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•Pb, Cr, Cu and Cd concentration low level in fish muscle from Meiliang Bay, Lake Taihu.•High levels of Pb and Cu were found in liver and gills of two fish Cyprinus carpio and ...Pelteobagrus fluvidrac from Meiliang Bay, Lake Taihu.•The seasonal metal bioaccumulation pattern was mainly associated with fish species.•Pb, Cr, Cu and Cd mainly originate from anthropogenic sources.
In the present study, the bioaccumulation of heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Cd, Pb) content were determined in freshwater edible fishes Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus and Pelteobagrus fluvidraco, which were caught from the Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake, a large, shallow and eutrophic lake of China. The results showed that the Cr, Cu, Cd and Pb content in the edible parts of the two fish species were much lower than Chinese Food Health Criterion (1994). However, the results showed marked differences in the four analyzed metal content between the two species and different tissues as well as significant variations. Pb content were the highest in the liver of fishes, Cd contents were almost the same in all organs of fishes, Cr contents mainly enriched in the kidney and liver, Cu contents were the highest in gills, However, the total metal bioaccumulation were greatest in the liver, gills and the lowest in the muscle. Although the total accumulations were highest in P. fluvidraco compare then C.carpio. This investigation indicated that fish products in Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake were still safe for human consumption, but the amount consumed should be controlled under the Chinese Food Health Criterion to avoid excessive intake of Pb. Further, this is the first report on seasonal distribution of heavy metals and proximate compositions of commercialized important edible fishes from Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake, China.
In this paper the integration of international understanding into design education will be discussed. Through an exposition of UNESCO's concept of Education for international understanding. I will ...discuss the fundamental goal of promoting world peace and the artistic vision of “understanding”. It will discuss what positive educational explorations and practices design education can undertake to expand the humanistic connotations of international understanding, promote intercultural understanding, and peaceful and friendly development, and what basic qualities it should cultivate.
This comparative study delves into the foreign labor policies of Malaysia and Singapore, two prominent host countries for foreign workers in Southeast Asia. Despite their historical, cultural, and ...developmental similarities, these nations exhibit variations in the efficiency of their foreign labor policies. Employing the Most Similar System Design (MSSD) approach, this research explores three key explanatory variables: economic factors related to industrial structures, differences in governance systems, and cultural backgrounds. The study finds that these factors significantly shape the formulation and effectiveness of foreign labor policies. The analysis reveals that Singapore outperforms Malaysia in leveraging foreign worker policies to drive economic transformation, enhance competitiveness, and manage the impact of foreign labor. Factors contributing to this discrepancy include the divergence in industrial structures, variations in governance systems, and the influence of cultural backgrounds. Singapore's unitary system, focus on high-skilled foreign workers, and non-racial political landscape contribute to its policy efficiency, while Malaysia's federal structure, lowerskilled labor demand, and communal politics impact its policy effectiveness.
Radix Bupleuri (RB) has been widely used in Chinese Traditional Medicine for over 2000 years and is currently marketed in China as Chai-Hu-Shu-Gan tablets and Xiao-Yao-Wan tablets. Saikosaponins ...(SSs, especially SSa, SSc and SSd), as the major bioactive compounds in RB, represent anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, anti-viral and hepatoprotective effects.
To summarize recent findings regarding to the extraction, detection, biosynthesis, metabolism, pharmacological/toxicological effects of SSs.
Online academic databases (including PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and CNKI) were searched using search terms of “Saikosaponin”, “Radix Bupleuri”, “Bupleurum” and combinations to include published studies of SSs primarily from 2003 to 2018. Several critical previous studies beyond this period were also included.
354 papers were found and 165 papers were reviewed. SSs have drawn great attention for their anti-inflammation, anti-viral and anti-cancer effects and contradictory roles in the regulation of cell apoptosis, oxidative stress and liver fibrosis. Meanwhile, increased risks of overdose-induced acute or accumulation-related chronic hepatotoxicity of SSs and RB have also been reported. However, underlying mechanisms of SSs bioactivities, the metabolism of SSs and bioactivities of SSs metabolites are largely unknown.
This comprehensive review of SSs provides novel insights and perspectives on the limitations of current studies and the importance of metabolism study and the dose-pharmacological/toxic relationship of SSs for the future discovery of SSs-based therapeutic strategies and clinical safe practice.
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Silica–titania core–shell nanoparticles of 30, 40, 50, 55, 75, and 110 nm were prepared from tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and tetraisopropyl titanate (TIPT). After calcination, the amorphous ...titania shell transformed into anatase nanoparticles, and the silica–titania core–shell nanoparticles became raspberry-like nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and UV–vis spectroscopy. Hierarchically structured antireflective and self-cleaning particulate coatings were fabricated on glass substrates via layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly using silica–titania core–shell nanoparticles and silica nanoparticles as building blocks followed by calcination. The maximum transmittance of coated glass substrates reached as high as ca. 97%, while that of the glass substrates is only ca. 91%. The morphologies of the coatings were observed by SEM and atom force microscopy (AFM). Such hierarchically structured raspberry-like SiO2–TiO2 nanoparticle coatings had superhydrophilic and antifogging properties. The coatings also showed photocatalytic activity toward organic pollutants and thus a self-cleaning property.
This paper presents a novel hybrid Elman-LSTM method for battery remaining useful life prediction by combining the empirical model decomposition algorithm and long short-term memory and Elman neural ...networks. The empirical model decomposition algorithm is employed to decompose the recorded battery capacity verse cycle number data into several sub-layers. The recurrent long short-term memory and Elman neural networks are then established to predict high- and low-frequency sub-layers, respectively. Comprehensive battery test datasets have been collected and used for model parameterization and performance evaluation. The comparison results indicate that the proposed hybrid Elman-LSTM model yields superior performance relative to the other counterparts and can predict the battery remaining useful life with high accuracy. The relative prediction errors are 3.3% and 3.21% based on two unseen datasets, respectively.
The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 has been undergoing mutations and is highly glycosylated. It is critically important to investigate the biological significance of these mutations. Here, we ...investigated 80 variants and 26 glycosylation site modifications for the infectivity and reactivity to a panel of neutralizing antibodies and sera from convalescent patients. D614G, along with several variants containing both D614G and another amino acid change, were significantly more infectious. Most variants with amino acid change at receptor binding domain were less infectious, but variants including A475V, L452R, V483A, and F490L became resistant to some neutralizing antibodies. Moreover, the majority of glycosylation deletions were less infectious, whereas deletion of both N331 and N343 glycosylation drastically reduced infectivity, revealing the importance of glycosylation for viral infectivity. Interestingly, N234Q was markedly resistant to neutralizing antibodies, whereas N165Q became more sensitive. These findings could be of value in the development of vaccine and therapeutic antibodies.
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•Over 100 mutations were selected for analyses on their infectivity and antigenicity•The dominant D614G itself and combined with other mutations are more infectious•Ablation of both N331 and N343 glycosylation at RBD drastically reduced infectivity•Ten mutations such as N234Q, L452R, A475V, and V483A was markedly resistant to some mAbs
Eighty natural variants and 26 glycosylation spike mutants of SARS-CoV-2 were analyzed in terms of infectivity and antigenicity using high throughput pseudovirus assay in conjunction with neutralizing antibodies.
The present study, seasonal pollution of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr and Cu) in water, sediment, tissues of fish Carassius carassius and oyster Crassostrea gigas were determined at seven sampling sites ...from Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake during one year calendar, 2016. The total heavy metal concentrations in water samples were higher in winter and summer than in spring and autumn season, whereas in sediment they were higher in winter and summer seasons, respectively. The trend of metal mean contents found in the fish and oyster were in decreasing order of Pb > Cu > Cr > Cd and Pb > Cu > Cr > Cd, respectively. The tissues of fish and oyster captured during winter and summer accumulated a higher significant different amount of metals relative to other season, which was attributed to a higher influx of agricultural waste, sewage and sludge by heavy rainfall and floods. In addition, the pollution load index (PLI) values were above one (>1), indicating an advanced decline of the sediment quality, and contamination factor (CF) confirmed that the sediment samples were moderate to high contamination by Pb and Cr. Thus, comparative studies with seasonal pollution of heavy metals in Meiliang Bay of Lake Taihu regions indicate considerable heavy metal enrichment in water, sediments as well as in various organs of fish and oyster. Finally, our results indicated that the metal concentration values increased statistically significant different related to season (p < 0.001). The determination of heavy metal stress biomarkers in fish along with seasonal variations may serve as a convenient approach during pollution bio-monitoring programme.
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•Pb content in the water of Lake Taihu exceeded international safety thresholds.•High levels of Cr, Pb and Cu were found in sediment from Lake Taihu.•The seasonal metal accumulation pattern was mainly associated with fish and oyster.•Pb, Cr, Cu and Cd mainly originate from anthropogenic sources.
•Primary structures of HSPs obtained by different extraction methods were indentified.•Antioxidant activities of the HSPs were compared.•The molecular weight distributions and monosaccharide ...compositions of HSPs were evaluated.•UEA-HSP possessed the highest extraction yield and the strongest antioxidant activities.
The impacts of four extraction methods (hot water, enzyme assistance, ultrasonic assistance and ultrasonic-enzyme assistance) on the extraction yields, preliminary structure and antioxidant activities of the Hohenbuehelia serotina polysaccharides (HW-HSP, EA-HSP, UA-HSP and UEA-HSP) were systematically investigated. The yield of the polysaccharides (20.70±0.17%) obtained by ultrasonic-enzyme assistance was higher than the polysaccharides by other methods’. Four kinds of polysaccharides possessed the different preliminary structural characteristics including molecular weight distributions, monosaccharide compositions, crystallization and spiral structures, while different surface morphology. Through the measurements of antioxidant activities in vitro, UEA-HSP exhibited the most significant scavenging capacities on non-physiological ABTS free radicals and physiological hydroxyl radicals. These data showed that ultrasonic-enzyme assistance was more beneficial to enhance the extraction yields of the polysaccharides, and obtain higher bioactive polysaccharides. The results also suggested that H. serotina polysaccharides possessed potential healthcare application in food field due to their antioxidant activities.
The electrocatalysis of urea represents an important potential as an efficient technology for sustainable energy development. This anodic reaction generates hydrogen or electrical power through ...direct electrooxidation of urea molecules, but is greatly inhibited by its slow kinetics. Therefore, tailoring highly efficient, earth‐abundant, and durable electrocatalysts for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is a fundamental for the enhancement of green energy conversion technologies. Herein, we report a scalable synthetic strategy to construct three‐dimensional (3D) nickel‐cobalt layered double hydroxide nanosheet arrays (NiCo−LDH NSAs) with silver (Ag0) or gold (Au0) and palladium (Pd0) intercalants as high performance catalysts for UOR. Experimental results suggest that the interlayer spacing of multi‐anions LDH NSAs can effectively afford synergetic effects of increased electrochemical surface area, better exposure of catalytically active sites, and favorable adsorption energy of urea molecules. As expected, the deposition of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) could successfully modulate the electronic structure, delivering a rise to significantly improved UOR activity. Specifically, the Au/NiCo−LDH hybrid exhibits a superior electro‐catalytic performance toward urea electrooxidation with a highest current. These findings offer an effective pathway to prepare potential earth‐abundant electrocatalysts for direct urea fuel cells (DUFCs).
Golden catalyst: 3D highly porous Au/NiCo−LDH architecture was fabricated and applied as an electrocatalyst for urea catalysis in alkaline environment with a high‐performance benefiting from the vertical orientation of nanosheets building blocks with multiple void spaces/passages, facile diffusion of ions and mass at both interiors and outer surfaces, and enriched active sites as well. The robustly deposited Au nanoparticles could significantly improve the electronic structure and thus boosted the catalytic activity of the hybrid.
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