Served as Social Actors or Instrumental Role? Understanding the Usage of Smart Product from the Dual Processing Perspective

Based on the Dual processing theory, this study proposes that customers form their decision of smart products usage through two paths of: emotional and functional, at the same time. These paths are related to two types of behavior modes: affect-oriented which reflects the emotional or psychological demands we need, and the task-oriented which reflects essential needs for us to make use of these products. The behavior modes, represented by anthropomorphism cues and functional cues respectively, influence different kinds of trust, affect-based and cognition-based, and then determine the usage of smart products. The results will be examine through data collection in the near future. And we hope that the results could unravel several important findings and bring some managerial implications for manufacturers to improve their products

DHRL-FNMR: An Intelligent Multicast Routing Approach Based on Deep Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning in SDN

The optimal multicast tree problem in the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) multicast routing is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem. Although existing SDN intelligent solution methods, which are based on deep reinforcement learning, can dynamically adapt to complex network link state changes, these methods are plagued by problems such as redundant branches, large action space, and slow agent convergence. In this paper, an SDN intelligent multicast routing algorithm based on deep hierarchical reinforcement learning is proposed to circumvent the aforementioned problems. First, the multicast tree construction problem is decomposed into two sub-problems: the fork node selection problem and the construction of the optimal path from the fork node to the destination node. Second, based on the information characteristics of SDN global network perception, the multicast tree state matrix, link bandwidth matrix, link delay matrix, link packet loss rate matrix, and sub-goal matrix are designed as the state space of intrinsic and meta controllers. Then, in order to mitigate the excessive action space, our approach constructs different action spaces at the upper and lower levels. The meta-controller generates an action space using network nodes to select the fork node, and the intrinsic controller uses the adjacent edges of the current node as its action space, thus implementing four different action selection strategies in the construction of the multicast tree. To facilitate the intelligent agent in constructing the optimal multicast tree with greater speed, we developed alternative reward strategies that distinguish between single-step node actions and multi-step actions towards multiple destination nodes

Plant buffering against the high-light stress-induced accumulation of CsGA2ox8 transcripts via alternative splicing to finely tune gibberellin levels and maintain hypocotyl elongation

Ajuts: this study was supported by The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFD1000300), the International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program from the China Postdoctoral Council (20170053), the Technology System Construction of Modern Agricultural Industry of Shanghai (19Z113040008), and the Presidential Foundation of Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (BZ201901).In plants, alternative splicing (AS) is markedly induced in response to environmental stresses, but it is unclear why plants generate multiple transcripts under stress conditions. In this study, RNA-seq was performed to identify AS events in cucumber seedlings grown under different light intensities. We identified a novel transcript of the gibberellin (GA)-deactivating enzyme Gibberellin 2-beta-dioxygenase 8 (CsGA2ox8). Compared with canonical CsGA2ox8.1, the CsGA2ox8.2 isoform presented intron retention between the second and third exons. Functional analysis proved that the transcript of CsGA2ox8.1 but not CsGA2ox8.2 played a role in the deactivation of bioactive GAs. Moreover, expression analysis demonstrated that both transcripts were upregulated by increased light intensity, but the expression level of CsGA2ox8.1 increased slowly when the light intensity was >400 µmol·m −2 ·s −1 PPFD (photosynthetic photon flux density), while the CsGA2ox8.2 transcript levels increased rapidly when the light intensity was >200 µmol·m −2 ·s −1 PPFD. Our findings provide evidence that plants might finely tune their GA levels by buffering against the normal transcripts of CsGA2ox8 through AS

Reliability-Informed Life-Cycle Warranty Cost Analysis: A Case Study on a Transmission in Agricultural Equipment

In agricultural and industrial equipment, both new and remanufactured systems are often available for warranty coverage. In such cases, it may be challenging for equipment manufacturers to properly trade-off between the system reliability and the cost associated with a replacement option (e.g., replace with a new or remanufactured system). To address this problem, we present a reliability-informed life-cycle warranty cost (LCWC) analysis framework that enables equipment manufacturers to evaluate different warranty policies. These warranty policies differ in whether a new or remanufactured system is used for replacement in the case of product failure. The novelty of this LCWC analysis framework lies in its ability to incorporate real-world field reliability data into warranty policy assessment using probabilistic warranty cost models that consider multiple life cycles. First, the reliability functions for the new and remanufactured systems are built as the time-to-failure distributions that provide the best-fit to the field reliability data. Then, these reliability functions and their corresponding warranty policies are used to build the LCWC models according to the specific warranty terms. Finally, Monte Carlo simulation is used to propagate the time-to-failure uncertainty of each system, modeled by its reliability function, through each LCWC model to produce a probability distribution of the LCWC. The effectiveness of the proposed reliability-informed LCWC analysis framework is demonstrated with a real-world case study on a transmission used in some agricultural equipment

Yeast Probiotics Shape the Gut Microbiome and Improve the Health of Early-Weaned Piglets

Weaning is one of the most stressful challenges in the pig’s life, which contributes to dysfunctions of intestinal and immune system, disrupts the gut microbial ecosystem, and therefore compromises the growth performance and health of piglets. To mitigate the negative impact of the stress on early-weaned piglets, effective measures are needed to promote gut health. Toward this end, we tamed a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain and developed a probiotic Duan-Nai-An, which is a yeast culture of the tamed S. cerevisiae on egg white. In this study, we tested the performance of Duan-Nai-An on growth and health of early-weaned piglets and analyzed its impact on fecal microbiota. The results showed that Duan-Nai-An significantly improved weight gain and feed intake, and reduced diarrhea and death of early-weaned piglets. Analysis of the gut microbiota showed that the bacterial community was shaped by Duan-Nai-An and maintained as a relatively stable structure, represented by a higher core OTU number and lower unweighted UniFrac distances across the early weaned period. However, fungal community was not significantly shaped by the yeast probiotics. Notably, 13 bacterial genera were found to be associated with Duan-Nai-An feeding, including Enterococcus, Succinivibrio, Ruminococcus, Sharpea, Desulfovibrio, RFN20, Sphaerochaeta, Peptococcus, Anaeroplasma, and four other undefined genera. These findings suggest that Duan-Nai-An has the potential to be used as a feed supplement in swine production

Reassessing two contrasting Late Miocene-Holocene stratigraphic frameworks for the Pearl River Mouth Basin, northern South China Sea

High-resolution 2D/3D seismic and biostratigraphic data are used to reassess two contrasting Late Miocene-Holocene stratigraphic frameworks (SFI and SFII) for the northern slope of the Pearl River Mouth Basin (PRMB), northern South China Sea. The major stratigraphic boundaries (T1-base Quaternary and T2-base Pliocene) derived from SFI and SFII are different in depth. The trends of average sedimentation rates from Late Miocene to Quaternary were estimated according to the major boundaries in order to highlight the differences between these two frameworks. The seismic reflection terminations as erosional and truncation features were recognized through the seismic data implying that the submarine channels and mass-transport deposits are valid stratigraphic markers of Late Miocene-Holocene basin development on the northern South China Sea margin and other continental margins. The sediments from hydrate drilling sites in the Shenhu Area consist of two allochthonous sedimentary units with similar lithology and grain sizes: a) fine-grained turbidites at the bottom, and b) fine-grained submarine landslides at the top. Nannofossil assemblages with relatively minute sizes were likely to be reworked due to the setting of widespread mass wasting on the middle to lower continental slope. A key result of this study is that the stratigraphic framework based on a combination of seismic and sequence stratigraphic data is more suitable for stratigraphic correlations across the northern slope of the PRMB. Our findings provide a robust foundation to rebuild the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the PRMB and also resolve the uncertainties in the Late Miocene-Holocene stratigraphic frameworks of the study area

Cardioprotection against Heart Failure by Shenfu Injection via TGF- β

Objective. To explore the potential cardioprotective mechanism of Shenfu injection (SFI) against heart failure (HF) by attenuating myocardial fibrosis and cardiac remodeling. Methods and Results. Four weeks after myocardial infarction (MI), adult male Sprague Dawley rats were randomized for 4-week treatment with Valsartan, SFI, or vehicle. Echocardiography and hemodynamics were applied to evaluate cardiac functions. Myocardia of coronary artery ligated (CAD) rats were observed to investigate changes in cardiac structure and function. Our findings suggest that treatment with SFI could inhibit progression of myocardial fibrosis and attenuate cardiac remodeling. In addition, SFI decreased expression of Smad2 and Smad3, while increasing the expression of Smad7 through regulation of TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway. Conclusion. Treatment with SFI in Sprague Dawley rats improves ventricular structure and function and reduces cardiac fibrosis by ameliorating TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway after ventricular remodeling