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The dry matter content in buffalo milk is relatively high, and its comprehensive nutritional value, which is higher than that of ordinary milk, is considered a good source of various bioactive components. Therefore, buffalo milk and its related products are receiving increasing attention from consumers. In this paper, the contents of protein, fat, carbohydrate and other nutrients in buffalo milk and their physical and chemical properties are introduced according to the cutting-edge research results on buffalo milk nutrients and their products. Meanwhile, the preparation and related research of buffalo milk dairy products, such as cheese, cream, yogurt and ice cream are summarized. Finally, this paper provides some insights on the possibility of developing functional food based on bioactive substances in buffalo milk and reference for enterprises to develop buffalo-milk-related products.

The impact of microplastics (MPs) on plant growth, particularly root development, remains underexplored. To address this, a laboratory pot experiment and meta-analysis were conducted to assess how varying concentrations of MPs affect plant root growth. In pot experiments, the response of root traits to MPs differed by plant species. For F. arundinacea, a higher addition (1 % and 2 %) of polypropylene (PP) significantly increased the total length, surface area, volume, as well as fine root (0.5 %) of MPs significantly increased root length (35.2 %) and root dry biomass (6.3 %), whereas decreased shoot dry biomass (-8.6 %). Under the lower MPs concentration (

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus L08 (L. rhamnosus L08) to enhance the functionality, improve the taste, and explore efficient storage methods of blue honeysuckle juice (BHJ). The fermentation process resulted in an increase in the levels of polyphenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins in blue honeysuckle juice, which was attributed to the action of β-glucosidase on specific phenolic compounds, namely Cyanidin-3-Glucoside and Quinic acid. The increase in phenolic content resulted in an enhancement of the antioxidant capacity of BHJ. The fermentation processed, utilizing L. rhamnosus L08, not only enhanced the flavor and taste of BHJ, but also mitigated its bitter aftertaste while minimizing the loss of bioactive components during storage. In conclusion, this study demonstrated a potential avenue for enhancing the commercial value and dietary significance of this lesser-known superfruit, with fermented BHJ emerging as a promising innovation in the field of functional foods.

This research investigated the viability of replacing milk protein with glycosylated soybean protein isolate (SPI) treated with different enzymatic hydrolysis times (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 min) in yogurt. The results showed that enzymatic hydrolysis pretreatment combined with glycosylation for SPI exhibited elevated grafting and solubility. Additionally, the high solubility of SPI (94.77 %) at 40 min facilitates the preparation of dual-protein yogurt (DPY). Compared to ESPI0-G, DPY that incorporates ESPI40-G through partial substitution of milk protein is capable of forming a denser and more stable gel matrix. Especially, the syneresis of DPY40 was reduced by 7.61 % compared to DPY0, which more closely approximates the texture properties of traditional yogurt. Meanwhile, glycosylated SPI treated with enzymatic hydrolysis can effectively degrade the beany flavor and slightly bitter taste in DPY. This study could provide a solid theoretical basis for the broader application and industrialization of plant-based yogurt.

IntroductionArid and semi-arid regions are climate-sensitive areas, which account for about 40% of the world’s land surface area. Future environment change will impact the environment of these area, resulting in a sharp expansion of arid and semi-arid regions. Cotoneaster multiflorus is a multi-functional tree species with extreme cold, drought and barren resistance, as well as ornamental and medicinal functions. It was found to be one of the most important tree species for ecological restoration in arid and semi-arid areas. However, bioclimatic factors play an important role in the growth, development and distribution of plants. Therefore, exploring the response pattern and ecological adaptability of C. multiflorus to future climate change is important for the long-term ecological restoration of C. multiflorus in arid and semi-arid areas.MethodsIn this study, we predicted the potential distribution of C. multiflorus in China under different climate scenarios based on the MaxEnt 2.0 model, and discussed its adaptability and the major factors affecting its geographical distribution.ResultsThe major factors that explained the geographical distribution of C. multiflorus were Annual precipitation (Bio12), Min air temperature of the coldest month (Bio6), and Mean air temperature of the coldest quarter (Bio11). However, C. multiflorus could thrive in environments where Annual precipitation (Bio12) >150 mm, Min air temperature of the coldest month (Bio6) > -42.5°C, and Mean air temperature of the coldest quarter (Bio11) > -20°C, showcasing its characteristics of cold and drought tolerance. Under different future climate scenarios, the total suitable area for C. multiflorus ranged from 411.199×104 km² to 470.191×104 km², which was 0.8~6.14 percentage points higher than the current total suitable area. Additionally, it would further shift towards higher latitude.DiscussionThe MaxEnt 2.0 model predicted the potential distribution pattern of C. multiflorus in the context of future climate change, and identified its ecological adaptability and the main climatic factors affecting its distribution. This study provides an important theoretical basis for natural vegetation restoration in arid and semi-arid areas.

The primary significance of this work is that the commercial yeast proteins particles were successfully used to characterize the high internal phase Pickering emulsions (HIPPEs). The different sonication time (0,3,7,11,15 min) was used to modulate the structure and interface characteristics of yeast proteins (YPs) that as Pickering particles. Immediately afterward, the influence of YPs particles prepared at different sonication time on the rheological behavior and coalescence mechanism of HIPPEs was investigated. The results indicate that the YPs sonicated for 7 min exhibited a more relaxed molecular structures and conformation, the smallest particle size, the highest H0 and optimal amphiphilicity (the three-phase contact (θ) was 88.91°). The transition from extended to compact conformations of YPs occurred when the sonication time exceeded 7 min, resulting in an augmentation of size of YPs particles, a reduction in surface hydrophobicity (H0), and an elevation in hydrophilicity. The HIPPEs stabilized by YPs particles sonicated for 7 min exhibited the highest adsorption interface protein percentage and a more homogeneous three-dimensional (3D) protein network, resulting in the smallest droplet size and the highest storage (G′). The HIPPEs sample that stabilized by YPs particles sonicated for 15 min showed the lowest adsorption protein percentage. This caused a reduction in the thickness of its interface protein layer and an enlargement in the droplet diameter (D [3,2]). It was prone to droplet coalescence according to the equation used to evaluate the coalescence probability of droplets (Eq (2)). And the non-adsorbed YPs particles form larger aggregation structures in the continuous phase and act as “structural agents” in 3D protein network. Therefore, mechanistically, the interface protein layer formed by YPs particles sonicated 7 min contributed more to HIPPEs stability. Whereas the “structural agents” contributed more to HIPPEs stability when the sonication time exceeded 7 min. The present results shed important new light on the application of commercial YPs in the functional food fields, acting as an available and effective alternative protein.

The 1420 Al–Li alloy has been widely used in the aerospace field. To investigate the hot workability of the alloy, a series of hot compression tests were carried out on the spray-formed alloy in the temperature range of 300°C–450 °C with strain rates of 0.0001s−1-10s−1. First, an improved Johnson-Cook model was developed by considering the coupling effect of strain, strain rate, and temperature, and the prediction error of the model was reduced to 5.3 %. Subsequently, processing maps with various strains were established. In addition, the microstructural evolution under various deformation conditions was systematically studied using the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. The alloy exhibited uniform deformation under the synergistic effect of the continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) mechanisms. Finally, the feasible hot working windows were identified as 425°C–450°C and 0.01s−1-0.1s−1 based on processing maps and microstructural evolution results. This work could offer comprehensive guidance for the hot working process of 1420 Al–Li alloy from both the macro and the micro aspects.

The computational efficiency of unit commitment (UC) is important for power system operations. Traditionally the unit commitment problem is solved per hour in a day, but with the scale of the power system and the electricity market continuing to expand, the large-scale UC problem will be hard to be solved within 1 h which will affect the power system operation and market clearing. To reduce the solving time of the large-scale UC problem, an ultra-fast optimization algorithm of neural branching for unit commitment (NBUC) is proposed. NBUC learns the branch and bound (B&B) decision made by full strong branching (FSB), which can generate the perfect B&B order to minimize the iterative process but take a lot of time to decide the perfect order by using graph convolutional neural network according to the historical data, and then makes the perfect order prediction with a certain precision without spending a lot of time to make B&B decision which minimizes the solving time including the iteration time and decision time in order to solve the large-scale UC problem quickly. A modified RTS-96 bus system is used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed NBUC. The results show 9.3% and 23.2% reductions in computational time compared with commercial software CPLEX and SCIP.

Conservation and management of endangered species are crucial to reveal the restriction mechanisms of climate change on the distribution change pattern of endangered species. Due to human interference and a limited natural capacity for regeneration, the wild resources of Ormosia microphylla Merr. & H. Y. Chen have progressively dwindled. Therefore, this study reconstructed the historical migration dynamics of the geographical distribution of O. microphylla since the last interglacial period and analyzed its adaptation to climatic conditions, aiming to provide an important reference for the protection of O. microphylla. Using data from 40 distribution resources of O. microphylla and nine climate factors, an optimized MaxEnt model, in conjunction with ArcGIS 10.4.1 software, was used for predicting and visualizing the distribution ranges and the associated changes under historical, current, and future climate scenarios. This analysis was also used to determine the dominant climate factors constraining the distribution of species. The results show that contemporary suitable habitats of O. microphylla are primarily concentrated in the mountainous regions of southern China, including Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou. The precipitation of driest quarter (bio17), the temperature seasonality (bio4), the min temperature of coldest month (bio6), and the elevation (elev) were the key limiting factors in the current geographical distribution pattern of O. microphylla. In the SSP126 and SSP585 climate scenarios, the total suitable area of O. microphylla showed a downward trend. The change in the spatial pattern of O. microphylla shows that the increase area is less than the loss area under different climate scenarios in the future. Climate warming may cause fragmentation risk to the suitable area of O. microphylla. Therefore, the corresponding protection suggestions bear significant importance for the conservation and sustainable development of O. microphylla resources.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation can promote plant growth, but specific research on the difference in the symbiosis effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant combination is not yet in-depth. Therefore, this study selected Medicago sativa L., Bromus inermis Leyss, and Festuca arundinacea Schreb., which were commonly used for restoring degraded land in China to inoculate with three AMF separately, to explore the effects of different AMF inoculation on the growth performance and nutrient absorption of different plants and to provide a scientific basis for the research and development of the combination of mycorrhiza and plants. We set up four treatments with inoculation Entrophospora etunicata (EE), Funneliformis mosseae (FM), Rhizophagus intraradices (RI), and non-inoculation. The main research findings are as follows: the three AMF formed a good symbiotic relationship with the three grassland plants, with RI and FM having more significant inoculation effects on plant height, biomass, and tiller number. Compared with C, the aboveground biomass of Medicago sativa L., Bromus inermis Leyss, and Festuca arundinacea Schreb. inoculated with AMF increased by 101.30–174.29%, 51.67–74.14%, and 110.67–174.67%. AMF inoculation enhanced the plant uptake of N, P, and K, and plant P and K contents were significantly correlated with plant biomass. PLS-PM analyses of three plants all showed that AMF inoculation increased plant nutrient uptake and then increased aboveground biomass and underground biomass by increasing plant height and root tillering. This study showed that RI was a more suitable AMF for combination with grassland degradation restoration grass species and proposed the potential mechanism of AMF–plant symbiosis to increase yield.

Abstract In this study, the perovskite‐type oxide LaFeO3 is treated by electroless Ni deposition with different reaction time and the electrochemical properties of the resulting material are investigated as the anode for MH‐Ni batteries. XRD, SEM, and TEM measurements reveal a uniform deposition of crystalline nickel on the oxide surface and a clear increase in the amount of Ni coating with the deposition time. The electrochemical analysis shows that the electroless deposition can significantly improve the maximum discharge capacity of the battery. Furthermore, the coated electrodes exhibit excellent activation performance and superior cyclic stability. With the increase in the reaction temperature, improvements in the discharge ability, exchange current density, and diffusing coefficient of hydrogen are also observed.

Yak milk is a characteristic animal product of yaks in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Although yak milk production is low, it is richer in nutrients such as protein, fat, and lactose, a more comprehensive range of bioactive components, and unique microbial resources than Holstein cow milk. The plateau environment makes yak milk resistant to hypoxia, anti-fatigue, antioxidant, antibacterial, and relieves chronic diseases. In this paper, based on the systematic analysis of yak milk research results in the past 20 years using CiteSpace 6.1.R2, we reviewed yak lactation performance and nutritional efficacy of yak milk. This paper summarizes the improvement of traditional yak dairy processing technology, and also focuses on the microbial diversity of yak milk sources and their beneficial effects. The purpose of this review is to provide scientific support for the development of a quality yak milk industry on the Tibetan plateau.

Soil stoichiometric characteristics and aggregate stability are affected by vegetation restoration in degraded land. Yet, it is not known that how the aggregate stability is related to soil stoichiometric characteristics under different vegetation restorations. A 5-year in situ experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of vegetation restoration on the composition, stability and stoichiometric properties of soil aggregates. In the northwest part of Beijing, Bromus inermis Leyss. and Medicago sativa L. were planted in a typical area of desertification, and natural restoration was used as control. Boosted regression trees (BRTs) were applied to partition the factors that control aggregate stability. The results showed that the mean weight diameter (MWD) of soil water-stable aggregates under natural restoration (CK) and Medicago sativa L. sowing treatments (AF) was significantly higher than that under the restoration of the Bromus inermis Leyss. sowing treatments (SB). Compared with CK, AF significantly increased the geometric mean diameter (GMD) water stable aggregates, while SB showed the opposite result. AF significantly increased the proportion of soil aggregates >2 mm compared with CK. AF could improve the stability of soil aggregates by increasing the proportion of large aggregates. For the stoichiometric characteristics of the aggregates, AF increased significantly the value of C/P in 0.053−0.125 mm particle size aggregates in all soil layers. The MBC/MBN ratio aggregates at depths of 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm was also significantly increased in the treatment of AF. The BRTs indicated that stoichiometric ratio is the main factor driving the stability of soil aggregates rather than microbial community characteristics and soil nutrients. The C/P is the main driving factor affecting the MWD, in which the overall stoichiometric influence accounts for 46%, followed by the microbial influence of 36%. For the GMD, MBC/MBN is the main driving factor, and the stoichiometric influence accounts for 94%. Our findings indicate that AF is beneficial to the stability of deep soil aggregates, and their stoichiometric characteristics of soil are the key factors affecting the stability of soil aggregates.

Abstract Background Predicting the potential habitat of Phytolacca americana, a high-risk invasive species, can help provide a scientific basis for its quarantine and control strategies. Using the optimized MaxEnt model, we applied the latest climate data, CMIP6, to predict the distribution of potential risk zones and their change patterns for P. americana under current and future (SSP126, SSP245, SSP585) climate conditions, followed by invasion potential analysis. Results The predictions of MaxEnt model based on R language optimization were highly accurate. A significantly high area of 0.8703 was observed for working characteristic curve (AUC value) of subject and the kappa value was 0.8074. Under the current climate conditions, the risk zones for P. americana were mainly distributed in Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi provinces. The contribution rate of each climatic factor of P. americana was calculated using the jackknife test. The four factors with the highest contribution rate included minimum temperature of coldest month (bio6, 51.4%), the monthly mean diurnal temperature difference (bio2, 27.9%), precipitation of the driest quarter (bio17, 4.9%), and the warmest seasonal precipitation (bio12, 4.3%). Conclusion Under future climatic conditions, the change in the habitat pattern of P. americana generally showed a migration toward the Yangtze River Delta region and the southeastern coastal region of China. This migration exhibited an expansion trend, highlighting the strong future invasiveness of the species. Based on the predictions, targeted prevention and control strategies for areas with significant changes in P. americana were developed. Therefore, this study emphasizes the need of an integrated approach to effectively prevent the further spread of invasive plants.

To improve the stability and oral absorption effect of salidroside, W/O/W multiple emulsion was prepared with salidroside as the internal aqueous phase and rapeseed oil containing polyglycerol polyricinoleate as the oil phase, and dextran, chitosan and soybean polysaccharide mixed casein as the external aqueous phase. The effects of three polysaccharides with different concentrations on the microstructure, particle size, potential, storage stability, surface hydrophobicity, emulsifying property, embedding rate, drug loading, and in vitro digestion of multiple emulsions were studied. The results showed that compared with the casein control group, chitosan-casein group, and soybean polysaccharide-casein group, dextran-casein W/O/W multiple emulsion had the best stability. A high concentration of dextran could significantly improve the storage stability of dextran-casein multiple emulsions. When the addition of dextran was 1.2%, the average particle size of the multiple emulsions was the smallest, up to 623.03±5.21 nm (P

ABSTRACT: Yogurt, a traditional fermented dairy product, is made with a starter that contains Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different concentrations of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG; 0, 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mg/mL) on the growth, metabolism, and acid production of lactic acid bacteria, as well as the texture, stability, and antioxidant activity of fermented milk (yogurt). The results showed that a low concentration of EGCG had no significant effect on the acid production capacity of the starter or on the water-holding capacity of the yogurt but did increase its viscosity. A high concentration (5.0 mg/mL) of EGCG delayed the acid production rate of the starter and decreased the water-holding capacity, but significantly increased the antioxidant activity of yogurt. The addition of EGCG significantly increased the hardness of yogurt. Therefore, EGCG can improve the texture of fermented milk and enhance its antioxidant activity and stability, thus improving the overall quality of yogurt.

Mg80Ni16−xAlxY4 (x = 2, 4, 8) alloys were prepared by induction levitation melting, and the effect of substitution of Al for Ni on the microstructure and hydrogen storage properties was studied in the present work. The results illustrated that the solidification path, phase constitution, and grain size were significantly altered by Al addition. Appropriate Al addition improved abundance and grain refinement of the Mg, Mg2Ni, and Mg15NiY ternary eutectic. But as Al further increased, Mg solidified independently rather than in the formation of the ternary eutectic. More Al favored the formation of Al3Ni2Y but suppressed Mg2Ni and YMgNi4. Although the hydrogen absorption activation and the kinetic property deteriorated, the thermodynamic stability of hydrides was enhanced by adding Al. Hydrogen absorption ability under low pressure was improved, and the Mg80Ni8Al8Y4 alloy could absorb nearly 3.5 wt% hydrogen under 1 bar hydrogen at 250 °C.

Shaniodendron subeaqualis is a tertiary relict plant unique to China. This species has high greening, ecological, and scientific research value, and has been listed as a national I-level key protected plant. Clarifying the main climatic factors restricting the geographical distribution of S. subeaqualis and predicting the potential geographical distribution pattern of this species can provide a scientific basis for the protection of the germplasm resources of this rare species. Based on 104 S. subeaqualis natural distribution records and 9 climate factors, the MaxEnt software was used to predict the potential suitable areas of S. subeaqualis in different periods (LGM, MH, Current, SSP245-2050s, SSP245-2090s, SSP585-2050s, SSP585-2090s). The results showed that the contemporary AUC predicted by MaxEnt is 0.996, with high simulation accuracy; Precipitation in the driest season (Bio17), the average temperature in the coldest season (Bio11) are main factors affecting the distribution of S. subeaqualis. At present, the suitable area of S. subeaqualis is mainly distributed in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang province, with a total area of 11.575 × 104 km2, of which the high suitable area is 1.424 × 104 km2 and the medium suitable area is 3.826 × 104 km2. In the LGM, the area of S. subeaqualis was roughly similar to that of the contemporary period, but there was a southward migration phenomenon in some areas, such as the suitable area in the south of Zhejiang. In order to avoid the influence of ice age, S. subeaqualis moved to nearby refuge places, such as Dabie Mountain area of Anhui province, the west of Tianmu Mountain area of Zhejiang province and mountain area of Jiangsu province. In the MH, the suitable area for S. subeaqualis was reduced and moved northward to a small extent. In the future period, the suitable range of S. subeaqualis will not change greatly, but the overall degree of fragmentation will intensify. If effective measures are not taken, it is bound to bring severe challenges to the survival of S. subeaqualis. In order to protect S. subeaqualis germplasm resources more effectively, it is suggested to dynamically monitor the existing S. subeaqualis population and take various measures actively to reduce the negative effects of climate change on S. subeaqualis.

Objectives: Tirzepatide, a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist, delivered superior glycemic control and weight loss compared to selective GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonism in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). These results have fueled mechanistic studies focused on understanding how tirzepatide achieves its therapeutic efficacy. Recently, we found that treatment with tirzepatide improves insulin sensitivity in humans with T2D and obese mice in concert with a reduction in circulating levels of branched-chain amino (BCAAs) and keto (BCKAs) acids, metabolites associated with development of systemic insulin resistance (IR) and T2D. Importantly, these systemic effects were found to be coupled to increased expression of BCAA catabolic genes in thermogenic brown adipose tissue (BAT) in mice. These findings led us to hypothesize that tirzepatide may lower circulating BCAAs/BCKAs by promoting their catabolism in BAT. Methods: To address this question, we utilized a murine model of diet-induced obesity and employed stable-isotope tracer studies in combination with metabolomic analyses in BAT and other tissues. Results: Treatment with tirzepatide stimulated catabolism of BCAAs/BCKAs in BAT, as demonstrated by increased labeling of BCKA-derived metabolites, and increases in levels of byproducts of BCAA breakdown, including glutamate, alanine, and 3-hydroxyisobutyric acid (3-HIB). Further, chronic administration of tirzepatide increased levels of multiple amino acids in BAT that have previously been shown to be elevated in response to cold exposure. Finally, chronic treatment with tirzepatide led to a substantial increase in several TCA cycle intermediates (α-ketoglutarate, fumarate, and malate) in BAT. Conclusions: These findings suggest that tirzepatide induces a thermogenic-like amino acid profile in BAT, an effect that may account for reduced systemic levels of BCAAs in obese IR mice.

Most disposable plastic products are degraded slowly in the natural environment and continually turned to microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), posing additional environmental hazards. The toxicological assessment of MPs for marine organisms and mammals has been reported. Thus, there is an urgent need to be aware of the harm of MPs to the human immune system and more studies about immunological assessments. This review focuses on how MPs are produced and how they may interact with the environment and our body, particularly their immune responses and immunotoxicity. MPs can be taken up by cells, thus disrupting the intracellular signaling pathways, altering the immune homeostasis and finally causing damage to tissues and organs. The generation of reactive oxygen species is the mainly toxicological mechanisms after MP exposure, which may further induce the production of danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and associate with the processes of toll-like receptors (TLRs) disruption, cytokine production, and inflammatory responses in immune cells. MPs effectively interact with cell membranes or intracellular proteins to form a protein-corona, and combine with external pollutants, chemicals, and pathogens to induce greater toxicity and strong adverse effects. A comprehensive research on the immunotoxicity effects and mechanisms of MPs, including various chemical compositions, shapes, sizes, combined exposure and concentrations, is worth to be studied. Therefore, it is urgently needed to further elucidate the immunological hazards and risks of humans that exposed to MPs.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have become a hot topic in the field of maternal and infant nutrition and health research, and are also widely used as innovative functional ingredients in infant formulas, but their complex structure makes its isolation and analysis difficult. This paper presents a simple method for the extraction and analysis of HMOs. The effect of the presence of lactose on the determination of HMO content was investigated by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Human milk is dynamically enriched with oligosaccharides using graphite carbon pipes to reduce the interference of lactose with the assay. It was found that the mass concentrations of HMOs obtained after removing more than 90% of lactose were more accurate. 2’-Fucosyllactose (2’-FL) and 3-fucosyllactose (3-FL) were linear in the range of 1.50–100.00 μg/mL (R2 > 0.997), and the remaining eight HMOs were linear in the range of 0.75–50.00 μg/mL (R2 > 0.995). Precision (relative standard deviation (RSD)) values for each HMO detection result ranged from 1.47% to 5.26%. Accuracy is from 98.74% to 102.26%. This analytical technique is a sensitive, precise, and accurate quantitative method for the quantification of ten HMOs in human milk. This method can provide accurate and reliable quantification of the oligosaccharide content of human milk, providing a reference for determining the specific functions performed by HMOs and at what concentrations they function, as well as for studying the effects of different HMO components and concentrations in human milk on infants.

Equol is the most potent soy isoflavone metabolite and is produced by specific intestinal microorganisms of mammals. It has promising application possibilities for preventing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and prostate cancer due to its high antioxidant activity and hormone-like activity. Thus, it is of great significance to systematically study the efficient preparation method of equol and its functional activity. This paper elaborates on the metabolic mechanism of equol in humans; focuses on the biological characteristics, synthesis methods, and the currently isolated equol-producing bacteria; and looks forward to its future development and application direction, aiming to provide guidance for the application and promotion of equol in the field of food and health products.

5-Nitro-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (NTO) is a representative and insensitive energetic compound mainly used as a component of low vulnerable ammunition, but its decomposition process is not clear up to date. Herein, online photoionization mass spectrometry combined with theoretical simulations was employed to shed light on the thermal decomposition mechanism of NTO. The experimental and calculated results provide evidences for the thermal decomposition of NTO through direct ring rupture and intermolecular hydrogen transfer pathways. The initial decomposition step of NTO single molecule is direct ring rupture, followed by NO2 removal. The remaining structure undergoes C-N bond cleavage leading to HN2 dissociation, the CONCH finally decomposes into CO and HCN. The major products of NTO decomposition include N2, CO2, H2N2, NH3, and the minor products are HN2, H3N3, H2O, which is basically consistent with experiments. The formation mechanism of decomposition products is also discussed in detail and the total decomposition pathways are constructed.

As the use of clean energy such as wind power and nuclear power has been increasing, the base load operation of nuclear power units usually means huge pressure for local power systems in regulating peak demand. In order to use more regulation resources, a multi-area joint optimization model involving peak regulating of nuclear power is proposed. Match performance of peak load regulating of wind power and nuclear power is also examined according to their output characteristics. Furthermore, aiming to make nuclear power constraint linearize, a method is introduced herein to subdivide the depth of peak load regulating of nuclear power. On the other hand, considering the power constraints of AC/DC transmission channel, wind curtailment cost and the operating cost of peak load regulating of nuclear power, a joint scheduling model with complementary energy sources in multi-area is established, which can effectively reduce the adverse impact of negative peak regulating of wind power and enhance consumption of clean energy. Finally, China’s inter-regional interconnected power system is introduced to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Menaquinone-7 (MK-7) is an important vitamin K2, synthesized from the menaquinone parent ring and seven isoprene side chains. Presently, the synthesis of MK-7 stimulated by environmental stress primarily focuses on oxygen stress, while the effect of alkali stress is rarely studied. Therefore, this study researched the effects of alkali stress on the fermentation performance and gene expression of Bacillus subtilis natto. The organism’s growth characteristics, biomass, sporogenesis, MK-7 biosynthesis, and gene expression were analyzed. After a pH 8.5 stress adaptation treatment for 0.5 h and subsequent fermentation at pH 8.5, which promoted the growth of the strain and inhibited the spore formation rate. In addition, biomass was significantly increased (P < 0.05). The conversion rate of glycerol to MK-7 was 1.68 times higher than that of the control group, and the yield of MK-7 increased to 2.10 times. Transcriptomic analysis showed that the MK-7 high-yielding strain had enhanced carbon source utilization, increased glycerol and pyruvate metabolism, enhanced the Embden-Meyerhof pathway (EMP), tricarboxylic acid (TCA) circulation flux, and terpenoid biosynthesis pathway, and promoted the accumulation of acetyl-CoA, the side-chain precursor of isoprene. At the same time, the up-regulation of transketolase increased the metabolic flux of the pentose phosphate (HMP) pathway, which was conducive to the accumulation of D-erythrose 4-phosphate, the precursor of the menadione parent ring. This study’s results contribute to a better understanding of the effects of environmental stress on MK-7 fermentation by Bacillus subtilis natto and the molecular regulatory mechanism of MK-7 biosynthesis.

Most plants are sensitive to salt-alkali stress, and the degree of tolerance to salt-alkali stress varies from different species and varieties. In order to explore the salt-alkali stress adaptability of Brassica napus, we collected the phenotypic data of 505 B. napus accessions at seedling and mature stages under control, low and high salt-alkali soil stress conditions in Inner Mongolia of China. Six resistant and 5 sensitive materials, respectively, have been identified both in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 15 absolute values and 10 tolerance coefficients (TCs) of growth and agronomic traits were applied to investigate the genetic basis of salt-alkali tolerance of B. napus. We finally mapped 9 significant QTLs related to salt-alkali stress response and predicted 20 candidate genes related to salt-alkali stress tolerance. Some important candidate genes, including BnABA4, BnBBX14, BnVTI12, BnPYL8, and BnCRR1, were identified by combining sequence variation annotation and expression differences. The identified valuable loci and germplasms could be useful for breeding salt-alkali-tolerant B.napus varieties. This study laid a foundation for understanding molecular mechanism of salt-alkali stress adaptation and provides rich genetic resources for the large-scale production of B. napus on salt-alkali land in the future.

Abstract Background Aerobic growth provides benefits in biomass yield and stress tolerance of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (L. bulgaricus). Catabolite control protein A (CcpA) is a master regulator involved in the aerobic and anaerobic growth, metabolic production and stress response in L. bulgaricus, but its potential molecular mechanisms remains unclear. The aim of this study is to elucidate the role of CcpA in L. bulgaricus in aerobic growth at the proteomic perspective. Results The differential proteomic analysis was performed on the L. bulgaricus ATCC11842 and its ccpA inactivated mutant strain using iTRAQ technology. A total of 132 differentially expressed proteins were obtained, among which 58 were up-regulated and 74 were down-regulated. These proteins were mainly involved in the cellular stress response, carbohydrate and energy metabolism, amino acid transport and protein synthesis, genetic information processing. Moreover, inactivation of ccpA negatively affected the expression of key enzymes involved in glycolysis pathway, while it enhanced the expression of proteins related to the pyruvate pathway, supporting the conclusion that CcpA mediated the shift from homolactic fermentation to mixed acid fermentation in L. bulgaricus. Conclusions Overall, these results showed that the role of CcpA in L. bulgaricus as a pleiotropic regulator in aerobic metabolism and stress response. This proteomic analysis also provide new insights into the CcpA-mediated regulatory network of L. bulgaricus and potential strategies to improve the production of starter and probiotic cultures based on the metabolic engineering of global regulators.

Most crops are sensitive to salt stress, but their degree of susceptibility varies among species and cultivars. In order to understand the salt stress adaptability of Brassica napus to salt stress, we collected the phenotypic data of 505 B. napus accessions at the germination stage under 150 or 215 mM sodium chloride (NaCl) and at the seedling stage under 215 mM NaCl. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 16 salt tolerance coefficients (STCs) were applied to investigate the genetic basis of salt stress tolerance of B. napus. In this study, we mapped 31 salts stress-related QTLs and identified 177 and 228 candidate genes related to salt stress tolerance were detected at germination and seedling stages, respectively. Overexpression of two candidate genes, BnCKX5 and BnERF3 overexpression, were found to increase the sensitivity to salt and mannitol stresses at the germination stage. This study demonstrated that it is a feasible method to dissect the genetic basis of salt stress tolerance at germination and seedling stages in B. napus by GWAS, which provides valuable loci for improving the salt stress tolerance of B. napus. Moreover, these candidate genes are rich genetic resources for the following exploration of molecular mechanisms in adaptation to salt stress in B. napus.

Hesitant fuzzy evaluation strategy related to the interval-valued membership and nonmembership degrees should be an appropriate choice due to the lack of experience, ability and knowledge of some decision experts. In addition, it is important to reasonably model the interrelationship of these experts. In this work, firstly, the generalized interval-valued q-rung orthopair hesitant fuzzy sets (GIVqROHFSs) are defined, and some operational rules with respect to GIVqROF numbers are discussed. Secondly, two types of operators, which are denoted as GIVqROHFCA and GIVqROHFCGM, are developed. Thirdly, the desired properties and relationships of two operators are studied. Furthermore, a new multiple attributes group decision making (MAGDM) approach is proposed. Finally, three experiments are completed to illustrate the rationality of the developed method and the monotonicity of this approach concerning the parameter in the GIVqROHFCGM operator and the GIVqROHFCA operator which meets symmetrical characteristics, and shows the superiority and reliability of this new method in solving the GIVqROHF problems. The main advantages of this work include three points: (1) extending hesitant fuzzy sets to the interval-valued q-rung orthopair fuzzy case and proposing two types of aggregation operators for the GIVqROHF information; (2) considering the interaction among decision makers and among attributes in decision problems, and dealing with this interrelationship by fuzzy measure; (3) introducing the new decision method for the GIVqROHF environment and enriching the mathematical tools to solve multiple attributes decision-making problems.

The outstanding self-regulation ability of mixed forest plays an important role in maintaining ecosystem stability. However, in recent years, climate change has caused geographical changes of species. This paper studies the potential geographical location of mixed species for the first time, so as to formulate the planting plan of mixed species in suitable areas. Therefore, we use the species distribution model based on Maxent to predict the potential suitable area of Chinese Pinus tabuliformis and Ostryopsis davidiana mixed forest under the climate change scenario, and provide a scientific basis for expanding the construction of P. tabuliformis and O. davidiana mixed forest in the future under three greenhouse gas emission scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) of current and future climate (2041–2060 and 2081–2100). The simulation accuracy of Maxent model is verified by the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC ). The results show that the distribution range of P. tabuliformis is much larger than that of O. davidiana in China. Under the current climate conditions, the overlapping area of medium to highly suitable growing areas of P. tabuliformis and O. davidiana is 64.40 × 104 km2, accounting for 6.71% of China's land area, mainly distributed in most areas of North China, Northeast China (Western Liaoning), Northwest China (Shaanxi, Ningxia, the Southernmost part of Inner Mongolia and Eastern Gansu) and Central China (Northern Hubei). Under the future high concentration emission scenario (RCP8.5), the overlapping area of medium to highly suitable growing areas of P. tabuliformis and O. davidiana will be reduced. Under the scenario of medium concentration climate emission (RCP 4.5), the centroids of P. tabuliformis and O. davidiana tend to migrate from west to north. The annual mean temperature (bio1) has a significant effect on the geographical distribution of P. tabuliformis and O. davidiana. In addition, the mean temperature of the driest quarter (bio9) and annual precipitation (bio12) also have a significant impact on the geographical distribution of P. tabuliformis. Similarly, there are obvious factors on the geographical distribution of O. davidiana, as well as isothermality (bio3) and precipitation of the wettest quarter (bio16), indicating that the important climate factors affecting the geographical distribution of P. tabuliformis and O. davidiana are not completely consistent. We believe that mixed forests play a positive role in coping with climate change. The research results can help decision-makers to formulate adaptation countermeasures based on climate change.

Direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) has attracted wide attention due to its wide range of fuel sources, cleanliness, and high efficiency. However, the problems of low catalytic efficiency and poor catalyst stability still exist in DEFC catalysts, which restrict its rapid development. With chloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6·6H2O) as the precursor, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) plays the role of surfactant, stabilizer, and reducing agent in the experiment. Glycine is the surface control agent and co-reducing agent. Pt high-index facets nanocatalyst was prepared with the one-pot hydrothermal method by adjusting the amount of PVP and glycine. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to characterize the micro-structure of the nanocatalyst, and the influence of PVP and glycine on the synthesis of high-index facets catalyst was studied. The electrocatalytic performance of the catalyst was tested with an electrochemical workstation, and it was found that the performance of the prepared catalyst was better than that of the commercial catalyst. When the mass ratio of PVP and Pt was 50:1 and the molar ratio of glycine and Pt was 24:1, Pt nanocatalysts with {310}, {520} and {830} high exponential facets were prepared. The electrochemical test results showed that the peak current density of ethanol oxidation was 2.194 m2/g, and the steady-state current density was 0.241 mA/cm2, which was 5.7 times higher than that of commercial catalyst. The results of this paper show that due to the defects such as steps and kinks on the surface of the high-index facets, the active sites are increased, thus showing excellent electrocatalytic performance. This study provides a theoretical basis for the development and commercial application of high index facets nanocatalysts.

Revegetation with herbaceous plants has been effective in neutralizing land degradation; however, there is limited understanding about the water use characteristics and influences on soil water dynamics of revegetated species for ecological restoration. Hence, the stable isotopic composition of xylem water, soil water and groundwater was measured to investigate the water uptake patterns of Bromus inermis and Medicago sativa in the semi-arid agro-pasture ecotone in North China. Based on hierarchical clustering analysis of soil volumetric water content (SWC), soil was classified into four layers (0–5 cm, 5–10 cm, 10–20 cm and 20–30 cm) as different water sources. The main sources for Bromus inermis were from 20–30 cm (27.0%) and groundwater (24.2%) in May, to 0–5 cm (33.9%) and 5–10 cm (26.8%) in June, became groundwater (54.7%) in July, and then to 10–20 cm and 20–30 cm in August (23.2% and 20.6%) and September (35.1% and 32.1%). Medicago sativa were from groundwater (52.9%) and 20–30 cm (32.4%) in May, to 0–5 cm in June (61.0%), July (39.9%), August (47.6%), and then to 5–10 cm (77.8%) in September. Regression analysis showed a negative relationship between SWC and contribution of water uptake (CWU) (CWU = −2.284 × SWC + 60.833), when the difference in water isotopes was small among soil layers. Finally, the two grassland types showed distinct soil water dynamics shaped by species-specific water use strategies and associated soil pore properties. These results indicate that water use characteristics are species specific and a species combination with less water competition is recommended for sustainable revegetation of degraded land.

Current immuno-oncotherapeutic protocols that inhibit tumor immune evasion have demonstrated great clinical success. However, the therapeutic response is limited only to a percentage of patients, and the immune-related adverse events can compromise the therapeutic benefits. Therefore, improving cancer immunotherapeutic approaches that pursue high tumor suppression efficiency and low side effects turn out to be a clinical priority. Novel magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) exhibit great potential for therapeutic and imaging applications by utilizing their properties of superparamagnetism, good biocompatibility, as well as the easy synthesis and modulation/functionalization. In particular, the MNPs can exert magnetic hyperthermia to induce immunogenic cell death of tumor cells for effective antigen release and presentation, and meanwhile polarize tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) to M1 phenotype for improved tumor killing capability, thus enhancing the anti-tumor immune effects. Furthermore, immune checkpoint antibodies, immune-stimulating agents, or tumor-targeting agents can be decorated on MNPs, thereby improving their selectivity for the tumor or immune cells by the unique magnetic navigation capability of MNPs to promote the tumor killing immune therapeutics with fewer side effects. This mini-review summarizes the recent progress in MNP-based immuno-oncotherapies, including activation of macrophage, promotion of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) infiltration within tumors and modulation of immune checkpoint blockade, thus further supporting the applications of MNPs in clinical therapeutic protocols.

Different vegetation restoration methods may affect the soil’s physicochemical properties and microbial communities. However, it is not known how the microbial network’s complexity of the bacterial and fungal communities respond to short-term vegetation restoration. We conducted a short-term ecological restoration experiment to reveal the response of the soil’s microbial community and microbial network’s stability to initial vegetation restoration during the restoration of the degraded grassland ecosystem. The two restoration methods (sowing alfalfa (Medicago sativa, AF) and smooth brome (Bromus inermis, SB)) had no significant effect on the alpha diversity of the fungal community, but the SB significantly increased the alpha diversity of the soil surface bacterial community (p < 0.01). The results of NMDS showed that the soil’s fungal and bacterial communities were altered by a short-term vegetation restoration, and they showed that the available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), and nitrate nitrogen (nitrate-N) were closely related to changes in bacterial and fungal communities. Moreover, a short-term vegetation restoration significantly increased the complexity and stability of fungi ecological networks, but the opposite was the case with the bacteria. Our findings confirm that ecological restoration by sowing may be favorable to the amelioration of soil fungi complexity and stability in the short-term. Such findings may have important implications for soil microbial processes in vegetation recovery.

Salix matsudana is an important tree species for shelterbelt and barren hill afforestation in North China. Knowledge of the seasonal pattern of the stem radial growth (SRG) of S. matsudana and its response to environmental factors is crucial for understanding the tree growth and climate relationships in the increasingly warm and dry climate of North China. To this end, a field trial was conducted in a semi-arid area of North China, and the stem radial dynamics of eight sample trees at two sites (four trees per site) with different soil moisture regimes, as well as the meteorological and edaphic conditions, were monitored from May to October in 2016 and 2019. During the growing season, the daily mean air temperature was 1.69 °C higher in 2019 than in 2016, and the total precipitation was 179.2 mm lower in 2019 than in 2016. The results showed that the seasonal pattern of S. matsudana SRG was divided into the initial stage (stage 1), the rapid growth stage (stage 2), and ending stage (stage 3) in terms of the threshold of 0.02 mm day−1 (daily growth rate). The initiation of stage 2 in 2019 (day of year (DOY) 126) was 48 days earlier than that in 2016 (DOY 174). However, the date on which the maximum growth rate was reached occurred also 34 days earlier, indicating the co-occurrence of the positive effect of the higher temperature in 2019 than in 2016 on growth initiation in stage 1 as well as the negative consequences of the water deficit on tree growth in stage 2. Higher cumulative growth of S. matsudana at the high soil moisture site was monitored relative to the low soil moisture site throughout the trial, which could be attributed to differences in soil moisture and the initial stem size of the trees in 2016 and 2019, respectively. Temperature and soil moisture were the main factors restricting daily SRG, but the growth of S. matsudana subjected to prolonged summer water stress would be less significantly limited by soil moisture in stage 3. These results showed that the seasonal pattern of SRG of S. matsudana was closely related to the dynamics of the soil and climatic factors. Therefore, seasonal variation in growth-limiting factors should be considered when forecasting tree growth in response to climate change in North China.

In recent decades, the hesitant fuzzy set theory has been used as a main tool to describe the hesitant fuzzy phenomenon, which usually exists in multiple attributes of decision making. However, in the general case concerning numerous decision-making problems, values of attributes are real numbers, and some decision makers are hesitant about these values. Consequently, the possibility of taking a number contains several possible values in the real number interval [0, 1]. As a result, the hesitant possibility of hesitant fuzzy events cannot be inferred from the given hesitant fuzzy set which only presents the hesitant membership degree with respect to an element belonging to this one. To address this problem, this paper explores the axiomatic system of the hesitant possibility measure from which the hesitant fuzzy theory is constructed. Firstly, a hesitant possibility measure from the pattern space to the power set of [0, 1] is defined, and some properties of this measure are discussed. Secondly, a hesitant fuzzy variable, which is a symmetric set-valued function on the hesitant possibility measure space, is proposed, and the distribution of this variable and one of its functions are studied. Finally, two examples are shown in order to explain the practical applications of the hesitant fuzzy variable in the hesitant fuzzy graph model and decision-making considering hesitant fuzzy attributes. The relevant research results of this paper provide an important mathematical tool for hesitant fuzzy information processing from another new angle different from the theory of hesitant fuzzy sets, and can be utilized to solve decision problems in light of the hesitant fuzzy value of multiple attributes.

Twenty-one ionic ferrocenyl ammonium (1–17) and 1,2,4-triazolium (18–21) compounds derived from 5,5′-bis(1-hydroxytetrazole) were synthesized and characterized by NMR, FT-IR, UV − Vis and elemental analysis, aiming at improving anti-migration ability of neutral ferrocene-based burning rate catalysts and reducing sensitivity of the ionic ferrocenyl compounds containing picrate anions. Six new compounds were additionally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The characterization results showed that, by ion-exchange reactions, 1–10, 12, 15 and 17 are the anticipated compounds in their molecular structures, compounds 11, 13 and 16 were formed by C-N bond cleavage of the dinuclear ferrocenyl cation units and 18–21 were obtained by protonation of the divalent 5,5′-bis(1-hydroxytetrazolate) anion at one oxygen atom. Thermal gravimetry and anti-migration test indicated that the new compounds are highly thermally stable and show low volatility and low migration tendency. Cyclic voltammetry studies suggested that most of the novel salts are irreversible redox systems. The sensitivity tests towards impact revealed that compounds 1–17 are insensitive compounds. The catalytic tests implied that all compounds exhibit great effects on the thermal degradation of ammonium perchlorate and 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane. Compounds 13–15 can be used as potential alternatives to catocene in the composite solid propellants.

Glyptostrobus pensilis is a critically endangered living fossil plant species of the Mesozoic era, with high scientific research and economic value. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of climate change on the potential habitat area of G. pensilis in East Asia. The MaxEnt (maximum entropy) model optimized by the ENMeval data package was used to simulate the potential distribution habitats of G. pensilis since the last interglacial period (LIG, 120–140 ka). The results showed that the optimized MaxEnt model has a high prediction accuracy with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.9843 ± 0.005. The Current highly suitable habitats were found in the Northeast Jiangxi, Eastern Fujian and Eastern Guangdong; the main climatic factors affecting the geographic distribution of G. pensilis are temperature and precipitation, with precipitation as the temperature factor. The minimum temperature of coldest month (Bio6) may be the key factor restricting the northward distribution of G. pensilis; during the LIG, it contracted greatly in the highly suitable habitat area. Mean Diurnal Range (Bio2), Minimum Temperature of Coldest Month (Bio6), Annual Precipitation (Bio12) and Mean Temperature of Driest Quarter (Bio9) may be important climatic factors causing the changes in geographic distribution. In the next four periods, the suitable areas all migrated southward. Except for the RCP2.6-2070s, the highly suitable areas in the other three periods showed varying degrees of shrinkage. The results will provide a theoretical basis for the management and resource protection of G. pensilis.

1,3-Dioleoyl-2-palmitoylglycerol (OPO) is used widely as a food additive. However, the structured lipid is sensitive to oxygen and light in the production process. This results in the loss of its original nutrition and production of harmful substances. In this study, the OPO was microencapsulated using whey protein isolate and maltodextrin as the wall material and monostearin as an emulsifier by spray-drying technology added to the infant formula milk, in order to improve its oxidative stability. The OPO microcapsules were released in vitro through the simulated gastrointestinal tract; sensory evaluation of microencapsulated OPO in infant formula powder and nutrition absorption of microencapsulated OPO in infant formula power by animal experiments were investigated. The results showed that OPO microcapsules have a slow-release effect; after 2 h of simulated gastric fluid digestion, only 16.1 ± 3.2% of the oil was released from microencapsulated OPO, and after another 2 h of simulated intestinal fluid digestion, there was 92.3 ± 2.8% of oil released from the microencapsulated OPO. The infant formula with microencapsulated OPO has a uniform colour and no odour. The quality of infant formula with microencapsulated OPO was obviously better than infant formula with OPO by storage test. Everted mice gut sac experiments confirmed that microencapsulation did not affect absorption of mice to OPO in infant formula and prevented the loss of calcium. The study confirmed that addition of microencapsulated OPO makes infant formula more efficient for product quality and nutrition absorption.

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled âOut-of-home activities, daily travel, and SWBâ (Ettema et al., 2010) [1]. The paper provides an online survey questionnaire and data about the public subjective well-being of high occupancy vehicle lanes in China. The survey data are made publicly available to extended analysis.

Cyclophosphamide (CTX), a clinically important antineoplastic drug, also leads to some side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in the consumer. In this study, Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) KLDS1.0318 preserved in our laboratory was orally administered to CTX-treated mice to explore its potential effects to attenuate the toxic effects of CTX-induced by modulating intestinal immune response, promoting intestinal integrity and improving metabolic profile. BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six groups including normal control group (NC; non-CTX with sterile saline), model control group (MC; CTX-treated with sterile saline), CTX-treated with L. plantarum KLDS1.0318 (10 mL/kg) groups with three different doses (KLDS1.0318-L, 5 × 107 CFU/mL; KLDS1.0318-M, 5 × 108 CFU/mL; KLDS1.0318-H, 5 × 109 CFU/mL), and CTX-treated with levamisole hydrochloride (40 mg/kg) as a positive control (PC) group. After receiving the bacterium for 20 days, samples of small intestine and colonic contents were collected for different analyses. The results revealed that the levels of cytokines secreted by Th1 cells (IL-2, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) and Th2 cells (IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10) in probiotic treatment groups were significantly higher than those in the MC group. Histopathological results showed that L. plantarum KLDS1.0318 favorably recovered CTX-induced abnormal intestinal morphology by improving the villus height and crypt depth as well as quantity of goblet cells and mucins production. Compared to CTX alone-treated group, the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were significantly increased and the levels of pH and ammonia were decreased significantly with high dose L. plantarum KLDS1.0318 supplementation. Compared with mice in CTX alone-treated group, mice in three groups of KLDS1.0318 had increased Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus and decreased Escherichia and Enterococcus in their cecal content. The present findings suggested that L. plantarum KLDS1.0318 could be of significant advantage to mitigate the harmful effects of CTX and improve the intestinal health in mice.

In Android systems, sensitive information associated with system permission is exposed to the application completely once it gains the permission. To solve this problem, this article presents a fine-grained access control framework for sensitive information based on eXtensible Access Control Markup Language data flow model. In this framework, a user can define access policies for each application and resource and the application’s access request to sensitive information is evaluated by these policies. Therefore, all access requests must comply with the security policy irrespective of whether they have gained the permission associated with the information. This helps to protect sensitive data outside the Android permission mechanism. In order to facilitate users to manage policies, the proposed framework implements automatic policy generation and policy conflict detection functions. The framework is implemented in TaintDroid and experiments indicate that the improvement is effective in achieving fine-grained access control to sensitive information and does not adversely affect the system overhead costs.

The battery energy storage system (BESS) is regarded as one of the most promising address operational challenges caused by distributed generations. This paper proposes a novel multi-stage sizing model for utility-scale BESS, to optimize the BESS development strategies for distribution networks with increasing penetration levels and growth patterns of dispersed photovoltaic (PV) panels. Particularly, an integrated model is established in order to accommodate dispersed PVs in short-term operation scale while facilitating appropriate profits in long-term planning scale. Clusterwise reduction is adopted to extract the most representative operating scenarios with PVs and BESS integration, which is able to decrease the computing complexity caused by scenario redundancy. The numerical studies on IEEE 69-bus distribution system verify the feasibility of the proposed multi-stage sizing approach for the utility-scale BESS.

In this paper, the effect of HPMC (hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose ether) on the cement mortar water retention (WR) and composition was studied. The relationship between the plastic viscosity and water retention of cement mortar was revealed. The results showed that HPMC formed a colloidal film with a 3D network structure in water, which changed the ability of water to migrate. The HPMC colloid adsorbed on the surface of cement and sand particles and played a bridging role due to the influence of the spatial network structure of the thin film. Fine particles formed a grid-like distribution, and the hydration products formed a unique fibrous tree-like structure. A positive correlation was observed between the plastic viscosity and the water holding capacity of cement mortar. Finally, the mechanism responsible for the improved water retention of cement mortar by HPMC was analyzed using the changing water migration capacity, migration channels, and mortar cohesion.

In the quest for efficient and recyclable heterogeneous catalysts for Sonogashira coupling reactions, a PEG-OMe (Methoxy Polyene Glycol) - mediated method was developed to immobilize Pd/Cu bimetallic nanoparticles on activated carbon (AC). Catalytic experiments showed that Pd/Cu@AC prepared in a PEG-OMe 500 had the highest activity. The morphology and composition of the catalyst were determined, and the identified crystallized and heterometallic nanoparticles of Pd/Cu were essential for an efficient catalytic cycle. The Pd/Cu@AC catalyst was successfully used in Sonogashira reactions (21 examples) including with aryl bromides as the coupling partner in EtOH at 80−100 °C. The catalyst was recycled at least nine times.

1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethene (FOX-7) an insensitive high-energetic compound, has rarely been reported previously with respect to combustion performance. In order to quickly apply it to propellants, the thermal decomposition behaviors of FOX-7 should be optimized. Metal complexes of nano-graphene oxide have an obvious effect on the thermal decomposition of energy materials. In this paper, the metal (Cu2+ and Fe3+) complexes of nano-graphene oxide (nGO) have been synthesized using nGO as a ligand and metal ions as a coordination center. They were mixed with FOX-7 as additives to form energetic composites, and the chemical bond distributions and thermal decomposition processes of these composites have been investigated. The results show that Cu2+ and Fe3+ are uniformly distributed on the surface of the nGO. The thermal decomposition processes of nGO-metal-FOX-7 composites have been fully characterized by Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and Thermal gravimetric analyzer-Differential scanning calorimeter-Infrared spectroscopy-Mass spectrum (TG-DSC-IR-MS) coupling technology. The results show that the Fe3+ based complex affect the decomposition of FOX-7 than the Cu2+ based one with the initial decomposition temperature of 230 °C and the apparent heat release of 3535.6 J·g−1. Moreover, the addition of nGO-metal complexes could promote the formation of nitrogen during the decomposition of FOX-7, indicating a more complete decomposition.

The potential demand of battery electric vehicle (BEV) is the base of the decision-making to the government policy formulation, enterprise manufacture capacity expansion, and charging infrastructure construction. How to predict the future amount of BEV accurately is very important to the development of BEV both in practice and in theory. The present paper tries to compare the short-term accuracy of a proposed modified Bass model and Lotka-Volterra (LV) model, by taking China’s BEV development as the case study. Using the statistics data of China’s BEV amount of 21 months from Jan 2015 to Sep 2016, we compare the simulation accuracy based on the value of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and discuss the forecasting capacity of the two models according to China’s government expectation. According to the MAPE value, the two models have good prediction accuracy, but the Bass model is more accurate than LV model. Bass model has only one dimension and focuses on the diffusion trend, while LV model has two dimensions and mainly describes the relationship and competing process between the two populations. In future research, the forecasting advantages of Bass model and LV model should be combined to get more accurate predicting effect.

The effects of redispersible polymer powders of ethylene/Vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and ethylene/vinyl laurate/vinyl chloride terpolymer (E/VL/VC) on the efflorescence of Portland cement-based decorative mortar (PCBDM) were studied. The results showed that EVA slightly prolongs the efflorescence duration of fresh PCBDM; and exacerbates efflorescence of hardened PCBDM, because it increases the content of soluble salts such as Ca2+, K+, Na+ ions in hardened PCBDM and promotes their migration. E/VL/VC exacerbates efflorescence of fresh PCBDM due to it easily dissolves in the surface water; but reduces efflorescence of hardened PCBDM, which is attributed to that it decreases the soluble salts content in hardened PCBDM and prohibits salts migration. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.3.4053

Hamacher operation is a generalization of the algebraic and Einstein operation and expresses a family of binary operation in the unit interval [0,1]. Heronian mean can deal with correlations of different criteria or input arguments and does not bring out repeated calculation. The normal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (NIFNs) can depict normal distribution information in practical decision making. A decision-making problem was researched under the NIFN environment in this study, and a new multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) approach is herein introduced on the basis of Hamacher operation. Firstly, according to Hamacher operation, some operational laws of NIFNs are presented. Secondly, it is noted that Heronian mean not only takes into account mutuality between the attribute values once, but also considers the correlation between input argument and itself. Therefore, in order to aggregate NIFN information, we developed some operators and studied their properties. These operators include Hamacher Heronian mean (NIFHHM), Hamacher weighted Heronian mean (NIFHWHM), Hamacher geometric Heronian mean (NIFHGHM), and Hamacher weighted geometric Heronian mean (NIFHWGHM). Furthermore, we applied the proposed operators to the MCGDM problem and developed a new MCGDM approach. The characteristics of this new approach are that: (1) it is suitable for making a decision under the NIFN environment and it is more reasonable for aggregating the normal distribution data; (2) it utilizes Hamacher operation to provide an effective and powerful MCGDM algorithm and to make more reliable and more flexible decisions under the NIFN circumstance; (3) it uses the Heronian mean operator to deal with interrelations between the attributes or input arguments, and it does not bring about repeated calculation. Therefore, the proposed method can describe the interaction of the different criteria or input arguments and offer some reasonable and reliable MCGDM aggregation operators, which can open avenues for decision making and broaden perspectives of the decision experts. Lastly, an application is given for showing the effectiveness and feasibility of the approach presented in this paper.