Partial Fusion (F) Gene Analysis of Newcastle Disease Virus Detected in Pakistan during 2021-2022

Newcastle disease (ND) virus is a leading threat to commercial and domestic poultry in Pakistan. The virus infects and constitutes irreversible impairment to the nervous system, damages the respiratory system, and marks severe gastrointestinal lesions leading to heavy mortality in short-living birds and substantial losses in layers and breeders. The continuous emergence and evolution of the virus made it inclined to evade the humoral response and indirectly the circumvention of artificial active immunization. Newcastle disease is caused by the orthoavula genus of the paramyxoviridae family and has shown high genetic diversity even in their genotypes while information regarding enzootic trends of the virus is scanty in Pakistan. A total of 40 tracheal samples of NDV were collected from different commercial broiler farms and 11 isolates of NDV were identified. In the current study, we determined the genetic diversity of the Newcastle disease virus based on the partial sequencing of the fusion protein gene available in the NCBI database. Genetic analysis showed that seven isolates belonged to class I genotype VII and four belonged to class II genotype II. Interestingly, two isolates had epidemiological connections with vaccine-like class II genotype II. Our findings, concerning the recent outbreaks of class I genotype VII and class II genotype II of NDV in vaccinated commercial flocks, suggest possible potential partial mutations in the fusion protein gene. Genetic diversity and formation of the new cleavage site in an important neutralizing protein of wild strain are linked with the potency of artificial active immunization and a major cause of vaccine failure.

Change Point Analysis to Detect the Effect of Pruning Severity on Tree Growth

The effect of pruning severity on tree growth was analyzed by change point detection using segmented regression. The present study applied this analysis to a well-known published data set including diameter growth response, tree age, pruning severity and pretreatment crown size. First, multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of tree age, pruning severity and pretreatment crown size on diameter growth response. Next, segmented regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of pruning severity on diameter growth response. The results of the multiple regression showed that diameter growth response was significantly influenced by pruning severity and pretreatment crown size. The results of the segmented regression showed that in the whole data set, an abrupt change toward a decrease in diameter growth response was detected at 25% of the live crown removed. However, in the group of fully crowned and open-grown, diameter growth response continuously decreased with increasing pruning severity with no significant abrupt change, whereas in the group of 70% - 90% live crown, diameter growth response did not significantly decrease up to the break point (53% crown removed) and then abruptly decreased. This may be the first study to show the numerical evaluation of the effect of pruning severity on tree growth by change point analysis.

Geospatial Analysis of Urban Heat Island Effects and Tree Equity

In recent decades, Urban Heat Island Effects have become more pronounced and more widely examined. Despite great technological advances, our current societies still experience great spatial disparity in urban forest access. Urban Heat Island Effects are measurable phenomenon that are being experienced by the world’s most urbanized areas, including increased summer high temperatures and lower evapotranspiration from having impervious surfaces instead of vegetation and trees. Tree canopy cover is our natural mitigation tool that absorbs sunlight for photosynthesis, protects humans from incoming radiation, and releases cooling moisture into the air. Unfortunately, urban areas typically have low levels of vegetation. Vulnerable urban communities are lower-income areas of inner cities with less access to heat protection like air conditioners. This study uses mean evapotranspiration levels to assess the variability of urban heat island effects across the state of Tennessee. Results show that increased developed land surface cover in Tennessee creates measurable changes in atmospheric evapotranspiration. As a result, the mean evapotranspiration levels in areas with less tree vegetation are significantly lower than the surrounding forested areas. Central areas of urban cities in Tennessee had lower mean evapotranspiration recordings than surrounding areas with less development. This work demonstrates the need for increased tree canopy coverage.

Rising utilization of stable isotopes in tree rings for climate change and forest ecology

Analyses of stable isotopes(C,O,H)in tree rings are increasingly important cross-disciplinary programs.The rapid development in this field documented in an increasing number of publications requires a comprehensive review.This study includes a bibliometric analysis-based review to better understand research trends in tree ring stable isotope research.Overall,1475 publications were selected from the Web of Science Core Collection for 1974-2023.The findings are that:(1)numbers of annual publications and citations increased since 1974.From 1974 to 1980,there were around two relevant publications per year.However,from 2020 to 2022,this rose sharply to 109 publications per year.Likewise,average article citations were less than four per year before 1990,but were around four per article per year after 2000;(2)the major subjects using tree ring stable isotopes include forestry,geosciences,and environmental sciences,contributing to 42.5%of the total during 1974-2023;(3)the top three most productive institutions are the Chinese Academy of Sciences(423),the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest,Snow and Landscape Research(227),and the University of Arizona(204).These achievements result from strong collaborations;(4)review papers,for example,(Dawson et al.,Annu Rev Ecol Syst 33:507-559,2002)and(McCarroll and Loader,Quat Sci Rev 23:771-801,2004),are among the most cited,with more than 1000 citations;(5)tree ring stable isotope studies mainly focus on climatology and ecology,with atmospheric CO_(2) one of the most popular topics.Since 2010,precipitation and drought have received increasing attention.Based on this analysis,the research stages,key findings,debated issues,limitations and direc-tions for future research are summarized.This study serves as an important attempt to understand the progress on the use of stable isotopes in tree rings,providing scientific guid-ance for young researchers in this field.

Stability assessment of tree ring growth of Pinus armandii Franch in response to climate change based on slope directions at the Lubanling in the Funiu Mountains,China

Global warming will affect growth strategies and how trees will adapt.To compare the response of tree radial growth to climate warming in different slope directions,samples of Pinus armandii Franch were collected and tree-ring chronologies developed on northern and western slopes from the Lubanling in the Funiu Mountains.Correlation analyses showed that two chronologies were mainly limited by temperatures in the previous June-August and the com-bination of temperatures and moisture in the current May-July.The difference of the climate response to slopes was small but not negligible.Radial growth of the LBLO1 site on the northern slope was affected by the combined maximum and minimum temperatures,while that of the LBLO2 site was affected by maximum temperatures.With regards to moisture,radial growth of the trees on the north slope was influenced by the relative humidity in the current May-July,while on the western slope,it was affected by the relative humidity in the previous June-August,the current May-July and the precipitation in the current May-July.With the change in climate,the effects of the main limiting factors on growth on different slopes were visible to a certain extent,but the differences in response of trees on different slopes gradually decreased,which might be caused by factors such as different slope directions and the change in diurnal temperature range.These results may provide information for forest protection and ecological construction in this region,and a scientific reference for future climate reconstruction.

Stability assessment of tree ring growth of Pinus armandii Franch in response to climate change based on slope directions at the Lubanling in the Funiu Mountains,China

Global warming will affect growth strategies and how trees will adapt.To compare the response of tree radial growth to climate warming in different slope directions,samples of Pinus armandii Franch were collected and treering chronologies developed on northern and western slopes from the Lubanling in the Funiu Mountains.Correlation analyses showed that two chronologies were mainly limited by temperatures in the previous June–August and the combination of temperatures and moisture in the current May–July.The difference of the climate response to slopes was small but not negligible.Radial growth of the LBL01 site on the northern slope was affected by the combined maximum and minimum temperatures,while that of the LBL02 site was affected by maximum temperatures.With regards to moisture,radial growth of the trees on the north slope was influenced by the relative humidity in the current May–July,while on the western slope,it was affected by the relative humidity in the previous June–August,the current May–July and the precipitation in the current May–July.With the change in climate,the effects of the main limiting factors on growth on different slopes were visible to a certain extent,but the differences in response of trees on different slopes gradually decreased,which might be caused by factors such as different slope directions and the change in diurnal temperature range.These results may provide information for forest protection and ecological construction in this region,and a scientific reference for future climate reconstruction.

Aspect-Level Sentiment Analysis Based on Deep Learning

In recent years,deep learning methods have developed rapidly and found application in many fields,including natural language processing.In the field of aspect-level sentiment analysis,deep learning methods can also greatly improve the performance of models.However,previous studies did not take into account the relationship between user feature extraction and contextual terms.To address this issue,we use data feature extraction and deep learning combined to develop an aspect-level sentiment analysis method.To be specific,we design user comment feature extraction(UCFE)to distill salient features from users’historical comments and transform them into representative user feature vectors.Then,the aspect-sentence graph convolutional neural network(ASGCN)is used to incorporate innovative techniques for calculating adjacency matrices;meanwhile,ASGCN emphasizes capturing nuanced semantics within relationships among aspect words and syntactic dependency types.Afterward,three embedding methods are devised to embed the user feature vector into the ASGCN model.The empirical validations verify the effectiveness of these models,consistently surpassing conventional benchmarks and reaffirming the indispensable role of deep learning in advancing sentiment analysis methodologies.

Aspect-Level Sentiment Analysis Incorporating Semantic and Syntactic Information

Aiming at the problem that existing models in aspect-level sentiment analysis cannot fully and effectively utilize sentence semantic and syntactic structure information, this paper proposes a graph neural network-based aspect-level sentiment classification model. Self-attention, aspectual word multi-head attention and dependent syntactic relations are fused and the node representations are enhanced with graph convolutional networks to enable the model to fully learn the global semantic and syntactic structural information of sentences. Experimental results show that the model performs well on three public benchmark datasets Rest14, Lap14, and Twitter, improving the accuracy of sentiment classification.

Milling Fault Detection Method Based on Fault Tree Analysis and Hierarchical Belief Rule Base

Expert knowledge is the key to modeling milling fault detection systems based on the belief rule base.The construction of an initial expert knowledge base seriously affects the accuracy and interpretability of the milling fault detection model.However,due to the complexity of the milling system structure and the uncertainty of the milling failure index,it is often impossible to construct model expert knowledge effectively.Therefore,a milling system fault detection method based on fault tree analysis and hierarchical BRB(FTBRB)is proposed.Firstly,the proposed method uses a fault tree and hierarchical BRB modeling.Through fault tree analysis(FTA),the logical correspondence between FTA and BRB is sorted out.This can effectively embed the FTA mechanism into the BRB expert knowledge base.The hierarchical BRB model is used to solve the problem of excessive indexes and avoid combinatorial explosion.Secondly,evidence reasoning(ER)is used to ensure the transparency of the model reasoning process.Thirdly,the projection covariance matrix adaptation evolutionary strategies(P-CMA-ES)is used to optimize the model.Finally,this paper verifies the validity model and the method’s feasibility techniques for milling data sets.

Fault Tree Analysis of the Reliability of Electric Vehicles in India

Innovations for electric vehicles have advanced quickly in latest decades. Large-scale business use of these vehicles is still constrained by reliability-related issues. By utilising fault tree (FT) and Monte Carlo simulation, a mathematical prototype is created that includes the reliability traits of all major electrical parts of the vehicle system, including the battery, motor, drive, controllers. The research demonstrates that by raising the component restoration rates, the vehicle’s survivability can be raised. A thorough discussion of this paradigm is provided, along with a presentation and analysis of the reliability estimations based on an electric vehicle. This research on the reliability design and maintenance of an electric vehicle can be supported by the ideas that are outlined in the paper. Additionally, the findings of this study may be helpful to those who build electric vehicle, especially when upgrading the components efficiency and planning for reliability increase.

Canadian children’s and youth’s adherence to the 24-h movement guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic: A decision tree analysis

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to use decision tree modeling to generate profiles of children and youth who were more and less likely to meet the Canadian 24-h movement guidelines during the coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19)outbreak.Methods:Data for this study were from a nationally representative sample of 1472 Canadian parents(Meanage=45.12,SD=7.55)of children(511 years old)or youth(1217 years old).Data were collected in April 2020 via an online survey.Survey items assessed demographic,behavioral,social,micro-environmental,and macro-environmental characteristics.Four decision trees of adherence and non-adherence to all movement recommendations combined and each individual movement recommendation(physical activity(PA),screen time,and sleep)were generated.Results:Results revealed specific combinations of adherence and non-adherence characteristics.Characteristics associated with adherence to the recommendation(s)included high parental perceived capability to restrict screen time,annual household income ofCAD 100,000,increases in children’s and youth’s outdoor PA/sport since the COVID-19 outbreak began,being a boy,having parents younger than 43 years old,and small increases in children’s and youth’s sleep duration since the COVID-19 outbreak began.Characteristics associated with non-adherence to the recommendation(s)included low parental perceived capability to restrict screen time,youth aged 1217 years,decreases in children’s and youth’s outdoor PA/sport since the COVID-19 outbreak began,primary residences located in all provinces except Quebec,low parental perceived capability to support children’s and youth’s sleep and PA,and annual household income ofCAD 99,999.Conclusion:Our results show that specific characteristics interact to contribute to(non)adherence to the movement behavior recommendations.Results highlight the importance of targeting parents’perceived capability for the promotion of children’s and youth’s movement behaviors during challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic,paying particular attention to enhancing parental perceived capability to restrict screen time.

Tree ring analysis for determination of pollution history of Chengde City，north China

Air pollution history of sulphur and heavy metals since 1800 in Chengde City , north China,was studied by analyzing the concentrations of sulphur and heavy metals in growth rings of Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. Sulphur concentrations in the tree rings of 1910-1920, 1970-1980,and 1980-1990 have increased 1-2 , 3-5 and 10 times respectively as those in the tree ring of 1810-1820 (P<0. 05). This is ascribed to the result of urbanization, especially the appearance and aggravation of industrialization, in the city of Chengde since 1950s. Fe appeared to increase during 1920-1940, possibly due to the opening of Damiao Iron Mine by the Japanese in 1927; Mn increased throughout the whole history, from 4. 1 μg/g(1840- 1850) to 10. 4 μg/g (1980 1990,P <0. 05);Pb did not increase until 1980 but increased sharply during the last 10 years by 560%(P<0. 001). This is caused by the increased number of automobiles in the city. The contents of Cu,Zn, Ni have changed little. The concentrations of sulphur and heavy metals in the tree rings at the beginning of 1800s were the lowest and could be regarded as the background concentrations.We calculated that S, Fe, Pb, Mn, Ni, and Zn in the tree rings have increased 10, 2.4,1.8,1.5,1.0 and 0. 8 times respectively during the past 190 years or so. The results showed that serious environmental pollution, especially air pollution of SO2,has occurred since 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded.

Tree-ring:a suitable implement for spatial and temporal fire distribution analysis in savanna woodland and dry forest

Based on 120 stem discs collected during3 months of fieldwork along a 12 km route,the history of fires in the Wari Maro Forest（09 1000 N–02 1000E） over the past century in savanna woodland and dry forest was reconstituted.Three major ecological areas are characterized：one highly burnt zone located between two relative less burnt areas.By analyzing tree rings,246 fire scars were identified.The scars were caused by 51 fire years,occurring at a mean interval of 2.23 years.From 1890 to1965,only 6 years with fires were recorded from sampled trees.Since 1966,no year has passed without fire.The fire frequency point scale reached 14 years.This was the case of Burkea africana,which has been identified as a species tolerant to fire and could be planted to create a natural firewall.In contrast,Anogeissus leiocarpa is highly sensitive to fire,and in a dry forest ecosystem that burns seasonally,it requires a special conservation plan.Two new concepts are described：the rebarking of trees after fire and Mean Kilometer Fire Interval.The first concept was tested with Daniellia oliveri（Rolfe） Hutch ＆ Dalz trees,and the second concept was used to evaluate spatial fire distribution.We demonstrate that savanna woodland and dry forest were subject to a degradation process caused by destructive fires related to vegetation cover clearance and illegal logging.

A SIMULATED ANNEALING METHOD FOR FAULT TREE ANALYSIS

采用模拟退火方法解最大的最小割集发生概率，同时在寻优过程中找出近优的最小割集，最后确定基本事件的重要性顺序．通过计算机模拟，本算法得到较满意的结果．

FAULT TREE ANALYSIS OF SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OF SULPHIDE ORES AND ITS RISK ASSESSMENT

A logic fault tree of mine spontaneous combustion of sulphide ores was built by the fault tree analysis (FTA) based on a lot of mechanism investigation of sulphide ore spontaneous combustion in more than ten mines and review of a great amount of relevant

Assessment of gas and dust explosion in coal mines by means of fuzzy fault tree analysis

During the past decade, coal dust and gas explosions have been the most two serious types of disasters in China, threatening the lives of miners and causing significant losses in terms of national property. In this paper, an evaluation model of coal dust and gas explosions was constructed based on a fuzzy fault tree by taking the Xingli Coal Mine as a research site to identify the risk factors of coal dust and gas explosions.Furthermore, the hazards associated with such explosions were evaluated for this particular coal mine.After completing an on-site investigation, the fuzzy probabilities of basic events were obtained through expert scoring, and these expert opinions were then aggregated as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers to calculate the degrees of importance of all basic events. Finally, these degrees of importance were sorted. According to the resulting order, the basic events with higher probabilities were determined to identify key hazards in the daily safety management of this particular coal mine. Moreover, effective measures for preventing gas and coal dust explosions were derived. The fuzzy fault tree analysis method is of high significance in the analysis of accidental coal mine explosions and provides theoretical guidance for improving the efficiency of coal mine safety management in a scientific and feasible manner.

RAPD-PCR Analysis on Genetic Relationships Between Cultivars of Tree Peony

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to analyze genetic polymophism of 35 Tree Peony cultivars with 7 different color groups. Thirty four primers amplified 418 DNA fragments and 337 polymorphic bands (80.6%), including specific DNA markers for 18 cultivars that could be used to differentiate cultivars. The UPCMA method was used to analyze the genetic relationship among cultivars. The results showed that 35 Peony cultivars could be divided into 2 cluster groups when using similarity criteria of 1.5, and into 4 cluster groups when using similarity criteria of 1.0. The result confirmed that the flower color has no relation to the genetic clusters and the Tree Peony cultivars originated from the same area has close genetic relationship. Therefore, genetic background has no large effect on the genetic relationship. The sequence based on polymorphic rate from high to low was Blue groups > Yellow groups > Bark red groups > Blake groups > White groups>Green groups>Red groups.

Integrated analysis of transcriptomic and proteomic data from tree peony(P.ostii)seeds reveals key developmental stages and candidate genes related to oil biosynthesis and fatty acid metabolism

Tree peony(Paeonia section Moutan DC.)seeds are an excellent source of beneficial natural compounds that promote health,and they contain high levels of alpha-linolenic acid(ALA).In recent years,tree peony has been emerging as an oil crop.Therefore,combined analysis of the transcriptome and proteome of tree peony(P.ostii)seeds at 25,32,39,53,67,81,88,95,and 109 days after pollination(DAP)was conducted to better understand the transcriptional and translational regulation of seed development and oil biosynthesis.A total of 38,482 unigenes and 2841 proteins were identified.A total of 26,912 differentially expressed genes(DEGs)and 592 differentially expressed proteins(DEPs)were clustered into three groups corresponding to the rapid growth,seed inclusion enrichment and conversion,and late dehydration and mature stages of seed development.Fifteen lipid metabolism pathways were identified at both the transcriptome and proteome levels.Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that a period of rapid fatty acid biosynthesis occurred at 53–88 DAP.Furthermore,211 genes and 35 proteins associated with the fatty acid metabolism pathway,63 genes and 11 proteins associated with the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids(UFAs),and 115 genes and 24 proteins associated with ALA metabolism were identified.Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 16 putative fatty acid desaturase(FAD)-encoding genes clustered into four FAD groups,eight of which exhibited the highest expression at 53 DAP,suggesting that they play an important role in ALA accumulation.RT-qPCR analysis indicated that the temporal expression patterns of oil biosynthesis genes were largely similar to the RNA-seq results.The expression patterns of fatty acid metabolism-and seed development-related proteins determined by MRM were also highly consistent with the results obtained in the proteomic analysis.Correlation analysis indicated significant differences in the number and abundance of DEGs and DEPs but a high level of consistency in expression patterns and metabolic pathways.The results of the present study represent the first combined transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of tree peony seeds and provide insight into tree peony seed development and oil accumulation.

Fluorescence Microscopic Image Analysis of Nucleic Acids Based on The Capillary Flow Directed Assembly Ring of Neutral Red-nucleic Acid Supramolecular Complexes

It is critical to establish a direct and precise method with a high sensitivity and selectivity in analytical chemistry. In this research, making use of a well known phenomenon of capillary flow, we have proposed an image analysis method of nucleic acids at the price of a small amount of sample. When a droplet of the supramolecular complex solution, formed by neutral red and nucleic acids(NA) under an approximate neutral condition, was placed on the hydrophobic surface of dimethyl dichlorosilane pretreated glass slides, and it was evaporated, the supramolecular complex exhibited the periphery of the droplet due to the capillary effect, and accumulated there to form a red capillary flow directed assembly ring(CFDAR). A typical CFDAR has an outer diameter of (2 r ) about 1.18 mm and a ring width(2 δ ) of about 41 μm. Depending on the experimental conditions, a variety of CFDAR can be assembled. The experimental results are in agreement with our former theoretical discussion. It was found that when a droplet volume is 0.1 μL, the fluorescence intensity of the CFDAR formed by the NR NA is in proportion to the content of calf thymus DNA in the range of 0-0.28 ng, fish sperm DNA of 0-0.24 ng and yeast RNA of 0-0.16 ng with the limit of detection(3 σ ) of 1 7, 1.4 and 0.9 pg, respectively for the three nucleic acids.

Fault Tree Analysis of Dust Suppression Mechanism in a Spray System with Wetting Agent

By using the fault tree analysis in reliability theory as the systematical analysis approach, the dust suppression mechanism in a spray system with wetting agent is shown in a logic tree and some graphical models. From these diagrams, all factors related to the spray system and their cause and effect relationship can be seen clearly. Based on the built logic tree, several mathematical models and new ideas for expressing the dust suppressing efficiency in the spray system are put forward. The significance of all factors related to the efficiency of suppressing dust is qualitatively described. Furthermore, the new concepts, such as, the effective reaction time between dust particle and droplet, the expansion phenomenon of laden dust droplet, the functions of volatile and the relative size distribution efficiency of wetting agent are presented. All this richenes the existing mechanism of dust abatement by spraying wetting agent. At last, several problems that need to be further investigated are also suggested in the paper.