Search

Abstract Direct current microgrid (DCMG) clusters are gaining popularity in power systems due to their simplicity and high efficiency. However, DCMG clusters are susceptible to minor disturbances due to low system inertia. This paper proposes a method to enhance the small‐signal stability of a DCMG cluster by optimizing the main control parameters of the system. This paper presents a small‐signal state‐space model of a DCMG cluster system at the system level, considering a multi‐bus network topology. Then, the control parameters that significantly affect the small‐signal stability of the DCMG are selected using the participation factor method. To enhance the system damping, the Pareto‐optimal frontier of the bi‐objective problem was determined using the elite non‐dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA‐II). The optimal compromise is determined by using the fuzzy membership function method to extract it from the generated Pareto optimal front. The proposed method has been verified on a three‐sub DCMG test system with droop control.

We investigated the effect of different fat sources on growth performance and intestinal health in weaned piglets. A total of 72 21-day-old weaned piglets were divided into 3 groups the CON group with 2.5% soybean oil, TRE1 with 2.5% emulsified balanced oil powder and TRE2 with 2.5% emulsified coconut oil powder. These two experimental oil powders were emulsified with the emulsifier (lysophospholipid). The average daily feed intake in TRE1 was significantly higher than that in CON (P < 0.05). The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of ash in TRE1 was significantly higher than that in CON (P < 0.05). Compared with CON, TRE1 tended to improve ATTD of dry matter (P = 0.075), serum triglyceride (P = 0.062) and serum-free fatty acids (P = 0.090). The jejunal villus width of piglets in TRE1 and TRE2 was significantly increased (P < 0.05) and the duodenal crypt depth was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Compared with CON, TRE1 significantly increased the mRNA expression levels of jejunal Occludin, Claudin-1 and ZO-1 (P < 0.05). From the results of the present study, we concluded that dietary supplementation of 2.5% emulsified balanced oil powder has more obvious effects on enhancing the growth performance of weaned piglets by improving lipid metabolism, intestinal tissue development and barrier function.

Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) involves in various biological processes, which are of significant importance in cancer diagnosis and drug development. Computational based PPI prediction methods are more preferred due to their low cost and high accuracy. However, existing protein structure based methods are insufficient in the extraction of protein structural information. Furthermore, most methods are less interpretable, which hinder their practical application in the biomedical field. In this paper, we propose MGPPI, which is a Multiscale graph convolutional neural network model for PPI prediction. By incorporating multiscale module into the Graph Neural Network (GNN) and constructing multi convolutional layers, MGPPI can effectively capture both local and global protein structure information. For model interpretability, we introduce a novel visual explanation method named Gradient Weighted interaction Activation Mapping (Grad-WAM), which can highlight key binding residue sites. We evaluate the performance of MGPPI by comparing with state-of-the-arts methods on various datasets. Results shows that MGPPI outperforms other methods significantly and exhibits strong generalization capabilities on the multi-species dataset. As a practical case study, we predicted the binding affinity between the spike (S) protein of SARS-COV-2 and the human ACE2 receptor protein, and successfully identified key binding sites with known binding functions. Key binding sites mutation in PPIs can affect cancer patient survival statues. Therefore, we further verified Grad-WAM highlighted residue sites in separating patients survival groups in several different cancer type datasets. According to our results, some of the highlighted residues can be used as biomarkers in predicting patients survival probability. All these results together demonstrate the high accuracy and practical application value of MGPPI. Our method not only addresses the limitations of existing approaches but also can assists researchers in identifying crucial drug targets and help guide personalized cancer treatment.

Accurately predicting the binding affinities between Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) molecules and peptides is a crucial step in understanding the adaptive immune response. This knowledge can have important implications for the development of effective vaccines and the design of targeted immunotherapies. Existing sequence-based methods are insufficient to capture the structure information. Besides, the current methods lack model interpretability, which hinder revealing the key binding amino acids between the two molecules. To address these limitations, we proposed an interpretable graph convolutional neural network (GCNN) based prediction method named GIHP. Considering the size differences between HLA and short peptides, GIHP represent HLA structure as amino acid-level graph while represent peptide SMILE string as atom-level graph. For interpretation, we design a novel visual explanation method, gradient weighted activation mapping (Grad-WAM), for identifying key binding residues. GIHP achieved better prediction accuracy than state-of-the-art methods across various datasets. According to current research findings, key HLA-peptide binding residues mutations directly impact immunotherapy efficacy. Therefore, we verified those highlighted key residues to see whether they can significantly distinguish immunotherapy patient groups. We have verified that the identified functional residues can successfully separate patient survival groups across breast, bladder, and pan-cancer datasets. Results demonstrate that GIHP improves the accuracy and interpretation capabilities of HLA-peptide prediction, and the findings of this study can be used to guide personalized cancer immunotherapy treatment. Codes and datasets are publicly accessible at: https://github.com/sdustSu/GIHP.

Marigold (Tagetes erecta L., African marigold) is a widely grown ornamental plant and a main source of the carotenoid lutein for the industrial production of pharmaceuticals, food coloring, and feed additives. To gain a deeper understanding of the genetic mechanism of lutein in marigold, a chromosome-scale assembly of the marigold (T. erecta V-01) genome was completed based on Illumina, PacBio, and Hi-C reads. The 707.21-Mb assembled genome consisted of 35 834 annotated protein-coding genes, with 97.7% genomic integrity. We anchored 87.8% of the contigs (covering 621.20 Mb) to 12 pseudochromosomes, bringing the scaffold N50 length to 54.15 Mb. Phylogenetic analysis showed that marigold was closely related to the Asteraceae species bitter vine (Mikania micrantha) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus), all three of which originated in the Americas. Marigold diverged from the sunflower clade 23.57 million years ago (MYA) and from M. micrantha 19.59 MYA. Marigold has undergone three whole-genome duplication events, as well as a recent whole-genome duplication event (WGD-2) common to H. annuus and M. micrantha. Marigold gene families were significantly less expanded than those of M. micrantha or H. annuus, and the marigold genome contained significantly fewer interspersed repeats, which might account for its smaller genome. In addition, a range of candidate genes involved in the lutein biosynthetic pathway were identified. The high-quality reference genome obtained in this study provided a valuable genomic resource for studying the evolution of the Asteraceae family and for improving marigold breeding strategies.

There has been a controversy as to whether exogenous γ-aminobutyric acid can enter brain regions. The concept of "microbe-gut-brain axis" suggestes that exogenous γ-aminobutyric acid is able to enter the body through oral administration. The γ-aminobutyric acid is subsequently involved in the regulation of gastrointestinal microenvironment, which benefits the central system and provides treatment for neurological diseases. Currently, the γ-aminobutyric acid prepared by microbial method can be used as a new food raw material in certain foods and functional foods rich in γ-aminobutyric acid has been gradually developed. Literature confirms that the intake of a certain amount of γ-aminobutyric could affect nervous system function including improvement of sleep quality, depression-like behavior, behavior and cognitive disorders. This paper is to provide reference for the application of γ-aminobutyric acid in medicine and functional food with the focus on GABA preparation, the relationship between γ-aminobutyric acid and intestinal flora, the effects of exogenous γ-aminobutyric acid on nervous system through intestinal flora and its preparation methods.

The durability failure of reinforced concrete structures will occur under chloride ion erosion. Electrochemical repair technology can effectively improve the durability of reinforced concrete structures and prolong the service life of structures. However, the electrochemical repair technology may also cause hydrogen embrittlement and porosity change in reinforced concrete structures. The electrochemical test of reinforced concrete block with precast crack was carried out in this work. The results show that the bond loss of reinforced concrete is small when the electric flux is small. The electrochemical repair technique without controlling the electrical parameters results in a significant decrease in the bonding strength. When 5 A/m2 current was used to carry out constant-current electrification for 4 weeks, the maximum loss of bonding force of the specimen was up to 61.2 %.

Abstract Background Petal blotch is a unique ornamental trait in angiosperm families, and blotch in rose petal is rare and has great esthetic value. However, the cause of the formation of petal blotch in rose is still unclear. The influence of key enzyme genes and regulatory genes in the pigment synthesis pathways needs to be explored and clarified. Results In this study, the rose cultivar ‘Sunset Babylon Eyes’ with rose-red to dark red blotch at the base of petal was selected as the experimental material. The HPLC-DAD and UPLC-TQ-MS analyses indicated that only cyanidin 3,5-O-diglucoside (Cy3G5G) contributed to the blotch pigmentation of ‘Sunset Babylon Eyes’, and the amounts of Cy3G5G varied at different developmental stages. Only flavonols but no flavone were found in blotch and non-blotch parts. As a consequence, kaempferol and its derivatives as well as quercetin and its derivatives may act as background colors during flower developmental stages. Despite of the differences in composition, the total content of carotenoids in blotch and non-blotch parts were similar, and carotenoids may just make the petals show a brighter color. Transcriptomic data, quantitative real-time PCR and promoter sequence analyses indicated that RC7G0058400 (F3’H), RC6G0470600 (DFR) and RC7G0212200 (ANS) may be the key enzyme genes for the early formation and color deepening of blotch at later stages. As for two transcription factor, RC7G0019000 (MYB) and RC1G0363600 (WRKY) may bind to the promoters of critical enzyme genes, or RC1G0363600 (WRKY) may bind to the promoter of RC7G0019000 (MYB) to activate the anthocyanin accumulation in blotch parts of ‘Sunset Babylon Eyes’. Conclusions Our findings provide a theoretical basis for the understanding of the chemical and molecular mechanism for the formation of petal blotch in rose.

Soil interparticle forces can pose important effects on soil aggregate stability and rainfall splash erosion. Meanwhile, these interparticle forces are strongly influenced by specific ion effects. In this study, we applied three monovalent cations (Li+, Na+, and K+) with various concentrations to investigate the influence of specific ion effects on aggregate stability and splash erosion via pipette and rainfall simulation methods. The specific ion effects on soil interparticle forces were quantitatively evaluated by introducing cationic non-classical polarization. The results showed that aggregate stability and splash erosion had strong ion specificity. Aggregate breaking strength and splash erosion rate at the same salt concentration followed the sequence as Li+ > Na+ > K+. With decreasing salt concentration, the difference in aggregate breaking strength or splash erosion rate between different cation systems increased initially (1–10–2 mol L–1) and later was nearly invariable (10–2–10–4 mol L–1). The experimental results were well quantitatively explained by soil interparticle forces considering cationic non-classical polarization. Furthermore, both aggregate breaking strength and splash erosion rate of three cations revealed a strong positive linear relation with net force subjected to cationic non-classical polarization (R2 = 0.81, R2 = 0.81). These results demonstrated that different non-classical polarization of cations resulted in different soil interparticle forces, and thus led to differences in aggregate stability and splash erosion. Our study provides valuable information to deeply understand the mechanisms of rainfall splash erosion.

Abstract A new type of double‐stator permanent magnet spherical motor (DSSRPMSM) is proposed. Compared with most existing spherical motors, this motor uses a large number of stator iron cores, which can generate larger magnetic flux density and significantly improve torque capacity. The proposed DSSRPMSM can continuously rotate, swing and spiral, and can be used in the multi‐degree‐of‐freedom motion fields of industrial robot joints, moment gyroscopes, panoramic photography tables and so on. Because the motor has the dual characteristics of rotary motor and arc linear motor, the comprehensive effects of stator slotting and stator iron core breaking should be considered. Cylindrical and trapezoidal PM poles are equivalent to dihedral PM poles, and stator coils are equivalent to PM pole models. Analytical models of PM pole magnetic field and stator magnetic field in a spherical coordinate system are established, and the air gap magnetic flux density under unequal magnetic potential boundary conditions is calculated by conformal transformation. The analytical calculation method proposed is consistent with the results of finite element method (FEM) simulation, and the experimental test further verifies the effectiveness and accuracy of this method.

Abstract A double‐stator swing rotating permanent magnet spherical motor (SR‐PMSM) is designed, which can realize rotation, swing and spiral motion, and is used in the multi‐degree‐of‐freedom motion fields of industrial robot joints, torque gyroscopes, panoramic photography tables and so on. The inner surface of the rotor of the motor is attached with cylindrical PM poles, and the outer surface is attached with trapezoidal PM poles. Cylindrical and trapezoidal PM poles are simple to manufacture, but the magnetic field model of a spherical motor with two kinds of PM poles is complex. Therefore, a magnetic field modelling method combining the geometric equivalence principle and analytical method is proposed. Using the method of shape approximation, according to the principle of equivalence, the key parameters of cylindrical PM poles and trapezoidal PM poles are replaced by the parameters of approximate dihedral PM poles in a spherical coordinate. Select the most suitable dihedral PM poles, establish the analytical model of the magnetic field in the spherical coordinate system and verify the analytical results by FEM method. A SR‐PMSM motor with 6/4 pole (swing) and 12/10 pole (rotation) structure was assembled, and the experimental device was set up. The experimental results show that the experimental curve, analytical curve and FEM curve are in good agreement, which proves the accuracy of the equivalent model and is suitable for the magnetic field model of cylindrical and trapezoidal PM poles of the spherical motor. The research results of magnetic field lay a foundation for further analysis of the stator–rotor composite magnetic field considering cogging effect and edge effect, and analysis of load characteristics of the motor.

Abstract Background Although a substantial increase in the survival of patients with other cancers has been observed in recent decades, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the deadliest diseases. No effective screening approach exists. Methods Differential exosomal long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) isolated from the serum of patients with PDAC and healthy individuals were profiled to screen for potential markers in liquid biopsies. The functions of LINC00623 in PDAC cell proliferation, migration and invasion were confirmed through in vivo and in vitro assays. RNA pulldown, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and coimmunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assays and rescue experiments were performed to explore the molecular mechanisms of the LINC00623/NAT10 signaling axis in PDAC progression. Results A novel lncRNA, LINC00623, was identified, and its diagnostic value was confirmed, as it could discriminate patients with PDAC from patients with benign pancreatic neoplasms and healthy individuals. Moreover, LINC00623 was shown to promote the tumorigenicity and migratory capacity of PDAC cells in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, LINC00623 bound to N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) and blocked its ubiquitination-dependent degradation by recruiting the deubiquitinase USP39. As a key regulator of N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) modification of mRNA, NAT10 was demonstrated to maintain the stability of oncogenic mRNAs and promote their translation efficiency through ac4C modification. Conclusions Our data revealed the role of LINC00623/NAT10 signaling axis in PDAC progression, showing that it is a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for PDAC.

Particle morphology has been regarded as an important factor affecting shear behaviors of sands, and covers three important aspects, i.e. global form (overall shape), local roundness (large-scale smoothness), and surface texture (roughness) in terms of different observation scales. Shape features of different aspects can be independent of each other but might have coupled effects on the bulk behavior of sands, which has been not explored thoroughly yet. This paper presents a systematic investigation of the coupled effects of the particle overall regularity (OR) and sliding friction on the shear behavior of dense sands using three-dimensional (3D) discrete element method (DEM). The representative volume elements consisting of ideal spheres and irregular clumps of different mass proportions are prepared to conduct drained triaxial compression simulations. A well-defined shape descriptor named OR is adopted to quantify particle shape differences of numerical samples at both form and roundness aspects, and the particle sliding friction coefficient varies from 0.001 to 1 to consider the surface roughness effect equivalently in DEM. The stress-strain relationships as well as peak and critical friction angles of these assemblies are examined systematically. Moreover, contact network and anisotropic fabric characteristics within different granular assemblies are analyzed to explore the microscopic origins of the multi-scale shape-dependent shear strength. This study helps to improve the current understanding with respect to the influence of the particle shape on the shear behavior of sands from different shape aspects.

Recently Transformer models is new direction in the computer vision field, which is based on self multihead attention mechanism. Compared with the convolutional neural network, this Transformer uses the self-attention mechanism to capture global contextual information and extract more strong features by learning the association relationship between different features, which has achieved good results in many vision tasks. In face-based age estimation, some facial patches that contain rich age-specific information are critical in the age estimation task. The present study proposed an attention-based convolution (ABC) age estimation framework, called improved Swin Transformer with ABC, in which two separate regions were implemented, namely ABC and Swin Transformer. ABC extracted facial patches containing rich age-specific information using a shallow convolutional network and a multiheaded attention mechanism. Subsequently, the features obtained by ABC were spliced with the flattened image in the Swin Transformer, which were then input to the Swin Transformer to predict the age of the image. The ABC framework spliced the important regions that contained rich age-specific information into the original image, which could fully mobilize the long-dependency of the Swin Transformer, that is, extracting stronger features by learning the dependency relationship between different features. ABC also introduced loss of diversity to guide the training of self-attention mechanism, reducing overlap between patches so that the diverse and important patches were discovered. Through extensive experiments, this study showed that the proposed framework outperformed several state-of-the-art methods on age estimation benchmark datasets.

Catapult-assisted takeoff is the initiation of flight missions for carrier-based aircrafts. Ensuring the safety of aircrafts during catapult-assisted takeoff requires a thorough analysis of their motion characteristics. In this paper, a rigid–flexible coupling model using the Finite Element Method and Multibody Dynamics (FEM-MBD) approach is developed to simulate the aircraft catapult process. This model encompasses the aircraft frame, landing gear, carrier deck, and catapult launch system. Firstly, reasonable assumptions were made for the dynamic modeling of catapult-assisted takeoff. An enhanced plasticity algorithm that includes transverse shear effects was employed to simulate the tensioning and release processes of the holdback system. Additionally, the forces applied by the launch bar and holdback bar, nonlinear aerodynamics loads, shock absorbers, and tires were introduced. Finally, a comparative analysis was conducted to assess the influence of different launch bar angles and holdback bar fracture stain on the aircraft’s attitude and landing gear dynamics during the catapult process. The proposed rigid–flexible coupling dynamics model enables an effective analysis of the dynamic behavior throughout the entire catapult process, including both the holdback bar tensioning and release, takeoff taxing, and extension of the nose landing gear phases. The results show that higher launch bar angle increase the load and extension of the nose landing gear and cause pronounced fluctuations in the aircraft’s pitch attitude. Additionally, the holdback bar fracture strain has a significant impact on the pitch angle during the first second of the aircraft catapult process, with greater holdback bar fracture strain resulting in larger pitch angle variations.

Investigating the genetic diversity and population structure is important in conserving narrowly distributed plants. In this study, 90 Clematis acerifolia (C. acerifolia) plants belonging to nine populations were collected from the Taihang Mountains in Beijing, Hebei, and Henan. Twenty-nine simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers developed based on RAD-seq data were used to analyze the genetic diversity and population structure of C. acerifolia. The mean PIC value for all markers was 0.2910, indicating all SSR markers showed a moderate degree of polymorphism. The expected heterozygosity of the whole populations was 0.3483, indicating the genetic diversity of both C. acerifolia var. elobata and C. acerifolia were low. The expected heterozygosity of C. acerifolia var. elobata (He = 0.2800) was higher than that of C. acerifolia (He = 0.2614). Genetic structure analysis and principal coordinate analysis demonstrated that C. acerifolia and C. acerifolia var. elobata showed great genetic differences. Molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) demonstrated that within-population genetic variation (68.31%) was the main contributor to the variation of the C. acerifolia populations. Conclusively, C. acerifolia var. elobata had higher genetic diversity than C. acerifolia, and there are significant genetic differences between C. acerifolia and C. acerifolia var. elobata, and small genetic variations within the C. acerifolia populations. Our results provide a scientific and rational basis for the conservation of C. acerifolia and provide a reference for the conservation of other cliff plants.

The present research was intended for interspecific hybridization between two male sterile African marigold lines and six self-lines of French marigolds. The results show that as indicated by the full seed number per capitulum, the pollen amount of French marigold pollen influenced the authentic compatibilities reckoned for the 10 cross combinations configured to some amount. Based on the field performance of these interspecific hybrids, it is known that the parental French marigold’s single-petaled and silvery flower type may well be improved to a heavy-petaled type while the flower colour remains the same or changes to a lighter version with the same hue. Furthermore, the progeny of certain crossings exceeded the male parents in terms of growth, leaf, and flower-related features, particularly plant height, crown breadth, flower number per plant, and ligulate flower quantity. The most remarkable finding was that, compared to the parental French marigold, most of the hybrid combinations' progeny could blossom 0-11 days earlier. Finally, we identified two excellent hybrid combinations that may be used as a reference for future breeding and commercialization of new marigold varieties.

SensorCraft is an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system that integrates unmanned flight platforms and airborne antenna arrays. Under gust loads, the high–aspect–ratio, light–wing structure of SensorCraft has considerable bending and torsion deformation, affecting the flight performance of unmanned flight platforms and leading to the loss of antenna arrays’ electromagnetic performance. Taking SensorCraft as the background, a wing conformal antenna array was designed, an aircraft model with a passive wingtip device was established, a control law was developed by the LQG/LTR method, and a gust alleviation active–passive combined control method of a “LQG/LTR active controller + passive wingtip device” was proposed. By constructing an unsteady aerodynamic reduced–order model (ROM) based on the Volterra series and a conformal array pattern fast method based on the modal form, the effectiveness of the gust alleviation active–passive combined control method on the aircraft platform and antenna array was analyzed. The results show that structural deformation of the wing conformal antenna leads to changes in the main lobe gain, beam direction, and sidelobe level. The active–passive gust alleviation method has obvious advantages. Compared with the LQG/LTR active gust alleviation method, the peak value of wingtip displacement is reduced by 15.6%, and the peak value of the gain loss is reduced by 0.72 dB, which is conducive to better performance of the airborne conformal antenna array.

We propose an uplink full-duplex (FD) cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system, where a dedicated Full-duplex (FD) relay is used to help two uplink users transmitting information to the base station. A novel FD relay transmission mode is proposed, in which the FD relay utilizes successive interference cancellation (SIC) and self-interference cancellation to decode two users symbols at the relay receiving antenna, and the relay transmitting antenna transmits superimposed signal to the base station using superposition coding. In this paper, we also consider a more realistic scenario where self-interference cancellation is imperfect. Hence, the residual-self interference exists. Moreover, the ergodic sum rate and the outage probability of the proposed system are investigated and the accurate analytical expressions are derived. Simulation results validate that, compared with the uplink half-duplex (HD) cooperative NOMA system and the uplink HD cooperative orthogonal multiple access (OMA) system, our proposed system obtains better performance of the ergodic sum rate and outage probability in the main signal to noise ratio (SNR) regime.

By combining the flapping and rotary motion, a flapping wing rotor (FWR) shows unique kinematics of motion. It can produce a significantly higher aerodynamic efficiency and lift coefficient than insect-like flapping wings. However, due to the lack of controllable FWR aerial vehicles, the effect of different flapping parameters of the FWR on aerodynamic characteristics and efficiency remains to be evaluated experimentally. In this work, we conduct experimental studies to investigate the FWR’s lift performance based on our previous vehicle design, which has demonstrated sustained stable hover and maneuver. In particular, by using such flyable FWR as the test platform, the changes in attack angle of the wing, the torsion of wings, different neutral positions, different up and down flapping angles, and different flapping amplitudes, were studied respectively. CFD simulation was used as an auxiliary and supplementary means for validation. As a result, design essentials to lift maximization of the FWR are proposed. The result proves that changing the attack angle and the torsion of the wing will have a certain impact on the lift. In addition, the ideal lift force can be generated when the neutral position tend to zero degrees and the up and down flapping angles tend to be equal. With the growth of the flapping amplitude, the lift force increases continuously. These experimental results provide important design cues for maximizing lift and payload capability of FWR-MAVs.

Rose is one of the most fundamental ornamental crops, but its yield and quality are highly limited by drought. The key transcription factors (TFs) and co-expression networks during rose’s response to drought stress and recovery after drought stress are still limited. In this study, the transcriptomes of leaves of 2-year-old cutting seedlings of Rosa chinensis ‘Old Blush’ from three continuous droughted stages (30, 60, 90 days after full watering) and rewatering were analyzed using RNA sequencing. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to construct a co-expression network, which was associated with the physiological traits of drought response to discovering the hub TFs involved in drought response. More than 45 million high-quality clean reads were generated from the sample and used for comparison with the rose reference genome. A total of 46433 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Gene Ontology (GO) term enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that drought stress caused significant changes in signal transduction, plant hormones including ABA, auxin, brassinosteroid (BR), cytokinin, ethylene (ET), jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA), primary and secondary metabolism, and a certain degree of recovery after rewatering. Gene co-expression analysis identified 18 modules, in which four modules showed a high degree of correlation with physiological traits. In addition, 42 TFs including members of NACs, WRKYs, MYBs, AP2/ERFs, ARFs, and bHLHs with high connectivity in navajowhite1 and blue modules were screened. This study provides the transcriptome sequencing report of R. chinensis ‘Old Blush’ during drought stress and rewatering process. The study also identifies the response of candidate TFs to drought stress, providing guidelines for improving the drought tolerance of the rose through molecular breeding in the future.

In this paper, linearity improved Doherty power amplifier (DPA) is proposed for linearity improvement by modifying the input capacitor value of peaking amplifier. The non-foster circuits are substituted for the conventional λ/4 transmission line in front of peaking amplifier, which the 90° phase shifter and impedance matching can be performed by the proposed structure. Furthermore, the input capacitor value of peaking amplifier FET can be modified through modifying bias voltage and match resistance of non-foster circuits. Therefore, the AM-PM distortion of peak amplifier is suppressed, and the linearity of total DPA is improved. Compared to a conventional DPA, the third-order inter-modulation distortion of proposed DPA is reduced by 12 dB without cutting efficiency.

Objectives: Whether pre-operative biliary drainage (PBD) affects long-term survival of patients with obstructive jaundice with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy is still controversial. Most of the previous research did not include the important total serum bilirubin (TB) level before intervention as well as before surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of PBD on long-term survival after considering the TB level.Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from patients with obstructive jaundice who underwent resection of pancreatic head cancer in a high-volume center. X-Tile software and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were applied to determine the optimal cut-off levels for TB and age based on the minimal probability (P)-value and the largest χ2-value. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed after univariate analysis to assess independent prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS).Results: Of 426 patients with obstructive jaundice who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for resectable pancreatic head cancer during a 7 year period, 242 (56.8%) received PBD and 184 (43.2%) underwent surgery directly. The OS of patients who received PBD was significantly worse than that of patients who did not receive PBD by univariate analysis (median of 16.6 vs. 22.2 months, P = 0.048). After including liver function parameters in the multivariate Cox regression, we found that the use of PBD was not associated with OS or DFS, while TB before intervention >150 μmol/L was an independent adverse prognostic factor for both OS [hazard ratio (HR), 1.42; 95% CI, 1.05–1.91] and DFS (HR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.08–1.77).Conclusions: In patients with obstructive jaundice with resectable pancreatic head cancer, undergoing PBD before pancreaticoduodenectomy did not impair or benefit survival rates compared with surgery alone. However, TB before intervention >150 μmol/L predicted an unfavorable prognosis, irrespective of the PBD procedure.

Background Ecological stoichiometry (C:N:P ratios) in soil is an important indicator of the elemental balance in ecological interactions and processes. Long-term natural vegetation plays an important role in the accumulation and distribution of soil stoichiometry. However, information about the effects of long-term secondary forest succession on soil stoichiometry along a deep soil profile is still limited. Methods We selected Ziwuling secondary succession forest developed from farmland as the study area, investigated the concentrations and stoichiometry of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) at a depth of 0–100 cm along a 90-year succession chronosequence, including farmland (control), grassland, shrub, early forest, and climax forest. Results SOC and TN concentrations significantly increased with increasing restoration age, whereas soil P concentration remained relatively stable across various successional stages. SOC and TN concentrations decreased with an increase in soil depth, exhibiting distinct soil nutrient “surface-aggregation” (high nutrients concentration in the top soil layer). The soil C:P and N:P ratios increased with an increase in restoration age, whereas the variation of the C:N ratio was small and relatively stable across vegetation succession. The nutrient limitation changed along with vegetation succession, transitioning from limited N in the earlier successional stages to limited P in the later successional stages. Conclusion Our results suggest that more nitrogen input should be applied to earlier succession stages, and more phosphorus input should be utilized in later succession stages in order to address limited availability of these elements. In general, natural vegetation restoration was an ecologically beneficial practice for the recovery of degraded soils in this area. The findings of this study strengthen our understanding of the changes of soil nutrient concentration and nutrient limitation after vegetation restoration, and provide a simple guideline for future vegetation restoration and reconstruction efforts on the Loess Plateau.

RcNAC72, a key transcription factor that may respond to drought stress in Rosa chinensis ‘Old Blush’, was selected in our previous study. In the present study, we found that RcNAC72 is localized in the nucleus and is a transcriptional activator. RcNAC72 expression could be significantly induced by drought, low temperature, salt as well as abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. Analysis of the promoter revealed that multiple abiotic stress and hormone response elements were located in the promoter region. The promoter could respond to drought, low temperature, salt and ABA treatments to activate GUS gene expression. Overexpressing RcNAC72 in Arabidopsis thaliana enhanced sensitivity to ABA and tolerance to drought stress. Silencing of RcNAC72 by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in rose leaves significantly reduced leaf water loss tolerance and leaf extension capacity. Physical interaction of RcNAC72 with RcDREB2A was shown by means of the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays. RcABF4 was demonstrated to be able to bind to the promoter of RcNAC72 by means of the yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assay. These results provide new insights into the regulatory network of RcNAC72 response to drought stress in roses.

A static aeroelastic analysis of the flexible trailing edge is conducted to calculate the deformed shape, aerodynamic coefficients and corresponding driving pressure. A physical flexible trailing edge model is manufactured using a honeycomb structure, which is measured based on binocular vision. The quadratic response surface method is adopted to establish the pneumatic artificial muscle actuator model. The wire-pulley transmission model is built to identify the existence of equivalent forces and produce the equivalent forces as the substitute of actuation force. A finite element model of the flexible trailing edge is established, which is validated by the test data. A nonlinear relationship is found between the driving pressure and deflection angle. The pressure needed to bear the structural stiffness is found to be much larger than that of the aerodynamic load. With the increase in pressure, the magnitude of the lift coefficient increases less. However, the magnitude of the drag coefficient increases more with the increase in pressure under 0.2 MPa. When the driving pressure exceeds 0.2 MPa, the relationship between them is nearly linear.

In the present paper, several dynamic properties tests of the viscoelastic damper at −5°C are conducted under different frequencies and displacements to investigate the dynamic behavior of the viscoelastic damper at low temperature. The seven-parameter fractional derivative model is modified with the temperature-frequency equivalent principle and utilized to describe the dynamic properties of the viscoelastic damper. The 9050A and ZN22 viscoelastic materials are used to verify the modified seven-parameter fractional derivative model. The experimental and numerical results show that the viscoelastic damper has perfect energy dissipation capacity at low temperature, and the modified seven-parameter fractional derivative model can well capture the dynamic behavior of viscoelastic materials and dampers.

The bottom-up effects of vegetation have been documented to be strong drivers of the soil food web structure and functioning in temperate forests. However, how the forest type affects the stability of the soil food web is not well known. In the Ziwuling forest region of the Loess Plateau, we selected three typical forests, Pinus tabuliformis Carrière (PT), Betula platyphylla Sukaczev (BP), and Quercus liaotungensis Koidz. (QL), to investigate the soil nematode community characteristics in the dry (April) and rainy (August) season, and analyzed their relationships with the soil properties. The results showed that the characteristics of the soil nematode communities and their seasonal variations differed markedly among the forest types. Compared to P. tabuliformis (PT), the B. platyphylla (BP) and Q. liaotungensis (QL) forests had higher plant diversity and more easily decomposed litters, which were more effective for improving the soil resource availability, thus, leading to more beneficial effects on the soil nematode community. In both the dry and rainy season, the soil nematode abundance was the highest in the BP forest. The Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H’), Pielou’s evenness index (J’), and nematode channel ratio index (NCR) were higher, while the Simpson dominance index (λ) and plant parasite index (PPI) were lower, in the BP and QL forests compared with in the PT forest. From the dry to rainy season, the total nematode abundance and the abundance of fungivores, bacterivores, and omnivore-predators, significantly increased in the QL and PT forests, and the values of the Wasilewska index (WI), maturity index (MI), H’, J’, λ, and NCR showed the most significant seasonal variability in the PT forest, which were mainly driven by changes in the soil labile C and N and the moisture content between the two seasons. Generally, the seasonal stability of the soil nematode communities was the highest in the BP forest and the poorest in the PT forest, probably due to variations in the plant diversity. Our results suggest the importance of tree species and diversity as bottom-up regulating factors of the soil food web structure, function, and seasonal stability, which has important implications for sustainable forest management in the Loess Plateau and other temperate regions.

As the accuracy and stability requirements of space structures increase, structural microvibration has become a critical problem. However the measurement of the in-obit microvibration is difficult and costly compared to the measurement on the ground. It’s essential to establish the relationship between the ground test data and in-obit microvibration. In this paper, a model updating method is established to predict the in-orbit microvibration model using the ground test data. A numerical example of a satellite model is presented to validate the model updating method. Keywords: Model updating, Mechanical environment, Boundary element method, Microvibration

In this paper, a new method to build a composite ply database with engineering design constraints is proposed. This method has two levels: the core stacking sequence design and the whole stacking sequence design. The core stacking sequences are obtained by the full permutation algorithm considering the ply ratio requirement and the dispersion character which characterizes the dispersion of ply angles. The whole stacking sequences are the combinations of the core stacking sequences. By excluding the ply sequences which do not meet the engineering requirements, the final ply database is obtained. One example with the constraints that the total layer number is 100 and the ply ratio is 30:60:10 is presented to validate the method. This method provides a new way to set up the ply database based on the engineering requirements without adopting intelligent optimization algorithms. Keywords: Composite ply database, VBA program, Structure design, Stacking sequence

Background The loess-paleosol sequence on the Loess Plateau has been considered an important paleoclimatic archive to study global climatic and environmental changes in the Quaternary. So far, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of soil organic carbon fractions in loess-paleosol sequences, which may provide valuable information for exploring the evolution of climate and environment in the Quaternary on the Loess Plateau. Methods In order to explore the significance of mineral-associated organic carbon to total organic carbon (MOC/TOC) ratios in the loess-paleosol sequence for reconstructing paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evolution in the Quaternary on the Loess Plateau, we selected a typical loess-paleosol profile in Chunhua county, Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, as the research object. The content of total organic carbon (TOC) and MOC/TOC ratio in each loess and paleosol layers of the Chunhua loess-paleosol profile were analyzed, together with the paleoclimatic proxies, such as soil grain size, CaCO3 content and their correlations with organic carbon parameters. Results The main results were as follows: (1) the total content of soil organic carbon and MOC/TOC ratios were generally higher in paleosol layers than in the underlying loess layers of the Chunhua loess-paleosol profile. Compared to total organic carbon content, MOC/TOC ratios changed more obviously in soil layers below a paleosol layer S8; (2) soil clay content and median grain size (Md (ϕ)) were higher in paleosol than in the underlying loess, while CaCO3 content showed an opposite tendency. In the Chunhua profile, the distribution characteristics of the three paleoclimatic proxies showed good indications of paleoclimate changes in the Quaternary; (3) in the Chunhua loess-paleosol profile, MOC/TOC ratios were positively correlated with clay content and median grain size (ϕ), while negatively correlated with CaCO3 content, and the correlations were more significant in soil layers below S8. Discussion Our results indicated that MOC/TOC ratios in the Chunhua loess-paleosol profile correlated with the cold dry-warm wet paleoclimatic cycle in the Quaternary. The high MOC/TOC ratios in the loess-paleosol profile might reflect warm and humid climate, while lower ratios indicated relatively cold and dry climate. That is because when the climate changed from warm-humid to cold-dry, the vegetation coverage and pedogenesis intensity decreased, which increased soil CaCO3 content and decreased soil clay content and Md (ϕ), leading to decreased MOC/TOC ratios. Compared to TOC, MOC/TOC ratios had greater significance in indicating paleoenvironmental evolution in the Quaternary on the Loess Plateau. Therefore, investigating MOC/TOC ratios in loess-paleosol profile can offer new evidence to reconstructing paleoenvironmental changes, and also provide a basis for predicting responses of soil organic carbon pools to vegetation and climate changes in the future.

As a potent bronchodilator, the anti-inflammatory effects of tiotropium and its interaction with budesonide against cadmium-induced acute pulmonary inflammation were investigated. Compared to values obtained in rats exposed to cadmium, cytological analysis indicated a significant decrease of total cell and neutrophil counts and protein concentration in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in rats pretreated with tiotropium (70μg/15ml or 350μg/15ml). Zymographic tests showed a decrease of MMP-2 activity in BALF in rats pretreated only with high concentration of tiotropium. Histological examination revealed a significant decrease of the severity and extent of inflammatory lung injuries in rats pretreated with both tested concentrations of tiotropium. Though tiotropium (70μg/15ml) or budesonide (250μg/15ml) could not reduce cadmium-induced bronchial hyper-responsiveness, their combination significantly decreased bronchial contractile response to methacholine. These two drugs separately decreased the neutrophil number and protein concentration in BALF but no significant interaction was observed when both drugs were combined. Although no inhibitory effects on MMP-2 and MMP-9 was observed in rats pretreated with budesonide alone, the combination with the ineffective dose of tiotropium induced a significant reduction on these parameters. The inhibitory effect of tiotropium on lung injuries was not influenced by budesonide which alone induced a limited action on the severity and extent of inflammatory sites. Our findings show that tiotropium exerts anti-inflammatory effects on cadmium-induced acute neutrophilic pulmonary inflammation. The combination of tiotropium with budesonide inhibits cadmium-induced inflammatory injuries with a synergistic interaction on MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity and airway hyper-responsiveness.

In this paper, a novel limited swing angle torque permanent magnet motor (LSATPMM) is proposed, and the operating principle of the circuit breaker of the proposed LSATPMM and a mathematical model are analyzed. The characteristics of the high voltage circuit breaker (HVCB) of the proposed machine are analyzed and calculated by numerical finite element analysis methods. The co-simulation of the Maxwell Circuit Editor and Ansoft Maxwell is used to analyze the dynamic characteristics of HVCB. The advantages of the presented operating mechanism for LSATPMM, such as the ability to adjust the opening and closing torque characteristic, high reliability, robust drive system and fault tolerance, are discussed. Finally, a prototype of LSATPMM is created and tested; and the characteristic curve of position versus torque is acquired in order to confirm the proposed design.

Purpose: This study aims to survey the demographic status of aesthetic plastic surgeons in an economically developed region and to investigate their continuing training needs in contents, training methods, and barriers in private and government hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with a self-administered questionnaire was conducted from January to December, 2022 in Guangdong, China. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants to gain insights on the current demographic status. Demographic data and training needs assessment were collected and compared with the chi-square test, Fisher’s test, Mann-Whitney U-test using R software. Results: The disparity of surgeons’ demographic data between private and government hospitals was small. Over 60% of practicing aesthetic plastic surgeons transferred from other specialties, and one third of them had less than three years of working experience. Half of surgeons attended training less than three times with an affordable expense of 1000-5000RMB. Almost 80% of them had strong willingness to attend a continuing training program. They prefer to attend further study in a tertiary hospital, with a short topic-focused training course and operation demonstrations. Their favorable training contents were rhinoplasty, eye surgery, and new technologies. Our questionnaire survey revealed the likelihood that the surgeons had a graduate degree in government hospitals outweighed those in private hospitals (P Conclusion: It would be favorable to take the demographic status of aesthetic plastic surgeons and organizational needs into consideration in designing a continuing training program in plastic surgery.

Purpose: This study aims to survey the demographic status of aesthetic plastic surgeons in an economically developed region and to investigate their continuing training needs in contents, training methods, and barriers in private and government hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with a self-administered questionnaire was conducted from January to December, 2022 in Guangdong, China. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants to gain insights on the current demographic status. Demographic data and training needs assessment were collected and compared with the chi-square test, Fisher’s test, Mann-Whitney U-test using R software. Results: The disparity of surgeons’ demographic data between private and government hospitals was small. Over 60% of practicing aesthetic plastic surgeons transferred from other specialties, and one third of them had less than three years of working experience. Half of surgeons attended training less than three times with an affordable expense of 1000-5000RMB. Almost 80% of them had strong willingness to attend a continuing training program. They prefer to attend further study in a tertiary hospital, with a short topic-focused training course and operation demonstrations. Their favorable training contents were rhinoplasty, eye surgery, and new technologies. Our questionnaire survey revealed the likelihood that the surgeons had a graduate degree in government hospitals outweighed those in private hospitals (P Conclusion: It would be favorable to take the demographic status of aesthetic plastic surgeons and organizational needs into consideration in designing a continuing training program in plastic surgery.

This paper introduces a multimode hybrid continuous class power amplifier utilizing a band-pass filter. It integrates resistive response amplifiers operating in three modes: class F, class J, and class F-1. Instead of the traditional quarter-wavelength line for harmonic control, an interdigital band-pass filter is utilized to manage harmonic impedance, enabling broadband operation, high efficiency, reduced circuit size, and improved out-of-band rejection. To demonstrate the approach, a multimode hybrid broadband high-efficiency power amplifier designed for 2 to 3.8 GHz range, achieving drain efficiency from 56.3% to 75.5%, saturated output power ranging from 39.1 to 41.2 dBm, and gain between 11.1 and 13.2 dB, is detailed and fabricated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]