The Age-Sensitive Efficacy of Calorie Restriction on Mitochondrial Biogenesis and mtDNA Damage in Rat Liver

Calorie restriction (CR) is the most efficacious treatment to delay the onset of age-related changes such as mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the sensitivity of mitochondrial markers to CR and the age-related boundaries of CR efficacy are not fully elucidated. We used liver samples from ad libitum-fed (AL) rats divided in: 18-month-old (AL-18), 28-month-old (AL-28), and 32-month-old (AL-32) groups, and from CR-treated (CR) 28-month-old (CR-28) and 32-month-old (CR-32) counterparts to assay the effect of CR on several mitochondrial markers. The age-related decreases in citrate synthase activity, in TFAM, MFN2, and DRP1 protein amounts and in the mtDNA content in the AL-28 group were prevented in CR-28 counterparts. Accordingly, CR reduced oxidative mtDNA damage assessed through the incidence of oxidized purines at specific mtDNA regions in CR-28 animals. These findings support the anti-aging effect of CR up to 28 months. Conversely, the protein amounts of LonP1, Cyt c, OGG1, and APE1 and the 4.8 Kb mtDNA deletion content were not affected in CR-28 rats. The absence of significant differences between the AL-32 values and the CR-32 counterparts suggests an age-related boundary of CR efficacy at this age. However, this only partially curtails the CR benefits in counteracting the generalized aging decline and the related mitochondrial involvement.     

煤炭资源型城市转型模式研究：以徐州贾汪区为例

煤炭资源型城市为我国经济发展提供了重要的资源和能源支持,研究资源型城市转型的经验模式对调整区域经济结构、确保社会稳定和改善生态环境具有重要的实践意义。本文采用文献综述法和实证分析法,研究我国东部煤炭资源枯竭型城市转型所面临的共性难题,并以徐州贾汪区转型探索经历为例,总结城市转型的"徐州贾汪区模式",主要包括放大正向外部效应、长期坚持矿地融合、大力建设矿区社会生态系统恢复力三条路径。研究结果表明,煤炭城市转型发展的共性问题相互联系、相互影响,是一个系统性难题,必须引入系统性思维。我国东部矿区普遍人口密集,农业发达、沉陷积水是最主要的共性特征,煤炭开采产生的社会问题、经济问题、生态问题、环境问题基本相同,转型发展模式值得互鉴。     

Stem Photosynthesis—A Key Element of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Acclimatisation to Salinity

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) is a leguminous plant of outstanding tolerance to abiotic stress. The aim of the presented study was to describe the mechanism of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) photosynthetic apparatus acclimatisation strategies to salinity stress. The seedlings were cultivated in a hydroponic system in media containing various concentrations of NaCl (0, 50, and 100 mM), imitating none, moderate, and severe salinity, respectively, for three weeks. In order to characterise the function and structure of the photosynthetic apparatus, Chl a fluorescence, gas exchange measurements, proteome analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis were done inter alia. Significant differences in the response of the leaf and stem photosynthetic apparatus to severe salt stress were observed. Leaves became the place of harmful ion (Na⁺) accumulation, and the efficiency of their carboxylation decreased sharply. In turn, in stems, the reconstruction of the photosynthetic apparatus (antenna and photosystem complexes) activated alternative electron transport pathways, leading to effective ATP synthesis, which is required for the efficient translocation of Na⁺ to leaves. These changes enabled efficient stem carboxylation and made them the main source of assimilates. The observed changes indicate the high plasticity of grass pea photosynthetic apparatus, providing an effective mechanism of tolerance to salinity stress.     

Description of the thermodynamic properties and fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of linear,branched, and cyclic amines

The SAFT-γ Mie group-contribution equation of state is used to represent the fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of a variety of linear, branched, and cyclic amines. New group interactions are developed in order to model the mixtures of interest, including the like and unlike interactions between alkyl primary, secondary, and tertiary amine groups (NH₂, NH, N), cyclic secondary and tertiary amine groups (cNH, cN), and cyclic methine-amine groups (cCHNH, cCHN) with water (H₂O). The group-interaction parameters are estimated from appropriate experimental thermodynamic data for pure amines and selected mixtures. By taking advantage of the group-contribution nature of the method, one can describe the fluid-phase behavior of mixtures of molecules comprising those groups over broad ranges of temperature, pressure, and composition. A number of aqueous solutions of amines are studied including linear, branched aliphatic, and cyclic amines. Liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) bounded by lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) have been reported experimentally and are reproduced here with the SAFT-γ Mie approach. The main feature of the approach is the ability not only to represent accurately the experimental data employed in the parameter estimation, but also to predict the vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, and vapor–liquid–liquid equilibria, and LCSTs with the same set of parameters. Pure compound and binary phase diagrams of diverse types of amines and their aqueous solutions are assessed in order to demonstrate the main features of the thermodynamic and fluid-phase behavior.     

Charge source and the charging mechanism of the contact electrification of polymer powder

The charge sources, as well as the charging mechanism of the contact electrification (CE) of polymers, are still debatable. Since CE is accompanied by destruction, it is considered that “hard contacting” via ball milling can induce covalent bond scission and produce naked-activated-charge sources. Regarding “soft contacting” via nano-scale sliding, which does not induce covalent bond scission, a frontier-electron, “f-electron,” of the naked-activated-charge source is crucial to electron transfer among the naked-activated-charge sources. Here, we configure naked-activated-charge-source models, naked-activated-mechano-anion, and naked-activated-mechano-cation, which are produced by mechanical energy induced heterogeneous covalent bond scission, as well as naked-activated-mechano-radicals that are produced by homogeneous covalent bond scission. Regarding “soft contacting” among naked-activated-charge sources in a vacuum, f-electron can be transferred from a donor to an acceptor if the energy level of the donor is higher than that of the acceptor. The net amount of the normalized transferred-f-electrons is obtained by adopting settings in which the average energy level of the naked-activated-charge sources (as the donors) is higher than that of the sources employed as acceptors. Thus, the surfaces comprising the donors and acceptors will exhibit positive and negative net surface charges, respectively. We conclude that net surface charges depend on the average energy level of naked-activated-charge sources. Further, we observe that the alignment of polyethylene (PE)-polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to the average energy level is identical to that of the triboelectric series.     

深孔爆破成井技术在三道庄钼矿的试验与应用研究

洛钼集团矿山公司三道庄矿区由于历史原因,露天开采境界地下内存在的采空区已危及矿山公司的正常安全生产,阻碍了洛钼集团可持续发展。为解决这一重大问题,经过充分调研和多方论证,认为深孔一次爆破成井技术是解决此类采空区难题唯一的经济上合理、技术可行、安全可靠的手段与途径。深孔爆破成井实现与采空区顶板的贯通,使采空区边岩稳定,顶岩暴露面积缩小,确保了采空区的稳定;保证了台阶正常推进。     

Automatic design for shop scheduling strategies based on hyper-heuristics: A systematic review

Against the background of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, how to achieve real-time scheduling has become a problem to be solved. In this regard, automatic design for shop scheduling based on hyper-heuristics has been widely studied, and a number of reviews and scheduling algorithms have been presented. Few studies, however, have specifically discussed the technical points involved in algorithm development. This study, therefore, constructs a general framework for automatic design for shop scheduling strategies based on hyper-heuristics, and various state-of-the-art technical points in the development process are summarized. First, we summarize the existing types of shop scheduling strategies and classify them using a new classification method. Second, we summarize an automatic design algorithm for shop scheduling. Then, we investigate surrogate-assisted methods that are popular in the current algorithm field. Finally, current problems and challenges are discussed, and potential directions for future research are proposed.     

An economic investigation of the wind-hydrogen projects: A case study

Hydrogen as an energy carrier can play a significant role in reducing environmental emissions if it is produced from renewable energy resources. This research aims to assess hydrogen production from wind energy considering environmental, economic, and technical aspect for the East Azerbaijan province of Iran. The economic assessment is performed by calculation of payback period, levelized cost of hydrogen, and levelized cost of electricity. Since uncertainty in the power output of wind turbines may affect the payback period, all calculations are performed for four different turbine degradation rates. While it is common in the literature to choose the wind turbine based on a single criterion, this study implements Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques for this purpose. The results of Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis illustrates that economic issue is the most important criterion for this research. The results of Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment shows that Vestas V52 is the most suitable wind turbine for Ahar and Sarab cities, while Eovent EVA120 H-Darrieus is a better choice for other stations. The most suitable location for wind power generation is found to be Ahar, where it is estimated to annually generate 2914.8 kWh of electricity at the price of 0.045 $/kWh, and 47.2 tons of hydrogen at the price of 1.38 $/kg, which result in 583 tons of CO₂ emission reduction.     

乌兰矿采矿现状及技术应对方案

本文分析了乌兰矿投产前期采矿现状及存在的主要问题,针对该矿所处蒙古国经济落后、投资风险大的现实状况,为避免生产中断、规避投资风险,早日回收前期投资考虑,采取了双斜坡道开拓、全尾胶结充填、高端壁空场嗣后充填采矿、多中段组合式连续开采等系列技术应对方案。大大降低了一次性投资规模及投资风险,前期投资得以快速回笼的同时,矿山产能也充分释放,确保了矿山的持续稳定,取得了较好的经济和社会效益。为海外地下近地表矿体开采矿山规避投资风险提供了很好的技术方案借鉴。