Search Results (14)

The co-occurrence of microplastics (MPs) and antibiotics as emerging contaminants demonstrates significant ecological perturbations in soil matrices. Of particular scientific interest is the potential for MPs to mediate the environmental fate and transport dynamics of co-existing antibiotics. This study investigated MP-mediated ciprofloxacin (CIP) adsorption in lateritic soils. Batch experiments with polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and poly (ethylene-terephthalate) (PET) revealed soil components dominated CIP retention, while 10% (w/w) MPs reduced soil adsorption capacity by ≥10.8%, with inhibition intensity following PET > PE > PP. Adsorption thermodynamics exhibited significant pH dependence, achieving maximum sorption efficiency at pH 5.0 (± 0.2), which was approximately 83%. Competitive adsorption analysis demonstrated inverse proportionality between ionic strength and CIP retention, with trivalent cations exhibiting superior competitive displacement capacity compared to mono- and divalent counterparts. Isothermal modeling revealed multilayer adsorption mechanisms governed by hybrid chemisorption/physisorption processes in both soil and MP substrates. Spectroscopic characterization suggested differential adsorption pathways: MP-CIP interactions were primarily mediated through hydrophobic partitioning and π-π electron coupling, while soil–MP composite systems exhibited dominant cation exchange capacity and surface complexation mechanisms. Notably, electrostatic attraction/repulsion forces modulated adsorption efficiency across all experimental conditions, particularly under varying pH regimes. This work advances understanding of co-contaminant dynamics in soil ecosystems, informing risk assessment frameworks. Full article

Amaranthus retroflexus L. is a troublesome dicot weed in crop fields and has developed high resistance to nicosulfuron in China. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of specific resistance mutations (A²⁰⁵V, D³⁷⁶E, W⁵⁷⁴L, S⁶⁵³T, and S⁶⁵³N) of the acetohydroxy acid synthase enzyme (AHAS) on the resistance of A. retroflexus to nicosulfuron. The resistance mutations in A. retroflexus not only conferred 17.17- to 31.70-fold resistance to nicosulfuron but also greatly decreased AHAS sensitivity and increased AHAS binding affinity to substrate pyruvate, which mechanisms were primarily responsible for the observed A. retroflexus resistance. Molecular docking results indicated that these resistance mutations altered AHAS binding free energy with nicosulfuron. All the resistance mutations showed less sensitivity to feedback inhibition by branched-chain amino acids, but the mutations did not necessarily affect biosynthesis in A. retroflexus. This report to compares the various mutations of ArAHAS in vitro and contributes to understanding herbicide resistance in this field weed. Full article

To accurately analyze the influence of similar weather scenes in the terminal area, a framework is proposed for identifying such scenarios based on the Multiresolution Spatiotemporal Window (MRSTW). The goal is to analyze the impact of similar weather patterns. This paper introduces a simple and effective method called the rasterized weather severity index (WSI) to reduce the dimensionality of data used for extracting air transport weather features, which can cause the loss of spatial information in an image. Additionally, the paper uses Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and the Fuzzy C-mean (FCM) clustering algorithm to cluster time-series scenes influenced by convective weather in an unsupervised manner on a daily basis. The most similar weather scenes are then identified by searching for the same cluster within a multiresolution spatiotemporal window, using 4 h weather scenes as typical examples. Finally, the framework analyzes the impact of weather scenes on the operation of terminal area approach traffic flow by combining trajectory data. The findings demonstrate that this framework can effectively identify similar weather scenes and provide a more accurate reflection of their impact on the operation of terminal area approach traffic flow. Full article

This study addresses the integral role of typical wind power generation curves in the analysis of power system flexibility planning. A novel method is introduced for extracting these curves, integrating an enhanced K-means clustering algorithm with advanced optimization techniques. The process commences with thorough data cleaning, filtering, and smoothing. Subsequently, the refined K-means algorithm, augmented by the Pearson correlation coefficient and a greedy algorithm, clusters the wind power curves. The optimal number of clusters is ascertained through the silhouette coefficient. The final stage employs particle swarm and whale optimization algorithms for the extraction of quintessential wind power output curves, essential for flexibility planning in power systems. This methodology is validated through a case study involving wind power output data from a new energy-rich provincial power grid in North China, spanning from 1 January 2019, to 31 December 2022. The resultant curves proficiently mirror wind power fluctuations, thereby laying a foundational framework for power system flexibility planning analysis. Full article

Eurotium is the teleomorph genus associated with the section Aspergillus. Eurotium comprises approximately 20 species, which are widely distributed in nature and human environments. Eurotium is usually the key microorganism for the fermentation of traditional food, such as Fuzhuan brick tea, Liupao tea, Meju, and Karebushi; thus, Eurotium is an important fungus in the food industry. Eurotium has been extensively studied because it contains a series of interesting, structurally diverse, and biologically important secondary metabolites, including anthraquinones, benzaldehyde derivatives, and indol diketopiperazine alkaloids. These secondary metabolites have shown multiple biological activities, including antioxidative, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antitumor, insecticidal, antimalarial, and anti-inflammatory activities. This study presents an up-to-date review of the phytochemistry and biological activities of all Eurotium species. This review will provide recent advances on the secondary metabolites and their bioactivities in the genus Eurotium for the first time and serve as a database for future research and drug development from the genus Eurotium. Full article

Scenting tea with Jasminum sambac is beneficial to forming a unique taste of jasmine tea, which is regulated by numerous compounds. To investigate the relationship between metabolites in jasmine and jasmine tea, as well as the impact of metabolites on the characteristic taste of jasmine tea, the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, sensory evaluation, and multivariate analysis were applied in this study. A total of 585 and 589 compounds were identified in jasmine tea and jasmine, respectively. After scented, jasmine tea added 70 compounds, which were believed to come from jasmine flowers. Furthermore, seventy-four compounds were identified as key characteristic compounds of jasmine tea, and twenty-two key differential metabolite compounds were believed to be used to distinguish jasmine tea scented differently and contribute to the taste of jasmine tea. Additionally, the relationship between taste compounds and aroma quality was also explored, and it was found that five compounds were positively correlated with the aroma properties of jasmine tea and seven compounds were negatively correlated with the aroma properties of jasmine tea. Overall, these findings provided insights into the future study of the mechanism of taste formation in jasmine tea and provided the theoretical basis for the production of jasmine tea. Full article

From the perspective of institutional economics, we investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on regional green development in China and its transmission mechanism through influencing sports fiscal expenditures on regional green development. Based on panel data of Chinese provincial regions from 2006 to 2017 in China, we use fixed effects models, two-stage least squares, and mediating effects models to find that fiscal decentralization accelerates regional green sustainability. Fiscal decentralization can enhance the government’s emphasis on sports and promote the smart and intelligent development of the sports and health industry, thus contributing to the improvement of green and sustainable development. There is regional heterogeneity in the effect of the governmental emphasis on sports, and the mediating effect of the degree of emphasis on sports is more obvious in the eastern region. We verify the possibility that the government can accelerate economic green sustainability by raising the importance of the sports and health industry development and promoting the intelligent infrastructure of sports and enrich the theoretical study of the ecological effect of fiscal decentralization from the perspective of sports economic development. Full article

Topographical cues on material surfaces are crucial for guiding the behavior of nerve cells and facilitating the repair of peripheral nerve defects. Previously, micron-grooved surfaces have shown great potential in controlling nerve cell alignment for studying the behavior and functions of those cells and peripheral nerve regeneration. However, the effects of smaller-sized topographical cues, such as those in the submicron- and nano-scales, on Schwann cell behavior remain poorly understood. In this study, four different submicron-grooved polystyrene films (800/400, 800/100, 400/400, and 400/100) were fabricated to study the behavior, gene expression, and membrane potential of Schwann cells. The results showed that all submicron-grooved films could guide the cell alignment and cytoskeleton in a groove depth-dependent manner. Cell proliferation and cell cycle assays revealed that there was no significant difference between the submicron groove samples and the flat control. However, the submicron grooves can direct the migration of cells and upregulate the expression of critical genes in axon regeneration and myelination (e.g., MBP and Smad6). Finally, the membrane potential of the Schwann cells was significantly altered on the grooved sample. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the role of submicron-grooved patterns in regulating the behavior and function of Schwann cells, which provides unique insights for the development of implants for peripheral nerve regeneration. Full article

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant cadmium (Cd) tolerance, but the tolerance mechanism in wheat is not fully understood. This study aimed to examine the physiological properties and transcriptome changes in wheat inoculated with or without Glomus mosseae (GM) under Cd stress (0, 5, and 10 mg·kg⁻¹ CdCl₂) to understand its role in wheat Cd tolerance. The results showed that the Cd content in shoots decreased while the Cd accumulation in roots increased under AMF symbiosis compared to the non-inoculation group and that AMF significantly promoted the growth of wheat seedlings and reduced Cd-induced oxidative damage. This alleviative effect of AMF on wheat under Cd stress was mainly attributed to the fact that AMF accelerated the ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle, promoted the production of GSH and metallothionein (MTs), improved the degradation of methylglyoxal (MG), and induced GRSP (glomalin-related soil protein) secretion. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of the symbiotic group and the non-symbiotic group revealed multiple differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the ‘metal ion transport’, ‘glutathione metabolism’, ‘cysteine and methionine metabolism’, and ‘plant hormone signal transduction’ terms. The expression changes of these DEGs were basically consistent with the changes in physio-biochemical characteristics. Overall, AMF alleviated Cd stress in wheat mainly by promoting immobilization and sequestration of Cd, reducing ROS production and accelerating their scavenging, in which the rapid metabolism of GSH may play an important role. Full article

Sign language is designed as a natural communication method for the deaf community to convey messages and connect with society. In American sign language, twenty-six special sign gestures from the alphabet are used for the fingerspelling of proper words. The purpose of this research is to classify the hand gestures in the alphabet and recognize a sequence of gestures in the fingerspelling using an inertial hand motion capture system. In this work, time and time-frequency domain features and angle-based features are extracted from the raw data for classification with convolutional neural network-based classifiers. In fingerspelling recognition, we explore two kinds of models: connectionist temporal classification and encoder-decoder structured sequence recognition model. The study reveals that the classification model achieves an average accuracy of 74.8% for dynamic ASL gestures considering user independence. Moreover, the proposed two sequence recognition models achieve 55.1%, 93.4% accuracy in word-level evaluation, and 86.5%, 97.9% in the letter-level evaluation of fingerspelling. The proposed method has the potential to recognize more hand gestures of sign language with highly reliable inertial data from the device. Full article

The loss of photoreceptors is a major event of retinal degeneration that accounts for most cases of untreatable blindness globally. To date, there are no efficient therapeutic approaches to treat this condition. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether human amniotic epithelial stem cells (hAESCs) could serve as a novel seed cell source of photoreceptors for therapy. Here, a two–step treatment with combined Wnt, Nodal, and BMP inhibitors, followed by another cocktail of retinoic acid, taurine, and noggin induced photoreceptor–like cell differentiation of hAESCs. The differentiated cells demonstrated the morphology and signature marker expression of native photoreceptor cells and, intriguingly, bore very low levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules and a high level of non–classical MHC class I molecule HLA–G. Importantly, subretinal transplantation of the hAESCs–derived PR–like cells leads to partial restoration of visual function and retinal structure in Royal College of Surgeon (RCS) rats, the classic preclinical model of retinal degeneration. Together, our results reveal hAESCs as a potential source of functional photoreceptor cells; the hAESCs–derived photoreceptor–like cells could be a promising cell–replacement candidate for therapy of retinal degeneration diseases. Full article

Based on numerical shape functions and the structural stressing state theory, the mechanical properties of the curved prestressed concrete box girder (CPCBG) bridge model under different loading cases are presented. First, the generalized strain energy density (GSED) obtained from the measured strain data is used to represent the stressing state pattern of the structure; then, the stressing state of the concrete section is analyzed by plotting the strain and stress fields of the bridge model. The stressing state pattern and strain fields of the CPCBG are shown to reveal its mechanical properties. In addition, the measured concrete strain data are interpolated by the non-sample point interpolation (NPI) method. The strain and stress fields of the bridge model have been plotted to analyze the stressing state of the concrete cross-section. The internal forces in the concrete sections are calculated by using interpolated strains. Finally, the torsional effects are simulated by measuring the displacements to show the torsional behavior of the cross-section. The analysis and comparison of the internal force and strain fields reveal the common and different mechanical properties of the bridge model. The results of the analysis of the curved bridge model provide a reference for the future rational design of bridge projects. Full article

The two-stroke engine is a common power source for small and medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which has wide civil and military applications. To improve the engine performance, we chose a prototype two-stroke small areoengine, and optimized the geometric parameters of the scavenging ports by performing one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupling simulations. The prototype engine is tested on a dynamometer to measure in-cylinder pressure curves, as a reference for subsequent simulations. A GT Power simulation model is established and validated against experimental data to provide initial conditions and boundary conditions for the subsequent AVL FIRE simulations. Four parameters are considered as optimal design factors in this research: Tilt angle of the central scavenging port, tilt angle of lateral scavenging ports, slip angle of lateral scavenging ports, and width ratio of the central scavenging port. An evaluation objective function based on the Benson/Bradham model is selected as the optimization goal. Two different operating conditions, including the take-off and cruise of the UAV are considered. The results include: (1) Orthogonal experiments are analyzed, and the significance of parameters are discussed; (2) the best factors combination is concluded, followed by simulation verification; (3) results before and after optimization are compared in details, including specific scavenging indexes (delivery ratio, trapping efficiency, scavenging efficiency, etc.), conventional performance indicators, and the sectional views of gas composition distribution inside the cylinder. Full article

Under the challenge of climate change, fuel-based vehicles have been receiving increasingly harsh criticism. To promote the use of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as an alternative, many researchers have studied the deployment of BEVs. This paper proposes a new method to choose locations for new BEV charging stations considering drivers’ perceived time cost and the existing infrastructure. We construct probability equations to estimate drivers’ demanding time for charging (and waiting to charge), use the Voronoi diagram to separate the study area (i.e., Shanghai) into service areas, and apply an optimization algorithm to deploy the charging stations in the right locations. The results show that (1) the probability of charging at public charging stations is 39.6%, indicating BEV drivers prefer to charge at home; (2) Shanghai’s central area and two airports have the busiest charging stations, but drivers’ time costs are relatively low; and (3) our optimization algorithm successfully located two new charging stations surrounding the central area, matching with our expectations. This study provides a time-efficient way to decide where to build new charging stations to improve the existing infrastructure. Full article