Comparative proteomics of human milk casein fraction collected from women of Korean and Han ethnic groups in China

IntroductionHuman breast milk provides neonates with indispensable nutrition and function. Milk protein is one of the main constituents of breast milk. Human milk profiles can be influenced by many factors.MethodsThe present study aimed to investigate the difference in casein isolated from mature milk of healthy mothers of Korean and Han ethnic groups in China using data-independent acquisition (DIA) proteomics.ResultsA total of 535 proteins were identified and quantified in casein fraction samples from both groups. A total of 528 proteins were annotated to 52 Gene Ontology (GO) terms, the majority (94.13%) of which were distributed in the cell and cell parts of the cellular component. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis revealed that 106 proteins were involved in 23 pathways, the greatest (36.79%) in carbohydrate metabolism. There were 39 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs)–10 upregulated and 29 downregulated–between Korean and Han milk. The GO function of blood microparticles and KEGG pathway of Staphylococcus aureus infection for DEPs were the most significantly enriched (p < 0.05). Protein-protein interaction analysis revealed a network with 23 DEPs in 47 interactions, and the fibrinogen alpha chain ranked first as the hub protein.DiscussionThese data may provide useful technical guidance for the development of specific infant foods for certain populations

DEFORMATION AND FRACTURE BEHAVIOR OF ALUMINUM ALLOY THIN-WALLED SQUARE TUBES UNDER AXIAL IMPACT

The tensile stress-strain response for 6016 aluminum alloy（ AA6016） sheet under different strain rates was presented in this paper. The data were fit to the Johnson-Cook constitutive model and fractured strain model. The energy absorbing performance of AA 6016 thin-walled square tubes under axial impact were analyzed. The results show that flow stress of AA6016 is insensitive to strain rate,while fractured strain is sensitive to strain rate. Thin-walled tubes show good energy absorbing performance with progressive buckling deformation under axial crushing. However,the energy absorbing performance decreases due to the mix buckling mode with the increasing thickness,length and impacting velocity of aluminum alloy thinwalled tubes

Degree of Polarization Calculation for Laser Backscattering from Typical Geometric Rough Surfaces at Long Distance

Measurement of the degree of polarization of backscattering light from rough surfaces plays an important role in targets-detection applications. The polarization bidirectional reflectance function is the key to establish the relation between the polarization states of incidence and backscattering light. For the purpose of obtaining a polarized bidirectional reflectance distribution function (pBRDF) of a realistic, complicated target, it is decomposed as typical geometric surfaces and analytically calculated as the degree of polarization of the backscattering light, using a microfacet model, under conditions in which the scale of the target is far less than the target distance. In an experiment testing several typical geometric models, the results coincided with the theoretical calculation. The degree of polarization varied substantially as the rotation angle of the target changed, but showed little dependence on the size of target. The results have potential in applications discriminating between targets at different spatial orientations

Effect of ultrasound on oil recovery from crude oil containing sludge

<p>To recover oil from crude oil containing sludge is still a research hot topic from the view of sustainability, in which ultrasonic has been proven to be an efficient and environment friendly technique. However, the effect of sludge characteristic on ultrasonic-assisted oil recovery efficiency is little known. In this study, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted based on six types of crude oily sludge with hydrophilicity and lipophilicity separately and five different ultrasonic operation factors (ultrasonic power (A), frequency (B), time (C), initial temperature (D) and pH (E)). The results showed that the oil recovery efficiency was mainly affected by the ultrasonic power and hydrophilicity of sludge (the highest 92% of oil recovery rate was achieved with the ultrasonic power of 240 W and hydrophilic sludge). Moreover, the wettability, decreased average particle size and increased specific surface area of sludge were found after ultrasonic treatment. Besides, changes in the oil component, such as the decrease of asphaltenes along with an increase of saturates, were also further observed. Therefore, the findings in this study can provide technical support for the practical application of ultrasonic technology in different kinds of oily sludge treatment.</p

The effect of age on the clinical and immune characteristics of critically ill patients with COVID-19: A preliminary report.

BackgroundIn December 2019, a new disease named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was occurred. Patients who are critically ill with COVID-19 are more likely to die, especially elderly patients. We aimed to describe the effect of age on the clinical and immune characteristics of critically ill patients with COVID-19.MethodsWe retrospectively included 32 patients with COVID-19 who were confirmed to have COVID-19 by the local health authority and who were admitted to the first affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou, China between January 3 and March 20, 2020. Clinical information and experimental test data were retrospectively collected for the patients. The 32 patients in this study were all in a critical condition and were classified as severe, according to the guidelines of 2019-nCoV infection from the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. Data were compared between those ResultsOf 32 patients, 13 were under 60 years old, and 19 patients were ≥60 years old. The most common symptom among all patients upon admission was fever (93.8%, 30/32). Compared to younger patients, older patients exhibited increased comorbidities. Among patients who were 60 years and older, platelet count, direct bilirubin (DBIL), indirect bilirubin(IBIL), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were significantly higher than in younger patients who were less than 60 years old. CD4+ T lymphocytes, CD8+ T lymphocytes, and NKT lymphocytes were decreased, CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocytes were significantly increased in all 32 patients, while there were no evident differences between younger and older patients. The CURB-65 (confusion, urea, respiratory, rate, blood pressure plus age ≥65 years), Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II and pH value were significantly higher in older patients than in patients who were under 60 years old. However, the PaO2 and PaO2:FiO2 were lower in older patients than the younger. Compared to patients under 60 years old, patients who were 60 years and older tended to develop ARDS (15 [78.9%] vs 5 [38.5%]), septic shock (7 [36.8%] vs 0 [0.0%]) and were more likely to receive mechanical ventilation (13 [68.4%] vs 3[23.1%]). Dynamic trajectories of seven laboratory parameters were tracked on days 1, 3, 5 and 7, and significant differences in lymphocyte count (P = 0.026), D-dimer (P = 0.010), lactate dehydrogenase (P = 0.000) and C-reactive protein (P = 0.000) were observed between the two age groups.ConclusionsA high proportion of critically ill patients were 60 or older. Furthermore, rapid disease progression was noted in elderly patients. Therefore, close monitoring and timely treatment should be performed in elderly COVID-19 patients

Genetic Analysis of Geothermal Resources and Geothermal Geological Characteristics in Datong Basin, Northern China

Datong Basin is a Cenozoic fault basin located in the central part of the North China Block with strong tectonic activity. The unique geological environment of Datong Basin is believed to have good conditions for the formation of geothermal resources. Based on the research of the classification, genesis and geothermal geological characteristics of geothermal resources, the geological conditions, seismic activity, volcanic activity, geophysical exploration results, terrestrial heat flow and hot springs in Datong Basin are analyzed. The possibility of the occurrence of geothermal resources in Datong Basin is determined, and the genesis and occurrence mechanisms of geothermal resources in Datong Basin are judged. The results show that Datong Basin satisfies the geological geothermal conditions of the formation of geothermal resources and is of great research value. The formation of geothermal resources in the Datong Basin is affected by the uplift of the Qinghai&ndash;Tibet Plateau and the destruction of the North China Craton. The geothermal resources in Datong Basin are formed by the combination of modern volcanic activity and strong inner-plate tectonic activities. The geothermal system is a combination of convective hydrothermal systems and partial melt systems. At the same time, it is concluded that the key research areas for the occurrence of geothermal resources are mainly in the northeastern part of the basin. It is recommended to carry out detailed and comprehensive exploration of the northeastern part of Datong Basin

A Novel Waveform Decomposition and Spectral Extraction Method for 101-Channel Hyperspectral LiDAR

The 101-channel full-waveform hyperspectral LiDAR (FWHSL) is able to simultaneously obtain geometric and spectral information of the target, and it is widely applied in 3D point cloud terrain generation and classification, vegetation detection, automatic driving, and other fields. Currently, most waveform data processing methods are mainly aimed at single or several wavelengths. Hidden components are revealed mainly through optimization algorithms and comparisons of neighbor distance in different wavelengths. The same target may be misjudged as different ones when dealing with 101 channels. However, using the gain decomposition method with dozens of wavelengths will change the spectral intensity and affect the classification. In this paper, for hundred-channel FWHSL data, we propose a method that can detect and re-decompose the channels with outliers by checking neighbor distances and selecting specific wavelengths to compose a characteristic spectrum by performing PCA and clustering on the decomposition results for object identification. The experimental results show that compared with the conventional single channel waveform decomposition method, the average accuracy is increased by 20.1%, the average relative error of adjacent target distance is reduced from 0.1253 to 0.0037, and the degree of distance dispersion is reduced by 95.36%. The extracted spectrum can effectively characterize and distinguish the target and contains commonly used wavelengths that make up the vegetation index (e.g., 670 nm, 784 nm, etc.)

A Novel Waveform Decomposition and Spectral Extraction Method for 101-Channel Hyperspectral LiDAR

The 101-channel full-waveform hyperspectral LiDAR (FWHSL) is able to simultaneously obtain geometric and spectral information of the target, and it is widely applied in 3D point cloud terrain generation and classification, vegetation detection, automatic driving, and other fields. Currently, most waveform data processing methods are mainly aimed at single or several wavelengths. Hidden components are revealed mainly through optimization algorithms and comparisons of neighbor distance in different wavelengths. The same target may be misjudged as different ones when dealing with 101 channels. However, using the gain decomposition method with dozens of wavelengths will change the spectral intensity and affect the classification. In this paper, for hundred-channel FWHSL data, we propose a method that can detect and re-decompose the channels with outliers by checking neighbor distances and selecting specific wavelengths to compose a characteristic spectrum by performing PCA and clustering on the decomposition results for object identification. The experimental results show that compared with the conventional single channel waveform decomposition method, the average accuracy is increased by 20.1%, the average relative error of adjacent target distance is reduced from 0.1253 to 0.0037, and the degree of distance dispersion is reduced by 95.36%. The extracted spectrum can effectively characterize and distinguish the target and contains commonly used wavelengths that make up the vegetation index (e.g., 670 nm, 784 nm, etc.)

Robust Impact Effect and Super-Lyophobic Reduced Galinstan on Polymers Applied for Energy Harvester

In this paper, we present a novel reduced Galinstan-based microfluidic energy harvester, which can converse kinetic energy to electricity from an arbitrary vibration source. Firstly, the wetting behaviors of reduced Galinstan are performed, which shows a robust impact effect on polymer substrates. Moreover, the electric circuit model of the reduced Galinstan-based energy harvester is made and discussed by the use of the EDLCs (electrical double layer capacitors). After modeling, the microfluidic energy harvester with coplanar microfluidic channels is designed and fabricated. Finally, the performance of the microfluidic energy harvester is investigated, which can harvest multi-direction vibration energy. The experiment results demonstrate that the novel reduced Galinstan-based microfluidic energy harvester is suitably and uniquely applied in a complex vibration environment