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Volatile components are one of the main active components of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort and are important indicators for evaluating the medicinal quality of Ligusticum chuanxiong. To explore the effects of 60Co-γ irradiation on the volatile components of Ligusticum chuanxiong, the samples were treated with different irradiation doses, and the changes of the volatile components before and after irradiation were analyzed using an electronic nose combined with headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and cluster statistical analysis were used to elucidate changes in the volatile components of Ligusticum chuanxiong before and after irradiation. The electronic nose detection results and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry detection results indicated that ketone alkanes, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones contributed to the odor of Ligusticum chuanxiong. Irradiation treatments at doses ≤10 kGy had no significant effect on the odor of Ligusticum chuanxiong. The results demonstrated that after irradiation at 0 kGy (control group), 3 kGy, 7 kGy, and 10 kGy, 60 compounds were identified in Ligusticum chuanxiong, including 23 hydrocarbons, 12 alcohols, 10 lipids, and 4 aldehydes or ketones, and 11 others. There were mainly 21 volatile substances that changed after irradiation, accounting for approximately 12.92% of the volatile components in Ligusticum chuanxiong; however, they were not the main volatile components of Ligusticum chuanxiong. No new compounds were identified in Ligusticum chuanxiong after irradiation treatment within a dose of 10 kGy. The results provide a theoretical basis and reference for the influence of 60Co-γ irradiation on the quality of Ligusticum chuanxiong samples and also lay a certain foundation for the application of irradiation in Ligusticum chuanxiong pieces and traditional Chinese medicine and simple preparation resources. The results indicate that the treatment of 60Co-γ irradiation on the Ligusticum chuanxiong samples with doses ˂10 kGy does not affect its main volatile components.

A carbide strengthened wrought Ni-based superalloy is developed. The alloy depends on carbide dispersion strengthening. A high deformation plasticity in homogeneous alloy is shown in the 1100–1200 °C isothermal compression test and the improvement of microstructure can be achieved by recrystallization. After aging at 850–900 °C, the carbide strengthened wrought alloy appears excellent tensile strength. Carbide exists higher microstructure stability than γ′ in the same condition. The herein reported results reflect the potential of the economical wrought Ni-based superalloy to service above 800 °C.

Chinese calligraphy and Suzhou classical gardens exhibit unique and distinctive formal attributes and layout styles. This paper examines the interrelationships from a spatial perspective, using classical gardens such as the Humble Administrators’ Garden, the Lingering Garden, and the Master of Nets Garden, alongside Yan Zhenqing’s Three Manuscripts (颜公三稿), as illustrative examples. From the theoretical stance of “Heterogeneous Homology”, this investigation assesses the comparability between calligraphy and garden design. It highlights the shared spatial features of “Emptiness-Substance” and “Denseness-Sparseness”, analyzing their specific applications within each realm. Furthermore, the “Correspondence and Guidance” is fulfilled to effectively integrate the spatial boundary within their respective domains. The findings reveal profound similarities in spatial construction between calligraphy and garden design, highlighting the traditional Chinese aesthetic pursuits of emptiness, distance, and externality. These findings affirm the ancient Chinese pursuit of the natural philosophical concept of “the unity of nature and human”. Consequently, it is proposed that future design and urban spatial planning should emphasize the application of the spatial techniques and cultural meanings embedded in these arts. This approach aims to provide a multidimensional and detailed interdisciplinary perspective on future research concerning Asian architectural culture and art history.

Heart failure (HF) is an increasingly prevalent disease in humans; it induces multiple symptoms and damages health. The animal gut microbiota has critical roles in host health, which might be related to HF symptoms. Currently, several options are used to treat HF, including non-invasive ventilation (NIV). However, studies on gut microbiota responses to acute HF and associated treatments effects on gut communities in patients are scarce. Here, short-term (1 week after treatments) and long-term (3 months after treatment) variations in gut microbiota variations in rats with acute HF treated were examined NIV through high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Through comparison of gut microbiota alpha diversity, it was observed lower gut microbiota richness and diversity in animals with acute HF than in normal animals. Additionally, beta-diversity analysis revealed significant alterations in the gut microbiota composition induced by acute HF, as reflected by increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratios and Proteobacteria enrichment. When network analysis results were combined with the null model, decreased stability and elevated deterministic gut microbiota assemblies were observed in animals with acute HF. Importantly, in both short- and long-term periods, NIV was found to restore gut microbiota dysbiosis to normal states in acute HF rats. Finally, it was shown that considerable gut microbiota variations existed in rats with acute HF, that underlying microbiota mechanisms regulated these changes, and confirmed that NIV is suitable for HF treatment. In future studies, these findings should be validated with different model systems or clinical samples.

With the growing concern for the environment, sustainable development centred on a low-carbon economy has become a unifying pursuit for the energy industry. Integrated energy systems (IES) that combine multiple energy sources such as electricity, heat and gas are essential to facilitate the consumption of renewable energy and the reduction of carbon emission. In this paper, gas turbine (GT), carbon capture and storage (CCS) and power-to-gas (P2G) device are introduced to construct a new carbon capture coupling device model, GT-CCS-P2G (GCCP), which is applied to the integrated electrical and gas system (IEGS). Multi-agent soft actor critic (MASAC) applies historical trajectory representations, parameter spatial techniques and deep densification frameworks to reinforcement learning for reducing the detrimental effects of time-series data on the decisional procedure. The energy scheduling problem of IEGS is redefined as a Markov game, which is addressed by adopting a low carbon economic control framework based on MASAC with minimum operating cost and minimum carbon emission as the optimization objectives. To validate the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed low-carbon economy scheduling model of IEGS based on MASAC, this paper simulates and analyses in integrated PJM-5 node system and seven nodes natural gas system.

Abstract Accurate indel calling plays an important role in precision medicine. A benchmarking indel set is essential for thoroughly evaluating the indel calling performance of bioinformatics pipelines. A reference sample with a set of known-positive variants was developed in the FDA-led Sequencing Quality Control Phase 2 (SEQC2) project, but the known indels in the known-positive set were limited. This project sought to provide an enriched set of known indels that would be more translationally relevant by focusing on additional cancer related regions. A thorough manual review process completed by 42 reviewers, two advisors, and a judging panel of three researchers significantly enriched the known indel set by an additional 516 indels. The extended benchmarking indel set has a large range of variant allele frequencies (VAFs), with 87% of them having a VAF below 20% in reference Sample A. The reference Sample A and the indel set can be used for comprehensive benchmarking of indel calling across a wider range of VAF values in the lower range. Indel length was also variable, but the majority were under 10 base pairs (bps). Most of the indels were within coding regions, with the remainder in the gene regulatory regions. Although high confidence can be derived from the robust study design and meticulous human review, this extensive indel set has not undergone orthogonal validation. The extended benchmarking indel set, along with the indels in the previously published known-positive set, was the truth set used to benchmark indel calling pipelines in a community challenge hosted on the precisionFDA platform. This benchmarking indel set and reference samples can be utilized for a comprehensive evaluation of indel calling pipelines. Additionally, the insights and solutions obtained during the manual review process can aid in improving the performance of these pipelines.

Smart materials, which exhibit shape memory behavior in response to external stimuli, have shown great potential for use in biomedical applications. In this study, an energetic composite was fabricated using a UV-assisted DIW 3D printing technique and a shape memory material (SMP) as the binder. This composite has the ability to reduce the impact of external factors and adjust gun propellant combustion behavior. The composition and 3D printing process were delineated, while the internal structure and shape memory performance of the composite material were studied. The energetic SMP composite exhibits an angle of reversal of 18 s at 70°, with a maximum elongation typically reaching up to 280% of the original length and a recovery length of approximately 105% during ten cycles. Additionally, thermal decomposition and combustion behavior were also demonstrated for the energetic SMP composite.

Abstract Value at risk (VaR) and expected shortfall (ES) have emerged as standard measures for detecting the market risk of financial assets and play essential roles in investment decisions, external regulations, and risk capital allocation. However, existing VaR estimation approaches fail to accurately reflect downside risks, and the ES estimation technique is quite limited owing to its challenging implementation. This causes financial institutions to overestimate or underestimate investment risk and finally leads to the inefficient allocation of financial resources. The main purpose of this study is to use machine learning to improve the accuracy of VaR estimation and provide an effective tool for ES estimation. Specifically, this study proposes a VaR estimator by combining quantile regression with “Mogrifier” recurrent neural networks to capture the “long memory” and “clustering” properties of financial assets; while for estimating ES, this study directly models the quantile of assets and employs generative adversarial networks to generate future tail risk scenarios. In addition to the typical properties of financial assets, the model design is also consistent with heterogeneous market theory. An empirical application to four major global stock indices shows that our model is superior to other existing models.

With the increasing emphasis on environmental issues, the utilization of renewable energy has been recognized as a feasible solution to address the energy crisis and reduce environmental pollution. In view of this, this article proposes a multi-modal renewable energy hybrid power supply optimization model based on heterogeneous cloud wireless access. The model innovatively combines heterogeneous cloud wireless access technology and various intelligent optimization algorithms, including k-clustering algorithm, particle swarm optimization algorithm, and whale optimization algorithm, forming a hybrid optimization algorithm. In order to comprehensively evaluate the actual performance of the model, this study recruited 20 experts to provide detailed ratings on four core dimensions: cost-benefit ratio, reliability, robustness, and user satisfaction. The results showed that the model scored 95.1, 96.4, 95.6, and 96.2 in the four dimensions of cost-benefit ratio, reliability indicators, robustness, and user satisfaction, respectively. This series of significant data not only confirms the theoretical superiority of the model, but also demonstrates its strong potential and practical value in practical applications. In summary, this study provides a promising and innovative solution for the field of renewable energy supply.

The high resolution range profile (HRRP) of radar targets is commonly used for target recognition, and the recognition of non-cooperative targets is one of the urgent problems to be solved in radar target recognition. In order to address the noise impact and small sample issues in non-cooperative target recognition, this paper proposes a radar target HRRP recognition method based on SDAE-WACGAN. This method combines Stacked Denoising Auto-encoders (SDAE) and Weighted Auxiliary Classifier Generative Adversarial Networks (WACGAN). In this networks, the decoder of SDAE is used as the generator of WACGAN and the weight coefficients is introduced on the basis of ACGAN, so that the network can generate high-quality data that is more consistent with the real sample distribution, and can be more robust to noise. Experimental results show that compared with other commonly used models, the proposed method achieves higher recognition accuracy in scenarios with small samples and high noise, and demonstrates certain advantages in different SNRs and different number of sample sets.

ABSTRACTThe gut commensal bacteria Christensenellaceae species are negatively associated with many metabolic diseases, and have been seen as promising next-generation probiotics. However, the cultured Christensenellaceae strain resources were limited, and their beneficial mechanisms for improving metabolic diseases have yet to be explored. In this study, we developed a method that enabled the enrichment and cultivation of Christensenellaceae strains from fecal samples. Using this method, a collection of Christensenellaceae Gut Microbial Biobank (ChrisGMB) was established, composed of 87 strains and genomes that represent 14 species of 8 genera. Seven species were first described and the cultured Christensenellaceae resources have been significantly expanded at species and strain levels. Christensenella strains exerted different abilities in utilization of various complex polysaccharides and other carbon sources, exhibited host-adaptation capabilities such as acid tolerance and bile tolerance, produced a wide range of volatile probiotic metabolites and secondary bile acids. Cohort analyses demonstrated that Christensenellaceae and Christensenella were prevalent in various cohorts and the abundances were significantly reduced in T2D and OB cohorts. At species level, Christensenellaceae showed different changes among healthy and disease cohorts. C. faecalis, F. tenuis, L. tenuis, and Guo. tenuis significantly reduced in all the metabolic disease cohorts. The relative abundances of C. minuta, C. hongkongensis and C. massiliensis showed no significant change in NAFLD and ACVD. and C. tenuis and C. acetigenes showed no significant change in ACVD, and Q. tenuis and Geh. tenuis showed no significant change in NAFLD, when compared with the HC cohort. So far as we know, this is the largest collection of cultured resource and first exploration of Christensenellaceae prevalences and abundances at species level.

The rapidly developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and artificial intelligence technology has prompted the real-time and accurate observation measurements of tidal bore, the basis of which is tidal bore propagation velocity. In this article, we construct a tidal observation system framework based on UAV and computer vision in order to obtain the tidal bore propagating velocity datasets. Firstly, we focus on the identification of tidal headlines based on the Sobel edge detection, the improved Otsu image segmentation algorithm and the edge connection algorithm with an accuracy of 91%. And then, the detected tidal headlines could be used to control the flight parameters of UAV in order to stably track tidal bore on the specified route with the deviation range below 0.5, and finally to acquire the tidal bore propagation velocity datasets. Comparing with the propagation velocity of the tidal line measured on site, the error of the results is maintained within 0.1 m/s, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed observation method.

Feature extraction plays a pivotal role in the context of single image super-resolution. Nonetheless, relying on a single feature extraction method often undermines the full potential of feature representation, hampering the model’s overall performance. To tackle this issue, this study introduces the wide-activation feature distillation network (WFDN), which realizes single image super-resolution through dual-path learning. Initially, a dual-path parallel network structure is employed, utilizing a residual network as the backbone and incorporating global residual connections to enhance feature exploitation and expedite network convergence. Subsequently, a feature distillation block is adopted, characterized by fast training speed and a low parameter count. Simultaneously, a wide-activation mechanism is integrated to further enhance the representational capacity of high-frequency features. Lastly, a gated fusion mechanism is introduced to weight the fusion of feature information extracted from the dual branches. This mechanism enhances reconstruction performance while mitigating information redundancy. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves stable and superior results compared to the state-of-the-art methods, as evidenced by quantitative evaluation metrics tests conducted on four benchmark datasets. Furthermore, our WFDN excels in reconstructing images with richer detailed textures, more realistic lines, and clearer structures, affirming its exceptional superiority and robustness.

L-theanine, a non-protein amino acid in tea, has been widely studied as an immune enhancer in poultry, livestock, and rodents. However, no studies have been performed on the application of L-theanine in aquaculture feed. To fill this research gap, we investigated the effects of L-theanine as a feed additive on the growth performance, immune function, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal flora of female Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) using biochemical assays, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and 16 S rRNA gene sequencing. In total, 300 one-year-old female Chinese mitten crabs were randomly divided into treatment groups supplemented with 0 (control), 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0% L-theanine (L0–L4, respectively; n = 4 replicates per group with 15 crabs per replicate). After eight weeks, the total edible yield was significantly higher in all treatment groups than in the L0 group (P

IntroductionGut microbes form complex networks that significantly influence host health and disease treatment. Interventions with the probiotic bacteria on the gut microbiota have been demonstrated to improve host well-being. As a representative of next-generation probiotics, Christensenella minuta (C. minuta) plays a critical role in regulating energy balance and metabolic homeostasis in human bodies, showing potential in treating metabolic disorders and reducing inflammation. However, interactions of C. minuta with the members of the networked gut microbiota have rarely been explored.MethodsIn this study, we investigated the impact of C. minuta on fecal microbiota via metagenomic sequencing, focusing on retrieving bacterial strains and coculture assays of C. minuta with associated microbial partners.ResultsOur results showed that C. minuta intervention significantly reduced the diversity of fecal microorganisms, but specifically enhanced some groups of bacteria, such as Lactobacillaceae. C. minuta selectively enriched bacterial pathways that compensated for its metabolic defects on vitamin B1, B12, serine, and glutamate synthesis. Meanwhile, C. minuta cross-feeds Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and other bacteria via the production of arginine, branched-chain amino acids, fumaric acids and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetic. Both metagenomic data analysis and culture experiments revealed that C. minuta negatively correlated with Klebsiella pneumoniae and 14 other bacterial taxa, while positively correlated with F. prausnitzii. Our results advance our comprehension of C. minuta’s in modulating the gut microbial network.ConclusionsC. minuta disrupts the composition of the fecal microbiota. This disturbance is manifested through cross-feeding, nutritional competition, and supplementation of its own metabolic deficiencies, resulting in the specific enrichment or inhibition of the growth of certain bacteria. This study will shed light on the application of C. minuta as a probiotic for effective interventions on gut microbiomes and improvement of host health.

Mating plugs in animals are ubiquitous and are commonly interpreted to be products of mating strategies. In spiders, however, mating plugs may also take on functions beyond female remating prevention. Due to the vagaries of female genital (spermathecal) anatomy, most spiders face the problem of having to secure additional, non-anatomical, protection for transferred sperm. Here, we test the hypothesis that mating plugs, rather than (or in addition to) being adaptations for mating strategies, may serve as sperm protection mechanism. Based on a comparative study on 411 epigyna sampled from 36 families, 187 genera, 330 species of entelegyne spiders, our results confirm the necessity of a sperm protection mechanism. We divided the entelegyne spermathecae into four types: SEG, SED, SCG and SCD. We also studied detailed morphology of epigynal tracts in the spider Diphya wulingensis having the SEG type spermathecae, using 3D-reconstruction based on semi thin histological series section. In this species, we hypothesize that two distinct types of mating plug, the sperm plug and the secretion plug, serve different functions. Morphological details support this: sperm plugs are formed on a modified spermathecal wall by the spilled sperm, and function as a temporary protection mechanism to prevent sperm from leaking and desiccating, while secretion plugs function in postcopulation both as a permanent protection mechanism, and to prevent additional mating. Furthermore, with the modified spermathecal wall of S2 stalk, the problem of shunt of sperm input and output, and the possibility of female multiple mating have been resolved. Variation in spermathecal morphology also suggests that the problem of sperm protection might be resolved in different ways in spiders. Considering mating plugs of varying shapes and origins in the vast morphospace of spiders, we conclude that mating plugs might serve different purposes that relate both to mating strategies, as well as to sperm protection.

Background The presence of sudden onset to maximal deficit (SOTMD) in patients with acute basilar artery occlusion often results in more severe outcomes. However, the effect of endovascular therapy on SOTMD and whether the outcome is affected by onset‐to‐puncture time remain unclear. Methods and Results This retrospective analysis was conducted using data from the prospective BASILAR (Endovascular Treatment for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion Study Registry). Consecutive patients with basilar artery occlusion receiving endovascular therapy were dichotomized into SOTMD and non‐SOTMD cohorts. The primary outcomes included a favorable outcome (modified Rankin scale 0–3), recanalization, and mortality at 90 days. The outcomes of patients with SOTMD were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. In the multivariate analysis, a favorable outcome was similar between the two cohorts (odds ratio [OR], 0.88 [95% CI, 0.58–1.34]; P=0.5), although the mortality of patients with SOTMD was higher than that of patients with non‐SOTMD (OR, 1.67 [95% CI, 1.14–2.44]; P=0.008). The probability of mortality increased from 40.0% at 1 hour to 70.0% at 6 hours in the SOTMD cohort, and favorable outcomes of patients with non‐SOTMD declined from 38.0% at 1 hour to 18.0% at 8 hours. Conclusions No significant difference was observed in favorable outcomes between the SOTMD and non‐SOTMD groups, although mortality was higher in the SOTMD cohort. The patients with SOTMD had a stronger time dependence for endovascular therapy in terms of mortality, while the time dependency regarding favorable outcome in the NSOTMD group was even higher. Registration URL: https://www.chictr.org.cn; Unique identifier: ChiCTR1800014759.

In order to study the influence of the vacuum arc remelting process (VAR) on the grain structure of the ingot and provide initial condition for the prediction and analysis of the subsequent process such as homogenization and billet forging, an efficient and accurate three-dimensional (3D) cellular automata method was developed for the VAR process, and all parts of the algorithm were rigorously verified, and it can be combined with the MeltFlow-VAR. An ingot of 718 alloy was smelted through experiment for calculation verification and proved the accuracy of the predictions. A new method for discretization of Euler angles to obtain orientation index is proposed and verified, which is more flexible and higher computationally efficient than previous algorithms. Aiming at the problem of a large number of cells and calculation time on large-scale VAR ingot in the future, a hybrid parallel scheme is designed, and it is expected to realize large-scale calculations on the supercomputer system. Finally, the effect of different cell sizes on the calculation results was also studied, and the grain size at the edge of the ingot was not affected by the cell size.

Abstract Exploiting multi‐scale features is one of the most effective methods to recognize objects of different scales in object detection. Since image pyramid is time‐consuming, Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) becomes the most popular component used for obtaining pyramidal features. Despite its effectiveness, there still exist some intrinsic defects. In this work, it is attributed to insufficient information flow and a Deformable Cross‐scale Interaction Feature Pyramid Network (DCIFPN) is proposed, which aims to promote the information transfer process with content‐aware sampling and dynamic aggregation weights. More specifically, Deformable Semantic Enhancement Module (DSEM) is designed that can construct accurate information flow with dynamic aggregation weights. In addition, Deformable Spatial Refinement Module (DSRM) is proposed to enhance high‐level features with low‐level location details. When DCIFPN is deployed on RetinaNet and FCOS with ResNet‐50, the performance is improved by 1.6 AP and 1.1 AP, respectively, on the challenging MS COCO benchmark. Apart from one‐stage detectors, DCIFPN is also applicable to two‐stage methods such as Faster R‐CNN and Mask R‐CNN. Further experiments on Pascal VOC and CrowdHuman datasets can verify the effectiveness and generalization of the method.

The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis), an economically important crustacean that is endemic to China, has recently experienced high-temperature stress. The high thermal tolerance of E. sinensis points to its promise in being highly productive in an aquacultural context. However, the mechanisms underlying its high thermal tolerance remain unknown. In this study, female E. sinensis that were heat exposed for 24 h at 38.5 °C and 33 °C were identified as high-temperature-stressed (HS) and normal-temperature-stressed (NS) groups, respectively. The hepatopancreas of E. sinensis from the HS and NS groups were used for transcriptome and proteomic analyses. A total of 2350 upregulated and 1081 downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the HS and NS groups. In addition, 126 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were upregulated and 35 were downregulated in the two groups. An integrated analysis showed that 2641 identified genes were correlated with their corresponding proteins, including 25 genes that were significantly differentially expressed between the two omics levels. Ten Gene Ontology terms were enriched in the DEGs and DEPs. A functional analysis revealed three common pathways that were significantly enriched in both DEGs and DEPs: fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, leukocyte transendothelial migration, and thyroid hormone synthesis. Further analysis of the common pathways showed that MGST1, Act5C, HSP90AB1, and mys were overlapping genes at the transcriptome and proteome levels. These results demonstrate the differences between the HS and NS groups at the two omics levels and will be helpful in clarifying the mechanisms underlying the thermal tolerance of E. sinensis.

Background: Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation potentials. As such, DPSCs have a wide range of clinical applications. Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has positive photobiostimulatory effects on cell proliferation, angiogenesis, osteogenic differentiation, bone regeneration, and fracture healing. However, there have been few studies on the effect of low-energy lasers on DPSC proliferation. Methods: DPSCs were obtained from dental pulp tissue. The effects of LLLT on the proliferation of DPSCs and the associated mechanisms were investigated by in vitro culture and laser irradiation. Results: LLLT with energy densities of 3.5 J/cm2 and 14 J/cm2promoted the proliferation of DPSCs. Differential protein expression studies suggested the stimulation of DPSC proliferation by LLLT involved the PI3K-Akt and Rap1 signaling pathways, as well as the apoptosis-related pathway. Conclusion: This preliminary study demonstrated that low-energy lasers have a pro-proliferative effect on DPSCs, and identified possible associated mechanisms. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for the clinical application of DPSCs and suggest novel strategies for the treatment of related diseases.

Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus is applied as a probiotic to alleviate various metabolic, gastrointestinal, and psychological symptoms and diseases, and its probiotic effectiveness is strain-specific. In this study, we obtained 21 strains of Ls. rhamnosus, and their genomes were sequenced. We defined the pan- and core-genomes of Ls. rhamnosus. Phenotypes such as the assimilation of carbohydrates and antibiotic resistance were experimentally characterized and associated with genome annotations. Nine strains were selected and tested for growth rates, tolerance to acidity/alkalinity and bile acids, the production of short-chain fatty acids, and competition with pathogenic microbes. Strains WL11 and WL17 were targeted as potential probiotics and were applied in mouse model tests for the alleviation of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The results showed that WL11 and WL17 effectively alleviated slow body weight gain, anxiety, poor memory, and cognitive impairment in CFS mouse models. They also reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory factors, such as TNF-α and IL-6, and alleviated intestinal peristalsis, visceral hypersensitivity, and anxiety-like behavior in IBS mouse models. This study reports new Ls. rhamnosus strain resources and their effect on alleviation of both IBS and CFS symptoms with mouse models; the probiotic functions of those strains in human patients remain to be further tested.

Abstract Public health service is an important guarantee by the government to safeguard the health rights of rural migrant women. This not only concerns the health status of rural migrant women and their willingness to stay in the urban area but can also affect their fertility intention. This study systematically examined the impact of public health services on the fertility intentions of rural migrant women as well as the mechanisms, underlying these intentions based on the data from the 2018 China Migration Dynamics Monitoring Survey. Urban public health services, including health records management and health education, could effectively enhance the fertility intentions of rural migrant women. Furthermore, their health status and willingness to stay in urban areas were important mechanisms, by which, the public health services could influence the fertility intentions of rural migrant women. Additionally, urban public health services have a better effect on improving the fertility desire of rural migrant women who have no pregnancy experience, a low income level, and a short residence time in the inflow area. This study contributed to the examination and clarification of the policy effects of public health services on the fertility intentions of rural migrant women. Additionally, it also provided important evidence to support the government policies related to the optimization of the public health service system, improvement of the health status, citizenship, and fertility intentions of the rural migrant women, as well as the development of the uniform public health services.

Increasing service temperature of wrought Ni-based superalloy by increasing alloying degree and fraction of γ′ phase has come to a bottleneck. In present work, an attempt is made to make maximum use of carbide to strengthen Ni-based alloy with a simpler chemical composition. Multiple morphology characterization methods and high temperature tensile test show that the newly designed Ni(bal.)-20Cr-0.80C–12Ta (wt%) alloy can be strengthened by TaC and Cr-rich M7C3 carbide and shows good ductility at 800 °C. Phase transformation characteristics detected by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and high-temperature confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) images shows that there is a potential for dispersive precipitation of carbide in the alloy to get better mechanical property.

Deep convolutional neural networks have significantly enhanced the performance of single image super-resolution in recent years. However, the majority of the proposed networks are single-channel, making it challenging to fully exploit the advantages of neural networks in feature extraction. This paper proposes a Multi-attention Fusion Recurrent Network (MFRN), which is a multiplexing architecture-based network. Firstly, the algorithm reuses the feature extraction part to construct the recurrent network. This technology reduces the number of network parameters, accelerates training, and captures rich features simultaneously. Secondly, a multiplexing-based structure is employed to obtain deep information features, which alleviates the issue of feature loss during transmission. Thirdly, an attention fusion mechanism is incorporated into the neural network to fuse channel attention and pixel attention information. This fusion mechanism effectively enhances the expressive power of each layer of the neural network. Compared with other algorithms, our MFRN not only exhibits superior visual performance but also achieves favorable results in objective evaluations. It generates images with sharper structure and texture details and achieves higher scores in quantitative tests such as image quality assessment.

At present, visual saliency prediction algorithms have been developed more and more mature, but most of the current saliency prediction algorithms are aimed at natural images. Due to the inconsistency of elements and features between natural images and advertising images, the existing saliency prediction algorithms show poor robustness and low inference speed to advertising images, which severely limits its commercial application in advertising design and evaluation. In view of this, a saliency prediction algorithm for advertisement images is proposed in this paper. In the feature extraction stage, two text candidate regions based on intensity feature and improved MESR algorithm are first obtained and further integrated to produce a two-dimensional text confidence score. Meanwhile, a saliency confidence score is also obtained by an improved natural image saliency prediction network. Then, the score level fusion strategy was adopted to fuse the two confidence scores to get the final saliency prediction map. The experimental results show that the proposed model has good accuracy and robustness in advertising images, as well as the most remarkable inference speed, which can meet the demand for real-time performance of advertising image saliency prediction, leading to great practical and commercial value.

High temperatures are important environmental stressors affecting the metabolism, growth, immunity, and mortality of Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis). In this study, Chinese mitten crabs were divided into two groups and exposed to temperatures of 35 °C (thermal stress group) or 25 °C (control group) for 24 h, and the transcriptome of the heart was analyzed. There were 4007 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the thermal stress and the control groups, including 2660 upregulated and 1347 downregulated genes. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) and transcription factors (TFs) were temperature-sensitive DEGs in Chinese mitten crabs. DEGs mainly focused on protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, ribosome biogenesis, glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism, protein export, and insect hormone biosynthesis pathways. A total of 28,916 SSRs and 59 TF families, including 851 TFs, were detected among all unigenes of E. sinensis transcripts. The qRT-PCR results for the HSPs and apoptotic DEGs from the heart exhibited the same trends as those in the E. sinensis transcriptome data. Results of light microscopy analyzing histological sections of the heart indicated that most myocardial fibers were lysed, and the number of nuclei and the connective tissue contents between the myocardial layers were both reduced following 35 °C exposure for 24 h.

Despite advances in the treatment of patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE), outcomes have remained suboptimal. Persistent disease activity, patient comorbidities and drug toxicities contribute to the accrual of progressive irreversible damage and high rates of morbidity and mortality. Currently, similar drug doses and regimens are promulgated in the treatment guidelines for all SLE patients, despite the vast differences in patient and environmental factors that affect the drugs’ metabolism and blood concentrations. This causes a disconnect between drug dosing and drug blood concentrations, which can then result in unpredictability in drug toxicities and therapeutic effects. In this review, we discuss commonly used oral immunosuppressive medications in SLE, their pharmacogenomics, and factors affecting their metabolism and blood concentrations. Further, we highlight the role of therapeutic drug monitoring in SLE, which is the first accessible step to individualising therapy.

This paper introduces a novel control strategy that merges integral sliding mode control with fuzzy adaptive PI control. This hybrid approach maximizes the benefits of both techniques to ensure voltage stability in DC microgrid. Firstly, a mathematical model characterizes the DC–DC boost converter. Subsequently, a sliding surface, incorporating an integral term, is employed to regulate the converter’s output voltage and current errors. To address uncertainties stemming from factors like input inductance and output capacitance, a dynamic sliding mode controller is formulated. The proposed sliding mode control scheme significantly reduces the time required for voltage stability, curbs system oscillations, and showcases robustness. Furthermore, the inclusion of fuzzy adaptive PI control aids in refining the voltage deviation signal and droop resistance. This enhancement improves the precision of the error tracking system. Finally, the effectiveness of this strategy is demonstrated through MATLAB simulations, supported by experimental validation and analysis. The findings reveal that this control strategy efficiently accelerates the convergence of DC microgrid voltage to a stable state.

Summary: Background: Ground-glass opacity (GGO)-like lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has been detected increasingly in the clinic and its inert property and superior survival indicate unique biological characteristics. However, we do not know much about them, which hampers identification of key reasons for the inert property of GGO-like LUAD. Methods: Using whole-exome sequencing and RNA sequencing, taking into account both radiological and pathological classifications of the same 197 patients concomitantly, we systematically interrogate genes driving the progression from GGO to solid nodule and potential reasons for the inertia of GGO. Using flow cytometry and IHC, we validated the abundance of immune cells and activity of cell proliferation. Findings: Identifying the differences between GGO and solid nodule, we found adenocarcinoma in situ/minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (AIS/MIA) and GGO-like LUAD exhibited lower TP53 mutation frequency and less active cell proliferation-related pathways than solid nodule in LUAD. Identifying the differences in GGO between AIS/MIA and LUAD, we noticed that EGFR mutation frequency and CNV load were significantly higher in LUAD than in AIS/MIA. Regulatory T cell was also higher in LUAD, while CD8+ T cell decreased from AIS/MIA to LUAD. Finally, we constructed a transcriptomic signature to quantify the development from GGO to solid nodule, which was an independent predictor of patients’ prognosis in 11 external LUAD datasets. Interpretation: Our results provide deeper insights into the indolent nature of GGO and provide a molecular basis for the treatment of GGO-like LUAD. Funding: This study was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32170657), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82203037), and Shanghai Sailing Program (22YF1408900).

ABSTRACTGlycogen storage disease type Ia (GSD-Ia) is caused by a deficiency in the glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase, G6pc) enzyme, which catalyses the final step of gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis. Accumulation of G6pc can lead to an increase in glycogen and development of fatty liver. Ductular reactions refer to the proliferation of cholangiocytes and hepatic progenitors, which worsen fatty liver progress. To date, however, ductular reactions in GSD-Ia remain poorly understood. Here, we studied the development and potential underlying mechanism of ductular reactions in GSD-Ia in mice. We first generated GSD-Ia mice using CRISPR/Cas9 to target the exon 3 region of the G6pc gene. The typical GSD-Ia phenotype in G6pc−/− mice was then analysed using biochemical and histological assays. Ductular reactions in G6pc−/− mice were tested based on the expression of cholangiocytic markers cytokeratin 19 (CK19) and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). Yes-associated protein 1 (Yap) signalling activity was measured using western blot (WB) analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Verteporfin was administered to the G6pc−/− mice to inhibit Yap signalling. The CRISPR/Cas9 system efficiently generated G6pc−/− mice, which exhibited typical GSD-Ia characteristics, including retarded growth, hypoglycaemia, and fatty liver disease. In addition, CK19- and EpCAM-positive cells as well as Yap signalling activity were increased in the livers of G6pc−/− mice. However, verteporfin treatment ameliorated ductular reactions and decreased Yap signalling activity. This study not only improves our understanding of GSD-Ia pathophysiology, but also highlights the potential of novel therapeutic approaches for GSD-Ia such as drug targeting of ductular reactions.

So as to decrease those cacoethic impact of a huge amount of wind energy generation systems associated with the electric power system and improve the utilization rate and the budgetary profits of wind power era, this paper raises a neural network in view of CEEMDAN-LSTM-TCN. Firstly, CEEMDAN is used to break down the wind velocity arrangement to decrease the sway of arbitrariness Furthermore variance about wind velocity. Secondly, the ultra-short-term wind power forecast depend upon LSTM and TCN is built to realize the real-time prediction for wind energy. Finally, the simulation results show that LSTM-TCN can deal with multi time order characteristics and predict ultra-short period wind energy with effect, which is better than LSTM and TCN. It also has a scientific reference for local power dispatching.

In view of the problem that load frequency fluctuation of the electrical power systems with energy storage when it is disturbed, a load frequency control (LFC) model is constructed, furthermore, a load frequency controller which bottom on disturbance observer is devised, the accommodate reaching law is used to improve the system performance. These actions have improved the immunity and robustness of the system. It is verified by MATLAB simulation that the control strategy can decrease load frequency deflection under conditions of load fluctuation with effect, and the Lyapunov principle is used to analyze the stability. The analysis shows the method proposed can effectively ameliorate the robustness and operational stability of power systems with energy storage.

Objective: In order to increase the added value of crayfish by-products. Methods: With chromatographic peaks and peak areas as the inspection indicators, the optimization on equilibrium time, addition of sodium chloride, extraction time and extraction temperature were optimized, and the composition of volatile flavor compounds was analyzed. Results: The optimal extraction conditions were equilibrium time 0 min, extraction temperature 75 ℃, extraction time 50 min, addition of sodium chloride 30% with 50/30 μm DVB/CAR/PDMS solid phase microextraction head. Under these conditions, a total of 34 volatile flavor compounds, including 5 alcohols, 12 aldehydes, 5 alkanes, 5 aromatic, 5 heterocyclic compounds and 2 esters, were detected in the crayfish boiled liquid. The total peak area was 5.54×108, and the comprehensive score was 95.47. The relative error between the experimental results and the predicted value was 4.53%. Conclusion: The 34 volatile flavor compounds can be extracted from the crayfish boiled liquid by headspace solid phase microextraction.

In order to control the influence of wind power generation incorporated into the power grid and keep the original power grid stable, this paper investigates the Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy model and the nonlinear switched system for permanent magnet synchronous generator in wind power generation system. By introducing fuzzy sliding mode control method, the stability of power system can be guaranteed. To do this, the integral sliding mode surface and fuzzy sliding mode control law are designed to reduce the influence of nonlinear disturbance on power system. In addition, the appropriate Lyapunov function is selected for derivation and proof. At the same time, the gain matrix is solved by linear matrix inequalities, which makes the model globally asymptotically stable. Finally, the stability of the system model is verified by simulation results.

Introduction: Insect cytochrome P450 (CYP450) genes play important roles in the detoxification and metabolism of xenobiotics, such as plant allelochemicals, mycotoxins and pesticides. The polyphagous Conogethes punctiferalis is a serious economic pest of fruit trees and agricultural crops, and it shows high adaptability to different living environments.Methods: The two novel P450 genes CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 were identified and characterized. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) technology was used to study the expression patterns of the two target genes in different larval developmental stages and tissues of C. punctiferalis. Furthermore, RNA interference (RNAi) technology was used to study the potential functions of the two P450 genes by treating RNAi-silenced larvae with three commonly used pesticides.Results: The CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 genes were expressed throughout various C. punctiferalis larval stages and in different tissues. Their expression levels increased along with larval development, and expression levels of the two target genes in the midgut were significantly higher than in other tissues. The toxicity bioassay results showed that the LC50 values of chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin on C. punctiferalis larvae were 0.2028 μg/g, 0.0683 μg/g and 0.6110 mg/L, respectively. After treating with different concentrations of chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin (LC10, LC30, LC50), independently, the relative expressions of the two genes CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 were significantly induced. After the dsRNA injection, the expression profiles of the two CYP genes were reduced 72.91% and 70.94%, respectively, and the mortality rates of the larvae significantly increased when treated with the three insecticides independently at LC10 values.Discussion: In the summary, after interfering with the CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 in C. punctiferalis, respectively, the sensitivity of C. punctiferalis to chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin was significantly increased, indicating that the two CYP6 genes were responsible for the adaptability of C. punctiferalis to the three chemical insecticides in C. punctiferalis. The results from this study demonstrated that CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 in C. punctiferalis play crucial roles in the detoxification of chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin.

Abstract Integrating adaptative logic computation directly into soft microrobots is imperative for the next generation of intelligent soft microrobots as well as for the smart materials to move beyond stimulus‐response relationships and toward the intelligent behaviors seen in biological systems. Acquiring adaptivity is coveted for soft microrobots that can adapt to implement different works and respond to different environments either passively or actively through human intervention like biological systems. Here, a novel and simple strategy for constructing untethered soft microrobots based on stimuli‐responsive hydrogels that can switch logic gates according to the surrounding stimuli of environment is introduced. Different basic logic gates and combinational logic gates are integrated into a microrobot via a straightforward method. Importantly, two kinds of soft microrobots with adaptive logic gates are designed and fabricated, which can smartly switch logic operation between AND gate and OR gate under different surrounding environmental stimuli. Furthermore, a same magnetic microrobot with adaptive logic gate is used to capture and release the specified objects through the change of the surrounding environmental stimuli based on AND or OR logic gate. This work contributes an innovative strategy to integrate computation into small‐scale untethered soft robots with adaptive logic gates.

Herein, we established the fingerprint of Ligusticum chuanxiong, and the effects of different 60Co-γ irradiation doses on the eight active components of Ligusticum chuanxiong were investigated. A stock solution of the eight standard reference substances in Ligusticum chuanxiong were analyzed using a SHIMADZU Shim-pack GIST C18 chromatographic column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). Different doses (3 kGy, 6 kGy,10 kGy and 15 kGy) of 60Co-γ irradiation were used to treat Ligusticum chuanxiong. After these treatments, the fingerprint of Ligusticum chuanxiong was obtained via liquid chromatography. The similarity was evaluated using the Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2004 A edition), and the results indicated that the similarity of each component in Ligusticum chuanxiong was >0.988. After irradiation at

Insects that feed on various host plants possess diverse xenobiotic adaptations; however, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In the present study, we used Grapholita molesta, which shifts feeding sites from peach shoots to apple fruits, as a model to explore the effects of shifts in host plant diet on the profiles of cytochrome P450s and the gut bacteria microbiome, as well as their effects on biopesticide adaptation. We found that the sensitivity of the fruit-feeding G. molesta to emamectin benzoate biopesticide was significantly lower than that of the shoot-feeding larvae. We also found that the P450 enzyme activity and the expression of nine cytochrome P450s were enhanced in G. molesta fed on Fuji apples compared to those fed on peach shoots. The survival rates of G. molesta exposed to emamectin benzoate significantly decreased as each of three of four emamectin benzoate-inducted cytochrome P450 genes were silenced. Furthermore, we discovered the gut bacteria dynamics of G. molesta changed with the host shift and the structure of the gut bacteria microbiome was determined by the final diet ingested; additionally, the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota induced by antibiotics could significantly increase the sensitivity to emamectin benzoate. Taken together, our results suggest that the expression of P450s and the composition of the gut bacteria microbiome promote adaptation to emamectin benzoate in G. molesta, providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying xenobiotic adaptation in this notorious pest.

In soybean production, level of seed protein frequently shows a negative correlation with seed oil content and yield. Here, the authors report a CCT gene pleiotropically regulates these traits and the selection of larger seeds determining allele leads to higher oil content but lower protein content in soybean cultivars.

Measurement(s) miRNA expression profiling Technology Type(s) Next Generation Sequencing Factor Type(s) organ • age • sex Sample Characteristic - Organism Rattus norvegicus

When present in the cytosol, a variety of peptides encoded by the distal carboxyl-termini of the L-type CaV1 calcium channels downregulate channel activity and neurite outgrowth.

IntroductionIn recent years, China's aging process has deepened rapidly, the disease spectrum of the population has undergone major changes, the proportion and scale of elderly patients with chronic diseases are growing rapidly, and the multidimensional health problems of the chronically ill elderly are prominent, seriously affecting the participation of the chronically ill elderly in family, community, and social development. In response, China has implemented the “active response to population aging strategy,” accelerated the development of community home elderly care services, and encouraged the chronically ill elderly to continue to play a role through social participation. So how does the community-based home-based medical care service affect the social participation of the chronically ill elderly? Is an important subject.MethodsBased on the 2018 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey and the propensity score matching method to measure the impact of community home elderly care services on the four types of social participation of chronically ill elderly, including economic participation, family participation, voluntary participation, and political participation, and group differences, and uses the multiple mediation analysis method to explore the mechanism and effect of community home elderly care services on the four types of social participation of chronically ill elderly.Results(1) Community home elderly care services have an asymmetric impact on the social participation of the chronically ill elderly, and have generally promoted the level of social participation of the chronically ill elderly. (2) Community home elderly care services change the social participation arrangements of the chronically ill elderly by driving and inhibiting effects, so that it has a tendency to reduce economic participation and increase voluntary participation and political participation as a whole. This feature shows group differences among the chronically ill elderly of different ages, education levels, living arrangements and community types. (3) Community home elderly care services have an asymmetric impact on various social participation of the chronically ill elderly through the multidimensional health mediation mechanism.Conclusion(1) With the continuous deepening of the interweaving between the growth of chronic diseases and the aging of the population in China, the development of a positive aging society must attach great importance to the important role of social participation for the chronically ill elderly. (2) Strengthen the development of physical, psychological, and social adaptation and other health abilities of the chronically ill elderly, shape their awareness of social participation, and give the chronically ill elderly a reasonable social role orientation. (3) Through policy incentives, promote the realization of fairness, justice, adequacy, and sustainability of community home elderly care services. (4) Pay special attention to the penetration, integration, and application of digital technology into the field of community home elderly care services to effectively protect the health of chronically ill elderly, ensure that the elderly with different chronic diseases participate in social activities of high quality, enjoy a high-quality happy life, and promote the high-quality development of the aging society.

With the vigorous development of the global economy, the demand for electricity quality from all walks of life is also increasing, so it is essential to ensure the electric power grid’s safe, stable, and efficient operation. Multi-source electric power information fusion, as the core technology of electric power grid data processing, has become the foundation to promote the intelligent and automatic development of the electric power grid. This paper presents the first work on the survey of the methods of electricity information fusion. It first gives an overview of the process of electricity information fusion and shows the types of electricity data. Then, we provide different classifications of existing methods in view of communication annotation and electric power data, and conduct a thorough comparison and analysis of them. Moreover, we introduce the relevant data sets and evaluation criteria of electric power information and summarize the corresponding evaluation scenarios. Finally, we conclude the maturity of existing works and provide an outlook on future multi-source electric power information fusion methods.

Abstract Background With advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, an unprecedented amount of soybean accessions has been sequenced by many individual studies and made available as raw sequencing reads for post-genomic research. Results To develop a consolidated and user-friendly genomic resource for post-genomic research, we consolidated the raw resequencing data of 1465 soybean genomes available in the public and 91 highly diverse wild soybean genomes newly sequenced. These altogether provided a collection of 1556 sequenced genomes of 1501 diverse accessions (1.5 K). The collection comprises of wild, landraces and elite cultivars of soybean that were grown in East Asia or major soybean cultivating areas around the world. Our extensive sequence analysis discovered 32 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (32mSNPs) and revealed a SNP density of 30 SNPs/kb and 12 non-synonymous SNPs/gene reflecting a high structural and functional genomic diversity of the new collection. Each SNP was annotated with 30 categories of structural and/or functional information. We further identified paired accessions between the 1.5 K and 20,087 (20 K) accessions in US collection as genomic “equivalent” accessions sharing the highest genomic identity for minimizing the barriers in soybean germplasm exchange between countries. We also exemplified the utility of 32mSNPs in enhancing post-genomics research through in-silico genotyping, high-resolution GWAS, discovering and/or characterizing genes and alleles/mutations, identifying germplasms containing beneficial alleles that are potentially experiencing artificial selection. Conclusion The comprehensive analysis of publicly available large-scale genome sequencing data of diverse cultivated accessions and the newly in-house sequenced wild accessions greatly increased the soybean genome-wide variation resolution. This could facilitate a variety of genetic and molecular-level analyses in soybean. The 32mSNPs and 1.5 K accessions with their comprehensive annotation have been made available at the SoyBase and Ag Data Commons. The dataset could further serve as a versatile and expandable core resource for exploring the exponentially increasing genome sequencing data for a variety of post-genomic research.

Abstract A multiple clustering algorithm based on high-dimensional automatic identification system (AIS) data is proposed to extract the important waypoints in the ship’s navigation trajectory based on selected AIS attribute features and construct a route network using the waypoints. The algorithm improves the accuracy of route network planning by using the latitude and longitude of the historical voyage trajectory and the heading to the ground. Unlike the navigation clustering method that only uses ship latitude and longitude coordinates, the algorithm first calculates the major waypoints using Clustering in QUEst (CLIQUE) and Balance Iterative Reducing and Clustering Using Hierarchies (BIRCH) algorithms, and then builds the route network using network construction. Under the common PC specification (i5 processor), this algorithm forms 440 major waypoints from 220,133 AIS data and constructs a route network with directional features in 5 min, which is faster in computing speed and more suitable for complex ship trajectory differentiation and can extend the application boundary of ship route planning.

Impact toughness degeneration and microstructure evolution of alloy 617B during 650–725°C long-term aging for up to 12,000 h were investigated in present work. It is found that impact toughness decreases apparently even after just 20 h aging in the temperature range of 650–725°C and keeps decreasing with prolonging aging time. Hence, detailed microstructure observation and mechanical property tests were carried out to reveal the essence of impact toughness degeneration during long-term aging. And the reason is confirmed to be the combination effect of plasticity evolution and grain boundary carbide coarsening. The degeneration of impact toughness with prolonging aging time can be divided into rapid decrease stage, slow decrease stage and stable stage. The decrease of plasticity in the major reason for rapid impact toughness degeneration in the initial stage of aging. Grain boundary carbide coarsens obviously during aging and tends to be continuous. This is the major reason for the slow and continuous decrease of impact toughness in the slow decrease stage. Finally, plasticity and grain boundary carbide change little, resulting in the stable stage of impact toughness evolution. Enough attention should be paid on impact toughness degeneration in the evaluation of long-term stability.

Intensive culturing of hybrid yellow catfish (Pseudobagrus vachellii ♂ × Tachysurus fulvidraco ♀) has increased their mortality. Astragalus membranaceus has been used as an immune stimulant and antioxidant in fish for several years. A. membranaceus was decocted and mixed with the diet. After feeding for 28 d, the hybrid yellow catfish were challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila. To better understand the function of A. membranaceus in the defense of hybrid yellow catfish against A. hydrophila, we analyzed the spleen transcriptome data and relative percentage survival (RPS). There were 396 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the A. membranaceus and control groups at 24 h after A. hydrophila stimulation, including 263 upregulated and 133 downregulated DEGs. A significant enrichment of DEGs was found in the A. membranaceus group when the GO enrichment terms in the spleen were analyzed. The qRTPCRresults for the five upregulated and two downregulated DEGs from the spleen, intestine, and liver were consistent with the transcriptome data. The relative percentage survival of A. membranaceus was 85.71% after the fish were challenged with A. hydrophila.