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The effects of different dosage of NaCl and sucrose on the structural and functional properties of debranched quinoa starch-oleic acid complexes (DQS-OA) under baking were investigated. The results showed that the resistant starch content of the baked DQS-OA increased by 17.15 % than DQS-OA. The addition of NaCl destroyed the thermal stability, short-range molecular order and crystalline structure of the complexes. The results of particle size, SEM and amylose content showed that NaCl accelerated the degradation of starch granules, which reduced the enzyme resistance of starch. In contrast, the enthalpy (7.28 J/g-7.78 J/g) and crystallinity (54.29 %-56.69 %) of the samples with sucrose significantly increased, and the molecular structure of the complexes became more ordered. Furthermore, with the increase of sucrose concentration, the resistant starch content also increased from 28.80 % to 31.41 %.

Mud crab reovirus (MCRV) is a serious pathogen that leads to large economic losses in the mud crab farming. However, the molecular mechanism of the immune response after MCRV infection is unclear. In the present study, physiological, transcriptomic, and metabolomic responses after MCRV infection were investigated. The results showed that MCRV infection could increase lactate dehydrogenase, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase activities. MCRV infection decreased antioxidant enzyme activity levels, induced oxidative stress, and caused severe histological damage. Transcriptome analysis identified 416 differentially expressed genes, including 354 up-regulated and 62 down-regulated genes. The detoxification, immune response, and metabolic processes-related genes were found. The results showed that two key pathways including phagocytosis and apoptosis played important roles in response to MCRV infection. The combination of transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses showed that related metabolic pathways, such as glycolysis, citrate cycle, lipid, and amino acid metabolism were also significantly disrupted. Moreover, the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids was activated in response to MCRV infection. This study provided a novel insight into the understanding of cellular mechanisms in crustaceans against viral invasion.

The transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) affects the safety of aquaculture animals. Dissolved oxygen (DO) can affect the transmission of ARGs, but its mechanism of action in this process is unclear. We conducted laboratory breeding experiment with low and control DO groups. Combined quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA sequencing to study the effect of DO on the spread of ARGs. Hypoxia treatment significantly increased the accumulation of ammonium and nitrite in aquaculture water, and it increased the relative abundances of ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs), especially the ARGs resistant to drugs in the categories of sulfonamide, (flor)/(chlor)/(am)phenicol, and MLSB (macrolide, lincosamide and streptogramin B) and the MGE intI-1(clinic), by 2.39-95.69 % in 28 days relative to the control DO treatment. Though the abundance of ARG carries, especially the Rhodocyclaceae, Caldilineaceae, Cyclobacteriaceae, Saprospiraceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Sphingomonadaceae families, showed higher abundance in low DO groups, relating to the vertical transmission of ARGs. Hypoxia treatment is more likely to promote the horizontal gene transfer (HGT)-related pathways, including ABC transporters, two component system, and quorum sensing, thus to induce the HGT of ARGs. The changed bacterial proliferation also altered the abundance of MGEs, especially intI-1(clinic), which induced HGT of ARGs as well. Additionally, pearson correlation results revealed that the succession of bacterial community function played the strongest role in ARG proliferation, followed by bacterial community structure and MGEs. Our results highlight the importance of suitable DO concentration in controlling the spread of ARGs especially the HGT of ARGs. In the context of global attention to food safety, our results provide important information for ensuring the safety of aquatic products and the sustainable development of aquaculture.

Emerging evidence shows that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is implicated in numerous kinds of malignant cancers, including ovarian cancer. In this study, we focused on the expression and function of long noncoding RNA lung cancer associated transcript 1 (LUCAT1) in ovarian cancer progression. We indicated that LUCAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues. Moreover, LUCAT1 expression was positively associated with tumor metastasis and clinical stage. Elevated expression of LUCAT1 decreased the survival rate of patients with ovarian cancer. In addition, we revealed that repression of LUCAT1 significantly suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion, whereas promoted apoptotic rate. Through online predictive tools and functional experiments, we demonstrated that LUCAT1 and HOXA13 were targets of miR-612. We showed that LUCAT1 and miR-612 suppressed each other in a reciprocal way. Moreover, LUCAT1 promoted HOXA13 expression through inhibition of miR-612, eventually leading to ovarian cancer development. In conclusion, our findings revealed a novel molecular mechanism that LUCAT1/miR-612/HOXA13 pathway modulates ovarian cancer progression.

Based on a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) framework, a system of Material Flow Indicators for Petroleum Flows (MFIs-PF) in China during 1980–2015 was established and Comprehensively Evaluated (CE) using the entropy method. The comprehensive evaluation represented petroleum flows efficiency in terms of three different aspects: petroleum inputs, flows, and outputs. The CE results showed that petroleum flows efficiency exhibited a slow increase by 45%, with fluctuations for the period 1980–2015. However, there were significant differences among the developmental trajectories of the MFIs-PF. With respect to inputs indicators, direct petroleum inputs occupied the biggest weight in MFIs-PF system, furthermore, the direct petroleum inputs and dependence on petroleum imports grew rapidly, increasing from 106 million tonnes and 0.3% in 1980 to 550 million tonnes and 61% in 2015, respectively. Regarding flows indicators, the growth rate of petroleum production was slower than that of petroleum consumption, and the average of elasticity of petroleum production and consumption were approximately 0.23 and 0.73, respectively. In addition, the increase of the net addition to stocks reduced fluctuations in CE since 2010. Output indicators played a negative role in the development of petroleum flow efficiency and increased environmental load. Petroleum-related CO2 emissions grew by 4.3 times with the increase in petroleum consumption from 1980 to 2015 and expected to peak in 2035. While indirect CO2 emissions of petroleum flows processes fluctuated within the range of 96–217 kg CO2/t petroleum, with an average of 153 kg CO2/t petroleum. Driven by the policies, broadening the sources of petroleum imports, increasing domestic petroleum stock, and improving the efficiency of petroleum utilization are effective measures to increase the petroleum flows efficiency.

Surface temperature of zirconia is measured during flash sintering using thermal imaging camera. The results reveal that in the steady stage the temperature along the longitude of electric field is uneven: the temperature at the end of gauge section close to the anode is much higher than that close to the cathode; and the highest temperature locates at the three-quarter of the length of gauge section from the cathode. We further demonstrate that the asymmetric temperature distribution is related to the flashing since temperature distribution in the specimen without flashing is symmetric. The possible mechanisms that resulted in the asymmetric distribution are discussed.

This study identified the genetic transmission pattern of the leaf blight resistance of Lilium species based on resistance distribution. A total of 133 hybrids of the ‘Sorbonne’ (female parent, highly resistant to Botrytis elliptica ) and ‘Francia’ (male parent, highly susceptible to B. elliptica ) cultivars were selected by inter-simple sequence repeat polymerase chain reaction. Among them, 17 were highly resistant, 42 moderately resistant, 46 moderately susceptible, and 28 susceptible. One F1 plant showed greater resistance than 'Sorbonne', and 17 showed greater susceptibility than 'Francia'. Disease resistance from 'Sorbonne' could be inherited and was a typical quantitative trait determined by polygenes.

Electrochemically-mediated amine regeneration (EMAR) is a new CO2 capture technology with the potential to exploit the excellent removal efficiencies of thermal amine scrubbers while reducing parasitic energy losses and capital costs. To achieve higher efficiency and explore the industrial application of the promising EMAR system, a home-designed bench-scale modular flowing-through electrolysis cells (MFTECs) is proposed. The MFTECs with MEA solvent is carefully analyzed from electrochemical mechanism to bench-scale demonstration. Firstly, a series of electrochemical experiments were conducted in an H-cell to study the unknown electrochemical behaviors under various complex concentrations and temperatures, which provided a guidance to enhance the electrochemical performance. Subsequently, a visualization study of the CO2 desorption process in MFTECs was conducted at different operating conditions (current, complex concentration, electrode position, and reaction time) to investigate the desorption performance of the proposed MFTECs system. This framework allowed for direct observation and comprehension of the CO2 desorption process, as well as the movement and interaction of CO2 bubbles in MFTECs. Finally, results indicated that the proposed MFTECs enables higher electrode active surface area and lower cell resistance. This will contribute to enhancing the regeneration performance and promoting industrial application of CO2 desorption based on EMAR.

The altered microstructure during machining process had an inverse influence on materials behavior, machining forces and surface integrity. Thus, a constitutive model which builds the response of flow stress on microstructure evolution is gaining rising interest. Based on Johnson-Cook model, a modified constitutive model coupled with microstructure evolution incremental model for machining of Ti-6Al-4V is proposed. The competing effect of work hardening and dynamic recovery mechanism on flow stress is accentuated in the constitutive model. And a new softening term is introduced to describe material softening behavior caused by dynamic recrystallization. In addition, the modified constitutive model builds the response of flow stress on microstructure evolution by introducing the dynamic recrystallization volume fraction as an internal state variable. Considering the complex and variable loading conditions during the cutting process, the incremental formulation of the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov model is proposed to capture microstructure evolution during cutting process. Subsequently, orthogonal cutting experiments and simulations of Ti-6Al-4V have been carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Simulation results show that the modified constitutive model has accurate predictions of the cutting and thrust forces and illustrates that DRX is the inducement of serrated chip formation. In addition, the modified model is able to simulate the microstructure evolution during Ti-6Al-4V cutting process, which is attractive for surface integrity research of cutting operations.

The influence of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of ×100 steel base metal (BM) and heat-affected zone (HAZ) with a rust layer under an alternating wet/dry condition was investigated. The results indicated that ×100 steel was highly susceptibility to SCC, especially the HAZ. When the concentration of Cl− exceeded 2 mol/L, the magnitude of the SCC susceptibility of ×100 steel increase was less. The corrosion product layer had an effect on electrochemical corrosion and SCC. Cl− deposited in the corrosion product layer can cause pitting, and an increase in local H− owing to acidification, this outcome might lead to an increase in SCC susceptibility. The SCC of ×100 steel involved the mechanism of anodic dissolution (AD) and hydrogen evolution (HE).

A critical problem in the study of global climate change is how to identify “missing” carbon sinks. The carbon sink resulting from the weathering of carbonate and silicate minerals may make a major contribution, and it is often coupled with aquatic photosynthesis (the biological carbon pump effect - ‘BCP’). However, the lack of relevant field studies hinders our understanding of rock weathering and the carbon cycle. To address this issue, we analyzed the pH, [HCO3−], carbon isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ13CDIC), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), TOC/TN, and the stable carbon isotopic composition of TOC (δ13Corg) and CaCO3 (δ13Ccarb) in the modern surface sediments of Ngoring Lake, in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), China. The results show that the efficiency of aquatic photosynthesis may be an important factor affecting the δ13CDIC in Ngoring Lake. δ13Corg in the surface sediments is positively correlated with the δ13Ccarb of inorganic carbon produced within the lake, especially in shallow water (

Carbon dioxide mitigation strongly supports the greenhouse gas control. Amine absorption of CO2, as a method to mitigate the CO2, is a typical multi-ion system with obvious multi-ion effects. However, there is little information about the multi-ion effects on the phase flow, mass and heat transfer in amine absorption of CO2. The multi-ion effects have previously to be neglected to simplify the absorption process description, which produces unknown deviations from the realistic absorption process. According to experiment data, a multi-ion mass transfer, heat transfer and phase flow model is here developed to describe the realistic amine absorption of CO2. The turbulent diffusivity, turbulent thermal diffusivity, turbulent viscosity, CO2 concentration, liquid temperature and velocity are analyzed under the multi-ion conditions. It was found that there is 6–22% CO2 concentration difference between the multi-ion effects case and the neglect of the multi-ion effects (NME) case. The positive ions show the better synergy effects compared with the negative ions. Under the ion concentration of 0.001 kmol/m3 to 0.02 kmol/m3, 0.2 kmol/m3 to 2 kmol/m3 and 4 kmol/m3 to 7 kmol/m3, the multi-ion mass transfer, heat transfer and phase flow model provides an accurate description of the realistic CO2 absorption against the NME case. Finally, Nusselt number and mass transfer coefficient models revised by synergy angles are developed to include the multi-ion effects for engineering application. Adding the amine salt and Na2CO3 respectively reduce the liquid film thickness and liquid film depth, which increases the Nusselt number by 9.5% and 9.3%, respectively. Adding the metal Cu increases the Nusselt number by 11.57%, which helps to reduce the energy consumption by 7.8%.

Plastics are the paradigmatic material of the current era. Plastics’ trade articulates interest in trading partnerships and concerns about trade security. We focus on the International Plastic Resin Trade Network (IPRTN) and analyze its spatiotemporal evolution in 1988–2017 from global, regional, and national scales. As a profile of globalization, the network became increasingly interconnected under the combined effect of the involvement of more participating countries, the increase in the closeness of trade links, and the increase in trade volume, which grew by 0.4-fold, 7.7-fold, and 14.9-fold, respectively. Despite the growth, IPRTN maintained fairly stable topological characteristics including small-world property (average path length, 1.95 ± 0.10; clustering coefficient, 0.63 ± 0.06), high reciprocity (reciprocity value, 0.54 ± 0.03), disassortative mixing (assortativity value, −0.46 ± 0.23), and exponential degree distribution. Generally, the plastic resin trade was spatially heterogeneous with high intra-regional trade proportions (1988–1997, 78.4%; 1998–2007, 79.9%; 2008–2017, 75.1%), and Europe, Asia, and North America were the dominating regions. These facts brought IPRTN with a regionally dependent community structure. Five communities were finally formed: the Middle East-Africa community, the Eastern Europe community, the Western Europe community, the Americas community, and the East Asia-Southeast Asia-Oceania community. We found that the US-China plastic resin trade was mainly complementary. Thus, mutual tariffs in the US-China trade war, which covers plastic resins, will cause adverse effects and need to be resolved through active consultations. To ensure trade security, we remind countries with poor trade robustness to pay attention to changes in trade policies of these critical trade players and to enrich trade channels.

A series of novel dihydrobenzofuran-C60 bisadducts, denoted by BFCBA (without side chain substituent) and Cn-BFCBA (n represents the number of carbon atoms on side chain substituent, and varies as 1–5), were synthesized by a facile method and utilized as acceptor materials in polymer solar cells (PSCs). These fullerene bisadducts were found to possess similar optical, electrochemical properties but the PSCs based on them as acceptors present very diverse photovoltaic performance as the variation of n. Compared to the PSC based on BFCBA, device performances were significantly improved by the application of alkyl chain substituted dihydrobenzofuran-C60 bisadducts (Cn-BFCBA). In particular, when n = 4, i.e. tert-butyl used as substituent, PCE of the corresponding device reached to a summit of 3.40%. This result is comparable to that of the device based on PC61BM as acceptor. The morphology studied by AFM and electron mobility investigated by the space charge limited current (SCLC) method further revealed that C4-BFCBA shows a reasonably well miscibility with P3HT and a significantly higher electron mobility. These properties might account for its optimal photovoltaic performance among these series of the fullerene bisadducts. For comparison, dihydrobenzofuran-C60 monoadduct and trisadduct based on tert-butyl substituents were also synthesized. The corresponding PSC device test results showed that C4-BFCBA present much better photovoltaic performance than its corresponding monoadduct (C4-BFCMA) and trisadduct (C4-BFCTA) as well as BFCBA.

The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of X100 steel under alternating dry/wet conditions was investigated through electrochemical experiments and slow strain-rate testing. The results show that the corrosion morphology transforms from general corrosion to pitting with increasing dry/wet ratio (D/W). The corrosion product layer becomes less protective with decreasing pH, which leads to pitting and shows that anodic dissolution is promoted. In addition, local acidification under the corrosion product layer promotes the hydrogen evolution reaction. We conclude that the SCC mechanism of X100 steel under alternating dry/wet conditions at low pH and a high D/W ratio involves anodic dissolution and hydrogen evolution.

The effects of different dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations on the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of pre-corroded X100 steel base metal (BM) and welded joint under wet-dry cycle conditions were investigated by slow strain rate and electrochemical tests. Studies have shown that changing the DO concentration in the solution has a significant effect on the SCC susceptibility of X100 steel. With increasing DO concentration, the SCC susceptibility of X100 steel increases initially and then decreases. This is because the increased DO concentration causes increased protection of corrosion product layers, which reduces the dissolution rate of the crack tip anode, thereby slowing the crack growth rate. In the wet-dry cycle environment, the SCC mechanism of the X100 steel BM and the welded joint is the anodic dissolution mechanism. At the same DO concentration, the welded joint exhibits a higher SCC susceptibility than BM due to changes in the material microstructure caused by the welding process and residual stress.

X100 steel is an important material used to construct marine pipelines; hence, understanding its stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior is important. Herein, we investigated the SCC mechanism of rusted X100 steel in a wet–dry cycle environment at various Cl− and HSO3− contents. Slow strain-rate testing revealed brittle fracture features at high HSO3− content, while electrochemical studies showed that HSO3− promotes increased cathode current density that contributes to stress corrosion cracking. We conclude that SCC cracking is initiated at pits formed by anodic dissolution, while the hydrogen-evolution mechanism dominates in a high HSO3− concentration environment.

A dry/wet cycle corrosion test device was constructed to study the corrosion behaviour of X100 steel under rust layer in dry/wet cycling and immersion conditions. Results showed that the exposure of X100 steel in dry/wet cycle condition with high concentration of Cl−, fast diffusion of O2, and wetness of the rust layers led to an accelerated corrosion process. The initial corrosion rate in the dry/wet cycle environment was higher than that in the immersion environment. As the corrosion time increased, the α-FeOOH content in the rust layer increased, resulting in a decrease in the rate of electrochemical corrosion of metals. In the immersion environment, the corrosion mechanism involved was a typical oxygen-absorbing corrosion mechanism. Under dry/wet cycle conditions, the simultaneous effects of Cl−, O2, and rust layer were studied. The three stages of the wet surface in dry/wet cycle environment were described, and the corrosion mechanism was clarified.

In our previous work, a significant improvement in organosilicon monomer distillation using parallel double-effect heat integration between a heavies removal column and six other columns, as well as heat integration between methyltrichlorosilane and dimethylchlorosilane columns, reduced the total exergy loss of the currently running counterpart by 40.41%. Further research regarding this optimized scheme demonstrated that it was necessary to reduce the higher operating pressure of the methyltrichlorosilane column, which is required for heat integration between the methyltrichlorosilane and dimethylchlorosilane columns. Therefore, in this contribution, a challenger scheme is presented with heat pumps introduced separately from the originally heat-coupled methyltrichlorosilane and dimethylchlorosilane columns in the above-mentioned optimized scheme, which is the prototype for this work. Both schemes are simulated using the same purity requirements used in running industrial units. The thermodynamic properties from the simulation are used to calculate the energy consumption and exergy loss of the two schemes. The results show that the heat pump option further reduces the flowsheet energy consumption and exergy loss by 27.35% and 10.98% relative to the prototype scheme. These results indicate that the heat pumps are superior to heat integration in the context of energy-savings during organosilicon monomer distillation.

As one of the five bulbous flowering plants, the hyacinth is widely cultivated worldwide. Hyacinth has a simple origin but abundant variations – euploids and aneuploids. Most cultivated Hyacinths, including triploid and aneuploid varieties, display high fertility. In this study, we determined the karyotypes of five diploid Hyacinths species with diverse flower colors using C-banding and 45S rDNA Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis. Both techniques could identify the individual chromosome clearly. The karyotypes of the five species belonged to 2B and the chromosomes could be evidently classified into four types, namely L, L n , M and S. The C bands, with low pattern polymorphism, mostly localized on the centromere and the long arm. Among the five species analyzed, the yellow Gipsy Princess showed the most variable banding patterns, where only 8 chromosomes showed distinct C-bands. 45S rDNA in situ hybridization sites were located at the secondary constrictions, and the two satellite chromosomes were somewhat different from each other on hybridization sites. Each hyacinth chromosome could be clearly identified by karyotyping and C-banding techniques.