Conditions stimulating neutral detergent fiber degradation by dosing branched-chain volatile fatty acids. I: Comparison with branched-chain amino acids and forage source in ruminal batch cultures

Three experiments assessed branched-chain volatile fatty acid (BCVFA) stimulation of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) disappearance after 24 h of incubation in batch cultures derived from ruminal fluid inocula that were enriched with particulate-phase bacteria. In experiment 1, a control was compared with 3 treatments with isomolar doses of all 3 BCVFA (plus valerate), all 3 branched-chain AA (BCAA), or half of each BCVFA and BCAA mix with either alfalfa or grass hays (50%) and ground corn grain (50%). A portion of the BCAA and BCVFA doses were enriched with ¹³C, and valerate (also enriched with ¹³C) was added with BCVFA. Although BCAA yielded a similar production of BCVFA compared with dosing BCVFA, equimolar substitution of BCVFA for BCAA decreased the percentage of N in bacterial pellets when alfalfa hay was fed but increased N when grass hay was fed. Substituting BCVFA for BCAA increased total fatty acid (FA) concentration with alfalfa hay. Dosing of BCAA or BCVFA did not affect total branched-chain FA, iso-FA, or anteiso-FA percentages in bacterial total FA, whereas numerous individual FA isomers and their ¹³C enrichments were affected by these treatments. Increasing recovery of the ¹³C dose from respective labeled BCVFA primers indicated facilitated BCVFA uptake and incorporation into FA compared with BCAA, whereas increased recovery of ¹³C from labeled BCAA in the bacteria pellet but not in the FA fraction suggested direct assimilation into bacterial protein. The BCVFA and valerate were dosed in varying combinations that either summed to 4 mM (experiment 2) or had only 1 mM no matter what combination (experiment 3). In general, grass hay was more responsive to stimulation in NDF digestibility by BCVFA than was alfalfa hay, which was attributed to the higher degradable protein in the latter. The net production of the BCVFA (after subtracting dose) was affected by source and combination of BCVFA. Isovalerate dosing tended to increase its own net production; in contrast, isobutyrate seemed to be used more when it was added alone, but 2-methylbutyrate seemed to be preferred over isobutyrate when 2-methylbutyrate was added. Results supported potential interactions, including potential feedback in production from feed BCAA or increased concentration-dependent competition for dosed BCVFA into cellular products. Under our conditions, the BCVFA appear to be more readily available than BCAA, probably because of regulated BCAA transport and metabolism. Valerate consistently provided no benefit. Using nonparametric ranking, all 3 BCVFA or either isovalerate or isobutyrate (both yielding iso-FA) should be combined with 2-methylbutyrate (yielding anteiso-FA) as a potential opportunity to improve NDF digestibility when rumen-degraded BCAA are limited in diets to decrease environmental impact from N in waste.     

Polylactide‐perylene derivative for blue biodegradable organic light‐emitting diodes

In this work we demonstrate, for the first time, the use of polylactic acid (PLA) as a biodegradable host matrix for the construction of the active emissive layer of organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) devices for potential use in bioelectronics. In this preliminary study, we report a robust synthesis of two fluorescent PLA derivatives, pyrene‐PLA ( AH10 ) and perylene‐PLA ( AH11 ). These materials were prepared by the ring opening polymerisation of l ‐lactide with hydroxyalkyl‐pyrene and hydroxyalkyl‐perylene derivatives using 1,8‐diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec‐7‐ene as catalyst. OLEDs were fabricated from these materials using a simple device architecture involving a solution‐processed single‐emitting layer in the configuration ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK:OXD‐7 (35%): AH10 or AH11 (20%)/TPBi/LiF/Al (ITO, indium tin oxide; PEDOT:PSS, poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrenesulfonic acid); PVK, poly(vinylcarbazole); OXD‐7, (1,3‐phenylene)‐bis‐[5‐(4‐tert‐butylphenyl)‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole]; TPBi, 2,2′,2″‐(1,3,5‐benzenetriyl)tris(1‐phenyl‐1H‐benzimidazole)). The turn‐on voltage for the perylene OLED at 10 cd m^–2 was around 6 V with a maximum brightness of 1200 cd m^–2 at 13 V. The corresponding external quantum efficiency and device current efficiency were 1.5% and 2.8 cd A^–1 respectively. In summary, this study provides proof of principle that OLEDs can be constructed from PLA, a readily available and renewable bio‐source. © 2020 The Authors. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Industrial Chemistry.     

A novel methodology for the rapid identification of the water diffusion coefficients of composite materials

The paper presents a novel methodology for the rapid identification of the water diffusion coefficients of composite materials. The methodology consists in employing a numerical parametric Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD) method allowing incorporating the diffusion coefficients among the number of degrees of freedom. Compared to classical identification schemes, often based on Finite Element Method (FEM) iterations, the proposed method allows achieving consistent CPU time gain. The method is general and can be applied when diffusion anomalies take place or when diffusion–reaction coupling must be taken into account, moreover can deal with anisotropic materials. However, for the scope of illustration, in the present case, it is applied to the simple case of “classical diffusion” (Fick’s model with constant boundary conditions) and concerns isotropic materials.     

Alkylated indolo[3,2,1-jk]carbazoles as new building blocks for solution processable organic electronics

A facile strategy for the introduction of tert-butyl and hexyl chains to the indolo[3,2,1-jk]carbazole scaffold is presented. With these building blocks six materials based on three different 4,4′-bis(N-carbazolyl)-1,1-biphenyl derivatives with varying degree of planarization were prepared. Characterization of the materials showed that the alkyl chains have only minor effects on the photophysical properties of the compounds. In contrast, thermal robustness towards decomposition and electrochemical stability are increased by the introduced alkyl chains. Detailed investigation of the solubility in five different solvents revealed that the incorporation of the alkyl chains increases the solubility significantly. The increased solubility of the materials allowed the application as host materials in red, green and sky-blue solution processed phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes. Hence, this work presents the first solution processed light emitting devices based on the indolo[3,2,1-jk]carbazole scaffold.     

Effect of geotextile ageing and geomembrane surface roughness on the geomembrane-geotextile interfaces for heap leaching applications

A series of large scale direct shear experiments is used to investigate the effect of the geomembrane (GMB) surface roughness, geotextile (GTX) properties, and GTX ageing, on the GMB-GTX interface shear behaviour. Interfaces involving smooth, coextruded textured, and structured surface GMBs underlying four different nonwoven needle-punched staple fibres (GTXs) with mass per unit areas between 200 and 2400 g/m², and a geocomposite drain (GCD) are examined at normal stresses between 250 and 1000 kPa. The results showed that the interlocking between the GMB and GTX increased with increasing the GMB asperity height and/or decreasing the mass per unit area of the GTX. For the interfaces that involved GTXs preaged prior to the shear box experiments for up to 2 years at 85 °C, it was found that the 2400 g/m² heat bonded two-layered GTX exhibited internal shear failure at low shear displacements. However, all the highly aged single layered GTXs showed an increase in the peak interface friction angles with the increase in their ageing. For these single layered GTX, the results suggest that assessing the interface friction angles using unaged GTXs for the stability analysis is conservative as long as the GTX remains intact in the field.     

Implementation of ZnSnO3 nanosheets and their RE (Er,Eu, and Pr) materials: Enhanced photocatalytic activity

ZnSnO₃, ZnSnO₃@Er, ZnSnO₃@Eu, and ZnSnO₃@Pr materials were synthesized by a hydrothermal method, these active materials characterized by XRD, Raman, DRS-UV, FT-IR, BET surface areas and Scanning electron microscopy studies. The ZnSnO₃ nanosheets meta-stable form was confirmed by XRD. Here, addressing to the pure and doped materials functional groups were evaluated by FT-IR spectroscopy. ZnSnO₃, ZnSnO₃@Er, ZnSnO₃@Eu, and ZnSnO₃@Pr rotational vibrations frequency modes were predicted by the Raman spectroscopy. Our results are marvelously, the obtained bandgap energies at 3.5 eV for pure sample and ZnSnO₃@Er, ZnSnO₃@Eu and ZnSnO₃@Pr energies at 3.06 eV, 3.04 eV and 3.02 eV. The synthesized pure samples get a sheet-like morphology and doped for RE metals than morphology was changing for nanocubes. We assess for all samples that were focused on photocatalytic dye degradation for Methylene blue dye; hence, we are discussing these approaches, ZnSnO₃@Pr/Methylene blue sample was a great improvement and high decolorization efficiency compared with ZnSnO₃@Er, ZnSnO₃@Eu nanocubes. The ZnSnO₃@Pr sample surface area was investigated by BET analysis. In addition, we are testing the phenol degradation with wastewater. The ZnSnO₃@Er, ZnSnO₃@Eu catalysts were determined to the less efficiency when comparing to the ZnSnO₃@Pr material. The ZnSnO₃@Pr material results have more efficiency and a very good recyclable stability nature.     

LaCoO3 acts as a high-efficiency co-catalyst for enhancing visible-light-driven tetracycline degradation of BiOI

Exploring noble-metal-free co-catalysts highly flexible for separating the photogenerated charge carriers is of prime importance for the visible-light-driven photocatalysis. Herein, three-dimensional flower-like BiOI microspheres were fabricated and applied to support noble-metal-free LaCoO₃ co-catalysts to construct a unique LaCoO₃/BiOI hybrid photocatalyst with a higher ability in charge separation. As expected, the optimum tetracycline degradation rate of LaCoO₃ (4.0 wt%)/BiOI was up to 0.0161 min⁻¹, which was nearly 3.4 fold larger than that of pure BiOI (0.0048 min⁻¹). The enhanced photocatalytic performance was mainly ascribed to the vital role of LaCoO₃ co-catalyst, which acted as an excellent electron collector for capturing the electrons generated by BiOI, effectively promoting the separation of photogenerated charge carriers and prolonging the lifetime of photo-induced electron-hole pairs at the same time. Furthermore, the active species trapping experiments revealed that the excellent photocatalytic activity was primarily driven by photogenerated holes and superoxide radicals. This work is expected to provide a new inspiration for rationally designing and fabricating noble-metal-free co-catalyst system with high efficiency applied in environment purification.     

Characterization of the Chemical Composition of Chinese Moringa oleifera Seed Oil

This work focused on physicochemical property assaying, fatty acid composition, triacylglycerol (TAG) profiles, and unsaponifiable matter composition of the Chinese Moringa oleifera seed oil. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in approximate nutritional components between M. oleifera seeds from China and India, while variations in the mineral element contents are significant. Both the Soxhlet extraction method and the aqueous enzymatic extraction method were adopted to extract oil from Chinese M. oleifera seeds. Oil yield obtained using the Soxhlet extraction method was higher than that obtained using the aqueous enzymatic extraction method. While both the iodine value and unsaponifiable matter content of the aqueous enzymatic extracted oil were a little higher than that of the Soxhlet extracted oil. Both oils possess a very low acid value and peroxide value, suggesting their good quality as edible oil. Fatty acid composition results indicated that this oil was especially high in oleic acid. Characterization of the TAG composition was achieved by a two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupling of nonaqueous reverse-phase and silver ion HPLC with the atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry method. A total of 22 TAG including 16 regioisomers were determined. Composition results of unsaponifiable matters revealed that this oil possesses a number of phytosterols, in which β-sitosterol and stigmasterol are most predominant.     

Application of fuzzy image restoration in criminal investigation

The advancement of science and technology has a positive effect on the development of law disciplines. The development of algorithms and artificial intelligence also has a certain impact on judicial practice. Image restoration is a significant technique in image processing. It aims to objectively restore the content or quality of the original image from the degraded image. Image degradation is always generated in image transmission, such as distortion, blur. In modern video surveillance system, image restoration is significant for criminal investigation. However, image restoration based on conventional filter algorithms cannot achieve satisfactory performance. Thus, we first introduce the image restoration algorithms based on different degradation model. Then, we propose some applications of fuzzy image restoration in criminal investigation. We conduct experiments on both degraded images and videos and experimental results have shown the effectiveness of fuzzy image restoration applying to the criminal investigation.