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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of prolonged exposure to varying levels of music or noise on the behavioral, physiological, and immune responses of pullets following their transfer to an egg-laying facility. A total of 240 one-day-old Hy-Line Brown pullets were randomly assigned to five groups: 0 dB sound stimulation, low-decibel music (65–75 dB), high-decibel music (85–95 dB), low-decibel noise (65–75 dB), and high-decibel noise (85–95 dB) stimuli. Pullets received music or noise stimuli 10 h per d from 1-day-old to 16-wk-old and were then transferred to the egg-laying facility. The results indicated that feeding and drinking behaviors significantly decreased (P < 0.05), whereas feather pecking, aggression, and preening behaviors significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the pullets after transfer. Pullets also had higher serum cortisol (COR) levels (P < 0.05), whereas immunoglobulin Y (IgY), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interferon-γ (INF-γ), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels significantly increased (P < 0.05). Low-decibel sound stimuli increased aggressive behavior and decreased pecking behavior (P < 0.05). High-decibel sound stimuli decreased feather pecking, cage pecking, aggression, and sham dustbathing behaviors (P < 0.05). In addition, a low-decibel sound stimulus decreased the serum COR content, and increased the serum IL-6 level in the transferred pullets. A high-decibel sound stimulus also induced shorter tonic immobility (TI) durations in pullets on d 7 after transport stress. Meanwhile, high-decibel sound stimulus decreased the serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels of pullets. In conclusion, the transfer has detrimental effects on the pullets. Long-term sound stimulation effectively mitigated the negative impact of transportation stress on pullets. Among them, the high-decibel sound stimulus showed more promise in relieving transport stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the strategic value of middle-heavy rare earth elements (MHREEs), we proposed a bio-adsorption method to recover ultra-low concentration terbium (Tb(Ⅲ)) from industrial wastewater that originated from the Nd-Fe-B scraps recovery process. It could be found that Tb(Ⅲ) ions as low as 5.34 ng·mL−1(ppb) could be adsorbed onto Ca(Ⅱ)-modified garlic peels (Ca-GP) within 10 min with the adsorption efficiency of 99.2% at pH 3.5. The adsorption behavior of Tb(Ⅲ) onto Ca-GP conformed the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. ATR-FTIR, XPS and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations results showed that Tb(Ⅲ) ions could be ion-exchanged with cations in Ca-GP such as Ca(Ⅱ) and -COOH. In application, column experiment results showed that the maximum bed adsorption capacity for Tb, praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), dysprosium (Dy), and Total rare earth elements (REEs) ions calculated by the Thomas model was 0.06, 3.50, 9.65, 7.34, and 27.37 μg·g−1, respectively, with the initial concentration of 0.37 ng·mL−1 Tb, 20 ng·mL−1 Pr, 44 ng·mL−1 Nd, 67 ng·mL−1 Dy and 170 ng·mL−1 total REEs ions of actual solutions (below the solubility of rare-earth hydroxide). This manuscript thus provided a novel cost-effective and efficient approach to the enrichment and recovery of MHREEs from ultra-low concentration REEs ions-containing solutions. [Display omitted] • Ca(Ⅱ)-modified garlic peels (Ca-GP) biosorbent. • Adsorption of ultra-low concentration of Tb(Ⅲ) (in ppb level) onto Ca-GP. • Ion-exchange of Tb (III) with Ca(Ⅱ) and -COOH of Ca-GP. • Recovery of ppb-level Middle-heavy rare earth from actual solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study showed that in Chinese PD patients, old age, low education level, female sex, and severe motor symptoms were risk factors for cognitive impairment. • Decreased UCH-L1 levels and elevated NfL levels in the blood were related to cognitive decline in PD patients; additionally, this study is the first to report a negative correlation between UCH-L1 and NfL levels. • We found that UCH-L1 and NfL levels had high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease, especially UCHL1 levels. • These proteins are promising biomarkers for diagnosing cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease. Ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) and Neurofilament light chain (NfL) are associated with Lewy body formation, Lewy bodies are the main pathological feature of Parkinson's disease (PD). The relationship between UCH-L1 and PD cognition remains unclear, and NfL is an important marker of cognitive impairment. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship among serum UCH-L1 levels, plasma NfL levels and cognitive dysfunction in PD patients. There were significant differences in UCH-L1 and NfL levels among PD patients with normal cognitive function (PD-CN), PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), and PD-dementia patients (PDD) (P < 0.001; P < 0.001). The PDD group had lower levels of UCH-L1 (Z = 6.721, P < 0.001; Z = 7.577, P < 0.001) and higher levels of NfL (Z = −3.626, P = 0.001; Z = −2.616P = 0.027) than the PD-NC and PD-MCI groups. Serum UCH-L1 levels were positively correlated with MMSE scores, MoCA scores, and its subitems in PD patients (P < 0.001), and plasma NfL levels were negatively correlated with MMSE scores, MoCA scores, and its items (P < 0.01) (except for "abstract"). Decreased UCH-L1 levels and elevated NfL levels in the blood are associated with cognitive dysfunction in PD; thus, these proteins are potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of cognitive dysfunction in PD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) on acute heat stress (AHS) induced poor meat quality by alleviating oxidative damage through mitogen-activated protein kinase-nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2-antioxidant responsive element (MAPK-Nrf2-ARE) signaling pathway. A total of 108 thirty-five-day-old Chinese indigenous broilers (Luhua chicken) was used for this 42-d experiment. The broilers were randomly allocated to 3 treatments: control group (CON), AHS group, and AHS with 400 mg/kg COS supplementation (AHS-C) group. Both CON and AHS groups given the basal diet, and the AHS-C group given the basal diet with 400 mg/kg COS supplementation. On d 42, broilers in the AHS and AHS-C groups treated with AHS (increasing temperature from 24 to 34°C in 2-h and held for another 2-h), and the CON group under normal temperature (24°C). AHS exposure elevated (P < 0.05) body temperature (rectal, comb, eyelids, and feet) of broilers, increased (P < 0.05) breast muscle lightness ( L* ), drip loss, share force, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) scavenging activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and catalase (CAT) activity, however, decreased (P < 0.05) pH 45min , pH 24h , redness ( a* ), and relative expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Compared to the AHS group, dietary COS supplementation increased (P < 0.05) breast muscle pH 45min , pH 24h , and a* , H 2 O 2 scavenging activity, as well as relative expression of HO-1 and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), however, decreased (P < 0.05) drip loss, share force, superoxide anion free radicals (O 2 •−) scavenging activity, ROS production, and MDA content. It was concluded that AHS impaired meat quality, which may be related to oxidative damage, as evidenced by increasing ROS production, MDA content, and decreasing the relative expression of HO-1. Dietary COS supplementation could effectively elevate the meat quality of broilers exposed to AHS via decreasing ROS production, activating the Nrf2 pathway, and Nrf2-mediated HO-1 and GSH-Px gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new finite element model of the variable-length underwater cable with geometrically nonlinear motion is presented in this paper.This model accounts for the effects of axial load, shear, bending, and torsion completely.First, a set of nonlinear, time-varying differential equations is derived from the theorem of linear and angular momentum, and its weak formulation is obtained by the principle of D'Alembert–Lagrange correspondingly.Through a series of consistent linearization with the Frechet derivative and discretization with the isoparametric interpolation, the governing finite element model for this variable-length cable is established.Second, the corresponding Newmark implicit time integration formulation is derived, and a scheme of adaptive step size is proposed to avoid convergence difficulty during the numerical calculation, and the way of mesh rediscretization is also illustrated to show the process of cable deployment.Third, after comparing with the results of two validation examples, the performance of the proposed approaches is further assessed with four numerical cases, which take consideration of the top alternating excitation, the terminal follower forces, and the sea current along the cable, since these terms are found to have a significant impact on the motion of variable-length underwater cable. Finally, some conclusions are drawn. • A new finite element model of the variable-length underwater cable is presented. • A scheme of adaptive step size is proposed to avoid misconvergence in the calculation. • The way of mesh rediscretization of the finite element model is illustrated. • The analysis involves alternating excitation, follower forces, and sea current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aqueous battery employing multivalent metal ions as charge carriers is theoretically a high energy density electrochemical energy storage device due to the fact that it carries more charges. However, the storage mechanism of multivalent metal ions, especially Al3+ ions, in TiO 2 materials has not been established. A new model associated with the contribution of multivalent metal ions, water molecules and protons in the charging/discharging process of the electrode is established in this work. The storage mechanism of aqueous Al3+ ion batteries is revealed from a new perspective by studying the relationship between the charge inside the TiO 2 film and the mass at the interface. More importantly, a highlighted work is to reveal the changes in the amount of interfacial free water molecules and the hydration number of Al3+ ions due to the adsorption/desorption of hydrated ions during the charging/discharging process. The present work is of great significance for revealing the mechanism of multivalent cations on metal oxide surfaces in aqueous batteries, and meanwhile, the model established can also be extended to other fields such as supercapacitors, photovoltaics, and photocatalysis. The results obtained in this work may have an impact on the performance of energy storage batteries, especially the influence of the rearrangement of interface hydration ions and water molecules on the energy storage mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]