Qi Lu^1,2, Longfei Jin², Cuiling Tong³, Feng Liu², Bei Huang², Dejian Zhang^1,2,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.4, pp. 661-679, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.049733

Abstract A Plant Biostimulant is any substance or microorganism applied to plants to enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance, and/or crop quality traits, regardless of its nutrient content. The application of Plant biostimulants (PBs) in production can reduce the application of traditional pesticides and chemical fertilizers and improve the quality and yield of crops, which is conducive to the sustainable development of agriculture. An in-depth understanding of the mechanism and effect of various PBs is very important for how to apply PBs reasonably and effectively in the practice of crop production. This paper summarizes the main classification of PBs; The growth… More >

Guangwei Sun^1,2,#, Xuanhao Zhang^3,#, Yi Liu³, Liguang Chai², Daisong Liu², Zhenguo Chen^1,*, Shiyou Lü^3,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.4, pp. 641-659, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.049285

Abstract The Nicotiana genus, commonly known as tobacco, holds significant importance as a crucial economic crop. Confronted with an abundance of herbivorous insects that pose a substantial threat to yield, tobacco has developed a diverse and sophisticated array of mechanisms, establishing itself as a model of plant ecological defense. This review provides a concise overview of the current understanding of tobacco’s defense strategies against herbivores. Direct defenses, exemplified by its well-known tactic of secreting the alkaloid nicotine, serve as a potent toxin against a broad spectrum of herbivorous pests. Moreover, in response to herbivore attacks, tobacco enhances the discharge of volatile… More >

Silvia C. Ramírez-Rodríguez¹, Pablo Preciado-Rangel¹, Marcelino Cabrera-De La Fuente², Susana González-Morales², Hortensia Ortega-Ortiz^3,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.4, pp. 777-787, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.048096

Abstract Biodegradable nanoparticles such as chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs) are used in sustainable agriculture since they avoid damage to the environment; CSNPs have positive effects such as the accumulation of bioactive compounds and increased productivity in plants. This study aimed to investigate the impact of applying CSNPs on lettuce, specifically focusing on enzymatic activity, bioactive compounds, and yield. The trial was conducted using a completely randomized design, incorporating CSNPs: 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 mg mL. The doses of 0.4 mg mL improve yields up to 24.6% increases and 0.1 mg mL of CSNPs increases total phenols by 31.2% and… More >

Nugroho Agung Pambudi^1,2,4,*, Andrew Chapman, Alfan Sarifudin^1,3, Desita Kamila Ulfa⁴, Iksan Riva Nanda⁵

Energy Engineering, Vol.121, No.5, pp. 1143-1159, 2024, DOI:10.32604/ee.2024.047555

Abstract One of the impacts of the Fukushima disaster was the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan, reaching zero production in 2015. In response, the country started importing more fossil energy including coal, oil, and natural gas to fill the energy gap. However, this led to a significant increase in carbon emissions, hindering the efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. In the current situation, Japan is actively working to balance its energy requirements with environmental considerations, including the utilization of hydrogen fuel. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the feasibility and implications of using hydrogen power plants as a… More >

Dong Pan¹, Xu Gui¹, Jiayin Xu¹, Yuming Shen¹, Haoran Xu², Yinghao Ma^2,*

Energy Engineering, Vol.121, No.5, pp. 1309-1328, 2024, DOI:10.32604/ee.2024.046464

Abstract With the increasing urgency of the carbon emission reduction task, the generation expansion planning process needs to add carbon emission risk constraints, in addition to considering the level of power adequacy. However, methods for quantifying and assessing carbon emissions and operational risks are lacking. It results in excessive carbon emissions and frequent load-shedding on some days, although meeting annual carbon emission reduction targets. First, in response to the above problems, carbon emission and power balance risk assessment indicators and assessment methods, were proposed to quantify electricity abundance and carbon emission risk level of power planning scenarios, considering power supply regulation… More >

Yingkai Dong^1,2, Chaohe Chen^2,*, Guangyan Jia², Lidai Wang³, Jian Bai¹

Energy Engineering, Vol.121, No.5, pp. 1173-1193, 2024, DOI:10.32604/ee.2024.046432

Abstract This study investigates the heat dissipation mechanism of the insulation layer and other plane insulation layers in the polar drilling rig system. Combining the basic theory of heat transfer with the environmental requirements of polar drilling operations and the characteristics of polar drilling processes, we analyze the factors that affect the insulation effect of the drilling rig system. These factors include the thermal conductivity of the insulation material, the thickness of the insulation layer, ambient temperature, and wind speed. We optimize the thermal insulation material of the polar drilling rig system using a steady-state method to measure solid thermal conductivity.… More >

Wenlu Ji^*, Teng Tu, Nan Ma

Energy Engineering, Vol.121, No.5, pp. 1223-1243, 2024, DOI:10.32604/ee.2024.046112

Abstract To improve the resilience of a distribution system against extreme weather, a fuel-based distributed generator (DG) allocation model is proposed in this study. In this model, the DGs are placed at the planning stage. When an extreme event occurs, the controllable generators form temporary microgrids (MGs) to restore the load maximally. Simultaneously, a demand response program (DRP) mitigates the imbalance between the power supply and demand during extreme events. To cope with the fault uncertainty, a robust optimization (RO) method is applied to reduce the long-term investment and short-term operation costs. The optimization is formulated as a tri-level defender-attacker-defender (DAD)… More >

Qixiang Tong, Zhipeng Zhu, Min Zhang, Kerui Cao, Haihua Xing^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.79, No.1, pp. 1353-1375, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.049187

Abstract High-resolution remote sensing image segmentation is a challenging task. In urban remote sensing, the presence of occlusions and shadows often results in blurred or invisible object boundaries, thereby increasing the difficulty of segmentation. In this paper, an improved network with a cross-region self-attention mechanism for multi-scale features based on DeepLabv3+ is designed to address the difficulties of small object segmentation and blurred target edge segmentation. First, we use CrossFormer as the backbone feature extraction network to achieve the interaction between large- and small-scale features, and establish self-attention associations between features at both large and small scales to capture global contextual… More >

Dingping Chen¹, Zhiheng Zhu², Jinyang Fu^1,3, Jilin He^1,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.79, No.1, pp. 1679-1703, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.049048

Abstract The detection of crack defects on the walls of road tunnels is a crucial step in the process of ensuring travel safety and performing routine tunnel maintenance. The automatic and accurate detection of cracks on the surface of road tunnels is the key to improving the maintenance efficiency of road tunnels. Machine vision technology combined with a deep neural network model is an effective means to realize the localization and identification of crack defects on the surface of road tunnels. We propose a complete set of automatic inspection methods for identifying cracks on the walls of road tunnels as a… More >

Hongle Li¹, SeongKi Kim^2,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.79, No.1, pp. 473-492, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.048402

Abstract Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) responds to the dynamic users’ requests without any fixed routes and timetables and determines the stop and the start according to the demands. This study explores the optimization of dynamic vehicle scheduling and real-time route planning in urban public transportation systems, with a focus on bus services. It addresses the limitations of current shared mobility routing algorithms, which are primarily designed for simpler, single origin/destination scenarios, and do not meet the complex demands of bus transit systems. The research introduces an route planning algorithm designed to dynamically accommodate passenger travel needs and enable real-time route modifications.… More >