Explore the vast range of titles available.

River incision results from interactions among tectonics, climate change, and surface processes, and yet the role of each process operating at different time scales remains poorly understood. In this study, we address this issue by reconstructing the late Quaternary spatiotemporal variation of aggradation and incision rates along the Lancang River (Upper Mekong River) in southeast Tibet. Our work combined field observations, topographic data analysis, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) dating of geologically well-defined fluvial terrace deposits, and it reveals five levels of fluvial terraces with strath heights up to 200-240 m and a 300-km-wide knickzone along the Lancang River. The new data indicate that: (1) the Lancang River has experienced four aggradation events at >120-100 ka, 90-70 ka, 25-15 ka, and <9 ka, with each event followed by rapid incision at ca. 100 ka, ca. 45 ka, ca. 15 ka, and ca. 6 ka; (2) river incision rates since the late Pleistocene decrease upstream across the knickzone from <2.8-2.3 and <2.1-1.7 to <0.5 mm/yr; and (3) they decrease with time at the knickzone from <2.1 mm/yr at ca. 100 ka to <1.1 mm/yr at 15-6 ka. The terrace-derived incision rates since the late Pleistocene from this study are more than an order of magnitude higher than the existing landscape-scale erosion rates derived from both thermochronological dating of bedrock bounding the river valley at million-year scales and cosmogenic nuclide concentrations of river sand at millennial scales. These findings imply decoupling of hydrologically induced river incision rates since the late Pleistocene from regional erosion rates on million-year and millennial time scales. Specifically, the hydrologically driven incision in a large fluvial system like the Lancang River in southeast Tibet, most likely related to local climate conditions, is much more efficient than tectonically driven erosion at a time scale of 100-10 k.y.

By summarizing the practical experience of seismic observation，the significance of transportable seismic observation in improving the monitoring ability of seismic network and promoting seismic scientific research is obvious. For the practical application in different areas，the methods which can be used to determine the key technical parameters of the transportable seismic station according to the sunlight condition and device power consumption are introduced. A seismograph protection device，a base for seismograph and an integrated auxiliary equipment are designed according to the characteristics of transportable seismic observation. Through comparative observation we analyze the characteristics of background seismic noise in soft soil and hard soil，and expand the idea for improving and developing the transportable seismic observation.

The D-S evidence theory is widely used in the fields of fusion fault diagnosis, multi-source information, safety assessment, etc. However, how to combine high-conflict evidence to obtain reasonable results remains a challenging problem. Based on this, this paper proposes a mixed D-S combination rule based on the Induced Ordered Weighted Averaging(IOWA) operator and adaptive weighting. Through numerical examples verification, in high-conflict situations, the accuracy of the proposed method compared to the Dempster method, Sun method, Abellan method, Murphy method, Tao method and Li method improved by 34.1%, 71.6%, 49.4%, 20.8%,14%, and 9.8% respectively. In low-conflict situations, the proposed method compared to the contrast methods improved by 5%, 67.8%, 13.8%, 5.7%, 5.3% and 5%, respectively. Next, the consumption time of the mixed D-S rule is in the same order of magnitude as D-S theory, Murphy method, Sun method and Tao method, while Abellan method and Li method is one order of magnitude higher than the mixed D-S rule. Finally, the proposed method are applied to the fault diagnosis of subway bogie bearings, In outer ring faults, the proposed method compared to the contrast methods improved by 7.1%, 63.9%, 43.1%, 9.1%, 6.2% and 3.2%, respectively. In inner ring faults, the proposed method compared to the contrast methods improved by 5.1%, 62.5%, 38.9%, 7.6%, 5.8% and 3%, respectively. The results show that the proposed method has certain advantages.

Two challenges that the global wheat industry is facing are a lowering nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) and an increase in the reporting of wheat-protein related health issues. Sulphur deficiencies in soil has also been reported as a global issue. The current study used large-scale field and glasshouse experiments to investigate the sulphur fertilization impacts on sulphur deficient soil. Here we show that sulphur addition increased NUE by more than 20% through regulating glutamine synthetase. Alleviating the soil sulphur deficiency highly significantly reduced the amount of gliadin proteins indicating that soil sulphur levels may be related to the biosynthesis of proteins involved in wheat-induced human pathologies. The sulphur-dependent wheat gluten biosynthesis network was studied using transcriptome analysis and amino acid metabolomic pathway studies. The study concluded that sulphur deficiency in modern farming systems is not only having a profound negative impact on productivity but is also impacting on population health.Zitong Yu et al. utilize large-scale field and glasshouse experiments and transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses to explore the impacts of sulphur fertilization on sulphur-deficient wheat crop and its gluten composition. They show that sulphur fertilization increases nitrogen-use efficiency through regulating glutamine synthetase and reduces the amount of gliadin components through mediating the aspartate-family amino acid biosynthesis network.

Realizing the strong ferromagnetism (FM) with both the Curie temperature above room temperature and high magnetization in graphene, is key for its real application in future spintronics. Nitrogen-doping has been confirmed to be one of the most promising ways for experimental realization of room temperature FM in graphene. However, the comprehensive mechanism, which needs to verify the enhancements of both the nitrogen complexes-induced magnetism and the FM coupling among them, remains to be completely explored, which impedes the experimental optimization of the FM in nitrogen-doped graphene (NG). Here, we theoretically perform a comprehensive analysis on the FM enhancement in NG. The enhancement of both the magnetic moments and FM coupling highly depends on the N concentration and relative geometric configuration of the N complexes. Especially, the magnetic moments and FM coupling are attributed to the σ–π magnetic interaction between the localized and itinerant moments, the band reconstruction originated from the proximity of N complexes, and the sublattice match/mismatch. The FM enhancement is high sensibility to the geometric configurations of the N complexes, and only the presence of graphitic-3N combined with trimerized pyridine can realize the sublattice-independent strong FM in the high N-concentration limit. Whereas the low N-concentration limit favors the substantial FM enhancement in all systems, but would unavoidably undergo both the low Curie temperature and low magnetization due to the relatively low N-concentration. We hope that the comprehensive mechanism of FM enhancement we offered can push the optimization of the FM in NG via tuning its N concentration and geometric configuration of the N complexes by the rational design of the specific experimental strategies.

In this article, a novel flexure-based 3-degree-of-freedom elliptical micro/nano-positioning motion stage was developed to obtain translation motions along the x, y, and z directions with high working bandwidth. The stage was configurations with a XYZ vertical motion to ensure the crosstalk between each axis is small enough. The motion stage was driven by three piezoelectric actuators. The corresponding working principles and stiffness modeling were detailed in this article. In addition, experimental testing was conducted to investigate the performances of the motion stage. The obtained strokes in x, y, and z directions are 10.39, 15.43, and 15.55 μm, respectively. The response rise time for each axis is within 10 ms, and the maximum crosstalk all within 1.2% ensured the rapid tracking can be achieved.

Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is a rare life-threatening complication, which commonly affects the lung. Currently, the most widely accepted criteria for the diagnosis of FES are the Gurd and Wilson Criteria established nearly 40 years ago, but without pulmonary images involved. Our study aims to analyse the pulmonary computed tomography (CT) findings seen in FES. This report enrolled four cases of FES with lung involvement. The mainly symptoms and signs included dyspnea, disturbance of consciousness, anemia, thrombocytopenia and, most notably, ground-glass opacities, septal thickening, ill-defined centrilobular nodules, and patchy consolidation were demonstrated on bilateral lungs. Combining the clinical manifestations and laboratory tests, the diagnosis of FES was confirmed. With the treatment of steroids, anti-coagulation and supportive treatment, the four patients' symptoms were relieved, abnormalities in chest CT were absorbed significantly and the patients were finally discharged. There are several common manifestations of FES in pulmonary CT images, and the lung parenchymal features give more information for the diagnosis of FES than the pulmonary vessel findings. Given the absence of a gold standard diagnostic test for FES, further investigation to explore new diagnostic criteria of FES involving pulmonary radiological features is needed in the future.

In order to optimize the functionality of automated guidance vehicles (AGVs) in logistics workshops, a wireless charging and task-based logistics intelligent dispatch system was developed based on the Internet of Things. This system aimed to improve freight efficiency in the workshop’s logistics system. The scheduling system successfully addressed the round-trip scheduling issue between AGVs and multiple tasks through two degrees of improvement: the application of AGVs and task path planning. To handle conflict coordination and AGV cluster path planning, a shortest path planning algorithm based on the A* search algorithm was proposed, and the traffic control law was enhanced. The initial population of genetic algorithms, which used greedy algorithms to solve problems, was found to be too large in terms of task distribution. To address this, the introduction of a few random individuals ensured population diversity and helped avoid local optima. Numerical experiments demonstrated a significantly accelerated convergence rate towards the optimal solution.

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The 5-year survival rate remains low despite considerable research into treatments of HCC, including surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Many mechanisms within HCC still require investigation, including the influence of hypoxia, which has a crucial role in many cancers and is associated with metastasis. Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is known to regulate the expression of many chemokines, including interleukin-8 (IL-8), which is associated with tumor metastasis. Although many studies have reported that HIF-1α is associated with HCC migration and invasion, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Methods The expression level of HIF-1α was determined in HCC cells. The correlation of IL-8 and HIF-1α expressions was assessed via knockdown of HIF-1α. HCC cells were also used to assess the influence of HIF-1α on HCC cell migration and invasion. LY294002, an inhibitor of the Akt pathway, was used to confirm the associated signaling pathways. Results We observed a significant attenuation of cell migration and invasion after silencing of HIF-1α. Exogenously expressing IL-8 restored migration and invasion. Akt was found to be involved in this process. Conclusion Hypoxia promotes HCC cell migration and invasion through the HIF-1α–IL-8–Akt axis.

Similar to Arabidopsis thaliana, the wild soybeans [Glycine soja) and many cultivars exhibit indeterminate stem growth specified by the shoot identity gene Dt1, the functional counterpart of Arabidopsis TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1). Mutations in TFL1 and Dt1 both result in the shoot apical meristem (SAM) switching from vegetative to reproductive state to initiate terminal flowering and thus produce determinate stems. A second soybean gene (Df2) regulating stem growth was identified, which, in the presence of Dt1, produces semideterminate plants with terminal racemes similar to those observed in determinate plants. Here, we report positional cloning and characterization of Dt2, a dominant MADS domain factor gene classified into the APETLA1/SQUAMOSA (AP1/SQUA) subfamily that includes floraJ meristem (FM) identity genes AP1, FUL, and CAL in Arabidopsis. Unlike AP1, whose expression is limited to FMs in which the expression of TFL1 is repressed, Dt2 appears to repress the expression of Dt1 in the SAMs to promote early conversion of the SAMs into reproductive inflorescences. Given that Dt2 is not the gene most closely related to AP1 and that semideterminacy is rarely seen in wild soybeans, Dt2 appears to be a recent gain-of-function mutation, which has modified the genetic pathways determining the stem growth habit in soybean.