A heterozygous moth genome provides insights into herbivory and detoxification

How an insect evolves to become a successful herbivore is of profound biological and practical importance. Herbivores are often adapted to feed on a specific group of evolutionarily and biochemically related host plants1, but the genetic and molecular bases for adaptation to plant defense compounds remain poorly understood2. We report the first whole-genome sequence of a basal lepidopteran species, Plutella xylostella, which contains 18,071 protein-coding and 1,412 unique genes with an expansion of gene families associated with perception and the detoxification of plant defense compounds. A recent expansion of retrotransposons near detoxification-related genes and a wider system used in the metabolism of plant defense compounds are shown to also be involved in the development of insecticide resistance. This work shows the genetic and molecular bases for the evolutionary success of this worldwide herbivore and offers wider insights into insect adaptation to plant feeding, as well as opening avenues for more sustainable pest management.Minsheng You … Simon W Baxter … et al

Sliding mode control with neural network for active magnetic bearing system

A novel controller design procedure is proposed for a 5-degree-of-freedom (DOF) active magnetic bearing (AMB) system, based on sliding mode control (SMC) and neural network (NN). The SMC is used to achieve high robustness and fast response while the NN can compensate unmodeled uncertainty and external disturbance by on-line tuning algorithm. The proposed controller is compared with the well-tuned PID controller by simulations. The simulation results show the superior performance of the proposed controller.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care  Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.DC systems, Energy conversion & StorageTransport Engineering and Logistic

Critical success factors for a circular economy: Implications for business strategy and the environment

Eco-efficiency and resource optimization for business strategy and the environment can be achieved by the circular economy (CE) practices in supply chains (SCs). The leather industry is a significant industrial contributor to the economic growth of some countries, but at the same time, it leads to tremendous environmental pollution. This research focuses on the identification and evaluation of critical success factors (CSFs) needed in the business strategy development of CE practices as well as to minimize environmental pollution in leather industry SCs. The CSFs are identified via a comprehensive literature review and are validated by experts' opinions. The validated CSFs are further analyzed using the best–worst method (BWM) and the decisionmaking trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The BWM is used to identify the weights of the CSFs, and DEMATEL is used to determine the cause–effect relationship between the CSFs. The findings show that “leadership and top management commitment” is the most important CSF. Six CSFs are classified as causal towards CE practices: “leadership and top management commitment,” “strong legislation towards CE practices,” “ecological scarcity of resources,” “knowledge of CE practices,” “funding support for R&D from the government,” and “competitor pressure on CE practices.” The findings of this study can help managers in the leather industry implement CE practices in their existing SCs to minimize waste