Fresh corn mainly refers to fruit-type corn such as sweet corn and glutinous corn, which is harvested at the milk stage of kernel maturity. It is favored very much by consumers because of its sweet and delicious flavor, unique flavor, and rich nutrition. The annual planting area of fresh corn in China is more than 1.34 million hm 2 , and it is currently the world's largest producer and consumer of fresh corn (Xu et al., 2020). The bracts are the outer covering part of the corn ears, which play an important role in the storage and transportation

The microstructure, phase structure, mechanical properties and damping capacity of Al x Fe2CrNiCu (x = 0.0, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5) (x in molar ratio) HEAs were investigated. The results show that with the increase of x value, the volume fractions of BCC phase increase from 0 for x = 0.0 to 100% x = 1.5 for the as-cast Al x Fe2CrNiCu HEAs. Among them, a novel dual phase microstructure consisting of 51 vol.% FCC and 49 vol.% BCC with large interface area was obtained in Al0.5FeCrNiCu HEA. Especially the compressive yield strength of the alloy with BCC structure is more than 5 times larger than that of the alloy with FCC structure, indicating that a typical damping alloy with a soft second phase distributed on the hard matrix was successfully fabricated. Compared with other HEAs, the damping capacity (Q−1) of Al0.5 HEA is 0.1, which is the largest one obtained up to now. The foundational contribution of this paper is to show that the damping capacity of the HEAs can be adjusted by tuning the volume fraction of BCC and FCC phases.

The stability of carotenoids in puff-dried yellow peach powder during commercial storage under different water activity conditions was studied. The results showed that when the corresponding water activity was above 0.576, the loss of adsorbed water in yellow peach powder was closely related to the crystallinity of the amorphous sugar matrix. However, the adsorption isotherms confirmed by water absorption behavior, X-ray diffraction (XRD) pat-terns, and scanning electron microscopy did not clearly indicate this loss of adsorbed water. The content changes of individual carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and β-carotene) during storage followed pseudo first-order kinetics, and the degradation of lutein and zeaxanthin occurred quickly over time. The stability of total carotenoids gradually increased when the water activity was less than 0.576, but the carotenoids degraded sharply when the water activity was between 0.753 and 0.843. The loss of carotenoids was related to the water absorption and crystallization of the sugar matrix in the powder.

The practice of deep-braced excavation in congested urban environments involves frequently buried pipelines, which can exert a significant effect on the performance of the excavation. The objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of a 12.5-m-deep-braced excavation spanned by two shallowly buried large-diameter pressurized pipelines. A suspension structure is installed within the excavation to protect the in situ pipelines during the construction. The excavation performance is investigated by performing a three-dimensional finite element analysis. The finite element method is verified based on the observations at the site. The results indicate that, as expected, the excavation support structures displace together with varying degrees of deformation toward the excavated area. The strut shear forces are found to be distributed axially in linear manners, while the strut bending moments are in symmetric manners. The benefit of using the proposed pipeline suspension structure is demonstrated. By using this structure, pipeline deformation can be well controlled, and the structural integrity and safety of the pipelines can be ensured. This benefit depends on the convenient operation in that the elevation of the cork base of the pipeline suspension structure is stably lowered during the construction process.

The soluble dietary fiber from fresh corn bract (FCB-SDF) was extracted by ultrasonic-assisted cellulase method. The process parameters of FCB-SDF were optimized by Box–Behnken design (BBD), and the physio-chemical properties and structure of FCB-SDF obtained were investigated. The results showed that the optimal extraction conditions for FCB-SDF were enzyme concentration 1.58%, ultrasonic power 300 W, and extraction time 90 min. Under the above conditions, the FCB-SDF yield reached 21.21%. Compared with ultrasonic treatment group (U-SDF) and enzymatic treatment group (E-SDF), ultrasound-assisted enzymatic treatment group (UE-SDF) had higher WHC and OHC, but lower WSC. Its particle size was smaller, and a more microscopic pore structure was formed. UE-SDF had a low molecular weight of 204.41 KDa, and its monosaccharide composition had the highest arabinose content, followed by glucose. The SDFs obtained might be mainly composed of pectin and hemicellulose, E-SDF and UE-SDF contained more hemicellulose, and U-SDF contained more pectin.

The effects of insoluble dietary fiber from fresh corn bracts modified by dynamic high-pressure micro-fluidization (DHPM) on the pathological characteristics of obesity, intestinal microflora distribution and production of short-chain fatty acids in high-fat-diet C57BL/6 mice were evaluated. The results show that the DHPM-modified dietary fiber from fresh corn bracts significantly reduces weight gain, insulin resistance and oxidative damage caused by a high-fat diet, and promotes the production of SCFAs, especially acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid. These modified dietary fibers also change the proportion of different types of bacteria in the intestinal microflora of mice, reduce the ratio of Firmicutes and Bacteroidota and promote the proliferation of Bifidobacteriales. Therefore, the DHPM-modified dietary fiber from fresh corn bracts can be used as a good intestinal microbiota regulator to promote intestinal health, thereby achieving the role of preventing and treating obesity.

Underwater shield tunneling will disturb the soil near the river, especially in water-rich soft ground. This may cause a groundwater infiltration hydraulic gradient to exceed the critical value, leading to calamities, such as unexpected flooding or submerged erosion. To ensure the security of construction and the stability of river embankment seepage, it is crucial to assess the safety of the underwater tunnel cover thickness. A shield tunnel project under a river in Hefei is used as an example. The numerical model established by the finite element method is used for calculating and analyzing the changes in the groundwater flow field and the stability state of embankment seepage induced by underwater shield tunneling under different overburden thickness conditions. The results show that the construction disturbance of the shield tunnel through the river is increased, the internal force environment of the embankment slope is destroyed, and the maximum seepage hydraulic gradient is increased. In the case study, the embankment keeps in a stable state of seepage when the cover thickness of the shield tunnel has 2.9 times its outer diameter. The findings of this study can serve as a scientific guide to assure seepage stability in an underwater shield tunneling project and to stop river embankment erosion.

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