Degree Of Degradation Research Articles

On the search for efficient face recognition algorithm subject to multiple environmental constraints

From literature, majority of face recognition modules suffer performance challenges when presented with test images acquired under multiple constrained environments (occlusion and varying expressions). The performance of these models further deteriorates as the degree of degradation of the test images increases (relatively higher occlusion level). Deep learning-based face recognition models have attracted much attention in the research community as they are purported to outperform the classical PCA-based methods. Unfortunately their application to real-life problems is limited because of their intensive computational complexity and relatively longer run-times. This study proposes an enhancement of some PCA-based methods (with relatively lower computational complexity and run-time) to overcome the challenges posed to the recognition module in the presence of multiple constraints. The study compared the performance of enhanced classical PCA-based method (HE-GC-DWT-PCA/SVD) to FaceNet algorithm (deep learning method) using expression variant face images artificially occluded at 30% and 40%. The study leveraged on two statistical imputation methods of MissForest and Multiple Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE) for occlusion recovery. From the numerical evaluation results, although the two models achieved the same recognition rate (85.19%) at 30% level of occlusion, the enhanced PCA-based algorithm (HE-GC-DWT-PCA/SVD) outperformed the FaceNet model at 40% occlusion rate, with a recognition rate of 83.33%. Although both Missforest and MICE performed creditably well as de-occlusion mechanisms at higher levels of occlusion, MissForest outperforms the MICE imputation mechanism. MissForest imputation mechanism and the proposed HE-GC-DWT-PCA/SVD algorithm are recommended for occlusion recovery and recognition of multiple constrained test images respectively.

Ecological problems of technogenically disturbed lands on the Absheron Peninsula


 
 
 The study area occupies an important place in our republic’s economic, political, and agricultural development. It is very important to properly use the land of an area with such an advantageous position. In addition to rich deposits of oil, gas, and gas condensate, the Absheron Peninsula has widespread mineral deposits (limestone, gypsum, crushed stone, bentonite, sand, etc.). Currently, the accumulation of waste in the territory of quarries and dumps after the extraction of non-metallic minerals on a large scale has led to the formation of technogenically disturbed areas. On the territory of the quarries themselves and adjacent lands, well-developed soils are widespread (irrigated ordinary gray soils with different granulometric composition and thickness, semi-desert gray-brown soils). During the extraction of deposits, as a result of the use of multiton machines and mechanisms, these lands were subjected to varying degrees of technogenic degradation, lost their fertility, and have not yet been studied either genetically or economically. Therefore, when writing this article, the main goal was a large-scale study of these lands and the development of recommendations for their restoration. Various scientists have conducted research on the geochronology of the formation of the soil and vegetation cover of the Absheron Peninsula, the degree of exposure to technogenic impacts, the development of a typological classification, mapping and modeling them to a fertile state in order to evaluate them in terms of biological productivity. However, it has not been possible to fully study the land and use it in different economic sectors. For this reason, an important topic of our time is touched upon in the presented article and is chosen again due to its relevance. As an object of study, the soil and vegetation cover of the territory where organic and non-metallic resources of the peninsula were mined, as well as lands that remained outside the scope of large-scale research, spread over the deformed areas of the Absheron Peninsula, were chosen. In order to give the research a greater scientific-theoretical and scientific-practical orientation, we laid soil-vegetation sections, described natural vegetation, and took sam- ples for laboratory analysis from reference places in the study area,. According to the analysis in the studied soils, it can be said that the amount of dry residue, which is considered the main indicator of the degree of salinity, ranges from 0.172-2.312% in the upper reaches of the accumulative-humus layers, which indicates that a small part of these soils has a predominantly weak medium, strong and very strong salinity.
 
 

Recasting Regional Lighting for Shadow Removal

Removing shadows requires an understanding of both lighting conditions and object textures in a scene. Existing methods typically learn pixel-level color mappings between shadow and non-shadow images, in which the joint modeling of lighting and object textures is implicit and inadequate. We observe that in a shadow region, the degradation degree of object textures depends on the local illumination, while simply enhancing the local illumination cannot fully recover the attenuated textures. Based on this observation, we propose to condition the restoration of attenuated textures on the corrected local lighting in the shadow region. Specifically, We first design a shadow-aware decomposition network to estimate the illumination and reflectance layers of shadow regions explicitly. We then propose a novel bilateral correction network to recast the lighting of shadow regions in the illumination layer via a novel local lighting correction module, and to restore the textures conditioned on the corrected illumination layer via a novel illumination-guided texture restoration module. We further annotate pixel-wise shadow masks for the public SRD dataset, which originally contains only image pairs. Experiments on three benchmarks show that our method outperforms existing state-of-the-art shadow removal methods. Project page in: yuhaoliu7456.github.io/RRL-Net.

Effect of pre-treatment of chicken feather on the degradation potential of Glutamicibacter arilaitensis

Aim: Conventional management techniques for chicken feather waste are either ineffecient or costly; hence, as an alternative, a study was designed to examine the degradation capacity of G. arilaitensis on acidic and alkaline pre-treated feathers. Methodology: Chicken feathers were pre-treated with 0.1 and 0.2 N HCl and NaOH, which were provided as the only carbon source for Glutamicibacter arilaitensis culture. Parameters such as growth, protein and amino acid content were determined at an interval of 24 hrs for five days. The impact of pH and temperature on the growth of G. arilaitensis was investigated and the degree of degradation was determined by smear method. The effect of temperature and pH on the synthesis of protein and amino acid was screened statistically using a central composite design. Results: The pre-treatment category with 0.1 N NaOH showed significant degradation and evidenced by the disruption of feather structure, within two days at 37°C and pH 10.5 respectively. Maximum protein (1.81±0.03 mg ml-1) and amino acid (1.54±0.3mg ml-1) were produced in 0.1 N NaOH pre-treated feathers substituted medium for two days at 37°C and pH 10.5 and it were found to be statistically significant at F values of 15.48 and 12.98 (P<0.0012 and P<0.0309). Interpretation: Feathers will decompose wonderfully if they are pre-treated with 0.1 N NaOH for two days and supplied as a substrate for G. arilaitensis at 37°C and pH 10.5. Key words: Degradation, Keratinolytic bacteria, Pre-treatment, Protein production

Potential Mechanisms for Organoprotective Effects of Exogenous Nitric Oxide in an Experimental Study.

Performing cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and circulatory arrest (CA) provokes the development of complications caused by tissue metabolism, microcirculatory disorders, and endogenous nitric oxide (NO) deficiency. This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanisms for systemic organoprotective effects of exogenous NO during CPB and CA based on the assessment of dynamic changes in glycocalyx degradation markers, deformation properties of erythrocytes, and tissue metabolism in the experiment. A single-center prospective randomized controlled study was conducted on sheep, n = 24, comprising four groups of six in each. In two groups, NO was delivered at a dose of 80 ppm during CPB ("CPB + NO" group) or CPB and CA ("CPB + CA + NO"). In the "CPB" and "CPB + CA" groups, NO supply was not carried out. NO therapy prevented the deterioration of erythrocyte deformability. It was associated with improved tissue metabolism, lower lactate levels, and higher ATP levels in myocardial and lung tissues. The degree of glycocalyx degradation and endothelial dysfunction, assessed by the concentration of heparan sulfate proteoglycan and asymmetric dimethylarginine, did not change when exogenous NO was supplied. Intraoperative delivery of NO provides systemic organoprotection, which results in reducing the damaging effects of CPB on erythrocyte deformability and maintaining normal functioning of tissue metabolism.

Abstract 2323: Deciphering RNA degradation: Insights from a comparative analysis of paired fresh frozen/FFPE total RNA-seq

Abstract Background: Fresh frozen (FF) and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples are primary resources for archival tissues in cancer studies. Despite the advantages of easy storage and cost-effectiveness, FFPE samples have the disadvantage of inevitable chemical-induced RNA degradation. Although, in mRNA-seq data, the 3' bias due to the characteristics of the mRNA-seq platform allows the measure of RNA degradation levels, for total RNA-seq and FFPE samples, there is still no clear measure for RNA degradation. Methods: Our study, utilizing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) pilot data comprised of 26 paired samples of fresh frozen mRNA-seq [FFM], fresh frozen total RNA-seq [FFT], and FFPE total RNA-seq [PET], investigated RNA degradation patterns in FFPE samples. Upon investigating the read coverage of transcripts in FFPE data, we observed increased noise parameters in selected samples compared to others, suggesting a method for assessment of RNA degradation in FFPE. To measure these noise patterns, we developed a method called windowCV (wCV) utilizing coefficient of variance (CV) along the transcript length. Also, based on reports that membrane-surrounded RNA such as lncRNA and mitochondrial RNA (mtRNA) might be less affected by formalin fixation, we developed the simple measure dividing expression value of other proteins with certain lncRNA or mtRNA inferring the degree of RNA degradation. Results: We first compared the shape of transcript read coverage from 3 different RNA-seq data and observed 3’bias pattern in FFM which was not observed in FFT and PET. For FFT and PET, we applied wCV and executed hierarchical clustering. We observed that a subset of samples and genes were clustered by high wCV value suggesting notable RNA degradation. To support the hypothesis of RNA degradation, we utilized Trimmed Mean of M values (TMM) expression ratio of paired FFT and PET to determine which samples and genes were associated with underestimation of expression in PET. Interestingly, we observed that PET/FFT TMM ratio showed negative correlation with wCV. Additionally, when we investigated hierarchical clustering result of PET/FFT TMM ratio, we found that lncRNA and mtRNA were less affected by FFPE. We then calculated expression ratio between membrane-surrounded RNA and a set of protein coding genes largely affected by FFPE. As a result, we found that this ratio positively correlated with paired PET/FFT TMM ratio. We conclude that this simple measurement can provide information of FFPE induced underestimated expression with limited transcriptome data as well as RNA degradation. Conclusion: Our method can provide gene-level CV while avoiding false positive variance signal originating from transcript model and simple way to detect the degree of RNA degradation across FFPE samples. Citation Format: Wonyoung Choi, Miyeon Yeon, Hyo Young Choi, David Neil Hayes. Deciphering RNA degradation: Insights from a comparative analysis of paired fresh frozen/FFPE total RNA-seq [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 2323.

Impact of SiC power MOSFET interface trap charges on UIS reliability under single pulse

In this paper, the unclamped inductive switching experimental results of a 1.2-kV rated N-Channel conventional power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors are presented. The experimental results show that the sample devices can avoid a drain leakage current degradation under the bias conditions of Vds = 1520 V and Iav < 20 A. Notably, a severe avalanche failure current degradation is related to interface fixed trap charges. On this basis, the unclamped inductive switching for the 1.2-KV rated MOSFET with different interface fixed trap charges are given. The simulation results show that interface fixed trap charges determine the avalanche drain current degradation degree, and TCAD simulation shows that the interface fixed trap charges make the channel easier to activate. Thus, improving interface fixed trap charges can significantly reduce the degradation of avalanche drain leakage current in devices and enhance their avalanche robustness.

Environmentally Friendly UV-C Excimer Light Source with Advanced Oxidation Process for Rapid Mineralization of Azo Dye in Wastewater.

Wastewater discharged from the textile industry contains approximately 15% unfixed dyes, predominantly 60-70% azo dyes. These unfixed dyes are a major environmental concern due to their persistence and potential toxicity. In this paper, an environmentally friendly mercury-free XeI* excilamp emitting 253 nm UV light is reported, and the same has been utilized for the degradation of azo dyes using the advanced oxidation process (AOP) with TiO2/H2O2. A new process is developed in which one electrode of excilamp is coated with TiO2 nanoparticles that improves the efficiency of the dye degradation. Additionally, the effects of varying TiO2 loading concentrations, XeI*-excimer light intensity, starting dye concentration, suspension pH, and H2O2 addition are examined. The outcomes of this study confirm 13 times faster degradation in XeI*-excimer/H2O2 than in XeI*-excimer/TiO2, attributed to an abundance of hydroxyl radicals generated by the modified XeI*-excimer/H2O2. Also, the degradation of RB5 in the modified XeI*-excimer/H2O2 is 2.3 times faster as compared to that of the bare electrode XeI*-excimer/H2O2. A more than 95% reduction in chemical oxygen demand has been achieved in 40 min in the case of XeI*-excimer/H2O2. In this study, a maximum energy yield of 5712 mg/kWh is reported. Furthermore, a high degree of degradation is found in the alkaline medium (pH 10). Because textile effluent is highly alkaline, this result is significant, and direct treatment of azo dyes is possible. The use of the developed source in industrial applications appears to be highly promising based on testing on a real wastewater matrix. The treated effluent has been utilized to study its reusability for agricultural purposes on the germination of radish seeds in soil, and ∼26% enhanced germination has been observed compared to dye wastewater.

A complex case of thermal maturity assessment in a terrigenous sedimentary system: The Northwestern Black Sea basin

An integrated approach combining fluorescence spectrometry, pyrolysis geochemistry, and dispersed organic matter (DOM) maceral analysis has been used to determine the thermal maturity of Oligocene source rocks in two neighboring offshore wells within the complex deep-sea system of the Northwestern Black Sea. The samples contain predominantly immature Type II kerogen, including a mixture of marine liptinite (alginite, liptodetrinite), degraded liptinite, primary vitrinite, and reworked vitrinitic macerals. The occurrence of several vitrinite reflectance (VRo) populations in the samples is attributed to a high influx of reworked vitrinite transported to the marine basin from multiple terrestrial sources with diverse degrees of degradation. The presence of multiple VRo populations complicates the application of VRo for determining the thermal maturity of the organic matter. Further, the VRo measurements on the primary vitrinite population show only a subtle increasing trend with depth. A significantly improved thermal maturity resolution was obtained using the red to green quotient (R/G). R/G was measured on the autochthonous unicellular Tasmanites-type alginite under UV-excitation. In contrast to VRo the results show a significant correlation between increasing R/G values with increasing depth. This indicates that the R/G quotient is a better maturity proxy for the studied low maturity marine system with a large influx of sediments. The beginning of the downward declining trend in the temporal variation of liptinite is regarded as the onset of catagenesis. This occurs at a burial depth of 2.5 km and a R/G value of 0.50, corresponding to a VRo equivalent (VRo Eq) of 0.44%. At a burial depth of 3.2 km and a R/G value of 0.57 (VRo Eq = 0.57%), the onset of the oil window is marked by an increase in the amount of solid bitumen (initial oil solid bitumen). The observed alterations in maceral composition with burial depth align with the thermal maturity of the wells. However, the data suggest that the thermal evolution of the organic matter is out of sync with the surrounding formation temperature, possibly due to rapid burial induced by a high sedimentation rate.

Effect of modifying pumpkin preparation on oral processing of breads.

There is an increasing demand for texture sensations of bread during mastication, with reformulation being needed. This study investigated how bread structure influences oral processing behavior and texture perception. Variations in bread structure were created by manipulating ingredient additions, including pumpkin content and pumpkin processing methods. Results indicated that the physical, chemical, and structural properties drove the oral processing behaviors, and texture sensations were highly correlated with bolus properties. At the beginning and middle of the mastication, bolus from breads with low pumpkin-content required more saliva and exhibited greater hardness, lower adhesiveness, and a higher proportion of small-piece particles than the bolus from high pumpkin-content breads. Bolus from pumpkin pulp breads required more saliva, and was softer, stickier, and generated particles with a lower degree of degradation than the bolus from pumpkin puree breads. However, at the end period, the bolus properties tended to change to similar values. Low pumpkin content breads were initially perceived chewy, whereas high pumpkin content, soft. The dominance rate for soft sensation was higher and lasted longer in breads with pumpkin puree than in breads with pumpkin pulp. Finally, six bread samples were all perceived as hydrated, sticky, and crumbly. This study contributes to a better understanding of the impact of reformulation on oral behavior and sensory properties.

Life-cycle seismic performance of Q690 steel columns with H-section under various bi-directional cyclic loading paths

The ageing effect in the life-cycle assessment should be considered for the high-strength steel structures constructed in corrosive environments and high-seismicity zones. Additionally, the structures can suffer multi-dimensional seismic excitations because of the spatial effect of ground motions. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of different loading protocols on the mechanical properties of Q690 steel columns with H-section during the whole life-cycle. Firstly, numerical methods considering time-varying corrosion process are used to simulate the ageing steel columns. After that, the nonlinear hysteretic behaviors of the ageing steel columns under different loading protocols are investigated. The factor of resistance degradation (the degree of degradation of ultimate resistance) is employed to quantify the effect of loading protocols on ageing steel columns. Finally, the biaxial ultimate interaction curve considering the ageing effect and a practical design process are proposed. The findings demonstrate that the steel columns exhibit different mechanical properties under various loading protocols, and the coupling direction of bi-directional displacement loads influences the degree of degradation of ultimate resistance. As service time increases, the factor of resistance degradation of steel columns gradually reduces by up to 40%. The proposed biaxial ultimate interaction curve has acceptable accuracy. These findings emphasize the importance of employing the unfavorable loading protocols in conducting the seismic design of the steel columns in different life-cycle stages.

Early warning signals of grassland ecosystem degradation: A case study from the northeast Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

As a typical vulnerable ecosystem, alpine steppes can be subject to nonlinear accelerations in degradation, once tipping points are reached or exceeded, and thus far more effort and investment will be needed, to reverse the degraded status of such ecosystems, if effective preventive measures or interventions are not adopted sufficiently early. Thus, detecting early warning signals of tipping events is extremely important for ecosystem protection and recovery, but remains highly challenging. For alpine steppes, coverage or biomass loss and species invasion are both key transitions. Using multi-source data, including ground surveys and remote sensing images with different resolutions, we tried to screen and identify potential early-warning signals for alpine grassland degradation events and analyze their efficacy. The results showed that the degradation levels derived from spatial heterogeneity information combined with a vegetation index were reliable, as was verified by ground surveys, and could illustrate the degradation process of a grassland ecosystem. Six common early-warning signals (variance, skewness, and autocorrelation, from both the spatial and temporal domains) were tested according to degradation degree, and spatial autocorrelation and temporal autocorrelation had the best performances, as they could indicate different degradation levels, and the change trends of temporal autocorrelation could provide early-warning functions. A waved change of spatial variance could reflect a vegetation growth dynamic that might indicate species invasion. In this study, the threshold values of spatial and temporal autocorrelation were 0.7 and 0.2, respectively, and from these, the thresholds of vegetation coverage and biomass were then obtained. However, these signals and thresholds had some limitations during application. These findings provide insights into better understanding of the alpine grassland degradation process, and contribute to a better management approach for vulnerable ecosystems using early-warning methods.

Effects of different temperatures on the physicochemical characteristics, microstructure and protein structure of preserved egg yolk

To clarify the mechanism of lower temperatures promoted the solidification of preserved egg yolk, the effects of temperature (4 °C, 10 °C and 25 °C) on the physicochemical properties, microstructure and protein structure of preserved egg yolk were studied. Results showed that the exterior egg yolk (EEY) exhibited higher pH, hardness and free sulfhydryl content at low-temperature pickling. The microstructure showed that the EEY gradually formed a denser gel network structure at lower temperatures. Electrophoresis results and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated that there were different degrees of protein degradation and cross-linking of proteins in the IEY (the interior egg yolk) and EEY and the decrease of β-sheets in the secondary structure was accompanied by an increase of β-turns during the formation of egg yolk gels. These results indicated that egg yolk solidification was faster and denser gel structure at 4 °C and 10 °C.

Using Yield and Entropy-Based Characteristics for Circular Economy

Environmental impacts of the extant linear carbon economy and aspects of conservation of resources demand a transformation to a circular carbon economy (CCE). In view of this transformation, carbon-containing plastic products should be reused and recycled to prevent or minimize the release of their carbon content into the environment. Different plastic waste feedstock recycling strategies are applicable, with different degrees of feedstock destruction, depending on the degree of degradation and contamination of the intended recycle fractions. The evaluation of the effectiveness of recycling processes by substance and carbon-based yield and entropic characteristics could be a part of the overall evaluation strategy for recycling processes. Possible principles and base equations of such substance and carbon-based yield and entropic characteristics, extracted from the literature and adapted, are delineated in this article. Substance-based characteristics could be applied for physical recycling processes in which the aspired recovery substances remain preserved and are physically separated. A resort to carbon-based characteristics could be practiced for recycling and combustion processes, in which the feedstock is chemically destroyed, and new substances are possibly synthesized. Stylized process examples depict the way of a joint usage of yield and entropic characteristics.

Studies on the Application of PGM Nanocatalysts from Spent Automotive Converters for Degradation of Ibuprofen in Aqueous Solutions.

There is an increasing concern about the presence of various types of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, as long-term exposure of people to even low concentrations of drugs can lead to many problems, such as endocrine disorders or drug resistance. As the removal in sewage treatment plants is not effective enough, as indicated, among others, by the EC and OECD reports, it is justified to search for new materials that will allow for an effective and rapid reduction of these pollutants in water. Therefore, in our work, catalytically active nanomaterials containing platinum group metals (PGMs) were synthesized from model and real multicomponent solutions and examined in reactions of organic compounds. The nanoparticles (NPs) were obtained from real solutions from the hydrometallurgical processing of spent automotive converters (SACs), and to the best of our knowledge, the novelty of the proposed paper is the application of solutions from SAC processing as precursors for PGM-NPs. The synthesized PGM-NPs were deposited on a support (TiO2), characterized and, finally, examined as nanocatalysts in a degradation reaction of ibuprofen (IB) from model aqueous solutions. The degree of IB degradation reached more than 90%. The main products of IB degradation were p-isobutylphenol and CO2.

Efficacy of Multiseason Sentinel-2 Imagery for Classifying and Mapping Grassland Condition

Assessing the condition of ecosystems is imperative for understanding their degree of degradation and managing their conservation. The increasing availability of remote sensing products offers unprecedented opportunities for mapping vegetation with high detail and accuracy. However, mapping complex ecosystems, like grasslands, remains challenging due to their heterogeneity in vegetation composition and structure. Furthermore, degraded ecosystems affected by invasive vegetation present different condition levels within vegetation classes, limiting the accuracy of classifications and condition assessment. Here, we evaluated the capacity of Sentinel-2 multispectral time series imagery as an input for classifying different levels of cover within a vegetation class to detect the subtle differences needed to assess the condition of degraded ecosystems. Our study was conducted in the iron-grasslands of South Australia, a perennial tussock grassland dominated by iron-grasses (Lomandra spp.) and severely affected by invasive annual grasses. We developed random forest models to discriminate classes defined by the cover of iron-grasses, wild oats (Avena barbata), and woodland (training points = 250). We tested the importance of data seasonality, spatial resolution, spectral bands, and vegetation indices. The combination of spatial, temporal, and spectral detail produced the best classification results. Random forest classifications performed best at 10 m resolution, suggesting that detailed resolution outweighs spectral detail for discriminating vegetation patterns in systems with high spatial heterogeneity. The model at 10 m resolution combining all periods and all variables (spectral bands and vegetation indices) produced a mean kappa coefficient of 56% and a mean overall accuracy of 67%. The dry season imagery and vegetation indices emerged as the most informative, suggesting that vegetation classes presented different phenological properties critical for their discrimination. Our study contributes to mapping complex ecosystems, facilitating the discrimination of different levels of condition in grasslands degraded by invasive species, and thus benefits the conservation of native grasslands and other ecosystems.

Mechanical Properties Characterization of Glass/Carbon Fiber Hybrid Multilayer Composite under Environmental Aging Condition

Metallic components in boating industry are being replaced with carbon fiber composites due to their light weight, excellent mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance. However, the carbon fiber cost has obstructed the substitution. Hybridization is suggested to merge carbon and glass fibers in cost-effective composites while maintaining the desired engineering properties. This study experimentally examines the impact of hybridization and seawater aging on the mechanical properties of glass and carbon fibers hybrid composites. A range of composites ([C]6, [CGC]s, [C]3[G]3, [GCG]s, and [G]6) are fabricated and aged in simulated seawater solution before their tensile, flexural, impact, and hardness properties are examined. The results revealed degradation in properties due to the ageing, the degree of degradation is influenced by the s hybridization configuration. The [G]6 sample shows the highest tensile strength reduction of 30% compared to 20% for the [C]6. The remaining samples exhibit reduction percentages falling between these two extremes. A similar behavior is observed in the flexural test, though the extremes values are smaller, 10.2%, and 12.5%. The impact and hardness tests showed an inverse relationship between the glass fiber content and impact strength degradation due to aging, while they exhibited a linear correlation for hardness degradation due to ageing.

Inoculation fermentation with Lactobacillus fermentum L28 and Staphylococcus epidermidis S24 for improving the protein degradation of air-dried goose

The inoculation fermentation technology was applied to the processing of dried cured goose to investigate the protein degradation. Lactobacillus fermentum (L), Staphylococcus epidermidis (S) and mixed strains (L + S) were individually inoculated into the whole goose before drying. We studied the degradation of protein in the air-dried period of goose. The results showed that compared with natural fermentation, inoculation fermentation significantly increased the content of non-protein nitrogen (14.85 mg/g NPN), proteolysis index (8.98% PI), myofibril fragmentation index (89.35 MFI) and total amount of free amino acids (1332.6 mg/g FAA) of dried cured goose. Electrophoresis revealed that the inoculation fermentation accelerated the degradation of macromolecular proteins and the accumulation of small molecular proteins. The degree of protein degradation in four groups of goose was in an order of L + S group > S group > L group > CK group. It suggested that inoculation fermentation could promote the degradation of myofibrillar proteins.

Predicting the effects of degradation on viscoelastic relaxation time using model transient networks

In this study, we utilized tetra-armed polyethylene glycol (Tetra-PEG) slimes, which are model transient networks with well-controlled structures, to predict the effects of long-term degradation on the viscoelastic properties of liquids. Viscoelastic liquids, such as sodium hyaluronate, are frequently used in biomedical applications within the human body. However, precisely controlling the viscoelastic properties of these liquids in the long-term is challenging, as the main chains of the liquids undergo stochastic degradation. To establish a predictable model for studying long-term degradation effects, we employed Tetra-PEG slime, and modifications were performed to introduce specific cleavage sites in areas with connections. The Tetra-PEG slimes were characterized by single relaxation modes, and these modes were independent from the degree of degradation, which was determined by hydrolyzing the cleavage sites. Overall, this work provides a universal design for viscoelastic liquids with precisely-controllable degradation.

Investigating Cathode Electrolyte Interphase Formation in NMC 811 Primary Particles through Advanced 4D-STEM ACOM Analysis

Investigating Cathode Electrolyte Interphase Formation in NMC 811 Primary Particles through Advanced 4D-STEM ACOM Analysis