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Asphalt pavement, which is mainly made up of the asphalt mixture, exhibits complicated mechanical behaviors under the combined effects of moving vehicle loads and external service environments. Multi-scale numerical simulation can well characterize behaviors of asphalt materials and asphalt pavement, and the essential research progress is systematically summarized from an entire view. This paper reviews extensive research works concerning aspects of the design, characterization, and prediction of performance for asphalt materials and asphalt pavement based on multi-scale numerical simulation. Firstly, full-scale performance modeling on asphalt pavement is discussed from aspects of structural dynamic response, structural and material evaluation, and wheel–pavement interaction. The correlation between asphalt material properties and pavement performance is also analyzed, and so is the hydroplaning phenomenon. Macro- and mesoscale simulations on the mechanical property characterization of the asphalt mixture and its components are then investigated, while virtual proportion design for the asphalt mixture is introduced. Features of two-dimensional and three-dimensional microscale modeling on the asphalt mixture are summarized, followed by molecular dynamics simulation on asphalt binders, aggregates, and their interface, while nanoscale behavior modeling on asphalt binders is presented. Finally, aspects that need more attention concerning this study's topic are discussed, and several suggestions for future investigations are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is an annual herb from the Scutellaria genus that has been extensively used as a traditional medicine for over 2000 years in China. Baicalin and other flavonoids have been identified as the principal bioactive ingredients. The biosynthetic pathway of baicalin in S. baicalensis has been elucidated; however, the specific functions of R2R3-MYB TF, which regulates baicalin synthesis, has not been well characterized in S. baicalensis to date. Here, a S20 R2R3-MYB TF (SbMYB12), which encodes 263 amino acids with a length of 792 bp, was expressed in all tested tissues (mainly in leaves) and responded to exogenous hormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment. The overexpression of SbMYB12 significantly promoted the accumulation of flavonoids such as baicalin and wogonoside in S. baicalensis hairy roots. Furthermore, biochemical experiments revealed that SbMYB12 is a nuclear-localized transcription activator that binds to the SbCCL7-4, SbCHI-2, and SbF6H-1 promoters to activate their expression. These results illustrate that SbMYB12 positively regulates the generation of baicalin and wogonoside. In summary, this work revealed a novel S20 R2R3-MYB regulator and enhances our understanding of the transcriptional and regulatory mechanisms of baicalin biosynthesis, as well as sheds new light on metabolic engineering in S. baicalensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature pyramid networks and attention mechanisms are the mainstream methods to improve the detection performance of many current models. However, when they are learned jointly, there is a lack of information association between multi-level features. Therefore, this paper proposes a feature pyramid of the multi-level local attention method, dubbed as MLA-Net (Feature Pyramid Network with Multi-Level Local Attention for Object Detection), which aims to establish a correlation mechanism for multi-level local information. First, the original multi-level features are deformed and rectified using the local pixel-rectification module, and global semantic enhancement is achieved through the multi-level spatial-attention module. After that, the original features are further fused through the residual connection to achieve the fusion of contextual features to enhance the feature representation. Extensive ablation experiments were conducted on the MS COCO (Microsoft Common Objects in Context) dataset, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method with a 0.5% enhancement. An improvement of 1.2% was obtained on the PASCAL VOC (Pattern Analysis Statistical Modelling and Computational Learning, Visual Object Classes) dataset, reaching 81.8%, thereby, indicating that the proposed method is robust and can compete with other advanced detection models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asphalt binder plays an important role in the overall resistance of asphalt mixture to the moisture damage induced by a dynamic pore water pressure environment. This study evaluates the moisture sensitivity of asphalt binder from the perspective of rheological behaviors using the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) and the bending beam rheometer (BBR) methods at high, medium, and low temperatures. The damage mechanism is further discussed quantitatively based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) method. The results indicate that a longer conditioning duration is beneficial for asphalt binder to recover its adhesion at 60 °C in multiple stress creep recover (MSCR) tests, but the increasing pore water pressure magnitude of 60 psi held an opposite effect in this study. The asphalt binder's fatigue life at 20 °C in linear amplitude sweep (LAS) tests decreased obviously with conditioning duration and environmental severity, but the reducing rate gradually slowed down, while the groups of 50 psi—4000 cycles and 60 psi—4000 cycles held a comparable erosion effect. Both the stiffness and relaxation moduli at −12 °C in the BBR tests exhibited an obvious decreasing trend with conditioning duration and environmental severity. The erosion effect on the asphalt binder was gradually enhanced, but it also exhibited a slightly more viscous performance. Water conditioning induced several obvious characteristic peaks in the FTIR absorbance spectra of the asphalt binder. The functional group indexes presented a trend of non-monotonic change with conditioning duration and environmental severity, which made the asphalt binder show complicated rheological behaviors, such as non-monotonic variations in performance and the abnormal improving effect induced by dynamic pore water pressure conditioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R2R3-MYB transcription factors participate in multiple critical biological processes, particularly as relates to the regulation of secondary metabolites. The dried root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is a traditional Chinese medicine and possesses various bioactive attributes including anti-inflammation, anti-HIV, and anti-COVID-19 properties due to its flavonoids. In the current study, a total of 95 R2R3-MYB genes were identified in S. baicalensis and classified into 34 subgroups, as supported by similar exon–intron structures and conserved motifs. Among them, 93 R2R3-SbMYBs were mapped onto nine chromosomes. Collinear analysis revealed that segmental duplications were primarily responsible for driving the evolution and expansion of the R2R3-SbMYB gene family. Synteny analyses showed that the ortholog numbers of the R2R3-MYB genes between S. baicalensis and other dicotyledons had a higher proportion compared to that which is found from the monocotyledons. RNA-seq data indicated that the expression patterns of R2R3-SbMYBs in different tissues were different. Quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that 36 R2R3-SbMYBs from different subgroups exhibited specific expression profiles under various conditions, including hormone stimuli treatments (methyl jasmonate and abscisic acid) and abiotic stresses (drought and cold shock treatments). Further investigation revealed that SbMYB18/32/46/60/70/74 localized in the nucleus, and SbMYB18/32/60/70 possessed transcriptional activation activity, implying their potential roles in the regulatory mechanisms of various biological processes. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the R2R3-SbMYBs gene family and lays the foundation for further investigation of their biological function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variable selection has been a hot topic, with various popular methods including lasso, SCAD, and elastic net. These penalized regression algorithms remain sensitive to noisy data. Furthermore, "concept drift" fundamentally distinguishes streaming data learning from batch learning. This article presents a method for noise-resistant regularization and variable selection in noisy data streams with multicollinearity, dubbed canal-adaptive elastic net, which is similar to elastic net and encourages grouping effects. In comparison to lasso, the canal adaptive elastic net is especially advantageous when the number of predictions (p) is significantly larger than the number of observations (n), and the data are multi-collinear. Numerous simulation experiments have confirmed that canal-adaptive elastic net has higher prediction accuracy than lasso, ridge regression, and elastic net in data with multicollinearity and noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WRKY gene family is an important inducible regulatory factor in plants, which has been extensively studied in many model plants. It has progressively become the focus of investigation for the secondary metabolites of medicinal plants. Currently, there is no systematic analysis of the WRKY gene family in Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. For this study, a systematic and comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of the WRKY gene family was conducted based on the genomic data of S. baicalensis. A total of 77 WRKY members were identified and 75 were mapped onto nine chromosomes, respectively. Their encoded WRKY proteins could be classified into three subfamilies: Group I, Group II (II-a, II-b, II-c, II-d, II-e), and Group III, based on the characteristics of the amino acid sequences of the WRKY domain and genetic structure. Syntenic analysis revealed that there were 35 pairs of repetitive fragments. Furthermore, the transcriptome data of roots, stems, leaves, and flowers showed that the spatial expression profiles of WRKYs were different. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that 11 stress-related WRKYs exhibited specific expression patterns under diverse treatments. In addition, sub cellular localization analysis indicated that SbWRKY26 and SbWRKY41 were localized in nucleus. This study is the first to report the identification and characterization of the WRKY gene family in S. baicalensis, which is valuable for the further exploration of the biological function of SbWRKYs. It also provides valuable bioinformatics data for S. baicalensis and provides a reference for assessing the medicinal properties of the genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize the effective separation of palladium from high-level liquid waste (HLLW), a ligand-supported adsorbent (NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P) was prepared by the impregnation method in a vacuum. The SiO2-P carrier was synthesized by in situ polymerization of divinylbenzene and styrene monomers on a macroporous silica skeleton. The NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P adsorbent was fabricated by impregnating an NTAamide(C8) ligand into the pore of a SiO2-P carrier under a vacuum condition. The adsorption performance of NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P in nitric acid medium has been systematically studied. In a solution of 0.2 M HNO3, the distribution coefficient of Pd on NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P was 1848 mL/g with an adsorption percentage of 90.24%. With the concentration of nitric acid increasing, the adsorption capacity of NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P decreases. Compared to the other 10 potential interfering ions in fission products, NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P exhibited excellent adsorption selectivity for Pd(II). The separation factor (SFPd/other metals > 77.8) is significantly higher than that of similar materials. The interference of NaNO3 had a negligible effect on the adsorption performance of NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P, which maintained above 90%. The adsorption kinetics of Pd(II) adsorption on NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P fits well with the pseudo-second order model. The Sips model is more suitable than the Langmuir and Freundlich model for describing the adsorption behavior. Thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption of Pd(II) on NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P was a spontaneous, endothermic, and rapid process. NTAamide(C8)/SiO2-P also demonstrated good reusability and economic feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel organic–inorganic hybrid material IIGK@MnO2 (2-naphthalenemethyl-isoleucine-isoleucine-glycine-lysine@manganese dioxide) was designed as a novel adsorbent for the removal of strontium ions (Sr2+). The morphology and structure of IIGK@MnO2 were characterized using TEM, AFM, XRD, and XPS. The results indicate that the large specific surface area and abundant negative surface charges of IIGK@MnO2 make its surface rich in active adsorption sites for Sr2+ adsorption. As expected, IIGK@MnO2 exhibited excellent adsorbing performance for Sr2+. According to the adsorption results, the interaction between Sr2+ and IIGK@MnO2 can be fitted with the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order equation. Moreover, leaching and desorption experiments were conducted to assess the recycling capacity, demonstrating significant reusability of IIGK@MnO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prophenoloxidase (PPO) activation and Toll antimicrobial peptide synthesis pathways are two critical immune responses in the insect immune system. The activation of these pathways is mediated by the cascade of serine proteases, which is negatively regulated by serpins. In this study, we identified a typical serpin, BmSerpin-4, in silkworms, whose expression was dramatically up-regulated in the fat body and hemocytes after bacterial infections. The pre-injection of recombinant BmSerpin-4 remarkably decreased the antibacterial activity of the hemolymph and the expression of the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) gloverin-3, cecropin-D, cecropin-E, and moricin in the fat body under Micrococcus luteus and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis serotype O: 3 (YP III) infection. Meanwhile, the inhibition of systemic melanization, PO activity, and PPO activation by BmSerpin-4 was also observed. Hemolymph proteinase 1 (HP1), serine protease 2 (SP2), HP6, and SP21 were predicted as the candidate target serine proteases for BmSerpin-4 through the analysis of residues adjacent to the scissile bond and comparisons of orthologous genes in Manduca sexta. This suggests that HP1, SP2, HP6, and SP21 might be essential in the activation of the serine protease cascade in both the Toll and PPO pathways in silkworms. Our study provided a comprehensive characterization of BmSerpin-4 and clues for the further dissection of silkworm PPO and Toll activation signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cold exposure is an essential factor affecting breeding efforts in cold regions. Muscle, as an important tissue for homeothermic animals, can produce heat through shivering thermogenesis (ST) and non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) under cold exposure. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in regulating gene expression. However, the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs and their role in the thermogenesis of pigs are unclear. We examined lncRNAs in the skeletal muscle of an indigenous pig breed, the Enshi black pig, when the pigs were exposed to acute or chronic cold. Three pigs were maintained inside a pig house (control group), three pigs were maintained outside the pig house for 55 d (chronic cold group), and three pigs were suddenly exposed to the conditions outside the pig house for 3 days (acute cold group). After the experiment, the longissimus dorsi of each pig were collected, and their lncRNA profiles were sequenced and analyzed. Each sample obtained nearly 12.56 Gb of clean data. A total of 11,605 non-coding RNAs were obtained, including 10,802 novel lncRNAs. The number of differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) was identified under acute cold (427) and cold acclimation (376), with 215 and 192 upregulated lncRNAs, respectively. However, only 113 lncRNAs were commonly upregulated by acute cold and cold acclimation. In addition, 65% of the target genes were trans-regulated by DElncRNAs. The target genes were enriched in signal transduction, immune system, cell growth and death pathways, and amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism. Compared to cold acclimation, acute cold stress-induced more DElncRNAs and response pathways. In conclusion, low temperatures altered the expression levels of lncRNAs and their target genes in muscle tissue. Some potential mechanisms were revealed, including ion migration and the metabolism of amino acids and carbohydrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Clinically, surgical decisions for HCC resection are difficult and not sufficiently personalized. The aim of this study was to develop a surgical procedure decision-making and effectiveness prediction system for hepatectomy through extensive expert surgical decision-making experience and long-term follow-up, which can assist surgeons. The proposed machine learning models demonstrated their superior performance in surgical decision-making, OS, and RFS prediction tasks. Additionally, a web server that aids physician decision-making was deployed, which is expected to be an effective tool for auxiliary surgeons. Background: Currently, surgical decisions for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) resection are difficult and not sufficiently personalized. We aimed to develop and validate data driven prediction models to assist surgeons in selecting the optimal surgical procedure for patients. Methods: Retrospective data from 361 HCC patients who underwent radical resection in two institutions were included. End-to-end deep learning models were built to automatically segment lesions from the arterial phase (AP) of preoperative dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Clinical baseline characteristics and radiomic features were rigorously screened. The effectiveness of radiomic features and radiomic-clinical features was also compared. Three ensemble learning models were proposed to perform the surgical procedure decision and the overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) predictions after taking different solutions, respectively. Results: SegFormer performed best in terms of automatic segmentation, achieving a Mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) of 0.8860. The five-fold cross-validation results showed that inputting radiomic-clinical features outperformed using only radiomic features. The proposed models all outperformed the other mainstream ensemble models. On the external test set, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the proposed decision model was 0.7731, and the performance of the prognostic prediction models was also relatively excellent. The application web server based on automatic lesion segmentation was deployed and is available online. Conclusions: In this study, we developed and externally validated the surgical decision-making procedures and prognostic prediction models for HCC for the first time, and the results demonstrated relatively accurate predictions and strong generalizations, which are expected to help clinicians optimize surgical procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of the rutting test, the air-void characteristics in asphalt mixture specimens are a dynamic change process. It is of great significance to systematically study the correlation between the change of air-void characteristics and the depth of the rutting slab and establish a relationship with damage. In this paper, the air-void information of rutting specimen sections with different loading cycles (500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 times) is obtained by two-dimensional image technology. The dynamic change process of the micro characteristics of internal air voids of two graded asphalt mixtures (AC-13 and AC-16) under cyclic wheel load is analyzed, and it is used as an index to characterize the microstructure damage of the asphalt mixture. The results show that the variation of air-void distribution, air-void shape characteristics, and air-void fractal dimension with the loading process can well characterize the permanent deformation law of the rutting slab. The fractal dimension of the air void increases with the increase in load. It is a dynamic process in which the air-void content changes with crack initiation and propagation. After rutting deformation, the total air-void area and average air-void size of the sample increase, and the total air-void number decreases. Because microcracks are formed in the specimen after rutting damage, the aspect ratio of the air void increases, and the roundness value decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is an important computer-aided diagnosis technique with rich pathological information. The factor of physical and physiological constraint seriously affects the applicability of that technique. Thus, computed tomography (CT)-based radiotherapy is more popular on account of its imaging rapidity and environmental simplicity. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to design a method that can construct an MR image from the corresponding CT image. In this paper, we treat MR imaging as a machine vision problem and propose a multi-conditional constraint generative adversarial network (GAN) for MR imaging from CT scan data. Considering reversibility of GAN, both generator and reverse generator are designed for MR and CT imaging, respectively, which can constrain each other and improve consistency between features of CT and MR images. In addition, we innovatively treat the real and generated MR image discrimination as object re-identification; cosine error fusing with original GAN loss is designed to enhance verisimilitude and textural features of the MR image. The experimental results with the challenging public CT-MR image dataset show distinct performance improvement over other GANs utilized in medical imaging and demonstrate the effect of our method for medical image modal transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanocellulose (NC) has attracted attention in recent years for the advantages offered by its unique characteristics. In this study, the effects of the preparation method on the properties of starch films were investigated by preparing NC from cationic-modified microcrystalline cellulose (MD-MCC) using three methods: Acid hydrolysis (AH), high-pressure homogenization (HH), and high-intensity ultrasonication (US). When MD-MCC was used as the starting material, the yield of NC dramatically increased compared to the NC yield obtained from unmodified MCC and the increased zeta potential improved its suspension stability in water. The NC prepared by the different methods had a range of particle sizes and exhibited needle-like structures with high aspect ratios. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra indicated that trimethyl quaternary ammonium salt groups were introduced to the cellulose backbone during etherification. AH-NC had a much lower maximum decomposition temperature (Tmax) than HH-NC or US-NC. The starch/HH-NC film exhibited the best water vapor barrier properties because the HH-NC particles were well-dispersed in the starch matrix, as demonstrated by the surface morphology of the film. Our results suggest that cationic NC is a promising reinforcing agent for the development of starch-based biodegradable food-packaging materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cable-based seismic sensing systems have provided reliable data in the past several decades, they become a bottleneck for large-area monitoring and critical environmental (volcanic eruptions) sensing because of their cost, difficulty in deploying and expanding, and lack of accurate three-dimensional geographic information. In this paper, a new wireless sensing system is designed consisting of a portable satellite device, a self-sustaining power source, a low-cost computational core, and a high-precision sensor. The emphasis of this paper is to implement in low-cost hardware without requirements of highly specialized and expensive data acquisition instruments. Meanwhile, a computational-core-embedded algorithm based on compressive sensing (CS) is also developed to compress data size for transmission and encrypt the measured data preventing information loss. Seismic data captured by the accelerometer sensor are coded into compressive data packages and then transferred via satellite communication to a cloud-based server for storage. Acceleration and GPS information is decrypted by the ℓ1-norm minimization optimization algorithm for further processing. In this research, the feasibility of the proposed sensing system for the acquisition of seismic testing is investigated in an outdoor field surface wave testing. Results indicate the proposed low-cost wireless sensing system has the capability of collecting ground motions, transferring data, and sharing GPS information via satellite communication for large area monitoring. In addition, it has a great potential of recovering measurements even with significant data package loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxypropyl amylomaize starch (HPAS) films were prepared by hot press. The effects of initial pH of HPAS on the mechanical properties, molecular interaction, structure, and cross-linking degree of the resultant films were investigated. A weak acidic condition was suitable for cross-linking of citric acid and HPAS by reactive extrusion. The film of HPAS with an initial pH of 5.66 had the maximum tensile strength of 7.20 MPa and elongation-at-break of 94.53%, and the weight average molecular weight of HPAS increased to 4.17 × 105 g/mol. An appropriate initial pH facilitated the formation of diester bonds between HPAS and citric acid during extrusion, but too low initial pH levels resulted in hydrolysis of starch molecules and reduced the mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, endless link prediction algorithms based on network representation learning have emerged. Network representation learning mainly constructs feature vectors by capturing the neighborhood structure information of network nodes for link prediction. However, this type of algorithm only focuses on learning topology information from the simple neighbor network node. For example, DeepWalk takes a random walk path as the neighborhood of nodes. In addition, such algorithms only take advantage of the potential features of nodes, but the explicit features of nodes play a good role in link prediction. In this paper, a link prediction method based on deep convolutional neural network is proposed. It constructs a model of the residual attention network to capture the link structure features from the sub-graph. Further study finds that the information flow transmission efficiency of the residual attention mechanism was not high, so a densely convolutional neural network model was proposed for link prediction. We evaluate our proposed method on four published data sets. The results show that our method is better than several other benchmark algorithms on link prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient separation of Zr(IV) ions from strong acidic and radioactive solutions is a significant challenge, especially in the context of the aqueous reprocessing of nuclear fuels. The complexity of such solutions, which are often characterized by high acidity and the presence of radioactive elements, poses formidable challenges for separation processes. Herein, several mesoporous silicas (HMS, MCM-41, KIT-6, and SiO2-70 Å) with excellent acid and radiation resistance properties were employed as sorbents to remove Zr(IV) ions from simulated high-level liquid waste. The batch experiments were designed to investigate the influence of adsorption time, HNO3 concentration, initial Zr(IV) concentration, adsorbent dosage, and temperature on the adsorption behavior of Zr(IV). The results indicate that the adsorption equilibrium time of mesoporous silica materials was approximately 8 h, and all the adsorption processes followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics equation. The isotherms of Zr(IV) adsorption by KIT-6 exhibited good agreement with the Langmuir model, while the Freundlich model could be utilized to fit the adsorption on HMS, MCM-41, and SiO2-70 Å. The adsorption capacity of MCM-41 for Zr(IV) in 3 mol/L HNO3 was 54.91 mg/g, which is three times the adsorption capacity reported for commercial silica gel (17.91 mg/g). The thermodynamic parameters indicate that the adsorption processes for zirconium are endothermic reactions. Furthermore, the mesoporous silicas exhibited a pronounced selectivity in the adsorption of Zr(IV) within a simulated high-level liquid waste containing 10 co-existing cations (3 mol/L HNO3). This suggests that mesoporous silicas have great potential for Zr(IV) removal in actual radioactive liquids with high acidity during spent fuel reprocessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil physicochemical properties affect crop growth and yield. The addition of fertilizers can improve the soil quality during crop cultivation, leading to increased agricultural production. Organic fertilizers may be produced by composting straw that would otherwise be discarded as agricultural waste, with potential implications for sustainable agricultural development. However, the mechanism underlying the effects of straw compost on crop growth is unknown. In this study, a microbial agent suitable for straw decomposition in cold regions was used for a large-scale biological fermentation. Organic compost was obtained after the decomposition of straw. The straw compost was mixed with soil in different proportions and then used to cultivate Songjing 2 rice plants. The addition of straw compost significantly increased the growth and yield of the rice plants and enhanced various physiological indices. Moreover, the straw compost treatment significantly improved soil physicochemical properties (e.g., pH, enzyme activity, nutrient composition, and microbial diversity) and optimized the soil conditions for crop growth. In addition, the application of straw compost influenced the expression of genes in rice metabolic pathways as well as pathways mediating secondary metabolite synthesis and plant hormone signal transduction. The study data reflect the potential applicability of low-temperature straw fermentation technology for maximizing crop production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the rapidly emerging field of biomedical applications, multifunctional nanoparticles, especially those containing magnetic and plasmonic components, have gained significant attention due to their combined properties. These hybrid systems, often composed of iron oxide and gold, provide both magnetic and optical functionalities and offer promising avenues for applications in multimodal bioimaging, hyperthermal therapies, and magnetically driven selective delivery. This paper focuses on the implementation of advanced characterization methods, comparing statistical analyses of individual multifunctional particle properties with macroscopic properties as a way of fine-tuning synthetic methodologies for their fabrication methods. Special emphasis is placed on the size-dependent properties, biocompatibility, and challenges that can arise from this versatile nanometric system. In order to ensure the quality and applicability of these particles, various novel methods for characterizing the magnetic gold particles, including the analysis of their morphology, optical response, and magnetic response, are also discussed, with the overall goal of optimizing the fabrication of this complex system and thus enhancing its potential as a preferred diagnostic agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge gained from starch-nanocomposite-film research has not been fully applied commercially because of the lack of appropriate industrial processing techniques for nanofillers and starch films. Three organically modified montmorillonites (OMMTs) were prepared using a semidry kneading method. The effects of the OMMTs on the structures and properties of starch nanocomposite films, prepared by extrusion blowing, were investigated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results revealed that the OMMTs with various quaternary ammonium salts possessed differing layer structures and d-space values. The results of the XRD and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) showed that the starch–OMMT interaction resulted in a structural change, namely the starch–OMMT films possessed a balanced exfoliated and intercalated nanostructure, while the starch–MMT film possessed an exfoliated nanostructure with non-intercalated montmorillonite (MMT). The results of the solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis suggested that the starch-OMMT nanocomposite possessed comparatively large quantities of single-helix structures and micro-ordered amorphous regions. The starch–OMMT films exhibited good tensile strength (TS) (maximum of 6.09 MPa) and water barrier properties (minimum of 3.48 × 10−10 g·m·m−2·s−1·Pa−1). This study indicates that the addition of OMMTs is a promising strategy to improve the properties of starch films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The Min pig is a national-level protected pig that is recognized as a rare animal in China, lives in a constantly cold environment in the north of China, and has excellent characteristics compared with other commercial pigs. The Min pig has the specific character of secondary hair growth in winter and seasonal cycling. International research on hair follicles is mainly focused on human and mice hair, including hair follicle regeneration and hair loss treatment. Research on hair follicles in pigs is limited. The structure and morphology of hair follicles from Min pigs are different from those of lean-type pigs, such as Yorkshire and Berkshire pigs, which do not grow secondary hairs in the adult stage. In this study, there were significant gene expression differences with high-throughput sequencing to determine the primary and secondary hairs. Based on skin blocker experimental results, we can infer that the Wnt and BMP signaling could stimulate follicle stem cells in the Min pig. In China, the national-level protected pig, the Min pig, is characterized by the development of secondary hairs and hair follicles in winter. Factors that dominate the genotype in the growth of secondary hairs are not clear through the concrete cell signaling pathways. This study compared hair phenotypes based on morphological structure, transcriptomics, and potential targeting molecules in the breeds of Min, Berkshire, and Yorkshire pigs. The results indicated that Min pigs have specific characteristics for the growth of secondary hairs compared with the Berkshire and Yorkshire pigs. The transcriptome analyses and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction results revealed that secondary hair growth was activated by follicle stem cells. The specific inhibitors of Wnt and BMP were studied using respective signals. The density of follicles, activity of follicle stem cells, and relative gene expression results have shown that Wnt and BMP stimulate the activity of follicle stem cells, and the Wnt signaling molecule has a significantly better effect than the BMP signaling molecule on stem cells. Wnt and BMP can promote the growth of local secondary hair and gene expression. Therefore, this study was conducted to verify the development mechanisms of secondary hairs, which have potential applications in laboratory animals and comparative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is an α coronavirus that causes major disease outbreaks, producing up to 100% mortality rates in piglets during the first 7 days after birth. In this study, we used microcapsules with inactivated PEDV fed to mice by oral administration to improve the effectiveness of the oral delivery method for protection against PEDV infection, and avoided digestive degradation in the acidic environment of the stomach. In addition, the PEDV microcapsules displayed remarkable storage tolerance to maintain the quality of the PEDV antigen. The PEDV microcapsules delivered the inactivated virus into the gut, stimulating the specific mucosal immune response in mice, which could directly neutralize the enterovirus. The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, PEDV, which causes diarrhea, vomiting and death in piglets, causes huge economic losses. Therefore, understanding how to induce mucosal immune responses in piglets is essential in the mechanism and application against PEDV infection with mucosal immunity. A method of treatment in our research was used to make an oral vaccine that packaged the inactive PEDV with microencapsulation, which consisted of sodium alginate and chitosan, and adapted the condition of the gut in mice. The in vitro release experiment of microcapsules showed that inactive PEDV was not only easily released in saline and acid solutions but also had an excellent storage tolerance, and was suitable for use as an oral vaccine. Interestingly, both experimental groups with different doses of inactive virus enhanced the secretion of specific antibodies in the serum and intestinal mucus, which caused the effective neutralization against PEDV in the Vero cell by both IgG and IgA, respectively. Moreover, the microencapsulation could stimulate the differentiation of CD11b+ and CD11c+ dendritic cells, which means that the microencapsulation was also identified as an oral adjuvant to help phagocytosis of dendritic cells in mice. Flow cytometry revealed that the B220+ and CD23+ of the B cells could significantly increase antibody production with the stimulation from the antigens' PEDV groups, and the microencapsulation could also increase the cell viability of B cells, stimulating the secretion of antibodies such as IgG and IgA in mice. In addition, the microencapsulation promoted the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-10 and TGF-β. Moreover, proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1, TNF-α, and IL-17, were inhibited by alginate and chitosan in the microencapsulation groups compared with the inactivated PEDV group. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the microparticle could play the role of mucosal adjuvant, and release inactivated PEDV in the gut, which can effectively stimulate mucosal and systemic immune responses in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quick and precise assessment of rice distribution by remote sensing technology is important for agricultural development. However, mountain rice is limited by the complex terrain, and its distribution is fragmented. Therefore, it is necessary to fully use the abundant spatial, temporal, and spectral information of remote sensing imagery. This study extracted 22 classification features from Sentinel-2 imagery (spectral features, texture features, terrain features, and a custom spectral-spatial feature). A feature selection method based on the optimal extraction period of features (OPFSM) was constructed, and a multitemporal feature combination (MC) was generated based on the separability of different vegetation types in different periods. Finally, the extraction accuracy of MC for mountain rice was explored using Random Forest (RF), CatBoost, and ExtraTrees (ET) machine learning algorithms. The results show that MC improved the overall accuracy (OA) by 3–6% when compared to the feature combinations in each rice growth stage, and by 7–14% when compared to the original images. MC based on the ET classifier (MC-ET) performed the best for rice extraction, with the OA of 86%, Kappa coefficient of 0.81, and F1 score of 0.95 for rice. The study demonstrated that OPFSM could be used as a reference for selecting multitemporal features, and the MC-ET classification scheme has high application potential for mountain rice extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of hidden defects of aircraft long truss structures (aluminum alloy) is a challenging problem. The shape of the aircraft truss structure is complex, and the crack defects are buried in a large depth. Without the restriction of skin effect, remote field eddy current (RFEC) has great advantages in detecting buried depth defects. In this paper, in order to detect the hidden defects of the aluminum alloy aircraft long truss structure, the remote field eddy current probe is improved from two aspects of magnetic field enhancement and near-field signal suppression using the finite element method. The results show that indirect coupling energy is greatly enhanced when the connected magnetic circuit is added to the excitation coil. By adding a composite shielding structure outside the excitation coil and the detection coil, respectively, the direct coupling energy is effectively restrained. As a result, the size of the probe is reduced. By optimizing the coil spacing and probe placement position, the detection sensitivity of the probe is improved. The simulation is verified by experiments, and the experimental results are consistent with the simulation conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factors play critical roles in regulating diverse aspects of plant growth and development, including vegetative phase change, plant architecture, anthocyanin accumulation, lateral root growth, etc. In the present study, 15 SPL genes were identified based on the genome data of Codonopsis pilosula, a well-known medicinal plant. Phylogenetic analysis clustered CpSPLs into eight groups (G1-G8) along with SPLs from Arabidopsis thaliana, Solanum lycopersicum, Oryza sativa and Physcomitrella patens. CpSPLs in the same group share similar gene structure and conserved motif composition. Cis-acting elements responding to light, stress and phytohormone widely exist in their promoter regions. Our qRT-PCR results indicated that 15 CpSPLs were differentially expressed in different tissues (root, stem, leaf, flower and calyx), different developmental periods (1, 2 and 3 months after germination) and various conditions (NaCl, MeJA and ABA treatment). Compared with the control, overexpression of CpSPL2 or CpSPL10 significantly promoted not only the growth of hairy roots, but also the accumulation of total saponins and lobetyolin. Our results established a foundation for further investigation of CpSPLs and provided novel insights into their biological functions. As far as we know, this is the first experimental research on gene function in C. pilosula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superparamagnetic materials have elicited increasing interest due to their high-efficiency magnetothermal conversion. However, it is difficult to effectively manage the magnetothermal energy due to the continuous magnetothermal effect at present. In this study, we designed and synthesized a novel Fe3O4/PEG/SiO2 composite phase change material (PCM) that can simultaneously realize magnetic-to-thermal conversion and thermal energy management because of outstanding thermal energy storage ability of PCM. The composite was fabricated by in situ doping of superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoclusters through a simple sol–gel method. The synthesized Fe3O4/PEG/SiO2 PCM exhibited good thermal stability, high phase change enthalpy, and excellent shape-stabilized property. This study provides an additional promising route for application of the magnetothermal effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effect of high-intensity ultrasonication (HIU) pretreatment before enzymolysis on structural conformations of walnut protein isolate (WPI) and antioxidant activity of its hydrolysates. Aqueous WPI suspensions were subjected to ultrasonic processing at different power levels (600–2000 W) and times (5–30 min), and then changes in the particle size, zeta (ζ) potential, and structure of WPI were investigated, and antioxidant activity of its hydrolysates was determined. The particle size of the particles of aqueous WPI suspensions was decreased after ultrasound, indicating that sonication destroyed protein aggregates. The ζ-potential values of a protein solution significantly changed after sonication, demonstrating that the original dense structure of the protein was destroyed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated a change in the secondary structure of WPI after sonication, with a decrease in β-turn and an increase in α-helix, β-sheet, and random coil content. Two absorption peaks of WPI were generated, and the fluorescence emission intensity of the proteins decreased after ultrasonic treatment, indicating that the changes in protein tertiary structure occurred. Moreover, the degree of hydrolysis and the antioxidant activity of the WPI hydrolysates increased after sonication. These results suggest that HIU pretreatment is a potential tool for improving the functional properties of walnut proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this current work, antimicrobial films based on starch, poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), and a commercially available AgNPs@SiO2 antibacterial composite particle product were produced by using a melt blending and blowing technique. The effects of AgNPs@SiO2 at various loadings (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt%) on the physicochemical properties and antibacterial activities of starch/PBAT composite films were investigated. AgNPs@SiO2 particles were more compatible with starch than PBAT, resulting in preferential distribution of AgNPs@SiO2 in the starch phase. Infusion of starch/PBAT composite films with AgNPs@SiO2 marginally improved mechanical and water vapor barrier properties, while surface hydrophobicity increased as compared with films without AgNPs@SiO2. The composite films displayed superior antibacterial activities against both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria. The sample loaded with 1 wt% AgNPs@SiO2 (SPA-1) showed nearly 90% inhibition efficiency on the tested microorganisms. Furthermore, a preliminary study on peach and nectarine at 53% RH and 24 °C revealed that SPA-1 film inhibited microbial spoilage and extended the product shelf life as compared with SPA-0 and commercial LDPE packaging materials. The high-throughput production method and strong antibacterial activities of the starch/PBAT/AgNPs@SiO2 composite films make them promising as antimicrobial packaging materials for commercial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three amphiphilic peptides with varied molecular hydrophobicity, charge number and charge location have been designed as regulators to modulate the crystal growth of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8). All three peptides can interact with ZIF-8 to inhibit {100} facet growth and produce truncated cubic crystals. The peptide's molecular hydrophobicity plays a dominant role in defining the final morphology and size of the ZIF-8 crystals. The peptides with less charge and higher hydrophobicity can promote nuclei formation and crystal growth to give smaller ZIF-8 crystals. However, the charge located in the center of the molecular hydrophobic region has little effect on the crystal nucleation and growth due to the shielding of its charge by molecular aggregation. The study provides insights into the effect of molecular charge and hydrophobicity on ZIF-8 crystal growth and is helpful for guiding the molecular design for regulating the synthesis of metal-organic framework materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, two types of antibacterial montmorillonites (Mt) were prepared using a facile method. The Mt modified with ε-polylysine hydrochloride (ε-PL) was named PL-Mt, while the Mt dually modified with dioctadecyl dimethylammonium chloride (D1821) and ε-PL was named PL-OMt. The results of the X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the PL-Mt indicated that 30% ε-PL was the most suitable amount for intercalating the Mt. The particle size and distribution of the ε-PL in the solution demonstrated that the Mt d-value could not be further increased owing to the increasing ε-PL diameter. The result of the X-ray diffraction of PL-OMt displayed that ultrasonic treatment at 600 W facilitated ε-PL to intercalate into the OMt interlayer space. The PL-OMt prepared with ultrasonic treatment at 600 W exhibited antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis superior to that of the PL-OMt prepared with higher-power ultrasonic treatment. Thus, the addition of 30% ε-PL based on the dry Mt mass is the most suitable ratio for preparing PL-Mt, while ultrasonic treatment at 600 W is the most suitable for preparing PL-OMt. These findings may expand the application fields of ε-PL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reveal the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction catalyzed by a Pd–Co nanocatalyst supported by Mg–Fe–CHT (calcined hydrotalcites). A variety of boronic acids and aryl halides were transformed into functionalized biphenyls in excellent yields using water as a solvent. The reaction could proceed under mild conditions with a simple operation and high turnover numbers. The excellent catalytic activities are reasonably attributed to the Co-doping, which forms a Pd–Co alloy on the surface of CHT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different high-intensity ultrasonication (HIU) pretreatment on the structure and properties of soybean protein isolate (SPI) as well as enzymatic hydrolysis of SPI by bromelain and antioxidant activity of hydrolysates. The HIU-treated SPI fractions showed a decrease in the proportion of α-helices and β-turns and an increase in the content of β-sheets and random coils based on Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Near-infrared spectra and fluorescence spectra analyses provided support for the changes in secondary and tertiary structures of SPI after ultrasound treatment. The particle size of SPI decreased from 217.20 nm to 141.23 nm and the absolute zeta potential increased. Scanning electron microscopy showed that HIU treatment changed apparent morphology. Dynamic and static light scattering of ultrasonicated samples showed that SPI structure had changed from hard-sphere to hollow-sphere or polydisperse and monodisperse gaussian coils. HIU pretreatment significantly increased the hydroxyl-radical scavenging and the degree of hydrolysis of the SPI hydrolysates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]