This paper presents the assessment of water resource security in the Guizhou karst area, China. A mean impact value and back-propagation (MIV-BP) neural network was used to understand the influencing ...factors. Thirty-one indices involving five aspects, the water quality subsystem, water quantity subsystem, engineering water shortage subsystem, water resource vulnerability subsystem, and water resource carrying capacity subsystem, were selected to establish an evaluation index of water resource security. In addition, a genetic algorithm and back-propagation (GA-BP) neural network was constructed to assess the water resource security of Guizhou Province from 2001 to 2015. The results show that water resource security in Guizhou was at a moderate warning level from 2001 to 2006 and a critical safety level from 2007 to 2015, except in 2011 when a moderate warning level was reached. For protection and management of water resources in a karst area, the modes of development and utilization of water resources must be thoroughly understood, along with the impact of engineering water shortage. These results are a meaningful contribution to regional ecological restoration and socio-economic development and can promote better practices for future planning.
Maximum power point (MPP) tracking (MPPT) techniques are widely applied in photovoltaic (PV) systems to make PV array generate peak power which depends on solar irradiation. Among all the MPPT ...strategies, the incremental-conductance (INC) algorithm is widely employed due to easy implementation and high tracking accuracy. In this paper, a novel variable step-size incremental-resistance MPPT algorithm is introduced, which not only has the merits of INC but also automatically adjusts the step size to track the PV array MPP. Compared with the variable step-size INC method, the proposed scheme can greatly improve the MPPT response speed and accuracy at steady state simultaneously. Moreover, it is more suitable for practical operating conditions due to a wider operating range. This paper provides the theoretical analysis and the design principle of the proposed MPPT strategy. Simulation and experimental results verify its feasibility.
In this work, a unique artificial interface combing characteristics of both high ionic and electronic conductivities has been successfully constructed at the surface of Ni-rich LiNi0·8Co0·1Mn0·1O2 ...(NCM811). The ionic conductor layer is fabricated through reacting H3PO4 with the lithium residuals on the surface of NCM811 to form Li3PO4. The interface with high electronic conductivity is constructed by attaching graphene fragments to the NCM811 spherical particles. Due to the synergistic effect of the Li3PO4 coating layer and the graphene network, the modified sample (GN-LPO-NCM811) exhibits high capacity retention of 94.3% after 150 cycles at 0.5C between 3.0 and 4.3 V, while the pristine material shows a much lower retention of only 88.1%. In addition, the GN-LPO-NCM811 also presents improved cycling stability at elevated temperature of 55 °C. Even at an extremely high rate of 10C, the GN-LPO-NCM811 still remains 70% of its original capacity, while the pristine NCM811 only delivers 50% of the capacity. The stable cycling performance of GN-LPO-NCM811 is demonstrated in a full cell with graphite anode at ambient temperatures. Importantly, the thermal stability of the modified samples is also greatly enhanced. This study provides an effective method to improve the electrochemical performance of LiNi0·8Co0·1Mn0·1O2.
•The residual Li species on the surface of NCM811 were transformed into Li3PO4.•Build a mixed-conducting interlayer with fast ionic and electronic conductivities.•The modified samples show excellent cycling stability and high rate performance.•The performance of NCM811 was enhanced at both room and high temperature.•The mixed-conducting interlayer improves the thermal stability of NCM811.
An unpolluted process of wheat straw fractionation by steam explosion coupled with ethanol extraction was studied. The wheat straw was steam exploded for 4.5
min with moisture of 34.01%, a pressure ...of 1.5
MPa without acid or alkali. Hemicellulose sugars were recovered by water countercurrent extraction and decolored with chelating ion exchange resin D412. The gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis results indicated that there were organic acids in the hemicellulose sugars and the ratio of monosaccharides to oligosaccharides was 1:9 and the main component, xylose, was 85.9% in content. The total recovery rate of hemicellulose was 80%. Water washed materials were subsequently extracted with ethanol. The optimum extraction conditions in this work were 40% ethanol, fiber/liquor ratio 1:50 (w/v), severity log(
R)
=
3.657 (180
°C for 20
min), 0.1% NaOH. The lignin yield was 75% by acid precipitation and 85% ethanol solvent was recovered. The lignin was purified using Björkman method. Infrared spectrometry (IR) results indicated that the lignin belonged to GSH (guaiacyl (G) syringyl (S) and
p-hydroxyphenyl (H)) lignin and its purity rate reached 85.3%. The cellulose recovery rate was 94% and the results of electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) and infrared spectrometry (IR) showed that hemicellulose and lignin content decreased after steam explosion and ethanol extraction.
We report on the stimulated Brillouin laser (SBL) and over-dense frequency comb generation in high-Q microbubble resonators (MBRs). Both first-order and cascaded SBL are achieved due to the rich ...high-order axial modes in the MBRs, although the free spectral range (FSR) of azimuthal mode of the MBR is severely mismatched with the Brillouin shift. The SBL is also generated by varying the internal pressure of MBR at fixed initially non-resonant pump light wavelength. In addition, over-dense frequency combs are realized with comb spacings that are one and two FSRs of aixal mode.
The spectral mode density in optical micro-bubble resonators is reduced by introducing a loss element of UV curable adhesive to selectively suppress the whispering gallery modal resonances. ...Asymmetric Fano resonant profile appears after spectral simplification, and the sharp slope amplifies the detecting intensity change by 4.3 times when sensing the liquid core refractive index change.
Developing efficient and sensitive MOF-based luminescence sensors for bioactive molecule detection is of great significance and remains a challenge. Benefiting from favorable chemical and thermal ...stability, as well as excellent luminescence performance, a porous Zn(II)Ho(III) heterometallic–organic framework (ZnHoMOF) was selected here as a bifunctional luminescence sensor for the early diagnosis of a toluene exposure biomarker of hippuric acid (HA) through “turn-on” luminescence enhancing response and the daily monitoring of NFT/NFZ antibiotics through “turn-off” quenching effects in aqueous media with high sensitivity, acceptable selectivity, good anti-interference, exceptional recyclability performance, and low detection limits (LODs) of 0.7 ppm for HA, 0.04 ppm for NFT, and 0.05 ppm for NFZ. Moreover, the developed sensor was employed to quantify HA in diluted urine samples and NFT/NFZ in natural river water with satisfactory results. In addition, the sensing mechanisms of ZnHoMOF as a dual-response chemosensor in efficient detection of HA and NFT/NFZ antibiotics were conducted from the view of photo-induced electron transfer (PET), as well as inner filter effects (IFEs), with the help of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and spectral overlap experiments.
A wound dressing with excellent hydrophilicity, high porosity, good mechanical property, and antimicrobial activities holds great potential for wound healing. Sericin, a natural protein from silkworm ...cocoon, is particularly attractive for the development of skin-repairing materials because it is biocompatible and biodegradable. Here, we reported a green strategy for in situ biomimetic synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) within sericin/poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel. AgNPs were in situ synthesized by the redox property of tyrosine residues in sericin without additional chemicals, similar to a biomineralization process. AgNPs-sericin/poly(vinyl alcohol) dressing was demonstrated to bear desired high porosity, good wettability, hygroscopicity, and mechanical properties. The evaluation of cytocompatibility and immunotoxicity of the composite with NIH/3T3, HEK-293, and RAW264.7 cells further demonstrated its excellent biocompatibility. The composite also showed an effective antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and could inhibit biofilm formation caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Finally, the animal experiment suggested that the composite dressing could facilitate re-epithelialization and collagen deposition to promote wound healing. Our work shows that the composite dressing has great potential as a competitive alternative for traditional wound dressings.
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•AgNPs are synthesized by tyrosine of sericin, and embedded in the sericin-based sponge in a biomineralization manner.•SP-Ag composite has desired mechanical properties, effective antibacterial activity and excellent cytocompatibility.•SP-Ag composite could facilitate collagen deposition and promote wound healing.
Heavy metal compounds are used in a variety of industrial processes, including tanning, chrome plating, anti-corrosion treatments, and wood preservation. Heavy metal ion pollution in water and ...wastewater is often caused by industrial effluent discharge into open water sources. Toxic heavy metal ions such as As (III), Cr (VI), Cd (II), and Pb (II) are well-known and enter the body through a variety of pathways, including the food chain, respiration, skin absorption, and drinking water. These heavy metal ions produce oxidative stress in cells, resulting in cell organelle destruction. Heavy metals produce toxicity and may cause genetic material mutation or change, histone modification, and epigenetic alteration at various stages. Furthermore, heavy metals are linked to heart failure, renal damage, liver failure, and a variety of skin problems. For heavy metals cleanup, several standard approaches are utilized. Nonetheless, these technologies are costly and result in toxic sludge after treatment. As a result, there is an urgent need for an appropriate, environmentally safe, and efficient heavy metal removal technology. For heavy metal removal, microbial-based approaches are regarded as both environmentally benign and cost-effective. This review focuses on heavy metal pollution in water, its harmful consequences, and heavy metal cleanup by microbiological means.
We report a novel Mach−Zehnder interferometer (MZI) sensor that utilizes a weak one-dimensional field confinement silica waveguide (WCSW). The WCSW has a large horizontal and vertical aspect ratio ...and low refractive index difference, which features easy preparation and a large evanescent field for achieving high waveguide sensitivity. We experimentally achieved WCSW ultrahigh waveguide sensitivity of 0.94, MZI sensitivity of 44,364 π/RIU and a low limit of detection (LOD) of 6.1 × 10−7 RIU.