Comparison of Histone H3K4me3 between IVF and ICSI Technologies and between Boy and Girl Offspring

Epigenetics play a vital role in early embryo development. Offspring conceived via assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have a three times higher risk of epigenetic diseases than naturally conceived children. However, investigations into ART-associated placental histone modifications or sex-stratified analyses of ART-associated histone modifications remain limited. In the current study, we carried out immunohistochemistry, chip-sequence analysis, and a series of in vitro experiments. Our results demonstrated that placentas from intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), but not in vitro fertilization (IVF), showed global tri-methylated-histone-H3-lysine-4 (H3K4me3) alteration compared to those from natural conception. However, for acetylated-histone-H3-lysine-9 (H3K9ac) and acetylated-histone-H3-lysine-27 (H3K27ac), no significant differences between groups could be found. Further, sex -stratified analysis found that, compared with the same-gender newborn cord blood mononuclear cell (CBMC) from natural conceptions, CBMC from ICSI-boys presented more genes with differentially enriched H3K4me3 (n = 198) than those from ICSI-girls (n = 79), IVF-girls (n = 5), and IVF-boys (n = 2). We also found that varying oxygen conditions, RNA polymerase II subunit A (Polr2A), and lysine demethylase 5A (KDM5A) regulated H3K4me3. These findings revealed a difference between IVF and ICSI and a difference between boys and girls in H3K4me3 modification, providing greater insight into ART-associated epigenetic alteration.     

Optimisation of mild-acidic protein extraction from defatted sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) meal

For protein isolation from defatted sunflower meal, mild-acidic extraction was investigated to minimise concomitant oxidation and polymerisation of phenolic compounds and their irreversible binding to proteins. Because of the impaired solubility of sunflower proteins at low pH, the potential of sodium chloride (NaCl) to improve protein extractability was firstly screened for pH 2–11. Increasing NaCl concentrations of the aqueous solvent (c_NaCl) up to 2.8 mol/L enhanced the relative protein yield to almost 80% at ambient temperature and pH 5.6–7.4. As to improved protein recovery at minimal interactions with phenolic acids, the concerted effects of pH (3.2–7.4), c_NaCl (1–3 mol/L), temperature (T, 15–45 °C), and meal-to-solvent ratio (MSR, 0.03 and 0.05 g/mL) on the protein concentration of the extract (c_PE) and the relative protein yield (RPY) were examined, using response surface methodology (RSM). Aside from the prevailing influence of pH value and salt concentration, elevated temperature slightly enhanced protein extraction, whereas MSR mainly influenced c_PE, but hardly RPY. Calculated models proved suitable for the evaluation of extraction processes and the prediction of optimum conditions in terms of high protein yields at the lowest pH possible. Extraction at pH 6.0 was shown to be an appropriate compromise yielding 76–83% of the meal protein, depending on the constraints given. With elevated NaCl concentrations compensating for unfavourable pH conditions, mild-acidic extraction was found to be suitable for the recovery of high-quality sunflower protein in terms of light-coloured protein isolates.     

A comparative study of using two numerical strategies to simulate the biochemical processes in microbially induced calcite precipitation

In this study, we carried out a comparative study of two different numerical strategies for the modeling of the biogeochemical processes in microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) process. A simplified MICP model was used, which is based on the mass transport theory. Two numerical strategies, namely the operator splitting (OS) and the global implicit (GI) strategies, were adopted to solve the coupled reactive mass transport problems. These two strategies were compared in the aspects of numerical accuracy, convergence property and computational efficiency by solving the presented MICP model. To look more into the details of the model, sensitivity analysis of some important modeling parameters was also carried out in this paper.     

ZF公司面向中国的高性能变速器

文章介绍了ZF公司为轮式装载机特别研发的WG系列高性能变速器,其产品系列可覆盖9-30吨级的车辆.ZF高性能的动力换档变速器具有简单和坚固的零部件设计、采用精确调整轴承、整体式壳体结构和优越的电控系统等优点.     

Vereisung von Kabeln

Aerodynamische Instabilität von Seilen als Folge eines durch Eisablagerungen geänderten Querschnitts ist ein bekanntes Phänomen. Da die experimentelle Untersuchung von Vereisungsvorgängen sehr aufwendig ist, soll hier ein numerisches Vereisungsmodell vorgestellt werden. Das numerische Modell besteht aus zwei Berechnungsschritten: Zunächst wird die Strömung aus Luft und Niederschlagspartikeln als einfach gekoppelte Zweiphasenströmung berechnet. Basierend auf dem Massestrom der Niederschlagspartikel wird dann das Eiswachstum ermittelt. Die neue Geometrie dient dann als Grundlage für die nächste Strömungsberechnung. Ice accretion on cables. Aerodynamic instability of cables due to ice accretion is a known phenomenon. Investigating the shape and density of the ice accretion by experiments is very complex. Therefore a numerical model is presented to simulate ice accretion processes on cables. The model is divided into two main parts, the calculation of the flow field and the ice accretion. The stream of air and precipitation particles is modeled as a one‐way coupled multiphase flow. Ice accretion and flow field are calculated iteratively to account for geometrical changes of the ice deposit in the flow calculation.     

Flexible disassembly planning considering product conditions

To increase the economic benefit of product recovery at the end of life of a consumer product, the profit margins should be augmented. This can be realised by utilising the existing flexibility of today’s mostly manually-conducted disassembly processes. Moreover, with increased economic benefits, the recovery becomes even more attractive, which is also beneficial to the environment. A key component of product recovery is disassembly. Allowing different disassembly states (or levels) per core (i.e. recovered product) increases flexibility in planning. This should result in higher profits, as long as the flexibility is still manageable for the companies. This study focuses on flexible disassembly planning, i.e. the integration of sequencing aspects into disassembly (process) planning. In addition, we further incorporate the condition of items in the core, item damaging, purity requirements, special treatment of hazardous items and several limitations like core availability, item, module and material distribution, disposal and labour time limit. We base our developed mixed integer linear programme on graphs, such as the disassembly state graph for sequencing, and a hypergraph to model the core condition. Lastly, our considerations are illustrated by a numerical example.