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Abstract The stone waste generated by stone industry occupy land resources, cause safety hazards and need to be efficiently resourcefully utilized. In this study, the CGF solid waste based binder (abbreviated as CGF) with calcium carbide residue (CCR), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and fly ash (FA) as components was developed to solidify the stone waste. Through “treating waste with waste”, the resource utilization of solid waste was realized. The mechanical properties and reaction mechanism of CGF solidified stone waste were investigated through unconfined compressive strength (UCS), XRD, and SEM–EDS tests. The results show that CGF has the better solidify effect on stone waste, and its strength meets the requirements of the road base material standards. Compared to cement, the CGF solidified stone waste existed higher UCS at both 7 and 28 d of curing. The UCS of CGF solidified stone waste reaches 2.93 and 4.42 MPa under curing of 7 and 28 d at 5% binder content, which is 1.61 and 1.37 times higher that of P.O. 42.5 cement. Furthermore, the primary mineral-based stone wastes will not react with the binder, and the CGF generates gelling products such as C-S–H C-A-H, and C-A-S–H through alkali-activated reactions between the components of CGF. These gelling products enhance the UCS of solidified stone wastes through cementing and filling effects. The findings provide a feasible approach with low-carbon emission and low-cost for resourceful utilization of stone wastes.

The deterioration depth (D) is a relatively simple index used to evaluate the deterioration degree of solidified soil. Based on the equivalent relationship between the accelerated deterioration tests and the conventional deterioration tests and the power function form of the D prediction equation, a rapid prediction method is proposed in this study for predicting the D of cement solidified marine soft soil. Deterioration test results of the cement solidified marine soft soil showed that increases in the concentration of seawater accelerated the rate of cement soil deterioration. Deterioration test results of the cement solidified marine soft soil showed that increases in the concentration of seawater accelerated the rate of cement soil deterioration. Additionally, the D obtained from indoor and in-site conventional deterioration tests is almost the same. A rapid prediction method for the D of cement stabilized marine soft soil was established with the equivalent relationship between the accelerated and conventional deterioration tests and a power function form of the deterioration depth prediction equation. The predicted D and the development trend were more consistent with the results of the indoor and in-site conventional deterioration tests.

In order to identify the upper and lower boundary cement content for modified marine soft soil (i.e., semi–solidified soils), physical, compaction, and unconfined compressive strength tests of cement–treated soils with a wide range of cement content were carried out to study their variation law of physical–compaction–mechanical properties. The test results show that cement–treated soil can be divided into uselessly treated soil, semi–solidified soil, and solidified soil with the increase of cement content. For uselessly treated soil, the treated soil cannot be compacted even after compaction delay. Cement hydration in semi–solidified soil significantly improved its physical and compaction properties. However, compaction destroyed the skeleton structure of solidified soil, resulting in lower strength than compacted semi–solidified soil. Based on the cement–soil particles–water relationship, soil particles–water transfer mechanism, cement hydration mechanism and the state of soil particles–water before and after treated, the bound method of semi–solidified soils based on cement content and moisture content ratio of untreated soil was established. The test parameters of bound method are simple, easily obtained and have small dispersion, which provides design basis and theoretical support for resource utilization of marine soft soil.

Stone waste refers to the waste stone particles generated from mining and stone processing to finished products that are not utilized in a resourceful manner. In this study, a CGF solid waste-based binder (abbreviated as CGF), with calcium carbide residue (CCR), ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), and fly ash (FA) as components, was developed to solidify the stone waste. Through “treating waste with waste”, the resource utilization of solid waste was realized. In order to improve the performance of the new material, this paper proposes the MAA-SW model for stone waste pavement base material based on the MAA model, establishes the relationship with the target gradation, and obtains the ideal gradation composition of stone waste through the calculation of the response surface analysis so as to obtain an energy-saving stone waste pavement base material with excellent performance.

Large quantities of abandoned marine soft soil are generated from coastal engineering which cannot be directly utilized for construction without modification. The utilization of traditional binders to modify abandoned marine soft soil yields materials with favorable mechanical properties and cost efficiency. However, the production of traditional binders like cement leads to environmental pollution. This study uses a CGF all-solid-waste binder (abbreviated as CGF) composed of industrial solid waste materials such as calcium carbide residue (CCR), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and fly ash (FA), developed by our research team, for the modification of abandoned marine soft soil (referred to as modified soil). It is noteworthy that the marine soft soil utilized in this study was obtained from the coastal area of Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao, China. Physical property tests, compaction tests, and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests were conducted on the modified soil. The investigation analyzed the effects of binder content, compaction delay time, and curing time on the physical, compaction, and mechanical properties of CGF-modified soil and cement-modified soil. Additionally, microscopic experimental results were integrated to elucidate the mechanical improvement mechanisms of CGF on abandoned marine soft soil. The results show that after modification with binders, the water content of abandoned marine soft soil significantly decreases due to both physical mixing and chemical reactions. With an increase in compaction delay time, the impact of chemical reactions on reducing water content gradually surpasses that of physical mixing, and the plasticity of the modified soil notably modifies. The addition of binders results in an increase in the optimum moisture content and a decrease in the maximum dry density of CGF-modified soil, while the optimum moisture content decreases and the maximum dry density increases for cement-modified soil. Moreover, with an increase in binder content, the compaction curve of CGF-modified soil gradually shifts downward and to the right, while for cement-modified soil, it shifts upward and to the left. Additionally, the maximum dry density of both CGF-modified and cement-modified soils shows a declining trend with the increase in compaction delay time, while the optimum moisture content of CGF-modified soil increases and that of cement-modified soil exhibits a slight decrease. The strength of compacted modified soil is determined by the initial moisture ratio, binder content, compaction delay time, and curing time. The process of CGF modification of marine soft soil in Jiaozhou Bay can be delineated into stages of modified soil formation, formation of compacted modified soil, and curing of compacted modified soil. The modification mechanisms primarily involve the alkali excitation reaction of CGF itself, pozzolanic reaction, ion-exchange reaction, and carbonization reaction. Through quantitative calculations, the carbon footprint and unit strength cost of CGF are both significantly lower than those of cement.

Abstract Background Chromosome microdissection is one of the most important techniques in molecular cytogenetic research. Cotton (Gossypium Linnaeus, 1753) is the main natural fiber crop in the world. The resistance gene analog (RGA) cloning after its single chromosome microdissection can greatly promote cotton genome research and breeding. Results Using the linker adaptor PCR (LA-PCR) with the primers of rice disease-resistance homologues, three nucleotide sequences PS016 (KU051681), PS054 (KU051682), and PS157 (KU051680) were obtained from the chromosome Ah01 of upland cotton (cv. TM-1). The Blast results showed that the three sequences are the nucleotide binding site-leucine rich repeat (NBS-LRR) type RGAs. Clustering results indicated that they are homologous to these published RGAs. Thus, the three RGAs can definitely be confirmed as NBS-LRR class of RGAs in upland cotton. Conclusions Using single chromosome microdissection technique, DNA libraries containing cotton RGAs were obtained. This technique can promote cotton gene cloning, marker development and even the improvement of cotton genome research and breeding.

To minimize pesticide dosage and its adverse environmental impact, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) spraying requires precise individual canopy information. Branches from neighboring trees may overlap, preventing image-based artificial intelligence analysis from correctly identifying individual trees. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a segmentation and evaluation method for mingled fruit tree canopies with irregular shapes. To extract the individual trees from mingled canopies, the study fitted the projection curve distribution of the interlacing tree with Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and solved the matter of segmentation by estimating the GMM parameters. For the intermingling degree assessment, the Gaussian parameters were used to quantify the characteristics of the mingled fruit trees and then as the input for Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model training. The proposed method was tested on the aerial images of cherry and apple trees. Results of the experiments show that the proposed method can not only accurately identify individual trees, but also estimate the intermingledness of the interlacing canopies. The root mean squares (R) of the over-segmentation rate (Ro) and under-segmentation rate (Ru) for individual trees counting were less than 10%. Moreover, the Intersection over Union (IoU), used to evaluate the integrity of a single canopy area, was greater than 88%. An 84.3% Accuracy (ACC) with a standard deviation of 1.2% was achieved by the assessment model. This method will supply more accurate data of individual canopy for spray volume assessments or other precision-based applications in orchards.

Accurate measurement of the downwash flow field of plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is essential for analyzing the spatial distribution of droplets. To realize on-line rapid detection of the downwash flow field of a multi-rotor UAV, a flexible polypropylene detection device based on the principle of full bridge strain effect was proposed. Its performance principle was based on the physical deformation caused by wind pressure. The Fluid Flow and Static Structural modules of ANSYS 16.0 finite element software were used to simulate one-way fluid-solid coupling interaction. The surface of the resistive strain gauge embedded in the flexible detecting structure responded well to wind speed variation, hence it was suitable for downwash airflow wind field detection. By solving the strain force on the surface of the flexible detection structure, the length and layout of the grating wire of the strain gauge on the surface of the flexible detection structure were optimized. Meanwhile at 4 m·s−1 wind speed, the output voltage at varied bridge flexible acquisition systems in the acquisition card was measured. Results indicated coefficient of variation of 3.67%, 1.63% and 1.5%, respectively, which proved the good data acquisition consistency of the system. Through calibration test, the regression equation for the relationship between output voltage and wind speed for three unique sensor signal measuring circuits was established. The determination coefficients R2 for single bridge, half bridge and full bridge circuits were 0.9885, 0.9866 and 0.9959, respectively. In conclusion, by applying the multi-rotor plant protection UAV test platform, the results indicated the maximum relative error of the wind speed at each sampling point of the system at 1.0 m altitude was below 5.61%. Simulated and measured value had an RMSE maximum error of 0.1246 m·s−1. Moreover, downwash airflow detection not only has high accuracy but also has high sensitivity. Thus, there is convenience and practicability in the plant protection offered by this approach. The rapid measurement of UAV wind field and the established two-dimensional wind field model can provide a basis for precise application of agricultural aviation.

In spacecraft electrical signal characteristic data, there exists a large amount of data with high-dimensional features, a high computational complexity degree, and a low rate of identification problems, which causes great difficulty in fault diagnosis of spacecraft electronic load systems. This paper proposes a feature extraction method that is based on deep belief networks (DBN) and a classification method that is based on the random forest (RF) algorithm; The proposed algorithm mainly employs a multi-layer neural network to reduce the dimension of the original data, and then, classification is applied. Firstly, we use the method of wavelet denoising, which was used to pre-process the data. Secondly, the deep belief network is used to reduce the feature dimension and improve the rate of classification for the electrical characteristics data. Finally, we used the random forest algorithm to classify the data and comparing it with other algorithms. The experimental results show that compared with other algorithms, the proposed method shows excellent performance in terms of accuracy, computational efficiency, and stability in addressing spacecraft electrical signal data.

This paper proposes a novel multi-label classification method for resolving the spacecraft electrical characteristics problems which involve many unlabeled test data processing, high-dimensional features, long computing time and identification of slow rate. Firstly, both the fuzzy c-means (FCM) offline clustering and the principal component feature extraction algorithms are applied for the feature selection process. Secondly, the approximate weighted proximal support vector machine (WPSVM) online classification algorithms is used to reduce the feature dimension and further improve the rate of recognition for electrical characteristics spacecraft. Finally, the data capture contribution method by using thresholds is proposed to guarantee the validity and consistency of the data selection. The experimental results indicate that the method proposed can obtain better data features of the spacecraft electrical characteristics, improve the accuracy of identification and shorten the computing time effectively.

Immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM) signaling mediated by DAP12 or Fcepsilon receptor Igamma chain (FcRgamma) have been shown to be critical for osteoclast differentiation and maturation under normal physiological conditions. Their function in pathological conditions is unknown. We studied the role of ITAM signaling during rapid bone remodeling induced by acute estrogen-deficiency in wild-type (WT), DAP12-deficient (DAP12-/-), FcRgamma-deficient (FcRgamma-/-) and double-deficient (DAP12-/-FcRgamma-/-) mice. Six weeks after ovariectomy (OVX), DAP12-/-FcRgamma-/- mice showed resistance to lumbar vertebral body (LVB) trabecular bone loss, while WT, DAP12-/- and FcRgamma-/- mice had significant LVB bone loss. In contrast, all ITAM adapter-deficient mice responded to OVX with bone loss in both femur and tibia of approximately 40%, relative to basal bone volumes. Only WT mice developed significant cortical bone loss after OVX. In vitro studies showed microenvironmental changes induced by OVX are indispensable for enhanced osteoclast formation and function. Cytokine changes, including TGFbeta and TNFalpha, were able to induce osteoclastogenesis independent of RANKL in BMMs from WT but not DAP12-/- and DAP12-/-FcRgamma-/- mice. FSH stimulated RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation from BMMs in WT, but not DAP12-/- and DAP12-/-FcRgamma-/- mice. Our study demonstrates that although ITAM adapter signaling is critical for normal bone remodeling, estrogen-deficiency induces an ITAM adapter-independent bypass mechanism allowing for enhanced osteoclastogenesis and activation in specific bony microenvironments.

A novel method for fluidized solidified soil protection, known as all-solid-waste binder fluidized solidified soil protection, is proposed to improve the anti-scour ability of soil in the foundations of offshore wind power turbines. The shear strength is used to evaluate the anti-scour ability of the fluidized solidified soil. Direct shear tests are conducted in the laboratory to study the effects of the vertical pressure, cement-water ratio, curing age, curing environment and mix proportions on the shear strength of the prepared fluidized solidified soil. Equations are derived for the anti-scour rate and shear strength, and the limiting anti-scour rate of the prepared fluidized solidified soil is determined. These results provide a theoretical basis for erosion protecting fluidized solidified soil in the foundations of offshore wind power turbines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]