INDENTATION COEFFICIENT AND INDENTATION BEHAVIOR OF BAMBOO

Bamboo hardness test standards are not available. The study aimed to develop a new method of testing bamboo indentation hardness. With the V-shaped prismatic head, bamboo rings with different lengths were tested. The V-shaped indentation coefficient (IC) was defined. The results showed that the IC had a good correlation with compression strength. The V-shaped IC increased with the increase in the longitudinal height of the bamboo pole, and the variance analysis showed significant differences in different axial directions of the same bamboo ring. In addition, the correlation between density and IC is good. The V-shaped IC can be applied in bamboo gr

Nitrogen Self-Doped Activated Carbons Derived from Bamboo Shoots as Adsorbent for Methylene Blue Adsorption

Bamboo shoots, a promising renewable biomass, mainly consist of carbohydrates and other nitrogen-related compounds, such as proteins, amino acids and nucleotides. In this work, nitrogen self-doped activated carbons derived from bamboo shoots were prepared via a simultaneous carbonization and activation process. The adsorption properties of the prepared samples were evaluated by removing methylene blue from waste water. The factors that affect the adsorption process were examined, including initial concentration, contact time and pH of methylene blue solution. The resulting that BSNC-800-4 performed better in methylene blue removal from waste water, due to its high specific surface area (2270.9 m2 g−1), proper pore size (2.19 nm) and relatively high nitrogen content (1.06%). Its equilibrium data were well fitted to Langmuir isotherm model with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 458 mg g−1 and a removal efficiency of 91.7% at methylene blue concentration of 500 mg L−1. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model could be used to accurately estimate the carbon material’s (BSNC-800-4) adsorption process. The adsorption mechanism between methylene blue solution and BSNC-800-4 was controlled by film diffusion. This study provides an alternative way to develop nitrogen self-doped activated carbons to better meet the needs of the adsorption applications

Detecting influenza and emerging avian influenza virus by influenza and pneumonia surveillance systems in a large city in China, 2005 to 2016.

BACKGROUND(#br)Detecting avian influenza virus has become an important public health strategy for controlling the emerging infectious disease.(#br)METHODS(#br)The HIS (hospital information system) modified influenza surveillance system (ISS) and a newly built pneumonia surveillance system (PSS) were used to monitor the influenza viruses in Changsha City, China. The ISS was used to monitor outpatients in two sentinel hospitals and to detect mild influenza and avian influenza cases, and PSS was used to monitor inpatients in 49 hospitals and to detect severe and death influenza cases.(#br)RESULTS(#br)From 2005 to 2016, there were 3,551,917 outpatients monitored by the ISS system, among whom 126,076 were influenza-like illness (ILI) cases, with the ILI proportion (ILI%) of 3.55%. After the HIS was used, the reported incident cases of ILI and ILI% were increased significantly. From March, 2009 to September, 2016, there were 5,491,560 inpatient cases monitored by the PSS system, among which 362,743 were pneumonia cases, with a proportion of 6.61%. Among pneumonia cases, about 10.55% (38,260/362,743) of cases were severe or death cases. The pneumonia incidence increased each year in the city. Among 15 avian influenza cases reported from January, 2005 to September, 2016, there were 26.7% (4/15) mild cases detected by the HIS-modified ISS system, while 60.0% (9/15) were severe or death cases detected by the PSS system. Two H5N1 severe cases were missed by the ISS system in January, 2009 when the PSS system was not available.(#br)CONCLUSIONS(#br)The HIS was able to improve the efficiency of the ISS for monitoring ILI and emerging avian influenza virus. However, the efficiency of the system needs to be verified in a wider area for a longer time span in China

Dietary Modulation of Gut Microbiota Contributes to Alleviation of Both Genetic and Simple Obesity in Children

Gut microbiota has been implicated as a pivotal contributing factor in diet-related obesity; however, its role in development of disease phenotypes in human genetic obesity such as Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) remains elusive. In this hospitalized intervention trial with PWS (n = 17) and simple obesity (n = 21) children, a diet rich in non-digestible carbohydrates induced significant weight loss and concomitant structural changes of the gut microbiota together with reduction of serum antigen load and alleviation of inflammation. Co-abundance network analysis of 161 prevalent bacterial draft genomes assembled directly from metagenomic datasets showed relative increase of functional genome groups for acetate production from carbohydrates fermentation. NMR-based metabolomic profiling of urine showed diet-induced overall changes of host metabotypes and identified significantly reduced trimethylamine N-oxide and indoxyl sulfate, host-bacteria co-metabolites known to induce metabolic deteriorations. Specific bacterial genomes that were correlated with urine levels of these detrimental co-metabolites were found to encode enzyme genes for production of their precursors by fermentation of choline or tryptophan in the gut. When transplanted into germ-free mice, the pre-intervention gut microbiota induced higher inflammation and larger adipocytes compared with the post-intervention microbiota from the same volunteer. Our multi-omics-based systems analysis indicates a significant etiological contribution of dysbiotic gut microbiota to both genetic and simple obesity in children, implicating a potentially effective target for alleviation

Does democracy lower growth volatility? A dynamic panel analysis

This paper employs dynamic panel generalized method of moment (GMM) technique to empirically examine the causal relationship between democracy and growth volatility for a sample of 138 countries over the 1968-2002 period. Improving upon the methodology of earlier papers, this study finds that the causal effects of democracy on volatility are not highly robust as previously suggested. Instead, the results of this paper indicate that the democracy-volatility relationship may depend on the ethnic structure of a society. In countries with high degrees of ethnic heterogeneity, democracy appears to significantly reduce growth volatility; in countries with low degrees of ethnic diversity such a relationship is not significant.

FDI and growth: a varying relationship across regions and over time

This article investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and economic growth for a panel of 110 countries over the period 1973 to 2002. The results show that the growth effect of FDI varies by region and over time.

Does democracy foster financial development? An empirical analysis

This paper examines whether democracy promotes financial development. While cross-section results show a positive association between democracy and bank development, this relationship disappears in panel regressions. The data also reveals that democracy is not positively related to stock market development.Democracy Institutions Financial development

Political democratization, economic liberalization, and growth volatility

This study empirically investigates the effects of political and economic liberalization on growth volatility using a difference-in-difference method for a sample of 158 countries over the 1970-2005 period. The results show that, when examined separately, economic liberalization leads to a significant reduction in volatility while democratization is not followed by a decrease in growth volatility. For countries that undertake only one liberalization, opening up the economy to international trade reduces volatility in growth; becoming a democracy, on the other hand, seems to increase macroeconomic instability. For countries that implement both political and economic liberalizations, no statistically significant effect on volatility is detected. These results serve to provide additional support for the policy recommendation that developing countries should liberalize their economy first and then consider political liberalization.Growth volatility Liberalization Democracy Difference-in-difference