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The bleomycin-induced scleroderma model is a well-established and dependable method for creating a mouse model of SSc (systemic sclerosis). In the field of skin connective tissue diseases, increasing evidence from clinical and animal experiments suggests that TLRs (Toll-like receptors) play an important role in several diseases. This study aimed to determine the role of TLR7 (Toll-like receptor 7) and TLR9 (Toll-like receptor 9) in the mechanisms of immune abnormalities and fibrosis in SSc. This study used TLR7-KO mice (TLR7-knockout mice with a balb/c background) and TLR9-KO mice (TLR9-knockout mice with a balb/c background) as well as WT mice (wild-type balb/c mice). All three kinds of mice were induced by BLM (bleomycin) in a scleroderma model as the experimental group; meanwhile, WT mice treated with PBS (phosphate-buffered saline) were used as the control group. We analyzed the fibrotic phenotype and the immunological abnormality phenotype of TLR7-deficient and TLR9-deficient mice in the SSc disease model using flow cytometry, RT-PCR (reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction), a histological examination, and IHC (immunohistochemical staining). In a mouse model of SSc disease, the deletion of TLR7 attenuated skin and lung fibrosis, while the deletion of TLR9 exacerbated skin and lung fibrosis. The deletion of TLR7 resulted in a relative decrease in the infiltration and expression of various pro-inflammatory and fibrotic cells and cytokines in the skin. On the other hand, the deletion of TLR9 resulted in a relative increase in the infiltration and expression of various pro-inflammatory and cytokine-inhibiting cells and cytokines in the skin. Under the influence of pDCs (plasmacytoid dendritic cells), the balances of Beff/Breg (IL-6 + CD19 + B cell/IL-10 + CD19 + B cell), Th17/Treg (IL-17A + CD4 + T cell/Foxp3 + CD25 + CD4 + T cell), M1/M2 (CD86 + macrophage/CD206 + macrophage), and Th1/Th2 (TNFα + CD3 + CD4 + T cell/IL-4 + CD3 + CD4 + T cell) were biased towards the suppression of inflammation and fibrosis as a result of the TLR7 deletion. Comparatively, the balance was biased towards promoting inflammation and fibrosis due to the TLR9 deletion. In the SSc model, TLR7 promoted inflammation and fibrosis progression, while TLR9 played a protective role. These results suggest that TLR7 and TLR9 play opposite roles in triggering SSc to produce immune system abnormalities and skin fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is a rare tumor that typically grows in the lower spine. It is usually not aggressive and is most effectively treated with surgery. We studied data from over a thousand patients with spinal MPE from 2000 to 2020. Surgery was the main treatment for almost all patients. We found that younger age and having surgery were linked to better survival. Surprisingly, being male was associated with worse survival, and they tended to be diagnosed at a younger age than females. Our study, the largest of its kind, provides important information for treating spinal MPE. (1) Background: Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is a rare tumor of the spine, typically slow-growing and low-grade. Optimal management strategies remain unclear due to limited evidence given the low incidence of the disease. (2) Methods: We analyzed data from 1197 patients with spinal MPE from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2000–2020). Patient demographics, treatment modalities, and survival outcomes were examined using statistical analyses. (3) Results: Most patients were White (89.9%) with a median age at diagnosis of 42 years. Surgical resection was performed in 95% of cases. The estimated 10-year overall survival was 91.4%. Younger age (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.09, p < 0.001) and receipt of surgery (HR = 0.43, p = 0.007) were associated with improved survival. Surprisingly, male sex was associated with worse survival (HR = 1.86, p = 0.008) and a younger age at diagnosis compared to females. (4) Conclusions: This study, the largest of its kind, underscores the importance of surgical resection in managing spinal MPE. The unexpected association between male sex and worse survival warrants further investigation into potential sex-specific pathophysiological factors influencing prognosis. Despite limitations, our findings contribute valuable insights for guiding clinical management strategies for spinal MPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of illegal (gambling, pornography, and attraction) websites seriously threatens the security of society. Due to the concealment of illegal websites, it is difficult to obtain labeled data with high quantity. Meanwhile, most illegal websites usually disguise themselves to avoid detection; for example, some gambling websites may visually resemble gaming websites. However, existing methods ignore the means of camouflage in a single modality. To address the above problems, this paper proposes MEDAL, a multimodality-based effective data augmentation framework for illegal website identification. First, we established an illegal website identification framework based on tri-training that combines information from different modalities (including image, text, and HTML) while making full use of numerous unlabeled data. Then, we designed a multimodal mutual assistance module that is integrated with the tri-training framework to mitigate the introduction of error information resulting from an unbalanced single-modal classifier performance in the tri-training process. Finally, the experimental results on the self-developed dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, performing well on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the design of flapping-wing micro-size air vehicles capable of hovering, wings serve as the primary source of hovering power, making the analysis of aerodynamics and aerodynamic efficiency crucial. Traditional quasi-steady models treat the wings as single rigid plane, neglecting the deformable characteristics of flexible wings. This paper proposes a multi-plane method that, in conjunction with various design parameters of flexible wings in a two-dimensional plane, analyzes their deformation characteristics under the assumption of multiple planes in three-dimensional space, and describes the deformation of wings during flapping. By combining the quasi-steady aerodynamic model, aerodynamic analysis of the deformed wings can be conducted. The relationship between the slack angle, wing flapping position, and wing deformation are analyzed, along with their effects on aerodynamics and aerodynamic efficiency. Experiments validate the deformation patterns of wings during flapping and compare the simulated aerodynamic forces with measured ones. The results indicate that wing deformation can be accurately described by adjusting the parameters in the multi-plane method and that the aerodynamic analysis using this method closely approximates the average lift results. Additionally, the multi-plane method establishes a connection between wing morphology and aerodynamic forces and efficiency, providing valuable insights for aerodynamic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of image similarity is critical to trademark (TM) legal registration and court judgment on infringement cases. Meanwhile, there are great challenges regarding the annotation of similar pairs and model generalization on rapidly growing data when deep learning is introduced into the task. The research idea of metric learning is naturally suited for the task where similarity of input is given instead of classification, but current methods are not targeted at the task and should be upgraded. To address these issues, loss-driven model training is introduced, and a hybrid-margin softmax (HMS) is proposed exactly based on the peculiarity of TM images. Two additive penalty margins are attached to the softmax to expand the decision boundary and develop greater tolerance for slight differences between similar TM images. With the HMS, a Siamese neural network (SNN) as the feature extractor is further penalized and the discrimination ability is improved. Experiments demonstrate that the detection model trained on HMS can make full use of small numbers of training data and has great discrimination ability on bigger quantities of test data. Meanwhile, the model can reach high performance with less depth of SNN. Extensive experiments indicate that the HMS-driven model trained completely on TM data generalized well on the face recognition (FR) task, which involves another type of image data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional fertilizer management can destroy the structure of soil. Replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers can improve soil quality and nitrogen use efficiency. We aimed to study the effects of organic fertilizer substitutions for chemical nitrogen fertilizer on soil fertility and nitrogen use efficiency in order to clarify the effectiveness of the available nutrient management measures in improving soil quality and increasing foxtail millet yield. A field experiment was carried out over two consecutive years, and a total of six treatments were set up: no fertilizer (CK), chemical nitrogen fertilizer alone (N), the substitution of 25% of chemical nitrogen fertilizer with bio-organic fertilizer (N25A1), the substitution of 25% of chemical nitrogen fertilizer with fermented mealworm manure (N25B1), the substitution of 50% of chemical nitrogen fertilizer with bio-organic fertilizer (N50A2), and the substitution of 50% of chemical nitrogen fertilizer with fermented mealworm manure (N50B2). The results of this study show the following: (1) Compared with chemical nitrogen fertilizer, the substitution of organic fertilizer for nitrogen fertilizer reduced the bulk density and solid phase of the soil, and it increased the total porosity, water content, liquid phase, and gas phase of the soil. (2) Compared with nitrogen fertilizer, the use of an organic fertilizer increased the contents of nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, and total nitrogen in the soil by 13.59~52.56%, 4.47~18.27%, and 4.40~12.09%, respectively. The content of alkaline nitrogen increased by 1.70~32.37%, and the contents of soil available potassium, available phosphorus, and organic matter also increased. (3) The activities of sucrase, urease, glutaminase, and asparaginase were improved by replacing chemical nitrogen fertilizer with organic fertilizer. The N25 treatments performed better than the N50 treatments, and fermented mealworm manure performed better than biological organic fertilizer. (4) A moderate application of organic fertilizer (N25) can increase the grain yield, ear weight, grain weight, and 1000-grain weight of foxtail millet, whereas excessive application of organic fertilizer (N50) can reduce foxtail millet yield. (5) Replacing chemical nitrogen fertilizer with organic fertilizer can improve the agronomic use efficiency, physiological efficiency, biased productivity, harvest index, and apparent use efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer. In this study, the substitution of 25% of chemical nitrogen fertilizer with fermented mealworm manure was the best combination for restoring crop productivity and soil quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress is one of the key factors impeding agricultural productivity worldwide. This experiment aimed at investigating the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress effects on seed germination, physiology, and biochemical mechanisms in Tartary buckwheat genotypes. Four PEG-induced stress conditions (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) were applied to 14 selected genotypes at the germination stage to evaluate their stress tolerance capacity. Significant differences were obtained in germination percentage, relative water content (RWC), and all growth parameters among the studied 14 genotypes. Based on the stress tolerance index (STI), XiNong 9943, XiNong 9940, and QianKu-5 were found to be tolerant, and QuanKu-4 was susceptible. These cultivars were selected for further physiological and biochemical characterization. The results demonstrated that the activity of enzymes was significantly increased with the increase in PEG dose. SOD (superoxide dismutase), POD (peroxidase), CAT (catalase), and APX (ascorbate peroxidase) levels obtained at 30% PEG in the XiNong 9943 genotype were 2.01, 2.19, 4.92, and 4.46 times higher, respectively, than the normal growth condition (T0). Moreover, the secondary metabolite content also increased with the increase in PEG dose. At 30% PEG, the genotype XiNong 9943 yielded phenols, flavonoids, polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) levels that were higher by 131%, 95%, 154%, and 164%, respectively, than T0 condition. From both the findings of the activity of enzymes and the secondary metabolite content, the genotypic response to drought was ranked in the following order: XiNong 9943 > XiNong 9940 > QianKu-5 > QianKu-4, which supported the STI selection system. Assessing the overall performance, the genotype XiNong 9943 shows drought tolerance, which can be useful material for future buckwheat breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of evidence suggests that indoor mold exposure is a cause of allergic and respiratory diseases in humans. While models exist for assessing the risk of mold growth on building materials, few study the characteristics of mold growth after germination. This study conducted mold growth experiments in a constant temperature chamber, using four temperature settings of 15, 20, 25 and 30 °C, and three relative humidities of 56 to 61%, 75 to 76% and 83 to 86%. A mold growth prediction model was established using temperature and relative humidity. The accuracy of the model was verified by comparing the sampling and the predicted values in a laboratory environment. The results indicated that reducing the environmental temperature and relative humidity could significantly inhibit the growth of mold, although the inhibitory effects varied. Temperature might play a more critical role. At higher temperatures (25 °C and 30 °C), the growth rate and lag time of mold tended to be consistent and there were differences in the maximum diameter. In the predictive model, the polynomial secondary model for the maximum growth rate and lag time and the Arrhenius–Davey secondary model for the maximum diameter (A) had good predictive effects (Adj.R2 > 0.850). It is speculated that temperature is the key factor affecting the maximum growth diameter of mold. The mold growth prediction model could better predict the growth of mold in actual environments without wind Adj.R2 > 0.800), but the accuracy of the model decreased under windy conditions (wind velocity < 1 m/s). The mold growth predictive model we established could be used to predict the growth characteristics of mold in windless environments. It also provides control suggestions for the regulation of temperature and relative humidity in indoor environments, supporting indoor thermal environment management and pollutant control, and ensuring indoor human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rheological properties and end-use qualities of many foods are mainly determined by the types and levels of grain storage proteins (GSPs) in wheat. GSP levels are influenced by various factors, including tillage management, irrigation, and fertiliser application. However, the effects of irrigation and nitrogen on GSPs remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, a stationary split–split block design experiment was carried out in low- and high-fertility (LF and HF) soil, with the main plots subjected to irrigation treatments (W0, no irrigation; W1, irrigation only during the jointing stage; W2, irrigation twice during both jointing and flowering stages), subplots subjected to nitrogen application treatments (N0, no nitrogen application; N180, 180 kg/ha; N240, 240 kg/ha; N300, 300 kg/ha), and cultivars tested in sub–sub plots (FDC5, the strong-gluten cultivar Fengdecun 5; BN207, the medium-gluten cultivar Bainong 207). The results showed that GSP levels and processing qualities were significantly influenced by nitrogen application (p < 0.01), N240 was the optimal nitrogen rate, and the influence of irrigation was dependent on soil fertility. Optimal GSP levels were obtained under W2 treatment at LF conditions, and the content was increased by 17% and 16% for FDC5 and BN207 compared with W0 under N240 treatment, respectively. While the optimal GSP levels were obtained under W1 treatments at HF conditions, and the content was increased by 3% and 21% for FDC5 and BN207 compared with W0 under N240 treatment, respectively. Irrigation and nitrogen application increased the glutenin content by increasing Bx7 and Dy10 levels in FDC5, and by increasing the accumulation of Ax1 and Dx5 in BN207. Gliadins were mainly increased by enhancing α/β-gliadin levels. Correlation analysis indicated that a higher soil nitrate (NO3-N) content increased nitrogen remobilisation in leaves. Path analysis showed that Dy10, Dx5, and γ-gliadin largely determined wet glutenin content (WGC), dough stability time (DST), dough water absorption rate (DWR), and sedimentation value (SV). Therefore, appropriate irrigation and nitrogen application can improve nitrogen remobilisation, GSP levels, and processing qualities, thereby improving wheat quality and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the driving mechanisms used in micro flapping wing vehicles are gear and linkage transmission mechanisms, which convert the unidirectional rotation of the motor into the reciprocating flapping of the driving mechanism. However, gear and linkage transmission mechanisms occupy a larger space and weight with certain energy losses. This article introduces a drive mechanism that is different from gear and linkage mechanisms, namely the string-based mechanism. In this study, the working principle and various parameters in string-based mechanisms are analyzed, and the flapping trajectory and amplitude of the mechanism is simulated. Following that, this article proposes an improved method of the cam mechanism, designs the trajectory of a cam mechanism, and a physical design is carried out with a driving mechanism width of 22 mm. Subsequently, the experiments are conducted to compare the flapping trajectory of the actual mechanism with the simulation trajectory, thereby verifying the simulation accuracy. The results prove that, in a string-based mechanism, the ratio of the radius of the pulley to the installation radius of the double-layer bearings has a direct impact on the flapping amplitude, and optimizing the design of cam mechanisms can effectively reduce the tensile and relaxation phenomena in string-based mechanisms. The above conclusion was verified in physical experiments, where the modified cam mechanism effectively reduced the stuck phenomenon in the string-based mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apple orchards, as an important center of economic activity in forestry special crops, can achieve yield prediction and automated harvesting by detecting and locating apples. Small apples, occlusion, dim lighting at night, blurriness, cluttered backgrounds, and other complex scenes significantly affect the automatic harvesting and yield estimation of apples. To address these issues, this study proposes an apple detection algorithm, "YOLOv5-ACS (Apple in Complex Scenes)", based on YOLOv5s. Firstly, the space-to-depth-conv module is introduced to avoid information loss, and a squeeze-and-excitation block is added in C3 to learn more important information. Secondly, the context augmentation module is incorporated to enrich the context information of the feature pyramid network. By combining the shallow features of the backbone P2, the low-level features of the object are retained. Finally, the addition of the context aggregation block and CoordConv aggregates the spatial context pixel by pixel, perceives the spatial information of the feature map, and enhances the semantic information and global perceptual ability of the object. We conducted comparative tests in various complex scenarios and validated the robustness of YOLOv5-ACS. The method achieved 98.3% and 74.3% for mAP@0.5 and mAP@0.5:0.95, respectively, demonstrating excellent detection capabilities. This paper creates a complex scene dataset of apples on trees and designs an improved model, which can provide accurate recognition and positioning for automatic harvesting robots to improve production efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human adenovirus type 7 (HAdV7) infection causes severe pneumonia, yet there are still no breakthroughs in treatment options for adenovirus, and the road to antiviral drug development faces major challenges. We attempted to find new drugs and we stumbled upon one: selenadiazole. Selenadiazole has been shown to have significant anti-tumor effects due to its unique chemical structure and drug activity. However, its effectiveness against viruses has not been evaluated yet. In our study, selenadiazole also showed superior antiviral activity. In vitro experiments, selenadiazole was able to inhibit adenovirus-mediated mitochondrial-oxidative-damage-related apoptosis, and in in vivo experiments, selenadiazole was able to inhibit apoptosis by modulating the apoptotic signaling pathway Bcl-2/Stat3/NF-κB, etc., and was able to largely attenuate adenovirus-infection-induced pneumonia and lung injury in mice. This study aims to describe a new antiviral treatment option from the perspective of anti-adenovirus-mediated oxidative stress and its associated apoptosis and to provide theoretical guidance for the treatment of clinical adenovirus infection to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhist monasteries have played important roles in the development of both the culture of and urban planning in ancient Chinese cities. In this paper, the Buddhist monasteries in the city of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, during the Song (宋), Yuan (元), Ming (明), and Qing (清) dynasties are collated from historical documents. The characteristics of the spatial distribution of Buddhist monasteries are analyzed by using kernel density estimation (KDE), and the evolution of that spatial distribution is explored by documentary analysis. The results show that Buddhist monasteries are closely surrounded by cultural buildings and warehouses, discretely surrounded by administrative buildings. The spatial distribution evolution of Buddhist monasteries has evolved evenly during the expansion of the Xi'an city area, through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. This study provides a reference for the preservation of Buddhist monastery spaces in the historical context of Xi'an city area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The treatment of influenza caused by H1N1 has been the focus of much attention. Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have been used in many aspects of research in the last two decades. They have shown excellent performance in antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant functions. Previous anti-H1N1 cell experiments using SeNPs have shown that they have evident antiviral effects and low toxicities. This study focuses on the mechanism of selenium nanoparticles against an H1N1 influenza virus infection in vivo. The results showed that the selenium levels in the body decreased after an H1N1 virus infection, and inflammatory factors in the lung tissues increased abnormally, leading to the onset and aggravation of an inflammatory response. The H1N1 virus infection also led to the excessive activation of apoptotic pathways in the body and induced the apoptosis of tissue cells. In addition, this study found that SeNPs can alleviate this phenomenon. All results showed that SeNPs are promising inhibitors for controlling influenza H1N1 virus infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the physicochemical properties of starch during grain development and the mechanism for resistant starch (RS) accumulation will provide useful information for improving the RS content of wheat. The grains from wheat mutant lines with high RS contents and their corresponding wild-type control were analyzed to characterize the structural and physicochemical properties of wheat starch. A transcriptomic analysis was used to analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in RS accumulation. The results showed that the RS content increased with grain development, along with the total starch content, but a larger increase was observed in the middle and later stages of grain filling. The X-ray diffraction peak intensity and relative crystallinity of starch exhibited the lowest and highest values at 10 days after anthesis, respectively. Regarding the thermal properties of starch, the peak temperature and conclusion temperature generally decreased with grain development; however, the enthalpy values showed no apparent regularity. Compared to control cultivar ZM22, the RS639 and RS683 lines with high RS contents showed high amylose contents and high relative crystallinity and a large proportion of 2.0~9.8 µm starch granules. Furthermore, the transcriptomics analysis revealed that the average relative expression of the glucan-branching enzyme (GBE) α-1,4 glucan phosphorylase (Pho) and starch synthase (SS) in ZM22 was 2.47-, 2.70-, and 2.56-fold higher than that in RS639, respectively; which indicates that the downregulation of the expression of genes encoding GBE, Pho, and SS in wheat grain promotes the accumulation of RS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the extrusion modification of wheat bran and its effects on structural and rheological properties of wheat flour dough. Extruded bran showed better solubility of dietary fiber and structural porosity, leading to higher hydration and swelling power. Addition of extruded bran to dough caused water redistribution as an intensive aggregation of bound water to gluten matrix with reduced mobility. The bran–gluten interaction influenced by water sequestering caused partial gluten dehydration and conversion of β-turn into β-sheet, which demonstrated the formation of a more polymerized and stable gluten network. Farinographic data confirmed the promotion of dough stability with extruded bran addition at lower gluten content, while viscoelastic data suggested improved dough elasticity at all gluten contents by increasing elastic moduli and decreasing loss tangent. This study would be useful for interpreting the modification effect and mechanism of extrusion on cereal brans and provide valuable guidance for applying it as an effective modification technology on the commercial production of cereal bran and its flour products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accumulation of pollutants on the surface of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) station reduces the power generation efficiency of the whole power plant, affects electricity output, and decreases sales income; therefore, it is particularly important to develop a reasonable and effective cleaning process. Surface pollutants which have a strong interaction with the cleaning process of power stations can determine the quality of cleaning to a certain extent. In this paper, the pollutants on the surface of a trough CSP station with different usage times were collected and characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a particle size analyzer (PSA), and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). It was found that most of the surface pollutants were of a fine size and included amorphous particles which mainly resulted from the sedimentation of particles suspended for a short time or particles in the process of atmospheric circulation for a long time. Considering the service life of the mirror and the scarcity of water resources in the area where the trough CSP power station is located, a brush-based dry cleaning process with different cleaning times was developed. By comparing the changes in the reflectivity and micro-morphology of the mirror surface before and after cleaning, the feasibility and superiority of the brush-based dry cleaning process were fully confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive migration of small molecular plasticizers in solid propellants may lead to debonding and changes in combustion characteristics, affecting the safety of solid rocket motors. Herein, two functionalized graphene oxides (GO) were used to enhance the anti-migration performance of EPDM insulation. GO, 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane-modified GO (AGO) and octadecylamine-modified GO (HGO) were filled into EPDM to fabricate EPDM insulation. The anti-migration properties and migration kinetics of EPDM insulations were studied using immersion tests. Moreover, the mechanical properties, including the tensile properties, crosslink density, hardness, and aging resistance of different EPDM insulations, were also explored. Compared with GO, AGO, and HGO obviously enhanced the anti-migration and mechanical properties of the EPDM insulations. This study shows that the anti-migration performance of EPDM insulation can be enhanced by functionalized GO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a DIDE-FPP composite algorithm to improve the spatial location accuracy of tunnel fires based on the distributed individuals differential evolution (DIDE) algorithm and the four-point positioning (FPP) method. Using the DIDE algorithm to solve the multimodal optimization problems in tunnel fire location can locate more peaks and improve peak finding, and the FPP method is used to process the peak points located using the DIDE and achieve the spatial location which cannot be achieved otherwise using the DIDE method only. We used 20 multimodal test functions to evaluate the performance of the DIDE-FPP algorithm in peak finding and solving MMOPs. Through experimental comparisons with 13 other existing advanced methods, the comprehensive performance of the proposed DIDE-FPP composite algorithm shows advantages to some extents. Additionally, the combined value of PR (peak ratio) and SR (success rate) on up to 20 experimental functions is relatively high. The spatial positioning accuracy of a tunnel fire warning system using this positioning method can reach the centimeter level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixing SiOx materials with graphite materials has become a key technology to improve their performance, but it is still unclear what kind of graphite materials help to construct a stable electrode structure. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of graphite morphology on the structure and performance of SiOx/C composite electrodes (850 mAh g−1). For the SiOx/C59 composite electrode constructed by the lamellar graphite (C59) with a big aspect ratio and SiOx particles, the SiOx particles agglomerate in the pores of C59 particles. This uneven electrode structure could lead to excessive stress and strain of the electrode during cycling, which causes the anode electrode structure failure and cycling performance deterioration. While the small-size lamellar graphite (SFG15) with random orientation helps to construct stable electrode structure with uniform particle distribution and pore structure, which could reduce the stress and strain change of the electrode during cycling. Thus, the composite electrode (SiOx/SFG15) exhibits better cycling performance compared with SiOx/C59 composite electrode. This work reveals the structure-activity relationship of graphite morphology, electrode structure and the mechanical and electrochemical performance of the electrode, and provides a guide to the design and development of the high capacity SiOx/C composite electrode structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the complexity of the three-dimensional environment and the flexibility of the quadrotor aircraft, using the traditional A* algorithm for global path planning has the disadvantages of less search direction, more expanded nodes, and a longer planning path. Therefore, an improved A* algorithm is proposed, which is improved from two aspects. Firstly, a two-layer extended neighborhood strategy is proposed, which can increase the search direction and make better use of the flexibility of the aircraft. Secondly, the heuristic function is improved to make the heuristic function value closer to the actual planning path distance, which can reduce the expansion nodes and optimize the planning path. Finally, the path planning simulation of the improved A* algorithm is carried out and the results show that the path planned by the improved algorithm is shorter and the expanded nodes are fewer, which can guide the quadrotor to reach the destination better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the basic unit of a smart city, the smart community has received considerable attention and problems in community governance have appeared simultaneously. Previous studies of smart community governance have failed to encompass all aspects, especially the evaluation tools for ensuring its outcomes. Therefore, this paper developed a comprehensive evaluation framework based on the CRITIC-TOPSIS method combined with the identified evaluation indicators. Seven smart communities from four cities in China were selected as cases to show how this evaluation framework could be applied to decision-making. The results indicated that the evaluation indicator "Mediation of Conflict" had the highest weight while "The participation of social enterprises in governance" had the lowest weight. Furthermore, the Yucun community presented the highest governance performance among these seven smart communities. Several strategies are proposed for improving the level of smart community governance, such as devoting significant resources to develop infrastructure in smart communities, facilitating communication among multiple participants, and increasing funding for the implementation of smart communities. This research contributes both to the innovation of community governance evaluation and to the improvement of smart communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing application of aluminum alloy, in combination with the growth in the complexity of components, provides new challenges for the numerical modeling of sheet materials. The material elastic–plasticity constitutive model is the most important factor affecting the accuracy of finite element simulation. The mixed hardening constitutive model can more accurately represent the real hardening characteristics of the material plastic deformation process, and the accuracy of the material property-related parameters in the constitutive model directly affects the accuracy of finite element simulation. Based on the Hill48 anisotropic yield criterion, combined with the Voce isotropic hardening model and the Armstrong–Frederic nonlinear kinematic hardening model, a mixed hardening constitutive model that considers material anisotropy and the Bauschinger effect was established. Analysis of the tension–compression experiment on the sheet using finite element method. Using the finite element model, the optimum geometry of the tension–compression experiment sample was determined. The cyclic deformation stress–strain curve of the 2A11 aluminum alloy sheet was obtained by a cyclic tensile–compression test, and the material characteristic parameters in the mixed hardening model were accurately determined. The reliability and accuracy of the established constitutive model of anisotropic mixed hardening materials were verified by the finite element simulation and by testing the cyclic tensile–compression problem, the springback problem, and the sheet in bending, unloading, and reverse bending problems. The tensile–compression experiment is an effective method to directly and accurately obtain the characteristic parameters of constitutive model materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a micro-unit of the smart city, smart communities have transformed residents' lives into a world that connects physical objects. Simultaneously, though, they have brought community safety problems. Most studies of the smart community have only focused on technical aspects, and little attention has been paid to community safety. Thus, this paper aims to develop an evaluation system for smart community safety, which will further promote community safety development. On the basis of identifying evaluation indicators, an evaluation framework was built to assess the level of smart community safety by a comprehensive CRITIC-TOPSIS method. Five smart communities in Shenzhen city were selected as cases to validate the feasibility of the evaluation framework. There was an indication that the indicator with the highest weight was the 'building monitoring', and the indicator with the lowest weight was the 'emergency shelter guidelines'. In addition, the Yucun community showed the highest safety level among these five smart communities. Some suggestions for enhancing the safety level of the smart community are proposed, such as strengthening the training of community safety management talents, establishing good emergency protective measures, and encouraging residents to participate in the development of community safety. This research not only provides an innovative community safety assessment method; it also enriches the knowledge of smart community safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a non-destructive detection method, an electronic nose can be used to assess the freshness of meats by collecting and analyzing their odor information. Deep learning can automatically extract features and uncover potential patterns in data, minimizing the influence of subjective factors such as selecting features artificially. A transfer-learning-based model was proposed for the electronic nose to detect the freshness of chicken breasts in this study. First, a 3D-printed electronic nose system is used to collect the odor data from chicken breast samples stored at 4 °C for 1–7 d. Then, three conversion to images methods are used to feed the recorded time series data into the convolutional neural network. Finally, the pre-trained AlexNet, GoogLeNet, and ResNet models are retrained in the last three layers while being compared to classic machine learning methods such as K Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machines (SVM). The final accuracy of ResNet is 99.70%, which is higher than the 94.33% correct rate of the popular machine learning model SVM. Therefore, the electronic nose combined with conversion to images shows great potential for using deep transfer learning methods for chicken freshness classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown strong abilities in the application of artificial intelligence. However, due to their extensive amount of computation, traditional processors have low energy efficiency when executing CNN algorithms, which is unacceptable for portable devices with limited hardware cost and battery capacity, so designing a CNN-specific processor is necessary. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient CNN processor architecture for lightweight devices with a processing elements (PEs) array consisting of 384 PEs. Using the systolic array-based PE array, it realizes parallel operations between filter rows and between channels of output feature maps, supporting the acceleration of 3D convolution and fully connected computation with various parameters by configuring internal instruction registers. The computing strategy based on the proposed systolic dataflow achieves less hardware overhead compared with other strategies, and the reuse of image values and weight values, which effectively reduce the power of memory access. A memory system with a multi-level storage structure combined with register file (RF) and SRAM is used in the proposed CNN processor, which further reduces the energy overhead of computing. The proposed CNN processor architecture has been verified on a ZC706 FPGA platform using VGG-16 based on the proposed image segmentation method, the evaluation results indicate that the peak throughput achieves 115.2 GOP/s consuming 3.801 W at 150 MHz, energy efficiency and DSP efficiency reaches 30.32 GOP/s/W and 0.26 GOP/s/DSP, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pseudorandom sequence is a repeatable sequence with random statistical properties that is widely used in communication encryption, authentication and channel coding. The pseudorandom sequence generator based on the linear feedback shift register has the problem of a fixed sequence, which is easily tracked. Existing methods use the secret linear feedback shift register (LFSR) and built-in multiple LFSRs and is difficult to prevent cracking based on the hardware analysis. Since the plaintext depends on a specific language to be generated, using pseudo-random sequence encryption, it faces the problem that the encryptor cannot hide the characteristics of the plaintext data. Fractal functions have the following properties: chaotic, unpredictable and random. We propose a novel pseudorandom sequence generator based on the nonlinear chaotic systems, which is constructed by the fractal function. Furthermore, we design a data processing matrix to hide the data characteristics of the sequence and enhance the randomness. In the experiment, the pseudo-random sequences generator passed 16 rigorous test items from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which means that the nonlinear pseudorandom sequence generator for the fractal function is effective and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L-serine is widely used in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. However, the complicated metabolic network and regulatory mechanism of L-serine production lead to the suboptimal productivity of the direct fermentation of L-serine and limits its large-scale industrial production. In this study, a high-yield L-serine production Escherichia coli strain was constructed by a series of defined genetic modification methodologies. First, L-serine-mediated feedback inhibition was removed and L-serine biosynthetic pathway genes (serAfr, serC, and serB) associated with phosphoglycerate kinase (pgk) were overexpressed. Second, the L-serine conversion pathway was further examined by introducing a glyA mutation (K229G) and deleting other degrading enzymes based on the deletion of initial sdaA. Finally, the L-serine transport system was rationally engineered to reduce uptake and accelerate L-serine export. The optimally engineered strain produced 35 g/L L-serine with a productivity of 0.98 g/L/h and a yield of 0.42 g/g glucose in a 5-L fermenter, the highest productivity and yield of L-serine from glucose reported to date. Furthermore, transcriptome and intermediate metabolite of the high-yield L-serine production Escherichia coli strain were analyzed. The results demonstrated the regulatory mechanism of L-serine production is delicate, and that combined metabolic and bioprocess engineering strategies for L-serine producing strains can improve the productivity and yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Key Laboratory of Integrated Microsystems (IMS) of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has deployed a self-developed acoustic and electromagnetics to artificial intelligence (AETA) system on a large scale and at a high density in China to comprehensively monitor and collect the precursor anomaly signals that occur before earthquakes for seismic prediction. This paper constructs several classic time series and non-time series prediction models for comparison and analysis in order to find the most suitable earthquake-prediction model among these models. The long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network, which gains the best results in earthquake prediction based on AETA data extracted from the precursor anomaly signals, is selected for real-earthquake prediction for 16 consecutive weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High clearance sprayer is a high-efficiency pesticide application machine in orchard management. In this paper, operational safety of high clearance sprayers is validated by using finite element simulation and vibration testing. The 3D model of the frame is simplified by using shell units instead of solid units, the static performance of high clearance sprayer frames under static full load and ultimate torsional conditions was studied by means of finite element simulation tests, the mechanical properties of the frame under step excitation were studied by multi-body dynamic simulation test. The simulation results show that, at a safety factor of 1.5, the maximum stress extremes in the frame are within the safe permissible stress range. During the dynamics analysis, a tire-ground contact simplified model was proposed. The results of the modal analysis show that the inherent frequency distribution of the high clearance sprayer is compact, and the vibration test has measured a large difference between the engine vibration frequency with the inherent frequency of the frame, this means that resonance will not occur. The theoretical analysis shows that the designed high clearance sprayer meets the requirements of large cross-row field operations, the study provides a reference for the overall design of the high clearance sprayer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affected by various error factors in the actual environment, the accuracy of the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm will greatly decrease during an application. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose an intelligent DOA estimation error calibration method based on transfer learning, which learns error knowledge from a small number of actual signal samples and improves the DOA estimation accuracy in the real application. We constructed a deep convolutional neural network (CNN)-based intelligent DOA estimation model to learn the mapping between the input signals and their azimuths. We generated a large number of ideal simulation signal samples to train the CNN model and used it as the pretrained model. Then, we fine-tuned the CNN model with a small number of actual signal samples collected in the actual environment. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method through simulation experiments. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can effectively improve the accuracy of DOA estimation in the actual environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To realize the online evaluation of spray quality, an online measuring system for spray coverage and deposition quality is developed. The measuring theory of spray coverage and deposition quality on an LWS (leaf wetness sensor) surface is analyzed. When the spray conditions are constant, there is a linear correlation between the spray coverage on the sensor surface, the spray deposition quality and the LWS output voltage increment. The results of calibration experiments show that when the spray conditions are constant, the coefficient of determination R 2 of the regression curves between the sensor output voltage increment and the spray coverage on the sensor surface is more than 0.75, and the coefficient of determination R 2 of the regression curves between the sensor output voltage increment and the spray deposition quality on the sensor surface is more than 0.90. Based on ZigBee wireless sensor technology, this paper reports an online measuring system for spray coverage and deposition quality at multiple points in the field. The test results show that the online measuring system has good uniformity. Field test results show that the LWS voltage increment and the coverage rate of water-sensitive paper have a good correlation, and the measuring results of the spray deposition quality trend are in good agreement. The fit of the spray deposition quality curves measured by the two methods was 0.8924. The research results in this paper can provide a reference for using LWS sensors to measure spray coverage and deposition quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adaptability of fish to their habitats is closely related to river hydraulics. While navigation channel projects aim to improve the navigation conditions by adjusting the hydrodynamic force of local river sections, the impacts of these projects on the hydraulic indicators of habitats of the four major Chinese carp species (FMCCs) remain unclear. Taking the Daijiazhou reach in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as a case study, a mathematical model for spawning suitability was established to simulate changes in these hydraulic indicators before and after the implementation of a navigation channel project. The optimal flow rate interval for the spawning of the FMCCs was 17,500–22,000 m3·s−1. After the navigation channel project was implemented, the habitat suitability index (HSI) and weighted useable area (WUA) increased across the spawning habitats of all FMCCs, indicating that the project implementation created more habitat space. The central bar (Chihugang central bar) became exposed during the dry season, with the HSI and WUA decreasing under low water flow but increasing under medium-low or higher water flow levels. At the Daijiazhou bar head floodplain, which remained unexposed during the dry season, the HSI and WUA increased after project implementation, providing more space for spawning and habitation for the FMCCs. For the low point bar with bank gullies (Lejiawan point bar), the implementation of the bar protection zone project restricted gully development, with the HSI and WUA decreasing for all FMCCs. Based on the above impacts of navigation channel projects on the hydrodynamic environment of fish habitats, this paper provides a reference for the optimization of navigation channel arrangement as well as for the restoration of fish habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgenic crops producing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal proteins are grown widely for pest control, but the evolution of resistance in target pests could reduce their efficacy. Mutations in genes encoding cadherin, ABC transporter or tetraspanin were linked with resistance to Cry1Ac in several lepidopteran insects, including the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), a worldwide agricultural pest. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms by which these mutations confer insect resistance to Cry1Ac remain largely unknown. In this study, we analyzed the midgut transcriptomes of a susceptible SCD strain and three SCD-derived Cry1Ac-resistant strains of H. armigera (SCD-r1, with a naturally occurring deletion mutation of cadherin; SCD-KI, with a knock-in T92C point mutation in tetraspanin; and C2/3-KO, with both ABCC2 and ABCC3 knocked out). Evaluation of midgut transcript profiles of the four strains without Cry1Ac exposure identified many constitutively differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the resistant SCD-r1 (n = 1355), SCD-KI (n = 1254) and C2/3-KO (n = 2055) strains. Analysis of DEGs in the midguts of each strain after Cry1Ac exposure revealed similar patterns of response to Cry1Ac in the SCD and SCD-r1 strains, but unique responses in the SCD-KI and C2/3-KO strains. Expression of midgut epithelium healing and defense-related genes was strongly induced by Cry1Ac intoxication in the SCD and SCD-r1 strains, while immune-related pattern recognition receptor and effector genes were highly expressed in the SCD-KI strain after Cry1Ac exposure. This study advances our knowledge of the transcriptomic basis for insect resistance to Bt toxins and provides a valuable resource for further molecular characterization of insect response to Cry1Ac toxin in H. armigera and other pest species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a hydraulic pump is the power source of a hydraulic system, predicting its remaining useful life (RUL) can effectively improve the operating efficiency of the hydraulic system and reduce the incidence of failure. This paper presents a scheme for predicting the RUL of a hydraulic pump (gear pump) through a combination of a deep convolutional autoencoder (DCAE) and a bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) network. The vibration data were characterized by the DCAE, and a health indicator (HI) was constructed and modeled to determine the degradation state of the gear pump. The DCAE is a typical symmetric neural network, which can effectively extract characteristics from the data by using the symmetry of the encoding network and decoding network. After processing the original vibration data segment, health indicators were entered as a label into the RUL prediction model based on the Bi-LSTM network, and model training was carried out to achieve the RUL prediction of the gear pump. To verify the validity of the methodology, a gear pump accelerated life experiment was carried out, and whole life cycle data were obtained for method validation. The results show that the constructed HI can effectively characterize the degenerative state of the gear pump, and the proposed RUL prediction method can effectively predict the degeneration trend of the gear pump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apples are one of the most widely planted fruits in the world, with an extremely high annual production. Several issues should be addressed to avoid the damaging of samples during the quality grading process of apples (e.g., the long detection period and the inability to detect the internal quality of apples). In this study, an electronic nose (e-nose) detection system for apple quality grading based on the K-nearest neighbor support vector machine (KNN-SVM) was designed, and the nasal cavity structure of the e-nose was optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. A KNN-SVM classifier was also proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional SVMs. The performance of the developed device was experimentally verified in the following steps. The apples were divided into three groups according to their external and internal quality. The e-nose data were pre-processed before features extraction, and then Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) were used to reduce the dimension of the datasets. The recognition accuracy of the PCA–KNN-SVM classifier was 96.45%, and the LDA–KNN-SVM classifier achieved 97.78%. Compared with other commonly used classifiers, (traditional KNN, SVM, Decision Tree, and Random Forest), KNN-SVM is more efficient in terms of training time and accuracy of classification. Generally, the apple grading system can be used to evaluate the quality of apples during storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) of mechanical equipment can improve production efficiency while effectively reducing the life cycle cost and failure rate. This paper proposes a method for predicting the remaining service life of equipment through a combination of a deep convolutional autoencoder (DCAE) and a convolutional neural network (CNN). For rolling bearings, a health indicator (HI) could be built by combining DCAE and self-organizing map (SOM) networks, performing more advanced characterization against the original vibration data and modeling the degradation state of the rolling bearings. The HI serves as the label of the original vibration data, and the original data with such label is input into the prediction model of the RUL based on a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN). The model was trained for predicting the RUL of a rolling bearing. The bearing degradation dataset was evaluated to verify the method's effectiveness. The results demonstrate that the constructed HI can characterize the bearing degradation state effectively and that the method of predicting the RUL can accurately predict the bearing degradation trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: A number of studies have demonstrated that DNA binding with one finger (Dof) proteins are involved in multiple biological processes. In the present study, Dof genes or proteins in Tartary buckwheat (FtDofs) were systematically analysed, including their physical properties, phylogenetic relationships, structure, motif composition, cis-acting elements present in promoter regions, chromosomal distribution, gene duplication events, syntenic relationships, expression patterns in different tissues and different fruit developmental stages and responses to exogenous hormone stimulation. The results indicated that the expansion of FtDofs was mainly due to segmental duplication. The tissue-specific expression patterns of FtDofs and their positive responses to exogenous hormone stimulation suggest that they play important roles in the growth and development of Tartary buckwheat as well as in the adaptation to environmental changes. Collectively, this study lays a foundation for further exploration of the function of FtDof genes in Tartary buckwheat. DNA binding with one finger (Dof) proteins have been proven to be involved in multiple biological processes. However, genome-wide identification of the Dof gene family has not been reported for Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum). In this study, 35 FtDof proteins were identified, and they could be divided into nine phylogenetic subgroups. Proteins within the same subgroup had similar gene structure and motif composition. Moreover, abundant cis-acting elements were present in the promoter regions of FtDof genes. Segmental duplication was the primary driving force for the evolution of the FtDof gene family. Synteny analysis indicated that Tartary buckwheat was closer to dicotyledons, and more orthologous Dof genes existed among them. The expression pattern of FtDofs in different tissues and at different fruit developmental stages varied. Different tissues contained several genes that were specifically expressed. FtDof expression was mainly upregulated under methyl jasmonate treatment and downregulated under other hormone treatments. Taken together, FtDofs may play important roles in the growth and development of Tartary buckwheat and in response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Therefore, the genome-wide identification and expression pattern analysis of the Tartary buckwheat Dof gene family lays a foundation for further exploration of the functional characteristics of FtDofs in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is regarded as a "New Warrior" for managing plant stress. It also plays an important role in plant growth and development. The regulation of root system architecture (RSA) by H2S has been widely recognized. Plants are dependent on the RSA to meet their water and nutritional requirements. They are also partially dependent on the RSA for adapting to environment change. Therefore, a good understanding of how H2S affects the RSA could lead to improvements in both crop function and resistance to environmental change. In this review, we summarized the regulating effects of H2S on the RSA in terms of primary root growth, lateral and adventitious root formation, root hair development, and the formation of nodules. We also discussed the genes involved in the regulation of the RSA by H2S, and the relationships with other signal pathways. In addition, we discussed how H2S regulates root growth in response to abiotic stress. This review could provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of H2S in roots during development and under abiotic stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the potato planter works on sloping field, it will cause problems such as poor film mulching quality due to the difference in volume of soil covering both sides of the discs and the inconvenient adjustment of the soil covering disc. The soil covering device with linkage and differential adjustment was designed to improve the mulching quality. The main research content includes explaining the structure and principle of the soil covering device and analyzing the structural parameters of the adjustment mechanism. The field experiment was completed to verify the performance of soil covering device, which takes the stability coefficient and uniformity coefficient of the volume of covering soil as factors. The result shows the following: (1) The volume of covering soil changes exponentially with the angle of the disc through data fitting, which can standardize the angle of covering disc; and (2) when the angle of disc is 30° and 60°, respectively, the uniformity coefficient of volume of covering soil is lower than 1.4, which has premium soil covering quality. When the angles of the discs on both sides differ greatly, the stability coefficient of volume of covering soil is 0.41, which can meet the requirements of the mulching quality of potato planter. This research provides the technical support for high-quality potato planting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their "tumor homing" and "immune privilege" characteristics, the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been proposed as a novel tool against cancer. MSCs are genetically engineered in vitro and then utilized to deliver tumoricidal agents, including prodrugs and bioactive molecules, to tumors. The genetic modification of MSCs can be achieved by various vectors, and in most cases viral vectors are used; however, viruses may be associated with carcinogenesis and immunogenicity, restricting their clinical translational potential. As such, nonviral vectors have emerged as a potential solution to address these limitations and have gradually attracted increasing attention. In this review, we briefly revisit the current knowledge about MSC-based cancer gene therapy. Then, we summarize the advantages and challenges of nonviral vectors for MSC transfection. Finally, we discuss recent advances in the development of new nonviral vectors, which have provided promising strategies to overcome obstacles in the gene modulation of MSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of mechanical fault diagnosis has entered the era of "big data". However, existing diagnostic algorithms, relying on artificial feature extraction and expert knowledge are of poor extraction ability and lack self-adaptability in the mass data. In the fault diagnosis of rotating machinery, due to the accidental occurrence of equipment faults, the proportion of fault samples is small, the samples are imbalanced, and available data are scarce, which leads to the low accuracy rate of the intelligent diagnosis model trained to identify the equipment state. To solve the above problems, an end-to-end diagnosis model is first proposed, which is an intelligent fault diagnosis method based on one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN). That is to say, the original vibration signal is directly input into the model for identification. After that, through combining the convolutional neural network with the generative adversarial networks, a data expansion method based on the one-dimensional deep convolutional generative adversarial networks (1D-DCGAN) is constructed to generate small sample size fault samples and construct the balanced data set. Meanwhile, in order to solve the problem that the network is difficult to optimize, gradient penalty and Wasserstein distance are introduced. Through the test of bearing database and hydraulic pump, it shows that the one-dimensional convolution operation has strong feature extraction ability for vibration signals. The proposed method is very accurate for fault diagnosis of the two kinds of equipment, and high-quality expansion of the original data can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tartary buckwheat is one of the nutritious minor cereals and is grown in high-cold mountainous areas of arid and semi-arid zones where drought is a common phenomenon, potentially reducing the growth and yield. Melatonin, which is an amphiphilic low molecular weight compound, has been proven to exert significant effects in plants, under abiotic stresses, but its role in the Tartary buckwheat under drought stress remains unexplored. We evaluated the influence of melatonin supplementation on plant morphology and different physiological activities, to enhance tolerance to posed drought stress by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and alleviating lipid peroxidation. Drought stress decreased the plant growth and biomass production compared to the control. Drought also decreased Chl a, b, and the Fv/Fm ratio by 54%, 70%, and 8%, respectively, which was associated with the disorganized stomatal properties. Under drought stress, H2O2, O2•−, and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents increased by 2.30, 2.43, and 2.22-folds, respectively, which caused oxidative stress. In contrast, proline and soluble sugar content were increased by 84% and 39%, respectively. However, exogenous melatonin (100 µM) could improve plant growth by preventing ROS-induced oxidative damage by increasing photosynthesis, enzymatic antioxidants (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase), secondary metabolites like phenylalanine ammonialyase, phenolics, and flavonoids, total antioxidant scavenging (free radical DPPH scavenging), and maintaining relative water content and osmoregulation substances under water stress. Therefore, our study suggested that exogenous melatonin could accelerate drought resistance by enhancing photosynthesis and antioxidant defense in Tartary buckwheat plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genomes of coronaviruses carry accessory genes known to be associated with viral virulence. The single accessory gene of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), ORF3, is dispensable for virus replication in vitro, while viral mutants carrying ORF3 truncations exhibit an attenuated phenotype of which the underlying mechanism is unknown. Here, we studied the effect of ORF3 deletion on the proliferation of PEDV in Vero cells. To this end, four recombinant porcine epidemic diarrhea viruses (PEDVs) were rescued using targeted RNA recombination, three carrying the full-length ORF3 gene from different PEDV strains, and one from which the ORF3 gene had been deleted entirely. Our results showed that PEDVs with intact or naturally truncated ORF3 replicated to significantly higher titers than PEDV without an ORF3. Further characterization revealed that the extent of apoptosis induced by PEDV infection was significantly lower with the viruses carrying an intact or C-terminally truncated ORF3 than with the virus lacking ORF3, indicating that the ORF3 protein as well as its truncated form interfered with the apoptosis process. Collectively, we conclude that PEDV ORF3 protein promotes virus proliferation by inhibiting cell apoptosis caused by virus infection. Our findings provide important insight into the role of ORF3 protein in the pathogenicity of PEDV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storage protein distribution in wheat-grain endosperm is heterogeneous, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Two parts of the endosperm region, the innermost endosperm (IE) region and the remaining endosperm (RE) region, grown under low nitrogen (LN) and high nitrogen (HN) treatments were used to perform metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis. We identified 533 and 503 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with at least a two-fold expression change (p < 0.05) between IE and RE, among which 81 and 78 transcripts under LN and HN, respectively, related to carbon and nitrogen metabolism, and encoded transcription factors or proteins involved in post-translational modification (PTM). The significantly differentially abundant metabolites between IE and RE were mainly amino acids, N-compounds, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. More upregulated transcripts and metabolites were identified in RE than IE under HN conditions, indicating that HN activates metabolism in the endosperm periphery. In addition to carbon and nitrogen metabolism, transcription factors and protein PTMs, such as phosphorylation and acetylation, might determine the protein heterogeneous distribution between IE and RE and its response to nitrogen fertilizer supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]