Plateau Pika Disturbance Changes Soil Bacterial Functions and Exoenzyme Abundance to Modulate the C Cycle Pathway in Alpine Grasslands.

Plateau pika () is crucial to soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau (QTP), but its role in bacterial SOC metabolisms across different degraded alpine grasslands remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the soil physicochemical properties and the composition and function of the bacterial communities in control and pika-disturbed grasslands experiencing different degradation levels (undegraded, UDM; lightly, LDM; moderately, MDM and severely, SDM). The results demonstrate that (i) the primary bacterial phyla include , , , and .

Non-fragile guaranteed cost control of microbial fuel cells.

A microbial fuel cell (MFC), which is a new type of energy source, utilises electrogenic bacteria in sewage or soil to convert chemical energy into electrical energy. MFCs typically require an external controller to provide a stable output voltage to the external load. This study develops a non-fragile guaranteed cost (NFGC) controller to suppress the interference of the controller of an MFC and ensure that the quadratic cost function of the system satisfies certain performance indexes.

Gold-Catalyzed Cascade Reaction of Diynamides with Allylic Alcohols: A Versatile Platform to Allenamide, 2-Aminofuran and Bridged [2.2.2]Octadiene Derivatives.

Transition metal-catalyzed divergent synthesis through alternation of the catalyst is appealing, as it provides an operationally simple way to access different valuable products, while using the same reactants as starting materials. Herein, a gold-catalyzed cascade reaction of conjugated diynamides with allylic alcohols is described. By variation of the catalysts, substituted allenes and furans could be obtained selectively.

Analysis of High Performance Concrete Mixed with Nano-Silica in Front of Sulfate Attack.

Nano-silica (NS) is an effective material to improve the strength and durability of high-performance concrete (HPC), but little information is available regarding its role in HPC response to long-term sulfate attack. In this study, six different dosages of NS (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5%) as cement partial replacement were mixed into HPC and the casted specimens were soaked in sulfate solution for different periods (0, 100, 200, and 300 days). The mass change, dynamic elastic modulus, compressive and splitting strength, microstructure morphology, and porosity characteristics of HPC specimens were measured by mass tests, mechanical properties tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests.

Influence of Nano-SiO on the Mechanical Properties of Recycled Aggregate Concrete with and without Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Fiber.

In recent years, recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) has become a research hotspot in the field of urban construction because of its resource utilization of construction waste. However, compared with original concrete, its strength is still low, which requires additional nano-SiO (NS) and fiber. In order to study the mechanism of strength improvement of RAC, this paper takes NS and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber as variable parameters; uniaxial and triaxial compression tests were carried out on RAC with PVA fiber and NS, and the mechanical properties of RAC were investigated The result shows that within the range of 3% NS content, an increase in the NS substitution rate causes the mechanical properties of RAC to improve significantly.

Design of Concrete Mix Proportion Based on Particle Packing Voidage and Test Research on Compressive Strength and Elastic Modulus of Concrete.

According to the basic principle of dense packing of particles, and considering the interaction between particles, a dense packing model of granular materials in concrete was proposed. During the establishment of this model, binary particle packing tests of crushed stone and sand were carried out. The fitting analysis of the test results determines the relationship between the particle size ratio and the remaining volume fraction of the particle packing, and then the actual void fraction of the particle packing was obtained, based on which the water-binder ratio was combined to determine the amount of various materials in the concrete.

Development of a prognostic model of glioma based on immune-related genes.

Glioma is the most common type of primary brain cancer, and the prognosis of most patients with glioma, and particularly that of patients with glioblastoma, is poor. Tumor immunity serves an important role in the development of glioma. However, immunotherapy for glioma has not been completely successful, and thus, comprehensive examination of the immune-related genes (IRGs) of glioma is required.

A comparative study on the micro-surface characteristics at black shale initial oxidation stage.

The pyrite oxidation is crucial to the overall black shale oxidation process. A. ferrooxidans was documented an effective oxidation ability on pure pyrite, but its role in black shale oxidation is unclear.

Robust stability analysis and controller synthesis for uncertain impulsive positive systems under L-gain performance.

This paper addresses the problems of robust stability analysis and L-gain controller synthesis for uncertain impulsive positive systems. First, by employing the idea of impulse interval partitioning, an impulse-time-dependent discretized copositive Lyapunov function is proposed to analyze the robust stability and L-gain performance of the considered system without control inputs, and several stability conditions and L-gain criteria are respectively derived. Subsequently, a sufficient condition is formulated for the existence of state-feedback controllers with which not only the positivity and robust uniform asymptotic stability of the resulting closed-loop system are guaranteed, but also a prescribed L-gain performance is satisfied simultaneously.

Geochemical mass balance and elemental transport during the weathering of the black shale of Shuijingtuo formation in Northeast Chongqing, China.

An understanding of the processes that control the behavior of major elements with respect to weathering profile is essential to calculate the mobility, redistribution, and mass fluxes of elements. Hence, this study aims to determine the geochemical mass balance, strain, elemental correlation, and transport in weathering profiles. We constructed three weathering profiles for the black shale of Shujingtuo formation.

Usefulness of serum unbound free fatty acid levels to predict death early in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (from the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction [TIMI] II trial).

Circulating total free fatty acid (FFA) levels are elevated early in myocardial infarction (MI) and have been associated with an increase in mortality. We investigated the association of serum unbound FFA (FFAu) levels with mortality in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation MI in the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction II trial. The Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction II trial enrolled patients within 4 hours of chest pain onset.

Fluorescence sensor for the quantification of unbound bilirubin concentrations.

Background: Hyperbilirubinemia in jaundiced neonates is routinely assessed by use of total serum bilirubin. However, the unbound or free form (B(f)), not total bilirubin, crosses the blood-brain barrier and can be neurotoxic. Although the peroxidase-mediated oxidation of bilirubin can be used to measure plasma concentrations of B(f), this measurement is relatively complex and the assay is not routinely used.

Fatty acid-specific fluorescent probes and their use in resolving mixtures of unbound free fatty acids in equilibrium with albumin.

We report the first measurements for profiling mixtures of unbound free fatty acids. Measurements utilized fluorescent probes with distinctly different response profiles for different free fatty acids (FFA). These probes were constructed by labeling site-specific mutants of the rat intestinal fatty acid binding protein (rI-FABP) with acrylodan.