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Beetle femur–tibial joints can bear large loads, and the joint structure plays a crucial role. Differences in living habits will lead to differences in femur–tibial joint structure, resulting in different mechanical properties. Here, we determined the structural characteristics of the femur–tibial joints of three species of beetles with different living habits. The tibia of Scarabaeidae Protaetia brevitarsis and Cetoniidae Torynorrhina fulvopilosa slide through cashew-shaped bumps on both sides of the femur in a guide rail consisting of a ring and a cone bump. The femur–tibial joint of Buprestidae Chrysodema radians is composed of a conical convex tibia and a circular concave femur. A bionic structure design was developed out based on the characteristics of the structure of the femur–tibial joints. Differences in the failure of different joint models were obtained through experiments and finite element analysis. The experimental results show that although the spherical connection model can bear low loads, it can maintain partial integrity of the structure and avoid complete failure. The cuboid connection model shows a higher load-bearing capacity, but its failure mode is irreversible deformation. As key parts of rotatable mechanisms, the bionic models have the potential for wide application in the high-load engineering field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dung beetle leg joints exhibit a remarkable capacity to support substantial loads, which is a capability significantly influenced by their surface microstructure. The exploration of biomimetic designs inspired by the surface microstructure of these joints holds potential for the development of efficient self-locking structures. However, there is a notable absence of research focused on the surface microstructure of dung beetle leg joints. In this study, we investigated the structural characteristics of the surface microstructures present in dung beetle leg joints, identifying the presence of fish-scale-like, brush-like, and spike-like microstructures on the tibia and femur. Utilizing these surface microstructural characteristics, we designed a self-locking structure that successfully demonstrated functionality in both the rotational direction of the structure and self-locking in the reverse direction. At a temperature of 20 °C, the biomimetic closure featuring a self-locking mechanism was capable of generating a self-locking force of 18 N. The bionic intelligent joint, characterized by its unique surface microstructure, presents significant potential applications in aerospace and various engineering domains, particularly as a critical component in folding mechanisms. This research offers innovative design concepts for folding mechanisms, such as those utilized in satellite solar panels and solar panels for asteroid probes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corrosion behaviors of two bridge steels (Q345q and Q500q) under simulated ultraviolet irradiation and a wet–dry alternating (UVWD) environment were studied. Weight loss measurement, stereomicroscope observation, SEM, XRD, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were performed to investigate the influence of the coupled environment. The results revealed that the corrosion rates of Q345q and Q500q were significantly accelerated by the synergistic effect of UV light exposure and alternating wet–dry conditions. Numerous voids and cracks could be observed throughout the thickened rust layers, enabling the corrosive substances to easily penetrate through the rust layer. Q500q exhibited better corrosion resistance than Q345q due to the addition of Mo, Cr, and Ni as corrosion-resistant elements, which tended to transform the rust layer into α-FeOOH rather than γ-FeOOH during later stages of corrosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two parameters of the applied magnetic field—magnetic field strength and pulse length—are modified, the spatial properties of electron trajectories and radiation are studied, and conclusions are drawn. Under the premise that the radius of the laser pulse waist b 0 = 4 λ 0 , and that the peak amplitude a 0 = 5 corresponds to the peak laser intensity I L = 3.45 × 10 19   W / c m 2 of the electrons, obtaining high-energy and highly collimated X-rays can be realized by increasing the pulse length up to 6 λ 0 and increasing the magnitude of the applied magnetic field, or by continuously increasing the pulse length and applying a smaller magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corrosion behaviors of three bridge steels in a real tropical marine environment for 2 years were studied. One weathering steel (WS) was designed with higher levels of nickel, copper, and molybdenum compared to the other. These two kinds of WSs and one kind of ordinary high-strength low-alloy steel (Q345qe) were compared under two conditions (marine atmospheric zone and marine immersion zone at Sanya Marine Environmental Test Station). The morphology, corrosion rate, and corrosion product analysis of the steels were performed through SEM, XPS, FTIR and other characterization methods. The results demonstrated that weathering steels facilitate the densification of the corrosion product layer due to the addition of alloying elements Cr, Ni, and Cu, promoting rust nucleation and enhancing the compactness of the protective layer. However, in an immersion environment, the extensive erosion by chloride ions renders the benefits of WS ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF) with pharmaceuticals is a pioneering therapeutic method capable of enhancing drug uptake efficacy in cells. Utilizing nsPEFs configured at 400 pulses, an electric field strength of 15 kV/cm, a pulse duration of 100 ns, and a repetition rate of 10 pulses per second (PPS), we combined the nsPEF with a low dose of doxorubicin (DOX) at 0.5 μM. Upon verifying that cells could continuously internalize DOX from the surrounding medium within 1 h post nsPEF exposure, we set the DOX exposure period to 10 min and contrasted the outcomes of varying sequences of DOX and nsPEF administration: pulsing followed by DOX, DOX followed by pulsing, and DOX applied 40 min after pulsing. Flow cytometry, CCK-8 assays, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to examine intracellular DOX accumulation, cell viability, apoptosis, cell cycle, and ultrastructural transformations. Our findings demonstrate that exposing cells to DOX 40 min subsequent to nsPEF treatment can effectively elevate intracellular DOX levels, decrease cell viability, and inhibit the cell cycle. This research work presents a novel approach to enhance DOX uptake efficiency with moderate conditions of both DOX and nsPEF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this study, we tackled an important issue in modern farming: predicting plant pests and diseases more effectively. Traditional methods are slow and often incorrect. To improve this, we created a new method that combines two advanced techniques, named gene expression programming (GEP) and support vector machines (SVM). Think of it as creating a smart program that can learn from past pest attacks to better predict future ones. We tested our new method with data on wheat pests from Shaanxi Province, recorded from 1933 to 2010. By comparing our method to other traditional ones, we found that ours was more accurate, with a success rate of about 91% in capturing pest attacks. This means our method can help farmers understand and prepare for pest and disease threats more efficiently, saving time and resources. Our work is a step forward in making farming smarter and more prepared for challenges, which is great news for ensuring our food supplies are secure and sustainable. This study addresses the challenges in plant pest and disease prediction within the context of smart agriculture, highlighting the need for efficient data processing techniques. In response to the limitations of existing models, which are characterized by slow training speeds and a low prediction accuracy, we introduce an innovative prediction method that integrates gene expression programming (GEP) with support vector machines (SVM). Our approach, the gene expression programming—support vector machine (GEP-SVM) model, begins with encoding and fitness function determination, progressing through cycles of selection, crossover, mutation, and the application of a convergence criterion. This method uniquely employs individual gene values as parameters for SVM, optimizing them through a grid search technique to refine genetic parameters. We tested this model using historical data on wheat blossom midges in Shaanxi Province, spanning from 1933 to 2010, and compared its performance against traditional methods, such as GEP, SVM, naive Bayes, K-nearest neighbor, and BP neural networks. Our findings reveal that the GEP-SVM model achieves a leading back-generation accuracy rate of 90.83%, demonstrating superior generalization and fitting capabilities. These results not only enhance the computational efficiency of pest and disease prediction in agriculture but also provide a scientific foundation for future predictive endeavors, contributing significantly to the optimization of agricultural production strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential computation analysis (DCA) is a powerful method for extracting secret information from carefully designed white-box schemes without reverse engineering. Consequently, white-box solutions typically require substantial storage and computing resources to withstand DCAs, as demonstrated by the schemes proposed by Zhang et al. and Yuan et al. for the ISO/IEC standard algorithm SM4. Our approach employs Boolean masking to obscure the correlation between the key and intermediate states. Additionally, we introduce nonlinear permutations to reuse random mask values, thereby reducing space consumption. Experimental results indicate that DCAs against both the simplified version and the algebraic enhancement version of our scheme fail to retrieve the correct keys. Moreover, the former version can be implemented with approximately 1.62 MB of memory and the latter with 7.8 MB, which is much less than 24.3 MB (Zhang et al.) and 34.5 MB (Yuan et al.). Consequently, our design can thwart first-order DCA with lower overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric elastomers, such as thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), are widely used as the dielectric layer, encapsulation layer, and substrate of flexible and stretchable devices. To construct capacitors and actuators that work stably upon deformation, it has become urgent to investigate the evolution of dielectricity under stress and strain. However, the lack of effective methods for estimating the dielectric constant of elastomers under strain poses a big challenge. This study reports a device for the in situ measurement of the dielectric constant of TPU under strain. It is found that upon stretching TPU to a strain of 400%, its dielectric constant decreases from 8.02 ± 0.01 to 2.88 ± 0.25 (at 1 MHz). In addition, combined Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, the X-ray scattering technique, and atomic force microscopy were utilized to characterize the evolution of the microstructure under strain. The investigation under tensile strain reveals a decreased density and average size of polarized hard domains, along with a tendency of the molecular chains to align in parallel with the tensile stress. The evolution of the microstructures results in a reduction in the measured dielectric constant in TPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enable the regulation and utilization of electric vehicle (EV) load resources by the power grid in the electricity market environment, a third-party electric vehicle aggregator (EVA) must be introduced. The strategy of EVA participation in the electricity market must be studied. During operation, the EVA faces a double uncertainty in the market, namely, electricity demand and electricity price, and must optimize its market behavior to protect its own interests. To achieve this goal, we propose a robust pricing strategy for the EVA that takes into account the coordination of two-stage market behavior to enhance operational efficiency and risk resistance. A two-stage robust pricing strategy that takes into account uncertainty was established by first considering day-ahead pricing, day-ahead electricity purchases, real-time electricity management, and EV customer demand response for the EVA, and further considering the uncertainty in electricity demand and electricity prices. The two-stage robust pricing model was transformed into a two-stage mixed integer programming by linearization method and solved iteratively by the columns and constraints generation (CCG) algorithm. Simulation verification was carried out, and the results show that the proposed strategy fully considers the influence of price uncertainty factors, effectively avoids market risks, and improves the adaptability and economy of the EVA's business strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the shortage of wireless resources and the emergence of a large number of users, determining how to guarantee the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of users and make more users work in the same spectrum has become an urgent research topic. In this paper, we study a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) cellular network system model in which cellular users (CUs) share the same spectrum resource with multiple device-to-device (D2D) pairs. To maximize the number of admitted D2D pairs sharing the same spectrum with the CUs, a joint power allocation and channel gain (JPACG) algorithm is proposed. The optimization problem is divided into two steps to be solved. First, the power allocation of CUs without D2D pairs admitted is solved. Then, the optimization problem is transformed into minimizing the interference to CUs when CUs are treated as primary users. The admittance order of D2D pairs is determined by the transmission power and channel gain. The proposed algorithm uses a convex optimization algorithm to solve the problem of power allocation joint interference channel gain in order to maximize the number of admitted D2D pairs under the constraints of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) threshold and maximum transmission power. In addition, the effect of the number of admitted D2D pairs on the total sum rate of all users is also analyzed. The simulation results show that the proposed JPACG algorithm can achieve better performance in admitting D2D pairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdependence of various energy forms and flexible cooperative operation between different units in an integrated energy system (IES) are essential for carbon emission reduction. To address the planning problem of an electric–thermal integrated energy system under low-carbon conditions and to fully consider the low carbon and construction sequence of the integrated energy system, a low-carbon-oriented capacity optimization method for the electric–thermal integrated energy system that considers construction time sequence (CTS) and uncertainty is proposed. A calculation model for the carbon transaction cost under the ladder carbon trading mechanism was constructed, and a multi-stage planning model of the integrated energy system was established with the minimum life cycle cost, considering carbon transaction cost as the objective function, to make the optimal decision on equipment configuration in each planning stage. Finally, a case study was considered to verify the advantages of the proposed capacity optimization method in terms of economy and environmental friendliness through a comparative analysis of different planning cases. Simulation results show that, compared with the scenario of completing planning at the beginning of the life cycle at one time, the proposed low-carbon-oriented capacity optimization method that considers construction time sequence and uncertainty can not only reduce the cost of the integrated energy system, but also help to enhance renewable energy utilization and reduce the system's carbon emissions; the total cost of phased planning is reduced by 11.91% compared to the total cost of one-time planning at the beginning of the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystal morphology and conformational changes during crystallization of a polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) are the basis for understanding its crystallization process. In this work, novel rare-earth β-nucleating agent WBN-28 was directly added into PPR to induce β-crystallization. The results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that it has an excellent β-crystal-induced effect. The β-crystal content could surpass 85%, calculated from wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) data. The morphology of the β-crystal and α-crystal was intuitively observed via a polarizing optical microscope (POM). The β-crystallites were interconnected to naturally develop plate-like crystalline regions possessing a certain size, and the α-crystallites with sufficient thicknesses possessed a cross-hatched phenomenon. The bundle-like supramolecular structure of the β-crystal induced by WBN-28 was further observed via a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The conformational changes in the crystallization process of PPR were resolved via high-resolution infrared spectroscopy to understand its β-crystallization in depth. The conformational changes during the crystallization of PPR were found to be different from those of the isotactic polypropylene homopolymer (PPH); they had their own characteristics. This will provide guidance for understanding the β-crystallization of PPR in depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates wave-stratified flow in a horizontal pipe at high pressure, and flow characteristics are obtained, such as flow pattern map, liquid film thickness, and pressure drop. Compared with a flow pattern map of a gas-liquid two-phase flow carried out at atmosphere, stratified flow zone is depressed with increasing system pressure and the critical gas superficial velocity decreases for smooth-wave-stratified flow transition, while the critical liquid superficial velocity increases for stratified-intermittent transition. On one hand, the compressed air results in an increase in momentum transfer between gas and liquid phases, which accounts for the smaller gas superficial velocity that is encountered in both smooth-wave and stratified-annular flow transition at higher pressure. One the other hand, it slows down the liquid below the crest, and it makes the interface wave crest unstable and split for the vortex shedding behind the wave crest, which accounts for flow regime transition in gas-liquid two-phase flows in pipelines. As a result, stratified-intermittent flow transition is depressed and delayed. The pressure influence on the liquid film profile is analyzed, and relationships between film thickness and dimensionless numbers are studied, such as liquid Weber number and gas Weber number. Friction factors on different interfaces at high pressure are studied, and new empirical formulas are deduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This study investigated the outcomes of primary endocrine therapy (PET) compared to surgery for treating older women (≥70 years) with early-stage oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer, specifically considering the impact of patients' frailty and comorbidity levels. Using UK data from 2000 to 2016, the researchers analysed the all-cause mortality and breast cancer-specific mortality among 23,109 patients, stratified by their Charlson comorbidity index and hospital frailty risk score. The findings showed that surgery generally resulted in better overall survival rates compared to PET in patients with higher levels of frailty or comorbidity. Notably, in very frail older women, there was no significant difference in breast cancer-specific mortality between PET and surgery arms. The study concludes that PET could be a viable treatment option for frail older women with early-stage breast cancer, considering the minimal survival benefits offered by surgery in this subgroup. Primary endocrine therapy (PET) offers non-surgical treatment for older women with early-stage breast cancer who are unsuitable for surgery due to frailty or comorbidity. This research assessed all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality of PET vs. surgery in older women (≥70 years) with oestrogen-receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer by frailty and comorbidity levels. This study used UK secondary data to analyse older female patients from 2000 to 2016. Patients were censored until 31 May 2019 and grouped by the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) and hospital frailty risk score (HFRS). Cox regression models compared all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality between PET and surgery within each group, adjusting for patient preferences and covariates. Sensitivity analyses accounted for competing risks. There were 23,109 patients included. The hazard ratio (HR) comparing PET to surgery for overall survival decreased significantly from 2.1 (95%CI: 2.0, 2.2) to 1.2 (95%CI: 1.1, 1.5) with increasing HFRS and from 2.1 (95%CI: 2.0, 2.2) to 1.4 (95%CI 1.2, 1.7) with rising CCI. However, there was no difference in BCSM for frail older women (HR: 1.2; 0.9, 1.9). There were no differences in competing risk profiles between other causes of death and breast cancer-specific mortality with PET versus surgery, with a subdistribution hazard ratio of 1.1 (0.9, 1.4) for high-level HFRS (p = 0.261) and CCI (p = 0.093). Given limited survival gains from surgery for older patients, PET shows potential as an effective option for frail older women with early-stage breast cancer. Despite surgery outperforming PET, surgery loses its edge as frailty increases, with negligible differences in the very frail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective drug delivery is essential for cancer treatment. Drug delivery systems, which can be tailored to targeted transport and integrated tumor therapy, are vital in improving the efficiency of cancer treatment. Peptides play a significant role in various biological and physiological functions and offer high design flexibility, excellent biocompatibility, adjustable morphology, and biodegradability, making them promising candidates for drug delivery. This paper reviews peptide-mediated drug delivery systems, focusing on self-assembled peptides and peptide–drug conjugates. It discusses the mechanisms and structural control of self-assembled peptides, the varieties and roles of peptide–drug conjugates, and strategies to augment peptide stability. The review concludes by addressing challenges and future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory crowdsensing (PCS) is an innovative data sensing paradigm that leverages the sensors carried in mobile devices to collect large-scale environmental information and personal behavioral data with the user's participation. In PCS, task assignment and path planning pose complex challenges. Previous studies have only focused on the assignment of individual tasks, neglecting or overlooking the associations between tasks. In practice, users often tend to execute similar tasks when choosing assignments. Additionally, users frequently engage in tasks that do not match their abilities, leading to poor task quality or resource wastage. This paper introduces a multi-task assignment and path-planning problem (MTAPP), which defines utility as the ratio of a user's profit to the time spent on task execution. The optimization goal of MATPP is to maximize the utility of all users in the context of task assignment, allocate a set of task locations to a group of workers, and generate execution paths. To solve the MATPP, this study proposes a grade-matching degree and similarity-based mechanism (GSBM) in which the grade-matching degree determines the user's income. It also establishes a mathematical model, based on similarity, to investigate the impact of task similarity on user task completion. Finally, an improved ant colony optimization (IACO) algorithm, combining the ant colony and greedy algorithms, is employed to maximize total utility. The simulation results demonstrate its superior performance in terms of task coverage, average task completion rate, user profits, and task assignment rationality compared to other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different types of ecosystems form a complex community of life. Hence, ecosystem protection and restoration should not focus solely on a single ecosystem. Ecosystem health assessments should consider the integrity and systematicity of interrelated ecosystems to inform rational environmental planning and management. In this study, the key characteristic indicators of major ecosystems (mountain, water, forest, and cropland) and ecosystem service capacity indicators in Anxi County, China, were selected to construct an integrated assessment system of ecosystem health that led to integrated ecosystem restoration pathways that addressed the county's ecological problems. The results revealed that ecosystem health was higher in the western and lower in the eastern parts of the county. Throughout the county, "medium" and "poor" ecosystem health levels predominated, revealing that overall ecosystem sustainability was weak. Ecosystem restoration programmes should be tailored to each health level. Where there was "excellent" and "good" ecosystem health ratings, those healthy ecosystem functions should be strengthened and maintained. In the "medium" health areas, the control and prevention of ecological problems should be strengthened. "Poor" health areas require immediate integrated ecological restoration projects that ensure the connectivity and coordination of restoration tasks in fragile ecosystems. This then will enhance holistic ecosystem stability and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of magnetic fields on electron dynamics, spatially radiated power, and radiation spectra in tightly focused circularly polarized laser pulses are studied in detail. The laser wavelength λ 0 = 1   μ m . As the pulse width increases from λ 0 to 6 λ 0 , the electron dynamics, spatially radiated power, and spectral properties stabilize, and the benefit that can be enhanced by increasing the pulse width decreases continuously, i.e., saturation is reached. However, although the benefits are better at pulse widths equal to 6 λ 0 , to obtain high-energy, highly collimated X-rays, tightly focused circularly polarized laser pulses with larger pulse widths is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double-layer steel truss continuous girders are prone to significant temperature stress, deviation, torsion, and warping, thus causing adverse temperature structural responses, and also affecting the safety and durability of bridge structures. This paper presents an investigation on time-dependent characteristics in the temperature field and temperature response of double-layer steel truss continuous bridge girders, fully considering the shielding effect subjected to different solar radiation angles during the high-temperature season. The time-dependent thermal boundary conditions and support conditions provided for the steel truss bridge structure were determined. Subsequently, a thermal analysis model for the entire structure of double-layer steel truss continuous girders was established to attain the temperature distribution law. The research results show that significant differences occur in the position and temperature difference of temperature gradients exhibited in the vertical, horizontal, and longitudinal directions in the double-layer steel truss bridge structure. The temperature distribution pattern within the chord section is mainly influenced by the environmental temperature and solar radiation intensity, along with the heat exchange between different panels. Thereafter, a validated temperature gradient formula for the component section has been proposed. The time-dependent laws in structural displacement, stress, and rotation angle under daily temperature cycling conditions have been revealed, thereby providing a theoretical basis for the life cycle construction and safety maintenance of double-layer steel truss structure bridges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature sensors are widely used in industrial production and scientific research, and accurate temperature measurement is crucial for ensuring the quality and safety of production processes. To improve the accuracy and stability of temperature sensors, this paper proposed using an artificial neural network (ANN) model for calibration and explored the feasibility and effectiveness of using ANNs to calibrate temperature sensors. The experiment collected multiple sets of temperature data from standard temperature sensors in different environments and compared the calibration results of the ANN model, linear regression, and polynomial regression. The experimental results show that calibration using the ANN improved the accuracy of the temperature sensors. Compared with traditional linear regression and polynomial regression, the ANN model produced more accurate calibration. However, overfitting may occur due to a small sample size or a large amount of noise. Therefore, the key to improving calibration using the ANN model is to design reasonable training samples and adjust the model parameters. The results of this study are important for practical applications and provide reliable technical support for industrial production and scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the issue of the hydropower consumption of run-of-river hydropower stations in Southwest China, the district cooling system can provide regulation capacity for hydropower utilization and suppress fluctuations caused by the uncertainty of hydropower. The innovative method is to utilize the thermal characteristics of pipelines and buildings, as well as the thermal comfort elasticity to shift the cooling and electricity loads, which helps to consume the surplus hydroelectric power generation. Taking the minimum total cost of coal consumption in thermal power units, hydropower abandonment penalty, and the carbon trading cost as the objective function, models were established for power supply balance constraints, heat transport constraints, and unit output constraints. The hybrid integer linear programming algorithm was used to achieve the low-carbon economic dispatch of the electric-cooling system. The calculation examples indicate that compared to the traditional real-time balance of cooling supply, the comprehensive consideration of thermal characteristics in a cooling system and flexible thermal comfort have a better operational performance. The carbon trading cost, coal consumption cost, and abandoned hydropower rate of a typical day was reduced by 4.25% (approximately CNY 7.55 × 104), 4.47% (approximately CNY 22.23 × 104), and 3.66%, respectively. Therefore, the electric-cooling dispatch model considering the thermal characteristics in cooling networks, building thermal inertia, and thermal comfort elasticity is more conducive to the hydropower utilization of run-of-river stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of biochar-based organic fertilizer (BOF) can improve sugar beet yield, but its effects on the growth of sugar beet and on soil quality at different densities remain unclear. Six treatments, comprising two densities D1 and D2 (80,000 and 90,000 plant ha−1) and three application rates B1, B2, and B3 (2.75, 3.25, and 3.75 t ha−1) of BOFs + mineral fertilizer, respectively, are investigated in this research. The mineral fertilizers are typically used to supplement the total N, P2O5, and K2O deficiencies. The BOFs were used in the soil before sowing, and the mineral fertilizer was added to the soil after the first pair of true leaves was grown. At 160 days after sowing (DAS), the root-to-shoot ratio under the D2B2 treatment was significantly higher than that under the other treatments. The effect of density on the photosynthesis rate of sugar beet was not significant. The BOF application amount and density exerted interaction effects on soil physicochemical properties and the activities of different soil enzymes affecting each other. Both the D2B2 and D2B3 treatments reduced the content of NO3–-N in the 40–60 cm soil layer. Combined 90,000 plants ha–1 with 3.25 t ha−1 BOFs can increase the soil nutrient content of the 0–60 cm soil layer, improve the rhizosphere soil environment, promote the uniform distribution of dry matter, and increase sugar production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of pure darkness and UV illumination on the corrosion process of 3Ni weathering steels involved in both marine atmospheric environments. The corrosion behavior of 3Ni steel in both environments was assessed by cyclic acceleration experiments, electrochemical measurements, morphological analysis and physical phase analysis. The results show that UV illumination affects the corrosion process through the photovoltaic effect of the corrosion products, with photoelectrons and photo-vacancies participating in the redox reaction between the substrate and the atmospheric environment, thereby affecting the corrosion rate of 3Ni steel, the physical composition of the corrosion products and the denseness of the rust layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of the impact of abandoned mine water on the underwater environment is critical for protecting and restoring the groundwater environment. Taking the abandoned coal mining area in the west of Zhangqiu District as the engineering background and comprehensively considering the regional groundwater chemical characteristics data during the wet and dry seasons, the main characteristics of the ions, hydrochemical types, and ion correlations of the abandoned mine water with the regional groundwater components were analyzed using mathematical statistics, correlation analysis, and Piper diagrams. An impact assessment was conducted on the water quality index values of the groundwater monitoring point. Furthermore, this research establishes an evaluation method of abandoned mine water in a regional groundwater environment based on the improved Nemero index method and matter element theory. Overall, the groundwater pH is weakly alkaline in Zhangqiu District. The groundwater Ca2+ is the dominant cation, while HCO3− and SO42− are the dominant anions. The main ion concentration during the dry season is slightly greater than during the wet season. The main hydrochemical type of groundwater during the wet and dry seasons is HCO3-Ca. In addition, there is a correlation between NO3− and F−, which may be caused by human activities. The groundwater environment is classified as level IV and severely polluted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power is an essential component of renewable energy. It enables the conservation of conventional energy sources such as coal and oil while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To address the stochastic and intermittent nature of ultra-short-term wind power, a combined prediction model based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT) is proposed. Firstly, VMD is utilized to decompose the original wind power signal into three meaningful components: the long-term component, the short-term component, and the randomness component. Secondly, based on the characteristics of these three components, a support vector machine (SVM) is selected to predict the long-term and short-term components, while gated recurrent unit-long short-term memory (GRU-LSTM) is employed to predict the randomness component. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is utilized to optimize the structural parameters of the SVM and GRU-LSTM combination for enhanced prediction accuracy. Additionally, a GBRT model is employed to predict the residuals. Finally, the rolling predicted values of the three components and residuals are aggregated. A deep learning framework using TensorFlow 2.0 has been built on the Python platform, and a dataset measured from a wind farm has been utilized for learning and prediction. The comparative analysis reveals that the proposed model exhibits superior short-term wind power prediction performance, with a mean squared error, mean absolute error, and coefficient of determination of 0.0244, 0.1185, and 0.9821, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot contamination due to pilot reuse seriously mitigates the performance of the cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In this paper, we propose a joint pilot assignment scheme that employs user clustering and graph coloring (UC-GC) to reduce pilot contamination. The proposed method consists of two steps: firstly, we utilize AP selection to classify all users; secondly, we assign pilots to users with more severe pilot contamination using the graph coloring algorithm and then assign pilots to the remaining users. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms existing pilot assignment schemes and significantly improves throughout with low complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent telemedicine technology has been widely applied due to the quick development of the Internet of Things (IoT). The edge-computing scheme can be regarded as a feasible solution to reduce energy consumption and enhance the computing capabilities for the Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). For an edge-computing-assisted intelligent telemedicine system, a two-layer network architecture composed of WBAN and Edge-Computing Network (ECN) was considered in this paper. Moreover, the age of information (AoI) was adopted to describe the time cost for the TDMA transmission mechanism in WBAN. According to the theoretical analysis, the strategy for resource allocation and data offloading in edge-computing-assisted intelligent telemedicine systems can be expressed as a system utility function optimizing problem. To maximize the system utility, an incentive mechanism based on contract theory (CT) was considered to motivate edge servers (ESs) to participate in system cooperation. To minimize the system cost, a cooperative game was developed to address the slot allocation in WBAN, while a bilateral matching game was utilized to optimize the data offloading problem in ECN. Simulation results have verified the effectiveness of the strategy proposed in terms of the system utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tectonic coal, an aggregate of coal particles formed by compacting pulverized coal, has been developed extensively in China. Currently, reconstituted coal specimens are widely adopted to investigate the mechanical properties of tectonic coal, but they have a low compaction degree compared to the tectonic coal in the field. Therefore, the current understanding of the mechanical properties of tectonic coal is not accurate. Herein, a new high–pressure–resistant mold was developed, and a heavy press was developed to prepare highly compacted reconstituted coal specimens. Based on the reconstituted coal specimens and the intact coal specimens obtained through coring, the mechanical properties of tectonic coal and intact coal were measured and compared systematically. The results show that the compaction degree of reconstituted coal specimen can be improved significantly by increasing the external force. For Sijiazhuang coal, the compaction degree of the reconstituted coal specimen almost reaches that of the tectonic coal in the field when the external force is increased to 550 KN. Moreover, the tectonic coal exhibits a low elastic modulus and low strength but high stress sensitivity. The elastic modulus and cohesion of tectonic coal are 22.08% and 43.47% of the corresponding values for intact coal. However, with the increase in the confining pressure from 5 to 20 MPa, the elastic modulus of tectonic coal increases by 1.14 times, while that of the intact coal increases just by 8.70%. In addition, tectonic coal and intact coal present different post-peak failure modes under the triaxial compression stress path. Typical shear failure occurs in the intact coal, while multiple shear failure occurs in the tectonic coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the largest grain crop in Heilongjiang Province. Carbon-based fertilizer is a mixed fertilizer produced by adding a certain proportion of chemical fertilizer with biochar as the loading substrate. In this study, the effects of carbon-based fertilizer on the rhizosphere soil microenvironment and maize root system were discussed. Two maize varieties, Xianyu 335 and Jingke 968, were selected and six treatments were set as follows, including no fertilization (CK1), conventional fertilizer (CK2) and the amount of carbon-based fertilizer, which were 3 t/hm2, 3.75 t/hm2, 4.5 t/hm2 and 5.25 t/hm2, respectively. The results showed that carbon-based fertilizer increased the total root length, root volume, root area and root tip number of maize, and the root length, root volume, root area and root tip number of 4.5 t treatment performed better at all stages, which was significantly higher than that of chemical fertilizer. On 16 August (early filling stage), most of the root color changed from milky white to dark brown, the root clarity decreased, the number of roots decreased, the root volume significantly decreased and the root began to age, while the number and volume of roots treated with the carbon-based fertilizer remained stable, the root color was milky white, the morphological structure was clear and there was basically no aging. The carbon-based fertilizer treatment significantly increased the root biomass of 0–15 cm above the plant, 15–30 cm and 30–45 cm between the plants and 0–15 cm between the ridges, forming a wide and deep high-yield root system. The carbon-based fertilizer significantly increased the bleeding rate. On 8 July (jointing stage), Xianyu 335 and Jingke 968 reached the maximum value at the 3 t and 3.75 t treatments, respectively. The carbon-based fertilizer treatment had no significant effect on the amino acid content, but significantly increased the amino acid transport rate on 8 July (jointing stage) and 16 August (early filling stage). The transport rate of inorganic phosphorus gradually decreased with the advancement of the growth process. On 8 July (jointing stage), the ammonium nitrogen content and transport rate of the two varieties reached the maximum value at the treatment of 4.5 t and 3.75 t, which was significantly higher than the treatment of chemical fertilizer and no fertilizer, and showed a gradual downward trend with the advancement of the growth process. The soluble sugar content was relatively low in the early stage and increased rapidly on 4 September (waxy ripening stage). Both varieties reached the maximum value at 4.5 t treatment, and the transport rate reached the maximum value at 3.75 t treatment, which was significantly higher than that of the chemical fertilizer treatment. In conclusion, the carbon-based fertilizer significantly increased the yield of maize, and the yield of maize under the 4.5 t treatment reached the maximum, which was 15.02% and 18.24% higher than that of the chemical fertilizer treatment, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An asphalt mastic has thixotropic characteristics that significantly influence its fatigue and healing performance. Therefore, understanding the thixotropy of an asphalt mastic is clearly of great importance. However, research in this area is still in the early stages. This study focuses on self-heating as one of the biasing performances of asphalt material by analyzing the viscosity, stress, and hysteresis loops the of asphalt mastics under cyclic shear loading. Twelve types of asphalt mastics fabricated with asphalt, as well as different types of mineral filler, were selected to examine thixotropy. In addition, the filler/asphalt ratio was examined via the hysteresis technique to analyze the hysteresis loop and the viscosity–shear rate. The thixotropic potential function was also studied from the energy viewpoint. The results show that asphalt mastics with different asphalt binders, mineral fillers, and filler volume fractions showed hysteresis loops for shear stress versus shear rate diagrams. With an increase in the loading times of the cyclic load, the area of the hysteresis loop gradually decreases, and the hysteresis area most likely features a relatively stable value. The thixotropy of the asphalt can be significantly reduced by adding filler, and different types of mineral filler can slightly influence the thixotropy. The viscosity decreases with an increase in the shear rate, and it gradually recovers with a decrease in the shear rate. The greater the filler/asphalt ratio, the greater the viscosity, and the faster the viscosity's descent is with the prolongation of time. Due to the existence of a higher amount of filler content, the recovery of a viscosity crack is more difficult. For asphalt mastics with high filler/asphalt ratios, the thixotropic mechanism can be explained via particle agglomeration and the depolymerization theory. For asphalt mastics with low and medium filler/asphalt ratios, the thixotropic mechanism can be explained via the particle chain theory. The damage and recovery of the internal structure of an asphalt mastic can be characterized by the structural failure potential function and the structural recovery potential function, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BRAFV600E, the most common genetic alteration, has become a major therapeutic target in thyroid cancer. Vemurafenib (PLX4032), a specific inhibitor of BRAFV600E kinase, exhibits antitumor activity in patients with BRAFV600E-mutated thyroid cancer. However, the clinical benefit of PLX4032 is often limited by short-term response and acquired resistance via heterogeneous feedback mechanisms. Disulfiram (DSF), an alcohol-aversion drug, shows potent antitumor efficacy in a copper (Cu)-dependent way. However, its antitumor activity in thyroid cancer and its effect on cellular response to BRAF kinase inhibitors remain unclear. Antitumor effects of DSF/Cu on BRAFV600E-mutated thyroid cancer cells and its effect on the response of these cells to BRAF kinase inhibitor PLX4032 were systematically assessed by a series of in vitro and in vivo functional experiments. The molecular mechanism underlying the sensitizing effect of DSF/Cu on PLX4032 was explored by Western blot and flow cytometry assays. DSF/Cu exhibited stronger inhibitory effects on the proliferation and colony formation of BRAFV600E-mutated thyroid cancer cells than DSF treatment alone. Further studies revealed that DSF/Cu killed thyroid cancer cells by ROS-dependent suppression of MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. Our data also showed that DSF/Cu strikingly increased the response of BRAFV600E-mutated thyroid cancer cells to PLX4032. Mechanistically, DSF/Cu sensitizes BRAF-mutant thyroid cancer cells to PLX4032 by inhibiting HER3 and AKT in an ROS-dependent way and subsequently relieving feedback activation of MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways. This study not only implies potential clinical use of DSF/Cu in cancer therapy but also provides a new therapeutic strategy for BRAFV600E-mutated thyroid cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L-malic acid is a vital intermediate in the citric acid cycle and has been reported to improve the antioxidant capacity and aerobic oxidation of weaned piglets; however, its application in finishing pigs is limited at present. This study explored the effects of dietary L-malic acid supplementation on the carcass traits and meat quality of finishing pigs. In a 45-day experiment, 192 Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire pigs (75.01 ± 0.51 kg) were divided into four treatments, i.e., a basal diet supplemented with 0, 0.5%, 1%, and 2% L-malic acid complex. The results showed that L-malic acid supplementation had no effects on the growth performance of finishing pigs. Importantly, L-malic acid significantly increased redness (a*) value at 24-h postmortem (quadratic, p < 0.05) and tended to increase the proportion of oxymyoglobin (OMb) (quadratic, p = 0.10), as well as the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) activity (quadratic, p = 0.08) in the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. Further, dietary supplementation of 1% L-malic acid markedly increased the protein expression level of slow skeletal myosin heavy chain (MyHC) in the LD muscle (p < 0.05). Moreover, 0.5% and 2% L-malic acid supplementation significantly increased carcass length and loin eye area (p < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary L-malic acid could effectively improve the meat color and carcass traits of finishing pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feeder terminal unit (FTU) is a critical component of any electric power system that works in a complex electromagnetic environment. However, innovative research of theoretical analysis of electromagnetic–thermal practices inside the FTU system is missing in the literature. This work presents the theoretical methodologies for calculating and analyzing the electromagnetic–thermal influence of FTUs in a high-power electromagnetic (HPEM) environment. The numerical outcomes reveal that the surface of the FTU and connecting cables under powerful electromagnetic pulses (EMP) induce significant electromagnetic fields and high temperatures. Significantly, the electromagnetic pulse and injection of heat through the wires into the FTU may cause interference and possibly damage to the FTU's circuits and electronics. This work serves as a reference for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) design of FTUs and provides numerical analysis for ensuring the normal operation of FTU devices under harsh electromagnetic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explains the fiscal ecological costs of land in China by dividing them into three periods: early ecological cost refers to loss of ecosystem service value after the conversion of agricultural land, mid-term ecological cost refers to land development in urban built-up areas, and later ecological cost refers to the investment cost of increasing the fiscal ecological service function of the land. Using data for 31 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017, we perform a "link between groups" cluster analysis with SPSS 22.0 statistical software. Squared Euclidean distance is used to analyze land in these provinces. Ecological cost in the early, middle, and late stages is clustered, and the provinces are divided into five areas according to the ecological cost of each stage in absolute terms and as a proportion of land fiscal revenue. The research shows that: (1) the fiscal ecological cost of land in China presents a spatial pattern of "higher in the east than in the west, higher in the south than in the north," and (2) the cost is highest in the early stage, second highest in the late stage, and lowest in the middle stage. The findings yield differentiated policy recommendations for reducing the fiscal ecological cost of land in different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most imperative antioxidants in higher plants, carotenoids serve as accessory pigments to harvest light for photosynthesis as well as photoprotectors for plants to adapt to high light stress. Phytoene synthase (PSY) is the entry enzyme and also the major rate-limiting enzyme in the carotenoid pathway. Here, we report a dehydration-responsive element-binding protein (DREB) transcription factor member in Nicotiana tabacum K326, NtDREB-1BL1, which regulates carotenoids biosynthesis by binding to the NtPSY promoter. The NtDREB-1BL1 transcript was widely distributed in leaves by Real-time PCR. Confocal image revealed that NtDREB-1BL1 was localized in the nucleus. The chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with the qPCR technique indicated that NtDREB-1BL1 could anchor the promoter region of NtPSY. Overexpression (NtDREB-1BL1 OE) and RNA interference (NtDREB-1BL1 RNAi) of NtDREB-1BL1 were performed to evaluate its biological function in N. tabacum. Both carotenoid and chlorophyll contents increased in transgenic plants of NtDREB-1BL1 OE compared with wild-type (WT) plants, with the augment of the genes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis. In contrast, the contents of carotenoid and chlorophyll significantly decreased in transgenic plants of NtDREB-1BL1 RNAi compared to WT, along with the decline in the expression of genes related to carotenoid biosynthesis. Moreover, transgenic plants of NtDREB-1BL1 OE exhibited enhanced tolerance under drought stress, with the weakened tolerance of drought stress in transgenic plants of NtDREB-1BL1 RNAi. In conclusion, our results illustrated the new role of transcription factor NtDREB-1BL1 in improving carotenoid biosynthesis through regulating NtPSY expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yeast β-glucan is a natural antioxidant and has been reported to improve growth performance of piglets, but its application in improving pork quality is limited. This study investigated the effects of dietary yeast β-glucan supplementation on meat quality, antioxidant capacity and gut microbiota of finishing pigs. In a 40-day experiment, ninety finishing pigs (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire, 70.47 ± 0.04 kg) were randomly allocated into five treatments including a basal diet supplemented with 0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg yeast β-glucan. Results showed that yeast β-glucan significantly increased pH45 min (linear and quadratic, p < 0.01) and a*45 min (linear, p < 0.05), and reduced cooking loss (linear, p < 0.05) and drip loss (quadratic, p < 0.05) of meat in finishing pigs. Importantly, the 200 mg/kg group exhibited the highest values of pH45 min (p < 0.01) and the lowest values of drip loss (p < 0.05), accompanied by a decreased lactate content (p < 0.05) and glycolytic potential (p < 0.05). Dietary supplementation of 200 mg/kg yeast β-glucan markedly increased catalase (CAT) (p < 0.05), superoxide dismutase (SOD) (p < 0.05) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) (p < 0.01) activities in skeletal muscle. Moreover, WPS-2 abundance was decreased significantly in colonic digesta by 200 mg/kg yeast β-glucan and exhibited a positive association with muscle lactate content and drip loss. Together, dietary 200 mg/kg yeast β-glucan supplementation effectively improved pH value and the water-holding capacity of fresh meat through reducing muscle postmortem glycolysis, increasing antioxidant capacity and altering the gut microbiota composition of finishing pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent high temperature weather affects the growth and development of rice, resulting in the decline of seed–setting rate, deterioration of rice quality and reduction of yield. Although some high temperature tolerance genes have been cloned, there is still little success in solving the effects of high temperature stress in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Based on the transcriptional data of seven time points, the weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) method was used to construct a co–expression network of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the rice genotypes IR64 (tolerant to heat stress) and Koshihikari (susceptible to heat stress). There were four modules in both genotypes that were highly correlated with the time points after heat stress in the seedling. We further identified candidate hub genes through clustering and analysis of protein interaction network with known–core genes. The results showed that the ribosome and protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum were the common pathways in response to heat stress between the two genotypes. The changes of starch and sucrose metabolism and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites pathways are possible reasons for the sensitivity to heat stress for Koshihikari. Our findings provide an important reference for the understanding of high temperature response mechanisms and the cultivation of high temperature resistant materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membrane distillation (MD) has unique advantages in the treatment of high-salt wastewater because it can make full use of low-grade heat sources. The high salinity mine water in western mining areas of China is rich in Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42− and HCO3−. In the MD process, the inorganic substances in the feed will cause membrane fouling. At the same time, low surface tension organic substances which could be introduced in the mining process will cause irreversible membrane wetting. To improve the anti-fouling and anti-wetting properties of the membrane, the PVDF omniphobic membrane in this paper was prepared by electrospinning. The water contact angle (WCA) can reach 153°. Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was then used for treating high-salinity mine water. The results show that, compared with the unmodified membranes, the flux reduction rate of the omniphobic membrane was reduced by 34% in 20 h, showing good anti-fouling property. More importantly, the omniphobic membrane cannot be wetted easily by the feed containing 0.3 mmol/L SDS. The extended Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (XDLVO) theory was used to analyze the free energy of the interface interaction between the membrane and pollutants, aiming to show that the omniphobic membrane was more difficult to pollute. The result was consistent with the flux variation in the DCMD process, providing an effective basis for explaining the mechanism of membrane fouling and membrane wetting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, compute-in-memory (CIM) has been extensively studied to improve the energy efficiency of computing by reducing data movement. At present, CIM is frequently used in data-intensive computing. Data-intensive computing applications, such as all kinds of neural networks (NNs) in machine learning (ML), are regarded as 'soft' computing tasks. The 'soft' computing tasks are computations that can tolerate low computing precision with little accuracy degradation. However, 'hard' tasks aimed at numerical computations require high-precision computing and are also accompanied by energy efficiency problems. Numerical computations exist in lots of applications, including partial differential equations (PDEs) and large-scale matrix multiplication. Therefore, it is necessary to study CIM for numerical computations. This article reviews the recent developments of CIM for numerical computations. The different kinds of numerical methods solving partial differential equations and the transformation of matrixes are deduced in detail. This paper also discusses the iterative computation of a large-scale matrix, which tremendously affects the efficiency of numerical computations. The working procedure of the ReRAM-based partial differential equation solver is emphatically introduced. Moreover, other PDEs solvers, and other research about CIM for numerical computations, are also summarized. Finally, prospects and the future of CIM for numerical computations with high accuracy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the triple path obstacles of land transfer income in supporting rural revitalization under the premise of existing policy support. It is innovative to try to de-qualitatively analyze the obstacle factors and quantitatively measure the degree of obstacles. We examined the potential obstacles to land transfer income supporting rural revitalization in China, measured the potential comprehensive obstacle degree of 31 provincial-level administrative divisions' land transfer income supporting rural revitalization, and constructed a way to resolve the differences. We employed inter alia the entropy method, ideal solution similarity ranking method, and cluster analyses. Potential obstacles were divided into nine types. The resolution path was constructed by combining the original and weighted values of various obstacle factors in the top three obstacle factors. It is of great significance to ensure the effective implementation of China's "opinions on adjusting and improving the scope of land transfer income to give priority to supporting rural revitalization" (2020). This study addresses the theoretical gap in the analysis of possible paths needed to support rural revitalization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel VDMOS with Step Floating Islands VDMOS (S-FLI VDMOS) is proposed for the first time in this letter, in order to optimize the breakdown voltage (BV) and the specific on-resistance (Ron,sp). The innovative terminal technology of Breakdown Point Transfer (BPT) is applied to S-FLI VDMOS, which transfers the breakdown point from the high electric field region to the low electric field region, and the S-FLI VDMOS structure uses multiple layers of charge compensation blocks to generate multiple electric field peaks in the drift region in order to optimize the electric field distribution. In the TCAD simulation, the BV of the proposed S-FLI VDMOS is improved to 326 V, which is higher than that of 281 V for the conventional Si VDMOS with the same drift region length of 15 μm, and the Ron,sp is reduced from 21.54 mΩ·cm2 for the conventional Si VDMOS to 7.77 mΩ·cm2 for the S-FLI VDMOS. Compared with the conventional Si VDMOS, the current density of the effective current conduction path is increased when the forward bias is applied to the proposed device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevention and management of crop diseases play an important role in agricultural production, but there are many types of crop diseases and complex causes, and their prevention and identification add difficulties to the process. The traditional methods of identifying diseases mostly rely on human visual and manual inspection, which requires a certain amount of expert knowledge and experience. There are shortcomings such as strong subjectivity and low accuracy. This paper takes the common diseases of kiwifruit as the research object. Based on deep learning and computer vision models, and given the influence of a complex background in actual scenes on the detection of diseases, as well as the shape and size characteristics of diseases, an innovative method of target detection and semantic segmentation was proposed to identify diseases accurately. The main contributions of this research are as follows: We produced the world's first high-quality dataset on kiwifruit. We used the target detection algorithm YOLOX, we stripped the kiwi leaves from the natural background and removed the influencing factors existing in the complex background. Based on the mainstream semantic segmentation networks UNet and DeepLabv3+, the experimental results showed that the ResNet101 network achieved the most effective results in the identification of kiwi diseases, with an accuracy rate of 96.6%. We used the training method of learning rate decay to further improve the training effect without increasing the training cost. After experimental verification, our two-stage disease detection algorithm had the advantages of high accuracy, strong robustness, and wide detection range, which provided a more efficient solution for solving the problem of precise monitoring of crop growth environment parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monolithic GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)-integrated circuits are a promising application of wide band-gap materials. To date, most GaN-based devices behave as NMOS-like transistors. As only NMOS GaN HEMT is currently commercially available, its control circuit requires special design if monolithic integration is desired. This article analyzes the schematics of a GaN-based comparator, and three comparator structures are compared through ADS simulation. The optimal structure with the bootstrapped technique is fabricated based on AlGaN/GaN Metal–Insulator–Semiconductor (MIS) HEMT with the recessed gate method. The comparator has excellent static characteristics when the reference voltage increases from 3 V to 8 V. Dynamic waveforms from 10 kHz to 1 MHz are also obtained. High-temperature tests from 25 ° C to 250 ° C are applied upon both DC and AC characteristics. The mechanisms of instability issues are explained under dynamic working condition. The results prove that the comparator can be used in the state-of-art mixed-signal circuits, demonstrating the potential for the monolithic all-GaN integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tremendous progress made in the field of deep learning allows us to accurately predict precipitation and avoid major and long-term disruptions to the entire socio-economic system caused by floods. This paper presents an LSTM–CP combined model formed by the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network and Chebyshev polynomial (CP) as applied to the precipitation forecast of Yibin City. Firstly, the data are fed into the LSTM network to extract the time-series features. Then, the sequence features obtained are input into the BP (Back Propagation) neural network with CP as the excitation function. Finally, the prediction results are obtained. By theoretical analysis and experimental comparison, the LSTM–CP combined model proposed in this paper has fewer parameters, shorter running time, and relatively smaller prediction error than the LSTM network. Meanwhile, compared with the SVR model, ARIMA model, and MLP model, the prediction accuracy of the LSTM–CP combination model is significantly improved, which can aid relevant departments in making disaster response measures in advance to reduce disaster losses and promote sustainable development by providing them data support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melatonin has been regarded as a promising substance that enhances the abiotic stress tolerance of plants. However, few studies have devoted attention to the role of melatonin in improving salt tolerance in sugar beets. Here, the effects of different application methods (foliar application (100 μM), root application (100 μM), and combined foliar and root application) of melatonin on the morphological and physiological traits of sugar beets exposed to salt stress were investigated. The results showed that melatonin improved the growth of sugar beet seedlings, root yield and sugar content, synthesis of chlorophyll, photosystem II (PS II) activity, and gas exchange parameters under salt stress conditions. Moreover, melatonin enhanced the capacity of osmotic adjustment by increasing the accumulation of osmolytes (betaine, proline, and soluble sugar). At the same time, melatonin increased the H+-pump activities in the roots, thus promoting Na+ efflux and K+ influx, which maintained K+/Na+ homeostasis and mitigated Na+ toxicity. In addition, melatonin strengthened the antioxidant defense system by enhancing the activities of antioxidant enzymes, modulating the ASA-GSH cycle, and mediating the phenylalanine pathway, which removed superoxide anions (O2•−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and maintained cell membrane integrity. These positive effects were more pronounced when melatonin was applied by combined foliar and root application. To summarize, this study clarifies the potential roles of melatonin in mitigating salt stress in sugar beets by improving photosynthesis, water status, ion homeostasis, and the antioxidant defense system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]