Protein Interfacial Gelation toward Shuttle-Free and Dendrite-Free Zn-Iodine Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-iodine (Zn-I2) batteries hold potential for large-scale energy storage but struggle with shuttle effects of I2 cathodes and poor reversibility of Zn anodes. Here, an interfacial gelation strategy is proposed to suppress the shuttle effects and improve the Zn reversibility simultaneously by introducing silk protein (SP) additive. The SP can migrate bidirectionally toward cathode and anode interfaces driven by the periodically switched electric field direction during charging/discharging. For I2 cathodes, the interaction between SP and polyiodides forms gelatinous precipitate to avoid the polyiodide dissolution, evidenced by excellent electrochemical performance, including high specific capacity and Coulombic efficiency (CE) (215 mAh g-1 and 99.5% at 1 C), excellent rate performance (≈170 mAh g-1 at 50 C), and extended durability (6000 cycles at 10 C). For Zn anodes, gelatinous SP serves as protective layer to boost the Zn reversibility (99.7% average CE at 2 mA cm-2) and suppress dendrites. Consequently, a 500 mAh Zn-I2 pouch cell with high-loading cathode (37.5 mgiodine cm-2) and high-utilization Zn anode (20%) achieves remarkable energy density (80 Wh kg-1) and long-term durability (>1000 cycles). These findings underscore the simultaneous modulation of both cathode and anode and demonstrate the potential for practical applications of Zn-I2 batteries.

A Smart Pesticide-Controlled Release Platform with Dual Stimuli-Responsive Functions for Enhanced Treatment of Plant Black Shank.

Realizing controllable input of botanical pesticides is conducive to improving pesticide utilization, reducing pesticide residues, and avoiding environmental pollution but is extremely challenging. Herein, we constructed a smart pesticide-controlled release platform (namely, SCRP) for enhanced treatment of tobacco black shank based on encapsulating honokiol (HON) with mesoporous hollow structured silica nanospheres covered with pectin and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS). The SCRP has a loading capacity of 12.64% for HON and could effectively protect HON from photolysis. Owing to the pH- and pectinase-sensitive property of the pectin, the SCRP could smartly release HON in response to a low pH or a rich pectinase environment in the black shank-affected area. Consequently, the SCRP effectively inhibits the infection of P. nicotianae on tobacco with a controlled rate for tobacco black shank of up to 87.50%, which is mainly due to the SCRP's capability in accumulating ROS, changing cell membrane permeability, and affecting energy metabolism. In addition, SCRP is biocompatible, and the COS layer enables SCRP to show a significant growth-promoting effect on tobacco. These results indicate that the development of a stimuli-responsive controlled pesticide release system for plant disease control is of great potential and value for practical agriculture production.

Identification of potential anti-inflammatory components in Moutan Cortex by bio-affinity ultrafiltration coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.

Moutan Cortex (MC) has been used in treating inflammation-associated diseases and conditions in China and other Southeast Asian countries. However, the active components of its anti-inflammatory effect are still unclear. The study aimed to screen and identify potential cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors in MC extract. The effect of MC on COX-2 was determined in vitro by COX-2 inhibitory assays, followed by bio-affinity ultrafiltration in combination with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (BAUF-UPLC-MS). To verify the reliability of the constructed approach, celecoxib was applied as the positive control, in contrast to adenosine which served as the negative control in this study. The bioactivity of the MC components was validated in vitro by COX-2 inhibitor assay and RAW264.7 cells. Their in vivo anti-inflammatory activity was also evaluated using LPS-induced zebrafish inflammation models. Finally, molecular docking was hired to further explore the internal interactions between the components and COX-2 residues. The MC extract showed an evident COX-2-inhibitory effect in a concentration-dependent manner. A total of 11 potential COX-2 inhibitors were eventually identified in MC extract. The COX-2 inhibitory activity of five components, namely, gallic acid (GA), methyl gallate (MG), galloylpaeoniflorin (GP), 1,2,3,6-Tetra-O-galloyl-ß-D-glucose (TGG), and 1,2,3,4,6-Penta-O-galloyl-ß-D-glucopyranose (PGG), were validated through both in vitro assays and experiments using zebrafish models. Besides, the molecular docking analysis revealed that the potential inhibitors in MC could effectively inhibit COX-2 by interacting with specific residues, similar to the mechanism of action exhibited by celecoxib. In conclusion, BAUF-UPLC-MS combining the molecular docking is an efficient approach to discover enzyme inhibitors from traditional herbs and understand the mechanism of action.

High-Reversibility Sulfur Anode for Advanced Aqueous Battery.

Despite being extensively explored as cathodes in batteries, sulfur (S) can function as a low-potential anode by changing charge carriers in electrolytes. Here, a highly reversible S anode that fully converts from S8 0 to S2- in static aqueous S-I2 batteries by using Na+ as the charge carrier is reported. This S anode exhibits a low potential of -0.5 V (vs standard hydrogen electrode) and a near-to-theoretical capacity of 1404 mA h g-1 . Importantly, it shows significant advantages over the widely used Zn anode in aqueous media by obviating dendrite formation and H2 evolution. To suppress "shuttle effects" faced by both S and I2 electrodes, a scalable sulfonated polysulfone (SPSF) membrane is proposed, which is superior to commercial Nafion in cost (US$1.82 m-2  vs $3500 m-2 ) and environmental benignity. Because of its ultra-high selectivity in blocking polysulfides/iodides, the battery with SPSF displays excellent cycling stability. Even under 100% depth of discharge, the battery demonstrates high capacity retention of 87.6% over 500 cycles, outperforming Zn-I2 batteries with 3.1% capacity under the same conditions. These findings broaden anode options beyond metals for high-energy, low-cost, and fast-chargeable batteries.

Bactericidal Efficacy and Mechanisms of Non-Electrolytic Slightly Acidic Hypochlorous Water on Pseudomonas fragi and Pseudomonas fluorescens.

Chilled pork is frequently contaminated with Pseudomonas fragi and Pseudomonas fluorescens. In this study, the bactericidal efficacy and mechanisms of non-electrolytic slightly acidic hypochlorous water (NE-SAHW) against two strains of these two species were evaluated. The results showed that the antibacterial efficacy of NE-SAHW was positively correlated with the concentration level of NE-SAHW and negatively correlated with the initial populations of the strains. The strains of small populations were completely inhibited when provided with each level of NE-SAHW. The killed cells of P. fragi were 0.94, 1.39, 4.02, and 5.60 log10 CFU/mL, respectively, and of P. fluorescens they were 1.21, 1.52, 4.14, and 5.74 log10 CFU/mL, respectively, when the initial populations of the strains were at high levels (about 7 log10 CFU/mL). Both strains were completely killed within 12 s with the available chlorine concentration (ACC) of 50 mg/L of NE-SAHW. Morphological changes in both cells were observed by using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and it was discovered that the cell membranes were damaged, which led to the leakage of the intracellular substances, including K+, nucleic acid, and protein. In terms of the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) results, NE-SAHW destroyed the structures of membrane proteins and cell structure proteins, and influenced the composition of polysaccharides. The bacteria were definitely dead after treatment by NE-SAHW compared to the control according to the results of flow cytometry. These results demonstrated the potential bactericidal property of NE-SAHW when applied to the meat and other food sterilization industries.

Polypropylene/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Breathing Film for Inhibiting Pseudomonas and Maintaining Microbial Communities and Postharvest Quality of Allium mongolicum Regel during Storage.

Allium mongolicum Regel (A. mongolicum) is a healthy edible plant but highly perishable with a short shelf life of 1-2 d. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) could inhibit the postharvest senescence and decay of the vegetables. Thus, the aim of this study was to apply MAP with different gas permeabilities to the storage of A. mongolicum and evaluate its effects on maintaining microbial communities and the postharvest quality of A. mongolicum. The results showed that polypropylene/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PP/PBAT, abbreviated as PAT) MAP was suitable for the storage of A. mongolicum by establishing an optimal atmosphere of 0.5-0.6% O2 and 6.2-7.1% CO2 in the bag. It could delay the postharvest senescence of A. mongolicum and maintain its quality by slowing down its respiration rate and weight loss, reducing cell membrane permeability and lipid peroxidation, maintaining the cell wall, and reducing infection and the growth of microorganisms. However, A. mongolicum in HPT was more perishable than that in PAT during storage. Pseudomonas was found to be the main spoilage bacteria, and they could also be effectively inhibited by PAT-MAP. The next-generation sequencing results also showed the growth of Escherichia-Shigella, Clostridium sensu stricto 1, Streptococcus, Aureobasidium, Didymella, and Fusarium, responsible for A. mongolicum decay or human disease, was well inhibited by PAT-MAP. The results suggested that PAT-MAP could be used to maintain microbial diversity and the postharvest quality of A. mongolicum under cold storage conditions. It provided a feasible solution for the preservation, food quality, and safety control of A. mongolicum.

Comprehensive analysis of metabolome and transcriptome reveals the mechanism of color formation in different leave of Loropetalum Chinense var. Rubrum.

BACKGROUND: Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum (L. chinense var. rubrum) is a precious, coloured-leaf native ornamental plant in the Hunan Province. We found an L. chinense var. rubrum tree with three different leaf colours: GL (green leaf), ML (mosaic leaf), and PL (purple leaf). The mechanism of leaf coloration in this plant is still unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the metabolites and genes involved in determining the colour composition of L. chinense var. rubrum leaves, using phenotypic/anatomic observations, pigment content detection, and comparative metabolomics and transcriptomics. RESULTS: We observed that the mesophyll cells in PL were purple, while those in GL were green and those in ML were a mix of purple-green. The contents of chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, and total chlorophyll in PL and ML were significantly lower than those in GL. While the anthocyanin content in PL and ML was significantly higher than that in GL. The metabolomics results showed the differences in the content of cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, delphinidin 3-O-glucoside, cyanidin 3,5-O-diglucoside, pelargonidin, and petunidin 3,5-diglucoside in ML, GL, and PL were significant. Considering that the change trend of anthocyanin content change was consistent with the leaf colour difference, we speculated that these compounds might influence the colour of L. chinense var. rubrum leaves. Using transcriptomics, we finally identified nine differentially expressed structural genes (one ANR (ANR1217); four CYP75As (CYP75A1815, CYP75A2846, CYP75A2909, and CYP75A1716); four UFGTs (UFGT1876, UFGT1649, UFGT1839, and UFGT3273) and nine transcription factors (two MYBs (MYB1057 and MYB1211), one MADS-box (MADS1235), two AP2-likes (AP2-like1779 and AP2-like2234), one bZIP (bZIP3720), two WD40s (WD2173 and WD1867) and one bHLH (bHLH1631) that might be related to flavonoid biosynthesis and then impacted the appearance of colour in L. chinense var. rubrum leaves. CONCLUSION: This study revealed potential molecular mechanisms associated with leaf coloration in L. chinense var. rubrum by analyzing differential metabolites and genes related to the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway. It also provided a reference for research on leaf colour variation in other ornamental plants.

Leaf color change and photosystem function evaluation under heat treatment revealed the stress resistance variation between Loropetalum chinense and L. chinense var. rubrum.

This research mainly focused on the leaf color change and photosystem function differentiation between Loropetalum chinense and its variety L. chinense var. rubrum under heat stress, which were tightly concerned about their ornamental traits and growth. L. chinense 'Xiangnong Xiangyun' (X) and L. chinense var. rubrum 'Xiangnong Fendai' (F) and L. chinense var. rubrum 'Hei Zhenzhu' (H) were chosen to be experimented on to investigate whether leaf color morphology and pigment composition could influence the adaptability of plants to high temperature in order to select foliage plants which posses stable leaf color and better adaptability for hot regions. The plants were cultured in hot environment (40 °C/33 °C, day/night) and normal environment (25 °C/18 °C, day/night). Phenotype and anatomic observation of three cultivars were made and leaf color indices and pigment contents were measured. During the experiment, H and F gradually turned green, total anthocyanins contents significantly decreased in them, however, chlorophyll b contents increased in all three cultivars. In addition, the initial fluorescence (Fo) decreased in X, while increased in H and F. For the maximum fluorescence (Fm) and maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), they only increased in H and decreased in both F and X. The non-photochemical chlorophyll fluorescence quenching (NPQ) also increased in H and decreased in F. For X, it increased at first then gradually decreased. The coefficient of photochemical quenching all increased at first then gradually decreased. Correlation analysis between showed that there was relatively strong connection between anthocyanins, flavonoids and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, especially NPQ, proved anthocyanins and flavonoids might not only involved in enriching leaf color, but also interfered with the protection of photosystem. Generally speaking, we found higher anthocyanin and flavonoids content level not only dramatically enriched the leaf color of L. chinense var. rubrum cultivars, but also offered more potential antioxidant to keep their normal growth when encountered heat stress.

Impact of agricultural production outsourcing services on carbon emissions in China.

Increasing food output while reducing agricultural carbon emissions (ACE) is a major challenge to achieving green agriculture in China. Previously unexplored research regarding the relationship between agricultural production outsourcing services (APOS) and ACE is investigated using household microsurvey data in China and econometric methods, and the influencing mechanism is also tested empirically. The results reveal that APOS increases the total ACE and reduces ACE per unit area. The mechanism test shows that APOS are beneficial to the expansion of rice planting areas and farmers' adoption of agricultural green production techniques. The increasing effect of rice planting area on ACE was greater than the decreasing effect of green production techniques. In the future, China should accelerate the selection and breeding of rice varieties with low carbon emissions to reduce the increase of ACE caused by large-scale land management in the process of APOS development. Policy support and subsidies should be strengthened for APOS organizations to purchase green production techniques, so as to further drive farmers to adopt green production techniques and reduce ACE. It is also necessary for China to encourage small-scale farmers to outsource their agricultural production activities to APOS organizations. The role of collective action consciousness of agricultural production in increasing the supply capacity of APOS organizations should be enhanced.

Effects of low temperature on flowering and the expression of related genes in Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum.

Introduction: Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum blooms 2-3 times a year, among which the autumn flowering period has great potential for exploitation, but the number of flowers in the autumn flowering period is much smaller than that in the spring flowering period. Methods: Using 'Hei Zhenzhu' and 'Xiangnong Xiangyun' as experimental materials, the winter growth environment of L. chinense var. rubrum in Changsha, Hunan Province was simulated by setting a low temperature of 6-10°C in an artificial climate chamber to investigate the effect of winter low temperature on the flowering traits and related gene expression of L. chinense var. rubrum. Results: The results showed that after 45 days of low temperature culture and a subsequent period of 25°C greenhouse culture, flower buds and flowers started to appear on days 24 and 33 of 25°C greenhouse culture for 'Hei Zhenzhu', and flower buds and flowers started to appear on days 21 and 33 of 25°C greenhouse culture for 'Xiangnong Xiangyun'. The absolute growth rate of buds showed a 'Up-Down' pattern during the 7-28 days of low temperature culture; the chlorophyll fluorescence decay rate (Rfd) of both materials showed a 'Down-Up-Down' pattern during this period. The non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ) showed the same trend as Rfd, and the photochemical quenching coefficient (QP) fluctuated above and below 0.05. The expression of AP1 and FT similar genes of L. chinense var. rubrum gradually increased after the beginning of low temperature culture, reaching the highest expression on day 14 and day 28, respectively, and the expression of both in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group. The expressions of FLC, SVP and TFL1 similar genes all decreased gradually with low temperature culture, among which the expressions of FLC similar genes and TFL1 similar genes in the experimental group were extremely significantly lower than those in the control group; in the experimental group, the expressions of GA3 similar genes were all extremely significantly higher than those in the control group, and the expressions all increased with the increase of low temperature culture time. Discussion: We found that the high expression of gibberellin genes may play an important role in the process of low temperature promotion of L. chinense var. rubrum flowering, and in the future, it may be possible to regulate L. chinense var. rubrum flowering by simply spraying exogenous gibberellin instead of the promotion effect of low temperature.

Evolutionary Overview of Terrace Research Based on Bibliometric Analysis in Web of Science from 1991 to 2020.

Based on the Web of Science core collection database, this paper retrieves 349 research papers on terraced fields published during 1991-2020. Keyword co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, and thematic evolutionary analysis were used to identify the evolutionary path of terrace research. The findings were as follows: (1) In the past 20 years, the study of terraced fields has shown an upward trend. The number of annual published papers during 2012-2020 was much more than that during 1991-2011, but papers during 1991-2011 were more academically influential than those during 2012-2020. (2) Regional analysis showed that terrace research in China is the most abundant currently, and is mainly focused on agricultural production, agricultural engineering, cultural tourism, and ecological environment. (3) Keyword co-occurrence analysis showed that terrace landscape, terrace agriculture, terrace abandonment, land use change, soil and water conservation, and sustainable utilization of typical terraces are the main modules of current terrace studies. (4) In a temporal dynamic perspective, terrace research presented 10 main evolutionary paths during 1991-2020, reflecting the trend of terrace research towards sustainable terrace development of ecological agriculture and ecosystem service. (5) Finally, this paper suggests that here is a need to deepen studies on terrace ecosystem services and human well-being based on their structure and processes, to analyze the interaction and comprehensive effect of natural process and humanistic driving forces on terrace abandonment, and to explore the multi-functional benefits and sustainable management of high quality terraced landscape.

Evolutionary Overview of Land Consolidation Based on Bibliometric Analysis in Web of Science from 2000 to 2020.

Land consolidation is widely used as a powerful tool for land use management in many countries. In order to objectively reveal the current research status in the field of land consolidation, this paper uses the Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny software packages, and VOSviewer to analyze the literature in the field of land consolidation in the last 20 years of the Web of Science Core Collection Database. The results show that: (1) In the past two decades, the annual publication of papers on land consolidation rose. It can be divided into three stages: 2000-2007 for the embryonic period, 2008-2012 for the long-term, and 2013-2020 for the high-yield period. (2) Land consolidation studies covered 68 countries or regions. The top three countries were China, Poland, and the United States. China and the United States played an important role in international cooperation in the field of land consolidation, and Turkey mainly conducted independent research in the field of land consolidation. (3) Land consolidation, reclamation, China, remote sensing, and land fragmentation were the high-frequency keywords in the field of land consolidation in recent years. (4) The research focusing on the field of land consolidation involved its development course, its impact on ecosystem services, and the evaluation of its benefits. (5) The theme of land consolidation studies was shunted and evolved over time, and nine evolution paths could be summarized in the studies of cultivated land fragmentation, development course of land consolidation, and impacts of land consolidation on soil. Finally, this paper predicted the future research directions of land consolidation: exploring new methods for evaluating the benefits of land consolidation, the scale effects of the impact of land consolidation on ecosystem services, research on the mechanism and comprehensive effects of land consolidation on soil, research on land consolidation and rural revitalization, and land consolidation theory research.

Application of a novel biomimetic double-ligand zirconium-based metal organic framework in environmental restoration and energy conversion.

The development of visible-light response photocatalysts with a high catalytic performance and long-term cyclic stability is of great significance in the field of energy and environmental protection. Inspired by photosynthesis, a novel three-dimensional coral zirconium-based metal organic framework (MOF) was synthesized using a double-ligand strategy. The optimal sample, Zr-TCPP-bpydc (2:1), (the ratio of tetra-(4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin to 2,2'-bipyridine-5,5'-dicarboxylic acid is 2:1) shows an excellent photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation, and the effects of the amount of photocatalyst, pH and concentration on the degradation rate were investigated under the optimum conditions. It has a high degradation rate of tetracycline (98.12% for tetracycline and 96.74% for ofloxacin), which is 2.11 times higher than that of single ligand Zr-bpydc (zirconium-based MOF containing only 2,2'-bipyridine-5,5'-dicarboxylic acid). More importantly, it also has a good H2 evolution rate (213.68 µmol g-1h-1) and CO2 reduction (35.81 µmol g-1h-1). In addition, the intermediate pathway of degradation, photocatalytic enhancement mechanism and cycle stability were deeply studied by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and recycling tests. The synthesis of a three-dimensional biomimetic coral zirconium-based MOF material will provide guidance for the development of new, promising, and natural ideal photocatalytic materials.

Comparison of Phenolic and Flavonoid Compound Profiles and Antioxidant and α-Glucosidase Inhibition Properties of Cultivated Soybean (Glycine max) and Wild Soybean (Glycine soja).

Wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb.et Zucc; WS) has been used as a traditional food in China for many years and contains significantly higher levels of isoflavones than cultivated soybean (Glycine max; CS), but the secondary metabolites, including flavonoids and the phenolic composition differences between them, remain unclear. The results showed that WS possessed significantly higher total phenolic and flavonoid content and exhibited better antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibition activities as well as excellent protective effects against H2O2-induced oxidative injury in a human endothelial cell line. Through metabolomic analysis, 642 metabolites were identified, and 238 showed differential expression, with 151 upregulated and 87 downregulated. A total of 79 flavonoid compounds were identified, 42 of which were upregulated in WS. 2'-Hydroxygenistein, garbanzol, protocatechuic aldehyde, ligustilide, and resveratrol were the most discriminated compounds in WS. The metabolic pathway analysis of differential metabolites related to the biosynthesis of flavonoids and phenolic acids were the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, isoflavonoids, flavones, and flavonols. This study substantially elucidated differences in the content of flavonoids and biological activities between WS and CS, which is useful information for the effective utilization of these two black soybean species in food processing.

The roles of wavelength in the gaseous toluene removal with OH from UV activated Fenton reagent.

The UV lights of different wavelengths were performed in boosting hydroxyl radicals (OH) generation from traditional Fenton reagent for the gaseous toluene removal. The Fenton, UV254/Fenton and UV365/Fenton processes were first adopted to eliminate gaseous toluene through the bubble column reactor, respectively. The stable toluene removal efficiency in 60 min was 85.31% in the UV365/Fenton process, which was higher than other processes. The gaseous toluene was mainly oxidized into CO2 rather than other gaseous intermediates in the UV365/Fenton process. For UV365/Fenton process, the GC-MS tests were carried out to figure out the aqueous intermediates of gaseous toluene removal. The OH concentration in the UV365/Fenton process was the highest among all the parallel tests via the EPR experiments and the quantificational measurements with coumarin as the probe. The iron ion in the aqueous solution was systematically evaluated with the experiments proceeding. The evolution of iron ion in the aqueous solution indicated that the fast reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+ was assisted with 365 nm UV rather than 254 nm UV, which played a key point in the high gaseous toluene removal efficiency. This study demonstrated that the combination of UV365 irradiation and Fenton in the wet scrubbing reactor performed a synergistic effect on the gaseous toluene removal.

Designer Ferrocene Catholyte for Aqueous Organic Flow Batteries.

The aqueous organic flow battery (AOFB) holds enormous potential as an energy storage device for fluctuating renewable electricity by exploiting the redox reactions of water-soluble organic molecules. The current development is impeded by lack of organic molecules adequate as catholyte, yet how the catholyte structure impacts the battery lifetime remains unexplored. Here, six ferrocene derivatives with deliberately tuned chemical structure were devised. They underwent reversible redox reactions in water, and the redox potentials were inversely related to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy of their energized forms. The stability of the ferrocene derivatives was evaluated in full flow cells and in symmetric cells. Density function theory calculations, along with experimental results, revealed that the localized LUMO density on Fe led to fast capacity fading. BQH-Fc, which has the lowest LUMO density on Fe, showed the highest stability. No capacity loss was observed for the BQH-Fc/BTMAP-Vi cell at 0.1 m, and a high capacity retention rate of 99.993 % h-1 was recorded at 1.5 m, which could be attributed to electrolyte crossover. To facilitate explorations of robust and high capacity catholytes, a method was established to predict the water solubility of ferrocene molecules, and calculations were in good accordance with measured values.

Location-Aware and Regularization-Adaptive Correlation Filters for Robust Visual Tracking.

Correlation filter (CF) has recently been widely used for visual tracking. The estimation of the search window and the filter-learning strategies is the key component of the CF trackers. Nevertheless, prevalent CF models separately address these issues in heuristic manners. The commonly used CF models directly set the estimated location in the previous frame as the search center for the current one. Moreover, these models usually rely on simple and fixed regularization for filter learning, and thus, their performance is compromised by the search window size and optimization heuristics. To break these limits, this article proposes a location-aware and regularization-adaptive CF (LRCF) for robust visual tracking. LRCF establishes a novel bilevel optimization model to address simultaneously the location-estimation and filter-training problems. We prove that our bilevel formulation can successfully obtain a globally converged CF and the corresponding object location in a collaborative manner. Moreover, based on the LRCF framework, we design two trackers named LRCF-S and LRCF-SA and a series of comparisons to prove the flexibility and effectiveness of the LRCF framework. Extensive experiments on different challenging benchmark data sets demonstrate that our LRCF trackers perform favorably against the state-of-the-art methods in practice.

Retrospective analysis of risk factors of postoperative nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing ambulatory strabismus surgery via general anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), one of the common complications following strabismus surgery, would delay the ambulatory discharge time. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the risk factors of PONV in patients undergoing ambulatory strabismus surgery under general anaesthesia, with the treatments of dexamethasone and 5-HT3 antagonist combination. METHODS: We reviewed 721 consecutive patients (12-60 years old) undergoing ambulatory strabismus surgery under general anaesthesia at an academic eye centre between December 2016 and January 2019. Patients received prophylactic treatment of dexamethasone and 5-HT3 antagonist combination during anaesthesia induction, and PONV was evaluated during the early recovery period before discharge. RESULTS: The dexamethasone and 5-HT3 antagonist combination effectively reduced the incidence of PONV (3.05%, 22/721), and the patients who experienced PONV had statistically prolonged phase II recovery time as compared those who did not (P = 0.006). The sum of the extraocular muscles manipulated and the use of nalbuphine (vs flurbiprofen axetil) were the independent risk factors for PONV (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The sum of the extraocular muscles manipulated and the use of nalbuphine are potentially modifiable risk factors for PONV after strabismus surgery with the treatments of dexamethasone and 5-HT3 antagonist combination.

Removal performance of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in swine wastewater by integrated vertical-flow constructed wetlands with zeolite substrate.

Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in swine wastewater have an irreversible impact on the surrounding water and soil ecosystems. Herein, integrated vertical-flow constructed wetlands (IVCWs) were constructed to assess the effects of zeolite and plants on the removal of sulfonamides (SMs), tetracyclines (TCs), and related ARGs (tetW, tetO, tetM, sul I, sul II, and sul III) from digested swine wastewater. The microorganism community structure was also investigated. Results showed that IVCWs with a zeolite substrate and plant system (ZP) exhibited a favorable removal performance for N, antibiotics, and ARGs at 97.9%, 95.0%, and 95.1%, respectively. Moreover, zeolite systems showed higher adsorption of SMs, lower adsorption of TCs. The higher removal rate of antibiotics in ZP systems might be due to the enhanced microbial degradation with the enrichment of Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and Bacillus in zeolite. Furthermore, Arundo donax had limited impact on antibiotics removal and was not conducive to the removal of ARGs. The absolute abundances of sul(I), sul(II), sul(III), tet(M), and tet(O) were significantly positively correlated with the absolute abundance of 16S rDNA. However, no significant correlation was found between the concentration of antibiotics and the abundance of related ARGs in the effluent.