Primjena zelenih, ekološki prihvatljivih materijala u pakiranju hrane

With social development, requirements on the spiritual and material life have increased. However, some environmental issues appear, for example, in food packaging. Application of environment-friendly materials in food packaging has been more and more attractive. This study analyses the characteristics of degradable food packaging material and the existing problems, proposes the manufacturing of food packaging with poly(lactic acid)/nanocrystalline cellulose composite material, tests its thermal and mechanical properties, and applies it to the design of food packaging. The results demonstrate that the thermal and mechanical properties of the material could satisfy the requirements of food packaging and that the material is applicable to the design of food packaging in the future. This work provides a reference for the application of green, environment-friendly materials in the design of food packaging. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.S razvojem društva povećali su se zahtjevi za kvalitetnijim duhovnim i materijalnim životom. Međutim, neki problemi u vezi sa zaštitom okoliša pojavljuju se, na primjer, pri pakiranju namirnica. U posljednje vrijeme za ambalažu sve se više upotrebljavaju ekološki prihvatljivi materijali. Ova studija analizira karakteristike i postojeće probleme s razgradljivim ambalažnim materijalima, predlaže proizvodnju ambalaže od kompozita poli(mliječne kiseline) i nanokristalne celuloze, provjerava toplinska i mehanička svojstva i primjenjuje ga na dizajn ambalaže. Rezultati pokazuju da toplinska i mehanička svojstva materijala zadovoljavaju zahtjeve ambalaže za hranu. Rad daje referenciju za primjenu zelenih, ekološki prihvatljivih materijala u dizajnu ambalaže za hranu. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna

The Challenges of China’s Food and Feed Economy

China’s transformation from a net food exporter to a net food importer has occurred in a very short period of time and this has implications for both China and the world. This paper argues that there is strategic and practical significance in China-Africa agricultural cooperation, as the current import structure of food and other agricultural products is imbalanced and China’s food supply-demand imbalances will continue to expand. This raises the possibility of political and economic crisis for China and threatens those poor countries who are relying on international food markets. Africa possesses substantial areas of arable land that can be developed and utilised; thus, China-Africa agricultural cooperation can potentially enhance African nations’ productive capacity and contribute to local food security, through which it can indirectly improve global food security and stabilise the international food market under China’s increasing food demand context

Microscopic evidence for strong periodic lattice distortion in 2D charge-density wave systems

In the quasi-2D electron systems of the layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) there is still a controversy about the nature of the transitions to charge-density wave (CDW) phases, i.e. whether they are described by a Peierls-type mechanism or by a lattice-driven model. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments on the canonical TMD-CDW systems, we have imaged the electronic modulation and the lattice distortion separately in 2H-TaS$_2$, TaSe$_2$, and NbSe$_2$. Across the three materials, we found dominant lattice contributions instead of the electronic modulation expected from Peierls transitions, in contrast to the CDW states that show the hallmark of contrast inversion between filled and empty states. Our results imply that the periodic lattice distortion (PLD) plays a vital role in the formation of CDW phases in the TMDs and illustrate the importance of taking into account the more complicated lattice degree of freedom when studying correlated electron systems

Deregulated calcium signaling in blood cancer: Underlying mechanisms and therapeutic potential

Intracellular calcium signaling regulates diverse physiological and pathological processes. In solid tumors, changes to calcium channels and effectors via mutations or changes in expression affect all cancer hallmarks. Such changes often disrupt transport of calcium ions (Ca$^{2+}$) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or mitochondria, impacting apoptosis. Evidence rapidly accumulates that this is similar in blood cancer. Principles of intracellular Ca$^{2+}$ signaling are outlined in the introduction. We describe different Ca$^{2+}$-toolkit components and summarize the unique relationship between extracellular Ca$^{2+}$ in the endosteal niche and hematopoietic stem cells. The foundational data on Ca$^{2+}$ homeostasis in red blood cells is discussed, with the demonstration of changes in red blood cell disorders. This leads to the role of Ca$^{2+}$ in neoplastic erythropoiesis. Then we expand onto the neoplastic impact of deregulated plasma membrane Ca$^{2+}$ channels, ER Ca$^{2+}$ channels, Ca$^{2+}$ pumps and exchangers, as well as Ca$^{2+}$ sensor and effector proteins across all types of hematologic neoplasms. This includes an overview of genetic variants in the Ca$^{2+}$-toolkit encoding genes in lymphoid and myeloid cancers as recorded in publically available cancer databases. The data we compiled demonstrate that multiple Ca$^{2+}$ homeostatic mechanisms and Ca$^{2+}$ responsive pathways are altered in hematologic cancers. Some of these alterations may have genetic basis but this requires further investigation. Most changes in the Ca$^{2+}$-toolkit do not appear to define/associate with specific disease entities but may influence disease grade, prognosis, treatment response, and certain complications. Further elucidation of the underlying mechanisms may lead to novel treatments, with the aim to tailor drugs to different patterns of deregulation. To our knowledge this is the first review of its type in the published literature. We hope that the evidence we compiled increases awareness of the calcium signaling deregulation in hematologic neoplasms and triggers more clinical studies to help advance this field

Data Processing Pipeline For Tianlai Experiment

The Tianlai project is a 21cm intensity mapping experiment aimed at detecting dark energy by measuring the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) features in the large scale structure power spectrum. This experiment provides an opportunity to test the data processing methods for cosmological 21cm signal extraction, which is still a great challenge in current radio astronomy research. The 21cm signal is much weaker than the foregrounds and easily affected by the imperfections in the instrumental responses. Furthermore, processing the large volumes of interferometer data poses a practical challenge. We have developed a data processing pipeline software called {\tt tlpipe} to process the drift scan survey data from the Tianlai experiment. It performs offline data processing tasks such as radio frequency interference (RFI) flagging, array calibration, binning, and map-making, etc. It also includes utility functions needed for the data analysis, such as data selection, transformation, visualization and others. A number of new algorithms are implemented, for example the eigenvector decomposition method for array calibration and the Tikhonov regularization for $m$-mode analysis. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of the {\tt tlpipe} and illustrate its functions with some analysis of real data. Finally, we outline directions for future development of this publicly code.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication on Astronomy and Computin

Effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure on the activity of enzyme and soil bacterial communities in the mountain red soil

IntroductionThe partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure takes on a critical significance to enhancing soil quality and boosting sustainable agricultural development. However, rare research has studied the effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure on soil bacterial community diversity and enzyme activity in maize field in the mountain red soil region of Yunnan.MethodsIn this study, four treatments were set up in which chemical fertilizer (the application rates of N, P2O5 and K2O were 240, 75 and 75 kg·ha−1, respectively) was substituted by 10% (M10), 20% (M20), 30% (M30) and 40% (M40) of organic manure with equal nitrogen, as well as two control treatments of single application of chemical fertilizer (M0) and no fertilization (CK). The maize (Zea mays L.) crop was sown as a test crop in May 2018. The effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure on soil physicochemical properties, soil bacterial community diversity and enzyme activity were studied.ResultsThe activities of Cellulase (CBH), Invertase (INV) and β-glucosidase (BG) increased with the increase of organic manure substitution ratio. The activities of β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), Urease (URE), and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) also had the same trend, but the highest activities were 159.92 mg·g−1·h−1, 66.82 mg·g−1·h−1 and 143.90 mg·g−1·h−1 at 30% substitution ratio. Compared with CK and M0 treatments, Shannon index increased notably by 82.91%–116.74% and 92.42%–128.01%, respectively, at the organic manure substitution ratio ranging from 10% to 40%. Chao1 and ACE index increased significantly at the organic manure substitution ratio ranging from 10% to 30%. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum in all treatments, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria decreased as the organic manure substitution ratio increased. Redundancy analysis showed that microbial biomass C was the main factor affecting the bacterial community composition under partial replacement of chemical fertilizer treatment, while Actinobacteria was the main factor affecting the enzyme activity. In addition, the maize yield of M30 and M40 treatments was significantly higher than that of CK and M0-M20 treatments, and the yield of M30 treatment was the highest, reaching 7652.89 kg·ha−1.ConclusionTherefore, the partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure can improve soil biological characteristics, while increasing bacterial community diversity and soil enzyme activity. Therefore, a thirty percent organic manure substitution was determined as the optimal substitution ratio for maize farmland in the mountain red soil area of Yunnan, China

A Fast Transient Backend to Detect FRBs with the Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array

The Tianlai Dish Pathfinder array is a radio interferometer array consisting of 16 six meter dish antennas. The original digital backend integration time is at the seconds level, designed for HI intensity mapping experiment. A new digital backend with millisecond response is added to enable it to search for fast radio burst (FRB) during its observations. The design and calibration of this backend, and the real time search pipeline for it are described in this paper. It is capable of forming 16 digital beams for each linear polarisation, covering an area of 19.6 square degrees. The search pipeline is capable of searching for, recording and classifying FRBs automatically in real time. In commissioning, we succeeded in capturing the signal pulses from the pulsars PSR B0329+54 and B2021+51.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, RAA accepte