Optimal design of blade parameters for fracturing tea-picking machine

The blade is one of the most critical components in the fracturing tea-picking machine, and this study is conducted to optimize the blade's working parameters. In this study, the effects of blade width, blade thickness, and cutting angle on the maximum fracturing force of tea stems were analyzed using the L9 (34) standard orthogonal table, with the maximum fracturing force used as the evaluation index. The results indicate that the main factors affecting the maximum fracturing force (MFF) of tea stems are cutting angle (CA), blade width (BW), and blade thickness (BT) in that order. Furthermore, microscopic observation of the fracture surface revealed that compared with the thickness of the other two blades, the thickness of 0 mm caused the cross-section uneven and had lots of burrs, correspondingly resulting in the section's oxidation and the deterioration of tea leaf quality. Therefore, the optimal combination of design parameters was a cutting angle of 90°, a blade width of 2.0 mm, and a blade thickness of 0.5 mm. The findings of this study can provide reference for blade design to reduce the fracturing force of tea-picking machines, lower the working power consumption, and improve the quality of freshly plucked tea leaves

Intranasal Delivery of Cationic PLGA Nano/Microparticles- Loaded FMDV DNA Vaccine Encoding IL-6 Elicited Protective Immunity against FMDV Challenge

Mucosal vaccination has been demonstrated to be an effective means of eliciting protective immunity against aerosol infections of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) and various approaches have been used to improve mucosal response to this pathogen. In this study, cationic PLGA (poly(lactide-co-glycolide)) nano/microparticles were used as an intranasal delivery vehicle as a means administering FMDV DNA vaccine encoding the FMDV capsid protein and the bovine IL-6 gene as a means of enhancing mucosal and systemic immune responses in animals. Three eukaryotic expression plasmids with or without bovine IL-6 gene (pc-P12A3C, pc-IL2AP12A3C and pc-P12AIL3C) were generated. The two latter plasmids were designed with the IL-6 gene located either before or between the P12A and 3C genes, respectively, as a means of determining if the location of the IL-6 gene affected capsid assembly and the subsequent immune response. Guinea pigs and rats were intranasally vaccinated with the respective chitosan-coated PLGA nano/microparticles-loaded FMDV DNA vaccine formulations. Animals immunized with pc-P12AIL3C (followed by animals vaccinated with pc-P12A3C and pc-IL2AP12A3C) developed the highest levels of antigen-specific serum IgG and IgA antibody responses and the highest levels of sIgA (secretory IgA) present in mucosal tissues. However, the highest levels of neutralizing antibodies were generated in pc-IL2AP12A3C-immunized animals (followed by pc-P12AIL3C- and then in pc-P12A3C-immunized animals). pc-IL2AP12A3C-immunized animals also developed stronger cell mediated immune responses (followed by pc-P12AIL3C- and pc-P12A3C-immunized animals) as evidenced by antigen-specific T-cell proliferation and expression levels of IFN-γ by both CD4+ and CD8+ splenic T cells. The percentage of animals protected against FMDV challenge following immunizations with pc-IL2AP12A3C, pc-P12AIL3C or pc-P12A3C were 3/5, 1/5 and 0/5, respectively. These data suggested that intranasal delivery of cationic PLGA nano/microparticles loaded with various FMDV DNA vaccine formulations encoding IL-6 as a molecular adjuvant enhanced protective immunity against FMDV, particularly pc-IL2AP12A3C with IL-6 gene located before P12A3C gene

Modification of TiO_2 Nanoparticles with Organodiboron Molecules Inducing Stable Surface Ti^(3+) Complex

As one of the most promising semiconductor oxide materials, titanium dioxide (TiO_2) absorbs ultraviolet (UV) light but not visible light. To address this limitation, the introduction of Ti^(3+) defects represents a common strategy to render TiO_2 visible-light-responsive. Unfortunately, current hurdles in Ti^(3+) generation technologies impeded the widespread application of Ti^(3+) modified materials. Herein, we demonstrate a simple and mechanistically distinct approach to generating abundant surface-Ti^(3+) sites without leaving behind oxygen vacancy and sacrificing one-off electron donors. In particular, upon adsorption of organodiboron reagents onto TiO_2 nanoparticles, spontaneous electron injection from the dibron-bound O^(2-) site to adjacent Ti^(4+) site leads to an extremely stable blue surface Ti^(3+)‒O^(-•) complex. Notably, this defect generation protocol is also applicable to other semiconductor oxides including ZnO, SnO_2, Nb_2O_5 and In_2O_3. Furthermore, the as-prepared photoelectronic device using this strategy affords 10^3 fold higher visible light response, and the fabricated perovskite solar cell shows an enhanced performance

Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance Under Environmental Stress by Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiling in Cyanobacterium

Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation are well known as connected with many important biological processes. Rapid accumulating evidence shows environmental stress can generate particular defense epigenetic changes across generations in eukaryotes. This transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in animals and plants has gained interest over the last years. Cyanobacteria play very crucial role in the earth, and as the primary producer they can adapt to nearly all diverse environments. However, few knowledge about the genome wide epigenetic information such as methylome information in cyanobacteria, especially under any environment stress, was reported so far. In this study we profiled the genome-wide cytosine methylation from a model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, and explored the possibility of transgenerational epigenetic process in this ancient single-celled prokaryote by comparing the DNA methylomes among normal nitrogen medium cultivation, nitrogen starvation for 72 h and nitrogen recovery for about 12 generations. Our results shows that DNA methylation patterns in nitrogen starvation and nitrogen recovery are much more similar with each other, significantly different from that of the normal nitrogen. This study reveals the difference in global DNA methylation pattern of cyanobacteria between normal and nutrient stress conditions and reports the evidence of transgenerational epigenetic process in cyanobacteria. The results of this study may contribute to a better understanding of epigenetic regulation in prokaryotic adaptation to and survive in the ever changing environment

The concept, structure and mechanism of industrial digital twin systems

Digital twin was originally and firstly researched in manufacturing, and is now widely and maturely used for application in industries. Recent theoretical studies and technical applications mainly focus on the definition of the digital twin, the integration of design and manufacture based on digital twin, and the fault diagnosis and operation maintenance of products on the basis of the digital twin. There are very few studies on the characteristics, system composition, logical architecture, and system operation mode of digital twin systems applied on industrial products. To fill the gap above, this paper proposes the concept of industrial Digital Twin System (iDTS) and summarizes the typical characteristics of iDTS, based on the comparison of different types of digital twin systems, including people-centered thinking, "human-machine-environment" mutual fusion, high fidelity of the system and complexity of twin model. iDTS integrates these characteristics with the functional structure composed of physical layer, perception layer, twin layer, application layer, and control layer. In addition, the maturity model of iDTS is developed to describe the maturity stage of iDTS, along with the life cycle progress of products or systems. Lastly, this paper analyzes four iDTS operation modes and verifies the feasibility of the proposed iDTS with typical cases for specific industrial application scenarios

Modification of TiO_2 Nanoparticles with Organodiboron Molecules Inducing Stable Surface Ti^(3+) Complex

As one of the most promising semiconductor oxide materials, titanium dioxide (TiO_2) absorbs ultraviolet (UV) light but not visible light. To address this limitation, the introduction of Ti^(3+) defects represents a common strategy to render TiO_2 visible-light-responsive. Unfortunately, current hurdles in Ti^(3+) generation technologies impeded the widespread application of Ti^(3+) modified materials. Herein, we demonstrate a simple and mechanistically distinct approach to generating abundant surface-Ti^(3+) sites without leaving behind oxygen vacancy and sacrificing one-off electron donors. In particular, upon adsorption of organodiboron reagents onto TiO_2 nanoparticles, spontaneous electron injection from the dibron-bound O^(2-) site to adjacent Ti^(4+) site leads to an extremely stable blue surface Ti^(3+)‒O^(-•) complex. Notably, this defect generation protocol is also applicable to other semiconductor oxides including ZnO, SnO_2, Nb_2O_5 and In_2O_3. Furthermore, the as-prepared photoelectronic device using this strategy affords 10^3 fold higher visible light response, and the fabricated perovskite solar cell shows an enhanced performance