Synergistic effects of the entomopathogenic fungus Isaria javanica and low doses of dinotefuran on the efficient control of the rice pest Sogatella furcifera

The rice planthopper,Sogatella furcifera,is a piercing-sucking insect pest of rice,Oryza sativa.It is responsible for significant crop yield losses,and has developed moderate to high resistance to several commonly used chemical insecticides.We investigated the effects of the insect fungal pathogen Isaria javanica,alone and in combination with the chemical insecticide dinotefuran,on S.furcifera under both laboratory and field conditions.Our results show that I.javanica displays high infection efficiency and mortality for different stages of S.furcifera,reducing adult survival,female oviposition and ovary development.Laboratory bioassays showed that the combined use of I.javanica with a low dose(4-16 mg L^(-1))of dinotefuran resulted in higher mortality in S.furcifera than the use of I.javanica or dinotefuran alone.The combined treatment also had more significant effects on several host enzymes,including superoxide dismutase,catalase,peroxidase,and prophenol oxidase activities.In field trials,I.javanica effectively suppressed populations of rice planthoppers to low levels(22-64%of the level in untreated plots).Additional field experiments showed synergistic effects,i.e.,enhanced efficiency,for the control of S.furcifera populations using the combination of a low dose of I.javanica(1×10^(4) conidia mL^(-1))and a low dose of dinotefuran(~4.8-19.2%of normal field use levels),with control effects of>90%and a population level under 50 insects per 100 hills at 3-14 days post-treatment.Our findings indicate that the entomogenous fungus I.javanica offers an attractive biological control addition as part of the integrated pest management(IPM)practices for the control of rice plant pests.

Prevention and Control Strategies of Nosocomial Infection and Effectiveness Evaluation in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital during the Epidemic of COVID-19

Objective: To evaluate the role of prevention and control strategies for nosocomial infection in a tertiary teaching hospital during the sudden outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: The hospital initiated an emergency plan involving multi-departmental defense and control. It adopted a series of nosocomial infection prevention and control measures, including strengthening pre-examination and triage, optimizing the consultation process, improving the hospital’s architectural composition, implementing graded risk management, enhancing personal protection, and implementing staff training and supervision. Descriptive research was used to evaluate the short-term effects of these in-hospital prevention and control strategies. The analysis compared changes in related evaluation indicators between January 24, 2020 and February 12, 2020 (Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve 2020 to lunar January 19) and the corresponding lunar period of the previous year. Results: Compared to the same period last year, the outpatient fever rate increased by 1.85-fold (P P Conclusion: The nosocomial infection prevention and control strategies implemented during this specific period improved the detection and control abilities for the COVID-19 source of infection and enhanced the compliance with measures. This likely contributed significantly to avoiding the occurrence of nosocomial infection.

The control effect of low-amplitude structure on oil-gaswater enrichment and development performance of ultra-low permeability reservoirs

Based on drilling, logging, test production and dynamic monitoring data, the control effects of low-amplitude structure on hydrocarbon accumulation and development performance of ultra-low permeability reservoirs were discussed by using the methods of dense well pattern, multi-factor geological modeling, macro and micro analysis and static and dynamic analysis. The results show that the low-amplitude structure always had a significant control and influence on the distribution and accumulation of original hydrocarbon and water and the evolution trend of water flooding performance in ultra-low permeability reservoirs, and it was not only the direction of oil and gas migration, but also a favorable place for relative accumulation of oil and gas. The controlling effect of low-amplitude structure on ultra-low permeability reservoir mainly depended on its tectonic amplitude and scale;the larger the tectonic amplitude and scale, and the higher the tectonic position of the low amplitude structure, the better the reservoir characteristic parameters, oil and gas enrichment degree and development effect, and the larger the spatial scope it controlled and influenced;water cut and oil well output always fluctuated orderly with the height of the low-amplitude structure;the dynamic response of waterflooding was closely related to the relative structural position of the injection and production wells;the injected water always advanced to the low-lying area of the structure first and then moved up to the high-lying area of the structure gradually;with the continuous expansion of the flooded area, part of the oil and gas in the low-lying part of the structure was forced to be distributed to the high part of the structure, resulting in a new oil and gas enrichment, so that the dynamic reserves of oil wells in the high part increased, and the production capacity remained stable.

Sampled-data control through model-free reinforcement learning with effective experience replay

Reinforcement Learning(RL)based control algorithms can learn the control strategies for nonlinear and uncertain environment during interacting with it.Guided by the rewards generated by environment,a RL agent can learn the control strategy directly in a model-free way instead of investigating the dynamic model of the environment.In the paper,we propose the sampled-data RL control strategy to reduce the computational demand.In the sampled-data control strategy,the whole control system is of a hybrid structure,in which the plant is of continuous structure while the controller(RL agent)adopts a discrete structure.Given that the continuous states of the plant will be the input of the agent,the state–action value function is approximated by the fully connected feed-forward neural networks(FCFFNN).Instead of learning the controller at every step during the interaction with the environment,the learning and acting stages are decoupled to learn the control strategy more effectively through experience replay.In the acting stage,the most effective experience obtained during the interaction with the environment will be stored and during the learning stage,the stored experience will be replayed to customized times,which helps enhance the experience replay process.The effectiveness of proposed approach will be verified by simulation examples.

Control Effect of UAV Low Volume Spray Technology on Thrips and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Tobacco Field

[Objectives]The paper was to explore the influence of unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)low volume spray technology on the control effect of viruliferous thrips and tomato spotted wilt virus(TSWV)under different pesticide concentrations,and to explore the effective control nodes and methods of thrips and TSWV.[Methods]According to the occurrence characteristics of thrips and TSWV,the field control effects of 4 pesticides on thrips and TSWV were tested by UAV with the thrips number and disease index as indicators,following the principle of regional and periodic control trials.[Results]In the groups of UAV and artificial prevention and control,4 agents were used alternatively,including 1%emamectin benzoate ME,1.7%abamectin imidacloprid ME,5%emamectin benzoate WDG,and 30%pyriproxyfen dinotefuran SL.There was no significant difference in the control effect of thrips and TSWV among treatment 1(recommended dosage of UAV agent),treatment 2(reduction of recommended dosage of UAV agent by 25%)and treatment 4(recommended dosage of artificial control agent),and the control effects on thrips were more than 83.16%in the 3 treatments.The disease index of TSWV in the 3 treatments decreased from 8.64±1.37 in the blank control group to less than 3,which reached the prevention and control threshold.But treatment 3(reduction of recommended dosage of UAV agent by 50%)did not reach the prevention and control threshold.The disease index of TSWV in the blank control area increased with the increase of the number of live nymphs of thrips,and there was a significant positive correlation,with good fitness.[Conclusions]UAV has a significant impact on the control effect of thrips and TSWV under different pesticide concentrations.In the actual flight control application,it is recommended that the amount of the pesticides is about 3/4 and not less than 1/2 of that of the artificial application.The control area should be extended to 100 m of the ridge of the tobacco field,and UAV is used periodically to control thrips and TSWV for 5 times from pre-transplanting stage to pre-squaring stage of flue-cured tobacco.The control effect is significantly different from the traditional artificial application.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of “Electron Go out Mosquito Small Lamp” in Disease Vector Mosquito Control Benin West Africa

In the context of mosquito control, a plethora of devices have been put on the market. The effectiveness of these devices is not always proven, but some have interesting principles that have the potential to be a good means of mosquito control. Among these interesting devices are the photonic traps. We have carried out nightly captures of mosquitoes on human baits in the presence and absence of the device. These captures were made during the rainy season in the localities of Zogbadjè and Mènontin. The captures were made under the same atmospheric conditions at the same locations at 5-day intervals. These captures were made twice per house, indoors and outdoors, with one blank capture without the device and one capture with the device. The captured mosquitoes were identified and classified by genus and their aggressiveness determined by calculating the biting rate. A total of 845 mosquitoes were captured during these captures with 296 mosquitoes captured indoors without the device and 132 mosquitoes with the device present. This represents a decrease of 55.40% in culicidae density. Furthermore, a significant decrease was observed in aggressiveness, from 49 to 22 bites per man per night (b/m/n) with the use of the device. This decrease is even more important for nocturnal species such as Anopheles spp. whose aggressiveness decreased by 90%. The present study confirms the effectiveness of the “Electron go out mosquito small lamp” in reducing Culicidae density and mosquito aggression even in the presence of chemotactic interference. However, this study was limited in time and focused only on the ability of the device to reduce mosquito numbers and did not assess its epidemiological efficacy. It is therefore important to extend the work to examine the influence of the use of this device on population health and the occurrence of mosquito-borne diseases, particularly malaria.

Mosquito vector management with botanicals-the most effective weapons in controlling mosquito-borne diseases

Dear editor,Mosquito-borne diseases,viz.,malaria,filariasis,dengue hemorrhagic fever,chikungunya,Japanese encephalitis etc.,created huge impact on humans over the world,and the chemical insecticides remain the mainstay of effective control.But,indiscriminate and rampant use of the chemical insecticides in controlling mosquito vectors,in order to prevent diseases vectored by them,has resulted problems related to the adverse environmental effects for their(insecticides)potential toxicity,high operational cost,community acceptance,and the development of insecticide resistance among the vectors.The factors mentioned above prompted the search for new means of control strategies.Currently,the botanicals(viz.,plant extracts,essential oils and phytochemicals)with mosquitocidal potential

Predictive active control of building structures using LQR and artificial intelligence

This study presents a neural network-based model for predicting linear quadratic regulator(LQR)weighting matrices for achieving a target response reduction.Based on the expected weighting matrices,the LQR algorithm is used to determine the various responses of the structure.The responses are determined by numerically analyzing the governing equation of motion using the state-space approach.For training a neural network,four input parameters are considered:the time history of the ground motion,the percentage reduction in lateral displacement,lateral velocity,and lateral acceleration,Output parameters are LQR weighting matrices.To study the effectiveness of an LQR-based neural network(LQRNN),the actual percentage reduction in the responses obtained from using LQRNN is compared with the target percentage reductions.Furthermore,to investigate the efficacy of an active control system using LQRNN,the controlled responses of a system are compared to the corresponding uncontrolled responses.The trained neural network effectively predicts weighting parameters that can provide a percentage reduction in displacement,velocity,and acceleration close to the target percentage reduction.Based on the simulation study,it can be concluded that significant response reductions are observed in the active-controlled system using LQRNN.Moreover,the LQRNN algorithm can replace conventional LQR control with the use of an active control system.

Effect testing of the chemicals for controlling pine needle bright

The indoor toxicity determination for several chemicals were carried out on Septoria pini-putmlae andDothistroma pini. The resutts showed that Carbendazol, Zineb and Thiophanate-methyl had better effect of killingthe fungi. The field experiment indicated that Zineb wettable powder with concentrations of 1:200, 1:300 and 1:500had 79.2%, 67.2% and 59.7% control results respectively. The control results of 1:200 Carbendazol wettable powder and 1:200 Thiophahate-methyl wettable powder were 67.7% and 67% respectively.

Controlling Entropic Uncertainty in the Presence of Quantum Memory by Non-Markovian Effects and Atom-Cavity Couplings

Based on the time-convolutionless master-equation approach, the entropic uncertainty in the presence of quantum memory is investigated for a two-atom system in two dissipative cavities. We find that the entropic uncertainty can be controlled by the non-Markovian effect and the atom-cavity coupling. The results show that increasing the atom-cavity coupling can enlarge the oscillating frequencies of the entropic uncertainty and can decrease the minimal value of the entropic uncertainty. Enhancing the non-Markovian effect can reduce the minimal value of the entropic uncertainty. In particular, if the atom-cavity coupling or the non-Markovian effect is very strong, the entropic uncertainty will be very dose to zero at certain time points, thus Bob can minimize his uncertainty about Alice＇s measurement outcomes,

Effectiveness of Firewise Approach(FWA)in Controlling Forest Fire:A Case of Uluguru Nature Forest Reserve(UNFR),Morogoro,Tanzania

Forest fire has received considerable attention in literature because it is considered one of the most common factors causing disturbances in ecosystems and at the same time considered vital in maintaining ecosystems.Firewise Approach(FWA)has been proposed and used for controlling forest fire and achieving sustainable forest management.The approach requires involvement of communities in managing forest fire incidences in reserved forests.Despite considerable period since FWA has been practiced,there is insufficient scholarly knowledge on effectiveness of the approach in managing forest fire.This paper examines the effectiveness of FWA in managing forest fires in Uluguru Nature Forest Reserve(UNFR).The study employed cross-section research design that involved quantitative and qualitative data collection.The data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science(SPSS)software and content analysis.The study found alternating periods:the period of overall decrease of wildfire incidences within initial five years of practising the approach.The study concludes that the FWA is useful in reducing forest fire incidences during early period of practising the approach and another period of huge fire occurrence beyond five years.However,the FWA has challenges of sustaining successes in controlling forest fires including limited fire management training to common community.The study recommends sustaining communities’trainings on forest fire management.

Effect of chlorpyrifos and methyl chlorpyrifos on controlling rice ieaffolder(Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenee)in field

Rice leaffolder(Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenee) hasbecome a serious pest on rice in Jiangsu Province. The in-sect appeared in Jul and remained until Sep. A field trialwith 5 treatments and three replications was laid out in arandomized complete block design in a farm field in Jiang-su, China in 1993. The hybrid rice tested was transplantedinto 2×25m plots. Using a knapsack sprayer, we applied

Flatness Control Based on Dynamic Effective Matrix for Cold Strip Mills

Steel strips are the main of steel products and flatness is an important quality indicator of steel strips. Flatness control is the key and highly difficult technique of strip mills. The bottle-neck restricting the improvement of flatness control techniques is that the research on flatness theories and control mathematic models is not in accordance with the requirement of technique developments. To build a simple, rapid and accurate explicit formulation control model has become an urgent need for the development of flatness control technique. This paper puts forward the conception of dynamic effective matrix based on the effective matrix method for flatness control proposed by the authors under the consideration of the influence of the change of parameters in roiling processes on the effective matrix, and the concept is validated by industrial productions. Three methods of the effective matrix generation are induced： the calculation method based on the flatness prediction model; the calculation method based on the data excavation in rolling processes and the direct calculation method based on the network model. A fuzzy neural network effective matrix model is built based on the clusters, and then the network structure is optimized and the high-speed-calculation problem of the dynamic effective matrix is solved. The flatness control scheme for cold strip mills is proposed based on the dynamic effective matrix. On stand 5 of the 1 220 mm five-stand 4-high cold strip tandem mill, the industrial experiment with the control methods of tilting roll and bending roll is done by the control scheme of the static effective matrix and the dynamic effective matrix, respectively. The experiment result proves that the control effect of the dynamic effective matrix is much better than that of the static effective matrix. This paper proposes a new idea and method for the dynamic flatness control in the rolling processes of cold strip mills and develops the theory and model of the flatness control effective matrix method.

Doping effects of manganese on the catalytic performance and structure of NiMgO catalysts for controllabe synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Doping effects of manganese （Mn） on catalytic performance and structure evolution of NiMgO catalysts for synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes （MWCNTs） from methane were investigated for the first time. Addition of Mn in NiMgO catalyst can greatly improve the MWCNTs yield. Mno.2NiMgO catalyst among the tested ones gives the highest MWCNTs yield as 2244%, which is two times higher than that of the catalyst without Mn. The structure evolution, reduction behaviors and surface chemical properties of MnNiMgO catalysts with various Mn contents were studied in detail. It was found that the stable solid solution of NiMgO2 formed in NiMgO catalyst was disturbed by the addition of Mn. Instead, another solid solution of MnMg608 is formed. More amount of Ni can be reduced and dispersed on the catalyst surface to be acted as active sites. Importantly, the changes of Ni content on the surface are correlated with the Ni particle size and the outer diameter of MWCNTs, suggesting the controllable synthesis of MWCNTs over MnNiMgO catalysts.

Mapping epistasis and environment × QTX interaction based on four-omics genotypes for the detected QTX loci controlling complex traits in tobacco

Using newly developed methods and software, association mapping was conducted for chromium content and total sugar in tobacco leaf, based on four-omics datasets. Our objective was to collect data on genotype and phenotype for 60 leaf samples at four developmental stages, from three plant architectural positions and for three cultivars that were grown in two locations. Association mapping was conducted to detect genetic variants at quantitative trait SNP(QTS) loci, quantitative trait transcript(QTT) differences,quantitative trait protein(QTP) variability, and quantitative trait metabolite(QTM) changes,which can be summarized as QTX locus variation. The total heritabilities of the four-omics loci for both traits tested were 23.60% for epistasis and 15.26% for treatment interaction.Epistasis and environment × treatment interaction had important impacts on complex traits at all-omics levels. For decreasing chromium content and increasing total sugar in tobacco leaf, six methylated loci can be directly used for marker-assisted selection, and expression of ten QTTs, seven QTPs and six QTMs can be modified by selection or cultivation.

Neural Network Based Terminal Sliding Mode Control for WMRs Affected by an Augmented Ground Friction With Slippage Effect

Wheeled mobile robots(WMRs) encounter unavoidable slippage especially on the low adhesion terrain such that the robots stability and accuracy are reduced greatly.To overcome this drawback,this article presents a neural network(NN) based terminal sliding mode control(TSMC) for WMRs where an augmented ground friction model is reported by which the uncertain friction can be estimated and compensated according to the required performance.In contrast to the existing friction models,the developed augmented ground friction model corresponds to actual fact because not only the effects associated with the mobile platform velocity but also the slippage related to the wheel slip rate are concerned simultaneously.Besides,the presented control approach can combine the merits of both TSMC and radial basis function(RBF) neural networks techniques,thereby providing numerous excellent performances for the closed-loop system,such as finite time convergence and faster friction estimation property.Simulation results validate the proposed friction model and robustness of controller;these research results will improve the autonomy and intelligence of WMRs,particularly when the mobile platform suffers from the sophisticated unstructured environment.

Control Effects of Jinggangmycin and Its Compounded Reagents against Rice Sheath Blight

The control effects of six kinds of reagents against rice sheath blight were compared in the test. The results showed that 24% thifluzamide SC 300 mL/hm2 and 20% Jinggangmycin ~ prochloraz WP 750 g/hm2 had good control effect against rice sheath blight, and their control effects after spraying for 7 and 14 d were 72.16%, 77.91% and 66.52%, 71.08%, respectively. The control effects of both reagents were significantly better than other test reagents and control re- agent Jinggangmycin, and they had no adverse effect on growth and development of rice. Considering from the aspects of control effect and economy, 20% Jinggang- mycin ~ prochloraz WP was suggested to be used to control rice sheath blight, its recommended dosage was 600 -750 g/hm2, and the reagent volume was 750kg with coarse spraying.

Aerodynamic Effects Compensation on Multi-Rotor UAVs Based on a Neural Network Control Allocation Approach

This paper shows that the aerodynamic effects can be compensated in a quadrotor system by means of a control allocation approach using neural networks.Thus,the system performance can be improved by replacing the classic allocation matrix,without using the aerodynamic inflow equations directly.The network training is performed offline,which requires low computational power.The target system is a Parrot MAMBO drone whose flight control is composed of PD-PID controllers followed by the proposed neural network control allocation algorithm.Such a quadrotor is particularly susceptible to the aerodynamics effects of interest to this work,because of its small size.We compared the mechanical torques commanded by the flight controller,i.e.,the control input,to those actually generated by the actuators and established at the aircraft.It was observed that the proposed neural network was able to closely match them,while the classic allocation matrix could not achieve that.The allocation error was also determined in both cases.Furthermore,the closed-loop performance also improved with the use of the proposed neural network control allocation,as well as the quality of the thrust and torque signals,in which we perceived a much less noisy behavior.

Multiple mediation effects of health locusof control and hope on the relationshipbetween stroke patients’ social supportand self-management

Objective:This study aimed to identify the mediation effects of health locus of control(HLC)and hope between stroke patients’social support and self-management.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted.A total of 300 Chinese stroke patients were recruited by convenient sampling from the acupuncture department of two Chinese Traditional Medical Hospitals in Tianjin Province from June to September 2018.The self-report questionnaires include Social Support Assessment Scale,Herth Hope Index,Mental Health Locus of Control Scale,Stroke Self-management Behavior Scale,and personal information questionnaires.All the survey data were entered in Excel and analyzed using the SPSS 24.0 program.Mediation was tested with Bootstrapping in AMOS 23.0 program.Results:The result showed that internal health locus of control(IHLC),chance health locus of control(CHLC)and hope were the mediators between social support and self-management.The direct,indirect,and total effects of social support on self-management behavior were 0.306 (P<0.01),0.109(P<0.01),and 0.415(P<0.01),respectively.Conclusions:Social support can directly influence self-management,and it can also indirectly influence self-management through IHLC,CHLC,and hope.

Analysis on influence of seismic travelling wave effect on semi-active control for long-span rigid-continuous bridge

The analysis approach of semi-active control for long-span rigid-continuous bridge under seismic travelling wave input is established. Magnetorheological dampers are set on the positions of the bridge beatings. The semi-active control calculation and analysis are performed for a five-span rigid-continuous bridge under seismic travelling waves with different apparent surface velocities. The results indicate that travelling wave effect remarkably influences the uncontrolled seismic responses, the semi-active control seismic responses and vibration control effects for the long-span rigid-continuous bridge. It is disadvantageous to the responses of the beams and the piers under the travelling wave input with lower apparent surface velocity, and travelling wave effect can decrease the vibration control effects evidently. Therefore, the travelling wave effect should be considered for the selection of the parameter values of semi-active control system in order to get the designing control effect.