Patent cooperative patterns and development trends of Chinese construction enterprises: A network analysis

Despite the rapid development of Chinese construction industry, there has been little research effort directed towards exploring patent cooperative patterns and evolution trends of construction enterprises, especially from the perspective of the patent development network. This paper extracts implicit collaborative information and introduces Social Network Analysis (SNA) method to conduct the patentometric analysis based on patent data from the “Top 500 Chinese Construction Enterprises” sourced from PatSnap database. The enterprise-enterprise networks and enterprise-university networks are analyzed quantitatively. The results reveal that: 1) there is a rising trend in the number of patents and patentees; 2) state-owned enterprises play a dominant role in patent development; 3) most of patents are classified as International Patent Classification E04G21; 4) the cooperative relationships are mainly within enterprises and their subsidiaries; 5) when enterprises choose to cooperate with universities, in addition to professional qualification, geographical factors should also be considered. Finally, the development and patent evolution trends are discussed. Some useful suggestions are proposed. The contribution lies in: (a) providing a visualization of the implicit collaboration information of patents in Chinese construction enterprises; (b) revealing cooperative patterns of construction enterprises on patents; and (c) providing enterprises some useful suggestions for patent cooperation

CHARACTERIZATION OF FLAX FIBRES MODIFIED BY ALKALINE, ENZYME, AND STEAM-HEAT TREATMENTS

Flax fibres are being considered as an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic fibres in fibre-reinforced polymer composites due to their low density, biodegradability, and high mechanical strength. Previous work has found that the surface properties of natural fibres can be modified by chemical treatment and other treatment methods. This study focused on the effect of different treatments using alkaline, enzyme, and steam-heat, respectively, on some surface characteristics of flax fibre, e.g. physical, chemical, and thermal stability. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), treated fibres were observed to have smoother surfaces than untreated fibres. Chemical composition of fibres was found to be modified after treatment as characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The crystallinity index and thermal stability of flax fibres were increased after certain treatments as determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. The wettability of treated fibre by water was improved compared to the untreated sample

Multi-feature spatial distribution alignment enhanced domain adaptive method for tool condition monitoring

Transfer learning (TL) has been successfully implemented in tool condition monitoring (TCM) to address the lack of labeled data in real industrial scenarios. In current TL models, the domain offset in the joint distribution of input feature and output label still exists after the feature distribution of the two domains is aligned, resulting in performance degradation. A multiple feature spatial distribution alignment (MSDA) method is proposed, Including Correlation alignment for deep domain adaptation (DeepCORAL) and Joint maximum mean difference (JMMD). Deep CORAL is employed to learn nonlinear transformations, align source and target domains at the feature level through the second-order statistical correlations. JMMD is applied to improve domain alignmentby aligning the joint distribution of input features and output labels. ResNet18 combining with bidirectional short-term memory network and attention mechanism is developed to extract the invariant features. TCM experiments with four transfer tasks were conducted and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method

An aspartic protease 47 causes quantitative recessive resistance to rice black-streaked dwarf virus disease and southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus disease

Rice black-streaked dwarf virus disease (RBSDVD) and southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus disease (SRBSDVD) are the most destructive viral diseases in rice. Progress is limited in breeding due to lack of resistance resource and inadequate knowledge on the underlying functional gene. Using genome-wide association study (GWAS), linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay analyses, RNA-sequencing, and genome editing, we identified a highly RBSDVD-resistant variety and its first functional gene. A highly RBSDVD-resistant variety W44 was identified through extensive evaluation of a diverse international rice panel. Seventeen quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified among which qRBSDV6-1 had the largest phenotypic effect. It was finely mapped to a 0.8–1.2 Mb region on chromosome 6, with 62 annotated genes. Analysis of the candidate genes underlying qRBSDV6-1 showed high expression of aspartic proteinase 47 (OsAP47) in a susceptible variety, W122, and a low resistance variety, W44. OsAP47 overexpressing lines exhibited significantly reduced resistance, while the knockout mutants exhibited significantly reduced SRBSDVD and RBSDVD severity. Furthermore, the resistant allele Hap1 of OsAP47 is almost exclusive to Indica, but rare in Japonica. Results suggest that OsAP47 knockout by editing is effective for improving RBSDVD and SRBSDVD resistance. This study provides genetic information for breeding resistant cultivars