Search Results (102)

Food loss and waste from the European Union’s dairy supply chain, particularly in the management of fresh milk, imposes significant environmental burdens. This study demonstrates that implementing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-enabled digital decision-support tools can substantially reduce these impacts across the region. A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to quantify both the additional environmental burdens from RFID (tag production, usage, and disposal) and the avoided burdens due to reduced milk losses in the farm, processing, and distribution stages. Within the EU’s fresh milk supply chain, the implementation of digital tools could result in annual net reductions of up to 80,000 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, 81,083 tonnes of PM_2.5-equivalent particulate matter, 84,326 tonnes of land use–related carbon deficit, and 80,000 cubic meters of freshwater-equivalent consumption. Spatial analysis indicates that regions with historically high spoilage rates, particularly in Southern and Eastern Europe, see the greatest benefits from RFID enabled digital-decision support tools. These environmental savings are most pronounced during the peak months of milk production. Overall, the study demonstrates that despite the environmental footprint of RFID systems, their integration into the EU’S dairy supply chain enhances transparency, reduces waste, and improves resource efficiency—supporting their strategic value. Full article

Camellia vietnamensis grows in a unique tropical environment, and its seed oil has a rich aroma. The content of unsaturated fatty acids in C. vietnamensis oil is up to 90%, which can regulate human lipid metabolism and prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Compared with olive oil, C. vietnamensis oil has a higher content of unsaturated fatty acids. This study used eleven C. vietnamensis cultivars cultivated on Hainan Island. Among the 11 cultivars, “Boao 1” had fruits with the largest vertical diameter of 45.05 mm, while “Haida 1” had fruits with the largest horizontal diameter, single-fruit weight, and fresh 100-grain weight of 53.5 mm, 70.6 g, and 479.01 g, respectively. “Boao 3” had an acid value and peroxide value of 1.59 mg/g and 3.50 mmol/kg, respectively, and its saponification value content was 213.18 mg/g. “Boao 5” had the highest iodine value, 101.86 g/100 g, among the 11 cultivars. The content of unsaturated fatty acids in the seed oil of 11 cultivars ranged from 84.87% to 87.38%. The qRT-PCR results confirmed that “Boao 3” had a higher content of flavonoids and fatty acids than other cultivars. The comprehensive analysis of physiological and biochemical indices showed that the top five cultivars were “Haida 1”, “Boao 3”, “Haida 2”, “Boao 1”, and “Boao 5”. These five cultivars were suitable for large-scale cultivation in tropical regions, such as Hainan Island. This study provided a theoretical basis for the breeding of C. vietnamensis cultivars in tropical regions. Full article

Background: Rickettsioses are diseases caused by obligate intracellular non-motile coccobacilli transmitted via arthropods. The most common rickettsioses are scrub typhus (ST), typhus group rickettsioses (TGR), and spotted fever group rickettsioses (SFGR). This study aims to provide information and insight into rickettsioses seropositivity among suspected patients in East and Peninsular Malaysia over a six-year period from 2016 to 2021. Methodology/Principal Findings: Data obtained from four state hospitals and one national research institute providing rickettsial serological testing were analyzed using the IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software program. The six-year analysis revealed that ST had the highest number of seropositivity cases, followed by TGR, and SFGR, for both immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. Of the 3228 samples, 21.6%, 16.1%, and 13.9% of suspected patients were IgM seropositive for ST, TGR, and SFGR, respectively. IgG seropositivity for ST was 21.9%, followed by TGR at 21.4%, and SFGR at 17.2% among suspected rickettsioses cases. All regions in Malaysia were significantly associated with IgM seropositivity for ST, TGR, and SFGR. IgM seropositivity for SFGR was significantly higher in females. Age group 41–65 years was highly associated with IgG seropositivity for ST, TGR, and SFGR. Conclusions/Significance: Analysis of six-year data on ST, TGR, and SFGR seropositivity in Malaysia revealed variations across regions, age groups, and genders. This seropositivity study underscores ST, TGR, and SFGR as possible causes of acute febrile illness among patients suspected of rickettsial disease in Malaysia. The findings contributed to the awareness of reemerging rickettsioses and warrant public health interventions that may reduce the incidence of rickettsioses in Malaysia. Abstract summary: Scrub typhus (ST), typhus group rickettsioses (TGR), and spotted fever group rickettsioses (SFGR) are significant global public health concerns. Our results showed that the highest number of IgM and IgG seropositivity cases was observed for ST, followed by TGR and SFGR. All regions in Malaysia were significantly associated with IgM seropositivity for ST, TGR, and SFGR. East Malaysia exhibited significantly higher seropositivity for ST, TGR, and SFGR than other regions in Malaysia. IgM seropositivity for SFGR was significantly higher in females. The age group 41–65 years was highly associated with IgG seropositivity for ST, TGR, and SFGR. This study highlights the value of serological data in uncovering the hidden burden of disease in Malaysia. In addition, the findings contributed to bridging knowledge gaps on the limited data from Malaysia spanning extended periods, despite being one of the countries in the endemic Tsutsugamushi Triangle. The findings from this study may direct future research on rickettsioses and warrant public health interventions in Malaysia. Full article

Flooding poses significant challenges in semi-arid regions, where irregular rainfall patterns increase environmental vulnerability. This study explicitly aims to improve flood susceptibility mapping by integrating advanced machine learning (ML) algorithms with geographic information systems (GIS) and remote-sensing data. Using data from the Upper Drâa Basin in southern Morocco, we applied boosting algorithms, including XGBoost, CatBoost, LightGBM, and Hist Gradient Boosting, to enhance the accuracy of flood risk assessment. Quantitative model evaluation shows that Hist Gradient Boosting achieved the best performance, with the lowest mean squared error (MSE = 0.06897) and root mean squared error (RMSE = 0.2626). It also attained the highest F1 score (0.8), overall accuracy (93.1%), and area under the curve (AUC = 0.833), indicating its superior predictive capability. These findings highlight the strong potential of novel boosting ensemble learning methods in flood susceptibility prediction and contribute valuable, data-driven insights for policymakers and urban planners to support effective flood mitigation strategies in southern Morocco. Full article

A pipeline network is an important transportation mode of natural gas, and different external factors will affect the development of natural gas scheduling plans to different degrees. However, the specific correlation between each external environmental factor and pipeline network scheduling decision is not clear at this stage. This paper developed a hybrid method with Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Spearman’s correlation coefficient to study the correlations between climate temperature, total gas supply, economic conditions, other energy consumption and natural gas pipeline scheduling plans. The results showed that the correlation between natural gas pipeline output and climate temperature is good, presenting a significance level of 5% and below; in contrast, the correlations with economic conditions and other factors are less significant but still reach a significance level of 10%. Meanwhile, taking energy consumption as the object of study, it was found that the correlation between natural gas consumption and electric energy, crude oil and crude coal is good, showing a significance level of 5% and below. Among them, there is a significant positive correlation between natural gas consumption and electric energy consumption, and between natural gas consumption and crude oil consumption, which reveals the synergistic effects within the energy system. Full article

Brasenia schreberi (BS) is a perennial aquatic plant of the water lily family, of which the recognition as a functional food is on the rise. Polysaccharides from BS have been found to possess antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic activities. This study aimed to partially clarify the structural and evaluate the hypoglycemic potentials of Brasenia schreberi polysaccharide (BSP). In this study, BSP was isolated from the mucilage covering the surface of Brasenia schreberi (BS). SEM and AFM results verified that BSP molecules were tightly connected and formed a ring-shaped network structure. Further structural analysis showed that BSP was an acidic heteropolysaccharide with a molecular weight of 2.47 × 10⁴ Da. It had 1,2,3-linked α-D-Galp, 1,2-linked α-D-Manp, and 1,4-linked β-GlcA residues as the main chain, with 1,3-linked α-Galp, 1,3-linked α-Fucp, 1,3-linked α-Xylp, T-Araf, and T-Rhap as side chains. The rheological results indicated that the BSP solution was a pseudoplastic fluid and exhibited shear-thinning properties. Moreover, the gel strength and texture properties of BSP tended to be higher as the BSP and Ca²⁺ concentration increased. More importantly, BSP exhibited good inhibitory activity against α-amylase and α-glucosidase, indicating that it may be a good candidate for a hypoglycemic functional food. Full article

Small-scale model tests have been used widely to examine the behavior of slopes. When all similarity principles are conformed, the test results can be translated to the behaviors of slopes in the prototype. However, when the similarity principles cannot be fully conformed, the model test results need to be interpreted. The interpretation of the slopes stability behaviors from the small-scale model test under non-conformity conditions to that of the prototype is investigated, considering various slope scales and soil properties, undertaken through the finite element (FE) method conducted by the ABAQUS package. Prior to conducting the finite element (FE) parametric study, the numerical results were verified by comparing them with data from previous studies, with good agreement obtained. According to the findings from the parametric study, a framework was developed to allow the 1 g model-scale test results to be translated to the parameters used for the prototype slope design. The study examined both the sliding surfaces and the safety factors of slopes to establish a connection between model tests and their full-scale counterparts. This framework provides a means to effectively utilize 1 g of small-scale test data for designing and analyzing prototype slopes. Full article

In this study, a method for the determination of eight biogenic amines (BAs), including tyramine (Tyr), 2-phenylethylamine (2-Phe), histamine (His), tryptamine (Trp), spermidine (Spd), spermine (Spm), cadaverine (Cad), and putrescine (Put), in crab was established using ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), using a magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) pretreatment, without derivatization, and the content changes in regard to these eight biogenic amines in the traditional Chinese dish, pickled swimming crabs, were investigated. The samples were purified via MSPE, using C nanofiber-coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄@C-NFs) as sorbents. The experimental variables involved in the MSPE, including the solution pH, adsorption and desorption time, adsorbent usage, and type and volume of the eluent, were investigated and optimized. Method validation indicated that the developed method showed good linearity (R² > 0.995); the average recovery rates were 84.7% to 115%, with the intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations (RSD, n = 6) ranging from 3.7% to 7.5% and 4.2% to 7.7%, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for the eight BAs were 0.1 mg/kg~1.0 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg~3.0 mg/kg, respectively. Finally, this method was applied to determine the changes in the eight biogenic amines in pickled swimming crabs (Portunus trituberculatus) during storage at 20 °C and 400 BAC. Among the BAs evaluated, Cad, Put, and Tyr were the predominant amines formed during storage. The final content of Cad, Put, and Tyr reached 22.9, 20.1, and 29.0 mg/100 g at 4 °C for 16 d, and 47.1, 52.3, and 72.0 mg/100 g at 20 °C for 96 h, respectively. The results from this study can be used to expand the application range of magnetic materials in biogenic amine pretreatment and to strengthen the quality control of the traditional Chinese dish, pickled swimming crabs. Full article

With the continuous development of oil and gas fields, the demand for corrosion-resistant tubing is increasing, which is important for the safe exploitation of oil and gas energy. Due to its excellent CO₂ corrosion resistance, 13Cr-110 martensitic stainless steel is widely used in sour gas-containing oil fields in western China. This paper describes a case of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in a 13Cr-110 serviced in an ultra-deep gas well. The failure mode of the tubing is brittle along the lattice fracture, and the cracks are generated because of nitrogen gas-lift production-enhancement activities during the service of the tubing, leading to corrosion damage zones and cracks in the 13Cr-110 material under the synergistic effect of oxygen and chloric acid-containing environments. During subsequent production, the tubing is subjected to tensile stresses and cracks expanded at the 13Cr-110 lattice boundaries due to reduced structural strength in the corrosion region. To address the corrosion sensitivity of 13Cr-110 in an oxygen environment, it is recommended that the oxygen content in the wellbore be strictly controlled and that antioxidant corrosion inhibitors be added. Full article

To address the impact of load variations, external environmental changes, and the tuning of the parameters on Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) used in ships, this study proposes an Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) strategy for PMSMs, optimized by the Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization (QPSO) algorithm. First, based on the PMSM model, the study addresses the limited disturbance rejection capability of the traditional fal function in the Extended State Observer (ESO) of conventional ADRC. To improve the accuracy of the state observer, the faln function is introduced as a replacement for the traditional fal function. Second, due to the numerous parameters in ADRC, which are difficult to tune, the QPSO algorithm—known for its strong global search capabilities and fast convergence speed—is utilized for parameter optimization. Additionally, the position update formula within the optimization algorithm is revised and optimized. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted using the Matlab/Simulink platform, where practical conditions, such as load fluctuations and random noise, are incorporated. The simulation results demonstrate that, compared to PSO-ADRC control, IPSO-ADRC control, and ICFO-ADRC control, the proposed method offers a superior dynamic response. Specifically, the speed control accuracy is improved by 46.7%, torque ripple is reduced by 50.8%, and harmonic distortion decreases by 23.1%. These results highlight the significant advantages of this method in enhancing system robustness, dynamic response speed, and steady-state accuracy, making it particularly suitable for PMSM control systems in complex dynamic environments, such as those encountered on ships. Full article

The effects of three types of feed, purchased from online stores and having similar prices, on the growth performance and culture environment of crucian carp (Carassius auratus) were studied in this experiment, which aimed to provide a reference for the evaluation and selection of fish feed. The results showed that feeding different feeds had a significant effect on crucian carp, and that the growth-promoting effect of HD feed (feed produced by Haida Company Limited) was significantly better than that of the other two feeds. For example, the weight gain rate (WGR) of fish in the HD group was 47.1% higher than that in the LD group (p < 0.05), and the WGR of fish in the LD (feed produced by Lianda Company Limited) group was 81.4% higher than that in the TW (feed produced by Tongwei Company Limited) group (p < 0.05). Moreover, the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase in fish in the HD group was significantly higher than that in the LD and TW groups. Furthermore, we found significant differences in the environmental effects of feeding different feeds. Compared to the LD and HD groups, the environmental impacts for the TW group were more pronounced. The body weight of crucian carp first increased and then stabilized with increasing total dissolved solids (TDS) values. Their quantitative relationship was established based on the von Bertalanffy and Logistic equations (R² = 0.942–0.995). The results above indicate that, due to differences in feed formulation and the quality of feed raw materials, different feeds have a significant impact on the growth performance and antioxidant indices of fish, as well as on the water environment. Therefore, selecting the appropriate feed is crucial for promoting high-quality development in the aquaculture industry. Full article

Gas reservoir-type underground gas storage (UGS) plays a critical role in China’s natural gas reserves and peak shaving, serving as an essential component of the energy security system. Its unique cyclic injection and production operations not only stabilize the natural gas supply but also impose stringent requirements on the safety and integrity of geological structures, wellbores, and surface facilities. Weaknesses in current practices can cause accidents, directly threatening energy security. Therefore, continuously improving integrity management is the key to mitigating energy risks. Currently, the integrity management of gas storage faces challenges such as an abundance of standards and the complexity of management elements, which affect both operational safety and management efficiency. To address these issues, this study systematically analyzes domestic and international standards related to gas storage and establishes a technical system based on “three-in-one” integrity management (geological structure, wellbore, and surface facilities). Key elements of integrity management are identified and optimized, and recommended execution standards for critical factors are proposed to provide a theoretical basis and decision-making support for the safe operation of gas storage. This study not only offers a reference for optimizing and implementing integrity management standards but also has significant practical implications for enhancing energy security and reducing energy risks, ensuring the smooth execution of China’s natural gas reserve and peak shaving initiatives. Full article

Biofloc technology (BFT) is an advanced aquaculture method that uses microbial communities to enhance water quality and support aquatic species cultivation. Our research aims to delve into the pivotal role of aeration intensity within BFT systems, revealing its influence on microbial community structures, water quality, and nutrient cycling for L. vannamei culture. Three aeration levels were set with intensities of V75 (75 L/min), V35 (35 L/min), and V10 (10 L/min). The results showed that the lowest aeration intensity (V10) resulted in larger floc sizes and a reduction in the 2D-fractal dimensions, indicating a decreased overall structural complexity of the bioflocs. In addition, water quality parameters, including total ammonia nitrogen and nitrite, remained low across all treatments, highlighting the water-purifying capacity of biofloc. While protein and lipid contents in biofloc did not differ significantly among treatments, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels were highest in the V75 treatment, suggesting that higher aeration promotes the accumulation of essential fatty acids. RDA analysis revealed that microorganisms like Ruegeria sp. and Sulfitobacter mediterraneus negatively correlated with ammonia and nitrite levels, suggesting their key role in converting ammonia to nitrite and nitrate in marine nitrogen cycles. The functional annotation of metagenomes across different aeration levels showed the similarly active roles of microorganisms in nitrogen metabolism and protein synthesis. In conclusion, while variations in aeration intensity affect floc size and the accumulation of essential fatty acids in biofloc, they do not significantly impact overall water quality or core microbial functions in L. vannamei aquaculture. Future research should focus on the effects of aeration strategies on microbial community dynamics and the integration of these data with performance metrics in L. vannamei. These insights can help optimize biofloc cultivation and enhance environmental sustainability in the aquaculture industry. Full article

In a recent paper, black holes were viewed as topological thermodynamic defects using generalized off-shell free energy. The aforementioned work indicates that all black hole solutions in the pure Einstein–Maxwell gravity theory could be classified into three different topological classes for four and higher spacetime dimensions. In this paper, we investigate the topological number of BTZ black holes in distinct theories with different charges $\left(Q\right)$ and rotational parameters $\left(J\right)$. Using generalized free energy and Duan’s $\varphi$-mapping topological current theory, we found only two topological classes for BTZ spacetime. Particularly, for a BTZ black hole with rotation or in the Einstein–Power–Maxwell theory, there is only one zero point and the total topological number is 1. While for a BTZ black hole in new massive gravity, the global topological charge depends on the value of the specific parameter m, which provides a counter-example for the conjecture that the topological number is independent of the black hole’s parameters. Full article

Cavitation is a dynamic process characterized by the formation, growth, and collapse of vapor or gas vacuoles in liquids or at the liquid–solid interface, initiated by a local pressure drop. This phenomenon releases concentrated energy through microjet impacts and shock waves, leading to a violent exchange of energy with the surrounding environment. While cavitation is often perceived as detrimental, certain aspects can be harnessed for practical applications. Relevant studies have shown that cavitating jets provide high operating efficiencies, reduce energy consumption per unit, and have the potential for waste treatment. This paper presents three types of cavitating jets: central body cavitation, oscillatory cavitation, and shear cavitation. Additionally, the formation process of a cavitating jet and the effects of various factors on jet performance are discussed. Following an in-depth examination of the cavitation phenomena, subsequent chapters explore the applications of cavitating jets in material surface enhancement, cleaning, and energy exploration. Furthermore, recommendations for future research on cavitating jets are provided. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review on cavitating jets. Full article