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"Fenghuang Egg" is a special egg product incubated for 12 days by fertilized hen eggs. Its egg white contains high-viscosity and excellent thermal gel strength. A comparative study on the differences in gel properties, structure, and substance composition between fresh egg white (FEW) and "Fenghuang egg" gelatinous egg white (GEW) was carried out. Experimental results showed GEW had better apparent viscosity, as well as the hardness, cohesiveness and water holding capacity (WHC) of thermal gel; the content and size of aggregate structure increased significantly in GEW, and a fibrous dense network composed of numerous spherical nanoparticles connected in series was formed after heating. In addition, it also discovered that more water molecules in GEW existed in the form of bound water. A total of 41 proteins changed significantly in FEW and GEW, Mucin 6 might be the main reason for the enhanced viscosity of GEW, and OVA might be the dominant protein differentiating the thermal gel properties between FEW and GEW. This study revealed that the differences in gel properties and structures between FEW and GEW were closely related to the content of highly glycosylated globular proteins, laying a theoretical foundation for the application of high-viscosity egg whites.

It is of significance but remains a pivotal challenge to simultaneously enhance the strength and lightweight levels of porous structures. We provide an innovative strategy to improve the strength of porous structures with unchanged lightweight levels by applied composite materials. Selective laser melting (SLM) is convenient for integral forming of materials and structures. Hence, in this study, the research about the mechanical response of triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) porous structures with 316L and composites fabricated by SLM was conducted. The compression test and finite element method (FEM) were used to characterize mechanical properties. The composite structures exhibit enhanced elastic modulus, yield strength, unvaried lightweight level and refined grain microstructure, which are difficult to realize for porous structures made by pure 316L materials. The elastic modulus, yield strength, plateau stress and energy absorption of composites were 3187.50, 67.73, 15.24 and 17.09 MJ/m3, respectively.

The concept of metamaterials originates from the proposal of left-hand materials with negative refractive index, followed by which, varieties of metamaterials with kinds of fantastic properties that cannot be found in natural materials, such as zero/negative Poisson’s ratio, electromagnetic/acoustic/thermal cloaking effect, etc., were come up with. According to their application fields, the metamaterials are roughly classified into four categories, electromagnetic metamaterials, acoustic metamaterials, thermal metamaterials, and mechanical metamaterials. By designing structures and arranging the distribution of materials with different physical parameters, the function of metamaterials can be realized in theory. Additive manufacturing (AM) technology provides a more direct and efficient way to achieve a sample of metamaterial and experiment verification due to the great advantages in fabricating complex structures. In this review, we introduce the typical metamaterials in different application situations and their design methods. In particular, we are focused on the fabrication of metamaterials and the application status of AM technology in them. Furthermore, we discuss the limits of present metamaterials in the aspect of design method and the disadvantages of existing AM technology, as well as the development tendency of metamaterials.

OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate nasal morphologies associated with nasal airway obstruction in unilateral alveolar cleft patients. METHODS A total of 234 unilateral alveolar cleft cases were performed cone beam computed tomography scans. The digital imaging and communication in medicine data were imported into Simplant Pro software. The radiographic features including nasal septum deviation and inferior turbinate hypertrophy as well as nasal airway volume and sinusitis were analyzed. RESULTS A new radiographic classification of relationship between nasal septum and inferior turbinate (NS-IT) on the cleft side was proposed and three types of NS-IT relationship (type I, II and III) were identified in 234 cases. The statistical analysis revealed that the nasal airway volume on non-cleft side was significantly higher than that on cleft side in each of three types (P

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to compare the anatomical features of alveolar cleft in patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) of different ages. METHODS Sixty UCLP patients were divided into 3 groups as follows: group 1 (7-12 years old), group 2 (13-18 years old) and group 3 (more than 18 years old). The radiographic images were analyzed based on cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. RESULTS The mean age in 3 groups was 10.45 ± 1.15, 15.05 ± 1.90, and 22.55 ± 3.00 years (P

Ocean acidification has become a major ecological and environmental problem in the world, whereas the impact mechanism of ocean acidification in marine bivalves is not fully understood. Cellular energy allocation (CEA) approach and high-coverage metabolomic techniques were used to investigate the acidification effects on the energy metabolism of mussels. The thick shell mussels Mytilus coruscus were exposed to seawater pH 8.1 (control) and pH 7.7 (acidification) for 14 days and allowed to recover at pH 8.1 for 7 days. The levels of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins significantly decreased in the digestive glands of the mussels exposed to acidification. The 14-day acidification exposure increased the energy demands of mussels, resulting in increased electron transport system (ETS) activity and decreased cellular energy allocation (CEA). Significant carry-over effects were observed on all cellular energy parameters except the concentration of carbohydrates and cellular energy demand (Ec) after 7 days of recovery. Metabolomic analysis showed that acidification affected the phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, and glycine, serine and threonine metabolism. Correlation analysis showed that mussel cell energy parameters (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, CEA) were negatively/positively correlated with certain differentially abundant metabolites. Overall, the integrated biochemical and metabolomics analyses demonstrated the negative effects of acidification on energy metabolism at the cellular level and implicated the alteration of biosynthesis and metabolism of amino acids as a mechanism of metabolic perturbation caused by acidification in mussels.

To explore the contribution of different lipid oxidation stages to flavor formation in salted egg yolk, potential pathways of flavor formation were characterized by multi-omics strategy and partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM). 72 lipids, 135 metabolites and 5 volatiles related to lipid oxidation were screened out. The degradation of aldehydes and ketones, and the generation of tryptamine and elaidic acid, etc. were promoted by triglycerides (TG) (10:0 16:0 18:1), triglycerides (TG) (18:0 20:1 22:0), etc. at primary and secondary oxidation stage, respectively. The generation of acetophenone, thianaphthene, etc. through the pathway of 2-phenylacetamide, hexanoylcarnitine, etc. was facilitated by these triglycerides (TG) at primary oxidation stage. Furthermore, amino acid metabolisms, pentose phosphate pathway and linoleic acid metabolism occurred at secondary oxidation stage were key pathways to form distinctive flavor. In conclusion, secondary oxidation stage may be more important for the formation of unique flavor (taste) in salted egg yolk.

Marine hypoxia caused by nutrient enrichment in coastal waters has become a global problem for decades, especially diel-cycling hypoxia that occurs frequently in the summer season. On the contrary, sudden rainstorms, and freshwater discharge make salinity in estuarine and coastal ecosystems variable, which often occurs with hypoxia. We found mass mortality of the Hong Kong oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis in the field where hypoxia and salinity fluctuation co-occur in the summer season during the past several years. To investigate the effects of diel-cycling hypoxia and salinity changes on the hemocyte immune function of C. hongkongensis, oysters were exposed to a combined effect of two dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations (24 h normal oxygen 6 mg/L, 12 h normal oxygen 6 mg/L, and 12 h hypoxia 2 mg/L) and three salinities (10, 25, and 35‰) for 14 days. Subsequently, all treatments were restored to constant normal oxygen (6 mg/L) and salinity under 25‰ for 3 days to study the recovery of hemocyte immune function from the combined stress. Hemocyte parameters were analyzed by flow cytometry, including hemocyte mortality (HM), total hemocyte count (THC), phagocytosis (PHA), esterase (EST) activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS), lysosomal content (LYSO), and mitochondrial number (MN). The experimental results showed that diel-cycling hypoxia and salinity changes have obvious interactive effects on various immune parameters. In detail, diel-cycling hypoxia and decreases in salinity led to increased HM, and low salinity caused heavier impacts. In addition, low salinity, and diel-cycling hypoxia also led to decreases in LYSO, EST, and THC, while the decrease of PHA only occurs in the early stage. On the contrary, ROS production increased significantly under low salinity and hypoxic conditions. After 3-day recovery, THC, PHA, EST, LYSO, and MN were basically restored to normal, while HM and ROS were still significantly affected by diel-cycling hypoxia and salinity change, indicating that the combined stress of diel-cycling hypoxia and salinity changes had latent effects on the immune function of C. hongkongensis. Our results highlight that diel-cycling hypoxia and salinity change may impair the health and survival of the Hong Kong oyster C. hongkongensis and may be the key factors for the mass mortality of this oyster in the field.

Microplastics (MPs) have become a ubiquitous emerging pollutant in the global marine environment. The potential toxic effects of MPs and interactions of MP pollution with other stressors such as food limitation on marine organisms’ health are not yet well understood. This study investigated the effects of three-week exposure to different MPs and food shortage on the physical defense mechanisms (byssus production and properties) of Mytilus coruscus. Starvation significantly reduced the number of byssus threads, and combined exposure to MPs and food shortage suppressed the adhesion ability and condition index of mussels. The length of the byssus threads was not affected by all experimental exposures. Transcript levels of genes encoding key proteins involved in byssus formation (the mussel foot proteins mfp-1, -2, -3, -4, -5 and -6, and prepolymerized collagen proteins preCOL-D, -P and -NG) were altered by interactions between the MPs and food shortage. These findings show that insufficient food supply can exacerbate the adverse effects of MPs on mussel defense which might have implications for survival and fitness of mussels under food limited conditions (e.g. in winter) in polluted coastal habitats.

Rock permeabilities are typically calculated by applying some empirically derived relationships or expressions, which normally result in rough or erroneous values. Given advanced computing and smart techniques, rock samples acquired in boreholes or on outcrops can be imaged and broken down into small digital rocks. The renormalization group approach with isotropic block (RGAWIB) has been applied to calculate the permeability of digital rocks. The RGAWIB proposed by King can accurately derive the effective permeability if the pore structure is described correctly by the separated grid blocks. For King's method, the permeability of the grid block is assumed to be isotropic, which is not suitable for significant variance in neighboring permeabilities. In this study, we adopted discrete blocks with anisotropic permeability for the upscaling process of renormalization, which provided reasonable results for large perturbations of permeability in neighboring grid blocks. We assumed that the anisotropic block held different permeabilities in three orthogonal directions and calculated the effective permeabilities of idealized porous media and digital rocks by a renormalization group approach with anisotropic block (RGAWAB). Moreover, a permeability distribution method is presented in this paper. The original permeability distribution of an idealized porous media was calculated, along with the permeability distributions of the digital core data available in the literature in the x, y, and z directions using the method developed in this study. Then, we calculated the effective permeabilities of the digital rocks using RGAWAB in the x, y, and z directions, respectively. We compared the results with the absolute permeabilities calculated by the lattice Boltzmann method, which showed that the permeability calculation method was feasible for digital rocks.

Intertidal and estuarine bivalves are adapted to fluctuating environmental conditions but the cellular adaptive mechanisms under combined stress scenarios are not well understood. The Hong Kong oysters Crassostrea hongkongensis experience periodic hypoxia/reoxygenation and salinity fluctuations during tidal cycles and extreme weather, which can negatively affect the respiratory organs (gills) involved in oxygen uptake and transport. We determined the effects of periodic hypoxia under different salinities on the oxidative stress response in Hong Kong oysters. Oxidative stress parameters (activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT), tissue levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl content (PCC)) were determined in the gills of oysters exposed to diel-cycling hypoxia (hypoxia at night: 12h at 2 mg/L, reoxygenation: 12h at 6 mg/L) and normal dissolved oxygen (DO) (6 mg/L) under three salinities (10, 25, and 35‰) for 28 days. Oxygen regime in combination with salinity changes had significant interactive effects on all studied parameters except SOD. Salinity, DO and their interactions increased PCC after 14 and 28 days of exposure, and the combination of hypoxia/reoxygenation and decreased salinity showed the most severe effect. MDA content of the gills increased only after the long-term (28 days) exposure in decreased or increased salinity under normal DO treatments, showing PCC was more sensitive than MDA as biomarker of oxidative stress. Low salinity suppressed SOD activity regardless of the DO, whereas hypoxia induced SOD responses. CAT activities decreased significantly under high salinity with hypoxia/reoxygenation conditions. Our findings highlighted that periodic hypoxia/reoxygenation with salinity change induced antioxidant responses, which can impact the health of Hong Kong oyster C. hongkongensis and prolonged salinity stress may be one reason for the mortality during its aquaculture process.

There are many toxicological studies on microplastics, but little is known about the effect of nanoplastics (NPs). Here, we evaluated the oxidative stress responses induced by NPs (10, 104 and 106 particles/l) in juvenile Larimichthys crocea during 14-d NPs exposure followed by a 7-d recovery. After exposure, the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GPx) and MDA levels increased in the liver of fish at the highest NPs concentration. SOD and CAT activities remained elevated above the baseline after recovery under high-concentration NPs but returned to the baseline in two other NP treatments. Although lipid peroxidation in liver was reversible, juvenile fish in NPs treatments exhibited a lower survival rate than the control during both exposure and recovery. Furthermore, IBR value and PCA analysis showed the potential adverse effects of NPs. Considering that NPs can reduce the survival of fish juveniles, impacts of NPs on fishery productivity should be considered.

The highly hydrophobic surfaces make microplastics a potential carrier of organic pollutants in the marine environment. In order to explore the toxic effects of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (BDE-47) combined with microplastics on marine organisms, we exposed the marine mussel Mytilus coruscus to micro-PS combined with BDE-47 for 21 days to determine the immune defense, oxidative stress and energy metabolism of the mussels. The results showed that the clearance rate (CR) of mussels exposed to single micro-PS, single BDE-47 or both was lower than control group. In general, compared to single BDE-47 exposure, the combination of micro-PS and BDE-47 significantly increased respiration rate (RR), activities of acid phosphatase (ACP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations, but significantly decreased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and the relative expression of heat shock protein (Hsp70 and 90). Overall, combined stress has more adverse effects on defense performance and energy metabolism in mussels and micro-PS seem to exacerbate the toxicological effects of BDE-47. As microplastics pollution may deteriorate in the future, the health of mussels may be threatened in organically polluted environment, which eventually change the stability of the structure and function of intertidal ecosystem.

Digital rock images may capture more detailed pore structure than the traditional laboratory methods. No explicit function can correlate permeability accurately for flow within the pore space. This has motivated researchers to predict permeability through the application of numerical techniques, e.g., using the finite difference method (FDM). However, in order to get better permeability calculation results, the grid refinement was needed for the traditional FDM and the accuracy of the traditional method decreased in pores with elongated cross sections. The goal of this study is to develop an improved FDM (IFDM) to calculate the permeabilities of digital rock images with complex pore space. An elliptical pore approximation method is invoked to describe the complex pore space. The permeabilities of four types of idealized porous media are calculated by IFDM. The calculated results are in sound agreement with the analytical solutions or semi-empirical solutions. What’s more, the permeabilities of the digital rock images after grid coarsening are calculated by IFDM in three orthogonal directions. These results are compared with the previously validated lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM), which indicates that the predicted permeabilities calculated by IFDM usually agree with permeabilities calculated by LBM. We conclude that the presented IFDM is suitable for complex pore space.

In the marine environment, microplastic contamination and acidification may occur simultaneously, this study evaluated the effects of ocean acidification and microplastics on oxidative stress responses and digestive enzymes in mussels. The thick shell mussels Mytilus coruscus were exposed to four concentrations of polystyrene microspheres (diameter 2 μm, 0, 10, 104 and 106 particles/L) under two pH levels (7.7 and 8.1) for 14 days followed by a 7-day recovery acclimation. Throughout the experiment, we found that microplastics and ocean acidification exerted little oxidative stress to the digestive gland. Only catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH) showed a significant increase along with increased microplastics during the experiment, but recovered to the control levels once these stressors were removed. No significant effects of pH and microplastics on glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were observed. The responses of digestive enzymes to both stressors were more pronounced than antioxidant enzymes. During the experiment, pepsin (PES), trypsin (TRS), alpha-amylase (AMS) and lipase (LPS) were significantly inhibited under microplastics exposure and this inhibition was aggravated by acidification conditions. Only PES and AMS tended to recover during the recovery period. Lysozyme (LZM) increased significantly under microplastic exposure conditions, but acidification did not exacerbate this effect. Therefore, combined stress of microplastics and ocean acidification slightly impacts oxidative responses but significantly inhibits digestive enzymes in mussels.

Both nanoparticles (NPs) and ocean acidification (OA) pose threats to marine animals as well as marine ecosystems. The present study aims to evaluate the combined effects of NPs and OA on specific dynamic action (SDA) of mussels. The thick shell mussels Mytilus coruscus were exposed to two levels of pH (7.3 and 8.1) and three concentrations of TiO

Apart from ocean acidification, hypoxia is another stressor to marine organisms, especially those in coastal waters. Their interactive effects of elevated CO2 and hypoxia on the physiological energetics in mussel Mytilus edulis were evaluated. Mussels were exposed to three pH levels (8.1, 7.7, 7.3) at two dissolved oxygen levels (6 and 2 mg L−1) and clearance rate, absorption efficiency, respiration rate, excretion rate, scope for growth and O: N ratio were measured during a14-day exposure. After exposure, all parameters (except excretion rate) were significantly reduced under low pH and hypoxic conditions, whereas excretion rate was significantly increased. Additive effects of low pH and hypoxia were evident for all parameters and low pH appeared to elicit a stronger effect than hypoxia (2.0 mg L−1). Overall, hypoxia can aggravate the effects of acidification on the physiological energetics of mussels, and their populations may be diminished by these stressors.

Nowadays, eutrophication is a very popular environmental problem in numerous waters around the world. The main reason of eutrophication is the enrichment of the nutrient, which results in the excessive growth of phytoplankton and some of them are toxic and harmful. Fortunately, some studies have shown that some bivalves can filter the overgrown phytoplankton in water, which may alleviate water eutrophication. However, the physiological effects of toxic cyanobacteria on filter feeding animal have not been clarified very well. In this experiment, digestive enzyme activities in Hyriopsis cumingii exposed to different concentrations of the toxic Microcystis aeruginosa (0, 5 * 105 and 5 *106 cell ml-1) at two dissolved oxygen (DO) levels (6 and 2 mg l-1) for 14 days were investigated. Toxic M. aeruginosa significantly affected all digestive enzyme activities throughout the experiment. At high toxic M. aeruginosa concentration, the activities of cellulase, amylase and lipase in digestive gland and stomach were significantly increased (P

Both nanoparticles (NPs) and ocean acidification (OA) pose threats to marine animals as well as marine ecosystems. The present study aims to evaluate the combined effects of NPs and OA on specific dynamic action (SDA) of mussels. The thick shell mussels Mytilus coruscus were exposed to two levels of pH (7.3 and 8.1) and three concentrations of TiO2 NPs (0, 2.5, and 10 mg L−1) for 14 days followed by a 7-day recovery period. The SDA parameters, including standard metabolic rate, peak metabolic rate, aerobic metabolic scope, SDA slope, time to peak, SDA duration and SDA, were measured. The results showed that TiO2 NPs and low pH significantly affected all parameters throughout the experiment. When the mussels were exposed to seawater acidification or TiO2 NPs conditions, standard metabolic rate, aerobic metabolic scope, SDA slope and SDA significantly decreased, whereas peak metabolic rate, time to peak and SDA duration significantly increased. In addition, interactive effects between TiO2 NPs and pH were observed in SDA parameters except time to peak and SDA. Therefore, the synergistic effect of TiO2 NPs and low pH can adversely affect the feeding metabolism of mussels.

In this study, a staggered grid finite-difference code is applied to simulate the three-dimensional frequencydomain electromagnetic responses of a horizontal electric dipole above a rough seafloor. Based on simple layered reservoir and ramp models, we compare the finitedifference results with previous analytical solution and finite-element results, verify the accuracy and validity of the simulation algorithm, and show the efficiency of the divergence correction.

In the title mol-ecular salt, C(5)H(9)N(2) (+)·C(7)H(3)N(2)O(7) (-), the roughly planar anion (r.m.s. deviation = 0.120 Å) has been deprotonated at the phenol group. An intra-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bond in the anion generates an S(6) ring. In the crystal, the components are linked by cation-to-anion N-H⋯O and N-H⋯(O,O) hydrogen bonds, generating [010] double chains. Weak C-H⋯O inter-actions consolidate the packing.

In the title compound, C10H9NO3, the dihedral angle between the phenyl ring and the amide group is 10.8 (2)°. The C=O and O—H bonds of the carboxyl group adopt an anti orientation and an intramolecular O—H...O hydrogen bond closes an S(7) ring. In the crystal, N—H...O hydrogen bonds link the molecules into C(7) chains propagating in [101]. The packing is consolidated by C—H...O interactions, generating sheets alligned at an angle of ca 60° with the bc plane