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Dimensional deviations in the cage pocket of a roller bearing can significantly affect the bearing's dynamic performance, directly determining the positional stability of the roller. These deviations can result in roller misalignment, increasing friction and wear. Deviations arise from machining errors and deformation during motion, etc. A dynamic model of a cylindrical roller bearing that accounts for cage flexibility was developed to explore the impact of deviations. The flexible cage provides a more realistic representation compared to the rigid cage. The effects of deviations in the length and width of the cage pocket on the bearing's dynamic behavior were analyzed, and the results show that deviations in cage pocket dimensions lead to notable changes in bearing dynamics. Specifically, when the length deviation is negative and increasing, the amplitude of cage motion decreases, while both transitional and rotational speeds rise. It also causes greater fluctuations in the rotational speeds of the inner ring and rollers. Conversely, the cage's equivalent stress and the contact load decrease and the amplitude of cage motion increases with increases in width deviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: To elucidate the characteristics of functional feeding groups among macroinvertebrates during various months in the upper Yellow River, and their relationship with environmental factors, 33 sampling points were strategically placed across both gorge and plain regions. Collectively, these areas hosted 65 taxonomic units (genus or species) of macroinvertebrates, among which the collector-gatherers were predominantly dominant. Notably, Gammarus sp. and Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, among the collector-gatherers, emerged as the prevalent species across both the gorge and plain areas. Mantel tests indicated that dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and orthophosphate were significant environmental determinants influencing the functional feeding groups of macroinvertebrates. Evaluations based on the Hilsenhoff Biological Index and the Shannon–Wiener Index suggest that the water quality of the upper Yellow River is moderate. An analysis using functional feeding group parameters showed a progressive increase in the biomass of macroinvertebrates from upstream (gorge areas) to downstream (plain areas), accompanied by enhanced habitat stability. Cascade hydropower development was pinpointed as a crucial factor impacting habitat stability. These insights provide relevant data and a theoretical basis for the conservation of aquatic biological resources and watershed management in the upper Yellow River. Against the backdrop of hydropower development in the upper Yellow River, comprehending the spatiotemporal variation and ecological evaluation of macroinvertebrate functional feeding groups (FFGs) is paramount for the conservation and restoration of aquatic biological resources in watersheds. Detailed surveys of macroinvertebrates were conducted in the gorge and plain areas of the upper Yellow River in July 2022 and March, May, and October 2023, culminating in the identification of 65 taxonomic units (genus or species) spanning 4 phyla, 14 orders, and 35 families. Of these, 41 taxonomic units were discovered in the gorge areas and 57 in the plain areas. Among the FFGs of macroinvertebrates in the upper Yellow River, collector-gatherers were overwhelmingly dominant, followed by scrapers, collector-filterers, predators, and shredders. Concerning river section types, dominant species in the gorge areas included Gammarus sp., Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, and Polypedilum sp. among collector-gatherers, while in the plain areas, dominant species included Ecdyonurus sp. among scrapers, Hydropsyche sp. among collector-filterers, and Gammarus sp., Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, and Chironomus sp. among collector-gatherers. A Mantel test revealed that dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and orthophosphate were the primary environmental factors affecting the FFGs of macroinvertebrates in the upper Yellow River, with variations observed in their effects across different months. The evaluation results of the Hilsenhoff Biological Index and Shannon–Wiener Index indicate that the water quality of the upper Yellow River is at a moderate level. An assessment of the upper Yellow River ecosystem using FFG parameters demonstrated that macroinvertebrate biomass progressively increased from upstream (gorge areas) to downstream (plain areas) spatially, accompanied by increasing habitat stability, with cascade hydropower development identified as a key factor impacting habitat stability. These findings provide pertinent data and a theoretical foundation for the protection of aquatic biological resources and watershed management in the upper Yellow River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety disorder is a universal disease related to neuro-inflammation. Solanesol has shown positive effects because of its anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-ulcer properties. This study focused on determining whether solanesol could ameliorate anxiety-like behaviors in a mouse model of neuro-inflammation and identify its working targets. Complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced mice that were intra-peritoneally administered with solanesol (50 mg/kg) for 1 week showed a statistically significant reduction in anxiety-like behaviors, as measured by open field and elevated plus-maze tests. Western blot analysis revealed that CFA-induced upregulation of the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), which played crucial roles in regulating anxiety, returned to normal in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) after solanesol treatment. The level of T cell-restricted intracellular antigen-1 (TIA1), a key component of stress granules, also decreased in the ACC. Moreover, immunofluorescence results indicated that solanesol suppressed CFA-induced microglial and astrocytic activation in the ACC. CFA was injected in the hind paws of TIA1Nestin conditional knockout (cKO) mice to confirm whether TIA1 is a potential modulatory molecule that influences pro-inflammatory cytokines and anxiety-like behaviors. Anxiety-like behaviors could not be observed in cKO mice after CFA injection with IL-1β and TNF-α levels not remarkedly increasing. Our findings suggest that solanesol inhibits neuro-inflammation by decreasing the TIA1 level to reduce IL-1β and TNF-α expression, meanwhile inhibiting microglial and astrocytic activation in the ACC and ultimately ameliorating anxiety-like behaviors in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intense changes in glaciers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) have essential impacts on regional water resource management. In order to study the seasonal fluctuations of glaciers in this region and their relationship with climate change, we focus on the Yigong Zangbo River Basin in the SETP, extract the annual and seasonal variations of glaciers in the basin during 2018–2023, and analyze their spatio-temporal characteristics through the seasonal-trend decomposition using the LOESS (STL) method. Finally, combining the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model and the Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) model, we assess the comprehensive impact of meteorological factors such as temperature and snowfall on glacier changes. The results indicate that glaciers in the Yigong Zangbo River Basin experienced remarkable mass loss during 2018–2023, with an average annual melting rate of −0.83 ± 0.12 m w.e.∙yr−1. The glacier mass exhibits marked seasonal fluctuations, with increases in January–March (JFM) and April–June (AMJ) and noticeable melting in July–September (JAS) and October–December (OND). The changes over these four periods are 2.12 ± 0.04 m w.e., 0.93 ± 0.15 m w.e., −1.58 ± 0.19 m w.e., and −1.32 ± 0.17 m w.e., respectively. Temperature has been identified as the primary meteorological driver of glacier changes in the study area, surpassing the impact of snowfall. This study uses advanced altimetry data and meteorological data to monitor and analyze glacier changes, which provides valuable data for cryosphere research and also validates a set of replicable research methods, which provides support for future research in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The presence of individual growth differentiation within the sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus intermedius) has significantly hindered the advancement of aquaculture. Despite this, the underlying causes and mechanisms driving these growth disparities remain largely unexplored. Here, we provide evidence that sea urchins of different sizes differ to varying degrees in behavior, gut microbiota compositions, and gene transcription profiles, which may collectively elucidate the observed growth disparities. Firstly, larger sea urchins demonstrated significantly heightened feeding activity compared to smaller sea urchins. Secondly, analysis of the gut microbiota revealed that larger sea urchins possess enhanced digestive efficiency and greater growth potential. Finally, the transcriptome research results prove that small-sized sea urchins were in a state of long-term stress and had some physiological responses to counteract the stress. In conclusion, we have elucidated the potential factors contributing to growth disparities in sea urchins across three distinct levels. This work provides a theoretical basis for regulating the growth of sea urchins, exploring methods to enhance aquaculture production, and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of the sea urchin aquaculture industry. Growth differentiation among farmed sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus intermedius) poses a significant challenge to aquaculture, with there being a limited understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, sea urchins with varying growth rates, reared under identical conditions, were analyzed for feeding behavior, gut microbiota, and transcriptomes. Large-sized sea urchins demonstrated significantly higher feeding ability and longer duration than smaller ones. The dominant phyla across all size groups were Campylobacterota, Proteobacteria, and Firmicutes, with Campylobacterota showing the highest abundance in small-sized sea urchins (82.6%). However, the families Lachnospiraceae and Pseudomonadaceae were significantly less prevalent in small-sized sea urchins. Transcriptome analysis identified 214, 544, and 732 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the large vs. medium, large vs. small, and medium vs. small comparisons, respectively. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analyses associated DEGs with key processes such as steroid biosynthesis, protein processing within the endoplasmic reticulum, and nucleotide sugar metabolism. Variations in phagosomes and signaling pathways indicated that size differences are linked to disparities in energy expenditure and stress responses. These findings provide a foundation for future investigations into the regulatory mechanisms underlying growth differences in S. intermedius and provide clues for the screening of molecular markers useful to improve sea urchin production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of Bisphenol A (BPA), a prevalent environmental estrogenic toxicant, on the ovarian development of mice. Mice were exposed to varying BPA doses from in utero to postnatal stages, up to weaning (day 21, PND 21) and puberty (day 45, PND 45). The BPA content in the serum of the offspring mice on PND 45 was higher than that of the mice sacrificed at PND 21. However, the ovary organ index of the mice of PND 21 was significantly increased, and the ovarian structure was damaged when exposed to BPA. In contrast, the mice with PND 45 did not show apparent ovarian lesions. On the other hand, granulosa cell apoptosis was detected in both PND 21 and PND 45 mice ovaries, and ERβ was increased under the influence of BPA. Transcriptomic analysis revealed BPA's significant impact on ribosomal gene expression, marked downregulation of Rpl21 and Rpsa, and upregulation of Rps2 in both age groups. These transcriptomic alterations were further corroborated by real-time PCR, highlighting a dose-dependent effect of BPA on Rps2. Our findings confirm BPA's detrimental effects on ovarian health, with more pronounced damage in younger mice, suggesting heightened vulnerability in this group. The study underscores ribosomes as critical targets in BPA-induced ovarian developmental disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the problem of tribological failure in an aircraft piston pump valve plate pair, the friction and wear properties of the valve plate pair materials (W9Mo3Cr4V-HAl61-4-3-1) of an axial piston pump at a certain speed and load were studied using a disc-ring tester under lubrication with No. 15 aviation hydraulic oil. The results show that the friction coefficient (COF) fluctuated in the range of 0.019~0.120 when the load (L) increased from 30 N to 120 N, and the speed increased from 100 r/min to 500 r/min. With the increase in the rotational speed, the COF of the valve plate pair decreased first and then increased. When the rotation speed (V) was 300 r/min, the relative COF was the smallest. Under L lower than 60 N, abrasive wear was the main wear mechanism. Under L higher than 90 N, the main wear mechanism was adhesive wear but mild oxidation wear also occurred. In addition, based on the V, L, radius (R), and test duration (T), which affected COF, the random forest regression (RFR) algorithm, the bagging regression (BR) algorithm, and the extra trees regression (ETR) algorithm were used as machine learning methods to predict the COF of the valve plate pair. Mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and coefficient of determination (R2) were used to evaluate its performance, with the results showing that the ETR prediction model was the best method for predicting COF. The results of the machine learning also showed that the contributions of V, L, R, and T were 43.56%, 36.76%, 13.13%, and 6.55%, respectively, indicating that V had the greatest influence on the COF of the W9Mo3Cr4V/HAl61-4-3-1 friction pair. This study is expected to provide support for the rapid development of new valve plate pair materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio cholerae is the etiological agent of cholera in humans. The bacterium is frequently detected in aquatic products worldwide. However, the current literature on the genome evolution of V. cholerae of aquatic animal origins is limited. Here, we firstly characterized the growth and genome features of V. cholerae isolates with different resistance phenotypes from three species of common freshwater fish. The results revealed that the non-O1/O139 V. cholerae isolates (n = 4) were halophilic and grew optimally at 2% NaCl and pH 8.0. Their draft genome sequences were 3.89 Mb–4.15 Mb with an average GC content of 47.35–47.63%. Approximately 3366–3561 genes were predicted to encode proteins, but 14.9–17.3% of them were of an unknown function. A number of strain-specific genes (n = 221–311) were found in the four V. cholerae isolates, 3 of which belonged to none of any of the known sequence types (STs). Several putative mobile genetic elements (MGEs) existed in the V. cholerae isolates, including genomic islands (n = 4–9), prophages (n = 0–3), integrons (n = 1–1), and insertion sequences (n = 0–3). Notably, CRISPR-Cas system arrays (n = 2–10) were found in the V. cholerae genomes, whereby the potential immunity defense system could be active. Comparative genomic analyses also revealed many putative virulence-associated genes (n = 106–122) and antibiotic resistance-related genes (n = 6–9). Overall, the results of this study demonstrate the bacterial broader-spectrum growth traits and fill prior gaps in the genomes of V. cholerae originating from freshwater fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris-free and debris-covered glaciers are both extensively present in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. High-precision and rigorous comparative observational studies on different types of glaciers help us to accurately understand the overall state of water resource variability and the underlying mechanisms. In this study, we used multi-temporal simultaneous UAV surveys to systematically explore the surface elevation change, surface velocity, and surface mass balance of two representative glaciers. Our findings indicate that the thinning rate in the debris-free Parlung No. 4 glacier UAV survey area was consistently higher than that in the debris-covered 24K glacier in 2020–2021 (−1.16 ± 0.03 cm/d vs. −0.36 ± 0.02 cm/d) and 2021–2022 (−0.69 ± 0.03 cm/d vs. −0.26 ± 0.03 cm/d). Moreover, the surface velocity of the Parlung No. 4 glacier was also consistently higher than that of the 24K glacier across the survey period, suggesting a more dynamic glacial state. The surface mass balance of the Parlung No. 4 glacier (2020–2021: −1.82 ± 0.09 cm/d; 2021–2022: −1.30 ± 0.09 cm/d) likewise outpaced that of the 24K glacier (2020–2021: −0.81 ± 0.07 cm/d; 2021–2022: −0.70 ± 0.07 cm/d) throughout the observation period, which indicates that the debris cover slowed the glacier's melting. Additionally, we extracted the melt contribution of the ice cliff area in the 24K glacier and found that the melt ratio of this 'hotspot' area ranged from 10.4% to 11.6% from 2020 to 2022. This comparative analysis of two representative glaciers provides evidence to support the critical role of debris cover in controlling surface elevation changes, glacier dynamics, and surface mass balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The health of Amphioctopus fangsiao, a species used in aquaculture or fish farming, can be greatly affected by infections. To understand how their immune system responds, we looked at the changes in their immune cells when exposed to substances that mimic these infections. By studying these responses, we were able to identify key parts of their immune system that change when faced with infection-causing threats. We also discovered important genes, including PKMYT1 (protein kinase, membrane associated tyrosine/threonine 1) and NAMPT (nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase), that play a crucial role in this response. Our study gives us a deeper understanding of the immune system of the Amphioctopus fangsiao. The primary influencer of aquaculture quality in Amphioctopus fangsiao is pathogen infection. Both lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) are recognized by the pattern recognition receptor (PRR) within immune cells, a system that frequently serves to emulate pathogen invasion. Hemolymph, which functions as a transport mechanism for immune cells, offers vital transcriptome information when A. fangsiao is exposed to pathogens, thereby contributing to our comprehension of the species' immune biological mechanisms. In this study, we conducted analyses of transcript profiles under the influence of LPS and Poly I:C within a 24 h period. Concurrently, we developed a Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) to identify key modules and genes. Further, we carried out Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses to investigate the primary modular functions. Co-expression network analyses unveiled a series of immune response processes following pathogen stress, identifying several key modules and hub genes, including PKMYT1 and NAMPT. The invaluable genetic resources provided by our results aid our understanding of the immune response in A. fangsiao hemolymph and will further our exploration of the molecular mechanisms of pathogen infection in mollusks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Klebsiella oxytoca is an emerging pathogen that can cause life-threatening infectious diseases in humans. Recently, we firstly reported for the first time the presence of K. oxytoca in edible aquatic animals. In this study, we further investigated its bacterial environmental fitness and genome evolution signatures. The results revealed that K. oxytoca isolates (n = 8), originating from eight species of aquatic animals, were capable of growing under a broad spectrum of environmental conditions (pH 4.5–8.5, 0.5–6.5% NaCl), with different biofilm formation and swimming mobility profiles. The genome sequences of the K. oxytoca isolates were determined (5.84–6.02 Mb, 55.07–56.06% GC content). Strikingly, numerous putative mobile genetic elements (MGEs), particularly genomic islands (GIs, n = 105) and prophages (n = 24), were found in the K. oxytoca genomes, which provided the bacterium with specific adaptation traits, such as resistance, virulence, and material metabolism. Interestingly, the identified prophage-related clusters were derived from Burkholderia spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Haemophilus spp., suggesting phage transmission across Klebsiella and the other four genera. Many strain-specific (n = 10–447) genes were present in the K. oxytoca genomes, whereas the CRISPR-Cas protein-encoding gene was absent, indicating likely active horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and considerable genome variation in K. oxytoca evolution. Overall, the results of this study are the first to demonstrate the environmental compatibility and genome flexibility of K. oxytoca of aquatic animal origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a seawater salinity sensor array based on a micro/nanofiber Bragg grating structures, which allows for the simultaneous measurement of temperature and salinity. The proposed sensing structure is fabricated through a process involving optical fiber tapering, femtosecond laser inscription, and chemical etching. The equivalent refractive index (RI) of this sensor structure is influenced by the surrounding RI, resulting in a Bragg characteristic wavelength shift that can be used for salinity sensing. The experimental results show that the salinity sensitivity for two cascaded sensor arrays is 8.39 pm/‰ and 7.71 pm/‰, while the temperature sensitivity is 8.28 pm/°C and 8.03 pm/°C, respectively. This sensor structure is compact, exhibits excellent linearity, and offers good repeatability. It holds great potential for applications in seawater environmental monitoring and quantitative studies of seawater dispersion characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this study, MethylRAD-Seq of the body wall tissues of Apostichopus japonicus at different ages was analyzed based on methylated RAD-Seq technology and, combined with GO and KEGG analyses, different genes related to the age of A. japonicus were screened, such as H2AX, Hsp90, Pepn, and CDC6. This provides reference significance for the identification of A. japonicus age. The A. japonicus industry has expanded significantly, but no research has focused on determining the age of A. japonicus during farming. Correctly estimating the age of A. japonicus can provide a decision-making basis for the breeding process and data for the protection of A. japonicus aquatic germplasm resources. DNA methylation levels in the body wall of Apostichopus japonicus at 4 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years old were determined using MethylRAD-Seq, and differentially methylated genes were screened. A total of 441 and 966 differentially methylated genes were detected at the CCGG and CCWGG sites, respectively. Aspartate aminotransferase, succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, the histone H2AX, heat shock protein Hsp90, aminopeptidase N, cell division cycle CDC6, Ras GTPase activating protein (RasGAP), slit guidance ligand slit1, integrin-linked kinase ILK, mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase Mtor, protein kinase A Pka, and autophagy-related 3 atg3 genes may play key roles in the growth and aging process of A. japonicus. This study provides valuable information regarding age-related genes for future research, and these candidate genes can be used to create an "epigenetic clock". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inflammatory pain, characterized by sustained nociceptive hypersensitivity, represents one of the most prevalent conditions in both daily life and clinical settings. Aucubin, a natural plant iridoid glycoside, possesses potent biological effects, encompassing anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. However, its impact on inflammatory pain remains unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic effects and underlying mechanism of aucubin in addressing inflammatory pain induced by complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). Methods: The CFA-induced inflammatory pain model was employed to assess whether aucubin exerts analgesic effects and its potential mechanisms. Behavioral tests evaluated mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia as well as anxiety-like behaviors in mice. The activation of spinal glial cells and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines were examined to evaluate neuroinflammation. Additionally, RNA sequencing was utilized for the identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Molecular biology experiments were conducted to determine the levels of the PINK1 gene and autophagy-related genes, along with PINK1 distribution in neural cells. Furthermore, mitophagy induced by carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) was employed to examine the roles of PINK1 and mitophagy in pain processing. Results: Aucubin significantly ameliorated pain and anxiety-like behaviors induced by CFA in mice and reduced spinal inflammation. RNA sequencing indicated PINK1 as a pivotal gene, and aucubin treatment led to a significant downregulation of PINK1 expression. Further GO and KEGG analyses suggested the involvement of mitochondrial function in the therapeutic regulation of aucubin. Western blotting revealed that aucubin markedly decreased PINK1, Parkin, and p62 levels while increasing LC3B expression. Immunofluorescence showed the predominant co-localization of PINK1 with neuronal cells. Moreover, CCCP-induced mitophagy alleviated mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia caused by CFA and reversed CFA-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. Conclusions: In summary, our data suggest that aucubin effectively alleviates CFA-induced inflammatory pain, potentially through triggering the PINK1 pathway, promoting mitophagy, and suppressing inflammation. These results provide a novel theoretical foundation for addressing the treatment of inflammatory pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The cuttlefish, Sepia esculenta, is both a valuable economic resource and a creature of scientific interest. Our study investigated how changes in ocean salinity, a factor subject to environmental shifts, affect young, more responsive cuttlefish. We examined the gene expression of cuttlefish when exposed to lower levels of salinity. Using transcriptomic and enrichment analysis, we identified over a thousand genes that were differentially expressed under these circumstances. The images created from the results of these analyses can be used to visualize the content of the analyses. Interestingly, we discovered that low salinity could trigger harmful cell proliferation in juvenile cuttlefish, thus disrupting their normal functions. This information is valuable as it can inform potential measures to reduce the mortality rate of hatchling cuttlefish in artificially controlled conditions. Sepia esculenta is an economically important mollusk distributed in the coastal waters of China. Juveniles are more susceptible to stimulation by the external environment than mature individuals. The ocean salinity fluctuates due to environmental changes. However, there is a lack of research on the salinity adaptations of S. esculenta. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the differential expression of genes in S. esculenta larvae after stimulation by low salinity. RNA samples were sequenced and 1039 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Then, enrichment analysis was performed using the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. Finally, a protein–protein interaction network (PPI) was constructed, and the functions of key genes in S. esculenta larvae after low-salinity stimulation were explored. We suggest that low salinity leads to an excess proliferation of cells in S. esculenta larvae that, in turn, affects normal physiological activities. The results of this study can aid in the artificial incubation of S. esculenta and reduce the mortality of larvae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viruses in aquatic ecosystems exhibit remarkable abundance and diversity. However, scattered studies have been conducted to mine uncultured viruses and identify them taxonomically in lake water. Here, whole genomes (29–173 kbp) of seven uncultured dsDNA bacteriophages were discovered in Dishui Lake, the largest artificial lake in Shanghai. We analyzed their genomic signatures and found a series of viral auxiliary metabolic genes closely associated with protein synthesis and host metabolism. Dishui Lake phages shared more genes with uncultivated environmental viruses than with reference viruses based on the gene-sharing network classification. Phylogeny of proteomes and comparative genomics delineated three new genera within two known viral families of Kyanoviridae and Autographiviridae, and four new families in Caudoviricetes for these seven novel phages. Their potential hosts appeared to be from the dominant bacterial phyla in Dishui Lake. Altogether, our study provides initial insights into the composition and diversity of bacteriophage communities in Dishui Lake, contributing valuable knowledge to the ongoing research on the roles played by viruses in freshwater ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many combined heat and power (CHP) energy hubs work within the following heat load mode in the wintertime to supply the request for heat, and renewable energy has been often restricted in the unified energy network (UEN) markets. The power Internet of Things (PIoTs) has enabled UEN to transmit data increasingly frequently. As a result of flexible connections among various UEN networks, renewable energy increases its accommodation capacity considerably. Thus, the purpose of the study is to optimize UEN within the backdrop of PIoTs. According to the impact of PIoTs on UEN, this paper develops the combined demand response (DR) process and the layout of the important parts of UEN. Afterward, this study develops a bi-level economic dispatching process based on the cyber-physical systems of PIoTs and UEN. In the dispatching process, the higher level optimizes the total UEN function; the lower level optimizes the demand-side equipment output and combined DR. Then, the gray wolf optimization scheme is used to solve the bi-level dispatch. Lastly, the standard UEN and the practical network have been used to verify the efficiency of the suggested process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To tackle the overheating problem of the heating surface in deep peak shaving, it is urgent to develop working substance (steam) temperature regulation and heating surface safety control technologies that combine combustion and hydrodynamic instability evaluation. This work relies on a 1000 MW boiler involved in deep peak shaving, and adopts CFD numerical simulation technology to obtain reasonable holographic heat load data of the boiler. The heat load data and the working substance side data are coupled to develop a real-time performance calculation model that combines combustion and hydrodynamic steam temperature. Real-time monitoring of the local position of the boiler water wall and the convection heating surface can be achieved through the three steps: heat load screening, heat exchange process calculation, and result display. The results show that through the corresponding expression of on-site industrial parameters and CFD simulation data, the effective analysis, extraction, modeling and optimization of the operation data can be realized for real-time online monitoring and intelligent early warning of the entire working condition. The model error is less than 2 °C and the model can realize early warnings at 5 min, so as to ensure the safety and stability of boiler operation and save the operating cost of the power plant to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virophages are a group of small double-stranded DNA viruses that replicate and proliferate with the help of the viral factory of large host viruses. They are widely distributed in aquatic environments but are more abundant in freshwater ecosystems. Here, we mined the Global Ocean Viromes 2.0 (GOV 2.0) dataset for the diversity, distribution, and association of virophages and their potential host large viruses in marine environments. We identified 94 virophage sequences (>5 kbp in length), of which eight were complete genomes. The MCP phylogenetic tree showed that the GOV virophages were widely distributed on the global virophage tree but relatively clustered on three major branches. The gene-sharing network divided GOV virophages into 21 outliers, 2 overlaps, and 14 viral clusters, of which 4 consisted of only the GOV virophages. We also identified 45 large virus sequences, 8 of which were >100 kbp in length and possibly involved in cell–virus–virophage (C–V–v) trisome relationships. The potential eukaryotic hosts of these eight large viruses and the eight virophages with their complete genomes identified are likely to be algae, based on comparative genomic analysis. Both homologous gene and codon usage analyses support a possible interaction between a virophage (GOVv18) and a large algal virus (GOVLV1). These results indicate that diverse and novel virophages and large viruses are widespread in global marine environments, suggesting their important roles and the presence of complicated unknown C–V–v relationships in marine ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of great practical significance to accurately distinguish the different water supply sources of rivers and lakes under climate change for regional water resources utilization. This study examines the impact of climate change on the hydrological processes of the Ranwu Lake basin in the southeastern Tibet Plateau. The authors used China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD) historical data, CanESM5′s future climate predictor, and the SPHY model to analyze trends in temperature, precipitation, and water supply sources in the basin. The study found that warming in the basin was higher than that in the Tibet Plateau, with high-altitude areas and winter showing more significant warming. From 1998 to 2018, precipitation in the basin showed a trend of fluctuation and decline. The study also found that glacial meltwater accounted for the majority of total runoff in the basin (54.13%), while snow meltwater, rainfall, and baseflow accounted for about 22.98%, 11.84%, and 11.06%, respectively, on average in recent years. The total runoff in the Ranwu Lake Basin will continue to decrease due to the accelerating retreat of glaciers, with the hydrological process transforming from being dominated by glacier processes to rain–snow processes. The study also predicts that three-quarters of glaciers in the basin will vanish within the next forty years, and by 2100, only around 20% of glaciers will remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alfalfa cultivated in salt–alkali soil was used for fermentation, to which an inoculum of Lactobacillus plantarum YQM48 was added, to assess its effect on the feed quality and the microbial community structure of the fermented silage. A control was included without inoculum. The nutritional components, fermentation quality, pH, and microbial community of the silage were measured after 30 and 60 days of anaerobic fermentation. The results showed that after 30 and 60 days of fermentation in the presence of the inoculum, the content of water-soluble carbohydrates, crude protein content, and dry matter were all significantly higher than those of the control silage, the pH and butyric acid content were lower, and the content of lactic acid and acetic acid were higher (p < 0.05 for all). There was no significant difference in pH and butyric acid content between 30 and 60 days of fermentation in the presence of the inoculum (p > 0.05), while the lactic acid and acetic acid contents were significantly lower in the 60-day silage compared to the 30-day silage (p < 0.05). Fermentation reduced the abundance of Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria (the abundant phyla in the fresh alfalfa), while the abundance of Firmicutes increased, reaching 92.3% after 60 days of fermentation with inoculum. The dominant genus in that sample was Lactobacillus (70.0%), followed by Enterococcus (12.9%), while fermentation of 60 days without inoculum resulted in only 29.2% Lactobacillus, together with 27.8% Cyanobacteria, and 12.2% Enterococcus. In summary, the addition of L. plantarum YQM48 can improve the nutritional components and fermentation quality of alfalfa silage cultivated on a salt-alkali soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Osmylopsychopidae, an extinct family of Neuroptera, is closely related to the extant Psychopsidae. The sporadic records of this family and limited preservation of fossil specimens have hindered the understanding of the evolution of Osmylopsychopidae. In this paper, one new genus with four new species of Osmylopsychopidae are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of northeastern China. These newly discovered osmylopsychopids with a forewing length of ca. 10 mm (implying small body size), clearly distinguished from the traditional sense of Osmylopsychopidae, suggest that Osmylopsychopidae possibly underwent a significant diversification during the Mesozoic. One new genus with four new species sharing the similar character of a forewing length of ca. 10 mm, namely, Minipsychops spasulus gen. et sp. nov., Minipsychops polychotomus sp. nov., Minipsychops densus sp. nov., and Minipsychops unicus sp. nov., are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia in China. These new insects can be attributed to Osmylopsychopidae for their distinctive configuration of costal space and the venations of RP1 and Cu. Compared with the typically medium to large body sizes of known osmylopsychopids, these new Middle Jurassic taxa of a particularly miniaturized lineage not only enrich the species diversity of Osmylopsychopidae, but also enhance our understanding of the historical evolution of these poorly known lacewings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The spatial patterns of species are highly relevant to the contemporary environment and its topographical factors. It has been predicted that climate warming has the greatest impact on habitat selection and the expansion and contraction of geographic ranges for insects, as their physiological functions are strongly influenced by external environmental conditions. However, few studies focus on how the distribution pattern and range of the insects has or will change in response to long-term climate change. Under the background of climate warming, it is urgent for us to understand how the species distribution pattern is expected to change, in order to take some protection actions at the moment, particularly for those rare insect taxa. An old and Northern-Hemisphere-distributed beetle group Osphya is considered as an ideal candidate to conduct this aspect. In this study, we analyzed the distribution pattern and predicted the suitable habitats of Osphya under different climate scenarios (LGM, MID, Current, 2050s and 2070s) using ArcGIS techniques and MaxEnt modelling. The obtained results made us better understand how climate change affects the distribution pattern of the long-lived insects distributed in the Northern Hemisphere and provide guidance of the exploration and protection of the relict insects there such as Osphya. Exploring the development of species distribution patterns under climate change is the basis of biogeography and macroecology. However, under the background of global climate change, few studies focus on how the distribution pattern and the range of insects have or will change in response to long-term climate change. An old but small, Northern-Hemisphere-distributed beetle group Osphya is an ideal subject to conduct the study in this aspect. Here, based on a comprehensive geographic dataset, we analyzed the global distribution pattern of Osphya using ArcGIS techniques, which declared a discontinuous and uneven distribution pattern across the USA, Europe, and Asia. Furthermore, we predicted the suitable habitats of Osphya under different climate scenarios via the MaxEnt model. The results showed that the high suitability areas were always concentrated in the European Mediterranean and the western coast of USA, while a low suitability exhibited in Asia. Moreover, by integrating the analyses of biogeography and habitat suitability, we inferred that the Osphya species conservatively prefer a warm, stable, and rainy climate, and they tend to expand towards higher latitude in response to the climate warming from the past to future. These results are helpful in exploring the species diversity and protection of Osphya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement learning has shown a great ability and has defeated human beings in the field of real-time strategy games. In recent years, reinforcement learning has been used in cyberspace to carry out automated and intelligent attacks. Traditional defense methods are not enough to deal with this problem, so it is necessary to design defense agents to counter intelligent attacks. The interaction between the attack agent and the defense agent can be modeled as a multi-agent Markov game. In this paper, an adversarial decision-making approach that combines the Bayesian Strong Stackelberg and the WoLF algorithms was proposed to obtain the equilibrium point of multi-agent Markov games. With this method, the defense agent can obtain the adversarial decision-making strategy as well as continuously adjust the strategy in cyberspace. As verified in experiments, the defense agent should attach importance to short-term rewards in the process of a real-time game between the attack agent and the defense agent. The proposed approach can obtain the largest rewards for defense agent compared with the classic Nash-Q and URS-Q algorithms. In addition, the proposed approach adjusts the action selection probability dynamically, so that the decision entropy of optimal action gradually decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic review of the research available on salinity optic fiber sensors (OFSs) for seawater based on the refractive index (RI) measurement principle for the actual measurement demand of seawater salinity in marine environmental monitoring, the definition of seawater salinity and the correspondence between the seawater RI and salinity. To further investigate the progress of in situ measurements of absolute salinity by OFSs, the sensing mechanisms, research progress and measurement performance indices of various existing fiber optic salinity sensors are summarized. According to the Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater-2010 (TEOS-10), absolute salinity is recommended for sensor calibration and measurement. Comprehensive domestic and international research progress shows that fiber-optic RI sensors are ideal for real-time, in situ measurement of the absolute salinity of seawater and have excellent potential for application in long-term in situ measurements in the deep ocean. Finally, based on marine environmental monitoring applications, a development plan and the technical requirements of salinity OFSs are proposed to provide references for researchers engaged in related industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris-covered glaciers have contrasting melting mechanisms and climate response patterns if compared with debris-free glaciers and thus show a unique influence on the hydrological process. Based on high-resolution satellite images and unpiloted aerial vehicle surveys, this study investigated the dynamic changes of Zhuxi Glacier, a thick debris-covered glacier in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Our result shows that the whole glacier can be divided into the active regime and stagnant regime along the elevation of 3400 m a.s.l. The mean surface velocity of the active regime was 13.1 m yr−1, which was five times higher than that of the stagnant regime. The surface-lowing rate of this debris-covered glacier reaches more than 1 m yr−1 and displays an accelerating trend. The majority of ice loss concentrates around ice cliffs and supraglacial ponds, the ablation hotspots. These hotspots can be roughly classified into three types, including persistent, expanding, and shrinking patterns, at different dynamic regimes on the Zhuxi Glacier. With the evolution of these hotpots and glacier dynamic changes, the supraglacial ponds showed significant change, with the total number fluctuating from 15 to 38 and the total area increasing from 1128 m2 to 95790 m2 during the past decade. The recent exponential expansion of the proglacial lake and the significant downwasting of stagnant ice inside the dammed terminus moraine possibly trigger the glacial lake outburst flood and thus threaten the security of livelihoods and infrastructure downstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, in order to accurately detect Domain Name System (DNS) covert channels based on DNS over HTTPS (DoH) encryption and to solve the problems of weak single-feature differentiation and poor performance in the existing detection methods, we have designed a DoH-encrypted DNS covert channel detection method based on features fusion, called FF-MR. FF-MR is based on a Multi-Head Attention and Residual Neural Network. It fuses session statistical features with multi-channel session byte sequence features. Some important features that play a key role in the detection task are screened out of the fused features through the calculation of the Multi-Head Attention mechanism. Finally, a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) is used to detect encrypted DNS covert channels. By considering both global and focused features, the main idea of FF-MR is that the degree of correlation between each feature and all other features is expressed as an attention weight. Thus, features are re-represented as the result of the weighted fusion of all features using the Multi-Head Attention mechanism. Focusing on certain important features according to the distribution of attention weights improves the detection performance. While detecting the traffic in encrypted DNS covert channels, FF-MR can also accurately identify encrypted traffic generated by the three DNS covert channel tools. Experiments on the CIRA-CIC-DoHBrw-2020 dataset show that the macro-averaging recall and precision of the FF-MR method reach 99.73% and 99.72%, respectively, and the macro-averaging F1-Score reached 0.9978, which is up to 4.56% higher than the existing methods compared in the paper. FF-MR achieves at most an 11.32% improvement in macro-averaging F1-Score in identifying three encrypted DNS covert channels, indicating that FF-MR has a strong ability to detect and identify DoH-encrypted DNS covert channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of power plant units of higher capacity and with improved parameters, the proportion of high-capacity units for generating power has increased; this requires large capacity units to take responsibility for power-grid peak shaving. When the boiler operates at low loads, the working fluid in the boiler water wall tubes is subjected to high heat flux in the furnace, which can cause heat transfer deterioration, tube overheating or even leakage. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the reliability of the boiler hydrodynamic cycle during peak shaving (low load operation). This study takes a 1000 MW ultra-supercritical single-reheat Π type boiler with single furnace and double tangential firing as the research object. A furnace Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and hydrodynamic coupling analysis model is established and verified according to the actual operating conditions on site. The calculation results show that the simulated value is in good agreement with the actual operating value. Therefore, the model established in this study can reflect the real situation of the on-site furnace to a certain extent, and has high reliability. Based on the fitting results, the causes of steam temperature deviation of the boiler water wall are analyzed, and measures to reduce the deviation are proposed to provide a necessary basis for power plant operation and boiler design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The penetration test has many repetitive operations and requires advanced expert knowledge, therefore, the manual penetration test is inefficient. With the development of reinforcement learning, the intelligent penetration test has been a research hotspot. However, the existing intelligent penetration test simulation environments only focus on the exploits of target hosts by the penetration tester agent's actions while ignoring the important role of social engineering in the penetration test in reality. In addition, the construction of the existing penetration test simulation environment is based on the traditional network graph model without integrating security factors and attributes, and it is difficult to express the interaction between the penetration tester and the target network. This paper constructs an improved network graph model for penetration test (NMPT), which integrates the relevant security attributes of the penetration test. The NMPT model lays the foundation for extending the penetration tester's social engineering actions. Then, we propose an intelligent penetration test method that incorporates social engineering factors (SE-AIPT) based on the Markov Decision Process. We adopt several mainstream reinforcement learning algorithms to train attack agents. The experiments show that the SE-AIPT method could vividly model the penetration tester agent's social engineering actions, which effectively improves the reality of the simulation environment. Moreover, the penetration tester agent shows superior effects in the attack path discovery in the intelligent penetration test simulation environment constructed by the SE-AIPT method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization and leaching mechanism of REEs from phosphogypsum (PG) in HCl was studied in-depth. REEs contained in the PG were 208 ppm, of which Y, La, Ce, and Nd were the four most abundant elements. The modes of occurrence of rare earth elements (REEs) in the PG were quantified using the sequential chemical extraction (SCE) method. Among the five REE occurrence species, the metal oxide form accounted for the largest proportion, followed by the residual, organic matter, and ion-exchangeable fractions, and REEs bound to carbonates were the least. From the comparison of the distributions of REEs and calcium in different occurrence states, it can be determined that REEs contained in the PG were mainly present in the residue state (existed in the gypsum lattice) and the metal oxide state (easily leached). The leaching results show that the suitable leaching conditions were acid concentration of 1.65 mol/L, S/L ratio of 1/10, and reaction temperature of 60 °C. At the condition, the maximum leaching efficiency for ∑REE was 65.6%, of which the yttrium leaching rate was the highest and reached 73.8%. Importantly, A new kinetic equation based on the cylindrical shrinking core model (SCM) was deduced and could well describe REE leaching process from PG. The apparent activation energy for ∑REE leaching was determined to be 20.65 kJ·mol−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brushless synchronous generators, which have the structure of three-stage generators to realize brushless excitation, are the most commonly used aero-generators. With the development of more electric aircraft technology, the output frequency of aero-generators is changing from constant to variable, and the characteristics of generators are also changed. To make sure that the generators can be adapted to the variable frequency operation, this paper analyzes the effects of different operating conditions on generator performance and proposes corresponding design methods. The design and verification of the electromagnetic field, fluid field, temperature field and stress field are carried out for the variable frequency generator. A prototype generator is manufactured according to the design results. An experimental platform is set up to test the performances of the designed generator. The final experimental results show that the generator can work well in variable frequency generation systems, which proves the design method proposed in this paper is effective and feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new and patented polishing tool (ZL2020102387137) called a Self-rotating Wheel Polishing Tool (SWPT) was built, and its tool influence function (TIF) was investigated in this study. The polishing wheel is an innovative two-layer structure: a rigid hub inside and a flexible polishing pad outside. By using finite element analysis, the dynamic contact characteristics between the polishing wheel and the workpiece were studied, and the theoretical TIF was modeled. Due to the influence of friction resistance, the TIF is not circular, but oval. We then ran material removal experiment, and it was found that the experimental TIF and the theoretical TIF are very close and both are close to the Gaussian shape. Finally, optical fabrication was performed. After four times of about 3 h fabrication, the form error converged from PV-1.434λ (λ = 632 nm), RMS-0.308λ to PV-0.144λ, RMS-0.009λ, and PV and RMS converged by 90% and 97%, respectively. The form accuracy achieved the expected target of RMS-0.02λ, which proves that the SWPT has the characteristics of high convergence rate and high fabrication accuracy. The SWPT has a broad application prospect in the field of high-precision optical fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the application of more electric aircraft (MEA) technology, variable frequencies and high power ratings become import features of aero-generators. The brushless synchronous generator, which has a three-stage structure, is the most commonly used type of aero-generator. Due to the variation of operating conditions, the implementation of generator controllers becomes more and more difficult. In this paper, a state space model of a generator is derived and the influence of different operating conditions on the frequency response characteristics of the generator is revealed. Based on a fuzzy PI controller, an additional fuzzy logic controller is applied to modify the PI parameters of the voltage loop by introducing the generator speed to cope with the speed variation. Finally, the results of the simulations and experiments demonstrate that the dual fuzzy PI controller can improve both the steady-state and dynamic performance of the brushless synchronous generator, verifying the previous theoretical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-domain routing systems is an important complex network in the Internet. Research on the vulnerability of inter-domain routing network nodes is of great support to the stable operation of the Internet. For the problem of node vulnerability, we proposed a method for identifying key nodes in inter-domain routing systems based on cascading failures (IKN-CF). Firstly, we analyzed the topology of inter-domain routing network and proposed an optimal valid path discovery algorithm considering business relationships. Then, the reason and propagation mechanism of cascading failure in the inter-domain routing network were analyzed, and we proposed two cascading indicators, which can approximate the impact of node failure on the network. After that, we established a key node identification model based on improved entropy weight TOPSIS (EWT), and the key node sequence in the network can be obtained through EWT calculation. We compared the existing three methods in two real inter-domain routing networks. The results indicate that the ranking results of IKN-CF are high accuracy, strong stability, and wide applicability. The accuracy of the top 100 nodes of the ranking result can reach 83.6%, which is at least 12.8% higher than the average accuracy of the existing three methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase and diversification of network users, the scale of the inter-domain routing system is becoming larger and larger. Cascading failure analysis and modeling are of great significance to improve the security of inter-domain routing networks. To solve the problem that the propagation principle of cascading failure does not conform to reality, a Cascading Failure Model for inter-domain routing systems with the Recovery Feedback Mechanism (CFM-RFM) is proposed in this paper. CFM-RFM comprehensively considers the main factors that cause cascading failure. Based on two types of update message propagation mechanism and traffic redistribution, it simulates the cascading failure process. We found that under the action of the recovery feedback mechanism, the cascading failure process was accelerated, and the network did not quickly return to normal, but was rather quickly and extensively paralyzed. The average attack cost can be reduced by 38.1% when the network suffers the same damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droplet nucleation and evaporation are ubiquitous in nature and many technological applications, such as phase-change cooling and boiling heat transfer. So far, the description of these phenomena at the molecular scale has posed challenges for modelling with most of the models being implemented on a lattice. Here, we propose an off-lattice Monte-Carlo approach combined with a grid that can be used for the investigation of droplet formation and evaporation. We provide the details of the model, its implementation as Python code, and results illustrating its dependence on various parameters. The method can be easily extended for any force-field (e.g., coarse-grained, all-atom models, and external fields, such as gravity and electric field). Thus, we anticipate that the proposed model will offer opportunities for a wide range of studies in various research areas involving droplet formation and evaporation and will also form the basis for further method developments for the molecular modelling of such phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Emphasis on improving meat quality is growing in the meat industry. Pigs under the same diet and environment could present with difference in meat quality if they have diverse genetic backgrounds. The Large Black pig is a British native pig breed which is famous for its hardness and resistance to extensive farming; compared with commercial cross-bred pigs, they have a slower growth rate. The aim of this study is to investigate the carcass and meat quality traits of Large Black pigs and commercial cross-bred pigs in relation to their transcriptome profiles, and consequently clarify the phenotypic and genotypic differences between these two groups of pigs. The results showed that Large Black pigs had greater intramuscular fat content than commercial cross-bred pigs, while the growth performance of commercial cross-bred pigs was better, and the transcriptomic differences between these two groups of pigs may be the cause of meat quality and growth performance variances. The outcome of the study provides new sights into the adoption of the Large Black breed in the pig industry. The meat quality of different pig breeds is associated with their different muscle tissue physiological processes, which involves a large variety of genes related with muscle fat and energy metabolism. Understanding the differences of biological processes of muscle after slaughter is helpful to reveal the meat quality development of different breeds. Therefore, eight native Large Black pigs (BP), with high fat content in meat, and seven cross-bred commercial pigs (CP), which had a high feed efficiency with high lean meat, were used to investigate the differences in their meat quality and RNA transcriptomes. The average daily gain (ADG) and hot carcass weight (HCW) of CP were higher than BP, but the back-fat thickness of BP was higher than CP (p < 0.05). The CP had higher a* (redness) but lower h (hue angle) than BP (p < 0.05). The metmyoglobin (MMb) percentage of CP was higher (p < 0.05) than BP. The fat content and oxygen consumption of longissimus dorsi (LD) muscles in BP were higher (p < 0.05) than CP. BP had higher monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) content, but CP had higher polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) content (p < 0.05). The RNA-seq data highlighted 201 genes differentially expressed between the two groups (corrected false discovery rate (FDR) p < 0.05), with 75 up-regulated and 126 down-regulated genes in BP compared with CP using the fold change (FC). The real-time PCR was used to validate the results of RNA-seq for eight genes, and the genes related to lipid and energy metabolism were highly expressed in BP (p < 0.05). Based on the results, BP had superior intramuscular fat content to CP, while the growth performance of CP was better, and the transcriptomic differences between these two groups of pigs may cause the meat quality and growth performance variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seasonal dynamic changes of Tibetan glaciers have seen little prior investigation, despite the increase in geodetic studies of multi-year changes. This study compares seasonal glacier dynamics ("cold" and "warm" seasons) in the ablation zone of Parlung No. 4 Glacier, a temperate glacier in the monsoon-influenced southeastern Tibetan Plateau, by using repeat unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys combined with Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry and ground stake measurements. Our results showed that the surveyed ablation zone had a mean change of −2.7 m of ice surface elevation during the period of September 2018 to October 2019 but is characterized by significant seasonal cyclic variations with ice surface elevation lifting (+2.0 m) in the cold season (September 2018 to June 2019) but lowering (−4.7 m) in the warm season (June 2019 to October 2019). Over an annual timescale, surface lowering was greatly suppressed by the resupply of ice from the glacier's accumulation area—the annual emergence velocity compensates for about 55% of surface ablation in our study area. Cold season emergence velocities (3.0 ± 1.2 m) were ~5-times larger than those observed in the warm season (0.6 ± 1.0 m). Distinct spring precipitation patterns may contribute to these distinct seasonal signals. Such seasonal dynamic conditions are possibly critical for different glacier responses to climate change in this region of the Tibetan Plateau, and perhaps further afield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Anti-stress is an emergent research point to current cattle industry. Land transport stress, a negative off-site fattening mode, causing a serious problems to beef cattle production, such as nutrition-metabolism, hormone secretion levels, and immune competence are imbalanced. In this paper we compared among Simmental Crossbred Cattle (SC), Native Yellow Cattle (NY), and Cattle Yak (CY) about ruminal microbe diversity and immune functions before and after transportation. The results showing that transport stress leads to increase secretion of hormone, both pro-inflammatory cytokines and rumen lipopolysaccharide. Meanwhile, the ruminal microbiota OTUs, Chao1, and Shannon were also changed, and Prevotella1 in NY group was higher than other groups before transport; after transport Firmicutes and Lactobacillus were increased than other groups in CY. The rumen microbiota also related with serum cytokine. Under transport stress, rumen microbiota affect the secretion of hormone levels and immune functions and breed factors affect the performance of stress resistance. The intensity and specialization of beef cattle production make off-site fattening, and introduce new breeds need transportation to achieve the goals. The present study was aimed to investigate effects of land transport stress on hormones levels, microbial fermentation, microbial composition, immunity and correlation among them among Simmental Crossbred Cattle (SC), Native Yellow Cattle (NY), and Cattle Yak (CY). High-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the rumen microbial diversity. After transport stress cortisol (COR), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β were increased (p < 0.05) in all groups. Rumen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was increased (p < 0.05) in SC and CY groups. Total volatile fatty acids were increased (p < 0.05) in all groups. The ruminal microbiota about OTUs, Chao1, and Shannon in SC and CY groups were higher than before transport. Prevotella1 in NY group was higher (p < 0.05) than other groups before transport; after transport Firmicutes and Lactobacillus were increased (p < 0.05) than other groups in CY. Lactobacillus was positively correlated with IL-6 and IL-4. Under transport stress, cattle may suffer from inflammatory response through modulating HPA axis and microbiota metabolite affects the secretion of hormone levels and immune function and breeds factor affect the performance of stress resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thien-and-Lin’s polynomial-based secret image sharing (PSIS) is utilized as the basic method to achieve PSISs with better performances, such as meaningful shares, two-in-one property and shares with different priorities. However, this (k , n) threshold PSIS cannot achieve lossless recovery for pixel values more than 250. Furthermore, current solutions to lossless recovery for PSIS have several natural drawbacks, such as large computational costs and random pixel expansion. In this paper, a lossless and efficient (k , n) threshold PSIS scheme with reduced shadow size is presented. For lossless recovery and efficiency, two adjacent pixels are specified as a secret value, the prime in the sharing polynomial is replaced with 65,537, and then the additional screening operation can ensure each shared value in the range [ 0 , 65,535 ] . To reduce shadows size and improve security, only the first k − 1 coefficients are embedded with secret values and the last coefficient is assigned randomly. To prevent the leakage of secrets, generalized Arnold permutation with special key generating strategy is performed on the secret image prior to sharing process without key distribution. Both theoretical analyses and experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed to investigate the chemical composition, antioxidant activities and hepatoprotective effect of flavonoids from Ziziphus jujub a cv. Jinsixiaozao (ZJF). The composition of ZJF was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and antioxidant properties were investigated by biological assays in vitro. The hepatoprotective activity of ZJF was evaluated in acetaminophen (APAP)-treated BALB/c mice. Results indicate that ZJF displayed significant antioxidant capacity. Pretreatment with ZJF significantly decreased APAP-elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin (TB). Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were enhanced with ZJF administration, while malondialdehyde (MDA) level and glutathione (GSH) depletion were reduced. Meanwhile, ZJF reversed the suppression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) nuclear translocation, and up-regulated the protein expression of NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1(NQO1) in liver damage mice. Furthermore, ZJF attenuated APAP-induced inflammatory mediator production, such as nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Expression of p65 showed that ZJF dampened nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation. The results strongly indicate that the hepatoprotective role of ZJF in APAP-induced hepatotoxicity might result from its induction of antioxidant defense via activation of Nrf2 and reduction of inflammation via inhibition of NF-κB., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The prior knowledge of protein structural class may offer useful clues on understanding its functionality as well as its tertiary structure. Though various significant efforts have been made to find a fast and effective computational approach to address this problem, it is still a challenging topic in the field of bioinformatics. The position-specific score matrix (PSSM) profile has been shown to provide a useful source of information for improving the prediction performance of protein structural class. However, this information has not been adequately explored. To this end, in this study, we present a feature extraction technique which is based on gapped-dipeptides composition computed directly from PSSM. Then, a careful feature selection technique is performed based on support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE). These optimal features are selected to construct a final predictor. The results of jackknife tests on four working datasets show that our method obtains satisfactory prediction accuracies by extracting features solely based on PSSM and could serve as a very promising tool to predict protein structural class.