Interpretable machine learning-accelerated seed treatment by nanomaterials for environmental stress alleviation

Crops are constantly challenged by different environmental conditions. Seed treatment by nanomaterials is a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solution for environmental stress mitigation in crop plants. Here, 56 seed nanopriming treatments are used to alleviate environmental stresses in maize. Seven selected nanopriming treatments significantly increase the stress resistance index (SRI) by 13.9% and 12.6% under salinity stress and combined heat-drought stress, respectively. Metabolomics data reveals that ZnO nanopriming treatment, with the highest SRI value, mainly regulates the pathways of amino acid metabolism, secondary metabolite synthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, and translation. Understanding the mechanism of seed nanopriming is still difficult due to the variety of nanomaterials and the complexity of interactions between nanomaterials and plants. Using the nanopriming data, we present an interpretable structure-activity relationship (ISAR) approach based on interpretable machine learning for predicting and understanding its stress mitigation effects. The post hoc and model-based interpretation approaches of machine learning are combined to provide complementary benefits and give researchers or policymakers more illuminating or trustworthy results. The concentration, size, and zeta potential of nanoparticles are identified as dominant factors for correlating root dry weight under salinity stress, and their effects and interactions are explained. Additionally, a web-based interactive tool is developed for offering prediction-level interpretation and gathering more details about specific nanopriming treatments. This work offers a promising framework for accelerating the agricultural applications of nanomaterials and may profoundly contribute to nanosafety assessment.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figure

Guidelines for integrating ecological and biological engineering technologies for control of severe erosion in mountainous areas â A case study of the Xiaojiang River Basin, China

Ecological environment issues caused by soil erosion have always been the attractive and significant problems all over the world. Under the background of global warming, debris flow, landslide, and other intense gravitational erosion activities have become aggravated, which leads to the decrease of biological diversity, ecosystem stability, resistance, productivity, and the like, which presents new challenges to traditional measures of soil and water conservation. This article, based on research conducted on controlling mountain hazard on the Xiaojiang River basin over the last 30 years, summarizes the managerial achievement of typical ecological engineering technologies and analyzes the principles and application of each type of treatment. The results indicated that established ecological engineering technologies play a significant role in the prevention and treatment of intense gravitational erosion caused by mountain hazard. However, there are still a great deal of limitation of application condition and maneuverability during management process. How to furtherly develop the rational combining pattern between ecological engineering (e.g. contour hedgerow) and geotechnical engineering (e.g. slit dam) and how to strengthen the risk control and improve management strategy will be the key points for preventing intense gravitational erosion in future by ecological engineering. Keywords: Soil and water conservation, Ecological engineering, Gravitational erosion, Risk control, Mountain hazard

Research on Design Method of Product Functional Hybridization for Integrated Innovation

Product hybridization design is a new model of integrated innovation. Existing methods of product hybridization design focus on technological recombination, and there is a lack of research from the perspective of function. Therefore, this paper proposes the concept of functional product hybridization. Obtaining goal products and fusing the existing product function systems are two keys to implementing product functional hybridization. However, existing functional integration methods acquire goal products too widely, and there is less research on fusing product function systems. In this paper, a scenario analysis model based on the divergence tree is established by combining scenario analysis and the divergence tree, and three paths of goal product prediction for functional hybridization are proposed. Based on the idea of biological gene recombination, a product gene model and a method of product gene recombination for functional hybridization are studied. Moreover, integrating the Theory of Inventive Problems Solving (TRIZ), a method of establishing a concept structure is proposed. On this basis, a process model for product functional hybridization design is established. An example of a new tree-planting machine illustrates the application of the proposed model. The proposed method enriches the theory of product hybridization design and achieves the fusion of product function systems to meet the multi-functional needs of users

Method for Product-Integrated Innovation Based on Biological Inspiration

Existing research on integrated innovation primarily focuses on the integration of product functions or technologies in the engineering field, with limited exploration of cross-domain integration of biological knowledge. Various organisms exhibit various advantageous biological characteristics, and the multi-biological knowledge embedded within these characteristics can inspire designers to implement product integrated innovation. Biologically Inspired Design (BID) is a method that seeks inspiration from nature to achieve innovation in the engineering field. However, existing BID processes mainly apply the features of a single biological prototype. Against this background, this paper emphasizes how to achieve cross-domain integrated innovation through multi-biological knowledge. First, a method for generating integrated innovation ideas is proposed, achieved through obtaining biological prototypes and analyzing biological performance. Second, by obtaining the principal solution through the three mapping methods of biological effects, behaviors, and structures, a method for building the conceptual structure of integrated innovation is proposed. Finally, in conjunction with the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), a product-integrated innovation design process model based on biological inspiration is constructed. The method is validated with an example of a six-legged firefighting robot

Research on Design Method of Product Functional Hybridization for Integrated Innovation

Product hybridization design is a new model of integrated innovation. Existing methods of product hybridization design focus on technological recombination, and there is a lack of research from the perspective of function. Therefore, this paper proposes the concept of functional product hybridization. Obtaining goal products and fusing the existing product function systems are two keys to implementing product functional hybridization. However, existing functional integration methods acquire goal products too widely, and there is less research on fusing product function systems. In this paper, a scenario analysis model based on the divergence tree is established by combining scenario analysis and the divergence tree, and three paths of goal product prediction for functional hybridization are proposed. Based on the idea of biological gene recombination, a product gene model and a method of product gene recombination for functional hybridization are studied. Moreover, integrating the Theory of Inventive Problems Solving (TRIZ), a method of establishing a concept structure is proposed. On this basis, a process model for product functional hybridization design is established. An example of a new tree-planting machine illustrates the application of the proposed model. The proposed method enriches the theory of product hybridization design and achieves the fusion of product function systems to meet the multi-functional needs of users

Characterization of H3PO4-Treated Rice Husk Adsorbent and Adsorption of Copper(II) from Aqueous Solution

Rice husk, a surplus agricultural byproduct, was applied to the sorption of copper from aqueous solutions. Chemical modifications by treating rice husk with H3PO4 increased the sorption ability of rice husk for Cu(II). This work investigated the sorption characteristics for Cu(II) and examined the optimum conditions of the sorption processes. The elemental compositions of native rice husk and H3PO4-treated rice husk were determined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis was carried out for structural and morphological characteristics of H3PO4-treated rice husk. The surface functional groups (i.e., carbonyl, carboxyl, and hydroxyl) of adsorbent were examined by Fourier Transform Infrared Technique (FT-IR) and contributed to the adsorption for Cu(II). Adsorption isotherm experiments were carried out at room temperature and the data obtained from batch studies fitted well with the Langmuir and Freundlich models with R2 of 0.999 and 0.9303, respectively. The maximum sorption amount was 17.0358 mg/g at a dosage of 2 g/L after 180 min. The results showed that optimum pH was attained at pH 4.0. The equilibrium data was well represented by the pseudo-second-order kinetics. The percentage removal for Cu(II) approached equilibrium at 180 min with 88.9% removal