Hardening behavior of nickel-base alloy irradiated by multi-energy Fe ions

The multi-energy Fe ions irradiation was performed to avoid the effect of non-uniformity of the ion irradiation damage on the mechanical test of nickel-base alloy (UNS N10003). In this study, the hardening behavior of GH3533 alloy (nickel-base alloy) under the multi-energy Fe ions irradiation at RT and 700 °C was investigated by using nanoindentation, micro-pillar compression techniques, SEM and TEM. The hardness value saturated at 0.5 dpa at RT, according to the nanoindentation results, however the hardness curve sharply rose at the dose of 8 dpa at 700 °C. The plastic deformation curves of the samples at 700 °C had fewer jagged amplitude behaviors and no slip band on the surface, according to the stress-strain curves and in-situ SEM images obtained following the micro-pillar compression test. TEM characterization showed only the dislocation loops and lines were observed at the dose of 8 dpa at RT. However, at 700 °C, precipitates deprived of Fe and Ni and enriched in Mo and Cr were seen close to the dislocation lines at 700 °C. The smooth curves during micro-pillar compression at 700 °C and the abrupt increase in hardness were caused by the high density and uniform dispersion of these precipitates. Additionally, a technique for assessing the hardening behavior under multi-energy ion irradiation was devised, which combines nanoindentation with micro-pillar compression testing

Damage behavior of additive manufacturing 316L stainless steel irradiated with Fe ions

The irradiation damage behavior of 316L stainless steel (SS) fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) and traditional manufacturing (TM) was investigated in terms of microstructural changes in hardness and swelling at RT under irradiation with 3 MeV Fe ions at doses of 0.3 to 6 dpa. At a dose of 6 dpa, the swelling heights of the SLM and TM samples were 39.1 nm and 30.7 nm, respectively, corresponding to swelling rates of 3.0 % and 2.4 %. The irradiated SLM 316L SS exhibited a lower degree of hardening at continuous fluences than the TM 316L SS. At a dose of 6 dpa, the hardening rates of the SLM and TM 316L SS specimens were 102.1 % and 84.1 %, respectively. Furthermore, TEM results showed that the density of dislocation loops in the TM 316L SS was 8.36 × 1023/m3 while that in the SLM 316L SS was 6.15 × 1023/m3. The average sizes of the dislocation loops were 1.35 and 1.22 nm, respectively. According to calculations using the dispersed barrier hardening (DBH) model, the dislocation loops were the primary factor influencing the irradiation hardening behavior. Under Fe-ion irradiation at RT, SLM 316L SS showed superior resistance to irradiation hardening and swelling compared with TM 316L SS

Automated Behavior Recognition and Tracking of Group-Housed Pigs with an Improved DeepSORT Method

Pig behavior recognition and tracking in group-housed livestock are effective aids for health and welfare monitoring in commercial settings. However, due to demanding farm conditions, the targets in the pig videos are heavily occluded and overlapped, and there are illumination changes, which cause error switches of pig identify (ID) in the tracking process and decrease the tracking quality. To solve these problems, this study proposed an improved DeepSORT algorithm for object tracking, which contained three processes. Firstly, two detectors, YOLOX-S and YOLO v5s, were developed to detect pig targets and classify four types of pig behaviors including lying, eating, standing, and other. Then, the improved DeepSORT was developed for pig behavior tracking and reducing error changes of pig ID by improving trajectory processing and data association. Finally, we established the public dataset annotation of group-housed pigs, with 3600 images in a total from 12 videos, which were suitable for pig tracking applications. The advantage of our method includes two aspects. One is that the trajectory processing and data association are improved by aiming at pig-specific scenarios, which are indoor scenes, and the number of pig target objects is stable. This improvement reduces the error switches of pig ID and enhances the stability of the tracking. The other is that the behavior classification information from the detectors is introduced into the tracking algorithm for behavior tracking. In the experiments of pig detection and behavior recognition, the YOLO v5s and YOLOX-S detectors achieved a high precision rate of 99.4% and 98.43%, a recall rate of 99% and 99.23, and a mean average precision (mAP) rate of 99.50% and 99.23%, respectively, with an AP.5:.95 of 89.3% and 87%. In the experiments of pig behavior tracking, the improved DeepSORT algorithm based on YOLOX-S obtained multi-object tracking accuracy (MOTA), ID switches (IDs), and IDF1 of 98.6%,15, and 95.7%, respectively. Compared with DeepSORT, it improved by 1.8% and 6.8% in MOTA and IDF1, respectively, and IDs had a significant decrease, with a decline of 80%. These experiments demonstrate that the improved DeepSORT can achieve pig behavior tracking with stable ID values under commercial conditions and provide scalable technical support for contactless automated pig monitoring

Major Facilitator Superfamily Transporter Gene FgMFS1 Is Essential for Fusarium graminearum to Deal with Salicylic Acid Stress and for Its Pathogenicity towards Wheat

Wheat is a major staple food crop worldwide, due to its total yield and unique processing quality. Its grain yield and quality are threatened by Fusarium head blight (FHB), which is mainly caused by Fusarium graminearum. Salicylic acid (SA) has a strong and toxic effect on F. graminearum and is a hopeful target for sustainable control of FHB. F. graminearum is capable of efficientdealing with SA stress. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we characterized FgMFS1 (FGSG_03725), a major facilitator superfamily (MFS) transporter gene in F. graminearum. FgMFS1 was highly expressed during infection and was upregulated by SA. The predicted three-dimensional structure of the FgMFS1 protein was consistent with the schematic for the antiporter. The subcellular localization experiment indicated that FgMFS1 was usually expressed in the vacuole of hyphae, but was alternatively distributed in the cell membrane under SA treatment, indicating an element of F. graminearum in response to SA. ΔFgMFS1 (loss of function mutant of FgMFS1) showed enhanced sensitivity to SA, less pathogenicity towards wheat, and reduced DON production under SA stress. Re-introduction of a functional FgMFS1 gene into ∆FgMFS1 recovered the mutant phenotypes. Wheat spikes inoculated with ΔFgMFS1 accumulated more SA when compared to those inoculated with the wild-type strain. Ecotopic expression of FgMFS1 in yeast enhanced its tolerance to SA as expected, further demonstrating that FgMFS1 functions as an SA exporter. In conclusion, FgMFS1 encodes an SA exporter in F. graminearum, which is critical for its response to wheat endogenous SA and pathogenicity towards wheat

Integration of transcriptomics, metabolomics, and hormone analysis revealed the formation of lesion spots inhibited by GA and CTK was related to cell death and disease resistance in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract Background Wheat is one of the important grain crops in the world. The formation of lesion spots related to cell death is involved in disease resistance, whereas the regulatory pathway of lesion spot production and resistance mechanism to pathogens in wheat is largely unknown. Results In this study, a pair of NILs (NIL-Lm5 W and NIL-Lm5 M) was constructed from the BC1F4 population by the wheat lesion mimic mutant MC21 and its wild genotype Chuannong 16. The formation of lesion spots in NIL-Lm5 M significantly increased its resistance to stripe rust, and NIL-Lm5 M showed superiour agronomic traits than NIL-Lm5 W under stripe rust infection.Whereafter, the NILs were subjected to transcriptomic (stage N: no spots; stage S, only a few spots; and stage M, numerous spots), metabolomic (stage N and S), and hormone analysis (stage S), with samples taken from normal plants in the field. Transcriptomic analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were enriched in plant-pathogen interaction, and defense-related genes were significantly upregulated following the formation of lesion spots. Metabolomic analysis showed that the differentially accumulated metabolites were enriched in energy metabolism, including amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Correlation network diagrams of transcriptomic and metabolomic showed that they were both enriched in energy metabolism. Additionally, the contents of gibberellin A7, cis-Zeatin, and abscisic acid were decreased in leaves upon lesion spot formation, whereas the lesion spots in NIL-Lm5 M leaves were restrained by spaying GA and cytokinin (CTK, trans-zeatin) in the field. Conclusion The formation of lesion spots can result in cell death and enhance strip rust resistance by protein degradation pathway and defense-related genes overexpression in wheat. Besides, the formation of lesion spots was significantly affected by GA and CTK. Altogether, these results may contribute to the understanding of lesion spot formation in wheat and laid a foundation for regulating the resistance mechanism to stripe rust