Fabricating active materials into specific macrostructures is critical in the pursuit of high electro-catalytic activity. Herein we demonstrate that a three-dimensional (3D) architecture of NiFe ...layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) significantly reduced the onset potential, yielded high current density at small overpotentials, and showed outstanding stability in electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction.
In this study, we examine a supply-chain approach to more effectively mitigate primary PM2.5 emissions in China from the perspectives of production, consumption and their linkages using structural ...path analysis. We identify the pattern of all supply chain paths using principal component analysis. To address the severe haze problems in China, it is important to understand how final demand purchase initiates production processes and ultimately leads to primary PM2.5 emission. We found that consumers' demands on power and transportation mainly induce direct emissions, quite different from the demands on construction, industry and service products which largely drive emissions in upstream activities. We also found that nearly 80% of the economic sectors in China follow a similar pattern in generating primary PM2.5 emissions in electricity, cement and the ferrous metal industries; but only the construction sector increases the release of PM2.5 due to the production of non-metallic mineral products. These findings indicate that further reduction of end-of-pipe emissions in the power and transportation sectors will facilitate cleaner production in almost all the economic sectors. However, for urbanization induced emissions, China should mitigate PM2.5 emissions through the supply chain of construction, either severely reducing its life-cycle intensity or carefully planning to avoid extensive, unnecessary building activity.
The increase of transmission frequency reveals more merits than low- or medium-frequency distribution among different kinds of power applications. High-frequency inverter serves as source side in ...high-frequency ac (HFAC) power distribution system (PDS). However, it is complicated to obtain a high-frequency inverter with both simple circuit topology and straightforward modulation strategy. A novel switched-capacitor-based cascaded multilevel inverter is proposed in this paper, which is constructed by a switched-capacitor frontend and H-Bridge backend. Through the conversion of series and parallel connections, the switched-capacitor frontend increases the number of voltage levels. The output harmonics and the component counter can be significantly reduced by the increasing number of voltage levels. A symmetrical triangular waveform modulation is proposed with a simple analog implementation and low modulation frequency comparing with traditional multicarrier modulation. The circuit topology, symmetrical modulation, operation cycles, Fourier analysis, parameter determination, and topology enhancement are examined. An experimental prototype with a rated output frequency of 25 kHz is implemented to compare with simulation results. The experimental results agreed very well with the simulation that confirms the feasibility of proposed multilevel inverter.
With over 2 million new cases annually, stroke is associated with the highest disability-adjusted life-years lost of any disease in China. The burden is expected to increase further as a result of ...population ageing, an ongoing high prevalence of risk factors (eg, hypertension), and inadequate management. Despite improved access to overall health services, the availability of specialist stroke care is variable across the country, and especially uneven in rural areas. In-hospital outcomes have improved because of a greater availability of reperfusion therapies and supportive care, but adherence to secondary prevention strategies and long-term care are inadequate. Thrombolysis and stroke units are accepted as standards of care across the world, including in China, but bleeding-risk concerns and organisational challenges hamper widespread adoption of this care in China. Despite little supporting evidence, Chinese herbal products and neuroprotective drugs are widely used, and the increased availability of neuroimaging techniques also results in overdiagnosis and overtreatment of so-called silent stroke. Future efforts should focus on providing more balanced availability of specialised stroke services across the country, enhancing evidence-based practice, and encouraging greater translational research to improve outcome of patients with stroke.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Single-atom electrocatalysts (SAECs) have gained tremendous attention due to their unique active sites and strong metal–substrate interactions. However, the current synthesis of SAECs mostly relies ...on costly precursors and rigid synthetic conditions and often results in very low content of single-site metal atoms. Herein, we report an efficient synthesis method to prepare metal–nitrogen–carbon SAECs based on formamide condensation and carbonization, featuring a cost-effective general methodology for the mass production of SAECs with high loading of atomically dispersed metal sites. The products with metal inclusion were termed as formamide-converted metal–nitrogen–carbon (shortened as f-MNC) materials. Seven types of single-metallic f-MNC (Fe, Co, Ni, Mn, Zn, Mo and Ir), two bi-metallic (ZnFe and ZnCo) and one tri-metallic (ZnFeCo) SAECs were synthesized to demonstrate the generality of the methodology developed. Remarkably, these f-MNC SAECs can be coated onto various supports with an ultrathin layer as pyrolysis-free electrocatalysts, among which the carbon nanotube-supported f-FeNC and f-NiNC SAECs showed high performance for the O 2 reduction reaction (ORR) and the CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), respectively. Furthermore, the pyrolysis products of supported f-MNC can still render isolated metallic sites with excellent activity, as exemplified by the bi-metallic f-FeCoNC SAEC, which exhibited outstanding ORR performance in both alkaline and acid electrolytes by delivering ∼70 and ∼20 mV higher half-wave potentials than that of commercial 20 wt% Pt/C, respectively. This work offers a feasible approach to design and manufacture SAECs with tuneable atomic metal components and high density of single-site metal loading, and thus may accelerate the deployment of SAECs for various energy technology applications.
We examine the potential global risk of increasing surface ozone (O₃) exposure to three key staple crops (soybean, maize, and wheat) in the near future (year 2030) according to two trajectories of O₃ ...pollution: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC SRES) A2 and B1 storylines, which represent upper- and lower-boundary projections, respectively, of most O₃ precursor emissions in 2030. We use simulated hourly O₃ concentrations from the Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers version 2.4 (MOZART-2), satellite-derived datasets of agricultural production, and field-based concentration:response relationships to calculate crop yield reductions resulting from O₃ exposure. We then calculate the associated crop production losses and their economic value. We compare our results to the estimated impact of O₃ on global agriculture in the year 2000, which we assessed in our companion paper Avnery et al., 2011. In the A2 scenario we find global year 2030 yield loss of wheat due to O₃ exposure ranges from 5.4 to 26% (a further reduction in yield of +1.5–10% from year 2000 values), 15–19% for soybean (reduction of +0.9–11%), and 4.4–8.7% for maize (reduction of +2.1–3.2%) depending on the metric used, with total global agricultural losses worth $17–35 billion USD₂₀₀₀ annually (an increase of +$6–17 billion in losses from 2000). Under the B1 scenario, we project less severe but still substantial reductions in yields in 2030: 4.0–17% for wheat (a further decrease in yield of +0.1–1.8% from 2000), 9.5–15% for soybean (decrease of +0.7–1.0%), and 2.5–6.0% for maize (decrease of + 0.3–0.5%), with total losses worth $12–21 billion annually (an increase of +$1–3 billion in losses from 2000). Because our analysis uses crop data from the year 2000, which likely underestimates agricultural production in 2030 due to the need to feed a population increasing from approximately 6 to 8 billion people between 2000 and 2030, our calculations of crop production and economic losses are highly conservative. Our results suggest that O₃ pollution poses a growing threat to global food security even under an optimistic scenario of future ozone precursor emissions. Further efforts to reduce surface O₃ concentrations thus provide an excellent opportunity to increase global grain yields without the environmental degradation associated with additional fertilizer application or land cultivation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Single‐atom catalysts (SACs) show great promise for electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CRR), but the low density of active sites and the poor electrical conduction and mass transport of the ...single‐atom electrode greatly limit their performance. Herein, we prepared a nickel single‐atom electrode consisting of isolated, high‐density and low‐valent nickel(I) sites anchored on a self‐standing N‐doped carbon nanotube array with nickel–copper alloy encapsulation on a carbon‐fiber paper. The combination of single‐atom nickel(I) sites and self‐standing array structure gives rise to an excellent electrocatalytic CO2 reduction performance. The introduction of copper tunes the d‐band electron configuration and enhances the adsorption of hydrogen, which impedes the hydrogen evolution reaction. The single‐nickel‐atom electrode exhibits a specific current density of −32.87 mA cm−2 and turnover frequency of 1962 h−1 at a mild overpotential of 620 mV for CO formation with 97 % Faradic efficiency.
If I had a nickel: An efficient NiI single‐atom electrode for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction is realized by combining the advantages of a single‐atom catalyst and a self‐standing nanoarray architecture.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract lncRNAs regulate the initiation and progression of osteosarcoma, although the mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. The present study shows that over-expression of the lncRNA DANCR ...increased osteosarcoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro, as well as promoted xenograft tumor growth and lung metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, DANCR promoted osteosarcoma progression by mediating cancer stem cells (CSC) features. Moreover, pull-down assays and luciferase reporter assays indicated that DANCR upregulated expression of the receptor tyrosine kinase AXL by competitively binding to miR-33a-5p. Furthermore, DANCR enhanced the expression of proteins downstream of the AXL-Akt pathway. DANCR was consistently significantly increased in osteosarcoma tissues, and its expression was positively correlated with tumor size and metastasis as an independent poor prognostic factor. Furthermore, both in patient tumors and xenograft tumors, DANCR expression was positively related to AXL and negatively related to miR-33a-5p. Taken together, our results suggest that DANCR is a crucial upregulator of osteosarcoma and an independent predictor of prognosis. DANCR increases CSC function by upregulating AXL via competitively binding to miR-33a-5p, and this function is sequentially performed through the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The atmospheric concentrations of carbonyls and BTEX (benzene,toluene,ethylbenzene,m,p-xylene and o-xylene) were measured simultaneously at a same sampling site in Beijing from September 2008 to ...August 2010.The average concentrations of the total measured carbonyls during autumn,winter,spring,and summer were 37.7,31.3,39.7,50.5 μg/m 3,respectively,and maximal values for their diurnal variations usually happened at noontime.In contrast to carbonyls,the average concentrations of the total measured BTEX during the four seasons were 27.2,31.9,23.2,19.1 μg/m 3,respectively,andminimal values for their diurnal variations always occurred in the early afternoon.The average concentration for carbonyls increased about 24% from September 2008–August 2009 to September 2009–August 2010,for BTEX,increased about 15%.Integrated life time cancer risks for three carcinogens (benzene,formaldehyde and acetaldehyde) in Beijing exceeded the value of 1E-06,and the hazard quotient (HQ) of non-cancer risk of exposure to formaldehyde exceeded unity.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
As the demand for urban flood prevention and drainage increases, a large number of plastic rainwater facilities are in use. Microplastics will be released inevitably into stormwater systems during ...aging and hydraulic scouring processes, which could cause potential pollution risk. This study simulated the release behavior of microplastics from three typical plastic rainwater facilities including a rainwater inspection well, rainwater storage module, and rainwater pipe (mainly composed of high-density polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride, respectively) under the effects of aging and hydraulic scouring. After 15–45 days of UV aging and 72 h of hydraulic scouring, the surfaces of the three facilities were found to exhibit increases in roughness, cracks, folds, and cavities, with the most pronounced changes occurring in the rainwater storage module. As the aging time increased, oxygen-containing functional groups formed and led to carbon chain scission. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of facility surfaces showed that the formation of oxygen-containing functional groups was an important factor affecting the release of microplastics. The amount of microplastics released from the three facilities ranged from 160 to 1905 items/g (microplastics/facilities), following in the order of rainwater inspection well > rainwater storage module > rainwater pipe. The particle size of the released microplastics ranged from 3 to 1363 μm, with 10–30 μm accounting for the greatest proportion of particles, 50.10%. The size of microplastics released from the rainwater inspection well and rainwater storage module increased with the aging degree, while the release from the rainwater pipe decreased. The release behavior depends mainly on the composition of the materials and the aging time. Thus, microplastics can be released from plastic rainwater facilities under suitable conditions. The results can be used to further evaluate microplastic pollution caused by urban rainwater facilities.
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•O-containing groups on facility surfaces are key to the release of microplastics.•Released microplastics range from 160 to 1905 items/g following HDPE>PP > PVC facility.•Released microplastics range from 3 to 1363 μm, predominant with 10–30 μm fraction.•Release of microplastics increases with aging time, especially for the small size.•Release of microplastic mainly depends on the composed materials and aging time.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP