In this paper, ant colony algorithm and genetic algorithm are combined and applied to the teaching mode of English for Special Purposes (ESP) in colleges and universities, and the optimization of the ...teaching mode is realized through the PDCA model. The iteration speed of ant colony algorithm is better than that of genetic algorithm in the early stage. In comparison, the iteration speed of genetic algorithm is better in the later stage. By fusing these two algorithms, their respective advantages can be maximized. The study takes two computer science classes as an example, first conducts a needs analysis of the ESP course, and finds that the ratings in English foundation, learning materials, learning mode, and quiz mode are all higher than 5.5. By comparing the final exam scores of the experimental and control classes, it was found that the average score of the practical class was 3.5 points higher than that of the control class, which indicated that the ESP teaching of the PDCA cycle effectively improved the students’ academic performance. The average score of students’ recognition of the ESP teaching model of PDCA cycle was 4.252, while the ratings in satisfaction, participation in classroom interactions, and learning effect were all over 4.1. The analysis of learning motivation shows that “for better employment”, “for promotion”, and “to pass the exam” are the top three motivations for students to choose to learn English for computer science majors, with scores of 175, 174, and 170, respectively. This study effectively demonstrates the potential of combining ACO and Genetic Algorithm in education.
Supercapacitors known as typical electrochemical capacitors have been considered as one of the most promising candidates of energy storage systems owing to their advantages such as high-power ...density, long life span and lower production cost. The electrode materials play a crucial role on properties of supercapacitors. Hence, many researches have been focused on the development of novel electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitors. NiCo2O4 as supercapacitor electrode material has drawn more and more attentions in recent years due to its outstanding advantages, such as high theoretical capacity, low cost, natural abundance and easy of synthesis. However, the NiCo2O4 always suffer from severe capacity deterioration because of the low electrical conductivity and small surface area. Hence, it is necessary to systematically and comprehensively summarize the progress in understanding and modifying NiCo2O4-based materials from various aspects. In this review, the structure and synthesis method of NiCo2O4-based materials are discussed in detail. And then, the major goal of this review is to highlight new progress in using proposed strategies to improve the cycling stability and rate capacity of NiCo2O4-based materials, including synthesis, control of special morphologies and design of composite materials. Finally, an insight into the future research and development of NiCo2O4-based materials for supercapacitors is prospected.
Strategies in the synthesis of NiCo2O4-based materials are discussed. Progress in understanding and modifying NiCo2O4-based materials from various aspects is summarized. Key strategies for improving the cycling stability of NiCo2O4-based material are discussed. Display omitted
Foodborne bacterial infections and diseases have been considered to be a major threat for public health in the worldwide. Increased incidence of human diseases caused by foodborne pathogens have been ...correlated with growing world population and mobility. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has been regarded as an innovative gene amplification technology and emerged as an alternative to PCR-based methodologies in both clinical laboratory and food safety testing. Nowadays, LAMP has been applied to detection and identification on pathogens from microbial diseases, as it showed significant advantage in high sensitivity, specificity and rapidity. The high sensitivity of LAMP enables detection of the pathogens in sample materials even without time consuming sample preparation. An overview of LAMP mainly containing the development history, reaction principle and its application to four kind of foodborne pathogens detection are presented in this paper. As concluded, with the advantages of rapidity, simplicity, sensitivity, specificity and robustness, LAMP is capable of applications for clinical diagnosis as well as surveillance of infection diseases. Moreover, the main purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical basis for the clinical application of LAMP technology.
•The background of LAMP is introduced in detail, including the development history, principle of LAMP amplification, et al.•It is important to describe the current research of LAMP in the file of foodborne pathogens causing infection and disease.•The current research of LAMP is presented, LAMP combined with other biological ways to solve the limitations of it as well.
China is experiencing a stage of rapid urban development. The energy consumption and related carbon dioxide emissions of households continue to increase. This paper calculates direct and indirect ...carbon dioxide emissions of households based on the input–output method in China from 1996 to 2012. The results reveal that there were more total carbon dioxide emissions from urban households than from rural households, far more indirect emissions from urban households than from rural households, slightly more direct emissions from urban households than from rural households, and differences in direct carbon dioxide emissions from various fuels and in indirect emissions from various sectors between urban and rural households. To examine the causal relationship between urbanization and the carbon dioxide emissions of households, cointegration and Granger causality tests are applied. A unidirectional causal relation was found running from urbanization to both direct and indirect household carbon dioxide emissions, and the direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions of households would increase 2.9% and 1.1%, respectively, for every increase of one percent in urbanization. We discuss the reasons of why the development of urbanization will lead to more household direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions, and suggest certain policy implications for urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions based on the results of this study.
•Direct and indirect carbon emissions of households are calculated.•Differences in carbon emissions between urban and rural households are identified.•A unidirectional causal relation was found running from urbanization to emissions.•Reasons of why urbanization leads to more household carbon emissions are discussed.•Policy implications for urbanization and carbon emissions are suggested.
► Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) produced by several species including insects, other animals, micro organisms and synthesis, are a critical component of the natural defense system. ► With the growing ...problem of pathogenic organisms resistant to conventional antibiotics, especially with the emergence of NDM-1, there is increased interest in the pharmacological application of AMPs. ► They can protect against a broad array of infectious agents, such as bacteria, fungi, parasite, virus and cancer cells. ► AMPs have a good future in the application in pharmaceuticals industry and food additive.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are produced by several species including insects, other animals, micro-organisms and synthesis, are a critical component of the natural defense system. With the growing problem of pathogenic organisms resistant to conventional antibiotics, especially with the emergence of NDM-1, there is increased interest in the pharmacological application of AMPs. They can protect against a broad array of infectious agents, such as bacteria, fungi, parasite, virus and cancer cells. AMPs have a very good future in the application in pharmaceuticals industry and food additive. This review focuses on the AMPs from different origins in these recent years, and discusses their various functions and relative mechanisms of action. It will provide some detailed files for clinical research of pharmaceuticals industry and food additive in application.
A pandemic is a very stressful event, especially for highly vulnerable people (e.g., older adults). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the main and interactive relationships of ...social support and resilience on individual mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic across three age groups: emerging adults, adults, and older adults.
A survey was conducted with 23,192 participants aged 18-85. Respondents completed a questionnaire, including items on the COVID-19-related support they perceived from different sources, the abbreviated version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Mental Health Inventory.
Latent profile analysis identified five profiles of social support, and the patterns of potential profiles were similar in all groups. However, category distribution in the five profiles was significantly different among the age groups. Furthermore, analysis using the BCH command showed significant differences in mental health among these profiles. Lastly, interactive analyses indicated resilience had a positive relationship with mental health, and social support served as a buffer against the negative impact of low resilience on mental health.
This study provides quantitative evidence for socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) and enables several practical implications for helping different age groups protecting mental health during pandemic.
Cadmium-doped (Cd-doped) TiO2 nanorods arrays were successfully synthesized directly (without seeds layer) on FTO via a mild one-pot hydrothermal method. SEM shows Cd-doped TiO2 nanorod has a length ...of 520nm and a diameter of 80nm. Tauc plots spectra showed that the Cd doping changed TiO2 band gap from 3.05eV to 3.03eV. The flat band potential of the Cd-doped TiO2 show negative deviation of ∼30mV and lead to an increment of Voc. The PCE of Cd-doped perovskite device achieved 8.30%, which was almost 30% higher than that of the un-doped samples.
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•Cd-doped TiO2 nanorods arrays were successfully synthesized via a facile one-step route.•Study show introduction of Cd doping changed the band gap of TiO2 from 3.05eV to 3.03eV.•Cd doping make TiO2 flat band potential negative shift of ∼30mV and increase Voc.•EIS spectra show Cd-doped TiO2 nanorod increased the electron recombination resistance.•Cd-doped TiO2 perovskite device show 30% increase in conversion efficiency.
Cadmium-doped TiO2 nanorods arrays were directly grown on transparent conductive substrates without seeds layer via a facile method and applied in perovskite solar cell. The morphology was examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and the structure was examined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). SEM showed that the Cd-doped TiO2 nanorods had a length of 520nm and a diameter of 80nm. Energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and Tauc plot spectra showed that Cd was successfully doped and changed TiO2 band gap from 3.05 to 3.03eV. The flat band potential of the Cd-doped TiO2 show negative deviation of ∼30mV and lead to an increment of Voc of solar cell when compared with undoped sample. Cd-doped TiO2 nanorods also showed a higher diffuse reflection than the un-doped TiO2 nanorods under visible light. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed that the resistance of the device based on Cd-doped TiO2 nanorods was lower than that of the undoped device. The PCE of Cd-doped perovskite device achieved 8.30%, which was almost 30% higher than that of the un-doped TiO2.
ObjectiveThe significance of the liver-microbiome axis has been increasingly recognised as a major modulator of autoimmunity. The aim of this study was to take advantage of a large well-defined ...corticosteroids treatment-naïve group of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) to rigorously characterise gut dysbiosis compared with healthy controls.DesignWe performed a cross-sectional study of individuals with AIH (n=91) and matched healthy controls (n=98) by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. An independent cohort of 28 patients and 34 controls was analysed to validate the results. All the patients were collected before corticosteroids therapy.ResultsThe gut microbiome of steroid treatment-naïve AIH was characterised with lower alpha-diversity (Shannon and observed operational taxonomic units, both p<0.01) and distinct overall microbial composition compared with healthy controls (p=0.002). Depletion of obligate anaerobes and expansion of potential pathobionts including Veillonella were associated with disease status. Of note, Veillonella dispar, the most strongly disease-associated taxa (p=8.85E–8), positively correlated with serum level of aspartate aminotransferase and liver inflammation. Furthermore, the combination of four patients with AIH-associated genera distinguished AIH from controls with an area under curves of approximately 0.8 in both exploration and validation cohorts. In addition, multiple predicted functional modules were altered in the AIH gut microbiome, including lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis as well as metabolism of amino acids that can be processed by bacteria to produce immunomodulatory metabolites.ConclusionOur study establishes compositional and functional alterations of gut microbiome in AIH and suggests the potential for using gut microbiota as non-invasive biomarkers to assess disease activity.
Plant health and growth are negatively affected by pathogen invasion; however, plants can dynamically modulate their rhizosphere microbiome and adapt to such biotic stresses. Although plant-recruited ...protective microbes can be assembled into synthetic communities for application in the control of plant disease, rhizosphere microbial communities commonly contain some taxa at low abundance. The roles of low-abundance microbes in synthetic communities remain unclear; it is also unclear whether all the microbes enriched by plants can enhance host adaptation to the environment. Here, we assembled a synthetic community with a disease resistance function based on differential analysis of root-associated bacterial community composition. We further simplified the synthetic community and investigated the roles of low-abundance bacteria in the control of Astragalus mongholicus root rot disease by a simple synthetic community.
Fusarium oxysporum infection reduced bacterial Shannon diversity and significantly affected the bacterial community composition in the rhizosphere and roots of Astragalus mongholicus. Under fungal pathogen challenge, Astragalus mongholicus recruited some beneficial bacteria such as Stenotrophomonas, Achromobacter, Pseudomonas, and Flavobacterium to the rhizosphere and roots. We constructed a disease-resistant bacterial community containing 10 high- and three low-abundance bacteria enriched in diseased roots. After the joint selection of plants and pathogens, the complex synthetic community was further simplified into a four-species community composed of three high-abundance bacteria (Stenotrophomonas sp., Rhizobium sp., Ochrobactrum sp.) and one low-abundance bacterium (Advenella sp.). Notably, a simple community containing these four strains and a thirteen-species community had similar effects on the control root rot disease. Furthermore, the simple community protected plants via a synergistic effect of highly abundant bacteria inhibiting fungal pathogen growth and less abundant bacteria activating plant-induced systemic resistance.
Our findings suggest that bacteria with low abundance play an important role in synthetic communities and that only a few bacterial taxa enriched in diseased roots are associated with disease resistance. Therefore, the construction and simplification of synthetic communities found in the present study could be a strategy employed by plants to adapt to environmental stress. Video abstract.
ObjectiveA close relationship between gut microbiota and some chronic liver disorders has recently been described. Herein, we systematically performed a comparative analysis of the gut microbiome in ...primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and healthy controls.DesignWe first conducted a cross-sectional study of 60 ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) treatment-naïve patients with PBC and 80 matched healthy controls. Second, an independent cohort composed of 19 treatment-naïve patients and 34 controls was used to validate the results. Finally, a prospective study was performed in a subgroup of 37 patients with PBC who underwent analysis before and after 6 months of UDCA treatment. Faecal samples were collected, and microbiomes were analysed by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing.ResultsA significant reduction of within-individual microbial diversity was noted in PBC (p=0.03). A signature defined by decreased abundance of four genera and increased abundance of eight genera strongly correlated with PBC (area under curve=0.86, 0.84 in exploration and validation data, respectively). Notably, the abundance of six PBC-associated genera was reversed after 6 months of UDCA treatment. In particular, Faecalibacterium, enriched in controls, was further decreased in gp210-positive than gp210-negative patients (p=0.002). Of interest was the finding that the increased capacity for the inferred pathway, bacterial invasion of epithelial cells in PBC, highly correlated with the abundance of bacteria belonging to Enterobacteriaceae.ConclusionsThis study presents a comprehensive landscape of gut microbiota in PBC. Dysbiosis was found in the gut microbiome in PBC and partially relieved by UDCA. Our study suggests that gut microbiota is a potential therapeutic target and diagnostic biomarker for PBC.
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