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In this study, tri-butyl-phosphate (TBP)-kerosene is used as the extraction solvent to remove phenols from coal gasification wastewater, and the complex mechanism of the extraction is investigated. An effect experiment is conducted to determine the complex structures, the enthalpy change of reaction, and the effect of extraction solvent concentration and temperature on the distribution coefficient. To predict the extraction effect before the experiment, the distribution coefficient mathematical model of phenol extraction is established, which is based on a liquid-liquid extraction model and verified for accuracy by the experiment. The effect experiment result shows that with an increase in concentration of TBP and decrease in temperature, the extraction distribution coefficient increases and further determines the complex structures and the enthalpy change of the reaction. Meanwhile, a comparison of experimental and calculated values in the model experiment result shows that the average relative error of extraction distribution coefficient is 5.56% in different concentrations of TBP and 2.72% in different temperatures. Considering the error of the experiment, this work concludes that the distribution coefficient mathematical model of phenol extraction has a high predictive effect on the distribution coefficient and extraction rate of volatile phenol in actual wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft materials including elastomers and gels are widely used in applications of energy absorption, soft robotics, bioengineering, and medical instruments. For many soft materials subject to loading and unloading cycles, the stress required on reloading is often less than that on the initial loading, known as Mullins effect. Meanwhile, soft materials usually exhibit rate-dependent viscous behavior. Both effects were recently reported on a new kind of synthesized tough gel, with capability of large deformation, high strength, and extremely high toughness. In this work, we develop a coupled viscoelastic and Mullins-effect model to characterize the deformation behavior of the tough gel. We modify one of the elastic components in Zener model to be a damageable spring to incorporate the Mullins effect and model the viscous effect to behave as a Newtonian fluid. We synthesized the tough gel described in the literature (Sun et al., Nature 2012) and conducted uniaxial tensile tests and stress relaxation tests. We also investigated the two effects on three other soft materials, polyacrylate elastomer, Nitrile-Butadiene Rubber, and polyurethane. We find that our presented model is so robust that it can characterize all the four materials, with modulus ranging from a few tens of kilopascal to megapascal. The theory and experiment for all tested materials agree very well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide the methods for automatic detection of the difference in gait features depending on a footwear. Methods: Artificial neural networks were applied in the study. The gait data were recorded during the walk with different footwear for testing and validation of the proposed method. The gait properties were analyzed considering EMG (electromyography) signals and using two types of artificial neural networks: the learning vector quantization (LVQ) classifying network, and the clustering competitive network. Results: Obtained classification and clustering results were discussed. For comparative studies, velocities of the leg joint trajectories, and accelerations were used. The features indicated by neural networks were compared with the conclusions formulated analyzing the above mentioned trajectories for ankle and knee joints. Conclusions: The matching between experimentally recorded joint trajectories and the results given by neural networks was studied. It was indicated what muscles are most influenced by the footwear, the relation between the footwear type and the muscles work was concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There was strong association between depression and caregiver burden. However, there are few studies about the quality of life and social support in the spouses of depressed patients in China. The aim of the present study was to explore the quality of life and social support perceived by the partners of depressed patients in China. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, fifty-nine participants with a depressed partner according to a DSM-Ⅳ diagnosis of major depressive disorder and fifty-nine married normal controls participated in the study. All participants completed MSPSS and QLESQ. The data collected was analyzed to compare the quality of life and social support between the depressed patients' spouses and married normal controls, and the relationship between social support and the quality of life in the two groups. Results: There were significant differences in the quality of life (p<0.01 ) and perceived social support (p<0.01 ) between the two groups. The spouses of depressed patients, who were younger than fifty years, employed and role as a wife in the family reported better quality of life than those older than fifty years, unemployed and role as a husband. There was positively correlation between the quality of life and social support from friend in the spouses of depressed patients. Conclusions: It is very important to provide the social support with a person with a depressed partner so that improving their quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Rich silver-bearing low-grade complex sulfide ores can be found in great supply in China''s Yunnan Province. The beneficiation experiment showed that it would be very difficult to separate Ag (Zn or Pb) minerals with traditional ore beneficiation methods. In the present work, acid pressure oxidative leaching of such complex sulfide ores in sulfate medium added sodium iodine and at the temperature ranging from 90 to 170 °C was studied to search for silver recovery alternatives. The Lab-scale experiments were conducted in a 2-L autoclave to investigate the influences of temperature, acidity, sodium iodide addition, oxygen pressure, oxygen flow rate on recovery of silver and zinc. The experimental results obtained show that under optimum conditions, recovery yield of silver and zinc reaches 71.5% and 41.29%, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Porous titanium alloy scaffold was widely used in treating bone defect caused by traumatic injury and osteomyelitis, which was incapable of self-healing. The implantation of scaffold produced stress shielding thereby forming osteolysis. The objective of this study was to analysis trabecular morphological features of osseointegrated bone. 14 New Zealand rabbits were divided into two groups, surgery group and healthy control group. 7 rabbits in surgery group were selected to perform 3D printed porous titanium alloy scaffold implantation surgery with preload at the defect of femoral condyle for osseointegration. The other 7 rabbits in control group were feed free. After 90 days healing, femoral condyles were extracted to perform micro-CT scanning with hydroxyapatite calibration phantom. Mean bone mineral density (BMD), bone volume fraction (BV/TV), BS/TV (bone surface area ratio), Tb.Th (thickness of trabeculae), Tb.N (number of trabeculae), Tb.Sp (trabecular separation) and DA (degree of anisotropy) were calculated from micro-CT images. The results revealed that osseointegration inside and at the surface of scaffolds worked well from grey values of micro-CT images. After 12 weeks healing, mean bone mineral densities (BMD) in surgery group and healthy control group were calculated as 800±20mg/cm3 and 980±90mg/cm3, respectively. This revealed that the strength of trabeculae in surgery group might lower than that in the healthy group. Trabecular morphological parameters test showed that trabecular morphological parameters at the surface of scaffolds in the surgery group deteriorated significantly. It was found from micro-CT images that ingrowth bone was filled with pores of scaffold. Overall, the effect of osseointegration was promoted through the change of mechanical micro-environment in the scaffold region. Overall, preload could improve osseointegration effect in the long-term after surgery. However, the trabecular morphology in the surgery group was deteriorated, which might bring secondary fracture risk again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reproduction of cattleyak was greatly restricted due to male infertility. Genomic sequencing indicated higher similarity between cattle and yak and studies were undertaken to investigate the mechanisms of spermatogenic arrest of cattleyak on the molecular level, while there was no information available on the genetic variants of testis transcriptomes between cattleyak and yak. To gain insight into molecular genetic characteristics of spermatogenesis for cattleyak and yak, we investigated genetic alterations for their testis transcriptomes using RNA-seq. The total number of novel transcript units identified from cattleyak was much lower than for yak. The total number of alternative splicing (AS) events identified from cattleyak was also lower than it was in yak, among which intron retention was the prevalent type of AS and it occurred on average in 40% of all AS events in cattleyak and at an average 37% in yak. The cattleyak exhibited lower transitions than yak. The transversions identified in cattleyak were also lower than in yak. The lower AS events in the testis transcriptome of cattleyak resulted in the deficiency of mRNA/protein isoforms and their critical roles in spermatogenesis, which would lead to the spermatogenic arrest. The lower genetic polymorphisms in cattleyak could be attributed to the stagnant spermatogenic differentiation in cattleyak compared to vigorous spermatogenic differentiation in yak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poultry welfare has been extensively studied; however, there is a lack of rigorous scientific knowledge relating to the different aspects of welfare factors and how this may contribute to the production quantity and product quality as well as the welfare of chickens. Therefore, we conducted an integrated study to compare welfare factors in chickens by providing free dietary choice under cage rearing, and further comparing cage rearing with free-range rearing. One hundred chickens each were allocated to a cage rearing group with conventional feeding (CC), a cage rearing group with free dietary choice of mealworms (FDM), a cage rearing group with free dietary choice of mealworms and fresh grass (FDMG), and a free-range rearing system group with free dietary choice of mealworms and fresh grass (FRMG). Results showed that under cage rearing, free dietary choice contributed to better meat quality and gait score, higher values of blood platelets, and a richer gut microbial composition, but poorer egg production than CC chickens. As compared to FDMG, FRMG chickens showed better meat quality, gait score, and feather conditions, as well as a richer gut microbial composition; however, they had poorer egg production and a poorer foot pad and foot feather condition. We conclude that free dietary choice and free-range rearing systems improve the product quality, gait score, and microbial richness of chickens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shallow water depth measurements using multispectral images are crucial for marine surveying and mapping. At present, relevant studies either depend on the use of other auxiliary data (such as field water depths or water column data) or contain too many unknown variables, thus making these studies suitable only for images that contain enough visible wavebands. To solve this problem, a Quasi-Analytical Algorithm (QAA) approach is proposed in this paper for estimating the water depths aroundWeizhou Island by developing a QAA to estimate the diffuse attenuation coefficients and simplifying the parameterization of the bathymetric model. The approach contains an initialization sub-approach and a novel global adjustment sub-approach. It is not only independent of other auxiliary data but also greatly reduces the number of unknowns. Experimental results finally demonstrated that the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs) were 1.01 m and 0.77 m for the ZY-3 image and the WorldView-3 (WV-3) image, respectively, so the approach is competitive to other QAA bathymetric methods. Besides, the global adjustment sub-approach was also seen to be superior to common smoothing filters: if the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is as low as 42, i.e., ZY-3, it can smooth the water depths and improve the accuracies, otherwise can avoid the over-smoothing of water depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Natural rubber, an important industrial raw material, is specifically synthesized in laticifers located inside the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) trunk. Due to the absence of plasmodesmata, the laticifer water balance is mediated by aquaporins (AQPs). However, to date, the characterization of H. brasiliensis AQPs (HbAQPs) is still in its infancy. Results: In this study, 51 full-length AQP genes were identified fromthe rubber tree genome. The phylogenetic analysis assigned these AQPs to five subfamilies, including 15 plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs), 17 tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs), 9 NOD26-like intrinsic proteins (NIPs), 4 small basic intrinsic proteins (SIPs) and 6 X intrinsic proteins (XIPs). Functional prediction based on the analysis of the aromatic/arginine (ar/R) selectivity filter, Froger's positions and specificity-determining positions (SDPs) showed a remarkable difference in substrate specificity among subfamilies. Homology analysis supported the expression of 44 HbAQP genes in at least one of the examined tissues. Furthermore, deep sequencing of the laticifer transcriptome in the form of latex revealed a key role of several PIP subfamily members in the laticifer water balance, and qRT-PCR analysis showed diverse expression patterns of laticifer-expressed HbAQP genes upon ethephon treatment, a widely-used practice for the stimulation of latex yield. Conclusions: This study provides an important genetic resource of HbAQP genes, which will be useful to improve the water use efficiency and latex yield of Hevea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]