Search

To enhance the field applicability, based on enthalpy differences black box method was proposed to estimate the cooling load on mining face in this paper.The cooling load of mining face is composed of basic and increased cooling load. The former is considered with enthalpy difference between airflow in hottest period of summer and air flow under the cooling control at the target temperature, while the latter comes from the increased heat dissipation relative heat source after the implementation of cooling measures.Then taken above estimated results as a reference, theoretical analysis (i-d chart) and numerical simulation (Fluent software) were conducted on heat and moisture treatment process and distribution characteristics of air in tunnel after mixture cooling modes.The results show that the mixed air cooling process can be divided into three parts:cooling, mixing and warming, in which the most important is cooling process. Cooling process mainly depends on system refrigeration capacity and heat exchange equipment performance, which has great influence on the following two processes.During the mixing, air temperature (18℃~20℃ to 24℃~25℃,30℃~31℃ to 25℃~26℃) and wind speed (15~17 m/s to 1~2 m/s) change dramatically, showing a negative correlations between them.In addition, the length of mixing process should be controlled in less than 10 m (3~6 m) tunnel.At last, the warming stage should be reduced to release mining face heat and moisture source at the present stage, along with the system and parameter optimization, mine cooling should be made a scientific decision according to the concrete situation and diminish mine heat hazard during coal mining.

This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of different varieties of camellia oils and their diacylglycerol (DAG)-enriched derivatives in terms of triacylglycerol (TAG) species, bioactive components, volatile compounds, and antioxidant activity. Six types of camellia oils, including C. oleifera (C.O), C. semiserrata (C.S), C. gauchowensis (C.G), along with commercially refined C. oleifera oil (C-C.O) and its DAG-enriched counterparts (at 40% and 80% enrichment), were analyzed and compared. Unique patterns of TAG profiles, fatty acid distributions on different glycerol backbones, tocopherol, squalene, total polyphenols, and volatile compounds were observed, suggesting that these characteristics can be utilized as a criterion to differentiate them. DAG-enriched oils exhibited increased levels of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) compared to C-C.O, albeit with decreased contents of tocopherol, squalene, and total polyphenols. Moreover, diverse volatile compounds were identified across all types of camellia oils, among which the DAG-enriched oils had distinct distribution characteristics compared with their crude oils, indicating the influence of the enrichment process on volatile compounds. Furthermore, DAG-enriched oils demonstrated reduced antioxidant activity abilities compared to their counterparts, with the highest activity observed in C.O, followed by C.G. Additionally, strong correlations were observed between antioxidant activity and tocopherol, as well as squalene content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeding is a critical process in aquaculture, as it has a direct impact on the quantity and quality of fish. With advances in convolutional neural network (CNN) and vision transformer (ViT), intelligent feeding has been widely adopted in aquaculture, as the real-time monitoring of fish behavior can lead to better feeding decisions. However, existing models still have the problem of insufficient accuracy in the fish behavior-recognition task. In this study, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) was selected as the research subject, and three categories (weakly, moderately, and strongly hungry) were defined. We applied the deformable attention to the vision transformer (DeformAtt-ViT) to identify the fish hunger degree. The deformable attention module was extremely powerful in feature extraction because it improved the fixed geometric structure of the receptive fields with data-dependent sparse attention, thereby guiding the model to focus on more important regions. In the experiment, the proposed DeformAtt-ViT was compared with the state-of-the-art transformers. Among them, DeformAtt-ViT achieved optimal performance in terms of accuracy, F1-score, recall, and precision at 95.50%, 94.13%, 95.87%, and 92.45%, respectively. Moreover, a comparative evaluation between DeformAtt-ViT and CNNs was conducted, and DeformAtt-ViT still dominated the others. We further visualized the important pixels that contributed the most to the classification result, enabling the interpretability of the model. As a prerequisite for determining the feed time, the proposed DeformAtt-ViT could identify the aggregation level of the fish and then trigger the feeding machine to be turned on. Also, the feeding machine will stop working when the aggregation disappears. Conclusively, this study was of great significance, as it explored the field of intelligent feeding in aquaculture, enabling precise feeding at a proper time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the challenge of pear leaf disease recognition caused by uneven illumination, overlapping leaves, and other green plants in the background, a two‐stage strategy‐based framework for pear leaf segmentation and disease classification is proposed. Initially, a double branch polymerization net fusing features of the low‐level feature branch and semantic branch is constructed to extract the target diseased pear leaf and eliminate background interference. Then an improved lightweight neural network (Inverted‐Inception Efficient‐Excitation‐and‐Filtering‐Bottleneck MobileNet‐v2, I2EMv2) is used to capture multi‐scale lesion information and ainhibit invalid feature channels and filter redundant features for the final classification. The experimental results show that the proposed framework can accurately extract the pear leaf region with complete boundary from the complex background, maximize the retention of lesion information, and achieve high‐precision pear leaf disease identification. The mean absolute error, F‐measure, and intersection over union of leaf segmentation are 0.027, 0.947, and 0.880, respectively, and the average recognition accuracy of leaf disease is 92.05%. Compared with others, the method proposed in this paper has superior performance on segmentation and classification, which provides a reference for pear leaf disease classification under complex background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising approach for mitigating the greenhouse effect arising from anthropogenic CO2 emission. Nonetheless, poor product selectivity associated with electrochemical catalysts is the main technical problem for the application of CO2RR technology. The catalytic performance of nano-catalysts is strongly dependent on their microstructural features. Anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) is one of the most effective techniques for studying nanostructural change in an operando way, especially for complex systems and mixed-element catalyst situations. Furthermore, based on the research results of ASAXS, appropriate catalyst components and nanostructures can be designed to achieve stable catalytic performance of the catalyst, promote catalytic reaction rate, or improve catalytic reaction selectivity. In this paper, the basic concept, principle, and applications in different systems of ASAXS are reviewed thoroughly. Finally, the development prospect of ASAXS in the field of electrocatalysis is prospected. It is hoped that this review will further promote ASAXS technology to play a more far-reaching impact in the field of electrocatalytic CO2RR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For stage III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with a high risk of recurrence, intensified adjuvant chemotherapy can improve overall survival. We aimed to develop a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) methylation marker model for predicting the relapse risk of stage III CRC patients. Differentially methylated markers identified between 53 normal mucosa samples and 165 CRC tissue samples, as well as between plasma samples from 75 stage I/II (early‐stage) CRC patients and 55 stage IV (late‐stage) CRC patients, were analyzed using Student's t‐tests. The overlapping methylation markers shared by plasma and tissue samples were used to establish a methylation marker model to evaluate the tumor burden in the peripheral blood of CRC patients using the random forest method. This model was verified in the validation cohort (n = 44) and then applied to predict recurrence risk in 50 stage III CRC patients and monitor the clinical disease course in serial samples from four CRC patients. We built a five‐marker‐based ctDNA methylation model that had high sensitivity (84.21%) and specificity (84%) in identifying late‐stage CRC in a validation cohort containing 24 stage I/II CRC patients and 20 stage IV CRC patients. The model achieved high sensitivity (87.5%) and specificity (94.12%) in predicting tumor relapse in an independent cohort of 50 stage III CRC patients and could be an independent recurrence risk factor for stage III patients [Hazard ratio (HR), 60.4; 95% confidence interval (CI): 7.68–397; p = 9.73e−5]. Analysis of serial blood samples of CRC showed that the model could monitor disease relapse earlier than imaging examination and serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and so may provide an opportunity for the early adjustment of therapeutic strategies. Moreover, the model could potentially monitor the clinical course and treatment response dynamically. © 2022 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoke detection in video is a challenging task because of the irregular shape of smoke, its complex motion state, which is affected by temperature, wind and other external factors, and background disturbances. Pixel-based foreground modeling method is a crucial step in many smoke detection systems and can be applied to efficiently focus on a certain object or a specific region to detect movements or anomalies. In video analysis, it is a natural idea to move the focus from the pixel-level foreground to the feature-level foreground. In this paper, the feature foreground is generated by the middle layer of a convolutional neural network (CNN) to guide the temporal modeling process for smoke objects. A novel temporal module called the Feature Foreground Module (FFM) is proposed to boost learning of a smoke temporal representation. Consider the problem of smoke analysis in video, we present a novel unifying approach, named an enhanced feature foreground network (EFFNet), that performs both smoke source prediction and detection. Efficient branch networks are designed in EFFNet, to predict the source mask and bounding boxes of smoke plumes in video. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to study the source of smoke using deep learning methods. Finally, experiments on a realistic smoke dataset and a public dataset show that EFFNet method performs much better than do previous state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, Camellia nitidissima Chi leaf extract was investigated for its compounds and pancreatic lipase inhibitory potentials. The interaction was determined using ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence spectroscopy (FS), and molecular docking to understand the inhibiton, kinetic, and conformation of extraction–pancreatic lipase complex. C. nitidissima Chi leaf extraction inhibited the pancreatic lipase activity in a dose‐dependent manner at the concentration of 1–12 mg/ml. The Lineweaver–Burk plots indicated that the inhibition on pancreatic lipase by extraction was noncompetitive. In addition, the decrease in α‐helix contents, increase in β‐sheet and β‐turn, and decrease in fluorescence intensity after extraction treatment indicated that the conformation of pancreatic lipase was changed. This work revealed that C. nitidissima Chi leaf extraction played a significant role in inhibiting pancreatic lipase activity and brought out a solution of delay fat accumulation. Practical applications: This study reports the components in the extract of C. nitidissima Chi leaf and its inhibitory effect and mechanism of pancreatic lipase. C. nitidissima Chi leaf is a good source of bioactive components, including multiflorin B, kaempferol‐3‐O‐rutinoside, vicenin‐2, apigenin‐6‐C‐pentosyl‐8‐C‐hexosyl, vitexin, kaempferol, and other ingredients. It can inhibit pancreatic lipase and be used to control obesity and treat hyperlipidemia. This study also revealed the structure changes of C. nitidissima Chi leaf extract on pancreatic lipase, and further revealed the inhibitory mechanism of C. nitidissima Chi leaf extract on lipase, which provides a theoretical basis for C. nitidissima Chi leaf as a lipase inhibitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The edible films were mainly made from oxidized hydroxypropyl cassava starch incorporated with cinnamon essential oil (CEO). The effects of CEO amount on the physical and mechanical properties of films were studied, and the structures of films with and without CEO were characterized. The results showed that the elongation at break, water resistance, water vapor transmission coefficient, as well as oxygen and ultraviolet barrier properties of the films (p < 0.05) significantly increased with addition of CEO, while the tensile strength of the films decreased. The field emission scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM) images and infrared (IR) spectra showed that the CEO had good compatibility with other components and could be evenly dispersed in the film, which was conducive to the stable release of the active components. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that the addition of CEO increased the crystallinity of the film, indicating that the compatibility and structural stability of the crystal structure of the film were improved. The thermogravimetric analysis results showed that CEO was beneficial to improve the thermal stability of the films. This study provided a potential to develop edible films from modified cassava starch with CEO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, volatile compounds of camellia seed oil (CSO) prepared by different preheat treatments (microwave, frying, roasting, and steaming) were identified by headspace solid‐phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (HS‐SPME/GC‐MS). A total of 107 volatile compounds were identified in CSO samples, including aldehydes (16), alcohols (6), ketones (3), heterocyclic compounds (26), esters (23), hydrocarbons (15), and others (17). Among them, untreated CSO is mainly hydrocarbons, roasting and steaming CSO are mainly aldehydes and alcohols, while microwave and roasting CSO are dominated by aldehydes and heterocyclic compounds. Fourteen volatile compounds with high relative odor activity value (ROAV ≥ 1) were selected as key aroma compounds (KACs). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were performed on 14 KACs, which determined that there were 3, 3, 3, 7, and 6 characteristic aroma compounds (CACs) in untreated, microwaved, frying, roasting, and steaming CSO. Additionally, the potential formation pathways and mechanism of KACs were discussed. Practical applications: Flavor is an important factor for consumers to choose edible oils, and it is also one of the indicators of oil quality. Different flavors of CSO can cater to the needs of different consumers. CSO manufactories can choose different preheat treatments to produce CSO with various flavors to meet different customers' need. CSO with new flavor can extend its market share and increase its value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone repair involves bone resorption through osteoclastogenesis and the stimulation of neovascularization and osteogenesis by endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). However, the role of EPCs in osteoclastogenesis is unclear. In this study, we assess the effects of EPC‐derived exosomes on the migration and osteoclastic differentiation of primary mouse bone marrow‐derived macrophages (BMMs) in vitro using immunofluorescence, western blotting, RT‐PCR and Transwell assays. We also evaluated the effects of EPC‐derived exosomes on the homing and osteoclastic differentiation of transplanted BMMs in a mouse bone fracture model in vivo. We found that EPCs cultured with BMMs secreted exosomes into the medium and, compared with EPCs, exosomes had a higher expression level of LncRNA‐MALAT1. We confirmed that LncRNA‐MALAT1 directly binds to miR‐124 to negatively control miR‐124 activity. Moreover, overexpression of miR‐124 could reverse the migration and osteoclastic differentiation of BMMs induced by EPC‐derived exosomes. A dual‐luciferase reporter assay indicated that the integrin ITGB1 is the target of miR‐124. Mice treated with EPC‐derived exosome‐BMM co‐transplantations exhibited increased neovascularization at the fracture site and enhanced fracture healing compared with those treated with BMMs alone. Overall, our results suggest that EPC‐derived exosomes can promote bone repair by enhancing recruitment and differentiation of osteoclast precursors through LncRNA‐MALAT1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Bone resorption mediated by osteoclasts plays an important role in bone healing. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) promote bone repair by stimulating neovascularization and osteogenesis. However, the role of EPCs in osteoclast formation and function is not well defined. The aim of this study was to elucidate mechanisms of EPCs in osteoclast formation and function. Methods: In this study, we examined the effects of EPCs on the proliferation, migration and osteoclastic differentiation of primary mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) in a co-culture system in vitro. We also evaluated the effects of EPC co-transplantation on the homing and osteoclastic differentiation of transplanted BMMs in a mouse bone fracture model in vivo. The technology of immunofluorescence, immunohistochemical, western blot, Rt-PCR, cell co-culture and Transwell were used in this study. Results: EPCs secreted TGF-β1 in the EPC-BMM co-culture medium and increased Talin-1 expression in the co-cultured BMMs. Treatment with a TGF-β1 neutralizing antibody or Talin-1 silencing in BMMs completely inhibited BMM osteoclastic differentiation in the co-culture system. These results indicated that the osteoclastogenic effects of EPCs were mediated by TGF-β1-mediated Talin-1 expression in BMMs. In the femur fracture model, BMMs co-transplanted with EPCs exhibited enhanced engraftment into the fracture site and osteoclastic differentiation compared with those transplanted alone. Mice treated with EPC-BMM co-transplantation exhibited increased neovascularization at the fracture site and accelerated fracture healing compared with those treated with BMMs alone. Conclusion: Taken together, the results suggest that EPCs can promote bone repair by enhancing recruitment and differentiation of osteoclast precursors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term static leaching experiments were conducted to investigate characteristics of magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) solidified/stabilized Zn-contaminated soil under impact of acid rain. Effects of initial pH values of acid rain, binder agent types and compositions, as well as curing age on strength and leaching characteristics of the sample were analyzed. Standard sand was used as raw material, with the content of cement at 15%. Our study used two types of MPC with MgO/KH2PO4(M/P) ratio of 3:1 and 6:1 (respectively referred to as M3 and M6), and also ordinary Portland cement with content at 15% (referred to as C15) as test control. Experimental results show that acid rain with pH = 2 has the greatest weakening effect on unconfined compressive strength (qu) of the sample, while with pH = 4 and 7 such weakening effects on quare similar. Research findings also indicate that M6 is the most effective in immobilizing Zn-spiked soils, M3 is next and C15 is the least. The effect of Zn2+on hydration of MPC is much lower than that of C15. Precuring method can improve quof the MPC-solidified samples and its resistance to acid rain. Compared with non-renewal, replacing acid rain leachant at designated intervals decreases quof the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims:Osteomyelitis is a common manifestation of invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection characterized by bone loss and destruction. We investigated the role of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) in bacterial recognition and clearance in response to infection with an osteomyelitis isolate of S. aureus. Methods:Apoptosis was assessed in the osteoblastic cell line MC3T3-E1 by Annexin V-FITC/PI staining and flow cytometry. The expression of TLR2 and apoptosis-related and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway proteins was assessed by qRT-PCR and western blotting. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium deposition were assessed by ALP activity assay and Alizarin red staining. Results:S. aureus induced apoptosis, upregulated TLR2 expression, and activated mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in a time dependent manner. Inhibition of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway downregulated TLR2 and suppressed the S. aureus induced activation of pro-apoptotic pathways. Short-hairpin RNA mediated silencing of TLR2 reversed S. aureus induced apoptosis and decrease in ALP activity and calcium deposition, and inhibition of JNK had a similar effect. Conclusion:We showed that osteoblast apoptosis and osteogenic differentiation in response to bacterial invasion are dependent on TLR2 expression and JNK activation, suggesting novel potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of osteomyelitis. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, various types of cells for seeding regenerative scaffolds have been used for bone tissue engineering. Among seed cells, the mesenchymal stem cells derived from human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly (hUCMSCs) represent a promising candidate and hold potential for bone tissue engineering due to the the lack of ethical controversies, accessibility, sourced by non-invasive procedures for donors, a reduced risk of contamination, osteogenic differentiation capacities, and higher immunomodulatory capacity. However, the current culture methods are somewhat complicated and inefficient and often fail to make the best use of the umbilical cord (UC) tissues. Moreover, these culture processes cannot be performed on a large scale and under strict quality control. As a result, only a small quantity of cells can be harvested using the current culture methods. To solve these problems, we designed and evaluated an UC Wharton’s jelly repeated culture device. Using this device, hUCMSCs were obtained from the repeated cultures and their quantities and biological characteristics were compared. We found that using our culture device, which retained all tissue blocks on the bottom of the dish, the total number of obtained cells increased 15–20 times, and the time required for the primary passage was reduced. Moreover, cells harvested from the repeated cultures exhibited no significant difference in their immunophenotype, potential for multilineage differentiation, or proliferative, osteoinductive capacities, and final osteogenesis. The application of the repeated culture frame (RCF) not only made full use of the Wharton’s jelly but also simplified and specified the culture process, and thus, the culture efficiency was significantly improved. In summary, abundant hUCMSCs of dependable quality can be acquired using the RCF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]