Dufulin is a highly effective antiviral pesticide used in plants. In this study, a seven-day experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of Dufulin at five different concentrations (1 × 10−4, 1 × 10−3, 1 × 10−2, 0.1, and 1 mg/L) on Tubifex. LC-MS-based metabolome analysis detected a total of 5356 features in positive and 9110 features in negative, of which 41 showed significant changes and were identified as differential metabolites. Four metabolic pathways were selected for further study. Detailed analysis revealed that Dufulin exposure affected the urea cycle of Tubifex, probably via argininosuccinate lyase (ASL) inhibition. It also affected the fatty acid metabolism, leading to changes in the concentration of free fatty acids in Tubifex. Furthermore, the changes in metabolites after exposure to Dufulin at 1 × 10−2 mg/L were different from those at the other concentrations.

Cellular automaton (CA) as a discrete and deterministic dynamic system has been widely used in cryptography. In this paper, a novel triple-coupling CA model is proposed. We first apply the triple-coupling model to 1D CA to design a high-quality pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). Numerical simulation and analyses show that triple-coupling CA exhibits more complex evolutionary behavior than uncoupling CA. The pseudo-random sequence generated by triple-coupling 1D CA can pass all NIST SP800-22 tests. Subsequently, the triple-coupling model is also applied to 2D CA, and a novel image encryption scheme based on this model is proposed. Thanks to the triple-coupling model, the diffusion operation can be completed between different color channels of the color image. Experimental simulations and extensive cryptanalysis show that the image encryption algorithm using the triple-coupling model has superior security and high efficiency.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors with high mortality rate. The diagnosis of HCC is currently based on Alpha-fetoprotein detection, imaging examinations and liver biopsy,...