ICDW-YOLO: An Efficient Timber Construction Crack Detection Algorithm.

A robust wood material crack detection algorithm, sensitive to small targets, is indispensable for production and building protection. However, the precise identification and localization of cracks in wooden materials present challenges owing to significant scale variations among cracks and the irregular quality of existing data. In response, we propose a crack detection algorithm tailored to wooden materials, leveraging advancements in the YOLOv8 model, named ICDW-YOLO (improved crack detection for wooden material-YOLO). The ICDW-YOLO model introduces novel designs for the neck network and layer structure, along with an anchor algorithm, which features a dual-layer attention mechanism and dynamic gradient gain characteristics to optimize and enhance the original model. Initially, a new layer structure was crafted using GSConv and GS bottleneck, improving the model's recognition accuracy by maximizing the preservation of hidden channel connections. Subsequently, enhancements to the network are achieved through the gather-distribute mechanism, aimed at augmenting the fusion capability of multi-scale features and introducing a higher-resolution input layer to enhance small target recognition. Empirical results obtained from a customized wooden material crack detection dataset demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed ICDW-YOLO algorithm in effectively detecting targets. Without significant augmentation in model complexity, the mAP50-95 metric attains 79.018%, marking a 1.869% improvement over YOLOv8. Further validation of our algorithm's effectiveness is conducted through experiments on fire and smoke detection datasets, aerial remote sensing image datasets, and the coco128 dataset. The results showcase that ICDW-YOLO achieves a mAP50 of 69.226% and a mAP50-95 of 44.210%, indicating robust generalization and competitiveness vis-à-vis state-of-the-art detectors.

Microporous Cobalt Ferrite with Bio-Carbon Loosely Decorated to Construct Multi-Functional Composite for Dye Adsorption, Anti-Bacteria and Electromagnetic Protection.

Currently, facing electromagnetic protection requirement under complex aqueous environments, the bacterial reproduction and organic dye corrosion may affect the composition and micro-structures of absorbers to weaken their electromagnetic properties. To address such problems, herein, a series of CoFe2O4@BCNPs (cobalt ferrite @ bio-carbon nanoparticles) composites are synthesized via co-hydrothermal and calcining process. The coupling of magnetic cobalt ferrite and dielectric bio-carbon derived from Apium can endow the composite multiple absorption mechanisms and matched impedance for effective microwave absorption, attaining a bandwidth of 8.12 GHz at 2.36 mm and an intensity of -49.85 dB at 3.0 mm. Due to the ROS (reactive oxygen species) stimulation ability and heavy metal ions of cobalt ferrite, the composite realizes an excellent antibacterial efficiency of 99% against Gram negative bacteria of Escherichia coli. Moreover, the loose porous layer of surface stacked bio-carbon can promote the adsorption of methylene blue for subsequent eliminating, a high removal rate of 90.37% for organic dye can be also achieved. This paper offers a new insight for rational design of composite's component and micro-structure to construct multi-functional microwave absorber for satisfying the electromagnetic protection demand in complicated environments.

Uncertain prediction of deformable image registration on lung CT using multi-category features and supervised learning.

The assessment of deformable registration uncertainty is an important task for the safety and reliability of registration methods in clinical applications. However, it is typically done by a manual and time-consuming procedure. We propose a novel automatic method to predict registration uncertainty based on multi-category features and supervised learning. Three types of features, including deformation field statistical features, deformation field physiologically realistic features, and image similarity features, are introduced and calculated to train the random forest regressor for local registration uncertain prediction. Deformation field statistical features represent the numerical stability of registration optimization, which are correlated to the uncertainty of deformation fields; deformation field physiologically realistic features represent the biomechanical properties of organ motions, which mathematically reflect the physiological reality of deformation; image similarity features reflect the similarity between the warped image and fixed image. The multi-category features comprehensively reflect the registration uncertainty. The strategy of spatial adaptive random perturbations is also introduced to accurately simulate spatial distribution of registration uncertainty, which makes deformation field statistical features more discriminative to the uncertainty of deformation fields. Experiments were conducted on three publicly available thoracic CT image datasets. Seventeen randomly selected image pairs are used to train the random forest model, and 9 image pairs are used to evaluate the prediction model. The quantitative experiments on lung CT images show that the proposed method outperforms the baseline method for uncertain prediction of classical iterative optimization-based registration and deep learning-based registration with different registration qualities. The proposed method achieves good performance for registration uncertain prediction, which has great potential in improving the accuracy of registration uncertain prediction.

Construction of Co-Se-W at Interfaces of Phase-Mixed Cobalt Selenide via Spontaneous Phase Transition for Platinum-Like Hydrogen Evolution Activity and Long-Term Durability in Alkaline and Acidic Media.

Cost-effective transition metal chalcogenides are highly promising electrocatalysts for both alkaline and acidic hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). However, unsatisfactory HER kinetics and stability have severely hindered their applications in industrial water electrolysis. Herein, a nanoflowers-shaped W-doped cubic/orthorhombic phase-mixed CoSe2 catalyst ((c/o)-CoSe2-W) is reported. The W doping induces spontaneous phase transition from stable phase cubic CoSe2 (c-CoSe2) to metastable phase orthorhombic CoSe2, which not only enables precise regulation of the ratio of two phases but also realizes W doping at the interfaces of two phases. The (c/o)-CoSe2-W catalyst exhibits a Pt-like HER activity in both alkaline and acidic media, with record-low HER overpotentials of 29.8 mV (alkaline) and 35.9 mV (acidic) at 10 mA cm-2, respectively, surpassing the vast majority of previously reported non-precious metal electrocatalysts for both alkaline and acidic HER. The Pt-like HER activities originate from the formation of Co-Se-W active species on the c-CoSe2 side at the phase interface, which effectively modulates electron structures of active sites, not only enhancing H2O adsorption and dissociation at Co sites but also optimizing H* adsorption to ΔGH* ≈ 0 at W sites. Benefiting from the abundant phase interfaces, the catalyst also displays outstanding long-term durability in both acidic and alkaline media.

Linkage and association mapping in multi-parental populations reveal the genetic basis of carotenoid variation in maize kernels.

Carotenoids are indispensable to plants and critical components of the human diet. The carotenoid metabolic pathway is conserved across plant species, but our understanding of the genetic basis of carotenoid variation remains limited for the seeds of most cereal crops. To address this issue, we systematically performed linkage and association mapping for eight carotenoid traits using six recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations. Single linkage mapping (SLM) and joint linkage mapping (JLM) identified 77 unique additive QTLs and 104 pairs of epistatic QTLs. Among these QTLs, we identified 22 overlapping hotspots of additive and epistatic loci, highlighting the important contributions of some QTLs to carotenoid levels through additive or epistatic mechanisms. A genome-wide association study based on all RILs detected 244 candidate genes significantly associated with carotenoid traits, 23 of which were annotated as carotenoid pathway genes. Effect comparisons suggested that a small number of loci linked to pathway genes have substantial effects on carotenoid variation in our tested populations, but many loci not associated with pathway genes also make important contributions to carotenoid variation. We identified ZmPTOX as the causal gene for a QTL hotspot (Q10/JLM10/GWAS019); this gene encodes a putative plastid terminal oxidase that produces plastoquinone-9 used by two enzymes in the carotenoid pathway. Natural variants in the promoter and second exon of ZmPTOX were found to alter carotenoid levels. This comprehensive assessment of the genetic mechanisms underlying carotenoid variation establishes a foundation for rewiring carotenoid metabolism and accumulation for efficient carotenoid biofortification.

Comparison of survival benefit and safety between surgery following conversion therapy versus surgery alone in patients with surgically resectable hepatocellular carcinoma at CNLC IIb/IIIa stage: a propensity score matching study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the survival benefit and safety of surgery following conversion therapy versus surgery alone in patients diagnosed with surgically resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at China Liver Cancer Staging (CNLC) IIb/IIIa stage. METHODS: A total of 95 patients diagnosed with surgically resectable CNLC IIb/IIIa HCC were retrospectively enrolled in our study from November 2018 to December 2022. Among them, 30 patients underwent conversion therapy followed by hepatectomy, while the remaining 65 received surgery alone. The primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival (RFS). Propensity score matching was employed to minimize bias in the retrospective analysis. RESULTS: Compared to the surgery alone group, the conversion therapy group demonstrated a significantly prolonged median RFS (17.1 vs. 7.0 months; P =0.014), a reduced incidence of microvascular invasion (MVI, 23.3 vs. 81.5%; P <0.001), and a comparable rate of achieving Textbook Outcome in Liver Surgery (TOLS, 83.3 vs. 76.9%; P =0.476). Multivariate analysis indicated that conversion therapy was independently associated with improved RFS after hepatectomy (HR=0.511, P =0.027). The same conclusions were obtained after propensity score matching. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of our study offer preliminary evidence that preoperative conversion therapy significantly prolongs RFS in patients with surgically resectable HCC at CNLC IIb/IIIa stage. Furthermore, combining conversion therapy and hepatectomy represents a relatively safe treatment strategy.

Modulation Engineering of Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Performance of Layered Double Hydroxides Derived Hollow Metal Carbides Integrating Corrosion Protection.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with unique layered structure and atomic composition are limited in the field of electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) due to their poor electrical conductivity and lack of dielectric properties. In this study, the EMA performance and anticorrosion of hollow derived LDH composites are improved by temperature control and composition design using ZIF-8 as a sacrifice template. Diverse regulation modes result in different mechanisms for EMA. In the temperature control process, chemical reactions tune the composition of the products and construct a refined structure to optimize the LDHs conductivity loss. Additionally, the different phase interfaces generated by the control components optimize the impedance matching and enhance the interfacial polarization. The results show that the prepared NCZ (Ni3ZnC0.7/Co3ZnC@C) has a minimum reflection loss (RLmin ) of -58.92 dB with a thickness of 2.4 mm and a maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EABmax ) of 7.36 GHz with a thickness of 2.4 mm. Finally, due to its special structure and composition, the sample exhibits excellent anticorrosion properties. This work offers essential knowledge for designing engineering materials derived from metal organic framework (MOF) with cutting-edge components and nanostructures.

Versatile Structural Engineering of Metal-Organic Frameworks Enabling Switchable Catalytic Selectivity.

The structure engineering of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) forms the cornerstone of their applications. Nonetheless, realizing the simultaneous versatile structure engineering of MOFs remains a significant challenge. Herein, a dynamically mediated synthesis strategy to simultaneously engineer the crystal structure, defect structure, and nanostructure of MOFs is proposed. These include amorphous Zr-ODB nanoparticles, crystalline Zr-ODB-hz (ODB = 4,4'-oxalyldibenzoate, hz = hydrazine) nanosheets, and defective d-Zr-ODB-hz nanosheets. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with low-dose high-angle annular dark-field imaging technique vividly portrays these engineered structures. Concurrently, the introduced hydrazine moieties confer self-reduction properties to the respective MOF structures, allowing the in situ installation of catalytic Pd nanoparticles. Remarkably, in the hydrogenation of vanillin-like biomass derivatives, Pd/Zr-ODB-hz yields partially hydrogenated alcohols as the primary products, whereas Pd/d-Zr-ODB-hz exclusively produces fully hydrogenated alkanes. Density functional theory calculations, coupled with experimental evidence, uncover the catalytic selectivity switch triggered by the change in structure type. The proposed strategy of versatile structure engineering of MOFs introduces an innovative pathway for the development of high-performance MOF-based catalysts for various reactions.

Genetic basis of maize stalk strength decoded via linkage and association mapping.

Stalk lodging is a severe problem that limits maize production worldwide, although little attention has been given to its genetic basis. Here we measured rind penetrometer resistance (RPR), an effective index for stalk lodging, in a multi-parent population of 1948 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and an association population of 508 inbred lines (AMP508). Linkage and association mapping identified 53 and 29 single quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and 50 and 19 pairs of epistatic interactions for RPR in the multi-parent population and AMP508 population, respectively. Phenotypic variation explained by all identified epistatic QTLs (up to ~5%) was much less than that explained by all single additive QTLs (up to ~33% in the multi-parent population and ~ 60% in the AMP508 population). Among all detected QTLs, only eight single QTLs explained >10% of phenotypic variation in single RIL populations. Alleles that increased RPR were enriched in tropical/subtropical (TST) groups from the AMP508 population. Based on genome-wide association studies in both populations, we identified 137 candidate genes affecting RPR, which were assigned to multiple biological processes, such as the biosynthesis of cell wall components. Sixty-six candidate genes were cross-validated by multiple methods or populations. Most importantly, 23 candidate genes were upregulated or downregulated in high-RPR lines relative to low-RPR lines, supporting the associations between candidate genes and RPR. These findings reveal the complex nature of the genetic basis underlying RPR and provide loci or candidate genes for developing elite varieties that are resistant to stalk lodging via molecular breeding.

Narrow-band loss - a novel loss function focused on target boundary.

Loss functions widely employed in medical image segmentation, e.g., Dice or Generalized Dice, treat each pixel of segmentation target(s) equally. These region-based loss functions are concerned with the overall segmentation accuracy. However, in clinical applications, the focus of attention is often the boundary area of the target organ(s). Existing region-based loss functions lack attention to boundary areas. We designed narrow-band loss, which computes the integration of the predicted probability within the narrow-band around the target boundary. From the aspect of how it's derived, Narrow-band loss belongs to the region-based loss function. The difference from normal region-based loss is that Narrow-band loss calculates based on the degree of coincidence of the region surrounding the organ boundary. The advantage is that narrow-band loss can guide networks to focus on the target's boundary and neighborhood. We also generalize narrow-band loss to multi-target segmentation. We tested narrow-band loss on two datasets of different parts of the human body: the brain dataset with 416 cases, each case with 35 labels, and the abdominal dataset with 50 cases, each case with 12 labels. Narrow-band loss has improved greatly in hd95 metric and dice metric compared with baseline, which is dice loss only.

Relationship between ß1-AA and AT1-AA and Cardiac Function in Patients with Hypertension Complicated with Left Ventricular Diastolic Function Limitation.

Objective: To investigate the association between ß1 adrenergic receptor autoantibodies (ß1-AA) and angiotensin II type-1 receptor autoantibodies (AT1-AA) and cardiac function in patients with hypertension complicated with left ventricular diastolic function limitation. Methods: A total of 120 patients with essential hypertension who were not taking drug treatment and were hospitalised in the Department of Cardiology at the authors' hospital from April 2018 to December 2018 were enrolled in this study and divided into a diastolic dysfunction group (65 cases) and a normal diastolic group (55 cases) according to their left ventricular diastolic function. The levels of cardiac parameters, ß1-AA, AT1-AA, and other indicators were compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the related factors affecting left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). The diagnostic efficacy of related factors in the diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction was evaluated. Results: Univariate analysis demonstrated that the left ventricular posterior wall diameter (10.29 ± 1.23 vs. 9.12 ± 1.53), left ventricular systolic dysfunction (10.56 ± 1.37 vs. 9.43 ± 1.44), systolic blood pressure (152.37 ± 10.24 vs. 140.33 ± 5.99), diastolic blood pressure (95.66 ± 6.34 vs. 87.33 ± 7.28), ß1-AA (33 vs. 9 cases), and AT1-AA (35 cases vs. 12 cases) were higher in the dysfunction group than in the control group (all P < 0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed that ß1-AA (odds ratio (OR) = 1.96, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.369-4.345) and AT1-AA (OR = 2.02, 95% CI: 1.332-6.720) were independent risk factors for cardiac diastolic dysfunction (P < 0.05). Both autoimmune antibodies had a certain predictive value, and the combined prediction value of the two was the highest, with an area under the curve of 0.942 (95% CI: 0.881~0.985). Conclusion: The positive rate of ß1-AA and AT1-AA in essential hypertension patients with LVDD was higher than that in the normal group. Both ß1-AA and AT1-AA could be used as early markers of LVDD in essential hypertension patients.

Multiphase Interfacial Regulation Based on Hierarchical Porous Molybdenum Selenide to Build Anticorrosive and Multiband Tailorable Absorbers.

Electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing materials have an irreplaceable position in the field of military stealth as well as in the field of electromagnetic pollution control. And in order to cope with the complex electromagnetic environment, the design of multifunctional and multiband high efficiency EMW absorbers remains a tremendous challenge. In this work, we designed a three-dimensional porous structure via the salt melt synthesis strategy to optimize the impedance matching of the absorber. Also, through interfacial engineering, a molybdenum carbide transition layer was introduced between the molybdenum selenide nanoparticles and the three-dimensional porous carbon matrix to improve the absorption behavior of the absorber. The analysis indicates that the number and components of the heterogeneous interfaces have a significant impact on the EMW absorption performance of the absorber due to mechanisms such as interfacial polarization and conduction loss introduced by interfacial engineering. Wherein, the prepared MoSe2/MoC/PNC composites showed excellent EMW absorption performance in C, X, and Ku bands, especially exhibiting a reflection loss of - 59.09 dB and an effective absorption bandwidth of 6.96 GHz at 1.9 mm. The coordination between structure and components endows the absorber with strong absorption, broad bandwidth, thin thickness, and multi-frequency absorption characteristics. Remarkably, it can effectively reinforce the marine anticorrosion property of the epoxy resin coating on Q235 steel substrate. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between interfacial engineering and the performance of EMW absorbers, and provides a reference for the design of multifunctional, multiband EMW absorption materials.

ScSmOP: a universal computational pipeline for single-cell single-molecule multiomics data analysis.

Single-cell multiomics techniques have been widely applied to detect the key signature of cells. These methods have achieved a single-molecule resolution and can even reveal spatial localization. These emerging methods provide insights elucidating the features of genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic heterogeneity in individual cells. However, they have given rise to new computational challenges in data processing. Here, we describe Single-cell Single-molecule multiple Omics Pipeline (ScSmOP), a universal pipeline for barcode-indexed single-cell single-molecule multiomics data analysis. Essentially, the C language is utilized in ScSmOP to set up spaced-seed hash table-based algorithms for barcode identification according to ligation-based barcoding data and synthesis-based barcoding data, followed by data mapping and deconvolution. We demonstrate high reproducibility of data processing between ScSmOP and published pipelines in comprehensive analyses of single-cell omics data (scRNA-seq, scATAC-seq, scARC-seq), single-molecule chromatin interaction data (ChIA-Drop, SPRITE, RD-SPRITE), single-cell single-molecule chromatin interaction data (scSPRITE) and spatial transcriptomic data from various cell types and species. Additionally, ScSmOP shows more rapid performance and is a versatile, efficient, easy-to-use and robust pipeline for single-cell single-molecule multiomics data analysis.

Self-Assembled MoS2 Cladding for Corrosion Resistant and Frequency-Modulated Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Materials from X-Band to Ku-Band.

Reasonable composition design and controllable structure are effective strategies for harmonic electromagnetic wave (EMW) adsorption of multi-component composites. On this basis, the hybrid MoS2 /CoS2 /VN multilayer structure with the triple heterogeneous interface is prepared by simple stirring hydrothermal, which can satisfy the synergistic interaction between different components and obtain excellent EMW absorption performance. Due to the presence of multiple heterogeneous interfaces, MoS2 /CoS2 /VN composites will produce strong interfacial polarization, while the defects in the sample will become the center of polarization, resulting in dipole polarization. Due to the excellent structural design of MoS2 /CoS2 /VN composite material, MoS2 /CoS2 /VN composite material not only has good conductive loss and polarization loss, but also can maintain excellent stability in simulated seawater, and enhance corrosion resistance. The MoS2 /CoS2 /VN composite with dual functions of corrosion resistant and microwave absorption achieves a minimum reflection loss (RL) of -50.48 dB and an effective absorption bandwidth of up to 5.76 GHz, covering both the X-band and Ku-band. Finally, this study provides a strong reference for the development of EMW absorption materials based on transition metal nitrides.

Anion Exchange of Metal Particles on Carbon-Based Skeletons for Promoting Dielectric Equilibrium and High-Efficiency Electromagnetic Wave Absorption.

The combination of carbon materials and magnetic elements is considered as an effective strategy to obtain high-performance electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials. However, using nanoscale regulation to the optimization of composite material dielectric properties and enhanced magnetic loss properties is facing significant challenges. Here, the dielectric constant and magnetic loss capability of the carbon skeleton loaded with Cr compound particles are further tuned to enhance the EMW absorption performance. After 700 °C thermal resuscitation of the Cr3-polyvinyl pyrrolidone composite material, the chromium compound is represented as a needle-shaped structure of nanoparticles, which is fixed on the carbon skeleton derived from the polymer. The size-optimized CrN@PC composites are obtained after the substitution of more electronegative nitrogen elements using an anion-exchange strategy. The minimum reflection loss value of the composite is -105.9 dB at a CrN particle size of 5 nm, and the effective absorption bandwidth is 7.68 GHz (complete Ku-band coverage) at 3.0 mm. This work overcomes the limitations of impedance matching imbalance and magnetic loss deficiency in carbon-based materials through size tuning, and opens a new way to obtain carbon-based composites with ultra-high attenuation capability.

Development and validation of web-based prognostic nomograms for massive hepatocellular carcinoma (≥10 cm): A retrospective study based on the SEER database.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Massive hepatocellular carcinoma (MHCC, a maximum tumor size of at least 10 cm) tends to have a poor prognosis. Therefore, this study aims to construct and validate prognostic nomograms for MHCC. METHODS: Clinic data of 1292 MHCC patients between 2010 and 2015 were got from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) cancer registration database. The whole set was separated into the training and validation sets at a ratio of 2:1 randomly. Variables, significantly associated with cancer-specific (CSS) and overall survival (OS) of MHCC were figured out by multivariate Cox regression analysis and were taken to develop nomograms. The concordance index (C-index), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were taken to validate the predictive abilities and accuracy of the nomograms. RESULTS: Race, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), grade, combined summary stage, and surgery were identified as independent factors of CSS, and fibrosis score, AFP, grade, combined summary stage, and surgery significantly correlated with OS in the training cohort. They then were taken to construct prognostic nomograms. The constructed model for predicting CSS exhibited satisfactory performance with a C-index of 0.727 (95% CI: 0.746-0.708) in the training group and 0. 672 (95% CI: 0.703-0.641) in the validation group. Besides, the model for predicting OS of MHCC also showed strong performance both in the training group (C-index: 0.722, 95% CI: 0.741-0.704) and the validation (C-index: 0.667, 95% CI: 0.696-0.638) group. All calibration curves and decision curves performed satisfactory predictive accuracy and clinic application values of the nomograms. CONCLUSION: The web-based nomograms for CSS and OS of MHCC were developed and validated in this study, which prospectively could be tested and may serve as additional tools to assess patient's individualized prognosis and make precise therapeutic selection to improve the poor outcome of MHCC.

A Plasmon Resonance Enhanced Photo-Electrode to Promote NH3 Yield in Sustainable N2 Conversion.

A key challenge for electrochemical nitrogen reduction reactions (NRR) is the difficulty for conventional catalysts to achieve high currents at low H* coverage to produce appreciable NH3 . Herein, we specially designed an Au nanoparticle-embedded ZnSe photo-electrode to solve the problem. As-designed photo-electrode achieves excellent NRR performance with a high NH3 yield (12.2 µg cm-2 h-1 ) and Faradaic efficiency (27.3 %). Our work reveals that the unique plasmon resonance effect of embedded Au nanoparticles plays a key role in increasing catalytic current when the H* coverage is decreased. Moreover, we successfully established a correlation between H* coverage and NRR performance based on theoretical calculations and experimental observations. This work paves the path for the future design of catalytic materials to overcome the selectivity and yield challenge of sustainable NH3 production.

An Improved Grey Wolf Optimizer and Its Application in Robot Path Planning.

This paper discusses a hybrid grey wolf optimizer utilizing a clone selection algorithm (pGWO-CSA) to overcome the disadvantages of a standard grey wolf optimizer (GWO), such as slow convergence speed, low accuracy in the single-peak function, and easily falling into local optimum in the multi-peak function and complex problems. The modifications of the proposed pGWO-CSA could be classified into the following three aspects. Firstly, a nonlinear function is used instead of a linear function for adjusting the iterative attenuation of the convergence factor to balance exploitation and exploration automatically. Then, an optimal α wolf is designed which will not be affected by the wolves ß and δ with poor fitness in the position updating strategy; the second-best ß wolf is designed, which will be affected by the low fitness value of the δ wolf. Finally, the cloning and super-mutation of the clonal selection algorithm (CSA) are introduced into GWO to enhance the ability to jump out of the local optimum. In the experimental part, 15 benchmark functions are selected to perform the function optimization tasks to reveal the performance of pGWO-CSA further. Due to the statistical analysis of the obtained experimental data, the pGWO-CSA is superior to these classical swarm intelligence algorithms, GWO, and related variants. Furthermore, in order to verify the applicability of the algorithm, it was applied to the robot path-planning problem and obtained excellent results.

Micro-CT results exhibit ovules enclosed in the ovaries of Nanjinganthus.

The Early Jurassic angiosperm Nanjinganthus has triggered a heated debate among botanists, partially due to the fact that the enclosed ovules were visible to naked eyes only when the ovary is broken but not visible when the closed ovary is intact. Although traditional technologies cannot confirm the existence of ovules in a closed ovary, newly available Micro-CT can non-destructively reveal internal features of fossil plants. Here, we performed Micro-CT observations on three dimensionally preserved coalified compressions of Nanjinganthus. Our outcomes corroborate the conclusion given by Fu et al., namely, that Nanjinganthus is an Early Jurassic angiosperm.