Performance characterization and application of composite adsorbent LiCl@ACFF for moisture harvesting.

Freshwater scarcity is a global threat to modern era of human society. Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is prospective to provide fresh water for remote water-stressed areas lacking in water and electricity. Adsorbent material plays a vital role in such AWH systems. Here, we report a solid adsorbent synthesized by impregnating hygroscopic salt lithium chloride (LiCl) into solidified activated carbon fiber felt (ACFF modified by silica sol). Composite samples immersed with different mass concentrations of silica sol are prepared and characterized for dynamic water uptake, equilibrium water uptake, textural and thermal properties. AS5Li30 (ACFF + 5 wt% silica gel + 30 wt% LiCl) exhibits an efficient water uptake of 2.1 g/g at 25 °C and 70% relative humidity (RH). The material further demonstrates a heat storage capacity of 5456 kJ/kg. Its low regeneration temperature (< 80 °C) and good cycle stability make it feasible to be used in practical water production applications, driven by solar energy and other low-grade energy. Estimation results show that water harvesting unit can produce 1.41 gH2O/gAS5Li30 under 25 °C and 75% RH.

[Initial exploration of choice of the donor site of flap and its repair strategy].

Objective: To explore the choice of the donor site of flap and the repair method of secondary wound of flap donor site in tissue repair and reconstruction operation. Methods: From January 2014 to September 2018, 62 cases of scar contracture deformity, 15 cases of skin tumor, 20 cases of skin and soft tissue injury, and 25 cases of chronic wound were admitted to the Burn Center of People's Liberation Army of First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University, with 84 males and 38 females, aged from 3 to 89 years. Four repair strategies adopted for tissue repair and reconstruction and good repair of the donor site of flap were as follows: designing the flap rationally according to the condition around the wound or the size and shape of wound, choosing pre-expanded technique of the donor site of flap for repair of scar deformity optimally, making full use of the surrounding condition of flap donor site, and repaired with the distal flap, i. e. replacing the important site with secondary site. The donor site of flap was repaired by direct suture or peripheral flap and distal flap. The wound size of patients ranged from 3.0 cm×2.0 cm to 20.0 cm×18.0 cm, and the flap area ranged from 3.5 cm×2.0 cm to 25.0 cm×22.0 cm. The survival condition of flap, healing condition of donor site and recipient site, and follow-up condition of donor site and recipient site were recorded. Results: Wounds of 122 patients were repaired with a total of 148 flaps designed by the above four repair strategies. All the flaps survived well, and the wound and flap donor site healed well. Follow-up for 3 to 36 months showed that the shape and function of recipient site and flap donor site were satisfactory. Conclusions: According to the specific condition of the wound and anatomical structure of the surrounding tissue of flap donor site, overall surgical design with flexibility and personalization can achieve effects of good repair of the wound and reduce the secondary damage of flap donor site.

[Molecular identification and expression of heat shock cognate 70 (HSC70) in the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei].

Heat shock protein 70s (HSP70s) are fundamental chaperone proteins that are indispensable to most living organisms. In order to investigate the function of HSP70 and heat shock response in shrimp, a heat shock cognate (HSC70) gene of the white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), containing a 1959-bp open reading frame, was cloned and characterized. The amino acid sequence, 71.5 kDa of molecular weight, shares 80-99.6% homology with 12 diverse species' HSP70s and HSC70s. In fact, some segments of the eukaryotic HSC70 sequence, such as ATP/GTP-binding site, cytoplasmic HSP70 C-terminal sequence, and GGMP/GAP repeats, are also found in the putative shrimp HSC70. Moreover, multi-tissue RT-PCR was performed to assay the basal expressions of HSC70 in the heart, gill, hepatopancreas, stomach, gut, and muscle. The results demonstrate that the basal expressions of HSC70 in theses organs are similar to that of beta-actin. Furthermore, quantitative real-time experiments showed that HSC70 was up-regulated in hepatopancreas (4.6-fold), stomach (5.9-fold), gut (2.6-fold), and muscle (3.5-fold) but not in the heart (1.7-fold) and gill (1.6-fold) after 2 h of heat shock. Nevertheless, the HSC70 was found to be highly expressed in the heart and gill following 6 h of heat shock. This suggests that HSC70 in white shrimp possess both short-term and long-term responses to heat shock stress, indicating this HSC70 may be a heat-dependent HSC70 member. Finally, we constructed an expression vector to generate HSC70 in Escherichia coli BL21, which displayed immune cross-reactivity with mouse HSP70 antibody. In conclusion, the identification and expression of white shrimp HSC70 gene present useful data for studying the molecular mechanism of heat shock response and the effect of heat shock proteins in shrimps' cytoprotection.