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Agricultural product trade openness is a crucial factor impacting agricultural carbon emissions. This study analyzes the relationship between trade openness and carbon emissions in China. Using panel data from 2002 to 2020 for 31 provinces, a threshold panel model is employed to examine the non-linear relationship from an environmental regulation perspective. The findings reveal a significant single-threshold effect of environmental regulation. When environmental regulation intensity is low, trade openness is positively associated with agricultural carbon emissions. However, when environmental regulation intensity is high, trade openness significantly reduces carbon emissions. Regional regression analysis indicates that this single-threshold effect holds true in major grain-producing, grain-selling, and grain- producing- selling balance areas, although regional differences exist. This study emphasizes the need to coordinate environmental regulations and trade policies, strengthen environmental control, and leverage the threshold effect of environmental regulation in reducing carbon emissions through agricultural product trade openness.

This research investigates the cross-wind aeroelastic effects of tall buildings with hexagonal cross-sections by using aeroelastic models with multiple-degree-of-freedom (MDOF). Cross-wind displacement and acceleration responses at the top of each model are measured using the wind tunnel test. The aerodynamic damping ratios for the two representative wind directions are identified by analyzing the measured responses using the random decrement technique. Results show that large-amplitude vortex-induced vibrations occur for one of the representative wind directions where the vertex of the hexagonal model is against the approaching wind, while there is no significant VIV observed for the other representative wind direction where the face of the hexagonal model is perpendicular to the approaching wind. The most dangerous wind direction is then identified based on the discussion. Two expressions for the cross-wind aerodynamic damping ratio are established for the two wind representative wind directions. The two equations can be used in engineering practice to estimate the cross-wind aerodynamic damping ratio of hexagonal tall buildings.

Knowledge distillation is an effective way to transfer knowledge from a strong teacher to an efficient student model. Ideally, we expect the better the teacher is, the better the student. However, this expectation does not always come true. It is common that a better teacher model results in a bad student via distillation due to the nonnegligible gap between teacher and student. To bridge the gap, we propose PROD, a PROgressive Distillation method, for dense retrieval. PROD consists of a teacher progressive distillation and a data progressive distillation to gradually improve the student. We conduct extensive experiments on five widely-used benchmarks, MS MARCO Passage, TREC Passage 19, TREC Document 19, MS MARCO Document and Natural Questions, where PROD achieves the state-of-the-art within the distillation methods for dense retrieval. The code and models will be released., Accepted by WWW2023

Previous studies of the lipid droplet-coating protein Cap20 in

Photocatalytic and photothermal disinfection is a promising strategy for addressing the challenges of environmental microbial contamination. In this work, we choose a metal-organic framework (MOF), ZIF-8, as an inexpensive and ideal model for metal ion doping, and manipulate the band structure, thermal vibration in molecules, charge distribution, and robustness of the metal-ligand coordination bond of the metal-ion-doped ZIFs for their use in photo-disinfection. The effects of their absorption edge, rate of the photo-induced temperature rise, transient photocurrent response, photo-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) type, and crystal stability on the photo-disinfection performance are systematically studied by varying the metal ion type (Co

Time series analysis is based on the continuous regularity of the development of objective things to predict the next value depending on observed values. Based on time series analysis, we present a...

Tumor necrosis factor-α-inducing protein (Tipα) is a newly identified toxin that promotes the inflammation and carcinogenesis caused by Helicobacter pylori. However, its mechanism of pathogenesis is still unclear. To investigate the carcinogenic mechanisms of Tipα, SGC7901 cells and SGC7901-derived cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) were stimulated by recombinant Tipα with or without Wnt/β-catenin signaling inhibitor XAV939. qRT-PCR and Western blotting were employed to detect expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), CSCs markers and downstream target genes of this signaling pathway. The cell migration ability was measured by wound healing assay and transwell assay. Our results indicated that Tipα promoted CSC properties of SGC7901 spheroids, including increased expression of CSC specific surface markers CD44, Oct4 and Nanog and an increased capacity for self-renewal. Tipα activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling in both SGC7901 cells or CSCs. Furthermore, Tipα induced the EMT and increased the expressions of downstream target genes of this signaling, including c-myc, cyclin D1 and CD44. However, XAV939 pretreatment inhibited Tipα-induced EMT and CSC properties in SGC7901 cells or CSCs. These results suggest that Tipα promotes EMT and CSC-like properties in gastric cancer cells through activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, thereby accelerating the progression of gastric cancer.

Constructing a composite photocatalyst with efficient charge-transfer pathways is contribute to improving charge separation, which has attracted wide attention owing to its availability in photocatalysis applications. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) silver@silver chloride (Ag@AgCl) network structures are fabricated for photocatalytic inactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) by the in situ electrochemical introducing AgCl shell on the surface of Ag nanowire (NW) networks that are coated on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The obtained Ag@AgCl NW-PET films exhibit good photocatalytic bactericidal activity against E. coli under simulated Sunlight irradiation, mainly due to their efficient charge-transport channel constructed by the Ag NWs network. It is worth noting that the content of converted AgCl shell is positively correlated with their photocatalytic bactericidal efficiency. The experimental results also demonstrate that the synergistic contribution of Ag+ sustained release, rough surfaces and energy band structure optimization in photocatalytic sterilization. Besides, the prepared Ag@AgCl NW-PET film can be recycled, and the photocatalytic sterilization efficiency can still keep above 99% after three cycles. This work might provide new and more diverse opportunities for the development of excellent charge-transport, recyclable photocatalysts for photocatalytic sterilization.

With the rapid progress in the artificial intelligence field, machine learning algorithms have been utilized to construct cryptographic schemes and conduct cryptanalysis. In this paper, we propose deep learning-based preimage attacks against variants of Xoodyak hash mode which is a lightweight scheme submitted to the NIST lightweight cryptography standardization project. Three attack models whose internal permutations are of reduced rounds are derived from the original Xoodyak hash mode. Deep neural networks (DNNs) for attack models of 1-round underlying permutations are trained so that the messages of given hash values can be predicted correctly with the networks. In valid attacks, the DNNs are of a low loss rate and high accuracy. This work is more of a tentative attempt to examine the effectiveness of deep learning algorithms employed in conventional preimage attacks. In conclusion, it shows that deep learning techniques make little difference in preimage attacks against Xoodyak hash mode. Compared to the full 12-round internal permutation, only 1 round is covered in the deep learning-based attacks.

Recent studies have reported that the expression levels of far upstream element‑binding protein 1 (FUBP1) were upregulated and served a crucial role in several types of cancer. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms and clinical significance of FUBP1 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) remain unclear. The present study aimed to determine the expression levels of FUBP1 in patients with PAAD and subsequently investigated the biological functions and mechanisms of FUBP1 using in vitro assays. FUBP1 expression levels and survival outcomes in patients with PAAD were analyzed using The Cancer Genome Atlas and starBase databases. Reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR was used to analyze the mRNA expression levels of FUBP1 in PAAD and adjacent normal tissues. In addition, the expression of FUBP1 was knocked down with small interfering RNA and overexpressed using FUBP1‑overexpressed plasmids, and the effects on biological functions, including cell proliferation, migration and invasion, were investigated. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assays were used to determine the role of FUBP1 in epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT). The results of the present study revealed that the expression levels of FUBP1 were upregulated in PAAD tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues and the upregulated expression was significantly associated with poor survival. The knockdown of FUBP1 expression significantly inhibited the proliferative, migratory and invasive abilities of the PAAD PaTu8988 cell line, while the overexpression of FUBP1 promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion in the PAAD SW1990 cell line. Furthermore, the knockdown of FUBP1 downregulated the expression levels of EMT‑related markers, including N‑cadherin, β‑catenin and vimentin, while the expression levels of E‑cadherin were upregulated. The knockdown of FUBP1 was also revealed to regulate the TGFβ/Smad signaling cascade by downregulating phosphorylated‑Smad2/3 and TGFβ1 expression levels. Conversely, the overexpression of FUBP1 reversed these effects. In conclusion, the findings of the present study indicated that FUBP1 may be a potential oncogene that mediates the EMT of PAAD via TGFβ/Smad signaling. These data suggested that FUBP1 may represent a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of PAAD or a target for the treatment of patients with PAAD.

Coal and methane were mixed and burned in the moderate and intensive low oxygen dilution–oxy coal combustion (MILD–OCC) mode, flame temperature was measured at different flame locations wit...

The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation offers hope for more reliable projections of near-term South Asian summer monsoon., A reliable projection of future South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) benefits a large population in Asia. Using a 100-member ensemble of simulations by the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) and a 50-member ensemble of simulations by the Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2), we find that internal variability can overshadow the forced SASM rainfall trend, leading to large projection uncertainties for the next 15 to 30 years. We further identify that the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) is, in part, responsible for the uncertainties. Removing the IPO-related rainfall variations reduces the uncertainties in the near-term projection of the SASM rainfall by 13 to 15% and 26 to 30% in the MPI-ESM and CanESM2 ensembles, respectively. Our results demonstrate that the uncertainties in near-term projections of the SASM rainfall can be reduced by improving prediction of near-future IPO and other internal modes of climate variability.

Alzheimer’s disease is a major disease that endangers people’s health. Its occurrence and development involve complex biological systems in the human body. Traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to comprehensive regulation and control, which is in line with complex biological systems. With thousands of years of history, some classic pharmaceutical formulas and prescriptions have been formed. Through in-depth mining of Chinese medicine data for treating Alzheimer’s disease, we extract the drug attributes of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions for treating Alzheimer’s disease, and using machine learning methods and deep learning methods to model and analyze the properties of medicines, at the same time mining effective drug attributes. The model can also predict the effectiveness of new Chinese medicine prescriptions for treating Alzheimer’s disease. In this paper, different machine learning algorithms are used to model the drug properties in traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. The highest accuracy of the model can reach more than 62%. The experimental results show that the method proposed has certain research value and prospect in the study of traditional Chinese medicine.

The evaporation of desulfurization wastewater (DW) using hot flue gas is an effective treatment method for DW. However, its application is limited owing to a slow evaporation rate and formation of fine crystalline particles. To increase the evaporation rate of DW and the agglomeration efficiency of fine particles, a technology for the evaporation of charged DW droplets was proposed and investigated. The influence of factors such as induction electrode voltage, atomization pressure, and Cl¯ concentration on the agglomeration of fine particles and the charge transfer characteristics between droplets and particles was studied. The results showed that increasing the induction electrode voltage and atomization pressure and reducing Cl¯ concentration improved the agglomeration efficiency of fine particles. Compared to the uncharged droplet conditions, the agglomeration efficiency of fine particles increased by 57.12% under conditions of 12 kV induction electrode voltage, 0.3 MPa atomization pressure, and 20 g/L Cl¯ concentration. The relative agglomeration efficiency of the ultra-fine particles and particles in the 0.1–1 μm size range also increased. After evaporation of the charged DW droplets, most of the electric charge of the droplets remained on the dry agglomerated particles. Agglomerated particles exhibited characteristics of chains and irregular clusters, and were tightly connected by solid bridges. The study results confirmed the feasibility of using the atomization of charged droplets to treat DW more effectively and improve the agglomeration efficiency of fine particles. .

An ethylene/air inverse diffusion flame (IDF) burner was employed to generate a stable flame, and selenium was introduced into the combustion flame in vapor phase under different air-fuel ratio (A/F) with SO2 additive. At different height above burner (HAB) along the flame edge, selenium of different speciation (gaseous selenium and particulate selenium) was sampled via the U.S. EPA method 29, and the samples were determined by hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS), in order to study the mechanism of transformation and enrichment behavior of selenium during the combustion process. The results showed that selenium presented in vapor phase, crossing the flame into air, which means gaseous phase is the main form of selenium during combustion process. Both gaseous selenium and particulate selenium increased with elevated temperature from 820K to 1650K, suggesting that higher temperature is beneficial to the release of selenium. Low concentration of sulfur dioxide would increase the concentration of particulate selenium and gaseous selenium, and accelerate the release of selenium. Implications: The enrichment behavior of selenium and its transformation in combustion flame were studied. The results showed that gaseous selenium is found in higher quantity in compared to particulate selenium during combustion. Higher temperature and air-fuel ratio will cause an increase in the formation of selenium. While the presence of sulfur dioxide in a range of 0-200 ppm will promote the release of selenium, higher sulfur dioxide level in a range of 200-350 ppm will have a reverse effect.

Associated with global warming, climate extremes such as extreme temperature will significantly increase. Understanding how climate change will impact the airflights is important to the planning of future flight operations. In this study, the impacts of 1.5 and 2 degrees global warming on the aircraft takeoff performance in China are investigated using a unique climate projection data from an international collaboration project named HAPPI. It is found that the mean summer daily maximum temperature, which is a major factor that affects the flight through changing the aircrafts takeoff weight, will increase significantly with magnitude less than 1.5 °C over most parts of China except for the Tibetan Plateau. The half a degree additional global warming will lead to higher extreme temperature in the arid and semi-arid western China, the Tibetan Plateau and the northeastern China, while the change in eastern China is weak. Five airports including Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Lasa and Urumqi will see ∼1.0°-2.0 °C (1.4°-3.0 °C) higher daily maximum temperature under 1.5 °C (2.0 °C) scenario. The half-degree additional warming will lead to a shift toward higher extreme temperature in these five sites. For both 1.5° and 2.0 °C scenarios, the number of weight-restriction days will increase significantly at 3 airports including Beijing, Shanghai, and Lasa. Urumqi will witness an increase of weight-restriction days only in 2.0 °C future.

The photo-responsive ionic liquid surfactants 4-Butylazobenzene-4′-(oxyethyl)methylimidazolium with Br− (AZMIMBr) and BF4− (AZMIMBF4) counterions were synthesized, and their structures were characterized by means of 1H NMR. Their properties for pre- or post-UV irradiation were investigated by employing tensiometry, electrical conductance, thermal gravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The effect of UV irradiation time on photoisomerization of two surfactants solutions was evaluated, which showed the photoisomerization efficiency decreases with an increase of their concentrations. After UV irradiation, the CMC value of the two surfactants increased, whereas, the surface tensions at CMC (γCMC) and the fraction of counterion binding (β) were approximately the same. SAXS coupled with polarized optical microscopic studies (POM studies) confirmed that the liquid crystal textures of AZMIMBr could be affected by UV-irradiation. The detailed analysis of thermodynamic parameters revealed that the micellizaton of AZMIMBr was entropy-driven, and the micellization of AZMIMBF4 was enthalpy-driven.

This paper aimed to study the influence of steel slag powders on performance of magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC) paste. We prepared MKPC pastes containing different contents of steel slag powders. Then their fluidity, initial setting time, compressive strength, strength residual ratio under water curing condition, shrinkage deformation and hydration temperature were measured. Furthermore, we analyzed the phase composition and micro-morphology of hardened MKPC pastes by XRD, TG-DTG, BET and SEM-EDS. The results were as follows. Adding some steel slag powders to MKPC can significantly improve the early compressive strength of hardened MKPC paste and slightly improve its late compressive strength. This should be attributed to the improvement of particle size distribution, filling and active effect of steel slag powders on MKPC paste. Compared with the 5-h, 1-day and 60-day compressive strengths of hardened MKPC paste without steel slag powders, those of hardened MKPC paste containing 20% steel slag powders were improved by 5%, 30% and 8%, respectively, and its 60-day compressive strength residual ratio under water curing condition was over 90%. In addition, adding some steel slag powders to MKPC can significantly decrease the shrinkage deformation of hardened MKPC paste, which should be attributed to improvement of pore structure and more compact structure of hardened MKPC paste. The shrinkage deformation of hardened MKPC paste containing 20% steel slag powders mainly occurred during the first 28 days of hydration. Its 28-day and 60-day shrinkage ratios were 1.7 × 10−4 and 2.34 × 10−4, respectively, and its 60-day shrinkage ratio was about 60% of that of the specimen without steel slag powders (3.97 × 10−4).

A cationic choline-derived surfactant with photolabile cinnamate counterion (tetradecyl-(2-hydroxyethyl)-dimethylammoniumcinnamate, C14HDACin) was synthesized. The properties of C14HDACin aqueous solutions for pre- or post-UV irradiation were investigated by employing tensiometry, conductance, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and rheometry. The effect of UV irradiation time on photoisomerization of C14HDACin solutions was evaluated, which showed that the photoisomerization efficiency decreases with an increase of C14HDACin concentration. After UV irradiation, the fraction of counterion binding (β) of the C14HDACin micelle decreases. However, the value of CMC increases. Rheometry coupled with TEM studies confirmed that the aggregation of C14HDACin could transform from wormlike to spherical micelles upon UV irradiation.

Limestone–gypsum wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) is the most effective desulfurization technique. However, to achieve ultralow SO2 emissions, the efficiency of WFGD should be improved and its energy consumption reduced. To address these aims, a technology of coupling WFGD with condensation desulfurization using a condensing heat exchanger (CHE) was proposed in this study. The results show that, as the WFGD approaches the limiting desulfurization efficiency, a small increase in the efficiency may cause a high energy consumption. However, the energy consumption can be reduced significantly through the synergistic absorption of SO2 during the wet flue gas condensation. The synergistic absorption efficiency is affected by the SO2 concentration at the inlet of the CHE, flue gas flow, and the amplitude and rate of temperature drop. Injecting Ca(OH)2 into the flue gas during wet flue gas condensation can form dispersive heterogeneous cores of Ca(OH)2 in the flue gas, thereby enhancing SO2 mass transfer and improving the desulfurization efficiency considerably. The increased amount of Ca(OH)2 is small, and the unreacted Ca(OH)2 can be fully utilized by collecting the condensed solution and returning it to the WFGD system. When the coupling desulfurization technology is applied to achieve ultralow SO2 emissions, at inlet SO2 concentrations of 2000 and 4000 mg/Nm3, the circulating pump power consumption decreases by 351–449 kW and 1661.5–2125.5 kW for 300- and 1000-MW units, respectively, demonstrating the significant energy-saving potential of the coupling desulfurization technology.