Plant-inspired biomimetic hybrid PVDF membrane co-deposited by tea polyphenols and 3-amino-propyl-triethoxysilane for high-efficiency oilin-water emulsion separation

Membrane pollution caused by separating oily wastewater is a big challenge for membrane separation technology.Recently,plant-/mussel-inspired interface chemistry has received more and more attention.Herein,a high antifouling poly(vinylidene fluoride)(PVDF)membrane,coated with tea polyphenols(TP,extracted from green tea)and 3-amino-propyl-triethoxysilane(APTES),was developed to purify oil-inwater emulsions.ATR-FTIR,XPS and SEM were used to demonstrate the evolution of surface biomimetic hybrid coatings.The performances of the developed membranes were investigated by pure water permeability and oil rejection for various surfactant-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions.The experimental results revealed that the membrane deposited with a mass ratio of 0.1/0.2 exhibited ultrahigh pure water permeability(14570 L·m^(-2)·h^(-1)·bar^(-1),1 bar=0.1 MPa)and isooctane-in-water emulsion permeability(5391 L·m^(-2)·h^(-1)·bar^(-1))with high separation efficiency(>98.9%).Even treated in harsh environment(acidic,alkaline and saline)for seven days,the membrane still maintained considerable underwater oleophobic property(148°–153°).The fabricated plant-inspired biomimetic hybrid membranes with excellent performances light a broad application prospect in the field of oily wastewater treatment.

High permeability poly(vinylidene fluoride)ultrafiltration membrane doped with polydopamine modified TiO_(2) nanoparticles

In order to improve the water permeability of poly(vinylidene fluoride)(PVDF)ultrafiltration(UF)membranes with low molecular weight cut-off(MWCO),polydopamine(PDA)was employed in the membrane preparation process.Owing to itsmerits of material-independent adhesion,PDAwas coated on inorganic particles or added in coagulation bath to tailor the final membrane structure and property.The introduction of PDA broke through the permeability/selectivity trade-off of the PVDF membrane.By adding the PDA coated titaniumdioxide(PDA/TiO2)nanoparticles,water flux increased by 287% while MWCO kept similar with the pristine PVDF membrane.Thermodynamics and Kinetics of the PVDF/additives/non-solvent were analyzed and shown that nanoparticles reduced the thermodynamic stability and increased the phase separation speed,and the speed can be adjusted using different nanoparticles.Additionally,X-ray diffraction(XRD)test indicated that PVDF crystalline form changed fromαphase to β phase after adding different nanoparticles.Permeability/selectivity trade-offwas broken through by DA addition in coagulation bath.Compared with the original PVDF membrane,when the DA concentration of the coagulation bath was 2.0 g·L^−1,water flux increased by 312%,and MWCO of the PVDF membrane ranged in 10,000 to 20,000 Da as well as contact angle decreased from 81.4°to 45°.

A heterogeneous double chamber electro-Fenton with high production of H_(2)O_(2) using La–CeO_(2) modified graphite felt as cathode

Hydrogen peroxide synthesis by electro-reduction of O_(2) to substitute the current anthraquinone process has attracted a great deal of attention. Low oxygen utilization rate and low hydrogen peroxide production remain obstacles to electro-Fenton application. In situ H_(2)O_(2) generated by electrochemical reaction depends on the electrochemical performance of the cathode and the structure of the reactor. Here, novel graphite felt(GF) modified by La-doped CeO_(2)(La-CeO_(2)) was developed as a cathode. A new double chamber electro-Fenton reactor was proposed, where an organic ultrafiltration membrane was used to prevent H_(2)O_(2) from spreading to the anode. The effects of hydrothermal temperature, time and urea concentration on the electrochemical properties of graphite felt were investigated. The accumulated concentration of H_(2)O_(2) on the modified cathode reached 218.4 mg·L^(-1)in 1 h when the optimal conditions of hydrothermal temperature 120 ℃ and urea concentration 0.55%(mass) in 24 h. The degradation rate of methyl orange reached 98.29%. The new electro-Fenton reactor can efficiently produce hydrogen peroxide to degrade various organic substances and has a high potential for treating wastewater in the chemical industry.

UV-B promotes flavonoid biosynthesis in Ginkgo biloba by inducing the GbHY5-GbMYB1-GbFLS module

Ginkgo biloba(ginkgo)leaves have medicinal value due to their high levels of secondary metabolites,such as flavonoids.We found that the flavonoid content in ginkgo leaves increases significantly at high altitudes(Qinghai-Tibet Plateau).Considering that high UV-B radiation is among the key environmental characteristics of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,we carried out simulated UV-B treatments on ginkgo seedlings and found that the flavonoid content of the leaves increased significantly following the treatments.Combined with results from our previous studies,we determined that the transcription factor GbHY5 may play a key role in responses to UV-B radiation.Overexpression of GbHY5 significantly promoted the accumulation of flavonoids in both ginkgo callus and Arabidopsis thaliana.Furthermore,yeast two-hybrid and real-time quantitative PCR showed that GbHY5 promoted the expression of GbMYB1 by interacting with GbMYB1 protein.Overexpression of GbMYB1 in ginkgo callus and A.thaliana also significantly promoted flavonoid biosynthesis.GbFLS encodes a key enzyme in flavonoid biosynthesis,and its promoter has binding elements of GbHY5 and GbMYB1.A dual-luciferase reporter assay indicated that while GbHY5 and GbMYB1 activated the expression of GbFLS individually,their co-expression achieved greater activation.Our analyses reveal the molecular mechanisms by which the UV-B-induced GbHY5-GbMYB1-GbFLS module promotes flavonoid biosynthesis in ginkgo,and they provide insight into the use of UV-B radiation to enhance the flavonoid content of ginkgo leaves.

Physiological and Transcriptomic Changes During Autumn Coloration and Senescence in Ginkgo biloba Leaves

Autumn leaf senescence and coloration is a complex process and a striking natural phenomenon.Here,through biology approach integrating transcriptomic analyses in Ginkgo biloba,we determined that the content of chlorophyll decreased during leaf senescence,while carotenoid components increased until late October in the turning stage(TS)and then decreased in the yellow leaf stage(YS).Simultaneously,chlorophyll biosynthesis genes exhibited significantly lower expression levels while chlorophyll degradation genes showed increased expression from the green leaf stage(GS)to YS.However,carotenoid biosynthesis-related genes showed enhanced expression,especially in TS.An analysis of the expression of genes related to senescence demonstrated that the expression levels of most abscisic acid-and jasmonic acid-related genes,autophagy,WRKY,and NAC genes increased,whereas cytoskeleton-,photosynthesis-,and antioxidation-related genes decreased from GS to YS.Furthermore,G.biloba seedlings exogenously treated with abscisic acid,jasmonic acid,or ultraviolet-B radiation all showed obvious color variation and senescence symptoms.We used these exogenously seedlings to further validate the function of several genes involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis and senescence.Taken together,these results contribute to the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of leaf coloration and senescence in G.biloba as well as in the identification of candidate genes involved in this process.

CFD simulation of flow field and resistance in a 19-core tandem ceramic membrane module

CFD simulation of the permeation process of a 19-core tandem ceramic membrane module was established to investigate flow field and resistance and its change in permeate flux to the membrane element position and the channel of each membrane element.The results show that when the volume flow rate changes from26 m3·h-1 to 89 m3·h-1,the resistance of each part of the membrane module increases gradually.The increase in resistance loss in the membrane element is faster than the plates and the bell mouths.In a single ceramic membrane module,the maximum difference in flow rate of each membrane tube is 7.23%.In a single membrane tube,the outer ring channels 3–5,3–6,3–7,3–8 are relatively slow.The maximum mass flow deviation from the mean is 2.7%.This work helps to clarify the flow mechanism within the modules,optimize the structure of the equipment and provide a reliable basis for the improvement of industrial ceramic membrane modules.

Cytological and Proteomic Analysis of Ginkgo biloba Pollen Intine

The pollen intine plays important roles in pollen germination and tube growth,but related information in Ginkgo biloba remains unclear.We isolated and obtained de-exined pollen from G.biloba.Using fluorescent probes,we observed the strongest cellulose fluorescence in the pollen intine.De-esterified pectin immunolabeled with JIM5 was present throughout the entire cell wall,whereas esterified pectin recognized by the monoclonal antibody JIM7 was concentrated in some regions.Callose staining with aniline blue was observed across the entire surface of the pollen intine.These results were confirmed by Fourier Transform InfraRed(FTIR)analysis.We also used proteomic approaches to identify different proteins between mature and de-exined pollen(48h after hydration)in vitro.Based on mass spectrometry,de-exined pollen had more proteins than mature pollen,including calmodulin,serine hydroxymethyltransferase,β-galactosidase 6,and class IV chitinase.According to Gene Ontology(GO)analysis,the differentially expressed proteins were mainly associated with transportation,defense reaction,sugar metabolism,energy metabolism,signal transduction,and cell wall formation.These findings suggest that most proteins involved in pollen germination and pollen tube growth are synthesized during pollen hydration,indicating the important role of pollen hydration in the reproductive process of G.Biloba.

Multi-Object Tracking with Micro Aerial Vehicle

A simple yet efficient tracking framework is proposed for real-time multi-object tracking with micro aerial vehicles(MAVs). It's basic missions for MAVs to detect specific targets and then track them automatically. In our method, candidate regions are generated using the salient detection in each frame and then classified by an eural network. A kernelized correlation filter(KCF) is employed to track each target until it disappears or the peak-sidelobe ratio is lower than a threshold. Besides, we define the birth and death of each tracker for the targets. The tracker is recycled if its target disappears and can be assigned to a new target. The algorithm is evaluated on the PAFISS and UAV123 datasets. The results show a good performance on both the tracking accuracy and speed.

Discrimination of Five Citrus Diseased Leaves by FTIR Spectroscopy

In this paper,citrus brown spot,huanglongbing,canker,fuliginous,Cercospora sp. and healthy leaves were studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy( FTIR) combined with statistical analysis. The results showed that the spectra of the samples were similar,whereas there were obvious differences in the second derivatives of infrared spectra in the range of 1 500- 700 cm- 1. The correlative analysis were evaluated,results showed that the correlation coefficients were larger than 0. 918 between healthy leaves,and between the same diseased leaves. However,the values were all decreased between healthy and diseased leaves,and among different diseased leaves. The preprocessed original,first derivative and second derivative spectra in the range of 1 200- 700 cm- 1were chosen to evaluated principal component analysis( PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis( HCA),respectively. The performance of the overall accuracy of PCA was 92.5%,which were better than original dataset and first derivative dataset. HCA by selecting second derivative dataset yield about 90% accuracy. This study proved that FTIR spectroscopy could be detected citrus diseases quickly and accurately.

Design and application of microgrid operation control system based on IEC 61850

We consider the microgrid operation control technology including design of microgrid operation control system,MG control device and control strategy.We pay much attention on microgrid operation control device which is core control device.In order to solve the contradiction of quick speed about microgrid operation mode shift and slow speed about the management system,threelayers control architecture based on IEC61850 is designed and adaptive control strategy is used on MG operation control system.The system has been applied in a distributed generation/energy storage power station.The actual operation shows that the system can be effectively and flexibly connected to distribution network.

Ultra-stable super-resolution fluorescence cryo-microscopy for correlative light and electron cryo-microscopy

Remarkable progress in correlative light and electron cryo-microscopy(cryo-CLEM) has been made in the past decade. A crucial component for cryo-CLEM is a dedicated cryo-fluorescence microscope(cryo-FM). Here, we describe an ultra-stable superresolution cryo-FM that exhibits excellent thermal and mechanical stability. The temperature fluctuations in 10 h are less than0.06 K, and the mechanical drift over 5 h is less than 200 nm in three dimensions. We have demonstrated the super-resolution imaging capability of this system(average single molecule localization accuracy of ～13.0 nm). The results suggest that our system is particularly suitable for long-term observations, such as single molecule localization microscopy(SMLM) and cryogenic super-resolution correlative light and electron microscopy(csCLEM).

Preparation and toughening mechanism of Al_(2)O_(3) composite ceramics toughened by B_(4)C@TiB_(2) core–shell units

In this paper, the concept of incorporating core–shell structured units as secondary phases totoughen Al_(2)O_(3) ceramics is proposed. Al_(2)O_(3) composite ceramics toughened by B_(4)C@TiB_(2) core–shellunits are successfully synthesized using a combination of molten salt methodology and spark plasmasintering. The synthesis of B_(4)C@TiB_(2) core–shell toughening units stems from the prior production ofcore–shell structural B_(4)C@TiB_(2) powders, and this core–shell structure is effectively preserved withinthe Al_(2)O_(3) matrix after sintering. The B_(4)C@TiB_(2) core–shell toughening unit consists of a micron-sizedB4C core enclosed by a shell approximately 500 nm in thickness, composed of numerous nanosizedTiB2 grains. The regions surrounding these core–shell units exhibit distinct geometric structures andencompass multidimensional variations in phase composition, grain dimensions, and thermal expansioncoefficients. Consequently, intricate stress distributions emerge, fostering the propagation of cracks inmultiple dimensions. This behavior consumes a considerable amount of crack propagation energy,thereby enhancing the fracture toughness of the Al_(2)O_(3) matrix. The resulting Al_(2)O_(3) composite ceramicsdisplay relative density of 99.7%±0.2%, Vickers hardness of 21.5±0.8 GPa, and fracture toughness6.92±0.22 MPa·m1/2.