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We attempted to determine the predictive ability of the first-day Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score in the cardiac intensive care unit, as well as a new score combining the anion gap (AG) with the SOFA score (SOFA-AG).Information was obtained from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC III 1.4) database. We plotted the relationship between the maximum first-day AG and 90-day mortality after admission to the care unit. Patients were divided into five groups based on the hazard ratio (HR) and assigned scores of 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 points. We compared the area under the curve (AUC) for the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the SOFA and that of the SOFA-AG.A total of 1316 patients were identified and divided into the following five groups: AG 8 to16 mmol/L; AG 16 to17 mmol/L; AG 17 to19 mmol/L; AG 19 to21 mmol/L; and AG ≥ 21 mmol/L. The SOFA-AG score had a greater AUC than the SOFA score at 7 days (0.770 vs. 0.711; P 0.001), 14 days (0.751 vs. 0.692; P 0.001), 28 days (0.741 vs. 0.684; P 0.001), and 90 days (0.727 vs. 0.667; P 0.001).The SOFA score showed moderate predictive value only for 7-day mortality after admission to the cardiac intensive care unit, but the SOFA-AG score had improved predictive ability for up to 90 days after admission.

Summary Background The use of magnetically controlled capsules for gastroscopy is in the early stages of clinical adoption. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a fully automated magnetically controlled capsule endoscopy (FAMCE) system in clinical practice for gastroscopy and small bowel examination. Methods We did a prospective, comparative study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of FAMCE. Patients from two hospitals in Chongqing, China were consecutively enrolled. Eligible participants were aged 18–80 years with suspected gastric pathology and no previous surgery. Participants underwent FAMCE for screening of gastric lesions, then conventional transoral gastroscopy 2 h later, and stomach examination results were compared. The primary outcome was the rate of complete detection of gastric anatomy landmarks (cardia, fundus, body, angulus, antrum, and pylorus) by FAMCE. Secondary outcomes were the time required for gastric completion by FAMCE, the rate of detection of gastric lesions by FAMCE compared with conventional transoral gastroscopy, and the rate of complete small bowel examination. Adverse events were also evaluated. The study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2000040507. Findings Between May 12 and Aug 17, 2020, 114 patients (mean age 44·0 years [IQR 34·0–55·0]; 63 [55%] female) were enrolled. The rate of complete detection of gastric anatomical structures by FAMCE was 100% (95% CI 99·3–100·0). The concordance between FAMCE and conventional transoral gastroscopy was 99·61% (99·45–99·78). The mean completion time of a gastroscopy with FAMCE was 19·17 min (SD 1·43; median 19·00, IQR 19·00–20·00), compared with 5·21 min (2·00; 5·18, 3·68–6·45) for conventional transoral gastroscopy. In 114 enrolled patients, 214 lesions were detected by FAMCE and conventional transoral gastroscopy. Of those, 193 were detected by both modalities. FAMCE missed five pathologies (four cases of gastritis and one polyp), whereas conventional transoral gastroscopy missed 16 pathologies (12 cases of gastritis, one polyp, one fundal xanthoma, and two antral erosions). FAMCE was able to provide a complete small bowel examination for all 114 patients and detected intestinal lesions in 50 (44%) patients. During the study, two (2%) patients experienced adverse events. No serious adverse events were recorded, and there was no evidence of capsule retention. Interpretation The performance of FAMCE is similar to conventional transoral gastroscopy in completion of gastric examination and lesion detection. Furthermore, it can provide a complete small bowel examination. Therefore, FAMCE could be effective method for examination of the gastrointestinal tract. Funding Chinese National Key Research and Development Program.

Waste sugar solution (WSS), a waste by-product of manufacturing vitamin C, contains abundant waste acids and organics. In this work, a N/O-enriched copolymer was synthesized via a facile polymerization via the hydrogen bonding of O-containing functional groups and melamine and the crosslinking of aldehyde groups. Subsequently, N-doped carbon spheres were prepared by a typical carbonation/activation method. Remarkably, benefiting from an ultrahigh specific surface area (3612 m2/g) and rich heteroatom content (4.3% for N, 8.8% for O), the carbon spheres deliver a high specific capacitance of 387 F/g at 50 mA/g and 283 F/g at 5 A/g with 6 M KOH in two-electrode system. The assembled symmetric electric double-layer capacitor exhibits high energy density of 10.83 Wh/kg at 11.10 W/kg. This research provides a facile method for preparing N/O-doped carbon spheres by WSS, and confirms the excellent electrochemical performance of WSS-derived carbons in energy storage applications.

Deep insight of reaction mechanism in lignin model compounds is helpful to achieve the directed depolymerization of lignin or biomass to chemicals or fuels. In this study, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation was employed to investigate the cleavage mechanism of the C–O bonds in lignin dimers. Additionally, the intrinsic chemical reactivity of molecular in term of the Fukui function was applied to predict the most probable sites which react with hydrogen free radicals (H·). It was found that the O atoms in lignin dimers are the most reaction site involving H· because of the large f (0). By this method, the most rational path from a series of reaction paths was screen out. Apart from the Fukui function, the average local ionization energy (ALIE) was analyzed to prove the reliability of Fukui function. The kinetic analysis of the reaction path was performed to further understand the impact of temperature on the reaction rate constant (KTST). It is observed that benzyl phenyl ether (BPE) with higher KTST could be easily cleaved because of the relatively low energy barrier.

Introduction The negative relationship between maternal high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) level during pregnancy and infant birth weight has been found. Syncytialization (differentiation and fusion) of trophoblast cells is important to fetal development. HDL has an antioxidant effect, and has been proved to protect trophoblast functions including hormone secretion and invasion. However, HDL is susceptible to oxidation, and high concentrations of HDL impair cell growth and oxidized HDL (oxHDL) inhibits cell proliferation and migration. Moreover, the effects of HDL and oxHDL on trophoblast syncytialization have not been characterized. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of HDL and oxHDL on trophoblast syncytialization. Methods Human choriocarcinoma trophoblasts (BeWo cells) were treated with human HDL or oxHDL and then induced to differentiate by forskolin in syncytialization assays. Expression levels of mRNAs and proteins regulating syncytialization were detected by real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. Results Treatments of HDL at high concentrations reduced human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) secretion, placental alkaline phosphatase activity and fusion rates, and decreased the expressions of GCM1 and ERVW-1 mRNA as well as phospho-MAPK1/3 (p-MAPK1/3) and total MAPK1/3 protein in the forskolin-induced syncytialization of BeWo cells. Furthermore, treatment of oxHDL (20 μg/ml) decreased hCG secretion, but increased the expression of p-MAPK1/3 protein. Discussion These data suggested that both HDL at high concentrations and oxHDL inhibited BeWo cells syncytialization, and might be harmful to placental and fetal development.

Waste sugar solution is a by-product in the process of manufacturing vitamin C. Nowadays, the unused industrial waste residues are transformed into high efficient energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors electrodes, which are worth exploring because they are consistent with the concept of green and sustainable development. In this paper, a nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon are obtained via pre-carbonization and KOH activation. The as-prepared material, possessed proper pore size distribution, large specific surface area and nitrogen-doping, exhibits good electrochemical performance, such as a high specific capacitance of 342 F g−1 (0.1 A g−1), good stability with 95% capacitance retention after 15,000 cycles in 6 M KOH. Moreover, the supercapacitors deliver a high energy density of 25.6 and 65.9 W h kg−1 in the 1 M Na2SO4 and EMIMBF4, respectively. The good electrochemical performance illustrates that the nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon derived from the waste sugar solution is a potential candidate for energy storage.

Biomass is promising renewable energy because of the possibility of value-added fuels production from biomass thermochemical conversion. Among the thermochemical conversion technology, gasification could produce the H2-rich syngas then into value-added chemicals via F-T (Fischer-Tropsch) synthesis. However, a variety of difficulties, such as tar formation, reactors impediment, complex tar cracked mechanism, etc. make it difficult to develop for further application. This paper sheds light on the developments of biomass thermochemical conversion, tar classifications, tar formation, and elimination methods. Secondly, we provide a comprehensive the state-of-the-art technologies for tar elimination, and we introduce some advanced high activity catalysts. Furthermore, many represent tar models were employed for explanation of the tar-cracked pathway, and real tar-cracked mechanism was proposed. Following this, some operational conditions and effective gasified models were concluded to give an instruction for biomass catalytic gasification.

Coal tar pitch (CTP) with high carbon content and wide source of raw materials was an excellent precursor for the preparation of porous carbons (PCs). CTP was composed of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with complex molecular size and chemical structure, the separation of CTP into several fractions with relatively narrow molecular weight by solvent extraction was of significance for CTP utilization. In this paper, CTP was treated by single-solvent extraction (carbon disulfide, acetone and ethyl acetate), and the six fractions were used as raw materials to prepare PCs as electrode material for electric double layer capacitor. The fractions were well characterized and the effect of mass distribution of different narrow fractions on structure property and electrochemical performance of the PCs was studied. The PCs prepared by carbon disulfide extract, acetone raffinate and ethyl acetate extract, containing more PAHs, exhibited the excellent specific capacitance performance in comparison with its residual components. The remarkable performance might contribute in the enhanced transport of electrolyte ions via the molecular graphene structure of PAHs. Additionally, the PC prepared by carbon disulfide raffinate showed outstanding cycling performance (99.7% at 2 A g-1 after 15,000 cycles) which was related to its unique layered porous structure.

Catalytic fast pyrolysis of sawdust was investigated over HZSM-5 zeolites (SiO2/Al2O3 = 25, 50 and 80) in a drop tube quartz reactor for production of green aromatics and olefins. The effects of temperature, weight hourly space velocity (WHSV), SiO2/Al2O3 ratio and atmosphere on yield and selectivity of aromatics were investigated. The results show that almost all small organic oxygen species in initial volatiles were converted into gaseous hydrocarbons and aromatics after in situ catalysis of HZSM-5. HZSM-5 whose SiO2/Al2O3 is 25 exhibited the best performance with the aromatics yield of 21.8% on carbon basis at 500 °C. However, HZSM-5 can act as cracking and aromatization catalyst, but not as an agent to promote hydrogenation. The ESI-MS revealed the most abundant macromolecular compounds in initial volatiles were O1 O27 species with 0–20 double bond equivalent (DBE) values and 5–40 carbon numbers, while the macromolecules were O1 O9 species with 2–12 DBE and 10–25 carbon numbers after upgrading. Furthermore, the formation of coke on catalysts was influenced by the properties of HZSM-5 and experimental conditions.

Traditional fossil fuel overuse could lead to global warming and environmental pollution. As a renewable energy, biomass energy is a sustainable and low pollution carbon energy, which has a wide range of sources. Syngas production from biomass thermochemical conversion is a promising technology to realize effective utilization of the renewable energy. Syngas produced from gasification could be further converted into value-added chemicals via the method of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Syngas and CO2 methanation could transform renewable energy into feasible transport and high-density energy. However, tar formation and catalyst deactivation are the main problem during the biomass gasification and methanation. This review sheds light on the development of biomass gasification and syngas methanation. Firstly, we presented the common reactors and some other factors during gasification. Secondly, we provide a comprehensive introduction of the advanced active catalyst for gasification and syngas methanation. Finally, some representative large-scale and commercial plants and companies for biomass gasification were compared and discussed in details. Then the prospective developments in combination of gasification and methanation were concluded to give an outlook for biomass gasification and its downstream development.

Promising technology for the conversion of cellulose to aromatics by catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) was investigated using five zeolite catalysts, i.e., 5A, SAPO-34, HY, BETA and HZSM-5. The relationship between the porosity and acidity of different zeolites with product selectivity was studied. The results showed that both the acidity and pore size of the zeolite significantly affected the production of aromatics and coke, especially the bio-oil composition. The bio-oils obtained over 5A or SAPO-34 (small pore

Acid washed Shengli lignite (AWSL) supported Ni, Co and Ni-Co catalysts were prepared, characterized and evaluated in catalytic reforming (CR) of corncob pyrolysis volatiles at a relatively low catalytic temperature of 450 °C. Moreover, the production and selectivity of H2 were also investigated. Amongst the catalysts studied, bimetallic Ni-10%Co/AWSL exhibited the most remarkable activity, yielding 36.3 mmol H2/g corncob and 710 μmol min−1 g−1 formation rate of syngas (H2 + CO + 4CH4) with trace of tar. It also tuned the gas composition and showed the greatest selectivity of H2 due to the promotion of the water gas shift reaction (with H2 accounting for the maximum 50.3% and 63% under Ar and steam atmosphere, respectively). Regardless of the loss of specific surface area, the superior performance of Ni-Co based catalysts under mild circumstance was attributed to the better reducibility and electronic properties along with a high dispersion of active metal. Additionally, the synergy of Ni and Co contributed to the combined and enlarged activity for CR of corncob volatiles and great selectivity for H2-rich syngas under moderate condition.

Selectively cleaving the C O bonds in lignin to produce aromatic products are challenging problems. Currently, catalytic hydrogenolysis of C O bonds in lignin requires harsh conditions. Herein, selectively cleaving C O bond of benzyl phenyl ether (BPE) was studied over Pd/AC, Ru/AC and Ni/AC. Among these catalysts, Pd/AC efficiently cleaved C O bond in BPE under super mild conditions (25 °C, 2 h and 0.1 MPa H2). The products were toluene and phenol without hydrogenation of the aromatic ring. The main competitive step of hydrogenolysis and hydrogenation is sensitive to reaction temperature over Pd catalyst. A mild temperature is preferred for hydrogenolysis, since the H species nearby the oxygen atom are more strongly adsorbed than nearby the benzene rings. With the different H-donor solvents, the highest conversion of BPE was obtained in isopropanol. Based on the experiments, the reactions occurred via cleavage of the Caliphatic-O bond in BPE and the synergetic effects between the H from absorbed H2 on the surface of the Pd and the intermediates radicals of benzyl and phenoxy should be the key points to such an optimum result.

In-situ reforming of lignite pyrolysis volatiles over ZSM-5 zeolites with different SiO2/Al2O3 ratios was carried out to obtain light aromatics including BTEXN (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and naphthalene). In comparison to the commercial zeolites, the zeolites used in this work were synthesized by a one-step method with controlled Al addition. The high Al-containing ZSM-5 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 50) was observed to be more effective in producing BTEXN (20.8 mg/g), likely by removing oxygen atom of volatiles on acidic sites. Moreover, it was still activated even after several regeneration cycles. As indicated by the GC-MS results, the aliphatic hydroxyl and carboxyl groups were decomposed over ZSM-5. High SiO2/Al2O3 ratio was favorable for polyaromatics elimination. However, the as-synthesized ZSM-5 with SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of 25 was less effective in cleaving aliphatic C–C bonds. Besides, the structural properties of ZSM-5 were significantly affected by the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio. High intergrowth and twinning structures were observed with increasing SiO2/Al2O3 ratio. Regardless of the crystal morphology of zeolite, the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio had significant influence on aromatics types, providing insights into ZSM-5 catalyst for the selective control of BTEXN owing to acidity changes.

In order to effectively improve the quality of bio-oil from catalytic pyrolysis (CFP) of sewage sludge (SS) and to produce aromatic-rich bio-oil, the evolution mechanisms of nitrogen and formation of aromatics during CFP of SS over metal-loaded HZSM-5 (HZ) were investigated in depth. The results show that the presence of metals caused the slight decrease in oil-C (carbon in bio-oil) yield and the increase in gas yield and total carbon yield of aromatics. Ni-loaded HZ has a better performance than Co-loaded one in improving the carbon yield of aromatics, while the maximum yield of 11.2% was obtained over 0.5Ni-HZ. Metal-loaded HZ promoted the formation of monocyclic aromatics rather than polycyclic aromatics and Ni significantly enhanced the selectivity of benzene. With the addition of Ni and Co, more nitrogen was released as NH3 or fixed in solids. NH3 yield increased by raising the metal loading, and the highest NH3 yield of 36.8% was obtained over 3.0Ni-HZ. Ni and Co promoted the cracking reactions during CFP to generate more H radicals, which have advantages to the ring-opening of N-containing heterocycles in SS to produce aromatics and NH3. A possible catalytic mechanism of CFP of SS over metal loaded HZ was proposed in this study.

Pore structure and accessible active sites of HZSM-5 (Z5) are the key factors for its catalysis. The bifunctional hierarchical Z5 were prepared with leaching agent HF and loading Ni, and their performance for catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of cellulose was investigated in a drop tube quartz reactor. Z5 modified with 0.5 mol/L HF (0.5F-Z5) showed excellent light aromatics (LAs) yield, which can be attributed to the enhancement in the small mesopores (2–10 nm) and the decrease of Bronsted acid sites during dealumination. Simultaneously, the loading of a 1 wt% Ni produced more LAs than 0.5F-Z5, due to the improvement in deoxidation/hydrogenation reactions. The highest LAs yield (31.3%) was obtained over 1%Ni-0.5 mol/LHF-Z5, which increased by 44.9% compared to the parent Z5. In addition, the reaction routes over different active centers and acid-catalyzed reactions were analyzed, based upon the composition of bio-oils and catalyst characterization.

H5 was developed to mesoporous system via alkali treatment, and sulfated zirconia (SZr) modified hierarchical HZSM-5 (AT0.2/H5) catalysts (named AT0.2/SZxH5) were successfully prepared by a series of post-treated method followed by Zr(NO3)4·5H2O and H2SO4 as active component. The innovative approach really enhanced acidity of AT0.2/H5 support, which results from the interaction of the sulfate groups attached to zirconia that doped on MFI framework with silanol groups. Adding active component can not only compensate for the loss of acid sites caused by NaOH treatment, but also re-develop more active sites owing to the formation of SZr. Meanwhile, NH3-TPD showed higher strong acid sites and weak acid sites in AT0.2/SZ6:1H5 than other prepared catalysts. The catalytic activity in converting lignite pyrolysis volatiles to light aromatics, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and naphthalene (BTEXN), correlates well with the enhanced acidity. Compared with H5, the yield of light aromatics increased significantly from 15.2 to 19.3 mg/g over AT0.2/SZ6:1H5 at 600 °C. According to the characterization of N2 adsorption–desorption, SEM, and XRD, both the S species as SO42− and Z species as ZrO2 improved the textural properties of the support itself. Besides, the molar ratio of S/Zr was in direct proportion to the yield of BTEXN in a certain range, and 6:1 exhibited the optimal catalytic performance. The prepared solid acid catalyst provides a promising strategy to directional prepare light aromatics during lignite catalytic pyrolysis.

Selective cleavage of C O bonds in benzyl phenyl ether (BPE) as a typical lignin α-O-4 ether to produce aromatics is a challenging and attractive topic. Herein, the earth-abundant first-row transition metals, such as Co, Ni and Cu were supported on activated carbon (Co/AC, Ni/AC and Cu/AC) to identify their ability for cleaving C O bond of BPE. Among these catalysts, Ni/AC exhibit highest activity for cleavage of C O bond. The reaction with BPE was carried out at pretty mild condition of 140 °C and 2 MPa H2, which is highly selective afforded toluene and phenol as the major products with the optimum yields of 88.5 and 86.5%, respectively. Based on the test, the reaction pathways were proposed. A abundant of dissociated H· atoms on Ni(0) sites forms surface active Ni H species; Ni(0) activates and facilitates cleavage of the C O bond in BPE to form benzyl (C6H5 C·) and phenoxy radicals (C6H5O·); H· atoms spill from active species Ni H recombined together with C6H5 C· and C6H5O· forming the products of toluene and phenol, respectively.

Objective: Reading small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) is a tedious task. We aim to evaluate the performance of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm (SmartScan)-assisted reading in the setting of real-life clinical care. Design: A total of 5,825 SBCE examinations (comprising 295,314,067 images) performed in 51 Chinese medical centres were collected. 2,927 SBCE examinations from 29 medical centres were used to train SmartScan to detect 17 CEST findings. SmartScan was later validated in 2,898 SBCE examinations collected from 22 medical centres. All 2,898 SBCE examinations were read with both Conventional Reading (CR) and SmartScan-Assisted Reading (SSAR) by eight specialist gastroenterologists. If finding(s)/results by both types of reading in a patient were concordant, the result was taken as the Combined Agreed Comparator (CAC) for that case. In discordant cases, the consensus result by three expert readers was taken as the CAC for the case. Results: SSAR achieved an overall higher detection rate (79.30%) for CEST findings compared to CR (70.67%); from a total of 6,084 SB findings, SSAR detected 95.89%, significantly higher compared to CR (76.10%). Furthermore, SSAR achieved overall higher sensitivity (98.80%), for the 17 CEST subtypes of findings, 10.75% higher than CR (88.05%). With SSAR, the number of images requiring review per SB CE video was reduced to 779.17 ±337.18, with reading time was shortened to 5.37 ±1.51min. C Conclusion: A commercially available CNN algorithm (SmartScan) can increase the detection rate of SB findings while reducing SB CE reading times. Trial Registration: This clinical trial study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (reg no. CHiCTR2100042455). Funding: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (NO. 2016YFC0107000) and Special project of National Health Committee (NO. 201502013). Declaration of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval: The whole study was performed in accordance with guidelines approved by Medical Ethics Committee of Second Affiliated Hospital of the Third Medical University (NO.2020-yan-134-01).

Anisole, as an aromatic oxygenate lignin model compound, which can be selectively cleaved into benzene over Ni/C at high temperature. On the basic of experimental results, the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) mechanism of anisole was investigated on clean Ni (111) surface by using computational techniques. Based on static energies, the microkinetic modeling on clean Ni (111) and H-covered Ni (111) were built in which the modeling of H-covered Ni (111) approximately simulated the real catalytic system under lower temperature and higher H2 pressure. As a result, the microkinetic analysis proved the phenol was the major product in the anisole decomposition on clean Ni (111) surface. However, the phenol was preferred to decompose rather than desorb from Ni surface because of the high desorption energy, suggesting that the benzene mainly originated from the secondary dissociation of phenol. Differently, the decreasing of energy barrier for anisole hydrogenation led to the formation of methylcyclohexane as main product on H-covered Ni (111) surface by microkinetic analysis. The differences in products distribution between Ni (111) and H-covered Ni (111) provided a mechanistic understanding for anisole conversion under different experimental conditions.

In the last few decades, the development of biomass energy has become a key research focus to press the emissions of greenhouse gas. Syngas production from biomass tar reforming in the presence of the heterogeneous catalyst has been proved to be a clean and promising technology, which could be further connected to the downstream for fuel valorization. Up to now, some literatures has screened the reaction pressure, temperature, atmosphere, and heterogeneous catalyst in tar elimination during the biomass thermochemical conversion process. However, there are some problems, like the economical catalyst chosen for the industrial development of gasification, and integration difficulties between gasification and downstream technologies are still not well discussed. Hence, in this review, we first assess the recent advancements in catalyst fabrication and the activity performance in reforming biomass tar and tar model compounds. After that, the clean-up of produced gas for the next-step application is reviewed. Importantly, we discuss the composition of the produced gas, the possibilities and challenges of the integration with the production of methane, methanol, ethanol, and C2+ alcohols. Finally, the conclusion and prospective are concluded to give an outlook for the development of catalyst, biomass tar reforming, and integration with downstream technologies.

A series of Zn-containing HZSM-5 (HZ5) with hierarchical pores (xZn(DS)) were obtained by adding different amounts of Zn(NO3)2 solution in a hydrothermal synthesis process. The performances of xZn(DS) in catalytic reforming of cellulose pyrolysis volatiles were investigated at 500 °C. The results showed that the addition of Zn during synthesis increased in the total pore volume of xZn(DS) and reduced the content of strong acid sites, and introduced new weak acid sites. The Zn species were highly dispersed inside the zeolite, and enhanced the accessibility of acid sites, so that the yields of light aromatic hydrocarbons and monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs) over 0.7Zn(DS) (The molar ratio of ZnO/Al2O3 in the synthesis process of xZn(DS) was 0.7) were higher than those over S-HZ5 (Zn was not added in the synthesis process) and commercial HZ5. Compared with S-HZ5, the yield of MAHs over 0.7Zn(DS) increased from 92.8 to 114.1 mg/g and the coke yield decreased by 2.9%. The selectivity of MAHs over 0.7Zn(DS) was 87.7%, which was 5.3% higher than that over S-HZ5. Simultaneously, the increase in mesopores of xZn(DS) accelerated the mass transfer process, shortened the diffusion path and improved the anti-coking performance of the catalysts. In addition, this study also proposed a possible mechanism for the catalyst to adjust the distribution of aromatic products and provided a new idea for promoting the selective production of MAHs for the pyrolysis of cellulose.

HZSM-5 was hydrothermally synthesized by Ga substitution to regulate the texture properties for light aromatics such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes and naphthalene (BTEXN) during the lignite volatiles catalytic upgrading process. High BTEXN yield was obtained over xGa/H5(A) (added NaOH in crystallization) and the value increased with raising the amount of Ga incorporation when the Ga content was

Toluene as a model tar compound was used to study the effect of atmosphere on carbon deposition during biomass tar reforming. A novel Ni-loaded on lignite char (Ni/LC) and commercial Ni/Al2O3 was employed for stability evaluation in a thermogravimetric analyzer. The mechanism of coke formation under N2, H2 and steam with different steam/carbon (S/C) ratio were investigated during 5 h test. Nickel particle growth is the main reasons responsible for the deactivation of Ni-based catalysts for tar reforming. Steam remarkably suppressed the carbon deposition on Ni/Al2O3, especially in a high S/C ratio. Ni/Al2O3 exhibited high activity and stability for 5 h operation in S/C ratio of 2. H2 significantly promoted the carbon deposition on Ni/Al2O3 and caused the catalyst deactivation within 0.5 h. Ni/LC exhibited great resistance to coke deposition under inert and H2 reforming of toluene. The catalysts before and after catalytic cracking were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy to investigate the behavior of carbon deposition. Except for H2 reforming, an obvious change of the Ni crystallite size (NCS) can be found after reforming for 5 h under all conditions used in this study. The NCS in Ni/LC was significantly increased with increasing time and S/C ratio, which should be partly responsible for the deactivation of the Ni/LC.

HZSM-5 was modified via alkaline treatment and wet impregnation method which loading transition metals (Co, Mo–Co and Ni–Co). The performance of catalysts for the catalytic fast pyrolysis of lignite was tested in a drop tube reactor at 600 °C. In comparison to non-catalytic experiment, the chemical composition of upgrading tar was obviously simplified, which mainly contains light aromatics such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and naphthalene (BTEXN). The yield of BTEXN was significantly increased from 12.9 to 26.4 mg/g when Ni/Co-H-5 was used. Meanwhile, the Ni/Co-H-5 treated by NaOH solution achieved considerable deoxygenation performance (86.6%) than other ones. The addition of bimetallic Mo–Co or Ni–Co significantly enhanced the BTEXN selectivity of HZSM-5. Ni promoted H2 formation in gaseous product and caused the decrease of naphthalenes yield. Whereas the yields of toluene and o-xylene increased after the pyrolysis vapors pass through Mo/Co-H-5. The zeolite treated by NaOH solution (AT-HZSM-5) favors the generation of aromatics and phenolics, conversely naphthalene derivatives. Moreover, AT-Mo/Co-H-5 and AT-Ni/Co-H-5 inhibited the coke formation. A catalytic pathway was also proposed to describe the diffusion process of pyrolysis vapors on the active site of catalyst.

A novel strategy is proposed for the increase of specific surface area (SSA) of porous carbon sphere (PCS) by oxidation and activation. 2-keto- l -gulonic acid mother liquor (GAML) as a high-pollution waste has a relatively high value of reutilization. For its high value-added utilization, GAML is used as the precursor for preparation of PCS as carbon-based electrode materials for electric double-layer capacitor. PCS is prepared by hydrothermal carbonization, carbonization and KOH activation, and Fe(NO3)3 9H2O is used as an oxidizing agent during carbonization. The as-prepared PCS has excellent porosity and high SSA of 2478 m2 g−1. Meanwhile, the pore structure of PCS can be controlled by the adjustment of carbonization parameters (carbonization temperature and the loading of Fe(NO3)3 9H2O). Besides, the SSA and specific capacitance of PCS can be increased remarkably when Fe(NO3)3 9H2O is added in carbonization. The specific capacitance of PCS can reach 303.7 F g−1 at 40 mA g−1. PCSs as electrode material have superior electrochemical stability. After 8000 cycles, the capacitance retention is 98.3% at 2 A g−1. The electric double-layer capacitance of PCS is improved when CS is carbonized with Fe(NO3)3 9H2O, and the economic and environmental benefits are achieved by the effective recycle of GAML.

To upgrade pyrolysis vapors derived from the catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of Baiyinhua lignite (BYHL) in a drop tube reactor, various Co-loading (1, 3, 6 and 10 wt%) zeolites were prepared via wet impregnation. The effect of Co-loading and pyrolysis temperature ranged from 400 to 700 °C on product yields and tar properties were investigated in this work. The results showed that the product yield and the composition of pyrolysis tar were significantly affected by Co-modified HZSM-5 and parent HZSM-5 compared with no catalyst. Incorporation of metal-Co in HZSM-5 had an additional effect on the performance of the parent HZSM-5. The total content of benzene (B), toluene (T), ethylbenzene (E), xylene (X) and naphthalene (N) significantly increased and it reached 24.2 mg/g at Co-loading of 3 wt% (3Co-H-5) at 600 °C. 3Co-H-5 exhibited also a promising performance in lowering the oxygen content from 49.8% without a catalyst to 14.6% by GC–MS analysis. The deoxygenation mechanisms over metal-Co active centers and acid-catalyzed reactions, such as isomerization and cracking, over acid sites of HZSM-5 were speculated in this work. In addition, the temperature of 600 °C is not only appropriate for fast pyrolysis of lignite to obtain a higher pyrolysis tar, but also for catalytic pyrolysis to obtain BTEXN.

Portunus trituberculatus is one of the main mariculture crabs in China and has obvious sexual dimorphism. The development of a genetic sex identification method is key to clarifying the mechanisms of sex determination. Based on an insertion-deletion (inDel) marker closely linked to the sex of P. trituberculatus, we successfully established a sex identification method with the advantages of high efficiency, low cost and low false-positive rates using conventional PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis. Based on the method, the sex ratio of seven full-sib families at different developmental stages were analyzed, including zoea, megalopa and II juvenile crab. Our results showed that the sex ratio of P. trituberculatus in early development stages approximated the theoretical sex ratio (1:1) of the XY sex determination system, although there were three families with sex ratio deviations from 1:1 at the juvenile stage. This study is important for detailing the mechanisms of sex determination, and is also conducive to the development of sex-control technologies in this species.

A novel type of oxygen-enriched three-dimensional porous carbons (3DPCs) is prepared using coal tar pitch (CTP) oxidized by KMnO4 as raw material and NaCl as a green template. Oxygen-containing functional groups are grafted on the edge of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through oxidative modification, which avoids excessive accumulation of PAHs and successfully achieves oxygen doping to provide additional pseudo-capacitance. The existence of NaCl supports the formation of 3D structure and improves the diffusion/transport capacity of electrolyte ions. The as-prepared 3DPCs show interconnected 3D structure with large effective specific surface area (3067 m2 g−1) and high oxygen content (up to 9.8%). In addition, the electric double layer capacitor assembled by 3DPC-3 exhibits the largest specific capacitance (306 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1) and superior cycling stability (specific capacitance retention of 99.7% after 10000 cycles) in 6 M KOH electrolyte. Meanwhile, high energy density (36.8 Wh kg−1) is obtained when it is applied to EMIMBF4 electrolyte. Overall, this work provides an effective way for the synthesis of 3DPCs and can be also conducive to the development of the high value-added CTP-based carbon material industry.

The development of cheap and highly dispersed nano-catalyst is one of the key technologies for low temperature steam reforming (SR) of biomass tar. This work used acid-washed and oxidized Shengli lignite char (OXAWSL) as carbon precursor to load Co (Co/OXAWSL) and Ni (Ni/OXAWSL) via ion exchange method to SR of toluene and biomass tar. The Co/OXAWSL was more active and stable than Ni/OXAWSL during the 30 h test with a final toluene conversion of 85% at a relatively low temperature of 450 °C and steam to carbon ratio (S/C) of 3.4, which resulted from its small particle size (5.6 nm) and high dispersion (12.3%) of Co. The relatively high H2 production (42.59 mmol/g-biomass) over Co0.1/OXAWSL (450 °C, S/C = 3.4) in SR of tar was also obtained. A low Ea (22.0 kJ/mol) value of Co/OXAWSL and good affinity to oxygen for Co explained its excellent performance. The low-temperature tar cracking process can provide theoretical and technical support for the large-scale industrial utilization of biomass pyrolysis and gasification.

Background Cognitive impairment (CI) is important for the prognosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Early prediction whether and when cognitive decline from normal cognition (NC) will occur is crucial for preventing or delaying the progression timely. The current study aimed to provide a personalized risk assessment of CI by using baseline information and establishing a multi-predictor nomogram. Methods 108 patients with PD were collected from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), of whom 58 had progressed to CI and 50 remained NC during 5-year follow up. Radiomics signatures were obtained by using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression algorithm. Clinical factors and laboratory biomarkers were selected by multivariate Cox regression analysis. The combined model of radiomics signatures and clinical risk factors was developed by a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. A multi-predictor nomogram derived from the combined model was established for individualized estimation of time to progress (TTP) of CI. We analyzed the risk of two subgroups of the combined model by Kaplan-Meier (KM) analysis. Results The combined model showed the best performance with a C-index of 0.988 and 0.926 in the training and validation datasets. KM analysis verified significant TTP of CI (P＜0.05) between two subgroups stratified by the cutoff value (−0.058). Conclusion The combined model and its multi-predictor nomogram can be used to perfectly and individually predict the TTP of CI for patients with PD. Stratification of PD will benefit its timely clinical intervention and the delay and prevention of CI.

Ni-encapsulated (Ni@HZ5) and Ni-incorporated (xNi/HZ5) zeolites were prepared via one-pot hydrothermal synthesis and impregnation method, respectively, and further employed for hydroconversion of pyrolytic volatiles of spent coffee grounds into benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, naphthalene (BTEXN) in a drop tube reactor under H2 atmosphere. The properties of metallic Ni species on Ni@HZ5, xNi/HZ5 and Ni/Al2O3 were comparably characterized. Ni@HZ5 displayed superior selectivity for BTEXN production among those catalysts, especially for B and T. Metallic Ni species encapsulated MFI-type framework plays crucial roles in enhancing aromatics selectivity, promoting oligomerization, cyclization and aromatization of small molecular hydrocarbons in channels. On the contrary, Ni species presented on the external zeolite surface is in favor of hydrocracking and hydrogenolysis of macromolecular pyrolytic fragments. It also exhibited high coke content containing “soft” and “hard” coke, which was mainly caused by metallic particles sintering. An important difference was proposed in the effect of Ni species on reaction pathway for catalytic upgrading of volatiles to BTEXN. The configured Ni@HZ5 inhibits sintering and has potential of enhancing BTEXN by catalytic hydropyrolysis of biomass.