Lignin is the only sustainable aromatic resource in nature, its utilization has attracted much attention worldwide. Oxidation is one of the promising strategies that can convert lignin to a range of ...value-added platform chemicals. Lignin oxidation is generally carried out in a liquid phase with employed catalytic systems and oxidants, and this process is largely influenced by operation conditions, catalyst types, presence of oxidant, and solvent species. The inter-unit linkages in lignin can be selectively oxidized with the assistance of designed catalytic systems, facilitating the formation of aromatics (phenolic aldehydes, ketones, and acids), benzoquinones, and aliphatic (di)carboxylic acids. This work aims to provide a comprehensive review on traditional and advanced lignin oxidation concerning various catalytic systems for different terminal products. Deficiency in current lignin oxidation is also mentioned which indicates the direction of further lignin oxidative valorization.
•Innovative presentation on traditional lignin oxidation including bleaching, structural identification and wet air oxidation.•Comprehensive review on advanced lignin oxidation for platform chemicals based on different catalytic oxidation mechanisms.•State-of-the-art discussion on selective oxidation of α-OH and further conversion of oxidized lignin.
The Pingdingshan mining region in China has witnessed severe coal and gas outbursts. A total of 153 coal and gas outburst accidents have occurred in this mining region. As the mining depth ...progressively increase, mining conditions in the region have become more complex, and gas outburst disasters have become more severe. This research statistically analyzed the 153 outburst accidents in the Pingdingshan mining region. Additionally, based on historical data and typical outburst cases, the characteristics and primary factors affecting coal and gas outbursts within the mining region were obtained. The results indicate that the outburst accidents in this mining region were primary influenced by the following factors: geological structure, mining depth, seam thickness, the lithology of roof and floor, and the mode of operation. As mining depth increased, the geotechnical environment and the mechanical properties of coal varied. Moreover, under the combined action of high stresses and considerable amounts of high-pressure gas accumulated within the coal and rock mass, the structures of both coal seam and rock strata in the mining faces or roadways were destroyed instantly. Therefore, coal and gas outbursts occurred. The outburst intensity increased significantly when mining depth is greater than 500 m. Coal and gas outburst accidents happened most frequently and severely in regions with geological structures containing such features as faults and folds due to the increasing gas pressure and sharply rising ground stress. Moreover, variation of seam thickness and the lithology of the roof and floor of the seam have significant control effect on coal and gas outburst. In addition, engineering disturbance was an external factor inducing coal and gas outbursts. For example, blasting and coal cutting caused changes in the stress state in the coal at the end of excavation roadways and mining faces.
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Metastasis to bone frequently occurs in majority of patients with advanced breast cancer and prostate cancer, leading to devastating skeletal-related events and substantially reducing ...the survival of patients. Currently, the crosstalk between tumor cells and the bone stromal compartment was widely investigated for bone metastasis and the resistance to many conventional therapeutic methods. Osteopontin (OPN), also known as SPP1 (secreted phosphoprotein 1), a secreted and chemokine-like glyco-phosphoprotein is involved in tumor progression such as cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. The expression of OPN in tumor tissue and plasma has been clinically proved to be correlated to poor prognosis and shortened survival in patients with breast cancer and prostate cancer. This review summarizes the multifaceted roles that OPN plays in bone microenvironment and drug resistance, with emphasis on breast and prostate cancers, via binding to αvβ3 integrin and CD44 receptor and inducing signaling cascades. We further discuss the promising therapeutic strategy for OPN targeting, mainly inhibiting OPN at transcriptional or protein level or blocking it binding to receptor or its downstream signaling pathways. The comprehending of the function of OPN in bone microenvironment is crucial for the development of novel biomarker and potential therapeutic target for the diagnosis and treatment of bone metastasis and against the emergence of drug resistance in advanced cancers.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that poses health risks to the global population. Anthropogenic mercury emissions to the atmosphere are projected to decrease in the future due to enhanced policy ...efforts such as the Minamata Convention, a legally-binding international treaty entered into force in 2017. Here, we report the development of a comprehensive climate-atmosphere-land-ocean-ecosystem and exposure-risk model framework for mercury and its application to project the health effects of future atmospheric emissions. Our results show that the accumulated health effects associated with mercury exposure during 2010-2050 are $19 (95% confidence interval: 4.7-54) trillion (2020 USD) realized to 2050 (3% discount rate) for the current policy scenario. Our results suggest a substantial increase in global human health cost if emission reduction actions are delayed. This comprehensive modeling approach provides a much-needed tool to help parties to evaluate the effectiveness of Hg emission controls as required by the Minamata Convention.
We use a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) driven by the GISS GCM to investigate the effect on China's surface ozone from 2000 to 2050 global changes in climate and anthropogenic emissions ...as projected by the IPCC A1B scenario, with a focus on the different response between East and West China where present-day anthropogenic emissions, natural conditions, and ozone source attributions differ significantly. Over East China, climate change will increase both surface ozone and the possibility of high ozone episodes, implying a significant ‘climate change penalty’ that can be attributed mainly to increasing biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Over West China on the other hand, climate change will decrease mean surface ozone as a result of an increased ozone destruction rate in low-NOx regimes, assuming constant stratosphere–troposphere exchange (STE) of ozone. Chinese emissions change in 2050 will enlarge the East–West ozone difference in China, but emissions change from the rest of the world (excluding China) will decrease it. Driven by climate change and emissions change in combination, nation-mean surface ozone will increase, whereas East–West ozone contrast will decrease. In the future climate, the sensitivity of surface ozone to a given change in Chinese emissions will decrease over West China due to the accelerated ozone destruction rate and reduced transport from East China, but increase over East China as a result of the coupling effect between anthropogenic NOx and biogenic VOCs. The latter result suggests that the emission controls over East China need to be more aggressive in future climate.
•Climate change penalty on surface ozone will be significant over East China.•Climate change will decrease East-West ozone difference in China.•Sensitivity of surface ozone to a given change in Chinese emissions will increase over East China but decrease over West China.
This study investigated the impact of consecutive freeze–thaw cycles on the coal pore structure deterioration. Eight coal samples (cores and thin sections) underwent different numbers of freeze–thaw ...cycles. The effect of freeze–thaw cycles on microscopic characteristics of the coal samples was evaluated by nuclear magnetic resonance and scanning electron microscope. The experimental results showed that the coal samples were significantly deteriorated by freeze–thaw cycles, inducing numerous cracks generated on the sample surfaces. The total porosity of coal continuously increased with consecutive freeze–thaw cycles. The number of pores in the coal samples increased under the effect of freeze–thaw stress. Moreover, the proportion of pores in the coal after freeze–thaw cycles altered. The proportion of micropores and mini-pores gradually decreased, while that of meso-pores and macro-pores (cracks) increased. Therefore, freeze–thaw stress was conducive to gas desorption, diffusion, and transportation, which ultimately improved the efficiency of coal bed methane extraction from coal seams.
In this paper, inspired by the previous work in (Appl. Math. Comput., 369 (2020) 124890), we focus on the convergence condition of the modulus-based matrix splitting (MMS) iteration method for ...solving the horizontal linear complementarity problem (HLCP) with H+-matrices. An improved convergence condition of the MMS iteration method is given to improve the range of its applications, in a way which is better than that in the above published article.
Resistance to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the main challenge for advanced fatal prostate cancer (PCa), which can gradually develop into metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer ...(mCRPC). However, the pathologic mechanisms of mCRPC are still far from clear. Given the high incidence and mortality related to mCRPC, understanding the causes and pathogenesis of this condition as well as identifying potential biomarkers are of great importance. In the research reported here, we integrated several gene expression profiles from hormone sensitive prostate cancer (HSPC) and mCRPC datasets to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs), key biological pathways, and cellular components. We found that extracellular matrix (ECM) genes were significantly enriched, and further filtered them using Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression to find ECM signatures to differentiate between the HSPC and mCRPC phenotypes. Six ECM signatures were input into K-nearest neighbor, logistic regression, naive Bayes, and random forest classifiers models. Random forest algorithm with the six-gene prognostic signatures showed best performance, which had high sensitivity and specificity for HSPC and mCRPC classification and further the six ECM signatures were validated in organoid models. Among the six ECM genes, SPP1 was identified as the key hub signature for PCa metastasis and drug resistance development; we found that both protein and mRNA expression levels of SPP1 were remarkably up-regulated in mCRPC compared with HSPC in organoid models and could regulate the androgen receptor signaling pathway. Therefore, SPP1 is a potential novel biomarker and therapeutic target for mCRPC. Further understanding of the role of SPP1 in mCRPC development may help to explore effectively therapeutic approaches for the prevention and intervention of drug resistance and metastasis.
In this paper, based on the shift splitting (SS) technique, we propose a special SS iteration method for solving the absolute value equation (AVE), which is obtained by reformulating equivalently the ...AVE as a two-by-two block nonlinear equation. Theoretical analysis shows that the special SS method is absolutely convergent under proper conditions. Numerical experiments are given to demonstrate the feasibility, robustness and effectiveness of the special SS method.
In this paper, we report one bifacial p-type PERC solar cell with efficiency over 22% using laser doped selective emitter produced in larger-scale commercial line on 6-inch mono-crystalline wafer. On ...front side of the solar cell, square resistance of p-n junction was found to be closely related with laser power at certain laser scan speed and frequency. On the other side, the rear fingers with different ratios of height and width and rear silicon nitride (SiNx) layer with different thickness were optimized, and a highest rear efficiency of the bifacial solar cell was obtained. Finally, bifacial silicon solar cells with the front and rear efficiencies exceeding 22% and 15% (AM1.5, 1000 W/m2, 25 °C) were successfully achieved, respectively.
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