Search Results (9)

Cadmium-contaminated rice poses serious health risks through the bioaccumulation of Cd (cadmium) from soil to edible grains. Cd contamination disrupts soil microbial ecology and alters microbial diversity. However, the role of cultivar-specific rhizosphere microbial communities in modulating Cd uptake remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the mechanism underlying variety-dependent rhizosphere microecological remodeling and Cd accumulation in two independently selected late rice varieties, Yuzhenxiang (YZX) and Xiangwanxian 12 (XWX12). Combining physiological and metagenomic analyses, we revealed variety-specific correlations between root Cd accumulation and dynamic changes in soil pH, soil available phosphorus, and rhizosphere bacteria. The key bacterial genera (Variibacter, Nitrospira) showed differential enrichment patterns under Cd stress. In contrast, Galella and Anaeromyxobacter likely reduce Cd bioavailability by modulating phosphorus availability. Overall, this study elucidates that rice cultivars indirectly shape Cd accumulation patterns via rhizosphere microbial remodeling, providing novel insights for microbial remediation strategies in Cd-contaminated farmland. Full article

In recent years, new fire loads dominated by power banks have caused multiple fire incidents in transportation hubs, posing severe challenges to fire safety. This study uses experimental testing and machine learning regression analysis to explore the heat release rate (HRR) characteristics and influencing factors of box-type power banks under fire conditions. A 1 MW calorimeter was used to conduct four sets of experiments involving a total of 15 box-type power banks, measuring the HRR and analyzing its correlation with oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide generation, smoke temperature, and the fire growth rate. Based on the experimental data, HRR prediction models were constructed using decision tree regression (DT), K-nearest neighbor regression (KNN), and linear regression (LR). The results indicate that the DT model performs best in HRR prediction (MAE = 0.4889, MSE = 0.7414, RMSE = 0.8571, R² = 0.9991), effectively capturing the nonlinear variation patterns in the HRR. The correlation analysis and regression analysis conducted in this study provide crucial data support for fire combustion characteristics research, fire risk assessment, and fire safety optimization. Furthermore, the findings provide crucial data support for research on fire combustion characteristics and data-driven fire risk assessment, which may serve as a foundation for future AI-based real-time fire detection applications. Full article

This paper re-examines the Inner Alchemy methods found in The Secret of Golden Flower, or Taiyi Jinhua Zongzhi (太乙金華宗旨, abbreviated as JZ), a text created through fuji (spirit-writing) attributed to Lüzu (呂祖) in Changzhou 常州 during the late 17th century. Recent research has shown that Pan Yi’an (潘易庵), one of the primary editors of JZ, was, in fact, the same person as Pan Jingguan (潘靜觀), who assisted in the editing of Illuminating the Mystery of Concordance of the Three According to the Book of Changes (Cangtongqi chanyou, 参同契闡幽) and Illuminating the Mystery of Awakening the Perfection (Wuzhen pian chanyou, 悟真篇闡幽) as a disciple of Zhu Yuanyu (朱元育), the editor of these works. Meanwhile, in my recent research, I have reconstructed the Inner Alchemy methods described in these two works. (For the sake of convenience, in this discussion, I will refer to this system as the “Chanyou neidan method”, as both works include the term “Chanyou” in their titles.) Upon re-examining JZ with this framework in mind, I began to suspect that its content might be based on the Chanyou neidan method. This hypothesis is rendered highly plausible by the fact that Pan Yi’an, a key editor of JZ, was the same individual as Pan Jingguan, who assisted in the editing of the two Chanyou works. The aim of this paper is to analyze the similarities and differences between the content of JZ and the Chanyou neidan method, demonstrating that the former is indeed based on the latter. Furthermore, I intend to show that while JZ incorporates the Chanyou neidan method, it also simplifies its content significantly, making it a practical manual designed for literati (士大夫 shidafu) of the Qing dynasty to integrate Inner Alchemy into their daily lives. Additionally, although JZ was created through fuji (spirit-writing), I propose that fuji also functioned as a means for Qing-era literati to adapt Daoist cultivation practices to their own lifestyles. Full article

In light of global climate change and accelerated urbanization, preserving and restoring island ecosystems has become critically important. This study focuses on Changxing Island in Dalian, China, evaluating the quality of its ecological environment. The research aims to quantify ecological changes since 2000, with an emphasis on land use transformations, coastline evolution, and the driving factors behind these changes. Using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and remote sensing technology, an island remote sensing ecological index (IRSEI) was developed. The development of the IRSEI was grounded in several key ecological parameters, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), wetness index (WET), land surface temperature index (LST), multiband drought stress index (M-NDBSI), and land use intensity index (LUI). The research results show that, since 2002, land use types on Changxing Island have undergone significant changes, with a notable decrease in arable land and a significant increase in built-up areas, reflecting the ongoing urbanization process. With respect to coastline changes, the total coastline length of Changxing Island steadily increased from 2002 to 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 2.15 km. This change was driven mainly by reclamation and infrastructure construction. The IRSEI analysis further revealed a clear deterioration in the quality of the ecological environment of Changxing Island during the study period. The proportion of excellent ecological area decreased from 39.3% in 2002 to 8.89% in 2022, whereas the areas classified as poor and very poor increased to 56.23 km² and 129.84 km², both of which set new historical records. These findings suggest that, as urbanization and coastline development intensify, the ecosystem of Changxing Island is at significant risk of degradation. The optimized IRSEI effectively captured the ecological environment quality of the island, improved the long-term stability of the index, and adequately met the requirements for large-scale and long-term ecological environment quality monitoring. Full article

The benefits of partially substituting inorganic fertilizers with organic fertilizers have been extensively acknowledged. However, the key mechanisms behind nutrient transformation and supply for stable crop yields are still not fully understood. Based on an 11-year field experiment with a wheat–maize rotation system, this study explored the advantages of combined straw and manure substitution under various organic substitution regimes. These regimes included an unfertilized control (CK), inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers (NPK), NPK substituted with straw (NPKS), NPK substituted with manure (NPKM), and NPK substituted with both straw and manure (NPKSM). Compared to NPK and NPKS, NPKM and NPKSM significantly improved wheat yield by 12.8% and 13.8%, respectively. Bulk soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available superphosphate (AP), β-glucosidase (βG), urease (URE), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were all higher in the NPKM treatment than in the NPKSM treatment. However, compared to NPKM, NPKSM significantly decreased the potential nitrification rate by 31.0% and increased the soil NH₄⁺-N content. Correspondingly, the functional genes of nitrification were also found to be decreased in the NPKSM treatment. In the rhizosphere, most soil factors increased compared to bulk soil, but treatment differences were smaller. However, the differences among treatments were reduced in the rhizosphere. The high amount of manure applied in the NPKM treatment caused excessive soil phosphorus accumulation, reaching over 46.7 mg/kg, resulting in lower N/P and C/P ratios. The soil quality index (SQI), based on soil nutrients, enzymes, functional genes, and C:N:P stoichiometry, was 9.9% higher in NPKSM than in NPKM. Bulk soil SQIs showed stronger correlations with wheat yields than rhizosphere SQIs, highlighting that bulk soil was superior to rhizosphere in predicting crop yield. Partial least squares path modeling showed that C/N, N/P, and C/P ratios strongly influenced SQIs. The NPKSM treatment, which improved soil nutrients, biological factors, and balanced C:N:P stoichiometry, is an effective strategy for sustainable agriculture. Future practices should focus on maintaining stoichiometric balance to sustain soil quality and crop yields. Full article

The use of lightweight drones has surged in recent years across both personal and commercial applications, necessitating the ability to conduct live video analytics on drones with limited computational resources. While edge computing offers a solution to the throughput bottleneck, it also opens the door to potential privacy invasions by exposing sensitive visual data to risks. In this work, we present a lightweight, privacy-preserving framework designed for real-time video analytics. By integrating a novel split-model architecture tailored for distributed deep learning through edge computing, our approach strikes a balance between operational efficiency and privacy. We provide comprehensive evaluations on privacy, object detection, latency, bandwidth usage, and object-tracking performance for our proposed privacy-preserving model. Full article

Digital transformation of the logistics industry triggered by the widespread use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has prompted a significant revolution in logistics companies, further bringing huge dividends to society. However, the concurrent accelerated growth of logistics companies also significantly hinders the safeguarding of individual privacy. Digital identity has ascended to having the status of a prevalent privacy-protection solution, principally due to its efficacy in mitigating privacy compromises. However, the extant schemes fall short of addressing the issue of privacy breaches engendered by insider maleficence. This paper proposes an innovative identity privacy-preserving scheme aimed at addressing the quandary of internal data breaches. In this scheme, the identity provider furnishes one-time-use accounts for logistics users, thereby obviating the protracted retention of logistics data within the internal database. The scheme also employs ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) to encrypt address nodes, wherein the access privileges accorded to logistics companies are circumscribed. Therefore, internal logistics staff have to secure unequivocal authorization from users prior to accessing identity-specific data and privacy protection of user information is also concomitantly strengthened. Crucially, this scheme ameliorates internal privacy concerns, rendering it infeasible for internal interlopers to correlate the users’ authentic identities with their digital wallets. Finally, the effectiveness and reliability of the scheme are demonstrated through simulation experiments and discussions of security. Full article

Peri-implantitis can lead to implant failure. In this study, curcumin (CUR) was modified onto the copper-bearing titanium alloy (Cu-Ti) with the assistance of polydopamine (PDA) in order to study the bone immune response and subsequent osteogenesis. FE-SEM, XPS and water contact angle were utilized to characterize the coating surface. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and macrophages were cultured separately and together onto the CUR modified Cu-Ti. Cell activity, expression of relative genes and proteins, cell migration ability, and fluorescence staining of cells were performed. CUR modification slightly increased the activation of M1-type and M2-type cells under physiological conditions. In the inflammation state, CUR inhibited the overexpression of M1 macrophages and induced M2-type differentiation. In addition, the modification itself could provoke the expression of osteoblastic-related genes of BMSCs, while promoting the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs through the activation of macrophages in both physiological and inflammatory states. The BMSCs migration was increased, the expression of osteogenic-related genes and proteins was up-regulated, and alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) was increased. Thus, the modification of CUR can promote the osteointegration effect of Cu-Ti by bone immunomodulation and may, in addition, improve the success rate of implants. Full article

Adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADAR) are enzymes that regulate RNA metabolism through post-transcriptional mechanisms. ADAR1 is involved in a variety of pathological conditions including inflammation, cancer, and the host defense against viral infections. However, the role of ADAR1p150 in vascular disease remains unclear. In this study, we examined the expression of ADAR1p150 and its role in viral myocarditis (VMC) in a mouse model. VMC mouse cardiomyocytes showed significantly higher expression of ADAR1p150 compared to the control samples. Coimmunoprecipitation verified that ADAR1p150 forms a complex with Dicer in VMC. miRNA-222, which is involved in many cardiac diseases, is highly expressed in cardiomyocytes in VMC. In addition, the expression of miRNA-222 was promoted by ADAR1p150/Dicer. Among the target genes of miRNA-222, the expression of phosphatase-and-tensin (PTEN) protein was significantly reduced in VMC. By using a bioinformatics tool, we found a potential binding site of miRNA-222 on the PTEN gene’s 3′-UTR, suggesting that miRNA-222 might play a regulatory role. In cultured cells, miR-222 suppressed PTEN expression. Our findings suggest that ADAR1p150 plays a key role in complexing with Dicer and promoting the expression of miRNA-222, the latter of which suppresses the expression of the target gene PTEN during VMC. Our work reveals a previously unknown role of ADAR1p150 in gene expression in VMC. Full article