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BACKGROUND: Under rapid information technology development, teenagers learn knowledge and skills and master social laws through the internet, growing from the initial innocent stage to the socialized stage. The internet will become a social force that has a profound impact on the development of teenagers. OBJECTIVES: The purposes are to assess teenagers’ socialization risks under the time-space transformation of internet society and investigate teenagers’ healthy personality development. METHODS: A questionnaire is designed to survey personality development situations and assess teenagers’ socialization risks. Data collected via the questionnaire survey are counted and analyzed. RESULTS: The background information analysis reveals a balanced gender ratio of survey participants, most of whom are members of the Chinese Communist Youth League. Risks of teenagers’ socialization are assessed from multiple perspectives, including online posts, wording, online identity, pornographic and violent content, and plagiarism. Teenagers’ overall understanding of the internet tends positive. The six dimensions of healthy personality development all score above 3 points, indicating a comprehensive development system of teenagers’ personality. Students under such a development system are newcomers with a healthy personality, who are needed urgently in the development of the times. CONCLUSION: Overall, teenage students tend to be active in their understanding of the internet. Further scientific management of teenagers’ online behaviors can give play to the positive socialization functions of the internet and provide new ideas for the healthy growth and personality development of teenagers.

Enabling the rechargeable lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is essential for exceeding the energy density of today's Lithium-ion batteries. However, practical challenges in almost all components of LMBs, of which the most serious issues are formation of Li dendrites and uncontrollable volume expansion of lithium metal anodes, hinder their practical applications. Traditional LMBs’ fabrication techniques have some limitations in controlling the geometry and structure of components, which compromises their performance. 3D printing is an ideal manufacturing technique that can increase the specific energy and power density of devices by precisely controlling their geometry and structure from nanoscale to macroscale without relying on any templates. In this work, we review recent advances of 3D printing in rechargeable LMBs in combination with their fundamental principles and representative printing techniques. Then we discuss the applications at component levels. Finally, we summarize the design rationales and practical challenges of 3D printed rechargeable LMBs and give our insights about future outlook of this emerging field.

A new laser irradiation fracturing method is employed to crack the Hot Dry Rock (HDR) and variations of rock temperature, specific energy (SE) and modified specific energy (MSE), thermal damages and open porosity of granite samples caused by moving laser beams with various irradiating conditions including laser power, diameter and moving speed of laser beam were investigated. Results indicate that rock temperature and the corresponding temperature gradients near the laser beam spots are strongly dependent on the laser power, beam diameter and irradiation time. The high temperature generated by the laser irradiation melts and cracks the HDR samples. The removed mass, cracked mass and size of grooving kerf induced by laser irradiation are also related to various irradiation conditions. SE and MSE are found nonlinearly reduced with the increased laser power density. Laser irradiation has a greater enhancement to thermal fracturing of granite than it does to thermal drilling. The open porosity (OP) of irradiated HDR samples increases with increasing laser power, decreasing diameter and moving speed of laser beam. The results can provide some guidance to those seeking a new economical and reasonable fracturing method for the HDR geothermal exploitation.

Aim To explore the effects of miR-141-3p on intestinal epithelial cells in necrotizing enterocolitis and the underlying mechanism. Results The expression of miR-141-3p was significantly downregulated in serum samples of patients with NEC and LPS-treated Caco-2 cells. The in vitro assays showed that miR-141-3p mimics inhibited expression of IL-6 and TNF-α and reduced PI positive rate of the LPS-treated Caco-2 cells. Next, receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) was identified as the downstream molecule of miR-141-3p, and RIPK1 overexpression aggravated LPS-induced Caco-2 cell injury, which was ameliorated by miR-141-3p mimics. Finally, we found miR-141-3p mimics inhibited upregulation of necroptosis-related molecules and interaction of RIPK1 and RIPK3 in LPS-treated Caco-2 cells. Conclusion Our research indicated that miR-141-3p protected intestinal epithelial cells from LPS damage by suppressing RIPK1-mediated inflammation and necroptosis, providing an alternative perspective to explore the pathogenesis of NEC. Methods Quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of miR-141-3p in serum samples of participants and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated Caco-2 cells. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, Propidium Iodide (PI) staining and detection of inflammatory cytokines were performed to evaluate the role of miR-141-3p in LPS-treated Caco-2 cells. TargetScanHuman database and luciferase reporter gene assay were utilized to confirm the direct downstream molecule of miR-141-3p. Western blot analysis was used to explore the mechanism.

A detailed understanding of soil temperature in underground energy engineering is a major concern in designing a high-efficient and less cost-operated underground soil energy system (e.g. ground source heat pump (GSHP) and ground energy pile system). In this paper, similitude theory is introduced as a methodology to design a small-scale thermal energy storage experiment setup for studying the heat transfer behavior in underground soil. Based on heat transfer governing equations and similitude analysis, the scaling laws and similarity conditions are derived, and a laboratory scaled-down thermal energy storage experiment model is designed and constructed. The proposed experiment can be used to study the heat transfer behavior of ground energy storage by reducing the time consumption substantially. A transient 3-D numerical model is proposed and validated with sandbox data set. The numerical model is applied to calculate the temperature variation of ground heat exchanger in full scale and used to estimate the accuracy using the p-linear distribution approximation to represent the vertical profile of fluid temperature. The comparison between the experiment model results (after scaling to prototype) and numerical results are given, and the coincidence between them is good, particularly at the late-time period. For implementing a design and optimization of the field-scale engineering underground energy storage system, by using the scaling factor, the experimental model results could be used to predict the temperature distribution of the full-scale underground energy storage system with different types of underground soil in different controlled working conditions. This work would provide more accurate reference data and foundation with less time-consuming for engineering application of underground energy storage system, such as GSHP, ground energy pile and etc..

This study determined the potential of formic acid plus monolaurin (FA + ML) as an alternative to antibiotics in diet when piglets are challenged with ETEC. Piglets fed the FA + ML diet had lower fecal score and rectal temperature after the ETEC challenge. In addition, FA + ML supplementation induced lower plasma TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β concentration postchallenge, downregulated the mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and TLR4 in the ileum and TLR4 and CFTR in the jejunum. Phosphorylation levels of NF-κB p65 and MAPK p38 were reduced in the ileum of piglets fed FA + ML diet. Supplementation of FA + ML increased the relative abundance of genera Lactobacillus especially Lactobacillus amylovorus species and decreased the genus abundances of Actinobacillus, unidentified Enterobacteriaceae, Moraxella. Collectively, the combination of formic acid and monolaurin in diets have the potential to be an antibiotic alternative to mitigate inflammatory response in piglets challenged with ETEC.

The provision of mechanical cooling in deep mines comes with a significant energy cost as a significant amount of heat transfers from surrounding rock to the airflow. Thermal insulation can be applied to reduce such heat transfer, thereby cutting down the cooling load. In this study, the impact of thermal insulation on reducing the heat flux through the rock was analytically investigated. The optimal insulation thickness, life cycle saving and the payback period were also evaluated by using the life cycle cost method as the economic benefit is heavily dependent on the insulation thickness. Results show that heat flux between tunnel and airflow can be significantly reduced by the use of thermal insulation, but the reduction varies with the tunnel and insulation conditions. The total cost associated with using the thermal insulation firstly decreases and then increases when the insulation thickness increases, implying an optimal insulation thickness. Nonetheless, both the optimal insulation thickness and maximum life cycle saving can be increased by a rising rock temperature, eventually leading to a reduced payback period.

Thermoelectric application has been widely researched due to its various advantages. Its use has been limited to niche industrial applications and exploratory research development due to the poor economic viability. It is essential to achieve the optimum system performance to improve the economic viability. In view of that, this study aims to improve the system performance by adopting the phase change materials (PCM) and heat transfer enhancement to establish improved thermal conditions. It experimentally investigates the effects of PCM and heat transfer enhancement on the open-circuit voltage and electrical energy of thermoelectric generator (TEG) system. Results indicate that the phase change temperature, thickness and thermal conductivity of PCM have a considerable impact on the electrical energy generated by TEG. An increase in absorption coefficient by surface coating can lead to an increase in electrical energy. However, the total electrical energy under forced convection is not obviously increased comparing with the natural convection case. The results achieved in this study indicate that suitable PCM and heat transfer enhancement measures should be considered according to the working conditions of TEG.

A cylindrical unit cell model for predicting stagnant effective thermal conductivity of two-phase or three-phase low porosity granular geomaterials was proposed in this paper. In the present model, the cylindrical unit cell is made of a quasi-hemispherical/cylindrical solid particle, and the solid grain is surrounded by water or air or the mixtures of two phases. In addition to the thermal conductivity of each phase, the effects of porosity and saturation degree on the stagnant effective thermal conductivity of geomaterials were investigated by introducing the coefficients α and β that control the porosity and saturation degree, respectively. The stagnant effective thermal conductivity of cylindrical unit cell was obtained via lumped parameter method and a further spatial correction was then conducted. Comparisons with some empirical models and experimental data for three types of selected geomaterials indicate that this theoretical model successfully captures the stagnant effective thermal conductivity with variation of saturation degree and thus provides the stagnant effective thermal conductivity of granular geomaterials with acceptable accuracy in the porosity range [0, 0.33] at most degrees of saturation.

This study aims to evaluate whether diets containing mixture of formic and propionic acid alone or supplemented with either capric acid or Bacillus Licheniformis can alleviate immune inflammatory response of piglets challenged with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). A total of 30 weaning pigs were assigned to 5 diets, without additive (CON), with antibiotics (ATB), with 1% organic acid (OA; 64% formic and 25% propionic acid), with OA plus 0.2% capric acid (OA + CRA), and with OA plus 0.02% probiotic (Bacillus Licheniformis; OA + PB). After oral challenge with ETEC on day 10, the feces and plasma of all pigs were collected at different time points. Four additive treatments all decreased rectal temperature (RT) at 9 h and fecal scores (FS) at 24 h after challenge (P < 0.05), while at 9 h after challenge, inclusion of OA induced a decrease of RT compared with OA + CRA and OA + PB (P < 0.05). In plasma, concentration of interleukin (IL)-1β was reduced with the addition of ATB and OA at 24 h and 48 h after challenge and it is lower in OA group than OA + CRA group at 24 h after challenge (P < 0.05). Diets with ATB, OA, and OA + PB caused a decrease of the concentrations of IL-6 in plasma at 9 h after challenge (P < 0.05). The four additives treated piglets showed decreased concentrations of plasma tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ at 9 h and 24 h after challenge, respectively (P < 0.05). In conclusion, OA supplementation alleviated the inflammatory response and reduced diarrhea incidence in piglets challenged with ETEC. However, no further improvements were observed when OA supplemented with CRA or probiotics.

This research systematically analyzes the effects that global megatrends, digitalizing economy, and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic are having on the transformation of professional career management and changing professional skills for achieving career purposes and tasks, providing a competent approach to the labor market. It also suggests a sustainable career management process for people to prepare career goals, objectives, and ambitions in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Following this aim, the secondary analysis of the literature reviewed aided in offering important information to satisfy the original research targets and aims. Thus, the study maintained an exploratory and deductive research design to analyze the qualitative data gathered on the phenomenon of professional career management under the digital transformation in Asian countries. The analysis reveals that some megatrends have transformed how professional career development occurs. This paper is novel because it provides a critical assessment of the global megatrends and the impact of the digital economy related to professional career management transformation, with specific emphasis on Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the paper redounds the extant literature, making a significant contribution to the current debate in the literature. Additionally, it is expected to contribute to the sustainable development of the labor market in Asian countries based on system research and converging the concepts of transformation processes in professional career management affected by megatrends with theoretical and methodological support.

In this paper, we present mmMesh, the first real-time 3D human mesh estimation system using commercial portable millimeter-wave devices. mmMesh is built upon a novel deep learning framework that can dynamically locate the moving subject and capture his/her body shape and pose by analyzing the 3D point cloud generated from the mmWave signals that bounce off the human body. The proposed deep learning framework addresses a series of challenges. First, it encodes a 3D human body model, which enables mmMesh to estimate complex and realistic-looking 3D human meshes from sparse point clouds. Second, it can accurately align the 3D points with their corresponding body segments despite the influence of ambient points as well as the error-prone nature and the multi-path effect of the RF signals. Third, the proposed model can infer missing body parts from the information of the previous frames. Our evaluation results on a commercial mmWave sensing testbed show that our mmMesh system can accurately localize the vertices on the human mesh with an average error of 2.47 cm. The superior experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed human mesh construction system.

This paper develops an industrial-organizational framework for understanding how violence shapes wealth and institutions. In the modeled Hobbesian society, parties acquire wealth via violence or the threat of it. Under certain conditions they can Pareto improve their welfare by creating a government for peace-keeping. With deep checks and balances built in, the system neutralizes violence in economic transactions paving the road to a market economy. The work explains the prime origin of power and power foundation of institutions. It predicts institutional diversity and instability and has strong policy implications for pressing domestic and international issues.

In this work, uniform straw-like akaganeite (β-FeOOH) nanostructures with superior catalytic performance were successfully prepared via a facile hydrothermal method. The as-prepared uniform straw-like β-FeOOH nanostructures were characterized by various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, UV-vis diffused reflection spectra (UV-vis DRS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The optical property of β-FeOOH was investigated and the catalytic activity of β-FeOOH was also systematically evaluated in a Fenton process for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB). Based on the experimental results and analysis, it could be concluded that the as-prepared β-FeOOH nanostructures exhibited wide absorption wavelength range which was approximately 200–680 nm. The degradation efficiency of RhB reached 90% and the color of RhB solutions transformed from fresh pink to colorless after 9 h.

Basing the microdata of Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises from 2015 to 2019, this study utilizes a mathematical model to construct the financing constraint index. Then, a combination method of the fixed-effects panel data model and regulatory action mechanism is utilized to discuss the reason causing insufficient R&D input, test the effects of R&D input on operating performance and enterprise value, and explore the moderating effect of financing constraint in these influence processes from the perspective of financing constraint. The result shows that, first, insufficient R&D input of listed manufacturing enterprises involves fund scarcity. Second, there is a negative correlation between current R&D input and operating performance, but the lagged effect exists between these two variables. Third, R&D input positively influences enterprise value. Finally, the financing constraint significantly affects R&D performance and plays the role of “amplifier” in the effect of R&D input on operating performance, influencing long term R&D performance positively and significantly.

A highly sensitive quantum dot (QD)-based western blot assay with extended dynamic range was developed. Bimodal size distribution QD (BQ) immunoprobes composed of small size single QD (7.3 nm) and big size QD nanobead (QB) (82.9 nm) were employed for fluorescent western blot immunoassay on a membrane. Small size QD immunoprobes contributed to wider dynamic range of assay, while big size QB immunoprobes provided higher detection sensitivity. This BQ-based western blot assay can achieve a wide dynamic range (from 7.8 to 4000 ng IgG) and is nearly as sensitive as commercial available ultrasensitive chemiluminescent methods, just using a simple gel imager with UV light (365 nm) excitation and red light filter (610 nm). The fluorescent signals of BQ western blot were stable for 10 min, while chemiluminescent signals faded after 1 min. Moreover, this BQ immunoprobe was utilized for the detection of housekeeping protein and specific target proteins in complex cell lysate samples. The limit of detection of housekeeping protein is 0.25 μg of cell lysate, and the signal intensities were proportional to loading protein amount in a wide range from 0.61 to 80 μg. We believe that this new strategy of bimodal size distribution nanoparticles can also be expanded for other functional nanoparticle-based biological assays to improve the sensitivity and extend the dynamic range. Graphical abstract.

While vapor condensation in arid and semiarid areas has garnered much attention, such information is scarce for humid crop production areas such as rice fields. In a water-saving irrigation (WSI) rice field, high-precision weighed microlysimeters allowed the direct and independent quantification of condensation over plants (Cc) and soil (Cs) through mass balance calculations. The occurrence frequency and rate of Cc generally exceeded that of Cs. Predominantly occurring between sunset and sunrise, particularly between 0400 and 0500 local time, Cc showed an overall maximum rate of 0.096 mm h−1. In contrast, Cs was highest between 0100 and 1100 local time and showed an overall maximum rate of 0.044 mm h−1. The occurrence of Cc, unlike that of Cs, required a surface temperature lower than the ambient temperature or dewpoint. Of 65 rain-free days, Cc and Cs occurred on 60 and 33 days, respectively. Seasonal Cc, Cs, and Cc + Cs were estimated as 32.3, 3.1, and 35.4 mm, respectively, and their contributions to seasonal rice transpiration T, evaporation E, and evapotranspiration (ET) were 9.5%, 1.6%, and 6.7%, respectively. The seasonal Cc + Cs was similar in magnitude to a routine irrigation quota and accounted for 10.8% of rainfall and 14.4% of irrigation in the WSI rice field. Therefore, vapor condensation in rice fields in a subtropical monsoon climate is an important component of the hydrological cycle and cannot be ignored when tabulating the field water balance, calculating field water consumption, or in irrigation scheduling.

In this study, the equidistant cumulative distribution function (EDCDF) quantile-based mapping method was used to develop bias-corrected and downscaled monthly precipitation and temperature for China at 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution for the period 1961–2099 for eight CMIP5 GCM simulations. The downscaled dataset was constructed by combining observations from 756 meteorological stations across China with the monthly GCM outputs for the historical (1961–2005) and future (2006–99) periods for the lower (RCP2.6), medium (RCP4.5), and high (RCP8.5) representative concentration pathway emission scenarios. The jackknife method was used to cross validate the performance of the EDCDF method and was compared with the traditional quantile-based matching method (CDF method). This indicated that the performance of the two methods was generally comparable over the historic period, but the EDCDF was more efficient at reducing biases than the CDF method across China. The two methods had similar mean absolute error (MAE) for temperature in January and July. The EDCDF method had a slight advantage over the CDF method for precipitation, reducing the MAE by about 0.83% and 1.2% at a significance level of 95% in January and July, respectively. For future projections, both methods exhibited similar spatial patterns for longer periods (2061–90) under the RCP8.5 scenario. However, the EDCDF was more sensitive to a reduction in variability.

A two-year experiment was conducted to investigate the inter-seasonal and cross-treatment variability in measured rice evapotranspiration (ETcMea), measured single-crop coefficients (KcMea), and treatment-specific calibrated coefficients (KcCal), under different drying-wetting cycles in a subtropical monsoon climate in East China. For each drying-wetting treatment, ETcMea was determined based on data collected in lysimeters, and KcMea was calculated from ETcMea, reference evapotranspiration, and soil moisture deficit coefficient. Following the single-crop coefficient method, KcCal was determined by matching KcMea. In 2012 and 2013, ETcMea varied from 459.5 to 486.7 mm, and 544.5–605.1 mm, respectively. Its inter-seasonal variability was larger than the cross-treatment variability. Stage-wise average KcMea were 1.07–1.17, 1.30–1.51, 1.49–1.54, and 1.17-1.29 in 2012, and 1.06–1.12, 1.31–1.49, 1.43–1.57, and 1.26–1.27 in 2013 during the initial, crop development, mid-season, and late season stages, respectively. Treatment-specific KcCal were calibrated as 1.09–1.20, 1.51–1.60, and 0.74–0.78 in 2012, and 1.05–1.14, 1.47–1.64, and 0.96–1.01 in 2013 for the initial, mid-season, and end-season stages, respectively. The inter-seasonal and cross-treatment variability in KcMea and KcCal was low. Each treatment-specific KcCal set performed similarly when rice ETc was calculated under different drying-wetting treatments. Cross validation indicated that large daily uncertainty in ETc estimation occurred when daily ETcMea was high, and uncertainty in seasonal ETc calculated using different treatment-specific KcCal sets ranged from 45.7 to 60.1 mm (approximate to one irrigation). Calibrating KcCal using more data (season-specific KcCal or mixed treatment KcCal) would improve the accuracy of KcCal in ETc estimation.

For one-dimensional soil freezing process, a separate-ice frost heave model is established, and the coupled process of heat transfer, fluid flow and stress development is considered in the model. First, a coupled heat–fluid–stress model describing the growth of a single ice lens is developed by extending the coupled heat–fluid model presented by Zhou and Zhou (Can Geotech J 49(6):686–693, 2012). Second, the mechanism for the formation of a new ice lens in the frozen fringe is studied, and we indicate that if the total vertical disjoining pressure at certain place exceeds the sum of the external pressure and the critical pressure, a new ice lens will emerge. By combining the growth model of a single ice lens and the criterion for the formation of a new ice lens, the separate-ice frost heave model is then established. The difference between the separate-ice model and the rigid-ice model is explained, and the relations for different mathematical models which describe the soil freezing process are also discussed. Numerical analysis of the separate-ice model is conducted using the finite volume method. The freezing tests for Devon silt under no external pressure and Xuzhou silty clay under a constant external pressure are applied to verify the computational results. The consistence between the calculation and the observation validates the separate-ice frost heave model.

A Fe 3 O 4 nanorods/graphitic C 3 N 4 composite was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. The structure and morphology of the composite were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, FT-IR and so on. The specific capacitance of the composite as an electrode material is 4.3 times as that of pure graphitic C 3 N 4 (g-C 3 N 4 ) at the discharge current density of 1 A/g, showing enhanced electrochemical performance. The improved capacitive performance could be ascribed to the synergetic effect between Fe 3 O 4 nanorods and g-C 3 N 4 . This work provides a new way to improve the electrochemical property of g-C 3 N 4 and shows that the Fe 3 O 4 nanorods/g-C 3 N 4 composite is a potential electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors.

A canopy-resistance-based Penman-Monteith (PM) model’s performance in estimating rice evapotranspiration (ET) under water-saving irrigation (WSI) condition at hourly and daily intervals was evaluated. To improve the performance of Jarvis-type canopy-resistance model in calculating rice ET under water-saving irrigation condition with Penman-Monteith (PM) model, a term of effective leaf area index was used to reflect the influence of canopy coverage condition, and field capacity was replace by saturated soil moisture (θs) in soil water response functions due to the specific field moisture condition in WSI rice fields. Two years of hourly rice ET measured using eddy covariance (EThEC) with energy balance closure adjustment served to calibrate (2014 data) and validate (2015 data) a canopy-resistance-based PM model. Results indicate that the PM model’s output (EThsim) with calibrated canopy resistance model parameters closely matched measured EThEC, with a regression slope, intercept, coefficient of determination (R2), root mean squared error (RMSE) and index of agreement (IOA) of 1.001, 0.010 mm h−1, 0.942, 0.057 mm h−1 and 0.985, respectively for validation data set in 2015, better than the results calculated by model with parameters calibrated for general paddy field. The improved PM model performed well not only in a dense canopy condition (LAI > 3) but also for a sparse canopy (LAI

In recent years, significant research efforts have been spent towards building intelligent and user-friendly IoT systems to enable a new generation of applications capable of performing complex sensing and recognition tasks. In many of such applications, there are usually multiple different sensors monitoring the same object. Each of these sensors can be regarded as an information source and provides us a unique "view" of the observed object. Intuitively, if we can combine the complementary information carried by multiple sensors, we will be able to improve the sensing performance. Towards this end, we propose DeepFusion, a unified multi-sensor deep learning framework, to learn informative representations of heterogeneous sensory data. DeepFusion can combine different sensors' information weighted by the quality of their data and incorporate cross-sensor correlations, and thus can benefit a wide spectrum of IoT applications. To evaluate the proposed DeepFusion model, we set up two real-world human activity recognition testbeds using commercialized wearable and wireless sensing devices. Experiment results show that DeepFusion can outperform the state-of-the-art human activity recognition methods.

Based on 44 documented demonstration projects worldwide, a novel conceptual aspect of mine-oriented low-enthalpy geothermal exploitation classification was initially proposed. For this new classification, special attention was paid to a spatio-temporal perspective. From the first temporal perspective, i.e. life-cycle of a mine, the projects implemented in mine legacy phase are dominated (55%), followed by production stage (36%). From the second space point of view, the low-enthalpy geothermal heat, i.e. ~

This study investigated the effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (SCFP) on nutrient digestibility and ileal digesta characteristics of cannulated growing pigs fed corn- or barley-sorghum-based diets. Eight ileal-cannulated barrows randomized in a double 4 × 4 Latin square design were fed four diets in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement, in which the first factor was diet type (corn- or barley-sorghum-based diet), and the second factor was dietary SCPF treatment (supplemented with or without 5 g/kg SCFP). The cannulated barrows (35.63 ± 0.76 kg) fitted with a T-cannula in the terminal ileum were housed in metabolism cages in an environmentally controlled room. The results show that compared with the corn-based diet, the barley-sorghum-based diet reduced the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of crude protein (CP), the AID of all amino acids, amylase activity, trypsin activity, and pH in the ileal digesta of growing pigs (P 0.05). In conclusion, compared with the corn-based diet, the barley-sorghum-based diet reduced the activities of digestive enzymes and the digestive absorption of CP and amino acids in growing pigs. Dietary 5 k/kg SCPF supplementation had beneficial effects on the energy and ADF digestibility of growing pigs. However, the nutrient digestibility and ileal digesta characteristics of the pigs were unaffected by diet type × SCFP interaction.

A novel hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite containing two disparate morphologies was prepared by using a new organosilane surfactant with two long alkyl chains. Main crystal phase arrayed regularly and stacked in dense layers. However, the rest of crystalline phase was shaped like egg tarts.

Nitrogen and phosphorus losses through runoff from paddy fields are the main sources of non-point pollution in South China. Wetlands with non-food aquatic plants and ditches are used separately in many countries to reduce agricultural non-point pollution. In a field experiment conducted in the Taihu Lake Region of South China, an aquatic vegetable wetland–ecological ditch system (AWDS) with controlled drainage was constructed to purify the drainage from paddy fields. Concentrations of TN, TP, NH4+-N and NO3−-N in the AWDS decreased exponentially during the purification period. After 12 days of abatement, TN and TP concentrations in the outflow of the AWDS significantly decreased by 76.7 and 34.1% respectively compared to those in the inflow. In addition to the decrease in pollution concentration, the controlled drainage contributed to lower drainage from the AWDS. TN and TP loads were reduced by 90.9 and 77.8% respectively. After a growth period, nitrogen and phosphorus uptake of aquatic vegetables in the AWDS was 274 and 24.0 kg ha−1. After harvest, nitrogen and phosphorus contents in the soil increased in the AWDS compared with the contents before planting. The AWDS combined with controlled drainage practices seems to have the desirable functions to reduce non-point pollution. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Based on the results of continuous flux measurements in the Taihu Lake Region of China, the carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange of paddy fields under water-saving irrigation and its influence factors were analyzed. The net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) were negative during the daytime and positive at night, and the minimum value appeared around noon. The peak CO2 uptake in the flourishing period was approximately 1.5 times the values observed in the tillering and ripening stages. Frequent alternation of wetting and drying in paddy fields with water-saving irrigation resulted in larger NEE for the typical day before soil rewatering than that for the day after soil rewatering in the early growth stage. These alterations had a minimal effect on diurnal variation of NEE in the late rice growth stage. The average NEE for the typical days after soil rewatering in July and August were 2.30 and 1.38 times that before soil rewatering, respectively. CO2 exchange in paddy field ecosystem under water-saving irrigation displayed seasonal variation with the change of rice plant growth. The total ecosystem respiration (Reco), NEE and gross primary productivity (GPP) were 1996.88, −1284.15 and 3281.03 g m−2, respectively, throughout the growth stage. These results showed that the paddy field ecosystem under water-saving irrigation was a sink for atmospheric CO2. Frequent alternation of wetting and drying processes increased the ecosystem reparation of paddy fields under water-saving irrigation and produced smaller net CO2 absorption compared to that of flooding irrigation. The net CO2 absorption because of plant photosynthesis during the daytime and the net CO2 release at night measured by static transparent chamber method were larger than those measured by eddy covariance method (P

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the encapsulation of palm oil by homogenizing and spray drying on the diet nutrient digestibility, growth performance and serum biochemical indices of piglets. In experiment 1, six weaning barrows (8.0 ± 0.2 kg) were fed in a 3 × 3 Latin square design to test the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients in diets with different oils: soybean oil (SO), palm oil (PO), or encapsulated palm oil (EPO). In experiment 2, piglets from 48 pre-weaning litters (age 11 days, weaned at day 22, 4.1 ± 0.5 kg) were randomly allotted to 3 dietary treatments (same as in experiment 1) to investigate the effects of dietary treatments on the growth performance and serum biochemical indices of piglets. The digestible energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), and ATTD of gross energy (GE), organic matter (OM), dry matter (DM), ether extract (EE), calcium and phosphorus in the EPO group were higher than those in the PO group (P