Search

[Display omitted] The steadily increasing use of microwave stealth materials in aerospace flying vehicles needs the development of lightweight absorbers with low density and high thermal stability for printing or spraying. In that regard, the structural designability of typical microwave absorbers made of Fe 3 O 4 seems to be a significant roadmap. In this work, a hollow spherical structure with a uniform carbon shell around the urchin-like Fe 3 O 4 core (Fe 3 O 4 @C) was produced via a two-step hydrothermal method and annealing. The Fe 3 O 4 @C absorber exhibited a strong minimum reflection loss (RL min) of −73.5 dB at the matching thickness of 3.23 mm. The maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EAB max) was 4.78 GHz at 4.55 mm. The proposed urchin-like core–shell structure was shown to provide good impedance matching and electromagnetic loss ability due to the synergistic effect of Fe 3 O 4 and C. In particular, the urchin-like structure increases the heterogeneous interfaces and effectively improves their polarization and relaxation. On the other hand, it reduces the density of the absorber and enhances multiple scattering attenuations of electromagnetic waves (EMWs). Therefore, the findings of the present study open up prospects for the design of high-efficiency lightweight microwave absorbers with specialized structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular senescence and fibrosis are two biological processes that are closely related to the development of many diseases. Cellular senescence can occur through mechanisms such as telomere shortening, DNA damage, and oxidative stress, leading to degradation of cell function and decreased ability to repair damage. More and more studies have shown that fibrosis and cell senescence are closely related, and cell senescence has been confirmed to be involved in the occurrence and development of scar fibrosis diseases. An in-depth understanding of the relationship between cellular senescence and scar fibrosis is helpful to find new therapeutic strategies and develop targeted drugs to reduce the process of scar fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical two-dimensional material, Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene has been considered a novel potential microwave-absorbing material because of its outstanding metallic-like conductivity and rich surface functional groups. Unfortunately, the microwave absorption performance is constrained by its intrinsic high conductivity and single loss mechanism. Herein, an urchin-like Fe 3 O 4 @C hollow sphere with core-shell structure was built by hydrothermal and annealing processes, which was subsequently used to modify MXene via electrostatic self-assembly. The Fe 3 O 4 @C/Ti 3 C 2 T x hybrid with 30 wt% Fe 3 O 4 @C loading displayed a minimum reflection loss (RL min) value of –64.0 dB at a thickness of 3.32 mm and a maximum efficient absorption bandwidth (EAB max) of 3.02 GHz at 3.24 mm. The exceptional microwave absorption performance is mainly attributed to the impedance matching brought about by the special urchin-like core-shell structure of Fe 3 O 4 @C, as well as the rich interfacial polarization and multiple reflections/scatterings. This work offers a novel idea for the design of efficient MXene-based microwave-absorbing materials. [Display omitted] • The urchin-like Fe 3 O 4 @C with core-shell structure was designed to modify MXene. • The Fe 3 O 4 @C/Ti 3 C 2 T x hybrid achieved a RL min of –64.0 dB at 3.32 mm. • Special structure enhanced interfacial polarization and improved impedance matching. • A novel strategy for efficient MXene-based microwave-absorbing materials was given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A metal polyphenol compound Fe-TA (TA is tannin) was applied for surface modification to improve the selective adsorption capacity of UiO-67 on cationic dyes. The modified material UiO-67@Fe-TA, which named UFT-X, exhibited significantly selective adsorption of cationic dye. Then the Freundlich isotherm model and quasi second-order kinetics model were employed to characterize the adsorption of UiO-67@Fe-TA, and the maximum adsorption quantity was 1415.56 mg/g. Furthermore, the adsorption efficiency remained above 80% after 6 cycles. The research provided a strategy of materials design and modification for selective adsorption on mixed dyes. UiO-67 was modified with Fe-TA and the surface of the modified material was negatively charged. It was used for adsorbing cationic dyes and repelling anionic dyes. The modified material UiO-67@Fe-TA exhibited significant selective adsorption of cationic dye. [Display omitted] • The surface of UiO-67 was successfully modified by Fe-TA. • The modification has the advantages of simple, fast and low cost. • The modified material significantly enhanced the selective adsorption of UiO-67 to cationic dyes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spores of wild-type Bacillus subtilis and some isogenic mutant strains were treated by high pressure CO 2 (HPCD) at high temperature (HT) (HPCD + HT) at 20 MPa and 84-86 °C for 0–60 min, and centrifuged on a high density solution to obtain pelleted spores that retained CaDPA and light spores that lost CaDPA. All treated spores were analyzed for viability, and tested for germination, outgrowth, core protein damage, mutagenesis and inner membrane (IM) properties. The results showed that (i) with HPCD + HT treated spores, most pelleted spores and all light spores were dead; ii) a significant amount of dead HPCD + HT-treated spores that retained CaDPA germinated, but outgrowth was blocked; (iii) minimal mutants were generated in survivors of HPCD + HT treatment; (iv) the GFP fluorescence decrease in HPCD + HT-treated spores with high GFP levels was slower than spore inactivation; (v) the IM of HPCD + HT-treated spores that retained CaDPA lost its ability to retain CaDPA at 85 °C, and almost all of these spores' outgrowth in high salt was blocked; and (vi) HPCD + HT-treated spores that retained CaDPA germinated with l -valine or AGFK were almost all stained with propidium iodide. These results indicated that HPCD + HT inactivated B. subtilis spores by damaging spores' IM, thus blocking spore outgrowth after germination. • High pressure CO 2 (HPCD) at innocuous high temperature (HT) (∼85 °C) could effectively inactivate Bacillus subtilis spores. • HPCD + HT inactivated B. subtilis spores by damaging spores' inner membrane, thus blocking spore outgrowth after germination. • The damage to the GRs of HPCD + HT inactivated spores was probably occurred after inactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Raspberry-like SCN photocatalyst with significant reducibility was synthesized. • Reducibility of SCN over Cr(VI) under different irradiation conditions was tested. • Transmission light of Cr(VI) polluted water at different depths was obtained. • Reducibility of SCN over Cr(VI) under actual transmission light was tested. • Results may be conducive to the practical application of photocatalytic reduction. Cr(VI) existed in the industrial wastewater which has high biological toxicity has become one of the main pollution sources at present, and it is also difficult to remove from the wastewater because of its chemical stability. In this work, a raspberry-like sulfur doped carbon nitride photocatalyst (SCNx) with significant high reduction performance over Cr(VI) was prepared by solvothermal process. The BET data showed that the specific surface area of SCN4 was 3.75 times that of g-C 3 N 4. Meanwhile, sulfur doping successfully reduce the band gap, which significantly improve the effective photoelectron density on the surface of the material, thus enhance its reduction ability. On this basis, the reduction activity of the SCNx to Cr(VI) in actual underwater environment was further investigated. Results show that SCNx still has good removal performance under weak light intensity and weak UV conditions. At 20 cm depth where ultraviolet spectral is attenuated 86.2%, the removal rate of SCN4 over Cr(VI) can still reach 58.1%. This research demonstrated that through S-doping and morphology control modification, carbon nitride can remain high photoreaction activity in the underwater weak light and weak UV environment, thus realize the efficient reduction treatment of Cr(VI). The research demonstrated the feasibility of heavy metal water treatment, and indicate a possible direction for the future practical application of heavy metal water purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing the spatio-temporal distribution of soil nitrogen (N) contributes to N management and prevention of N pollution. The objective of this work is to study the spatio-temporal distribution of soil N and their driving factors in the topsoil (0–20 cm) of farmland in Yugan county, China in 1982 and 2012. Data were collected from 200 sampling sites of the second national soil survey in Yugan in 1982 and 423 sampling sites of the soil testing and formula fertilization project in 2012. On average total N (TN) and available N (AN) significantly increased from 1.50 g kg −1 and 153.04 mg kg −1 in 1982 to 1.58 g kg −1 and 179.75 mg kg −1 in 2012, respectively. The distance of spatial autocorrelation for TN increased from 2.79 to 6.18 km and from 2.97 to 18.00 km for AN from 1982 to 2012. The nugget/sill ratio for TN (0.472 in 1982 and 0.581 in 2012) indicated that soil TN driving by natural characteristics in 1982 to human activities in 2012. The nugget/sill ratio for soil AN (0.471 in 1982 and 0.688 in 2012) indicated that soil AN is more influenced by human activities. The major factors driving the spatio-temporal distribution of soil N was N application rate. To promote the sustainable development of agriculture and eco-environment, we should improve the awareness of farmers on chemical fertilizers (particularly N) and the level of N fertilizer management, increase the use of manure and organic fertilizer and facilitate rational fertilization by farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of water activity (a w ), as lowered by different dietary humectants, on the germination of Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus cereus spores with germinants that act by different mechanisms has been investigated and compared. Germination of spores of these species by all of the germinants investigated was inhibited as a w decreased, with the general order of efficacy for these non-ionic humectants being sucrose > trehalose > glycerol. The effect of lowering a w on germination by germinant receptor (GR)-dependent germinants was not appreciably altered by varying germinant concentrations, was generally not much more effective with spores lacking coats or an outer membrane, and was less pronounced with heat-activated spores. Analysis of the effect of a w on spore germination via different mechanisms showed that GR-dependent germination was least sensitive to a w , while germination via activation of spore cortex peptidoglycan hydrolysis or dipicolinic acid release was more sensitive. However, germination by high hydrostatic pressure was less sensitive to inhibition by low a w , than was germination by other germinants. Examination of the GR-dependent germination of individual spores indicated that a w acted most strongly in inhibiting the commitment step of germination, while exerting smaller effects on dipicolinic acid release or cortex peptidoglycan hydrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO 2 films have received increasing attention for the removal of organic pollutants via photocatalysis. To develop a simple and effective method for improving the photodegradation efficiency of pollutants in surface water, we herein examined the preparation of a P25-TiO 2 composite film on a cement substrate via a sol–gel method. In this case, Rhodamine B (RhB) was employed as the target organic pollutant. The self-generated TiO 2 film and the P25-TiO 2 composite film were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N 2 adsorption/desorption measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The photodegradation efficiencies of the two films were studied by RhB removal in water under UV (ultraviolet) irradiation. Over 4 day exposure, the P25-TiO 2 composite film exhibited higher photocatalytic performance than the self-generated TiO 2 film. The photodegradation rate indicated that the efficiency of the P25-TiO 2 composite film was enhanced by the addition of the rutile phase Degussa P25 powder. As such, cooperation between the anatase TiO 2 and rutile P25 nanoparticles was beneficial for separation of the photo-induced electrons and holes. In addition, the influence of P25 doping on the P25-TiO 2 composite films was evaluated. We found that up to a certain saturation point, increased doping enhanced the photodegradation ability of the composite film. Thus, we herein demonstrated that the doping of P25 powders is a simple but effective strategy to prepare a P25-TiO 2 composite film on a cement substrate, and the resulting film exhibits excellent removal efficiency in the degradation of organic pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing periodic Ag gratings in the rear side of thin-film silicon excites localized surface plasmon (LSP) and Fabry-Perot (FP) effect. These two effects as well as an intrinsic one pass through absorption overlay together and all contribute to the light absorption in silicon. On the basis of electromagnetic field's linear superposition, the absorptivity caused by LSP effect is separated from the overall absorptivity of a 500-nm-thick silicon and quantized by short current density. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculations were performed to obtain the absorptivity of silicon with different Ag grating parameters. The contribution of LSP effect to the light absorption is evaluated by photocurrent ratio and investigated under different Ag grating parameters. It is found that, as LSP effect is excited most intensively, the light absorption of silicon will also be enhanced extremely. By careful design, the overall short current density of silicon is optimized up to 25.4 mA/cm, where the contribution of LSP effect accounts for 38.6 %. Comparing to 14.5 mA/cm for a reference silicon stack, it increases up to almost 75 %. These results may give design suggestions in implementation of plasmonic solar cell as high efficiency devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theoretically studied a three-layer configuration composed of a semiconductor layer sandwiched between air and metal substrate. Using full-field calculations, it is shown that near-zero reflectivity and near-unity absorptivity occur at the same wavelength of 532 nm in a 12 nm thick a-Si on Ag substrate. The behind physical origin is that the reflection on the a-Si/Ag interface is modulated both on amplitude and phase by the thickness of a-Si, which can cancel out the reflection on the air/a-Si interface by suitable thickness choice. The polar diagrams and absorption spectra prove that near-unity absorption at any target wavelength and high absorption at wide wavelength range can be achieved by selecting appropriate semiconductor and metal substrate. Two application scenarios in photo-absorber and solar cell fields are proposed in the end. The devised concept can extremely save the raw materials (total thickness around 100 nm) and realize the component functionalities. Our findings serve as a guide for designing planar perfect absorbers for potential optical absorber and photovoltaic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The flexible superhydrophobic N-TiO 2 silicone composite aerogels with photocatalytic properties. • KH570 grafted N-TiO 2 (K-N-TiO 2) was co-polymerized with the hydrolysates of siloxane. • The flexible composite aerogels with good mechanical properties and formability. • The air-layer between superhydrophobic surface and liquid surface forms a triphase photocatalytic interface. • The oxygen introduced by air phase can remove photogenerated electrons and improve photocatalytic efficiency. • Under the wave impact of 360 h, the aquatic grass-like aerogels in the water channel maintain the stability of structure and photocatalytic performance. TiO 2 nanoparticles are promising photocatalysts for the remediation of water pollution. However, the difficulty in recycling and low light absorption of powder TiO 2 hinder their application in photocatalysis. Although some studies have attempted to address these problems by immobilizing TiO 2 , the application of traditional immobilized TiO 2 in water environment is limited because of their unstable immobilization, poor mechanical strength, low light utilization, high electron-hole recombination,and unsatisfactory photocatalytic performance. In this study, flexible superhydrophobic Nitrogen-doped TiO 2 (N-TiO 2) silicone composite aerogels were achieved by copolymerization of γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane (KH570)-grafted N-TiO 2 with methyltrimethoxysilane and dimethoxydimethylsilane. These flexible composite aerogels possess improved mechanical strength and stable immobilization of N-TiO 2. Moreover, an air–liquid–solid triphase photocatalytic interface was formed by the superhydrophobic surface of composite aerogel, solution and the air layer existed between them. This triphase photocatalytic interface enabled oxygen at the reaction interface to be directly and rapidly supplied from the air layer, thus photogenerated electrons from the photocatalyst surface can be effectively removed and the recombination of electron holes can be reduced. Besides, the flexible photocatalyst was molded into water grass shape and placed in a water channel to verify its photodegradation efficiency and durability under hydrodynamic conditions. Experimental results confirmed that the proposed flexible photocatalyst with a triphase catalytic interface has application prospects for the degradation of pollutants in water environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-pressure CO2(HPCD) is a nonthermal technology that can effectively inactivate the vegetative forms of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, yeasts, and molds at pressures less than 30 MPa and temperatures in the range of 20°C to 40°C. However, HPCD alone at moderate temperatures (20–40°C) is often insufficient to obtain a substantial reduction in bacterial spore counts because their structures are more complex than those of vegetative cells. In this review, we first thoroughly summarized and discussed the inactivation effect of HPCD treatment on bacterial spores. We then presented and discussed the kinetics by which bacterial spores are inactivated by HPCD treatment. We also summarized hypotheses drawn by different researchers to explain the mechanisms of spore inactivation by HPCD treatment. We then summarized the current research status and future challenges of spore inactivation by HPCD treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to explore the influence of various carbon introduction on the morphology and photodegradation performance of C/g-C 3 N 4 composites, three kinds of different carbon materials: carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene (GN) and carbon fibers (CF) were introduced to modify g-C 3 N 4 , and the morphologies, light absorption capacities and the underwater purifications of the composite photocatalysts were investigated. Results showed that the composites synthesized with different carbon substrates shows great differences in growth morphology. In addition, the introduction of various carbon sources also has a great impact on the physical and chemical properties of the composites. Compared with GN/g-C 3 N 4 and CF/g-C 3 N 4 , CNT/g-C 3 N 4 shows strong light absorption ability, especially in long-wavelength region (570–660 nm). To further study the difference of degradation ability of the composites in the underwater environment, the purification performance of modified g-C 3 N 4 at different water depths were carried out. The results show that under 40 cm of water, where the light intensity and ultra violet spectral are seriously attenuated, the purification efficiency of CNT/g-C 3 N 4 at 40 cm is 3.35 times than that of g-C 3 N 4. This work provides insight in the design of highly efficient metal-free photocatalysts for the environmental remediation. [Display omitted] • The effects of morphology difference on the degradation performance of C/g-C 3 N 4 composite photocatalysts were discussed. • The degradation efficiencies of C/g-C 3 N 4 under long wavelength irradiation were significantly enhanced. • The purification performances of C/g-C 3 N 4 over methyl orange at actual underwater transmission light were tested. • The experimental results are significance for the practical application of photocatalytic degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• EGCG exhibited high affinity for and mixed-type inhibition on PPO. • Multispectral experiments showed the structural changes of PPO after binding with EGCG. • Molecular docking and dynamic simulation revealed EGCG directly bind to the active center of PPO. • The effect of inducing aggregation of EGCG to PPO was identified. • The PPO inhibitory mechanism of EGCG included competing with substrates and induced aggregation. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO)-mediated enzymatic browning occurs in fruit, vegetables and aquatic products and causes huge economic losses every year. In this study, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) displayed high affinity for and efficient inhibitory capacity against PPO. To explore the inhibition mechanism, multispectroscopic methods and computational simulations were implemented. Initially, EGCG inhibited PPO activity reversibly in a mixed-type manner. Then, the conformation and secondary structure changes of PPO after binding with EGCG were discovered by fluorescence emission spectra and circular dichroism. Molecular docking and dynamic simulation results revealed that EGCG could tightly bind with the binuclear copper domain of PPO through hydrophobic stacking and hydrogen bonds. Moreover, EGCG might act as a linker to interact with different PPO molecules at another binding site. Transmission electron microscopy observation suggested that EGCG induced the aggregation of PPO. Therefore, the inhibition mechanism of EGCG on PPO included competition for catalytic centers and induced aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the complexities of automotive systems increase, designing a system is a difficult task that cannot be done manually. In this paper, we focus on wire routing and wire sizing for weight minimization to deal with more and more connections between devices in automotive systems. The wire routing problem is formulated as a minimal Steiner tree problem with capacity constraints, and the location of a Steiner vertex is selected to add a splice which is used to connect more than two wires. We modify the Kou-Markowsky-Berman algorithm to efficiently construct Steiner trees and propose an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation to relocate Steiner vertices and satisfy capacity constraints. The ILP formulation is relaxed to a linear programming (LP) formulation which has the same optimal objective and can be solved more efficiently. Besides wire routing, wire sizing is also performed to satisfy resistance constraints and minimize the total wiring weight. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work in the literature to formulate the automotive routing problem as a minimal Steiner tree problem with capacity constraints and perform wire routing and wire sizing for weight minimization. An industrial case study shows the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithm which provides an efficient, flexible, and scalable approach for the design optimization of automotive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate the inactivation of the Bacillus subtilis spores by high pressure CO 2 combined with high temperature (HPCD + HT) and to analyze the clumping effect of the spores on their HPCD + HT resistance. The spores of B . subtilis were subjected to heat at 0.1 MPa and HPCD at 6.5–25 MPa, and 82 °C, 86 °C, and 91 °C for 0–120 min. The spores were effectively inactivated by HPCD + HT, but a protective effect on the spores was also found, which was closely correlated to the pressure, temperature and time. The spores treated by HPCD + HT at 6.5 and 10 MPa exhibited a two-stage inactivation curve of shoulder and log-linear regions whereas the spores at 15–25 MPa exhibited a three-stage inactivation curve of shoulder, log-linear and tailing regions, and these curves were well fitted to the Geeraerd model. Approximately 90% of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (DPA) was released after HPCD + HT and the 90% DPA release time depend on the pressure and temperature. Moreover, the spore clumping in suspensions was examined by dynamic light scattering. The particle size of the spore suspensions increased with the increase of pressure, temperature and time, indicating the spore clumping. 0.1% Tween 80 as a surfactant inhibited the spore clumping and increased the inactivation ratio of the spores by HPCD + HT. These results indicated that the spore clumping enhanced the spores' resistance to HPCD + HT and induced a protective effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the rapid increasing energy consumption, the energy cost of Internet data centers (IDCs) has been skyrocketing. A novel scheme of geographical load balancing was proposed to reduce electricity bills for service providers. However, one important challenge faced by service providers has not been considered properly. In service systems, the service delay faced by consumers includes the queuing delay and the transmission delay. While existing work only consider the queuing delay, the transmission delay introduced by geographical load balancing has been overlooked. It is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of service for real-time service systems. In this paper, we take the transmission delay into our design consideration and formulate a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem with coupled constraint to achieve the optimal load balancing and energy cost management for IDCs while meeting the service-level agreements (SLA) of consumers. A novel heuristic based branch and bound with feedback (HBBF) algorithm is proposed to decouple the MINLP problem with coupled constraint efficiently. Extensive performance evaluations based on real electricity price data and site-to-site transmission delay data demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inactivation of polyphenol oxidase and pectin methylesterase in peach juice was investigated after high hydrostatic pressure processing at 400–600 MPa and 25°C for 5–25 min, respectively. At 400 MPa, polyphenol oxidase and pectin methylesterase were activated by 7.3 and 2.6%. At 500 and 600 MPa, polyphenol oxidase and pectin methylesterase were inactivated significantly with increasing the pressure and time, and the inactivation kinetics was fitted by the first order model. Moreover, some physio-chemical properties were studied. The results revealed that high hydrostatic pressure treatment preserved more L-ascorbic acid and maintained the color and sensory quality better than thermal treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing services are becoming integral part of people's daily life. These services are supported by infrastructure known as Internet data center (IDC). As demand for cloud computing services soars, energy consumed by IDCs is skyrocketing. Both academia and industry have paid great attention to energy management of IDCs. This paper studies an important energy management problemâhow to minimize energy cost for IDCs in deregulated electricity markets. We propose a novel two-stage design and the eco-IDC (Energy Cost Optimization-IDC) algorithm to exploit the temporal diversity of electricity price and dynamically schedule workload to execute on IDC servers through an input queue. Extensive evaluation experiments are performed using real-life electricity price and workload traces at an enterprise production data center. The evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly reduces energy cost for IDCs, guarantees a service delay bound, and alleviates workload drop if the service delay bound is sufficiently large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications are gaining increasing importance in vehicular applications. Dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) is a fundamental set of short-to-medium-range communication channels and a set of protocols and standards that are specifically designed for V2V and V2I communications. IEEE 802.11p is a protocol that has been standardized as the medium access control (MAC) layer of the DSRC standard. Due to the highly dynamic topology and low delay constraints in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), direct (or one-hop) broadcast on the control channel (CCH) is an effective approach to inform the neighborhood of safety-related messages. The 802.11p enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) mechanism allows four access categories (ACs) in a station for applications with different priorities according to their criticalities for the vehicle's safety. This paper focuses on the analysis of the 802.11p safety-critical broadcast on the CCH in a VANET environment and improves the existing work by taking several aspects into design consideration. Extensive performance evaluations based on the NS-2 simulator help to validate the accuracy of the proposed model and analyze the capabilities and limitations of the standard 802.11p broadcast on the CCH. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

[Display omitted] • In this study, we have analyzed the adsorption–desorption behavior of Glyamifop in different types of soils and study their relationship with soil physicochemical properties (organic matter content, mechanical composition, pH value). • To evaluate the adsorption capacity of soil to Glyamifop under different environmental factors (temperature and initial solution pH) and foreign additives (different surfactants, humic acids). • To explore the migration characteristics of Glyamifop in soil. • Verify the Glyamifop residue analysis methods in different types of soil. Rice weeds strongly inhibit the production of rice because they compete with rice. Glyamifop is a novel herbicide for controlling rice weeds and being tested in paddy fields. Based on our previous studies, Glyamifop offers excellent control for rice weeds and has no negative effects on rice plant growth as well as rice yields. However, the adsorption–desorption and migration behaviors of Glyamifop in paddy soils are still not well resolved. In this study, we investigated the adsorption–desorption and migration characteristics of Glyamifop in paddy soils collected from four provinces in China, using batch equilibrium, soil column leaching, and thin-layer chromatography tests combined with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. The results showed that all the soils had a relatively high adsorption capacity for Glyamifop, and both Freundlich adsorption and desorption constants were positively correlated with soil cation exchange capacity, organic carbon content, and organic matter content (P < 0.05). Moreover, despite the initial solution pH, temperature, humic acids, and surfactants also had strong effects on the adsorption of Glyamifop in soil, while the leachability and mobility of Glyamifop were very low in most soils. Therefore, due to the relatively low leachability and mobility of Glyamifop as well as its high adsorption capacity in soil, Glyamifop can serve as an excellent herbicide for rice weeds and cause little pollution to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, composite pear juice was processed by ultra‐high pressure homogenization (UHPH) at four different pressures (50, 100, 150, and 200 MPa) with six different temperatures (4, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80°C), then microorganism and physicochemical and nutritional properties of the samples were investigated. The counts of total aerobic bacteria (TAB) and yeasts and molds (Y&M) were reduced by 0.89–4.72 log10 CFU/ml and 0.40–3.03 log10 CFU/ml after processing, respectively. There was no significant change on total soluble solid and color, but significant decreases of pH and particle size value were observed, and the antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, viscosity, and suspension stability significantly increased in treated samples. Compared to the untreated samples, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) activity of UHPH‐treated samples varied between 97%–126% and 81%–165%, respectively, indicating that the PPO and POD activities could be inactivated or activated by UHPH. This study introduced proper temperature combined with UHPH could improve the microbial inactivation and the quality of the compound juice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Perturbing O-antigen ligation shortened the resuscitating lag phase. • Higher ATP levels of Δ rfaL VBNC cells promote resuscitation. • ATP consumption during lag phase was highly correlated with resuscitation efficiency. • ATP was utilized to activate the Handler and salvage pathways to synthesize NAD+. • VBNC cells using residual ATP recover metabolic activity, driving cells to exit dormancy. Entry into the viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state is a survival strategy adopted by bacteria to survive harsh environment. Although VBNC cells still have metabolic activity, they lose the ability to form colonies on nonselective culture media. Thus, conventional bacterial detection methods, such as plate counting, are unable to detect the presence of VBNC cells. When the environmental conditions are appropriate, VBNC cells can initiate resuscitation, posing a great risk to the safety of public health. The study of the VBNC resuscitation mechanism could provide new insights into the prevention and control of VBNC resuscitation. Uncovering the molecular mechanism of VBNC cell resuscitation by investigating the role of O-antigen ligase (RfaL) in inhibiting the resuscitation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the VBNC state. RfaL was screened and verified as a resuscitation inhibitor of VBNC Escherichia coli O157:H7 by detecting resuscitation curve and time-lapse microscopy. The mechanism of RfaL impacts VBNC E. coli resuscitation was investigated by detecting the single cell ATP content, metabolomic changes, NAD(H) content and new protein biosynthesis of WT and Δ rfaL at different stage of resuscitation. Mutation of rfaL , which encoded an O-antigen ligase, markedly shortened the resuscitating lag phase. Further studies indicated that Δ rfaL VBNC cells contained higher ATP levels, and ATP consumption during the resuscitating lag phase was highly correlated with resuscitation efficiency. Metabolomic analysis revealed that ATP was utilized to activate the Handler and salvage pathways to synthesize NAD+, balancing redox reactions to recover cell activity and promote cell resuscitation. Our findings revealed a strategy employed by VBNC cells for revival, that is, using residual ATP to primarily recover metabolic activity, driving cells to exit dormancy. The synthesis pathway of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in rfaL null mutant was inhibited and could supply more ATP to synthesis NAD+ and promote resuscitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purification efficiency of the contaminants in the process of photocatalysis is influenced by the co-function of catalytic activity of materials, aquatic environment conditions and characteristics of transmission light. Here, tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) was introduced as the target pollutant, and the effects of different depths and TC-HCl concentrations on the transmission light intensity and spectral distribution were explored. The results show that incident light decreases with the increase of depth and pollutant concentration. The increase of depth influences the irradiance greatly, however, increase of concentration mainly lead to the narrow of transmission spectral range in the underwater field. The coupling relationship among pollutants, transmission spectral characteristics and photocatalytic reaction efficiency was discussed. Results show that the reduction of the underwater spectral range will reduce the effective response area of the material significantly, which directly leads to the reduction of pollutant removal efficiency in the degradation process. Aiming at different aquatic environment, photocatalytic materials with appropriate response spectral range should be selected to improve the light absorption ability, so that the removal efficiency can be improved significantly. Image 1 • Effects of depths and concentrations of TC-HCl on the transmission light intensity and spectral distribution were obtained. • Removal efficiency of carbon nitride over TC-HCl under different irradiance and spectral was tested. • Removal efficiency is effected by co-function of photocatalyst, aquatic environment and transmission light characteristic. • The results provide a direction for the evaluation and optimization of the photocatalytic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The superhydrophobic self-floating TiO 2 -silicone composite aerogels with photocatalytic properties. • TiO 2 was grafted onto MTES prepolymer by KH570. • The floating properties of composite aerogels provide a better light utilization. • The air layer between superhydrophobic surface and liquid surface forms a triphase photocatalytic interface. • The oxygen introduced by air phase can remove photogenerated electrons and improve photocatalytic efficiency. Semiconductor photocatalysis is as a promising method for water pollution remediation. However, the recycling and light capture of powder photocatalysts in traditional suspension systems are bottlenecks for their practical application in photocatalysis. Moreover, the large-scale application of traditional immobilized photocatalytic systems immersed in solution is limited due to the electron-hole recombination and slow reaction rate. Herein, we have successfully prepared superhydrophobic self-floating TiO 2 -silicone composite aerogels by condensation polymerization of γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (KH570) modified anatase TiO 2 and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES). The air–liquid-solid triphase photocatalytic system was constructed using the air layer formed by the superhydrophobic self-floating composite aerogel and the solution interface, which solved the above-mentioned limitation. The floating characteristics of the system effectively avoided the absorption of light by the solution, thereby significantly enhancing the light utilization of the catalyst. The air–liquid-solid interface allows oxygen to be quickly transported from the air to the reaction interface, and oxygen, which is a natural electron scavenger, can effectively remove photoelectrons from the catalyst surface and the recombination of electron-holes is minimized. The new self-floating photocatalyst with triphase catalytic system presented high practical application value for the degradation of suspended pollutants in a natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In this study, the QuEChERS and HPLC–MS methods were employed for residue analysis of Glyamifop in rice and its environment. • Quantification done by HPLC–MS (Ion trap). • It provides a reference for the detection Glyamifop herbicide in natural environment. Glyamifop is a new herbicide developed by Jiangsu Zhongqi Technology Co., Ltd. (Nanjing, China). No analytical method has previously been reported for determining its residual concentrations in rice and its related environmental samples. This work established a method for the determination of Glyamifop residues in various matrices using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS) with sample pretreatment by the optimized quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method. All samples were extracted with acetonitrile and purified with octadecyl bonded silica gel, N -propylethylenediamine, and graphitized carbon black adsorbents. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilen ZORBAX Eclipse XDB-C18 column, and Glyamifop in the samples was detected by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in positive ion mode. Results demonstrated this method has good linearity for Glyamifop assessment in all matrices over a wide concentration range (0.01–1 mg L−1), with a coefficient of determination >0.99. At levels of 0.01, 0.1, and 0.5 mg kg−1, the mean recoveries of Glyamifop in various matrices varied between 84.15% and 105.76%, with relative standard deviations of 1.3%–9.8%. The detection and quantification limits of this method in each matrix are 1.3–3.6 μg kg−1 and 4.89–12.48 μg kg−1, respectively. All matrices had a moderate matrix effect (between −21.63% and 14.21%), which could be calibrated using respective matrix standard curves. The proposed method is simple and sensitive, and appears suitable for the determination of Glyamifop residues in rice and its environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Recent studies demonstrate that fish byproducts can be used as sources of bioactive peptides for functional foods. Sturgeon skin contains abundant proteins but it has commonly been discarded during sturgeon processing. The objective of the present work was to identify and characterize the bioactive peptides from protein hydrolysates of sturgeon skin. RESULTS: Sturgeon skin protein extract (SKPE) hydrolyzed by flavourzyme for 60 min exhibited high antioxidant activity, dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP‐IV) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity. The sequences of peptides from flavourzyme hydrolysates were identified using high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Gly‐Asp‐Arg‐Gly‐Glu‐Ser‐Gly‐Pro‐Ala (P1) showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (DPPH IC50 = 1.93 mmol L−1). Gly‐Pro‐Ala‐Gly‐Glu‐Arg‐Gly‐Glu‐Gly‐Gly‐Pro‐Arg (P11) (DPP‐IV IC50 = 2.14 mmol L−1) and Ser‐Pro‐Gly‐Pro‐Asp‐Gly‐Lys‐Thr‐Gly‐Pro‐Arg (P12) (DPP‐IV IC50 = 2.61 mmol L−1) exhibited the strongest DPP‐IV inhibitory activity. Gly‐Pro‐Pro‐Gly‐Ala‐Asp‐Gly‐Gln‐Ala‐Gly‐Ala‐Lys (P6) displayed the highest ACE inhibitory activity (ACE IC50 = 3.77 mmol L−1). The molecular docking analysis revealed that DPP‐IV inhibition of P11 and P12 are mainly attributed to hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions, whereas ACE inhibition of P6 is mainly attributed to strong hydrogen bonds. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that SKPE hydrolysates generated by flavourzyme are potential sources of bioactive peptides that could be used in the health food industry. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A terahertz line-defect waveguide in photonic crystal with a triangular lattice array of cylindrical air holes was fabricated on a silicon slab. Terahertz transmission spectra through this sample were measured and the waveguide with high transmittance exceeding 80% near 0.26 THz was experimentally obtained. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:2856-2858, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27203 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • High hydrostatic pressure modulated the anthocyanin-binding rate of native starches. • Starch's spatial structural change was key to the pressure regulation. • The outside-in binding shift after pressure increased the binding of potato starch. • Decreased ζ potential and specific surface area of pea/corn starch reduced binding. Native starches usually have poor polyphenol-binding efficiency despite remarkable architectural structures. In this study, the interaction between cyandin-3-O-glucose (C3G) and three starches under high hydrostatic pressure was investigated. Pressure (200–550 MPa) was found to promote the binding rate of potato starch from 31.6% to 47.0% but reduced that of corn and pea starch to below 10% at 550 MPa. Microscopy results showed that pressurized corn and pea starch-C3G complexes partially or completely lost spatial structures, whereas potato starch-C3G complexes retained structural integrity. The former had decreased zeta potentials and increased particle sizes at 550 MPa, suggesting surface charges and specific surface area losses caused poor binding. Potato starch-C3G complexes, however, exhibited unchanged zeta potential and particle size but the strongest fluorescence at 200 MPa, indicating a positive binding shift from surface to interior. Overall, high hydrostatic pressure can regulate the interactions of native starches with anthocyanins via spatial structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spores of wild-type Bacillus subtilis PS533 were treated by wet heat at 75 °C for 30 min, and high pressure CO 2 (HPCD) at 6.5 MPa and 30 °C or 75 °C for 30 min. The spores were analyzed for wet heat resistance (85 °C, 90 °C, 95 °C) and typical germination events including DPA release and cortex hydrolysis, inner membrane permeability, and germination triggered by nutrient (L-valine and AGFK) or non-nutrient (dodecylamine and high pressure at 150 MPa or 550 MPa) germinants. The results showed that (i) HPCD-treated spores exhibited reduced wet heat resistance compared to the untreated or wet heat-treated spores; (ii) HPCD-treated spores did not undergo typical germination events such as DPA release or cortex hydrolysis compared to normally germinated spores; (iii) HPCD-treated spores released more metal ions and exhibited decreased ability to maintain DPA, indicating that the permeability of inner membrane of HPCD-treated spores was increased; (iv) HPCD-treated spores exhibited reduced germination rate when triggered by L-valine or 150 MPa, but increased germination rate when triggered by dodecylamine or 550 MPa, suggesting that the fluidity of the inner membrane of HPCD-treated spores might be increased. These results indicated that HPCD could reduce the wet heat resistance of spores, and this resistance decrease was probably due to the modification of the inner membrane caused by HPCD. The extremely high wet heat resistance of spores makes them a significant problem in the thermal processing of foods. Thus, it of great interest to develop a process to reduce the wet heat resistance of spores. In this work, we found that HPCD can significantly reduce the wet heat resistance of B. subtilis spores, and this was achieved by perturbing the inner membrane of spores. These results can improve our understanding of the inactivation mechanism of spores by HPCD, and also provide an alternative approach for spore inactivation in foods. • HPCD (6.5 MPa/30°C/30 min) decreased >33% heat resistance of Bacillus subtilis spores suspended in water • Reduction of B. subtilis spore's heat resistance by HPCD was not due to spore germination • The increase of the inner membrane's permeability probably induced the B. subtilis spore's heat resistance reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• N vacancies g-C 3 N 4 with increased crystallinity was synthesized controlled by ODH. • N vacancies contributes to intralayer exciton dissociation and charge transfer. • Increased crystallinity accelerates interlayer electron transfer. • ODH-CN2 has good visible-light photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4) is restricted by its inherent shortcomings. Nitrogen (N) vacancies and crystallinity are two effective options to enhance the photocatalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4. In this paper, oxalyl dihydrazide (ODH) was introduced as an environmental atmosphere control agent for the synthesis of N vacancies g-C 3 N 4 with increased crystallinity. The increased crystallinity and N vacancies can effectively contribute to interlayer and intralayer exciton dissociation and charge transfer, respectively. They can modulate electronic band structure to boost visible light harvesting. The obtained visible-light (λ > 420 nm) photocatalytic efficiency of ODH-CN2 for tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) and sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) degradation was 79.9% (60 min) and 91.5% (120 min), respectively. These results are 39.8% and 36.7% higher than that of traditional g-C 3 N 4 (CN), respectively. Moreover the visible-light photocatalytic H 2 evolution rate of ODH-CN2 in triethanolamine solution with 3% Pt reached 5833.1 μmol h−1 g−1, approximately 4 times higher than that of CN. Subsequently, TC-HCl or SMZ were used as hole sacrificial agents to realize simultaneous H 2 evolution and degradation of TC-HCl or SMZ over ODH-CN2 with 3% Pt. This study proposes promoting the photocatalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4 by using an environmental atmosphere control agent to simultaneously form N vacancies and increase crystallinity, thus accelerating interlayer and intralayer exciton dissociation and charge transfer, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag was modified by adding 3.5% SiO2 and holding at 1673 K for 0, 5, 40, 90, 240, or 360 min. Kilo-scale modification was also carried out. The growth, stratification, and liberation of P-rich C2S in the modified slag were investigated. The optimum holding time was 240 min, and 90% of C2S grains were above 30 μm in size. The phosphorus content increased with holding time, and after modification, the phosphorus content in C2S was nearly three times higher than that in the original slag (2.23%). Obvious stratification of C2S was observed in the kilo-scale modification. Upper C2S particles with a relatively larger size of 20–110 μm was independent of RO (FeO-MgO-MnO solid solution) and spinel, which is favorable for liberation. Lower C2S was less than 3 μm and was embedded in spinel, which is not conducive to liberation. The content of phosphorus in upper C2S (6.60%) was about twice that of the lower (3.80%). After grinding, most of the upper C2S existed as free particles and as locked particles in the lower. The liberation degree of C2S in the upper increased with grinding time, from 86.02% to 95.92% in the range of 30–300 s, and the optimum grinding time was 180 s. For the lower slag grinding for 300 s, the liberation degree of C2S was 40.07%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gram positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis and its relatives are capable of forming a durable dormant long-lasting spore. Although spores can remain dormant for years, they possess the remarkable capacity to rapidly resume life and convert into actively growing cells. This cellular transition initiates with a most enigmatic irreversible event, termed germination, lasting only for a few minutes. Germination is typified by a morphological conversion that culminates in loss of spore resilient properties. Yet, the molecular events occurring during this brief critical phase are largely unknown. The current widely accepted view considers germination to occur without the need for any macromolecule synthesis; however, accumulating data from our laboratory and others, highlighted here, provide evidence that both transcription and translation occur during germination and are required for its execution. We further underline numerous overlooked studies, conducted mainly during the 1960s–1970s, reinforcing this notion. We propose to revisit the fascinating process of spore germination and redefine it as a pathway involving macromolecule synthesis. We expect our perspective to shed new light on the awakening process of a variety of spore-forming environmental, commensal, and pathogenic bacteria and possibly be applicable to additional organisms displaying a quiescent life form. In this review, we synthesize old and current data to evoke that, in contrast to current dogma, bacterial spore germination demands macromolecule synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate mathematical modeling of state of charge (SOC) prediction is essential for battery management systems (BMSs) to improve battery utilization efficiency and ensure a good safety performance. The current SOC prediction framework only considers battery-related features but ignores vehicle information. Additionally, in light of the emergence of time-series Transformers (TSTs) that harness the power of multi-head attention, developing a SOC prediction model remains a significant challenge. Therefore, we introduce a new framework that integrates laboratory battery data with mathematical vehicle model features to improve the accuracy of the SOC and propose a prediction model named DLPformer, which can effectively capture variations in the SOC attributed to both trend and seasonal patterns. First, we apply Matlab/Simulink to simulate a mathematical model of electric vehicles and process the generated vehicle data with Spearman correlation analysis to identify the most relevant features, such as the mechanical losses of the electric motor, differential, and aerodynamic drag. Then, we employ a data fusion method to synchronize the heterogeneous datasets with different frequencies to capture the sudden changes in electric vehicles. Subsequently, the fused features are input into our prediction model, DLPformer, which incorporates a linear model for trend prediction and patch-input attention for seasonal component prediction. Finally, in order to effectively evaluate the extrapolation and adaptability of our model, we utilize different driving cycles and heterogeneous battery datasets for training and testing. The experimental results show that our prediction model significantly improves the accuracy and robustness of SOC prediction under the proposed framework, achieving MAE values of 0.18% and 0.10% across distinct driving cycles and battery types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of high pressure homogenization (HPH) at different pressures (50, 100, 150 and 200 MPa) and temperatures (4, 20, 40, 60 and 80 °C) on the interaction between corn starch (CS) and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) were investigated. Based on analyses of zeta potential, attenuated total reflection-flourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and binding rate after adding shielding agents, the main interaction force changed from electrostatic interaction to hydrogen bonds. In comparison, the interaction between CS and C3G exhibited greater strength at low temperatures and pressures. Especially, 4 °C/50 MPa HPH caused the most significant enhancement in binding rate and binding amount, from 9.56 % to 25.16 % and 0.96 μg/mg CS to 2.52 μg/mg CS, respectively. At this condition, the specific surface area of CS-C3G increased from 433.57 ± 0.91 m2/kg to 440.93 ± 1.01 m2/kg. Surface fluorescence reduction was observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy, further X-ray diffraction patterns indicated the retention of partial spatial structure. Therefore, HPH opened the entry channels, increased contact area and preserved steric hindrance, which increased hydrogen bonding sites. At high temperatures and high pressures (> 40 °C, > 100 MPa), the increasing free starch chains provided new hydrogen bonding sites. Overall, HPH was an effective method to enhance the interaction by affecting starch structure. • The highest binding of cyanidin-3-O-glucose to corn starch occurred at 4 °C/50 MPa. • Specific surface area, spatial structure and free starch chain were main factors. • After processing, electrostatic interactions change to hydrogen bonds. • Thermally stable complexes were formed by high pressure homogenization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of high pressure homogenization (HPH) at different pressures (50, 100, 150 and 200 MPa) and temperatures (4, 20, 40, 60 and 80 °C) on the interaction between corn starch (CS) and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) were investigated. Based on analyses of zeta potential, attenuated total reflection-flourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and binding rate after adding shielding agents, the main interaction force changed from electrostatic interaction to hydrogen bonds. In comparison, the interaction between CS and C3G exhibited greater strength at low temperatures and pressures. Especially, 4 °C/50 MPa HPH caused the most significant enhancement in binding rate and binding amount, from 9.56 % to 25.16 % and 0.96 μg/mg CS to 2.52 μg/mg CS, respectively. At this condition, the specific surface area of CS-C3G increased from 433.57 ± 0.91 m2/kg to 440.93 ± 1.01 m2/kg. Surface fluorescence reduction was observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy, further X-ray diffraction patterns indicated the retention of partial spatial structure. Therefore, HPH opened the entry channels, increased contact area and preserved steric hindrance, which increased hydrogen bonding sites. At high temperatures and high pressures (> 40 °C, > 100 MPa), the increasing free starch chains provided new hydrogen bonding sites. Overall, HPH was an effective method to enhance the interaction by affecting starch structure. • The highest binding of cyanidin-3-O-glucose to corn starch occurred at 4 °C/50 MPa. • Specific surface area, spatial structure and free starch chain were main factors. • After processing, electrostatic interactions change to hydrogen bonds. • Thermally stable complexes were formed by high pressure homogenization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Heat, acidity and long-term cultivation preadaptation promote VBNC formation by decreasing the intracellular ATP level. • Cross-stress protection exhibited organism-specific characteristics and could promote VBNC E. coli formation. • Food materials should avoid acidic environment, hot environment and long-term storage to reduce VBNC generation. As a novel non-thermal pasteurization technology, high pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD) has been used in food processing. However, it could induce microorganisms into a viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state, posing a potential risk to food safety and public health. In this study, we attempted to investigate the effect of various preliminary stresses including cold, heat, osmosis, acidity and oxidation on HPCD-induced VBNC formation. The results indicated that there was no effect of preliminary stresses on VBNC Staphylococcus aureus induction. However, heat, acidity and long-term (24 h) cultivation preadaptation could significantly increase the VBNC E. coli production induced by HPCD. Transcriptome analysis revealed that genes involved in ATP production were significantly decreased in these three stress-treated cells, and further ATP levels determination revealed that the ATP levels of the cell were significantly decreased after heat, acidity and long-term cultivation preadaptation, implying the decrease of ATP level caused by these stresses might be the reason for increasing VBNC production. To further study the relationship between ATP level and VBNC cell ratios after preadaptation. We artificially decreased the ATP levels, and detect their VBNC ratios after HPCD treatment. We found that with the ATP concentration decreasing after exposure to carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazine (CCCP), the VBNC ratios were increased after HPCD treatment, indicating that the ATP contents were highly negatively correlated with VBNC ratios. This study proved that the preadaptation of heat, acidity and long-term cultivation could promote VBNC induction by decreasing the intracellular ATP level. In general, the obtained result gave the instruction about the storage environment for food materials, helped to further develop and optimize the HPCD processing to prevent VBNC formation and accelerate the development of HPCD technology in food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Event-B, people need to use control variables to constrain the order of events, which is a time-consuming and error-prone process. This paper presents a method of combining labeled transition system and iUML-B to complete the behavior modeling of system, which is more convenient and practical for engineers who are accustomed to using the automaton to build a system behavior model. First, we use labeled transition system to establish the behavior model of the system. Then we simulate and verify the event traces of the labeled transition system behavior model. Finally, we convert labeled transition system model into iUML-B state machine and use it to generate the corresponding control flow model. We use Abrial’s bounded retransmission protocol to demonstrate the practicality of our approach. The simulation results show that the system behavior model generated by the iUML-B state machine has the same event trace as the corresponding labeled transition system model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the better standardization and widespread application of the determination method of carotenoids in both chili peppers and their products, this work reports for the first time the simultaneous determination of five main carotenoids, including capsanthin, zeaxanthin, lutein, β-cryptoxanthin and β-carotene in chili peppers and their products, with optimized extraction and the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. All parameters in the methodological evaluation were found to be in good stability, recovery and accuracy compliance with the reference values; the R coefficients for the calibration curves were more than 0.998; and the LODs and LOQs varied from 0.020 to 0.063 and from 0.067 to 0.209 mg/L, respectively. The characterization of five carotenoids in chili peppers and their products passed all the required validation criteria. The method was applied in the determination of carotenoids in nine fresh chili peppers and seven chili pepper products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing study shows that safety applications supported by vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications have the potential to address 80% of all road crash issues. IEEE 802.11p is a key enabling technology to support V2V safety applications. To meet the stringent delay and reliability requirements of these applications, rate adaptation (RA) approaches have been proposed to determine the optimal data transmission rate, according to the channel conditions such as packet losses. However, existing RA solutions cannot be directly applied to V2V safety communications in highway scenarios, which exhibit lots of dynamics and severe packet losses. Moreover, physical (PHY)-layer channel fading and medium-access-control (MAC)-layer interference contribute differently to the packet losses and, thus, should be treated separately. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a LOss differentiation RA (LORA) scheme. LORA can estimate the average packet loss rate (PLR) for each sender and differentiate the fading losses from the interference losses. Extensive evaluation results demonstrate that LORA can provide reliability guarantees for V2V safety applications, as well as a response to environment changes in a real-time manner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

[Display omitted] • The highest binding of cyanidin-3-O-glucose to potato starch occurred at pH 3. • Electrostatic interactions dominated at pH 3, and weighed little at pH 5 and pH 7. • Hydrogen bonds made a negligible contribution at each pH condition. • The confocal images and particle size supported the binding rate results. • pH modulated the electrostatic binding via the structure of anthocyanin. Potato starch (PS), a natural and structured semicrystalline polymer, exhibits a distinct capacity to bind cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) at different pH values (3, 5, and 7). In this study, levels of NaCl (0.05%, 0.5%, and 5%, w/v) were introduced as electrostatic disturbing agents to the PS-C3G complexes to quantitatively reveal the role electrostatic interactions played in the binding at different pH conditions. The binding rate dropped from 31.60% to 2.19% as the pH value shifted from 3 to 7, indicating a decreasing affinity from C3G to PS. Further zeta potentials showed the possibility of electrostatic interactions in the PS-C3G complexes at pH 3 as well as screened charges in the presence of NaCl. The binding rate at pH 3 then exhibited a progressive decline to a final approximate one-third as the concentration of NaCl increased, which implied that the electrostatic interactions constituted the primary two-thirds of the driving forces involving complex stability at pH 3. The results of attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, however, showed that hydrogen bonds had a negligible effect on the binding of C3G to PS at all pH conditions. Finally, the confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) images, particle size and color differences were consistent with the change in the binding rate. Overall, electrostatic interactions were considered the key pH-modulated interactions between PS and C3G at different pH conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To take full advantage of the limited monitoring data with fault information for operational state prediction in the case of the discrepancy in data distribution between the WTGs, a novel combined method is proposed based on the long short-term memory, fuzzy synthesis and feature-based transfer learning. After the statistical analysis and prediction of the monitoring indexes of two 2-MW WTGs with faulty information, an operational state calibration framework is proposed based on deep learning and fuzzy synthesis. Following this, three feature-based transfer learning methods are adopted to narrow the discrepancy among the data distribution of the WTGs. Correspondingly, feasibility verification of the proposed method is equally addressed. Case applications are performed using the actual monitoring data from No. 13 and 15 wind turbines of a wind farm in northern China. The results show that the operational state calibration framework can sensitively detect the potential fault information of the WTG in advance. Meanwhile, three transfer learning algorithms can effectively narrow the distance of the data distribution among the WTGs, and the classification accuracy can almost reach above 0.9. The proposed method can make full use of existing monitoring data with faulty information to predict the status of other WTGs. • A combined method for anomaly detection and condition monitoring was presented. • The framework of the multi-indices operational state calibration was established. • Feasibility verification of the combined method was addressed. •The methodology has been validated based on an onshore wind farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is considered a promising auxiliary relay for enhancing network coverage due to its easy deployment, agility, and maneuverability. In order to overcome the obstruction of towering buildings and the limitation of relaying energy, this paper proposes a half-duplex decode-and-forward UAV-assisted relaying network based on simultaneous wireless information and power transfer scheme. The power splitting (PS) is implemented at the UAV relay to address the challenge of energy limitation by separating information and energy from the radio frequency signal. We also study the impact of hardware impairments on transmitters, which can actually degrade communication performance. We derive both an exact expression and asymptotic analysis for the outage probability (OP) with energy harvesting and hardware impairments. In addition, we formulate an optimization form to find the optimal PS ratio and minimize the outage probability. Due to the nonconvex nature of this optimization problem, we perform a series of transformations to reformulate it into a convex optimization form. Experimental simulations validate our theoretical results. Specifically, optimal altitude for UAV is about 300 m and relatively constant in different conditions. The OP of our work is nearly 0.33 smaller than that of AF relaying in a given situation. Moreover, we provide practical guidance for the design and deployment of the UAV-assisted communication by exploring the effects of UAV’s altitude, hardware impairments level, and power splitting ratio on the outage probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Potato starch exhibited the largest anthocyanin-binding capacity. • Potato starch had high negative charges and form strong electrostatic interactions. • Corn starch had advantageous particle sizes to adsorb anthocyanins. • Negative surface charges and specific surface area were crucial for binding. In this study, the cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G)-binding capacities of three native starches were investigated. While potato starch had the largest binding capacity of 0.34 mg/100 mg, corn and pea starch had binding capacities of 0.17 and 0.06 mg/100 mg. Confocal microscopy confirmed the binding results and revealed close associations between the surface properties and binding capacities. These findings were further substantiated with wettability and gelatinization results. The morphological observations showed that corn starch had advantageous particle sizes and more surface gullies, providing more opportunities to bind C3G. The zeta potential results, however, indicated that potato starch had the highest negative surface charges (−24 mV). These favorable electronic characteristics were believed to be responsible for the strongest electrostatic interactions. Hydrogen bonds, however, had a negligible effect on the formation of complexes. Overall, the negative surface charges and specific surface areas of the native starches were the most important factors determining C3G-binding capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Degradation and dissipation of isocycloseram in cabbage in China were revealed. • It provides a reference for the detection of isocycloseram insecticide. • Verifies the possibility of removing pesticides by household methods. Isocycloseram is a new isoxazoline insecticide that can efficiently control the diamondback moth in cruciferous crops. The aim of this study was to establish a method for the determination of isocycloseram residues in/on cabbage and in the soil using HPLC-UV at 264 nm. A field test was conducted in December 2019 and 2020 to monitor isocycloseram dissipation in Jiangxi, China. Acetonitrile was used to extract isocycloseram from cabbage and soil. C18 and GCB were used to purify cabbage extracts, whereas soil extracts did not require purification. At the addition level of 0.01–1.0 mg/kg, the average recoveries in cabbage and soil were 91.81–109.95% and 89.89–104.08% respectively. After having applied 10% isocycloseram DC, isocycloseram dissipated faster in the cabbage matrix. Isocycloseram residues on cabbage leaves could be removed through simple cleaning methods, especially by soaking in 2% citric acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Effects of electric field strength (0–35kV/cm) and pulse rise time (PRT) of 2μs and 0.2μs during pulsed electric fields (PEF) on enzymatic activity, vitamin C, total phenols, antioxidant capacities, color and rheological characteristics of fresh apple juice were investigated. With increasing the electric field strength and PRT, the residual activity (RA) of polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) decreased, almost complete inactivation of both enzymes was achieved at 35kV/cm and 2μs-PRT. The content of vitamin C in apple juice decreased significantly (p <0.05) during PEF treatment, the largest loss was 36.6% at 30kV/cm and 2μs-PRT. The content of total phenols was not affected by PEF with 2μs-PRT but decreased significantly (p <0.05) by PEF with 0.2μs-PRT. The antioxidant capacity of apple juice was evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). The DPPH value was not affected by PEF, whereas FRAP and ORAC values increased with increasing the electric field strength and decreasing the PRT. PEF-treated apple juice had a significantly higher (p <0.05) lightness (L) and yellowness (b) than the controlled sample. The apparent viscosity and consistency index (K) of apple juice decreased while the flow behavior index (n) increased with increasing the electric field strength, and apple juice treated at 2μs-PRT had significantly higher apparent viscosity than treated at 0.2μs-PRT. Industrial relevance: Apple juice is one of the most popular fruit juices, and it required strict treatment conditions to protect its quality, especially to prevent enzymatic discoloration. PEF is one promising novel non-thermal technique without compromising the flavor, taste and nutrition aspect of food. This study analyzed the effectiveness of PEF as a method of preserving qualities of apple juice, including inactivating enzymes which are crucial to quality control. Available data provided in this study will benefit the fruit juice industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • The effects of binary basicity on steelmaking slag properties were investigated. • Explaining reasonably the discordance between the findings of prior studies. • The relationship between slag mineral composition and performance was studied. • The prospect of utilizing steelmaking slag as a building material was explored. • Component modification can improve stability, grindability, and cementitious activity. In this study, the effects of binary basicity on the stability, grindability, and cementitious activity of steelmaking slag were investigated. The free CaO content, relative grindability index, and cementitious activity of the samples considered were determined using the glycol method, specific surface method, and activity testing technology, respectively. The results obtained reveal that an increase in slag basicity from 1.8 to 4 and a decrease in its Fe 2 O 3 content from 30% to 10% increase the free CaO content and lead to improvements in the slag grindability and cementitious activity. Accordingly, a basicity value of approximately 2 is determined ideal for building materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]