Replacing traditional nursery soil with spent mushroom substrate improves rice seedling quality and soil substrate properties.

Currently, large quantities of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) are produced annually. Because SMS has high water retention and nutrients, it has great potential to replace traditional topsoil for raising seedlings in agricultural production. However, few studies have examined the effects of substituting SMS for paddy soil on rice seedling growth and soil nutrients. SMS was mixed with rice soil in different proportions (20%, 50%, and 80%), and chemical fertilizer, organic fertilizer, and peat substrate were added in addition to equivalent nitrogen as a traditional seedling nursery method for comparison. Compared to traditional paddy soil (CK), the seedling qualities of the three SMS ratio treatments were all higher. Adding SMS at different ratios promoted rice seedling root growth, elevated the soluble protein concentration, and amplified the superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymatic action in rice seedlings. Total porosity and aeration porosity of the soil increased by 17.40% and 32.90%, respectively. Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) increased by 21.26-118.48%, 50.44-71.68%, and 23.08-80.17%, respectively. Besides, the relative abundance of Bacillus, Bacteroidetes, and other bacteria as well as the abundance of Ascomycota were all significantly increased. Adding 50% SMS increased the abundance of Pseudomonas by 8.42 times. The seedling quality of the 50% SMS treatment was even higher than chemical fertilizer and organic fertilizer treatments, only second to the peat substrate treatment. In summary, partial substitution of paddy soil with SMS can ameliorate substrate properties, improve seedling quality, and increase microbial diversity, indicating the suitability of SMS as a replacement for rice soil in seedling substrates. The 50% SMS ratio is the best. This study provides a basis for SMS to replace traditional rice soil in seedling cultivation.

Integrating In-Plane Thermoelectricity and Out-Plane Piezoresistivity for Fully Decoupled Temperature-Pressure Sensing.

A flexible sensor that simultaneously senses temperature and pressure is crucial in various fields, such as human-machine interaction, artificial intelligence, and biomedical applications. Previous research has mainly focused on single-function flexible sensors for e-skins or smart devices, and integrated bimodal sensing of temperature and pressure without complex crosstalk decoupling algorithms remains challenging. In this work, a flexible bimodal sensor is proposed that utilizes spatial orthogonality between in-plane thermoelectricity and out-plane piezoresistivity, which enables fully decoupled temperature-pressure sensing. The proposed bimodal sensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 281.46 µV K-1 for temperature sensing and 2.181 kPa-1 for pressure sensing. In the bimodal sensing mode, the sensor exhibits negligible mutual interference, providing a measurement error of ± 7% and ± 8% for temperature and pressure, respectively, within a 120 kPa pressure range and a 40 K temperature variation. Additionally, simultaneous spatial mapping of temperature and pressure with a bimodal sensor array enables contact shape identification with enhanced accuracy beyond the limit imposed by the number of sensing units. The proposed integrated bimodal sensing strategy does not require complex crosstalk decoupling algorithms, which represents a significant advancement in flexible sensors for applications that necessitate simultaneous sensing of temperature and pressure.

Analysis of influencing factors on vibration characteristics of electro-hydraulic vibration cutting system.

The cutting process of the cantilever tunneling machine mainly generates excitation through the cutting motor or the hydraulic cylinder driven by the hydraulic system. Regardless of the driving method, the frequency width of the excitation system is limited, difficult to control, and the excitation effect is poor. Therefore, in order to improve excavation efficiency, the excitation system parallel to the original cutting and rotating system is designed. Based on the excitation characteristics caused by alternating fluid flow, the core component of the excitation system, hydraulic exciter, is designed, and the dynamics and dynamic characteristics of the excitation system are analyzed. Based on AMESim software, analyze the impact of factors such as pump displacement, excitation frequency, and pipeline parameters on the operational performance of the electro-hydraulic vibration cutting system, and conduct experimental verification by building a cutting test bench. The experimental results show that as the inner diameter of the pipeline increases, the fluctuation at the acceleration turning point decreases in each cycle and approaches the peak faster. As the excitation frequency increases, the cutting acceleration of the electro-hydraulic excitation cutting system decreases first and then increases, verifying the accuracy of the simulation results. In the experiment, it was found that the acceleration transformation range of the cutting head of the excitation system is the smallest and most stable when the excitation frequency is 30 Hz. In order to verify that the excitation frequency of 30 Hz is the optimal frequency, further contact force tests were conducted on the cutting teeth. It was found that when the hydraulic excitation system adds a 30 Hz excitation frequency, the contact force on the cutting teeth is the smallest. It is more conducive to reducing the damage and wear of the cutting head, and the cutting effect of the cutting head is more obvious. The research results are beneficial for improving the cutting performance of the electro-hydraulic excitation cutting system, providing theoretical support for the selection of cutting parameters for excavation machinery and hydraulic excitation, and improving the existing theoretical system for active excitation cutting vibration analysis of excavation machines.

Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation Improves Postoperative Sleep Quality in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Tumor Surgery: A Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial.

INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to observe the effect of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) on the postoperative sleep quality of patients undergoing gastrointestinal tumor surgery and to verify the possible mechanism. METHODS: Eighty-three patients were allocated to the TEAS or Sham group. Patients in the TEAS group received TEAS treatment (disperse-dense waves; frequency, 2/100 Hz) on bilateral Shenmen (HT7), Neiguan (PC6) and Zusanli (ST36) points for 30 min each time, total three times in the perioperative period. In the Sham group, electrodes were placed; however, no current was given. Sleep quality was assessed on the day before surgery (P1) and the first and third days after surgery (D1 and D3) using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). Postoperative pain was assessed using visual analog scale (VAS) 72 h postoperatively. The incidences of abdominal distension, dizziness, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and pulmonary complications were recorded. Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines and the expression of key factors of oxidative stress and key molecules of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2/antioxidant response element (Nrf2/ARE) signal pathway were measured. RESULTS: TEAS ameliorated sleep quality at D1 and D3 (PSQI P < 0.05, AIS P < 0.05) and decreased postoperative pain as demonstrated by lower VAS scores compared to the Sham group (P < 0.05). The incidences of abdominal distension and PONV were also lower in the TEAS group. Markers of oxidative stress were increased (P < 0.05), and the serum concentration of interleukin-6 (IL-6) was significantly lower in the TEAS group. The key mediators of the Nrf2/ARE pathway were enhanced after TEAS. CONCLUSION: Perioperative TEAS improved postoperative sleep quality, reduced postoperative pain and alleviated postoperative adverse effects in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor surgery resection. This may be associated with activating Nrf2/ARE signal pathway and decreasing its inflammatory actions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx ), ChiCTR2100054971.

Development and internal validation of a prediction model to evaluate the risk of severe hemorrhage following mini-percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

PURPOSE: To develop a new prediction model for assessing the severe hemorrhage events in post mini-percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) patients and internally validate it, thus to guide decision making in clinical practice. METHODS: The patients who underwent mini-PCNL were retrospectively reviewed. Potential risk factors were included as prediction variables for multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify independent risk factors, and prediction model was constructed. The predictive ability of the model was evaluated using the Concordance index (C-index) and Brier score. Bootstrapping resampling technique was used to perform internal validation. The related packages in R were used to generate the web application based on the prediction model. RESULTS: Multiple-tract was the strongest predictor of severe hemorrhage following mini-PCNL. Other risk factors were none or mild hydronephrosis, congenital anomalies of urinary system, urinary tract infection, operation time and stone peak Hounsfield unit. A prediction model was constructed to assess the probability of severe hemorrhage after mini-PCNL. The C-index and Brier score were 0.731 and 0.093, respectively after correcting for optimism, which signified the excellent discrimination and calibration. CONCLUSION: A new prediction model was developed to estimate risk of severe hemorrhage after mini-PCNL. It had been internally validated with good discrimination and calibration. The prediction model might be beneficial for endourologists in surgical decision-making and risk aversion.

Selective and comparative genome architecture of Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) attributed to domestication and modern breeding.

INTRODUCTION: Rice, Oryza sativa L. (Os), is one of the oldest domesticated cereals that has also gone through extensive improvement in modern breeding. OBJECTIVES: How rice was domesticated and impacted by modern breeding. METHODS: We performed comprehensive analyses of genomic sequences of 504 accessions of Os and 456 accessions of O. rufipogon/O. nivara (Or). RESULTS: The natural selection on Or before domestication and the natural and artificial selection during domestication together shaped the well-differentiated genomes of two subspecies, geng(j) (japonica) and xian(i) (indica), while breeding has made apparent genomic imprints between landrace and modern varieties of each subspecies, and also between primary modern and advanced modern varieties of xian(i). Selection during domestication and breeding left genome-wide selective signals covering âˆ¼ 22.8 % and âˆ¼ 8.6 % of the Os genome, significantly reduced within-population genomic diversity by âˆ¼ 22 % in xian(i) and âˆ¼ 53 % in geng(j) plus more pronounced subspecific differentiation. Only âˆ¼ 10 % reduction in the total genomic diversity was observed between the Os and Or populations, indicating domestication did not suffer severe genetic bottleneck. CONCLUSION: Our results revealed clear differentiation of the Or accessions into three large populations, two of which correspond to the well-differentiated Os subspecies, geng(j) and xian(i). Improved productivity and common changes in the same suit of adaptive traits in xian(i) and geng(j) during domestication and breeding resulted apparently from compensatory and convergent selections for different genes/alleles acting in the common KEGG terms and/or same gene families, and thus maintaining or even increasing the within population diversity and subspecific differentiation of Os, while more genes/alleles of novel function were selected during domestication than modern breeding. Our results supported the multiple independent domestication of Os in Asia and suggest the more efficient utilization of the rich diversity within Os by exploiting inter-subspecific and among population diversity in future rice improvement.

AGs-Unet: Building Extraction Model for High Resolution Remote Sensing Images Based on Attention Gates U Network.

Building contour extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images is a basic task for the reasonable planning of regional construction. Recently, building segmentation methods based on the U-Net network have become popular as they largely improve the segmentation accuracy by applying 'skip connection' to combine high-level and low-level feature information more effectively. Meanwhile, researchers have demonstrated that introducing an attention mechanism into U-Net can enhance local feature expression and improve the performance of building extraction in remote sensing images. In this paper, we intend to explore the effectiveness of the primeval attention gate module and propose the novel Attention Gate Module (AG) based on adjusting the position of 'Resampler' in an attention gate to Sigmoid function for a building extraction task, and a novel Attention Gates U network (AGs-Unet) is further proposed based on AG, which can automatically learn different forms of building structures in high-resolution remote sensing images and realize efficient extraction of building contour. AGs-Unet integrates attention gates with a single U-Net network, in which a series of attention gate modules are added into the 'skip connection' for suppressing the irrelevant and noisy feature responses in the input image to highlight the dominant features of the buildings in the image. AGs-Unet improves the feature selection of the attention map to enhance the ability of feature learning, as well as paying attention to the feature information of small-scale buildings. We conducted the experiments on the WHU building dataset and the INRIA Aerial Image Labeling dataset, in which the proposed AGs-Unet model is compared with several classic models (such as FCN8s, SegNet, U-Net, and DANet) and two state-of-the-art models (such as PISANet, and ARC-Net). The extraction accuracy of each model is evaluated by using three evaluation indexes, namely, overall accuracy, precision, and intersection over union. Experimental results show that the proposed AGs-Unet model can improve the quality of building extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images effectively in terms of prediction performance and result accuracy.

Short-Term Results Suggest That Sleeved Stomach without Resection Is as Effective as Sleeve Gastrectomy in Improving Glucose Control in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Sprague-Dawley Rat Model.

BACKGROUND: Although sleeve gastrectomy results in good weight loss and metabolic improvements, it is an irreversible procedure. Therefore, we attempted to assess the possibility of creating a sleeved stomach without resection. Material and Methods. A total of 22 male Sprague-Dawley rats with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned into 3 different groups: (1) sleeve gastroplasty with gastric remnant-jejunal anastomosis (SGP, n = 8); (2) sleeve gastrectomy (SG, n = 8); and (3) SHAM (n = 6). Body weight, food intake, fasting blood glucose (FBG), hormonal analysis, and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were performed and measured preoperatively and postoperatively. RESULTS: During the postoperative period, SGP and SG showed significantly lower food intake and body weight when compared with the preoperative levels, respectively (p value < 0.05). Postoperatively, SGP and SG showed improvements in FBG and glucose tolerance levels compared to their respective preoperative levels (p < 0.05). FBG and glucose tolerance levels did not differ between SGP and SG postoperatively. SG resulted in a reduction in fasting ghrelin levels when compared with the preoperative level (p < 0.05). Fasting insulin levels did not differ preoperatively and postoperatively among all groups. Postoperatively, fasting GLP-1 levels were higher in SGP and SG when compared with the preoperative levels, but no statistical significance was observed. Compared preoperatively, the SGP and SG procedures resulted in a decline in HOMA-IR at postoperative 6th week (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our animal experiment suggested that at least in the short term, sleeved stomach without resection resulted in similar weight loss and improved glucose control effects compared to sleeve gastrectomy.

Self-growth Ni2P nanosheet arrays with cationic vacancy defects as a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting.

HYPOTHESIS: The transition metal phosphide is one of the promising bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting. Moreover, the activity of phosphide catalysts can be further enhanced by the cationic vacancy engineering. EXPERIMENTS: The self-growth Ni2P nanosheet arrays with abundant cationic vacancy defects (V-Ni2P/NF) has been synthesized via a facile multi-step reaction process involving hydrothermal, phosphorization and acid-etching of Mn which was doped in Ni2P nanosheets as a sacrificial dopant. Furthermore, the experimental studies and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to evaluate its electrochemical performance. FINDINGS: The chemical and electrocatalytic property of Ni2P were successfully optimized by cationic vacancy engineering and the obtained V-Ni2P/NF catalyst exhibited superior bifunctional catalytic performance for both hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) compared to pristine Ni2P and Mn-doped Ni2P in alkaline electrolyte. The V-Ni2P/NF can afford the current density of 10 mA cm-2 at a small overpotential of 55 mV for HER and 250 mV for OER. Additionally, the water electrolysis device assembled by the V-Ni2P/NF electrode as both the anode and cathode just requires a small voltage of 1.59 V to achieve 10 mA cm-2 and shows no obvious attenuation for 50 h.

11-watt single-frequency 1342-nm laser based on multi-segmented Nd:YVO4 crystal.

High power continuous-wave (CW) single-frequency 1342 nm lasers are of interest for fundamental research, particularly, for laser cooling of lithium atoms. Using the popular Nd:YVO4 laser crystal requires careful heat management, because strong thermal effects in the gain medium are the most severe limitations of output power. Here, we present a multi-segmented Nd:YVO4 crystal design that consists of three segments with successive doping concentrations, optimized using a theoretical model. In order to quantify the optimization, we measured the thermal lens power of conventional crystal designs and compare them to our multi-segmented design. The optimized design displays a two times lower thermal lens dioptric power for the same amount of absorbed pump power in the non-lasing case. Using the optimized design, we demonstrate a high power all-solid-state laser emitting 10.0 W single-frequency radiation at 1342 nm when operating the laser crystal at room temperature. Further integration of the laser allows us to operate the laser crystal below room temperature for improving output power up to 11.4 W at 8°C. This is explained by the reduction of energy-transfer upconversion and excited-state absorption effects. Stable free-running operation at the low temperature of 8 °C is achieved with the power stability of ± 0.42 % by peak-to-peak fluctuation and frequency peak-to-peak fluctuation of ± 72 MHz in three hours.

High-power 671 nm laser by second-harmonic generation with 93% efficiency in an external ring cavity.

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) is useful for obtaining single-frequency continuous-wave laser sources at various wavelengths for applications ranging from biology to fundamental physics. Using an external power-enhancement cavity is an effective approach to improve the frequency conversion efficiency. However, thermal effects limit the efficiency, particularly, in high-power operation. Therefore, reducing thermal effects is important when designing a cavity. This Letter reports the use of an external ring cavity for SHG, yielding a 5.2 W, 671 nm laser light with a conversion efficiency of 93.8±0.8% which, to the best of our knowledge, is a new record of conversion efficiency for an external ring cavity. It is achieved using a 10 mm length periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal and a 65 µm radius beam waist in the cavity so as to minimize thermal dephasing and thermal lensing. Furthermore, a method is developed to determine a conversion efficiency more accurately based on measuring the pump depletion using a photodiode detector and a maximum pump depletion up to 97% is recorded. In this method, the uncertainty is much less than that achieved in a common method by direct measuring with a power meter.

A Strain Feedback Compensation Method during Cell Tensile Experiments

Cell tensile technique is an important and widely used tool in cell mechanical research. However, the strain control condition in traditional tensile experiments is not satisfied and would result in big errors. These strain errors will seriously impact the experimental accuracy and decrease the reliability and comparability of experimental results. In order to achieve the accurate strain control of the membrane during stretching, a strain feedback compensation method based on the digital image correlation is proposed in this paper. To evaluate the effect of the proposed compensation method, a series of stretching experiments in different strains ranging from 5% to 20% were performed. The results showed that our proposed method significantly decreased the errors of strain control. These results indicate that the strain feedback compensation method is very effective in controlling strain and can greatly improve the experimental accuracy.

A Strain Feedback Compensation Method during Cell Tensile Experiments.

Cell tensile technique is an important and widely used tool in cell mechanical research. However, the strain control condition in traditional tensile experiments is not satisfied and would result in big errors. These strain errors will seriously impact the experimental accuracy and decrease the reliability and comparability of experimental results. In order to achieve the accurate strain control of the membrane during stretching, a strain feedback compensation method based on the digital image correlation is proposed in this paper. To evaluate the effect of the proposed compensation method, a series of stretching experiments in different strains ranging from 5% to 20% were performed. The results showed that our proposed method significantly decreased the errors of strain control. These results indicate that the strain feedback compensation method is very effective in controlling strain and can greatly improve the experimental accuracy.

Nonlinear spectroscopy of cold atoms in diffuse laser light.

The nonlinear spectroscopy of cold atoms in the diffuse laser cooling system is studied in this paper. We present the theoretical models of the recoil-induced resonances (RIR) and the electromagnetically-induced absorption (EIA) of cold atoms in diffuse laser light, and show their signals in an experiment of cooling (87)Rb atomic vapor in an integrating sphere. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental ones when the light intensity distribution in the integrating sphere is considered. The differences between nonlinear spectra of cold atoms in the diffuse laser light and in the optical molasses are also discussed.