Microwave-assisted non-thermal hemp degumming

The microwave-assisted non-thermal degumming of hemp fibre has been studied and then compared with the water bath heating under different time and temperature conditions. The results show that the residual gum content of the lean hemp using microwave-assisted heating method is lower than that obtained using water bath heating. The residual gum content gap between the two degumming processes increases first and then decreases as the heating time and temperature are increased. This proves the existence of non-thermal effects in microwave heating process besides the thermal effects in water bath heating. In addition, the structures of the lean hemp fibres obtained from these two methods are also studied by scanning electron microscopy and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Residual Cx45 and its relationship to Cx43 in murine ventricular myocardium

Gap junction channels in ventricular myocardium are required for electrical and metabolic coupling between cardiac myocytes and for normal cardiac pump function. Although much is known about expression patterns and remodeling of cardiac connexin (Cx)43, little is known about the less abundant Cx45, which is required for embryonic development and viability, is downregulated in adult hearts, and is pathophysiologically upregulated in human end-stage heart failure. We applied quantitative immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation to native myocardial extracts, immunogold electron microscopy to cardiac tissue and membrane sections, electrophysiological recordings to whole hearts, and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry to Cx45 fusion protein, and developed two new tools, anti-Cx45 antisera and Cre(+);Cx45 floxed mice, to facilitate characterization of Cx45 in adult mammalian hearts. We found that Cx45 represents 0.3% of total Cx protein (predominantly 200 fmol Cx43 protein/µg ventricular protein) and colocalizes with Cx43 in native ventricular gap junctions, particularly in the apex and septum. Cre(+);Cx45 floxed mice express 85% less Cx45, but do not exhibit overt electrophysiologic abnormalities. Although the basal phosphorylation status of native Cx45 remains unknown, CaMKII phosphorylates eight Ser/Thr residues in Cx45 in vitro. Thus, although downregulation of Cx45 does not produce notable deficits in electrical conduction in adult, disease-free hearts, Cx45 is a target of the multifunctional kinase CaMKII, and the phosphorylation status of Cx45 and the role of Cx43/Cx45 heteromeric gap junction channels in both normal and diseased hearts merits further investigation

Physicochemical and Structural Properties of Pre-digested Puffed Rice Flours with Different Dextrose Equivalent Values

In the present study, pre-digested puffed rice flours with different dextrose equivalent (DE) values were prepared by using enzymatic pretreatment and extrusion, and their gelatinization characteristics, physicochemical and structural properties were analyzed. The results showed that compared with puffed rice flour, the water solubility index of pre-digested puffed rice flour increased by up to about 1.5 times with an increase in DE value, the water absorption index decreased by up to 76%, the slip angle decreased, the Carr index and Hausner ratio increased, and the reconstitutability and fluidity improved obviously. Moreover, the final viscosity and setback value of pre-digested puffed rice flour decreased with increasing DE value, decreasing by up to 37.79% and 94.87%, respectively. Moreover, after enzymatic pretreatment and extrusion, the soluble protein content of pre-digested puffed rice flour decreased, and the content of rapidly digestible starch increased significantly, while the secondary structure of protein and the crystalline structure of starch did not change significantly. The results provide a theoretical basis for the application of pre-digested puffed rice flour instead of maltodextrin in foods for special medical purpose

Biocontrol endophytes Bacillus subtilis R31 influence the quality, transcriptome and metabolome of sweet corn

During colonization of soil and plants, biocontrol bacteria can effectively regulate the physiological metabolism of plants and induce disease resistance. To illustrate the influence of Bacillus subtilis R31 on the quality, transcriptome and metabolome of sweet corn, field studies were conducted at a corn experimental base in Zhuhai City. The results show that, after application of B. subtilis R31, sweet corn was more fruitful, with a 18.3 cm ear length, 5.0 cm ear diameter, 0.4 bald head, 403.9 g fresh weight of single bud, 272.0 g net weight of single ear, and 16.5 kernels sweetness. Combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses indicate that differentially expressed genes related to plant-pathogen interactions, MAPK signaling pathway-plant, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and flavonoid biosynthesis were significantly enriched. Moreover, the 110 upregulated DAMs were mainly involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis and flavone and flavonol biosynthesis pathways. Our study provides a foundation for investigating the molecular mechanisms by which biocontrol bacteria enhance crop nutrition and taste through biological means or genetic engineering at the molecular level

NICE 2023 Zero-shot Image Captioning Challenge

In this report, we introduce NICE project\footnote{\url{https://nice.lgresearch.ai/}} and share the results and outcomes of NICE challenge 2023. This project is designed to challenge the computer vision community to develop robust image captioning models that advance the state-of-the-art both in terms of accuracy and fairness. Through the challenge, the image captioning models were tested using a new evaluation dataset that includes a large variety of visual concepts from many domains. There was no specific training data provided for the challenge, and therefore the challenge entries were required to adapt to new types of image descriptions that had not been seen during training. This report includes information on the newly proposed NICE dataset, evaluation methods, challenge results, and technical details of top-ranking entries. We expect that the outcomes of the challenge will contribute to the improvement of AI models on various vision-language tasks.Comment: Tech report, project page https://nice.lgresearch.ai

Investigation and Analysis of a Hazardous Chemical Accident in the Process Industry: Triggers, Roots, and Lessons Learned

This paper performs an in-depth investigation and analysis on a catastrophic hazardous chemical accident involving domino effects in China based on an emerging accident causation model—the 24Model. The triggers and roots of the incident from the individual and organizational levels have been identified and several useful lessons have been summarized to avoid similar mistakes. This accident began with a leak of vinyl chloride caused by the failure of the gas holder’s bell housing and the operators’ mishandling. Leaked vinyl chloride was ignited by a high-temperature device in the process of diffusion and the fire quickly spread to the illegally parked vehicles. Several organizations were involved in this accident, and the chemical company should bear the main responsibility for it, and shall establish and implement an effective safety management system in its organizational structure and staffing, facilities management, hazards identification, emergency disposal, etc., to improve safety performance in a systematic way. Enterprises in the chemical industry park shall enhance the communication to clarify major hazard installations in their domains, and conduct regular safety evaluation for the plant as the external environment changed. Government agencies shall plan the layout of the chemical industry park scientifically and ensure safety starts with the design stage. The case study provides a practical procedure for accident investigation and analysis, and thus, preventive measures can be made according to the various causations at different levels

An environment-friendly Fe3O4@CFAS porous ceramic: Adsorption of Cu (II) ions and process optimisation using response surface methodology

In this work, Fe3O4@CFAS composites for the adsorption of Cu(II) ions were successfully prepared using magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNPs) generated in situ on a coal fly ash-based porous ceramic support (CFAS) with high porosity. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to achieve the best conditions for the adsorption of Cu(II) ions. The results showed that the porosity of CFAS with a multi-stage pore structure was 75.79%. Compared with CFAS, Fe3O4@CFAS exhibited significant improvement in hydrophilicity without considerable variation in water permeation flux. The Cu(II) ion removal rate of Fe3O4@CFAS reached 94.89%, as determined using RSM. Given its good performance in water filtration and Cu(II) ion adsorption, Fe3O4@CFAS can be applied as an environment-friendly industrial wastewater treatment material

Coordinated Symmetrical Altitude Position and Attitude Control for Stratospheric Airship Subject to Strong Aerodynamic Uncertainties

The stratospheric airship has important value in both commercial and military use. The altitude position control is very crucial for the airship to conduct specific missions, which is also a challenge because of both the severe relative aerodynamic mismatches and the large lag due to the quite low speed of the airship within 15 m/s. In this paper, a coordinated altitude and attitude control method was proposed to realize satisfactory altitude position control while maintaining the attitude stability by properly employing the two actuators, the propeller thrust and the elevator, in a consistent manner. In this process, the references for the vertical speed and the pitch were specified in a straightforward way of proportionating them by considering their physical characteristics and the inherent symmetrical relationship between them, which can be obtained through the kinematics. An extended disturbance observer was used to eliminate the severe aerodynamic uncertainties to symmetrically distribute the two actuator outputs by dynamically decoupling the vertical speed and the pitch angular rate loops into the two independent integrators. As a result, the explicit proportional controllers were sufficient to realize efficient command tracking. Rigorous theoretical investigation was provided to symmetrically prove the quantitative bounded property of the estimation and tracking errors. The simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which can realize a 500-m altitude difference tracking within 200 s with less than 0.5 deg/s pitch angular rate

Design of pedestrian monitoring and protection system of continuous shearer

In view of potential safety hazards of accidentally injuring pedestrians during operation process of conveyor at the back of continuous shearer, a pedestrian monitoring and protection system of continuous shearer based on infrared thermal imaging was designed. Firstly, long-wave infrared probe was used to monitor sensitive areas of the conveyor at the back of continuous shearer and real-timely collect infrared image information in the sensitive areas. Then, microprocessor was used to process the infrared image information, and pedestrians were detected; when pedestrians were detected entering the sensitive area, the pedestrian information would be rapidly judged by microprocessor within 1 s, meanwhile an early warning protection strategy would be triggered; when the pedestrians exited the sensitive area, the early warning protection mechanism would stop automatically; when the pedestrians passed over the sensitive area, at that time, an emergency stop control strategy would be triggered by microprocessor, so as to make the conveyor at the back of continuous shearer stop urgently to protect safety of crossing pedestrians. The site test results show that the system is stable and reliable with high recognition accuracy, and can effectively monitor pedestrians within the range of 1 to 2 meters on the front left area of the conveyor at the back of the continuous shearer, which effectively guaranteed life safety of pedestrians nearby the continuous shearer