Gain Efficiency Research Articles

Disaster Induced Agricultural Productivity in Coastal Regions of Bangladesh: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis Approach

The production and technical efficiency of the rice sector in Bangladesh’s coastal areas are vulnerable to a wide range of natural disasters and climate change issues. These regions face recurring threats from climatic events such as salinity intrusion, inundation, rising sea levels, and cyclones, which can significantly disrupt agricultural activities. In this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis of the rice producers’ technical efficiency based on their exposure to disaster-induced impacts over the past five years. Using the Stochastic Frontier Analysis, we examine factors influencing household-level productive efficiency in three coastal districts—Patuakhali, Cox’s Bazar, and Khulna. Our findings reveal that rice-producing households affected by natural disasters between 2014 and 2018 exhibited, on average, an 8.29 percentage point higher productive efficiency compared to unaffected households. When controlling for other confounding variables, such as household characteristics and external conditions, the efficiency gain rises to 19.8%. This suggests that households exposed to adverse climatic events may have adapted their farming practices to become more resilient, thus improving their productive efficiency in the long term. Moreover, our results indicate that a larger household size enhances efficiency by 6.7%. Households where rice farming is the primary occupation also tend to be more efficient, likely because of greater specialization and focus on improving agricultural practices. Finally, the age of the producer is positively associated with efficiency, reflecting the accumulation of farming experience and knowledge over time.

Large-Scale Graph Signal Denoising: A Heuristic Approach

Graph signal denoising aims to extract a clean signal from a noisy graph while preserving its intrinsic structure, which is particularly challenging in large-scale graphs. This study presents an efficient method utilizing spectral kernels to create a dictionary of atoms within the graph spectrum and applies analysis coefficients to Stein's unbiased risk estimator (SURE) for denoising. Given the computational difficulty of exhaustive search on large-scale graphs, we enhance this process with spectral clustering for parallel processing and the Imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) for the search strategy. Our approach divides the initial graph using spectral clustering into k-clusters via the first k-eigenvectors of the graph Laplacian matrix with the k-means algorithm, then applies the SURE scheme to each cluster separately. ICA optimizes the search within each cluster. Results indicate that independently applying SURE and ICA to each subgraph, combined with parallel processing, significantly reduces computational complexity compared to processing the entire graph. This efficiency gain is due to easier parallel processing of subgraphs and more effective ICA execution. Finally, we aggregate the denoised signals from different subgraphs into a unified denoised signal, minimizing mean square error (MSE). Extensive evaluation of various graphs demonstrates the scheme's effectiveness, especially on large graphs.

A Comparative Study of Floating and Ground-Mounted Photovoltaic Power Generation in Indian Contexts

The escalating global demand for energy and growing environmental concerns have stimulated the development of renewable energy-based power systems. In this context, solar power has gained significant attention, notably in the form of floating photovoltaic systems. These systems, installed on water bodies, not only boost efficiency but also reduce water evaporation from reservoirs. This research explores the power generation capabilities of floating photovoltaic systems in comparison to ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, considering a 250-watt monocrystalline photovoltaic panel. This study utilizes typical meteorological year data to comprehensively analyze four distinct locations in India. By using a single-diode model, this study finds that floating photovoltaic systems provide 6-7% more power output than ground-mounted photovoltaic systems. This efficiency gain is because the floating photovoltaic panels operate at a lower temperature (4-6°C) than their ground-mounted photovoltaic counterparts, positively influencing the overall performance. Furthermore, the degradation and soiling of ground-mounted photovoltaic and floating photovoltaic systems were also compared. The financial analysis reveals that ground-mounted photovoltaic systems typically have a lower levelized cost of electricity and shorter payback periods. Even though the financial indicators of floating photovoltaic systems are not favorable compared to ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, these results show how vital floating photovoltaic technology is for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and how it could be used as an efficient technique to reduce land requirements for solar photovoltaic solutions in various geographical conditions.

Fabrication of Different Types of Photodetectors Based on Carbon Quantum Dots/Alq3 Organic Material

In this work, the properties of the photodetector were improved by using carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium (III) (Alq3) polymer when deposited on glass and silicon substrates. CQDs were prepared using an electrochemical method. Two methods of deposition were used; the first was drop casting, and the other was spin coating. The structural, electrical, and optical properties were studied. Measurements were made of the manufactured photoconductive detector's current-voltage (I–V) properties, photocurrent gain, response time, and quantum efficiency, responsivity. The constructed detector's performance was measured without light and using a 250-watt tungsten lamp, whose wavelength range was between 500 and 800 nm. The results showed that the best photodetector was when carbon quantum dots were used with Alq3 deposited on a silicon substrate using the drop-casting method (CQD:Alq3/Si). It was observed that the best gain, fastest rise, fall, and response times were 7.97, 0.98, 1.1, and 0.34 s, respectively.

Dietary supplementation with functional amino acids improves the capacity of growing pigs to cope with a health challenge

This study aimed to assess the effects of additional dietary supplementation with a blend of functional amino acids (FAA) with Thr, Trp, and Met as a preventive (prior to health challenge), curative strategy (during health challenge) or both targeting the performance, body composition, metabolic biomarkers of growing group-housed pigs raised under a health challenge. Additionally, the influence of these feeding strategies on pig response was investigated after the challenge (during the finishing phase). Sixty weaned piglets [6.3 ± 0.9kg body weight (BW)] were distributed based on BW in a nursery barn to one of two dietary treatments (n=30): control (CN) or supplemented with FAA blend (FAA+; 120% of the Thr:Lys, Trp:Lys, and Met+Cys:Lys requirements) for 7 weeks. After 7 weeks, the pigs (27.9 ± 4.2kg of BW) were distributed in a randomized complete block design to one of four treatments for the period of the health challenge period in the growing phase: pigs fed a CN diet during the nursery period were either maintained on a CN diet (control; n=14) or switched to an FAA+ diet (curative strategy; n=14), whereas the pigs fed an FAA+ diet during the nursery period were either fed a CN diet (preventive strategy; n=14) or continued receiving an FAA+ diet (continuous strategy; n=14). The health challenge consisted of subjecting growing pigs to batch mixing, poor housing conditions, and oral inoculation with Salmonella Typhimurium (ST). Poor housing conditions were maintained for 4 weeks (weeks 8 to 11). After this period, the pigs received the same standard diets for 9 weeks (weeks 12 to 20), and the facilities were cleaned daily. The health challenge increased the rectal temperature (P < 0.01) and serum concentrations of haptoglobin (P < 0.05), IgA (P < 0.05), IgG (P < 0.01), triglycerides (P < 0.01), creatinine (P < 0.01), and urea (P < 0.01), while reducing serum concentrations of lactate dehydrogenase (P < 0.01), albumin (P < 0.01), and glucose (P < 0.05). Pigs fed a continuous FAA+ diet trend towards lower fecal ST shedding (P < 0.10) than did the curative strategy pigs and had better fecal consistency scores (P < 0.01) than did the control pigs. During the challenge period, pigs fed FAA+ curatively or continuously demonstrated higher average daily gain and feed efficiency compared to control pigs (P < 0.01). Greater (P < 0.05) protein deposition (+30%) and improved (P < 0.05) nitrogen retention efficiency (+20% to curative and +30% to continuous strategies) were observed in the pigs fed the FAA+ diet during the health challenge compared with the control pigs. Curative-fed FAA+ pigs had greater BW at the end of the finishing phase than did the control and preventive group (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the use of FAA supplementation as a curative or continuous strategy is highly effective at improving the performance and body composition of growing pigs under a health challenge.

HEAT TRANSFER IMPROVEMENT FOR A FILLED-TYPE COMPOUND PARABOLIC SOLAR COLLECTOR WITH U-TUBE: ENERGETIC AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

In this study, the thermal and economic performance of a compound parabolic collector (CPC) with a U-tube was evaluated. Different filling fluids of the evacuated tube and different mass flowrates were evaluated. A detailed analysis of the energy performance of the collector components was conducted, along with an evaluation of its optical and economic aspects. The evaluated collector presented an optical efficiency of about 63.6%. Air achieved the highest evacuated tube temperature (160.6 ºC), followed by thermal oil (84.6 ºC) and water (61.3 ºC). The increase in HTF mass flowrate reduced both temperature gain and thermal efficiency. Thermal oil demonstrated superior thermal performance, achieving 32.5% higher efficiency than air and 30.0% higher than water. Results showed the thermal oil as the most cost-effective fluid, with a leveled cost of heat of 0.034 $/kWh and a simple payback period of 2.8 years. These findings demonstrate the potential of CPC systems for efficient thermal energy applications, with thermal oil emerging as the optimal filling fluid for both thermal and economic performance. Additionally, this study provides valuable practical insights for designing more efficient and sustainable CPC-based solutions for thermal energy applications.

Machine learning-driven design and performance analysis of microstrip antennas for sub-6 GHz/mm Wave 5G networks

In the realm of modern communication systems, antennas are crucial components, with the microstrip patch antenna being particularly notable for its low profile and seamless integration. Despite its widespread use, designing this antenna involves complex simulations to optimize parameters, requiring significant expertise and consuming considerable time and energy. To streamline this process, machine learning (ML) algorithms are being utilized. This paper introduces an innovative approach that employs ML techniques to design a rectangular microstrip patch antenna operating within the sub-6 GHz frequency range (1-6 GHz) and the millimeter frequency range (28-40 GHz). The antenna design maintains consistent patch dimensions positioned strategically at the center, with a thorough examination of patch length and width to enhance performance. Datasets are meticulously prepared, covering output parameters such as beam area, directivity, gain, and radiation efficiency across the specified frequency ranges. By employing various ML algorithms, this study conducts a comprehensive analysis to identify the most effective algorithm for accurately predicting antenna characteristics. The K-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm achieved high accuracy across all parameters: gain at 94.23% under sub-6 GHz and 95.93% under millimeter frequency range, directivity at 99.02% and 98.59%, radiation efficiency at 93.94% and 94.28%, and beam area at 99.07% and 98.59% respectively. These results optimize microstrip antenna designs and enhance understanding of the relationship between design parameters and performance outcomes with ML.

Design of Circularly Polarized Koch Snowflake Fractal Antenna With Schottky Band Diode Rectifiers for RF Energy Harvesting Applications

ABSTRACTRadio frequency (RF) energy harvesting has recently become an effective way of powering wireless devices, reducing the requirement of batteries along with their related storage as well as lifespan restrictions. One of the main obstacles to RF energy harvesting is the limited quantity of energy that can be obtained from wireless sources due to weak signal strength, low efficiency, and poor gain. To address these shortcomings, the proposed method is designed based on the circularly polarized Koch snowflake fractal antenna with the Jerusalem cross (JC)–based frequency‐selective surface (FSS) and Schottky diode–based rectifiers for RF energy harvesting applications at the resonance frequency of 5.8 GHz. The electromagnetic energy from the environment can effectively captured using a proposed wide band and high gain antenna designed using a Koch snowflake array based on FSSs. Flame Retardant‐4 (FR‐4) material has good dielectric qualities for electronics, and it is employed as the dielectric substrate in this model; copper serves as the ground plane. The squid game optimizer (SGO) determines the ideal outer snowflake dimensions by maximizing the resonance frequency in order to achieve high gain. The optimally selected outer snowflake length and width are 40 and 23.09 mm. The designed antenna model uses a rectifier based on Schottky diodes for RF energy harvesting applications, which involves converting electromagnetic waves into direct current. The fractal antenna model and RF energy harvesting are designed and simulated using the ANSYS HFSS and Matlab RF toolbox. The model is used to evaluate the antenna's performance by concentrating on gain radiation patterns, S11, and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR). The Koch snowflake fractal antenna, which uses a JC–based FSS, has been measured for performance at 5.8‐GHz frequency; the values obtained for impedance bandwidth, gain, S11, and VSWR are 7.61%, 9.962 dB, −33 dB, and 1.01, respectively. The analysis of the experimental data demonstrates that the Koch snowflake fractal antenna, which is being proposed for energy harvesting applications, outperforms several other existing designs in terms of effectiveness.

Wideband star-shaped antenna based on artificial magnetic conductor surface for unidirectional radiation

Gathering the advantages of low profile, high gain, high efficiency, and wideband operation in a planar antenna is a challenging objective for the antenna designer. Low profile wideband antennas are usually characterized by low gain. An antenna of wideband impedance matching usually suffers continuous variations of the gain over such a wideband due to the variation of the radiation mechanisms and surface current distributions over the frequency band of impedance matching. Therefore, the motivation of the present work is to provide both impedance matching and stabilized high gain by the aid of wideband artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) with a design of the unit cell that is suitable to the antenna structure and the desired frequency band. The present work, proposes the utilization of low-size wideband AMS surface (AMCS) to be placed behind a wideband omnidirectional antenna to enhance the gain over the frequency band of operation. In this way, the radiating structure combines high gain and wideband operation in the same design. A wideband planar monopole printed antenna is designed to operate as omnidirectional antenna with perfect impedance matching and radiation efficiency over the frequency band 3.6-7.2GHz when placed in free space. The gain of the free-standing antenna varies from 2dBi to 4.5dBi over the frequency band. A wideband AMCS is designed to enhance the antenna gain over frequency band of operation. The designed AMCS is composed of only 3×3 unit cells and overall dimensions of 10×10cm. This surface is placed parallel to the planar antenna at a distance 1.7cm behind it. The enhanced gain of the radiating structure of the AMCS-backed antenna reaches 8.5dBi without affecting the bandwidth over which the input impedance is matched to the feeding line. The radiation efficiency of the AMCS-backed antenna is maintained above 98% over the frequency band of operation (3.7-7.2GHz). The wideband antenna and the AMCS are fabricated for practical evaluation of the overall AMCS-backed antenna performance including the measurements of impedance matching, gain and radiation efficiency. The measurements and simulation results are in good consent.

An improved calibration procedure for accurate plastic scintillation dosimetry on an MR-linac.

Plastic scintillation dosimeters (PSDs) are highly suitable for real-time dosimetry on the MR-linac. For optimal performance, the primary signal (scintillation) needs to be separated from secondary optical effects (Cerenkov, fluorescence and optical fiber attenuation). This requires a spectral separation approach and careful calibration. Currently, the 'classic' calibration is a multi-step procedure using both kV and MV X-ray sources, requiring an uninterrupted optical connection between the dosimeter and read-out system, complicating efficient use of PSDs. Therefore, we present a more time-efficient and more practical novel calibration technique for PSDs suitable for MR-linac dosimetry.&#xD;Approach: The novel calibration relies on prior spectral information combined with two 10x10 cm2field irradiations on the 1.5 T MR-linac. Performance of the novel calibration technique was evaluated focusing on its reproducibility, performance characteristics (repeatability, linearity, dose rate dependency, output factors, angular response and detector angle dependency) and IMRT deliveries. To investigate the calibration stability over time, prior spectral information up to 315 days old was used. To quantify the time efficiency, each step of the novel and classic calibration was timed.&#xD;Main results: The novel calibration showed a high reproducibility with a maximum relative standard deviation of 0.3%. The novel method showed maximum differences of 1.2% compared to the gold-standard calibration, while reusing old classic calibrations after reconnecting fibers showed differences up to 3.0%. The novel calibration improved time efficiency from 105 to 30 minutes compared to the classic method.&#xD;Significance: The novel calibration method showed a gain in time efficiency and practicality while preserving the dosimetric accuracy. Therefore, this method can replace the traditional method for PSDs suitable for MR-linac dosimetry, using prior spectral information of up to a year. This novel calibration facilitates reconnecting the detector to the read-out system which would lead to unacceptable dosimetric results with the classic calibration method.

Cost-effective solar-driven configurations for post-combustion carbon capture at Abadan Power Plant: MEA, DEA, and DGA absorption-based

In recent years, post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) has garnered attention as a strategy to mitigate industrial emissions, though conventional configurations often face high energy demands. This study used Aspen HYSYS v11 to simulate and optimize various PCC configurations to enhance energy efficiency and reduce costs. The analysis compared three common amines monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and diglycolamine (DGA) with DGA demonstrating the most significant energy savings. Utility costs, including steam, were approximately $101.3 million annually for DGA, compared to $158 million for MEA and $127.4 million for DEA. Among the configurations, lean vapor compression (LVC), rich vapor compression (RVC), solvent split flow (SSF), and rich recycle solvent (RSR), when combined, achieved the highest reduction in energy use, leading to about 45% cost savings over conventional setups. Replacing steam from a power plant with solar energy for the reboiler in this configuration provided additional savings, requiring 1.1 km2 of solar area with 13 h of storage to achieve lifetime savings of roughly $295 million. Furthermore, exergy analysis revealed a 34.4% efficiency gain with the optimized configuration. Notably, implementing DGA reduced annual carbon taxes from $18.7 million to $2.8 million, underscoring the economic and environmental advantages of this approach.

Computational Design of a Kit of Parts for Bending Active Structures

Bending-active structures are composed of elastic elements that deform to achieve a desired target shape. To support effective design, inverse algorithms have been proposed that optimize the geometry of each element specifically for each design. This makes it difficult to reuse elements across designs or gain efficiency in fabrication through mass production. We address this issue and propose a computational framework to rationalize bending-active structures into a sparse kit of parts. Our method solves for the optimal part geometry such that multiple input designs can be faithfully realized with the same kit of parts. Assigning parts to different assemblies leads to a combinatorial explosion that makes exhaustive search intractable. Instead, we propose a relaxed continuous optimization incorporating a physics-based simulation in its inner loop to model the elastic deformation of the bending-active structure accurately. Our algorithm allows analyzing different design trade-offs of a kit of parts to tune the balance between fabrication complexity and fidelity to the original designs. We demonstrate our method on three different classes of bending-active structures, showcasing the effectiveness of our approach for part reuse and sustainable practices in fabrication-driven design.

Dietary energy level and β2-adrenergic agonist supplementation on growth performance, dietary energy, carcass traits, and visceral mass of hairy lambs

Context The beta-agonist zilpaterol (ZH) is a feed additive that improves growth performance via protein accretion during the finishing phase of ruminant fattening. However, evaluating the possible interaction between ZH and nutrients of the diet has received limited attention. Aims We investigated the changes in growth performance and carcass traits in response to ZH supplementation of hairy lambs fed finishing diets with different energy concentration. Methods Forty-eight Pelibuey × Katahdin crossbred male lambs (43.8 ± 6.3 kg) were used in a 34-day feeding trial to evaluate the interaction between diet energy density [8.37 (LE) and 8.79 (HE) MJ of net energy for maintenance (NEm) per kilogram of diet] and zilpaterol hydrochloride supplementation (ZH, dosed at 0 or 6 mg ZH/kg) on growth performance, carcass traits, and visceral mass. All diets contained 14.5% crude protein (CP). Key results There was no interaction of energy level and ZH in any of the variables evaluated. HE increased average daily gain (ADG) and gain efficiency (GF) without affecting the observed-to-expected dietary NE. Zilpaterol supplementation increased ADG, GF, and observed-to-expected dietary NE. Both HE and ZH increased carcass weight. HE increased carcass fat, whereas ZH decreased it. HE increased dressing percentage. ZH increased longissimus muscle area, the muscle:fat ratio in the shoulder, and leg whole-cut proportion. Visceral mass was not affected by energy level. ZH decreased visceral fat. Conclusions Increasing diet energy from 8.37 to 8.79 MJ NEm/kg enhanced growth performance and carcass traits but did not improve dietary energy utilization. Supplemental ZH enhanced growth performance, dietary-energy utilization and carcass traits of lambs. Implications ZH supplementation is a tool to enhance growth performance by improving protein accretion and reducing carcass fat. Response to ZH supplementation is independent of the differences in energy density of finishing diets.

Optimization of submersible LNG centrifugal pump blades design based on support vector regression and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm Ⅱ

Optimizing the impeller blade design of submersible LNG centrifugal pump significantly enhances mechanical efficiency, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions during LNG storage and transportation. This study focuses on optimizing blades of the centrifugal pump, combining Bezier blade design, CFD simulations, optimal Latin Hypercube sampling, Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II(NSGA-II) multi-objective optimization into a systematic method. During the development of this optimization method, it was found that directly applying sampled CFD simulation data for machine learning led to poor overall predictive performance of the models. To address this, a data augmentation method based on Gaussian noise was proposed. Through Bayesian optimization of the machine learning model's hyperparameters, the R2 of the predictive model was successfully increased from below 0.8 to above 0.99. The optimized design improved the prototype pump's efficiency from 70 % to 77.8 % under rated flow and head conditions. This efficiency gain is due to the significant reduction in flow separation vortices between blades and decreased turbulent kinetic energy between the impeller and diffuser vanes. Additionally, sensitivity and linear relationship analyses using the Sobol method and Pearson correlation provided valuable insights for blade optimization design.

Electrical and Financial Impacts of Inverter Clipping on Oversized Bifacial Photovoltaic Systems

This paper studies the impacts of inverter clipping on bifacial PV modules under different weather and ground reflectivity. A 5 kW bifacial array was connected to a 3.8 kW grid-tied inverter, a 10 kWh Li-ion battery, and an EV charger. A PV output calculation model was developed to compare the estimated output of the modules with the actual measurements to evaluate the relation between ground reflectivity and clipping loss. The results showed that clipping potentially occurs on sunny days in summer from 10:00 to 15:00 during the period with the highest solar irradiance. Three colors of ground cover were also examined to compare the performance of bifacial modules under different albedo reflective properties. The results indicated that the white ground in winter leads to the highest bifacial gain (13.1%) and daily DC efficiency (22.2%) due to the combination of high reflectivity with low solar angle giving maximum upward reflection of direct sunlight. This same combination shows a minimal advantage in summer due to the clipping. The proposed model is evaluated, demonstrating 98.2% agreement between modeled and actual data for all conditions. Furthermore, simulation models based on the actual system with different system sizes and ground reflectivities have been studied to evaluate the impacts of the clipping in terms of technical losses and financial returns. The analysis shows that a high reflective ground condition can provide the best financial benefit, and the clipping loss does not have a great effect on the finance of the project since the loss is less than 4% of the annual production even in an extreme case.

Optimized Casing Treatment to Improve Stall Margin Under Circumferential Pressure Distortion in a High-Speed Axial Flow Fan

Abstract An optimized axial slot casing treatment (OPCT) was designed that experimentally improves the stall margin by 7.31% with an efficiency gain of 1.94% at a design speed of 100% in a high-speed axial flow fan. Subsequently, the OPCT was tested under the distorted inflow with a 9% composite distortion index; it can still improve the stall margin by 6.19% with an efficiency gain of 1.63% at the 100% design speed. The unsteady measurement results indicate that the location of the shock wave obviously moves forward toward the leading edge of the blade tip as the rotor blade rotates out of the distorted region and induces the stall in advance. When the OPCT is applied, the strength of the interaction between the shock wave and tip leakage flow can be suppressed, and the location of the shock wave at the distorted region is pushed backward. Thus, the trigger of the stall inception generated in the downstream of the distortion region is postponed. Meanwhile, a new phenomenon was discovered that the OPCT does not alter the instability mode of the fan, and the fan eventually surges, which is consistent with the B parameter value of 2.942. However, under the distorted inflow, the B parameter can be reduced from 2.942 to 0.863, thereby the instability mode of the fan is changed from surge to stall. It can guide the instability prediction when the boundary condition (distortion or casing treatment) of the fan is changed.

Chemical composition and influence of essential oil from Croton pulegiodorus Baill. Leaves on the nutrition and survival of Sitophilus zeamais Mots. (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) as well as survival and behavior of Nasutitermes corniger Mots. (Blattodea: Termitidae)

Essential oils have been studied to develop sustainable alternatives for controlling pest-species. This study determined the chemical composition and toxicity of an essential oil from Croton pulegiodorus leaves against Sitophilus zeamais and Nasutitermes corniger. Ascaridole (22.75%) and camphor (18.11%) were the major compounds. The essential oil showed toxicity upon ingestion on S. zeamais, with LC50 and LC90 of 24.24 and 46.76 μL/g for 15 days, respectively. It presented a moderate (10.0 and 12.5 μL/g) to strong (15 μL/g) deterrent effect, interfering with nutritional parameters, causing a reduction in the relative consumption rate, relative biomass gain rate and efficiency in conversion of ingested food. Furthermore, it stimulated in vitro S. zeamais β-D-xylanase (+33.39%), endoglucanase (+8.28%), exoglucanase (+84.77%), and α-amylase (+359.18%) activities and reduced in vitro the activity of trypsin-like enzymes (−79.67%). The essential oil showed fumigant effect against N. corniger termites with LC50 and LC90 (24 h) of 0.57 and 3.26 μL/mL of air for workers and 1.63 and 4.74 μL/mL of air for soldiers respectively. In workers, it caused 100% mortality through contact in 2.08 and 0.49 min (at 0.4 μL/μL and neat oil). A significant increase in the number of self-cleaning and falls indicated behavioral changes induced by the oil in N. corniger workers. The study shows the potential of the essential oil of C. pulegiodorus leaves as an alternative method in the management of maize weevil and N. corniger.

Generation and enhancement of sum sideband in a magnon Kerr nonlinearity assisted optomechanical system

Abstract A theoretical scheme to enhance the sum sideband generation (SSG) via magnon Kerr nonlinearity assisted optomechanical system is proposed. In this scheme, the yttrium iron garnet sphere is placed within the cavity system and the frequency components are generated at the sum sideband through optomechanical nonlinear interaction and cavity-magnon linear coupling interaction. The results show that the efficiency of SSG can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude, and the gain in SSG efficiency also varies. The dependence of SSG on the system parameters, including the power of the control field, the frequency detuning of the probe fields and the coupling strengths between the optomechanical coupling and the cavity-magnon coupling is analyzed in detail. The change of SSG by varying the optomechanical coupling strength and cavity-magnon coupling strength is also investigated, and it is found that new matching conditions are generated. The enhanced SSG method may have potential application prospects in realizing the measurement of high-precision weak forces, quantum information processing and quantum-sensitive sensing.

1.06 Tbit/s space division multiplexing self-homodyne coherent transmission with high spectral efficiency probabilistic shaping multidimensional modulation

We propose a probabilistic shaping multidimensional (MD) modulation format for self-homodyne coherent transmission systems. The redundancy of the MD signal is separated and transmitted together with the optical pilot tone (PT). The 4D/8D/12D modulation is constructed at the transmitter based on the amplitude translation (AT)-set partitioning (SP) principle and the probabilistic amplitude shaping (PAS) structure. Moreover, the hard-decision (HD) and soft-decision (SD) decoders for MD signals are introduced. We implement 20 GBaud 4D/8D/12D probabilistic shaping (PS) 16384-level quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) transmission over 22.5 km uncoupled multicore fiber to analyze the performance. The experimental results show that it is possible for the MD signal to provide spectral efficiency (SE) gain up to 3.31 bit/s/Hz/4D-sym. The maximum SE transmitted is up to 57.29 bit/s/Hz, i.e., 17.5 bit/s/Hz/4D-sym, with a bit rate of 1.06 Tbit/s.

Effects of dietary protein levels with cottonseed protein concentrate inclusion on growth, feed utilization, liver health and intestinal microbiota of juvenile largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)

An 8-weeks growth trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary protein levels mainly based on cottonseed protein concentrate (CPC) meal on growth performance, protein metabolism, liver health and intestinal microbiota of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) juveniles. Five isolipidic (100 g/kg) diets were prepared with protein levels ranging from 400 to 560 g/kg, with CPC of 155 g/kg, 214 g/kg, 272 g/kg, 330 g/kg, 390 g/kg to obtain five experimental diets with gradient protein levels (399.9 g/kg, 428.0 g/kg, 462.8 g/kg, 503.5 g/kg and 541.5 g/kg, respectively (CPC1, CPC2, CPC3, CPC4 and CPC5)). 300 fish (initial body weight: 14.71 ± 0.50 g) were randomly assigned into 15 tanks (3 tanks per diet). The results showed that, the fish of CPC5 group had the highest specific growth rate (SGR), weight gain (WG) and feed efficiency (FE) (P < 0.05). Increased dietary protein up-regulated most liver key genes of mTOR pathway (akt, tor, s6k, 4ebp1, s6) while down-regulated atf4 at medium dietary protein (P < 0.05). The expression of fas was down-regulated with increased dietary protein, while dgat1 was higher at CPC5 group (P < 0.05). The genes related to lipolysis were up-regulated with increased dietary protein (P < 0.05). The key genes of apoptosis including bcl2, casp9, casp3 (apoptosis) oxidative stress and endoplasmic reticulum stress were significantly up-regulated at high dietary protein (P < 0.05), which reduced the antioxidant and anti-stress capacity of the liver. Dietary 462.8 g/kg protein could maintain the normal composition and metabolic function of intestinal microbiota. In summary, dietary protein requirement using CPC as main protein source was estimated to be 463 g/kg to 510 g/kg for liver health or best growth of largemouth bass juveniles.