Alpha Hope is a dietary supplement containing pyrroloquinoline quinone and elemental magnesium, which produces molecular hydrogen (H2 gas) when dissolved in water. We determined the impact of Alpha Hope on Nrf-2, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator (PGC-1α), and citrate synthase (CS) activity in C2C12 myoblasts. Alpha Hope was titrated to three concentrations of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) (10 nM, 100 nM, 1000 nM) and treated on C2C12 for 48 h. Nrf-2 and PGC-1α levels were measured using Western blot analysis. CS activity was measured according to previously described methods. Treatment significantly increased Nrf-2 and PGC-1α protein levels in C2C12 myoblasts, with no change for CS. For Nrf-2, values for both the 100 nM (p = 0.046) and 1000 nM (p = 0.011) concentrations were higher than control. For PGC-1α, values for both the 100 nM (p = 0.039) and 1000 nM (p = 0.017) concentrations were higher than control. In a small human pilot study, subjects consumed... [more]

Compared to conventional reservoirs, the prediction of pressure in ultra-deep tight sandstone formations is difficult. The prediction of seismic pressure is more challenging than well-logging pressure prediction. The main methods for seismic pressure prediction include the equivalent depth method, Eaton method, Fillippone formula, and modified versions. Among them, the Eaton method is widely used and has good effectiveness. However, this method relies on difficult-to-obtain normal compaction trend lines, which leads to low prediction accuracy in space. To address this issue, a method combining the Eaton method and collocated cokriging is proposed. Herein, the Eaton formula is used to predict formation pressure at the well, with compressional wave velocity as the covariate for predicting the main variable—formation pressure. By simulating the shear wave velocity based on seismic compressional wave velocity, the influence of various parameters on the prediction results is analyzed, and t... [more]

Shale diagenesis differs from that of sandstone and carbonate rocks with regard to the type, evolution stage, and evolution mode. The quality of shale reservoirs is closely linked to the extent of diagenetic evolution. This study identifies the types and characteristics of shale diagenesis using thin sections and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations. The stages of shale diagenesis are determined by analyzing organic matter evolution and clay mineral transformation and establishing a diagenetic evolution sequence. This paper describes the comprehensive diagenetic evolution of organic matter, clay minerals, clastic particles, and carbonate minerals to determine the diagenesis types, diagenetic sequences, and pore evolution occurring during diagenetic evolution. The results show that the diagenesis types of shale in the second member of the Funing Formation include compaction, dissolution, cementation, metasomatism, dolomitization, syneresis, and transformation of clay minerals... [more]

Most studies of inventory consolidation effects assume time-independent random demand. In this article, we consider time-dependence by incorporating an autoregressive moving average structure to model the demand for products. With this modeling approach, we analyze the effect of consolidation on inventory costs compared to a system without consolidation. We formulate an inventory setting based on continuous-review using allocation rules for regular transshipment and centralization, which establishes temporal structures of demand. Numerical simulations demonstrate that, under time-dependence, the demand conditional variance, based on past data, is less than the marginal variance. This finding favors dedicated locations for inventory replenishment. Additionally, temporal structures reduce the costs of maintaining safety stocks through regular transshipments when such temporal patterns exist. The obtained results are illustrated with an example using real-world data. Our investigation pro... [more]

As one of the research hotspots in the field of pumps, cavitation detection plays an important role in equipment maintenance and cost-saving. Based on this, this paper analyzes detection methods of cavitation faults based on different signals, including vibration signals, acoustic emission signals, noise signals, and pressure pulsation signals. First, the principle of each detection method is introduced. Then, the research status of the four detection methods is summarized from the aspects of cavitation-induced signal characteristics, signal processing methods, feature extraction, intelligent algorithm identification of cavitation state, detection efficiency, and measurement point distribution position. Among these methods, we focus on the most widely used one, the vibration method. The advantages and disadvantages of various detection methods are analyzed and proposed: acoustic methods including noise and acoustic emission can detect early cavitation very well; the vibration method is... [more]

Underground reservoir water storage technology has become one important way to achieve efficient coal mining and water resource protection in the western mining areas of China, and the width of coal pillar dams is an important factor affecting the safe operation of underground reservoirs. In order to study the limitations on the reasonable size of a coal pillar dam, Daliuta Mine was selected as the engineering background and a theoretical formula for the reasonable width of a coal pillar dam was proposed. By combining theoretical analysis with numerical simulation analysis, the main influencing factors of the coal pillar dam were compared and analyzed. The research results indicated that changes in the mining height and coal parameters can cause a sharp change in the width of the plastic zone of the dam body. Then, mine water will have an impact on the width of the plastic zone and the width of the elastic core. Moreover, when the width of the coal pillar is smaller than the theoretica... [more]

To reduce the dependence on fossil fuels to fulfill energy needs and give rural areas better access to energy, biomethane generation technology (BG-TECH) can help in these situations. However, several crucial factors might influence BG-TECH’s acceptance by households. In order to eradicate the barriers to and strengthen the driving forces of BG-TECH acceptance, it becomes inevitable to explore those crucial factors. Therefore, the core objective of this research is to analyze the factors impacting BG-TECH acceptance by households in rural Pakistan. This research will enrich the existing literature by comprehensively analyzing factors driving or impeding BG-TECH acceptance. To collect relevant data, a questionnaire was developed and distributed in four districts of Pakistan. In this respect, 150 users and 150 non-users of biomethane were selected through stratified random sampling. To analyze the factors affecting the acceptance of BG-TECH, a logistic regression model was utilized. As p... [more]

The growing importance of the membrane-based air separation processes results in an increasing demand for suitable polymeric membrane structures. This has spurred the interest in designing polymer structures for O2/N2 separation by employing a systematic approach. In this work, a computer-aided molecular design (CAMD)-based framework was developed to identify promising structures of polymers that can be used for air separation. To incorporate constraints in CAMD, the rough set-based machine learning (RSML) method was implemented to establish predictive models for the physical and transport properties of polymer owing to its interpretability. The deterministic rules generated from RSML would be interpreted scientifically reflecting the structure−property relationship to ensure that the molecules generated were feasible according to a scientific point of view. The most prominent rules selected were then integrated as constraints in CAMD. The relevant properties in this framework comprise... [more]

Gear transmission systems are widely used in various fields. The occurrence of gear cracks, tooth pitting, and other faults will lead to the dynamic characteristics deterioration of the transmission system. In order to calculate the meshing stiffness of faulty gear pairs more effectively and precisely, this article improves the loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA) method by analyzing the influence of different fault types on gear deformation, including bending-shearing deformation and contact deformation, which combines the accuracy of the finite element method (FEM) and the rapidity of the analytical method (AM). The improved LTCA method can model the fault areas accurately and optimize the deformation coordination equation under the actual meshing situation of the faulty gear tooth, making it suitable for calculating the meshing stiffness of faulty gears. Based on the calculation results of the finite element method, the accuracy of the improved meshing stiffness calculation method h... [more]

Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction is an important component of failure prediction and health management (PHM). Current life prediction studies require large amounts of tagged training data assuming that the training data and the test data follow a similar distribution. However, the RUL-prediction data of the planetary gearbox, which works in different conditions, will lead to statistical differences in the data distribution. In addition, the RUL-prediction accuracy will be affected seriously. In this paper, a planetary transmission test system was built, and the domain adaptive model was used to Implement the transfer learning (TL) between the planetary transmission system in different working conditions. LSTM-DNN network was used in the data feature extraction and regression analysis. Finally, a domain-adaptive LSTM-DNN-based method for remaining useful life prediction of Planetary Transmission was proposed. The experimental results show that not only the impact of different oper... [more]

The coalbed methane resources of the Gujiao Block are abundant, and the exploration degree is high. The gas production and water production of different CBM (coalbed methane) wells vary greatly. The average gas production of CBM wells in the study area is mostly less than 1000 m3/d, while the average water production is mostly less than 5 m3/d. The gas production of CBM wells near the core of the Malan syncline is relatively high. A series of large faults exist in the central and eastern parts of the study area, and CBM wells nearby produce more water but less gas. The salinity of water discharged from CBM wells ranges from 810.34 to 3115.48 mg/L, which is consistent with the trend of a gradual increase from north to south. The gas content distribution follows this same gradually increasing north to south trend. Coal thickness and buried depth have little effect on gas production, but have some effects on water production. The endogenous fracture system in the coal reservoir is extreme... [more]

A green supply chain economy considering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors improves the chances of functional growth through minimal risk factors. The implication of sophisticated technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the blockchain improves the optimization and evaluation of ESG performance. An IIoT-Blockchain-based Supply Chain Economy Evaluation (IB-SCEE) model is introduced to identify and reduce functional growth risk factors. The proposed model uses green blockchain technology to identify distinct transactions’ economic demands and supply distribution. The flaws and demands in the circular economy process are validated using the IIoT forecast systems relying on ESG convenience. The minimal and maximum risks are identified based on economic and distribution outcomes. The present investigation highlights the significance of ongoing ESG-conceptualized research into blockchain-based supply chain economics. Companies who recognize the bloc... [more]

In response to the exponential growth in world population, there has been a striking surge in the volume of discarded fish worldwide. This surge is particularly evident in the fish processing industry, where a substantial amount of waste is generated, posing significant environmental concerns. Consequently, the repurposing and utilisation of these waste materials have emerged as pivotal processes for the preservation of marine resources. By employing innovative strategies, valuable products can be extracted from these fish by-products, offering not only economic advantages but also contributing to mitigating environmental impacts. This comprehensive literature review focuses on exploring diverse avenues for using fish waste and extracting high-value materials such as bioactive peptides, collagen, and enzymes, elucidating their potential applications across various industries. The literature review also demonstrates the possibility of extracting various bio-compounds from highly diverse... [more]

In offshore drilling, accidents such as gas invasion, overflow, and kicks are unavoidable, and they can escalate into blowouts and other catastrophic events, resulting in casualties and significant economic losses. Therefore, ensuring drilling safety requires precise monitoring of gas invasion and overflow. Currently, most overflow monitoring methods used at drilling sites are based on threshold criteria. However, the monitoring parameters obtained during actual drilling operations often contain noise signals, which makes it challenging for threshold-based methods to achieve a balance between improving accuracy and minimizing false positives. This paper proposes a novel method called Pattern-Recognition-based Kick Detection (PRKD) for diagnosing overflow in offshore drilling. The PRKD method utilizes the overflow evolution process by integrating multiphase flow calculations, data filtering theory, pattern recognition theory, the Bayesian framework, and other theoretical models. By anal... [more]

Drilling pumps are crucial for oil and gas operations. Timely diagnosis and troubleshooting of fluid end faults is crucial to ensure the safe and stable operation of drilling pumps and prevent further deterioration of faults. Hence, from a data-driven perspective, this study proposes a fault diagnosis method for the fluid end of drilling pumps based on the generalized S transform (GST) and convolutional neural networks (CNN), using the vibration signal of the fluid end. To address the issue of noise pollution in the vibration signal resulting in unclear feature information and difficult feature extraction, the vibration signal is transformed into a time−frequency diagram based on GST, which more accurately characterizes the fault characteristics of the vibration signal. An AlexNet model, improved by introducing batch normalization and optimizing the number of neurons in the fully connected layer, is used to analyze the recognition performance of the model for the normal, minor damage,... [more]

Multi-horizontal well hydraulic fracturing is a widely employed and highly effective method for stimulating tight and shale reservoirs. However, most existing studies primarily focus on investigating the impact of intra-well interference on fracture propagation while neglecting the influence of inter-well interference. Here, a multi-well hydraulic-fracture-propagation model is established to examine the effects of inter-well interference on fracture propagation within a multi-well system. In this study, based on the bilinear T-S criterion, the stiffness degradation is used to describe the damage and evolution process of fracture, the coupling process of fluid flow and solid damage and deformation is realized, and the dynamic distribution of inter-fracture flow is realized by using Kirchhoff function on the basis of the cohesive zone method (CZM) finite element model. Finally, the fracture-propagation model of multiple horizontal wells is established. Based on this model, the mechanism... [more]

Vitamins, exogenous organic compounds that play a vital role in metabolic reactions, and fundamental powerful antioxidants with a crucial role in the genetic transcription process, are considered essential nutritional factors. Folic acid (FA), also known as folate, or Vitamin B9, plays an indispensable role in various intracellular reactions, being the main pawn, with a strong impact on medical and dental science. The aim of this paper mainly focuses on presenting the latest and most advanced aspects related to the following topics: (1) the resonance that FA, and more specifically FA deficiency, has at the level of the oral cavity; (2) the elements involved in the molecular landscape, which reflect the interaction and the possible mechanisms of action, through which FA influences oral health; and (3) the particular processes by which FA deficiency causes certain clinical conditions. Moreover, we aim to draw the attention and trigger the curiosity of health professionals on the need to... [more]

The food system plays a significant role in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing to over one-third of these emissions. However, there has been limited attention given in the literature on how the food industry can effectively address the carbon issue. This review aims to bridge this research gap through providing a comprehensive overview of anthropogenic GHG emissions and exploring the role of carbon markets in mitigating climate change, with a specific emphasis on the food industry. It delves into the introduction of emission hotspots within the food industry, examines ongoing efforts in GHG emissions mitigation, and addresses the challenges associated with GHG verification and offsetting. Notably, emission hotspots are primarily found in the farm, manufacturing, and post-production stages of the food industry. The emissions from the farm stage, which are often overlooked, make a significant contribution to overall emissions. Carbon verification encounters limita... [more]

Microbial contamination has caused various diseases via pathogenic bacteria, endangering people’s lives every day. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to the exploration of new and effective antibacterial materials. In this paper, we attempted to synthesize a fish scale charcoal nanosilver antibacterial composite using waste fish scale as a carbon substrate. X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy showed that the structure of the nanosilver fish scale material formed and the nanosilver particles formed account for 72.1% of the silver element. Its antibacterial ability against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was examined using the plate counting method and inhibition zones; the maximum inhibition zone was 32 mm. The antibacterial rate could reach >99.9%, indicating that this prepared material had excellent antibacterial activity. After 20... [more]

Removal of phenol and phenolic compounds from wastewater using various techniques has received considerable attention in recent years. In this work, the removal of phenol from a model solution of phenol via catalytic oxidation is investigated with oxidant H2O2. For this purpose, we designed a new nano-catalyst (8% Fe2O3/AC) by loading iron oxide nanoparticles over nano-activated carbon via the impregnation process. We modified the recently developed digital basket baffle batch reactor (DBBBR) and used it for the catalytic oxidation process in order to examine the activity of the prepared nano-catalyst. The highest efficiency of phenol removal was found to be 95.35% under the following parameters: oxidation time of 120 min, oxidation temperature at 85 °C, and stirrer speed of 600 rpm. The minimization of the sum of the squared error between the experimental data and predicted results of phenol removal was considered as a base for the optimization technique to estimate the optimal parame... [more]

Gossan ore is typically abandoned after mining, which not only increases mining production costs but also wastes mineral resources, and its long-term accumulation can easily lead to environmental pollution hazards. Therefore, this paper takes zinc-containing gossan ore as the research object and, based on the high content of zinc and iron minerals in gossan ore, this study conducts a roasting experiment to prepare ZnFeO4. X-ray diffraction is used to characterize and analyze the ZnFeO4 sample prepared by roasting zinc-containing gossan ore. The experimental results indicate that controlling the particle size of the roasted ore sample to −0.074 mm can effectively remove impurities and facilitate the reaction. The influence of roasting temperature and time on the formation of ZnFeO4 is remarkable. The conditions for roasting zinc-containing gossan ore to maximize the ZnFeO4 content are as follows: −0.074 mm particle size ore sample, reaction zinc/iron molar ratio of 1:2, mechanical activ... [more]

This paper focuses on the sustainable exploration of building systems, which combines ecological concepts and low-carbon designs for a comprehensive sustainability assessment investigation. The study employed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-Emergy and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-Carbon emission methods to discuss a range of topics, including the main contributing factors, sustainability index verification, sensitivity analysis, and potential improvement measures. From an ecological sustainability perspective, the results indicate that the building operation stage plays a critical role, accounting for approximately 45% of the entire emergy in the building commercial complex. The sustainable index (ESI) is 0.354, which is below the standard of 1. Moreover, the building operation stage also significantly contributes to carbon emissions, particularly in the 50th anniversary of operation. Based on these findings, the study recommends two potential strategies to improve the ecological state... [more]

During the process of drug discovery, many compounds have exhibited polypharmacological interactions with various biological entities [...]

The connection between various energy types in the integrated power and natural gas system has grown stronger in recent years, as has the penetration rate of clean energy. Wind power generation volatility offers a considerable barrier to power system operation. This research provides a multi-time scale economic dispatch model with flexibility limitations to address this issue. Through chance-constrained programming, the equipment flexibility is described by probability functions and predetermined confidence levels in this model, and the generating cost and wind power consumption are improved through day-ahead and intra-day optimal scheduling. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by two case studies of integrated energy systems, where the results show that about 68.0−72.1% wind power curtailment can be effectively reduced while satisfying all load and system safety requirements.

In this study, the classification, composition, preparation methods, and performance parameters of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) and their recent applications in natural product extraction, drug delivery systems, trace metal determination, nanomaterial synthesis, and electrochemistry are systematically summarised through the literature of recent decades, using DESs and applications as keywords. The hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA) of DESs are mainly quaternary ammonium salts (e.g., choline chloride) or amphoteric ions (e.g., betaine); the hydrogen bond donors (HBD) are mostly compounds such as urea, polyols, and sugars. Their melting points are related to hydrogen bonding, their polarities are higher than most ionic liquids, and their viscosities are generally in the range of 0.01−5 Pa·s. Compared with traditional organic solvents and conventional ionic liquids, DESs have higher solubility, with their ability to dissolve metal oxides and insoluble drugs, and have good biodegradability. DE... [more]