Improved aqueous solubility,bioaccessibility and cellular uptake of quercetin following pH-driven encapsulation in whey protein isolate

The purpose of this study was to increase the water solubility and potential bioavailability of quercetin by encapsulation in whey protein isolate (WPI) based on a green, efficient pH-driven method. According to the results, the water solubility of quercetin increased by 346.9: times after loading into WPI nanoparticles. When the initial quercetin concentration was 0.25 mg mL⁻¹ and WPI was 2% w/v, the encapsulation efficiency reached 94.1%, the Z-average diameter was 36.63 nm, and the zeta potential was −36.4 mV at pH 7.0. The fluorescence spectroscopy assay suggested the molecular complexation of quercetin and WPI at pH 12.0. X-ray diffraction assay indicated the enclosure of amorphous quercetin in WPI. Correspondingly, the bioaccessibility increased from 2.76% to 31.23% and the Caco-2 cell monolayer uptake increased from 0% to 2.12% after nanoencapsulation. This work confirmed that the pH-driven method is an effective approach to prepare WPI–quercetin nanocapsules to improve physical and potentially biological properties of quercetin.     

Eco-friendly tape casting of borosilicate glass/Al2O3 sheets for LTCC applications

This work reports the innovative development of a borosilicate glass/Al₂O₃ tape for LTCC applications using an eco-friendly aqueous tape casting slurry. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) were the respective dispersants, while carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and styrene acrylic emulsion (SA) were the respective binders. The results showed that PVP was more suitable than PAA as the dispersant for the aqueous casting slurry, and that 1.5 wt% PVP would achieve well dispersion of CABS glass/Al₂O₃ powder in the aqueous slurry. Moreover, a small amount of 2.0 wt% CMC binder could yield smooth CABS glass/Al₂O₃ tapes crack free. A high-quality CABS glass/Al₂O₃ tape with a smooth surface was made from an aqueous slurry containing 1.5 wt% PVP dispersant, 2.0 wt% CMC binder, and 2.0 wt% PEG-400 plasticizer. The density, tensile strength, and surface roughness of the green tape were 2.05 g/cm³, 0.87 MPa, and 148 nm, respectively. The resulting CABS glass/Al₂O₃ composites sintered at 875 °C exhibited a bulk density of 3.14 g/cm³, a dielectric constant of 8.09, a dielectric loss of 1.0 × 10^?3, a flexural strength of 213 MPa, a thermal expansion coefficient of 5.30 ppm/^°C, and a thermal conductivity of 3.2 W m^?1 K^?1, thus demonstrating its broad prospects in LTCC applications.     

Solution-Synthesized Multifunctional Janus Nanotree Microswimmer

Synthetic active matters are perfect model systems for non-equilibrium thermodynamics and of great potential for novel biomedical and environmental applications. However, most applications are limited by the complicated and low-yield preparation, while a scalable synthesis for highly functional microswimmers is highly desired. In this paper, an all-solution synthesis method is developed where the gold-loaded titania-silica nanotree can be produced as a multi-functional self-propulsion microswimmer. By applying light, heat, and electric field, the Janus nanotree demonstrated multi-mode self-propulsion, including photochemical self-electrophoresis by UV and visible light radiation, thermophoresis by near-infrared light radiation, and induced-charge electrophoresis under AC electric field. Due to the scalable synthesis, the Janus nanotree is further demonstrated as a high-efficiency, low-cost, active adsorbent for water decontamination, where the toxic mercury ions can be reclaimed with enhanced efficiency.     

Green preparation of vanadium carbide through one-step molten salt electrolysis

Vanadium carbide (VC) as excellent ceramic and functional material is usually prepared by carbothermal reduction of V₂O₅ which must be extracted from a typical V slag by complex processes. Pollutants, such as ammonia-nitrogen wastewater, NH₃ and CO₂ are inevitably discharged. A novel and green method for VC preparation was proposed by one-step co-electrolysis of soluble NaVO₃ and CO₂ in molten salt. It was found that VC with high purity was easily obtained by reducing electrolysis temperature and CO₂ flow rate to 600 °C and 10 mL min⁻¹ at 3.0 V. Besides VC with particles and layered stacking structure in products, a small amount of carbon and oxygen elements existed. The atomic percentage contents of C, V, and O elements in VC were about 50.0%, 44.5% and 3.8%, respectively. During electrolysis, CO₃²⁻ and VO₃⁻ was reduced at about −0.55 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and −1.38 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), respectively. CO₃²⁻ ions were more easily reduced than VO₃⁻, and was firstly reduced to CO₂²⁻ and then converted to C. Then, VC was prepared by two routes from CO₂ and NaVO₃. One route is that VO₃⁻ ions are firstly electroreduced to VO₂⁻ ions and then are further electroreduced to VC with C. Another route is that VO₃⁻ ions are electroreduced to V which in-situ reacted with C to VC. Both VO₃⁻ and CO₃²⁻ ions are electroreduced by two-step process. In final, VC is in-situ deposited on cathode. It provides a novel and green way to prepare VC and also achieves the high value-added utilization of vanadium slag and CO₂.     

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.     

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。     

低分子量聚丙烯酸钾的合成及其应用

采用水溶液聚合法制备了低分子量聚丙烯酸钾（PAAK），并作为新型消焰剂加入单基发射药中。通过火焰原子吸收光谱法测试了PAAK中钾的含量；用乌氏黏度计测定了特性黏度；采用DSC法研究不同pH值的PAAK与硝化棉（NC）的相容性；利用充氮氧弹法对添加PAAK、硝酸钾KNO₃、硫酸钾K₂SO₄的单基发射药的燃烧残渣进行了对比研究。结果表明，合成的PAAK中，钾的质量分数为15.21%，相对分子量在3 000左右，有利于和NC均匀混合，且在中性或微碱性（pH＝7.0~7.5）的情况与NC相容性良好。与传统的KNO₃、K₂SO₄消焰剂相比，PAAK能够和NC均匀混合，制备均质透明的单基发射药；PAAK发射药的燃烧残渣最少，占发射药质量的0.18%。     

Deep reinforcement learning-based cooperative interactions among heterogeneous vehicular networks

Most real-world vehicle nodes can be structured into an interconnected network of vehicles. Through structuring these services and vehicle device interactions into multiple types, such internet of vehicles becomes multidimensional heterogeneous overlay networks. The heterogeneousness of the overlays makes it difficult for the overlay networks to coordinate with each other to improve their performance. Therefore, it poses an interesting but critical challenge to the effective analysis of heterogeneous virtual vehicular networks. A variety of virtual vehicular networks can be easily deployed onto the native network by applying the concept of SDN (Software Defined Networking). These virtual networks reflect their heterogeneousness due to their different performance goals, and they compete for the same physical resources of the underlying network, so that a sub-optimal performance of the virtual networks may be achieved. Therefore, we propose a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach to make the virtual networks cooperate with each other through the SDN controller. A cooperative solution based on the asymmetric Nash bargaining is proposed for co-existing virtual networks to improve their performance. Moreover, the Markov Chain model and DRL resolution are introduced to leverage the heterogeneous performance goals of virtual networks. The implementation of the approach is introduced, and simulation results confirm the performance improvement of the latency sensitive, loss-rate sensitive and throughput sensitive heterogeneous vehicular networks using our cooperative solution.     

300M超高强钢在中性盐雾环境中的腐蚀行为及机制

摘要：为了研究300M超高强钢在中性盐雾环境中的腐蚀行为及腐蚀机制，采用失重法，宏观、微观腐蚀形貌分析，三维表面轮廓分析及电化学分析的研究方法，来表征腐蚀实验现象并进行分析。结果表明：300M超高强钢在中性盐雾环境中的腐蚀产物为FeOOH、Fe2O3、Fe(OH)3和Fe3O4；腐蚀速率随着腐蚀时间逐渐降低，腐蚀后期（72h）腐蚀速率降低50%；腐蚀初期以点蚀为主，点蚀坑通过横向扩展，逐渐发展为后期的均匀腐蚀，腐蚀表面形貌呈沟壑状；外腐蚀层对基体的保护能力很弱，Cr元素在锈层靠近基体的一侧偏聚使内腐蚀层具有一定的抗腐蚀性。