The Zn-5%Al-rare earth alloy coating has been used in High-Vanadium Full-Locked Cable (HVFLC) that is made in China. This application has shown excellent protective performance. However, during practical use, the coating may appear to be deteriorated in various degrees, which may further worsen the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of the cable. This paper focuses on High-Vanadium Full-Locked Cable (HVFLC). Firstly, different types of prefabricated defect treatments have been applied into the wires of the cable, followed by corrosion paste accelerated corrosion test and mechanical tensile properties test. The aim of this act is to figure out the effects on the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of the wire due to different types of defects in alloy plating. The results show that the corrosion resistance of the wires has been greatly affected because of the solder joint defects. Furthermore, the tensile strength of the wire indicates a drop of about 40%. This re... [more]

Glutathione (GSH) is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant biomolecule. Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber mesh (NFM) is capable of the attachment and release of biomolecules for prolonged periods and has the potential as a transdermal drug delivery system during wound healing for a diabetic patient. Our earlier study found that high levels of sugar in diabetic male mice were significantly decreased by daily doses of glutathione administered on the mice. Furthermore, oxidative stress found in diabetic male mice led to the total depletion of glutathione levels in the body’s organs (pancreas, spleen, epididymis, and testis). The objective of this study was to attach GSH with PCL NFM for the controlled release of GSH biomolecules for long periods of time from the fiber mesh into a diabetic body. This study produced PCL NFM using an electrospun technique and tested it on mice to evaluate its efficiency as a dermal drug delivery mechanism. This study dissolved GSH (2.5 mg/mL) with phosphate-bu... [more]

The lack of accurate simulation model parameters in the optimization design process of variable fertilizer application devices has resulted in large errors between simulation and theoretical calculation results, which has restricted the development of variable fertilizer application devices to a certain extent. Additionally, there are few scholars studying urea granules, so many parameters of urea granular fertilizer cannot be directly obtained from the literature. The aim of this study is to calibrate a set of simulation parameters by combining physical and simulation tests. In this study, intrinsic parameters were systematically determined, including the particle size, particle density, elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio and their static friction coefficients, rolling friction coefficients and restitution coefficients of urea particles. By performing the urea particle stacking test, the static friction coefficient between urea particles was calibrated to 0.27, and the rolling friction... [more]

Trastuzumab is a target-based recombinant humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody (mAbs), extensively employed for treatment of metastatic breast cancer with human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression. Studies around the world have reported that mAbs have substantial inter-patient unpredictable absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME-pharmacokinetics) because of multiple elements manipulating the concentration of mAbs in plasma. Herein, we have established a bioanalytical technique using UPLC-MS/MS with an easy sample workup method and in-solution digestion protocol to assay the trastuzumab plasma samples from breast cancer patients in clinical studies. Surrogated proteolytic peptides were used for accurate quantification of trastuzumab (CanMab) with a trastuzumab signature peptide with [13C6, 15N4]-arginine and [13C6, 15N2]-lysine stable isotope-labeled (SIL) peptide. Experiments to validate the method were accurately carried out according to the guidelines m... [more]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) as an environmentally friendly approach compared to conventional heat-reflux extraction (CE) for the isolation of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) seed polyphenols and to assess the bioactivity of the obtained extracts. Water, ethanol (30%, v/v) and acetone (30%, v/v) were used as extraction solvents, and the extraction was carried out varying the temperature (40, 60 and 80 °C), irradiation time (5 and 10 min) and microwave power (300 and 600 W). According to the total phenolic content (TPC), 30% acetone at 80 °C after 5 min of irradiation at 300 W proved to be the optimal MAE conditions for obtaining the highest yield of polyphenols. The phenolic profile of both extracts comprised 21 compounds, with cinnamic acids and flavonols being the most abundant. When compared to CE, the MAE extract showed a lower amount of TPC as well as the sum of all identified individual phenols, although both ext... [more]

Mammals and birds have quicker heart rates compared to other species. Mammalian cardiomyocytes have T-tubule membranes that facilitate rapid changes in Ca2+ concentrations. In contrast, bird cardiomyocytes do not possess T-tubule membranes, which raises the question of how birds achieve fast heartbeats. In this study, we compared the changes in Ca2+ concentration in cardiomyocytes isolated from adult quails and rats to elucidate the mechanism resulting in rapid heart rates in birds. Cardiomyocytes isolated from quails were significantly narrower than those isolated from rats. When Ca2+ concentration changes in the entire cardiomyocytes were measured using Fura-2 acetoxymethyl ester (AM), the time to peak was statistically longer in quails than in rats. In contrast, the decay time was markedly shorter in quails than in rats. As a result, the total time of Ca2+ concentration change was shorter in quails than in rats. A spatiotemporal analysis of Ca2+ concentration changes in quail cardio... [more]

An oxygen lance is the operation unit that generates supersonic oxygen jets, controls their behavior, and acts as a vital role in the steelmaking process. It is thought that airflow similar to a tornado may suppress upward splashing because of part of the jet pressure shifting from the axis of the oxygen lance to the tangential direction. Therefore, a new oxygen lance is designed to form a tornado jet, and the numerical simulation consequences are verified by the physical model. The structure of the new oxygen lance is optimized by numerical simulation results, and the comparison of simulation results before and after optimization is analyzed. On this basis, the effect of the cyclone oxygen lance on the upward splashing behavior, penetrating depth, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent dissipation rate, and rotation of molten bath is investigated. The conclusions present that, compared with the conventional oxygen lance, the upward splashing with the cyclone oxygen lance decreases, and t... [more]

Catalytic processing of organochlorine wastes is considered an eco-friendly technology. Moreover, it allows us to obtain a value-added product—nanostructured carbon materials. However, the realization of this process is complicated by the aggressiveness of the reaction medium due to the presence of active chlorine species. The present research is focused on the characteristics of the carbon product obtained over the Ni-Pd catalyst containing 5 wt% of palladium in various quartz reactors: from a lab-scale reactor equipped with McBain balance to scaled-up reactors producing hundreds of grams. 1,2-dichloroethane was used as a model chlorine-substituted organic compound. The characterization of the materials was performed using scanning and transmission electron microscopies, Raman spectroscopy, and low-temperature nitrogen adsorption. Depending on the reactor type, the carbon yield varied from 14.0 to 24.2 g/g(cat). The resulting carbon nanofibers possess a segmented structure with disord... [more]

Electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are a new trend for the vehicle industry, due to the environmental regulations of the internal combustion engine (ICE) and pollutant emission of transportation. However, despite being very promising, the durability of the battery, due to overheating, is still an obstacle. In particular, electric vehicle batteries are manufactured with high voltage and high capacity to ensure power and energy efficiency. For this reason, a high temperature is generated in the system, which reduces the battery performance and life cycle. In this study, three different layouts, based on a direct contact air-cooled system, are designed to compare and improve the cooling performance. Further, a battery cooling test is conducted to verify the designed model. The results show that the spoiler model reduces the maximum battery temperature by (about) 16%, and effectively improves the temperature distribution of the battery cell by (about) 65%, when com... [more]

Background: The purpose of this study was to measure the preventive and regenerative effect of glutamine and probiotics induced by alcohol injury in Holtzman rats. Methods: Analytical, experimental and prospective study. The population consisted of 56 male rats between 300 and 350 g, distributed in three experimental phases: Pre-pilot phase PPP (6 rats), Pilot phase PP (10 rats), and Experimental phase EP (40 rats). In the pilot phase, 10 rats were subjected to damage with 8.5% ethanol, which was given intragastrically. The dosage was calculated for 10 rats in two groups: the first with 7.5 mL/kg in 5 rats and the second with 8.5 mL/kg in 5 rats. The experimental phase was performed in 40 rats divided into 6 groups, the negative control group (healthy), positive control group (injured), preventive experimental group (glutamine and glutamine with probiotic) and regenerative experimental group (glutamine and glutamine with probiotic). At the end of each phase, the rats were sacrificed wi... [more]

Black cumin oil adulteration has become a concern because it has numerous health benefits and a high price. Therefore, a simple, non-destructive, and rapid method to identify adulterations in black seed oil is necessary to protect the quality of the oils. This study aimed to perform a non-invasive method to authenticate black cumin oil by portable FT-NIR, FT-MIR, and Raman spectrometers. Spectra were collected with portable devices and analyzed using Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) to generate a classification model to identify pure black cumin oil and partial least squares regression (PLSR) to predict the adulterant levels. For confirmation, the fatty acid profile of the oils was determined by gas chromatography (GC). SIMCA and PLSR models provided a very high performance in detecting adulterated samples in all portable units. These portable units showed great potential for rapid and non-destructive monitoring to identify adulterated black cumin oils.

In 2008, the Republic of Korea announced the Low Carbon Green Growth vision as the national growth engine. This Green Growth vision invested in developing state-of-the-art green technologies to minimize greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions. Following a change in administration, Korean green technologies were re-categorized into six core technologies for climate change response in 2014, and ten core technologies for carbon-neutrality in 2021. The government proposed the realization of an inclusive green state in the 3rd Five-Year Green Growth Plan announced in 2019. Following the Green New Deal announced in 2020, green technology policies and investments continue, with the declaration of 2050 carbon neutrality. In the past two years, government policies from the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Strategy to the 2050 Carbon-Neutral Scenario consider Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) as an important technology to reduce CO2 and meet carbon-neutral goals. This study examines major green... [more]

Multi-line overlapping shield tunnels have a complicated layout in the underground space, and the interaction mechanism between tunnels is very complicated. Based on the construction formation of multi-line overlapped shield tunnel with short-distance up- and down-crossing, indoor model tests were conducted to analyze ground settlement (caused by excavation unloading and stratum loss) and the longitudinal deformation law of existing tunnels based on the drainage method, according to the characteristics and control requirements of the short-distance construction of shield tunnels. The results show that as long as the construction strategy of first-down and then-up crossing is adopted, no sudden change in ground settlement would occur. Furthermore, neither the changes in transient settlements nor the final ground settlement would be too large, which is different from the strategy of first-up and then-down crossing; the first-up and then-down crossing strategy generally increases the curv... [more]

Plastic products are widely used due to their superior performance, but there are still limitations in the current methods and technologies for recycling and processing of waste plastics, resulting in a huge wasting of resources and environmental pollution. The element composition of waste plastics determines its great gasification potential. In this paper, three different waste plastic gasification processes are designed in a process simulator based on the conventional Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) system to achieve waste conversion and utilization as well as carbon capture. Design 1 is based on the cryogenic air separation (CAS) process to obtain oxygen, which is sent to the gasifier together with steam and pretreated waste plastics. The synthesis gas is purified and synthesized into methanol, and the residual gas is passed to the gas turbine and steam turbine to achieve multiple production of heat, electricity, and methanol. Design 2 uses a Vacuum Pressure Swing Adso... [more]

Studies have proven that alkaline water has a protective effect on gastric diseases. However, the underlying mechanism is not clear. Moreover, in some countries, especially in China, purified water (distilled water) is also an important form of drinking water, while its protective effect on gastric diseases is still unknown. This study aimed to compare the effects of distilled water (pH = 5.6 ± 0.3) and alkaline natural mineral water (pH = 9.3 ± 0.6) on ethanol-induced gastric ulcers in mice and to further clarify the underlying mechanisms. Pepsin activity, prostaglandin E-2 (PGE2) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as the oxidative stress pathway related proteins such as nuclear factor erythroid-2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), and NADH quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) were measured. After alkaline natural mineral water treatment, the levels of PGE2 and HSP70 were significantly... [more]

The k-nearest neighbor (kNN) method only uses samples’ paired distance to perform fault detection. It can overcome the nonlinearity, multimodality, and non-Gaussianity of process data. However, the nearest neighbors found by kNN on a data set containing a lot of outliers or noises may not be actual or trustworthy neighbors but a kind of pseudo neighbor, which will degrade process monitoring performance. This paper presents a new fault detection scheme using the mutual k-nearest neighbor (MkNN) method to solve this problem. The primary characteristic of our approach is that the calculation of the distance statistics for process monitoring uses MkNN rule instead of kNN. The advantage of the proposed approach is that the influence of outliers in the training data is eliminated, and the fault samples without MkNNs can be directly detected, which improves the performance of fault detection. In addition, the mutual protection phenomenon of outliers is explored. The numerical examples and Ten... [more]

Urban heat islands (UHI) occur especially in inner-city areas due to small green areas, an excess of high solar heat, and low air circulation. One solution is the “harvesting” of excess solar urban heat through shallow absorber ducts, which are then used in borehole heat exchanger (BHE) fields for later use for heat or cold storage. Knowing the thermophysical properties of the subsurface as accurately as possible is of great importance in the design and configuring of a borehole heat exchanger field as a thermal energy storage system. In this study, a subsoil drill core from a BHE, with a depth of 80 m, was used to determine temperature dependent effective thermal conductivity based on the heat flow meter method, the specific heat capacity based on differential scanning calorimetry, and thermal expansion based on dilatometry in moist and dry states. The results have shown that the actual moisture content of the subsoil sample has a strong impact on the thermal conductivity, as well as... [more]

Based on Grey System Theory and the inverted normal quality gain-loss function, the inverted normal grey quality gain-loss function model is put forward. According to the constant compensation and hyperbolic tangent compensation, the grey quality gain-loss function model with nominal-type characteristics, larger-the-better characteristics and smaller-the-better characteristics is built. A multivariate grey quality gain-loss function model with multiple sub quality indexes and the concept of grey quality gain-loss cost are proposed. Case analysis is applied to the quality control of dam concrete construction, which verifies the applicability of the model and provides an important reference for research on the new theory of dam concrete construction quality control.

Enzymes are outstanding (bio)catalysts, not solely on account of their ability to increase reaction rates by up to several orders of magnitude but also for the high degree of substrate specificity, regiospecificity and stereospecificity. The use and development of enzymes as robust biocatalysts is one of the main challenges in biotechnology. However, despite the high specificities and turnover of enzymes, there are also drawbacks. At the industrial level, these drawbacks are typically overcome by resorting to immobilized enzymes to enhance stability. Immobilization of biocatalysts allows their reuse, increases stability, facilitates process control, eases product recovery, and enhances product yield and quality. This is especially important for expensive enzymes, for those obtained in low fermentation yield and with relatively low activity. This review provides an integrated perspective on (multi)enzyme immobilization that abridges a critical evaluation of immobilization methods and ca... [more]

As the heat dissipation of smart devices increases, cutting-edge cooling solutions are becoming increasingly important. The heat pipe is an efficient device that boosts heat transfer and is recommended to reduce thermal management power. In this study, a concentric annular heat pipe (CAHP) with distilled water as a working fluid is proposed to enhance heat transfer, and experiments and one-dimensional analysis were carried out to predict thermal characteristics and evaluate performance. The CAHP was 90 mm in length, 62 mm in inner diameter, 70 mm in outer diameter, and 0.4 mm in thickness. At the outer surface of the internal CAHP, a two-layer screen mesh wick (500 mesh, Stainless Steel 304) that is 0.34 mm in layer thickness was installed. A ceramic heater (20 mm × 20 mm) was attached to the middle of the outer surface, and the hollow region with 48 fins was cooled by an electric fan. The experiment was carried out with variations in the heat load, the filling ratio of the working flu... [more]

The development and improvement of thin film deposition techniques is an important research topic to obtain new materials at submicro and nano scale with high homogeneity and thickness control. Here, we designed and built an automated device for the deposition of binary or ternary compound films using Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR). The instrument is integrated by three different systems. The first system consists of a mobile platform of two degrees of freedom. The second part has an 8-bit microcontroller used to adjust the velocities along the horizontal and vertical axes. The third, the control system, uses a mobile app that can be implemented in smart devices, developed in free code software for programming and monitoring the main deposition parameters of the SILAR device such as the number of cycles, the immersion and emersion velocities, the residence time at each step, and the number of reactors. The performance of our instrument was verified through the d... [more]

Based on the chaos algorithm and immune algorithm theory, an adaptive chaotic immune optimization algorithm (ACIOA) with a mutative scale was proposed and subsequently validated by the experiment result in this paper, and then the adaptive chaotic immune optimization algorithm with mutative scale was applied to investigate the performance characteristics of the medium-frequency induction furnace. The obtained results include the effects on the performance characteristics of a medium-frequency induction furnace of the diameter of the heated cylindrical material, the thickness of the crucible wall, the fullness degree of the induction coil, the ratio of diameter to current penetration depth, and the power frequency. The results showed that the optimization algorithm could continuously modify the variable search space and take the optimal number of cycles as the control index to carry out the search. In addition, the suitable ratio of diameter to current penetration depth was between 3.5... [more]

The effect of heating and freezing pretreatments on rapeseed oil yield and the volume of oil energy under uniaxial compression loading was investigated. Four separate experiments were carried out to achieve the study objective. The first and second experiments were performed to determine the compression parameters (deformation, mass of oil, oil yield, oil expression efficiency, energy, volume of oil and volume of oil energy). The third and fourth experiments identified the optimal factors (heating temperatures: 40, 60 and 80 °C, freezing temperatures: −2, −22 and −36 °C, heating times: 15, 30 and 45 min and speeds: 5, 10 and 15 mm/min) using the Box−Behnken design via the response surface methodology where the oil yield and volume of oil energy were the main responses. The optimal operating factors for obtaining a volume of oil energy of 0.0443 kJ/mL were a heating temperature of 40 °C, heating time of 45 min and speed of 15 mm/min. The volume of oil energy of 0.169 kJ/mL was reached a... [more]

Two options, in regard to applying microbial fuel cells (MFCs) in water treatment, are under discussion, namely the conversion of the chemical energy of organic substrates to electricity, as well as the use their potential to reduce different species, such as the ionic form of copper (Cu2+ converted to metal copper) and iron (Fe3+ converted to Fe2+). The high reduction potential of Cu2+ and Fe3+ makes the processes of electricity production and metal reduction, to be performed simultaneously in MFC, achievable. The electrical yield measurement during the experiments of anodic organic matter degradation by MFC in treating an artificial wastewater with chemical oxygen demand (COD) 0.6 and 1.6 g O2·dm−3, as initial COD, are given. It is demonstrated that the higher organic load is associated with better electrical yield. A comparison of MFC and conventional anaerobic digestion performance is discussed, as well. Experimental proofs of copper removal and phosphate mobilization, following th... [more]

An experiment was carried out in the laboratories of the Department of Food Engineering, Department of Vegetable Science, and Department of Plantation Spices Medicinal and Aromatic crops, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), West Bengal, India. The work was performed during 2018−2019 and 2019−2020 with different drying methods including sun drying, solar drying and oven drying. In oven drying, different temperatures such as 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70 °C were considered. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was designed with seven treatments and three replications. Experimental results were significantly varied among the treatments as influenced by different drying methods and temperatures. Minimum time taken (480 min) to reach safe moisture content was recorded in T7 (oven drying at 70 °C), whereas maximum values in color components such as L* value (24.55), a* value (32.14), b* value (20.53), and pungency score (7.85) were recorded in T6 (oven drying at 65 °C). However, the h... [more]