RESUMO
Concentrated coal slime serves as a clean and promising fluid fuel and is commonly employed via pipeline transportation. Currently, there are still limitations in understanding the rheological properties of coal slime, including its yield stress, viscoelasticity, and the impact of factors, such as temperature, on these properties. Therefore, we conducted tests to examine the rheological properties and yield stress of coal slime at various temperatures for two different concentrations using a pipeline transportation system and rheometers. Furthermore, due to the challenges in measuring dynamic yield stress caused by the shear bands of highly viscous slime, a method using the residual pressure inside the pipeline after cessation of transportation is proposed. The viscoelasticity of coal slime at various temperatures was examined through oscillatory shear tests. Finally, the pressure wave velocity in the pipeline transportation system was used to determine the bulk modulus. The results indicated that the shear stress under high shear rates decreased with an increase in temperature, while the yield stress and shear stress under low shear conditions gradually increased with temperature. The coal slime exhibited certain viscoelasticity with shear elasticity increasing as the temperature rose. The pressure wave velocity in the pipeline remained constant and did not vary significantly with temperature.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of gene polymorphisms of Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)-1377C/T and expression of TLR3 with the susceptibility to enterovirus 71 (EV71) encephalitis in children. METHODS: A total of 187 children with EV71 infection (59 children in the encephalitis group and 128 in the non-encephalitis group) and 232 children who underwent physical examination were enrolled in the case-control study. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to detect the TLR3-1377C/T gene polymorphisms. ELISA was used to measure the serum level of TLR3. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of TLR3-1377C/T between the non-encephalitis group and the encephalitis group. Compared with the control group, the encephalitis group and the non-encephalitis group had significant increases in the serum level of TLR3 (P<0.05), and the non-encephalitis group had the highest level (P<0.05). The encephalitis group had a significantly higher EV71 viral load than the non-encephalitis group (P<0.01). The children aged <1 year or ≥1 year in the encephalitis group and the non-encephalitis group had significant increases in the serum level of TLR3 compared with their counterparts in the control group (P<0.05), and the children aged <1 year or ≥1 year in the non-encephalitis group had a significantly higher serum level of TLR3 than those in the encephalitis group (P<0.05). In the encephalitis group, the children aged ≥1 year had a significantly higher TLR3 concentration than those aged <1 year (P<0.05), and there were no significant differences in the TLR3 concentration between the children aged ≥1 year and <1 year in the non-encephalitis group and the control group. In the encephalitis group, the proportion of children aged <1 year was significantly higher than those aged ≥1 year (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The TLR3-1377C/T gene polymorphisms are not significantly associated with the development of EV71 encephalitis. Low expression of TLR3 might weaken the inhibitory effect on virus replication and promote the development of EV71 encephalitis. The deficiency in the expression of TLR3 in serum after EV71 infection might be an important factor for the development of encephalitis in infants.