Twenty-six circulating antigens and two novel diagnostic candidate molecules identified in the serum of canines with experimental acute toxoplasmosis

List of CAg proteins identified by LC-MS/MS after IP enrichment and purification with ESA antibodies. (XLSX 27 kb

Graphene-Enhanced Surface Plasmon Resonance Liquid Refractive Index Sensor Based on Photonic Crystal Fiber

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) liquid refractive index sensor based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed. The PCF is made of the exposed core structure, and the gold film is formed by electron beam evaporation within its defects. The sensitivity of the sensor is improved by coating graphene on the surface of the gold film. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor is increased by 390 nm/RIU after the introduction of graphene, and finally to 2290 nm/RIU. The experiment and simulation have a good consistency. Significantly, the sensor can be reused, and the measurement accuracy can be maintained

Effects of Salt Stress on Growth, Photosynthesis, and Mineral Nutrients of 18 Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Cultivars

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is widely grown in arid and semiarid regions, where the salinization may have developed through irrigation. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate NaCl stress on growth, photosynthesis, and nutrients of 18 pomegranate cultivars. One group was irrigated twice a week with a nutrient solution. The other group was watered twice a week with the same nutrient solution and 200 mM NaCl for five weeks. Dry weight, shoot length, new shoot number, root length and number, leaf area, leaf relative water content, and net photosynthesis of salt-treated plants were negatively impacted by salt stress, and there was a significant difference among cultivars. Few foliar damages were observed. Na content of plants significantly increased in all cultivars, while P, S, K, Ca, Mg, Si, Al, Zn content of plants decreased under salt stress. Fe, Mn, and Cu content increased in most cultivars. Pomegranate accumulated supraoptimal Na mostly in roots and transported more K and Ca to shoots, which was attributed to maintaining a higher ratio of K/Na and Ca/Na in the aerial part of plants. Ten of the 18 cultivars were considered salt-tolerant, which would offer a reference for pomegranate cultivation on saline lands

GANs with Multiple Constraints for Image Translation

Unpaired image translation is a challenging problem in computer vision, while existing generative adversarial networks (GANs) models mainly use the adversarial loss and other constraints to model. But the degree of constraint imposed on the generator and the discriminator is not enough, which results in bad image quality. In addition, we find that the current GANs-based models have not yet been implemented by adding an auxiliary domain, which is used to constrain the generator. To solve the problem mentioned above, we propose a multiscale and multilevel GANs (MMGANs) model for image translation. In this model, we add an auxiliary domain to constrain generator, which combines this auxiliary domain with the original domains for modelling and helps generator learn the detailed content of the image. Then we use multiscale and multilevel feature matching to constrain the discriminator. The purpose is to make the training process as stable as possible. Finally, we conduct experiments on six image translation tasks. The results verify the validity of the proposed model

Salicylic Acid Improves the Salt Tolerance Capacity of <i>Saponaria officinalis</i> by Modulating Its Photosynthetic Rate, Osmoprotectants, Antioxidant Levels, and Ion Homeostasis

Salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role in regulating salt stress tolerance in plants. However, there are no studies on the effect of exogenous SA on Saponaria officinalis under salt stress. To study the effectiveness of SA on mitigating salt stress, S. officinalis were used in a pot experiment of salt stress simulated with an NaCl solution (100, 200, and 300 mmol L−1), while an SA solution (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 mmol L−1) was sprayed on leaves. Under salt stress, spraying SA caused an increase in the salt damage index, electrolyte leakage, and a reduction in malondialdehyde and Na+ content, but an increase in the rate of photosynthesis, chlorophyll, soluble sugar, soluble protein, free proline, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+ content, the K+/Na+ ratio, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase activity, and the comprehensive score. The results show that SA improves the salt tolerance capacity of S. officinalis by modulating its photosynthetic rate, osmoprotectants, antioxidant levels, and ion homeostasis. However, the effectiveness of SA was not linearly related to its concentration. In summary, our findings reveal the protective roles of SA against salinity in S. officinalis and suggest that the use of 0.6 mmol L−1 of SA in salt stress conditions could be an effective approach to reduce the damage caused by saline soil in S. officinalis

Performance Analysis of Magnetorheological Porous Fabric Composite

In this paper, magnetorheological (MR) porous fabric composites were prepared by using non-woven fabrics pretreated with lithium stearate. Due to the porous structure of non-woven fabric and the good stability of lithium stearate, the mechanical properties and sedimentation stability of the composite have been improved. The viscosity, shear stress and dynamic viscoelasticity of different samples were analyzed by rheological properties tests. The results indicate that the mechanical properties of the composite samples containing lithium stearate are improved compared with the MRF (magnetorheological fluid) sample, and its sedimentation stability under non-working conditions is also improved. However, with the increase of lithium stearate content, the improving effect of material performance gradually decreased. The experimental results show that when the magnetic flux density is 0.31 T, the shear stress of the MR porous fabric composite with 1 wt% lithium stearate is about 27 kPa, which increases by 51.1% compared with the MRF sample

Investigation of unsteady flow in a submersible tubular pumping system

To better understand the workings of submersible tubular pumping system and to enable future improvements, the pressure fluctuation and unsteady flow characteristics due to the complex rotor-stator interactions need to be properly delineated. High-frequency pressure measurements coupled with CFD simulations have been invoked in this study to elucidate the unsteady flow in different components of a submersible tubular pumping system at different discharges. The focus is on the impeller and guide vane, where the unsteady interaction is the strongest. The pressure pulsation distributions of different characteristic cross sections such as impeller exit, middle of guide vane, and exit of guide vane were quantified. In addition, the flow characteristics and the turbulent kinetic energy inside the impeller, guide vane, and bulb unit were obtained at the different time steps. The results show that the pressure pulsation frequency obtained by simulation was in agreement with the experimental results, including the critical points around the impeller and the guide vanes. The complementary two-prong approach is thus proven to be a powerful duo in researching and advancing a convoluted pumping system