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Hydrogen, as a renewable and clean energy carrier, has the potential to play an important role in carbon reduction. Crucial to achieving this is the ability to produce clean sources of hydrogen and to store hydrogen safely. With the rapid development of the hydrogen industry, the number of hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) is increasing. However, hydrogen safety at HRS is of great concern due to the high risk of hydrogen leakage during storage. This study focused on an integrated hydrogen production and refueling station (IHPRS) in Weifang, China, and numerically simulated a hydrogen leakage accident in its storage area. The effects of the leakage aperture, the leakage direction and the ambient wind direction and speed on the leakage and dissipation characteristics of hydrogen were investigated. The results showed that the volume, mass and dissipation time of the flammable hydrogen cloud (FHC) increased with an increase in the leakage aperture. The installation of a canopy or densely packed equipment near the hydrogen storage area will seriously hinder the dissipation of the FHC. Ambient winds in the opposite direction of the leakage may cause high-concentration hydrogen to accumulate near the hydrogen storage tanks and be difficult to dissipate, seriously threatening the safety of the integrated station.

With the rapid development of hydrogen energy worldwide, the number of hydrogen energy facilities, such as hydrogen refueling stations, has grown rapidly in recent years. However, hydrogen is prone to leakage accidents during use, which could lead to hazards such as fires and explosions. Therefore, research on the safety of hydrogen energy facilities is crucial. In this paper, a study of high-pressure hydrogen jet flame accidents is conducted for a proposed integrated hydrogen production and refueling station in China. The effects of leakage direction and leakage port diameter on the jet flame characteristics are analyzed, and a risk assessment of the flame accident is conducted. The results showed that the death range perpendicular to the flame direction increased from 2.23 m to 5.5 m when the diameter of the leakage port increased from 4 mm to 10 mm. When the diameter of the leakage port is larger than 8 mm, the equipment on the scene will be within the boundaries of the damage. The consequences of fire can be effectively mitigated by a reasonable firewall setup to ensure the overall safety of the integrated station.

Liquid hydrogen storage is an important way of hydrogen storage and transportation, which greatly improves the storage and transportation efficiency due to the high energy density but at the same time brings new safety hazards. In this study, the liquid hydrogen leakage in the storage area of a hydrogen production station is numerically simulated. The effects of ambient wind direction, wind speed, leakage mass flow rate, and the mass fraction of gas phase at the leakage port on the diffusion behavior of the liquid hydrogen leakage were investigated. The results show that the ambient wind direction directly determines the direction of liquid hydrogen leakage diffusion. The wind speed significantly affects the diffusion distance. When the wind speed is 6 m/s, the diffusion distance of the flammable hydrogen cloud reaches 40.08 m, which is 2.63 times that under windless conditions. The liquid hydrogen leakage mass flow rate and the mass fraction of the gas phase have a greater effect on the volume of the flammable hydrogen cloud. As the leakage mass flow rate increased from 5.15 kg/s to 10 kg/s, the flammable hydrogen cloud volume increased from 5734.31 m3 to 10,305.5 m3. The installation of a barrier wall in front of the leakage port can limit the horizontal diffusion of the flammable hydrogen cloud, elevate the diffusion height, and effectively reduce the volume of the flammable hydrogen cloud. This study can provide theoretical support for the construction and operation of hydrogen production stations.

Abstract Titanium nitride is a material of interest for many superconducting devices such as nanowire microwave resonators and photon detectors. Thus, controlling the growth of TiN thin films with desirable properties is of high importance. This work aims to explore effects in ion beam-assisted sputtering (IBAS), were an observed increase in nominal critical temperature and upper critical fields are in tandem with previous work on Niobium nitride (NbN). We grow thin films of titanium nitride by both, the conventional method of DC reactive magnetron sputtering and the IBAS method, to compare their superconducting critical temperatures $$T_{c}$$ T c as functions of thickness, sheet resistance, and nitrogen flow rate. We perform electrical and structural characterizations by electric transport and x-ray diffraction measurements. Compared to the conventional method of reactive sputtering, the IBAS technique has demonstrated a 10% increase in nominal critical temperature without noticeable variation in the lattice structure. Additionally, we explore the behavior of superconducting $$T_c$$ T c in ultra-thin films. Trends in films grown at high nitrogen concentrations follow predictions of mean-field theory in disordered films and show suppression of superconducting $$T_c$$ T c due to geometric effects, while nitride films grown at low nitrogen concentrations strongly deviate from the theoretical models.

Grain size is a key factor influencing grain yield and appearance quality in rice. We identified twelve quantitative trait loci (QTL) for grain length (GL), nine for grain width (GW), and nine for 1000-kernel weight (TKW) using GLU-SSSLs, which are single-segment substitution lines with Oryza glumaepatula as donor parent and Huajingxian 74 (HJX74) as recipient parent. Among the QTL, qGL1-2, qGL1-4, qGL9-2, qGW2-2, qGW9-1 and qTKW9-2 contributed to high grain yield. GL9 was identified as a candidate gene for qGL9-2 by map-based cloning and sequencing, and is a novel allele of GS9. The kernel of NIL-gl9 was slenderer and longer than that of HJX74, and the TKW and grain yield per plant of NIL-gl9 were higher than those of HJX74. The proportion of grain chalkiness of NIL-gl9 was much lower than that of HJX74. Thus, gl9 increased grain yield and appearance quality simultaneously. Three pyramid lines, NIL-gs3/gl9, NIL-GW7/gl9 and NIL-gw8/gl9, were developed and the kernel of each was longer than that of the corresponding recipient parent lines. The gl9 allele may be beneficial for breeding rice varieties with high grain yield and good appearance quality.

Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is a plant growth inhibitor and fungicide, but it is also carcinogenic and teratogenic, and has potential harm to human health. In this study, two PBZ haptens (PBZ-1, PBZ-2) were synthesized and conjugated with carrier proteins to get artificial antigens. A highly specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) against PBZ was prepared. The antibody subtype was IgG1 and the concentration was 11.03 mg/mL. A sensitive and rapid time-resolved fluorescence microsphere lateral flow immunoassay (TRFMs-LFIA) was established based on the mAb. The activated pH, the mAbs diluents, the mAb reacting concentration and the probe amount were optimized. The visual limit of detection (vLOD) and quantitative limit of detection (qLOD) of the TRFMs-LFIA for PBZ were 50 and 1.72 ng/mL respectively, and the 50% inhibiting concentration (IC50) was 9.38 ng/mL. The pretreatment procedures are simple and rapid, and the detection time of TRFMs-LFIA strip is 6 min. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of PBZ could be achieved under a UV light or with a portable fluorescence immunoassay analyzer. The average recovery rates ranged from 96.2% to 111.9% and the corresponding coefficients of variation (CV) were 4.0%–11.2% in spiked wheat and rice samples. Twenty real wheat and rice samples were measured by the TRFMs-LFIA and compared with Ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The measured values showed a good accordance. These results indicated that the proposed assay will provide a novel effective strategy for on-site detection of PBZ.

Abstract Background The high quality of antibody (Ab) is critical for an immunoassay; usually, an Ab with low affinity is often regarded as a “bad” one in the immunoassay development. How to use a “bad” Ab to develop a highly sensitive immunoassay is still a huge challenge. Methods In this study, a heterologous immunoassay strategy was designed to enhance the sensitivity for the detection of banned dye, rhodamine B (RB), in fraudulent food. The RB Ab could not recognize RB by pairing with homologous coating antigen (Ag). However, the Ab showed unexpected high specificity and sensitivity recognition after being replaced by heterologous coating Ag. Indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) was developed based on the heterologous strategy. Results The detection limit of icELISA for chilli powder, Chinese prickly ash, hot-pot seasoning, and chilli sauce was 0.002 μg/kg, and the recoveries of the four samples ranged from 76.0 to 102.0%, with the coefficient of variation between 3.9 and 18.8%. Parallel experiment for 20 market samples with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was performed on to confirm the performance of the practical application of the developed icELISA, and the results of the two methods had good correlation. Molecular modeling inferred that the carboxyl group of hapten and its exposure level played an important role in the hapten-Ab recognition. Conclusions The proposed icELISA can be used for the surveillance screening of RB in a range of seasoning foods, and the heterologous strategy is an effective approach to enhance the sensitivity in an immunoassay.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is a severe contagious intestinal disease caused by the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), which leads to high mortality in piglets. In this study, by analyzing a total of 53 full-length spike genes and COE domain regions of PEDVs, the conserved COE fragment of the spike protein from the dominant strain SC1402 was chosen as the target protein and expressed successfully in Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris). Furthermore, an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) based on the recombinant COE protein was developed for the detection of anti-PEDV antibodies in pig sera. The results showed that under the optimized conditions, the cut-off value of COE-based indirect ELISA (COE-iELISA) was determined to be 0.12. Taking the serum neutralization test as standard, the relative sensitivity of the COE-iELISA was 94.4% and specificity 92.6%. Meanwhile, no cross-reactivity to other porcine pathogens was noted with this assay. The intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation were less than 7%. Moreover, 164 vaccinated serum samples test showed that overall agreement between COE-iELISA and the actual diagnosis result was up to 99.4%. More importantly, the developed iELISA exhibited a 95.08% agreement rate with the commercial ELISA kit (Kappa value = 0.88), which suggested that the expressed COE protein was an effective antigen in serologic tests and the established COE-iELISA is reliable for monitoring PEDV infection in pigs or vaccine effectiveness.

Cs4PbBr6 crystals have been synthesized by an ultrasonication-assisted trace amount polar solvent method. The prepared green Cs4PbBr6 material was found to have high photoluminescence (PL) brightness and 10 ns PL lifetime. The prepared green light emitting device can achieve the maximum brightness of 3.8 × 109 cd/m2, which is nearly 100 times higher than a wick. The white light emitting device based on Cs4PbBr6 crystals has better performance than commercial products, which can cover 32.3% of the color gamut and achieves 107.3% coverage for International Commission on Illumination (CIE)1931 and 84.8% coverage for CIE1976.

A novel and efficient immunoaffinity column (IAC) based on bispecific monoclonal antibody (BsMAb) recognizing aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and ochratoxin A (OTA) was prepared and applied in simultaneous extraction of AFB1 and OTA from food samples and detection of AFB1/OTA combined with ic-ELISA (indirect competitive ELISA). Two deficient cell lines, hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase (HGPRT) deficient anti-AFB1 hybridoma cell line and thymidine kinase (TK) deficient anti-OTA hybridoma cell line, were fused to generate a hybrid-hybridoma producing BsMAb against AFB1 and OTA. The subtype of the BsMAb was IgG1 via mouse antibody isotyping kit test. The purity and molecular weight of BsMAb were confirmed by SDS-PAGE method. The cross-reaction rate with AFB2 was 37%, with AFG1 15%, with AFM1 48%, with AFM2 10%, and with OTB 36%. Negligible cross-reaction was observed with other tested compounds. The affinity constant (Ka) was determined by ELISA. The Ka (AFB1) and Ka (OTA) was 2.43 × 108 L/mol and 1.57 × 108 L/mol, respectively. Then the anti-AFB1/OTA BsMAb was coupled with CNBr-Sepharose, and an AFB1/OTA IAC was prepared. The coupling time and elution conditions of IAC were optimized. The coupling time was 1 h with 90% coupling rate, the eluent was methanol–water (60:40, v:v, pH 2.3) containing 1 mol/L NaCl, and the eluent volume was 4 mL. The column capacities of AFB1 and OTA were 165.0 ng and 171.3 ng, respectively. After seven times of repeated use, the preservation rates of column capacity for AFB1 and OTA were 69.3% and 68.0%, respectively. The ic-ELISA for AFB1 and OTA were applied combined with IAC. The IC50 (50% inhibiting concentration) of AFB1 was 0.027 ng/mL, the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.004 ng/mL (0.032 µg/kg), and the linear range was 0.006 ng/mL~0.119 ng/mL. The IC50 of OTA was 0.878 ng/mL, the LOD was 0.126 ng/mL (1.008 µg/kg), and the linear range was 0.259 ng/mL~6.178 ng/mL. Under optimum conditions, corn and wheat samples were pretreated with AFB1-OTA IAC. The recovery rates of AFB1 and OTA were 95.4%~105.0% with ic-ELISA, and the correlations between the detection results and LC-MS were above 0.9. The developed IAC combined with ic-ELISA is reliable and could be applied to the detection of AFB1 and OTA in grains.

In this study, forchlorfenuron (CPPU) was coupled with succinic anhydride to yield a CPPU hapten (CPPU-COOH), and a high-affinity monoclonal antibody (mAb) that can specifically recognize CPPU was produced. Using this mAb as a recognition reagent, a sensitive indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) for CPPU was optimized, which exhibits an IC50 of 1.04 ng/mL, a limit of detection of 0.16 ng/mL, and a linear range of 0.31–3.43 ng/mL for CPPU. Cross-reactivity percentages with six analogues were all below 6%. The average recovery rates for cucumber and orange samples were from 85.23% to 119.14%. The analysis results of this icELISA showed good consistency with those from liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. These results suggest that the proposed icELISA provides a sensitive, specific, and reliable strategy for CPPU detection in food samples.

Abstract Environmental hormones, also called environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are produced by various human activities and environment pollution, and they are composed of industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants. They play a harmful role in breaking the balance of normal physiological metabolism, causing serious diseases and disrupting reproductive development in wildlife and human beings by inhibiting or imitating the action of normal gonadal hormones. Strict controls of maximum residue levels to some environmental hormones in foodstuff have been set up by many countries. Traditional detection methods, due to their high accuracy and maturity, are used extensively, such as HPLC, HPLC–MS, and GC–MS. However, these methods are time consuming and require extraordinary skills of operators, and sometimes they cannot meet the requirements of field testing. Immunoassay has the advantages of high specificity, sensitivity, simplicity, convenience, and the ability to achieve high throughput, playing an irreplaceable role in the field of rapid detection. This review focuses on the antibody production and the development of immunoassays to detect environmental hormones in food and environment. Therefore, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are selected as examples to introduce a series of procedures for the detection of environmental hormones including antigen synthesis, antibody production, and antibody-based detection methods.

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is a promising technology for intracranial hematomas imaging. The existing problems in MIT are mainly low sensitivity and low resolution of the sensor array, which is necessary to be optimized. A number of optimizations exist to enhance the resolution of MIT, but so far, studies only considered the eigenvalue or singular value of the sensitivity, or the magnetic flux with noise-free data or low level of noise. In this paper, the optimization considers the intensity and uniformity of the sensitivity matrix with added noise. In order to enhance the resolution of dual frequency-difference MIT, the coil parameters optimization is studied by simulations from three aspects: the inner radius, the shape, and the number of turns. After the sensitivity analysis, the absolute dimensions of the optimal coil structure are determined. Based on the optimal structure, the brain hematoma is simulated with a human brain model and finite element method. Images are reconstructed from the modeled data with a 26-dB signal-to-noise ratio noise contaminated. The results indicated that the optimal sensor array can achieve the conductivity resolution of 0.25 S/m and the spatial resolution is 12.38% of the brain radius.

In recent years, furosemide has been found to be abused in slimming health foods. There is an urgent need for a simpler, faster method for detecting furosemide in slimming health foods. In this study, a rapid, convenient and sensitive lateral flow immunochromatography (LFIA) based on Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) was established for the first time. Under optimal conditions, the qualitative limit of detection (LOD) of the AuNPs-based LFIA was 1.0~1.2 μg/g in slimming health foods with different substrates. AuNPs-LFIA could specifically detect furosemide within 12 min (including sample pretreatment) and be read by the naked eye. The developed AuNPs-LFIA showed high consistency with liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and no false positive or false negative results were found in spiked slimming health foods, proving that the AuNPs-LFIA should be accurate and reliable. The AuNPs-LFIA reported here provides a serviceable analytical tool for the on-site detection and rapid initial screening of furosemide for the first time.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP-2), human amnion mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs), and nanohydroxyapatite/collagen/poly(l-lactide) (nHAC/PLA) in tissue engineering to provide potential approaches for periodontal bone regeneration. Methods: hAMSCs were isolated from discarded amniotic membrane samples and cultured in vitro. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining and alizarin red staining were performed to evaluate the osteoblast (OB) differentiation ability of hAMSCs. Three groups were divided: the experimental group (cells transfected with pcDNA3.1-rhBMP-2), the blank group (cells without gene transfection), and the control group (cells transfected with empty plasmid). RT-PCR and western blot were used to examine whether rhBMP-2 has been successfully expressed. 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazol(-z-y1)-3,5-di-phenytetrazo-liumromide assay (MTT) was done to detect the effect of rhBMP-2 on hAMSCs seeded on nHAC/PLA. ALP activity, mineral formation assay, calcium, phosphate and osteocalcin (OCN) content, and OCN and RUNX2 expression of hAMSCs were detected to evaluate osteogenic differentiation capability of rhBMP-2 on hAMSCs seeded on nHAC/PLA. Results: hAMSCs exhibited intense ALP staining, obvious calcium deposition, and mineralization nodules, and rhBMP-2 were highly expressed in the experimental group. The proliferation of the hAMSCs with rhBMP-2 on nHAC/PLA was significantly higher than the cells without rhBMP-2, and the cells all increased in a time-dependent manner. rhBMP-2 significantly increased the OCN and phosphate content, mineral formation, ALP activity, osteogenic biomarkers OCN, and Runx2, and decreased calcium content in hAMSCs seeded on the nHAC/PLA scaffold. Conclusions: This finding demonstrated that hAMSCs has an ideal OB differentiation ability. rhBMP-2 facilitates the proliferation and osteogenesis of hAMSCs. The nHAC/PLA could act as a good scaffold for hAMSCs seeding, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation. The application of rhBMP-2, nHAC/PLA, and hAMSCs in tissue engineering may offer promising possibilities for periodontal bone regeneration.

The haptens 4-[[(2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyloxy)carbonyl]-amino]butanoic acid (BFNB) and 6-[((2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyloxy)-carbonylamino]hexanoic acid (BFNH) were synthesized and then used to develop a rapid,specific and sensitive ELISA method to determine residues of the pesticide carbofuran in avariety of matrices. A hybridoma cell line (5D3) producing anti-carbofuran monoclonalantibodies (MAbs) was also established. Based on the MAbs in combination with theheterologous hapten BFNH coupled to either horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or ovalbumin(OVA), four ELISAs (formats I-IV) for the quantification of carbofuran were developedand compared. Among them, the optimized format II (the conjugate-coated directcompetitive ELISA) showed the best characteristics, with an IC50 value of 18.49 ng/mL, alimit of detection of 0.11 ng/mL and the shortest assay time (1 h). This ELISA method wasthen applied to the determinations of carbofuran in environmental water, soil and foodsamples. The relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) ranged from 1.8% to 21.3% and themean recoveries were 104.6%, 108.3%, 106.3% and 100.1% for water, soil, lettuce andcabbage, respectively. Thus, the ELISA method of format II exhibited the potential todevelop commercial ELISA kits for a rapid detection of carbofuran for human health andenvironmental safety.