The development of cost-effective solid oxide fuel cells(SOFCs)is crucial for the large-scale application.In this study,anode-supported SOFC single cells were fabricated using a combination of slurry spraying and spin...The development of cost-effective solid oxide fuel cells(SOFCs)is crucial for the large-scale application.In this study,anode-supported SOFC single cells were fabricated using a combination of slurry spraying and spin-coating technique to achieve a dense Yttria Stabilized Zirconia(YSZ)electrolyte layer while maintaining low production cost.The electrochemical performance of the fabricated SOFC was evaluated using hydrogen and dry methane as fuels.Microstructural analysis confirmed that the YSZ electrolyte exhibited high densification with a thickness of approximately 10μm,ensuring excellent gas-tightness and preventing fuel crossover.The NiO-YSZ anode demonstrated favorable porosity,with well-sintered NiO particles forming a robust framework to facilitate electrochemical reactions.Performance evaluations revealed that under hydrogen operation,the SOFC achieved a peak power density of 1.408 W/cm^(2)at 1000℃,with open-circuit voltages(OCVs)closely matching theoretical predictions.When operated with dry methane,the SOFC maintained stable performance,reaching a peak power density of 0.96 W/cm^(2)at 1000℃,highlighting its potential for direct hydrocarbon utilization.Gas composition analysis of the anode exhaust confirmed the absence of excessive carbon deposition,indicating the effectiveness of the anode microstructure in mitigating coking during methane oxidation.These findings demonstrate that the spray-coated and spin-coated SOFC design offers a promising approach to improving fuel cell efficiency and cost-effectiveness.Future research should focus on optimizing electrolyte fabrication methods and enhancing anode stability in hydrocarbon-fueled operation to further advance the commercialization of SOFC technology.展开更多
Dear editor,Infrared and visible image fusion(IVIF)technologies are to extract complementary information from source images and generate a single fused result[1],which is widely applied in various high-level visual ta...Dear editor,Infrared and visible image fusion(IVIF)technologies are to extract complementary information from source images and generate a single fused result[1],which is widely applied in various high-level visual tasks such as segmentation and object detection[2].展开更多
Sintering,a well-established technique in powder metallurgy,plays a critical role in the processing of high melting point materials.A comprehensive understanding of structural changes during the sintering process is e...Sintering,a well-established technique in powder metallurgy,plays a critical role in the processing of high melting point materials.A comprehensive understanding of structural changes during the sintering process is essential for effective product assessment.The phase-field method stands out for its unique ability to simulate these structural transformations.Despite its widespread application,there is a notable absence of literature reviews focused on its usage in sintering simulations.Therefore,this paper addresses this gap by reviewing the latest advancements in phase-field sintering models,covering approaches based on energy,grand potential,and entropy increase.The characteristics of various models are extensively discussed,with a specific emphasis on energy-based models incorporating considerations such as interface energy anisotropy,tensor-form diffusion mechanisms,and various forms of rigid particle motion during sintering.Furthermore,the paper offers a concise summary of phase-field sintering models that integrate with other physical fields,including stress/strain fields,viscous flow,temperature field,and external electric fields.In conclusion,the paper provides a succinct overview of the entire content and delineates potential avenues for future research.展开更多
Previously, we reported that changes induced in autonomic neurotransmission in rats by Lactobacillus brevis SBC8803 may be mediated by serotonin 3 (5-HT3) receptors. In this study, we evaluated the effects of heat-kil...Previously, we reported that changes induced in autonomic neurotransmission in rats by Lactobacillus brevis SBC8803 may be mediated by serotonin 3 (5-HT3) receptors. In this study, we evaluated the effects of heat-killed L. brevis SBC8803 on serotonin (5-HT) releasing from intestinal cells. In the in vitro study, L. brevis SBC8803 stimulated 5-HT release from cultured rat endocrine RIN-14B cells (SBC8803 vs. sterile water;P in vivo study, 2 mg of heat-killed L. brevis SBC8803 was administered using a stomach sonde (feeding needle) to C57BL/6J mice. Analysis of plasma by ELISA showed gradually increase in 5-HT concentrations (0 min vs. 60 min;P ex vivo cultured intestinal loops composed of duodenum and part of the jejunum, from C3H/HeN and C57BL/6J male mice indicated that L. brevis SBC8803 effectively induced 5-HT release (SBC8803 vs. sterile water;P L. brevis SBC8803 may stimulate 5-HT release from mouse intestinal cells such as enterochromaffin cells.展开更多
Dear editor,Primal-dual dynamics(PDD)and its variants are prominent first-order continuous-time algorithms to determine the primal and dual solutions of a constrained optimization problem(COP).Due to the simple struct...Dear editor,Primal-dual dynamics(PDD)and its variants are prominent first-order continuous-time algorithms to determine the primal and dual solutions of a constrained optimization problem(COP).Due to the simple structure,they have received widespread attention in various fields,such as distributed optimization[1],power systems[2],and wireless communication[3].In view of their wide applications,there are numerous theoretic studies on the convergence properties of PDD and its variants,including the exponential stability analysis[4]-[9].展开更多
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in Japanese habitual drinkers was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Lactobacillus brevis SBC8803 to alleviate adverse effect of alcohol. Subjects who d...A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in Japanese habitual drinkers was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Lactobacillus brevis SBC8803 to alleviate adverse effect of alcohol. Subjects who drank habitually and had moderately higher levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) (50 - 100 IU/L) were enrolled. The levels of transaminases in these subjects were almost within normal levels (aspartate transaminase (AST) <30 IU/L and alanine transaminase (ALT) <40 IU/L). Either the capsules containing placebo (n = 23) or 130 mg (4.0 × 1010 colony-forming units) of live L. brevis SBC8803 (n = 22) per day were administered for the continuous eight weeks (56 days). During the period, the subjects both in test group and placebo groups have kept each drinking behavior as usual. Regarding lipid metabolism, triacylglycerol (TG) levels in the male test group significantly decreased at week 4 as compared with week 0. Biomarkers of hepatocytes-damage;AST and ALT levels showed no significant differences between the pla- cebo and test groups at both weeks 4 and 8. Oxidative stress marker;GGT at weeks 4 was significantly lower in the test group than that in the placebo group (p = 0.017), but not at weeks 8. However, taking a reduced rate of GGT at weeks 8 comparing with that at week 0, that in the test group showed larger value comparing with that in the placebo group. These data about TG and GGT suggest that, although efficacy of L. brevis SBC8803 is limited in this study, intake of the probiotic may alleviate alcoholic influence in lipid metabolism and oxidative stress.展开更多
The aim of the present study was to elucidate how bone metabolism and bone mineral density are affected by the consumption of a lemon juice-containing calcium (Ca)-enriched beverage. The efficacy of this investigation...The aim of the present study was to elucidate how bone metabolism and bone mineral density are affected by the consumption of a lemon juice-containing calcium (Ca)-enriched beverage. The efficacy of this investigational product was evaluated in postmenopausal women during five months of continuous intake (intervention). This was a randomized, controlled trial. Eighty-three subjects were assigned to three groups. Using a double-blind format, the first two groups received a Ca-supplemented lemon-juice (lemon) beverage (LECA) or a Ca-unsupplemented lemon-juice (lemon) beverage (LE). The third group (control) received no intervention. Each subject in the LECA and LE groups consumed one bottle (290 mL) of their assigned investigational product every day for five consecutive months. After five months of intervention, the gain in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine was significantly larger in the LECA and LE groups than in the control group. In the femur, subjects in the LECA group gained significantly more bone mineral density than the control subjects. The largest gain in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine was observed in the LECA group. As for the concentrations of the bone resorption marker tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP-5b), subjects in the LECA group had significantly lower values than those in the control group. Similarly, when compared with the LE and control groups, a significant decrease was detected in the LECA group in the concentrations of the bone formation markers, bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP) and osteocalcin (OC). In postmenopausal women, continuous consumption of Ca-supplemented lemon beverages improved the absorption of Ca and inhibited bone resorption. This likely blocked the function of osteoblasts and led to the suppression of bone formation, resulting in the attenuation of high-turnover bone metabolism.展开更多
This paper addresses distributed adaptive optimal resource allocation problems over weight-balanced digraphs.By leveraging state-of-the-art adaptive coupling designs for multiagent systems,two adaptive algorithms are ...This paper addresses distributed adaptive optimal resource allocation problems over weight-balanced digraphs.By leveraging state-of-the-art adaptive coupling designs for multiagent systems,two adaptive algorithms are proposed,namely a directed-spanning-tree-based algorithm and a node-based algorithm.The benefits of these algorithms are that they require neither sufficiently small or unitary step sizes,nor global knowledge of Laplacian eigenvalues,which are widely required in the literature.It is shown that both algorithms belong to a class of uncertain saddle-point dynamics,which can be tackled by repeatedly adopting the Peter-Paul inequality in the framework of Lyapunov theory.Thanks to this new viewpoint,global asymptotic convergence of both algorithms can be proven in a unified way.The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is validated through numerical simulations and case studies in IEEE 30-bus and 118-bus power systems.展开更多
Perovskite-type photovoltaic devices with polysilane hole transport layers were fabricated by a spin-coating method. In the present work, poly(methyl phenylsilane) (PMPS) and decaphenylcyclopentasilane (DPPS) were use...Perovskite-type photovoltaic devices with polysilane hole transport layers were fabricated by a spin-coating method. In the present work, poly(methyl phenylsilane) (PMPS) and decaphenylcyclopentasilane (DPPS) were used as the hole transport layers. First, structural and optical properties of the PMPS and DPPS films were investigated, and the as-prepared PMPS and DPPS films were amorphous. Optical absorption spectra of the amorphous PMPS and DPPS showed some marked features due to the nature of polysilanes. Then, microstructures, optical and photovoltaic properties of the perovskite-type photovoltaic devices with polysilane hole transport layers were investigated. Current density-voltage characteristics and incident photon to current conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic devices with the polysilane layers showed different photovoltaic performance each other, attributed to molecular structures of the polysilanes and Si content in the present hole transport layers.展开更多
This study examined the relationship between the land-use and land-cover changes in the mountainous Haean Basin of the Republic of Korea,a water source area,and the muddy water in the downgradient.The water flowing ou...This study examined the relationship between the land-use and land-cover changes in the mountainous Haean Basin of the Republic of Korea,a water source area,and the muddy water in the downgradient.The water flowing out from the basin is highly turbid having value of 650.1 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit(NTU),while that from the upper Inbuk Stream lacking major crop fields is very clean(less than 1 NTU),indicating agricultural activities as the origin of the turbid water.展开更多
This study discusses various issues and possible solutions related to groundwater resource and water quality in Korea.Groundwater is an important water resource in Korea,accounting for approximately 13%of the total an...This study discusses various issues and possible solutions related to groundwater resource and water quality in Korea.Groundwater is an important water resource in Korea,accounting for approximately 13%of the total annual domestic,agricultural,and industrial water supplies.From 1996 to 2014,groundwater usage increased by 45%while the number of wells increased by 102%.However,repeated occurrences of Foot and Mouth Disease and Avian Influenza led to nationwide mass burials of livestock and major effect of groundwater contamination.In coastal areas,anthropogenic activities were considered as the cause of seawater intrusion near the shore and far(7,000 m)from the coast.Thousands of abandoned metal mines and unregulated mining wastes have serious environmental effects in Korea;crop cultivation in metal contaminated soil and irrigation using metal contaminated water negatively affect human health.Moreover,urbanization is a major source of groundwater contamination due to intensified industrial activities.The Korean government has made major efforts to deal with the groundwater issues,including implementation of the Groundwater Act in 1996.Since then,various national monitoring systems have been established to examine changes in groundwater quality and quantity.Additional recent important groundwater quality issues need attention and must be resolved to ensure groundwater safety in Korea.展开更多
The overuse of fertilizers for high yields in agricultural production increases the leaching problem particularly in areas affected by heavy monsoon precipitations in Republic of Korea.The extent of leaching depends o...The overuse of fertilizers for high yields in agricultural production increases the leaching problem particularly in areas affected by heavy monsoon precipitations in Republic of Korea.The extent of leaching depends on various factors such as rate of monsoon precipitation,agricultural management practices,land use,soil properties,topographic features,and hydrochemistry.We studied spatial variations based on temporal fluctuations of groundwater level below the ground surface,pH,electrical conductivity(EC),and nitrate(NO3)from year 2011 to 2014 in 70 groundwater wells in agricultural region of Korea.We found that groundwater level deepening across the studied period in agricultural area.Low pH(5.50–6.50)gradually vanished in year 2014 and high pH(8.51–9.50)appeared in the same year.Variations in the EC values shifted from high range EC(>500μS/cm)to lower range(<100μS/cm)from 2011 to 2014.Similar to spatial pattern of groundwater EC and contrary to pH,the high values(>50 mg/L)for groundwater NO3 which appeared in the start of the study period,got vanished at the end of the study period.These findings are attributed to improved agricultural practices and change in land use pattern from vegetables to orchards and ginseng fields which do not require excessive fertilizer application.展开更多
Thermal diffusivity is a physical quantity that represents the thermal properties of soil.Amid the climate change known as global warming faced by humanity,Antarctica is one of the regions most affected by such change...Thermal diffusivity is a physical quantity that represents the thermal properties of soil.Amid the climate change known as global warming faced by humanity,Antarctica is one of the regions most affected by such changes.Therefore,in order to counter the effects of climate change,the thermal diffusivity of Antarctic regions is estimated in advance.展开更多
We examined the Carslaw and Jaeger(C-J)method to compute the temperature profile of inner soil in a region of Antarctica.The solution of the C-J method is expressed as an integral of the convolution of surface tempera...We examined the Carslaw and Jaeger(C-J)method to compute the temperature profile of inner soil in a region of Antarctica.The solution of the C-J method is expressed as an integral of the convolution of surface temperature and a transfer function,and can be used to determine the thermal diffusivity of soil.The obtained solution,however,is only an approximation of the integral because the fieldmeasured temperature data used as the surface temperature are usually obtained at a specific time interval,causing some error in the C-J method.This error is identified in the present study through mathematical examples which graphically compare the results obtained from finite element analysis and the C-J method.The error increases as the surface temperature changes abruptly or with a larger thermal diffusivity.As the time interval increases,the error tends to increase for the C-J method,implying that the time interval needs to be small enough to ensure that the analysis is accurate.This study,therefore,recommends a finite element method to solve heat conduction problems related to estimating the temperature of inner soil,because this method is not dependent on the measurement time interval.展开更多
Random loadings(RL)are prevalent in mechanical systems,yet their inherent stochasticity poses significant challenges to structural fatigue reliability assessment.In this study,a three-dimensional fatigue reliability m...Random loadings(RL)are prevalent in mechanical systems,yet their inherent stochasticity poses significant challenges to structural fatigue reliability assessment.In this study,a three-dimensional fatigue reliability model is developed under RL through amplitude modulating and Fourier transformation.The non-Gaussian RL characteristics are accurately characterized by employing power spectral density and loading kurtosis.The equivalent initial crack size distributions are evaluated through three-dimensional fatigue growth theory by joint use of the standard fatigue stress-life(S-N)data and the fatigue crack growth data of the materials.Fatigue life distributions in specimens made of different materials with different geometries and thicknesses are analyzed under RL.It is shown that fatigue life exhibits negative correlations with power spectral density,kurtosis,and initial crack size.Especially,it is found that fatigue life and kurtosis approximately follow a power–law relationship,with both mean and variance decreasing as kurtosis increases.Validations against the experimental data available in the literature show that the present model can provide an efficient prediction of the fatigue life of mechanical systems under RL with limited experiment data.展开更多
Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer is an important traditional herb in eastern Asia. It contains ginsenosides, which are primary bioactive compounds with medicinal properties. Although ginseng has been cultivated since at leas...Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer is an important traditional herb in eastern Asia. It contains ginsenosides, which are primary bioactive compounds with medicinal properties. Although ginseng has been cultivated since at least the Ming dynasty to increase production, cultivated ginseng has lower quantities of ginsenosides and lower disease resistance than ginseng grown under natural conditions. We extracted root RNA from six varieties of fifth-year P. ginseng cultivars representing four different growth conditions, and performed Illumina paired-end sequencing. In total, 163,165,706 raw reads were obtained and used to generate a de novo transcriptome that consisted of 151,763 contigs(76,336 unigenes), of which 100,648 contigs(66.3%) were successfully annotated. Differential expression analysis revealed that most differentially expressed genes(DEGs) were upregulated(246 out of 258, 95.3%) in ginseng grown under natural conditions compared with that grown under artificial conditions. These DEGs were enriched in gene ontology(GO) terms including response to stimuli and localization. In particular, some key ginsenoside biosynthesis-related genes, including HMG-Co A synthase(HMGS), mevalonate kinase(MVK), and squalene epoxidase(SE), were upregulated in wild-grown ginseng. Moreover, a high proportion of disease resistance-related genes were upregulated in wild-grown ginseng. This study is the first transcriptome analysis to compare wild-grown and cultivated ginseng, and identifies genes that may produce higher ginsenoside content and better disease resistance in the wild; these genes may have the potential to improve cultivated ginseng grown in artificial environments.展开更多
A high-density single nucleotide polymorphism （SNP） array is critically important for geneticists and molecu- lar breeders. With the accumulation of huge amounts of genomic re-sequencing data and available technolog...A high-density single nucleotide polymorphism （SNP） array is critically important for geneticists and molecu- lar breeders. With the accumulation of huge amounts of genomic re-sequencing data and available technologies for accurate SNP detection, it is possible to design high-density and high-quality rice SNP arrays. Here we report the devel- opment of a high-density rice SNP array and its utility. SNP probes were designed by screening more than 10 000 000 SNP loci extracted from the re-sequencing data of 801 rice varieties and an array named RiceSNP50 was produced on the Illumina Infinium platform. The array contained 51 478 evenly distributed markers, 68% of which were within genic regions. Several hundred rice plants with parent/F1 relationships were used to generate a high-quality cluster file for accurate SNP calling. Application tests showed that this array had high genotyping accuracy, and could be used for dif- ferent objectives. For example, a core collection of elite rice varieties was clustered with fine resolution. Genome-wide association studies （GWAS） analysis correctly identified a characterized QTL. Further, this array was successfully used for variety verification and trait introgression. As an accurate high-throughput genotyping tool, RiceSNP50 will play an important role in both functional genomics studies and molecular breeding.展开更多
In the realm of microgrid(MG),the distributed load frequency control(LFC)system has proven to be highly susceptible to the negative effects of false data injection attacks(FDIAs).Considering the significant responsibi...In the realm of microgrid(MG),the distributed load frequency control(LFC)system has proven to be highly susceptible to the negative effects of false data injection attacks(FDIAs).Considering the significant responsibility of the distributed LFC system for maintaining frequency stability within the MG,this paper proposes a detection and defense method against unobservable FDIAs in the distributed LFC system.Firstly,the method integrates a bi-directional long short-term memory(Bi LSTM)neural network and an improved whale optimization algorithm(IWOA)into the LFC controller to detect and counteract FDIAs.Secondly,to enable the Bi LSTM neural network to proficiently detect multiple types of FDIAs with utmost precision,the model employs a historical MG dataset comprising the frequency and power variances.Finally,the IWOA is utilized to optimize the proportional-integral-derivative(PID)controller parameters to counteract the negative impacts of FDIAs.The proposed detection and defense method is validated by building the distributed LFC system in Simulink.展开更多
基金supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 22K04732,Japan.
文摘The development of cost-effective solid oxide fuel cells(SOFCs)is crucial for the large-scale application.In this study,anode-supported SOFC single cells were fabricated using a combination of slurry spraying and spin-coating technique to achieve a dense Yttria Stabilized Zirconia(YSZ)electrolyte layer while maintaining low production cost.The electrochemical performance of the fabricated SOFC was evaluated using hydrogen and dry methane as fuels.Microstructural analysis confirmed that the YSZ electrolyte exhibited high densification with a thickness of approximately 10μm,ensuring excellent gas-tightness and preventing fuel crossover.The NiO-YSZ anode demonstrated favorable porosity,with well-sintered NiO particles forming a robust framework to facilitate electrochemical reactions.Performance evaluations revealed that under hydrogen operation,the SOFC achieved a peak power density of 1.408 W/cm^(2)at 1000℃,with open-circuit voltages(OCVs)closely matching theoretical predictions.When operated with dry methane,the SOFC maintained stable performance,reaching a peak power density of 0.96 W/cm^(2)at 1000℃,highlighting its potential for direct hydrocarbon utilization.Gas composition analysis of the anode exhaust confirmed the absence of excessive carbon deposition,indicating the effectiveness of the anode microstructure in mitigating coking during methane oxidation.These findings demonstrate that the spray-coated and spin-coated SOFC design offers a promising approach to improving fuel cell efficiency and cost-effectiveness.Future research should focus on optimizing electrolyte fabrication methods and enhancing anode stability in hydrocarbon-fueled operation to further advance the commercialization of SOFC technology.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61966037,61833005,61463052)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2017M621586)+1 种基金Program of Yunnan Key Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Computing(202205AG070003)Postgraduate Science Foundation of Yunnan University(2021Y263)。
文摘Dear editor,Infrared and visible image fusion(IVIF)technologies are to extract complementary information from source images and generate a single fused result[1],which is widely applied in various high-level visual tasks such as segmentation and object detection[2].
基金supported by the National Science and TechnologyMajor Project,China(No.J2019-IV-0014-0082)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2022YFB4600700)+1 种基金the National Overseas Youth Talents Program,China,the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures,China(No.MCMS-I-0422K01)a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions,China.
文摘Sintering,a well-established technique in powder metallurgy,plays a critical role in the processing of high melting point materials.A comprehensive understanding of structural changes during the sintering process is essential for effective product assessment.The phase-field method stands out for its unique ability to simulate these structural transformations.Despite its widespread application,there is a notable absence of literature reviews focused on its usage in sintering simulations.Therefore,this paper addresses this gap by reviewing the latest advancements in phase-field sintering models,covering approaches based on energy,grand potential,and entropy increase.The characteristics of various models are extensively discussed,with a specific emphasis on energy-based models incorporating considerations such as interface energy anisotropy,tensor-form diffusion mechanisms,and various forms of rigid particle motion during sintering.Furthermore,the paper offers a concise summary of phase-field sintering models that integrate with other physical fields,including stress/strain fields,viscous flow,temperature field,and external electric fields.In conclusion,the paper provides a succinct overview of the entire content and delineates potential avenues for future research.
文摘Previously, we reported that changes induced in autonomic neurotransmission in rats by Lactobacillus brevis SBC8803 may be mediated by serotonin 3 (5-HT3) receptors. In this study, we evaluated the effects of heat-killed L. brevis SBC8803 on serotonin (5-HT) releasing from intestinal cells. In the in vitro study, L. brevis SBC8803 stimulated 5-HT release from cultured rat endocrine RIN-14B cells (SBC8803 vs. sterile water;P in vivo study, 2 mg of heat-killed L. brevis SBC8803 was administered using a stomach sonde (feeding needle) to C57BL/6J mice. Analysis of plasma by ELISA showed gradually increase in 5-HT concentrations (0 min vs. 60 min;P ex vivo cultured intestinal loops composed of duodenum and part of the jejunum, from C3H/HeN and C57BL/6J male mice indicated that L. brevis SBC8803 effectively induced 5-HT release (SBC8803 vs. sterile water;P L. brevis SBC8803 may stimulate 5-HT release from mouse intestinal cells such as enterochromaffin cells.
文摘Dear editor,Primal-dual dynamics(PDD)and its variants are prominent first-order continuous-time algorithms to determine the primal and dual solutions of a constrained optimization problem(COP).Due to the simple structure,they have received widespread attention in various fields,such as distributed optimization[1],power systems[2],and wireless communication[3].In view of their wide applications,there are numerous theoretic studies on the convergence properties of PDD and its variants,including the exponential stability analysis[4]-[9].
文摘A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in Japanese habitual drinkers was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Lactobacillus brevis SBC8803 to alleviate adverse effect of alcohol. Subjects who drank habitually and had moderately higher levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) (50 - 100 IU/L) were enrolled. The levels of transaminases in these subjects were almost within normal levels (aspartate transaminase (AST) <30 IU/L and alanine transaminase (ALT) <40 IU/L). Either the capsules containing placebo (n = 23) or 130 mg (4.0 × 1010 colony-forming units) of live L. brevis SBC8803 (n = 22) per day were administered for the continuous eight weeks (56 days). During the period, the subjects both in test group and placebo groups have kept each drinking behavior as usual. Regarding lipid metabolism, triacylglycerol (TG) levels in the male test group significantly decreased at week 4 as compared with week 0. Biomarkers of hepatocytes-damage;AST and ALT levels showed no significant differences between the pla- cebo and test groups at both weeks 4 and 8. Oxidative stress marker;GGT at weeks 4 was significantly lower in the test group than that in the placebo group (p = 0.017), but not at weeks 8. However, taking a reduced rate of GGT at weeks 8 comparing with that at week 0, that in the test group showed larger value comparing with that in the placebo group. These data about TG and GGT suggest that, although efficacy of L. brevis SBC8803 is limited in this study, intake of the probiotic may alleviate alcoholic influence in lipid metabolism and oxidative stress.
文摘The aim of the present study was to elucidate how bone metabolism and bone mineral density are affected by the consumption of a lemon juice-containing calcium (Ca)-enriched beverage. The efficacy of this investigational product was evaluated in postmenopausal women during five months of continuous intake (intervention). This was a randomized, controlled trial. Eighty-three subjects were assigned to three groups. Using a double-blind format, the first two groups received a Ca-supplemented lemon-juice (lemon) beverage (LECA) or a Ca-unsupplemented lemon-juice (lemon) beverage (LE). The third group (control) received no intervention. Each subject in the LECA and LE groups consumed one bottle (290 mL) of their assigned investigational product every day for five consecutive months. After five months of intervention, the gain in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine was significantly larger in the LECA and LE groups than in the control group. In the femur, subjects in the LECA group gained significantly more bone mineral density than the control subjects. The largest gain in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine was observed in the LECA group. As for the concentrations of the bone resorption marker tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP-5b), subjects in the LECA group had significantly lower values than those in the control group. Similarly, when compared with the LE and control groups, a significant decrease was detected in the LECA group in the concentrations of the bone formation markers, bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP) and osteocalcin (OC). In postmenopausal women, continuous consumption of Ca-supplemented lemon beverages improved the absorption of Ca and inhibited bone resorption. This likely blocked the function of osteoblasts and led to the suppression of bone formation, resulting in the attenuation of high-turnover bone metabolism.
基金supported in part by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(BX2021064)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2242022R20030)+1 种基金the National Key R&D Program of China(2022YFE0198700)the Natural Science Foundation of China(62150610499,62073074,61833005)。
文摘This paper addresses distributed adaptive optimal resource allocation problems over weight-balanced digraphs.By leveraging state-of-the-art adaptive coupling designs for multiagent systems,two adaptive algorithms are proposed,namely a directed-spanning-tree-based algorithm and a node-based algorithm.The benefits of these algorithms are that they require neither sufficiently small or unitary step sizes,nor global knowledge of Laplacian eigenvalues,which are widely required in the literature.It is shown that both algorithms belong to a class of uncertain saddle-point dynamics,which can be tackled by repeatedly adopting the Peter-Paul inequality in the framework of Lyapunov theory.Thanks to this new viewpoint,global asymptotic convergence of both algorithms can be proven in a unified way.The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is validated through numerical simulations and case studies in IEEE 30-bus and 118-bus power systems.
文摘Perovskite-type photovoltaic devices with polysilane hole transport layers were fabricated by a spin-coating method. In the present work, poly(methyl phenylsilane) (PMPS) and decaphenylcyclopentasilane (DPPS) were used as the hole transport layers. First, structural and optical properties of the PMPS and DPPS films were investigated, and the as-prepared PMPS and DPPS films were amorphous. Optical absorption spectra of the amorphous PMPS and DPPS showed some marked features due to the nature of polysilanes. Then, microstructures, optical and photovoltaic properties of the perovskite-type photovoltaic devices with polysilane hole transport layers were investigated. Current density-voltage characteristics and incident photon to current conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic devices with the polysilane layers showed different photovoltaic performance each other, attributed to molecular structures of the polysilanes and Si content in the present hole transport layers.
基金supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)grant,funded by the Korean government(MSIT)(No.NRF-2015R1A4A1041105)Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)funded by the Ministry of Education(NRF-2018R1D1A1B07047200)2018 Research Grant(PoINT)from Kangwon National University。
文摘This study examined the relationship between the land-use and land-cover changes in the mountainous Haean Basin of the Republic of Korea,a water source area,and the muddy water in the downgradient.The water flowing out from the basin is highly turbid having value of 650.1 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit(NTU),while that from the upper Inbuk Stream lacking major crop fields is very clean(less than 1 NTU),indicating agricultural activities as the origin of the turbid water.
基金supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)grant,funded by the Korean government(MSIT)(No.NRF-2015R1A4A1041105)supported by the“The development of combined well&open-closed loops geothermal system(CWG system)which can use groundwater+1 种基金This system has performance more than 115.5 kW with small aperture and more than 525 kW with large aperture”of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning(KETEP),granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade,Industry&Energy,Republic of Korea(No.20153030111120)supported by the Research Grant from Sanha ENC Inc.through the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement funded by the Ministry of Land,Infrastructure and Transport of the Korean government(Project No.:17TBIP-C125148-01).
文摘This study discusses various issues and possible solutions related to groundwater resource and water quality in Korea.Groundwater is an important water resource in Korea,accounting for approximately 13%of the total annual domestic,agricultural,and industrial water supplies.From 1996 to 2014,groundwater usage increased by 45%while the number of wells increased by 102%.However,repeated occurrences of Foot and Mouth Disease and Avian Influenza led to nationwide mass burials of livestock and major effect of groundwater contamination.In coastal areas,anthropogenic activities were considered as the cause of seawater intrusion near the shore and far(7,000 m)from the coast.Thousands of abandoned metal mines and unregulated mining wastes have serious environmental effects in Korea;crop cultivation in metal contaminated soil and irrigation using metal contaminated water negatively affect human health.Moreover,urbanization is a major source of groundwater contamination due to intensified industrial activities.The Korean government has made major efforts to deal with the groundwater issues,including implementation of the Groundwater Act in 1996.Since then,various national monitoring systems have been established to examine changes in groundwater quality and quantity.Additional recent important groundwater quality issues need attention and must be resolved to ensure groundwater safety in Korea.
基金supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)grant,funded by the Korean government(MSIT)(NRF-2015R1A4A1041105)Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)funded by the Ministry of Education(NRF-2018R1D1A1B07047200).
文摘The overuse of fertilizers for high yields in agricultural production increases the leaching problem particularly in areas affected by heavy monsoon precipitations in Republic of Korea.The extent of leaching depends on various factors such as rate of monsoon precipitation,agricultural management practices,land use,soil properties,topographic features,and hydrochemistry.We studied spatial variations based on temporal fluctuations of groundwater level below the ground surface,pH,electrical conductivity(EC),and nitrate(NO3)from year 2011 to 2014 in 70 groundwater wells in agricultural region of Korea.We found that groundwater level deepening across the studied period in agricultural area.Low pH(5.50–6.50)gradually vanished in year 2014 and high pH(8.51–9.50)appeared in the same year.Variations in the EC values shifted from high range EC(>500μS/cm)to lower range(<100μS/cm)from 2011 to 2014.Similar to spatial pattern of groundwater EC and contrary to pH,the high values(>50 mg/L)for groundwater NO3 which appeared in the start of the study period,got vanished at the end of the study period.These findings are attributed to improved agricultural practices and change in land use pattern from vegetables to orchards and ginseng fields which do not require excessive fertilizer application.
基金financially supported by the Korea Polar Research Institute(KOPRI)Project(PE19200)Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)funded by the Ministry of Education(No.2019R1A6A1A03033167).
文摘Thermal diffusivity is a physical quantity that represents the thermal properties of soil.Amid the climate change known as global warming faced by humanity,Antarctica is one of the regions most affected by such changes.Therefore,in order to counter the effects of climate change,the thermal diffusivity of Antarctic regions is estimated in advance.
基金financially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education(NRF-2015R1C1A2A01052726)the International Collaborative Energy Technology R&D Program of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning(KETEP),granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade,Industry&Energy,Republic of Korea(No.20168510050070).
文摘We examined the Carslaw and Jaeger(C-J)method to compute the temperature profile of inner soil in a region of Antarctica.The solution of the C-J method is expressed as an integral of the convolution of surface temperature and a transfer function,and can be used to determine the thermal diffusivity of soil.The obtained solution,however,is only an approximation of the integral because the fieldmeasured temperature data used as the surface temperature are usually obtained at a specific time interval,causing some error in the C-J method.This error is identified in the present study through mathematical examples which graphically compare the results obtained from finite element analysis and the C-J method.The error increases as the surface temperature changes abruptly or with a larger thermal diffusivity.As the time interval increases,the error tends to increase for the C-J method,implying that the time interval needs to be small enough to ensure that the analysis is accurate.This study,therefore,recommends a finite element method to solve heat conduction problems related to estimating the temperature of inner soil,because this method is not dependent on the measurement time interval.
基金supported by the National and Jiangsu Province NSF(T2293691,BK20212008)of ChinaNational Key Research and Development Program of China(2019YFA0705400)+2 种基金the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures(MCMS-I-0422K01)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(NC2023001,NJ2023002,NJ2022002)the Fund of Prospective Layout of Scientific Research for Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics(NUAA).
文摘Random loadings(RL)are prevalent in mechanical systems,yet their inherent stochasticity poses significant challenges to structural fatigue reliability assessment.In this study,a three-dimensional fatigue reliability model is developed under RL through amplitude modulating and Fourier transformation.The non-Gaussian RL characteristics are accurately characterized by employing power spectral density and loading kurtosis.The equivalent initial crack size distributions are evaluated through three-dimensional fatigue growth theory by joint use of the standard fatigue stress-life(S-N)data and the fatigue crack growth data of the materials.Fatigue life distributions in specimens made of different materials with different geometries and thicknesses are analyzed under RL.It is shown that fatigue life exhibits negative correlations with power spectral density,kurtosis,and initial crack size.Especially,it is found that fatigue life and kurtosis approximately follow a power–law relationship,with both mean and variance decreasing as kurtosis increases.Validations against the experimental data available in the literature show that the present model can provide an efficient prediction of the fatigue life of mechanical systems under RL with limited experiment data.
基金supported by the International Science and Technology Cooperation of China(2011DFA32730)
文摘Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer is an important traditional herb in eastern Asia. It contains ginsenosides, which are primary bioactive compounds with medicinal properties. Although ginseng has been cultivated since at least the Ming dynasty to increase production, cultivated ginseng has lower quantities of ginsenosides and lower disease resistance than ginseng grown under natural conditions. We extracted root RNA from six varieties of fifth-year P. ginseng cultivars representing four different growth conditions, and performed Illumina paired-end sequencing. In total, 163,165,706 raw reads were obtained and used to generate a de novo transcriptome that consisted of 151,763 contigs(76,336 unigenes), of which 100,648 contigs(66.3%) were successfully annotated. Differential expression analysis revealed that most differentially expressed genes(DEGs) were upregulated(246 out of 258, 95.3%) in ginseng grown under natural conditions compared with that grown under artificial conditions. These DEGs were enriched in gene ontology(GO) terms including response to stimuli and localization. In particular, some key ginsenoside biosynthesis-related genes, including HMG-Co A synthase(HMGS), mevalonate kinase(MVK), and squalene epoxidase(SE), were upregulated in wild-grown ginseng. Moreover, a high proportion of disease resistance-related genes were upregulated in wild-grown ginseng. This study is the first transcriptome analysis to compare wild-grown and cultivated ginseng, and identifies genes that may produce higher ginsenoside content and better disease resistance in the wild; these genes may have the potential to improve cultivated ginseng grown in artificial environments.
基金grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China，the National Program on Key Basic Research Project of China，the National Natural Science Foundation of China，Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program，the Ministry of Agriculture of China
文摘A high-density single nucleotide polymorphism （SNP） array is critically important for geneticists and molecu- lar breeders. With the accumulation of huge amounts of genomic re-sequencing data and available technologies for accurate SNP detection, it is possible to design high-density and high-quality rice SNP arrays. Here we report the devel- opment of a high-density rice SNP array and its utility. SNP probes were designed by screening more than 10 000 000 SNP loci extracted from the re-sequencing data of 801 rice varieties and an array named RiceSNP50 was produced on the Illumina Infinium platform. The array contained 51 478 evenly distributed markers, 68% of which were within genic regions. Several hundred rice plants with parent/F1 relationships were used to generate a high-quality cluster file for accurate SNP calling. Application tests showed that this array had high genotyping accuracy, and could be used for dif- ferent objectives. For example, a core collection of elite rice varieties was clustered with fine resolution. Genome-wide association studies （GWAS） analysis correctly identified a characterized QTL. Further, this array was successfully used for variety verification and trait introgression. As an accurate high-throughput genotyping tool, RiceSNP50 will play an important role in both functional genomics studies and molecular breeding.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61973078)in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China(No.BK20231416)in part by the Zhishan Youth Scholar Program from Southeast University(No.2242022R40042)。
文摘In the realm of microgrid(MG),the distributed load frequency control(LFC)system has proven to be highly susceptible to the negative effects of false data injection attacks(FDIAs).Considering the significant responsibility of the distributed LFC system for maintaining frequency stability within the MG,this paper proposes a detection and defense method against unobservable FDIAs in the distributed LFC system.Firstly,the method integrates a bi-directional long short-term memory(Bi LSTM)neural network and an improved whale optimization algorithm(IWOA)into the LFC controller to detect and counteract FDIAs.Secondly,to enable the Bi LSTM neural network to proficiently detect multiple types of FDIAs with utmost precision,the model employs a historical MG dataset comprising the frequency and power variances.Finally,the IWOA is utilized to optimize the proportional-integral-derivative(PID)controller parameters to counteract the negative impacts of FDIAs.The proposed detection and defense method is validated by building the distributed LFC system in Simulink.
