Double emulsion (W/O/W) gel stabilised by polyglycerol polyricinoleate and calcium caseinate as mangiferin carrier: insights on formulation and stability properties

Mangiferin (MGF) is a phenolic compound isolated from mango, but its poor solubility significantly limits its use. In this study, MGF was embedded into the inner aqueous phase of W₁/O/W₂ emulsions. Firstly, the dissolution method of MGF was determined. MGF remained stable in solution with pH 13 at 30 min, and its solubility reached 10 mg mL⁻¹. When the pH of MGF solutions was adjusted from pH 13 to pH 6, MGF did not immediately crystallise, providing sufficient time to construct the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions. Subsequently, the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions were constructed using polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and calcium caseinate (CAS). The formation and stability of the W₁/O/W₂ emulsions were investigated. The MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised with 1% PGPR and 1% – 3% CAS exhibited a low viscosity, limited loading capacity, and poor stability. Conversely, the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised by 3%PGPR–3%CAS exhibited optimal loading capacity (encapsulation efficiency = 95.31% and loading efficiency = 0.91%) and stability, which was attributed to the fact that high viscosity and gel state retarded the migration of inner aqueous phase. These results indicated that the W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised by PGPR and CAS may be a potential alternative for encapsulating mangiferin.     

Facile preparation and strong adhesive strength of honeycomb polyurethane films with small pore diameter

With the continuous development of bionics, such as, geckos and virginia creeper with both superhydrophobic and super-adhesive, the surface wetting and super-adhesive properties of various porous materials have attracted extensive attention of the scientific and medical communities. Here, the honeycomb polyurethane (PU) porous films with strong adhesion were successfully prepared by microphase separation method and the effects of growth parameters on their microstructure and adhesive strength to ice were investigated. It was found that a high relative humidity (e.g., 100%) and a low solution concentration (e.g., 2%) facilitated the formation of ordered honeycomb PU porous films, and as-prepared PU pores with average pore diameter as small as 5 μm are better ordered and more uniform than these in related documents. Although the contact angle of water droplets on the surface of PU porous films increased from the premodification value of 85–130° to more than 160° after surface modification with polydopamine (PDA), the corresponding rolling angle remained approximately constant (180°), indicating that the surface of PU porous films has strong adhesion similar to geckos and virginia creeper. Furthermore, at lower temperature, the PU porous films exhibited the high adhesive strength of 142.13 kPa on ice, which was strongly dependent on the porous microstructures and surface compositions. The improved adhesive behavior to ice of honeycomb PU porous films modified with PDA provides new strategies for surface modification of materials and potential applications in medical domain.     

Ensemble relation network with multi-level measure

Fine-grained few-shot learning is a difficult task in image classification. The reason is that the discriminative features of fine-grained images are often located in local areas of the image, while most of the existing few-shotlearning image classification methods only use top-level features and adopt a single measure. In that way, the localfeatures of the sample cannot be learned well. In response to this problem, ensemble relation network with multi-level measure (ERN-MM) is proposed in this paper. It adds the relation modules in the shallow feature space tocompare the similarity between the samples in the local features, and finally integrates the similarity scores from thefeature spaces to assign the label of the query samples. So the proposed method ERN-MM can use local details andglobal information of different grains. Experimental results on different fine-grained datasets show that the proposedmethod achieves good classification performance and also proves its rationality.     

Freeze-drying and mechanical redispersion of aqueous PEDOT:PSS

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films are attracting famous applications in antistatic coating, energy storage and conversion, printed electronics, and biomedical fields due to their conductivity, optical transparency and flexibility. However, PEDOT:PSS has poor dispersion stability during long-term storage and transport. Moreover, the dried PEDOT:PSS films are insoluble in any solvent and cannot be redispersed again. In comparison to bake drying, here, a feasible strategy to achieve mechanically redispersed PEDOT:PSS with the help of freeze-drying process was reported. The redispersed PEDOT:PSS can recover not only the initial characters such as pH, chemical composition, viscosity, and particle size under similar solid contents, but also conductivity and surface morphology of treated films. In addition, the treated film exhibits self-healing properties similar to pristine film in terms of mechanical and electrical properties. This technology enables reuse and overcomes the technical problems of PEDOT:PSS dispersion, realizing real-time processing to meet variable applications.     

节能型燃煤工业锅炉尾气处理装置的分析与应用

针对燃煤工业锅炉尾气处理装置存在的不足,分析一种节能型燃煤工业锅炉尾气处理装置.对该装置的结构、工作原理、特点进行了分析.将该装置安装应用在云岗矿燃煤工业锅炉上,污染物减排效果明显,为企业创造了较好的社会经济效益.     

Enhanced electrochemical performance of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 via titanium and boron co-doping

Titanium and boron are simultaneously introduced into LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ to improve the structural stability and electrochemical performance of the material. X-ray diffraction studies reveal that Ti⁴⁺ ion replaces Li⁺ ion and reduces the cation mixing; B³⁺ ion enters the tetrahedron of the transition metal layers and enlarges the distance of the [LiO₆] layers. The co-doped sample has spherical secondary particles with elongated and enlarged primary particles, in which Ti and B elements distribute uniformly. Electrochemical studies reveal the co-doped sample has improved rate performance (183.1 mAh·g^-1 at 1 C and 155.5 mAh·g^-1 at 10 C) and cycle stability (capacity retention of 94.7% after 100 cycles at 1 C). EIS and CV disclose that Ti and B co-doping reduces charge transfer impedance and suppresses phase change of LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O_2.     

Pricing and personal data collection strategies of online platforms in the face of privacy concerns

Electronic Commerce Research - We consider a platform providing free content for users and earning profit from the sale of advertising. The platform can collect and analyze personal data to...     

An Optimized Combination of Mine Water Control,Treatment, Utilization,and Reinjection for Environmentally Sustainable Mining: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study of an optimized combination of mine water control, treatment, utilization and reinjection to achieve the zero discharge of mine water. Mine water has been considered a hazard and pollution source during underground mining, so most mining enterprises directly discharge mine water to the surface after simple treatment, resulting in a serious waste of water. Moreover, discharging a large amount of mine water can destroy the original groundwater balance and cause serious environmental problems, such as surface subsidence, water resource reduction and contamination, and adverse impacts on biodiversity. The Zhongguan iron mine is in the major groundwater source area of the Hundred Springs of Xingtai, which is an area with a high risk of potential subsidence. To optimize the balance between mining and groundwater resources, a series of engineering measures was adopted by the Zhongguan iron mine to realize mine water control, treatment, utilization, and reinjection. The installation of a closed grout curtain has greatly reduced the water yield of deep stopes in the mine; the effective sealing efficiency reaches 80%. Nanofiltration membrane separation was adopted to treat the highly mineralized mine water; the quality of the produced water meets China’s recommended class II groundwater standard. Low-grade heat energy from the mine water is collected and utilized through a water-source heat pump system. Finally, zero mine water discharge is realized through mine water reinjection. This research provides a beneficial reference for mines with similar geological and hydrogeological conditions to achieve environmentally sustainable mining.

     

Research on Crop Irrigation Schedules Under Deficit Irrigation—A Meta-analysis

Water Resources Management - Increasing water consumption in agriculture due to global climate change has posed considerable challenges to food security, thus improving the efficiency of water...