Self-Calibration Method for Circular Encoders Based on Inertia and a Single Read-Head.

This article proposes a new self-calibration method for circular encoders based on inertia and a single read-head. The velocity curves of the circular encoder are fitted with polynomials and, based on the principle of circle closure and the periodicity of the distribution for angle intervals, the proportionality between the theoretical value and the actual value of each angle interval is obtained. In the experimental system constructed, the feasibility of the proposed method was verified through self-calibration experiments, repeatability experiments, and comparative experiments with the time-measurement dynamic reversal (TDR) method. In addition, this article also proposes an iterative method to improve the self-calibration accuracy. Experimental verification was carried out, and the results show that the new method can effectively compensate for the error of angle measurement in the circular encoder. The peak-to-peak value of the error of angle measurement was reduced from 239.343" to 11.867", and the repeatability of the calibration results of the new method was less than 2.77".

A Novel Method for Obtaining Analytical Parameters Based on Double-Flank Measurement.

Double-flank measurement is the most commonly used method for full inspection of mass-produced gears and has high measurement efficiency, but it cannot obtain the analytical parameters and is not helpful enough to evaluate the NVH performance of the gears. Based on the double-flank rolling tester with a new principle, a simulation method for double-flank measurement and a solving method for analytical parameters are proposed. Using the simulation method, the double-flank measurements without random error can be obtained through the collision detection algorithm. The solving method uses the iteration to obtain the minimum rolling length of each position of the tooth surface, then obtains the analytical parameters of the gear. In the experiments, the difference between the profile deviations obtained by the solving method and superimposed in the simulation method is less than 0.03 µm. The experiment results have verified the correctness of the simulation method and the solving method. These methods can greatly improve the value of double-flank measurement.

The Effect of Dietary Protein Hydrolysate from Black Soldier Fly Larvae and Schizochytrium on Palatability, Nutrient Metabolites and Health Status in Beagle Dogs.

Protein hydrolysate from black soldier fly larvae (BSFP) has garnered great attention with its lower allergenicity, high amount of essential amino acids, and small bioactive peptides. Schizochytrium is a promising alternative source of n-3 FUFA because it has enriched docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22: 6). The aim of this study was to assess palatability, the presence of diarrhea, plasma biochemistry panels, anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects, and immune function in beagle dogs when supplementing a mixture of protein hydrolysate from black soldier fly larvae and schizochytrium (BSFPs) into their diets. Experiment I: 24 young beagle dogs (16 males and 8 females; 4-5 months; BW: 6.40 ± 0.15 kg) were randomly divided into four groups: (1) control (CON), (2) 5% BSFPs, (3) 10% BSFPs, (4) 15% BSFPs. Their body weights and fecal scores were recorded, and blood samples were collected for analysis. Experiment II: three diets containing 5%, 10%, and 15% BSFPs were evaluated by comparing them with a basal diet (CON) to evaluate palatability. These results suggested that a lower presence of diarrhea existed in the BSFP diet than the CON diet (p < 0.05). Three treatment groups remarkably increased their total protein (TP) and albumin (ALB) contents and decreased their concentrations of triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) in plasma (p < 0.05). Moreover, the 5% and 15% BSFPs groups had a higher calcium (CA) content in plasma, and the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and contents of creatinine (CREA) and urea nitrogen (BUN) were significantly reduced by supplementing BSFP in their diets (p < 0.05). Their anti-oxidative enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) were dramatically enhanced, and their malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were remarkably reduced (p < 0.05). Immunoglobulin A and G (IgA and IgG) concentrations in the plasma in the 10% and 15% BSFPs groups were significantly increased (p < 0.05). Furthermore, lower interleukin-8 (IL-8) contents were shown in the BSFP diets than the CON diet (p < 0.05). Similarly, the diets supplemented with BSFPs exhibited a positive effect on palatability (p < 0.05). To sum up, the diets supplemented with BSFPs significantly enhanced palatability, immune function, and anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory capacity to alleviate diarrhea and improve the general health of the beagle dogs.

Effects of Supplementing Selenium-Enriched Cardamine violifolia to Laying Hens on Egg Quality and Yolk Antioxidant Capacity during Storage at 4 °C and 25 °C.

Oxidative stress occurs in the process of egg storage. Antioxidants as feed additives can enhance egg quality and extend the shelf life of eggs. Selenium-enriched Cardamine violifolia (SEC) has strongly antioxidant properties. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of dietary supplementation with SEC on egg quality and the yolk antioxidant capacity of eggs stored at 4 °C and 25 °C. Four hundred fifty 65-week-old, Roman hens that were similar in laying rate (90.79 ± 1.69%) and body weight (2.19 ± 0.23 kg) were divided into 5 groups. The birds were fed diets supplemented with 0 mg/kg selenium (Se) (CON), 0.3 mg/kg Se from sodium selenite (SS), 0.3 mg/kg Se from Se-enriched yeast (SEY), 0.3 mg/kg Se for selenium-enriched Cardamine violifolia (SEC) or 0.3 mg/kg Se from Se-enriched Cardamine violifolia and 0.3 mg/kg Se from Se-enriched yeast (SEC + SEY) for 8 weeks. The eggs were collected on the 8th week and were analyzed for egg quality and oxidative stability of yolk during storage at 4 °C or 25 °C for 0, 2, 4, or 6 weeks. Dietary SEC and SEC + SEY supplementation increased the Haugh unit (HU) and albumen foam stability in eggs stored at 4 °C and 25 °C (p < 0.05). SS and SEC supplementation increased the yolk index in eggs stored at 25 °C (p < 0.05). SEC or SEC + SEY slowed down an increase in albumen pH and gel firmness in eggs stored at 4 °C and 25 °C (p < 0.05). Moreover, SEC or SEC + SEY alleviated the increase in malonaldehyde (MDA), and the decrease in total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) level and total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activity in yolks stored at 4 °C and 25 °C (p < 0.05). These results indicate that SEC mitigated egg quality loss and improved the antioxidant capacity of yolks during storage. SEC supplementation would be advantageous to extend the shelf life of eggs.

Influence of a Mixture of Protein Hydrolysate from Black Soldier Fly Larvae and Schizochytrium on Palatability, Plasma Biochemistry, and Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Capacity in Cat Diets.

The objective of this research was to evaluate palatability, plasma biochemistry, antioxidative and anti-inflammatory capacity, and immune levels in cats by feeding supplementing inclusion of different levels of a mixture of protein hydrolysate from black soldier fly larvae and schizochytrium (BSFPs) in diets. In the feed experiment, a total of 24 adult cats (12 females and 12 males; BW: 3.02 ± 0.06 kg) were randomly divided into four groups: (1) diet with chicken and fish meal as primary protein resource (CON); (2) diet with 5% BSFPs replacing chicken meal, fish meal, chicken oil, and fish oil (5% BSFPs); (3) 10% BSFPs; and (4) 15% BSFPs. The body weight and feed intake were recorded, and a blood sample was collected for analysis. In the palatability experiment, three diets containing 5%, 10%, and 15% BSFPs were evaluated by comparing with CON. These results suggested that different levels of BSFPs could improve palatability in cat diets by enhancing the first sniff, the first bite, and feed intake (p < 0.05). However, no significant influence existed in body weight and average daily feed intake (p > 0.05). In comparison to the CON group, 5% and 15% BSFPs significantly increased the total protein content, and all treatment groups decreased the triglyceride content and enhanced the calcium concentration in plasma; in addition, the activity of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase and the content of creatinine and urea nitrogen were significantly reduced by the supplementation inclusion of BSFPs in the diets (p < 0.05). The enzyme activity of glutathione peroxidase was dramatically enhanced by the supplementation of 10% and 15% BSFPs in diets compared with the CON diet, and the activity of superoxide dismutase was increased and the malondialdehyde concentration was remarkably reduced in all three treatments (p < 0.05). Compared with the CON group, different levels of BSFPs in the diets significantly increased the immunoglobulin A content in plasma; similarly, the immunoglobulin G concentration was significantly enhanced by the supplementation of 10% and 15% BSFPs in the diets (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the interleukin-1ß content was significantly reduced in the inclusion of 10% and 15% BSFPs in the diets, and 15% BSFPs remarkably decreased the content of interleukin-8 in plasma compared with the CON diet (p < 0.05). To sum up, the supplementation of different levels of BSFPs exhibited a positive effect on palatability and enhanced the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune capacity. Particularly, the addition levels of 10% and 15% BSFPs were more effective in antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and immunity.

Real-time estimation of lung deformation from body surface using a general CoordConv CNN.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Estimating the three-dimensional (3D) deformation of the lung is important for accurate dose delivery in radiotherapy and precise surgical guidance in lung surgery navigation. Additional 4D-CT information is often required to eliminate the effect of individual variations and obtain a more accurate estimation of lung deformation. However, this results in increased radiation dose. Therefore, we propose a novel method that estimates lung tissue deformation from depth maps and two CT phases per patient. METHODS: The method models the 3D motion of each voxel as a linear displacement along a direction vector, with a variable amplitude and phase that depend on the voxel location. The direction vector and amplitude are derived from the registration of the CT images at the end-of-exhale (EOE) and the end-of-inhale (EOI) phases. The voxel phase is estimated by a neural network. Coordinate convolution (CoordConv) is used to fuse multimodal data and embed absolute position information. The network takes the front and side views as well as the previous phase views as inputs to enhance accuracy. RESULTS: We evaluate the proposed method on two datasets: DIR-Lab and 4D-Lung, and obtain average errors of 2.11 mm and 1.36 mm, respectively. The method achieves real-time performance of less than 7 ms per frame on a NVIDIA GeForce 2080Ti GPU. CONCLUSION: Compared with previous methods, our method achieves comparable or even better accuracy with less CT phases.

Study on the Measurability of Gear Analytical Parameters in Double-Flank Measurement.

Double-flank measurement is the most commonly used full inspection method on the shop floor. However, the double-flank measurement method cannot measure analytical parameters such as pitch deviations and profile deviations, and this limitation is a pain point in the field of gear measurement. This paper studies the measurability of the analytical parameters of gears based on the results of double-flank measurement, proposes the definition of measurable area, and gives the relationship between the size of the measurable area and the number of teeth and the pressure angle and the gear error. Digital simulation methods were used to conduct measurement experiments on gear analytical parameters. In the experiments, the measurability of the analytical parameters of gears with various typical profile deviations in the double-flank measurement process was verified and analyzed. The test results show that not all profile deviations are unmeasurable in the process of double-flank measurement, but there exists a profile region in which the analytical parameters of the gear can be measured accurately. The size of the measurable area of the profile is mainly determined by the number of teeth and pressure angle of the gear, while the pitch deviations are always measurable under normal conditions.

A Normalized Absolute Values Adaptive Evaluation Function of Image Clarity.

The clarity evaluation function plays a vital role in the autofocus technique. The accuracy and efficiency of the image clarity evaluation function directly affects the accuracy of autofocus and the speed of focusing. However, classical clarity function values are sensitive to changes in background brightness and changes in object contour length. This paper proposes a normalized absolute values adaptive (NAVA) evaluation function of image clarity. It can eliminate the influence of changes in background brightness and the length of the measured object contour on the image clarity function value. To verify the effectiveness of the NAVA function, several experiments were conducted under conditions of virtual master gear images and actual captured images. For actual captured images, the variation of the evaluation results of the NAVA function is far less than the corresponding variation of the classic clarity function. Compared with classical clarity evaluation functions, the NAVA function can provide normalized absolute clarity values. The correlations between the NAVA function results of image clarity and both the contour length and background brightness of the tested object are weak. The use of the NAVA function in automatic and manual focusing systems can further improve focusing efficiency.

Se-Enriched Cardamine violifolia Improves Laying Performance and Regulates Ovarian Antioxidative Function in Aging Laying Hens.

As a selenium-enriched plant, Cardamine violifolia (SEC) has an excellent antioxidant function. The edibility of SEC is expected to develop new sources of organic Se supplementation for human and animal nutrition. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of SEC on laying performance and ovarian antioxidant capacity in aging laying hens. A total of 450 laying hens were assigned to five treatments. Dietary treatments included the following: a basal diet (diet without Se supplementation, CON) and basal diets supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg Se from sodium selenite (SS), 0.3 mg/kg Se from Se-enriched yeast (SEY), 0.3 mg/kg Se from SEC, or 0.3 mg/kg Se from SEC and 0.3 mg/kg Se from SEY (SEC + SEY). Results showed that supplementation with SEC tended to increase the laying rate, increased the Haugh unit of eggs, and reduced the FCR. SEC promoted ovarian cell proliferation, inhibited apoptosis, and ameliorated the maintenance of follicles. SEC, SEY, or SEC + SEY increased ovarian T-AOC and decreased MDA levels. SEC increased the mRNA abundance of ovarian selenoproteins. SEC and SEC + SEY increased the mRNA abundance of Nrf2, HO-1, and NQO1, and decreased the mRNA abundance of Keap1. These results indicate that SEC could potentially to improve laying performance and egg quality via the enhancement of ovarian antioxidant capacity. SEC exerts an antioxidant function through the modulation of the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway.

Influences of repeated exposure to low levels of TiO2 nanoparticles on Kruppel-like factors in 3D Caco-2 spheroids and mouse intestines.

Kruppel-like factors (KLFs) are a set of transcription factors (TFs) involved in the regulation of many basic biological processes, and recent studies suggested that nanoparticles (NPs) were capable to change KLFs in different models even at non-cytotoxic concentrations. In this study, we repeatedly exposed 3D Caco-2 spheroids and mice to TiO2 NPs, one of the most frequently used metal oxide NPs, and investigated the changes of KLF-signaling pathways based on RNA-sequencing. Although the internalization of TiO2 NPs did not induce cytotoxicity in vitro, repeated exposure (three times within 7 days) to 15.7 ng/ml TiO2 NPs increased KLF4 but decreased KLF6. Consistently, KLF4/KLF6-regulated gene ontology terms were altered, including those involved in the regulation of gene expression. We further verified that repeated exposure to 15.7 ng/ml TiO2 NPs increased the expression of KLF4 and proto-oncogene, bHLH transcription factor (MYC), but decreased the expression of KLF6 and activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3). But with the increase of NP concentrations, the expression of these genes was decreased. In mice following intragastrical exposure to 4.39 and 43.9 mg/kg TiO2 NPs (once a day for 5 continuous days), we observed increased expression of klf4, klf6, myc, and atf3, along with morphological changes of intestines. We concluded that repeated exposure to low levels of TiO2 NPs altered KLF-signaling pathways in intestinal cells both in vitro and in vivo.

Three new species of Otacilia Thorell, 1897 (Araneae, Phrurolithidae) from South China.

Three new Otacilia species were collected from Jiangxi Provinces, China during a survey of the spider fauna of the region: Otaciliaanfu Liu, sp. nov. (♂♀), O.guanshan Liu, sp. nov. (♂♀), and O.mingyueshan Liu, sp. nov. (♂♀). All species are described and illustrated with photographs and SEM micrographs, and their distribution is also mapped.

First record of theridiosomatid genus Sennin Suzuki, Hiramatsu & Tatsuta, 2022 from Anhui Province, China, with the description of a new species (Araneae, Theridiosomatidiae).

Background: Only two Sennin species are known from the world, Sennincoddingtoni (Zhu, Zhang & Chen, 2001) from China and Sennintanikawai Suzuki, Hiramatsu & Tatsuta, 2022 from Ryukyu Islands. No other Sennin species have been recorded from other locations. New information: A new species, Senninshuanglong sp. n. is described from Anhui Province, China. Morphological illustrations, SEMs, living photos, habitat and distribution map are given.

A Comparison between Vitamin D3 and 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 on Laying Performance, Eggshell Quality and Ultrastructure, and Plasma Calcium Levels in Late Period Laying Hens.

The objective of this study was to compare high supplementary doses (125 µg/kg) of vitamin D3 (VD3) or 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25-OHD3) with commercial supplementary doses (62.5 µg/kg) of VD3 on laying performance, eggshell quality and ultrastructure, and plasma calcium levels in late period laying hens. A total of 1512 Roman Gray (60-week-old) laying hens were allotted into three treatments with 12 replicates and 42 birds in each replicate. During the 12-week trial period, the layers were fed a basal diet supplemented with different doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 (62.5 µg/kg VD3 in control group, CON; 125 µg/kg VD3 in high level VD3 group, VD3; 125 µg/kg 25-OHD3 in high level 25-OHD3 group, 25-OHD3). The results showed that high supplementary doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 increased laying rate (p < 0.05). Moreover, the layers fed high doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 diets had decreased unqualified egg rate and mortality (p < 0.05). High supplementary doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 increased eggshell strength and eggshell thickness (p < 0.05). From observation in eggshell ultrastructure, high doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 diets increased the palisade layer thickness and mammillary knob density (p < 0.05). Furthermore, high doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 diets increased the calcium levels in plasma (p < 0.05). In summary, compared with 62.5 µg/kg doses of VD3, supplementary 125 µg/kg doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3 improved the laying performance, eggshell quality, and plasma calcium levels in late period laying hens. Additionally, there was an equal effect on laying performance and eggshell quality in the hens fed dietary 125 µg/kg doses of VD3 or 25-OHD3.

Classification of protein domains based on their three-dimensional shapes (CPD3DS).

Protein design has become a powerful method to expand the number of natural proteins and design customized proteins according to demands. Domain-based protein design spares the need to create novel elements from scratch, which makes it a more efficient strategy than scratch-based protein design in designing multi-domain proteins, protein complexes and biomaterials. As the surface shape plays a central role in domain-domain and protein-protein interactions, a global map of the surface shapes of all domains should be very beneficial for domain-based protein design. Therefore, in this study, we characterized the surface shapes of protein domains, collected from CATH and SCOP databases, with their 3D-Zernike descriptors (3DZDs). Then similarities of domain shape features were identified, and all domains were classified accordingly. The preferences of the combinations of domains between different clusters were analyzed in natural proteins from the Protein Data Bank. A user-friendly website, termed CPD3DS, was also developed for storage, retrieval, analyses and visualization of our results. This work not only provides an overall view of protein domain shapes by showing their variety and similarities, but also opens up a new avenue to understand the properties of protein structural domains, and design principles of protein architectures.