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The application of organic coatings is the most cost-effective and common method for metallic equipment toward corrosion, whose anti-corrosion property needs to be improved and evaluated in a short time. To rapidly and rationally assess the anti-corrosion property of organic coatings in the ocean splash zone, a new accelerated test was proposed. In the study, the corrosion protection property of the coating samples was measured by an improved AC-DC-AC test in a simulated seawater of 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution, a simulated ocean splash zone test and a new accelerated test combining the above two tests. The results showed that the corrosion rate of the coating samples was high in the improved AC-DC-AC test, which lost its anti-corrosion property after 24 cycles equal to 96 h. The main rapid failure reason was that the time of the water and corrosive media arriving at the carbon steel substrate under the alternating cathodic and anodic polarization with symmetrical positive and negative electric charges was shortened. The entire impedance of the coating samples was improved by about 1.6 times more than that in the initial early time in the simulated ocean splash zone test, which was caused by the damage effect from the salt spraying, drying, humidifying, salt immersion, high temperature and UVA irradiation being weaker than the enhancement effect from the post-curing process by the UVA irradiation. In the new accelerated test, the samples lost their corrosion resistance after 12 cycles equal to 288 h with the fastest failure rate. On account of the coupling process of the salt spraying, drying, humidifying, salt immersion, high temperature combined with the cathodic and anodic polarization and the UVA irradiation, the penetration and transmission rate of water and corrosive media in the coating were further accelerated, the corrosion rate on the carbon steel substrate was reinforced even larger and the destruction of the top polymer molecules was more serious. The new accelerated test showed the strongest damage-acceleration effect than that in the other two tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most important food crops in the world, rice yield is directly related to national food security. Lodging is one of the most important factors restricting rice production, and the cultivation of rice varieties with lodging resistance is of great significance in rice breeding. The lodging resistance of rice is directly related to the mechanical strength of the stalks. In this paper, we reviewed the cell wall structure, its components, and its genetic regulatory mechanism, which improved the regulatory network of rice stalk mechanical strength. Meanwhile, we analyzed the new progress in genetic breeding and put forward some scientific problems that need to be solved in this field in order to provide theoretical support for the improvement and application of rice breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-regulation theory suggests that self-monitoring is a crucial factor in the progress of goal pursuit. Based on this theory, we explored the influence and mechanism of time management disposition and self-monitoring in relation to procrastination. In the study sample of 503 Chinese college students, we found that procrastination was negatively correlated with time management disposition and self-control, time management disposition was significantly and positively correlated with self-control, and self-monitoring was not significantly correlated with the other variables. Time management disposition was found to play a partially mediating role between self-control and procrastination, whereas indirect relationship between self-control and procrastination through time management disposition was moderated by self-monitoring, namely, self-monitoring moderated the effect of time management disposition on procrastination. The results of this study suggest that self-monitoring can strengthen or weaken the inhibition effect of self-control on procrastination thought time management disposition., Author(s): Jinzhe Zhao [sup.1] , Guangteng Meng [sup.2] , Yue Sun [sup.1] , Yuqing Xu [sup.1] , Jingyu Geng [sup.3] , Lei Han [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.410585.d, 0000 0001 [...]

In the realm of optical component design, the proposed multilayer grating splitter represents a significant breakthrough. For the triple-layered grating in this paper, it combines the outstanding optical properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) to achieve high-efficiency outputs for both the 0th and −2nd orders under secondary Bragg angle incidence conditions. The diffraction efficiencies for both TE and TM polarizations exceed 97%, with energy uniformity surpassing 99%. These results highlight the potential of this design in precision beam control applications. The splitter's performance benefits from the intrinsic material properties and optimally designed structural dimensions, which enhance transparency and thermal stability under operational conditions. Through rigorous design and optimization, including modal methods and simulated annealing algorithms, the device achieves exceptional uniformity in diffraction efficiency, which is crucial for high-resolution spectroscopy and precision optical measurement applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity in tropical regions is facing threats from agricultural expansion and intensification. Therefore, a promising future for local ecosystem conservation depends not only on traditional protected areas but also on well‐managed agricultural landscapes. In this study, we compared the ecological traits of bird species in paddy fields outside of protected areas and natural forests within the protected areas of Xishuangbanna, southern China. There were 148 species in total, of which 98 were in forests and 55 in paddy fields. The abundance of birds in paddy fields was 176 per kilometer, which was much higher than the 60 per kilometer in forests. There were 26 law‐protected species observed, half of which were found in each habitat. The main functional groups living in nature reserves are invertivores and frugivores, whereas paddy fields provide habitats for aquatic predator and granivore bird species. Our results indicate that paddy fields act as a refuge for wetland and grassland bird species when natural wetlands disappear, highlighting the urgent need to focus more on wetland protection and eco‐friendly agricultural schemes at the landscape scale in future conservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) has shown good performance in screening common aneuploidies. However, its performance in detecting fetal sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs) needs to be evaluated in a large cohort. In this retrospective observation, a total of 116,862 women underwent NIPS based on DNA nanoball sequencing from 2015 to 2022. SCAs were diagnosed based on karyotyping or chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA). Among them, 2,084 singleton pregnancies received karyotyping and/or CMA. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of NIPS for fetal SCAs were evaluated. The sensitivity was 97.7% (95%CI, 87.7–99.9), 87.3% (95% CI, 76.5–94.4), 96.1% (95%CI, 86.5–99.5), and 95.7% (95% CI, 78.1–99.9), the PPV was 25.8% (95%CI, 19.2–33.2), 80.9% (95%CI, 69.5–89.4), 79.0% (95%CI, 66.8–88.3), and 53.7% (95%CI, 37.4–69.3) for 45,X, 47,XXY, 47,XXX, and 47,XYY, respectively. The specificity was 94.1% (95%CI, 93.0–95.1) for 45,X, and more than 99.0% for sex chromosome trisomy (SCT). The NPV was over 99.0% for all. NIPS screening for fetal SCAs has high sensitivity, specificity and NPV. The PPV of SCAs was moderate, but that of 45,X was lower than that of SCTs. Invasive prenatal diagnosis should be recommended for high-risk patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epoxides are important synthetic intermediates due to their high propensity to undergo ring-opening to give a variety of products with useful functional groups. In this study, we disclose a non-halide-mediated electrochemical epoxidation of alkenes to form epoxides using water as an oxygen source. This method catalyzed by (TMP)MnCl (TMP = tetramesitylporphyrin) exhibits remarkable efficiency, enabling the epoxidation of both aromatic and aliphatic alkenes with excellent faradaic efficiencies (up to 89%). Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest the MnV＝O species generated from single electron oxidations serves as the key intermediate for the epoxidation reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]