超滤-纳滤组合工艺对东太湖原水的处理效果

随着工业化进程的不断加快,东太湖水质日趋恶化,给常规处理增加了很大的处理难度。针对水源污染问题和给水深度处理的需要,开展了超滤-纳滤双膜组合工艺处理东太湖原水的中试研究,考察双膜工艺对出水水质的提升效果。结果表明,超滤-纳滤双膜工艺对水质常规指标具有较好的去除效果,CODMn和TOC的去除率分别为91.7%和90%;对荧光类物质的去除主要表现在对芳香族蛋白质、类富里酸物质、溶解性微生物代谢产物的去除;此外,双膜组合工艺对小分子二甲基异莰醇(2-MIB)和土臭素(GSM)的去除率分别为70%和77%,表明该工艺对水中主要致嗅物质具有良好的去除能力。     

基于聚集诱导发光效应的高固低黏丙烯酸荧光树脂的制备及其性能研究

为了研制一种具有荧光功能特性的高固低黏羟基丙烯酸树脂。从聚集诱导发光效应（AIE）出发，将具有 AIE性质的二对丙烯酸四苯乙烯酯荧光分子通过自由基共聚连接于聚合物链段。由于聚合物链段对荧光分子化学键固定以及聚合物链的包裹束缚作用，导致荧光分子运动受限，从而实现涂层在紫外灯下荧光发光。通过荧光光谱的实时跟踪，探索高固低黏羟基丙烯酸树脂的合成以及固化规律。此外，由于聚合物链段对外界刺激具有实时响应性，从而间接影响了所连接的荧光分子的荧光发光行为。因此，文中也探索了涂层在外界温度与化学气体的影响下所发生的荧光变化的规律，以探索其在功能涂层中应用的可行性。     

Influence of expertise on semantic categorization of wine odors

Aromatic characterization is a key element of enhancing one’s knowledge of wine. While several studies have investigated the importance of wine expertise in the ability to perform odor-related sensory tasks, little attention has been paid to the influence of expertise on the semantic categorization of wine odors. To bridge this gap, this study aimed to explore the influence of a subject’s expertise on the semantic representation of wine odors by means of a free sorting task. For this purpose, 156 subjects were recruited. Their level of expertise was measured using a questionnaire and the data analysis revealed four clusters of subjects with a gradual level of expertise. Subjects also performed a sorting task on 96 odor terms. From the number and the size of odor groups formed, as well as the additive tree representation and the consensus partition between the terms for each expertise level, we observed that all subjects, regardless of their experience, had largely the same semantic categorization of wine-odor attributes, which was mainly shaped by the sources of the odorants. It appeared that level of wine expertise played a minor role in creating the semantic representation of wine odors, affecting mainly the knowledge of specialized terms.     

Antimicrobial residues survey by LC-MS in food-producing animals in Lebanon

ABSTRACT

The treatment of animals with antimicrobial products may lead to the contamination of edible tissues by their residues, which may represent a risk to human health. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the level of antimicrobial residues in food-producing animals (chicken, beef, and milk) in Lebanon. A total of 310 samples were collected and analysed using an LC-MS/MS for the determination of 48 compounds belonging to different families in order to map their compliance according to the European Commission decision 2002/657/EC. Results show that 60% of the analysed samples were not contaminated by any residue, while 12% presented a concentration higher than the MRLs for tetracyclines, sulphonamides, quinolones, and macrolides. Results revealed that chicken were the most contaminated by antimicrobial residues, when compared to beef and milk. The obtained results demonstrate the uncontrolled use of antimicrobials in some Lebanese farms and claim for better management of livestock.     

Proteome analysis of tissues by mass spectrometry

Tissues and biofluids are important sources of information used for the detection of diseases and decisions on patient therapies. There are several accepted methods for preservation of tissues, among which the most popular are fresh‐frozen and formalin‐fixed paraffin embedded methods. Depending on the preservation method and the amount of sample available, various specific protocols are available for tissue processing for subsequent proteomic analysis. Protocols are tailored to answer various biological questions, and as such vary in lysis and digestion conditions, as well as duration. The existence of diverse tissue‐sample protocols has led to confusion in how to choose the best protocol for a given tissue and made it difficult to compare results across sample types. Here, we summarize procedures used for tissue processing for subsequent bottom‐up proteomic analysis. Furthermore, we compare protocols for their variations in the composition of lysis buffers, digestion procedures, and purification steps. For example, reports have shown that lysis buffer composition plays an important role in the profile of extracted proteins: the most common are tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, radioimmunoprecipitation assay, and ammonium bicarbonate buffers. Although, trypsin is the most commonly used enzyme for proteolysis, in some protocols it is supplemented with Lys‐C and/or chymotrypsin, which will often lead to an increase in proteome coverage. Data show that the selection of the lysis procedure might need to be tissue‐specific to produce distinct protocols for individual tissue types. Finally, selection of the procedures is also influenced by the amount of sample available, which range from biopsies or the size of a few dozen of mm² obtained with laser capture microdissection to much larger amounts that weight several milligrams.     

Correspondence between colour and odour for women in pre‐menopause and post‐menopause

Cross‐modal correspondences in the human sensory systems often appear for different levels of sensory inputs, such as colour and odour. However, whether there is hormonal modification of such colour‐odour correspondence has remained unclear. Here, we experimentally investigated the influence of hormonal changes in menopausal women by conducting evaluations of colour and odour impressions, matching tasks between colour and odour, and odor identification tasks, comparing two groups of women: premenopausal and postmenopausal. The results showed that both premenopausal and postmenopausal women had similar impressions and images of colours for odors, while postmenopausal women had significantly lower abilities of odor identification than premenopausal women. This suggested that the degree of conviction about an odor's identification might slightly affect the subjects’ impressions of odors and their corresponding colour choices. Menopause might not directly affect cognitive aspects regarding colour or odor, but might instead affect their perceptions.     

Trends and driving forces of low-carbon energy technology innovation in China’s industrial sectors from 1998 to 2017: from a regional perspective

Low-carbon energy technology (LC) innovation contributes to both environmental protection and economic development. Using the panel data of 30 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities in China from 1998 to 2017, this paper constructs a two-layer logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model to uncover the factors influencing the variation of the innovation of LC in China’s industrial sectors, including the alternative energy production technology (AEPT) and the energy conversation technology (ECT). The results show that China’s industrial LC patent applications rapidly increased after 2005 and AEPT patent applications outweighed ECT patent applications all the time with a gradually narrowing gap. Low-carbon degree played the dominant role in promoting the increase in China’s industrial LC patent applications, followed by the economic scale, R&D (research and development) efficiency, and R&D share. Economic structure contributed to the increases in LC patent applications in the central and the western regions, while led to the decreases in the eastern region, the north-eastern region, and Chinese mainland Xizang(Tibet) Autonoomous Region is not considered due to lack of data. This note applies to the entire article.. Low-carbon degree and economic scale were two main contributors to the growths of both industrial AEPT patent applications and ECT patent applications in Chinese mainland and the four regions. Several policy recommendations are made to further promote industrial innovation in China.