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The days that precede Valentine's Day are characterized by extensive gift shopping activities all across the globe. In China, where much shopping takes place online, there has been an explosive growth in e-commerce sales during Valentine's Day over the recent years. This exploratory study investigates the extent to which each product category and each shopper group can exhibit romantic love within China's e-market throughout the 2 weeks leading up to 2019 Valentine's Day. Massive data from Alibaba, the biggest e-commerce retailer worldwide, are utilized to formulate an innovative romance index (RI) to quantitatively measure e-romantic values for products and shoppers. On this basis, millions of shoppers, along with their millions of products purchased around Valentine's Day, are analyzed as a case study to demonstrate their love consumption and romantic gift-giving. The results of the analysis are then illustrated to help understand Chinese e-romance based on the perspectives of different product categories and shopper groups. This empirical information visualization also contributes to improving the segmentation, targeting, and positioning of China's e-market for Valentine's Day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O), a potent greenhouse gas, significantly contributes to the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and contributes significantly to global climate change and to the deterioration of the natural environment. Our understanding of N 2 O generation mechanisms has significantly improved in the last decade, but the development of effective N 2 O emission mitigation strategies has lagged owing to the complexity of parameter regulation, substandard monitoring activities, and inadequate policy criteria. Based on critically screened published studies on N 2 O control in full-scale WWTPs, this review elucidates N 2 O generation pathway identifications and emission mechanisms and summarizes the impact of N 2 O on the total carbon footprint of WWTPs. In particular, a linear relationship was established between N 2 O emission factors and total nitrogen removal efficiencies in WWTPs located in China. Promising N 2 O mitigation options were proposed, which focus on optimizing operating conditions and implementation of innovative treatment processes. Furthermore, the sustainable operation of WWTPs has been anticipated to convert WWTPs into absolute greenhouse gas reducers as a result of the refinement and improvement of on-site monitoring activities, mitigation mechanisms, regulation of operational parameters, modeling, and policies. [Display omitted] • Standard sampling locations, frequency or duration ensure accurate N 2 O monitoring. • N 2 O emissions in WWTPs contribute considerably to the total carbon footprint. • Parameters control: precise aeration and preferred conditions for microbial growth. • Future work should revisit trade-offs between improved TN removal and N 2 O reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury (Hg) is a widespread heavy metal causing various damages to health, while insufficient studies assessed its exposure risk across China. This study explored concentrations in food items and dietary exposure risks across China by comprehensively analyzing the researches on total Hg (THg) in eight food items and methylmercury (MeHg) in aquatic foods published between 1980 and 2021. According to the included 695 studies, the average THg concentration in all food items was 0.033 mg/kg (ranging from 0.004 to 0.185 mg/kg), with the highest concentration in edible fungi. The average daily dietary THg exposure from all foods was 12.9 μg/day. Plant-based foods accounted for 62.7% of the dietary THg exposure. Cereals and vegetables were the primary source of THg exposure. The MeHg concentration in aquatic foods was 0.08 mg/kg, and the average dietary exposure was 3.8 μg/day. Monte Carlo simulations of the dietary exposure risk assessment of THg and MeHg showed that approximately 6.4 and 7.0% of residents exceeded the health-based guidance value set by the European Food Safety Authority, with higher exposure risk in Southwest and South China. The nationwide target hazard quotient index of THg was greater than 1, suggesting that the non-carcinogenic risk of dietary exposure to THg needed further concern. In summary, this study has a comprehensive understanding of dietary Hg exposure risks across China, which provide a data basis for Hg exposure risk assessment and policy formulation. [Display omitted] • The average concentrations of total Hg in eight food items ranged from 0.004 to 0.185 mg/kg. • The average dietary total Hg exposure of Chinese residents was 12.9 μg/day. • Plant-based food contributed 62.7% to the dietary total Hg exposure. • The total Hg exposure risk in Southwest China needs to be focused on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) has been regarded as a near-commercial technology, the scale-up development of PCC the technology remains hindered by its severe thermodynamic and economic penalties. As a consequence, the solar-assisted carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is emerging recently, which poses a promising possibility to offset the power generation loss caused by the intensive energy consumption from PCC process. Nevertheless, the application potential of the solar-assisted CCS technology would highly depend on its realistic greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation benefit as well as its cost relative to alternative low carbon technologies. Thus, it is required to apply an improved assessment practice to recognize solutions for such sustainable power supply chains, considering an increasing threatening from climate change. In this study, solar-assisted post-combustion CCS processes are analyzed trough a life cycle approach, combing life cycle GHG assessment and life cycle cost analysis. A typical 300MWe coal-fired power plant in China is taken as the case study. Three scenarios are further analyzed: (1) base case integrated with CCS process; (2) base case integrated with CCS and solar-assisted reboiler heating process; (3) base case extended to CCS and solar-assisted repowering process. Results show that the solar-assisted repowering case has considerable advantage in both GHG mitigation potential and cost aspect with superior life cycle GHG reduction rate and life cycle cost of energy removed (LCOR) at 73.7% and 37.2$/ t c o 2 − e q respectively. While the solar-assisted reboiler heating case does not have evident competition superiority. It is further highlighted that the GHG emissions from the upstream and transportation stages are also critical for Chinese CCS chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Qinchuan cattle's meat performance is good. • LncRNA sequencing of adipose tissue in Qinchuan cattle, 3716 lncRNA detected. • We screened 119 differentially expressed lncRNAs, and quantified 6 of them. • GO and KEGG analysis were used to reveal functions and effects on fat development. Qinchuan cattle is one of the five yellow cattle breeds in China with good performance of meat. The proliferation and differentiation level of muscle and fat are closely related to the growth and development of the organism and are the key factors affecting the quality of meat. In order to study the effect of lncRNA on the fat tissues of Qinchuan cattle, six calf and adult bovine adipose tissues were selected for high-throughput sequencing. We obtained 3,716 lncRNA candidates from calves and adult cattle fat samples, among them 789 lncRNA were annotated and 2,927 lncRNA were novel lncRNA. A number of lncRNAs were highly abundant, and 119 lncRNA were differentially expressed between two developmental stages. We further validated several differentially expressed lncRNAs using qPCR, and the results were consistent with the sequencing data. Therefore, we conclude that lncRNA may play an important role in adipose tissue in different age groups of cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A zirconia-modified resin D280-Zr was developed for the P removal from wastewater. • D280-Zr had brilliant P adsorption performance with efficiency reached 98%. • D280-Zr exhibited superior adsorption selectivity at coexisting competitive anions. • D280-Zr could be reused for more than 6 times with adsorption efficiency above 80%. • D280-Zr fixed bed had application potential to absorb P from sewage. Adsorption of phosphorus by Zr-based materials has attracted more and more attention. However, the use of these materials was still limited due to the influence of coexisting ions and poor regeneration ability. In this study, hydrated zirconia was loaded into anion exchange resin (D280) to develop phosphorus adsorption material (D280-Zr). As a contrast, the phosphorus adsorption material HZO-201 was prepared by hydrating zirconia with large pore diameter anion resin D201. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an EDX (energy dispersive X-ray), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Zirconium was successfully loaded onto the D280 and surface hydroxyl groups on D280-Zr played a significant role. Through batch adsorption experiments, the maximum adsorption amount of D280-Zr was 47.2198 mg P/g at temperature of 30 °C and pH 6−7. Adsorption isotherms could be described by the Langmuir model, and the adsorption kinetics were well described by the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order model. Co-existing ions (Cl−, NO 3 −, HCO 3 −) had minimum effect on adsorption performance with efficiency above 80%. Through six cycles of regeneration, the adsorption efficiency was still above 80%. After treatment with D280-Zr packed bed column, the effluent could meet the A discharge standard in China of P < 0.5 mg/L in wastewater, and the treated water volume reached about 3500 times the bad volume (3500 BV). The results illustrated that D280-Zr was an effective phosphorus adsorption material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Three hybrids with different nanostructures are obtained by varying MWCNTs dosages. • ZIF8@MWCNT120 affords the maximum phosphate adsorption capacity of 203.0 mg g−1. • The outstanding performance of hybrid is due to the enhanced Zn-O-P and H-bonds. • High phosphate removal performance was observed in the real wastewater. In this study, ZIF8@MWCNT nanocomposite has been designed throughout in-situ growth of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF8) polyhedron on hydroxylated multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT). In detail, three types of nanocomposites harvesting different nanostructures are obtained by varying the dosages of MWCNTs. Such nanocomposites are assessed as phosphate adsorbents via batch experiments to determine the adsorption capacity, reusability and stability. Among the three types of composites, the ZIF8@MWCNT120 affords the maximum phosphate adsorption capacity of 203.0 mg g−1, which is 0.7–3.7 times higher than those of the other adsorbents at the same adsorption conditions. Experimental characterizations in combination with theoretical calculations reveal that the outstanding performance of ZIF8@MWCNT120 is mainly attributed to the enhanced Zn-O-P interaction and hydrogen bonding. In addition, high phosphate removal performance was observed in the real wastewater (residual effluent Conc. = 0.0–0.45 mg L−1) with initial concentrations of 0.63 mg L−1-6.32 mg L−1, which satisfied the A-level standard of phosphate effluent in China (0.5 mg L−1). This work offers a versatile solution to tailor the adsorption affinity of emerging metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) toward phosphorous-based pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]