China's freight transport volume experienced rapid growth over recent years, causing great concerns over its energy and environmental impacts. In this study, by establishing a bottom-up accounting ...framework, a set of scenarios reflecting the possible future trajectories of energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from China's freight transport sector are developed. According to our estimation, GHG emissions from China's freight transport sector were 788mt CO2e in 2013, roughly accounting for 8% of nationwide GHG emissions. Under Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario, energy consumption and GHG emissions in 2050 will be 2.5 and 2.4 times the current levels. GHG emissions will peak by 2045 at the level of 1918mt CO2e. With all major mitigation measures implemented, energy consumption and GHG emissions in 2050 can be reduced by 30% and 32%, respectively. Besides, GHG emissions will peak earlier by around 2035 at a much lower level than under BAU scenario. Our study suggests that in order to keep in pace with China's overall mitigation agenda, aggressive efforts should be made to reduce GHG emissions from freight transport sector.
•A bottom-up model was established to predict energy consumption and GHG emissions from China's freight transport sector.•Energy consumption and GHG emissions may experience 3.3 and 2.8 times increases under BAU scenario.•GHG emissions may reach the peak as early as around 2030 under aggressive scenario.
Scattered coal consumption in China has resulted in severe environmental problems in recent years. In the meantime, the rapid increasing capacity of renewable energy has exceeded the demand and ...therefore leads to idle capacity problem. In this situation, electric power substitution for scattered coal (EPSSC) has become a good choice in meeting this challenge. However, due to high cost for facility replacement and operation, most of the scattered coal users are not willing to adopt electric power facilities without policy subsidies. In this study, the policies of electricity price subsidy (EPS) and facility investment subsidy (FIS) are evaluated as effective methods to promote the willingness of different industries to implement EPSSC. Firstly, based on the principal of net profit-on-investment rate method, a model is established to describe the quantitative relationship between the amount of electric power substitution and the ratio of net profit over investment. Then, a case study of Sichuan Province is performed to discuss the effect of subsidy policies on the potential of EPSSC in four industries, including coal-fired boiler, self-generation coal-fired plant, coal-fired flue-cured tobacco plant and coal-fired building material kiln. Next, an optimization model combined with scenario analysis is proposed to provide the optimum portfolios of different substitution industries under a specific substitution target under different subsidy policies. The results indicate that, electricity price subsidy given to self-generation power plant is more cost-effective, while facility investment subsidy given to electric boiler and electric flue-cured tobacco plant is more cost-effective than the other industries. When the electric power substitution target is higher than 25%, the economic benefit of facility investment subsidy is superior to electricity price subsidy. If both EPS and FIS are implemented at the same time, the subsidy cost will be further reduced.
•Quantitative relationship between electric substitution and net profit over investment.•Scenario analysis on electricity price and facility investment.•Subsidy policy discussion on the optimal portfolio of four industries.
Glycerolipids are the principal constituent of cellular membranes; remodelling of glycerolipids plays important roles in temperature adaptation in plants. Temperate plants can endure freezing stress, ...but even chilling at above-zero temperatures can induce death in tropical species. However, little is known about the differences in glycerolipid response to low temperatures between chilling-sensitive and freezing-tolerant plants. Using ESI-MS/MS-based lipidomic analysis, we compared the glycerolipidome of chilling (4 and 10 °C)-treated rice with that of freezing (-6 and -12 °C)-treated Arabidopsis, both immediately after these low-temperature treatments and after a subsequent recovery culture period.
Arabidopsis is a 16:3 plant that harbours both eukaryotic and prokaryotic-type lipid synthesis pathways, while rice is an 18:3 plant that harbours only the eukaryotic lipid synthesis pathway. Arabidopsis contains higher levels of galactolipids than rice and has a higher double bond index (DBI). Arabidopsis contains lower levels of high melting point phosphatidylglycerol (PG) molecules and has a lower average acyl chain length (ACL). Marked phospholipid degradation occurred during the recovery culture period of non-lethal chilling treated rice, but did not occur in non-lethal freezing treated Arabidopsis. Glycerolipids with larger head groups were synthesized more in Arabidopsis than in rice at sub-lethal low-temperatures. Levels of phosphatidic acid (PA) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) rose in both plants after low-temperature treatment. The DBI and ACL of total lipids did not change during low-temperature treatment.
A higher DBI and a lower ACL could make the membranes of Arabidopsis more fluid at low temperatures. The ability to synthesize glycerolipids containing a larger head group may correlate with low-temperature tolerance. The low-temperature-induced increase of PA may play a dual role in plant responses to low temperatures: as a lipid signal that initiates tolerance responses, and as a structural molecule that, on extensive in large accumulation, could damage the integrity of membranes. Changes in ACL and DBI are responses of plants to long-term low temperature.
A new n‐type polymer, PF3N‐2TNDI, with high electron mobility, is developed as efficient cathode interfacial material and interconnecting layer (ICL) for constructing high‐performance tandem organic ...solar cells. Tandem cells employing the ICL with structure of PF3N‐2TNDI/Ag/PEDOT:PSS achieve a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.35%. Moreover, flexible tandem cells with PCE over 10% are also demonstrated.
Display omitted
•We incorporate the methine groups of heptamethine cyanines into the cyclic frame to construct a new near-infrared (NIR) molecular rotor Mu1.•Mu1 is superior to the traditional ...cyanines with high viscosity response, large stokes shift (˜100 nm), high photo-stability and selectivity.•Mu1 can ratiometrically track mitochondrial viscosity changes in live cells with high spatial and temporal resolution.
We developed a new cyanine-derived near-infrared (NIR) molecular rotor Mu1, which is superior to the traditional cyanines with high viscosity response, large Stokes shift (˜100 nm), and high photo-stability to detect the microscopic viscosity ratiometrically. The time-dependent density functional theory calculations highlighted the structure-optical properties of Mu1 as molecular rotor. Due to the mitochondria-actived fluorescence characteristics, Mu1 was used to track mitochondrial viscosity changes in live cells with high spatial and temporal resolution. This new type of NIR molecular rotor presented herein may open up new opportunities of NIR sensors for biomedical diagnosis and imaging applications.
γ-rays are high-energy radiation that cause a range of random injuries to plant cells. Most studies on this issue have focused on γ-ray-induced nucleotide damage and the production of reactive oxygen ...species in cells, so little is known about the glycerolipid metabolism during γ-rays induced membrane injury. Using an ESI-MS/MS-based lipidomic method, we analysed the lipidome changes in wild-type and phospholipase D (PLD)δ- and α1-deficient Arabidopsis after γ-ray treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of PLD-mediated glycerolipid metabolism in γ-ray-induced membrane injury.
The ion leakage of Arabidopsis leaves after 2885-Gy γ-ray treatment was less than 10%. High does γ-ray treatment could induce the accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Inhibition of PLDα1 caused severe lipid degradation under γ-ray treatment. γ-ray-induced glycerolipid degradation mostly happened in chloroplastidic lipids, rather than extraplastidic ones. The levels of lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC) and lysophosphatidylethanolamine (lysoPE) were maintained in the WS ecotypes during γ-ray treatments, while increased significantly in the Col ecotype treated with 1100 Gy. After 210- and 1100-Gy γ-ray treatments, the level of lysophosphatidylglycerol (lysoPG) decreased significantly in the four genotypes of Arabidopsis.
γ-ray-induced membrane injury may occur via an indirect mechanism. The degradation of distinct lipids is not synchronous, and that interconversions among lipids can occur. During γ-ray-induced membrane injury, the degradation of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) may be mediated by PLDζ1 or phospholipase A1. The degradation of phosphatidylglycerol was not mediated by PLA, PLDδ or PLDα1, but by phospholipase C or other PLDs. γ-rays can decrease the double-bond index and increase the acyl chain length in membrane lipids, which may make membranes more rigid and further cause injury in membranes.
This tutorial presents a novel search system—the Attractor-Based Search System (ABSS)—that can solve the Traveling Salesman Problem very efficiently with optimality guarantee. From the perspective of ...dynamical systems, a heuristic local search algorithm for an NP-complete combinatorial problem is a discrete dynamical system. In a local search system, an attractor drives the search trajectories into the vicinity of a globally optimal point in the solution space, and the convergence of local search trajectories makes the search system become a global and deterministic system. The attractor contains a small set of the most promising solutions to the problem. The attractor can reduce the problem size exponentially, and thus make the exhaustive search feasible. Therefore, this new search paradigm is called optimizing with attractor. The ABSS consists of two search phases: local search phase and exhaustive search phase. The local search process is used to quickly construct the attractor in the solution space, and the exhaustive search process is used to completely search the attractor to identify the optimal solution. Therefore, the exact optimal solution can be found quickly by combining local search and exhaustive search. This tutorial introduces the concept of an attractor in a local search system, and describes the process of optimizing with the attractor, using the Traveling Salesman Problem as the study platform.
Background: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) originated from the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs act aimed to rein in the long-standing abuse in the consumer product marketplace. The ...act was passed to prohibit interstate commerce of misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks, drugs. Thus, promoting the FDA’s mission to protect the public health by regulating human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, food supply, cosmetics, and tobacco to ensure safety, efficacy, and security. Progressing further in 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was established designating specific label requirements, providing regulatory framework, and authorizing the FDA to promulgate good manufacturing practices for dietary supplements. This act defined and classified “dietary supplements” and “dietary ingredients” as food requiring all over the counter products (OTC) products to consist of labeling that is easy to understand and meets the FDA quality, effectiveness, and safety standards. However, under the umbrella of OTC products, the FDA fell short in its regulation of the expansive dietary supplement market. The objective of this study is to discern how the lack of efficacy in the FDA's regulations of OTC dietary supplements inevitably inspired more harm than benefit.
Methods: This review comprised of case studies including young adolescents and adult consumers who experienced adverse events from the use of dietary supplements. Products which showed highest prevalence in adverse event reports through the Food and Drug Administration CFSAN Adverse Event Reporting System (CAERS) included but not limited to; Vitamin E (vitamin derivative), Beta-sitosterol (plant sterol) Yohimbine, Kava Kava Kratom, Garcinia Cambogia, (herbal products) and OxyElite Pro (marketed weight loss product). The primary endpoint was evaluating the FDA’s regulations on dietary supplement safety protocols. The secondary endpoint was assessing the actions of the FDA in response to these case events.
Results: Overall, between 2004 to 2021, a total of 79,071 adverse events related to the use of dietary supplements were reported to the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Vitamin E products for example, marketed for decades for their antioxidant benefits in turn have shown significant evidence of toxicity and an increased risk of bleeding outweighing its potential benefit. The FDA’s response was simply implementing a label guideline update, yet this update had evidence of minimal effect as the number of cases gradually continued to increase. Likewise, herbal products such as Kava Kava, Yohimbine, Kratom, and Garcinia Cambogia, in addition to weight regulating products, such as OxyElite Pro and HydroxyCut, have been linked to organ failure, hepatic, renal, cardiac toxicity, and death respectively. The FDA merely responded through instating public consumer warnings of their effects with consumption and limited recalls of certain products.
Conclusion: With the easy accessibility of these products, the general public is more inclined to its use without proper guidance and monitoring from their healthcare team, posing as a major concern for possible interactions, contraindications and unfavorable outcomes. With proper implementation of stringent regulations post findings from increased studies on efficacy and safety, cases of adverse events could have been reduced significantly or averted completely. The FDA’s minimalistic efforts consisting of only post-marketing monitoring and retrospective actions of label modifying have time and time again shown flaws as seen in the growing series of reports. By emending the over-the-counter supplement review process to reflect that of prescription medication, the magnitude of adverse events can be diminished. The process should include preclinical research in addition to clinical research, FDA thorough examination of data prior approval and post marketing surveillance.
Senescence is the last phase of the plant life cycle and has an important role in plant development. Degradation of membrane lipids is an essential process during leaf senescence. Several studies ...have reported fundamental changes in membrane lipids and phospholipase D (PLD) activity as leaves senesce. Suppression of phospholipase Dα1 (PLDα1) retards abscisic acid (ABA)-promoted senescence. However, given the absence of studies that have profiled changes in the compositions of membrane lipid molecules during leaf senescence, there is no direct evidence that PLD affects lipid composition during the process. Here, we show that application of n-butanol, an inhibitor of PLD, and N-Acylethanolamine (NAE) 12∶0, a specific inhibitor of PLDα1, retarded ABA-promoted senescence to different extents. Furthermore, phospholipase Dδ (PLDδ) was induced in leaves treated with ABA, and suppression of PLDδ retarded ABA-promoted senescence in Arabidopsis. Lipid profiling revealed that detachment-induced senescence had different effects on plastidic and extraplastidic lipids. The accelerated degradation of plastidic lipids during ABA-induced senescence in wild-type plants was attenuated in PLDδ-knockout (PLDδ-KO) plants. Dramatic increases in phosphatidic acid (PA) and decreases in phosphatidylcholine (PC) during ABA-induced senescence were also suppressed in PLDδ-KO plants. Our results suggest that PLDδ-mediated hydrolysis of PC to PA plays a positive role in ABA-promoted senescence. The attenuation of PA formation resulting from suppression of PLDδ blocks the degradation of membrane lipids, which retards ABA-promoted senescence.
The association between micronutrient intake and the risk of periodontitis has received much attention in recent years. However, most studies focused on the linear relationship between them. This ...study aimed to explore the dose–response association between micronutrient intake and periodontitis. A total of 8959 participants who underwent a periodontal examination, and reported their micronutrient intake levels were derived from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2009–2014) database. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate associations between micronutrient intake and periodontitis after propensity score matching (PSM), and restricted cubic splines (RCS) analysis was conducted to explore the dose–response associations. Following PSM, 5530 participants were included in the RCS analysis. The risk of periodontitis was reduced with sufficient intake of the following micronutrients: vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and vitamin E. In addition, the risk of periodontitis was increased with excessive intake of the following micronutrients: vitamin B1 (1.8 mg/day, males; 1.3 mg/day, females), vitamin C (90 mg/day, males), and copper (1.1 mg/day, combined). In conclusion, a linear association was found between vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin C, and copper and periodontitis—namely, a sufficient intake of vitamin A and vitamin B2 might help reduce the prevalence of periodontitis; by contrast, a high intake of vitamin C and copper increased the risk. In addition, a nonlinear dose–response association was found for the incidence of periodontitis with vitamin B1 and vitamin E. When within reasonable limits, supplemental intake helped reduce the prevalence of periodontitis, while excessive intake did not help significantly and might even increase the risk. However, confounding factors, such as health awareness, should still be considered.
PDF
