Research on Differentiation of Bone Marrow Stromal Cells (BMSCs) Prompted by MicroRNA-124 and Effect on Inflammatory Reaction of Spinal Cord Injury Nerve Cells

The major feature of spinal cord injury (SCI) was the damage of nervous tissue in spinal cord. The damaged spinal cord was difficult to be repaired and regenerated. MicroRNA-124 could play a role in the repairing and recovering the injured tissue. The BMSCs could participate in repairing the damage. However, the regulatory effect of MicroRNA-124 on BMSCs and the inflammatory response of SCI was still not illustrated. These spinal cord nerve cells were assigned into group of mechanical damage, BMSCs and BMSCs with miR-124 overexpression followed by analysis of proliferation of nerve cells by MTT assay, apoptotic activity, expression of miR-124, GFAP and BDNF by Real time PCR, levels of TNF-α and IL-6 by ELISA as well as MDH and SOD activity. miR-124 mimics transfection significantly promoted BMSCs proliferation and increased ALK activity and the expression of GFAP and BDNF. In conclusion, the proliferation and differentiation of BMSCs could be regulated by miR-124. The inflammation and oxidative stress could be restrained so as to prompt the proliferation and repair of SCI cells and restrain apoptosis, indicating that it might be beneficial to recover the SCI.

Encapsulation of thyme essential oil using electrospun zein fiber for strawberry preservation

Background Strawberry is a nutrient-rich and important small fruit because of its high content of beneficial phytochemicals and several vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin B6. However, strawberry is highly perishable due to its susceptibility to mechanical damage, microbiological decay, and softening in texture. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in using various essential oils as natural food preservatives. Although, they have limited stability to exposure to high temperatures, light and oxygen, which could eventually affect sensory quality attributes. The electrospinning method is a simple and well-organized process that has been used to encapsulate essential oils. In this study, the effect of thyme essential oil (TEO) encapsulated into zein electrospun fiber film was assessed on extending the shelf life and preserving the quality of strawberry fruit during storage. Findings Results indicated that TEO presented potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Aspergillus fumigatus. The scanning electron microscopy images of zein fiber had a linear shape, absence of beads, and smooth surface. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) of TEO in the zein fiber was about 75.23%. Encapsulated TEO released at a slower rate than free TEO. The zein/TEO fibers (zein fiber film loaded with TEO) significantly (p ˂ 0.05) decreased weight loss and maintained the anthocyanin content, firmness and color of the strawberries during storage. After 15 days of storage, weight loss reduced about 15% and firmness was higher about 20% in packed fruit with zein/TEO fibers compared to control. Conclusions Interestingly, after 15 days of cold storage, the strawberries firmness, appearance, and sensory evaluation, which are important quality factors from both postharvest and consumers’ viewpoint, in zein/TEO fiber treatment were acceptable and had higher scores compared to the control. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated the benefits of incorporating TEO into zein films, which could play a significant role in the active packaging and preservation of strawberry fruits. Graphical Abstract

Analysis and Detection of Erosion in Wind Turbine Blades

This paper studies erosion at the tip of wind turbine blades by considering aerodynamic analysis, modal analysis and predictive machine learning modeling. Erosion can be caused by several factors and can affect different parts of the blade, reducing its dynamic performance and useful life. The ability to detect and quantify erosion on a blade is an important predictive maintenance task for wind turbines that can have broad repercussions in terms of avoiding serious damage, improving power efficiency and reducing downtimes. This study considers both sides of the leading edge of the blade (top and bottom), evaluating the mechanical imbalance caused by the material loss that induces variations of the power coefficient resulting in a loss in efficiency. The QBlade software is used in our analysis and load calculations are preformed by using blade element momentum theory. Numerical results show the performance of a blade based on the relationship between mechanical damage and aerodynamic behavior, which are then validated on a physical model. Moreover, two machine learning (ML) problems are posed to automatically detect the location of erosion (top of the edge, bottom or both) and to determine erosion levels (from 8% to 18%) present in the blade. The first problem is solved using classification models, while the second is solved using ML regression, achieving accurate results. ML pipelines are automatically designed by using an AutoML system with little human intervention, achieving highly accurate results. This work makes several contributions by developing ML models to both detect the presence and location of erosion on a blade, estimating its level and applying AutoML for the first time in this domain.

Effect of Microindentation on Electroluminescence of SiC P-I-N Junctions

The influence of microindentation on the electroluminescence of silicon carbide was studied in forward-biased 4H SiC p-i-n junctions. Four spectral regions at approximately 390, 420, 445 and 500 nm initially observed on virgin samples strongly depend, in regard to magnitude, on the condition of the starting die. These spectral regions may be interpreted as arising from either phonon-assisted band-to-band transitions or from defect-related transitions. The same SiC die were then subjected to mechanical damage brought about by a series of closely spaced microindentations directed approximately perpendicular to the c-axis. The spectra taken after a first set and subsequently a second set of microindentations are distinct from the initial spectra in all cases, and differences are interpreted as being due to the modification of existing defects or additional defects being generated mechanically. The influence of microindentation on the ideality factor is measured and discussed. Measured light flux with respect to a standard light source is also shown at each microindentation stage.

Effect of mechanical damage on the quality characteristics of banana fruits during short-term storage

Fresh fruits like bananas are very susceptible to mechanical damage during postharvest handling which can result in a substantial decline in quality. The study aims to evaluate the effect of bruise damage and storage temperatures on the quality of banana fruits after 48 h storage. Each ‘Grand Naine’ banana fruit was impacted once by using a drop impact test using three different heights (10, 30, and 50 cm) and storage temperatures (13 and 22 °C) after 48 h of storage. Different quality analyses were measured like bruise measurements (impact energy, bruise area, bruise volume, and bruise susceptibility), weight loss, total soluble solids (TSS), color (L*, a*, b*, hue°, chroma, yellowness index, yellowness value) headspace gases (respiration and ethylene production rate). The results showed that bruise measurements (bruise area, bruise volume, and bruise susceptibility) were highly affected by drop height. The quality parameters like weight, color, total soluble solids and headspace gases were affected by drop height and storage condition. Weight loss, total soluble solids, respiration rate, and ethylene production rate increased as drop height and storage temperature rise. Storage at ambient conditions (22 °C) accelerated bruising occurrence in banana fruits. Fewer changes were observed after 48 h of storage. The least value of yellowness index was observed on the non-bruised banana fruits (84.03) under 13 °C storage conditions. The findings of the study can provide baseline data to understand the mechanical damage mechanism on fruit quality, hoping to create awareness and educate farming communities and consumers. Storage temperature management is another approach that needs to be followed to reduce the occurrence of mechanical damage in fresh produce.

Non-Destructive Detection of Damaged Strawberries after Impact Based on Analyzing Volatile Organic Compounds

Strawberries are susceptible to mechanical damage. The detection of damaged strawberries by their volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can avoid the deficiencies of manual observation and spectral imaging technologies that cannot detect packaged fruits. In the present study, the detection of strawberries with impact damage is investigated using electronic nose (e-nose) technology. The results show that the e-nose technology can be used to detect strawberries that have suffered impact damage. The best model for detecting the extent of impact damage had a residual predictive deviation (RPD) value of 2.730, and the correct rate of the best model for identifying the damaged strawberries was 97.5%. However, the accuracy of the prediction of the occurrence time of impact was poor, and the RPD value of the best model was only 1.969. In addition, the gas chromatography–mass spectrophotometry analysis further shows that the VOCs of the strawberries changed after suffering impact damage, which was the reason why the e-nose technology could detect the damaged fruit. The above results show that the mechanical force of impact caused changes in the VOCs of strawberries and that it is possible to detect strawberries that have suffered impact damage using e-nose technology.

Numerical analysis of mechanical damage on concrete under high temperatures

Concrete is a widespread material all over the world. Due to this material’s heterogeneity and structural complexity, predicting the behavior of concrete structures under extreme environmental conditions is a very challenging task. High temperatures lead to microstructural changes which affect the macrostructural performance. In this context, computational tools that allow the simulation of structures may assist the analysis, by reproducing varied situations of thermal and mechanical loading and boundary conditions. In order to contribute to this scenario, this study proposes a numerical methodology to simulate the thermomechanical behavior of concrete under temperature gradients, through inverse analyses and a user subroutine implemented in Abaqus software. Thermal loading effects were considered as loading data for a damage model. Experimental data available in the literature was adopted for adjustment and validation purposes. The preliminary results presented herein encourage further improvements so as to allow realistic simulations of such an important aspect of concrete’s behavior.