic modulus and peak strength of water-immersed coal decrease exponentially with the immersion time, while the creep rate of coal shows an upward tendency with the promoted immersion time. According to the remarked relationships of elastic, viscoelastic, and viscoplastic properties versus the stress levels and water-immersion time, a creep model based on conformable fractional derivatives is proposed, considering the influence of the water-immersion time and variable stress level. The proposed model was verified using the experiment data, showing a good capacity of the creep model for reproducing the creep process of water-immersed coal. This paper provides a fundamental model for further studying the stability of coal pillars and their influence on the safety of underground water reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, to better evaluate the flight performance of pilot cadets, a flight performance evaluation index system was constructed based on the task of the traffic pattern, the flight training manual, and interviews with instructors. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model established by the G1 method was used to evaluate the flight performance of pilot cadets. The flight data of 30 flight cadets were collected to verify the applicability of the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model. The results showed that the index system established in this paper can meet the requirements of flight performance evaluation. In addition, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation results were consistent with the evaluation results of experts. Therefore, the system is effective and feasible for the evaluation of pilot cadets' flight performance through the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model established by the index system and G1 method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural rubber is one of the most important industrial raw materials, and its biosynthesis is still a fascinating process that is still largely unknown. In this research, we studied Decaisnea insignis, a unique rubber-producing plant that is different from other rubber-producing species due to the presence of lactiferous canals in its pericarp. The present study aims to provide novel insights into the mechanisms underlying rubber accumulation and PCD by subjecting the Decaisnea insignis laticiferous canals to light microscopy, TUNEL assay, and DAPI staining, as well as viability analysis, cellular ultrastructure analysis, and molecular analysis using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, immunofluorescence labeling, transmission electron microscopy, and transcriptome sequencing. At the cellular level, the origin of small rubber particles in the laticiferous canals had no morphological correlation with other organelles, and these particles were freely produced in the cytosol. The volume of the rubber particles increased at the sunken and expanding stage, which were identified as having the characteristics of programmed cell death (PCD); meanwhile, plenty of the rubber precursors or rubber particles were engulfed by the vacuoles, indicating a vacuole-mediated autophagy process. The accumulation of rubber particles occurred after the degeneration of protoplasts, suggesting a close association between rubber biosynthesis and PCD. The molecular analysis revealed the expression patterns of key genes involved in rubber biosynthesis. The upstream genes DiIPP, DiFPP, and DiGGPPS showed a decreasing trend during fruit ripening, while DiHRT, which is responsible for rubber particle extension, exhibited the highest expression level during the rubber particle formation. Moreover, the transcription factors related to PCD, DiLSD1, and DiLOL2 showed a negative correlation with the expression pattern of DiHRT, thus exhibiting strict rules of sequential expression during rubber biosynthesis. Additionally, the expression trends of DiXCP1 and DiCEP1, which act as proteases during PCD, were positively correlated with DiGGPPS expression. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the autophagic PCD may play a crucial role in rubber accumulation in D. insignis. Further research is still needed to fully understand the complex regulatory network underlying rubber biosynthesis in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lithium battery energy storage system (LBESS) has been rapidly developed and applied in engineering in recent years. Maritime transportation has the advantages of large volume, low cost, and less energy consumption, which is the main transportation mode for importing and exporting LBESS; nevertheless, a fire accident is the leading accident type in the transportation process of LBESS. This paper applied fault tree analysis and Bayesian network methods to evaluate the fire accident risk of LBESS in the process of maritime transportation. The Bayesian network was constructed via GeNIe 2.3 software, and the probability of LBESS fire accidents during maritime transportation was calculated based on the probability of basic events occurring. The results showed that an unsuitable firefighting system for putting out lithium battery fires, high humidity, and monitoring equipment without a real-time alarm function have the most significant influence on the occurrence of LBESS fire accidents during maritime transportation. The research work of this paper provides a theoretical basis for the risk assessment of LBESS during maritime transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After aging, the adhesiveness of asphalt deteriorates, leading to a reduction in the durability of asphalt mixtures and affecting the service life of asphalt pavements. To enhance the anti-aging performance of asphalt, this study employed the method of melt blending to prepare three types of modified asphalt: graphene/SBS modified asphalt (G/SBSMA), crumb rubber/SBS modified asphalt (CR/SBSMA), and petroleum resin/SBS modified asphalt (PR/SBSMA). Different dosages of the three types of modified asphalt were tested for changes in conventional performance indicators. The optimal dosages of graphene, crumb rubber, and C9 petroleum resin were determined to be 2%, 15%, and 5%, respectively. Based on the theory of surface free energy, the effects of anti-aging agents on the microscopic properties of SBS modified asphalt before and after aging were analyzed using the three-liquid method. The mechanisms of strength attenuation at the asphalt–aggregate interface under water exposure and aging were revealed. The results showed that with the increase of aging gradient, the asphalt-aggregate biphasic system became more active. The cohesive energy and peel energy of SBS modified asphalt increased continuously, while the adhesive energy decreased continuously, leading to a decrease in the energy ratio parameter. Resin-based anti-aging agents exhibited the most significant improvement in asphalt adhesion performance, while graphene demonstrated a more stable enhancement in asphalt's water stability during the aging stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping a certain constant airflow in a lot of applications is critical, such as certain airflow volumes in the cabin of an aircraft, submarines, tunnels, and buildings. All fans change their output airflow and air pressure by changing motor speed in real applications. In order to achieve the target airflow volume, normal operation detects the data first, then provides orders to engineers to adjust manually. Extra airflow volume sensors are equipped to measure the airflow so that people know what the current airflow is and how much needs to be adjusted. Based on normal technology, airflow volume sensors and motor speed inverters are necessary parts of a whole air supply system. This research tries to integrate a fuzzy control algorithm into a motor control technology to build a new kind of fan that can not only self-detect the airflow volume changes but also can self-adjust the airflow volumes automatically. This self-detecting and adjusting fan can lead air supply systems in devices and buildings to need no airflow volume sensors, make the air supply system building cost lower, and make the maintaining and operating cost lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: We developed the DAS–ELISA to investigate the infection and prevalence of GyH1 in chickens and wild birds in China. We found that natural GyH1 infections were widespread in chickens and wild birds. Importantly, young chickens are more susceptible to GyH1, and local chicken species in China are genetically resistant to GyH1. In particular, we found a significantly higher GyH1–positive rate in wild birds than in chickens, implying that there may be a risk of GyH1 transmission from wild birds to chickens. Gyrovirus homsa1 (GyH1) is an emerging pathogenic single–stranded circular DNA virus that leads to immunosuppression, aplastic anemia, and multisystem damage in chickens. However, the prevalence of GyH1 infection in chickens and wild birds remains unknown. Here, we developed a double–antibody sandwich enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay (DAS–ELISA) to investigate GyH1 infection in 8 chicken species and 25 wild bird species. A total of 2258 serum samples from chickens (n = 2192) in 15 provinces, and wild birds (n = 66) in Jinan Wildlife Hospital were collected from 2017 to 2021 in China. The GyH1–positive rates in chickens and wild birds were 9.3% (203/2192) and 22.7% (15/66), respectively. GyH1 was present in all flocks in 15 provinces. From 2017 to 2021, the positive rate ranged from 7.93% (18/227) to 10.67% (56/525), and the highest positive rate was present in 2019. Upon chicken age, the highest positive rate (25.5%) was present in young chickens (14–35 days old). Moreover, the GyH1–positive rate in broiler breeders (12.6%, 21/167) was significantly higher than that in layer chickens (8.9%, 14/157). This study shows that GyH1 has spread in chicken flocks and wild birds, and the higher GyH1–positive rate in wild birds indicates the risk of spillover from wild birds to chickens. Our study expanded the GyH1 epidemiological aspects and provided a theoretical basis for GyH1 prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of China's marine economy and the increasing pollution in marine-related industries, how to implement a sustainable development strategy in the marine economy has become an important issue. Under the stochastic frontier analysis framework, this paper measures the technical efficiency of the marine economy in 11 coastal provinces in China under carbon emission constraints from 2006 to 2016 and analyzes regional differences and the dynamic evolution of technical efficiency and its influencing factors. Panel unit root test is applied to analyze the stochastic convergence of technical efficiency of the inter-regional marine economy. The result shows that: in the reference period, the technical efficiency of the marine economy is on the rise. Guangdong and Shanghai are in the lead. Technical level and industrial structure have a positive impact on technical efficiency, while the structure of property rights, FDI, energy prices, and energy structure have a negative effect on it. On the whole, the changes in the technical efficiency of coastal provinces present a process from concentration to differentiation. There is a stochastic convergence between the Pan-Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta. Raising the technological level, promoting low-carbon production in the marine industry, and strengthening inter-regional cooperation have a certain effect on the improvement of the technical efficiency of the marine economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crash injuries not only result in huge property damages, physical distress, and loss of lives, but arouse a reduction in roadway capacity and delay the recovery progress of traffic to normality. To assess the resilience of post-crash tunnel traffic, two novel concepts, i.e., surrogate resilience measure (SRM) and injury-based resilience (IR), were proposed in this study. As a special kind of semi-closed infrastructure, urban tunnels are more vulnerable to traffic crashes and injuries than regular roadways. To assess the IR of the post-crash roadway tunnel traffic system, an over-one-year accident dataset comprising 8621 crashes in urban roadway tunnels in Shanghai, China was utilized. A total of 34 variables from 11 factors were selected to establish the IR assessment indicator system. Methodologically, to tackle the skewness issue in the dataset, a binary skewed logit (Scobit) model was found to be superior to a conventional logistic model and subsequently adopted for further analysis. The estimated results showed that 15 variables were identified to be significant in assessing the IR of the roadway tunnels in Shanghai. Finally, the formula for calculating the IR levels of post-crash traffic systems in tunnels was given and would be a helpful tool to mitigate potential trends in crash-related resilience deterioration. The findings of this study have implications for bridging the gap between conventional traffic safety research and system resilience modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work synthesized Ni-SiC composite coating with different SiC microparticle contents. The role of the SiC microparticle in designing the Ni-SiC composite microstructure was revealed. The SiC microparticle physically interrupted the continuous growth of the underlying columnar Ni grains. The columnar Ni grain between the embedded SiC microparticle grew without disturbance. Only upon SiC microparticles was a new layer starting with refined Ni grains observable. The vertical columnar Ni grains reappeared as the position departed the SiC microparticle upper surface. The increase in the contents of the SiC microparticle led to an increased level of grain refinement and the elimination of the (200) fiber texture. Besides that, the number of V-shaped valleys increased as well. Corrosion testing results show that the corrosion resistance of Ni-SiC composite coating increased with the increased SiC contents, which was mainly due to the optimized microstructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerium element with a unique electric structure can be used to modify semiconductor photocatalysts to enhance their photocatalytic performances. In this work, Ce-doped TiO2 (Ce/TiO2) was successfully achieved using the sol-gel method. The structural characterization methods confirm that Ce was doped in the lattice of anatase TiO2, which led to a smaller grain size. The performance test results show that the Ce doped in anatase TiO2 significantly enhances the charge transport efficiency and broadens the light absorption range, resulting in higher photocatalytic performance. The Ce/TiO2 exhibited a photocurrent density of 10.9 μA/cm2 at 1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, 2.5 times higher than that of pure TiO2 (4.3 μA/cm2) under AM 1.5 G light. The hydrogen (H2) production rate of the Ce/TiO2 was approximately 0.33 μmol/h/g, which is more than twice as much as that of the pure anatase TiO2 (0.12 μmol/h/g). This work demonstrates the effect of Ce doping in the lattice of TiO2 for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic components may not be used immediately and are stored for several months or years after fabrication in some cases, which experience long-term natural aging. Moreover, the fatigue-beared components commonly suffer discontinuous cyclic loadings in service. In this paper, the effects of natural aging and discontinuous loading on high cycle fatigue life and failure mechanism were investigated through rotating bending fatigue tests. The long-term natural aging (e.g., more than 20,000 h) reduced the fatigue life of both 25CrMo4 and 30CrMnSiA steels, and this effect was irrespective of the roughness of the specimen surface. The effect of natural aging on the failure mechanism was related to the microstructure of materials. The natural aging promoted the probability of multi-site crack initiation for 25CrMo4 steel, but had no influence on the crack initiation mode of 30CrMnSiA steel. The discontinuous cyclic loading had no harmful influence on the fatigue life of 25CrMo4 steel, and it had no influence on the failure mechanism. The specimens under continuous and discontinuous cyclic loadings both failed from single-site crack initiation or multi-site crack initiation at the specimen surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betaine is a new surfactant with good application prospects in high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. The interfacial properties of two kinds of betaine mixtures with a good synergistic effect were evaluated in this paper. On this basis, the effects of temperature-resistant, salt-resistant polymers with different contents of 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) on dynamic interfacial tensions (IFTs) against n-alkanes and crude oil were studied. The experimental results show that the IFTs between betaine ASB and n-alkanes can be reduced to ultra-low values by compounding with anionic surfactant petroleum sulfonate (PS) and extended anionic surfactant alkoxyethylene carboxylate (AEC), respectively. ASB@AEC is very oil-soluble with nmin value ≥14, and ASB@PS is relatively water-soluble with nmin value of 10. The water solubility of both ASB@PS and ASB@AEC is enhanced by the addition of water-soluble polymers. The HLB of the ASB@AEC solution becomes better against crude oil after the addition of polymers, and the IFT decreases to an ultra-low value as a result. On the contrary, the antagonistic effect in reducing the IFT can be observed for ASB@PS in the same case. In a word, polymers affect the IFTs of surfactant solutions by regulating the HLB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tuberous root of Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker-Gawl. is a well-known Chinese medicine also called Maidong (MD) in Chinese. It could be divided into "Chuanmaidong" (CMD) and "Zhemaidong" (ZMD), according to the geographic origins. Meanwhile, the root of Liriope spicata (Thunb.) Lour. var. prolifera Y. T. Ma (SMD) is occasionally used as a substitute for MD in the market. In this study, a reliable pressurized liquid extraction and HPLC-DAD-ELSD method was developed for the simultaneous determination of nine chemical components, including four steroidal saponins (ophiopojaponin C, ophiopogonin D, liriopesides B and ophiopogonin D'), four homoisoflavonoids (methylophiopogonone A, methylophiopogonone B, methylophiopogonanone A and methylophiopogonanone B) and one sapogenin (ruscogenin) in CMD, ZMD and SMD. The method was validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision, repeatability and accuracy, and then applied to the real samples from different origins. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the contents of the investigated compounds in CMD, ZMD and SMD. Ruscogenin was not detected in all the samples, and liriopesides B was only found in SMD samples. CMD contained higher ophiopogonin D and ophiopogonin D', while the other compounds were more abundant in ZMD. Moreover, the anticancer effects of the herbal extracts and selected components against A2780 human ovarian cancer cells were also compared. CMD and ZMD showed similar cytotoxic effects, which were stronger than those of SMD. The effects of MD may be due to the significant anticancer potential of ophiopognin D' and homoisoflavonoids. These results suggested that there were great differences in the chemical composition and pharmacological activity among CMD, ZMD and SMD; thus, their origins should be carefully considered in clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel casing pipes used in the construction of deep oil wells usually require both high strength and corrosion-resistant behavior. Due to the exploration of deep H2S-bearing oil reservoirs, sulfide stress cracking (SSC) is becoming an increasingly serious concern for casing steel. The nonmetallic inclusions in the steel are among the key reasons for its service failure. The rare earth element Ce can be used to modify the inclusions in casing steel and improve its SSC resistance. Here, taking C110 grade casing steel (the highest class currently in service) as the investigated object, the modification behavior of Ce inclusions in the steel and the effect of the addition of Ce in varying amounts (0.01, 0.024, and 0.042 wt.%) on the modified products were studied through high-temperature tube furnace experiments and thermodynamic calculations. The results showed that Ce had an obvious modification effect on the CaO·Al2O3 inclusions in casing steel, and the diffusion of dissolved Ce in the steel was the limiting step of the modification reaction. With the extension of reaction time, the sequence describing the modification of inclusions in the steel was determined as follows: CaO·Al2O3 → CeAlO3 → Ce2O3/Ce2O2S. The final stable product after modification depended on the amount of Ce added. With 0.01 wt.% Ce, the stable phase in molten steel was Ce2O3; on the other hand, upon adding ≥0.024 wt.% Ce, the stable phase became Ce2O2S. In addition, the thermodynamic stability of Ce2O3 decreased, and it was transformed into CeAlO3, Ce2O2S, Ce2S3, and CeS during solidification. On the basis of our results and the considerations for smooth casting, the addition of a proper amount of a rare earth element is suggested for industrial trials, following the achievement of a significant and surprising improvement in the qualified rate of SSC resistance for the final steel products. The relevant mechanism is also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant glandular trichomes have received much attention due to their commercial and biological value. Recent studies have focused on the development of various glands in plants, suggesting that programmed cell death (PCD) may play an important role during the development of plant secretory structures. However, the development processes and cytological characteristics in different types of plant secretory structures differed significantly. This study aims to provide new data on the developmental PCD of the capitate glandular hairs in Dictamnus dasycarpus. Light, scanning, immunofluorescence labeling, and transmission electron microscopy were used to determine the different developmental processes of the capitate glandular hairs from a cytological perspective. Morphologically, the capitate glandular hair originates from one initial epidermal cell and differentiates into a multicellular trichome characterized by two basal cells, two lines of stalk cells, and a multicellular head. It is also histochemically detected by essential oils. TUNEL-positive reactions identified nuclei with diffused fluorescence or an irregular figure by DAPI, and Evans blue staining showed that the head and stalk cells lost their viability. Ultrastructural evidence revealed the developmental process by two possible modes of PCD. Non-autolytic PCD was characterized by buckling cell walls and degenerated nuclei, mitochondria, plastids, multivesicular body (MVB), and end-expanded endoplasmic reticulum in the condensed cytoplasm, which were mainly observed in the head cells. The MVB was detected in the degraded vacuole, a degraded nucleus with condensed chromatin and diffused membrane, and eventual loss of the vacuole membrane integrity exhibited typical evidence of vacuole-mediated autolytic PCD in the stalk cells. Furthermore, protoplasm degeneration coupled with dark oil droplets and numerous micro-dark osmiophilic substances was observed during late stages. The secretion mode of essential oils is also described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic obstacle detection is of great significance for improving the safety of train operation. However, the existing autonomous operation of trains mainly depends on the signaling control system and lacks the extra equipment to perceive the environment. To further enhance the efficiency and safety of the widely deployed fully automatic operation (FAO) systems of the train, this study proposes an intelligent obstacle detection system based on deep learning. It collects perceptual information from industrial cameras and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and mainly implements the functionality including rail region detection, obstacle detection, and visual–LiDAR fusion. Specifically, the first two parts adopt deep convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithms for semantic segmentation and object detection to pixel-wisely identify the rail track area ahead and detect the potential obstacles on the rail track, respectively. The visual–LiDAR fusion part integrates the visual data with the LiDAR data to achieve environmental perception for all weather conditions. It can also determine the geometric relationship between the rail track and obstacles to decide whether to trigger a warning alarm. Experimental results show that the system proposed in this study has strong performance and robustness. The system perception rate (precision) is 99.994% and the recall rate reaches 100%. The system, applied to the metro Hong Kong Tsuen Wan line, effectively improves the safety of urban rail train operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium and Staphylococcus aureus are both common commensals and major opportunistic human pathogens. In recent decades, these bacteria have acquired broad resistance to several major classes of antibiotics, including commonly employed glycopeptides. Exemplified by resistance to vancomycin, glycopeptide resistance is mediated through intrinsic gene mutations, and/or transferrable van resistance gene cassette-carrying mobile genetic elements. Here, this review will discuss the epidemiology of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and S. aureus in healthcare, community, and agricultural settings, explore vancomycin resistance in the context of van and non-van mediated resistance development and provide insights into alternative therapeutic approaches aimed at treating drug-resistant Enterococcus and S. aureus infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the nonlinear stiffness of a polyester rope under dynamic loads at different temperatures was experimentally investigated. The effects and evolution of the average load, load period and load amplitude on dynamic stiffness were studied. The experimental results show that the dynamic stiffness at 30 °C was greater than that at 20 °C and 40 °C. This is because the dynamic stiffness reduced as the temperature and humidity increased, while in the closed thermostat, humidity decreased with an increase in temperature. In response to this phenomenon, a new set of empirical equations was proposed to consider temperature, humidity, and dynamic load based on the existing empirical formulas, by combining the experimental results. A set of experiments was conducted at 25 °C to verify the accuracy and applicability of the formula. The experimental results and the predicted results are in good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial with excellent mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. The application of graphene in cement-based materials has good prospects. However, the mechanical properties of cement-based materials are difficult to be significantly enhanced by ordinary graphene nanoplates. In this paper, nitrogen-doped graphene is first reported as an additive with dosages of 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05 wt.%, respectively, to prepare iron ore tailings–based cementitious composites. The iron ore tailings–based cementitious composite with 0.02 wt.% graphene shows an extremely high flexural strength of 15.05 MPa at 3 days, which is 134.4% higher than that of the iron ore tailings–based cementitious composite without graphene. The effects of graphene content and curing age on the flexural strength and microstructure of iron ore tailings–based cementitious composites were studied. In particular, the scanning electron microscope was adopted to observe the micromorphology of the composites. It is helpful to understand the graphene reinforcement mechanism for the high early flexural strength of iron ore tailings–based cementitious composites. By altering the morphology of iron ore tailings–based cementitious composites, graphene plays two roles in the composites. One role is to connect C-(A)-S-H gels, ettringite and other hydrated crystals to construct a three-dimensional structure. The other is to attract iron ore tailings distributed on its platform to enhance its flexural strength properties. These findings provide favorable guidance for the performance enhancement and mechanism replenishment of graphene-reinforced cementitious composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper implemented the Barcelona basic model (BBM) into the OpenGeoSys (OGS) platform for numerical modeling of the coupled hydro-mechanical (HM) behavior of unsaturated soil. Within the implicit integration approach in the OGS, the integration rule of the BBM was developed first and the integration form of the BBM under a return mapping algorithm was built. The closest point projection method was used for calculating the return mapping directions with the associative flow rule. The numerical simulation results show that the BBM is feasible in fitting the experimental results. The numerical integration algorithm can reflect the elastic–plastic mechanical behavior of materials, and improve the calculation accuracy. The material exhibits obvious elastic–plastic characteristics during numerical simulation and experiment, and the water absorption process can lessen the mixture's compression stiffness while enhancing its recovery stiffness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water damage is one of the main forms of early damage of highway asphalt pavement, which seriously affects the service performance of asphalt pavement. To address the problem of early water damage of asphalt pavement, the addition of anti-stripping agents in asphalt is an effective technical means. To further analyze the influence of anti-stripping agents on asphalt performance, Qingchuan rock asphalt, acylamine anti-stripping agent, fatty amine anti-stripping agent, rock asphalt + acylamine anti-stripping agent and rock asphalt + fatty amine anti-stripping agent were selected to modify the base asphalt. The rheological properties of modified asphalt were tested using a dynamic shear rheometer and bending beam rheometer. Combined with the mathematical-model-fitting test results of Sigmoidal, Burgers, viscoelastic continuum damage model (VECD), etc., the effects of different anti-stripping agents on the rheological properties of asphalt were evaluated through model parameters. The results showed that the Qingchuan rock asphalt could improve the high-temperature resistance to deformation of asphalt and improved the resistance to deformation of asphalt in a wide frequency domain but increased the risk of low-temperature cracking of asphalt. Acylamine anti-stripping agents and aliphatic amine anti-stripping agents reduced the elastic recovery ability and deformation resistance under a wide frequency domain of asphalt at high temperatures but enhanced the flexible deformation and ductility of asphalt at low temperatures. The compound anti-stripping agent not only improved the high-temperature deformation resistance of asphalt, but also improved the deficiency of rock asphalt's low-temperature performance and effectively enhanced its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although uncertainties such as solar radiation and material properties are generally involved in the solar receiver design process, current studies in the solar receiver field are based on deterministic models and do not incorporate these uncertainties into the design process. In this paper, based on a coupled deterministic thermal–structural model and an uncertainty analysis model, an analysis of temperature and thermal stress was conducted for a solar power tower (SPT) molten salt receiver under multi-source uncertainties to investigate the dispersions of responses. The results demonstrated that the maximum temperature inside the tube wall under multi-source uncertainties ranged from 847 K to 895 K, with an expectation of 871 K and a standard deviation of 8 K, and the maximum thermal stress ranged from 173 MPa to 245 MPa, with an expectation of 204 MPa and a standard deviation of 12 MPa, both of which had severer probabilities than the deterministic results (871 K and 204 MPa) and may cause failure in the receiver. Furthermore, the results of the global sensitivity analysis indicated that the peak incident solar flux was the most sensitive, and the specific heat of the tube material was the least sensitive to the maximum temperature and thermal stress of the tube wall. These results are beneficial to provide additional reliability and confidence in the temperature and thermal stress evaluation process of solar receiver tubes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a system, namely, the abnormal-weather monitoring and curation service (AWMC), which provides people with a better understanding of abnormal weather conditions. The service can analyze a set of multivariate weather datasets (i.e., 7 meteorological datasets from 18 cities in Korea) and show (i) which dates are mostly abnormal in a certain city, and (ii) which cities are mostly abnormal on a certain date. In particular, the dynamic graph-embedding-based anomaly detection method was employed to measure anomaly scores. We implemented the service and conducted evaluations. Regarding the results of monitoring abnormal weather, AWMC shows that the average precision was approximately 90.9%, recall was 93.2%, and F1 score was 92.1% for all the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential component in the offshore oil and gas industry, subsea jumpers are likely to encounter the cyclic-induced stresses caused by the alternating movement of gas plugs and liquid slugs while transporting a multiphase mixture. The present study investigates the gas-liquid flow and the induced vibration in a multi-plane jumper by adopting experimental and numerical techniques. The flow patterns at every characteristic section of a Z-shaped jumper with an inner diameter of 48 mm are experimentally investigated, including dispersed bubbly, slug, churn, wavy, stratified and annular flows. Displacement and pressure sensors are installed near each elbow to record the vibration and pressure response of the jumper. It is found that both pressure characteristics and vibration amplitudes are highly related to the gas content rate, mixing velocity, and gas and liquid superficial velocity. The one-way fluid–solid coupling numerical simulations are performed and validated against the experimental data in terms of the flow patterns and the induced vibrations at different gas–liquid velocities. The results reveal that both simulated flow patterns and vibration responses agree well with the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: We performed targeted sequencing to identify somatic mutations at the hairless (HR) gene locus in human breast tumors. We found HR mutations in approximately 15% of the patient cohort (n = 85), compared with 23% for BRCA2, 13% for GATA3, 7% for BRCA1, and 3% for PTEN in the same breast cancer patient cohort. We also found an average 23% HR copy number loss in breast cancers. HR reconstitution in HR-deficient human breast cancer cells significantly suppressed tumor growth in orthotopic xenograft mouse models. We further demonstrated that HR's antitumor activity was at least partly mediated by transcriptional activation of CELF2, a tumor suppressor with RNA-binding activity. Finally, we showed that pharmacologic inhibition of histone methylation is effective in suppressing HR-deficient breast tumor growth and progression. These findings suggest that HR loss plays an important role in breast cancer pathogenesis and will lead to future studies to explore specific inhibitors of HR-dependent histone methylation pathway to abrogate HR-deficient tumor growth and progression. The hairless (HR) gene encodes a transcription factor with histone demethylase activity that is essential for development and tissue homeostasis. Previous studies suggest that mutational inactivation of HR promotes tumorigenesis. To investigate HR mutations in breast cancer, we performed targeted next-generation sequencing using DNA isolated from primary breast cancer tissues. We identified HR somatic mutations in approximately 15% of the patient cohort (n = 85), compared with 23% for BRCA2, 13% for GATA3, 7% for BRCA1, and 3% for PTEN in the same patient cohort. We also found an average 23% HR copy number loss in breast cancers. In support of HR's antitumor functions, HR reconstitution in HR-deficient human breast cancer cells significantly suppressed tumor growth in orthotopic xenograft mouse models. We further demonstrated that HR's antitumor activity was at least partly mediated by transcriptional activation of CELF2, a tumor suppressor with RNA-binding activity. Consistent with HR's histone demethylase activity, pharmacologic inhibition of histone methylation suppressed HR-deficient breast cancer cell proliferation, migration and tumor growth. Taken together, we identified HR as a novel tumor suppressor that is frequently mutated in breast cancer. We also showed that pharmacologic inhibition of histone methylation is effective in suppressing HR-deficient breast tumor growth and progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Oligopeptide transporter 1 (PepT1) plays a role in the transportation and absorption of oligopeptides, which is an important part of protein nutrition and affects the growth of animals. Tributyrin (TB), the precursor of butyrate, exhibits similar functions to those of the butyrate in intestinal nutrients absorption. The analysis of TB on the growth of grass carp and its regulation pathway on PepT1 may help us to better understand the functions of TB and oligopeptide transportation via PepT1, which can be modulated by diet. In this study, we demonstrated that an appropriate level of tributyrin supplementation in the diet promoted the growth of juvenile grass carp and elevated the expressions of caudal type homeobox 2 (CDX2), specificity protein 1 (SP1), and PepT1 in the grass carp intestine and primary intestine cell. In addition, CDX2 and SP1 regulating the expression of PepT1 was investigated. Finally, CDX2/SP1-mediating tributyrin regulation on PepT1 was elucidated. This study verified the effect of tributyrin on the growth of juvenile grass carp and clarified the tributyrin regulation pathway on CDX2/SP1-PepT1. The nutritional functions of tributyrin (TB) have been extensively studied, but questions remain regarding its influence on the growth of juvenile grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) and the regulation pathway to PepT1 in the intestine of grass carp. To answer the remaining questions, feeding trials, cell trials, and peritoneal injection trials were conducted in this study. The results showed that an appropriate level of TB (0.5 g/kg and 1.0 g/kg) supplementation in feed significantly promoted the growth performance of juvenile grass carp. The expressions of intestine genes (CDX2, SP1 and PepT1) related to oligopeptide transportation increased in the 0.5 g/kg TB group of feeding trials and both the 5 mM and 10 mM TB groups of the intestine cell trials, respectively. Subsequently, the injection trials of inhibitors CDX2 and SP1 demonstrated that the inhibition of CDX2 or SP1 decreased the mRNA expression of PepT1. Finally, the results of independent or combined treatments of TB and the inhibitors suggested that CDX2/SP1 mediated TB regulation on PepT1. These findings may help us to better understand the functions of TB on growth and PepT1 oligopeptide transportation, which could be modulated by dietary TB through the CDX2/SP1-PepT1 pathway in juvenile grass carp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calorific value of coal gangue is a critical index for coal waste recycling and the energy industry. To establish an accurate and efficient calorific value forecasting model, a method based on hybrid kernel function–support vector regression and genetic algorithms is presented in this paper. Firstly, key features of coal gangue gathered from major coal mines are measured and used to build a sample set. Then, the forecasting performance of single kernel function-based models is established, and linear kernel and Gaussian kernel functions are chosen according to forecasting results. Next, a hybrid kernel combined with the two kernel functions mentioned above is used to establish a calorific value forecasting model. In addition, a genetic algorithm is introduced to optimize critical parameters of SVR and the adjustable weight. Finally, the forecasting model based on hybrid kernel function–support vector regression and genetic algorithms is built to predict the calorific value of new coal gangue samples. The experimental results indicate that the hybrid kernel function is more suitable for forecasting the calorific value of coal gangue than that of a single kernel function. Moreover, the forecasting performance of the proposed method is better than other conventional forecasting methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrothermal vein-type fluorite deposits are the most important metallogenic type of fluorite deposits in South China, most of which are closely related to granitoid in space; however, the genetic relationship between granitoid and fluorite mineralization remains controversial. The Shuanghuajiang fluorite deposit in northern Guangxi of South China is a typical vein-type fluorite deposit hosted in a granite pluton, with the orebodies occurring within brittle faults. Zircon U-Pb dating of the hosting Xiangcaoping granite yields an emplacement age of 228.04 ± 0.76 Ma (MSWD = 0.072). Fluorite Sm-Nd dating yields an isochron age of 185 ± 18 Ma. The new age data indicate that the fluorite deposit was precipitated significantly later than the emplacement of the hosting Xiangcaoping granite pluton. The fluorite and granite exhibit similar rare earth element (REE) patterns with negative Eu anomalies, suggesting that fluorine (F) was derived from the granite. The fluorite fluid inclusions show a homogeneous temperature mainly ranging between 165 °C and 180 °C. Salinity is typically less than 1% NaCl eqv, while the δ18OV-SMOW and δDV-SMOW values are between −5.2‰–−6.1‰ and −17.35‰–−23.9‰, respectively. These indicate that the ore-forming fluids were a NaCl-H2O system with medium-low temperature and low salinity, which is typical for meteoric water. Given the combined evidence of geochronology, REE, and fluid geochemistry, the mineralization of the Shuanghuajiang fluorite deposit is unrelated to magmatic-hydrothermal activity but achieved via hydrothermal circulation and leaching mechanisms. Our study presents a genetic relationship between the fluorite deposit and granitoids based on an example of northern Guangxi, providing a better understanding of the genesis of hydrothermal vein-type fluorite deposits in granitoids outcropping areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reinforced concrete invariably involves some diseases (e.g., crack, void, etc.) due to the complex service conditions. These diseases are usually repaired to extend the service life of reinforced concrete by using cement grouting materials. In order to meet a certain color need of reinforced concrete, toner is mixed into the cement grouting materials. However, the toner has a negative effect on the early strength of cement grouting materials. Unfortunately, the mechanism of the negative effects of toner is still unclear, and no effective and targeted measures have been put forward. Hence, the main work of this paper reveals the mechanisms of the toner and nano-SiO2 (N-S) in the hydration process and the strength generation of the cement grouting materials in the case of different curing ages and nano-SiO2 contents via the scanning electron microscopy test (SEM), X-ray diffraction test (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry test (DSC), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy test (FTRI). Results show that: (a) the toner hinders the generation of AFt and CH crystals (especially for 1-day and 3-day), which delays the hydration process and weakens the early performance of cement grouting materials; (b) the N-S promotes the hydration process and the formation of C-S-H gels, so as to effectively increasing the early strength and reducing (but not eliminate) the adverse effect of toner on cement grouting materials; (c) With the increase of every 1% N-S, the flexural strength of 1-day, 3-day, and 7-day average increased by 11.3%, 2.9%, and 0.9%, respectively, and the compressive strength of 1-day, 3-day, and 7-day average increased by 0.8%, 0.3%, and 0.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]