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Sorghum with longer mesocotyls is beneficialfor improving its deep tolerance, which is important for the seedling rates. Here, we perform transcriptome analysis between four different sorghum lines, with the aim of identifying the key genes regulating sorghum mesocotyl elongation. According to the mesocotyl length (ML) data, we constructed four comparison groups for the transcriptome analysis and detected 2705 common DEGs. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the most common category of DEGs were involved in cell wall, microtubule, cell cycle, phytohormone, and energy metabolism-related pathways. In the cell wall biological processes, the expression of SbEXPA9-1, SbEXPA9-2, SbXTH25, SbXTH8-1, and SbXTH27 are increased in the sorghum lines with long ML. In the plant hormone signaling pathway, five auxin-responsive genes and eight cytokinin/zeatin/abscisic acid/salicylic acid-related genes showed a higher expression level in the long ML sorghum lines. In addition, five ERF genes showed a higher expression level in the sorghum lines with long ML, whereas two ERF genes showed a lower expression level in these lines. Furthermore, the expression levels of these genes were further analyzed using real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), which showed similar results. This work identified the candidate gene regulating ML, which may provide additional evidence to understand the regulatory molecular mechanisms of sorghum mesocotyl elongation.

Pest and disease control outsourcing has become an effective means to restore damaged arable land and guarantee agroecological benefits. However, it is adopted at a relatively low rate in China. The purpose of this study is to explore, from the perspective of government intervention, behavioral logic, and the game relationship among farmers, service organizations and the government in the pest and disease control outsourcing system as well as the endogenous motivation of each subject. The results indicate that when the degree of policy implementation is low, the government’s policy is ineffective, but, after reaching a certain level, the higher the degree of policy implementation is, the stronger the farmers’ willingness to choose outsourcing control and the service organizations’ willingness to provide positive control services are, and the faster the stable state of tripartite joint pest and disease control is formed. In the case of implementing a single policy tool, the convergence rate of each party that implements the regulatory policy alone is fast but may be unstable, while the rate is slow but more stable when a guidance- or incentive-based policy is solely applied. The effect of a combination of policy tools being applied is much better than that of a single policy tool being applied. The simultaneous implementation of the three types of policy tools can form a policy system with both positive and negative mechanisms, which can maximize the complementary and superposition effects.

The surface integrity of ultra-high-strength steel has a significant influence on service performance, and cutting fluid plays an important role in maintaining surface integrity in production. In this paper, the surface integrity of ultra-high-strength steel 45CrNiMoVA was investigated under three cutting fluids: HY-103 (micro-emulsion), TRIM E709 (emulsion), and Vasco 7000 (micro-emulsion) from the aspects of cutting force, surface morphology, residual stress, micro hardness, microstructure, etc. The results showed that the changing trend of the cutting forces in three directions is HY-103 > Vasco 7000 > TRIM E709. The TRIM E709 contains the maximum lubricants, which reduce cutting force and Sa roughness, while the Vasco 7000 contains the minimum corrosive elements, which results in the least pitting. Both tangential and axial stresses under cutting fluid are tensile stresses. TRIM E709 and Vasco 7000 are reduced axially by 4.45% and 7.60% relative to HY-103, respectively. The grain refinement layer depths of HY-103, TRIM E709, and Vasco 7000 are 9 μm, 4 μm, and 8 μm, respectively, and TRIM E709 can induce recrystallized grains to grow along {001} of the sample cross section, which results from the lowest cooling rate. This work may provide an innovative control strategy for cutting fluid to improve surface integrity and service performance.

The low thermal conductivity of gypsum-based composites containing phase change materials (PCMs) has limited their application in construction materials. In this study, the mechanical and thermal properties and microstructures of paraffin (PA)/gypsum composites containing iron powder, copper powder, and expanded graphite were characterized by a universal testing machine, thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. The PA/gypsum composites had optimal mechanical properties when the PA content was 20 wt.%. The compressive and flexural strengths were 9.46 MPa and 3.57 MPa, respectively. When the copper powder content increased, the densities and porosities of the PA/gypsum composites containing the copper powder did not largely change. The average density and porosity of the composites were 1.17 g/cm3 and 46%, respectively. The compressive and flexural strengths of the PA/gypsum composite containing 8 wt.% copper powder were optimal. A phase change temperature of 48.8 °C was obtained when 8 wt.% copper powder was added to the PA/gypsum composite. The thermal conductivities of the PA/gypsum composites were lower than those of PA/gypsum composites with 8 wt.% iron powder, 8 wt.% copper powder, or 8 wt.% expanded graphite. Parts of coarse calcium sulfate dihydrate crystals were present at the interfaces between the gypsum and PA, which indicated that the growth of calcium sulfate dihydrate crystals was affected by the copper powder.

Background: The single-leg landing is one of the maneuvers that has been linked to non-contact ACL injuries, and knee braces have been shown to reduce ACL injury incidence. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a knee brace has an effect on muscle force during single-leg landings at two heights through musculoskeletal simulation.Methods: 11 healthy male participants were recruited to complete single-leg landings at 30 cm and 45 cm between the braced and non-braced. We recorded trajectories and ground reaction force using an 8-camera motion capture system and a force platform. The captured data was imported into the generic musculoskeletal model (Gait2392) in OpenSim. Static optimization was used to calculate muscle forces. Results: The gluteus minimus, rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis medial gastrocnemius, lateral gartrocnemius, and soles muscle forces all showed statistically significant differences between the braced and non-braced. Simultaneously, increasing landing height significantly affected gluteus maximums, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedia muscle forces. Conclusions: Our findings imply that the knee brace may be able to alter muscle forces in single-leg landings to prevent anterior cruciate ligament injury. Additionally, research demonstrates that people should avoid landing from heights due to the increased risk of knee injuries.

Porous alumina ceramics with different porosities were prepared via atmospheric pressure sintering using a sacrificial template method with alumina powder as the raw material and carbon fiber (CF) and graphite as pore-forming agents. The effects of the contents and ratios of the pore-forming agents and the aspect ratios of CF on the microstructure, mechanical properties, pore size, and pore-size distribution of the porous alumina samples were investigated. In addition, the surface fractal dimension (Ds) of porous alumina samples with different pore-forming agents was evaluated based on the mercury intrusion porosimetry data. The pore-size distribution of the prepared porous alumina samples showed single, double, or multiple peaks. The pore structure of the samples maintained the fibrous shape of the original CF and the flake morphology of graphite with a uniform pore-size distribution, but the pore structure and morphology were different. With the increase in the content of the pore-forming agent, the porosity of the samples gradually increased to a maximum of 63.2%, and the flexural strength decreased to a minimum of 12.36 MPa. The pore structure of the porous alumina samples showed obvious fractal characteristics. Ds was closely related to the pore structure parameters of the samples when the content of the pore-forming agent was 70 vol.%. It decreased with an increase in the sample porosity, most probable pore size and median pore size, but increased with an increase in the sample flexural strength.

Chinese soft-shelled turtles display obvious sex dimorphism. The exogenous application of hormones (estradiol and methyltestosterone) can change the direction of gonadal differentiation of P. sinensis to produce sex reversed individuals. However, the molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this study, TMT-based quantitative proteomics analysis of four types of P. sinensis (female, male, pseudo-female, and pseudo-male) gonads were compared. Quantitative analysis of 6107 labeled proteins in the four types of P. sinensis gonads was performed. We identified 440 downregulated and 423 upregulated proteins between pseudo-females and males, as well as 394 downregulated and 959 upregulated proteins between pseudo-males and females. In the two comparisons, the differentially expressed proteins, including K7FKG1, K7GIQ2, COL4A6, K7F2U2, and K7FF80, were enriched in some important pathways, such as focal adhesion, endocytosis, apoptosis, extracellular matrix-receptor interaction, and the regulation of actin cytoskeleton, which were upregulated in pseudo-female vs. male and downregulated in pseudo-male vs. female. In pathways such as ribosome and spliceosome, the levels of RPL28, SRSF3, SNRNP40, and HNRNPK were increased from male to pseudo-female, while they decreased from female to pseudo-male. All differentially expressed proteins after sexual reversal were divided into six clusters, according to their altered levels in the four types of P. sinensis, and associated with cellular processes, such as embryonic development and catabolic process, that were closely related to sexual reversal. These data will provide clues for the sexual reversal mechanism in P. sinensis.

The Chinese soft-shelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensis shows obvious sexual dimorphism. The economic and nutrition value of male individuals are significantly higher than those of female individuals. Pseudo-females which are base to all-male breeding have been obtained by estrogen induction, while the gene function and molecular mechanism of sex reversal remain unclear in P. sinensis. Here, comparative transcriptome analyses of female, male, and pseudo-female gonads were performed, and 14,430 genes differentially expressed were identified in the pairwise comparison of three groups. GO and KEGG analyses were performed on the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which mainly concentrated on steroid hormone synthesis. Furthermore, the results of gonadal transcriptome analysis revealed that 10 sex-related sox genes were differentially expressed in males vs. female, male vs. pseudo-female, and female vs. pseudo-female. Through the differential expression analysis of these 10 sox genes in mature gonads, six sox genes related to sex reversal were further screened. The molecular mechanism of the six sox genes in the embryo were analyzed during sex reversal after E2 treatment. In mature gonads, some sox family genes, such as sox9sox12, and sox30 were highly expressed in the testis, while sox1, sox3, sox6, sox11, and sox17 were lowly expressed. In the male embryos, exogenous estrogen can activate the expression of sox3 and inhibit the expression of sox8, sox9, and sox11. In summary, sox3 may have a role in the process of sex reversal from male to pseudo-female, when sox8 and sox9 are inhibited. Sox family genes affect both female and male pathways in the process of sex reversal, which provides a new insight for the all-male breeding of the Chinese soft-shelled turtle.

Magnetization technology has been widely used in various transportation pipeline anti-scaling and descaling processes due to its simple equipment, low operating cost and low secondary pollution. To resolve structural pipeline issues in concentrations, the effects of magnesium salt concentration on conductivity, pH value and calcium ion concentration of a magnetized calcium chloride sodium bicarbonate mixed solution were studied. The results indicated that 4.0% MgSO4 had the greatest anti-scaling effect under dynamic water conditions, which increased the calcium concentration of the mixed solution by 5.93%. Furthermore, the synergistic effects of 5.0% magnesium carbonate on the scaling of calcium carbonate were the largest, which reduced the calcium concentration of the mixed solution by 22.19%. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Raman spectra showed that magnesium carbonate reduced the effects of magnetization because it inhibited the formation of vaterite-type calcium carbonate and promoted the formation of calcite-type calcium carbonate. Magnesium sulfate can improve the anti-scaling effects of magnetization because it promotes the formation of vaterite calcium carbonate with high solubility. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the scaling process and dissolution behavior regulation of calcium carbonate and have an important reference significance for scale prevention and scale removal in concentrator pipelines.

In this study, electrochemistry pretreatment flotation of muscovite was carried out and the flotation behavior and mechanism of muscovite in the system of sodium oleate and Cu2+ion was characterized by solution pH value detection, solution conductivity detection, zeta potential, infrared spectrum and the electronic energy spectrum. The results indicated that under the conditions of muscovite mass of 10.00 g, pulp mass concentration of 13.33%, flotation speed of 1750 r/min, sodium oleate concentration of 9.20 &times, 10&minus, 4 mol/L and Cu2+ concentration of 6 &times, 5 mol/L, electrochemical pretreatment of Cu2+ could strengthen the activation of muscovite. Electrochemical pretreatment of Cu2+ solution can inhibit the hydrolysis of copper ions, increase the content of Cu2+ in the solution, strengthen the adsorption of Cu2+ on the muscovite surface, and enhance the electrostatic adsorption of sodium oleate on the muscovite surface, thereby strengthening the physical and chemical adsorption of sodium oleate on the muscovite surface.

This paper predicted the vibroacoustic regularity of a high temperature superconducting (HTS) field-modulation double-stator (HTS-FMDS) machine with stationary seal for low-speed and direct-drive applications. The originality of this paper lies in that the spatial order and angular velocity of electromagnetic-force density of the HTS-FMDS machine were derived by using the analytical method. Moreover, the validity of the analytical solutions was verified by the finite element analysis (FEA) results. Then, the modal shapes and frequencies of the outer stator were obtained by using multiphysics coupling simulation. By transferring the electromagnetic force to the stator structural model, the regularity of electromagnetic vibration and noise of the HTS-FMDS machine were revealed.

This paper has proposed a high temperature superconducting (HTS) field-modulation double-stator (HTS-FMDS) machine with a stationary seal for low-speed and direct-drive applications. The originality of this paper lies in the HTS field-excitation windings, which were fed with a direct current in order to offer strong field excitation, were placed in the inner stator, while the armature windings were installed in the outer stator so that the stationary seal of the cryogenic cooling system could be achieved. Moreover, a ferromagnetic ring was mounted on the top of each HTS coil to prevent the quench of the HTS wires resulting from the armature-reaction magnetic-field. By using finite-element analysis (FEA), the influence of the armature-reaction magnetic-field on the critical current and the electromagnetic properties were carried out so as to verify the validity of the proposed machine.

In this work, an effective field-modulated permanent-magnet (FMPM) machine was investigated, in which the spoke-magnet outer rotor and open-slot stator were employed. The objective of this paper is to provide the mathematical modeling analysis that was performed for the purpose of control research on this type of FMPM machine. The simulation results by means of finite element analysis (FEA) are given to verify the theoretical analysis and the validity of mathematical model. A prototype machine was also fabricated for experimentation. Both the analytical model and the FEA results are validated by experimental tests on the prototype machine.