Search Results (134)

Weeds represent increasingly troublesome threats to modern wheat production. Jiangsu Province, China, is one of the largest wheat-planting areas, characterized by a high level of agricultural mechanization, in the country. In 2024, we surveyed weed communities of 924 wheat lands from 308 sites in Jiangsu and compared them with historical data surveyed in 1999–2000 in this province. A total of 156 weed species belonging to 103 genera and 39 families were recorded. Compositae and Poaceae showed the highest species richness, with 26 and 23 species, respectively. Poaceae weeds accounted for 54.3% of the overall weeds in dominance values. Beckmannia syzigachne showed the highest proportion of the overall weeds in dominance values (19.2%). Compared with the historical data, weed diversity increased by 33.3% in species, and by 62.5% in families; grassy weeds such as Beckmannia syzigachne, Alopecurus japonicus, and Alopecurus myosuroides became more dominant, while several low-growing grassy weeds became less dominant. The dominance of broadleaf weeds, such as Galium spp., Vicia spp., and Veronica spp., decreased greatly, and a clear trend of weed homogenization among different areas and types of wheat lands was observed. This is the first investigation of weed community succession against the background of agricultural modernization in China. Full article

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has become a key enabler in 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and future 6G systems, with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) widely adopted as the underlying waveform. However, due to the inherent structure of OFDM signals, traditional sensing algorithms often suffer from a limited sensing range in practical applications. To address this issue, we propose a delay compensation algorithm that mitigates the impact of delay and ensures the gain of range-Doppler processing. Furthermore, we analyze the issue of ambiguous targets in CP-OFDM systems, considering both single-target and multi-target scenarios. To improve the detection probability and suppress the accumulated echo energy corresponding to ambiguous targets, we propose a sequence design criterion, in which part of the original signal is replaced with a designed sequence. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm effectively improves detection range and ensures unambiguous target identification, while achieving effective suppression of ambiguous target energy. Compared with a conventional algorithm, it achieves a processing gain of up to 20 dB. Moreover, the results show that different redundancy ratios can be selected in varying scenarios to balance communication and sensing performance in ISAC systems. Full article

Cu-Ni-Si is a prominent example of a high-end lead frame copper alloy. The enhancement of strength without compromising electrical conductivity has emerged as a prominent research focus. The evolution of the precipitates exerts a significant influence on the strength and electrical conductivity of Cu-Ni-Si-Co-Mg alloys. In this paper, the effects of aging treatment and Mg addition on the properties and precipitates of cold-rolled Cu-Ni-Si-Co alloys were studied. The precipitate was (Ni, Co)₂Si and was in a strip shape. During aging, precipitation and coarsening of the (Ni, Co)₂Si precipitates were observed. In the early stage of aging, a significant number of fine (Ni, Co)₂Si precipitates were formed. These fine precipitates could not only have a better effect of precipitation strengthening, but also impeded the dislocation movement, thus increasing the dislocation density and improving the dislocation strengthening effect. However, the coarsening of the precipitates became dominant with increasing aging times. Therefore, the strengthening effect was weakened. The addition of 0.12% Mg promoted finer and more diffuse precipitates, which not only improving the tensile strength by 100–200 MPa, but also exhibiting a smaller effect on the electrical conductivity. However, further increases in Mg contents resulted in a significant decrease in electrical conductivity, with little change in the tensile strength. The optimum amount of added Mg was 0.12%, and the aging parameters were 300 °C and 20 min. Full article

Aerial tracking is an important service for many Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. Existing work has failed to provide robust solutions when handling target disappearance, viewpoint changes, and tracking drifts in practical scenarios with limited UAV resources. In this paper, we propose a closed-loop framework integrating three key components: (1) a lightweight adaptive detection with multi-scale feature extraction, (2) spatiotemporal motion modeling through Kalman-filter-based trajectory prediction, and (3) autonomous decision-making through composite scoring of detection confidence, appearance similarity, and motion consistency. By implementing dynamic detection-tracking coordination with quality-aware feature preservation, our system enables real-time operation through performance-adaptive frequency modulation. Evaluated on VOT-ST2019 and OTB100 benchmarks, the proposed method yields marked improvements over baseline trackers, achieving a 27.94% increase in Expected Average Overlap (EAO) and a 10.39% reduction in failure rates, while sustaining a frame rate of 23–95 FPS on edge hardware. The framework achieves rapid target reacquisition during prolonged occlusion scenarios through optimized protocols, outperforming conventional methods in sustained aerial surveillance tasks. Full article

Ambient monitoring in chemical laboratories and industrial sites that use toxic, hazardous, or flammable materials is essential to protect the lives of workers, material resources, and infrastructure at these sites. In this research paper, we present an innovative approach for developing a low-cost and portable sensor node that detects and warns of hazardous chemical gas and vapor leaks. The system also enables leak location tracking using an indoor tracking and positioning system operating in ultra-wideband (UWB) technology. An array of sensors is used to detect gases, vapors, and airborne particles, while the leak location is identified through a UWB unit integrated with an Internet of Things (IoT) processor. This processor transmits real-time location data and sensor readings via wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi). The real-time indoor positioning system (IPS) can automatically select a tracking area based on the distances measured from the three nearest anchors of the movable sensor node. The environmental sensor data and distances between the node and the anchors are transmitted to the cloud in JSON format via the user datagram protocol (UDP), which allows the fastest possible data rate. A monitoring server was developed in Python to track the movement of the portable sensor node and display live measurements of the environment. The system was tested by selecting different paths between several adjacent areas with a chemical leakage of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the test path. The experimental tests demonstrated good accuracy in both hazardous gas detection and location tracking. The system successfully issued a leak warning for all tested material samples with volumes up to 500 microliters and achieved a positional accuracy of approximately 50 cm under conditions without major obstacles obstructing the UWB signal between the active system units. Full article

Reclaiming coastal wetlands for agricultural purposes has led to intensified farming activities, which are anticipated to affect greenhouse gas (GHG) flux processes within coastal wetland ecosystems. However, how greenhouse gas exchanges respond to variations in agricultural reclamation activities across different years remains uncertain. To address this knowledge gap, this study characterized dynamic exchanges within the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum by employing continuous monitoring across four representative coastal wetland soil–vegetation systems in Jiangsu, China. The results show the carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) flux exchanges between the system and the atmosphere and soil–vegetation carbon pools, which revealed the drivers of carbon dynamics in the coastal wetland system. The four study sites, converted from coastal wetlands to agricultural lands at different times (years), generally act as CO₂ sinks and N₂O sources. Higher levels of CO₂ sequestration occur as the age of reclamation rises. In terms of time scale, crops lands were found to be CO₂ sinks during the growing period but became CO₂ sources during the crop fallow period. Although the temporal trend of the N₂O flux was generally smooth, reclaimed farmlands acted as net sources of N₂O, particularly during the crop-growing period. The RDA and PLS-PM models illustrate that soil salinity, acidity, and hydrothermal conditions were the key drivers affecting the magnitude of the GHG flux exchanges under reclamation. This study demonstrates that GHG emissions from reclaimed wetlands can be effectively regulated through science-based land management, calling for prioritized attention to post-development practices rather than blanket restrictions on coastal exploitation. Full article

Organisms respond to environmental stress primarily through the autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, regulating metabolism, psychological states, and immune function and modulating memory, reward processing, and immune responses. The HPA axis plays a central role in stress response, exhibiting distinct activation patterns under acute versus chronic social defeat stress. However, differences in physiological impacts and regulatory pathways between these stress conditions remain understudied. This study integrates RNA sequencing and behavioral analyses to reveal that acute social defeat stress triggers transient anxiety-like behaviors, accompanied by systemic inflammation and immediate-early gene (IEG) activation. In contrast, chronic social defeat stress induces long-term behavioral and physiological alterations, including neurotransmitter imbalance (e.g., reduced GABA and increased glutamate), sustained activation of maladaptive pathways (e.g., IL-17 signaling), and disrupted corticosterone synthesis. These findings highlight the dynamic regulatory role of the HPA axis under varying stress conditions, providing novel insights into mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. The study identifies potential therapeutic targets to mitigate chronic social defeat stress effects and offers a theoretical foundation for personalized interventions. Full article

The global energy transition is accelerating, bringing new challenges to power systems. A high penetration of renewable energy increases grid volatility. Virtual power plants (VPPs) address this by dynamically responding to market signals. They integrate renewables, energy storage, and flexible loads. Additionally, they participate in multi-tier markets, including energy, ancillary services, and capacity trading. This study proposes a load factor-based VPP pre-dispatch model for optimal resource allocation. It incorporates the coupling effects of electricity–carbon markets. A Nash negotiation strategy is developed for multi-VPP cooperation. The model uses an accelerated adaptive alternating-direction multiplier method (AA-ADMM) for efficient demand response. The approach balances computational efficiency with privacy protection. Revenue is allocated fairly based on individual contributions. The study uses data from a VPP dispatch center in Shanxi Province. Shanxi has abundant wind and solar resources, necessitating advanced scheduling methods. Cooperative operation boosts profits for three VPPs by CNY 1101, 260, and 823, respectively. The alliance’s total profit rises by CNY 2184. Carbon emissions drop by 31.3% to 8.113 tons, with a CNY 926 gain over independent operation. Post-cooperation, VPP1 and VPP2 see slight emission increases, while VPP3 achieves major reductions. This leads to significant low-carbon benefits. This method proves effective in cutting costs and emissions. It also balances economic and environmental gains while ensuring fair profit distribution. Full article

With the rapid acceleration of urbanization and the increasing volume of road traffic, emergency vehicles frequently encounter congestion when performing urgent tasks. Failure to yield in a timely manner can result in the loss of critical rescue time. Therefore, this study aims to develop a lightweight and high-precision RT-DETR-EVD emergency vehicle detection model to enhance urban emergency response capabilities. The proposed model replaces ResNet with a lightweight CSPDarknet backbone and integrates an innovative hybrid C2f-MogaBlock architecture. A multi-order gated aggregation mechanism is introduced to dynamically fuse multi-scale features, improving spatial-channel feature representation while reducing the number of parameters. Additionally, an Attention-based Intra-scale Feature Interaction Dynamic Position Bias (AIDPB) module is designed, replacing fixed positional encoding with learnable dynamic position bias (DPB), improving feature discrimination in complex scenarios. The experimental results demonstrate that the improved RT-DETR-EVD model achieves superior performance in emergency vehicle detection under the same training conditions. Specifically, compared to the baseline RT-DETR-r18 model, RT-DETR-EVD reduces parameter count to 14.5 M (a 27.1% reduction), lowers floating-point operations (FLOPs) to 49.5 G (a 13.2% reduction), and improves precision by 0.5%. Additionally, recall and mean average precision (mAP50%) increase by 0.6%, reaching an mAP50% of 88.3%. The proposed RT-DETR-EVD model achieves a breakthrough balance between accuracy, efficiency, and scene adaptability. Its unique lightweight design enhances detection accuracy while significantly reducing model size and accelerating inference. This model provides an efficient and reliable solution for smart city emergency response systems, demonstrating strong deployment potential in real-world engineering applications. Full article

Obesity cardiomyopathy (OCM) represents a rapidly growing health concern globally, characterized by metabolic, structural, and functional abnormalities of the heart. Current research has demonstrated that inflammation plays a pivotal role in obesity-induced cardiomyopathy, and that regular exercise can ameliorate lipid disturbances and inflammatory abnormalities effectively. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully elucidated. We investigated the effects of an 8-week aerobic exercise intervention on myocardial structure, function, and inflammation in HFD-induced obese mice. The results revealed that aerobic exercise alleviated myocardium pyroptosis and inflammation by down-regulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Furthermore, the inhibition of the PI3K pathway by LY294002, coupled with exercise, attenuated and suppressed HFD-induced myocardial impairments, inflammation, and pyroptosis, with a synergistic effect. Based on these findings, we concluded that eight weeks of aerobic exercise synergizes with the inhibition of PI3K through inflammatory and pyroptosis mechanisms to improve obesity-associated myocardial remodeling and dysfunction. Therefore, long-term regular aerobic exercise represents a potential strategy in the treatment of OCM. Full article

In recent years, flexible pressure sensors have attracted significant attention due to their extensive application prospects in wearable devices, healthcare monitoring, and other fields. Herein, we propose a flexible piezoresistive sensor with a broad detection range, utilizing a CNT/PVA composite as the pressure-sensitive layer. The effect of the CNT-to-PVA ratio on sensing performance was systematically investigated, revealing that the sensor’s sensitivity initially increases and then decreases with rising CNT content. When the weight percentage of CNTs reaches 11.24 wt%, the sensing film exhibits optimal piezoresistive properties. A resistance model of the composite conductive material was established to elucidate the sensing mechanism associated with CNT content in detail. Furthermore, hill-like microstructures were fabricated on a PDMS substrate using sandpaper as a template to further enhance overall performance. The sensor demonstrates a sensitivity of 0.1377 kPa⁻¹ (<90 kPa), a sensing range of up to 400 kPa, a response time of 160 ms, and maintains excellent stability after 2000 folding cycles. It can accurately detect human joint flexion and muscle activity. This work is expected to provide a feasible solution for flexible electronic devices applied in human motion monitoring and analysis, particularly offering competitive advantages in applications involving wide-range pressure detection. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of Spinetoram (SPI) on the midgut of Apis cerana cerana Fabricius pupae, emphasizing detoxifying enzyme activity, gene expression, and morphological alterations. Pupae were subjected to SPI at LC₂₀ and LC₅₀ concentrations, and the midgut was evaluated using morphological assessment, detoxifying enzyme assays, and transcriptome analysis utilizing gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment. Transcriptome analysis revealed 32 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that were common to both the LC₂₀ vs. control (CK) and LC₅₀ vs. CK comparisons, along with 24 DEGs unique to the LC₂₀ vs. CK comparison and 76 DEGs unique to the LC₅₀ vs. CK comparison. KEGG pathway analysis indicated the substantial enrichment of pathways associated with drug metabolism, xenobiotic metabolism, and amino acid metabolism, implying disruptions in detoxification mechanisms and broader metabolic imbalances resulting from SPI exposure. Morphological analysis showed a normal midgut structure in the control group, while significant damage was observed in the LC₂₀ group, and severe degeneration was observed in the LC₅₀ group. Detoxification enzyme assays revealed that the activities of cytochrome P450, glutathione S-transferase, and carboxylesterase significantly increased at LC₂₀ (p < 0.05), indicating an initial induction of detoxification responses; however, they declined at LC₅₀, suggesting enzyme inhibition or midgut damage. The activity of acetylcholinesterase markedly diminished at both LC₂₀ and LC₅₀ (p < 0.05), with a more substantial decline observed at LC₅₀, suggesting possible neurotoxicity. These findings indicate that SPI exposure causes substantial alterations in midgut morphology, detoxifying enzyme activity, and gene expression in Apis cerana cerana Fabricius pupae, underscoring the insecticide’s detrimental impact on honey bee health. Full article

(1) Background: this article focuses on the durability decline problem of rammed earth buildings in Paishan Village, Zhuhai City under the influence of complex environments. It aims to reveal the erosion mechanisms of rammed earth walls caused by different environmental factors (acid rain, salt spray, humidity, biological activities, etc.), and provide a scientific basis for formulating targeted remediation strategies. (2) Methods: a technical framework combining macroscopic investigation and microscopic analysis was adopted. Ion chromatography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and characterization (XRD) were used to study the damage to buildings in Paishan Village under the influence of different environmental factors. (3) Results: The acid rain and sulfate buildup could cause cracks and peeling on the south wall of the rammed earth wall. Salt spray and high humidity conditions exacerbated surface weathering on the west wall. Vibrant biological activity and high humidity made the north wall’s minerals easily dissolve, leaving the structure loose. The east wall was affected by the changing dynamics of carbonate rocks, which made it more vulnerable to weathering. (4) Conclusion: according to the analysis of different walls, specific steps should be taken during future restoration to improve the durability of rammed-earth buildings. Full article

Cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is considered one of the most important economic vegetables worldwide; however, it is subjected to different stresses (salt stress, etc.) during its growth and development, resulting in yield reductions. In this study, we selected cultivated red lettuce and wild lettuce species (Lactuca serriola L.) to investigate the phenotypic and physiological changes in these lettuce under different salt treatment conditions. Functional annotation and enrichment analysis of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the lettuce leaves and roots between the control and salt treatments were performed, identifying the key genes responding to salt stress. The results showed that the growth of the two types of lettuce was limited by salt stress, with decreased leaf area, main root length, biomass, and photosynthesis parameters noted. The cultivated red lettuce and the wild lettuce exhibited similar trends in terms of the variation in their antioxidant enzymatic activity and the content of osmoregulatory compounds in their leaves. The results of our transcriptomic analysis revealed that the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, transporters, cytochrome P450, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and isoflavonoid biosynthesis were involved in the response to salt stress in the lettuce seedlings. The red lettuce cultivar showed a greater abundance of DEGs related to secondary metabolite biosynthesis and aquaporins under the salt treatment, resulting in a salinity-tolerant capacity comparable to that of the wild lettuce species. These results reveal important biosynthesis pathways that may play a key role in the salt tolerance of lettuce seedlings and provide key candidate genes that could be functionally characterized further and utilized to genetically improve new salt-tolerant varieties. Full article

The inherent complexity of traffic patterns in inland river tributary waterways presents significant challenges in predicting ship behavior, resulting in elevated accident risks compared to general waterways. With the intelligent development of inland navigation, conducting research on autonomous navigation decision-making for tributary waterway ships is crucial to improving navigation safety and efficiency. Based on the characteristics of the navigation environment, a digital traffic environment model for inland waterways with tributaries is constructed to meet the information requirements of autonomous navigation decision-making. The ship encounter process is analyzed, and a collision risk identification model based on trajectory derivation is proposed, which accounts for the uncertainty of ship maneuvering in tributary waterways. Under the premise of compliance with the “Rules of the People’s Republic of China for Inland River Collision Avoidance” (RPRCIRCA) and adherence to good seamanship, an autonomous navigation decision-making method is developed by integrating an improved Line-of-Sight tracking model with a collision avoidance strategy based on exhaustive course-speed maneuver combinations. The system’s performance is validated through simulation experiments, with trajectory tracking deviations demonstrated to remain below 49 m under wind-current disturbances while minimum encounter distances with target ships are maintained above 48 m. Adaptive response capabilities to maneuvering variations of target ships are confirmed, along with the preservation of navigation precision in complex tributary environments. Full article