Engineering geological conditions include the nature of rock and soil, geological structure, landform, hydrogeological conditions, and adverse geological processes. Among them, faults, fissures, ...folds, karst, and lithology changes seriously affect the safety and construction cost of mountain tunnels, hydraulic tunnels, and other projects. For this reason, a new method based on feature fusion is proposed to detect the geological anomalies in London and Sheffield. It established a 3D raster data model oriented to attribute information modeling and visualization of urban underground space to obtain geological data. Based on this acquired data, authors adopted the feature-level fusion extraction method based on the multi-attribute geological abnormal body to extract, fuse, fill and surface the multi-attribute data of underground space geological data. Smooth processing can realize the detection of abnormal geological bodies in underground space. It has been proved that this method can be used in geological data display, feature extraction, feature fusion, and abnormal physical examination.
Protecting human, animal, and plant life or health from additives, toxins, and contaminants in agri-products and promoting green free trade are the main components of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) ...measures. However, the SPS measures are heterogeneous. This study examines the impact of SPS measures on the measured export quality and discusses their influence on the environmental protection of the exporting country. International heterogeneous measures do not necessarily promote quality upgrading but greatly increase transaction costs. By contrast, China's agri-product' quality upgrading and environmental pollution are in sharp contrast. Based on a heterogeneous firm-trade model, this study obtains three hypothetical propositions and conducts empirical regressions using the Tobit method. This study finds that heterogeneous SPS measures hinder quality upgrading because firms present a different quality upgrading trend, which in turn impedes the environmental protection of the exporting country; the quality upgrading made by diversified SOEs is higher than that of foreign firms and private firms; the quality upgrading made by general firms is higher than that of processing firms; and protective SPS measures have a stronger negative effect on quality upgrading and environmental protection.
China's wind power capacity has increased dramatically in recent years, but about 30% of the installed capacity sits idle, so overinvestment in wind power capacity seems to be a serious problem. This ...paper explores reasons for the overinvestment. The economic analysis shows that, given uncertain future policy on wind power, it is optimal for power companies to invest more than the amount in a certain world. A part of the “overinvestment” has a real value, which can be interpreted as the value of holding scarce wind resource. This value exists because the wind-rich sites with convenient locations to connect to the grids are scarce resource, and also because the specific government policies that are essential for promoting wind power are uncertain in the future. This value should be taken into account in the investment decision, but it results in the phenomenon of “overinvestment”. The concept of the value of holding scarce resource can be generally applied to the resources that are scarce and for which the future policy is uncertain.
Blautia is a genus of anaerobic bacteria with probiotic characteristics that occur widely in the feces and intestines of mammals. Based on phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses, some species in the ...genera Clostridium and Ruminococcus have been reclassified as Blautia, so to date, there are 20 new species with valid published names in this genus. An extensive body of research has recently focused on the probiotic effects of this genus, such as biological transformation and its ability to regulate host health and alleviate metabolic syndrome. This article reviews the origin and biological characteristics of Blautia and the factors that affect its abundance and discusses its role in host health, thus laying a theoretical foundation for the development of new functional microorganisms with probiotic properties.
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a special kind of diabetes that arises only during pregnancy. A woman with GDM has a higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases. In ...this exploration, we intended to scrutinize the therapeutic actions of Myrtenol against the streptozotocin (STZ)-provoked GDM in rats. GDM was provoked in the pregnant rats via injecting the 1% of STZ (25 mg/kg) and then treated with the 50 mg/kg of myrtenol. The glucose level and bodyweight of animals were noted. The lipid profile, that is, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) was determined by respective kits. The lipid peroxidation and antioxidants status were examined using assay kits. The status of proinflammatory markers was investigated by assay kits. The messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling proteins were studied by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis. The hepatic and pancreatic tissues were examined microscopically. Myrtenol treatment notably decreased the status of blood glucose and lipid profile and improved the HDL in the GDM rats. The status of lipid peroxidation and inflammatory markers were substantially reduced by the myrtenol and it enhanced the antioxidants status of GDM animals. Myrtenol treatment remarkably downregulated the mRNA expressions of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling proteins. The histological findings also proved the therapeutic actions of myrtenol. Altogether, the findings of this investigation unveiled the therapeutic actions of the myrtenol against the STZ-provoked GDM in rats. Myrtenol could be a promising therapeutic agent to treat GDM in the future.
Highlights • Aim was to access the effect of TCC on the older adults. • Total of 7 randomized controlled trials involving 1088 participants were included. • TCC could improve the balance control ...ability and flexibility of older adults.
The deuterium excess is a second-order parameter linking water-stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes and has been widely used in hydrological studies. The deuterium excess in precipitation is greatly ...influenced by below-cloud evaporation through unsaturated air, especially in an arid climate. Based on an observation network of isotopes in precipitation of arid central Asia, the difference in deuterium excess from cloud base to ground was calculated for each sampling site. The difference on the southern slope of the Tian Shan is generally larger than that on the northern slope, and the difference during the summer months is greater than that during the winter months. Generally, an increase of 1% in evaporation of raindrops causes deuterium excess to decrease by approximately 1‰. Under conditions of low air temperature, high relative humidity, heavy precipitation, and large raindrop diameter, a good linear correlation is exhibited between evaporation proportion and difference in deuterium excess, and a linear regression slope of <1‰ %–1 can be seen; in contrast, under conditions of high air temperature, low relative humidity, light precipitation, and small raindrop diameter, the linear relationship is relatively weak, and the slope is much larger than 1‰ %–1. A sensitivity analysis under different climate scenarios indicates that, if air temperature has increased by 5°C, deuterium excess difference decreases by 0.3‰–4.0‰ for each site; if relative humidity increases by 10%, deuterium excess difference increases by 1.1‰–10.3‰.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different high-intensity ultrasonication (HIU) pretreatment on the structure and properties of soybean protein isolate (SPI) as well as ...enzymatic hydrolysis of SPI by bromelain and antioxidant activity of hydrolysates. The HIU-treated SPI fractions showed a decrease in the proportion of α-helices and β-turns and an increase in the content of β-sheets and random coils based on Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Near-infrared spectra and fluorescence spectra analyses provided support for the changes in secondary and tertiary structures of SPI after ultrasound treatment. The particle size of SPI decreased from 217.20 nm to 141.23 nm and the absolute zeta potential increased. Scanning electron microscopy showed that HIU treatment changed apparent morphology. Dynamic and static light scattering of ultrasonicated samples showed that SPI structure had changed from hard-sphere to hollow-sphere or polydisperse and monodisperse gaussian coils. HIU pretreatment significantly increased the hydroxyl-radical scavenging and the degree of hydrolysis of the SPI hydrolysates.
Under the pressure of global warming, it is imperative for Chinese government to impose effective policy instruments to promote domestic energy saving and carbon emissions reduction. As one of the ...most important incentive-based policy instruments, carbon tax has sparked a lively controversy in China. This paper explores the impact of carbon tax on Chinese economy, as well as the cushion effects of the complementary policies, by constructing a dynamic recursive general equilibrium model. The model can describe the new equilibrium for each sequential independent period (e.g. one year) after carbon tax and the complementary policies are imposed, and thus describe the long-term impacts of the policies. The simulation results show that carbon tax is an effective policy tool because it can reduce carbon emissions with a little negative impact on economic growth; reducing indirect tax in the meantime of imposing carbon tax will help to reduce the negative impact of the tax on production and competitiveness; in addition, giving households subsidy in the meantime will help to stimulate household consumptions. Therefore, complementary policies used together with carbon tax will help to cushion the negative impacts of carbon tax on the economy. The dynamic CGE analysis shows the impact of carbon tax policy on the GDP is relatively small, but the reduction of carbon emission is relatively large.
►Carbon tax is an effective policy tool, which generates larger carbon emission reduction with a little negative impact on economic growth. ►Carbon tax recycling to firms or households will help to reduce the impact of carbon tax on production or consumption. ►The growth rate of carbon emission is lower than that of GDP because of technology change. ►The impact of carbon tax on the GDP is relatively small, but the reduction of carbon emission is relatively large in China in the long run. ►The marginal abatement cost of carbon dioxide will rise up gradually in the long term.
Yttria partially stabilized zirconia was introduced into WC-Co cemented carbides to enhance their mechanical performance. The hardness and fracture toughness were improved simultaneously with the ...addition of ZrO2. Particularly, the fracture toughness of the cemented carbides was significantly enhanced. The mechanism was mainly attributed to the stress-induced phase transformation of tetragonal ZrO2 to monoclinic ZrO2. This phase transformation introduced a compressive stress field and deflected the micro-cracks. In addition, the ZrO2 particles dispersed homogeneously in the WC skeleton and had good interfacial bonding with both WC and Co phases, which was beneficial to the mechanical properties of the cemented carbides. This study provides a new promising approach to break the trade-off between the hardness and fracture toughness of cemented carbides to achieve excellent comprehensive mechanical properties. The new strategy will be also promising to be applied in a variety of cermets or ceramic-based composites.
Display omitted
•The trade-off between hardness and fracture toughness in cemented carbides has been solved by the addition of ZrO2.•The phase transformation introduces compressive stress and deflects micro-cracks, which enhances hardness and toughness.•Dispersed tetragonal ZrO2 have good interfacial bonding with both WC and Co, which hinders the intergranular fracture.•The toughness enhancement is mainly attributed to the stress-induced phase transformation of ZrO2.
PDF
