Water demand prediction (WDP) is the basis for water allocation. However, traditional methods in WDP, such as statistical modeling, system dynamics modeling, and the water quota method have a ...critical disadvantage in that they do not consider any constraints, such as available water resources and ecological water demand. This study proposes a two-stage approach to basin-scale WDP under the constraints of total water use and ecological WD, aiming to flexibly respond to a dynamic environment. The prediction method was divided into two stages: (i) stage 1, which is the prediction of the constrained total WD of the whole basin (T
w
) under the constraints of available water resources and total water use quota released by the local government and (ii) stage 2, which is the allocation of T
w
to its subregions by applying game theory. The WD of each subregion (T
s
) was predicted by calculating its weight based on selected indicators that cover regional socio-economic development and water use for different industries. The proposed approach was applied in the Dongjiang River (DjR) basin in South China. According to its constrained total water use quota and ecological WD, T
w
data were 7.92, 7.3, and 5.96 billion m
3
at the precipitation frequencies of 50%, 90%, and 95%, respectively (in stage 1). Industrial WDs in the domestic, primary, secondary, tertiary, and environment sectors are 1.08, 2.26, 2.02, 0.44, and 0.16 billion m
3
, respectively, in extreme dry years (in stage 2). T
w
and T
s
exhibit structures similar to that of observed water use, mainly in the upstream and midstream regions. A larger difference is observed between T
s
and its total observed water use, owing to some uncertainties in calculating T
w
. This study provides useful insights into adaptive basin-scale water allocation under climate change and the strict policy of water resource management.
To examine receptors for advanced glycation end-products Gly82Ser polymorphism in patients of type 2 diabetes with comorbid depression.
The case-control study was conducted at Fujian Provincial ...Hospital, Fuzhou, China, between December 2011 and December 2012, and comprised unrelated Chinese Han patients of type 2 diabetes, and diabetics with diagnosed clinical depression. Gly82Ser polymorphism polymorphism was determined using polymerase chain reaction amplification-high resolution melting curve protocol. Serum levels of endogenous secretory receptor for advanced glycation end products were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. SPSS 16 was used for data analysis.
Of the 114 subjects, 72(63.15%) were clinically depressed. Lower levels of endogenous secretory receptor were found in the depression group compared with the other group (p=0.049). No difference in genotypes or allele frequencies existed between the two groups (p>0.05). Gly82Ser carriers had significantly higher Hamilton Rating Scale scores (p<0.001) and lower serum endogenous secretory receptor (p=0.012) among the depressed diabetics. There were also significant differences in body mass index (p=0.005), abdominal circumference (p=0.038), carotid intima-media thickness (p=0.037) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (p=0.005) concentration between the different genotypes..
Receptors for advanced glycation end-products-ligands system may be involved in type 2 diabetes with comorbid depression at the genetic level.
Solid catalysts, Li‐Al layered double hydroxides (Li‐Al LDHs), were prepared to catalyze the transesterification of soybean oil (SBO) with ethylene glycol. To improve catalytic activity, the Li‐Al ...LDHs were modified by calcination and further modification after calcination with a silane coupling agent containing amine groups. Calcination caused the change of the catalysts' structure from a double‐layer structure to porous particle and the specific surface area highly increased. After modification with a silane coupling agent, the average pore diameter increased. The two methods had a similar effect on catalytic activity improvement. However, modifying with a coupling agent can sharply decrease the catalysts' regeneration temperature. Furthermore, catalyst recycling and regeneration, along with the effects of temperature, time, agitation, and ratio between SBO and ethylene glycol on transesterification were studied.
Modified Li‐Al layered double hydroxides are effective solid catalysts for transesterification of soybean oil (SBO) and ethylene glycol. They can be separated, reused, and regenerated easily and they have the potential to simplify the production process by using continuous packed‐bed reactors. The SBO fatty acid esters products were anchored with end hydroxyl groups by ethylene glycol, which provide reaction sites for further modification of long chains.
The NLRP3 inflammasome is necessary for initiating acute sterile inflammation. However, its role in the pathogenesis of burn-induced acute lung injury (ALI) is unknown. This study aimed to determine ...the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the signaling pathways involved in burn-induced ALI. We observed that the rat lungs exhibited enhanced inflammasome activity after burn, as evidenced by increased levels of NLRP3 expression and Caspase-1 activity and augmented inflammatory cytokines. Inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome by BAY11-7082 attenuated burn-induced ALI, as demonstrated by the concomitant remission of histopathologic changes and the reduction of myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, inflammatory cytokines in rat lung tissue, and protein concentrations in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). In the in vitro experiments, we used AMs (alveolar macrophages) challenged with burn serum to mimic the postburn microenvironment and noted that the serum significantly upregulated NLRP3 inflammasome signaling and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The use of ROS scavenger N-acetylcysteine (NAC) partially reversed NLRP3 inflammasome activity in cells exposed to burn serum. These results indicate that the NLRP3 inflammasome plays an essential role in burn-induced ALI and that burn-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activity is a partly ROS-dependent process. Targeting this axis may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of burn-induced ALI.
During radial-axial ring rolling process, cooperative strategy of the radial axial feed is critical for dimensional accuracy and thermo mechanical parameters distribution of the formed ring. In order ...to improve the comprehensive quality of the ring parts, response surface method （RSM） is employed for the first time to optimize the cooperative feed strategy for radial-axial ring rolling process by combining it with an improved and verified 3D coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model. The feed trajectory is put forward to describe cooperative relationship of the radial- axial feed and three variables are designed based on the feed trajectory. In order to achieve multi- objective optimization, four responses including thermo mechanical parameters distribution and rolling force are proposed. Based on the FEM results, RSM is used to establish a response model to depict the function relationship between the objective response and design variables. Through this approximate model, effects of different variables on ring rolling process are analyzed connect- edly and optimal feed strategy is obtained by resorting to the optimal chart specific to a constraint condition.
For tunnel system has complex topology, and there are many problems in 3D modeling, according to spacial structure, This paper classified the tunnel into four basic shape units: linear-shaped, broken ...line-shaped, T-shaped and X- shaped, and puts forward a new modeling methodology of organizing the four basic units to form the hole tunnel system which improve working efficiency obviously. Principles and key technologies of modeling is mainly described in this paper. The model is tested by the simulation software Vega, and the result is good.
Polystyrene resins cross-linked with di(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (DEGDMA) and tri(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), DEGDMA–PS and TEGDMA–PS, were synthesized by suspension ...copolymerization. Four functionalized resins, chloromethyl resin, 4-hydroxymethylphenoxymethyl resin (Wang resin), 4-methylbenzhydrylamine resin (MBHA resin) and 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin, were prepared from DEGDMA–PS and TEGDMA–PS. DEGDMA–PS and TEGDMA–PS showed high reactivity in the functionalization reactions in comparison with Merrifield resin (polystyrene cross-linked with divinylbenzene, DVB–PS). DEGDMA–PS–Wang resin and TEGDMA–PS–Wang resin were used as the solid-phase support for the synthesis of a difficult sequence, the fragment of acyl carrier protein 65–74. The yields of the crude peptide synthesized using DEGDMA–PS–Wang resin, TEGDMA–PS–Wang resin and DVB–PS–Wang resin were 92.3%, 91.6% and 78.8%, respectively. The purities of the crude peptides were 85.7%, 88.1% and 73.3%, respectively.
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The severity of traffic accidents in the tunnel is different resulted from different traffic incidents. Lots of attention have been focused on the theories and methods of incident detection in the ...vehicular tunnel. There was little research on the classification of the traffic incidents along the freeway tunnel impact area, which determine the response efficiency and the effectiveness of the rescue. This study was trying to classify the traffic incidents influencing on driving safety along the freeway tunnel impact area. According to the literature review, twenty-two traffic incidents were analyzed and three types were proposed, including incidents between vehicles, Individual vehicle incident, and others. The severities were determined into five scales and the expert scoring method was adopted to evaluate the severities of the 22 traffic incidents. At the same time, the weights of different levels of experts were determined in order to guarantee the statistical significance of evaluation results. The result showed that professors in the field of road traffic safety and senior experts for traffic accident identification have the most weight from all experts. In the light of evaluation results, the severities were classified into three levels, serious incidents, relatively serious incidents, and slightly serious incidents. The incident fire influence on the driving safety the most along the freeway tunnel impact area. Finally, the responses and the relative agencies were proposed for the three classifications respectively. The result of this study can provide guidance for the emergency responses in the light of the severities of traffic incidents happened in the freeway tunnel impact area.
MATTt (a thermostable methionine adenosyltransferase from
Thermus thermophilus
HB27) was overexpressed in
Escherchia coli
and purified using Ni-NTA affinity column. The enzymatic activity of MATTt ...was investigated in a temperature range from 30 °C to 90 °C, showing that MATTt exhibited a high enzymatic activity and good thermostability at 80 °C. Circular dichroism spectra reveals that MATTt contains high portion of
β
-sheet structures contributing to the thermostability of MATTt. The kinetic parameter,
K
m
is 4.19 mmol/L and 1.2 mmol/L for ATP and methionine, respectively. MATTt exhibits the highest enzymatic activity at pH 8. Cobalt (Co
2+
) and zinc ion (Zn
2+
) enhances remarkably the activity of MATTt compared to the magnesium ion (Mg
2+
). All these results indicated that the thermostable MATTt has great potential for industry applications.
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