Search Results (631)

There is a high risk of transfer of foodborne pathogens to the edible part of microgreens when seeds, irrigation water or soilless substrates are contaminated. Post-harvest sanitizer treatments are generally not preferred due to the fragility of microgreens. In this study, the effectiveness of post-harvest UV-C treatment was evaluated against Salmonella enterica, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes in sunflower and radish microgreens. Agricultural perlite soaked with plant nutrient solution was artificially contaminated with foodborne pathogens at a concentration of 10⁵–10⁶ CFU/g to serve as the soilless substrate. UV-C was applied to harvested microgreens uni- and bidirectionally with doubled exposure at varying distances (10, 20, and 30 cm) and exposure times (5, 10, 20, 30, 60, and 120 s). UV-C doses ranged from 0.03 to 2.07 kJ/m², depending on treatment distance and exposure time. The survival of pathogens in treated microgreens was also determined at 4 °C for 14 days. The highest pathogen inhibition was achieved with bidirectional UV-C treatment at a 10 cm distance for 120 s (p < 0.05), yielding reductions of up to 3.1, 3.0, and 2.0 log CFU/g for S. enterica, E. coli O157:H7, and L. monocytogenes, respectively. Pathogen inhibition decreased significantly with increasing distance (p < 0.05). During subsequent refrigerated storage after UV-C treatment, pathogen populations increased by 0.3–1.7 log CFU/g. These results demonstrate that UV-C treatment can significantly reduce pathogen populations on microgreens as a post-harvest treatment strategy but cannot fully address food safety concerns about these immature seedlings. Full article

Moringa oleifera (Lam.) is a multipurpose agroforestry tree cultivated worldwide for its nutritional, medicinal, and economic value, and it is increasingly grown commercially in subtropical regions, including Nepal. While vegetative propagation is feasible, large-scale production relies predominantly on seeds, making efficient germination critical for seedling establishment, uniform growth, sustainable production, and preservation of genetic diversity. Seed pre-treatments are widely recognized as a simple and effective approach to enhance germination, early seedling vigor, and nursery performance. This study evaluated the effects of seven pre-sowing treatments under controlled nursery conditions to determine the most effective method for improving Moringa oleifera seedling production. A total of 2100 seeds were used, with 100 seeds per treatment and three replicates, arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Treatments included control (no pretreatment), normal water soaking (12 h and 24 h), alternating wetting (water) and drying cycles (12 h each), hot water soaking (60 °C for 5 min), cow urine soaking (1:2 of urine to water proportions for 12 h), and hydrochloric acid soaking (35% for 20 min). All pre-treatments were conducted at room temperature, and the seeds were subsequently sown in controlled nursery conditions. Seed germination was monitored twice daily for 30 days, and data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test to identify significant differences in germination performances. Results demonstrated that alternating wetting and drying produced the highest germination percentage (89%), shortest mean germination time (8.44 days), and strongest seedling vigor, outperforming all other treatments. Conversely, cow urine and acid treatments completely inhibited germination. This study recommends alternating wetting and drying as a simple, low-cost, and chemical-free pre-treatment to optimize Moringa oleifera seedling production in nurseries. These findings provide practical guidance for commercial and smallholder farmers, contributing to sustainable agroforestry, food security, and climate-resilient livelihoods in resource-limited habitats. Full article

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) exhibits strong compressibility and expansion behavior, which enables efficient pressure transmission in tight reservoirs. This property promotes reservoir pressure, improves fracturing fluid flowback, slows production decline, and finally enhances oil recovery. CO₂ pre-pad energized fracturing has been widely adopted in shale oil development. However, its theoretical basis and controlling mechanisms are still not well understood. In this study, the energization mechanism of CO₂ pre-pad energized fracturing in shale oil reservoirs was investigated. The energization performance was quantitatively evaluated by the pressure coefficient and the energy replenishment range under different geological conditions and operational parameters. The results indicate that pre-injected CO₂ increases pressure and reduces effective stress. Part of the CO₂ can be permanently stored in the reservoir. The CO₂ injection volume is identified as the dominant controlling factor. Increasing the CO₂ injection volume expands the energy replenishment range to a maximum of 12,470 m². Lower injection rates favor CO₂ penetration and diffusion, leading to a wider energy replenishment range. An energy replenishment range exceeding 7000 m² can be achieved when the CO₂ injection rate is less than 4 m³/min. Lower reservoir permeability restricts the energization region, whereas longer soaking time allows pressure to diffuse more fully and enhances CO₂–oil interaction. The results provide a basis for further optimization and future studies for the CO₂ pre-pad energized fracturing in shale oil reservoirs. Full article

In this research, Fe-P scaffolds were successfully fabricated by the powder metallurgy method for the first time, using NaCl as the space holder for bone tissue engineering applications, with apparent porosities of approximately 70%. The Fe₃P powder was successfully synthesized by the mechanochemical method under an argon atmosphere using an initial mixture of Fe and P powders. The XRD patterns show that Fe₃P was obtained after sintering the milled powders at 1000 °C. Fe, Fe₃P, and Fe-50 wt% Fe₃P composite scaffolds and bulk pellets were prepared by sintering the milled powder at 1000 °C. Furthermore, the mechanical properties (compression strength) and bioactivity of the Fe-P scaffolds were determined. According to the compression test results, the composite scaffold showed higher compressive strength, lower fracture strain, and higher elastic modulus than the Fe and Fe₃P scaffolds, indicating that adding Fe₃P to Fe improves the mechanical properties. Moreover, among the scaffolds prepared by sintering at 1000 °C, the Fe scaffold exhibited the highest corrosion rate compared to the Fe₃P and composite samples, while the corrosion resistance of the composite sample was 3 times higher than that of the Fe sample. The ICP analysis showed that the amount of Fe released from the bulk pellets during soaking in PBS solution after four weeks was 3220 μg/dL, 4003 μg/dL, and 4774 μg/dL for the composite, Fe₃P, and Fe samples, respectively. The composite sample showed the highest cell viability, while the Fe sample had the lowest. The compressive strength (12.62 MPa) and fracture strain (5.98%) of the porous sintered composite scaffold at 1000 °C were within the range of trabecular bone, while the compressive strength of the composite sample was 17 times higher than that of the Fe sample. Furthermore, the MTS test showed that all the samples had good viability, while the composite sample had the best cell viability. The scaffolds were not cytotoxic. It can be concluded that the mechanical and biological properties of the composite sample were superior to those of the Fe and Fe₃P samples and that it may be a promising candidate for bone tissue engineering applications, especially for trabecular bone replacement. Full article

During the energy storage fracturing process of tight sandstone reservoirs, the pre-injection of fracturing fluid is used to supplement the formation energy, and the physical properties of rocks change under hydration. To reveal the damage mechanism of hydration on tight sandstone, the tight sandstone surrounding the Daqing Changyuan in the northern part of the Songliao Basin was taken as the research object. Through indoor static hydration experiments, combined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Nano-indentation experiments, and other methods, the evolution laws of rock micro-pore morphology, microfracture parameters, Young’s modulus, hardness, and other mechanical indicators under different hydration durations and soaking pressures were systematically explored. The research results show that the water–rock interaction of acidic slick water fracturing fluid significantly changes the mineral composition and microstructure of mudstone and sandstone, controls the development of induced fractures, and degrades the micro-mechanical properties of rocks, with significant lithological differences. In terms of mineral evolution, the soaking time causes the clay minerals in mudstone to increase by up to 12.0%, while pressure causes the carbonate minerals in sandstone to decrease by up to 23.3%. In terms of induced fracture development, the induced fracture widths of sandstone and mudstone under 30 MPa of pressure increase by 122.4% and 85.7%, respectively. The fracture width of mudstone shows a trend of “increasing first and then decreasing” with time, while that of sandstone decreases monotonically. In terms of micro-mechanical properties, after soaking for 168 h, the Young’s modulus of mudstone decreases by up to 66.9%, much higher than that of sandstone (29.5%), while the decrease in hardness of both is similar (58.3% and 59.8%); the mechanical parameters at the induced fractures are only 53.0% to 73.6% of those in the matrix area, confirming the influence of microstructural heterogeneity. This research provides a theoretical basis and data support for optimizing hydraulic fracturing parameters, evaluating wellbore stability, and predicting the long-term development performance in tight sandstone reservoirs. Full article

The processing of ginger-processed Pinellia ternata (Zhejiang) has long relied on empirical judgment, lacking objective and real-time monitoring methods. This study introduces an intelligent framework that combines a multi-frequency electronic tongue with chemometric modeling—including principal component analysis–discrimination index (PCA–DI) and wrapper-based support vector machine (SVM) classification—for dynamic process monitoring. Taste-response signals were systematically collected from key processing, water-leaching, and pickling stages. PCA–DI analysis demonstrated clear separability among seven key processing nodes (DI = 93.77%). Notably, samples from days 2 and 3 of water-leaching showed high similarity, suggesting an optimal soaking duration, while a marked transition on pickling day 6 indicated a critical transformation point. The wrapper–SVM models achieved high classification accuracies of 95.51% for key nodes, 100% for water-leaching, and 89.32% for pickling. These findings demonstrate that integrating electronic tongue sensing with machine learning effectively captures dynamic quality variations, offering a robust and objective strategy for the standardization and optimization of traditional medicine processing. Full article

Unconventional shale oil reservoirs, characterized by ultra-low porosity and permeability, severely constrain oil recovery. CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR) following hydraulic fracturing is an effective approach that combines incremental oil recovery with long-term CO₂ storage. However, CO₂ transport in the fracture–matrix system is complex, especially when molecular diffusion and geochemical reactions are coupled. This study conducts numerical simulations on a representative shale reservoir in the Ordos Basin, incorporating both mechanisms under post-fracturing injection–soaking conditions. The results show that molecular diffusion enhances CO₂ mass transfer across the fracture–matrix interface, increasing the final CO₂ sweep efficiency by 0.17 percentage points relative to convection alone, whereas geochemical reactions reduce it by about 0.3 percentage points. When both mechanisms coexist, the net effect is a decrease of approximately 0.2 percentage points in CO₂ sweep efficiency. In contrast, pressure sweep efficiency differs by less than 0.5 percentage points among all cases and stabilizes near 47%, suggesting that pressure propagation is only weakly affected by diffusion and reactions. Sensitivity analysis reveals that, among operational parameters, injection pressure and injection rate strongly affect CO₂ sweep efficiency, whereas soaking time governs pressure propagation. Among reservoir parameters, permeability has the most pronounced influence on both CO₂ and pressure sweep efficiencies, followed by temperature, while initial reservoir pressure has minimal impact. This work quantitatively elucidates the coupled roles of molecular diffusion and geochemical reactions in shale reservoirs and provides practical guidance for optimizing post-fracturing CO₂-EOR operations. Full article

Clubroot disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae has greatly affected the quality and yield of Chinese cabbage. Excavating the key resistance genes and verifying their function is important for clarifying disease resistance mechanisms. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) technology has been widely used in gene function research. However, the VIGS system specifically designed for the functional analysis of clubroot resistance genes is currently unavailable. In this study, it was found that the vacuum infiltration VIGS method is more effective for gene silencing than the seed soaking method. When seedlings were VIGS-treated using vacuum infiltration for 10 min, genes were effectively silenced on the 6th-35th days (d) after treatment, ensuring high seedling survival rate and plant transformation rate. To investigate the optimal inoculation time with P. brassicae, plants were inoculated 3, 6, 9, and 15 d after VIGS treatment. Results showed that the difference of clubroot resistance between gene-silenced and control plants was most significant when plants were inoculated 6 d after VIGS treatment. This result suggests that, when the target gene began to silence (6 d after VIGS), immediate inoculation with P. brassicae should be suitable for the functional study of clubroot-resistance genes. Full article

Controlling the rheological properties of liquids allows for the regulation of effective movement, transport of substances, and processes in biological systems. This work presents an experimental investigation into the influence of the proton-exchange polymer membrane Nafion on the surface tension coefficient (STC) of distilled water, aqueous solutions of two methylene blue (MB) forms, and ascorbic acid (AA). Immediately upon membrane immersion in the solutions, a sharp decrease in the surface tension of distilled water, as well as of the oxidized and reduced forms of MB, occurs. The observed narrow time interval is associated with the formation of an exclusion zone near the membrane–solution interface, containing dissociated sulfonate groups $\left(\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{O}}_3^{-}\right)$. The value of the time interval depends on the type of aqueous solution. At long soaking of the membrane in solutions, we obtained: for the aqueous solution of Mb⁺ (blue-coloured solution) the STC value eventually increases by about 5%, and for the reduced form of methylene blue MbH⁰-colourless solution, the STC value decreases by 4%. The STC value of the solutions formed during diffusion into the membrane has a significantly lower value compared to the STC of distilled water by 20% for the Mb⁺ form and by 24% for the MbH⁰ form of MB. The presence of the membrane in the aqueous AA solution causes only an increase in the STC value of the solution. Ultimately, for the solution with a concentration of 5 g/L, this increase reached 15% relative to the STC value of the original AA solution. The change in surface tension of the investigated solutions in the presence of the membrane is due to their adsorption onto the membrane surface. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy investigation of distilled water, MB, and AA solution diffusion into the membrane across the range (370–7800) cm⁻¹ confirms the process nonlinearity and enables identification of distinct time intervals corresponding to membrane swelling stages. The positions of IR transmission minima for membranes containing water and solution components remain unchanged; only the numerical values of the transmission coefficients vary. Using spectrophotometry, absorption lines of the membrane with adsorbed components of MB and AA solutions were identified in the range of (190–900) nm. The absorption spectra of dried membranes with adsorbed Mb⁺ and AA solutions show a redshift to the IR region for the Nafion with Mb⁺ and a shift to the UV region for the Nafion soaked in an aqueous ascorbic acid solution. A surface tension gradient at the membrane–solution interface can induce concentration-capillary convection in the liquid. Full article

Monascus pigments (MPs) are valuable natural colorants, but their industrial production is often hampered by scarce high-yield strains and inefficient processes. In this study, a novel MPs-producing strain was isolated from red yeast rice and named as Monascus purpureus HC-5. This strain exhibited notable hydrolase activities, indicating a high efficiency in substrate utilization. In addition, using rice as the optimal substrate, the key parameters of solid-state fermentation were optimized. Response surface analysis revealed that soaking time and temperature were the most critical influencing factors. The optimal combination conditions were an inoculum size of 8.91%, a soaking time of 13.59 h, and a temperature of 32 °C. Under these optimized conditions, the MPs yield reached 2185 ± 255.7 U/g, which displayed an approximately four-fold increase compared to the initial unoptimized process. Briefly, this study identified a strain of Monascus purpureus and optimized its solid-state fermentation conditions, which significantly increased the yield of MPs. This provides an important theoretical basis and scientific evidence for the large-scale industrial production of MPs. Full article

The sustainable cultivation of Moringa oleifera is constrained by limited availability of high-quality planting materials. This study established an integrated propagation framework combining seed, cutting, and air-layering methods for the rapid and reliable multiplication of superior genotypes with good morphological traits and elevated astragalin content. Seed pretreatment trials showed that simple soaking for 12 h significantly reduced mean germination time without affecting final germination percentage, while a topsoil–cocopeat–compost mixture enhanced early seedling survival and growth. HPLC profiling identified four genotypes with significantly higher astragalin concentrations (187–281 ppm), linking phytochemical quality with propagation performance. Vegetative propagation experiments revealed that cutting position and girth strongly influenced regeneration success. Cutting position experiments showed clear positional differences, with basal cuttings achieving the highest rooting response. Bottom cuttings produced the highest number of shoots (4.22), nodes (5.00), and thickest shoots (24.65 mm), as well as the highest rooting percentage. Middle cuttings developed the longest shoots (40.21 cm) and the greatest number of roots (32.83), with a rooting percentage of 66.70%. Top cuttings showed the lowest performance across all shoot and root traits. Larger-diameter cuttings produced more shoots but fewer roots while smaller-diameter cuttings produced more roots but fewer shoots. Air-layering with Jiffy-7 pellets achieved the highest root number (43.83) and length (7.23 cm), with 100% survival. Overall, the study provides a robust, mechanism-supported propagation strategy that enables large-scale, uniform production of superior Moringa genotypes, strengthening future programs in clonal improvement, genetic conservation, and sustainable agroforestry development. Full article

The WieZhou12 oilfield (also known as WZ12 oilfield, the same below) is in urgent need of development using large-scale volumetric fracturing technology since it is a typical complex fault-block oilfield with low porosity, low permeability, and no natural production capacity. To study the fracturing measures with surfactants in offshore oilfields like WZ12, the surfactant fracturing fluid types were experimentally selected based on their effect of decreasing interfacial tension and enhancing matrix wettability. The water cut law and oil displacement efficiency in displacement experiments were also analyzed, according to surfactant type and fluid characteristics. Next, using the numerical simulation software CMG, the study completed the integrated simulation of volumetric fracturing in the “injection–soaking–flowback” process. Finally, some critical parameters were optimized for the block model, including the quantity of injected fluids, the soaking time, and the rate of fluid flowback. The results showed that the most suitable surfactant was 0.5% ammonium lauryl polyether sulfate (ALES), which had a low interfacial tension of 1.7 × 10⁻² mN/m, a contact angle of 20.071° with the core, and a 52% oil displacement efficiency. From the simulations, the suggested production parameters for energy storage fracturing are as follows: a daily injection volume of 600 m³/d, a soaking time of 25 days post fracturing, and a fluid production rate of 270 m³/d. The findings of this study establish a significant theoretical foundation for optimizing surfactant type and provide construction advice for the integrated measure of fracturing, well shut-in, and production in offshore oilfields. Full article

Cheese consumption is steadily increasing worldwide, with a growing interest in cheese enriched with bioactive substances, including antioxidants. This study investigated the impact of adding blackcurrant wine to the curd (IC), enriching the curd with blackcurrant wine by soaking and ripening in salted blackcurrant wine (IOC), and cheese soaked and ripened in blackcurrant wine with 5% (w/w) NaCl (OC). The curd and added wine weight ratio (1.5:1, 3:1) effects were also studied. Physicochemical (dry matter, polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, radical-scavenging activity, anthocyanin content like delphinidin-3-rutoside and cyanidin-3-rutoside, ethanol content), microbiological, and sensory properties of the cheeses were evaluated. The results indicated that a week of soaking is sufficient to achieve the maximum antioxidant capacity and polyphenol content of the cheese. From a technological and sensory point of view, a 1.5:1 ratio of blackcurrant wine to curd was better. The maximum transfer rate of delphinidin-3-rutoside from wine was the most pronounced in IOC samples (20.44%). Blackcurrant wine inhibited the growth of lactic acid bacteria, and a longer soaking time can hinder the ripening process of cheese. During tasting, among the treated cheese, IC samples received the highest average acceptance scores for appearance, texture, creaminess, flavor, saltiness, bitterness, freshness and overall impressions. Full article

This study presents an optimized Real-Time Detection Transformer (RT-DETRv2) deep learning model for the automated assessment of Tartary buckwheat germination and evaluates the influence of soaking and ultrasonic pretreatments on the germination ratio. Model optimization revealed that image chip size critically affected performance. The 512 × 512-pixel chip size was optimal, providing sufficient image context for detection and achieving a robust F1-score (0.9754 at 24 h, tested with a ResNet-101 backbone). In contrast, smaller chips (e.g., 128 × 128 pixels) caused severe performance degradation (24 h F1 = 0.3626 and 48 h F1 = 0.1211), which occurred because the 128 × 128 chip was too small to capture the entire object, particularly as the elongated and highly variable 48 h sprouts exceeded the chip dimensions. The optimized model, incorporating a ResNet-34 backbone, achieved a peak F1-score of 0.9958 for 24 h germination detection, demonstrating its robustness. The model was applied to assess germination dynamics, indicating that 24 h of treatment with 0.1% CaCl₂ and ultrasound enhanced total polyphenol accumulation (6.42 mg GAE/g). These results demonstrate that RT-DETRv2 enables accurate and efficient automated germination monitoring, providing a promising AI-assisted tool for seed quality evaluation and the optimization of agricultural pretreatments. Full article

The influence of solution treatment time on the microstructural and mechanical properties of a super duplex stainless steel was investigated. A solution annealing treatment at 1120 °C was applied to the hot-rolled alloy, with soaking times varying between 10 and 30 min. The microstructural characteristics before and after solution treatment were examined using XRD and EBSD techniques by measuring lattice parameters and micro-strains, weight fraction, average grain size, and maximum misorientation angle. The experimental results showed that the constituent phases are δ-Fe and γ-Fe, regardless of the alloy state. The mechanical properties of the solution-treated alloy were evaluated by tensile testing, measuring the ultimate tensile strength (σ_UTS), yield strength (σ_0.2), fracture strain (ε_f), and impact toughness (KCV). Increasing the solution treatment time from 10 min to 30 min leads to improved ductility and reduced mechanical strength, with the volume of the ferrite phase increasing, the average austenite grain size decreasing, and the maximum misorientation angle decreasing. This is due to the ability of ferrite to absorb stress and to the greater participation of grains in the deformation process. Important decreases in high elastic strains and residual stress fields after solution treatment were also noted. Full article