With the evolution of the Web and development of web-based search engines, online searching has become a common method for obtaining information. Given this popularity, the question arises as to how much time people save by using search engines for their information needs compared to offline sources, as well as how online searching affects both search experiences and search outcomes. Using a random sample of queries from a major search engine and a sample of reference questions from the Internet Public Library (IPL), we conduct a real-effort experiment to compare online and offline search experiences and outcomes. We find that participants are significantly more likely to find an answer on the Web (100 %), compared to offline searching (between 87 % and 90 %). Restricting our analysis to the set of questions in which participants find answers in both treatments, a Web search takes on average 7 (9) minutes, whereas the corresponding offline search takes 22 (19) minutes for a search-engine (IPL) question. Furthermore, while raters judge library sources to be significantly more trustworthy and authoritative than the corresponding Web sources, they judge Web sources as significantly more relevant. Balancing all factors, we find that the overall source quality is not significantly different between the two treatments for the set of search-engine questions. However, for IPL questions, we find that non-Web sources are judged to have significantly higher overall quality than the corresponding Web sources. In comparison, for factual questions, Web search results are significantly more likely to be correct (66 % vs. 43 %). Lastly, post-search questionnaires reveal that participants find online searching more enjoyable than offline searching.

Language control in the bilingual brain has remained in the limelight of research over the past decades. However, the mechanisms underlying bilingual language control may be more intricate than typically assumed due to the hierarchical nature of language. This study aimed to investigate the dynamics of bilingual language control at the phonetic level. Participants, who were speakers of Chinese, English and German, named the letters of the alphabet in English (L2) or German (L3) following an alternating language-switching paradigm. Two sets of letters were selected, differing in the phonological similarity of their pronunciation across the two languages, thereby allowing the exploration of cross-language phonological influences. Each participant completed two sessions of letter-naming tasks. In one session, seven phonologically similar letters were randomly repeated either in single-language blocks or in alternate-language blocks. In the other session, seven phonologically dissimilar letters were similarly manipulated. The results indicated local inhibition, reflected by switch costs and global inhibition, reflected by mixing costs. Reversed language dominance, another indicator of global inhibition, was not observed. However, there was a tendency for larger global inhibition to be applied to the more dominant language. Moreover, there was significantly faster naming for phonologically similar letters compared to dissimilar ones, suggesting a facilitation effect for both English and German, irrespective of whether letter naming occurred in single- or alternate-language blocks. These findings provided evidence for the role of inhibitory and facilitative mechanisms at the phonetic level, suggesting language-specific control in the bilingual brain and underscoring the complexity and dynamics of managing language control across multiple levels of processing.

Compacted bentonite, used as an engineering barrier for permanent containment of high-level radioactive waste, is susceptible to mineral evolution resulting in compromise of the expected barrier performance due to alkaline–thermal chemical interaction in the near-field. To elucidate the mineral-evolution mechanisms within bentonite and the transformation of the nuclide adsorption properties during that period, experimental evolution of bentonite was conducted in a NaOH solution with a pH of 14 at temperatures ranging from 60 to 120°C. The results showed that temperature significantly affects the stability of minerals in bentonite under alkali conditions. The dissolution rate of fine-grained cristobalite in bentonite exceeds that of smectite, with the phase-transition products of smectite being temperature-dependent. As the temperature rises, smectite experiences a three-stage transformation: initially, at 60°C, the lattice structure thins due to the collapse of the octahedral sheets; at 80°C, the lattice disintegrates and reorganizes into a loose framework akin to albite; and by 100°C, it further reorganizes into a denser framework resembling analcime. The adsorption properties of bentonite exhibit a peak inflection point at 80°C, where the dissolution of the smectite lattice eliminates interlayer pores and exposes numerous polar or negatively charged sites which results in a decrease in specific surface area and an increase in cation exchange capacity and adsorption capacity of Eu3+. This research provides insights into the intricate evolution of bentonite minerals and the associated changes in radionuclide adsorption capacity, contributing to a better understanding of the stability of bentonite barriers and the effective long-term containment of nuclear waste.

The inverse dynamics model of an industrial robot can predict and control the robot’s motion and torque output, improving its motion accuracy, efficiency, and adaptability. However, the existing inverse rigid body dynamics models still have some unmodelled residuals, and their calculation results differ significantly from the actual industrial robot conditions. The bootstrap aggregating (bagging) algorithm is combined with a long short-term memory network, the linear layer is introduced as the network optimization layer, and a compensation method of hybrid inverse dynamics model for robots based on the BLL residual prediction algorithm is proposed to meet the above needs. The BLL residual prediction algorithm framework is presented. Based on the rigid body inverse dynamics of the Newton–Euler method, the BLL residual prediction network is used to perform error compensation on the inverse dynamics model of the Franka robot. The experimental results show that the hybrid inverse dynamics model based on the BLL residual prediction algorithm can reduce the average residuals of the robot joint torque from 0.5651 N·m to 0.1096 N·m, which improves the accuracy of the inverse dynamics model compared with those of the rigid body inverse dynamics model. This study lays the foundation for performing more accurate operation tasks using industrial robots.

The egg parasitoid Anastatus japonicus is a key natural enemy in the biological control of various agricultural and forestry pests. It is particularly used against the brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys and the emerging defoliator pest Caligula japonica in East Asia. It has been proved that the eggs of Antheraea pernyi can be used as a factitious host for the mass production of A. japonicus. This study systematically documented the parasitic behaviour and developmental morphology exhibited by A. japonicus on the eggs of A. pernyi. The parasitic behaviour of A. japonicus encompassed ten steps including searching, antennation, locating, digging, probing, detecting, oviposition, host-feeding, grooming, and resting. Oviposition, in particular, was observed to occur in three stages, with the parasitoids releasing eggs during the second stage when the body remained relatively static. Among all the steps of parasitic behaviour, probing accounted for the longest time, constituting 33.1% of the whole time. It was followed by digging (19.3%), oviposition (18.5%), antennation (9.6%), detecting (7.4%), and the remaining steps, each occupying less than 5.0% of the total event time. The pre-emergence of adult A. japonicus involves four stages: egg (0 to 2nd day), larva (3rd to 9th day), pre-pupa (10th to 13th day), pupa (14th to 22nd day), and subsequent development into an adult. Typically, it takes 25.60 ± 0.30 days to develop from an egg to an adult at 25℃. This information increases the understanding of the biology of A. japonicus and may provide a reference for optimising reproductive devices.

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.

This study proposes a novel super-resolution (or SR) framework for generating high-resolution turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flow from low-resolution inputs. The framework combines a super-resolution generative adversarial neural network (SRGAN) with down-sampling modules (DMs), integrating the residual of the continuity equation into the loss function. The DMs selectively filter out components with excessive energy dissipation in low-resolution fields prior to the super-resolution process. The framework iteratively applies the SRGAN and DM procedure to fully capture the energy cascade of multi-scale flow structures, collectively termed the SRGAN-based energy cascade reconstruction framework (EC-SRGAN). Despite being trained solely on turbulent channel flow data (via ‘zero-shot transfer’), EC-SRGAN exhibits remarkable generalization in predicting TBL small-scale velocity fields, accurately reproducing wavenumber spectra compared to direct numerical simulation (DNS) results. Furthermore, a super-resolution core is trained at a specific super-resolution ratio. By leveraging this pretrained super-resolution core, EC-SRGAN efficiently reconstructs TBL fields at multiple super-resolution ratios from various levels of low-resolution inputs, showcasing strong flexibility. By learning turbulent scale invariance, EC-SRGAN demonstrates robustness across different TBL datasets. These results underscore the potential of EC-SRGAN for generating and predicting wall turbulence with high flexibility, offering promising applications in addressing diverse TBL-related challenges.

As a member of the Scathophagidae family, Scathophaga stercoraria (S. stercoraria) is widely distributed globally and is closely associated with animal feces. It is also a species of great interest to many scientific studies. However, its phylogenetic relationships are poorly understood. In this study, S. stercoraria was found in plateau pikas for the first time. The potential cause of its presence in the plateau pikas was discussed and it was speculated that the presence of S. stercoraria was related to the yak feces. In addition, 2 nuclear genes (18SrDNA and 28SrDNA), 1 mitochondrial gene (COI), and the complete mitochondrial genome of S. stercoraria were sequenced. Phylogenetic trees constructed based on 13 Protein coding genes (13PCGs), 18S and 28S rDNA showed that S. stercoraria is closely related to the Calliphoridae family; phylogenetic results based on COI suggest that within the family Scathophagidae, S. stercoraria is more closely related to the genus Leptopa, Micropselapha, Parallelomma and Americina. Divergence times estimated using the COI gene suggest that the divergence formation of the genus Scathophaga is closely related to changes in biogeographic scenarios and potentially driven by a combination of uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and dramatic climate changes. These results provide valuable information for further studies on the phylogeny and differentiation of the Scathophaga genus in the future.

China is still among the 30 high-burden tuberculosis (TB) countries in the world. Few studies have described the spatial epidemiological characteristics of pulmonary TB (PTB) in Jiangsu Province. The registered incidence data of PTB patients in 95 counties of Jiangsu Province from 2011 to 2021 were collected from the Tuberculosis Management Information System. Three-dimensional spatial trends, spatial autocorrelation, and spatial–temporal scan analysis were conducted to explore the spatial clustering pattern of PTB. From 2011 to 2021, a total of 347,495 newly diagnosed PTB cases were registered. The registered incidence rate of PTB decreased from 49.78/100,000 in 2011 to 26.49/100,000 in 2021, exhibiting a steady downward trend (χ2 = 414.22, P < 0.001). The average annual registered incidence rate of PTB was higher in the central and northern regions. Moran’s I indices of the registered incidence of PTB were all >0 (P< 0.05) except in 2016, indicating a positive spatial correlation overall. Local autocorrelation analysis showed that ‘high–high’ clusters were mainly distributed in northern Jiangsu, and ‘low–low’ clusters were mainly concentrated in southern Jiangsu. The results of this study assist in identifying settings and locations of high TB risk and inform policy-making for PTB control and prevention.

The assessment of seed quality and physiological potential is essential in seed production and crop breeding. In the process of rapid detection of seed viability using tetrazolium (TZ) staining, it is necessary to spend a lot of labour and material resources to explore the pretreatment and staining methods of hard and solid seeds with physical barriers. This study explores the TZ staining methods of six hard seeds (Tilia miqueliana, Tilia henryana, Sassafras tzumu, Prunus subhirtella, Prunus sibirica, and Juglans mandshurica) and summarizes the TZ staining conditions required for hard seeds by combining the difference in fat content between seeds and the kinship between species, thus providing a rapid viability test method for the protection of germplasm resources of endangered plants and the optimization of seed bank construction. The TZ staining of six species of hard seeds requires a staining temperature above 35 °C and a TZ solution concentration higher than 1%. Endospermic seeds require shorter staining times than exalbuminous seeds. The higher the fat content of the seeds, the lower the required incubation temperature and TZ concentration for staining, and the longer the staining time. And the closer the relationship between the two species, the more similar their staining conditions become. The TZ staining method of similar species can be predicted according to the genetic distance between the phylogenetic trees, and the viability of new species can be detected quickly.

Most of the currently available three-degree-of-freedom manipulators are light load and cannot achieve full continuous rotation; given this, we designed a heavy-load manipulator that achieves unrestricted and continuous rotation. Due to manufacturing and assembly errors, parameter deviations between the real manipulator and its underlying theoretical model were unavoidable. Because of the lack of high-precision, high-frequency, and real-time closed-loop detection methods, we proposed a type of kinematics calibration of parameterized ant colony optimization and feedforward control methods. This was done to achieve high-precision motion control. First, an error model combining structural parameters and joint output angles was established, and the global sensitivity of each error source was analyzed to distinguish both primary and secondary sources. Based on the measured data of a laser tracker, the ant colony optimization was then used to identify six error sources. This resulted in both link length and joint driving errors of the designed manipulator. As it is a type of systematic error, the rounding error of the theoretical trajectory was carefully analyzed, and feedforward control methods with different coefficients were designed to further improve positioning accuracy based on the kinematic calibration. Experimental results showed that the proposed kinematic calibration and feedforward control methods achieved relatively precise motion control for the designed manipulator.

Creating an environmentally friendly precursor to form a kaolinite intercalation compound is important for promoting the applications of nanohybrid kaolinite in electrochemical sensors, low- or zero-toxicity drug carriers, and clay-polymer nanocompounds. In the present study, a stable hydrated kaolinite pre-cursor with d001= 0.84 nm was prepared successfully by heating the transition phase, the as-prepared kaolinite-hydrazine intercalate, at temperatures between 40 and 70ºC. The structure of the hydrated kaolinite was characterized by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. The morphology was examined using scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the hydrated hydrazine of the transition phase was easy to decompose to hydrazines and water molecules in the interlayer at 40-70ºC. Hydrazine molecules de-intercalated gradually, and water molecules remained in the ditrigonal holes of the silicate layer with sufficient stability, finally forming the stable 0.84 nm hydrated kaolinite in the system with a success rate of 80–90%. The 0.84 nm hydrated kaolinite may become an excellent precursor for the preparation of other kaolinite intercalates. A degree of intercalation of ~100% was obtained for the kaolinite-ethylene glycol intercalate, and a degree of intercalation of ~80% was obtained for the kaolinite-glycine intercalate from the 0.84 nm hydrated kaolinite precursor.

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.

Energy loss of protons with 90 and 100 keV energies penetrating through a hydrogen plasma target has been measured, where the electron density of the plasma is about 1016 cm−3 and the electron temperature is about 1-2 eV. It is found that the energy loss of protons in the plasma is obviously larger than that in cold gas and the experimental results based on the Bethe model calculations can be demonstrated by the variation of effective charge of protons in the hydrogen plasma. The effective charge remains 1 for 100 keV protons, while the value for 90 keV protons decreases to be about 0.92. Moreover, two empirical formulae are employed to extract the effective charge.