Collaborative actuation of wireless sensor and actuator networks for the agriculture industry.

This paper investigates the deployment of collaborative estimation and actuation scheme of wireless sensor and actuator networks for the agriculture industry. In our proposed scheme, sensor nodes conduct a local estimation based on the Kalman filter for enhancing the estimation stability and further transmit data to the actuator nodes under a multi-rate transmission mode for enhancing the overall energy efficiency of the wireless network. Considering the mutual effect of related clusters, a collaborative actuation scheme of actuator nodes is integrated into our proposed scheme for improving the estimation accuracy and convergence speed. With an accurate estimation of the changes in the environmental parameters, combining the fuzzy neural network with the PID control algorithm, the actuator exerts reliable control over the environmental parameters. Performance evaluations and simulation analysis conducted based on the effects of temperature demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme in controlling the greenhouse environmental changes for in the agriculture industry.N/

A generalized alarm delay-timer’s performance indices computing method

With the rapid development of the modern process industry, the importance of the alarm system has become significant. In general, too many nuisance alarms exist in alarm systems and distract operators’ attention from paying attention to the real abnormal situation. As an effective technique to remove nuisance alarms, the alarm delay-timer is applied extensively in practice. Due to the defects of the alarm delay-timer, the generalized alarm delay-timer is proposed recently as an improvement. But the alarm performance indices alarm rate (FAR), missed alarm rate (MAR), and average alarm delay (AAD) for the generalized alarm delay-timer are not obtained easily so far. In view of this fact; first, a generalization computing method is proposed in the form of three formulas based on the Markov models. Second, the application range of the generalized alarm delay-timer and conventional alarm delay-timer are compared through a numerical simulation. Finally, the procedures of applying the generalized alarm delay-timer are illustrated by a simulation example

Predictive effect of peripheral blood system inflammation indicators on acute asthma attacks in children

Objective To explore the value of peripheral blood system inflammation indicators such as neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune inflammation index (SII) in predicting the acute attack and severity of asthma in children. Methods Eighty children with acute exacerbation of asthma diagnosed in the Department of Pediatrics of Huai'an First People's Hospital from January 2020 to August 2022 were retrospectively selected as the asthma group, including 39 severe and critically ill children as the severe group, 41 mild to moderate children as the non-severe group, and 60 healthy children in the same period were selected as the control group. The peripheral blood cell count was detected, and NLR, PLR and SII were calculated. ROC curve was used to analyze the predictive value of each index for acute attack and severe attack of asthma. Results Compared with the control group, the levels of NLR (Z=5.678, P＜0.01＝, PLR (Z=2.889, P＜0.01＝ and SII (Z=5.343, P＜0.01＝ in the asthma group were higher. NLR (Z=3.393, P＜0.01＝, PLR (Z=2.787, P＜0.01＝ and SII (Z=3.489, P＜0.01＝ levels in severe group were higher than those in non-severe group. ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of NLR, PLR and SII in predicting acute attack of asthma were 0.781 (95%CI: 0.705-0.853, P＜0.01＝, 0.643 (95%CI: 0.551-0.735, P＜0.01＝and 0.764 (95%CI: 0.685-0.843, P＜0.01＝, respectively. The AUC of NLR was the highest, with sensitivity and specificity of 68.8% and 76.7% respectively. The AUC of NLR, PLR and SII in predicting acute severe asthma attack were 0.720 (95%CI: 0.608-0.833, P＜0.01), 0.681 (95%CI: 0.559-0.803, P＜0.01) and 0.727(95%CI: 0.615-0.838, P＜0.01), respectively. The AUC of SII was the highest, with sensitivity and specificity of 61.5% and 80.5% respectively. Conclusion NLR, PLR and SII in peripheral blood have certain predictive value for acute attack and severe attack of asthma in children

Virtual Battery Pack-Based Battery Management System Testing Framework

The battery management system (BMS) is a core component to ensure the efficient and safe operation of electric vehicles, and the practical evaluation of key BMS functions is thus of great importance. However, the testing of a BMS with actual battery packs suffers from a poor testing repeatability and a long status transition time due to the uncontrollable degradation of battery systems and testing environment variations. In this paper, to overcome this challenge, we propose an efficient BMS testing framework that uses virtual battery packs rather than actual ones, thus enabling a rapid and accurate evaluation of a BMSs key functions. A series-connected virtual battery pack model through leveraging Copula’s method is formulated to capture the dynamics and inconsistency of individual batteries in the pack. The developed lithium iron phosphate model features low computational efforts and is experimentally validated with different dynamical profiles, implying a high-precision virtual battery pack that is capable of reproducing the actual one. Furthermore, this framework includes a closed-loop testing platform, which can provide the state-of-charge/state-of-power references and thus automatically test and evaluate the states of the battery packs estimated from the BMS. Particularly, we consider the initial polarization that often exists in the batteries during the operation to accurately calibrate the available state-of-power benchmark of battery packs in the real world. The performed BMS testing results using the proposed framework illustrate that the tested BMS cannot adapt to the varied operation conditions, thus leading to high state estimation errors, which may result in the over-charge/discharge or over-temperature of the batteries. Therefore, this work highlights the value of effective BMS testing, providing the promising potential to achieve reliability and durability for battery systems

Resveratrol ameliorates penconazole-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibition of oxidative stress and apoptosis in zebrafish larvae

Penconazole (PEN) is a typical systemic triazole fungicide with cardiac toxic effects. Resveratrol (RES) is a natural polyphenolic phytochemical with antioxidation properties. This study aimed to investigate if RES could protect against PEN-induced cardiotoxicity and to determine the underlying mechanisms. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mg/L of PEN from 4 to 96 h post fertilization (hpf) and cardiac developmental toxicity was assessed. Our results showed that PEN decreased hatching rate, survival rate, heart rate and body length, with increased malformation rate and spontaneous movement. PEN induced pericardial edema and abnormal cardiac structure in myl7:egfp transgenic zebrafish, as well as downregulation of cardiac development related genes (nkx2.5, tbx2.5, gata4, noto, and vmhc). In addition, PEN elevated oxidative stress via reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and triggered cardiomyocytic apoptosis by upregulation of p53, bcl-2, bax and caspase 3. These adverse outcomes were counteracted by RES, indicating that RES ameliorated PEN-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis in zebrafish. Taken together, this study revealed the important role of oxidative stress in PEN-induced cardiotoxicity and identified dietary RES supplementation as a novel strategy to mitigate its toxicity

Maximizing the Interface of Dual Active Sites to Enhance Higher Oxygenate Synthesis from Syngas with High Activity

Selective synthesis of higher oxygenates from syngas provides a promising route for the conversion of nonpetroleum carbon resources into valuable chemicals. However, it remains a grand challenge to design highly efficient and stable dual-sites structures to promote the production of higher oxygenates. Herein, we reported an effective method to maximize the interface of dual active sites via designing the structure of alloy carbide derived from the FeCo layered double hydroxide precursor. Cobalt atoms were well-distributed and doped into Fe2C to form (FexCoy)2C alloy carbide. The atomic-scale contact Fe–Co interfacial sites could achieve a >35% oxygenate selectivity at a CO conversion of >80% during 200 h of running, and a high space–time yield of 183.9 mg/gcat./h for oxygenates with 95.6% being the C2+OH fraction was obtained. The kinetic study confirmed that the apparent activation energy of (FexCoy)2C alloy carbide was lower than that of separated Fe2C-Co2C dual sites. This work provides a strategy for the design of an effective catalyst for selective synthesis of higher oxygenates from syngas by tuning the interface of dual active sites at an atomic level

Evaluating anti-viral effect of Tylvalosin tartrate on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and analyzing the related gene regulation by transcriptomics

Abstract Background Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an economically important pathogen, characterized by its genetic and antigenic variation. The PRRSV vaccine is widely used, however, the unsatisfied heterologic protection and the risk of reverse virulence raise the requirement to find some new anti-PRRSV strategies for disease control. Tylvalosin tartrate is used to inhibit PRRSV in the field non-specifically, however, the mechanism is still less known. Methods The antiviral effects of Tylvalosin tartrates from three producers were evaluated in a cell inoculation model. Their safety and efficacy concentrations, and effecting stage during PRRSV infection were analyzed. And, the Tylvalosin tartrates regulated genes and pathways which are potentially related to the anti-viral effect were further explored by using transcriptomics analysis. Last, the transcription level of six anti-virus-related DEGs was selected to confirm by qPCR, and the expression level of HMOX1, a reported anti-PRRSV gene, was proved by western blot. Results The safety concentrations of Tylvalosin tartrates from three different producers were 40 µg/mL (Tyl A, Tyl B, and Tyl C) in MARC-145 cells and 20 µg/mL (Tyl A) or 40 µg/mL (Tyl B and Tyl C) in primary pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) respectively. Tylvalosin tartrate can inhibit PRRSV proliferation in a dose-dependent manner, causing more than 90% proliferation reduction at 40 µg/mL. But it shows no virucidal effect, and only achieves the antiviral effect via long-term action on the cells during the PRRSV proliferation. Furthermore, GO terms and KEGG pathway analysis was carried out based on the RNA sequencing and transcriptomic data. It was found that the Tylvalosin tartrates can regulate the signal transduction, proteolysis, and oxidation-reduction process, as well as some pathways such as protein digestion and absorption, PI3K-Akt signaling, FoxO signaling, and Ferroptosis pathways, which might relate to PRRSV proliferation or host innate immune response, but further studies still need to confirm it. Among them, six antivirus-related genes HMOX1, ATF3, FTH1, FTL, NR4A1, and CDKN1A were identified to be regulated by Tylvalosin tartrate, and the increased expression level of HMOX1 was further confirmed by western blot. Conclusions Tylvalosin tartrate can inhibit PRRSV proliferation in vitro in a dose-dependent manner. The identified DEGs and pathways in transcriptomic data will provide valuable clues for further exploring the host cell restriction factors or anti-PRRSV target