To overcome the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, transmission routes, such as healthcare worker infection, must be effectively prevented. Ultraviolet C (UVC) (254 nm) has ...recently been demonstrated to prevent environmental contamination by infected patients; however, studies on its application in contaminated hospital settings are limited. Herein, we explored the clinical application of UVC and determined its optimal dose. Environmental samples (
= 267) collected in 2021 were analyzed by a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and subjected to UVC irradiation for different durations (minutes). We found that washbasins had a high contamination rate (45.5%). SARS-CoV-2 was inactivated after 15 min (estimated dose: 126 mJ/cm
) of UVC irradiation, and the contamination decreased from 41.7% before irradiation to 16.7%, 8.3%, and 0% after 5, 10, and 15 min of irradiation, respectively (
= 0.005). However, SARS-CoV-2 was still detected in washbasins after irradiation for 20 min but not after 30 min (252 mJ/cm
). Thus, 15 min of 254-nm UVC irradiation was effective in cleaning plastic, steel, and wood surfaces in the isolation ward. For silicon items, such as washbasins, 30 min was suggested; however, further studies using hospital environmental samples are needed to confirm the effective UVC inactivation of SARS-CoV-2.
In this study, the effects of fungal pretreatment and direct bio‐utilization of RSM for iturin A fermentation were comparatively analyzed through screening suitable fungal species, and evaluating the ...relationships between iturin A production and the composition of solid fermented RSM and liquid hydrolysates. Three main unconventional adverse effects were identified. In conclusion, our study verifies the unconventional adverse effects of fungal pretreatment on iturin A production by B. amyloliquefaciens CX‐20 compared with direct bio‐utilization of RSM.
Summary
Fungal pretreatment is the most common strategy for improving the conversion of rapeseed meal (RSM) into value‐added microbial products. It was demonstrated that Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CX‐20 could directly use RSM as the sole source of all nutrients except the carbon source for iturin A fermentation with high productivity. However, whether fungal pretreatment has an impact on iturin A production is still unknown. In this study, the effects of fungal pretreatment and direct bio‐utilization of RSM for iturin A fermentation were comparatively analysed through screening suitable fungal species, and evaluating the relationships between iturin A production and the composition of solid fermented RSM and liquid hydrolysates. Three main unconventional adverse effects were identified. (1) Solid‐state fermentation by fungi resulted in a decrease of the total nitrogen for B. amyloliquefaciens CX‐20 growth and metabolism, which caused nitrogen waste from RSM. (2) The released free ammonium nitrogen in liquid hydrolysates by fungal pretreatment led to the reduction of iturin A. (3) The insoluble precipitates of hydrolysates, which were mostly ignored and wasted in previous studies, were found to have beneficial effects on producing iturin A. In conclusion, our study verifies the unconventional adverse effects of fungal pretreatment on iturin A production by B. amyloliquefaciens CX‐20 compared with direct bio‐utilization of RSM.
Dynamics of a multimode quantum dot laser with polarization-rotated optical feedback is investigated in a wide range of bias current. The results reveal that the laser is more sensitive to optical ...feedback when the polarization of feedback beam is rotated a large angle from the original polarization, which is different from the results in DFB lasers. Anticorrelated fluctuations between orthogonal polarizations are observed in a certain range of selected polarizations. Accordingly, dynamics in the total power can be weaker than that in a selected polarization. The anticorrelated polarization dynamics may be related to different polarizations of longitudinal modes.
Higher dietary energy is often used to achieve better animal performance in mutton sheep production. Notably, changing the diet formula affects rumen fermentation and the microbiota of ruminants. In ...this study, we investigated the effect of dietary energy on rumen fermentation and ruminal microbiota in fattening sheep. Fifteen 2-month-old white-headed Suffolk sheep (♂) × Hu sheep (♀) crossbred lambs were randomly divided into three treatments based on the dietary energy of the feeds fed: 8.67 MJ/kg (Low energy (LE); n = 5), 10.38 MJ/kg (standard energy (CON); n = 5), and 12.31 MJ/kg (high energy (HE); n = 5) groups. After 70 days of feeding, sheep were slaughtered and the ruminal fluids were collected and analyzed to determine fermentation parameters. Microbiota was determined using metagenomics sequencing. Notably, the microbial cell protein (MCP) and butyric acid concentrations were significantly high in the HE group. Metagenomic sequencing revealed that ACE and Chao indexes of the HE group were significantly decreased. Four genera among the major classified taxa across all the kingdoms differed in relative abundance in the three dietary energy levels. The relative abundances of Prevotella_brevis, Succiniclasticum_ruminis, Prevotellace-ae_bacterium, and Lachnospiraceae_bacterium were significantly correlated with rumen fermentation. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis further revealed that a high-energy diet increased lipid metabolism of microbiota. The Carbohydrate Active enzymes (CAZy) gene, which participates in energy metabolism, was upregulated, while genes regulating plant cell wall degradation were downregulated in the HE group. These results suggest that a high-energy diet had minimal influence on the rumen fermentation pattern but altered the composition of the rumen microbiota, enhancing microbial lipid metabolism and limiting crude fiber metabolism. The findings of this study provide scientific evidence of the effect of dietary energy on ruminant fermentation and fattening sheep production.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•A randomly distributed hollow fiber membrane tube bank (HFMTB) is applied.•The randomly distributed HFMTB is used for sweeping air membrane distillation (SGMD).•The conjugate heat and mass transfer ...in the randomly distributed HFMTB are investigated.•The friction factors, local and mean Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are obtained and validated.•Effects of the structural and transport parameters on the basic data are studied.
In practical sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) with hollow fiber membrane tube banks (HFMTB), the tubes are often populated in a randomly distributed configuration. The brine and the sweeping gas countercurrently flow inside and between the tubes, whereby heat and moisture exchange. Water vapor transferred through the membranes from the hot brine side to the cold gas side is taken out of the HFMTB by the sweeping gas. Conjugate heat and mass transfer in the tube bank is investigated. Three square modules consisting of 20 fibers, the brine stream inside the fibers, and the sweeping gas stream between the fibers with various randomly populated features are selected as the computational domains. The equations governing the momentum and heat mass transports in the tube side, membrane side, and shell side are established and solved based on the conjugate heat and mass transfer boundary conditions. The friction factors, local and mean Nusselt and Sherwood numbers in the modules are obtained and validated. Effects of the tube distributions, packing fractions, and moisture diffusivities in membranes on heat and mass transfer are studied. The HFMTB is recommended to be the regularly distributed one. The automatic processing of the regularly distributed HFMTB should be realized in future.
In perishable supply chain logistics, even a small departure from the required storage conditions at any distribution link can compromise the quality of transported products, such as food, ...pharmaceuticals, and other bioproducts, resulting in big losses for the businesses involved or even threats to public health. To enhance quality management (QM) and consumer confidence, an edge-cloud blockchain and Internet of Everything (IoE)-enabled QM platform is proposed to achieve low delay and rapid response for sensor data acquisition, authentication, consistency, and transparency in cold supply chain logistics. Then, we design an adaptive data smoothing and compression (ADSC) mechanism to reduce IoE data size, and analyze and store those data in the edge gateways with limited computation and storage capacity for correctly characterizing logistics operations and transactions. Moreover, to ensure the data integrity during last-mile delivery, the mobile edge gateway is adopted when the goods are temporarily off the communication range of the fixed edge gateway in the truck. Then, we propose a synchronization engine with a formal workflow applied at mobile and fixed edge gateways where data blocks are generated, validated, and synchronized with the cloud. Finally, a real-life case study on vaccine logistics is introduced to verify our proposed approach with results presented.
•A hybrid unrelated parallel machines problem considering dedicated machine.•A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model considering the practical characteristics.•The objective for this problem ...is Just in Time scheduling for minimizing total earliness and tardiness delivery.•A hybrid genetic algorithm with self-adaptive releasing time control (GARTC) is developed to find a near-optimal solution.
Using unrelated parallel machine scheduling to minimize the total earliness and tardiness of jobs with distinct due dates is a nondeterministic polynomial-hard problem. Delayed customer orders may result in penalties and reduce customer satisfaction. On the other hand, early completion creates inventory storage costs, which increase the total cost. Although parallel machines can increase productivity, machine assignments also increase the complexity of production. Therefore, the challenge in parallel machine scheduling is to dynamically adjust the machine assignment to complete the job within the shortest possible time. In this paper, we address an unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem for jobs with distinct due dates and dedicated machines. The objective is to dynamically allocate jobs to unrelated parallel machines in order to minimize the total earliness and tardiness time. We formulate the problem as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model and develop a modified genetic algorithm (GA) with a distributed release time control (GARTC) mechanism to obtain the near-optimal solution. A preliminary computational study indicates that the developed GARTC not only provides good quality solutions within a reasonable amount of time, but also outperforms the MILP model, a classic GA and heuristic approaches described in the literature.
Intrauterine adhesions (IUAs) caused by mechanical damage or infection increase the risk of infertility in women. Although numerous physical barriers such as balloon or hydrogel are developed for the ...prevention of IUAs, the therapeutic efficacy is barely satisfactory due to limited endometrial healing, which may lead to recurrence. Herein, a second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) light‐responsive shape memory composite based on the combination of cuprorivaite (CaCuSi4O10) nanosheets (CUP NSs) as photothermal conversion agents and polymer poly(d,l‐lactide‐co‐trimethylene carbonate) (PT) as shape memory building blocks is developed. The as‐prepared CUP/PT composite possesses excellent shape memory performance under NIR‐II light, and the improved operational feasibility as an antiadhesion barrier for the treatment of IUAs. Moreover, the released ions (Cu, Si) can stimulate the endometrial regeneration due to the angiogenic bioactivity. This study provides a new strategy to prevent IUA and restore the injured endometrium relied on shape memory composite with enhanced tissues reconstruction ability.
A second near‐infrared light‐responsive shape memory composite, which is composed of cuprorivaite (CaCuSi4O10) nanosheets as photothermal conversion agents and polymer poly(d,l‐lactide‐co‐trimethylene carbonate) as shape memory building blocks, is developed for intrauterine adhesions prevention and endometrial regeneration.
Wafer test is carried out after integrated circuits (IC) fabrication to screen out bad dies. In addition, the results can be used to identify problems in the fabrication process and improve ...manufacturing yield. However, the wafer test itself may induce defects to otherwise good dies. Test-induced defects not only hurt overall manufacturing yield but also create problems for yield learning, so the source problems in testing should be identified quickly. In the wafer acceptance test process, dies are probed in a predetermined order, so test-induced defects, also known as site-dependent faults, exhibit specific patterns that can be effectively captured in test paths. In this paper, we analyze characteristics of test-induced defect patterns and define features that can be used by machine learning algorithms for the automatic detection of test-induced defects. Therefore, defective dies caused by the wafer test can be retested for yield improvement. Test data from six real products are used to validate the proposed method. Several machine learning algorithms have been applied, and experimental results show that our method is effective to distinguish between test-induced and fabrication-induced defects. On average, the prediction accuracy is higher than 97%.
Objectives: Traditional epidural test dose is somewhat unsuited in obstetrics because of potential risk of severe adverse effects when it is accidentally injected into the subarachnoid space. Some ...hospitals use a proportion of the total dose of epidural labor analgesia as a test dose. The aim of our study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of ropivacaine 5 mg with sufentanil 2.5 μg to detect intrathecal injection. Methods: This prospective randomized study enrolled parturients who had the demand for epidural labor analgesia and randomly divided them into two groups. Then, 5 mL of 0.1% ropivacaine with sufentanil 2.5 μg was injected into the epidural space or the subarachnoid space in the epidural (EP) group and the intrathecal (IT) group, respectively. The ability to detect intrathecal injection and side effects were assessed to work out the effectiveness and safety. Results: For spinal injection, the sensitivity and the specificity of the symptoms of either warmth or numbness or both assessed at 3 min were both 100%, and the observed negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV) were 100%. All parturients in the IT group and 2.33% of parturients in the EP group had sensory blockade to cold or pinprick (p < 0.0001). A total of 77.55% (38 of 49) of parturients in the IT group were found to have a motor block. A 10 min assessment showed the median cephalad cold and pin levels were T8 and T10, respectively, and the median Bromage score was 4 in the IT group. Incidences of adverse effects in both groups were low. Conclusions: Ropivacaine 5 mg with sufentanil 2.5 μg is effective and safe to detect intrathecal injection as an epidural test dose in obstetric patients.
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