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In this study, Ti-Sn-Sb/γ-Al2O3 particle electrodes were prepared by sol–gel method and a three-dimensional electrocatalytic system was constructed to treat methylene blue (MB) dye wastewater. The experimental results demonstrate that the degradation of methylene blue conforms to the pseudo-first order reaction kinetics and had a low activation energy (Ea = 36.97 kJ/mol). Through quenching experiments, linear voltammetry tests, and radical trapping experiments utilizing benzoic acid as a probe, we have determined that the oxidation of MB by the particle electrode is primarily induced through direct surface electron transfer (86 ~ 88%) and surface-bound radicals (12 ~ 14%). Methylene blue undergoes degradation through the synergistic interplay of direct electron transfer (86% ~ 88%) and surface-bound radicals ·OHads (12% ~ 14%) on the particle electrode's surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little information is available on how exogenous bile acids alter lipid metabolism in muscle of fish. In the present study, an 8-week feeding trial were used to investigate the impacts of bile acids on lipid deposition, lipid metabolism, lipidomics, and transcriptomics in muscle of pearl gentian grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus♀ × E. lanceolatus♂) fed a high-fat diet (HD). The HD treatment significantly increased the crude lipid content, while bile acids diet (BD) treatment decreased it (p = 0.057). BD treatment significantly decreased triglycerides level and significantly increased phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, and phosphatidylglycerol levels. The contents of TG (17:0/18:2/18:2), TG (17:1/18:2/22:6), PC (6:0/22:1), PC (9:0/26:1), PC (26:1/6:0), PC (17:2/18:2), PE (16:0/18:1), PE (18:0/17:1), PG (18:0/20:5), PG (18:3/20:5), PG (19:0/16:1), and PG (18:0/18:1) in muscle were well response to dietary lipid level and bile acids supplementation. HD and BD groups induced a variety of adaptive metabolic responses in transcriptomics. HD treatment increased the lipogenesis and decreased lipolysis, whereas BD treatment decreased the lipogenesis and increased lipolysis. Present study revealed the improvement of muscular lipid metabolism and lipid composition in response to bile acids administration in pearl gentian grouper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using two definitions of the turbulent distance to characterize the laser beam propagation through atmospheric turbulence, we derive a general analytical expression for the beam spread η depending on the turbulence parameter T(α) with the generalized exponent α and on the initial second-order beam moments in the z = 0 plane. Larger values of η correspond to a larger influence of atmospheric turbulence on the laser beam. We subsequently apply the analytical expression of η to a partially coherent Hermite–Gaussian beam propagating through non-Kolmogorov turbulence and illustrate the properties of η by numerical examples. The results show that the η values first increase, reach their maximum for a generalized exponent α ≈ 3.11, and then decrease with increase in α. Also η decreases with increasing beam order and wavelength, as well as with increasing values of the generalized refractive-index structural turbulence parameter, beam waist width, and coherence parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decay of free radicals involved in side reactions is one of the challenges faced by electrochemical degradation of organic pollutants. To this end, a non-radical oxidation system was constructed by a natural air diffusion cathode (ADC) and a Ti-based dimensional stable anode coated by RuO2 (RuO2-Ti anode) for cathodic hydrogen peroxide activation by anodic chlorine evolution. The ADC fabricated by the carbon black of BP2000 produced a stable concentration of hydrogen peroxide of 339.94 mg L−1 (current efficiency of 73.4%) without aeration, which was superior to the cathode made by the XC72 carbon black. The flow-by ADC-RuO2 system consisted of an ADC and a RuO2-Ti anode showed high selectivity to aniline (AN) compared to benzoate (BA) in a NaCl electrolyte, whose degradation efficiencies were 97.72% and 1.3%, respectively. Rapid degradations of a mixture of emerging pollutants and AN were also observed in the ADC-RuO2 system, with pseudo-first-order kinetic constants of 0.51, 1.29, 0.89, and 0.99 min−1 for Bisphenol A (BPA), tetracycline (TC), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and AN, respectively. Quenching experiments revealed the main reactive oxygen species for the pollutant degradation was singlet oxygen (1O2), which was also identified by the electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis. Finally, the steady-stable content of 1O2 was quantitatively determined to be 6.25 × 10−11 M by the method of furfuryl alcohol (FFA) probe. Our findings provide a fast, low energy consumption and well controlled electrochemical oxidation method for selective degradation of organic pollutants. H2O2 generated on an air diffusion cathode by naturally diffused O2, reacts with ClO− produced from chloride oxidation on the RuO2-Ti anode to form singlet oxygen (1O2). The electrochemical system shows an efficient oxidation to electron-rich emerging pollutants including bisphenol A, tetracycline, sulfamethoxazole and aniline, but a poor performance on the electron-deficient compounds (e.g., benzoate). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in eye-tracking technology afford the possibility to collect rich data on attentional focus in a wide variety of settings outside the lab. However, apart from anecdotal reports, it is not clear how to maximize the validity of these data and prevent data loss from tracking failures. Particularly helpful in developing these techniques would be to describe the prevalence and causes of tracking failures in authentic environments. To meet this goal, we analyzed video records aligned with eye-tracking data collected from screen-mounted eye trackers employed in a middle-school classroom. Our sample includes records from 35 students recorded during multiple eye-tracking sessions. We compared student head position, body posture, attentiveness, and social interactions for time periods associated with successful and unsuccessful eye tracking. Overall, we observed substantial data loss and found that student inattentiveness, movements toward the eye tracker, and head rotations were the most prevalent factors inducing data loss. In addition, we observed a substantial relationship between data loss and apparent low involvement in the learning task. These data suggest that eye-tracking data loss is an important problem and that it can present a threat to validity because it can bias datasets to overrepresent high involvement behaviors. Based on these findings, we present several recommendations for increasing the proportion of usable data and to counter possible biases that data loss may introduce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some diseases related to lipid metabolism increase yearly in cultured fish, and the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is a nuclear protein that plays a key role in inflammatory responses and lipid metabolism. However, the roles of FXR in hybrid grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus♀ × E. lanceolatus♂) remain poorly understood. The main objective of this study was to explore the roles of hepatic FXR in triggering the immune response and the potential functions of FXR in regulating the lipid metabolism. In the present study, the full-length sequence of fxr from hybrid grouper was cloned and characterized for the first time. Upon the Vibrio parahaemolyticus stimulation, the transcriptional level of fxr was rapidly elevated in the head kidney tissue in the early stage of infection. In vivo and vitro, activation of FXR by obeticholic acid (OA) significantly increased the concentrations and mRNA levels of hepatic inflammatory cytokines. These effects were inversed when FXR was inhibited by guggulsterone (GU). Moreover, the activation of FXR to suppress the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway improves hepatic lipid metabolism and reduces hepatic lipid accumulation in vivo and vitro. In addition, the inhibition of FXR activated the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, decreased the lipolysis and increased the lipogenesis, and subsequently increased the lipid accumulation in fish. These results revealed the positive roles of FXR in triggering immune responses and improving lipid metabolism and accumulation in hybrid grouper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary macro-algae in diet of juvenile Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. The five macro-algae ingredients, including Saccharina japonica, Porphyra dioica, Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis, Ulva lactuca, and Undaria pinnatifida, were used for test diets, named SJD, PDD, GLD, ULD, and UPD, respectively. A reference diet (RD) and five test diets (30% test ingredients and 70% RD) were formulated. Each diet was randomly assigned to triplicate groups of 40 shrimp (initial body weight, 2.00 ± 0.01 g) and the shrimp were hand fed four times a day to apparent satiation. During the last 2 weeks, the fecal samples were collected by siphoning. The results showed that among five test diets, shrimp fed the SJD had the highest weight gain and the lowest feed coefficient, shrimp fed the SJD and GLD shared the same survival ratio and were significantly higher than shrimp fed the PDD and UPD (p < 0.05). For the composition of whole body, shrimp fed the SJD had the highest protein and lipid content compared with the shrimp fed other test diets. Apparent dry matter digestibility from high to low was: P. dioica, S. japonica, G. lemaneiformis, U. lactuca, and U. pinnatifida. Apparent protein digestibility of five macro-algae was highest in U. pinnatifida and lowest in G. lemaneiformis. Additionally, the highest apparent digestibility of gross energy was found in P. dioica. Apparent digestibility of total phosphorous in five ingredients was generally low and highest in S. japonica which was significantly higher than other ingredients (p < 0.05). These results indicated that S. japonica is more suitable for feed ingredient than other four kinds of macro-algae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and glycine supplementation on growth performance, glutathione (GSH) synthesis, and antioxidative ability of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella. Four practical diets were formulated: control, control + 0.2% NAC, control + 0.5% glycine, and control + 0.2% NAC + 0.5% glycine. Each diet was randomly assigned to quadruplicate groups of 30 fish (approximately 8.8 g). Weight gain and specific growth rate were significantly increased with the supplementation of NAC. Supplementation of NAC plus glycine significantly increased the feed efficiency. Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and γ-glutamine cysteine synthase (γ-GCS) in plasma were significantly increased with the supplementation of NAC plus glycine. GSH in plasma increased and malondialdehyde (MDA) decreased in fish fed diets supplemented with NAC. Respiratory burst, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activity were not affected by NAC or glycine. These results clearly indicated that NAC improved the growth performance and restored GSH of grass carp, supplemented NAC together with glycine enhanced GSH synthesis, and improved the antioxidative ability of grass carp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of water-soluble co-solvents(WSCs)on the properties of water/oil Pickering emulsions were investigated. Pickering emulsions were prepared in the system of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene(TMB)/ hydrophobic silica/ water with varied concentrations of WSCs(ethanol, acetic acid and glycerin). Mean droplet diameter distributions of the obtained emulsions were studied to investigate the effects of WSCs types and concentrations. The results demonstrated that mean droplet diameter distributions decreased at first and then increased with the increase of WSC concentration. Moreover, the effect of WSC concentration on the phase inversion locus was further investigated. At the same time, infrared radiation(IR)spectrometer was used to investigate the mechanism. The results showed that the WSC attaching on hydrophobic silica changed the wettability of the particles, which facilitated the formation and phase inversion of the emulsion. The hydrogen bonds between the co-solvent groups attaching on the solid particles made a great effect on the droplet size of the emulsion and strengthened the interaction among emulsifiers. Overall, proper WSC was in favor of the stability of Pickering emulsion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a simple and scalable method for the fabrication of spiral-type chiral plasmonic oligomers based on the stepwise colloid sphere lithography technology. Through carefully adjusting the azimuthal angle Φ of polystyrene (PS) sphere array monolayer and the deposition thickness k, the chiral plasmonic oligomers composed of four achiral particles can be successfully fabricated on a desired substrate. And their chiral sign, i.e., left-hand or right-hand, is dependent on the anticlockwise or clockwise deposition sequence of the achiral particles. The measured results show a large chiroptical resonance in the visible region, and this resonance can be easily adjusted by using different sizes of PS spheres. Our in-depth theoretical and experimental researches further reveal that the obtained chiral plasmonic oligomers are indeed a kind of quasi-three-dimensional chiral nanostructures, which own a three-dimensional geometrical morphology, but with nonreciprocity chiroptical effect. The ease and scalability (>1 cm) of the fabrication method make chiral plasmonic oligomers promising candidates for many applications, such as chiral biosensor and catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]