The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is a destructive migratory pest, posing great threat to over 60 countries globally. In the backdrop of climate change, the habitat suitability of desert locusts is poised to undergo alterations. Hence, investigating the shifting dynamics of desert locust habitats holds profound significance in ensuring global agricultural resilience and food security. In this study, we combined the maximum entropy modelling and geographic information system technology to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impact of climate change on the distribution patterns and habitat adaptability of desert locusts. The results indicate that the suitable areas for desert locusts (0.2976 × 108 km2) are concentrated in northern Africa and southwestern Asia, accounting for 19.97% of the total global land area. Key environmental variables affecting the desert locust distribution include temperature annual range, mean temperature of the coldest quarter, average temperature of February, and precipitation of the driest month. Under the SSP1–2.6 and SSP5–8.5 climate scenarios, potential suitable areas for desert locusts are estimated to increase from 2030 (2021–2040) to 2090 (2081–2100). By 2090, highly suitable areas for SSP1–2.6 and SSP5–8.5 are projected to be 0.0606 × 108 and 0.0891 × 108 km2, respectively, reflecting an expansion of 1.84 and 2.77% compared to existing ones. These research findings provide a theoretical basis for adopting prevention and control strategies for desert locusts.

This study presents observations of coherent modes (CMs) in a spherical tokamak using a microwave interferometer near the midplane. The CMs within the 30–60 kHz frequency range were observed during electron cyclotron resonance heating only, and the frequency of the CMs increased proportionally with the square root of the electron temperature near $R = 0.7m$. Generally, these modes displayed bursting and chirping signatures with strong density rise and fall. Their appearance indicated an increase in the intensity of hard x rays, suggesting a deterioration in energetic electron confinement. Furthermore, the effect of CMs on the intensity of energetic electron-driven whistler waves was observed. They decreased when CMs were present and gradually increased with the decrease in CM intensity. The CMs may influence the intensity of whistler waves by affecting the energetic electron confinement.

This study investigated the impact of diallyl disulfide (DADS) on oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in ovine rumen epithelial cells (RECs). Initially, the effects of DADS were evaluated on cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, antioxidant capacity in RECs were estimated. Then, RNA-seq analysis was conducted in DADS-treated and untreated cells to analyze the differential gene expression, as well as Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. Finally, the effects of DADS on Kelch-like ECH associated protein 1/the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Keap1/Nrf2) signaling pathway in RECs were evaluated. Results showed that DADS remarkably enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) (P < 0.05) while reducing ROS and malonaldehyde production (P < 0.05) in H2O2-treated RECs. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that DADS might influence glutathione synthesis through cysteine and methionine metabolism, thereby affecting the transcription of genes involved in immunity and oxidative stress. The DADS treatment resulted in increased nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and upregulation of mRNA and protein levels of quinone oxidoreductase 1, heme oxygenase 1, and Nrf2. The Nrf2-specific inhibitor nullified the protective effects of DADS on malonaldehyde formation induced by H2O2 and decreased T-AOC and SOD activities. In conclusion, DADS demonstrated the ability to alleviate oxidative stress in RECs by promoting antioxidative capacity through the Keap1/Nrf2 signaling pathway.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in regulating salt tolerance in Dongxiang wild rice (DXWR, Oryza rufipogon Griff.). The development of salt-responsive miRNA-simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers will significantly bolster research on DXWR, providing novel tools for exploring salt-tolerant genetic resources and advancing the development of salt-tolerant rice varieties. In the present study, a total of 137 miRNA-SSR markers were successfully developed, specifically derived from miRNAs responsive to salt stress in DXWR. Subsequently, a subset of 20 markers was randomly selected for validation across three distinct DXWR populations, along with 35 modern rice varieties. Notably, 13 of these markers exhibited remarkable polymorphism. The polymorphic markers collectively amplified 52 SSR loci, averaging four alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content values associated with these loci spanned from 0.23 to 0.70, with a mean value of 0.49. Particularly noteworthy is the miR162a-SSR marker, which demonstrated distinct allelic patterns and holds potential as a diagnostic marker for discriminating the salt-tolerant rice varieties from the non-tolerant varieties. This study provides a valuable tool for genetic analysis and precision breeding, facilitating the identification and utilization of valuable salt-tolerant genetic resources.

Malnutrition significantly hampers wound healing processes. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) in diagnosing malnutrition and predicting wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). GLIM criteria were evaluated for sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), positive predictive value, negative predictive value and kappa (κ) against SGA as the reference. Modified Poisson regression model and the DeLong test investigated the association between malnutrition and non-healing ulcers over 6 months. This retrospective cohort study included 398 patients with DFU, with a mean age of 66·3 ± 11·9 years. According to SGA and GLIM criteria, malnutrition rates were 50·8 % and 42·7 %, respectively. GLIM criteria showed a SE of 67·3 % (95 % CI 60·4 %, 73·7 %) and SP of 82·7 % (95 % CI 76·6 %, 87·7 %) in identifying malnutrition, with a positive predictive value of 80·0 % and a negative predictive value of 71·1 % (κ = 0·50) compared with SGA. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that malnutrition, as assessed by SGA, was an independent risk factor for non-healing (relative risk (RR) 1·84, 95 % CI 1·45, 2·34), whereas GLIM criteria were associated with poorer ulcer healing in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥ 60 ml/min/1·73m2 (RR: 1·46, 95 % CI 1·10, 1·94). SGA demonstrated a superior area under the receiver’s operating characteristic curve for predicting non-healing compared with GLIM criteria (0·70 (0·65–0·75) v. 0·63 (0·58–0·65), P < 0·01). These findings suggest that both nutritional assessment tools effectively identify patients with DFU at increased risk, with SGA showing superior performance in predicting non-healing ulcers.

Sulfonated carbon is a ‘green,’ solid-acid catalyst. For applications purposes, its surface area needs to be improved and its preparation needs to be made environmentally friendly. The objective of the present study was to provide a green and economical method of preparing a sulfonated carbon catalyst by using palygorskite (Plg) fiber as a support for sulfonated carbon. Sulfonated carbon/palygorskite solid-acid catalyst (SC-Plg) was synthesized via one-step carbonization-sulfonation by mixing palygorskite with sucrose as the carbon source and p-toluenesulfonic acid as the sulfonating agent. The catalyst was characterized by SEM, EDX, TEM, FTIR, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. The results indicated that sucrose-derived carbon was loaded uniformly on the surface of Plg fibers and formed the SC-Plg catalyst. The inexpensive Plg fibers could replace sucrose-derived carbon and increase the surface area of the resulting catalyst. The SC-Plg shows significant catalytic performance and excellent stability when used in the esterification of oleic acid with methanol. The conversion of oleic acid reached 68.09%, even after five cycles. This work paves the way for the development of highly active, carbon-based, solid-acid composite catalysts using a natural Plg nanofiber template.

The laboratory generation and diagnosis of uniform near-critical-density (NCD) plasmas play critical roles in various studies and applications, such as fusion science, high energy density physics, astrophysics as well as relativistic electron beam generation. Here we successfully generated the quasistatic NCD plasma sample by heating a low-density tri-cellulose acetate (TCA) foam with the high-power-laser-driven hohlraum radiation. The temperature of the hohlraum is determined to be 20 eV by analyzing the spectra obtained with the transmission grating spectrometer. The single-order diffraction grating was employed to eliminate the high-order disturbance. The temperature of the heated foam is determined to be T = 16.8 ± 1.1 eV by analyzing the high-resolution spectra obtained with a flat-field grating spectrometer. The electron density of the heated foam is about $N_e=4.0\pm 0.3\times {10}^{20}{\text{cm}}^{-3}$ under the reasonable assumption of constant mass density.

The grey wolf optimizer (GWO) as a new intelligent optimization algorithm has been successfully applied in many fields because of its simple structure, few adjustment parameters and easy implementation. This paper mainly aims at the defects of GWO in path planning application, such as easily falling into local optimization, poor convergence and poor accuracy, and turn point grey wolf optimization (TPGWO) algorithm is proposed. First, the idea of cross-mutation and roulette is used to increase the initial population of GWO and improve the search range. At the same time, the convergence factor function is improved to become a nonlinear update. In the early stage, the search range is expanded, and in the later stage, the convergence speed is increased, while the parameters in the convergence factor function can be adjusted according to the number of obstacles and the map area to change the turning point of the function to improve the convergence speed and accuracy of the algorithm. The turning times and turning angles of the obtained path are added to the fitness function as penalty values to improve the path accuracy. The optimization test is carried out through 16 test functions, and the test results prove the convergence and robustness of TPGWO algorithm. Finally, the TPGWO algorithm is applied to the path planning of patrol robot for simulation experiments. Compared with the GWO algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization, the simulation results show that the TPGWO algorithm has better convergence, stability and accuracy in the path planning of patrol robot.

Hyperinsulinaemia and insulin resistance have been proposed to be associated with mortality risk, and diet can modulate insulin response. However, whether dietary patterns with high insulinaemic potential are associated with mortality remains unknown. We prospectively examined the associations between hyperinsulinaemic diets and the risk of total and cause-specific mortality in a large nationally representative population. Dietary factors were assessed by 24-h recalls. Two empirical dietary indices for hyperinsulinaemia (EDIH) and insulin resistance (EDIR) were developed to identify food groups most predictive of biomarkers for hyperinsulinaemia (C-peptide and insulin) and insulin resistance (homoeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance), respectively. Deaths from date of the first dietary interview until 31 December 2015 were identified by the National Death Index. Multivariable hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI were calculated using Cox regression models. During a median follow-up of 7·8 years, 4904 deaths were documented among 40 074 participants. For EDIH, the multivariable-adjusted HR (comparing extreme quintiles) were 1·20 (95 % CI 1·09, 1·32, P-trend<0·001) for overall mortality and 1·41 (95 % CI 1·15, 1·74, P-trend = 0·002) for CVD mortality. Similar associations were observed for EDIR with HR of 1·18 (95 % CI 1·07, 1·29, P-trend < 0·001) for total and 1·35 (95 % CI 1·09, 1·67, P-trend = 0·005) for CVD mortality. After further adjustments for BMI and diabetes, these positive associations were somewhat attenuated. Our findings suggested that diets with higher insulinaemic potential are associated with increased risk of overall and CVD-specific mortality.

Inflammation is a central mechanism in metabolic disorders associated with morbidity and mortality and dietary factors can modulate inflammation. We aimed to prospectively investigate the association between an empirically developed, food-based dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) score and the risk of overall and cause-specific mortality, using data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2014. EDIP score was derived by entering thirty-nine predefined commonly consumed food groups into the reduced rank regression models followed by stepwise linear regression, which was most predictive of two plasma inflammation biomarkers including C-reactive protein and leucocyte count among 25 500 US adults. This score was further validated in a testing set of 9466 adults. Deaths from baseline until 31 December 2015 were identified through record linkage to the National Death Index. During a median follow-up of 7·8 years among 40 074 participants, we documented 4904 deaths. Compared with participants in the lowest quintile of EDIP score, those in the highest quintile had a higher risk of overall death (hazard ratio (HR) = 1·19, 95 % CI 1·08, 1·32, Ptrend = 0·002), and deaths from cancer (HR = 1·41, 95 % CI 1·14, 1·74, Ptrend = 0·017) and CVD (HR = 1·22, 95 % CI 0·98, 1·53, Ptrend = 0·211). When stratified by age, the association of EDIP with overall mortality was stronger among individuals under 65 years of age (Pinteraction = 0·001). Diets with a higher inflammatory potential were associated with increased risk of overall and cancer-specific mortality. Interventions to reduce the adverse effect of pro-inflammatory diets may potentially promote health and longevity.

High-power fiber lasers have experienced a dramatic development over the last decade. Further increasing the output power needs an upscaling of the fiber mode area, while maintaining a single-mode output. Here, we propose an all-solid anti-resonant fiber (ARF) structure, which ensures single-mode operation in broadband by resonantly coupling higher-order modes into the cladding. A series of fibers with core sizes ranging from 40 to 100 μm are proposed exhibiting maximum mode area exceeding 5000 μm2. Numerical simulations show this resonant coupling scheme provides a higher-order mode (mainly TE01, TM01, and HE21) suppression ratio of more than 20 dB, while keeping the fundamental mode loss lower than 1 dB/m. The proposed structure also exhibits high tolerance for core index depression.