Background The alexithymia trait is of high clinical interest.The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire(PAQ)was recently developed to enable detailed facet-level and valence-specific assessments of alexithymia.Aims In this ...Background The alexithymia trait is of high clinical interest.The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire(PAQ)was recently developed to enable detailed facet-level and valence-specific assessments of alexithymia.Aims In this paper,we introduce the first Chinese version of the PAQ and examine its psychometric properties and clinical applications.Methods In Study 1,the PAQ was administered to 990 Chinese participants.We examined its factor structure,internal consistency,test-retest reliability,as well as convergent,concurrent and discriminant validity.In Study 2,four groups,including a major depressive disorder(MDD)group(n=50),a matched healthy control group for MDD(n=50),a subclinical depression group(n=50)and a matched healthy control group for subclinical depression(n=50),were recruited.Group comparisons were conducted to assess the clinical relevance of the PAQ.Results In Study 1,the intended five-factor structure of the PAQ was found to fit the data well.The PAQ showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability,as well as good convergent,concurrent and discriminant validity.In Study 2,the PAQ was able to successfully distinguish the MDD group and the subclinical depression group from their matched healthy controls.Conclusions The Chinese version of the PAQ is a valid and reliable instrument for comprehensively assessing alexithymia in the general population and adults with clinical/subclinical depression.展开更多
Urban agriculture has been increasingly popular as a form of modern agriculture in urban settings. It includes community gardens, fruit orchards, home gardens, veggie patches, public open spaces, reserves, urban fores...Urban agriculture has been increasingly popular as a form of modern agriculture in urban settings. It includes community gardens, fruit orchards, home gardens, veggie patches, public open spaces, reserves, urban forest, and recreational landscaping. However, irrigation using urban water supply has been identified as a major constraints for the development of urban agriculture. This study presents a sustainable water management trial at Butler, a northern sub-urban development in Perth, Western Australia, for urban irrigation. The trial system consists of a number of water saving features including untreated fit-for-purpose groundwater supplied via a third pipe network, drip irrigation, local weather station, soil moisture sensors connected with a local weather station, night time irrigation, soil enhancement with conditioning and mulching, and use of native plants and vegetation. The trial outcome was compared against controlled areas in terms of irrigation efficiency and sustainable water management for urban agriculture. The study demonstrated that a fit-for-purpose irrigation along with water sensitive land management could be a sustainable alternative for urban agriculture that would achieve a significant water saving and irrigation efficiency at urban settings. However, quality of untreated groundwater can be an issue while utilizing it for irrigation, but the research has shown that it can be managed with innovative irrigation techniques. This indicates that the fit-for-purpose irrigation system with water sensitive land management practices would be highly supportive in sustainable development of urban agriculture, vegetation and recreational landscaping.展开更多
Tight gas sands in Whicher Range Field of Perth Basin show large heterogeneity in reservoir characteristics and production behavior related to depositional and diagenetic features. Diagenetic events (compaction and ce...Tight gas sands in Whicher Range Field of Perth Basin show large heterogeneity in reservoir characteristics and production behavior related to depositional and diagenetic features. Diagenetic events (compaction and cementation) have severely affected the pore system. In order to investigate the petrophysical characteristics, reservoir sandstone facies were correlated with core porosity and permeability and their equivalent well log responses to describe hydraulic flow units and electrofacies, respectively. Thus, very tight, tight, and sub-tight sands were differentiated. To reveal the relationship between pore system properties and depositional and diagenetic characteristics in each sand type, reservoir rock types were extracted. The identified reservoir rock types are in fact a reflection of internal reservoir heterogeneity related to pore system properties. All reservoir rock types are characterized by a compacted fabric and cemented framework. But distribution and dominance of diagenetic products in each of them depend on primary depositional composition and texture. The results show that reservoir rock typing based on three aspects of reservoir sandstones (depositional properties, diagenetic features and petrophysical characteristics) is a suitable technique for depiction of reservoir heterogeneity, recognition of reservoir units and identifying factors controlling reservoir quality of tight sandstones. This methodology can be used for the other tight reservoirs.展开更多
Catalyst–support interaction plays a crucial role in improving the catalytic activity of oxygen evolution reaction(OER).Here we modulate the catalyst–support interaction in polyaniline-supported Ni_(3)Fe oxide(Ni_(3...Catalyst–support interaction plays a crucial role in improving the catalytic activity of oxygen evolution reaction(OER).Here we modulate the catalyst–support interaction in polyaniline-supported Ni_(3)Fe oxide(Ni_(3)Fe oxide/PANI)with a robust hetero-interface,which significantly improves oxygen evolution activities with an overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm^(-2)and specific activity of 2.08 mA cm_(ECSA)^(-2)at overpotential of 300 mV,3.84-fold that of Ni_(3)Fe oxide.It is revealed that the catalyst–support interaction between Ni_(3)Fe oxide and PANI support enhances the Ni–O covalency via the interfacial Ni–N bond,thus promoting the charge and mass transfer on Ni_(3)Fe oxide.Considering the excellent activity and stability,rechargeable Zn-air batteries with optimum Ni_(3)Fe oxide/PANI are assembled,delivering a low charge voltage of 1.95 V to cycle for 400 h at 10 mA cm^(-2).The regulation of the effect of catalyst–support interaction on catalytic activity provides new possibilities for the future design of highly efficient OER catalysts.展开更多
The growing global population presents a significant challenge to ensuring food security,further compounded by the increasing threat of salinity to agricultural productivity.Wheat,a major staple food providing 20%of t...The growing global population presents a significant challenge to ensuring food security,further compounded by the increasing threat of salinity to agricultural productivity.Wheat,a major staple food providing 20%of the total caloric intake for humans,is susceptible to salinity stress.Developing new salttolerant wheat cultivars using wheat breeding techniques and genetic modifications is crucial to addressing this issue while ensuring the sustainability and efficiency of wheat production systems within the prevailing climate trend.This review overviews the current landscape in this field and explores key mechanisms and associated genetic traits that warrant attention within breeding programs.We contend that traditional approaches to breeding wheat for Na^(+)exclusion have limited applicability across varying soil salinity levels,rendering them inefficient.Moreover,we question current phenotyping approaches,advocating for a shift from whole-plant assessments to cell-based phenotyping platforms.Finally,we propose a broader use of wild wheat relatives and various breeding strategies to tap into their germplasm pool for inclusion in wheat breeding programs.展开更多
During the boll formation stage,cotton bolls exhibit the lowest expression of Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt)insecticidal proteins.Resistance to insects varies notably among different organs,which poses challenges for cont...During the boll formation stage,cotton bolls exhibit the lowest expression of Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt)insecticidal proteins.Resistance to insects varies notably among different organs,which poses challenges for controlling cotton bollworms.Consequently,an experimental strategy was designed in the 2020-2021 cotton growing season to coordinate the enhancement of protein synthesis and the attenuation of degradation.Two Bt cultivars of Gossypium hirsutum,namely the hybrid Sikang 3 and the conventional Sikang 1,were used as test materials.Three treatments were applied at the peak flowering period:CK(the control),T1(amino acids),and T2(amino acids and EDTA).The results show that,in comparison to the CK group,the Bt protein contents were significantly increased in both cotton bolls and their subtending leaves under the T1 and T2 treatments.The maximum levels of increase observed were 67.5%in cotton bolls and 21.7%in leaves.Moreover,the disparity in Bt protein content between cotton bolls and their subtending leaves notably decreased by 31.2%.Correlation analysis suggested that the primary physiological mechanisms for augmenting Bt protein content involve increased protein synthesis and reduced protein catabolism,which are independent of Bt gene expression levels.Stepwise regression and path analysis revealed that elevating the soluble protein content and transaminase activity,while reducing the catabolic enzyme activities,are instrumental in enhancing the Bt protein content.Consequently,the coordinated application of amino acids and EDTA emerges as a strategy that can improve the overall resistance of Bt cotton and mitigate the spatiotemporal variations in Bt toxin concentrations in both cotton bolls and leaves.展开更多
Background:The benefits of exercise are well known;however,many of the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood.Skeletal muscle secretes myokines,which mediate muscleorgan crosstalk.Myokines regulate s...Background:The benefits of exercise are well known;however,many of the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood.Skeletal muscle secretes myokines,which mediate muscleorgan crosstalk.Myokines regulate satellite-cell proliferation and migration,inflammatory cascade,insulin secretion,angiogenesis,fatty oxidation,and cancer suppression.To date,the effects of different exercise modes(namely,aerobic and resistance exercise)on myokine response remain to be elucidated.This is crucial considering the clinical implementation of exercise to enhance general health and wellbeing and as a medical treatment.Methods:A systematic search was undertaken in PubMed,MEDLINE,CINAHL,Embase,SPORTDiscus,andWeb of Science in April 2023.Eligible studies examining the effects of a single bout of exercise on interleukin15(IL-15),irisin,secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine(SPARC),oncostatinM(OSM),and decorin were included.A random-effects meta-analysis was also undertaken to quantify the magnitude of change.Results:Sixty-two studies were included(n=1193).Overall,exercise appeared to induce small to large increases in myokine expression,with effects observed immediately after to 60 min post-exercise,although these were mostly not statistically significant.Both aerobic and resistance exercise resulted in changes in myokine levels,without any significant difference between training modes,and with the magnitude of change differing across myokines.Myokine levels returned to baseline levels within 180 min to 24 h post-exercise.However,owing to potential sources of heterogeneity,most changes were not statistically significant,indicating that precise conclusions cannot be drawn.Conclusion:Knowledge is limited but expanding with respect to the impact of overall and specific effects of exercise on myokine expression at different time points in the systemic circulation.Further research is required to investigate the effects of different exercise modes at multiple time points on myokine response.展开更多
The trajectory tracking control performance of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots(NWMRs)is subject to nonholonomic constraints,system uncertainties,and external disturbances.This paper proposes a barrier function-base...The trajectory tracking control performance of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots(NWMRs)is subject to nonholonomic constraints,system uncertainties,and external disturbances.This paper proposes a barrier function-based adaptive sliding mode control(BFASMC)method to provide high-precision,fast-response performance and robustness for NWMRs.Compared with the conventional adaptive sliding mode control,the proposed control strategy can guarantee that the sliding mode variables converge to a predefined neighborhood of origin with a predefined reaching time independent of the prior knowledge of the uncertainties and disturbances bounds.Another advantage of the proposed algorithm is that the control gains can be adaptively adjusted to follow the disturbances amplitudes thanks to the barrier function.The benefit is that the overestimation of control gain can be eliminated,resulting in chattering reduction.Moreover,a modified barrier function-like control gain is employed to prevent the input saturation problem due to the physical limit of the actuator.The stability analysis and comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed BFASMC can ensure the prespecified convergence performance of the NWMR system output variables and strong robustness against uncertainties/disturbances.展开更多
Border Gateway Protocol(BGP)is a standard inter-domain routing protocol for the Internet that conveys network layer reachability information and establishes routes to different destinations.The BGP protocol exhibits s...Border Gateway Protocol(BGP)is a standard inter-domain routing protocol for the Internet that conveys network layer reachability information and establishes routes to different destinations.The BGP protocol exhibits security design defects,such as an unconditional trust mechanism and the default acceptance of BGP route announcements from peers by BGP neighboring nodes,easily triggering prefix hijacking,path forgery,route leakage,and other BGP security threats.Meanwhile,the traditional BGP security mechanism,relying on a public key infrastructure,faces issues like a single point of failure and a single point of trust.The decentralization,anti-tampering,and traceability advantages of blockchain offer new solution ideas for constructing secure and trusted inter-domain routing mechanisms.In this paper,we summarize the characteristics of BGP protocol in detail,sort out the BGP security threats and their causes.Additionally,we analyze the shortcomings of the traditional BGP security mechanism and comprehensively evaluate existing blockchain-based solutions to address the above problems and validate the reliability and effectiveness of blockchain-based BGP security methods in mitigating BGP security threats.Finally,we discuss the challenges posed by BGP security problems and outline prospects for future research.展开更多
基金This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32200906)STI 2030-Major Projects(2021ZD0201705)+2 种基金Major Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education of China(22JZD044)Research Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission(20dz2260300)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Starting Research Fund from Hangzhou Normal University.
文摘Background The alexithymia trait is of high clinical interest.The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire(PAQ)was recently developed to enable detailed facet-level and valence-specific assessments of alexithymia.Aims In this paper,we introduce the first Chinese version of the PAQ and examine its psychometric properties and clinical applications.Methods In Study 1,the PAQ was administered to 990 Chinese participants.We examined its factor structure,internal consistency,test-retest reliability,as well as convergent,concurrent and discriminant validity.In Study 2,four groups,including a major depressive disorder(MDD)group(n=50),a matched healthy control group for MDD(n=50),a subclinical depression group(n=50)and a matched healthy control group for subclinical depression(n=50),were recruited.Group comparisons were conducted to assess the clinical relevance of the PAQ.Results In Study 1,the intended five-factor structure of the PAQ was found to fit the data well.The PAQ showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability,as well as good convergent,concurrent and discriminant validity.In Study 2,the PAQ was able to successfully distinguish the MDD group and the subclinical depression group from their matched healthy controls.Conclusions The Chinese version of the PAQ is a valid and reliable instrument for comprehensively assessing alexithymia in the general population and adults with clinical/subclinical depression.
文摘Urban agriculture has been increasingly popular as a form of modern agriculture in urban settings. It includes community gardens, fruit orchards, home gardens, veggie patches, public open spaces, reserves, urban forest, and recreational landscaping. However, irrigation using urban water supply has been identified as a major constraints for the development of urban agriculture. This study presents a sustainable water management trial at Butler, a northern sub-urban development in Perth, Western Australia, for urban irrigation. The trial system consists of a number of water saving features including untreated fit-for-purpose groundwater supplied via a third pipe network, drip irrigation, local weather station, soil moisture sensors connected with a local weather station, night time irrigation, soil enhancement with conditioning and mulching, and use of native plants and vegetation. The trial outcome was compared against controlled areas in terms of irrigation efficiency and sustainable water management for urban agriculture. The study demonstrated that a fit-for-purpose irrigation along with water sensitive land management could be a sustainable alternative for urban agriculture that would achieve a significant water saving and irrigation efficiency at urban settings. However, quality of untreated groundwater can be an issue while utilizing it for irrigation, but the research has shown that it can be managed with innovative irrigation techniques. This indicates that the fit-for-purpose irrigation system with water sensitive land management practices would be highly supportive in sustainable development of urban agriculture, vegetation and recreational landscaping.
文摘Tight gas sands in Whicher Range Field of Perth Basin show large heterogeneity in reservoir characteristics and production behavior related to depositional and diagenetic features. Diagenetic events (compaction and cementation) have severely affected the pore system. In order to investigate the petrophysical characteristics, reservoir sandstone facies were correlated with core porosity and permeability and their equivalent well log responses to describe hydraulic flow units and electrofacies, respectively. Thus, very tight, tight, and sub-tight sands were differentiated. To reveal the relationship between pore system properties and depositional and diagenetic characteristics in each sand type, reservoir rock types were extracted. The identified reservoir rock types are in fact a reflection of internal reservoir heterogeneity related to pore system properties. All reservoir rock types are characterized by a compacted fabric and cemented framework. But distribution and dominance of diagenetic products in each of them depend on primary depositional composition and texture. The results show that reservoir rock typing based on three aspects of reservoir sandstones (depositional properties, diagenetic features and petrophysical characteristics) is a suitable technique for depiction of reservoir heterogeneity, recognition of reservoir units and identifying factors controlling reservoir quality of tight sandstones. This methodology can be used for the other tight reservoirs.
基金Research Institute for Smart Energy(CDB2)the grant from the Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing(CD8Z)+4 种基金the grant from the Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme(WZ2R)at The Hong Kong Polytechnic Universitysupport from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University(CD9B,CDBZ and WZ4Q)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(22205187)Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Commission(JCYJ20230807140402006)Start-up Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China(BK20230426).
文摘Catalyst–support interaction plays a crucial role in improving the catalytic activity of oxygen evolution reaction(OER).Here we modulate the catalyst–support interaction in polyaniline-supported Ni_(3)Fe oxide(Ni_(3)Fe oxide/PANI)with a robust hetero-interface,which significantly improves oxygen evolution activities with an overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm^(-2)and specific activity of 2.08 mA cm_(ECSA)^(-2)at overpotential of 300 mV,3.84-fold that of Ni_(3)Fe oxide.It is revealed that the catalyst–support interaction between Ni_(3)Fe oxide and PANI support enhances the Ni–O covalency via the interfacial Ni–N bond,thus promoting the charge and mass transfer on Ni_(3)Fe oxide.Considering the excellent activity and stability,rechargeable Zn-air batteries with optimum Ni_(3)Fe oxide/PANI are assembled,delivering a low charge voltage of 1.95 V to cycle for 400 h at 10 mA cm^(-2).The regulation of the effect of catalyst–support interaction on catalytic activity provides new possibilities for the future design of highly efficient OER catalysts.
基金supported by Australian Research Council,Australia grants to Sergey Shabala and Kadambot H.M.Siddique。
文摘The growing global population presents a significant challenge to ensuring food security,further compounded by the increasing threat of salinity to agricultural productivity.Wheat,a major staple food providing 20%of the total caloric intake for humans,is susceptible to salinity stress.Developing new salttolerant wheat cultivars using wheat breeding techniques and genetic modifications is crucial to addressing this issue while ensuring the sustainability and efficiency of wheat production systems within the prevailing climate trend.This review overviews the current landscape in this field and explores key mechanisms and associated genetic traits that warrant attention within breeding programs.We contend that traditional approaches to breeding wheat for Na^(+)exclusion have limited applicability across varying soil salinity levels,rendering them inefficient.Moreover,we question current phenotyping approaches,advocating for a shift from whole-plant assessments to cell-based phenotyping platforms.Finally,we propose a broader use of wild wheat relatives and various breeding strategies to tap into their germplasm pool for inclusion in wheat breeding programs.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31901462 and 31671613)the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China(22KJA210005)+1 种基金the China Scholarship Council(202308320440)the Postgraduate Research&Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province,China(KYCX22_3508)。
文摘During the boll formation stage,cotton bolls exhibit the lowest expression of Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt)insecticidal proteins.Resistance to insects varies notably among different organs,which poses challenges for controlling cotton bollworms.Consequently,an experimental strategy was designed in the 2020-2021 cotton growing season to coordinate the enhancement of protein synthesis and the attenuation of degradation.Two Bt cultivars of Gossypium hirsutum,namely the hybrid Sikang 3 and the conventional Sikang 1,were used as test materials.Three treatments were applied at the peak flowering period:CK(the control),T1(amino acids),and T2(amino acids and EDTA).The results show that,in comparison to the CK group,the Bt protein contents were significantly increased in both cotton bolls and their subtending leaves under the T1 and T2 treatments.The maximum levels of increase observed were 67.5%in cotton bolls and 21.7%in leaves.Moreover,the disparity in Bt protein content between cotton bolls and their subtending leaves notably decreased by 31.2%.Correlation analysis suggested that the primary physiological mechanisms for augmenting Bt protein content involve increased protein synthesis and reduced protein catabolism,which are independent of Bt gene expression levels.Stepwise regression and path analysis revealed that elevating the soluble protein content and transaminase activity,while reducing the catabolic enzyme activities,are instrumental in enhancing the Bt protein content.Consequently,the coordinated application of amino acids and EDTA emerges as a strategy that can improve the overall resistance of Bt cotton and mitigate the spatiotemporal variations in Bt toxin concentrations in both cotton bolls and leaves.
文摘Background:The benefits of exercise are well known;however,many of the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood.Skeletal muscle secretes myokines,which mediate muscleorgan crosstalk.Myokines regulate satellite-cell proliferation and migration,inflammatory cascade,insulin secretion,angiogenesis,fatty oxidation,and cancer suppression.To date,the effects of different exercise modes(namely,aerobic and resistance exercise)on myokine response remain to be elucidated.This is crucial considering the clinical implementation of exercise to enhance general health and wellbeing and as a medical treatment.Methods:A systematic search was undertaken in PubMed,MEDLINE,CINAHL,Embase,SPORTDiscus,andWeb of Science in April 2023.Eligible studies examining the effects of a single bout of exercise on interleukin15(IL-15),irisin,secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine(SPARC),oncostatinM(OSM),and decorin were included.A random-effects meta-analysis was also undertaken to quantify the magnitude of change.Results:Sixty-two studies were included(n=1193).Overall,exercise appeared to induce small to large increases in myokine expression,with effects observed immediately after to 60 min post-exercise,although these were mostly not statistically significant.Both aerobic and resistance exercise resulted in changes in myokine levels,without any significant difference between training modes,and with the magnitude of change differing across myokines.Myokine levels returned to baseline levels within 180 min to 24 h post-exercise.However,owing to potential sources of heterogeneity,most changes were not statistically significant,indicating that precise conclusions cannot be drawn.Conclusion:Knowledge is limited but expanding with respect to the impact of overall and specific effects of exercise on myokine expression at different time points in the systemic circulation.Further research is required to investigate the effects of different exercise modes at multiple time points on myokine response.
基金the China Scholarship Council(202106690037)the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province(19080885QE194)。
文摘The trajectory tracking control performance of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots(NWMRs)is subject to nonholonomic constraints,system uncertainties,and external disturbances.This paper proposes a barrier function-based adaptive sliding mode control(BFASMC)method to provide high-precision,fast-response performance and robustness for NWMRs.Compared with the conventional adaptive sliding mode control,the proposed control strategy can guarantee that the sliding mode variables converge to a predefined neighborhood of origin with a predefined reaching time independent of the prior knowledge of the uncertainties and disturbances bounds.Another advantage of the proposed algorithm is that the control gains can be adaptively adjusted to follow the disturbances amplitudes thanks to the barrier function.The benefit is that the overestimation of control gain can be eliminated,resulting in chattering reduction.Moreover,a modified barrier function-like control gain is employed to prevent the input saturation problem due to the physical limit of the actuator.The stability analysis and comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed BFASMC can ensure the prespecified convergence performance of the NWMR system output variables and strong robustness against uncertainties/disturbances.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China,GrantNumbers(62272007,62001007)the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing,GrantNumbers(4234083,4212018)The authors also acknowledge the support from King Khalid University for funding this research through the Large Group Project under Grant Number RGP.2/373/45.
文摘Border Gateway Protocol(BGP)is a standard inter-domain routing protocol for the Internet that conveys network layer reachability information and establishes routes to different destinations.The BGP protocol exhibits security design defects,such as an unconditional trust mechanism and the default acceptance of BGP route announcements from peers by BGP neighboring nodes,easily triggering prefix hijacking,path forgery,route leakage,and other BGP security threats.Meanwhile,the traditional BGP security mechanism,relying on a public key infrastructure,faces issues like a single point of failure and a single point of trust.The decentralization,anti-tampering,and traceability advantages of blockchain offer new solution ideas for constructing secure and trusted inter-domain routing mechanisms.In this paper,we summarize the characteristics of BGP protocol in detail,sort out the BGP security threats and their causes.Additionally,we analyze the shortcomings of the traditional BGP security mechanism and comprehensively evaluate existing blockchain-based solutions to address the above problems and validate the reliability and effectiveness of blockchain-based BGP security methods in mitigating BGP security threats.Finally,we discuss the challenges posed by BGP security problems and outline prospects for future research.