Additional Increment Research Articles

Fermentation of American elderberry juice yields functional phytochemicals for spray dried protein-polyphenol ingredients.

American elderberry juice (EBJ) and fermented elderberry juice (EBF) were spray dried using two different carriers: S. cerevisiae yeast (SC), used for juice fermentation and as encapsulating agent, and pea protein, to produce protein-polyphenol ingredients. The spray drying (SD) performance (solids recovery, SR; phenolic retention, PR) and quality attributes (physicochemical and functional properties, phytochemical content and bioaccessibility after in vitro digestion) of eight treatments of spray dried elderberry particles were determined. The total phenolic content (TPC) of EBJ (4476±169mg GAE/L) increased by 27% after fermentation (EBF: 5706±199mg GAE/L). The SD performance of EBF (SR > 50%; PR 55.7-63.9%) was significantly higher (p<0.05) compared to EBJ (SR < 50%; PR 28.6-42.8%). Stable (aw<0.3) protein-polyphenol particles, with pH-dependent solubility that increased as pH went from 4 to 10, were produced. The TPC of EBF-derived particles (26.2-28.7mg GAE/g) was 22-31% higher than EBJ-derived particles (20.4-21.9mg GAE/g) and anthocyanins were the major phenolic group detected. An increase in nearly all phenolic metabolite concentrations was observed after fermentation, and an additional increment was observed after spray drying. Phenolic bioaccessibility improved (17-25% higher) after S. cerevisiae fermentation and when using SC as the drying carrier compared to phenolics source (EBJ or EBF). Overall, here we show a sensible strategy to produce protein-polyphenol particles with better SD performance and enhanced phytochemical content and profile. Our fermentation and spray drying strategy provides practical and efficient means to produce functional fruit ingredients for the emerging clean-label, health-oriented market.

Joint Physical-Psychosocial Frailty and Risks of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Premature Mortality.

The importance of integrating physical and psychosocial factors in assessing frailty -health outcomes has been increasingly acknowledged, while the related evidence is lacking. We sought to investigate the associations of joint physical-psychosocial frailty with risk of premature mortality and evaluate the relative importance of individual physical and psychosocial factors. A total of 381,295 participants with no history of cancer or cardiovascular disease (CVD) were recruited from the UK Biobank cohort. The physical-psychosocial frailty was evaluated based on seven indicators including weight loss, exhaustion, physical activity, walking pace, grip strength, social isolation, and loneliness. The outcomes were premature mortality from all causes, cancer, CVD, and other causes. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the associations between the physical-psychosocial frailty and premature mortality. During a median follow-up period of 12.7years, we recorded 20,328 premature deaths. Each additional increment in the physical-psychosocial frailty index was associated with a 26% (HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.24-1.28), 10% (HR 1.10, 95% CI 1.08-1.12), 30% (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.26-1.33), and 44% (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.41-1.47) higher risk of all-cause, cancer, cardiovascular, and other-cause premature mortality, respectively. Compared with participants with the physical-psychosocial frailty index of 0, those with the index ≥ 4 had a 2.67 (95% CI 2.49-2.87)-fold higher risk of all-cause premature mortality. Slow walking pace and social isolation were the top two strongest predictors for all-cause premature mortality. In addition, we found that lower body mass index (BMI), age, smoking status, and dietary quality modified the associations of physical-psychosocial frailty with all-cause premature mortality (P-interaction < 0.05). In this cohort study of UK Biobank participants, joint physical-psychosocial frailty is significantly associated with risks of all-cause and cause-specific premature mortality, highlighting the importance to jointly assess physical and psychosocial factors in determining aging-related health.

Agronomic biofortification of genetically biofortified wheat genotypes with zinc, selenium, iodine, and iron under field conditions.

Inherently low concentrations of zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), iodine (I), and selenium (Se) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grains represent a major cause of micronutrient malnutrition (hidden hunger) in human populations. Genetic biofortification represents a highly useful solution to this problem. However, genetic biofortification alone may not achieve desirable concentrations of micronutrients for human nutrition due to several soil- and plant-related factors. This study investigated the response of genetically biofortified high-Zn wheat genotypes to soil-applied Zn and foliarly applied Zn, I, and Se in India and Pakistan. The effect of soil-applied Zn (at the rate of 50 kg ha-1 as ZnSO4·7H2O) and foliar-applied Zn (0.5% ZnSO4·7H2O), I (0.04% KIO3), Se (0.001% Na2SeO4), and a foliar cocktail (F-CT: combination of the above foliar solutions) on the grain concentrations of Zn, I, Se, and Fe of high-Zn wheat genotypes was investigated in field experiments over 2 years. The predominantly grown local wheat cultivars in both countries were also included as check cultivars. Wheat grain yield was not influenced by the micronutrient treatments at all field locations, except one location in Pakistan where F-CT resulted in increased grain yield. Foliar-applied Zn, I, and Se each significantly enhanced the grain concentration of the respective micronutrients. Combined application of these micronutrients was almost equally effective in enhancing grain Zn, I, and Se, but with a slight reduction in grain yield. Foliar-applied Zn, Zn+I, and F-CT also enhanced grain Fe. In India, high-Zn genotypes exhibited a minor grain yield penalty as compared with the local cultivar, whereas in Pakistan, high-Zn wheat genotypes could not produce grain yield higher than the local cultivar. The study demonstrates that there is a synergism between genetic and agronomic biofortification in enrichment of grains with micronutrients. Foliar Zn spray to Zn-biofortified genotypes provided additional increments in grain Zn of more than 15 mg kg-1. Thus, combining agronomic and genetic strategies will raise grain Zn over 50 mg kg-1. A combination of fertilization practice with plant breeding is strongly recommended to maximize accumulation of micronutrients in food crops and to make significant progress toward resolving the hidden hunger problem in human populations.

A deep kernel regression-based forecasting framework for temperature-induced strain in large-span bridges

The strain data from health monitoring systems of large-span bridges is influenced by various load effects, with the extraction and forecasting of temperature-induced strain being particularly significant for precise analysis and early warning of monitoring data. This paper presents a forecasting framework for temperature-induced strain in large-span bridges, employing a deep kernel regression (DKR) approach that integrates deep learning with Bayesian regression to enhance accuracy and certainty. Initially, this paper addresses the influence of additional response increment induced by vehicle strain effects and employs a robust data smoothing algorithm to extract temperature-induced effect components from measured strain data offline. Subsequently, a DKR model is proposed, integrating a long short-term memory (LSTM) layer with a fully connected layer. The output of the deep learning module serves as the kernel function parameter for the Gaussian process regression (GPR) module, and the GPR module with updated hyperparameters is used for time series forecasting. This method effectively extracts and utilizes time series features from historical data alongside key environmental factors, enabling real-time forecasting of strain effects and significantly improving the performance and utility of health monitoring systems in large-span bridges. Compared to commonly used time series forecasting algorithms, the algorithm proposed in this paper exhibits significantly improved accuracy, stability, and certainty. Through comparing the inference time, it was verified that the algorithm can meet the performance requirements of real-time inference, which underscores the model's potential as a robust tool in bridge structural health monitoring.

Application of ant colony optimization algorithm based on farthest point optimization and multi-objective strategy in robot path planning

With the continuous development of high technology and the continuous progress of intelligent industry, mobile robots are gradually widely used in various fields. In the field of mobile robot research, path planning is crucial. However, the current ant colony optimization algorithm applied to mobile robot path planning still has some limitations, such as early blind search, slower convergence speed, and lower path smoothness. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes an ant colony optimization algorithm based on farthest point optimization and multi-objective strategy. The algorithm introduces new heuristic information such as the normal distribution model, triangle inequality principle, smoothness function, safety value function, etc. It adopts multi-objective comprehensive evaluation indexes to judge the quality of paths. For the high-quality and poor-quality paths, the algorithm takes additional pheromone increments and decrements in pheromone concentration to speed up the algorithm’s convergence. Besides, the farthest point optimization strategy is used to improve the quality of the paths further. Finally, to verify the algorithm’s effectiveness, the algorithm is compared with 20 existing methods for solving the robot path planning problem, and the experimental results show that the algorithm exhibits better results in terms of convergence, optimal path length, and smoothness. Specifically, the algorithm can produce the shortest path in four different environments while realizing the least number of turns with faster convergence, further proving the effectiveness of the improved algorithm in this paper.

Path Planning of Inspection Robot Based on Improved Ant Colony Algorithm

The conventional Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, applied to logistics robot path planning in a two-dimensional grid environment, encounters several challenges: slow convergence rate, susceptibility to local optima, and an excessive number of turning points in the planned paths. To address these limitations, an improved ant colony algorithm has been developed. First, the heuristic function is enhanced by incorporating artificial potential field (APF) attraction, which introduces the influence of the target point’s attraction on the heuristic function. This modification accelerates convergence and improves the optimization performance of the algorithm. Second, an additional pheromone increment, calculated from the difference in pheromone levels between the best and worst paths of the previous generation, is introduced during the pheromone update process. This adjustment adaptively enhances the path length optimality. Lastly, a triangle pruning method is applied to eliminate unnecessary turning points, reducing the number of turns the logistics robot must execute and ensuring a more direct and efficient path. To validate the effectiveness of the improved algorithm, extensive simulation experiments were conducted in two grid-based environments of varying complexity. Several performance indicators were utilized to compare the conventional ACO algorithm, a previously improved version, and the newly proposed algorithm. MATLAB simulation results demonstrated that the improved ant colony algorithm significantly outperforms the other methods in terms of path length, number of iterations, and the reduction of inflection points, confirming its superiority in logistics robot path planning.

A cross-sectional study of the correlation of the ratio of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (NHHR) with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in adult populations: NHANES (2005-2008 and 2015-2020).

The ratio of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, abbreviated as NHHR, represents a brand-new lipid biomarker for assessing cardiovascular disease risk. Research has suggested a link between lipid metabolism and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). To delve deeper, this study was carried out using data derived from the NHANES to ascertain whether NHHR and OSA are associated. In this research, a cross-sectional analysis was executed based on data derived from NHANES across the years 2005 to 2008 and 2015 to 2020. After adjusting for confounders such as demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and health status, the link between NHHR and the likelihood of developing OSA was examined via weighted binary logistic regression as well as restricted cubic spline (RCS) models. In addition, subgroup analysis was completed to check if the obtained results were reliable. The study included 16,265 adult participants. Following comprehensive adjustment for confounders, results obtained suggested that, for each additional unit increment of NHHR, there is a 9% increased chance of developing OSA. Compared to the lowest quartile, the highest quartile of NHHR notably increased the risk of developing OSA in the overall population (OR: 1.65; 95% CI: 1.38-1.98; P < .001). The RCS curve indicated a linear positive correlation between NHHR and OSA, which remained significant in subsequent subgroup analyses (all P for interaction > .05). This suggested that the correlation between NHHR and OSA was stable across populations with different characteristics. Confounders such as demographics, lifestyle, and health status did not significantly affect this positive correlation. Findings from this study uncovered a strong connection between NHHR and an increased possibility of developing OSA in American adults. Further exploration of NHHR could offer insights into OSA prevention and treatment. However, owing to the constraints inherent in cross-sectional studies, more studies are required to establish a concrete link between NHHR and OSA.

Integrating age modeling into a hierarchical Bayesian framework for inferring the pattern and rate of past sea-level changes from uncertainty-prone proxy data

Inferring the pattern and rate of past sea-level changes from uncertainty-prone proxy records requires formal statistical analyses, preferably in a hierarchical framework. The commonly used error-in-variables method treats the relative sea level as a collection of random variables drawn from the multivariate Gaussian distribution. However, this method does not make any use of prior information about the sea-level index points as constraints in the inferential process, thereby leading to anomalously large uncertainties for the time periods when observational data are absent. Here, a hierarchical Bayesian model of past sea-level changes is presented. Specifically, the stochastically varying relative sea level is modeled as a piecewise linear process with an additive independent Brownian increment arriving in a Gaussian fashion. The treatment of temporal uncertainties associated with the sea-level index points in the partially observed proxy records also differs from the existing methods. Instead of calibrating the radiocarbon ages individually, the corresponding calendar ages are treated as random variables and inferred recursively according to their temporal order. Illustrative studies using synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the promise of this model.

Urban emissions and land use efficiency scenarios for avoiding increments of global warming

Urban areas have key roles in climate mitigation, including increasing renewable energy penetration in smart energy systems. The potential of urban areas in limiting global warming, however, is not quantified. This research work develops a new framework to analyse urban emissions and land use efficiency scenarios with coupling to the transient climate response to cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. Two new parameters that quantify contributions to and avoidance of increments of global warming from urban areas are formulated and applied to twelve scenario combinations. The results for 465 urban areas indicate that a green-growth scenario with lower ambition in reducing urban emissions can lead up to a 0.13 °C additional increment of global warming in 2050 based on the best estimate of the transient climate response to cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. Those of the most ambitious urban emissions scenario with green-growth and renewable energy are limited to 0.06 °C. When combined with the most ambitious land use efficiency scenario for 135 urban areas, it is possible to avoid more than double or 2.09 times additional increments of global warming in comparison to other integrated urban scenarios. The mean and 5–95th percentile range of the results are compared based on 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations. Informing on the urgency to ensure ambitious mitigation action in urban areas can support a climate future that remains within critical thresholds and tipping elements of the planet.

Household food security status and its associated factors among pensioners in Arba Minch town, South Ethiopia.

Food insecurity has remained a serious public health problem in developing countries, such as Ethiopia, over the past two decades. Vulnerable populations, such as pensioners, have been affected by this problem because of emerging socio-demographic changes, a global financial crisis, and climate change, all of which have contributed to the high food prices. Hence, this study aimed to assess household food security status and associated factors among pensioners in Arba Minch town, South Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from September to October 2023. Two hundred forty-four pensioners were chosen using a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected, cleaned, and entered into EPI-Data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Variables with a p-value of ≤0.25 in the bivariate analyses were candidates for the multivariable regression analysis. In the multivariable logistic regression, variables with a p-value of 0.05 were considered to have a significant association with the dependent variable. A total of 238 retired people were interviewed, with a response rate of 97.5%. Among the interviewed pensioners, 223 (91.4%) households were food insecure. Having more than one dependent member [AOR = 2.4, 95% C.I: 1.30, 6.64], being jobless after retirement [AOR = 3, 95% C.I:1.17, 5.61], and being in the lowest tertile of wealth status [AOR = 2, 95% C.I:1.36, 4.99] were identified as predictors of food insecurity. The magnitude of household food insecurity was higher compared to the national average, and factors such as the current occupational status of the household head, dependency ratio, and wealth status of the household were significantly associated with household food insecurity. Therefore, policymakers and programmers should provide new strategies focusing on additional income-generating activities and salary increments and consider free services such as school fees and healthcare.

Analysis of Filtered Multicarrier Modulation Techniques Using Different Windows for 5G and Beyond Wireless Systems

In contemporary wireless communication systems, multicarrier modulation schemes have become widely adopted over single-carrier techniques due to their improved capacity to address challenges posed by multipath fading channels, leading to enhanced spectral efficiency. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a prevalent multicarrier scheme in 4G, is favored for its ease of implementation, interference resilience, and high data rate provision. But it falls short of meeting the requirements for 5G and beyond due to limitations such as out-of-band (OOB) emissions and cyclic prefixes. This paper introduces the filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) and universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC) with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and phase shift keying (PSK) waveforms through Additive White Gaussian Noise channel (AWGN), Rayleigh fading channel and Rician channel. The objective of this paper is to enhance the performance of UFMC with reduced complexity through the new filtering approach for achieving optimal outcomes. The proposed scheme, incorporating Tukey filtering technique, demonstrates superior performance in reducing peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and improving bit error ratio (BER) compared to the original UFMC signal without necessitating additional power increments. Specifically, the UFMC system with Tukey filtering achieves a notable net gain of 5 dB. Simulation results demonstrate that utilizing various filter types in FBMC and UFMC systems, combined with QAM modulation, significantly reduces OOB emissions compared to conventional systems. In aspect to BER, Tukey window showed almost 10−6 at 15 dB SNR in UFMC which is better than FBMC.

Abstract 1260: Collapse of cancer cell micronuclei from oxidative damage

Abstract Chromosomal instability, a hallmark of aggressive cancers, disrupts genome integrity through multiple hits by ongoing missegregation of chromosomes. These chromosomes, inherited only by one daughter cell, are subsequently encapsulated in micronuclei (MNi). Micronucleation is detrimental for replication fidelity not only because it sustains chromosomal missegregation, but also because MNi frequently undergo irreversible collapse during interphase exposing their enclosed chromatin to the cytosol. This exposure catalyzes chromosomal rearrangements and heritable epigenetic abnormalities that have been shown to further bolster cancer evolution and therapeutic resistance. Moreover, MNi collapse is known to promote distant metastasis and poor prognosis through eliciting a non-canonical response of otherwise inflammatory signaling pathways. Despite the fundamental role played by MNi catastrophe in compromising genome integrity and sustaining cancer progression, and the subsequent therapeutic potential of targeting this process, the mechanisms underlying MNi collapse are poorly understood. Here, we identify mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) as the main cause of MNi rupture. Notably, we observe that MNi that locate closer to mitochondria are more prone to rupture. Accordingly, increasing ROS chemically and by H2O2 addition increment rupture in a panel of 5 different tumor cell lines, while decreasing ROS using pan-cellular or mitochondrial specific scavengers reduce the frequency of ruptured MNi. By using a combination of advanced super-resolution microscopy, proteomics, transcriptomics, in vitro biochemistry assays, and extensive mutagenesis, we reveal the exact pathway leading to MNi collapse. We demonstrate that ROS promote a noncanonical function of the membrane repair ESCRT-III complex scaffolding protein, CHMP7. ROS reduce CHMP7 interaction with ESCRT-III promoting CHMP7 oligomerization and its binding to the inner nuclear membrane protein, LEMD2. CHMP7, while aggregating, physically pulls the micronuclear envelope together with the LEMD2-associated lamina, thereby disrupting MNi integrity. Finally, we show that hypoxic conditions promote ROS-dependent CHMP7-LEMD2 interaction, inducing MNi rupture and inflammatory signaling. Thus, we observe that human tumors characterized by hypoxia have a significantly increased predominance of ruptured MNi, providing a mechanistic link between tumor hypoxia and downstream processes that drive cancer progression. Citation Format: Melody Di Bona, Yanyang Chen, Albert Agustinus, Matthew Deyell, Mercedes A. Duran, Christy Hong, James Hickling, Daniel Bronder, Sara Martin, Nadeem Riaz, Bill Diplas, Manisha Jalan, Nancy Lee, Alban Ordureau, Benjamin Izar, Ashley Laughney, Simon Powell, Stefano Santaguida, John Maciejowski, Thomas Jeitner, Samuel Bakhoum. Collapse of cancer cell micronuclei from oxidative damage [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 1260.

Relationship of microvascular complications and healthy lifestyle with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in women compared with men with type 2 diabetes

Sex differences exist in the prevalence of microvascular disease (MVD) and healthy-lifestyle adherence. Whether MVD and healthy lifestyles are associated with mortality risk similarly for women and men who have type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains unknown. The present study included 9992 women and 15,860 men with T2DM from the UK Biobank. MVDs included retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, and chronic kidney disease. Healthy lifestyle factors consisted of ideal BMI, nonsmoking, healthy diet, regular exercise, and appropriate sleep duration. Sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) of mortality associated with the MVDs or healthy lifestyles were calculated and women-to-men ratio of HRs (RHR) were further estimated, after multivariable adjustment for potential confounders. During a median of 12.7 years of follow-up, 4346 (1202 in women) all-cause and 1207 (254 in women) CVD deaths were recorded. The adjusted HRs (95% CI) of all-cause mortality for 1 additional increment of the MVDs were 1.71 (1.55, 1.88) for women and 1.48 (1.39, 1.57) for men, with an RHR of 1.16 (1.03, 1.30). The corresponding RHR was 1.36 (1.09, 1.69) for cardiovascular mortality. Adhering to a healthy lifestyle (≥4 vs. ≤1 lifestyle factor) was associated with an approximately 60%-70% lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality without sex differences (P-interaction >0.70). Furthermore, as compared with having no MVD and an unfavorable lifestyle, having ≥2 MVDs but a favorable lifestyle was not associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality either in women (HR=0.88; 95% CI: 0.49, 1.60) or in men (HR=0.95; 95% CI: 0.64, 1.40), similarly when considering cardiovascular mortality. In T2DM, while MVDs are more strongly associated with mortality risk in women than in men, adhering to a favorable lifestyle is associated with a substantially lower risk of mortality and may eliminate the detrimental impact of MVDs in both sexes.

Experimental Design of High-Performing Open-Cathode Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

Open-cathode polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) utilize a unique air-cooled system design to eliminate the humidifiers, air compressor, and liquid cooling loop of conventional, liquid-cooled PEMFC systems, thereby greatly reducing system cost. However, the open-cathode PEMFC performance is restricted by poor humidification, high membrane and charge transfer resistances, and overheating due to inefficient thermal and water management. This work aims to strategically modify the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design to overcome these issues and achieve high open-cathode PEMFC performance that approaches that of liquid-cooled systems. The use of thinner membrane along with short side chain ionomer is found to elevate the cell performance due to increased water retention at the cathode catalyst layer (CCL) and decreased ohmic losses. Thinner gas diffusion layers with high porosity enable additional cell performance increment by improving oxygen availability at the CCL. An overall current density rise of 88% at 0.6 V and 53% at 0.4 V is achieved by the strategically designed MEA for open-cathode cells. The enhanced power density enabled by the custom MEA can both reduce the stack cost and expand the power range of open-cathode PEMFCs, thus expanding their potential use for low-cost fuel cell system applications.

The Duration-Adjusted Reliable Change Index: Defining Clinically Relevant Symptom Changes of Varying Durations.

The time period over which relevant symptoms shifts unfold is not uniform across individuals. This article proposes an adaptation of the Reliable Change Index (RCI) to detect symptom changes of varying durations in individual patients' time series: the Duration-Adjusted RCI (DARCI). The DARCI proportionally raises the RCI cut-off to account for its extension over additional time increments, resulting in different DARCI thresholds for different change durations. The method is illustrated with a simulation study of depressive symptom time series with varying degrees of discontinuity and overall mean change, and four empirical case examples from two clinical samples. The results suggest that the DARCI may be particularly useful for identifying symptom shifts that appear relatively abrupt, which can help indicate when a patient is showing significant improvement or deterioration. Its ease of use makes it suitable for application in clinical contexts and a promising method for exploring transitions in psychiatric populations.

Nitrogen addition regulates the effects of variation in precipitation patterns on plant biomass formation and allocation in a Leymus chinensis grassland of northeast China.

Global warming is predicted to change precipitation amount and reduce precipitation frequency, which may alter grassland primary productivity and biomass allocation, especially when interact with other global change factors, such as nitrogen deposition. The interactive effects of changes in precipitation amount and nitrogen addition on productivity and biomass allocation are extensively studied; however, how these effects may be regulated by the predicted reduction in precipitation frequency remain largely unknown. Using a mesocosm experiment, we investigated responses of primary productivity and biomass allocation to the manipulated changes in precipitation amount (PA: 150mm, 300mm, 450mm), precipitation frequency (PF: medium and low), and nitrogen addition (NA: 0 and 10 g N m-2 yr-1) in a Leymus chinensis grassland. We detected significant effects of the PA, PF and NA treatments on both aboveground biomass (AGB) and belowground biomass (BGB); but the interactive effects were only significant between the PA and NA on AGB. Both AGB and BGB increased with an increment in precipitation amount and nitrogen addition; the reduction in PF decreased AGB, but increased BGB. The reduced PF treatment induced an enhancement in the variation of soil moisture, which subsequently affected photosynthesis and biomass formation. Overall, there were mismatches in the above- and belowground biomass responses to changes in precipitation regime. Our results suggest the predicted changes in precipitation regime, including precipitation amount and frequency, is likely to alter primary productivity and biomass allocation, especially when interact with nitrogen deposition. Therefore, predicting the influence of global changes on grassland structure and functions requires the consideration of interactions among multiple global change factors.

Virtual inertia support based frequency and dynamic voltage control for grid-connected SPMSG-based wind turbine

The Challenge to stabilize the grid frequency increases with the increment of renewable energy resources. System inertia/frequency control is a significant concern for maintaining system stability with a fast response time during the load transition. This manuscript proposes surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous generator (SPMSG) based wind energy conversion system (WECS) with a frequency support DC-link controlling loop and a converter protective DC-link voltage-controller frequency support system. To achieve power exchange, the frequency control system (FCS) for the SPMSG-based wind turbine supports the grid-side virtual inertia. The DC-link voltage is disturbed during the load transition to maintain the frequency, while the electrolytic capacitor requires extra care regarding the DC bus voltage. This manuscript incorporates the FCS system with a supercapacitor and dynamic voltage limiter to avoid additional care of the DC bus voltage. A detailed analysis of system frequency with the additional load increment, normal connected load decrement, and various fault scenarios has been done. The proposed system is compared with the existing virtual inertia support (VIS). The simulation results show that the proposed frequency control system-based VIS efficiently limits the frequency deviations &amp; DC-link voltage. The results are verified in the OPAL-RT 4510 real-time simulator environment to ensure the efficacy of the proposed system.

Train-induced aerodynamic characteristics of vertical sound barriers influenced by several factors

Investigations into the aerodynamic properties of vertical sound barriers exposed to high-speed operations employ computational fluid dynamics. The primary focus of this research is to evaluate the influence of train speed and the distance (D) from the track centerline under various operating conditions. The findings elucidate a marked elevation in the aerodynamic effect amplitude on sound barriers as train speeds increase. In single-train passages, the aerodynamic effect amplitude manifests a direct relationship with the square of the train speed. When two trains pass each other, the aerodynamic amplitude intensifies due to an additional aerodynamic increment on the sound barrier. This increment exhibits an approximate quadratic correlation with the retrograde train speed. Notably, the impact of high-speed trains on sound barrier aerodynamics surpasses that of low-speed trains, and this discrepancy amplifies with larger speed differentials between trains. Moreover, the train-induced aerodynamic effect diminishes significantly with greater distance (D), with occurrences of pressure coefficient (CP) exceeding the standard thresholds during dual-train passages. This study culminates in the formulation of universal equations for quantifying the influence of train speed and distance (D) on sound barrier aerodynamic characteristics across various operational scenarios.

Heterologously Expressed Cellobiose Dehydrogenase Acts as Efficient Electron-Donor of Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenase for Cellulose Degradation in Trichoderma reesei.

The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to second-generation biofuels through enzymes is achieved at a high cost. Filamentous fungi through a combination of oxidative enzymes can easily disintegrate the glycosidic bonds of cellulose. The combination of cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) with lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) enhances cellulose degradation in many folds. CDH increases cellulose deconstruction via coupling the oxidation of cellobiose to the reductive activation of LPMOs by catalyzing the addition of oxygen to C-H bonds of the glycosidic linkages. Fungal LPMOs show different regio-selectivity (C1 or C4) and result in oxidized products through modifications at reducing as well as nonreducing ends of the respective glucan chain. T. reesei LPMOs have shown great potential for oxidative cleavage of cellobiose at C1 and C4 glucan bonds, therefore, the incorporation of heterologous CDH further increases its potential for biofuel production for industrial purposes at a reduced cost. We introduced CDH of Phanerochaete chrysosporium (PcCDH) in Trichoderma reesei (which originally lacked CDH). We purified CDH through affinity chromatography and analyzed its enzymatic activity, electron-donating ability to LPMO, and the synergistic effect of LPMO and CDH on cellulose deconstruction. The optimum temperature of the recombinant PcCDH was found to be 45 °C and the optimum pH of PcCDH was observed as 4.5. PcCDH has high cello-oligosaccharide kcat, Km, and kcat/Km values. The synergistic effect of LPMO and cellulase significantly improved the degradation efficiency of phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC) when CDH was used as the electron donor. We also found that LPMO undergoes auto-oxidative inactivation, and when PcCDH is used an electron donor has the function of a C1-type LPMO electron donor without additional substrate increments. This work provides novel insights into finding stable electron donors for LPMOs and paves the way forward in discovering efficient CDHs for enhanced cellulose degradation.

Safety and immunogenicity of influenza A(H3N2) component vaccine in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus

IntroductionSeasonal influenza A (H3N2) virus is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the last 50 years in population that is greater than the impact of H1N1. Data assessing immunogenicity and safety of this virus component in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is lacking in the literature.ObjectiveTo evaluate short-term immunogenicity and safety of influenza A/Singapore (H3N2) vaccine in JSLE.Methods24 consecutive JSLE patients and 29 healthy controls (HC) were vaccinated with influenza A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016(H3N2)-like virus. Influenza A (H3N2) seroprotection (SP), seroconversion (SC), geometric mean titers (GMT), factor increase in GMT (FI-GMT) titers were assessed before and 4 weeks post-vaccination. Disease activity, therapies and adverse events (AE) were also evaluated.ResultsJSLE patients and controls were comparable in current age [14.5 (10.1–18.3) vs. 14 (9–18.4) years, p = 0.448] and female sex [21 (87.5%) vs. 19 (65.5%), p = 0.108]. Before vaccination, JSLE and HC had comparable SP rates [22 (91.7%) vs. 25 (86.2%), p = 0.678] and GMT titers [102.3 (95% CI 75.0–139.4) vs. 109.6 (95% CI 68.2–176.2), p = 0.231]. At D30, JSLE and HC had similar immune response, since no differences were observed in SP [24 (100%) vs. 28 (96.6%), p = 1.000)], SC [4 (16.7%) vs. 9 (31.0%), p = 0.338), GMT [162.3 (132.9–198.3) vs. 208.1 (150.5–287.8), p = 0.143] and factor increase in GMT [1.6 (1.2–2.1) vs. 1.9 (1.4–2.5), p = 0.574]. SLEDAI-2K scores [2 (0–17) vs. 2 (0–17), p = 0.765] and therapies remained stable throughout the study. Further analysis of possible factors influencing vaccine immune response among JSLE patients demonstrated similar GMT between patients with SLEDAI < 4 compared to SLEDAI ≥ 4 (p = 0.713), as well as between patients with and without current use of prednisone (p = 0.420), azathioprine (p = 1.0), mycophenolate mofetil (p = 0.185), and methotrexate (p = 0.095). No serious AE were reported in both groups and most of them were asymptomatic (58.3% vs. 44.8%, p = 0.958). Local and systemic AE were alike in both groups (p > 0.05).ConclusionThis is the first study that identified adequate immune protection against H3N2-influenza strain with additional vaccine-induced increment of immune response and an adequate safety profile in JSLE. (www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03540823).