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Highly efficient removal of bilirubin from whole blood directly by hemoperfusion for liver failure therapy remains a challenge in the clinical field due to the low adsorption capacity, poor mechanical strength and low biocompatibility of adsorbents. In this work, a new class of nanocomposite adsorbents was constructed through an inorganic-organic co-crosslinked nanocomposite network between vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES)-functionalized hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (V-Hap) and non-ionic styrene-divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) resins (PS-DVB/V-Hap) using suspension polymerization. Notably, our adsorbent demonstrated substantially improved mechanical performance compared to the pure polymer, with the hardness and modulus increasing by nearly 3 and 2.5 times, respectively. Moreover, due to the development of a mesoporous structure, the prepared PS-DVB/V-Hap3 exhibited an ideal adsorption capacity of 40.27 mg g−1. More importantly, the obtained adsorbent beads showed outstanding blood compatibility and biocompatibility. Furthermore, in vivo extracorporeal hemoperfusion verified the efficacy and biosafety of the adsorbent for directly removing bilirubin from whole blood in pig models, and this material could potentially prevent liver damage and improve clinical outcomes. Taken together, the results suggest that PS-DVB/V-Hap3 beads can be used in commercial adsorption columns to threat hyperbilirubinemia patients through hemoperfusion, thus replacing the existing techniques where plasma separation is initially required.

Human hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), an important infectious disease in children, is caused mainly by enterovirus 71 (EV71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CA16). In this study, a bivalent inactivated EV71/CA16 vaccine is developed and evaluated in immunized BALB/c mice injected through the intradermal route. Q-RT-PCR detection of the mRNA of immune signal molecules in local epithelial tissues inoculated with the vaccine indicates activation of innate immunity, which includes upregulation of immune-related chemokines, interferons and CD molecules. Further, the finding that neutralizing antibodies and specific T cellular responses were elicited in adult mice after two immunizations with the vaccine at a 28-day interval, which endowed offspring mice to defend a viral challenge, suggests the successful induction of specific protective antiviral immunity. All these data suggest that immunization with this bivalent EV71/CA16 vaccine via the intradermal route elicits effective immunity against EV71 and CA16 infection.

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) infection is primarily responsible for fatal hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) cases. Infants and younger children are more likely to suffer central nervous system damage as a result of EV-A71 infection, but this virus mostly does not affect older children and adults. This study investigated the possible mechanism underlying the age-dependent lethal effect of EV-A71 infection by comparing neonatal and adult mouse models of EV-A71 infection. Although viral proliferation is absent in both neonatal and adult mice, we observed that EV-A71, as a stimulus for astrocytes, elevates the levels of cytokines and monoamine neurotransmitters in neonatal mice. Then, we selected IL-6 and adrenaline as targets in a pharmacological approach to further validate the roles of these factors in mediating the mortality of neonatal mice after EV-A71 infection. Intracerebral injection of IL-6 and adrenaline enhanced the severity of EV-A71 infection, while treatment with an anti-IL-6-neutralizing antibody or the adrenergic-antagonist phenoxybenzamine reversed the lethal effect of EV-A71 in neonatal mice. These results suggest that the central nervous system (CNS) damage in neonatal cases of EV-A71 infection might be caused by an activated fetal cerebral immune response to the virus, including the disruption of brainstem function through increased levels of cytokines and neurotransmitters, rather than the typical cytopathic effect (CPE) of viral infection., The central nervous system damage in neonatal mice with EV-A71 infection may be caused by activated fetal cerebral astrocytes related to the immune response to the virus, including the disruption of the functioning of the brainstem through increased cytokines and neurotransmitters, rather than the typical cytopathic effect of viral infection.

Corrugated horn is a kind of key feed component of antenna system, which could be fabricated by electroforming method. However, the feed horn is becoming more difficult to electroform with the increase of frequency. In the terahertz band, which is now of great interest in military and social safety application, the widths of the corrugation teeth and gaps decrease to the micrometer scale, and their depth-width ratios are higher than 2:1. It is really a challenging, time-consuming work to directly machine a terahertz feed horn or make a metal mandrel for electroforming of that. To solve the difficulties in the normal process of terahertz feed horn, a novel discrete fabrication method based on UV-LIGA technology is put forward avoiding the need of mandrel machining. In this method, the manufacturing of a 3D corrugated horn is transformed into 2D slices forming, that is, the corrugation structure is separated into discrete slices according to the width of each tooth or gap. The slices are formed through UV-LIGA technology, in which electroforming is an essential process. Consequently, slices with micro hardness higher than 250HV(200g) and internal compress stress less than 20MPa were electroformed. After assembly and vacuum bonding of slices, typical nickel micro-structure of a conical corrugated horn operating at frequency 2.5THz was fabricated successfully. This layer-by-layer method breaks though the traditional solution of direct machining of metal feed horn or its mandrel by coupling UV-LIGA and vacuum hot bonding technology, which is feasible for vacuum electronic devices like rectangular folded waveguide and multilayer MEMS components moreover.

Bayesian analysis of normally distributed data with unknown mean and unknown variance is complicated. For the normal distribution N ( μ , σ 2 ) , a linear Bayes procedure is suggested to simultaneously estimate the parameters μ and σ 2 . Compared with the usual Bayes estimator and the Lindley approximation, the proposed linear Bayes estimator is simple and easy to use, and some numerical examples are presented to verify its accuracies. Also, the superiorities of the linear Bayes estimator over classical estimators are established in terms of mean squared error matrix criterion.

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), a member of α herpesviruses, shows a high infectivity rate of 30%–60% in populations of various ages. Some herpes simplex (HSV) vaccine candidates evaluated during the past 20 years have not shown protective efficacy against viral infection. An improved understanding of the immune profile of infected individuals and the associated mechanism is needed. HSV uses an immune evasion strategy during viral replication, and various virus-encoded proteins, such as ICP47 and Vhs, participate in this process through limiting the ability of CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes to recognize target cells. Other proteins, e.g., Us3 and Us5, also play a role in viral immune evasion via interfering with cellular apoptosis. In this work, to study the mechanism by which HSV-1 strain attenuation interferes with the viral immune evasion strategy, we constructed a mutant strain, M5, with deletions in the Us3 and Us5 genes. M5 was shown to induce higher neutralizing antibody titers and a stronger cellular immune response than our previously reported M3 strain, and to prevent virus infection more effectively than the M3 strain in an in vivo mouse challenge test. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12250-019-00156-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Diesel engine exhaust has been identified to be highly carcinogenic. In order to improve the control of diesel engine exhaust emissions, the diesel engine oxidation catalyst (DOC) + catalytic diesel particulate filter (CDPF) + selective catalytic reduction catalyst (SCR) + NH3 oxidation catalyst (ASC) united technology has become the mainstream technology for catalytic aftertreatment. Perovskite oxides have emerged as a promising catalyst for NO oxidation and can be used as the DOC. Undoped La2MMnO6 (M = Co, Fe, Ni, Cu) double perovskites, A-site Ba-doping (La2-xBax)CoMnO6 (%Ba = 0, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) perovskites and B-site Cu-doping La2Co1-yCuyMnO6 (y = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1) double perovskites were prepared by a facile molten-salt synthesis method and examined by XRD, SEM, BET, in situ DRIFTS, and XPS. In addition, we calculated the B-site ionic magnetic moments of the double perovskites μ which were contributed by the effective Bohr magneton number n p of the B-site 3d transition metal ions, such as Mn3+, Mn4+, Co3+, Fe3+, Ni2+, and Cu2+. The correlations between the B-site ionic magnetic moments and the maximum NO conversion over all those double perovskites were also calculated. The B-site ionic magnetic moments has a strong positive correlation with the highest conversion rate of NO catalytic oxidation over all those double perovskites. That is, the higher the B-site ionic magnetic moments, the better the catalytic oxidation performance of NO over the double perovskites. So enhancing the B-site ionic magnetic moments by A-site doping is a method to improve the catalytic activity of NO oxidation over the perovskites. Increasing the B-site ionic magnetic moments is the key index to improve the catalytic activity of NO oxidation of the double perovskites by B-site doping.

The water retained inside the sludge flocs is the bottleneck for the dehydration of sewage sludge, which hindered the following treatment. In this study, corn core powder was modified (MCCP) using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMAB) to break the structure of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and cell membrane for enhancing the dewaterability of sewage sludge. The dewatering performance, the properties of the treated sludge, the composition and distribution of EPS were investigated to discuss the dewatering mechanism of sludge. Adding 20% DS (mass of dry solids in sludge) of MCCP reduced the moisture content (MC) and the specific resistance of filtration (SRF) of the sludge by 40% and 55%, respectively. Then, correlation analyses were performed between dewatering indices of sludge and sludge properties. A multiple linear regression model was established which indicated the relationship between MC and the key factors reflecting sludge dewaterability, demonstrating that larger particle size of sludge flocs and more total dissolved solids in filtrate may be propitious to reduce content of bound water in sludge.

The evolution of canopy traits related to maize yield increases has been well documented, but the changes in the root system over decades and their relationships with the water use efficiency (WUE) and nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE) require further investigation. In this study, we analyzed the morphological and physiological characteristics of the roots, as well as the water-N uptake, WUE, and NUE under low water/N (LW/LN) and high water/N (HW/HN) supply levels in 11 elite inbred maize lines released in China during the 1960s, 1980s, and 2000s. The results showed that yield improvement in the inbred lines from the 1960s to the 1980s (61–109%) was greater than that in those from the 1980s to the 2000s (6–17%), and the resistance to drought and low N also exhibited a significant linear increase over the decades. The utilization of water and N by the inbred lines evolved efficiently and economically, especially in stressful environments. The improved WUE of modern inbred lines was demonstrated by the higher yield and lower evapotranspiration. The NUE defined as the grain yield obtained per unit of N in plants increased in a linear manner over the three decades, and it was accompanied by higher N accumulation in the grains and greater N translocation efficiency in the roots. However, the agronomic N use efficiency improved from the 1960s to the 1980s, but then decreased from the 1980s to the 2000s. The modern inbred lines tended to produce less redundant roots in the top (0–20 cm) soil layer, whereas root development was enhanced in the deeper soil layer. The morphological properties of the roots (dry weight, length, volume, surface area, weight density, and length density) tended to increase from the 1960s to the 1980s but then decreased from the 1980s to the 2000s, and they had significant quadratic relationships with the yield, WUE, and NUE. By contrast, water/N amount absorbed per unit root volume, the physiological properties related to the root absorption area, root activity improved over the decades, where the physiological properties had positive linear relationships with the yield, WUE, and NUE. Thus, we conclude that the maize roots evolved alongside higher yields and greater tolerance to drought and low N environments. The improved WUE and NUE in the modern inbred lines were associated with the greater physiological absorption capacity of the roots rather than larger root size in normal or stressful environments.

Porous nanocomposite materials possess enhanced adsorption properties, but uniformly dispersing nanofillers in polymer matrices is still a challenging technical difficulty. In this study, modification through loading with SiO2 successfully improved the dispersibility of graphene in chitosan suspensions. By employing a phase-inversion method, cross-linked chitosan/SiO2-loaded graphene (CS/graphene-SiO2) composite beads were prepared. The resulting CS/graphene-SiO2 beads were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, which clearly showed that graphene was well-dispersed in the chitosan matrix. Adsorption results demonstrated that CS/graphene-SiO2 beads possessed much better adsorption capacity for bilirubin (77.87%) compared to pure chitosan (CS) beads (22.47%), mainly due to the synergistic effect between the hydrophobic forces of graphene and the electrostatic interactions provided by the amino groups of CS. The adsorption of bilirubin was found to match a monolayer model, as well as a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The mechanical strength of composite beads was significantly improved as compared to CS beads, due to the incorporation of graphene. The effects on hemolytic activity and the components of blood were negligible, which indicate an excellent compatibility of the obtained composite beads with blood. Overall, the proposed CS/graphene-SiO2 beads as an efficient adsorbent for bilirubin have high potential in blood purification applications.

Chemical looping gasification (CLG), which is a method for syngas production. The materials for the syngas are low-quality lignite and the industrial waste-phosphogypsum (PG). However, the reaction temperature for the process is high, which consumes a lot of energy. Therefore, in this work, a catalyst has been proposed to lower the reaction temperature in the CLG of syngas. Ellingham diagram has been used as a guide to find the catalyst. Furthermore, theoretical calculations using the thermodynamic software FactSage, have been conducted along with experiments to analyze the performance of compound oxygen carrier in the CLG process. After the analysis, it is suggested that the Fe supported PG has great characteristics with high oxygen carrying capacity, high selective conversion ability of C to CO, excellent activity and recyclability. In addition, compared with the PG applied used as oxygen carrier, the compound oxygen carrier has reduced the temperature to 1023 K with more than 90.00% carbon conversion, whereas more than 70.00% of carbon of lignite is transformed into CO. Additionally, the syngas has the cold gas efficiency of 81.38% and the lower heating value (LHV) 3222.52 kJ/Nm3. And, Fe promotes carbon conversion and syngas production mainly through the reactions: Fe 2 O 3 + 3 CH 4 → 2 Fe + 3CO + 6 H 2 > and Fe 2 O 3 + 3 C → 2 Fe + 3 CO > .

Project Co-ordinators: Dr. Jose Alfonso Gómez Calero (Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS-CISC), Dr. Weifeng Xu (Fujian Agriculture and Forest University, FAFU). -- Trabajo desarrollado bajo la financiación del proyecto “Soil Hydrology research platform underpinning innovation to manage water scarcity in European and Chinese cropping Systems” (773903), coordinado por José Alfonso Gómez Calero, investigador del Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS)., The crop-water production function (CWPF) is widely used to quantitatively describe relationships between crop water deficit and yield, and evaluate the effects of different irrigation strategies in agro-hydrological models. In order to reasonably and reliably estimate crop yield and optimize irrigation scheduling, a novel CWPF was proposed by combining the plant water deficit index (PWDI), estimated based on root-weighted soil water availability, with a daily water sensitivity index derived from a sigmoidal cumulative function. Parameterized using data from a two-year winter wheat field lysimetric experiment conducted in the North China Plain and from a previously published two-year spring maize field drip irrigation experiment in Inner Mongolia, China, the CWPFs provided reasonable estimation of different crop yields with different water stress response characteristics under different field environments. Through coupling the genetic algorithm with the integrated simulations of soil water dynamics, PWDI and CWPF in the soil-wheat system, an optimization procedure was developed to determine PWDI threshold combinations to timely trigger irrigation according to pre-designed crop water deficit status. Crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of winter wheat were estimated and compared under different optimized constant and variable PWDI threshold combinations. In addition, the effects of climate change on the optimized variable PWDI threshold combinations were investigated using 38 years of historic meteorological data. The results showed that regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) with a variable threshold combination, in which the sensitivity characteristics to water deficit were considered for the crop at different growth stages, was superior to a constant threshold in enhancing crop yield and WUE. Irrespective of the number of irrigation events (1, 2, 3 or 4) during the growing season, the coefficients of variation (CV) of optimized PWDI thresholds for different combinations of irrigation sequence and events were not very large under the same kind of hydrological year (wet, normal or dry), with CV < 0.39 and a median of 0.21. When the mean (MN) of the optimized PWDI threshold combinations for different irrigation sequence and events was used to schedule RDI of winter wheat in terms of various hydrological years, up to 91% of the estimated relative yield was found to be higher than 90% of the corresponding maximum values. Therefore, the MN can be valuable in formulating rational irrigation management strategies of winter wheat to achieve relatively high yields with limited water under changing climatic conditions., This research was supported partly by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1706211, 51790532), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFE0118100), and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Project SHui, grant agreement No 773903.

We previously constructed a herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) UL7 mutant virus (M1) and showed that a partial deletion mutation of the UL7 gene led to a lower proliferative rate and an attenuated phenotype. Using the M1 mutant, we further modified the UL41 gene, which encodes another tegument protein, and the latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene. Observations of the resulting mutants with modified UL7 and UL41 (M2) or UL7, UL41 and LAT (M3) genes indicated attenuated phenotypes, with lower proliferative ratios in various cells, non-lethal infections in mice and lower viral loads in nervous tissues compared with the wild-type strain. Furthermore, no LAT stable intron could be detected in the trigeminal ganglion of M3-infected animals. The results obtained with the three HSV-1 mutants indicate that the M3 mutant is an attenuated strain with low pathogenicity during both acute and latent infections. Together, the results support the use of the M3 mutant as a candidate for the development of an HSV-1 vaccine.

Microscale water distribution in the subsurface is key to many geochemical and biogeochemical reactions. This study investigated microscale water distribution and movement in unsaturated soils using micro-continuum hydrodynamic models, and examined the effect of microscale water distribution on organic carbon (C) decomposition using a micro-continuum biogeochemical reaction model. The micro-continuum hydrodynamic model that relates capillary pressure to porosity captured the measured water imbibition curve at the core scale, and exhibited reasonable water distribution and movement at the microscale. The simulations of organic C decomposition illustrate that microscale water distribution strongly affected the distribution of C decomposition rates by regulating the availability of dissolved organic C and oxygen. Particularly, changes in water distribution altered the location and intensity of reactive hotspots and thereby CO2 flux from soils. The microscale interactions between water content and organic C decomposition rate provide underlying mechanisms for explaining macroscale phenomenon observed in laboratory and fields. Overall, this study presents a useful tool for explicating hydro-biogeochemical behaviors in the subsurface by integrating micro-continuum hydrodynamic and biogeochemical reaction modeling.

We propose and numerically investigate the plasmonic whispering-gallery mode (WGM) with high-quality (Q) factor (as high as 285) and ultra-small mode volume (as low as 0 . 04 μ m 3 ) in the hybrid plasmonic microcavity with a sandwiched and electrically controlled graphene. The theoretical results present that the resonant wavelength of hybrid plasmonic microcavity dramatically changes and the corresponding intrinsic loss exhibits a distinct peak by electrically adjusting the permittivity of graphene around the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) point. The influence of graphene with different layers on the characteristic of hybrid plasmonic microcavity is also analyzed. As a potential application, the plasmonic WGM microcavity with the sandwiched graphene could be applied for a refractometer with the sensitivity of higher than 1000 nm per refraction index unit (nm/RIU), and large figure of merit. The sensitivity can also be tuned by the electrically controlled graphene.

Understanding and predicting non-Newtonian fluid flows in porous media is crucial for many geophysical and environmental problems. Although extensive studies have investigated nonlinear flow for shear thinning fluids, the critical Reynolds number (Rec) for identifying nonlinearity in transition from rheology-dominated to inertia-dominated flows remains unclear. To determine Rec, we conducted hundreds of direct numerical simulations of power law fluids with diverse fluid rheology (quantified by a power law exponent n) through a variety of pore geometries which are characterized by a non-dimensional hydraulic shape factor (β). The numerically-derived pressure gradient and fluid flux were used to compute the bulk viscosity ~ Reynolds number curves, which were further employed to determine Rec. With knowing Rec, we established a predictive function between Rec and (β, n). This function allows for the estimation of Rec based on the measurable properties (β, n) via imaging technique. Our mechanistic modelling work sheds light on predicting nonlinear flow for non-Newtonian fluids at the continuum scale by knowing under what conditions the inertial effects are significant.

The influence of soil salinity on plant root water uptake (RWU) must be considered in order to promote efficient irrigation management. However, due to challenges in parameterization, modeling RWU response to salinity is problematic. We set out to characterize the influence of soil salinity on tomato RWU under conditions of irrigation with high salinity water and to improve methods for optimizing parameters of RWU model. Experiments were conducted in a greenhouse over two seasons (2016 and 2017). Three irrigation water salinity treatments [0.4 (S1), 3.4 (S2) and 6.4 (S3) mg cm−3] were evaluated. The results showed that soil water content and salinity increased with the irrigation water salinity, especially in the top soil layers, and that RWU was reduced by the increased root zone salinity. An inverse method based on a one-dimensional equation of soil water movement was used to estimate the RWU rate distribution under drip irrigation and determined to be reliable. The parameter value of the normalized root length distribution (NRLD) function was fitted through the estimated RWU rate distributions for treatment S1 without the effect of salinity stress. The fitted NRLD function was used to optimize the parameters of the salinity stress reduction factor (β) through the measured soil moisture and salinity of treatments S2 and S3 in 2016. With the optimized parameters of β, the RWU rates of treatments S2 and S3 in 2017 were simulated. The simulated RWU rates based on the RWU model agreed well with the estimated RWU rates using the inverse method, with root mean squared error (RMSE) and normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) less than 0.00067 cm3 cm−3 d−1 and 12.36%, and index of agreement (IA) higher than 0.94. These findings can be used to estimate the NRLD distribution and determine actual crop water requirements under saline conditions with no root distribution data required. This should contribute to efficient and sustainable irrigation scheduling.

Fundamental understanding of solute transport behaviors in rock fractures is of great importance to many hydrogeological processes. The fate of fluid-borne solutes is inherently linked to fluid flow process in rock fractures, which is usually theoretically and numerically analyzed under the assumption of classic no-slip boundary condition. However, fluid slippage at rock surfaces is possibly present in some geological environments, such as hydrophilicity change in rock surfaces exposed to organic substances, or the immobile wetting film covering rock surfaces. These situations would induce a non-zero velocity at the boundary walls for flowing fluid, i.e., fluid slippage, which leads to a violation of the no-slip assumption. Nonetheless, the effect of slippery boundary on fluid-borne solute transport is poorly understood for rock fractures. This study systematically investigated the slippery boundary effect on solute transport in rough-walled rock fractures under different flow regimes. A series of pore-scale simulation results showed that the slippery boundary has a profound influence on both microscale and macroscale solute transport behaviors in rock fractures. Such an influence became more significant with increasing hydraulic gradient, accompanied by the flow regime transitioning from Darcy to non-Darcian. For Darcy flow regime, the slippery boundary exerted its influence on solute transport by altering velocity distribution pattern in rock fracture; while for non-Darcian flow regime, the enlarged eddy volume and promoted mass transfer process by the slippery boundary profoundly affected solute transport behaviors. Further discussion indicated that the predictive models with parameters estimated from the conventional no-slip boundary condition cannot directly apply to the slip one. Moreover, the effect of slippery boundary would possibly have an impact on larger-scale fractured rock aquifers which requires further verification. The results and findings enrich the understanding of solute transport in fractured rocks where the slippery boundary is prevalently present, and contribute to developing predictive models for complex geological environments.

We previously constructed a herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) UL7 mutant virus (M1) and showed that a partial deletion mutation of the UL7 gene led to a lower proliferative rate and an attenuated phenotype. Using the M1 mutant, we further modified the UL41 gene, which encodes another tegument protein, and the latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene. Observations of the resulting mutants with modified UL7 and UL41 (M2) or UL7, UL41 and LAT (M3) genes indicated attenuated phenotypes, with lower proliferative ratios in various cells, non-lethal infections in mice and lower viral loads in nervous tissues compared with the wild-type strain. Furthermore, no LAT stable intron could be detected in the trigeminal ganglion of M3-infected animals. The results obtained with the three HSV-1 mutants indicate that the M3 mutant is an attenuated strain with low pathogenicity during both acute and latent infections. Together, the results support the use of the M3 mutant as a candidate for the development of an HSV-1 vaccine. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s12250-017-3947-1 and is accessible for authorized users.

Drip irrigation under plastic mulch (DIPM) has been used to achieve high maize yields in China, but N use efficiency is often low and N losses are high. Here, we designed a DIPM system with optimal N management to close the maize yield gap with high NUE and low N loss and used it in Northeast China in 2014 and 2015. The amount and timing with optimal N rate (ONR) were designed to close the maize yield gap based on the N requirement. Grain yield using the ONR treatments averaged 13.8 Mg ha −1 during 2014 and 2015, which was 90% of the yield potential simulated by the Hybrid-Maize Model. When N treatment was less than the ONR (70% ONR), grain yield decreased from 13.8 to 11.6 Mg ha −1 . When additional N fertilizer (130% ONR) was applied, no gain in yield was achieved, but N losses increased significantly from 65 to 121 kg N ha −1 . Grain yield was significantly lower in the farmers’ typical N practice treatment than that in the ONR treatment. Although 30% more N was applied with farmers’ practice, the lowest N use efficiency and greatest N losses were observed. In conclusion, DIPM with optimal N management increased yield potential with high N use efficiency and low N losses in a water-limited region.

Indices based on plant water stress or deficit have been extensively employed to aid irrigation scheduling. The objective of this study was to validate a recently proposed approach to estimate plant water deficit index (PWDI) based on root-weighted soil water status and to investigate its effects on irrigation scheduling, plant growth and yield, water consumption and use efficiency when applied to trigger irrigation. A lysimetric experiment and a field experiment were conducted in 2015 and 2016, in which different climatic zones (Beijing and Inner Mongolia), crop species (winter wheat and spring maize), soil types (loam and sandy), PWDI estimation approaches (traditional based on arithmetic average soil water status and root-weighted), irrigation methods (surface and drip irrigation) and levels (full and deficit) were involved. Although both PWDI estimations failed to capture the sharply changing theoretical values resulting from transient fluctuations of weather conditions or irrigation events, the root-weighted approach (RWA) was found to be more reliable than the traditional approach based on arithmetic average soil water status. More precisely timed irrigation scheduling by the RWA resulted in higher irrigation frequency and quantity, and thus higher aboveground biomass, leaf area, grain yield, and transpiration mostly without significant decrease in water use efficiency. Further improvement is necessary to consider the effects of plant recovery from water stress after re-watering, weather conditions, and choice of soil water stress response function on RWA based irrigation scheduling.

In the context of environmental remediation of contaminated sites and safety assessment of nuclear waste disposal in the near-surface zone, we investigate the leaching and non-Fickian dispersive migration with sorption of strontium (mocking strontium-90) through columns packed with sand and clay. Analysis is based on breakthrough curves (BTCs) from column experiments, which simulated rainfall infiltration and source term release scenario, rather than applying constant tracer solution at the inlet as commonly used. BTCs are re-evaluated and transport parameters are estimated by inverse modelling using two approaches: (1) equilibrium advection-dispersion equation (ADE); and (2) continuous time random walk (CTRW). Firstly, based on a method for calculating leach concentration, the inlet condition with an exponential decay input is identified. Secondly, the results show that approximately 39%~58% of Br- and 16%~49% of Sr2+ are eluted from the columns at the end of the breakthrough experiments. This suggests that trapping mechanisms, including diffusion into immobile zones and attachment of tracer on mineral surfaces, are more pronounced for Sr2+ than for Br-. Thirdly, we demonstrate robustness of CTRW-based truncated power-law (TPL) model in capturing non-Fickian reactive transport with 02. The non-Fickian dispersion observed experimentally is explained by variations of local flow field from preferential flow paths due to physical heterogeneities. Particularly, the additional sorption process of strontium on clay minerals contributes to the delay of the peak concentration and the tailing features, which leads to an enhanced non-Fickian transport for strontium. Finally, the ADE and CTRW approaches to environmental modelling are evaluated. It is shown that CTRW with a sorption term can describe non-Fickian dispersive transport of strontium at laboratory scale by identifying appropriate parameters, while the traditional ADE with a retardation factor fails to reproduce the complex non-Fickian transport of strontium with strong sorption on clay surface.

Maintaining a stable soil water supply is the key for solar greenhouse vegetable production across the North China Plain. A three-season field experiment was conducted over 2 years to evaluate two methods of applying Yamazaki tomato nutrient solution (negative pressure and drip fertigation; NF and DF, respectively) for production of greenhouse tomato and water use efficiency (WUE). Soil moisture in the surface (0–20 cm) and entire soil profile (0–100 cm), as well as soil water storage (SWS) and crop evapotranspiration (ET) levels were measured during the growing season. Then, plant growth, fruit yield, and WUE were compared. The variations in soil moisture (0–20 cm) were small for the NF treatment, with ranges of 20.0–25.0% and 22.2–24.3% in the early spring and autumn winter seasons, respectively, which were less than the ranges of 19.7–28.5% and 21.4–26.7% for DF. The average SWS did not significantly differ between DF and NF treatments, while SWS in NF (318.6–339.3 mm) during the growing season showed small fluctuations compared with DF (315.7–342.9 mm). The ET over the whole growing season varied in the range of 224.0–319.9 mm, which was higher during fruit-set and flowering than other growth periods. With its higher irrigation amount, DF had a higher ET level than NF, but there was no significant difference in early spring. The consecutive and stable water supply of NF improved tomato plant height and stem diameter (P

Understanding transport in rough fractures from non-Fickian to Fickian regimes and the prediction of non-Fickian transport is critical for the development of new transport theories and many practical applications. Through computational experiments that fall within the macrodispersion regime, we first simulated and analyzed solute transport through synthetic rough fractures with stationary geometrical properties (i.e., fracture roughness σb/〈b〉 and correlation length λ, where b refers to aperture with its standard deviation σb and arithmetic mean 〈b〉) across increasing fracture longitudinal transport domain length L, with L/λ ranging from 2.5 to 50. The results were used to determine how solute transport behavior evolves with increasing scale in the longitudinal direction. Moreover, a set of correlated fractures with aperture fields following normal and log-normal distributions was created to further identify and quantify the dependence of non-Fickian transport on roughness. We found that although persistent intermittent velocity structures were present, the breakthrough curves (BTCs) and residence time distributions showed diminishing early arrival and tailing, features of non-Fickian transport, with increasing longitudinal L/λ, ultimately converging to a Fickian transport regime given σb/〈b〉 remained constant. Inverse analysis of the experimental BTCs with the advection-dispersion equation (ADE) model showed that the dispersion coefficient (D) was non-trivially scale-dependent. Simulation results for rough fractures with varying σb/〈b〉 and L/λ indicated that the ratio of fluid velocity to transport velocity fitted to the ADE model depends on σb/〈b〉 and L/λ. The continuous time random walk (CTRW) performed much better across all transport scales, and resulted in scale-independent fitted parameters, i.e., β in the memory function. The fitted β is proportional to σb/〈b〉but is insensitive to L/λ. Therefore, bulk longitudinal solute transport across the pre-asymptotic and asymptotic regimes can be estimated based on the CTRW model parameterized by measurable fracture physical properties.

Objectives Cathepsin B (CTSB), nod-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), and caspase-1 play an important role in the development of Acute Pancreatitis (AP). Besides, the relationship between the proteins remains poorly understood. In addition, whereas previous studies have found caspase-1 activation in AP, pyroptosis, a caspase-1 induced cell death mode, has never been proposed and proved in AP. Methods We induced AP in mice by intraperitoneal injection of cerulein. Mice in the inhibitor group of CTSB were pretreated with injection of CA-074me, while mice in the inhibitor group of caspase-1 were of Ac-YVAD-CHO, 1 h earlier. We evaluated the inflammation of the pancreas and the detected expression of activated CTSB, NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1p20, IL-1β and IL-18. TUNEL staining was used to detect acinar cell death. Results The inflammation of the pancreas in the two inhibitor groups was significantly reduced compared with that in the AP group. We observed that CA-074me not only inhibits CTSB, but also suppresses the expression and activity of NLRP3, ASC and caspase-1. We found that CA-074me further inhibits the downstream event of caspase-1, including pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and pyroptosis. Whereas Ac-YVAD-CHO inhibited caspase-1 and decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and pyroptosis, it did not down-regulate the expression and activity ofCTSB, NLRP3 and ASC. Conclusion The results indicate that CTSB may aggravate AP by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome and promoting Caspase-1-induced pyroptosis. These provide clues about the pathophysiological mechanisms of AP, shedding light on new ideas and potential targets for the prevention and treatment of AP.

Surface-initiated activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) was applied to graft poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) brushes from macroporous hydrogel templating from oil-in-water high internal phase emulsion (O/W HIPE), and the grafted hydrogel was further heparinized as stationary phase of affinity chromatography for Enterovirus 71 (EV71) purification. Acrylate functional monomer containing isobutyl bromide (HEMA-BiBB) was synthesized and introduced into oil phase for macroporous hydrogel with ATRP initiator-anchored surface. With the increase of HEMA-BIBB dosage, the average pore size of hydrogel increased and the specific surface area decreased. Bromine atomic percent of hydrogel reached the maximum of 1.56 % when the HEMA-BiBB dosage was 1.0 g. The corresponding heparinized hydrogel possessed the highest amount of carboxyl group (56.8 μmol per column). Interconnected macropore (1.71 μm) and high porosity (84.2 %) of heparinized hydrogel ensured an excellent permeability (2.1 × 10−13 m2). Meanwhile, grafted PGMA brushes afforded abundant epoxy groups for immobilizing high density of heparin, which endowed hydrogel with outstanding adsorption capability for EV71. Immobilized heparin ligands were competent in specific capture of EV71 by receptor-ligand interaction. Besides, enhanced hydrophilicity of heparinized hydrogel avoided the irreversible and nonspecific adsorption of proteins. As a result, heparinized hydrogel demonstrated superior adsorption selectivity and capability for EV71 (dynamic adsorption capacity: 1275 ng per column, recovery: 86.2 %). The developed heparinized PGMA-grafted macroporous hydrogel was promising to be applied in the large-scale production of EV71 for vaccine industry.

4Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst was synthesized using microwave wet impregnation for simultaneous removal of NO and elemental mercury (Hg0) from simulated flue gas. The highest removal efficiencies were achieved at 250 C for both NO (96.5%) and Hg0 (84.5%). Meantime, the effect of O2, NH3 and SO2 were investigated. The results showed that 5% O2 and 500 ppm NH3 made the removal efficiencies be the highest and after the addition of 100 ppm SO2, the removal efficiencies reduced to 40% for NO and 55% for Hg0. According to the characterization results, 4Cu-ZSM-5 had better thermal stability abundant reducing substances and richer weak acid sites for the simultaneous removal of NO and Hg0. NO formed bridging nitrates on the 4Cu-ZSM-5 surface and then combined with NH3 to form Lewis acid sites for reducing to N2. Meanwhile, Cu2+ induced Hg0 to give electrons, making it oxidized to HgO.

The assessment of nutrients delivered to aquatic ecosystems is important for water quality controls. Mainly due to the complex terrains and subsurface hydrological systems in karst regions, it is challenging to understand nutrient delivery pathways and quantify contributions of various sources to surface waterbodies in karst basins, e.g., via the use of mechanistic models. To resolve this issue, a statistical water quality model (i.e., the SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes-SPARROW model) was tested to estimate the mean annual transport, concentration, and yield of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) contributed by natural and human sources in the Wujiang River Basin (WRB) in southwest China, where the nutrient inputs and pathways have been significantly altered by anthropogenic activities. Overall, the modelling results explained about 86% of the variability in the observed mean annual NH4+-N fluxes, attesting the applicability of the SPARROW model for estimating NH4+-N transport at mean annual time scales in karst basins. Moreover, the results indicated that the anthropogenic sources (i.e., fertilizer, livestock manure, and waste water) were the main origins of NH4+-N, accounting for a total load of 66.8% in waterbodies. In addition, the leakage of NH4+-N into groundwater from the karst area was evaluated, leading to a reduction of NH4+-N delivery to surface waterbodies for about 36.9% with a range from 31.3% to 52.2% in the seven main subbasins in the WRB. The damming effect of the constructed reservoirs on the NH4+-N delivery differed noticeably with the lowest reduction rate (2.4%) in the Suofengying reservoir and the highest rate (79.1%) in the Hongfenghu reservoir. It was found that the interception efficiency of lake-type reservoirs was generally higher than that of river-type reservoirs in the WRB. The results of this study demonstrate the usefulness of the SPARROW model for evaluating nutrient transport and pathways in karst regions, which can provide critical information for better management to control nutrients in those regions.

Monolithic macroporous hydrogels was prepared from oil-in-water high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) and heparinized using polydopamine (PDA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) as mediators, and then used as a support of affinity chromatography to purify Enterovirus 71 (EV71) from culture supernatant. Our innovative strategy was characterized by two remits. (1) Interconnected macropores (1–5 μm) and high porosity (76–93%) of hydrophilic hydrogels ensured an excellent permeability (6.95 × 10−13 m2); (2) PDA/PEI composite provided abundant amino groups to immobilize heparin on macroporous hydrogels and increased the amount of carboxyl group to 46.5 μmol per column. A selective recognition of EV71 was achieved by receptor-ligand interaction between heparin and EV71. The adsorption capacity for EV71 was 986.0 ng per column and the recovery for EV71 reached a maximum of 79.9%. It was verified that these high performances were ascribed to the high density of heparin immobilized via PDA and PEI as mediators. Our innovative strategy provided a useful paradigm as a preparation method for heparin-affinity chromatographic medium for virus purification.

A novel worm-like mesoporous silica (denoted as HECMS) was prepared using the sol–gel method employing hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) as a template and sodium silicate nonahydrate as the silica source. Then, Cu and Ce doped mesoporous silica (Cu-HECMS/Ce-HECMS) were prepared using the sol–gel method in one-pot condensation. The obtained materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The BET specific surface area, pore volume and average pore size of HECMS were found to be 344.92 m2/g, 0.56 cm3/g and 5.85 nm, respectively. After the metal incorporation, the Cu-HECMS/Ce-HECMS maintained the worm-like mesoporous structure. HECMS, Cu-HECMS and Ce-HECMS were evaluated as adsorbents for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions. The isotherms and kinetics corresponded to Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively. The adsorption capacity of Ce-HECMS was found to be 349.15 mg/g, while that of Cu-HECMS was 284.60 mg/g. In comparison, the corresponding adsorption capacity of HECMS was 282.08 mg/g.

Objective This study intended to investigate the association between ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs1143623, rs12692386, rs1799983, rs2297518, rs2910164, rs3129859, rs4251961, rs4846085, rs641738, rs873457) with susceptibility and prognosis of hepatitis B related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF). Methods This is a hospital-based case-control study included 274 patients with HBV-ACLF and 534 patients with chronic hepatitis B. The patients who were successfully followed were divided into the survival group and the death group according to the clinical outcome during the hospitalization and 90 days after discharge. The ten SNPs were genotyped in all subjects by using imLDR. Genotype, allele frequency, dominant model, recessive model and codominant model were constructed to investigate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms with susceptibility and prognosis of HBV-ACLF. Results The genotype distribution of rs1143623 was statistically different between the two groups (P = 0.04), but the allele frequency was not statistically significant (P = 0.44). GC and GG + CG genotypes at rs1143623 reduced the risk of HBV-ACLF. There were only two GG and GT genotypes in rs1799983 in our study, and the genotype and allele frequency were statistically different between the death group and the survival group (P = 0.027, P = 0.023). Patients with T allele may reduce the risk of death in patients with HBV-ACLF. The genotype and allele frequency of rs2297518 showed no significant difference. In dominant models, patients with GA + AA genotypes at rs2297518 had a reduced risk of death.

Background Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome. MicroRNA (miRNA) plays an important role in immune cell activation, inflammatory cytokine release and immune response. However, the mechanism of miR-133a in sepsis remains largely unknown. Methods Sepsis mice models were established by applying the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) method. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay was performed to detect the relative expression of miR-133a and inflammatory cytokines. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa) were used to evaluate organ injury and inflammatory response. Besides, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophages were used to construct sepsis cell models. Further, dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay were carried out to confirm the relationship between miR-133a and sirtuin-1 (SIRT1). In addition, western blot (WB) assay was performed to measure the relative SIRT1 protein level. Results MiR-133a was highly expressed in sepsis patients and CLP mice models. Knockdown of miR-133a inhibited sepsis-induced lung, liver and kidney injuries and inflammatory response in CLP mice models. Besides, miR-133a inhibitor also alleviated the inflammatory response of RAW264.7 macrophages induced by LPS. SIRT1 was a target of miR-133a, and silenced SIRT1 could reverse the anti-inflammatory effect of miR-133a inhibitor on LPS-induced sepsis cell models. Conclusion MiR-133a promoted the inflammatory response of sepsis by inhibiting the expression of SIRT1, which might provide a new therapeutic strategy for sepsis.

The karst region in southwestern China is a typical region with fragile ecological environments, and the coordination of regional agricultural development and environmental protection faces enormous challenges. Based on the soil and hydrological characteristics of karst in southwestern China, this study summarized water-related environmental issues caused by agricultural activities in this karst region. Agriculture in the karst hills is more likely to cause soil and nutrient losses due to the fast hydrological flow through special karst structures with high permeability. Thus, this review emphasized the impacts of agricultural development on the riverine biogeochemical cycles of elements based on previous studies. Meanwhile, the carbon cycle is also strongly impacted by agricultural activities in this karst region due to enhanced carbonate weathering by nitric acid from the nitrification of ammonium. This weathering mechanism represents a net source of atmospheric CO2 and might impact regional and global carbon cycling in the Anthropocene. Based on the results summarized in this study, we advocate that in the future, better management of agricultural land, improvement of fertilizer use efficiency, and boosting of nutrient recycling rate should be taken into account for reducing nutrient losses and water quality deterioration. Targeted management of local agricultural practices along with guidance from scientific research results is needed to be devoted to sustainable development of agriculture and economies while protecting water environment.