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Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) platooning, enabled by Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication, promises significant improvements in traffic safety, throughput, and energy efficiency. However, communication constraints — such as range limitations and intermittent connectivity — disrupt information flow, destabilizing platoon dynamics. Existing models lack a unified framework to analyze how these constraints propagate through CAV interactions. To address this gap, the Platoon Intelligent Driver Model (PIDM) is proposed, a novel analytical framework that integrates dynamic communication topologies (predecessor-following, predecessor-leader-following, and -predecessor-leader-following) with vehicle dynamics under V2V limitations. The PIDM enables systematic stability analysis and quantifies disturbance propagation mechanisms. Through numerical simulations, the study demonstrates that: (1) -predecessor-leader-following topology reduces recovery time by 32% compared to conventional topologies; (2) smaller communication ranges (4–6 vehicles) optimize stability in urban roads, while larger ranges (8–10 vehicles) suit highways; (3) delay time tolerance thresholds depend on platoon size and topology complexity. These findings provide actionable guidelines for designing robust CAV platoon systems under real-world communication constraints.

Artificially improving traits of cultivated alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.), one of the most important forage crops, is challenging due to the lack of a reference genome and an efficient genome editing protocol, which mainly result from its autotetraploidy and self-incompatibility. Here, we generate an allele-aware chromosome-level genome assembly for the cultivated alfalfa consisting of 32 allelic chromosomes by integrating high-fidelity single-molecule sequencing and Hi-C data. We further establish an efficient CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing protocol on the basis of this genome assembly and precisely introduce tetra-allelic mutations into null mutants that display obvious phenotype changes. The mutated alleles and phenotypes of null mutants can be stably inherited in generations in a transgene-free manner by cross pollination, which may help in bypassing the debate about transgenic plants. The presented genome and CRISPR/Cas9-based transgene-free genome editing protocol provide key foundations for accelerating research and molecular breeding of this important forage crop. Alfalfa is an important forage crop, but genetic improvement is challenging due to the lack of a reference genome and an efficient genome editing protocol. Here, the authors report the chromosome-level assembly of the autotetraploid genome and a CRISPR/Cas9-based transgene-free genome editing protocol.

Wet extruded mixtures of rice tend to adhere to the cleaning sieve of combine harvesters, leading to a high grain loss rate during cleaning. In this study, the surface morphology of rice wet extruded mixtures was studied. Models for the liquid-bridge force and detachment between the mixtures and the cleaning sieve were established. The results showed that the surface morphology of the mixtures was complex and there was liquid film, resulting in it easy to adhere to cleaning sieve. The liquid bridge force can significantly affect the collision process between the mixture (the light impurity and the stem with a small length-diameter ratio) and cleaning sieve. The liquid bridge force between the mixtures and the cleaning sieve decreased and increased with the increase of separation distance and the surface moisture content of the mixtures, respectively. The critical shear velocity of stem and light impurity detaching cleaning sieve decreased with the increase of its diameter, indicating that the smaller diameter of mixtures was easy to adhere to the cleaning sieve. The method of reducing the relative air humidity of cleaning room by heating was proposed to improve the cleaning performance, and the method was verified by experiments.

In mixed traffic environments, the spatial distribution of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) plays a decisive yet previously unquantified role in platoon stability and safety. This study establishes a generalized stability modeling framework for heterogeneous platoons composed of Human-Driven Vehicles (HDVs), Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), and CAVs. By introducing a spatial weighting coefficient (γ), the proposed model captures the influence of longitudinal CAV positioning and allows for flexible representation of any vehicle composition pattern. Linear stability analysis and time-domain simulations are conducted to investigate the interaction between spatial distribution, communication delay, and dynamic response. The results demonstrate that front- and center-loaded CAV configurations effectively suppress velocity perturbations and maintain string stability even under moderate delay, while rear-loaded configurations exhibit early instability. Furthermore, an optimal γ range of 0.3–0.5 is identified to minimize oscillation amplitude, providing a practical guideline for cooperative control strategies in mixed platoons. The findings offer theoretical insights and quantitative evidence for optimizing CAV deployment to enhance stability and robustness in future intelligent transportation systems.

The pioneering work from Lieping Chen’s laboratory identified Siglec‐15 as a novel tumor immune suppressor, while the regulatory mechanisms underlying the broad upregulation of Siglec‐15 in human cancers remain obscure. Here we found that long non–coding RNA (lncRNA) LINC00973 was higher in Siglec‐15‐positive clear‐cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), and LINC00973 positively regulated Siglec‐15 expression at transcriptional level. This effect was evidently dependent on miR‐7109‐3p (designated as miR‐7109 hereafter), and we provided evidence that Siglec‐15 is a direct target of miR‐7109. Through sponging miR‐7109, LINC00973 functioned as competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to control cell surface abundance of Siglec‐15, and, consequently, was involved in cancer immune suppression. We further demonstrated that LINC00973 and miR‐7109 expression in ccRCC antagonistically influenced immune activation of co–cultured Jurkat cells. Our study highlighted the importance of LINC00973‐miR‐7109‐Siglec‐15 in immune evasion in ccRCC, which offers significant opportunity for both therapeutic intervention and diagnostic/prognostic exploitations. Through sponging miR‐7109, LINC00973 functioned as competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to control cell surface abundance of Siglec‐15, and, consequently, was involved in cancer immune suppression. LINC00973 and miR‐7109 expression in ccRCC antagonistically influenced immune activation of co–cultured Jurkat cells.

Emergency Vehicles (EVs) are of considerable significance in saving human lives and property damages. To promote the efficiency of emergency operation, signal preemption control could give priority to EVs heading toward the incident location. On the other hand, providing dynamic and precise route planning for EVs plays an important role in emergency rescue since traffic changes constantly. Furthermore, connected vehicle (CV) technology that incorporates advanced wireless communication technologies, offers a huge potential to promote the efficiency of EVs and maintain smooth traffic flow via collaborative optimization of routes and signals. This study presents a bi-level dynamic emergency route planning system considering signal preemption control, which builds on traffic flow combined with hierarchical bi-layer model predictive control (MPC), for more than one EV under partial CV environment. In this approach, the mobility of EVs is prioritized before decreasing the impact of EVs operation on normal traffic. In the upper layer, a road-level emergency route would be dynamically planned and updated after each time horizon, according to the network-wide traffic flow estimation under diverse CV market penetration ratios through loop detectors and Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communication. In the lower layer, a lane-level emergency route that combined with signal preemption control would be planned to ensure the efficiency of EVs and reduce the adverse impact of signal preemption on normal traffic. In the end, a microscopic simulation environment for a real traffic network is carried out to test the effectiveness of the proposed system. The simulation results indicate that the proposed system provides reliable and practical emergency route planning and signal control services for EVs under different traffic flow conditions.

The single HST (Hydro Static Transmission) mechanical differential transmission gearbox of crawler combine harvester is subjected to the impact of alternating loads in the field operation, resulting in its fatigue failure. The traditional durability fatigue test can improve the fault-free working time of machinery, but it is not suitable for agricultural machinery with time-varying load frequency bandwidth and stress amplitude. Therefore, in this paper, a fault diagnosis method based on order analysis was proposed considering the comprehensive influence of load amplitude and frequency on the fatigue life of gearbox. The location and the corresponding type of fault were found by comparing the spectral line peak changed before and after. Then, the test verification was carried out on the gearbox assembly fatigue test bench according to the compiled load spectrum. The results show that the analysis results of the fault diagnosis method based on order analysis were consistent with the unpacking inspection, which had reference significance for the research on the fault diagnosis method of the crawler combined harvester gearbox.

Based on expectation states theory, we examined the mechanism underlying the effect of employees’ sense of power on supervisors’ voice endorsement, and tested our hypothesized model on a sample of 307 employees from 60 work teams. We used a two-time lagged design and paired questionnaire survey. Our analysis indicated that employees’ sense of power enhanced supervisors’ voice endorsement, and supervisors’ perceived voice constructiveness mediated this relationship. Multilevel analyses showed that power distance negatively moderated the influence of sense of power on perceived voice constructiveness and negatively moderated its indirect effect on voice endorsement.

The objective is to address the issue of excessive vibration in the cab of the combine harvester. This study addresses excessive cab vibration in the Linhai 4LZ-7.0 combine harvester by analyzing vibration signals under two working conditions using the Short-Time Fourier Transform. The results identified the vibrating screen and grass crusher as primary resonance sources, with maximum vibration along the X-axis. Simulation revealed that their first-order modal frequencies coincided with external excitation frequencies, causing resonance transmission to the cab. To resolve this, the driving pulleys of both components were redesigned and replaced. Post-modification testing showed a 90% reduction in the cab vibration level index from 1215 to 112, a 26% decrease in root mean square values, and the elimination of resonance peaks in frequency spectra. By modifying excitation frequencies to avoid structural resonance, cab vibration was effectively mitigated, significantly improving operational comfort. This paper is the first to pinpoint the primary resonance source and avert harvester resonance by altering its external excitation, delivering an effective, low-cost engineering fix for agricultural-machinery manufacturers; the abstract has been updated accordingly.

In order to solve the problem of the threshing performance of a large combine harvester being reduced due to the non-adjustable diameter of the threshing drum, a variable-diameter threshing drum with movable radial plates based on the principle of concentric regulation was studied. It was mainly composed of a mechanism for adjusting the diameter by moving the radial plates, six fixed threshing tooth rods, six retractable threshing tooth rods and the single piston rod hollow hydraulic cylinder. The threshing gap can be adjusted by a stepless change of the drum diameter. By using RecurDyn simulation and field performance tests, the adjustable ranges of diameter and gap of the movable variable-diameter threshing drum were 670~710 mm and 10~30 mm. Based on the feed amount of the combine, the rotation speed of the threshing drum and the threshing gap (the diameter of the drum) as the influencing parameters, and the grain entrainment loss rate, grain un-threshed rate and grain breakage rate as the evaluation indexes, the three-factor and three-level response surface tests were carried out, and the result data were analyzed using Design-Expert 13.0. The optimal threshing gap and rotation speed of the threshing drum were determined under different feeding quantities. A comparative test was carried out to adjust and fix the threshing gap and rotation speed of the threshing drum in real time according to the change in feeding amount. The results showed that when the working parameter combination under different feeding amounts was adjusted in real time, the entrainment loss rate was 0.65%, the un-threshed rate was 0.063% and the breakage rate was 0.47%. Compared with the threshing gap and the rotation speed of the threshing drum being fixed, the entrainment loss rate, the un-threshed rate and the breakage rate were reduced by 44.9%, 27.6% and 34.1%, respectively. A threshing drum with variable diameter was provided for a large multi-crop harvesting combine to realize the concentric stepless adjustment of the threshing gap.