Search Results (5,328)

As traditional Korean rice cake products are being developed to reflect changing consumer preferences and market needs, Heugimja Tteok remains a culturally rooted product with functional characteristics. This study empirically examined the relationships among consumers’ choice attributes, purchase behavior, and marketing strategy for Heugimja Tteok, aiming to suggest directions for expanding the traditional rice cake market. Online survey data from 342 adults in the Republic of Korea were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0. Significant positive correlations were identified between choice attributes and both purchase behavior and marketing strategy. Diversity, Quality, and Image were significant positive predictors of marketing strategy, and the regression model explained 59.6% of its variance. These findings indicate that product diversification, quality improvement, functional promotion, distribution channel expansion, standardized production management, and brand image enhancement should be integrated to strengthen the market competitiveness of Heugimja Tteok. By providing empirical evidence on consumer responses to a traditional and functional rice cake product, this study contributes to discussions on the contemporary expansion of the Tteok industry within changing consumer preferences and food market conditions in Korea. Full article

Traditional fault diagnosis methods for gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) equipment primarily rely on offline detection and periodic maintenance, which suffer from limitations such as poor real-time performance and localization difficulties, thereby compromising the safe and stable operation of ultra-high-voltage power grids. To enhance the accurate identification and localization capabilities of defects within GIS equipment, this study first establishes a multi-physics coupled simulation model integrating temperature field, flow field, and concentration field to analyze gas diffusion characteristics under varying conditions of fault source locations, decomposition product types, and initial concentrations. Subsequently, a GIS busbar gas chamber experimental platform is constructed to validate the simulation model. Finally, a response time matrix, a peak concentration matrix, and a fault coverage index are developed, and a weighted comprehensive evaluation method is employed to optimize sensor placement schemes. The findings reveal that fault source location significantly influences concentration response speed and spatial distribution patterns; SO₂, HF, H₂S, and SOF₂ exhibit distinct diffusion characteristics due to their differing physical properties; and initial concentration primarily affects the non-uniformity during the early diffusion stage. The simulation results demonstrate good agreement with experimental data, with a maximum root-mean-square error of 3.936 × 10⁻⁴. Monitoring point M4 achieves the highest comprehensive score, making it the preferred location for single-sensor deployment. These results provide a theoretical foundation and technical guidance for GIS online monitoring and fault diagnosis. Full article

Heavy-metal ATPase (HMA) is widely involved in the absorption and transport of metal elements, including copper, zinc, and cadmium in plants. Although the characterization of HMA has been conducted in several plants, the research on the HMA gene in Stevia rebaudiana remains limited. In this study, twelve SrHMA genes were identified, encoding stable proteins mostly localized to the plasma membrane and possessing conserved E1-E2_ATPase and hydrolase domains, with one to three N-terminal HMA domains. Phylogenetic analysis classified them into two subfamilies (Zn/Co/Cd/Pb and Cu/Ag P1B-ATPases). The genes are unevenly distributed across five chromosomes, with two segmental duplication events and an independent genome duplication event specific to dicots, and their promoters harbor abundant stress-responsive elements. Expression profiling under copper and cadmium stresses showed distinct tissue specificity: cadmium stress upregulated most genes in roots but suppressed them in leaves, whereas copper stress upregulated all genes in leaves and half of the genes in roots. This study represents the first systematic analysis of the SrHMA gene family, revealing its potential involvement in heavy-metal stress responses and providing candidate genes for future functional characterization and breeding of S. rebaudiana varieties with enhanced metal tolerance. Full article

Thiol-modified attapulgite (TM) combined with manganese sulfate (MnSO₄) can reduce cadmium (Cd) availability in alkaline soils, but the influence of MnSO₄ application timing on Cd transfer to wheat grain remains unclear. In this study, a soil incubation experiment and two wheat pot experiments were conducted to evaluate soil Cd immobilization, organ-specific Cd distribution, and the effects of applying MnSO₄ before sowing, at the jointing stage, or at the grain-filling stage. Low- and high-dose MnSO₄ treatments were applied alone or with TM, and the combined treatments were defined as TM+LS and TM+HS. Compared with the untreated control, TM+LS and TM+HS decreased dissolved Cd from 1.80 μg L⁻¹ to 0.35 and 0.20 μg L⁻¹, respectively, and reduced grain Cd from 0.19 mg kg⁻¹ to 0.08 and 0.06 mg kg⁻¹. These reductions were associated with decreased DTPA-extractable Cd, enhanced Cd adsorption, lower Cd desorption, and restricted Cd transfer from roots to shoots and from glumes to grains. Jointing-stage MnSO₄ application produced the lowest grain Cd concentration and glume-to-grain transport coefficient. These findings indicate that optimizing MnSO₄ application timing can improve TM-assisted Cd immobilization and wheat grain safety in alkaline Cd-contaminated soil. Full article

Accurate calibration of Manning’s roughness coefficients is essential for reliable river hydraulic modelling, flood prediction, and water resources management, yet conventional calibration methods often struggle with high-dimensional parameter spaces and nonlinear hydraulic interactions. This study proposes and evaluates a hierarchical artificial intelligence framework for the inverse calibration of spatially distributed Manning’s roughness coefficients across three channel zones (left bank, main channel, and right bank), using a 48 km reach of the Tigris River in Baghdad as a case study. A one-dimensional HEC-RAS hydraulic model based on 30 measured cross-sections generated 18,360 simulations by systematically varying Manning’s roughness coefficients (0.02–0.045). Three calibration strategies were evaluated: (i) a simple Gradient Boosting Regression model based on a weighted composite roughness formula, (ii) conventional machine learning models (Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, and Multi-Layer Perceptron), and (iii) a deep learning framework combining a three-layer neural network (64 → 32 → 16 neurons), Differential Evolution optimisation, and cubic spline interpolation. Calibration accuracy increased with model complexity. The deep learning framework achieved the best performance, reducing the root mean square error by 96.6% (from 1.202 to 0.041 m), with R² = 0.992 and negligible bias (−0.004 m). Conventional machine learning models produced spatially variable Manning’s roughness distributions, with the calibrated main-channel roughness (mean n = 0.0512) being 34.0–57.5% higher than the corresponding bank values. The proposed framework provides an effective approach for calibrating spatially distributed roughness coefficients in one-dimensional hydraulic models, with strong potential to improve river hydraulic simulations and support future applications to flood modelling. Full article

A water-soluble, low-molecular-weight polysaccharide fraction, designated OJP-2, was extracted from the roots of Ophiopogon japonicus; its structural characteristics and immunomodulatory activity in macrophages were subsequently investigated. OJP-2 exhibited a narrow apparent molecular weight distribution with an average molecular weight (Mw) of 3568 Da and was primarily composed of fructose (0.784) and glucose (0.208). Structural analysis—integrating UV spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and 1D/2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy—revealed that OJP-2 is an inulin-type fructan. Its structure is characterized predominantly by β-(2→1)-linked Fruf chains and terminal α-D-Glcp residues, with potential signals indicating C-6-substituted Fruf units. In vitro immunological studies demonstrated that OJP-2 promoted nitric oxide (NO) production and enhanced the secretion of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α in RAW264.7 macrophages. Under LPS/IFN-γ stimulation, OJP-2 induced non-monotonic changes in the CD86/CD206 macrophage phenotype, with the most pronounced effects observed at a concentration of 50 μg/mL. Furthermore, Western blot analysis showed that, compared to the Model group, treatment with OJP-2 resulted in a downward trend in the relative levels of p-p65/p65 and p-IκBα/IκBα across the tested concentration range. Collectively, these findings indicate that OJP-2 modulates macrophage activation phenotypes and influences NF-κB-related signaling pathways. Thus, OJP-2 is a candidate fructan for further investigation of immunomodulatory activity. Full article

This study proposes Uncertainty-Aware Staged Trust-Adaptive Residual Physics-Informed Machine Learning (U-STAR-PIML), a recursive one-step dynamics model for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, evaluated with the JSBSim C172x as a surrogate simulation benchmark. It combines a learnable compact six-degree-of-freedom prior, history-dependent temporal residual correction, trust-aware state-dependent residual gating, hard kinematics, a heteroscedastic one-step uncertainty head, and staged optimization. The protocol separates one-step accuracy, recursive rollout, predictive-interval behavior, and physically distinct distribution shifts. Across five training seeds, the full U-STAR-PIML model (E5) achieves a mean one-step root-mean-square error (RMSE) of $0.005515\pm 0.000009$ and the lowest mean rollout-position RMSE of $18.61\pm 2.15$ m; the data-driven baseline has the lowest 20 s all-state RMSE of $2.923\pm 0.623$. Recursive rankings remain seed-sensitive, without a universal winner. For the representative E5 cross-condition evaluation, the exact wind vector used in the JSBSim simulation is supplied to the model at every prediction step, i.e., perfect wind information is assumed. Under this assumption, wind out-of-distribution (OOD) conditions cause the largest degradation, with rollout-position RMSE reaching 72.76 m; wind-estimation error is not evaluated. An external zero-shot evaluation on 10 independent IDF-DS Ranger 2400 real-flight logs reduces pooled one-step all-state RMSE from 0.12374 for Persistence to 0.03379, although improvements are not uniform across dynamic state groups. The uncertainty head yields 95% empirical coverage of 96.68–100%, with conservative over-coverage under most conditions. These results support simulation-based prediction and an initial cross-airframe transfer diagnostic but do not establish same-airframe sim-to-real transfer, recursive real-flight stability, or operational validity. Full article

Plants commonly encounter spatially heterogeneous distributions of nitrogen (N) forms and iron (Fe) in soils, but how N form modifies plant responses to heterogeneous Fe availability remains poorly understood. Using a split-root system, we examined the phenotypic responses of Arabidopsis thaliana and wheat to contrasting Fe availability combined with ammonium (NH₄⁺) or nitrate (NO₃⁻) supply. Plants were exposed to high (100 μM) or low (5 μM) Fe in combination with NH₄⁺ or NO₃⁻, either under homogeneous or spatially heterogeneous conditions. Within each species, NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ treatments were supplied at equivalent total N concentrations. In both species, high Fe combined with sole NH₄⁺ supply resulted in pronounced reductions in shoot and root growth, whereas spatial presence of NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ between root compartments was associated with improved growth. Under high-Fe conditions, sole NH₄⁺ supply to both root compartments (HAHA) resulted in pronounced reductions in shoot and root growth, whereas supplying NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ to separate root compartments (HAHN) was associated with improved growth. Under these conditions, shoot fresh weight in HAHN was 178% higher than that in HAHA in Arabidopsis and 231% higher in wheat. In wheat, root fresh weight under HAHN was 471% higher than under HAHA. Wheat exhibited stronger spatial differentiation of root growth between contrasting nutrient compartments, whereas Arabidopsis showed greater variation in whole-plant growth in response to N form. Chlorophyll accumulation also showed species- and Fe-dependent responses to N form. Overall, these results indicate that N form modifies plant phenotypic responses to heterogeneous Fe–N supply and that wheat exhibits greater root plasticity under spatially heterogeneous Fe–N conditions. The roles of plant Fe and N status, rhizosphere pH, and long-distance signaling in these responses remain to be determined. Full article

The distribution of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’, a phloem-limited pathogen, varies among plant tissues during the year, but knowledge about quantitative comparisons of its presence in roots and above-ground tissues across Prunus species remains limited. The variation in ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ in four Prunus species was monitored monthly during 2025 using quantitative PCR-based absolute quantification. Roots, one-year-old shoots and annual shoots were sampled monthly from 21 infected trees of Prunus armeniaca, Prunus domestica, Prunus persica and Prunus salicina. Phytoplasma titer varied with plant part and sampling month, and differences were also observed among the examined host groups. Because cultivar and rootstock were linked to species, these differences cannot be attributed to species alone. Roots provided the most consistent year-round detection, whereas above-ground tissues showed stronger monthly variation during the studied period. P. domestica displayed the most distinct pattern: roots remained frequently positive, while one-year-old shoots and particularly annual shoots had lower detection rates and lower phytoplasma titers. Multilocus genotyping detected ten multilocus profiles, but their uneven distribution among only 21 trees precluded a reliable evaluation of their relationship with phytoplasma titer or symptom expression. Full article

This study develops a fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based method for identifying sectional loads on a full-scale RX1E-A composite aircraft wing. Thirty-two load-sensitive FBGs were installed at four spanwise sections. Multi-case ground loading with different spanwise distributions and chordwise positions was used to generate coupled combinations of bending moment, shear force, and torque. Multichannel linear models were calibrated using 89 measured samples from Cases 1 to 9 and independently evaluated using interpolation-oriented Cases 10–11 and limited-extrapolation Cases 12–13. Electrical strain gauges were used only for auxiliary ground-response comparison. The calibration NRMSE ranges were 0.454–1.087% for bending moment, 1.213–3.351% for shear force, and 0.526–1.306% for torque. Across the independent cases, the maximum section-level NRMSEs were 1.949%, 7.251%, and 2.484%. The fixed models were subsequently applied to a nominally identical flight-test wing without airborne refitting. During a pull-up maneuver with a maximum normal load factor of 2.058, the reconstructed bending-moment and shear-force increments exhibited continuous responses, extrema close to the load-factor peak, and a physically reasonable decrease from the wing root toward the tip. Full article

Based on CN05.1 observational data, this study systematically evaluates the performance of the NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6) and the original Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) in simulating extreme high-temperature (EHT) events over the Sichuan–Chongqing region during 1981–2014. Furthermore, it projects changes in EHT indices under different emission scenarios for the mid-and late-21st century using the NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 dataset. The results indicate that NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 exhibits higher spatial correlation (>0.90) and lower root-mean-square error (RMSE) than CMIP6 in depicting the spatial distribution of maximum temperature (Tmax), with mean biases reduced from approximately −2 °C to within 1 °C. This dataset also captures the spatial patterns of EHT frequency (EHTF) and intensity (EHTI), although it exhibits a systematic underestimation of their magnitudes due to the inherent smoothing effect of the Bias Correction and Spatial Disaggregation (BCSD) method. The comprehensive TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) ranking shows that NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 generally ranks higher than the original CMIP6 in simulating EHT indices across all three weighting schemes and exhibits higher inter-model consistency, which further validates its overall applicability in the Sichuan–Chongqing region. Under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5, all 22 models project positive changes in Tmax, EHTF, and EHTI for both the mid- and late-21st century. The ensemble median increases reach approximately 5.5 °C for Tmax, 28 days per year for EHTF, and 1.8 °C for EHTI, which are 2–3 times the mid-century values and roughly double the corresponding increments under SSP2-4.5. The extreme heat hotspots are primarily located along the Sichuan–Chongqing border, with greater intensification and broader spatial coverage under SSP5-8.5 than under SSP2-4.5, indicating a progressive worsening of heatwave conditions across the study region. Full article

During cornering braking, longitudinal braking and lateral tire forces share the limited tire–road adhesion capacity and induce dynamic load transfer among the four wheels, thereby intensifying the coupling between braking performance and lateral stability. Improper braking-force distribution may consequently cause premature tire-force saturation, excessive yaw response, and vehicle sideslip. To address this problem, this study proposes a coordinated cornering-braking stability control strategy for brake-by-wire vehicles. The total braking force is first determined according to the desired deceleration and initially distributed among the four wheels based on their estimated dynamic vertical loads. An improved sliding mode controller with adaptive yaw–sideslip weighting then generates an additional yaw moment, while a sequential quadratic programming algorithm redistributes the wheel braking forces, subject to the total braking-force, additional yaw-moment, and tire-friction-circle constraints. The proposed strategy was evaluated using CarSim/Simulink co-simulations under eight operating conditions involving different initial speeds, braking demands, and road-adhesion levels. Compared with the proportional distribution strategy, the optimized strategy reduced the yaw rate root-mean-square error by 76.2–98.6%, the maximum sideslip angle tracking error by 8.1–97.4%, and the maximum magnitude of the actual sideslip angle by 20.9–98.6%. The improvements were particularly pronounced under high-speed and high-braking-demand conditions. Although the stability-priority allocation moderately extended the braking duration in some cases, it effectively suppressed excessive yaw and sideslip responses, demonstrating its simulation-level effectiveness in improving the cornering-braking stability of brake-by-wire vehicles. Full article

The phloem mobility of fungicides is a highly advantageous property for controlling plant root and vascular diseases. In order to develop phloem-mobile fungicides with enhanced antifungal activity, a new pesticide vectorization strategy was proposed for using exogenous compounds as vector groups in this study. Nine novel PCA amide derivatives containing heterocyclic carboxylic acids were designed and synthesized by coupling PCA with a heterocyclic carboxylic acid via an amide linkage. In vitro bioassays revealed that nine target compounds exhibited moderate to strong antifungal activity against the tested fungal pathogens. Notably, compound D4 demonstrated superior inhibitory effects against multiple pathogenic fungi. The results of phloem mobility tests demonstrated that five target compounds, D1, D2, D4, D7, and D9, exhibited phloem mobility, which is consistent with possible carrier-mediated transport. In pot experiments, compound D4 exhibited significantly better protective and curative efficacy against rice sheath blight than PCA, a benefit that may stem from its phloem mobility. Further systemic translocation studies in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) confirmed that compound D4 is readily absorbed by leaves and efficiently distributed throughout the plant, with pronounced accumulation in roots and stems. This translocation pattern may play a significant role in improving the effectiveness of compound D4 in controlling root and vascular diseases. Full article

The relationship between public education spending and economic growth remains contested in developing economies, where quality, not just quantity, of investment may matter most. This study examines whether public education expenditure has driven economic growth in Egypt over 1980–2023, addressing the under-studied role of education quality and testing the robustness of the estimated relationship to structural breaks linked to major reforms. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach together with Zivot–Andrews structural break unit root tests and CUSUM/CUSUMSQ parameter-stability tests, the study models short- and long-run effects of education expenditure on GDP growth, controlling for capital formation, labor participation, trade openness, and foreign investment, and incorporating quality proxies such as student–teacher ratios and completion rates. The bound F-statistic (6.23) exceeds the 5% upper-bound critical value of 3.83 (Narayan in 2005 on small-sample critical values), confirming long-run cointegration, and the error-correction coefficient (−0.835, p < 0.01) indicates rapid adjustment to equilibrium. Physical capital is the strongest driver of long-run growth, while education expenditure shows a weakly negative long-run association (significant at 10%), suggesting allocative inefficiency rather than absent returns; quality proxies (completion rate, student–teacher ratio) show a negative short-run and positive one-period-lagged effect, consistent with a delayed adjustment process. Stability tests confirm the long-run relationship is structurally invariant once short-run dynamics are accounted for. Thus, improving the efficiency and quality of education spending, rather than its volume, appears essential for Egypt to advance Vision 2030, SDG 4, and SDG 8. Full article

The increasing popularity of electric vehicles is inevitable due to their lower dependence on conventional fuel and reduced air pollution. Among various drivetrain architectures, four-wheel independently driven electric vehicles (4WID-EVs) have gained significant attention owing to their superior load-carrying and dynamic performance. However, the distributed four-motor architecture makes them vulnerable to unpredictable motor failures, necessitating an effective fault-tolerant control strategy. This work proposes a common sliding mode controller (CSMC)-integrated quantum complete graph neural network (QCGNN) for adaptive tuning under one-, two-, and three-motor failure conditions at reference speeds of 20 and 40 m/s, ensuring stable operation through continuous state feedback. Simulation results demonstrate fault recovery within 3 s, a rise time of 1.2–1.3 s, a settling time below 5.5 s, a peak overshoot below 8%, and a steady-state error below 0.2%. Compared with the QCGNN-Optimal LQR, the proposed QCGNN-CSMC reduces the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) from 34 to 18, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) from 41 to 23, and the steady-state error from 1.07 to 0.56, while maintaining R² values above 0.90. Rapid controller prototyping further validates the robustness, reliability, and real-time applicability of the proposed fault-tolerant control framework for 4WID-EVs. Full article