Portulaca oleracea exhibited anti-coccidian activity, fortified the gut microbiota of Hu lambs.

Coccidia of the genus Eimeria are important pathogens that cause coccidiosis in livestock and poultry. Due to the expansion of intensive farming, coccidiosis has become more difficult to control. In addition, the continued use of anti-coccidiosis drugs has led to drug resistance and residue. Some herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have been shown to alleviate the clinical symptoms of coccidiosis, while enhancing immunity and growth performance (GP) of livestock and poultry. Previous in vitro and in vivo studies have reported that the TCM herb Portulaca oleracea exhibited anti-parasitic activities. In total, 36 female Hu lambs were equally divided into six treatment groups: PL (low-dose P. oleracea), PH (high-dose P. oleracea), PW (P. oleracea water extract), PE (P. oleracea ethanol extract), DIC (diclazuril), and CON (control). The treatment period was 14 days. The McMaster counting method was used to evaluate the anti-coccidiosis effects of the different treatments. Untargeted metabolomics and 16S rRNA gene sequencing were used to investigate the effects of treatment on the gut microbiota (GM) and GP. The results showed that P. oleracea ameliorated coccidiosis, improved GP, increased the abundances of beneficial bacteria, and maintained the composition of the GM, but failed to completely clear coccidian oocysts. The Firmicutes to Bacteroides ratio was significantly increased in the PH group. P. oleracea increased metabolism of tryptophan as well as some vitamins and cofactors in the GM and decreased the relative content of arginine, tryptophan, niacin, and other nutrients, thereby promoting intestinal health and enhancing GP. As an alternative to the anti-coccidiosis drug DIC, P. oleracea effectively inhibited growth of coccidia, maintained the composition of the GM, promoted intestinal health, and increased nutrient digestibility.

BiTCAN: A emotion recognition network based on saliency in brain cognition.

In recent years, with the continuous development of artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces, emotion recognition based on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals has become a prosperous research direction. Due to saliency in brain cognition, we construct a new spatio-temporal convolutional attention network for emotion recognition named BiTCAN. First, in the proposed method, the original EEG signals are de-baselined, and the two-dimensional mapping matrix sequence of EEG signals is constructed by combining the electrode position. Second, on the basis of the two-dimensional mapping matrix sequence, the features of saliency in brain cognition are extracted by using the Bi-hemisphere discrepancy module, and the spatio-temporal features of EEG signals are captured by using the 3-D convolution module. Finally, the saliency features and spatio-temporal features are fused into the attention module to further obtain the internal spatial relationships between brain regions, and which are input into the classifier for emotion recognition. Many experiments on DEAP and SEED (two public datasets) show that the accuracies of the proposed algorithm on both are higher than 97%, which is superior to most existing emotion recognition algorithms.

Compact optical fiber sensor based on Vernier effect with speckle patterns.

We propose a Vernier effect-based sensor for temperature and salinity measurements. This sensor utilizes the correlation speckle pattern generated by spatial multimode interference and has undergone testing to validate its effectiveness. The speckle demodulation method is used to solve the problem of inconsistent envelope measurement when tracking with different upper and lower envelopes. The device consists of two Fabry Perot interferometers (FPIs) created by connecting hole core fiber (HCF) and erbium-doped fiber (EDF) in series. The speckle image produced by the interferometers is analyzed using the Zero means normalized cross-correlation (ZNCC) technique. The ZNCC value demonstrates a linear relationship with salinity and temperature, allowing for the measurement of these parameters. The sensor exhibits a temperature detection sensitivity of -0.0224 /°C and a salinity detection sensitivity of -0.0439/%. The sensor offers several advantageous features, including its compact size, low-cost manufacturing, high sensitivity, stability, and convenient reflection measurements. These characteristics make it a valuable tool for various applications. The proposed Vernier effect-based temperature and salinity sensor shows great potential for simultaneous monitoring and measurement of temperature and salinity in environments such as marine settings or industrial processes where accurate control of these parameters is crucial.

Optical encoding and hiding scheme for a double image based on chaotic fingerprint phase masks and phase-shifting digital holography.

This paper proposes a novel, to the best of our knowledge, double-image hiding scheme based on the chaotic fingerprint phase masks (CFPMs) and three-step phase-shifting digital holography (PSDH). First, the two images to be hidden are encoded into a complex amplitude image, and then with the help of the CFPM located in the Fresnel transform (FrT) domain and the three-step PSDH, the complex amplitude image can be encoded into three noise-like interference holograms. Finally, the three noise-like interference holograms are hidden into the texture part of the host image by the discrete wavelet transform based fusion approach and variational image decomposition technique. This scheme can simultaneously hide two images into one host image, and the invisibility and robustness of the hiding scheme can be well balanced by embedding the secret image in the texture of the host image. Additionally, the introduction of a biometric feature increases the association of the key and the authorized user, and the parameters of the chaotic map and FrT can also provide additional security to the proposed scheme. We have verified the scheme's feasibility, security, and robustness through extensive experiments.

Juvenile hormone regulates silk gene expression by m6A RNA methylation.

Juvenile hormone (JH) is an indispensable insect hormone that is critical in regulating insect development and physiology. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant modification of RNA that regulates RNA fate in eukaryotic organisms. However, the relationship between m6A and JH remains largely unknown. Here, we found that the application of a Juvenile hormone analog (JHA) extended the larval period of Bombyx mori and increased the weight and thickness of the cocoon. Interestingly, global transcriptional patterns revealed that m6A-related genes are specifically regulated by JHA in the posterior silk gland (PSG) that synthesizes the major component of cocoon silk. By transcriptome and m6A sequencing data conjointly, we discovered that JHA significantly regulated the m6A modification in the PSG of B. mori and many m6A-containing genes are related to nucleic acid binding, nucleus, and nucleobase-containing compound metabolism. Notably, 547 genes were significantly regulated by JHA at both the m6A modification and expression levels, especially 16 silk-associated genes, including sericin2, seroin1, Serine protease inhibitors 4 (BmSPI4), Serine protease inhibitors 5 (BmSPI5), and LIM domain-binding protein 2 (Ldb). Among them, 11 silk associated genes were significantly affected by METTL3 knockdown, validating that these genes are targets of m6A modification. Furthermore, we confirm that JHA directly regulates the expression of BmSPI4 and BmSPI5 through m6A modification of CDS regions. These results demonstrate the essential role of m6A methylation regulated by JH in PSG, and elucidate a novel mechanism by which JH affects silk gland development via m6A methylation. This study uncovers that m6A modification is a critical factor mediating the effect of JH in insects.

Integrated Fiber Ring Laser Temperature Sensor Based on Vernier Effect with Lyot-Sagnac Interferometer.

The Vernier effect created using an incorporated Lyot-Sagnac loop is used to create an ultra-high sensitivity temperature sensor based on a ring laser cavity. Unlike standard double Sagnac loop systems, the proposed sensor is fused into a single Sagnac loop by adjusting the welding angle between two polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs) to achieve effective temperature sensitivity amplification. The PMFs are separated into two arms of 0.8 m and 1 m in length, with a 45° angle difference between the fast axes. The sensor's performance is examined both theoretically and experimentally. The experimental results reveal that the Vernier amplification effect can be achieved via PMF rotating shaft welding. The temperature sensitivity in the laser cavity can reach 2.391 nm/°C, which is increased by a factor of more than eight times compared with a single Sagnac loop structure (0.298 nm/°C) with a length of 0.8 m without the Vernier effect at temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 30 °C. Furthermore, unlike traditional optical fiber sensing that uses a broadband light source (BBS) for detection, which causes issues such as low signal-to-noise ratio and broad bandwidth, the Sagnac loop can be employed as a filter by inserting itself into the fiber ring laser (FRL) cavity. When the external parameters change, the laser is offset by the interference general modulation, allowing the external temperature to be monitored. The superior performance of signal-to-noise ratios of up to 50 dB and bandwidths of less than 0.2 nm is achieved. The proposed sensor has a simple structure and high sensitivity and is expected to play a role in biological cell activity monitoring.

High-speed ADC based on photonic time-stretched technology with dispersion-tunable CFBG.

We propose a photonic time-stretched analog-to-digital converter (PTS-ADC) based on dispersion-tunable chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG), by demonstrating a economical ADC system with seven different stretch factors. The stretch factors are tunable by changing the dispersion of CFBG, in order to obtain different sampling points. Accordingly, the total sampling rate of the system can be improved. Only a single channel is required to increase the sampling rate and achieve the effect of multi-channel sampling. Finally, seven groups of different stretch factors ranging from 1.882 to 2.206 are obtained, which are equivalent to seven groups of different sampling points. We successfully recover the input radio frequency (RF) signals with frequencies from 2 GHz to 10 GHz. In addition, the sampling points are increased by 14.4 times and the equivalent sampling rate is increased to 288 GSa/s. The proposed scheme is suitable for commercial microwave radar systems, which can obtain a much higher sampling rate at a low cost.

Optical single-channel color image encryption based on chaotic fingerprint phase mask and diffractive imaging.

An optical single-channel color image encryption scheme based on chaotic fingerprint phase mask and diffractive imaging is proposed. In this proposed encryption scheme, the fingerprint used to generate the random phase masks is served as a secret key directly. Additionally, the random phase masks generated by the fingerprint, chaotic Lozi map, and secure hash algorithm (SHA-256) are used only as interim variables. With the help of the chaotic fingerprint phase masks placed at different diffraction distances, the color image that is encoded into a grayscale pattern by the phase-truncation technique is encrypted into a noise-like diffraction pattern. For decryption, the color image can be retrieved from the noise-like diffraction pattern by using an iterative phase retrieval algorithm, fingerprint, and phase keys generated from the encryption process. Since the fingerprint key shared by the sender and authorized receiver is strongly linked with the user and does not need to be transmitted over the open network, the security of this proposed encryption scheme can be greatly improved. Additionally, the parameters of the chaotic Lozi map and Fresnel diffraction distances can also provide additional security to the proposed encryption scheme. Furthermore, compared with the encryption schemes based on digital holography, the implementation of this proposed encryption scheme is relatively simple. The numerical simulations and analysis verify the feasibility, security, and robustness of this proposed encryption scheme.

Accelerating the phase demodulation process for heterodyne Φ-OTDR using spatial phase shifting.

An effective orthogonal signal generation method for heterodyne-detection-based phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer systems is proposed to accelerate the phase demodulation process. The demodulation principle is based on the spatial phase shifting technique. By exploiting the relative phase difference between adjacent spatial sampling channels, the orthogonal signal is easily obtained from basic algebra calculations. The simulation and experimental results showed that the proposed method achieved >100% computation speed improvement compared with the conventional methods, with a slight trade-off in phase demodulation performance. Therefore, the proposed method is potentially beneficial for the distributed acoustic sensing technology for reducing the computation complexity of phase demodulation procedures.

Evolution of m6A-related genes in insects and the function of METTL3 in silkworm embryonic development.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) plays a key role in many biological processes. However, the function and evolutionary relationship of m6A-related genes in insects remain largely unknown. Here we analysed the phylogeny of m6A-related genes among 207 insect species and found that m6A-related genes are evolutionarily conserved in insects. Subcellular localization experiments of m6A-related proteins in BmN cells confirmed that BmYTHDF3 was localized in the cytoplasm, BmMETTL3, BmMETTL14, and BmYTHDC were localized in the nucleus, and FL2D was localized to both the nucleus and cytoplasm. We examined the expression patterns of m6A-related genes during the embryonic development of Bombyx mori. To elucidate the function of BmMETTL3 during the embryonic stage, RNA sequencing was performed to measure changes in gene expression in silkworm eggs after BmMETTL3 knockdown, as well as in BmN cells overexpressing BmMETTL3. The global transcriptional pattern showed that knockdown of BmMETTL3 affected multiple cellular processes, including oxidoreductase activity, transcription regulator activity, and the cation binding. In addition, transcriptomic data revealed that many observed DEGs were associated with fundamental metabolic processes, including carbon metabolism, purine metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, and the citrate cycle. Interestingly, we found that knockdown of BmMETTL3 significantly affected Wnt and Toll/Imd pathways in embryos. Taken together, these results suggest that BmMETTL3 plays an essential role in the embryonic development of B. mori, and deepen our understanding of the function of m6A-related genes in insects.

Imaginal disc growth factor is involved in melanin synthesis and energy metabolism in Bombyx mori.

The imaginal disc growth factor (IDGF), belonging to the glycoside hydrolase 18 family, plays an important role in various physiological processes in insects. However, the detail physiological function of IDGF is still unclear. In this study, transcriptome analysis was performed on the fatbody isolated from staged control and BmIDGF mutant silkworm larvae. Transcriptional profiling revealed that the absence of BmIDGF significantly affected differentially expressed genes involved in tyrosine and purine metabolism, as well as multiple energy metabolism pathways, including glycolysis, galactose, starch, and sucrose metabolism. The interruption of BmIDGF caused similar and specific gene expression changes to male and female fatbody. Furthermore, a genome-scale metabolic network integrating metabolomic and transcriptomic datasets revealed 11 pathways significantly altered at the transcriptional and metabolic levels, including amino acid, carbohydrate, uric acid metabolism pathways, insect hormone biosynthesis, and ABC transporters. In conclusion, this multiomics analysis suggests that IDGF is involved in gene-metabolism interactions, revealing its unique role in melanin synthesis and energy metabolism. This study provides new insights into the physiological function of IDGF in insects.

Genome-wide identification and comparative analysis of lipocalin families in Lepidoptera with an emphasis on Bombyx mori.

Lipocalins exhibit functional diversity, including roles in retinol transport, invertebrate cryptic coloration, and stress response. However, genome-wide identification and characterization of lipocalin in the insect lineage have not been thoroughly explored. Here, we found that a lineage-specific expansion of the lipocalin genes in Lepidoptera occurred in large part due to tandem duplication events and several lipocalin genes involving insect coloration were expanded more via tandem duplication in butterflies. A comparative analysis of conserved motifs showed both conservation and divergence of lepidopteran lipocalin family protein structures during evolution. We observe dynamic changes in tissue expression preference of paralogs in Bombyx mori, suggesting differential contribution of paralogs to specific organ functions during evolution. Subcellular localization experiments revealed that lipocalins localize to the cytoplasm, nuclear membrane, or nucleus in BmN cells. Moreover, several lipocalin genes exhibited divergent responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, and 1 lipocalin gene was upregulated by 300 fold in B. mori. These results suggest that lipocalins act as signaling components in defense responses by mediating crosstalk between abiotic and biotic stress responses. This study deepens our understanding of the comprehensive characteristics of lipocalins in insects.

Salinity and Temperature Dual-Parameter Sensor Based on Fiber Ring Laser with Tapered Side-Hole Fiber Embedded in Sagnac Interferometer.

This paper presented a new kind of salinity and temperature dual-parameter sensor based on a fiber ring laser (FRL) with tapered side-hole fiber (SHF) embedded in a Sagnac interferometer. The sensing structure is majorly composed of tapered SHF located in the middle of SHF inside the Sagnac interferometer loop structure. The influences of the SHF's diameters of different tapered in the Sagnac interferometer loop on the FRL sensing system are studied. The presence of air holes in the SHF makes the cladding mode easier to excite, and the interaction between the cladding mode with its surroundings is enhanced, thus having higher salinity sensitivity. Besides, the unique advantages of high resolution, narrower linewidth, and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of fiber laser make the measurement results more accurate. In this experiment, the SHF with different taper diameters was made, and it was found that reducing the diameter of the taper waist diameter could further improve the salinity sensitivity. When the waist diameter was 9.70 µm, the maximum salinity sensitivity of 0.2867 nm/‱ was achieved. Temperature sensing experiments were also carried out. The maximum temperature sensitivity of the FRL sensing system was -0.3041 nm/°C at the temperature range from 20 to 30 °C. The sensor has the characteristics of easy manufacture, good selectivity, and high sensitivity, proving the feasibility of simultaneous measurement of seawater salinity and temperature.

Adaptive Fiber-Ring Lasers Based on Isopropanol Filled Microfiber Coupler for High-Sensitivity Temperature Sensing.

We demonstrated a new method for temperature measurement inside a fiber ring laser (FRL) cavity. Different from traditional FRL temperature sensing system which need additional filter working as a sensor, a micro-fiber coupler (MFC) was designed as a beam splitter, filter, and temperature sensor. In addition, isopropanol, a liquid with very high photothermal coefficient, is selectively filled in the MFC in order to improve the sensitivity of the system on temperature. In the dynamic range of 20-40 °C, we obtained a good temperature sensitivity of -1.29 nm/°C, with linear fitting up to 0.998. Benefiting from the advantages of laser sensing, the acquired laser has a 3 - dB bandwidth of less than 0.2 nm and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of up to 40 dB. The proposed sensor has a low cost and high sensitivity, which is expected to be used in biomedical health detection, real-time monitoring of ocean temperature, and other application scenarios.

Asymmetric double-image encryption based on chaotic random phase encoding.

An asymmetric double-image encryption scheme based on chaotic random phase encoding (CRPE) is proposed. In this proposed encryption scheme, two grayscale images to be encrypted are first Fresnel transformed and combined into a complex image. Then, the amplitude and phase components are obtained by conducting phase-amplitude truncation on the complex image. Finally, the amplitude component is again Fresnel transformed and encrypted into a noise-like pattern by the CRPE in the Fresnel domain. Since the initial values and control parameters of the chaotic map can replace the random phase masks to serve as secret keys, the management and transmission of secret keys will become more convenient in the proposed encryption scheme. Furthermore, the Fresnel transform parameters and phase keys derived from the complex image's phase component can also act as secret keys during the decryption process. Numerical simulations have demonstrated the feasibility, security, and robustness of the proposed encryption scheme.

Data Reduction in Phase-Sensitive OTDR with Ultra-Low Sampling Resolution and Undersampling Techniques.

Data storage is a problem that cannot be ignored in the long-term monitoring of a phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) system. In this paper, we proposed a data-reduction approach for heterodyne Φ-OTDR using an ultra-low sampling resolution and undersampling techniques. The operation principles were demonstrated and experiments with different sensing configurations were carried out to verify the proposed method. The results showed that the vibration signal could be accurately reconstructed from the undersampled 1-bit data. A space saving ratio of 98.75% was achieved by converting 128 MB of data (corresponding to 268.44 ms of sensing time) to 1.6 MB. The proposed method led to a potentially new data-reduction approach for heterodyne Φ-OTDR, which also provided economical guidance for the selection of the data-acquisition device.

Experimental Study on Mechanical Properties and Failure Laws of Granite with Artificial Flaws under Coupled Static and Dynamic Loads.

Rock is the main construction material of rock engineering, such as the engineering of mines and tunnels; in addition, its mechanical properties and failure laws are of great significance to the stability evaluation of rock engineering, especially under the conditions of coupled static-static stresses. In this study, granite specimens were manufactured with artificial flaws. Coupled static and dynamic loads tests were carried out with a modified split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) apparatus; and six typical levels of axial pre-stresses and three crack inclination angles were designed. Three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) was also applied to record and analyze the fracturing process and damage evolution of the specimens. The test results show that there was no compaction stage in the stress-strain curve under combined dynamic and static loading. The dynamic strength of the specimens increased first and then decreased with the increase in the static pressure; moreover, the specimens reached the maximum dynamic strength when the static pressure was 10% UCS. The dynamic strength decreased first and then increased with the increase in the crack inclination angle; and the lowest strength appeared when the inclination angle was 45°. The change in axial compression had a significant influence on the failure mode, and the failure mode gradually transformed from shear-tensile failure to shear failure with the increase in the pre-stress. The tensile strain was usually generated at the end of the fractures or near the rock bridge. When the axial pressure was small, the tensile strain zone parallel to the loading direction was easily generated; and when the axial pressure was large, a shear strain zone developed, extending along the diagonal direction. The research results can provide a theoretical reference for the correct understanding of the failure mechanisms of granite and its engineering stability under actual conditions.

CNNG: A Convolutional Neural Networks With Gated Recurrent Units for Autism Spectrum Disorder Classification.

As a neurodevelopmental disorder, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) severely affects the living conditions of patients and their families. Early diagnosis of ASD can enable the disease to be effectively intervened in the early stage of development. In this paper, we present an ASD classification network defined as CNNG by combining of convolutional neural network (CNN) and gate recurrent unit (GRU). First, CNNG extracts the 3D spatial features of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data by using the convolutional layer of the 3D CNN. Second, CNNG extracts the temporal features by using the GRU and finally classifies them by using the Sigmoid function. The performance of CNNG was validated on the international public data-autism brain imaging data exchange (ABIDE) dataset. According to the experiments, CNNG can be highly effective in extracting the spatio-temporal features of fMRI and achieving a classification accuracy of 72.46%.